Rebel News Podcast - EZRA LEVANT ｜ The case against the case against Alberta independence

00:00:00.000 hello my friends i saw this viral video of some i think she's a teacher they them style teacher

00:00:06.000 just smashing alberta independence with seven rebuttals seven zingers and i thought i think

00:00:15.180 she got all seven of them wrong and i'll take you through them and you tell me but first i want to

00:00:20.620 invite you to become a subscriber to revolution plus it's the video version of this podcast

00:00:24.700 which would help because i want you to see this teacher you really have to see her to get the

00:00:29.200 full feeling of what she's saying go to rebel news plus.com click subscribe it's eight bucks a month

00:00:34.340 and not only do you get the fun vids but you help us stay strong because

00:00:38.080 we take no money from the government and it shows

00:00:40.340 tonight the case against the case against

00:00:59.120 alberta independence it's february 3rd and this is the ezra levant show

00:01:03.200 shame on you you censorious bug

00:01:09.400 oh hi everybody it's great to be back in our world headquarters after an interesting time in calgary

00:01:23.900 at the conservative party of canada it was a very large convention um in some ways it it felt

00:01:29.160 anticlimactic i mean the one live question was what would the support for pierre paulia be in the party

00:01:34.920 given that he lost the last election i mean he was leading by up to 20 or more points for so long and then it all

00:01:42.060 evaporated mark carney was very clever he abandoned the carbon tax at least on the consumer side at least

00:01:49.660 for now and that was enough to take a lot of the stinger out people were sick of justin trudeau but

00:01:54.740 they're not yet sick of mark carney and he just generally came across as less radical and more

00:02:00.480 grown-up he wears suits well and he looks like a central banker of course the key issue was donald

00:02:06.540 trump and mark carney promised that he could finesse he could whisper into donald trump's ear he could

00:02:12.260 handle it i don't think pierre paulia have quite figured out how to position the conservative party

00:02:18.340 on that aided by the media whipping up anti-americanism which has long been a inherent

00:02:24.980 congenital disease in canada mark carney pulled it off pierre paulia have had an excellent showing but

00:02:31.060 excellent doesn't count if someone gets even excellenter the total disappearance of the ndp of course

00:02:37.360 was a factor as always so the fact that pierre paulia have got 87.4 percent of the people's

00:02:42.880 support i think is encouraging and it's uh it also reflects the fact that no one was challenging him

00:02:48.600 you can't beat someone with no one and even for the paulia critics out there i challenge you who

00:02:53.100 would be better who is a better policy wonk who is a better debater who is more energetic who's a

00:03:00.400 better campaigner who is better known i put it to you no one is the only name that might come to mind

00:03:05.420 would be jason kenney but i think he is so discredited from the way he handled covid in alberta

00:03:10.440 that he would have a very difficult time uh becoming the leader of the party i saw that he

00:03:16.300 was there at the conference as a kind of pundit and and i would say he was fairly supportive of

00:03:21.900 pierre paulia which i suppose was good enough but um i saw something just today in the newspaper it was

00:03:27.960 two old prime ministers stephen harper who's not that old but he's a former prime minister now two

00:03:34.480 prime ministers ago and jean cretchen who of course hasn't been in office in more than 20 years

00:03:40.380 he's basically been working for china since then and uh you know when two old lions like that get

00:03:46.380 together they they reminisce and it feels sentimental and nostalgic and in a way i would take either of

00:03:52.880 them as prime minister again i mean stephen harper was quite a good prime minister he had some blind

00:03:56.760 spots he did not appoint conservatives to the judiciary and he allowed not only the cbc to survive

00:04:03.300 but he um presided over the euthanization of um sun news network which to this day i think

00:04:11.100 has caused enormous damage in this country not having a conservative counterweight to cbc and cdb i

00:04:17.860 don't know why stephen harper let it die those 10 years ago but he did um obviously stephen harper

00:04:23.620 would be a great prime minister to have and jean cretchen despite the fact that i was a reform

00:04:29.300 party youth and i worked for preston manning we fought against cretchen every day when you think

00:04:33.900 back on it he would be a he would be totally at home in the conservative party today he was for

00:04:39.660 balanced budgets he said canada should be part of the kyoto protocol on global warming but he never

00:04:46.140 actually did anything about it he didn't bring in a carbon tax he just said yes i like carbon yes i like

00:04:52.360 fighting global warming but he didn't actually do anything about it in fact

00:04:56.100 it's fair to say that he he presided over the birth of the oil sands he himself didn't do the

00:05:03.460 investing or the hard work but he put in place the regular regulatory framework and he kept the more

00:05:09.360 extremist environmentalists like sheila cops out of the way um i put it to you that even on issues like

00:05:15.620 immigration john cretchen is more modest than either the liberals of the conservative party today

00:05:21.300 yeah i would take jean cretchen as a prime minister again he had a blind spot when it comes

00:05:26.060 to communist china but uh you know again he's a taiwan loving anti-communist hawk when you compare him

00:05:34.760 to uh mark carney or justin trudeau so yeah two old prime ministers getting together and the headline

00:05:42.420 that the global mail chose which i think is a fair enough headline was that the two men thought that

00:05:46.940 there should be a united front against donald trump and i read that and i thought

00:05:53.380 that's what two retired aging millionaires on huge pensions who are in a jet set that's that's what

00:06:03.760 they think about that's what they think is important we have to defend canada's honor we need a united front

00:06:08.740 we need to stare down donald trump that's what old men who used to be prime ministers can say

00:06:15.580 but why wouldn't you instead say we need a united front to save ontario's auto sector if you care

