PJ The Belt - July 10, 2025


SABOTAGE BEGINS： 51st STATE or Alberta INDEPENDENCE？ - Canada's Federalists ATTACK!


Episode Stats


Length

13 minutes

Words per minute

146.47627

Word count

2,014

Sentence count

146

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Former Deputy Premier Thomas Lukasik has started a petition to have Alberta remain a part of Canada. He has over 600,000 signatures and is on track to have it on the ballot in a citizen-led referendum.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 A lot of the selling pitches that are being proposed for Alberta to either separate or become the 51st state are simply fantasies and our disinformation are not backed by the Canadian and Alberta laws, nor are they backed by economics.
00:00:15.440 If enough Albertans want to become independent, there is nothing this guy or any other weasel can do. 0.61
00:00:21.380 Hey everybody, PJ. Hope you're all having a good week so far.
00:00:30.580 In today's video, we're going to be providing commentary on an interview with this former Alberta politician who is completely against Alberta independence.
00:00:40.200 He's the guy who started his own petition referendum to have Alberta stay within Canada.
00:00:46.700 We're going to be providing commentary, throwing our opinion in there and fact checking the BS.
00:00:53.120 I bet you he's going to be spewing. So we're going to be watching that.
00:00:56.880 I believe his name is Thomas Lukasik, something like that. I'm probably butchering his name. Buckle up. Let's watch.
00:01:03.620 Well, Alberta separation continues to be a hot issue in the province and seems destined for a citizen led referendum.
00:01:10.460 Doing his best to ensure it does appear as a question on the next ballot is former Deputy Premier Thomas Lukasik, who joins us now.
00:01:17.200 Thomas, thanks for taking time for us this morning.
00:01:19.120 So your proposed question, do you agree that Alberta should remain a part of Canada, has been approved.
00:01:23.980 You can find it on the Elections Alberta website.
00:01:26.720 If we can just start where it stands this morning in terms of how many signatures you need and your campaign to get them.
00:01:33.040 We don't know that for certain yet, as Elections Alberta hasn't made a ruling, whether the old rules or the pro-separatist bill 54 will apply to us.
00:01:43.700 But we will play by whatever rules Elections Alberta decides that we have to play by.
00:01:48.920 Two things. So the reporter said the word separation and so did this guy, unsurprisingly, you know.
00:01:58.320 And then secondly, of course, you're you're going to play by any rules.
00:02:02.660 You got the machinery behind you.
00:02:05.020 You got the federal government. You best believe he has the federal government behind him.
00:02:09.460 You got the media. This guy is getting more attention with he's done nothing.
00:02:14.460 He's a has been politician and he's getting more attention than the pro-independence groups from the Canadian mainstream media media.
00:02:21.980 That is. And you have the Alberta NDP, the communists, the socialists, the feminists, the colleges. 0.90
00:02:31.800 You have the union bosses.
00:02:35.440 These people are going to have an entire machine going for them.
00:02:42.200 Of course, I don't doubt you have an army of volunteers from universities.
00:02:46.280 And like I said, from from the socialists in the in the Alberta NDP, from the socialists and quasi-communists in the Liberal Party.
00:02:53.940 They're all going to be supporting this guy to try to show that there's consensus in Alberta that is against Alberta independence.
00:03:05.940 And again, of course, they use the word separation.
00:03:08.920 You're not going to hear Canadian mainstream media use the word independence or sovereignty because they're against it.
00:03:15.640 The Canadian mainstream media is not our friend.
00:03:18.460 They're actually quite the opposite.
00:03:20.460 They're the enemy of the people and they're the enemies of independence. 0.99
00:03:24.420 They want the movement to have this negative connotation to it.
00:03:29.880 So when you hear the word and I've talked about this previously on my channel, when you hear the words separation.
00:03:35.740 The word separation or separating, it sounds like tragedy.
00:03:41.240 It sounds like an event that is unpleasant at minimum.
00:03:46.680 When you hear the word independence, it's a noble cause.
00:03:50.840 It's something that you want to support.
00:03:54.160 Of course, you want to support independence.
00:03:56.460 So that's why they don't use that word.
00:03:58.280 Prince, 600,000 versus what would it be closer to 150,000?
