The promises made during separation campaigns can be a “very dangerous bluff,” Prime Minister Mark Carney said on Monday ahead of an Alberta separatism referendum question later this year.
“This is an observation from experience. In these separation issues, it is often advanced that vote for this and it’s a free option. Vote for this and we will strengthen our hand in future negotiation. That is a very dangerous bluff,” Carney told reporters in Ottawa Monday.
Carney, who was the governor of the Bank of England during the 2016 Brexit referendum in the U.K., said he has seen how these campaigns play out.
“I saw first-hand what happened in the United Kingdom when the view was vote for this, it will be (a) soft (exit) and then we’ll negotiate, etc. They’re still, 10 years later, trying to undo what people didn’t think they were voting for,” he added.
Alberta is set to have a referendum on whether or not to pursue separating from Canada this fall.
“I certainly will be campaigning for Canadian unity,” Carney said, adding that the campaign will be through “actions” and not just words.
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“It’s practising co-operative federalism, with Alberta, with Quebec, with all provinces and territories in the country, with Indigenous Peoples as well.”
While he was leading the Bank of England, Carney warned that leaving the European Union might spark a recession in the U.K.
A recent report said the U.K.’s economy has shrunk eight per cent in the nine years since Brexit.
Being part of a united Canada brings “many economic advantages” for Alberta, Carney said, such as “being part of our large market, being part of free trade agreements with 1.5 billion people around the world.”
“Canadians take care of each other. We take care of each other in our social programs, we take care of each other across different provinces. We look out for each other internationally,” he said.
The governments of Canada and Alberta have agreed to establish a carbon pricing system and agreed on a start date for a new oil pipeline that will be used to export energy to Asian markets, Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said earlier this month.
The agreements are part of a broader energy memorandum of understanding signed by Smith and Carney in November 2025.
Smith announced last week that an October referendum question will ask Albertans if they want to remain in Canada or start the process to hold a binding referendum on separation.
The annual western premiers conference kicks off in Alberta on Monday.
Leaders of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the Northwest Territories and the Yukon are to discuss business and their neighbouring relationships during the two-day conference in Kananaskis, west of Calgary.
B.C. Premier David Eby has remarked about the irony of a meeting with Canadian leadership in a province where the premier, in his words, “appears to be setting the table to leave the country.”
— with files from The Canadian Press
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