The Critical Compass Podcast - August 02, 2026


Change Our Minds ｜ U of A Independence Talks

Alberta Independence： Stigma, History & Freedom with Michael Wagner & Kathy Flett Is Independence Possible？ ｜ Change Our Minds w⧸ Kathy Flett

Episode Stats


Length

7 minutes

Words per minute

170.34

Word count

1,221

Sentence count

69

People

Also mentioned:
Keith Ellison Albert Rhett

Harmful content

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Oh, you guys look like you have opinions. Don't cross the streets.
00:00:04.180 Don't cross!
00:00:06.840 We're trying to get people to change our minds and nobody wants to.
00:00:09.980 No one wants to fight with me.
00:00:11.400 We don't do like fighting stuff.
00:00:12.580 We don't either. We just want to hear another side.
00:00:15.600 What if we had a very nice, cordial conversation?
00:00:18.880 Okay, we'll just get along.
00:00:20.340 Exactly!
00:00:22.320 That's what we say, but it doesn't seem to, like, I don't know.
00:00:27.220 We just want to talk about it.
00:00:29.160 The news says these guys say this and these guys say that.
00:00:31.540 I don't know what you say.
00:00:33.160 Because that's what's important.
00:00:35.480 Yeah.
00:00:36.040 You've got a Mad Caddy shirt on, so you're a punk fan.
00:00:38.380 So you're all about sticking it to the man.
00:00:40.040 Yeah, let's do it.
00:00:41.220 Yeah.
00:00:41.860 Right?
00:00:42.380 Yeah.
00:00:42.580 Yeah.
00:00:43.180 So I don't know.
00:00:44.000 So we thought, well, let's come down here where supposedly thought should take place at university
00:00:48.400 and find out what people are actually thinking.
00:00:50.560 I'll chat with you for a minute.
00:00:51.500 Why not?
00:00:51.800 That'd be cool.
00:00:52.660 Beautiful.
00:00:53.220 Only if I can pack your dog.
00:00:54.460 Okay.
00:00:56.420 What a good boy.
00:00:59.160 what's your name man i'm brett mike yeah nice to meet you
00:01:04.260 so what do you think do you have a do you have an opinion like where are you at right now with
00:01:11.580 this where i'm at right now i definitely think that um alberta definitely needs a better deal
00:01:17.140 within the country there's no question i think that that is you know i've watched the uh a lot
00:01:23.140 of what this side is saying and i agree with a lot of it i think a lot of people do agree with
00:01:27.560 A lot of things are what's being said.
00:01:31.080 I don't think that taking your ball and even going,
00:01:35.460 like walking home after the basketball game is like one while,
00:01:37.780 I don't think that's necessarily the right approach to it.
00:01:40.120 But I do think the discussion needs to be had.
00:01:42.260 I do think that there are a lot of really important things
00:01:45.460 that are kind of happening in your guys' stats.
00:01:49.260 So what would a, I suppose, let's say, let's thought experiment,
00:01:54.240 referendum happens, we get
00:01:56.320 45%, something like that.
00:01:59.160 It doesn't go in our 0.65
00:02:01.000 favor, but it's a big number.
00:02:03.360 What would a response
00:02:05.260 from the federal government to that
00:02:06.880 for us look like to you?
00:02:09.800 I really hope that
00:02:10.980 they would take us seriously and realize
00:02:12.960 that the ways of the passer
00:02:14.620 can't keep going,
00:02:16.940 can't keep continuing down the same road.
00:02:18.800 You're talking mostly financially?
00:02:20.320 Financially, I think it's
00:02:21.940 It's no surprise to anybody that the cost of living, the cost of doing business, the cost of everything is just going through the roof.
00:02:29.020 And we need to reevaluate the way that we're looking at things.
00:02:32.380 And I think that if anyone from any side of the political spectrum isn't taking that very seriously, just shake your head.
00:02:41.240 So, yeah.
00:02:42.900 That's a pretty nuanced take.
00:02:44.300 That's pretty reasonable.
00:02:45.340 I would say that, I mean, I don't know if you, what your friends and family are, where they're kind of at on this issue.
00:02:51.740 but I would say you probably have people who aren't happy with you on both sides.
00:02:57.120 For sure, and I have these discussions with friends and family
00:03:00.240 from both sides of the spectrum, from all sides,
00:03:02.860 and quite honestly, I think a lot of people make really good points
00:03:06.120 from all aspects.
