Keean Bexte： When Donald Trump says he wants Canada – he’s talking about Alberta
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Summary
In this episode, we discuss the Alberta Prosperity Project's call for a separation from Canada, and whether or not it would be better to become part of the United States of America or stay in Canada as a sovereign country.
Transcript
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So this group, the Alberta Prosperity Project, unveiled its separation referendum question.
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I want to talk to you a bit about the strategy of this because this is something that I'm
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personally curious. So just as a follow-up. So the question that they unveiled is,
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do you agree that the province of Alberta shall become a sovereign country and cease
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to be a province of Canada? Very clear question. They said that as of Monday,
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two hundred and forty thousand pledges as of today. And so just remember that you only need
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177 signatures to force a referendum question. And then they write that the big goal is to hit
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one million. So I guess you're trying to share a clear message. This is something that I am very
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interested in. The idea of which one would be a more popular ask to the people of Alberta,
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and I want to get your response on this, is for Alberta to become a separate country or Alberta
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to become part of the United States. Now, I know that many people, especially in the political
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world, will have a knee-jerk reaction saying, if you say American, they'll say no. Canadians don't
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want to be American, period. But I think that might be wrong. I think that for political people like us
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who eat and sleep and breathe politics, yes, you know, the United States is sort of like the
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counter-Canadian. And so you can't be Canadian. But to the severely normal average person who is not
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very political and maybe just doesn't even feel a strong connection to Canada anymore, maybe they're a
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first or second generation immigrant. Maybe they're just a newcomer who probably their first
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choice, honestly, was America. They didn't get that visa, so they decided to come to Canada and said,
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the idea of an American passport is incredibly valuable. The idea of USD is incredibly appealing.
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And so I almost wonder, like, which one would lure more people? The idea that you would be an
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independent country that's not beholden to anyone, not attached to anything, no federal government,
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just you, or being part of the biggest empire, the greatest country in the world, and having the
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opportunity to just go up and move to Arizona or Florida or, you know, somewhere with a lower cost
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of living and better weather, more job opportunities. Like, in some ways, I think that the American
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question might be a bit more appealing. But as an Albertan, what do you think?
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So it's a good question. I've spoken to some lawyers about this who sort of think that even if,
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you know, you had this pie-in-the-sky idea that we could join the United States, to do that is a long
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legal process to become the 51st state. I mean, Donald Trump might be interested in expediting
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that, and you might be able to negotiate in certain ways. But you can't do that as a province
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of Canada. We don't have the ability to negotiate right now. It's like you can't get married to
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someone else when you're married to someone else. You know, you have to get the divorce first. So you
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have to become an independent sovereign country before you can decide to be the 51st state.
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And I think that that idea has appeal to some. You know, obviously, Cam Davies, the leader of the
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Alberta Republicans, he is an American. So, you know, it kind of makes sense for him that he's
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trying to drag us to tie us and handcuff us to Washington. But I think you can tell from my
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language that I think that that's a bad idea. I think that Alberta, Albertans who value freedom,
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who are descended from those who tamed the West and built this province, viewing the Rocky Mountains
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in the prairies, taming them in a way that nobody else across the world has really done,
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building this beautiful province. I don't think that they want to tie themselves and shackle
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themselves to another abusive partner. I think that they want to go on their own and build something
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beautiful because we already have something beautiful here and we just want to make it
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better. Shackling ourselves to New York Democrats and Democrats in Chicago and San Francisco.
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Yeah. Do you want the future president of Alberta to be AOC? No, I think the answer is quite obvious
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there. I think that I think that we have plenty of talent here to lead ourselves. We have everything.
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Donald Trump wants when he says he wants Canada. He doesn't want Canada. He wants Alberta. He wants
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Saskatchewan and he wants our people. We are a desired entity right now. And when when someone wants
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to to buy you, when someone wants to consume you, you know, you have to start thinking, well, what
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you know, is that really a good thing for me? If they want us so bad, why couldn't we do this on our
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own? It's a common question that startups get, you know, when they when they're about to be bought
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out Snapchat had this with with Facebook and Meta back with Mark Zuckerberg. And they said, yeah, no,
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we don't. We they they they gave them this offer to buy them. And they said, no, we don't actually
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we think that we have the tools we need to grow into something great. And Alberta is faced with that
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exact same question right now. And I think that most Albertans would say in the spirit of freedom
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that they believe in so strongly that they don't need to tie themselves or shock themselves to to
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another eastern capital that is out of touch. You know, Washington is out of touch with Montana
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all the time. They they get two senators. They hardly get any representation in the House of
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Representatives. And as a result, Washington doesn't govern in the interests of Montana.
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And you think that's going to be any different for Alberta?