I Am Alberta ｜ Independence Rally Recap - A 10,000 Person Strong HISTORIC Sea of Blue
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Summary
A quick recap of the I Am Alberta event hosted by the Alberta Prosperity Project and the APP on October 25th. We talk about the turnout, the media coverage of the event, and what we learned from it.
Transcript
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Hello everyone, welcome back to the Critical Compass. I'm Mike and this is James. As usual,
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we are here to do just a quick recap on our experience at the I Am Alberta event hosted
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by the APP, the Alberta Prosperity Project, this last Saturday, October 25th. James,
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what do you think? Just right off the top of your head, don't even think about it.
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There was a sea of blue. That's the first thing I noticed. Great turnout, just lots of happy
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people to be there. It was just positive vibes all around. It was such good vibes and I was kind
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of worried, but I think we sort of were maybe anticipating a little bit more animosity, a
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little bit more of a significant contingent of adversarial people there. But you know what?
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Of the estimates vary. There were some police there, some event police that kind of gave some
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estimates that perhaps at peak it was about 10,000 people. I would say pretty, maybe conservatively
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between 5,000 and 10,000 people would be a very, very conservative guess that, you know, the crowd
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varied from time to time. But it doesn't really matter at the end of the day how many in between
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that estimate there was because it was, the ledge was full, it was bumping, everyone was having a good
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time. Um, it, it was a really, it felt at least to us, uh, a very convincing showing. I don't know
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if you would say that's the word I would use. It was convincing.
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Yeah. It got a lot of people out, but, um, I feel like it also didn't get a lot of people out that
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are not the ones who are predisposed to actually go to events, go to political. There's a lot of people
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who, I have some friends, even they've been happy to support in one way or another from the comfort
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of their home, but they're not one to actually mobilize. And I feel like this event is making
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future events going to be more successful because of this. It's going to set them up for success that
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people can see an example of like, well, here are the vibes at this one and a future one. Well,
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first of all, there's going to be tons of footage, like the one, like the footage we're showing now,
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uh, there's interviews, there's some great visuals and that helps build the momentum that helps
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spread the message and that will help convince people to come out next time. And if next time's
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even more people, if there's even more blue, then, uh, then perfect.
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Yeah. I lend some credence for those people who might've been a little bit shy or a little bit,
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uh, worried about, you know, oh no, like if I show up to this thing, I'm going to be,
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uh, you know, it's going to be a small crowd and I'll be noticed. And, you know,
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maybe, maybe they're not ready to, uh, maybe their closet, uh, independence, uh, fans at the
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moment. So yeah, it's good. It, and, and, and I think just the, another thing too, that is going
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to lend some, maybe some cache to it is how blatantly obvious the complete ignoring of the
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event was by the media. Like you could not hear enough about, like, I got an Apple news notification
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on my phone about the teachers, uh, demonstration a couple of days prior. And I think that probably
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was more people overall, but that was many unions and it was organized. And there's some,
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uh, uh, I've heard some rumors that there was some, uh, money exchange for certain people to
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be there, certain contingents of people to be there. Um, but, uh, but it wasn't that much bigger.
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It wouldn't have been, it wasn't double. It wasn't even, you know, it wasn't even 20 or
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30% more. Like it was pretty darn close and not a peep in the media about any mainstream,
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uh, publication that I've seen or news network.
