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<\/p>\nSeparatist leaders often make Alberta independence sound as easy as shutting the door when you head off to work.<\/p>\n
They acknowledge no legal problems, no little complications from a thing called Canada. Just vote Yes to separation. Over and out.<\/p>\n
The starkest expression came from the reliably radical David Parker, who posted to X on March 5: \u201cNothing is more laughable to me than the idea that Canadians think we are going to wait for them to tell us whether independence is \u2018legal\u2019 or not.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have America backing us, you fools.\u201d<\/p>\n
He oozes contempt for Canadians. He prefers the Americans and implies they would pour in to help.<\/p>\n
The depth of emotion is startling, even though it\u2019s no secret that the separatists have courted U.S. President Donald Trump\u2019s administration for support.<\/p>\n
Also ominously clear is the fact that foreign actors, especially the Russians, are flooding social media with pro-separatist propaganda.<\/p>\n
In Ottawa, alarm bells are finally ringing clear.<\/p>\n
Ottawa must have a say in shaping any valid question on Alberta separation, Prime Minister Mark Carney said Tuesday, in his first remarks on the subject.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s the rule of law. There\u2019s the Clarity Act,\u201d he said. \u201cAny referenda in any part of Canada need to be consistent with that.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Clarity Act followed the Quebec referendum in 1995. It set strict conditions for any provincial independence vote.<\/p>\n
The House of Commons decides whether a question is proper and what the level of support for separation must be, based on the requirement for a \u201cclear majority\u201d \u2014 not just 50 per cent plus one.<\/p>\n
Carney added, sounding just like Premier Danielle Smith, that he hopes to spike separatism by showing federalism works for Alberta.<\/p>\n
But what happens if the separatism referendum goes forward with the question organizers say collected 301,000 signatures?<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Stay Free Alberta, delivered the signature documentation to Elections Alberta headquarters in Edmonton surrounded by a sea of supporters with Alberta flags.<\/p>\n
Right off the top, the campaign would be illegitimate to Ottawa because the Commons didn\u2019t approve.<\/p>\n
If the question succeeded and Alberta moved to separate, the feds would have no obligation to co-operate in any way. Alberta would truly be outside the pale.<\/p>\n
Indeed, if the Americans were somehow involved, Ottawa could become very aggressive.<\/p>\n
Many Albertans have genuine concerns about the country\u2019s structural inequality.<\/p>\n
But I wonder when the extremism and irrationality of much separatist leadership will begin to sink in with their followers.<\/p>\n
This crew has just created a mammoth data breach that exposes the personal information of nearly three million Albertans.<\/p>\n
As revealed by the NDP, ex-premier Jason Kenney\u2019s full personal information was displayed during a video session of the Centurion Project.<\/p>\n
Nobody seemed to question the legality of this, not even an official from Smith\u2019s office, who was on the session.<\/p>\n
The UCP caucus acknowledged that the staffer was there \u2014 and then blamed the NDP for not reporting the data leak to the government, and \u201cplaying politics.\u201d<\/p>\n
That had to be the most bizarre comeback ever issued by the UCP. The New Democrats had, in fact, sent the full information to the RCMP.<\/p>\n
Kenney said: \u201cOver the past few years I have received no shortage of threats from people broadly associated with the separatist\/antivax\/far right movement in Alberta.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it is disturbing that my personal information is now broadly available, particularly in those circles.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhile I have been targeted specifically, the broader data breach may also affect vulnerable Albertans, including victims of domestic violence, journalists, activists, judges and other public servants for years to come.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kenney is the politician who in 2017 united Alberta\u2019s right by merging Wildrose and the Progressive Conservatives.<\/p>\n
It was a job thought to be impossible, but he managed it and then ran the New Democrats out of office.<\/p>\n
You\u2019d think he\u2019d get a measure of thanks from his own, despite lingering hostility over COVID-19.<\/p>\n
But no, a significant part of his base has now split off into an ideology that sees only enemies and evil in their own land.<\/p>\n
Don Braid\u2019s column appears regularly in the Herald<\/p>\n
X and Bluesky: @DonBraid<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Separatist leaders often make Alberta independence sound as easy as shutting the door when you head off to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[13449,9576,17,14442,125,111,61,13450],"class_list":{"0":"post-35223","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ottawa","8":"tag-alberta-independence","9":"tag-alberta-separation","10":"tag-canada","11":"tag-david-parker","12":"tag-house-of-commons","13":"tag-mark-carney","14":"tag-ottawa","15":"tag-separatists"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=35223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/35223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=35223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=35223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=35223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}