Responding to Alberta Independence Fearmongers feat. Leighton Grey, John Carpay, Shawn Buckley
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
154.14186
Summary
In this episode, we talk with Jason Levine, the man, the myth, the legend, and the man in charge of the petition to have Alberta vote yes or no to independence from Canada. We also hear from Leighton Pritchard and Sean Buckley, two people who have long-time ties to the province and have been involved in the independence movement since the beginning.
Transcript
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All right, we're here with the man, the myth, the legend, Jason Levine.
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Hey, talk about an event, hey, that was pretty cool for early January in Red Deer.
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That's a great way to start off, 2026, I do believe, and I like some of the speakers who
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are talking about the optimism for 2026. We're at a turning point, and we had a lot of people
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talking about hope, like Sean Buckley. He actually highlighted how he's actually optimistic
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because of the audience that showed up, the energy in that room. We had over 3,000 people
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Now, there wasn't only the event going on here today. Behind us, we actually have people
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still lined up from this morning around the block, around the entire building here, the
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church, to sign the petition for the Alberta referendum on independence. You have some
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A hundred percent. At first, we had one lady reach out, and she's like, hey, do you mind
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if I collect some signatures? And we're like, well, we'll set you up in the lobby because
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then nobody needs a ticket to come in. Just come in and do your business. And it grew to,
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I think, like seven or eight people taking signatures, and they still can't keep up with
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that line. Something magical is happening here in Red Deer, right in the center of Alberta.
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And all it took was a couple of posts online to let people know where they can go today.
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And I think we're going to have to keep the doors open a little bit longer.
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I think the big important part with the referendum question is it is, for lack of a better word,
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democratic. You have the right to say yes, you have the right to say no, as you pointed
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Yeah, it's just a bit of history. There's a piece of land out there in the Atlantic
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that we now call Newfoundland. It was called Newfoundland back then. They were very cozy
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with the Americans during the World War II because this was a launching point for naval and air force
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ships. It was the closest to the U.S. And around the end of the Second World War, the guys in Ottawa
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were very worried that Newfoundland was going to join the United States. And so it turns out
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Newfoundland just had a referendum. It was very close. They decided to join Canada. And the guys in
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Ottawa basically signed a deal with Newfoundland. And I asked around and I don't know anybody in Alberta
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that got a vote in that. So it seems to me, if that's part of our history of Canada, not so distant
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history, why should the rest of Canada have a say in whether or not Alberta stays in it? I mean,
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as a lawyer, it seems to me there's, precedent's been set.
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What Leighton said aligns also with the Supreme Court of Canada ruling in 1998, the Quebec
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secession reference. If the majority of the voters of a province vote to leave, and if it's a clear
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question, then the federal government and the rest of the provinces really have no choice but to
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negotiate the details of what is going to happen. Sean? Well, I view this as just really politically
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conflating the issue. Because the reality is, is if, you know, a clear majority of Albertans vote
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to leave Canada, that any way you slice that, that's viewed as a mandate in Alberta to leave Canada.
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And if it, you know, Czechoslovakia, you know, Yugoslavia, any other ethnic or political group
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making such a vote, the rest of the world says, no, you have the right. So I think this is really just
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politics. The, you know, so it's just kind of conflating, and it's theatre, and it's distracting.
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And, you know, the goal from, you know, those that oppose Alberta separation will be to conflate,
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will be to fear monger, will be to, you know, kind of point the other direction. So I just view this
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as political maneuvering that really has no weight. Because the reality is, again, if there was a
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clear mandate within Alberta, this province is going to view that as a mandate to leave. And that
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is a problem for the rest of Canada, regardless how they want to frame it.
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We've talked, CNN, we're on the topic of Alberta independence. Indigenous comes up quite a bit,
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latent. And CNN, you know, you get that title. Share with us your views on treaties. And, you know,
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this concept that somehow that the Indigenous population have the right to veto other people's
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Well, for those who weren't here, and I was talking earlier, the numbers don't support this.
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It's a fraction of 1% of people living on reserve. So if this were all the richest people in Alberta
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saying this, we would all be up in arms, right? That's one thing. Secondly, the treaties are not part of
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the body of constitutional law. The judiciary, and Bruce can talk better than I can about this,
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but the judiciary has really pumped up the relevance of the treaties. It used to be that,
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you know, they were somewhere between a contract between two voluntary parties and an international
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treaty. But what's happened now with decisions like this Cowichan decision in BC, which is basically
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wiping out individual property rights, I think what we have to be concerned about is really
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certain Indigenous leaders who have been corrupted, they're operating essentially as NGOs, they're being
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paid to send a certain message. And they don't, this is the biggest key, they don't accurately
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represent what everyday Indigenous people, Indian people in Alberta want, okay? They're just like you
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and me, okay? And that's important to remember. And I'll just say one final thing. No First Nation,
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if you want to call it that, or Indian Reserve, as we used to call them in Canada, has as good a deal
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anywhere in Canada, as the Métis have right here in Alberta. If Indian people want to see a useful
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partnership between a government and an Indigenous group, what's happened in Alberta with our Métis
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people should be the model for the rest of the country. So I would say to them, I do say to them,
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you'll get a lot better deal in Alberta than you'll get from Canada.