00:03:42.840So I have abandoned my comfort zone and I have decided I'm going to fight for a common sense of Alberta.
00:03:49.840So that's why I'm so new. You won't see me because I have woken up and I said I have to fight.
00:03:55.840I cannot sit back and let these things happen. And I do not want to see an Alberta because I've learned to love Alberta.
00:04:02.840I am originally from Quebec, and yes, I am in front of the phone, originally, and I woke up and I said, I love this province, and I have chosen to remain here because it isn't the province that reflects my values.
00:04:18.220in the province. There are so many Christian people that love God and love freedom and
00:04:23.620love what I stand for, and so on. So it is so important. So I just want to let you know,
00:04:33.440an independent Alberta is what the Alberta Prosperity Project is aiming for. It's non-partisan
00:04:39.180and a not-for-profit educational society that aims to educate, inspire, and advocate
00:04:46.260for all Albertans about the benefits of freedom and prosperity through independence.
00:04:50.340So the movement began in May 2021 in a humble oil field shop in Nisco, Alberta, where a
00:04:56.060group of Albertans, tired of the inefficiencies of our provincial leadership and the overreach
00:05:00.520from Ottawa, decided it was time to act.
00:05:04.120So the Alberta Prosperity Project was born, and here we are today.
00:05:09.260So we'd like to begin our meetings with an opening blessing.
00:05:14.120So Father David McLeod is here today to share an opening prayer.
00:05:29.160In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. Amen.
00:05:38.860Lord, bless us as we discuss the future of this province.
00:09:26.080Which, in his own words, led to the climate emergency.
00:09:31.140for which the solution is, again in his own words, to severely restrict individual freedoms,
00:09:41.140businesses, agriculture, and the financing of those businesses pertaining to the oil and gas industry
00:09:51.140and transportation, as well as agriculture.
00:09:55.140And he talks about the results. He says, well, you know, there is going to be a number of industries that are getting in lands that will be stranded. In other words, this is going belly up.
00:10:11.640He talks about other things such as internal combustion engines. You won't be able to buy them, you won't be able to use them or sell them.
00:10:21.640He talks about everything pertaining to this kind of restriction, meaning the end of gas-fired barbecues, gas-fired stoves.
00:10:36.640These are the kinds of things that he is thinking about.
00:10:41.640And, as was said, a central bank digital currency, along with censorship, will control every aspect of your life.
00:10:51.640This is a very dystopian future, and I don't think it's something that most people really realize what may be coming down the pipe.
00:11:02.620So, what's the solution to all of this?
00:11:07.040Well, we know that it's impossible to change the Constitution
00:13:12.000Sorry guys, the internet is not the best reception.
00:13:15.440Canadian patriots in 2004 with people living in eastern Canada. So we desire and all Canadian
00:13:22.160patriots desire that the great trade of the prairies, that's Alberta and Saskatchewan as well,
00:13:27.280that the great trade of the prairies shall go to enrich our people in the east, to build up
00:13:32.960factories and our places of work and in every legitimate way contribute to
00:13:36.640its prosperity, that is the prosperity of the east. Nothing about the prosperity of the west.
00:13:42.240We started off therefore in 1905, September 1, as a colony. We continue to be a colony to serve the interests of the East and we continue to be pillaged and plundered for the wealth that we create to our own detriment.
00:13:59.240Now, what can we do about this? Like I said, nothing. Because Canadian federalism doesn't permit a resolution to the imbalance in power, meaning that the federal government is here, the provincial governments are here. We can't solve that problem because it requires opening and changing.
00:14:18.100Yeah, the reception is not the best, isn't it?
00:14:21.960Somebody wants to know the hurdles to change it, and then you realize that it is impossible.
00:14:27.660So how has this all been manifest then for us?
00:14:30.620Well, since equalization and the national energy policy and other federal confiscatory policy,
00:14:38.060we've given up about $800 billion to the federal government for which we've not received a sent in return.
00:14:44.340Now, just a comment about the national energy policy real quick.
00:14:47.700That was the brainchild of Mark Lalonde, the Minister of Finance, in the original Trudeau government.
00:14:53.760And when he was asked to justify the national economy policy, his simple comment was,
00:14:59.060we could not let Alberta, we have this on video, we could not let Alberta become the center of economic power in Canada.
00:15:05.580And you bet they have definitely done everything they can to prevent that from happening,
00:15:11.220and it was going to happen at that particular time.
00:15:14.240Now, if we look at their policies, their policies have been, definitely, and you all know this, anti-Alberta energy, anti-agriculture, and anti-resource development.
00:15:27.280And the Premier herself has pointed out that in the last 10, 12 years, you know, we've given up half a trillion dollars, 500 billion dollars, of investment that would have come into this province, that was planned to come into this province, but it didn't.