00:03:08.260 I personally am not as hating of Canada in general.
00:03:16.020 I do agree that we should be, we're stronger as a whole
00:03:20.780 as opposed to with the individual parts.
00:03:22.880 So I see that, but I also see that maybe the fairness of the deal
00:03:27.260 is not where it should be to tweak that.
00:03:29.720 That's fair.
00:03:30.440 I think that there's a lot of people on this,
00:03:32.400 and I would include ourselves among this,
00:03:34.100 that we don't really hate Canada.
00:03:36.180 I think a lot of people view Alberta independence
00:03:39.040 as a means of either returning to
00:03:42.680 or retaining what used to make Canada feel like Canada.
00:03:47.520 Because it doesn't really, for a lot of people,
00:03:49.220 it doesn't really feel like Canada less.
00:03:50.780 10, 15 years, right?
00:03:52.400 What would be your, and I won't keep you forever,
00:03:54.860 but maybe as a last question,
00:03:55.920 what will be
00:03:57.920 your greatest
00:03:59.680 concerns about becoming an event?
00:04:03.280 I think
00:04:03.940 the biggest things for me would be
00:04:05.700 the fact that it would be
00:04:07.940 again, I don't know what
00:04:09.880 the full agenda
00:04:11.880 would look like. I don't know what a true
00:04:13.300 if everything went 100% yes, and
00:04:15.520 if there was a full separation, what that would look like.
00:04:18.300 I'd love to see all these details.
00:04:19.520 you know yeah hard facts because i just there's a lot out there that we no one truly knows the
00:04:24.740 answer for either direction yeah but the fact that it's a lot landlocked nation uh with
00:04:30.140 potentially provinces on either side what would that look like in terms of health care in terms of
00:04:35.840 government contracts in terms of trade deals and everything i just think there's there's there's
00:04:41.700 so many fine details that right now the whole idea of oh let's just leave and sort out the
00:04:46.780 details later i don't think kind of similar to the breaks it approach i still think 10 years
00:04:51.580 later they're still actually trying to sort out a lot of these these nuanced details and i think
00:04:57.040 that's a big factor until you actually know what they all look like it'd be yeah it'd be challenging
00:05:01.960 but again let's have the discussions i think that i see some i see some good things potentially
00:05:09.080 happening while remaining as a united canada and i that's encouraging but i realize it's going to
00:05:14.960 take some time no but yeah I agree I agree I agree I would say if you were
00:05:26.020 interested yeah check out do you know Keith Wilson is no Keith Wilson is a
00:05:30.720 Alberta st. Albert based lawyer he's starting a group called the Alberta
00:05:35.720 Transition Council tip and so he ATC Alberta Transition Council check them
00:05:40.760 they're going to be kind of working on exactly like what you just said,
00:05:45.820 trying to hammer out really specifics.
00:05:48.320 Because what he says, like a lot of people want specifics, like you.
00:05:51.740 A lot of people don't want specifics.
00:05:53.160 They just want to know that things are going to be okay.
00:05:55.300 And for guys like you, check him out.
00:05:57.460 Keith Wilson, Alberta Transition Council.
00:05:59.600 Rhett, thank you, man, for the consultation.
00:06:01.580 Really appreciate it.
00:06:02.260 That's great.
00:06:02.580 No, thanks so much.
00:06:03.160 Thanks a lot.
00:06:03.720 Yeah, no worries.
00:06:04.540 And good luck with everything.
00:06:05.560 And I just hope, like you guys said, I hope the information comes out
00:06:10.100 so that we can actually
00:06:10.800 have an informed decision
00:06:11.720 because I feel like
00:06:12.760 there's so much
00:06:13.520 muddy water in the middle
00:06:14.960 and I think we're all
00:06:16.900 just in the end
00:06:18.120 you can take anyone
00:06:18.780 from any side
00:06:19.260 of the political spectrum
00:06:20.140 and we're all trying
00:06:21.000 to actually achieve
00:06:21.680 the same thing
00:06:22.340 which way are we going
00:06:23.560 about it to get to that
00:06:24.420 so that's what I'm hoping for
00:06:26.560 you said it brother
00:06:27.060 that was the last word
00:06:28.100 that was awesome
00:06:28.400 that's so good
00:06:29.240 thanks guys
00:06:30.540 have a good day
00:06:31.460 see ya
00:06:40.100 Thank you.