00:04:03.360 Do you think you'll have any problems reaching the threshold if it's the higher one?
00:04:09.500 You know what?
00:04:10.500 Judging by the response that we're receiving from Albertans or shall we say Canadians living in Alberta, I don't fear that.
00:04:18.020 That's why we filed first because we are quite prepared to play by the old rules.
00:04:23.140 The response is overwhelming.
00:04:25.680 We are literally inundated by questions.
00:04:28.300 Where do I sign and how do I volunteer?
00:04:30.440 And we haven't even kicked up our campaign yet.
00:04:33.000 Why did you launch the campaign, Thomas, for those who haven't been following this?
00:04:38.500 Well, it was evident that this discussion and a referendum is inevitable.
00:04:43.860 So I'm of the opinion that if we are going to discuss the future of Canada, this conversation has to be led by people who actually care about the future of Canada.
00:04:53.060 And it has to be led on facts, not on disinformation.
00:04:57.420 And I think many of your...
00:04:59.480 There's that word.
00:05:01.540 There's the favorite word for when they're losing an argument.
00:05:06.340 Disinformation and misinformation.
00:05:08.540 Whenever the left, the socialists, the liberals, whenever the leftists are losing an argument or they don't have a point to be made, they use the word misinformation and disinformation.
00:05:22.440 That is something that I've noticed every single time.
00:05:25.260 When you're arguing about economics with them and how socialism just doesn't work, how communism has been tried so many times and it just never works, they say that's misinformation and disinformation.
00:05:39.860 They do not argue the merits of their ideas.
00:05:43.340 When they know that their ideas have no merit, they come up with those words.
00:05:49.460 Economically, pro-independence people are making the case that Alberta would be much better off economically and they've provided numbers.
00:05:59.760 Just consider the fact that we wouldn't have to deal with the reality, the socialist reality of equalization payments, which is nothing more than wealth redistribution.
00:06:12.900 A communist scheme, a communist scheme, think about it like a pyramid where you have those at the bottom providing for those at the top as it goes up.
00:06:25.060 And Alberta and Saskatchewan are at the bottom providing for those at the top.
00:06:29.120 By removing that, Alberta would be billions richer.
00:06:33.680 There is nothing Canada provides economically for Alberta that justifies the $20 billion a year loss.
00:06:41.900 And that is without counting the economic prosperity that Alberta would generate being unshackled from the unfriendly energy policies, unfriendly agricultural policies that Ottawa imposes on our industry.
00:06:59.200 They're not going to argue any of that.
00:07:00.980 You know what they're going to say when they hear these arguments?
00:07:03.100 They're going to say misinformation and disinformation.
00:07:05.700 They're not going to argue the historical facts around it either.
00:07:09.500 You notice that they never touch the the reform party.
00:07:15.680 A lot of the times these people will say that, oh, Canada can be fixed from inside.
00:07:19.800 We don't have to do all this.
00:07:21.500 We don't have to separate.
00:07:22.840 We don't have to threaten that.
00:07:24.180 We don't have to do all that.
00:07:25.420 It's been tried before.
00:07:27.860 For decades, Albertans have been trying to get a fair deal in this country.
00:07:32.080 And this is what they do not want to debate.
00:07:34.980 These people do not debate.
00:07:37.120 They censor.
00:07:38.980 They censor and they label people.
00:07:43.100 Misinformation, extremists, phobe here, phobe there.
00:07:47.320 They don't want to have the debate because they know that if we argue the merits of their ideas versus ours, they'll lose every single time.
00:07:55.860 Then there's then there's representation, actual political representation.
00:08:02.080 The biggest and most egregious one that I always bring up as an example is the number of senators.
00:08:10.300 New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, I believe most maritime provinces get 10 senators.
00:08:16.320 These are provinces that have less than 2 million people.
00:08:21.240 Alberta just surpassed 5 million.
00:08:23.660 Alberta has six senators in total.
00:08:27.280 So does Saskatchewan and so does Manitoba.
00:08:30.940 So these are provinces that have more people because it's supposed to be based on the amount, the population.
00:08:37.280 Yet we have a lot less representation in the Senate.
00:08:39.800 And the same goes for the members of parliament.
