A Leger poll finds most Albertans back Premier Danielle Smith’s immigration-related referendum proposals, with 63% supporting a question to confine public services to citizens, permanent residents and provincially approved immigrants. The result reveals broad public appetite for the package and sets up a politically consequential referendum later this year.
Danielle Smith referendum support
A Leger survey shows 63% of respondents supported confining public services to Canadian citizens, permanent residents and provincially approved immigrants, with 37% “strongly” in favour and 26% “somewhat” supportive. The poll also finds 25% strongly or somewhat opposed and 12% unsure. The pattern suggests danielle smith’s nine-question referendum package has clear majority backing on this core access question.
Leger poll percentages detailed
Respondents were also favourable to other immigration-related measures: 64% were strongly or somewhat supportive of forcing non-permanent residents to pay a “reasonable fee or premium” for health-care access, while 66% backed requiring non-permanent legal immigrants to live in Alberta for at least 12 months before applying for provincial social supports. Health care was the single-biggest concern, with 24% naming it the most important issue facing the province. The figures point to public concern about service strain and fiscal pressure linked in the survey to record-high immigration levels and rising social-services spending.
Getty, Notley and Kenney policies
An opinion piece in the public record argues that Alberta’s health-care problems predate recent immigration growth, saying the system already showed long wait times and limited access by the early 2000s and late 2010s. The piece lists past premiers Getty, Klein, Stelmach, Redford, Hancock, Prentice, Notley and Kenney as having kept a Canadian-style model dominated by government delivery. The argument adds that Premier Smith’s government plans to pay hospitals on a per-patient-treated basis, a change presented as a move toward different delivery incentives.
Andrew Enns, identified in the poll materials as an executive vice-president at Leger’s central Canada operations, said the positions resonate across Calgary, Edmonton and other regions and that some NDP supporters are open to them. The pattern suggests broad regional and cross-party openness is amplifying the immediate political weight of the poll numbers.
For now, the next confirmed milestone is the referendum that Smith intends to hold later this year. If the majority levels in the Leger poll hold when Albertans vote later this year, the data suggests those referendum questions could carry the political mandate the premier is seeking.
