The Critical Compass Podcast - Is Alberta Independence a Fake Movement？｜ Discussion with Aaron Weeks

00:00:00.000 Hi, guys. Mike from the Critical Compass here with James, and we are live with Aaron Weeks.

00:00:07.720 Thank you for joining us, Aaron. And I just wanted to start this discussion. We're not

00:00:14.140 going to call it a debate. We already decided just by thanking you for coming on. There's

00:00:20.000 been some, you know, we've all kind of said things in this movement, and we tweet at each

00:00:28.380 other and we talk at and past each other a lot online and so discussion is always good when it's

00:00:33.920 done in person or you know together anyway so this is good that you're that you're doing this

00:00:39.980 so we appreciate that during this discussion if you ever feel like because it's kind of two on

00:00:45.120 one right now so if you ever feel ganged up on or that we're talking over you or not letting you get

00:00:48.700 your your point in just let us know I wanted to start off with a question and then I'm going to

00:00:55.200 say a quick statement and then we'll take it from there you you have the floor and we'll just kind

00:01:00.720 of just have a good conversation so can i can i just add like a little another little footnote

00:01:05.800 is uh yeah so we're the way that we operate we're curious about ideas so we will like we'll attack

00:01:13.460 logic and not the person and sometimes like we if we're really drilling down on something let it be

00:01:19.160 a definition or something else we'll sometimes we'll like try to really get good good clarity

00:01:25.880 on something what i've found and like maybe from watching different debates or just seeing people

00:01:32.320 discuss in person is often people will talk past each other because uh maybe you haven't even

00:01:38.060 agreed on like the same definition or um you're referring to two different things under the same

00:01:44.760 name and sometimes it's good to get clarity on those kind of things or if there's something we

00:01:49.640 use something in a certain way by all means get like ask us for clarity and we'll drill down our

00:01:56.040 definition and then you're welcome to disagree with that definition and if you disagree with

00:02:01.220 that that's fine we won't take it as a personal attack but it's i i find that's a constructive

00:02:06.380 way to actually get to the root of some of these ideas sure yeah i'm pretty frank and i think that

00:02:14.180 throws people off guard a lot but in all reality i don't hold anything against anybody unless

00:02:20.740 you cross a serious boundary right and yeah i mean i like that you know we're willing to have

00:02:27.180 a conversation so it becomes more real when we're talking more sort of face-to-face this isn't quite

00:02:32.180 face-to-face but that's cool yeah technologically face-to-face um okay so what i wanted to ask you

00:02:39.380 is because i know that you we've watched some of your stuff um what i think that your your primary

00:02:46.640 objection to a lot of the people in this movement is that no one wants to have a discussion no one

00:02:52.980 wants to have a debate on the issues thank you if in like you know an hour or 90 minutes however

00:02:58.920 long we do this what reflecting back on it if you can put yourself in the future right now

00:03:04.020 what would a productive discussion for you look like um i mean i think this is it right um even

00:03:12.860 if it is tentative even if it does get hostile at times it's still i feel like it's still

00:03:18.600 productive we still have to put ourselves out there we still have to put you know take risks

00:03:22.420 and put our neck out there and make mistakes and i don't know i it's kind of almost word for word

00:03:27.860 what i said in one of my videos but uh does that answer your question yeah yeah i think so i think

00:03:33.360 so yeah and i think we're all on the same page okay so what i wanted to just do was you know

00:03:37.920 see if that if i could give you a definition or give you a description of yourself

00:03:43.720 from my perspective that you would agree with in with respect to your opinion on the alberta

00:03:49.820 independence movement so if i'm right and tell me if i am um you describe yourself as a conservative

00:03:56.740 and you don't believe that right now at least in alberta if not canada there is a real conservative

00:04:03.220 movement right now uh and you also believe that the alberta independence movement is an astroturf

00:04:11.700 movement not organic um full of grifters and just generally inauthentic in in either it's

00:04:21.460 um in theory or in its or in uh practicality is that accurate and if not let me know yeah i think

00:04:28.740 those pretty apps okay um all right james do you want to ask aaron a question well i guess then um

00:04:40.260 if you describe yourself as a conservative i'm curious what does that entail so what what

00:04:47.460 principles uh make you conservative and what through your advocacy and through your tick

00:04:53.700 talks and your youtube channel what change or what push do you like what change are you looking to

00:05:00.340 to actually make um so i mean i've said before that you know like we understand the

00:05:10.340 general definition of conservatism you know we want to conserve our heritagial values

00:05:18.820 is that a word that are the values we have you know through our heritage and our culture and

00:05:25.940 you know like old canada a lot of people like to say that canada is in the same canada that

00:05:29.860 we used to live in right but my own kind of personal definition is that conservatives do

00:05:34.740 the best um that they can with what they have essentially um and then sorry the other part of

00:05:41.700 your question was lost on me yeah so i was just trying to get a sense of what your principles are

00:05:49.940 and then i guess through those principles what what do you think i'm like offering yeah um you

00:05:56.320 know i'm not i don't really care if i'm offering anything to anybody okay this is more um uh what's

00:06:04.060 the word um i don't know it's a lot of you know this is the way that i deal with my fatigue and

00:06:11.660 my frustration and you know i just it's sort of like journaling i guess i get it off my chest and

00:06:18.280 you know i'm not really concerned with public opinion i don't care what people think about me

00:06:23.640 honestly so in your opinion then as somebody who identifies as a conservative and you've said in

00:06:31.760 on a couple i'm sure more than a couple times that you believe either individuals or the

00:06:39.040 independence movement in general is full filled with people who have a liberal like they're like

00:06:45.560 a woke it's like woke right or whatever like some so it's a liberal uh liberal by any other name

00:06:52.960 like what do you as a conservative believe to be fundamentally not conservative about the alberta

00:07:00.020 independence movement um well i've described it as a liberal outrage tantrum and i just feel like

00:07:06.780 it's it's a rage quit it's a i give up i'm done tantrum throw yourself on the floor type attitude

00:07:15.040 or behavior you know it's i feel like it's in line with the liberals where they just they throw their

00:07:20.880 hands up or their whatever and they just it's you know like jeffrey rath himself is saying that

00:07:27.900 there there's there's no conversation to be had anymore like that the time is over

00:07:33.500 and i just don't i don't think that's a conducive attitude right like

00:07:41.100 yeah to kind of expand on that um

00:07:46.380 is there is there a line for you that you would look at a country and say that this is fundamentally

00:07:53.740 flawed or fundamentally broken in a way that you would look for other other ways to invoke change

00:08:00.780 um so i think my whole thing is just like i've said before it's just civic duty right it's not

00:08:06.660 um i don't focus so much on larger forces because i mean i i feel that we don't change the world we

00:08:17.360 change ourselves and that a lot of people i feel like they refuse to try to change themselves and

00:08:23.360 practice any kind of personal development so what they're trying to do is change the playing field

00:08:28.000 right the can those two things coexist though uh sorry can you clarify the uh can somebody

00:08:38.320 actively work to improve their their self through adopting greater personal responsibility over what

00:08:47.220 they can control as step one and then from there try to expand their ethos of change to their

00:08:55.180 like family community and society as a whole so like 100 yeah if people have done step one

00:09:03.100 is there any issue with step two of trying to change the world or change your society so i

00:09:10.540 don't i don't think so i think but we can't get to step one is and i always kind of fall back to

00:09:16.440 maslow's triangle where it's like people are in the base of the triangle but then they want to

00:09:21.580 have influence at the peak and it's like i don't know and i feel like that's kind of what i'm

00:09:28.520 trying to do is i'm trying to build my own network and my own group to try to have some sort of

00:09:35.100 influence yeah that sort of sounds to me like a bit of um like a jordan peterson style like uh

00:09:45.300 clean your room before you go about trying to change the world kind of thing yeah if every

00:09:49.860 man sweeps his own doorstep then the whole world is clean essentially right

00:09:54.400 so i guess i guess then this would lead into other other topics so maybe i'll ask like do you

00:10:02.980 do you think that there are any in your in your opinion are there any legitimate points

00:10:09.240 that alberta separatists raise that you would agree with that they're they're right to take

00:10:14.500 issue with um yeah for sure and i think that's why i'm so passionate about this is because

00:10:19.280 like actually i think we probably agree on most things the vast majority of things right

00:10:24.540 and i don't i don't really waste my time with the left because i just don't feel like it's

00:10:29.640 conducive i don't feel like it's productive i feel like people in my own party have you know

00:10:36.260 that those are the only ears available to me i feel like and it has kind of proven to be true

00:10:44.500 do you have a big uh like leftist or liberal following on your tick tock as far as i yeah

00:10:50.780 you know it is kind of funny like when i was my organic growth is like actually pretty awesome

00:10:57.000 or at least it was to a point but my wife and i would always laugh because everyone who's

00:11:02.920 following me is like a rainbow flag palestine like oh geez but i i try to fight for both sides

00:11:11.400 like i'm inherently i feel like conservative like i just feel like conservative values are human

00:11:16.880 values so it's just a natural allegiance but at the same time i feel like it's it really is two

00:11:23.320 wings of the same bird so you mentioned the hierarchy of needs and people taking like

00:11:30.400 personal responsibility do you think there's anything at a systemic level that might prevent

00:11:39.640 somebody from actually meeting their own needs or taking personal responsibility if so is it worth

00:11:48.180 a systemic change in that case i'm not quite sure what you mean but like um yeah i agree i mean like

00:11:57.380 we all have our limitations some more than others um but um yeah maybe you can clarify a little more

00:12:03.380 on your question it's more that like this premise that trying to shift it like you've kind of stated

00:12:10.960 two two different thoughts and that's that independence like the independence movement

00:12:17.440 is a bunch of people who have not taken personal responsibility like that's the implication uh that

00:12:23.220 they should improve themselves before trying to change the system um now i'm wondering like

00:12:33.360 how like what percentage of the people in the movement do you think

00:12:39.260 haven't actually taken personal responsibility for the things under their wing um i think like

00:12:46.380 99 you know um and i don't think it's just separatists i think it's everybody and you know

00:12:53.460 i think if any group of people's tried to do any kind of movement and it's basically i feel like

00:12:57.380 it's the same playing at change rather than i don't know it seems it seems to have become about

00:13:06.420 money for a lot of people and you know it's every i feel i always say every movement is manufactured

00:13:13.020 and every protest is paid for and i feel like what we call organic is nowhere near organic or

00:13:19.260 grassroots do you think that there's so so do you think there's like no there aren't any

00:13:26.860 grassroots movements like everything ultimately is some sort of some degree of astroturfed right

00:13:33.200 like i guess we live in a series of pyramid schemes it seems like like um on a very small

00:13:40.060 scale like locally in my community and my ca i feel like you know there there's something real

00:13:45.520 there but it you know the idea always seems to become the institution and i feel like that's not

00:13:51.420 a flaw of external forces it's you know it's just human nature essentially i guess

00:13:58.220 so jane i won't speak for james because he says this more eloquently than i can relay this is

00:14:03.740 actually his idea but he talks about like he's talked about on our show before like

00:14:07.700 if we can all if we can all three of us agree which i think we can that there are inherent

00:14:13.940 features of our federalist system that lend themselves to exploitation and grifting and

00:14:22.540 abuse of power wouldn't it make sense then if we all acknowledge that and we all know that this

00:14:29.120 is happening to us wouldn't it make sense then to try and uh reform our system so that it's

00:14:37.640 at least one degree more local than the federal level like if you can say you can shed the federal

00:14:43.840 has changed for example and you bring everything a little bit more localized to alberta isn't that

00:14:48.720 isn't that a net benefit even if even if you can say yeah well the same the same forces are at play

00:14:54.880 in the provincial government okay but isn't it better to to shed the federal government as well

00:15:02.320 right so i'm gonna i'm not gonna say that there aren't any benefits right like net benefits but

00:15:08.560 But I think that's just these things are just out of our scope and out of our practice, out of our scope of practice.

