Even as I write, the prime minister is in Calgary, gesticulating by a booth in the Cinnamon Indian Cuisine & Bar in front of his camera crew as he pleads with the people of Alberta to stay in Canada and to reject all of the other proposals that will return some of Alberta’s right to self-determination.
For the first time in a generation, it is Ottawa’s chief representative on his knees begging us, not the other way around.
Leave or stay, we’ve already won a small victory here, but there’s so much more that we are gaining beyond seeing Carney be a clown in Calgary.
That’s because this referendum is about more than independence and whether we want to establish a new country. It’s about asserting our right to choose our own future, and it’s about consent.
Albertans are a proud and generous people who are happy to work with the rest of Canada towards shared goals, but only so long as it’s mutually beneficial.
We did not sign up to bankroll the better part of the Confederation while having our industries throttled and getting nickel-and-dimed along the way, nor do we appreciate having a climate-panicked finger jammed in our face every time a drunk teenager starts a forest fire on the other side of the country.
We did not hand Ottawa the rights to screw us for eternity in 1905 with no way out. We deserve respect, and we are demanding it as a matter of course going forward.
That’s what this referendum is really about. Whether we choose to leave or to stay, we have a choice. We can say ‘No’ tomorrow, or 5 years from now, and it’s high time to remind Ottawa of that fact.
And for the first time in a long time, Ottawa is listening.
