Alberta Holds a Referendum on Whether to Hold a Referendum, Prints 45 Million Ballots in Case the Answer Is Yes

Most countries break up the way most marriages do: with shouting, lawyers and a fight over the good furniture. Alberta has chosen a gentler route. On Monday, it holds a referendum on whether to hold a referendum.

That is Question 10. Voters pick between "Alberta should remain a province of Canada" and "The Government of Alberta should commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada." Option 1 is seven words. Option 2 runs 29 words and still has not left the house. It is officially "not to be binding": a non-binding vote on a binding vote, which is how a province says "I need space" while keeping its key.

That is one ballot. Each voter gets 10 numbered, colour-coded paper ballots and 10 matching boxes. Elections Alberta printed 45 million ballots for about three million eligible voters, roughly 15 each. Somewhere in British Columbia, a forest is now voting to separate from Alberta.

"They just gave me about ten pieces of paper, answer each question, and then put each in the ballot box. Separate ballot box for each question," said one advance voter. Albertans must now sort their democracy like their recycling: blue here, green there, and do not put the Senate in with the plastics.

Legislative changes ban electronic tabulators, so every ballot is counted by hand. Alberta has banned the machines that count votes, but not the machines that pump oil. Priorities. Elections Alberta set out to hire 60,000 workers, and its deputy chief electoral officer explained, "We do not have the option to go home and sleep and come back the next day and start."

More than one million Albertans voted early. Officials estimate an informed voter can mark the stack in two minutes and a less familiar one in four. Somewhere between them is every Albertan who read Question 10 aloud and is still on "commence."

Prime Minister Mark Carney warned, "This is not poker." Separatist architect Keith Wilson, who wrote a 214-page transition plan and calls most of the tasks "super easy," suggested a hostile Canada should "go buy axes and chainsaws because you're going to have to cut down all the maple trees to keep warm this winter". It is the first independence movement whose foreign policy is making Ontario do yard work.

Premier Danielle Smith argued for years that no referendum was needed, called one anyway, then priced the transition at about C$400 billion. That is booking a divorce lawyer and then reading him the price of the house. One remain camp plants "no to the nine" lawn signs, some separatists say "decline the 9," and Smith says "yes to the rest." Never has a province been so divided and so well signposted.

Former deputy premier Thomas Lukaszuk has driven more than 40,000 kilometres in a 1992 motorhome named the Unity Bus. That is roughly once around the Earth, in a vehicle older than most of the arguments.

The Question 10 count is expected between 1 a.m. and 4 a.m. Tuesday, so Alberta will stay up all night to learn whether it wants another night like this. Most countries break up with shouting and lawyers. Alberta is doing it with 45 million colour-coded slips of paper, thousands of sleepless counters and a question whose only guaranteed answer is more questions.