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I'm all for referenda, the trouble is when government picks the issue, they are usually doing so for political reasons, not legislative ones. Harper pulled the same thing when he took a first nations treaty agreement that had been twenty years in the making between THREE levels of government and threw it to a referendum of a population that had NO idea what it was about, so they just reacted along racist lines thinking 'first nations are taking over'. But in any case, a referenda is better than not, sure as hell wish we had Citizens Initiatives in my province to stop some of the horrible public policy decisions.