this post was submitted on 04 May 2025
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Katheryn Speck said she used to be a Canadian nationalist, travelled the world with a maple leaf on her backpack and once lived in Quebec so she could become fluently bilingual.

But on Saturday she was among hundreds of people who rallied at the Alberta Legislature to support separation from Canada, with many in the crowd waving Alberta flags and a few even displaying the U.S. Stars and Stripes.

"I thought it was a beautiful, fantastic country. But now I'm so disappointed. I'm literally crushed that we'll never be represented in this country and there's never a chance of changing the government," Speck said.

Earlier this week, Premier Danielle Smith's government proposed legislation that would lower the bar for holding a referendum.

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[–] clonedhuman@lemmy.world 117 points 3 days ago

Fascists get very, very upset when the rest of us, the reasonable people, don't want fascism. They are disappointed in us when we don't want to be ruled by their rulers.

They are truly stupid and harmful human beings and they should be loudly ostracized in every community in which they dare to advocate for fascism.

[–] DaddleDew@lemmy.world 82 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

The dipshits in the crowd waving the American flags are the very reason why the rest of Canada dumped the Conservatives in favour of Carney. They are their own enemy.

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[–] Tiger666@lemmy.ca 68 points 3 days ago (3 children)

"Never been represented" forgets that there were ten years of conservative government before the liberal one.

Are they for real, or are they always this delusional?

[–] jjjalljs@ttrpg.network 24 points 2 days ago

Conservatives tend to live in an eternal now- what's good for me now? This explains why they don't care about hypocrisy.

Conservatives are always the perpetual victims

[–] dankm@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

But those were Ontario conservatives, not good God fearing Alberta conservatives.

The UCP didn't win the federal election, so they wanna separate.

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[–] kbal@fedia.io 53 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Being so cruelly deprived of oil pipelines, maybe they can claim refugee status in the USA.

[–] Phil_in_here@lemmy.ca 12 points 3 days ago

That's a trip to El Salvadore with more steps

[–] ikidd@lemmy.world 52 points 3 days ago (1 children)

She can yap about it all she wants, there is no support for separatism outside the rabid Wildrose twats. Albertans may vote heavily PC, but this is a complete non-starter.

[–] FaceDeer@fedia.io 15 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Extreme fringes make insane demands that are not popular within Alberta, and the headlines say "Albertans demand X!"

It's worth worrying about and opposing, sure, but I assure everyone that plenty of that worrying and opposition is going to come from within Alberta from its actually-sane people.

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[–] PlaidBaron@lemmy.world 46 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Me, a Nova Scotian listening to Albertans whine about how underrepresented they are.

collapsed inline media

[–] Someone@lemmy.ca 8 points 3 days ago (5 children)

Nova Scotia is kinda over represented though.

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[–] Rainbowblite@lemmy.ca 43 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Why is their sense of national unity tied to the success of an industry? Will PEI vote to separate because Canadians aren't eating enough potatoes?

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago (1 children)

They are so brainwashed it boggles the mind. Alberta could be a solar energy powerhouse, they could build shit, develop a manufacturing sector, but no, it has to be fucking oil and gas forever.

[–] NotMyOldRedditName@lemmy.world 3 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

Oil and Gas forever, but also won't build local infrastructure to fully use it, and instead have to ship it elsewhere to refine it etc.

[–] DriftingLynx@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

I've heard the PEI separatists are calling for a high speed potato-conveyor tube to transport potatoes for shippment to China.

They'll call it the Trans Canada Potatube. And it'll only cost $35 billion and never recoup it's costs.

[–] Ceedoestrees@lemmy.world 43 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Pissed that the rest of Canada won't build pipelines for them. Give them better access to refineries in other provinces. Clearly, leaving the country is the solution.

This is like moving out on your own because your roommates won't clean up after you, and make you pay your share of the bills.

[–] Eranziel@lemmy.world 8 points 3 days ago

I'd say it's more like insisting your parents legally give you their basement as a separate property.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 3 points 1 day ago

Even the "for them" is such bullshit. It isn't like they are taxing the oil and gas companies to build a better social welfare state. They have the lowest corporate taxes in Canada, very low income taxes, no sales tax. If they wanted they could have made themselves into fucking Norway but no, better lick Oil and Gas boot and identify as a derrick well.

[–] Lulzagna@lemmy.world 42 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago)

They're so overdramatic

[–] Glide@lemmy.ca 33 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (2 children)

Call me crazy, but I don't want nationalists in this country, full stop. We can love and respect our nation without being worked into a blind, fervent frenzy.

People are real quick to point out that the Nazi's had "socialist" in their party name, and real fuckin' slow to pick up that it was preceded by "national."

[–] CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca 10 points 3 days ago

I always believed that nationalism stemmed from the idea of the innate superiority of your nation over the others. Which I find incredibly problematic for obvious reasons. Now patriotism, on the other hand, I believe is something that we all should strive for.

[–] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 3 points 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) (1 children)

I think the actual term you're looking for is federalist

I think it was the subject of the article who described herself as nationalist

[–] Glide@lemmy.ca 6 points 2 days ago (1 children)

I am not.