00:15:42.520Why? Because of federal regulations and taxation. That's why it didn't come.
00:15:49.160More recently, the, what is it, it's the Frontier Center for Public Policy released a research paper in which they pointed out that we lose $26.5 billion a year in this province because we cannot get our oil and gas to international markets.
00:16:07.140Now, we get to the point of values, and we touched on it a little bit before,
00:16:12.400but it's a very different value set, you know.
00:16:16.000Much of the socialist wing of Canada, if you will,
00:16:21.040and those other areas that are not Saskatchewan, Alberta, and Central and Northern BC,
00:16:26.940don't mind central control of everything that they do.
00:16:32.380They're okay, they seem to be okay with censorship.
00:16:34.860They seem to be okay with the planned implementation of a central bank digital currency, etc.
00:16:44.340They seem to be okay with confiscating your property, such as with firearms, for example.
00:16:52.360Now, David Lometti, the former Minister of Justice, has said,
00:16:57.660guess what, Canadians don't have the right to own property.
00:17:00.320Did you know that, that you didn't have the right to own property in Canada?
00:17:04.860So, internalize that. The Premier has said, with respect to firearms, that, what was it I was going to say about the firearms, oh yeah, so we have some new legislation pending which may help on that particular file.
00:17:24.860And our general counsel for the Alberta Prosperity Society has been responsible for drafting it, whether it will go forward or not, but it's based on Alberta having legislative control of firearms, purchasing, ownership, and use.
00:17:40.460And that would be a pretty good solution.
00:17:44.640Now, we've already touched on health and the issue of health in the pandemic treaty.
00:18:13.400if Alberta doesn't toe the line to federal policy
00:18:17.840simply by withholding transfer payments
00:18:20.200And that's what they've done historically to a number of different provinces that didn't like what the federal government was doing.
00:18:27.280So you can imagine if several billion dollars of health transfer, and by the way, we give 70 billion dollars roughly every year.
00:18:35.880We get that 27 in health, education, social, and infrastructure transfers.
00:18:40.280So several billion dollars would be at risk in terms of health transfer if the provincial government didn't capitulate to federal dictates.
00:18:53.940So you can be sure that it would be a huge stress on Premier Smith if we were in that kind of a situation.
00:19:00.920And I suspect he, like every other premier in Canada, would capitulate.
00:19:05.740It's already been mentioned, but it's worth mentioning again.
00:19:11.600Of all industrialized countries, Canada has the lowest growth rate of any industrialized
00:19:21.360So let's look at another issue in terms of something more recent.
00:19:28.380The Premier has stated a number of demands of the federal government.
00:19:32.740She's mentioned that it's public knowledge, and she says, if we're not successful in getting these things addressed to our satisfaction, that's a threat to national unity.
00:19:43.600Well, it can only mean one thing, right? It can only mean that she is suggesting that Alberta would leave if we don't get what we want.
00:19:53.140And this is part and parcel of why Bill 1, their first piece of legislation from the UCC government,
00:19:59.800was the Alberta Sovereignty Within the United Canada Act.
00:20:04.920So, but what is she actually, her rhetoric is one thing, but what's actually happening?
00:20:11.340What's happening now is there are 18 or so lawsuits that the provincial government has launched against the federal government
00:20:20.120With respect to energy development and transportation, with respect to censorship, with respect to agricultural considerations, etc.
00:20:30.040This is no way, ladies and gentlemen, for a marriage to continue between Alberta and the federal government.
00:20:38.040It takes years, if not decades, to solve these sorts of problems through the courts.
00:20:46.100And the Supreme Court, of course, is appointed by the Prime Minister's office,
00:20:50.560three justices from Quebec, three from Ontario, one from the Maritimes,
00:21:50.500and we have always advocated for the legal pathway.
00:21:54.100And for anybody that wants to touch on the Westminster Statute in 1931,
00:21:59.280we can go there too, and I'm going to talk about that anyhow.
00:22:02.640But at the end of the day, this is the way it works.
00:22:05.840The Citizens Initiative Act is where we start. In May of 2022, the Citizens Initiative Act was legislated into operation. And what it required, if you want to make constitutional change, constitutional change would include a province leaving Canada, but if you want to make constitutional, in this case Alberta, if you want to make constitutional change,
00:22:32.420that what it requires is a petition with 600,000 signatures on that petition collected in 90 days.
00:24:28.900But she has stated that she needs six months to negotiate with Carney.
00:24:37.080Personally, I don't think she's going to get what she wants for.
00:24:39.900Or if she's playing us, she'll accept something rather more trivial that doesn't require constitutional change, which will be maddening for all of us who really want to get out from under federal over-regulation, governance, and taxation.
