Western Standard - Alberta in Focus rally in Calgary ｜ Let's talk Alberta

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00:50:59.980 Hey John, I see you there, I see what you did there, okay what's going to start going

00:51:23.420 Test, test, test.

00:51:40.400 We're live from the other side of the world.

00:51:46.100 Ladies and gentlemen, if you would take your seats, please.

00:51:50.360 Everybody's busy socializing.

00:51:52.120 which is just fine we call that being Albertans what's that we call that being

00:52:02.560 Albertans socializing all right we'll wait for everybody to settle a little

00:52:09.220 bit if you don't mind can we have everybody take their seats please

00:52:21.940 okie do

00:52:25.620 for those of you watching at home we've got a large group of people who are congregating

00:52:29.780 at the back of the hall socializing right now so i will sing a few frank sinatra tunes for you

00:52:35.220 also the western standard is i also the western standard is currently restreaming this

00:52:42.900 yes they're they're doing a whole bunch of interviews back there

00:52:47.780 we'd like to get things going ladies and gentlemen if you would take your seats please thank you

00:52:59.220 what's that

00:53:05.220 All right.

00:53:17.220 People are starting to settle in.

00:53:29.220 Get yourself comfortable, guys.

00:53:32.220 Yes.

00:53:33.220 Be very comfortable.

00:53:34.940 We're getting there.

00:53:40.080 Still doing interviews back here.

00:53:56.620 Okay, let's get going then.

00:53:59.000 Good evening, everybody.

00:54:00.220 My name is John Bolton.

00:54:01.400 It's a pleasure to have you here tonight.

00:54:02.920 I'd like to thank you for coming out to this event from Let's Talk Alberta.

00:54:07.080 I'd like to thank Chris Scott for asking me to be here tonight.

00:54:09.600 Some of you may recognize me.

00:54:11.440 I do a YouTube channel here in Alberta.

00:54:14.400 I've been an Albertan for the last 15 years or so,

00:54:17.680 and it's really a pleasure to be here among friends.

00:54:20.120 You know, I often call you guys the heroes of independence,

00:54:23.960 and I appreciate a lot of you being here tonight.

00:54:27.000 I've got a lot of great speakers.

00:54:28.920 Kathy Flett, Alberta Women for Independence, will be here.

00:54:31.880 Corey Morgan, Pathway to Independence.

00:54:34.340 You know Corey from the Western Standard, the Corey Morgan Show.

00:54:37.520 Tenya Clemens from Let Alberta Decide is here to talk tonight as well.

00:54:41.180 Ben Crane is here to entertain you.

00:54:43.600 He's going to be playing some songs as well.

00:54:46.040 We've got another speaker tonight, Mahmoud Moura,

00:54:48.420 who is from the Alberta Muslim Social Association.

00:54:51.300 He's going to be speaking tonight as well.

00:54:52.700 We appreciate him coming up on stage.

00:54:55.280 Of course, Keith Wilson from Let Alberta Decide.

00:54:57.640 And Chris Scott, he's the guy who's in the cleanup spot tonight.

00:55:01.880 from let from let's talk Alberta so I'm not here to make a speech everybody's

00:55:09.440 going to talk tonight we're not going to have a Q&A but afterwards there will be

00:55:13.280 an opportunity for you to talk to our speakers tonight so if you want to ask

00:55:16.220 them any questions be sure to do that we will be passing around a bucket tonight

00:55:20.240 so you can help out Chris if you've seen his big RV out there he's driving it up

00:55:24.980 and down through this province and takes a lot of fuel and he's out there working

00:55:29.720 his butt off to put on events like this, do debates, talk to people through this period

00:55:35.240 we're in right now here in Alberta. I was thinking when I came out here tonight, I'm

00:55:40.920 not one of the speakers, but I wanted to tell you a little story, okay, if I could do that.

00:55:46.680 So let me pull my phone out here. I just want to open up my phone for a second. But

00:55:50.600 as many of you know, I get up rather early in the morning. In fact, I get up really,

00:55:58.320 really early in the morning and most people when they first meet me they say when do you sleep

00:56:04.320 and I don't sleep very much now about seven eight nine weeks ago I'm laying in bed when I wake up

00:56:16.180 around two o'clock in the morning and I'm laying there trying to see what's going on in the world

00:56:19.740 and I start to get text messages coming into my phone two o'clock in the morning 12 30 in the

00:56:25.780 morning 1 30 in the morning this happens over and over again and there's a couple of people i know

00:56:31.120 that are out on the road nine weeks or so ago and they're sending me pictures of signs

00:56:37.820 let alberta decide signs let's talk alberta signs alberta women for independence signs

00:56:45.320 pathway to independence cory signs jason levine signs they're out putting up signs everywhere in

00:56:50.680 the middle of the night

00:56:52.460 now these people as far as i'm concerned are symbols of

00:56:55.940 a lot of people in this province over the last

00:56:58.920 well let's go back to january second when people started sitting in the snow

00:57:03.260 collecting signatures

00:57:05.160 but these two people

00:57:07.560 are symbols of the hard work that's going on behind the scenes that a lot of

00:57:11.000 you don't see happening

00:57:12.980 and a lot of europe they're doing this stuff this is the middle of the night

00:57:16.900 now over the last

00:57:19.200 several weeks i would be laying in bed looking at my phone and i would get a

00:57:23.440 text message from the same couple

00:57:26.400 and the same couple is now sending me pictures of signs that have been

00:57:29.360 destroyed

00:57:30.960 few weeks about go it was in my neighborhood on 52nd street they were

00:57:35.440 painting words that start with t

00:57:38.560 on these signs

00:57:40.900 and over the last little while it's been destroyed signs in this morning i wake

00:57:45.280 up and i

00:57:46.420 open my phone and it says right here 2 12 a.m. that's when I'm up in the

00:57:50.660 morning and there's a sign that says hey John here's what I'm dealing with right

00:57:54.400 now and there's pictures of let Alberta decide signs somebody's come up to them

00:58:00.300 and cut them with a chainsaw five signs maybe six he's got down now it says

00:58:07.540 another area of the city seven signs sign 8 at the Children's Hospital this

00:58:12.800 is all over Calgary the guy is deranged he did this in broad daylight sign 8

00:58:18.180 sign 9 sign 10 this is the middle of the night and as I said this is a symbol of

00:58:26.600 the people who are out there working for us and people come up to me and say

00:58:31.760 thank you John for what you're doing I mean for goodness sakes I'm not out

00:58:34.920 putting up signs in the middle of the night in fact these people are out there

00:58:38.000 in the middle of the night they are shrink wrapping signs so that when they

00:58:40.860 spray paint them, the paint doesn't stick to them in the middle of the night. The last message I got

00:58:45.760 from this person came in at 4.30 this morning. Finally home, time for some sleep. Now, they don't

00:58:54.280 look to be singled out in any way, these people, but they're here tonight. And again, these are

00:59:00.980 symbols of people up and down our province who would work in their asses off. I know a guy from

00:59:05.540 fort vermilion named lyle who drove 10 hours to get signs to get them here to take them back up

00:59:10.900 to put signs up in northern alberta my friend wade from sylvan lake up and down our friend

00:59:17.380 robin at cool in red deer putting his own money into this working hard a guy like max who shows

00:59:24.180 up to these do these events these are great people i would like to they're not looking for

00:59:30.420 recognition but i wanted to say thank you to my dear friends mr and mrs alberton they're out in

00:59:35.780 In the middle of the night.

00:59:58.140 So, thank you.

00:59:59.600 I love you guys.

01:00:00.520 You know I do.

01:00:02.080 It was the strangest thing.

01:00:03.140 Just quickly, back in the summertime,

01:00:04.520 i went to one of cory's events to get one of his signs he was just five minutes away from where i

01:00:08.520 was i forgot to get one of his science and i i got a message from him at two o'clock what 12 30 in

01:00:15.080 the morning i forgot to get one of cory's signs they came from north uh from the northwest part

01:00:19.080 of the city and delivered one to me at two o'clock in the morning it was great so thank you i really

01:00:24.920 appreciate you guys i do okay so let's get down to things now enough of me yapping up here i want

01:00:29.720 to introduce our first speaker you know i often make fun of of kathy and angela taback from alberta

01:00:35.880 women for independence the most unlikely couple one lives in edmonton the other one's in waterton

01:00:41.400 but they're always working together let's welcome up our first speaker for tonight my good friend

01:00:45.880 Cathy Flett how's everybody doing good we're in the home stretch some of us are

01:01:14.380 really glad to be in the homestretch because we would just really like to have a nap.

01:01:18.040 It's been a long haul. It's been a really long haul. My husband must have known that I needed

01:01:23.700 a little bit of comedic relief today because I was hearing stories about people who had left town

01:01:33.120 late last week and, oh, dang it, I can't vote and I didn't think to do the mail-in ballot.

01:01:39.140 and I was like really really after people froze in the snow gathering signatures after Albertan

01:01:48.860 stayed up all night long being very vigilant to make sure that our signs were safe and you couldn't

01:01:56.180 go and vote nice you couldn't look at your kids and your grandkids and go and do it for them and

01:02:05.300 and I was a little bit grumpy, and then I heard some stories from Angela, who was sharing the

01:02:11.600 same thing that she had heard, so the two of us were grumpy together, and if you watch the video

01:02:16.280 we do, I think it might have come out a little bit, sorry about that, but it's in there, and then

01:02:21.440 I was on my way here, and I was having some trouble getting gas, because my Costco card

01:02:28.340 wouldn't work, first world problems, so I thought I should probably take that out on my husband,

01:02:32.160 and I did. And then I apologized for it because that's where we're at. We're in that home stretch

01:02:38.840 where some of us are getting a little bit tired. We're getting a little bit worn down and we're

01:02:44.180 getting a little bit grumpy. But then my husband sends me this picture of these two very cute

01:02:50.640 little dogs that were dog sitting this week for his dad and his dad's wife. And he said,

01:02:56.640 I've got a couple of stowaways. They told me they voted this morning. I said, well,

01:03:01.600 then they can stay for the week. That was fine. And then 10 minutes later, he texts me back and

01:03:06.880 he's like, no, I meant my dad and his wife. I thought you were talking about the dogs. So we're

01:03:12.840 still friends with my father-in-law and his wife. So this is good. Christmas will go fine. But this

01:03:18.460 is where we're at, right? This is where we're at. This is where the rubber hits the road. This is

01:03:22.220 where all the hard work comes to play. This is where we get to find out what the fruits of our

01:03:27.220 labor is actually going to be. And since this whole thing started, Angela and I have actually

01:03:33.760 been in these trenches for a long time, six and seven years for her and I. And then in March of

01:03:40.880 2025, we decided to start the Alberta Women's Independence Network, realizing that there was

01:03:46.320 a disconnect with the ladies. They weren't getting the message of independence. And so we were

01:03:51.200 literally going into people's homes, going into their backyards, into their living rooms, meeting

01:03:55.840 at coffee shops and pubs, wherever, and talking about independence and what that meant for

01:04:00.740 us as, as moms, as grandmas, as, as the women, um, in the still two gender province that

01:04:07.600 we live in.

01:04:08.360 And it was working.

01:04:10.320 It was working spectacularly, spectacularly.

01:04:14.440 And then these referendum questions came upon us and we had a decision to make, well, do

01:04:19.540 we stop talking or do we become a TPA?

01:04:22.560 And we didn't even know what a TPA was.

01:04:24.140 And we knew that stop talking wasn't an option.

01:04:26.380 So we became a TPA and figured out what that was.

01:04:29.080 And we brought it up a notch.

01:04:30.660 And what was so heartwarming to me and continues to be is that up until that moment, a lot

01:04:38.400 of people within this movement were really hollering at us who were the voices of the

01:04:43.120 movement, right?

01:04:44.180 We had Angela and I doing this and Keith was talking, Keith and Tani were over here and

01:04:48.280 Jason was over there and Corey was over here and we had Mitch and Mitch and Jeff over here

01:04:53.400 and all of these people that just wouldn't shut up,

01:04:55.340 but we also wouldn't come together.

01:04:57.180 And people were really angry about that.

01:04:59.320 But what they didn't realize is that because...

01:05:23.400 Thank you.

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01:09:23.400 angst I see a lot of upset and I think oh my gosh how exhausting it must be to live like that it

01:09:31.980 actually breaks my heart because I don't know where the root of that is I don't understand it

01:09:38.520 I really don't and I know sometimes we get angry on our side as well but it really is not at the

01:09:45.840 same level nobody is destroying their signs nobody is being rude to them at events nobody is crashing

01:09:57.120 their events in the same way i mean we've gone and attended but we're not crashing them trying

01:10:03.440 to cause problems and getting arrested at the legislature in hopes that we make the evening news

01:10:08.560 that's not how we roll that's not how we play which is what makes me think that might be why

01:10:18.340 the folks who do not want to see this happen are unbelievably nervous we are over the target we

01:10:30.880 have to be. With the amount of pushback coming our way, there is no other explanation. When you see

01:10:40.300 Kenny and Notley joining forces, you know, you know a number that they did not want us to reach

01:10:52.340 in support. Now, are we right over that 50% threshold? I don't know, which is why this is

01:11:00.960 not the time to take our foot off the gas. I don't know if we are, but I would also like you

01:11:07.460 to pay attention to who it is who is hollering the loudest against us and ask yourself why.

