Western Standard - Alberta Prosperity Project continues to be harassed by Elections Alberta

00:00:00.000 All right, we're live.

00:00:27.360 um well i can hear myself uh josh maybe uh yeah it's all good perfect all right folks uh welcome

00:00:36.020 back thanks for uh joining me and the western standard on uh thursdays uh hey we're gonna have

00:00:43.120 a lot to talk about i mean i was trying to think on the way here what am i gonna focus on

00:00:48.040 as i've said before it's your show right i want you to call in and tell me what you want to talk

00:00:53.900 about uh we always take a crack at uh what might be the topic of the day right there up top uh i

00:01:00.760 don't know if you see it but i see it you know alberta prosperity project continues to be harassed

00:01:05.260 by elections alberta i think we're going to talk about that danielle smith just just just finished

00:01:10.900 a press conference we'll talk about that a little bit but uh before we get too far just uh you know

00:01:18.360 i'm laughing a little bit uh i was going to start this show by saying hey guess what i'm out of jail

00:01:23.980 And some of you will get the joke.

00:01:26.820 Others won't get the joke.

00:01:28.160 But let me tell you what happened this weekend or a couple of days ago.

00:01:32.080 I was on the side of the road.

00:01:33.100 I'm canvassing.

00:01:33.860 And then somebody came to me and said, hey, I heard you were in jail.

00:01:37.940 And I was like wondering what was going on.

00:01:40.060 And then I got phone calls.

00:01:42.000 I even got a phone call from the guys here at the Western Standard.

00:01:47.420 I got a phone call from a lawyer.

00:01:49.140 And it turns out that somebody put out a satire piece saying that Marty, an influencer in the separatist movement, had been arrested by whatever, by the RCMP.

00:02:02.680 It turns out it was satire.

00:02:05.320 It was by a group called, I believe they're called the Satire Squad or something like that.

00:02:10.220 And it caught a lot of people off guard and people believed it, which is kind of a reflection, I think, of the world we live in, right?

00:02:20.900 Because stories that in the past were exaggerated and people would have immediately said that's exaggerated, that makes no sense.

00:02:27.860 nowadays you can come up with some pretty exaggerated stories and people believe it

00:02:32.140 because the the line between parody and satire and the real world that we live in is is is is

00:02:40.340 getting blurred right we uh we have lots and i've been caught myself i've i've had i remember there

00:02:46.460 used to be uh when jagmeet singh was still the the leader of the uh ndp and in parliament there

00:02:52.520 was a jagmeet singh impersonator on x an account and he used to put out posts and sometimes i'd

00:03:00.520 read it and i'd just get mad because it literally sounded like something jagmeet would say you know

00:03:06.440 and then and then i'd look and go oh okay it's satire anyway so i'm well i appreciate but i but

00:03:11.880 i will do say this though um some satire sometimes goes a little bit too far this one didn't but it

00:03:18.840 did to to the people who perpetrated this it it does it did create a little bit of grief right

00:03:24.520 i kind of knew that it was a joke because i'm not obviously i'm not arrested but when people

00:03:28.760 were calling my wife and asking if marty's okay you did create a little bit of stress there and

00:03:33.480 so you had the and i had friends worried about me so you know be be be wary of that that your satire

00:03:40.200 can go just a little bit too far once in a while um where do we start uh well let's let's go with

00:03:47.400 the prosperity project let actually let me let me finish on on that thought real quick right so

00:03:52.280 me personally i handed in my canvasser badge uh yesterday um not not for political reasons it's

00:04:00.360 truly uh i'm done canvassing the canvassing period is officially over on may 2nd and by law

00:04:08.040 the collection the signatures have to be collected aggregated and deposited with elections alberta

00:04:14.680 on may 2nd so that's the law now may 2nd happens to be a saturday so uh elections alberta and

00:04:21.080 chatting with mitch sylvester the proponent they've agreed that mitch can deliver the signatures on

00:04:25.880 monday may 4th so hopefully and i think mitch is planning a big event uh when he delivers the

00:04:31.960 signatures wherever that is the office of elections alberta in edmonton uh he'll i'm sure he'll he'll

00:04:38.280 he'll show the signatures physically to everybody see what it looks like he'll reveal what his number

00:04:43.240 is and as you guys know uh there's a stay elections alberta will take possession of the signatures

00:04:49.240 but they can't count them and and validate them so because the signatures had to be can only be

00:04:55.080 collected until the second and have to be brought up north uh there's been a decision internally

00:04:59.480 to stop collecting signatures around you know april 26 27 which is just around the corner and

00:05:05.560 me personally um i can't do i couldn't collect today and i can't collect this weekend because

00:05:10.760 it's the end of the semester and i got kids to move around on campus and stuff like that so uh

00:05:15.160 it was a bittersweet moment for me uh i'm done collecting signatures it was an it was an incredible

00:05:21.560 experience otherwise for me i collected between my wife and i we collected 1400 signatures um i

00:05:28.840 had a goal of a thousand but when i set myself a goal of a thousand i thought i was going to be

00:05:32.680 alone collecting signatures but it turns out that i could you know gathered the little group and we

00:05:36.600 had people i always had people i was never alone which was fantastic and when we were collecting

00:05:41.880 signatures we'd take turns writing them down uh so basically we got 1400 between me and my wife

00:05:48.520 which is almost one percent of the minimum necessary for the threshold like if you think about

00:05:52.920 it and it allowed me to meet hundreds and hundreds of uh fellow albertans to have some great chats

00:05:59.800 it prepared me better for the next phase of of this uh independence fight um and and so yeah it's

00:06:09.480 just it's just an end of a phase um the next phase is the next phase will be to be determined in a

00:06:18.360 couple uh you know in a couple of weeks from now we'll see what happens with uh the injunction

00:06:22.440 we'll see what happens with the signatures but if all goes well if all goes well according to plan

00:06:28.600 um and there's enough signature there will be a referendum on october 19th and so if i go

00:06:34.920 backwards from october 19th and there's a campaign period of let's say 45 days that means that

00:06:40.120 somewhere between now and let's say let's say july august 1st the premier will have to declare

00:06:48.680 a referendum on independence and then there'll be an official campaign but there's a period now

00:06:54.920 uh after between may 2nd and um but say august 1st in the future there's a period where there's

00:07:02.200 no campaigning going on but there's a lot but groups are allowed to advertise to talk about

00:07:10.360 independence to talk about the benefits right and that's what alberta prosperity used to do right

00:07:15.160 that's what alberta prosperity has been doing for three years now is talking about independence

00:07:20.600 educating people now during this phase while we're collecting signatures alberta prosperity has had

00:07:26.680 to be quiet because if they weren't it'd be kind of deemed as interfering during a a process similar

00:07:33.880 to an election and that's not enough for elections alberta and i know and i got to be careful here