00:06:24.200 about that and i sort of do i'm you know i i want those auto workers to work i want the steel factory

00:06:29.820 steel plant to work why wouldn't i why why wouldn't they say let's stand with canadian auto workers in a

00:06:35.580 unified front why wouldn't they say let's be a unified front to get a pipeline built to the ocean

00:06:43.360 so we can sell our oil to other customers besides the united states isn't that interesting that what

00:06:49.860 they chose to agree on was in the in a form um virtue signaling jean-gretchen and stephen harper both

00:06:57.200 agreed that what canada really needs is to fight harder against donald trump hey i i have a question does

00:07:04.920 that actually work i mean i know it feels good and and you have your dignity i suppose but um does it

00:07:12.300 actually work do you actually get the trade deals you need do you actually save jobs because when you

00:07:17.640 are a retired prime minister i don't know what the size of their pension is they probably get a quarter

00:07:21.400 million bucks a year just as a pension let alone all their business deals i mean these guys are

00:07:25.800 millionaires and fair enough um it's pretty easy to say we want to sacrifice thousands and maybe god

00:07:34.180 forbid millions of jobs so we can show that we're super top and boy if i was prime minister i'd take

00:07:40.420 on donald trump this way and if i was prime minister i'd take him on that way yeah no you wouldn't

00:07:46.380 because uh you would understand that 80 of our exports go to the united states and so you would

00:07:52.200 have to be a diplomat and by the way stephen harper knows that he was the prime minister when barack

00:07:56.920 obama was president and the two men couldn't be more different in everything ideologically aesthetically

00:08:03.580 historically culturally economically but then both managed to keep it together and they worked with

00:08:09.860 each other because part of being a president or a prime minister sometimes is to be diplomatic so yeah

00:08:15.740 they they agree that we need to talk tough to put donald trump in his place thank you very little

00:08:22.120 but uh you would destroy our economy even worse than it's being destroyed um and i think that this

00:08:27.560 whole bizarre battle that the canadian soft left anti-americanists led by mark carney are having

00:08:34.500 and just cheered on by the media i think it's one of the reasons why albertans are more separatists now

00:08:40.720 than they were a year ago obviously pierre paulia losing and mark carney winning was an awful sign and

00:08:47.480 it was a sign that confederation just doesn't work for the west and you just can't get rid of the

00:08:51.600 liberals and they can demonize the west and to the delight of eastern voters and win um but it's gotten

00:08:59.520 worse over time and i think it's westerners watching the absolute comedy the absolute circus

00:09:06.940 of mark carney being unable to get anywhere with donald trump and instead pledging a new world

00:09:12.740 order led by china and and flying to qatar another human rights abuser and going to the world economic

00:09:20.060 forum and i think albertans are saying that whole circus that's what you want us to stick around for

00:09:28.000 we were contemplating independence anyways and what you're offering instead of this beautiful

00:09:35.140 independent alberta that would instantly be one of the richest countries in the world

00:09:39.140 what you're offering instead is to be trapped in this runaway freight train with mark carney

00:09:47.020 disparaging america every day and realigning with qatar and china and the world economic forum so i think

00:09:52.380 actually the incompetence of the federal government the increasing taxes and debt and spending i think

00:09:59.340 it's just making things worse in the so-called mou with alberta that might permit a pipeline in the

00:10:04.240 future i don't think that convinced anybody anyways that's my preamble i came across a video on twitter

00:10:11.800 the last i looked it had about 150 000 views on it and it's someone who i i'm not sure if they're

00:10:18.780 really a teacher feels like a teacher who is um giving a little lecture to albertans on why they're

00:10:27.640 really stupid for considering independence and i should tell you the new ecos poll puts the number

00:10:34.120 of people contemplating independence at 41 and the thing is with 41 is it's not 50 it's not a majority

00:10:42.640 but you can better believe that those 41 are extremely motivated and i think there will be

00:10:47.760 a referendum in alberta this year so here is an attempt by an eastern woke sneerer i don't know

00:10:55.020 their pronouns i'm guessing they them um let me play it for you and i'm and i'm doing this because

00:11:00.740 i'm noticing the number one response to people in alberta who are talking about independence

00:11:06.560 is to mock them sneer them insult them and basically say we don't care what you decide you're not

00:11:14.260 leaving as if they actually love albertans instead of just the money they extract every year so i want

00:11:20.340 to play this video for you and i'm going to have a little we'll pause it along the way and i'll just

00:11:25.900 give you a few of my reactions um and i'm calling my comments today the case against the case against

00:11:34.660 alberta so go ahead and click play i think this is a gal go ahead so danielle smith premier of alberta

00:11:42.220 is leading about 275 albertans to think that separation from canada is really a plausible idea

00:11:48.920 time to get the board okay smith would just sit in on my grade eight class all of this would actually

00:11:55.660 be easier for her to understand yeah she's so dumb isn't she ignore the glare it's gonna work

00:12:00.920 out don't worry don't worry it's new but i like the picture in picture thing we got going on here

00:12:06.180 stand by for the markers this could be messy nobody really knows alberta separation

00:12:13.460 oh that's pretty stop for a second there do you notice anything there

00:12:18.420 oh just move it so her head's not in the way this teacher this scholar who's who's already

00:12:25.280 mocking danielle smith for not being the sharpest knife in the drawer she spelled separation wrong

00:12:30.280 now that's okay it's a tricky word to spell but um when you're mocking a premier as stupid as she

00:12:37.240 just did to danielle smith and she's about to call albertans stupid potatoes like they're ugly and fat

00:12:43.980 and dumb potatoes it's best to make sure that you yourself don't come across as stupid but let's