01:11:17.480 why are these politicians and bureaucrats so afraid that we might get this why because everything that

01:11:30.420 they have could be gone all they care about is themselves they don't care about us they don't

01:11:39.940 care about our kids they don't care about our grandkids they care about themselves the status

01:11:47.200 quo works perfectly perfectly for them and we the little people are upsetting their apple cart oh

01:11:59.760 isn't that too bad isn't that just too bad the beautiful part of this whole thing

01:12:07.040 is that we get to do it with votes we get to do it with votes and if you go through history

01:12:13.440 that doesn't happen very often. That doesn't happen very often. I cannot stress enough

01:12:22.540 how important it is to get out there and vote on this because I don't know when the next

01:12:31.760 opportunity might be if we don't get it. I also see a lot of people out there saying,

01:12:38.020 oh, I'm only voting on question 10. I'm not voting on the other nine. That's wrong. You're

01:12:44.180 there anyway. Vote on all of them. Send that message. Send that message. And for heaven's

01:12:52.760 sakes, when you do go to vote, if you haven't already, if you haven't done the advanced

01:12:56.640 voting, take your family. We're making history. And I don't know if people really, really

01:13:05.880 understand that but we are making history this week right through until Monday like never before

01:13:14.520 we could change the course of everybody who lives in this province in one day with all of those

01:13:23.520 votes being counted that's a big deal that's a big deal if my kids were still young enough to

01:13:30.180 be in school I would be pulling them out and saying you're coming with mama you're going to

01:13:35.520 see what this looks like you're gonna see what I'm doing for you that's what I would do they're

01:13:41.920 too big now but maybe my son will pull my grandson out of school and he'll do it this is huge it's a

01:13:49.920 big deal I know we're tired I know we're getting a little cranky the finish line is right ahead

01:13:57.600 and even that that's only the first part of the marathon folks depending what the outcome is

01:14:05.580 will depend what comes next a lot of people are asking us well what happens on tuesday

01:14:10.440 i don't know that depends on what albertans decide on monday as to what we're going to do

01:14:17.700 but i do know that this is definitely the time to make sure that we do not take this opportunity

01:14:24.820 for granted. This is the time to make sure you call everybody up and remind them, go to your

01:14:30.560 early polls, go on Monday, do what you got to do, get over there, get all the information that you

01:14:35.580 have. I also heard a story tonight about somebody who went to go vote today and said, oh, I don't

01:14:39.560 know what I'm going to vote for. I'll just decide when I get there. You fool, you're going to be

01:14:43.100 there for like 45 minutes just reading over those questions. That's stupid. That's just dumb. It's

01:14:49.560 like the information isn't out there keep the conversations going keep them nice keep them

01:14:56.040 friendly keep the stories going keep the stories going in the last tour that i did there was a

01:15:02.840 couple who came they moved here from ontario specifically because of this referendum

01:15:09.880 specifically right that's huge huge there was another couple that i met they were on the fence

01:15:21.460 they said we didn't know and you're the first person to come to swan hills to talk to us so

01:15:26.240 we were not going to miss this they know how to vote now we set them we gave them some information

01:15:32.260 and sent them on their way keep talking keep talking we got what are we at now seven days

01:15:39.400 don't stop make some more friends don't lose any friends over this and we're

01:15:47.080 gonna love one another right on through until we get past that finish line thank

01:15:51.440 you so much

01:16:09.400 Thank you, Ken. I appreciate it.

01:16:13.680 You know, she mentioned friendship, and that's one of the great things that I think I've been able to take out of this amazing experience.

01:16:21.960 I've met a lot of friends.

01:16:22.980 You know, back, oh, back in early January, there was an event that happened at the Queensland Community Center here in Calvary.

01:16:32.820 And my friend Heather Field and Jeevan Mangat set up this event.

01:16:36.440 And Dennis Kalma was there, who was on the Transition Council with Keith.

01:16:40.600 Eva Chipiak was one of the speakers.

01:16:42.460 And the guy I'm going to introduce next was one of the speakers as well.

01:16:46.660 And I didn't know him back in early January, and I've got to know him very well.

01:16:51.400 I've interviewed him many, many times.

01:16:53.080 He's kind of become a friend of mine.

01:16:54.400 And I remember the first story, are you going to lead the independence movement?

01:16:59.880 Actually, after all, you wrote a book on it, for goodness sakes.

01:17:03.440 He did this about 20 years ago, right?

01:17:06.200 And we've become pretty good friends.

01:17:08.680 I was out at his event on a very windy day on Saturday.

01:17:11.600 He was sending out signs at the Dog Walk Park, not far from where I live.

01:17:15.680 So I'd like to welcome up here Corey Morgan, one of the third-party advertisers, Pathway to Independence.

01:17:27.360 And he got a lot of signs out there.

01:17:29.740 He worked his butt off.

01:17:30.840 He did very well.

01:17:32.220 Choose Alberta.

01:17:33.080 They're everywhere.

01:17:33.860 Corey, thank you so much for being here tonight.

01:17:42.400 Well, thank you very much.

01:17:47.080 There we go.

01:17:47.740 That's better.

01:17:48.660 I know you're probably going to come running up and adjust this in a moment like you always do to me, so I'll move it myself.

01:17:53.860 I can't help you with that, unfortunately.

01:17:57.280 You know, and there's been multiple mentions, and thank you, John.

01:18:00.000 that was a turning point last january that was really something else i'm still astounded that

01:18:06.340 was nine and some months ago this has been a long time coming as people point out i i've been

01:18:12.020 stubbornly at this for over 20 years uh and we could feel the movement building a year and a

01:18:19.480 half ago i mean that election was a turning point but even three years ago this has been

01:18:23.120 coming but the night that the light switch really came on was at that queensland community hall it

01:18:29.580 was the dead of winter it was january it was cold it was dark there's a town hall meeting i'm going

01:18:35.240 to be speaking with some great people i thought wonderful we'll have a couple hundred folks we'll

01:18:38.900 get moving towards this petitioning i think it was an hour before we were set to speak we'd already

01:18:43.560 hit capacity of 400 people nobody else could sit in the room but the ability to start signing

01:18:49.080 signatures for the petition began that night we spoke to an incredible room and then when we

01:18:55.420 finished went outside and the lineup of people snaked for blocks thousands in the middle of the

01:19:03.800 night in a community hall in january in south calgary eager for the first chance to move things

01:19:10.520 along to bring about sort of anyways what we're facing this week with a vote that's kind of sort

01:19:18.340 of independence leaning unfortunately the question of that time was looking to get a little more

01:19:22.840 blunt but it was that was the night when i realized this is something special this is something more

01:19:28.680 this is what i've been working towards for 25 years now and i mean we're going to be working

01:19:35.000 towards it for much longer yet but there's a groundswell and something uh kathy spoke of

01:19:42.040 something john spoke of something more that happened is we've built a movement there's always

01:19:48.600 been a degree of independent supporters parties that come and go i know i started when it came

01:19:54.200 and went i met lots of involved in a lot of things but i've never had something happen like we've

01:20:00.520 seen in this last year believe it or not i'm not a social butterfly i know my smiling face just

01:20:08.200 attracts people right but i really do enjoy meeting people i enjoy getting out but i i wasn't the sort

01:20:15.400 to get out of my shell and do that typically this has forced me to do that in this last year and i've

01:20:19.960 really really met so many astounding albertans so many people have worked their butts off so many

01:20:27.080 dedicated people doing everything for all the right reasons realizing that the responsibility

01:20:33.960 for making alberta a better place is ours it's on our own responsibility it never has been

01:20:41.800 our biggest enemy is apathy it's people letting the job go to somebody else

01:20:48.340 i've been asked a lot lately in interviews and things you know well

01:20:52.720 how will you how will you react on tuesday you know with the results whatever way they might go

01:20:58.960 and i'll tell you what my reaction on tuesday my plan on tuesday is going to be exactly the same

01:21:05.400 if the vote is 10 for option two or if it's 90 for option two i'm going to do whatever i have

01:21:11.460 to do to make Alberta a fully independent country of its own. That plan doesn't change.

01:21:22.080 It doesn't change. And we have to remember that. We have to keep that in mind because no matter

01:21:27.640 how that vote goes, we can't take our hands off the steering wheel. You know what the biggest

01:21:32.360 mistake of Brexit was? It was that people voted, got it across the line and thought right on,

01:21:38.300 We did it. Now I can go home and sit back and watch TV again. And they gave it all back to

01:21:42.480 the establishment who drove the truck right back off the cliff again. Winning the vote means you

01:21:47.960 got to grip that steering wheel more tightly than ever. You have to make sure that you think that

01:21:53.480 establishment is going to give up just because we vote the right way. They're going to double down.

01:21:58.980 It's a big, important step. And if we somehow run a bit short, fine. We still have to maintain it.

01:22:06.220 then we still keep pushing forward we reevaluate we figure out what we have to do and we move ahead

01:22:11.020 the plan doesn't change we'll probably need to sleep for a couple days after that's going to be

01:22:15.180 part of the plan too something i'm seeing from a lot of tv people call a common theme is we're tired

01:22:19.780 people have been going at it people talk about these meetings why do we do this you're just

01:22:24.400 preaching to the converted no this helps energize me this helps remind me that there's so many other

01:22:28.780 people working at this and getting it going this has a purpose i know there's probably not a heck

01:22:33.320 of a lot of undecided people in this room but there's going to be a lot of people leaving this

01:22:37.240 room tonight feeling again re-energized and ready to put in this final week this very very critical

01:22:42.060 week we hear the talk about the lineups we hear the talk about the challenges to get out to vote

01:22:47.580 we hear as kathy mentioned some people still scratching their heads after five months of

01:22:51.940 talking about this well i'm not sure which way i'm gonna go well that also reminds us then that

01:22:56.160 we still have people to work on we still have some people we have to have some conversations with

01:23:00.960 positive conversations yelling at them as tempting as it might be isn't typically effective but if

01:23:07.660 we ask them questions if we're respectful we talk to them if they're sitting on the fence at this

01:23:11.720 point it most definitely means they can move the right way so let's find them and then let's make

01:23:16.380 sure they get out there look at one of the most effective and smart politicians and communicators

01:23:27.600 we have in alberta oh you're not gonna like the name it's jason kenny don't underestimate him

01:23:32.160 he's very smart he knows exactly how to move people he is a political creature he's one of

01:23:37.200 the most skilled ones in alberta and where is he going bananas right now on two fronts

01:23:43.520 one he wants to get the vote out he sees the risk he sees that supporters for the status quo

01:23:50.080 aren't motivated to get off their butts somebody who wants the status quo is going to be the one

01:23:54.800 most likely to pull into a parking lot at a community hall see a long lineup and say screw

01:23:58.640 this i'm going to watch something on netflix they're worried about that those of us who want

01:24:04.000 change are motivated as kenny put it we'll crawl over broken glass to get out to vote but there is

01:24:11.760 a degree of people who might want change and they still aren't that motivated and that's what we

01:24:15.200 got to find in this next week and make sure that we nag them kick their butt do whatever we have

01:24:20.160 to without assaulting them for real and get them to make that mark on that ballot it is so critical

01:24:26.480 this is an opportunity like we've never had before as was said we're making history but

01:24:32.000 we got to make sure the history is the right way and that takes effort that means this campaign

01:24:36.800 has to go right to the end the other thing is messaging and when you look at jason kenny you

01:24:44.720 look at mr leach or many of the other people i'm fighting with on x when i find myself with spare

01:24:49.840 time what are they furious with they're furious with the sand ottawa message messaging they're

01:24:56.540 furious with people saying this vote can be vote bruce party put that into my head and he was

01:25:01.900 absolutely right option one is a vote for the status quo remind people of that option one is

01:25:08.920 just saying i'm perfectly fine with the way things are i don't want to change a darn thing let's just

01:25:14.000 carry on going ahead you know what there's not a lot of people perfectly happy with the way things

01:25:17.860 are option two there's no wrong reason to vote for option two in my view if a person's choosing

01:25:27.700 to vote for option two to send a message i'm just as happy as if it's a person who chooses option

01:25:31.940 two like me who just wants it as one more step towards independence because i'll settle for

01:25:36.180 nothing less we'll work on bringing those people over to vote for the full independence down the

01:25:42.260 the road but if bringing them in and getting them to want to send a message is what it'll take on

01:25:48.020 this round on this level on this path then let us do it and again listen to how terrified the

01:25:55.740 opponents are when we talk about it in fact they're furious they get rolling why don't you

01:26:00.700 just have a party with a block alberta wear it on your sleeve you know march down the street

01:26:06.140 scream separatism separatism well because we want to win the damn thing and that's why

01:26:10.640 they're upset but again these aren't fools who are upset with us they're putting their finger

01:26:17.200 to the wind and they realize something is happening it's getting out of their reach

01:26:21.000 this isn't a vote against canada this is a vote against the system this is a vote against the

01:26:27.780 establishment and the establishment is going to fight with everything it has to the bitter end

01:26:35.160 especially as it gets terrified as it realizes that there's a threat to the established order

01:26:41.320 that they've been benefiting from for so long the term for it with brexit

01:26:48.600 look what happened i really saw that last week after it suddenly turned on it really felt

01:26:56.280 coordinated holy cow every organization every legacy media outlet every political personality

01:27:03.800 suddenly came out with the most fearful predictions and studies and you know prognostication that we

01:27:11.880 are just going to be in a living hell if we dare to vote for option two and they just hit us with

01:27:16.600 a blast full force on this that was no mistake now if you're going to scare people into voting for

01:27:23.480 you you're on the wrong side people should be voting for something better not because they're

01:27:30.600 afraid of what another alternative is but that's what they're utilizing but you know what how well

01:27:36.360 did that work how well did that go for brexit how did the polls go in the final 10 days of that

01:27:44.040 people are sick of the establishment talking down to them people are sick of the ninchies

01:27:50.200 the lucasics the duane bratz and many many others we could andrew coy now i got a special place in

01:27:57.880 in my heart for him god if i could only just separate from him but that common theme that

01:28:05.460 common tone this is not an establishment that's comfortable this is not an establishment that

01:28:12.040 doesn't feel threatened so we are on the right track so that's what i just wanted to leave

01:28:19.420 people with as we're kind of like i said we're meeting a lot of folks talking up front we're

01:28:23.540 feeling a little run ragged. We're feeling a little tired at Mr. and Mrs. Alberta out in the

01:28:27.920 nights. I mean, you put a sign up and you come back 12 hours later and some person has cut it

01:28:33.180 to pieces again right afterwards or spray painted it. And it can be dejecting. Like you start to

01:28:39.020 wonder what's the point. Only a week to go, guys. I mean, there's years to go. This is a long game.