00:08:41.880 This is the conversation they do not want to have people.
00:08:46.680 And this is the conversation we need to have.
00:08:48.920 First, we'll come to the conclusion that a lot of the selling pitches that are being proposed for Alberta to either separate or become the 51st state are simply fantasies.
00:08:59.540 And our disinformation are not backed by by the Canadian and Alberta laws, nor are they backed by economics.
00:09:06.200 So I want Albertans to engage in a fact-based conversation.
00:09:12.000 And I am convinced that by the vast majority, Albertans want nothing to do with any form of separation.
00:09:17.960 This government does seem focused on some of these issues.
00:09:22.360 Separation, an Alberta pension plan, you know, a provincial police force.
00:09:26.900 I'm just wondering for your time in government and sort of what you're hearing now.
00:09:31.460 Um, what's your sense of how important these issues are to Albertans?
00:09:37.140 Well, I know for a fact, you know, when I was in government, Ralph Klein did a survey and had a panel.
00:09:46.340 And Albertans clearly said that they don't want any part of separating from CPP or CMP or other federal programs.
00:09:52.660 Recently, Danielle Smith was told the same thing by Albertans, but for some reason, she keeps on asking that question until she hears the answer she wants to hear.
00:10:05.620 Albertans are very clear about the fact that, you know, our country is not perfect.
00:10:11.320 There is room for improvement.
00:10:12.420 And by no means am I proposing status quo, but there are mechanisms where we can negotiate and we always have successfully negotiated our interprovincial and federal-provincial relationships.
00:10:24.780 But none of those conversations should be with this proverbial gun being held to everybody's head of separation.
00:10:33.180 Separation is not viable, but just this conversation about separation has the potential of causing a lot of economic damage.
00:10:41.360 So he mentioned several things there.
00:10:44.300 First of all, he's talking about reform from inside without putting a proverbial gun to the head of separation and whatever else.
00:10:52.980 Reform has been tried.
00:10:55.980 This is your own suspecting Albertan who doesn't know the history of what's been happening to Alberta.
00:11:03.300 Those who haven't taken the time to look into the reform party of Preston Manning and how those folks tried for decades.
00:11:13.740 The whole the West wants in the whole the West wants in campaign was all about that, about making the necessary reforms to make Alberta more equal in confederation.
00:11:27.540 And they failed.
00:11:29.540 They were all well.
00:11:30.940 They all had good intentions.
00:11:33.280 They all wanted to stay within Canada.
00:11:37.220 Again, the whole campaign was the West wants in and they failed.
00:11:41.880 The East didn't want the West in and they don't to this day. 0.98
00:11:46.360 They're not going to make reforms the way that kind of structured is created so that the West continue subsidizing the East. 0.77
00:11:54.880 And in order to make those changes, those reforms that this guy talks about, you need the approval of those who benefit from the status quo.
00:12:05.640 He says he's not promoting the status quo.
00:12:08.180 The only way you get change.
00:12:11.200 Is by moving towards independence.
00:12:14.340 But again, let's say that you're a person who wants to see real reform in Canada because you want all you want is for Alberta to be treated equally and fairly.
00:12:23.280 Why would Quebec give up the power that it has?
00:12:27.300 Why would Ontario give up its power to benefit Alberta?
00:12:32.640 They're not going to.
00:12:34.220 And how do I know that?
00:12:35.440 Because it's been tried before.
00:12:38.220 For decades, the grievances and the in the in the real issues that Alberta has had within confederation has have been going on for many decades.
00:12:48.780 Here's a good one for you, Thomas.
00:12:52.620 Albertans voted in a referendum a few years back, 61% in favor of getting rid of equalization payments.
00:13:02.540 61% of Albertans voted against having 20 billion taken from the Alberta economy and being redistributed to Quebec and other have not provinces.
00:13:13.980 What changed?
00:13:17.740 Did it did it stop?
00:13:19.800 Were we able to reform it?
00:13:22.520 Were we able to change the status quo from from from inside Canada?
00:13:27.480 No, we were not.
00:13:29.040 It didn't matter.
00:13:30.740 If enough Albertans want to become independent, there is nothing this guy or any other weasel can do. 0.61
00:13:36.340 Thank you.
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