"I think I liked it better when Americans didn't know where Canada was"

More comments today on Canada's precarious situation as Trump continues his fantasy presidency.
When I saw this tonight on Threads, I couldn't help but agree:

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Yeah, I know.

Here is yesterday's "Good Talk" where Chantal Hebert talks about Greenland and about Alberta (7:00 to 9:30 minutes)
 

I hadn't considered before the propaganda value to Trump of being able to tell Americans that a goodly percentage of Albertans want to join the US - that is a dangerous situation.

Danielle Smith's willingness to cater to Alberta separatists was always a dangerous game. Now, in the wake of America's attack on Venezuela and its covetous advances on Greenland, she's effectively risking Canada's future in order to save her own. #cdnpoli www.nationalobserver.com/2026/01/08/o...

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— Max Fawcett (@maxfawcett.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 10:07 AM

This story hit Canada like a bomb yesterday. Its by Patrick Lennox, who is described on LinkedIn as an international relations scholar and former international security practitioner. So he does seem to know what he is talking about!

APB: an excellent brief on what’s stirring in the secessionist ‘Alberta Prosperity Project’ with absolutely jaw dropping quotes attributed to Jeffrey Rath about high level meetings with unnamed senior US officials with their sights set on ‘liberating’ Alberta. Stunning. Infuriating. And not at all surprising this week.

- Don Iveson

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Patrick Lennox

When does a separatist movement become a threat to Canada’s national security?
Foreign Interference and the Alberta Prosperity Project
...The open information on the US’s involvement with the APP [Alberta Prosperity Project] comes from two sources.
First, on November 15th, 2025 Trump strategist Steve Bannon hosted an individual named Brandon Weichert on his show that streams on the Real America’s Voice. Weichert, who is the Senior National Security editor for the conservative foreign affairs publication The National Interest stated:
“Alberta is the linchpin, so when Trump says Canada is gonna be the 51st State… he’s having a little fun…but what he’s really saying because I know a lot of the guys in charge of the Alberta separatist movement, prosperity movement, they have already met twice now with the State Department. Albertans are ready to vote in the next six months. They’re getting out of the Canadian union. They’re gonna become an independent state, independent country, we’re gonna recognize them and that’s going to put them on the pathway to becoming the 51st State. And here’s why that’s important, Alberta has a bevy of untapped critical minerals, they have the world’s largest geothermal energy resources, they have some of the world’s largest natural gas and oil deposits.
"So, when Trump says Canada’s becoming the 51st State, he’s really talking about Alberta. And that’s important because that’s a gateway to the Arctic. Greenland is another gateway to the Arctic. So when we talk about hemispheric defence we’re not just talking about Latin America, were talking about the polar regions too Steve and how they all link together.”
Weichert goes on from talking about Alberta as the lynchpin to America’s annexation of Canada and the Canadian Arctic, to accurately predicting that the Trump Administration would take Maduro out six weeks before it actually happened. There is, therefore, credibility to his statement that should not be overlooked in Canada, simply because it was made on Steve Bannon’s show.
The second data point we can add to understanding whether the APP is a political movement that should be treated as such, or a movement working in concert with foreign actors looking to interfere in a Canadian domestic political process comes from an interview with Jeffrey Rath—the APP’s lawyer and primary spokesman.
Rath’s interview with Rachel Parker provides a fulsome account of the scope of the third meeting he and his APP partners had with Trump Officials. Below follows direct quotations from the interview which was uploaded to Rachel Parker’s Youtube channel in late December and has since had 76,000 views. ...

