Western Standard - Alberta independence blocked： What should happen next？

00:00:00.000 And we're live.

00:00:27.800 welcome back folks uh thanks for joining um i'm i'm smiling somewhat laughing a bit because i was

00:00:36.840 on the elevator downstairs coming up and i only show up like a few minutes before the show and

00:00:42.760 just in the lobby was one of the senior uh producers here at the show josh and he asked me

00:00:49.800 he's like what are you going to talk about today and i just laughed i'm like well i have a long

00:00:54.920 list of topics but i don't think i'm going to get to too many of them and then um and then i asked

00:01:02.280 when i got in studio here i asked uh john if we had done a live show commentary yet on the events

00:01:11.720 of yesterday and he tells me no uh because cory had done his show earlier so then uh you know the

00:01:17.880 the rulings were subsequent to cory's event so anyway so good news for me i'm uh i'm the first

00:01:23.960 live chat about the big events i got a breaking story that's awesome um so before we go too deep

00:01:31.840 welcome back it is uh i think this is about the 13th episode now that we've done uh they're they're

00:01:38.300 getting better you guys are calling but this is a show about you right i have topics but i want to

00:01:43.900 hear what's on your mind and that only happens if you call that number on the screen right there

00:01:50.020 four seven nine whatever west i'll memorize it someday uh eight six six four seven nine west

00:01:56.980 and extension seven one one and then uh john will put you in queue and we'll chat um so

00:02:06.500 i think i'll remember i mean i was expecting a i was expecting a ruling

00:02:11.060 no let me backtrack i wasn't expecting a ruling this week right so the injunction um

00:02:16.820 the injunction, there was two rulings, right? There was two rulings because there was two

00:02:22.900 cases before the court. Both were sort of happened simultaneously, right? They happened about a month

00:02:29.140 ago between April 7th, 8th, 9th. One was a, one First Nation group was challenging the petition

00:02:37.880 itself. And I honestly didn't think there was any real grounds on for that group. And then there

00:02:46.680 another group simultaneously was trying to go with a broader injunction just to pause the process

00:02:53.800 and um and that was a month ago and at the time after hearing all the arguments from the

00:03:00.840 plaintiffs i guess and from the defendant from the alberta prosperity project and stay free

00:03:05.960 alberta etc etc the judge stayed the petition process put a halt to it we saw what happened

00:03:13.560 last week the signatures were collected handed in to uh to elections alberta and and the stay

00:03:20.520 was 30 days so from april 10th to about you know may 10th so we expected kind of a ruling somewhere

00:03:27.960 around this time but i was on the camp i was on the side that honestly thought there won't be a

00:03:34.040 ruling that they're just gonna that the judge is just gonna delay delay delay extend the stay

00:03:42.120 until um too much time passes and we can't have a referendum so i was quite surprised yesterday i'm

00:03:48.920 in the backyard minding my own business doing my gardening garden 75 in by the way and uh and then

00:03:55.960 all of a sudden somebody uh calls text me and uh calls me and says uh did you see the ruling i'm

00:04:03.480 like no i did not didn't expect it and then i went through the ruling the first post i saw on the

00:04:10.040 ruling i cheered i was like and me and perhaps i was too quick out of the gate with that one but

00:04:16.120 i cheered because the first part i literally read page like 28 right you you sort of scroll through

00:04:22.680 the ruling and you go to the bottom because you want to really like i just want to see the

00:04:25.800 conclusion like i'm just jumping ahead i want to see how this book ends and and right there it's

00:04:31.240 like uh i'm i'm the judge says i'm rejecting the injunction well holy smokes like i'm cheering

00:04:38.440 right like i'm immediately posting about this saying like wow the injunction has been rejected

00:04:43.080 my bad i should have read more because um the the the ruling was on multiple on the two cases

00:04:52.200 but higher up in there the judge said that um that the petition itself basically was uh

00:05:00.680 a no-go um i don't know if she used the words illegal but words to that effect that uh that

00:05:07.000 the chief electoral officer when mitch sylvester handed in the form and mish handed in the form

00:05:13.160 twice right he handed in the form like uh midway last year and then that ended up in court and

00:05:18.600 and there was some argument over the question and everything else and then and then that

00:05:24.360 that triggered danielle smith to change the law uh the citizens initiative act to to tweak 0.93

00:05:30.120 it a little bit and while she was tweaking it and and passing it the judge at that time still

00:05:36.120 opined and gave a ruling on the question so the question was thrown back to elections alberta

00:05:43.400 and then miss sylvester redrafted his question and we had a new bill from danielle smith

00:05:51.240 modifications to the citizens initiatives act and and which is by the way is how things are

00:05:57.080 supposed to proceed right governments make laws and sometimes not sometimes almost every time

00:06:02.520 laws have to be tested and then and then in the process of testing the laws the courts it's the

00:06:07.880 courts who can test the laws uh or citizens who are acting in in good faith on how they interpret

00:06:14.520 the laws and then they might get you know stopped and caught and and then so then it ends up in front

00:06:18.680 of the courts and then the courts have to adjudicate and then if that's the case it's

00:06:22.600 it's quite common for the government to adjust the law and reissue a law so that's just the the way

00:06:27.640 it works and uh so the law was modified mitch resubmitted his question and as soon as he did

00:06:34.680 that then the first nation group from the athabasca area immediately challenged the whole petition

00:06:41.400 again on on the grounds on on various grounds and uh and basically what the judge said yesterday is

00:06:49.000 that the petition it needs to be thrown out because steps were missed and and the um chief electoral

00:06:57.560 officer shouldn't have uh approved mitch's petition like that's dramatic that's bonkers to

00:07:05.580 me right so and and i'll go into i'll try and explain it a little bit further but what this

00:07:11.660 means at this point is that that box those those 42 boxes of signatures that are sitting those

00:07:18.180 300 000 signatures that are sitting at elections alberta they're they're not going to count them

00:07:23.900 They're there. I'm surprised the judge didn't order them destroyed at this point, because I guess the judge knows that by legally there'll be some appeals.

00:07:33.080 But but those signatures are sitting there as if they were had never been collected and as if the whole process was illegal.

00:07:42.020 And and the basic argument of the ruling is that.