01:28:45.460 We're making history. We're building a nation. This is going to take us a long time, but we're

01:28:49.520 in a critical turning point right now so i'm asking you i'm thanking you all for the energy

01:28:54.800 you've shown thanking you all for helping me remain motivated thanking for pulling me out of

01:28:59.400 my anti-social shell so i can enjoy all your company and i have and i'll continue to because

01:29:05.880 that's what we've built is a movement a network it's not going to go away after this vote it's

01:29:10.580 only going to become stronger and it's going to get better so put everything you can into this

01:29:15.960 final week look at every action you do how can i get one more vote for this how can i get another

01:29:21.320 vote after that all the way until the end of this then take a nap for a little bit and then we'll

01:29:25.760 all talk about what we got to do the week after but for this week our past simple and thank you

01:29:30.100 very much for coming out and supporting this i'm honored to be able to speak to you in this

01:29:36.840 second last event and i hope i see a bunch of you at the rally in edmonton this saturday as well

01:29:42.200 And it'll be one excellent event to wrap things right up.

01:29:45.600 So thank you again.

01:29:58.840 Thanks very much, Corey.

01:30:01.900 I remember at that event in Queensland too, Corey,

01:30:04.760 it was about an hour in and somebody came up and said,

01:30:06.900 there's 1,500 people standing in line outside.

01:30:09.420 We only had three people that could sign people to the petition, and they wrote their arms off that night.

01:30:17.320 So I think it was back at the beginning of the summer, I had the honor of being the emcee at the launch of Let Alberta Decide.

01:30:27.620 I was asked by Keith Wilson and Tanya Clemens if I would be the emcee.

01:30:32.620 And if you ever see Keith in any of his interviews, he's always wearing a suit, he's got a jacket on.

01:30:37.680 and I in my previous life I used to have to do a lot of events but I have any

01:30:42.660 more suits because I haven't been in my previous life for a lot of years so I

01:30:45.840 went out and I bought a suit what do you think I forgot my time I called up Keith

01:30:55.740 I said Keith I'm going out to buy a suit just to do this event so I'm going out

01:31:01.440 the door tonight and I said to my wife what should I wear she said put on

01:31:05.040 keith's suit so she said but the woman that's coming up has become a friend of mine i i've met

01:31:15.560 a lot of nice people she's one of the best i've made so many friends but the experience of my

01:31:21.540 life was a couple of weeks ago i got to spend some time in a combine on her farm it was awesome

01:31:27.780 20 000 people have watched that 35 minute interview with us in the combine very cool so i'd like to

01:31:34.400 welcome up from Let Alberta Decide Tanya Clemens. Thank you. Thank you so much. Good evening Calgary.

01:31:55.980 It's wonderful to see so many Albertans here tonight. For those of you I haven't met, I'm Tanya

01:32:01.840 lemons a fourth generation green farmer a former teacher and a mum and lately you've seen me if

01:32:08.880 you've seen me at all there's a pretty good chance it's been from the cab of my combine

01:32:13.360 i certainly never imagined a few years ago that i'd be traveling around alberta with keith wilson

01:32:18.800 talking to thousands of people about the possibility of our province becoming an

01:32:22.800 independent country yet here we are and i have to tell you it's been one of the most extraordinary

01:32:28.960 experiences of my life i've met people from every corner of this province people who have given

01:32:35.680 years sometimes decades to the hope that albertans might someday have a real opportunity to decide

01:32:42.160 their own future and now with just six days until the referendum i find myself thinking

01:32:49.600 about something i wonder if people recognize history while they're actually living through it

01:32:56.880 because most of us are just carrying on with our lives we're working we're raising our families

01:33:01.920 we're paying our bills and we're trying to get everything done that needs doing and in my case

01:33:07.520 i'm trying to finish harvest gosh generations of albert and many never lived to see it now for the

01:33:16.880 first time we're the ones who get to make this decision i consider that an extraordinary

01:33:22.880 privilege and i feel a tremendous responsibility to make sure we don't take this opportunity for

01:33:28.240 granted i'm also incredibly fortunate to be standing alongside my friend keith i'm proud

01:33:35.120 of what we built with let alberta decide alongside our incredible core team and the many organizers

01:33:42.160 and volunteers who have given so much of themselves to this effort and i don't think we should ever

01:33:48.480 forget the enormous amount of work over so many years that took to get to this

01:33:53.160 moment I certainly didn't get bill sorry I certainly didn't begin my adult life

01:34:00.560 believing that Alberta needed to become independent for most of my life I

01:34:06.120 believed we could secure our future within Canada I thought if we elected

01:34:10.600 good people if we made reasonable reasonable arguments and we just kept

01:34:15.460 pushing for reform eventually we would get somewhere i wanted very much for that to be true

01:34:23.300 but we've tried for decades to change our relationship with ottawa from the reform

01:34:28.820 movement and the firewall letter to the fair deal panel and the equalization referendum

01:34:34.740 there have been so many efforts to attempt to secure our sovereignty for alberta within canada

01:34:41.700 and after watching alberta go through the same frustrations year after year i started

01:34:46.980 to question whether anything was actually going to change that wasn't an easy thing for me to accept

01:34:54.820 i genuinely wanted to believe we could make canada work better for alberta

01:35:00.260 i know independence raises serious questions about pensions and trade treaties and all the services

01:35:06.260 we depend on those things needed answers and i think we've been doing a really great job at

01:35:11.380 answering them but we should be asking really difficult questions about remaining in canada

01:35:19.060 what will decades more of federal interference cost alberta and lost investment in missed

01:35:24.980 opportunities and in control over our own future we need to be willing to examine both possibilities

01:35:32.580 with the same seriousness that's why i support option two on october 19th october 19th is not

01:35:40.340 the final vote on independence option two asks our provincial government to begin the legal process

01:35:46.020 toward a subsequent referendum on separation the vote itself is non-binding and it doesn't

01:35:51.780 automatically make alberta independent what i believe it offers is something we've been missing

01:35:58.260 at the negotiating table a credible alternative I'm a green farmer as you

01:36:04.760 know so I'll explain it how I kind of think about it imagine I'm negotiating a

01:36:10.560 green contract and the I have absolutely nowhere else to sell my grain I can tell

01:36:17.620 him his price is terrible I can explain that his terms aren't fair I can get

01:36:22.380 quite annoyed at him actually but if he knows that I'm gonna sign the contract

01:36:27.140 anyways, how much reason does he have to improve the offer? Not much. But now imagine I have

01:36:34.860 another buyer. I might still choose the first one. Maybe he offers better terms. Maybe the second

01:36:41.640 buyer has an arrangement that works better for my farm. But suddenly there's a negotiation worth

01:36:47.200 having because I have an alternative. And that's what I believe Alberta has been missing. For

01:36:53.480 decades ottawa has been able to assume that regardless of how negotiations go alberta will

01:36:58.680 remain in confederation putting a credible path toward independence on the table will change that

01:37:05.000 calculation it will give our provincial government an opportunity to negotiate from a stronger

01:37:10.600 position and find out what is canada prepared to offer that doesn't guarantee ottawa will offer

01:37:17.960 everything that alberta wants and it doesn't guarantee an agreement at all

01:37:22.440 but i would much rather see our premier enter those discussions with a credible alternative

01:37:28.120 than go back asking for concessions and pinky promises while everyone knows alberta has no

01:37:33.640 intention of leaving and albertans would still have another decision to make if canada offers

01:37:40.040 an arrangement that genuinely addresses our concerns we could consider it if canada isn't

01:37:46.040 prepared to negotiate seriously then at least we'll know where we stand i believe we owe ourselves

01:37:52.440 that opportunity to find out and actually i think we owe it to the generations who come after us

01:37:57.320 to find out on our farm i work the same land that generations of my family worked before me

01:38:04.840 and one of the things farming has taught me is the importance of stewardship you understand pretty

01:38:10.520 quickly that the land was here a long long before you and it'll be here long

01:38:15.320 after you're gone you're simply looking after it for the next generation so you

01:38:21.140 make decisions with that in mind you take care of what you've inherited you

01:38:25.280 try to leave it better than you found it and you hope the next generation will

01:38:29.340 have the same opportunities that you've had I think about Alberta in much the

01:38:34.680 same way we've inherited an extraordinary place built through the

01:38:39.620 work and sacrifice of generations before us and now we're responsible for

01:38:44.720 deciding what kind of Alberta we're gonna leave behind I think about my kids

01:38:49.820 and someday my grandkids and the opportunity I want them to have to build

01:38:54.780 good lives here to own homes to start businesses to farm if they would like to

01:39:00.460 to raise their families and to have a meaningful say in the decisions that

01:39:05.180 shape their life and i also wonder what they'll say someday about our generation i hope they'll

01:39:12.540 look back and recognize that we understood the significance of this moment that we had the

01:39:17.820 courage to ask difficult questions the wisdom to consider what was at stake and the conviction to

01:39:24.540 take our responsibility seriously because right now we still have the opportunity to influence

01:39:30.380 how this chapter of alberta's history is written and we have just six days left i know there are

01:39:37.180 people in this room who have spent months and in some cases years working toward this referendum

01:39:42.940 a common theme is that we are tired you've attended meetings put up signs shared information

01:39:49.900 and had those tough conversations involved right through the vote at let alberta decide

01:39:57.580 we call our get out to vote strategy the path to victory it's built around something pretty simple

01:40:03.420 talking to people you already know and making sure they have the information they need to participate

01:40:09.740 we don't have a big political database to work from so we're asking volunteers to start with

01:40:14.220 10 people they know maybe that's family friends neighbors a co-worker find out whether they know

01:40:21.100 about the referendum because it's surprising how many people do not ask them whether they have

01:40:26.940 questions and whether they've figured out where and when they're going to vote and then follow

01:40:33.100 up with them because people get busy people get apathetic and sometimes all it takes is

01:40:37.740 a phone call or a quick text message to help someone to remember to cast their ballot we're

01:40:43.900 also asking each volunteer to find three people who are willing to take on that same job with

01:40:48.220 their own contacts that's how the network grows beyond the people we're already reaching

01:40:53.580 so if you're wondering how to help in these final six days that's the plan 10 personal contacts

01:40:59.580 three more volunteers and a little follow-through before october 19th if you'd like to be involved

01:41:05.820 you can go sign up at letalbertadecide.com and there's a volunteer tab there to click on

01:41:13.020 in four days we'll gather again on the steps of the legislature in edmonton

01:41:17.900 and just two days after that the final albertan voters will head to the polls to cast their

01:41:23.740 ballots on what i believe is the most important question our province has ever been asked

01:41:29.820 someday future generations will look back on this moment in alberta's history and i hope

01:41:35.180 they'll see a generation that had the courage to take responsibility for its future a generation

01:41:41.340 willing to put in the work make difficult decisions and leave something better for

01:41:45.500 those who came after us that's how i'd like our generation to be remembered and there's a thought

01:41:52.140 that captures that for me we did not choose the moment in history in which we would live

01:41:57.820 but we will be remembered for what we chose to do when that moment arrived well alberta that moment

01:42:04.620 has arrived on october october 19th we get to cast our ballots on what i believe is the most

01:42:10.940 important question albertans have ever been asked and i hope that years from now we'll

01:42:16.060 be proud of how we answered it so vote option two thank you tanya appreciate it uh i think

01:42:38.940 we're going to pass around a bucket in just a moment you know chris thanks to chris for putting

01:42:43.740 these events on uh here's his website right here letstalkalberta.com um chris driving his vehicle

01:42:51.580 up and down his province takes a lot of money putting on events like this and you can help him

01:42:55.740 out there's uh shirts and different things you can buy at the back if you'd like to pick that up we

01:43:00.060 have a number of other three-party advertisers here tonight you can support them as well we've

01:43:04.620 We've got books and other things.

