Albertans voted by a wide margin to stay in Canada, rejecting a push to begin the legal process toward a binding independence referendum, in results CBC News projected early Tuesday.
With most polls reporting, Elections Alberta's early count showed roughly 76.5 percent of voters opposed to starting the separation process and 23.6 percent in favor, on the marquee item of a 10-question referendum ballot Premier Danielle Smith's government called this year. Elections officials said more mail-in ballots remained to be counted overnight, but the gap was wide enough for CBC's decision desk to call the outcome within hours of polls closing Monday.
Prime Minister Mark Carney, who had campaigned in Calgary and Edmonton ahead of the vote at "Forever Canadian" rallies, welcomed the result in a statement.
On October 19, Albertans made a clear choice. They chose unity, to build together, and to take care of each other. Canada is so much greater than the sum of its parts.
Mark Carney, Prime Minister of Canada
Smith, who had pushed for the vote after years of friction between Edmonton and Ottawa over energy and climate policy, said on social media she was "very pleased" with the results, framing them as support for "a stronger Alberta in a united Canada." She is scheduled to address Albertans at 6:45 p.m. local time Tuesday to lay out, in her words, "where our province goes from here."
The ballot's other nine questions — on immigration limits, proof-of-citizenship voting requirements and a slate of constitutional changes, including letting provinces opt out of federal programs and appoint their own judges — remained too close to call for several contests, with "yes" leading most by single digits. Separatist leaders said the fight does not end with Monday's loss.
Tonight concludes a campaign, but the conversation about Alberta's future in Canada and our place in Canada and our role in Canada will continue.
Keith Wilson, Let Alberta Decide campaign co-leader
Alberta Prosperity Project leader Mitch Sylvestre said he would withhold final conclusions until every ballot was tallied. "I've never been a good loser," he told reporters at a Calgary watch party. Pre-vote polling had been inconsistent, with some surveys showing as little as a quarter and others more than a third of Albertans open to separation — sentiment that has simmered for years over federal emissions targets, equalization payments and pipeline disputes.
The vote, Canada's first province-wide referendum on secession outside Quebec, drew national attention as a test of western alienation under Carney's Liberal government. With the headline question settled, attention now turns to the full tally on the constitutional questions — and to whether Smith's United Conservative Party, which split internally over whether to hold the vote at all, can hold together after a result that leaves its most committed separatist wing empty-handed.
