The Critical Compass Podcast - April 13, 2026


Alberta Will Win Independence By Rejecting Ottawa's Political Division ｜ Angela Tabak

Topics
unity unity in alberta
Mentioned
Redmond Justin Trudeau David Crombie Kathy Flett Amerikaner
Ottawa Has Gone From Not Helping, to Interfering, to Downright Threatening Alberta ｜ Martyupnorth An Independent Alberta Doesn't Need to Change Anything - Just GET RID of Ottawa ｜ Matthew Rowley

Episode Stats


Length

14 minutes

Words per minute

137.98

Word count

2,004

Sentence count

68

Harmful content

Misogyny

1

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In this episode, Alberta s First Lady, Tanya van der Moleni, speaks about the need for a strong sense of Canadian identity in our society, and why she believes that this is a key element that is missing in Canadian society.

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 .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Thank you so much. As a young woman in my early 20s, I had a dream of adventure. And I had the
00:00:13.880 opportunity to go over to Europe for a year and a half. And I spent most of my time there living
00:00:19.340 in northern Belgium, literally in Flanders Fields. And my roommates at that time were mostly
00:00:27.200 all-American. And one of the first phrases that I learned to speak in Flemish was,
00:00:32.000 Ik ben geen Amerikaner, which means I am no American. And the reason why that was important 1.00
00:00:41.260 was literally living in Flanders fields amongst all those wild poppies. All I had to do was
00:00:49.120 say to people, I've been a Canadian, right? And they would invite me into their homes,
00:00:59.160 and if they were old enough, I heard their stories and their tales of the Canadians that
00:01:04.440 came and fought in their land. And if they weren't old enough, they would tell me about
00:01:10.520 their grandfathers and their grandparents and their experience with the Canadians there.
00:01:14.880 I will never forget the experience of riding my bike through the beautiful Belgian countrysides
00:01:22.860 along those canals and oh, stumbling upon a Canadian military cemetery.
00:01:30.440 Getting off that bike and walking amongst those headstones and those poppies and seeing
00:01:36.160 the ages of those young men who paid the ultimate price for their freedom, for the freedom of
00:01:44.260 the people in Europe, and for our freedoms.
00:01:48.160 When I came back, I spent a few years in Alberta, and eventually ended up in California in Silicon
00:01:53.620 Valley for seven years.
00:01:57.700 When I came back to Alberta, finally, to stay, after that, I began to realize that the country
00:02:05.500 that I once was so proud of and loved so much was changed.
00:02:10.880 It was no longer there.
00:02:12.400 Or maybe was it that my eyes were opened and I was finally seeing what was happening?
00:02:18.480 Now tonight, I want to speak briefly about a key element that I believe is missing in
00:02:25.400 Canadian society and that if as Albertans we wish to create a new, lasting, free and
00:02:33.580 prosperous land, we must recapture this element.
00:02:38.560 Now, Tanya tonight talked about the beginnings of Alberta, and it was very clear from the
00:02:45.280 very beginning that we were never meant to be full participants in Canada, that we were
00:02:52.020 there to benefit others.
00:02:54.240 We saw this same attitude continue again with the National Energy Program.
00:03:02.160 As a young child living in a small oil town in northern Alberta during that time, I remember
00:03:06.960 sitting in class and wondering where all my classmates had gone as the town
00:03:12.600 emptied out and eventually my family also walked away from our home and went
00:03:17.100 somewhere else. That was a devastating time in our lives. In 1987 Secretary of
00:03:25.920 State David Crombie introduced the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. He
00:03:31.380 declared the act would promote the full and equitable participation of
00:03:36.480 individuals and communities of all origins in and this is where it gets
00:03:42.580 really important the continuing evolution and shaping of all aspects of Canadian
00:03:49.480 society that was the whole point of the multiculturalism act in the ensuing 39
00:03:56.140 years we have witnessed the continuous evolution and shaping of Canadian
00:04:01.620 society to the point that our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that
00:04:05.860 There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.
00:04:10.140 Our current Prime Minister cannot decide what Canadian values are and keeps claiming other
00:04:16.060 cultures' values as our own.
