Mat Carson

White House now selling the breakup of Canada. Not a podcaster. Not Russian Television. The U.S. Secretary of Commerce, on camera. Howard Lutnick walks the fracture line as if it were a briefing: Quebec votes October 5. Alberta has an independence process. Ottawa is the villain. The trade war is a “kerfuffle.” Our elections are a Liberal trick. That is not analysis of Canada. That is the script to for carving up Canada and swallowing it more easily. In August, expert on authoritarian regimes Ruth Ben-Ghiat described the division of labour. Kremlin media stokes the grievance — Alberta is exploited,the West betrayed. MAGA’s job is the next sentence: secede, join, put a flag on the gas. Influencers were already shouting “SECEDE AND JOIN THE USA.” A congressman had already named Alberta the 51st state and, in the same breath, its fantastic oil reserves! The diagnosis was plunder dressed as sympathy. Today the diagnosis has a job title. When a White House official narrates Quebec and Alberta as reasons Canada should fold, he is not explaining our politics. He is working them. A weaker Canada is easier to tariff. A peeled-off Alberta is easier to price. A country arguing with itself does not hold a line at the table. Canada is not a campaign prop. Quebec is not a wedge. Alberta is not a oil patch. They have stopped outsourcing the breakup. They are selling it themselves. Full Ben-Ghiat extract, from August, before it wore a Cabinet pin: teapawt.org/anniedufour99/status/2… #cdnpoli #abpoli #polqc Albertans, Québécois: when the Commerce Secretary talks about your vote, do you hear solidarity or a price tag?