00:24:59.520But nevertheless, it will be up to her to achieve that.
00:25:04.660Now, how's my timing? How long have I been? Nothing. I got another couple of minutes? All right. Okay. So I want to pose a question to you, and then I want to tell you some of the benefits of Alberta sovereignty.
00:25:23.060But first of all, the question is the same question I posed to Ralph Klein at the annual general meeting of the Progressive Conservative Party in Red Deer in January 2003.
00:25:34.960Here's the question, and by a show of hands, I want to see your answer.
00:25:40.220If Alberta was already a sovereign country and Canada came to Alberta and said we would like Alberta to join Confederation under the current terms and costs of membership, how many people here would like Alberta to join Confederation under the current terms and costs of membership if we were already sovereign? Raise your hands.
00:26:04.700i see nobody all right no one would do that not now i've really trapped you now i've really trapped
00:26:14.980you because the corollary is then just like i said to rel do you not think you have a moral
00:26:22.080ethical and economic responsibility to get us out of this mess with canada to fix this
00:26:30.260dysfunctional relationship? How many think you have a responsibility to help us get to the point
00:26:37.800of Alberta sovereignty to solve all these problems that we're facing? Does anybody think you don't
00:26:42.980have a responsibility? All right, so nobody changed your hand. Good. So we've got how many more
00:26:48.940volunteers here now? Okay, wonderful to see. So let's talk a little bit about some of the
00:26:55.980some of the benefits of Alberta's sovereignty.
00:27:18.040that acknowledges the supremacy of God
00:27:21.440as foundational for civil society and the rule of law.
00:27:24.360Now what follows from that is wherein Alberta becomes the most free and prosperous country in the world to live, work, raise a family, and start a business.
00:27:54.360All right. Pensions, old age security, and veteran benefits will not only be secured, but significantly enhanced by 20-30% or more.
00:28:05.760Four, First Nations, for the first time, will participate as equal founding members in a new Alberta, with their treaty rights protected in a new constitution, which also will permit First Nations to share in the wealth generated by the development and transport of our natural resources.
00:28:30.680In addition, no Albertan will be left behind because social programs will be not just compassionate, but actually effective.
00:28:41.680And all of these problems that we're having with homelessness and various other problems, they can be resolved that people have the courage in government to actually make them happen.
00:28:51.680We know how we believe that that can happen.
00:29:50.380The system is corrupt. I've seen the corruption, I've written about it, and I've shared that document privately with Premier Klein. In any case, it was too difficult to deal with.
00:30:01.080Now, the other thing that I would say in terms of benefits to Albertans is that property rights will be definitively and constitutionally protected.
00:30:12.080And I can assure you that every single citizen in the province of Alberta will benefit enormously in terms of their quality of life and their standard of living.
00:30:28.080And let me assure you as well that these things are highly possible and probable.
00:30:35.460And some of you may know that we've had a small delegation go to the U.S.
00:30:41.080and meet with the very senior officials in the U.S. administration.
00:30:48.860And they do not want Alberta to become the 51st state.
00:32:59.100Could those same people also support sovereignty?
00:33:02.620I don't know the answer to that question,
00:33:03.840but it's an interesting question to pose.
00:33:06.020The same thing has happened with the pension plan.
00:33:09.000Mitch has done over a hundred presentations and Tanner, both of whom are following me speaking too long already, but prior to Mitch and Tanner going out throughout the province and talking about the pension plan, there was not a plurality of individuals that supported an Alberta pension plan.
00:33:34.200The latest poll from the UCP government itself is that 55% of Albertans are now in favor of a pension plan.
00:33:44.840And believe it or not, 65% to 70% of UCP members are in favor of Alberta sovereignty.
00:33:51.560Ladies and gentlemen, we can win this.
00:33:53.560Thank you very much for your attention.
00:40:25.060Would an independent Alberta be landlocked?
00:40:27.060And it may sound surprising coming from me, but the answer is short.
00:40:30.680Yes, an independent Alberta would be landlocked.
00:40:34.420Absolutely, anyone can look at the map and look at the geography of our province and see that there is no tidewater access on the north side, on the south side, on the east side or the west side of our province.
00:40:46.620But my fear, and your fear, is that these pundits and commentators too often unfortunately omit that while an independent Alberta would be geographically landlocked,
00:40:59.800A dependent Alberta, an Alberta that's in Canada right now, is also geographically landlocked.
00:46:26.200But I want to see our economic output increase. I want to see our GDP increase. I want to see Alberta oil all over the world, because it's ethical, it's better than that stuff that comes from the Middle East, which is not ethical, and we can increase the quality of life for ourselves, our families, and those who consume the oil, all across the world.
