The Critical Compass Podcast - October 08, 2026


Alberta's Referendum： Option 1 vs Option 2 Explained ｜ Tanya Clemens

Guests
Tanya Clemens
Mentioned
Keith Ellison
Albertans Have the Right to Advocate for Independence ｜ Eva Chipiuk

Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

189.95

Word count

1,606

Sentence count

73

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


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 .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Hi, guys. Welcome back to The Critical Compass. We are here with Tanya Clemens, friend of the
00:00:05.780 channel, returning guest. So thank you for sitting down with us in person this time.
00:00:10.240 Nice to be in a real studio. Yeah, thanks for having me back. It's nice to see you again.
00:00:13.800 Pleasure. So when this releases, we will be about two weeks out for the referendum on a
00:00:21.180 referendum. I believe, actually, maybe even the first time we talked, it wasn't decided. Like,
00:00:26.680 thought it was going to be a real quote-unquote we're still in the petition phase we're still in
00:00:30.440 the petition phase yeah so now that we know what this is um and we've had several months of rhetoric
00:00:38.280 leading into the last couple weeks what are some of the things you're hearing on the ground like
00:00:42.280 in your circles you're very active in the movement what is your feeling about where maybe the average
00:00:47.800 albertan is at with this vote i think that some albertans are actually just a little bit confused
00:00:53.480 still because it is a referendum on a referendum and they're a little confused about why we're
00:00:58.120 kind of changing a bit from advocating purely for independence to now having more of a message of
00:01:04.360 leverage and what that gives us with this referendum on a referendum we didn't really
00:01:09.080 ask for a referendum on a referendum we thought it was just going to be a referendum based on the
00:01:13.000 citizens initiative petition but here we are and so when we started looking at what the the pros
00:01:18.440 and cons of each vote for option one and option two are,
00:01:22.040 we decided that we can't be talking about independence
00:01:24.480 anymore because that's literally not on the ballot, right?
00:01:26.980 So we advocate for independence in our own ways,
00:01:29.820 but when we're advocating for this referendum itself,
00:01:32.980 it has to be between the option one and the option two
00:01:35.020 as they're worded on the ballot, that's what's at stake.
00:01:38.000 Yeah, and we're gonna discuss that for sure.
00:01:41.260 Before we do, do you have maybe things that you've heard
00:01:45.840 from the people who are maybe on the fence
00:01:48.940 and they're leaning away from vote,
00:01:51.520 they're leaning towards voting option one to stay
00:01:54.340 because of various uncertainties or concerns, whatever.
00:01:57.580 What are the main concerns and uncertainties
00:01:59.620 that you're encountering still to this day?
00:02:02.860 So when I talk to people like that,
00:02:04.860 usually their hesitations come from two places I find.
00:02:07.660 And one is either from a deep seated patriotism
00:02:11.100 because we do very much love Canada
00:02:13.040 And we've grown up with this ideal of what Canada is and people hold on to that
00:02:17.520 without actually looking at what it truly is right now and the direction that
00:02:21.320 it's headed on. So that is one obstacle that we're trying to overcome.
00:02:25.840 And then the second one is basically a vote of fear.
00:02:30.320 They fear uncertainty, they fear change.
00:02:33.720 They wanted to stay with the status quo.
00:02:36.160 But what I would implore them to look at is that there's a lot of uncertainty
00:02:40.440 with the status quo, right? We don't know how much taxation is going to go. We don't know what
00:02:45.720 punitive policy is going to attack our industry next or which industry it's going to attack next.
00:02:50.360 There's a lot of fear for staying the same, I would say as well.
00:02:54.120 Yeah. You know, in your work with Let Alberta Decide with Keith Wilson,
00:03:00.040 I think, I feel like it must be a really good balance between you two because Keith can
00:03:03.880 rattle off this decision and this constitutional whatever. And, but you know, like you say,
00:03:09.080 you're a farmer, you're a mother, you know, I would assume maybe you can let me know, do people
00:03:15.960 feel, people with those concerns maybe feel a little bit disarmed when somebody like you is
00:03:21.540 making these arguments rather than somebody that they may feel is maybe more like a politician or
00:03:26.040 like a hoity-toity kind of intellectual, you know what I mean? Like not to say that you're not an
00:03:31.060 intellectual, but somebody that, you know, literally is down in the dirt, you know? Yeah, yeah.
00:03:35.980 I think so. I feel always very humbled that I was asked to be a part of this team. And then
00:03:41.300 the team that we've compiled around us is just really incredible, Alberta-loving people. And I
00:03:46.440 think Keith comes across very respectfully and very calmly as well. So I think he is very good
00:03:51.560 at reaching that undecided portion of our population and being able to have a civil
00:03:55.520 conversation with them. That's really important. When we first kind of started it, one of our main
00:04:00.620 goals was just to make sure that the conversation was happening because you couldn't talk about
