The Alberta Project - June 11, 2025


Alberta： A History of Separatism (part 2)


Episode Stats

Length

10 minutes

Words per Minute

147.0855

Word Count

1,514

Sentence Count

86

Misogynist Sentences

1

Hate Speech Sentences

1


Summary

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

This is the second part in a two-part series on Alberta s history of separatism. In this episode, we will cover the history of the Reform Party of Canada and its impact on the oil and gas sector in Alberta.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.240 Hi everyone, and welcome to the second part in the two-part series about Alberta's history of separatism.
00:00:08.400 So without further ado, let's continue where we left off.
00:00:22.020 In 1987, Preston Manning, son of Alberta's longest-serving Premier Ernest Manning,
00:00:27.980 formed the Reform Party of Canada.
00:00:30.500 The aim of the party was to address issues of Western disgruntlement and alienation within the federal Canadian Parliament,
00:00:36.800 something that was long overdue.
00:00:38.840 While many members of the party had advocated for Albertan independence,
00:00:42.540 the party aimed to keep separatist sentiments at bay as it worked to achieve its goals within the confines of Canada.
00:00:49.500 In the 1993 election, the Reform Party of Canada won a staggering 52 seats,
00:00:55.080 making it a formidable force in Parliament, but at the expense of the progressive Conservatives,
00:01:00.280 who were far more concerned with Central and Eastern Canada and paid little attention to the West.
00:01:05.240 In the same election, the energy minister in charge of enforcing the disastrous national energy program under Pierre Trudeau,
00:01:12.460 Jean Chrétien, is elected to prime ministership, with yet again another majority liberal government.
00:01:19.400 Chrétien was in fact a great admirer of Pierre Trudeau, going on record to say,
00:01:23.960 the genius of Mr. Trudeau was in sensing the desire among our people in seizing the moment.
00:01:31.120 More like seizing Alberta's wealth.
00:01:33.660 Although he was nowhere near as disastrous as Pierre Trudeau,
00:01:37.420 Chrétien's tenure was still stained by a growing sense of Western alienation, and for good reason.
00:01:44.320 Under his reign, the federal government was criticized for being hesitant on supporting pipeline and oil sands projects.
00:01:50.260 This perception of hesitancy was due to the fact that federal approvals of such projects had experienced many delays.
00:01:57.300 In 1997, Chrétien signed the Kyoto Protocol, which aimed to reduce global greenhouse emissions.
00:02:03.820 This decision was made without any consultation with Alberta,
00:02:07.520 whose economy heavily relied and still relies on carbon-intensive industries such as oil and gas.
00:02:13.240 His government was also hesitant to make infrastructure investments in Alberta.
00:02:17.980 They'd rather focus on investment on Ontario and Quebec, where they gobble up the most votes,
00:02:23.400 even though Alberta contributed billions of dollars in tax revenue each year,
00:02:27.780 all the while garnering no benefit from equalization.
00:02:31.240 The Canadian Senate is a body of government whose members are appointed by the Prime Minister.
00:02:35.340 Ontario and Quebec each have 24 seats in the Senate, while Alberta and other Western provinces only have 6 seats.
00:02:44.480 A quarter of the representation of Ontario and Quebec.
00:02:47.680 Reformers in Alberta called for an elected, equal, and effective Senate,
00:02:52.040 whereby senators were voted for, not appointed, and with every province given an equal number of seats,
00:02:58.480 all the while making the Senate more effective in influencing federal legislation.
00:03:02.680 In 1998, Burt Brown won a Senate election in Alberta,
00:03:06.800 but Chrétien, the boss who called the shots, refused to appoint him, despite public pressure to do so.
00:03:12.700 Albertans deemed this decision to be a slap in the face to their sovereignty as voters.
00:03:18.940 It marked a clear sign that Ottawa did not take Albertans' concerns seriously,
00:03:23.300 and underscored the over-representation and domination of central Canada in federal institutions.
00:03:29.440 On a more positive note, the Federal Reform Party increased its seat count from 52 to 60 in the 1997 election,
00:03:37.820 making them the official opposition party.
00:03:40.080 In 2000, the Reform Party rebranded itself as the Canadian Reform Conservative Alliance Party,
00:03:45.260 which was then merged with the Progressive Conservative Party in 2003 to form the Conservative Party of Canada,
00:03:51.060 with Stephen Harper elected as its leader.
00:03:53.540 Harper's Conservative Party went on to form government in the 2006 federal election,
00:03:57.680 bringing an end to Alberta's 30-year nightmare.
00:04:01.840 His government's mandate was comprised of fiscal accountability, tax cuts, crime legislation, and resource development.
00:04:09.000 His government was much appreciated and had a very strong base in Alberta,
00:04:12.920 as they were unilateral in their support for energy development, lower taxes, and limited government.
00:04:18.060 They went on to push back on ridiculous federal environmental regulations
00:04:21.960 that were deemed to be obstacles to Alberta's oil and gas sector,
00:04:25.620 and even pulled out of the Kyoto Accord.
00:04:27.960 But unfortunately, Alberta's good fortune would run out by 2015,
00:04:32.040 with yet another liberal majority government coming into power,
00:04:35.560 this time led by none other than Pierre Elliott Trudeau's spawn, Justin Trudeau.
00:04:41.120 Trudeau first upheld his family's heritage of tirades against Alberta oil and gas
00:04:45.700 when his government cancelled the Northern Gateway Pipeline in 2016,
00:04:49.600 even though the majority of indigenous groups supported the project.