00:15:16.140 And, you know, it's like there are more important things I feel like people could be doing with their time, like taking driving lessons.

00:15:21.840 And one thing I was going to say, you guys seem I saw some of your shorts on YouTube.

00:15:27.160 You seem to kind of speak out against this notion that separatists are treasonous traitors or whatever.

00:15:32.960 right and i agree like asking questions isn't treasonous but i feel like what is and what people

00:15:40.400 it's all the little things that add up right so i feel like not putting your shopping cart back

00:15:45.120 is treasonous not using your signals not stopping at stop signs it's you know it's our civic duty

00:15:51.920 it's politics isn't just voting once a year or once every four years or whatever right

00:15:57.680 i i don't disagree and sorry sorry james go ahead you had a thought but i'll

00:16:03.200 the uh yeah like just on the civic duty standpoint um that is something that very much has been

00:16:09.680 lacking in most western countries for a while where people essentially they maybe watch like

00:16:17.520 a little update once in a while and they kind of just get their political opinions through absorbing

00:16:23.280 those around them like it's that maybe they haven't really deeply engaged with the

00:16:28.320 these kind of issues and that's exactly why mike and i started the podcast we wanted to have

00:16:33.620 we wanted to stress test ideas and we've shifted our views over time through this analysis but when

00:16:40.600 it comes to invoking change i i feel like if we have the attitude that like this is beyond us

00:16:52.880 and we can invoke change and if everybody adopts that mindset then essentially that becomes a

00:16:59.380 self-fulfilling prophecy that change will not happen at a large scale because everybody's kind

00:17:04.840 of they've kind of turtled in and only focused on their own lives so i would say you have to

00:17:11.000 get your room you get your house in order obviously like that's that's key you got like everybody if

00:17:18.780 we just do that little bit to get healthier build our relationships obviously there'll be a net

00:17:24.300 benefit but at the same time um i i think there's value in now looking at each circle as it expands

00:17:33.020 and saying well what do we want for our communities what do we want at a city level what do we want at

00:17:38.460 a provincial level and then so this whole endeavor of exploring independence i think it's tricky for

00:17:48.140 some people because it's forcing them to look at these different lenses and look at like the

00:17:55.340 economic side of things look at well what's the nature of confederation what's our constitution

00:17:59.660 like and they're starting to think about things that they haven't been engaged for so i would

00:18:04.140 actually argue that independence is potentially forcing more civic engagement in a way that has

00:18:11.660 not happened before this year yeah i mean you could say they stirred the pot right but um

00:18:21.740 sorry um can you kind of refresh me in the beginning of what you're

00:18:24.940 you're trying to say there the yeah the

00:18:30.940 starting small right starting with yourself and then you expand from there and then eventually

00:18:35.580 we want to invoke changes at a societal level but if everybody does their part then you will have

00:18:42.320 mass change that way yeah okay so i think the problem is more like getting our priorities

00:18:47.980 straight and just like practicality so like what i see a lot of people do is they'll speak out

00:18:53.580 against health care but they don't take care of their own health they're not proactive with their

00:18:57.940 own health at all and or like education is another thing a lot of people don't know that 90 percent

00:19:04.080 of albert and send their kids to public school right i always call it rockefeller indoctrination

00:19:09.360 pre-prison welfare school but um so you know that's kind of gets comes back to the what makes

00:19:17.460 separatists are our heroes are the the voices of truth and justice and reason who who are they and

00:19:24.300 what credentials do they think that they have to lead us out of disparity and you know depravity

00:19:31.120 well I would say that I mean even even if I agreed with you and I kind of do actually but

00:19:40.440 like I would say that there's not I mean I would say probably like just to put it simply they're 0.90

00:19:47.460 just as qualified as anyone from Ottawa who's also retarded you know like there's no you know 0.60

00:19:53.240 we don't have any like we don't have any shortage of people who aren't qualified to be in the roles 0.90

00:19:58.060 that they're in right but at least in this case uh you can have a group of people who are maybe

00:20:02.640 only sort of qualified to be our elected representatives and also we don't give away

00:20:08.220 40 of our income to people that hate us 3 000 kilometers away like isn't that a net wouldn't

00:20:13.500 that be a net benefit for you um i don't maybe you restate that like how sorry well i i think that

00:20:22.500 you're right that most people aren't qualified to be talking on the issues that they talk about

00:20:27.040 but i don't think that's an argument for a bloated bureaucracy i think that's i think that's actually

00:20:33.860 more of an argument for a for a more localized bureaucracy which that at least you have i

00:20:38.920 actually make this argument to people who are like in my own family who are very liberal or very

00:20:43.740 like ndp voters i say like actually independence like an independent alberta is actually more

00:20:49.480 powerful for you as an ndp voter because if you remember like we're not all that far removed from

00:20:55.240 being an NDP province while the country was conservatively run so if you want your voice

00:21:02.280 to have more of an impact at a more localized level that actually makes sense for all sides

00:21:08.860 of the political spectrum wouldn't you agree yeah and I feel like that's kind of my point right so

00:21:13.420 then it's kind of brings the mind back to civic duty and right like so I feel like we can solve

00:21:20.020 a lot of our own problems without pointing our fingers at the federal government right do 90%

00:21:24.400 of us need to depend on you know the government to raise our kids is that absolutely necessary i

00:21:31.360 i don't think so is that conservative i don't i don't think so and you know i sure it's uh

00:21:37.280 the norm across commonwealth countries but you know it's it's socialist in nature i feel like and

00:21:44.480 you know we don't like i said most people don't even know this the statistic or the figure so

00:21:50.160 how do we even address the problem right i feel like we're we're getting ahead of ourselves we

00:21:55.040 keep you know looking at ottawa and ontario and quebec and the east with our binoculars out and

00:22:00.960 we're just completely missing what's happening right in front of us right here at home

00:22:05.920 but aren't there like a whole host of federal legislation either that was just released or

00:22:14.000 currently in the works that will prevent people from taking efficacy like their self-efficacy

00:22:20.240 over their own their own lives right like isn't isn't that an issue that's kind of what i was also

00:22:27.520 going to say is that like if we're all such big strong independent conservative albertans like

00:22:35.000 how did we let all of this happen to begin with how did the how did we let this cascade and spiral

00:22:39.420 out of control in the first place what i always say is that there are no conservatives in canada

00:22:44.800 we're playing at this game of two sides and then really it we're just we're all the same people in

00:22:52.040 different jerseys like there there is no motor function well i think the argument one of the

00:22:58.940 arguments is that um we didn't so much as let it get this way as this was imposed on us structurally

00:23:07.680 because i mean how many federal elections in a row has it been where they've essentially called

00:23:13.380 the results before the polls even close in alberta right so that's there is only i mean

00:23:18.540 alberta was quite literally formed in the early 1900s with the intention of being a resource

00:23:25.220 colony for the east so like there's there are still structural i mean this is a very liberal

00:23:30.760 term but there are structural inequalities built into confederation right now so you know is is any

00:23:37.240 of that to blame or is this is that not a fair critique you don't in your mind yeah i mean i've

00:23:43.620 kind of heard this before right uh what's his name the famous quote back in 1902 or whatever

00:23:51.100 and it's like well that's kind of bolsters my point too is that we've had 120 years to figure

00:23:56.940 this out and we're still crying and complaining about you know what happened in the past or you

00:24:02.620 and like you said it's something that's imposed on us so like let's let's do i don't know let's 0.99

00:24:07.660 let's become more serious i guess then and like i always say canadians aren't nice they're pathetic 0.94

00:24:13.740 so yeah i can you get this sense even you know in locally like i said in my own community used to 0.98

00:24:19.980 live in these townhouses and they wouldn't clear the snow and they won't fix the roads and

00:24:26.220 there's like probably 500 people living in this complex and nobody says anything nobody says

00:24:31.900 anything at all i'm the only person on the phone calling calling the office like what's going on

00:24:36.220 here get those machines working right and i feel like it's just a lack of participation a lot of 0.60

00:24:41.740 the time and it's people are people are scared people are kind of pathetic and it's hard to 0.79

00:24:51.660 lead the kindergarten class to to fulfill a project

00:24:55.180 the here's one thing that's kind of it's interesting that you are you focus on civic

00:25:05.620 engagement and it seems like you are upset that or you disagree with the type of engagement that

00:25:15.320 the independence movement is because ultimately this is a whole bunch of people organizing

00:25:22.920 getting together there's town halls there's other events and you've been at them they're sharing

00:25:28.240 their thoughts public is consulting you have networks forming you have people going out in

00:25:35.420 a way that they didn't before so what does that say about the state of society when they feel like

00:25:43.620 no other avenues were effective well i just feel like it's people are speaking out when it's kind

00:25:50.060 too little too late already you know what i mean it's like what's what's it really worth now or if

00:25:54.620 you are so angry then i feel like people aren't just they're not angry enough you know it's like

00:26:01.740 a skip driver parks in front of the restaurant you're eating at or whatever right and nobody

00:26:06.300 says anything right you're not supposed to park in the road we all know this but we just allow 0.98

00:26:10.460 it to happen stupid happens the only reason super happens is because we allow it to happen

00:26:15.100 so my question is always what is anybody ever complaining about what is it in your own personal 0.97

00:26:20.960 life that you can't solve right that i don't know do you feel like taxes are well i think that

00:26:28.540 like just i mean i would love to start solving problems with 40 more of my paycheck kept at the

00:26:36.000 end of the year you know what i mean but there are some things that are mandatory right like that we

00:26:40.600 have is it we are the government right at the end of the day no no here's the thing uh if you do not

00:26:46.840 pay your taxes uh there is one institution that currently has a monopoly on violence

00:26:51.760 and if you try to participate on their level when they have a monopoly on violence so you don't pay

00:26:58.880 your taxes you are met with like you have jail or imprisonment so there's you can't not play the game

00:27:09.180 like you have to play the game a little bit right i just feel like um people just don't

00:27:15.400 really actually want solutions i think they just want convenience and attention and money and you

