PJ The Belt - May 21, 2026


Alberta Finally Votes To LEAVE Canada？ — It's Long Overdue


Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

131.16

Word count

1,102

Sentence count

41

Harmful content

Hate speech

2

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Western alienation is almost as old as saskatchewan, its roots are in the countryside where farmers produced the food that fueled the nation early in the 20th century. They felt as if central Canada was taking and taking and giving little back. That frustration boiled over during the federal election of 1980 when the Trudeau Liberals were declared the winners before western votes were even counted.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.480 Today's video I'd like to talk about something that often gets ignored when it comes to the Alberta independence movement
00:00:06.940 many people think that this
00:00:09.240 cause was started
00:00:12.080 Because of the loss the federal loss of the conservatives
00:00:15.780 And I often say on this channel that I was simply the straw that broke the camel's back
00:00:22.620 basically the
00:00:24.420 last nail in a coffin
00:00:26.780 many of us saw coming and of course the liberal win after 10 years of terrible
00:00:35.780 policies and having ruined our country more ways than one contributed to the
00:00:43.460 amount of support and momentum that this that the cost for independence has
00:00:49.220 however this is something that has been brewing for many decades it is nothing
00:00:56.060 new for albertans to want to separate from canada considering the fact that alberta has been given
00:01:05.020 alberta and western canada in general but especially alberta and i mean especially alberta
00:01:11.020 and its industries have been given a raw deal for many decades
00:01:19.740 that frustration boiled over during the federal election of 1980 when the trudo liberals were
00:01:25.260 declared the winners before western votes were even counted well welcome to the 1980s 0.79
00:01:33.420 western alienation is almost as old as saskatchewan
00:01:39.580 its roots are in the countryside where farmers produced the food that fueled the nation
00:01:44.860 early in the century farmers were already feeling exploited by ottawa and the big grain companies
00:01:50.820 They felt as if central Canada was taking and taking and giving little back.
00:01:56.520 Its wealth is still in the hoof, though the buffalo herds have given way to what will be prime western beef.
00:02:06.100 The west here is still vivid with memories of other times.
00:02:11.120 The days before trails became highways, before campsites became cities like Calgary.
00:02:20.140 This dignified-looking city, now a financial center, hasn't quite forgotten the roaring hoop-up days when it was the last frontier.
00:02:31.500 About as far west as you could go without bumping into a mountain.
00:02:41.680 About 60 miles west of Calgary, the great barrier of the Rockies.
00:02:47.480 There are ways into it, of course.
00:02:50.140 To get to the resort town of Banff, the highway simply follows the valley of the Bow River.
00:03:04.100 This is a land of breathtaking grandeur.
00:03:07.140 Much of it has been set aside as national parks to remain in perpetuity pretty well as nature intended.
00:03:13.260 if you want to understand alberta you gotta understand the west this province was built
00:03:24.880 by ranchers oil men and homesteaders who tamed the land that most people today wouldn't dare
00:03:30.100 settle we're talking rugged badlands the rocky mountains and bitterly cold prairies the people
00:03:37.100 who made a life out here didn't ask for handouts they worked the land raised cattle and built
00:03:42.780 towns with their own two hands alberta's culture is different from the rest of canada we've got
00:03:48.220 rodeos we've got the stampede we've got cowboy hats and muddy boots and we have a strong sense
00:03:54.220 that people should be free free to work free to farm free to live without some government telling
00:03:59.980 them how to raise their children or live their lives that's very different from eastern canada
00:04:05.340 where they seem to love rules red tape and being protected by the government western political
00:04:11.740 parties would flourish and disappear. Saskatchewan voters earned a reputation for supporting
00:04:17.340 regional parties based on western discontent. They were desperate for a voice in national politics.
00:04:25.500 Dick Culver came to politics an underdog. He was charismatic and unpredictable with
00:04:31.100 little to lose. The progressive conservative party was at the bottom of the polls when
00:04:36.380 Culver became leader in 1973 they want a continuation of the present
00:04:42.060 government's drive five years later he built the party into Saskatchewan's
00:04:46.620 official opposition the premier was NDP leader Alan Blakeney he was wired both
00:04:54.120 as an organizer and as a speaker but not terribly stable he might come off the
00:04:59.240 wall and you never quite knew what position he was going to take
00:05:02.420 Culvert lived up to his reputation. In 1980 he shocked everyone and quit the
00:05:08.920 Tory party. He sat in the legislature as an independent where he was sharply
00:05:13.920 critical of the policies of the Trudeau government in Ottawa. French on the
00:05:18.460 cornflake boxes became a trigger issue and people were angry about bilingualism
00:05:24.540 primarily because they were angry at at Ottawa and Trudeau and the feeling that
00:05:29.120 Quebec ran everything. That frustration boiled over during the federal election of 1980 when
00:05:35.620 the Trudeau Liberals were declared the winners before Western votes were even counted. Well,
00:05:40.740 welcome to the 1980s. Then Culver shocked again. He announced the creation of a new political party
00:05:50.040 in Saskatchewan, the Unionist Party, with a stunning platform that Western provinces separate
00:05:56.720 from canada and joined the united states given the fact that the the views are irreconcilable
00:06:03.920 and that the country is in fact breaking up dennis ham was the tory mla for swift current
00:06:09.840 he shared culver's vision and joined the new party they believed western canada would get
00:06:15.680 more recognition as the 51st state culver's argument was a reasonable one he said inevitably
00:06:23.120 we are being drawn into the American net.
00:06:26.580 They are going to make the decisions 0.92
00:06:28.480 which control our economy
00:06:30.240 and ultimately our political system.
00:06:33.120 If they're going to do that,
00:06:34.400 why don't we have a voice in what the decisions are?
00:06:37.080 But the Unionist Party struggled for recognition.
00:06:40.840 MLAs voted in the legislature
00:06:42.820 to strip the new party of all public funds.
00:06:46.260 They thought it was mildly treasonous,
00:06:48.960 if you may put it that way.
00:06:50.840 Nor did the Unionist Party catch on with the people.
00:06:54.200 Despite their frustration, the idea of joining the United States went too far.
00:06:59.980 If we think we've got no voice now in a country of 20 million people,
00:07:05.680 what would we have in a country of 200 million?
00:07:08.980 Culver vowed to run in the next election with Unionist candidates across the West,
00:07:13.740 but the party fizzled.
00:07:15.620 Neither Culver nor Ham ran again.
00:07:19.000 Culver now lives in Arizona.
00:07:21.300 Ham lives in Calgary.
00:07:27.340 Twenty years later, Ham was back in the legislature in Regina
00:07:31.620 when his sister was sworn in as Saskatchewan's lieutenant governor.
00:07:36.520 Linda Haverstock is now the Queen's representative
00:07:39.300 in a province her brother once believed
00:07:41.540 would be better off leaving Canada and the monarchy behind.
00:07:48.040 Although the Unionist Party lasted a mere two years,
00:07:55.740 Western alienation continues to fuel prairie politics.
00:07:59.660 In fact, the current farm crisis is renewing calls for Western separatism,
00:08:03.680 and some disgruntled farmers have even suggested joining the United States.
00:08:09.160 I hear the train a-coming.
00:08:12.980 It's rolling around the bed.
00:08:15.280 And I see the blood shine
00:08:20.180 I don't know where