On this episode of The Big Blue Mug of Coffee, we have a special guest on the show today, Jeff Rath, who has been very familiar in the media over the past week or so. Jeff has been a long time supporter of the Alberta Independence Campaign and has been involved in a number of events in support of the campaign. In this episode, Jeff talks about the upcoming event at the Dalhousie Community Association on Thursday, February 7th, where he will be speaking and signing the petition for Alberta Independence.
00:00:52.520So we've got an event. I want to bring this up right off the top.
00:00:55.060It was sort of a last-minute one that I found out about on Monday, but there's an event coming up here in Calgary at the Dalhousie Community Association.
00:01:03.440I'll put the information up on the screen right now.
00:01:06.500And you're going to be there, one of the speakers, and Mitch Sylvester as well.
00:01:10.500You've been doing a lot of these things, and you're looking forward to Thursday night, I'm sure.
00:01:14.180Yeah, absolutely. I love doing events in Calgary.
00:01:18.180We get to talk to friends and neighbors and family and all kinds of new people that are coming out to Alberta Independence events for the first time.
00:01:28.120And having the message reinforced as to why we all need just to get the hell out of Canada.
00:01:33.140So, yeah, I'm really looking forward to it.
00:01:35.300It's going to be at Dalhousie on Thursday night, 7 o'clock p.m.
00:01:38.140at the Dalhousie Community Association, 5432 Dalhart Road, Northwest.
00:01:47.880And there will be a petition signing from 6 to 9 as well.
00:01:50.580So if you haven't signed the petition, you can do that.
00:01:53.600And at 7, you'll be speaking along with Mitch.
00:01:55.540And I'm going to be there as well. I'm going to see the event.
00:01:58.320And what we're trying to do now with these events is we're trying to have lots of canvassers out so that there aren't any big lineups so we can get people through 10 or 15 people at a time.
00:02:08.080You know, they're all going very, very well.
00:02:09.920The event at the Big Four we held last Monday was incredibly well organized.
00:02:13.820We had 150 canvassers at the Big Four building, and we were literally running people through 150 at a time.
00:02:20.960We had a lineup of over 700 people waiting to get in first thing Monday or, yeah, first thing Monday morning at the Calgary Big Four event.
00:02:30.120And that whole line was serviced, and people were going merrily on their way, merrily, I mean happily on their way within half an hour of the doors opening.
00:03:09.120Calgary really came out to show, you know, that Calgary spirit and show that, you know, that Calgarians are just, you know, are as fed up with the way we've been treated by Canada as the rest of the province.
00:03:22.120And it was just a great day all the way around.
00:03:24.340Yeah, I was at home checking out, seeing people line up there.
00:03:27.560I went down about 2 o'clock in the afternoon.
00:03:29.140And fortunately, they don't allow you to take pictures where the petitions are being signed.
00:03:32.680But there were, it was just incredible all afternoon.
00:03:51.040We always ask people at these events how many people are new and how many people, you know, have been before.
00:03:56.100And right now, all the audiences we're speaking to, it's about three quarters of people have ever been to an APP event or, you know, an Alberta independence event before.
00:04:05.520But they're there to sign the petition, whether they've been to an event or not.
00:04:08.600They just stay to hear what it's all about.
00:04:10.760And they leave even more energized afterwards, knowing that, you know, that they've done the right thing or that they can now do the right thing by signing a petition to get Alberta out of Canada.
00:04:20.520I've heard you say that you're looking to get a million signatures.
00:04:23.100Do you think it's, do you think that's a wise thing to do to set yourself a goal like that?
00:04:37.820No, but I mean, you know, I mean, the reason we're doing that is that, you know, we want people to understand that, you know, like we're peddled to the metal right now.
00:04:46.800And we're not, we're not stopping at 178,000 or 200,000 or 300,000 signatures.
00:04:52.360We want to get as many signatures as we possibly can to demonstrate the strength of our movement to the government of Alberta.
00:05:00.220We certainly want to get more than, you know, the 400,000 signatures.
00:05:03.700And I don't even believe Lukasik got 400,000 signatures because the initial pass that, you know, Elections Canada took to the Lukasik signatures, they were going to get this.