00:07:40.040 because elections alberta is feeling like they're being villainized by social media and by

00:07:46.760 independent media. And so they put us on warning not to be too critical of them. Well, I'm sorry,

00:07:52.620 folks, but Elections Alberta is supposed to be a completely impartial, unbiased organization that

00:07:59.600 supervises elections, counts votes, supervises recalls and citizens initiatives and petitions

00:08:06.600 and things like that. And they're supposed to be impartial. And they don't like the fact that

00:08:10.140 we're questioning their impartiality. Well, the reason we're questioning their impartiality is

00:08:14.580 because of a whole bunch of things that they've done lately and so right now um the alberta

00:08:20.860 the elections alberta is i don't know how to describe it but they're they're they're also

00:08:27.280 trying to place an injunction on the injunction and they're trying to muscle their way and they're

00:08:33.820 into the into the courts and they're trying to get the courts to order an audit of uh alberta

00:08:41.120 prosperity project you see what i'm talking about so it's getting super super super complicated and

00:08:45.840 to me it's getting uh some people are saying that it's just democracy and that um you know

00:08:52.400 they're making sure that groups are being transparent i'm like hey i'm all for that i'm

00:08:57.280 100 in favor of absolute transparency when it comes to everyone i want corporations to disclose

00:09:03.520 their financials i want first nations to disclose their financials i'd sure love nothing more than

00:09:08.640 governments to be completely transparent about it and i'm okay with groups like what what are

00:09:13.840 called third-party advertisers i'm okay with them having to disclose their financials but right now

00:09:19.840 lately i see a lot of um a lot of harassment aimed at some groups in particular and i see some uh

00:09:26.640 double standards because the group on the other side of the aisle that you know thomas lukasic's

00:09:31.680 group i don't see them being in the news and being asked to disclose their financials and stuff like

00:09:37.040 that and there's a group that i'd sure like to uh to know more about their financials anyways that's

00:09:42.240 that you know i think i'll leave it at that um reminder folks please call in right it's it is

00:09:48.240 it is a show that uh we're trying to make this a call-in show uh you see the number there on the

00:09:53.200 bottom 866-479-9378 don't be shy uh i am just uh just an average joe i'm not uh i'm not i don't

00:10:02.480 bite um so all right what else well okay so let's let's keep talking so uh danielle just had a press

00:10:10.080 conference uh at 11 45 about uh what time is it now 11 that's about an hour and a half ago wow time

00:10:17.120 flies and um the the the the headline of uh josh do you have a uh a headline of the press conference

00:10:25.840 i think it was literally labeled um she was going to give an update on uh on um on the petitions

00:10:34.000 and basically here's what i heard so she she announced let me paraphrase let me paraphrase

00:10:42.000 what i heard danielle smith told the nate told the province today that um by by all accounts

00:10:50.000 her data shows that immigration is out of control and causing problems

00:10:53.440 um she and she has evidence to show that and i think we all know that we we all know what's 1.00

00:10:58.640 happened to the price of housing and things like that so she has evidence that shows that

00:11:02.160 immigration is out of control she has she has evidence that shows that uh mark carney and

00:11:08.560 ottawa are interfering in alberta affairs and are overstepping their mandate so she has evidence

00:11:16.200 like uh carney um um you know setting up programs that affect infrastructure and and and things like

00:11:25.800 that so he's interfering in our affairs so she has that evidence uh she has evidence that uh

00:11:32.200 that the agreement between the provinces is broken that we don't have a fair representation so she

00:11:37.480 has evidence on her own and then she heard from uh the membership at the agm last year and the year

00:11:44.840 before that we're upset about those things so she heard it there then she created a panel called the

00:11:51.080 alberta next panel and she heard and so she toured the province last year went to about seven town

00:11:56.520 halls plus had these meetings online and published a report afterwards so she heard clearly during

00:12:03.480 those meetings that immigration doesn't work there's problems between ottawa and and alberta

00:12:10.440 and then she heard um and then she started implementing solutions okay i'm gonna pause

00:12:16.840 there on the things she heard but i got a caller on the line so i definitely want to go to the

00:12:20.360 caller please uh reminder uh let me know your name where you're calling from and what you

00:12:24.280 want to chat about go ahead please hello oh go ahead okay i can hear you now okay

00:12:35.960 Go ahead.

00:12:39.520 Am I on hold?

00:12:40.520 No, you're on the line.

00:12:43.900 Oh, okay.

00:12:44.480 Sorry, sir.

00:12:45.700 This is David calling from Sebre, Ontario.

00:12:48.800 Oh, okay.

00:12:49.840 Hi, David.

00:12:52.420 Hi.

00:12:53.100 I just had a quick question. 0.99

00:12:55.020 So once Alberta separates, for the normal people in Ontario,

00:12:59.160 is there going to be a temporary foreign worker program?

00:13:02.100 uh well i'd say short answer no um but the what's the context of your question

00:13:13.320 it's like are you being really serious or are you being funny

00:13:18.020 no no actually being serious like we're my fiance and i were we're young uh we would like to move

00:13:26.940 over uh we're just kind of holding our breath yeah kind of what happened first okay okay um

00:13:34.300 has been even in northern ontario like the coffee was crazy yeah yeah no great okay cool so you're

00:13:40.060 you're probably so you're an ally so i mean in a perfect world i would encourage you like a lot of

00:13:44.940 other people have done lately is just to come to alberta and be part of this exciting movement and

00:13:49.100 and even if we fail at at uh at becoming an independent country if you're like-minded and

00:13:54.140 you want to just improve your life you should come to alberta like we welcome people that are coming

00:13:58.380 here to help us build that said if those are the skills you have and that's the attitude that you

00:14:04.220 have i would say in the future in an independent alberta you wouldn't need to apply for a temporary

00:14:09.820 foreign worker you just apply to to to immigrate here and and we'd welcome you here so that's

00:14:15.580 like i think hard-working like-minded canadians uh who want to come here now or in the future

00:14:23.020 should do so and shouldn't worry about independence does that does that help is that answer okay

00:14:29.260 oh yeah we're absolutely allies over here i think there's more normal people in in ontario than uh

00:14:35.260 you get credit for so if you and uh clive ended up doing some on the street interviews i would uh

00:14:41.900 definitely come to northern ontario on your way cool yeah yeah you're referring to the show we

00:14:46.060 did the other day i i i if i for proper content i don't want to do man on the street interviews

00:14:51.980 in northern ontario i want to do man interviews a man on the street interviews in uh downtown

00:14:56.460 toronto and see just how crazy that toronto city landscape is awesome all right well thanks for

00:15:02.460 calling from sundry what's that you might need a translator app when you're down there

00:15:10.620 that's a good one all right thanks david take care um so so back to what i was saying about

00:15:17.180 danielle so she knows the problem it's been identified we've told her we agree with the

00:15:21.020 problem she already knows part of the solution too right so she's identified the solutions to

