For context, Alberta is our Texas. It and a few other prairie provinces are fairly conservative, though the cities tend to be more Canadian progressive. That contradiction sets up dumb fights like these. And as someone in the article pointed out, these dumb culture war fights are a handy distraction from all sorts of wild scandal etc.
I dunno, this is a bit too surface-y a take on what Alberta’s been up to lately.
Danielle Smith is an x-oil industry lobbyist, and is overtly supporting the separatist movement in that province. Even them pushing forward with the whole petition for a referendum, when the courts had already said “stop, you can’t just leave Canada with the First Nation situation unresolved – you gotta pause the separatist stuff till you sort out how FN treaties/rights would get handled”… was intentional, and designed to help drive wedges between different factions/destabilize the region further. Ie. Now the separatists can go to their base and be all “The courts don’t support us! We can’t trust the courts! Only Our Dear Leader can save us!”, and “Evil First Nations, stopping the will of the ‘majority’ of people!”.
Going explicitly against mundane standards, and drumming them up into headlines, is part of sowing discord and animosity between different demos. Even something as stupid as bike lanes, is one where they’re aiming to get a negative response from progressives / other provinces in Canada, so that they can again beat the drum of “Make Alberta Great Again!”.
I think Texans are a bit more like… “Make America Texan” than “Make Texas join Mexico”. So slightly diff situation.
A very small number of Albertans, backed by a lot of American and Russian resources, want to become independent. Most of Albertans just want a voice at the federal table.
Yes. Canadian Federal politics are largely dominated by “haves” vs. “have nots”. Alberta has historically been a “have” province with a decent amount of money flowing in from oil and gas industries. They resent having to pay federal taxes to “have nots” like their agricultural neighbors with larger First Nations populations. The narrative goes that Alberta (and western Canada) is paying taxes to Ottawa and Ottawa is “too far east” to understand/care about Alberta.
It’s all BS, they have equal ability to elect MPs, but because oil and gas is on the way out they throw temper tantrums when they don’t get their way.
Albertans have a voice at the federal table. It says “fuck you, we’re the best! We’ve got all the resources and all the talent and all the prospects and we make all this money, but mean Mr. Maple Man makes us share it and it’s just not fair to have to contribute to a country that doesn’t ever give us any help at all and we’re all suffering so much because we have nothing!”
Alberta needs to be dissolved and reabsorbed by NWT, BC, and Saskatchewan.
For context, Alberta is our Texas. It and a few other prairie provinces are fairly conservative, though the cities tend to be more Canadian progressive. That contradiction sets up dumb fights like these. And as someone in the article pointed out, these dumb culture war fights are a handy distraction from all sorts of wild scandal etc.
I dunno, this is a bit too surface-y a take on what Alberta’s been up to lately.
Danielle Smith is an x-oil industry lobbyist, and is overtly supporting the separatist movement in that province. Even them pushing forward with the whole petition for a referendum, when the courts had already said “stop, you can’t just leave Canada with the First Nation situation unresolved – you gotta pause the separatist stuff till you sort out how FN treaties/rights would get handled”… was intentional, and designed to help drive wedges between different factions/destabilize the region further. Ie. Now the separatists can go to their base and be all “The courts don’t support us! We can’t trust the courts! Only Our Dear Leader can save us!”, and “Evil First Nations, stopping the will of the ‘majority’ of people!”.
Going explicitly against mundane standards, and drumming them up into headlines, is part of sowing discord and animosity between different demos. Even something as stupid as bike lanes, is one where they’re aiming to get a negative response from progressives / other provinces in Canada, so that they can again beat the drum of “Make Alberta Great Again!”.
I think Texans are a bit more like… “Make America Texan” than “Make Texas join Mexico”. So slightly diff situation.
That explains it. Good luck to Canada. Please don’t become like the US. I heard Alberta wants to become independent
A very small number of Albertans, backed by a lot of American and Russian resources, want to become independent. Most of Albertans just want a voice at the federal table.
Does the voice at the federal table mean a bunch a CanadaTexas right wing bullshit?
Yes. Canadian Federal politics are largely dominated by “haves” vs. “have nots”. Alberta has historically been a “have” province with a decent amount of money flowing in from oil and gas industries. They resent having to pay federal taxes to “have nots” like their agricultural neighbors with larger First Nations populations. The narrative goes that Alberta (and western Canada) is paying taxes to Ottawa and Ottawa is “too far east” to understand/care about Alberta.
It’s all BS, they have equal ability to elect MPs, but because oil and gas is on the way out they throw temper tantrums when they don’t get their way.
I hate humans.
Albertans have a voice at the federal table. It says “fuck you, we’re the best! We’ve got all the resources and all the talent and all the prospects and we make all this money, but mean Mr. Maple Man makes us share it and it’s just not fair to have to contribute to a country that doesn’t ever give us any help at all and we’re all suffering so much because we have nothing!”
Alberta needs to be dissolved and reabsorbed by NWT, BC, and Saskatchewan.
I used to describe Alberta as Texas with snow, but in reality it’s Texas with a working power grid
Russia putting lots of eggs in that basket.