01:43:06.380 So if you can throw a few bucks in the bucket and buy some shirts and things,

01:43:10.220 that would be terrific.

01:43:12.080 Coming up next, we've got a guy I met a few times.

01:43:15.460 I remember he was out in Mirror back in the summertime.

01:43:18.060 Beautiful day.

01:43:19.960 Jason Levine and Chris Scott and others put on an event.

01:43:24.260 Let Alberta decide, I believe, as well.

01:43:26.240 And I think Corey was involved.

01:43:27.540 But we had a great day out there with a stage and some terrific music.

01:43:31.940 My mother-in-law went with me.

01:43:33.920 She's 90, enjoyed her day.

01:43:35.600 I'm taking her out on Friday to vote, and she's going to vote for option two.

01:43:40.220 She's pretty excited about that.

01:43:42.060 I actually voted today, and I was pretty excited about doing it, I have to say.

01:43:46.120 But the guy we got coming up next, he is a big personality.

01:43:51.680 He's got a big voice.

01:43:53.260 He's got a big hat, got a big mustache, and he's a really great guy, and he's a terrific entertainer.

01:44:00.120 We'd like to welcome up to the stage Ben Crane.

01:44:02.360 Ben, come on up here, sir.

01:44:23.520 Let's hear it for independent media.

01:44:32.360 where would we be without guys like John

01:44:38.140 okay I think we're ready I think

01:44:47.500 thank you so much for letting me be here thank you guys for coming even though you knew I was

01:44:54.040 going to be here that is just amazing to me a lot of stuff that we've heard tonight is about

01:45:02.040 heritage kathy or uh yeah kathy was talking about heritage tanya was talking about how many

01:45:09.660 generations she's been on a little closer to the mic there we go max is our mother thank you mother

01:45:18.120 max and uh i'm looking at that my wife grew up on the family farm our grandchildren are sixth

01:45:28.600 generation on that land her her great-granddaddy and great-grandma bought the original land off

01:45:36.200 the original homesteader so when we say we're a little close to the land well that's kind of what

01:45:42.940 we mean and I look at what's going on east of here and I'm thinking that's a direct attack

01:45:52.300 to our heritage and I ain't gonna stand for that so that's why I'm up here tonight

01:45:58.860 Shane and Chris had asked me to join the tour a bunch of months back,

01:46:03.600 and I didn't know what in the world is a songwriter from the middle of the sticks.

01:46:09.200 What do I have to offer?

01:46:10.760 And he says, you can write songs.

01:46:13.840 So I went home that night, and I shook my guitar.

01:46:19.160 That's where the songs come out.

01:46:21.580 And I got thinking about my roots and how deep they are in Alberta.

01:46:27.900 we moved here from the States when I was two and I've been raised my entire life

01:46:37.100 down in this beautiful country here. So, you know, I don't do a whole lot really well shooting from

01:46:43.460 the hip like the rest of these speakers do. So my stuff is best said while I think it through

01:46:49.460 and then wrap a little bit of music around it. So this is the first song that I writ

01:46:55.380 and that was that was uh talking about our roots my alberta roots run deep

01:47:17.620 the only life i know goes back a hundred years

01:47:23.460 Steeped in deep traditions

01:47:26.920 Of blood and sweat and tears

01:47:30.140 The value of hard work

01:47:33.300 Common sense, hope and truth

01:47:36.300 Family and freedom

01:47:39.560 The value of our youth

01:47:42.760 What makes me want to hold on

01:47:46.480 To what I know is right

01:47:48.960 And in the face of opposition

01:47:51.820 Stand my ground and fight

01:47:55.660 My Alberta roots run deep

01:48:01.820 It's in my blood, in my bones

01:48:07.200 It gets stronger every day

01:48:09.620 When somebody tries to move in

01:48:13.120 Take it all away

01:48:15.500 I just draw a line there in the sand

01:48:19.800 Stand my ground and say, my Alberta roof, run to me.

01:48:39.740 Just living on the land, watching life come and go.

01:48:45.740 Working hard and playing hard

01:48:49.480 In sunshine and in snow

01:48:52.060 We don't really ask for much

01:48:55.800 As we know that God provides

01:48:58.440 He's given us all the tools we need

01:49:02.260 To enjoy this life and strive

01:49:04.860 So what makes us want to hold on

01:49:08.380 What we know is right

01:49:10.980 And in the face of opposition

01:49:13.940 Stand the ground and fight

01:49:18.160 My alberta roots

01:49:22.320 Run to heat

01:49:23.840 In our blood, in our bones

01:49:29.280 They get stronger every day

01:49:31.700 When somebody tries to move in

01:49:35.280 Tear it all away

01:49:37.600 We just draw a line there in the sand

01:49:42.000 Stand aground and say, our Alberta roots, you can't hide them, they define us, they made us who we are today, and when life's this good, you just don't throw it away.

01:50:03.360 It's our Alberta roots

01:50:07.960 Run deep

01:50:09.620 You can't dig them up

01:50:13.060 Or pull them out

01:50:14.600 They grow deeper every day

01:50:17.340 And when somebody tries to move in

01:50:21.040 And tear it all away

01:50:23.840 We just draw a line there in the sand

01:50:27.660 Stand the ground and say

01:50:31.100 Are Alberta roots from deep, from deep.

01:50:57.800 Thank you so much.

01:50:59.260 that is so awesome you know i've become friends with each one of these guys that's up here

01:51:04.860 and uh we run the roads all across the province and uh i've just learned so much

01:51:13.960 what have i learned i didn't i didn't know that we never asked to join canada in the first place

01:51:21.640 1905 i didn't know that the whole governance system right from the start is an intentional

01:51:30.900 top-down do as you're told model i didn't know that our first premier was handed to us

01:51:39.320 he wasn't elected and of course he was liberal i may be wrong but i think that was the only liberal

01:51:46.960 premier we've had, isn't it? In our whole time, just that first guy.

01:51:52.760 All I knew is that we have been right from the start, a resource colony in actuality and a

01:52:01.400 province in name only. They knew what we had and they wanted it bad. And they sure didn't want us

01:52:10.020 because we was too dangerous, but they had to keep us with it. So they just kind of wanted us

01:52:16.160 barefoot and pregnant so to speak be kept in our place that's what we want

01:52:21.820 so these kind of thoughts spilled out into this second little piece that i've got

01:52:27.400 that i wrote about a month later called big dreams it's a fun little tongue-in-cheek history lesson

01:52:36.600 i involved whatsoever in this music in the writing of it or the producing of it

01:52:44.000 Actually, the only AI is what I call Alberta intelligence, and I'm sticking with that.

01:53:14.000 We didn't ask to be brought here back in 1905.

01:53:21.000 We was just fine spending our time to mind our own business and thrive.

01:53:29.000 But we East had different ideas. We was too good a deal to pass up.

01:53:37.000 They saw what we had, and they wanted it bad, so they signed us up there on the spot.

01:53:45.060 They said, we'll call you Alberta, land the big sky in big dreams.

01:53:52.760 There, you do the work, we'll take the pay, that makes us the ultimate team.

01:53:59.840 Well, we realized that we was the peasant

01:54:05.740 And this arrangement just couldn't go far

01:54:09.460 They said, you feed the cow

01:54:12.760 We may allow you to take a small sip from the jar

01:54:17.840 The things just got worse as the time flew

01:54:22.140 The feds kept a stomp on our necks

01:54:25.920 Take all our pay, keep our assets at bay

01:54:30.820 The whole thing's become a big wreck

01:54:33.760 Say goodbye to old Alberta

01:54:37.960 Too much for all of our dreams

01:54:41.860 We're told what to think, election day stinks

01:54:46.880 We're taking out all of our means

01:54:50.080 We've always had it, we're rattled

01:54:55.140 It's gonna move on and take back what's hard from the start.

01:55:01.120 We ride a new horse, we chart a new course, thank God that we're finally free.

01:55:12.580 To raise a glass to old Alberta, land of big sky and big dreams.

01:55:19.340 We're finally free to be who we should be

01:55:23.860 Get rid of the liberal scheme

01:55:27.060 Oh, let's break the chain

01:55:31.740 Breathe free again

01:55:33.620 Thank God we can finally free

01:55:49.340 oh yeah oh yeah well here's the main thought that i want to keep with you guys tonight

01:56:00.460 if i was to ever give you a piece of advice it would be use common sense and stay focused

01:56:10.540 i really think all these ideas these new these other questions don't get distracted by them

01:56:17.400 look at you know all of the the hidden meanings they're there but don't worry about it stay

01:56:23.480 focused they are trying to get us in my opinion to get all kefluffled that's a new word i think i

01:56:33.400 just i just made up but keep your eyes focused on the goal and that's what brought us to this point

01:56:42.680 in the first place. Your built-in common sense, that BS meter that's been spinning so fast lately

01:56:49.880 you can use it as a fan, that's what's going to be, has to be reactivated and that'll guide you.

01:56:57.900 And that common sense, folks, is a gift given to us by God himself. That part of you that he designed

01:57:05.500 to enable you to discern lies and know truth it's a crystal clear decision folks stay as we are

01:57:16.120 in what's been referred to many times tonight as the status quo that means don't change a thing

01:57:24.720 or you can choose to take the rare opportunity to choose for the very first time in our lives

01:57:32.100 what path and direction we want to go, and to choose what we want nothing to do with.

01:57:40.340 I love that. See, the thing about the status quo, it hit me the other day, I started laughing right

01:57:45.520 in the middle of sleeping, because it hit me that that term itself states that nothing changes,

01:57:54.380 everything remains. But our government and society is changing, 180 degrees intentionally.

01:58:02.100 And at breakneck speed, things like the 30 by 30 that's been floated by our government, that's within three years from now, they want to buy up or appropriate 30% of the landmass, the private land for environmental protection.

01:58:20.780 he wants us to get into the new world order

01:58:26.380 global government you will own nothing and be happy won't you the eu joining without consent

01:58:37.460 no parliamentary vote a dictator no discussion initial results in foreign entity telling us all

01:58:46.860 the kinds of things we want them to do, right? Telling us what we can and cannot do, who we can

01:58:53.400 sell what to, what our health regulations are, what's a pandemic and how it'll be handled.

01:59:02.160 Let's hear it for a long time. We have a government that is hell-bent literally on destroying our

01:59:09.820 people in our economy folks this is the status quo that the forever and unity folks are presenting

01:59:17.900 to you as the only viable option stay here with all this good stuff and unity

01:59:27.660 i've never seen this country divided like it is now

01:59:32.300 and i really believe that people are waking up to the diabolical direction that we are going

01:59:36.940 And I want nothing to do with this direction, personally.

01:59:41.540 In fact, if you want to spout status quo, if you really want status quo, choose Alberta.

01:59:51.120 Because that status quo that they're looking for seems to me to be the Canada that you and I grew up in.

01:59:59.280 And that ain't here, folks.

02:00:00.460 But Alberta, I believe, is the last bastion of what that stood for.

02:00:08.700 That good old common sense that we are talking about.

02:00:14.280 Nobody I know that claims to have all the answers.

02:00:18.720 These will come as we proceed.

02:00:20.680 But you and I are here, folks.

02:00:23.860 you and I, everybody in this room are here because somebody in this same predicament

02:00:32.840 over a hundred years ago said, we got to get out from underneath our world of oppression

02:00:40.140 and start all over again here. They didn't know the answers. The only thing they knew,

02:00:47.120 And the only thing we know for certain is that to stay in this kind of a deal is no longer an option.

02:00:55.180 And to do nothing has become the greater risk.

02:00:59.000 Something's got to change.

02:01:01.000 That's the third song.

02:01:05.880 Okay.

02:01:10.480 Okay, what are we doing here?

02:01:14.200 There you go.

02:01:15.460 You know, I have never seen this sparkly of a podium in my life.

02:01:25.400 Ladies and gentlemen, if you didn't know it, this here is Mr. and Mrs. Alberta.

02:01:33.880 There we go.

02:01:39.300 That covers my sexy knees.

02:01:41.640 The folks don't like that over there.

