Rebel News Podcast - July 17, 2023


EZRA LEVANT ｜ Fractured Nation： A special interview with filmmaker Aaron Gunn

Topics
Fractured Nation documentary equalization and Western alienation in Canada Western alienation in Canada
Guests
Aaron Gunn
Mentioned
Justin Trudeau Pierre Trudeau Stephen Harper Danielle Smith Preston Manning Bill C-63 John Robson Scott Moe Westerner John A. Macdonald Politics Explained Sheila Gunn-Reed René Levesque Brian Mulroney Jean Chrétien Daryl Cooper Brett Wilson Ralph Klein Andy Crooks Eric Duhem and 2 more
EZRA LEVANT： Alberta company prosecuted for lying about carbon offsets — but aren't they all liars？ EZRA LEVANT ｜ Freedom and censorship in America： A feature interview with Ben Weingarten

Episode Stats


Length

32 minutes

Words per minute

164.26

Word count

5,313

Sentence count

368

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

6

sentences flagged

Hate speech

5

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Director Aaron Gunn joins us to talk about his new documentary, Fractured Nation, about the pillaging of Western Canada by the Trudeau government, and why he thinks Canadian filmmakers should stay in Canada. He also talks about why Ezra thinks Aaron should go to Hollywood.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hello, my friends. Great show today with Aaron Gunn, the documentary filmmaker.
00:00:05.180 It's shows like this that make me want to make sure that you've got access to the video version of the podcast,
00:00:11.940 because it's a movie we're talking about.
00:00:13.980 We're going to have four or five clips we want to show you.
00:00:16.480 To get the video version, go to rebelnewsplus.com.
00:00:19.860 Click subscribe. It's eight bucks a month.
00:00:22.180 You get all my shows and Sheila Gunn-Reed's show.
00:00:25.760 And eight bucks a month, you know, that helps us keep the lights on here,
00:00:28.920 because, as you know, we do not take any money from Justin Trudeau, and it shows.
00:00:34.300 All right. Here's today's podcast.
00:00:51.760 Tonight, filmmaker Aaron Gunn has a new movie.
00:00:54.900 We'll have five clips to go through with you.
00:00:57.240 You don't want to miss this.
00:00:58.760 It's July 17th, and this is The Ezra LeVant Show.
00:01:02.160 You're ready for freedom! 0.78
00:01:05.140 Shame on you, you censorious bug! 0.96
00:01:16.880 Who is your favorite Canadian filmmaker? 0.93
00:01:19.840 Who's still in Canada?
00:01:21.880 There's a lot of amazing Canadian artists, especially in comedy and drama and Hollywood,
00:01:27.700 but they don't stick around in Canada.
00:01:30.640 There's reasons for that.
00:01:32.220 I think that the Canadian cultural industries suffocate more than they breathe life into.
00:01:39.440 I think if you want evidence of that, look no further than Pablo Rodriguez
00:01:42.380 is in his ham-fisted attempt to help, I put in quotes, the news industry.
00:01:47.960 In fact, he's desperately hurt them with his Bill C-18 and the reaction from Google and Facebook.
00:01:53.520 But put that aside, what I'm really interested in is who is telling the stories,
00:01:59.100 the current political stories of our country.
00:02:01.700 And if you're having trouble coming up with a name, it's because so many of our best storytellers have left,
00:02:09.500 and I wish they would stay and fight.
00:02:11.780 And today's special guest could make it in the big time if he went to Hollywood.
00:02:17.520 If he went to New York or L.A. or London, our next guest would be a huge success.
00:02:23.400 But like you and me, he feels a deep commitment to Canada, and he wants to stay and fight.
00:02:29.480 At least that's my assessment of him.
00:02:32.080 You know who I'm talking about when I say documentary filmmaker.
00:02:36.540 I'm talking about our friend Aaron Gunn, and he's got a doozy out.
00:02:41.080 Please welcome Aaron Gunn, the documentary filmmaker behind Fractured Nation,
00:02:47.360 The Pillaging of Western Canada.
00:02:49.120 Aaron, great to see you again.
00:02:51.340 Thank you so much for having me, Ezra.
00:02:52.940 It's always a pleasure to come on to chat with you.
00:02:55.900 Well, your documentary films have been beautifully presented,
00:03:00.640 and you tackle difficult issues that I don't think the regime media likes to talk about.
00:03:06.460 I mean, you did Vancouver.
00:03:08.580 You have a great feature on Vancouver, which really—I mean, that went super viral,
00:03:13.540 showing the state of that city.
00:03:15.880 You did a national version.
