Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney has said that he expects the US to respect the nation’s sovereignty after stories that Alberta separatists have met a number of occasions with officers of the Donald Trump administration.
The Monetary Instances reported that US State Division officers held conferences with the Alberta Prosperity Venture (APP), a bunch calling for a referendum on whether or not the energy-rich western province ought to go away Canada.
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Talking in Ottawa on Thursday, Carney mentioned he has been clear with US President Donald Trump on the difficulty.
“I anticipate the US administration to respect Canadian sovereignty,” he mentioned, including that after elevating the difficulty, he needed the 2 sides to deal with areas the place they’ll work collectively.
Carney is himself an Albertan, raised in Edmonton, the provincial capital. The province has had an independence motion for many years.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to make Canada the “51st state” of the American Union.
Here’s what we all know:
Leaders of the APP have reportedly met with US State Division officers in Washington at the least thrice since final April. Trump entered workplace for a second time in January.
These conferences have prompted concern in Ottawa concerning potential US interference in Canadian home politics.
This follows feedback by US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent final week, who described Alberta as “a pure accomplice for the US” and praised the province’s useful resource wealth and “impartial” character throughout an interview with the right-wing broadcaster Actual America’s Voice.
“Alberta has a wealth of pure sources, however they [the Canadian government] gained’t allow them to construct a pipeline to the Pacific,” he mentioned. “I feel we should always allow them to come down into the US,” Bessent mentioned throughout an interview with the right-wing broadcaster.
“There’s a hearsay they might have a referendum on whether or not they need to keep in Canada or not.”
Requested if he knew one thing concerning the separation effort, Bessent mentioned, “Individuals are speaking. Folks need sovereignty. They need what the US has bought.”
After Bessent’s feedback, Jeffrey Rath, a pacesetter of the APP, mentioned that the group was looking for one other assembly with US officers subsequent month, the place they’re anticipated to ask a few doable $500bn credit score line to assist Alberta if a future independence referendum – which has not but been referred to as – had been to be held.
The developments come at a delicate second in US-Canada relations, with commerce tensions nonetheless simmering and after a current speech on the World Financial Discussion board in Davos the place Carney warned that Washington was contributing to a “rupture” within the international order.
Trump has repeatedly threatened to make Canada a part of the American Union. His expansionist ambitions have been additional underscored by his current push to amass Greenland from Denmark, which, like Canada, is a NATO ally. At first of the yr, the US navy additionally kidnapped Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, and has since tried to take management of the South American nation’s huge oil trade.
How have Canadian leaders reacted to the stories?
Talking on Thursday, British Columbia Premier David Eby described the reported behind-the-scenes conferences as “treason”.
“To go to a international nation and to ask for help in breaking apart Canada, there’s an old school phrase for that – and that phrase is treason,” Eby informed reporters.
“It’s utterly inappropriate to hunt to weaken Canada, to go and ask for help, to interrupt up this nation from a international energy and – with respect – a president who has not been significantly respectful of Canada’s sovereignty.”
Ontario Premier Doug Ford appealed for Canadian unity on Thursday morning.
“, we now have a referendum occurring out in Alberta. The separatists in Quebec say they’re gonna name a referendum in the event that they get elected. Like, people, we have to stick collectively. It’s Crew Canada. It’s nothing else,” he mentioned.
Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, nonetheless, mentioned she gained’t demonise the Albertans who’re open to separation due to “official grievances” with Ottawa and mentioned she didn’t need to “demonise or marginalise 1,000,000 of my fellow residents”.
Smith has lengthy been pro-Trump and visited the US president’s Mar-a-Lago property in January 2025, at a time when most different Canadian leaders had been becoming a member of fingers to criticise his demand that the nation grow to be part of the US.
What can we learn about a possible referendum in Alberta?
Anger in direction of Ottawa has been constructing in Alberta for many years, rooted largely in disputes over how the federal authorities manages the province’s huge oil and gasoline sources.
