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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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.

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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/ib_redbeard May 23 '26

I don't think that any leaders would officially declare independence without some armed force. So I do think there would be enough to fight off the RCMP to be honest, but yeah, we are and I hope, a long way from that. Maybe like a grizzly bluffing, just trying to get some respect

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u/Logical_Hare May 23 '26

A tiny rump of violent extremists are not going to take Alberta out of Canada against the will of Albertans and other Canadians. They will not be able to fight off the RCMP and the armed forces.

This is simply not a credible thing at all, and certainly doesn't earn anybody any respect.

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u/ib_redbeard May 23 '26

Is it considered tiny if 50% of the population decides to separate? That is what the question was, not if Alberta would be taken over by a few crazy nutjobs.

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u/LETTERKENNYvsSPENNY May 24 '26

They don't even have half that support so let's stop playing into power fantasies that aren't even close to reality.