00:07:46.920 um the judge looked at the question right do you believe that alberta should cease to be a province

00:07:55.420 part of canada and become its own separate state paraphrasing that's not the exact wording and the

00:08:01.500 judge looked at that question and said okay if they collect enough signatures so there's two

00:08:07.700 outcomes not enough enough if they collect enough signatures then it goes to a referendum and if

00:08:13.020 they win the referendum two outcomes don't win win the referendum so one out of the four outcomes is

00:08:19.220 a win if that question wins the referendum the that question forces uh the ucp government to do

00:08:30.920 something so it can't so that's what the judge is saying that the judge is saying that if you know

00:08:36.220 there's a one in four chance that we get enough signatures we win the referendum and this question

00:08:42.440 therefore uh forces the hand of danielle smith and the government they can't ignore the win

00:08:48.760 they have to act on it the referendum and is binding is basically what the judge said

00:08:54.520 and if it's binding and it forces the government to act then it creates a problem because it affects

00:09:00.600 treaties and other things and therefore uh and and the consultation needs to occur before so i'd

00:09:08.840 always heard you know that that was a possibility and the assumption was that if there is a win

00:09:14.040 in the future and there's a pro the ball gets going then the consultation will occur i think

00:09:18.760 that makes sense right you you do things one step at a time and then and but in this case the judge

00:09:24.760 said nope uh you need to consult now and so basically uh in order to petition our government

00:09:32.200 in order for citizens to sit down collect signatures and just petition the government

00:09:36.600 they need to consult with first nations before they can even do that and and and i've said it

00:09:44.360 all along i mean i have a pro i have a problem with just the whole principle of me having to

00:09:49.400 get permission from my government to petition which we did this go around right we we miss

00:09:56.200 filled out the form and and and got permission got permission he was okay you go ahead you can

00:10:02.200 start collecting signatures collect the signatures on this sheet of paper with a serial number ask

00:10:08.280 for proof of citizenship and proof of residence and collect the signature and a physical address

00:10:14.840 and sign it in blue and you know what i mean like i already had a problem with that like as a citizen

00:10:22.040 the the i have to i have to ask permission from my government to be able to hold my

00:10:27.720 government accountable you see it like i mean that makes no sense right so there there should

00:10:31.480 be i should be free to do that i mean one of the outcomes for me is is heck who needs permission

00:10:36.840 from anybody let's just start this thing all over again and i'll go sit on the side of the road and

00:10:41.080 everybody who signed the petition before all 750 people just come on by and re-sign it again on a

00:10:47.640 we'll sign down a separate piece of paper i mean that's the most frustrating part for me right now

00:10:52.040 is that um those those boxes those 42 boxes with 300 000 signatures are locked up

00:10:59.400 like as if they don't exist i wish i wish i wish mitch could go get those boxes and say forget

00:11:07.920 about you guys and i'm just going to walk over to danielle smith's office and deposit them there

00:11:14.220 now in principle i think that is i mean in principle danielle smith and uh you know pretty

00:11:20.400 much every alberton at this point knows that there is an independence movement and that collected

00:11:25.660 300,000 signatures and is upset. Let's also remind ourselves that last year, whatever they were

00:11:34.460 called, Forever Canada, Thomas Lukasik's group, they collected 400,000 signatures. So Danielle

00:11:41.560 Smith has 700,000 signatures in one way or another. And is she going to ignore all of that

00:11:48.460 just because a judge said she needs to ignore it? I mean, she's got, boy, she's got a lot to think

00:11:53.540 about now, right? She can either appeal and keep kicking the can and the process. And I think 1.00

00:12:01.640 that's wrong. I think that's a bad option because I predicted this, right? They're going to change

00:12:08.720 the rules and every step of the way, they're not going to let us go easily. They're going to keep

00:12:13.000 changing the rules. So she can do that, keep trying to fight and adapt and fight in court 0.88

00:12:20.780 and keep moving and Mitch and so forth.

00:12:22.520 But that's a war of attrition, right?

00:12:23.840 That's a war of attrition for Mitch Sylvester

00:12:25.580 and for the independence movement.

00:12:27.120 Like this takes money and one side, the government,

00:12:32.140 which in essence is backed by Carney, right?

00:12:35.220 I mean, the judge who ruled yesterday

00:12:36.800 is a federally appointed judge from New Brunswick.

00:12:41.600 You know, wink, wink, like completely unbiased.

00:12:44.240 I don't think so.

00:12:45.000 But regardless, on one side,

00:12:46.520 you got the government and the courts

00:12:48.380 and they got an endless supply of money.

00:12:50.500 And on the other side, you've got Mitch, an average private citizen who owns a business in Bonneville, who's limited by their rules to only being allowed to raise $552,000.

00:13:03.320 So in this war of attrition, not very fair, right?

00:13:07.440 So that's one option.

00:13:09.140 Now, yesterday, I don't know. Do you have the clip, John, of Danielle Smith? Just very quickly, her 30 second answer where she said that she didn't think that the, I think I have it. She called it incorrect in law. She called the judge's ruling incorrect in law and anti-democratic.

00:13:35.440 the referendum question to the ballot as a government question after the ruling today by

00:13:40.060 justice. Well, although our government does support Alberta remaining in Canada, we think

00:13:46.940 that today's decision by the court will deny an opportunity to have their petition verified by

00:13:54.160 Elections Alberta. We think that this decision is incorrect in law and anti-democratic, and we will

00:14:01.360 funding for schools. And of course, this whole ruling dominated the conversation. And when asked

00:14:06.740 about it, she said, she's, you know, I'm reading it here. She thought the judge was incorrect

00:14:12.240 in interpreting the law and anti-democratic and that her party was going to appeal it or her

00:14:17.700 government was going to appeal it. But that doesn't, at the end of the day, all these appeals

00:14:23.140 don't help because they just prolong the process. And like I said, I keep worrying that we're going

00:14:28.020 to run out of time now um online it's pretty obvious that uh mitch sylvester and stay free

00:14:37.640 alberta and others like that they went to a plan i don't know b or c but they started promoting the

00:14:43.420 idea of of uh well they've been promoting this idea for a while but everybody should get a ucp

00:14:48.360 membership and try and trigger a special general meeting because there'll be an agm there'll be an

00:14:55.440 annual general meeting near the end of the year there always is around september october but

00:14:59.380 they're saying that um some groups now are trying to um influence the government the ucp and one of

00:15:09.540 the funny things is that uh yesterday i not yesterday this morning i don't think this is

00:15:14.860 coincidence the ucp website crashed temporarily because i think too many people were trying to

00:15:20.600 log in and buy UCP memberships, right? So $10 memberships, there's already like 60,000 UCP

00:15:28.220 members. And I think that's a valid path going down the influencing from the inside and trying

00:15:35.820 to get Danielle Smith to just hold a referendum. That's in her powers to do. She can do that. She 1.00

00:15:43.400 We can just add this question on independence on the referendum in October.

00:15:51.200 I was thinking there was a third path, but I don't see the third path at this point.

00:15:57.700 So, okay, well, so that's the events.

00:16:00.460 That's what happened yesterday.

00:16:01.680 So please call in, give us a buzz, and let me know what are your thoughts on all of that.

00:16:08.140 I mean, the title today was what are the next path, the next steps for the independence movement?

00:16:15.520 We're running out of time for this year.

00:16:18.660 We're running out of time if we want to get a question in October.