Nationalist:

a person who strongly identifies with their own nation and vigorously supports its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.

Federalist:

a person who advocates or supports a system of government in which several states unite under a central authority.

Both pulled from the OxfordLanguages dictionary that Google uses.

And, of course, Nazi is short for the German pronunciation of "National Socialist."

The problem is not a belief in government. The problem is in the belief that there is something intrinsically better about your nation that gives you justification to look down on other nations. Fuck nationalism.

[–] 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works 4 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Sorry, i misunderstood your comment.

I think we both agree that nationalism sucks, but we want a strong and united canada

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[–] Lemmyoutofhere@lemmy.ca 31 points 3 days ago

What a bunch of snowflakes.

[–] theacharnian@lemmy.ca 22 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

"Once the votes are counted in Ontario, the election is over. We don't matter. We never matter," she said.

You know what Quebeckers do that's smart? They don't have party loyalty. One election, they vote NDP, next one BQ, next LPC, sometimes they give CPC some seats to push them over the edge. We make every single party want to cater to us. We aren't in anyone's pocket.

Do you want to matter? Stop being a fucking CPC stooge.

[–] AGM@lemmy.ca 21 points 2 days ago

I was relieved that the CPC didn't form government, but we're still in a lot of danger. Spend any time on X and you can see a full court press going on with propaganda to push Alberta separatism. The same stuff is going on now in Alberta that took place in Crimea prior to 2014, and the online media ecosystem is American. I see a lot of people stating Alberta couldn't separate because of the treaties, but when a powerful country decides they don't care about the laws, the courts aren't going to save you.

β€œI thought it was a beautiful, fantastic country. But now I’m so disappointed. I’m literally crushed that we’ll never be represented in this country and there’s never a chance of changing the government,” Speck said.

What the fuck. It was only 10 years ago that Conservatives were in power.

"I thought it was a beautiful, fantastic country. But now I'm so disappointed. I'm literally crushed that we'll never be represented in this country and there's never a chance of changing the government," Speck said.

Maybe you could just campaign for electoral reform instead of separating? Since you're landlocked and all? These people are idiots.

[–] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 16 points 3 days ago (2 children)

This all has remarkable parallels from the Anschluss between Germany and Austria in the 20s and 30s. There was support for it in the 20s, but Hitler said Austria should join with Germany and how wonderful it would be. He used agents to influence pro-unification. Some Austrians agreed, and even tried an coup to overthrow the government and join with Germany.

In 1938 Austria was finally bullied into holding a referendum, but it looked like the outcome would be against unification. Hitler marched his armies in to Austria less than 24 hours before the referendum and annexed the country.

It was 5 years after he rose to power in 1933.

Trump will come for us, and it'll be traitors like this that give him the excuse to do it.

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[–] sbv@sh.itjust.works 11 points 3 days ago

I had to read to the bottom for the best part:

"We have the oil, we have the resources. We're fine," Westernaier said, noting she believed Monday's election was rigged.

[–] rekabis@lemmy.ca 9 points 3 days ago

It’s a shame that no-one was there to identify these people.

We could have sent them all American immigration forms to fill out.

Or better yet, fill out and submit those forms for them. Along with Canadian citizenship renunciation forms.

[–] AZX3RIC@lemmy.world 9 points 3 days ago (1 children)
[–] cecilkorik@lemmy.ca 3 points 3 days ago

Please give me a moment to warm up my steamroller.

[–] SirMaple__@lemmy.ca 7 points 3 days ago
[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 7 points 2 days ago (1 children)

How do you "win" a rally? Show up, talk sedition, claim victory?

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[–] tangonov@lemmy.ca 5 points 1 day ago

Watch out it's the Block Redneckqois

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 4 points 3 days ago (1 children)

Could you guys trade them for California? And maybe Washington?

[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 5 points 3 days ago (2 children)

I'm leaning more towards them emigrating somewhere else. If they wanna go that bad, cool. Lots of people out there who would love to buy their property and live peacefully in Alberta.

Send β€˜em down to carve out a piece of Montana. Call it Alberta South. That way Trump gets his 51st state and we get to be rid of the separatists.

[–] nickwitha_k@lemmy.sdf.org 2 points 2 days ago

That's fair.

[–] DarkWinterNights@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Literally every single thing Danielle Smith and the UCP espouse to care about is made worse by Alberta becoming a sovereign nation:

  • Taxes
  • Coastal access
  • Pipelines and transfer taxes
  • Tanker access and global markets
  • Trade sanctions as a function of per capita CO2 emissions
  • Infrastructure access
  • Energy markets
  • Codified projects and say in what they detail
  • Comprehensive national strategy cost averaged down against 40 million instead of 4 million (aka costs 10x).

Think about what happens to Albertan property values on separation - literally no one is moving here, and many will leave. The "Alberta Edge" becomes even less tenable, and quality of life rapidly erodes.

But maybe they can empty everyone's pensions before they fuck off into the sunset, once the last drop of blood is squeezed out.

They're really talking about becoming the most taxed 51st state, or an erosion of living standards so sharp they'll get whiplash. Ghoulish politics.

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