Cory Morgan has spent more than 25 years fighting for Canada’s oil-rich province of Alberta to become an independent country. On Monday, Albertans will head to the polls to vote on the issue for the very first time. But even if the answer is no, Morgan said he’s in it for the long haul.
But that doesn’t mean I’ll stop.” Morgan, the founder of the advocacy organisation Pathway to Independence, is among a group of longtime separatists who have managed to push what was once a fringe idea onto the ballot. Monday’s provincial referendum asks Alberta residents to weigh whether they would like to pursue a binding resolution in the future on the question of independence. Polls indicate the pro-independence side has little chance of succeeding, with four of five people in the province saying they want Alberta to remain a part of Canada.
But Morgan’s focus is on the one in five who don’t. What the referendum will mean for the separatist movement and for Canada as a whole, however, is a more complicated question. Monday’s ballot gives Albertans two options: to remain part of Canada or begin the legal process for holding a future referendum on separation.
A vote in favour of the second option doesn’t mean Alberta immediately becomes an independent country. Any province that tries to secede would first have to go through complex negotiations with the federal government in Ottawa, other provinces and Indigenous peoples who live in and around Alberta. Some separatist organisers have been using that distinction to encourage people to vote for the referendum — even if they don’t necessarily want independence.
He told Al Jazeera that the message may be resonating with some voters. Data collected by Viewpoint Alberta, a University of Alberta-based research initiative, suggests that two-thirds of voters who support the referendum say they’re doing so for strategic reasons, to send a message to Ottawa. These are people Morgan calls “reluctant separatists”, people who are “at the end of their rope” and simply want Ottawa to pay attention.
But Prime Minister Mark Carney has warned Albertans against this strategy. A vote against Canada is a dangerous bluff that will lead to years of deep division and great uncertainty.” Monday’s referendum has been decades in the making. Separatists have long felt that Alberta, home to the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves, sends too much money to Ottawa, subsidising the rest of the country while receiving little in return.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