00:16:22.400 I think probably the most direct path right now is is to try and influence Danielle Smith as much as possible and get her to just add it to the referendum in October.

00:16:35.560 I also wanted to actually, and just on the topic, I mean, I really found like I'm going to have to reread it another time.

00:16:43.080 But I really found it interesting in her ruling. Right. The ruling is long.

00:16:46.660 Like it was 28 pages. And I really found it interesting that the judge took that, you know, the the the decision tree approach, I called it.

00:16:57.820 Right. What if they get the right number of signatures and what if there's a referendum and what if they win?

00:17:02.580 And so she went down, she went down the what if they win and ruled on the what if they win. But there was three other outcomes, right? We could not get the right amount of signatures, which would not lead to a referendum, or we could get the right amount of signatures and not win the referendum.

00:17:18.800 so there's a lot of outcomes and and um the with that line of thought it it also made it interesting

00:17:28.240 that you could have applied the same like uh let me collect my thoughts thomas lukasic's petition

00:17:35.120 wasn't challenged why not right i guess that nobody challenged it but but by by her reasoning

00:17:42.400 meaning thomas lucasic's petition is also uh illegal and requires some consultation because

00:17:50.580 he was asking the inverse of of of stay free alberta's question his question is

00:17:57.760 do you support canada or alberta staying in canada well i can do the same thing i can do

00:18:04.660 the decision tree and say okay if he's got enough to get it as a referendum question what if he

00:18:10.240 loses what if everybody votes no we don't want to stay in canada then doesn't that also trigger

00:18:18.340 an obligation on the part of the government which would lead to consultation which would mean that

00:18:22.740 his question should have been rejected to start with uh you know keep going there john is that

00:18:29.240 our caller on the line or or they okay go ahead call her as usual name please where are you calling

00:18:34.080 from marty it's uh james calling from devon can you hear me yeah yeah perfectly how are you

00:18:42.880 uh dark sauce this morning man not not a great day cheer up i mean it's not the end of the world

00:18:49.200 i'm kind of wondering no no but i'm kind of wondering how much more does alberta need to

00:18:56.400 prove to the rest of the country that canada is objectively not a free country not a democratic

00:19:03.040 a country not a fair country like how many more stories like this need to pop up in the news

00:19:08.240 before the rest of the country wakes up um well i don't think there's an there is no no to the

00:19:18.700 answer is there's not enough of these events to make the rest of the country wake up which is why

00:19:22.820 we're doing what we're trying to do which is why we're trying to separate right um i i know where

00:19:30.260 you're getting at but i think separatists in quebec should be livid this morning yes

00:19:34.260 yeah yeah no i agree so separatists in quebec people in saskatchewan should be pissed about

00:19:42.420 this decision you know there's there's people in bc i like

00:19:46.140 everybody is our justice system just in balance yeah yeah no you're you're you're correct there

00:19:53.440 and you remind me of a great point right we do live in a we do live in a common law society

00:19:58.980 Except for Quebec. Quebec's got a civil code, but a ruling like this becomes precedent setting for other parts of the country. Absolutely. I think the ones who should be most upset are just everyday citizens who, specifically here in Alberta, but everywhere else, right? I mean, this is an erosion of our democratic rights.

00:20:24.080 well we here in alberta have long known that our votes don't matter but i i still think that this

00:20:30.840 decision is well i think it's a provocation to be honest with you i think they're they're hoping 0.80

00:20:36.760 that somebody from the movement does something stupid at this point but i need to urge people 0.95

00:20:41.980 no don't do anything stupid as much as we're angry at this decision you know the last thing 0.99

00:20:47.160 we need is somebody going out and doing something exceptionally dumb yeah no i agree i agree no 0.98

00:20:53.380 thanks for the call um have a great day in devon yeah thank you marty keep doing what you're doing 0.69

00:21:01.040 my man yeah you're welcome um yeah it's it's um i i heard that sentiment online i mean the sentiment

00:21:10.120 online actually that was a that was another observation that was that was made right what

00:21:14.020 about the precedent of quebec right quebec had two referendums and how come quebec was able to

00:21:19.880 have two referendums and we can't even we never mind a referendum and we can't even get to the

00:21:25.580 question like we're not allowed like we need permission to petition i i i still have a hard

00:21:30.080 hard hard hard time getting over that that that that uh that citizens who want to just collect

00:21:37.300 signatures and ask the government to do something first need permission and need to consult before

00:21:43.140 they can even like as step one it's it's uh it's super frustrating um and and tying this into uh

00:21:53.620 tying this into carney and the rest of the canada as as uh james was just alluding to i mean the

00:22:00.900 the timing of this of some of the announcements that are going on today make this even more

00:22:06.820 frustrating right again um so so just this morning ottawa announced what's it called um

00:22:16.500 i don't know the exact name but but you know carney announced a big strategy to further

00:22:22.980 electrify the country right he wants to double the amount of electric power generation in this

00:22:29.380 country so he's betting on electricity uh and i'm not surprised and when he's betting on electricity

00:22:35.060 He's talking about renewables and small nuclear and things like that, things that he's not talking about coal-fired power or natural gas-fired or anything like that.

00:22:45.360 He's betting on the things that already have, and he wants to double the electricity generation capabilities of the country, which is ridiculous to start with, which is absolutely never going to happen, but it's also not his responsibility.

00:23:03.300 like developing resources and developing your electric grid and developing your energy is the

00:23:09.080 provincial jurisdiction so carney keeps poking danielle smith in particular and and and you

00:23:17.720 know i don't know when she's going to wake up and i'll come back on that but i got a call on the

00:23:21.860 line go ahead where are you calling from hello oh did we lose one john

00:23:30.920 oh got another one maybe go ahead

00:23:37.140 they'll call back um yeah so uh you know danielle danielle keeps hoping right she keeps using the

00:23:49.600 words uh a stronger uh sovereign uh independent alberta within this united canada sovereign

00:23:57.400 alberta within the united canada that's her stance right and and i i don't see it happening i mean

00:24:05.080 you know she she's she's being as far as i'm concerned she's being played uh tomorrow we're

00:24:10.360 going to hear tomorrow about a supposed pipeline deal there's no pipeline deal there's no there's

00:24:14.440 no there's no proponent this is a chicken and egg thing right nobody's going to want to build a

00:24:18.920 pipeline on like carney said i'll fast track a pipeline uh if somebody proposes one but no that's

00:24:25.960 That's not how it works.

00:24:26.900 You have to eliminate the laws, the rules that are scaring away investors, and then you'll bring back investors, and then the pipelines will go.

00:24:36.100 But the laws are still in place, the tanker ban and the carbon emissions and all of that that are scaring away investors.

00:24:43.560 All right, let's go on the line again.

00:24:45.020 Let's try it again.

00:24:45.600 Maybe it's the same person.

00:24:46.460 Go ahead.

00:24:46.740 Where are you calling from?

