The Alberta Project - Interview with Crowfoot Candidate Michael Harris!

00:00:00.000 okay hello welcome back to the alberta project youtube channel um today i'm joined with michael

00:00:07.140 harris a local battle river crowfoot candidate riding under the libertarian party banner i believe

00:00:15.040 um so yeah um why don't you start off by like telling us your background and how you came to

00:00:22.520 be involved in like with politics and how i guess what led you to like what led your worldview to

00:00:30.720 be shaped the way it is right now well first i just wanted to thank you for inviting me onto the

00:00:35.760 show by the way i just want to get that out there right then but the main reason i'm in politics the

00:00:41.540 main reason i'm running in the first place is because most people feel that they're sick and

00:00:46.820 tired of the federal government taking advantage of them i think that there's not a single person

00:00:52.200 in this writing and in this election that doesn't have some gripe with the government taking

00:00:58.080 something out of their pockets stealing something from their communities stealing something from

00:01:01.580 their family and people are fed up people are frankly fed up and i'm out here running in this

00:01:06.800 election maybe not necessarily to win at the end of the day i'm going to give my fair shot

00:01:10.740 but to actually push to on a national level how much people are being taken advantage of by our

00:01:17.580 government whether it be the money that's being taken out of their pockets the businesses that are

00:01:21.400 struggling because the government is telling them no you can't do this or whether it be the family

00:01:26.040 that just wants to make a living and the government says well because of our policies that we're not

00:01:30.900 going to change you're just going to have to deal with it and that includes higher groceries higher

00:01:35.320 housing and higher standards of living and that's completely what we're up we're up against here

00:01:40.780 and at the end of the day we just want people to live better lives i could care less if it's a

00:01:44.880 libertarian government or conservative government we just want to have better lives that's what i'm

00:01:51.380 running for yeah that's fair um and i know you've mentioned um like specifically water infrastructure

00:01:59.020 and stetler and like yeah i think a big part of a lot of the infrastructure issues that we have is that

00:02:07.340 we barely get any transfers in relation to our population like alberta as a whole especially

00:02:14.080 yeah which is like doubly concerning since you know we contribute the most out of any other province

00:02:20.840 and confederation um so i guess yeah like if you were to how would you bring that issue to light

00:02:28.360 um in parliament say for you know hypothetically if you were granted a seat people pay exorbitant

00:02:36.400 amount of income tax federal income tax here in this writing because a lot of people here are

00:02:40.560 business owners farmers ranchers oil patch workers people who work on the train line these people

00:02:46.480 have money and their money is taken from them each and every month most on average most of these

00:02:51.680 people pay about 35 to 50 percent of their income in taxes and yet they don't get any of the federal

00:02:57.860 supports that we might get in this city i'm lucky that most of most of my days i live either in

00:03:02.420 drumheller calgary but there's some towns in these writings that they haven't seen any federal support

00:03:08.180 in almost half a century and the problem is is that the federal government keeps promising every

00:03:15.300 single election in these writings that oh we're just we're going to provide support one of these days

00:03:19.220 we're going to get to it in fact it actually got so bad that damien actually promised to provide

00:03:24.740 grants federal grants to support redevelopment of roads and water infrastructure here in this writing

00:03:30.580 well four years have come and gone and still some of these towns are still waiting for proper grants

00:03:36.500 in fact acme was also offered uh refurbishment to their roads as of recently and the money has just

00:03:43.900 never came they keep promising they keep promising they keep taking they keep taking but they're not

00:03:48.080 actually giving what these people need if i was elected to parliament my main objective was to be

00:03:53.840 it would be if they're paying these taxes either we're going to be fighting to lower their taxes

00:03:58.560 or we're going to be fighting to increase the amount of federal grants that are being sent to this writing

00:04:03.460 so people can have access to proper roads proper water proper telecommunication networks because we

00:04:08.900 can't just keep taking and taking and not giving anything back it's you can't go both ways

00:04:13.520 yeah for sure yeah you're absolutely right um yeah there's definitely like a very big like siphoning of

00:04:23.660 wealth you know in particular like of the rural communities that you mentioned um yeah it is

00:04:30.540 unfortunate how little they get in like federal funding even though like they may be in need of it

00:04:36.560 the most like you said like some things haven't been improved on for like half a century or more

00:04:42.320 so that's crazy and so i guess um when you see roads they're like up to your your knees like in

00:04:50.600 like a pothole like then that's how you know we failed yeah yeah oh for sure yeah um like i'm not

