The Critical Compass Podcast - October 02, 2026


U of A Students Defend Equalization & Challenge Independence

Mentioned
Donald Trump Keith Ellison Danielle Smith Pierre Trudeau Lawrence Seaway Alberta Decide Rory
How to Beat Regime Media ｜ Derek Fildebrandt, Jason Lavigne, & The Critical Compass

Episode Stats


Length

35 minutes

Words per minute

177.82

Word count

6,250

Sentence count

195

Harmful content

Misogyny

4

sentences flagged

Toxicity

16

sentences flagged

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 but i would say you know i understand that but what i'm saying though is like on the on the raw
00:00:05.040 numbers if we're if we're giving so much more like we don't the point is that we don't require the
00:00:11.200 federal investment we don't require the 50 billion dollars you know if we stopped giving 70. you'll 0.97
00:00:16.480 say okay i have my truth but i'd say okay this is stupid this is not even like this whole debate 1.00
00:00:22.800 right now it's not even based on is it stupid or did you realize that you got caught in a logical 0.99
00:00:26.960 policy, even if it's unpopular. That's been a lovely time. Yeah, likewise. 0.98
00:00:31.040 Your opinion is stupid. Okay. Hey, lovely time. I would never say that to you, but thanks for the 1.00
00:00:36.320 chat. I mean, if you're a, like, I don't particularly care if you're a liberal or
00:00:41.600 conservative or a libertarian or a communist. It doesn't matter. Everyone who lives in Alberta
00:00:46.600 will just benefit from having $20 billion stay here rather than leave. Do you disagree?
00:00:52.140 That is true. But Canada is the second biggest nation on earth. Not every nation actually has provinces of our size or population.
00:01:01.140 I agree. Canada is too big.
00:01:04.140 We're the 11th biggest economy ever. But why not use our wealth to help other people who share our values?
00:01:11.140 Sure. There's an argument to be made for being a good neighbour. I understand that.
00:01:15.140 now is would you see would you say that it's being a good neighbor for ottawa and quebec
00:01:20.580 ontario and quebec to consistently vote for policy that stifles our oil production while at the same
00:01:26.340 time importing 150 000 barrels of saudi dictator oil a day through the house export is that being
00:01:32.980 a good neighbor to us but that was a decision from the like the federal government and provincial
00:01:38.980 government like negotiated a deal with like i believe it was karchen to have a pipeline go
00:01:45.260 south to the states rather than across canada like yeah we have one now that goes through
00:01:49.000 yeah but instead of investing more into going across canada like alberta and american companies
00:01:56.900 that are like the ones who own a lot of our oil and gas wanted to have their um like what they
00:02:06.480 own and there's why going down to like texas and indiziana they're fine yeah yeah that's not really
00:02:12.880 in totally a government choice that's more of an economic choice that we sell way more to the
00:02:21.420 states yeah well we sell approximately 90 of our resource resources to the states our oil comes
00:02:27.800 from wells in the middle of a certain desert it's a lot harder to process so that's why it is it is
00:02:33.560 But is that an argument for buying dictator oil
00:02:36.260 instead of Canadians supporting Canadians?
00:02:39.320 I don't see...
00:02:40.840 Shipping container across the Atlantic Ocean
00:02:43.800 and through the St. Lawrence Seaway?
00:02:46.080 When you want to make an economic argument
00:02:47.960 that pipelines are dangerous,
00:02:49.600 but it's perfectly fine to put them on container ships
00:02:52.220 in the middle of the most populous part of Canada?
00:02:56.060 There's two separate arguments.
00:02:57.400 You can't argue for environmental friendliness
00:03:00.820 as well as buying oil from a dictator.
00:03:03.160 Our other nations have other types of governing structures.
00:03:07.540 We have our own, they have our own.
00:03:10.260 But you're talking about being a good neighbor, about helping out Canadians, right?
00:03:13.820 But aren't we due to some of that same consideration?
00:03:17.460 How so?
00:03:18.700 Well, wouldn't you expect that we should be, Canada should, Canadians should be our own customers?
00:03:24.200 Like we should be our number one customers?
00:03:25.880 Yes, and with the Buy Canada group, we just have done that.
00:03:29.580 But there's also the argument that was the Heavy Materials Convention in the States and Canada.
00:03:36.560 We didn't want a huge amount of heavy materials for saluting our homes, our businesses.
00:03:42.760 We'd also be seeing this.
00:03:44.980 So we shipped that off to China and shipped that off to other nations so we could have the advantage of having this environment.
00:03:51.780 And Pierre Elliott Trudeau already legislated for a while during, like, in the 70s.
00:03:59.580 that all can't all oil and natural gas from canada should be sold to canada before anywhere else
00:04:07.580 and is that happening though no alberta pushed against it they hated it because it meant that