00:05:13.260They had a 20% fraud rate right off the top.
00:05:18.600And then that number got knocked back to, you know, 406,000.
00:05:22.600And then Elections Alberta said, oh, that's close enough, blah, blah.
00:05:26.560But I think, you know, if you have a 20% fraud rate, they should have gone through all of those signatures, not just sort of do an audit of them, right?
00:05:35.820I think the fraud rate was a lot higher than 20%.
00:05:39.200You know, and keep in mind, you know, Lukasik wasn't, they weren't, you know, they weren't required to ask for photo ID.
00:05:45.400They, you know, were signing up people from out of town.
00:05:48.880I mean, I don't know how many Mickey Mouses and Donald Ducks, you know, said that they were remaining in Canada.
00:05:54.360I mean, that whole Lukasik petition effort was, you know, and it was, I can use this language, it was a fraud from start to finish.
00:06:00.740Because even the question was, you know, we want a referendum on the following question.
00:06:05.980So then what happens after Lukasik runs around the province saying that his petition is going to block our petition and blah, blah, blah, right?
00:06:13.720Well, then after the petition's over, it's like, oh, well, we never wanted a referendum in the first place.
00:06:25.940And I think, I think there should be an investigation held.
00:06:29.400And I think, no, Lukasik is, you know, has withdrawn that petition and said he never wanted to go to a referendum when it clearly says we want a referendum.
00:06:37.340Elections Alberta should be going after Lukasik and having him personally repay Elections Alberta for all of the time and money they had to spend counting his signatures, verifying his signatures, his whole signature process, when it's clear that it was fraudulent from start to finish.
00:06:55.680You know, he engaged Elections Alberta in a process that he never intended to see through.
00:07:01.460It's pretty shocking what he did, if you actually think about it.
00:07:04.080And the thing that would concern me about that, and we'll move on from it in a second here, is I actually sent, I actually sent some questions to Gordon McClure, who is the chief electoral officer of Alberta at the time, saying, what's the point in having a referendum if regardless of how it's answered, you get the same result?
00:07:19.640Because that's what Lukasik's thing was about.
00:07:22.020It was really not a referendum on anything because it wasn't a constitutional question.
00:07:26.160So I don't know why they even okayed the question in the first place, and I didn't really get an answer to my questions.
00:07:34.760I was at an event at the Queensland Community Centre, and it was only about eight days after they started handing out badges for petitions.
00:07:43.360And before the event, a couple of days before the event, I'm saying, are there going to be anybody there signing people up?
00:07:48.700Well, we're going to try to get a few people there.
00:07:55.740We had 1,500, 2,000 people show up outside wanting to sign the petition.
00:07:59.620I think the people who were there signing people up are still in the hospital with issues with carpal tunnel syndrome because it was just crazy.
00:08:09.800I mean, God bless her at Water Valley.
00:08:11.920It's like, you know, we had people lined up out the door, and that poor woman was just signing, you know, like writing petitions out all night long.
00:08:18.640Her poor little hand must have been falling off by the end of the year.
00:08:21.880But I mean, that's why we now have, you know, 10, 15, 20 canvassers at every event we do so that, you know, so that that doesn't happen.
00:08:30.300And the only reason that happened was because we didn't have, there were literally the only two badges in the entire province that had been issued the night of that Water Valley event.
00:08:39.400But, yeah, no, it's been, it's been remarkable, and it's night after night.
00:08:42.920And we'll, I want to, I want to move on to, you've been busy.
00:08:46.160You've been doing a lot of interviews.
00:08:47.560In fact, I don't know, you're paying CTV to get on there, Jeff.
00:08:50.460You've done, I think you've done two in the last week.
00:10:10.700Jeff, you were, the second interview, I can't recall the name of the man you were talking to.
00:10:15.540He did a really good job of talking to you.
00:10:18.120But you were incredibly effective in that second interview because you focused on the positive of this movement and why Alberta wants to leave.
00:10:26.720And when you were asked the reasons why, you gave really good, clear answers on it.
00:10:33.200And they were really good, good interviews with you.
