The Critical Compass Podcast - Having Honest Conversations w⧸ Everyday Albertans About Independence

00:00:00.000 So, I mean, a good strategy when you're talking to somebody, especially if you know that there's like already hostility and they're going to be standoffish and, but you want to keep them going, right? And some of my viewers might get frustrated because I realize in the moment, it might actually look like I'm agreeing with them, right? But what I'm actually doing is I'll, I'm actively listening. So I'm like repeating the words that they're saying to me.

00:00:24.700 And that's a subtle psychological trick that if you do that to people, they, they actually like you. They start to like you and they trust you. Like he heard what I said. He just repeated it. He understands me. Oh, okay. Now they keep going. If I can get through to somebody to that level, then it's like, okay, now I can start to disagree with you and challenge you and put you on your, on your heel a little bit.

00:00:47.720 Okay. Okay. But you're, you're, you're, it's, it's a trusting conversation. I'm not trying to like hurt you. I'm trying to challenge this so that we can, you know, be constructive together.

00:00:59.340 Hi, everyone. Welcome to the Critical Compass. I am Mike, and this is my co-host, James. And we are very pleased to be joined by Mr. John from Alberta, the YouTube slash X slash probably Facebook.

00:01:29.640 sensation, uh, who has been, you've been putting the legwork in, man. Like literally you've been putting the legwork in, walking around with your big blue, beautiful Alberta flag. You're kind of the guy on the streets right now, you know, uh, for, for Alberta independence. How did you find yourself here?

00:01:44.820 I don't know if I'm the guy, but, uh, uh, you know, I, I was sitting around on the couch one day and I was just flipping through my phone, you know, as we do just watching X. And I was like, here comes Alberta independence right before Christmas. Is this

00:01:59.340 going to actually happen? No, no, it's not going to happen. Oh my God. There's a referendum that we're going to, and people are supporting this and this is growing.

00:02:08.020 I'm like, okay, I got to get off of the, off the couch and I got to do something. And this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. And well, what can I do?

00:02:16.220 I got, I got a GoPro, uh, I got a couple of different mics and I know how to use Adobe premier a little bit. And I'm like, all right, let's do this.

00:02:26.160 So I just got up and I decided to do something. And the first couple of videos, I don't really think I did a very good job, but I'm starting to get better.

00:02:35.220 And I realized this is actually more of a learning curve. And I think maybe if people follow my channel, they'll see, okay, my thoughts are starting to evolve and grow.

00:02:45.280 And so maybe other people will grow with me and, you know, hopefully vote for yes, for freedom.

00:02:54.120 So I love it because you are having these conversations. People can see, they can see through your channel what they might come across when having conversations with friends and family.

00:03:06.360 And, um, I guess I'm just curious, like what was one of your biggest, like surprises going out and having conversations? Cause it's no, like you always expect there to be some supporters to give you a high five.

00:03:21.020 And then you expect somebody to just say you're a trader and like say something mean, but what, what has surprised you?

00:03:29.500 Yeah. So like a lot of people, I actually thought about this a little bit. I was like, how can I make a YouTube channel that fits in this niche meets the needs of, you know, of the viewers, what they want to see, but then it's different from everybody else.

00:03:45.660 Cause you gotta be different. Right. I have a background in business management accounting and I was thinking, you know what, it'd be different.

00:03:52.500 Nobody else is walking around on the street. Right. And, uh, that takes a bit of, uh, a bit of courage maybe, or maybe a stupidity.

00:04:02.500 And so I was like, well, I'm just going to do that. Cause there's lots of channels like yours, but you know, to compete with you guys would be really hard.

00:04:09.840 Uh, there's five or six others that are kind of in my mind from a guy who doesn't, he just watches, right. Mostly, uh, five or six others that are kind of like the main ones.

00:04:20.440 And I was like, well, I'll just do something different and, uh, go talk to people and, you know, just unscripted and raw.

00:04:27.160 And man, I'll tell you the video editing of that is so easy. I cut off the first three seconds at the end and at the, and then I color grade it and then I just fixed the sound with the AI and there we go. I'm done.

00:04:40.940 That's good. That makes that part easy anyway. I mean, like, that's probably the, the hardest thing about, um, like the thing that actually makes what you do impressive.

00:04:50.440 Is that there, there involves a couple elements of like human psychology to make these things work. Like, first of all, you have to have the type of constitution to just be willing to go out there and chat with strangers.

00:05:01.100 Like not everyone has that. Not everyone like you and me and James has the yapping gene, but, but also you have to be willing to take a lot of abuse when it's thrown at you and just like take it with a smile like you do.

00:05:12.800 And then you also have to be able to on the spot sort of, you know, defend things if people come at you with curve balls. So like, that's actually a lot of, that's a very, that's intrapersonal skills. Right.

00:05:22.080 And there's the safety aspect of it too. Cause like, let's be honest, like the lady on white Ave, I don't know if you saw that. She actually like legal definition of the word assault.

00:05:33.140 She assaulted me. That was unwanted bodily contact. And you know, that was just the beginning, a five and a half foot lady assaulting a six foot man. Okay, fine. I walk away from that. Right. But, um, I am a bit nervous, especially when EB starts throwing around some, some big words and, uh, and the emotions start really heating up.

00:05:55.140 You know, people throw in the Alberta flag in the garbage. You see this stuff. Like I am actually starting to kind of think a little bit about where I want to go. I plan my routes a little bit and I don't, I don't tell people where I'm going to be. Cause a lot of times people are like, Hey, I want to come visit you. And it's like, well, I'll be in Lethbridge tomorrow. I mean, while I'm in like, I don't know, somewhere else.

00:06:18.900 What, uh, maybe you can just give a brief recap of what happened with the lady that you were talking about. Maybe we'll, we'll put a, we'll put a link to the clip.

00:06:28.140 Oh, sure. Well, so that video was the most popular video I have. And it's like, people don't realize this. You'd think they would by now, but you do stuff in front of a camera. It's going to go on the internet. Like, you know, so, you know, here's a rule. Like if you walk by somebody and you're just like angry at them, just shut your mouth.

00:06:48.780 And walk away. If you see their recording, like just bite your tongue and walk away. Unless, unless you really think you're going to win the argument, but I know this lady, uh, I was just holding my flag like I usually do.

00:06:59.300 And then I just called out kind of into the ether. Like I always do. Hey, do you support Alberta independence? Not even making eye contact, just kind of doing that.

00:07:06.980 And then she turns around and she tells me like a racist screed, uh, about how, uh, like white privilege and this and, uh, uh, go back to, I think she said that too.

00:07:20.260 Like, oh, no way. That was another guy. So go back to Europe. It's kind of a blur. But, uh, and then she's like my ancestors, cause she's white, my ancestors didn't come here or they, they immigrated legally or something.

00:07:32.540 And then she, uh, realizes she's really putting her foot in her mouth and then she reaches out and then she shoves the camera away.

00:07:38.560 And, uh, and then, and then I walk away from her and then she follows me a little bit, I guess, to try to like scare me into deleting my footage.

00:07:48.840 Uh, and then I'm like, I'm going to go the other way.

00:07:52.080 And then finally she walks away from me and, you know, that's just the beginning, but, you know, actually the reason I'd like to publish that, cause first of all, I'm a humble guy by nature.

00:08:04.580 I don't think it's right to just publish people who are in their weakness, their weak moments, you know, but at the same time, we're trying to convince the people in the middle on a really big issue.

00:08:16.000 You know, uh, the, there's the people on, on her side who are just going to hate no matter what, they're never going to change their mind.

00:08:22.060 And then there's our kind of people we're already sold to, right.

00:08:25.700 Just on the other side, the people in the middle.

00:08:28.420 So hopefully they see videos like this and they're like, wait a minute, here's a guy, you know.

00:08:34.580 Who's like nice and kind, and he's trying to put some good arguments in and, and he's reasonable.

00:08:41.720 And then the other side is just screaming lunatics.

00:08:45.500 So like, okay, what side do you want to be on?

00:08:48.980 You know?

00:08:49.460 And so I'm not doing this on purpose.

00:08:52.100 I give everybody a chance.

00:08:53.460 I'm like, come and talk to me.

00:08:55.220 I will get, I will let you take the whole of my YouTube channel.

00:08:59.000 You can just speak and thousands of people will watch you and say whatever you want.

00:09:03.760 And then they just bury themselves.

00:09:05.840 And it's like, although not always there, there was a couple, like there was a lawyer at U of A who did a pretty good job, I think.

00:09:12.000 And, um, there was a guy in Calgary at the dog park who I think did a pretty good job as well, defending the other sides.

00:09:20.680 I just like to be fair, you know, but I'm not convinced, but I'll be fair.

00:09:24.540 Well, if, if you're the reasonable one and somebody gets so upset with you trying to have a conversation, then they're kind of making, they're only strengthening your case.

00:09:37.000 Um, there are some people that they'll feed into that kind of emotion.

00:09:41.000 They will resonate with those same kind of arguments or the traitor treason argument.

00:09:47.220 They, it's used, people use them to mean the same thing.

00:09:51.120 Um, and I've noticed even they like the emotional weight that treason has, but what they're meaning is betrayal.

00:10:00.720 They don't mean the criminal act, some do, but a lot think of treason as, well, you betrayed your country.

00:10:09.980 You're supposed to stick up for your country, no matter what, therefore it's treason.

00:10:14.620 And if you ask them and you unpack it and you keep on, well, they're saying like, well, specifically what about holding a petition for a democratic referendum?

00:10:25.620 Like what is treasonous about that?

00:10:27.640 And they, they don't have anything or they'll have to concoct something to try to answer at that point.

00:10:34.820 But essentially they like the moral, they, they're using it as a moral weapon, like a, it's just a mace at this point.

00:10:45.100 And cause they feel like the Alberta independence movement is essentially, it's shaking up a lot of feelings.

00:10:51.740 It's shaking up their own identity of like, what does it mean to be a Canadian?

00:10:56.660 Uh, they have to contest with this idea of like, well, is Canada actually as good as what we, what we believed it was.

00:11:07.140 And then I guess a bigger question is like, well, how do, how do we navigate this?

00:11:13.240 And like, how do you, how do you diffuse some of these difficult conversations when, when they, when they come up?

00:11:19.800 Well, you know, there's a strategy, it's a bit of a rhetorical strategy, but you always, you always just turn it around as a question.

00:11:27.180 Right.

00:11:27.940 And then you just kind of get the other person to keep talking.

00:11:30.840 And so actually.

00:11:31.980 Now that I tell you my secrets, you're going to see it in my videos, but like when I don't know something, I just let them keep talking and then usually they bury themselves or actually they say something that I can respond to.

00:11:45.360 And I honestly, I think that's fair too, right?

00:11:47.940 Just let people talk and you can see in real time people sorting their ideas out.

00:11:53.780 And I'll tell you, that's so fascinating to watch, right?

00:11:57.620 Um, especially cause I get to go back and edit it and then watch it again.

00:12:01.760 You know, um, I think sometimes people, some of the people I think would change their mind and it's just, okay.

00:12:07.940 Hopefully I'm polite and, uh, you know, and, and then that doesn't turn them off on an emotional level.

00:12:14.460 Right.

00:12:14.680 Cause you try to get them out of that emotional state and into the more rational state, not always possible, but.

00:12:23.480 Yeah.

00:12:23.860 Sometimes I, one thing I noticed is that a lot of the times when the, the people who are vehemently against this, they'll, they'll come, you'll ask them a question and they, you're always at a constant, like 50.

00:12:37.940 You know, from zero to a hundred, you're always, you're always probably a little bit above zero in the positivity aspect, just with your demeanor.

00:12:44.240 And you're, you know, you're always smiling and you have a good tone to your voice, but these guys will come at you like at a hundred of emotion, like a hundred percent emotion.

00:12:51.460 Just like, you know, the guy calling you a dumb Yankee or whatever.

00:12:54.680 And it's like, you got nowhere to go from there.

00:12:56.920 Like they're already at, like how, if you're that person, like, how are you meant to, like, if that was your big, you know, your big right hook or whatever.

00:13:05.600 Like if you come back at them with something, how are you meant to respond?

00:13:08.760 So I think that is a very good tool because as soon as somebody realizes that you're not like this boogeyman that they have in their head, well, then they're forced to like, they have to bring the emotion down.

00:13:19.040 There's nowhere you can go.

00:13:19.960 So that's an excellent point, right?

00:13:22.600 If you're just a nice person, it's hard to be a jerk to a nice person, you know, but I'll give you a sneak peek of what's coming in my next video.

00:13:30.220 Cause I'm kind of boiling in my head.

00:13:31.640 What I want to do instead of just shouting out, Hey, do you support Alberta independence?

00:13:36.220 I'm going to shout out, Hey, I'm doing a social experiment.

00:13:40.240 Right.

00:13:40.960 And somebody is going to just bite on that.

00:13:43.260 And then I'll be like, okay, come on over.

00:13:44.760 I want to see if somebody who supports Canada state or Alberta staying in Canada forever can actually say something nice to somebody who wants to separate.

00:13:55.920 Oh yeah.

00:13:56.840 Nice.

00:13:57.520 Right.

00:13:57.840 Good.

00:13:58.520 And then I'll be like, can you say something nice?

00:14:02.600 Can you say one nice thing?

00:14:03.940 And then, you know what?

00:14:04.520 I'm actually anticipating someone's going to throw it back at me.

00:14:06.880 They're going to be like, can you say something nice about us?

