Danielle Smith is working with trump on his plan to break up Canada. And the equalization payment s ( as we finally understand them !) are from The Federal Government! NOT ALBERTA! We see the trump funded separatists hand and game fully described in the Globe and Mail . Smith belongs with trump at mar a lago with her American oil men now living in Calgary, she is just like THEM. She isn’t a supportive Canadian. This is a manipulative rouse and we must call it out while, Canada and the World tries desperately to survive trump and Russia’s PLANS to crush alll democratic countries…..Daniel Smith is helping trump, a traitor to us and supporting those who wish to harm us. Enough of this GAME of manipulation, enough! Enough! Enough!
This is the biggest waste of tax payer dollars that woman has spent so far..and that is saying a lot. Everything she tries fails spectacularly. I am sick of funding her stupid ideas.
Exactly…I heard $130M thrown around but it is likely much more than that. Elections is complaining they can’t get enough staff, then I see that very expensive brochure that got mailed out to everyone from our province to make those questions seem reasonable. I am so done with it all. Now the seppies got their pipeline, got their vote and they are saying they won’t give up either way and the whole thing was for nothing…WTF?
We are now in a perpetual separation discussion that will only hurt us more and more as time goes on. Thanks UCP…for nothing.
I know someone who immigrated here decades ago, they were telling me about the process. They read those questions and said they sound reasonable…at first…then as you look into them…they are not. They started calling their friends. They were saying their friends are having trouble understanding them.
I say people need to vote their own way. I voted no to the nine and option 1 to stay. If you don’t understand the question, vote no. Because they are designed that way. To be confusing. What is being hidden behind those long questions. Provinces should not be working on Canadian constitutional amendments.
I keep saying…I am a Canadian. I pay Canadian taxes. I am entitled to everything Canada has to offer me. CPP, OAP, health care, benefits. Who does DS think she is to refuse us any of those rights to pander to seppies.
The intent is to become a US state…listen to them when they speak, listen to what they want to change. It is a roadmap…not my paranoia. Privatize health care, charging for vaccines, won’t follow Canadian gun laws, asking for US funding for separation, allowing US interference in our province through social media,…where do people think this leads?
Now the seppies seem to understand they don’t have the support they thought…so now it has become, send a message to Ottawa and just vote for separation to prove a point…that is not what is going to happen. We will end up down a road we can’t return from. This is not strength. The cause is not righteous, it is based on lies. Lies Albertans have been told for decades. Just like the US, what happens when our trust is broken with indigenous communities, with other Canadians…it will be bad. We will pay for this for a long time, not just financially.
Thanks for your comments. I agree with most of what you have said. The Seppies don't seem to understand anything about the process and what they will be giving up if we actually leave Canada! Many Canadians will leave Alberta if this comes to pass. And they will take their money with them! Look at what happened to Quebec! They are still paying and it seems they might go down that road again! The sooner DS calls an election the better!
Dumb Danielle is desperately trying to cover her own A$$! She's trying to dodge the fall-out from the failure of the MAGAt notion that the electorate of Alberta will be bamboozled into pursuing separation from Canada. It's a fallacy that bullsh!t baffles brains. Alberta, in general, is a highly educated electorate - I have often said that you can't swing a dead cat in downtown Calgary without hitting an engineer or a geologist and the centre of the Energy Industry Finance world in Canada is in downtown Calgary (no matter what the TSX late-comers think - the MONEY flows through Calgary).
Many of us who grew up in Alberta and have lived here forever have been well-aware of the fringey freaks at the margins of our society who have always advocated for 'separation' from Canada. This usually occurs in one of the local dive-bars after a few adult beverages have been consumed. Most of us are tolerant (Canadian) enough to put up with it and move on, leaving the fringe characters to stew in their own juice.
Tik-Tok influencer Dani is now inside the corral with that bull and terrified that she is about to be charged. GOOD! She should be. I am among the many Albertans (~75% of the electorate) who are about to slap her down and pound her and her MAGAt Chorus into the dirt. It won't be pretty and she can't escape. She and her compatriots are PARASITES that need to be exterminated from Alberta political life and cut off from Alberta Taxpayer Dollars. Our mail-in ballots have already been returned and I'm tracking them.