00:24:49.720 Hello?

00:24:50.440 Hello.

00:24:52.580 Hey, it's Paul.

00:24:53.640 I'm up in Thorsham by the Genesee power plant.

00:24:57.320 Nice.

00:24:57.600 I just want to...

00:25:00.080 Sorry.

00:25:02.040 No, no, go ahead, Paul.

00:25:02.940 I was just saying, interesting coincidence that you're close to a power plant.

00:25:06.360 That used to be coal, right?

00:25:10.260 They're still mining it, actually.

00:25:12.920 It's all being sent to China.

00:25:14.760 Okay.

00:25:16.920 Yeah, it's gas-powered the power plant now, but they're still mining coal.

00:25:21.360 They're still strip mining here.

00:25:23.640 And they're loading it up and it's being sent to the West Coast.

00:25:27.140 Okay.

00:25:27.760 So what's your comment this morning, Paul?

00:25:32.300 Yeah.

00:25:33.300 Well, I saw this morning the UCP website had crashed.

00:25:38.380 People, I assume, are going and buying new memberships.

00:25:42.220 The website's backed up now.

00:25:44.040 I went and did that a week ago.

00:25:45.440 I'm glad I did.

00:25:47.140 But, yeah, I see Jason Candy and old Tyler Shandro there.

00:25:51.600 They're out on Twitter kind of saying, hey, why don't you start a separatist party, blah, blah, blah.

00:25:59.340 And, well, the thing is, I think most people who were founders of the UCP, such as myself,

00:26:05.660 I was there when the parties reunited.

00:26:09.120 And I think most of us kind of had inklings back then that, you know,

00:26:14.240 Jason Kenney was going to be the last hope before we decided, you know,

00:26:18.000 if they're not going to help us now,

00:26:19.860 independence is the next step that we're going to have to take.

00:26:24.560 But, you know, Jason, we got the referendum on equalization

00:26:29.740 and then he didn't do anything about it.

00:26:32.020 And I think that was the last stand before people started to really think,

00:26:37.340 you know what, if Canada's not going to negotiate with us,

00:26:40.340 if our own premier isn't going to stand up for us

00:26:43.640 and enter constitutional negotiations with regard to equalization,

00:26:49.000 we're not going to get very far in Canada.

00:26:51.860 They're never going to give us everything that we need.

00:26:53.920 And most of us, we were all proud Canadians for a long, long time,

00:26:59.580 but we're, you know, 10 years of Justin Trudeau and now Mark Carney,

00:27:04.860 people who don't give a flying flip about, you know, the needs of Alberta

00:27:09.480 because we don't have the voting power

00:27:11.000 and we're never going to vote liberal anyway even if we did um yeah no we we kind of just said

00:27:18.440 we kind of just said you know what this is it and so so and now we're we're kind of asking yeah let

00:27:25.320 me ask you a quick question then so uh because that is probably that is one of the more popular

00:27:30.200 comments these days we should there should be a separatist party there kind of is one you know

00:27:35.560 the republican party but what's your thoughts on the separatist party because i mean there's pros

00:27:39.740 and cons um would would you would you support that option if it came down to it if we uh if the

00:27:49.300 ucp isn't going to represent the membership yeah but the problem is there's several of them what

00:27:55.460 they need to do is get together have some kind of convert convention or something and form one large

00:28:01.560 separatist party you got the wild rose alliance uh the republican party the independence party

00:28:07.660 of Alberta and the Alberta independence party. So there, you know, there's a lot to choose

00:28:13.540 from and everybody's kind of looking for the position of who's got the pure policies on

00:28:21.140 independence. What they need to do is just get together and form one large party, you

00:28:27.520 know.

00:28:28.360 But if you're going to do that, then I think then sort of taking better control of the

00:28:34.340 ucp is probably the answer my fear with another uh you know a couple more let's face it right a

00:28:40.180 separatist party would be right leaning no matter what and it would probably attract people from

00:28:45.060 the ucp which ends up splitting the right and then leaving the door wide open for the ndp that's my

00:28:51.380 fear but um uh yeah appreciate the comment uh paul thanks do you just quickly do you work in that

00:28:57.380 industry do you work at the power plant or you you or you just live there no i actually i'm uh

00:29:04.340 back at the farm i'm visiting my parents oh but uh i grew up here okay excellent all right well

00:29:10.420 thanks for calling in um yeah no worries yeah no worries uh seeing some you know staying on the

00:29:16.660 theme of electricity seeing some interesting uh comments going by on uh on the on scrolling by

00:29:22.340 here uh i want to pull one up somebody said um electricity was a good way to keep us in 15-minute

00:29:29.940 cities i i don't know who said that i can't find the comment but that is a that that is an interesting

00:29:34.420 thing i i fear i fear that when carney push promotes something i just don't trust him and

00:29:40.260 so when he's promoting something like electricity it's either because it's going to benefit very

00:29:44.260 specific provinces like uh like quebec and maybe manitoba and bc or he's got some ulterior motive

00:29:51.140 uh behind it uh go ahead caller where are you calling from and name please

00:30:00.820 go ahead

00:30:03.860 i'm calling from ramona

00:30:12.420 i i can barely hear you uh are you say that again

00:30:17.220 this is just a distraction to take out daniel smith and reintroduce the uh

00:30:27.040 i i missed that all right he'll have to call back i guess uh a distraction to take out

00:30:39.040 danielle smith that's the only part i got out of that um yeah he's cutting in and out is what the

00:30:45.620 john says and i yeah he's probably driving in in a you know near cremona i know where that is uh

00:30:51.140 unfortunately an interesting concept i wanted to follow up on that he's at this an attempt to take

00:30:57.560 out danielle i now we're playing 4d 5d chess right i i um i don't think that uh that's being

00:31:07.220 played that way okay um so yeah so you know that's the that's the big story this week and um

00:31:16.840 yeah i guess we'll see where it goes um the i really find i really find the uh the sgm special

00:31:26.460 general meeting option interesting i don't know how that functions i don't i honestly don't know

00:31:33.620 how that functions i mean is it is it somebody who writes uh uh how maybe somebody can call in

00:31:39.920 or maybe uh cory morgan will have to comment on that in this upcoming show but how how do we get

00:31:46.280 a special general meeting convened by the party is it is it a motion that's sent to the premier

00:31:52.880 on behalf is it a petition yeah wouldn't that be silly like the way to get a special general

00:31:58.520 meeting is for members to uh petition i mean the part that upsets me the most about all of this

00:32:04.280 really honestly is i spend about 120 hours on the side of the road collecting signatures now a lot

00:32:09.160 of people are mocking me and and you know being critical of me i don't care i mean you know i i

00:32:17.000 believed in what i was trying to do and and this outcome uh doesn't surprise me i i mean i i did

00:32:23.640 not think that any parties would let us just separate without throwing everything at us i've

