00:01:22.320I'm just going to set the table here tonight and just talk about why we're here, to talk about
00:01:26.660Alberta independence and also talk about a Christian perspective of that, just so you're
00:01:31.040all aware. This is a non-partisan event. We're not promoting here any one political party or
00:01:37.680candidate, and I have no affiliation with the APP or Jeff Rath or Mitch Sylvester, but this is an
00:01:43.780important public discussion that it's important that we think through Christianly. And Christians
00:01:48.060can come to differing convictions when it comes to discussions about Alberta independence or
00:01:54.140self-determination. Obviously, our greater bond is our love and our connection to the Lord Jesus
00:01:59.880Christ. But nevertheless, this is a very important issue that we need to be thinking through and
00:02:05.460thinking through biblically. It's not treasonous. It's not rebellion. It's not revolution. To think
00:02:10.920about this, the democratic process available to us to be able to vote, sign a petition,
00:02:16.640to have a referendum, and then to say whether we want self-determination for our province,
00:02:23.920a future for our families that is more hopeful than what it looks like at the current state of affairs.
00:02:30.460You know, it's good that the pastor mentioned that the talk of independence is not treasonous
00:02:34.460because that is the narrative that the mainstream media as well as the liberal government is pushing currently.
00:02:40.600They're labeling anyone who supports self-determination for Alberta as a traitor or treason, and it begins at the highest levels in government.
00:02:50.960Liberals, NDP, which is liberal on steroids, premiers, all of them are calling it traitors and treason, and they're pushing that, which is not surprising.
00:03:01.580I'm sure they're going to do worse as they continue to see the momentum that Alberta independence has on the ground.
00:03:07.940As we think about the arguments that are put forward for independence, I wanted to summarize those.
00:03:14.380There are several different lines of argumentation, and just right up front, these are lines of argumentation that I sympathize with and that I support.
00:03:21.520But as you think about arguments for independence, you think about arguments like an historical argument.
00:03:26.680Maybe you've seen the picture where you have, it's a political cartoon, there's a large cow, representative of Canada,
00:03:33.520and then on one side you have farmers feeding that cow and then another side you have men in
00:03:38.720top hats milking that cow and taking all the milk that cartoon that picture of Canada where you have
00:03:43.840Alberta farmers feeding that cow and then you have the bureaucrats and politicians and others
00:03:48.160in Ottawa in Ontario and Quebec milking that cow that's a that's an image that was first published
00:03:55.020in 1915 and so the issues that we're dealing with today are not new issues Alberta since its
00:04:03.100inception has felt as if they were a colony, that they existed for the wealth of central Canada,
00:04:09.660upper and lower Canada, Ontario, and Quebec. And that's why Alberta exists. And so this historical
00:04:16.940argument shows that not only has this issue been around since the early 1900s, more than 100 years,
00:04:24.700but through other things that have happened in history, like the National Energy Program,
00:04:28.880which i know some of you have lived through and suffered through uh things like the reform movement
00:04:33.440the reform party that started here to send our best and brightest ottawa to try to fix to try to
00:04:37.520put um do reform in the senate all of that has taken place in the past to try to address the issue
00:04:44.240of the brokenness between alberta's relationship to central canada and so you you might hear about
00:04:51.040this historical argument but the picture of alberta and its relationship to ontario and quebec is
00:04:57.520is largely the same the cow is bigger there's more hands feeding it and there's more milk coming from
00:05:02.000it but but the but the dynamic remains the same the other argument you might hear is the economic
00:05:07.440argument and you'll hear a lot of this studies have been published which showed that 20 to 40
00:05:12.080billion dollars it's transferred out of alberta to other provinces every single year from the year
00:05:18.0802000 to the year 2023 studies showed that 544 billion dollars has been transferred out of
00:05:25.840alberta these are funds that could be used to lower taxes here provide relief to people here
00:05:32.320funds that could be used for infrastructure projects and but ultimately it has gone to other
00:05:37.440places most notably quebec receives more than 50 percent of total equalization funding and last
00:05:44.160Last year, they received $13.9 billion, and that number is set to increase year over year.
