Carney returns to Alberta to make a last-minute case for unity

Por Mickey Djuric — POLITICO – TOP Stories

CALGARY, Alberta — Prime Minister Mark Carney is back in the province he calls home, making the case for unity days before Albertans decide whether to take a step toward separation from Canada.

Monday’s vote is a referendum on whether to hold a referendum: It asks Albertans whether to start the process toward a future vote on leaving Canada. Polls show most want to remain, but pro-unity organizers fear that confidence could keep them from the polls.

Canada’s prime minister is spending the final days before the vote trying to get “stay” supporters out to the polls.

“At this pivotal moment, Albertans have a choice: to build a stronger Alberta and a greater Canada to leave for our children. Or to burden them with years of deep division and great uncertainty,” Carney told a rally of more than 5,500 supporters waving Maple Leaf flags in Calgary on Thursday night.

“What we need is a decisive result on Monday to settle this question,” he said.

For Carney, the politics is personal. He was raised in Edmonton and later built much of his career abroad, but he calls Alberta “home.”

Since becoming prime minister, he has made many visits to the deeply conservative province, bringing promises of affordable housing, high-speed rail and, soon, a new oil pipeline.

Ottawa’s efforts to ramp up oil production and help fund a new pipeline to Canada’s West Coast have scored Carney political points. A recent poll shows he is the most popular politician in Alberta, and one of the most trusted.

Carney campaigned on a promise to make Canada an “energy superpower” and later pledged to double the country’s non-U.S. exports by 2035. During a campaign-like stop in Calgary on Thursday, he insisted his plan is working, telling supporters canola exports are up 80% since the start of the year.

Ottawa’s economic agenda depends in part on Alberta’s resources, infrastructure and ability to attract private investment. Carney has cautioned that uncertainty over separation could put that investment at risk.

A Calgary Chamber of Commerce survey this summer showed that nearly half its members would pack up and leave if Alberta began the formal process toward separation. The Chamber said the process could shrink Alberta’s economy by C$62 billion a year.

Drawing from his experience as governor of the Bank of England during the Brexit vote, Carney warned Albertans that uncertainty about the province’s future could cause lasting economic damage. He has compared the referendum to the U.K.’s 2016 Brexit vote, calling it a “dangerous bluff.”

Carney spent part of Thursday in northeast Calgary, home to one of the province’s largest immigrant populations and an area organizers consider key to boosting turnout at the polls. At a popular Indian restaurant, Carney met local imams and urged them to vote, hoping they’d carry that message back to their mosques.

“You see lots of polls, but polls don’t vote,” he told them. “People vote and we need people voting for Alberta, the heart of Canada.”

On his way out, Carney grabbed samosas and pakoras for more than 100 pro-unity volunteers and organizers gathered at a park near downtown Calgary. He signed Canadian flags, petted golden retrievers and was given “Vote No” T-shirts as he walked through neighborhood streets.

At the University of Calgary, one man asked Carney to autograph his chest. Carney laughed and declined.

Thursday’s pro-unity rally is the first of three Carney will headline ahead of Monday’s vote.

“There couldn’t be a worse time for this referendum,” he said Thursday. “It’s a dangerous and divided world, and you know it’s time for us to come together and stand up for ourselves and to take care of each other.”

Carney ran a winning election campaign on national unity amid U.S. President Donald Trump’s “51st state” provocations and trade war. In September, he hosted a global investment summit where organizers said more than C$500 billion was committed to new investment in Canada, much of it directed to Alberta.

At every stop of his get-out-the-vote tour, the prime minister repeated: “Canada is better with Alberta.”

At early polls this week, some Albertans said they hope Monday’s vote will put the separatist issue to rest. The pro-unity side wants a strong turnout to kill the movement’s momentum.

“The hardcore separatists … will crawl over broken glass to vote,” Alberta’s former United Conservative Party Premier Jason Kenney told POLITICO over the summer.

Some Albertans who oppose separation may still vote to pursue a binding referendum to “send Ottawa a message” or to reject “the status quo.”

Carney warned against that move. “Don’t be fooled by the idea,” he said. “This is not poker. A vote against Canada is a dangerous bluff that will lead to years of deep uncertainty and lost opportunities for Albertans and for Canadians.”

The push for Alberta separation is rooted in long-standing disputes with Ottawa over federal policies that Premier Danielle Smith says has stifled the province’s energy sector. Carney and Smith have a collaborative relationship, working to repeal environmental policies brought in by former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Kenney has warned that if at least 40% vote in favor of holding a legally binding referendum, it could lead to “freaking political chaos.”

“If you choose Team Canada on Monday, Albertans will go on powering the world, feeding the world, and healing the world,” Carney said. “Nobody achieves greatness on their own. Not a pro athlete … not one great city on a vast prairie, not a single province. It takes a team.”

Fonte: POLITICO – TOP Stories