Rob Smith, the president of the UCP, recently said that he thought a majority of UCP members would vote for separation. If a majority of the UCP members vote for separation, wouldn’t that make the UCP a separatist party?

Since our premier never campaigned on making the UCP a separatist party, shouldn’t she call an election?

Stephen Crocker, Edmonton

Time to dissolve legislature and let Albertans vote again

There’s a fair amount of discontent as a result of the provincial government’s policies and current direction. When they ran for election last time they never breathed a word of this to us, the electorate. Time for the lieutenant-governor to earn her pay and dissolve the legislature and give us a second opportunity to vote, now that we see the true character of the governing party and its leaders. Now, that’s a referendum I can support.

Ian Payne, St. Albert

Referendum question could mean years of turmoil

Danielle Smith’s proposed new referendum question is very revealing. It possesses a kind of verbal body language that is fairly easy to read. Its structure clearly favours the separatist side: “Should Alberta remain a province of Canada?” is brief and has little weight or no weight to it. It asks Albertans who are deeply divided under her governance if they prefer the status quo within Canada.

The second part provides separatists with the full powers and political muscle of the UCP government of Alberta: “Should the Government of Alberta commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada?”

That side weighs a ton and fulfills every separatist’s wildest political fantasies. This appallingly one-sided question portends division, dysfunction, and turmoil for this province for the balance of this decade and for years to come.

David Gay, Edmonton

U of A’s hydrogen advance an exciting breakthrough

Jackie Carmichael’s article on U of A scientists, led by Steve Bergens, making a hydrogen production breakthrough is the best news I have ever seen, relating to progress in science. It has changed my mind about hydrogen’s usefulness as a fuel of the future.

As a chemist, I always felt hydrogen had two problems as a future fuel: It was very expensive to produce and it was too difficult and dangerous to store.

Green hydrogen is the life-blood of many products in Alberta: It is combined with nitrogen to make ammonia, a precursor to synthetic fertilizer. It is a great fuel in fuel cells; it is crucial to synthesis of drugs. Two ways to produce hydrogen for Alberta industries is by splitting it away from raw crude oil or gas hydrocarbon molecules, an expensive process. A better alternative is by electrolysis of clean acidified water, which you might have seen done in high school chemistry classes, and expensive if you scale this process up to a useful commercial capacity.

Why am I excited about Dr. Bergen’s invention? He and his colleagues invented a way to electrolyze sea water! Essentially dirty water! No need to distill first, or collect spring water, or purify via reverse osmosis or collect clean rain. This is a huge success for the U of A, Dr. Bergens et al, Alberta and Canada.

Orest Reminsky, Edmonton

Make better use of bike lane funds

Grovenor residents gave their councillor, Reed Clarke, an earful on the bike lane going through their community. One of Clarke’s responses was “I think everyone supports … bike lanes.” I’m not sure what colour the sky is in his world. I’m not even sure he has his finger on the pulse of his own constituents who handed him a petition signed by 300 Grovenor community members.

I think deep down inside, all members of city council know bike lanes are not supported by everyone. Stop the madness and end bike-lane funding and use the money for things Edmonton really needs, like new fire trucks.

Craig Beieler, Edmonton