At present the announced wording for the Alberta Government's independence referendum scheduled for October 19th, 2026 is:

Should Alberta remain a province of Canada, or should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?

This asks two different, non mutually exclusive, questions:

I asked perplexity.ai to produce a list of promises made to Alberta by Prime Minister Mark Carney over the last year. Here's what it came up with:

November 2025 MOU: Federal Commitments to Alberta

The federal government committed to the following in the MOU signed November 27, 2025:

Canada is my country, but sometimes it feels like I should go around apologizing for the utter dishonesty of its leadership, its media, and the consequent ignorance of its people.

There's an old joke about why the people of Halifax didn't join the American revolution against the crown - they didn't have a permit. it's funny because it's not literally true, but it is true to history, true to the national temperament, and true in its consequences: 250 years of economic servitude, refused opportunity, and failed ambition.

A shocking lack of sympathy: whining to my dog's vet about the horrible cold I am just getting over - the kind where dying looks like a great option and the sooner the better - "oh", she says, "a man cold". Well, a good thing my dog likes her..

Distracted, busy

It has a been a bit since I posted anything - sorry: been working on learning how to use blender/godot = 24/7 frustration because I just don't understand enough about the jobs these tools are used for. Plus my son got hit by someone running a red light and Allstate Insurance is not covering themselves with glory on this one.

On giving democrats worms; Artemis; working with AI, an Alberta police force, and LNG imports to Canada

(For American readers: Ms. Smith is the premier (think governor) of Alberta; Mr. Poilievre is the leader of the national conservative party and is currently pretending to be Alberta member of the federal parliament - in reality he's from Ottawa; it's a long story - and Mark Carney is the liberal party's prime minister of Canada)

Army brats and peak human performance

Iran

Trump, Netanyahu: for God's sake, get on with it.

Carney, Alberta and the 51st state

One of the major problems with the original NAFTA agreement was that it didn't go far enough - trade across the Canada/US border became easier for most high value products and services but political and regulatory action intended to protect local favorites, particularly in the populous Toronto-Montreal corridor, exacerbated both the reality and the emotional content of inter-provincial trade barriers inside Canada.

Oil, Alberta, and events in Venezuela and Iran

Many people, assuming events in Venezuela and Iran end well for the people there, think that the presence of enormous and easily accessible oil reserves in those two countries bodes ill for Alberta's ability to sell its hydrocarbons on world markets. They're wrong - badly wrong.

First, it will take over a year before governments in those two countries achieve the stability needed before the risk associated with investing in either country falls to the level needed for private sector resource commitment.