This story is the second of a two-part feature interview with US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra. Read also: The US ambassador denies that donations have delayed the opening of the Gordie Howe Bridge
US Ambassador to Canada Pete Hoekstra says the Trump administration has not met with Alberta separatists nor discussed any potential financial support for an independent Alberta, directly contradicting claims made by prominent separatists.
“No, we are not meeting with the separatists and we are not strategizing this at all,” Hoekstra told Global News.
A report in Financial Timesciting sources familiar with the talks, said leaders of the Alberta Prosperity Project met three times with US State Department officials in Washington since April.
The leader of the Alberta Prosperity Project, Jeffery Rath, the group leading the separatist movement, has publicly stated that his organization has met with US officials. That includes a meeting with U.S. Treasury officials to discuss a possible $500 billion credit line for an independent Alberta.
Hoekstra rejected the separatists’ claims, saying “the separatists can say whatever they want”.
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Asked if there were talks about a possible line of credit with the separatists, Hoekstra said “no, not that I know of.”
When asked if the Trump administration wants Alberta to remain part of Canada, Hoekstra would not give a definitive answer.
“That’s the president’s call,” he said. “I think at this point in time, we’ve made it very clear that we’re not going to take a position on this. That’s a decision that has to be made by the people of Alberta, the province of Alberta and the federal government.”
This position offers a big change from a previous administration.
During the Quebec referendum campaign in February 1995, then US President Bill Clinton called for a united Canada.
“Canada has stood for all of us as a model of how people of different cultures can live and work together in peace, prosperity and respect,” Clinton said in a speech in the House of Commons.
Hoekstra predicts that the Trump administration will not be involved in the fall referendum.
“I’m not going to get a directive, I don’t believe, from the President of the United States, from our Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, that says, ‘Pete, go out there and do whatever you can to advocate for secession or for the people of Alberta to vote to remain part of Confederation,'” Hoekstra told Global News.
Despite the ambassador’s claim to stay out of Alberta politics, several premiers criticized Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent after he said in January that Alberta is a “natural partner for the US.
“Albertans are a very independent people,” Bessent said on the Voice of Real America podcast. “They want what the US has.”
Hoekstra dismissed Bessent’s comments, saying, “Canadians get upset about a number of things.
“There are many instances of Canadian politicians saying things about American politics or American policies and those kinds of things that I’m not happy about,” he said. “I don’t focus on them.”
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