00:15:25.660 out of control immigration uh she started implementing some of the solutions to the

00:15:30.220 problem she's identified whether it's bill 25 26 or numbers i think it's bill 30 addresses

00:15:35.580 immigration so she had she knows the solution she knows the problem she she and she so now she's

00:15:41.660 saying she needs a better mandate and i and again i find that so fascinating because she's elected

00:15:48.380 she has a majority which as far as i'm concerned is a mandate a government doesn't need to get a

00:15:53.940 mandate in the vote all the time during their term the government has a mandate if they have

00:15:58.420 a majority so bring up your solutions in the legislature debate them and then pass the

00:16:02.900 necessary laws so you have the mandate but despite having heard all of these things she still wants

00:16:09.740 to have a referendum on october 19th where she will ask a bunch of questions uh to make sure 0.99

00:16:17.620 she gets a mandate. And as far as I'm concerned, she doesn't need this referendum to get a mandate

00:16:26.260 on immigration. But if she wants one, then she should wait until her next election. Because

00:16:32.740 referendums, as far as I'm concerned, should be reserved to the citizens. It should be up to the

00:16:36.860 citizens to demand referendum, not up to the government. So that's my thought. So when I saw

00:16:42.440 that today, as far as I'm concerned, I just saw an announcement by Danielle Smith introducing a

00:16:46.900 new website where you're going to have more information we'll see what's on there if it's

00:16:50.540 useful but as far as i'm concerned she's kicking the can down the street on solving real problems

00:16:55.580 that exist today you don't need sorry madam premier but you don't need a mandate from from

00:17:00.760 albertans you heard us loud and clear keep working on getting control of immigration and and solving

00:17:07.880 those kinds of problems all right we've got another caller on the line go ahead please where

00:17:11.580 you calling from? Name and where are you calling from? Hey, it's Alan from Calgary. Cool Alan, how are you?

00:17:19.180 Good, how are you doing? I was watching you last night and I actually was getting frustrated about

00:17:25.180 the same things as you were. It was question after question about, you know, the federal government

00:17:30.540 and it's like, you know, I agree completely. I just don't give two Fs and the only thing I have

00:17:39.100 anxiety about what's going on is uh i guess this this deal with the states and like uh they were

00:17:45.580 talking about um uh i guess the cats and die uh industry um and i mean all the manufacturing

00:17:52.940 actually in in alberta as well and what kind of damage that's going to happen and that's going to

00:17:58.540 be right around the same time as as our independence vote maybe depending on how they're going to um

00:18:05.500 uh what they're going to do with it um i guess it's not really a question i guess it's like

00:18:13.380 some anxiety no it's uh thank you so yeah we uh so people who didn't watch my show last night

00:18:20.660 so i do different shows right so i was i was i was doing a show last night and i was asking

00:18:24.900 callers to call in and the people who were calling in were mostly complaining about stuff that's

00:18:29.240 going on in ottawa and i got i i i got short-tempered because i keep people keep asking

00:18:36.820 the same questions how can we how can we change ottawa but how can we change what's going on in

00:18:41.640 ottawa and i'm like you can't you can't like we can't we're watching we're watching the destruction

00:18:47.560 of canada in slow motion from afar and we don't control what's going on in ottawa and that and i

00:18:54.040 and then and i think the frustration is finally surfacing and becoming clear to some people we're

00:18:59.720 not going to vote our way out of this and we don't control what's going on in ottawa sorry uh

00:19:04.120 josh did the did the caller hang up alan or uh yeah yeah he did okay anyways yeah thanks for

00:19:10.760 calling alan and and um he yeah well alan's from calgary so he knows the frustration i mean i i

00:19:18.120 want to it's on my topics today i do want to talk about this trade delegation and and what i think

00:19:22.840 that means but uh we got another caller on the line go ahead please

00:19:30.920 go ahead hello go ahead yeah yep yo can you hear me i can hear you go ahead

00:19:38.360 okay marty uh question i've got is uh

00:19:44.440 what what uh gerry from edmonton sorry okay

00:19:47.400 the uh how are we going to handle the influx of people that want to come to this

00:19:55.480 province when they know that we are successfully uh independent

00:20:03.000 yeah um well i mean it's uh yeah it's a good question it's similar to the first question right

00:20:09.800 Right. And we listen, we don't know all we this is the frustrating part for a lot of people.

00:20:18.240 Right. I don't I I can only I can offer a suggestion to a question like that.

00:20:22.240 But honestly, I don't know the true answer. Right.

00:20:24.500 All I can say conclusively right now is that Alberta to me is getting a bum deal in Confederation.

00:20:30.260 I can say that we're underrepresented. We are our voices aren't heard.

00:20:35.820 We send money over there that doesn't come back. So I can identify a lot of problems.

00:20:39.800 I can identify one pretty important solution to those problems, which is an independent Alberta.

00:20:46.200 What I can't do is tell you exactly what the independent Alberta will look like.

00:20:51.240 That requires a bit of a leap of faith.

00:20:52.980 We have to vote for independence.

00:20:55.160 And once we vote for independence, then we will have that period where as a nation, we will decide what our future looks like.

00:21:04.820 and and so and on that question in particular i imagine that an independent alberta would have

00:21:12.760 control over its immigration so the border would be closed and a border would be closed probably

00:21:19.320 pretty tightly for people coming from say africa or some other place and we wouldn't have a temporary

00:21:25.160 foreign worker but i have a program but i have a feeling that we would have a mechanism and play

00:21:31.100 favorites with people from the rest of canada who would come here as long as they pass certain you

00:21:36.460 know requirements and and and weren't coming here just to abuse us so so that's that's the short

00:21:42.380 answer i don't know if that if that helps but that's i i don't think it'll be um otherwise we

00:21:48.060 will need we will need that we will need good people we we need people now to come and we will

00:21:52.860 need good people in the future i don't think that changes but in an independent alberta we'll take

00:21:58.060 control of who we allow in and out and i would suspect that we will favor highly people who come

00:22:04.300 from ontario and quebec and the maritimes with the right attitude and the right skills hope that helps

00:22:11.660 well it's an answer anyways yeah yeah well what's your concern i mean are you

00:22:16.300 are you fundamentally worried that too many people will come what would you suggest 0.98

00:22:19.820 um i'm not worried at all but but my concern would be a big rush of flood of migrants from 1.00

00:22:28.260 eastern canada or bc or whatever like that people sitting in the bush and thinking oh boy it would 1.00

00:22:33.600 be great no sudden oh they are independent pack up honey we're moving to alberta how do you how

00:22:39.620 do you stop that yeah yeah no i i i hear you um well it uh it's honestly happening it's interesting

00:22:47.020 that it's it's happening right now uh it's noticeable that there are people coming but

00:22:51.740 it's also noticeable that people are leaving so um hey at the end of the day we do have the capacity