00:46:47.740So how are we going to get our pipelines, or just goods in general, to coasts, to tidewater, where we need to get it?
00:47:00.180Well, maybe we can wait for a government to do it.
00:47:02.060That is, maybe we can wait for a government, not who wants to build a pipeline,
00:47:06.260but who will allow pipelines and other new methods of transportation for all goods to be built.
00:47:11.660Take the Conservatives for an example.
00:47:14.080The Conservatives, the Federal Conservatives said they were eager to pass all these new energy projects and so on.
00:47:19.840Excellent, wonderful, but there's a problem.
00:47:22.000Which is, if we wait for the Federal Conservatives to be elected, unfortunately we're going to be waiting a very long time.
00:47:29.000And even if the Federal Conservatives are elected, the structure of Confederation, as Dr. Montri has told you,
00:47:35.340is structured in such a way that the Conservatives will not stay elected for very long.
00:47:40.000and if they want to stay elected for a long time, they have to not appease our interests.
00:47:45.240They have to appease the interests of Ottawa, of Quebec, of Ontario, and of the Eastern Bloc,
00:47:50.660where the concentration of votes in the country lies.
00:47:54.240And you and I both know that those interests down east are not the same as our interests out here in the west.
00:47:59.840So if we can't rely on government, and if we can't wait for a new government to solve these problems,
00:48:08.040separate we have to flex some economic muscle if we're going to see these problems at least
00:48:15.560possibly you know uh evolve into something better we have to flex that which we have in the province
00:48:22.720you know klein had that very famous quote to let her freeze in the dark and so on maybe we should
00:48:27.660use some of those tactics and tools but now you have to approach things legally we want to negotiate
00:48:35.060We know we have to negotiate. But by what measures, what means are we going to negotiate?
00:48:41.420That's the question. You know, we hear all the time, we should just turn off the tap to the east.
00:48:45.700You know, we supply Canada. It's true with a lot of oil, a lot of gasoline, a lot of diesel.
00:48:50.840We look at refinery row there in Edmonton. Hundreds of thousands of barrels of oil are refined there every single day.
00:48:56.940I'm from Lloydminster. We have tens of thousands of barrels that are refined at the Cenobus refinery and the operator.
00:49:02.500We are here a heavy hammer, a hard producer that provides a lot of the energy that Canada consumes.
00:49:10.500So if we just turned off the taps, it said, then Canada would quickly come crawling to us and recognize that they have to play by our rules or us.
00:49:18.500But you have to look at the legality of that statement.
00:49:23.500You see, if we say we're going to turn off the taps, you have to ask, how exactly are you going to do so?
00:49:28.500Well, we could answer, we're going to invoke Alberta's Bill 12. It was passed just before 2020. It was passed in 2018, 2019. And in essence, it gives the Alberta government the power to either permit or revoke or force companies to apply for licenses if they want to ship energy out of products.
00:49:53.680So take Enbridge. Enbridge runs a pipeline. Let's suppose Enbridge wants to ship some oil from Harvesty all the way to, I don't know, Regina. Under Bill 12, the Alberta government could say, you have to apply for a license to do so. And if the Alberta government rejects that license, then you can't ship the oil. Sorry, you don't have the legal authority to do so.
00:50:17.400So we can invoke a bill. Ah, but wait a second, says the courts. Not so fast.
00:50:24.000B.C. challenged this law, and it was ruled in B.C.'s favor that a province, Alberta in this instance,
00:50:31.540cannot invoke a bill, Bill 12, if it's meant to punish another province.
00:50:39.240So Alberta cannot invoke Bill 12 if it's meant to incur some economic hardship on its trading partners
00:50:47.260to try and, you know, guarantee or justify or produce a better deal for Alberta.
00:50:53.480And so the bill is all but useless. It's all but inert.
00:50:56.200To be entirely honest, it's never been used. Not seriously.
00:50:59.380Well, we say, okay, I guess we can't use Bill 12, but surely the pipelines, the big pipelines,
00:51:06.300Keystone XL, or Keystone, not XL, that one didn't get built, but Keystone, and Enbridge, Line 3 and Line 5, and all of these big pipelines coming out of Alberta are under Alberta jurisdiction, are they not?
00:51:21.700When you have interprovincial pipelines, pipelines that move across provincial borders, or move across countries' borders, it is not provincial authorities' pipelines.
00:51:35.000It is the federal government's authority.
00:54:18.480Ottawa knows it. What are we going to say? Give us the goods that we need. Let us shift the goods where we want or else we're going to not vote for you in the next election. It's too late. What does Ottawa care? It don't matter. So we have a problem. We want to negotiate but we have no leverage. Not within Canada. What about without or outside of Canada? Would we have leverage then? A lot more.
00:54:46.000Well, again, you don't need me out here.
