Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada | Hacker News Reader

Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

bbc.com

163 pointsJumpCrisscross364 comments

Some numbers to consider:

~465,000 legally verified signatories to the federalist petition to declare Alberta permanently part of Canada

~360,000 status First Nations persons within Alberta

~330,000 legally unverified signatories to the separatist petition to hold a referendum to separate from Canada

First Nations have successfully argued in court that as consultations with them are required by the Canadian Constitution, no such consultations had even been suggested by separatists.

Apart from the fact that the Alberta population is ~4 million, it is difficult to see how separatists can figure they'd win a referendum to separate.

It's clear it's a pandering to the provincial government base, and has zero legitimacy. This all stems from a boneheaded move to unify the right in Alberta to prevent another NDP leadership term - that term being something that actually did our province some good.

We've unfortunately been putting up with these leaders doing this sort of thing too long and let the rural part of this province dictate far too much.

FWIW, I even bought myself a membership to try and do at least a small part to prevent this a decade ago, but that was impossible. People have truely lost their minds here and it's bizarre to talk to people that were once rational.

It’s the British Tories’ Brexit playbook to a T. Remember that David Cameron was cold on Europe, but opposed to leaving the EU yet insisted on having a referendum to stop the far right from stealing his voters.

It was the ok I’ll ask you to stop the discussion once and for all.

It’s a plan that Cameron completely bungled, ruining his personal reputation, his party’s, and his country’s. I dread the consequences for the average Albertan if this goes south.

Well, if Alberta separates, the federal opposition evaporates. The opposition leader can run for Alberta pm. And Canada might never have a Conservative government again. Alberta has no coast, so exporting or importing goes by air or via Canada or the us. And when oil prices return to normal, they suffer big income losses.

They are already separate first nations not joined to Canada or Alberta. I don't understand why Alberta not wanting to participate in Federalism anymore is an issue.

> They are already separate first nations not joined to Canada or Alberta

They are part of Canada.

Treaties 6, 7, and 8 clearly ceded indigenous lands to the Crown, and the Indian Act spells out the relationship between First Nations and Canada. Further, the Constitution Act, 1982, contains Section 25 of the Charter Of Rights And Freedoms articulating ''Aboriginal And Treaty Rights''

I’m not sure what’s more silly-fun: the idea of angry separatists sloooowly learning how their actual country is put together, or a bunch of angry separatists trying to pitch to First Nations representatives that, no really bro, this time they should totally trust their deals.

I see from other comments that there's some concern over the validity of the signatures. But comparing the number of signatures on competiting petitions doesn't tell us much. I assume signature gathering in Alberta shares some common ideas with places I've lived... If you want something on the ballot you have a minimum number of signatures to gather, maybe another tier that enables a faster process, and you want to collect some number beyond that because some signatures will be found invalid, but after that there's no reason to continue collecting.

> First Nations have successfully argued in court that as consultations with them are required by the Canadian Constitution, no such consultations had even been suggested by separatists.

IMHO as an outside observer, if the current question is 'should we commence the legal process to have a binding referrendum', having consultations now is inappropriate. They would be part of the process to have a binding referrendum and so they must either be done or not after the results of this referrendum.

Courts have determined that in these processes consultation must occur even at early times as this.

Because now I'm interested... It seems that the last year, the full bench ruled that a referrendum on seccession without consultation is unacceptable.

This month, one judge ruled that you also can't have a referrendum to start the process to have a referrendum on seccession. It seems there is time for appeals before the election in October.

Assuming the full bench affirms this ruling, I guess the next step for the petitioner would be to have a referrendum to start the process to have a referrendum to start the process to have a final referrendum?

If the government is unwilling to start the process itself; it seems that there's no way for citizen referrendum to force the issue? Seperately, I agree it seems unlikely for the referrendum to pass if the government is unwilling to start the process by itself, but politics isn't always clear.

Apart from the fact that the Alberta population is ~4 million, it is difficult to see how separatists can figure they'd win a referendum to separate.

Isn't the important number not the total population, but the number of people who show up to vote?

What is a consultation? That sounds like a vague ill-defined veto over ever making changes.

I'm very open to tribal sovereignty in deciding what whether to remain in in Canada, but that should apply to tribal territory, not holding the majority of the population of the territory hostage.

I think you'll need to look at the constitution of Canada (section 35) and the legally-binding treaties that have been signed with indigenous Canadians. There's no "tribal" territory. It's all treaty territory.

"Separation" seems like clear bad faith to me as well. Alberta as an independent country? Yeah right, they'd pull a Texas for sure.

Why do you think any of that is relevant? Of course they will lose. There are enough of them to be a significant minority because of how terrible our federal government is and how big a joke our legal system is. This is entirely about trying to control which voting cycle they lose on. The left wants it on the next provincial election ballot because its poison for the incumbent conservatives. The conservatives want it anywhere other than on the next provincial election ballot so it can die before it poisons their election chances. thats all that this is. It helps that smith is right and the judge quashing the referendum is a yet another travesty.

Many commenters seem to be appealing to an almost religious defense of present political borders. That attitude is untenable: there is nothing sacred about national boundaries, they are mere political artifacts like rules, regulations, tax codes, etc. If the people want to change them, they absolutely have the right to do so.

https://unifixion.substack.com/p/political-boundaries-are-no...

Lincoln disagreed. The good man even had the balls to let loose Sherman.

But the meaning of "people want" is very delicately depending on the geographical area and moment in time.

Yes, and here "Canadians want" is used to say "the people within 100km of the St. Lawrence want". (That's actually part of the problem.)

Claimed identity isn't a suicide pact and consent of the governed isn't equally geographically distributed.

AB sees, correctly, an inordinate amount of tax per capita go out for the privilege of policies intended to kneecap that region's development. The justifications for those policies (whether you agree with them or not) matter less than the fact they're being imposed from a condition of moral hazard.

Hence, the people of AB might vote to ban the people of ON/QC from imposing their laws; that's what separation is and why it happens.

> AB sees, correctly, an inordinate amount of tax per capita go out for the privilege of policies intended to kneecap that region's development.

Not only that, but the Feds typically use their outsized tax revenue from Alberta to “invest” in Quebec to buy votes via propping up unviable businesses, subsidies, outsized proportion of public sector jobs, and federal spending in general.

Hey, the little old lie that Québec, which does get an outsized proportion of the political attention, gets an outsized proportion of the federal money, which it doesn’t.

You can find many examples of specific programs where Québec gets the federal government’s money in incredible amounts. But you add all these programs together and you still come up short per person compared to Ontario. Why?

The Southern Ontario car sector.

Any dime that goes to the oil or gas business is a mistake, especially at the moment. Blindingly profitable, let them pay their way.

The only possible way to come to a conclusion as wrong as yours is by looking at gross instead of net federal spending by province.

When you consider the tiny detail of actually contributing to federal finances, in the past 20 years alone Quebec has received ~360 billion more than it contributed, whereas Ontario has received ~232 billion LESS than it contributed.

Nearly half a trillion difference between the two, and nothing to do with the auto industry whatsoever.

And tomorrow people in the rich half of AB don't want to subsidize the poorer half, and so on.

Before you rag Quebec too much, note that they are at least practicing being independent. They maintain a police force, they have foreign services. They collect their own taxes. See what Alberta thinks when they have to pay their own way rather than letting Canada handle things. While they rent the ramp I doubt they’re handling their pensions. QC runs its own pension.

And all the First Nations treaties are with the Crown and predate Alberta.

Russia is currently placing Russian citizens in the occupied parts of Ukraine exactly for this reason. If there will ever be a vote whether the Donbas Oblast or the Luhansk Oblast want to rejoin Ukraine, you can bet the vote will be pro Russia.

That vote happened in 2022.. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2022_annexation_referendums_in...

They probably mean a vote which doesn't violate international law.

OK, but there are some logistical issues here- let's say Alberta votes to secede and this is somehow legally viable. All of the Albertan voters who didn't want to secede- including the native tribes- could then by your rules vote to secede from Alberta and join back to Canada. It'd be a mess. Towns and counties would split themselves in half, and so on.

What would happen if a landlocked town within Alberta wants to rejoin Canada- how would you handle that?

Eh, it ain't ever happening anyways, this is just the UCP and other assorted wack-jobs playing games with Ottawa again.

All the Oil Sands land is treaty land, so First Nations get it if we leave.

It's like having to belong to a higher imposed authority (either the original country or the seceded territory) is bad for the individual that doesn't want any of that. If only there was a solution to that problem...

> If only there was a solution to that problem...

Sure, but as one who has done it, moving country is surprisingly hard.

try moving TO another country instead of trying to move the country. Scales easier.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enclave_and_exclave

It is legally viable. Canada passed a law allowing this after Quebec tried to secede. It lays out the procedures for how the separation would occur.

Ah i forgot that.. that was dumb on fed Canada's part

nah, makes the treasonous stand in the spotlight and claim their prize.

Sure, and history deals the cards we're given and so on and so forth. Why don't we have referendums on keeping the US Constitution every year? That would be democratic as hell.

Because the procedure for changing the constitution is in the constitution. That would have to be followed at least once.

https://constitutioncenter.org/the-constitution/full-text

It looks like the us had a referendum on their constitution in 2024. They voted to ignore it…

Yes, also the right to self-determination is an unalienable human right.

I find it sort of fascinating because people really do have a fanaticism about this that they don't have for other political artifacts. Nationalism is a powerful force. And people will special-plead themselves silly arguing why one group should be given self-determinism and others shouldn't, including invoking federal laws, untestable predictions about future events, etc. But when it comes to other politics, they revert back to a globalist position.

On the flip side, separatists are often driven by nationalistic interests as well - look at Europe in the 19th and 20th centuries as fantastic examples of this.

What about the right of not being determined by others? Say, the 10% who vote no.

Isn't that the problem with democracy? The tyranny of the majority and all that?

No, not tyranny necessarily. If it's malign morphing into hate speech, racial or genetic seregation, imposing religion, esp. backed up by state power that's a problem. For example, the US has a senate to balance out the house while at the same time California's take on something cannot be rejected out of hand reflexively as tyranny

That's fine and all, but leave all by yourself. A territory isn't owned by the people that happen to be there. It's bound up in the systems and institutions they found and accepted, ingrained into a much bigger machinery. Alberta's own referendum already shows this: a court halted the petition because First Nations weren't consulted, because their claims predate any popular vote.

Unless you get everyone with a stake on board, which is hard, and accept it will take a long while to unwind, it's irresponsible. And if you aren't willing to do that work, just pack your bags and leave.

Cool. I suppose we'll see the U.S. support referenda in the Basque territory in Spain, Northern Ireland, the West Bank, Gaza, and Texas soon. Maybe in Guam and Hawaii, too.

Nice NED propaganda.

The huge problem is that geographical borders don't nicely line up with cultural/ethnic/attitude borders. Let's say you let a province (or US state) secede over political/cultural issues. What happens to all of the people who don't want to go along for the ride? They're now at a huge risk. Those dissenters might even be persecuted or, at worst, cleansed, depending on the laws of the new seceded country.

