Candice Malcolm DEBUNKS CTV's Alberta separation lies
Episode Stats
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Summary
In this episode of Fake News Friday, host Candice Malcolm Gladwell and her producer read past the headlines to debunk the idea that 29% of Alberta s voters want the province to become independent of Canada. Is there any economic reason why this is a good idea?
Transcript
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okay folks we used to do a segment on the candace malcolm show called fake news friday it was our
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favorite segment and one of the things i used to do is read through a legacy media news article
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and just point out all the flaws we haven't done in a while and so my producer handed me this story
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we decided that we would read past the headlines and show you the genesis of fake news so here is
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the article that we are talking about 29 of albertans support the idea of separation from
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canada leger polls you might recognize this one i've used it a couple of times on my show but i've
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never really dug into it and when you dig into it you realize just how absurd it is okay so it starts
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off with that leger poll it says leger poll suggests 29 of albertans want the province to become a
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country independent of canada 1 000 people were surveyed over three days earlier this month 43
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percent of respondents say economic reasons such as taxation and federal policies are the reasons
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they support independence and then other people who have participated 67 percent were opposed
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well five percent didn't know and so the author wants to sort of zoom in on those 43 percent of
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respondents who want to separate who say the reason that they want to separate is because of economic
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reasons this is a drastic departure by the way from quebec right quebec wants to separate because of
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language reasons and cultural reasons whereas in alberta it really is the financial reasons right we all
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know this that equalization means that albertans get raked by the federal government that albertans
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send their taxation dollars over to big government provinces like quebec atlantic canada and sometimes
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even ontario for them to provide lavish social services that alberta themselves don't even have
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and so yes fundamentally it is an economic complaint that they have and so this ctv reporter wants to
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sort of debunk that idea so here she says with nearly a third respondent supporting idea economist
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mosch lander says it's emotion behind the numbers and not economics then she quotes this individual
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mosch lander saying there's no mainstream economist who says this will work they're not even saying it
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could work launder told ctv news edmonton launder says decades of messaging in alberta against ottawa
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has become an issue causing people to consider separating from canada they've just bought into
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the narrative and they've decided that well i guess we just got to get rid of the problem rather than
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recognizing that maybe it's the messaging or even the messenger that's the issue okay did you get
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that so the whole idea is that it doesn't make any economic sense says this economist and it's just
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propaganda so if you have any inclination towards alberta independence if you think that alberta is
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like i said getting raked over equalization it's just because of messaging and the messenger okay
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let's just stop for a second let's pause for a second who is this economist mosch lander let's just do
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a simple google search it leads us to saying he is a lecturer at concordia university in montreal so
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this is a professor based in quebec saying to albertans if you believe in this idea it's because
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you've been fed propaganda and saying definitively that there is no economic case that there's no
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mainstream economist who says this will work says the montreal lecturer at concordia university
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according to his linkedin page prior to being a lecturer at the university of concordia he was a
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bureaucrat in the alberta legislature so he was a government bureaucrat economist in edmonton working
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for the provincial government and then he went over and became a professor in montreal i just love the
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definitiveness no mainstream economist says this will work well let's just try another simple google search
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i'll go over to chat gpt ai search engine just type this in provide a list of economists who say
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alberta could thrive independently and lo and behold here we go now not saying that any of these
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economists support alberta separation or say that it's a good idea but these are all people who have
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written about it and say it could work so first you have jack men's probably canada's preeminent
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economist and financial thinker we had him on the show a few weeks ago the episode did really really
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well jack men's is like the gold standard of economists in canada and here it says you know
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right on chat gpt it says jack men's a respected economist at the university of calgary school of public
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policy men's has highlighted alberta's entrepreneurial spirit and economic resilience he suggests that
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with appropriate policy framework alberta could navigate future challenges here it is folks in the
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cbc of all places back in 2018 albexit why this economist thinks alberta could separate from canada
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and again creme de la creme economist jack men's saying that it could work so um ctv maybe you
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should just google it next time uh another list of people uh from chat gpt here uh joseph du set who
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is the dean of the alberta school of business he's emphasized alberta's competitive advantages
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including his energy resources educated workforce he notes that while diversification is essential the
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province's existing strength provide a solid foundation for economic growth next you have neil
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valdo's president of the prestigious fraser institute valdo's has contributed to research
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outlining policy frameworks aimed at fostering growth and prosperity in alberta while not advocating
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for independence his work discusses strategies for enhancing the province's economic performance
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so there you have it folks one search and we can entirely debunk this ctv article and so it's
