True Patriot Love - May 10, 2026


Alberta Separation Is Getting Real

Topics
Alberta Separatism referendum signatures Alberta separatism sentiment
Hosted by
Shara Micucci Mike Wixson
Mentioned
Danielle Smith Mark Carney Donald Trump Pierre Poilievre Rosie Barton Edmonton Francois-Philippe Champagne Pierre Trudeau Peter Lougheed Jean Chrétien Lloyd Minster Dan McTague Wab Canoe Nick Freitas Churchill Melanie Wizard Putin
Solving Demographic Crisis： Immigration For The Future Of #Canada 413 Highway： Insanity or Solution？ Billions at Stake!

Episode Stats


Length

22 minutes

Words per minute

184.03

Word count

4,131

Sentence count

245

Harmful content

Misogyny

12

sentences flagged

Toxicity

5

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

In this episode, the crew talks about the growing number of people in Alberta who are calling for a referendum on separation from Canada, and what that means for the future of the country as a whole. They also discuss the recent petition calling for an independent Alberta from Canada.

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 .
Topics generated with Qwen2.5-3B-Instruct.
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00 Just think about if you're in Western Canada, you've been told for a decade by the Prime Minister and the ruling government, the Liberals, we don't need pipelines.
00:00:08 Oils and gas is yesterday's news.
00:00:11 We don't need your resources.
00:00:13 We're actually thinking of spending $60 to $80 billion on a high-speed rail that would serve Toronto, Peterborough, Montreal, LaValle, Quebec City.
00:00:21 So we don't really, we're not even thinking about you.
00:00:22 We're not even thinking.
00:00:23 So I get why there's a segment of the population and some politicians saying, hey, we're five million people.
00:00:30 We're an important part of Canada.
00:00:37 Alberta is home to over five million very patriotic Canadians, including our oldest daughter, my family, who lives in Edmonton now.
00:00:44 However, there is a segment of the population not very happy with Confederation and what they call the Laurentian elite.
00:00:51 and they'd like to do something about it.
00:00:52 To talk more about it, it's always thrilled to be joined by the man with the plan,
00:00:56 the one and only Mike Wixson.
00:00:57 I wish I had a plan.
00:00:59 This actually seems like somebody tried to have a plan.
00:01:02 Yes, they did.
00:01:03 Now, there is a segment of the population who are hinting at separating from Alberta
00:01:09 from the Confederation Canada to whether they're independent,
00:01:14 whether they're part of the United States, whether there's something else,
00:01:17 we don't know.
00:01:18 But there is a number of signatures as of today, Tuesday, May 5th, that does raise an eyebrow.
00:01:24 Yeah, 302,000 signatures were submitted.
00:01:29 They only needed 178,000, which, I mean, my first question arrives right there.
00:01:34 When I get to 178, okay, let me round it up, 200,000.
00:01:38 And they just kept going.
00:01:39 Yeah, everybody just keeps signing.
00:01:41 Okay, so maybe a point was made, and this could trigger a referendum as early as October when Danielle Smith has announced a referendum on other topics.
00:01:55 It also could bring back memories of things that happened in Alberta in the early 80s, that they were coming out of a big oil boom.
00:02:03 And they felt like Pierre Trudeau and the Liberal government, oddly enough, in the time in Ottawa in the early 80s, were treating them unfairly.
00:02:11 And Premier Peter Lougheed at the time.
00:02:14 And a lot of Albertans felt like they were being hard done by the federal government.
00:02:18 And unfortunately, there has been time in history where it feels like everything is centered on the Toronto-Montreal corridor.
00:02:27 and a lot of people in alberta now of growing province of five million plus and a lot of people
00:02:33 west are like what about us when does some attention and money come to our part of canada
00:02:38 you know it's interesting jim uh and and i will point this out the tpl local team and myself will
00:02:44 be heading to uh edmonton in just a couple of weeks is your daughter home from uh school for
00:02:50 the summer no no no no she lives there she lives there now full time yeah well yeah because she's
00:02:54 doing her master's at the u of a so yeah she's got like she's there five or six days a week
