The Critical Compass Podcast - March 15, 2026


An Independent Alberta is a Return to What Canada USED to Be

Author of 'The Value of Freedom' Document Explains Why Alberta Independence WILL WORK MartyUpNorth Exposes the TRUTH About Canvassing for Alberta Independence

Episode Stats


Length

12 minutes

Words per minute

188.35

Word count

2,270

Sentence count

116

People

Also mentioned:
Pierre Trudeau Justin Trudeau Ted Byfield John Crosby Ted Morton Jack John A. Macdonald William Gardner Lester Pearson Brian Mulroney

Harmful content

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

In this episode, I talk about why I believe that Alberta independence is the best way to preserve what was best about Canada in the past, and why we need to ask the question, which country is more loyal to Canada: Old Canada or New Canada?

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 So what I want to talk about tonight is to say that Alberta independence is the way to preserve
00:00:12.260 what was best about Canada. You know Canada was once a very great country. For its first hundred
00:00:17.920 years or so, Canada was known for exceptional national projects. We built a railway across the
00:00:23.420 northern part of the continent. We built a country out of a rough and cold wilderness. We turned the
00:00:28.660 wilderness into a prosperous and vibrant community, and our military was known for its
00:00:32.840 effectiveness in war around the world. But since the 1960s, Canada has changed. Liberal leaders
00:00:39.560 decided to remake Canada into a different kind of country, one that prioritized leftist social
00:00:45.560 engineering over the country's historic identity and achievements. Now, this transformation was
00:00:50.920 noticed by some people and criticized by some, and the best critic, in my view, was Ted Byfield,
00:00:55.640 the founder of Alberta Report magazine.
00:00:58.500 Now, Ted Byfield actually grew up in Toronto,
00:01:00.280 but he moved out west and became a fervent Alberta patriot.
00:01:03.740 And he talked about how when he was growing up in Toronto,
00:01:05.780 which would be probably about the 1930s or 40s,
00:01:08.320 Canadians still thought of themselves as British North Americans.
00:01:12.140 He mentioned how, you know, our flag back then was the Union Jack,
00:01:14.880 or at least the red enzyme, which had the Union Jack up in the corner.
00:01:18.560 And the Union Jack actually consists of three crosses.
00:01:21.660 The cross of St. George of England,
00:01:23.320 the cross of St. Andrew of Scotland,
00:01:25.640 and the cross of St. Patrick from Ireland.
00:01:27.820 So as three crosses form the Union Jack,
00:01:30.000 so it's an explicitly Christian symbol.
00:01:32.020 So it referred to Canada's Christian heritage.
00:01:34.860 We had a Christian heritage originally as a country.
00:01:37.700 But a flag, of course, was changed in 1965
00:01:39.980 by Prime Minister Lester Pearson,
00:01:42.300 and the Christian symbolism of the Union Jack
00:01:44.280 was replaced by the pantheistic symbolism
00:01:46.860 of the sugar maple leaf.
00:01:48.680 So the sugar maple does not even grow in Western Canada,
00:01:51.980 and the leaf of that tree was to represent the whole country
00:01:54.680 even though it doesn't represent us.
00:01:56.460 But the change in the flag represented, you know,
00:01:58.880 the change that was coming from the Liberals
00:02:00.460 in terms of what our national identity would be.
00:02:03.360 So when you weaken the national identity of a country,
00:02:05.820 people are still going to want to identify with something.
00:02:08.100 So many people in Canada would identify with their region or their province.
00:02:11.640 You know, you'd have criticisms of regionalists
00:02:14.160 for people who identify with the region or their province,
00:02:16.100 but it was because the federal government was attacking our national identity.
00:02:19.460 And this is important because sometimes Albertans who support independence
00:02:22.480 are accused of being disloyal to Canada, but that's not true. Albertans who support
00:02:27.880 independence are often those who remember and deeply love the Canada that existed before the
00:02:32.340 Liberals wrecked it. So already by the 1980s, you know, Ted Byfield was talking about how we have
00:02:39.320 two Canadas emerging. By 1980, you know, Pierre Trudeau had been Prime Minister for 12 years.
00:02:44.040 Two Canadas were emerging, Old Canada and New Canada. Old Canada was essentially created in
00:02:48.940 a sense by John A. MacDonald and gave us a constitution in 1867. And New Canada was being
00:02:54.100 formed by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, who gave us a new constitution in 1982. So these are like
00:02:59.020 two different countries. And Ted Byfield wrote about the differences between these two countries,
00:03:03.820 and I just want to read a quote from him about the two countries. Old Canada had some harsh laws,
00:03:09.740 but was safe to live in. New Canada has enlightened lenient laws as an increasingly
00:03:14.500 unsafe to live in. Old Canada was generally committed to the free enterprise system, modified
00:03:19.400 where necessary. New Canada is increasingly committed to the socialist system, magnified
00:03:24.220 where unnecessary. Old Canada, amid its military obligations, in fact, served magnificently
