{"id":939286,"date":"2026-10-19T22:02:27","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:02:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939286\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T22:02:27","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T22:02:27","slug":"millions-cast-early-ballots-in-alberta-referendum-as-separation-vote-under-way-live-updates","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/939286\/","title":{"rendered":"Millions cast early ballots in Alberta referendum as separation vote under way &#8211; live updates"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Despite meetings, Trump administration largely quiet on Albertapublished at 20:21 BST<\/p>\n<p>20:21 BST<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1l98ssq-Contributor etflsgg2\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/a1462f87-b5c0-43b2-8a08-2f7c7a8f1bff.jpg.webp\" width=\"64\" height=\"64\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Bernd Debusmann Jr<br \/>White House reporter<\/p>\n<p>      <img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Donald Trump is seen talking in front of an American flag\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/0fc38400-ac69-48d8-bd86-3cd627b54fa3.jpg.webp\"  width=\"2581\" height=\"1721\" class=\"ssrcss-egie1y-Image edrdn950\"\/>Image source, EPA<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">President Trump is no fan of Canada&#8217;s government, or of Prime Minister Mark Carney. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">At a rally just this weekend in Kentucky that I attended, Trump again took aim at his northern neighbour, claiming &#8211; without any evidence &#8211; that the US is losing $90bn each year for the &#8220;priviledge&#8221; of allowing Canada to have its own healthcare system, suggesting that US economic policies are bankrolling Canadian programmes. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">He has not, however, publicly weighed in on Alberta&#8217;s independence movement, although he has not come out to support a united Canada either. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">The closest we have to a statement from a senior administration official came from Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent in January, when he told conservative news outlet Real America&#8217;s Voice that Alberta would be a &#8220;natural partner&#8221; for the US. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">&#8220;They have great resources. The Albertans are very independent people,&#8221; Bessent said, adding that &#8220;people want sovereignty. They want what the US has got&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">In late January, an administration official also confirmed to the BBC that officials met from the Alberta Prosperity Project. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">\u201cAdministration officials meet with a number of civil society groups. No such support, or any other commitments, was conveyed,&#8221; the official said. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">All of this falls well short of an endorsement or official policy position from the US government. <\/p>\n<p class=\"ssrcss-1q0x1qg-Paragraph e1jhz7w10\">But depending on how things play out in Alberta, we may see President Trump comment on this over the next few days, whether at one of his many campaign rallies, in the Oval Office or on Truth Social. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Despite meetings, Trump administration largely quiet on Albertapublished at 20:21 BST 20:21 BST Bernd Debusmann JrWhite House reporter&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":939287,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-939286","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939286","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=939286"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/939286\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/939287"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=939286"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=939286"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=939286"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}