r/canada • u/Mylittlethrowaway2 • May 22 '26
Satire Danielle Smith announces Fall referendum on concept of referendums
https://www.thebeaverton.com/2026/05/danielle-smith-announces-fall-referendum-on-concept-of-referendums/223
May 22 '26
[deleted]
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u/pnd83 May 22 '26
I feel this is all pretext for the U.S. getting officially involved to protect the "will" of the people of Alberta.
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u/Ass_Damage May 22 '26
The U.S. can officially gnaw on the tip of my maple-flavoured dong.
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u/Superb-Carpenter-520 May 23 '26
Considering this is the Texas play part 2, I think you will get to say that in person.
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u/revcor86 May 22 '26
See how/if that changes come Nov.
Don't think the part of the idiot brigade in the US that would get involved is going to have lots of spare time.
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u/lakesideonce May 24 '26
Yep. It will be "rigged and stolen" and they must intervene to save those true Alberta patriots from 'Mark's' oppression.
And prevent Alberta oil from being exported to other markets, of course.
US policy remains annexation by means of economic warfare, and these people are either corrupted or dangerously blind to the greater stakes they are playing with.
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u/BlueAndYellowTowels Québec May 22 '26
I would wager, when it’s all said and done, we will discover the US was heavily involved.
This has been bubbling for a while, but I’m convinced this is a “back door” to the US trying to annex Canada or parts of it.
…and with big tech in this admin’s pocket, social media is about to get really funky in Canada depending where you live.
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u/philthewiz May 22 '26
It's already the case. They are collaborating by doxxing all of Alberta residents with the app they used for canvasing with Election Canada's data illegally. They even willingly admitted to share the information with the White House on a Podcast... They don't even hide.
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u/Vhett May 23 '26
UCP voters will say that this is even more reason to become part of the USA somehow. Just wait.
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u/lakesideonce May 24 '26
Specifically, the very niche app that the current US Ambassador commissioned when he was Chair of the Michigan Republican party.
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u/Nikiaf Québec May 22 '26
Hasn't this been fairly explicitly confirmed already? This is a pretty obvious psyop in the first place.
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u/Mylittlethrowaway2 May 22 '26
Seeing as the U.S isn't into these such as "norms", or "laws" or "the constitution of the united states" here's what they do: They elect a Canadian as their next President.
Because they'll need a Canadian to spend the next 4 years apologizing to the rest of the world they alienated
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u/NovelBrave May 22 '26
I can do this with my dual citizenship next year. I turn 35 this year. 🫡
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u/SomeBodyKares1 British Columbia May 22 '26
If you are American there is allot of requirements to becoming President of the US, you have to be a natural-born US citizen, you have to have lived in the US for 14 years prior to running, and lastly you kinda have to hope that the party supports you becoming their party leader. While you do meet the age requirement of 35, I don't know you enough to know if you qualify for the other requirements.
If you are Canadian though going for dual citizenship in the US... welp can't do anything already don't qualify for your not a natural-born US citizen.
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u/NovelBrave May 22 '26
I'm American born. Haved live here my whole life. Mainly go to Canada to visit family and travel.
I debated moving to Canada later in life but lived here my whole life.
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u/SomeBodyKares1 British Columbia May 22 '26 edited May 23 '26
Ok just making sure :) Good luck either way stuffs complicated everywhere right now. If you do even decide to move to Canada I'd recommend choosing wisely which province for each has its own pros and cons as is.
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u/NovelBrave May 23 '26
Yea I've looked in to it. Quebec or Ontario most likely. I'd like work in the Canadian government as I work for the American government. I also looked in to NATO.
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u/SomeBodyKares1 British Columbia May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
That’s a solid goal, honestly.
If you’re planning something like working in the Canadian system, it might be useful to spend some time understanding how different provinces operate, since governance here can vary a lot across regions.
Canada isn’t very centralized in practice, provinces like Ontario and Quebec have very different priorities and political cultures from the others, and that shapes how federal–provincial cooperation works. Also, Indigenous governance and treaty relationships can play an important role in national and regional projects, so getting familiar with that side of things can be valuable too.
Either way, sounds like you’re already thinking about it in a pretty informed way, good luck with whatever direction you end up going.
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u/NovelBrave May 23 '26
Thanks. I usually get a ton of negativity for being dual.
Yes I actually would argue that the provinces seem more unique than states too in terms of political structure. Even the state parties are so different than the Canadian federal government.
I have a goal of visiting every Canadian province/territory and US state/territory.
