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Just 14% of Albertans want independence from Canada. Can a conference in a Calgary ballroom change that? - The Guardian

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Source: The Guardian
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The debate began with a simple question in a dark Calgary hotel ballroom: does Alberta need Canada? By the time the audience was asked to vote at the end, more than three-quarters had answered no – a decisive measure of the convictions of a room packed with some of Alberta’s most ardent independence supporters, some of whom had paid C$900 (£480) for a “visionary” weekend pass. But outside the comfort of the ballroom, the debate is far from settled. Across the province, the forthcoming 19 October referendum on separatism has divided communities, prompting accusations of treason and grift and, at times, bitter feuds between former allies. One recent poll shows support for independence at only 14%. You wouldn’t know it from the WeUnify’s Reclaiming Alberta conference though. “This is a matter of survival,” conservative activist and broadcaster Faytene Grasseschi told the crowd, which erupted into applause after she said Alberta’s oil resources had been “usurped” by the federal government and the Canada she had been born into “doesn’t exist any more”. In the main halls outside the ballroom, attendees milled around the vendor stalls.

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