Albertans vote tomorrow. Since the Premier announced the questions in late February, I have been writing often about this referendum and referendum-related issues. This post gathers those posts in one place, newest first.
It began with the questions themselves and the people who wanted them unasked: a former deputy premier who reached for Hitler right off the bat, and an Opposition leader who grasped for ways to stop the vote. In May, a judge ruled that Albertans could not even ask about secession; the Premier responded by putting a question on the ballot herself, and treaty chiefs foolishly escalated, pushing for a treason referral against her. Through late spring and summer, the work turned to the double standard applied to Alberta’s petitions, the fear campaign built around the date, and why the happiest province in the federation is the one that receives the most from it.
On September 1, the province’s 121st birthday, I started a series of essays that I wanted running until the vote. I didn't cover everything I originally wanted, but I aimed to address the questions on the ballot, the arguments of Albertans voting yes and no, the features of Alberta’s political culture that brought these questions forward, and how Albertans have been treated for asking them. Underneath sat a conviction. Any referendum question deserves to be read before it is judged, and the people asking it deserve answers, not overblown rhetoric or management. I hope I have come close to that goal.
At the bottom of the list are three older pieces, from late 2019 and early 2020. Two argued that Alberta’s problem was never geography. The third urged care, with Quebec’s long road as both roadmap and warning. The arguments have not changed. Neither has the problem. Neither has the reaction to the problem.
I intend to write more after Monday’s vote: commentaries on the results and related reactions, an account of what Albertans said, the comparison with Denmark and Sweden I promised in September, and a post-mortem on this campaign's incivilities.
1. Remain, and Do What?: Take 2
2. What Quebec Has, Alberta May Not Ask For
3. The Constitution Is the Treaty Ottawa Keeps Breaking
4. Don’t Read the Questions. The Man Has a Video.
7. An Immigrant Reads the Immigration Questions
8. Quebec Did Not Get Poorer by Wanting to Leave. It Got Poor by Governing.
9. Alberta Has Been Asking Its Voters Questions Since 1915
10. The Political Economy of Happiness in Canada
11. From Consultation to Treason
12. Nobody Loses a Country on a Monday
13. Whose Word Counts to 300,000?
14. Name It Accurately, and the Binary Dissolves
15. A Question About Asking the Question
16. The Separation Meme That Gets the Constitution Wrong
17. The Weaponization of Worry
18. The Man Who Would Stop a Vote
19. Alberta’s Quiet Constitutional Revolution Has a Ballot and a Date
20. Tom Lukaszuk: Ignorance or Mendacity?
21. Alberta’s Problem Isn’t Geography (2020)
22. Alberta Independence Push Requires Care (2019)
23. Politically Blocked Isn’t the Same as Geographically Landlocked (2019)
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Remain, and Do What?: Take 2 (17 October 2026)
The closing reflection. A third of the electorate voted early, the nine questions drew slogans instead of answers, and the structure that outnumbers Alberta in Ottawa stands, whoever Albertans send there.
What Quebec Has, Alberta May Not Ask For (16 October 2026)
Mark Carney told Albertans to vote no to all nine questions. Question 8 asks whether Quebec should opt out of pensions (since 1965) and immigration (since 1991), with full compensation.
The Constitution Is the Treaty Ottawa Keeps Breaking (14 October 2026)
The four constitutional questions propose amendments through the Constitution’s own procedures and touch none of the provisions that guard treaty rights. Ottawa, twice rebuked by the courts on impact assessment, is the party breaking the compact.
Don’t Read the Questions. The Man Has a Video. (1 October 2026)
Naheed Nenshi called four questions blatantly unconstitutional and all nine an evil plot. Alberta asks for what Quebec has held since 1965, and on Question 10 Smith and Nenshi stand on the same side.
Democracy Is for Losers (26 September 2026)
Jared Wesley and Ken Boessenkool want Alberta to retreat from referendums, recall and citizen initiatives. Their objections of scale, complexity and stability apply only to replacing representative government, which nobody has proposed.
Remain, and Do What? (25 September 2026)
Delivered to Preston Manning’s Alberta and the West Assembly: what the main campaigns against separation say, on what grounds, and what they propose Alberta do inside Canada instead. The organizers’ question: remain, and do what?