00:12:49.760 listen to her points um why alberta separation separation is a bad idea go ahead play the rest

00:12:57.180 that's pretty come a little bit closer so you can get a front row seat i'm gonna give this little

00:13:02.880 band of potato men trying to make deals with down south seven legitimate significant reasons why

00:13:09.640 secession is a bad idea oh can somebody explain to them what secession means i don't have time

00:13:14.820 okay stop right there you're so stupid you albertans you don't even know what secession means

00:13:20.800 you know what i i think that most canadians probably wouldn't know what secession means

00:13:25.960 had we not been put through the 50 year psychodrama of quebec talking about secession um the two

00:13:32.400 referendums including one in 1995 that came within half a point and not just the secession

00:13:36.780 referendums but the response by the political system in canada to give quebec tens or hundreds

00:13:43.520 of billions of dollars to placate them so in that regard she is right if we had never been forced

00:13:50.440 to watch and then buy off quebec separatism we probably wouldn't know what the word secession means

00:13:57.420 although anyone who knows the u.s civil war would know the word but you but you see what i'm talking

00:14:01.980 about here we haven't even got into the substance of it and she's called danielle smith stupid she's

00:14:08.660 talked about potato man maybe she's talking about jeffrey rath by the way if i looked like this

00:14:13.360 person i wouldn't be criticizing people's appearance as my first point and um she spelled separate

00:14:20.040 separation incorrectly and she's um saying we don't know what secession means there is a commonality

00:14:26.820 here there's a theme here if you haven't noticed it's called sneering at condescending to mocking

00:14:32.280 albertans i don't think that persuades anyone just a theory in fact i think it makes people angrier

00:14:40.660 and it it confirms a stereotype that many albertans have that the rest of the country looks down on it

00:14:47.740 sneers at it treats it as second class but demands the money don't they anyway keep playing economic

00:14:54.740 devastation capital will leave corporations will leave people will leave this will devastate your

00:15:02.740 tax base and in all fairness collapse your housing market is that what you're going for stop for a

00:15:09.720 second there um you do know that alberta is by far the largest net contributor to confederation

00:15:17.000 over time it's in the hundreds of billions of dollars every year it's in the tens of billions of

00:15:23.340 dollars that's money that leaves alberta goes to ottawa and is redistributed partly pays for ottawa's

00:15:30.740 successes and is redistributed to other provinces through redistribution and transfer payments the

00:15:36.300 idea that alberta unhooked from its obligations to bail out ottawa would be economically devastated

00:15:43.340 is precisely the opposite of what so obviously will happen i have no doubt that there would be some

00:15:49.920 dislocation and discombobulation but all the oil companies in alberta they're not going to move

00:15:56.640 because the oil is still there sun core sin crude i'm i'm there's a hundred oil and gas companies to

00:16:03.620 name they're going to stay where the oil is they're not going to the day after a referendum they're not

00:16:08.920 going to stop drilling people aren't going to suddenly stop buying alberta oil or gas um it's just

00:16:16.160 not going to happen i if i would worry for the the canadian dollar the next day because if alberta

00:16:22.440 voted to separate i would imagine the canadian dollar would lose five cents in a single day

00:16:28.120 there would be economic devastation but i don't think it would be for alberta here keep playing

00:16:31.960 you think taxes are bad you're going to try the whole tariff thing as well are you going to explain

00:16:38.080 to the people it's still them paying the tax okay stop for a second about that whole tariff thing

00:16:43.780 alberta is a massive exporter that tariff argument doesn't make any sense donald trump uses tariffs

00:16:52.160 on companies that want to ship on countries who want to ship goods to america he says you can only

00:16:58.800 do that if if we charge a tariff on them um alberta is not going to charge tariffs alberta is actually a

00:17:06.160 very free trading kind of place alberta though has an enormous amount of oil and gas that it sells to

00:17:12.820 the united states and the tariff is already on i think it's five percent or ten percent something

00:17:17.120 very modest because you can't really tariff oil because it's a global commodity that's priced

00:17:22.420 globally donald trump knows that and actually alberta and uh america are very strongly connected

00:17:29.400 through the free trade agreement that trump obviously negotiated and wants the idea that

00:17:36.180 alberta that tariffs that alberta would put tariffs on its export i just don't even understand what she

00:17:42.080 was saying but she sort of sounded certain about it and then and certain that everyone else was pretty

00:17:47.400 dopey keep playing land locked vulnerability as a land law newly independent alberta you're gonna lose

00:17:59.040 guaranteed access to pipelines and tidewaters instantaneously oh oh were you gonna rely on

00:18:08.140 the rest of canada to pick up the slack and make you guys economically solvent interesting or were you

00:18:15.600 gonna rely on the potato down south to swoop up and save you and rescue you and build you up to a

00:18:23.000 sovereign power that you wish to be are you that dense number three and they don't tell you second

00:18:30.080 i'm i mean maybe i am dense but i the way i see it is alberta's landlocked now as she says and the

00:18:38.340 other provinces block alberta's access to the sea right now as she says i mean isn't that the entire

00:18:45.120 problem we've been talking about the proposed pipeline from alberta to new grunswick called

00:18:50.220 energy east blocked by trudeau the northern gateway pipeline to the north bc coast block

00:18:56.380 there is no access within canada to tidewater and i mean i i suppose she's not from alberta so she

00:19:06.580 doesn't know that that's the whole thing is we're being alberta is being extorted by premier eby

00:19:12.320 and this ngo this u.s funded ngo called coastal first nations mark carney met with coastal first