00:22:58.620 to take it you know look at look at the size of our province it's a huge province absolutely

00:23:03.740 resource rich and with a ton of space with about five million people in it so i mean i'm happy at

00:23:10.940 five million don't get me wrong i'm happy and i i'd stay at five million pretty much indefinitely

00:23:16.300 i remember in alberta when we only had 2 million people here but would 10 million people in alberta

00:23:21.500 stress me out no if done properly right and over the next 30 or 40 years but if if suddenly an

00:23:27.260 extra 100 hey i mean we brought in 600 000 people in the last two years that's the problem that we

00:23:32.620 created right now we brought in 600 000 people who aren't necessarily here to help build but are

00:23:38.460 more here to take so uh yeah great great comment thanks for uh thanks for calling in uh oh okay

00:23:45.500 cool i love date all right this is what i'm hoping for this is how i want the days to go by so we got

00:23:50.780 oh we lost that one ah we lost that one kind of like fishing you gotta you got somebody on the

00:23:57.180 line and then we lost them because i've said before we don't have a switchboard so we can't

00:24:01.740 just stack the um the the people here um hey canada us traded it it is going to be something

00:24:09.420 we're going to hear about right so okay i'll give this credit to carney he's creating a little

00:24:15.260 team right now um to go listen we're not renegotiating the trade okay so canada right now

00:24:22.460 has a pretty big agreement we used to just call it the free trade agreement but it's the canada

00:24:27.500 us mexico or the canada mexico us or the us canada mexico agreement depends on what country you live

00:24:33.020 in how you call it right so uh i call it the the kuzma agreement canada us mexico and um it's it's

00:24:42.460 it was signed several years ago and it's not it's due for kind of like a renewal not a you know we

00:24:48.860 we get to sit down and we talk and say do we just keep it as is and are we happy and if we keep it

00:24:55.020 as is it goes on for another couple years and then it'll have another review period or as part of the

00:24:59.820 review we can say oh maybe we open it up and we renegotiate a couple of things or we could say oh

00:25:06.460 maybe we cancel it so there's a milestone coming up for this uh agreement that we've had for

00:25:12.700 several years and the milestone is like on july 1st so in preparation for that uh carney is

00:25:20.220 organizing a team and he's making the team somewhat uh non-partisan he's picked people

00:25:27.740 from uh he's picked a couple of conservatives he's got a bunch of liberals and he's even picked

00:25:32.540 a few people from industry to be on the team to chat among themselves right now before they start

00:25:37.140 with the u.s that looks like a good first step that's a that's a pretty good first step but it's

00:25:43.140 a first step for nothing if he continues doing what he's what he's doing which is on the side

00:25:48.320 he keeps pissing off the americans right i mean carney did a carney did a state of the union

00:25:54.320 address on uh i believe it was on sunday morning he had that eight minute state of the union address

00:25:59.960 where in his State of the Union address, he's holding up a little figurine, right?

00:26:04.380 A little toy soldier of General Isaac Brock and makes the whole story that every time

00:26:12.940 I walk into my office, I'm reminded by this little figurine.

00:26:16.620 He got the figurine as a gift apparently from Mike Myers.

00:26:19.580 And if you're an Albertan and you don't know who Isaac Brock is, that's not a surprise.

00:26:25.180 um probably the only people who know who isaac brock is are people who who live in southern

00:26:31.420 ontario and people who've been to niagara falls and seen his monument or people who've heard of

00:26:35.420 brock university but brock was like a lieutenant governor and a general who was sort of in charge

00:26:41.500 of defending he represent he was a british general fighting the americans in the war of 1812.

00:26:47.580 and so when when carney does that announcement and he specifically picks that person brought you

00:26:54.140 know that that man that's kind of a way of antagonizing the americans and it goes against

00:27:00.060 it goes with his theme right what does carney keep saying all the time oh well our trade deal

00:27:04.460 our our our 200 year relationship with the americans is done and we need to rethink it

00:27:09.740 okay and then we're going to be independent okay and then he throws salt in the wound by saying 0.97

00:27:15.180 by being super nostalgic look at this little guy named brock he's the guy who kicked your butt way

00:27:20.300 back when in 1812 and so it was kind of interesting that he picked all those sim you know that

00:27:26.540 character as a symbolism for the battle that's brewing between our two nations right now i don't

00:27:32.900 like what's happening i don't like that the america that the that carney is picking a fight

00:27:39.280 with the u.s and if you think that that's a strategy to help in the negotiation i i like you

00:27:45.200 haven't watched trump lately and see how he negotiates right now at the end of the day

00:27:50.140 when i bring it back to here in alberta i'm not that worried because we have an amazing we do uh

00:27:56.620 you know 170 billion dollars worth of trade uh in every year in alberta we do about 90 billion

00:28:03.720 with the u.s and then 10 billion with other nations and then 60 or 70 with the rest of canada

00:28:09.180 and generally speaking we're not affected by these upcoming negotiations because we sell oil

00:28:15.000 to the americans in a separate deal almost a one-on-one deal and and we're really not affected

00:28:20.080 by these negotiations so when carney's doing that he's just sewering ontario and quebec and he's

00:28:26.220 antagonizing and i and and i have a hard time understanding what he's doing uh did we lose

00:28:32.860 the caller josh did i wait too long or go ahead all right caller name where are you calling from

00:28:37.840 please. Yeah, go ahead. I'm calling from Vancouver Island. How you doing? Good, good. I have a

00:28:49.580 question about what's going to happen with BC if Alberta does gain independence. I really hope

00:28:56.060 that you guys do, but what do you think is going to happen to the problems with BC as far as trade

00:29:00.620 and things traveling through Alberta and that kind of thing? My short answer to that is always

00:29:06.680 nothing right i mean we we uh like we're not we're not i don't think we're antagonistic to other

00:29:13.080 parts of the like we don't want to we're not wishing ill will on anybody else we don't want

00:29:17.400 to piss off anybody else we just don't like the deal that we have with ottawa right ottawa interferes

00:29:23.560 in our affairs all the time like they they you know they they step in when we're trying to

00:29:27.800 negotiate pipelines and they implement their own rules that we don't agree with and so we just we

00:29:33.480 just want ottawa we we just want to break away from ottawa and that interference but after that

00:29:38.760 i mean our deal with our trade with the bc i don't think that'll change i mean it's it's mutually

00:29:45.560 beneficial right we we we're we send goods to the ocean via you guys and then you guys need to send

00:29:52.200 your goods to ontario and the and the maritimes and whatnot so i i i really don't see anything

00:29:58.520 changing except maybe we'll become better partners because we won't have ottawa telling us what to do

00:30:04.200 we'll be it'll be alberta negotiating directly with bc so i does that does that make sense do

00:30:13.160 you think that that's going to be or are you worried about yeah i'm just wondering if like

00:30:18.920 you could take out uh take bc with you um as someone i i moved out to bc during colvin we

00:30:24.520 We lived in Ontario and COVID had all these lockdowns and stuff.

