PJ The Belt - May 15, 2026


Canada PM About To LOSE Alberta


Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

155.00081

Word count

1,277

Sentence count

57

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

After a judge struck down Alberta's bid to separate from Canada, a new poll shows a majority of Albertans want a referendum on the matter in the fall. What does this mean for the future of the Alberta independence movement?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
00:00:00.000 the prime minister of canada has a huge alberta problem right now and honestly you can see it on
00:00:06.120 his face because alberta separation is not slowing down it's getting bigger and i think
00:00:12.460 ottawa's starting to realize they may have made a massive mistake because after a judge stepped in
00:00:19.440 and tried to shut down the independence petition albertans didn't back down they got angrier more
00:00:25.580 determined and now there's already talk of a huge rally pushing for an alberta referendum in october
00:00:32.860 think about that they try to stop this movement and somehow it only made it stronger that's the
00:00:39.580 part these people don't understand every media attack every threat every court decision just
00:00:46.320 convinces more albertans that something is seriously broken in this country and now mark
00:00:52.300 Carney's being forced to answer questions about Alberta separation everywhere he goes.
00:00:57.880 Morning news, press conferences, political panels.
00:01:02.020 This is becoming a national issue now, and he hates it.
00:01:06.240 And tonight, I'm going to show you a brand new poll that could completely change this conversation.
00:01:12.340 Because if these numbers are even close to accurate, Carney has a political nightmare on his hands.
00:01:18.460 How worried are you about the prospect of Alberta voting to separate,
00:01:22.400 and do you believe a referendum should be held?
00:01:25.160 A couple of things.
00:01:26.660 One is, first, my role in the role of the federal government is,
00:01:32.680 and we're pursuing this, is to practice cooperative federalism,
00:01:35.580 to work with the provinces, work with the territories, work with Indigenous Canadians,
00:01:40.520 and get things done on behalf of all Canadians.
00:01:43.380 That's what we're doing with the province of Alberta.
00:01:45.040 Look, in terms of any referendum, we're a democracy.
00:01:49.880 We have standards and an ability for provinces to hold referenda on a variety of subjects.
00:02:00.640 And if following the rules, if it's a referendum on separation in any province, it has to be consistent with the Clarity Act.
00:02:08.820 And this is where things start getting really interesting.
00:02:11.620 because while Ottawa and the media are trying to convince Canadians that this movement is somehow
00:02:17.120 dying, Danielle Smith just came out and made it very clear that she completely disagrees with the
00:02:24.140 judge's decision to shut down the petition. And honestly, that matters a lot more than people
00:02:31.760 realize because yes, they're appealing the decision and all that, but Smith also reminded
00:02:37.640 everybody of something very important. She has the power to call a referendum herself,
00:02:43.920 and that changes the entire conversation. And I think the establishment is starting to realize
00:02:49.740 something they really do not like. This movement isn't fringe anymore. This movement has gone
00:02:56.100 mainstream. Premier, I know they said that you're going to be meeting it and discussing next steps.
00:03:01.760 Last week, we heard from Mitch Sylvester that if this core challenge was successful,
00:03:06.300 He would tell people to sign up for the UCP membership so that they could try to force your hand, get this ballot out there in the fall.
00:03:14.980 So my question is, will you listen to party members or will you respect the court's decision?
00:03:20.080 Well, I'll listen to my caucus and I'll listen to my cabinet because we are the duly elected representatives of the people of Alberta.
00:03:27.700 And this is a decision by one judge at a lower court level and it's appealable.
00:03:32.300 appealable. And so because we think they have been incorrect in law, we will be appealing it.
00:03:37.900 And we want to restore the idea of having a permissive approach to our citizen-initiated
00:03:43.500 referendum and so questions. And so we have to discuss, of course, we want to be in compliance