00:14:10.520 And I'm actually, this is a good exercise in just like mental discipline and mindfulness and, you know, philosophy, like try to understand the other person's point of view, right?

00:14:23.840 Try to put it in the best possible light.

00:14:25.900 And, um, so I'll tell you something that I love about Canada.

00:14:31.560 You know, I actually love that we have a culture of safety.

00:14:36.320 I love that, uh, you know, we, uh, we have workers rights and, and health, uh, and safety programs like that.

00:14:44.680 I've traveled the world a lot and I know that Canada is actually pretty unique, even in the United States.

00:14:49.360 There's lots of places that just don't care.

00:14:51.080 Right.

00:14:51.540 So, okay.

00:14:51.860 There's one thing I love about Canada.

00:14:53.680 I think Alberta can have that too.

00:14:55.280 I think we actually probably led a lot of that with our oil and gas industry, but, um, all right, tell me something you love about Canada.

00:15:03.680 I, I, I want to see what they say.

00:15:06.040 So.

00:15:07.020 Maybe that's worth under, or like unpacking this idea that I think there's an assumption that if you want Alberta to be an independent, you are against any of the good things of Canada.

00:15:21.880 And that's not true.

00:15:22.960 Like, obviously there's going to be some positive things to Canada and somebody may support independence and you don't need to hate Canada at its essence to, you can understand these structural issues from the ground up from the birth of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

00:15:44.680 Like, you can understand a bit of the history, you can see that evolution, you can see some of the mismatch between like, let it be representation with like in the Senate, house of commons, even with the judges, all of these things exist alongside any of the good things of Canada that we all grew up with.

00:16:04.560 And it almost seems like some of these people in Alberta that are so passionate about Alberta leaving are trying to preserve that essence of Canada that they felt like they grew up with.

00:16:17.720 Uh, the one that's maybe being lost now.

00:16:22.680 So what, what I'm curious in your own words though, what is an Albertan?

00:16:28.160 Like what makes somebody like, we, we already have an example of an Albertan here.

00:16:33.120 That's why you're on the show.

00:16:34.120 So I'm so glad, no, I'm so glad you asked that question because in the last video I posted about Paul's pizza, I asked a group of people that, and I felt bad editing it because I framed it, I threw it at them, right.

00:16:49.600 And they weren't ready for it, but this is something we all Albertans need to start figuring out.

00:16:54.800 Cause if we can't answer that question, like what makes us an Albertan, then I, I don't know if we're really ready to be a nation.

00:17:01.000 Do you know what I mean?

00:17:02.000 Like I want, I don't, I just got to be honest, right.

00:17:04.140 We got to know our identity.

00:17:06.280 Um, and then I threw it at them and then they were kind of like off put by it, but, um, I kind of wanted to say it like in a more nice way.

00:17:14.540 But anyway, I think, I think us Albertans, we have a unique culture that is much more trustworthy.

00:17:22.380 We're a high trust society.

00:17:24.660 Um, and we were generous, but we're independent.

00:17:28.580 And the people who came here, they left places where they didn't have opportunity and they left everything behind to come here and they're risk takers just by nature.

00:17:42.020 They're risk takers and they want to work hard and they want to provide for themselves and their family and they want to have a better future and they don't look to what can the government give us.

00:17:52.500 They look more to what can, can we provide for ourselves and then how can that benefit our family and our friends.

00:17:59.780 And so, like, I don't think being an Albertan is definitely not a race.

00:18:03.940 It's not a, it's not a creed.

00:18:05.720 It's not a religious belief.

00:18:06.820 Although I think a lot of Albertans probably are, and I think we do, we do need to talk a little bit about our, our Christian heritage, but you don't have to be a Christian to be an Albertan, obviously.

00:18:18.780 Um, I think that, um, it's not a language, you know, if you go to Quebec, right, they got a unique language.

00:18:25.860 So it's hard to put your finger on what an Albertan is, but if you, if you travel to BC and then you go to, uh, you know, Alberta, and then you go to even Saskatchewan, you can notice there's a cultural difference.

00:18:44.260 The way we think our values, our attitude towards things, it's definitely different.

00:18:49.860 Um, there's just something about being in this geographic location that just changes people's minds, so, but you know what, I'll just say this, like, this is a question we all need to answer and I, I, I, I try to give something more than just platitudes, but like, if you go to the United States and you ask them, Hey, what does it mean to be American?

00:19:09.860 And I'm pretty sure they could tell you, you go to Columbia, which I recently traveled to Columbia, you know, it's like, they'll tell you what a Colombian is.

00:19:18.860 You go to France, Japan, like you name it.

00:19:22.860 Okay.

00:19:23.360 So we got to be at that level and you know, I'm glad we're having this conversation because we need to collectively start to organize this and figure this out.

00:19:32.360 Yeah.

00:19:32.860 There's a, something we've talked about on the show before too, um, is the concept of, um, of your, it's a, you know, a psychological concept of, of your locus of control and you can have an external or an internal locus of control.

00:19:44.360 And, uh, um, if you have an external, if you have an internal locus of control, I feel like that describes Albertans very well.

00:19:52.360 So, like you say, there is something about maybe being in this, um, you know, we're a very, uh, you know, it's a very volatile climate.

00:19:59.360 You know, it's a, we're, we're a frozen tundra for a good portion of the year and we just have to figure stuff out when things break and freeze and, you know, a thaw.

00:20:07.360 And, you know, there's, there's all sorts of things about our environment that lead us to be this way.

00:20:11.360 Obviously we have a lot of wealth, um, we have a, a low, um, we have lower cost of living than, than other places.

00:20:18.360 We have a higher standard of living than other places in Canada.

00:20:21.360 So we, we have certain, we demand certain things of our environment.

00:20:25.360 Uh, and then you have, uh, I feel, I mean, maybe you can speak to this.

00:20:29.360 I've traveled around Canada quite a bit and I've, I've seen places that have what you would call an external locus of control.

00:20:36.360 Everything, everything in their society happens to them.

00:20:40.360 They are not really in control of much that happens in their environment.

00:20:43.360 And I think that breeds a certain mentality in a person where they feel much more, um, at the whim in a, like what they believe to be a positive way at the whim of a government.

00:20:54.360 Like they're happy to offload a lot of that critical thinking and a lot of that worry onto a government authority, because that means that they don't have to do it for themselves.

00:21:04.360 You know, it's sort of a rude way of saying it, but I think it actually is accurate.

00:21:07.360 I don't know if you have thoughts on that.

00:21:08.360 That's a very good observation.

00:21:12.360 I think that's more like city versus rule as well.

00:21:16.360 Like Alberta is, is, is urbanizing.

00:21:19.360 Obviously we got most of our population living in cities now, but that's a relatively recent development.

00:21:25.360 You know, historically speaking, um, like cities were half the size or quarter the size.

00:21:33.360 If you go back 20, 30 years ago.

00:21:35.360 And so, uh, we still have the cultural remnants of that, but then you go to a place like Toronto or Vancouver, those cities have just been giant quagmires of roads and pollution and cars honking at each other.

00:21:50.360 And everybody, like nobody looks, nobody makes eye contact in the big cities.

00:21:56.360 Like, you know, nobody waves, nobody smiles when people pass by.

00:22:01.360 But in Alberta, like, I dunno, when I grew up, I grew up in High River and I remember you, you, you drive by, you actually do the little wave like that on your steering wheel.

00:22:11.360 Yeah.

00:22:12.360 You know?

00:22:13.360 Oh yeah.

00:22:14.360 It's like, or you, or you nod when you walk by, you look at somebody on the sidewalk, you nod or something, right?

00:22:18.360 Yeah.

00:22:19.360 Uh, they don't do that.

00:22:20.360 And so you're right in the big cities, people just feel like they don't have control.

00:22:23.360 Cause you, you basically are just herded around everywhere.

00:22:26.360 Like a, like an animal, you get on the train, you get on the bus, you walk on the road, you cross at the right time.

00:22:32.360 You know, there's something to it.

00:22:35.360 Well, even, uh, one of the big issues with this independence movement is it's forcing people to start thinking about some of these issues where essentially they were on autopilot.

00:22:49.360 People are so busy with their lives.

00:22:51.360 Politics is maybe just, it's something that they casually were engaged in.

00:22:56.360 Maybe they saw a clip from their, the leader of whatever party they support giving a smack down to somebody else.

00:23:03.360 And they, that's all the politics they've really consumed that month was just these little snippets.

00:23:09.360 Uh, I'm wondering like how many people have actually really thought about the nature of confederation or the division of like what's under federal jurisdiction versus like provincial or what was the birth of Alberta really like?

00:23:25.360 Like have people can, have they really thought about these things or is this forcing into their mind?

00:23:32.360 Like the movement itself forces them to either realize that they don't have answer for some of these things.

00:23:41.360 They haven't thought about some of these things, or now maybe their beliefs about something weren't as, maybe the evidence isn't as strong for those beliefs.

00:23:51.360 So I feel like it can go in a, it can go in a few different ways.

00:23:56.360 And I feel like most people do not want to change their mind on a lot of things like to rewire the way you think or to admit that you're wrong.

00:24:07.360 That's a huge cognitive load.

00:24:09.360 And these kinds of movements as they grow, it forces that into the collective conversation.

00:24:18.360 Right.

00:24:19.360 And I, I think some of the resistance is purely to people just want the status quo.

00:24:28.360 Are you starting to notice any of that or what are your thoughts on that?

00:24:32.360 Um, well, no, that's a big, uh, thing to think about.

00:24:35.360 Right.

00:24:36.360 Um, think about the last time you realize you were wrong about something.

00:24:42.360 Like, just kind of put that in your mind, like try to actually think about a time when you're like, yeah, I was wrong.

00:24:47.360 And then how did you feel in that moment?

00:24:50.360 You know?

00:24:51.360 And then right after you realize you're wrong, you realize that you're wrong and being right about something feels exactly the same way.

00:25:00.360 You know, as like, that's kind of the point here.

00:25:04.360 Uh, it's not a very good compass to just use.

00:25:07.360 And you're right.

00:25:08.360 People, uh, people get, it, it really hurts.

00:25:11.360 It actually physically hurts to be proven wrong, but I'll tell you, I talk in front of people and, um, I actually prime myself by saying, somebody is going to walk up to me and prove me wrong.

00:25:26.360 They're going to say something to me.

00:25:28.360 That's going to just be like, boom, I'm totally wrong.

00:25:31.360 And I'm going to get happy about it.

00:25:33.360 I actually trained myself.

00:25:35.360 I, before I started the camera, I'm like, someone's going to prove me wrong.

00:25:38.360 I'm going to be happy.

00:25:39.360 Why?

00:25:40.360 Because I'm not wrong anymore.

00:25:42.360 You know?

00:25:43.360 And so I actually genuinely want to be proven wrong.

00:25:45.360 And I, I think I'm right.

00:25:46.360 Like I think Alberta independence is the way to go.

00:25:49.360 Uh, but you know, maybe people watching this can be like, okay, you know what?

00:25:54.360 Let's go down that same journey with him.

00:25:57.360 Um, let's see if, uh, if he can be proven wrong.

00:26:00.360 And so.

00:26:01.360 That's a level of intellectual humility that, um, I, I fear that a lot of people don't possess.

00:26:07.360 And it's, it's something that we've, I can't remember James, if we've talked about it in a recording or not, but something that we've talked, we've talked about personally anyway.

00:26:16.360 And I, I've thought about a lot is that I, I feel like, and maybe you can speak to this cause you have so many of these conversations.

00:26:21.360 I feel like one of the, the number one things that is holding people back from having fruitful dialogues, like you're attempting to do and that you are getting in certain cases.

00:26:32.360 Um, is that people are so afraid of being proven wrong that they can't admit even the, like, if you try to walk them through like a Socratic dialogue of like, okay, we'll explain this and explain that.

00:26:44.360 And they can like sense that you're doing it.

00:26:46.360 They'll just pretend that they don't understand what you're talking about.

00:26:50.360 Like they just dig their heels and even further and they won't give a single inch because they can feel there by your pointed questions.

00:26:59.360 They can feel that there's because they're so insecure in their argument, they can feel it sort of crumbling.

00:27:05.360 And so instead of having that intellectual humility of allowing themselves to be proven wrong, they just want to win the argument at any cost.

00:27:13.360 So in your opinion, in your experience now, do you have any tools or like, are you noticing this?

00:27:20.360 Or like, do you have any sort of response that maybe is your go-to when you sense that you're speaking with a person like this?

00:27:27.360 So, I mean, a good strategy when you're talking to somebody, especially if you know that there's like already hospitalized.

00:27:34.360 And they're going to be standoffish and, but you want to keep them going.

00:27:39.360 Right.

00:27:40.360 And some of my viewers might get frustrated because I realize in the moment it might actually look like I'm agreeing with them.

00:27:46.360 Right.

00:27:47.360 But what I'm actually doing is I'll, I'm actively listening.

00:27:50.360 So I'm like repeating the words that they're saying to me.

00:27:54.360 And that's a subtle psychological trick that if you do that to people, they, they actually like you.

00:28:00.360 They start to like you and they trust you.

00:28:02.360 Like he heard what I said.

00:28:04.360 He just repeated it.

00:28:05.360 He understands me.

00:28:07.360 Oh, okay.

00:28:08.360 Now they keep going.

00:28:09.360 If I can get through to somebody to that level, I don't think it's happened.

00:28:12.360 I think it's happened five or six times.