00:30:27.640 And so BC was very open at the time.

00:30:29.820 So we moved our whole family out here. 0.99

00:30:31.680 And like, no sooner did we arrive than they implemented all this crap. 0.98

00:30:35.080 And, you know, I love Alberta. 0.99

00:30:36.720 You know, you want to be independent.

00:30:37.700 You want less government.

00:30:38.540 You want less regulations, like, in a way.

00:30:41.360 But, like, you want more freedom to do and build businesses and be prosperous, right?

00:30:45.580 And, you know, BC wants us to take us with you.

00:30:49.780 Yeah.

00:30:50.580 Yeah, no, to be honest, I've heard some really weird stories, right?

00:30:54.200 like people, I mean, I describe it this way, right? There are five phases of grief. And I

00:31:00.000 think the five phases of grief kind of apply to Alberta independence. There's some people right

00:31:05.600 now that don't think it's happening. Then there's other people that will start to mock it. Then

00:31:11.080 they'll start to, oh, you know, get into maybe self-preservation. Then it'll get into hate. And

00:31:18.620 then maybe they'll get into uh admitting that it's happening and a lot of people are in that

00:31:24.160 hate stage already um especially in British Columbia I'm not I'm picking I'm not picking

00:31:29.800 on British Columbia but I've heard it a lot from people there if you guys separate we're going to

00:31:34.440 block you from accessing the ocean that's you know that's an example of of of vitriol and and to that

00:31:40.820 one I always say well be very careful because if you block you know people always say Alberta would

00:31:44.680 become landlocked because bc would be on the other on one side but in effect bc would become

00:31:49.860 isolated from the rest of canada right and so and i don't want to get i like i hope we're beyond that

00:31:55.280 and we won't get into that kind of um pissing contest i hope we'll just be supporting each

00:32:00.520 other instead i mean we've been allies and friends for a long time literally it's a it's a it's a

00:32:05.700 relationship that's not working and we want to move on a little bit absolutely yeah i totally

00:32:12.080 hear that yeah excellent okay well thank you for calling all right so um where were we so i just

00:32:19.600 finished talking about trade um i i got so many topics that i wanted to talk about today let's

00:32:27.680 talk about let's bring a little bit of humor just for a minute into the um into uh what's going on

00:32:33.680 did you guys see the post this week about canada wanting to build a space launch facility in nova

00:32:44.640 scotia oh man okay so this is this is nothing new about every every 10 years we we get all

00:32:53.840 pumped up and we talk about hey we're going to launch rockets from canada we're going to build

00:32:58.080 an aerospace industry we're going to diversify and we're going to build an aerospace industry

00:33:02.480 and that announcement was you know it gets made about every 10 years and about a month and a half

00:33:08.040 ago there was another announcement quietly that the the ottawa was going to fund um uh a spaceport

00:33:17.120 call it in nova scotia and yesterday a couple of stories broke one one broke from an investigative

00:33:22.500 journalist in uh in halifax or whatever broke a story and there was a picture that showed

00:33:28.080 um this literally this concrete pad in the middle of nowhere and i don't know if you can find that

00:33:34.860 picture quickly josh or whatever but it was there was a concrete pad in the middle of nowhere that

00:33:39.420 was being leased and to the tune of like the announcement from ottawa was about 200 million

00:33:45.340 dollars over the next 10 years so it's 20 million bucks a year and and then immediately people who

00:33:52.460 started investigating, we're finding links to Ukraine. And so it's bad enough, right? So I just

00:34:00.040 want to talk about it on just a couple of points, right? There's four groups on the planet right

00:34:07.740 now that launch rockets, right? The Russians launch rockets into space, the Americans launch

00:34:13.360 rockets into space, the Chinese launch rockets into space, and then the European agency launches

00:34:19.400 rockets into space and some of them collaborate so the americans often collaborate with the russians

00:34:24.440 and and the european space agency and we launch rockets from about four places the americans

00:34:30.920 launch them as far south as possible on their country so they go right to the bottom of florida

00:34:35.720 almost and they launch them from there and there's a reason they launch them from there

00:34:39.640 is because of the equator when you're launching a rocket you kind of want to shoot it as close to

00:34:44.840 the equator as possible and you and you're not shooting directly away from the earth you want

00:34:49.240 to kind of shoot and then start to you know get parallel well yeah there's the pad look at that

00:34:55.000 pad so you and i are paying 200 million dollars for that um it's never going to happen so what

00:35:00.600 i'm saying is this is this i'm not surprised that there's a connection to ukraine and this will

00:35:05.080 never happen this is what i was about to say we'll never launch rockets from canada okay the americans

00:35:10.920 launch them from as far south as they can because they're close to the equator the european space

00:35:15.480 agency goes a little bit further they have an island in like the caribbean somewhere or french

00:35:20.080 guyana they launch from there the russians they're not so luck uh so lucky they're not close to the

00:35:26.400 equator so they have to launch from their own territory and consequently when they launch they

00:35:30.880 have to launch bigger rockets and spend a lot more money on fuel to get them their one where they want

00:35:36.140 to be but there's an advantage to being close to the equator china they launch them from wherever

00:35:40.920 the gobi desert they do their thing we're never going to launch rockets from canada folks it's

00:35:45.380 a it's a pipe dream if there was a value in it somebody would have approached us uh 30 years ago

00:35:50.840 to build a launch site somewhere there's no advantage to it and it's just another example

00:35:55.960 of your money being um us being taxed and the money being wasted so i i just wanted to just

00:36:03.500 to go there with that um what else happened this week uh let me see all right oh oh call on the

00:36:12.900 line. Hang on one second. Go ahead. Where are you calling from? Hello? Go ahead. Somebody,

00:36:26.560 did we lose somebody? Somebody? Oh, no. Hello, Martin. Yes. Go ahead. Yes. How's it going?

00:36:37.080 good how many people how many people did sign the uh the separation uh vote uh well the only

00:36:45.960 official number we don't have an official number so mitch mitch did a did an announcement a semi

00:36:52.600 press release a couple of weeks ago where he said we'd met the threshold so that there was

00:36:56.360 that would mean there was at least 177 000 give or shake um and then that was about two three

00:37:02.360 weeks ago and and he's he's sort of talked casually about it lately saying a collection

00:37:07.880 was going well and they were coming in fast and furious so i i'm i messed i'm guessing that it's

00:37:13.640 going to be in the 300 000 to 400 000 mitch had set a goal mitch wanted to beach to beat thomas

00:37:19.480 lukasik like he wanted mitch wanted to get 450 000 signatures but we won't we won't know officially

00:37:25.400 until next week when he uh delivers them to elections alberta so so how many people have

00:37:31.480 signed the forever canadian vote um ballpark 415 000 something like that and and it was done under

00:37:41.560 a slightly different circumstances right the um the forever canada petition was less regulated

00:37:47.960 right they they were able to just go around collect signatures they weren't obligated to verify

00:37:53.960 driver's licenses and and place a residence and stuff like that so their rules for collecting

00:37:58.520 signatures were a little bit uh looser but they claimed to have collected 450 000.

