Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre said Friday he will be in Alberta just days before the province’s referendum to deliver a speech on Canadian unity.
The House of Commons will be on a break next week after MPs head back to their ridings for the Thanksgiving weekend.
Poilievre is scheduled to deliver his speech during the Canada Strong and Free Network (formerly the Manning Centre) conference in Calgary on Oct. 16.
The schedule lists the title of Poilievre’s speech keynote: “The Canadian Drift: Reclaiming Confidence, Abundance and Freedom for Alberta.”
His speech is expected to be followed by an address from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who will also take part in a fireside with columnist Rick Bell.
Jason Kenney will also be speaking at the gathering of movers and shakers in conservative politics.
The former premier, who has been fiercely vocal about staying in Canada, is set to participate in a debate and fireside chat titled ” The Sovereignty Vote and the Path Forward” alongside Calgary Confederation CPC hopeful Elan Harper, Fraser Institute fellow and law professor Bruce Pardy and former MLA-turned-publisher of the Western Standard Derek Fildebrandt.
Poilievre told a press conference in Burlington, Ont., on Friday he will also be doing “additional campaigning on the ground” in Alberta.
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“We encourage all Canadians of all parties to join in uniting all Canadians to make ourselves safe, affordable, and fully independent here at home,” Poilievre said.
When asked about tech industrialist Elon Musk saying recently that Alberta, Saskatchewan and Quebec should separate, Poilievre said “Canadians control their own destiny.”
“Frankly, people can tweet whatever they want, but tweets and memes do not affect Canada. What affects Canada is the decisions made by the Canadian people,” he added.
The premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan brushed off Musk’s comments, while Quebec’s new premier has said he won’t trigger a separation vote while U.S. President Donald Trump is in office.
Prime Minister Mark Carney said the future of Canada will be decided by Canadians when asked Thursday about Musk’s comments at a press conference in Sherbrooke, Que.
While born in South Africa, Musk holds Canadian citizenship and has lived in several parts of the country.
His mother was born and raised in Saskatchewan, where the tech titan spent time living and working on a family farm as a teenager.
He moved on to Vancouver before attending Queen’s University in Ontario, where he met his first wife.
Alberta Conservative MP Dane Lloyd has been tasked with leading the federal Conservatives’ unity campaign in the province.
Responding to reports in The Globe and Mail about Alberta separatists allegedly seeking the help of the U.S. government in exchange for potential water rights and oil royalties, Lloyd said Monday “no one has the right to promise away Alberta’s birthright.”
Lloyd stopped short of describing that activity as foreign interference, saying more information needs to be gathered.
Mitch Sylvestre of the separatist Alberta Prosperity Project denied offering oil and water rights to the U.S. in his group’s three conversations with U.S. State Department officials in Washington. He also said he only attended one of those meetings.
Albertans will vote on the prospect of a future separation referendum, along with nine other questions involving constitutional and immigration issues, on Oct. 19.
— With files from Karen Barto, Global News and The Canadian Press reporter Jack Farrell in Edmonton
“Anti-Canada Anonymous”
The slur from the LPC on anyone who doesn’t buy their 12 years of bull.
Two brain-dead commenters below fighting for the one brain cell, yes canada is a lost cause
Hey Rich, stop making assumptions. The first that I am somehow “upset”. Showing Carney’s flaws is not upsetting. The more people who see them the better. Educating saps is nice, some like you who Loblaws tried to please with Orange juice marked with “Prepared in Canada’ because Mike Myers told you “elbows up”
And you continue to miss the relevance of what JT did when he shut parliament when he did. Our government ministers, the ones who hadn’t already announced they were resigning, were busy electioneering and campaigning in their ridings. We had no one speaking to the Trump administration. The Association of Premiers were the only organized group speaking to the Trump administration during that period. Our federal government instead took pot shots with catchphrase to score votes.
