Juno News - Doug Ford calls on Smith to denounce Alberta separatists

00:00:00.000 The man spearheading Alberta's separatist movement wants Ontario Premier Ford to stop

00:00:09.960 bullying Alberta Premier Danielle Smith. Jeff Rath tells Juneau News Ford is trying to shame

00:00:17.340 Smith into taking a hard line against Alberta independents. Here is Ford calling on Smith to

00:00:24.240 pick a side. Well, you know, something I'm dead against that, you know, going behind Canada's 0.55

00:00:40.020 back and negotiating is unacceptable. We're one country and we should all be sticking together.

00:00:47.580 We shouldn't have groups going around the federal government's back or the province's back.

00:00:54.180 To negotiate something with the US. We all know where President Trump stands. He wants Canada

00:01:02.940 and that's not going to happen. We'll fight with every tool we have. So I find that unacceptable.

00:01:10.020 I don't know about treason. It's unacceptable. It's unethical. And, you know, I'm a little

00:01:20.400 disappointed that they've done this. But this is an opportunity for Premier Smith to stand up and say,

00:01:27.900 enough is enough. And either you're with Canada or you're not with Canada.

00:01:33.160 D.C. Premier David Eby was also harshly critical of Alberta separatists holding talks with US

00:01:39.720 officials in Washington. This headline, Trump officials met group pushing Alberta independence.

00:01:45.960 To go to a foreign country and to ask for assistance in breaking up Canada. There's an

00:01:52.260 old fashioned word for that. And that word is treason. It is completely inappropriate to seek to weaken

00:01:59.820 Canada, to seek to go and ask for assistance to break up this country from a foreign power. 0.67

00:02:07.800 Well, for her part, Premier Smith refused to demonize the million or so Albertans who favor

00:02:14.220 independence. Let's listen. When you look at the polls, they suggest as many as 30% of Albertans

00:02:20.820 have lost hope. That's about a million people. And I'm not going to demonize or marginalize

00:02:26.340 a million of my fellow citizens when they've got legitimate grievances.

00:02:30.360 Our guest today will be Jeff Rath. He'll be along to respond to all of that moments from now.

00:02:36.840 While more turbulence in Canada's trade relations with the United States,

00:02:40.520 President Trump says he'll restrict the sale of Canadian made jets unless Ottawa allows the sale of

00:02:47.560 the US made Gulfstream aircraft in Canada. He took to social media threatening to decertify planes made in Canada.

00:02:55.640 Based on the fact Canada has wrongfully, illegally, and steadfastly refused to certify the Gulfstream

00:03:03.320 500, 600, 700, 800 jets, one of the greatest, most technologically advanced airplanes ever made,

00:03:10.840 we are hereby decertifying their Bombardier Global Expresses and all aircraft made in Canada.

00:03:18.680 At one point, shares of Bombardier fell 9% in response to that threat.

00:03:27.320 As far as trading with China goes, Trump jokingly said it could be bad news for Canada's national sport.

00:03:34.440 What do you think about the UK getting into business with China? Keir Starmer was in Beijing.

00:03:39.720 Well, it's very dangerous for them to do that. And it's even more dangerous, I think, for Canada to get

00:03:44.520 into business with China. Canada is not doing well. They're doing very poorly. And you can't look at

00:03:51.960 China as the answer. I know China very well. I know President Xi is a friend of mine and I know him very well.

00:03:58.200 But that's a big hurdle to go over when you get Canada. The first thing they're going to do is say,

00:04:04.680 you're not allowed to play ice hockey anymore. That's not good. Canada's not going to lie.

00:04:09.000 You're now joined by Jeff Rath, co-founder of the Alberta Prosperity Project. Welcome, Jeff.

00:04:16.920 While you're hearing a lot of shots taken in your direction by the likes of Premier David Eby and

00:04:22.920 Premier Doug Ford saying that you are a traitor, that your acts are those of someone who is

00:04:30.120 indulging in treasonous behavior. What do you make of that based on your visits and chats,

00:04:38.520 talks with officials, with possibly the Trump administration, other officials in Washington, D.C.?

