PJ The Belt - Why Alberta's LEAVING Canada - Update! INDEPENDENCE Over Decades of Abuse ｜ Dr. Michael Wagner

00:00:00.000 Hey everybody, PJ here. It's Thursday, more than halfway through the week. Hope you're all having

00:00:06.300 a good week, a productive one hopefully. Today's video I like to talk about something that often

00:00:10.740 gets ignored when it comes to the Alberta independence movement. Many people think that

00:00:15.340 this cause was started because of the loss, the federal loss of the conservatives and I often say

00:00:21.640 on this channel that that was simply the straw that broke the camel's back. Basically the last

00:00:27.880 nail in a coffin many of us saw coming. And of course the liberal win after 10 years of terrible

00:00:36.540 policies and having ruined our country in more ways than one contributed to the amount of support

00:00:43.160 and momentum that the cause for independence has. However this is something that has been brewing

00:00:50.220 for many decades. It is nothing new for Albertans to want to separate from Canada

00:00:56.260 considering the fact that Alberta has been given. Alberta and Western Canada in general

00:01:02.960 but especially Alberta and I mean especially Alberta and its industries have been given a raw deal

00:01:09.300 for many decades. Literally since shortly after Confederation and joining Confederation in 1905.

00:01:16.460 There is a picture that depicts, explains the sentiment and it's called the Milch Cow Campaign.

00:01:26.160 I believe that picture is from the 1920s, 1930s and again Alberta joined Confederation or basically was forced

00:01:33.320 to join Confederation in 1905 along with Saskatchewan. So in this video we're going to have,

00:01:39.180 we're going to be watching an interview with Dr. Michael Wagner. He's a PhD in political science

00:01:46.420 from the University of Alberta. He wrote a book called No Other Option about Alberta's sovereignty

00:01:52.440 and why at this point Alberta has two options, two choices really. One is to continue the status quo

00:02:01.060 because Canada is a system that cannot be fixed from within or independence and we carve our own path.

00:02:07.760 Do we continue trying to fix Canada from within which we've been doing for decades with no results,

00:02:13.660 no positive results anyway or do we obtain our independence and carve our own path? Let's watch.

00:02:20.560 All right so the interview is by the YouTube channel called Alberta Unfiltered. I'm going to leave the link

00:02:26.500 in the description below to the full video. We're going to be reacting to the interview and providing

00:02:32.740 commentary as we go. Let's take a look. So tell us about what you were speaking of about the

00:02:39.560 wise for these many years. A voice crying in the wilderness so to speak. Yeah well first of all I

00:02:45.180 want to acknowledge the conception of Canada that you're talking about as something that was great

00:02:49.480 in the past. Canada was great. Canada offered freedom to so many millions of people even to my

00:02:54.940 ancestors who came to the prairies a little bit before yours. So there is much to appreciate about

00:02:59.540 Canada and especially the past. Canada that I was born into was a wonderful freedom loving country

00:03:05.800 of prosperity with reasonably good government compared to better than it is today that's for

00:03:10.160 sure. But Canada has changed and that's one of the fundamental things. The Canada that we live in

00:03:14.020 today is not the Canada that gave refuge to our ancestors because there have been significant changes

00:03:19.320 especially again with pure Trudeau. Now when we look at the history of the prairies there's always

00:03:24.160 been discontent with central Canada right from the very beginning. So in the early decades of the

00:03:29.120 20th century you'd have reform movements spring up looking for political reform especially in the

00:03:35.200 form of alternative political parties. Westerners and especially Albertans rejected the mainstream

00:03:40.500 political parties. You know during the 1920s Alberta had a United Farmers of Alberta government

00:03:44.640 and federally the main party in Alberta at that time was the Progressive Party of Canada which was a

00:03:50.440 farmers party based mostly in the west. So the west would fight back against central Canada through

00:03:55.160 different political movements. So there was this discontent it wasn't a real happy relationship

00:03:59.120 with the east but things weren't really really bad in the sense that they became. Okay. So the idea of