00:02:58 we're going to experiment you know what jim i i am uh delighted to accept her offer to take the
00:03:04 crew and myself to dinner in edmonton she doesn't have that kind of money she does she does if dad
00:03:09 sends it to her but uh here's some numbers that i i think are a little bit realistic because what
00:03:16 we're talking about now actually having those spent some time in you know calgary and surrounding
00:03:22 area in alberta recently uh several times for tpl the sense that i get even though and and our
00:03:31 friend javon there makes some great points uh on the separatist side of things and very eloquently
00:03:36 outlines what needs to happen for albertans to be happy by and large i don't get the blowback of we
00:03:44 want to separate that you get historically from let's say quebec trying to make a a move well
00:03:52 Let's face it, Quebec had two referendums, and the biggest one in the 1990s, not long after we had a change in government and Jean Chrétien was prime minister, it was awfully close, too close for a lot of people.
00:04:06 So that has always been hanging over the head of Confederation in Canada for the last 45, 50 years is Quebec's status within the nation and whether or not they would separate.
00:04:17 The Alberta thing is new, but just think about if you're in Western Canada, you've been told for a decade by the Prime Minister and the ruling government, the Liberals, we don't need pipelines.
00:04:29 Oils and gas is yesterday's news.
00:04:32 We don't need your resources.
00:04:34 We're actually thinking of spending $60 to $80 billion on a high-speed rail that would serve Toronto, Peterborough, Montreal, LaValle, Quebec City.
00:04:42 So we don't really, we're not even thinking about you.
00:04:43 We're not even thinking.
00:04:44 So I get why there's a segment of the population and some politicians saying, hey, we're five million people.
00:04:51 We're an important part of Canada, the Confederation, with the price of oil the way it is, with the problems in the Persian Gulf, Mike.
00:04:59 That's not going down anytime soon.
00:05:01 I wonder if you think that helps or hurts the separatist case.
00:05:05 Well, I think it hurts them because all of a sudden the province and the country are making a lot more revenue.
00:05:11 And to Mark Carney's credit, they're twinning the pipeline to the lower mainland, the Vancouver Terminal.
00:05:18 You hate them all you want, but Donald Trump just signed off on another pipeline from Alberta south to Wyoming.
00:05:24 So that's more revenue.
00:05:26 And it seems like the wheels really are in motion.
00:05:29 And Wab Canoe of Manitoba, who we're both big fans of, is determined to get that liquid natural gas pipeline from Alberta to Churchill, Manitoba to ship to Europe.
00:05:38 So all of a sudden, after a decade of darkness, when it comes to Alberta and how they're viewed by Ottawa in the Laurentian elite, people are starting to open their eyes that, hey, they're an invaluable asset to this country.
00:05:49 And now with everything going on with Europe, with Putin, with Trump, with the Persian Gulf, we can use their resources to fund our nation.
00:05:58 Well, 58% to 68% of polled, and you know how I feel about the polls, polled in Alberta say that they are opposed to separation.
00:06:09 65% say they would vote to stay in Canada.
00:06:12 Right, and I believe that.
00:06:13 Which is a very different perspective on it.
00:06:15 I'm voting to stay in Canada.
00:06:17 Right, and I think that is the majority sentiment of people, especially in the big cities.
00:06:22 but i can see why there's a segment of the population trying to keep this in the news to
00:06:28 say hey don't forget about us that's all they're asking and i think i know a lot of people in
00:06:32 ontario quebec look down on their nose at daniel smith she's trying to get her fair share from
00:06:38 ottawa and from the confederation pie that is canada that is a big problem now carney even in
00:06:45 this fall or spring economic summit you know there are cuts there are all of a sudden you're reading
00:06:49 the fine details and this is being cut and this is being cut but they have to find a way to save
00:06:54 some money and make money at the same time and there's no better way than oil and gas from
00:06:59 alberta you know uh the truth is i think a lot of people are confused about how danielle smith
00:07:04 feels about separation she's never supported it no uh and i think that that's one thing that
