Alberta has the world’s fourth-largest oil reserves and sends 90% of its crude exports to the U.S. — It will vote on a first step to leaving Canada

For decades, Alberta separatism was a fringe cause.

On Monday, voters in Canada’s oil heartland will decide whether to take the first step toward a referendum on leaving the country.

Alberta, home to the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves, is not voting to leave Canada on Oct.

19.

Instead, voters will decide whether the province should remain in Canada or begin the legal process toward a future referendum on separation .

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith , who called the vote but supports remaining in Canada, has said that support for starting the separation process, which was around 23% in a recent poll, is “still too high for my liking.” Alberta has long feuded with the federal government over oil and federal power.

Liberal prime ministers Pierre Trudeau and, decades later, his son Justin became deeply unpopular in the province over energy policy.

Justin Trudeau’s government imposed a national carbon tax and other climate measures that Alberta leaders said hurt its oil industry.

Yet separatist parties typically drew only 1% or 2% of the vote, former Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said.

Then came the pandemic and the Freedom Convoy , which paralyzed parts of Ottawa, the Canadian capital, and blocked major Canada-U.S. border crossings.

“They needed a new cause,” Kenney told The Associated Press.

“And it naturally morphed into separatism.” Pandemic-era restrictions supercharged separatism Jeff Rath, a leader of the independence movement, said federal vaccine rules preventing unvaccinated Canadians from flying were his breaking point.

“If Trudeau won’t let me leave Alberta, I’m just going to pick up my whole province and go,” Rath recalled telling a friend.

“COVID was really the straw that broke the camel’s back.” “A lot of people were radicalized by the convoy,” he said.