00:04:56.700 even in edmonton here it's like it's really bad like i i whenever i see like bikers on the road

00:05:03.000 i kind of like even though i don't like them like i kind of i guess admire them in the sense that like

00:05:09.380 they like they have like the heart and courage to like drive like a two wheel like vehicle like

00:05:18.200 in these like roads with all the potholes and cracks and everything and that's just in edmonton

00:05:23.600 like you know like where things are like relatively i guess compared to rural alberta for sure like

00:05:29.860 well serviced like i can't imagine what the roads look like um like in you know places that you've

00:05:36.080 mentioned but um i just i just bring a spare tire honestly because yeah if you get if you get

00:05:41.140 flattened out there like there's there's no one coming to save you yeah oh yeah and i guess yeah

00:05:47.600 i wanted to circle back to like the writing itself you know battle river crowfoot like the specialties

00:05:54.800 of it like the different um communities and like villages and like how scattered it is and

00:06:00.600 the rural like the ruralness of it and like the the kind of occupations people have and like how i guess

00:06:07.540 it sort of um like needs its own like or in my view like it needs a local like sort of representative

00:06:17.540 because it's rural writings most of them like need their own distinct form of like representation right

00:06:23.680 yeah like if i were to like you know pierre paul yeah for example it's going to be hard to for him

00:06:30.240 to balance the um act of being the official opposition leader right but also making sure that

00:06:38.420 he's like representing the issues of like people of the people of battle river crowfoot specifically

00:06:45.180 um well the main issue here is that there was specifically with this writing it's not like it's

00:06:52.100 just one big suburb like if it's in toronto or calgary or vancouver the issue with this is that

00:06:58.020 this is a very rural writing that encompasses probably a couple of hundreds of small villages

00:07:02.840 hamlets towns even one city obviously camrose where there's a lot of people in here and there's a lot

00:07:10.180 of people separated from each other and to be able to be able to go to each town get familiarized

00:07:15.680 with each people and to represent them takes a lot of work and you're right that requires someone

00:07:20.900 who's going to be able to be here on the ground locally to be able to talk to them i mean i made

00:07:26.340 a goal at this beginning of this election to go to every single town and at bare minimum knock on

00:07:31.060 every single door they may not open their door but at least i give the opportunity that i've knocked

00:07:35.620 on every single door the problem is is when you have someone like pierre polyev who is running for

00:07:40.820 national ambitions not running for local ambitions then i'm afraid that he's not going to really have

00:07:46.260 the time to not only continue to fight to be prime minister as he wants to but also have the time to

00:07:51.780 travel four hours to get from drumheller to camrose or another four hours to get from camrose to saskatchewan

00:07:58.340 border because that's how far the writing goes so how exactly is he going to be able to spend that much

00:08:03.140 time talking and representing and actually meeting people or is it actually just going to be as official

00:08:08.420 agent as constituency office doing all that work in the background so my my issue with it is i don't

00:08:14.740 think he's going to be an actual true local representative when at the end of the day a lot

00:08:19.700 of people like in cameras did want to see more national spotlight on battle river crowfoot and maybe

00:08:25.700 pure poly will bring that however we've had damien we've had all these federal conservatives come in

00:08:31.140 and try to represent these regions for a long time and yet like i said they keep taking and keep taking and

00:08:36.980 they just don't keep giving so i don't know if he will be a good representative if he can't even meet

00:08:41.060 with the people much less provide what these rural communities four hours away from edmonton

00:08:46.900 are actually going to need at the end of the day yeah exactly and um yeah like the issue of like you

00:08:52.500 know meeting with people and um taking their demands to heart like pierre is like kind of like the way i

00:08:58.980 see it like he's a populist but like he's not very good at it like if you've seen him like you know

00:09:06.180 reporters i guess like trying to joke around with them like he's he's not a very humorous person he's

00:09:12.980 not very like humor friendly and you know his like appearances are always like very controlled

00:09:19.860 and like confined like there was like this whole like liberal media essentially well this was true like to

00:09:26.340 their credit like his um like the press that his um like events that he was holding across the

00:09:32.580 country was extremely limited right it was like his sort of like hand-picked entourage of people

00:09:38.420 that he would bring around with them um yeah and so yeah i also wanted to talk about like

00:09:46.420 some of the other candidates so i know one of the big bigger ones i guess um aside from pierre is bonnie

00:09:53.060 critchley no um it's what like her position is kind of funny to me because like most of her

