Alberta Will Win Independence By Rejecting Ottawa's Political Division ｜ Angela Tabak
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Words per minute
137.97536
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1
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4
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Summary
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
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Thank you so much. As a young woman in my early 20s, I had a dream of adventure. And I had the
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opportunity to go over to Europe for a year and a half. And I spent most of my time there living
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in northern Belgium, literally in Flanders Fields. And my roommates at that time were mostly
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all-American. And one of the first phrases that I learned to speak in Flemish was,
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Ik ben geen Amerikaner, which means I am no American. And the reason why that was important
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was literally living in Flanders fields amongst all those wild poppies. All I had to do was
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say to people, I've been a Canadian, right? And they would invite me into their homes,
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and if they were old enough, I heard their stories and their tales of the Canadians that
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came and fought in their land. And if they weren't old enough, they would tell me about
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their grandfathers and their grandparents and their experience with the Canadians there.
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I will never forget the experience of riding my bike through the beautiful Belgian countrysides
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along those canals and oh, stumbling upon a Canadian military cemetery.
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Getting off that bike and walking amongst those headstones and those poppies and seeing
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the ages of those young men who paid the ultimate price for their freedom, for the freedom of
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When I came back, I spent a few years in Alberta, and eventually ended up in California in Silicon
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When I came back to Alberta, finally, to stay, after that, I began to realize that the country
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that I once was so proud of and loved so much was changed.
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Or maybe was it that my eyes were opened and I was finally seeing what was happening?
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Now tonight, I want to speak briefly about a key element that I believe is missing in
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Canadian society and that if as Albertans we wish to create a new, lasting, free and
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prosperous land, we must recapture this element.
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Now, Tanya tonight talked about the beginnings of Alberta, and it was very clear from the
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very beginning that we were never meant to be full participants in Canada, that we were
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We saw this same attitude continue again with the National Energy Program.
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As a young child living in a small oil town in northern Alberta during that time, I remember
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sitting in class and wondering where all my classmates had gone as the town
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emptied out and eventually my family also walked away from our home and went
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somewhere else. That was a devastating time in our lives. In 1987 Secretary of
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State David Crombie introduced the Canadian Multiculturalism Act. He
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declared the act would promote the full and equitable participation of
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individuals and communities of all origins in and this is where it gets
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really important the continuing evolution and shaping of all aspects of Canadian
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society that was the whole point of the multiculturalism act in the ensuing 39
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years we have witnessed the continuous evolution and shaping of Canadian
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society to the point that our Prime Minister Justin Trudeau declared that
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There is no core identity, no mainstream in Canada.
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Our current Prime Minister cannot decide what Canadian values are and keeps claiming other
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We now have a justice system that considers your ancestral background and perhaps your
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Or we have witnessed a former world-class immigration system reduced to what now equates
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We see ethnic enclaves throughout all of our major cities and a subsequent lack of cohesion
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And we all experienced COVID where we once again witnessed the divisive tactics being
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used on Canadians as our Prime Minister called those who chose to remain unvaccinated, derogatory
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names and wondered aloud if we should tolerate these people.
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constant and never-ending pitting of one group of Canadians against another has
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taken its toll on Canadian society and on us as individuals. It has kept the
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elite in power and us regular folk too distracted to see what is really
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happening. A year ago my good friend Kathy Flett and I formed the Alberta
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Women's Independence Network. Our purpose in doing this was to hold small meetings
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in women's homes or local cafes and restaurants all across the province to
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discuss the state of Canada and what our options were to bring about change.
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Our focus has been on education, building community through respectful dialogue,
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and conveying a message of hope. After sitting with literally thousands of men
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and women throughout the province in these smaller intimate meetings, I think
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understand now what we as Albertans must absolutely do to be successful in this.
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In 2024, retired Canadian Armed Forces Colonel David Redman published a paper for the Frontier
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Centre for Public Policy. While Colonel Redman has stated he does not support Alberta independence,
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in his paper he outlines six national interests or pillars that are essential to a strong,
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free, and prosperous nation. I think they are worth looking at through the lens of Alberta
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independence. And these are the six pillars. Unity, national security, good governance,
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protection of rights and freedoms, economic prosperity and growth, and personal and community
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well-being. Colonel Redmond, in talking about unity, stated, unity is the core value for a country.
