Carney urges Albertans to stay in Canada one week before sovereignty referendum

Prime Minister Mark Carney has urged Albertans to vote to stay in Canada, releasing a Thanksgiving Day video message filmed at his old high school in Edmonton exactly one week before the province's Oct. 19 sovereignty referendum.

In the video, released Monday, Carney warned that voting to begin the process toward separation would start "a long and uncertain process," and said Canada "can't build big things on fault lines." He pointed to federal projects declared in the national interest, including the Pacific Link pipeline, as evidence of what the country can accomplish together, the Canadian Press reported.

Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre is scheduled to deliver a similar stay-in-Canada message in Calgary on Friday, while B.C. NDP Leader David Eby released his own Thanksgiving message encouraging Albertans to vote for unity.

The Oct. 19 referendum is non-binding. Voters will be asked whether Alberta should "commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding provincial referendum" on separation — a first step that could lead to years of constitutional wrangling.

Premier Danielle Smith, who supports staying in Canada, has cited polling putting separation support at around 22 per cent.

How the vote works

Advance voting opens Tuesday, Oct. 13 and runs through Saturday, Oct. 17, from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Albertans voting by mail must have their special ballots reach Elections Alberta by 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 16 — the agency says it has processed more than 658,000 special-ballot applications.

Results will not be known on election night. With hand-counted ballots across ten referendum questions, Elections Alberta expects results in the early hours of Tuesday, Oct. 20.

The vote lands at a moment of maximum strain for national unity: Ottawa is simultaneously managing a trade war with the United States that has made federal-provincial cooperation a political necessity.