00:10:36.300Boy, have you ever had your face over social media over the last week over these things?
00:10:42.200A lot of people not very complimentary of you as well.
00:10:44.420Yeah, well, I mean, as far as I'm concerned, I mean, I'm, and as you probably have guessed, I mean, you know, and you've observed, I mean, people either love me or they hate me, right?
00:10:56.260And obviously, the issue, you know, not only can I be very polarizing, you know, individually, but the issue that we're dealing with is very polarizing, right?
00:11:05.760So, you know, I'm trying to do a little, you know, to try to do better to soften my tone.
00:11:10.780But at the same time, I mean, I have a fairly acerbic sense of humor.
00:11:14.400And if people, you know, if people poke me, I have a tendency to poke them back, right?
00:11:18.940Like, you know, it's hard not to call David Eby an idiot when he calls you a, you know, treasonous or calls you a traitor.
00:11:26.240I mean, it's an idiotic statement, but there's better language.
00:11:29.140I mean, I could say it's childish or I could say that, you know, David Eby simply doesn't know what he's talking about and that he's inciting violence against myself and people in our movement.
00:11:38.700Because ever since, you know, he started with all that treason nonsense.
00:11:41.780I mean, the number of death threats that we've been receiving have been going up through the roof.
00:11:45.640You know, like getting emails about we're going to be hung like the Vichy French and we're going to be hung the way that they hung collaborators after World War II and all of this stuff.
00:11:55.060And David Eby is intentionally inciting that level of violence and then he doubles down on it.
00:12:03.560There is a, you know, we have the secession reference that says that what we're doing is lawful and constitutional.
00:12:10.260There's the, you know, Clarity Act that says what we're doing is lawful and constitutional.
00:12:13.960There is no law in Canada that says that free, you know, that, you know, Canadians can't use their mobility rights and freedom of speech to speak to whoever they want about, you know, whatever they want.
00:12:25.000And that includes the State Department, you know, of the U.S. government.
00:12:29.240I mean, you know, one of our supporters the other day posted on X, the Canadian government had Bill Clinton come to Ottawa during the Quebec referendum to speak against the liberation of the province of Quebec.
00:12:41.300So if the Canadian government can, you know, interfere, you know, in a referendum process by bringing a U.S. president up to talk against independence, why can't members of a province, you know, or citizens of a province go to the United States to see whether to, you know, ascertain the level of support within the United States for Alberta independence?
00:13:05.000There's no law against it. It's not unconstitutional. It's not legal. It doesn't offend the criminal code.
00:13:10.780And of course, the people that are doing that are simply doing it to create a false narrative and to incite violence, you know, against myself and other members of our movement.
00:13:20.620And it's really sad and quite despicable that a provincial premier would do that.
00:13:25.060And you and you are a private citizen. You're not you're not elected to anything.
00:13:28.980So, you know, and I mean, I have no obligation in that regard to answer any questions in the media if I choose not to. Right.
00:13:36.100So, you know, this is, you know, you know, but at the same at the same time, we want to talk to people and tell them what we're talking about and what we're doing and why we're doing it.
00:13:44.480I mean, people need to understand. Right.
00:13:46.460Right. You know, I way I look at it is this, Jeff, you know, Mitch Sylvester's got his name on the petition.
00:13:52.320I have a great deal of admiration for Mitch. He's very giving of his time, as you are, and a number of other people involved with the independence movement.
00:14:00.960But, you know, really, when it comes down to it, you seem to be the face of the independence movement because you're a big man.
00:14:07.800You got a big hat. You got a big voice, big personality as well.
00:14:11.480And I would really like to see more of that second interview, Jeff, because, boy, I'll tell you, that's CTV.
00:14:16.800I'll put links in the description because, man, you were so good on that second one, even though I thought the first one was good.
00:14:21.820Because I think it's important that Alberta focus on the benefits of independence, right?
00:14:26.320Like the fact that we're not going to have any income tax, the fact that we're going to be able to afford to double pensions of pensioners in Alberta.
00:14:33.840We should. I think it's disgusting that, you know, that senior citizens and veterans get $1,200 a month or whatever ridiculous amount of money it is.