I m pretty sure as with Quebec, whatever s left of Alberta should it choose to secede, will not be of much interest to the guys to the south. FNs own the vast majority and won t be giving it away. Not everyone want s to hear that, especially the Secessionists,but I ve worked with FNs and I believe them.
Another observation made me chuckle: how could a half baked piece of paper go out to the provincial public? May I offer mainly because some lowly yet diligent bureaucrat didnt get the chance to save some puffed up poobah from promulgating their piercing morning hoots, saving the taxpayer from wasting perfectly good stationery, and not letting the one lowly competent person in the room review the documents before they left? Been there,seen that.
That one province just has to make life a little more interesting in these trying times. Hope Alberta’s voting public are paying attention to what their ballots actually say and not the idiot in Washington D.C. or his henchman Elon Musk. Don’t think the U.S. of A. will be much help. We’re horrible at recognizing Native/Tribal rights and Canada does a much better job at that.
Very good article, Fred. A non-binding vote to initiate formal separation “talks” raises the spectre of another national nightmare; that of opening up the Constitution and the myriad challenges that would far surpass one province’s desire for divorce.
Have been thinking that even if the vote in the 9 questions are “no”, and the tenth is to stay, traitor will spin that into a vote that will support what she wants. And we taxpayers will be on the hook for the next absurdity that occurs to her barely functioning Canadian brain. 😱🙄🇨🇦
I must comment on the first questions. My husband told me he voted "Redneck" all the way on these questions. I was totally shocked! Well my vote cancelled his out! What is this government going to do if they get lots of Yes votes but not a majority? I don't want to live in a province that treats people as less than. Already we are having a huge problem with those on Aishe and now the ADAP ! It's not working out for the majority!
Seriously Sandi?! I fear for your sanity living in that. It must be hard. Do not mean to intrude. That attitude just struck me as difficult to coexist with!
Danielle Smith is working with trump on his plan to break up Canada. And the equalization payment s ( as we finally understand them !) are from The Federal Government! NOT ALBERTA! We see the trump funded separatists hand and game fully described in the Globe and Mail . Smith belongs with trump at mar a lago with her American oil men now living in Calgary, she is just like THEM. She isn’t a supportive Canadian. This is a manipulative rouse and we must call it out while, Canada and the World tries desperately to survive trump and Russia’s PLANS to crush alll democratic countries…..Daniel Smith is helping trump, a traitor to us and supporting those who wish to harm us. Enough of this GAME of manipulation, enough! Enough! Enough!
I agree with you!!! Anyone can see it!!!
Shauna, there are certainly questions worth asking about outside influence and who is supporting the separatist movement.
But I’m going to be careful about stating coordination with Trump or foreign funding as fact unless I can document it.
That’s exactly why I wrote this one around what we *can* establish...
what Question 10 actually does, and what the constitutional process really looks like.
There’s enough there to concern Canadians without me adding anything I can’t prove.
This is the biggest waste of tax payer dollars that woman has spent so far..and that is saying a lot. Everything she tries fails spectacularly. I am sick of funding her stupid ideas.
I hear you.
One thing I’d actually like to nail down is what this whole referendum is costing Alberta taxpayers.
That’s a number worth knowing...
especially when Question 10 itself isn’t even a binding vote on separation.
Exactly…I heard $130M thrown around but it is likely much more than that. Elections is complaining they can’t get enough staff, then I see that very expensive brochure that got mailed out to everyone from our province to make those questions seem reasonable. I am so done with it all. Now the seppies got their pipeline, got their vote and they are saying they won’t give up either way and the whole thing was for nothing…WTF?
We are now in a perpetual separation discussion that will only hurt us more and more as time goes on. Thanks UCP…for nothing.
I know someone who immigrated here decades ago, they were telling me about the process. They read those questions and said they sound reasonable…at first…then as you look into them…they are not. They started calling their friends. They were saying their friends are having trouble understanding them.