00:07:09 needs to be noted not that i've seen anyway that she's not not publicly she allowed for a referendum
00:07:14 based on them delivering a message from the people
00:07:17 that was meant to be significant, 178,000 signatures,
00:07:21 so that she would take it seriously.
00:07:23 But 53% of Albertans think she would vote to separate.
00:07:27 Interesting.
00:07:28 I'm of the belief that she wouldn't. 0.62
00:07:31 I think she's savvy enough and politically smart enough
00:07:35 to realize it would be political suicide to be pro-separation.
00:07:39 So behind closed doors, maybe over cocktails with business leaders
00:07:43 and certain power brokers, maybe it's a different story.
00:07:46 But within a first minister's conference,
00:07:48 within a meeting with Prime Minister Carney,
00:07:51 within a press conference,
00:07:53 I highly doubt she would ever come out and say that.
00:07:56 I actually think you're right.
00:07:57 There was a full court press on really putting a lid
00:08:01 on the separation discussion by the federal government,
00:08:07 by the relations, new pipelines being approved.
00:08:11 I think a lot of that was almost reactionary, you know, which makes you think Trump is basically saying, guys, just so you know, I was kidding.
00:08:19 Let's build a pipeline.
00:08:20 I'm not taking it.
00:08:22 We've got to build a pipeline, though.
00:08:23 And all the people go all through in the Midwest U.S. through Montana and Wyoming where that pipeline is going.
00:08:30 This is the best deal ever.
00:08:32 Absolutely.
00:08:32 It's big for them.
00:08:33 It would be better in my mind to see Alberta.
00:08:37 And I bet that they would do this given the choice.
00:08:39 If you said to Alberta, we can expand into Edmonton, we can expand near the oil fields and start processing and begin to send a finished product to at least our own nation, that might bind us a little tighter with Alberta overall.
00:08:56 And the other thing is the separatist movement takes another quick hit right now because they're getting answers, as you point out, on other fronts, such as, okay, major projects that could benefit Alberta.
00:09:10 So you're right.
00:09:11 I think that while they sat in the dark for a long time, they're really making hay at the moment.
00:09:15 And they're making hay at the time.
00:09:17 The price of oil keeps going up every week.
00:09:20 And Dan McTagg, the Geist Price Wizard, who was on this very channel not long ago, he was bang on with all his predictions.
00:09:27 Bang on to the point that Rosie Barton, who was on CBC, complaining about how expensive it was to fill her car with gas.
00:09:35 So it's hitting everyone.
00:09:37 Even Rosie Barton?
00:09:38 Yes. 1.00
00:09:39 And she has endless amounts of money for gas. 1.00
00:09:41 Right. 0.97
00:09:42 And so when she's complaining, you know there's a problem.
00:09:44 But the point being, though, that with all this extra revenue, it's going into the bank accounts of the province, and they may have gone from a deficit to a surplus in the course of a few months.
00:09:56 No one's complaining about that now.
00:09:58 Let me make a hard left, and then we'll make a hard right.
00:10:00 The hard left, in my mind, is, okay, the separatist movement really is a vehicle of pressure for Alberta.
00:10:09 Yes, I agree with that.
00:10:10 That's a great way to put it.
00:10:12 And no one's saying that, Mike.
00:10:13 You nailed it.
00:10:14 It is a way to say, wait a second.
00:10:17 Don't forget about us.
00:10:18 We have financial and political needs in our province.
00:10:22 And everything can't be focused on Ottawa, Montreal.
00:10:25 Don't forget the West.
00:10:26 Do you think that Albertans are warming up to Kearney?
00:10:31 I don't know.
00:10:32 This is conjecture, by the way.
00:10:33 I do now in the course of the last few weeks that he,
00:10:37 I think they realize that he is a small C conservative dressed up as a liberal.
00:10:43 I think you might be right there. 0.89
00:10:44 And like that tent's growing.
00:10:45 And now the tent includes a pipeline to the lower mainland.
00:10:48 And now it's like double thumbs up to a pipeline down to Wyoming.
00:10:52 So all of a sudden they're like, hey, he's not so bad.
00:10:54 I kind of have a little bit of sympathy right now for, you know,
00:10:59 Pierre Polyev because I don't know what you could add to the conversation
00:11:04 that, I mean, there's...
00:11:06 He can't say no to it.