00:28:14.360 But like, if you get through to that level, then it's like, okay, now I can start to disagree with you and challenge you and put you on your, on your heel a little bit.

00:28:21.360 Hmm.

00:28:22.360 Okay.

00:28:23.360 But you're, you're, you're, it's, it's a trusting conversation.

00:28:27.360 I'm not trying to like hurt you.

00:28:29.360 I'm trying to challenge this so that we can, you know, be constructive together.

00:28:33.360 Um, we'll see if I get far with it.

00:28:37.360 Cause random street conversations, and then especially my safety aspect and people coming up behind me, who knows what's going to happen.

00:28:44.360 It's kind of just fun to do too.

00:28:46.360 Sometimes.

00:28:47.360 Well, it's very, uh, sorry, James, I gotta go back to back here.

00:28:51.360 Uh, it's a, uh, it's, it's a very smart strategy and it's very, yeah, I think that is, that is such a huge barrier to people is that they, they're worried about, I mean, they see you with your camera and they see you with the flag and they're worried about maybe being made to look stupid or something.

00:29:06.360 And they don't know necessarily, they don't know you and they don't know that you're not out to make people look stupid or get like, Oh, totally owned the new, you know, viral clips.

00:29:15.360 Right.

00:29:16.360 So yeah, that's, that's a great way.

00:29:17.360 I mean, that's, if you can, if you can repeat, I heard, I don't know who said this.

00:29:21.360 Somebody said like, you don't really understand somebody's argument unless you can repeat it back to them in a way that they will agree, you know?

00:29:29.360 And so I'd love to, I'd love to hear more of that from the people who are so against you that they'll just, you know, swear at you or call you a Yankee or racist or something.

00:29:38.360 I'd love to see more of that.

00:29:40.360 Right.

00:29:41.360 Yeah.

00:29:42.360 Well, and honestly, that's the, I made a whole video at the U of A like that.

00:29:46.360 I start, go watch the first like five minutes of that video.

00:29:50.360 I basically open up by saying exactly that.

00:29:52.360 I'm like, I want to fully understand the opposite opinion.

00:29:57.360 And I actually came up with the three best arguments I could possibly think of for why we should stay in Canada.

00:30:02.360 And I articulated them before I started talking to people.

00:30:05.360 I was like standing in a private place.

00:30:07.360 Right.

00:30:08.360 And then I walk around and sure enough, I hear those same three arguments, different variations.

00:30:14.360 And I'm like, yep, I understand what the opposition is saying.

00:30:18.360 And to me, that's an intellectual, uh, that's intellectually honest.

00:30:21.360 Cause I'm like, I thought of their best arguments beforehand.

00:30:24.360 And then I heard them saying it and I'm like, okay, and here's how I dismantle them.

00:30:29.360 So then I'm like more confident that I'm right.

00:30:33.360 And I hope that people can see that, you know, cause like, I'm not doing this out of arrogance.

00:30:38.360 This is for me, it's an intellectual exercise.

00:30:40.360 If you can't understand your opponent, then you're not even, you're not even doing this right.

00:30:45.360 You're just like running your mouth, you know?

00:30:48.360 And there's a part of this where I feel like anytime there's a default belief that people just believe because everybody around them believes that it's like a belief by osmosis.

00:31:02.360 Or I don't know if there's an actual mechanism for how that works, but they absorb the beliefs around them and they don't have to fully unpack every little aspect of that versus.

00:31:16.360 So that's one camp.

00:31:18.360 And then you have another camp of people who only started believing something because they had to change their mind.

00:31:24.360 They had to look at evidence and they had to reevaluate some fundamental pillars of the way that they think.

00:31:31.360 Right now, uh, Mike and I are in that camp because we used to be a little bit more left leaning, uh, which is surprising to people who have talked with us now.

00:31:40.360 And since we're more in the libertarian camp and we also support Alberta independence.

00:31:46.360 And, but for us, we had to, over the years, we had beliefs that we had to unpack.

00:31:54.360 We had to shift, but I feel like part of this process.

00:31:58.360 And maybe you'll run into this where to support Alberta independence doesn't require a hundred percent certainty on all levels, on all issues.

00:32:12.360 And you don't, we don't need a firm answer.

00:32:15.360 We can't predict the future.

00:32:16.360 We can't say negotiations will happen and then it'll go ABC.

00:32:20.360 And these three things will happen within six months.

00:32:23.360 We can't say that.

00:32:25.360 So with a little bit of humility, we have to say, obviously, well, there are some things we don't know, but that's true about Canada as well.

00:32:35.360 So like any other project management, you're doing a risk assessment of like, well, here's option A, here's option B.

00:32:44.360 We have knowns and unknowns in both cases.

00:32:49.360 Nobody's really talking about all these unknowns of Canada.

00:32:53.360 Um, for even a simple example, you're getting in BC, you're getting property rights are being eroded in BC.

00:33:01.360 And that's just the start.

00:33:02.360 There's a lot of land in Canada that's unseated and it may be setting the snowball to roll down the hill to collect more.

00:33:12.360 Like it's going to get more momentum.

00:33:14.360 Like once that sets a precedent, it may erode property rights in Ontario and you may have another ruling pop up and that's a big unknown.

00:33:23.360 So people are saying, well, Alberta independence is so risky because of these unknowns.

00:33:30.360 Like why not apply that mirror to Canada with all these things that are changing?

00:33:36.360 Like, is, is that something has, has anybody articulated like who?

00:33:41.360 Oh, I guess my question to you is, has anybody who wants to stay in Canada, do you feel like they are able to articulate the risks of staying in Canada?

00:33:51.360 Have they thought about that?

00:33:52.360 Have you come across that in your conversations?

00:33:55.360 So that, that's an excellent question.

00:33:57.360 Uh, I want to talk about risk cause we can calculate risk in a rational way.

00:34:02.360 Um, that's like, it's a really important for us to do that.

00:34:05.360 I want to back right up to the beginning.

00:34:08.360 I used to be left, left, left, left leaning as well.

00:34:12.360 Um, if you know me probably like 10, 15 years ago, I was actually, should I say this?

00:34:20.360 Yeah, I'll say it.

00:34:22.360 Okay.

00:34:23.360 I voted for Rachel Notley.

00:34:24.360 And, uh, I voted for Justin Trudeau the first time.

00:34:31.360 And then I was like, what did I do?

00:34:34.360 And I was like, oh my God, he legalized marijuana, but he didn't do anything else.

00:34:40.360 He screwed us every other way.

00:34:42.360 Uh, I don't like marijuana by the way, but I was like, ah, anyway.

00:34:46.360 Um, and then, uh, yeah.

00:34:49.360 So anyway, I've changed my mind and I don't think that people change their minds based

00:34:53.360 off of evidence very easily.

00:34:55.360 I think we just have emotions and that holds us back.

00:34:59.360 And so that's an interesting point, but to change your mind off evidence is really a hard thing to do.

00:35:05.360 Um, but then the other thing is like the risk.

00:35:07.360 Yeah.

00:35:08.360 Nobody, nobody talks about the risk of staying in Canada.

00:35:12.360 You know, uh, they talk about the risk of leaving, like, oh, I'm going to lose this or that or the other thing.

00:35:17.360 And, you know, to be fair, there's a lot of risks.

00:35:20.360 Like we could really, really screw this up.

00:35:23.360 We could have a pathetically weak constitution and turn into a dictatorship.

00:35:29.360 Like it could be like Venezuela.

00:35:31.360 Like, you know what I mean?

00:35:32.360 Like it could get bad if we screw this up.

00:35:34.360 I'm encouraged because there's so many cool heads right now.

00:35:39.360 I was thinking about this driving here, practicing for this, uh, for this podcast.

00:35:44.360 I was like, who's going to be at the constitutional convention?

00:35:47.360 Probably Mike and James from the cons of the critical compass.

00:35:51.360 You guys are probably going to be there in the crowd or you're going to be delegates.

00:35:55.360 Right.

00:35:56.360 So that gives me hope, but yeah, nobody is talking about, uh, the risks of staying.

00:36:01.360 Uh, and, and except for the people who are already like, you know, we're going to, we're going to be destitute.

00:36:06.360 Our, our, we're facing a constant or a currency crisis, a debt crisis.

00:36:12.360 Um, property rights are eroding.

00:36:14.360 Like you said, um, freedoms are getting eroded free speech, like all these bills, you know, and then.

00:36:20.360 Uh, and then not to mention like, uh, loss of control over immigration and, um, like there's a lot of risks to staying in Canada.

00:36:31.360 And I, I feel like Alberta is the last bastion of hope.

00:36:34.360 So.

00:36:36.360 Yeah.

00:36:37.360 I tend to agree with you there.

00:36:38.360 I noticed a lot in your, you don't like to necessarily, you know, pepper people that you're talking to with too many of your own opinions.

00:36:45.360 You like to have more of a, of a back and forth, but I noticed you mentioned a lot that probably your primary concern is, um, is the erosion of freedom of speech in this country.

00:36:57.360 Um, I don't know if you've talked about it much necessarily, but if you were anything like us, um, the whole idea sort of behind us starting this channel.

00:37:07.360 Was we noticed how we sort of had the, I don't know how, what the turn of phrases, but we basically had the, our, our eyes opened to what Canada really was under the surface during COVID.

00:37:20.360 Um, when certain things about how our, what we believed to be, what our government represented turned out to be quite the opposite.

00:37:29.360 Do you have a bit of a story similar to that, I guess?

00:37:32.360 Cause I mean, I, man, I'm with you.

00:37:34.360 I, I voted for Notley too.

00:37:35.360 I voted for all three federal, three main, I voted NDP, uh, liberal and conservative and PPC.

00:37:43.360 Actually, I voted for four federal parties over my voting life.

00:37:46.360 So yeah, like I, I got no loyalty to anyone.

00:37:50.360 I was never drunk enough to vote green party though.

00:37:53.360 Yeah.

00:37:54.360 I've never voted green.

00:37:55.360 Yeah.

00:37:56.360 Yeah.

00:37:57.360 They don't, uh, they don't sell enough wine in Alberta for us to, uh, keep up with, uh, with, uh, whatever, Elizabeth May.

00:38:03.360 But, uh, did you have a moment, was there a moment in time that created you as you are in front of us today?

00:38:09.360 Uh, I don't know.

00:38:13.360 I mean, COVID, I think changed a lot of things.

00:38:16.360 And that's, that, that changed a lot.

00:38:18.360 Um, you know, I was probably more like center before COVID and then afterwards I saw the lockdowns and, and then I definitely changed.

00:38:28.360 But I, um, I don't think there's like a one moment, you know, it's funny how the life is like that.

00:38:34.360 You just kind of changed as you go.

00:38:36.360 And, um, yeah, I mean, uh, but yeah, I've, I've actually voted for the green party.

00:38:43.360 I voted PPC the last time I voted green when I was like 20.

00:38:46.360 Uh, you might be the only person in Canada who's voted for both those parties.

00:38:52.360 No, probably not, you know, actually, and this is why I'm just telling, I was like thinking, should I say this?

00:38:59.360 Like, yes, because people who are watching this need to know that you don't need to be tribalistic about who you vote for.

00:39:06.360 And, uh, I, I had good reasons at each time for voting for who I thought I did.

00:39:11.360 And I, I had faith in the system and I thought, okay, other people are rational and they're gonna, you know, also do the right thing.

00:39:19.360 And, you know, then I realized, and I think it was Kathy Flett who talked about this.

00:39:24.360 I think she was like, the system is working in the way it's designed.

00:39:28.360 Yeah.

00:39:29.360 And that there, there's a moment.

00:39:31.360 Uh, yeah, there's, there's actually no hope.

00:39:34.360 You vote PPC, you're, you're gonna get the same thing.

00:39:37.360 You vote green, you're gonna get the same thing.

00:39:40.360 Yeah.

00:39:41.360 This system is the way it is.

00:39:44.360 Well, it's worth remembering the federal systems.

00:39:48.360 That's just one side of things.

00:39:50.360 They're still provincial and municipal.

00:39:52.360 And there's been a shift towards more like identity politics within that, but you have entrenched bureaucracy in, in all three levels of government.

00:40:02.360 But, um, I think.

00:40:04.360 We're looking to throw off all the government.

00:40:06.360 Yeah.

00:40:07.360 That's the thing is, um, people are so quick to say, I'm like, you all burdens are only blaming federal government for everything.

00:40:13.360 And right now, a lot of these grievances are, they're still federal.

00:40:18.360 But part of the structure, like provincials, our current provincial structure is within it's the tone is set from how our federalism is actually set up.

00:40:31.360 Yeah.

00:40:32.360 So you, we can't really revise the system from within the system to the degree that we would really want to at a provincial or municipal level.

00:40:42.360 Like there's so much entrenched bureaucracy, it's not going to change.

00:40:46.360 And it's proven by the fact that like, anytime somebody tries to really do something radically different from within the system, it, it just falls flat, it falls short.

00:40:59.360 And this is a unique opportunity.

00:41:01.360 It, it's, it's a way to get like a, it's a restart in a way.

00:41:07.360 It brings all these issues to the forefront.

00:41:10.360 It makes us involved.

00:41:12.360 Um, even to vote for a referendum, we have to essentially, to be informed, you have to think about these issues more than just a surface level.

00:41:23.360 And the stakes are a little bit higher than a general election as well.

00:41:28.360 Um, so here, here's my question to you, like, as we transition to more out of the petition, um, the results of the petition, like the number of, uh, signatures and people collected that will help set the tone for a referendum.