00:54:48.140First, we would no longer be beholden to Section 121 of the Constitution.
00:54:54.160I'm not saying we should invoke these policies or these negotiating packets.
00:54:59.400That's for a different speech entirely.
00:55:01.440All I'm saying is these tools are now at our disposal.
00:55:05.780We would no longer be beholden to Section 121 of the Constitution.
00:55:09.820so that if we decided to say every good coming from the vancouver port and coming
00:55:15.260through alberta on rail will be subject to a tariff whatever number that might be
00:55:19.740it's not as though the supreme court they're going everywhere you really can't take any
00:55:24.060population for granted you've got to go everywhere by the supreme court of canada
00:55:28.700or take the pipeline let's suppose that you know auto is playing tough and is playing a hard
00:55:35.180negotiator it's not as well the pipelines which now originate in alberta even though they span
00:55:41.900across saskatchewan and manitoba down into the south are now sold federal government jurisdiction
00:55:49.180no the section of pipeline in alberta becomes albert's jurisdiction and so the situation looks
00:55:56.540very much different so too with bill 12. the government could again i'm not saying it should
00:56:01.340or it would I'm just saying it couldn't invoke Bill 12 and not grant licenses to companies that
00:56:07.900want to ship oil so as to really turn off the task for Canada. I am not here trying to advocate a
00:56:15.420strategy. What I am here to advocate is an independent Alberta has more leverage available
00:56:23.260to itself than a dependent Alberta does and an independent Alberta is better able to negotiate
00:56:36.460than what it can negotiate with right now it doesn't have the capacity to do so right now
00:56:41.460Ottawa treats us like a child they are the parent so they come to us and we say we want this and
00:56:46.860they go no and what we say goes and you can't argue otherwise what are you going to do which
00:56:51.100law shall you invoke even if we pass laws that are unconstitutional like bill c69 we still abide by
00:56:57.580them it's not but if you were your own province if you were your own separate alberta ottawa would
00:57:05.980be forced to approach you not as a child but as an equal partner as someone who is not under you in
00:57:13.820confederation oh yeah but entirely separate and own nation not governed by the constitution of
00:57:20.060Canada which gives the federal government these powers that make it impossible for us to negotiate
00:57:25.820our landlocked position as we would like. That's what independence does. So I'm not going to stand
00:57:32.220here and tell you I know what the future is going to hold. I have no idea. The fact that the future
00:57:37.500is uncertain is what makes it the future. There are other commentators who say well even with
00:57:43.580these advantages we certainly shouldn't pursue independence right because it would be so difficult.
00:57:48.300It would be so very hard, but my conviction is that living under this government and these governments continually will be even harder.
00:57:57.100It might be difficult, but it would be more difficult to stay in the present position that we are in.
00:58:07.380We are a land that is rich with rugged resource.
00:58:11.080We have been given this God-given blessing itself that we are able to use for not only our family's benefit,
00:58:16.800but also for others' benefit, and it has not been appointed to us to watch all of this resource and all of this industry and all of this energy languish under this heavy, heavy hand of Ottawa.
00:58:30.640We know the scriptures, to whom much is given, much is required.
00:58:34.200We are in a province where much, much has been given, and it is my conviction that we are obligated to see that the benefits accrue to not only ourselves and our children,
00:58:43.800but also to those across the country, across the countries, the continents, and the entire world.
00:58:50.180Here we are, pipelines are stalled, projects are strangled in their infancy,
00:58:54.980and we don't face blockades from mountains, we face blockades from bureaucracy.
00:59:00.200That is the way the country works right now.
00:59:02.740So you see, there are moments in history when diplomacy needs to be delicate.
00:59:07.720This is not one of those moments, in my opinion.
00:59:09.780there are other moments in history when diplomacy has to be not elegant but effective and that is
00:59:18.440the moment right now for too long here we are in alberta we've been forced to wheel the feather
00:59:25.480while ottawa has swung its sledgehammer again and again and again and again and i'm concerned or as
00:59:33.040far as i'm concerned that time is over time we pick up tools of our own it's time we negotiate
00:59:39.100for ourselves, for our children, and it's time that we secure a future for our families,
00:59:44.740our children, and our posterity, and our people.
00:59:50.340Sorry, folks, I just have to make a comment, because everything that Tanner said was spot-on.
01:00:12.360But if I were to summarize, I would say, in terms of being landlocked, we're not really landlocked, we're policy-locked.
01:00:18.620And one other thing that works in our favor is Articles 124 and 125 in the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea requires that companies that are landlocked have access to tidewater.