00:03:49.720 with what the judgment has said here in the immediate term. But the long term, we think
00:03:56.940 it's worthy of us having a more robust discussion with the court on this, which is why we'll appeal
00:04:02.620 it. And in the meantime, we'll have to talk with cabinet and caucus about what they think their
00:04:06.680 next step should be. And this is the part people in Ottawa should probably start taking seriously.
00:04:12.320 Jeffrey Rath just said out loud what a lot of establishment politicians are terrified to admit.
00:04:18.200 The majority of Danielle Smith's own base supports Alberta independence. Not a tiny
00:04:24.340 fringe minority not online trolls not russian bots or whatever her base the people who put her
00:04:32.460 in power and wrath basically warned her ignore those people ignore the movement pretend this
00:04:39.720 isn't happening and she could end up exactly like jason kenny gone and honestly he's probably right
00:04:47.300 because the mood in alberta has changed dramatically over the last year people are
00:04:53.360 exhausted. They feel ignored, targeted, economically attacked, and every single time Ottawa tries to
00:05:00.820 crush this movement, it somehow grows even more. And this is the importance of paragraph 76 and
00:05:07.380 actually the decision of Justice Feasby. Both of those judges, again, as far as I'm concerned,
00:05:12.420 playing politics, have made it clear that Danielle Smith herself can call the question 0.96
00:05:17.720 anytime she wants so she can actually call the question notwithstanding the fact that her 0.99
00:05:23.480 government's appealing notwithstanding the fact that there's ongoing court press processes
00:05:27.560 she can put our referendum question on the ballot under section one of the referendum act
00:05:33.880 regardless of any court processes going forward and that's what 300 301 620 albertans expect her
00:05:42.400 to do. And I think she's going to learn quite quickly that almost a unanimous base or the
00:05:47.540 unanimous membership of the United Conservative Party expect her to do, because even the 33%
00:05:54.540 or so of the United Conservative Party that are not in favor of independence are 100% in favor
00:06:01.260 of democracy and are of the view that people in Alberta have the right to vote yes or no on this
00:06:06.980 question. So, you know, Danielle is literally facing politically what I consider to be an
00:06:12.540 existential choice or an existential turning point in her leadership. She can either decide 0.98
00:06:18.660 to accede to the overwhelming will of her members or the members of her party, or she can lose all
00:06:26.200 moral authority to lead the United Conservative Party and should likely go the way of Jason Kenney.
00:06:30.920 Now we get to the part that probably has Mark Carney sweating behind closed doors tonight.
00:06:35.800 A new poll showing 46% support for Alberta independence among First Nation respondents.
00:06:43.080 Think about that for a second.
00:06:44.900 Because Canadians have been told for years that this movement is supposedly isolated.
00:06:50.580 That absolutely nobody outside of a small group of angry Albertans supports it, let alone First Nations.
00:06:57.480 And that narrative is cracking now, whether they like it or not.
00:07:01.820 Alberta independence is becoming a national conversation.
00:07:04.980 Not just in Alberta, the entire country.
00:07:09.240 And that's why Carney suddenly looks so uncomfortable, inconvenienced, every time this topic is brought up.
00:07:16.240 Because deep down, I think Ottawa understands something very dangerous right now.
00:07:21.560 This movement is surviving all of the media attacks.
00:07:25.280 It's surviving pressure, and it's surviving every court decision.
00:07:29.180 And it's only getting bigger.
00:07:31.080 How far are you willing to go?
00:07:33.260 are you willing to say we want these things or else? At what stage would you, for example,
00:07:42.040 invoke the Clarity Act as clarified by the Supreme Court? For example, calling a referendum
00:07:48.060 on the Clarity Act question of secession. Do you have an or else in mind? What is it and
00:07:54.800 what would make you use it? And if not, how are you serious? And I'll start off with Danielle
00:08:00.560 Smith on that one. The or else is Dennis Modry and the Alberta Prosperity Project.
00:08:09.100 It's true. Let me know what you think in the comments. Remember to like,
00:08:12.840 share, and subscribe for more videos.