Mitch Sylvestre, CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project, gives a speech at the Eckville Community Centre in Alberta on Jan. 14.AHMED ZAKOT/The Globe and Mail

Suppose there were a country, let’s call it Outlandia, that declared its intent to annex Canada – to take over its territory and subject its people to its rule – if not by military means, certainly by economic.

Now suppose a group of fellow travellers within Canada offered to assist Outlandia with its hostile takeover. Nothing violent, mind you, but rather the kinds of measures, from psyops to sabotage, that would reliably weaken our ability to resist – that would divide the country, plunge it into political and economic disorder, and ultimately deliver it into the hands of Outlandia.

What would we call this kind of behaviour?

Now suppose that country were the United States; the group of fellow travellers, the Alberta Prosperity Project; and the measure on which they were jointly conspiring, a referendum on the secession of Alberta from Canada.

What do we call this kind of behaviour?

The Premier of British Columbia, David Eby, startled a lot of people by referring to it as “treason.” The immediate response in most quarters was to dismiss this as hyperbole. We have, after all, long experience in this country with secession........

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