Voters in Canada's Alberta have rejected a proposal to start being independent from the North American nation, results showed on Tuesday, depicting a major win for Prime Minister Mark Carney and his supporters of unity while US President Donald Trump pushes ahead with threats pertaining to annexation and a trade war.
The voting was not a direct move towards independence, instead would have made the oil-rich province of Alberta move more forward towards future separation from Canada.
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76% of over 1 million voters supported being united with Canada as compared to 23% who wanted to begin a separation process.
"We are a solid country that's united from coast to coast to coast," Thomas Lukaszuk, a former Alberta deputy premier who led the Forever Canadian campaign against separation, told supporters, as reported by AP.
Results came out a bit delayed after more than 100 polling stations were required to extend voting hours after late opening. Albertans were voting to decide if they would remain in Canada or begin a legal and legitimate process to have second vote towards independence.
Alberta, a province that has the world's fourth-largest proven oil reserves, is a conservation stronghold whose political culture has more resemblance with the American West than the country north of the United States. The major population here carries a shared sense of resentment towards Ottawa, but that has never really translated into support for separation.
Dustin Degenhardt, a Wainwright voter, said Albertans have long been mistreated by Ottawa.
"Alberta has essentially been treated as, you know, a colony," he said after voting Monday, as reported by AP. "They want to take and take and take from us and not return anything."
Taylor MacIsaac, another Wainwright voter, backed separation.
"I think it'll be good for Alberta to separate personally, as a very conservative individual that grew up in rural Alberta," she said.
Dave Malka, 59, of Edmonton, criticized spending money on a "referendum on a referendum" rather than health care.
With Trump threatening Canada, Malka said, "It seems to be happening at the absolute worst time when we should be united; instead we're fighting among ourselves."
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Jake Graham, 35, of Calgary, attended a Carney rally wearing maple leaf pants and a Canada hockey jacket. He hopes the vote ends the debate.
"I hope this squashes this for a long time to come and that it's clear and decisive, that these grumblings disappear for a while and we can be a united Canada," he said.
Despite a failure in garnering overwhelming supports, separations calls for the independence movement will not disappear.
Carney, earlier, asked Albertains to vote decisively to stay within Canada. "Vote like Canada's future depends on it because it does," he told a rally Friday in Edmonton, where he grew up.
Alberta's Premier, Danielle Smith, had called the referendum amid pressure from separatists within her United Conservative Party, even though she herself is against independence. Separatist parties in the region have traditionally received a meagre 1% or 2% of the vote, according to former Premier Jason Kenney. Anger over COVID-19 restrictions had aided activists who later became a part of the movement, he added.
Trump's threats to make Canada a 51st United States state and his growing trade war has helped Mark Carney gather support in the oil-rich province, where former Liberal prime ministers have generally been quite unpopular.
Jeff Rath, an advocate for separatism, said he would be thrilled if 30% of the voting population supported the process. He wants Smith ousted as leader of her governing United Conservative Party and said the party could splinter, potentially creating a new pro-independence party.