Many Albertans really feel federal insurance policies – significantly environmental laws, carbon pricing and pipeline approvals – restrict Alberta’s capacity to develop and export its power.
As a landlocked province, Alberta depends upon pipelines and cooperation with different provinces to entry international markets, making these federal selections particularly contentious.
Many Albertans imagine the province generates vital wealth whereas having restricted affect over nationwide decision-making. In 2024-25, as an illustration, it contributed 15 p.c of Canada’s gross home product (GDP), regardless of being dwelling to solely 12 p.c of the inhabitants.
Alberta constantly produces greater than 80 p.c of Canada’s oil and 60 p.c of the nation’s pure gasoline.
But, many Albertans say that the federal authorities doesn’t give the province its fair proportion from taxes collected. Canada has a system of equalisation funds, below which the federal authorities pays poorer provinces additional funds to make sure that they’ll keep social providers. Whereas Quebec and Manitoba obtain the best funds, Alberta – in addition to British Columbia and Saskatchewan – in the mean time obtain no equalisation funds.
Carney just lately signed an settlement with Alberta, opening the door for an oil pipeline to the Pacific, although it’s opposed by Eby and faces vital hurdles.
Current Ipsos polling suggests that about three in 10 Albertans would assist beginning the method of leaving Canada.
However the survey additionally discovered that roughly one in 5 of these supporters seen a vote to depart as largely symbolic – a solution to sign political dissatisfaction fairly than a agency need for independence.
A referendum on Alberta independence may occur later this yr if a bunch of residents can gather the almost 178,000 signatures required to drive a vote on the difficulty. However even when the referendum passes, Alberta wouldn’t be instantly impartial.
Beneath the Readability Act, the federal authorities would first have to find out whether or not the referendum query was clear and whether or not the consequence represented a transparent majority. Solely then would negotiations start, protecting points such because the division of property and debt, borders and Indigenous rights.
What’s the Alberta Prosperity Venture and what does it need?
The APP is a pro-independence group that’s campaigning for a referendum on Alberta leaving Canada.
It argues that the province can be higher off controlling its personal sources, taxes and insurance policies, and has been working to collect signatures below Alberta’s citizen-initiative guidelines to set off a vote.
Whereas it describes itself as an academic, non-partisan challenge, the group has drawn controversy over its claims concerning the financial viability of an impartial Alberta.
On its web site, the APP says, “Alberta sovereignty, within the context of its relationship with Canada, refers back to the aspiration for Alberta to achieve larger autonomy and management over provincial areas of accountability.”
“Nevertheless, a mix of financial, political, cultural and human rights elements … has resulted in lots of Albertans defining ‘Alberta sovereignty’ to imply Alberta turning into an impartial nation and taking management of all issues that fall inside the jurisdiction of an impartial nation,” it provides.
What else has Washington mentioned?
White Home and State Division officers informed the FT that administration officers often meet with civil society teams and that no assist or commitments had been conveyed.
A report revealed by Canada’s public broadcaster CBC earlier this yr quoted US nationwide safety analyst Brandon Weichert as saying that Trump’s discuss of Canada turning into the “51st state” was, in actuality, geared toward Alberta.
Showing on a present hosted by former Trump chief strategist Steve Bannon, Weichert steered {that a} vote for independence in Alberta would immediate the US to recognise the province and information it in direction of turning into a US state.
Has the Trump administration tried this elsewhere?
Sure, in Greenland.
As with Canada, Trump has repeatedly referred to as for Greenland to be included into the US. His threats to annex Greenland have prompted sturdy opposition from the federal government of the Arctic island, Denmark — which governs Greenland — and Europe.
However as with Alberta, Trump’s administration has additionally tried to check separatist sentiment. In August 2025, the Danish authorities summoned the highest US diplomat in Copenhagen after Denmark’s nationwide broadcaster reported that three Trump allies had begun pulling collectively an inventory of Greenlanders supportive of the US president’s efforts to get it to affix the US.
