Juno News - Alberta independence figure reacts to Poilievre’s Rogan appearance

00:00:00.000 With over a million views already, Pierre Polyev's appearance on the Joe Rogan podcast

00:00:09.620 is getting positive reviews from conservatives, as you might expect.

00:00:14.020 But even some of his liberal detractors in the media praised Polyev, especially when

00:00:18.380 he declined to criticize Carney.

00:00:21.260 Here's what happened when Rogan handed Polyev a chance to do just that and rip the PM.

00:00:25.960 Hey, listen, if the government that's in power now steals all my ideas and does the things I want to do, then I've won.

00:00:32.520 That's why I came here.

00:00:33.560 I didn't just do it so that I could have my name on the door.

00:00:36.740 So I keep saying to the prime minister, steal my ideas.

00:00:39.740 Right.

00:00:40.940 But he doesn't want to.

00:00:42.100 Well, I won't criticize him on foreign soil.

00:00:46.900 I understand.

00:00:47.940 Good for you.

00:00:48.920 Yeah.

00:00:49.280 I mean, we have a mutual respect.

00:00:50.680 That's such a Canadian thing to do.

00:00:51.880 That is a great Canadian thing to do.

00:00:53.780 So polite.

00:00:55.000 That's what I'm saying.

00:00:55.820 What about Canadians? They're so polite.

00:00:58.860 On the CBC's The National, Chantal Haber admitted the interview gave Canada a boost south of the border.

00:01:05.460 Chantal, I want to start with you. This conversation is more than two hours long.

00:01:09.780 What did Pierre Pauly have accomplished?

00:01:13.260 Okay, I asked myself three questions.

00:01:16.340 Does it objectively help Canada?

00:01:18.780 And remember, Joe Rogan has a large audience that includes a lot of pro-Trump people, including himself, at least back at the time of the election.

00:01:30.520 So, objectively, did it help the cause of Canada as we're about to renegotiate trade?

00:01:35.840 I think the answer is yes.

00:01:37.900 No time was wasted on partisan politics.

00:01:41.980 And a hard pass on taking hits at both Justin Trudeau.

00:01:48.360 and Mark Kearney. I thought taking a pass on Justin Trudeau was more remarkable than taking

00:01:53.460 a pass on Mark Kearney. Did he help himself? I believe he did. The third question goes back to

00:01:59.940 the question you were asking yourself. Should he have done that back last year in the election

00:02:05.760 campaign? Probably, although I suspect that back then the pro-Canada message wouldn't have

00:02:12.900 necessarily been received by Joe Rogan as positively as it was today.

00:02:18.300 Now, Polyev said he did the podcast to sell Americans on the idea of tariff-free trade.

00:02:24.640 But as you might expect, not everybody was pleased. Polyev's comments about Alberta's

00:02:29.480 independence movement drew the ire of a leader in that movement. Let's listen to what Polyev

00:02:36.720 said on the podcast when the subject came up.

00:02:39.740 Alberta separating.

00:02:40.760 That won't happen.

00:02:41.380 What was that about?

00:02:42.360 Yeah, it won't happen.

00:02:44.720 Some people are frustrated, but they, you know, there's some legitimate frustrations.

00:02:50.080 But at the end of the day, Canada's going to be united and Albertans, I'm born and raised

00:02:54.780 in Alberta, and Albertans are seriously patriotic Canadians.

00:02:58.620 Very patriotic.

00:02:59.620 Yeah, they're great people, hardworking.

00:03:01.880 Some of the nicest people you've ever met across.

00:03:02.880 They are great people in Alberta.

00:03:04.880 Hardy.

00:03:05.880 Well, lawyer Jeff Rath is helping spearhead an independence referendum, and he says Polly

00:03:10.880 is in denial over support his movement is getting in the province right now.

00:03:16.720 And our guest today is Jeff Rath coming to us from Calgary, Alberta. Welcome, Jeff.

00:03:21.360 Thanks, Mark. Thanks for having me on.

