Thank you, Mayor Knack. Thank you, Edmonton.
It is so good to be home.
Thank you, Thomas Lukaszuk, for bringing us together.
Thank you, Rachel Notley, for your message, and Kevin Lowe – the kid from Lachute, Québec, who became an Edmonton legend on and off the ice.
Thank you to the First Nations and Métis peoples who have stood tall during this referendum.
A common thread runs through their remarkable stories, through their service, and through their messages tonight.
It is the power of a team. The team that helps us achieve more together than we ever could alone.
That is the Canada we are here to celebrate tonight – and fight for – when it matters most.
The stakes are high.
This referendum comes at the worst possible time.
The world is becoming more dangerous and divided. Some outside our borders are working to break us so they can own us.
But we know that we can give ourselves more than anyone else can take away.
And we know that when we are united, we become even stronger, fairer, and freer.
At this pivotal moment, Albertans have a choice: we can build a stronger Alberta and an even greater Canada to leave for our children, or we can burden them with years of deep divisions and great uncertainty.
A decisive result on Monday will settle this question.
Right now, our country needs three things from you.
First, mark your calendar. This Monday is referendum day. And if you can, vote now – advance polls will be open through tomorrow.
Second, show your pride. Wear the maple leaf. Wear the sweater. Tell your friends, your family, and your coworkers why you’re voting for Canada.
And third, bring a friend and vote like Canada depends on it.
Because it does.
Don’t let anyone tell you this is already decided. Turnout will determine the outcome.
And don’t be fooled by the idea you can “send a message” with your vote.
This is not poker. A vote against Canada is a dangerous bluff that will lead to years of deep uncertainty and lost opportunities for Albertans and Canadians.
Our country and your futures are too precious to play games with.
This referendum is about something larger than any of us. It is about the province and country we love, and it’s about what we can build together.
I know. Alberta is my home. I grew up here. This city, this province, this country have given me everything: my family, my education, my values.
I have some great memories of Edmonton. Learning to skate outdoors in Laurier Heights. Sure, I let in a few soft ones – that sound of the puck slowly hitting the back of the net at minus 20 was a bit painful – but it made me stronger.
Cheering on the Oilers as they redefined greatness boosted my ambition.
Kinsmen skate-a-thons, Terry Fox runs, and celebrating Canada Day with family and friends gave me the sense of community that runs right through this great province.
My grandparents came here because Canada held a great promise – a country that’s fair, strong, compassionate and free.
A country where hard work gets you ahead. Where the nation does its part: building the railways, ports, pipelines, and broadband to access markets.
That is strength.
A country where we help each other, look out for each other, stand up for each other.
That is compassion.
A country where you are free to be who you want to be. To speak your mind. To worship as you choose. To live your life as you wish. That is true independence.
That is real sovereignty.
In Canada, we understand one fundamental truth: unity is not uniformity.
Our differences are strengths to nurture, not risks to manage.
In Canada, our beliefs, our languages, our backgrounds, and our traditions are not concessions made to our citizenship.
They are the very expression of it.
This unity is our strength.
Canada is not a country where every story is folded into a single narrative.
We are a mosaic.
Elsewhere, differences are erased, and people are asked to leave their history behind.
In Canada, you are encouraged to keep that history alive. To preserve it, enrich it, and build a stronger future together.
Here in Alberta, we have always spoken French: from the voyageurs and Métis who travelled our first routes, to the families of Saint-Albert, Bonnyville, and Saint-Paul, right up to the students on the Saint-Jean campus today.
Here, we have never had to choose between being an Albertan or being a Canadian.
Next Monday, let’s choose to continue building this country, together – a country that is big enough to welcome all our differences, and strong enough to unite us.
The Canadian mosaic is not just a picture of who we are. It’s a commitment to how we treat each other. With dignity, compassion and respect.
You see it in the volunteers at Boyle Street Community Services who support those who have nowhere else to turn.
You see it in how this city loves its own. How Ben Stelter’s favourite song “La Bamba” became the heartbeat of Edmonton during the Oilers’ Stanley Cup run a few years ago. How his family carries on his legacy, helping children fight cancer, giving hope to families walking that difficult path.
You see it across this great province. When the Jasper wildfire was taking Mayor Ireland’s family home, he put his community first, helping evacuate thousands to safety.
When Fort Mac battled wildfires, we came together. It was right here at the Edmonton Expo that a community welcomed neighbours in need – 25,000 evacuees. Canadians gave $300 million through the Red Cross to help the people of Fort McMurray.
In Alberta’s time of need, firefighters from across the country – Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Québec and Ontario – came to help Jasper, came to help Fort Mac, came to help Alberta.