00:41:46.360 Um, and that might actually change a lot of your conversations.

00:41:51.360 It, maybe it, maybe the hostility goes up.

00:41:54.360 Maybe the, the fear goes up.

00:41:56.360 Um, it, it's going to be interesting.

00:42:00.360 Like your channels, I don't know if you know this, but by you going out every week and you're documenting, just you're sampling people, you're sampling the sentiment of Albertans.

00:42:11.360 And you're essentially going to have a real time log of some of the, like, just the change in sentiment as this movement grows.

00:42:21.360 Um, so I don't know, even within this month, have you noticed any difference or like, is it just too early to tell?

00:42:28.360 Well, I, I, I, I'm kind of glad that we're, I was hoping this conversation would go a little bit more philosophical and I'm glad that you kind of brought it in there where we're talking about the opportunity that's before us, uh, to really build something.

00:42:43.360 Okay.

00:42:44.360 You're kind of mentioning that, uh, earlier.

00:42:46.360 Um, and I do want to talk about that and yeah, am I noticing a change in sentiment?

00:42:51.360 Uh, I've noticed I've actually come to understand regions in Alberta better.

00:42:58.360 So I actually made a video in Stetler that I didn't republish because I didn't have my mic plugged in and the talking to people in Stetler so much support, like 90% support.

00:43:13.360 Right.

00:43:14.360 Everybody randoms.

00:43:15.360 They'd come up to me.

00:43:16.360 Hey, what are you doing?

00:43:17.360 Why the hell you got a flag?

00:43:18.360 This is kind of weird.

00:43:19.360 I, I, you know, uh, and then like white Ave and Edmonton is like just nasty hatred.

00:43:24.360 I'm like, I used to love white Ave.

00:43:26.360 Like what a, what a polluted nasty place that is, you know?

00:43:31.360 Um, but then like, there's a couple of good ones everywhere you go, I guess.

00:43:35.360 But, uh, I don't know if the sentiment's changing, but I do want to talk about the, the, the opportunity before us.

00:43:43.360 Mm.

00:43:44.360 And I was listening to Bruce party.

00:43:47.360 Love Bruce.

00:43:48.360 What a guy.

00:43:49.360 Coming on this show.

00:43:50.360 And I, I, I think I heard, I don't know, I think you had him on a while ago.

00:43:54.360 I might've listened to like three or four weeks ago or a month ago to an episode of you guys with him, but I listened to another episode of him today.

00:44:00.360 And it was like, we need to start really imagining and dreaming what we can have.

00:44:06.360 You know, we can, we are, we, this addresses the other thing, municipal and federal and provincial.

00:44:14.360 We are proposing throwing it all away.

00:44:18.360 Independence means independence.

00:44:21.360 Everything is a reset.

00:44:24.360 How many people get this opportunity?

00:44:26.360 We're born into a time and place in history where you do the rules are the way you are and you just do what you're told.

00:44:31.360 And it's like, no, we Albertans can actually like really build something.

00:44:36.360 And I, I, it's a great responsibility, but it's a huge opportunity too.

00:44:40.360 So that's, that's, that's glad you want to talk about that too.

00:44:45.360 Well, and, and maybe that's a way of framing to people and this comes up and you'll, I'm sure you've heard it a lot of times.

00:44:52.360 People say, well, the UCP, they did something or they'll blame a particular issue on corruption within a system.

00:44:59.360 And if that is true to your point, this would be the time for them to help provide that.

00:45:07.360 If a system enables that level of, if people can get away and keep on getting away with things, if that's their position, if that's their belief, and there's plenty of evidence at all levels, there's corruption.

00:45:20.360 If that is true, then wouldn't they want such a clean opportunity to revise the system in a way that puts these safeguards in?

00:45:33.360 We could fix it all.

00:45:35.360 We, we, we, we could design the best system of government.

00:45:40.360 I was thinking about this, like, you know, the United States, I think we can maybe agree has the best system of government ever devised by human beings.

00:45:48.360 But it's like hundreds of years old.

00:45:51.360 Okay.

00:45:52.360 We can do way better.

00:45:54.360 You know, if we really try hard at this, we could really design a system that would like actually really represent our values and be free and make us prosperous.

00:46:04.360 And then, yeah, the whole world will look at that and be like, holy crap, this little place just did this, you know, and maybe that'll spread.

00:46:13.360 So we're at a crossroads right now.

00:46:17.360 Uh, but we need to start dreaming about, about how this is going to work.

00:46:20.360 Um, the Bruce party, I, I'm highly convinced by, or persuaded by him.

00:46:26.360 Uh, the government has zero power, except what we give it.

00:46:33.360 Right.

00:46:34.360 That idea instead of the government has infinite power, except here's a few things that we're going to cut away from it.

00:46:39.360 No, no, no.

00:46:40.360 Reverse that.

00:46:42.360 Get rid of the political class.

00:46:44.360 None of those guys in the political class have your best interests in mind.

00:46:49.360 They're all corrupt.

00:46:50.360 Don't assume that you're building a constitution for a, a virtuous people.

00:46:55.360 No, they're all greedy and corrupt and only let them stay in power for eight years, maybe 10 at most.

00:47:01.360 And then they're gone.

00:47:02.360 An amateur political class.

00:47:04.360 The next round comes in, you know, um, and just give the government certain specific powers.

00:47:11.360 Like, wow, let's do that.

00:47:13.360 Can we please do that?

00:47:14.360 Yeah.

00:47:15.360 Yeah.

00:47:16.360 The way I see it is now Bruce will, will disagree with something I'm about to say, but the way I see it is that you've got two options and you've got, because what's the number one.

00:47:26.360 What's the, I mean, you, people can reasonably disagree about this, but I think one of the number one problems with our current system is that you have, and this, this plagues the U S as well, but you have people who get into politics, who treat it as a, uh, as a career path or a job for them.

00:47:44.360 That is sort of decoupled from what it should be as a, as a form of public service.

00:47:49.360 And so you have people thinking in, in only in like four year spans, like how, what do I do?

00:47:56.360 And what do I say in order to be reelected with the current cultural zeitgeist?

00:47:59.360 Like how do I follow along?

00:48:01.360 And that, that doesn't lead to good, you know, long-term political thinking.

00:48:04.360 Right.

00:48:05.360 So you've got that as an option.

00:48:07.360 So, so as a problem.

00:48:08.360 So the only option I see is that you either go, uh, benevolent monarchist, which of course has its tons of problems that way, or you go the other way.

00:48:17.360 Like what you just said, you have, listen, if you want to be a politician, these are the terms you get to be a politician for five years or for six years or whatever we determine.

00:48:26.360 And in that time period, you will be paid the, and we talked about this on a podcast years ago, you will be paid what the median income is of the region that you want to be a representative for.

00:48:40.360 And so what does that do that incentivizes you to make the people in your region as prosperous as possible because you are one of them.

00:48:50.360 So I think that's, that's a good start.

00:48:52.360 And that's sort of a, um, something to keep in mind about like when we're crafting a system that we can think of in the, in the longterm.

00:48:59.360 But when I wanted to say, after all that screed, sorry, earlier, you mentioned about how you believe that we should be more accepting and vocal of this nation's Christian background.

00:49:12.360 In your videos, you, you bless everyone.

00:49:16.360 God bless you, sir.

00:49:17.360 God bless you, ma'am.

00:49:18.360 I'm sure you get pushback on that.

00:49:20.360 But as a, as a Christian, I'm assuming you are, do you, does that inform your politics or your interest in, um, your ideas about what a political system should be?

00:49:33.360 And I'm, and I'm not asking you if you think that we should be a Christian nation, a Christian nationalist.

00:49:38.360 I'm just asking, does this, um, does it inform your worldview in a significant way?

00:49:43.360 I mean, obviously it doesn't form a worldview, but, um, so when I say God bless you to people, I'm doing two things.

00:49:54.360 Okay.

00:49:55.360 First of all, as a Christian, I believe I'm actually giving or like asking God to bless people.

00:50:01.360 Right.

00:50:02.360 And like, there's something about that in my religious belief that I think is just like a genuinely good thing.

00:50:08.360 But the other thing I'm doing, and this is like, I just love it is like, you can't, you walk up to someone, you start swearing at them and then you get, God bless you back with a big smile.

00:50:20.360 It just like, I don't know.

00:50:22.360 It's just like twisting a screw right under their fingernail, you know?

00:50:25.360 And it's like, it's actually, I could, I could be like, I could just like swear back at them.

00:50:31.360 And honestly, guys, I'm not a perfect guy.

00:50:33.360 God, I swear like a rig hand.

00:50:36.360 I used to be a rig hand.

00:50:37.360 Okay.

00:50:38.360 In my personal life.

00:50:39.360 And I, I try to get better and like, I'm not a good guy.

00:50:42.360 I do a lot of bad things.

00:50:43.360 And if the truth ever comes out about me, oh my.

00:50:46.360 Okay.

00:50:47.360 But, uh,

00:50:48.360 You've already admitted that you voted green.

00:50:49.360 I don't know how much worse you could go.

00:50:51.360 Uh, it's probably some stuff out there, but you know, so, um, now the other question, more interesting part about does the, does my Christian belief inform it?

00:51:05.360 And I was struggling with this today because I was listening to Bruce party and I'm like, I really like what you're saying.

00:51:11.360 Right.

00:51:12.360 But he was talking about natural law and I'm like, you know, we can't actually base a legal system off a natural law.

00:51:21.360 We can't.

00:51:22.360 Right.

00:51:23.360 Because who decides what that is?

00:51:26.360 Like, nobody can agree.

00:51:27.360 If there was like a rock with the laws written on it, I was like, this is the natural law and we could just, oh, there it is.

00:51:33.360 Okay.

00:51:34.360 But realistically we can't do it that way.

00:51:36.360 So.

00:51:37.360 We might say that there is to an extent.

00:51:38.360 Uh, we need to have a system.

00:51:39.360 Yeah.

00:51:40.360 I was using that as a.

00:51:41.360 Maybe a couple of tablets.

00:51:44.360 There, there might be a tablet somewhere that got lost a long time ago, but, uh, you know, and I don't mean that in a disrespectful way, but like if I could design a perfect world, you know, Jesus would be my king.

00:51:57.360 He is my king and he would just tell me what to do and I would follow.

00:52:02.360 Right.

00:52:03.360 Right.

00:52:04.360 But, uh, you know, we are given free will and we're given rain, I believe to, to make decisions and we have responsibilities and we have this agency, this reasonable agency that we can decide what to do and we can calculate things and plan and, and design a system that actually works for us.

00:52:22.360 And so, um, it's not, I would never want the church, any church to be, um, the government.

00:52:31.360 I would never want that.

00:52:32.360 Um, and in fact, our current system philosophically says it right on our money.

00:52:37.360 It says Deo Grazia Regina or Rex, right?

00:52:42.360 King by the grace of God, queen by the grace of God.

00:52:45.360 So theoretically God gives the king power.

00:52:49.360 Mm-hmm .

00:52:50.360 The king rules over us.

00:52:51.360 I resent that.

00:52:53.360 Cause nobody's a king.

00:52:55.360 No, no.

00:52:56.360 You read in the Bible.

00:52:57.360 Okay.

00:52:58.360 Maybe King David was like appointed by God.

00:52:59.360 Right.

00:53:00.360 Okay.

00:53:01.360 But modern times, like this is not how we should be thinking about it.

00:53:05.360 Um, nobody can claim that God makes you the authority over everybody else.

00:53:10.360 That is actually like, Christians should be, should be, um, offended by that.

00:53:15.360 So should Muslims.

00:53:16.360 So should atheists should be offended by that.

00:53:19.360 Everybody should be.

00:53:20.360 So we should throw this monarchy away and we should have a system that is just based off

00:53:25.360 of like reasonableness.

00:53:27.360 Okay.

00:53:28.360 Here's a, we can design this that, um, it's going to guarantee the rights and freedoms of

00:53:33.360 everybody and maximum prosperity and, um, and fairness and justice.

00:53:39.360 And there's my little spiel.

00:53:43.360 I don't know if I answered your question, but I hope I kind of got to it.

00:53:46.360 Yeah.

00:53:47.360 Yeah.

00:53:48.360 Well, there's a part of it where, first of all, worshiping the state like a God ends

00:53:55.360 in atrocities every time.

00:53:58.360 Yeah.

00:53:59.360 Every time.

00:54:00.360 So we, we got to make that clear of like the state there's pride in the values and like

00:54:08.360 your identity as a nation or a people, or like you can be proud to be an Albertan without

00:54:15.360 blind worship of whoever's currently sitting in the legislator building.

00:54:21.360 Those are two different things.

00:54:23.360 I, there is one point, um, when we're talking about like what kind of system, um,

00:54:29.360 we want to build and we don't have to design everything from the ground up.

00:54:37.360 Okay.

00:54:38.360 We're in 2025.

00:54:39.360 We've got the internet.

00:54:40.360 We have full access to knowing what other countries are doing, which systems are objectively

00:54:49.360 underperforming.

00:54:50.360 And maybe we have to also break these things apart.

00:54:54.360 So we don't fully just say like, oh, the Sweden's doing well because of this one reason.

00:54:59.360 Like, well, okay.

00:55:00.360 We got to like fully understand top to bottom, like, okay, this works within their system for

00:55:07.360 these reasons.

00:55:08.360 Are there elements of that, that we can, that we can integrate?

00:55:13.360 Okay.

