Alberta separatists said Monday they have formally submitted almost 302,000 signatures to try to trigger a referendum on the province leaving Canada.
The group needed 178,000 signatures to force the province to consider such a vote.
The question of separation could go on a provincewide ballot as early as October, as Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has said she would move forward if enough names are gathered and verified. Smith has said she personally does not support the oil-rich province leaving Canada.
A “yes” vote would not trigger independence automatically. Negotiations with the federal government would have to take place and Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal, said some Indigenous groups who are already using the courts to prevent an independence referendum would use venues including the courts to stop independence from happening.
what exactly is their rationale here? “lets be a tiny country, that will make us real independent and free and totally not a plaything next to the big ol’ US of A”
(inb4 “Alberta not tiny”: by population, yes. 4M people is tiny)
They wouldn’t even be a plaything, the US would walk in the next day and take it. Why wouldn’t they? No military, no international relations, and a bunch of oil.
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About the population of Oklahoma so yeah small. They wouldn’t stay independent for long. US would take control. And instead of universal healthcare they can have for profit care.
do it, and then lets see the egg on your collective faces when you don’t get anywhere near the votes you thought you’d get.
even if this somehow did get the votes it’d never happen. They’d pull a 90’s Quebec and say ‘we want to keep the money though…’ and then Ottawa would just laugh in their faces and say “no”. add this to the fact that ALL the various indigenous groups in Alberta are also just going to say no. It’s a song and dance to showcase their idiocy and I’m all for it. do it. lets see how far you get.
It’s to provide justification for US involvement.
Alberta is difficult to underestimate.
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I hate separatists even more than I hate the French.
Don’t hate on the French, they’re the only ones in Europe who never fully trusted the US.
In Canada we love the French because we know they aren’t American.
Why? Aren’t they attempting to make use of their right to self-determination?
The Alberta secession movement is about as authentic and is backed by many of the same parties as the Ukrainian separatists in the Donbas were pre-2014.
I don’t really have the time to spare right now so I’ll take your word on that claim. Either way I wasn’t really talking about this specific group, I was referencing separatist movements in general as the OC seems to “hate” all of them.
Most of the times it’s just populist trying to scam naive people into weakening the system and taking over power. They usually act on behalf of foreign actors, are corrupt and in the end are the only ones that benefit from the fallout. Everyone else suffers.
Certainly sounds apropos for this situation
I can understand this reasoning, but I still believe some separatist movements are genuine and should be respected, without trying to trigger the hornet’s nest the Catalonia separatists come to mind.
Catalans are the perfect example of what I’m describing. 90% of Catalans approved current constitution and were perfectly happy being part of Spain. During many decades support for independence was around 20%. Then couple of assholes took over power locally, started promising economic miracles and laying about how Spain is stealing from them. The support jumped to 50% and all the problems started. Now you have split society, instability and corruption. The only people that benefited are the politicians that go elected by separatist idiots and got rich by stealing public money. People that don’t support this stupid movement are discriminated and can’t live peacefully in their homes.
Traitors.
The “stay in Canada” petition had >400,000 signatures.
So, who’s getting the signatures for the referendum on having these people arrested for treason?
Yeah! Independance! What a great idea. Fragmenting Canada so it will be easier for the US to take it over. Fragmenting NATO, the EU and Canada is exactly what they want. It’s so fucking dumb. I wonder who supported this initiative. If California and New York would become independent, I would only support them. But Canada should stay one big front right now. Normally I wouldn’t care much, I hate borders and I hate governments dictating a large country while every part of that country is different. But there’s one big evil fascist predator who loves to spread the heard to take the weakest prey, so we should all stay strong and together.
