Katheryn Speck said she used to be a Canadian nationalist, travelled the world with a maple leaf on her backpack and once lived in Quebec so she could become fluently bilingual.

But on Saturday she was among hundreds of people who rallied at the Alberta Legislature to support separation from Canada, with many in the crowd waving Alberta flags and a few even displaying the U.S. Stars and Stripes.

“I thought it was a beautiful, fantastic country. But now I’m so disappointed. I’m literally crushed that we’ll never be represented in this country and there’s never a chance of changing the government,” Speck said.

Earlier this week, Premier Danielle Smith’s government proposed legislation that would lower the bar for holding a referendum.

  • DarkWinterNights@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Literally every single thing Danielle Smith and the UCP espouse to care about is made worse by Alberta becoming a sovereign nation:

    • Taxes
    • Coastal access
    • Pipelines and transfer taxes
    • Tanker access and global markets
    • Trade sanctions as a function of per capita CO2 emissions
    • Infrastructure access
    • Energy markets
    • Codified projects and say in what they detail
    • Comprehensive national strategy cost averaged down against 40 million instead of 4 million (aka costs 10x).

    Think about what happens to Albertan property values on separation - literally no one is moving here, and many will leave. The “Alberta Edge” becomes even less tenable, and quality of life rapidly erodes.

    But maybe they can empty everyone’s pensions before they fuck off into the sunset, once the last drop of blood is squeezed out.

    They’re really talking about becoming the most taxed 51st state, or an erosion of living standards so sharp they’ll get whiplash. Ghoulish politics.