Alberta premier promises separation referendum if signatures warrant

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1. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced plans for a referendum on provincial separation next year if enough citizens sign a petition, citing growing dissatisfaction with Confederation. She introduced legislation to reduce the signature requirement for a referendum from 20% to 10% of eligible voters and extended the time to gather signatures from 90 to 120 days. Smith aims to address federal policies that she believes have harmed Alberta’s economy and will host town halls to gather public input on potential referendum topics. Despite the push for separation, she emphasized her commitment to upholding the rights of First Nations and acknowledged concerns from Indigenous leaders regarding the implications of secession.

2. Alberta separation is a bizzare crackpot issue that has been thrust into the mainstream by forces outside of Canada (both state and non-state). The long (and for some miserable) Liberal rule has been extended but it will almost certainly end in 2-3 years barring another genuine miracle. Once Alberta has their man in Ottawa again this will simmer down. In the meantime it’s a magnet for disaffected Albertan conservatives, and a convenient distraction for their borderline treasonous premier.

3. Alberta has long standing issues with the central government. They see it as a colonial relationship and it’s going to be hard for the central government to repair the relationship.

   Well what they need to do is easy, change the formula of representation to make the seats actually be distributed acording to population and cancel the transfer payments. But theres very little of chance of that happening.

   Carney can try to paper over the problems which will probably keep it from exploding. Trying things like symbolic pipeline approvals. But it’s going to be a simmering threat until either the separation goes through or Canada deals with those structural issues.

   This is especially problematic given that albertas problems resonate strongly with the American population, especially right wing Americans who tend to distrust coastal elites more. If this problem is not handled delicately the right wing news circuit in America will inflame the issue and we would see another Texas or Hawaii situation. American volenteers siding with existing anti government forces and fighting for the new state to get statehood

4. People hate self preservation

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