The Critical Compass Podcast - March 24, 2026


Canada is Lost, But Alberta Can Still Be Saved ｜ Chris Scott


Episode Stats

Length

17 minutes

Words per Minute

158.26195

Word Count

2,722

Sentence Count

66

Misogynist Sentences

2

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary

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

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 .
00:00:00.000 well thank you all for coming out it's wonderful to see all of the seats filled and we had to put
00:00:09.240 out more seats that's fantastic that tells me that Albertans are at the very least wanting
00:00:16.320 to have discussions Albertans want to talk about their future and I believe that's probably because
00:00:23.340 most of you are aware that we have a very important question that's about to
00:00:29.580 be asked of us. Do you agree that Alberta should cease to be a province of Canada
00:00:34.100 and become an independent state? That is a very heavy question right? That question
00:00:40.160 regardless of the way it's answered is going to affect the future of every man
00:00:44.580 woman child and pet in Alberta for the foreseeable future. Many of you in this
00:00:51.780 room you're aged you know what I'm saying right you might not see the the
00:01:00.240 fruits of of either consequence to that question you might not I might not I'm
00:01:06.480 I'm 47 am I 47 my mom's gonna follow me right away and tell me I'm 46 I'm 46
00:01:12.180 years old and I might not see it but you know who's going to see it and feel it
00:01:15.300 my kids for sure and any adult any parent grandparent or even any if you don't have kids
00:01:22.900 you know people that do and you care about kids you know that the things that we do and the choices
00:01:28.020 that we make now must consider the future future of our kids what is it going to look like for our
00:01:36.020 kids you know i've been involved in this conversation for about five years or so i've
00:01:40.740 traveled from one end of the province to the next speaking about alberta independence
00:01:44.980 speaking about the merits and benefits of an independent Alberta.
00:01:50.360 And I do that because, well, I don't think there's anything more important to do when it comes to civics, right?
00:01:57.520 We go and we vote in elections and we participate in campaigns and those types of things.
00:02:03.920 And that kind of affects the future for the next four years.
00:02:06.580 And then we do it all over again and it might be something different, right?
00:02:09.220 how much more important is it to answer a question about the the future of alberta about alberta
00:02:17.880 sovereignty are we going to choose to grow up take our birthright start making our own choices
00:02:26.560 acting like adults or are we going to continue with the status quo so because that question's
00:02:34.160 so heavy, and because I care about my future, and more in particular, my kids' future, I've decided
00:02:40.560 to, along with my team, travel across Alberta and talk to as many people as we can. I want to,
00:02:50.420 of course, we want to share our opinion and our ideas about what Alberta should be, what Alberta
00:02:57.080 could be and more important than that we want to hear from you folks you know what your questions
00:03:04.720 are what your concerns are some of you might be opposed to this idea and this is this is a place
00:03:10.800 for you to share those concerns a referendum question was put to the people of Alberta when
00:03:16.920 my good close friend Jason was the premier and the referendum question was do you agree that we
00:03:25.820 should end equalization. And 62.5 or 0.8% of Albertans said yes. Now, how many people in this
00:03:34.220 room answered yes to that question? Most of us. What's happened? Nothing. Why? Why did nothing
00:03:43.520 happen? Nothing happened because that question had no teeth. Nothing happened because that question
00:03:51.320 was a political stunt to appease you and to appease me and it largely worked because we're
00:03:57.000 fairly ignorant when it comes to politics and civics right on the whole Albertans don't really
00:04:04.140 know what's going on with politics for the most part except for that's really changed in the last
00:04:07.980 few years thanks to the tireless work of you know groups of people the reason why nothing happened
00:04:14.180 when Alberta voted very much in favor to end equalization is because it was never intended
00:04:21.840 to have an outcome of action. The question was meant to just placate you. Hey, promise made,
00:04:28.220 promise kept, I gave you the referendum. Well, I really want to change that. I actually want to
00:04:34.280 Alberta to take control of immigration. Some of the other questions that are going to be put to
00:04:39.300 referendum this fall are regarding immigration do you want alberta to take control of immigration
00:04:44.420 do you agree that well it was rhetorical but thank you for answering so there's some questions on
00:04:50.680 whether or not we should allow people to immigrate to alberta and immediately receive benefits as
00:04:54.460 albertans those types of questions and you know as much as i appreciate when government bothers
00:05:00.580 to ask the people what they want and that's really what a referendum is it also frustrates me knowing
00:05:06.340 that just like the equalization referendum that we experienced during the kenny regime
00:05:11.260 this referendum on the questions of immigration is much the same
00:05:15.880 when we go to the polls in october and we tell the government that yes we want you to do these
00:05:21.480 things the outcome will be nothing it will be nothing and the technical reason behind that is