00:19:18.980 nations and said he met with first nations that's the brand name that's the name of the corporation

00:19:24.020 funded it's not an indian band there's not an indian band called coastal first nations

00:19:29.420 it's a lobby group that he met with they currently have a veto and you've heard that eb and coastal

00:19:36.640 first nations lobby groups say they have a veto it's not true in law but politically it's de facto

00:19:42.980 and mark carney has said yeah in this mou he's offered alberta it's a de facto veto so the answer

00:19:50.400 is we would alberta would probably get better access to the seas an independent country because

00:19:56.300 there is a concept of international law in allowing landlocked countries access to the sea but i say again

00:20:01.240 do you doubt for a second that the united states wouldn't take all that alberta oil you saw secretary

00:20:08.580 of treasury scott besant say that just the other day remember this and with all the the oil and the

00:20:14.920 natural resources coming out of canada texas still larger well look alberta is a wealth of natural

00:20:19.960 resources but they they won't let them build a pipeline the to the pacific i i think we should

00:20:27.400 let them come down into the u.s and alberta is a natural partner uh for the u.s uh they they have

00:20:35.660 great resources the albertans are very independent people um rumors that they may have a referendum on

00:20:43.600 whether they want to stay in canada or not sounds like you may know something up there uh look uh

00:20:48.920 you know people are saying people people people are talking people are talking people want uh sovereignty

00:20:55.480 and trump himself has said he wants to revive the keystone excel pipeline remember this he says our

00:21:01.100 country is doing very well and he was just thinking about the company that was shooed away and canceled

00:21:06.920 by the biden administration who wanted to build the keystone excel pipeline he is inviting them back

00:21:12.180 we want the keystone excel pipeline built he wants a pipeline built in in the northeast in new england

00:21:17.740 where i am from where we have some of the highest electricity and utility rates in the country

00:21:22.240 so i think she inadvertently makes the point there is no access to tidewater for alberta

00:21:27.740 now mark carney's offer in the mou to alberta doesn't guarantee it in fact throws problems and

00:21:34.640 blockades in front of it whereas donald trump and his cabinet have have each said that they would love

00:21:40.620 a southbound pipeline yeah i i just don't think this person knows much other than how to be

00:21:45.920 condescending and i don't know but maybe i'm dense keep playing this in the brochure

00:21:51.060 massive transition costs you're a brand new country guys you're gonna need a military you're

00:22:00.040 gonna need a currency you're gonna need passports you're gonna need trade relationships you're going

00:22:05.280 to need everything you have been depending on the rest of canada for oh and you're definitely

00:22:12.160 gonna need border security because you know somebody from down south is just gonna swoop up and

00:22:16.680 take you over anyways number four if you stop that for a second a bit of a comedy there about

00:22:21.300 an army canada as a whole needs an army we really don't have one that's able to defend our country

00:22:27.640 as i've mentioned on various shows whenever there's something incurring an incursion in canadian airspace

00:22:33.220 it's a u.s jet from alaska or or washington that scrambles to get it when that chinese hot air balloon

00:22:39.800 came over canada's air force was named unable to stop but it was americans that were scrambled

00:22:45.020 saying that canada that alberta wouldn't have a military because canada it is sort of funny because

00:22:51.540 canada doesn't have much of a military but um there would be soldiers uh there is a military base in

00:22:58.680 alberta and if that if those if there was a question about who those soldiers would work for

00:23:04.400 well you could just recruit new ones there's no threat of an invasion um to alberta that's but that

00:23:10.760 is one of the things that has to be negotiated that's probably one of the biggest ones getting

00:23:15.300 passports is pretty easy um and i i think anyone who has tried to get a passport in the last five

00:23:20.880 years and knows how slow and expensive it is wouldn't exactly say that ottawa is giving us great

00:23:25.800 service there there are some things that would change but they're so modest um trade agreements alberta

00:23:32.640 does the vast majority of our trade with the united states and we just heard from trump that he wants

00:23:37.700 that oil to keep coming and he's got a very light tariff on it which is practically zero i think this

00:23:43.720 person doesn't understand that alberta is very integrated with the united states right now over

00:23:50.340 oil and gas mainly and agriculture to a degree why would that change just because the rest of canada

00:23:57.060 is so hostile and condescending to alberta i think america would be so welcoming it would be

00:24:02.240 incredible here let's keep watching it's it's she's about to get desperate with her points take

00:24:06.720 a look at this fiscal challenges i know danielle knows this but for her base that's so easily

00:24:13.660 convinced and manipulated fiscal is about money fellas so with your newly found independence you're

00:24:21.520 losing all federal support systems there goes any money for health care education social services of

00:24:29.700 any kind and i realize you're trying to privatize everything already so nobody has access to

00:24:33.940 anything do the people of alberta know that's what you're planning or or is that just in your head

00:24:38.400 number five okay stop for a second um those three things that she outlined health care education and

00:24:45.160 social services those are all under the provincial jurisdiction as you know in our constitution

00:24:50.140 um there's certain things that the federal government does the criminal code the army

00:24:54.080 and certain things the province does hospitals and schools are really the two biggest ones i don't

00:25:00.260 think she actually knows what a provincial budget looks like it's not just alberta it's every province

00:25:04.700 by far the the massive budgets in provinces are health care education is beneath them beneath that

00:25:11.580 that's already taxed and paid for um by the province the the government of canada does not pay for

00:25:19.380 schools in calgary um there may be some transfer payments but they're rounding errors compared to

00:25:25.460 how much is spent and by the way how much alberta sends to the rest of the country i just don't think

00:25:30.020 this gal really knows how it works but she's extremely certain of herself isn't she keep playing