I say people need to vote their own way. I voted no to the nine and option 1 to stay. If you don’t understand the question, vote no. Because they are designed that way. To be confusing. What is being hidden behind those long questions. Provinces should not be working on Canadian constitutional amendments.
I keep saying…I am a Canadian. I pay Canadian taxes. I am entitled to everything Canada has to offer me. CPP, OAP, health care, benefits. Who does DS think she is to refuse us any of those rights to pander to seppies.
The intent is to become a US state…listen to them when they speak, listen to what they want to change. It is a roadmap…not my paranoia. Privatize health care, charging for vaccines, won’t follow Canadian gun laws, asking for US funding for separation, allowing US interference in our province through social media,…where do people think this leads?
Now the seppies seem to understand they don’t have the support they thought…so now it has become, send a message to Ottawa and just vote for separation to prove a point…that is not what is going to happen. We will end up down a road we can’t return from. This is not strength. The cause is not righteous, it is based on lies. Lies Albertans have been told for decades. Just like the US, what happens when our trust is broken with indigenous communities, with other Canadians…it will be bad. We will pay for this for a long time, not just financially.
Thanks for your comments. I agree with most of what you have said. The Seppies don't seem to understand anything about the process and what they will be giving up if we actually leave Canada! Many Canadians will leave Alberta if this comes to pass. And they will take their money with them! Look at what happened to Quebec! They are still paying and it seems they might go down that road again! The sooner DS calls an election the better!
Thanks Sandi.
The economic uncertainty is something worth thinking about too.
People and businesses don't necessarily wait for a final decision before reconsidering where they want to live or invest.
Quebec's referendum history gives us plenty to examine, although Alberta's circumstances are different.
That's another reason understanding the process matters.
Deeogee, your point about people struggling to understand the questions really stands out.
If voters have to read a question three times and then phone their friends to figure out what it means, something is wrong.
And you're right about the danger of voting just to send Ottawa a message.
A ballot isn't a protest sign.
It can have consequences long after the anger that motivated it has passed.
Thanks for sharing the view from Alberta.
Dumb Danielle is desperately trying to cover her own A$$! She's trying to dodge the fall-out from the failure of the MAGAt notion that the electorate of Alberta will be bamboozled into pursuing separation from Canada. It's a fallacy that bullsh!t baffles brains. Alberta, in general, is a highly educated electorate - I have often said that you can't swing a dead cat in downtown Calgary without hitting an engineer or a geologist and the centre of the Energy Industry Finance world in Canada is in downtown Calgary (no matter what the TSX late-comers think - the MONEY flows through Calgary).
Many of us who grew up in Alberta and have lived here forever have been well-aware of the fringey freaks at the margins of our society who have always advocated for 'separation' from Canada. This usually occurs in one of the local dive-bars after a few adult beverages have been consumed. Most of us are tolerant (Canadian) enough to put up with it and move on, leaving the fringe characters to stew in their own juice.
Tik-Tok influencer Dani is now inside the corral with that bull and terrified that she is about to be charged. GOOD! She should be. I am among the many Albertans (~75% of the electorate) who are about to slap her down and pound her and her MAGAt Chorus into the dirt. It won't be pretty and she can't escape. She and her compatriots are PARASITES that need to be exterminated from Alberta political life and cut off from Alberta Taxpayer Dollars. Our mail-in ballots have already been returned and I'm tracking them.
Jane, I think one distinction you make is really important... Alberta and the separatist movement are not the same thing.
Sometimes from outside the province all we hear are the loudest voices, and it can make the fringe look considerably bigger than it is.
October 19 should give us something better than noise to work with... actual votes from Albertans.
Thanks for the view from inside the province.
Very well written Fred! Thank you for clarifying for everyone to see :)
Thanks Patsy!
That was exactly what I was trying to do.
There’s enough noise around this already... I just wanted to figure out what Albertans are actually voting on.