Lennox then lists the quotes from Rath in the interview, and also provides some background and context analysis. For brevity's sake, I'm just showing the Rath quotes here, but see the whole article for the analysis:

RATH: “The people we meet with go directly from our meetings to the Oval Office.”...
RATH: “The last meeting we had was very strange, we actually met in a SCIF off all things.”...
RATH: “We were at it for several hours going through all of the ways the US government could support Alberta independence when the timing was right.”...
RATH: “They are very enthusiastic about Alberta becoming an independent country.”...
RATH: “The one thing we have in common is that the government in Ottawa and the landlocking of Alberta’s resources is being done at the behest of the Communist Chinese and the Americans see it within their national interest, both under the Monroe doctrine which has been around forever and their new National Security Strategy to support Alberta independence and freeing the third largest oil field in the world from control by the Communist Chinese.”...
RATH: “The reason the Chinese want to keep Alberta oil and gas landlocked is because they don’t want Japan and South Korea to have a steady and stable supply of oil and gas coming out of the third largest oil field in the world. “...
RATH: “We talked about a west coast pipeline being one of the things Alberta would like to see immediately upon independence... We talked about currency support, support for our pensioners and converting Alberta pensions on par with US dollars, and a feasibility study to establish a $500 Billion line of credit for the country of Alberta… We want to be able to sidestep the inevitable response from Ottawa. If we’re backed by the full faith and credit of the US Treasury collateralized by Alberta oil resources we have no reason not to succeed in successfully removing Alberta from Canada.”...
RATH: “We’ve now moved on from the first meeting which was introductory, to the second meeting which was more…ok, let’s get our heads around how this is going to look and how its going to work, to the third meeting where were now working at a very high policy level to discuss communications plans and so on. People will see the communication as it rolls out. There’s definitely a communications plan in place and we’re being continually reassured with all of our meetings that there’s very robust support for a free and independent Alberta in Washington D.C.”...
RATH: “We’ll be going back down there in January. If anything comes up between now and then, I’m basically in contact with them now weekly whether by email or other forms of communication. I personally think APP has a far stronger and better relationship with the US Government than the Smith Government, which is really interesting.”...
RATH: “Sometime in mid-January we are going to unleash the 50,000 volunteers we’ve got lined up to canvass and we’re setting a very lofty goal of 1.5 million signatures in favour of this referendum.”...

Lennox concludes:

The Federal Government and Canada’s Security and Intelligence Community will be hesitant to wade into this territory. Now is not the time for temerity. The clock is ticking on a time bomb referendum that has and will continue to bring US foreign interference into a crucial Canadian domestic political process through the conduit of the Alberta Prosperity Project.
This will come in the form of financial support through grey channels; through messaging support; through manipulation of social media (most controlled by the US tech bros who are clearly aligned with the Trump Administration); through human resources in the form of “volunteers”; through training on how to conduct the politicking on the ground and at the doors; through promises and guarantees as discussed above; and eventually, if necessary, even through the use of force if the example of Venezuela is anything to go on.
The lines between lawful advocacy and bona fide threat to national security in this case may have seemed somewhat unclear before. That should no longer be the case.

Overall, its a chilling read.

So this is Canada's situation now:

“Poilievre doesn’t have security clearance. Danielle Smith plays to Alberta separatists. The world is watching Canada lead so Poilievre grow up! Danielle Smith shut up! Our nation matters more than your toxic games that would undermine us in the end!” 🇨🇦 #CanadaSky 🔗 youtu.be/sZpjg5ZzHRM?si…

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— Laura Babcock 🇨🇦 (@laura-babcock.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 9:56 AM

The Globe and Mail is now running scenarios for how the US may take parts of Canada.

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— Nathan Kalman-Lamb (@nkalamb.bsky.social) January 7, 2026 at 7:11 AM

This is a sentiment I can support too:

Canada spending billions on a pipeline that ultimately never actually enters production as a play to neutralize Alberta separatists until MAGA burns out wouldn't be a bad outcome.

— StephC (@scomea.bsky.social) January 10, 2026 at 12:00 AM

Confidence in the federal government is up coast to coast to coast.

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— Vanelle 🦋🇨🇦 🎹🎤 & democracy defender (@vanellemusic.bsky.social) January 9, 2026 at 9:32 PM

If the US tries to take Greenland, it appears that Europe is preparing to shoot first and ask questions later:

Ben Meiselas reports on France preparing war plans against the United States in the event of an invasion of Greenland. youtu.be/ELtZnnIC6IE?...

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— JeffTrnka (@jefftrnka.bsky.social) January 8, 2026 at 9:45 AM

I wonder if they would do the same for Canada?

And finally, I pray it doesn't come to this, but if it does...

Correct.

- #Francesk🇨🇦

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