00:11:07 No, I mean, there's nothing that you can add to the conversation
00:11:09 when these things are happening except overspend.
00:11:12 no planning, long-term.
00:11:15 So I'm hoping that we hear more from the opposition
00:11:19 over the coming weeks
00:11:21 that Albertans are actually talking about real issues,
00:11:26 that there are things that, you know,
00:11:28 there's a lot of conjecture in planning, Jim.
00:11:31 When the rubber is actually going to meet the road
00:11:34 on these projects,
00:11:34 I think is going to start to really matter to Albertans.
00:11:38 And I think Pierre Polyev has an opportunity right now
00:11:41 to apply that pressure.
00:11:42 and if that does something for all of canada by saying okay you said you were going to do this
00:11:47 you're blowing all this money you can't not do it now right so you can't not do it it's interesting
00:11:53 to watch the pressure game that's on you know always putting pressure on the federal government
00:11:57 the federal government's trying to give them everything they can for christmas this year so
00:12:01 that they'll come move in with dad and the uh and then of course the conservatives are out there
00:12:07 going hey don't don't don't be be careful now okay to think about what you just said though
00:12:11 Now, that's a great point you brought up, Mike.
00:12:13 So here's Alberta saying, make sure you get those pipelines built.
00:12:16 Don't forget about us. 0.92
00:12:18 Manitoba, better improve Churchill and get it.
00:12:21 Toronto and Duck Ford, they want to expand the Billy Bishop Airport
00:12:24 in Toronto Island, basically double it so they can land jets.
00:12:27 Don't forget about us.
00:12:29 And then so you keep going east, and everyone's like putting their hand up
00:12:32 and like, hey, Mark, Mark, you know, and he's getting pulled on all sides.
00:12:36 So it's a real delicate balance.
00:12:38 And his own party, by the way, is full of some very, very left-leaning liberals still
00:12:43 that are wondering, what are you doing?
00:12:45 You said no pipelines.
00:12:46 You're destroying the planet.
00:12:48 So I think he's got, either he sits quietly in an office away from a lot of voices
00:12:54 and sticks to a plan that he has in his mind,
00:12:56 or you're right, he's being pulled in a bunch of different directions.
00:12:59 Now, there are some of those in the know in Ottawa that say the party whip,
00:13:05 the person that needs out discipline um where the liberals basically have told the you know the
00:13:12 backbenchers and everyone either you lead your follow or get out of the way this is how we're
00:13:16 doing things you better not say it in public if you want to meet with them in private and say
00:13:21 something fine i don't want to hear it on the cbc i don't want to read it in the global mail
00:13:24 i don't want you to see you you know what i mean like so we're gonna we're in this tent stay in
00:13:29 the damn tent we're gonna try to get things done weather this together inside the tent together 0.56
00:13:34 You know, but Micah, it's little things too, I think, if you're in Western Canada. 0.99
00:13:39 I mean, think about all your years in music.
00:13:40 Now, what is a Canadian tour?
00:13:42 It's a band or an artist coming, Montreal and Toronto.
00:13:46 That's the Canadian tour.
00:13:47 And if you're in Calgary, Vancouver, Edmonton, who have huge facilities, brand new facilities,
00:13:53 they're like, you don't play here anymore?
00:13:55 No.
00:13:56 Right?
00:13:57 And then the RBC Canadian Open Golf, great event.
00:14:01 they've not played in western canada mike since 2011 in vancouver oh my god it's been that long
00:14:09 it's been either ontario or quebec oh wow from 2012 on so then there's some world-class golf
00:14:15 courses in western canada and bc and they're like can you move it around a bit it's the canadian
00:14:21 open that's so and so there's there is the feeling like does everything happen have to happen within
00:14:27 and a five-hour drive between Toronto and Montreal.
00:14:31 I would prefer it personally.
00:14:32 Right.
00:14:33 But I can see their point.
00:14:35 Let's truly be a national federation.
00:14:38 Let's truly have events and music and culture and business
00:14:43 for all from coast to coast.
00:14:45 Jim, let's take a hard right now, okay?
00:14:48 Let's go to the land where there's an upheaval.
00:14:53 I'm trying to understand what it would be
