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British Columbia Premier David Eby says Alberta separatists meeting with the U.S. administration for financial backing is an act of “treason” and it’s an issue he’ll raise as the premiers gather with the prime minister in Ottawa on Thursday.
“To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that, and that word is treason,” said Eby ahead of the closed-door meeting.
He was reacting to multiple reports that members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration have held meetings with members of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a separatist group that is pushing for the western province to become independent.
The group is openly seeking a $500-billion US line of credit credit from the U.S. Treasury to help bankroll the new country if they come out victorious in a referendum.
“It is completely inappropriate to seek to weaken Canada, to go and ask for assistance, to break up this country from a foreign power and — with respect — a president who has not been particularly respectful of Canada’s sovereignty,” said Eby, whose province would be cut off from the rest of the country.
“I think that while we can respect the right of any Canadian to express themselves to vote in a referendum, I think we need to draw the line at people seeking the assistance of foreign countries to break up this beautiful land of ours,” he said.
‘Enough is enough’: Ford
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew joked to reporters that all the talk makes him want to have a referendum as well.
“Except in Manitoba the question is going to be ‘do you want to stay a part of Canada?’ and the two choices are going to be yeah and heck yeah,” he said before sitting down with his counterparts.
“So that’s where we’re coming from.”
WATCH | Manitoba premier on potential referendums:
A Manitoba referendum on staying in Canada would be a choice between ‘yeah and heck ya,’ Kinew jokes
Manitoba Premier Wab Kinew was asked Thursday about a report saying an Alberta separatist group sought support from U.S. officials ahead of a potential referendum. He joked about what Manitobans might say should they be asked to decide if they want to stay in Canada.
Heading into the same meeting, Ontario Premier Doug Ford urged Alberta Premier Danielle Smith “to stand up and say enough is enough.”
Last week, Smith said she “supports a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada,” although her critics point out she made it easier last year for an independence petition to succeed.
Organizers of the Alberta independence movement are collecting signatures in order to trigger a referendum in that province. The pro-independence campaign has been travelling across the province as organizers try to collect nearly 178,000 signatures over the next few months.
Last week, a senior Trump adviser spoke encouragingly about the prospect of Alberta separating from Canada.
A person wears an Alberta First hat while taking part in signing a petition that seeks to have a referendum on Alberta separation. (Jason Franson/The Canadian Press)
“They have great resources. Albertans are a very independent people,” U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told the conservative website Real America’s Voice.
“Rumour [is] that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.… People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the U.S. has got.”
Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee also weighed in late last week.
“I think the people of Alberta would agree with the sentiment that they would prefer not to be part of Canada and to be part of the United States, because we are winning day in and day out,” he said.
While vocal, recent public polling suggests the pro-independence movement is a minority. A poll released earlier this month found that only one-fifth of Alberta respondents would vote to separate.
Third Quebec referendum looms
The Alberta independence movement isn’t the only fracture in the federation.
Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon, who polls suggest is the man to beat in the fall provincial election, has promised a third referendum if he wins.
While St-Pierre Plamondon remains popular, opinion polls generally show that about two-thirds of Quebecers would vote against the idea of an independent Quebec.
The back and fourth between the PQ leader and Ottawa has heated up in recent days.
St-Pierre Plamondon has been critical of Carney’s speech last week about the Battle of the Plains of Abraham, when the prime minister described the 1759 battle as the start of a “partnership” between French and English people in Canada and called for national unity.
“Mr. Carney, Quebec does not exist because of Canada. In fact, Quebec has survived in its difference and specificity despite Canada,” St-Pierre Plamondon said to a standing ovation at the PQ convention over the weekend.
