PJ The Belt


If Alberta LEAVES — Saskatchewan LEAVES TOO


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Harmful content

Misogyny

1

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1

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Summary

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What would happen if Alberta and Saskatchewan voted to separate from Canada? What would that mean for the rest of Canada? And what would it mean for Saskatchewan? The answer to these questions and more are answered in this episode.

Transcript

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Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
00:00:00.000 So what's going to happen with Saskatchewan when Alberta votes to leave Canada?
00:00:04.160 Freedom, hope, prosperity for our children, for their futures.
00:00:07.900 Because right now in Canada, it's a sinking ship.
00:00:09.900 And if we don't take our little lifeboat and throw it out and get off all we can,
00:00:13.460 we're going down with the ship.
00:00:14.500 You see, there's a lot going on out here in the prairies.
00:00:17.900 Alberta and Saskatchewan, some parts of British Columbia.
00:00:22.880 See, my province here of Alberta is going to have a referendum later this year.
00:00:28.100 However, officially, we're going to have a referendum on independence,
00:00:32.160 whether a majority of Albertans choose to stay a part of Canada or become an independent nation.
00:00:39.260 And a lot of people wonder, well, what happens with Saskatchewan?
00:00:43.480 Saskatchewan being a province, neighboring province to the east of Alberta,
00:00:49.360 about an hour that way, 100 kilometers or so that way,
00:00:53.720 being that I'm in eastern central Alberta.
00:00:58.540 And more importantly, they're very similar to Alberta, culturally, politically, economically.
00:01:07.600 They voted over 90% conservative, just like Albertans did.
00:01:12.360 They are very conservative-minded, mostly a Christian province, just like Alberta.
00:01:19.500 And while Albertans are collecting signatures for a petition to get a referendum,
00:01:25.180 likely in October of this year, Saskatchewan is not far behind.
00:01:30.440 In a hall near Saskatoon, over 200 people have come to hear from the Saskatchewan Prosperity Project,
00:01:36.760 a group promoting Saskatchewan's independence from Canada.
00:01:40.440 The group's president, Brad Williams, focuses on Western alienation
00:01:44.440 and what he says are the economic and political benefits of separation.
00:01:48.900 You see, here in Alberta, the organization that has been pushing for Alberta to become sovereign
00:01:56.360 and independent from Canada, the Alberta Prosperity Project has been the organization
00:02:00.560 that's been pushing to get a referendum on independence.
00:02:03.880 They've been doing a lot of work for years to get us to this point.
00:02:10.220 A lot of volunteers, an army of volunteers, pretty much.
00:02:14.440 Then you have the Saskatchewan Prosperity Project, a very similar organization,
00:02:20.800 not only in name, but in intent.
00:02:23.840 Their goal is to get Saskatchewan to also separate from Canada.
00:02:28.820 Their conviction is that Saskatchewan will be much better off economically, culturally,
00:02:35.020 and politically calling their own shots and not having Ottawa determine how to run their jurisdiction.
00:02:44.440 It's pretty much the same issue that Alberta is having with the rest of Canada.
00:02:49.500 You got a population that feels disenfranchised, that knows that they're disenfranchised,
00:02:57.640 that their voice doesn't matter politically, even though they contribute heavily economically.
00:03:04.660 And that's the reality that both provinces are facing.
00:03:07.980 In some polls, it shows that the people of Saskatchewan support independence even more than Alberta.
00:03:12.600 So it's going to be very interesting to see how their independence movement progresses over the months to come.
00:03:21.220 Like I said, in Alberta, we're going to have a referendum in the fall.
00:03:25.080 The people of Saskatchewan are having town halls too, and I've seen attendance being consistent.
00:03:30.460 My belief is, and I strongly believe this is what's going to happen,
00:03:34.640 if and when Alberta votes to separate and we become an independent country, an independent nation,
00:03:42.860 the province of Saskatchewan is going to ramp up its efforts to join Alberta.
00:03:51.960 But what happens when Alberta separates, in my opinion, is that Saskatchewan, it's going to be a domino effect. 0.56
00:03:58.060 Saskatchewan is likely to follow immediately after, within a year, they would vote.
00:04:03.980 Not sure if they would want to join us and be one country with Alberta, some sort of Western Republic.
00:04:10.640 Some people talk about Buffalo, which is what the two provinces were supposed to be originally,
00:04:14.700 but the Liberals in Canada, even way back before 1905, which is when both Alberta and Saskatchewan were integrated,
00:04:23.980 pretty much annexed into the rest of Canada.
00:04:27.820 You see, a majority of Canadian provinces, where they voted to become a part of Confederation,