02:01:45.460 but then you're not the we can't we can only see your upper body that's about it on the camera

02:01:52.500 that's the best part yeah just adjust the camera just adjust that okay i'll i'll move over a little

02:01:59.780 bit as we do this last song something's got to change we were doing a town hall and some

02:02:07.860 little old fella got up and he says i don't know he said i got no answers

02:02:13.540 i don't know what to do but something's got to change and we're all i think in that same boat

02:02:20.580 and uh we went home my wife and i had coffee the next morning she says you know

02:02:26.020 i cannot get that phrase out of my mind something's got to change she says maybe that needs to be your

02:02:33.780 next song so she went downstairs to go to work and i writ for an hour and brought this down i

02:02:43.780 said something like this and she says yeah so there we go something's got to change

02:02:47.780 something's gotta change something's gotta change if it just ain't work let's see what we can do

02:03:08.980 if it's broke well it needs a fix same is true in politics

02:03:14.500 So let's talk Alberta, it's up to me and you

02:03:19.780 When the front wheel starts to wobble

02:03:25.100 Man, you better pull your truck on over

02:03:27.680 You might not be the only nut that's loose

02:03:32.780 You can't just ignore it

02:03:37.720 Or pretend that it's alright

02:03:40.840 That shaky loose

02:03:43.460 Is gonna cook your goose

02:03:46.540 Something's gotta change

02:03:50.920 Yeah, something's gotta change

02:03:54.260 It just ain't work

02:03:56.660 Let's see what we can do

02:03:59.720 It needs a fix

02:04:04.120 Same is true with politics

02:04:07.260 Let's talk Alberta

02:04:09.840 It's up to me and you

02:04:12.260 I don't have a crystal ball

02:04:23.780 I don't claim to have the answers

02:04:27.280 For the way

02:04:28.840 The old back history's racing for long

02:04:31.960 But I know it's time

02:04:36.160 To leave the couch

02:04:37.820 Time to hit our knees, rebuild this country on a solid rock.

02:04:48.100 Something's gotta change, yeah, something's gotta change.

02:04:54.220 If it just ain't working, let's see what we can do.

02:05:00.260 If it's true, well, it needs a fix.

02:05:03.840 Shame is true with politics.

02:05:06.280 Let's talk Alberta, it's up to me and you

02:05:11.400 You've heard that real insanity is to try the same thing over again

02:05:20.360 I wonder why you get the same response

02:05:24.540 There's gotta be more options, there's gotta be a way

02:05:32.500 To bring this crazy train wreck to our heart

02:05:37.840 Something's gonna change

02:05:42.900 Yeah, something's gonna change

02:05:46.000 If it just ain't working, let's see what we can do

02:05:51.700 It's broke, it needs a fix

02:05:55.940 Same is true with politics

02:05:58.980 Let's talk Alberta

02:06:01.620 It's up to me and you

02:06:03.920 Yeah, let's talk Alberta

02:06:08.200 It's up to me and you

02:06:10.820 Thank you guys so much

02:06:21.620 Man, what a hoot

02:06:22.920 You guys are great

02:06:25.140 Something's gotta change

02:06:26.740 Stay focused

02:06:27.560 Use common sense

02:06:29.840 and let's choose the future that gives us a future.

02:06:35.280 I made that up myself.

02:06:36.920 Thank you guys so much.

02:06:38.140 Enjoy the rest of the evening.

02:06:51.000 Thanks very much, Ben.

02:06:54.520 You know, it's interesting.

02:06:55.740 I hear Tanya talk about five generations in Alberta.

02:07:00.200 I hear Ben say six generations in Alberta,

02:07:03.560 people who have been wanting Alberta independence for decades here.

02:07:07.640 It was interesting.

02:07:08.480 It was Thanksgiving weekend.

02:07:10.040 Everybody have a good Thanksgiving?

02:07:12.480 Yeah.

02:07:13.880 On Saturday, I was lucky enough to have my dear friend Jason Levine,

02:07:18.400 his wife Paul, and their children, JJ and Jacob, over in my house.

02:07:22.380 They've become very dear friends of mine.

02:07:24.800 And I've got to know Bruce Pardee quite well.

02:07:27.980 He was over for dinner as well.

02:07:29.240 He's been in my house a number of times.

02:07:30.560 It was the most remarkable thing.

02:07:31.860 I hear about five and six generations.

02:07:34.080 And here are two guys that moved here from Ontario a few years ago.

02:07:38.260 I've only lived here for 15 years.

02:07:39.800 Bruce is from Ontario.

02:07:41.520 We keep thinking he should move here.

02:07:43.140 He's here so much.

02:07:44.800 And here we are sitting around planning the future of Alberta

02:07:47.980 in my living room the other night.

02:07:49.920 newcomers to this province who see that albert independence is the only way forward it was quite

02:07:56.040 remarkable and and it was just so much fun there on saturday night you know we're newcomers here

02:08:01.860 and there are a lot of newcomers in this country who support us now this gentleman was not on the

02:08:07.920 schedule tonight but we'd like to welcome up somebody who'd like to say a word a few words

02:08:12.460 he's the his name is mahmoud mora from the alberta muslim social association mahmoud

02:08:17.980 hello everyone i'm not type of guy who write things i like to speak from the heart to the heart

02:08:39.400 well i heard many people saying how could you be a muslim immigrant and supporting the separatists

02:08:44.900 Here I am, an immigrant Muslim speaking to the separatists, and I'm proud to do so.

02:08:51.660 So I've been in this country for over 27 years.

02:08:56.160 I heard many people talking about rights.

02:09:00.100 Human rights, indigenous rights, women rights, with all respect to women,

02:09:06.660 Ukrainian, refugee, you name it, Palestinian and Lebanese rights.

02:09:10.460 the only rights you and I we never heard people talking about is your son's right

02:09:17.500 is your daughter's right is your husband right is your wife's right

02:09:23.260 is your grandfather and your grandmother is the right of everybody who work in this province

02:09:31.000 what we call Alberta's right sadly many of these people in this country they neglect ignore

02:09:39.980 and they don't believe that there is a province in the western canada exists contribute more than

02:09:47.500 any other provinces and pay so much into the society into the community we call canada

02:09:54.620 and we don't have the exact same right the right of every young men and women who want to start

02:10:01.740 a new job after education that our system have been flooded and i'm a newcomer i'm an immigrant

02:10:11.100 i follow the system there's nothing wrong with controlled immigration but when you have

02:10:20.620 when you have over 50 40 years old men or women come in shape of form of international students

02:10:29.020 filling our team hortons our gas station 7-11 an old part-time job that your daughter and my son

02:10:39.260 if they want to find a part-time job they can't and if they can they have to communicate with

02:10:45.360 someone literally cannot speak english this is alberta right alberta right for every senior

02:10:57.100 every elderly who get fifteen hundred to two thousand dollars a month he

02:11:03.120 contributed sweat and blood to this country especially to this province he

02:11:09.640 wasted his youngster when he was a strong man to protect his elderly age to

02:11:18.160 get something from that system that bully him mystery him while we have

02:11:23.380 refugee who come to this country yesterday and they never contributed 5% of

02:11:28.780 that senior of elderly and they get thousand and thousand of dollars this is

02:11:36.580 Alberta right this is Alberta right we're talking about Alberta right we need to

02:11:44.200 have Ottawa and Eastern Canada wait like we wait every day or every election till

02:11:50.800 four o'clock for them to determine who's the next supreme minister and regardless which direction

02:11:57.200 we vote we have no say in that bullying system exists this is alberta right don't tell me we

02:12:04.640 have less number we contribute more than any other provinces we have senators been appointed by a

02:12:13.200 system not to do nothing just to drink to brainwash their conscious because they know damn right

02:12:21.600 they're not doing good for their provinces and i want to tell you something if you want to know

02:12:27.440 if you're right or wrong when you see the enemy coming from the left from the right from the top

02:12:33.040 in the bottom from the front in the back you must know in your writing pass you are in the right

02:12:38.640 path and this is where we at right now everyone who's advocating for alberta future for the future

02:12:46.560 generation for the stability and prosperity of this province you are in the right path

02:12:54.240 don't listen to the federalist regardless if they are liberal or conservative regardless if they are

02:13:01.040 ndp or socialist communist whatever they are they're all united under one banner to keep us silent

02:13:08.640 to keep us sleeping and you know who's the biggest loser of life i believe people who lives by hope

02:13:17.200 i hope tomorrow will bring something better i hope they'll do something for us i'll hope

02:13:24.160 i hope i hope but i'll tell you one thing those those who lives by hope they'll die with nothing

02:13:30.240 The only time you get things done, when you engage, you sharpen your sword, and you go after the prey to fight your battle, to win the battle, to win the war.

02:13:43.260 And if you don't do it, you'll be sleeping in that cave for the rest of your life, hoping for someone to come and get you to the light.

02:13:50.840 Yes, I wasn't scheduled to speak today, but I want to speak to the youngsters, for every

02:14:03.400 young men and women out there.

02:14:06.660 When you're over 18, you start seeing the future.

02:14:12.440 You want to build a house, you want to buy a house, you want to buy a car, you want to

02:14:16.960 find a soulmate.

02:14:18.280 If you're a male, you're going to love a female.

02:14:21.920 If you're a female, you're going to love a male and get married and build life.

02:14:26.460 Don't listen to this radical left, what they're trying to poison our society and our community

02:14:32.440 and create a division among our society.

02:14:35.960 God created us in the best shape and for no modification needed.

02:14:42.020 We must praise him for who we are because he gave us what we want and more.

02:14:47.320 even if we're not satisfied at the moment of what we have,

02:14:52.260 believe me, God knows more than you do.

02:14:55.680 And today, God put you in a test.

02:14:59.880 Put you, youngster, in a test to choose what you want to do.

02:15:04.740 Because many of us, older generation, in the old days, we were so passive.

02:15:10.420 We were happy with what we have, what led us to be what we are today.

02:15:15.200 But this movement is about to protect you, to provide you, to give you opportunities that many of you cannot have if we keep going under the leadership of the federal government nowadays.

02:15:29.540 canada has a lot of resources we have so much opportunity to prosper and thrive

02:15:42.020 but sadly we have bad establishment we have bad management we have bad politician

02:15:49.220 and these guys they don't care about you 18 or 20 years old they see your number they don't give a

02:15:57.260 damn what you do they don't care how much debt you have in your credit card they don't give a damn

02:16:02.860 when you graduate what kind of job you're gonna find and the biggest evidence when they let over

02:16:07.900 nine not over the 900 000 international students to room into our cities in our country in our

02:16:14.700 provinces because they don't give a damn about you youngster and i'm sorry i'm saying this i could say

02:16:20.620 what you cannot say i'm saying this because i know when my son struggled to find the job he's 18 19

02:16:26.460 years old just freshly graduated from high school and i could see when he go to work

02:16:33.260 for team hortons he has to deal with someone literally couldn't understand the language he's

02:16:38.940 talking to him with and this is happening and the list could go on and on and on

02:16:45.500 i don't want to talk about political division i don't want to talk that we don't have representation

02:16:50.540 i don't want to talk about the list long of the mistreatment and the abuse that been taking place

02:16:56.220 by the federal government but i want to talk about simple matter many of us care about the dollar

02:17:03.580 sign i don't want to talk about six thousand dollars equalization payment each and every one

02:17:08.460 of us over 18 sent to eastern canada and so on i want to talk about provinces they want our oil

02:17:16.620 they want our money but they don't want our oil they look at us as a redneck province

02:17:22.140 we only exist to provide either beef and money why that we're not less than anyone

02:17:31.100 we are equal to anyone and more and if you look at united arab of emirate there are multiple states

02:17:37.660 but why dubai is prosper because it's a business central hub alberta is the central hub of canada

02:17:44.940 I am Albertan by choice and God bless me to be in this province to be Albertan

02:17:52.660 is a blessing guys and be proud of it to live in this province something not

02:17:58.180 many people could have or could feel till they live it till they experience it

02:18:04.200 till they have it there is no reason for our young men and women to leave this

02:18:09.280 province and go somewhere else to seek a better education to seek a better job

02:18:14.820 I want to talk to my Muslim community, I want to talk to those minority that have been fed by the radical left, the liberal, or the federal conservative movement, let me say it, that if you vote for the separatists or the referendum in October 19, you might be kicked out.

02:18:44.800 out of this province nobody will export anyone if you are staying in this country legally no one

02:18:52.720 would come toward you if you're contributing like anyone else and not living on the social service

02:18:58.960 and abusing the system there's no one to ask you a question why you're doing such a thing but if

02:19:05.120 you are doing so many illegal stuff and you're abusing the system you should look at the mirror

02:19:11.040 are you happy with yourself and don't wonder why someone's going to ask you what's going on

02:19:17.120 from here i want to tell everybody and i hope they'll listen and they'll pay attention

02:19:23.280 something to do on october 19 is to send a strong message to ottawa that western canadian especially

02:19:31.120 albertian are sick of this misrepresentation are sick of this mistreatment are sick of the

02:19:38.480 bullying that taking place in our society in our system and we're gonna send a strong message

02:19:44.400 strong message to everyone i might not hide what i'm gonna say right now and i'm gonna say it

02:19:49.600 proudly i love the ucp but my family comes first i love premier smith but my son comes first and

02:19:59.520 because i seek better future for my province for my family and for my son i will be voting for

02:20:06.960 option two in October 19th and regardless what they agree with me or not. I'm going to tell you

02:20:13.460 one thing. This battle is not about you and I. Many of us have gray hair or old enough. Tomorrow

02:20:22.200 we're here. Maybe the day after we won't be here. But I'll tell you what's going to remain here.