00:55:14.360 So one example is, uh, people think Canada's healthcare system is magically amazing for some

00:55:20.360 reason, because we've been telling ourselves that we've just asserted that we have a great

00:55:25.360 healthcare system and we have a single payer.

00:55:28.360 And most of the world has a two pair, like a public with private options.

00:55:35.360 And there's plenty of countries doing better than Canada.

00:55:39.360 So wouldn't it make sense to look at one of the better performing countries and emulate

00:55:46.360 some of that system and put safeguards and put everything in to do it without, without

00:55:51.360 like giving all the power to the insurance companies to like turn the healthcare system

00:55:56.360 into a corrupt mess, like the United States, you can, you can balance it, but on all these

00:56:03.360 other facets, like, well, oh no, we have to make a passport office.

00:56:07.360 I'm like, well, I'm sure there's 200 other countries.

00:56:10.360 I'm sure we could just like ask a country who does it really well.

00:56:14.360 Like, why are your wait times only one week for your passports?

00:56:17.360 Like pick whatever country's doing the best in any of these areas.

00:56:22.360 And we could adapt or use that as a blueprint or just start in the right direction rather

00:56:29.360 than using a system that has slowly evolved.

00:56:34.360 And we've, we've kind of just had bloat and we've never really revised it.

00:56:39.360 So you're like trying to improve, improve a system that's really bloated.

00:56:43.360 You can only make limited improvements at that point.

00:56:48.360 So, so yeah, maybe that's a, a hopeful point is that first of all, there's uncertainty, but we don't have to design everything from the ground up.

00:57:01.360 Cause there's a ton that we can build upon.

00:57:04.360 The yeah.

00:57:07.360 Eddie thoughts on that.

00:57:08.360 Yeah.

00:57:09.360 I mean, the risk is if we try to build upon what we currently have, we're not going to fix it.

00:57:15.360 The worst outcome, I think, well, there's a lot of, there's a lot of worse outcomes, but one of the really bad ones would be like, Alberta just becomes a mini Canada.

00:57:23.360 You know, like we just kind of start with the constitution and the, the, whatever we got.

00:57:29.360 And we just kind of, you know, go from there.

00:57:32.360 Um, I think that's not a good option.

00:57:35.360 We need to start dreaming like we're doing right now.

00:57:38.360 You talked about healthcare.

00:57:39.360 You talked about these, these little one, one single issues.

00:57:42.360 And like, we need to go down those rabbit holes and like really explore it.

00:57:47.360 And I'm so optimistic because of all the smart people that are popping up.

00:57:51.360 It just seems like there's a lot of, a lot of leaders that are popping up, people who are really thinking about this.

00:57:56.360 And, um, and you guys are leading the charge on that.

00:57:59.360 Cause I think you guys have had some really good influence and, uh, some really good conversations.

00:58:05.360 So, but I envision, I envision a constant or a constitutional conference and a whole bunch of people coming together, like maybe tens of thousands.

00:58:19.360 And then they elect delegates amongst themselves, represent our little group.

00:58:23.360 Here's a hundred of us.

00:58:24.360 Here's a couple hundred over there.

00:58:26.360 And then they send more people forward and then more people.

00:58:29.360 And we have like a, a process of kind of selection.

00:58:32.360 And then they start voting amongst themselves to like form like a, okay, we're given these 25 people, some authority at the end.

00:58:41.360 You 25 are going to be the signers.

00:58:43.360 And then we have smart people that surround them and influence them.

00:58:47.360 We write drafts and we argue about it and we talk it out.

00:58:50.360 And then here's our constitution, you know, and then we vote on it as a whole province, as a whole country, I should say.

00:58:59.360 And then now we are a nation.

00:59:01.360 What an amazing thing.

00:59:03.360 Well, imagine that the, it would, the world would be watching Alberta do that in real time.

00:59:11.360 So that, that it's more than Alberta at this point.

00:59:14.360 And then the rest of Canada would be like, well, why doesn't our constitution say this?

00:59:20.360 Yeah.

00:59:21.360 Yeah.

00:59:22.360 Yeah.

00:59:23.360 They'll be jealous.

00:59:24.360 It'd be like, Hey Albertans, you actually have rights that can't be taken away under any circumstance.

00:59:31.360 Um, like free speech, is it something you need when times are good?

00:59:36.360 You actually need free speech when times are bad.

00:59:38.360 Now just use that as one example, right?

00:59:40.360 Um, I don't, I'm going to say something, but it's, I'm probably getting some of the details wrong, but in World War II, the United States had a, some kind of trial where their freedom of press was being, they were, they were publishing stuff that was like supporting of the Nazis or the communists or something.

00:59:55.360 And it was like a Supreme court precedent setting thing.

00:59:58.360 And it's like, no, in the United States during World War II, at the height of the chaos, they were allowed to publish things that were against the narrative.

01:00:06.360 Hmm.

01:00:07.360 And they take it seriously.

01:00:09.360 Americans have the freedom of the press.

01:00:12.360 Canada does it.

01:00:15.360 We do not.

01:00:16.360 The press was shut down.

01:00:18.360 All our rights were taken away.

01:00:20.360 They put people in jail.

01:00:22.360 They, without a trial, they took their bank accounts, you know, they just trampled, trampled on everybody.

01:00:29.360 Right.

01:00:30.360 And, uh, Albertans will have, we will, you know what, if we deserve this, we will have this.

01:00:37.360 We got to work hard.

01:00:39.360 So everybody needs to get up and do something.

01:00:44.360 Yeah.

01:00:45.360 Yeah.

01:00:46.360 And there was a, um, there was a post I saw on, on Twitter just the other day on X, uh, about like somebody was sharing, uh, just an Olympics clip, a clip of some athlete at the Olympics.

01:00:58.360 And somebody commented on underneath and sort of refresh it in my mind.

01:01:01.360 And I didn't realize how bad it's gotten.

01:01:02.360 They were like, can you please stop sharing?

01:01:05.360 Like it was some relatively big sports account.

01:01:07.360 Can you please stop sharing Canadian links to these sports highlights?

01:01:12.360 Cause no one else in the world can see them.

01:01:15.360 So you have to actually be behind a VPN to view Canadian.

01:01:18.360 Like these, these are part of our meat.

01:01:20.360 Like, you know how you can't share news links on, on Instagram or, or whatever you can't, like, not only can we not share news links to outside sources, but to.

01:01:27.360 So where it may be viewable to other nations, they can't see our posts either.

01:01:32.360 So it's like, we don't even, the average Canadian doesn't even realize how bad it's gotten.

01:01:36.360 Like we make, we make fun of other countries for this.

01:01:39.360 Like we talk about, you know, the Chinese firewall, you know, about how they can't see anything about the outside world.

01:01:43.360 That's true information.

01:01:44.360 And it's like, guys, that's us now.

01:01:46.360 That is literally us.

01:01:47.360 I see the walls closing in on us, you know, and I think a lot of people in this movement have come to that realization that the walls are closing in and we're like this much it's this, it's this close.

01:02:01.360 And, um, this is our last chance.

01:02:04.360 If we don't do this, if we do all this work and get in a referendum and don't win, um, Canada is done.

01:02:13.360 Hmm.

01:02:14.360 Like we're just going to be a totalitarian, like a suppressed state.

01:02:19.360 We're going to live in la la land with the media telling us that everything's okay.

01:02:24.360 Kind of like George Orwell kind of level.

01:02:26.360 And we're just going to slowly start getting poor and poor and poor and poor.

01:02:31.360 And just like not even realizing just like the water around us is boiling.

01:02:35.360 We're just staying in the pot.

01:02:36.360 And, um, this is, this is it.

01:02:39.360 And that's my message to anybody who's listening to this.

01:02:41.360 You need to sign up to be a canvasser and go collect signatures.

01:02:45.360 You need to get at least 20 from your fans and family.

01:02:49.360 Cause they're not going to go out and do it.

01:02:50.360 And it's incredibly hard.

01:02:52.360 There's 6,000 odd volunteers for canvassers right now.

01:02:56.360 According to, um, official number that I looked at, I heard on X.

01:03:01.360 And, uh, if they collect two a day, we, we get a million, but, uh, it's hard to collect even two,

01:03:07.360 because basically all the people you saw in those lineups, those are the diehards.

01:03:11.360 They would have crawled over broken glass.

01:03:13.360 There's a lot who won't go out in the cold to do it.

01:03:17.360 We need to get them.

01:03:19.360 And so if this podcast reaches anybody, please start doing every little bit you can.

01:03:24.360 This is it.

01:03:25.360 The walls are closing in.

01:03:27.360 I mean, not just sound alarmist either.

01:03:29.360 Like this is hopeful, but it's urgent.

01:03:34.360 Yeah.

01:03:35.360 We, the stronger this is now, the better it is.

01:03:40.360 Even like, obviously we want this to, we want a successful referendum, even if it falls short by a little bit.

01:03:49.360 So the difference between like 20% support on a referendum versus 30 versus 40 versus 50, the closer you are to that 50.

01:03:59.360 That's an unshakable like that.

01:04:03.360 You can't ignore that from a historical standpoint.

01:04:06.360 And if we are still stuck in a Canada, like if we're sub 50 and we're stuck in a Canada, like, and the walls are closing in from like a freedom of speech aspect.

01:04:19.360 These like BSIL, C2, C8, C9, C15 is coming in.

01:04:24.360 If these things are unfolding, essentially we are also helping conservatives in Canada by being such a loud voice.

01:04:36.360 We're like such an, we're providing an example of an organized voice.

01:04:41.360 So many volunteers, and these are just great people and you chat with them.

01:04:44.360 They're just happy to be there.

01:04:45.360 They're doing something.

01:04:46.360 They're like committing a bunch of time and effort and gas and driving.

01:04:53.360 And this is a, I don't think people realize the scope of what this movement has grown and it needs to be bigger, still needs to grow.

01:05:05.360 But even to get to this point is, is quite, quite amazing in my opinion.

01:05:12.360 Can I, can I plug something on your podcast?

01:05:15.360 It's a shameless plug.

01:05:16.360 It's not really for me, but.

01:05:17.360 Please.

01:05:18.360 100%.

01:05:19.360 So I was part of organizing a bit of a convoy to Sylvan Lake the other day from Red Deer to Sylvan Lake.

01:05:27.360 We had 50 vehicles show up.

01:05:30.360 50.

01:05:31.360 Okay.

01:05:32.360 And, uh, it was a bit of a gong show.

01:05:34.360 I kind of got lost.

01:05:35.360 You can go watch the YouTube video, but, uh, they're planning another one.

01:05:40.360 And, um, I just want to give, give the date for what they're planning here.

01:05:44.360 Um, so I get this exactly right.

01:05:47.360 Um, okay.

01:05:49.360 So it's going to be February 28th from gasoline alley, the Cineplex, uh, parking lot.

01:05:55.360 Right.

01:05:56.360 By Costco at 10 AM.

01:05:58.360 And then they're going to drive to Calgary and they're going to disembark when they get to their, around the zoo area.

01:06:04.360 But they're going to go right down deer foot and then turn.

01:06:07.360 And then everybody's going to kind of spread out presumably at that point, go their own way.

01:06:11.360 But, um, I don't know what you think about convoys.

01:06:15.360 Um, cause there's risk.

01:06:16.360 Right.

01:06:17.360 Is they might screw it up.

01:06:18.360 They might honk block roads and just be assholes.

01:06:20.360 I really hope that doesn't happen.

01:06:22.360 Right.

01:06:23.360 I hope that they're just law abiding and respectful as you know, and, and show their numbers.

01:06:27.360 What do you think about that?

01:06:29.360 I like it.

01:06:30.360 I'm all for it.

01:06:31.360 We were, like I said, you know, we were sort of, um, COVID brought out a lot of, um, a lot of big feelings in us, John.

01:06:40.360 And, uh, and we watched the live streams of the, of the convoy in, in 2022 in Ottawa from basically from day one.

01:06:47.360 And, and watching, watching the live streams from a few key streamers and seeing what things were truly like on the ground there.

01:06:56.360 And then contrasting that with how the, the news media was reporting it, how the corporate press is recording it.

01:07:02.360 And you can see instantly, like, it's just, there's not even a, so I have a, I have a very small philosophy book on that back shelf there.

01:07:12.360 And it's called on bullshit and it's a real philosophy book by a real philosopher.

01:07:17.360 And his, his central thesis on what bullshit is from a philosophical standpoint is that if you're lying to somebody like bullshit is different from lies, because if you're lying to somebody, you're actively trying to conceal the truth from them.

01:07:31.360 So, you know what the truth is and you're presenting an opposite to that and bullshit just doesn't even have any regard whatsoever for the truth.

01:07:38.360 It's just sound, it's noise.

01:07:40.360 And so to, to witness the amount of bullshit that was thrown out by the news media about what was actually happening there, they weren't even trying to lie about it.

01:07:48.360 They were just, they were just throwing noise out to try and confuse and distract from the, from the real messaging of the event.

01:07:54.360 And so seeing that, um, yeah, man, I'm, I, I wish them the best because that's, that showed how actually easy it is to get people behind a cause and how angry it makes people who are trying to distract and distort what that cause really is.

01:08:13.360 Yeah.

01:08:14.360 Yeah.

01:08:15.360 And I, I love the visual of a convoy.

01:08:17.360 Um, first of all, the amount of traffic that goes by, like, it's, you, you have a couple of things.

01:08:24.360 You have the visibility to people.

01:08:27.360 So it sparks conversation you have on photos.

