Western Standard - Alberta Independence petition smashes threshold

00:00:00 Good day. Today is May 6, 2026. I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard,

00:00:29 and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:31 I've got our usual lineup today,

00:00:33 former Western Senate Opinion Editor Nigel Hannaford.

00:00:36 Glad to be here.

00:00:37 Senior Alberta.

00:00:39 It is. Senior Alberta columnist Corey Morgan.

00:00:41 Good day.

00:00:43 And our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:00:45 Naylor, everybody.

00:00:46 All right, well, we're going to be talking about

00:00:48 the appointment of Canada's next Governor General.

00:00:52 I think she's not the Governor General quite yet,

00:00:54 but she will be soon.

00:00:56 Um, the, uh, the usual suspects in the, uh, Laurentian media are hailing her as, as perfect.

00:01:04 This is exactly what we need.

00:01:06 My God, she speaks French. 0.89

00:01:08 I said, you know, that's not a knock against her, but, uh, just saying she is absolutely

00:01:12 pristine, a wall-to-wall, perfect coverage.

00:01:16 I've never seen someone, uh, so hailed as perfect person for the job since they hailed

00:01:21 Mark Carney for the job.

00:01:23 Uh, we'll talk about her.

00:01:25 We're going to talk about Listgate.

00:01:28 I couldn't come up with a better name for this scandal.

00:01:30 So when we're in the newsroom, Dave, and we just, there's a controversy, some kind of scandal.

00:01:35 And we just can't think of a creative name.

00:01:39 Stick a gate on it.

00:01:39 You just stick a gate on it.

00:01:42 Extremely lazy, extremely uncreative.

00:01:44 But that's what we're going with for now.

00:01:46 Listgate.

00:01:46 But the alleged leaking of the Alberta list of electors through the Republican Party of Alberta to a group called the Centurion Project, and that the Centurion Project posted this, made it available online, a huge data breach.

00:02:09 We'll talk a bit about the substance of it, but also what are the political consequences of it?

00:02:14 The opponents of Alberta independence have certainly seized upon this to try to discredit the independence movement.

00:02:23 They've tried to affiliate the entire movement with those who are alleged to have been behind the data breach.

00:02:32 Is this going to potentially derail the pending Alberta independence referendum that supposedly is supposed to come this fall?

00:02:41 uh but i guess the good news for the independence uh movement before that cory uh just uh was it

00:02:50 monday monday um the uh state free alberta the registered uh organization that was collecting

00:02:59 the signatures to for a citizens initiative referendum on alberta independence they officially

00:03:05 handed in

00:03:06 a truck, and they unloaded all the boxes

00:03:10 up in Edmonton at the headquarters of

00:03:12 Elections Alberta,

00:03:14 far surpassing

00:03:16 the requirement of

00:03:18 150, 170,000

00:03:20 that was required. They ended up

00:03:22 somewhere a little south of

00:03:24 400,000, right? Well, it was

00:03:26 301,000 and changed, but it

00:03:28 still was well beyond the 178,000

00:03:31 required. I was kind of explaining that

00:03:32 my earlier show with these petitions and things, the Elections Alberta, when they, if it gets to

00:03:37 the point of them going through them, scrutinizing, I guess that depends on the courts, but

00:03:40 they tend to look in and find an error rate, you know, bad addresses, duplicate names, things like

00:03:47 that. Even those of us who ran for office, when you get that little petition to hand in as your

00:03:51 nomination, often they'll cut out, you know, 10% of your names. Lukasik's petition, about 13% got

00:03:56 cut out. This one, I think it'll be a much smaller number because they were so meticulous on this.

00:04:02 They demanded ID of every individual who signed.

00:04:05 It was an accomplishment.

00:04:06 I know people are trying to, you know, all opponents always will.

00:04:09 They're trying to understate what this is.

00:04:10 But 300 and some thousand signatures garnered with such precision and care with the addresses and the works over the winter months is not to be dismissed.

00:04:20 That was an incredible effort.

00:04:23 And they should be very...

00:04:24 You know, that's one of the things that makes it a little bitter that you've got this other issue to deal with.

00:04:29 We'll get to that.

00:04:30 Yeah. And it is an unfortunate cloud hanging over it. But I mean, we'll get into that because we've all got a lot to say about that. But we should, you know, just give that credit where it's due. History has been made. The bar for invoking a referendum under as far as the current legislation goes is clearly been surpassed by this group. It should be triggered if one believes that legislation is valid. And yeah, it was just a piece of history kind of being made. They really made a mark that day.

00:04:58 Yeah, and this was done over the winter months.

00:05:01 Now, I don't want to take away from, even though I'm not on their side,

00:05:04 I don't want to take away from the Forever Canada ones who did theirs.

00:05:08 They collected an even larger number, but not enough to take away from it,

00:05:12 but they did it during nice summer months.

00:05:14 I remember I'd be driving home, it would be a beautiful day.

00:05:16 They'd go to festivals where large groups of people were...

00:05:18 Yeah, but the State Free Alberta petition, pro-independence,

00:05:23 they did this during the most bitter cold months of the year.

00:05:27 They did it with constant attacks from Elections Alberta, ones that I do not think were justified.

00:05:33 They did it with court injunctions against it, like, hey, am I standing out here freezing my nuts off for nothing?

00:05:40 Is this not going to be allowed?

00:05:42 And so despite all of that, they more, I think, roughly, nearly double the number of signatures required.

00:05:49 um but david still is not yet a a sure thing this is going to happen in uh on october 19th when

00:05:58 there's some certain referenda already scheduled to take place uh i mean this has still got some

00:06:05 strange core challenges from some indigenous groups in alberta uh that are claiming that

00:06:10 they have a veto on this to not just stop independence but to even stop the question

00:06:14 from being asked yeah and that's that's the next key step in this whole process the uh the justice

00:06:21 who uh put in the interim uh block uh i believe said she was going to rule in may so it should be

00:06:27 in the next couple weeks that we'll we'll have a decision uh from what i can gather in the courtroom

00:06:34 the judge wasn't overly impressed with some of the uh the indigenous arguments so i would think

00:06:40 that the she'll put she'll throw out her injunction and uh and both petitions will uh

00:06:46 will go forward and be ratified and then at that point smith has no uh no choice but to call for

00:06:52 the uh referendum in october guess just whose question will they ask well and they are different

00:06:59 questions uh i mean the thomas lukazic question uh the pro-federalist side nigel it's bizarre uh

00:07:07 We've talked about this before, but he uses the citizen's initiative process and then says, oh, but we don't want a referendum.