00:09:59.140 supporters aren't even in battle river crowfoot no yeah like yeah they're like elbows up boomers who 0.85

00:10:05.060 just don't like pauliev a lot of them and just don't want him to get a writing which you know is fine but

00:10:13.140 like again this is like a choice that's being made by that elect that electorate right that um group of

00:10:21.700 people in that particular area right not by people literally thousands of kilometers east

00:10:27.940 like all these you know elbows up minions i guess so to speak um well listen the liberals have

00:10:34.500 completely abandoned darcy they don't have any faith in him at all to be able to

00:10:38.740 want a successful campaign i mean for heck's sakes he was like jonathan bridges where he submitted his

00:10:43.220 paperwork at 11 59 pm at night like the day of when the registration actually ended so i don't think

00:10:49.700 the liberals are being very serious here in this election and i think most of the liberals across

00:10:53.860 the country kind of realized that and so if they were wanting to support a candidate that actually

00:10:58.660 had a decent chance of winning that it wasn't too far right in their opinion reason why they didn't

00:11:03.540 support someone like me is because bonnie was someone who was neutral someone supposedly neutral

00:11:09.620 someone who's outside the liberal sphere he's not held back by mark carney and could provide that

00:11:14.900 opposition yeah and i think that's very true i mean like outside of cameras i haven't seen a single

00:11:21.060 actual sign on anybody's private property for bonnie and i think most of her support does come from

00:11:27.460 either liberals or anti-pure polyists outside of the writing here uh so yeah you could take it as you

00:11:35.220 wish i i don't particularly like bonnie that much i feel like she's the same issue as pure poly

00:11:40.980 if she's a bit of a flip-flopper she says on our website this is a centrist and that that's what

00:11:45.300 she supports however in debates or town halls she flips between saying i'm a liberal i'm a conservative

00:11:52.980 depending on what town she goes to and i hate flip-floppers one of the reasons i hate pure poly 0.85

00:11:58.100 yeah well it's strong word but you know what i mean yeah and if she's doing exactly the same thing

00:12:02.180 then well we just have two flip-flopping politicians on our hands and i'm not here to support that

00:12:07.140 yeah exactly um yeah like when someone calls themselves a centrist so like how it works in

00:12:14.740 the u.s like people that call themselves centrists are usually like like joe roganites so to speak

00:12:22.260 so like they're usually lean right wing even though they call themselves centrists in canada it's the

00:12:26.740 opposite i find people that yeah label themselves as being uh you know centrists or whatever like they're

00:12:33.460 usually like more progressive leaning so it's a very like interesting like i just i guess i can't

00:12:40.580 i don't really even though i don't believe in like partisan politics right like no one usually falls

00:12:46.900 squarely right or left on every single issue right it's always a mix between a lot of people like and

00:12:54.900 it like it varies right but just but that doesn't mean that you're a centrist per se right like that

00:13:02.420 and that that that sort of gives you like calling yourself that gives you leeway to you like you said

00:13:08.900 you know flip-flop around and i don't i think that's something that should definitely be called out

00:13:13.620 well that's what she's doing like that's the whole point of why she called herself a centrist because 0.81

00:13:17.620 centrist oh i can align both both ways i'm both liberal conservative and if i go to a town that's

00:13:23.220 predominantly liberal or conservative well that means because i'm a centrist i can say all these

00:13:27.380 reasons why i'm a liberal all these reasons why i'm a conservative and like i said just come down

00:13:30.900 back to flip-flopping you don't actually have a set of moral or both like basic beliefs that you're

00:13:36.900 wanting to go into this election with it's basically just whoever is going to tell me i support this

00:13:42.580 whatever community says i want this where it's like like you're you you if you went to cam rose you'd

00:13:48.420 say something completely different like the people in three hills might want an end to supply

00:13:52.420 management and you might agree with that but then the moment you go to uh cam rose where you know

00:13:58.020 they probably are not as in favor of it because it's a big city people uh then they'll be like no

00:14:03.300 we're not going to change it we're going to bring back the wheat board that was actually one of her

00:14:06.420 policies so i mean that's what i'm that's what i'm just saying it's like you support something but

00:14:11.780 at the end of the day you can go to another town and say something differently and people in this writing

00:14:15.460 want certainty they don't want to have to deal with another flip flop flip flopping politician if they

00:14:20.260 want to see the end of supply management say you're going to support that don't go and flip and say

00:14:23.940 you're going to start supporting the wheat board after that it makes no sense yeah and yeah on the

