Fergus Hodgson： ＂Alberta Has the #1 Movement for Freedom & Self-Determination on the Planet＂
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Summary
In this episode, I speak with Jason Kenney, the author of Financial Sovereignty for Canadians, about why Alberta should leave Canada and why it can be the freest and most accountable nation on the planet. We talk about the economic and political benefits of an independent Alberta, the challenges facing Canada, and the potential impact it can have on the world.
Transcript
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thanks so much Jason yeah I'm just super motivated and pleased to be here this is
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the number one movement for freedom and self-determination on the planet I've
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spent my life my adult life looking for freedom around the world and this is it
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yes so I'm gonna unpack that from two angles the first is why this is so
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important in the let's say that the arc of history in the world and the second
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is why Alberta or how Alberta can be and will be
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My mother was a firstborn child of Irish immigrants
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on a Indian reserve up in Northern British Columbia.
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and I was in business school in the United States.
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And so that gave me the material for my book, Financial Sovereignty for Canadians.
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And at the time, I mean, I've been a big advocate for Alberta independence for many years.
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But at the time, I didn't realize it would gain momentum.
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Many of us have been hoping for this for a long time.
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And the current prognosis for Canada is terrible.
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Canada is on a path to being a post-First World nation.
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But some nations such as Argentina have achieved this.
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one of the most advanced or developed countries in the world,
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Why? Because of protectionism, because of stupid ideas,
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You think to yourself, how is this country such a disaster?
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you can go to Atlantic Canada right now, to be frank.
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If you go to Nova Scotia, people have been leaving for 50 years.
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They've been moving here to Alberta because Alberta still has the work ethic,
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it still has the opportunity, but of course now the problem is people are
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leaving to go south to Texas or Wyoming or Montana or wherever it may be or
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Tennessee. That is the path. If Canada is stuck in a rut and it needs a
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disruption, you cannot fix it from within the system that exists. The
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structure is set and it is toxic. My basic view is that this will actually be
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a three-part win or a win-win-win outcome if alberta achieves this first of course alberta
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will have an incredibly dynamic uh renewed uh and more accountable economy than it has right now
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second canada or the ottawa will have to tighten its belt it'll have to grow up it'll have to learn
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to pay its own bills in fact it'll rather than being an imperial city over this large you know
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lance you know landmass it'll have to be accountable because if it does not change its
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ways and stop preying on the provinces, more provinces will leave. Obviously, Saskatchewan
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will be next in line, Quebec, and so their power is threatened greatly. They will have to change
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from being an overlord to being a server to the provinces, which will be healthy for Canada.
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And the third one is for the rest of the world, basically. There are literally hundreds of
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secession movements around the planet. So I'm a big fan of Texas or Texit, of Ireland leaving the
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European Union, of Cortes, a part of Honduras, become a new country in Central America.
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And the problem is that we have this cognitive bias. We feel more comfortable with what we know
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than what we don't know. But of course, if we flip the equation and say, if Alberta were
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independent, would we join Canada? Never. So we know we have this bias that we just feel more
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comfortable in what we know rather than we don't and that has that is impeding all these movements
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if Alberta separates it can be a role model to the world because they can do it Albertans can
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do it peacefully and they can have incredible prosperity they will show that it's possible
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and they can do it in a much better way than say Brexit did out of the European Union because the
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political class of Brexit or the UK did not want to comply with this whereas in Alberta there's
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such a different polity from the rest of Canada, the distinction will be clear.
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So Alberta can really have an impact on the broader global landscape.
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And this is particularly important because there was a book written in 1992 called The
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End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama.
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And he discussed the fact that we'd basically arrived after the post-Soviet Union era that
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we had this liberal democracy and we're going to basically settle in and just, you know,
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it has not happened in fact we've been going backwards since that time we have less democratic
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accountability we've had more tyranny and of course the covert era just uh brought a new
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level of uh autocracy or of over governance not just canada but more broadly speaking we're stuck
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in a rut to some degree in terms of economic freedom in terms of advancing and alberta can
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can shake that now so i made i made the claim which is not hyperbolic at all that alberta can
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and will be the freest nation on the planet now just one proviso there aren't many free places
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to go to so so there's not a lot of competition in this regard if if people are following the
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rankings of economic freedom around the world does anyone have an idea which countries are
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the top right now uh well so the united states is fifth but so it is hong kong singapore switzerland
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and new zealand and then the united states and canada used to be always in the top 10
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and she's been hovering around 11th to 14th in recent years okay and so the question is what
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does Alberta need to surpass those countries and Ireland is sick so I would kick out Hong Kong
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because the data needs to be updated for the fact that Hong Kong is basically overrun by the Chinese
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Communist Party now but so what does what would Alberta have to do to surpass those countries in
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fact, it would basically be automatic. All the changes that would come with
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Alberta separating from Canada would be enough to get Alberta to
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number one. We've had a lot of people talk about transfer payments or
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equalization or just redistribution. There is a great disparity in terms of
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government spending as a portion of the economy across the provinces. So as I
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noted, Nova Scotia is one of the poorest provinces, maybe the poorest, but more
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than 60% of the economy in Nova Scotia is just government spending. So it's a hollowed out place,
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it's a backwater, and it's embarrassing. What economy do they have left? And my uncle is a
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professor at St. Francis Xavier University, and they just live it. All the young people leave,
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right? Okay, so if we're spending more than 60% of the economy is government spending in Nova
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scotia what is it in alberta okay 30 percent mate you beat me okay so it's it's less than half of
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what it is in nova scotia okay and what is it in canada more broadly it's between those two obviously
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so it's 44 this is the challenge the biggest impediment to canada being a free country is
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the size of government right these rankings have five different i think it's five or four different
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categories i think it's five and size of government canada is a winner on the wrong end right so it
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can't even crack the top 100 uh countries in terms of a smaller government so it is 102nd
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and to assess this they take it's quite a complicated formula but they take spending
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the highest marginal income tax rate uh combined uh payroll taxes what have you we don't need to
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get into the into the weeds there the fact is that if canada were to go from 44 to 44 percent to 30
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that would put that would basically on its own put alberta up at the top however that's just
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that's just an automatic change if alberta had no central bank and had currency competition
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that would also put us put the albertans up to the top right because it would be like panama where
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you can choose the currency and whether we use the loonie or the us dollar or a cryptocurrency
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what have you that would be the ideal scenario the best would rise to the top there are many
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other changes now there's one important element which many of you here i'm sure are familiar with
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the fact that the canada's charter of rights and freedoms has no right to property there
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was a deliberate omission of property which is fundamental to western civilization the
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enlightenment coming from the british isles a key ingredient from the likes of john locke and adam
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smith was property canada has rejected that and albertans because they're more rural because
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they have a resource oriented economy they understand the importance of this so the first
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thing that would go into any alberta constitution would be right to property that sets you apart
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it's not just a spectrum it's not just a spectrum of difference it is a difference of kind that they
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do not believe in property they're i don't know i don't want to use too much hyperbole about
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socialists or they have a collectivist notion of property versus individual
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rights or natural rights. These are irreconcilable differences you might say.
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There are many other changes that would come with Alberta and in my opinion the
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sky is the limit. However the fact is that a simple departure from Canada
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alone would get Alberta to the top without any additional changes basically
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just with the natural proclivities of albertans and relative continuity and so in many ways alberta
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can be the beacon of the free world to come it can offer basically the freedoms that many americans
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promote or tout but unfortunately the united states fails to deliver those right so it's
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almost like the declaration of independence but in albertan style and so i'm very optimistic about
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that and thanks so much for your attention and please do consider my book