00:25:35.100 indigenous rights the first nations community within alberta was there long before you now we're not

00:25:43.880 just talking about who was there first we're talking about an indigenous community that has

00:25:49.280 established treaty rights with the crown before alberta's inception as a province not only where

00:25:56.340 they are first but they have legal right to the land that you think you can just pull out from under

00:26:02.640 them now i realize danielle and her ilk really don't care about indigenous rights but i would really

00:26:09.440 like you to push this to the limit so they could take you to court and wipe the floor with you it

00:26:16.280 would make my heart grow three sizes six stop for a second there um can i invite you to do something

00:26:22.820 that i think you would find very interesting can i invite you to read one of the many treaties with

00:26:28.560 indian bands signed in canada in alberta uh treaties six seven and eight you can google them very quickly

00:26:34.480 um i think one of the reasons why they're not in common parlance why people don't talk about them

00:26:39.920 a lot is they're actually i mean they're very gentle and and cordial but in the very first sentence

00:26:46.740 what these treaties are is outlined and i'm sorry to to break it to you they are treaties of surrender

00:26:55.060 the word surrender is right in there these indian bands surrender their rights and in return they get a

00:27:03.260 small indian reserve and they get certain annual benefits um health and education they were described

00:27:10.460 usually in the language of the 19th century um those are their they have certain rights under the

00:27:18.740 treaty that would continue as this person actually noted the treaties were signed before alberta was

00:27:24.500 technically a province alberta becoming a province didn't interfere with that if alberta became some

00:27:29.440 other entity it would respect those treaties and so would the indian bands that surrendered i'm not trying to be mean but

00:27:35.840 it was a surrender of a militarily weak society to a dominant military society we don't like to use words like

00:27:45.520 conquer because we want to be respectful and generous to our indigenous friends but those treaties cannot and will not stop

00:27:52.640 the destiny of alberta not legally not constitutionally and by the way implying that danielle smith is a racist or something

00:28:00.720 is is just simply a cheap shot and i'm surprised it actually took this long for her to make it keep playing the video

00:28:07.020 pension complications oh were you under the assumption that canada was going to pay for your cpp when you left

00:28:15.120 and number seven okay stop for a second right there right now the federal government is hiding from alberta

00:28:23.600 the the accounting breakdown of how much money albertans contribute versus other canadians and the reason

00:28:29.440 they're doing that is because alberta has so much higher uh gdp and they have a high labor participation

00:28:37.840 rate and their workers are younger it's such an economic tentpole for the whole country

00:28:43.040 uh it's so obvious the reason why the federal government is literally hiding these numbers in

00:28:47.920 the province of alberta may have to go to court to get them it's because alberta is a massive

00:28:53.280 over subsidizer of the canada pension plan compared to say and again i don't want to pick on them but

00:28:58.560 let's say newfoundland or quebec um but here's the thing and it's an interesting question i i first thought

00:29:04.720 about the last year when someone said would you still be able to keep your canadian passport if alberta

00:29:10.880 separated would you still be able to get your pension well why wouldn't you i mean you can keep

00:29:17.760 your passport if you live in florida uh you can keep your passport where i mean would the

00:29:24.880 would the federal government say hey everyone who is a resident of alberta no longer has that just

00:29:31.200 doesn't even make sense and if you contributed in your pension for years uh that's an individual

00:29:38.080 thing it's it's not a where you reside or it's certainly not a how you vote thing now i i'm sure

00:29:44.800 that the pension would be one of the big things that was negotiated right at the top but as i say

00:29:49.920 again it's an that's a massive subsidy from albertans to the rest of the country all right i think we're

00:29:55.840 almost done go ahead reduced trade leverage do you really think as a tiny little independent nation

00:30:07.280 that you're gonna have a better trade advantage to negotiate with the united states of america

00:30:15.680 have you ever taken a class on power dynamics do you understand history at all do you understand what

00:30:22.160 that's going to do to your oil industry because let me tell you folks they're going to walk in

00:30:27.760 they're going to take what they want to take they're going to make you bend that knee and kiss that ring

00:30:34.960 and then he's going to walk around telling everybody how he turned you into the 51st state

00:30:39.920 with actually no political power whatsoever hey danielle can you clean off my board i don't have time for this

00:30:47.680 yeah um does alberta have any political power within canada right now the election the federal

00:30:55.600 election is usually decided before the polls even close in alberta um alberta is grossly undercounted

00:31:03.280 in terms of seats i mean compare the four seats that little pei has the pei has about 140 000 citizens

00:31:10.080 it has four seats in parliament alberta has over five million proportionately it would have double the

00:31:16.320 seats if it were on par with the with the atlantic provinces um the supreme court there's a set aside

00:31:24.880 of three out of nine seats for quebecers there's so many things in which alberta is underrepresented

00:31:31.360 or completely absent from bilingualism is a way of keeping albertans out of federal government jobs to

00:31:38.240 say that alberta is an equal right now is not true and to say that alberta is the entire implication of

00:31:48.720 that hectoring condescending speech is that albertans don't know how good they have it and that alberta

00:31:54.720 would be desperate if it was disconnected from canada the only thing that's keeping alberta going is

00:32:00.400 canada it's just astonishing to me that this has 150 000 views although they could be hate views people

00:32:07.360 watching it to laugh i think every single fact in there is wrong including how to spell separatism

00:32:14.320 but the idea that alberta is the poor cousin that needs to take a raw deal within canada

00:32:19.520 that it can continue to be smeared every day by the cbc and this hour is 22 minutes mocking alberta

