Uneasy about Alberta’s soversignty referendum? Me too.

As a friend of Alberta’s I worry a lot that the province is making a grave strategic error in sleepwalking into a sovereignty referendum that could gravely damage their ability to negotiate a better deal with Ottawa. That’s why I wrote a “long read” for the National Post in which I draw some lessons from Quebec’s long and unhappy experience of defeated referenda on sovereignty. Those defeats didn’t just leave things as they were; they greatly weakened the province’s hand at the federal-provincial table and opened the door to unilateral federal action that haunts Quebec politics to this day. Do not despair, however. I also offer some advice on how Alberta and and should use referenda to advance its interests at the negotiating table. 16 October 2025.