00:04:05.100 independence before without a lot of anger and animosity and it's still polarizing but the
00:04:09.780 conversation is happening everywhere and all the media is having it and the UK the France Germany
00:04:16.240 everyone's coming to us for interviews now and wanting to learn about Alberta independence so
00:04:20.380 it's actually become a global conversation so I appreciate very much that Keith and I were able to
00:04:25.080 do that I think that we also have that good balance because he is that that high intellect
00:04:29.480 and a constitutional lawyer and I've got nothing lawyer about me at all but also because I'm a
00:04:34.560 farmer, a mom and a teacher, that's very relatable to Albertans. And I don't find that my approach
00:04:40.140 is particularly offensive or aggressive either. I don't really like confrontation myself. I would
00:04:44.960 rather just have a civil conversation. And I think that was a priority is to make sure that
00:04:49.020 we have the space for those civil conversations. And then that's when you find solutions.
00:04:53.920 Totally. Yeah. It's so valuable because we've heard that a lot in our discussions with people.
00:05:00.480 the average person might still have this notion
00:05:04.280 that a separatist is very aggressive
00:05:07.780 or maybe a redneck or something like this.
00:05:10.620 It's good to disabuse them of those notions.
00:05:12.360 But I'm curious, what are the main questions
00:05:15.260 that the international community has been asking of you?
00:05:17.400 I assume they don't know much
00:05:19.660 of the nuance of the discussion.
00:05:20.900 So how are you putting that in a nutshell for them? 0.94
00:05:24.580 Well, they ask a lot about why Alberta is disgruntled
00:05:28.200 and our grievances with Ottawa.
00:05:30.140 So we can go through some of the punitive treatments
00:05:32.180 they have that all of our decisions in Alberta
00:05:35.480 are made thousands of kilometers away
00:05:37.680 by people that are not vested in our communities 0.74
00:05:40.220 and our families.
00:05:41.060 They don't understand our industries.
00:05:42.380 They don't understand our values.
00:05:44.260 That's one of the major grievances.
00:05:46.020 And then we talk to them about how we can't actually
00:05:48.500 have any constitutional change from Alberta.
00:05:51.060 We can't enforce it.
00:05:52.220 Our constitution is not amendable.
00:05:54.940 So those are some of the conversations
00:05:56.700 that we have with them just so they can understand
00:05:58.460 Alberta's place within Confederation
00:06:00.140 and why we would want to change that relationship.
00:06:06.380 Now, for the Albertans at home,
00:06:08.480 maybe we'll finish on this.
00:06:11.220 There is still two weeks out,
00:06:14.080 less than two weeks out maybe, when this is released,
00:06:17.700 there still may be confusion, like you said earlier,
00:06:19.820 between what option one means and what option two means.
00:06:22.500 When you're having a referendum
00:06:24.200 to have a future referendum,
00:06:26.040 well, what exactly does that mean?
00:06:27.500 What do people need to know who are just unsure
00:06:30.800 about what they're even going in to vote for?
00:06:33.400 Well, first, independence is not on the ballot.
00:06:35.880 So we are not voting on independence.
00:06:37.380 So people don't have to be scared of that yet
00:06:38.940 if they haven't made up their mind
00:06:40.080 or even if they're in opposition to it.
00:06:41.820 But what is on the ballot is leverage.
00:06:44.880 So option one is a vote for the status quo,
00:06:47.580 but not even just the status quo,
00:06:49.520 it's the status quo as Canada is heading down this path
00:06:53.020 that we see it going down.
00:06:54.160 So Canada is changing and not in a way
00:06:56.600 that many of us like, we would like to avoid that.
00:07:00.320 That's what a vote for option one does though,
00:07:01.880 is it just gives the power to Ottawa to say,
00:07:04.080 you know what, we give up, you can just do with us
00:07:06.420 as you will, there will be no change.
00:07:08.780 We have absolutely no leverage or negotiating strength
00:07:11.500 if we vote for option one.
00:07:13.340 But option two, because it does set us down the path
00:07:16.460 to have a referendum at a later date on independence,
00:07:19.620 it basically puts the government on notice,
00:07:21.780 puts the federal government on notice,
00:07:23.360 that we're willing to pursue this
00:07:25.620 if you won't treat us like adults
00:07:27.480 and give us a seat at the table.
00:07:29.420 So that's where our negotiating strength comes from.
00:07:31.820 And wouldn't that be great to give our premier
00:07:34.300 that negotiating strength with Ottawa
00:07:36.240 that she's never had before, that leverage to say,
00:07:39.340 hey, these are the things we actually want.
00:07:42.300 Come meet us at some part, some way,
00:07:45.740 and let's see what you're willing to bring to the table.
00:07:48.080 And then at that point, Albertans will be able to weigh in
00:07:51.020 and see if they actually agree
00:07:52.480 with what was brought to the table
00:07:53.980 or if it's still not enough
00:07:55.240 because we'll have that second referendum coming up.
00:07:58.600 Makes sense to me.
00:08:00.100 Thank you so much Tanya for the work that you guys are doing.
00:08:03.440 It's totally invaluable and really appreciate it
00:08:06.680 and appreciate you sitting down with us again.
00:08:08.240 Yes, thank you so much, I appreciate it too.
00:08:10.040 Cheers.
00:08:25.240 you