Analyst warns Eby’s language could push some ‘separatist-curious’ Albertans to become fully separatist
B.C. Premier David Eby is not backing down after calling the Alberta separatist movement seeking foreign assistance an act of treason — but one analyst is warning against using such serious language during a time where Canada needs to stand united.
Eby’s comments last week came amid meetings with fellow Canadian leaders in Ottawa, in response to reports that members of U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration have met with members of the Alberta Prosperity Project, a group pushing for Alberta to become independent.
The group is seeking a $500-billion US line of credit from the U.S. Treasury to help bankroll the new country if they are successful in a referendum. An official with the U.S. State Department confirmed the meetings, but said “no commitments were made.”
“To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada, there’s an old-fashioned word for that, and that word is treason,” Eby said last Thursday.
In an interview on CBC’s The Early Edition on Monday, the premier doubled down on his comments.
The fact that this is even being treated as a debate is insane. Asking a foreign government to bankroll your political movement is already highly suspect. Asking a foreign government to bankroll your separatist movement is beyond the pale.
Debating settled language and concepts is a key element in rhetorically shifting the dialectic toward fascism, and you’re right to be alarmed by it. This is very recently precedented in the US itself, and we need to do what too few did there during early phases and push back and punish media narratives that are driving it. Don’t forget how many of our news outlets aren’t owned by Canadian companies or interests, and stay vigilant.
I can’t see how it would even work. Alberta doesn’t own all their land, they have a treaty with the indigenous population that gives them use, I assume that use would be void if Alberta “leaves” Canada