00:07:14 We did this to block a referendum.

00:07:18 I mean, Thomas Lukasik is not my cup of tea, but I don't know how you start a citizen's initiative or referendum process to stop a referendum from taking place.

00:07:32 But if the courts refuse to allow the independence one to take place,

00:07:36 the Thomas Lukasik one is redundant because even if Canadians voted,

00:07:41 Albertans voted negative to it, so kind of pro-independence,

00:07:45 but, you know, we don't support staying in Canada.

00:07:49 I'm not a judge, but I'm pretty sure that does not constitute a clear question

00:07:53 on independence because it's asking it in the negative.

00:07:58 You know, should Alberta remain a province of Canada?

00:08:01 Well, if people voted no to that, does that mean, well, they want statehood or something like that, which is not really in any kind of mainstream consideration? That would be a total waste of everyone's time, I think. Let's just get on with the independence question. If you oppose it, you oppose it. It's fine.

00:08:18 And there's plenty of reasonable people who don't support independence, but voting to not stay a part of Canada doesn't trigger the Clarity Act necessary.

00:08:30 It would be divisive without accomplishing anything, one way or another, regardless of what the result is.

00:08:36 You have to put the Stay Free Alberta question on, which does meet the requirements of the Clarity Act.

00:08:41 Well, that's right, Derek. I mean, it's like sort of, if you want yes, vote no.

00:08:45 it's uh it's that kind of a people are going to be yeah i mean you've explained it pretty well

00:08:51 there i give anybody who's paying attention can get it but at the same time how many people are

00:08:56 really going to be paying that much attention especially when they have voices from the other

00:08:59 sides oh no no you need you need to do this i would be i would be uh frankly a little surprised

00:09:05 if uh if it was a that one was allowed to go forward if it's got to be just one of the other

00:09:11 The Clarity Act requires clarity.

00:09:17 The Kazakh motion doesn't provide that, whereas the other one does.

00:09:21 So maybe, just maybe, Mr. Lukasiak's motion will go forward, and then I guess...

00:09:31 But he bizarrely says he doesn't want his motion to go forward.

00:09:34 I mean, maybe it will, and then to that, by totally confusing the issue and ending up with a stay in Canada, vote, he'll claim victory.

00:09:43 The whole thing is...

00:09:44 Unless something will change based on the question asked, it's just a pull.

00:09:50 You know, it doesn't matter what the results are.

00:09:52 It could be 80% one side or 80% the other.

00:09:54 Nothing changes whatsoever based on his question, which makes it utterly pointless.

00:10:01 It was like the daylight savings question we had back in like 2023 or 2022 or whatever.

00:10:06 Even then, if people had taken one side definitively, something would have changed.

00:10:10 What it is, is saying, okay, do you want to vote?

00:10:13 Everybody, let's just keep things the same.

00:10:15 Okay, if the yes side wins that, everything stays the same.

00:10:17 If the no side wins it, everything stays the same.

00:10:20 Because it's still not a constitutionally valid question through that process on it.

00:10:25 So, you know, as we said, no matter what side of it you're on, that won't settle it, that won't have this issue out.

00:10:32 This needs to be, I think, if we really want to put this to bed one way or another, it has to be the valid question with constitutional teeth.

00:10:38 Well, even if the courts do disallow the Citizens Initiative question from State Free Alberta, the one asking Alberta should be an independent country, but Thomas Lukasics is for some reason allowed to go ahead, even though it's ostensibly kind of the same thing, but not.

00:10:58 The way the legislation is set up is that then the question is reviewed by the legislature and the cabinet, and they have the opportunity to amend it.

00:11:06 Now, it's important that that power should not be abused.

00:11:10 But, I mean, you know, say someone put forward a Susan's Initiative question here, but the question was not fair or neutral.

00:11:16 It's important.

00:11:17 That is one of the draws on direct democracy is you can't have loaded questions.

00:11:22 You know, do you support the government's policy of rainbows and puppies?

00:11:26 That's obviously not a very fair, neutral question.

00:11:28 So even if Lukasik's question is the only one allowed to go forward,

00:11:32 the legislature and the cabinet can then amend it

00:11:35 into something that is fair and neutral and ask,

00:11:38 and actually, I don't even think it should be yes and no.

00:11:41 It should be something like,

00:11:43 the option should be remain a province of Canada

00:11:46 or become an independent country, not yes and no.

00:11:49 Because there's a perception of perhaps the positive, the yes.

00:11:52 I'd see a clarity challenge as soon as we hit that.

00:11:55 It has to be yes or no to keep it simple.

00:11:57 Oh, no, no, but instead of yes and no, it's

00:11:59 remain a province of Canada or become an independent

00:12:01 country. And then the debate becomes about

00:12:03 what an independent country means. 0.97

00:12:05 I know, I know it sounds foolish and pedantic, but 0.91

00:12:08 this really has to be 0.91

00:12:09 jury association, all that.

00:12:11 There it's a debate, but here, no one's talking

00:12:13 about sovereignty association or any

00:12:15 word games like that. Here it's like

00:12:17 Alberta, independent

00:12:19 or remain a province. I think

00:12:21 it's pretty clear in the Alberta context, perhaps not

00:12:23 in Quebec.

00:12:24 Well, Lukasik is now saying he just really wants a vote in the legislature.

00:12:31 So is it possible that both petitions could go forward?

00:12:36 Lukasik gets his vote and there's a sovereignty referendum?