So then you say, ok let's do it by county (or whatever the Canadian equivalent is) instead. Same problem. Even within a county-sized area, you're going to have dissenters who are at risk in the new country. Even within a single town. You can't draw geographic borders around and write laws for swiss-cheese-shaped clumpings of individual people.

I live in a pretty "red" area in a "blue" US state. If Team Red decided that half of my state (including my home) was going to secede into their own Red Utopia, my family would legitimately be in fear for our lives. I don't think secession is ever going to be a viable option in the real, polarized world where political beliefs are peanut butter spread across the geography.

> Let's say you let a province (or US state) secede over political/cultural issues. What happens to all of the people who don't want to go along for the ride?

Well, thats politics? The people proposing this are supposed to be considering that. And the people in that position are supposed to be considering that.

Every day there are votes with outcomes people dont want to go along with the ride for. But they do, or they resist, or otherwise.

> Well, thats politics? The people proposing this are supposed to be considering that. And the people in that position are supposed to be considering that.

People are very bad at considering stuff like this. Both voters and politicians.

When I left the UK, a former acquaintance was very confused that their support of something they thought was "just politics" led to me having no interest in continuing to talk to them.

I very much doubt that David Cameron or Theresa May expected a newspaper to have a front-page headline calling judges "Enemies of the People"[0], similarly for a half the politicians who have been milkshaked[1].

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enemies_of_the_people_(headlin...

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milkshaking

In this case though it's a conflicting view. Let's say 40% of the province don't want to be separated, so they vote to rejoin canada (or form their own thing). Does the now independent Alberta allow it? If not, then why are they allowed to split from Canada? If they do, now this opens up the door for a infinite amount of splits.

Well, it would depend on how the new Alberta is structured. It would be its own country with its own rules. Practically speaking, it would highly depend on whether those 40% are geographically separated from the rest enough to geographically split the new Alberta.

Politics? Is it? Or is politics a grand word for whining and adults in a perpetual small world? Law, history are at least more grounded as a basis to argue for or against.

Let's not let politics' meaning become so diffuse it's just free speech by another name. Herein "politics" seems to be too inconsequential for a far more consequential result than cycling out party A for B for a few years would have.

I've half joked before that brexit was the only solution Cameron et al saw left because they didnt have a way to hold Brussel's paper pushers to account. Taking your ball and going home is not bold leadership: it's an admission one's argument and solution is weak.

>>What happens to all of the people who don't want to go along for the ride?

All of Scotland voted against leaving the EU. Every single county has voted no. And yet it still got dragged out.

So I guess the answer is - people get told to shut up and deal with it.

The area of England that I'm in voted remain, as well as all the other districts around us. It might fracture England (which may not be a bad thing) but I would be fine with southern England joining Scotland.

If it is untenable for a country to defend its boundaries, why is it tenable for you to lock your house?

I think the problem is the irreversible aspect of this. Once they leave they will never join back.

I’d love to see stats on countries merging vs splitting, may sumptuous is 1 to 50 at least.

> Once they leave they will never join back.

Seems like a hard to prove statement.

> If the people want to change [political borders], they absolutely have the right to do so

That's exactly what Putin thinks, right? "I'm one of the people; I wanna change borders!" :)

>If the people want to change them, they absolutely have the right to do so

Not so fast. They are in a union with other provinces ergo they have a say.

If nonetheless in some asinine way they secede, will they take their portion of Canada's debt, and other liabilities?

Won't all other provinces require them to negotiate a border, security, and trade policy? Surely they can't expect to be separate yet equal to BC or even the NWT?

Which is why most countries have border guard agency?

It's kind of obvious that borders are not a physical phenomenon but a social construct.

Where do we draw the line of “people want to change them”?

I’m 100% with the political philosopher Bertrand Russel on this topic: borders are arbitrary, and a benevolent world government/federation of cultures would not restrict your movement or sense of belonging.

But! But how many people must vote yes? What percentage of abstention? If 60% vote to leave, but half the people didn’t vote, only 30% of the yes is valid.

I don’t think this should be taken lightly by populist movements. To me, Brexit has shown us exactly what the dangers are of a non- or weirdly-qualified majority.

A related issue is whether, or to what extent, a seceded entity can itself be subject to secession. This concern came up in Quebec when Cree and other groups suggested they'd drop out of post-separation Quebec and ''rejoin'' Canada. Quebec separatists were outraged at the thought of First Nations and pro-Federalist geographical areas turning their new entity into ''Swiss cheese''. It is highly likely that Alberta separatists would face the same challenges and take an equally dim view.

Another case: when Brexit happened, IIRC some people in Scotland were suggesting secession from the UK post-Brexit so they could rejoin the EU.

That is still in play as the failure of Brexit solidifies. They can follow the lead of Ireland and the arrangements for the land crossing with N.I.

>That is still in play as the failure of Brexit solidifies.

To be fair, the failure is on the UK governance itself, not on Brexit. Other major EU economies like France and Germany have seen similar economic trajectories since 2020 as the post-Brexit UK, despite them still being in the EU. The post-2020 Covid and Ukraine crisis are difficult to isolate from Brexit to know if it's just Brexit alone or the world economic situation fucking everyone regardless since then.

Sure, Brexit probably didn't help, but looking at where Germany is now, I feel like UK handled the cold-turkey exit from the union far better than anyone expected.

Sure, the country didn't go back to be a developing nation, but "similar economic trajectories" leaves a lot of margin for how much better or worse it could have been. Purely economically, about 2-5% of GDP growth seems to have been left on the table, and in terms of human cost it's really hard to say anything positive about closing international borders between similar and allied countries

Every single one of the predictions of the Brexiters has been exploded: migration, taxation, funding the NHS, better public services etc.

The cost of implementing customs controls ALONE amounted to more than the sum total of UK contributions to the EU budget from day 1 of the UK joining the common market. The losses to the UK economy have been staggering -- up to 8% of GDP on a recurring basis. And no the UK didn't have a cold-turkey exit from the EU, that would have been a "no deal" exit.

But... but... splutter Brexiters, "look at Germany". Always looking at growth rates and cherrypicking data. Germany has had a massive increase in energy costs, far greater than experienced in the UK.

Go on: tell us Brexit is a mere "flesh wound"

Brexit has been a bone-crushing failure and repeated polls show a majority of the electorate knows it. A toxic minority of older voters, the UK's MAGA cohort, is ready to double down, and all they will achieve if they get anywhere near govt is the breakup of the UK, wihch of course many younger non-English voters support. Either way it's been a quite boon to the EU.

>Every single one of the predictions of the Brexiters has been exploded: migration, taxation, funding the NHS, better public services etc.

Every single one of those went downhill in all of major EU economies since 2020 too. Considering UK had Brexit on top, the fallout seems pretty well managed.

>Always looking at growth rates and cherrypicking data.

We need to be looking at numbers we can somewhat objectively measure to compare. GDP number is cold and soulless, it doesn't care if you GDP went down because of a flood and your neighbor's because of a hurricane, it's still gonna be GDP vs GDP regardless of who fucked up what.

With strong justification, as one of the reasons their earlier bid for secession from the UK was squashed was the argument that secession from the UK would also automatically kick them out of the EU.

In a parallel universe - UK never left EU as Scotland, Northern Ireland, and City of London kicked out England and Wales out of UK, and saved everyone years of turmoil.

/sarcasm

> Quebec separatists were outraged at the thought of First Nations and pro-Federalist geographical areas turning their new entity into ''Swiss cheese''. It is highly likely that Alberta separatists would face the same challenges and take an equally dim view.

This is complicated by the fact that First Nations themselves are highly stratified. They receive billions in dollars from the federal government with zero oversight so corruption is rampant.

So what happens if a majority of First Nations people want to separate but the chiefs in charge of a particular band don't?

It's like the pipeline issue in British Columbia... Bands and their elected officials voted to allow pipelines, then some "hereditary chiefs" associated with environmentalist groups convinced courts that their opinion carries the same weight as elected chiefs and the court blocked pipeline projects.

In Canada there's layers of un-elected government officials and activist judges who seem more concerned with getting federal funding (aka. kickbacks aka. bribes) than any sort of democratic notions.

> In Canada there's layers of un-elected government officials and activist judges who seem more concerned with getting federal funding (aka. kickbacks aka. bribes) than any sort of democratic notions.

Citation needed. Good luck

un-elected government officials and activist judges

Does "activist judge" mean the same thing in Canada that it does in the United States: "Any judge who rules against my position?"

Also:

dismalaf

Name checks out.

That's not what it means, but go off. Although yes it is generally used pejoratively, and if you are using the term, its for a rhetorical effect.

> So what happens if a majority of First Nations people want to separate but the chiefs in charge of a particular band don't?

It seems you're implying something here that is comically ridiculous. Like some sort of crocodile-tear for natives who are unheard, but thankfully you've got their back.

Natives overwhelmingly reject both Quebec and Alberta separatism. Quebec is old news so I'll ignore that, so instead lets stick to Alberta.

The Alberta separatism movement (~30%, which is about the same as the MAGA base in the US, and they are largely interchangeable and driven by the same racism and stupidity, and the MAGA base is hugely the reason this is all happening, grotesquely interfering in Canada) is overwhelmingly filled with right-wing, racist, backwards hicks. The idea of being dragged along with the goals of those people is utterly orthogonal to the best interest of natives, for blatantly obvious reasons.

>Bands and their elected officials voted to allow pipelines, then some "hereditary chiefs" associated with environmentalist groups convinced courts that their opinion carries the same weight as elected chiefs and the court blocked pipeline projects

You mean the pipeline that is currently fully built and operating at triple capacity? THAT pipeline? Or the many other pipelines that have been built, where resource extraction is higher than it has been in history?

Or maybe you're talking about the coast to coast pipeline that would have been built under the national energy program that Alberta not only rejected, but they use as the basis of their rage to this day (while simultaneously bashing their fists about not having a coast to coast pipeline).

As an Albertan, I'm embarrassed that this is the image we project to the world, and sad that our punishment for collusion with foreign enemies isn't stronger or better enforced.

One of the "separatist" leaders is hiding from the law in Texas. He can stay there.

If there was any legitimacy in this process, the petition that got 150% of the votes in less time would have been addressed first rather than this sham, likely fake one, run by bad actors provably funded by foreign entities.

As an outsider I like this idea of being able to vote yourself out. This is the ultimate test of a democracy, imho, that you can leave it democratically (by vote and not by force).

We've seen some interesting cases of this, in Spain and in the Donbas of the last years.

I think the outcome of people voting against it is a great outcome. You have the freedom. You paid for the vote (its expensive) and "they" did not win. Hurray for unity at the highest level.

You realize that this is the perfect way for foreign influence to destabilize western society, right?

Democracy hasn't been hardened against social media and I'd prefer not to be another failed experiment like Brexit where we allow for foreign money to intentionally damage society.