00:14:29.140 issue of supply management um so are there so i guess yeah what portion of like farmers there are

00:14:37.060 like dairy farmers that are like very specifically being hurt by supply management or i'm not sure i'm

00:14:42.900 not very like well right on supply management does it also like involve other

00:14:47.380 like products or is it just squarely dairy so supply management is an artificial quota system

00:14:54.580 that limits the production of anything that comes out of an animal so that means eggs milk oh wow that

00:15:00.180 also includes manufactured goods that come out of an animal so cheese as well too any of that type of

00:15:05.620 stuff there's a cap that you're allowed to manufacture every single month yeah and if you go over that

00:15:10.580 quota you either have to dump it or it you know get a fine and that's a big problem when you know all

00:15:16.900 these farmers are trying to either compete with quebec and the big thousand ranch acres in ontario and

00:15:22.900 quebec when most of these people only own like anywhere from five to about 50 acres and besides the far

00:15:29.140 the canola farmers that live in this writing the big portion of agricultural workers are people who have

00:15:35.220 cows people who produce milk people who produce and manufacture cheese and the very big issue is

00:15:41.380 they're like i said they're having to compete with the east at the same time they're being limited

00:15:45.300 because they can't afford a higher quota because fun fact you can get a higher quota if you pay more

00:15:50.660 money so it's actually a system where the rich benefit but those that are poorer or want to actually

00:15:57.780 compete in this system get locked out because they don't have the money for it so it's not a free market

00:16:03.300 this is completely controlled by the government and rich lobbyists in the east and most of these

00:16:07.300 farmers that want to be able to produce more be able to outbid their components in the east and

00:16:11.780 make life more affordable fun fact it would be more affordable if we could actually produce

00:16:16.500 more food funny enough of course yeah but yeah we just don't allow it and it's and if at the end of

00:16:22.020 the day if you wanted to fight and say okay well you know a higher food price is okay because you know

00:16:26.660 the farmers make more profit at the end of the day well all these farmers don't really care about

00:16:31.940 that because their profit comes from being able to sell a whole bunch of product locally and if

00:16:36.820 they can't do that most of these people are going bankrupt i talked to about 13 farmers that were in

00:16:42.500 three hills that said if supply management isn't gone within the next 10 to i don't know 15 years

00:16:48.100 depending on how well they can run their business they're having to they're gonna have to sell their

00:16:51.460 land and move they won't be able to actually run a farm anymore because they can't afford it yeah so

00:16:57.140 that's what you're dealing with like you might you might find some positives to supply management

00:17:00.980 but how many farmers in this writing that don't have millions of dollars lying around that are

00:17:05.700 actually producing the food that goes on your table that tell you that if this isn't removed

00:17:10.900 you're going to see a mass migration out of this writing because people aren't going to be able to

00:17:14.900 make a living anymore and that means less food that is going to be able to go onto your table because

00:17:20.100 who's going to be producing anymore not in my community yeah exactly it's um it's basically

00:17:25.460 you know price fixing that's allowed because of all the favoritism towards the east right from the

00:17:32.340 federal government and it's being you know upheld by a cartel essentially like they burn you know

00:17:39.140 politicians careers you know if you dare go against them i think the most prolific case

00:17:43.220 was maxime bernier um he was like the most affected you know by like the supply management lobby

00:17:49.940 slash cartel um and that's why i think it's so important that like you need like if someone's

00:17:55.940 gonna really ride hard on the train against supply management uh at the federal level like you need

00:18:02.660 someone who's not tied to a major party right you need someone who's not a career politician who um

00:18:09.700 and he's not held down by someone yeah exactly who isn't bought by lobbyists right that someone

00:18:15.860 who can't like their career can't be threatened or like they or even if it you know their political

00:18:22.100 career can't be threatened by you know say the supply management cartel you know well the

00:18:28.740 libertarian party has been fighting it since 1973 we've been out here for quite some time my my issue

00:18:33.780 with mexmere bernie i mean i'm glad he's calling it now it's better than nothing my issue with him is

00:18:38.260 i went on his website to see what the actual policy and position of the people's party is

00:18:42.820 related to supply management and they believe that it shouldn't be cut instantly and also shouldn't

00:18:48.820 be cut within a term limit they want to be able to cut it within two terms eight years to be able to

00:18:55.380 fully phase out supply management which yeah i mean if you're looking for sustainability i guess that's

