Alberta voted to stay in Canada.

EDMONTON, Alberta — Alberta voted to stay in Canada. With more than 1.8 million ballots counted, 76 percent chose to remain and 24 percent chose to start the legal process for a later, binding vote on separation, unofficial results from Elections Alberta showed, the Associated Press reported early Tuesday. The question on the paper was not independence. A win for the second option would only have opened that process. Prime Minister Mark Carney said, “Albertans made a clear choice. They chose unity, to build together, and to take care of each other. Above all, Albertans chose Canada.”

Premier Danielle Smith called the vote under pressure from separatists in her United Conservative Party, and she opposes independence. She wrote that Albertans “have voted for a stronger Alberta in a united Canada.” She said she would speak to the province Tuesday evening. The full count was still open. The Associated Press set the result against President Trump's trade pressure and his talk of annexation. This note is the vote, not that argument.

Above all, Albertans chose Canada.

The photograph is a polling place. A yellow Elections Alberta sign fills the foreground. A voter in a blue jacket walks toward the glass doors. It is Monday's referendum. It is not Carney, and it is not Smith.