106,000+ Canadians left in 2024, a 57 year record. 120,000+ left in 2025. These were people established and industrious enough to take the chance to move elsewhere. Even before tariffs, we as a nation had the GDP per capita of Alabama, the 4th poorest US state. Now its probably worse. Canada was the third-lowest among 30 advanced OECD economies for per capita GDP growth between 2014 and 2022. Canadians rank forth highest in overall per capita indebtedness among advanced OECD countries.
But sure, keep blaming tariffs, Pierre, Santa, or anyone but the party who has been in power for 12 years. I am sure that you believe that handing them 3 or 4 more years was the right thing to do.
Anti-Canada Anonymous. Not much to add to the comments by Pro-Canada Anonymous except to say that your view of Parliament is skewed. You keep saying that the Liberals delayed the election to stop Poilievre from forming a government. You miss the point that the Liberals were not required to call an election to help the Conservatives. You say that the Liberals had a back room deal with the NDP to support the Government, but it wasn’t a backroom deal because they did it out in the open, which is their right. The NDP supported the Government to get dental care, which advanced their objectives. Nothing wrong with that, just an example of parties working together in a minority Parliament. You then get upset because Carney adopted three of Poilievre’s policies. Whatever those were, and I don’t care what, why would you be upset by the Liberals implementing Poilievre’s policies. I assume that you supported them, so why weren’t you happy that they were put into effect. That’s a rhetorical question.
Obviously, you’re upset because you think that politics is sport and that the Parties are the teams. The Liberals broke your rules by implementing CPC policies and that’s just unfair. Like it was probably unfair that the Liberals went to the polls after replacing Trudeau with Carney and won the election.
BTW, where do you stand on Harper proroguing Government to avoid a confidence vote that would have defeated the Government based on the Liberal – NDP agreement to govern. To be consistent, you should be upset with Harper for undermining Canadian democracy. No doubt you’ve thought up some rationalization.
“Look Poilievre and Carney having policy announcements in common”
Except Carney did complete 180s on core policies of his as well of the LPC. He went from being pro carbon tax, or carbon pricing as he called it his book “Values”, to dropping the carbon tax that he advised Trudeau to create.
And there are way more than 3 policies.
You clearly don’t understand what was just said to you about monetary vs fiscal policy seeing how you then just went on a nonsensical tirade about the role of the central bank.
Carney’s “major” announcements are mostly all regurgitated projects that were announced previously, or that he advised Trudeau to ignore in the past. Germany and Japan came begging for our LNG back when Russia first got sanctioned . We turned them away. Japan now gets its LPG from the US. If we now go through with a sale of LNG to Germany, then it’s several years and several thousands of lost jobs too late.
Yes the world order unraveled. The rest of the world succesfully negotiated with Trump behind the scenes, without pointless middle-power speeches or elbows up catchphrases. We didn’t and insead we aired our dirty laundry because the LPC needed a boogeyman to win reelection.
@ 6:34 Anonymous – How do you think coalitions are formed? Quid pro quo. Look Poilievre and Carney having policy announcements in common could just mean they were obvious. Carney has continued with more announcements to encourage foreign investment. And it’s working. Search for the Productivity Mega Deduction. You will see how it fits with the Canada Strong Summit and the Major Projects Office. He’s better at doing the pro-business objectives than conservatives are. Conservatives criticize his Brookfield credentials while denying that those, along with his stint as the head of 2 central banks during different crises make him uniquely qualified to re-position Canada as the world order unravels.
Meanwhile, Poilievre has trouble pretending to be a real boy..
Try to keep up. A lot has happened since those first 3 policy announcements.
But it wasn’t a coalition. It was backroom deal in return for a half-ar$e dental plan.
If Carney is sp accomplished then why were his first policy announcements all lifted from Pierre? He was laughed out of the UK. They despise him there for his time as the head of their central bank. Besides that, all he has ever done was monetary policy which is so far simpler than fiscal, it is probably the one thing in economic that can be automated. Oh, and you forgot to mention how he viewed himself in the past as more European, and that his own personal financial interests are in the US.