00:14:54 while the economy is doing okay in Alberta
00:14:56 and Albertans are starting to make some headway.
00:14:59 But let's say that there's a tsunami of effect
00:15:03 against the federal government in that province,
00:15:06 and by the time we get to a referendum,
00:15:08 this actually is going to a vote, and they separate.
00:15:11 Now, who leads this country?
00:15:14 What do they do?
00:15:15 Are they a separate country?
00:15:16 They have to get into a negotiation with Canada to separate.
00:15:20 We own a lot of crown land inside of that province.
00:15:25 Okay, so real quick,
00:15:26 not only crown land but some major military bases okay and and with huge amounts of military
00:15:32 equipment that's part of canada okay and so and then so yeah hey we we vote to separate it doesn't
00:15:39 the next day separate then you'd have to have a vote how do you how do you leave confederation
00:15:44 it's not as simple as going on amazon and ordering and it arrives the next day what's
00:15:48 your currency standard what is your trade standard are you endorsed by another country
00:15:54 Do you have borders now?
00:15:55 Yeah, where are your borders?
00:15:57 I mean, do you have to show a passport to get to Saskatchewan or B.C.?
00:16:00 And you don't think Saskatchewan and B.C. would have some issues with the actual border lines now
00:16:05 that are often sort of nebulous between provinces?
00:16:10 I would imagine that that would be...
00:16:12 You know Lloyd Minster, and I've been there.
00:16:16 There's a road.
00:16:18 On this side of the road is Saskatchewan, and that side of the road, it's Alberta.
00:16:22 My God.
00:16:23 It's literally, it straddles both provinces.
00:16:26 You're going to find yourself having to sew together an entirely new boundary line.
00:16:31 So I want to go to Tim's in Alberta.
00:16:33 I've got to show my passport.
00:16:34 Exactly.
00:16:34 But then I want to go to McDonald's in Saskatchewan.
00:16:37 I've got to show it again.
00:16:38 I have a feeling that Alberta will open their own coffee chain at the gas station on the other side of the border where everybody goes to get their gas.
00:16:44 Danielle's.
00:16:45 Danielle's.
00:16:46 Danielle's.
00:16:46 Danielle Smith's Coffee.
00:16:48 I do like it.
00:16:49 Smith's Coffee.
00:16:49 And that leaves me.
00:16:50 Okay, so I'm marginally interested in how they do it.
00:16:53 I'm more interested in, let's say, that Daniel Smith leads this new country.
00:16:59 Not saying that she would.
00:17:00 But just for the sake of argument, she does.
00:17:02 Would she be prime minister? 1.00
00:17:05 Would she be creative parliament? 1.00
00:17:07 Would she be a chancellor?
00:17:09 Chancellor Smith is pretty cool. 1.00
00:17:10 Or would she have a republic and she'd be the president of Alberta? 1.00
00:17:13 Yeah, or a banana republic and she could be a general. 0.86
00:17:19 Yeah, generalism, Smith. 0.98
00:17:21 Right?
00:17:22 So, I mean, I'd be curious to see how all that pans out.
00:17:26 However, the conjecture that we have over this really isn't that separatism is a reality.
00:17:31 It's a real sentiment.
00:17:34 Yeah, it's a real emotion.
00:17:35 Yeah.
00:17:35 Yeah.
00:17:36 Like, hey, come on, guys.
00:17:38 You can't.
00:17:38 I mean, I know all, and especially if you look at the cabinet for Carney, it's so heavily focused on the Toronto-Montreal corridor and all the power brokers and Philippe Champagne and Melanie.
00:17:51 jolie and everyone else and and you're like well it's really hard to get the conservatives in the
00:17:57 west inside your party uh based on the last 10 years and and alberta's had a lot to complain
00:18:02 about over the last 10 years but and no one listened to them they were basically shoo shooed
00:18:06 away and the stephen gilbo's of the world and wilkinson and trudeau said we don't need you
00:18:12 you know there's no business case for natural gas and oil and now there's the biggest business case
00:18:17 in the history of oil and natural gas.
00:18:20 Do you remember that feeling where people were like,
00:18:22 oh, Alberta's mega, make Alberta great again.
00:18:26 No, that wasn't what was going on out there.
00:18:29 There was an industry failing.
00:18:33 The price of oil determined so much how those people can live
00:18:37 and what their futures can be like.
00:18:39 And we relied on that province to provide us that stability for so long
00:18:45 that you have to give that comfort level consideration to Alberta,