00:03:18.100 Facebook limited you.
00:03:20.940 And YouTube, too.
00:03:21.780 Your story is so powerful that you know when the corporate censors get involved that you hit a nerve.
00:03:29.200 Tell us about your new documentary, Fractured Nation.
00:03:33.480 Why don't we start off by playing the cold open to it?
00:03:36.920 Let's play a clip just to give people a taste of it, and then I'd love you to talk a bit more about it.
00:03:41.980 Here, let's take a look.
00:03:42.920 The other Trudeau, Pierre Trudeau, he just wanted to steal our wealth.
00:03:46.380 He didn't want to extinguish it.
00:03:47.520 Away from the entrance into Canada, there was this dynamic of Ottawa versus the West.
00:03:53.060 From the West, it looks like they're stealing our oil again. 0.83
00:03:55.480 But from the East, it looks like the wise, civilized people are keeping the barbarians under control. 0.88
00:04:00.520 The logic of it is killing the goose that lays the golden egg.
00:04:03.920 But that's done on purpose.
00:04:05.520 Welcome to Alberta, the epicenter of the growing political and economic influence of Western Canada,
00:04:11.980 and also increasingly much frustration, angst, and Western alienation.
00:04:17.260 From the imposition of carbon taxes to the tens of billions of dollars plundered through equalization,
00:04:24.060 this is a province and region fed up with a federal government and prime minister
00:04:28.540 that they view as antagonistic, exploitive, and directly undermining their legitimate aspirations.
00:04:35.820 So what does this mean for Canada and its future?
00:04:39.040 Do more powers need to be devolved to the provincial level?
00:04:43.060 Do the West's contributions need to be better recognized by the country as a whole?
00:04:48.280 Or is the dream that was Confederation already so far gone
00:04:52.820 that it's best if we all just go our separate ways?
00:04:56.080 The problem you have in Canada, I think, is a structural one.
00:04:59.260 Most provinces pay and Quebec, as one entity, receives.
00:05:03.580 There's just nothing equitable about that.
00:05:05.820 It's kind of a welfare of the Confederation.
00:05:07.600 That's how I see it.
00:05:08.620 No, I don't see anything being proud of that.
00:05:10.640 My name is Aaron Gunn, and this is Politics Explained.
00:05:15.600 Wow.
00:05:16.740 You talked to some very important thought leaders, not just Premier Danielle Smith,
00:05:22.060 but I saw John Robson, great historian and scholar,
00:05:27.420 Barry Cooper, longtime professor in Calgary,
00:05:30.280 Brett Wilson, Dragon's Den entrepreneur, Alberta booster,
00:05:35.340 Eric Duhem, the leader of the new Conservative Party of Quebec, did a great job.
00:05:39.680 You really talked to a wide spot of people.
00:05:44.280 I mean, you're based in the West yourself.
00:05:46.740 This looks like it's got a bit of an Alberta vibe to it.
00:05:49.860 What made you make this movie?
00:05:52.440 What was your goal?
00:05:53.420 I think my goal was, as it is with all my documentaries,
00:06:00.260 to tell stories and reveal truths that Canadians aren't hearing from anywhere else
00:06:05.860 or from very few places.
00:06:07.440 And with me, as someone who's grown up in BC,
00:06:09.700 I've noticed there's a disconnect in Western Canada.
00:06:12.420 You see that in everything from kind of the way the country is structurally set up
00:06:17.040 in our constitution to the corporate welfare you always see going out east.
00:06:21.060 And then most prominently, when I really dug into it,
00:06:24.180 the billions of dollars plundered through equalization that go from Western provinces
00:06:30.080 that actually develop their resources to Eastern provinces that either don't develop
00:06:35.140 their resources or, in some cases, actually block attempts at the West
00:06:39.140 to get our most precious commodities to oversee markets.
00:06:44.140 So I thought it was an important story.
00:06:45.880 But it also stems, as you alluded to kind of in the intro, Ezra,
00:06:49.060 with a really deep passion that I actually have for Canada.
00:06:52.100 We chat with people who think it's over, who think Alberta would be better off,
00:06:57.560 or Alberta and Saskatchewan and BC would be better off separating.
00:07:01.520 I believe that this confederation is in crisis.
00:07:04.740 But I believe that with documentaries like this and with coming together,
00:07:09.760 we can still kind of turn this country around.
00:07:12.960 So that's really the thesis behind the documentary.