00:04:32.920 what they call the founding provinces, like, you know, take New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, Ontario.
00:04:38.560 Alberta and Saskatchewan were part of something else called Rupert's Land.
00:04:42.160 And the Premier of the Northwest Territories wanted to make today's Alberta and Saskatchewan
00:04:46.940 a big territory, big land, big jurisdiction called Buffalo.
00:04:53.280 But the Prime Minister in Ottawa didn't like that, didn't like that idea.
00:04:58.400 God forbid they would have too much power over eastern Canada.
00:05:05.060 And that is how we have Saskatchewan and Alberta as two separate provinces.
00:05:11.040 They lose you guys in Saskatchewan, it's over for Canada.
00:05:14.340 We'll bring Saskatchewan along with us.
00:05:16.920 They're just like Albertans.
00:05:18.780 Yeah.
00:05:19.240 And we have so much in common.
00:05:21.640 They're like our little brother to the east, and we'll take them along with us. 0.91
00:05:24.860 Yeah, I mean, that is, you're talking about Montreal and places like that, going to be totally screwed.
00:05:29.420 The Saskatchewan Prosperity Project is following in the footsteps of the Alberta Prosperity Project.
00:05:34.940 Over the last five weeks, Williams has held public education sessions in close to 10 communities around the province,
00:05:42.220 including Swift Current, Prince Albert and Meadow Lake.
00:05:45.460 Key talking points include equalization payments, canola tariffs and immigration.
00:05:50.220 People we spoke to at this meeting say they want some kind of change.
00:05:54.000 So the question is, would Saskatchewan join Alberta and become one country,
00:05:59.920 or would they create some sort of association and choose to be separate countries?
00:06:04.820 You see, this wouldn't be anything new.
00:06:07.140 Canada is a very big country, and there's been even smaller countries in Europe that have gone to fragmentation like that.
00:06:16.120 Canada is not a very cohesive country.
00:06:18.420 You got competing interests all over the place.
00:06:21.260 The culture no longer unites it.
00:06:24.480 Not even hockey unites the country anymore.
00:06:27.260 Think Yugoslavia.
00:06:29.480 It got to a point where it just couldn't hold itself together anymore, right?
00:06:33.220 And a bunch of countries came out of that.
00:06:35.860 And I believe that's what's going to happen in Canada over the coming decades.
00:06:40.160 And Alberta is going to be the catalyst.
00:06:42.560 Alberta is going to be the spark.
00:06:44.520 Everybody thought it'd be Quebec,
00:06:45.580 but at this point I believe Alberta is much more likely to separate and gain its independence before Quebec.
00:06:54.660 Some people argue that Quebec just uses that as leverage,
00:06:58.680 the threat of separation to gain concessions and try to get Canada to give it more than they already have.
00:07:05.200 I mean, if that's their goal, I wouldn't be surprised because they already get like $14 billion in equalization.
00:07:14.200 A majority of that money and funds coming from Alberta, from right here in Alberta.
00:07:19.560 But when the people of this land say that they want to be independent,
00:07:24.620 that they want to have their own country, we're not trying to get concessions.
00:07:27.740 We're not trying to get special treatment.
00:07:29.920 It's because we're done at this point.
00:07:32.480 And a majority of Albertans that I speak to who support independence,
00:07:35.900 what they say is, it's time.
00:07:38.780 That's literally the main phrase that they say.
00:07:41.400 It's time.
00:07:42.600 It's been a long time coming, and it's just time.
00:07:45.780 We've had enough.
00:07:46.620 Canada's abused us too long.
00:07:49.980 We get taken advantage of.
00:07:52.020 And it's taxation without representation all over again.
00:07:56.080 And Albertans have simply had enough.
00:07:58.120 We want to have our own country.
00:07:59.880 We want to call our shots.
00:08:01.840 We want to have our own political representatives chosen here in Alberta
00:08:05.460 who determine what's going to happen in Alberta.
00:08:08.860 Not some bureaucrat 3,000 kilometers from here in Ottawa.
00:08:11.900 So the reality of this situation is that the people of Saskatchewan and Albertans
00:08:16.440 have been united by a common culture, common history, similar economies for centuries now,
00:08:24.720 for well over a century.
00:08:25.900 And it looks like they're going to be united again in the goal of self-determination.
00:08:33.620 Really happy to see the big crowd out tonight.
00:08:35.820 It was excellent to see.
00:08:37.740 A lot of enthusiasm.
00:08:39.040 I talked to a lot of people after as they were leaving.
00:08:41.860 And they're ready to get involved.
00:08:43.780 They're ready to get into their community.
00:08:44.940 They're ready to start forming chapters in their small towns.
00:08:49.360 Well, thank you for watching.
00:08:50.680 If you want to continue to get updates on this story and not media spin,
00:08:54.620 make sure to hit subscribe and hit the like button
00:08:57.240 because this story is moving fast.
00:08:59.540 And we're going to keep you informed all the way.