As many of us who lived through the trauma of the 1995 Quebec referendum will recall, it is never a good thing to poke the bear.
Premier Danielle Smith may think she is utilizing a convenient pressure point to get more concessions out of Ottawa, but by using this threat she may be opening a door on something which could have detrimental longer term consequences for our province.
One cannot help but think Smith is playing right into Donald Trump’s hands– a Canada ripped apart by division cannot forcefully assert its self-determination. And who among us realistically wants to become part of the mess which is going on south of our border? Even those who are ardent Alberta firsters can’t think life would be easier for us under that yoke. To say nothing of the fact that the vast majority of Albertans have no desire to separate from Canada.
So what is this really about? Creating a bargaining position? Catering to the smallest minority of voters in Alberta? Smith really wanting to become an American? The end game is unclear.
What is clear, however, is that old expression: Mess with the bull and you get the horns. Smith is unilaterally leading Albertans down the garden path toward a sovereignty referendum that the majority of us don’t want. At the very least, this will lead to conflict and trauma within the province and a divided populace, leaving Alberta weakened like never before.
At the very worst, Smith’s government could unceremoniously be shown the door for foisting that trauma on Albertans lightly just for some perceived passing advantage against Ottawa.
And it would serve her and her party right.
As Spinoza once said: “It may easily come to pass that a vain man may become proud and imagine himself pleasing to all when he is in reality a universal nuisance.”
