Alberta’s referendum to begin the process of seceding from Canada failed by a wide margin on Monday, keeping Canada’s oil wealth intact and delivering a major political win to Prime Minister Mark Carney.

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Unofficial results show 77% of voters opposed a move toward separation, backing Canadian unity as U.S. tensions mount.

Alberta voters have overwhelmingly rejected a proposal to begin the process of separating from Canada, with 77% opposing the initiative in unofficial results that strengthen Prime Minister Mark Carney’s push for national unity.

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With more than 1 million ballots counted, 23% supported the proposal, according to Elections Alberta. The October 19 referendum was not a direct vote on independence; approval would have set the province on a path toward a future vote on separation.

Carney welcomed the results, saying Albertans had chosen to remain part of Canada and that the outcome would allow the country to pursue an ambitious economic agenda.

“Above all, Albertans chose Canada,” he said in a statement released on October 20. He added that Canadians could move forward together with renewed purpose and greater ambition.

Carney also pointed to efforts to secure new international trade partners, accelerate major infrastructure projects across the country and expand Canada’s role as a global energy power, with Alberta at the center of those plans.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith also welcomed the early results, saying they demonstrated support for a stronger province within a united Canada.

“Albertans have voted for a stronger Alberta in a united Canada,” Smith wrote on social media.

Smith called the referendum under pressure from separatists within her governing United Conservative Party (UCP), despite opposing independence. She was scheduled to address the province on Tuesday evening about the results and Alberta’s future.

Thomas Lukaszuk, a former deputy premier who led the Forever Canadian campaign against separation, also welcomed the outcome.

“We are a solid country that’s united from coast to coast to coast,” he told supporters.

Separatist leaders, meanwhile, pointed to the vote as evidence of continuing dissatisfaction with the federal government in Ottawa. Keith Wilson, a prominent figure in the movement, cautioned that the results were not final but argued that a substantial share of Albertans wanted the province to be treated better.

“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,” Wilson said.

The results were delayed after late openings forced more than 100 polling stations to extend their voting hours on Monday.

Alberta, home to the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves, is a conservative stronghold whose political culture has long had more in common with the American West than with much of Canada.

Resentment toward the federal government has persisted, but separatist parties historically attracted only 1% to 2% of the vote, according to former Premier Jason Kenney. Anger over COVID-19 restrictions helped mobilize activists who later embraced the separatist movement.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald 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 traditionally been unpopular.

Alberta residents voted to remain part of Canada in the province’s first-ever referendum on separation, in a much-needed win for Prime Minister Mark Carney as he attempts to unify the country amid a trade war with the US.

CBC News, Canada’s government-funded national broadcaster, called the result late Monday after 33% of the vote had been counted. At the time of the call, 76% of tallied votes were in support of the “remain” side versus 23% in favor of the province moving forward with a binding vote on separation. The referendum was nonbinding.

“Albertans made a clear choice,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said in a statement. “They chose unity, to build together, and to take care of each other.”

“Canada is greater than the sum of its parts,” he said.

Pollsters and analysts had repeatedly dismissed the possibility of a separatist victory, citing data that showed about one-third of residents in the western province supported a future referendum on leaving.

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith announced the referendum in May, saying it was “time to have a vote, understand the will of Albertans on this subject, and move on.”

Late Monday, Smith issued a statement on social media saying she was “very pleased” that early results show widespread support for remaining in Canada. She said she would address Albertans on Tuesday to discuss the results and “where our province goes from here.”

A small but vocal group of separatists has campaigned for months for an independent Alberta, arguing that the province’s energy wealth is subsidizing poorer parts of Canada and that Alberta would be far richer without Ottawa bureaucracy impeding its path.

Last week, Carney told a rally in Calgary that voting to leave Canada would be “a dangerous bluff that will lead to years of deep division,” and appealed to Albertans to “vote like Canada depends on it.”

Carney, who grew up mostly in Alberta, acknowledged that Albertans have often felt slighted by Ottawa and said his government had approved a proposed new pipeline, adding that Alberta is critical to helping Canada reduce its dependence on the US.

Alberta’s referendum follows two previous referendums on separation in the majority French-speaking province of Quebec. Quebecers voted to stay in Canada in both instances.

First Nations groups have also objected to the idea of an independent Alberta, as their land treaties with Ottawa predate the province’s creation within Canada.

CBC News reported strong turnout from First Nations. One southern Alberta polling station in an area that is home to the Siksika Nation temporarily ran out of ballots, and then stayed open until after 10 p.m. MT (0400 GMT) to ensure everyone in line had the chance to vote.

Still, Monday’s referendum is unlikely to end the separatist movement in Alberta. Before the referendum, some separatist leaders said they would continue to pursue another vote even if most Albertans voted to remain.

According to data released on October 16 by the pollster Angus Reid, 62% of Albertans believe “there will never be an end to the separatist movement” in the province.

Alberta’s referendum also included nine other nonbinding questions on topics including immigration, access to provincial services — such as education, social care and healthcare — and voter identification requirements. Results for those questions were still trickling in.

UK Prime Minister Andy Burnham said Russia interfered in the 2016 referendum that took Britain out of the European Union, in podcast excerpts released on 11 October, the Associated Press reported. His remarks are believed to be the first time a British prime minister has publicly acknowledged such meddling.

Russia’s information war keeps running through Europe’s ballots. German security sources said in August that Moscow was escalating disinformation before state elections, and Ukraine’s Center for Countering Disinformation found more than 200 Russian fake news sites aimed at France last year.

One question, one clear answer

Burnham told The Rest Is Politics podcast that he asked his advisers whether Russia had interfered in the 2016 vote. He asked after taking office in July.

“I’ve had the clear answer that yes, there was,” he said.

He argued that such things must now be put clearly on the record. He did not say how Russia interfered or offer evidence, and Moscow has long denied interfering in foreign votes.

Burnham said he had discussed Russian interference with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin the previous week. “You know he was saying to me that the AfD are clearly linked to Russia, funded I believe,” Burnham said, referring to Germany’s far-right Alternative for Germany party. Putting such interference on the record would help “voters in Germany and France understand that some of this politics is instigated via our enemies, namely Russia,” he added.

Years of silence

In 2020, Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee found that the government had actively avoided investigating whether Russia meddled in the referendum. The report noted open-source signs of Russian attempts to sway the Brexit campaign. The government, it said, had never looked for hard evidence.

The government rejected the committee’s call for a review.

“We have seen no evidence of successful interference in the EU Referendum,” it said.

That same year, London said Russian actors had almost certainly tried to interfere in the 2019 general election. The government said they did it by amplifying leaked UK-US trade documents online.

From 2019 to 2016

Three weeks ago, Burnham stopped short of this. At the UN General Assembly on 22 September, he said the Kremlin spends around £1.3 billion each year on manipulating information. That is roughly $1.7 billion at recent exchange rates. He cited evidence that Russian agencies tried to interfere in the 2019 general election, but he did not mention 2016.

In the same speech, he said Britain had already helped Moldova protect its elections from Russian interference.

A second village is to hold a vote on whether to have a referendum to leave the UK in protest over plans to create a camp to house 1,250 asylum seekers in a former RAF base nearby.

The post Second Village to Hold Vote on Referendum to Leave Britain appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.

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