00:32:26.160 and daniel smith in a way they would never do for any liberal or eastern politician that alberta has

00:32:32.240 to be liberated of its money so much so that the government will hide how much they're taking how

00:32:37.040 much they're taking that alberta's industry can be cut off from the coast in a way that would never

00:32:45.040 happen for an industry like ontario's automobile industry or quebec's air industry i think the fact

00:32:53.200 that they're sneering and they're hating means they don't realize or maybe they do realize that albertans

00:33:00.000 are more and more deciding they've just had it i think the ones who are so angry and bitter and

00:33:07.520 insulting i think they're doing this to make themselves feel better because i really don't

00:33:12.480 think a single alberton would be persuaded by that presentation other than albertans who are already

00:33:19.280 anti-alberta and pro mark carney there are a few of them i tweeted that if that gal were put on a

00:33:27.200 speaking tour in alberta going from town to town from red deer to pincher creek to you know to

00:33:34.880 actually small towns and the big cities too she would generate so much hatred just like mark carney

00:33:41.680 does just like justin trudeau trudeau does i think she would push independence over the top what do you

00:33:47.440 think stay with us more ahead well i'm back at our world headquarters but i sure enjoyed our brief

00:34:01.680 visit to the conservative party of canada convention in alberta we had a really big team on the ground we

00:34:07.440 had five journalists if my math is right and then we had a party a local pub the james joyce

00:34:14.880 it was packed in fact a couple of people i think were turned away for fire code reasons i very much

00:34:19.280 apologize for that i don't know um we just jammed it packed i think rebel was a hot ticket that night

00:34:26.000 one of my favorite parts about it was the deployment of tamara leach as a rebel journalist now she's been

00:34:32.720 doing journalism for us here and there including on the streets of toronto doing streeters at young

00:34:37.520 dundas square but it was amazing just watching her at the convention she was being asked to take

00:34:44.560 a selfie every five minutes here's a little snippet of how that looked well she wasn't just saying hi

00:34:49.600 to people and taking selfies she was doing journalism she was journalism including interviewing members

00:34:56.480 of parliament and here she is to talk to us about it our dear friend tamara leach great to see you

00:35:00.800 nice to see you thanks so much for inviting me on tonight ezra well you know what it was a pleasure

00:35:07.360 to watch you and i'm glad you were working with some of our serious pros i mean sheila gun reed our

00:35:11.840 chief reporter was there lise merle came in from saskatchewan sydney bizarre and angelica toy from

00:35:17.280 calgary i i thought it was pretty fun i thought it was like uh the whole gang was there was a big crew

00:35:22.800 for rebel news it really was and you know like i'm so grateful for all their help and their guidance

00:35:29.200 obviously i'm a rookie and so you know to have all of them there you know what their experience

00:35:34.720 and knowledge was definitely invaluable to me they provided me with a lot of really great tips and

00:35:38.880 helped me you know go track down some mps for some stories and it was a great team i had a wonderful

00:35:44.800 weekend well it was a pleasure to see now let me ask you i i got there a little bit late because

00:35:49.920 i was a little under the weather but uh when i arrived you were in the thick of it you were

00:35:54.240 interviewing in fact your own mp give us a minute on who that is and then we'll throw to a sample of

00:36:00.560 that clip yeah you bet i had the opportunity of running into and interviewing my own mp glenn motts

00:36:08.480 now a lot of people will remember that glenn was trying to be very helpful very early on in the convoy

00:36:14.560 days and you know he did try very hard behind the scenes to facilitate meetings between

00:36:20.080 freedom convoy uh leadership and uh other members of cabinet like omar al gabra who was

00:36:26.160 the transport minister at that time marco mendicino uh there was there was a few other ones that he

00:36:31.120 really tried behind the scenes to facilitate those but he was shut down at every turn and then of

00:36:36.240 course he was very instrumental in the committee meetings into the emergencies act that took place

00:36:43.120 shortly after um uh the the convoy ended so it was really good to talk to him and get some of

00:36:49.680 his thoughts on what he was doing behind the scenes both during and after the protest i didn't know

00:36:55.520 that my esteem for him has just risen tremendously here let's throw to a clip of your interview take

00:37:01.280 a look good afternoon glenn it's so great to see you here today so um i've heard that this is the

00:37:07.920 largest convention conservative convention that yes i just talked to one of the party officials and

00:37:13.040 this is the largest one on record with the largest number of delegates and and the the biggest number

00:37:18.320 of people registered so far registration is still open so it's fantastic yeah good congratulations on that

00:37:24.320 so uh i've known i've known you for quite a few years now and um i remember you know during the

00:37:29.440 time of the freedom convoy that we connected there and you gave me some very good advice um when um

00:37:36.320 what was the efforts that you took following the convoy to sort of get to the bottom of what happened

00:37:42.960 well um i'm p leary brock and i served on what was called the declaration of the emergencies act committee

00:37:49.680 and uh so we spent the better part of two and a half three years following the invocation of the act

00:37:56.320 to speak with government officials we brought in parent bd who wrote the emergencies act back

00:38:03.120 uh you know back in the day uh we tried to get to the bottom of their the uh you know what information

00:38:08.880 does the government rely on and it became very clear early on that uh they were less than transparent

00:38:16.240 and they certainly didn't want to be accountable and we can go back even farther um what efforts

00:38:22.080 um on behalf like trying to make those connections while we were in ottawa um i remember that you were

00:38:28.560 trying to you were trying to to start some conversations between some of the organizers and

00:38:33.840 you and i chatted while you were in ottawa and i said so so what is it that you guys really want to get

00:38:39.280 what message do you want to get across and we talked about you know those wanting to hijack your

