Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government is increasing how much it costs to apply for a citizen-initiated referendum by 5,000 per cent, saying it’s about making sure applicants are serious.
It’s the latest in a series of rule changes that one petitioner — country singer Corb Lund — characterizes as exhausting.
A cabinet order released late Wednesday afternoon upped the fee to $25,000 from $500.
Lund, in an interview, said it’s disturbing to see Smith’s government make sudden rule changes for what he views as “random, self-serving reasons.”
“The chaos and confusion and exhaustion is very similar to the same confusion, chaos and exhaustion that we’ve seen from the government on how they’ve been handling the coal situation for the last six years,” Lund said.
“No not democracy against us”
Because the Forever Canadian initiative has been so successful more people see this as a way to resist the UCP. For example Corb Lund’s attempt to get a referendum vote on the disastrous coal mine leases. This is what has the UCP scrambling. But they can only stop future citizen initiatives. The Forever Canadian question “Do you agree that Alberta should remain in Canada?” has been approved. By law, it must lead either to a vote in the Legislature or a referendum and there’s nothing the UCP can to stop it. Well, there is one thing: a general election. When the writ is dropped, the referendum question dies, and so do all the recall campaigns. This is why it is extremely likely that we will go to an election soon.
Remember, you’re only a citizen if you’re wealthy!
/s from me, but I suspect Danielle Smith means it.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s government is increasing how much it costs to apply for a citizen-initiated referendum by 5,000 per cent, saying it’s about making sure applicants are upper class instead of annoying street urchins.
There; fixed it for ya, Danielle.
It’s making sure it’s corporations and billionaires.
My bet is the next petition that she thinks benefits her, she’ll say Oops my bad, $500 was right, $25k was too much, and then a week later when someone goes to file something she dislikes, Oops my bad, 500 was too little, we should have kept it at 25k
Repeat as necessary.
She seems concerned…
It reminds me of when this happened …
In 1993 the government of Kim Campbell, concerned about the rise of Reform and other grassroots movements, attempted to clamp down on the rise of new political partiesand to kill off some of the old ones. The result: a new Elections Act that requires candidates to pay a $1,000 deposit to run for office, and parties to run at least 50 candidates in order to be officially recognized–otherwise, donations cannot be deducted on tax returns.
As a result of these draconian measures, the Rhinoceros Party will be boycotting this election, robbing the campaign of its sense of humour.
One important take away that confirms one thing I always believed about the separatist movement in Alberta, it’s more money than it is people, but money can move people if you pay to have a megaphone blasting in their face 24/7. These are also incredibly lazy people, they have no shame plastering AI generated banners in small towns, and posting AI generated videos to curated Facebook groups trying to fool your granny.
I don’t know why people would ever believe Smiths dog and pony show about her not being a separatist, everything else has been a lie. She’s changing her own laws to appease them, at that point you’re doing mental gymnastics to try and explain her actions. If she loses her leadership she’ll take a nice fancy new gig in one of Sam’s healthcare ventures. Just like Kenney took a seat at the ATCO board after he lost the leadership. These folks only fail up, at least until we nip this corruption problem in the butt. We still don’t know who funded TBA, because grassroots Albertans it was not, and while the RCMP announced an investigation, it seems their treating it with the same zeal they did with Kenney’s kamikaze campaign against Brian Jean.
They announce an investigation, do absolutely nothing for years, then by the time they start collecting evidence, oh darn, it seems we can’t find it anymore! Almost like giving politicians a few years to deal with evidence before you start collecting it, might have something to do with that, but this is from a crazy cat lady, emphasis on the crazy, and not a former cop or something.
*nip it in the bud. Sorry.
Appreciated.
I like “nip in the butt” better. More relatable.
I disagree with some of your thoughts here.
I don’t see the separatists (meaning the separatist organizers) as lazy - they’re disciplined, extremist, and quiet. Coinciding with Trump’s victory last year, we’ve seen a huge upswell of hard-right conservative movements around the world, simultaneously attacking immigration and women’s rights in relatively coordinated action.
It seems like they’ve been working in the dark for decades, and now are stepping out into the open for an all-out assault on the progress we’ve made.
Also, Kenney didn’t lose the leadership. He said he’d stay on if he got a single vote above 50%, but then jumped ship with a 51.4% approval rating. He steered the party in the direction he wanted, and then handed the wheel to Smith to take the blame.
But you’re absolutely right about money. There’s a LOT of it feeding the separatist fuckwits, and I want to know where it’s coming from. Is it the US government directly, or Musk for some twisted reason? Is it another government trying to destabilize the country? Oil executives? It’s not primarily coming from Alberta, that’s for sure.
I find the article tedious to read. One phrase, one paragraph that’s sure seems written for people that don’t read.
Well, it is about Alberta.
@HellsBelle i guess she prefers open revolt.
Maybe if Albertans decided to vote in a non-right-wing party they might discover their lives would get better.
I like our chances, honestly.
@HellsBelle lawl, no. remember Rachel Notley. electoralism is a sham.
I didn’t mind her, especially compared to that scumbag Jason and the current right-wing twit.
@HellsBelle you didn’t mind the theft of Indigenous land to build more oil pipelines? that’s what she did.
I didn’t say she was perfect. And what Alberta premier has never put oil interests ahead of First Nation’s rights?
Ah, but nuance and actual improvement are poor shitpost material.
@HellsBelle “not perfect”! literally destroying oppressed peoples’ well being is your idea of “not perfect”?? that is so deeply cynical, unserious, and racist.
if they don’t put Indigenous rights first, what’s the fucking point?
sounds like you’re happy to excuse white supremacy. guess who else loves white supremacy. nothing changes if nothing changes.
Yep and the UCP is doing so good at that. What a bunch of bullshit some Russian bot trying to use “white guilt”
The conservative party is openly against indigenous rights so I’m not sure what your argument is here.
Unless you are arguing Alberta should be voting Green Party, in which case I’m with you.
As if Albertans give a single shit about native rights.