00:04:04.160 Alberta becoming its own country or the west becoming its own country didn't really take off until Pierre

00:04:09.000 Trudeau became prime minister. Is that right? Yes. Okay. Like I say there was discontent you can go you

00:04:13.640 can find discontent on the prairies all the way from the very beginning. Okay. But you can't find a movement

00:04:18.740 for independence until Pierre Trudeau becomes prime minister. What year was that? Well he became prime

00:04:23.780 minister in 1968. Okay. And so the first kind of a formative separatist movement began in 1970. So

00:04:30.300 the early part of the separatist movement resulted from Trudeau adopting the official languages act

00:04:35.060 which made French much more prominent across Canada and on the prairies and some people on the prairies

00:04:40.320 saw it as having French thrust down their throat. The Trudeaus have been screwing Alberta for decades. 1.00

00:04:45.180 Before it was Justin it was his dad in the 70s and 80s. So this is nothing new. Stage of the movement but it was

00:04:52.520 still very very small at that time. Okay. It began to get legs in 1973 because there was a war in the

00:04:58.140 Middle East which led to the price of oil skyrocketing. And then OPEC. Yeah what OPEC was part of that yes.

00:05:03.580 Okay. See there was a war in the Middle East you know Israel against Arab countries. Okay. And so the

00:05:08.020 West many of the many of the Western countries were supporting Israel. So Arab countries and OPEC would 0.99

00:05:12.120 cut off oil to Western countries. Yes. And that lack of supply led to a skyrocketing of the oil

00:05:17.140 price. Gotcha. So up until that time the price of oil was about three dollars a barrel. Like it was a

00:05:21.440 it was a good resource for Alberta to have but it wasn't the the jewel that would be later. So

00:05:27.300 the price of oil went from about three dollars a barrel to about twelve dollars a barrel in just a

00:05:31.440 few weeks. So suddenly Alberta was about to reap huge amounts of money from its oil. Sure. But

00:05:37.600 Pierre Trudeau as Prime Minister he put an export tax on Alberta's oil. Oh okay. So in Alberta

00:05:41.560 Alberta was exporting oil to the United States and we were going to get all this money from that

00:05:46.080 but the federal government would take a huge percentage of the oil of the money that Alberta

00:05:50.480 should get for exporting its oil. That was unprecedented in Canadian history at that time. Yes. And our

00:05:54.840 Premier Peter Lougheed called it the biggest ripoff in Confederation's history because we weren't

00:05:59.560 getting the money for our provincial resource like the oil is provincial resource. And let's just

00:06:03.920 clarify that. Oil is a provincial resource. I'm glad that they're making that clarification

00:06:10.500 because a lot of people especially those on the other side of the argument say that well it's

00:06:16.400 Canada's oil. It's Canada's energy. No constitutionally it's actually Alberta's. Exactly. And so the

00:06:23.460 export tax on oil was unfair to Alberta because the federal government was taking money that Alberta

00:06:27.820 deserved. And there was one other thing. That Alberta had a right. Alberta had an absolute right to. 0.55

00:06:32.040 The other thing was like Alberta sold a lot of oil within Canada itself and Trudeau mandated a lower

00:06:38.720 price for Canadian oil than the world price. So when Alberta sold its oil within Canada we didn't get

00:06:43.960 the world price. When we exported the oil to the United States we didn't get the world price. We were

00:06:48.000 not getting the price for our oil that we ought to have. So that caused a big uproar in Alberta.

00:06:52.600 And so the first significant separatist organization called the Independent Alberta

00:06:58.240 Association was formed in 1974 you know with with oil men and professionals. Now it didn't get a lot of

00:07:04.520 traction at that time but it was did have a public face to it and they would conduct studies to show you

00:07:10.280 know how Alberta would be better off as an independent country. So that's kind of the that's how the

00:07:14.640 movement got going. It built a little bit during the 1970s but still during the 70s when they did surveys

00:07:19.700 on support for independence it would be like single digit support like four or five or six percent.

