Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said he and all Conservative MPs will press for Alberta to remain part of Canada in any separatist referendum campaign in the province.
“I’m a strong Canadian federalist, a proud Albertan and a proud Canadian. I want a strong Alberta within a united Canada, and all Conservatives will be campaigning for Canadian unity in Alberta,” Poilievre said at a news conference in North Vancouver on Thursday.
“I will be campaigning across the province of Alberta, encouraging Albertans to stay as part of the Canadian family and encouraging nationwide unity for all Canadians.”
He also said the Conservatives would do the same if the Parti Québécois forms a government in Quebec and launches another separation referendum campaign in that province.
“It is the job of the prime minister of Canada to unite the country,” Poilievre said.
“As prime minister in waiting, I will begin that work myself.”
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith is scheduled to hold a televised address Thursday evening as her United Conservative Party government considers adding a question about Alberta’s future in Confederation to a slate of referendum questions in October.
A Wednesday legislative committee meeting meant to debate a potential referendum question was derailed when Smith’s government issued a press release saying the committee had voted in favour of holding a referendum on the province remaining in Canada — before the vote actually took place.
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The vote was then delayed as the committee dealt with that issue, but was set to resume later Thursday.
Poilievre said Prime Minister Mark Carney should do more to quell separatist sentiment in Alberta by pushing resource development, eliminating red tape for small businesses and dropping the gun buyback program.
The Conservative leader took aim at the last decade of Liberal governance in Ottawa and claimed separatist movements were seen as a thing of the past when Stephen Harper was prime minister.
“There was absolutely no separation movement whatsoever in Alberta. And the PQ and the (Bloc Québécois), the two separatist parties in Quebec, they didn’t even exist anymore. They had been wiped off the electoral map,” Poilievre said.
“It’s worth asking how the current prime minister is doing in that regard, given the situation in both Quebec and in Alberta.”
Carney has been making overtures to Alberta since taking office, including firming up an agreement last week that adjusted federal climate polices, including industrial carbon pricing, and backed plans to advance a new oil pipeline to the Pacific Coast.
The agreement set a target date for the pipeline’s completion in 2033 or 2034.
The prime minister also held a private meeting with B.C. Premier David Eby on Wednesday to talk about the pipeline deal and projects the provincial NDP government is looking to advance.
Eby has been highly critical of the agreement between Ottawa and Alberta, saying there is no private proponent for a pipeline and Alberta shouldn’t be rewarded for “behaving badly” — a reference to a potential separation referendum.
— With files from Wolfgang Depner in Victoria and Jack Farrell in Edmonton, The Canadian Press
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