Canadians gathered across the country to celebrate Canada Day, commemorating the nation’s birth 159 years ago. But beneath the festivities, two challenges are testing the country’s unity.
In the western province of Alberta, the anti-apartheid movement has gained momentum, and in a few months, Albertans will vote in the provincial sovereignty referendum.
In Quebec, the sovereigntist Parti Quebecois is currently leading in the upcoming provincial election. The party has pledged to hold a third referendum on independence in 2030 if it wins.
“It’s a year of pressures on Canadian national unity,” said André Lecours, a political science professor at the University of Ottawa.
Prime Minister Mark Carney finds himself in the middle of those conflicts, seeking to balance the competing interests of the provinces while holding the country together.
Canada is “worth fighting for”, he said last month, pledging to campaign for a united country in the coming months.
On Wednesday, Carney had planned to go to Edmonton, his hometown, on a symbolic visit for that country’s birthday, but the visit was canceled because of the weather.
In a statement on Canada Day, he said “there will always be forces that want to divide us”.
“They forget the foundation of this country: that unity is not the same, that our differences are a force to magnify rather than control dangers, and that our values serve as an unshakable foundation.”
Historian JDM Stewart says Canada’s vast territory and strong regional identity pose unique challenges.
“Because it is so big, and it is a region, it creates tensions that existed from the beginning, and today we are still struggling with them,” he said.
Quebec, a predominantly French-speaking province, strongly defends its identity and culture as a separate society, and has held referendums twice – in 1980 and 1995 – on whether it wants independence.
Opinion polls suggest that support for independence remains at around 30%, almost unchanged over the past few years.
Nevertheless, the Parti Quebecois enjoyed a boost ahead of the provincial election on October 5. Its leader unveiled a more than 500-page plan for an independent Quebec and pledged to hold a third referendum.
Alberta is facing a different debate.
Following a citizen-led push, Albertans will vote on October 19 to decide whether they want to remain part of Canada or hold a binding vote on secession in the future.
Polls suggest support for the “Leave” side stands at between 25% and 30%
Many of the agency’s supporters say the energy-rich province has long been overlooked by decision-makers in Ottawa, the national capital, and that environmental agency policies have hampered Alberta’s ability to build pipelines and develop its natural resources.
But Professor Lecours argues that this divisive pressure is different from the divisiveness of the West that has long been felt in the region, calling the current campaign the “germination” of right-wing populism.
“All these organizations in Alberta, not by accident, they all came out of a time of violence,” she said.
He also noted that the movement “occurred in the complete absence of any openly elected representative who openly supported independence”.
Carney, who served as governor of the Bank of England during Brexit, as the UK talked about leaving the EU, said he saw the dangers of the move to leave.
He said what happened in Alberta was “very reminiscent”.
“I have personally seen what is being sold in these polls. That everything will be easy. That you can keep your passport, you can keep your money. That you can live in the country and leave it at the same time.”
He said such disputes risked undermining Canada’s future “at a time when we are considered one of the most reliable, desirable and reliable countries to do business with – and we shouldn’t get that wrong”.