00:04:45.720 Well, let me address Doug Ford first. I mean, the man is a buffoon. He's literally a cartoon character. 0.99

00:04:51.080 Every time I see or hear Doug Ford, I think of Eric Cartman on South Park. You know, that chubby,

00:04:56.280 fat little kid that's about three and a half feet tall. And I just pictured Doug Ford jumping up and 0.83

00:05:00.760 down going, you will respect my sovereignty, you will respect my sovereignty, right? Like, that's Doug Ford for me, right?

00:05:07.320 He's just a, he's just an idiot. And then David Eby, you know, there's no better. David Eby's like a child 1.00

00:05:12.360 having a tantrum right now, right? You know, we, you know, we have, you know, meetings that we have on an

00:05:17.880 ongoing basis in the United States. And it's literally just to exchange information, you know,

00:05:22.920 with regard to, you know, the aspirations of Albertans towards sovereignty for us to get

00:05:27.480 information with regard to the attitudes of the U.S. administration towards Alberta independence

00:05:31.560 and so on. And in one of those meetings, not too long ago, we were saying, you know, one of the

00:05:35.640 things that Albertans would really like is a pipeline through the, you know, through the United

00:05:40.120 States, the Pacific Northwest, because we're sick and tired of being held hostage by British Columbia 0.98

00:05:45.240 and this idiotic premier, David Eby, who keeps thinking he has a veto over Alberta oil and gas 0.99

00:05:50.360 and thinks he can shut in the Alberta oil and gas industry because him and his communist masters in 1.00

00:05:55.560 China think it's a good idea. So lo and behold, three weeks later, we didn't ask for it. We weren't 1.00

00:06:00.440 meeting with Scott Besson, you know, whatever. Scott Besson comes out and says, gee, you know, I hear that

00:06:06.040 some Albertans might want a pipeline down through the United States into the Pacific Northwest. We would 0.82

00:06:11.880 welcome that, right? And of course, now David Eby completely loses his mind, has a tantrum like a

00:06:18.440 four-year-old child because we've taken his power away from him, right? Like, we're just like, you

00:06:23.320 know, it's like a four-year-old kid and you've taken away their favorite toy, right? He doesn't get to

00:06:27.080 jump up and down and say, there'll be an Alberta pipeline over my dead body and blah, blah, blah.

00:06:32.520 The answer is no, you're not polluting our coast. Well, David Eby and his parliament buildings in

00:06:37.480 Victoria pump thousands of gallons of raw sewage into the Pacific every day, right? You know, 0.97

00:06:43.480 that's what we're dealing with. And I mean, these guys don't like it when you take your power away,

00:06:47.160 right? We don't need you. We don't want you. We don't want to talk to you. We think you're a bunch

00:06:51.080 of idiots. Like, we're sick and tired of you. We're done with you. Doug Ford, you don't even know 1.00

00:06:55.080 where your freaking oil comes from. You're talking about cutting off Alberta oil to the United States 0.97

00:06:59.320 when all of your oil comes from Alberta down line five, back up line nine into Sarnia. Doesn't,

00:07:04.680 you know, he's a premier of a province and he doesn't even know where his freaking oil comes 0.98

00:07:07.880 from. I mean, we're tired of dealing with idiots. That's why we're leaving. 1.00

00:07:11.320 Well, your critics say that you were down south talking to the Americans, getting help,

00:07:17.400 seeking help from the Americans in order. No, I mean, that's all fake news. That's all fake news,

00:07:23.320 right? That's completely fake news. The Financial Times, I used to read it when I was going to law school

00:07:28.040 in London, and I was really disappointed with the quality of journalism of that paper. I mean,

00:07:32.280 the sentence starts off with Alberta, or no, US administration engaged in covert meetings with

00:07:39.880 fringe separatists, Alberta separatists, right? Well, there's nothing covert about these meetings.

00:07:44.360 We had a big press conference to announce that we were sending a delegation down to the United States

00:07:49.720 to talk to them about the attitudes of America towards Alberta independence. That was last summer.

00:07:55.160 We've had three of these meetings so far. We talk about them before we go. We talk about them after we go.