00:03:23.120 Well, you saw the interview that Pierre Polyev did on Joe Rogan. It's got

00:03:27.280 over a million views, hugely popular, especially among conservatives. And even some liberals are

00:03:33.440 coming out and grudgingly saying, yeah, it was good for Pierre, good for Canada. You're not too

00:03:39.760 happy about his comments regarding alberta independence first off watch that clip and hear

00:03:46.560 exactly what the air said when he was asked about it burda separating that won't happen what was

00:03:52.720 that about it won't happen um people some people are frustrated uh but they you know there's some

00:03:59.120 legitimate frustrations but at the end of the day canada's going to be united and albertans i'm born

00:04:05.200 and raised alberta and albertans are seriously patriotic very patriotic yeah they're great

00:04:10.800 people hard-working some of the nicest people you ever they are great people hardy okay how about

00:04:18.000 it what's your response well i think pierre's got a case of full-blown aids it's alberta independence

00:04:24.080 denial syndrome right that won't happen that won't happen that won't happen right um i don't think

00:04:31.040 you know he doesn't spend any time in alberta right so he doesn't have any idea the depth of

00:04:37.600 um and the strength of the independence movement right now in alberta like there's over 7 000

00:04:42.400 door knockers out right now banging on every door and every constituency in alberta and i spoke to

00:04:47.680 one yesterday that was in a town a little town called innisfail and he told me that um literally

00:04:53.440 going to the doors that are the third of the doors people wouldn't sign because they'd already signed

00:04:58.560 at a pop-up right another third of the doors they sign so that's two-thirds of the doors you know

00:05:03.760 sign the petitions are in favor of independence and he said literally less than a third um you

00:05:08.640 know we're fervently you know canada do or die right so you know when um joe rogan talks about

00:05:15.440 or peter paulia talks about albertans being super patriotic yeah all that patriotism is shifting and

00:05:21.920 they're now alberta patriots there's a lot of people in this province that no longer consider

00:05:26.400 themselves Canadian and consider themselves simply to be Albertans, and they can't get 0.98

00:05:31.820 out of Canada fast enough.

00:05:33.500 I can understand that is probably true amongst a lot of people in the rural areas of the

00:05:38.960 province, but what about a city like Edmonton or Calgary, where you've got a lot of pro-Canada

00:05:46.020 people?

00:05:46.980 Surely it can't be the same type of reaction, right?

00:05:49.160 Well, but that being said, I mean, they might be a bit quieter about it, but anybody that

00:05:53.580 actually gets a paycheck and has a pay stub, you know, they can look at the portion of their pay

00:05:57.840 stub where they see the amount of money going off their pay stub in federal income tax. And they

00:06:02.840 start thinking about how much better off their life and the lives of their families are going to

00:06:07.080 be when they no longer have to pay federal income tax. And I mean, you know, whether you're a fireman,

00:06:12.620 a police officer, a nurse, you know, whatever it is, everybody that is working in an environment

00:06:18.460 where they have, you know, income tax CPP and UI taken off when they internalize the fact that

00:06:24.140 there's going to be zero income tax and their CPP and UI contributions are going to be cut in half

00:06:30.340 because Albertans are subsidizing the rest of the country for CPP and UI. And people realize that

00:06:37.220 their take home K is going to balloon by 33 to 37 or 38%. And all of that money is going to stay in

00:06:43.700 their own bank accounts. I think that we're going to be finding a lot of that soft middle

00:06:48.240 oh well i'm canadian support goes yeah but i don't want to pay income tax anymore why the hell

00:06:53.560 wouldn't i you know if they're telling me in 2027 an independent alberta you know we'll reduce my

00:06:58.840 tax burden by 45 why wouldn't i vote for that so i think people need to remember that that's you

00:07:05.520 know that that's uh on the table and it's a realistic uh proposition i laughed though recently

00:07:10.920 and there's a there's actually a clip on uh this hour has 22 minutes and that pudgy comedian that

00:07:17.480 kind of looks like jason kenny that they have on that show right was doing this thing basically

00:07:21.740 calling me a moron that i couldn't do math and doesn't jeffrey rath understand that you know

00:07:27.560 that uh that alberta sends 15 billion dollars a year in federal income tax to ottawa that we 0.64

00:07:33.560 collect 15 billion dollars a year in income tax from alberta you know how do they think that they

00:07:38.440 can you know that they can live without that 15 billion dollars and of course i laugh and i'm 0.97

00:07:42.760 going, hey, dumbass, right? Do you not understand that $15 billion of our tax money goes to Quebec 0.95

00:07:48.840 every year? So we just have to get rid of equalization to Quebec, right? Let alone the 0.61

00:07:55.880 Maritimes in that new have not welfare province called Ontario, right? We get rid of equalization 1.00

00:08:05.340 and we can easily afford to not pay any federal income tax or that amount out of our paychecks

00:08:12.580 We can double CPP. We can double our OAS payments and cut our CPP and EI contributions in half. That's what a free and independent Alberta looks like. And the math, totally maths. Like we had our chief economist actually run the numbers through our value of freedom AI model to make sure that I'm not talking out of my ass.

