Alberta VOTES TO SEPARATE From Canada？ - Update! 51st State or Independence ｜ Referendum 2025
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
155.93437
Summary
Calgary, Alberta is a beautiful, picturesque city on the edge of the Rocky Mountains. It sits on the banks of the Bow River, overlooking the vast expanse of Alberta s vast prairies. It s a place of great beauty, great history, and great culture. And yet, it s also a place that many people don t want to call home.
Transcript
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Its wealth is still on the hoof, though the buffalo herds have given way to what will be prime western beef.
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The west here is still vivid with memories of other times.
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The days before trails became highways, before campsites became cities like Calgary.
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This dignified looking city, now a financial center, hasn't quite forgotten the roaring hoop-up days when it was the last frontier.
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About as far west as you could go, without bumping into a mountain.
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About 60 miles west of Calgary, the great barrier of the Rockies.
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To get to the resort town of Banff, the highway simply follows the valley of the Bow River.
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Much of it has been set aside as national parks to remain in perpetuity pretty well as nature intended.
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If you want to understand Alberta, you gotta understand the west.
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This province was built by ranchers, oil men and homesteaders who tamed the land that most people today wouldn't dare settle.
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We're talking rugged badlands, the rocky mountains and bitterly cold prairies.
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The people who made a life out here didn't ask for handouts.
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They worked the land, raised cattle and built towns with their own two hands.
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Alberta's culture is different from the rest of Canada.
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We've got rodeos, we've got the stampede, we've got cowboy hats and muddy boots.
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And we have a strong sense that people should be free.
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Free to work, free to farm, free to live without some government telling them how to raise their children or live their lives.
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That's very different from eastern Canada, where they seem to love rules, red tape and being protected by the government.
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Albertans take pride in standing on our own two feet.
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And then the last issue that comes up a lot that people bring to us is statehood.
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Whether or not we want to be the 51st state, Alberta.
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The quick answer is at this stage, you got to get divorced before you start looking for a new wife.
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We have to tackle this as one step at a time to do it properly and not muddy the water.
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Now, does that mean there's no 51st state on the table?
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Somebody will make that decision in the future.
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If we decide to do yes and we get consent out of Ottawa for it, so the House of Commons votes yes, they can go ahead and secede,
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we'd have to do a constitutional convention here in Alberta to define what our constitution will be.
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Because we'll have to redefine that as a nation as opposed to within a nation.
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And at that stage, that's where conversations like, are we going to be a republic or a commonwealth or something different would come up and be decided?
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So when people bring up 51st state, I just have to remind them that if 51st state is where you want to be, we still have to do the divorce.
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So the first step is to look at becoming independent from Canada, and then we answer the rest of the questions.
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You don't try and figure out what school do the kids go to and who's going to get which car until the decision to divorce is done.
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That's where you work out the last little details.
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There's a good percentage of Albertans out there who support independence from Canada, but are also looking south, thinking Alberta might be better off as the 51st state, or maybe in some sort of partnership with the U.S.
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I personally agree that Alberta would be better off under the U.S. Constitution than staying in Canada.
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Under Canadian law, you can't just jump right into statehood.
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Alberta would first have to become independent from Canada.
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So whether you want Alberta to stand on its own two feet as an independent country, or eventually link arms with the United States, either way,
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Now, if the U.S. came out and declared in an official capacity that they support Alberta's right to self-determination, that'd be a huge deal.
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And we don't know how that would affect the minds of Albertans.
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But first things first, Alberta has to become independent from Canada.
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And to kind of expand on your question a bit, because this is what gets tackled quite a few times,
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is if Alberta separates, do we become landlocked?
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And then do we have a problem with getting our products to an international market?
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The answer is no, because under United Nations treaties, and we have, I can't remember which section it is at this stage,
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but once we become a nation, we actually have the United Nations laws that allow us to have tidal water access.
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So all landlocked nations, not provinces and states, but landlocked nations actually get tidal water access.
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So that would actually solve that problem, James.
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We'd be able to get access to probably the BC coast, maybe the Northwest Territories over in Churchill possibly,
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where we could actually bring a pipeline and get it there.
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It would be quite the process, because we may have to go through some international court,
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but it would be very odd to see Canada stand up against that when they supported other countries on exactly those issues,
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But there's several examples around the world where there's landlocked nations that get tidal water access
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So this is one of the reasons why, James, independence and separating from Canada is attractive.
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We could end up getting that port somewhere if we go ahead and become a nation.
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One of the favorite scare tactics used by the anti-independence crowd is that Alberta would be landlocked
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and somehow doomed economically, which is like, give me a break.
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You ever heard of Switzerland, Austria, Hungary, or even the Czech Republic?
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Matter of fact, they're all successful, wealthy countries.
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Plus, international law gives landlocked countries the right to access ports.
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An independent Alberta could negotiate port access, probably through British Columbia.
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And if BC tried to play hardball, well, Alberta could respond in kind, economically and strategically.
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And that's the thing, as an independent country, Alberta would be negotiating from a position
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of strength, not begging from the back of the line as a province.
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So, no, the whole landlocked argument, it's weak at best.
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The average worker in Alberta makes $78,000 a year.
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When you strip out all the taxes that that person pays, okay, and Jeff outlined them all,
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when you strip them all out, you actually are left with $31,000 of actual purchasing power.
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What we're proposing for that same individual would result in that same individual having $68,000 to $70,000 of actual purchasing power.
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It means that you're purchasing a product or a service for which there is no tax attached to it whatsoever.
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Special thanks to those of you who have donated to this project.
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It is much appreciated and it helps me continue making videos.