In a post on X lecturing Albertans, former Jason Kenney staffer Howard Anglin stated, “Democracy also requires that all Canadians have a say when a fraction of the electorate in one part of the country tries to break Confederation.”

This old canard was often used in the 1990s claiming that a national referendum should be held to determine the future of Quebec rather than allowing the province to vote upon its own destiny.

In his posting, Anglin also said, “Democracy is not a free floating concept. It operates within existing institutions and social constructs.”

Canada’s existing institutions don’t support Anglin’s assertations.

The Clarity Act and the Supreme Court of Canada’s 1998 Reference re Seccession of Quebec chart the legal path for a province to democratically vote to secede and the input of the rest of the country is not required.

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The Supreme Court ruled that a clear majority of the population of the province expressing a desire to secede would confer “democratic legitimacy” on the initiative. It explicitly applied that principle to the people of the province seeking to leave, not to a Canada wide electorate.

Anglin went on to say, “And democracy requires that in the event of an actual attempted separation, the parts of the province that don’t want to leave Canada, such as, oh, say, the cities of Calgary and Edmonton, remain part of Canada. If Canada is divisible, then Alberta is divisible.”

The “if Canada is divisible, then Alberta is divisible” slogan is a political argument, not one rooted in the Reference or the Act. The Supreme Court and the Clarity Act treat the province as the entity whose population votes.

It offers no mechanism for partition.

The rest of Canada could have input on the terms of secession of a province, but that will only happen after, not before, a referendum is held exclusively within the province in question.

That’s how democracy works. Democracy also requires that all Canadians have a say when a fraction of the electorate in one part of the country tries to break Confederation.