The Globe and Mail reports in its Friday edition that researchers tracking how on-line influence campaigns are targeting Monday's referendum in Alberta have noticed an increase in activity from the United States in the final weeks before the vote. The Globe's Grant Robertson writes that on-line narratives pushing Alberta as the 51st state have become the dominant message being pushed into Canada by American sources, according to the Centre for Artificial Intelligence, Data, and Conflict at University of Regina. Since the project began in July, 80 per cent of suspected foreign influence activity targeting the Alberta referendum -- 40,000 items a month -- has been linked to Russian bots and content farms, which churn out memes, social-media messages and videos aimed at promoting pro-separatist messages in Canada. The remaining 20 per cent has been linked to U.S. sources, including podcasters, right-wing political pundits and social-media influencers. The U.S. activity is overt, with American influencers, podcasts and websites conspicuously promoting Alberta separation on a variety of platforms including YouTube, Reddit and Rumble. U.S. Ambassador Pete Hoekstra has levelled similar accusations at Canada, without evidence.