00:12:40 Technically, his could get a vote in the legislature,

00:12:42 and then the state-free Alberta pro-independence one then goes to a referendum.

00:12:46 But I mean, both have them.

00:12:48 Or even something that could possibly happen,

00:12:51 and I don't expect this because this would really muddy the waters.

00:12:54 But his is a policy question and the other one's a constitutional one.

00:12:59 Both could run one-on-one ballot.

00:13:01 But what if they contradicted each other?

00:13:01 I know.

00:13:02 How about the interdiction?

00:13:03 So that's just what I'm saying.

00:13:05 It's going to have to clarify one way or another.

00:13:07 Part of the legislation, actually, though, does require that the legislature and the cabinet are supposed to make sure we don't have redundant questions.

00:13:16 You know, like imagine if, you know, everyone was really hopped up on, say, daylight savings time.

00:13:22 And you had like, you know, different versions of the question, kind of more somewhat asking the same thing.

00:13:30 And then you would daylight savings time was kind of a confusing thing to me.

00:13:33 I actually don't think it should have been put to a referendum there.

00:13:35 There was I was like, no, experts make a decision.

00:13:38 Let me know.

00:13:39 Yeah.

00:13:40 But, you know, if you had the contradictory questions, the legislation says that the legislature and the cabinet are supposed to sort it out so that we don't have a bunch of redundant or contradictory questions.

00:13:51 we'll see what happens

00:13:53 it's Smith's problem now

00:13:55 you know the thing is

00:13:55 this needs to be settled

00:13:57 so that we can get on with other things

00:13:59 and maybe the other thing

00:14:01 that needs to be get on with

00:14:02 is Alberta independence

00:14:03 but just to continue to have this out there

00:14:07 dividing people

00:14:09 is not helpful to anybody

00:14:11 not even the people who want to stay in Canada

00:14:14 who still have an uncomfortable feeling

00:14:17 that the guy across the street

00:14:19 may not be with them on this

00:14:21 has to get sorted out so the question to ask is the one that at least gives clear lead and everybody

00:14:26 needs to know that whatever the result on this it doesn't if it is a pro-independence voice

00:14:32 there's a whole new cycle uh process that begins so this is just the start

00:14:41 i i you know i was driving up to red deer on monday and we're past a

00:14:46 It must have been about a mile and a half.

00:14:49 Carol Kay, the vehicles with the Alberta flags at the back.

00:14:52 I don't know whether you saw them.

00:14:54 At any rate, quite impressive.

00:14:56 They were just there, the lights flashing, and the flags up,

00:14:59 and people were honking as they go on.

00:15:01 There's a lot of juice in this movement.

00:15:05 It needs to be decided.

00:15:08 All right.

00:15:10 Well, flowing very neatly from this is our very lazily titled

00:15:15 next segment, Listgate.

00:15:19 I really do.

00:15:22 We're a part of the problem.

00:15:23 We're a part of the problem, guys.

00:15:25 When the media is too lazy

00:15:27 or uncreative to come up with a scandal name,

00:15:30 we add Gate to the end.

00:15:32 But in this

00:15:33 case, we really didn't have much time, I guess.

00:15:37 So, what is alleged to have happened?

00:15:40 I think most

00:15:41 people watching will have read or heard

00:15:43 at least some of it.

00:15:45 is, you know, Elections Alberta provides

00:15:48 total lists of all the electors

00:15:49 in Alberta. I think it's roughly 2.8

00:15:51 million around there

00:15:53 right now. These lists are provided to all

00:15:55 the political parties, and on a local

00:15:57 level, they can be provided to local candidates running.

00:16:00 But there's strict

00:16:01 rules around

00:16:03 how

00:16:04 they're not allowed to share them.

00:16:08 Now, there is some stuff around third-party vendors

00:16:09 who can do work for them.

00:16:11 There is some stuff like that.

00:16:13 But they're strictly confident.

00:16:15 what's alleged to have happened here

00:16:18 is that the Republican Party of Alberta

00:16:20 which is an independent supporting

00:16:22 political party

00:16:23 led by Cam Davies

00:16:26 that's someone that

00:16:27 at least Corey and I

00:16:29 dealt with in the past

00:16:32 in our time with Wild Rose

00:16:34 and the United Conservative Party and things like this

00:16:35 it's alleged that they had provided

00:16:40 the list of electors

00:16:42 to something called

00:16:44 the Centurion Project

00:16:45 which is led by David Parker

00:16:46 also someone who

00:16:48 we've known and worked with in

00:16:51 previous political lives here

00:16:52 and that the Centurion Project which is

00:16:57 I guess kind of jumped

00:16:59 into the independence movement

00:17:01 that's going on here, they had an app

00:17:03 and the app had the

00:17:05 full list of electors in it

00:17:06 and I guess it was not built very

00:17:08 safely as I'm understanding this

00:17:11 and that it was possible for someone to

00:17:13 go into that app and then obtain the entire

00:17:15 list of electors of Alberta, including their personal information, their address, all of this.

00:17:22 And, you know, some people have tried to play this down. It's not a big deal. In one sense,

00:17:29 I get that. Been around politics. These lists do get around. They're not as confidential as you

00:17:35 think. But generally, people who are playing around these lists don't post it online for

00:17:41 the world to see and and that's really where they they appear to have lost the plot here um

00:17:48 i guess we'll talk about the political fallout of this for the independence movement

00:17:52 uh in a moment but cory first uh you know your thoughts on the credibility of the accusations

00:18:01 um you know and how serious an issue is this sure and i think yeah nigel's going to break

00:18:07 down a little more about the legislation on the act and so on uh just to point out one thing i

00:18:11 like people wondering though if it's you know questionable evidence or things like that and

00:18:16 everything and i know we can't fully condemn until things have been investigated but i just want to

00:18:20 quickly explain salted lists because non-political people i don't think most people get that what

00:18:24 that is so when they give those lists out to different parties and individuals they will

00:18:27 throw a few identifiers in there usually false names people that don't exist whatever and it'll

