Elections Alberta has rejected the Water Not Coal petition suggesting that the number of valid signatures fell short of the required target.

Corb Lund said: “Of the more than 205,000 signatures delivered to Elections Alberta on June 10th, 2026, roughly 35,000 were rejected. We are simultaneously shocked by this outcome, yet, unfortunately, not surprised, given the continual government rule changes and roadblocks we have faced throughout this campaign. This has been an unreasonable and opaque process from the beginning, and despite diligently following every rule, we are left with more questions than answers.”

In other words, one out of six signatures were disallowed based on … well, we don’t really know. One might think that such a large number of disallowed signatures would be a statistical outlier for petitions submitted to Elections Alberta.

It is a shame that the Government of Alberta has refused to bring this issue to the October referendum, allowing Albertans to voice their support to protect our water from industrial contamination.