00:32:28.580 said this before and i and i don't think we've seen the end of this i mean even if we started

00:32:32.580 our own party and won i still think there's something that they'll do to block us i don't

00:32:37.160 know what but they will there will be obstacles at every step of the way so you know mock me for

00:32:43.760 for having a belief and mock me for sitting on the side of the road for 120 hours collecting

00:32:48.800 signatures that's fine i don't care i believe in something and i tried um i've like i'll mock

00:32:55.440 people who don't try so so mock me for having tried that's like that's like mocking somebody

00:33:00.800 who tried to start a business and and was unsuccessful i mean uh entrepreneurs know

00:33:06.880 actually in life in general it's it's not our victories that define us it's our defeats and

00:33:13.040 when you get defeated and you brush yourself off and you try again those are the generally the

00:33:18.880 better life lessons and and lead to better outcomes so if you don't if you haven't had a

00:33:24.320 lot a few defeats in life you're just not trying so i don't feel bad about having well i do feel

00:33:30.560 bad i mean i do feel bad that my signatures are sitting in the box like and not being counted if

00:33:36.320 if if i collected them and they were counted and there wasn't enough or some other thing you know

00:33:42.320 that i uh some other sort of logical outcome i could live with those consequences but i have a

00:33:48.320 hard time right now just accepting that uh some unelected appointed judge just says you know um

00:33:55.920 that the chief electoral officer screwed up and therefore all these signatures are invalid like

00:34:01.280 that's that's that's frustrating to me all right what other stories have i got here um a couple of

00:34:08.080 interesting ones um well let's go on something light i mean i i got a whole bunch of uh stories

00:34:16.240 here but let's go on something a little bit light uh john do you have a picture i hate to put john

00:34:21.600 on the spot i should come in a little bit earlier and get john you have a picture of people returning

00:34:26.560 their census forms uh return to sender or all sorts of commentaries like there's a there's a

00:34:34.320 weird movement going on right so census the census form uh landed in people's homes i think on may

00:34:41.440 4th started arriving and then you supposedly have until this week to complete your census

00:34:48.080 it goes on every five years there's two forms there's the there's the uh 75 of us there you go

00:34:55.200 75 of us i'm speaking from experience i got the short form census so 75 of us get 75 of households

00:35:02.960 get the short form census very basic questions um how many people live in the house their ages

00:35:09.520 and what languages do they still speak kind of thing but then about 25 get a long form census 0.60

00:35:15.040 which is really to me intrusive right like your religion your sexual orientation uh the size of

00:35:21.760 your house uh where you work blah blah blah lots of questions and and then there's been this weird

00:35:27.040 online protests maybe there's been protests like this in the past but i but this one's really strong

00:35:32.320 this year lots of people are taking their census form like that and writing return to senders or

00:35:38.080 i do not consent or i don't whatever and um returning them to uh stats canada and um i i

00:35:47.360 just think it's funny to uh to see that apparently there's a it's a it's a criminal offense or a civil

00:35:53.920 offense not to complete the census it could be a 500 fine all right caller go ahead where are you

00:35:58.880 you're calling from name please hey marty it's mike here i'm calling from edmonton hey mike

00:36:05.820 what's on your mind hey first time caller long first time caller long time listener and i'm

00:36:12.900 curious like i was the canvasser like yourself and the biggest question or the biggest reservation

00:36:19.000 that most people had when i spoke to them was uh their pension they were concerned about their

00:36:24.360 pension and i was just curious what was kind of the feedback that you were getting from people

00:36:29.400 out there um the pension came up a lot uh frequently probably the pension was the number

00:36:37.220 one question and i found that that one was an easy answer right uh i basically i always told

00:36:43.540 them you know do you know anybody who's uh retired and spending half the year in costa rica and

00:36:48.080 places like that and everybody seemed to know somebody and i'm like well then that's an example

00:36:52.800 right you if you live in costa rica you still collect your pension so if you live in alberta

00:36:57.280 even though you collected it in uh you know you once lived in canada nothing's affected there so

00:37:02.320 i i didn't have a hard time with that one um the the one that gave more of a hard time that i

00:37:07.840 couldn't and i couldn't honestly answer it is when people said you know what kind of the uh what kind

00:37:14.720 of constitution will we have what kind of military what kind of currency and those kinds of things

00:37:19.360 and you know um that was a lesson learned right a lot of people can't just make that leap of faith

00:37:26.080 you know they're unhappy and just vote and then and let the chips fall in and we'll we'll define

00:37:30.720 that later because that's the true answer like we'll define our constitution our courts all of

00:37:36.160 that after we win the referendum but for a lot of people they couldn't get past that and they wanted

00:37:40.800 answers so i i guess if we don't do this referendum this time and we have to pause and wait a couple

00:37:47.280 of years maybe and maybe that's the one good thing that comes out of the next couple years right i

00:37:52.560 mean it's uh i i think ultimately the will of the people prevails and there will be a referendum

00:37:59.200 and so maybe if we have time to pause we can we can go back to educating people and maybe have

00:38:04.400 some conventions and some conferences where we debate these kinds of ideas but what what did

00:38:09.200 you hear on the trail uh that was the biggest one like the biggest by far was everybody just

00:38:17.760 couldn't wrap their head around the pension thing and like the only other thing that i that i actually

00:38:23.840 you know came across was people that were scared like like they were saying earlier about people

00:38:29.600 were scared to actually sign right yeah and other than that was it was like everybody with their

00:38:36.480 gotcha moment you know oh what are we going to do with the airports it's like well bob works at the

00:38:41.600 airport today and we'll just give bob a new shirt and he'll work for us tomorrow you know like it's

00:38:47.520 yeah people are just narrow-minded they just they just couldn't think for themselves i had

00:38:52.560 my funniest comment was one guy said what are you guys going to do about the trans canada highway

00:38:57.280 i'm like i was so off caught off guard i was like i didn't even know what to say i'm like well well

00:39:03.440 if if we need to add that in the negotiation and give ottawa a few bucks for whatever buying

00:39:08.400 the trans canada highway i guess that's what we'll do if not i said we'll but we'll build

00:39:12.400 one alongside it i don't know like yeah yeah uh when people are scared they'll do all sorts of

00:39:17.760 things yeah yeah okay thanks mike thanks for anybody all right have a great day um yeah that's

00:39:28.960 uh that's another thing that happened uh maybe people uh let me explain that very quickly right so

00:39:36.240 um before the referendum before this whole petition thing like uh you know in 2025

00:39:45.280 um the alberta prosperity project was sort of taking the lead right they were the group that

00:39:50.880 was going out there and putting together the documentary you know the cost of freedom what

00:39:55.520 will it look like that and that was their opinion and really good very well done right so alberta

00:40:01.200 prosperity project was mitch sylvester and jeff rath and dennis modry and a whole bunch of other