00:38:44.400 message and not letting them hijack your message yes and the other thing is i asked you have you had

00:38:49.600 an opportunity to connect with government and like what is it that you wanted and and you said we just

00:38:54.320 want to be able to tell government officials it doesn't have to be you know any in any great venue it

00:38:59.680 can be you know one-on-one it can be on the phone it can be any way like that the impact that the the

00:39:06.400 invocation the the you know the indication of the act because it wasn't it didn't happen then yet right

00:39:11.360 but the the whole uh response to covet how it was impacting the livelihoods of canadians

00:39:17.520 and that's what people were coming down there for well good for you i didn't know that and it's i

00:39:22.240 tell you it's sort of fun to have that come full circle now you are a rebel journalist interviewing

00:39:28.720 the mp about his take on the convoy it's sort of interesting how life goes sometimes um who else

00:39:34.480 did you interview i i think you were telling me you were and again i i'm sorry i wasn't there for the

00:39:37.840 whole thing but um tell me tell me some of the other mps that you interviewed yes uh i had the

00:39:45.280 pleasure of interviewing former mp michelle ferrari uh she was she was fantastic she's a really

00:39:51.440 passionate lady uh that was a great interview i really enjoyed that one i also got to interview

00:39:56.400 andrew lawton who obviously again you know very instrumental yes yes he was he was um along with rebel

00:40:03.840 news one of the very first independent journalists on the ground in ottawa to document what was really

00:40:08.560 going on of course he wrote a book and now he's he's an mp um in london ontario and a very good friend

00:40:15.440 of mine so that was great and then my final interview was with bc's uh pal river mp aaron gunn who i've

00:40:22.880 been a fan of for quite some time long before he was even elected as a member of parliament i think

00:40:27.680 you know he did some documentaries the first one that i saw was i believe called vancouver is dying and

00:40:32.560 then he did another one called canada is dying and they were very eye-opening and quite impactful so

00:40:38.080 um really an honor to meet him too and and i'm so grateful for the chance to interview him as well

00:40:43.840 you know i just want to give you a personal thought and maybe this isn't professional this is more

00:40:48.400 emotional but to see you interacting with these people of high station with these people of public

00:40:55.600 authority these people who have won elections these are public officials to see you interacting with

00:41:01.360 them on a peer-to-peer basis talking about the business of the nation gives me tremendous

00:41:08.080 uh hope and pride because they tried to denormalize you i don't mean these mps i mean the system the

00:41:15.360 government the liberals they tried to denormalize you they tried to criminalize you they tried to

00:41:20.800 destroy you they tried to silence you they tried to break you and i can only imagine what it was like

00:41:27.120 spending 49 days in in jail i i hope i never have a chance to find out what it's like you went through

00:41:32.960 that whole thing and you came out the other side and you're more powerful than ever a bigger platform

00:41:38.000 and voice than ever and just to hear you just these past five minutes describing going toe-to-toe with

00:41:44.720 leading public figures talking about the substance of our lives that's just a wonderful ending to the

00:41:52.160 the story and it's not an ending it's a new chapter it's a wonderful new chapter to the story

00:41:57.680 yeah agreed and and you're right i think we're just starting i think we're just beginning something

00:42:01.520 really great um and and it is full circle really you know these were uh a lot of these people and like

00:42:08.160 you said not the conservative party themselves necessarily but the people their peers you know

00:42:12.160 are the people that we were just really trying to have a conversation with just like i just did

00:42:17.360 with the mps at the cpc convention all we ever wanted to do was sit down and have a conversation

00:42:23.280 so you know this does feel um you know a little bit full circle um and it can only get better from

00:42:30.560 here so i'm really excited for what we're going to do uh in 2026 ezra well we're just so proud to be

00:42:37.840 associated with you here at rebel news and thank you to all our donors who have made the tamera project

00:42:42.400 as we're calling it come true one of the things that we didn't need to do last week when was provide

00:42:47.760 security because we were in a high security environment but one of our pledges to our viewers

00:42:52.480 is that when you're out in the world that we would have security with you because even some of the

00:42:56.240 people you mentioned there um you know they get jostled uh and we've seen you know uh francis widdowson

00:43:02.960 in british columbia get jostled and we and so it one of the our pledges to you is that we will make

00:43:08.160 sure that you are safe wherever you go and one of the things we also do and i'll just mention this

00:43:12.480 in closing because some people are still confused you are complying with the terms of your house

00:43:19.280 arrest because our employment arrangement with you is an exemption to that so we do a lot of red tape

00:43:26.480 we do a lot of checking in with the probation officer but what we're doing is is compliant right

00:43:31.920 absolutely i am exempt from my house arrest for necessities of life for emergencies um for my

00:43:42.080 community service and for work so obviously we have to take all the extra steps it is a lot of extra

00:43:48.880 steps as far as scheduling uh departure times arrival times where the event is at where i'm going to be

00:43:54.400 eating so there's a lot to it um ironically i happen to be a logistics expert uh self-proclaimed

00:44:01.520 mind you so you know it's not if this is not stuff that i'm not used to doing already um but i did take

00:44:07.920 it for granted of course the last few years just being able to come and go as i please but it's

00:44:12.000 definitely um we can definitely navigate it and i think we're doing a great job my cso has been very

00:44:18.720 happy so far i've been completely compliant make sure that i have my papers on me at all times and um

00:44:25.280 um and you know i've also got you know like even at our event on on saturday night sheila was very

00:44:32.160 um firm and and and and ready to get me you know out of there and back to my hotel room one time so

