The US ambassador to Canada endorsed the voter ID app that an Alberta separatist group used to build an illegal database of nearly three million provincial voters, a PressProgress investigation reveals.
The Centurion Project — co-founded by David Parker, who also leads the hard-right activist network Take Back Alberta — illegally obtained a voter list containing the names, home addresses, and registration details of 2.9 million Albertans. Elections Alberta traced the breach to the Republican Party of Alberta, a registered pro-independence party that had legally received a copy of the provincial electors list. The agency seeds all distributed copies with fictitious entries to trace leaks.
Read: RCMP Investigates Alberta Separatist Group Over Alleged Misuse of 2.9 Million Voter Records
Parker told a podcast last month that he modelled the Centurion Project’s technology on a Michigan-based right-wing voter mobilization group called 10xVotes.
“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,” Parker said.
PressProgress identified that same app’s most prominent endorser as Pete Hoekstra, Trump’s ambassador in Ottawa.
Hoekstra endorsed 10xVotes while chairing the Michigan Republican Party through the 2024 election cycle. PressProgress compared the two tools and found their layouts and capabilities closely mirror each other. 10xVotes backers credit the app with helping swing Michigan to Trump in 2024.
The app gave volunteers a searchable database filtered by riding and polling subdivision, letting them find residents by name or address and recruit a chain of independence supporters ahead of the October 19 referendum.
“I was not aware of the relationship,” Hoekstra told PressProgress. “I have zero involvement with 10xVotes. I have never had any financial relationship with 10xVotes.”
Hoekstra stepped down as Michigan GOP chair in February 2025 after Trump nominated him as ambassador to Canada. Conflict-of-interest filings he submitted to the US State Department list no financial interests tied to the app.
“They were a potential tool, offered for free to get out Republican voters for President Trump in 2024,” Hoekstra told PressProgress. “I was chairman of the Michigan Republican Party and it was my job to develop a winning campaign.”
PressProgress also reports that Hoekstra knows both the founder of 10xVotes and the founder’s wealthy stepfather. Hoekstra denied those connections gave him any knowledge of how Parker deployed the app in Alberta.
10xVotes has attracted backing from other prominent MAGA figures — Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones of Infowars have both promoted it. State Republicans are now running information sessions across Michigan to train organizers on the app ahead of this fall’s congressional midterms.
The ambassador connection is part of a broader pattern of US involvement in Alberta’s independence push. Alberta Prosperity Project leaders have met with US State Department officials at least three times since Trump’s inauguration. In January, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent publicly called an independent Alberta a “natural partner” for the United States.
Related: Elections Alberta Targets Alberta Prosperity Project in Financial Showdown
A video from an April 16 Centurion Project online meeting showed the group displaying former premier Jason Kenney’s home address to roughly 80 attendees — allegedly including senior UCP staff.
Read: Kenney Lawyers Up as Centurion Breach Exposes Judges, Abuse Survivors and Vulnerable Albertans
Elections Alberta, Alberta’s Information and Privacy Commissioner, and the RCMP are all investigating the Centurion Project. Elections Alberta says the group is not cooperating with its probe. Unauthorized use of the provincial electors list carries penalties of up to $100,000 or one year in prison.
Investigators from Elections Alberta showed up at the Centurion Project’s official Edmonton launch on April 29 — Parker had just finished his presentation — and served the group with a cease-and-desist. The app came down the next day, with the group saying it would comply with all investigations.
Privacy commissioner Diane McLeod’s office is also reviewing the breach, but has flagged that political parties fall outside the province’s main personal information privacy law — potentially leaving her office without jurisdiction.
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