Maybe, but I have trouble with the framing. Referendum votes are >50%. If a foreign nation can get >50% of the Albertans to agree to something, that's still democracy.

Yes it feels wrong for the US to be giving money to influencers to influence the vote, but it's not like those voters are being coerced. In their opinion, Alberta would be better as a separate country.

Whether that opinion is enlightened or not has no bearing on it being democratic or not.

A foreign adversary only has to convince or “add” the difference needed to reach 50%. It never starts at 0.

I can’t blanket agree that “it’s their opinion after all” because fraud works the same way. The victim willingly triggers their own loss but after being deceived. Brexit shows the works, almost half the supporters feel like they got the bait and switch, being promised one thing and then getting another. But this fraud you’ll never be able to punish and deter because the foreign party is not under your control. So why allow any avenue for it to make a difference?

> The victim willingly triggers their own loss but after being deceived

So wrapping up the process in another layer of "informed individuals" is another form of government that is even easier to manipulate, because there are fewer of them.

There is no self-protection or those who are incidentally manipulated by forgoing their own responsibility. ie Manufactured Consent. This sentiment (albeit articulated differently) is why wealth inequality has become such a hot topic in the US. It's blatant that if it's many or few, it makes little difference within US politics. Billionaires can afford the influence to make the decisions. That's the game.

There will always be undue influence but you have to draw the line somewhere. Foreign influence is generally inarguably worse, the foreign party has absolutely no duty whatsoever to your country or your people, maybe benefits if everyone is worse off. And when it’s a major power it’s also fully shielded from real consequences.

If you are going to draw that line, foreign vs. domestic is a good place to do it.

> As an outsider I like this idea of being able to vote yourself out

"Voting with your feet" is an option available to almost everyone except North Koreans.

If there are no good options to migrate to, that doesn't provide a way out. And, as a migrant, that's ignoring the cost of migration (e.g. the decades it takes to lose a speech accent and not be seen as "the foreigner", assuming your ethnicity allows for that anyway)

I'm not at all sure if voting to splice a country should be a thing you can do, maybe there is more merit in some international right to a proportional vote on something (no FPTP system) so you get better representation of all opinions, but simply saying "you can always go somewhere else" seems a bit too simple

It's actually not available to most people that live in any third world country, otherwise migration would be significantly higher than it already is.

Regardless, "voting with your feet" is an individual action. Voting at home is a collective one, representing the will of not just you but the people from the place that you come from and were born into. Only one of those reflects the ideals of democracy, if that's really the ideal being strived for

> It's actually not available to most people that live in any third world country

Well sure it is. It isn't easy. There's a difference between available and easy.

It’s also a very anti-democratic option whether taken voluntarily or forced.

When you leave you cut all important ties to the polity, you surrender your ability to participate in democratic processes and you revoke control over yourself and your property. It’s the nearest thing to direct violence you can do without crossing that line

> When you leave you cut all important ties to the polity, you surrender your ability to participate in democratic processes and you revoke control over yourself and your property. It’s the nearest thing to direct violence you can do without crossing that line

If that's true then isn't it better individuals do this "almost violence" only to themselves, of their own volition? Rather than impose it on everyone living in the territory? Committing "almost violence" against others, for no fault of theirs, doesn't become fair just because it was voted on, right?

Do individuals matter in a democracy?

How does one draw new political borders that way? There is practically zero unclaimed land.

You move someplace that aligns with your preferences.

And if there arent? Why are existing nation lines static?

If literally no one else on earth thinks like you, how will you win a referendum?

The people who think like me (in this example) are the people voting on the referendum!

While certainly true, it does not fix the problem (but makes it worse): if the govt does not allow you to self govern and/or break-off, and therefor people that do not like the govt "vote with their feet" and leave, there will be less people left to effect the changes.

This happened in ww2 Germany. many left. Hitler never got 51% of votes. Yet he managed to take over.

The issue here is that Canada belongs to all Canadians. A portion of voters in one province can’t just vote to help themselves to the territory of Canada.

One of the problems with these types of separatist movements have is that they want to also keep resources owned by the group they are trying to leave from.

Canada owns the natural resources. The Albertan separatists want to take it from them on top of being politically separate.

> One of the "separatist" leaders is hiding from the law in Texas

Which one is that?

One of the separatist leaders was found guilty of misappropriating more than 1.3 million CAD from his elderly aunt and uncle’s bank accounts:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/dennis-modry-misappropriated-...

Apparently more than one are in hiding, TIL. Seems appropriate for the kind of folk that do this.

The referendum is actually about having a referendum first.

"Alberta to hold fall referendum on whether to have binding referendum on separating from Canada" https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/edmonton/alberta-separation-r...

Classic bureaucracy.

No, it would be a waste to spend countless millions (nevermind the human capital of "attention") on the campaigning, without first validating that a true quorom of people even want to think about this, rather than a very vocal minority. It's a governance equivalent of saying "step up or shut up", and it's not stupid or wasteful

You're too eager to label legit "governance" as bureaucracy imho

New Caledonia have been hesitating about independence the longest. In a referendum in 1958, they voted against independence from France. In 1987, they again voted against independence. In 1988, they voted to hold a referendum about independence in 1998. In 1998, they didn't hold that referendum, but instead voted their approval of a 20-year plan to transition to increased autonomy. In 2018, they voted against independence. In 2020, they voted against independence. In 2021, they voted against independence. In 2024, they had a crisis over disagreements about the rules about voting about independence.

That made me laugh actually. What a good way of wasting taxpayers money and make people laugh at the same time.

More seriously: Why?

The UCP are trying to prolong this whole affair and, I think, trying to pander to separatists without actually risking that Alberta separate.

ETA: There is definitely a significant pro-separatist faction within the UCP, but I don't think the current party leadership is really willing to commit to separating, even if they are buddy-buddy with key figures in the current US regime.

Also note that this referendum does not require that the question be clear (per the Clarity Act), which will allow them to confuse voters and garner apparently higher support, that they can use to coerce the federal government into giving them what they want.

As an albertan this feels like desperate pandering to a tiny vocal minority to distract from real issues. Almost nobody wants this.

A vote should end up showing that to be the case at least.

maybe in the same way that we have to keep voting on awful privacy legislation

That's what they said about Brexit. 52% of the population voted yes in a single election, and the rest got dragged along for a multi-year ride. Current polls put support for the decision at 31%, but it's too late.

About a quarter voted yes, about a quarter voted no, about a quarter didn't vote and a quarter couldn't vote

Rationally, and unlike what that dirty old lady in The Holy Grail suggests, binding votes impacting foreign relations should happen on a single 50.01% vote and never ratified or verified.

More rationally, if some 25% of the country can’t express themselves and another 25% are unsure/uncommitted one should assume their interests are best represented by the most invigorated and unified minority.

I wish I could drop an ‘/s’, but, uh, ‘/no-really-thats-this-timeline’.

> 52% of the population voted yes

Huh? 37% of the eligible voters, much less the population, voted yes according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_Kingdom_European_U...

Everyone who didn't vote and had the ability, voted yes as well. If you don't vote you go along what the majority wants. So for me 52% is correct.

You have to vote for what you want or at least against what you don't want. Otherwise you are an enabler.

That makes no sense to me. They didn't know the outcome beforehand; had odds fallen the other way, your argument would have stated that they voted no. Were they in a superposition before the results came in, voting both yes and no simultaneously?!

We can't know what they want if they don't or can't vote. Putting "they voted yes" in their mouth sounds insulting to me, but I'm an outsider to the UK so maybe it's wrong for me to say that

> They didn't know the outcome beforehand; had odds fallen the other way, your argument would have stated that they voted no. Were they in a superposition before the results came in, voting both yes and no simultaneously?!

Yes, of course, they didn’t give a shit. They couldn’t be bothered. Outcome was whatever for them.

Or they couldn't vote (besides work and caretaking, Wikipedia mentions that a few thousand's ballots were invalid before the vote even started due to an accounting error), or they thought "don't give our neighbors the finger" was a foregone conclusion. I should also hope that such a vote in my country, where it's economic suicide much more than in the UK, goes to an easy "no", but since Brexit I've learned that I need to always encourage everyone to make time and vote anyway no matter how dumb it seems. They didn't have that example and I'm not so sure if a confirming vote would habe turned out the same way for example

You can say a lot of things about the majority of this group but not that it was necessarily irrelevant to the whole group

If you choose not to vote, then you are implicitly voting for "whatever ends up winning."

It's conceptually pretty weird to have a mental model where the single vote that brings one side to 50%+1 implicitly flips millions of other votes.

It makes sense when you consider those millions of other voters are apathetic by definition. They can be implicitly flipped like that because they, supposedly, don't care at all. If they did care then they would vote and then wouldn't be subject to that. And that is why it is vital to be extremely careful with apathy, in all aspects of life. Because apathy is a choice.

You leave it to others if you choose not to vote, yes, but you didn't vote, neither implicitly nor explicitly. It doesn't allow one to add you to the tally of voters for yes or no as the person above did

You summed up my point. If someone doesn't vote if they can they support what ever the majority of the votes wanted. They were fine with it. So in they end they wanted what the majority wanted because that is the result. Everything else is fudging the numbers to feel better.

You could also just say they didn't exist if it makes you feel better. But calculating the percentage from the eligible voters gets you no where. They didn't vote. It just makes the number smaller. Whatever. It doesn't change anything. It's not first to 50% of eligible votes. It's the majority of voters.

But I am angry at everyone who doesn't vote if they can. Especially if they complain that this isn't what they wanted.

If someone asks me about macroeconomic decisions and I don't feel like I can make a choice that sufficiently oversees the consequences and so I vote blank, I don't necessarily want to be thought of as having supported whatever ended up happening though

But I can see what you mean here. Just that I'd phrase it as "you will just have to live with the outcome" and not "you voted for this outcome" or "52% of the population wanted this" as it was phrased above. That is what I'd call fudging numbers to sound better than they were :p

Maybe I have to clarify this a bit. When I say "they wanted it" I mean that functionally. The ultimate outcome of not voting if you can is that you accept the decisions of others without giving your own input. Therefore you functionally condone the decision of others because you didn't put your voice against that.

There might be a situation where you have decide between two equally bad things. In that case not voting would be okay. But that's rarely the case.

Sometimes it's okay to just vote against the worse of the choices. That's still better than doing nothing. You WILL get one of the choices (unless there is a revolution or something). It's not like you will get none of these if you don't vote. Therefore apathy and not voting is a bad thing.

Example Brexit: You could vote remain or leave. There was no third option. Everyone who didn't vote because none of the options were what they wanted, still got leave. It didn't matter if their stance was "remain but maybe work on the terms" or anything else. The result was "leave". Functionally they accepted that. Functionally they sad "leave" because the majority of the voters said "leave". It didn't matter what they wanted. Only what they got. Just because they didn't vote.

Same goes for US elections. "I don't want either of them" translates to you get what the others want if you don't vote. Always. This can happen when you vote as well but then you at least made your voice heard. Your vote was recorded. There were more people with another opinion. That's democracy. Anything else is apathy and in my eyes you lost all right to complain.

