Alberta separatists are selling a convenient fiction

Breaking up a country is no small thing.

It's not an experiment or a game.

It marks an irrevocable 'before' and 'after.'

And it impacts not just those who leave, but those in the rest of the now-altered and diminished country and those in the now-seceded nation state who opposed departing, as they are left stranded outside the country they once called home.

It follows then that attempting to break up a country is also no small thing.

It is serious, as serious as it gets.

Thus, to use deception and misdirection to try and convince people to break up a nation is deeply irresponsible and does a profound disservice to all involved.

Making such a profound historical rupture seem easy and painless is simply at odds with reality.

Unfortunately, that's the direction the Alberta separatist movement is heading.

The Alberta Prosperity Project – a separatist organization – recently released its proposed Alberta secession referendum question.

“Do you agree that the province shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province of Canada?”

While acknowledging the seriousness of the moment, the organization has made some unserious claims. They claim that a post-secession Alberta would have lower provincial taxes, no federal taxes, and more pipelines into the United States. The most unserious claim, however, is that Albertan residents would continue to receive their Canada Pension Plan payments and would retain Canadian passports.

In effect, they are pitching an independent Alberta with all the benefits of being an independent nation, and none of the drawbacks.

Here’s why those claims are doubtful.