00:19:00.260 what they're going for they don't want to rip off the band-aid like libertarians like to do but

00:19:04.980 people can't afford eight years say if they get elected today if they got a majority government

00:19:08.660 today it would not be until the 2030s until supply management would be gone if they became government

00:19:14.660 and went to government which libertarians we disagree we want it gone as soon as possible

00:19:20.340 obviously there has to be a transition period yeah i think that should take less than a year in my

00:19:24.260 opinion but i don't want it to see another decade of waste while we wait for politicians to grovel over and i i

00:19:31.540 we can't wait that long yeah it's definitely like yeah the whole transition period it reminds me of

00:19:37.860 like the brian mulroney approach to ending the nep like he didn't yeah the national energy program that

00:19:47.140 like you know brought havoc to our province like he didn't really phase it out as quickly and that as

00:19:54.260 he should have right he still had to do it with a lot of pandering to the east you know as every

00:20:01.700 politician has to do right you know like the thing about like if you want relevance at the national

00:20:09.620 level as a party right this is something that um pierre polyev has always had to toe the line on as well

00:20:18.100 right you're gonna have to target ontario and quebec and the maritimes way more than you are alberta

00:20:25.540 like good thing i'm not looking for votes in quebec yeah exactly yeah you're yeah you're so like

00:20:31.940 squarely focused on being a um you know like a representative of battle river crowfoot you know and

00:20:39.300 not yeah not writing like national fame or i guess not fame right like to his credit like he is

00:20:46.820 wanting to be opposition leader and he does like and that's like an important thing to be right to

00:20:53.540 hold the um liberal government speed to the fire but that's why those politicians usually they you know

00:21:01.220 they write in like government towns right you know carlton nippy and these writings in ottawa essentially

00:21:08.740 um and you know pierre i will be honest like the way he got burned you know and his sort of like

00:21:14.580 the boundary of his writing being expanded to more liberal um uh constituencies and stuff was kind of

00:21:23.220 like not very it's not a good look on elections canada and whatnot but you know the fact still

00:21:30.180 remains like i think he would have been far better off like writing in a um urban writing like maybe

00:21:38.740 like in the 405 in ontario even right where i mean we would we would prefer that i mean a thing that i

00:21:44.340 was saying is that there was a lady there's an mp that was in saskatchewan that's actually retiring

00:21:49.140 at the end of this year and we're talking about why the hell did he have to kick out damien if he

00:21:53.780 can't just run with in her writing because she's leaving she's gone at least you can take that and he can

00:21:57.940 stay there instead of having to come in and dip my issue though on you're saying that at least he's

00:22:02.340 running for the leader of opposition he's trying to hold the liberals to account is that we as

00:22:06.820 libertarians disagree with that it's it's it's con it's a uni party it's a controlled opposition

00:22:12.260 yeah they're probably isn't coming here to save you he doesn't care about alberta maybe at the end

00:22:16.580 of the day if he wanted to push some policies like i said ending some supply management ending

00:22:20.580 equalization fighting for maybe self-determination here in alberta or making it so the province has more

00:22:25.780 self-autonomy the problem is he's not running on any of those things at the end of the day he's

00:22:29.540 still running to support quebec and we don't like that we want people all people here in canada if

00:22:34.820 we're going to still stay in confederation to be equal not have an eastern government that is

00:22:40.580 treating us like a colony and i'm afraid pure poly is just one of those those colonists he wants

00:22:45.700 alberta to be subservient to ottawa and we don't want that we don't want that at all yeah well i guess 0.55

00:22:51.460 yeah i guess to his defense like him and like stephen harper like they've i don't know how much

00:22:57.380 pierre poly have himself but they have always advocated especially stephen harper for um reform

00:23:02.660 and like federal institutions in favor of the west um i know he elect um he appointed like elected

00:23:09.540 senators so that was like a big thing that stephen harper wanted to do but um yeah like exactly like

00:23:16.180 the system that he's trying to work in like the confines of you know the federal government and

00:23:22.340 how that's set up from the very beginning has been rigged against western albert like western canada

00:23:28.180 sorry like that's just like a reality right like the system that he's trying to uphold

00:23:34.100 um is has always you know oppressed um western canada economically and you know trying to make reforms

00:23:41.860 and you know trying to amend the constitution is such a massive hurdle um i don't know if you've

00:23:48.900 been to any of the app town halls but they talk about it where you need um a majority in the house

00:23:54.500 of commons you know which is the liberal ndps have a majority in right you need seven out of ten uh