An Immigrant Reads the Immigration Questions (9 September 2026)
Duane Bratt said the immigration questions appeal to a racist fringe. None contains a criterion of origin, race or creed; the Charter permits residency waits; Quebec has held such powers since 1991.
Quebec Did Not Get Poorer by Wanting to Leave. It Got Poor by Governing. (5 September 2026)
Jason Kenney warned that separatists want to copy Quebec. The 1980 referendum did not empty Montreal; Quebec grew poorer through its socio-economic program rather than through its desire for sovereignty.
Alberta Has Been Asking Its Voters Questions Since 1915 (1 September 2026)
The October ballot is no rupture in Alberta’s politics. From the 1915 plebiscite through the 1937 attempt to recall Aberhart to the members who ended Kenney’s leadership, asking voters questions is Alberta’s oldest democratic habit.
The Political Economy of Happiness in Canada (16 July 2026)
Quebec ranks fifth in the world; Alberta ranks last among the provinces. The gap reflects decades of transfers from Alberta to Quebec and federal regulation weighing on Alberta’s economy.
From Consultation to Treason (19 June 2026)
Treaty chiefs responded to Smith’s address with a misdirected Clarity Act letter, then a campaign that escalated to blockade threats and a treason referral against an elected premier for calling a vote.
Nobody Loses a Country on a Monday (16 June 2026)
Alberta will not leave Canada on October 19, whatever Nenshi’s countdown implies. Nine of the ten questions concern autonomy and reform; the tenth only begins a process, and manipulation frightens voters.
Whose Word Counts to 300,000? (30 May 2026)
A University of Alberta political scientist would have Albertans treat roughly 300,000 separatist petition signatures as an unverified political claim. The subtitle names the double standard: un poids, deux mesures.
Name It Accurately, and the Binary Dissolves (28 May 2026)
A journalist asked whether Alberta separatism and anti-immigrant sentiment collide or reinforce each other. Read closely, the immigration questions concern control, sustainability, eligibility and cost, and never origin, race or creed.
A Question About Asking the Question (23 May 2026)
Justice Leonard ruled that Albertans could not even ask about secession. Eight days later, Premier Smith, who would vote to stay, gave them a vote on authorizing a future referendum. She restored the conversation.
The Separation Meme That Gets the Constitution Wrong (12 May 2026)
An anonymous infographic claims Alberta separation is constitutionally illegitimate because treaties and Confederation came first. The Constitution permits secession negotiations, treaties include land-cession clauses, and arrangements have changed repeatedly by consent.
The Weaponization of Worry (6 May 2026)
Trudeau, Carney and Nenshi present uncertainty as an emergency only they can manage. Carney’s speeches recycle the same scripted alarms, and Nenshi treats the referendum itself as the damage.
The Man Who Would Stop a Vote (13 March 2026)
Naheed Nenshi’s campaign against holding the referendum is a confession of political weakness rather than a constitutional argument. When democratic processes produce outcomes he cannot control, he reaches for ways around them.
Alberta’s Quiet Constitutional Revolution Has a Ballot and a Date (3 March 2026)
Danielle Smith’s February address set nine questions on immigration and constitutional power for October, with independence still being petitioned. Read together, they amount to the most consequential democratic exercise in Western Canadian history.
Tom Lukaszuk: Ignorance or Mendacity? (24 February 2026)
Thomas Lukaszuk asked Albertans to think of the 1930s and see Premier Smith when they think of Hitler. His history lesson has a history problem, and the comparison collapses on the facts.
Alberta’s Problem Isn’t Geography (22 January 2020)
Only three of the world’s landlocked states are enclaved, surrounded by a single country. Ottawa has enclaved Alberta by policy, ceding vetoes over interprovincial infrastructure. An independent Alberta might have better options.
Alberta Independence Push Requires Care (27 December 2019)
Quebec’s experience offers Alberta both a roadmap and a cautionary tale. Quebec held two referendums in fifteen years, in a process that took decades. Albertans intent on a quick divorce should first build winning conditions.
Politically Blocked Isn’t the Same as Geographically Landlocked (22 November 2019)
Critics quip that an independent Alberta would stay landlocked. Being landlocked was never the problem: many landlocked territories prosper. Alberta’s problem is provinces blocking its lawful exports from reaching tidewater.
Regardless of the content- or should I say, in addition to the content- your writing is excellent.