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So the CBC did, uh, three minutes on that. Um, but they also have, you can tell there's
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the bias woven in like they did interview a couple of people and they heard people speak,
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but they did introduce somebody who's like this person wearing a mega hat said blank,
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blah, blah, blah. And then let the guy speak. And they're like the fact that they're introducing,
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like they chose that guy to talk to. And then they introduce him as mega is like, you can tell
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they're just leaning representative of this movement. Yeah. They're leaning into just like,
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they have years of demonization that they just have to say this magic word. And then somebody will
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just paint a movement as mega or they'll just transfer that same hate they have for mega to
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this movement just because of that one person. So CBC is very smart about how they do that. Um,
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other than that, no mentioned from like global had a helicopter flying around. Yeah. The global
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and they had no coverage so far. I don't know if they're letting it bake. Like they're doing a
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low and slow, like letting it cook for a little while, uh, letting it become tender. Um, I don't
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know what they're doing with that footage. Um, they obviously had camera, they, they have cameras on
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that thing. So we, uh, we were lucky enough to meet, uh, Mr. Mocha, uh, busy again, uh, the independent
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media, uh, independent journalist who's, uh, you know, become known for, uh, exposing corruption at all
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levels of government and private enterprise. And he's, uh, he's a real treasure actually right now.
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And so he interviewed us a little bit and he posted a clip. We'll, we'll link it below.
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We'll link that. Yeah. We didn't really expect that because, uh, we were, we were up top or headed
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down and on the way, well, you were striking up a conversation and then I said hi as well. And he's
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like, do you guys want to do an interview? And just off the cuff explained why independence,
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like what, why we think, uh, it's helpful for Alberta. Well, like why it's, why it's a good
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thing. And he ended up using more of that than I thought he would in, in that edit.
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Yeah. Yeah. Pretty, pretty, uh, pretty hefty clip of that. So that was cool. Um, so, I mean,
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like I wish somebody from, you know, uh, uh, um, you know, uh, uh, credentialed, you know,
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public, uh, publicly funded news outlet would have asked us the same questions, but what are
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you going to do? So we had our sign, we had our, uh, change our minds, uh, sign. And, uh,
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honestly, we didn't really even have anyone kind of attempt to everyone who walked by was
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pretty, uh, enthusiastic about the sign. We got a lot of pictures taken with it. Um, a lot
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of people asked us for the file to, uh, so that they can print for themselves. So, uh, that
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was cool. Not much mind changing because they already had their mind. Yeah. It was
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pretty, uh, you know, we, we talked about it after and we were like, you know what, we
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should probably be going to, uh, even we sorted the, even just the crowd was not
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going to be one. Yeah. Yeah. Sometimes another event, right. Another weekend. Um, we might
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have more mind changing, but I feel like the visual of that is like, it's the sign
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turned out great. Um, until you get a printed, you don't realize how much, how
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large a three foot by four foot sign is, um, big, nice to have that. Like made some
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good conversations, even met, um, professor in, in Calgary doing a, doing research on
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the Alberta independence movement. And as we're chatting with him, um, he couldn't
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really give a, an opinion, which is, well, it's good that he's like being, being very
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strict from an academic sense. Yeah. He's taking it seriously. Yeah. But you can
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tell they're very curious because I, like, I'm curious to actually see this
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study come out because if he was ideologically motivated and already had
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his mind made up, they would not be like the conversation we had would not have
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gone as long. Cause we were talking about some of the principles and they were
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asking, well, what about this? What about like, they are legitimately curious
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about like the thought process behind it or the reasons and the rationale.
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And I think, which is nice to hear from somebody in the, in the university
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system, which can, you know, has sort of gotten a reputation for itself in, in
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recent, in, you know, at least the last decade of being fairly, um, sort of a
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monolith and it's, uh, or activist based. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That was really
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good. He was a, he was a cool guy. So I hope, um, I hope we gave him some, some
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good tidbits. Yeah. We'll have to, we'll have to follow up and see when the
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studies actually, or like what it actually materializes in, into. So, um, I feel like
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this is the, the start of like the movements growing. This is the start of the
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momentum growing. Um, one thing with the media is that them ignoring is, I feel
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like there's still room then because if you get so big that you cannot ignore,
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they'll have to run more hit pieces. Um, and I feel like another rally might be,
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maybe it's too big to ignore, or maybe it's just harder to ignore. Uh, there's
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more footage circulating around before this, the media is more from smaller
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events. It's more from like the APP zone event and that's a town hall or it's,
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it's, uh, it doesn't have the same visual. It doesn't have the same, uh,
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iconic feel to it. So all these things. Yeah. And the, the ignoring is a, is a sign
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of being scared as well. They're not, they're, they're not interested in, uh, it's
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not in their financial interest to make our movement seem well attended at all.