Disclaimer: I am assuming a working voting system and the ability to vote.

Because of a well-funded manufacturing consent PR campaign that activated ethnonationalist sentiment.

Unless you make sure that most, if not all adults can vote, it won't show it.

If you only have 45% of your population votes, regardless of reason, you aren't actually getting the public opinion.

If people choose not to vote, then clearly their opinion on the issue wasn't very strong to begin with.

That still means you do not get actual public opinion. Public opinion doesn't consist of only strong opinions.

You seem to think that voting is a simple choice of "do it or don't" and it really isn't that simple.

You need little restrictions. For example, not every country takes away voting rights from prisoners or folks previously convicted as a felon. Some places are pretty lenient to pregnant folks, sick people, etc. When my mother was pregnant with my sister, due around voting day, they nearly didn't let her vote absentee. She argued and got to vote but how many people were just denied in this situation? It would be a non-issue in some places. It wasn't that she didn't have an opinion - she was just nearing the time for freaking birth.

When I moved to Norway from the US, I no longer had to deal with voter registration. Once I lived here 3 years, I could vote in local elections. They just send me a voting card. Voting is easy, can be done in multiple locations over a period of a few weeks. So long as I had the card, no ID needed. (most folks keep their address updated for multiple reasons, so getting it isn't a big issue for me, anyway).

Any barriers you have to voting - like the registration system in the US, inflexible voting times, or very strict voter id laws - means that some folks won't be able to vote even if they want to. Barriers that make it difficult for groups of folks to vote is just a way for the state to control the election instead of the people voting with their conscience.

21 countries have compulsory voting laws, on the other hand.

And you can't say that a voter's opinion is a strong one, just that they vote. So many folks vote by just voting with the party they chose. That's not a strong opinion. That's just voting, and no one is checking motivations to see.

As a non-Albertan, this seems like a great bargaining ploy to get some leverage against the Federal Government, just like Quebec did. Most political parties in Canada seem to ignore and exploit the West most of the time, whereas they treat Quebec (transfer payments) and the maritimes (oil revenues and employment insurance) much more thoughtfully.

Exploit the West? Thats rich and definitely a western centric short sighted viewpoint.

The Salmon Arm Salute is still remembered in the West: https://nationalpost.com/news/politics/a-b-c-museum-says-its...

Many in the west certainly wouldn't agree with you now, or 100+ years ago.

https://xcancel.com/DonBraid/status/1187052993788559360

This is about more than just money though.

Politically the west is underrepresented and the cultural difference between the West and the rest of Canada is very significant - unless you ask folks from Ontario who have never been to AB. In my opinion, Canada is too geographically and culturally diverse for a central government to have so much power.

> Canada is too geographically and culturally diverse for a central government to have so much power.

The United States has also had this problem for a long time, imo.

Unfortunately it isn't a bargaining ploy.[0]

These people are serious. They feel a genuine sense of grievance for how they perceive the rest of Canada has treated them. They have come to believe that there is a legitimate Albertan identity that is unique to the region and people and that is being persecuted 'by Ottawa.' They also feel that the separatist course of action is one with nothing but positives and only minor negatives. Some of them lie about ulterior motives to see Alberta join the US, while others are in denial that this could even be a possible outcome should Albertans decide to separate.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43487443

They know that getting a legitimate majority vote is pretty much impossible. This probably isn't their intention. They want to get any vote on the ballot, then cry about the results being falsified and beg the US to invade. They want to be treated like Crimea.

It has been my experience that people always seem to want simple solutions to complex problems.

The result is that the details of how complex those problems are get ignored or their impact is represented in a diminished way.

In this case currency, debt, indigenous rights/claims and existing legislation are some examples of what is being glossed over and ignored.

Of these, I really only see "indigenous rights/claims" as a particularly difficult issue.

For currency, The Maldives, with a relatively small population and tiny GDP has their own currency. What is the difficulty in currency? Ignoring the fact that AB would probably just use the greenback.

All of these of these issues are surmountable.

I'll give you that currency isn't a huge issue. From what I recall, Quebec wanted to continue using the Canadian dollar if they separated.

If they opted to go with the USD, they'd have to trade all their CAD - which will undoubtedly take a huge hit if they separated.

I still think that separatists would say that Alberta doesn't have to deal with a share of the debt and that would be a sticking point.

By glossing over all the details as “surmountable” you are illustrating how easy it is to ignore critical complexity. Debt includes concepts like “what does independent Alberta actually own or have to go into debt to purchase if major assets within its borders are literally Canadian federal property or connected to existing treaty rights?” This answer makes or breaks the entire proposal and does not have an easy or obvious solution.

Surmountable - "possible to deal with or solve successfully".

Does not mean "easy". It means they can be overcome.

Yep. People shout "term limits" as a "good" panacea not realizing this gets rid of good, clean, wise career politicians too. If the desire is to remove worse politicians, use primaries or change the law to recall such ones individually.

Its mainly urbanites vs the rest of the province which is a pretty standard pattern in Canada.

The eastern part of BC would want to join AB in leaving but that topic is totaly squashed in BC public discourse and media. Privately is a different story.

It's like the eastern part of Oregon and their relationship to Portland as a good US comparable.

If you want to understand why Alberta is holding a referendum on whether they should hold another separate legally-binding referendum in the future, you have to look at the recent court case where a judge in Alberta ruled that one of the two main petitions wasn’t allowed to proceed (The one that specifically called for a legally-binding referendum). The judges stated reason is that First Nations were not adequately consulted (interesting how this never came up in the Quebec referendums). As a result, the premier of Alberta suggested that until they appeal that court case that they cannot have a legally binding referendum. As such, for now, all they cannot do is a non-legally binding referendum on whether they should hold a legally binding referendum once they court case becomes resolved.

Why not just wait until the court case is resolved?

It might take years. Once it's solved, Smith, Trump and the americans financing this BS might be gone.

95% of Alberta is unceded First Nations land. It is not a valid country without it - without the consent of the relevant First Nations, a separated Alberta would be a few municipalities enveloped by... Canada.

This is not a concern in Quebec, because the overwhelming majority of it is ceded land.

If ducks had two wheels, they'd be bicycles, and if there was anything in common between the two provinces, you might have a point.

As far as I know, First Nations lands in Alberta are indeed ''ceded'' under Treaties 6, 7, and 8 with the Crown. British Columbia is a province with a huge proportion of unceded land, but not Alberta.

The treaties with the crown require the crown consult with them before adjusting them. This means that Albertan secession can't happen without their consent, as it would by definition, completely and unilaterally adjust the terms of those treaties.

The treaties were made in perpetuity, and if you are going to not hold up the crown's end of the promises, the FN's side - giving the crown and Alberta governance over the land - needs to be reverted as well.

Contracts require both sides to adhere to them.

> 95% of Alberta is unceded First Nations land

That is wrong. You were probably thinking of British Columbia, where no such grand Treaties were ever enacted.

hang on, your previous claim was that its unceded land, with no treaty contract at all - which is it?

do you actually know what the terms are, and who has what responsibility to them?

Pretty sure Quebec would have to break apart in order to separate too

So because Quebec ancestors killed all the people who opposed the conquest of that land, it's okay for Quebec to secede? But because another set of Canadians didn't kill off all the natives that still claimed Alberta's land, they can't secede legally? Is that the logic?

Wow, I'm not sure where you're going with that. Read up on the ''Brandy Parlit'' debates and you'll see that genocide of indigenous people was never at play in early Quebec. The relationship between European colonists in New France/Lower Canada/Quebec and First Nations has always been frought, but not genocidal.

quebec is on treaty land.

you might want to do some amount of research before accusing the french ...

who by far out of the colonial powers had the best relationship with indigenous people in north america, and whos relationships created a new culture blending french and indigenous cultures together into the Metis,

... of genocide.

Whats wrong with that? You want to consult some graves and see what they think?

>interesting how this never came up in the Quebec referendums

It did come up. It's referenced in the Supreme Court of Canada case on secession. https://decisions.scc-csc.ca/scc-csc/scc-csc/en/item/1643/in...

"Consistent with this long tradition of respect for minorities, which is at least as old as Canada itself, the framers of the Constitution Act, 1982 included in s. 35 explicit protection for existing aboriginal and treaty rights, and in s. 25, a non-derogation clause in favour of the rights of aboriginal peoples. The "promise" of s. 35, as it was termed in R. v. Sparrow, [1990] 1 S.C.R. 1075, at p. 1083, recognized not only the ancient occupation of land by aboriginal peoples, but their contribution to the building of Canada, and the special commitments made to them by successive governments. The protection of these rights, so recently and arduously achieved, whether looked at in their own right or as part of the larger concern with minorities, reflects an important underlying constitutional value."

As a Minnesotan I would gladly trade Alberta for Minnesota and become Canadian.

I think most of Canada (and probably America) would be okay with trading all the great lakes touching American states + the US west coast for Alberta.

That would be very interesting. I would love to see how that would play out (particularly with California and DC), but it would kill the political balance in both countries. I think having to consider opposing viewpoints is probably paramount to how we have both flourished historically.

Albertans are Canadians, and no, we're not going to condemn them to becoming americans or face dislocation over the actions of some loud idiots.

While I appreciate the sentiment, that would be condemning a great many Albertans who want nothing to do with separation to a fate I would rather not see a fellow Canadian faced with.

As long as Minnesota would have me I'd happily move there instead of staying in Alberta if this were to happen

Along with the local Canadian salary it entails?

Are incomes in Alberta lower than Minnesota?

I have no doubt Wisconsin would second the motion.

I remember an interview with Margaret Atwood [0] in which she joked that while Quebec might vote to leave Canada, the first nations own the bit of Canada where all the hydroelectric power comes from, and _they_ won't want to secede. And wouldn't have to, because Canada has treaties with various First Nations that among other things require Canada to come to their aid if attacked.

I wonder if the same thing might apply here.

PS. The interviewer was Tyler Cowen, and [the transcript](https://conversationswithtyler.com/episodes/margaret-atwood/) says:

ATWOOD: I think things will stay kind of the way they are. But think about this very carefully, as people did when it was a distinct possibility. You have Quebec there. The people to the north of Quebec are not French-speaking Quebecers. They’re indigenous people. And they said — and that’s where the hydroelectric power comes from, by the way — they said, “If you separate from Canada, we’re going to separate from you on the same grounds. Different language, older culture, etc.”

And Quebec said, “Oh, no, you’re not.” And they said, “Oh, yes, we are. And by the way, we happen to have a treaty with Canada that says that if any foreign power invades us, they have to defend us.” So if Quebec separates, north of Quebec separates from Quebec, Quebec invades them, Canada invades. You see what I mean?

Misleading: not a direct referendum but a ballot question in the upcoming election on whether the government and entities should pursue the process to separate.

An independent Alberta would face the Dutch disease effect crashing the employment figures, wages and viability of everything except oil and gas. At least a 10% jump in unemployment in two years.

