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Alberta voters have decisively rejected a proposal to hold a binding referendum on whether the province should leave Canada. Preliminary results showed the proposal lost by a three-to-one margin, according to CNN.
More than 500,000 people — about a quarter of voters — backed holding the vote, the first step towards possible secession. Separatist activist Jeffrey Rath said the result was not a setback for the movement.
“For a fledgling political movement, it was a major accomplishment and a hell of a victory,” Rath said on Tuesday, the morning after the vote.
Jared Wesley, a political scientist at the University of Alberta who campaigned for Alberta to remain in Canada, said the voters who supported a binding independence vote would remain a force in provincial politics.
“Alberta separatism is only one element of a much broader, far-right populist movement in Canada,” Wesley said.
The ballot also included five non-binding questions on immigration. They asked, among other things, whether the provincial government should take “increased control” over immigration and whether Alberta should require proof of citizenship to vote. Unofficial results indicated that all five had passed.
Wesley said separatists had more in common with the MAGA movement than with secessionist movements elsewhere, and could shift their focus to immigration after losing on independence. The movement’s links to right-wing figures in the United States, including US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and “SpaceX” founder Elon Musk, have also drawn attention.
Separatists cite US ties and referendum result
Cory Morgan, founder of the Alberta Independence Party in 2000, said the result showed that most Albertans did not want to separate and that the movement was not ready to advance its cause. He also said the campaign was overshadowed by the US-Canada trade war and US President Donald Trump’s threats to annex Canada.
Several separatists, including Rath, travelled to Washington to meet members of the Trump administration and seek support. Morgan said the visits may have damaged the movement’s standing with voters.
“It led to mistrust,” Morgan said. “I think that factor really did hinder the movement’s growth this year.”
Rath called his meetings with the Trump administration “very useful” for securing US support in the event Alberta became independent. He said Canadians concerned about the movement’s high-level contacts with the United States were being overly sensitive.
“Do people have a lot of ‘Trump derangement syndrome’ in Canada? Yeah,” Rath said. “It doesn’t take a lot to trigger them, and I’ll be frank – I’ve almost gone out of my way to trigger a lot of them.”
Quebec’s Parti Quebecois, which took control of the provincial legislature with just under a third of the vote, has pledged not to hold an independence referendum while Trump is president.
Wesley said concern about possible US annexation had reduced voters’ willingness to risk dividing Canada, while Morgan described the more than 500,000 votes for an independence vote as a solid base for the movement.
“And it’s not going away,” Morgan said.
