Keith Wilson： Carney’s pipeline won’t stop Alberta independence
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
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Hate speech
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Summary
In this week's show: Canada refuses to release details of its deal to share revenues from tolls on the Gordie Howe International Bridge with the U.S., a judge freezes millions of dollars in assets belonging to a lawyer advocating for Alberta independence, and more.
Transcript
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The Kearney government is refusing to release details of its deal to share revenues from
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tolls on the Gordie Howe International Bridge with the Americans. Blacklock's reporter with
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this headline won't detail U.S. concessions. Now, Canadian taxpayers paid the full $6.4 billion
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cost of building the bridge, linking Windsor, Ontario to Detroit, Michigan. And this is what
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Mark Carney said about the deal a few days ago.
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So we get the revenues, then the servicing of the costs of the bridge
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and paying the debt of the bridge and then what's left over,
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And the U.S. money is invested back in economic development in the region,
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When asked for details on the agreement, Cabinet refused.
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The Cabinet agreed to the multi-billion dollar concession in exchange for allowing the bridge to open as scheduled July 27.
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In the original agreement of 2012, Canada was allowed to keep all toll revenues.
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President Trump refused and demanded a 50% share of the revenues, which he got.
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Canada's Foreign Affairs Department fired 25 diplomats last year over misconduct,
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Three of them possibly involving criminal acts.
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Story in Blacklock's reporter says another 11 diplomats quit abruptly rather than face termination.
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One of those diplomats was caught having secret contact with a foreign government.
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The department did not identify either the fired diplomat or the foreign country they may have been spying for.
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Well, the revelations came out on that report called Addressing Misconduct and Wrongdoing
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at Global Affairs Canada and included this quote.
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Three employees exploited their employment status to engage in serious, unlawful activities
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Well, a judge has temporarily frozen millions of dollars in assets belonging to a lawyer
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freezing about $8.5 million against Jeffrey Rath.
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It's part of Rath's legal fight over trust money
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between RAF and the Talcari First Nations group is resolved.
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better to be safe than sorry. Our guest today is Keith Wilson, who's a lawyer and co-lead
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of an organization called Let Alberta Decide, and he's very much attuned to what's going on
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in the battle for independence in Alberta. Welcome to the show, Keith.
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Now, you have some huge issues as far as the chief electoral officer of Alberta goes,
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and what you claim is a double standard in the way he is treating your campaign versus the
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Remain campaign. We're going to get to that, but I also know you want to talk about the
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recent pipeline announcements. And these pipeline announcements appear aimed at trying to keep
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Alberta from moving too far over to the independent side, saying, look, we are moving
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forward with pipelines. And Premier Daniel Smith has, of course, agreed to the pipeline that's
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going to be following the same trajectory as the Trans Mountain. And then, of course, there was
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another announcement that saw another pipeline proposal from Hardesty, Alberta to Sarnia,
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Ontario. What are your issues around these announcements? Well, they're actually evidence
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why Alberta needs to move to independence. They're not something that actually takes the wind out of
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the sails. They're creating a gale force wind. And what I mean by that is a couple of things.
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first of all look at the amount of political capital and the political energy that the
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premiers had to put in just to get this loosey-goosey highly conditional pipeline
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agreement for the west coast you know it and it's got so many poison pills in it the probability
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that it's ever going to actually be constructed is extremely small but let's assume it were to be
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you know look at how hard she's had to work just to get a pipeline that normally industry would
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simply plan apply for get a regulatory approval there'd be no politicians involved there'd be no
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major projects office there'd be no kissing the ring of the prime minister like we have now so
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it illustrates how broken canada is and how albert has outgrown canada but there's a more serious
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problem mark and that's um uh the this isn't going to be this is going to be taxpayers funding this
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this is going to be racking up huge debt on each taxpayer's credit card that the
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federal government controls they decide what they spend it on and we just have to make the payments
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including the interest so the pipeline itself is estimated to be in excess of 40 billion dollars
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when the private sector was going to build tmx originally the same pipeline it was
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billion. In addition, because Carney is more focused on net zero climate change goals with
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his Ottawa climate cartel, that the condition is that we have to have this pathways and
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in project, which is taking CO2 and putting it in the ground. And that costs $25 billion at least
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plus increased carbon taxes. Let me just wrap this all together for you. So that means $70
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billion approximately in taxpayer new debt new debt that will drive up inflation make life
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unaffordable increasingly so um to put that in scale because people we're hearing billions here
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billions there everybody's just blanking it out the alberta has has the highest per capita spending
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of any provincial government okay so we we our government spends a lot of money here
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our entire budget in the province of alberta is 70 billion dollars that's the scale of this fiasco
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and so what does all this mean well experts in the industry uh institutes like the fraser institute
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respected economists like jack mince have said that when you add all of these costs to the price
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of barrel a barrel of oil it's going to be more than the differential in the united states that
