INDEPENDENCE Alert： Alberta’s REFERENDUM Path Heats Up - One step closer？
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
195.2019
Summary
In this episode, John talks about why he chose to move to Alberta and why he thinks it's the best place in the whole country to be. He also talks about a new bill that could lead to a referendum on Alberta separation from Canada.
Transcript
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Hi, it's John, and welcome to the channel, 20 minutes before 5, Friday, December the
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I hope you're having a great start to your Friday morning, 20 sleeps until Santa.
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My wife said the other day, we've been here 13 years in Calgary, in Alberta.
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People say to me, what do you like about Alberta?
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You know, ripping down a mountain on a bicycle going more than 90 kilometers an hour is absolutely
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Falling down on your bike like I did in the summertime is not all that great.
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I mean, I grew up living in Sarnia, Ontario, right on Lake Huron.
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And I lived on the St. Lawrence River for 20 years in eastern Ontario, in Cornwall, Ontario.
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But what's interesting is that when it comes to politics, there's nothing quite like Alberta.
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And I dealt with a lot of politics when I was in Ontario.
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My favorite was doing a morning program called John Bolton's Cornwall Today, where I got to
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I said, you know, I've spoken to Stephen Harper, and I spoke to Jack Layton when he's still
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around, and Elizabeth May, and Justin Trudeau, and Dalton McGinty, and on and on and on.
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But there's nothing quite like Alberta politics.
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So, when I saw this article this morning, and when this happened, I went, whoa, there's
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a big change when it comes to the independence movement and how we may be moving forward with
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Alberta legislation would change citizen referendum rules.
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If Bill 14 is passed, only the minister would be able to refer a citizen referendum question
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So, to save me a couple of words, I'll go over to this, and it kind of explains what's
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going on here, and then we will come back, and we will discuss.
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How many of all of us favour a free and independent Alberta?
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Less than a week after that rallying cry and support at the United Conservative Party AGM,
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the government is changing the law to keep the door open for a referendum on Alberta separation.
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A new bill in the legislature by Justice Minister Mickey Amory would make it so any
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citizen initiative proposal can't violate the constitution, go above provincial jurisdiction,
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But who decides this will not be a judge in a court of law?
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Whether I like the question or not, whether I agree with the question or not, is completely
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And so, when you say that I'm clearing the way, I'm clearing the way for all Albertans.
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I'm clearing the way for anybody from any political stripe or any ideology or any position
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Amory not revealing what he would decide on a separation referendum, but says the bill would
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kill the ongoing court case involving the Alberta Prosperity Project.
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They are hoping to ask voters if Alberta should be a sovereign country and cease to be a province
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Amory says the group could file another petition within a month.
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The minister would also have to decide if the separatist question is too close to the already
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And you saw Jeff Rath at the beginning of that clip.
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That was at the annual general meeting for the United Conservative Party just a week ago.
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There were some good things announced by the premier.
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She got booed when she talked about the memorandum of understanding with Carney and the Liberal
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But she announced some really good things last week.
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He's addressing what he was in court about a couple of weeks ago.
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And of course, there are First Nations that are concerned that the question that the Alberta
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Prosperity Project has for Alberta to leave the country might be an infringement of their
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And as soon as I sent these messages, I thought, oh, Christ, John, I hope he has his phone on.
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You can see where I sent these two messages at 4.10 and 4.12 a.m.
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I asked him if he had a few minutes to discuss the article below, which is one we're going to talk
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And then I said, I know you're in court today, maybe after you get things wrapped up.
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So let's take a look at this article a little bit more.
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And it really does put an interesting twist on what's going on right now.
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The provincial government is proposing sweeping changes to citizen-led referendum questions
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I'm going to watch it today to see how this is addressed.
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Unfortunately, you cannot record these court cases, so I can't have any video, just to let you know.
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It could put a stop to an active court case about whether it's constitutional to ask Albertans
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Bill 14, introduced Thursday by Justice Minister Mickey Amory, transfers power from the chief
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electoral officer to the minister when deciding whether citizen petition initiatives should
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It also includes an amendment to discontinue any court proceeding brought by the chief electoral
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That's Gordon McClure, who has brought this court case that Jeff is arguing in court.