00:40:06.240 people and so they they had spent years promoting uh independence talking about the problems with

00:40:12.960 confederation and what it could look like so that they were a great website during this weird period

00:40:19.440 during this petition period one of the rules was that uh alberta prosperity project had to go

00:40:28.720 dark silent they could no longer be promoting independence because that would be considered

00:40:35.040 interfering like this is ridiculous right so they went dark the website was sort of turned off and

00:40:41.680 then stay free alberta appeared and people were confused about that right but stay free alberta

00:40:46.080 only existed to help mitch collect the signatures well now the now now the signature period's done

00:40:53.120 so stay free alberta is the website that now goes dark it's done its job and alberta prosperity

00:40:58.080 project reappeared so i just noticed yesterday and today a couple of tweets online from the

00:41:03.520 alberta prosperity project so give those guys a follow uh join that group and uh and then

00:41:11.680 hopefully they work on building uh more of those great documents to help you know educate the

00:41:17.360 people to the benefits of of an independent alberta if you and like and and despite everything

00:41:23.440 that happened again thank you mitch thank you jeff thanks to all the people who the canvassers who

00:41:29.360 who poured their heart into this the battle's not over go ahead caller where are you calling from

00:41:36.480 from edmonton good morning or good afternoon what's your name

00:41:41.680 Laurie.

00:41:42.680 Hi, Laurie.

00:41:43.680 What's on your mind?

00:41:44.680 Hi.

00:41:45.680 I was just wondering, I mean, obviously I'm as upset as everybody else about the results

00:41:51.680 yesterday, but I was just wondering if anybody had considered Carney talking about this 30%

00:41:58.680 of Canadian land being turned over to some sort of nature preserve.

00:42:02.680 I was wondering if anybody else thought that that might be another tactic he's using against

00:42:07.680 separatism.

00:42:08.680 um to be honest that's news to me um a little more context is this a recent recent announcement

00:42:16.680 or is this sort of general this is this is this is within the last week he's talking about

00:42:23.100 you know making 30 percent of when nature whatever that means there's been no details about it or

00:42:30.480 anything yeah that's classic carney right i mean make big bold announcements with no details and

00:42:36.820 um uh fair question and you know i think you and i are on the same page i don't trust carney i mean

00:42:44.180 like when he makes a statement like that it's almost never with really pure intentions he's

00:42:49.120 got something evil in mind i think we're seeing i i predicted this right i said this a couple of

00:42:54.200 weeks ago i said that after the by-elections when uh when carney secured his majority as small as

00:43:01.340 it as it is he still has a majority i knew we'd see a different carney and he's back to showing

00:43:05.680 his true colors, which is the guy's, he believes in climate change. He believes in controlling

00:43:12.600 capital. He believes in picking losers and winners and redistributing money. He believes

00:43:18.360 in all those things. He was a UN envoy. He is a member of the World Economic Forum. He's just not

00:43:26.780 a good guy. I don't like him. I don't trust him. And I'm getting the sense that you're probably

00:43:32.120 on the same page lori oh absolutely and he was right behind the whole setting up of carbon credits

00:43:38.840 in the first place if you look into the history of that yeah well closer to home did you see i mean

00:43:45.560 there's an announcement supposedly tomorrow on pipelines but leading up to it like danielle

00:43:50.040 smith and him agreed that they're going to raise the industrial carbon tax to i think 130 dollars

00:43:56.280 a ton by 2030. That's right around the corner and that's huge.

00:44:00.680 Yeah, and normally the things that Daniel Smith has put in this, I think she's absolutely

00:44:06.840 going in the wrong direction. There is no demand for oil that costs more than everybody else.

00:44:12.280 Right.

00:44:12.840 And that's really all it is.

00:44:15.240 Yeah. I drove by the gas pump today and I think it was $1.89. You guys are always

00:44:20.840 a little bit cheaper because you've got the refineries nearby but uh um just last question

00:44:26.600 while i got you on the line what do you uh if you're danielle smith what would you do right now 1.00

00:44:35.160 tough one uh well it is a tough one for her because i mean she's sort of walking a fine 0.79

00:44:40.840 line she's got to put the referendum on regardless regardless you know yeah i mean one of my co-hosts

00:44:49.240 No, I was just going to say, Corey Morgan's been talking about this a lot, right?

00:44:56.500 Like, Corey's pretty sure that if she doesn't do this, she's starting to – she's putting a nail in her coffin if she doesn't do this quickly.

00:45:05.080 Yeah.

00:45:05.820 Well, yeah, she is. 0.99

00:45:07.780 She is because that's not the will of the Alberta people.

00:45:10.820 No, and welcome to Alberta where we often turn on our leaders pretty quickly.

00:45:17.180 There's a lot of history of that, right?

00:45:19.680 Quite a few leaders in the last 20 years have not finished their natural terms.

00:45:26.160 So, thanks for calling.

00:45:27.060 That's right.

00:45:27.480 And there's just one last point that I want to raise.

00:45:30.900 Go ahead.

00:45:31.080 I want everybody to just remember, and I'm sure you feel this way,

00:45:34.380 but it's not the First Nations people that did this.

00:45:37.140 It's just leaders. 0.99

00:45:38.660 They're no more responsible for it than we are for a carny junk. 0.97

00:45:43.340 Good point. 0.96

00:45:44.440 Good reminder.

00:45:45.380 You're right.

00:45:45.740 and i'm guilty of that i've i've said some very critical things in the past and i should always

00:45:50.340 qualify it and say the first nation chiefs right the and and some of their leaders are good they

00:45:57.100 have elected leaders and then they have some appointed leaders and then they have some i don't

00:46:01.280 know called uh hereditary hereditary yeah um and and and along those lines uh i think you i think

00:46:09.520 it was the western standard here that had a story on that this week how um independence support

00:46:15.020 among first nations is actually particularly high like it's in the 50 60 percent range kind of thing

00:46:20.700 i saw the figure 46 46 okay okay it could be more than that that was just through one poll

00:46:28.540 of 3 000 people but yeah no that's great yeah awesome okay well thanks for calling lori

00:46:33.680 okay thank you have a great day um all right i'm just gonna keep going down i'm uh i got a couple

00:46:41.660 of other uh you know i never get around to international stories but before i go to a few

00:46:47.320 international stories that i thought were interesting this week i do want to talk about

00:46:50.380 one other big story that was that happened out east that i thought was absolutely funny um so

00:46:57.080 the ontario liberals are looking for a leader um i can't remember i don't even know who their last

00:47:04.980 leader was uh what was that crazy lady before ford anyways um so the ontario liberals are looking for

00:47:12.440 a leader so they had a um uh and then to be a potential leader of the party there you first

00:47:20.240 have to win a seat so in some places like in some depending on the rules of different uh political

00:47:25.820 parties or whatever you can be a leader without a seat but it sounds like in ontario that you

