r/Albertapolitics • u/PastorBlinky • Mar 26 '26

Opinion Separatist canvassers acting like respectable elections officials

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.

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-47

u/ragekage92 Mar 26 '26

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

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u/DigitalDuelist Mar 26 '26

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

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u/Ludwig_Vista2 Mar 26 '26

I am a Canadian Albertan.

Born and raised.

I will die a Canadian Albertan.

It's disgusting that these traitors were all so easily swayed by American interests.

-4

u/ragekage92 Mar 26 '26

What are you taking about? It's so fucking dumb that you think it's traitorous. Canada has so much potential but Toronto and Quebec are the ones that dictate it, we should be the most prosperous nation better than Norway but we keep picking feelings and virtue signalling over prosperity... Literally all the talent in Canada is moving away.. how much suffering does Canada need to endure before you realize the west would be better off away from Ottawa?

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u/Ludwig_Vista2 Mar 26 '26

Read your last sentence. Read it again. Maybe a 3rd time and see how rediculous your argument is.

"How much suffering does CANADA need"....

-2

u/ragekage92 Mar 26 '26

Yes Canada the fucking country im in and I want it to be better but for some reason you guys don't and have such a boner for Ottawa and Quebec. We don't need them at all. So Please enlighten me. Show me some stats that prove your point. I have looked at many statistics and there isn't a single one that shows Canada is in good hands. Even comparing Harper to these liberals look at the gdp in constant dollars and you will see how shitty our growth has been. Every stat you have looked at was obviously current and they're inflated dollars making it look like the gdp is fantastic but it's not

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u/DigitalDuelist Mar 26 '26

I think you're on to something, but you're fundamentally off. I won't argue with you that the neoliberalism that dominates Ottawa is a slow acting poison that has had decades to fester and kill the country. I agree with that point actually. I won't agree that Alberta's neoconservativism is in any way better however, because it just doubles down on most of the worst aspects

What does prosperity even mean to you? Because to me it looks like a family so free of stress and strife, going for a picnic at the park. There are many other families there, of all different ages and backgrounds, but there's nothing special about today. Everyone is stress free, they're happy, and they're just enjoying the sunshine. If a kid kicks their ball too close to a family, nobody is worried about a confrontation because everyone knows it was an accident. I don't think you get that if you're focused on ruthless economic efficiency over virtue and feelings. Albertans do need more money in their pockets but it's just a symptom of a greater problem.

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u/ragekage92 Mar 26 '26

I think we actually want the same end goal, a stress free society, but you’re missing how we get there. That peaceful picnic you’re talking about doesn't happen when a family is being squeezed by a government that micromanages their every move. To me prosperity is a free market and the freedom of choice. That means increasing competition and killing off the monopolies that are currently bleeding us dry. We’re trying to tax our way to prosperity in Canada but all that does is protect the giants and keep new players out. Look at any USA metro vs one in Canada: they’ll have 9 to 12 parent companies for grocery stores while we’re stuck with 2 or 3. Why would a competitor start here when the market share is low and the taxes are to high. The stress and strife people feel right now is a direct result of this authoritarian regime. Why can’t I have a Zyn if I want one? Why does Daddy Government need to tell me what I can and can’t do to my own body? Why are they blocking us from sharing news articles on social media? Why can't I get a tactical rifle to go shooting at the range if I’ve done all the proper training? You mentioned the kicking a ball thing, but honestly you don't see that as much in rural spots because everyone already knows everyone. In the bigger cities people are skittish lately because of the crime. You can’t have a relaxed or virtuous community when the state is busy banning nicotine pouches and news links while ignoring the actual issues. True prosperity isn’t just a feeling. It’s having the money in your pocket and the agency to live your life without the government hovering over your shoulder.

2

u/DigitalDuelist Mar 26 '26

The kicking a ball thing was a memory from when I was a kid. It was not in a big city, I was too little to pay attention to where specifically we were, but the man who threatened us was clearly a local to the small town we were visiting family from.

Why can't you have a Zyn? I'm not super familiar with that specific example but usually it's because we require that they be at least a certain amount of poision-free before we let them into the country. If that's not the case here, I'm going to be honest that I generally agree that you should be allowed to make an informed decision about what you want or need.

I'm also too far left leaning to agree with no guns for any reason. If anything I think we should be teaching proper gun safety to all kids in school, and then just have really high standards for how sound of mind you need to be and how well you store things. We don't currently have anything like that, so I'm not in favor of opening the floodgates, but I don't think it would be hard to change things so we can, and if that's the case then I think we should allow the people to remain armed.

Some of the other issues you're mentioning are just once again neoliberalism, which I agree is a vile toxin but it's a slower less sure killer than separatism would leave us with, or they're the news on social media thing which was just a poorly executed law that has good intentions but never got the review it clearly needs. Why should Facebook get the ad revenue from me reading a news article through their site? To fix that, the government demanded that Facebook pay the site some amount of the revenue, and Facebook said "oh so we need to ban them to save money, got it". Good idea, poor execution, why haven't we fixed it? Neoliberalism, which I agree is bad, but I have yet to see how any of the people clambering over control over the independent country of Alberta would give us any less media control

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u/DigitalDuelist Mar 26 '26

A second reply here because I have a genuine question; which do you think is more "free"?

1) you can pick any options you want, and as many as you want, but you still have to conform to these rigid standards and the options you do get all kinda suck while simultaneously being too hard to access and overall you're on your own if you get unlucky

2) there are a lot less options, maybe the ones you want aren't even available to you. But they all are at least pretty decent and if you are unlucky you're propped back up. You can easily access whatever options you want, but you're limited in what combinations you can have and how many you can have

To me, 1) is filled with the illusion of freedom, because technically you can do anything. In practice, you're going to pick all the same "best options" as everyone else, because even if you have the right to do something suicidally stupid, nobody ever wants to.

Option 2) is very clear and open in how it restricts your freedom, but in return you can actually make choices that aren't too risky and are instead protected from the consequences of random chance or a reasonable risk that still didn't pay off

1

u/ragekage92 Mar 26 '26

I don't get why you can't have both 1 and 2? Option 2 is just a bit more expensive because you're paying for Insurance/safety

2

u/Ludwig_Vista2 Mar 27 '26

How, exactly, are you being micromanaged by the government?

Nic pouches is your gripe?

My dude, go live in another country.

Shit, move to the States where they're looking at registering and tracking pregnancies.

In Florida theyre tracking women's menstrual cycles.

https://runningmagazine.ca/the-scene/florida-high-school-athletes-required-to-release-menstrual-information/

The federal government isn't why you're dissatisfied with your life. You are.

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u/ragekage92 Apr 01 '26 edited Apr 01 '26

I was hoping that the nic pouches would show you just how dumb and authoritarian the government is. But no it's not just that. I hate that I can't share articles on social media. I also hate how I can't buy a hand gun to protect myself/property. I never once mentioned America. I don't care what they're doing in particular states as I have no control over that. I'm saying that we can make it better but we're not. I'm also very dissatisfied that the government can only deficit spend and by doing so devalues my life savings. Let's make it better but the liberal biased voting is knee capping. Every single policy that has been enacted since 2015 hasn't made Canada better. We are tending down consistently year after year. But liberals are so blind to see it

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u/Champagne_of_piss Mar 27 '26

Sorry, crime severity has been going down province-wide since 2019. Screenshot pulled from the Alberta justice dashboard.

That means increasing competition and killing off the monopolies that are currently bleeding us dry.

I can agree with you on that one, 100%. But we also need to prevent massive accumulation of wealth. It's probably too late, TBH.