Katheryn Speck said she used to be a Canadian nationalist, travelled the world with a maple leaf on her backpack and once lived in Quebec so she could become fluently bilingual.

But on Saturday she was among hundreds of people who rallied at the Alberta Legislature to support separation from Canada, with many in the crowd waving Alberta flags and a few even displaying the U.S. Stars and Stripes.

“I thought it was a beautiful, fantastic country. But now I’m so disappointed. I’m literally crushed that we’ll never be represented in this country and there’s never a chance of changing the government,” Speck said.

Earlier this week, Premier Danielle Smith’s government proposed legislation that would lower the bar for holding a referendum.

  • Glide@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Call me crazy, but I don’t want nationalists in this country, full stop. We can love and respect our nation without being worked into a blind, fervent frenzy.

    People are real quick to point out that the Nazi’s had “socialist” in their party name, and real fuckin’ slow to pick up that it was preceded by “national.”

    • CobraChicken3000@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      I always believed that nationalism stemmed from the idea of the innate superiority of your nation over the others. Which I find incredibly problematic for obvious reasons. Now patriotism, on the other hand, I believe is something that we all should strive for.

    • 9488fcea02a9@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      I think the actual term you’re looking for is federalist

      I think it was the subject of the article who described herself as nationalist

      • Glide@lemmy.ca
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        24 hours ago

        I am not.

        Nationalist:

        a person who strongly identifies with their own nation and vigorously supports its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.

        Federalist:

        a person who advocates or supports a system of government in which several states unite under a central authority.

        Both pulled from the OxfordLanguages dictionary that Google uses.

        And, of course, Nazi is short for the German pronunciation of “National Socialist.”

        The problem is not a belief in government. The problem is in the belief that there is something intrinsically better about your nation that gives you justification to look down on other nations. Fuck nationalism.