{"id":113352,"date":"2026-01-30T18:41:58","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=113352"},"modified":"2026-01-30T18:41:58","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T18:41:58","slug":"carney-says-he-expects-trump-to-respect-canadian-sovereignty-after-alberta-separatists-meet-with-us-officials","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/?p=113352","title":{"rendered":"Carney says he expects Trump to \u2018respect Canadian sovereignty\u2019 after Alberta separatists meet with US officials"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he expects US President Donald Trump to \u201crespect Canadian sovereignty\u201d following reports that\u00a0Alberta separatists\u00a0met with US officials numerous times.<\/p>\n

\u201cI expect the US administration to respect Canadian sovereignty,\u201d Carney said in Ottawa on Thursday, flanked by premiers from Canada\u2019s provinces. \u201cI\u2019m always clear in my conversations with President Trump to that effect, and then move on to what we can do together.\u201d<\/p>\n

The prime minister said that Trump has never brought up the issue of Alberta independence during their meetings.<\/p>\n

Carney\u2019s comments came after David Eby, the premier of British Columbia, accused a group of Alberta independence activists of \u201ctreason\u201d for meeting with the Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Commenting on a\u00a0Financial Times\u00a0report that White House officials had met with activists collecting signatures for a possible plebiscite on Alberta independence, Eby told reporters Thursday he understood their desire for a referendum and to \u201ctalk about the issues you want to talk about in Canada,\u201d but said it was inappropriate at a time when Canadians should be standing together amid tensions with the United States.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve got free speech, that\u2019s important. But to go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there\u2019s an old-fashioned word for that, and that word is treason,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The oil-rich province of Alberta, which is generally more conservative than the rest of Canada, has a vocal independence movement. Separatists there\u00a0have long argued\u00a0that Albertans are too over-taxed and under-represented to remain a part of Canada\u2019s federation.<\/p>\n

Asked about the meetings, a White House official told CNN that \u201cadministration officials meet with a number of civil society groups. No support or commitments were conveyed.\u201d<\/p>\n

A delicate moment<\/h2>\n

News of the meetings comes at a delicate moment in US-Canada relations. Trump has repeatedly threatened to turn the country into the 51st state. Meanwhile, Carney has made it clear that he believes Canada must\u00a0steer a course\u00a0outside of US influence after a year of trading tariffs and counter-tariffs with the United States.<\/p>\n

Eby\u2019s voice wavered with emotion as he expressed his disgust with the separatists who went to Washington, saying he would not \u201cdescribe them as Albertans.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is completely inappropriate to seek to weaken Canada,\u201d Eby said, \u201cto seek to go and ask for assistance to break up this country from a foreign power.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jeffrey Rath, a lawyer and independence activist who told CNN he was part of the group that met with US officials, responded that \u201cDavid Eby wouldn\u2019t know a real Albertan if one walked up and punched him in the face.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rath said he and other separatists are heading to Washington again next month to explore the possibility of obtaining financial credit from the US in the event of independence.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not soliciting funds,\u201d Rath said. \u201cWe\u2019re doing a feasibility study to find out what\u2019s possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberta separatism has a long played a minor role in provincial politics, but the Liberal Party\u2019s win in the 2025 elections reignited the movement, which regards Carney\u2019s center-left politics as the antipathy of Alberta\u2019s conservative values.<\/p>\n

Ironically, Carney is an Albertan himself; he was raised in Edmonton, the provincial capital.<\/p>\n

The Alberta government approved a petition for\u00a0an independence referendum\u00a0earlier in January, and activists have until May to collect 178,000 signatures from eligible voters.<\/p>\n

Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said Thursday that she didn\u2019t agree with the aims of the separatist movement but cautioned against demonizing its supporters.<\/p>\n

A recent poll from Ipsos found that approximately 28% of Albertans might vote \u201cyes\u201d in an independence referendum, a level comparable to the French-speaking province of Quebec, where separatism is a major cultural force.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you look at the polls, they suggest as many as 30% of Albertans have lost hope \u2013 that\u2019s about a million people,\u201d Smith said, \u201cand I\u2019m not going to demonize or marginalize a million of my fellow citizens when they\u2019ve got legitimate grievances.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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\"CarneyCanadian Prime Minister Mark Carney said he expects US President Donald Trump to \u201crespect Canadian sovereignty\u201d following reports that\u00a0Alberta separatists\u00a0met with US officials numerous times.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":{"facebook_2277560469115098_106292521332774":"","twitter_aToxNzczMzI3Njk4OTg4ODUxMjAxOw==_1773327698988851200":""},"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16203,16204,1910,10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-113352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-canadian-sovereignty","category-carney","category-international","category-politics","category-popular"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=113352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=113352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=113352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sotnews.agency\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=113352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}