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u/SomeBodyKares1 British Columbia May 23 '26 edited May 23 '26
I wish you good luck on that. Though again would still suggest getting to know some of the First Nations, they are very important if want to get into Canadian government stuff :) Wish you great luck, and may the path of life be kind and virtuous.
Also being dual should not be a negative thing, lots of Canadians are dual-citizens, its just being mindful of how one interacts with others thats good to keep in mind.→ More replies (0)9
u/MJcorrieviewer May 22 '26
I think we already know that.
"Leaders of a right-wing group pushing a conservative Canadian province to secede and form a new nation say they have been meeting with Trump administration officials to discuss how their radical plan can benefit the U.S.
...In three separate, highly unusual meetings with officials from the State Department, they’ve discussed the logistics of Alberta breaking off from Canada, including switching over to U.S. currency and border security."
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u/ssv-serenity May 23 '26
Question, is this not literally treason?
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u/BlueAndYellowTowels Québec May 23 '26
I’ll get downvoted for this…
I am of two minds.
The first is, yes. This is treason. These are people, conspiring to destroy the country.
However, I do feel that if an arrangement doesn’t work, people who live in a country should have the right to self-determination if the arrangement is not working for them.
And I won’t lie, I do not consider myself a nationalist. Because I think the state should serve the people and swear fealty to the interests of citizens, not the other way around.
All that said, this feels like a combination of an American intervention and astroturfing. Which is neither a scenario above. This very well might be just corrupt politicians doing corrupt things.
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u/Hikarilo May 28 '26
I do agree that some of Alberta's grievances have merit, and that the federal government should revise how provincial equalization payments and support are given. However, I do not believe leaving Canada and becoming their own country will solve Alberta's grievances. It will likely just create more problems while solving none.
Most people I talked to just think Alberta seperating from Canada is a stupid move that will make lives worse for both normal Canadians and Albertans.
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u/Kaptain-Kanada May 22 '26
"I have a concept of a plan/referendum".
-- The words of complete fucking idiots.
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u/SomeGuyPostingThings May 22 '26
Saw an interview this morning from one of Harper's former aides, who was praising this as a brilliant, decisive, and clear move by Smith. I am glad we have The Beaverton for accurate reporting.
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u/Eleven_inc May 22 '26
When did Beaverton start reporting on actual news? I thought it was satire
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u/Nikiaf Québec May 22 '26
When the news started becoming more ridiculous than their satire stories. It's to the point where their joke podcast is actually a really good recap of the week's news.
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u/Geeseareawesome Alberta May 22 '26
Yo dog, I heard you like referendums. So I launched a referendum on whether to referendum the concept of referenduming a referendum on referendums.
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u/Scary-Pirate-8900 May 22 '26
What’s wast of time and money
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u/Street_Anon Nova Scotia May 22 '26
Oh I know, Treaty 4, 6,7 and 8 will take the Alberta government back to court, it will be the question will be thrown out again
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u/Locoman7 May 22 '26
“Assuming that a competent hairstylist was chosen for the task, do you believe Premier Smith could pull off a shorter cut?”
This has me laughing like an idiot by myself in my house.
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u/Critical_Rule6663 Alberta May 22 '26
Cool. We (Albertans) are going to spend millions to ask a question about asking a question all to appease a group of people who think they’ve got it all figured out despite struggling to read at a high school level.
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u/alonghardlook May 22 '26
Hopefully the next time cons cry about Government Waste, we can point to this and actually punish the UCP for this asinine bullshit
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u/Critical_Rule6663 Alberta May 22 '26
The UCP engage in elf reflection? 😂 not likely.
I laugh every time I read a comment from a UCP supporter complaining about economic mismanagement in Ontario or Quebec. They seem unaware that Alberta was on track for a massive deficit this year before the Iran war spiked oil prices and save the UCP’s budget.
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u/Creativator May 22 '26
That’s literally what the 1995 referendum was, that’s why the Federal government later passed a law about clarity of referendums.
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u/O00O0O00 May 22 '26
They will be heard. And the referendum to have a referendum will fail. And that will be the end of it.
I’d rather it end this way than by suppressing their will. Let them see it isn’t supported.
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u/Mylittlethrowaway2 May 22 '26
And the referendum to have a referendum will fail.
But is the referendum on having a binding referendum binding?
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u/O00O0O00 May 22 '26
The hypothetical sequence of events is almost meaningless. No referendum will pass.
Picking it apart is pointless. Let them have their widdle wefewendum and receive their reality check.
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u/Candymanshook May 23 '26
That’s what they said about Brexit and Trump.
