EDMONTON — Corb Lund is exhausted and would rather just play music.

It’s been almost four months of collecting signatures in his fight to force a referendum to stop coal development in the Rockies.

The deadline for signatures is looming – June 10^th – and Lund says even if he gets the names required, it’s a dice throw on whether Premier Daneille Smith’s government will act on it.

“I don’t trust governments to do anything, but all we can do is follow the rules, and do it openly,” Lund, wearing a black cowboy hat, said in an interview prior to performing at a sold-out show at a downtown Edmonton nightclub.

It’s double duty: He takes photos with fans on the sidewalk. Then he chats with passers-by signing his petition.

It’s too soon to say whether it may be successful, he says, and he’s putting on the pressure for Albertans to sign before it’s too late. He needs about 178,000 signatures.

“Until we get the sheets in, we’re all just having strokes and heart attacks,” Lund says.

His application to Elections Alberta, the body in charge of administering citizen-initiative petitions, proposes “legislation prohibiting any new coal mining activity in the Eastern Slopes of Alberta’s Rocky Mountains.”

Lund estimates he has over 3,000 volunteers.

He wouldn’t say if he feels like they’ll have enough names but says they’ll keep pushing.

A successful petition would force Smith’s government to consider passing a law banning coal mining, or send it to a provincewide vote.

When asked if he trusted the process, Lund said “everything seems to just be chaos.”

“I would rather have them do the right thing, but I’m under no illusion that if we get our number of signatures, the government’s all of a sudden gonna say, ‘We’re sorry, we’ll fix it.’”

He’s met with the government. The two sides agree to disagree. The province says the mining will be done with strict environmental safeguards while providing jobs and delivering a critical resource.

The issue has been bubbling for years.

Concerns about coal mining peaked in 2020, when the province announced it would remove decades-old rules that had protected the eastern slopes of the Rockies from open-pit coal mining. The province began issuing leases.

After a deluge of public pushback, the United Conservative Party government reinstated the protections and stopped selling exploration leases.

It has since announced a plan to ban mountain top removal and new open pit mines, but new regulations are still being finalized and advanced projects could still proceed through the approval process.

Last year, Lund’s first petition application was approved.

Then it was cancelled when Smith’s government changed the rules for citizen-led petitions in December.

Lund filed the paperwork again, got approved, and began gathering signatures Feb. 11.

“We’ve been flip-flopped on and nickeled and dimed and loopholed so many times on this that we’re asking for firm, robust legislation prohibiting coal mining on the eastern slopes,” he said.

Smith has said she supports direct democracy, and has invoked Lund’s petition as an example of her government giving voice to Albertans — akin to her decision to send to referendum in October a vote on whether the province should stay in Canada or kickstart a second referendum on whether to leave.

“I’ll be waiting to see whether or not (Lund and supporters) have the required signatures,” Smith said earlier this week.

She has said Lund’s question could be on a ballot as soon as the fall, when Albertans will also be asked to vote on putting a separation referendum to a binding ballot.

Late last year, Smith was asked about Lund’s petition application. At the time, Smith said of Lund, “I’m glad I’m able to be his muse.

“Maybe he’ll write a song about me,” she said, adding that metallurgical coal is important to industries such as solar energy.

Lund said he doesn’t like the flippancy. “This is the drinking water for potentially millions of people, and it’s the soul of the province,” he said.

“Nobody wants this.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 29, 2026.

Lisa Johnson, The Canadian Press