‘Where I needed to be’: For these pro

‘Where I needed to be’: For these pro-unity volunteers, handing out signs is a way to lift their spirits

Forever Canadian leaders say more than 18,000 volunteers have signed up to promote unity

What motivates these Alberta volunteers to campaign for unity?

Dorothy Zaharko hit her emotional low point last year.

She was sitting in her recliner in her living room and watching the news on TV. U.S. President Donald Trump was making another announcement, and to her it felt like "down is up, and then it was just getting worse and worse.”

She’s someone who spent her whole life moving from city to city across the country, always rebuilding her sense of connection and purpose by finding a new job and getting involved.

So that same day, when Zaharko saw that former Alberta deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk was organizing a petition campaign to counter the Alberta independence movement — another topic she finds discouraging — she decided to help.

“It was where I needed to be. … I volunteered, and I was amazed at how many people [had been] sitting at home just like me," she said, as she helped to run a pop-up handing out lawn signs across the street from Airdrie's weekly farmers’ market.

"It was the most uplifting situation that I have been in for a very long time."

Three months out from a referendum, Forever Canadian is one of the most visible groups promoting Canadian unity within Alberta. The group says it now has 18,000 volunteers, who can often be spotted handing out lawn signs across from farmers' markets and other busy boulevard locations.

Throughout the campaign, CBC News is talking with volunteers and supporters on both sides of this debate, as pro-independence volunteers are also handing out lawn signs across the province and connecting with each other through perogy dinners, backyard picnics and frequent rallies.

Many Albertans have said they find the separatism debate to be divisive.

But for this story, we met with four Forever Canadian volunteers who say they discovered a sense of hope and purpose by getting involved.

'Who knew there were so many Canadians in Canada?'

Gordon Ross was getting ready for his own pop-up, picking up signs from the Forever Canadian office just off a river pathway in downtown Calgary.

For him, the experience of volunteering has been transformative. Like Zaharko, he got involved while the group was still collecting signatures. At first he felt nervous setting up his table in a public park, but felt more comfortable when he realized how many people were keen to talk.

“One of the lovely things about doing this is that I found out I'm not alone,” he said.

“Who knew there were so many Canadians in Canada? That’s my joke. But there's a lot of people, and it's amazing how much we are alike when you give us something like this to talk about.”

He collected more signatures than anyone else he knows, and his girlfriend tells him it’s turned him into an extrovert.

He says he grew up with a passion for Canada, perhaps because of his family's military history.

“It's kind of an emotional thing. I'm named after my father's best friend, who was killed beside him in Holland during World War II. And my father was wounded,” he said. “If he could do that, this is nothing.”

Using a walker, he loaded two big bundles of signs into the back of his yellow Corvette and got ready to staff his own pop-up.

Forever Canadian rebuilding supporter lists

To get a lawn sign, people are required to sign up online with their contact information and get a QR code, then find a pop-up operating nearby using the online map. It’s helping Forever Canadian to rebuild a list of supporters since they were not allowed to keep copies of the petition documents, as per Elections Alberta guidelines. The group's petition was validated in December after it collected more than 400,000 signatures.

Organizers say 45,000 people have requested lawn signs so far, and the group raised about half a million dollars for signs and other promotion. Lukaszuk says Elections Alberta is not requiring them to disclose donors and exact numbers as long as they campaign on unity rather than on the specific Oct. 19 referendum question.

Sometimes the pop-ups are about having conversations, one-to-one with Albertans. Other times, they’re just about giving Albertans a voice to share how they feel through a lawn sign.

Searching for a positive way to connect

Cheryl Dorricott was running the Airdrie pop-up with Zaharko last Wednesday.

She’s a retired real estate agent who moved to Alberta from Ontario last year and joined because it felt like something positive she could contribute — first gathering signatures and now leading the Airdrie distribution effort.

She says Forever Canadian is non-partisan, and for her it’s not about debating. She stays offline and tries to avoid getting into confrontations, focusing on the positive.

“I remember other situations where people were unhappy, and I just feel that people need to come together and unite. And once you start doing that, it grows. Positive reactions from everybody; positive attitudes create more positive attitudes,” she said.

“I've enjoyed talking to people and hearing what they have to say and realized that Albertans are really very happy people.”

While CBC News was there, a man came up to the table who was angry at something another volunteer had said on social media. Dorricott simply wished him a good day. Later, someone brought over mini donuts to thank them for their work, and another came with popsicles.

At a separate pop-up down the street, volunteers were handing out pro-independence signs; the two groups had little if any interaction. Some passersby would honk for one table or the other.

Zaharko said she has had good conversations with local residents who don’t support unity. She values those talks, and says the conversations often end with a handshake, if not agreement.

“I think the more you get out and talk to people, you realize that there's more we have in common than what separates us. We all have basic humanity and decency. And if we focus on that, we're going to be OK.”

Volunteering from a sense of gratitude

From CBC’s conversations with these volunteers, it sounds like the feelings of togetherness and hope drive much of their work. For the last volunteer, it was gratitude.

Naomi Tellerman is a retired consultant in business transformation, who originally moved to Canada from Argentina about 50 years ago. She remembers the moment she first felt Canadian. It was when she returned from her family’s first vacation outside of the country about five years after they arrived.

"When we came back, I said, ‘Thank God I live here,’” she recalled. “Because you have this sense of safety — you come here, and you know how things in general are going to work. You feel that if you decide to plan and do something with your life, usually you have the opportunity for that to happen. Your life is more organized, and you can focus more on developing yourself and your family and the community, and not just thinking about what is going to happen tomorrow.”

That’s why she pitches in, staffing the Forever Canadian office in downtown Calgary once a week out of a sense of gratitude.

“Canada has given me and my family plenty,” she said. “For me it was an opportunity to show how thankful I am to Canada.”

Elise Stolte runs project-based engagement efforts for the CBC Calgary newsroom. She has 20 years of experience telling the stories of her community and has been recognized for feature writing, social impact and community-based journalism. You can reach her at elise.stolte@cbc.ca.