Federal Tories launch ‘Conservatives for Canada’ campaign ahead of Alberta referendum

The federal Conservatives have launched a campaign to engage their supporters and encourage them to vote to stay in Canada in the upcoming Alberta referendum.

Albertans are set to vote on Oct. 19 on whether they want to remain a province or begin the legal process to hold a binding referendum on leaving the country.

In a speech he delivered in Calgary this summer, Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre called for Albertans to stay united and argued that separatists have a problem not with Canada but with the Liberal government.

“We don’t need a different country in Alberta, we need different government policies in Ottawa,” Poilievre said on June 8.

Parkland MP Dane Lloyd was named the caucus lead on the remain campaign.

“We are engaging conservative Albertans with a message, and the message is not that everything’s all right,” he said in an interview on Friday.

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He said Albertans feel like “their voice isn’t being heard, that their values are not being respected” by the federal government.

1:46 Hundreds attend Alberta separation and pro-Canada rallies in Calgary, Edmonton

That feeling persists, he said, in spite of the fact that Prime Minister Mark Carney’s Liberals cancelled the consumer carbon price, signed a memorandum of understanding with Alberta Premier Danielle Smith on resource development and referred a West Coast pipeline for approval as a project in the national interest.

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Lloyd said the people he’s spoken with at roundtables “still view themselves as patriotic Canadians” but they’re frustrated with the way the province has been treated by federal governments dating back decades — with the exception of former prime minister Stephen Harper’s Conservatives.

At a time when national pride is growing stronger across the country as a result of the trade war with the United States, “we need to engage that patriotism,” Lloyd said.

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Polls suggest the vast majority of Albertans want to remain in Canada.

4:39 Road to the Referendum: Ipsos on poll showing Alberta separatism support is dropping

Some of the groups actively lobbying for people to vote to begin the referendum process are arguing that a yes vote would create leverage with Ottawa.

Polling also suggests that separatism is primarily a right-wing issue and that a sizable amount of support for separation is coming from supporters of Smith’s United Conservative Party.

Poilievre said earlier this summer that “all Conservatives will be campaigning for Canadian unity in Alberta.”

Poilievre has been in Alberta over the summer to attend the Calgary Stampede and a slate of events in his riding of Battle River-Crowfoot.

7:32 How should the Conservative Party approach the trade war?

The Conservatives for Canada group launched a website on Friday and released a statement on social media.

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Asked why the campaign was launched six weeks before the vote, and just over two weeks before MPs are set to return to Ottawa, Lloyd said he spent the summer meeting with people and it became clear that a concerted campaign was needed.

“As you know, during referendums the voter turnout can be very low. And I think it’s critically important that we engage at least the 1.4 million Albertans that voted Conservative in the last election to get out and vote for a stronger Alberta within a United Canada,” he said.

Elections Alberta said this week it is anticipating high turnout.

The provincial elections agency said it’s received 290,000 requests for mail-in ballots so far, and that its polling suggests voter turnout could reach a record-breaking 85 per cent.

Lloyd said the “grassroots campaign” is operating within Elections Alberta’s rules.

The campaign website prominently features donation buttons and offers information about how to vote and to volunteer.