Alberta remains in Canada. And now the real work begins

Mark Lawson is the former deputy chief of staff to the Premier of Ontario and the former chief of staff to Ontario’s minister for economic development and trade.

Albertans have now spoken, rejecting separation. While this two-step was different from referendums of the past in Quebec, it risks creating the same persistent conditions for investment uncertainty that hampered Quebec’s growth after that province’s 1980 and 1995 votes on leaving Canada.

To avoid a similar outcome, leaders in business and politics outside of Alberta will need to step up to ensure that growth in the province is not hampered in the aftermath of its referendum.

Some would argue that with the pro-Canada camp having achieved victory, further actions are unnecessary and would pander to an irrelevant minority. This is to treat separatism as policymakers have in the past, as something to be handled episodically rather than strategically. Moreover, in this moment, it will prove challenging for the federal government to make an investment case to the world if the country is viewed as having continuing threats of separation.

Measures that are good for Alberta should be viewed as good for the country. Policies should create the opportunity for more growth and greater connection between regions, leading to economic growth and diminishing threats of separation across the country. The alternative is to view this referendum as another episode in the country’s history and to miss the moment.

Live updates on the Alberta referendum

Leaders must collaborate on a strategy that puts Alberta at the heart of pulling the country even closer together.

Projects that would bind and reinforce ties with the rest of Canada dominated the campaign, creating a subtext that the national policies that contributed to growing separatist sentiment were being removed at speed. At the news conference announcing the Pacific Link, an oil pipeline from Alberta to the B.C. coast, Prime Minister Mark Carney stated that “great feats often begin with adversity,” a nod both to that subtext and to the great potential on the province’s horizon.

At this summer’s Calgary Stampede, Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced his own government’s interest in a pipeline that would run from Alberta to Ontario’s petrochemical and refining hub at Sarnia. During the referendum campaign, he travelled to Calgary to announce that Ontario would be willing to serve as an investor in the project, known as the Northern Shield Energy Corridor.

While the announcement of these projects is necessary, it is their ultimate delivery that will demonstrate a national commitment to tying the country together.

Projects like these have the potential to physically bind Alberta to the country for a new generation, the way they have in the past. In the 1950s, the construction of the 3,600-kilometre Trans-Canada Pipeline from Alberta to Quebec was a massive undertaking. For the people who worked on the project, that memory and work served as part of a national storyline, of a country connecting to itself.

Tegan Hill: Alberta remains, and so does its frustration on equalization and energy policy

Through delivery and construction, projects such as Pacific Link and Northern Shield have the potential to similarly create a generation of workers across the country who contribute to and benefit from transporting Alberta resources to new markets. If both projects move forward, thousands of Canadians would see themselves as earning a good living and as part of an industry too often viewed as provincial to Alberta, rather than as a national undertaking.

Talent attraction and connection are also critical for unity. Migration to and from Alberta remains hampered by regulatory bodies across the country that delay out-of-province credential recognition. In 2025, the Alberta-Ontario Memorandum of Understanding committed to go beyond the existing Canadian Free Trade Agreement by directly aligning regulated occupations and registration systems. This work, if concluded successfully, could serve as a model for all provinces to adopt.

As Canada pursues the work to see more students spend a year in Europe on exchange, Canada’s higher learning institutions should encourage and clear hurdles to increase students who take advantage of in-Canada exchanges. A student at McGill or Dalhousie spending a year at the University of Calgary or the University of Lethbridge returns home with a greater understanding of the country, enhancing the likelihood that they might return one day for work or to raise a family. The inverse could be true as institutions outside of the province fast-track and market more robust student exchange programs with Alberta-based institutions.

Leaders in business and politics should gather next summer at the Calgary Stampede (which should be the location of Canada’s next investment summit) committed to a plan that brings jobs and investment to Alberta, with policies and projects that create growth and opportunity across the country. In many ways, the work to keep the country together begins today.