00:04:13.100 you got less money you could sell out oil for less money right like oh that's the
00:04:19.180 oh like albertans they hated trudeau after that like he was the liberals were unelectable for
00:04:25.420 decades and we're not largely because yeah they still are well there there are a number of other
00:04:29.340 things with with resource sharing acts and things like that but the national energy policy was know
00:04:33.820 how that's within the best interest of even alberta to fully to just like mandate that we have to sell
00:04:41.020 oil to the rest of the country like it would be good if they would just buy it from us yeah no
00:04:46.300 doubt but like we should sell it to the highest shitter sure like sure say even the americans
00:04:52.540 yeah exactly and if the americans are willing to pay more and right now with the pipelines that's
00:04:56.860 wait like we get way more money that's a very conservative position i don't know that people
00:05:01.660 necessarily maybe in your uh in your friend group would it would always agree with that the americans
00:05:06.220 are the best yeah but the americans are the best buyer then we should sell to them no well that's
00:05:10.060 not how the global trade system works oil prices are set by the international meeting and everyone
00:05:15.420 buys for the same price no we sell way less like we sell at a lower price to the americans
00:05:22.460 and it would yeah if we could explore yeah a lot of that is volume based yeah yeah because they
00:05:29.260 buy 90 of our resources already as it is right yeah like they yeah and that's not just oil but
00:05:34.460 that's that's sulfur and that's other you know other alberta is a very resource rich province
00:05:40.060 for sure like we're we're actually a very unique piece of land in the world state but regardless
00:05:45.100 of getting in the weeds of this type of stuff like isn't it better if we if we keep more of that
00:05:50.780 resource revenue for ourselves rather than
00:05:53.060 giving it to Ottawa so that they can
00:05:54.980 maybe... Like right now a lot of our
00:05:56.880 revenue is going to the states right now.
00:05:58.680 Big foreign companies. Well, just speaking
00:06:00.840 about equalization and...
00:06:02.580 Yeah, but we have way more money leaving
00:06:04.660 Alberta and
00:06:06.760 going to the states.
00:06:08.580 We could capture way more of the revenue
00:06:10.760 if it was owned by
00:06:11.920 Alberta companies
00:06:13.720 or Canadian companies. That's a fair argument
00:06:16.980 to have. But do you think
00:06:18.900 the canadian government right now is friendly to those types of business interests specifically
00:06:23.940 related to the united states what do you mean fret like or do you think there's a lot of people will
00:06:29.300 talk about risk when you talk about you know uncertainty in business right business doesn't
00:06:34.260 like uncertainty right do you think that canada is right now specifically with our relationship
00:06:41.140 to the us are we providing a welcome business environment for american interests or for
00:06:46.420 of a Canadian interest in South of the U.S.?
00:06:48.000 Do you think?
00:06:49.840 Oh, do you know how much of the Trump's tariffs
00:06:53.580 affect Alberta industry?
00:06:55.180 Yeah, it's about 1%.
00:06:57.820 Yeah, but it affects, I think it's close to 12% or 13%
00:07:00.780 for Ontario and Quebec. 0.94
00:07:02.200 Yeah, exactly.
00:07:06.140 So my point is that we don't actually have to be getting
00:07:10.560 into a trade war with the world's largest economy
00:07:13.520 and our most our closest ally for just said that alberta hasn't really best done yeah right
00:07:19.380 like what's only if it's only one percent of our exports that would be terrific like is alberta
00:07:25.960 really conversation like our trade isn't being well but but do you think that that the federal
00:07:32.400 government wants to maintain that or do you think they want to change it well we can negotiate our
00:07:41.020 own agreement leverage would alberta have to associate any sort of lsu well we have the third
00:07:45.760 largest oil reserves on the planet 51st states yeah but venezuela saudi arabia and then us like
00:07:51.160 the second most expensive to like whole yeah we have great processing over here for sure yeah we
00:07:57.620 process our we have we have great coal processing we have the cleanest we have we process oil and
00:08:03.140 gas and coal in natural gas cleanest out of any countries in the world like our our natural gas
00:08:09.600 is squeaky flame.
00:08:11.560 4K for the way that it's taken out of the ground.
00:08:15.020 But if you have to refine it less,
00:08:16.580 it's less energy intensive.
00:08:18.320 Okay.
00:08:19.060 Like having just...
00:08:21.240 But you don't think negotiating our own agreements
00:08:22.900 with other nations is a good thing?
00:08:24.960 I think that if we negotiated our own agreements 0.63
00:08:27.040 between our ex-country and the maniac president 0.96
00:08:31.900 who wants to integrate us into the Iraqis.
00:08:33.840 Do you think that the only thing that's stopping Trump
