What counts as “foreign interference?” In January, US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said in an interview that “Alberta has a wealth of natural resources, but they won’t let them build a pipeline to the Pacific,” in this case, “they” being the federal government.Referring to Alberta, he went on to say, “I think we should let them come down into the US, and Alberta is a natural partner for the US. They have great resources. The Albertans are very independent people.”According to some leftist news organizations, Bessent’s comments amount to foreign interference. For example, the Walrus magazine claimed those comments point towards “the strategy of foreign interference the US intends to pursue” with Alberta’s independence referendum.They must have a very loose definition of “foreign interference.”However, using a much tighter definition of foreign interference, it is clear that Canadians interfered in the 2024 US presidential election.Canadian interference in US elections? How could that be?.Well, consider this September 2024 article from the National Post: “Three former premiers attempting to recruit Canadians as canvassers for Kamala Harris.”As this article explains, an organization called “Canadians for Kamala” had formed to recruit Canadians to volunteer to help campaign for Kamala Harris, the Democratic Party nominee for the presidency. These Canadians would travel to locations in the United States to assist with Democratic Party campaign activities.Canadian citizens cannot vote in US elections or contribute financially to candidates, but they can do other campaign work, such as passing out literature and phoning potential voters on behalf of their favoured candidate.Notably, Canadians for Kamala received the endorsements of former BC Liberal premier Christy Clark, former Ontario Liberal premier Kathleen Wynne, and former Alberta NDP premier Rachel Notley. These three former premiers were supporting the group’s recruitment of Canadians for American electoral campaigning. They were not shy about using their influence to advocate for Canadian participation in the US election.According to the National Post, the Canadians for Kamala organization was funded and organized by SEIU Healthcare, a Canadian affiliate of the Service Employees International Union, a large American trade union.As long as foreign election volunteers are not compensated, they can legally help in American elections.Like 2024, the 2020 US presidential election attracted Canadian participants as well. A CBC article from July 2020 begins this way: “Canadians are flooding a foreign chapter of the Democratic Party with offers to help it defeat Donald Trump in this fall’s U.S. presidential election.”.Interestingly, the CBC notes that University of Buffalo law professor James Gardner had serious concerns about Canadians (and other foreigners) volunteering in US elections. As the CBC explains, Gardner believes “it’s morally wrong for people to volunteer during a foreign election because it erodes basic principles of democratic self-governance. He said the country's constitutional drafters in 1787 were deeply worried about foreign interference.”As he put it, “As an ethical matter, I would say, ‘Even if you can, you should not.’”Apparently, his ethical standards are not shared by Rachel Notley and her fellow ex-premiers. They were all in favour of influencing a foreign election, in particular, the 2024 US presidential election.The point is this: If a passing comment about Alberta independence by Scott Bessent in a media interview counts as “foreign interference,” then what could be said about three former premiers endorsing a campaign to recruit Canadians to work on behalf of Kamala Harris in the United States? Clearly, the latter case is a much more severe example of foreign interference. Yet, it did not receive the same degree of concern in the media as Scott Bessent’s comments.The leftist politicians and media figures complaining about foreign interference in Alberta’s independence movement need to be far more consistent. They don’t seem to have taken notice of blatant efforts by Canadians to influence the outcome of the 2024 US presidential election. Is that because those Canadian efforts were in support of a left-wing candidate? Most likely. But if comments on Alberta’s current affairs by prominent Americans are a cause for concern, then actual Canadian participation in US elections should be a much greater concern.