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So, so that's good. That, that is a nice thing to know. I mean, if they
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weren't, cause if they weren't scared of it, they would be covering it. They
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would be, you know, doing their best to, you know, report the news faithfully as
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it happens, but they're making an intentional decision and, uh, and that's
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fine. That's, that's, um, I would, I would rather it be this way than them
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thinking of us as a joke because that was not a joke. You know, there was that,
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that, um, that area of the legislature was packed and it was, yeah, it was
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awesome. Did you know what was not packed? James, my friend, was the, um,
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contingent of Antifa that showed up, uh, maybe about, uh, the last three.
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I thought there'd be a few more. I, yeah, it was normally, normally there's more,
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more Antifa at the Soji protest and the Million March. Yeah. Yeah. Um, they had
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significantly more. They had like 30 people at that, this one, they maybe had a
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dozen, uh, for the size of rally. We have a picture of it. Yeah. The, the other
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thing to note on this is that, that, uh, the upper area, the most Northern area
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before you walk down to actual legislator to that flat, the flat grounds of the
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legislator leaning up to the steps, the raised area, since there's still people
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hanging out, hanging up on there, I, at first I was worried like, well, maybe you
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should just bring everybody down, but I think it scared Antifa. Like it kept them
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up there. Cause they, all they see is they just see like a bunch of blue signs
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below because they didn't really walk in and maybe they could have found a spot
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and they could have set up down there, but they weren't actually able to
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disrupt the event in the same way. Uh, because normally it's noise and visual
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distractions. And that's the, uh, like that, that's their way of trying to
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shout out the message. That's the MO, right? Yeah. Is, uh, if they can have random
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shouting or an air horn or like these like horns in the background over somebody's
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speeches, then they're preventing a message from going out and they're, they are
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doing their job as a anti-racist. Or they, uh, yeah. And they use, yeah, they, uh, use
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the technique of, uh, of, uh, blasting like copyrighted music and stuff so that anyone
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recording the event can't use the footage cause it gets copyright struck. The, the
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kind of the leader, the, um, I don't know, the high priestess of their group there
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had a, uh, had a megaphone that was, she was kind of boisterous for a while
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there, but. Yeah. We were close enough that it was, it was annoying to like talk
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over. So it was disrupting. Yeah. And there was, there was probably, I'd say,
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I don't think it's an overestimate to say that there was maybe two, two police
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officers or, or one police officer and a sheriff per Antifa. Yeah. Well, uh,
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here's the thing. And they were kind of surrounding them. From the start, we were
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just hanging out. We're at that upper part and the cops were kind of tucked away
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off to the side. They were doing nothing. And there were people pouring in like
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hundreds and we just, people were just walking by, kept on walking by, had their
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signs. Yeah. Everybody's friendly. Like it was the most safe and comfortable
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place. Cops were off to the side. We like, I saw them in the corner and they,
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they seemed really bored. It's super clear, like leaning on their bikes. Like
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they were bike cops. They're just talking, they're just doing their thing. Yeah.
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And then a couple Antifa show up and they just immediately walk over there
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because like that's the only potential for any disruption is just from those
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people. There is nothing else but good vibes from everybody else at this kind
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of event. And literally I did not see a single officer in the, like there's that,
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yeah, like you say, the upper, that raised portion on the, by the federal
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building. And then you walk down the kind of the ramp, you know, to the main
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legislative grounds. I don't think I saw any down there. I think they were all
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up on the federal area. I saw one or two kind of off to the sides in the crowd.
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Okay. But there weren't like. So they, but they weren't engaged at all. Yeah.
