Photo: Dedicated flag wavers Peter and Sue Morrison of Red Deer County at the Red Hart Brewery south of Red Deer October 16. They were part of a crowd waiting for Prime Minister Mark Carney. The PM and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith were in the facility as keynote speakers for a sponsored pro-Canada rally.

Rural Alberta Report: DAVID NADEAU, Three Hills

Sweeps is considerably generous.

Organizers sandwiched Prime Minister Mark Carney's Red Deer visit between his large-venue flag-waving stops in Calgary the night before and Edmonton later that day, Friday, October 16.

The venue: a small brewery-cum-pub in an isolated industrial park south of the city in Red Deer County. No public access for this sponsored event. Invited guests and media only. Rural Alberta Report enjoyed fresh parking lot air.

It's been said opinions are like noses—everyone has one. During the eighteen-month run-up to the stay/leave referendum, we endured plenty of opinions and noses out of joint as well as much money spent on meetings, literature, flags, lawn and roadside signs, and too much division and distancing between friends, neighbours, and family members.

It may be debatable if the Red Deer Carney/Smith event swayed fence-sitters so late in the campaign. A moot point: as of that date, over one million had voted in the advance polls. 

A back-door arrival

While living in Ottawa, I saw long black police motorcades whisking the prime minister from A to B. And now, a different PM and ten big black SUVs, red and blue lights flashing, scooting PM Carney into a cramped parking lot and access to the pub's back door. A large stationary drone watches. A blocked highway, diverted traffic, an RCMP bomb-sniffing dog all the way from Lloydminster. No pat-downs, no metal detectors, and that scary-looking dog didn't sniff me or anyone else of the parking lot crowd. 

We'd have to agree overkill is better than a leader getting killed.

A spontaneous rendition of the national anthem preceded the prime minister's brief comments in the pub . . . get out and vote . . .  stand up for Canada . . . fight for our country and what we believe in. His was an assuring speech, not unlike preaching to the choir, but he also talked about the province's essential place in the federation, that the country is working together and cooperating again, that Canada is not a transaction between provinces or about gives and gets, "it's about standing up for ourselves and taking care of each other."

Premier Smith noted that while "we do not always agree on everything, today we agree that our referendum vote will be to remain in Canada." She pointed to a convincing string of what she called bad laws that have been dealt with "in a very substantial manner" and to new judges being appointed to the federal court as evidence of "an incredible new relationship, a conversation, a finding of areas where we can agree and work together. I think we are stronger together. This is a moment in Canadian history where we can work side by side, where for the first time in a long time Alberta and Canada are walking together in the right direction to keep both strong and free."

If we had opinions galore prior to voting day, I suspect we haven't seen anything yet as postmortems, autopsies, and clouds of pundits, experts, social scientists, academics, and journalists render opinions on what went wrong or right in a referendum that shook the province and thoroughly rattled the nation.