What’s the plural form of referendum? Is it referendums or referenda? It doesn’t really matter. Using either doesn’t change the fact that a referendum is, politically speaking, an optical illusion. It gives the appearance of direct democracy at its purest. After all, everybody gets one vote.
To read the “Fair Deal” panel’s report is to gaze into a crystal ball. This is your future, Alberta. It’s a future where we’ll be picking fights with the federal government, pitting Alberta against Canada, embroiling Albertans in never-ending debates over equalization, launching expensive and meaningless referendums and blaming others for all our problems. Come to think of it, this…
The newly released report from Alberta’s “Fair Deal” panel is not a screed arguing for the province’s secession. But it does sound at times like it was written by a group of grumpy Albertans shaking their fists at the sky.
June 15th, 2020 - Journalism
I am not retired. I did not retire. I have no plans to retire. Let’s just get that straight, shall we? In 2018, I took a voluntary buyout from Postmedia. But I never stopped covering politics. I have been writing regularly for the CBC, iPolitics and Alberta Views Magazine. Plus I have been continuing my weekly appearances on CBC’s Radio…
I have to admit, I’ve always had trouble understanding exactly what it is that Grant Hunter, Alberta’s associate minister of red-tape reduction, actually does. It would seem Hunter himself has the same problem.