00:05:52.380The province of PEI, even though they're much smaller than Quebec, 20% of their annual budget
00:05:56.460is dependent upon equalization payments.
00:05:59.700On average, you take per capita, each person in PEI, they receive about $4,000 in equalization
00:06:05.480payments, mostly coming from Alberta and other Western provinces.
00:06:10.260and so there's this economic argument that the the relationship that alberta has with the rest
00:06:16.020of canada is is unfair and it's detrimental economically there's also the political argument
00:06:23.620the political argument is is related to the economic argument because not only do you have
00:06:27.700this this unfairness when it comes to the economic distribution of wealth but then you have federal
00:06:33.140laws and and they're not shy about it where they're seeking to phase out some of alberta's
00:06:38.660most important industries that's the biggest irony here in alberta is the fact that for over 100
00:06:43.840years now the west particularly alberta and saskatchewan but alberta by and large being
00:06:49.860the biggest contributor the west is used as a cash cow for the rest of the country especially
00:06:55.500the east but the same people that are benefiting from alberta's productivity are the exact same
00:07:01.520individuals that are trying to destroy the industry that helps us generate that wealth
00:07:06.680is the most ironic political fact in all of canada like oil and gas uh like like beef because
00:07:13.980our cows are adding to climate change and destroying the planet uh like our like fertilizers
00:07:18.880that are used to grow our crops you think of the three biggest industries oil and gas beef farming
00:07:22.380and and wheat farming or canola all of those are being attacked by politicians in ottawa we have
00:07:30.080federal laws on the carbon tax on bill c69 which has been dubbed the no more pipeline spill but
00:07:35.080an impact assessment bill and no infrastructure project has been approved by that impact assessment
00:07:41.560act it even requires gender studies and gender assessments to be done when pipelines are built
00:07:47.560bill c48 is called the tanker ban which bans and prevents alberta from exporting oil off the west
00:07:55.560coast but there is no tanker ban on the east coast which brings imported oil down the st lawrence to
00:08:03.000feed upper canada and lower canada and so saudi oil russian oil can come in to eastern canada
00:08:10.200but western oil can't leave to other world markets another hypocritical political fact of life in
00:08:17.160canada alberta is unable to send its oil to the east coast because quebec and other eastern
00:08:24.680provinces blocked the creation of an energy east pipeline a pipeline that would bring western crude
00:08:32.280oil from alberta to the east so that they don't have to buy oil from russia and opec dictatorships
00:08:39.480the the cry that this is going to affect our oceans and uh is duplicitous when there's laws
00:08:45.640on one side of the continent but not on the other all of this is related to politics and alberta
00:08:53.800you'll you'll hear like our premier talk about uh these different bills and legislation which
00:09:00.360has stifled development which has blocked energy projects which has prevented access uh for alberta
00:09:05.560products to global markets costing hundreds of billions of dollars on lost projects so if you
00:09:10.440think about the the 500 billion dollars that has left our province and then um maybe a comparable
00:09:16.040number for for investments that have left our province the the oil industry just on its own
00:09:22.920the investments in the oil industry have gone down 61 in the last 10 years and that's investment
00:09:27.720that has gone elsewhere that's money that could have been spent here in alberta but has gone
00:09:32.040elsewhere because of political decisions and so we think about that that big cow that represents
00:09:37.720canada not only is that cow bigger there's more hands feeding it there's more milk coming from it
00:09:42.120but it seems for many in alberta that that not only you have that situation but now you have
00:09:46.920people in the east who are setting fields on fire and tearing down barns while still demanding the
00:09:51.400the same amount of milk it's almost like in egypt where the israelites were called to continue to
00:09:58.040provide bricks for pharaoh's building but no straw was allowed for them we also have the constitutional
00:10:04.120argument this argument talks about the the unfairness that is baked into our constitution
00:10:12.200alberta is supposed to have sovereignty over its natural resources but that has always been
00:10:17.800contested and it hasn't worked out that way even though that is a constitutional matter that
00:10:21.960provinces have jurisdiction over their natural resources alberta currently has a dozen matters
00:10:28.520before the courts fighting the federal government over matters of jurisdiction and so when when the
00:10:34.360plea comes to alberta hey what about our partnership what about team canada it doesn't seem to work
00:10:38.840when it comes to all of these regulations and fights over matters of jurisdiction that belong
00:10:44.280to the provincial government not only that but our constitution can disadvantage alberta in
00:10:49.240several different ways for instance alberta has about 12 of the population of canada
00:10:54.280contributes nearly 20 into the federal tax revenue and approximately 20 of national gdp
00:11:01.000although many of you realize that elections are decided before many of us here in alberta even
00:11:05.560cast our vote east of the manitoba border and there was a phrase in another very infamous
00:11:11.480independence movement that said no taxation without representation and there is an idea
00:11:17.480that alberta is unfairly represented in the government in ottawa now as i mentioned
00:11:24.200efforts have been made in the past to reform the senate as a way to give
00:11:27.400provinces like alberta more say in the federal government those reforms are ultimately stopped
00:11:32.840by the supreme court and so it was in harper's time and so that is no longer an avenue to pursue
00:11:40.200But I think about even the Senate, the Senate is elected by the prime minister through the governor general.
