Tell me you didn't finish reading even one complete sentence before responding, without telling me you didn't even read one complete sentence before responding.
I'd go even one step further, which is to say he's even dumber and more petty than you're even giving him credit for.
He thinks expanding the physical size of a nation is a metric for success. Greenland is relatively large, (and he thinks it's larger than it really is because he can not comprehend the reality of a Mercator projection). He knows there's only a few tens of thousands of people there. Seems like an easy grab for a big plot of land.
He wants golden statues of himself in Gaza. He thinks the 49th parallel is an arbitrary line. The Panama canal is one of 4 presitegeous global pieces of infrastructure that his dementia addled brain can even recall.
He want big. He want thing people know. He want golden statue. He like 4 year old. He mad.
Trying to ascribe any meaning beyond that to his actions is like when people anthrpomorphise an insect as being embarrassed. We're projecting meaning for which there just isn't evidence to support, where there are simpler explanations to be had.
He is profoundly insecure, profoundly stupid, and profoundly petty. This provides sufficient explanation for everything he's ever done.
Other similar polls in the timeframe put "would want to" at about 9% as well. Some are even phrased as "would vote to".
What surprised me was the 18-34 demo who are apparently about 17% for it.
That being said, the quality of a lot of these polls aren't great. Many aren't random samples and come with a big disclaimer.
But, still, none have been as high as 20%. That's crazy high as a national average. Really curious breakdown by state. The most support for joining to USA is AB and it's still around just 13%. This suggests the most "I want to leave" state wants to join Canada much more than the most "I want to leave province" wants to join the USA.
I'm having a hard time finding the link to the poll itself...
But I suspect that the poll had distinct categories for "strongly oppose" and "oppose".
So either the article is lumping the two responses together (which would be shitty because they explicitly say "strongly") or it's likely that the number of Canadians who are open to it is <20.
From previous polling I've seen, it was around 13% who were open to it. Not even saying they would, but merely open to the idea.
It's possible that transient voters helped push the needle, but the "deconservativeing" of AB may also be a result of the less exciting explanation of urbanization. In general, urban populations trend "left", and simply put, the share of the total voters (and seats) in urban areas has grown meaningfully since Klien.
I'm an old guy so I get it. Also there is a narrative about AB at a national level that's hard to shake.
Flipping (the ideally located) 1380 votes in AB in 2023 would have produced an NDP majority. I don't think Canada really understands the razors Edge that AB sits on.
This is the data from the 2023 provincial election, so I guess that depends on what exodus you're referring to.
Considering the NDP only needs to flip 6 ridings for an AB majority, and there are at least 6 to flip in Calgary, and that Nenshi is the leader of the NDP now... I think AB will likely see an NDP government next time based on that math alone. Smith being a fucking national embarrassment is just the icing on the cake.
Tell me you didn't finish reading even one complete sentence before responding, without telling me you didn't even read one complete sentence before responding.