00:18:32 be unique to each list that's given out so that way two things can happen with fake phone numbers

00:18:37 and fake emails. Yeah. So if those names pop anywhere, they're unique. You know where it came

00:18:44 from. The second thing is if they pop anywhere, whoever has it, even if it wasn't from the original

00:18:48 source, you know that this source has accessed an electoral list. So it's pretty cut and dry by the

00:18:57 looks of things with what they presented to get the injunction. Elections Alberta went in and

00:19:01 checked it. They concluded it's an electoral list that's in the Centurion project, which there's

00:19:07 two problems there. One, they shouldn't have even have it in the first place. Two, they sure as

00:19:11 heck shouldn't have it so that others can access it. So we've got two problems there, and they did

00:19:16 conclude it came from the Republican Party. Now there's a whole lot of explaining to do, I guess,

00:19:21 on the part of Davies and Parker as to how this all happened. That'll be the part of the

00:19:25 investigation, but it's looking pretty darn clear that this happened. The problem now, the political

00:19:31 problem is people don't, at large, don't see the six or seven different independence groups and

00:19:36 actions and things that are moving around out there they just see an independence movement

00:19:40 and they're seeing that this breach came from this movement may have endangered people legacy

00:19:47 media is jumping all over it the the best example i saw already they were reporting on apparently a

00:19:52 a woman who was afraid of uh an ex who was a spousal abuser who tried to keep her

00:19:58 location discreet now fears so badly that her ex maybe had accessed the list through that

00:20:05 and got her address that she has to

00:20:07 move. I don't know if it's anecdotal or

00:20:09 whatever, but it does actually still illustrate

00:20:11 the gravity of sharing people's personal

00:20:13 information and how badly it can go.

00:20:15 Yeah.

00:20:17 So the

00:20:18 Centurion project here was not

00:20:21 a part of Stay Free Alberta.

00:20:24 As far

00:20:25 as I know, I think they were trying to assist

00:20:27 with people getting signatures, but it was not affiliated

00:20:29 with it.

00:20:30 The four of us could get together and we

00:20:33 call it the Thursday Club and every Thursday

00:20:35 we go sit at this corner and we collect

00:20:37 signatures. That doesn't make us necessarily

00:20:39 affiliated with it, but groups can

00:20:41 come on and jump into it.

00:20:44 People not

00:20:45 actively involved in the independence

00:20:47 movement don't understand

00:20:48 how wildly decentralized

00:20:50 this thing is. Even people in the same groups

00:20:53 fight like cats and dogs.

00:20:55 It's wild, let alone

00:20:56 the different groups themselves.

00:20:58 There's different political parties,

00:21:00 different third parties, there's third party advertisers,

00:21:03 There's educational groups.

00:21:05 There's all these different things.

00:21:07 But as Corey said, Nigel, people just see the independence guys.

00:21:13 They don't understand who's who and what's what.

00:21:16 And we can't reasonably expect them to.

00:21:20 How much damage do you think this has done?

00:21:24 And again, these are allegations at this point.

00:21:26 But as Corey explained with the salted lists, you know, when someone at Elections Alberta gets an email saying,

00:21:32 and the recipient is

00:21:35 McLovin from Grand Prairie

00:21:37 well they know that

00:21:39 McLovin was on

00:21:41 the list we gave to this political party

00:21:43 this stuff is not rocket science

00:21:46 how much damage

00:21:47 do you think there's been significant damage done

00:21:49 to the independence movement

00:21:51 by this kerfuffle

00:21:52 yeah I actually do 0.87

00:21:53 it's a clown show

00:21:56 I went on their website

00:21:58 Centurion Project

00:22:00 and they state that what they're trying to do is get people organized so that they were effective

00:22:05 campaigners in the fight for alberta independence and come to our come to our meetings come to our

00:22:12 classes and it's uh that you can you can see but then you find that they have they are alleged

00:22:23 to have done something underhanded and everybody who is sort of on the on the edge not another die

00:22:31 hearts the die hearts on either side are not affected by this but people are making up their

00:22:36 mind what do i feel that i sure don't like ottawa i don't like the values that they are pushing on

00:22:42 us through their legislation i don't like their the way they interfere with our economy maybe

00:22:46 it is time to look at this oh wait a minute if it's going to be people like this and they're

00:22:52 they're not even charged and and convicted yet but it just seems like a bit of a groucho marks show

00:22:59 and what would it does do damage now they're the victims being examined uh there may be charges

00:23:10 in my i had to have an office bet i'd say there will be charges uh and then we'll see what the

00:23:17 courts make of what has happened here but if we first of all have this ridiculous uh breach and

00:23:25 then on top of that somebody gets put in jail for a year for a year and ends up with a hundred

00:23:30 thousand dollar fine which is what the legislation provides for it's going to be a black mark for the

00:23:36 whole well by the time they actually would go to a court i imagine that would be well after a

00:23:41 referendum actually takes place maybe derek but then after the referendum takes place if i shot 0.56

00:23:46 you right now. I'm still not in court for a year.

00:23:49 No, no.

00:23:50 Don't forget the RCMP is

00:23:52 leading the investigation. Yeah, yeah.

00:23:53 And if they wanted to lay charges, say,

00:23:56 October 1st, they will do that.

00:23:58 So it is possible. I would not be surprised to see charges.

00:24:00 But there's no way you would have a

00:24:01 completed trial in that time.

00:24:04 Nothing in the Canadian justice system

00:24:06 because it's anywhere cold.

00:24:08 Yeah, so it would muddy the water.

00:24:10 It would muddy the water and they'd say, hey,

00:24:11 these guys are being charged. And that's what they want to do?

00:24:14 Yeah. So you don't even need the

00:24:16 the court case completed in this.

00:24:19 One guy grinning like a treasure

00:24:21 cat right now is Jason Kenney.

00:24:26 Some will recall David Parker

00:24:28 was an organizer in the move

00:24:30 ousting Jason Kenney from the leadership of the UCP and therefore

00:24:33 as Premier. So obviously there's some hurt feelings

00:24:36 I think there. It's probably a fair assumption to make.