00:08:36.180 from integrating Canada is the United Canada?
00:08:38.840 Like, what do you think is stopping him from doing it now?
00:08:40.960 Oh, there's no sense of weakness in making us a weaker, more isolated country that would, you know, depend on the states arguing the war with our separations, I guess.
00:08:51.400 Why would we do that to ourselves so that ourselves can have it?
00:08:54.080 Well, because I don't think that we would have as an adversarial of a relationship as we have now.
00:08:58.200 Even with Trump imposing 50% tariffs across the country.
00:09:01.880 Well, I think he's imposing it on primarily industry
00:09:06.160 that Ontario and Quebec are threatening America's situation.
00:09:11.100 There's no doubt that, like, listen, I'm not a huge Trump fan.
00:09:13.700 Like, I'm not as, you know, you're not going to catch me, like,
00:09:17.180 supporting Donald Trump on probably most of those.
00:09:19.940 But I just think that the idea that we have to, like,
00:09:22.800 that we're going to, you know, stand up to Trump,
00:09:25.540 like, we're nothing.
00:09:26.400 We're nothing compared to the U.S.
00:09:28.020 We have no leverage right now.
00:09:29.840 We have no militaries.
00:09:30.800 Our economy is smaller
00:09:33.220 Than the economy of California
00:09:35.280 Like this
00:09:36.680 This is not a real debate
00:09:38.860 Unless we'd have a smaller economy
00:09:41.560 Per independent 0.92
00:09:42.240 But when you're talking about per capita wealth
00:09:45.580 That's really the concern
00:09:47.720 How it hurts
00:09:49.140 We could be the wealthiest nation
00:09:51.900 On our per capita wealth
00:09:53.240 Luxembourg
00:09:55.560 Has about 140,000 per person
00:09:57.620 But they have
00:09:58.060 They have almost no presence on the water stage.
00:10:02.180 They have the highest...
00:10:02.820 They have almost no resources either.
00:10:04.440 They have the highest...
00:10:05.140 But just for the per capita business,
00:10:07.260 seeing Ireland, I don't know, that's 140,000 per person.
00:10:10.000 They have some of the highest wealths that's happened
00:10:11.860 in the entire world.
00:10:12.940 But because their population was so small
00:10:14.280 and their whole general gross semester product was so small,
00:10:17.500 because their population is small,
00:10:19.600 they don't have levers to do it.
00:10:22.640 They can't be strong on anybody.
00:10:24.700 For sure.
00:10:25.520 But then it's a good thing that we have
00:10:26.700 the third largest oil reserves on the planet, isn't it?
00:10:29.600 What's the point of
00:10:30.840 being the most wealthy nation?
00:10:32.940 What would be the most
00:10:34.960 wealthy nation?
00:10:36.440 If Alberta suffered, and we were the wealthiest
00:10:39.000 nation, would that actually
00:10:40.540 bring to... We are now in a place
00:10:42.960 building and landlocked.
00:10:44.820 Well, I just don't buy that being
00:10:46.760 landlocked is a disadvantage. Switzerland is
00:10:48.860 landlocked.
00:10:49.680 How many countries are in it?
00:10:52.060 Switzerland is an intrigue.
00:10:53.640 They have a full deal
00:10:56.280 integrating yeah in the schengen zone yeah and we we have the world's largest economy on our
00:11:01.240 southern border yeah yeah and but it wouldn't necessarily be fighting with an independent
00:11:07.160 alberta how would it not well because like i said we wouldn't we wouldn't our economy would be based
00:11:13.720 on what our real production capacity could be unencumbered by the regulatory state of canada 0.80
00:11:20.280 unencumbered by fake environmental policy unencumbered by you know dick measuring premier
00:11:27.480 prime ministers and presidents like i'm not actually cons like trump is going to be president
00:11:31.320 for what two and a half more years like we're we're talking long term so you think trump goes
00:11:36.520 away and then like the way the republican party is currently acting is going to change
00:11:43.080 certainly the republic the republican establishment doesn't like trump either
00:11:46.440 I don't think that the Republicans
00:11:51.340 are going to be winning anything for a long time.
00:11:52.880 Even if he has the presidential
00:11:54.700 candidates in the premieres of us,
00:11:57.900 Alberta would now need a new leader
00:11:59.480 who would now need to go and negotiate
00:12:01.100 new treaties. For sure.
00:12:02.680 So we'd still have all the politics.
00:12:04.900 Well, add more to it.
00:12:06.540 You're never going to escape the politics.
00:12:08.780 Of course. But you can
00:12:10.440 that you don't want to do that dick kind of job. 0.99
00:12:13.220 Even though severing Alberta 0.99
00:12:14.780 would just add another person 0.88
00:12:16.600 to the conference.
00:12:18.560 But it would also shed
00:12:20.500 a huge bloated bureaucratic
00:12:23.000 state
00:12:23.320 that we currently finance
00:12:26.660 to right now the tune of about $20.
00:12:28.720 And that fluctuates year over year, but
00:12:30.420 Alberta has never received any
00:12:32.480 equalization, I think since 1959
00:12:35.120 or 16, something like that.
00:12:36.640 Really need the hesitation.
00:12:38.340 During COVID, Alberta