00:14:41.480That the federal government gives them.
00:14:43.560But the federal government's paying $3,700 to people that arrive here on international mobility program visas to take $15 an hour jobs at Tim Hortons.
00:14:54.260I mean, it's ludicrous that that kind of money is being wasted to bring people into this country to take jobs away from our kids.
00:15:01.260When I was a kid, a fast food job was a job for kids that were in high school, right?
00:15:05.920We weren't importing people from the third world to fill Burger Kings and Kentucky Fried Chicken joints.
00:15:12.480I mean, it's ludicrous that they're doing this.
00:15:14.140In fact, that was my first job when I was 16.
00:15:16.100I worked at a, you know, Burger King KFC and River Bend in Edmonton.
00:15:19.960You know, that's, you know, that's just the first job for a kid, right?
00:15:22.880So why are we importing people here to fill those jobs when they clog our schools, bring in kids that don't speak English as a first language that, you know, that means special assistance in our classrooms, clogging our emergency room.
00:15:36.100So that Albertans are literally dying because they're not getting appropriate emergency care because our facilities are all strained to the breaking point because of this ridiculous notion that, you know, large multinational corporations should be able to have an unrestricted pipeline to import third world labor to Alberta and completely perverting our labor market.
00:15:58.280You know, so that labor costs, you know, prices do not go up in accordance with a shortage of labor so that people can make a living wage from a full-time job.
00:16:07.960I mean, all of those things are part and parcel of what's going on.
00:16:11.360And our people, you know, and Albertans are fed up and we want it to stop.
00:16:16.240Do you think we need, I remember when I had Mitch on, I went back actually before I started this interview with you to see when I first had Mitch on the channel.
00:16:24.940And I had Mitch on it and one of the things that concerned me back then was that there was no singular face of the independence movement.
00:16:32.680There were a number of different people because I said, you're going to see if we get further down the road, which we're getting to quite quickly here, is you're going to see a number of big names pop up who are going to fight against the independence movement.
00:16:43.960Do you think we need a singular voice to speak on behalf of the independence movement?
00:16:49.720And that could be Mitch. I mean, he certainly is the top guy here because his name's on the petition and whatnot.
00:16:55.700He's been the head of Stay Free Alberta. You are certainly a big name. It could be you.
00:17:00.100Do you think we need somebody who everybody goes to that person when it comes to talking about the independence movement and they are the, pardon the expression, the figurehead of Alberta independence?
00:17:10.080Well, I don't know that that's necessary. I mean, I think, you know, there's, you know, there's lots of voices in the movement. Right. So, you know, I mean, I don't think that we're at that point yet.
00:17:18.620I mean, obviously I've been getting a lot of airtime this week. Mitch has been getting a lot of airtime.
00:17:22.760I mean, Keith Wilson has his own YouTube channel where he talks about things on an ongoing basis.
00:17:27.240And I think he does an excellent job. Right. You know, Keith and I, you know, we're, you know, we're, you know, basically, you know, we have a different style.
00:17:34.740We have a different approach to things. A lot of people don't like my approach, but I hear what they're saying.
00:17:38.840And I'm trying to, you know, I'm trying to do a better job in that regard.
00:17:41.820And I think my last two interviews with CTV sort of, you know, show that I'm trying to, you know, try to be a bit more statesmanlike and, you know, a little less in your face.
00:17:50.200I mean, but again, you know, you know, we are where we are and I think it's working so far.
00:17:55.280I mean, look at the support we have. We all speak to a different audience and we all speak to a different constituency.
00:18:00.960Right. And even, even, even Eva Chipiak, I mean, she did a phenomenal job on Monday, you know, with the speech that, that she gave and she was speaking, you know, she was speaking to, you know, a completely different constituency than Mitch and I speak to.
00:18:16.480So I think, you know, Kathy Flett does a great job. I mean, there's room for lots and, you know, there's room for lots of voices, you know, in the Alberta independence movement.
00:18:25.000I mean, the voices we don't need to hear, you know, are the ones that are, you know, that are intolerant or, you know, you know, out to left field or attacking other members of the movement, you know, all that kind of, all those kinds of things.