00:04:19.140 We now have a justice system that considers your ancestral background and perhaps your
00:04:23.440 immigration status before sentencing.
00:04:27.000 Or we have witnessed a former world-class immigration system reduced to what now equates
00:04:32.180 to open borders. 1.00
00:04:33.700 We see ethnic enclaves throughout all of our major cities and a subsequent lack of cohesion 0.96
00:04:40.140 throughout Canadian society.
00:04:42.260 And we all experienced COVID where we once again witnessed the divisive tactics being
00:04:48.620 used on Canadians as our Prime Minister called those who chose to remain unvaccinated, derogatory
00:04:54.900 names and wondered aloud if we should tolerate these people.
00:04:59.760 constant and never-ending pitting of one group of Canadians against another has
00:05:05.280 taken its toll on Canadian society and on us as individuals. It has kept the 0.97
00:05:12.360 elite in power and us regular folk too distracted to see what is really
00:05:18.420 happening. A year ago my good friend Kathy Flett and I formed the Alberta
00:05:23.400 Women's Independence Network. Our purpose in doing this was to hold small meetings
00:05:28.880 in women's homes or local cafes and restaurants all across the province to
00:05:34.280 discuss the state of Canada and what our options were to bring about change.
00:05:40.040 Our focus has been on education, building community through respectful dialogue,
00:05:45.500 and conveying a message of hope. After sitting with literally thousands of men
00:05:52.100 and women throughout the province in these smaller intimate meetings, I think
00:05:57.120 understand now what we as Albertans must absolutely do to be successful in this.
00:06:03.840 In 2024, retired Canadian Armed Forces Colonel David Redman published a paper for the Frontier
00:06:10.320 Centre for Public Policy. While Colonel Redman has stated he does not support Alberta independence,
00:06:16.800 in his paper he outlines six national interests or pillars that are essential to a strong,
00:06:23.920 free, and prosperous nation. I think they are worth looking at through the lens of Alberta
00:06:29.360 independence. And these are the six pillars. Unity, national security, good governance,
00:06:36.960 protection of rights and freedoms, economic prosperity and growth, and personal and community
00:06:42.640 well-being. Colonel Redmond, in talking about unity, stated, unity is the core value for a country.
00:06:51.440 a cultural unity is based on common shared ethics values and beliefs this is what has been truly
00:06:59.440 missing in our canadian society and this is something that as albertans if we are to become
00:07:05.280 our own independent state we must embrace without unity we cannot put all those other pillars into
00:07:12.960 place in a way where they will last. All efforts will eventually fail without a
00:07:20.400 strong underpinning of unity. But unity is hard. It's a little bit of an ambiguous
00:07:27.440 thing. We can talk about economics. We can talk about specific freedoms. But to talk about unity,
00:07:35.040 how do we define that? Well, again, we can go back to what Colonel Redmond says,
00:07:39.440 A cultural unity is based on common shared ethics, values, and beliefs.
00:07:45.760 So what are some of these common shared ethics, values, and beliefs that you,
00:07:50.720 as an Albertan, cherish and adhere to? We're talking about rights and freedoms,
00:07:57.120 individual responsibility, equality, respect, resilience, hard work ethic, grit, innovation,
00:08:07.040 entrepreneurship the list could go on but ultimately all of these must lead to
00:08:13.580 patriotism and a national pride what can we as individuals do to promote unity
00:08:21.500 around these shared values ethics and beliefs our isolation from one another
00:08:29.800 keeps the elites in power our connection with each other destroys that power
00:08:36.940 that influence. I am convinced that at this stage the game will only be won
00:08:44.740 through one-on-one interactions with our families and friends. We need to step out
00:08:51.160 from behind our keyboards and get involved. The fact that you are here
00:08:56.000 tonight tells me that you are willing to do just that. Getting involved does not
00:09:01.600 mean having to stand at the front and be the speaker it's simply something as easy as coming
00:09:08.400 to a meeting and bringing a friend with you your heartfelt invitation to a family member a friend
00:09:16.000 or neighbor to get together over coffee will do more to build connection and unity than any number
00:09:22.160 of electronic messages that you can send if this is something that feels too far out of your comfort
