Canada

Russia is for sure sowing seeds of doubt across all sorts of movements to politically disrupt us, but the whole reason separation is being taken at all seriously rests entirely on Danielle Smith. She thinks that legitimizing their concerns means that the UCP will stay together because the entire party is built on the idea of sharing a tent with fringe crazies. She's also encouraging all the talk about it because it is distracting from the government's ongoing scandals.

People underestimate how much Russian propaganda they eat up. Russia has had great success with their damned propaganda. They are great at getting people to be divisive and fight each other. We need solidarity, not self segregation.

Actually, from recent reports I've seen, it seems it's Smith trying to save her own butt because much of her party wants this and is at risk of splitting up if they don't get their way.

She's said a referendum would be an "outlet" to let them feel heard, but she's obviously playing with fire. (Fwiw, Smith says she isn't for secession herself, but take that as you will.) If she was responsible and cared at all about her province and country, she'd be trying to put that fire out (aiming for a unity moment), rather than fanning the flames.

It happens to states that feel they are the ones providing a nation all the wealth but get an unbalanced return of benefits from the nation. So someone gets the idea that the state would thrive, economically, if they were able to spend their earnings on themselves, as though the nation is holding them back.

Applying common logic, though, most people don't acknowledge any of the pros for all of the cons. But there are some—imagine a nationalist mindset for their state/ region if you will—that think it's the right thing to do because the current setup is "unfair".