> Apparently because the US buys Alberta oil, the rest of the Canada should be punished somehow? How spectacularly stupid.
I mean they clearly actually mean the opposite. And are doing the opposite. They're making moves to push Alberta out of confederation. I think at this point it should be clear the Trump regime funding and supporting Alberta "separatist" campaigns. At least giving it a megaphone far beyond its actual real local support base.
So, yeah, one way of "dealing with" the "trade deficit" there is to simply push Alberta out of Canada.
Another (longer-term) move is taking over Venezuela and getting an alternate source for heavy crude.
It seems like the pro-Canada side is letting Smith set the agenda, is not organizing much or being extremely present/vocal. Just hoping that polling is accurate and it’ll all blow over. It makes me very nervous in light of Brexit and the general unreliability of polls these days. I still think it’s a long shot, but why are they playing with fire here?
The most worrisome thing is that Smith has basically already said they'll reserve freedom to "interpret" the result of this "referendum" however want.
So if they see a number above 25% I can guarantee you they'll take that as a blank cheque to pursue all sorts of things that the majority does not agree with.
Somehow their provincial polling numbers as a party don't even reflect the unpopularity of this referendum. It's very weird.
I left the province 25 years ago during Klein years. The same insanity has always been there. My parents, brother, etc are all very anxious about this right now and openly talking about moving (less so my parents as they're elderly). And we just sent my eldest off to her first year at the University of Alberta. So a lot of skin in the game for our family. The whole thing is extremely.. fucked up.
Feels like a one party state sometimes. Despite the ANDP holding quite high levels of support, there's just this sense that no other party can ever be allowed to govern. My parents have had election signs removed from their property, vandalized etc in the past. I volunteered for the NDP in elections in the early 90s and was openly threatened. It's very weird.
I mean, the Venezuela thing is just incredibly stupid. Yes, Trump is trying to pretend that's a big win, but even if the US spent hundreds of billions actually building infrastructure there, odds overwhelmingly favour it being lost in the next revolution. It turns out people don't like to be robbed.
But yeah, I 100% understand what they're really doing. But they keep up with this trade deficit farce, and when there was almost an agreement signed (which would have been a massive mistake on Canada's part), Trump immediately started celebrating even more oil capacity from Alberta and reviving Keystone XL...which...jesus christ, keep some sort of consistency.
Alberta separatism is hugely unpopular and will fail, and even better even this tepid one is "be in Canada but with more individual powers and all the benefits of Canada" -- to even get to double digits they have to push an absolute fantasy -- but when it's tied with becoming a part of the US it becomes amazingly unpopular. Even right wing Albertans look at the corrupt kleptocracy the US has become and say no thanks. I mean, there are the loudmouthed slobbering smooth-brain sorts that say their stupid nonsense online -- they should all be deported, fwiw -- but they're a tiny minority.
I mean they clearly actually mean the opposite. And are doing the opposite. They're making moves to push Alberta out of confederation. I think at this point it should be clear the Trump regime funding and supporting Alberta "separatist" campaigns. At least giving it a megaphone far beyond its actual real local support base.
So, yeah, one way of "dealing with" the "trade deficit" there is to simply push Alberta out of Canada.
Another (longer-term) move is taking over Venezuela and getting an alternate source for heavy crude.
Notably both paths are being taken.