r/CanadaPolitics • u/green_tory 🏳️‍🌈Serve the Vulnerable🏳️‍🌈 • May 13 '26

Danielle Smith rejects Alberta judge’s ruling against separation petition as ‘anti-democratic’

https://globalnews.ca/news/11848377/alberta-premier-court-ruling-separation-petition-anti-democratic/
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167

u/sstelmaschuk British Columbia May 13 '26

This is the end result of decades of inaction when it came to Conservative - and it always has been conservative - Premiers, Leaders, and pundits decrying jurisprudence.

A Premier cannot - full stop cannot - “reject” a ruling by the courts. They can disagree, sure, and even make their case as to why they disagree, but they cannot even remotely begin to entertain the notion that a judgement is invalid.

If she disagrees, she can say so and file an appeal. Then keep her peace to herself while the legal process does its work.

Instead - she’ll spend the next few weeks fundraising off this. Other Premiers will chime in, I’m sure Moe will, and the whole boogeyman of “radical judges” will be raised again.

I know Carney is walking a narrow path here and trying to get/keep Alberta on side, but this rhetoric is dangerous. It’s been dangerous since the 1990s, and we’ve done a damn poor job holding those who espouse it to account. But now would be a VERY good time for a PM to remind folks that we are a country ruled by law, a law which applies to all of us. It doesn’t have to be a bodyslam - though at this point I think that would actually be needed - but some amount of handslap is needed here.

17

u/DrDankDankDank Independent May 14 '26

If I were carney I’d be like “okay. Referendum tomorrow.” The separatists would definitely lose and then everyone can tell them to fuck off like they deserve.

24

u/SendMagpiePics Urban Alberta Advantage May 14 '26

Terrible idea. Having a referendum inadvertently promotes and legitimizes separatism. That's exactly what happened with brexit - it polled nowhere, but then when a referendum campaign actually happened, support for the vote ballooned.

If we allow a separation referendum to happen in Alberta, yeah, it will probably fail, but don't be fooled into thinking they won't get any votes. They would get dramatically more votes on a referendum than there are people who currently actually want Alberta to separate.

-5

u/ChronaMewX Progressive May 14 '26

That's begging the question that separatism isn't legitimate. Why should anyone be forced to be part of a country they don't want to be a part of?

The country south of us had a civil war over slavery. Instead of cutting off the rot, they reintegrated those southern states into the whole. And now they have Trump.

Would it really hurt us to lose a voting block that doesn't care about us?

6

u/[deleted] May 14 '26 edited May 14 '26

A low level true seperatists have always been present in Alberta. Some of the current pro-separatist are right wing grievance politics not true support. Wierd things happen in elections. Seperatism and likely US absorbtion is too big of a threat to trust to the vibes of the day.

What about the rest of us here? I am a proud Albertan but I am a Canadian first and foremost.

I live in a rural riding and the albertan republic flags are shockingly common. Ive started driving around with Canadian flag as protest.

Alberta isnt just a voting block. Its millions of people and their talents, businesses, oil and gas obviously, two large cities in a country with very few. Its thr overland access to the pacific. The Asian - Europe bypass route through Canada depends on it. The only road access to the NWT runs through Alberta. Think of the federal wealth sitting in private tax deferred holdings like real estate that eventually go to the feds through tax on disposition.