Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney has accused United States President Donald Trump’s administration of trying to break up and take control of Canada as the Alberta referendum approaches.

Mr Carney made the allegation Thursday while speaking at a pro-Canada rally in Calgary, in a bid to discourage people from voting on Monday on whether the oil-rich western province should begin a legal process that could lead to separation from Canada.

Although Mr Carney did not mention Mr Trump or the U.S., to the 5,000 people in attendance, he said, “This referendum comes at the worst possible time. The world has become more dangerous and divided. Some outside our borders are working to break us so they can own us.”

Mr Carney’s warning came just as Washington and Ottawa are in the middle of a trade war, along with Mr Trump’s threat to make Canada the 51st U.S. state.

The vote in Alberta, which has the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves, is not a direct referendum on independence but a decision on whether to remain a province or instruct the government to begin the legal process toward a referendum on separation.

Current polling indicates that less than a quarter of Alberta’s roughly five million residents want to break away from Canada, mostly over long-held grievances with liberal governments in Ottawa, from concerns about immigration and federal power to oil industry management. 

Mr Carney, who also grew up in Alberta, acknowledged Albertans’ grievances and frustrations, saying Ottawa had made them feel “like our resources weren’t our own”, but urged them not to use the vote as a “message” to the federal government.

He said, “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 division and great uncertainty.”

Speaking to AFP, Mitch Sylvestre, the head of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a prominent separatist organisation, said the U.S. interests “don’t play a role” in Alberta “until we win and become a government.”

He also noted that “there is no animosity toward America here”, as he doesn’t see any reason to stop trading with the world’s largest economy.

A leader of Let Alberta Decide, Keith Wilson, dismissed Mr Carney’s claim that global instability made this the wrong time for the vote.

Mr Wilson said, “The worst timing for this, why? I don’t understand the logic. Then it’s the best time for him to get back to Ottawa.”

He said Mr Carney should ask Parliament to repeal federal measures that separatists say have hurt Alberta, including authority he says could be used to tax oil exports in retaliation against the U.S.