{"id":871513,"date":"2026-08-26T00:42:16","date_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:42:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/871513\/"},"modified":"2026-08-26T00:42:16","modified_gmt":"2026-08-26T00:42:16","slug":"rachel-notley-jason-kenney-co-chair-campaign-against-alberta-separation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/871513\/","title":{"rendered":"Rachel Notley, Jason Kenney co-chair campaign against Alberta separation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley meet in Edmonton, in 2019.JASON FRANSON\/The Canadian Press<\/p>\n

Two former Alberta<\/a> political foes are joining forces to make the case for the province to stay in Canada.<\/p>\n

The Canadian Chamber of Commerce says former premiers Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley are co-chairing its campaign to keep the country united.<\/p>\n

Kenney was a premier under the United Conservative Party, defeating Notley\u2019s NDP government in 2019.<\/p>\n

The chamber says the pair will lead the campaign in demonstrating that a prosperous Alberta includes Canada.<\/p>\n

The chamber says campaign details are still being worked out but it will be driven by discussions between the co-chairs and members.<\/p>\n

Albertans are set to vote in an Oct. 19 referendum on whether they want the province to remain in Canada or to hold a second, binding vote on quitting the country.<\/p>\n

Smith says Alberta could have a binding referendum on secession in early 2027<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cWith geopolitical and economic uncertainty reshaping global trade and investment, Canada will be only better off with greater economic co-operation \u2013 not less,\u201d chamber president Candace Laing said in a statement.<\/p>\n

Kenney has been outspoken all summer in condemning the separatist push in Alberta.<\/p>\n

He says separatism has been a fringe movement in the province and it threatens to undermine the resolution of legitimate provincial grievances with the federal government.<\/p>\n

Opinion: The Alberta referendum process has a trust problem<\/a><\/p>\n

Notley has blamed Premier Danielle Smith\u2019s UCP government for foisting what Notley calls a separatist agenda on Albertans.<\/p>\n

In a statement to The Canadian Press, she said she and Kenney disagree on plenty of things but agree the referendum is bad for business in Alberta and bad timing during a trade war with the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll no doubt be standing shoulder to shoulder on this up until we can put it to bed once and for all,\u201d Notley said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThen we can get back to respectfully debating issues from opposing sides in a healthy democracy, which is kind of the whole point we\u2019re making here.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Jason Kenney and Rachel Notley meet in Edmonton, in 2019.JASON FRANSON\/The Canadian Press…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":871514,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,43,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,41,39,42,40,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-871513","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-headlines","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871513","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=871513"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/871513\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871514"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=871513"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=871513"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=871513"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}