Alberta separatists aren’t just enthused by the fact they have apparently surpassed the necessary 177,000 signatures to force their referendum onto ballots — they’re also celebrating when they reached the target.

Stay Free Alberta claimed that accomplishment a week before a judge in Edmonton hears a First Nation’s injunction bid against the citizen’s initiative on April 7, arguing that the independence bid would violate Indigenous treaties.

A casual legal/political observer might puzzle over this logic. After all, it might not matter that enough signatures were collected if Sturgeon Lake Cree Nation gets its injunction, because that would likely freeze the whole Elections Alberta process of vetting and approving the petition.

However, this could set up a Plan B for separatist leader Mitch Sylvestre: appeal directly to Premier Danielle Smith to put the referendum to leave Canada on October’s ballot, regardless of what the court had just said.

“Let's get the signatures first before the 7th, before they can go to court over it, and just say: all right, we've done our share,” Sylvestre told CBC News. “We've followed the rules up to now.”