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RED DEER — Canada’s prime minister and Alberta’s premier tapped a keg, had a beer, sang O Canada and made a last-ditch pitch Friday for the province to stay in Confederation.
It was a Maple Leaf love affair for Prime Minister Mark Carney and Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.
About 50 people squeezed in and jockeyed for position inside Red Hart Brewing in Red Deer, Alta. They wore Canada shirts, hats, sweaters, jerseys and pins. There were mayors, members of parliament and former Alberta premier Ed Stelmach.
Smith walked in first, followed by the prime minister to the chants of “Carney! Carney!”
Outside, there were another 100 supporters. Across the street, a lone protester with an Alberta flag strode back and forth.
In a short speech, Carney channelled author Charles Dickens. The prime minister said Monday’s separation referendum comes as globalist forces and policies threaten Canada and the province as it stands on the cusp of unprecedented growth and success.
“We’re here in both the best and worst of times,” said Carney.
Albertans are being asked whether the province should remain in Canada or hold a second, binding referendum on separation.
Smith has said it’s time for Albertans to decide on the issue and that she prefers a sovereign Alberta in a united Canada. She said earlier this week that she voted at an advance poll for Alberta to stay.
At the brewery, she and Carney praised each other as sharp-eyed, flinty negotiators who fight for their positions but want the best for Canada. They said they’re making progress, including with a proposed fast-tracked oil pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast.
“For the first time in a long time, Alberta and Canada are walking together,” Smith said.
They are, however, agreeing to disagree when it comes to the rest of Smith’s referendum.
The leaving-Canada question is one of 10 on the ballot. Smith wants Albertans to endorse nine other proposals.
Those proposals urge her government to take more control and impose new rules surrounding immigration and to pursue constitutional changes that wrest power from Ottawa. Smith has said she needs that mandate to negotiate a better deal with Ottawa.
On Thursday, Carney urged Albertans to reject the nine proposals. Smith said she’ll work to change his mind.
As the brewery crowd looked on, Smith handed Carney an explanatory booklet, adding, “I have bad news for you, prime minister, all of the premiers are interested in talking about immigration and how we might be able to reform it.”
When it was all over, Carney and one of the brewery owners tapped a keg, and Carney and Smith were handed a beer.
Earlier Friday, Poilievre, in a speech in Calgary, said he understands separatist disillusionment with the state of affairs in Canada but said quitting isn’t the answer.
“Quitting is the easy way out — and Albertans are not quitters,” Poilievre said.
“We don’t just take our ball and go home. We don’t walk away. We stand and fight for what we believe in, and we reflect upon all that we have.”
Poilievre said countries like Canada are built, defended, reimagined and reinforced by generations honouring those who came before.
“Some even died (in wars) so that we can have the country that we have today,” Poilievre said. “They had to be strong so that we could be free.”
He said he gets how people are unhappy with rising costs and what he characterized as a lax justice system, an out-of-control immigration program and federal policies that curtail resource development. But he urged Albertans to see the bigger picture.
“To those people who are thinking about taking out their frustration on the current government by voting for separation in the referendum, I say this: Canada is more than a government.
“It is a people, a flag, a land, a history and a promise.”
Later Friday, Carney was to attend a rally in Edmonton with the federalist group Forever Canadian. He attended a similar one in Calgary on Thursday night.
At that event, he told a crowd of roughly 5,000 that a vote against Canada is a dangerous bluff that could lead to years of lost opportunities.
Polls have suggested a strong majority of Albertans will vote to stay in Canada, but leaders stress that voter apathy could open the door to a winning vote for separation.
Albertans have been voting by mail and, for more than a week, at advance polls in numbers that suggest the final count could set a record.
Smith called the referendum earlier this year. She said bubbling discontent with past federal policies recently reached a boiling point with hundreds of thousands signing petitions for and against staying in Confederation. She said a referendum is needed to resolve the issue once and for all.
Critics, however, say Smith isn’t resolving a broad-based existential debate. Instead, they say, she has inflamed and validated latent fringe separatist sentiment, rolling the dice on the future of the country to appease hardliners in her United Conservative Party.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 16, 2026.
— With files from Dayne Patterson in Calgary
Jack Farrell, The Canadian Press