00:08:39.380 And the numbers completely work and we'd still have a fiscal capacity surplus, you know, of 10 to 15 billion dollars after eliminating federal income tax, doubling CPP and UI, cutting EI and CPP contributions in half and still stand up an Alberta army, pay for our own border patrol, customs revenue, airports, you know, all of that stuff.

00:09:03.760 right um we'd be easily able to afford it because of you know the fiscal capacity of alberta and i

00:09:10.540 mean good god at 100 a barrel oil we can afford it even more right have you seen polling recently

00:09:19.280 that tells you that you're winning oh yeah i mean there's a recent ecos poll that came out

00:09:25.380 and it's interesting because ecos as you know are liberal pollsters they did a poll in september

00:09:31.040 that they sat on until recently that showed support for Alberta independence of 41%.

00:09:36.200 And, you know, I'm aware of another poll that came out that says it's 20%, but I look at those

00:09:40.860 polls, you know, that are that low as just being purely fraudulent. Because I mean, the numbers

00:09:45.100 have been going up. I mean, look at the lines of people lining up into the dark in January

00:09:50.260 to sign the independence petition. I mean, all of the momentum for independence is on our side

00:09:55.920 right now. I can't imagine that support for independence has dropped from 41% in September

00:10:02.480 to 20% today. I don't know who these people are polling. They must be going to government offices

00:10:09.120 at Edmonton and polling government bureaucrats or polling university professors. People that

00:10:16.480 live on federal subsidies obviously generally don't favor independence. I don't know who they're

00:10:23.600 polling, but they're certainly not in touch with the rank and file, you know, rank and file Albertans.

00:10:29.120 You touched on this a little bit earlier about the patriotism angle, which is one of the things

00:10:33.560 that Pierre Polyev was talking about, saying that Albertans are very patriotic in terms of

00:10:39.420 their love for Canada. And he says that that's not going to change. So how do you counter that?

00:10:44.980 Well, I think Pierre, like I said, Pierre hasn't lived in Alberta really for 30 years, right? He

00:10:49.560 basically lives in ottawa he only comes back to alberta when his you know the ottawa voters that

00:10:55.320 elect them don't elect them anymore and he has to run in a by-election in alberta and pretend he's

00:10:59.420 albertan you know to get elected um you know i just think he's out of touch you know and again

00:11:04.560 like i said it's alberta independence denial syndrome you know if he thinks that there isn't

00:11:09.540 a realistic possibility of alberta voting itself out of canada this year he's simply not paying

00:11:14.220 attention and he's completely out of touch with the grassroots of alberta i mean his own riding

00:11:18.600 of Battle River Crowfoot is one of the strongest, most pro-independence ridings in Alberta.

00:11:25.080 There was a Leger poll that was done after the last federal election that had support amongst

00:11:30.620 Conservative Party of Canada voters for independence at 70% after Carney won the last

00:11:37.760 election, right? Where do you think that support's going to be when Carney bribes his way to a

00:11:43.480 majority government. People here will be outraged. We're all aware that Carney just bought off an

00:11:50.800 Inuit woman for $200 million to her husband's company in order to get her to cross the floor 0.99

00:11:56.760 from the NDP. How do you think Albertans are going to react when Mark Carney buys off a couple

00:12:04.180 more members of parliament with hundreds of millions of our tax dollars in order to get a

00:12:09.780 majority so he can ram all of his, you know, totalitarian nonsense legislation down all of

00:12:17.220 our throats. People here are going to be beside themselves. I asked Premier Daniel Smith about it

00:12:23.760 as well. Let's listen to what she had to say during our recent conversation. Is the possibility

00:12:29.240 of an independence referendum in Alberta helping your position? I mean, do you see it

00:12:34.560 as a kind of bargaining chip or as leverage in your negotiations with Ottawa?

00:12:40.500 Well, I look at it as a fact that both I have to deal with and the prime minister has to deal with.

00:12:46.380 The independence polling got up to 42% when the liberals won government again. It's the highest

00:12:53.580 I'd ever seen it. And so when I met with the prime minister, I said, we've got to solve this problem.

