00:04:18.700And what do you hope out of Premier Smith?
00:04:22.060What would you like to hear and how soon?
00:04:24.780Well, I would like Kurt to, you know, to say, well, you know,
00:04:27.560we had 300,000 Albertans on our side, 301,000 Albertans on our side say they want to vote for
00:04:34.280independence. And Lukasik's petition had 400,000 signatures. So there's 700,000 people that dared
00:04:41.320put their name on a list in Alberta, and that's not a small thing to ask people anymore. And
00:04:46.180it's clear that Alberta wants to vote on independence, one way or the other.
00:04:51.980What did you think of the number? Were you happy with the number? Over 300,000 people signed this?
00:04:56.420I was very happy with the number. I'm kind of going to explain something to you. At the very
00:05:03.620beginning of this whole process, Jeff and Dennis Moldry were out screaming a million signatures,
00:05:10.900and I've been collecting signatures for three years based on Alberta Pension and now this.
00:05:17.620I absolutely knew there was no chance we were going to get that many signatures based on the
00:05:21.540fact that people are afraid of government and are afraid to sign and are afraid to get their bank
00:05:25.540accounts frozen and it was a real deal and it continues to be a real deal our process was a
00:05:30.260little bit more rigorous being the fact that it was in the middle of winter time and i actually
00:05:34.820had conversation internal conversation with our people uh saying that you know honestly
00:05:40.420god is my witness i said 300 000 would be just about the perfect number to submit
00:05:45.460i said a million a million would scare the bejesus out of everybody and say oh my god
00:05:51.060um you know would bring all the knives out all over the place um now we have a strong number
00:05:57.220um everybody uh understands that we have work to do which is also important because we early on in
00:06:03.620the petition everybody said oh you got a million signatures you don't need mine uh so you know
00:06:07.860what that was a detriment to to actually what we were doing as well so i i think the number is is
00:06:13.540big i think the achievement is colossal especially in the middle of winter um and the way we had to
00:06:19.940do it because we had very little access to inside venues everything was done on the street and on
00:06:24.260the side of the highway so as a consequence to that kudos to our people they're just magnificent
00:06:29.940and so you know what they got it done and now we're able to take the next step and what do
00:06:35.780we want out of the premier i think a standalone question a constitutional question uh on alberta
00:06:42.980independence i think that's that's the bar and and what i want to understand really from her
00:06:49.940and them, and I'm not just going to blame her, because I mean, from the Smith government,
00:06:54.420from the UCP government, is what is the New World Order? Like, Carnegie's been spouting New World
00:07:04.420Order, the Liberal Party have said, hey, New World Order. As far as I'm personally concerned,
00:07:10.100that's a path to communism. And until somebody can tell me any different, that's the way I see this.
00:07:15.460And what I see right now is, I mean, you know, the UCP is standing on a soapbox and they don't want to become an independence party, but the choice is new world order.
00:07:25.380So the choice is between the devil and the deep blue sea as far as they're concerned.
00:07:29.180And I just don't understand that, you know, and at some point the lines are going to become unblurred here.
00:07:36.860And that's going to be the point, you know, of our next five and a half months of campaigning is to show Albertans that these are the choices.
00:07:44.740I mean, you may not like the situation you're in, but that is a situation we're in.
00:07:49.280So as a consequence to that, we're going to have to choose between a new world order and a free and independent Alberta.
00:07:56.540I was just wondering if you the other day, it was it was extraordinary because I went out there to cover this thing and I kind of got caught up in the excitement of what happened.
00:08:07.740I met so many people. They were excited. You went out there and a lot of people just wanted to meet you.
00:08:35.660It looked like you had a bit of a tear in your eye the other day as well.
00:08:39.620It's hard not to get emotional because, you know, we ended up hugging a lot of people, and a lot of them are friends and workers and people that have been at this for, you know, from the beginning, just like me.
00:08:51.040And they were, you know, it was an accomplishment that few of us anticipated a year ago that we would be able to do.
00:09:02.040And, you know, I mean, back to the UCP government, you've got to give them credit for lowering the threshold and allowing this to happen as well.
00:09:09.620So, I mean, there's, you know, there's two sides to that conversation, but, but the whole thing is, is that now here we are and we're able to take it to next steps.
00:09:23.520Your, your last answer, you were talking about the way Canada is going and I'm, you know, people, the uncertainty is in the fear of the uncertain is, is certainly in on this with people.
00:09:35.120They haven't made their mind up about Alberta independence, but I'm pretty certain that the way Canada is going right now.
00:09:41.960And I want to talk to you in just a moment about moving forward and what is next, because I really want to try to make this as positive as possible.
00:09:50.620But I do have a serious question for you here, Mitch.0.99
00:09:53.420Are you a Russian plant? Because this is what the media is trying to tell us over the last 24 hours.
00:10:01.180About a month ago, I was a Freemason and I didn't even know what that was.
00:10:11.340So, as far as Russians are concerned, the only Russian I know is a lady that wrote a report on government corruption during voting and how the voting machines didn't work.0.98
00:10:28.100So, if they're all like her, then, you know, that wouldn't be a bad thing.1.00
00:10:32.080But as a consequence to that, what I'm saying, how can we be involved with it?
00:10:37.160And you know what the bad news is, John?