00:27:21.280 know superficial things reputation right so that's what i feel like i'm trying to get through is all

00:27:28.860 the bullshit and get to the bottom at any given time can i tell you how it comes across though

00:27:35.540 and this yeah i know how it comes across yes it comes across as defeatist right it comes across 0.99

00:27:40.200 as like well everything sucks so like just you know just deal with the you know the crippling 0.93

00:27:45.680 tax burden and the endless stream of immigrants from every part of the world with with no uh you 0.96

00:27:51.460 know no social pressure to integrate all that all the problems that you have with the drivers and 1.00

00:27:56.280 the skip guys parking on the street and no one you know working hard and no like all this stuff

00:28:01.300 is is social failing right but all that stuff is top down like you don't just you don't just it 0.52

00:28:06.560 doesn't start in your in your personal community of like everybody sucks right this starts from

00:28:10.920 i think that's the misconception though is that change is going to trickle down money is going

00:28:15.940 to trickle down you know liberty is going to trickle down and i i don't believe that you have

00:28:20.900 to take it or you take it you know if only there was a movement trying to take it are they though

00:28:29.160 because they can't even have a conversation well i mean is that is that really accurate though like

00:28:34.980 uh you were at the centurion event and you asked marty up north like why nobody's having a

00:28:40.920 conversation i think you called like stop calling everybody liberals and then marty his answer was

00:28:46.280 we'll talk after and there was a few others that were talking kind of right behind where those

00:28:51.320 where the mic was set up did you stick around like did you have a conversation with those people

00:28:56.040 um no that seemed like a very open one of my stalkers confronted me afterward outside and

00:29:02.360 threw a through a fit and made a big scene so i kind of just left after that but uh

00:29:07.160 so i mean again that's kind of just par for the course right like why

00:29:12.740 why do i have a stalker that's causing a scene outside of the century project when i'm trying

00:29:19.580 to have conversations with people i guess but i mean like do you feel that anyone might feel

00:29:25.480 that way about you what what's that that i'm stalking them yeah no not an individual he's

00:29:31.540 literally stalking me though okay the yeah part of it's the um i think i saw like part of your 0.72

00:29:41.100 discussion with stefan um the other day that you had a discussion that sucked you guys are way

00:29:46.960 better so far it's he he was fairly patient it seemed like out of all the different reach like

00:29:55.920 it could have been yeah it could have been it could have been more heated places yeah um

00:30:02.880 and i think one thing is um i'm

00:30:08.640 i think the beginning of that you're kind of touching base on like the perceived

00:30:14.960 they didn't say this exactly but the perceived welcomeness or the perceived like sometimes

00:30:21.600 and this is hard to define but there are some people that put out vibes that make them easy to

00:30:29.040 have conversations with and easy to bounce ideas off then there's other people that let it be their

00:30:34.560 work their demeanor and other things it's not helping to foster dialogue so do you feel like

00:30:41.600 your body of work um and your communication on x and these other platforms do you think they've

00:30:49.360 fostered good faith discussions or do you think that's a barrier to good faith discussions um

00:30:55.040 it's really up to the individual i feel like you know i've been called polarizing it's either you

00:31:00.480 love me or you hate me so that's kind of how i feel um i feel like i'm a pretty agreeable person

00:31:09.840 i feel like i'm easy to talk to i like i said i don't hold anything against anybody like i said

00:31:13.920 i just want to get to the bottom and you know i i am frank maybe i'm a little autistic in the

00:31:18.640 fact that like i'm kind of sociopathic in my emotional i don't know like whatever um

00:31:27.840 you know um when i in my daily life at work and stuff like that you know i'm appreciated

00:31:33.920 by customers i'm appreciated by my co-workers and my my bosses and you know like um that's kind of

00:31:41.200 what i wanted to get back to is this like the defeatist thing you mentioned um that uh like

00:31:47.040 i'm not speaking up because my life sucks actually my life is pretty awesome i'm quite fulfilled and

00:31:54.000 i don't have any complaints honestly i have a team i have people i have a partner i have a mentor i

00:32:00.080 people that I admire and like I've said before I feel like anything anything that comes my way I

00:32:06.240 can tackle it I I've always I've got the resilience to overcome anything that comes my way and

00:32:11.780 I I feel like I'm trying to do a personal service or whatever is a favor just to the people in my

00:32:19.500 community I don't know maybe I can get some lubrication in the cogs and any little thing

00:32:24.440 right like it doesn't really take too much out of my day and out of my time you know out of my time

00:32:28.540 and it doesn't take too much from me like i said this is uh i i can't think of the word uh

00:32:34.100 whatever but it's like i said cathartic in a way that's the word there you go yeah

00:32:39.040 so do you think that i win either way do you think that there are people involved in the

00:32:44.440 independence movement though who have the same sort of feeling about their circles sure yeah yeah

00:32:50.480 i just like it's been five months and this is probably the closest thing to like a civil

00:32:56.820 conversation i've had right other than with like anthony maybe um and he's on the left so

00:33:02.700 well you know we watch some of that i think it says a lot i think it says a lot to the character

00:33:08.160 of people in the independence movement and you know i just it's it just feels like i've been

00:33:15.300 trying people have just been trying to cancel me the whole time and you know it's not really

00:33:19.540 anything i don't get upset or depressed about it but you know at the end of the day i feel like it

00:33:25.220 sharpens my point are you are you worried about i mean i i understand your where you're coming from

00:33:33.700 like i i don't actually think you're fundamentally wrong about anything that you're saying but

00:33:37.480 like what i haven't really heard from watching like a decent amount of your stuff is i don't

00:33:43.820 really hear like a lot of disagreement or like problems with specific like goals of the

00:33:51.880 independence movement that you have like i don't i haven't heard a lot of like well you know

00:33:56.020 indigenous rights and you know cpp and you know like i haven't really like do you have

00:34:01.080 fundamentally any concerns with any of the stated i mean claims i think that's why i'm so stuck on

00:34:07.280 independence is because just because i like the energy but the direction is just completely

00:34:12.580 misguided like i mean what is it's are we for 51st state are we sending a message do we want to be

00:34:19.840 our own independent nation because it kind of just seems like an ethno-civic war that we're brewing

00:34:24.880 right like this doesn't seem conducive it seems um it seems like a psyop it seems like the liberals

00:34:32.880 have infected the the true conservative party and they're taking over you know this is this only 0.91

00:34:39.920 looks good for liberals right like and i don't understand why the ndp ndpers are you know crying 0.73

00:34:47.000 complaining either why are you interrupting your enemy when they're making mistakes right the

00:34:51.060 party's divided i joined i joined the united conservative party not the divided separatist

00:34:57.160 party right and it seems like i don't know like if they if they're not going to form their own

00:35:02.300 party get their own party then what is it but a coup like you know connect the dots for me

00:35:07.460 i don't know if you watch and sorry james i've been bogart in the mic a little bit here but

00:35:11.460 Go ahead.

00:35:12.620 We actually, in November, we went to the,

00:35:14.680 were you at the AGM in November in Edmonton here?

00:35:17.360 No, I'm a pretty recent UCP member, so.

00:35:21.180 Okay, okay.

00:35:22.080 So we went the last couple of years

00:35:24.340 and we went to this one in November here,

00:35:28.160 which was at Northlands.

00:35:29.900 We filmed a short documentary there.

00:35:32.360 It's about 14, 15 minutes long

00:35:34.200 and we kind of got the pulse a little bit there

00:35:37.600 of what the the general membership's feelings on independence is and it was the it was kind of the

00:35:43.660 feel like you can watch it's on our youtube but um the feeling that we got from the people that

00:35:48.940 we talked to and the reactions that we heard in the room when the group was together and when

00:35:54.000 wrath was speaking i don't know if you are hearing about that the general idea is that probably 80 to

00:35:59.980 90 percent somewhere in between there 80 to 90 percent of the ucp membership is pro-independence

00:36:05.100 so would this say that say that the ucp came out you know maybe after the results of a referendum

00:36:13.480 or something and said like okay we are the ucp is now a federalist party we're no longer a

00:36:20.780 provincial party within canada we're a federalist party that would be united but i get the feeling

00:36:26.180 you wouldn't be in favor of that as a ucp member am i right um no i mean i just feel like they

00:36:31.560 get their own party like i don't i don't know how we've become the separatist party right unless it

00:36:37.320 was orchestrated i don't know i you know um like i said i don't try to project myself too far beyond

00:36:47.240 local stuff alberta and um i just feel like i don't have any power there and there's no

00:36:55.080 it's it's not productive to talk about the federal government or mark carney or like

00:37:01.560 like it's distractions distractions i feel like that's what you said that we are the screen

00:37:06.680 sorry sorry sorry for interrupting

00:37:10.440 no go ahead um you yeah you mentioned that like we are essentially the government like

00:37:16.520 the people are the government which means at a federal level uh like ottawa obviously seems far

00:37:23.240 away but isn't that essentially just as close to home as any other government that we should be

00:37:31.560 uh keeping tabs on interacting with and advocating for change through yeah i just like

00:37:38.460 like i said before i just think we're just not there yet we're just not there yet like

00:37:42.580 you're saying maybe 80 90 percent of the parties or well i don't know 70 that was the room at the

00:37:50.540 time yeah like they put their hands up kind of thing right and um but you know and as far as

00:37:57.060 population is involved it's what like 10 agree maybe uh maybe 30 on the high end right yeah so

00:38:06.980 it's like i feel like there's a lack of participation and so it's easy to it's easy for

00:38:15.060 larger forces to inoculate themselves and you know because there is no other participation

00:38:21.940 right i feel like it's easy to infect a party so who do you think would be the ones that are

00:38:30.500 say this is a this is a psyop like like you say who who are the actors behind it right so it's

00:38:36.420 hard to say so like in one of my earliest videos i'm pointing out the fact that like igor works in

00:38:42.500 real estate and berta dud is kind of like their their mascot their media or their social media

00:38:49.540 guy and uh the other ones you know they work in oil and gas and the other ones transports and it's

00:38:55.380 it does seem very coordinated um like i feel like these are just either industry proxies or

00:39:02.900 something like that or it could be like these are some kind of modern day lobbyists right they're

00:39:08.100 getting paid under the table to influence us through whether through social media or through

00:39:14.460 you know locally political parties cas those kinds of things um yeah i like the ultimate goal

00:39:21.820 specifically well just to power and control right just uh it's a i don't know

00:39:31.020 whoever the powers that be right they want an obedient populace it seems like that's been the

00:39:35.980 truth since civilization and um it's just the status quo so i feel like that the independence

00:39:43.740 is a trend it's just another trend it's another yeah another distraction sorry curious um so

00:39:52.180 you're saying like powers that be are have essentially compromised the movement to

00:39:59.300 reinforce the status quo which is kind of strange because the independence movement is shaking the

00:40:07.820 beehive it's forcing conversations that have never like that haven't really been had in Alberta

00:40:15.160 at this scale ever it's uh it's also showing like we're seeing the system push back in real time