00:12:58.940 We've got to give Albertans hope again. The fact that you have anywhere from a million to a million

00:13:04.020 and a half adult voting Albertans thinking that the country doesn't work, that that should be

00:13:08.760 something that both myself and the prime minister take seriously and we have. And so I think it's

00:13:12.560 part of the reason why we were able to negotiate on an MOU and we're working through at least some

00:13:17.440 of the major pressure points. So what'd you think of that? Well, you know, again, it sounds to me

00:13:24.800 like Danielle Smith has been seduced by Mark Carney the same way she was seduced by Jim

00:13:29.180 apprentice when she crossed the floor uh with the wild rose right it's mark mark mark my friend

00:13:35.500 mark i love bark and uh you know and the rest of us aren't buying it i mean she wants to work hand

00:13:40.380 in hand with mark carney and he's despised in alberta right so i guess if that's what she's

00:13:45.740 hitching her wagon to um best of luck to her i don't think it's a very good uh it doesn't look

00:13:51.200 very good for her going forward what i do like from that last interview that you did with her

00:13:55.660 though, is her acknowledgement that, you know, there's a million to a million and a half of us

00:14:01.320 that want out of Canada. Think about that in real terms. The last election, our election turnout

00:14:06.420 was 1,777,000 people. A million people is 56% of the last voter turnout in the last election.

00:14:15.920 A million and a half is almost 80%. So if she's getting those numbers from Janet Brown or whoever

00:14:23.620 her polling people are and that's literally what she thinks the numbers are and i don't think she's

00:14:28.480 wrong um at least on the million number for sure right um alberta's leaving canada this year right

00:14:35.600 and uh you know the other thing to keep in mind too like when we get back to that you know um uh

00:14:41.120 70 poll of legés after the last election keep in mind in the last so that they said 70 of

00:14:47.020 conservative voters in Alberta support independence. So 60% of Albertans in the last

00:14:54.440 election voted conservative, right? So you run the math on that, and that might be where she's 0.99

00:14:59.660 getting her 42% number, that 60% of 70%, right, is 42%. So, you know, that's where we're at. And

00:15:08.660 I think that the support for independence has only gone up since the last election.

00:15:13.040 And every time Carney bribes another person, you know, in an anti-democratic fashion into crossing the floor to support the Liberal Party, support for independence in Alberta spikes, he bribes his way to a majority government.

00:15:28.600 It's game over for Alberta remaining in Canada.

00:15:32.160 Have you had any more discussions with the Americans in DSP on this topic?

00:15:37.380 Yeah, I'm in touch with them on an ongoing basis, and they're very interested and very supportive of what we're doing. And obviously, we're keeping it within the rules of all the, you know, there's all this speculation, where are they getting their money? All of our money and all of the donations that we're raising, 100% grassroots Alberta support. We're not receiving any funding from the United States. But obviously, we're getting a lot of moral support, right? I mean, I think the Trump administration supports Alberta independence.

00:16:06.320 I know they do because I've met with them.

00:16:08.360 And, you know, I had that comment of Scott Besson,

00:16:10.660 sorry, to Jack Posobiec, you know, a month ago,

00:16:14.220 where, you know, court tongue-in-cheek,

00:16:15.860 oh, I understand that there might be a referendum this year.

00:16:19.340 And then he says, oh, and I understand that Albertans,

00:16:22.240 you know, want a pipeline down to the Pacific Northwest

00:16:25.400 of the United States.

00:16:27.040 We would support that, right?

00:16:28.780 That comes directly from our meetings

00:16:30.320 with the State Department.

00:16:31.840 So, you know, it's, you know, it's exciting times.

00:16:35.160 I think Alberta has a brilliant future ahead of itself as soon as it can cut itself loose, you know, from the rotting corpse of Canada, right?

00:16:41.820 I mean, you know, Canada is basically a dying communist country and we need to get away from it.

00:16:47.660 And when will this referendum take place, do you think?

00:16:50.840 Well, Danielle's already scheduled it. It's going to be scheduled for October, right?

00:16:54.440 And she said that, you know, if we get our signatures, we're on the ballot.

00:16:57.000 And, you know, I keep telling all of our canvassers and all of our people that I want them to canvas and doorknock and gather signatures like we're 100,000 votes behind.

00:17:07.600 But, you know, that's because the more signatures we get over what we need, the more political legitimacy we have, you know, going forward.

00:17:16.220 I mean, if we have 25% of the voting population of Alberta signing a petition for independence, right, then it's on a clear question and not this wishy-washy thing that Lukasik was doing.

00:17:29.820 We have 25% of the adults in Alberta that are signing that they want Alberta out of Canada.

00:17:35.880 That's way stronger than any poll.

00:17:38.120 I mean, these people, just in the act of signing their signature, have been radicalized in favor of independence, right?

