Stopping foreign efforts at political interference

It’s gone beyond nosy neighbours.

Perhaps emboldened or encouraged by U.S. President Donald Trump’s persistent description of Canada as a potential 51st state, American Republican interest groups seem to be poking their fingers directly into Alberta’s separation politics.

And not just fingers: hands-on technical support, and one can only imagine financial support as well.

Press Progress reported Monday that Alberta’s Centurion Project, a leading force in the separation debate, is using a voter ID App that mirrors one used in the last U.S. presidential election. That system, 10xVotes, has been linked to the U.S. ambassador to Canada Peter Hoekstra, other wealthy Michigan Republican donors and MAGA influencers.

The app essentially allows users to track down other voters they may know, and give them the ability to reach out and persuade them to vote for separation. The Centurion Project has come under fire for having obtained confidential voters list information on three million Albertans in what has been called one of the biggest data leaks in Canada — and adding that information to its app. A judge ordered the app shut down late last month because of the confidential nature of the Elections Alberta voters list.

In an episode of the Shaun Newman Podcast, Centurion Project organizer David Parker says “In my travels in the United States, I’ve met a lot of political organizers and I’ve talked to a lot of people, and I stumbled across this group out of Michigan called 10xVotes.”

“I was massively impressed with what they’d done, and I wanted to bring that idea and that methodology to Alberta … For almost two years — it’ll be two years this fall — I’ve been working with them, talking with them, trying to build this out. … And the result is the Centurion Project.”

Parker is not co-operating with Elections Alberta investigators, and has called the elections watchdog “an evil tool of evil people.” Parker is also challenging another Elections Alberta decision to fine him $7,500 and the organization Take Back Alberta $112,500 for failing to provide required full financial reports, circumventing advertising spending limits and accepting money from outside of Alberta before the 2023 provincial election.

And the brash and oft-dismissive U.S. Ambassador Peter Hoekstra?

Ambassador Hoekstra actively promoted the use of the 10xVotes app in Michigan during the last U.S. election, and has connections with some of the principals — but he insists he has no financial or current involvement with 10xVotes, and no knowledge of U.S. involvement in the Centurion Project.

The connections with Hoekstra are alarming, for sure — and if the ambassador was found to be actively involved in Alberta’s separation politics, then he should be tossed from this country.

But equally alarming is that Albertans are actively seeking and receiving American help in their separation fight.

The extent to which American dollars and American help are involved in Alberta politics has to be established, and Canadian and Albertan law on foreign involvement in any form of voting has to be engaged and respected. (Another prominent separation group, the Alberta Prosperity Project, is also facing legal action by Elections Alberta for failing to reveal the source and size of political donations used to promote their separation agenda.)

Foreign nationals helping Canadian separatists is simply not acceptable — whether it’s American interference or anyone else, whether it’s app development or donated cash or social media bots dishing out political misinformation on social media. And if current election legislation isn’t strong enough to protect the integrity of our electoral system, let’s get the law stronger teeth and those who protect our democratic system more resources.