00:07:16.020 And the other individual that we interviewed that wasn't featured in the cold open there
00:07:20.600 was the premier of New Brunswick, who's obviously been in the news a lot lately,
00:07:25.060 and who I think had a lot of powerful things to say on this topic.
00:07:28.580 Wow. Well, you certainly had access to a lot of leading thinkers.
00:07:31.540 And let me ask you a question.
00:07:32.400 I'm an Alberta boy, born and raised.
00:07:34.900 I moved out to Ontario when the Sun News Network started over 10 years ago, and I've stayed.
00:07:39.980 So I can't really call myself an Albertan anymore.
00:07:43.680 I mean, I've been out here for too long, although I think I'm a Westerner at heart.
00:07:49.500 How do you talk about legitimate Western grievances, feeling left out, feeling marginalized,
00:07:56.420 feeling like power is not properly shared?
00:07:59.020 How do you talk about that when in some ways power is a zero-sum game?
00:08:03.700 If you have more power for Alberta within Confederation, that pretty much certainly means less power for Ontario and Quebec.
00:08:12.960 And if you have grievances against central Canada, how are Ontarians and Quebecers responding?
00:08:19.620 And I say this as someone whose heart is in the West, but I'm here in Ontario.
00:08:23.200 And frankly, I think a lot of Ontarians and even more Quebecers, they don't even think about the West.
00:08:29.280 And if they do, you know, maybe there's a condescension and maybe there's a look-down-your-nose-ishness.
00:08:36.940 But how do you get Ontario and Quebec to help rather than push them away?
00:08:41.360 Big thing for me is I think the uniting factor has to be provinces coming together and people in those provinces coming together to push back against the federal government's creeping desire to centralize power.
00:08:57.540 With Quebec, who you just mentioned, I think that's where the greatest opportunity lies.
00:09:02.920 It goes back to 1982 in the Constitution negotiations.
00:09:06.840 I'm not a constitutional expert, but, you know, Rennie Levesque coming together with the Premier of Alberta at the time to, you know, demand Section 92A in the Constitution to stand up for provincial rights and provincial autonomy.
00:09:21.300 We're going to talk, I'm sure, later about what Danielle Smith's doing in Alberta with the Sovereignty Act. 0.99
00:09:25.820 But in a lot of cases, these are things that Quebec has already done for years.
00:09:29.680 So I think there's actually a precedent set for different provinces coming together to stand up for provincial autonomy and a common framework that we can all work within within Canada.
00:09:40.880 But importantly, and this is something I keep coming back to, in my opinion, for this country to work in the long term, we all need to play by the same rules.
00:09:48.040 And right now, I think in some cases, with Quebec specifically, we're not all playing by the same rules, and that creates issues.
00:09:55.900 Yeah.
00:09:56.240 You know, 25 years ago, I worked for Preston Manning, and one of the phrases he used, he said, our problem isn't with Ontario, it's with Ottawa.
00:10:05.240 And I thought, you know what, that's actually right.
00:10:08.580 And by the way, not all Ontario is Toronto, and not all Toronto is downtown CBC Toronto in the annex, by the way.
00:10:15.880 I mean, there are a lot of sensible people everywhere, even in Quebec.
00:10:21.200 You know, Montreal and the liberal heartland is very much different from Quebec City or the rural parts.
00:10:27.780 And that's part of the lifelong adventure of discovering your own country, especially if it's a place as big as this.
00:10:34.260 But there is one thing that you take on head-on, and that is, and it varies by different poll and what's going on, but, you know, a third of Albertans, and sometimes it's more, sometimes it's less, seriously want to separate.
00:10:51.180 Now, if that was the number in Quebec, I think that's higher than it is in Quebec.
00:10:57.880 I mean, Quebec got the entire country's attention and care for a generation.
00:11:05.100 They never voted to separate.
00:11:06.740 Twice they failed.
00:11:08.400 But they had the entire country and all of Ottawa catering to them for years.
00:11:13.560 The reaction wasn't go to hell, it was please stay, what can we do?
00:11:17.180 Here, let me play the clip from your film, Fractured Nation, about separatism, and I'd love your thoughts on it, and how Western separatism is mocked or ignored, but Quebec separatism was used as the reason for shoveling wealth, power, and privilege to that province.