00:12:40.460 got a bunch of money for the federal government.
00:12:43.100 A lot of money was distributed
00:12:44.680 of course yeah but it was like
00:12:46.260 for a tablet just because
00:12:48.020 it's boring as much
00:12:49.480 yeah you know a lot of this stuff is
00:12:52.560 self-imposed though right like there's
00:12:54.220 a lot of problems that
00:12:56.160 Ottawa is the source
00:12:58.580 of that just eliminating that
00:13:00.220 relieves us
00:13:01.500 what are these specific problems
00:13:03.180 well I don't
00:13:06.540 I don't want to send you know
00:13:08.300 5 or 10 or 20 billion dollars to Ukraine
00:13:10.480 every 6 o'clock
00:13:11.200 I don't want to do that I don't want my money to go 1.00
00:13:14.380 to pay for eastern europeans to kill each other so we're that's you know ukraine's not part of me 0.99
00:13:19.980 though or so canada is part of me sure and you know okay well so okay regardless of the of the
00:13:28.300 you know the legalistic argument do you agree with sending millions of dollars to ukraine for eastern
00:13:33.340 europeans to better be able to kill each other like morally do you agree with that i agree that
00:13:38.780 a dictator shouldn't be able to have a special military operation that turns into a film okay
00:13:43.820 Is it our job to finance that with our taxes halfway across the world?
00:13:49.080 It's really.
00:13:50.660 We have more than we need.
00:13:52.340 Why not get everyone out there?
00:13:53.900 We don't have more than we need.
00:13:55.120 We have veterans in our military living homeless on the streets.
00:13:59.440 Full of beautiful Americans.
00:14:00.920 One of the wealthiest nations in the world.
00:14:03.120 We have full boats.
00:14:04.680 We have.
00:14:05.180 Some of us do.
00:14:06.120 Some of us.
00:14:06.600 I think that we shouldn't.
00:14:08.100 The homeless argument and separating Alberta would do absolutely nothing.
00:14:12.200 You don't think the $20 billion that we gain overnight
00:14:14.440 would be able to help address it almost next?
00:14:16.200 I think it's also way higher.
00:14:17.780 Just because you have $20 million,
00:14:20.760 so go away.
00:14:21.220 Billion.
00:14:21.900 Billion?
00:14:22.680 Okay, $20 billion just go away pretty quick.
00:14:25.120 And you need to figure out some full immigration separate.
00:14:29.460 You need to have a full separate military negotiations.
00:14:32.820 Lots of countries don't have militaries.
00:14:35.040 Lots of countries don't.
00:14:35.680 Yeah, but you'd still need to figure out some way
00:14:38.900 To, like, have the bureaucratic support and oversight to figure out what you're doing.
00:14:44.520 You know, you know, everything.
00:14:46.000 Democracy, if you're in a country, right?
00:14:47.700 Like, a lot of that.
00:14:49.480 And regardless, like, United States is going to be, like, right now, they're going to be America first.
00:14:55.300 How is it America first to go, like, make an easier deal? 0.81
00:15:00.460 Good argument.
00:15:01.120 That just made, if Alberta becomes independent, that just made their negotiating position way worse.
00:15:08.160 me who's negotiated the worst like alberta would have way less leverage if it's independent i just
00:15:15.300 don't think that we would because how much are you've given you know just said over 70 percent
00:15:19.860 of our oil goes 90 90 sorry 90 yeah yeah monopoly on buying or yeah but now what i'm saying is that
00:15:27.780 exists regardless okay they're our biggest customer yes yeah what i'm sorry actual leverage
00:15:35.740 how would you decrease how would you better decrease that leverage by being independent
00:15:43.900 okay let me let me ask you this before i tried to say this in a different way if i made an economic
00:15:50.380 case that our oil fields would be able to better finance the province and whatever social issue
00:15:58.140 you happen to be concerned with would that convince you to vote for alberta to be independent
00:16:02.700 If I made the economic case, Rory?
00:16:05.820 Nice.
00:16:06.760 If you had a full economic case and then you also had some actual solution for immigration and how you're going to negotiate with other countries and international relations and how you're going to negotiate with Ottawa.
00:16:22.740 If everything was laid out and there was actually a case for it, then yeah.
00:16:26.400 Okay, if I pointed you to a 200-page white paper that was produced by a constitutional lawyer based in St. Albert.
00:16:33.960 And AI?
00:16:35.120 No.
00:16:35.500 Like, isn't most still alive?
00:16:37.260 No.
00:16:37.600 It's still possible.
00:16:38.820 There's no way to prove that or not.
00:16:41.060 I'm sure you could analyze it.
00:16:43.200 No, like, do you know who Keith Wilson is?
00:16:45.880 Keith Wilson is a constitutional lawyer from St. Albert.
00:16:49.100 He's founded the TPA, Let Alberta Decide.
00:16:52.980 He's like, he's a megamon.
00:16:55.660 like he's legit you know there's lots of there's lots of really smart people involved in this
00:16:59.820 movement there's lots of maybe less savory characters involved with this movement as well
