Echoes of Brexit as Alberta blunders towards vote on separation from Canada

Like David Cameron in 2016, premier Danielle Smith is facing a mutinous party and has called a referendum about a referendum while vowing a ‘no’ vote

An embattled leader forced to call a referendum on separation to ward off mutiny – and then pledging to campaign against it.

Allegations that prosperity had been stolen by distant elites and could be remedied with a vote to leave.

Mutterings of foreign interference.

The shadow of Brexit has loomed over the prairie province of Alberta as a minority push for a vote on secedeing from Canada.

And it was there again on Thursday evening when Alberta’s premier, Danielle Smith, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/may/22/canada-mark-carney-alberta-secession">unveiled her government’s tangled referendum question on the western province’s future – both in the gravity of the potential outcome, and in the chaotic nature of its expression: