The Critical Compass Podcast - MartyUpNorth Exposes the TRUTH About Canvassing for Alberta Independence

00:00:00.000 When I showed up to that guy videotaping him, you can see it in the video how he's building the narrative.

00:00:06.780 The first thing he asked me is like, are you armed?

00:00:10.000 And I was like, wow, that's interesting.

00:00:11.940 What I was starting to think immediately is that that guy was a cop of some sort because even though he was there to perhaps film something as part of something else,

00:00:26.620 as soon as i approached him and i was calm and i had the camera on him then he reverted back to

00:00:33.580 his training and then as soon as i told him he's a witness then he was like oh

00:00:37.420 shit his neck like what he was planning was starting to fall apart

00:00:41.740 hi guys welcome back to the critical compass my name is mike and we're here with james as always

00:01:03.620 Apologies in advance for my nasally voice a little bit.

00:01:06.880 I'm just getting over a cold, so you'll have to bear with me.

00:01:09.720 But we are very pleased to be joined again by a friend of the channel,

00:01:14.320 Mr. Martin Belanger.

00:01:16.840 He'd been in the trenches for weeks and weeks now

00:01:19.920 collecting signatures for the Stay Free Alberta petition.

00:01:24.040 And boy, oh boy, do you have some stories to tell, sir.

00:01:27.200 So we'd love to pick your brain and see what your experiences have been like

00:01:31.260 and use this as a venting session, man, give her.

00:01:34.600 Yeah, well, I almost want to take off the hat

00:01:37.840 and show you guys, like I got a farmer's tan, right?

00:01:39.940 Look at my face, I'm burnt, right?

00:01:41.440 I'm literally burnt from just being outside.

00:01:44.460 I looked at the stats real quick.

00:01:46.680 I've been, well, let's step back a little bit, right?

00:01:49.220 So we've been canvassing,

00:01:51.620 people have been canvassing

00:01:52.460 since January 2nd officially, I guess,

00:01:55.460 but we had a bit of a slow start to canvassing

00:01:57.980 because Mitch, the proponent of the petition,

00:02:03.340 he launched it just before Christmas.

00:02:05.360 Elections Alberta approved it on January 2nd

00:02:07.840 and they were still on holidays.

00:02:09.140 So things were slow to get going.

00:02:12.640 And there's been some frustrating moments,

00:02:15.640 but the last month, like the last 30 days

00:02:18.020 have been phenomenal.

00:02:19.100 I can sense it in our own little groups here

00:02:21.360 and across the province.

00:02:22.420 People are finally getting really well organized.

00:02:25.380 uh me personally i set myself a goal uh originally of doing five of collecting 500 signatures i was

00:02:33.260 doing some math in my head you know like we need 177 000 and i thought would be nice to get 500

00:02:39.160 000 and i thought 500 was a nice round number i hit the 500 so i put a stretch target i want to

00:02:44.780 get to a thousand um but make no mistake man it's hard work collecting signatures like it's not it's

00:02:51.520 not like you they just come to you right I mean I'll give you some stats like I've been out there

00:02:57.540 so my my my approach I mean there's lots of ways of collecting signatures some people go and bring

00:03:03.880 a sheet to work and collecting from fellow employees some people do it at home families

00:03:08.740 some door knocking going on I chose what we're calling the pop-up right I I pulled up my pickup

00:03:14.860 truck grabbed an Alberta flag a table and a bunch of signs that homemade signs nothing fancy

00:03:21.000 and then I went and parked myself along a service road

00:03:24.720 close to where I live.

00:03:26.180 I live in the country more or less

00:03:27.740 and there's a highway nearby.

00:03:28.880 So I went and parked on the highway

00:03:30.000 and started collecting signatures.

00:03:33.020 And I've been there 28 days now.

00:03:36.000 The petition period has been longer,

00:03:37.780 but I've actually, you know,

00:03:39.620 if you factor in the stormy days,

00:03:42.180 I've actually been on the side of the road for 28 days

00:03:45.020 and about four hours a day.

00:03:48.400 Like, what is that?

00:03:49.040 Like 130 hours.

00:03:50.400 I mean, if I was, I joke that if I was living in Nova Scotia or Newfoundland or whatever, I'd qualify for EI.

00:03:57.080 Like for, you know, not quite, but you know what I'm saying.

00:04:00.740 No, it's going, it's going good.

00:04:02.460 But lots of stories, man.

00:04:04.720 It's been an eye-opening, eye-opener.

00:04:06.660 Everybody should canvas.

00:04:10.200 Yeah.

00:04:10.560 When you put yourself out there, you see, you get a temperature check of where people are at, both for proponents and people who want to stay in Canada.

00:04:20.400 And also, no matter what the number is, I feel like this is a good testament to how dedicated Alberta independent supporters are.

00:04:29.780 Because with the court case that essentially shifted the petition now to start in January, we're starting with a slower start with the number of approved canvassers.

00:04:41.060 We're starting in the coldest time of the year.

00:04:43.780 100%.

00:04:44.340 There's no outdoor events.

00:04:46.360 It's a much different landscape than doing a petition in the summer

00:04:51.240 where you can just piggyback off all these events

00:04:54.480 or you could go to like the legislature or this or that.

00:05:00.180 Yeah, like some of the places we've been going.

00:05:03.300 Like one day we went to, I live close to Cochrane,

00:05:06.240 so we went to Cochrane last weekend

00:05:08.480 and we set up shop on the nicest day we had, a nice Saturday.

00:05:12.760 We set up our table just across from McKay's Ice Cream, right?

00:05:15.700 mckay's ice cream is famous i mean people drive from wherever but it's uh it's uh you know it's

00:05:21.900 march 6 or whatever and there was a few people and we got we got a lot of signatures don't get

00:05:25.960 me wrong we got 30 or 40 but i can't help but thinking like if we were set up across from

00:05:30.680 mckay's in june or july man like people are just rolling in so yeah the the and i get why i get

00:05:38.460 why mitch uh the petition you know launched a petition when he did i mean there's a window

00:05:43.260 right? We got four months to collect signatures. Then the government has to study the petition

00:05:49.520 and then potentially launch a referendum, which I think they will now. I mean, Danielle pretty

00:05:53.940 much said so. But then the referendum is also a campaign period. So when Mitch was looking at

00:05:59.860 all the masks, he wanted a referendum in 2026. So we had no choice. He had to launch a petition

00:06:07.140 when he did. If we waited a few more months for the nice weather, then we'd be into 2027

00:06:11.720 before before a vote so um yeah but it's it's uh yeah it's been it's been it's for me it's been

00:06:18.680 fascinating like i i i it's it's been um uh i've had all sorts of revelations like you said uh

00:06:26.460 pro opponents and opponents and it's been fascinating yeah i'd um maybe maybe for the

00:06:34.900 second half and for the ending of this of this episode we'll end on some positivity so let's

00:06:39.800 start with the let's start with the garbage let's start with the negativity what what's some of the

00:06:44.160 like i mean a lot of people who follow us follow you of course and so they'll be familiar with your

00:06:49.820 that particularly bad one last week but what would you say like maybe give the the the viewers a

00:06:56.880 walkthrough of like your average shitty interaction with like some you know forever canadian or some

00:07:02.880 some elbows up person like what what does that look like the stuff that doesn't get on video you

00:07:07.120 know, they've changed over time. It's been interesting. They've changed. Let me, let me,

00:07:12.600 let me, let me preface it just a little bit. There, after weeks of collecting signatures,

00:07:17.700 there is no single demographic that I can identify who signs. Okay. It's across the board,

00:07:23.560 people from across the board sign, blue collar, white collar, government employees,

00:07:28.060 laborers, students, young, old, white immigrants across the spectrum. So, so wild to see,

00:07:34.500 But I have identified one demographic in particular that comes in and tries to protest.

00:07:43.780 And unfortunately, it's the older white boomers and males more often than females.

00:07:50.140 Now, the females are the ones that have made the videos.

00:07:52.500 I've captured the females on a few videos, but the males outnumber them.

00:07:58.800 And so much so that so recognizable as a demographic that we almost play the game.

00:08:03.900 like, you know, I'm sitting there on the side of the road with my table and we see cars pulling in

00:08:08.400 and then we turn to each other and we go like, friend or foe, does it fit the profile? And like,

00:08:12.360 we're starting to identify a profile. Like, like I'll joke, right? Like we haven't seen a Tesla,

00:08:17.380 like no Teslas have come to sign. We had one day, one guy came and gave a shit and then he drove

00:08:22.320 away and somebody immediately says, that was a Prius. I'm like, yeah, we should have known.

00:08:25.800 Like there are certain, you know, there are certain vehicles when a big Ford F350 Dually

00:08:31.540 pulls up and drives in front of you you know it's going to be a good guy right and um so so the

00:08:38.400 demographic um at first what we used to see were a lot of older guys would come and not even get

00:08:44.340 out of their car they would roll real close to us roll the window down and just literally like

00:08:48.660 you know uh expletives right like you guys are out of your mind you're nuts if you think this

00:08:54.840 is going to happen and blah blah blah i mean i had one guy was so hilarious like he he rolls up

00:09:00.440 And he, and I'm, I'm, I'm leaning to his window and, and he's got four windows.

00:09:05.400 Right.

00:09:05.580 And he's trying to, he hits the button, he unrolls his window.

00:09:08.180 Then he hits the other one and he unrolls the back one on the passenger side.

00:09:12.180 Finally, he gets mine and I'm sitting there and he starts insulting me.

00:09:15.820 Right.

00:09:16.440 And then I'm laughing at him.

00:09:17.540 I'm like, dude, you can barely figure out the windows and you're lecturing me on

00:09:21.980 economics.

00:09:22.580 Cause that's what he was doing.

00:09:23.620 Like he's lecturing me on like, you know, you're, uh, and, and, and then the

00:09:28.400 other pattern early on was that they would come and some would come and try and engage a little

00:09:35.600 bit, but their engagement was so weak. Like they would throw out like the real talking points of

00:09:40.700 like, you guys are clowns, you know, we're landlocked. Donald Trump's going to invade us.

00:09:48.160 You know, the rest of Canada helps us in hard times. You know, very, and when you'd start

00:09:56.320 challenging those folks that immediately, what's the word, cower and turn away.

00:10:04.420 And then you could see, like early on, it would be funny how quickly they would get

00:10:08.440 to some really stupid talking points like, you know, you do the back and forth and

00:10:14.140 before long, you're right into Trump's a pedophile, like that crazy, right?

00:10:18.540 That crazy.

00:10:19.720 Right.

00:10:20.020 And so, and at first, some of the people that were coming, I knew that they were

00:10:23.880 coming there just to sort of intimidate us and it felt and back to they were recognizable they

00:10:29.320 were older guys driving beat-up cars like it's like i'm literally like if you pulled up in a

00:10:35.640 1997 dodge caravan with rust all over the place we immediately go like that's not friendly the the

00:10:42.440 the hard-working albertans actually drive nice trucks and the taxpayers are the ones who are

00:10:47.380 going to come and sign and by the way that was the other thing that was why we set up on the side of

00:10:52.200 the road because the the the people who are going to sign are busy working and that's something we

00:10:57.720 heard all the time i hear it all the time like i'm so glad you guys are set up here i don't have time

00:11:01.780 to go sign which is crazy like uh you know welcome to alberta where where people work um so i so i

00:11:08.820 thought some of those people now some of the people uh come of course i advertise where we're

00:11:14.880 at right so i i was kind of the i'm pretty sure i was a target a very specific target i mean

00:11:20.060 you can't tell me that people are just randomly driving down the road and see us and decide

00:11:24.520 they're going to turn in uh because because we had guys who would turn in and bring like a manifesto

00:11:29.800 papers and stuff like that so so that's on purpose and um but then it evolved then then it evolved

00:11:36.980 into people stopping and and loitering a little bit longer and really trying to get under our skin

00:11:44.060 because those early guys they would leave but then after a while they didn't leave they would start to

00:11:49.600 really try and stick around and stay under our skin and that's when we started filming them

00:11:54.720 because in the the early days we didn't even have time to film them they'd come throw a few insults

00:11:59.280 and bugger off but then they started loitering and uh and and that's where we started taking

00:12:04.960 out the cameras as soon as you take out a camera um people tend to get nervous and disappear and

00:12:13.680 then and then and then the camera wasn't working then they were loitering a little bit longer and

00:12:18.480 And you saw in that incident, the one that the popular one, the one that with the five minute video, that lady, when she was done and she finished and she drove away after the first part of the incident, she joined another person.

00:12:32.700 And I found that fascinating.

00:12:34.680 She pulled up to another car and I could tell that the other car was like the handler.

00:12:40.460 And then when we showed up, when I showed up to that guy videotaping him, you can see it in the video how he's building the narrative.

00:12:48.020 because I asked him, I'm like, what are you doing?

00:12:50.260 Well, that's the, actually, let's talk about that one.

00:12:52.480 That was super weird, right?

00:12:53.940 Did you see that video, by the way?

00:12:55.600 The guy in the green puffy jacket, we call him.

00:12:58.100 Like the first thing he asked me is like, are you armed?

00:13:01.780 And I was like, wow, that's interesting.

00:13:04.140 But, and what I figured,

00:13:06.760 what I was starting to think immediately

00:13:08.400 is that that guy was a cop of some sort

00:13:13.240 because his, even though he was there

00:13:15.840 to perhaps film something

00:13:18.060 and as part of something else,

00:13:21.160 as soon as I approached him

00:13:22.660 and I was calm

00:13:24.140 and I had the camera on him,

00:13:25.880 then he reverted back to his training.

00:13:28.840 And the first thing he said to me

00:13:29.840 is like, are you armed?

00:13:30.820 I'm like, that's a stupid question.

00:13:32.060 No, I'm not armed.

00:13:33.080 Then I turned it on him.

00:13:34.320 I'm like, what are you doing?

00:13:35.260 He's like, well, I'm videotaping you,

00:13:37.580 whatever, assaulting an old lady.

00:13:39.440 I'm like, I'm not assaulting an old lady.

00:13:40.860 She just drove across,

00:13:42.280 tried to hit me with a car

00:13:43.540 and you're a witness.

00:13:44.520 and then as soon as I told him he's a witness

00:13:47.040 then he was like oh shit

00:13:48.100 what he was planning

00:13:50.100 started to fall apart so then he's like

00:13:53.080 oh

00:13:53.360 and then I heard

00:13:55.780 what absolutely sounded like

00:13:58.680 a radio in his

00:14:00.960 car there was another person in his car

00:14:02.760 and I could hear the what do you call it

00:14:04.580 a dispatch

00:14:06.880 kind of a sound right

00:14:08.240 and I'm like what's going on there

00:14:10.960 and now his whole narrative

00:14:12.720 of change so and i was i was positive that he was gonna that after that incident with the lady which

00:14:18.540 i'm not the most proud of but i mean you know we we can talk about that i was certain that holy

00:14:23.520 shit i'm gonna be on the news now because he's filming some sort of narrative and and they

00:14:28.880 mission accomplished they got me yelling at an old lady and and he's filming it from a distance

00:14:33.720 which is why i felt it was necessary for me even though i wasn't that proud of that video to put

00:14:38.760 out that video i put out the video myself i'm like if you're gonna like i'm not gonna let you

00:14:43.300 spin it and show little clips i'll put the whole video so nothing else showed out after that

00:14:48.720 and it seems like maybe you got ahead of it that way yes i think so and but then even when i get

00:14:55.320 ahead of it then you see all the people who people uh did all sorts of mental gymnastics to make me

00:15:03.100 out as the bad guy in the video that i posted like they ignored everything about it like they

00:15:07.700 ignored the car driving swerving all of it they went right to so it's all designed to to make us

00:15:14.980 scared and i thought about that i mean even the like i you know some of the the other canvassers

00:15:19.940 got a little bit nervous and and uh they said like should we take a break and that's when i did that

00:15:25.540 clip myself a couple of days ago i'm like this is on purpose they're trying and if if i disconnect

00:15:30.960 If I don't go and show up because I'm scared, then they win.

00:15:35.640 And yeah, it's been, yeah, like that's how crazy it's been.

00:15:42.260 So you're describing a stark difference in the people.

00:15:46.560 Like those early people, they sound like they were, it was more incidental.

00:15:52.100 They were driving by, they have emotional reaction.

00:15:56.200 And you're speaking logic to beliefs that are held through emotion.

00:16:00.960 So in that case, it kind of crumbles or falls apart or they default on more emotional Trump bad or we don't want to be the 51st state.

00:16:09.320 Like they're not thinking logically.

00:16:11.740 Then I'm wondering what percentage of these encounters are either kind of like Facebook watch groups.

00:16:24.200 You have a lot of these older kind of elderly, forever Canadian.

00:16:29.600 They're on Facebook. They feel like, well, it's my patriotic duty as a Canadian to push back against these terrible separatists. And or you may have RCMP in some of those groups organizing or planting seeds or watching over that and potentially invoking some action out of that.

00:16:53.800 So, and this is nothing new.

00:16:56.680 No, no.

00:16:57.100 These are not new tactics.

00:16:58.300 It's well known that, like, law enforcement will embed.

00:17:04.400 Fascinating.

00:17:05.080 Yeah, yeah.

00:17:05.560 I mean, you're reminding me a bunch of things, right?

00:17:07.620 So the first ones were maybe opportunistic.

00:17:09.700 You're right.

00:17:10.140 Then there was the next crop.

00:17:11.580 And I said to the next, like, you see me in some of the videos.

00:17:15.120 I said to people, like, who's paying you to do this, right?

00:17:17.720 Because, like, I had one guy show up.

00:17:20.040 Same thing.

00:17:20.600 He rolls down the window.

00:17:21.720 The car is all beat up.

00:17:22.660 he's got cushions all behind him he's on oxygen okay like he's got oxygen and and then he tries

00:17:28.440 to challenge me and then he's immediately like out of breath and I literally said buddy it's not

00:17:33.400 worth it like I said to him it's not worth it you've done your job you got your 50 bucks don't

00:17:37.780 worry about it go away right like I don't even want to piss you off because I don't want you to

00:17:41.960 I especially don't want you having a heart attack right here on the side of the road like

00:17:46.700 that guy was not that guy was that guy was there for 50 bucks man that's like a guy who donates

00:17:52.560 blood it was crazy and then and then and then you have the trained people uh that's not just

00:17:58.220 facebook so the incident of uh the lady who parked across her car across the the the road to block

00:18:05.160 the road the access from us right and uh one of my buddies waves me over and i walk over and he's

00:18:10.680 like she's blocking the road so i walk over and as soon as i took the camera out i'm like you're

00:18:15.060 interfering with canvassers trying to do their duties and it's a it's a fine or whatever and

00:18:19.980 all of a sudden she's like oh my car uh my my my my car has all these alarms and uh it doesn't

00:18:25.300 work i'm like we'll push you out of the way i don't care there's 10 of us here and then all

00:18:29.420 of a sudden everything's good and she's gone and then i had a few people there like maybe her car

00:18:33.400 really was uh acting up i'm like no it wasn't did you see her giving the finger to larry over there

00:18:39.580 and then and then her tone how it changed when i put the camera and i and and i said they go to

00:18:45.260 camps to learn this like that's you know where where's the law and how do you interfere with my

00:18:51.660 my my activities just on the edge and then and then there was the lady um who grabbed the phone

00:18:59.240 and threw it anyways so yeah to your point there's been a weird escalation and i'll get to what

00:19:04.500 happened today the guy with the camera when i posted that one i had a whole bunch of people

00:19:09.400 online say man this happened at coots like he's building the narrative right like you listen to

00:19:13.980 him he's filming you he's saying things that how he wants it to go and you busted his storyline you

00:19:21.040 you you messed up his storyboard when i came up and and stayed calm today we had essentially his

00:19:26.660 video his his video evidence of recording you in real time you said things in real time that

00:19:34.160 he could not show that entire video so you interrupted whatever narrative and you made it

00:19:38.940 unusable in there which is a good like a perfect way to balance it out yeah yeah like i said i said

00:19:45.140 you just you're i literally said so you're a witness that's fantastic because he's like he's

00:19:49.640 like i'm like what are you doing he's like oh i'm recording you i'm like no i didn't attack her she

00:19:54.260 she just swerved at me with a vehicle she attacked me with a vehicle and you're a witness he didn't

00:19:59.600 like that i mean like and plus he said that he's the one who called 911 i don't know if he did or

00:20:05.060 not but he disappeared he wasn't there and then and then the police showed up and guess who shows

00:20:10.480 up again the lady and uh i don't know why she showed up again because it man it got ugly for her

00:20:18.020 like uh you know the here's the rest of the story i mean she shows up again when the cops are there

00:20:23.700 the three cops and the cop the cop's getting a statement from me he's like do you want to press

00:20:28.400 charges i'm like no i'm not really interested but i'm chatting with the cop and i tell him a little

00:20:32.520 bit what happens and all of a sudden oh there she is i said she's right back there she comes back

00:20:36.240 there's three of them so they send a guy over they sent two guys over to talk to her she came

00:20:40.520 out of the car just screaming like i want that video he took a video of me and blah blah blah

00:20:45.180 and i heard him he's like man that's not gonna happen like it's his video and and then uh she

00:20:50.840 just went on so the guy comes back and he goes like this you know and he's like yeah okay we

00:20:56.940 we get your story and um and then and then he tells her you're free to go she jumps in her car

00:21:03.220 she puts it in reverse but somebody had just arrived to sign so she bangs into the guy behind

00:21:08.620 her she comes out of the car screaming to the cops you told me i could go and the guy's like i told

00:21:14.140 you you could go but i didn't tell you you could slam into the car behind you and then uh so now

00:21:19.160 the other the new guy who shows up he wants a police statement so the cops are like oh my god

00:21:23.360 we've got to write a statement and then again you're free to go she's not pointing the right

00:21:29.060 way so she drives all the way down the service road turns around and by this point I mean there's

00:21:33.980 cars on both sides cruisers everything and rather than just casually drive slowly down the middle of

00:21:40.280 the road she goes by full speed spitting gravel at everyone and just about misses a cop and then

00:21:45.800 she blasts through the stop sign turns and luckily the light at the intersection there was a red light

00:21:51.460 and there was another car not moving.

00:21:52.980 Otherwise, she would have moved.

00:21:54.500 The two cops are sitting there.

00:21:55.900 They're like, oh, my God.

00:21:57.260 We tried to do everything we could for her.

00:22:00.200 They both jump into their car.

00:22:02.840 They go after her down the highway, and then they lit her up.

00:22:06.160 I'm like, okay, whatever.

00:22:07.600 I don't care.

00:22:08.800 Unreal, yeah.

00:22:09.880 Unreal.

00:22:10.520 What a bad day for her.

00:22:12.460 Yeah.

00:22:12.800 Was it worth 50 bucks?

00:22:14.280 I hope it was.

00:22:16.760 And then today we had another incident, and today was –

00:22:19.880 I'm still trying to digest today's incident.

00:22:21.860 Today was a lady showed up, two people,

00:22:26.720 knew her car, shows up,

00:22:28.360 and the girl comes out and walks up to us.

00:22:30.500 The guy stays in the car.

00:22:32.500 And she was more prepared.

00:22:35.400 She came to, she started, I mean, me,

00:22:38.660 my spidey sense went up.

00:22:40.200 She's not here to sign.

00:22:42.000 And then, what are you guys selling?

00:22:44.280 She'd be in a sarcastic tone,

00:22:45.840 and I give her the speech.

00:22:46.940 We're canvassing on behalf of blah, blah.

00:22:48.820 And then immediately she goes into a bit of her tirade.

00:22:52.580 My colleagues that were there, I was getting, I got frustrated real fast.

00:22:57.020 I'm like, I'm not interested, you know, and my buddies are like, let her talk.

00:23:00.440 So I walked away and she continued talking.

00:23:04.020 And then I came back and I started saying, okay, enough is enough.

00:23:06.820 You're not here to sign, you're interfering.

00:23:08.680 And then, but the other guy stayed behind.

00:23:11.560 And then finally he got up and he came over because I was walking around his car.

00:23:16.040 They look like a pair more prepared.

00:23:18.820 what uh i'm sorry if you said this marty what's the kind of demographic there same thing she was

00:23:25.820 well her demographic was really interesting she was older like late 40s and a very thick accent

00:23:32.680 and she's the one like part of her speech is like i took an oath i'm like you took an oath what kind

00:23:37.340 of oath she's like i took the citizen's oath i'm like oh this is interesting so when did you become

00:23:41.440 a citizen a couple of years ago and uh she was a german citizen a german uh whatever expat and

00:23:49.500 then started lecturing us hard on um on the values of canada but her narrative was all messed up i

00:23:57.200 mean she had no idea of the history i'm like you know we should just dialogue and talk about this

00:24:01.660 i'm like we've been talking about this for 150 years lady like look at my hat right and and i

00:24:05.760 mentioned Meech Lake and, and, uh, Charlottetown and the 1982 constitution.

00:24:10.320 And that was like over her head.

00:24:12.020 So, um, but the, the, my, my buddies humored her longer than I would have.

00:24:17.780 That's for sure.

00:24:18.900 Yeah.

00:24:19.580 Yeah.

00:24:20.260 Well, you know, it's funny how you're, you're sort of describing like a, um, sort of to

00:24:25.320 what James said, like a gradual escalation of what seems like initially, you know, fairly

00:24:29.560 organic, like, you know, reasonable, this is what you'd expect, you know, for a politically

00:24:33.580 charged thing.

00:24:34.220 And then things get more and more organized, more systematic, more designed, seemingly in a way to elicit a reaction out of you.

00:24:42.400 And, you know, we encountered similar tactics.

00:24:46.120 And I think, was the site called Beautiful Trouble?

00:24:49.320 Is that what it's called, James?

00:24:50.640 Yeah, it's essentially the Antifa handbook.

00:24:53.780 Right.

00:24:54.300 Yeah, yeah.

00:24:54.660 So these are Antifa tactics.

00:24:56.100 So these are, you know, and they'll do things like you may encounter this if you haven't already.

00:25:00.380 they may come if you're if you're taking they see you taking video or if you're you're doing

00:25:05.620 something that involves video or audio recording and they'll come and they'll they'll blast

00:25:10.520 copyrighted music so that your video becomes unshareable it gets flagged by by uh social

00:25:15.660 media things like this and they'll and they'll try really really hard to like you say they're

00:25:20.040 hanging around they're needling you they're trying to so that way if you react if they pull a reaction

00:25:25.360 at you well then immediately you're the bad guy and they never show the part that leads up to it

00:25:29.660 they only clip the the part where you have a reaction yeah and then we can tell when we're

00:25:35.000 being sort of probed which is interesting right you do see vehicle like boy i become observant

00:25:40.160 like you know you recognize you immediately see vehicles you go that vehicle doesn't look right

00:25:45.140 and it's turning in going to the tim hortons and coming back or doing something you see cars that

00:25:49.860 randomly go down the service road turn around at the very end and come back and leave i'm like i

00:25:54.260 don't know what that's about i think some of them just test because they go oh well there's three

00:25:57.980 other people that are collecting signatures so they they they either chicken out or or whatever

00:26:02.540 uh i like weird probe uh you know somebody coming up and sort of just ran like some of the questions

00:26:09.160 get pretty random like are you guys ex-military i'm like you know again are they just make like

00:26:15.740 you know checking us out knowing who we are and um yeah yeah i mean and yeah and i do bring that

00:26:24.460 on me right i have not on me i am a target like that's you know we're thank god the movement is

00:26:30.660 leaderless right i keep emphasizing that i'm so happy that this is really a grassroots movement

00:26:35.700 because um if there was only one specific leader the the the poor harassment that that guy would

00:26:42.780 suffer and mitch and jeff already get harassed and i get harassed i'm perceived definitely as uh

00:26:48.660 as a person of significance in the movement and I get targeted I mean I got targeted by Jason

00:26:54.760 Kenny I got targeted by Altia Ray I got targeted by all sorts of people like it's really fascinating

00:27:00.640 and I keep telling people they have a hard time believing this but I'm just Joe Schmuck man like

00:27:06.240 I don't have access to the levers of power I drive an old pickup truck and I wear Mark's

00:27:12.020 warehouse jeans like you know but anyways it's fun ish well and in a sense what this is also

00:27:24.980 showing is that if these moments happened during any of the recall petitions if they happened

00:27:33.140 during the forever canadian petition that footage would be all over the place it would be

00:27:38.420 It would be amplified beyond all means that they can.

00:27:44.800 So we're not seeing either both like from the media is not amplifying these things.

00:27:51.160 They're not taking any of these moments seriously.

00:27:53.820 Or elections.

00:27:54.460 Alberta is not taking this seriously as well.

00:27:56.480 They specifically treat these petitions with a very high bar of seriousness when it comes to actual signatures.

00:28:05.280 But when it comes to the treatment of the canvassers, they suddenly do not have the same level of seriousness when it comes to the harassment that's taking place because they treat that under different legislation than the legislation that protects like an official election poll worker, etc.

00:28:26.800 Elections Alberta even felt the need to come out and do a press release last week.

00:28:31.020 And I think it's as a result of my incident and others.

00:28:33.340 They even went as far as asking me to change some of my evidence because I submitted a report and they wanted some of my video to be edited.

00:28:43.000 And I'm like, I ain't editing no freaking video, man.

00:28:45.320 This is the evidence.

00:28:46.400 It's yours.

00:28:47.280 Deal with it.

00:28:47.860 Right.

00:28:48.360 And they didn't like the fact that in the video, in the spur of the moment, I said, you know, something along the lines of I represent Elections Alberta.

00:28:56.540 What I should have said is I'm working under Elections Alberta guidelines.

00:28:59.940 And I corrected that afterwards.

00:29:01.520 that i did sort of a video correction but i'm like i'm working under elections alberta guidelines

00:29:06.640 and and then i show the badge and you're right elections somebody um somebody did a bit of

00:29:12.800 research and i followed it up with research i'm more likely to be um charged with some sort of

00:29:19.520 infraction from elections alberta than the person who comes to harass me and i think they know that

00:29:24.300 because when I agreed to become a canvasser, I signed on a form that I agreed to follow

00:29:32.400 canvasser guidelines. And I was mistaken. I thought that interfering with a canvasser is an

00:29:39.720 offense. It's not. There's no offense. So when they come and harass me, I tell them you're

00:29:44.760 interfering with the activities of a canvasser. There's no offense on their part. The only law

00:29:49.700 that they fall under is the normal mischief criminal code slash if I don't report to the

00:29:56.360 RCMP or the sheriffs there's no there's no recourse but they can look at my badge quickly

00:30:03.760 and say Marty lost his temper and as a canvasser that's a violation of the code of conduct and he

00:30:09.800 needs to be charged so I have to be super careful and I and and I've said that like already the

00:30:16.900 the canvassing laws i think are ridiculous they're completely like we are collecting signatures

00:30:23.060 to demand accountability from our government but our government is telling us how we can

00:30:28.020 demand accountability like it's really really we're getting to that point where we are we as

00:30:33.780 citizens are held to a higher standard than the government officials the bureaucrats and the

00:30:39.700 public at large like it's like bonkers man like so that that like 25 000 um thing like that's just

00:30:48.760 a regular mischief charge essentially doesn't exist no it's not a rule under uh it might be

00:30:54.000 a rule under elections alberta if you were to harass a a polling station or do something like

00:31:00.580 that but not a canvas not a not under the petition yeah i see yeah and and one thing in that statement

00:31:06.640 that pissed me off too was and i commented on on your post about it was that they they made like

00:31:11.840 really sure to include you know just to be clear uh elections alberta does not take any you know

00:31:17.200 political sides on this issue and and this type of behavior is seen from both sides in the political

00:31:22.800 and it's like no absolutely is not there's been there were zero stories about that before before

00:31:28.640 the uh the forever uh stay free alberta forever canada didn't get any of this there is alleged

00:31:34.800 I was looking into it and there's alleged harassment.

00:31:37.700 And I'm like, well, if it was so prevalent, where's all the videos?

00:31:41.280 Where's the, is it just.

00:31:43.340 Yeah, you can allege anything.

00:31:44.380 Is it, is it Tommy, the tank engine just like, did he just claim something like, or is there an actual documented harassment?

00:31:53.940 Whereas we, we, we definitely have a lot.

00:31:56.080 We, the Royal, we, the Alberta definitely has a lot of documented evidence.

00:32:00.420 I mean, just look at X and Instagram and places like that.

00:32:03.640 It's all over the place.

00:32:04.500 Apparently, there's been upwards of like 70, 80 reports submitted.

00:32:10.760 Mitch Sylvester has asked that we submit reports.

00:32:13.120 I wrote up the incident and submitted it up the chain of command.

00:32:17.840 And the politics goes beyond that, too.

00:32:20.380 Like, you know, we basically get, we again, the royal we,

00:32:27.040 the State Free Alberta almost gave up on renting out little halls to do petition signing.

00:32:31.460 Like we had one here near in Cochrane and it was at a it was at a hall.

00:32:37.780 I'll say it was at the Lions Hall.

00:32:39.280 But when we rented the hall there, the Lions Hall said, like, you can advertise that it's here, but please only use our address, our physical address.

00:32:46.840 Don't say the Lions Hall.

00:32:48.700 So we use it that way.

00:32:49.880 I'm still appreciative of them using it.

00:32:52.200 But we've had plenty of groups say no because we don't want to be political.

00:32:57.820 And when we point out, well, you have elections here, you know, the Elks Hall, you hold elections there, but you won't let us canvass.

00:33:07.220 That's fine.

00:33:07.800 That's your choice.

00:33:09.040 But you did let Thomas Lukasik petition across the street.

00:33:16.700 I mean, I had the RC, like, by the way, as much as there might be some officers that are controlling this, you know, not everybody in the RCMP is involved in the same way.

00:33:25.700 kudos to the three guys who came out like the three guys who came out man they were like top

00:33:30.100 notch and then we have since then we've also had another guy who comes by regularly but he admitted

00:33:35.300 to us he's like we get a 911 call every day just because somebody driving by sees your sign not not

00:33:42.140 that you're on the side of the road they see your sign on the side of the road and they complain

00:33:46.080 about your sign on the side of the road and i got a sign the first time the guy came over i said like

00:33:50.660 do i need to move my sign he's like no no you're like you're allowed to have a sign on the side of

00:33:55.020 the road and then he came over to my truck and I'm like do I need to move my truck I'm on a service

00:33:59.620 road again he's like no you're you're you got two wheels in the grass two wheels on the gravel you're

00:34:04.520 not interfering with traffic and their tables in front of the truck I don't care so yeah that's

00:34:10.220 good that's good yeah yeah yeah we had a couple guys when we were at the uh sorry Marty well

00:34:16.380 same same sort of story like that's always nice to see when you got a couple like these guys were

00:34:20.860 I think at just Edmonton city, city police, but when we were at the AGM and we had our sign there

00:34:25.540 and we were trying to get some, some react, let this sign behind me, we were trying to get some

00:34:29.800 reactions to it. And, um, and there was a pretty vocal, um, I, what we think was an Antifa protest

00:34:35.320 and they were getting pretty, pretty rowdy and kind of, kind of unpredictable. And the cops were

00:34:40.080 like, they were sort of, you know, around us, you know, wanting to make sure nothing popped off

00:34:44.460 and, and they were good. I mean, they were, James, do you remember like they, they were,

00:34:49.000 you know sort of apologetic that it was this way that we couldn't just have reasonable discussions

00:34:54.760 but they basically admitted it without saying it they're like we can't trust these guys like we

00:34:59.000 we don't know what they'll do we've we don't want to have to get more uh cruisers out here to arrest

00:35:04.340 these guys so it's like it's it's just silliness you know now the fact that one thing i never did

00:35:10.660 resolve though i couldn't couldn't come to terms with is why were three police officers showing up

00:35:15.920 yeah right so somebody told me were they ready to go you know somebody yeah somebody tells me

00:35:22.600 that's the that shows that you were probably right on the guy who was sitting there on the

00:35:26.960 side of the road he probably who was organizing it when the call came from him and three cops

00:35:32.260 showed up the three cops might have been there's three beat cops right i mean they they none of

00:35:36.480 them were more than constables and three guys showed up and so i'm sure they wondered i never

00:35:41.360 chatted with them it's like i should have asked is it normal for three of you guys to come here

00:35:44.820 because you heard there's a disturbance

00:35:46.100 on the side of the road

00:35:46.900 because I've never seen three of you guys

00:35:48.320 do anything before.

00:35:49.980 So I don't have an answer to that.

00:35:51.940 Why did three guys show up?

00:35:53.080 And that gives credibility to my theory

00:35:55.240 that that guy had more pull than we thought.

00:35:59.640 Yeah, I think there's an element of

00:36:01.660 even without that one guy,

00:36:04.000 they might be just collecting.

00:36:07.960 Like we know there's polling

00:36:09.100 or we know there's petitions going on.

00:36:11.440 Here are some of the pop-ups.

00:36:13.240 They might check the State Free Alberta

00:36:14.780 have that in mind like okay well in this area during these days let's see if there's overlap

00:36:20.000 and we have a couple cars that could potentially um respond to this that one individual still

00:36:28.020 sounds pretty um pretty sketchy um and and it's the the kind of thing where

00:36:34.260 if this was truly a hateful movement if it truly was a disruptive um if the alberta independence

00:36:43.640 movement was truly as bad as what they're describing you wouldn't need to dig so deep

00:36:50.720 to try to find legitimate things to smear the movement with right you wouldn't need to

00:36:57.100 antagonize um you would just have examples all over the place and i feel like right now they're

00:37:05.940 fishing um even if there's rcmp embedded in any part of the movement they're going to be bored

00:37:12.720 out of their mind because nothing's interesting is happening. Like they're, they're, they're

00:37:18.360 trying to like analyze a leaderless movement that really is grassroots. You have a whole

00:37:22.200 bunch of people who are dedicated, working hard, all these volunteers, and it's still

00:37:29.700 up to us to, I guess, give zero ammo, give zero examples to not play into some of these

00:37:36.980 moments um because little moments can be weaponized um so we got to be like extra uh extra careful

00:37:45.820 um yeah yeah we got yeah yeah like i said uh but that's that is more easily said than done right

00:37:53.380 i mean like uh you can in the moment like i joke right i mean you guys know me everybody knows

00:37:59.180 that marty's a nice guy but marty's also online everybody says like you know um you know uh you

00:38:05.720 need big shoulders sure but one of the yeah yeah i i hear you um but let's talk about a bit about

00:38:12.040 the um let's talk about the positive though i mean like yes please you know yeah so so sure

00:38:17.240 there's a few negatives but at the end of the day like on the side of the road me and four other

00:38:22.300 people are collecting on average like 100 signatures a day right that's crazy and um and

00:38:28.300 and like the car's going by beep beep beep uh thumbs up like all day long for every 20 that go

00:38:34.840 by with the thumbs up you get one thumbs down or something worse and the worst is fascinating i

00:38:40.400 mean yesterday i wasn't even like i drive around with my alberta flag now on the side of the truck

00:38:44.720 and it's a big flag and then somebody pull up at the gas station and yell traitor i'm like my god

00:38:49.860 i'm flying an alberta flag like wow what's offensive about your flag buddy yeah it's your

00:38:57.300 flag right but um the the positive thing is uh i can't tell you how many times i've had like

00:39:04.340 i almost you know i'm sitting at the table in front of my truck and cars are pulling up in

00:39:09.540 front of me and sometimes i'm like whoa whoa whoa slow down because people are pulling in so fast

00:39:14.500 and they're almost unbuckling and opening their door before their cars come to a stop and then

00:39:18.900 they're walking up to us and going where do i sign right like they're like they're excited where do

00:39:23.700 do I sign? And, uh, like people bring us coffees and donuts. And, uh, I've had a charcuterie board,

00:39:32.180 pizzas, all sorts of stuff, which by the way, some people have tried to say that's illegal.

00:39:36.600 You're accepting bribes. I'm like, no, the bride goes the other way. Like if somebody's thanking

00:39:41.320 me for collecting, it'd be different if I was enticing you to come sign by, by offering you a

00:39:46.720 gift but um and and then and then there's some weird uh so people are happy i've had um like i

00:39:53.960 said a cross-section of society all the way up to like 90 i think the oldest lady was 92 93 you know

00:40:01.180 guy brought his mom had three ladies in that age range like come by bring us chocolate chip cookies

00:40:07.040 sing songs for us and and they said like we should have done this 40 years ago oh by the way that's

00:40:11.500 an interesting thing I like to do, right? I'm collecting less signatures than the other people

00:40:17.180 and there's a joke, right? Like they're out signing you. I'm like, no, that's because I'm

00:40:20.620 spending a lot of time talking. And one of the things I like to do is I take my job seriously.

00:40:28.740 So while you're signing, I just, you know, can I have your name, phone number, please check off

00:40:32.800 here. You're an Alberta Canadian citizen over 18. And then once they're done signing, I'll often get

00:40:37.980 up and say okay now that you're done signing i'm no longer uh now i'm free to talk you've already

00:40:43.680 signed and i'll say to people like do you mind me asking like why'd you sign especially older

00:40:48.620 people i love asking older people like why'd you sign and it's fascinating again people are just

00:40:54.340 um overwhelmingly the ones who sign are fed up with ottawa we should have done it a long time

00:40:59.160 ago nobody listens to us we're not being heard doing it for our kids like you know it's it's

00:41:04.440 it's all fascinating and and then i'll go this far i'll tell you this other interesting thing

00:41:09.860 um while i'm sitting out there i don't have time to be on my phone so i'm disconnected it's weird

00:41:16.080 but i don't know what's going on like i sort of weirdly don't know what's going on in the world

00:41:20.000 right and then all of a sudden i get you'll get a wave of people that come that want to sign

00:41:25.060 and i joke i'm like all right what did carney do or what did right what happened and everybody's

00:41:31.140 like oh didn't you hear there's a floor crossing yesterday i'm like oh okay so the floor crossing

00:41:36.120 boom boom boom boom boom right and then uh and then and then another day is like okay what's

00:41:42.000 going on oh we bought lng from uh from australia oh okay awesome well sign here um price of gas at

00:41:50.520 the pump over there is like a buck 60 holy shit man everybody's signing they're just like literally

00:41:55.180 you can almost tell

00:41:56.740 that there's been an event

00:41:58.080 that makes people

00:42:00.980 want to come out and sign.

00:42:02.660 Carney's the best salesman

00:42:03.940 for independence we've had.

00:42:05.200 I mean, he's even better

00:42:05.940 than Trudeau, I think.

00:42:07.400 So essentially,

00:42:08.000 you could open up CBC

00:42:09.280 and then get the top 10 news stories.

00:42:12.140 And that's the top 10 new reasons

00:42:15.360 why Alberta should be independence.

00:42:18.260 Actually, Danielle's little stunt

00:42:21.340 of holding her own referendum,

00:42:23.700 that backfired, man.

00:42:24.560 We got a surge of people after that one.

00:42:28.920 The stunt of the First Nations on the steps of the ledge there last week with Nahid Nenshi, that backfired.

00:42:35.640 I mean, people are, I'm honestly doing my own math.

00:42:40.840 I think I'm going to be surprised by the outcome.

00:42:43.160 I think there's going to be a big number.

00:42:47.560 Like, we're going to smash the threshold.

00:42:52.000 I hope we get the four or five hundred thousand.

00:42:53.940 And I think we might.

00:42:55.400 Yeah.

00:42:55.980 Yeah.

00:42:56.320 Yeah.

00:42:56.900 You know, I was, I was curious, Marty, and I can't remember if I was asking you this on, on X or somebody else, but I was trying to give the benefit of the doubt to, to Smith about, um, those five referendum questions.

00:43:10.420 I think it was five, five or seven referendum questions she, she announced.

00:43:14.320 And, and if I was to give my like most pie in the sky, positive interpretation of that, this is my theory.

00:43:21.700 And I want to know what you think about this.

00:43:23.940 So say that the Stay Free Alberta citizen referendum gets like a 53% or a 54% or something like this, like a majority, but maybe low enough to be ostensibly an argument could be made that it's not a convincing or a significant majority or whatever the verbiage is.

00:43:44.160 what if um those other referendum questions that the province is putting forward if many of those

00:43:50.940 get a majority or even higher than the the state free alberta could could that potentially be used

00:43:58.640 as an example to like push it over the top of of convincing a federal inquiry that this is a

00:44:04.880 significant majority a clear a clear majority quote-unquote i'm gonna say no um so

00:44:14.140 So, okay, so, yeah, so she proposed something like nine questions, right?

00:44:19.700 Let's say out of the nine, four are non-constitutional, right?

00:44:23.420 Should we take better control of our immigration?

00:44:26.020 Should we deny benefits to, you know, refugee claimants, things like that?

00:44:30.720 And I think those are different.

00:44:32.520 Then there's the ones that are constitutional, right?

00:44:34.860 Should we work with Ottawa and the other provinces to reopen the constitution

00:44:39.300 and discuss about the distribution of Senate seats?

00:44:42.720 That's one.

00:44:43.220 That's a very specific one, right?

00:44:45.700 And my fear is that, my fear is what if that question,

00:44:52.420 that question, let's say she has a question,

00:44:54.580 do we want to open the constitution?

00:44:56.180 What if it's yes?

00:44:57.780 And then we have another question that says,

00:45:00.140 our question, the independence question basically says,

00:45:02.460 forget about trying to open the constitution.

00:45:03.960 We've done that forever.

00:45:05.120 We're done.

00:45:05.640 We just want to separate.

00:45:07.020 What if they both get a majority?

00:45:08.540 What if they both get 50%?

00:45:10.100 We're screwed because the courts will say,

00:45:12.540 well, you got, you got conflicting questions. You can't, you know, I think that, I think her

00:45:17.640 questions are truly conflicting with the independence question. And, and, and then I

00:45:23.160 want to expand on that a little bit, right? Like I'm, I've been trying to give Danielle the benefit

00:45:27.960 of the doubt forever and ever, and I'm running out of options. Like I'm, I'm running out of

00:45:31.780 ability to give her the benefit of the doubt. Like she'll use language, like I need a mandate.

00:45:37.200 okay you need a mandate well if you need a mandate then you're only a year and a half away from your

00:45:43.560 next election so get your mandate then because she she'll often refer to the fact that she has

00:45:49.500 a mandate and she can't do something outside of her mandate which by the way I think is wrong I

00:45:55.660 don't think your mandate comes only at election time you know you don't just campaign on on

00:46:00.480 policies that become your mandate, you have four years and things can change.

00:46:05.040 So on immigration, for instance, I don't think she needs that as a mandate,

00:46:11.640 but if she thought she needs it as a mandate, then I would say, hold off on

00:46:16.120 this and get it as a mandate in the election, because she seems to equate

00:46:19.860 election and mandates.

00:46:22.240 And then she seems to, on the surface, she made a distinction between the

00:46:27.720 The Citizens Act is the opportunity for citizens outside of the normal mandate to petition the government and ask for something different.

00:46:36.280 So I would say to her, if you don't feel like you need, because remember what she said last week, when somebody said you should consider a sales tax, she's like, well, let the citizens decide that.

00:46:46.740 So she threw it back.

00:46:47.840 So when it's convenient, she'll say it's a mandate that I get at election time.

00:46:52.340 Otherwise, I'll get it from the citizens.

00:46:54.200 But in this case, she's not following her own rules.

00:46:58.720 The way she describes it, a petition and a referendum should be reserved to citizens who want the government to do something outside of its mandate.

00:47:08.400 So I don't buy this.

00:47:10.380 I'm like, and by the way, she also has, what's the first bill she passed?

00:47:14.940 What's the first act Danielle Smith passed when she got elected in 2023?

00:47:19.400 Bill 1.

00:47:19.920 The Alberta Sovereignty Act, which is supposedly the act that allows her to demand that our constitutional rights be respected as a province.

00:47:46.100 So she's already passed an act.

00:47:47.400 So anyways, she, she's full of contradictions.

00:47:50.860 Let's let, you know, I'm, I'm, I mean, I can, I, I can articulate, I'm not doing a very good job right now, but I can articulate how she's contradicting herself on two, three instances.

00:48:01.060 So, you know, if you believe in the.

00:48:02.940 And there's some performative aspects to it as well.

00:48:05.560 Like the, the, yeah, the next Alberta next panels and in a way that's, that's trying to get a clear idea of how, how much support there are for these different issues.

00:48:17.400 Yeah. And, but that kicks the can down the road. And like a year after the Alberta next panels, now there's a referendum, but she also could just take the temperature and get the ideas during each AGM, which people vote on a lot of these things anyways.

00:48:35.040 And if that's a sample of the constituents, and if that represents the greater majority that she has in government, then isn't that a mandate on its own?

00:48:47.340 totally so like they're the all these things feel like it's the same kind of delay and or

00:48:55.500 it's kind of giving insulation accountability wise that she doesn't want to risk too much

00:49:03.080 or have too much pinned on her so it's this weird safe middle ground that doesn't actually

00:49:09.120 win ever it doesn't win the people you want to win anyways yeah it pisses off the people that

00:49:14.680 are the strongest supporters of her yeah we're we're definitely we're all on the same page i

00:49:21.360 mean to me yeah you campaign during election you you you campaign on issues in 2023 but the you

00:49:28.920 know you're ruling for the next four years so you can't possibly predict everything so you get a

00:49:32.920 mandate on election day in 2023 if the next year something shows up as an issue at the agm or

00:49:38.560 wherever or in in general conversation you can you don't need to do a referendum to see if this

00:49:44.460 is something serious. And then you kind of adjust and you have the mandate. How do you deal with it?

00:49:52.560 You debate it in the legislature. And if the people want it, it gets passed. You don't need

00:49:59.080 to go to a referendum. The referendum should only be when the government stubbornly ignores the will

00:50:07.520 of the people. Not the other way around. The referendum is not to come and get the will of

00:50:12.160 the people you do that at election time and otherwise you listen to the people and you

00:50:15.920 debate it in the legislature but if we feel that you're not listening to us then we petition you

00:50:21.800 and we ask for a referendum not the other way around the government's not the one that demands

00:50:26.320 a referendum so um that's my thoughts on it and uh and the government doesn't demand a petition

00:50:32.900 and the way she laid it out she called it the citizens initiative act so uh and she has this

00:50:39.220 other, you know, uh, the sovereignty act. So yeah. Um, I've, I'm, I'm, I'm just not capable of giving

00:50:46.100 her the benefit of the doubt anymore that she's just making, you know, the, the common argument

00:50:50.600 is always, she's really, really doing a lot of due diligence. Come on, man. You don't need to do

00:50:55.120 like you're, you're overly diligent here. I think. Well, I just have one thought before you jump in

00:51:03.620 again um so even though so right now there's a referendum act and daniel smith could just

00:51:09.920 call a referendum on alberta independence bingo but i would actually argue that

00:51:15.980 this citizen-led initiative and the grassroots is it's the most effective way of building momentum

00:51:24.940 to have it grassroots and to have everything every hurdle placed in front of this is just

00:51:33.000 demonstrating how strong this will

00:51:35.160 is. So I feel like

00:51:37.100 it's actually more effective than if she just

00:51:39.000 called an independence referendum

00:51:41.120 because it needs time to warm up. You need time

00:51:43.220 for these conversations

00:51:44.840 to disseminate, to grow.

00:51:47.020 You need a lot of this organic

00:51:48.480 growth because there's still

00:51:53.100 a lot of people that before

00:51:54.900 January, they didn't really even

00:51:56.760 think or hear about independence

00:51:58.880 and some of these ideas

00:52:00.940 for some people are quite new.

00:52:03.000 And so if there is a, like, there's the potential for the petition to be halted, there's a potential injunction from the chiefs, there are still multiple parties interested in tanking, either trying to invalidate the petition in any kind of way.

00:52:24.560 She could still call a referendum if the petition gets blocked in any other legal pathway.

00:52:32.920 And that would be the litmus test if she really is in tune with the will of her constituents.

00:52:39.940 Yep.

00:52:40.840 Oh, yeah.

00:52:41.220 No, we're in for some interesting events in the next four or five months, right?

00:52:46.580 I mean, at this point, yeah, like to me, I still, I kind of see her as being not doing due diligence, but I fundamentally see her as being genuine in her belief that she can go get a better deal from Ottawa.

00:53:02.800 And I'm wondering how long she's going to hang on to that ideal.

00:53:08.900 And then, you know, we talked about the MOU a month ago or whatever, and some of the other events.

00:53:14.480 I think there's going to be something interesting, like Carney could do something really silly in the next few months, and then she's going to be put on the spot.

00:53:22.400 I mean, he's not going to give us anything.

00:53:24.100 He's not going to give us anything.

00:53:25.260 I don't think Carney's going to give us anything, and she's going to stubbornly continue down this path.

00:53:30.060 The big change in the coming months is whether Carney gets a majority, because the Carney we're experiencing now that she's having a bit of interaction with is a completely different Carney than she's going to have to deal with if he wins a majority.

00:53:42.340 Like if he convinces two, three more people to cross the floor and he has these three by-elections on April 19th, if he wins those three and he gets a majority, Mark Carney, majority Mark Carney is a completely different animal than minority Mark Carney.

00:53:57.120 And I think Danielle might be in for a rude awakening, but time will tell.

00:54:02.860 And otherwise, yeah, the petition, I think between our petition and Lukasik's petition,

00:54:09.000 that could be 800,000 people that want to have a debate on independence, stay or go.

00:54:15.460 It doesn't matter, but it's a debate on the future of Alberta within Confederation.

00:54:21.320 And that's going to be hard to ignore for her.

00:54:23.300 And so, I mean, what question does she put on?

00:54:25.260 So anyways, to me, I keep coming back to this.

00:54:29.560 I always remind, Carney's the trump card right now, no pun intended, but the future is in his hands.

00:54:36.060 He has more influence on what happens in the next few months than anybody else.

00:54:41.840 Well, one thing, Marty, I wanted to maybe get your thoughts on before we wrap up here is something that we definitely know is coming down the pipeline.

00:54:50.800 And now it's been, you know, Mitch was on a couple of podcasts talking about this and it's sort of public knowledge now.

00:54:57.680 We sort of knew about it in the background for a few weeks here, but we now are fairly confident that there will be a court injunction placed on the movement, potentially as early as April 6th or 7th, I believe, which may pause our ability to keep collecting signatures.

00:55:16.260 So if this is the case, let's just, you know, what is your, if you had advice to canvassers out there or people who are listening who maybe have yet to sign the petition, do you have any sort of advice on how we should approach the next two, three weeks here?

00:55:31.160 Pedal to the metal.

00:55:32.200 Like, holy smokes, pedal to the metal.

00:55:33.920 That's where I wish I was part of the upper management of the campaign to see what's going on.

00:55:39.620 I honestly have no idea how many signatures are collected.

00:55:42.180 I hope we have more than a threshold and maybe Mitch and them will decide that, hey, we'll take a chance and we won't even let the courts rule.

00:55:53.700 We won't even let the, you know, we'll count the signatures and submit it to the chief electoral officer before May 2nd.

00:56:03.840 I think that could be a way to, what's the word, not contravene, but bypass the injunction.

00:56:18.960 But a part of me also says, I hope they're studying the wording of the injunction,

00:56:23.760 because part of me says this injunction has got to be, I can't see a judge accepting this injunction.

00:56:31.240 To me, it's the equivalent of trying to stop me from voting.

00:56:34.980 Like it's like they don't want to stop.

00:56:38.120 They literally want us to stop collecting signatures, which is simply, like I said,

00:56:43.640 is simply citizens collecting signatures.