@ 5:26 Anonymous – What a load of nonsense. Coalitions do not circumvent democracy. Poilievre wishes he was as accomplished as Carney. The only thing that is threatened by Poilievre is the Conservative Party of Canada.
What are you smoking?
Rich you said that i claimed “Poilievre would have formed government if only the Libs had kept Trudeau”.
No I did not. Provide the quote. You misunderstood the point completely. I said that the Libs delayed our election. They waited until Trump won the election and until he then took office. And I said that they faced oblivion had the election happened earlier. We all know that Singh propped up JT and together they circumvented our democracy. Post Trudeau they brought it someone who could mimic Pierre, it and Carney did that from the get go. I said all of that because you trash Pierre while ignoring that he was clearly see as a threat. And I see that you gave up trashing Pierre and Flaherty.
Aninymous. You said the Libs installed Carney to beat Poilievre, which is the same thing. Own your positions.
Rich “if only the Libs had kept Trudeau”
Actually I never said that. But keep deflecting.
So much of so little consequence to respond to. To whoever said that LNG can’t go from BC to Europe, I invite you to look at a map and note the Panama Canal, the Suez Canal, and tge fact tgat the Oceans are all connected, Ships can move from BC to Europe.
To Anonymous and his claim that Poilievre would have formed government if only the Libs had kept Trudeau, so what. Poilievre lost because the Libs changed leaders and voters don’t have confidence in the Cons. Bottom line is he lost, accept it and move on.
With any luck Rich will be attending “Raft Building 101” at the mid Pacific campus shortly after the next Federal Election
@rich, are you in an insane asylum? Just asking
Ben, still waiting on you to prove what element of the private sector held up the sale of LNG to Germany and Japan back in 2023 and if and when that private sector issue was resolved. Because you can’t explain it, as we all know that it was the federal government alone impeding those deals.
@Rich 1009pm. If a poster says “Own it or zip it” to you, its someone who can’t defend their position with an argument. Their ideas don’t survive scrutiny, and they want to shut down the discussion.
@Nina Hart. Much of the government’s work is outside the House of Commons. Much constituent work is definitely done outside the house. Parliamentarians-even conservatives (ha!)-work extremely hard.
Didn’t the HOC start its fall session only a few weeks ago? Why do they get a “week” break already.
Riddle me Rich – how is a natural gas terminal in BC, competing with the American one in Alaska, bringing the gas to Europe?
Are you that taken that you think I am using geography as some sort of manipulation of fact?
BC is on the opposite side of the world from Europe.
Europe wants our oil and gas – they’ve basically begged for it during Carney’s “relationship building” exercises in Europe and then turned around and greenlit a terminal on the opposite coast of Canada.
You are blinded by partisan nonsense.
Rich, hiding from Canadians in far away countries and coming back with lint scraps is not building relationships.
Right? He met Macron and within hours Macron floated the idea of fishing in Canadian waters.
Carney is a fool on the political stage and everyone is taking advantage of his ignorance while applauding his meaningless speeches.
Having an opinion on how a country is made up is not foreign interference and is certainly not criminal.
Stop saying stupid things.
Or are we gonna pretend only Palestinians have an opinion on its borders, or Israel is only allowed an opinion on their country?
You are intentionally misleading the public with nonsensical statements.
Rich
Carney has been building relations with no other countries. All he did was make a usless speech about middle powers that literally overnight caused Trump to go from saying its smart for Canada to pursue a deal with China to warn Canada that a deal with China would be seen as a threat to America.
He and the LPC did nothing except antagonize a country that used to buy 80 percent of all our exports. Other leaders stayed quiet and negotiated behind the scenes.
I already addressed your comments that Pierrer was unelectable. He clearly was close to forming government. Thats why Carney was installed because he could and did ape everything that Pierre is, and enough people fell for it. And yes Carney did steal credit from Flaherty, the man who won an international award for the work he did in the 2008 recession
Don’t ask me to address things I already addressed. Especially if you won’t address the countless economic data that was posted below showing how our economic issues predate Trump. Own it or zip it.
