Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney campaigned for national unity in Alberta on Oct. 15, before the oil-rich province votes on whether it wants a binding independence referendum.
Polling indicates less than a quarter of Alberta’s roughly 5 million people want to break away from Canada, but Carney, who grew up in the western province, said “polls don’t vote.”
“This referendum comes at the worst possible time,” Carney told a rally in Calgary, Alberta’s largest city.
“This is not poker. A vote against Canada is a dangerous bluff that will lead to years of deep uncertainty and lost opportunities,” he continued.
“Vote like Canada depends on it. Because it does.”
Alberta’s right-wing Premier Danielle Smith says she is against independence but called Oct. 19’s non-binding vote to settle a divisive issue.
If a majority votes for independence, she has committed to launching a legally binding separation process. If a majority votes to stay, Smith says she won’t approve another referendum.
Mitch Sylvestre, who heads the Alberta Prosperity Project, a prominent separatist organization, told AFP his side might “actually win this referendum.”
“I would be very surprised if we got less than 40 percent,” he said in an interview.
Carney has put Alberta’s oil industry at the center of his plans to solidify Canada’s economy and reduce dependence on the United States, warning close economic ties have been permanently fractured by President Donald Trump.
Carney has backed a new pipeline and other projects to increase crude production, repeatedly citing the proposed pipeline to argue for Alberta’s future prosperity within a united Canada.
