Speaking of independence supporters in the Alberta business community, Adam Legge, president of the Business Council of Alberta, told the CBC, “They do recognize that if the referendum were to be positive in support of separation, that would create a massive amount of uncertainty.”

Many business owners in Alberta do indeed understand that provincial independence offers uncertainty, yet they still support it. That’s because the certainty of federalism paints an ugly picture.

Alberta has lived inside Confederation’s “certainty” for years. That certainty has included federal impact-assessment rules that stall major projects for decades, a West Coast tanker ban, emissions-cap and unreasonable clean-electricity regulations and immigration levels set in Ottawa that overwhelm healthcare facilities, schools and housing.

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Legge himself says a significant share of his members, especially in resources, have been “long… frustrated with federal policy,” and that “the status quo is not a path forward.” But then, he recommends Albertans accept the status quo. His own council’s CEO pulse found regulation and compliance a barrier to growth for 74 percent of respondents. That is not a mystery tax. It is the operating system of remaining.

Question 10 asks whether Alberta should remain in Canada or whether the government should commence the legal process required to hold a later, binding referendum on separation. The result of this first question is not binding. Treating option two as “quit Canada” is how you turn a mandate to prepare terms into a panic about overnight currency collapse. Legge’s rhetoric potentially fosters more uncertainty than the referendum itself does.

Legge warns of “years and years of negotiations without any successful outcome necessarily guaranteed.” That sounds like a description of the last few decades of trying to work within the federation. Certainty indeed.

Canada hasn’t exactly offered certainty on the trade front either, as the relationship with the United States continues to degrade under Mark Carney’s guidance.

Making the leap to provincial independence offers a degree of uncertainty. But in light of what the status quo offers, uncertainty may paint the brightest economic future Alberta can hope for.