00:17:06.800 but you still have not gone back to the previous point well let me let me you said no you said no
00:17:12.760 if i made the economic case that still wouldn't be enough to convince you so so what is really
00:17:17.060 the thing that holds you up there's no proof that you can actually provide that i guess no no but
00:17:21.120 i'm just i'm just like hypothetically if i could would that be enough to convince you to vote to
00:17:25.440 separate no okay so then what what is really the thing that's holding back right i understand it's
00:17:30.720 not the economics right because in this scenario i made a case that you found convincing for the
00:17:35.360 economic argument i think that canada is stronger together so yeah by having so what does that mean
00:17:41.040 canada is stronger together like what do you mean when you say
00:17:46.320 free move we now have free movement in all europe ideas no we don't even as an association
00:17:51.760 Well, we're not associate members yet.
00:17:53.760 So you're cool with being a member of the...
00:17:56.520 I'm just like...
00:17:57.300 So...
00:17:59.720 I'm not a member, it was an associate.
00:18:03.300 So, but did anyone vote for that?
00:18:06.740 Did anyone vote to become a member of the...
00:18:09.340 No, but I think it was a necessary decision.
00:18:11.440 We're actively in a trade with.
00:18:17.260 We are actively in a trade with.
00:18:19.180 Do you think that any of that is of our own doing,
00:18:21.240 or it's all Trump?
00:18:23.300 I'd say like
00:18:24.460 90% Trump.
00:18:27.420 90% Trump, okay.
00:18:28.700 Are you guys familiar with
00:18:30.620 the dairy cartel?
00:18:33.560 We go back,
00:18:34.720 having other facts yet,
00:18:36.460 we'll be back to how you planned
00:18:38.040 to increase the leverage
00:18:39.600 when you're independent.
00:18:43.040 I think I made that argument.
00:18:45.720 That we're not going to be subject
00:18:47.300 to the same sort of anti-business policy,
00:18:49.600 fake environmental policy,
00:18:51.640 Leverage.
00:18:52.460 Leverage. 0.88
00:18:53.320 Right.
00:18:54.080 You don't think that that would give us leverage?
00:18:56.620 How would that give us leverage in a negotiation?
00:18:59.620 We produce oil now at about half of the capacity that we know them better.
00:19:04.620 Okay?
00:19:05.220 That's imposed on us by auto.
00:19:06.900 Because, my love, how is it imposed for us?
00:19:09.400 Because they impose environmental regulation on us.
00:19:12.320 Environmental regulation is, there's no environmental regulation capping our...
00:19:17.620 Yes, there are.
00:19:18.520 There's carbon caps.
00:19:19.180 Yes, there are.
00:19:19.880 There's carbon caps, of course.
00:19:21.240 you don't think that we're rid of the carbon uh or sorry though there was never a cap on our
00:19:27.820 oil that was getting pulled out of the ground somebody's gonna have to fact check on that
00:19:32.100 cap on the carbon emissions from the oil sands and that was taken away and it was carbon emissions
00:19:41.420 like yeah but there was never a cap there's like it's fully economics and yeah maybe fact check
00:19:48.680 I think that our environmental policy is important to the safe wildlife and save our environments.
00:19:54.400 And they should base our industry off of extracting as much support.
00:19:59.140 Is this going under the assumption that if Alberta became this type of country,
00:20:03.380 Alberta just might not care about the environment?
00:20:06.220 No, of course not.
00:20:07.180 No, I don't think that there will ever be a scenario where there's zero regulation.
00:20:10.040 Because there's still going to be lots of regulations.
00:20:11.620 Is that production and regulations that you propose would happen,
00:20:15.640 And is that enough to offset all the economic downturn that we have from becoming?
00:20:21.340 Well, why are you assuming that we would have economic downturn?
00:20:23.880 You don't think business would enjoy a softened regulatory environment?
00:20:28.840 You don't think business likes softened regulatory environment?
00:20:31.960 No, I have a harder border to get our goods to class.
00:20:35.520 Even if we went through the states.
00:20:37.180 What harder border?
00:20:38.340 Like with our explanation.
00:20:39.400 So you're working under the assumption that Canada would choose to act punitively against an independent Alberta?
00:20:46.880 I don't think they'd have it. Not even if it's direct.
00:20:49.660 Okay, so that's a pretty wild thing to admit.
00:20:52.880 You think that even if Alberta voted democratically to become its own nation,
00:20:57.360 which is under our power to do so under the 1998 Quebec separation reference case,
00:21:02.260 you think that Canada wouldn't let us, and also, even if we forced our way into doing it,
00:21:09.180 would impose draconian trade restrictions on us.
00:21:14.000 That's a pretty dim view of the federal government.
00:21:16.580 You think that they would actively, punitively...
00:21:19.440 I think that in total, might wins.
00:21:22.800 Canada and Alberta making ourselves smaller,
00:21:25.820 even with the Canadian military.
00:21:27.920 I don't want to be a part of a government that would do that.
