Prime Minister Mark Carney is coming to next week’s Calgary Stampede, and plans to reiterate that quitting Canada will not be the magic wand separatists think it is.
Carney, taking questions from reporters in Ottawa, says the fallout from the United Kingdom voting to leave the European Union a decade ago should serve as a clear cautionary tale.
He says people are lured into believing that separation is easy, and that residents get to keep their passports and currency.
“It is Canada’s worth fighting for — I mean, this is the greatest country in the world,” Carney said. “We’re not perfect. We can get better, but Canada’s worth fighting for, and standing up for Canada and supporting Canada is important.”
Carney says Alberta’s vote could create years of uncertainty at a time when Canada is trying to be seen as a stable, reliable international trading partner.
“The is a real referendum. It’s not, you know, a question about a question. It’s a dangerous bluff,” Carney added.
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“We’re literally at the 10 year anniversary of Brexit and I saw firsthand what happens, what gets sold in these referenda. That everything’s going to be easy. That you can keep your passport, you can keep the currency. You can stay in the country and leave it at the same time. You get all the benefits, but none of the things. You see what’s happened in the United Kingdom. It’s very reminiscent. At a minimum, it’s years of uncertainty.”
Albertans are set to vote on Oct. 19 on whether to stay in Canada or trigger a binding referendum on separating from the country.
Premier Danielle Smith says she wants the province to stay in Canada but says she felt obliged to call the referendum after hundreds of thousands of Albertans have weighed in on the issue by signing citizen initiative petitions.
Carney is a hell of lot smarter than you McCaffrey.
The fear are all of the separatists who are blind to the real issues and problems that will be created …. however, if they wish to separate … we have no problem seeing you all leaving Alberta or Canada. Obviously, Alberta is not the place for you!
[Just a footnote]:
I’ve noticed that the Alberta Prosperity Project [separatists] don’t allow any public comments or open discussion on their website. Everything is presented from only their perspective, with no space for feedback or questions. When a group avoids open dialogue, it raises concerns about how confident they are in their own claims. If their ideas are strong, they shouldn’t be afraid of public conversation or scrutiny.
Canada was worth fighting for at one point. Now it is worth fighting to remove a corrupt inept self serving pack of parasites pretending to be a federal government. I guess if government can re write the laws they are not “ technically “ breaking any. Yeah got it. Remember when a minister was fired over a $16 glass of orange juice being a waste of taxpayers money. How many billions have to be wasted today to get one fired??? We need to get back to the &16 threshold. Next is not one dollar leaves the country until we are in a surplus budget why are we buying groceries for political parasites that make between $200 hundred to $500 dollar a year? Way to keep clowns out of touch with reality.
Carney with the same pathetic message as when he lost the people of the UK and BREXIT.
Fear is all the luusers on the left have.
Boo
The conversation around Alberta independence has drifted far from reality, and Albertans deserve clarity before being asked to make decisions of this magnitude. This isn’t about slogans or “standing up to Ottawa.” If Alberta left Canada, every major law and system we rely on today would have to be rebuilt from scratch, because almost all of our core institutions operate under federal legislation.
Right now, Alberta’s entire legal framework sits inside the Canadian Constitution. Independence means no constitution, no Criminal Code, no federal courts, no federal policing, no federal tax law, no federal benefits, and no federal regulatory bodies. All of that disappears on Day 1 unless Alberta recreates it — and recreating it takes years, not months.
People keep talking like we’d just “change a few laws.” No. We would need:
• A new constitution
• A full criminal code
• A new tax system
• New courts and appeals systems
• New border, customs, and immigration laws
• New pension, disability, and senior benefit laws
• New financial and regulatory systems, including banking, securities, accounting standards, and possibly a central bank
This isn’t ideology — it’s the basic machinery of how countries function. Alberta does not currently have these systems, and you cannot run a modern state without them.
Asking people to vote without those basics is asking them to decide blindly. When the leadership, the transition plan, the legal framework, and the financial realities are all missing, voters aren’t being offered a choice — they’re being asked to take a leap of faith.
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The Hidden Costs Nobody Is Talking About
When people talk about separation, they focus on symbolic ideas like sovereignty or resource control. But the real challenges are the technical systems that keep a country running — and those are the most expensive and disruptive parts of all.
If Alberta leaves Canada, accounting procedures, financial reporting standards, and the entire tax system would have to be rebuilt from scratch. Alberta currently relies on Canadian PSAS, IFRS, ASPE, and the CRA’s federal infrastructure. A new country would need its own accounting standards, enforcement bodies, audit regulators, and tax agency. That means years of transition and billions of dollars in setup and operating costs.
Every business would be forced to overhaul payroll, corporate tax filings, cross border reporting, GST/VAT replacements, import/export rules, and financial reporting. None of this is optional — it is the backbone of how a state funds itself.
And if the currency changes — whether Alberta keeps CAD, creates an Alberta dollar, or adopts USD — the complexity multiplies. A new currency requires a central bank, foreign reserves, monetary policy, exchange rate management, and conversion rules for mortgages, pensions, savings, and contracts. Even keeping the Canadian dollar without a central bank leaves Alberta with no control over monetary policy and no lender of last resort.
People underestimate how much daily life depends on invisible federal systems: CPP accounting, EI administration, customs revenue, federal regulatory reporting, and international tax treaties. All of that would need Alberta specific replacements.
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The Seniors’ Warning Alberta Cannot Ignore
The most alarming omission in the independence discussion is what it means for seniors.
There are zero guarantees in the plan about:
Old Age Security (OAS) — a federal program Alberta would have to replace entirely, with no costed plan showing how.
CPP pensions already earned — the plan assumes Alberta will receive a large share of CPP assets, but that number is disputed and not guaranteed.
Survivor benefits, disability benefits, GIS, and other federal supports — all would have to be recreated and funded by Alberta alone, with no clear, costed guarantees.
Seniors have spent decades paying into these programs. They deserve iron clad certainty, not vague promises and optimistic projections.
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The Fiscal Plan: A Political Document, Not a Financial One
The so called “Fully Costed Fiscal Plan for an Independent Alberta” — published by the Alberta Prosperity Project — is not an audited budget, not prepared under GAAP or public sector accounting standards, and not based on verified financial data. It is built on best case scenarios, not hard numbers.
Its revenue projections depend on:
• perfect oil prices
• speculative economic growth
• uncertain CPP asset transfers
• savings that only exist if negotiations go perfectly
That’s not fiscal planning — that’s gambling with assumptions.
When a proposal hides the true costs, inflates potential revenues, and offers no concrete guarantees for seniors’ pensions, that’s not transparency — that’s a warning sign.
Albertans deserve honesty, independent analysis, and full disclosure before anyone is asked to make decisions of this magnitude. The risks are real, the uncertainties are massive, and the consequences of getting this wrong could last for generations.
La-hoo-sa-her!!!