00:03:29.720 in two world wars. New Canada has virtually no army and has reneged on its military obligations.
00:03:36.080 Old Canada was frugal and poor, but paid its way. New Canada runs at a $14 billion deficit.
00:03:42.200 That $14 billion figure is from 1980, so by today's standards it would be much bigger.
00:03:45.900 But these are two fundamentally different countries.
00:03:49.200 And so when the question arises is to which country is worthy of support,
00:03:52.680 he mentioned there's a particular question we have to ask.
00:03:54.900 Ted Byfield, this is a particular question we have to ask.
00:03:56.900 He says, when people put the question, are you loyal to Canada, I have to ask, to which Canada?
00:04:02.740 The one we used to know or the one which Mr. Trudeau is forcing upon us?
00:04:07.400 I certainly felt part of the first, but that country doesn't seem to be there anymore.
00:04:11.620 about the second i have grave doubts so it's not a question of being disloyal to canada
00:04:16.180 it's a question of determining which canada you're loyal to old canada or new canada
00:04:21.060 our national identity was constantly under assault from pierre trudeau
00:04:24.740 but to be but to be loyal to trudeau's new canada is to be disloyal to the original
00:04:29.540 old canada so pierre trudeau transformed canada into a different kind of country
00:04:34.740 one that is no longer recognizable to most of us so how did trudeau fundamentally transform our
00:04:40.100 country you know he didn't like the country the way it was and so we wanted
00:04:42.840 to make it into something different well the simplest way to change a country
00:04:46.280 comprehensively is to change its Constitution the Constitution of a
00:04:50.480 country is its foundational document that the document that creates the
00:04:54.380 country you know creates the different levels of government and explains the
00:04:57.380 role of the citizens and so forth the Constitution is a fundamental document
00:05:01.160 of any country so when you change the Constitution you change the country and
00:05:05.420 this is something that Pierre Trudeau knew very well he did not like Canada as
00:05:09.140 it was and so he set out to change the Constitution to make it into a different
00:05:12.380 country. So when he was a Justice Minister in 1968 he already came forth
00:05:16.340 with his proposal for a Charter of Rights and Freedoms in 1968 and the
00:05:20.300 federal government published that proposal as a book. So in this document
00:05:24.120 this book that he wrote he said that he wanted to create a Constitution that
00:05:27.860 would guarantee Canadians like rights. Like at the way Canada's political
00:05:32.300 system was at the time we followed the British system where our rights were
00:05:35.520 protected kind of in an unwritten form but through common law where Trudeau
00:05:39.540 wanted an explicitly entrenched Constitution like with explicitly
00:05:42.660 enumerated rights like the Americans had the Americans had a bill of rights 0.51
00:05:45.760 with written rights in there that's one way of protecting rights the other way
00:05:49.140 is a Canadian and British way of having you know falling through common law and
00:05:53.460 historical practice so Trudeau argued that you know if we did not have
00:05:58.020 explicitly enumerated rights like the Americans have we actually wouldn't have 0.99
00:06:00.720 constitutional protections but that's not true because when you look at
00:06:04.320 Canada's history, like look at 1968, no country in the world protected individual rights better
00:06:09.500 than Canada did. There was countries who would be similar to Canada, like say Australia or Britain
00:06:13.860 in protecting rights, but there was no country that protected rights better than Canada did,
00:06:17.640 even though we did not have one of those documents with explicitly enumerated rights.
00:06:21.240 So Trudeau was essentially kind of misleading Canada, in my view, misleading Canadians by saying
00:06:25.860 we had to have our rights entrenched in the constitution. Nevertheless, though, he had an
00:06:29.220 easy sell to people. He'd go to people, don't you want your rights written right into the constitution?
00:06:33.340 And who would say, no, I don't want my rights written down.
00:06:35.240 So it was an easy sell for Trudeau.
00:06:37.040 He was able to convince most Canadians that we did need this Charter of Rights.
00:06:40.080 But I don't think we really did need it.
00:06:42.100 Anyway, Trudeau's sales pitch worked.
00:06:43.840 And in 1982, we got a new constitution with the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
00:06:47.480 So that's 1982.
00:06:48.880 But the government's, the Charter did not come immediately into effect in some of its sections
00:06:52.460 because the federal and provincial governments were given three years to bring their laws
00:06:56.600 into conformity to the Charter before it came fully into effect in 1985.
00:07:00.220 because if they brought it fully into effect in 1982,
00:07:03.420 there'd be several laws that would contradict the Charter
00:07:06.300 and there'd be all kinds of court cases.
00:07:07.520 So they gave the governments three years to fix those laws first
00:07:09.820 to prevent that kind of thing from happening.
00:07:11.700 So in 1985, the Charter was coming fully into effect.