02:20:28.800 This province will remain here. We'll remain here to be a castle for our children.

02:20:34.240 to enjoy the freedom we will provide for them

02:20:37.900 to enjoy every opportunity we preserve and protect for them

02:20:42.960 and to do such a thing we must stand together

02:20:46.060 and put all our differences aside

02:20:48.100 and vote for option two in October 19th

02:20:52.100 this is a battle and a long war

02:21:02.360 and I'm so happy to stand in the right side of history of seeking something to

02:21:10.080 protect my children and to protect my family yes if I vote for October 19 I

02:21:16.860 might disagree with the premier of Alberta I might disagree with the four

02:21:21.680 million dollars the UCP party paid to advertise for something I don't believe

02:21:27.380 in but i'll tell you what i agree with everybody there that's alberta's future is not theirs

02:21:35.940 it's ours and we must protect every possible way and to do such a thing we need to educate them

02:21:45.460 we need to deliver that message we were doing for the past nine months i believe we never

02:21:51.700 we never i never seen any the referendum movement or the separatist movement abuse assault attack

02:21:59.620 jeopardize separate any of their sign while on the other side the most loving creature

02:22:07.700 the multicultural flags they don't spare any moment to attack to vandalize to hurt

02:22:16.340 to spread rumors propaganda against each and every one of you against each and every one of us

02:22:25.100 especially the speakers the influencer keith wilson mitch sylvester tanya clemens david parker

02:22:33.520 i know many of you might not agree with him but i'll tell you one thing he took a stand and if

02:22:38.860 i'm here today thanks to david parker he made a mistake but if your brother fallen you don't step

02:22:45.160 on him you support him you assist him and you lift him up because we're in the middle of battle

02:22:52.440 we're in the middle of war the lefties they will stand for each other blindly even if they were

02:23:00.120 raping each other or if some of them were to rape to kill to destroy they'll cover for each other

02:23:07.160 for us we're so judgmental that's why i want to ask each and every one of you reach the one you

02:23:13.640 know you might have differences with and tell them let's put our differences aside and stand for

02:23:20.760 alberta stand for the province we all love stand for the province that will conclude all of us

02:23:29.080 under freedom prosperity family faith in god and stand strong for what we believe

02:23:36.920 god bless each and every one of you out there especially those who's watching online and i

02:23:41.880 hope they'll do the effort and put the effort enough to go and send the message

02:23:47.640 that october 19 it's a date is going to be different from what was before october 19.

02:23:54.840 it's the first step in the right direction to educate and tell ottawa there's a grizzlies

02:24:00.760 in alberta they're not hibernating anymore they're standing up to protect their cubs

02:24:07.240 there's the grizzlies in alberta willing to do everything and whatever it takes

02:24:16.720 to protect their cubs to protect their territory and to stand strong to protect that province we

02:24:24.400 all love we all admire we all respect everything that god given us in this province god bless you

02:24:32.120 all and god bless alberta and i hope we will be able to celebrate after october 19 and if not

02:24:39.320 still we have way to go god bless you all and thank you so much

02:24:50.760 thank you so much mike that was fantastic thank you for being here tonight

02:25:02.280 and thanks everybody for being here tonight and to the people who are watching online as well

02:25:07.960 um i remember last october the 25th i think it was i think this first time i met our next speaker

02:25:15.600 i think it was at the legislature last year i was lucky enough to be the mc at that

02:25:21.280 Last week, you got in touch with me.

02:25:22.940 You said, John, I got an idea.

02:25:25.020 I want to be on on Thanksgiving weekend to talk to people about having a conversation.

02:25:30.440 Do you think you could have me on?

02:25:32.100 I said, sure, I'd do that.

02:25:33.980 And then we had Derek Unacceptable Fringe, and we had the Holmes girls who are here tonight.

02:25:39.860 And then we had Jason Levine, and he's pretty darn busy, this guy.

02:25:44.000 You can't say no to him.

02:25:45.080 You know, it turned into two and a half hours of the greatest conversation with a lot of people online.

02:25:50.440 on a live stream with my channel and the others as well just remarkable along with tanya these

02:25:55.720 people have been working tirelessly um and and really leading the way when it comes to

02:26:03.960 passing along a message about independence i'd like to welcome up from let alberta decide keith

02:26:10.360 Wilson.

02:26:40.360 can I start talking now thanks for coming out everybody sorry I just this podium was just

02:26:53.020 too much for me no it still looks looks great so I went and saw Al Burton because I know an

02:27:02.560 Albertan can fix any problem that's thrown their way and within minutes now let's be totally

02:27:13.420 truthful here it's not just Albertan who can fix any problem you also need duct tape so what I want

02:27:26.660 to talk to you about and Max I'm going to try and stay in one spot for you to

02:27:32.300 get the sound where you want it is I want to talk about this vote and I want

02:27:39.860 to talk about the next vote and I was thinking what should I share with you

02:27:45.980 and i checked my messages just minutes ago and i got a dm direct message from a fellow by the name

02:27:58.560 of norman specter and norman specter for those politically astute people in the room will know

02:28:07.460 that norman specter was the chief of staff to prime minister brian mulrooney you'll know that

02:28:14.240 Norman Spector was the chief of staff to more than one

02:28:20.820 premier of British Columbia.

02:28:22.340 And he also had a career in newspapers and he wrote,

02:28:28.700 I can't recall Alberta ever having a better opportunity

02:28:35.920 to demand constitutional change.

02:28:44.240 that's what the vote on the 19th is about I've explained to many it's not a vote for

02:28:51.920 independence it's not a vote to separate there's two options on question 10 option one is stay

02:29:01.820 and I read that for what it is and the message it will send which is things can stay the same

02:29:11.240 Alberta's treatment within Canada can stay the same Ottawa's ability to write a blank check over

02:29:21.860 our economy and the future of our children and grandchildren can stay the same if Ottawa decide

02:29:29.920 said it wants to do a another national energy program or it decides at any time that it wants

02:29:39.120 to do another nine bad laws, like we saw from Justin Trudeau, or if Prime Minister Carney

02:29:47.800 decides in November to give leverage to the trade negotiations with the United States

02:29:54.280 and prop up and protect his voter base in the manufacturing economies of Ontario and

02:30:01.020 Quebec, if he decides that he wants to impose, as some have recommended he do,

02:30:09.120 an export tax on alberta's oil he can do so stay the same right now under the constitution

02:30:18.560 ottawa and the politicians that ontario and quebec elect because of the way population works

02:30:27.760 that's where the population base is in the country have the ability to write a blank check

02:30:34.400 over the future for you, your friends, your neighbors, your family, and your kids and

02:30:40.520 grandkids. And that's not right. It makes no sense that Alberta should sit here and say,

02:30:48.180 okay, fine, no problem. It makes no sense because Alberta is an economic powerhouse.

02:30:59.300 We have the third largest reserve of oil in the world. We have millions of acres of highly fertile agricultural land with the most sophisticated, progressive farmers, innovators on that land.

02:31:15.500 We have value-added food processors in many different areas.

02:31:22.080 We have technology sectors.

02:31:24.840 We have a growing technology sector.

02:31:28.860 We have aviation.

02:31:30.940 De Havilland now has its manufacturing facility here.

02:31:34.460 Lufthansa is building a massive facility here.

02:31:37.840 We have some of the best scenery and tourism in the world.

02:31:42.120 We have Hollywood North movie industry.

02:31:45.620 We have the youngest workforce in Canada.

02:31:48.940 The youngest workforce in Canada.

02:31:52.060 We have in-state-of-the-art institutions and universities and colleges and technical institutes.

02:31:56.860 We have modern infrastructure.

02:31:59.820 And we are the growing, strongest growing part of the Canadian economy.

02:32:06.240 yet ottawa can tell us what to do how to do it and we have no democratic representation

02:32:16.060 and what do i mean by no democratic representation normally my undergraduate degrees in political

02:32:23.600 science and i study these things and many others before me have studied them and what you have in

02:32:31.160 most democracies or many democracies is you don't allow one legislative body when you have diverse

02:32:41.800 population densities be the sole lawmaker you have what's called a bicameral system a bicameral

02:32:50.380 system meaning laws have to go through two legislative bodies so you'll have a house of

02:32:56.040 commons or a house of representatives and you'll have a senate canada has a house a house of

02:33:02.000 commons and we have a senate so normally what happens is the senate's represented by people

02:33:09.340 elected for by regions not population so that if the population center in the middle which happens

02:33:18.560 to be our country in the middle decide well let's just make albertans pay more i don't know like

02:33:26.020 maybe 20 30 billion dollars a year more in taxes through equalization that would

02:33:35.320 have to go through the Senate and an elected Senate would say no no no no

02:33:39.640 that's not fair so then there would be compromise and moderating happening that

02:33:44.620 doesn't happen in Canada because our Senate's never function and I don't know

02:33:48.580 the historical reason for it and I'm gonna figure it out someday but it's

02:33:52.260 It's always been an unelected Senate that is purely a rubber stamp of whatever government's in power.

02:33:59.280 Research it.

02:34:00.120 Research how many laws have emanated from the Senate and become law, and research how many they stopped.

02:34:07.640 You will be shocked.

02:34:10.200 Your jaw will open.

02:34:12.540 Okay?

02:34:13.980 It effectively doesn't exist.

02:34:17.180 so that means all the lawmaking occurs in the House of Commons and it's

02:34:23.000 determined by where the population is Ontario has three times our population

02:34:29.600 in Quebec has two times so you're always going to have unless you do

02:34:34.600 constitutional change and reconfigure the constitutional order you're always

02:34:40.240 going to have the majority of the elected members of parliament seeking

02:34:48.120 favor of where they get their power from does this all sound a little familiar

02:34:54.400 you're and it's prone it's interesting with the political scientists who write

02:34:59.320 about this generically around the world will say it's prone to exploitation it's

02:35:05.740 prone to causing the center to turn the regions into colonies and to take

02:35:11.320 advantage of them and that's what's been happening to Alberta an independence

02:35:17.380 movement has been around in Alberta for over a hundred years I love these

02:35:22.120 interviews I get from some of the media and they think we just thought of this

02:35:25.660 last year like holy smokes holy smokes you guys don't even have the internet

02:35:31.940 you can't even Google this so what this vote is about this vote is about whether

02:35:41.880 how it's a check-in hey Alberta how are how are you doing with Canada how is the

02:35:49.400 relationship going is our things okay stay the same status quo more of the

02:35:57.440 same or do you think alberta can do better do you think we can do better do you think this

02:36:04.320 relationship can be improved that's the question option two is saying alberta can do better

02:36:12.240 and independence is not on the ballot this time separation is not on the ballot this time

02:36:19.520 the only question is stay or start the process for a future vote a second vote so that's why

02:36:29.920 i've been saying and many others um and cory and others have pointed this out is that i have many

02:36:38.880 friends who are very much adamant that they don't want to see alberta leave canada whatever that

02:36:48.240 means and i'll talk more about that in a minute and if you were if you gave them the choice today

02:36:55.680 of staying or leaving they would vote stay but they've told me they're voting for option two

02:37:01.880 because they want change they don't want the status quo they don't want a message sent to

02:37:09.400 prime minister carney that it's okay for him to go ahead and bring in an export tax in november

02:37:17.180 stats canada has said from their analysis that will cause a loss of 160 000 jobs we'll be right

02:37:25.880 back to national energy program days job losses the anxiety that people would face who worked

02:37:32.820 in calgary in the towers of going to work each morning wondering if that was their day

02:37:38.240 were they going to get called into the office in the morning and handed a cardboard box and said

02:37:44.460 sorry we gotta lay you off the mums and dads having to gather the three kids around and say

02:37:51.500 we're losing the house the bank's foreclosing and explain to an eight-year-old and a ten-year-old

02:37:57.020 what foreclosure means and explain that the dog's gonna have to go to a farm because all they can

02:38:03.260 afford is a two-bedroom apartment and the three of you kids are now going to share one of the bedrooms

02:38:08.060 that's reality that happened and that can happen again

02:38:15.200 and as parents I feel we have an obligation to do everything we can that's

02:38:24.000 legal and ethical and proper to protect our children from that so that it doesn't

02:38:29.180 happen again and that's the opportunity that October 19th presents for us by

02:38:35.700 voting option two so here's how I see things could unfold is that if a

02:38:44.940 majority of Albertans vote for option two it sends the message we want a

02:38:49.860 better deal we're tired of being taken advantage of we're tired of each one of

02:38:55.320 us off of our individual paychecks sending four to six thousand dollars a

02:39:04.760 a year personally to ottawa than we get back each year because of equalization uh some of these

02:39:11.560 reporters and the people on the left will go well you know the government doesn't the government

02:39:16.440 of alberta doesn't write a check to ottawa and it's like have any of us said that we all understand

02:39:23.960 we individually wrote the check to ottawa it came off my paycheck and your paycheck and your paycheck

02:39:28.840 it's like no we understand what's going on here you don't we do but so what i think can happen

02:39:39.000 is if a majority of us say support option two even if you want to stay in canada whatever that means