Anonymous. Carney has been building relations with other countries which has resulted in an increase in exports over all with a fall in exports to the U.S. and an increase in exports everywhere else, which puts Canada in a stronger position. Carney has introduced Carney has announced projects that will support Canadian growth. He passed the Building Canada Act which will let those go forward on a fast track basis. If you think the PM has the authority to announce a pipeline project with shovels in the ground on day 1 that will be open on day 2 without any review, consultation, or a private sector proponent who will actually use the pipeline, then you don’t know how these things work.
No one in their right mind would take credit for anything Jim Flaherty did. Con tax reduction plans succeeded in moving the Government from surplus to deficit, where it remained. The corporate tax cut was used to buy back stock or go into the bank, not to improve productivity. Flaherty was a good man, but not the great Finance Minister you think he was. By the end of Harper’s Government we were glad to see the back of him.
I see you don’t disagree with my assessment that Poilievre spends all his time saying that Canada is broken, etc. etc., rather than come up with any constructive. Good call. Poilievre’s negative approach is clear for all to see.
Poilievre made a point of not bashing the PM in the U.S. Good for him. You’ll note I didn’t criticize him for his trip. On the other hand, Jivani should have stayed home. Your attempt to characterize his meetings advocacy and not negotiations is a distinction without a difference. He was in the U.S. talking to his buddies about how Canada could bend to the U.S. I’m not impressed that Poilievre would let him go or would leave him in the caucus after that trip.
Your claim that we “literally” had no one talking to the U.S. is ridiculous. The Canadian Government talks to the U.S. Government on a range of bilateral issues, including trade. Leblanc has also been talking to Greer on trade. Do you believe that Carney is going to sit down at a table with Trump to negotiate an agreement in a day or two? Not the way these things happen, or should happen. Canada and the U.S. have about $1 Trillion/Yr bilateral trade in goods and services. The CUSMA tariff schedule, which is limited to goods, covers hundreds of pages in 99 Chapters. Goods are classified based on international rules incorporated into CUSMA that cover thousands of specific products. Prime Ministers and Presidents don’t get involved at this level because they don’t have expertise; this is left to the professionals in Government. So when you say that “literally” no one was talking to the U.S. I have to assume that you don’t know what you’re talking about.
Your claim that Carney is antagonizing Trump is wrong. Carney’s doing his job. If the Canadian and U.S. Press want to say that Trump is being antagonized by Canada diversifying trade away from the U.S., that’s their problem.
The thing that I find most interesting is that you haven’t addressed my primary argument, that the CPC is too far right to ever form government and that Poilievre is doing nothing to remedy that. Instead, you seem to want to keep him as Leader. Good for you. Having Poilievre as leader will ensure that the CPC will never form government and in that sense, he is the gift that just keeps on giving.
Rich
“Since then Carney has been working hard to put Canada in the best position possible in the face of hostile U.S. trade action.”
Wrong. Carney has done nothing but antagonize the crybaby in the Whitehouse. Other leaders stayed quiet and negotiated behind the scenes. All these LPC slogans did nothing but make the negotiations more difficult. Carney has a long history of this, starting from his days as economic advisor to Trudeau, and then on to his days campaigning to replace Trudeau where he took credit for the work done in 2008 by the late Jim Flaherty.
“Meanwhile Poilievre has been focusing on talking about how bad things are in and on not running a tight ship; look at the MPs who left and Jivani who went to the U.S. for talks with American officials for some reason.”
Jivani advocated, not negotiated. Look at the comment further below which explains the difference.
And Pierre is very careful not to “oppose” Carney while overseas. He has said this numerous times in interviews in the US. When on foreign soils we speak as one. He leaves his role as leader of the opposition for when he is on Canadian soil. And there is a lot to oppose. Most of our economic hardships predates tariffs. 106k Canadians emigrated from Canada in 2024. 120k in 2025.
