https://open.substack.com/pub/sheldonyakiwchuk/p/9-question-referendum-plus-independence?
”The independence movement shouldn’t be panicking right now. It should continue to do what it’s doing and finish preparing.
Because the tenth question is coming and so that when it does, it won’t land in chaos.
It’ll land in momentum.

Because a single yes/no question, especially one that leads with the big ask, almost always gets you a “No”.
That’s not manipulation.
That’s strategy.
And it works every single time.

Now apply that exact framework to what Smith just put on the table, and suddenly what looks like “muddying the waters” starts looking a hell of a lot more like precision engineering.

These nine questions aren’t filler and they aren’t distractions. They’re grievances, they’re reminders, they’re points of shared frustration that every Albertan who’s been paying attention already feels in their gut. Each one is built to get a yes.

And after nine yeses, the tenth question...
Do you agree that the Province of Alberta should cease to be part of Canada to become an independent state?
...doesn’t feel radical anymore.
It feels like the logical next step.

Here’s what the Premier has actually done.
First, she guaranteed a referendum. Full stop.
Every Albertan who’s been screaming for a vote on our future now has a mechanism on the table. That’s not symbolic, it’s a part of the structured path.
Second, she lowered the barriers to citizen initiatives by cutting the number of signatures required and increasing the time to gather them.
She didn’t have to do that.
She did it anyway, and she’s done it while publicly defending citizen initiatives as a fundamental expression of democratic voice, including the recall petitions launched against her own government.
She’s not just saying the quiet part loud, she’s building the plumbing to back it up.
Third, she anchored this referendum in the exact issues that have fueled Alberta’s frustration for years. This isn’t a random collection of questions. It’s a pathway.

Every step forward is a yes, and every yes brings the tenth question closer to feeling like common sense.
Do you really think she’s come this far and thrown this all together, where timing of the referendum is a single month before she’s reapplying for her job?
Give her some credit here, friends.”