Juno News - October 31, 2021


Wildrose Independence Party leader says secession is only hope for Alberta

Topics
equalization frustrations secession as negotiation
Mentioned
Andrew Lawton Show Jason Kenney Justin Trudeau Paul Inman Preston Manning Rachel Notley Jay Hill
The ＂experts＂ fear-mongered about a fourth wave. They were wrong. Justin Trudeau should not be taken seriously

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

188.55

Word count

2,433

Sentence count

156

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Toxicity

2

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In this episode of the Andrew Lawton Show, I sit down with the leader of the Wild Rose Independence Party, Jason Kenney, to discuss his party's recent performance in the Alberta election, and what it means for the future of the party.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:00:09.000 Last, or a couple of weeks ago, the Maverick Party very much underperformed what I think a lot of people who've been talking about Western independence were expecting and perhaps hoping for.
00:00:20.000 And I know that a lot of people I've spoken to, including yourself just off air, have said that that is not an accurate reflection of where Albertans frustration is with the status quo right now.
00:00:29.000 So let me ask you, Paul, how do you reconcile on one hand this party that was trying to speak to Albertans that are dissatisfied with the Canadian Federation and getting 2.3% in the ridings of which it ran candidates with the challenges now and your hope for a future for the Wild Rose Independence Party?
00:00:48.000 Well, first of all, becoming independent is a provincial matter, not a federal one.
00:00:54.000 And the Maverick Party and Jay Hill very much talked about and emphasized that we're going to go down and represent you.
00:01:01.800 Albertans realized that even when we sent the Reform Party and we have 100% representation speaking out for Alberta, we're still a minority, we're 10%, and they're not going to change their treatment.
00:01:12.580 And so all of the solutions that they had and what they said they were going to do, I think Albertans rationally looked at that and says, well, that doesn't fix anything.
00:01:22.080 I mean, okay, someone's pointing up and says, quit being a bully, but they can't stop them from being a bully.
00:01:28.800 I think there's probably more of an accurate reflection of the frustration in the referendum results on equalization.
00:01:34.320 We had probably, when all is said and done, about 60% of Albertans saying that they want equalization pulled out of the Canadian Constitution.
00:01:41.940 And despite, I have to put the obligatory disclaimer, that that's not a binding resolution, it doesn't amend the Constitution, Alberta can't unilaterally do that.
00:01:51.000 But 60% saying they don't think Alberta should have to be on the hook for the fiscal record in other provinces, in the have-not provinces.
00:01:58.860 Is 60%, is that your cap, basically?
00:02:04.320 I do not believe so, Andrew, that the sky's the limit, 100%.
00:02:09.660 You'll never get that.
00:02:11.120 But the fact of the matter is, is that equalization is very complex.
00:02:15.680 People don't understand it.
00:02:17.480 But what they do understand is the toxic relationship that Alberta has with Ottawa.
00:02:23.540 They do understand that we're footing the bill.
00:02:26.180 They do understand that there's a divide-and-conquer attitude with the government on how to buy votes in the East.
00:02:34.320 And how to demonize our lifestyle, our industry, what we do here.
00:02:40.800 And that's just wrong.
00:02:42.240 And as that continues, which we know with the just transition and other things, that Albertans are being pushed to the brink of saying no.
00:02:49.520 And so I think 60% is the bottom, and then it's just to grow up from there.
00:02:55.040 One of the things that I think works for and against the UCP government right now is that, on one hand, they've been really directing all of these concerns and all of the Western alienation towards that equalization referendum.
00:03:07.700 They've been saying that's the outlet.
00:03:09.180 Now that that's happened, there's really nowhere for the government to hide.
00:03:11.580 They have to start proving that they're advancing for a better deal with Ottawa and wanting to, I think, show results, or that'll be expected of them.
00:03:18.680 But the other side of this is that they now have this process that they say they're locked into, that the federal government's going to have to negotiate with them.
00:03:26.200 And why is your view that that process, that the UCP government, which allowed for that referendum, is not enough, and that your party needs to be the one to take this step forward?
00:03:35.320 Well, first of all, Jason's always said that this isn't really about equalization.
00:03:40.140 We just want a fair deal.
00:03:41.760 I mean, Preston Manning, the West wants in.
00:03:44.720 Well, why do we want to be in a bad, toxic relationship?
00:03:48.640 We need to get out.
00:03:50.540 And so, Jason, to me, this has been a great smoke and mirrors to be intellectually leading the people that, oh, I'm going to do these things.
00:04:01.280 But people are realizing that he's not interested in a fair deal.
00:04:05.540 I think he's interested, you know, in a federal career.