00:07:23.920 And what changed things was in 1980 there was a federal election and Pierre Trudeau was campaigning

00:07:29.360 to get back as prime minister and he campaigned against Alberta essentially telling Canada vote

00:07:34.580 for me and I'll put Alberta in its place. Like the ouch one of the main uh liberal campaign activists at

00:07:40.420 the time was a guy named Keith Davey who would later become a senator and he he brought in the slogan

00:07:44.660 uh screw the west we'll take the rest. He literally said that. Yes that's that's a quote from him.

00:07:49.960 So that was their campaign strategy. They'll campaign against the west against the west energy

00:07:54.820 resources. That's been the mentality of central Canada. Central and eastern Canada for decades.

00:08:00.200 Again this is nothing new guys. Screw the west we'll take the rest was the campaign slogan

00:08:07.580 in the 80s for Trudeau the father. That's really why I have a hard time understanding how there

00:08:15.840 there are Albertans real Albertans who support Canada and the federal government who support

00:08:24.280 the idea of staying in Canada against Alberta gaining its sovereignty. It's incredible it makes

00:08:32.660 no sense to me other than they ignore this historical facts. We'll get you cheaper oil if you

00:08:40.100 vote us into power and that's kind of how Trudeau was re-elected in 1980 with a majority government

00:08:44.080 campaigning and so people in western Canada especially Alberta were quite upset about that

00:08:48.460 and so you get the springing up of separatist groups just because of the election. That was a few

00:08:52.660 months later in October of 1980 he brought in the national energy program which was a federal power

00:08:57.680 grab on Alberta's energy industry. Yes. At the time they said they needed to Canadianize Alberta's

00:09:03.460 oil industry or Canada's oil industry because it was mostly American companies that uh you know

00:09:09.100 were running the oil industry. So they said we need to Canadianize it by having more federal government

00:09:12.760 control and also would give us more energy security. Those are the public reasons they gave.

00:09:17.080 But several years later excuse me Mark Lalonde who was energy minister would admit that those weren't

00:09:22.180 the real reasons. What were the real reasons? The real reason was the federal government was afraid of

00:09:25.600 Alberta getting too much money. Getting too rich. Getting too much power. Alberta getting too rich and too

00:09:30.640 powerful. So the federal government wanted to crop out that money from Alberta and that was kind of the

00:09:34.820 essential um reason for the national energy program. So we want to keep Alberta neutered. 1.00

00:09:39.520 That's literally how these people viewed Alberta. This is how they viewed it. We can't allow Alberta to 0.51

00:09:46.520 get too much money. Can't allow Alberta to get too wealthy. Can't allow Alberta to get too much power. 0.89

00:09:53.500 And again Alberta is supposed to be a province within this country. And the federal government is

00:09:58.660 looking at the province basically as an enemy. We cannot allow the west. We cannot allow Alberta

00:10:04.860 to become too wealthy and prosperous. Can you imagine that? Can you imagine for those of you south of the

00:10:12.640 border that Washington says we cannot allow Montana to get too wealthy. We cannot allow Oklahoma to get

00:10:21.180 too wealthy. We cannot allow Florida to get too wealthy or powerful or prosperous. We cannot allow that.

00:10:28.280 And your federal government purposefully blocks the development of that particular jurisdiction within

00:10:37.740 its country. Literally fighting it as if it was a a hostile enemy or a hostile country. Crazy to think.

