EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Voters in Canada’s oil-rich Alberta province overwhelmingly backed remaining in Canada, with early referendum results Tuesday delivering a boost to Prime Minister Mark Carney’s push for national unity amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s trade war and annexation threats.
With more than 1.5 million votes counted, 76% supported remaining in Canada, while close to 24% backed beginning a process toward separation, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta.
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The referendum wasn't a direct vote on independence. Approval would have set Alberta on a path toward a future vote on separation from Canada.
“Albertans made a clear choice,” Carney said. “They chose unity, to build together, and to take care of each other. Above all, Albertans chose Canada.”
Carney said that the result would allow Canadians to move forward together and accelerate efforts to diversify trade, develop major infrastructure projects and make Canada a global energy powerhouse, with Alberta at its center.
Alberta's separatists, however, saw a silver lining.
“We don’t have the final results. I think the numbers are going to fluctuate, but it is fair to say that at least a quarter of Albertans feel that Alberta needs to be treated better,” said Keith Wilson, a leader of the separatist movement.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith welcomed the early results, saying they showed widespread support for remaining in Canada.
“Albertans have voted for a stronger Alberta in a united Canada,” Smith posted on social media.
Smith, who called the referendum amid pressure from separatists within her governing United Conservative Party, or UCP, despite opposing independence, said that she would address the province Tuesday evening about the results and Alberta’s future.
“We are a solid country that’s united from coast to coast to coast,” Thomas Lukaszuk, a former Alberta deputy premier who led the Forever Canadian campaign against separation, told supporters.
Results were delayed after late openings forced more than 100 polling stations to extend voting hours Monday.
Alberta, home to the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves, is cowboy country and a conservative stronghold whose political culture has long had more in common with the American West than much of Canada. Resentment toward Canada's federal government in Ottawa runs deep, but hasn't traditionally translated into widespread support for independence.
Despite the proposal’s apparent failure, separatist leaders have said they turned a fringe cause into a movement that won't disappear.
Carney earlier urged Albertans to deliver a decisive vote for unity.
“Vote like Canada’s future depends on it, because it does,” he told a rally on Friday in Edmonton, where he grew up.
Separatist parties traditionally attracted only 1% or 2% of the vote, former Premier Jason Kenney said. Anger over COVID-19 restrictions helped mobilize activists who later embraced the separatist movement, he said.
Trump’s trade war and threats to make Canada the 51st U.S. state have helped Carney rally support in Alberta, where Liberal prime ministers have historically been unpopular.
At a separatist referendum night gathering at an Edmonton restaurant, the crowd fell quiet as results rolled in.
“We’re not going anywhere,” said Jeff Rath of the Alberta Prosperity Project. “We’ve dominated the conversation in the last year. We’ve been educating Albertans on the benefits of independence, and we’re going to continue moving forward.”
Rath had said he would be thrilled if 30% of Albertans voted to begin the separation process. He wants Smith ousted as leader of her governing United Conservative Party and said the party could splinter, potentially creating a new pro-independence party.
Dustin Degenhardt, a Wainwright voter, said that Albertans have long been mistreated by Canada's federal government.
“Alberta has essentially been treated as, you know, a colony,” he said after voting Monday. “They want to take and take and take from us, and not return anything.”
Dave Malka, 59, of Edmonton, criticized spending money on a “referendum on a referendum” rather than healthcare.
With Trump threatening Canada, Malka said, “It seems to be happening at the absolute worst time when we should be united; instead we’re fighting among ourselves.”
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Ty ONeil contributed to this report from Wainwright.