00:11:45.820They elected different senators are not voted by people here in Alberta.
00:11:49.340Alberta has six senators, but you compare Alberta, six senators, and that's that's a constitutional number that Alberta has six senators.
00:11:54.640And that's a fixed number. And then you have Ontario and Quebec each have 24 senators.
00:12:00.100And so it's just a great disparity in terms of those provinces having the sway of the of the vote and the decision.
00:12:07.040Oh, and it gets worse than that. Alberta has a population of around 5 million people and only gets six senators. And then you take a province like New Brunswick with about a million people, they get 10 senators constitutionally. That's the reality of Canada. And then you have people wondering why it is that Alberta wants to separate.
00:12:29.960ottawa not only selects senators and so the alberta appointees as you can imagine aren't really
00:12:36.760folks that you might sympathize with the many albertans here they're always liberal but have
00:12:40.360more of a um of a flavor which is coming from eastern canada but then alberta are also filling
00:12:47.240their courts where that's uh the highest courts here are lower courts those are also appointed
00:12:52.200by the federal government in ottawa and they use recently daniel smith was asking them to adjust
00:12:57.080some of the rules because they still apply the same language laws even though alberta is
00:13:00.760predominantly english-speaking but the same french language laws that they use in eastern canada
00:13:04.680are still used to select judges here in alberta and so this disadvantages people who grew up here
00:13:10.520and who are speaking english to fill those positions and so these different disparities
00:13:17.560whether that's the historical argument the economic argument political argument the
00:13:20.680constitutional argument if you were to ask people today in alberta would you join canada under these
00:13:26.200terms most would say no nobody would and so the question then says well then why vote to stay
00:13:33.560now with these different arguments that are out there and there's others but these are the major
00:13:37.080ones what i want to do is to demonstrate that really the longing that i know many of you have
00:13:43.880and that people in our province have um to address the grievances that are highlighted in these
00:13:51.000arguments is ultimately a longing for a society that is built upon christian values and principles
00:13:56.520the reason why when you hear these different arguments like that's not right that's not fair
00:14:00.900it's because you're operating not upon a marxist worldview where you take from the haves and you
00:14:05.800give to the have-nots but rather where there's dignity and value in work and if someone works
00:14:11.220hard they should be rewarded for their labor rather than have that removed from them and so
00:14:15.540that is a christian view of justice we want a christian view of of liberty and what it means
00:14:21.540to exercise personal responsibility and determine your own future and to build a future for your
00:14:25.700family without encroachment and so these are all christian principles and i want to just articulate
00:14:30.740now some of these christian principles which i believe just just undergird the whole little
00:14:35.940sentiments that are expressed in the independence movement so while you hear things about the
00:14:42.340economy hear things about politics i want you as you here that are believers the lord jesus christ
00:14:47.900to realize underneath that is really a groaning from people around you to live in in a christian
00:14:54.020society with christian principles now i'm going to give you just four of these principles number one
00:14:59.360the principle of liberty when we talk about alberta independence you're talking about sovereignty
00:15:03.380self-determination you're speaking about freedom you're talking about liberty and it cannot be
00:15:09.200denied that liberty is a bedrock biblical value and that the protestant reformation especially
00:15:16.000has has led to liberty across the world the western world formerly christendom is the world
00:15:23.460where there is freedom and that's because it's been shaped by biblical values and the bible
00:15:30.820not just articulates this this freedom where there's no law there's no government just do
00:15:36.340whatever you want. The liberty that the Bible espouses is a liberty based on personal responsibility,
00:15:42.820based on personal rights, based on property rights, based on a limited government and based
