Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

bbc.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

61–70 of 382 posts

Re: Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

#61

Post by JumpCrisscross »

tclancy wrote: post #13
opjjf wrote: post #4

Investigate and imprison the people who are pushing this because of money received from the US.

This is truly trolling escaping the Internet. It's by no means the first instance; "The future is already here—it's just not very evenly distributed". The best time to have started taking this seriously was probably October 2015 or something. The next best time is now. These performative fits by thoughtless Adult Children get backed by real money, for purposes mysterious to me, but they seem purposes dark enough it w…

> This is truly trolling escaping the Internet

The referendum? Or calling for imprisoning people for wrongthink?

Re: Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

#62

Post by briga »

52-6F-62 wrote: post #40
briga wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Albertan/Western Canadian identity is totally a thing, and has been around for a lot longer than this latest round of separatist sentiment. The west has been griping about unfair treatment from the federal government for over a century now, so 1) this isn't primarily driven by foreign interference and 2) it's not coming out of nowhere. Whether it's a good idea is a different question. I doubt most Albertans want to b…

Alberta was created out of several divisions of the NWT barely over 100 years ago, formed by the federal government of Canada. It's not a thing. Hatred or criticism of Toronto and Ontario at large is a thing. But that's a thing everywhere. It's a fundamental part of the Canadian identity.

If you don't think it's a thing then you're either not from here, or haven't been paying attention. The average Canadian's opinion of Alberta is also very telling, with most of the rest of the country seeming to despise the province, or think it's some sort of regressive backwater.

Re: Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

#63

Post by vkou »

nonethewiser wrote: post #46
vkou wrote: post #2

And do what? There is no 'Albertan' national identity, like there is in Quebec, or Ukraine, or Taiwan or Ireland. You can't build an independent nation around something that is only wanted by a single political party, who have no fucking idea of how to include everyone who isn't a Tory on board with their project. Trace it back a bit, and you'll find that there's nothing to this that isn't driven by the Department of…

[flagged]

Strange how that independent Albertan national identity consists of immediately begging to be annexed by the United States.

It's almost like it's entirely driven by foreign influencers and their puppets.

Re: Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

#64

Post by croes »

armenarmen wrote: post #28

I met a Québécois woman years ago that said their own independence movement was shut down in part because of new immigrants to Canada not wanting to leave the commonwealth. No clue if that’s right or not. But given how much of a cash cow the western provinces are for Canada, and the mega spike in immigration it makes me wonder

Blaming immigrants … never gets old, does it?

Re: Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

#65

Post by [deleted] »

arrowsmith wrote: post #24
jszymborski wrote: post #5

Important context, this referendum isn't binding, but rather a referendum on whether a binding referendum should be held. Separation is deeply unpopular, but Smith has been putting her thumb on the scale every step of the way, and this non-binding referendum isn't subject to the Clarity act in the same way that a subsequent binding one would be.

I don't get it. They're having a referendum on whether or not to have a referendum? Why bother with two steps? I googled the Clarity Act and it appears to be recently-passed US (not Canadian) legislation about regulating cryptocurrencies or something. What's its relevance here? I am not Canadian and know nothing about Canadian politics. Someone please enlighten me.

[deleted]

Re: Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

#66

Post by giarc »

steve_adams_86 wrote: post #39
nonethewiser wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is part of Democracy.

I want to agree, and I do in part, but I don’t believe Smith is a particularly democratic actor and there’s more happening here that shouldn’t occur in a democracy.

She may just be happy that MHCare is out of the news. However, I'm not sure if this is any better.

Re: Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

#67

Post by gmerc »

JumpCrisscross wrote: post #61
tclancy wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is truly trolling escaping the Internet. It's by no means the first instance; "The future is already here—it's just not very evenly distributed". The best time to have started taking this seriously was probably October 2015 or something. The next best time is now. These performative fits by thoughtless Adult Children get backed by real money, for purposes mysterious to me, but they seem purposes dark enough it w…

> This is truly trolling escaping the Internet The referendum? Or calling for imprisoning people for wrongthink?

You misspelled “treason”

Re: Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

#68

Post by JumpCrisscross »

nonethewiser wrote: post #38
LurkandComment wrote: post #21

Related: Alberta Voter Data was leaked to an American Company by the separatist movement. Also, the question right now is if there will be a referendum proposal. https://www.nationalobserver.com/2026/05/20/investigations/a... This is clear foriegn political interfierence. It's like mini-brexit. We have a weak, incompitent leader in Alberta who is giving in to her right-wing base so she can stay in power. It's David C…

Mini brexit? A province seceding from Canada is way bigger than the UK leaving the EU.

> A province seceding from Canada is way bigger than the UK leaving the EU

Genuinely debatable. The total economic destruction of Brexit has been far higher than anything Alberta would suffer. And geopolitically, Alberta wouldn’t take itself off the table the way the English have basically rendered the UK irrelevant.

Re: Alberta to hold referendum on whether to remain in Canada

#69

Post by petcat »

boxed wrote: post #48
petcat wrote: post #15

10% of the population produces nearly 20% of the country's GDP. That kind of lopsided representation is dangerous breeding ground for contempt, so this kind of thing is not really surprising. Will be interesting to see where it goes. Nobody thought there was any realistic chance of the UK leaving the EU either...

I mean.. it's not like it's Alberta that produces the oil. Oil is concentrated in smaller places than that, so why shouldn't those places then separate from Alberta?

From this article it sounds like it's the people of Alberta that want to vote on succession. Including the ones that don't literally live on an oil field.
Post reply on HN