00:05:28.680 because even if a hundred percent of albertans said we want an alberta immigration department
00:05:32.440 Yes, we could do that, by the way, under the Constitution. Immigration is a shared jurisdiction between the federal government and the provincial government. We could do that. We could do what Quebec does and say, you don't want to sign our contract and agree to abide by our values and our rules? Get out. We could do that.
00:05:51.280 the problem is the federal government doesn't seem to care who comes to the country and this
00:05:58.140 is not to say immigrants are bad it's to say that when people come to a country they should more or
00:06:02.780 less align with the values and the morals of that country because if they don't you eventually don't
00:06:07.560 have that country anymore and i believe what we have in the west is worth protecting i mean the
00:06:12.840 west has built something where people from all over the world sacrifice for years and years and
00:06:18.100 years and work tirelessly get on a boat or a plane or whatever and they come
00:06:23.980 here to start a new life that means that what we have here is worth something
00:06:27.760 it's valuable and we must protect that if we allow people who don't agree with
00:06:33.700 that that want that to change that want it to more reflect the places people flee
00:06:38.500 from and we bring too many of those people in that's what we will become
00:06:42.700 it's common sense it's not racism it's not any other ism it's just a fact
00:06:47.560 that's the way it is so let's just pretend for a moment that Alberta wants
00:06:51.700 to protect the values and the freedoms that make this a place people want to
00:06:56.080 come to and we say we're going to make sure that everyone who comes here
00:07:00.700 aligns with our values the rest of the country doesn't do that we have this
00:07:06.840 amazing piece of paper called the Charter of Rights and Freedoms don't let
00:07:10.900 me don't get me started on that one as a guy that's been arrested for protesting
00:07:14.800 But we have this Charter Rights and Freedoms that guarantees Canadian citizens' mobility rights.
00:07:20.160 Canadian citizens are guaranteed mobility rights within the country.
00:07:23.480 That means we can go province to province and nobody can stop us because we're Canadian citizens.
00:07:28.540 So what happens when Ontario brings in another million immigrants that do not share our values and gives them Canadian citizenship?
00:07:36.100 What can the Alberta Immigration Department do?
00:07:38.840 Nothing.
00:07:39.400 So when the premier, who, by the way, is an extremely intelligent person, she has a very strong background in politics and political science, she knows these things, when she says to you, Alberta, do you want to take control of immigration?
00:07:56.820 What is she asking you?
00:07:59.700 She is asking you, Alberta, do you want to be sovereign?
00:08:05.420 That's the question.
00:08:06.840 and the question of sovereignty if that's something you want you don't mess around
00:08:14.500 playing political whatever it is beating around the bush you do it that's why this question is
00:08:22.360 so important all of the things that i've seen our government kind of dangle in front of us
00:08:28.000 the pension plan the police force uh immigration department those types of things taxation by the
00:08:33.220 and Alberta tax, Alberta Revenue Agency, all of those things, when Alberta says, yes, we want
00:08:39.720 those things because it will be better here, what Albertans are saying is, yes, I want an
00:08:44.860 independent Alberta. That's what the real answer is. All of the other things around it are fluff.
00:08:51.300 They mean very little, because if we just answer those questions and we beat around the bush
00:08:56.540 of Alberta sovereignty, we're wasting our time, and nothing will change. That's why these town
00:09:04.220 halls are so important, because I guarantee you that there may be many of you sitting here today
00:09:10.000 that, like me, love this country. As rough as it's been, and how much I've realized it's not
00:09:18.940 what I believed, I still love this country. I have this emotional attachment to it. And
00:09:26.060 my emotional attachment to it says, I want to fight and do everything I can to fix this
00:09:31.780 so that we can stay together and have everyone agree on it. But after almost six years in
00:09:38.660 this, I've come to the depressing conclusion that that is not possible. It's just not.
00:09:45.600 it is possible for alberta to stand up stand against what's happening with the rest of the
00:09:53.460 country right now and encourage the rest of canada to finally smarten up that's possible for sure
00:09:59.980 it's not possible if we let our emotions cloud our judgment and we've seen some very visceral
00:10:09.680 manifestations of emotion throughout this uh you know the petition campaign that's occurring haven't
00:10:15.260 we we have seen people like having the most irrational responses to people participating
00:10:25.800 in democracy fighting them somebody in Edmonton like they literally beat up one of those volunteers
00:10:31.180 we've seen people swerving their cars at volunteers we've seen them shouting and calling
00:10:37.040 them traitors and and discussing human beings and that they should hang people tell me I should hang
00:10:42.540 for my opinion. I have a comeback for that, but it's not child appropriate. But the responses
00:10:52.860 and what we're seeing from those opposed to an independent Alberta are so emotional. They're
00:11:00.220 so emotional that they can't separate their emotions from the facts. They can't separate
00:11:04.940 the facts from their feelings and see the forest for the trees. Every single argument
