Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has made a final appeal to voters in his home province of Alberta to reject separatism in an upcoming referendum. The oil-rich province will vote to decide if it wants to remain a Canadian province or begin the legal process toward separation from Canada.
As advance voting is already underway, Carney has campaigned for national unity, most recently speaking at a large pro-Canada rally in Calgary. He urged voters to push back against those who want to see the country break apart, arguing that it is important for Canada to display unity.
Carney warned that a referendum is a dangerous gamble at a time of growing threats to Canada’s sovereignty, stating that the vote comes at the worst possible time. He asserted that the world has become more dangerous and divided, claiming that some outside the country's borders are working to break Canada so they can own it. Specifically, the prime minister warned that the United States was employing a divide-and-rule tactic.