We had literally no one speaking to the US for months in early 2025 because of Trudeau shutting parliament. Ford had to step in as leader of the association of premiers.
Rich, why would someone copy policy from someone else if they were not the perceived frontrunner?
Rich “As soon as Trudeau stepped down and Carney was made Liberal leader everything changed except for Poilievre”
Except that is not how it went down Rich is it?
Libs delayed our election for over a year and conveniently enough until they found an external threat for “us” to unify against.
And Carney was indeed “made”. Great choice of words there Rich. Not at all a Freudian slip. Also explains why Carney’s first handful of policy announcements were taken from Pierre. Why woul
You Cons seem to be angry about the last election. Guess things didn’t turn out how you hoped. Shouldn’t have come as a surprise. If you looked beyond the top line numbers, the polls showed that Canadians were only looking at the Cons because we were fed up with Trudeau but that didn’t mean that we wanted Poilievre. As soon as Trudeau stepped down and Carney was made Liberal leader everything changed except for Poilievre, who was still campaigning against Trudeau for some reason.
Since then Carney has been working hard to put Canada in the best position possible in the face of hostile U.S. trade action. Meanwhile Poilievre has been focusing on talking about how bad things are in and on not running a tight ship; look at the MPs who left and Jivani who went to the U.S. for talks with American officials for some reason.
If we lived in a “every Party gets a turn at Government” country, you’d have hope, but we don’t. Unless the CPC makes a turn to the centre it has very little hope of ever forming government. With the party standing behind Poilievre, I don’t see that happening ever.
Ben wrore “One of the MP’s from Poilievre’s party met with US representatives about trade.”
All entities involved, including our federal government confirmed he went there to advocate not negotiate. There is a difference that even you Ben can understand. Advocating is like being a fan of a team. That does not translate to drafting or trading players. Only the people in charge can do that, and currently the people in charge (your people) are doing very little of that.
Quick everyone! Clearly Pierre is the problem we didn’t know we had, as the LPC and the media wants us to believe.
Its not as if most of our economic issues predate tariffs.
Do you know what the below companies have in common;
Lowes, Target, Sears, Hudson Bay, Kleenex, Zellers, Bed Bath and Beyond, Nortsrom, AMC, Ballys Fitness, Disney Store, JCrew, Le Chateau, Johnston & Murphy.
Those are just a small selection of all the companies that closed shop or left Canada completely, and all before any tariffs came in play.
All thanks to the Lost Liberal Decade
One of the MP’s from Poilievre’s party met with US representatives about trade. Did he also discuss Alberta? Nobody trusts Poilievre or his party.
Would like to see poli in a situation where AB separates. Which riding will he run to nexy?
Oink oink oink at the trough. Make it like Jag dude. A real job will show you how things actually work. Dont forget your glasses.
@ The Blackface Years. Surfs Up – ThereAreDozensOfUs.gif
What Canada needs to do is elect a far right party,but a real one,not the media branded type.
Then we round up all of the Liberals inc the terrorists, extortionists, engineers and doctors they let in along with their Electorate and supporters ,and set them adrift in the mid Pacific on rafts that we force them to build.
Then we move forward and rebuild this once great nation that existed before the Blackface Years.
Pollmyrear has to campaign for unity, his seat’s in Alberta. They separate, he loses his seat and where does he go then.
WHAT A WANKER.
To commenter below,you’re the minority of brain dead swallowers that will always see this country for what it isn’t through your rose colored glasses, one day you’ll take them off, but not likely
@ Albertan – So I will count you as a member of the tiny, loud, angry, contrarian minority of cranks that will not stop whining about their imagined grievances that think their constant complaining does anything except alienate others and motivate their opponents.
