I spent a lot of time reading the Canada West Foundation’s new report on Alberta separation, and I think Albertans should read it too.

Not because I agree with where it ultimately lands. I don’t.

But because something interesting happens when you work through the report carefully: parts of it make a remarkably strong case for why Alberta is having this conversation in the first place.

Decades of attempted reform. The same constitutional frustrations resurfacing again and again. Alberta’s enormous fiscal contribution to Canada. Legitimate questions about debt, assets, trade, pensions, investment, and what a transition could look like.

Those questions deserve serious answers. But identifying things that would need to be negotiated is very different from proving they cannot be negotiated.

And there’s one question I think deserves just as much scrutiny as every risk associated with leaving:

What happens if Alberta stays?

Because staying is a choice too, and it comes with its own assumptions, ...