Alberta separatist leaders expect to start canvassing in January to get their independence referendum question on the ballot, thanks to the provincial government’s latest legislation to make it easier for them to succeed.

Were it not for the United Conservatives’ speedy passage of Bill 14 this week, the Alberta Prosperity Project’s citizens initiative would have been in peril, thanks to a judge’s ruling that the existing initiative law didn’t permit a referendum on independence.

That new bill revives the separatists’ project by removing the ability for Elections Alberta — or anyone — to vet a proposed question’s constitutional validity.

But more than that, Bill 14 forced Elections Alberta to consider that the existing question proposal was never actually made, leaving the court ruling a

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