President Donald Trump’s administration continues to provoke right-wing extremists who want members of a Canadian province to secede from their nation, continuing a trend that has persisted since the start of the Republican’s second term.
“The separatists have good reason to think the Trump administration could be an ally,” reported Politico's Mickey Djuric on Sunday. “In January, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent called Alberta a ‘natural partner for the U.S.’ while referencing the province’s ‘great resources.’
According to Djuric, Bessent told conservative podcaster Jack Posobiec that “people are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the U.S. has got.”
Even though only 30 percent of Albertans want to secede from Canada, Djuric reported experts are worried they might succeed simply because the pro-union Albertans could stay home out of an excess of confidence that they will pull off secession during the October referendum. One such Albertan is Keith Walker, who lives in a small farming community in southern Alberta and supported Trump’s trade war against Canada by describing Prime Minister Mark Carney’s administration as communism. He compared Trump’s tariffs against Canada to his military campaigns against Cuba, Iran and Venezuela, confidently telling Politico that “that’s why that’s happening.”
Another secessionist told Djuric that “Trump is the only one that can save us,” while the Politico journalist reported that “people have wrapped themselves in Alberta’s flag, wave ‘we’re done’ banners and wear ‘Trump 2024’ and MAGA — Make Alberta Great Again — ball caps. This is an ‘Albertans’ Day’ gathering at the Whistle Stop Cafe, which gained notoriety for bucking pandemic-era rules and which former Alberta premier Jason Kenney calls ‘ground zero’ for the province’s fast-growing separatist movement.”
Djuric added that while “resentment toward the federal government in Ottawa is longstanding in Alberta,” the movement has been “supercharged” by “Trump and the increasingly toxic U.S.-Canada relationship. The separatists are furious about Carney’s friction with Trump and the fraying ties to their southern neighbor. Some even hope the Trump administration might help their cause.”
He also pointed out that “many separatists believe Trump’s presidency makes Alberta’s independence possible, with the United States a ready customer for its oil and gas should they split from Canada. One group, the Alberta Prosperity Project, is trying to seek a C$500-billion U.S. government loan to fund the province’s ‘seamless departure’ from Canada.” Meanwhile Casey Phillips from Edmonton, Alberta declared that “I like freedom and less taxes,” arguing that this justifies Alberta trying to leave the Canadian union.
In February a former senior State Department official warned NBC News that Trump’s cultivation of Albertan separatists is “irresponsible as hell,” continuing that “it’s really irresponsible for the United States to be engaging with these kinds of people, because it just encourages behavior that cannot be in the U.S. national interest.” By contrast, in January Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent argued that "I think we should let them come down into the U.S. and Alberta's a natural partner for the U.S. They have great resources. The Albertans are very independent people... [There is a] rumor that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not."
He concluded, "People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the U.S. has got."
