The Guardian view on Alberta’s referendum: Canada holds together – against Donald Trump | Editorial

Voters’ emphatic rejection of separation strengthens Mark Carney’s energy strategy in the face of a US trade war and threats Canadians are proving to be a voice of sanity.

In roundly rejecting the idea of separating from Canada, voters in the oil- and gas-rich province of Alberta sensibly backed the nation-building strategy of the prime minister, Mark Carney.

He has put Alberta at the centre of his plan to make Canada an energy superpower that is “ much less dependent on the United States ”.

Donald Trump’s trade war and threats last week to make Canada the 51st US state were a fillip for Mr Carney in Alberta, a landlocked western province where Liberal prime ministers have historically been unpopular.

The stakes were high: a successful separatist campaign would have handed Mr Trump leverage over Canada’s resource belt.

The result instead lets Mr Carney cast Alberta’s mineral wealth as a national asset, rather than allow separatists to define it as a regional grievance.

Continue reading...