00:08:00.120 We're completely transparent about what we're doing. And what this Financial Times reporter was picking

00:08:06.360 up on is the fact that we are now conducting a feasibility study with regard to the potential

00:08:12.200 to have in place a $500 billion line of credit effectively, like a credit swap facility or some

00:08:19.320 sort of financial instrument in place, that in the event that Ottawa hypothetically decides to be

00:08:25.160 jerked and tries to cut off transfer dollars coming back to Alberta because they don't like the way

00:08:31.960 independence negotiations are going or whatever, that hypothetically there would be some sort of

00:08:37.240 credit facility in place to take care of that. We weren't asking the Americans for money. They

00:08:41.400 weren't offering money. We're talking about simply doing a feasibility study on whether this is possible,

00:08:47.960 and it wouldn't necessarily be the US Treasury. It might be through Goldman Sachs or JP Morgan or one of the big

00:08:53.960 merchant banks in the United States. We're going down with it. We're planning on going down with a

00:08:58.280 team of bankers, economists, actuaries, lawyers, people that are capable of putting a deal memo

00:09:06.760 together in a hypothetical fashion that could literally be handed to Danielle Smith or whoever

00:09:13.480 the Alberta government is at the end of a referendum process as a dossier saying, by the way, if Ottawa starts

00:09:19.240 playing hardball, we've done a feasibility study and everything you need to actuate a credit facility

00:09:28.200 that would help you with your negotiations with Ottawa is all here in this folder. Have a nice day.

00:09:33.320 There's nothing illegal about it. We're not soliciting foreign interference. I mean, we're just a bunch of

00:09:39.080 guys from Alberta that have serious technical skills that are engaged in a process that we hope is

00:09:46.040 supportive of Alberta independence. Yeah. Well, I thought I heard

00:09:50.520 Premier Smith say that Americans must respect our sovereignty on the matter of-

00:09:55.880 You must respect my sovereignty. You must respect my sovereignty. It's stupid, right?

00:10:02.360 They can't stop free citizens of Alberta from talking to whoever we want, and they certainly can't 1.00

00:10:07.880 stop the most powerful government in the world from speaking to whoever they want. Danielle can jump up and 1.00

00:10:13.080 down all she wants. We don't care. I mean, you know, Danielle's so out of touch. She talks about,

00:10:17.480 we have an agent and, you know, a rep, a delegate in Washington, and they will talk to the American

00:10:22.280 government. I understand from talking to people in Washington that the left-wing bureaucrats in 1.00

00:10:27.080 Edmonton have literally hired as their lobbyists, you know, a bunch of holdovers from the Obama

00:10:32.760 administration. Like, nobody in the Trump administration wants to talk to them. Like,

00:10:37.000 our understanding is that we have better access to the U.S. government or the U.S. administration

00:10:41.320 right now than both Alberta and Canada have. You know, because, I mean, look at Mark Carney. Who

00:10:45.720 wants to talk to him anyway? He's constantly sticking his thumb in Trump's eye. I mean,

00:10:50.040 just two weeks ago, he was threatening war with the United States over Greenland. He wanted to invoke

00:10:54.120 Article 5 of the NATO Treaty. First time in Canadian history that a Canadian Prime Minister has ever

00:10:59.720 threatened to invoke, you know, or, you know, to respond to an Article 5 request against the United States. 0.99

00:11:05.000 Could you imagine a Prime Minister saying anything more stupid, right? Like, how long would a war 0.98

00:11:10.120 between Canada and the United States last? I mean, you know, Mark Carney's, you know, I think

00:11:14.280 he's completely lost it. Like, he's lost his mind in it. Well, yeah. I mean, the fact that maybe

00:11:22.520 people like Baymere Ford and Evie and others are getting nervous by the level of support that you

00:11:28.360 have been managing to... Oh, I mean, they wouldn't be calling me names. They wouldn't be, you know,

00:11:34.040 they wouldn't be insulting us. They wouldn't be doing all this stupid stuff if they didn't 1.00

00:11:38.120 understand that we're going to win. I mean, they see where the momentum is. They understand politics. 1.00

00:11:42.520 We've created a political movement in Alberta that has more members, volunteers, and canvassers

00:11:48.200 than all three political parties in Alberta combined, right? We've literally created the

00:11:53.240 largest political movement in Alberta history. You know, they know we're going to win and they're,

00:11:58.200 they're scared, right? So now it's like, well, he's a traitor. It's treason. It's, ah, 0.94

00:12:02.920 you know, when Quebec goes to separate, nobody's calling them traitor, you know,

00:12:06.680 traitors or treasonous or it's, we love you. Please don't go, right? But it's Albertans. It's like,

00:12:14.200 screw you. We'll lock you up. You traitorous bastards. You know, like, it's okay, whatever. 1.00

00:12:19.080 And every time they do it, I'll just finish the slot. Every time they do it, they remind another

00:12:22.760 hundred thousand Albertans to go sign the petition. I mean, we love it. Like, the Albertans love it.