00:21:30.040 I want to be a part of a government where cooler heads would prevail
00:21:34.240 and they would say that actually it's in everyone's best interest.
00:21:37.900 And it's a cooler heads
00:21:38.940 or prevail movement?
00:21:40.160 Yeah.
00:21:40.300 Like, wouldn't cooler heads
00:21:41.300 prevail movement be, like,
00:21:43.040 actually try and sit down
00:21:44.220 at a table with Ottawa? 1.00
00:21:45.680 Well, Alberta's been trying 1.00
00:21:46.780 to do that since the 70s.
00:21:48.940 Like, the Alberta independence
00:21:50.120 movement is not a new thing.
00:21:51.640 Like, we've been...
00:21:52.300 Actually, probably even earlier
00:21:53.320 than the 70s,
00:21:54.140 but 70s, it was really quite active.
00:21:56.660 We had a Separatist MLA
00:21:59.140 in the 80s.
00:22:00.880 Yeah, and I think, like...
00:22:02.420 But, I mean, nothing's happened.
00:22:04.240 Does the popularity
00:22:05.500 of a political movement
00:22:06.660 determine whether it's right or not i'd say generally like if a movement has more people
00:22:12.300 who agree with it like yeah just based off democratic acquisition or based off the democratic
00:22:18.120 process i think for the most part if it can't even get to like 20 or 30 then it's probably just
00:22:26.820 like not the smartest thing well i'll give you an extreme example just to just illustrate why i asked
00:22:32.620 There was a point in time where people believed that black people were proper, right?
00:22:38.060 That was the majority view that people, but that was wrong, right? 0.95
00:22:43.360 Of everyone?
00:22:44.740 Yeah, there was a majority view in the United States.
00:22:47.560 I mean, this is American politics, but there was a majority view that African-Americans were property that could be bought and sold.
00:22:55.200 Yeah, of course, it's a philosophical movement.
00:22:57.140 But that's why I asked, like, you know, just because something is, well, just because something's,
00:23:02.620 unpopular doesn't mean it's the wrong position and vice versa and they fund an entire civil war
00:23:07.900 and the entire european yeah because mines changed and you know people's that's what we're trying to
00:23:12.220 do we're trying to change minds you know if we change enough minds where let's say that the
00:23:15.740 referendum got a 60 65 in favor of separation would you guys agree with it then no but that's
00:23:23.180 but it's the majority view no you would be in the minority okay okay we get 80 in favor of
00:23:30.380 independence would you then agree that that's the right move i'd yeah if you could if 80 of people
00:23:36.220 agreed with it i would say that will probably show but it's at least at that moment given the
00:23:41.820 information okay so you're not you're not parsing information then through a truth filter you're
00:23:45.980 parsing information through a consensus filter i would say okay i have my truth but i'd say 0.96
00:23:52.300 okay this is stupid this is not even like this whole debate right now it's not even 1.00
00:23:56.220 Is it stupid or did you realize 1.00
00:23:58.360 That you got caught in a logical fallacy 1.00
00:23:59.940 It's not a logical fallacy
00:24:01.560 What I believe in
00:24:03.880 I don't even know why I need to explain this
00:24:06.260 You don't need to do anything
00:24:07.980 I'm happy to have
00:24:10.500 I'm a former philosophy grad
00:24:12.280 From this university actually
00:24:13.400 This is my bread and butter
00:24:15.040 I would say there's a difference
00:24:18.140 Between what I perceive as true
00:24:20.480 And what I
00:24:21.660 Like if what the broader
00:24:24.380 Society would believe is like
00:24:26.140 okay so then you so you have a subjectivist view of truth so i would say that there just is truth
00:24:32.260 okay and people can be right or wrong like from my previous example it was always wrong
00:24:38.560 for black people to be treated as property regardless of if most people believed that 0.90
00:24:43.620 that was right so that's an objective truth it's always wrong that is your that's not
00:24:49.020 i'm not advocating for that but that is your own personal truth it's not mine it's it is just the
00:24:54.500 truth. You can't treat people as property. But everyone has a different moral practice. 300 years ago.
00:25:00.820 Why are we doing subjectively? Why are we doing subjective moralism? We've gone so far away from
00:25:05.700 the problem. No, because you guys have said that the initial, the reason why we went down that
00:25:11.220 rabbit hole was because you guys had said that the independence movement has not been popular
00:25:16.180 in Alberta. People have rejected it. Okay, but that doesn't mean that it's wrong. That doesn't mean
00:25:20.020 that it wouldn't be better for most albert even if it's unpopular yeah likewise opinion is stupid 0.98
00:25:27.940 okay hey i would never say that to you but thanks for the chat yeah i could agree with the just
00:25:33.220 because the topper doesn't mean it right because it's not sure it's not right but circle back to
00:25:38.660 the actual like albert independence equalization is a big thing yeah part of it the whole concept