00:11:36.340 Here, let's take a look.
00:11:36.880 But a series of decisions by Ottawa, specifically targeting resource industries, has angered Western provinces and, increasingly, the people who live there.
00:11:49.180 Projects shut down, taxes imposed, job killing made in Ottawa regulations that have reduced investment, collapsed production, and put the very existence of Western Canada's most important industries into doubt.
00:12:05.880 These perceived attacks have led an increasing number of Western Canadians to question whether being a part of Canada is worth it at all.
00:12:16.560 According to a poll conducted in 2022 by ResearchCo, a third of Albertans now say that Alberta would be better off as a separate country, a higher percentage than even Quebec.
00:12:30.120 So what exactly is causing this, and how long has the problem been going on?
00:12:36.840 To find out, I flew to our nation's capital to meet John Robson, a journalist and historian well-versed in the origins of Western alienation.
00:12:47.760 What do you think are kind of the origin story of Western alienation in Canada?
00:12:51.740 I think there's always been some element of feeling looked down on by the East.
00:12:56.480 But, you know, in the days of Sir John A. Macdonald, or even into the 20th century, the West kind of was the poor cousin.
00:13:03.260 I think the core of the problem is that when the West grew up, it wasn't treated as an adult or a partner by Eastern Canada.
00:13:11.500 They continued to be exploited in terms of resources.
00:13:13.500 And I think that their viewpoints tended to be regarded not just that they didn't just disagree with Western views, it regarded them with contempt.
00:13:20.600 The line actually is, and it's an old one, is that it's 3,000 miles from Vancouver to Ottawa, but 30,000 miles from Ottawa to Vancouver.
00:13:26.980 And I think the National Energy Programme was an enormous example of how the East would treat the West not merely as something to be ripped off, but also something to be despised. 0.90
00:13:37.220 The National Energy Programme was a policy brought in by Pierre Elliott Trudeau in 1980, following an election where the Liberals didn't win a single seat in BC, Alberta, or Saskatchewan.
00:13:52.080 The purpose of the NEP was to give Ottawa control over Western Canada's energy industry and to force the West to sell its resources to the East at below market rates.
00:14:04.360 Due to the NEP, unemployment in Alberta increased from 3.7% to 12.4%.
00:14:12.160 The bankruptcy rate increased by 150%, and numerous families were left destitute and facing financial ruin.
00:14:22.280 Well, it's an incredible excerpt.
00:14:24.020 We're watching excerpts from the film Fractured Nation, a new documentary by Aaron Gunn.
00:14:29.740 There's a lot in there, and I'd love you to expand on it a bit.
00:14:32.780 But one thing that I just want to say, and I think of this every time I'm reminded of Trudeau's National Energy Programme, which was an absolute disaster, outright theft.
00:14:42.440 But Trudeau didn't want to shut down the oil industry.
00:14:48.140 In fact, he invested, so to speak, in it.
00:14:51.560 He nationalized Petro-Canada.
00:14:53.720 He just wanted the industry to funnel the money to Quebec and the federal government.
00:14:58.920 The difference between Pierre Trudeau and Justin Trudeau, Pierre Trudeau wanted to steal the money.
00:15:06.020 Justin Trudeau wanted to turn it off.
00:15:09.420 Pierre Trudeau wanted the workers to own it, the country to own it, but he wanted it working.
00:15:14.900 Justin Trudeau literally wants to shut down the oil patch. 0.97
00:15:18.760 Pierre Trudeau was a crook, but at least he was smart. 0.93
00:15:21.240 Justin Trudeau, I don't even know what to make of it. 0.98
00:15:24.000 Give me your thoughts on that and the other things we just saw there.
00:15:27.580 Yeah, well, I think the common denominator, though, when it comes to Justin and his father, was that they don't care about the interests of Western Canada.
00:15:35.220 They know there's no votes here for them.
00:15:36.780 As you can saw in 1980, before Pierre Trudeau brought in the National Energy Programme, they didn't win a single seat in all of BC, Alberta, or Saskatchewan.
00:15:45.280 And their fortunes haven't improved that much since then.
