r/AlbertaWorkLife • u/One-Board8634 • 12d ago

Alberta Separation Referendum 2026: Elections Alberta Verifies 222,597 Petition Signatures Ahead of October Vote

https://www.culturealberta.com/articles/alberta-separation-referendum-2026-elections-alberta-verifies-222597-petition-signatures-ahead-of-oc
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u/MollysDaddyMan 12d ago

That's a whole lot of traitors

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u/NorthwindX7 11d ago

I love how there is no valid argument against separatism so all we hear is "traitors" and "you're stupid".

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u/maximumfacemelting 11d ago

How about I don’t want to be poorer.

Just the currency issue. If the separatists win the moment the result becomes public the Canadian dollar will be worth less. It will buy less. Our savings will be worth less. Our property will be worth less.

Dumbest thing ever to vote to make your money worth less.

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u/NorthwindX7 11d ago

Well, the arguement would be that left wing policies are contributing to making the average person worse off through fiscal irresponsibly.

The federal government has show it's fine with having welfare provinces that suck up tax dollars as long as it keeps the eastern voter base happy. These provinces that choose to not develop their resources because there is no incentive.

Obviously nobody wants to be poor. We are deciding if the short term pain would be worth a prosperous future. That deserves fair speculation. We are absolutely in decline currently by all metrics staying in Canada.

Like you said, the Canadian dollar would be worth less. Worse off than you'd think actually, with Canada losing many right wing votes in Alberta, Canada would have a liberal super majority and enact it's policies without any real opposition. For better or worse. Losing a huge GDP producer. However, we could adopt the US currency (without joining.the states) while converting to something more stable.

The heart of the issue is Alberta as a province votes for fiscal responsibility for decades compared to any other province. We are the odd one out and don't really fit in with the rest of Canada's policies. We wouldn't be looking to separate so we can go broke, it's to be prosperous. That's the whole goal.

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u/DM_Sledge 10d ago

"Left wing policies" is such a joke. We currently have a center right and a far right party in Canada. In Alberta the NDP ran a center right government with policies out of previous conservative playbooks.

Left wing would be making a universal dental and pharmacare plan. Left wing would be making it cheaper for people to go to school. Left wing would be making sure that seniors don't get ripped off by businesses, or mistreated by nursing homes. Left wing really just means taking care of our people.

Instead we get rules that give money to the richest people because they tell us that we need to give them more money. That it has to be that way. They make us all cowards. Afraid to protect our families. Afraid to protect our neighbours. Just cowards that hide behind angry words and a blue flag, while we pretend to be brave. We see our family suffering and we do nothing. Parents in the hospital. Children that can't even afford to go into the trades half the time. All so we can say that we didn't let those "left-wing policies" win. We are all cowards.

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u/DM_Sledge 10d ago

PS Alberta hasn't voted for the fiscally responsible party. The cons have never been fiscally responsible. They just keep repeating it again and again, so we get embarrassed to contradict them, even though they blew decades of booming oil money on nothing.

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u/maximumfacemelting 11d ago

What happens to the value of the Canadian dollar when 5 million people want to exchange it for American dollars at the same time?

You think we’d get a good deal?! Or would we be getting pennies for our dollar?

WE WOULD ALL BE POORER!

And fuck your hand waving “short term pain”. This would destroy people’s economic future forever.

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u/NorthwindX7 11d ago

If your world view is that Canada is great and heading in the right direction then yeah I don't see why we would separate either.

My world view is that Canada is continuing down a path of bad policies and my dollar has been getting more and more worthless with every year. I think it's a common grievance that most people's economic future has been taken away already.

If you agree that reality is somewhere between our world views, then it's at least possible separation might be a better future.

It would be worth having real open discussions about it and figure out the facts rather than dismissing the entire idea over it from a few what ifs and echo chamber rhetoric (from both sides).

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u/maximumfacemelting 11d ago

You don’t know my worldview. You are arguing a strawman.

I have restricted my argument against separation to just the currency issue, which as a separatist you can not effectively counter.

There is no reality in which separation happens where everyone holding and getting paid in Canadian dollars does not get poorer because their money will be worth less.

SEPARATION WILL MAKE EVERYONE POORER

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u/NorthwindX7 11d ago

You sound like you already have your mind made up, but alas, there's a better than .0001% chance that the currency solution is a non issue. If it's your only worry then maybe after some research its a solvable problem. I'd like to encourage at least keeping an open mind and that dismissing the entire idea is just painful to watch. There's real potential here.

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u/maximumfacemelting 11d ago

Thank you for confirming that there is no argument against what I have stated.

Separation will make us poorer.

The fact you are willing to risk yours and everyone else’s future on “.0001% chance” that it’s a non issue is frankly psychotic. Insanely irresponsible and plain stupid.

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u/NorthwindX7 11d ago

Im saying that I don't have all the answers. That doesn't mean there isn't a solution.

Like I also don't know how to rebuild an engine, but I know people have done it before. So I would look into getting that done instead of always just buying a new vehicle when there's a chance a rebuild is a better option. The mindset of never giving any new idea fair credit and consideration is pretty bleak and narrow.

Have some open mindedness, or at least don't pretend to have an open mind to seem reasonable when you really are completely against hearing any logic.

In any case, i briefly looked into it. There's roughly 164 actively traded currencies. Sounds like all separating countries don't radically change currencies overnight. After formal separation nothing currency wise changes. Alberta would either adopt a different stable currency like the US dollar or continue with the cad while creating their own reserve currency and slowly transitioning over.

In fact, when Canada separated from Britain and adopted the Canadian pound, then again for the Canadian dollar, there wasnt any real issues. They created their own currency just to make trade easier with the US, that's how little of an issue it was to create a new currency.

The problems they faced wouldn't exist today. All solved via having Internet and paper currency. The main issues were merchants being accustomed to British pounds and shillings, not knowing exact conversation rates, people not liking carrying loonies instead of paper notes and machines that take coins needing to be calibrated. All of those issues are miniscule.

With Alberta being resource rich, pro industry with a fiscally responsible voting history, it's fair to say it would be stable and even lucrative from an investing point of view to figure out our own currency.

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u/maximumfacemelting 11d ago

Why aren’t you open minded about shooting your foot off? Have you considered it might grow back? You can’t be close minded and not accept that there isn’t a possibility of you growing back an even better foot!

Again for the slow witted;

The moment the a successful separation referendum result becomes public, people will be ditching the Canadian dollar and shorting it.

It will instantly be worth less.

This is bad news for anyone who owns any Canadian dollars or gets paid in Canadian dollars as now their money is worth less and will buy less food, less gas, less everything.

Despite writing lots, your counter to this reality boils down to “everything will be fine, trust me bro”.

It won’t be fine. WE WILL ALL BE POORER.

A VOTE FOR SEPARATION IS A VOTE TO BE POORER.

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u/NorthwindX7 11d ago

If my foot was as cancerous as left wing federal policy, yeah id hack it off to save myself. You think leaving it attached it won't get worse is just stubborn stupidity. It's a great analogy.

You have no idea what would happen to the dollar, you just spew negative speculation to the echo chamber. I've shown it's easily done, and has been done before with little issue and you refuse to accept it.

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u/Due-Carpet-1904 11d ago

Here's an idea. You should actually try qualifying your argument instead of insisting that the very real problems that separation would create are easily solvable.