00:25:44.740 of equalization is because like the philosophy of canadians is no matter where you live in canada
00:25:50.980 you should have a pretty standard high quality of life because they don't like the whole point of it
00:25:55.620 is they don't want people in the atlantic or more poor areas they don't want them like living in 0.57
00:26:01.620 poverty living like shit and then having the people who have to live in a research rich area
00:26:06.420 like a forest is a good descent the whole point too to give everybody at least some like minimum 0.98
00:26:13.780 baseline of what their quality of life should be and then also like we give more away yes that's
00:26:18.420 true i see why people might have issues that because we did very resource for it area but
00:26:24.020 we pay law like we send out money but we also receive a lot more money from the federal
00:26:30.260 government in the way of like federal investment in products like oil like the whatever data center
00:26:36.180 we receive
00:26:37.540 like we do receive
00:26:42.100 lots of
00:26:43.180 what was I saying
00:26:55.060 federal investment
00:26:57.640 we do receive a lot of federal investment
00:26:59.900 and that's why we do give money back
00:27:02.100 to the rest of the country through the equalizations
00:27:04.020 like if you actually
00:27:05.480 like i don't have the numbers off it like i i went in this like six months ago and i knew more
00:27:10.000 of that but we don't like we do give money away from equalization but we receive a lot more than
00:27:16.800 most other provinces in federal investment so it does kind of equal it doesn't sound quite as bad
00:27:22.160 yes we do give more yeah but it doesn't quite it's not as bad as the 20 billion but i would say
00:27:26.260 you know even i understand that but what i'm saying there's like on the on the raw numbers
00:27:31.100 if we're if we're giving so much more like we don't the point is that we don't require the
00:27:36.540 federal investment we don't require the 50 billion dollars you know if we stopped giving 70
00:27:41.600 deals from the federal government the federal government back then and that's the whole reason
00:27:48.720 we have like obviously we still have some sort of oil and gas industry but all the research into how
00:27:54.900 to take the oil sands out of the ground and actually refine it is all money from like there
00:28:01.840 was some private sector investment but that like a lot of that research ended up going nowhere and
00:28:07.820 it was the federal government pushing money into it and the shirt was ended up getting across the
00:28:12.200 line do you think we still need it i i would say there's going to be a future where we will still
00:28:18.660 need direct funding but i still think i think you do have a yeah we're still going to need
00:28:26.940 investment from ottawa but you're also like you i don't know i think they're part of it is just me
00:28:35.460 being like that like in canada yeah yeah canada put money yeah it's an argument from like loyalty
00:28:41.720 or something like this right yeah opportunity and yeah it is a return on investment just like
00:28:46.680 big oil companies get their return on investment i understand like i understand so yeah and
00:28:51.440 yeah there should be a debate of how much they quote-unquote deserve but like
00:28:57.600 yeah i don't know i i'd still i don't know yeah when you yeah when you just look at the base stuff
00:29:03.920 like you search up like how much do we send in the utilization that tells you 20 billion that
00:29:07.740 doesn't really paint a good picture and it's like this is what we sent a equalization of every year
00:29:12.520 but doesn't say what we received throughout the entire year and then also i just generally don't
00:29:16.260 I think it's that horrible thing to help other school have a higher quality of love.
00:29:21.300 Okay.
00:29:21.660 I mean, like I say, there's not necessarily anything wrong with that argument.
00:29:24.980 I think you're right that it's all a matter of degree, what you personally find palatable versus somebody else, right?
00:29:31.820 I think that there's also, though, an argument to be made.
00:29:36.100 My wife's family is from the East Coast, from PEI, and they have a really big problem out there of people who they work, you know,
00:29:43.440 six or eight months out of the year just enough to qualify for ei and then they stop working so
00:29:48.120 they can collect their ei it's there's there's an argument to be made that when when people are
00:29:54.320 funded to a point where it doesn't make sense for them to try and better themselves in their
00:30:00.860 situation because they will lose that funding uh then that that results as a net negative for
00:30:05.880 those citizens like for example uh 25 of nova scotia's uh provincial budget relies on directly
00:30:14.360 from alberta equalization so like i don't think that's right either is that you've got you've got
00:30:19.500 east coast uh provincial budgets that that are just based off of the money that they're going
