Juno News - Alberta's separation debate ramps up

00:00:00.000 i'm in red deer alberta at freedom talk an event put on to address the challenge of western

00:00:10.440 alienation and yes the unpopular but important question of western separation what does alberta

00:00:17.740 do how do albertans deal with the problem that they are having right now with another trudeau

00:00:22.520 government that has essentially turned its back on the west this conference is important it has

00:00:28.520 hundreds of albertans grassroots activists together talking about the issues talking about the

00:00:33.840 solutions and channeling the frustration into something that may result in a resolution or at

00:00:40.560 the very least a path forward i spoke to danny hozak who's the chair of the economic education

00:00:45.580 association which is the host organization of this conference about what it really is and what the

00:00:51.800 ideas being discussed really mean for albertans this is what danny hozak said in short this is about

00:00:58.400 the future of our country or potentially of two countries as you know we have three groups of

00:01:04.800 people here some of them talking making the case for separation some of them defending federalism

00:01:09.240 and another group saying irrespective of whether you have one country or whether you have two

00:01:13.060 you have to deal with your neighbors and that's what we're going to be doing today is talking about

00:01:16.480 dealing with our neighbors meaning america meaning first nations meaning other provinces do you see

00:01:21.620 it as being a separatist conference or is it a conference about separatism and is there a difference

00:01:26.360 between those two things right now well there's there's absolutely a difference like we're talking

00:01:30.340 about both sides of the issue what we want to do is that so often what happens is everybody gets in

00:01:35.580 a different room talking about what they want to do we our goal was to have everybody here the people

00:01:40.160 who were quite passionate about separation the people who are equally passionate about defending

00:01:45.020 federalism defending our country we want them to all be in the same room hearing each other's

00:01:49.380 arguments and saying oh maybe i could understand that maybe we could help with that

00:01:52.660 what would you say has been the biggest theme because there's a lot of anger in alberta right 0.89

00:01:57.160 now there's a lot of frustration but at this event what would you say have been the biggest

00:02:01.260 themes that have emerged as far as what people really want well i i think the the biggest theme

00:02:07.380 is we're going to get this sorted out one way or the other you know i mean i think we're all we're

00:02:12.100 all resolved to that i don't think we are united in what we think the answer is but i think we all

00:02:17.220 agree this cannot go on and we want it sorted out sooner rather than later what do you think the

00:02:23.160 timeline is if we are going towards an independence movement and it is going to grow and gain steam

00:02:29.340 what do you think the steps need to be that happen over the next year and the next two to three years

00:02:33.660 well i think the steps are like i think we need to to set a date for a vote on separation

00:02:40.820 we'll set the date then everybody knows it's like final exams say final exams are june 30th

00:02:47.040 we'll be marking your papers based on what you've done before then and so the people who believe in

00:02:52.100 separation they can go out into our province and talk to their friends and neighbors about

00:02:55.980 how they think we would separate what the challenges are and what they intend to do to

00:03:00.860 meet those challenges the people who you know continually the people who are here defending

00:03:05.280 federalism say we can fix the country we can say fine we're going to hear some of those ideas this

00:03:09.320 morning the ideas on fixing federalism say let's just say we have five or six things that would fix

00:03:14.080 federalism well fine get busy because we're going to be voting at the end of let's just say june

00:03:18.640 so you better get it done because the day we're voting if you haven't done any of them you know how

00:03:23.040 we're going to be voting if you've done four out of the five you might say you know they're trying

00:03:26.660 pretty hard i really think they do want to fix the country let's let's stay you see what i mean but

00:03:30.460 i think the point is we want to set a date for the vote so we know the one way or the other this is

00:03:35.300 going to be over and then everybody can work backwards from that talk about how much work

00:03:39.240 you've got to do who you have to talk to and go forward from there one thing i notice is that

00:03:43.820 there isn't a huge number of mlas here or members of parliament that are currently serving do you

00:03:48.440 think there's a fear among elected representatives of it going anywhere near this question despite the

00:03:53.660 fact that albertans are asking the question yes you know one of the most either astute or cynical

00:04:00.240 things that ralph klein said was show me a big enough parade and i'd be happy to lead it and quite

00:04:05.560 frankly i i like it to me it is totally disappointing that they're not here you mean

