MAGA-backed secession crusade goes down in landslide in ‘very strong message’ to world

The leader of the movement that opposed separatists’ efforts to achieve independence for the Canadian province of Albertasaid Monday night that voters’ resounding rejection of the secession push would “send a very strong message to the rest of the world,” after Trump administration officials backed the effort.

“Don’t mess with Canada,” said Thomas Lukaszuk, a former deputy premier of Alberta who led the Forever Canadian campaign.

With more than 1.8 million votes counted Tuesday morning, 75.7% of Alberta voters had supported remaining in Canada with no further referendum. Just over 24% voted in favor of holding a second referendum on separating from the country, which would have been binding.

Separatist leaders, many of whom came to prominence after leading protests against public health precautions during the coronaviruspandemic, were welcomed to meetings at the US State Department in recent months, where they sought advice on their “Let Alberta Decide” campaign from Republican operatives. The meetings, said British Columbia premier David Eby, amounted to “treason.”

US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent expressed support for the separatist movement, which does not have a central leader but is backed by groups in Alberta including the Alberta Prosperity Project and Stay Free Alberta.

Bessent said in January that the province, which holds the world’s fourth-largest proven oil reserves, could be “a natural partner for the US.”

“I think we should let them come down into the US,” Bessent told right-wing podcaster Jack Posobiec. “They have great resources. The Albertans are very independent people... Alberta has a wealth of natural resources, but they won’t let them build a pipeline to the Pacific.”

Former Trump administration adviser and Republican megadonor Elon Musk also said on social media this month that Alberta “should separate” from Canada.

The referendum came as President Donald Trump has threatened to take over Canada and make it “the 51st state,” accusing the Canadian government of treating the US “very badly.” He has imposed 50% tariffs on a range of Canadian imports, setting off a trade war.

Separatists in Alberta, whose views have long been in the minority, have complained that the province “sends $20 billion more to Ottawa every year than it gets back,” and fumed over any environmental policies that threaten Alberta’s oil industry, one of the most polluting in the world.

Canceled oil pipelines, a bill banning oil tankers from stopping and unloading at ports on British Columbia’s coast, and an emissions cap have been decried as evidence that the federal government has treated Alberta as “a colony,” as one separatist told The Associated Press Monday—despite the fact that the emissions cap was dropped for the province’s oil and gas sector last year.

“They want to take and take and take from us, and not return anything,” Dustin Degenhardt said while voting.

Danielle Smith, the leader of the United Conservative Party and the premier of Alberta, said she supported the province remaining in the country and applauded the vote results.

But at a recent online forum, Smith outlined the concerns of separatists, saying families face growing affordability struggles and asserting the province has been forced to provide hundreds of thousands of immigrants whom the federal government has resettled there.

A report released in June by the Calgary Chamber of Commerce found that seceding from Canada would shrink Alberta’s economy by $62 billion per year.

Prime Minister Mark Carney said after the vote Monday night that the decision by a large majority of voters was “a great result for Canada.”

“Albertans have chosen unity,” said Carney. “They’ve chosen to build together. They’ve chosen to continue to take care of each other, to move forward together.”

Podcast host Laura Babcock said Tuesday that “the separatists and Trump lost. Canada won.”