00:47:31.880 needed to win something anyways there was a there was a or maybe it was just a nomination maybe it

00:47:37.720 was just a leadership nomination or a writing nomination i think that's what it was it was a

00:47:42.520 writing nomination so in a in a in an ontario in the scarborough west writing uh there was a

00:47:50.520 nomination they were trying to choose who's going to be the candidate for that writing in the next

00:47:55.480 provincial election and one of those candidates is somebody who is hoping to be the leader

00:47:59.800 and that's a guy named nate eskier smith and uh he's currently um a federal mp

00:48:09.640 and i knew that we it wasn't a it was a long-standing rumor everybody thought that he

00:48:15.000 was going to take a run at the liberal the provincial liberal leadership so we thought

00:48:20.440 he'd have to step down i was counting on him as one of the guys would have to step down and then

00:48:25.720 carney would lose his majority okay he didn't step down the run he will have to step down if he gets

00:48:32.920 elected but his um his dreams and aspirations were crushed uh on the weekend because he lost

00:48:40.680 the nomination vote by 19 votes and uh and now he's filing an appeal because he's claiming that

00:48:49.640 there was some irregularities can you imagine a liberal claiming irregularities in an election

00:48:57.960 okay and i'll come back to that one but or did we lose the yeah there he is did we lose the caller

00:49:02.120 john or okay caller left but so and there was a cute video of him like um well i mean he lost to

00:49:10.200 he lost to a guy who no slouch i mean he lost to a guy who came here as a as a as a student

00:49:18.920 you know a decade ago and uh did very well for himself i mean the guy he lost against

00:49:25.480 owned something like a dozen domino's pizza franchises in in uh in in that neighborhood

00:49:31.240 in scarborough and this guy played the game the way liberals played the game i mean he and he's

00:49:37.320 from the the tamil uh community right from sri lanka and uh he went around and he gave ballots

00:49:45.160 to people written in sri lankan that showed how to vote and whatnot and he handed them out and

00:49:51.000 and he played the game but i guess they're saying there were some irregularities like there was

00:49:56.200 something like uh 34 more ballots were counted than registered voters uh some nate's um uh

00:50:04.520 scrutineers were reporting that you know mysteriously like 80 people showed up and and

00:50:11.240 had lost their license and couldn't prove their citizenship stuff like that folks those these are

00:50:17.400 all the rules that the liberals federally provincially and the left have put in in the last

00:50:23.640 few years right they bring in a bunch of immigrants and they make voting uh ridiculously easy and they 0.55

00:50:30.120 keep lowering the the criteria right i mean look at what we just had to like let me let me contrast 0.89

00:50:36.920 that to what i just had to do as part of collecting signatures for this petition i had to ask people

00:50:42.760 like are you a canadian citizen are you an alberta resident are you 18 or over please show me your id

00:50:48.280 oh sorry your id uh doesn't have a physical address it's only a postal office box i can't accept it

00:50:55.240 so and then and then here you know we're witnessing other places other provinces where the rules and

00:51:01.640 the uh the guidelines have been lowered so much and now now it's actually come to bite the liberals

00:51:07.880 uh in the butt um we'll come back to that go ahead i got a caller on the line where

00:51:12.200 are you calling from and name please hello hello martin yes oh hi this is patricia from edmonton 0.96

00:51:24.520 i have a question about the voting i don't really understand why there would be a possibility to

00:51:31.320 split to vote provincially if we vote for independence would that not

00:51:37.340 invalidate provincial elections expand a little maybe are you are you

00:51:47.500 referencing to the comment I just said about vote splitting if we have another

00:51:50.840 separatist party or what what's your what yeah yeah I've heard a lot of people

00:51:56.280 talk about votes pretty because of that that's exactly what I'm referencing okay

00:52:00.600 okay so um forget about referendums or anything like that lots of people have said we should have

00:52:07.880 a separatist party so so let's call it call it the wild rose party for now like there's the wild

00:52:13.800 rose party the danger of the wild of a of a purely separatist party is that it would attract a lot of

00:52:20.040 people from that currently vote for danielle smith the vote for the ucp and so the fear is outside

00:52:26.280 of a referendum just at the next election if we have a a strong separatist party people are scared

00:52:31.800 that you know the wild rose might get 30 seats the ucp might get 29 and then the ndp get whatever 42

00:52:39.560 and and then the ndp end up being in power so that's the fear of having just just another party

00:52:46.520 on the right that's the fear and then if that happens if we if we re-elect the ndp forget about

00:52:53.320 a referendum because I think

00:52:55.580 Nenshi is so 0.69

00:52:56.660 crazy. I think if he 0.99

00:52:59.820 got into power, he would cancel

00:53:01.660 the Citizens Initiative Act

00:53:04.000 and he would reverse a whole bunch of things

00:53:05.640 that Smith has done.

00:53:07.520 We cannot afford...

00:53:09.420 I get it.

00:53:10.740 I do not want the NDP to win,

00:53:13.600 but I guess I don't know

00:53:15.740 how referendums work because I thought

00:53:17.880 this October, if we get

00:53:19.860 a referendum,

00:53:20.620 then that would just

00:53:22.740 if anybody

00:53:24.080 if everybody says

00:53:25.340 enough people say yes

00:53:27.240 we want

00:53:27.900 to separate 1.00

00:53:29.760 Patricia the part is

00:53:32.380 referendums have nothing to do with parties

00:53:34.160 you're right

00:53:34.640 like if we have a referendum

00:53:35.800 it doesn't matter

00:53:37.200 it's just yes or no

00:53:38.800 if there's a referendum

00:53:40.620 that I guess the people

00:53:41.920 from the separatist parties would vote

00:53:43.760 some people from the UCP and the NDP

00:53:45.640 so a referendum is totally separate

00:53:47.700 from a general election

00:53:48.960 totally independent of part okay well okay well thank you very much and i really enjoy your show

00:53:56.620 you're welcome have a great day thanks um yeah i i never um let me backtrack a little bit i mean

00:54:05.740 i there is a path forward to an independence party i think a party could move forward with

00:54:14.740 perhaps some collaboration and make sure that they don't run against each other i don't know

00:54:19.380 there's there's there's a path forward but the more i think about it though at the end of the

00:54:25.140 day i'm not these days i'm not too worried about the ndp right nenshi right now like when i watch

00:54:30.100 nenshi on on uh on social media talking about whatever's happening he sounds like he's completely

00:54:37.060 unhinged he sounds a bit like a lunatic he's not making a lot of sense and then um and then people

00:54:43.620 are actually turning on him i've seen i've seen calls right now for uh rachel notley to come out 0.82

00:54:49.300 of retirement and and you know like people want to pull nenshi off the stage and uh and silence him

00:54:55.780 so that's how bad he is so for me at this point i'm like well let him talk and uh and i mean

