Alberta Separatists Accused of 'Treason' After Secret Meetings With Trump Officials

The leader of British Columbia on Thursday excoriated separatists in neighboring Alberta who met secretly on several occasions with officials from the administration of President Donald Trump, whose frequent talk of making Canada the "51st state" has tanked relations with the US' northern neighbor.

The Financial Times reported Wednesday that leaders of the right-wing Alberta Prosperity Project (APP), who want the fossil fuel-rich province to become an independent nation, were welcomed for three meetings with Trump officials in Washington, DC since last April.

APP is reportedly seeking US assistance, including a $500 billion line of credit from the US Treasury Department to help bankroll an independent Alberta, if any potential independence referendum succeeds.

According to the CBC:

Organizers of the Alberta independence movement are collecting signatures in order to trigger a referendum in that province. The pro-independence campaign has been traveling across the province as organizers try to collect nearly 178,000 signatures over the next few months.

"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," British Columbia Premier David Eby, who leads the center-left BC New Democratic Party, said in Ottawa.

"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," Eby continued.

"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 added.

APP co-founder Dennis Modry told the Financial Times Wednesday that the separatist movement is "not treasonous."

“What could be more noble than the pursuit of self-determination, the pursuit of your goals and aspirations, the pursuit of freedom and prosperity?” he asked.

Trump and some of his senior officials have repeatedly expressed their desire to annex Canada, despite polite but vehement Canadian rejection of such a union. Trump's coveting of Canada comes amid his threats to acquire Greenland by any means necessary, his planning for a possible Panama Canal takeover, and his attacks on Venezuela, Iran, Nigeria, and other countries.

Last week, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent poured more fuel on the fire by seemingly encouraging Albertan separatism.

"They have great resources. Albertans are a very independent people," Bessent said during a media interview. "Rumor [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 US has got."

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith of the province's United Conservative Party said Thursday that she "supports a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada," even as critics—including Indigenous leaders—accuse her of making it easier for a pro-independence petition to succeed last year.

Smith said the she expects US officials to "confine their discussion about Alberta's democratic process to Albertans and to Canadians."