{"id":429315,"date":"2026-01-24T02:27:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429315\/"},"modified":"2026-01-24T02:27:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-24T02:27:12","slug":"u-s-treasury-secretary-scott-bessent-weighs-in-on-alberta-separatism-calls-province-natural-partner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/429315\/","title":{"rendered":"U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent weighs in on Alberta separatism, calls province \u2018natural partner\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s remarks were in response to a question about Prime Minister Mark Carney\u2019s World Economic Forum speech.Markus Schreiber\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Thursday goaded Prime Minister Mark Carney<\/a> and directly referenced Alberta\u2019s<\/a> potential independence referendum, calling the Western province \u201ca natural partner for the U.S.\u201d <\/p>\n

Mr. Bessent\u2019s comments, made in a Thursday interview with American right-wing media personality Jack Posobiec, make him the highest-profile member of the Trump administration to weigh in on Alberta\u2019s potential independence vote \u2013 and adds to the steady drumbeat of allies of U.S. President Donald Trump who appear to be watching the campaign.<\/p>\n

\u201cAlberta has a wealth of natural resources, but they won\u2019t let them build a pipeline to the Pacific,\u201d Mr. Bessent said. <\/p>\n

\u201cI think we should let them come down into the U.S., and Alberta is a natural partner for the U.S. They have great resources; the Albertans are very independent people. [There\u2019s a] rumour that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not … people are talking.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Bessent\u2019s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n

Tony Keller: A referendum in Alberta could be Donald Trump\u2019s 51st state opportunity<\/a><\/p>\n

A referendum on Alberta independence will happen later this year if a group of residents can collect the nearly 178,000 signatures required to force a vote on the issue. That group, Stay Free Alberta, has until early May to gather support for the vote.<\/p>\n

Sam Blackett, spokesperson for Premier Danielle Smith<\/a>, said Alberta wants to build more pipeline capacity in all directions, including to U.S. markets.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the Premier also believes the overwhelming majority of Albertans are not interested in becoming a U.S. state,\u201d Mr. Blackett wrote.<\/p>\n

Finance Minister Fran\u00e7ois-Philippe Champagne avoided direct criticism of his U.S. counterpart when asked at a cabinet retreat in Quebec City to respond to Mr. Bessent\u2019s remarks.<\/p>\n

Mr. Champagne said he has a very good relationship with Mr. Bessent and he pointed to Ottawa\u2019s recent memorandum of understanding with Alberta related to energy resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne thing I\u2019ve learned over time is that you don\u2019t need to comment on every single comment,\u201d he said. \u201cWe have signed an MOU with Alberta. Canadians are a proud people. Canadians know how to build resources. Canadians know how to grow our economy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Konrad Yakabuski: The hard truths Mark Carney left unsaid in Davos<\/a><\/p>\n

Separatist leader Jeffrey Rath, lawyer with the Alberta Prosperity Project, said Mr. Bessent\u2019s remarks signal support for a province independent of the United States and Canada, and that its southern neighbour would welcome pipeline access to the Pacific coast. Mr. Rath said he and his colleagues are organizing a February meeting with the Treasury Department but he would not provide specifics.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bessent\u2019s comments were in response to a question about Mr. Carney\u2019s much-celebrated Tuesday speech at the World Economic Forum<\/a> in which he identified a \u201crupture\u201d in the world order and publicly condemned economic coercion.<\/p>\n

The Treasury Secretary derided Mr. Carney\u2019s background as a central bank governor and said he\u2019s a \u201cglobalist\u201d who doesn\u2019t want to use Canada\u2019s vast natural resources.<\/p>\n

President Trump on Monday, in his bid to take control of Greenland, posted an edited image of himself in the Oval Office with the American flag superimposed over a map of Canada, Greenland and Venezuela.<\/p>\n

Earlier this week, Republican Congressman Andy Ogles also added to the fire, saying Albertans appear to want to secede from Canada. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s remarks were in response to a question about…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":429316,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-429315","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429315","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=429315"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/429315\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/429316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=429315"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=429315"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=429315"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}