It’s a shambles. The most important question ever asked of Albertans has been turned into an excruciating blend of petty point-scoring and fatuous grandstanding.

No, not the question about where you stand on this province going it alone. That is a decision that should be left in the hands of citizens.

It’s the rest of the questions you must plow through to get to the meat of the matter. They should never have been dumped into this referendum basket. Not only will it cause chaos when it comes to tallying up the votes, but it also undermines the seriousness of what we’re asked to decide.

Heaven help us, there’s even a question about abolishing the Senate. Is this some tip of the hat to Preston Manning, who made the Triple-E Senate the backbone of the Reform party’s rise almost four decades ago? It didn’t fly then and it won’t fly now, yet there it was, poking its little head out among the 10 bits of ballot paper handed to Albertans as advance voting opened Tuesday morning.

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