00:04:09.020 I think he's interested, you know, in other things outside of Alberta because when it comes to standing up for us, we've realized that he's betrayed us.
00:04:16.680 He's betrayed us on jobs.
00:04:18.040 He's betrayed us on pipelines.
00:04:19.520 He's betrayed us on standing up to Ottawa.
00:04:21.840 And he's not showing that passion and that fight for Alberta and always wanting to compromise and saying, oh, we need to be the nice person on the block.
00:04:30.780 That, no, we need to stand up and protect Alberta's industries and Alberta workers and Alberta families.
00:04:36.260 And he's not doing that.
00:04:37.380 And so I think that there's a much bigger picture here.
00:04:41.160 Equalization was just the smoke and mirrors, the distraction for behind-the-scenes activities, which has been against us.
00:04:48.220 When you talk about the Alberta relationship with Canada as being a toxic relationship, and I've also heard you say sinking ship, the metaphors have been very vivid on that.
00:04:58.240 Are you talking about secession?
00:05:00.280 Is that the only way to fix that imbalance in power in that relationship?
00:05:04.400 Absolutely.
00:05:05.640 I mean, it'll be for Albertans to decide, but we need to take full control of the decision-making in our future and our pathway forward, because everything that we want to do, pretty much, Ottawa is against.
00:05:16.380 They're against our oil and gas industry.
00:05:18.100 They're against agriculture.
00:05:19.900 I mean, they've actually said that.
00:05:21.480 Of all the dumb things that our prime minister has said, to say that he wants to reduce fertilizer input by 30 percent, like, this really goes against humanity. 0.69
00:05:32.380 This is like, we want people to starve around the world. 0.94
00:05:35.700 We don't want to be able to produce the energy and the food that gives the quality of life to people.
00:05:41.620 It's mind-numbing to me.
00:05:43.560 But why does that have to be secession and not an Alberta replication of what Quebec has done to assert its own sovereignty within Canada?
00:05:51.440 Good question.
00:05:52.320 Quebec gets $13 billion a year.
00:05:54.180 We put out $20 billion a year.
00:05:56.120 We've got a partner who's addicted, drunk, and spending our money.
00:06:00.820 And we've got to cut off the financial ties.
00:06:03.200 We cannot survive.
00:06:04.620 One thing that, you know, when a country goes under, everybody goes under.
00:06:09.780 Canada, to me, is a sinking ship.
00:06:12.260 I think that Trudeau wants to bankrupt us.
00:06:14.400 He wants to have a great reset.
00:06:15.800 He's excited about it.
00:06:17.320 He's, you know, post-sovereignty and exciting things on rebuilding back better and all of that other propaganda that they continue to put out there.
00:06:25.460 The only way for Alberta to survive is to be our own sovereign nation.
00:06:30.940 All things aside, if we are exercising our full autonomy, when Canada goes under, we can't all of a sudden say that we're not part of that.
00:06:38.480 We are.
00:06:39.340 And so this is like a business or a marriage.
00:06:41.860 When one of the partners is going to go bankrupt or carry on and lose everything that we have, you can't be associated with them anymore.
00:06:49.820 And so I think our future, our sovereignty, that's it.
00:06:55.340 That's the be-all, end-all.
00:06:56.840 If we're part of Canada, we sync with Canada.
00:06:59.220 To play the devil's advocate here, if you're advancing this through the political system that has caused all these problems, how are you going to get the result you need and not have to resort to revolution?
00:07:12.100 Well, that's the beauty of it right now.
00:07:13.900 We're still in a peaceful democracy and people are going to be able to vote.
00:07:17.380 Are you going to vote for control and Ottawa being in charge of our decision?
00:07:21.460 Or do you want to vote for the Wild Wilds Independence Party, which is going to exercise our full autonomy, tell Ottawa that, you know, no, I'm sorry, you're off base on these areas.
00:07:30.000 We're going to protect Alberta industries, protect Alberta families and religion and peaceful assembly, all of those things that are being stripped away.
00:07:38.420 And so this is about good government.
00:07:40.300 It's way more than just the equalization, which some people talk, or the fair deals.
00:07:45.500 This is about determining our future.
00:07:47.200 Everything from immigration to taxation to the size and role and scope of government, government's out of control.
00:07:54.200 It's destroying our society and we need to go back to, again, the best government is always the local government.
00:08:00.900 And we need to go back to that and realize the taxes are collected locally.
00:08:04.100 They meet the local needs.
00:08:05.580 Then they go on to the next level.
00:08:07.320 We won't be any better off as a sovereign Alberta if we're sending all of our money to Edmonton like we've sent it all to Ottawa.
00:08:13.620 If you have centralized government and we have to wait for government programs, I mean, the frustration when I talk to municipalities and small towns and villages is that they're always begging government, we need this or we need that.
00:08:25.640 I remember, you know, going up north and they were desperate for pothole repairs.
00:08:29.520 Three years pleading for the provincial government.
00:08:32.000 We need these tens of millions of dollars.
00:08:34.480 No, no, no.