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that we were trying to overcome and it's going to make it uneconomic and uncompetitive for oil
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producers here to produce more oil so this thing is an absolute mess at every level and it shows
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when you have to kiss the ring of ottawa and seek its consent and beg and they can condition you
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and achieve their pet projects you get bad policy and bad economics but you do have the premier
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backing these projects and being very much a supporter and proponent of these projects
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and so i think those who voted for danielle and still like her and support her are going to say
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well you know she's our premier and she says that this is the direction to go i mean that
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must be a major barrier for your group to overcome it is but you know we have reality on our side
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and i mean that seriously because you know even since these announcements have been made
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the ceo of enbridge which is the most likely pipe pipeline company that you know is trying
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to do anything big and is now doing huge things spending billions and billions of dollars all in
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the united states where they could actually get things approved came out and said it's backwards
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so the company that knows pipelines best said these announcements are backwards and what did
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he mean by that he clarified it he said we first have to have the production right you have to
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create the economic environment where it makes sense for an oil company to increase production
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and what he's pointing out and others are pointing out is that these costs are so extreme
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so extreme remember 70 billion dollars that's the same as the whole budget for the government of
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alberta healthcare education roads infrastructure social programs etc etc etc um uh that oil
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companies are not going there's just to make too much risk and no economics in expanding and
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doubling production as the premier hopes so at some point reality is going to meet political
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aspiration and political fantasy and and i also think the other thing that will as each month
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goes by help us on the independent side each time people go into the grocery store each time they
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look at their utility bills each time they look at well maybe we need a new car because the other one
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keeps breaking down and they see how everything keeps costing more and these announcements will
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not make that problem go away they will make it worse and the only way out is for alberta to get
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control so we don't have to beg ottawa for permission we can produce our reduces responsibly
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access markets and build our economy without wasting 70 billion dollars on nothing
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yeah i mean it's amazing when you look at the look closely at what these announcements have
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announced and how far they are from moving forward i mean they still have to go through a lengthy
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regulatory process and consultation process it takes months years and at the end of it all i
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mean it's still going to be tax dollars tax money that uh funds it because i mean many of these
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companies uh were burnt after the northern gateway pipeline was was cancelled and energy east was
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canceled and so they said well uh once burnt twice shy we're not putting money into these uh
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pipeline uh proposals because that's all they are and you know when you've got a government that
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seems adamantly really against uh the growth of the oil sector then they can make all the
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announcements they want at the end of the day how much of this is gaslighting intended to convince
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the people of Alberta that, oh, no, we're behind you 100%. And so that's the issue here. And the
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other one, I guess, that your issue, I mean, I mentioned the electoral officer issue, but you
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also have now a judge freezing assets of Jeff Rath, who's also very much involved, as you know,
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Jeff, very much involved in the Alberta independence movement. And so he's got that issue having
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$8.5 million frozen, and now he's involved in a fight for, I mean, I realize that's his deal,
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but when you've got judges appointed by, you know, Ottawa, many cases, you know, involved in these
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cases, they know what's going on, and they know the players, so you can't help but wonder how much
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of their decisions are based on the political side of where these people stand. So you're
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talking about somebody very much involved in the independence movement, and now you've
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got a judge, I believe appointed from Ottawa, taking part in this. So obviously a federalist,
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obviously somebody who may very well have a deep-seated enmity for the whole independence
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movement. Do you think that that's coming into play here with this matter involving Jeff Rath?
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I don't know. I hope the matter gets resolved soon. These are interlocutory hearings and I'm
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familiar with Mareeva injunctions because that's what was used against us in the convoy. So I do
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hope it gets resolved soon and it's an expedited process so I think there will be some closure
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around it in a timely way. I don't think it's going to drag on for months and I hope it does
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get results soon let's talk a little bit about the other issue involving the electoral officer
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now you feel that this individual is playing fast and loose in the way he deals with your campaign
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versus dealing with mr lukasic's campaign which is on the remain side is that right
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well i think everybody should just take a look at the facts right i mean if you're going to engage
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in a campaign and try and persuade others through advertising and spending money spending over a
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thousand dollars is the tripwire you're supposed to register with elections alberta and you're
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supposed to report weekly your donations as which which my organization does let alberta decide
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um and you're you're you have to there's a limit on how much people can donate there's a prohibition
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on foreign interference and foreign donations so there's strong accountability provisions thomas
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Lukasik is the guy who caused the referendum in the first place with his petition for a referendum
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on independence or to stay in Canada. He formed a group called Forever Canadian. He opened a
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campaign office. He has campaign volunteers. He's handing out campaign signs and has a campaign bus.