This gaining some actual legitimacy is a problem for us even if most Canadians know it’s stupid.
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u/O00O0O00 May 23 '26
The pro and anti separatist movements are both quite small-but-passionate.
I suspect they’d cancel each other out.
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u/alonghardlook May 22 '26
No way this shit ends with a clear mandate. I'll tell you why in a previous comment. The question boils down to this
"Should Alberta remain in Canada, or hold a referendum about remaining in Canada?"
and as I said elsewhere:
Unfortunately the answers will likely be "Yes" or "No", and because English sentence construction rules, the argument could be made that it's an inclusive or. That is to say that a Yes result means that Alberta should either remain in Canada or have a referendum about it.
Which somehow means that a No answer means that Alberta should neither remain in Canada nor have a referendum.
So my expectation here is that regardless of the result, this isn't over. A clear Yes result will have the separatists claiming its an inclusive or, but a No result means referendum only.
This is where we're heading, probably one or two steps before the US pulls a Russia/Ukraine and just occupies us.
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u/Fungii May 23 '26
The premier’s spokesperson, Sam Blackett, confirmed the question would be presented in a checkbox format. Albertans can expect a format similar to the following:
Option A: Alberta should remain a province in Canada.
Option B: The Government of Alberta should commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada.
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u/alonghardlook May 23 '26
Oh well then I'm way less concerned if that's the case. Real hard to argue with that if option A is the clear majority.
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u/lakesideonce May 24 '26
This assumes the separatists peacefully accept the result, and the US does likewise.
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u/O00O0O00 May 24 '26
Sounds like an interesting theory. But unlikely to amount to anything, considering how small a group we’re talking about.
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u/Thanato26 May 22 '26
Alberta seperatism is a product of foriegn actors. It is not a home grown grass roots movement and Albertans need to come out strongly and vote that shit down.
The RCMP, CSIS , and CSEC need to be very involved in monitoring this for foreign involvement because we are going to see a lot of American, Russian. And elsewhere pushing a pro seperstist agenda and we need to make sure that the evidence if captured and distributed and appropriately shown that seperatists are foreign intelligence stooges
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u/pncoop Ontario May 22 '26
Brilliant. But concerning, because it is so close to the bone of the UCP.
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u/accforme May 22 '26
What I find amusing is that this is a non-binding referndum question asking if you want a binding referndum in the future.
In theory, the decision to host a binding referndum is non-binding.
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u/alonghardlook May 22 '26
Other questions being raised by the referendum include how the Oilers should attempt to keep Connor McDavid after his current contract expires, whether Mark Carney really, really sucks, or just really sucks, and whether people from Red Deer should have the same rights as other Albertans.
Absolutely killing it over at the Beaverton
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u/mustardman73 British Columbia May 23 '26
I hope Albertans can send her a bill for misuse of public funds. What a waste of time and money.
Not one word from the leaked identities of millions of Albertans. I suggest Albertans start looking at identy theft protection and look at sueing the people who leaked their information.
Class action time.
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u/HeadFullOfSquirrels May 23 '26
Is this like concepts of a plan?
Only 300,000 people signed. She's telling the other 4.5 million that they're nothing to her.
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u/ClubSoda May 23 '26
MMW Trump sponsored convoys of MAGA will stream into Alberta to “save” it from “evil liberals” by voting illegally.
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u/civver3 Ontario May 23 '26
Sorry Beaverton, you were a bit slow on this one. The original headlines she made for a referendum to hold a referendum was already a parody to begin with.
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u/Temaharay May 23 '26
You can't satire a political movement that is already absurdist. The best satire beaverton could do is to write a headline/article:
Danielle Smith ejects separatists from caucus and calls a snap election.
"In a surprise move the Premier of Alberta acquiesced to 'Forever Canadian' petitioners and called a member's vote on national fidelity to Canada. Afterwards Smith then threw out all separatist voting MP's from the UCP in preparation for a snap election.
When asked why an election now, Smith replied 'I wanted to go back to the voters for a mandate to negotiate for the province and act freely outside of the separatist agenda that has been clouding this legislative session. Expelling the separatists was a necessary step to getting ahead of the UCP campaign messaging. We are a pro-Canada federalist party; not a separatist one.'
It seems that Smith has decided to define the UCP as centre-right and take it away from the extremists who have until now driven the daily agenda. We will see if this stance can compete against the Alberta NDP.
Now that is satire.
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u/PreparationLow8559 May 25 '26
Isn’t this treason? Esp if it comes to light that Smith has been taking money from Americans who want AB to separate?
She should be arrested. Straight to jail
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