00:24:40 And I guess someone

00:24:42 joined one of these Centurion 0.77

00:24:45 group

00:24:46 Zoom calls, one of these video calls

00:24:49 and they were explaining different things and they were going

00:24:51 through the database

00:24:52 and it's alleged that they

00:24:55 pulled up an example of how you can search

00:24:57 for voters information, they pulled up Jason Kenney's

00:24:59 information, it was displayed on the screen

00:25:01 there

00:25:01 Jason Kenney is lawyering up

00:25:05 to, I guess, file

00:25:07 a civil suit against Parker

00:25:09 and the Centurion group

00:25:10 for breaching his data.

00:25:13 In this particular case,

00:25:15 I think it's a bit rich

00:25:16 considering Jason Kenney is responsible

00:25:19 for the single biggest data breach in Alberta's

00:25:21 history by requiring people to disclose

00:25:23 their personal medical information.

00:25:24 I don't care if he was a murderer. It still doesn't

00:25:27 justify breaching his bloody information.

00:25:29 You are

00:25:31 comparing apples and oranges, Eric,

00:25:33 and you are so wrong.

00:25:34 What I'm saying is it's wrong. What I'm saying is it's rich

00:25:37 for Jason Kenney to be complaining about

00:25:38 a data breach because he's imposed data breaches on every single person in alberta

00:25:43 it still doesn't make them accessing his personal information right and he's probably going to have

00:25:49 a pretty reasonable case to a fairly decent case to make in a civil claims court here because his

00:25:54 data his his data was breached what i'm saying is it's a bit rich for him after he expects people

00:26:01 required people by law to give out their personal medical information when they go to a restaurant

00:26:06 to buy a cup of coffee don't buy it sorry it's just when you don't know i'm i i i don't like

00:26:17 the comparison you know jason kenny was not putting people's home addresses up for other

00:26:24 people to see other people to search through right there's dangerous lunatics out there who now know

00:26:30 where jason kenny lives and uh you know i wouldn't be surprised to see a police car parked out there

00:26:36 him for a while well i mean kenny put that out and again whether you like him or don't

00:26:40 you've really armed him he's a political master they're not getting around that and there goes

00:26:45 art paulowski with a good dose of crazy jumping in there yeah and putting a thing up saying jason

00:26:50 kenny's gonna burn in hell and a whole bunch of stuff and everything else and kenny quote tweeted 0.71

00:26:54 him and said this is the kind of lunatic my dad i just got exposed to and he and yes so what's 0.98

00:26:59 happened is people have handed 0.67

00:27:01 Kenny a cudgel to beat this

00:27:03 with because he's not

00:27:05 wrong there. He's not wrong.

00:27:08 This kind of thing is dangerous.

00:27:10 I don't, there's a lot of, I get death threats

00:27:11 not irregularly.

00:27:13 I think you get them too.

00:27:15 And I don't want these people knowing where I live.

00:27:18 People shouldn't know where he lives.

00:27:20 And they've handed him a political cudgel.

00:27:22 The problem is when some of the conversation, though,

00:27:24 I guess what Dave and I are kind of chipping to, when people say

00:27:26 though, well, what was wrong?

00:27:27 done to kenny was wrong but well there doesn't need to be a button in this conversation right

00:27:31 no i've got that that's just kind of almost trying to undersell the the problem not just

00:27:35 jason kenny's that it was it was leaked oh yeah yours mine dave nigel's everyone watching here

00:27:42 threats might have been logged into centurion and found our home addresses and it's a real concern

00:27:47 yeah and the other thing i've got hands jason kenny a cudgel it also hands him a loud speaker

00:27:52 He's going off to Ryerson University to what do they call it now?

00:27:56 Toronto Metropolitan, big event there about disinformation.

00:28:02 This isn't disinformation, but he can certainly talk about it there to a national audience.

00:28:07 You know, we've got people in Alberta, this is the kind of thing they do.

00:28:11 And he will make himself a national hero.

00:28:16 I suspect that that might, I mean, he couldn't have orchestrated this,

00:28:21 but he's certainly going to use it in my opinion as a mr kenney would like to return to politics

00:28:25 and if he does so it's going to have to be elsewhere than in alberta and so in the national

00:28:31 stage this just fits the plot he's it was a good day for him yeah i'm sure he's just a bad one

00:28:38 perhaps a bit nerve-wracked i mean you still wonder about who may show up or whatnot but

00:28:41 he recognizes a political gift when it was handed and you can't blame him for taking advantage of

00:28:45 it of course he's going to take it and people of the independence movement are getting upset with

00:28:48 me calling this out and everything but most of what i'm at least telling them guys don't give

00:28:53 your opponents ammunition i mean you gave kenny a nuclear bomb i mean i know the average independent

00:28:59 supporter did not do that this was the actions of a small group but when you try to look like

00:29:05 you're defending the actions of that small group you're only helping him so yeah i think part of

00:29:11 the problem or the one of the overall problems is this is the independence is still a group lacking 0.59

00:29:17 a leader right and you've got this clown show as as nigel aptly described it operating on on the

00:29:23 sidelines but they're all part of the movement right somebody has to step forward and say enough

00:29:30 david parker cam davies you're out we want nothing to do with you anything you say from now on is

00:29:37 not associated with the independence movement uh you know but who's going to do that i'm not sure

00:29:43 sure anyone has the uh the moral authority to the closest might be mitch sylvester at this time just

00:29:47 as the most dominant figure of the largest group uh that represents it but then that group itself

00:29:52 has multiple people who kind of speak publicly for it and they're giving different messages yeah

00:29:56 so that makes it difficult as well i mean if somebody's going to take that role i i've said

00:30:02 it kind of on my show mitch because i think for the most part you've done great and you've been

00:30:06 respectable and good and haven't said anything crazy but you got to kind of lay down the law

00:30:09 say you know what i'm now the one who speaks for this group i'm the one who goes to cbc as opposed

00:30:14 to somebody else who recently did i'm the one who does the large media quotes because it's like that

