In Canada Alberta, national unity is on the newsletter

The threat to Canada’s sovereignty by US President Donald Trump dominates the election, but the country is also facing a challenge from the inside. Some Western Canadians, fed by a decade of liberal government, have openly summoned for separation.

Standing in front of a crowd of about 100, pulled into a small evening hall in the city of Letbridge, Dennis Modi asks the locals for the future of Alberta.

Who thinks Alberta should play a bigger role in Canada, he asks? A dozen or thus lift their hands.

Who thinks the province should insist on separation from Canada and form its own nation? About half of the crowd raise their hands.

“How many people would Alberta want to join the US?” Another show of support from half of the crowd.

Mr. Modi, a retired cardiac surgeon, is a co-leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, an organization of basic funds that insists on a referendum on independence.

The ability to split has long been a point of speaking in this conservative province. But two factors gave him a new impulse: Trump’s comments about turning Canada into the 51st US State and the subsequent impetus he gave to the Liberal Party in the ballot box before the federal elections on Monday.

Modi told the BBC that the separatist movement has grown in recent months – it is partly moving from the rhetoric of the president.

“We are not interested in this,” he said. “We are interested in Alberta’s sovereignty.”

However, Jeffrey Rath – a lawyer and a ranch of Calgary, who is another of the co -founders of the project – was not so rejected Trump’s 51st state proposal. Although he agrees that independence is a priority, he can see a future in which Alberta joins the United States.

“We have a much more cultural common with our neighbors south in Montana … (s) with our cousins ​​in Texas than anywhere else,” he said.

Previously, political borders, the possibility of a crisis of unity was discussed in the open.

In an opinion on The Globe and Mail National newspaper, Preston Manning – Albertan considered one of the founders of the modern conservative movement in Canada – warned that “a large number of Westerners will simply not stand for four more years of liberal government, no matter who is leading it.”

Accusing the party of poor management of national affairs and ignoring the priorities of Western Canadians, he added: “Voting of Carney’s liberals is a vote for Western secession – a vote for the breakup of Canada, as we know it.”

This sense of “alienation in the West”, a term used to describe the feeling that the region is often overlooked by politicians in the capital of Canada is nothing new. For decades, many of the reasons rich in oil and gas, Alberta and Saskathan have reconciled how they are insufficiently presented, despite the economic importance of the region for the country as a whole.

This resentment has grown under the liberal government of former Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, which has brought to environmental policies that some Albertans consider as a direct attack on the economic growth of the region.

National polls suggest that the liberals, now under the leadership of Mark Carney, can be directed to their fourth consecutive victory, they come an election day on Monday. That it can come in part because of a jump in support in Ontario and Quebec – the eastern provinces, where so much of the population is concentrated – only adds to the regional division.

Judy Schneider, whose husband works in the Calgary oil industry, told the BBC that he would vote yes to a referendum on independence.

She said she did not see Carney, who spent most of the last decade of Canada, but was raised in Edmonton, the capital of Alberta as a Westerner.

“He can come and say” I’m from Alberta, “But right?” said G -Ja Schneider.

Independent Alberta remains an incredible perspective – a Angus Reid recent poll He assumed that only one in four Albertana would vote to leave Canada if a referendum is held now. Most of the Canadians, however, believe the issue should be taken seriously, Separate Nanos PollS

Political analysts say that the division will be a challenge for the next Prime Minister of the country, especially if Carney wins. And even a victory for the Calgary-born conservative leader Pierre Polyver “would not solve the imbalance that currently exists between the East and the West,” says Mr Modri, the activist.

This broader moods of the premiere of Alberta Daniel Smith, who leads the United Conservative Party, to start his own path in trade conversations with the United States, while other provincial leaders and the federal government have coordinated their efforts closely. She even visited Trump at his Mar-lago home in Florida.

In Canada, Smith has publicly warned of a “crisis of national unity” if Alberta’s demands – which focus on the cancellation of environmental laws from the Trudo era to accelerate oil and gas production – are not implemented by the new prime minister within six months of the election.

While Smith rejected conversations about frankly separation as “nonsense”, critics accused her of igniting the flames at such a consistent moment for the future of Canada.

Even those within the separatist movement have different ideas on how to best achieve their goals.

Lorna Giton, born and raised Albertan and a volunteer from the Alberta Prosperity Project, told the BBC in Letbridge that her goal is to have a better relationship with the rest of Canada.

She described the current Union as “violated” and believes that a referendum or the threat of it will give Albertans a “leverage” in future negotiations with Ottawa.

But D -Jan Giton also rejected any idea of ​​becoming a 51st US state.

“They have enough of their own problems. Why would I like to be a part of that?” she said. “I would soon be my independent, sovereign province or province with a better deal in Canada.”

On his ranch outside the Calgary at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, there is a different view.

As he strives for his racial horses, he talks about the political and social attitudes of a free enterprise and the small government, which are shared by Albertans and many Americans.

“From this point of view, I would see that Alberta is suitable in the United States,” he said.

He is currently drawing up a delegation to “establish facts” to travel to Washington and bring traffic directly to the Trump administration.

However, many voters in Alberta completely reject the concept of independence, even if they agree that the province has been neglected.

Steve Laklane of Letbridge agrees that the West has no representation in Ottawa, but said, “We already have a separation and we have to get together.”

And the liberals are not entirely excluded from the province. The polls suggest that Alberta could send more liberal MPs to Ottawa than in 2021, partly because of the changing demography that led to the creation of new riding in urban Edmonton and Calgary.

James Forester, who lives in the Calgary Center Battleground area, told the BBC that he has traditionally voted conservatively, but has leaned left in recent years. This time he will vote Liberal for Carney Factor.

“I feel that he is the best person who handles Trump,” he said. As for the mood of the separation: “I’m not worried about it.”

Additional reporting and videos by Eloise Alanna