I keep seeing news about separatist movement in Alberta. My understanding is that some of their cities do not align with the province.
**Could a city, Edmonton for example, start a separatist movement to stay in Canada? **
On the same note, if the separatists win by a small margin, are they going to force it down to the rest of the population that want to stay Canadian? Or are they going to divide the province land with Canada?
Short answer, no. But…
Cities only exist at the whim of the province. That’s why the UCP can get away with imposing laws like allowing municipal parties, even when the cities and their population don’t want them.
Now if the separatists won a majority (NOT gonna happen!), they’d quickly discover what people have been telling them for years: Alberta is (almost?) entirely treaty and crown land, and has no authority to separate without first nations’ approval.
Thanks for the reply. That makes a lot of sense, this “borrowed” land will backfire their plans.
We need to start organizing and volunteering if we want to nip this in the bud. There are more of us…
Thanks for the reply. Is there any organization that we can help? I wonder if creating a community here with info would help.
As others have said, cities are creations of the Provinces and they have complete jurisdiction over them. Cities have no power except that delegated to them by the Province. The Province could dissolve a city with a simple Act of Provincial Parliament.
I recommend reading up on the Clarity Act. This law was passed in the wake of the Québec independence referendum in 1995 and codifies the requirements for a Province to separate from Canada based on consultations with the Supreme Court. It is a very high bar.
Canada has complete authority over the validity of the referendum question. It must be a clear, single purpose question. The referendum result must indicate that a “clear majority” of the population wish to leave. Though it does not define “clear majority”, this is commonly understood to be significantly higher than 50%+1.
Then there have to be negotiations between the Provinces, the Federal government, and the indigenous people who live in Alberta. Alberta is treaty land and those treaties are with Canada, not with Alberta.
Separation of any Province requires a constitutional amendment. I don’t know if you are familiar with the history of constitutional reform in Canada but two previous attempts to amend the Constitution have failed spectacularly (Meech Lake; Charlottetown). Amending the Constitution requires the consent of the Federal government and every Provincial government.
Alberta separation is DOA and the people pushing for it know that (or should).
All bets are off if the US decides to pull a Donbas on us, of course.
Thank you so much for the detailed reply! I will read more on the Clarity Act and the history of constitutional reform (I see this being mentioned every time someone talk about electorate reform).
All bets are off if the US decides to pull a Donbas on us, of course.
That would be terrifying.