And Albertans always give back. Just this summer when fires ravaged communities in British Columbia, hundreds of Alberta firefighters went to their aid.
Because that’s what Canadians do when times get tough. We look after each other. We look out for each other.
Standing up for each other, helping each other, is bred in the bone on the Alberta prairie.
At Vimy Ridge, that was the conviction of the soldiers of Edmonton’s own 49th Battalion – the Loyal Eddies.
The very first generation to call themselves Albertans, they fought as part of the Canadian Corps to take victory, through snow and shellfire.
Albertans have always answered the call.
To everyone serving today, including their families at CFB Edmonton, Cold Lake, Suffield and Wainwright; and to those serving in Europe alongside our allies: thank you.
From the wildfires at home to the missions abroad, when people see the Maple Leaf on a sleeve, they see hope. They get help.
That’s our Canada.
Long before Alberta was a province, the Cree, Dene, Blackfoot Confederacy, Saulteaux, Nakoda and the Métis peoples called this land home.
150 years ago, at Fort Carlton and Fort Pitt, First Nations made Treaty 6 with the Crown, Treaty 7 in 1877 at Blackfoot Crossing and in 1899, at Lesser Slave Lake, came Treaty 8.
Honouring Canada’s history means facing the truth that these promises between nations have been broken many times.
Because when something is not right – when it is not fair – we don’t hide from it or walk away from it. We fix it, together. And we become stronger for it.
That’s Alberta. That’s Canada.
So, in 1929, fighting injustice, Alberta’s Famous Five took their case all the way to England and won recognition of women as “persons” under the law.
That ruling called our Constitution “a living tree” – a tree with deep roots in Alberta soil.
In 1982, Alberta shaped the new Canadian Constitution. Premier Peter Lougheed helped secure provincial control over resources and create the amending formula.
Throughout our history, Albertans have helped power the world, feed the world, and lead the world.
From Leduc Well No. 1 to an energy superpower today.
From the first homesteads in the 19th century to farming two-thirds of all irrigated land in Canada and raising its largest beef herd.
From the Edmonton Protocol that gives new hope to people with diabetes, to Nobel laureate Michael Houghton leading the fight against Hepatitis C and Richard Sutton pioneering frontier AI.
That’s Canada. Made in Alberta.
Now, I won’t sugarcoat it: the frustrations that many Albertans have felt are real.
Growing up, I remember how Ottawa made Albertans feel like our resources weren’t our own.
And then more recently, we were made to feel that our energy contributions were running against the tides of history.
What should have brought us together began to divide us. Contributing to a half-century of politics that have too often pulled us apart.
Canada isn’t perfect. But we are the best.
We are the best and we are getting better! We are getting better, working again in a spirit of cooperative federalism.
Yes, Canada is building big again, and Alberta is at the heart of it.
Half a billion dollars to build the local infrastructure for tens of thousands of affordable homes across the province.
High-speed rail to connect Edmonton and Calgary.
The new Major Projects Office, headquartered in Alberta, is making decisions that will build this country – new ports, mines, and energy corridors. Half a trillion dollars in new investment.
By building the Pacific Link pipeline, we’re unlocking our full energy potential, reducing our dependence on the United States, creating over 140,000 jobs, and generating revenues to protect the social programs Albertans rely on every day, including health care, dental care, and childcare.
This is true nation building, and it will take a nation to build it.
Pacific Link needs a route to the West Coast. It needs a new port when it gets there. It needs new partnerships with First Nations to build shared prosperity. It needs new investments in low-emissions technologies to keep Athabasca crude competitive over the long term.
And it needs the new markets that only Canada, the most connected country in the world, can provide.
Canada is where we can build bigger, faster, and better than we ever could alone.
None of us builds on empty ground.
I wouldn’t have been on the ice in Laurier back then or up here right now without the love and support of my parents. Without the volunteers who coached my team, built the boards each fall, scraped the ice, and drove us to games around town.
That’s community. Laurier Heights. The West End. Edmonton. Alberta. Canada. People who come together to face challenges, to support each other, and to build. That’s who we are as Canadians.
Every generation of Canadians inherits something built by the one before. A railway. A global industry launched in Leduc. Medicare born next door in Saskatchewan. The Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That proud maple leaf that, everywhere in the world, means help has arrived.
Now is the time to build, not break.
Now it’s our turn to stand up for Canada.
Turnout will decide this referendum.
Polls don’t vote, only people do.
So, remember these three things:
Mark Monday, October 19, on your calendar.
Show your pride.
Bring a friend and vote like Canada depends on it.
Because it does.
Because it is our duty to the generations that came before us, and those who will come after us, to make the greatest country in the world even better.
Because we are stronger together.
Because it’s our Canada. It’s our future.
And we are just getting started.