00:30:25.300 to get from the producing provinces like right now quebec is sitting on trillions of of square
00:30:30.800 feet of natural gas that they will not develop because if they start developing those natural
00:30:35.580 resources they stop becoming classified as a have not province and they stop receiving federal funds
00:30:41.480 they receive about 14 billion dollars annually you seriously think they'd rather just like have
00:30:46.720 less money and yes that's what they do they active they actively don't develop known discovered
00:30:52.980 natural gas reserves because it would pop them above the the thresholds of the university
00:30:57.860 would drop this yeah that's not even controversial i i would say that's quite for sure but i i don't
00:31:04.880 know the specifics in it but like i'm not an expert in that and that seems like i know it's
00:31:09.760 crazy a bit of a well i would say you would agree that it'd be crazy if that's true right
00:31:14.700 motivation but yeah i don't know like i thought they i don't i'm not an expert so i mean i'm not
00:31:23.680 expert either but it's it's it's just a fact that quebec's uh the way that quebec's basket of goods
00:31:30.400 is calculated versus the rest of the country okay but again that's an that's a discussion about
00:31:36.240 equalization it's policy yeah it's but it's policy that alberta has not hasn't been able to
00:31:43.200 and will never be able to vote away we just don't have the voting power for are you like okay i know
00:31:50.560 you guys were playing like the american national anthem and stuff earlier no we weren't was that
00:31:55.280 a different group there was a guy in that building up there that was playing the canadian national
00:31:59.440 anthem to try and drown us out of copyright strike yeah that wasn't us we don't want to be
00:32:06.720 we don't want to be the 53 states okay most people in the independence movement don't want to replace
00:32:13.280 what we view as a neglectful government 3 000 kilometers away in ottawa with another neglectful
00:32:18.640 government 3 000 kilometers away in dc like that's just not a there are some there are some guys that
00:32:24.180 like you know want to be this picture i actually if you can believe it i work with a guy who is a
00:32:28.800 he he considers himself to be like a liberal he's voted ndp before he's against the alberta
00:32:35.960 independence movement because it's not a 51st state movement he would rather it be a 51st state
00:32:41.740 movement but he's also an ndp voter and he's also he also like never got vaccinated for covid and
00:32:48.240 was like really against vaccine policy and stuff he's a really complex guy but like it's there's
00:32:53.220 a lot of there's a lot of weird like yeah yeah but anyway guys i mean that's uh maybe maybe we'll
00:33:00.600 try to bring in some other guys here but one more question separate from civilization you mentioned
00:33:05.680 at the start if we become a separate country we can do better for things like health care
00:33:10.420 would you like if we separated would you want somebody like a figure like daniel smith to be
00:33:17.900 almost certainly not certainly not no do you we're not big fans of daniel smith either okay
00:33:24.300 so what what would like your your social stats well i mean just to maybe to pinpoint it to
00:33:31.980 healthcare i like i like the nordic models uh i think sweden and norway and denmark have a really
00:33:37.240 good system their their system is about uh it varies you know by percentage by country but
00:33:43.000 they roughly a 60 to 70 percent private sector and a 25 to 30 percent public sector uh their
00:33:50.960 system is is really good it's it services they and they have similar population to what alberta
00:33:55.560 would have sweden and norway you know roughly four to six million or whatever um yeah they have a
00:34:00.960 primarily private sector system that uh funds and contributes to the public sector uh they have
00:34:08.060 regulations regarding whether like if you're a if you're a doctor that has a private practice you
00:34:12.680 have to split your hours you know if you you do 20 hours a week and you're in your private practice
00:34:17.640 you have to contribute 20 hours to your public yeah so i i like i like a system like that i mean
00:34:25.960 i i think that our our current system is completely insufficient i think it's not uh
00:34:32.120 i i think it's actually a a scourge in the in the international community it's really it's really
00:34:37.320 poor i also think the american system is really poor in a lot of ways i don't i don't think some
00:34:42.200 people think that that's the only option is you have a fully socialized system or you have an
00:34:46.200 american system and i don't think that's the case i think i think the nordic countries are a good
00:34:50.280 model to try and uh duplicate yeah what was your name joel mike nice chatting man your name drew
00:34:58.760 nice to chat with you guys okay you too hey you know you guys may not agree with us but uh look
00:35:03.640 us up you know we we talked to a lot of people about a lot of different things so appreciate
00:35:07.240 you guys. You guys are smart kids.