I m pretty sure as with Quebec, whatever s left of Alberta should it choose to secede, will not be of much interest to the guys to the south. FNs own the vast majority and won t be giving it away. Not everyone want s to hear that, especially the Secessionists,but I ve worked with FNs and I believe them.
Another observation made me chuckle: how could a half baked piece of paper go out to the provincial public? May I offer mainly because some lowly yet diligent bureaucrat didnt get the chance to save some puffed up poobah from promulgating their piercing morning hoots, saving the taxpayer from wasting perfectly good stationery, and not letting the one lowly competent person in the room review the documents before they left? Been there,seen that.
Bev, you gave me a good laugh with the puffed-up poobah! 😂
But your point about First Nations is important.
Treaty rights and Indigenous interests aren't something Alberta could simply brush aside in a separation process.
And as for that ballot paperwork, somebody really should have caught it before it landed in people's mailboxes.
Thanks for the laugh and the perspective!
Re: See Brexit
Yep. Brexit is certainly worth remembering...
especially the lesson that the details of what comes *after* a referendum can matter every bit as much as the question people vote on.
That one province just has to make life a little more interesting in these trying times. Hope Alberta’s voting public are paying attention to what their ballots actually say and not the idiot in Washington D.C. or his henchman Elon Musk. Don’t think the U.S. of A. will be much help. We’re horrible at recognizing Native/Tribal rights and Canada does a much better job at that.
That’s the big one for me too... read what the ballot actually says.
Question 10 has consequences, but it isn’t the simple “Should Alberta leave Canada?” vote some people may think it is.
Whatever side someone is on, understand exactly what you’re voting for before you mark the box.
Very good article, Fred. A non-binding vote to initiate formal separation “talks” raises the spectre of another national nightmare; that of opening up the Constitution and the myriad challenges that would far surpass one province’s desire for divorce.
Thanks Scott.
That’s the part I think gets lost.
Once you get beyond the slogan of “separation,” you run straight into the Constitution... and then it isn’t just Alberta sitting at the table.
Indigenous rights, borders, assets, liabilities, the federal government and the other provinces all enter the picture.
“Divorce” sounds simple.
Dividing up the house rarely is.
Love that clarity, Fred! 🫶🇨🇦
The wording of Question 10 sounds like “slight of hand” to me
Very informative piece - thank you
Let’s hope MAGA do not receive the Option 2 they want
Thanks Deirdre.
That wording is exactly what made me stop and look closer.
“Commence the legal process”
sounds pretty straightforward until you discover just how much constitutional machinery is actually hiding behind those few words.
Whatever Albertans decide, I hope they read Question 10 very carefully before they decide.
Have been thinking that even if the vote in the 9 questions are “no”, and the tenth is to stay, traitor will spin that into a vote that will support what she wants. And we taxpayers will be on the hook for the next absurdity that occurs to her barely functioning Canadian brain. 😱🙄🇨🇦
That’s something I’ll be watching too, Patricia...
Not just how Albertans vote, but how the results of all ten questions are interpreted afterward.
With non-binding referendums, the numbers tell us what people voted for.
What politicians claim those numbers mean can become another matter entirely.
I’ll be keeping the receipts. 😉
I must comment on the first questions. My husband told me he voted "Redneck" all the way on these questions. I was totally shocked! Well my vote cancelled his out! What is this government going to do if they get lots of Yes votes but not a majority? I don't want to live in a province that treats people as less than. Already we are having a huge problem with those on Aishe and now the ADAP ! It's not working out for the majority!
Sandi, I imagine that was quite a surprise!
But you raise an important question about what happens if a substantial number vote Yes without a majority.
These are non-binding questions, so the results don't automatically change anything.
What interests me is how the government will interpret those numbers afterward.
And I hear your concern about people who depend on provincial support programs.
Those decisions affect real lives, not just political arguments.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Seriously Sandi?! I fear for your sanity living in that. It must be hard. Do not mean to intrude. That attitude just struck me as difficult to coexist with!
Good! I can’t hope to keep them as well,as you do, Fred!