00:10:46.600 So they want to keep Alberta neutered. Yeah they want to keep Alberta down and give that money to the 1.00

00:10:50.940 federal government. All right. So what happened with the national energy program is that um many many people

00:10:55.880 lost their jobs. I mean it was it was very much a strike against the oil industry. Yes. People lost their jobs,

00:11:00.940 their homes, their businesses. It was very harmful for thousands of Albertans and the Alberta economy began

00:11:05.580 to go down. Now later on a year or so later there would be um a drop in the oil price that would lead to a

00:11:11.500 general recession in Alberta. But it would but the problems began with the national energy program. Like leftists 0.57

00:11:16.360 will say it's the recession that led to the problems not the national energy program. But when experts have

00:11:21.320 compared the Canadian energy industry with the American one they can see uh an immediate result

00:11:26.120 from the national energy program. For for example Texas and Oklahoma did not suffer the same downturn

00:11:30.940 Alberta did in 1980-81 because of the national energy program. Later they would suffer because of the

00:11:36.220 recession and the drop in oil prices. But that was you know a year or two later whereas Alberta suffered

00:11:40.140 it immediately because of the national energy program. And you're saying it was absolutely intentional

00:11:44.600 by Pierre Trudeau to kick Alberta down. Yes I would say that exactly that was intentional. That was his

00:11:49.940 purpose. That's why the importance of unity this time around. We cannot let this movement go to waste.

00:11:57.220 We cannot let this momentum get squandered. We have to seek unity. Unity is the most important

00:12:04.980 thing right now. There's going to be all kinds of powers fighting against Alberta independence. 0.60

00:12:12.900 All kinds. You're going to have the feds, you're going to have the media, you're going to have

00:12:18.900 unions, you're going to have local politicians, provincial politicians, you're going to have

00:12:24.580 the private sector, those who receive subsidies and are in the pockets of the feds. We get one shot of

00:12:32.660 this thing. This is going to be the first ever referendum that Alberta's likely going to have in 2026.

00:12:38.180 And we should make it one and done. We should make it a successful one the very first time because

00:12:46.020 this kind of referendum of referendums happen once per generation basically.

00:12:53.380 Quebec had its latest one in the 90s and it's been 30 years and they haven't had another one.

00:12:59.460 And then we had a federal election in 1984 and Brian Mulroney's progressive conservatives were

00:13:04.260 elected as government. Now this also hurt the separatist movement in the sense that people

00:13:07.860 in Alberta generally thought that Mulroney was going to be good for us, that he was going to

00:13:11.540 be much better than Pierre Trudeau and remove the national energy program and do other things that

00:13:16.100 are beneficial to the West. How long did the national energy program last?

00:13:19.460 I guess like it was announced in October of 1980 and then when Brian Mulroney came in,

00:13:24.900 I think they probably finally phased out the last of it in 1986. It's a long time.

00:13:29.620 It was and this is one of the complaints actually against Mulroney was you know he did

00:13:33.380 put an end to the national energy program but he didn't do it really quickly. He kind of,

00:13:37.380 you know what I mean, he could have done it more quickly than he did. Yeah.

00:13:40.340 And so people you know questioned that but he did get rid of it as he said. Sure.

00:13:44.260 In 1986 though, there was a very big issue that Mulroney did improperly in the sense of

00:13:49.380 favouring central Canada over the West. And that was Canada had recently bought CF-18 fighter jets.

00:13:54.820 Okay. And it was a very big federal contract to maintain those jets. There was only two cities

00:14:00.100 in Canada with the facilities to maintain the jets, Winnipeg and Montreal. So the federal government

00:14:05.620 held a competition to see which city should win the contract. And according to the government's

00:14:10.100 criteria, Winnipeg won the contract and Brian Mulroney awarded the contract to Montreal.

00:14:15.060 Oh my goodness. Of course he did. So this guy, Brian Mulroney, former Prime Minister

00:14:20.580 of Canada, he was elected in big part thanks to Western provinces, Alberta, Saskatchewan. He was

00:14:29.220 supposed to be our guy. He was supposed to defend the interests of the West. He was conservative and

00:14:35.300 he was again elected in big part thanks to Alberta. And there's a competition for the maintenance,

00:14:42.740 for the contract for maintenance of the CF-18s that Canada had just acquired back in the 80s.

00:14:49.860 And the two competing cities were Montreal and Winnipeg. Montreal in Quebec, Winnipeg and Manitoba

00:14:55.860 in the West. Winnipeg met all the qualifications, all the prerequisites and he awarded it to Montreal.