01:00:35.620so that's an important consideration as well and speaking of all of this business about being
01:00:42.080landlocked remember that japan and germany came to us on bend and knee wanting gas
01:00:51.000liquefied natural gas and why did the federal government say there's no business case for it
01:00:55.960It's ridiculous. And speaking of being landlocked, there's a lot of countries like Switzerland that are very successful. So, so our next speaker is Mitch Sylvester.
01:01:12.640He's the owner-operator of Sylvester's Sporting Goods, a well-established store in Montyville since 1989.
01:01:19.000Mitch is actively involved in political advocacy.
01:01:22.760He chairs the Alberta First Pension Plan Initiative and is the CEO of the Alberta Prosperity Project.
01:01:29.120Mitch is an advocate for the people and speaks with honesty and integrity.
01:04:27.440I'm the president of the UCPCA Board in Barnabas, Alberta,
01:04:31.780so I'm involved with government at a direct level.
01:04:33.440The reason for that is, I learned a long time ago when we were reading things like marches on the street against COVID lockdowns and all the rest of that kind of stuff, that we were talking to ourselves.
01:04:45.440And if you're not involved with government, you don't know what's going on, and you have no influence.
01:04:50.440So we decided that it would be a much better deal to be at the UCPCA board level, and that's the group of people that I brought from Bonneville to last year's AGM in Red Deer.
01:05:00.440those people participate we were three years in a row the largest group of people at the agm and
01:05:06.120that's what i'm asking you to do that's what i asked them to do and that's what i'm asking you
01:05:10.120guys right now is to help us out because again we can't do it without you i'll emphasize that many
01:05:14.920many many times the other thing i want you to be sure of and i'm sure of it is every four years
01:05:20.280even if we win a government you have a conservative government if we're lucky to have a conservative
01:05:25.640government we're going to spend a whole bunch of time worrying about the next liberal government
01:05:29.080doing everything that's there. So I know that that's a concern of mine, and I'm sure it's
01:05:34.080a concern of everybody in this room. Now, when I was hosting the premier last week or
01:05:39.240a week and a half ago, I asked her to elaborate on the damage that Ottawa is doing to stop
01:05:44.320working. And she basically said it was an abusive relationship, because I wanted her
01:05:48.420to say it, but I didn't want it to come from me. I just wanted her to make it very clear
01:05:52.340to the people in the room that we were being abused by Ottawa. Actually, if you look at
01:05:56.800definition of oppression we're being oppressed that's how bad this is but no other province in
01:06:01.360canada is being oppressed like us right and so that's that's the deal so just understand what
01:06:08.000we have we're the third largest oil industry in the world we have the third largest oil reserve
01:06:12.480in the world and we're 100 million dollars in debt have you seen the pictures of trump and
01:06:20.640in Qatar? Did you see him drive up that really long driveway
01:06:24.640and all the lit streets and all that? Did you see that?
01:06:29.160Where do we see that in Alberta? Where do we see that kind of
01:06:32.420exhibition of wealth here in Alberta? Well, we don't because
01:06:36.420it's all gone. They haven't taken that wealth from us since
01:06:44.660Alright, here's the path to the referendum. Dennis alluded to it. I just want you to see it
01:06:48.460again. So we've got a collection of the digital pledge, the vote yes to Alberta Sovereignty.
01:06:53.460Then we register the petition with Elections Alberta, which is what we're doing right now.
01:06:58.460We're going to register our petition request with Elections Alberta right now, and as soon
01:07:03.460as the law actually changes for 177,000 signatures on our petition, we'll have the first one
01:07:09.460in on that day and on that morning. Within 90 days, Elections Alberta verifies the signature
01:07:15.460a signature collected from the public so we have to go out there and collect 177 000 signatures
01:07:21.460so we've broken the province up into 89 cas which is 87 but going to be two more so that'll be 89.
01:07:27.940so we're going to be going to every institution association and gathering signatures from all of
01:07:34.420our people so that we can make this work we have to get 177 000 signatures in order to have a
01:07:39.300referendum for independence. The government will accept it, and then if we win it, the
01:07:47.300government has to implement it. So therefore, let's go back to my comment about how you
01:07:52.300have to be involved with government. So if I was a thinking person, and sometimes I am,
01:07:59.300I would think that would be a very good idea to become a member of the government that's
01:08:03.300government that's going to be in power when that decision is made because we
01:08:09.760have to be able to influence that government with membership and with our
01:08:13.620voice and governments do listen to people the thing they hate the most is
01:08:17.400large crowds that are all thinking the same. Our Prime Minister said one of the most
01:08:25.440astonishing things I could ever imagine a Canadian Prime Minister saying he said
01:08:29.540There is no car identity in mainstream Canada. No mainstream in Canada. Consequently, that makes us the first post-national state. So what's a post-national state? No orders. No identity. Open to all manner of immigration. Does that sound like anything that's been going on here in the last 10, 12 years, 15 years?