00:18:38.040Right. But, you know, we just, we just keep moving forward. Right. And, and I think, you know, quite frankly, you know, I think we're fine.
00:18:44.780Everybody seems to be saying that, oh, we need to have a leader. Well, you know, we'll see what happens when, you know, when, and if, you know, we need to take over the provincial government, you know, that at that point, that'll be, you know, it's a different structure.
00:18:57.680It's a different process, but I think for now, everything is fine.
00:19:00.820Okay. So what do you think about this? I want to, there, it's just unbelievable. We've, you've spoken a little bit about threats.
00:19:08.500Traitor, ditch billies, stupid people who wear big hats and funny boots and the, the, the insults that are coming this way.
00:19:19.960How do you think that affects people who actually live in the province here?
00:19:23.540I know you've said, I want to know you've said that every time David Eby or Mark Carney speak out, that more people are driven to the independence movement.
00:19:31.000A hundred percent. Every time they insult us, I think it just drives more, it just, it reminds Albertans of why we're so fed up with all of these arrogant Laurentians, you know, in Ontario, you know, ruling over us.
00:19:42.940Right. I mean, that's literally, I mean, they're just showing us on the daily, how they think of us.
00:19:47.000Right. It's not, and it's not me. They're not aiming those contact comments at me.
00:19:51.020They're naming them at every Albertan. It's like, just shut up and keep sending us money. Right. That's all they want us for. Just shut your ignorant mouths and send us more money.
00:20:00.980And of course, what they don't realize is that we have more university degrees per capita in Alberta than any other country, any other province in Alberta. Right.
00:20:09.000We're an extremely well-educated population. You know, they want to characterize us as, you know, as ignorant and they want to pretend that people in Ontario or Toronto, especially are so much smarter than us.
00:20:19.040Well, you know, maybe they are, they've been subjugating us for, you know, for over a hundred years. So it's time for that to stop. Right.
00:20:25.880And like I said, I mean, you know, and I understand, like, it's really upsetting to them. I was on an interview with, you know, 940, some character by the name of Brad Smith, who is a bench warmer for the Edmonton Eskimos, who was going on, you know, no BS with Brad Smith.
00:20:40.340But if you tell them any straight talk and if you tell them straight up that Alberta has no interest in staying in Canada and, you know, that another pipeline or reversing all of the things that have been done to us, you know, isn't going to entice us to stay.
00:20:53.840And I said, look, it's like the equivalent of, you know, a spouse being punched in the face repeatedly by 14 or 15 years by a drunken, abusive husband.
00:21:02.280And you are the moral equivalent of the guy saying, oh, but you should just go back to him. He's going to give you a little box of chocolates. Right.
00:21:09.920And he promises not to hit you again. It's ludicrous. Right. So I literally laid it out to this guy exactly like that.
00:21:16.460And then he did the typical Ryan Jesperson thing where he waits until I'm off the air and then starts, you know, he literally threw a hissy fit and started attacking me.
00:21:24.940And he's like, he's going to destroy Canada. Yeah. You know, literally it was like that. Right.
00:21:31.540It's like, well, dude, like, you know, I'm, you know, involved with the independence movement in Alberta.
00:21:37.080We do want to remove Alberta entirely from Canada. And our position is that that is what we are doing.
00:21:43.300There's no in between. We're not going back. We're not doing this to get a better deal.
00:21:47.940Like we're not, you know, we're not somebody threatening, you know, threatening a divorce so that they can get, you know, that they can get their spouse into counseling.
00:21:56.100You know, like we're past that. Like, and this guy, like when he figured out that that's where, who I was, then he started, oh, I can see why people call him treasonous.
00:22:04.820Oh, he's going to destroy America. It was ridiculous. Right. I mean, but again, you know, my, my comeback on that is people in Ontario, I get that they get upset.
00:22:13.260And they said the same thing to actually get fellows, you know, are, you know, get rightly upset when they realize that they're going to have to start paying their own bills for once.
00:22:22.120Right. When they realize that they're going to now have to shoulder the burden of carrying the welfare of the, you know, the, you know, all of the welfare payments of the Maritimes on their backs, they don't like it.