00:38:06.840 plus they were in the wind uh plus they were in the summer versus us in the winter but uh so so

00:38:12.120 what's your thought did you sign yourself or what's the sentiment among people you hang out with

00:38:18.040 well no i'm i'm actually um in the process of uh moving to alberta so i can vote no

00:38:23.880 okay to vote no so you're gonna come here to vote no yeah i gotta save canada wow okay that's that's

00:38:33.400 bold so you're gonna leave some part of the world that you live in so what's your reasoning so

00:38:38.920 actually this is interesting i've never had somebody who so sell us on that so why what's

00:38:43.400 what what do you want to save well i had plans to uh head out that way anyway um i'm getting into

00:38:52.200 uh some mining and uh so i'm just adding the two together and i'm just like well i'm glad i'm

00:38:59.040 heading out that way anyway so i can vote no oh okay well cool all right interesting good luck

00:39:05.400 with that then thanks thanks for calling there's not a way okay we got somebody else on the line

00:39:12.000 josh go ahead oh so i'm just adding this and i'm just like well

00:39:17.400 hang on one second i might have two people here so

00:39:21.880 we got lots of people on the line okay somebody stirred a hornet's nest somebody wants all right

00:39:28.020 go ahead whoever's on the line name where are you calling from please

00:39:30.400 go ahead

00:39:34.500 hi is it marty yeah yeah it's marty oh hey how you doing partner hey listen uh i just wanted to

00:39:44.840 phone in and congratulate you and all of the people that have been

00:39:48.880 working on this. It's time that Alberta

00:39:52.300 had its true passion

00:39:56.460 recognized and I hope and pray that Albertans really wake up and

00:40:00.780 vote yes to this independence movement because we've

00:40:04.260 been abused for far too long. I'm a native

00:40:08.000 Calgarian born and raised in Alberta. I love this province but I want to

00:40:12.760 see a future for my kids so god bless all of you guys for all the hard work you've done i just

00:40:18.500 wanted to phone in and say thank you appreciate that thank you so much um yeah um you know what

00:40:27.220 i mean i should have maybe kept the last caller on a little bit longer but i but it's been my

00:40:32.720 experience um in just through canvassing for the last two weeks that when you uh um

00:40:40.060 um people some i don't know how to say this i haven't found any really good arguments for

00:40:46.320 wanting to stay and i haven't found anybody who wants to stay who's who's very genuine in wanting

00:40:53.340 to debate so they tend to come here come to me in particular and they just want to shove something

00:40:58.540 down you know their opinion on me and they're not really interested in debate i would love to have

00:41:03.860 an actual genuine debate with somebody on on uh why they think that alberta should stay in this

00:41:10.740 failed experiment called confederation now i think the best example of that we're going to

00:41:14.660 have it in the coming weeks here keith wilson is going to debate jason kenney and i think the first

00:41:20.820 debate is uh don't quote me and i think it's in edmonton there's there's one in edmonton and

00:41:25.780 one in calgary there's going to be two and i look forward to that i have actually reached out to

00:41:30.980 friends out east and i have a i have a friend and not another online personality who actually

00:41:39.540 he's an ontarian he actually supports us leaving okay so he's in favor of us leaving but he's

00:41:47.380 agreed in principle to have a debate with me and we're going to have a very civil debate but he

00:41:52.740 you know he says that if that he could put it he can articulate why we should stay even though he

00:41:58.980 doesn't think we should stay he can articulate why i'm like okay that's interesting so uh his

00:42:04.180 name is greg and i'll see if i can uh i've been trying to set up something i don't want to do it

00:42:08.420 now because i don't want to um i had other priorities but in the coming weeks maybe i'll

00:42:12.980 have that chat with greg we'll do that online debate and uh even though he supports us greg

00:42:17.860 will try his best to uh portray the stay side i definitely look forward to hearing nenshi uh tell

00:42:24.980 us why we should stay and others all right caller go ahead name where are you calling from please

00:42:33.300 yes hi it's uh gordon calling and i'm calling from edmonton go ahead gordon

00:42:40.180 yeah i just want to ask you in regards to elections alberta who is it is what what exactly

00:42:45.460 why do they have such authority to be blocking and doing the things they do and who can who can

00:42:50.180 make them uh fall in line and do things fairly for both sides because obviously there's a bias

00:42:56.660 going on here anybody can pick that out it's it's a it's a yes that's a great question i mean um

00:43:05.780 i don't know the solution to people like i don't know individuals marty yeah marty i'm talking

00:43:11.620 listen to me who can stop the individual from being that way the premier who can stop them

00:43:18.180 because he needs to be stopped we can't that's the system we we we keep vet uh that that the

00:43:26.900 individual was put in place by the ndp by rachel notley and they're put in place by law for whatever

00:43:32.500 a five-year term so we're stuck with it i think i think the best thing i mean i don't know the

00:43:37.380 solution to that to me it'd be it'd be some of these non-partisan roles should be either elected

00:43:42.340 or appointed to shorter terms or we should have a recall petition i don't know it's a great question

00:43:49.380 gordon it's a great question but i don't i mean it's the same problem with judges it's the same

00:43:53.460 problem with so many people right they're appointed and uh they're an unelected and they're biased i

00:43:59.300 agree they're biased not only are they biased but they're also in a conflict of interest because

00:44:03.700 they'll argue that they that they're unbiased and impartial you can't be impartial when you

00:44:08.660 work for the government so yeah it's a problem i it's i i don't know the solution gord it's a great

00:44:14.820 question i don't know the solutions what do you propose well we've got it there's got to be a

00:44:19.460 check and balance in place somewhere that they can block this yeah usually the check and balance it

00:44:25.780 be um yeah it would be shorter terms or or dual role or uh or co co-chairs co-leads right maybe

00:44:32.980 have two elections officers two chief electoral officer instead of one and have have them

00:44:38.420 appointed you know two years apart on a four-year term so that it's always balanced out i mean

00:44:42.660 there's lots of great solutions and and and and thanks for bringing that up i mean these are these

00:44:47.860 are the things that when we talk about an independent alberta we have to solve some of

00:44:51.700 these problems right and there are other nations on earth that seem to run elections and have no

00:44:56.500 problem i i'm i'm i'm on that i believe that i i don't have a faith in elections in canada anymore

00:45:02.740 i just don't i just want to bring up one more issue and it's just in regards to the alberta