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And then the chief electoral officer says, oh, he's not campaigning. You reach your own conclusion.
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I need to say no more. You know, Mr. Lukasik was just interviewed by the BBC. He talked the number
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of times he's been quoted in the media on camera you can see it see his lips move it's not ai
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where he talks about his determination to win the vote in october to cause people to vote to
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stay in october to winning the vote in october he's election campaigning and elections alberta
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seems to be picking sides and what's really deeply troubling is elections alberta has a
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vital role in a democracy they're the ones who confirm and give validity to changes of power
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and decisions on huge issues and for the chief electoral officer to so blatantly ignoring the law
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and turning a blind eye to obvious and gross campaigning um atomic lakasik publicly said he
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will accept donations from outside of alberta we know that cesus our security service has identified
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foreign interference from the chinese government is a major concern they've highlighted it many
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times is the chinese government sending donations to atomic lakasik we don't know all of the
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donations i received for my organization let alberta decide are reported publicly every week
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so it's extremely disappointing um it's incumbent upon the chief electoral officer to immediately
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change course and apply the law fairly and evenly and try and restore the integrity of his office
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because we have to trust the vote in october we have to trust that it's accurate and right now
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given his willingness to blatantly turn a blind eye to gross and obvious campaigning is deeply
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troubling you make an excellent point about foreign money going into that campaign it sounds
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like Mr. Lukasik is the beneficiary of a lot of money. And so there is a question. We know that
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the Chinese interfered with Canadian elections multiple times. In fact, there was a whole
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commission around it, as you well know. I mean, is it beyond the realm of possibility that
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they may be working to undermine your campaign? Well, I can only go by what CSIS says.
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They're the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service, and they've identified foreign interference
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as a very, particularly from China, as a very serious concern in Canada.
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And we know that Tomic Lekasik has publicly invited people from outside of Alberta to
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and it underscores the danger and the recklessness of the chief electoral officer's behavior.
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He really needs to look in the mirror and say, what have I done and can I fix this?
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And if he can't fix it, he probably should step down.
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Okay. And what's next for your campaign? I mean, some of the polling is mixed.
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How do you feel it's going overall for your side? I mean, you've got the referendum
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coming up, I guess, which is a referendum to hold a referendum. I mean, do you think you're
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going to win that? I do. And I do because by every objective measure, it makes sense for Alberta to
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become independent. And even for those who haven't reached that conclusion, I mean, we'd be the
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freest, most prosperous country in the world. New countries are formed all the time. There's been
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over 50 new countries formed in the last 100 years on the planet earth this is not novel we have a
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legal pathway to become independent our largest trading partners the united states our closest
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trading partner the united states has already indicated they would recognize an independent
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alberta we have minimal trade with the rest of the country we've got tremendous negotiating power
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the rest of the country because we supply the energy and oil and gas to sarnia to run the
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the Ontario economy, and we supply the oil to be turned into gasoline, diesel fuel, and
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So we have tremendous bargaining power with the rest of Canada to establish a free trade
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deal, to mean a cooperation and mobility agreement.
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So what we're needing to overcome is the emotional argument about staying in Canada.
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Go to an international airport and you'll see what I'm talking about.
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We've got a completely shift in values coming out of Ottawa.
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They've been successful in making Canada into a post-national state.
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And Albertans have a culture that we want to preserve and enhance.
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And the constant reminder that these pipelines and other things are political theater and nothing more and bad policy will be, people will have reminders every time they go to buy something.
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And we're using traditional campaign techniques.
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We're focusing on the cities where our greatest growth potential is.
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And we're using advanced digital strategies to reach people because everybody's on these things, right?
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so we're I'm optimistic we're gonna win and especially the nature of the
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question mark is that it doesn't require you to vote to leave it says do you want
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the status quo stay everything's fine nothing needs to change or we can do
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better Alberta can do better vote for option two which is to call upon the
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provincial government to hold an actual referendum on separation so we've got a
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tough hill to climb um letalbertadecide.com is our website if anybody's interested in donating
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we could sure use the help we have unfair competition as we've talked about so try and
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level the playing field we've got government using the resources against us but i honestly do clear
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i think we can win this it's the right thing we have a pathway and i think some of the messaging
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from the government is falling flat thank you keith wilson appreciate you coming on the show
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