00:17:46.220 So we're actually glad that Danielle made us go through this exercise of mobilizing, you know, all of Alberta to sign the petition and get out and pledge their support for, you know, taking Alberta out of Canada.

00:17:58.160 Because, you know, we think that that's going to lead to a successful referendum result.

00:18:03.060 And hopefully in 2027 that Alberta will no longer be part of Canada.

00:18:08.220 How many signatures have you got so far, can you say?

00:18:10.960 No, I promised I'll keep my big mouth shut on that one.

00:18:14.000 But we're doing very well.

00:18:15.220 I mean, we're let's put it this way. I'm not losing any sleep over whether we're going to make the statutory that, you know, whether we're going to make the statutory number.

00:18:22.340 I mean, the big thing for me is that we want to get, you know, we want to shatter that number.

00:18:26.540 We want to be too big to rig. Right.

00:18:28.400 So we just everybody just needs to keep moving forward and and working as hard as they can.

00:18:33.560 I keep telling people, you know, work like the future, you know, your future life and the lives of your children and grandchildren depend on it because they do.

00:18:40.860 Right. I mean, there's no two ways about it.

00:18:42.880 you want a brilliant future for your children and your grandchildren, you know, and yourself,

00:18:46.800 you know, vote for independence, right? And I mean, we know what we get when we vote for

00:18:50.580 independence, right? No more federal income tax, no more GST, no more dumb federal regulations, 0.68

00:18:57.800 no, you know, people, you know, idiots at Ottawa waking up in the middle of the night, afraid of 1.00

00:19:01.500 one of our firearms and wanting to take away our property, you know, shutting down our oil 1.00

00:19:05.460 industry, all that stuff, right? You know, we know what we get when we vote for independence

00:19:09.860 And the people that are going to be voting to remain in Canada, like, what are they getting?

00:19:14.360 Oh, I got to get out today and vote because I'm going to get more of the same.

00:19:18.160 I can't wait to have some more of the same.

00:19:20.920 Right?

00:19:21.220 Like, it's just, you know, we think we're going to go.

00:19:24.000 Are you actually concerned that the federal government, in concert with elements in the province, will try to rig this thing?

00:19:31.040 Oh, yeah, of course I am.

00:19:32.220 I mean, you know, like, you know, I don't think a liberal has ever seen anything that he hasn't wanted to cheat, liar, steal his way around.

00:19:39.860 Right. I mean, you know, let's be real here. I mean, you know, it's, you know, you know, and, you know, and they all, you know, I mean, you know, that's what they do. I mean, just look at Cardi bribing his way to a majority government. It's completely anti-democratic. You can't tell me that, you know, that an Inuit person with a holding company with two employees has the capacity to build $500 million worth of houses. Right. 1.00

00:20:07.640 And of course he doesn't, but we know who's going to build the houses for him, right?

00:20:11.640 It's going to be Brookfield, right?

00:20:13.640 They'll come in. 0.80

00:20:14.640 They'll help him build his $500 million worth of houses.

00:20:17.640 Brookfield will take the lion's share of the money.

00:20:19.640 And this guy is the titular head of this, you know, Inuit holding company will walk away with 10, 20, 30 million of the 500 million.

00:20:27.640 And they'll all make out like bandits and Carney gets a majority government.

00:20:31.640 I mean, that's what, that's what Canada's turned into.

00:20:33.640 turned into it's just a it's literally becoming one of the most corrupt countries in the world

00:20:37.560 i mean i can't imagine i can't believe that the auditor general isn't you know raising a stink

00:20:42.680 over this i can't believe that the rcmp haven't been engaged in this like how what federal

00:20:48.760 procurement process would allow a federal bureaucrat to sign a contract with an individual

00:20:55.000 having a holding company with two employees to sign a contract with that company for 500 million

00:20:59.960 dollars i mean just think about all the bs that they go through to to buy a fighter plane right

00:21:06.200 you're telling me you just spend 500 million dollars like that on on houses and you know and

00:21:11.880 give the money to a two-person company i mean this makes ad scam look like child's play yeah

00:21:18.200 yeah okay thank you so much jeff i i appreciate that appreciate coming on it's always always a

00:21:23.400 pleasure mark thank you for having me i always like talking to you thank you rath if you enjoyed

00:21:28.680 this show consider supporting great independent journalism by becoming a premier member of juno

00:21:33.480 news go to junonews.com backslash straight up and sign up to help us do what we do thank you we'll

00:21:40.920 see you next time

Juno News - March 20, 2026

Alberta independence figure reacts to Poilievre’s Rogan appearance

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