It exists. I am not going to jump off a cliff if you keep it. The only thing I am saying is that it seems to me that it is not illegitimate for a government to put the same question to all voters in the country. I would note that the same question has been put and the vote was held on the same date. That is a factor for unity.
There is also another reason why I have doubts on this selectivity question. You know what the result of selectivity was in 1992, and you don't seem to have been unhappy with it.
Professors have to have good memories. I remember very clearly the context in which selectivity was introduced. It was introduced during Mr. Trudeau's time, in the late 1970s. At that time, when there were federal-provincial negotiations, this is how Mr. Trudeau saw things: he represented all Canadians, and Canadians agreed with him on the goals. Unfortunately for him, there were always two or three hardheads among the provincial premiers. In his eyes, and this can be seen in black and white in public documents, the referendum was almost a punitive expedition against a recalcitrant province. In other words, he said to himself that if they stood up to him, he would hold a referendum not in the provinces that agreed with him, but in his adversaries' province, to show them they did not have the support of voters in their province. In other words, he wanted to show them up in front of their own people.
Obviously, this was a pressure tactic. I have never liked that approach. Personally, I am not a hardcore centralist, but I think that saying it is legitimate for the government of a federal country to consult all of the people on a question doesn't mean falling that line, and that as far as possible there have to be very strong reasons not to do it.
That being said, I appreciate the reasons why you would decide differently and I acknowledge that they are shared by quite a few people.