00:55:01.780 danielle's got a huge popularity that i'm not her political advisor but if i was one of her political

00:55:07.780 advisors maybe now is the time to uh call a snap election and forget about all of these things i 0.70

00:55:14.420 mean she wanted a referendum on independent on uh on constitutional questions and things like that

00:55:19.780 forget about it just just just just call a snap election campaign on those things

00:55:25.460 and uh and and and try and get elected and then go from there i mean that's that's the

00:55:30.740 option i would suggest to her uh a couple more calls hopefully before the time's up time just

00:55:36.180 flies when we're doing this go ahead caller where are you calling from and name please

00:55:40.740 hey this is john i'm calling out calgary hey john what's on your mind i'm just i'm trying to figure

00:55:46.740 out what our path forward is here i'm looking up all these comments uh some people are saying like

00:55:52.340 think about the referendum once we have it what happens after

00:55:58.180 that's your question like what happens if we have a referendum

00:56:00.820 yeah let's say the referendum is up and we we win and the answer is yes we want to move well

00:56:07.940 what up what happened uh well the next morning um we we would do two things the next morning

00:56:16.980 a was we would start to negotiate with ottawa um financially you know what's our share of the debt

00:56:25.620 what's uh how much do we owe you for the prisons that are federal uh the border stations a couple

00:56:32.340 of things so we start negotiating with ottawa uh financially and then the other thing we would have

00:56:42.340 probably probably smith would resign i don't know we'd have another election to choose a new leader

00:56:48.740 going forward. And then immediately that new leader, or if it's Smith, I think we'd have to

00:56:56.420 propose something like a constitutional conference and bring together, you know, scholars and people

00:57:03.680 from government and academics, and then start to think about a new constitution and how we shape

00:57:10.760 the country going forward. So, I mean, we'd want to think about those things. We've been thinking,

00:57:17.440 people have been thinking about those things what the what a future alberta looks like in

00:57:21.440 the future but but officially we can't implement any of those things until the people vote on it

00:57:28.160 the day after the referendum so there's a referendum and then after that we start having

00:57:31.680 a whole bunch of discussions and votes on on all the different institutions we need does that make

00:57:38.080 sense because i i think like my main concern is like what if the federal government just says no

00:57:43.120 they can't well it's a it's a valid concern and you're right i mean anything's possible

00:57:49.040 but by according to the clarity act and according to the constitution the way it's written and all

00:57:55.280 sorts of other things uh the federal government can't say no they can drag it out they can be

00:58:00.800 stubborn about the negotiations but they can't just say no we have to amend the constitution

00:58:06.880 right because like in the clarity act it says an amendment to the constitution of canada would be

00:58:11.200 required for any province to proceed from canada some people think that that amendment is sort of

00:58:16.560 just a matter of um of cleaning up things right like for instance alberta leaves and alberta is

00:58:23.840 no longer part of canada and we've gone on our own the rest of the country still has to amend

00:58:29.040 the constitution because the word alberta still appears right so and we don't care i mean we're

00:58:33.760 gone we're alberta we're our own country and then and then the rest of canada has to clean up their

00:58:38.080 constitution because in the constitution it says whatever alberta gets a certain number of seats in

00:58:43.360 the house of commons alberta is entitled to this alberta gets its share of the equalization you

00:58:48.240 know what i'm saying so then they have to change their their constitution to rebalance everything

00:58:52.960 with alberta gone so i don't think it's a it's not necessarily an amendment to make sure we're

00:58:57.600 allowed to go it's just the cleanup on their part that's my interpretation um and the way it's been

00:59:02.560 oh i understand yeah yeah so we'd already be gone at that point we're gone we're gone and then and

00:59:07.760 and then keith wilson and others say that the negotiation written in the law has to happen in

00:59:12.720 good faith and has to happen quickly and and if ottawa says well you know uh we got your receipt

00:59:20.160 and we're ignoring it we go well that's fine then well i guess you by default you're assuming the

00:59:24.400 airports are ours that kind of thing right i mean if they don't negotiate then what are they going

00:59:29.280 to do come back here and say we want that uh uh we want that military base back i'll be like sure

00:59:35.200 take the bricks do whatever you want right so yeah good question thank you for that but uh

00:59:40.160 yeah thank you yeah yeah have a great day yeah all right cheers um all right john am i allowed

00:59:49.200 to go over by a minute just a minute or two i wanted to i never even got to talking about

00:59:55.280 trump maybe i'll talk about trump's visit to china next week i will talk about that next week but i

01:00:00.160 will just bring up this one story really crazy again john uh john sorry to put you on the spot

01:00:05.520 but find the uh find the non-binary non-binary transgender indian who was elected to uh the

01:00:13.520 scottish parliament this week just again these are rules and when they make the rules and the

01:00:21.760 rules backfire on them i think it's funny and it's hilarious right so uh scotland had uh scott and

01:00:27.840 the uk and by the way the labor party in the uk got absolutely demolished in their recent round

01:00:33.840 of elections uh uh um starmer is not resigning but people are calling for his resignation he

01:00:41.440 might resign in the coming weeks we don't know but um show this picture uh so this this gentleman

01:00:48.480 named uh q manivan and something uh identifies as a non-binary transgender indian and he's in the uk

01:00:59.520 on a temporary student visa which has like an expiration date of like a couple years

01:01:06.640 and he just got elected to the scottish parliament and uh and his term in the scottish parliament is

01:01:13.360 four years could be as much as five and then he gets a 77 000 pound salary like 150 000 salary so

01:01:21.600 like this is the ultimate in exploiting loopholes right so scotland allows um i guess permanent

01:01:29.200 residents non-citizens to vote and this is the this is the result that opens a can of worms man

01:01:35.440 they're gonna have to shut that down otherwise like people have identified a huge loophole just

01:01:39.920 come into scotland on your temporary student visa run for politics get elected and uh get

01:01:44.880 to stay indefinitely and get paid doing it like what a fantastic uh what a fantastic scam um

01:01:51.680 all right well that's about it uh usual sign off thanks for calling folks uh join me again

01:01:58.480 next thursday we do this every thursday at the same time um please if you haven't done so already

01:02:05.760 you know uh this is this is not um this is not free we can't just do this for free so there's

01:02:14.800 a lot of expenses to running a small little news organization like this and so if you can

01:02:21.120 consider getting a monthly membership uh ten dollars a month there's the website down there

01:02:26.240 www.westernstandard.news subscription hopefully it doesn't crash like the ucp website did today

01:02:32.640 and um if you go for a whole year it's only a hundred bucks i think the promo is done right

01:02:39.380 that was a promo last week for uh you missed it or hopefully a bunch of you got the promo

01:02:44.680 anyways thanks for joining see you next week folks cheers

01:03:02.640 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - May 14, 2026

Alberta independence blocked： What should happen next？

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