00:40:23.080 so we're seeing elections Alberta treat the forever Canadian groups differently in their

00:40:30.300 administration of the rules around third-party advertising so we're we're seeing this we're

00:40:36.580 seeing the system show its corruption in real time and to me that is not a status quo movement

00:40:44.260 if anything it is shining a mirror on a system and if you shine that mirror and you're you sound

00:40:51.840 like you want to wake people up you want people to participate what isn't this a good opportunity

00:40:57.680 to shine the light on some of these things and have more people wake up seeing the corruption

00:41:03.480 be demonstrated in real time i just kind of feel like it's give and take like you know it can't be

00:41:10.680 i don't know it is it is appealing to people i think right like oh no taxes and we're free from

00:41:19.180 ottawa and we'll have more money and things will be cheaper and i just it just feels synthetic it

00:41:28.100 just feels right like that that's a scam right somebody's telling you they're going to come save

00:41:32.740 you and you believe them i don't know he's like danielle smith has made quite a few changes i

00:41:39.080 feel like that are good and um yeah i don't know maybe maybe you want me to elaborate more on that

00:41:48.700 yeah well i mean i guess i guess i would wonder just like

00:41:52.500 like i i know there are people in the movement who make like lofty claims that you know no one

00:42:02.000 will ever pay taxes again and we'll you know we're gonna have a white nat you know uh ethno 0.90

00:42:07.240 state and everything's gonna be like we're gonna kick all the indians out like yeah there of course 0.99

00:42:11.740 are people saying shit like that but i mean i don't know that it's i don't think it's even kind 0.99

00:42:16.080 of representative of the movement as a whole like you said earlier that uh you know like what what 0.99

00:42:20.820 is the movement like is it a 51st state movement is it a independence or is it like a you know a

00:42:26.560 independent within canada type thing in our experience being involved in it in the last

00:42:31.620 you know pretty heavily in the last year year and a half um it's there's very little appetite

00:42:39.000 amongst average independent supporters for 50 50 first statehood the idea being like it doesn't

00:42:46.780 really make much sense to have a government a neglectful government 3 000 kilometers away

00:42:52.520 replaced with another neglectful government 3 000 kilometers away you know obviously trump makes 0.97

00:42:57.480 claims all the time he's you know the ultimate shit disturber right and you know trying to get 0.96

00:43:03.120 some some political goal by whatever he says right but there's not a lot of appetite for that

00:43:08.540 i don't think um but i i guess my question would be to you like regardless of how it appears you

00:43:14.980 know you can say that it's it feels inauthentic it feels like people are just grifting it feels

00:43:19.020 like people are just you know trying to promise you the world whatever like if we could prove to

00:43:24.380 you in some way that you would find convincing and acceptable that just say for example the

00:43:31.440 economic claims of the independence movement are valid that at least we would pay less taxes we

00:43:37.520 would have more money to keep locally to for our own infrastructure for hospitals and schools and

00:43:43.160 stuff like that would that be sufficient for you to accept the validity of that as a claim

00:43:50.520 in favor of independence i mean sure i guess right like um if there's objective benefits right

00:43:58.860 but i still just like how do you i feel like like what does it even actually solve because it's like

00:44:06.700 how do you like that's i think that's where these extreme kind of ideas come from white ethno state

00:44:12.000 get rid of all the immigrants stuff like that it's like well how do you even expect to do any

00:44:16.480 like i don't know do you feel like that's a a street is that an accurate represent representation

00:44:23.880 of the sentiments of the movement though a white right no state no but that's what people are

00:44:28.900 hearing right so and then there has to be some kind of consensus and if there is no consensus

00:44:33.480 that consensus then there is no plan and like what there's no real objective right so what are

00:44:39.500 we doing here we're just twiddling our thumbs stirring the pot but for what the the process

00:44:46.320 is the like the the process is to get a mandate you cannot fully design a a whole entire new

00:44:56.460 nation without a mandate and there are several plans and they're being debated so what you are

00:45:01.960 getting is you are getting discussions around constitutional principles and what would take

00:45:07.520 place is you would essentially if you have a um like not the referendum to have a referendum if

00:45:15.480 you have the the binding referendum on to become an independent country alberta would have a

00:45:23.500 constitutional convention where like i wasn't i wasn't alive when the last constitution was

00:45:31.920 was updated and changed and put into place so isn't that a valuable like isn't that kind of

00:45:40.680 a unique opportunity for Albertans to engage in a way to contribute to the type of foundation

00:45:48.680 that they want to live through, because that does change the way that they can take responsibility

00:45:54.320 for themselves. The constitution is not just a piece of paper. It does underpin everything.

00:46:01.920 Right. Yeah. So the, I mean, there is more engagement. There's more involvement. People

00:46:06.900 are excited about alberta and their the place they live you know like alberta's kind of become

00:46:13.540 an icon in the last few months um but at what cost i feel like right if you're investing all

00:46:22.320 of this engagement in the wrong places then i feel like it actually hurt us could hurt us in the wrong

00:46:26.720 in the long run so like can you can you give an example of how you mean

00:46:32.740 so i mean like we have all these problems already right so then our solution is essentially to

00:46:41.940 create a whole bunch of new problems to deal with and it's like

00:46:45.620 the problem is that there's a lot of work to be done in alberta and not a lot of people taking up

00:46:53.320 you know the mantle and then so we're going to create an opportunity for more people to

00:46:59.780 take up the mantle that they wouldn't take up before do you think that maybe that's because

00:47:08.100 they were so i'll give you a perfect example yeah okay okay we continue to eat mcdonald's

00:47:16.420 and subsist on big macs and double doubles but then we complain about immigration we complain

00:47:22.820 about right um customer service or we i don't know like i said we send our kids to school but

00:47:33.040 then we complain you know about the government and education and lgbtq pornographic material in

00:47:41.140 classes and right we complain about the pedo cabal but our kids are learning from maxwell

00:47:47.980 textbooks while we're complaining about it or we complain about the data centers but

00:47:52.300 we're literally using the data centers right now we're not outside touching grass

00:47:56.400 i'm gonna give you an example as a response to that because i've heard you say that before

00:48:02.020 yeah and this is this is an extreme example this is not a comparison but it's just analogous

00:48:07.400 this sounds to me like listen we're in the 1830s in the u.s um and i'm a slave holder

00:48:17.460 and you're not a slave holder and you say to me hey having slaves is wrong you can't you know you

00:48:24.020 can't treat people as property and i say hey man like you don't if you don't want to have slaves

00:48:31.080 that's up to you like just leave you leave me in my plantation alone you know like it you can care

00:48:37.060 about you can care about an issue even if you're not like if if i have a bad diet and i eat

00:48:44.380 mcdonald's that doesn't prevent me from saying that like listen i know that i'm a bit of a

00:48:49.140 hypocrite here but like you know we got to eat healthier you know like that doesn't make the

00:48:52.600 message any less true even if i'm hypocritical can i just interject though okay but please you 0.98

00:48:57.840 said you you uh quantified or you did a qualifier first is that you know i don't i know that i don't

00:49:04.940 eat healthy but right that's not how people usually uh operate though they won't admit that

00:49:12.140 they're obese they won't admit that they eat unhealthy if anything they'll lie and say i don't

00:49:16.640 eat mcdonald's and then they'll get to the point right so that's what bothers me right i i get it 0.68

00:49:22.740 i you know i i don't disagree with you like hypocrisy is a is a um it's an unattractive

00:49:28.660 quality but but it doesn't it doesn't the the analogy i made was not really as as perfect as

00:49:35.260 i wanted it to be but the idea is that you can oppose something and you can you can know what

00:49:40.220 the truth of something is even if you don't necessarily live that out so like even if you're

00:49:45.680 living a um like there are lots of little failings that everyone has in their life

00:49:50.800 that doesn't mean that we have to sit here and say well it's okay that you know mark carney goes and

00:49:59.420 buys a majority government even though he was only elected on a minority government like yeah

00:50:04.640 that's a big issue it's a big thing but like that doesn't mean we can't have strong opinions on it

00:50:09.960 try to change that system even if we're failing in some other ethical way um well i think my point

00:50:17.800 is that the you're the re you know the inter speaking sort of whatever hype uh i don't know

00:50:25.000 like you're you're the reason for those failings on an individual level so it's like to point your

00:50:31.160 finger at carney or whatever and it's like you're complaining about things above and beyond you

00:50:39.640 and you know you're spending time and energy and focus and you're prioritizing this this issue

00:50:45.000 when you just like cut three people off earlier and failed to yield and failed to stop at seven

00:50:50.600 top signs today and you should be taking driving lessons and you should not be talking about the

00:50:55.480 federal government and you know what i mean like the the people i feel like you know everybody has

00:51:01.960 a place to say something when i don't know maybe that that's part of the problem is that there's

00:51:07.480 just too much noise to cut through and yeah part part of it's um tricky because there are people

00:51:17.800 that get swept up in the emotionality on politics and like the the funny thing is as i've gone

00:51:25.000 deeper into this i've become less stressed out over politics because i'm just curious about the

00:51:29.700 ideas in a way and to it takes a little bit of effort to try to separate ideas from the emotion

00:51:35.600 or to make sure that these, if you hold an idea about the world, it's not identical to you. So

00:51:42.100 if somebody attacks that idea there, it's not a personal attack, but a lot of people hold onto it

00:51:46.960 like it is personal. Now, the issue is that we can't set some arbitrary bar of engagement or

00:51:55.940 personal responsibility. Um, that like, like how perfect of a person across multiple domains in

00:52:04.000 your life do you need to be before you are allowed to have an opinion on politics like it's i know

00:52:12.920 personal as perfect as you aaron yeah that's the thing i don't feel like i'm perfect i don't feel

00:52:18.140 like i'm that special and that's what bothers me right um is that there are such few people i can

00:52:27.080 look up to and um you know my problem isn't that anyone has to be perfect it's just that they have

00:52:34.560 to try instead of trying to project this illusion that you're trying right and i think that's where

00:52:42.000 it gets out of control is that we're just left with illusions and we have the illusion of change

00:52:48.860 right how do you differentiate between those two like how how do you um because somebody trying

00:52:58.180 how do you actually decide when that's somebody trying and actually making change and they're

00:53:05.940 doing it for good reasons and how do you um separate that in your mind from people that are

00:53:11.340 just attempting an illusion of change or doing it for bad reasons um so i guess it's just part

00:53:19.600 of it is just how open you are right um are you willing to have the conversations you know as far

00:53:27.160 as like these influencers online they are passionate about what they're saying they have

00:53:31.380 you know they have something to say and and but at the end of the day if you do any kind of

00:53:38.560 investigation you try to talk to these people they're not trying to engage with anyone they're

00:53:43.200 just projecting an image right and then so with that image says i like to talk to people and we

00:53:50.400 have the hard conversations and you know i'm zero percent liberal but is that true or are you just

00:54:00.560 playing a character right and i think there are a lot of bad actors who are behind the wheel taking

00:54:07.760 the reins so there there have been like hundreds like into the hundreds of events and at those

00:54:18.580 events i've seen multiple cases of people who do not disagree who do not agree either get up on the

00:54:24.900 mic and they've asked questions and they've they've gotten they've gotten answers um i've seen other

00:54:31.020 cases of people coming up to some of the uh speakers afterwards and having a conversation

00:54:36.460 We know some of these people closely that we've either collaborated or we've had on our show as well.

