PJ The Belt - April 16, 2026


The U.S. JUST ENDORSED Alberta & Saskatchewan — This Changes Everything


Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

157.633

Word count

1,363

Sentence count

70

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

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 They told me there is a path. Alberta is first, and if they sign on, Saskatchewan would follow.
00:00:06.660 There is a movement in Canada to join us. Want to get your thoughts on that and how that's
00:00:11.800 perceived? So it's true. Thank you, Brian. It's true. I mean, is he that far off? Let's think 0.98
00:00:17.100 about this. The people of the Canadian province of Alberta appear to be super fed up with the
00:00:21.640 new Canadian government, and they're pushing for independence in one area, especially this guy,
00:00:26.000 mark carney was voted in as their new pm and he is awful okay keep in mind alberta is considered
00:00:31.120 like the texas of canada they are way more conservative way more limited government and
00:00:36.240 produce the overwhelming amount of the country's commodities like timber and oil and a bunch of
00:00:41.440 other stuff so the federal government of canada is just basically pooping their pants because
00:00:46.080 they realize that they can't fund any of their big government programs without the revenue from the
00:00:51.200 resources of that area. Well, Alberta is a wealth of natural resources, but they won't let them
00:00:58.320 build a pipeline to the Pacific. I think we should let them come down into the U.S., and Alberta is
00:01:07.320 a natural partner for the U.S. The Albertans are very independent people. Now, if Saskatchewan or
00:01:15.360 Alberta were simply to declare themselves independent states and other states were to
00:01:20.460 recognize them as independent states and the government of Canada ceased to have any control
00:01:24.500 over Saskatchewan and Alberta, it may be that de facto they would become independent states as a
00:01:30.520 matter of international law. And the Supreme Court did acknowledge that that was a possibility.
00:01:35.600 I guess the flip side of what they're saying is that if our concerns are not addressed,
00:01:40.140 we feel as though they have been not addressed, then we're willing to explore separation. It's
00:01:44.220 kind of raising the stakes. Alberta and Saskatchewan are pursuing their full
00:01:47.780 independence from canada both of these provinces both in the prairies are looking to separate from
00:01:54.420 the rest of canada even though alberta is farther ahead in the process of obtaining their independence
00:02:01.680 soon to have a referendum this doesn't mean that the people of saskatchewan don't have just as much
00:02:06.760 desire to gain their sovereignty and separate from the rest of canada as much as alberta does
00:02:12.620 Independent Alberta would keep $20 billion for every new pipeline that's built.
00:02:17.800 So Keystone XL is coming, so we know that, so there's another $20 billion.
00:02:21.800 We've been to, like Dennis, myself, and others, have been to Washington to meet with the U.S. administration.
00:02:28.460 They will support Alberta independence.
00:02:33.720 They're very excited about Alberta independence from the standpoint of U.S. national security
00:02:39.300 and freeing the Alberta oil reserves from a security of supply perspective
00:02:43.820 from control of the Chinese communists that govern Ottawa. 0.51
00:02:51.300 Well, look, Alberta is a wealth of natural resources, 0.98
00:02:54.920 but they won't let them build a pipeline to the Pacific.
00:03:00.280 I think we should let them come down into the U.S.,
00:03:04.760 and Alberta is a natural partner for the U.S.
00:03:09.120 They have great resources.
00:03:10.800 The Albertans are very independent people.
00:03:14.840 Rumors that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.
00:03:19.260 Sounds like you may know something up there.
00:03:21.900 What?
00:03:23.380 People are saying.
00:03:24.580 People are talking.
00:03:26.960 Separation from Canada.
00:03:28.300 It is something that has come up since the Liberals were given another term in government,
00:03:33.160 particularly in Saskatchewan and Alberta, with some frustrated with what they view
00:03:37.860 as out-of-touch policies around energy and the environment created in Ottawa that don't benefit
00:03:43.500 the West. The petition's signature threshold for a separation referendum has been lowered in Alberta,
00:03:50.440 and a referendum petition is making the rounds here at home too. So what has to actually be done
00:03:56.020 in order for separation to happen? Well, under the Constitution of Canada,