00:30:18 corpulent guy you were talking about yes you know good luck yeah i know he's hurting cats and uh the

00:30:26 same kids who heard it mr kenny out of office yeah but it was named it and y'all if they had the

00:30:31 chance but if they want to try and mitigate things because we got five and a half months to go and

00:30:34 there's going to be more issues hopefully nothing as big as this but there's going to be more

00:30:38 somebody has to, you know, as I put online too, if you don't take control of the messaging,

00:30:42 your opponents will. And the other side is going to be more or less united. I think what's shaping

00:30:49 up is you're going to have, broadly speaking, maybe even it's one organization, but you're

00:30:54 going to have two main spokesmen or two and a half spokesmen on the Federalist side. You're

00:30:59 going to have Jason Kenney, who's trying to appeal to conservatives who are flirting with the idea,

00:31:04 soft, you know, soft,

00:31:06 as he would call them, or separatist

00:31:08 curious, whatever term you want to use.

00:31:10 People who are not happy with

00:31:12 the status quo,

00:31:14 but are not on the

00:31:16 left. And then you're going to have Nenshi

00:31:18 slash Thomas Lukasik or something

00:31:20 speaking to the left

00:31:22 to try and, you know, they're pretty united

00:31:24 on their side, but trying to at least pump up their numbers,

00:31:26 get them out to vote in big numbers.

00:31:29 So the other, the Federalist

00:31:30 side is going to be pretty united, because they have

00:31:32 they have definitely two different messages

00:31:35 because they're appealing to people

00:31:36 who do not vote the same way in elections.

00:31:39 The independent side, pro-independent side

00:31:41 is more politically homogenous. 0.95

00:31:42 It's almost entirely of the right

00:31:44 in some form or another.

00:31:48 But I don't know.

00:31:49 There's probably two dozen people

00:31:51 who either lay claim

00:31:52 or would like to lay claim to the leadership.

00:31:55 And it's a mess.

00:31:57 We'll see what happens.

00:31:59 We'll see how it evolves.

00:32:00 Part of the problem too is this is uncharted.

00:32:01 this is unprecedented we haven't had an organic kind of decentralized movement like this do

00:32:07 something like this before so where do you find the rule book on how to pull it together now that

00:32:11 you're getting into a campaign mode for a referendum there's an area actually i don't

00:32:15 have an answer for a loud mouth that i normally you don't have a good but you could you think

00:32:19 you maybe point to quebec which is that two referendums but there it's different they were

00:32:22 not citizens initiative referendums you had a you had an independence or sovereigntyist party

00:32:27 whatever you want to call it, you know, the PQ, and then you had a Federalist Party in the Liberals.

00:32:32 And so it was clear, OK, the Premier of the Governing Party to call the election is the head of the yes side

00:32:38 and the leader of the opposition, the Liberal Party in Quebec's case, is the head of the no side.

00:32:43 And it's set. Now, in 95, they kind of swapped in Lucien Bouchard, the leader of the bloc, to come in.

00:32:51 But he was not still technically the leader of the yes side. He was made chief negotiator, so head spokesman, essentially.

00:32:56 We don't have that clear model here

00:32:59 because this is Citizens Initiative.

00:33:02 See what happens.

00:33:03 I don't know.

00:33:04 Normally it would be the premier,

00:33:06 but this is just totally different.

00:33:10 Okay.

00:33:12 Let's talk to something

00:33:13 more cheerful. Our new

00:33:14 Governor General.

00:33:17 Dave, I know you're a proud monarchist.

00:33:20 Yes.

00:33:21 Louis Arbour.

00:33:22 selected

00:33:27 she couldn't be worse 1.00

00:33:32 I guess than some of the other 0.55

00:33:34 more recent ones

00:33:36 probably at least a bit smarter 1.00

00:33:39 actually Julie Payette was not unsmart 1.00

00:33:40 she was an astronaut 1.00

00:33:41 they don't make dummies astronauts 1.00

00:33:43 anyway

00:33:45 I guess

00:33:47 your thoughts on who's representing the crown

00:33:50 well

00:33:52 Well, it was a strange choice.

00:33:54 I mean, you can't argue with her credentials.

00:33:56 She's had a long and stellar career.

00:34:00 She is the oldest governor general appointee.

00:34:04 She's 79 years old.

00:34:06 And as governor general, she also leads the Canadian Armed Forces in a symbolic role.

00:34:13 If you take a look, take a bit of a deeper dive into her career.

00:34:18 She's said a lot of stuff that should be concerning to us all. 0.90

00:34:22 She has spoken out on migration and is all for mass migration into the country.

00:34:32 She's spoken out against the military, which she now supposedly has. 0.96

00:34:37 Says the armed forces are just a bunch of white guys who like to shoot off guns. 1.00

00:34:42 I agree with her. 1.00

00:34:43 I just think that's a good thing.

00:34:44 Yes.

00:34:45 Yes.

00:34:46 I just didn't know what the majority of.

00:34:47 And the Jewish groups aren't happy because she's made a lot of anti-Israeli comments.

00:34:54 So, I mean, that's just in a small dive in 24 hours.

00:34:58 So there's lots of stuff to be concerned about.

00:35:02 But hey, she does speak French, and isn't that all that matters?

00:35:07 Yeah, I don't think it is. 0.85

00:35:09 You know, I did a little bit of looking up as well.

00:35:12 I mean, she is the governor general.

00:35:14 she is not governing but she is advising when you look at some of the positions that she's taking

00:35:20 you know this is not a person who should be advising the prime minister of canada i mean

00:35:26 it's just just a couple just to amuse you uh back around the turn of the century there was a right

00:35:32 to welfare case in quebec the gossela case it got turned down there was no right to welfare but 0.96

00:35:39 she was one of the minority you thought that there was a right to welfare um you know she

00:35:46 you mentioned the refugees uh this this one might cheer you up a little bit she participated in a

00:35:52 monk debate monk is a is a you know monk uh anyway this was back in 2016 concerning what was being

00:35:59 called a global refugee crisis at the time you know you remember people getting washed up on

00:36:04 Mediterranean Nihilist. So it was a valid thing. And she said then that Western nations have a 1.00

00:36:09 moral imperative to accept a large influx of refugees. Ended up we did anyway. But in this 1.00

00:36:17 debate, she began the evening with 77% of those in the room in favor of her liberalist position.