00:12:27.320 It's like, insult us somewhere, you assholes, right? Go ahead. You got a million people, 1.00

00:12:30.680 according to Danielle Smith, 30% of the population. Obviously, that's not going to cut it in a

00:12:36.040 referendum. No, but I mean, Danielle can't do math because we have 5 million people in Alberta. 30% 1.00

00:12:42.120 of 5 million is a million and a half. It's not a million, first of all. And so, you know, just leave

00:12:47.880 that alone, right? But, you know, but those numbers, like the 30% number, that was, you know,

00:12:53.080 a couple months ago, right? So, since this petition campaign, and we thank Danielle for it. She's the

00:12:57.960 one that got the ball rolling with Bill 14. And because we're out there, you know, engaging with

00:13:02.920 people and people are being energized and activated and going out and signing their name on the dotted

00:13:07.960 line on what they're calling the Alberta Declaration of Independence petition, right? These people aren't

00:13:13.240 coming back, right? Like they're, you know, these are now hardcore Albertans in favor of independence,

00:13:19.480 and they're going to energize everybody else. We got 18, 19, 20 year old kids coming out and signing,

00:13:23.720 and their grandparents that are afraid of losing their pensions and all these silly lies they're

00:13:27.880 being told. The grandkids are going, look, you guys have had your go. You got a good life here,

00:13:32.440 right? Don't talk to me about your pension. I want a future. I want to be able to afford a home.

00:13:37.320 I love the idea of putting a circle around the federal income tax portion

00:13:41.640 on my paycheck and knowing that I don't have to pay it anymore because there'll be no more federal

00:13:45.720 income tax in Alberta and we'll live in an income tax free jurisdiction. I'm finally going to have a

00:13:50.680 future, right? They're not putting that back in the box. And of course, the federalists have nothing

00:13:55.880 to sell us because what have they got except fear? Oh, well, trade agreements. You're not going to have

00:14:01.320 any trade agreements. Bullshit. You know, the United States isn't going to stop trading with us or buying 1.00

00:14:05.480 Alberta oil because we're independent. You know, 90% of our trades north south, right? It'd be very

00:14:11.560 easy for us with a free trade agreement with the United States, right? You know, which is one of

00:14:17.080 the things that we're hypothetically discussing, you know, with the United States, right? Like,

00:14:21.400 hey, in a perfect world, an independent Alberta would have a one-page free trade agreement,

00:14:25.560 zero tariffs on both sides of the border and, you know, free movement of goods and services back. Oh,

00:14:30.840 thanks for the information. That's very interesting. No, you know, no agreement. We're not agreeing to

00:14:34.920 anything. But think about that, right? So literally within six months, we could replace all east-west trade

00:14:40.600 with more north-south trade. We wouldn't need Canada. And that's what Canada needs to internalize, 0.98

00:14:45.240 right? We don't need Canada. Canada needs us. But they forgot that somewhere along the way,

00:14:51.400 and they've been treating us miserably for decades, and we're all fed up. Like, we're up to here,

00:14:56.120 and we're not coming back. And Daniel Smith did acknowledge that, but you're suggesting that

00:15:00.680 Premier Ford is bullying Daniel Smith. Why would you think that? Oh, didn't you see him? He was, like,

00:15:06.680 mansplaining to her, and, like, you know, and just, like, oh, yeah, well, you gotta decide what

00:15:11.480 sign you're on. If you're on Team Canada, you gotta say enough is enough, and you gotta blah, blah, blah,

00:15:16.440 blah, blah, right? Like, come on, Doug. Like, that's not, you know, like, come on. Like, you'll just look

00:15:21.880 silly when you do that. Like, Mr. Tough Guy. I'm gonna be tough with the Premier of Alberta and tell her how 0.97

