Everyone’s looking at the major result on the advisory (i.e., non-binding) referendum in Alberta, which is the secession item going down in flames, roughly 75-25 at the latest tally. So the absolute crazification factor for Maple MAGA is 25%, because there’s nothing dumber than this secession notion, and it’s even dumber because Canada is in a trade war with the US, which means that it’s pretty awful to vote for anything but unity.
This turd was the butt-child of Take Back Alberta, a group allied with the Conservative Party of Canada and the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith. The whole history is here. Smith has been flitting around the separatism movement, saying she’d support a referendum if enough signatures were gathered. Now, to add to the dumb here, as if this wasn’t a big enough pile of stinky dumb, some Albertan First Nations folks got a ruling saying that a secession referendum was unconstitutional because they weren’t consulted. So, this was a non-binding referendum on whether to hold a later, binding, referendum on secession.
That all said, no reason to high five on this one. A bunch of ugly stuff did pass. Some examples:
Do you support the Government of Alberta taking increased control over immigration for the purposes of decreasing immigration to more sustainable levels, prioritizing economic migration and giving Albertans first priority on new employment opportunities?
Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for social support programs as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring all individuals with a non-permanent legal immigration status to reside in Alberta for at least 12 months before qualifying for any provincially-funded social support programs?
Assuming that all Canadian citizens and permanent residents continue to qualify for public health care and education as they do now, do you support the Government of Alberta charging a reasonable fee or premium to individuals with a non-permanent immigration status living in Alberta for their and their family's use of the health care and education systems?
Do you support the Government of Alberta introducing a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship, such as a passport, birth certificate or citizenship card, to vote in an Alberta provincial election?
Those four are passing by decent margins, though there are a lot of early votes yet to be cast.
Alberta has the reputation of being Canada’s Texas, and even if the totally crazy Maple MAGAts aren’t in charge, the somewhat crazy ones are sure eager to do bad things to immigrants and make it harder for people to vote. This referendum re-affirms a lot of ugly truths about this benighted province. I, for one, am not celebrating it. I only hope Danielle Smith reaps a little bit of what she’s sown on this one.
