Forget Greenland: Now the US Has Its Eyes Set on Alberta
Almost every language and culture has a saying that reflects a common truth: “A house in turmoil is an open invitation for sneaky neighbors to intervene!”
Currently, the province of Alberta is unhappy with how Ottawa has treated it, and there have been ongoing whispers of potential separation from Canada. This situation is exactly what autocrats like Trump thrive on. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, who recently expressed her alarm at US interest in discussing Alberta’s potential independence, bears some responsibility for this situation.
On January 22nd, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent made alarming comments about Alberta during an interview on the right-wing television station Real America’s Voice. He stated, “Alberta has a wealth of natural resources, but they won’t let them build a pipeline to the Pacific. Let’s let them come down into the US.”
Bessent also remarked, “The Albertans are very independent people; there’s a rumor they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.” When the interviewer suggested that Bessent seemed to know something about the situation in Alberta, he replied, “People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the US has got.”
For context, Alberta, Canada’s oil-rich province, has been moving toward possible independence since Mark Carney and the Liberal Party won the 2025 election. Unsurprisingly, Trump and his associates have taken note of this sentiment.
According to Politico, organizers of Alberta’s growing independence movement have until May 2nd to gather approximately 178,000 Albertan signatures on a petition that would trigger a referendum on the province’s independence. If successful, this could force Ottawa to negotiate Alberta’s separation from the country.
Premier Smith: Current Stance and Past Actions
When confronted by the press about Bessent’s statements, Smith responded, “When I talk to Albertans who are frustrated with how Ottawa has treated us for the past ten years, they don’t say, ‘therefore, I want to be an American state.’ That is not what I am hearing.”
She added, “They [separatist Albertans] want a new relationship with Canada. And that’s what I’m trying to accomplish. We’ve got a new leader, we have a new prime minister, we’ve signed an MOU, and we seem to have common ground in trying to build a new pipeline,” attempting to explain her actions in light of the US’s potential leverage over Alberta due to the deteriorating relationship with Ottawa, partly stemming from her own efforts.
It is undeniable that Smith has enabled Alberta’s separatist movement to gain momentum. She has supported several legal and political changes to simplify the process for those seeking an independence referendum. This includes lowering the threshold of signatures required to trigger a referendum through Bill 54, the Elections Statute Amendment Act.
Public Options magazine noted that after Bill 54 became law on May 15th, 2025, the number of signatures required from eligible voters to force a referendum vote was reduced from 20% (approximately 600,000) to 10% (about 177,000), making it 70% easier to initiate the vote since just 3.5% of the province’s population would be needed.
However, and no thanks to Premier Smith, a December 2025 poll found that only 1 in 5 Albertans (19%) would choose to separate from Canada, while 75% would vote against independence.
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