You libturds will gobble carnholes knob till end of time, it’s who and what you are
Danielle’s turds are fugging smarter than any liberal POS
To reetard commenter below, speak for yourself you POS, I worked oil and gas industry long time, I fugging hate hate hate hate cunada, don’t ever speak for anyone
@ Incontinentia Buckets -There’s plenty of room in our very large tent. You should try supporting something instead of just being against things. In this case the very large majority of Albertans and Canadians from other provinces are FOR federalism.
It’s only a tiny, loud, angry, contrarian minority of cranks that will not stop whining about their imagined grievances that think their constant complaining does anything except alienate others and motivate their opponents.
I relish the fact that Smith’s cozying up to the separatists with the Alberta Next campaign will cost her her job. I wonder if anyone will tune in when she goes back to her radio show. I have never listened so won’t in the future. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
anywys, immigrants and usa people will be taking over cnadian very soom.. no more Real candian will be there.. all hybrid
So the Forever Canada crew are going to vote the same as Pollievre AND Smith? That has to be eating you guys up! Lol
Me, I’m voting for Alberta Independence
Far Far Right at 6:20 pm
“PP is a dumb POS”
Yes so dumb that Carney copied Pierre’s platform during his campaign to replace Trudeau and then in the election. And the LPC feared him so much that they delayed our election and shutting down parliament to save their party from oblivion. Instead of a functioning mobilized government to negotiate with Trump even before he entered office, we had government MPs electioneering in their ridings. Worst of all, they wanted to us fear Trump, a unifying figure for us to rally against so we would vote for the incumbent. They antagonized instead of negotiated. They came up with cliches, elbows up and middle powers. Trump went from congratulating Carney on making trade deal overtures with China, to warning Canada that a trade deal with China would be seen as threat to America. Carney antagonized with his speeches and a certain segment of our society claps in joy. The UK, France, Germany, and other nations keep their views on Trump private and they negotiate behind the scenes.
Of course he is
The CPC would lose a substantial amount of support is Alberta seperates
Poilievre’s chance at winning is done. He has been branded as a MAGA , separatist and to far right by the Media, Liberals and the left. They created this fear of change by using Trump as a scapegoat and back room deals to steal MP’s to create a majority that was not elected by Canadians. Being associated with Smith and her separatist movement in Alberta will leave his chance of leading at zero.
This referendum is a complete waste of money and is vitriol singling at is finest by Smith and her Wildrose base. It has created so much division that it will be hard to recover from for many years and is leaving Canada a mess that has no direction any more.
It would be nice to hear some talk from any politician about getting Canada united again but we don’t hear or see that anywhere. Carney is to busy flying around to world giving useless speeches and signing MOU’s that do nothing while getting praised by the media on what a great job he is doing.
Meanwhile food banks are lined up, people are defaulting on their homes, and the cost of living continues to soar to new heights every day.
A proud Canadian here but lost at what we have become.
I guess I can make it easy and blame Trump the pandemic and anything else that is not the government of Canada as they continue to do a great job under the leadership of the Liberals! They have our backs and will pass out more welfare benefits to show how they have our backs.
PP is a dumb POS
I’m a card carrying Conservative but even I have lost confidence in Poilievre.
I realize he can’t outright support Alberta separation but him advocating for this “unity” just feels insincere.
Conservatives have leaned to far to the left. The difference between them and Liberals is pretty much nonexistent.
So it really doesn’t matter whom we vote for, it’s two faces of the same coin.
Me @5:13pm. PP is a normal family man trying to help the Conservatives remove the corrupt Liberals. Sadly there are way too many fools propping up the Liberals. That’s why Canada is a mess today. From Trudeau to Carney. Will it get better? Maybe. But not for quite a while.
Don’t bother, nothing’s going to change. Regardless of who’s in the PMO, they’ll still take western dollars to buy eastern votes.
Alberta out!!!
“what effects Canada are Canadians”.
True.
Look at what “Canadians” have voted for the last 12 years.
Talk about our own worst enemy….
Who is PP any ways oh wait he is a nobody 😂😂