00:54:44.040 And we have accounts of them wanting to have more conversations with other people.

00:54:50.340 So this is tricky because there's only so much time in the day and we only have two eyes.

00:54:59.920 We can only be in one place at a time.

00:55:01.640 and you are getting a slice,

00:55:04.100 you are getting a certain sample size of interactions.

00:55:08.180 But also as you make more content,

00:55:10.640 you are more well-known and people recognize you.

00:55:14.080 Let it be from the canvassing interactions.

00:55:17.220 Let it be from some of these other town hall

00:55:20.200 or let's talk events that you've come up a few times.

00:55:24.760 Do you think those previous showings,

00:55:29.980 do you think that's making it easier or making people more confident that they should reach out

00:55:37.260 or talk to you or have a conversation or do you think it's it's been a detriment yeah i think so

00:55:44.300 i think um when yeah i don't know like there are good there are good people that i have met there's

00:55:50.620 the benita peterson and emmett kelly or emmett kelsey i can't remember but you know and i feel

00:55:57.180 like that's another indicator for me that tells me that these other people are disingenuous because

00:56:05.020 you know they welcome me to the events and they want me to speak and it's a it's complete night

00:56:11.580 and day when i'm talking to bird of dad or whatever yeah and i don't know that he necessarily

00:56:18.380 is you know i wouldn't put him in the like we we've met lawrence and you know we we've seen

00:56:24.620 seen him at events and and and chatted with him but like i don't think a lot of people would say

00:56:29.100 that he's a leader of the movement i don't i don't think he like there are guys like are do you know

00:56:34.140 keith wilson like if you listen to much of what keith wilson has to say like that that's a guy

00:56:38.240 that we would say is kind of a leader of the movement like do you do you have the major

00:56:43.240 disagreements for anything that he says i think he's kind of part of the he's a replacement of

00:56:50.440 you know um wrath and then there's the girl the farm girl what's her name i can't remember her

00:56:55.420 tanya clemens yeah they're kind of like the duo that have been the replacements for wrath and

00:57:00.740 sylvester it seems um well so you say is a replacement polished and you know yeah but

00:57:08.500 replaced by who like you you speak about it in a way that it's like a um like it's a coordinated

00:57:14.320 sort of the new face they're the the leaders of the movement now kind of thing it feels like

00:57:18.920 yeah but like that's an organic shift or do you think that was by

00:57:23.320 that was somebody else who installed them i think the whole thing is just a game honestly

00:57:28.840 um but yeah i'm not i haven't watched too much on keith wilson or sorry i can't remember there's

00:57:36.620 so many names i have to remember tanya clemens yeah yeah who who benefits from the game though

00:57:45.320 like what's the i i know i've asked you this already today but i'm just kind of like

00:57:49.260 i i want you to know that i like i don't disagree with your with your general uh heuristic of like

00:57:58.440 always be watch like always be mindful that you know there's somebody else is pulling the strings

00:58:02.620 or there's some like grander plan going on i don't disagree with that but like i'm just struggling

00:58:08.380 to find out like like this is a this is a movement that like people don't use their real names and

00:58:14.600 faces when they talk you know on live streams or on like they like on the on the um the fundraiser

00:58:20.860 that we did last week like these are people mr alberta yeah like they're really and and even

00:58:26.840 people that you might know in the movement that you think you know their names but but you know

00:58:31.000 we actually know them and you may not know their real name because they are legitimately uh worried

00:58:36.460 about having their like losing their jobs or just having their personalized impacted by being seen

00:58:41.640 to be in support of albert independence like what's the what's the benefit for them see okay

00:58:49.100 that's a good point because like people are always so worried about getting docs right

00:58:53.120 um that's kind of something i was worried about too i'm like when i started doing social media

00:58:58.100 i'm like do i have to be so careful you know are people going to come to my house or something

00:59:03.040 like that and the reality is i gave out my phone number to probably thousands of people literally

00:59:09.140 nobody called me everybody avoids me like the plague nobody wants to come to my house trust me

00:59:14.340 so if you what you're doing is true and genuine you're standing for truth and justice and honesty

00:59:20.760 then doesn't seem like anybody wants to have anything to do with you well but you're on the

00:59:25.920 non-controversial side of the movement though like no there's nothing there's nothing like

00:59:30.040 you're you're you're none of your personal life is at risk by saying that you're a forever

00:59:35.320 a canadian you know like it's the people who are being painted as you're not doing this but being

00:59:40.920 painted as traitors and and uh fascist traders and like they have they actually have a lot to

00:59:48.000 lose so what's in it for them well it's i think it's like it you know it's uh you're being rebellious

00:59:54.140 i think a lot of people are just um you know it's not really a benefit to them but they uphold it

00:59:59.500 anyway right because it's principles conservatives stand on principle and and that's kind of what

01:00:06.000 yeah that's why i speak out too is because it kind of saddens me like the direction right rather i

01:00:12.280 like the energy but the direction just seems silly right like people are stopping on the side of the

01:00:19.900 road to assault and whatever but like i feel like you kind of have to expect that because if you're

01:00:26.500 gonna if you're gonna promote division what do you think follows division it's hate right

01:00:32.180 we're gonna have to clip that because we just got aaron weeks to admit on live stream that there

01:00:39.020 are principled conservatives in the independence movement i'm sure there are i'm sure there are

01:00:44.460 i always like 99 it's 98 now we'll knock it down by a percent every time that's that's a good point

01:00:53.180 too is like the zero percent liberal thing is i think we have to have a little humility and be a

01:00:59.080 little more humble than that you know maybe maybe we're a few percent liberal yeah um yeah now now

01:01:06.400 the the thing is um to frame it as a divisive movement like and somebody will might say that

01:01:15.400 like well it's in the name it's independence it's it's separation it's i think i coined that

01:01:21.760 but yeah i think that was in your discussion with uh with stefan that you're mentioning that

01:01:27.420 mikaela's been repeating it okay great giving her giving her good ammo to help the help the

01:01:35.020 conservative movement so um to frame it the the thing is when you look at what underpins this

01:01:44.000 legal pathway that the independence movement is like is underpinned by is the 1998 supreme

01:01:51.580 court decision which outlines self-determination as one of the highest rights that people have

01:02:00.380 the right to advocate for self-determination so the thing is no country is immutable

01:02:07.820 things change and people have a right to collectively get together and unify their voice

01:02:15.900 so maybe maybe this movement's not big enough for that to actually take hold and maybe you think

01:02:21.180 that's foolish at this moment but to paint it as something that's either compromised or fake or

01:02:29.820 that is like it's not real change feels like it's coming from a place where maybe your perspective 0.83

01:02:39.740 with the conversations that you've had or you that you haven't had is is limited because your

01:02:45.660 engagement in these events is maybe more from the outside do you do you think that do you think

01:02:52.760 there's any blind spots in your in your assessment or do you think you have all the information that

01:02:57.920 you that you need to to make those claims overall i just think it's kind of silly and um shoot i was

01:03:06.720 gonna say something else uh maybe maybe you can paraphrase refresh my memory so it's it's based

01:03:15.520 on the principle of self-determination people are working together to hold a referendum which was

01:03:23.600 good enough for um newfoundland to join confederation in 1948 um so it should be good

01:03:30.960 enough for alberta now so it is people advocating for change through their right to self-determination

01:03:38.640 and so like do you feel like you have enough information to make those claims that you feel

01:03:48.660 like it's compromised based on your involvement i wish that it wasn't fake you know i a lot of

01:03:54.760 people that i talk to kind of come around to this idea that i'm actually a separatist i'm the biggest

01:04:01.040 separatist um because i'm from a small town i'm from rural alberta i you know i'm a blue collar

01:04:07.680 sledgehammer swinging dude and um you know i'm a white guy there's a lot of white people in the

01:04:16.980 movement um christian values conservative values etc it all it all follows it all tracks um

01:04:23.480 sorry can you reiterate the question again it was more that with your interactions and

01:04:32.080 conversations let it be at events or what you're watching and absorbing and reading do you feel

01:04:37.840 like you have enough information to call it a fake movement right yeah yeah i think so um

01:04:43.760 you know i always like when i went to the rallies when i go to the tables etc i'm i try to be as

01:04:52.160 polite as possible and just you know no drama like i i don't really have an emotional involvement in

01:04:59.120 in the interaction it's i'm just trying to figure out what's going on and if if we can't have a

01:05:06.120 conversation about it then what are we doing right it just it can't be anything else but superficial

01:05:12.800 if you don't want to talk about it i have um this is this is a multi-part question so i'll just

01:05:20.100 start it do you think that we've been doing we've been chatting for about an hour here

01:05:24.080 do you think that we're that we've like dealt with you in good faith like you're you don't feel like

01:05:29.620 yeah you guys are good sports uh this this is pretty enjoyable so far i like having the

01:05:34.400 conversation and uh okay okay good good so i've had a lot worse yeah yeah i mean i think we yeah

01:05:41.440 we all have but especially you but okay so so given that if we said to you that we believe

01:05:50.440 like the things that we believe about the movement like we're we're earnest in our in

01:05:56.180 our belief like we believe that you know there truly is an economic case there truly is a social

01:06:02.140 case there is a uh a practical legal case like we believe that all these things are you know like if

01:06:08.320 you if you read the value of freedom document or if you read the you know the uh um example

01:06:16.140 constitution that you know will be released shortly by the let alberta decide folks um like

01:06:21.460 how do i ask this like would you take our word for it or do you think that we're also in on the

01:06:29.920 grift um no i just like i said i've met a lot of good people too you know and they they're

01:06:36.460 they're passionate and they're adamant and they're determined i just think they're a little misguided

01:06:41.460 and you know that's natural um but i think my platform what i've been doing for the last month

01:06:47.860 requires these sorts of people to take some serious consideration and um you know like it's

01:06:55.140 the movement is open the door apparently not to me i guess i don't know but uh i i'd really like

01:07:05.900 to see that the door is open and that we can talk and that we can you know get down to business and

01:07:13.040 get to the bottom of any given issue it feels like we can't actually do that it feels like an illusion

01:07:17.540 another illusion of choice the um yeah like

01:07:26.380 one example is uh i think like you you were engaging with some canvassers right um during

01:07:37.620 the you like there was one where you were filming some canvassers wanting to get their thoughts on

01:07:43.820 independence and um i just watched this recently so it's kind of fresh on my mind that you're asking

01:07:51.800 like let's talk about independence and he said we can't because canvassers are bound by elections

01:07:57.400 alberta rules and in that case you cut them off and you just said no like it seemed like not a

01:08:04.360 that wasn't really you weren't offering the like you've been really good in this where you've

01:08:10.520 let us finish your points you've kind of considered what we're we're trying to get at

01:08:14.620 and then you've like you've kind of answered from that and in that interaction it didn't seem like

01:08:21.500 you were as you didn't have the same kind of demeanor which you've been fairly reasonable in

01:08:26.460 this conversation which seems like a contrast to some of these others well how others may perceive

01:08:32.920 you in some of these other conversations so um i'm wondering and this is my prediction that

01:08:38.700 if this energy and this kind of like if if you had these kind of nuanced takes on your tiktok

01:08:48.280 They, the videos would not do as well.