00:04:01.340 one province has no right to leave unilaterally. So even if there were a referendum that purported
00:04:09.040 to prescribe separation, that would not give the province in which the referendum occurred
00:04:14.560 the legal right to leave. Having said that, the Supreme Court did hold in 1998 that if a clear
00:04:21.420 majority on a clear question votes to leave Confederation, and they had Quebec in mind,
00:04:28.560 but the logic would apply just as much or almost as much to Alberta and Saskatchewan,
00:04:33.480 that an obligation would fall upon the federal government to negotiate in good faith the exit.
00:04:40.440 The Trump administration has reportedly expressed support for Alberta to obtain their independence,
00:04:46.980 telling the Alberta Prosperity Project that upon a successful referendum,
00:04:51.580 they would be willing to give international recognition to the new nation of Alberta.
00:04:56.520 And in turn, one can assume that the same level of support would be given to an independent Saskatchewan.
00:05:03.360 Is it possible for a province to essentially become its own country?
00:05:08.880 And how would that look?
00:05:10.600 Now, if Saskatchewan or Alberta were simply to declare themselves independent states,
00:05:16.540 and other states were to recognize them as independent states,
00:05:19.840 and the government of Canada ceased to have any control over Saskatchewan and Alberta,
00:05:23.080 It may be that de facto, they would become independent states as a matter of international law. And the Supreme Court did acknowledge that that was a possibility. It might not necessarily be constitutional. And given how other states tend not to recognize breakaway provinces, unless the federal government has condoned the departure, I don't think that's very likely.
00:05:47.800 But I mean, theoretically, it could happen de facto, even if not legally proper.
00:06:17.800 In addition to admission to international organizations and access to capital markets, external recognition offers legitimacy and allows foreign relations with the world.
00:06:28.460 If Washington chooses to recognize Alberta and Saskatchewan, overnight, they become de facto new nations.
00:06:35.960 now when we look at all of the provinces we see that when the original dominion of canada
00:06:42.980 was created and put together it was ontario and quebec right upper and lower canada plains of
00:06:47.680 abraham big old scrap between the english and the french finally they figured it out
00:06:50.560 and they got themselves sorted out so they had upper and lower canada quebec and
00:06:53.520 and ontario but then they decided to bring in two more provinces as bookends which would be
00:06:57.960 manitoba and new brunswick now manitoba did negotiate their way somewhat ottawa was still
00:07:04.340 little bit cranky about the whole Louis Rial thing, you know, property rights, autonomy,
00:07:07.620 all the things they don't like over there. But they still let them negotiate their way in a bit.
00:07:12.220 New Brunswick also negotiated their way into Confederation. British Columbia came on board,
00:07:19.320 also negotiated their way into Confederation. Remember, that was to keep the U.S. out,
00:07:23.980 right? Because they were getting ready to join forces with Alaska. They had already bought
00:07:27.360 Alaska. They wanted to have their own way like right up there along the coast. And so the Canadian
00:07:31.680 government at the time said oh absolutely not and they took over um what we know today as british
00:07:37.980 columbia and brought that into confederation the other two maritime provinces that i've already
00:07:42.440 clicked on so prince edward island and nova scotia negotiated their way in we did not we were brought
00:07:48.760 in there was not even a legislature building here there was nobody at the table to say this is what
00:07:54.380 we want this is what we don't want it was this is what you're all going to get that's the foundation
00:08:00.000 that our two provinces have been built on.
00:08:02.440 The independence movement in Alberta is no longer just a fringe idea.
00:08:06.960 It's gone mainstream.
00:08:08.600 The support is growing so fast that even the government-paid fake news media
00:08:12.760 can't ignore it anymore.
00:08:14.760 Everywhere you go in the province, the big question is the same.
00:08:18.420 Is it worth it to stay in Canada, or should we take our future into our own hands?
00:08:23.420 And of course, Ottawa's already playing dirty,
00:08:26.360 funding paid opposition and trying to smear the movement.
00:08:29.220 But instead of scaring people, it's only making Albertans even more determined to obtain their
00:08:35.100 independence. The momentum's here, and it's not going away.