Alberta's fall referendum could turn fringe separatist sentiments into a political force, former premier Jason Kenney said Wednesday at the Intersect 2026 conference hosted by The Globe and Mail in Toronto. Kenney, who led Alberta's United Conservative Party from 2017 to 2022, also said that his province’s separatist movement has long been a marginal force – but has been inflamed in recent years by “alt-right populists who are angry with a lot of things” who got active in politics after COVID-19. While Kenney does not expect the separatists to win the upcoming referendum, he warned that if relations between Ottawa and Alberta do not improve – and the two sides' recent memorandum of understanding on building a pipeline doesn’t produce results – they could garner a substantial number of votes. “If it’s a substantial ‘yes’ vote, if they get enough of these frustrated federalists voting for leverage, and you get, I don’t know, 30 or 35 per cent,” he said, this would create “a permanent divisive fact in our politics.” #alberta #politics #abpoli #Cdnpoli #referendum