01:08:51.460 Nobody like things do not go viral when you have nuanced takes, but I, I would predict

01:08:57.000 that more people in the independence movement would be willing to talk to you if you had

01:09:03.080 this kind of nuanced take in your, in your content over time, because I, I can guarantee

01:09:09.520 you after some of those events, they either look at a few comments or they look at, uh,

01:09:14.900 they look at a couple of the videos they get a vibe from it and they put you in a camp of agitator

01:09:21.460 which means they're worried that if they have a conversation that either you'll attack or

01:09:27.300 you'll misrepresent that's their fear maybe some of it's unfounded but even in the in our youtube

01:09:34.260 chat somebody said you should not be talking to this guy he's an agitator and and i don't know

01:09:40.340 if that comes out of anywhere like maybe there's some of these things in the past that would give

01:09:47.940 people this this perception yeah so um no i always approached all of this professionally and um

01:09:59.220 cordially and respectfully and you know when i approach somebody on the street it's the same way

01:10:03.300 i approach anybody even off camera or whatever i'm just polite and how are you how are your day

01:10:08.340 how's your day the fact that people are labeling me as an agitator the fact that you know I think

01:10:15.780 that's the red flag and I think that's my that's what my content has kind of resulted or procured

01:10:23.880 or yielded is that now people are afraid to talk to me because I feel like because I'm honest 0.89

01:10:31.660 because then you know because I'm calling them out on their bullshit so they can't bring any 0.99

01:10:36.240 bullshit into if they can't bring any bullshit into the conversation then there is no conversation 0.99

01:10:41.060 to be had so they're warning you i think that you know that reflects on them not me but is is that 1.00

01:10:48.500 honest though like when you say things like the independence movement is a liberal tantrum

01:10:54.520 do you think like do you think that's an honor after talking with us yeah do you feel like that's

01:11:02.480 an accurate statement yeah for sure because most of you know i don't know i think the vast majority

01:11:09.920 of conservatives or you know independents either or are both together the the sentiment is the

01:11:17.680 liberals have destroyed this country have destroyed this province and so it's kind of a little taste

01:11:23.360 of their own medicine is to to check yourself is are you sure you're zero percent liberal like

01:11:30.400 count come on like right do you think it's a liberal value to to blame a political party for

01:11:36.160 a perceived failure or slight do you think that's a liberal tendency i just yeah i think

01:11:41.120 kind of complaining about anything is kind of just liberal life is pretty great in alberta

01:11:48.880 i i don't know what anybody's ever complaining about i think people create and cause their own

01:11:54.160 problems for the most part right and and that's the problem too is that because we have all these

01:12:00.440 fake problems then the real problems get swept under the rug right do you think though that

01:12:05.580 there are so okay i want to ask you a two-parter again and the first the first one is a yes no and

01:12:10.660 then we'll take it from there do you think there are structural problems in canada right now

01:12:14.700 sure yeah yeah okay okay so not be right okay but so then do you think that

01:12:22.340 do you think that those problems are fixable with the current system that we have

01:12:29.300 no no i'd say like why i don't know do you guys agree with abortion no i assume i'm i'm no i'm

01:12:39.360 not i don't agree with abortion like i feel like that these are things we can just solve like

01:12:42.940 tomorrow just just no more abortion dude like i don't know why is it so difficult

01:12:48.960 well it's federal yeah exactly yeah but also i can just i can just decide not to get an abortion

01:12:58.380 myself and that doesn't change you can all just decide not to do it right i've had zero so far

01:13:03.400 convince each other not to do it or right it's it's an institution yeah but that's what we're

01:13:09.560 like isn't that you just complaining about abortion then and we shouldn't complain about it like you

01:13:14.320 don't you don't it doesn't affect you so it's a liberal tantrum you're just such a liberal tantrum

01:13:18.900 but actually i don't speak out against abortion right i mean regularly or kind of in my videos

01:13:24.840 and stuff like that i'll disagree casually and you know but it's not like a big issue for me

01:13:30.340 personally in my life i feel like right so i speak to things i feel like are important in my life and

01:13:36.980 i feel like a lot of people speak to things that aren't really important in their lives

01:13:40.640 but that that's a value judgment on others sure where again then then we're into the territory

01:13:50.740 of like how do you determine if something's actually valuable or not or something's so

01:13:56.200 you paint things as like fake yeah i guess the question then um yeah and i've asked other people

01:14:02.380 maybe you've heard me ask other people this question is what is the most important thing in

01:14:05.620 life um i would say probably probably family and then everything radiate radiates out from the

01:14:16.700 family the uh you it depends on what part of maslow's you're talking about but because you

01:14:25.140 could say like yeah food you need food like that's the most important thing like you you don't have

01:14:30.380 food for a certain amount of time and life gets considerably worse um yeah like family families

01:14:39.040 up there like relationships are up there and health is up there as well so i think it's each

01:14:44.180 other right it's simply put families you know pretty the same thing essentially maybe even a

01:14:49.900 better term than just each other or people you know um like food is meaningless without the people

01:14:55.900 to eat it um and uh yeah we see like we're just so disconnected i feel like we're so removed from

01:15:04.380 the natural world we're so removed from each other and i think those are the real issues

01:15:09.440 fundamentally like we don't we don't need movements we don't need protests we don't need

01:15:15.120 this kind of high level organization it's a it just feels like a a game right like we're just

01:15:24.980 playing at an idea rather than actually tackling the the problem i don't know if you i'm gonna

01:15:34.340 make a go ahead sorry go ahead no go ahead you you're gonna it's gonna say that like if you do

01:15:38.740 not do politics politics will be done onto you so there is a limit to how much you can turtle away

01:15:46.820 and just affect change in your like you you've kind of seen this of people like wanting to do

01:15:54.580 the off-grid thing and then some people realize like yeah even if they have their off-grid homestead

01:16:00.500 and they have their food and they can generate their own power and there's still a government

01:16:05.540 with the power to say that yeah you technically owe us this amount of money and if you don't pay

01:16:11.340 it we are confiscating your property it doesn't matter how much change at an individual level

01:16:18.080 there is still the top-down effect of governments right so at some point there's a limit to how much

01:16:27.300 change your immediate circle can happen and there needs to be collective change and if we don't

01:16:33.740 think collective change is possible then maybe just yeah go live in the woods and wait for things

01:16:38.980 to fail which that's the conclusion for some people but i don't think the independence movement

01:16:46.140 is nihilistic to the point that people they're wanting to do something and many of these people

01:16:55.180 have invoked change at a personal level and I implore you to hopefully people will have those

01:17:02.540 conversations but I think if you ask them what things have they done to change like change their

01:17:09.140 family community I think you'll find that many of them have gone through those steps which by your

01:17:14.360 own definition they are now allowed to participate in a movement because they've changed they've

01:17:19.740 cleaned their room and now that now they're able to do everything else right well it's funny you

01:17:23.760 say that because um it's actually the people i find who are welcoming of me to these events and

01:17:30.100 stuff that are the ones who are the pillars of their society in their cas and within their parties

01:17:36.960 they're the ones making the most and uh practical pragmatic change the the ones who are the not the

01:17:43.560 loudest on social media the more quiet ones like I said Benita Peterson and Emmett and

01:17:50.000 the off-grid thing yeah I feel like that's that is the only solution for a lot of people in the

01:17:57.420 long run is just to run away and escape into the woods I think collectively that should be the

01:18:02.840 movement is convoy to the woods just just to put that out there and the turtling away thing

01:18:09.420 i think you're kind of getting me wrong on that point because like it's not so much that you're

01:18:16.780 um you're you're retracting yourself from society i feel like um if anything you're

01:18:24.100 you're being a greater role model right so it comes from the individual rather

01:18:30.020 come from it comes internally rather than externally where like i said if you're a more

01:18:35.640 competent person you're a more competent driver you should use your horn at people right like i

01:18:42.920 don't know people should use their horn you should speak up like this is a skip driver tap your hand

01:18:48.200 on his hood make sure he knows that he can't park there next time like you know that's i feel like

01:18:53.080 there's being more involved in your community by kind of withdrawing from these larger things like

01:18:58.760 the federal government and trudeau or whatever right yeah i would i i don't know i gotta say

01:19:08.140 like and this is not meant to be maybe this comes off as like harsher than i mean but like

01:19:13.240 i feel like you've you've you know you said you know you're happy with your life you've got a good

01:19:18.080 you know you got a good thing going on you've got your family like i know in some of your videos

01:19:21.780 you have your daughter and you've mentioned that you've you have a wife and like that's that's nice

01:19:25.580 and you live in a townhouse, that's good for you.

01:19:28.340 I would say, though, that there are just certain things

01:19:31.960 that being a good steward...

01:19:34.520 No one's going to disagree with you.

01:19:36.420 You need to be a good steward in your community.

01:19:39.060 But there are just certain things that...

01:19:42.200 I don't know that you're necessarily taking into account

01:19:44.960 in your analysis the people who are really suffering directly

01:19:48.660 because of decisions made directly by the federal government.

01:19:53.260 Like there is no amount of picking up a shovel in your townhouse community and shoveling the snow when no one will do it that will allow your 16 year old kid to be able to get a job because they can't because the federal government has instituted a temporary foreign worker program that makes it impossible for young Canadians to get an entry level job.

