Carney appeals for a 'decisive' vote to settle the Alberta independence question

Four days before the latest test of this 159-year-old Confederation — a nation that has given the world both insulin and Céline Dion — Mark Carney went to Calgary to make the case for carrying on.

"Canada isn't perfect, but we are the best," he said. "And we are getting better."

A day before Carney arrived, Naheed Nenshi, the leader of Alberta NDP and the former mayor of Calgary, was asked what he wanted to hear from the prime minister. Nenshi said Carney needed to make the argument that "Canada works."

"Canada works and it's worked well for Alberta," Nenshi told CBC's Power & Politics . "We're still the wealthiest province. We have record oil and gas production. People need to hear that message more."

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There is indeed a story to tell. Consider, for instance, Alberta's fabled oil industry , which has both benefited from national support and, in turn, created national benefit. That the success of each part of this country is bound up in the success of all others is a story too easy to forget.

From the stage on Thursday night, Carney did not literally say the words that Nenshi wanted to hear. But perhaps in so many words that was the message.

"Canada was never merely a bargain struck between provinces. It was never a series of transactions of gives and gets, of gross and net," Carney said. "Canada is a promise that is so much greater than the sum of its parts."

"This referendum, let's be clear, it comes at the worst possible time," the prime minister said on Thursday night .

The necessity or utility of this exercise is for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to defend. But this latest test of national unity is at least an excuse to make the case that Canada works — a case that perhaps can't be made enough.

That the prime minister limited his direct interventions in the campaign before now — though he has frequently been in Alberta in recent months for a series of significant announcements — was an interesting strategic choice , one that will be either redeemed or cast into doubt by next week's result. But his arrival to the campaign this week seemed designed to ward off complacency.

The basic result of Monday's referendum is perhaps not in much doubt. This is not a moment in which the future composition of Canada seems to balance on a knife's edge — and not only because the pivotal question on the ballot is only about whether to have another referendum.

Most polls suggest seven in 10 Albertans could vote against separation.

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