00:11:11.140 that I've heard so far
00:11:12.940 against the idea of an independent Alberta
00:11:15.280 and I'm going to challenge you to try and stump me
00:11:17.360 here folks, I've been able to
00:11:19.260 turn that around and explain exactly
00:11:21.160 why that's a reason we need to be
00:11:23.360 independent. Oh we're going to be
00:11:25.200 landlocked, we're landlocked now
00:11:26.660 let's get unpolicy locked so we can
00:11:29.220 finally negotiate the access
00:11:31.180 like adults, right?
00:11:33.140 Oh what are we going to do for currency? What do we do for
00:11:35.300 currency now? Our government prints twice
00:11:37.200 as much money, the value of our dollar drops
00:11:39.300 by 50% and there's not a damn thing we can do about it because we don't have the voice
00:11:43.400 powerful enough to change federal monetary policy. Well, what are we going to do about
00:11:47.620 the military? Are you happy with the way our military is right now? If not, what are you
00:11:52.900 going to do about it? Nothing. If you want to fix the things that are wrong with this
00:11:58.260 country, you cannot. Not as an Albertan. Not ever. And not because it's broken. It's because
00:12:07.600 it's exactly the way it was intended to be that's why alberta and saskatchewan were legislated into
00:12:14.080 existence and we didn't get a referendum we didn't get a choice that's why the constitution has the
00:12:19.200 imbalance of power that we see in the senate and the supreme court and house of commons
00:12:24.000 that's why when clifford sifton said we and all can we desire and all canadian patriots desire
00:12:29.680 the great trade of the prairies benefit us in the east to build up our factories and places of work
00:12:35.920 he wasn't lying he did not say we desire and all Canadian Patriots desire that
00:12:43.240 this great dominion work together and everyone has a seat at the table and we
00:12:46.780 chart our course into the future together he said we want your stuff and
00:12:50.680 it's never changed that's the way it's supposed to be so I'm sorry if you have
00:12:56.420 this idea that we can change things and fix things with a constitutional
00:13:00.160 amendment or with uh electing pierre poly of uh to to the conservative leadership and then
00:13:06.160 electing him as prime minister no prime minister in the history of the dominion of canada has ever
00:13:11.080 done anything to right the imbalance of power between east and west and the reason for that
00:13:15.960 it was not an accident it's intentional the business of federal politics does not allow
00:13:21.580 a prime minister or parliamentarians to change that balance period if you think i'm wrong
00:13:28.740 I want to hear from you. I want to hear a plausible and probable path
00:13:33.280 to Alberta's sovereignty in the way we need it
00:13:37.200 to control the things that need to be controlled so we can maintain our way of life
00:13:41.140 here. If you have that, I want to hear it. If you're opposed
00:13:45.180 to what I'm saying, I want to hear it. If you believe there's a reason why
00:13:48.860 Alberta shouldn't or can't be independent, I want
00:13:53.060 to hear it. If you have an emotional
00:13:56.840 argument for maintaining this relationship with Canada, I'll hear it but it won't hold any weight
00:14:04.660 with me. It won't. Maybe when I was 20 years younger, five years younger, I made decisions
00:14:14.340 that were based on my emotions. I've done that. Every older person in this crowd has done that
00:14:21.160 when they were younger. We watch the younger generation making emotional decisions right now
00:14:26.020 and we're like did we drop you on your head or something like how can you do this and then we
00:14:32.820 remember that we were exactly the same way at some point we have to grow up and we have to stop
00:14:37.380 letting our emotions be our guide we have to stop following our heart and we have to start
00:14:43.980 following our brain because your heart will deceive you and it will deceive you to the point
00:14:50.760 where you sacrifice your children's future for a warm fuzzy feeling or or to prevent you from
00:15:01.220 becoming the object of people's anger that's called fear the reason that i say alberta independence
00:15:10.680 is necessary and inevitable even though i don't know you there's no metric right now that shows
00:15:16.660 we have a majority is because I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that the very intelligent people
00:15:23.480 of this province when it comes to their secret ballot when nobody else is looking there's no
00:15:32.200 live streams there's no town hall it's just them and they're standing at the ballot box looking at
00:15:39.560 the question do you agree that Alberta should cease to be a province in Canada and become an
00:15:45.600 independent state they will look at that and they have a chance to act without those emotions in
00:15:52.460 the way without the fear of what their neighbors will say and they can agree to that and they can
00:15:58.860 go on with their lives nobody ever knowing that they agreed because many people don't want to
00:16:03.980 face the public pressure and and you know scorn and resentment that we do and we see that every
00:16:11.980 day. I believe the closet separatists are going to be the ones that win this. So with that said,
00:16:21.620 it's time that we start to be more bold about the things that we believe in, about the things that
00:16:28.780 we know are true, because our meekness and our fear of what other people think have got us in
00:16:33.700 this situation. We can't do that anymore. If not for us, we got to start being bold for our kids.
00:16:41.980 Thank you.