00:45:09.780 prosperity project see now that they're going to be able to get involved and speak for us and

00:45:17.380 and put in their two cents now all of a sudden he's making issues with them correct

00:45:23.060 so yeah absolutely he he's making issues with boy okay so let's go back and that was the theme of

00:45:33.240 the show today the alberta prosperity project right is the the is is a legally is a separate

00:45:39.720 entity from uh stay free alberta but it but did but they have some of the same personnel and mitch

00:45:46.060 sylvester is the sort of the the president of of both um he was mentioned in the in the legislature

00:45:53.660 two days ago i mean nenshi had had it in for him like kept kept mentioning mitch mitch mitch mitch

00:45:59.400 mitch and then nenshi was making allegations that mitch was working directly for the premier

00:46:03.400 they're all unfounded but in the in the legislature they're almost allowed to lie

00:46:07.560 because they have this privilege but but that's a separate thing um i i i've already seen this and

00:46:14.700 i'm happy that this is happening i think in the next phase and i talked about it a little bit at

00:46:19.500 the beginning of the show i have a lot of people that say we need one leader okay this is a perfect

00:46:24.180 segue for that i disagree this is a grassroots movement and we don't need a single leader

00:46:29.000 because a there is no leader that will appeal to everyone some people say oh you know they don't

00:46:33.660 like mitch or they don't like keith or they don't like whoever you'll never find the perfect leader

00:46:38.140 that's but that's a separate problem the moment we have a leader in a grassroots movement that

00:46:42.960 leader becomes a target of of attack from from concentrated attack so i'm i'm advocating for no

00:46:50.220 leader at this point we don't need one we can we can have an education campaign without a leader

00:46:56.400 and we can have a vote and then later on we can choose a leader but what i'm really encouraged

00:47:01.260 about what's happening right now is the fact that uh you got the alberta prosperity project but

00:47:07.420 you're going to see a whole bunch of other groups appear that are going to help in the education

00:47:11.900 and in the fight for independence so you're going to have i can't remember what he's called but but

00:47:16.720 chris scott with the whistle stop up in in and mirror he's forming a group basically and then

00:47:22.040 you got kathy flatt and and angela taback and others they got their women in in an independence

00:47:27.880 group or whatever it's called uh as far as i'm concerned cory morgan's almost a a one-man

00:47:33.220 machine on his own uh doing some education i'm i'm associated with a group called the centurion

00:47:39.580 project. And there was another one that appeared yesterday. So in the coming weeks, you're going

00:47:43.200 to see six, seven, eight, nine groups show up, each of them playing a different role in promoting

00:47:48.800 Alberta independence. I'm pretty confident that behind the scenes, those groups will work together

00:47:53.700 and start forming sort of a loose coalition and not interfere with each other. But I also hope

00:47:59.160 that they don't decide that they need one leader. Is Gord still on the line or I got somebody else?

00:48:05.420 Okay, sorry, but I hope that answered the question. Gord, who's on the line? Go ahead,

00:48:09.220 please this is Bridget um I'm just calling I'm a young mom who has three children and I'm a huge

00:48:16.660 supporter of the Alberta independence movement and I just want to encourage like all the young

00:48:22.840 moms out there to just reach out like at your school group like we're all have to stand around

00:48:27.640 at school pick up I've met so many young women who are their families are looking to move out 0.71

00:48:33.860 of the province unless this independence movement goes through and just want to encourage all those

00:48:41.140 young women out there just like you can educate people on your own get yourself educated first

00:48:47.200 of course learn about our trade learn about our economy and and the horrible bills that are

00:48:54.680 making it impossible for our province to flourish but i just wanted to also thank you marty i just

00:49:01.460 love your show no thank you so yes you're you're fantastic so you thank you for reminding us all

00:49:07.960 you said the key thing there right and it ties into what i just finished we don't need leaders

00:49:12.540 individual leaders and put all the burden on the leaders take some of the burden

00:49:16.980 yourselves right and you're doing that so i mean there's there's nothing more convincing than you

00:49:22.640 having a chat with like you said your neighbor or somebody at the school or whatever and then

00:49:27.260 chatting among yourselves and educating yourself so thanks for doing that you by the way where

00:49:31.860 what part of alberta were you calling from oh i'm in andre and our our neighborhoods are just

00:49:37.540 littered with republic of alberta flags people have massive alberta flags in their yard

00:49:43.440 it is like super encouraging out here awesome awesome awesome yeah i tried to get uh paul's

00:49:49.920 pizza owner on the show and maybe he'll come in next week he's he created a bit of a firestorm

00:49:55.740 with some of his comments but then it keeps uh but but then he's he's impossible to cancel and

00:50:01.260 everybody's going there somebody brought me a paul's pizza on uh on the road the other day

00:50:06.460 have you ever have you been there absolutely yes absolutely i've been there we actually the first

00:50:12.140 well which firestorm it's hard to actually pick one of the first forms he started but not this last

00:50:18.780 one where he made a joke that may have been a little inappropriate but it was funny nonetheless

00:50:23.980 um we went there for lunch with my kids and it was packed and there was signers there

00:50:31.960 um I also got my badge so I can sign people up but uh an old man actually came to Pulse Pizza

00:50:39.660 while I was there with my kids to scream at the volunteers there and luckily I was just driving

00:50:48.100 by so I kind of just went in between him and my windows were down he could see that I had kids

00:50:52.840 then he backed off but it was an interesting lunch yeah no doubt no doubt so just while you're on the

00:51:00.100 line just one last quick question so do you still what do you say to people who who who say that

00:51:06.000 this is a fringe movement has your thoughts on that changed a little bit do you think it's fringe

00:51:10.340 or do you think oh my goodness no i don't know anybody who is voting to stay okay like i do

00:51:16.640 actually i have 60 plus people in my family i have a very large family norwegian family

00:51:22.660 and everybody but one person is voting for independence my neighbors are voting for

00:51:31.340 independence every young person i meet is voting for independence it is so rare for me to actually

00:51:37.400 be able to discuss except for at school pickup where there are people who just don't know about

00:51:43.300 it but yeah excellent all right it's going very well excellent well thanks for calling in i

00:51:49.720 appreciate it and thanks for showing people that it's not scary to call in right i'm not uh i'm

00:51:54.100 just an average awesome thank you awesome okay have a wonderful day you too cheers yeah see

00:52:01.140 that's awesome right um i i i feel encouraged when i hear that i mean i have days i had more

00:52:09.600 good days than bad days canvassing and early on there were some more opponents but then the

00:52:15.440 opposition disappeared slowly and i and i and i and i i said this in a video the other day and

00:52:21.440 i'll say it again right i there were definitely days where um i noticed a pattern right so i would

00:52:28.720 go and set up and canvas and it basically i was set up on a service road with my truck and a table

00:52:35.200 and a whole bunch of flags and some days there'd be two three of us so when there was two three of