00:09:28.320 zone consider bringing in reinforcements myself kathy and a number of ladies all across the
00:09:34.960 province would love to join you and your friends for coffee and dessert and help lead the needed 0.87
00:09:40.720 conversations collectively and individually we must be aware of tactics that are used to divide us
00:09:49.120 as a people when we see them being used call them out i don't care if they are a current politician
00:09:57.040 or a former politician call them out do not fall into the trap and engage a name calling othering
00:10:04.480 or other divisive behaviors we must rise above this we can rise above this as albertans
00:10:11.680 find the common ground with each other and with those outside of our immediate circles
00:10:16.640 and build on that commonality six years ago i joined the independence movement through the
00:10:23.840 Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta, serving as the constituency association president for
00:10:29.760 Cardston-Sixica. Later I became involved with the party on a provincial level. I had a front row seat
00:10:36.800 to the tactics used to bring down the independence movement, the same tactics that have been used
00:10:43.200 over and over and over again in the past five decades. While we need to stay focused on the
00:10:50.800 tasks at hand of gathering signatures and then educating enough Albertans to
00:10:56.920 achieve a successful referendum on independence in October. We need to be
00:11:02.080 wary of anyone that would put themselves forward as a leader of this movement
00:11:06.280 who engages in any tactic that divides, shuts down conversations, or uses fear
00:11:13.780 mongering. This is something that we just simply need to be aware of. I often think
00:11:20.620 of my childhood somewhat chaotic somewhat idyllic in the 70s and 80s and some of the games that we
00:11:29.520 used to play on the playground red rover red rover we call marty over and then what happens okay so
00:11:39.680 we had two teams and the idea was that we were going to build a wall together right we're facing
00:11:47.740 each other and we're holding on to each other's hands so tight or maybe we've linked our arms
00:11:52.480 and the idea is is that when we call marty over from the other side he is going to run as hard
00:11:58.640 as he can and he is going to try and break through that wall and it was painful so either you were
00:12:06.760 being smashed by some other kid just coming barreling at you or if you were strong enough
00:12:13.140 with your team and connected enough, you're basically going to clothesline that guy, and
00:12:18.180 he was going down, right? They don't let them play that game anymore. But I often think about that as
00:12:27.480 an analogy for what we, how we as Albertans need to be. Are we standing shoulder to shoulder? Are
00:12:36.160 be resolute in our determination to achieve everything that has already been
00:12:42.880 described here tonight? What if we achieved everything that was described
00:12:48.700 tonight but we all hated each other or we were disconnected and we didn't
00:12:53.560 communicate and there was no community? It would all be for naught, be for nothing.
00:12:59.260 I truly do believe that as we fight for these other more tangible things we also
00:13:05.500 need to be fighting against basically the programming that has been used on us
00:13:11.920 for decades to isolate ourselves from each other and to keep us apart we need
00:13:18.760 to fight that we can fight that I am a hundred percent convinced that unity is
00:13:26.200 at the core of any successful nation I get so excited about this when I think
00:13:32.500 about all the opportunities ahead of us and if we're doing it together in a celebratory way
00:13:39.240 how exciting is that how wonderful is that we had a september 1st an alberta day celebration
00:13:46.500 at my bed and breakfast down outside of waterton this last september and the whole community came
00:13:52.520 out it was just a giant barbecue so much fun but i just and it was this wonderful feeling of
00:13:58.300 community and connection and we need to see that all across the province and it happens with each
00:14:03.100 one of us as individuals and as families as we reach out to each other my challenge to you
00:14:08.780 tonight is to go forward with the goal of creating unity in alberta through your individual efforts
00:14:16.060 and through your efforts as a movement we can be that light on the hill for other albertans
00:14:24.460 and for other Canadians who crave and need what we have here in Alberta.
00:14:30.460 Thank you.