00:44:37.600 so i've got a great team around me and uh yeah i think uh it's going to be a good year we've got to

00:44:42.720 protect you protect tamara at all costs well it's great to see you thank you for the report let's close

00:44:48.160 this segment i'll come back in a second with some letters to the editor but i want to play just a little

00:44:52.080 bit of your interview with our dear friend andrew lawton who we really got to know when he was an

00:44:56.400 independent journalist and by the way he would go with us to davos switzerland to cover the world

00:45:00.560 economic forum now he's a big shot in the conservative party uh let's just play a couple

00:45:05.360 moments i love watching you in the house of commons i mean you've just you're such an inspiration i think

00:45:10.640 for so many people um that want to get involved in politics and i just want to say you know i watched

00:45:16.560 your exchange with uh stephen mckinnon the other day in the house and uh and i was obviously unimpressed

00:45:22.960 with his with his answer i mean how what what did you think of that well i i look i i mean i i didn't

00:45:28.880 ask the question expecting an answer but i had hoped that there would be one and one of the big

00:45:32.800 frustrations i've seen is that the liberals will want to claim credit for things that justin trudeau

00:45:37.520 did when it suits them and then when it's something controversial they say oh this is a new government

00:45:41.760 we have nothing to do with that and the exchange you're referring to i was asking if the liberals

00:45:46.000 will accept the federal court of appeal ruling on the emergencies act and accept that they violated

00:45:50.960 the constitutional rights of canadians or if they would appeal it and he wouldn't give an answer and

00:45:55.840 again it's another example of they're trying to disclaim responsibility for this trudeau era decision

00:46:02.800 but now if they appeal it they have to own that decision and they have to basically own that they do not

00:46:07.120 believe they broke the law even though two courts have ruled that they did well

00:46:11.600 there you have it tamara great to see you and we look forward to seeing you on the next journalistic

00:46:15.680 mission yes i'm planning to head down to sean of in saskatchewan tomorrow so if that works out

00:46:22.480 i'll have a report for you coming in very soon well that's great you're getting out there what a

00:46:27.200 delight thank you my friend thank you so much ezra there she is tamara leach very proud to have

00:46:33.440 her on the team stay with us your letters to me next

00:46:45.200 hey welcome back your letters to me by the way isn't tamara leach great i mean i know i got a bit

00:46:49.520 personal there but uh i feel so satisfied that instead of her being kept in house arrest kept out

00:47:00.320 of the world that she's out there and we're doing it lawfully and it's working i think she's becoming

00:47:06.320 a great journalist i think she's more than a journalist so she's an ambassador for freedom

00:47:11.120 and civil liberties and for the little guy the underdog anyways don't mind me i'm gushing a bit forgive

00:47:16.640 me uh here's some letters that you sent to me claudia obertan says i find it extremely rich and

00:47:23.520 very offensive that this hour has 22 minutes feels justified in mocking the conservative side while at

00:47:28.480 the same time getting their funding from canadian taxpayers many who vote conservative why don't

00:47:33.520 they decline this funding and fundraise for themselves and positive they had to sink or swim

00:47:37.440 they would mostly sink i think you're right about that you know there's certain things that you just

00:47:42.880 get better at by doing and failing and then getting up and failing and i have to think i'm not an expert

00:47:48.480 in it but i have to think that stand-up comedy or comedy sketches is one of those things

00:47:52.400 um like being a talk show host like being a door-to-door salesman it's the kind of thing you

00:47:58.400 just have to flop at fail at a thousand times before it works or it doesn't work at all and you

00:48:05.280 quit and get a different job and by getting a government gig it ends that meritocracy because

00:48:14.240 you're just being subsidized because you tell anti-conservative jokes you talk about liberal policies

00:48:19.120 with this with a laugh track and you get paid for it so you think you're a successful comedian

00:48:24.640 but you're not funny at all funny comedians work endlessly workshop their jokes fix them try them out

00:48:32.480 and 99 fail only one percent succeed and i'll tell you one thing they ain't on this hour is 22 minutes

00:48:40.720 next letter thank you for sending them mickey mode says very well said trump's bringing back the

00:48:47.680 american system and it's killing the elite globalists as they are in panic mode you know as i said at the

00:48:52.960 outset i mean jean chretchen and stephen harper they're actually more alike than they are different

00:48:58.240 i think uh ideologically policy wise and even in their temperament they're both they have sort of dry

00:49:04.240 senses of humor but they're both old men i mean harper's not that old but he's getting up there

00:49:10.720 and so they think in terms of the sweep of time and legacy and honor and those are all good things

00:49:17.280 but for them to say we got to take on trump put him in his place we need you tonight in front against

00:49:22.400 trump that's not going to help this country and i think i really believe that that mess is one of

00:49:29.360 the reasons why alberta separatism is is increasing albertans are just saying if that's you if that's

00:49:35.360 what you're doing if that's what you're spending our money on if that's how you think canada is being

00:49:39.600 an anti-american battering ram which is so stupid because you're going to lose those auto factories

00:49:45.440 maybe we'll try it on our own that that tick tock video that gal just sneering oh alberta you're

00:49:51.280 going to be devastated yeah no i don't think so i think the one thing trump does want from alberta

00:49:57.680 is our oil see how it goes that's our show for today until tomorrow on behalf of all of us at rebel

00:50:03.840 world headquarters see you at home good night and keep fighting for freedom

Rebel News Podcast - February 03, 2026

EZRA LEVANT ｜ The case against the case against Alberta independence

Episode Stats

Length

Words per Minute

Word Count

Sentence Count

Misogynist Sentences

Hate Speech Sentences

Summary

Transcript