00:15:27.640 she has to talk to her voters. Like, I've never seen anything stupider. I'd be like, oh, my God, 0.99

00:15:33.320 really? You're gonna mansplain to Daniel Smith, who's probably one of the most popular, and I'll

00:15:38.200 acknowledge that, one of the most popular premiers in Alberta history, you know, on the conservative

00:15:42.520 base, right? You're gonna mansplain to her how she needs to talk to her voters who she knows way 1.00

00:15:47.640 better than you do? Like, come on. I want to ask you about something you said earlier about

00:15:53.160 Commerce Secretary Besant. Sure. Did I hear that correctly, that he said to you,

00:15:58.280 hey, I hear you want a pipeline to the Pacific? No, no, no. He didn't say that to us. I mean,

00:16:02.520 he just, you know, it's obvious that he heard, you know, that we were generally musing with people in

00:16:07.720 the United States. I'm just presuming that. He wasn't in the meetings or whatever. But, you know,

00:16:11.560 we go down to the United States and we're talking to our, you know, talking to our contacts in the US

00:16:15.960 about the things that Alberta would want or an independent Alberta would want. And obviously, one of the

00:16:20.440 the things that we said, hey, you know, this would be on the wish list would be a pipeline that could

00:16:24.200 go around British Columbia through the US Pacific Northwest, because we're sick and tired of being

00:16:28.920 held hostage by communists in British Columbia. And, you know, and that was where it was left.

00:16:33.240 No agreement. Like, they're not in a position to agree with us or offer us anything. We're not

00:16:36.840 demanding or asking for agreements. But I thought it was really interesting that three weeks later,

00:16:41.320 Secretary Besson, who was obviously briefed about our discussions, because I love the line,

00:16:46.680 it's like, oh, and I heard a rumor that there might be a referendum in Alberta this year, right?

00:16:52.360 So he was obviously briefed about our discussions about what I understand that Albertans would like

00:16:56.600 a pipeline down to the Pacific Northwest, right? Obviously, you know, we'd be open to that or

00:17:00.440 whatever words he used, right? So, you know, there's a lot of very positive things that come out of open

00:17:07.320 dialogue between people, right? And one of the things that comes out of an open dialogue is that other

00:17:12.760 people can understand better where you're coming from and what your interests are and so on. And

00:17:17.560 we've been sharing those interests with American officials on behalf of our movement and on behalf

00:17:22.920 of the people of Alberta. And we see a lot of positive things coming out of it. Like, my only

00:17:27.320 question for Danielle Smith is why the hell, instead of going to the United States and saying, 1.00

00:17:31.560 don't talk to my Albertans and I don't want you talking to them anymore, blah, blah, blah, 1.00

00:17:35.480 respect my sovereignty, right? Like, instead of doing this cartoonish bullshit, why she hasn't 0.99

00:17:40.600 immediately sent a delegation to Washington to walk through the door that we've opened for her 0.98

00:17:46.360 to a pipeline in the Pacific Northwest, right? Instead of coming to Ottawa to grovel on bended knee

00:17:52.200 again, to EB and Carnie to, oh, please treat us nicer at part of T Canada, why can't I have a pipeline?

00:17:58.920 You know, like, we're sick of it. Like, we're sick and tired of Albertans being forced to beg for,

00:18:03.880 you know, what should be ours as a right. And for the life of us, we can't understand when we're

00:18:07.960 funding the whole stinking country, why it is that Ottawa is so determined that they won't let us make

00:18:13.480 more money so that we can help people more. They're literally strangling the goose that lays the golden egg,

00:18:18.520 and we're sick of it. Like, we're sick and tired of it.

00:18:21.160 I mean, do you think that some Albertans are starting to think, well, the other provinces can

00:18:25.240 have their opinions, but this is up to us. I mean, it's all well and good for Premier Ford to speak

00:18:31.720 out on this issue, or Premier EB, whoever, or the Prime Minister himself. But at the end of the day,

00:18:37.080 it's up to Albertans to decide this. So, you know, kindly just back off and let us do what we need

00:18:42.200 to do, and you can let the chips fall where they may. Does that...