00:22:33.760They don't like the idea that we're no longer going to be paying their bills so that they can pretend to be this wonderful center of this wonderful country. Right.
00:22:41.400Right. You know, so sure. They get upset about it.
00:22:44.060What do you, so what do you think just to finally, before we'll, we'll mention the event that's coming up again on Thursday night, the latest, I think it's an Ecos poll has got us at 41%. How do you feel? What are you thinking about that?
00:22:56.700Well, that completely tracks with our internal polling. We think it's a little bit higher than that. I mean, we have, you know, we think we're, you know, we're over 40% in the city, 60% in rural Alberta, but you know, 41%, I'll take it.
00:23:09.500I mean, cause it shows that, you know, I mean, Danielle just the other week was talking, oh, they're at 30%. So that's a million people. Leave aside the fact she can't do math. 3% of 5 million people is really 1.5 million, but whatever.
00:23:22.420Right. Let's leave that alone. But anyway, yeah, no, it doesn't surprise me. And again, keep in mind, we're only four weeks into this independence campaign and our poll numbers are coming up. Right.
00:23:33.320So, you know, I think by the end, we're four weeks in and we're at 41% or, you know, or better by the end of this campaign, with all of the attention that we're getting and all of the opportunities that we're going to have to speak to Albertans about how much better off they're going to be when we leave Canada.
00:23:50.660Right. Like specifically, you know, no more income tax, no more GST, no more carbon tax, no more corporate income tax.
00:23:57.840You know, basically all of this money that's going to Ottawa is now going to stay in your back pocket.
00:24:02.340So, you know, if you're a family and you've got two frontline workers as a husband and wife, you know, let's say a fireman and a, you know, and a registered nurse or a fireman and a paramedic or a fireman and a police officer, whatever it is.
00:24:14.840Right. They're making, you know, a hundred thousand bucks a piece.
00:24:20.220They circle the amount of money that goes to the federal government off the pay stub.
00:24:23.560Right. In income tax. And then they quickly come to the realization, holy crow, if Alberta is independent and we have no federal income tax, that means that we have an extra 30 to $50,000 a year in our take home pay that we can use for better vacations, do more stuff with our kids, take care of our parents better, pay off our mortgage faster, whatever.
00:24:45.700You know, the money, they can spend the money as per their own choice. Right. And it's a real tangible benefit.
00:24:54.060I'm going to have to let you go running out of time here, but I do want to remind people coming up on Thursday night, you will be there. Get, get better. I know you got a bit of a cold then.
00:25:03.300It's worse than that. But anyway, yeah, I'm going to go back to bed here. And then sure. Thursday night in Dalhousie, Dalhousie Community Center.
00:25:16.440Yeah. I'm looking forward to it. It's always great to see everybody come on out. I think it's going to be a full house there. Mitch Sylvester will be there as well.
00:25:23.040And if you haven't signed the petition, you can check that out as well, because we're looking for a million. Let's get the million. That would be real.
00:25:29.040No, that's it. That's it. Exactly. Like we've got to crush whatever it is Lukasik had, you know, to demonstrate, you know, for the province that, you know, that, you know, little Tommy Nakami and all of his, you know, all of his little forever communists do not speak for us.
00:25:42.280Yeah. I, you know what? I think back to when they were gathering signatures, I never saw a signup place the whole time. I never did. And I never saw.
00:25:50.360That's why I don't, I don't, I honestly don't believe the number. Like I do not believe that they got that, that many signatures, but anyway, it is what it is.
00:25:57.200I, you know, we'll just move forward. Jeff, great to talk to you again. Keep it positive. You're, you're great for your message.
00:26:05.200We have a brilliant future ahead of us and everybody needs to focus on how exciting it is to create a new country because that's what we're doing. It's a once in a lifetime opportunity, right?
00:26:14.320It truly is. Jeff, always great to talk to you. I appreciate you being on here and we'll have you on again in the future.
00:26:19.200I will see you Thursday evening. Thanks so much. Okay. You bet. Over and out. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel, ring the bell for notifications.