Crafting a BETTER Constitution for an Independent Alberta with Dr. Dennis Modry
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
143.64539
Summary
In this episode, I speak with Alberta s Chief Justice Minister, Shep Miller, about the proposed constitution for a Sovereign Alberta. We discuss the process of coming up with an interim constitution, what it means to be a sovereign Alberta, and what it would look like in a real constitution.
Transcript
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As a sovereign Alberta, you know, we are working on a constitution that brings into line individual
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freedoms and rights. Interim constitution that we're proposing is based on the U.S. constitution,
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but there's a number of amendments to the U.S. constitution, so that means, you know,
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they had to fix some things along the way. What we're proposing is a constitution that's based,
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loosely based on the U.S. constitution, but it has even more checks and balances,
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and it has more public input through sort of along the Swiss line where certain things that the
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government can't do, for example, is to impose something that the public might not want and in
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order to discern whether the public wants it, you have to hold a referendum on it. And so that's
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one way to deal with these sorts of things. And so I think you'll be really excited to see
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what we're proposing in the new constitution, which is, like I say, it's been run through
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constitutional lawyers and business people and professionals, et cetera, et cetera. And it hasn't
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been released yet because we're still tweaking it, but we expect that it'll be released by the end of
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September. And this would be the basis for a full constitutional conference that would take place
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after Alberta declares its sovereignty, immediately following a successful referendum.
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Yeah. So a lot of those that are skeptical of independence on the left, more pragmatic in the
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sense of like, well, they don't trust the UCP. If they are worried about a government overstepping
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their bounds and reaching into people's lives and acting in a way that is corrupt, then technically
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wouldn't they want more checks and balances. Exactly. Like a limited government is limited
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in its ability to become corrupt or into to interfere with people's lives. So this is a unique
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opportunity to weave in a better foundation through like through a robust constitution.
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Well, exactly. You know, and here's just one example from the constitution, the proposed constitution.
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You have a, you have the people above a constitution and then you have the various branches, but we have
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a new branch and which is above all of them. And that is a branch that oversees the executive branch,
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the judiciary, the Senate, and its sole mandate is to ensure that each branch of government does not
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deviate at all from the constitution. Okay. So there can't be anything. And that's its sole
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responsibility. And there are four arms that look at that, that oversee those four branches of
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government. Then on top of that, from an economic point of view, what we're proposing as well is that
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each department that operates, whether it's be education or healthcare or military, every three months,
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there's an audit released to the public. So when you are audited every three months,
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you have very little opportunity to divest funds, uh, in a way in which they shouldn't be divested.
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You see what I'm saying? So checks and balances, right? And then for any new spending bills or
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something that may be substantive, you'd have to have a referendum on that or, or a plebiscite
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either, or referendums are binding. Plebiscites are not necessarily binding. So referendum would be
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preferable. So you, you see what I'm saying here is that for the individual who's concerned about
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corruption and government, what we've attempted to do is virtually eliminate it, um, in this fashion.
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And I think it's, uh, it, it, it, it should be, it should be picked up by, um, and supported,
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you know, by the Alberta electorate, you know, from the constitutional conference. Now it doesn't
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mean to say, you know, once we, once we, um, release the interim constitution, uh, for the
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public, just like the value of freedom document open for public discussion. So we expect they're
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going to be, you know, constitutional lawyers on one, on one side of the equation, on constitutional
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lawyers on the other side of the equation, you know, um, arguing about, you know, various points and,
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and we're going to, you know, it's just the way it is, you know, and, but this is what we want. We
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want public discussion. And we're not saying that everything is going to be absolutely perfect. We're
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just like the value of freedom document has been open for public discussion. We're making some tweaks
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to that before its second version is released. So by the same token, the same thing will happen with
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our proposed interim constitution. And these, these sorts of things will help the public understand
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what the potential is for a sovereign, uh, country.