00:24:01.300 provinces i had to like their legislatures need to bring in like a majority too and that's all just to

00:24:09.780 open the constitution like not even any like proposed changes to it just to open it to see

00:24:16.020 like what needs changing and there's like so many hurt like levels and like layers and so many hurdles

00:24:22.100 to go through and i get that and that's what most of the conservatives use an excuse of why you should

00:24:26.580 vote for them and not any of the other third parties because if we have a strong conservative

00:24:30.660 coalition then we can take on the liberals well i've been hearing this for the past four elections and

00:24:36.020 they still haven't provided any results at all the people's party haven't gained any seats the

00:24:39.860 libertarian party hasn't gained any seats because we keep they keep telling us vote for us or the

00:24:44.100 liberal government is just going to get worse and yet pure poly blew a 25 lead uh point lead and we're

00:24:49.940 still expected to support them where i'm not actually seeing the proper opposition that you know they've

00:24:55.780 taken all these votes away from the like the libertarians because i know a lot of conservatives are

00:24:59.780 libertarians and yet at the end of the day i'm not seeing the actual proper opposition they promised

00:25:06.020 i don't i don't think it's going to change i think uh president manning would probably be

00:25:09.860 very angry to see what is happening with our conservative movement right now because like

00:25:15.460 they're they're trying to sacrifice the west to try to appease the east to try to form some

00:25:20.260 coalition when the conservatives are never going to gain seats in quebec i don't know why they keep

00:25:24.500 trying to pander to them yeah but at the end of the day i don't really care about quebec i don't really

00:25:30.820 care about ontario or the eastern governments i care about alberta at the end of the day

00:25:35.060 i don't care if that means that we have to break up our coalition i want alberta my community and

00:25:39.860 my family to be okay i don't want to have to deal i don't have to go back here in january if pier

00:25:45.540 paulia loses his leadership bid because there's another damn by election like i don't want to have 0.52

00:25:50.420 to do that but i will and i feel like that's what's going to happen because i swear politicians are just 0.62

00:25:54.820 not taking these things seriously when people are losing their lives or losing their land stuff has got to

00:26:00.580 happen i don't want to hear excuses that it's because of quebec any longer because we really

00:26:05.220 can be better we really can yeah for sure yeah and i guess um yeah that leads nicely into my other

00:26:13.780 question specifically about battle river crowfoot and like you know since you've been canvassing around

00:26:19.300 i just wanted to know like what's like the separatist sentiment around um yeah i know like um

00:26:26.180 yeah app has been doing a lot of town halls um you know in that writing and you know they've gotten

00:26:32.020 pretty great reception but i want to know like since you're but like the thing about those writings is

00:26:37.060 that like they're like beacon for you know independence minded albertans right like it's people that go there

00:26:42.740 are usually decided on the issue but since you're you know trying to actually knock on every door and talking to

00:26:48.420 people um i just wanted to know like just anecdotally like what's the separatist sentiment you know in

00:26:54.340 battle river crowfoot well i've probably spoken to personally about 10 000 people during this

00:26:59.620 election so i'll give you an honest review i'll give you an honest review i will say in the cities

00:27:04.180 it's a hell of a lot less popular specifically camrose i don't think there was that many people supporting

00:27:09.460 a referendum even a referendum on independence and camrose very big city slickers a lot of edmonton

00:27:14.980 people who live in camrose you're not going to get there very many uh independent supporters out

00:27:19.700 there however though anywhere outside of camrose you're going to bare minimum find people that don't

00:27:26.260 like the federal government because somehow like i said previously when i first started this interview

00:27:31.220 someone has some gripe with the federal government that they would rather not have and that leads to

00:27:37.060 is the federal government going to change is there anything going to happen with that 0.97

00:27:40.980 and if not if we're stuck with another damn 10 years of liberal incompetence does that mean that 0.87

00:27:46.740 we have to go to a referendum and that usually how the conversation leads to and most people 0.92

00:27:51.940 especially in the rural communities like carbon i would say carbon linden acme are probably the three

00:27:57.300 biggest towns for independence where most if not all people at the door were supporting it they want

00:28:04.660 to see a referendum on alberta independence and libertarians we agree with it we believe in

00:28:10.420 self-determination for all people so that's been our belief since 1973 at the end of the day if people

00:28:16.100 decide the answer is yes and they want to continue to have faith in our confederation then that should

00:28:21.620 be held at a vote it should be held in confidence not being held at gunpoint saying no you're not allowed