00:15:47.520on local government. All things that the government of Canada is going against. When you read the
00:15:53.240opening of the book of Deuteronomy, you'll have Moses there giving instructions by God on how the
00:15:58.860government of Israel should be formulated. And it's a government of the people and by the people
00:16:03.180and for the people they they elect people from their own midst and it's very limited handling
00:16:08.300matters of of justice it's not regulating every facet of your life but rather it is god's law that
00:16:14.300then endows us each with uh or his image is on each and one of us we have his law in our heart
00:16:19.340but but his law then gives us a sense of responsibility as individuals sense of
00:16:25.100responsibility as family uh the ten commandments when it talks about not murdering and not
00:16:29.820stealing not coveting your neighbor's wife or your neighbor's things the presupposition underneath
00:16:34.940all those is that there's personal rights that there's property rights these are the very
00:16:38.780foundation of the biblical ethic and we live in a society where those personal freedoms are
00:16:44.940diminishing because as you get a larger government you're going to get less responsibility as the
00:16:50.380government takes on more and more responsibility well you'll have less and less choice and then
00:16:55.420soon you'll be groaning because of the limited choices that you have because the government has
00:17:00.420taken that responsibility sometimes the word totalitarianism is thrown around and i believe
00:17:06.440it's a useful word when you think of totalitarianism don't just think about the the most egregious form
00:17:11.060of tyranny where you're run by a dictator and you're thrown into the gulag because you don't
00:17:14.720agree but by totalitarianism what it means is that the totality of your life is governed or regulated
00:17:22.000administered by the government and you think about our society you think about education
00:17:27.500and you think about welfare and health care and the economy all of that is managed by the
00:17:35.300government they have a they have a totality of control and so you might call a soft totalitarianism
00:17:40.920and so under that soft totalitarianism people want freedom and the trend is not good over the
00:17:48.580last 10 years, the federal government and their employees have increased by 43%. And when the
00:17:55.120government increases by that much, well, their fingers are going to get into that much more.
00:18:00.100You're not going to have bureaucrats sitting around doing nothing. They're going to make1.00
00:18:03.060more regulations to govern people's lives. And so what Albertans want, who want independence,
00:18:09.940is not money from the East. It's not handouts, but it is self-determination. It is liberty.
00:18:17.740A biblical idea of liberty, of exercising personal responsibility of a limited government,
00:18:22.680a local government, and seeking to have the blessings that come along with that.
00:18:28.420And so that's the first biblical principle.
00:19:42.120And so we can feel that the society, the way it is, is not fair.
00:19:46.980It's not right because our longing is for a biblical justice, not a Marxist justice.
00:19:52.920Socialism leaves a bitter taste in the mouths of Albertans.
00:19:57.440And I believe that's why there's a strong conservative base here because of a rejection of socialism and all that it entails.
00:20:04.340Because there's a desire for justice according to God's standards.
00:20:09.160It has always been the goal of the Liberal Party of Canada to destroy Alberta, to keep Alberta down, to damage our industry.
00:20:18.820It's because Alberta has been the one province that has been the most vocal against socialism and against communism.
00:20:26.200The kind of communism that Canada is headed towards, soft totalitarianism like the pastor described it, where the government controls every single aspect of your life.
00:20:37.000you're a managed subject because every little thing in your life the government controls
00:20:44.020directly or indirectly and albertans are the ones who oppose that the most this is the same idea of
00:20:51.280justice that fueled the american independence movement uh the people in england of course0.73
00:20:56.660they would call the americans a bunch of whiners and complainers you know rebellion seditious
00:21:01.600treason all of these labels were given to the americans when they were going through this period0.77