Breakenridge: After greasing the wheels, is Smith now trying to slow roll separatists? |
Make no mistake, if Albertans are asked to vote on independence on Oct. 19, it will be a direct consequence of deliberate actions undertaken by Premier Danielle Smith and her government.
After all, they were the ones who decided to lower the threshold for a citizens’ initiative petition in the immediate aftermath of the last federal election. And they were also the ones who tweaked their own rules to allow separatists to be inoculated against both a competing petition beating them to the punch and a court decision finding their question to be unconstitutional.
Even if a vote for separation is unlikely to succeed (unlikely, but not impossible), it’s not a risk-free gambit, either. For as much as her government can be faulted for letting the horse out of the barn, perhaps now the premier is belatedly coming to recognize these threats.
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Let’s hope it’s not too little, too late.
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