00:28:26.740 to decide your own future we like quebec do it but we're not going to let you do it yeah the answer is no

00:28:31.300 and they want to leave well it should be handled democratically should handle be handled peacefully

00:28:36.660 it should be how handled in a way that people can still live their own lives and not have to deal

00:28:41.060 with the federal government anymore and that's what we support at the end of the day i'm not going to

00:28:45.780 be coming out here to say that we need to bash independence right here right now at the end of the

00:28:51.300 day i believe we need i need to bash and fight for referendum because that is where we can let the

00:28:56.260 people decide truly yeah what they what they want for their family and what they want for their

00:29:00.820 future and that's what i've been out here in this election i've gone all four debates i've gone to

00:29:04.740 every single town in this right i've talked to thousands of people and we're trying to push for

00:29:08.500 more access so we can have a referendum hopefully next year so that decision can be made by the people

00:29:14.260 not by bureaucrats or politicians yeah and i'm not out here trying to say that i'm wanting to take it

00:29:20.020 ahead of this movement i believe that if we do need to have a referendum on independence

00:29:24.580 like as you were saying it needs to be non-partisan it shouldn't be held by any party or politician

00:29:29.620 because god only knows that if we let politicians deal with this they will find some way to rig it

00:29:35.140 in their favor and i don't want politicians to take advantage of this movement yeah for sure um and yeah

00:29:41.460 like holding a referendum is like the bare minimum right like if you're so certain you know that albertans

00:29:49.380 are complacent with confederation and want to stay in it um and want to be confounded by it like

00:29:57.220 why not just hold the referendum like you know what are you so scared of right like and i think most

00:30:02.100 albertans actually do like most like we still like the i guess support for independence according to

00:30:08.900 the latest polling is still in the 40s but um support for like a referendum to be held in alberta

00:30:17.860 is like i think according to the angus reed poll which was held in may was like 55 so like over half

00:30:23.700 of people wanted like at least to be a referendum well i wouldn't doubt it like you don't have to

00:30:28.660 have to convince rural alberta to have a referendum like they've been ready to go since like the 70s

00:30:33.540 for something like this to happen the thing is is we have to convince all the people in the city that

00:30:38.660 this is something that's viable and something that they need to do yeah rural communities like the

00:30:42.820 election that i'm fighting and you don't need to convince people because they're already they're

00:30:45.620 already convinced the real issue is going to come down to those in edmonton calgary on whether or not

00:30:50.020 that they need to actually get on board with this or not because most of them they're undecided and

00:30:55.620 they need to make a decision yeah for sure yeah yeah i would say yeah calgary's i guess more based

00:31:01.460 like you do see more people flying like alberta flags and stuff but here in edmonton like yeah when

00:31:07.540 i'm driving around like people like every i would say yeah every time i drive around i see at least two

00:31:13.620 cars like people um that have put up like the car flags of like the maple leaf flag which is like so

00:31:21.780 characteristic of like edmonton and like the sort of like union government working like sort of paper

00:31:27.460 pushers and like you know they're everywhere in this place um but you know that being said the

00:31:33.460 conservative base that's out here is like super vocal um yeah and so yeah like even like i was just

00:31:41.780 i was volunteering at the app town hall yesterday in edmonton it was like their first one in edmonton

00:31:46.980 right they've gone like around like the entire province right yeah um and yeah this was their

00:31:52.420 first one and like you know contrary to like what people were expecting like there were no counter

00:31:58.100 demonstrators or anything it was you know and the hall was packed like there were no seats there were

00:32:03.540 people standing around um very very good turnout you know right um especially for edmonton that's like

00:32:10.020 you know uh usually has been like a ndp stronghold uh especially provincially right um but yeah uh i

00:32:20.420 guess like and i guess most people are also a little bit dissatisfied with our uni party as well too

00:32:26.980 because yeah i mean obviously the liberals are going to be against it but they're also a little

00:32:30.500 bit disappointed especially online this actually got me quite a lot of endorsements by some uh people in

00:32:36.020 in the conservative sphere is that pure poly is against self-determination i understand he's

00:32:40.500 trying to run for prime minister but the very bare minimum he can say i support alberta's right to

00:32:45.060 choose i don't have to support alberta leaving but i can still support alberta's right to choose and

00:32:49.620 him saying he's completely against it he's against any referendum has alienated a lot of his

00:32:54.260 conservative base absolutely we believe that we deserve the right to that yeah to ourselves not