00:15:07.060 Incredible. And that right there shows the way that Canada operates as a country. Screw the West,

00:15:15.460 we'll take the rest. This is nothing new. I can't think of any other country in the developed world

00:15:23.460 that treats a region of its own country like second-class citizens. I can't think of one,

00:15:30.820 at least not in the G7. Obviously, Mulroney was favoring Central Canada. But what was worse than that

00:15:36.740 was that we had voted for Mulroney. We didn't vote for Pierre Trudeau. So when he was attacking us,

00:15:41.860 you know, we always saw him as our enemy. But Brian Mulroney was supposed to be our friend. Every Alberta

00:15:46.660 member of parliament was progressive conservative and most of the other Prairie MPs were progressive

00:15:51.540 conservative as well. So Mulroney was supposed to be our guy. So he stabbed us in the back

00:15:56.260 when he awarded that contract to Montreal. The uproar led to the creation of the Reform Party of

00:16:00.500 Canada, which was formed in 1987. That was kind of the biggest single thing. There were some other

00:16:05.300 underlying factors, but that was the biggest single factor that led to the creation of the Reform Party

00:16:09.780 of Canada. And I think this actually communicates the truest intentions of most Westerners for the 0.95

00:16:15.380 entire time we've been part of Canada, that we want our voices heard in the national government.

00:16:19.780 Like why won't they listen to us? And that's been the problem all along with the policies,

00:16:23.780 whether it's the national energy program or the CFE team or whatever, they don't listen to us.

00:16:28.020 And so Western Canadians would want our voice heard in the national government. And that was the idea

00:16:32.740 of the Reform Party in its initials, in its inception. The West wants in. I'm thinking of

00:16:37.540 central Canada, the central Canadian politicians. Like when you look actually at the media,

00:16:41.540 I used to have a book that had political cartoons from Eastern Canada from the time of that 1993

00:16:46.820 election. I mean, yes. And I don't know what happened to it, but it had political cartoons

00:16:51.700 making fun of the Reform Party. Like if you remember the Beverly Hillbillies TV program,

00:16:56.100 which there was one cartoon of the Reform MPs were like the Beverly Hillbillies riding in this

00:17:00.580 old car, you know what I mean? It's just really mocking them and making fun of them. And that was

00:17:04.740 kind of the Eastern establishment view of them, whether it's the media or the political

00:17:09.140 establishment or whatever. What year is this now? 1993. 1993, 11 years after the Charter of Rights

00:17:17.220 and Freedoms came in. Yeah, that's right. Stephen Harper was bringing these bills forward

00:17:20.980 to make these kinds of changes in Canada. And Quebec launched a court case, a reference court case,

00:17:26.820 to challenge the constitutionality of reforms that Stephen Harper wanted. So Stephen Harper then,

00:17:32.420 kind of to do an end run around the Quebec court case, he launched a reference case to the Supreme

00:17:36.820 Court of Canada to get an authoritative decision before Quebec's case could get it up, get up to

00:17:41.460 the top. He thought the reason for doing that was so he could be the one asking the questions.

00:17:46.900 Go figure. Quebec didn't want Canada to have elected senators. Now, why would that be? Simple.

00:17:53.700 Quebec does not want to give up all the leverage it has on this country. They don't want to make the

00:17:59.380 changes to make it an actual fair and working and functioning country. They want it lopsided the

00:18:06.020 way it's been for decades, where Quebec gets whatever it wants.

00:18:29.380 aye.

00:18:41.140 1

00:18:42.620 2

00:18:44.020 2

00:18:45.620 2

00:18:47.940 2

00:18:49.940 2

00:18:52.080 3

00:18:54.200 4

PJ The Belt - June 27, 2025

Why Alberta's LEAVING Canada - Update! INDEPENDENCE Over Decades of Abuse ｜ Dr. Michael Wagner

Episode Stats

People

Summary

Transcript