‘Stronger together’: B.C.’s Eby sends Thanksgiving message to Albertans

BC NDP Leader David Eby has issued a Thanksgiving message encouraging Albertans to vote for unity with Canada in next week’s referendum on their province’s place in Confederation.

Eby says his party’s candidates are proud of a Canada that includes Alberta, and he hopes the province votes to stay with the rest in the country on Oct. 19, rather than support a second, binding referendum on leaving.

He says in Sunday’s message on social media that the two provinces have bonds of family, friendship and business and are “stronger together.” 

A campaign spokeswoman says Eby went to a pumpkin patch in Delta, B.C., with his family on Sunday and they’ll spend time on Monday having fish and chips with the children’s grandparents, in a family Thanksgiving tradition.

B.C. Conservatives’ interim leader Lorne Doerkson says in a statement that he spent Thanksgiving in Vancouver “a long way” from his own kitchen table in Williams Lake, B.C., where there would typically be “too much turkey and a house full of family.”

A campaign spokesman says Doerkson is instead marking Thanksgiving with campaign volunteers, a day after visiting a food bank.

The BC Greens did not immediately respond when asked how Leader Emily Lowan was marking Thanksgiving, although her schedule said she would be canvassing and attending a meet-and-greet event on Monday.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 12, 2026.