51st state with the USD absorbing the excess productivity however? It comes down to the negotiations. Right now, huge Albertan budget surpluses get sent to Ottawa to be spent outside of Alberta (largely as a carrot to inhibit other independence movements), which is what motivates the Albertan independence movement. Any Albertans would hope the US to be more egalitarian.

However, the US might put them over a barrel and make similar revenue flows a condition of joining, which would be the smart play for Washington (possibly with some tariff and travel restrictions sticks if they don't). If the 47 admin is bankrolling the content farms producing this independence movement (as Orban was the Daily Wire) then the US has all upsides.

Canada fractured and easier to loot and Alberta entirely undefended from looting. Somehow, I expect that the only Canadians recognising this attack surface are a few bureaucrats too low down in Ottawa to get their voices out and that the parties will just try to fight the anti-independence tactics in the culture war moralising style of the now-departed Freeland, which is a decade out of date and powerless to sway the Albertans.

Generalising away from just Canada, one of the great weaknesses of liberal parties worldwide is electoralism. They cannot look at the electorate they have over their desire for the electorate they'd prefer they had. To paraphrase PG, if you don't ditch people who prefer being right to winning you'll deserve the outcome they produce for you.

Right now, huge Albertan budget surpluses get sent to Ottawa to be spent outside of Alberta (largely as a carrot to inhibit other independence movements), which is what motivates the Albertan independence movement. Any Albertans would hope the US to be more egalitarian.

Is Alberta taxed at a higher rate than other provinces? Nothing in the top few hits on Google indicates this to be the case.

And I'm not sure how the US would be different - all states pay the same federal income tax rates, whether that's individual or business income.

They're called "Equalisation payments". Certain provinces pay them, like BC, Alberta, and Ontario, and then other provinces receive them.

In 2023, the federal government spent $24.0 billion including an estimated $3.3 billion from Alberta, which has not received equalization payments since 1964/65. From 2007 to 2022, Albertans’ net contribution to federal finances was $244.6 billion, more than five times the net contribution from British Columbia or Ontario, the only other two net contributors.

Albertans’ also disproportionately contribute to the CPP. From 1981 to 2022, the amount Albertans paid into the program, over and above what retirees in Alberta received in CPP payments, was $53.6 billion, approximately six times greater than the net contribution of B.C., the only other net contributing province.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Equalization_payments

This indicates Alberta (and Ontario and BC) don't pay higher tax rates. The equalization payments just come out of the general budget.

The US isn't all that much different. Wealthy states pay more per capita because it's an income tax, not a per capita tax. Looks like ~13 states pay more than they get back, with Massachusetts paying relatively more (-$5000/person) and New Mexico recieving relatively more (+$15,000/person).

Afaik it's not higher tax rates, in fact income taxes in Alberta are lower than other provinces. But OP was referring to equalisation payments, which are considered unfair by many Albertans.

Welcome to civilized nations. They all redistribute from some regions to others. Life isn’t an Ayn Rand novel.

No province pays equalization payments. They come out of the federal government's general revenues.

Federal income taxes are the same in all Canadian provinces except for Quebec (as part of the abatement settlement), but Alberta and to a lesser extent Saskatchewan are large net contributors, since the higher-earning median Albertan is more affected by Canadian federal marginal tax rates. It's an exact analogue of Californian tax revenue paying for Mississippi. (If you'd like some keywords for searching, the popular term is Alberta equalization)

Under the current equalization system, Alberta last received a single Canadian dollar of direct spending in the 1964/65 fiscal year, whilst four other provinces have received over $1B annually since 2014 (Quebec, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia).

It sounds like I'm selling Albertan independence, but the fact that Ottawa aims for progressive internal redistribution is the exact same thing the US already has, as you point out. Similar figures of only receiving indirect federal returns can be stated for American net contributor states, too. It's the price of being in a large country, where in exchange you have a pooled currency and military that reduce vulnerabilities to external attackers.

Important context, this referendum isn't binding, but rather a referendum on whether a binding referendum should be held. Separation is deeply unpopular, but Smith has been putting her thumb on the scale every step of the way, and this non-binding referendum isn't subject to the Clarity act in the same way that a subsequent binding one would be.

I don't get it. They're having a referendum on whether or not to have a referendum? Why bother with two steps?

I googled the Clarity Act and it appears to be recently-passed US (not Canadian) legislation about regulating cryptocurrencies or something. What's its relevance here?

I am not Canadian and know nothing about Canadian politics. Someone please enlighten me.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clarity_Act

Bill C-20 passed in 2000. It's not so much effort to type "canadian clarity act" into a search engine or wikipedia.

> I don't get it. They're having a referendum on whether or not to have a referendum?

Exactly. Albertans are scratching their heads, wondering what on earth Premier Smith is trying to accomplish. Utterly ridiculous ''solution'' to some internal problems within her party, I'm guessing.

It's a very complicated situation in Alberta. There were basically two competing petitions. A "Forever Canada" petition which supported Alberta staying in Canada, however it was built to force the provincial government to hold a vote in parliament about separation, therefore forcing all representatives to show their true feelings on separation.

A second petition by "Stay Free Alberta" asked the government to hold a referendum on separating. However, it was blocked by a judge because a previously ruling basically said that separating would violate treaty rights of Indigenous peoples in Alberta. It's also fraught with controversy as the individuals running the petition were able to (likely illegally) obtain the voter rolls for every Albertan. They used it to build an online tool to track their progress. There is speculation (without evidence since the signatures on the petition is not public) that they simply used it to fill out the petition for people they knew. There are pieces of evidence that point to this being a possibility, for example, a Stay Free Alberta leader claimed that in some communities, nearly 98% of residents signed the petition. These are generally right leaning communities, however, getting 98% of people in a community to do a single thing would be incredibly hard.

So the “anti-separation” petition was a bad faith move by pro-separation forces? Am I reading you right?

Interestingly, my state (Wisconsin) has a two step process for constitutional amendments. An amendment has to pass a referendum in two consecutive legislative sessions. It still doesn't prevent us from doing stupid things, but it seems to be programmed as a check on hasty voting, or on people assuming that nobody's going to vote.

Is there actually even a legal process for leaving Canada? I would assume you can't just decide to leave.

EDIT: oh, there is a process. thats the Clarity Act. This seems extremely surprising - I've never heard of this sort of thing before with any other country.

It should be the least surprising thing about Canada - it has been dealing with separatist referendums for decades.

One such referendum, in 1995, was preceded by decades of discussion in Quebec of the pros and cons that triggered a 1980 referendum.

It's a thing because Quebec has tried to separate before.

Not a vote to separate. Quebec only tried to win a referendum giving the Province the authority from voters to approach the federal government with negotiations to achieve separation. Its more than a pedantic difference.

Part of the reason the clarity act is called the clarity act, was the belief the referendum question was intentionally unclear to trick people into voting for it.

> Is there actually even a legal process for leaving Canada?

Does there need to be a legal process? If Albertans are willing to fight a war over it then all they need to do is declare that they don't recognize Ottawa's authority anymore and then go about trying to get other countries to recognize their independence.

Yes, but having a law is cheaper than having a war

The law is pointless if the province really wants to leave.

It's a result of the second Quebec referendum. The Clarity Act may appear like it facilitates leaving the federation, but many critics (among them federalist and sovereigntists) believe that the law is too vague as it give the House of Commons the responsibility to determine "whether a clear majority had expressed itself". What that means in numerical terms? Nobody knows. Further the House of Commons has the right to override the referendum if they deem it to contradict any of the under-specified tenets of the Clarity act. Finally, you need to amend the Canadian constitution to finally separate, which according to my understanding, requires the approval of all the (remaining) provinces.

So it can be argued that the Clarity Act is a way to legislate friction to defederation.

Of course Quebec (and like Albertan) separatists hold that all this is moot and that they can self-govern as they wish following a referendum. Others look at the "no-deal" Brexit as a template.

> the law is too vague as it give the House of Commons the responsibility to determine "whether a clear majority had expressed itself"

If it really came down to it, i think it would be the supreme court that decides.

It was put into place after Quebec held a referendum that was close in 1995. Canada remedied the situation by making clear what it would take to leave.

EU famously has one. Of course you might not consider it a country.

EU doesn't call itself a country strategically to not trigger the usual suspects

> This seems extremely surprising - I've never heard of this sort of thing before with any other country.

It's a little surprising - even as a Canadian - if you're unfamiliar with Canadian politics/history/civics, but Canada is more loosely held together than most other countries, including the US. And a comparison with the US is instructive, because Canada's founders were unifying the country the wake of the US Civil War and were working very much in response to it: there was a fear that the US would turn imperial in an exercise of national unity and begin trying to snatch up the rest of the continent from the British and a belief that the British wouldn't care to defend them, which was arguably the primary motivation for Confederation: to form a unified front against American expansionism. And the Fathers of Confederation had seen how horrible the Civil War was and wanted to prevent that sort of thing from occurring, so the provinces - like in the US, formerly independent colonies - were given more power than the States, with the separation of powers clearly and rigidly defined.

The Clarity Act itself wasn't part of Confederation, but that's the cultural legacy that informs it: a civilized process allowing provinces to separate without bloodshed is just about as fundamentally Canadian as anything.

What surprised me about Canada is that sometimes there are fewer barriers to trade with outside countries, than between provinces! I recall someone saying "Canada needs an internal free trade agreement."

thats the current prime minister you are referring to

Discussing separation is okay when QC threatens it - hence the clarity act. But when AB wants to do it, they are just a bunch of redneck traitors according to the rest of Canada.

(Cue the "AB is nothing", "AB has no culture", folks that don't have a clue what they are talking about).

> they are just a bunch of redneck traitors according to the rest of Canada.

That's also the prevailing sentiment in much of Alberta.

It is technically possible to separate legally, but there are so many intentional roadblocks that it is effectively impossible to do so.

If I recall correctly, the Brexit referendum wasn't binding either. When the result ended up the way it did, there was sufficient political capital to push it through without a follow up vote.

The Brexit referendum was non-binding for important constitutional reasons.

Legally, leaving required an Act of Parliament. To hold a binding referendum, they would have had to pass an Act that says "here are the exact details of how we'll leave the EU, coming into force if the referendum passes".

But that would have required them to figure out all the exact details of what it means to leave the EU, and they didn't bother - they just held the referendum and assumed they could figure out the details later if Leave won, which they didn't expect would happen.

We all saw how well that worked out.

> there was sufficient political capital to push it through without a follow up vote.

This seriously overstates how smoothly things went between 23/6/2016 and 31/1/2020

Maybe you can help illuminate something that confused me about the result of the referendum. I thought it was worded such that voting yes would lead to a committee determining the details, and that that would lead to a second referendum? It felt like the UK population was tricked into voting for a 'sure I'll hear out your plan' which then turned into 'cool, we'll make a plan and then begin implementing it'.

I don’t remember anyone before the referendum saying it would be the first of two.