00:56:46.080 I think if the injunction does pass, I would say, what are they going to do?

00:56:49.480 How are they going to stop me from?

00:56:51.060 They can't stop me from collecting signatures.

00:56:53.320 The chief electoral officer might say, well, I don't accept the signatures.

00:56:56.560 I'm like, I don't give a shit if you don't accept them.

00:56:58.400 then. I'm just going to continue to collect signatures, and I'm going to bring you a million

00:57:02.240 pages. And you can say, I don't accept your million signatures. I'm going to go, fine,

00:57:08.460 deal with it. But imagine the visual of we pull up with a U-Haul, a 20-foot U-Haul full of

00:57:15.260 signatures, and somebody says, well, they're invalid. I'm like, no, they're not. I mean,

00:57:19.100 we'll do a protest on the... So I find this whole concept of trying to stop us from collecting

00:57:25.600 signatures bonkers so part of me would say ignore it and just go ahead because it'll never happen

00:57:31.800 but then part of me comes back to well do you trust the courts in this country i mean some poor

00:57:37.740 you know uh mid-level judge is going to get this injunction what's he going to say

00:57:42.740 ah i'll err on the side of caution i accept it and i'll let the upper court deal with it right i mean

00:57:49.540 That's my fear, is that it gets accepted just because the courts are afraid to adjudicate.

00:57:56.640 But we might get lucky.

00:57:57.640 We might get a judge who finally says, enough is enough, man.

00:58:01.640 Like, this is, you know, this is citizens.

00:58:04.280 Like, explain to me how they stopped me from collecting signatures.

00:58:08.700 Are they going to come arrest me because after the injunction, I'm still on the side of the road collecting signatures?

00:58:12.940 They're going to say, well, you can't collect them on the sheets we gave you.

00:58:15.660 I'm like, okay, I don't give a shit.

00:58:16.980 I'll collect them on my own sheets.

00:58:20.320 Like it's, you know, like that's where we're-

00:58:22.040 They'll say you're collecting signatures on treaty land.

00:58:23.840 Yeah, yeah.

00:58:24.420 Like that's where we're at.

00:58:25.620 This is wild.

00:58:27.780 I don't know what the, yeah, you need to interview Mitch and Jeff.

00:58:31.080 I'm sure Jeff has an opinion.

00:58:32.300 I actually haven't heard Jeff.

00:58:33.300 What has Jeff said about the injunction?

00:58:35.160 Have they said anything specific or-

00:58:37.260 I don't know if he said much.

00:58:38.560 Don't think too much.

00:58:39.680 The other thing is this injunction, maybe the wording's weak.

00:58:43.460 Maybe it's stronger than we think.

00:58:46.620 Even if it's weak, it's still a delay tactic.

00:58:51.360 It's still wasting resources.

00:58:52.880 It's still putting fear.

00:58:54.220 It's still one of those things that it's trying to derail,

00:58:59.320 and they're throwing almost everything that they can just to slow us down.

00:59:06.420 Yeah, again, this is so bonkers, right?

00:59:10.080 It's half a dozen First Nations who launched the injunction,

00:59:13.660 And then immediately after that, they jumped on a plane and flew to England to go meet with the king.

00:59:18.860 And like, aren't a lot of them from Saskatchewan as well?

00:59:22.120 Like out of the bands that were like, only a few of them were Alberta.

00:59:27.580 So like, I mean, I keep reminding the folks that I'm hanging out with, eye on the prize, eye on the prize, get some signatures, collect them fast and don't worry about this.

00:59:39.140 It's already bad, but you're right.

00:59:40.540 It's already bad enough.

00:59:41.400 I mean, I hate collecting the signatures under their terms.

00:59:46.300 I feel gross when I'm doing it.

00:59:48.500 Like it just like literally to the point,

00:59:50.440 like here's the sheet you're supposed to use.

00:59:52.820 You put the signature here.

00:59:54.460 Here's what you're supposed to ask.

00:59:56.260 Write it in blue ink, like almost to that point.

00:59:59.500 And it just drives me nuts.

01:00:03.160 But and then I know that if we comply and we do it,

01:00:07.080 they're going to change the goalposts.

01:00:08.180 That's what they're doing on us right now.

01:00:09.520 That's what it feels like anyways.

01:00:11.400 yeah more of the same man well hey like god bless you marty i mean i wish i wish we had

01:00:17.840 50 of you on every side of the road because then this this campaign would be over in a week

01:00:22.060 we'd be at half a million signatures so thanks for everything there are plenty kudos to a lot

01:00:26.520 of people out there i mean i i do get a lot of attention but that's because of my platform but

01:00:30.540 there are it's the pareto rule right the parade as an engineer i love that rule that uh

01:00:36.040 uh, 80% of the work is being done by 20% of the people.

01:00:40.600 And that's not a good or bad thing.

01:00:42.540 It's just statistically always the way it is.

01:00:44.620 And so I know that there's theoretically about, you know, uh,

01:00:49.600 700 people like me out there doing God's work.

01:00:53.080 Like, I mean, there's a young guy north of me here in, uh, in Airdrie.

01:00:57.040 He's got me blown out of the water.

01:00:58.560 That kid's had like 1400 signatures, like God bless him.

01:01:02.520 And, uh, yeah, yeah.

01:01:04.260 Yeah.

01:01:04.600 yeah everybody needs to do this it's awesome yeah yeah thanks for having me man like uh

01:01:08.900 hopefully i didn't give anybody because you get clipped everybody gets clipped hopefully uh

01:01:13.560 um hopefully i didn't say anything that uh that'll be too damaging

01:01:18.860 hey nothing that we we haven't said ourselves before and less eloquently so

01:01:25.380 no this is great man hey what what um are you are you doing much as far as any like speaking

01:01:31.320 engagements or anything like with stay free alberta anything you want to let people know

01:01:35.020 about or just just on the side of the road collecting your signatures no i'm starting a

01:01:39.420 speaking engagement with uh it's going to be uh so jason levine's organizing this uh we have a

01:01:46.320 week's worth of date so jason's done he's uh he did one up north jason's busy promoting the shot

01:01:52.480 right or no is it called the shot yeah it's the shot right yeah uh but jason's story yeah jason's

01:01:58.900 organize a speaking tour with me and Tanya Clemens and I love Tanya like she's a great voice for

01:02:04.620 do you guys know Tanya or have you met Tanya or I have not met her yet she's she's um she's a

01:02:11.680 farmer from down in Okotoks she used to be in Strathmore but very very very very um amazing

01:02:20.320 voice for the movement like I wish we had more like her and Jason has a winning formula he knows

01:02:26.280 that, you know, he's going to put us both on stage, a man and a woman, and then we talk to

01:02:31.220 each other and then take questions from the crowd because we know, you know, I'm not everybody's

01:02:35.680 cup of tea, right? Like women don't particularly, like my audience is not women. And, but anyway,

01:02:41.860 so Jason's got us visiting Banff and Canmore. We're going to hit sort of the tougher towns

01:02:51.880 and I'm going on a speaking tour in those tougher towns

01:02:55.760 near the end of the month.

01:02:57.080 I think it's March 30, 31, and then April 1, 2, 3

01:03:01.620 kind of thing in Southern Alberta.

01:03:03.140 Details to come out under Jason,

01:03:04.660 but me and Tanya basically on stage chatting

01:03:07.880 and she's like interviewer someday.

01:03:10.780 She's a fantastic voice for the movement.

01:03:12.740 Really good.

01:03:13.700 Yeah.

01:03:14.520 Awesome.

01:03:15.180 That's amazing.

01:03:15.860 Well, we'll make sure to shout that out when that happens.

01:03:18.820 Hey, thank you again as always, man.

01:03:20.400 we always, always appreciate you having, having come,

01:03:23.240 coming on the show and chatting with us and giving us your time. It's, it's,

01:03:26.360 it's always a treat and, uh, and we look forward to the next one.

01:03:29.540 Awesome. Cheers, everyone.

The Critical Compass Podcast - March 17, 2026

MartyUpNorth Exposes the TRUTH About Canvassing for Alberta Independence

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