01:20:15.620 like it's just there like that is something that needs to be addressed at a at a higher political

01:20:21.180 level than yeah taking a driving lesson you know what i mean like there just are certain things

01:20:26.920 that are like that right i feel like my point is like yeah let's let's get there like we have this

01:20:32.320 hurdle first well but to what like when will you in your in your ideal world like when will we

01:20:41.640 reach that point where we can start to care

01:20:43.700 about grander

01:20:45.260 well like if we're serious right there was that

01:20:47.880 um uh was

01:20:49.680 it there's saying what is it

01:20:51.480 oh I can't remember I'm having trouble today

01:20:53.500 sorry um

01:20:55.000 boycott Tim Hortons

01:20:57.660 there was a movement right

01:20:58.840 it was like popular for a week and then

01:21:01.500 just sputtered out

01:21:03.760 disappeared

01:21:04.440 Tim Hortons still exists

01:21:07.620 right

01:21:09.380 and um

01:21:11.060 like we can't even do that we can't even get tim hortons out of our our neighborhood how are we

01:21:15.620 supposed to get oil out of the ground like you know you can't even stop drinking double doubles

01:21:22.500 how are we supposed to maybe these things take time like sure yeah change is not instant and

01:21:28.380 yeah but also the uh i i think this is where it's good to like zoom out of these time frames because

01:21:37.180 um if we just think of the independence movement in the last year then it looks like oh why don't

01:21:44.220 you guys just try to fix things within canada but we don't that that kind of forgets the reform party

01:21:51.160 that forgets the time where the west wanted in we had multiple attempts to invoke change

01:21:58.760 from within Canada so it's not just this one attempt in 2025 that has grown and got us to

01:22:07.860 this point now this journey is much larger and we have had interviews with people that were

01:22:14.740 involved in the 80s in the movement and it's when it was still growing at that point and they've had

01:22:20.960 multiple decades of perspective and there are ebbs and flows and they do correlate to

01:22:26.720 often how intrusive the federal government is into Alberta's affairs and especially from the

01:22:35.840 federal government kind of coming into jurisdiction that is within the provincial jurisdiction so

01:22:41.520 when that happens like independence sentiments increase but this is not a new this is not a new

01:22:49.660 movement and the attempt to invoke change through a unified Canada or through kind of these the

01:22:58.560 the system that it currently exists in that is not new as well and so my question to you is

01:23:05.600 if every let's say everybody has their personal responsibility in Alberta and everybody

01:23:11.480 becomes a better citizen and we invoke change and we maybe we elect some really good MPs and then

01:23:19.200 in ottawa well next election happens in ontario and quebec out votes alberta and we have some

01:23:26.180 federal policies that still really suck and alberta we did we did our best then like what do

01:23:33.420 we do we just live with that like do we try again like at what point do you do we think that maybe

01:23:40.160 the cards are stacked against us in confederation um yeah so i don't know again like i just i kind

01:23:48.220 don't concern myself too much bigger i don't know like institution wise like i just feel like in my

01:23:55.260 own my own way of doing things is just speaking up out up and out online making videos and then

01:24:02.220 just being involved on the you know in group functions as much as i can right it's not something

01:24:09.100 like i'm setting out to do something it's more like i'm just involving myself i feel like that's

01:24:15.980 all that we can do and expect is just you can put yourself out there right like we can try

01:24:22.300 but i i think at the end of the day it just all comes down to the individual and

01:24:28.780 you're a confusing guy erin because i i'm hearing two different things from you i'm hearing i'm

01:24:34.300 hearing you know the only thing that matters is together the only thing that is you know

01:24:41.180 we should be focused on our communities we need to keep it you know keep it our our uh our concerns

01:24:47.240 local you know and things that we can affect change with the people around us and then and 0.99

01:24:52.020 then i'm also hearing like but people are too fundamentally stupid to stop you know acting in 1.00

01:24:58.080 their own worst interest and they can't even eat a good diet and they can't park their car and they 0.99

01:25:02.760 can't drive like it kind of sounds like like are are you are you like a big like humanitarian guy

01:25:09.100 or is just like no one as smart and as moral and as you know uh worthy of uh consideration as

01:25:18.300 Aaron Weeks you know like I'm not I'm not trying to come at you here I'm just saying like yeah

01:25:21.880 it's confusing I think we just we're we're a society of narcissists and if you know a narcissist

01:25:29.200 is never wrong so I've said this before too if nobody's wrong then I guess we all are so I mean

01:25:35.880 like how do we the hurt the main hurdle i feel like we need to get over is this this egocentric

01:25:42.440 behavior this this narcissism right i'm never wrong i'm i know what's best and you know it's

01:25:50.600 like even these this idea of like the the federal government is the enemy or that's what it you know

01:25:57.560 that's the sentiment is that you know the prime minister is evil and the federal government is

01:26:02.600 evil and it's like i feel you know we're i just feel like we're so dramatic and like

01:26:07.720 we can't get down to business because we're throwing a hissy fit and being dramatic and

01:26:15.280 we can't get anything done because we're all children i find that's a very fascinating

01:26:21.240 statement though like you're talking about the ego side of it and like a narcissist is never wrong

01:26:28.240 is it wrong for us to point out narcissists in position of power who can invoke change and

01:26:36.220 not when we mess with our lives ourselves

01:26:38.740 but as a narcissist ourselves if we have so then who can yeah like a small amount of we gotta fix

01:26:48.040 this problem so like if we have a small amount of power as an individual and there are narcissists

01:26:53.360 in power with a lot of like institutional levers i like what is wrong with us pointing out those

01:27:03.840 with those large levers who continue to act in a way that they don't there's no accountability

01:27:10.980 there's nothing wrong i think there's just too much focus i think like that you're saying like

01:27:16.200 um there's balance in everything there's balance like it sounds like you're saying like we we don't

01:27:21.580 have enough awareness or we don't have we're not pointing our fingers enough some people don't i

01:27:27.000 kind of agree hold account yeah i think it more comes down to more right it's action we need we

01:27:32.640 need action rather than reaction the i did get a super chat and i should probably read this out

01:27:41.300 um from a guy in a mask so this is from actually mr alberta he said you do say that you don't

01:27:49.740 concern yourself with institutions then who are you a who are you to talk to albertans on voting

01:27:56.940 on if they should be a part of said institutions so like the premise is that the government is

01:28:03.100 corrupt right but then we're going to go through government channels to correct the issue it

01:28:08.380 doesn't it doesn't make sense so are you an anarchist aaron no absolutely not um i don't

01:28:15.020 know like i said we should i feel like we should convoy to the woods i feel like that's the solution

01:28:19.740 people need some real life people need to get out there's nothing wrong with a good party

01:28:24.600 but then what then then what's after so yeah yeah so i guess that's what i was gonna say too is i

01:28:32.880 guess it all comes down to whether you think we are i don't know like the entropy is happening

01:28:39.140 are we moving from a state of like disorder to order we you know on a natural progressive scale

01:28:47.040 or like are we just devolving because i kind of feel like we're just devolving

01:28:52.680 i think we just have to manage this

01:28:57.240 aaron do you have um i'm i'm happy to if james is happy uh to give you the last word or or the last

01:29:07.340 last question if you want to ask us anything or if there's anything that you yeah anything that

01:29:14.220 you thought we should talk about that we didn't or any any point that you wanted to make that we

01:29:18.000 didn't get to or you didn't want to touch on that one that last point well it seemed to make you

01:29:25.000 uncomfortable i i i don't know that i could necessarily see this is the thing man like

01:29:32.300 i'll just okay let me go on a little tangent here i don't really disagree with you on on much like i

01:29:38.660 i i too sort of have a and i this is something i'm trying to work on for myself i i too sort

01:29:44.000 of have a bit of a a dim view of the average person i don't think that because you know the 0.76

01:29:49.200 old george carlin i think it's a george carlin joke about like you know just realize how dumb 0.98

01:29:53.080 the average person is and then half of those people are even dumber than that so i get it 0.97

01:29:59.520 like i get your your frustration and i get your like you're not wrong that people are they they 0.52

01:30:07.060 misapply their outrage and they misapply their uh their mental energy but i don't think like i

01:30:16.080 think in general though the way that you the the conclusions that you draw from that realization

01:30:24.840 just feels like demoralization slop man like honestly like i'm not i'm not trying to be mean 0.71

01:30:32.480 but it feels like demoralization flop it's like okay well everything's fucked but don't do anything 0.97

01:30:37.340 about it and if you do try to organize and do something about it you're a paid grifter and the 0.87

01:30:42.380 movement is not authentic it's it's not don't do something about it it's focus on what actually

01:30:47.200 matters and what you can actually control in your daily life right it's like what does complaining

01:30:52.240 about trudeau solve in your daily life well but there have been there have been 40 new country

01:30:58.040 35 new countries made since 1990 there have been over 140 countries made since 1900

01:31:04.920 like sure countries have seceded for much less than what alberta has faced in confederation like

01:31:10.200 what is your line like what's the point where you where it's it just seems like you know like trying

01:31:16.200 to i don't know like because all this gets pretty serious right about immigration like jeff uh not

01:31:24.200 jeffras sylvester's kind of extreme with these about these things right like deport all the

01:31:29.560 immigrants or like think like notions like this because of like a little bit of high taxes like

01:31:35.560 we're gonna take on we have these problems and these problems aren't aren't acceptable but we're

01:31:41.240 gonna take on these much bigger larger more imposing problems alongside these problems as

01:31:47.400 well and then like like i was saying earlier what makes independence supporters the the authority on

01:31:55.400 what's best for alberta right like we're all the same people nobody we haven't traded people

01:32:01.480 right there's not new people here smarter people that just came into alberta to

01:32:07.080 lead us to victory right so like we all 90 of us got the jab or that the 10 that didn't get

01:32:15.640 the jab and who weren't fooled or are they all the independence people like come on like who are we

01:32:22.200 kidding there there's a high representation of covet dissidents in the independence movements

01:32:30.680 well like sure so there is a high yeah there is a percentage of those also what you find over

01:32:38.840 over years is because of the ethos in alberta it does attract people willing to work hard solve

01:32:47.720 problems build a business um so there has been an influx of some very intelligent very smart people

01:32:56.120 as well and obviously you have people that can't drive and park in a dumb way and you have an

01:33:04.040 influx there but i am finding it difficult to see how demonizing a movement of people

01:33:14.600 actually standing up and and and i employ you not to characterize things without actually

01:33:22.600 like really really being able to back up the statements like i i i don't think

01:33:28.680 mitch sylvester has ever said deport all immigrants oh no i just mean like the the extremist notions

01:33:37.160 like he thinks prince charles is going to assassinate him or like all these but well

01:33:43.200 no this is this is what this is like this is where it gets tricky is uh in some of these

01:33:49.120 discussions like sometimes like in a extreme part of the spectrum or somebody who wants to

01:33:58.460 51st state or somebody who wants to deport all immigrants those opinions exist they come up in

01:34:04.860 a conversation and then they're not weighted by their actual like the actual uh how common that

01:34:13.180 is so it just gets interjected like it's this common sentiment and without clarifying that

01:34:20.860 within careful terms it's treated almost as like this is an opinion this is an official opinion

01:34:27.420 that paints the movement and this represents what the movement is but and also like to just add on

01:34:34.000 to that the the loudest voices against independence are like some of the leadership of the alberta

01:34:42.260 ndp and they can't tell you what a woman is so like you know we're not like it's you know yeah

01:34:48.560 you've got crazy people who you know i'm not saying mitch is crazy but like yeah there are

01:34:53.380 some pretty extreme things that he said that are like may or may not be representative of

01:34:57.720 reality but you've got the other half of the aisle that's you know they they want to be they want to

01:35:05.540 give kids puberty blockers and like you know there's so it's not like it's an it's an argument

01:35:10.700 between like the reasonable anti-separatists and the totally unreasonable separatists everybody

01:35:16.980 on the extremes of but it's horseshoe theory right the the extremes represent are much more

01:35:22.780 representative of each other than the vast majority of people on either side yeah i totally

