Juno News - May 19, 2025


Keean Bexte： When Donald Trump says he wants Canada – he’s talking about Alberta


Episode Stats

Length

5 minutes

Words per Minute

197.26027

Word Count

1,032

Sentence Count

47


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 So this group, the Alberta Prosperity Project, unveiled its separation referendum question.
00:00:07.640 I want to talk to you a bit about the strategy of this, because this is something that I'm
00:00:12.200 personally curious. So just as a follow-up. So the question that they unveiled is,
00:00:16.060 do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease to be a
00:00:21.520 province of Canada? Very clear question. They said that as of Monday, 240,000 pledges as of today
00:00:29.820 and so just remember that you only need 177 signatures to force a referendum question and
00:00:36.340 then they write that the big goal is to hit 1 million. So I guess you're trying to share a
00:00:40.240 clear message. This is something that I am very interested in. The idea of which one would be a
00:00:44.800 more popular ask to the people of Alberta, and I want to get your response on this, is for Alberta
00:00:50.240 to become a separate country or Alberta to become part of the United States? Now, I know that many
00:00:55.420 people, especially in the political world, will have a knee-jerk reaction saying, if you say American,
00:00:59.180 they'll say no. Canadians don't want to be American, period. But I think that might be wrong. I think
00:01:04.000 that for political people like us who eat and sleep and breathe politics, yes, you know, the
00:01:09.520 United States is sort of like the counter-Canadian, and so you can't be Canadian. But to the severely
00:01:14.080 normal average person who is not very political and maybe just doesn't even feel a strong connection
00:01:18.860 to Canada anymore, maybe they're a first or second generation immigrant, maybe they're just a
00:01:22.780 newcomer who probably their first choice, honestly, was America. They didn't get that visa, so they
00:01:27.720 decided to come to Canada and said, the idea of an American passport is incredibly valuable.
00:01:32.540 The idea of USD is incredibly appealing. And so I almost wonder, like, which one would lure
00:01:39.720 more people? The idea that you would be an independent country that's not beholden to anyone, not attached
00:01:44.540 to anything, no federal government, just you? Or being part of the biggest empire, the greatest
00:01:50.400 country in the world, and having the opportunity to just go up and move to Arizona or Florida or, you know, somewhere
00:01:56.540 with a lower cost of living and better weather, more job opportunities. Like, in some ways, I think
00:02:00.900 that the American question might be a bit more appealing. But as an Albertan, what do you think?
00:02:05.760 So it's a good question. I've spoken to some lawyers about this who sort of think that even if,
00:02:11.440 you know, you had this pie in the sky idea that we could join the United States, to do that is a long
00:02:17.080 legal process to become the 51st state. I mean, Donald Trump might be interested in expediting that,
00:02:23.180 and you might be able to negotiate in certain ways. But you can't do that as a province of Canada.
00:02:28.180 We don't have the ability to negotiate right now. It's like you can't get married to someone else
00:02:33.080 when you're married to someone else. You know, you have to get the divorce first. So you have to become
00:02:37.940 an independent sovereign country before you can decide to be the 51st state. And I think that that
00:02:42.760 idea has appeal to some. You know, obviously, Cam Davies, the leader of the upper Republicans,
00:02:48.460 he is an American. So, you know, it kind of makes sense for him that he's trying to drag us
00:02:52.840 to tie us and handcuff us to Washington. But I think you can tell from my language that I think
00:02:58.800 that that's a bad idea. I think that Alberta, Albertans who value freedom, who are descended
00:03:05.040 from those who tamed the West, and built this province, viewing the Rocky Mountains,
00:03:13.020 in the prairies, taming them in a way that nobody else across the world has really done,
00:03:21.460 building this beautiful province, I don't think that they want to tie themselves and shackle
00:03:26.540 themselves to another abusive partner. I think that they want to go on their own and build something
00:03:32.120 beautiful, because we already have something beautiful here. And we just want to make it better.
00:03:36.520 Um, shackling ourselves to New York Democrats, uh, and Democrats in Chicago, uh, and San Francisco.
00:03:44.900 Future president AOC?
00:03:46.300 Yeah. Do you want the future president of Alberta to be AOC? No, I think the answer is quite obvious
00:03:51.580 there. Um, I think that, I think that we have plenty of talent here to lead ourselves. Uh, we have
00:03:57.660 everything, you know, Donald Trump wants, when he says he wants Canada, he doesn't want Canada. He wants
00:04:02.220 Alberta, he wants Saskatchewan, and he wants our people. We are a desired, uh, entity right now.
00:04:08.500 And when, when someone wants to, to buy you, when someone wants to consume you, you know,
00:04:14.060 you have to start thinking, well, what, you know, would that, is that a really good thing for me?
00:04:17.960 Um, if they want us so bad, why couldn't we do this on our own? It's a common question that
00:04:22.400 startups get, um, you know, when they, when they're about to be bought out, Snapchat had this with,
00:04:26.520 with Facebook and meta back, uh, with Mark Zuckerberg. And they said, yeah, no, we don't,
00:04:30.660 we, they, they, they gave them this offer to buy them. And they said, no, we don't actually,
00:04:35.700 uh, we, we think that we have the tools we need to grow into something great. Uh, and Alberta is
00:04:41.880 faced with that exact same question right now. And I think that most Albertans would say in the spirit
00:04:46.420 of freedom that they believe in so strongly that they don't need to tie themselves or shock themselves
00:04:51.800 to, to another Eastern capital that is out of touch. You know, Washington is out of touch with
00:04:58.340 Montana all the time. Um, they, they get two senators, they hardly get any representation
00:05:03.820 in the house of representatives. Uh, and as a result, uh, Washington doesn't govern in the
00:05:10.380 interests of Montana. And you think that's going to be any different for Alberta? No, the answer is no.