Stephen Harper is calling for unity amid existential threats to Canada. Will today's leaders listen?

Over three days, Harper reset the table for Conservatives. Comparisons between his keynote address at a gala in his honour Wednesday and current leader Pierre Poilievre’s address to delegates at the party’s convention last Friday were inevitable, but they were stark. Whereas Poilievre never mentioned U.S. President Donald Trump’s name, Harper not only named the threat but contextualized it, seemingly urging his successor to do more to recognize it.

He sided with Prime Minister Mark Carney’s assessment of the forever-changed relationship with the United States, as laid out in his Davos speech, and urged business leaders to adjust and help the Liberal leader succeed.

He also tackled another divisive issue — separatism.

Sharing the stage with former Liberal prime minister Jean Chrétien, Harper told the story of running into a “very, very prominent long-term separatist” and discussing the Trump threat. “I ended by saying, ‘You know … This is the reason why we have to stick together.’ And he lowered his voice and said to me, ‘You know, I think you’re right.’ ”

Harper suggested the unity threat could be addressed with a strong, centrist government. “I think the reality is, federal government manages this country right, puts the stress on unity and not on ideological tangents, and there’s no reason why we can’t pull the country together at this moment,” he told those assembled to see him receive a gold medal from the Royal Canadian Geographical Society on Monday.

He later suggested that would begin with the approval of another pipeline to B.C.’s coast.

Sitting next to him Monday, Chrétien suggested the desire to hold a referendum was “very low in Quebec” but added he didn’t know “what the hell is going on in Alberta.” Harper responded, “I didn’t sign the petition.”

Poilievre also hasn’t signed the pro-separation petition, his office says. But if he loudly opposes it, he has yet to scream. He also hasn’t criticized Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s kowtowing to the separatists with her unconstitutional ”Alberta Sovereignty within a United Canada Act,” her latest threat if Ottawa doesn’t share its constitutional authority over federal judicial appointments, or her paving the way for a referendum that could split the country.

Glad-handing at the Conservative party convention last weekend was Jeffery Rath, a lawyer for the Alberta Prosperity Project, who was granted a non-member observer pass. “All kinds of people are coming up to me today and telling me that they’re excited about getting their canvassing badges and going out and getting signatures for our petition and, you know, working for Alberta independence,” he said.

Albertans are sick and tired of being treated like a resource colony of Eastern Canada, Rath told me. “We’re carrying this entire country on our backs while being insulted and denigrated and mistreated on an ongoing basis. We’re over it. Like, we’re done.”

There is nothing Poilievre or Smith can do to convince him otherwise, he said, and he hopes to collect one million signatures, well over the 178,000 required. “If we have more than one million signatures, we’ll be showing to Danielle and the rest of the country that a successful referendum is inevitable,” he said.

Harper did not lay out a path for Poilievre on the Alberta threat, but he appeared more clear-eyed about the threat than Chrétien. “Canada will remain united, don’t worry,” the former Liberal prime minister told the audience.

But Chrétien should know better. He nearly lost the country in the 1995 Quebec referendum, when the “no” side won by one per cent — 50.58 per cent to 49.42 per cent — despite public opinion surveys before the campaign suggesting support for the “yes” side was closer to 35 per cent. That’s about the same level that some pollsters register support for Alberta separation now.

As his portrait was unveiled Tuesday, Harper offered more thoughts on a country worth preserving.

“I sincerely hope that mine is just one of many portraits of prime ministers from both parties that will continue to be hung here for decades and centuries to come. But that will require that in these perilous times both parties, whatever their other differences, come together against external forces that threaten our independence and against domestic policies that threaten unity,” he said.

“We must make any sacrifice necessary to preserve the independence and the unity of this blessed land.”

Not only was Harper calling for the Liberals and the Conservatives to work together, he seemed to also be suggesting that if the Liberal government fails or is seen to fail, the country will be weaker, and that won’t be a win for Canadians or Conservatives.