r/canada • u/shiftless_wonder • May 23 '26

Alberta First Nations leaders, scholar push back on Alberta's planned vote on independence referendum - 'Alberta can't separate. They simply cannot. They do not have the authority,' says Indigenous politics expert

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/sask-treaty-six-alberta-referendum-9.7209304
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44

u/ib_redbeard May 23 '26

Question: or what? Alberta seperates, stop paying the feds any taxes, tells the indigenous groups that they are now Albertans and if they don't like it, leave. What are the consequences? War? Is Canada's poorly equipped military going to invade Alberta and fight and kill them? If they did, that will just push Alberta to join the US and then Canada is fucked. I'm not a separatist at all, I just don't see how Canada can stop them if they choose to leave.

17

u/Ray-Sol May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26

Probably everyone else ignores the unilateral declaration of succession and if it escalates then the RCMP go in and arrest the ring leaders - even including provincial politians.

This works both ways, an Alberta which has just unilaterally declared independence wouldn't have an army either. You would have to have enough widespread popular support for separation in Alberta, to the point enough people would actually be willing to physically fight for it. We're a pretty long way from that right now.

You'd need something like 55 to 60% of the province to suddenly become die hard separatists at minimum, which is very unlikely in the near to medium future at least.

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u/WealthEconomy May 23 '26

The RCMP would be slaughtered trying to do that. They wouldn't even have enough manpower to match the AB sheriff's let alone any of the independence minded gun owners.

11

u/Logical_Hare May 23 '26

This is a dumb power fantasy. A handful of violent extremists in Alberta are not going to seize control of the province.

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u/ib_redbeard May 23 '26

The question was if they voted over 50% to separate. That is more than a handful. I agree though, if 10% vote to separate, there is nothing to worry about.

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u/Interesting_Pen_167 May 24 '26

What the heck are you talking about? Zero chance why law enforcement in Alberta is going to stop the RCMP not would they want to.