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They didn't really need, it's not like they needed a unit of five of them to
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like strategically be in one area. Uh, like they may have had like a couple
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planes, like, uh, officers in planes, clothes, clothing and everything. But again,
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that shows the difference between, there's almost more cops at some of these other
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protests between teachers and, or like, like, uh, parents and some of the gender
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ideology, the million arts for kids, like that was more involved than they actually.
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It was more actually combative because you had more of a direct us versus them
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kind of like that. That's kind of the dynamic that was established going into
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those kinds of protests where this one, we like people call it a protest, but it
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is more just a rally. It's just saying, yeah, here's our message. And it's not
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like it wasn't in opposition to a particular person other than like Ottawa in the
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East, but even that it's like, yeah, it's a little bit more nuanced than that. So
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yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And it's, and that's actually what we said on the, uh, when Mocha
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was interviewing us, you know, it's the, the, the more P the more people that realize
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that this is actually a very nuanced issue and it's a very, like, there's much more
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to it than just like, we're a bunch of redneck separatists that want to destroy
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the country. Like that's not, that isn't sufficient to capture the, the intent and
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the momentum behind this music behind this movement. Um, so yeah, it's, um, yeah, it
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was cool. I thought it was great. I think it's, um, like we were saying earlier, you
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were saying, um, it's a, uh, it's a good, it's a good omen for future, future rallies
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because this lends, this lends cachet, you know, to the, to the cause and shows people
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that, yeah, you are, there are lots of people who think just like you and you're not
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going to be like, you're, you're not unique in thinking that something is wrong
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here. Uh, and, uh, and that you, your life would be better if you had more control
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over it. And we're normal people. We're not, uh, you know, crazies. We're not
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scary. We're not violent and aggressive. You know, it's very like, these are very
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salt of the earth people. These are the guys that you want to, uh, you know, to be
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your neighbors and to, you know, they'll help you build your deck and pull your truck
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out of the ditch. Like they're, these are the guys that you want to be associated
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with. Cause they're the people that actually have, uh, in their hearts, a very, um, kind
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of a can do mindset, a very entrepreneurial mindset, independent streaks that, you
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know, you know, they're, they're hunting for their own meat kind of thing. Like
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these, these are good people and they're, and they're doing this for their, for the
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future of their kids. They're actually thinking they're forward thinkers. They're not
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selfish, but they're fundamentally unselfish people to care about issues like this. So
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saw a good number of families there. And even just, uh, yeah, on the way down, we
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were, uh, brought their dogs out and yeah. Yeah. Some good, good representation on the
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dog front. Um, yes. Also, if you didn't come to this one, make sure you come to the next
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end. I, I guarantee if you just say hi and chat with people, you'll, you'll be pleasantly
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surprised at the, the kind of vibes you get. For sure. Yeah. Well, Hey, I hope you
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enjoy the footage guys. And, uh, um, thanks for, for, um, for sticking around with us.
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I know we have a lot of viewers and, um, commentators who are very passionate about
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this issue, you know, pro pro and con and, uh, and we appreciate it. Um, whatever you
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have to say, we appreciate, you know, we, we made that sign for a reason. Uh, we'll be
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taking it out more places. Uh, if you come, you want to see us, you want to yell at me
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and call me an idiot and say, I don't know what I'm talking about. That's fine. I, I,
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I welcome it. We'll, we'll, we'll hash it out. Maybe we'll, uh, you know, regardless
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of how passionate we are on either side, maybe we'll go have a beer after. And like, this
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is just, you know, we're just, we're just like, we're just, we're bouncing ideas around
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until we get to the best ones until the best ones float to the top. And, uh, and, uh, we're
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not here to, we're not here to, you know, make ourselves seem above anyone or smarter
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than anyone. We're just literally trying to find, uh, you know, what's going to be
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the best course of action for our future. You know, I think that, that kind of sums
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Absolutely. Well, uh, yeah, thanks for sticking around for this update. Um, we
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might have a little bit more footage posted after two, but, uh, we'll see. Um, we'll
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see about that as well. So, all right, well, we'll see you in the next one.