Doug Ford calls on Danielle Smith to ‘stand up’ against separatist push from some Albertans

Le premier ministre de l'Ontario, Doug Ford, s'adresse aux médias, à Queen's Park, à Toronto, le mercredi 21 janvier 2026. (LA PRESSE CANADIENNE/Nathan Denette)

Ontario Premier Doug Ford is calling on Alberta Premier Danielle Smith to “stand up” and denounce a push for separatism from some residents of her province.

Ford made the comment while speaking with reporters in Ottawa on Thursday, where he is attending meetings with Prime Minister Mark Carney and his provincial counterparts.

The comment comes following reports from The Financial Times that leaders of the Alberta Prosperity Project met with U.S. State Department officials three times in Washington since last April.

Members of the Alberta Prosperity Project have been collecting signatures, with the goal of initiating a provincial referendum on whether Alberta should separate from Canada.

“This is an opportunity for Premier Smith to stand up and say, ‘Enough is enough.’ Either you’re with Canada or you’re not with Canada,” Ford said.

A senior U.S. State Department official told CTV News Toronto that they regularly meet with “civil society types” and that “as is typical in routine meetings such as these, no commitments were made.”

British Columbia Premier David Eby, however, called the reported meetings treasonous during his media availability in Ottawa on Thursday.

“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.

Ford wouldn’t go as far as echoing Eby’s sentiments, but the premier called the reported meetings “unacceptable,” and “unethical.”

“We’re one country and we should all be sticking together. We shouldn’t have groups going around the federal government’s back or the province’s back to negotiate something with the U.S.,” Ford said.

“We all know where President (Donald) Trump stands. He wants Canada, and that’s not going to happen. We’ll fight with every tool we have.”

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent recently said Alberta would be a “natural partner,” primarily due to Alberta’s rich resources and desire to construct a new pipeline to the West Coast.

‘New relationship with Ottawa’

Separatists recently rallied in Calgary at an event hosted by the Alberta Prosperity Project and Stay Free Alberta, where they were asked the following: “Do you agree that the province of Alberta should cease to be a part of Canada to become an independent state?”

Organizers told CTV News Calgary they have collected thousands of names already but need over 177,000 signatures to force a referendum this fall.

• READ MORE: Alberta separatists rally for independence, collecting signatures in Calgary

Jeffrey Rath, a lawyer for the Alberta Prosperity Project, has promised that should Alberta separate, income and carbon taxes would be eliminated, though a formal plan has not yet been announced. He also dismissed the notion that Alberta would become the 51^st state.

“We’re seeking a free and independent Alberta,” Rath told CTV News Calgary. “Why the hell would we want to fight tooth and nail for a year-and-a-half, for two years, to leave Canada and the clutches of the Canada Revenue Agency to put ourselves under the taxing jurisdiction of the U.S. Treasury?”

Smith recently defended her position on her radio show last Saturday, expressing how she wants Alberta to have a “new relationship with Ottawa.”

“I’ve made it very clear what my position is. It was my first bill, Alberta sovereignty with a united Canada,” she said.

CTV News reached out to Smith’s office for comment on Thursday but has not received a response.

With files from CTV News Calgary’s Tyson Fedor and The Canadian Press