00:18:45.880 Well, I think Carnie's got the message. He was sure a lot more subdued the other day,

00:18:50.280 because I've been gleefully going on every news channel I can get on, including CTV National,

00:18:55.560 where they foolishly let me go on live again, which they hadn't done for years,

00:18:59.480 where I had the opportunity to go on about how Mark Carnie was the best supporter of Alberta

00:19:04.280 independence we have, because every time he opens his mouth, he drives another 100,000 Albertans to

00:19:09.720 our banners, right? So I think he's getting the message, but I don't think Doug Ford and David Eby have

00:19:15.240 gotten the message that every time they taunt Albertans, insult Albertans, call us names.

00:19:20.440 My other favourite one that EB said was he actually said that anybody that supports Alberta

00:19:24.520 independence is not a real Albertan. Think about that. Like David Eby, a champagne socialist from,

00:19:31.320 you know, Vancouver, right, is telling Albertans how to define themselves and what is a real Albertan

00:19:37.240 and what isn't. And of course, according to David Eby, the only real Albertans, you know,

00:19:42.040 are socialist federalists living under the dome in Edmonton, you know, who think that he's a good

00:19:46.920 guy. I mean, and the rest of us aren't real Albertans. I mean, you know, I've only had five

00:19:51.160 generations of my family living in this province. I mean, I, you know, like, you know, I'd like to

00:19:55.560 know what David, David Eby thinks a real Albertan is. I got to ask you when the, when you think the

00:20:00.200 referendum will take place and how much support you've gotten now in terms of the numbers of

00:20:04.200 people who've signed up? Well, yeah, I mean, I'm, we're not given exact numbers. We're going to save it

00:20:10.440 for a big reveal at the end. But what I can say is like, we've set a goal for ourselves and maybe

00:20:14.760 that's where Daniel got the million instead of a million and a half or whatever. But we've set

00:20:19.480 a goal for ourselves to try to get a million signatures in this campaign. We only need 178,000,

00:20:24.280 right? So to get a million signatures, we need 62,500 signatures a week, right? We want to get more

00:20:30.360 than a million. So we're behind the curve on that because we've had trouble, you know, getting

00:20:35.720 our canvassing badges out, you know, and I'm not allowed to say why, but you can guess,

00:20:42.040 getting our canvassing badges out to our canvassers. We're, you know, we've been a little

00:20:46.760 bit slow, you know, getting started because of that. But now, you know, we've got, you know,

00:20:52.440 an army basically of 5,000, you know, our beachhead of 5,000 canvassers on the ground right now.

00:20:59.080 We're hoping to have 10,000 canvassers, you know, by the end of next week, we're working towards getting

00:21:03.960 50,000 canvassers as part of our campaign so that we can literally go knock on every single door in

00:21:10.360 the province in an 87 constituency door knocking campaign. But right now, we've been doing events,

00:21:15.320 people have been coming out and signing at events, you know, we're speaking to halls full of people

00:21:18.840 and asking them all to join up and become canvassers. We have a private, we have a permanent

00:21:23.960 location campaign going where individual ground floor businesses with good parking and access are

00:21:29.720 volunteering their businesses as canvassing locations. So we have permanent locations

00:21:34.280 where people can go sign the petition. And that's going very well. And then, like I said,

00:21:38.600 we're going to start an 87 constituency door knocking campaign. And, you know, we're hoping,

00:21:43.400 you know, hoping to get there through that. But then if you look at this, and that's, you know,

00:21:47.400 for getting us over the million, right. But with regard to the statutory requirement of 178,000,

00:21:54.040 the math on that is we need roughly 12,000 signatures a week. And we're currently crushing

00:21:58.760 that. I mean, we're completely crushing it, right? I mean, we had 4,950 people come to an

00:22:05.080 event in Calgary on Friday, at least probably double what they're going to have at the National

00:22:08.840 Conservative Convention on this weekend. I'm going to go down there and take a look just for just for

00:22:14.360 giggles. I'll kind of be the skunk of the picnic in that room, I think, but whatever.