00:15:48.380 And yet they bring in the National Energy Programme that cripples Alberta's economy, that completely put the interests of Alberta basically at the back of the bus, as you pointed out, to feed the special interests of Central Canada and the East.
00:16:09.640 And I think that started the resentment.
00:16:14.000 It grew before then.
00:16:15.140 You know, you can go back.
00:16:16.020 We didn't go back in the documentary, but you can.
00:16:18.240 There's the whole manufacturers all being based in Central Canada and the free trade debates and agriculture.
00:16:24.840 If you go back, the rise of the Progressive Party, all this kind of stuff.
00:16:27.380 But I think the National Energy Programme in recent history was the big event.
00:16:30.720 And then there was the F-18 contract.
00:16:32.460 And one thing that I'm interested, if I'm allowed to throw a question back at you, Ezra, is, I mean, you lived through a lot of this.
00:16:38.580 You mentioned that you were in the Reform Party with Preston Manning.
00:16:42.320 Was there a moment for you?
00:16:43.460 Was that just your first political party?
00:16:45.240 Or was there something that happened that galvanized you to move from the Progressive Conservatives to the Reform Party?
00:16:50.240 I heard the F-18 contract did that for a lot of people.
00:16:53.180 Well, I was pretty young at the time.
00:16:54.580 I mean, I was a teenager, so I wasn't even old enough to join parties.
00:16:58.220 And I just sort of saw that the local MPs – I grew up in Calgary.
00:17:04.140 The local MPs talked a good line, but they were not the ones making the decisions.
00:17:10.340 Brian Mulroney was voted in enormously in the West as an antidote to Pierre Trudeau.
00:17:16.840 And he did relieve the West of most of the National Energy Programme.
00:17:21.880 He didn't shut down all of it, by the way.
00:17:23.620 But, you know, there were so many things that reminded us that in an analogy of what you said about Vancouver being 3,000 miles away from Ottawa, but Ottawa 30,000, that was a great line.
00:17:39.300 Preston Manning, who I worked for for a couple of years, talked about MPs representing Ottawa to the riding rather than representing the riding to Ottawa.
00:17:49.300 And I could see with my eyes that longtime conservative MPs who had in their day been great were reduced to just being messengers for Toronto, Ottawa, Montreal.
00:18:01.540 And then along came Preston Manning, who felt like he was clean and unsullied and had Alberta roots and spoke philosophically and didn't seem motivated by money or power.
00:18:16.020 And it just felt like the right antidote.
00:18:19.300 And his motto, remember his motto, the West wants in.
00:18:21.940 It was an answer to separatism because, you know, and we don't have time to show all of your film.
00:18:29.020 Obviously, we wouldn't do that.
00:18:30.220 We want people to watch it online.
00:18:31.940 You can see it on Facebook.
00:18:33.040 You can see it on YouTube.
00:18:33.960 It's called Fractured Nation.
00:18:35.820 But there was a sense of frustration.
00:18:40.200 Liberal, Tory, same old story was something we heard in West.
00:18:43.580 And so separatists started getting elected.
00:18:45.540 There was a by-election in Alberta.
00:18:46.980 A full-blown separatist was elected.
00:18:49.440 And there was a feeling that, well, we tried the Liberals to hate us.
00:18:52.880 We tried the Tories to hate us.
00:18:54.340 Let's go.
00:18:55.100 And Preston Manning, in a way, saved the country because he took all that energy and he said, no, no, no, please, trust me, we can reform the system.
00:19:08.440 We can fix it.
00:19:09.680 Please don't leave.
00:19:10.880 So he did an enormous favor to Ontario and Quebec, even though they'll never know it and they'll never say so.
00:19:16.620 He stopped the West from separating.
00:19:20.040 By his own terms, Preston Manning was a failure.
00:19:22.360 He never formed government.
00:19:25.080 In fact, he gave Jean Chrétien three back-to-back majorities.
00:19:28.540 But the favor for which he'll never be thanked is he stopped the West from separating.
00:19:33.440 And frankly, some Westerners probably regret that now.
00:19:36.020 Anyhow, thank you for letting me rant a little bit and answer your question.
00:19:39.120 Hey, can we play another clip?
00:19:40.300 I want to play your clip about the Reform Party.
00:19:43.300 And I want to take a look at it because I sort of lived it.
00:19:45.960 I'm a lot older than you.
00:19:46.820 I've got a lot more gray hair than you.
00:19:48.420 But it was a thrilling time.
00:19:50.080 I was 18.