00:07:15.280 At that time, our Justice Minister was John Crosby of Brian Mulroney's government.
00:07:19.260 So John Crosby is overseeing the Charter coming fully into effect in 1985,
00:07:23.520 and this is what he said publicly.
00:07:25.780 I'm going to read what he said.
00:07:26.720 the public does not realize that we already have had a revolution in Canadian society.
00:07:32.280 The adoption of a charter was a revolution. It has changed the whole power structure of Canadian
00:07:36.860 society. It has taken tremendous power from governments and given it to the courts of
00:07:40.960 Canada, the Supreme Court of Canada, which is not widely realized. Therefore, we are in a whole new
00:07:45.980 legal environment in Canada. There has been a revolutionary change. The adoption of the charter,
00:07:50.920 he says, was a revolution in Canadian society. Now, when they were talking about adopting the
00:07:54.640 Charter up to that time they did not tell us it was gonna be a revolution but
00:07:57.460 once we adopted it that's what was coming into effect we were having a
00:08:00.640 revolution so over the next few years after the Charter came to effect many
00:08:04.000 laws and policies were struck down as a result of the Charter so the Charter
00:08:07.760 delivered a fundamental restructuring of our country because that was the 0.85
00:08:11.100 revolutionary change it brought in 1994 Dr. William Gardner wrote that the
00:08:15.640 Charter was quote an entire state enterprise for the reshaping of Canada
00:08:19.640 he went on to say that Pierre Trudeau viewed the Constitution quote as a means
00:08:23.500 to the achievement of some ideal state, an instrument for forcing society into a predetermined
00:08:28.480 social and political mold. And this is exactly what Pierre Trudeau achieved. With his so-called
00:08:33.880 Charter of Rights, he essentially refounded Canada as a different country, one that fit his ideological
00:08:39.100 program. Each and every day, the courts across Canada enforce Trudeau's vision of Canada using
00:08:45.200 his Charter of Rights. Even today, the courts are using that. So in this sense, Pierre Trudeau rules
00:08:49.720 Canada from the grave. He is dead but not gone. His ideology continues to shape our country and
00:08:55.480 will continue to do so thanks to the Charter. And I have a really good example of that from
00:08:59.360 recent, from January. This is a column from January 29th, 2006, so just a few weeks ago,
00:09:05.920 from Ted Morton. Now, Ted Morton was a political scientist at the University of Calgary for
00:09:09.880 several decades and then he became a provincial cabinet minister. So this column he wrote is,
00:09:14.100 the Charter is gutting the provinces and the data proves it. It's based on a study from the
00:09:17.860 McDonnell Laurier Institute. So what happens, you know, of course, you know, provinces are
00:09:22.720 passing laws every year, and some of those laws are challenged in the courts and go all the way
00:09:26.860 to the Supreme Court of Canada, and the Supreme Court of Canada tends to strike down provincial
00:09:30.800 laws, and this has been going on since the charter was implemented. So every year, our provinces are
00:09:36.240 losing power based on court decisions, or by court decisions from the Supreme Court based on the
00:09:41.480 Charter of Rights. So Trudeau's been dead for 25 years, and still his charter is leading to
00:09:47.020 provinces losing more and more power over a period of time. So he's been dead
00:09:50.440 and his ideological program continues to be implemented right across Canada.
00:09:54.160 Besides changing the Constitution, Pierre Trudeau and Justin Trudeau in
00:09:59.260 particular wanted to change Canada's national identity. And you might remember
00:10:02.740 that shortly after Justin Trudeau was elected in 2015, he was interviewed
00:10:07.900 by the New York Times. And Justin Trudeau told the New York Times in 2015 that
00:10:12.680 Canada is a country with no core identity. He said Canada is the first
00:10:16.640 post-national state. And the New York Times rightly pointed out that in saying
00:10:21.680 these things Justin Trudeau was the avatar of his father's vision. So Justin
00:10:25.440 Trudeau was kind of like the culmination of his father's vision. He was
00:10:28.620 fulfilling his father's vision and declaring Canada to have no core
00:10:31.220 identity. And so instead of Canada's historical national identity, the
00:10:35.540 Liberals like Pierre and Justin Trudeau wanted Canada to be identified by
00:10:39.140 abstract universal concepts. Instead of our history, we'd have abstract universal concepts.
00:10:45.060 Diversity, tolerance, inclusivity. That's supposed to be Canada's identity now, but that's not our
00:10:53.580 historic identity. They're replacing our historic identity with abstract universal concepts that
00:10:58.080 could be applied to any kind of country. But many people still remember the old Canada and what it
00:11:03.140 meant. We want our country back. This is why we support Alberta independence. Good old Canada has
00:11:09.620 vanished. In its place we have new Trudeau Canada, which reeks of wokeism, socialism, and an emerging
00:11:15.440 police state. But an independent Alberta can and will uphold the noble traditions and freedoms
00:11:20.620 of the original Canadian dream. Thank you.
00:11:33.140 Thank you.