01:08:30.360 It's hard to lie, but they'll still lie about numbers.

01:08:33.360 It'll be like a dozen vehicles showed up and you're like, well, you see if you can, uh, yeah.

01:08:42.360 See if you can connect with somebody with a drone that would maybe be.

01:08:47.360 I got one of this guy.

01:08:48.360 Okay.

01:08:49.360 Perfect.

01:08:50.360 Yeah.

01:08:51.360 But just from a standpoint of like, when we do these things and this is why, like, we wanted to go to the big four event in Calgary and we filmed it and we wanted to like capture it.

01:09:04.360 And also we're realizing that there's going to be so much out there downplaying either the size of the movement.

01:09:11.360 Um, either misrepresenting speeches or trying to paint a message in a certain way.

01:09:17.360 Um, and this is where individuals obviously like collecting signatures is one thing, but if you go to an event and you have photos and video and you participate in that.

01:09:30.360 Anybody can add to the, like, they're helping to correct some of the noise by providing evidence.

01:09:38.360 It's hard to say like, oh, this convoy only had 12 vehicles.

01:09:43.360 When you have however many dozens of independent people with either footage or photos or like, you can't argue with that.

01:09:53.360 Well, and you talked about evidence and, uh, you talked about bull bullshit, right?

01:09:58.360 Um, so one of the things that stood out to me for, for bullshit during the convoy was when CBC, somebody was live streaming CBC recording.

01:10:08.360 I don't know where the clip is, but I remember seeing it and it's like, they're facing a brick wall with like three people with one flag.

01:10:14.360 And then, uh, literally the other side is like thousands.

01:10:18.360 Right.

01:10:19.360 And the CBC is like, nobody showed up to this event.

01:10:22.360 It's like a bunch of inglorious liars, you know?

01:10:26.360 Yeah.

01:10:27.360 And so you're right.

01:10:28.360 We do need to do this, but so then, okay.

01:10:30.360 If you guys support it, um, February 28th is coming up quick.

01:10:34.360 Uh, we need more content creators like yourselves and myself.

01:10:38.360 I want to talk about it in every video that I make actually in the first, like two or three minutes, just so that I get everybody who watches.

01:10:45.360 Um, will you guys start helping to support that?

01:10:48.360 Do you think this is a good idea?

01:10:49.360 Will you join it?

01:10:50.360 Yep.

01:10:51.360 Yeah.

01:10:52.360 Yep.

01:10:53.360 I can say that we're in.

01:10:54.360 Yeah.

01:10:55.360 On the 28th.

01:10:56.360 Yeah.

01:10:57.360 28th at 10 AM.

01:10:59.360 And now, you know, it'd be super cool is if, uh, people say in, I don't know, uh, Lacombe or even Edmonton started up and then they kind of met us, you know, try to time it to line it up at two.

01:11:13.360 If you want to come from Edmonton, leave it like nine or eight.

01:11:18.360 And then we're rolling through Red Deer at around 10.

01:11:21.360 And then it's like, we just join up.

01:11:23.360 And then by the time you get to Innisfil and Airdrie, maybe there's another whole bunch of people just join up.

01:11:28.360 And line up and then we'll have the final, you know, home stretch driving into Calgary.

01:11:33.360 We'll pick a bridge to do the drone shot as people fly over and, uh, or sort of people drive under.

01:11:41.360 I mean, you get what I'm saying?

01:11:43.360 I think this is so cool.

01:11:44.360 Now, by the way, I'm not an organizer of this.

01:11:46.360 There's, there is no organizer.

01:11:47.360 It's just somebody picked a time and we just all start talking about it.

01:11:51.360 Yeah.

01:11:52.360 Yeah.

01:11:53.360 That's how the, the decentralized grassroots starts.

01:11:57.360 Yeah.

01:11:58.360 The idea, you see the idea and you get enough people.

01:12:02.360 That's all you need.

01:12:03.360 Yeah.

01:12:04.360 Um.

01:12:05.360 50, 50 went to Sylvan.

01:12:07.360 Imagine if 5,000 went to Calgary or 10,000.

01:12:12.360 That's like, we're going to win.

01:12:15.360 That's like a, that's like a declaration of independence.

01:12:19.360 They might have to make February 28th.

01:12:21.360 That's like.

01:12:22.360 The signing day in 2027.

01:12:25.360 The last day of a perfect month.

01:12:28.360 Oh yeah.

01:12:29.360 It is the last day of the month.

01:12:30.360 Well, and I'm saying it's perfect because it's one of the few February's that actually, the Sunday is the first.

01:12:37.360 Ooh.

01:12:38.360 It's like, it's a solid.

01:12:39.360 That's clean.

01:12:40.360 It's like a perfectly clean month.

01:12:42.360 So yeah.

01:12:44.360 So, uh, John, I was watching, uh, your video where you were walking around, uh, Rogers place in Edmonton.

01:12:53.360 And if you recall, um, you were walking around the front of the kind of underneath the pedway there and you were looking for, cause there were other people who were holding Alberta flags, but they were, they left.

01:13:03.360 And you came across a homeless man who you asked his, his opinion on Alberta independence.

01:13:09.360 And, and I was, I was frankly like really surprised by his response about how, uh, really adamantly pro Canada he was.

01:13:18.360 And some of the things he was saying about, so here you have a man who was, and we'll link the video.

01:13:23.360 You have a man who, you know, you can tell, and I can tell this, you know, cause I've had family members like this.

01:13:27.360 He, he very obviously doesn't have all of his teeth.

01:13:30.360 So he's kind of, I don't think he was drunk or on drugs or anything.

01:13:33.360 I don't think he had his teeth.

01:13:34.360 And so he was sort of, he was sober.

01:13:36.360 Yeah.

01:13:37.360 Yeah. And so you could tell from how he was talking.

01:13:39.360 So he doesn't have teeth.

01:13:40.360 He's in a wheelchair.

01:13:41.360 I can't remember if he had a, if he was missing a limb or anything, but he was, he was in a wheelchair.

01:13:45.360 Um, and he's telling you how, what a great country candidate is and all, all the great things that's done for him and how we should be grateful for this country.

01:13:53.360 And I was just, I'm trying to like, understand how he could in his position, begging for money on the street, obviously in, in medical, you know, lots of chronic medical conditions that obviously has, have gone untreated.

01:14:06.360 How can he think this, how can he feel this way?

01:14:09.360 How can he be so strong about it?

01:14:11.360 You handle it very gracefully and you were, you were, you know, you had, you ended up having a nice conversation with him, even though he was, you know, very against Albert independence.

01:14:20.360 But what is your take on, like, why do you think this guy feels this way?

01:14:24.360 So actually, if you watch that towards the end, I'm, I'm actually already kind of leaving.

01:14:32.360 And then he, he says something and I come back a little bit and then I say like, uh, yeah, a couple of times.

01:14:39.360 Cause I, I, I, I gotta be careful when I'm putting someone like that on, on the camera, because I don't want to be like, um, what do you call it?

01:14:48.360 Manipulating or using them or exploiting them.

01:14:50.360 Exploiting is a good word.

01:14:51.360 I don't want to do that.

01:14:52.360 You know, he's vulnerable and, and I really want to respect.

01:14:56.360 He started talking and he was saying smart stuff and he was really articulate.

01:15:00.360 And I'm like, okay, here's the, here's the camera.

01:15:03.360 You say what you want to say that no one else is going to give you a moment to talk in front of thousands of people.

01:15:09.360 Here you go.

01:15:10.360 Use my camera for free.

01:15:11.360 Right.

01:15:12.360 And, uh, and he said some really good stuff, but then there's a moment towards the end when I'm like, um, Canada's leaving you behind or they left you behind.

01:15:20.360 And then he agrees with me.

01:15:21.360 He says, yeah, I know Canada's leaving me behind.

01:15:23.360 And that's a moment when like in real time you can see the gears are changing.

01:15:28.360 Now, I don't know if it's going to change his mind on things.

01:15:31.360 Right.

01:15:32.360 But, uh, if you watch that, that's like a poem, a moment when I'm like, yeah, you know, Canada left you behind.

01:15:38.360 You never, you never thought that before, did you?

01:15:40.360 Yeah.

01:15:41.360 Now you do.

01:15:42.360 And I put that seed into his mind and probably hundreds of other people thought that too.

01:15:46.360 So.

01:15:47.360 Yeah.

01:15:48.360 That was just a moment that stuck out to me.

01:15:50.360 To your questions.

01:15:51.360 Yeah.

01:15:52.360 Yeah, please.

01:15:53.360 Uh, well to, to your questions, like, uh, um, what was your question again?

01:15:59.360 Well, like what, what, what do you think?

01:16:01.360 Like when he, his first, his first initial, like gut response to you about what a great country it is and how we should be grateful towards, you know, in as many words as what he was saying.

01:16:11.360 Like, why do you think that, like, do you have any idea about why he might've, I just, I just couldn't think about, like, I couldn't think of one reason why he should, he should like the country that he's in that has left him in a state like that.

01:16:24.360 I, you know, that's not to say that, you know, obviously, you know, people are in charge of their own fates to a certain extent, but like very obviously the system has failed this man and here he is defending it.

01:16:34.360 Uh, his argument is just criticizing his argument, not the man at all.

01:16:41.360 His argument is basically just patriotism and you know, who, who, who, rah, rah, right?

01:16:47.360 Patriotism.

01:16:48.360 We got a nice flag.

01:16:49.360 We're a big, beautiful country and we're better together cause we're big and better together.

01:16:53.360 Like it's not an argument.

01:16:56.360 It's just an appeal to emotion.

01:16:58.360 And so I don't want to dismiss him on any other grounds other than just his, what he was saying.

01:17:03.360 His words.

01:17:04.360 And, uh, I hear lots of people repeating that and it's like, okay, if, if he wasn't in a vulnerable position, I would have probably been more assertive with him, but he can't escape me.

01:17:17.360 Now, what I mean by that is other people can leave.

01:17:20.360 He couldn't.

01:17:21.360 Right.

01:17:22.360 So for me to stand there and shove a camera in his face, there's a power differential that I'm really aware of.

01:17:28.360 Other people can walk by and just dismiss me and swear at me and leave, but I don't want to challenge him.

01:17:34.360 But if I was going to challenge somebody else making the same arguments who willfully was standing in front of me, I would have started calling him out.

01:17:40.360 Like patriotism, isn't an argument.

01:17:42.360 It's, it's just, it's just an emotional feeling.

01:17:45.360 And you know what?

01:17:46.360 You can have patriotism towards Alberta and you know, Mark Carney's got patriotism towards Ireland.

01:17:53.360 So it's like patriotism is woo woo.

01:17:56.360 Right.

01:17:57.360 Yeah.

01:17:58.360 Yeah.

01:17:59.360 Yeah.

01:18:00.360 Fair enough.

01:18:01.360 Yeah.

01:18:02.360 That really, it was like, it burrowed into my brain when I, after I watched and I was like, I just really threw me.

01:18:08.360 Cause I'm like, I cannot, I can't come up with an idea for what this guy was thinking.

01:18:12.360 Like, like God bless him.

01:18:13.360 I mean, that's if he, some people are just like that, right?

01:18:16.360 Some people are just like, I'm grateful for every day that I'm alive.

01:18:19.360 You know, every day I'm on the right side of the dirt is a good day and fair enough.

01:18:22.360 But I mean, like I just, yeah, even, you know, you see, it's one thing to see people who are like, um, very obviously gaming a system and they want that system to be in place to, to remain in place so they can continue to financially and maybe socially benefit from it.

01:18:39.360 I get that.

01:18:40.360 I understand the system can be shit for as many people as it doesn't matter as long as it's working for me.

01:18:45.360 Right.

01:18:46.360 But for somebody who it's very obviously failing in such a visible way, I was like, wow, that's, that's something.

01:18:53.360 And that, and that's such an interesting point.

01:18:56.360 Like, I feel like so many Canadians just are, it's such an insulting thing to say, but like sheep, you know, we've just been lulled into thinking that this is the way things are.

01:19:08.360 You said it was the healthcare.

01:19:09.360 We got the best healthcare in the whole world.

01:19:11.360 How do you, have you ever had healthcare anywhere else?

01:19:14.360 I had a surgery in Nicaragua.

01:19:16.360 Okay.

01:19:17.360 It costs some money, but my insurance paid for it.

01:19:20.360 And it was like world-class.

01:19:21.360 I had an American doctor in Nicaragua.

01:19:24.360 Right.

01:19:25.360 And, uh, okay.

01:19:26.360 Have you ever had healthcare, but no, we've just been lulled into thinking that things are the way they are.

01:19:31.360 And we've never had our, our, I don't think most people have had their beliefs ever challenged.

01:19:37.360 Um, that's kind of another thing, like, especially now, like if you went to university, I went like 25 years ago, we used to have big debates, you know?

01:19:49.360 Uh, but if you, if, so then you're used to your ideas being challenged, but I don't think most people ever have their ideas challenged.

01:19:54.360 And then for a guy like me to just stand on the street, it's just like stuns them, you know, like someone's going to disagree with me.

01:20:05.360 Yeah.

01:20:06.360 And I got to defend myself and I don't know what to say.

01:20:09.360 And so I'm just going to have a meltdown, which is going to make this guy's channel go viral, which is like the best gift you can give, even though it's not what I'm asking for.

01:20:18.360 Or, uh, um, you know, I'm going to say something that is basically just one of the three arguments, like Canada is big and powerful and strong and smart and we're better together.