00:08:35.140 We don't have a grant.
00:08:35.920 We don't have a grant program.
00:08:36.940 All of a sudden they gave it.
00:08:38.600 Three years later, they'd gone into debt, the biggest, you know, municipal debt that they were allowed.
00:08:43.500 And then the government comes out with a new grant where they'd sent the money off in taxation.
00:08:48.720 And then it says, oh, no, you don't get refunded on that.
00:08:51.220 This is a new grant going forward.
00:08:53.200 And all of those control factors of centralized government is hurting Alberta.
00:08:57.340 And we've got to go back to a new government that's effective, efficient and focused on the people and meeting the people's needs instead of government making the taxation meet their needs.
00:09:07.060 And the growth is just out of control, Andrew.
00:09:09.620 We know that dissatisfaction from within and without the conservative base is very significant with the leadership of the party, with Jason Kenney on questions of lockdown and the vaccine passport and all of these other things.
00:09:21.920 There's a huge swath of voters that would vote for a conservative alternative to Jason Kenney that might not be separatists.
00:09:32.000 Are you missing out on a huge chunk of the population that could actually get you elected?
00:09:35.480 That's an excellent question.
00:09:36.980 And I'd actually say if you're a loyalist or a federalist, the best thing you can do to save this country is to vote and put in a wild rose government because that will actually bring Ottawa to the table if they're going to come to the table.
00:09:50.060 And so if you want to save Canada, then vote Wild Rose Independence Party because we're going to be the responsible ones on the block and say, this is what you need to do.
00:09:58.820 We need to fix our constitution.
00:10:00.580 We can't be so-called demonstrably justified and yet then just take the whim of the prime minister or a health official and go there.
00:10:09.400 We will stand up and represent the independent person, their rights to life, liberty, property, pursuit of happiness.
00:10:16.180 And again, if Canada wants to keep Alberta, they can meet those needs.
00:10:21.680 And again, it won't be us making that decision as the Wild Rose Independence Party.
00:10:25.600 That'll be a referendum by the people.
00:10:27.860 And again, if in fact when we're government and here's the line in the sand, this is what you need to do.
00:10:33.380 We're exercising our full economy and Ottawa allows that, then why would Albertans want to vote and say, I'm going to separate?
00:10:40.220 So they don't need to worry that a vote for Alberta Wild Rose Independence Party is a vote for separation.
00:10:47.200 It's a vote to put and exercise our full autonomy and then show Albertans a confidence how great it will be to be our own nation.
00:10:54.640 But then Albertans will ultimately get to decide that.
00:10:57.360 And if Canada comes to the table and says, yeah, we realize the constitution is divisive.
00:11:01.340 We realize that we've been abusive, that we've overtaxed you or overregulating you.
00:11:05.360 Your health care is your business, your environment is your business, your resources or your business will allow you to do all those things.
00:11:12.080 Then, like I say, if Albertans want that, vote Wild Rose Independence Party.
00:11:16.020 But it sounds like you're trying to have the best of both worlds here.
00:11:18.400 Because a few moments ago you were talking about secession as being the only way for Alberta to do that.
00:11:22.900 Now you're talking about it as a negotiating position with Canada.
00:11:25.480 No, no, no. Excellent point.
00:11:27.640 And I've misled you if that's what I did.
00:11:29.480 Is that what I'm saying, if you believe that Canada is going to negotiate and, what would I say, be a fair deal with Alberta,
00:11:38.440 the only way that that's even possible, which I don't think is possible, is to vote for the Wild Rose.
00:11:43.360 You're not going to get anything with Jason.
00:11:44.920 You're not going to get anything with Rachel Notley.
00:11:46.620 If they think that bargaining and having that leverage is going to get that, then vote for the Wild Rose. 0.91
00:11:52.680 That's their hope.
00:11:54.820 But the bottom line for me is that Justin Trudeau is bankrupting our country morally, financially, every way.
00:12:03.600 He's bankrupting it, and we need to get off.
00:12:05.860 And my work will be to take the steps to exercise our full autonomy,
00:12:12.140 give Albertans the confidence that we will be better off on our own, and then allow them to vote.
00:12:17.020 And so I'm just saying, for those who think we need to say a sovereign nation and not divide, vote for the Wild Rose,
00:12:23.920 because that's the only way Ottawa will come to the table.
00:12:27.120 But I will still be advocating very strongly, we need to get out of here.
00:12:31.240 This ship's on fire, it's taking on water, and we're all going to go down with it.
00:12:35.520 So there's no question we need to get out, but we've got to give Albertans that confidence to vote to leave.
00:12:41.740 Paul Inman, thank you.
00:12:42.780 Thank you, Andrew.
00:12:43.520 It's always a pleasure having you out here.
00:12:45.220 Thanks a lot.
00:12:45.740 Thanks for listening to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:12:49.040 Support the program by donating to True North at www.tnc.news.