A lot of people pushed unsuccessfully for a second referendum after the first one but that was never based on any pre-existing legalities or precedent, it was just an attempt to overturn the first result from people who were upset that theyd lost.

In hindsight, I think I was misremembering that a second referendum was debated beforehand. But the non-binding aspect of the first had me thinking it would lead to further definition before it was embarked upon. Was there elections held between referendum and determining to do it?

Also based on the fact that no specific plan for brexit had popular support.

> Maybe you can help illuminate something that confused me about the result of the referendum. I thought it was worded such that voting yes would lead to a committee determining the details, and that that would lead to a second referendum.

The wording of such a famous referendum shouldn't be hard to find if you want to know the wording

Edit: just realised I still had this tab open from checking something for another subthread. It says nothing about a committee https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:2016_EU_Referendum_Ballot...

Edit edit :)

On the same page (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_United_Kingdom_European_U...), I found this. Perhaps you're remembering that?

> After internal polls suggested that 85% of the UK population wanted more information about the referendum from the government, a leaflet was sent to every household in the UK. It contained details about why the government believed the UK should remain in the EU. This leaflet was criticised by those wanting to leave as giving the remain side an unfair advantage; it was also described as being inaccurate and a waste of taxpayers' money (it cost £9.3m in total). During the campaign, Nigel Farage suggested that there would be public demand for a second referendum should the result be a remain win closer than 52–48%, because the leaflet meant that the remain side had been permitted to spend more money

Thank you for those links. Those are written in a way that it's very obvious what you'd be voting for. I must have been thinking of some other voting measure, unless my memory is (very possibly) faulty.

Also I believe there just isn't a constitutional mechanism in the UK for parliament to bind itself in such a way

Smith is doing this because now outrageous amounts of American plutocrat money is going to flow into pushing the "leave Canada" position (from ketamine-rot trash like Musk. American plutocrats despise that a functional country not ruled by the super-rich sits so close). Smith has gone to the US to plan with her American partners repeatedly.

And they aren't first pushing becoming a token raped resource of the US, because that is massively unpopular. Instead they're pushing a magical "super Canadians within Canada but also not beholden to those libs and I get to pardon people" middle ground.

This is all so comically transparent and obvious.

Oh and fun fact -- a "Forever Canada" petition gained far more signatures, far quicker (and without people stealing election lists or faking signatures). Smith's UCP stalled and sat on it, but then raced to follow the "democratic will" of the tiny subset of Albertans that are calling for separation.

I understand that Albertan Canadians stick with leaders like UCP because that's their only conservative choice, but this is going to turn out incredibly poorly for you. Even this stupid question is purposefully ambiguous enough that any answer can be construed as "yes, leave".

Thank you for a factually and legally grounded take on this. Lots of comments seem to think this has zero precedent or applicable legislation and just want to make it up as they go, much like the poorly informed and inarticulate separatists here in Alberta.

Such a waste of time, money, media space, human hours on useless thing.

This is part of Democracy.

I want to agree, and I do in part, but I don’t believe Smith is a particularly democratic actor and there’s more happening here that shouldn’t occur in a democracy.

She may just be happy that MHCare is out of the news. However, I'm not sure if this is any better.

Smith and the UCP have not been acting democratically whatsoever. Trying to paint it that way is either ignorant or deliberately malicious.

She was openly going around all standard democratic and diplomatic protocols and holding private meetings with the American executive in Florida.

That is not part of democracy, unless you are simply calling it the corrupted part.

> This is part of Democracy

It doesn’t need to be. 10% of the population being able to put major policies to a referendum is a bit silly.

Don’t look at our Swiss system, you won’t like what you see

> Don’t look at our Swiss system, you won’t like what you see

I vote in Zurich :). Our system has cooling-off features that Alberta does not.

Hey, mind getting in contact? :) See my profile for my info

> 10% of the population being able to put major policies to a referendum is a bit silly.

I think it's fantastic, actually. If the US had such a mechanism in place, we'd get term limits passed in a jiffy! In the absence of such a mechanism, the political class can simply refuse to act on popular measures. And while 10% might seem like a small number, the time, effort, and organization required to get 1/10th of the entire population to sign on for such a measure is actually a huge undertaking.

Not like this it isn't.

Beats spending time on Tik Tok and social media!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXafC7tlqt0

TLDW: There are some Dutch guys hiring Americans to pretend to be Canadians to put out YouTube slop videos to make money via AdSense on the political-idiot-doomer niche on YouTube (and at least 1 is selling a "make quick money" guide to the scheme). Whether they're just a grifting pyramid or if there are other sources of income driving it is not made clear. Though they insist its entertainment and not paid-for political motivated content (note had they admitted that they'd be in breach of various laws and ToS')

This is the phenomenon originally named "fake news" in the US during the 2016 elections. As in the comments that YouTube exposé you linked, despite what the evidence in the original investigations showed there were lots of accusations that this stuff was part of coordinated influence campaigns from outside countries. Threatened by this, Trump used the phrase against his criticism: labeling that the real fake news and any deeper discussion on it dropped from US politics.

The real issue is that these platforms have commoditized rumor in a way that gets around our cultural taboos about the practice.

isn't this more about alberta to hold referendum on whether or not to hold a referendum on whether to remain in Canada

What I find interesting as a neutral observer is how people's views are often based on their own personal opinions about the country and region, and not the principles of democracy and the human right of self-determination. It seems like, if you like the country then you are a federalist and the separatists are traitors, anti-democratic, etc. If you don't like the country, the separatists are freedom fighters, and it's the federalists who are anti-democratic.

I guess this makes sense, since the traitor/seditionist and freedom-fighter/revolutionary labels are entirely dependant on your affiliation with the associated country. But a lot of Americans have strong negative reactions to this idea, or the idea of Brexit, but almost certainly support their own founding fathers who were likewise traitors to the British Empire.

Some modern precedents for countries established by peaceful legal secession include:

- Singapore (Malaysia) 1965

- Montenegro (Serbia) 2006

- Czech Republic (Czechoslovakia) 1993

- Iceland (Denmark) 1944

However, these are rare as most secession events are violent. Establishing a new country typically requires a revolution, and there is more support for that broadly in Canada for various reasons than any single province. The Alberta referendum is a polite signal and a test.

The boomer generation and it's broadly left politics is dying off, meaning that the LPC and NDP need to replenish their electoral support to stay in power. It is uncontroversial that they have been doing this using radical immigration policies and throwing money away, particularly via the abuse of definitions of "temporary," and "asylum." Political interference by both India (exporting their independence problem) and China (creating a resource vassal) is undeniable at this point. Canadians with a stake in the country are quite reasonably concerned that their society is being demolished and replaced.

Will they revolt, and could it succeed? It depends on whether they get US sponsorship or not. The more interesting question than the Alberta theater is whether Canada revolts and establishes a republic, or whether it gets annexed by the US or the EU. Alberta is just a canary for these other scenarios, imo.

>uncontroversial, quite reasonably

Buddy, patting yourself on the back this much gives away the game

it's gov's own data and stated policies. discourse or gtfo.

i think "source or gtfo" is a fair response to this claim stated in this way

exercise to the reader. the facts in this case are not the debate, but what their consequences are. its worth addressing forum spoiling though. if you have an actual opinion, state it. but spare us the banal nihilism of people with received tactics but no intellectual capacity for conviction. it's insane to me what the civility rules enable by leaving those behaviours unchallenged.

"the facts in this case are not the debate"

Yeah I disagree, buddy, the unsourced nonsense is very much debatable.

My opinion is that making things up is embarrassing, and doing this whole "woe is me for the spirit of debate betides you" schtick when pressed on it even moreso.

With all the turmoil in US and other parts of the world I was completely unaware Albertans want to leave.

> Smith acknowledged some of those concerns on Thursday, arguing that the federal government has tried to "move towards a more centralised American-style system" and is infringing on provincial jurisdiction.

Ah interesting. I always thought US is rather decentralized with each state with its own government and laws and such. But I guess that's when compared with individual European countries, not Canada.

Then, I wonder if they would like to still have a king https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monarchy_of_Canada as a new country, or would they drop that as well? If they want to drop that, that faction could lean into the current US current protest movement and put up "No Kings" signs and hold rallies and such. It would be good enough for a chuckle at least.

Some Albertans.

Few Albertans. The Forever Canada petition got over 10% of the entire population to sign it. Considering that it was a grassroots effort and that you had to sign in person, meaning you had to go out of your way to sign an entirely optional petition, really shows how much support there is in Alberta to remain.

I've put up some basic numbers in another comment that foreshadow what a futile exercise this is likely to be for the separatists.

If they force their opponent to chew through all their available resources leaving them unable to respond in other areas, was it really futile?

I'm not following your comment. How do you envision what you're suggesting, in real world terms?

they arent that smart - they're burning through their own resources responding to trolls from their other policies like easy recall petitions

the resources for anti-separatism while trump is around are endless, and you dont need to spend time convincing or anything.

theyve really gotten their opposition more organized, and say, working on more ambitious projects like corb lunds anti-coal petition

> Ah interesting. I always thought US is rather decentralized with each state with its own government and laws and such

Maybe before being president was a daily ego boost in taking over the news

I saw the cbc about that video, and the guy said that even if they finally vote to leave, they will have tons of conversations with Canada regarding currency, laws etc. + other provinces have a say on this. It looks like it's not that easy.

If they secede the US can go help them with democracy. They do have oil.

U.S. wants more oil and pays influencers. Even if anyone is a legitimate Albertan separatist, voting in favor of it in this political climate is self-destructive.

There's, sadly, been a significant uptick in self destructive voting tendencies for certain voting demographics as of late.

Mainly UK and her former colonies.

Mainly UK and her former colonies.

You might think this if the only language you can read is English.

> Still, opinion polls suggest that the majority of Albertans would vote against separating.

This feels familiar.

10% of the population produces nearly 20% of the country's GDP. That kind of lopsided representation is dangerous breeding ground for contempt, so this kind of thing is not really surprising. Will be interesting to see where it goes.

Nobody thought there was any realistic chance of the UK leaving the EU either...

By that framing you are saying that Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver should also all seek secession.

Likewise, you could say that NYC and LA should singularly secede from America by that same logic.

It doesn't track. There is no legal precedent. Alberta as an entity did not exist beyond Canada.

> There is no legal precedent.

Legal precedent doesn't really matter here. If Alberta wants to leave and they're willing to fight a war over it, then that's up to them. USA already went through this once.

Since you are comparing Canada and the U.S.A., let's look at some popular phrasing from each's Constitutions:

U.S.A. ''life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness''

Canada ''peace, order, and good government''

Those are fundamental to the identity of each nation's people. Are they core beliefs of the majority of their citizens? Probably. Are Canadians ready to fight a civil war over Alberta separatism? Not at this point, even slightly.

Canada is a confederation/confederacy. Ie your central government is weak and your provinces are strong. They can leave just like Quebec. Quebec has to be bribed to stay.

It's more complex than that. I know tech workers are fond of reductionism, but it is not workable here.