02:39:47.400 then it will create an opportunity for prime minister carney and the federal government to

02:39:53.480 come back and say okay here's what we're prepared to do here's the changes we're prepared to make

02:39:57.880 so that alberta will have democratic representation we don't have it now because the constitution

02:40:06.280 assumes the senate functions and we know it doesn't they can come back and say here's the

02:40:12.520 changes we're prepared to make to equalization like making quebec count it's uh do a proper

02:40:19.720 adjustment for its revenues uh from hydro which would make it immediately disentitled

02:40:27.320 to the 13 or 18 billion dollars it gets each year whatever the number is

02:40:33.160 and other changes we could have them make changes that are actually respectful of provincial

02:40:41.400 jurisdiction because they continue to stomp over our rights and what do i mean by that

02:40:47.400 last week the alberta court of appeal ruled for the second time that the impact assessment act

02:40:54.120 the no more pipelines act bill c69 was an unconstitutional intrusion into provincial

02:41:00.520 jurisdiction but they don't care in ottawa they could have fixed that a long time ago

02:41:06.520 but they don't care they like having this power in this relationship

02:41:10.440 so option two is about sending a message they need to come back to us with a better deal

02:41:15.560 now if they don't then an actual referendum on succession can occur an actual vote on whether or

02:41:27.700 not Alberta should leave and let me explain what leaving means and what it doesn't mean

02:41:36.280 some of you will have heard me speak will have heard me talk about not renting you know renting

02:41:44.040 the largest concrete saws and bringing a thousand of them in and start cutting around the boundary,

02:41:50.780 the border of Alberta, and bringing in hydraulic jacks and lifting all these they use to move

02:41:58.040 houses down the highway. And then once we got it ready to go, I look around and say,

02:42:02.140 okay, where are we going? Apparently we're leaving. We're not going anywhere. Alberta's

02:42:08.140 going to stay right here. But what would change? Do you know what would change if we change the

02:42:13.760 constitutional order and vote for succession in a future vote what would

02:42:19.040 change is where where the politicians who have the full control over the

02:42:25.460 future of our lives all of the policies all of the spending and taxation

02:42:30.680 decisions get elected right now they get elected in Ontario Quebec because of

02:42:36.500 sure population numbers I'm not angry about that it's math in the same way I'm

02:42:41.480 not angry about gravity although some mornings i am but that's a different story um it's just math

02:42:48.100 it's so we don't have a bicameral system that functions the constitution's broken canada's

02:42:53.700 dysfunctional we have an exploitive relationship so what can happen if alberta votes to leave

02:43:00.960 is we stay right here we stay right here what changes is we will hold elections here and we

02:43:09.020 will elect our politicians here and they will have full decision-making authority over all matters

02:43:15.900 and then we enter into a trade agreement and a mobility agreement with the rest of Canada so

02:43:23.780 that we can continue to be the economic powerhouse you know some of these economic these supposed

02:43:30.380 studies that have come out have said that all of these terrible economic consequences the Calgary

02:43:38.600 School of Public Policy, the Calgary Chambers, if you look at the assumptions they make,

02:43:44.840 and even the most recent one from the Chamber of Commerce, assumes to come up with these scary

02:43:50.560 numbers that if Alberta leaves, meaning exercise our constitutional right to change our constitutional

02:43:59.900 relationship so that we elect our politicians here instead of Ottawa, that's how boring leaving

02:44:06.440 actually is, by the way, that what will happen is Ontario will decide to stop trading with Alberta.

02:44:16.940 And if you don't think about it and don't analyze it, that sounds a little scary. So let's analyze

02:44:22.580 it for just a minute and a half. First of all, let's ignore the obvious elephant in the room,

02:44:30.500 the fact that Alberta supplies them with energy. And let's ignore that. Ontario and Quebec are

02:44:35.880 manufacturing economies their largest customers the united states of america they're manufacturing

02:44:41.400 because they manufacture things and have labor costs in 70 cent dollars and they sell them in

02:44:46.120 dollar dollars they're not doing it because they're the best manufacturers in the world they're doing

02:44:50.840 it because they're less doing it in the united states and they're just across the road essentially

02:44:56.520 right across the bridge um and donald trump wants to repatriate those high-paying manufacturing jobs

02:45:06.600 to the united states and he's starting to do it 40 according to a study by kpmg 40

02:45:15.880 of companies in ontario are either planning uh are actively planning to relocate their

02:45:22.360 businesses to the united states or seriously considering it that's scary for them right

02:45:29.800 so who's their second most important customer because if you're losing your best customer you

02:45:35.400 better start thinking who your second and third customers are right well their second best

02:45:40.440 customers one another they trade with one another guess who ontario's third best customer is

02:45:47.560 alberta albertans buy and alberta businesses over 39 billion dollars a year in goods and services

02:45:55.480 from ontario they cannot afford to say no oh you guys are changing the constitutional order that's

02:46:02.600 it we're out we're not selling you anything nope no more we're not selling it it's ridiculous

02:46:08.280 how could they do that it would be economic suicide in fact there should be coming to us

02:46:13.240 and saying hey um we can't sell this many widgets to the u.s anymore would you guys be interested

02:46:19.880 in buying our widgets so we can keep all of our workers working please and then of course the

02:46:25.960 energy we supply them with refined product and crude oil to go to their refineries to be used

02:46:33.320 in their petrochemical plants to go to become diesel fuel from the refineries for the trucks

02:46:38.040 hauling the parts across the line for the cars that get stuck on the 401 and the jet fuel

02:46:43.960 for pearson airport in the early 80s premier law heed former alberta preheated mere law heed

02:46:53.560 to try and get constitutional change to protect alberta from intrusion in ottawa because of the

02:46:59.640 arising the fallout from the national energy program wanted a constitutional amendment

02:47:04.520 and no one wanted it so then he announced that Alberta would start to curtail so reduce

02:47:11.760 supply of oil through the pipelines to Ontario by 15 percent that's it and they said oh when can

02:47:20.760 we meet they had a meeting they amended the constitution that was the last time it was

02:47:24.760 amended so this notion that Ontario could suddenly stop trading with us meaning according to these

02:47:34.240 economists that modeled this they assume alberta stops buying 39 billion dollars worth of goods

02:47:41.440 and alberta stops supplying them with oil and gas does that seem realistic to you i think it's

02:47:48.000 actually statistically probable more likely that we lose gravity on the planet earth than that

02:47:55.200 ever happens it's absolutely preposterous so i say that for a few reasons one is alberta

02:48:03.360 has phenomenal leverage we can get ourselves to the point where enough albertans are tired and

02:48:10.880 they send the message on monday that we need a better deal and then if the government doesn't

02:48:16.560 follow through with getting us a better deal ottawa doesn't and make fundamental change

02:48:20.960 and we go to the second vote and if we can convince enough albertans that it's a safe

02:48:25.760 and proper and prosperous thing to vote for our negotiating position with british colombia and the

02:48:31.680 other provinces is going to be spectacular. British Columbia is continentally landlocked.

02:48:37.280 British Columbia is continentally landlocked. They need to ship $55 billion their economy

02:48:43.440 east through Alberta highways and rail lines. 900,000 containers that come off the ships from

02:48:51.280 Prince Rupert and Port of Vancouver have to go through Alberta. And then we supply the Burnaby

02:48:57.600 refinery and if we stop supplying the burnaby refinery with oil they're out of bunker jet fuel

02:49:04.800 diesel and gasoline in 11 days now we never want to do that but here's the problem

02:49:11.040 elb it's we just sort of accept that british columbia says no you can't ship your stuffs

02:49:15.440 through our province meanwhile when i left medicine hat the other day on friday after giving

02:49:20.560 a talk out there i passed a train that was over a mile long full of containers and then 20 minutes

02:49:26.880 later before we even got to brooks there was a second one and we don't give it a second thought

02:49:31.760 it's a two-way street so if we can't do that now because of the constitution we have the worst of

02:49:39.600 both worlds and we've seen that with this pipeline deal in prime minister carney giving a veto to

02:49:45.760 british columbia an unconstitutional veto and an unconstitutional veto to the first nations

02:49:50.320 and saying they can now toll they can toll our pipe toll our oil could you imagine if we put a

02:49:55.920 at all on every one of those containers the point is there's a perfectly logical pathway for alberta

02:50:03.120 to change its relationship with ottawa so we elect our politicians here i look at the fact that

02:50:09.680 we buy 39 billion dollars worth of goods and services from ontario if we could unleash our

02:50:15.200 economy get more of the third largest reserve of oil in the world to the to the world markets

02:50:21.680 and even sell more to the united states we would stimulate the economy to the extent that i bet

02:50:27.840 you we could employ more people in ontario we could buy 50 billion dollars we could help out

02:50:32.480 the bc economy we could be we could help canada be better we'll still be geographically located

02:50:39.200 in canada we're not leaving canada we're changing the constitutional relationship you know some

02:50:46.640 reporters of cbc phones mean how do you feel about tearing the country apart and i'm like

02:50:51.760 well i must have pretty strong hands i mean i don't even think mr alberton could tear

02:50:57.840 you know i mean it's not canadian shield but come on man it's just such non-sensical rhetoric

02:51:05.520 perfectly logical pathway and i'm going to suggest to you that as a parent and many of you are i think

02:51:12.800 and grandparents, we have an obligation to protect our children from a national energy

02:51:17.440 program, another nine bad laws, and a soon-to-be, I'm into predicting, depending on how the vote

02:51:25.700 goes, a export tax. And this is the right thing to do because we can make Alberta the

02:51:34.780 most prosperous, successful country in the world, and we can also help the rest of Canada

02:51:41.000 at the same time. Thank you.

02:51:42.800 Thank you, Keith. Thank you so much.

02:52:01.440 We've got our last speaker coming up.

02:52:04.660 He's our host tonight.

02:52:08.280 Let's talk Alberta.

02:52:09.580 You know, I remember when there was word going out that he was going to buy a giant RV to drive across this province.

02:52:18.100 And boy, did he buy an RV with one hell of a wrap on it.

02:52:21.660 Beautiful.

02:52:22.640 We hope we can have that right up at the legislature on the weekend.

02:52:26.880 You think we're going to be able to do that?

02:52:28.680 I hope so.

02:52:30.000 What a billboard.

02:52:31.840 And I met Chris during this campaign, but I really, really had a chance to talk to you when I was in Mirror.

02:52:39.040 I really talked to you, got onto that RV, and he's worked so hard.

02:52:44.420 And the people that he's got going around the province with him work so hard.

02:52:48.960 He's got a very dry wit, which I really appreciate a lot.

02:52:53.040 But he works really hard, like so many people in this movement.

02:52:56.400 So I'd like to welcome our host tonight from Let's Talk Alberta, Chris Scott.

02:53:09.040 well thank you very much normally I don't use a podium I'm going to tonight because my leg is

02:53:17.920 sore for some reason I don't need to lean on it but generally I don't use a podium because I want

02:53:23.000 to make sure that everybody knows I am wearing pants I've been accused of a lot of things I've

02:53:32.040 been accused of being AI of not wearing pants a federal show and of all those things the pants

02:53:38.600 thing kind of hit me the hardest so i wanted to make sure that we got that out of the way before

02:53:41.960 i started so tonight uh i actually don't feel like talking about alberta independence really

02:53:50.180 which is odd because i've been talking about it for you know pretty heavily since november 2021

02:53:55.560 i guess and actually i forgot something carrie do you mind bringing that book up i needed that

02:54:01.860 book up here thanks i want to talk about something more important and that is us albertans us human

02:54:08.240 beings that inhabit this place because happening in alberta right now it is a it's a signal of

02:54:25.000 something different than your average politics do you feel me do you understand what i'm saying

02:54:30.960 there it's not the same as when we go to vote in a general election something feels different

02:54:36.940 there's something different happening. Now, I will say for the record that I don't believe

02:54:41.580 there's actually anything new under the sun, especially when it comes to politics. One of

02:54:47.080 the things that I see online these days is how, you know, this whole thing, it's just made up in

02:54:52.260 the last few years. And it's just people whining and crying and bitching about things that they

02:54:57.860 shouldn't cry and whine about. They assume that the independent sentiment that's grown in Alberta

02:55:04.380 over the past few years grown quite rapidly by the way during the last two federal elections

02:55:09.400 I wonder why they assume that it's a new thing

02:55:12.580 another thing that I experienced recently that I've never experienced before is

02:55:20.500 I lost a family member for the first time my grandpa and during the time that I've spent

02:55:28.900 out there with my family I found myself really digging through memories in history I wanted

02:55:34.320 to learn as much as i can i wanted to soak in as much as i could of my grandpa's life just because

02:55:41.200 you know i want those memories and as i was digging through books i found something really cool

02:55:47.200 i found this book it's called drawn and quartered the trudeau years uh by roy it's cartooned by roy

02:55:56.820 peterson and introduction by peter c newman now this book was written in or produced in 1984.