00:19:51.340 I was 17 when the Reform Party—I started university.
00:19:54.900 I was 17.
00:19:55.420 I wasn't old enough to buy a membership yet.
00:19:57.440 When I turned 18, I bought a membership.
00:19:59.580 I was a young guy doing politics.
00:20:01.240 The party was new.
00:20:02.180 It was just a very exciting time.
00:20:04.560 Here, let's watch your treatment of the old Reform Party.
00:20:07.300 In 1987, the Reform Party of Canada started out as a Western protest movement, but quickly involved into the largest federal conservative party in the country.
00:20:18.760 This new party, born out of Western frustration, included a young MP named Stephen Harper, who would go on to co-author the infamous firewall letter to Alberta Premier Ralph Klein that detailed how he believed the province could operate more autonomously within confederation.
00:20:38.920 Among the letter's five other signatories was Andy Crooks.
00:20:43.420 We didn't call it the firewall letter.
00:20:45.340 The media called it the firewall.
00:20:47.260 We don't want to create a barrier to the rest of Canada.
00:20:52.360 That's not the point.
00:20:53.520 It's as if you have a computer and you have a firewall to keep out the bad stuff.
00:20:57.700 They were looking for a conservative response to the perceived leaning against and oppression of the West.
00:21:06.660 Five years after penning the firewall letter, Stephen Harper would lead a reunited conservative party to their first electoral victory in 18 years.
00:21:18.360 Let me just say one thing and let me be clear.
00:21:21.400 The West is wanted in. 0.87
00:21:23.200 The West is in now.
00:21:24.920 Canada will work for all of us.
00:21:27.700 But in 2015, Harper was defeated and a new prime minister with an all too familiar last name has seen the familiar themes of Western alienation and economic grievance resurrected all over again.
00:21:43.700 Yeah.
00:21:44.700 You know, Stephen Harper did reunite the parties and that was enough to reenter power.
00:21:51.420 I think he governed very cautiously, very incrementally.
00:21:54.660 When he said the West is in, he was right. 1.00
00:21:56.580 But he didn't make systemic changes to make permanent the improvements.
00:22:02.740 I think of the Senate.
00:22:04.060 He simply didn't appoint anyone.
00:22:06.520 He appointed the few Albertans who were elected.
00:22:10.660 Otherwise, he left the place open.
00:22:12.180 He didn't put patronage appointments.
00:22:13.480 So when Justin Trudeau took over in 2015, he appointed dozens of liberal senators that I suppose ought to have been appointed by Harper.
00:22:23.960 He didn't privatize the CBC.
00:22:26.220 He didn't remove official bilingualism that has been a pain in the neck to anyone west of Quebec.
00:22:32.400 He didn't deal with many of the systemic problems that Preston Manning said he wanted to deal with in the Reform Party.
00:22:38.920 Stephen Harper ran a good government.
00:22:40.560 In some ways, it was even a great government.
00:22:43.320 But my main criticism, both as a conservative and as a Westerner at heart, is he didn't make any permanent changes that couldn't be undone by Justin Trudeau in a matter of years.
00:22:53.980 What do you think of that?
00:22:55.580 Yeah, unfortunately, I think that's a pretty accurate assessment, Ezra.
00:22:58.200 I think he got stuck in the trap of always governing to win the next election as opposed to governing like you've got four years to make the changes that you want to make to the country and that you think are needed.
00:23:09.620 I will also point out, I'm not sure if I'm getting ahead of you here, but, you know, the biggest mistake, and I think talking to some of Harper's people, they would probably agree with this, is another thing where he didn't make big moves, and that's Supreme Court appointments.
00:23:23.320 Oh, that was his worst legacy.
00:23:26.160 Trump's best legacy, Harper's worst legacy.
00:23:30.420 Yeah, and I think we're seeing that.
00:23:31.660 And the one thing, I know you do, I'm sure, a great job of it on Rebel, but a lot of Canadians don't understand the importance of the Supreme Court here.
00:23:38.480 And I know people attack the U.S. court for being more politicized, but in a way that's a good thing because at least people are awake to the fact of how important the Supreme Court is and how it can impact their lives, where in Canada we seem ignorant to that fact.
00:23:53.180 And so part of this documentary also lays that out, and unfortunately a lot of Harper's Supreme Court picks are not a lot better, if any better, than Justin Trudeau's.