00:22:18.840 I'm not going there to grab a microphone. I have some friends that are going to be there. I'm

00:22:23.000 going to try to behave myself. But anyway, you know, so we have way more people at our event

00:22:28.280 on Monday than they're going to have at the Conservative Convention on the weekend. But also,

00:22:31.800 even though we had, you know, 4,960 people in the room, during that day, we had 150 canvassers

00:22:37.800 working in the bottom of the big four building, we had another 5000 people come through the bottom of

00:22:42.200 the big four building signing petitions, right. So we had over 10,000 people go through the big four

00:22:47.400 building that they think about that in Calgary, right. And we had 10,000 people the weekend before

00:22:52.040 show up at a signing event in Edmonton and Rundle Park. And then everywhere Mitch and I go,

00:22:56.840 you know, out in rural Alberta, right, the population of whatever town we go to doubles

00:23:02.040 as all of these people come streaming in from the farms and neighboring hamlets and whatever,

00:23:06.360 you know, to hear our message and to sign the petition, right. So we're rocking and rolling.

00:23:11.000 I mean, we're, you know, we're confident we're easily going to crush 178,000. You know,

00:23:16.520 we obviously want to get way more signatures than, you know, little Tommy Lukasik got with his silly, 0.83

00:23:21.320 uh, um, you know, silly, um, uh, remain in Canada campaign over the summer. But keep in mind,

00:23:27.720 we're doing this in January and February in Alberta, right. So that'll tell you how committed

00:23:33.400 our people are, right. You know, as opposed to Lukasik's people just going out and hanging out in

00:23:37.640 dog parks and, you know, wherever it was, they, you know, whatever they were doing. Right. So,

00:23:42.360 and even Lukasik, it was really funny. He, he had a video the other day where he's talking about

00:23:46.840 waiting to square off with the separatists and you got to send me money so we could square off with

00:23:51.720 these separatists. Right. And, uh, in that video, he, he admitted or acknowledged that it looks like

00:23:57.480 the independence campaign is inevitable. The referendum is inevitable. Right. Like, you know,

00:24:04.040 so even like we're laughing with a buddy and I said, well, you know, we're not even through the

00:24:07.480 first quarter, Lukasik's already thrown in the towel. Right. So it's, um, you know, it's, uh,

00:24:13.320 you know, we're, uh, we're feeling pretty good about where we're at. No date set. Right.

00:24:20.200 There's no date. Uh, no, no, no date set. And, um, uh, you know, we're good, you know,

00:24:26.760 we're, we're happy about where things are at. I mean, we're, it's going to be October. I mean,

00:24:29.800 that's, you know, sort of, if you do the electoral math and figure out how much time elections

00:24:33.240 Alberta needs and the government needs and, you know, all the rest of it, you know,

00:24:36.360 we should be looking at a, you know, a standalone referendum on independence in October or November

00:24:41.000 of this year, which is all the time we need. Like we'll have this huge energized base of people

00:24:46.040 coming out of, uh, the signature campaign. Right. So, you know, that's going to form the core base of,

00:24:52.760 you know, volunteers and supporters for, uh, the referendum campaign. Right. And, uh, you know,

00:24:58.760 like we've, we've literally created the largest, um, political movement in Alberta history. Right.

00:25:04.120 Our volunteers, our canvassers, our members, all of them combined, um, you know, are probably two or

00:25:10.520 three size times the size of the membership of every political party in Alberta combined.

00:25:16.280 Right. Biggest political movement in Alberta history.

00:25:19.160 All right. Yeah.

00:25:20.520 So, you know, that's, and again, that's just to come back to the, you know, sort of full circle.

00:25:24.440 That's why they're freaking out. That's why Doug Ford's calling his name.

00:25:27.000 Evie's calling his names. Kenny's calling his names. You know,

00:25:30.200 Nenshi's calling his names. I mean, it's, you know, that's all they got. Right.

00:25:33.560 Thank you, Jeff, for coming on the show. Appreciate that.

00:25:36.360 Yeah. My pleasure as always, Mark. Thanks for having me.

00:25:38.280 Have a great. And now your opportunity to support Juno News, support independent journalism.

00:25:44.440 You could do that today by becoming a premier subscriber to Juno News. Just go to JunoNews.com.

00:25:50.680 JunoNews.com. Thank you for tuning in, my friends. We'll see you next time.

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00:26:26.980 Bye.

Juno News - January 30, 2026

Doug Ford calls on Smith to denounce Alberta separatists

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