01:20:27.360 So like patriotism.

01:20:29.360 Right.

01:20:30.360 Um, I think the only legit argument that I think we should actually be afraid of.

01:20:34.360 Is, is a financial one.

01:20:38.360 And that's just like, if we have mismanagement, but I think other Canadians are going to have a day of reckoning.

01:20:45.360 That's going to be really negative.

01:20:48.360 And so there I'm trying to play devil's advocate, but like.

01:20:51.360 But Canadian dollars.

01:20:54.360 So the mismanagement, that's not unique to Alberta though.

01:20:57.360 No.

01:20:58.360 So like day after we declare independence.

01:21:02.360 What socks of bonds.

01:21:03.360 I think they're going to go down investment.

01:21:06.360 So the Canadian dollar will get weaker.

01:21:10.360 Um, first of all, if I did see one of your interviews where somebody said is like, well, what's going to happen with my GIC or all these other things.

01:21:20.360 Yeah.

01:21:21.360 Um, my question to them is we're seeing some massive shifts in like the de-dollarization.

01:21:28.360 We're seeing some shifts from essentially we're in some debt bubbles and gold and silver is going up because.

01:21:35.360 All these countries are realizing, well, we need something to underpin our currency.

01:21:40.360 So if you're highly leveraged in bonds or the currency of any particular country during this time.

01:21:46.360 That's not a smart place to be.

01:21:49.360 Don't be.

01:21:50.360 So even, even without Canada or even without Alberta becoming independent.

01:21:57.360 It would be smart for anybody not to be so, so exposed to any particular currency.

01:22:05.360 The Canadian currency is already getting weaker.

01:22:08.360 So like, if you look at it compared to the USD, it's, we're going lower and lower.

01:22:13.360 So we're, we're not doing well there anyways.

01:22:17.360 So the mismanagement is, it's already happening.

01:22:23.360 So like, could you be that much worse?

01:22:26.360 Well, no, what you're saying there is right.

01:22:29.360 Like this can all be managed.

01:22:30.360 And on a one-on-one level, I would say, look, diversify your portfolio.

01:22:35.360 If you, either way, I was talking to my sister in Ontario and I was like, look, you guys are really rich.

01:22:42.360 You got lots of investments.

01:22:45.360 D they don't even think we're going to have a referendum.

01:22:48.360 And I'm like, look, you should start diversifying now because a referendum is going to be a shock in and of its own right.

01:22:55.360 And if we win, or if we even come close, that's going to also be a huge shock, uh, to everything.

01:23:03.360 And so if you're in Canada right now and you got some investments, you should start diversifying now.

01:23:07.360 Now I'm not an accountant giving you financial advice.

01:23:10.360 I'm just saying like, come on, think about this.

01:23:13.360 Uh, even if we get, say we got 40%, um, that's probably gonna make people think for the next 25 years, big investors.

01:23:23.360 Like, do we really want to come to Canada?

01:23:27.360 Cause the thing might look, this is a, I think a real risk, but I'm okay with it.

01:23:31.360 I don't know.

01:23:32.360 Am I, am I running my mouth again or.

01:23:35.360 No, I think that's fair.

01:23:36.360 I mean that there's, we've, we talked about it before.

01:23:38.360 I mean, like you, you gotta, you gotta just pick which risk you want because we've, you've got, you know, I don't know how it all breaks down, but you've gotten, you've got known unknowns and you've got unknown unknowns as they say.

01:23:50.360 You know, we already know, we already would know what the unknowns are in Canada.

01:23:54.360 We don't necessarily know what they are in Alberta, but it is a logical mistake to just assume that they will be in the negative when there's, there's actually very good logical reasons to suspect.

01:24:04.360 That once we have, uh, you know, like we already know that Alberta has more oil wealth per capita than even the richest Gulf states.

01:24:15.360 So, you know, it, it is a logical presumption to make that once unencumbered by, uh, fake, you know, European style environmentalist, uh, uh, scarcity policy from Ottawa.

01:24:29.360 Once, once you shed that, it is a reasonable assumption to make that you can, you can enrich yourself further from those existing resources.

01:24:36.360 The infrastructure is there.

01:24:37.360 It's just policy locked right now.

01:24:39.360 And there's also, um, we can't compare Alberta in a vacuum.

01:24:45.360 Investment works based on relative risk and incentives.

01:24:50.360 Like there's a lot going on.

01:24:52.360 So if some, if a company is going to invest in Alberta, they would have to, they would be looking at, well, what does this new Alberta country offer us that Canada doesn't?

01:25:05.360 So Alberta actually wouldn't have to be perfect day one.

01:25:09.360 They would just need a framework in place that has like, let it be the right tax incentives.

01:25:16.360 Let it be the like robust constitution.

01:25:20.360 Let it be things that ensure a free market.

01:25:23.360 And if it's signaling in that direction, while Canada signaling in the other direction, companies can extrapolate.

01:25:31.360 It's, it's pretty easy to predict where the, where the tide's going to go from there.

01:25:37.360 Yeah.

01:25:38.360 My, my argument is like Alberta is going to rock and roll and we're going to go to the moon, but I think the rest of Canada is going to suffer.

01:25:45.360 And so it's like we Albertans need to realize this, like, this is a, we're going to shock the system.

01:25:53.360 There's no way to, to soften that, but you guys, an individual can definitely soften it.

01:25:58.360 And I'm okay with it because you know what?

01:26:01.360 We have the right to determine our own future.

01:26:04.360 And we've been trying for a long time to get into Canada.

01:26:09.360 And it's like, we've never been allowed a seat at the table.

01:26:11.360 Okay, fine.

01:26:12.360 We're out, you know?

01:26:14.360 So have you flown, have you flown recently on a plane?

01:26:18.360 You know, uh, they have their seatbelt stuff, but they have, well, make sure you put on your oxygen mask before helping other individuals.

01:26:27.360 Yeah.

01:26:28.360 So.

01:26:29.360 Yeah.

01:26:30.360 Yeah.

01:26:31.360 Yeah.

01:26:32.360 Yeah.

01:26:33.360 It's basic.

01:26:34.360 It's basic.

01:26:35.360 I, I think, I think the economic argument, my sister made this, she's like, um, she told me, she's like, if you pay more taxes, that means you've made more money.

01:26:45.360 And so in her mind, she has no problem paying more taxes.

01:26:49.360 Cause she just accepts her fate that a portion of this just goes to the federal government and they do it to do whatever they want.

01:26:55.360 And then she's also like, don't you want to just help all the other poor Canadians?

01:27:01.360 You know, all those poor ones that are of other places in Canada.

01:27:05.360 It's like, you, you got so much money over there.

01:27:07.360 Don't you just want to help?

01:27:08.360 And I'm like, yeah, you know what?

01:27:09.360 I would love to help.

01:27:11.360 Uh, but first I need to go to work and take care of myself.

01:27:15.360 And then I can provide for everybody else.

01:27:17.360 We've been doing that.

01:27:18.360 Cause now Albertans can't even go to work.

01:27:20.360 Like the rig count is a number I keep going back to 2012.

01:27:24.360 I don't know, 2010, 2012, we were at 500.

01:27:28.360 Now we're at a hundred, 120, some of that.

01:27:31.360 And it's like, there's thousands of jobs that we don't have anymore.

01:27:37.360 Good, high paying jobs that you don't need an education for.

01:27:40.360 You just go and get, make 150 grand, you know, God, you know?

01:27:45.360 So if you're not going to let us work, then I don't want to pay.

01:27:49.360 Yeah.

01:27:50.360 Yeah.

01:27:51.360 And, and, and then the counter argument is, um, yes, I would love to do that, but I would

01:27:56.360 love to support things that are, um, I would love to financially support things that are

01:28:01.360 in my basket of interests.

01:28:04.360 You know, like, you know, I have a, um, family history of diabetes.

01:28:10.360 I w I would love to be able to give more of my money that's being taxed for me.

01:28:14.360 I'd love to give more of that to diabetes research.

01:28:16.360 I'd love to be able to choose, like the response that I give to people that they really

01:28:21.360 don't have a good response to is okay.

01:28:23.360 Well, so say you're, you're giving, you know, uh, say you give the government $10,000 a year

01:28:28.360 in taxes.

01:28:29.360 Okay.

01:28:30.360 What if go with me on this?

01:28:31.360 What if they didn't take any of that money from you?

01:28:34.360 And then you got to choose how you spent that $10,000.

01:28:36.360 If it's to repair the community hall in your community, or it's a, you know, you've got

01:28:41.360 a, you know, you, there's a, there's a pothole on your street that just everyone bitches

01:28:45.360 and moans about, but somehow never gets fixed.

01:28:47.360 Cause it's never in the city budget and they never send anyone out.

01:28:49.360 Well, maybe you can direct some of those funds towards that.

01:28:52.360 Like these are ideas that people, they have this general idea of like charity.

01:28:57.360 It's nice to be charitable.

01:28:58.360 It's can, it's a Canadian value to be charitable, but they're not really particularly concerned

01:29:03.360 about where that charitable giving goes.

01:29:05.360 They just like feeling that they're paying it and they're assuming that it's being put

01:29:09.360 to good use, but actually you're a much better, you're a much better arbiter of your money

01:29:13.360 than anyone else's.

01:29:14.360 And let's just clear up a thing here.

01:29:18.360 It's not charity when the government takes your money and gives it to somebody else.

01:29:22.360 Mandatory charity.

01:29:24.360 Right.

01:29:25.360 There's something different about that.

01:29:26.360 I can't quite put my finger on it.

01:29:28.360 Okay.

01:29:29.360 But look, um, as a general principle, kind of getting philosophical again here, when

01:29:34.360 we form our new country, um, let's make government as close to the people as possible.

01:29:41.360 Right.

01:29:42.360 So if you can solve a problem at a municipal level, or even at like a, like a district

01:29:49.360 level in your city, like as close to the people, that's where you solve the problem.

01:29:54.360 If you can't do that, then you go up one level and if you can't do that, you go up another level.

01:29:59.360 And you think about it, like all the issues, the vast majority of them can be solved at

01:30:04.360 a, at a, at a local level.

01:30:05.360 Yeah.

01:30:06.360 I want to use a Winkler Manitoba as an example, cause I I'm, I'm pretty sure I'm going to get

01:30:11.360 this one right.

01:30:12.360 So Winkler Manitoba doesn't, or Winkler Manitoba allows alcohol to be sold in their area.

01:30:20.360 And then Morden doesn't, or I got reversed Morden allows it.

01:30:25.360 And these, there are two towns that are close together and it's like the people there are

01:30:29.360 just happy with the rules.

01:30:31.360 That's how they want to do it.

01:30:33.360 Okay.

01:30:34.360 We could do that for every little issue, you know, um, all the way up to the top, keep the

01:30:39.360 government as close to the people as possible.

01:30:41.360 That way there's accountability.

01:30:43.360 And, um, you know, you can see where it's going.

01:30:46.360 Like, okay.

01:30:47.360 Oh, I paid a thousand dollars in taxes and, uh, oh, they're actually out paving the roads.

01:30:52.360 Look at that go, you know, I paid a thousand dollars in taxes.

01:30:56.360 Oh wait, the government's going to run a, a $50 billion deficit because they want to

01:31:00.360 send all this money over to things in Africa and the Middle East and nothing to do with

01:31:05.360 me.

01:31:06.360 I don't, you know.

01:31:07.360 Yeah.

01:31:08.360 Yeah.

01:31:09.360 It's a, it's a very.

01:31:10.360 Taxes don't actually pay the bills anyway.

01:31:11.360 No, that's exactly right.

01:31:13.360 They don't.

01:31:14.360 And yeah, I mean, it's such a, uh, the, I said it a couple of times on the show.

01:31:18.360 I can't remember who said it.

01:31:19.360 I think it was Ben Shapiro who said it.

01:31:21.360 Yeah.

01:31:22.360 And did you talk to Ben Shapiro?

01:31:25.360 No, no, not yet.

01:31:27.360 We're not, we're not big enough yet for, to get, to get that, uh, that get on the show.

01:31:30.360 But I think this was him who's, he could have been quoting somebody.

01:31:33.360 He said, you should be a, you should be a communist in your own family, a liberal in

01:31:39.360 your community and a conservative towards the country.

01:31:42.360 And I think that's great.

01:31:43.360 I think that's a great idea because yeah, of course you need to control your family.

01:31:47.360 Your family, you and your spouse need to control your family's finances and, you know, ensure

01:31:52.360 that your kids are fed cause they can't do it on their own.

01:31:55.360 And in your community, you have to be a good neighbor.

01:31:57.360 You have to shovel this sidewalk of your elderly neighbor because that's just what decent

01:32:02.360 people do.

01:32:03.360 But what you don't need to do is like make grand claims about how an entire country needs

01:32:07.360 to spend its wealth, you know, on the international stage in ways that don't affect the average,

01:32:13.360 the average Canadian.

01:32:14.360 And you actually, it's actually incumbent upon you to stay out of that and to keep your money

01:32:19.360 as local as possible.

01:32:21.360 I think that's, I think that that's simple.

01:32:24.360 You can't, you can't have infinity empathy for everybody.

01:32:29.360 And you also don't have infinity money to support that empathy with.

01:32:33.360 So these kinds of things break down.

01:32:36.360 Don't give them any ideas.

01:32:37.360 Well, they, they've already been making, they've been making infinity money and that's why our

01:32:42.360 currency is falling apart.