00:24:02.220 And that's something that we saw in the carbon tax decision.
00:24:06.680 Hopefully that's not something we see in the Bill C-69 decision, which is still yet to come.
00:24:12.000 And, of course, a subpart of that is also how Quebec is constitutionally guaranteed a third of the Supreme Court seats, having just over 8 million people.
00:24:22.120 And then the West, with about 13 million people, only has two currently.
00:24:26.080 So I think that's another big issue, and it points to one of the structural imbalances in our confederation.
00:24:33.800 Yeah.
00:24:36.860 There's a new premier in Alberta.
00:24:38.880 I guess she's been premier for – she was chosen by the party, and that was validated by the voters just a month ago.
00:24:47.300 I'm talking about Danielle Smith.
00:24:48.620 I had a sit-down with her about a week or two ago, and I'm hopeful.
00:24:54.180 I'm hopeful.
00:24:54.760 She has an unusual blend of libertarian ideas and conservative ideas and Western ideas, and I think she brainstorms sort of out loud, and that has gotten her in some trouble before, but no trouble that the voters didn't forgive.
00:25:10.440 One of her ways she secured the leadership was through her innovation of the Sovereignty Act, which is like Harper's Firewall. 1.00
00:25:21.800 Quebec really talked about the sovereignty.
00:25:23.620 It talks about the Sovereignty Act in their own way all the time.
00:25:26.120 You treat that in the documentary as well.
00:25:28.920 Let's play one last clip from your film, Fractured Nation.
00:25:32.840 This is how you address Danielle Smith's Sovereignty Act. 0.87
00:25:37.280 Let's take a look.
00:25:38.120 Now, we have been made aware that in the coming weeks, Justin Trudeau is planning on bringing forward new restrictions on electricity generation from natural gas that will not only massively increase your power bills, but will also endanger the integrity and reliability of our entire power grid.
00:25:54.640 And as premier, I cannot, under any circumstances, allow these contemplated federal policies to be inflicted upon Albertans.
00:26:02.240 I simply can't, and I won't.
00:26:05.000 This is not a road we can afford to go down.
00:26:08.440 If he persists, he will be hurting Canadians from coast to coast, and he will strain the patience and goodwill of Albertans in an unprecedented fashion.
00:26:17.120 Newly elected Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, has introduced legislation in the spirit of Stephen Harper's original firewall letter.
00:26:29.340 Smith's law will put in place protections to shield Alberta from federal policies that violate provincial jurisdiction and infringe on Alberta's constitutional rights,
00:26:40.640 while looking to expand Alberta's power and autonomy by potentially taking actions in the footsteps of those already taken by the province of Quebec.
00:26:51.780 Something that Justin Trudeau isn't too happy about.
00:26:56.540 Obviously, we're going to look at this very, very closely and think about the implications.
00:27:00.260 But our focus remains on making sure the Albertans are part of a growing, cleaner economy and protect our environment for years to come.
00:27:07.680 The Sovereigny Act was meant to send a message to Albertans that we're going to defend ourselves.
00:27:13.080 Danielle's legislation, the UCP legislation, is taking together all of the rights that Quebec already has.
00:27:21.520 And Quebec uses them as a shield, and Danielle has tried to hammer those same materials into a sword.
00:27:28.700 Certainly, it was a signal to the rest of the country that Albertans are still not happy with the equalization program, and things need to change.
00:27:37.680 Inspired by Alberta's Sovereignty Act, Saskatchewan has now passed sovereignty legislation of their own.
00:27:46.380 Something that could maybe be the start of a trend of provinces finally standing up to the federal government.
00:27:52.820 I see you made reference to the Saskatchewan First Act.
00:27:56.260 You know, Scott Moe, the Premier of Saskatchewan, is pretty solid on these issues, too.
00:28:00.720 He doesn't act as a lightning rod in the same way.
00:28:04.140 I think the media hate Danielle Smith, and they've sort of given up trying to dislodge Scott Moe.
00:28:10.880 I think the Sovereignty Act was attacked by all sorts of people who are completely fine with it from Quebec.
00:28:19.720 They just don't like to see Alberta getting uppity. 1.00