01:08:49.820so he thinks that we do not have an identity
01:08:53.560and that we are not actually a country
01:08:55.940we're actually a place where all the citizens in the world
01:08:59.000can come here because we have a wide open border
01:09:01.340so that's been happening, both sides of the border here
01:10:58.140Government of corruption is the biggest, biggest problem with what's going on here.
01:11:02.780I'm going to get into it quite a bit here, and we'll keep going.
01:11:06.580Alright, so this is where the problems started in 1980. I remember that very clearly. I was around when they said that they didn't want the power base of the country to go from Ottawa to Calgary. That was what it was said. I remember it clearly. I said, oh my God, that's silly. What would it matter? We're all one country. Why would it be different if it was from Ottawa to Calgary?
01:11:28.400Well for them it was a big difference, and that's when the equalization came in.
01:11:33.400That's that very point, they decided that Alberta was to stay broke, or broke dirt, then Ottawa.
01:11:40.400So that's the reason that all this nonsense started.
01:11:47.400I just went to that. Okay, so here's the next contribution, we alluded to that.
01:12:27.400Do you know what the budget of the province of Alberta is?
01:12:30.400This year it's bloated, it's bigger than ever, it's 75 billion dollars.
01:12:34.400So that's 35% of our budget right there in two years given to Quebec.
01:12:40.400And they didn't earn anything and they don't want it or do it.
01:12:43.400so just understand that they're okay with not allowing us to earn what we're
01:12:49.960giving them money and that's the key to the whole thing okay let's talk about
01:12:56.500canon pension the one thing I know about a little bit is pension I've done a lot of
01:13:00.640channels on pension so just understand this there's a portability clause to your
01:13:04.880pension so this portability clause means that no matter where you live in the
01:13:09.180world, it will send your pension. So by extension, that means if you live in an independent country
01:13:17.200of Alberta, they have to send your pension. One of the things they're going to scare you
01:13:22.720with is they're going to say, well, we're going to cut the pension off. Well, that's
01:13:27.040actually, they can't do that. Because you've actually been paying pension that belongs
01:13:31.200to you and they owe it to you. So even if you live in Costa Rica or in France or anywhere
01:13:36.940like that, the Portability Clause kicks in, and they have to pay you. So another thing, let's
01:13:41.980understand how pension works in Alberta. The pay-as-you-go system, but right now, Albertans
01:13:47.380contribute $9 million a year to CPP. CPP pays Alberta seniors $6 billion a year. We have a $3
01:13:57.440million surplus every year. Now the CPP, when it was originally designed, it was designed so that
01:14:04.900And any excess money that the province pays goes into a fund for that province, and it sits there, and the province can call it back at will if they want to leave CPP with interest.
01:14:19.220That number for Alberta right now is $325 billion plus $3 billion for the last two years, because that number is two years old, plus interest on that money.
01:14:30.140So, the Government of Canada has actually put that in their asset tile, and in actual fact, it's our asset.
01:14:38.140They owe us about $360 billion. That number alone is 60 years of pension without us earning another penny,
01:14:48.140putting another penny in as a contribution, or collecting a penny of interest.
01:15:52.860But what does that mean? That means that we've lost a lot of jobs, we've lost a lot of wealth, we've lost the ability to create more wealth, because I understand what I've been in business for 45, 46 years. It's way easier to run a business with money than it is without money.
01:16:09.860I'm going to promise you that because I know both sides.
01:16:13.860And I'm going to tell you something else.
01:16:15.860When you have money, you can make decisions and you can build your business.
01:16:19.860When they consciously take money away from you so you cannot build your business, then everything suffers.
01:16:25.860So what happens when you build your business?
01:16:27.860You hire more people, you take more chances, the economy grows.
01:16:32.860If you keep taking that money away from people, then the economy doesn't grow.
01:16:38.860So, Gilbo pulls a pin on an $11 billion natural gas plant in Rupert, or Kinemat, whatever it was, and that was then saluted to the fact that we did not want to sell our natural gas to Germany and Japan.
01:16:54.860Two of the leading economies in the world, that cost us trillions of dollars in revenue. Trillions of dollars in revenue.
01:17:03.860And if you saw that picture of Trump lately,
01:17:05.820he was in Qatar and actually took that up for us.
01:19:23.320but I'm looking at what's going on with the kids. I've got kids who can't afford to buy a house at 28 years old and it wasn't that long ago, it seemed like not that long ago when I was in high school and I'm going to tell you what, people were actually buying houses just about my way out of high school because I like to tell this story because back then there was no birth control and there was a lot of pregnant people in high school.