In order to draw the statement and comparison you just have, you have to throw out ALL legal and historical fact. And also decide that the rights of the Aboriginal land owners in Alberta mean absolutely nothing.

I don't know what it's like to be American, but I presume that not even they would be on board with wholesale land confiscations on such a massive scale. Sets a bad precedent, doesn't it?

Sure it’s more complicated, but we can’t deny that just like the EU, it’s way easier for a Canadian province to leave vs a state or province of federal governments. Otherwise, secessionist movements wouldn’t be so serious. You can’t pretend that Canadian provinces are weak. Otherwise, why bribe Quebec instead of forcing them to stay? Canada doesn’t even have a unified healcare system for the same reason

I mean.. it's not like it's Alberta that produces the oil. Oil is concentrated in smaller places than that, so why shouldn't those places then separate from Alberta?

From this article it sounds like it's the people of Alberta that want to vote on succession. Including the ones that don't literally live on an oil field.

Speaking as an Albertan, it's only a very loud and vocal minority. The UCP government has seen that the premier only stays in power if they cowtow to the fringe crazies in the party, and that's what she's doing.

i think its mostly people that live pretty far from any oil fields that are the big proponents?

kinda red deer ish? west of the queen e?

the actual oil industry and workers are either in the cities, or from out of province, and work seasonally-ish on the oil fields. dunno if its true anymore, but there used to be a joke that it was all newfies, who'd work just long enough to get unemployment, then head back home til it runs out, then around again.

Neither group has any particular incentive to have alberta be independent, nor a US state. The businesses might want to replace the newfies and albertans with more predictable undocumented latino labour, but they dont have experience in how to do that or hide say, injuries, from the government.

that said, a vote still isnt a bad thing - itll shower alberta with federal attention to get things alberta wants, like pipelines east, west, and north, and Id love to have the alberta grid connected to newfie hydro, rather than having quebec sell newfie power to americans

Incorrect. If you've ever been through Alberta you'd already know that though.

Oil & gas fields, and wells, are distributed over much of Alberta.

https://static.aer.ca/prd/documents/catalog/Map90_Oil_Gas_Fi...

i did a bit of playing with aer data back in december, and was super surprised just how distributed the wells are.

without doubt there is a main concentration around Lloydminister though, and the developed oil sands at least are all in one place

I meant that the oil fields themselves could just as well declare that they wanted out of Alberta after Alberta splits. Splitting goes all the way down.

This is kind of ridiculous. The fields are geographical areas, not political or cultural entities, and most of the pople living within a certain field don't have the slightest idea what or if any field they live in.

And yet, somehow the people of Alberta suddenly are aware aren't they? Even though they previously were just "Canadians"? Why would the people now living close to all the money but getting bad representation in Edmonton be happier than if they got bad representation in Ottowa? Splitting goes all the way down.

Albertan here. I want to remain in Canada. I will leave Alberta if it separates.

This is being driven by a vocal conspiracy-minded maple-MAGA base that got our current premiere her job.

A majority of Albertans are against any talk of separation.

That would totally be something paid of by Bannon/Trump, and ordered from Kremlin.

No chance of succeeding, or st least incredibly slim, and the past success (Brexit), proves the country will slowly rip itself to pieces, weakening unity, engaging in tribalism and resentment.

Cui Bono?

Related: Alberta Voter Data was leaked to an American Company by the separatist movement. Also, the question right now is if there will be a referendum proposal.

https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/05/20/investigations/a...

This is clear foriegn political interfierence. It's like mini-brexit. We have a weak, incompitent leader in Alberta who is giving in to her right-wing base so she can stay in power. It's David Cameron all over again.

Mini brexit? A province seceding from Canada is way bigger than the UK leaving the EU.

> A province seceding from Canada is way bigger than the UK leaving the EU

Genuinely debatable. The total economic destruction of Brexit has been far higher than anything Alberta would suffer. And geopolitically, Alberta wouldn’t take itself off the table the way the English have basically rendered the UK irrelevant.

What? The UK is doing better economically than Germany right now.

And better than anywhere in Europe for Tech with Deepmind and Ineffable Intelligence there.

It still shares many of the same mistakes as Europe though - e.g. now having to buy Russian oil and gas again instead of using the North Sea oil, not expanding nuclear power, rampant welfare and council housing corruption, etc.

> What? The UK is doing better economically than Germany right now.

By *near-instantaneous* (this year or this quarter) growth perhaps, but Brexit was a while ago and the 10-year growth was about 36.8% for Germany and about 25.1% for the UK: https://www.wolframalpha.com/input?i=germany+gdp+2025%2Fgerm...

(That said, how each nation handled the pandemic is a massive confounding variable).

Germany is currently ahead by 1.2 trillion per year for nominal GDP, 1.7 trillion by PPP GDP, and also ahead on both nominal per capita and PPP per capita.

I agree there are some shared weaknesses, but oil and gas are now short-term thinking, and energy policy wasn't helped by (nor, fortunately, hurt by) Brexit.

AI, much as I like using it, I'm not at all clear who is going to get left holding the bag, in each of the various scenarios from "it's a bubble" to "and now we're post-scarcity" and everything between.

Mini Brexit in the sense that a foreign entity is working to destabilize another.

Russia and its proxies ran an active measures campaign in the UK. If the US government isn’t doing something similar, the toxic soup of the maga-sphere definitely is.

> The origins of the data are not yet known

> The addresses of around 2,000 Albertans

> Lorne Gibson, former Election Commissioner at Elections Alberta: “The data is worth probably millions of dollars. It's probably worth at least $3 million.” “It’s the largest data breach in Canada. I haven’t heard of anything that surpasses that scale,” he added.

Not gonna lie, the Commissioner’s remarks and the general tone wouldn’t be out of place in a South Park episode about Canada, hah.

I'd say "let them leave" if it didn't play into both the U.S. and Russia's desires. I'm sick of their whining.

And do what? There is no 'Albertan' national identity, like there is in Quebec, or Ukraine, or Taiwan or Ireland. You can't build an independent nation around something that is only wanted by a single political party, who have no fucking idea of how to include everyone who isn't a Tory on board with their project.

Trace it back a bit, and you'll find that there's nothing to this that isn't driven by the Department of State.

Can't avoid gloating over this one. Just like the Palestinian identity was created and weaponized against Israel by the Arab world, now Canadians will get a taste of their own medicine courtesy of the Trump admin.

You got the sides wrong unfortunately, one of the states you are mentioning was literally created in the last century and is now doing the same thing that prompted its creation. But it must be nice living in ignorance and buying the propaganda.

There's a minor difference.

Whether Palestinians have a national identity or not, driving them out of their homes at gunpoint and settling in is a war crime.

Albertans, while obviously the most disadvantaged and persecuted Canadians in recorded history, have not yet had anyone commiting genocide or war crimes against them.

> Albertans, while obviously the most disadvantaged and persecuted Canadians in recorded history

Um what?

(The author is complimenting us on our ability to recognize sarcasm in the wild, don't ruin it)

But why gloat? What are you winning? Even if there were prizes here (spoiler: all the loot boxes are empty in this game), do you perceive yourself better off because of this?

>now Canadians will get a taste of their own medicine courtesy of the Trump admin.

Ah so no, you're just in the higher end of the sinking canoe laughing at the people who are drowning.

Albertan/Western Canadian identity is totally a thing, and has been around for a lot longer than this latest round of separatist sentiment. The west has been griping about unfair treatment from the federal government for over a century now, so 1) this isn't primarily driven by foreign interference and 2) it's not coming out of nowhere.

Whether it's a good idea is a different question. I doubt most Albertans want to be independent. I also think being a landlocked country with a resource economy means that you will always be subject to outside control, whether that be parliament in Ottawa or corporate offices in Dallas. It remains unclear if being independent will solve the issue of Alberta being land-locked.

Alberta was created out of several divisions of the NWT barely over 100 years ago, formed by the federal government of Canada.

It's not a thing.

Hatred or criticism of Toronto and Ontario at large is a thing. But that's a thing everywhere. It's a fundamental part of the Canadian identity.

If you don't think it's a thing then you're either not from here, or haven't been paying attention. The average Canadian's opinion of Alberta is also very telling, with most of the rest of the country seeming to despise the province, or think it's some sort of regressive backwater.

Meanwhile our Prime Minister was raised in Edmonton...

No, it's not a thing.

That doesn't make any sense, that's like saying because Trump was raised in New York and he's now president, that New York identity isn't a thing.

I think the dismissive attitude here is proving my point.

No, it's not proving anything of the sort. You're trying to claim that the average canadian despises alberta, and that's simply not a thing. It is in fact invented whole-cloth.

According to this poll (https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/poll-canadians-living...), nearly half of Canadians think that: 1) Alberta is not a welcoming place 2) Albertans don't care about other Canadians 3) Alberta is not a place they would feel comfortable living

And noticeably, the opinions of the Albertans are generally different from the rest of the country! How curious for a place without an identity of its own, as you claim.

You said “despises”. Your evidence falls wide of the net.

And you have no evidence at all

You're the one making a claim.

I've never experienced this myself despite living here for years, working in oil/resource/agriculture-adjacent sectors most of my life, and spending a few years in Ontario. It is, in my experience, purely CPC/UCP propaganda. I certainly wouldn't have spent january pushing edmontonians out of their parking lots if I despised them lol

You're being incredibly silly with your arguments. If you talk to anyone in the country outside of Alberta you're very likely to hear a negative tone when talking about them, especially if they are liberal. Our governments have very much fostered a hostile relationship with Alberta and has done very little to address their concerns. Anybody surprised by Alberta wanting out has had their head in the sand.

I don't think them leaving the country is the right solution, but this is what happens when people feel ignored for a long time, they go with the nuclear option of leaving. It's very clear that a lot of people in Alberta feel mistreated, and the governments should be working to hear their concerns and make changes. But sadly they seem to do the opposite and ignore them and continue to make negative remarks about them which furthers the problem.

In fact their behaviour is similar to the dismissive behaviour you have been showing in these replies to the other user.

Bullshit. This is purely CPC and UPC propaganda that doesn't survive contact with reality.

Since you decided to take things in a personal direction, yes. I have lived and worked in Alberta. I have had family in Alberta. I have friends in Alberta. My partner is from the west, and we visit regularly.

That's some bad karma, pretending you can read someone like that and attempting to beat them down with your ignorance and then claim to be a victim.

Now now, when was I claiming to be a victim? Let's not be dramatic now.

Also, which Alberta? Edmonton? Cardston? Fort McMurray? Lloydminster? Grande Prairie? Canmore? I guarantee you will find varying levels of Albertan identity and many different perspectives in each. Albertan identity is not a mirage.

Claiming the rest of the country is against you is playing the victim. And which Alberta? That sounds like "What kind of Albertan were you". Which is starting to sound like real foul stuff.

A huge amount of academic research into ''western alienation'' has been, and continues to be, researched at Canadian universities. The concept is bedrock to studies of Canadian history and political science.

I understand this. I lived there, I heard the "Onterrible" jokes and wore them with grace.