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interesting the next thing that this reporter goes on to is this bit that we covered on the show with
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brett wilson where she goes to arlene dickinson who is a kind of you know she's a businesswoman
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respected businesswoman and entrepreneur but she came out swinging against danielle smith premier of
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alberta saying it's wholly un-canadian for her to even be entertaining a referendum a democratic-led
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referendum and so we have these quotes from arlene dickinson saying it's totally unfair okay so just
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from a news perspective right journalism school you're told to cover both this is disruptors
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no hype no hot takes just clear thinking real trade-offs and practical insight with a focus
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on what matters for canada every episode we talk to the people shaping what comes next in business
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policy technology and the real economy i'm john stackhouse polo disruptors and never miss an episode
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besides the story so far this reporter has interviewed two people one an economist saying
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that no economist could ever say that this could work which we easily debunk and then the second one
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is a political activist on the political left saying that it's un-canadian to have a referendum
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and a democratically led initiative which canada's constitution actually allows for
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and a supreme court decision in the 90s allows for this for quebec so you know we might not like it
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but it's part of the discussion so you have two people both saying that this is not good and wrong
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where's the balance here folks where's the balance here uh finally i'll just read the end of this
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article so she says a sense of fairness tegan hill director of alberta policy with the fraser
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institute says albertans are rightfully frustrated they have made and continue to make an outsized
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contribution to the federation to the rest of canada to the tune of 245 billion dollars hill told ctv at
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the same time they continue to face federal policies that damage and restrict their key industry the
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energy sector and so to be fair this person is not in any way advocating for alberta separatism but
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she's just pointing out that yes alberta doesn't really get a fair shake economically and there are
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policies that block alberta's growth and so they specifically mention the proposed emissions camp
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as well as bill c69 which we call the no pipelines bill okay so this is a totally biased news story
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right this whole idea she says she tries to debunk the economic ability of alberta to separate then
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she talks about the sort of emotional side of it from this dragon's den lady and then she kind of just
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tries to round it off by having someone from the fraser institute talk about like the legitimate
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criticisms here and this is this is kind of how they bake the news this is what they do they they come
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out and they say it's not viable and then that line an economist saying it's not viable gets repeated
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and it shows up in other google searches and other ai searches and then all of a sudden people have
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this impression that it would just not be economically viable for alberta to separate let's just click on
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this journalist for a second miriam valdez carletti now i don't mean to necessarily pick on her but i'm
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just using this as an example of sort of what we're up against right so let me just read a bit from her
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bio it says miriam valdez carletti joined ctv news edmonton in march 2023 she has a passion for
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reporting on human interest stories and issues affecting bipoc communities bipoc communities
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that means black indigenous and people of color so in her intro sentence in her bio it says that she
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has a passion for reporting on stories affecting basically anybody who isn't white bipoc basically
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just means every single person in canada who is not would not be considered white as a people of color
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such a vague term it kind of implies everybody so imagine like in her bio like the thing that she
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says about herself is i really love telling stories about people who are not white i like covering the
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news about all the people in canada who are not white like in what world is that okay in what world
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is it okay to just have like a totally racist line in your bio and that's like who you are and that
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represents who you are and the news team is like oh that's really important that's great yeah
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definitely include that bit about how you love telling stories about people who are not white just
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reading a bit more into her bio it says she was a bachelor of journalism from toronto metropolitan
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university um what what is that oh right the university that was so woke that they changed their name
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because they didn't want to be named after ryerson egerton ryerson who had in some way been some
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tangentially connected to residential schools and so they decided to rename the university the only
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problem is ryerson university journalism program has a bit of cachet right everybody kind of knows
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that ryerson had a good journalism program like back in the day and so she writes that she went to
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toronto metropolitan university because she has the correct woke opinion politically correct version
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of the university but then she puts in parentheses formerly ryerson university so she gets the prestige
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you see that so she wants to be connected to the school even though she wants to distance herself
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from the school because she probably hates the legacy and this is what we're up against in the legacy
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media right you have woke reporters pushing a woke worldview and distorting the news distorting what
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is right news right this is an opinion piece this is not someone saying this is an op-ed this is my
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opinion i believe that there's no economic case for a better separate this is a news story that tries
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to purport to be fact-based and totally removed from any kind of bias and yet they're like just declaring
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that this isn't an economically viable thing all right folks thanks so much for tuning in
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