00:32:59.780 to a politician yeah yeah i think every like conservative politician with a spine would support

00:33:08.660 there being a referendum held like bare minimum like there should definitely be a since it's such

00:33:14.420 a hot topic right now and the base support for it has you know ramped up and is going up by the day

00:33:21.860 essentially and has become such a big cause you know it's the biggest topic in alberta right now

00:33:28.020 that there should 100 percent like be a referendum like that's like you know that and they have to

00:33:35.780 sort of preach that with utmost certainty right i think if pierre had you know come out and said yes

00:33:41.540 like i personally i am you know against um alberta um becoming an independent nation um that that would

00:33:49.460 have been totally fine you know had he again at least supported the notion that there should be a

00:33:55.860 referendum because i mean look at quebec right like one of the um allusions i always like to draw is

00:34:00.980 that the separatists in quebec are so organized and have been at it for such a long time and no one

00:34:08.100 you know bats an eye at them like they just get to yeah keep doing what they're doing and yeah no one

00:34:14.180 levels you know insults at them or you know accuses them of being traitors even like i've never heard

00:34:20.660 like a quebec separatist being called the traitor like um alberta independence advocates have right 0.88

00:34:26.180 and so i just want to bring awareness to the fact that you know there are people thousands of

00:34:30.740 kilometers out east that have been advocating for self-determination and for independence

00:34:36.580 right for like decades and they've been allowed to do in the open without um having to face any

00:34:44.660 consequences or shame which is the way it should be yeah right people in alberta should not be shamed

00:34:50.740 for being independence minded or you know believing in alberta's right to self-determination or any of

00:34:56.980 that um and that's the hypocrisy that we're seeing with our politicians yeah you know maybe the libertarian

00:35:02.260 party will become the bloc quebec party of the west who knows yeah we'll see what happens but yeah like

00:35:07.860 i said it's just a whole bunch of hypocrisy man i'm sick and tired of it yeah for sure um yeah i think

00:35:14.660 we actually covered a lot i know we're coming to the end of the little like we're being timed right

00:35:20.500 now it's like two minutes 30 seconds or whatever but i also want to towards the end yeah just if you

00:35:27.300 can plug basically everything on how um people can support your campaign and outreach um you know donations

00:35:35.700 you know if you're like if they people here that are like listening from you know battle river crowfoot

00:35:41.700 if they want signs you know where to get them you know all that jazz well everything can be found on

00:35:47.220 my website so michaelharris4mp.com you can find pretty much all info talks about my platform

00:35:55.060 points where i've been what i'm doing where i can where you can go to donate what uh what the next steps

00:36:01.140 are all that type of stuff is everything's on my website but generally at the end of the day

00:36:05.140 alberta and subsequently battle river crowfoot has been taken advantage of and we're out here

00:36:11.460 trying to fight every single day to make sure that you have a voice in ottawa at the end of the day

00:36:16.660 and that means we need to fight to end supply management and equalization give you back your

00:36:23.140 god-given rights to be able to go to church without having to have a permit be able to speak how you

00:36:28.100 wish without having the government bashing you down with a hammer you'd be able to keep the money that

00:36:33.540 you earn in your own pocket and you don't have to get robbed every tuesday because god only knows

00:36:37.860 there's people who work weeks and weeks and weeks for the government not for themselves and just

00:36:43.140 generally keep fighting for their own family and their own independence as i said this campaign is

00:36:47.140 about liberty family independence and if that is what you want to see that that's what you want to see in

00:36:51.220 ottawa i ask that you stand beside me and support libertarian in this election because the unit party

00:36:56.260 isn't going to come here and help you they're here to keep taking taking and not giving a cent back to

00:37:01.300 you that's awesome great yeah awesome that's a great call to action um and yeah i wish you the best

00:37:10.260 in the upcoming by-election i know there's already early voting but i'm sure most people in rural

00:37:16.180 communities don't jive with that you know they'd much rather just go on the day of yeah it's hard

00:37:23.700 to convince people to go i mean early voting has ended now it was only on the sunday to the monday

00:37:29.300 but or the tuesday but uh yeah no we're gonna see if we can't get a whole bunch of drivers out to help

00:37:34.580 people in the rural communities get to like stetler and cameras because they're not gonna set up polling

00:37:39.620 stations in acme that's all i know yeah awesome yeah fair well great thank you so much for coming on

The Alberta Project - August 14, 2025

Interview with Crowfoot Candidate Michael Harris!

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