00:04:53.520 During their majority reign, his liberal government wasted no time getting in the way of energy projects
00:04:58.980 by first passing Bill C-69, commonly dubbed as the No More Pipelines Act,
00:05:04.460 which has greatly stymied the approval of energy infrastructure, pipelines in particular.
00:05:09.180 His government also put in place Bill C-48,
00:05:13.060 which banned oil tankers carrying more than 12,500 tons of crude off the coast of British Columbia,
00:05:19.280 making it virtually impossible to export to foreign markets,
00:05:22.880 and thereby increasing our dependency on the U.S. as our sole customer for oil.
00:05:27.500 But it doesn't end there.
00:05:28.860 Disastrous and laughably ineffective consumer-facing carbon tax was put into place in 2019,
00:05:34.420 driving up the cost of gasoline, diesel, and utilities.
00:05:37.640 What's more is that according to the Bank of Canada,
00:05:40.440 the carbon tax was responsible for an increase of 0.4% in the inflation rate,
00:05:46.080 which accounted for 10% of the inflation in January 2022, for example.
00:05:51.680 What made the carbon tax laughably ineffective in the face of global emissions
00:05:55.720 is that the reductions in emissions that it was responsible for
00:05:58.880 only amounted to what China emits in 54 hours.
00:06:02.780 Thankfully, the consumer-facing carbon tax is no longer in effect,
00:06:08.200 so you can have your sigh of relief.
00:06:11.220 But there's still more.
00:06:13.180 The government plans to force Canada's energy grid into carbon neutrality by 2035,
00:06:18.580 even though Europe, being the leaders that they are in decarbonization,
00:06:22.500 plans to decarbonize their electricity grids by 2050.
00:06:26.200 Thankfully, Trudeau is long gone now, with a golden parachute nonetheless.
00:06:32.020 And in his place came Mark J. Carney, under the same liberal banner and the same mandate.
00:06:38.360 Carney got rid of the consumer carbon tax, but in his place,
00:06:41.240 he will instate an industrial carbon tax,
00:06:43.360 which requires carbon-intensive economies, such as Alberta's, to bear the burden.
00:06:48.180 He's been sending mixed messages in regards to building pipelines
00:06:51.320 in different campaign stops and in different languages.
00:06:54.300 The cabinet he's shuffled around is already facing a competency crisis,
00:06:58.460 as most of them have been failing upwards from Trudeau's government.
00:07:02.140 Speaking of his cabinet, he's yet again appointed another,
00:07:05.660 quote, keep-it-in-the-ground activist as environment minister,
00:07:09.300 while putting the former radical environment minister,
00:07:12.500 Stephen Gilbeau, in charge of Parks Canada.
00:07:15.700 He's tabled half a trillion dollars of new spending
00:07:18.560 that he'll likely sugarcoat as an investment.
00:07:22.600 He has vowed to uphold the disastrous aforementioned Bill C-69,
00:07:27.340 which has created a devastating regulatory environment
00:07:30.600 for the private sector to build any pipelines.
00:07:33.380 And to top it all off, when asked if he would potentially fast-track any pipeline projects,
00:07:38.500 he said he would, but only if they were producing decarbonized barrels of oil.
00:07:44.780 I'm just going to give it to you straight.
00:07:46.300 The terms decarbonized and oil do not belong in the same sentence,
00:07:52.540 let alone back-to-back.
00:07:54.640 UBC climate scientist Simon Donner claims that the phrase decarbonized oil
00:07:59.780 defies basic high school chemistry.
00:08:03.120 Carney is stupidly naive if he thinks carbon capture and storage in its current state
00:08:08.040 can eliminate carbon emissions from oil production.
00:08:11.100 But remember, Carney isn't stupid, nor is he naive.
00:08:15.700 It's far more likely that he wants Brookfield Asset Management,
00:08:19.160 who's very invested in carbon capture,
00:08:21.240 to be involved in these decarbonized pipeline projects.
00:08:25.700 The man is a slithery snake of the highest order.
00:08:29.220 And now, he's Canada's prime minister.
00:08:31.860 Albertans, now more than ever,
00:08:33.940 don't want to be in a federation governed by a slithery snake and his henchmen.
00:08:38.580 Ever since the 2025 election,
00:08:41.360 pollsters have been finding that support for Alberta independence has drastically shot up,
00:08:46.040 with some suggesting support at 30 or 36%,
00:08:49.360 while others finding a whopping 47% in favor of independence.
00:08:54.440 With the lowered signature threshold for citizen-initiated referendums,
00:08:58.520 Albertans have a golden opportunity to unshackle themselves from the federation,
00:09:02.560 who likes to treat us as a resource colony,
00:09:05.020 while simultaneously beating us over the head.
00:09:07.760 Well, thank you so much for watching and getting this far.
00:09:13.680 This is the last part of the two-part series
00:09:18.140 detailing history of Alberta's separatism.
00:09:22.380 I plan on creating more videos to educate people about this topic.
00:09:28.600 I plan on having guests on,
00:09:30.780 whether they're people that are in favor of Alberta's independence,
00:09:33.640 or even people against Alberta's right to self-governance.
00:09:40.640 So, if you liked the video,
00:09:42.020 make sure to leave a like,
00:09:43.460 comment to boost the algorithm,
00:09:45.680 and share with your friends and family
00:09:48.260 who would like to learn more about this topic.
00:09:50.700 And anyway, that's all for me.
00:09:52.480 Peace out.
00:09:52.940 Peace out.
00:09:53.480 Peace out.
00:09:54.700 Peace out.
00:09:55.340 Peace out.
00:09:55.800 Peace out.
00:09:56.420 Peace out.
00:09:56.880 Peace out.
00:09:59.160 Peace out.
00:10:10.780 Peace out.
00:10:11.820 Peace out.
00:10:12.420 Peace out.
00:10:12.800 Peace out.
00:10:14.940 Peace out.
00:10:17.240 Peace out.