00:36:26 And she went up against Mark Stein and Nigel Farage. And at the end of the night, only 22%

00:36:32 and the audience was still with her.

00:36:34 So, you know, maybe there's a little hope.

00:36:36 She began with 77 and ended with 22.

00:36:38 That's right.

00:36:39 Well, I'm not sure we should be too worried about her convincing anyone of anything,

00:36:43 then, as Governor General.

00:36:44 Well, you see, Mr. Carney, I expect it to be one of the 22%.

00:36:48 So, he does get, he carries, well, the whole thing with the International Criminal Court,

00:36:55 I could go on, like, I've got about a dozen things on the rap sheet here.

00:36:58 None of it, we like, so, bad choice.

00:37:00 I will say when it comes to the Governor-General, there's not a lot of jobs I think you probably should speak French, or at least need to speak French for.

00:37:10 Like the Supreme Court. 0.63

00:37:11 No, because otherwise it disqualifies Westerners, even most Ontarians.

00:37:16 The Governor-General is a ceremonial role, and that includes in Quebec.

00:37:23 So I'm okay.

00:37:24 You know, French probably should be something for the Governor-General.

00:37:28 But also, you know, one of the arguments against it was if you require that they speak English and French, that does virtually disqualify nearly all indigenous Canadians, because they might speak, you know, I don't know how many people growing up on Siksika Reserve are going to be learning French.

00:37:46 Didn't disqualify Mary Simon.

00:37:49 Exactly. 1.00

00:37:50 And she got a ton of black people. 0.75

00:37:53 It's such a big deal now. 0.67

00:37:55 So it's like, OK, if we're required, they speak French and English. I would chance to guess that that would probably put future Indigenous candidates for the job of Governor General.

00:38:07 I'm just going to guess and say it's less than one percent of Indigenous people would be even eligible for it.

00:38:15 I don't know. It's what I was blown away by, though, was the and I shouldn't be. 0.94

00:38:20 I've got to stop picking up Charlie Brown's football here,

00:38:22 but was the virtually unanimous and unqualified endorsement

00:38:29 of Louis Arbour by the legacy media.

00:38:33 Maybe we'll pull up some pieces from this Colton Miller article here,

00:38:36 but paraphrasing it, it said she is essentially perfect.

00:38:40 There's nothing wrong.

00:38:42 This is it.

00:38:45 Oh, my God!

00:38:46 The fire alarm!

00:38:48 No, the emergency alarm.

00:38:49 Emergency alarm.

00:38:50 and that bypasses mute buttons i'm afraid it's just a test they announced that was coming a while ago

00:38:59 i shouldn't do that okay so everybody out there yes where's our fire warden

00:39:04 come on in the studio bring in the western standard fire warden

00:39:08 bring him in boy he was on the ball yeah so ladies and gentlemen uh i want to introduce

00:39:13 the dwight shrewd of the western center calgary office

00:39:20 this is the Western City's new

00:39:22 office fire warden, Josh Andrus.

00:39:25 Part-time, he is the...

00:39:26 Well, you failed.

00:39:30 Look how long it took you to get here.

00:39:32 He's outfitted, safe, and official to me.

00:39:35 I would follow him down 0.96

00:39:36 if I were to escape, and then maybe strangle him. 0.98

00:39:41 Well, I'll make jokes about that,

00:39:42 are you?

00:39:43 You're going to fly?

00:39:44 Yes.

00:39:48 Wow. 0.98

00:39:50 We're calling other people clowns. 0.94

00:39:55 Yeah, we're accusing everyone else of being a circus. 0.83

00:39:59 Well, there we are.

00:39:59 Very honestly, folks, that was not rehearsed.

00:40:01 We didn't even work.

00:40:04 All right.

00:40:06 Okay, anyway, just the Globe Mail saying,

00:40:08 they highlighted how great and supportive she is of the military, 0.70

00:40:14 unless it's white guys with guns, which, I don't know,

00:40:18 made up uh you know there would have been some non i guess white people it would have definitely

00:40:26 certainly been indigenous canadians but like not overwhelmingly all our veterans who fought in both

00:40:31 world wars and in korea uh i i guess they're just not up it's not for her i don't know uh but for

00:40:37 them to even highlight how great and supportive she is of the military with you know with those

00:40:43 kinds of comments um it's like the global mail's endorsement of her was written in the prime

00:40:53 minister's office it was just so over the top no one's perfect for a job i i'm perfect for

00:40:58 governor general and they would never find anything on me but uh i i don't know it was

00:41:03 just over the top and it wasn't just them the cbc coverage was over the top too it went on for hours

00:41:09 and now we're sitting in your office.

00:41:11 There was nothing on.

00:41:13 It was wall-to-wall all day.

00:41:14 I haven't seen wall-to-wall coverage like that since 9-11.

00:41:19 I know, it was crazy.

00:41:21 Last best governor general Canada's had, David Johnson.

00:41:25 And unfortunately, he soured it later, after the fact,

00:41:28 by associating with Prime Minister farther down.

00:41:31 He did mock that up a bit.

00:41:32 But in his time as governor general.

00:41:33 As governor general.

00:41:34 Oh, yeah, he was fine there.

00:41:35 And because of part of what he did, like I said,

00:41:37 quickly. I had a guest on recently

00:41:39 and his name escapes me, as embarrassing as it is. He wrote

00:41:41 a book though on Governors General. If you look it up, it was

00:41:43 a good book. He was a man who met

00:41:45 most of them, very avowed monarchists,

00:41:47 which I'm not, but he talked about the role

00:41:49 of it and he ripped into Payette 0.82

00:41:51 and ripped into how she was 0.64

00:41:53 selected as others by a Prime

00:41:55 Minister who wasn't terribly bright and

00:41:57 we paid the consequences for that.