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a cultural unity is based on common shared ethics values and beliefs this is what has been truly
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missing in our canadian society and this is something that as albertans if we are to become
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our own independent state we must embrace without unity we cannot put all those other pillars into
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place in a way where they will last. All efforts will eventually fail without a
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strong underpinning of unity. But unity is hard. It's a little bit of an ambiguous
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thing. We can talk about economics. We can talk about specific freedoms. But to talk about unity,
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how do we define that? Well, again, we can go back to what Colonel Redmond says,
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A cultural unity is based on common shared ethics, values, and beliefs.
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So what are some of these common shared ethics, values, and beliefs that you,
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as an Albertan, cherish and adhere to? We're talking about rights and freedoms,
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individual responsibility, equality, respect, resilience, hard work ethic, grit, innovation,
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entrepreneurship the list could go on but ultimately all of these must lead to
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patriotism and a national pride what can we as individuals do to promote unity
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around these shared values ethics and beliefs our isolation from one another
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keeps the elites in power our connection with each other destroys that power
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that influence. I am convinced that at this stage the game will only be won
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through one-on-one interactions with our families and friends. We need to step out
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from behind our keyboards and get involved. The fact that you are here
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tonight tells me that you are willing to do just that. Getting involved does not
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mean having to stand at the front and be the speaker it's simply something as easy as coming
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to a meeting and bringing a friend with you your heartfelt invitation to a family member a friend
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or neighbor to get together over coffee will do more to build connection and unity than any number
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of electronic messages that you can send if this is something that feels too far out of your comfort
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zone consider bringing in reinforcements myself kathy and a number of ladies all across the
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province would love to join you and your friends for coffee and dessert and help lead the needed
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conversations collectively and individually we must be aware of tactics that are used to divide us
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as a people when we see them being used call them out i don't care if they are a current politician
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or a former politician call them out do not fall into the trap and engage a name calling othering
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or other divisive behaviors we must rise above this we can rise above this as albertans
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find the common ground with each other and with those outside of our immediate circles
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and build on that commonality six years ago i joined the independence movement through the
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Wildrose Independence Party of Alberta, serving as the constituency association president for
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Cardston-Sixica. Later I became involved with the party on a provincial level. I had a front row seat
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to the tactics used to bring down the independence movement, the same tactics that have been used
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over and over and over again in the past five decades. While we need to stay focused on the
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tasks at hand of gathering signatures and then educating enough Albertans to
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achieve a successful referendum on independence in October. We need to be
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wary of anyone that would put themselves forward as a leader of this movement
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who engages in any tactic that divides, shuts down conversations, or uses fear
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mongering. This is something that we just simply need to be aware of. I often think
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of my childhood somewhat chaotic somewhat idyllic in the 70s and 80s and some of the games that we
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used to play on the playground red rover red rover we call marty over and then what happens okay so
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we had two teams and the idea was that we were going to build a wall together right we're facing
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each other and we're holding on to each other's hands so tight or maybe we've linked our arms
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and the idea is is that when we call marty over from the other side he is going to run as hard
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as he can and he is going to try and break through that wall and it was painful so either you were
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being smashed by some other kid just coming barreling at you or if you were strong enough
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with your team and connected enough, you're basically going to clothesline that guy, and
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he was going down, right? They don't let them play that game anymore. But I often think about that as
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an analogy for what we, how we as Albertans need to be. Are we standing shoulder to shoulder? Are
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be resolute in our determination to achieve everything that has already been
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described here tonight? What if we achieved everything that was described
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tonight but we all hated each other or we were disconnected and we didn't
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communicate and there was no community? It would all be for naught, be for nothing.
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I truly do believe that as we fight for these other more tangible things we also
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need to be fighting against basically the programming that has been used on us
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for decades to isolate ourselves from each other and to keep us apart we need
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to fight that we can fight that I am a hundred percent convinced that unity is
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at the core of any successful nation I get so excited about this when I think
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about all the opportunities ahead of us and if we're doing it together in a celebratory way
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how exciting is that how wonderful is that we had a september 1st an alberta day celebration
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at my bed and breakfast down outside of waterton this last september and the whole community came
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out it was just a giant barbecue so much fun but i just and it was this wonderful feeling of
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community and connection and we need to see that all across the province and it happens with each
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one of us as individuals and as families as we reach out to each other my challenge to you
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tonight is to go forward with the goal of creating unity in alberta through your individual efforts
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and through your efforts as a movement we can be that light on the hill for other albertans
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and for other Canadians who crave and need what we have here in Alberta.