Nelson: Mayhem awaits as Albertans get swamped by referendum silliness

It’s a shambles. The most important question ever asked of Albertans has been turned into an excruciating blend of petty point-scoring and fatuous grandstanding.

No, not the question about where you stand on this province going it alone. That is a decision that should be left in the hands of citizens.

It’s the rest of the questions you must plow through to get to the meat of the matter. They should never have been dumped into this referendum basket. Not only will it cause chaos when it comes to tallying up the votes, but it also undermines the seriousness of what we’re asked to decide.

Heaven help us, there’s even a question about abolishing the Senate. Is this some tip of the hat to Preston Manning, who made the Triple-E Senate the backbone of the Reform party’s rise almost four decades ago? It didn’t fly then and it won’t fly now, yet there it was, poking its little head out among the 10 bits of ballot paper handed to Albertans as advance voting opened Tuesday morning.

We also get a bunch of boilerplate questions, designed for a specific outcome, essentially asking if Alberta and other provinces should exact more powers from Ottawa, so things such as federal transfers come with fewer strings attached.

That fight has been going on since Confederation, yet Premier Danielle Smith’s government couldn’t resist slapping it into the whole separation basket, knowing so many people would be voting on whether to stay in Canada or leave that these other questions would get way more votes than they deserve.

Similarly, the loaded questions about making temporary workers pay more for health care — while cutting social benefits for such folk we not so long ago begged to solve a labour shortage — are simply a snide way of getting a show of public support without the necessity of proper debate.

If the provincial government wants to make those changes, then it has a majority to do exactly that. Instead, it wants the cover of an orchestrated answer from citizens whose minds are firmly on something else, and who just quickly mark the correct box to get to the main event.

If you ever want to feel you’re being manipulated, then pause for a second on Question 5 to realize this is that moment.

All this nonsense will ensure that referendum day will be an ordeal for all concerned.

Fearing such an eventuality, I turned up before the advance poll opened at the Delta Hotel in the southeast on Tuesday. It was a wise move.

No matter the best intentions of referendum staff handing out 10 ballots — including such nebulous queries as who should select senior judges — and somehow expecting Calgarians to have spent hours understanding those issues in order to make a quick, informed choice, is a ludicrous assumption.

People will be confused and irritated. They came to cast a vote for a united Canada or a new country called Alberta, and instead are smothered with questions that should never have intruded on this momentous occasion.

Anyhow, after ripping through the first nine queries, there it was. The main event: should Alberta remain part of Canada or should the province move ahead with a binding separation vote?

Far be it for me to suggest how anyone else should vote. But, despite the silliness of attaching all those other issues, you should vote. You can put the first nine bits of paper in your pocket. Just make sure the 10th one receives your X.

As for me, all I’ll say is that 44 years ago Canada said yes to me as a future citizen. Finally, I had the opportunity to repay that wonderful favour.

Chris Nelson is a weekly columnist.