An incredible, but very softly spoken statement by Alberta s Premier Danielle Smith today, talking about the possibility of Alberta changing its status, maybe even considering independence. She didn t go quite that far, but she opened the door a crack.
00:08:12.560He's hired the worst of Trudeau's team.
00:08:14.320And even Trudeau, possibly, would not have kept that candidate, Paul Chang, around after he threatened a hit on a rival conservative Chinese-Canadian who happens to be for democracy in Hong Kong.
00:08:26.780But back to my point, we know who is happy in Canada.
00:08:30.360Boomers, liberals, environmentalists, globalists, criminals are having a lovely time.
00:09:01.080I got a mandate to try to make Canada work.
00:09:03.860And that's what I've been working towards relentlessly over these last two and a half years.
00:09:08.380As you know, we did put in place a process for citizen-initiated referenda.
00:09:13.460And I leave it to Albertans who may feel differently to put forward a petition campaign.
00:09:19.600But I think my job as an Albertan and as a Canadian is to try to put on the table the issues that are causing grave tension in our federation and to solve them.
00:09:31.960And I'm going to look at it on the positive side because what I have observed is that it may be that the current prime minister doesn't get it, but all of the other premiers do.
00:09:40.180And we have consistently, for the last number of meetings, signed on to communiques talking about how we're going to build economic corridors.
00:09:48.340This last one, economic corridors with oil and gas and transmission lines, rail lines, and new highways and other infrastructure in those corridors.
00:09:59.020And so I believe there's goodwill on the part of the other premiers.
00:10:02.400The problem is, unless we solve those federal barriers, we're not – it's just words on paper.
00:10:09.240So I'm going to continue to use sort of that newfound sense of esprit de corps with my fellow premiers.
00:10:15.460We're going to do what we can after the election to make sure that we address those issues.
00:10:20.920But so far, I'm dissatisfied with what I'm hearing out of the new prime minister.
00:10:26.020He doesn't seem to – he doesn't seem to understand just how foundational these are if we're going to reset the relationship.
00:10:31.320What would you say to those who criticize you for sort of entertaining the idea of Alberta independence as Canada faces a trade war and threats of annexation from the U.S.?
00:10:41.360Well, I love Canada, and I want Canada to work.
00:10:44.940I've been on Team Canada from the beginning.
00:10:46.800It's part of the reason why I've been relentlessly going to the United States and trying to advocate for all of our industries, for all of Canada, in every venue I possibly can.
00:10:56.320But I'm also Premier of Alberta, and quite frankly, at some point, Canada has to start working for Alberta, and it's not right now.
00:11:05.060We have a number of policies that came in over the last 10 years that have been damaging to Alberta prosperity.
00:11:11.760It's been damaging to our freedom as a province.
00:11:14.400And if they persist, it is going to continue a dysfunctional relationship that harms Alberta.
00:11:19.040So I put forward the nine major policies that I think have to be repealed after the next election.
00:11:25.600Unfortunately, the current prime minister, despite what he said to me privately when he was here, has now gone public saying he supports export taxes, he supports Bill C-69, he supports emissions caps.
00:11:36.080That is moving in the wrong direction.
00:11:40.080We'll see who ends up winning, and I will continue to advocate for those.
00:11:43.420And that's part of the reason why I will do a What's Next panel.
00:11:46.900We did that when my predecessor came in to hear some of the concerns that Albertans had about how to repair the relationship with Canada at that time.
00:11:56.420And it'll be time for us to do it again.
00:11:58.080Now, that's not square one in an independence project.
00:12:03.040And if Pierre Polyev wins, and the insanity of Trudeau and Carney recedes, and Carney goes back to New York or London or wherever.
00:12:10.440I don't think independence will go anywhere.
00:12:13.120But if Mark Carney and Stephen Gilboa, his extremist advisor, win, I think the province of Alberta will express itself, and the Toronto-based media will gnash its teeth.
00:12:23.360The CBC will go to war against Daniel Smith even more than they already do.
00:12:27.440The entire province will be defamed and attacked.
00:12:30.780We took a poll the other day, and the number of Albertans who wanted to join the United States was still pretty small, less than 20%.
