More about that damned Referendum Lite
On Monday, Carney said this:
and also this:
In the Toronto Star, Susan Delacourt writes
Outside Alberta, a political consensus is emerging — not just on how the Alberta referendum should turn out, but on whether it should be held at all....
Premiers like Doug Ford and B.C.’s David Eby have been crystal clear in recent days that they think this referendum — asking Albertans whether there should be another referendum on independence — is a bad idea....
But it was Mark Carney who went all the way out there on Monday, calling it a “dangerous bluff.” This third and most powerful voice meant that Smith’s referendum is getting blowback from a Liberal, a Conservative and a New Democrat.
Carney occasionally reminds us he’s new to the political game and — I mean this in a good way — his comments on the Alberta referendum were not standard political fare. Last Friday, his initial remarks on the subject were more guarded. Clearly, after a weekend of reflection, the prime minister decided to say what was on his mind.
“Is it helpful to ask this fundamental question? No. It’s not helpful, of course it’s not. Is it the democratic will of Albertans? Did they vote for this in the last provincial election? No, they didn’t. It wasn’t on the ballot paper. It wasn’t in the mandates of, or platforms, of any of the governing party and the official opposition,” Carney told reporters.
Many of us have been wondering whether Carney sees parallels to the Brexit vote, which took place in the U.K. while he was governor of the Bank of England.
Yes, as a matter of fact he does, and on Monday he put that right on the line, too.
“I saw firsthand what happened in the United Kingdom when the view was, ‘Vote for this. It will be soft and then we’ll negotiate, etc.’
“They’re still, 10 years later, trying to undo what people didn’t think they were voting for but what they ended up having.”
I applauded this answer as refreshing and considered candour...
The most persuasive arguments for the cause of unity may come not from politicians, but from the private sector, which can lay out the case for why Alberta separatism is a bad business proposition.
You hear some of this already from the corporate sector, pointedly noting that Alberta shouldn’t be risking the instability that drives away investment precisely when this province needs it, in the midst of Donald Trump’s ongoing trade war with Canada....
