Juno News - November 20, 2019


Alberta MLA vows to ＂listen＂ to independence movement amid 'fair deal' study


Episode Stats


Length

5 minutes

Words per minute

178.13464

Word count

1,039

Sentence count

50

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

How are Alberta s elected representatives dealing with the growing threat of Western alienation, and indeed, separatism? One of the questions I set out to explore here at the Freedom Talk, taking on the challenge of Western Separation, hosted in Red Deer, Alberta, hosted by the United Conservative Party of Canada, was, "Where do I stand on the question of Alberta separatism?" I caught up with one of them, Drew Barnes, who is a UCP MLA from Cypress Medicine Hat, and asked him what it is that he s hearing from his constituents, and, more importantly, where he stands on the issue of separatism.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 How are Alberta's elected representatives dealing with the growing threat of Western
00:00:09.540 alienation and indeed Western separatism? One of the questions I set out to explore
00:00:14.600 here at the Freedom Talk, taking on the challenge of Western separation, hosted in Red Deer,
00:00:20.180 Alberta. We've had speakers from all sides of this, but what's been most interesting is that
00:00:24.880 on this key issue impacting all Albertans and many Canadians, in fact, there has been basically
00:00:30.520 no representation of elected officials at the conference. Yes, hundreds of people there,
00:00:36.280 but only two MLAs. I caught up with one of them, Drew Barnes, who's a United Conservative Party MLA
00:00:41.900 from Cyprus Medicine Hat, and asked him what it is that he's hearing from his constituents and,
00:00:47.580 more importantly, where he stands on the question of separatism and what needs to happen in this
00:00:53.280 pursuit of a new deal for Alberta. This is what my interview with Drew Barnes looked like
00:00:59.000 here in Red Deer. So the topic of independence, obviously the one that's being showcased this
00:01:03.320 weekend at the conference, a lot of frustration from Albertans and broader Western alienation
00:01:08.440 going on. Where do you stand as an MLA on that question of Albertan independence and what it
00:01:13.140 would look like or should look like? Oh, well, I'm very, very much at the beginning. I've heard
00:01:17.940 from so many Albertans, so many Cyprus Medicine Hatters. There's real fear out there right now. 1.00
00:01:23.280 Hundreds of people in Cyprus Medicine Hat not working, not working to full capacity,
00:01:29.000 knowing full well that their families and their friends are unable to contribute and prosper and
00:01:33.880 help each other. Albertans have wanted to be a strong part of Canada for a long, long time.
00:01:40.120 Albertans have wanted to be leaders. And there's a huge amount of frustration now because of the
00:01:44.920 blockage of our good oil and gas producers, because of the slowdown of our economy. At the same time
00:01:50.800 that landlocked states are doing fantastic, at the same time that the demand for oil and gas is
00:01:55.700 growing, we are suffering under production curtailment in Alberta because of our Canadian
00:02:01.020 partners that aren't allowing our access. So I'm here to, with 400 other Albertans, I'm here to learn
00:02:08.140 about what's being said, to learn more about the issues, and to listen and learn.
00:02:11.720 What are you hearing from people? Is it that, you know, we want to make this work? Or is it that,
00:02:16.760 you know, what we're ready to throw in the towel on Confederation?
00:02:19.460 Well, thank you for that question. It's kind of all over the place. I'd say, you know, maybe 25 or
00:02:24.440 30 percent have been filled and they've been working on a stronger, more independent Alberta for a long
00:02:29.340 time, 25 or more years, back through the Reform Party movement. And there's some frustration there
00:02:36.040 with them. There's many people that say to me, Canada gets one last chance to let us prosper and
00:02:41.600 let us share. There's many that say under no conditions do they want to leave Canada, that they
00:02:47.380 think we need to continue to work and expand our case. And I'll say this, anytime Albertans,
00:02:55.360 anytime Canadians are talking, we're winners. We, you know, great presenters here, great ideas,
00:03:01.320 great input from the crowd. Everybody here is learning something, working together,
00:03:05.900 and it'll make Alberta stronger and hopefully Canada too.
00:03:10.120 What would you need to see from Justin Trudeau? And I know it's a bit of a loaded question,
00:03:14.280 but what would you need to see to be confident that he's actually listening to concerns from the West?
00:03:19.380 Oh, pipelines, access, like, and get out of ventures that are purely private, like buying pipelines.
00:03:29.380 Start talking about the strength of Alberta producers, Alberta families, Alberta communities.
00:03:34.140 Saskatchewan and other parts of Canada as well.
00:03:39.360 You know, it's a story that's been said many times, but it is the story. Canadians are the best
00:03:44.620 producers for safety, social and environmental jurisdictions. And Trudeau has to recognize that.
00:03:50.740 Secondly, from a longer term thing, we need a federal government that lets us be more independent,
00:03:58.080 more local decision-making, more in charge of growing our wealth, of helping each other.
00:04:03.320 And, you know, Justin Trudeau just hasn't shown that he really understands what Alberta is about.
00:04:09.880 If you don't get that from the government, you don't get that buy-in from the federal government,
00:04:13.640 is separation on the table for you?
00:04:16.040 Well, at this point, I'm just going to keep listening and learning and talking to people.
00:04:22.460 I'm grateful that I've represented Cypress Medicine Hat. I'm just at the start of my third term now,
00:04:26.400 so I'm grateful for that chance. I absolutely am going to listen to all my Cypress Medicine Hat
00:04:31.060 constituents, 53,000 plus. But my vision has been the same for Cypress Medicine Hat and for Alberta
00:04:37.160 in all my seven years. Alberta should be the freest, richest jurisdiction in all North America.
00:04:42.200 Third biggest oil reserve. We're such great agriculture producers. We have such great people.
00:04:47.980 And I think that, you know, that we have to work with our Canadian partners and work with
00:04:54.560 the Canadian government to make that happen.
00:04:57.320 Is that always going to, in your view, be working from within Confederation, though?
00:05:01.540 Well, again, I'm going to see what the direction that Albertans want to go on,
00:05:05.980 what Cypress Medicine Hatters want to go. I'm grateful that Premier Kenney just appointed me 1.00
00:05:11.260 and seven or eight other people to the Fair Deal panel. And I'm really pleased that hundreds of
00:05:17.220 Albertans have already reached out to me with their thoughts and their ideas and their direction of
00:05:20.720 how we can get a fairer deal, a fairer deal from the rest of Canada and our partners and make sure
00:05:30.340 that we can prosper. Let's start there. Let's see what happens.
00:05:33.320 So as you can see, he's not waving a flag for separatism by any stretch, but he is saying
00:05:38.320 there's a line in the sand that needs to be drawn and deal breakers that need to be set out.
00:05:43.000 This is what Alberta will be pursuing as it demands a fair deal from Canada.
00:05:47.700 For True North from Red Deer, I'm Andrew Lutton.