01:32:44.360 So, but yeah, it's these things, they'll, they'll come full circle.

01:32:51.360 Not everybody's going to wake up at the same time.

01:32:53.360 Um, but yeah, it's, I am so excited to see how your channel grows, John.

01:33:02.360 And I was going to say before, this is the kind of thing where we have people just putting in the work,

01:33:09.360 putting in the time and the more voices that we have.

01:33:12.360 Um, this is not a space where we're like, oh, we can only have three channels of people.

01:33:17.360 It's like, no, we gotta have the widest message, the most, like the widest range of personality types,

01:33:24.360 conversations taking place at all different levels.

01:33:27.360 Every little, like not everybody's going to resonate with constitutional discussions.

01:33:31.360 Like that's not a, that doesn't win everybody over.

01:33:35.360 So you're going to have to have the whole, the whole gamut of that.

01:33:39.360 And I'm very excited and I'm glad you came on today.

01:33:42.360 So.

01:33:43.360 Well, eventually I'm going to run out of, I don't know, people to talk to.

01:33:46.360 I guess if this eventually, so I don't know what the long-term plan for my channel is,

01:33:50.360 but for now I'm just going to keep walking around.

01:33:53.360 And, uh, I do want to start meeting some people.

01:33:57.360 Um, some like maybe more thoughtful.

01:34:01.360 Uh, if anybody wants to like actually have a thoughtful conversation, I really want that.

01:34:07.360 So, um, but then I don't know, just meeting random people is also, like you said, it's a sample in real time.

01:34:14.360 Like I'm documenting the zeitgeist.

01:34:19.360 Yeah.

01:34:20.360 Yeah.

01:34:21.360 Well, you know, this sign behind me here, actually we've, um, we got it made kind of right too late in the season last year and it became winter.

01:34:29.360 So yeah, we wanted to do more events with it.

01:34:32.360 It says, you know, independence is best for all Albertans change our minds.

01:34:35.360 And, um, and so we wanted to have some conversations like that.

01:34:38.360 There's a sign behind it too, uh, that it's a, it's orange and it's a, it's a theoretical and we were hoping to use it on some university campuses.

01:34:47.360 And it says, it shows Alberta in orange and then the rest of Canada in blue.

01:34:52.360 And so the, the question posed on its, on that sign is, uh, something along the lines of, would an NDP Alberta, um, build a better future from a conservative Canada?

01:35:04.360 Independent from a conservative Canada.

01:35:07.360 Yeah.

01:35:08.360 Independent from a conservative.

01:35:09.360 So the idea is like, is to go onto the university campus, for example, and ask these, you know, these people who you can, you know, make maybe an assumption that they probably would be a little bit more socialist in their leanings.

01:35:19.360 Have them think of a hypothetical.

01:35:21.360 Imagine it's 2015 and Alberta is a, uh, is an NDP province and Canada for a time it switched over.

01:35:28.360 Canada is a conservative country.

01:35:30.360 You know, there's, you can imagine this scenario.

01:35:32.360 Well, if Canada was being governed conservatively and you, we were surrounded on all sides by conservatives, but Alberta was a band, was a bastion for socialist thinking.

01:35:42.360 Would you still be against independence or is, is, do you, are you going by principle or are you going by fields basically?

01:35:49.360 So maybe we can do a collab.

01:35:51.360 We can both have signs.

01:35:52.360 That's a good one.

01:35:53.360 I don't think that the op opponents are capable of being principled.

01:36:00.360 Um, that's something that I've, I, it's such a cynical thing to say.

01:36:04.360 And it's a, it's a bit airy.

01:36:05.360 I risk being arrogant by saying this, but, uh, I genuinely try to be intellectually honest and to be principled.

01:36:13.360 And it's like, I recognize when I, when someone got me, I know you saw this, I've been, I've, there's been a few gotcha moments on me and I'm like, you got me.

01:36:22.360 Right.

01:36:23.360 I just admit it.

01:36:24.360 Uh, I don't think that the opponents are capable of that, but you know, maybe on the university campuses or maybe.

01:36:31.360 I don't know.

01:36:32.360 I would like to do that.

01:36:33.360 It'd be kind of fun.

01:36:34.360 Uh, if you ever got me out there as a guest, uh, to sit down with you guys.

01:36:38.360 Yeah.

01:36:39.360 We don't have a table set up, but we're going to at least like prop up the sign and, uh, and set up a camera that way.

01:36:45.360 Yeah.

01:36:46.360 A billboard, like a billboard Chris style thing.

01:36:49.360 Yeah.

01:36:50.360 Yeah.

01:36:51.360 Yeah.

01:36:52.360 So, Hey, we'll, you know what, spring's coming, so we'll, uh, we'll organize something.

01:36:56.360 Yeah.

01:36:57.360 Awesome.

01:36:58.360 Yeah.

01:36:59.360 Uh, John, I always like to ask before we, before we close out an interview, was there anything that we didn't talk about that you wish we would have or anything, anything else that you'd want to say?

01:37:10.360 Uh, well, I thought we were going to talk a little bit more about indigenous rights and the treaties.

01:37:16.360 I kind of was preparing for that.

01:37:18.360 I might've downloaded something.

01:37:20.360 Oh, it's all reversed.

01:37:21.360 Oh, no, no.

01:37:22.360 It goes up.

01:37:23.360 It shows up on.

01:37:24.360 Oh yeah.

01:37:25.360 Yeah.

01:37:26.360 It's the, uh, the, uh, the treaty number seven.

01:37:28.360 I was reading that before I came here and I'm like, dammit, this is a racist document.

01:37:32.360 Why does anybody still support this?

01:37:34.360 We do a re we do a land acknowledgement, like at the, all the things that are government funded now, nobody's actually read this thing.

01:37:41.360 And I have now read treaty seven and I've had treaty eight read to me, uh, through a podcast that I was listening to.

01:37:51.360 And, um, you know what, that is a, that is a, uh, a thing that I think we all need to start talking about.

01:37:58.360 I don't think even indigenous people read it.

01:38:00.360 I don't know.

01:38:01.360 Maybe they do, but like who would stand behind that?

01:38:03.360 It's, it's, um, so antiquated the idea that we're going to have, you know, people segmented off based off of their race.

01:38:11.360 And so, I don't know, I mean, I thought that was going to, uh, we could talk about that or we could close it up.

01:38:18.360 Now I got everybody fired up.

01:38:19.360 They like talk about it.

01:38:20.360 It is.

01:38:21.360 I would, I would like you to.

01:38:23.360 Well, to, to loop back to your previous example, you're trying to say, you know, you're pointing to the guy, the homeless guy in the street and saying, here is an example of somebody who the system has failed.

01:38:38.360 Yeah.

01:38:39.360 Who should be aware of how the system have failed and be supporting a change in the system.

01:38:45.360 I feel like that same can be applied to the reserves.

01:38:49.360 Um, and there's even Corey Morgan did a, he filmed said like, here's all the houses and nobody has property rights.

01:38:58.360 Therefore, if their house gets run down, eventually they'll be given a new one.

01:39:03.360 Like there's nothing, the incentives aren't there for to like take ownership and repair.

01:39:09.360 And like, I'm going to make this nice because this is something of mine.

01:39:13.360 Therefore, I'm going to build my garden.

01:39:15.360 You could see how, when the incentives push in one direction, the behavior follows.

01:39:22.360 And part of that is the system.

01:39:25.360 And part of that's the, the way that like, if you don't have the property rights, that's gonna, that's gonna fail.

01:39:31.360 So yeah, it's, it's a tricky, tricky thing to navigate almost requires like a, a good episode to.

01:39:39.360 Well, and if I could plug myself one more time for my, for my channel.

01:39:44.360 Uh, so if any indigenous person who's like serious about talking about this in an intellectual way, wants to talk to me about it.

01:39:53.360 I, I fully want to talk to you.

01:39:56.360 I want, I want you to tell me why I'm wrong.

01:39:58.360 And I want you to correct all of my, my stereotypes and my mistakes.

01:40:02.360 And I want you to just be gracious with me because I don't understand obviously, but I do want to have a conversation.

01:40:09.360 And I feel like that's a space that I don't know how many people like podcasts are interviewing indigenous people.

01:40:15.360 It's always a bunch of non-indigenous people talking about it.

01:40:19.360 Well, if anybody in your audience wants to, uh, go to my channel on YouTube, uh, and leave a comment or email me.

01:40:27.360 Can you guys leave my email in your, in your description?

01:40:30.360 Yes. And, and please shout it out too.

01:40:32.360 Yeah. We'll put it in the description, but go ahead.

01:40:35.360 John from Alberta at yahoo.com.

01:40:39.360 That's an easy one to answer.

01:40:41.360 So I don't know.

01:40:42.360 And then, uh, uh, you know, obviously I gotta be a little bit, uh, careful with who I go and just meet.

01:40:48.360 So, but, uh, cause now I published it, 10,000 people email me.

01:40:52.360 They all want to like hunt me down maybe.

01:40:55.360 Well, you pick the person in time, so.

01:40:58.360 But yeah, so, uh, but I do, I am interested in making a couple of videos about this topic.

01:41:04.360 And, um, would it be appropriate for me to go to a reserve and do what I do?

01:41:12.360 Or is that like, is that like really inappropriate and insensitive?

01:41:17.360 My instinct tells me it's okay, but I gotta do it in the right way.

01:41:22.360 Oh, th this is an amazing opportunity to renegotiate everything, um, on fair terms and come up with a plan or, or a system that is actually fair and isn't racist and doesn't like hold people back.

01:41:37.360 You know, like there's 40, some odd thousand people living on reserves, um, the Indian act.

01:41:44.360 And I hate even calling it that.

01:41:45.360 Cause like, you know, but like, this is holding people back and we can really fix it.

01:41:51.360 Okay.

01:41:52.360 Come to come join the movement and, and then talk, talk with us and be an influence and lead us, you know, on, on what we gotta do to fix this, because this is a problem that we don't fix it.

01:42:04.360 It's not gonna get better.

01:42:05.360 You know, there's so much poverty and suffering on those reserves that, um, I don't want a future Alberta to just take that over and not, not actually solve the problem.

01:42:18.360 I wanna like solve it.

01:42:20.360 We can do that.

01:42:21.360 I believe we can.

01:42:22.360 I just don't know.

01:42:23.360 Yeah.

01:42:24.360 Our, our reserves are in a really bad way.

01:42:25.360 And, and there's, there's so much, um, you know, and again, I, I'm, you know, I'm not super, I wouldn't say I'm an expert on that.

01:42:33.360 I wouldn't say I'm an expert on it, but I know that there's a lot of corruption and there's a lot of, um, there's a lot of improper usage, uses of funds.

01:42:42.360 And people often don't, they're not empowered to even, I mean, a lot of people don't even know about that, that the, like an indigenous person doesn't have access to, like, they don't own their land.

01:42:53.360 They, they aren't able to sell or rent their land that they like that their house sits on.

01:42:57.360 Um, it's, it's a very weird thing and it's, and it is sort of a relic, like you've said, you know, it's a, it's kind of a relic of a time that's.

01:43:06.360 You know, I, I wouldn't, I wouldn't say that there's a lot of people out there who would describe our treaty system as being fair and equitable and, and making the people who are subject to it on, on their reservations, prosperous.

01:43:18.360 You know, so yeah, I said that from the beginning, I don't know why, I don't know why the indigenous of this province aren't, and, and maybe they're, they are having these discussions and we only hear from the loudest opponents because they are the ones who stand to lose if the system changes.

01:43:33.360 But I don't know why they're not jumping on this opportunity to, to renegotiate better terms for their, for their lots in life.

01:43:40.360 It's, it's only upside that the worst case is things stay exactly the way they are.

01:43:47.360 Like that's already been, even in the, in the, in the amendment that Daniel Smith put into this whole, uh, citizens initiative act, nothing can ever change the treaties.

01:43:58.360 Um, but while it's certain, nothing can like make it worse, but we can negotiate something better.

01:44:05.360 And if I can make my voice be that, you know, amplify that, I, I want some, if anybody's got good ideas and they want to like talk to me about it, I'm definitely open to that.

01:44:16.360 Please email me.

01:44:17.360 I'll come to you.

01:44:18.360 Actually, I would, if you'd invite me so kindly to your house or something like that, that would be awesome too.

01:44:25.360 Or, you know, I gotta be careful for my safety, but, um, I'm a pretty bold guy and I'll talk to anybody.

01:44:34.360 Well, your channel is evidence of that, sir.

01:44:36.360 And, uh, and we really appreciate you taking the time here because I mean, we're, we're not blowing smoke when we say this, but like we are, we are thrilled to see how you've kind of blown up over the past few weeks.

01:44:47.360 And we're excited to see you grow even more because it's very well earned.

01:44:51.360 It's well deserved.

01:44:52.360 Um, you're, you're doing, you're doing the thing.

01:44:56.360 You know, we, James and I talked about this.

01:44:58.360 You're doing the thing, man.

01:45:00.360 You can just do things.

01:45:01.360 People don't realize that you can just do things and you're doing it.

01:45:04.360 And, uh, maybe to borrow a line from you, uh, God bless you, man.

01:45:08.360 Keep it up.

01:45:09.360 Hey, God bless you too.

01:45:13.360 All right.

01:45:14.360 Cheers, man.

01:45:15.360 Well, take care of it.

The Critical Compass Podcast - February 18, 2026

Having Honest Conversations w⧸ Everyday Albertans About Independence ｜ Jon From Alberta

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