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<\/p>\nFord made the comments as they shared the stage to discuss the economy and energy policy at an industry conference.<\/p>\n
\t<\/p>\n
On Oct. 19, Albertans will vote in a referendum on whether to stay in Canada or whether it\u2019s time to hold a second, binding referendum on leaving Confederation.<\/p>\n
Both Ford and Smith were asked whether separatist debates in Quebec and Alberta are helping or hurting Canada as it tries to build the economy and develop its resources.<\/p>\n
Smith, prior to Ford responding, repeated her assertions that anger and estrangement had been building for years due to federal policies she has said undercut Alberta\u2019s ability to develop its oil and gas.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis anger has been growing for over a decade,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
She said under Prime Minster Mark Carney, the federal government has been more open and flexible to help Alberta grow. <\/p>\n
But she said the residual enmity toward Ottawa, coupled with hundreds of thousands of Albertans signing petitions in recent months for and against unity, mandated she call a referendum.<\/p>\n
\u201cI hope it\u2019s resolved on Oct. 19,\u201d Smith said, saying she plans to vote to stay in Canada.<\/p>\n
Critics, including the Opposition NDP, have said Smith\u2019s aim is not about unity or Canada but about trying to keep her United Conservative Party intact by placating its separatist wing with a referendum.<\/p>\n
Separatist leaders, however, have said that Smith\u2019s question represents not a decision but a vote to hold another vote. They have promised to keep fighting regardless of the outcome.<\/p>\n
The issue has become visible on the streets of the province, with red and white lawn signs supporting Canada vastly outnumbering separation blue ones. Recent polls suggested a broad majority of Albertans want to stay in Canada. <\/p>\n
Also in Calgary on Monday, the former leader of the United Kingdom during the Brexit referendum told another conference that you can\u2019t compare that debate to Alberta\u2019s prospective split from Canada.<\/p>\n
\u201cBrexit was about whether we wanted to stay in a trade association with an element of political union,\u201d David Cameron said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis (Alberta vote) is about the future of a country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cameron led the United Kingdom for six years ahead of the 2016 Brexit vote and through Scotland\u2019s vote on independence in September 2014. In both votes, he was vying for the status quo and resigned after the Brexit vote succeeded.<\/p>\n
Speaking about Scotland\u2019s referendum vote, he called the idea of a fragmented United Kingdom an \u201cabsolute tragedy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was very nervous about it because if you have a referendum, you can\u2019t guarantee what the results are going to be,\u201d Cameron said.<\/p>\n
In the end, Scotland narrowly voted against separation.<\/p>\n
Despite criticism that he should have never called the Scottish vote, Cameron stood by his decision, stating the alternative would be escalating resentment. He said he hoped he could ultimately avoid separation by showing the Scots respect and enabling the vote on independence as they had asked.<\/p>\n
Cameron said he agreed to most of the stipulations from the governing Scottish National Party. But he insisted that the referendum be one, uncomplicated question, which drew chuckles from the crowd. <\/p>\n
Smith\u2019s referendum question is one of 10 that voters will pass judgment on. Her government has been criticized for the complicated and wordy language of its referendum proposals, particularly the separation question.<\/p>\n
Cameron also noted that the referendum vote in Scotland did not quell the separatists\u2019 desire for independence. <\/p>\n
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n
Dayne Patterson and Bill Graveland, The Canadian Press<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ford made the comments as they shared the stage to discuss the economy and energy policy at an…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":913656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[194293],"tags":[879,49,2798,48,2467,2461,2468,2460,2462,2463,44,2464,2465,2466,82],"class_list":["post-913655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-calgary","tag-breaking-news","tag-ca","tag-calgary","tag-canada","tag-central-vancouver-island","tag-nanaimo","tag-nanaimo-breaking-news","tag-nanaimo-news","tag-nanaimo-news-now","tag-nanaimonewsnow","tag-news","tag-oceanside","tag-parksville","tag-qualicum","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913655","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=913655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/913655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/913656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=913655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=913655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=913655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}