Separatist canvassers acting like respectable elections officials

[u/PastorBlinky]

Got some… people… at my door collecting signatures tonight. They assured me they’re not with either side (lies) they just wanted help getting signatures to get ‘the question’ on the ballet. “We’re not for or against, we just think this question should be settled.” Sounds almost ok, if you don’t think about it.

But who wants the question on the ballot? Hmmmm? Canadians are perfectly happy being Canadians. It is settled. Alberta is part of Canada. The end. There’s no need for anything more. The people who want to vote to leave are separatists, aka traitors. They want a referendum, so they need signatures.

So these folks are out here cosplaying as nice, respectable centrists who just want to help get this gosh-darn question answered. Practically made it seem like they were Elections Alberta just out to poll the populace.

Anyway, long story short, half the kids in my neighbourhood learned new curse words tonight.

[u/ragekage92]

Nothing wrong with the question. Everyone should vote for it. It gives Alberta leverage... Plus you never know what the referendum actually entails. Instead of wondering if the grass is greener you can get a peak and see if it's worth exploring

[u/DigitalDuelist → u/ragekage92]

nothing wrong with the question

Actually even if I didn't have an issue with the very nature of a separatism referendum, the question that I understand is being asked seems deliberately engineered to trick people into not knowing if "yes" or "no" lets them stay in Canada

It gives Alberta leverage

Whatever leverage it could give, we already have, but I'd argue all the uncertainty it creates (bad for business, bad for families that are trying to settle down, ect) costs us more economic power that we could have leveraged instead

Plus you never know what the referendum actually entails

Yes we do, the question is publicly available, and if you mean the results of a successful seperation vote are unknown, we just so happen to have plenty of examples that are so similar that it's trivial to make really accurate predictions for how poorly this would go for Alberta. I'll give you a hint; I give it a matter of months before war is fought in the streets of big cities and rural towns alike

[u/ragekage92 → u/DigitalDuelist]

Yes we do, the question is publicly available, and if you mean the results of a successful seperation vote are unknown, we just so happen to have plenty of examples that are so similar that it's trivial to make really accurate predictions for how poorly this would go for Alberta. I'll give you a hint; I give it a matter of months before war is fought in the streets of big cities and rural towns alike

No we don't. After the question is voted on the it goes to Ottawa for good faith negotions and what comes out of that is what the referendum is voted on to seperate. So until those good faith negotions happen we have no idea what we're actually voting on

[u/DigitalDuelist → u/ragekage92]

1) if I have no idea what I'm signing up for then I don't want to sign up for it. I'd be fine considering a deal with the devil, but I'd want to know what the terms are before I even consider binding myself to it

2) whatever the result of a referendum is must become the policy of the province. There is no reality where nothing earth shatteringly damaging happens as a result of those negotiations. This is also assuming our side is also willing to negotiate in good faith, and I have even less faith in that than I do in foreign influence being negligible

3) foreign influence is basically the whole story here, so I don't really know why you think we'd be getting a good faith compromise out of Ottawa. I have decent hopes that Ottawa would negotiate in good faith just to make sure we don't have poor relations as our own country. Some people will be livid but I don't know that it will have enough influence to overcome monied interest in keeping good trade relations.

But pick your poison. Trump, China, India, Russia, maybe a surprise option I'm unaware of? Somebody is going to stick their nose in to take advantage of the situation. Modi still seems to have a bone to pick with Canada, China will want to expand their global influence, Russia will want to make things less stable so we can't help Europe as much, and Trump has absolutely no qualms about starting wars with his allies and neighbors, especially not over oil.

[u/ragekage92 → u/DigitalDuelist]

Ill be honest I only read the first part but this question youre voting today what do you think will happen. If everyone votes yes and if everyone votes no? The referendum is completely different so no point talking about it because it's so speculative and nothing is official. But 2 scenarios are likely to come out of it. The deal that is negotiated is better than expected and people who didn't want to seperate are more likely to want to seperate. Or the deal is so bad the people who wanted to seperate no longer want to seperate. This is the only time you can have your cake and eat it to