00:04:10.140 they're supposed to be our leaders you know i mean jason kenny has set up a panel of people to

00:04:14.300 travel the province province and find out what albertans want i think it's fair to say that we've

00:04:18.920 got 350 of probably the most you know patriotic albertans and patriotic canadians in the country

00:04:24.440 today they're all here they might as well have been here listening you know what i mean and uh and

00:04:28.460 you know i guess i wouldn't presume to say why they're not here you know i mean in fairness

00:04:31.980 uh drew barnes is here my mla garth roswell is here uh i donna kennedy glance who is on the fair

00:04:38.400 fair panel whatever they're calling that panel she was away she got in late last night she's hoping

00:04:43.600 to be here today so some of them are planning to be here the ones who aren't planning to be here i

00:04:47.640 don't know why but uh we'll be talking to them about that what would you say your message is to

00:04:52.360 canadians that are uncomfortable with the idea of a canada without alberta well i guess i would i would

00:04:59.960 say like we love you you know i mean we love this country we don't want it to be two countries but

00:05:04.920 we're not going to put up with what we've had in the past and i mean you know like i mean we're

00:05:09.520 trying to be impartial as a group but i i talked to enough albertans to know that that's what they're

00:05:14.240 thinking is okay if you want it fixed that's fine but this is not going to go on the way it is

00:05:18.760 now as you heard from danny this conference itself does not pick a side though that doesn't mean that

00:05:24.380 people here don't have their sides in fact i spoke to drew barnes who's an mla for cyprus medicine hat

00:05:30.280 about that and asked him first off why he's here but also what it is that his constituents are telling

00:05:35.880 him he says that it's important to listen to them because there is no consensus it's kind of all over

00:05:41.860 the place i i'd say you know maybe 25 or 30 percent have been filled they've been working on a stronger

00:05:47.920 more independent alberta for a long time uh 25 or more years uh back through the reform party movement

00:05:54.180 and and there's some frustration there with them there's many people that say to me canada gets

00:05:59.080 one last chance to uh let us prosper and let us share uh there's many that say under no conditions

00:06:05.440 do they want to leave canada that they that they think we we need to continue to work and and and

00:06:11.300 expand our case and and i'll say this anytime albertans anytime canadians are talking we're winners

00:06:17.560 we you know great presenters here great ideas uh great input from the crowd uh everybody here is

00:06:24.720 learning something working together and uh it'll make alberta stronger and hopefully canada too

00:06:29.520 obviously working with the canadian partners as he says finding a way to reform canada is a key part

00:06:35.740 of this but not everyone's convinced that that's possible i caught up with derek fildebrand who's a

00:06:40.560 former mla and now the publisher of the recently revived western standard and he says he would like

00:06:45.540 to see a number of steps championed to really assert alberta's place in a new canada but he concedes

00:06:52.000 that he's not optimistic that canada will meet that challenge if we have a referendum on equalization

00:06:57.820 it'll feel good albertans will vote uh to change it or get rid of it in overwhelming uh overwhelming

00:07:04.840 margins but we're going to send that to ottawa and what's going to happen they're going to tell us to

00:07:08.320 pound sand and then we're going to have two choices here we can accept a humiliating uh

00:07:14.780 yoke of the status quo or we can move towards independence it's one reason i actually don't

00:07:19.140 think there's gonna be a referendum on equalization lest anyone think this conference is just about

00:07:24.180 anger it's quite the opposite i've met people that have solutions for how to make canada work

00:07:28.820 i've met people who have said separation is their last resort and yes i've also met people who think

00:07:33.960 that it's time for separation now but a few of the ideas that have been championed to fix canada have

00:07:39.460 come about through a number of resolutions that some people might think are wacky but quite frankly

00:07:44.780 anything is on the table from reforming the constitution to assert more liberty from revamping

00:07:51.380 equalization payments to in some cases redrawing provincial boundaries so alberta has access to

00:07:57.380 tidewater these are just some of the ideas that have been put forward to the crowd here in red deer

00:08:02.440 what will happen moving forward well that's for the activists in the room and their lawmakers to

00:08:07.220 decide but certainly there is a desire to say that the status quo is not working and a desire to turn

00:08:14.280 it into something that is for true north from red deer i'm andrew latin

Juno News - November 18, 2019

Alberta's separation debate ramps up

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