00:28:22.080 I mean, I think it's hard to argue against that point, because Quebec has been using these different levers.
00:28:33.240 Basically, all the Sovereignty Act is Daniel Smith coming out and saying,
00:28:36.360 we're going to use every tool in our toolbox to oppose federal overreach and federal intervention in areas of provincial responsibility.
00:28:46.280 And, I mean, that's something that Quebec has already been doing quite overtly for decades, quite frankly.
00:28:53.920 So I think that everything in the Sovereignty Act is not only above board, but it's something that other provinces should take note of.
00:29:01.720 It's something that obviously Saskatchewan is now following suit with.
00:29:04.960 And because, quite frankly, Justin Trudeau, I think, is two things that's going on with this government right now.
00:29:13.260 Number one, he has a proclivity to centralize power, to control power in Ottawa,
00:29:19.940 whether that's by infringing on provincial jurisdiction with Bill C-69 or the carbon tax mandate,
00:29:27.300 or whether that's Bill C-11 and trying to clamp down on free speech.
00:29:30.840 It's that proclivity to try to exercise control over the population.
00:29:35.800 And on top of that, the other thing is he clearly has an inherent dislike for the West,
00:29:41.380 in Alberta specifically, that he inherited from his father.
00:29:45.380 And those two things combined have led to a series of policies that are impossible to interpret as anything other than anti-Western or anti-Albertan.
00:29:54.640 And the provincial government needs to use all of its power to stand up to that.
00:30:00.540 And I think good on Danielle for doing that.
00:30:02.440 I know there's some, you know, these attempts to regulate natural gas production or natural gas electricity generation is the next thing in the pipeline.
00:30:11.420 And Danielle's been talking about that, and hopefully she's able to stand up to that.
00:30:14.780 The only thing that concerns me is what we just chatted about,
00:30:17.940 which is that Harper did not use his opportunity to appoint, you know, principled Supreme Court judges
00:30:26.940 that would interpret the Constitution the way that it was written.
00:30:30.320 And that worries me.
00:30:31.780 It worries me in a whole series of judgments that have been made over the last half decade.
00:30:36.640 And so we'll see where that goes.
00:30:39.580 Yeah.
00:30:39.840 And the one conservative judge he did appoint was just run out of the court.
00:30:44.260 Well, listen, Aaron, it's great to see you again.
00:30:46.420 Congratulations on your new film.
00:30:47.720 It's called Fractured Nation, The Pillaging of Western Canada.
00:30:50.220 Very bold.
00:30:51.480 Very interesting.
00:30:52.660 And you can find that on Facebook and YouTube.
00:30:55.340 Before we say goodbye, how can people learn more about what you're doing?
00:30:58.800 I know you've got other films in the past.
00:31:00.920 Vancouver's dying.
00:31:01.780 Canada's dying.
00:31:03.360 You've worked on free speech issues.
00:31:05.740 Is there like an Aaron Gunn central place where we can get all the good stuff?
00:31:11.240 Yeah, AaronGunn.ca has got all the information about me.
00:31:13.920 But the best way to keep track of what I'm doing is to go on Twitter, to follow me, and go onto my YouTube and subscribe.
00:31:19.600 The next documentary I have coming out will actually be The End of Free Speech in Canada.
00:31:27.000 I expect that you will probably be making a cameo on that one.
00:31:31.280 Hopefully I won't be in jail.
00:31:32.360 Hopefully it won't be a jailhouse interview.
00:31:34.980 Yeah, exactly.
00:31:36.380 Exactly.
00:31:37.320 So we're always pumping out content.
00:31:39.880 And as always, really appreciate the opportunity to come in and chat with your viewers and listeners about it.
00:31:45.720 Well, as I said at the beginning, you are a rare person in the entertainment, arts, news, documentary business.
00:31:54.040 That is a field that is dominated by people who either have no love for Western Canada or frankly downright despise it.
00:32:02.120 So we're so grateful for your work.
00:32:03.920 Aaron Gunn, good luck.
00:32:05.200 And we can hardly wait till your next film.
00:32:08.100 Thank you for having me, Ezra.
00:32:09.240 All right.
00:32:09.660 Our pleasure.
00:32:10.300 Well, there you have it.
00:32:10.960 Aaron Gunn and his new movie, Until Next Time, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night and keep fighting for freedom.