01:35:27.900 agree with that like um that's my kind of whole thing is i don't want to be part of the rainbow

01:35:33.800 group or the blue man group like but um yeah and that's i guess to your point james this radical

01:35:44.140 change requires radical responsibility and that's again my my whole point for the last five months

01:35:49.560 is where is this radical responsibility we see a lot of irresponsibility

01:35:57.560 if anything that's all we see yeah the uh well i guess

01:36:03.240 again i will employ you to like maybe take a second look at the movement and see how many people

01:36:09.480 are maybe more in line with our thought process our demeanor and our our like our way of coming

01:36:15.800 about this um and how many are actually in that radical camp which you seem to kind of point to

01:36:24.120 so i just like i guess i just want to point out that like there is a clear obvious and clear

01:36:30.680 distinction like i've tried to point out before between you know these so-called common sense

01:36:38.680 social media conservatives and like i said people who i do go and meet at these events and rallies

01:36:43.880 and so there's regular normal people which like you guys appear to be right and but when like so

01:36:49.560 that's the point that i keep trying to make to people is maybe you should try to investigate

01:36:54.360 a little further as uh somebody who's maybe a little more biased inside right i'm outside of

01:37:00.680 it so well i'm inside and outside but mostly outside and um kind of try to ask harder questions

01:37:08.200 to some of these people and see what their response is and because there there is obviously

01:37:13.800 a pattern here and we can't ignore that or deny that the uh i i maybe don't fully agree with your

01:37:25.320 assessment of these patterns but um let me point one thing out to you so um kind of independence

01:37:32.000 was sort of a political background noise there for a little while like five six months ago people

01:37:36.780 were talking about it for sure and they've been talking about it for years and prior to this

01:37:40.820 referendum there was others right but after the conservative convention um can't remember when

01:37:47.580 that was bird whatever proud dad afterward went on on the stage i think they're at a bar or

01:37:52.660 something and he's announcing that he's for independence right it's like a big thing

01:37:56.720 he's finally coming out of the closet and then also like every other common sense conservative

01:38:05.140 social media influencers also coming out of the closet like it's a simultaneous thing right like

01:38:11.580 i feel like that is isn't that highly suspicious and who who are the devil's advocates do you think

01:38:18.520 though that maybe it's a it's a case where if a high profile person publicly aligns themselves

01:38:25.820 with a controversial opinion that gives license that gives permission for other people to then

01:38:31.440 agree with it yeah and i think that was orchestrated specifically for that reason but by who

01:38:38.000 exactly by daniel smith by the by the ucp i don't know man i'm thinking the ndp

01:38:47.000 it's it's healthy it's healthy i have a couple conspiracy theories but like we can't

01:38:53.320 i like it's hard to be like everything's a concern like you can find agency in pretty

01:38:59.000 much everything that's why we see faces and clouds like when you look up because we are

01:39:04.100 predisposed to seeing seeing patterns in a way or seeing agency um anytime there's an overton shift

01:39:13.020 um there's a lot that's difficult to measure of like how much how many like individual conversations

01:39:20.480 like how many town halls how many of this like how much of the groundwork needs to be there before

01:39:25.960 major shift happens and if you're just it's almost like uh if you uh if somebody starts a fire and

01:39:32.600 you have like the fuel you have oxygen you rub a stick together it takes a while before anything

01:39:37.720 happens then a flame happens you're like oh no that flame came out of nowhere like who could

01:39:42.440 have predicted this flame happening like everything that led up to it is a foundational piece of that

01:39:49.080 that puzzle so it's hard to just take a snapshot and then retroactively look at this and think that

01:39:58.480 like this seems artificial because a movement gained momentum and people got on board

01:40:05.160 at a time where they were looking at different domains and they were not happy with the direction

01:40:12.660 that is going so it makes sense that uh there are there's a if when once carney got in and many

01:40:21.380 people saw the failure of the conservative movement at a federal level as a lack of hope

01:40:29.020 in federal politics or in canada they saw like okay well if they can't even win an election at

01:40:34.840 that point what are we even doing at a federal level and they focused inward and then they

01:40:40.180 decided to make change at a more local level which is exactly what your atmosphere is what

01:40:46.380 i'm saying it doesn't need another explanation you have a perfectly plausible set of conditions

01:40:53.260 that would motivate many people to independently come to the same conclusion right i mean it doesn't

01:41:01.440 need to i don't know it doesn't need uh the conspiracy whatever but i'm telling you maybe

01:41:08.340 there's something to it and i you know in my own life and my own personal experiences

01:41:14.200 people aren't this coordinated and people are lazy people aren't that involved in politics like

01:41:22.720 everything on your black mirror is fake is it not i don't know oh man this is you're i feel like 0.68

01:41:31.880 you're just so black-pilled man like i i feel like you're like the guy you're like the do you 0.94

01:41:37.380 know what the black pill i've never heard that though that's like the like case of somebody's 1.00

01:41:41.300 you know was is red pilled right like that makes sense yeah black pill is like fuck everything 0.98

01:41:46.380 nothing means anything everything's fake i feel like though you're the guy though that is gonna 1.00

01:41:51.020 be like you were the you were the reddit atheist in like 2010 that's like god god is fake and gay 0.89

01:41:59.120 and if you're if you're a christian you're like a you know you're the you're a nationalist and 0.92

01:42:04.280 whatever and then like eventually you end up like being a christian evangelist i feel like you're

01:42:09.840 you're like so close to flipping and you're going to be the the loudest alberta independence

01:42:14.060 advocate there is yeah maybe it was this conversation that did it people get that

01:42:19.200 impression i i do have christian values i wouldn't call myself christian i i think religion is a

01:42:25.160 disease but i do believe in god um i think my whole thing is just i want to push people's buttons

01:42:34.040 and press and try to

01:42:36.240 not elicit responses

01:42:37.960 but I'm trying to filter through the

01:42:40.080 noise and find the real people

01:42:41.900 and I'm exposing all the fake people along

01:42:46.020 the way

01:42:46.400 well I don't think we can

01:42:50.100 fault you for wanting to do that

01:42:52.160 I mean that's a

01:42:53.080 that's a noble cause

01:42:55.980 I just think that I would

01:42:57.980 hope that maybe after this conversation

01:42:59.980 you maybe have a little bit more of a

01:43:02.180 uh maybe an open mind that there are some earnest and uh um legit actors in the movement and it's

01:43:11.400 not all grifted right well i mean prove it to me right like they just keep blocking me avoiding me

01:43:20.080 smearing me trying to cancel me so i mean it is what it is right i don't feel like i have to

01:43:26.880 convince you i think you just have to just look at my experience um maybe maybe i don't get it

01:43:33.140 across as well as i should my uh my experiences with these people and the conversations that i

01:43:39.760 have but you know i shouldn't be it feels like i'm the only person on the internet who's not

01:43:46.240 allowed to have an opinion and i should i feel like i shouldn't be slighted and faulted and

01:43:50.800 punished all the time for asking questions you guys have been good sports we've had a good

01:43:56.080 hour and almost two hour conversation so this you know things are looking up

01:44:00.040 but it's a shame that it's taken five months to have this conversation i think you guys reached

01:44:07.000 out to me like three months ago and we never did have that conversation so i mean like even you

01:44:12.540 guys are tentative you know i understand that too right but yeah i feel like you gotta understand

01:44:18.360 from my point of view like where where's the dialogue right like how can we call ourselves

01:44:22.400 conservative when we're not willing to have the conversation how are we gonna banner for charlie

01:44:29.960 kirk when we can't show up i would just caution that like a block is not it's not always a proof

01:44:40.220 of a unwillingness to have a conversation it just means that the perception is the problem i have

01:44:48.620 that okay is that if you're on social media as a social media influencer then

01:44:54.460 if you can't take criticism what are you doing online right you're just spreading a false

01:44:59.820 a false narrative you're being fake and the movement criticizes itself all the time so

01:45:06.540 there's no shortage of criticism it's just blocks i've noticed blocks will happen when

01:45:12.940 when people are like, okay, this, this person is either saying something unreasonable, not saying

01:45:20.520 that you, I'm not talking about any particular circumstance, but these are common, common

01:45:26.700 reasons of like, okay, this won't be productive or like, this is not, this is just an energy sap

01:45:33.480 or I am not going to be addressed in good faith. If they have any of those signals or if there's

01:45:38.720 like if there's a scent of that sometimes that that will equal a block over time so they don't

01:45:45.040 have integrity and they should not be making media on social media there's a lot of things i don't

01:45:50.000 want to do all the time there's a lot of things they should never block are obligated that i'm

01:45:54.280 that i don't like to do all the time right yeah you're on social media you're so you're either

01:45:59.220 here if you're not here to have a conversation then you're here to project an image so well

01:46:04.260 We've been blocked by lots of anti-separatist accounts.

01:46:07.980 We're blocked by Thomas Lukasik.

01:46:09.840 We're blocked by Nenshi.

01:46:12.060 We're blocked by the Alberta NDP.

01:46:14.920 So is that argument in favor of Alberta independence for you?

01:46:18.780 No, but I deal with people on an individual basis. 1.00

01:46:21.260 Like I said, I don't want to be part of the Rainbow Gang 1.00

01:46:22.980 or the Blue Men group. 1.00

01:46:25.500 That's my whole point here on social media

01:46:27.780 is that both sides are not the choice.

01:46:31.960 If we're blocked more by those people,

01:46:33.500 does that just mean all like our opinions are correct like our see that that's the thing like

01:46:39.480 using it as proof well because it's becoming a cumulative thing right so i i don't just disagree

01:46:46.800 with independence i also disagree with the ndp so so so there's no needs to be had either way

01:46:54.860 we should probably yeah we should probably wrap up though yeah we got we got one more uh one more

01:46:59.820 super chat i just want to read out just i think it's a perfect way to wrap it up um aaron thank

01:47:05.940 you for your time appreciate the conversation i hope that this is a uh harbinger of uh is

01:47:12.540 harbinger always meaning a bad thing in store i hope it's a precursor for for good things in the

01:47:18.060 future but uh super chat um tommy told carney the mormons are behind alberta independence

01:47:24.120 so

01:47:25.740 we've been looking in the wrong places

01:47:29.000 boys actually there's a Mormon church just down the road

01:47:31.020 from my house so maybe I'll

01:47:32.900 have a chat with those

01:47:34.200 they know what's up let us know

01:47:36.180 yeah I will okay thanks Aaron maybe we'll do

01:47:39.080 this again appreciate your time dude yeah thank you

01:47:41.040 guys appreciate your time as well have a good one

01:47:42.860 enjoy the rest of your day

The Critical Compass Podcast - July 24, 2026

Is Alberta Independence a Fake Movement？｜ Discussion with Aaron Weeks

Episode Stats

Transcript

The Critical Compass Podcast - July 24, 2026

Is Alberta Independence a Fake Movement？ ｜ Discussion with Aaron Weeks

Episode Stats

Transcript

Is Alberta Independence a Fake Movement？｜ Discussion with Aaron Weeks