01:20:05.960you would not be able to afford to buy a house
01:20:08.140alright, this is what they're doing, this is what else they're doing
01:20:13.540they're blocking pipelines, they're tied for ban
01:20:15.680In the West only, tankers can go out to St. Lawrence, there's no problem with that, but it can't go up close to Prince Rupert in northern BC.
01:20:26.300But, they can go from Alaska around international water and down to the USA.
01:27:03.100So I want to ask you a question. Do you remember when that orange juice scandal happened when Stephen Harper was in power and the lady bought like a $25 glass of orange juice and it just about dropped the government down?
01:27:16.100Like what are we talking about here? We're talking about billions of dollars and they're not answering any questions. You remember Prime Minister Trudeau saying, yeah, he never answered the question in 10 years.
01:27:56.100So we tariff an electric car, an electric Chinese car, 100% that no one has ever heard of or seen, and then our federal government turns around and does that and allows China to tariff our peas and our canola 100%.
01:28:17.160That's 50% of the problem, I don't know what the ratio is here, but that's 50% of it.
01:30:52.080So you're going to have to decide today before you leave that you're either going to fight this or you're going to let them get their way.
01:30:58.700That's the only two choices. I don't see any other choices.
01:31:01.640One last comment on Mr. Carney. He dropped his tariffs before he did the elbows up. So he did not, he lied to you. He lied to you through the whole election.
01:31:17.640last thing let's talk about socialism and let's talk about guns
01:31:23.040let us allude to the fact that we're actually working on the big changing
01:31:26.820event now in Alberta we're actually trying to get a gun license for Albertans
01:31:30.320we started this on Sunday as a matter of fact we reached out to the government today
01:31:34.200they're pretty happy with it they think that this could happen
01:31:36.880so if that's the case we're going to go back to gun laws in Alberta
01:31:40.180to what we had in Alberta in 2014 before the local student power
01:39:14.680Okay, most people don't realize that the Alamo was under Mexican control, and people in Texas were being abused by the Mexican government, and in 1845, Texas became a state of the United States, thanks to the Americans that came down there to help them get out of that predicament, which we're in a predicament now.
01:39:41.680and you've got to remember that the predicament that we're in historically will lead to the
01:39:48.080deprived people will do everything including violence to keep us in canada
01:39:57.600and the question is we were we're preaching to the converted here we need to change
01:40:05.040evident calvary and metric what are you doing to get those people
01:40:11.920there we go okay well we're going to spend money it's the top two kids we're going to move to where
01:40:17.760they are to talk on their social media the other thing is everything's falling at 39
01:40:26.240right now in favor of independence hell yeah already already at 39
01:40:35.040and the rule is probably, in my mind, around 80%.
01:46:00.900If that fails, according to the rules, and I don't know if the rules have changed or not changed,
01:46:05.560then we wouldn't be able to pursue independence for five years from now.
01:46:09.300So that's why we have to be on top of it and we have to hurry, because I still think we can win it.
01:46:14.900There's a 30-day advertising period, a 120-day signature coverage period, and then that's going to happen to the people who are going to call for the referendum.
01:46:23.600So we're probably 8 to 10 months away from the referendum, no matter what. We can do it in 10 months.
01:49:45.720That's another great question. Well, on the day of a successful referendum, acknowledged by the U.S., that the U.S. administration, probably the President, or Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, calls Daniel Smith and says, congratulations, you are now a sovereign nation, at which point Daniel Smith should be able to say that we now will unilaterally declare our sovereignty.
01:50:13.180And why this is really important to understand is because it follows international law.
01:50:19.180And the most recent example of that was in February 2008 when Kosovo had a successful referendum on sovereignty and unilaterally declared its independence.
01:50:31.180And can you guess which two countries were the first to acknowledge Kosovo's sovereignty?
01:50:40.180All right? So precedent has been set. On that day, by the way, the provincial government, now an Alberta sovereign government, will inform all businesses and the public that no longer will any tax dollars be sent to Ottawa.
01:51:05.440We've drafted an interim constitution already that will guide the transition process from a province to a sovereign nation.
01:51:15.440We're just vetting the final components of it right now, but it's actually brilliantly crafted.
01:51:22.440And it would serve the basis for, in that transition period, to organize a full constitutional conference
01:51:31.440in which, following the completion of that conference and the drafting of a full constitution,
01:51:38.440which would be an extension of the interim constitution,
01:51:41.440then the public will have an opportunity to vote on which form of government it would like.
01:51:46.440So that is a plan and we dealt with a lot of the other issues as well and so this is for me one of the favorite and I think for my two partners here, one of our most favorite time in these town halls is dealing with the questions.
01:52:06.180But just to point out, there are about 71 questions on the website that have been answered after the Q session.
01:52:13.700And Tanner and I have a little bit of a responsibility to update some of the answers.