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It should not be given airtime at all. If you give it airtime, then you are taking it seriously.

So your opinion is that the "research" put forward in favour of separation should be taken seriously? Because that's what engaging with it is doing.

Does the Quebec versus Canada framing also have no basis in truth? Was Canada wrong for allowing Quebec to have the autonomy it currently has? Because that's what Harper's spent years arguing for, including with his Alberta firewall letter addressed to Alberta's at the time not separatist Premier. I mean, I personally don't think Quebec should be allowed to have and run its own pension plan, but it does. If that's something Alberta's demanding, can we really be surprised?

And the current separatist sentiment starts in the Premier's office. Every change to the citizen initiative law that enabled this referendum, from requirements that it be vetted for constitutionality to the lowering of minimum signatures required, was performed by Smith's government.

They sound unique enough that I'll at least give them a look. And the fact that both leads in Collin from Accounts are a real-life couple makes it interesting on its own.

How does "Alberta should have more autonomy" translate to "Alberta should leave Canada"? That's the dot your line's missing.

I keep meaning to watch Letterkenny, but always end up getting distracted by something else. Perhaps I'll give that a look.

I may or may not also be from small town Ontario, which may or may not be how I heard of Letterkenny.

There's no gymnastics required because every time Ottawa oversteps (their words, not mine), they get pissed off. And they usually think Ottawa is overstepping when Ottawa starts telling Alberta what it can do or not do with its resources. It happened in the 80's (NEP), it happened in the 90's (Kyoto Accord), and it happened in 2016 (no business case). The difference is in the80's and 90's the Alberta government itself wasn't advocating for separation. Smith, today, is doing exactly that, and all of the changes made to the original 2021 law that enabled this referendum were made by Smith's government.

I'll look them up. Wanna give me the Cliff's notes?

No gymnastics required. There's been a separatist thread running through Alberta since it joined confederation. Literally they were complaining about Canada controlling what Alberta could do with Alberta's resources in 1905. They've just never had actual government support. Quebec is exactly the opposite - most of the last 50 years was a PQ government, including the 1995 referendum, and it went about as you'd expect it to.

Oh, I'm not faulting anyone. It's just an example of why this whole thing is lowkey dumb. If you're on a strict "buy Canadian" diet, you get half a good TV series. Having watched the whole thing before things got lowkey dumb, that's kind of a ripoff.

Wanting more autonomy for Alberta is not the same as wanting Alberta to leave Canada. The UCP is absolutely a separatist party. The CPC, while absolutely going full MAGA, is not. And I've not seen any actual evidence yet that Harper falls in either camp. Happy to be corrected, though.