00:41:59 It really is a role where if you just stick

00:42:01 to the ceremonial role, be

00:42:03 dignified, don't get in the middle of messes,

00:42:05 cut the ribbons hand out the awards you can get through it and have respectability within the job

00:42:11 so all i'm saying is let's just hope the next one does no damage and uh sits from there cut

00:42:17 cut back a bit on your in-flight food yes and you know things will go well all right we're gonna

00:42:23 put a plug we're a little short on time because uh the fire that broke out in the in our office

00:42:28 here uh so let's put a plug in there go to our parting shots i am gonna break tradition and take

00:42:33 first parting shot because I think it flows well

00:42:35 because Corey said, you know, easy, you're not

00:42:37 a monarchist, but because

00:42:39 you support Alberta independence, it's

00:42:41 kind of assumed that Alberta, if it's independent,

00:42:43 would be a republic. I just

00:42:45 want to put out maybe a little food for thought

00:42:47 of an alternative. It would be easier to maintain

00:42:49 our constitutional structure

00:42:51 moving to independence

00:42:53 if we kept in place our constitutional structure,

00:42:56 which meant an independent Alberta could

00:42:57 remain a constitutional monarchy.

00:43:00 And it could remain

00:43:01 with the House of Windsor

00:43:04 I'm just throwing it out there.

00:43:05 If we want to do our own thing, we should 0.98

00:43:06 bring back any old royal house.

00:43:10 You know, of

00:43:10 I don't know.

00:43:12 Hohenzollern? I'm a little partial to the

00:43:15 Hohenzollerns, but I don't know what

00:43:17 Vlad the Impaler's family was.

00:43:19 Are they still here?

00:43:22 I don't know.

00:43:24 Let's find some cool

00:43:25 Napoleon.

00:43:28 I just re-watched Napoleon

00:43:29 with Joaquin Phoenix last night, and

00:43:31 you know it hit him on saint helen at the end it just i'm not a frenchman but it makes you

00:43:37 hugs in your heart like oh 205 years ago today he done 205 years ago today today he done it's fate

00:43:45 we're bringing back the house of napoleon alberta not an empire not a commonwealth but

00:43:51 uh so not a king and not a not a not a republic not a commonwealth the empire of alberta this

00:43:57 the independence movement wasn't enough if we didn't make it crazy enough here we go let's

00:44:02 it's paulian for emperor of alberta so you're going to learn french and go for the job of

00:44:06 governor general i am i don't know derek listen you're too young i just was looking it up while

00:44:13 you were talking there that uh you realize that no less than uh six of i'm sorry five of the last

00:44:20 governors general are still alive like this is crazy having five ex-kings ex-queens floating 0.87

00:44:27 around that's why we should just have our own monarch well and they all get two hundred thousand

00:44:31 dollars a year on expenses permanent expenses you know julie i mean for people who don't believe me

00:44:36 just uh mary simon julie payette david johnson michaela jean adrian clarkson so you know uh

00:44:44 romeo blabond is not uh died a few years ago yeah uh one of the things about um and i don't mean

00:44:51 this unkindly but i'm sure it was in the back of somebody's mind she is already 79 there won't be

00:44:59 one more in all likelihood or if there is there won't be for very long i'd say one two three four

00:45:06 five yeah all right we we're we gotta move that's good oh we're short on time because of the fire

00:45:11 alarm cory i'll just be quick the major projects office to fast track projects is almost a year

00:45:16 old now hasn't approved a single one i think we can call it a failure uh honda sounds like they're

00:45:23 pulling out of a 15 billion dollar plant down in uh ontario uh just wonder how much the liberals

00:45:31 have sunk of taxpayers money into the whole fail failing ev industry it's got to be tens and tens

00:45:38 of billions of dollars don't let doug ford off the hook for this stuff too he has been all over it

00:45:42 He's been all over.

00:45:43 I don't know.

00:45:43 I would have never predicted that Canadians don't want to drive electric vehicles

00:45:48 in one of the coldest countries on the planet.

00:45:51 Okay.

00:45:53 Corey, I know Dave, and John of Production,

00:45:57 and all of you for joining us here today.

00:45:59 Thank you for putting up with the national emergency that broke up during the show.

00:46:03 Thank you for watching and all of your support.

00:46:05 Please go to westernstandard.news, click on subscribe.

00:46:08 It's $10 a month or $100 a year for unlimited access to all Western Standard content.

00:46:13 Also announcing a new feature, the creation of the Editor's Circle.

00:46:18 The Editor's Circle, it's $20 a month or $200 a year, but it's going to come with a lot of added benefits.

00:46:27 You'll be a part of our monthly Editor's Zoom call.

00:46:31 You'll get to come on with my beautiful face, but also Dave, our opinion editor, Chris Oldcorn, broadcast editor, John G.

00:46:42 And pitch us stories that you think we should be paying more attention to, or you've got some leads for us.

00:46:46 You can question us about the stories that we are covering and give your input in the way we're doing things.

00:46:52 You'll get special briefings from the editor's desk.

00:46:55 I don't know, what else? We had a bunch of things.

00:46:57 Free admission to Wesley St. Louis.

00:46:58 Free admission to our events.

00:47:00 events we're planning some events uh in alberta at least uh this summer uh that you're not going

00:47:06 to want to miss as we enter the uh independence campaign uh people in the editor circle get free

00:47:12 admission and a bunch of other stuff i'm gonna i'm gonna make sure i got a list in front of me

00:47:16 before i try to sell this again here but uh it's worth it so you can go and upgrade your membership

00:47:21 from your uh your standard subscription to the uh editor circle uh and uh you get to join us

00:47:27 At the very least, give us your thoughts on what we should be doing more of every month.

00:47:32 Thank you very much for joining us today, and God bless.

00:47:57 Thank you.

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Western Standard - May 07, 2026

Alberta Independence petition smashes threshold

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