The concept of an independent Alberta as an identity is a fringe matter, not equivalent with generalized notions of alienation and grievances related to equivalence within confederation on a policy level.

Toronto is much much younger than alberta, formed by the government of ontario

if age is a disqualifying factor, hating on toronto cant be a fundamental part of the canadian identity

If you are Canadian, you should be familiar with the running nation-wide joke that "everyone hates Toronto".

It is certainly a 'thing'. Saying it is not just shows your ignorance.

I am aware of recent political movements, yes. Like the Western Independence Party.

However, they failed to even get enough signatures to properly form. Their platform is to "basically remove Alberta from confederation" (the party founder's words). But note: there was no Alberta before confederation.

Alberta business owners having a beef with Ottawa leadership is not the same as a common and foundational identity across Alberta that desires independence. That latter notion is in the extreme minority. Fringe stuff. For instance, the support between the WIP (and aligned groups) is similar to the support for the province's Communist parties.

Former Albertan here. Alberta even griped about unfair treatment when their conservative party had a majority in Ottawa for almost a decade. It’s just what people have learned to say.

there's no reason to call it not a culture.

especially when theres a matching culture in texas, and there's constant travel back and forth between the two, both for the oil-men and the cowboys

A national identity needs to stand for something. It can't just be defined as 'we hate Ontario and the federal libs and want to become an American gas station'.

Unique culture and a sense of nationhood are two entirely separate things.

This was a good Globe piece a month ago: https://www.theglobeandmail.com/opinion/article-alberta-has-...

Some choice quotes.

> The Wild Rose province isn’t like Scotland, Quebec, or Catalonia. Everyone can more or less agree these are “stateless nations.” Maybe you think those nations should have their own state, maybe you don’t, but they follow a well-worn political pattern. Albertan separatists, on the other hand, are trying to create a state with no nation. That does not follow a well-worn political pattern. Nobody has ever done this.

> The idea that Quebec is a nation is not divisive in Quebec, not an idea that separatists think is super and federalists think is dumb. It is basically a matter of consensus among political actors there. What they disagree on is whether the Quebec nation is better off inside or outside of the Canadian confederation.

> Who sees that in Alberta? When has any elected deputy of Alberta’s legislature, let alone literally every single one of them, loudly and publicly affirmed that on behalf of their constituents they perceive Alberta as a nation? Are there any historical instances whatsoever of outside observers seeing Albertans as a nation that would compare to such seminal documents as the Durham Report?

> Even separatist leaders use the word “nation” sparingly. The Alberta Prosperity Project’s manifesto, The Value of Freedom: A Draft Fully Costed Fiscal Plan for an Independent Alberta, lives up to its title by speaking in exclusively financial terms; even then it can only refer to Alberta as a nation using somewhat sideways language. When it states that “a sovereign Alberta could become one of the lowest taxed and regulated nations in the world, rivalling jurisdictions similar to Dubai and Monaco,” it could just as easily substitute “state” for “nation.”

> It’s clear that Alberta (the place where I have lived longest in my life) is not like Ontario, any more than the Maritimes are (I also lived eight years in Dartmouth). These places are all homes to distinct cultures. But in none of those three places do we find sustained instances of diverse groups of both insiders and outsiders clearly referring to them as repositories of a national identity other than “Canadian.”

Thanks for sharing.

I've been saying it for a while not but "independence" is a distraction and not the end goal here. The inevitable outcome would be annexation by the US.

Québécois separatism is also driven by a single party with no plan for what to do with all the other groups. I also don’t think that an independent Quebec would be a good idea, but they have leveraged the idea to get equalization payments and increased voting rights. These concessions largely come at the expense of Alberta, so it shouldn’t be hard to see why people would be frustrated without any cia operations.

At least Quebec actually does have a distinct nation/culture/ethnicity/language.

If Trump didn’t threaten annexation of Canada, this would have a much higher probability of success. It would also likely lead to Alberta becoming the 51st state

it would also have a much lower chance of being put on the table.

the separatists are the people that heard trump say that, and said YES PLEASE

Disagree. For decades, Alberta has been subsidizing Quebec and other no productive provinces. They’re sick of it. It also doesn’t help that Canada is a confederacy where the provincial governors have more power than your PM.

Incoming Canadian Civil War?

No.

No. It's pretty clear that the Liberals have achieved dynasty status, only 25% of Canadians are net taxpayers, the rest live partially or fully on handouts, or are government employees whose income comes from taxes in the first place.

Most Canadians who are upset with the status quo are leaving or have already left. Last year saw a record amount of Canadians move to the US.

No, they're civilized.

Jeez, the number of replies taking this as a knock on current political divide is saddening.

If anyone remembers middle school history, the American civil war was ignited by the North refusing to accept Southern secession. Should've made it more obvious, I guess.

Investigate and imprison the people who are pushing this because of money received from the US.

For what crime?

Treason

Sedition, technically.

A referendum is neither of those.

Allegedly they have taken money from americans or maybe russians. It is generally a crime to take foreign money as part of a political campaign.

This is truly trolling escaping the Internet. It's by no means the first instance; "The future is already here—it's just not very evenly distributed". The best time to have started taking this seriously was probably October 2015 or something. The next best time is now. These performative fits by thoughtless Adult Children get backed by real money, for purposes mysterious to me, but they seem purposes dark enough it would be nice to have a working system that would investigate deeply and make illustrative examples out of the benefactors. Oh but for a working democracy or a healthy journalism, what might we find? Carve "Cui bono?" on my tombstone so when they plow the place over for tract housing to cram their useful fools into, maybe the rubble will catch a person's eye and make them wonder.

> This is truly trolling escaping the Internet

The referendum? Or calling for imprisoning people for wrongthink?

You misspelled “treason”

> You misspelled “treason”

Wrongthink (well, technically, crimethink) is canonically treason. Nutters on Reddit calling everything treason isn’t new.

In this case, I’m failing to see how someone—who, granted, appears to be a nutter—following a lawful process is treason.

“took american money to” is treason.

"Wrongthink". Lol man, if you think that taking money from a country whose head of state has recently said that they may need to forcibly annex your own country, and then using that money to illegally obtain the personal information of citizens so you can attempt to break your country apart is merely "wrongthink" then you need to completely recalibrate yourself.

The really galling thing here is that as an American you would absolutely never tolerate a country like, say, China, supporting, both monetarily and otherwise, a group agitating for California to leave the union. You'd all call that treason loudly and proudly, but now that your country is doing it to someone else suddenly we have to slow-roll this.

> you would absolutely never tolerate a country like, say, China, supporting, both monetarily and otherwise, a group agitating for California to leave the union

No. But I don’t think we’d put people in jail for it unless they were ready to overthrow the government. (Hell, we didn’t even charge the actual people trying to violently overthrow the government with treason.)

That's not true, a number of Jan 6 people were convicted of seditious conspiracy, it's just that those convictions have now been vacated because the coup plotters have now ended up in charge regardless through other means.

Those other means being winning a free and fair election?

creating the petition and getting it approved through the alberta government is actual action to overthrowing the government.

it left the thinking and talking side when it became actions.

"we" in this case is canada and the canadian government, and have had no such armed attempted to overthrow the government.

For a similar item you should instead compare to the truckers thing, where a group similarly collected agitation money from the US, then did the agitation. Their bank accounts are still frozen afaik, and some are finishing their prison sentences now

No, as the subthread starter points out it is about paid influencers and not about heretical opinions. Bessent and Bannon overtly want the oil and Alberta as a 51st state:

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/analysis-alberta-sepa...

The U.S., as you very well know, has a long history of influencing foreign separatist movements for its own benefit. It even has overt organizations like the NED, which had a DOGE defunding theater but is still funded and deleted its detailed activities from its website. There are many other ways of funneling influencer money.

When the Soviet Union did similar things to the U.S., that activity was called "treason", as you also very well know.

> it is about paid influencers and not about heretical opinions

This makes sense. If she took money from Americans agitating for separatism in Canada to promote separatism in Canada, and that violates Canadian law, I can see a legitimate path for investigating and imprisoning.

We could arrange a swap. Make Washington-Oregon-California into the province of South British Columbia and the great lakes region and New England into New Lower Canada.

I know of two people that moved away from Canada and consider themselves refugees for various reasons. It seems... a little out there. But it is a thing.

> it is a thing

Anyone can claim refugee status. That doesn’t make them refugees.

Being a refugee requires showing persecution that one can’t find relief for within the country’s own system [1]. Given Canada has a functioning court system, the second part of the definition is failed.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_Relating_to_the_Sta...

Iran also has a functioning court system w/ both qadi & mufti offering opinions.

> Iran also has a functioning court system

Fair enough, I should have said credible.

I'm not enough of an expert in 12er Shia fiqh to say how credible they are-but they are there.

You misunderstood my comment. The claim is the thing.

> But it is a thing.

On a per capita basis, 50x more Canadians move to the US than the other way round.

It's more than just a thing.

I'm not talking about the US.

I met a Québécois woman years ago that said their own independence movement was shut down in part because of new immigrants to Canada not wanting to leave the commonwealth. No clue if that’s right or not. But given how much of a cash cow the western provinces are for Canada, and the mega spike in immigration it makes me wonder

Maybe look for information instead of sharing uninformed opinions on a random anecdote?

Thats not hard to believe. An immigrant wouldnt be a part of some native separatist movement.

Blaming immigrants … never gets old, does it?

The part about immigration and Quebec is right though, doesn't mean the immigrants are to blame.

Fwiw my only familial connection to Canada is my Levantine immigrant cousins in Quebec

Net federal tax by province for 2024:

   East:
   ON:  92,392M
   QC:  43,549M
   NS:   4,464M
   NB:   5,167M
   NL:   2,467M
   PE:     680M

   West:
   BC:  33,037M
   AB:  29,900M
   SK:   5,579M
   MB:   5,745M

   North:
   NT:     273M
   NU:     162M
   YT:     254M

To call the west a “cash cow” is just a bit misleading, even if you grant the separatists British Columbia, which is frankly a laughable notion.

Would you be kind and recalculate this per person in each province? Thank you!

Why? What do you think this will show?

Obviously it will be higher in the west because incomes are higher, but the rates will be the same, which is the more salient point.

You'll see the same thing if you look at any sub-national division with high salaries - e.g. Toronto and Vancouver have similar incomes as Alberta, so pay a similar amount per person in federal taxes.

Ottawa-Gatineau is notably more of a cash cow in terms of federal taxes than Alberta, by the taxes-paid-per-person measure.

5.7k for Ontario, 5.9k for Alberta.

Thank you.

However the numbers dont tell the whole story. A lot of alberta's wealth is tied to oil. That presents three problems.

A) having too much of your economy be tied to oil generally causes dysfunction in the country. See all of the middle east.

B) Solar is getting cheaper. I dont think oil is going away in the next 5 years. But 20 years? Idk

C) independent Alberta would be landlocked. You think getting pipelines is hard now. Just wait until you have left the country and have no leverage.

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