Ahead of a provincial referendum, Prime Minister Mark Carney told Canadians on Thursday that President Donald Trump's aim is to undermine the country so as to gain access to its natural resources — a claim that places Alberta, home to one of the four largest proven petroleum reserves on Earth, at the heart of the debate.

Speaking at a pro-Canada gathering, Carney described the referendum as arriving at a particularly inopportune moment, adding that the global landscape had grown more fractured and volatile. Carney told reporters that forces operating beyond the country's borders were actively attempting to weaken the nation with the aim of seizing control over it, according to a broadcast news outlet.

During his second term, Trump has expressed a stated ambition to bring Canada under US governance as a 51st state. Pressure on the nation took both a political and an economic form under his direction.

Carney contended that the referendum stands to benefit Trump, and he urged voters not to treat their ballot as a vehicle for sending a political message. Carney argued that casting a ballot against Canada would set off prolonged national division and leave the country mired in uncertainty.

Albertans head to the polls on Monday to decide whether the province should be empowered to pursue a future independence referendum. The vote's timing placed it within days of the Parti Québécois assuming office in Quebec, where party leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon had already committed to pursuing the province's separation from Canada.

Carney addressed longstanding concerns in Alberta, stating that the dissatisfaction many residents there have experienced carries genuine weight. Speaking to the audience, Carney — who grew up in Alberta — said federal policy had historically left residents of the province feeling that decisions over their own natural resources were made somewhere beyond their reach, and that the energy industry there had lately been cast as standing on the wrong side of where things were headed.

Moves made by Carney have drawn backing from within Alberta — a province where his Liberal party has historically faced an uphill battle for support. Carney moved to expedite approval of a proposed oil pipeline running to the Pacific coast and set out a plan to build up Canada's energy sector using Alberta's reserves as its foundation.

At the rally, Carney held up the pipeline as evidence that the relationship between Alberta and Canada had shifted into a different configuration. The statement put the pipeline's projected workforce contribution at upwards of 140,000 positions, with funding from the venture earmarked for social programmes.

A political scientist at McGill University, Daniel Beland, noted that Carney's position in Alberta sits outside the pattern typically seen for Liberal Party leaders, pointing to a wave of pan-Canadian pushback against outside pressure and dismissive commentary from the United States as a force lifting Carney's standing — one that has reached into a province where scepticism toward federal authority runs particularly deep.