As the Alberta referendum vote set for Oct. 19 approaches, some separatist groups are making their intentions a lot clearer and releasing documents about what a future independent Alberta would look like if they were to win both this referendum—which itself is a public vote asking to have another public vote on separation—and the supposedly “binding” future referendum that a positive vote on this one could trigger. (Note that this is what Premier Danielle Smith is saying, but there is no constitutional mechanism for separation as it is by its very nature an unconstitutional act). One of the most vocal groups, the Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), has released a proposed Alberta constitution, and it may sound like a general declaration of the protection of rights and liberties, until you scratch the surface a little.

Let’s be clear from the start that Alberta separatism is a white nationalist and Christian nationalist project. These are impulses that go back to at least the 1970s , but what is new is the fact that the online influence of MAGA has supercharged certain elements of the voting population. There is a crew of grifters who have attached themselves to this movement as they have with most things MAGA because they have determined that there is money to be made. Some of these same grifters attached themselves to the so-called “Freedom Convoy” and other similar movements, and they have created a particular sense of community among adherents. It’s important to remember that they are a small minority, but they are vocal, and that tends to distort their perceived strength.

Because this is at its core a white nationalist movement, the APP costing document makes references to plans for mass deportations, because ethnic cleansing is so hot right now in MAGA circles. (No, seriously—that is essentially what ICE is up to in the Trump administration.) And the inherent racism of their plans is hardly something that they are keeping hidden—public gatherings by separatists have quite explicitly used statements like “towel-headed police officer who doesn’t even speak Canadian” and no one in the movement has disavowed these kinds of remarks. The document costs their plans for said mass deportations, some of which Alberta would simply send to Canada, and others for “direct deportations.” I will also note that in her attempt to play both sides of the separatism debate, Smith has started to go hard against temporary residents in the province. Several of her noxious nine other referendum questions being voted on Oct. 19 are about putting restrictions on temporary residents, which she has on occasion referred to as “guest workers,” and that she too has framed these questions in terms of their costs to the system, whether it’s healthcare or education. Anti-immigrant scapegoating is becoming a normalized part of the discourse in Alberta, which is a very bad sign.

The APP documents propose lax, American-style open and concealed-carry gun laws with rights to arms and self-defence, which as we all know have not made anyone safer. They would enshrine “parental rights” into their constitution, which is a term we have seen be weaponized against queer and trans youth. Notably, the document claims there will be protections for “Lawful Sexual Orientation” (capitalized in the document), which they define as “only between consenting adults as defined by the Age of Majority,” but as with any Christian nationalist project, the definition of what becomes “lawful” is going to be slippery. There are also anti-vaxxer strains throughout these documents, such as the costing document laying out their immigration point system, where potential immigrants are docked points for having received “experimental” mRNA vaccines. This is an unhinged belief from the fever swamps of the online discourse that should be worrying for the state of healthcare in this possible future.

Politically, the APP proposal would see our current Westminster parliamentary system and constitutional monarchy turned into a constitutional republic, with the legislature (plus a 40-person Senate) remaining in Edmonton, but with the president and cabinet in Calgary, which is very odd indeed. In addition to the legislative and judicial branch (with elected judges who can be recalled by citizen petitions), the proposed constitution would add a fourth branch of government, known as the oversight branch. This would contain a series of officers like the elector general, auditor general, inspector general and others whose jobs it would be to check on the legislative and executive branches, but there doesn’t seem to be any particular kind of accountability mechanism for these verifiers other than their own election, which is a red flag in any kind of democratic system. Yes, it sounds great to have a group of people who are accountable to no one to keep the elected branch in line, but the old problem of who watches the watchers comes into play. These kinds of officers can and do get things wrong, and I speak from experience as someone who has been watching federal politics for nearly 20 years. If they are only accountable to voters, then like elected judges, the temptation to act in a capricious manner gets baked in so that they can campaign for their re-election by being overly and performatively harsh, which is a terrible system.

The document also claims that virtually nothing would change in the relations with First Nations, that the treaties would somehow continue to exist and be held with the new government, which is not exactly how things would go, and new treaties would need to be negotiated, especially as their boundaries are not aligned to existing provincial borders. The existing treaties are with the Crown, so transitioning to a republic would not be seamless as the very central organizing principle of government is wholly different. Those treaties, of course, are the very reason why Alberta separation cannot actually happen—the land doesn’t belong to Canada, Alberta or the Crown, but rather to the First Nations themselves, which is why we have the treaties in the first place, which are to share the land and resources. First Nations in Alberta have made it abundantly clear that they will not allow separation to happen, and that if those separatists wish to leave, they are free to do so because they cannot take the land with them.

These separatists may like to paint a picture of a future Alberta being a land of milk and honey, with liberty and low taxes and nothing but abundance because their resource extraction will no longer be constrained by the federal government—a complete fallacy because the constraint on extraction for the past decade has been the low world price of oil. They are trying to paint a picture that very little would change if they got their way, and for some of their adherents, like gun nuts and anti-vaxxers, it would be better. But this is just one group’s vision and there is no unity among the different separatist groups, some far more radical than others. Fundamentally, the white and Christian nationalism are baked into the movement, so while it may not be baked into these documents, if you listen to their rhetoric for any length of time, code words like “parental rights” and terms like “lawful” sexual orientation should be taken as warning signs.

These groups are not going to come out and say that what they’re looking for is the book version of Gilead from The Handmaid’s Tale, with racial segregation and white supremacy built into it, but the appeal is baked in for their supporters. As with any Christian nationalist project, one would expect that restrictions around abortion would soon be introduced, followed by capital punishment. Queer and trans people would see their rights curtailed if not outright eliminated, and again, Smith has already made moves in this direction to appease the separatists in her party base. This potential reality that these separatists are putting forward is something that needs to be called out for what it is, and voters in the province need to understand that’s what’s being offered so that they actually turn up to vote against these absolute loons, because staying home is only going to encourage them.