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.
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.