Photo: Qwexcxewq / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0
Voters in the Canadian province of Alberta have decisively chosen to remain part of Canada in a referendum held on Monday, October 19. With well over a million ballots counted, about 76 per cent backed staying in the country, while roughly 24 per cent supported starting a process that could have led to a separate vote on independence, according to unofficial results from Elections Alberta.
The question did not ask voters directly whether Alberta should leave Canada. A win for the second option would have required the provincial government to begin the constitutional steps needed to hold a binding referendum on separation at a later date.
Relief in Ottawa and Edmonton
The outcome is a significant win for Prime Minister Mark Carney, who grew up in Alberta and has been trying to hold the country together during a bruising trade war with the United States. In a statement on Tuesday, he said the result showed that Albertans and the rest of Canada would move forward together.
They chose unity, to build together, and to take care of each other.
Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
Premier Danielle Smith, a conservative who said from the start that she would vote to remain, said she was “very pleased” by the early numbers and that Albertans had voted for “a stronger Alberta in a united Canada”. She is due to address the province on Tuesday evening, local time, about where it goes from here. Earlier this month she said she would not hold another independence vote while she remains premier if the remain side won.
At a Forever Canadian gathering in Edmonton, supporters cheered and chanted as the results came in. The group’s founder, Thomas Lukaszuk, said Alberta had shown it would not be the “weak link” in the federation, but urged dialogue with those who voted the other way.
Separatists vow to keep going
Independence campaigners did not concede the wider argument. Jeffrey Rath, a leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, told reporters the push for an independent Alberta would “absolutely” continue. Keith Wilson, co-leader of the Let Alberta Decide group, said it was significant that around a quarter of voters felt the province deserved better treatment within Canada.
Why the vote happened
Smith added the independence question to the ballot earlier this year after rival citizen petitions for and against separation gathered hundreds of thousands of signatures. Separatist anger has long centred on oil: Alberta holds the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves, and many residents blame federal climate and energy policies under former prime minister Justin Trudeau for holding the industry back. Carney has since worked with Smith on a new pipeline to export Alberta bitumen overseas.
The campaign also drew attention from Washington. US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent once described Alberta as a “natural partner” for the United States, and billionaire Elon Musk posted that the province should separate. The issue has also exposed a split inside Smith’s United Conservative Party, where polls suggested a slight majority of supporters favoured the separation option.
What comes next
Counting continues on the nine other questions on the ballot, five of them on immigration and four proposing constitutional changes. Carney had urged Albertans to reject those nine. Turnout is expected to be high: more than 1.3 million people voted early or by mail, and Elections Alberta had projected a record turnout of 80 to 85 per cent, far above the 60.5 per cent seen at the last provincial election. Results were slowed on Monday after more than 100 polling stations failed to open on time.