00:18:50 who were the first to start screaming about immigration overages,
00:18:56 were the first to start complaining about capital gains.
00:18:59 They keep an eye on things in Canada that we don't give them credit for.
00:19:04 Well, you guys were just in Calgary for the Conservative Convention.
00:19:07 Calgary is the financial epicenter of the West.
00:19:10 Yeah.
00:19:10 It is the Bay Street of Western Canada.
00:19:12 You've got the Bow Building right there.
00:19:13 And in all the billions of trillions of dollars of investment for the tar sands, for the pipelines, for the buildings, for the infrastructure, it all flows out of Calgary.
00:19:25 There's a lot of brilliant financial minds out of that city and out of that business community, Mike.
00:19:31 You can't discount it.
00:19:33 You can't discount their expertise, how smart they are, how experienced they are, their where will fall, their know-how,
00:19:41 And their ability to say, wait a sec, this isn't fair and we're not going to stand for it.
00:19:46 You know, the other thing, Jim, that they have going for them, they have provincial patriotism.
00:19:50 Oh, yeah.
00:19:51 I mean, everywhere you go in Alberta, they're proud to be from Alberta.
00:19:53 Of course they love to be from Alberta.
00:19:55 Alberta is where they want to be.
00:19:57 Ontario, for example, has a very entitled feel to it.
00:20:02 I'm entitled to be part of it.
00:20:03 Depending where you are in the province, I find.
00:20:04 i'm sorry the gta that's that toronto montreal ottawa quarter has a very what feels like
00:20:11 entitled uh that not that they're patriotic at all about the province uh for the most part
00:20:17 they're just from toronto or ottawa here's here's a good example not you jim you fall outside that
00:20:24 realm there's a better than good chance that the majority of population of alberta have been to
00:20:29 ontario or quebec for some reason right but at the same time the majority of population in the
00:20:35 toronto montreal corridor have never been to alberta that's very interesting i wonder what
00:20:40 the stats are on that but it feels that way to me we make a lot of opinions about the west
00:20:45 every day when they make any noise at all you've been there i've been there i have a daughter that
00:20:50 lives there i've been there for business she's taking the crew out for dinner apparently olive 0.89
00:20:54 Olive Garden's on her.
00:20:55 That's very nice.
00:20:56 Is Olive Garden back?
00:20:58 Yeah, it's in Edmonton.
00:20:59 Oh, my God.
00:21:00 And it's not that you're just supposed to open in Ottawa, too,
00:21:02 where my other daughter lives.
00:21:03 Edmonton, we want you to sign up for our event, so keep an eye.
00:21:07 You'll see more about that coming up and many other places across the country.
00:21:12 And more importantly, for the people that are going to your tour stop
00:21:15 when you guys are there, we want to hear the good and bad and ugly
00:21:20 of what you feel right now in Canada.
00:21:22 what you feel is good what you feel is bad and what you feel needs to change we can have reasonable
00:21:27 arguments too watch this i think carney's just terrible you know what i have mixed feelings
00:21:32 about him part of him i find cringeworthy but at other times you know what he does some things i 0.99
00:21:39 have i don't like the way you talk about trump well he's a dick you can sit down and have a 0.95
00:21:44 chat with us and uh that's going to be the result but more importantly this whole channel 0.98
00:21:49 was made not for us,
00:21:50 but for the people that watch and people listen.
00:21:53 Without discussion, nothing good can happen.
00:21:55 But look at all the comments
00:21:56 from St. Cooper's recent episode.
00:21:58 Yeah.
00:21:59 Look at all the comments
00:22:00 and some of the conversations we've had
00:22:02 about different topics.
00:22:03 People have things to say,
00:22:05 and that's what it's all about.
00:22:07 We are going to a model
00:22:08 whereby we will require your support.
00:22:10 So if you like what you're doing,
00:22:12 please comment, subscribe,
00:22:14 tell a friend about it
00:22:14 as we make our way across Canada.
00:22:16 We're going to localize this a little bit
00:22:18 so that we can hear more from you and interact with discussions that matter most to you right
00:22:23 there at home. Jim, thanks for doing that. Yeah, thank you. Go Alberta.