02:56:04.740 now that's fresh on the heels of our new constitution charter rights and freedoms

02:56:09.780 it's fresh on the heels of a quebec referendum all sorts of interesting political things were

02:56:14.900 happening but what was happening in politics back then even from an albertans perspective

02:56:21.140 is no different than it is now it was just more in the news so let me see if i can remember the

02:56:28.080 page and all uh you guys can skim through this later on if you want and by the way seeing so

02:56:34.420 we're not doing a question and answer i want to make sure that everybody knows we will stay around

02:56:38.580 for a little while after i'm done speaking so that you have an opportunity to ask us questions

02:56:42.820 one-on-one if you want so in this picture there's a picture of the first ministers

02:56:50.120 and there's mr trudeau here and i'm not sure who that is i think that's i'm not sure who it is

02:56:58.640 anyway the first ministers are saying this complaints any complaints you want complaints

02:57:05.540 How about good old freight rates, economic colonialism, lack of regional consideration outside the Golden Triangle region, and tariff walls that protect weak eastern industry, steel pricing system, and, and, and, the list goes on, to which the Right Honourable Pierre Trudeau says, just put down the usual western alienation.

02:57:32.560 now that really uh spoke to me because i've been watching a lot of politicians act the same way

02:57:43.320 jason kenny my good friend who i have a measure barely measurable of respect for

02:57:49.660 i watched him debate my much better friend who i have much more respect for

02:57:54.060 keith wilson and my friend jason's comments were about how it would be hard and it would take a

02:58:00.840 long time and we just need to be satisfied with incremental gains in confederation because

02:58:07.440 that's all we can ever hope for albertans be satisfied with the crumbs and when we talk about

02:58:14.540 the issues that cause the western alienation that albertans feel we get just put down western

02:58:22.000 alienation we hold a referendum on equalization albertans resoundingly say that they want to end

02:58:29.860 the process they want to keep our money here and invest it in alberta and albertans who are

02:58:35.020 creating that value creating that wealth and the federal government says just write down western

02:58:41.380 alienation you know the political landscape of canada really hasn't changed at all since then

02:58:48.280 it's the same conversations with the same classes of people now here's where it gets really

02:58:55.060 interesting i've learned something very important in the last maybe year or two

02:59:05.940 and if you don't remember anything remember this from tonight

02:59:10.340 politicians don't give a about you pardon my french and pardon me saying it was french if

02:59:17.300 if you're actually French. I say that as I watch the political class rally against the people of

02:59:26.560 Alberta, rally against the idea that Albertans dare to pursue self-determination. One of the

02:59:34.380 greatest gifts afforded by Western democracies, by the way. I watch our political class speak out

02:59:42.380 of one side of their mouth, telling us how they're going to fix all these things. Don't worry. We

02:59:46.560 just need incremental gains or don't worry we just need sovereignty within a united canada or

02:59:52.580 no alberta alberta pension plan would not be better for canada so you need to stay in the

02:59:58.260 canada pension plan and i think to myself who are these people advocating for jason kenny is about

03:00:06.100 to attend an event with premier danielle smith uh in a few days in i think in calgary here

03:00:12.160 jason kenney our conservative premier that parachuted in from ottawa to save us from

03:00:19.040 rachel notley is campaigning right now with rachel notley every politician every political stripe

03:00:26.580 save for a few holdouts like our good friend jason stefan by the way

03:00:31.380 same thing and why is that if they truly represent alberta and they represent uh the the the what

03:00:41.820 Alberta could be why would they all be speaking the same language why is Jason Kenney and Rachel

03:00:47.700 Notley and even Danielle Smith speaking the same language because the political class doesn't want

03:00:55.240 anything to change in Canada because Canada was always about benefiting the political class

03:01:00.900 if you go back to Canada's roots to the British North America Act you'll find a document that is

03:01:07.460 written reasonably well and it may work in a perfect world but you find out very quickly

03:01:12.960 especially when you're laying on a slab of a bed concrete bed in jail for protesting that the

03:01:19.380 constitution was never written to the benefit of the people of canada it was written to the benefit

03:01:27.060 of the ruling class those that wish to govern us and right from that day it's been used to do

03:01:34.240 exactly that govern us well albertans are starting to realize that something needs to change

03:01:43.440 and it might be that we feel the pinch in our taxes we may not enjoy spending uh what did it

03:01:50.720 cost to fill up the bus last time 1167 dollars it may be that that activates people it might be

03:02:00.800 the fact that thousands upon thousands of albertans tried to stand up for their rights

03:02:07.280 over their own body over their participation in society over practicing their religion

03:02:12.480 protesting meeting for political purposes all of those things and the government froze their

03:02:18.240 bank accounts some people may be activated by the realization that our state-funded media

03:02:27.040 is literally propagandizing a population to dehumanize an entire group of people

03:02:34.240 for simply pursuing self-determination one of the most glorious things the free world offers

03:02:43.760 now regardless of why you're activated to pursue some change you must ask yourself why is it that

03:02:51.360 that person that I went and knocked on doors for for months, who I fundraised for, who I advocated

03:02:59.760 for, who I put my reputation on the line to support when they were under attack, why is that person

03:03:06.120 opposed to having a better deal for Alberta? Why is the political class so concerned with

03:03:15.240 maintaining the status quo? I told you earlier, and I'm not going to repeat it again, because one

03:03:20.160 curse word in a speech is enough. This is something that transcends that political idea

03:03:27.380 that people are trying to feed you. This is something much, much big. It's literally the

03:03:35.080 opportunity of a lifetime. And no, you're right. October 19th isn't a firm thing. Nothing's going

03:03:42.220 to change the next day. It's going to start a conversation. But the conversation I've been

03:03:47.560 trying to have with Albertans is that we have this opportunity to do something that millions

03:03:52.820 of people have died to do. Millions upon millions of people across the world have sent their sons

03:03:59.660 and daughters or gone themselves and died in battle, pursuing the right to self-determination.

03:04:05.560 And you folks get to start the conversation should you choose to do so on October 19th.

03:04:10.840 Can you imagine what a time we're living in when we as Albertans, we as Canadians,

03:04:16.000 get to experience that. And what a time are we living in that some people that pound the keyboard

03:04:24.220 on social media talk about how I need to die for advocating for this. And by the way, one of the

03:04:31.320 trolls in the comment section got something right today. He said, I'm a white Christian. Yes, I am.

03:04:37.080 Mahmoud is not. And he agrees with my sentiment that Alberta independence is necessary and

03:04:42.540 inevitable. This is a really big deal. Let's Talk Alberta does not exist to tell you that

03:04:51.640 Alberta or you should choose one direction or another. Let's Talk Alberta exists to facilitate

03:04:57.920 the conversation, to try and remind people to be civically engaged, to try and get out the idea of

03:05:05.080 how important this is and what a blessing it is and why we should be not only thrilled to

03:05:12.220 participate in it but why we have a moral obligation to do so that's why we're here

03:05:16.940 you'll notice that all of the speakers up here tonight very likely agree with my sentiment

03:05:23.460 around alberta independence what you don't know is that we extended invitations to over four dozen

03:05:31.060 people or groups who oppose us we invited them first come sit in the front row come take a

03:05:40.000 microphone take 20 minutes on the stage which is 20 minutes less than Keith speaks

03:05:45.780 come share your opinion and tell people why you believe the status quo will serve them better

03:05:54.360 four dozen emails sent phone calls personal meetings with Thomas LaCassek we went to meet

03:06:01.840 him personally I shook his head thanked him for his advocacy and thanked him for participating

03:06:06.780 in democracy and offered him a spot on my stage to advocate his position to you folks do you know

03:06:12.900 how many people responded two two i would say we have less of a political problem in alberta

03:06:24.420 than we have a problem having the conversation in the first place

03:06:27.580 if those who advocate their position or those those who advocate for an outcome for alberta

03:06:34.560 can't come in public and debate these things in open before Albertans to be criticized and

03:06:40.980 critiqued in public how much those opinions I'll give Jason Kenney one thing I am really like kudos

03:06:54.760 to him for debating Keith Keith is a formidable opponent and Jason Kenney did it anyway when I

03:07:01.220 asked Thomas Lekasik to debate me, do you know what he said? I will never debate. There is no

03:07:05.580 debate. And by the way, if Alberta separates, I'm going to make sure that every Albertan is

03:07:11.360 stripped of their citizenship. That's where the conversation went. Now, it's the 13th today,

03:07:20.320 I believe. In six days, at I think eight or nine o'clock, I can't remember, check Elections Alberta

03:07:29.480 for the website for the rules this portion of alberta's choice will be concluded and on october

03:07:39.640 20th or 26th whatever sometime in that week we're going to find out what albertans have chosen

03:07:47.880 have albertans chosen the status quo or have albertans chosen something different

03:07:53.880 have we done enough work and had enough conversations

03:07:59.820 to finally pursue a future for alberta that was contemplated in this book published in 1984 i

03:08:09.940 believe and hundreds of books since then by hundreds of people thousands of people

03:08:16.460 which is it going to be does the systemic political apathy end with albertans

03:08:27.040 for the first time in canadian history are we going to be proud of what might become

03:08:33.220 when we think about where this conversation could go and the prospect of albertans deciding what

03:08:42.060 their founding constitutional document looks like when you think about that is it an exciting thing

03:08:49.040 for you or are you more willing to listen to the slogan and the talking points from people who

03:08:55.560 oppose for whatever reason support the status quo and granted there are people that have been served

03:09:01.100 very well under the current terms with Ottawa there are some people that have had fantastic

03:09:06.120 lives made lots of money they're quite comfortable they don't need any change as a matter of fact

03:09:11.480 change is probably a little frightening because if they're good now maybe they won't be later

03:09:15.820 but even some of those people are starting to look past their own legacy and their their financial

03:09:23.540 legacy and they're looking to their children and they're wondering what legacy they're leaving

03:09:27.640 their children every parent as far as i know has thought at one time or another how can i change

03:09:36.480 the world so my kid has a better future than me do i pay more to get him into a better university

03:09:41.860 no college is a scam do i um buy them do i what do i do how do i make sure the future is better

03:09:49.880 for them what if we gave them a future where instead of being them being told how they were

03:09:56.220 going to be governed imagine our kids got to tell those who got what wish to govern us how they may

03:10:04.300 govern us imagine if they got to write a we the people constitution these are the things that i

03:10:09.540 think about i really don't give a two hoots about equalization i mean i do it's unfair but at the

03:10:15.840 end of the day i've wasted money and spent money in ways that i shouldn't have and i could have a

03:10:19.540 lot more money today that's not so important to me and maybe it's because i'm getting older and

03:10:25.080 the things that used to be important aren't anymore the future is becoming more important

03:10:30.080 my children's future is becoming more important and what a time that we have the opportunity to

03:10:36.260 actually do something that's meaningful to change that future it all starts with a conversation

03:10:43.800 that's why let's talk alberta exists we will exist on october 19th we will exist on october 20th

03:10:52.700 and we will continue the conversations about things that are relevant to the future of alberta

03:10:57.780 and albertans because i'll be damned if i'll watch the political class and the status quo

03:11:05.300 never advocate for anything meaningful for alberta if we have to do it as citizens

03:11:12.420 that's what we'll do unfortunately we don't have access to the tax trough which is why that yellow

03:11:16.900 a bucket goes around but uh that's not what i wanted to talk about at all and i i am proud to

03:11:28.700 say that for me this conversation has moved so far away from any of the grievances that i understand

03:11:38.280 that alberta faces within confederation and i am so focused on the opportunity and the prospect of

03:11:45.980 what alberta could become if we only reached out and grabbed it that's what's exciting to me now

03:11:53.900 grievances may have gotten us here but the prospect

03:11:58.780 of a truly free and independent alberta where the the people hold the power

03:12:05.500 that's something completely different

03:12:09.260 that's all i have we're going to stick around for a little while uh please feel free to

03:12:14.700 to snag any of us speakers before you leave and ask us your questions. Yes. We're happy to talk

03:12:24.800 to you about any of these things. If you disagree with our opinions, we legit want to hear from you

03:12:30.060 first. I actually mean that and we will answer your questions. Patty reminded me again that

03:12:36.680 Let's Talk Alberta is a completely grassroots organization. We don't get money from Donald

03:12:40.980 trump we don't get money from vladimir putin yeah i know right we don't get paid

03:12:47.700 don't nobody quit and it all comes from you folks so if you can please put something in

03:12:51.940 the yellow bucket you can also donate a little magic pin pad thing over there and

03:13:00.500 you know we'll just uh we'll just keep doing this together thank you very much and thank you for

03:13:04.340 coming don't forget folks you can grab some shirts and some books and whatnot at the back

03:13:25.380 please drive carefully and we'll see at the legislature on saturday

03:13:34.340 i love my new camera guys

03:14:00.500 all right well see you tomorrow i want to be with the guys from jc levine it's gonna do a

03:14:09.000 little town hall on at the four uh four squares in calgary northeast you want to take a look at

03:14:17.560 that that'd be great i will be streaming there as well and also at the habib still

03:14:23.120 week on thursday there's going to be a debate between um between uh do and go folks

03:14:53.120 Thank you.

03:15:23.120 You

Western Standard - October 14, 2026

Alberta in Focus rally in Calgary ｜ Let's talk Alberta

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