What happens when a referendum starts to feel less like a vote and more like a warning?
This week on Balance of Power, Annalise Klingbeil and Leah Ward are joined by political scientist Lisa Young to talk about the strange political fall Alberta is heading into, the separation debate, and what happens when a fringe idea becomes a live political question.
First: be careful what you wish for. Lisa explains the thinking behind her recent speculative fiction imagining a future Alberta outside Canada, and why she sees separation as a fundamentally radical leap into the unknown.
Then: misinformation, foreign influence, and the widening gap between the information ecosystems shaping the stay and leave sides. What does that mean for the referendum, and how do you have a productive political debate when people are starting from completely different versions of reality?
Plus, for Patreon subscribers: the other nine referendum questions, why Lisa is surprised by the lack of organized opposition to them, and what their outcome could mean for politics far beyond Alberta.
Separation, misinformation, resentment, turnout, and the weirdest fall in Alberta history?
Welcome to Balance of Power.
Mentioned in this episode:
Lisa Young’s Substack: What now?!? An Alberta Politics newsletter
https://lisayoung.substack.com/
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