Canadian prime minister Mark Carney has put Alberta's oil industry at the centre of his plans to solidify Canada's economy and reduce dependence on the US. (EPA Images pic)TORONTO: Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney campaigned for national unity in Alberta on Thursday, before the oil-rich province votes on whether it wants a binding independence referendum.
Polling indicates less than a quarter of Alberta's roughly five million people want to break away from Canada, but Carney, who grew up in the western province, said "polls don't vote".
"We need people to show up and vote and stand up for Alberta, stand up for Canada," he said during a television interview in Calgary.
Speaking later with local business leaders, Carney said he couldn't think of a "worse time to have a referendum," citing a "more dangerously divided world" and friction with the US.