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But it's basically the chief electoral officer versus Mitch Sylvester, who is the CEO of the
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The legislation comes just weeks after court of King's bench Justin Colin Feasby heard arguments
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about a question that the chief electoral officer, Gordon McClure, referred to the courts seeking
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The judge's decision is supposed to be issued in the coming weeks.
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Amory said the changes are about creating a permissive environment for Albertans trying to bring
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He said the court case currently underway may or may not continue.
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If Bill 14 is passed, only the minister would be able to refer a citizen referendum question
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That power currently rests with the chief electoral officer.
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The NDPs say they'll fiercely object the legislation.
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There's more to this, including not using a similar word in a party name.
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There are a group of independent MLAs right now who sit in the Alberta legislature who are trying to
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But we'll move on to what we're really talking about here is independence.
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Lawyer Jeffrey Rath is representing Alberta Prosperity Project executive Mitch Sylvester,
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who's behind the potential referendum question that would ask Albertans whether they agree
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the province shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a province in Canada.
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Rath said in an interview that he believes the province is interfering in the current court case.
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I think they're afraid we're going to win and we're going to get a court saying that what we're doing
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Lawyers involved in the case are due in court a final time Friday and then they'll wait for a decision.
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The bill isn't passed until the bill is passed, Rath said.
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Until the legislature says we don't have a court case, we still have a court case.
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Again, it's going to be interesting to see how this is addressed today, if it is at all.
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The Alberta Prosperity Project issued a statement Thursday evening calling Bill 14
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an unintended gift to pro-independence Albertans that will remove the red tape
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that has stalled progress on its referendum question.
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Any citizen initiative petition that hasn't been issued by the time the amendments take effect
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will be quashed, but Bill 14 allows the applicants to resubmit within 30 days
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I don't know whether you can consider them conflicting, but Jeff Rath saying he thinks
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the government's afraid that they're going to win in court and say that what they're doing
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Moving us to the next part of this process, which would be signatures on a petition.
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It doesn't say in the story that that has to happen.
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Then you've got the Alberta Prosperity Project saying this is a gift to pro-independence Albertans
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And I think the red tape they're talking about is the fact that Mickey Amory, the justice minister,
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And I think they're putting their money on him saying, yeah, you can move forward with
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That's why I want to see if I can get Jeff on here.
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Bill 14 introduced on December 4th, 2025, Responsible Justice.
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Empower the minister to determine whether an application is the same or substantially similar
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to a proposal that within the last five years was the subject of an unsuccessful referendum
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This addresses the fact that if you have a vote on a specific question, you can't have
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You've got the Forever Canadian thing hanging out there right now.
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Some people saying if the Forever Canadian referendum question goes forward, the APP can't
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put their question forward because they're the same.
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Now, we've heard Mitch Sylvester, Dennis Modry, Jeff Rath, and others say they're not the
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It would be up to the justice minister to make that determination, I'm thinking, because
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Empower the minister of justice instead of the chief electoral officer to refer questions
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Right now, Gordon McClure, the CEO, has referred this question to the court.
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So this court proceeding today would come to an end if this legislation passes.
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Deem applicants to have never been made if they were submitted before the amendments
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And allow the applicants to resubmit within 30 days.
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And this down here basically confirms what isn't in that news story I played for you and
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in the article that we would have to collect signatures.
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We'd have to go through the process of collecting signatures again.
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I'm putting my money on the fact that I think Justice Minister Mickey Amory would say the
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So I think today the independence movement in Alberta is a little bit closer to getting
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This legislation will have to pass before that happens.
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It'll have to have Mickey Amory okay it before we get to the signatures.
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But I think we're closer today than we were before.
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But I have a request out to get him on the channel.
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So we can talk about what happened at the AGM with the United Conservative Party last week.
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And what's happened here with Bill 14 here in Alberta.
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Fascinating times in an interesting province when it comes to politics.