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CALGARY: Oil-rich Alberta holds a nonbinding referendum on Monday on whether the western province should secede from Canada, a debate many believe will \u200bnot be settled by what is widely expected to be a defeat for the separatist cause.<\/strong><\/p>\n Polls have consistently shown that a majority of \u200cAlberta voters oppose splitting from Canada. Economic grievances have fueled the independence campaign in the province, which is home to 5 million people and slightly smaller than Texas despite having one-sixth the population.<\/span><\/p>\n The Alberta separatist movement adds to the pressures on Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who has made defending Canada\u2019s sovereignty a central mission as he confronts US tariffs and \u200bPresident Donald Trump\u2019s repeated calls for Canada to become the 51st state.<\/span><\/p>\n Many Alberta separatists believe the Liberal Party-led federal government in Ottawa has constrained the Conservative-governed province\u2019s oil industry \u200bthrough environmental policies, and that Alberta, the country\u2019s energy heartland, contributes more to Canada\u2019s economy than it receives in return.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCanada has \u2060an imbalanced system which feeds the central population and government at the expense of the outlying producing provinces such as Alberta,\u201d said Cory Morgan, founder of \u200ba pro-separation advertising organization called Pathway to Independence.<\/span><\/p>\n Carney, who grew up in Alberta, spent much of the past week campaigning for the \u201cstay\u201d side, urging supporters to vote and \u200bappealing to national pride.<\/span><\/p>\n Polls are scheduled to close at 8 p.m. MDT on Monday (0200 GMT on Tuesday) with results published as they arrive.<\/span><\/p>\n An Angus Reid poll released Friday showed 66% of Albertans plan to vote to remain in Canada, but three in five believe \u201cthere will never be an end to the separatist movement\u201d in the province.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cThis issue is not going away now. \u200bBecause the separatists are mobilized. They\u2019ve networked. They\u2019re connected,\u201d said Mount Royal University political scientist Duane Bratt in Calgary.<\/span><\/p>\n While separatist sentiment has existed in the province for \u200bdecades, Premier Danielle Smith is the first Alberta leader to put the question to voters. Smith, who has urged Albertans to remain in Canada, called the referendum after months of pressure from \u200ca small \u2060but vocal flank of her governing United Conservative Party.<\/span><\/p>\n If a majority votes in favor, Smith has said she would seek a binding referendum on separation.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cSeparating, to my point of view, is completely ridiculous,\u201d said Ross Watson of Calgary after casting his ballot in favor of \u201cremain\u201d in an advance poll last week.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cI think the grievances that people have are completely unfounded. But I also think these people will probably never shut up.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n Monday\u2019s referendum is the first time a vote on separation \u200bfrom the rest of Canada has \u200bbeen held in a province outside majority \u2060French-speaking Quebec, where separatist sentiment derives from language and cultural differences.<\/span><\/p>\n In Alberta, the issue is more about dollars than identity. Carney has appealed to national pride in arguing Alberta should remain part of Canada.<\/span><\/p>\n \u201cCanada is not a transaction between provinces. It\u2019s \u200bnot about gross and net, gives and gets,\u201d Carney said Friday in Red Deer, Alberta.<\/span><\/p>\n Partly to address the grievances \u200bthat have driven separatist \u2060sentiment in Alberta, Carney has overturned some environmental policies and supported a proposed oil pipeline that would increase Alberta\u2019s exports to Asia.<\/span><\/p>\n Among the one-third of Albertans who would vote in favor of a future binding referendum on separation, 60% told pollsters their motivation was to \u201csend a message\u201d to Canada\u2019s federal government. Only 37% of respondents to the Angus Reid poll said their \u2060motivation was \u200ban independent nation.<\/span><\/p>\n Separatist groups have published transition plans, but key questions about how independence would work \u200bon issues such as defence, currency and border controls remain unresolved.<\/span><\/p>\nSENDING A MESSAGE<\/span><\/h2>\n