โIf Quebec can put leaving Canada on a ballot, so can Alberta.โ
But the opposite is true.
Alberta *has* put leaving Canada on a ballot, and Quebec will not (at least during this PQ minority government.)
Thatโs because Quebec has a longstanding democratic principle that something as divisive and consequential as a secession referendum canโt be held without an electoral mandate.
The PQ doesnโt have such a mandate.
Itโs clear that they only got 28% of the vote because Quebecers didnโt want to risk another ugly referendum.
Alberta, on the other hand, has decided to hold a secession referendum without an electoral mandate to do so.
In fact, the last time a party sought a mandate to divide us with a secession referendum was in the 2019 Alberta election, when the separatist Alberta Freedom Party got a whopping 0.5% of the vote.
That was followed by another humiliating rejection of Alberta separatists, who contested the 2021 election with their Maverick Party, winning 0.2% of the vote.
BTW, one of the top campaign commitments made by the brilliant
@E_Duhaime of the
@PconservateurQc (the rising star of the Canadian right,) was to fight hard *against* holding a secession referendum. His rise in the polls at the end of the campaign corresponded with him making his anti-referendum stance the central focus of the Conservative campaign. As Eric said, โDonโt let them separate us from each other with another referendum. Letโs instead be united as Quebecers in working for a stronger and more prosperous Quebec!โ