Alberta will vote on whether to remain part of Canada. What now? | Hacker News Reader

Alberta will vote on whether to remain part of Canada. What now?

bbc.com

20 pointstartoran8 comments

From the article, they will vote on a referendum about whether to vote on a referendum about whether to remain a part of Canada.

Funded by US oil interests

Spolier: Nothing.

This was a bone that Smith threw to the extreme right (by Canadian standards) wing of her base. Even Quebec, with its stronger claim to nationhood, found it hard to disentangle itself from Canada, so it is unlikely that Alberta will succeed. But, it will still pay a price like Quebec did; businesses and people do not like secession politics, and the infighting is likely to be bruising. Smith's conservative party, as well as the federal conservatives (also led by a unpopular Albertan, may also pay a price (arguably they have already did with defections of their MPs to the Liberal party). So, all in all, this looks like another unforced error by the Canadian right.

Smith doesn't actually want to secede – she wants to use the threat of secession to extract concessions from Ottawa.

Is that an "unforced error"? Well, it has worked for Quebec.

Not sure it did. Look at what happened to the Quebec economy in the last 40 years or so.

Economic growth isn't the only thing that people care about. If you tell people that "the cost of this policy will be reduced economic growth"–some will view that as a price worth paying. Likely that's true even for you – not for this policy, but for other.

And Quebec and Alberta have very different economies, so I'm not sure how confident we can be that former predicts the likely future trajectory of the latter.

It won't have the same effect as in Quebec, because staying in Canada is a bigger business risk than Alberta seceding, since the biggest business in Alberta is oil and an independent Alberta will be significantly better for foreign oil companies.

Whereas Quebec is the gateway for French businesses to access the Canadian market and workforce, not a place anyone specifically cares about.

> unforced error by the Canadian right

It has nothing to do with the Canadian right. The Canadian right has failed, the rest of Canada doesn't want them.

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