00:12:37.120We specifically asked the U.S. version of the question, not independence or something else, just joining the states.
00:12:44.260But I promise you, if Mark Carney wins, that number will jump.
00:12:47.920And if Daniel Smith gives it life by talking about it, it'll really jump.
00:12:53.720And all that needs to happen, because the precedent has been set with Quebec,
00:12:57.780all that needs to happen, according to our Supreme Court, according to the Clarity Act,
00:13:02.120is that a clear result in a referendum with a clear question happened, and Alberta's gone.
00:13:09.200And that'll make many people happy, people who hate wealth and hate oil and hate capitalism.
00:16:06.320They had to rebrand the truckers as something awful and evil.
00:16:11.420She, Tamara Leach, by being the personification of the truckers,
00:16:15.300made it a positive, fun, family-friendly thing.
00:16:18.860Just like the images of the bouncy castles and the hot tubs.
00:16:21.920It was not the January 6th narrative that Justin Trudeau so desperately wanted.
00:16:28.120Remember, calling people a fringe minority with unacceptable views.
00:16:32.200We know the way through this pandemic is by getting everyone vaccinated.
00:16:41.380And the overwhelming majority, close to 90% of Canadians have done exactly that.
00:16:47.680Do not represent the small fringe minority of people who are on their way to Ottawa or who are holding unacceptable views that they are expressing.
00:17:01.860Do not represent the views of Canadians who have been there for each other, who know that following the science and stepping up to protect each other is the best way to continue to ensure our freedoms, our rights, our values as a country.
00:17:21.420Well, Tamara Leach indeed was arrested just over three years ago and charged with inciting mischief.
00:17:28.180And here we are more than three years later, and we have not yet had the verdict.
00:17:32.160It turned into the longest mischief trial in Canadian history.
00:17:36.860In fact, as far as anyone can tell, the longest mischief trial anywhere in the Commonwealth countries, UK, Australia, wherever.
00:17:43.860Clearly, the process is the punishment.
00:17:47.140As you know, I attended court several times in Rebel News, and the Democracy Fund attended court every time.
00:17:53.920It was clear that the process, the prosecution, was designed as an enormous, extraordinary punishment, an absurd, months-long process.
00:18:02.820But it's all coming to a close this week.
00:18:06.080Like, on Thursday morning, Tamara Leach will be read her judgment by the judge in the courthouse in Ottawa, and we will be there.
00:18:17.140By we, I mean me, with Rebel News, and Mark Joseph and the team at the Democracy Fund.
00:18:33.020Now, Tamara Leach, no normal human being could afford to spend, and I'm not going to say the amount that we spend, but you can figure it out.
00:18:42.520We've got Lawrence Greenspawn, one of the top criminal lawyers in the country, plus his two associates.
00:18:48.060That's three lawyers who have been working on this case for an enormous amount of time.
00:18:52.920I don't think I'm going to reveal their fee, but you can imagine how large it is.
00:19:10.480So it took a very special person to fight, but it also took the Democracy Fund, of which you're a lawyer, to crowdfund from our viewers to pay for it.
00:19:22.060It was only that combination that could have fought it.
00:20:46.660But again, you know, the Crown spent 45 days logging through this stuff, trying to make the case.
00:20:52.900And we had to explain that to our viewers.
00:20:55.680You know, I sat there and the day I really realized what was going on, there was some mid-level bureaucrat from the city of Ottawa who talked about how he would go for walks in downtown Ottawa and just what he would see.
00:21:21.980And within half an hour, it was clear that this guy had never spoken to Tamara Leach, had never interacted with her, had never seen her, did not know her other than through the media.
00:21:55.940And when I asked some folks, they said, this is how it's going to be for weeks.
00:22:00.060But the judge, and here's the theory I heard, if the judge wouldn't allow it, if the judge would clamp down on it, the prosecution might find that as some sort of a grounds for appeal.
00:22:11.440So the judge is very lenient to let the prosecution take liberty so that an appeal, which is almost a certainty if Tamara Leach wins, that an appeal is not likely because the prosecution was given every indulgence at the trial level.
00:22:27.860And a court of appeal will see that and say, no, you guys were given every opportunity.
00:22:33.220And that's the theory I heard for why this trial turned into a monster.