00:52:39.600 us rather than all sit around the table i i had a flag on a hockey stick and i would walk literally

00:52:44.560 up and down the highway waving my flag and waving at people and i got honks and everybody was most

00:52:51.200 almost everybody was super nice but but i could tell some people would kind of like drive with

00:52:56.560 their blinders on you know kind of like don't look don't look don't look like as if they don't want

00:53:01.360 to you know life is they want to keep their life simple they want i call it living in blissful

00:53:06.080 ignorance like don't look don't look don't don't wonder why people on the side of the road don't

00:53:10.240 wonder why they're signing a petition ignore everything and i knew that over time by being

00:53:15.360 there day after day after day those people that were driving by couldn't ignore me and and so

00:53:21.040 perhaps they went home that night and they talked about it with somebody perhaps they read a story

00:53:24.720 perhaps whatever so that's why i did it right i and and you can there's so many ways to winning

00:53:30.400 over people it's not it's not always just whatever commercials and and radio shows uh we're still

00:53:36.960 good for time yeah excellent go ahead caller man we've had a great turnout thank you for calling

00:53:40.720 today where are you calling from and name please oh did you miss him josh oh sorry go ahead

00:53:51.200 hello hello yeah yeah go ahead i'd like to speak to uh marty speaking you got him

00:54:00.400 Oh, okay, because I hear there must be a delay. Anyway, why I'm calling is, I'm Helen, and I'm calling from the side of Calgary, and I too have great concerns about Election Alberta, and I did not know that the head person or individual was elected or chosen by Rachel Nottley,

00:54:25.600 and i i don't think that that's a proper system whatsoever but i think i may have a solution

00:54:32.760 and that solution is that level of consciousness where people know themselves well enough they're

00:54:40.560 not connected to any party whatsoever and they're therefore non-partisan and a non-bias

00:54:49.680 and that's because they know themselves and they're high a very high level of consciousness

00:54:57.500 now that's um comes from uh the power of power versus force the hidden determinants of human

00:55:06.660 behavior and most of us have been so conditioned through the education system and through

00:55:13.000 institutionalized learning and through our parents that we have not developed the necessary skills

00:55:21.460 of levels of consciousness to be able to get to obtain such titles no i i i agree i mean uh you

00:55:31.920 know and and those qualities should apply to somebody applying to be a chief election officer

00:55:37.940 a judge, even a parliamentarian, even a member of mayor, lots of people, right? And I think

00:55:44.040 you're pointing out that something's lacking in a lot of people in our society. And in the case

00:55:49.720 of the chief elections officer, we're supposed to find that out because the person's name is

00:55:56.800 supposed to be submitted to the legislature. And then people are supposed to have a chance to

00:56:00.980 question that person to find out their character and see if they're unbiased before they're

00:56:04.500 appointed and i think that's a problem right we i i can think of hundreds of individuals who've

00:56:10.420 been appointed to roles under that system that shouldn't have been appointed so unfortunately

00:56:15.380 we're we're going to need something um a little more rigorous but appreciate the

00:56:21.700 comment and the call thank you for calling uh did she did we okay sorry all right um

00:56:30.180 um yeah you know that there's again that this is one of the fascinating things um we when when

00:56:39.780 an independent Alberta if it's just a mini version of Canada won't work that's not what I want I don't

00:56:47.880 I don't want a mini version of Canada I want to think boldly and change and identify some of the

00:56:54.840 that don't work like we just did right so i i don't think the election system works hell think

00:57:00.600 of all the problems with the election system i don't like i don't i don't even like first past

00:57:04.520 the post we never even got to talking about um the redistribution of boundaries that's occurring

00:57:10.120 right now and the the claims that there's some gerrymandering maybe that'll be next week's show

00:57:14.440 because we'll have more on that but you know a lot of things about our elections can be changed the

00:57:19.080 way we vote like first past the poll could be replaced by ranked ballots could be placed by

00:57:23.960 popularity there's lots of things we could eliminate parties and only vote for representatives

00:57:28.840 we can do lots of things i don't know the answers but when i i hope that in independent alberta we

00:57:35.080 will be bold and think about these problems and and fix some of these problems but the other thing

00:57:40.520 is when you're fixing problems i'm an engineer a lot of times when i was solving problems i didn't

00:57:46.040 start by by by by just diving into a problem and then trying to come up with my own solutions a

00:57:52.440 lot of problems have been solved by other people and so you know if i got a corrosion problem in

00:57:58.520 my pipe or if i keep having flats on a tire and then something doesn't work i can go see what

00:58:02.920 other people have done to fix that problem well the same thing applies to our democracy there's

00:58:07.640 no re like we we can go look to see how other nations deal with um with roles or you know like

00:58:15.400 like like chief electoral officers do they elect them do they do they have more than one do they

00:58:21.240 give limited terms things like that right so that's i i just want to say that we we need to um

00:58:27.080 re re think out of the box okay uh producers flashing that we got about a minute left i got

00:58:33.320 a call on the lines it's probably just going to be a comment on your part go ahead where

00:58:36.600 are you calling from and what's your comment yes hi uh i'm calling from well i'm from leduc but

00:58:43.640 uh calling from highway 16 currently um just had a quick statement uh i moved to canada as a kid

00:58:51.000 in 2004 went through the canadian school system and figured out that my vote in western canada

00:58:57.160 wasn't going to count for anything so i never even bothered to get my citizenship in all these years

00:59:02.360 until we come to this question where should uh alberta you know try to get its own uh independence

00:59:11.560 here right and it's the first time i feel like there's actually hope and that a vote from a

00:59:19.160 citizen here in western canada i would count for something that's awesome um just where'd you come

00:59:24.380 from uh germany i was born in germany okay so uh and they came here and then uh interesting so you

00:59:31.600 were you were a permanent resident for a long time was it pretty uh matter of fact to get your

00:59:37.000 citizenship in the last couple years like uh sort of a rubber oh yeah yeah it's fairly easy but yeah

00:59:42.440 it's fairly easy but for me it was just i pay my taxes like everybody else and if i vote or don't

00:59:48.120 vote it doesn't really make a big difference right in the grand uh in the grand picture of

00:59:54.940 things yeah yeah no you you're you're you're symbolic of a lot of albertans right we used to

00:59:59.720 uh we'd wait we'd uh we'd turn on the tv at 8 p.m on uh on a monday night after during the election

01:00:06.500 and we'd find out already that the government had been selected and uh declared before they

01:00:11.160 even counted our votes so yeah exactly yeah yeah no uh thank you for that and uh thanks for uh

01:00:17.940 congrats on becoming a citizen and yes and you know a great reminder to everybody if we get to

01:00:23.900 that referendum and you're in that box and you got those three walls and you get to vote take a pause

01:00:28.960 just take a brief pause and think about what you're about to do uh it it could be super symbolic so

01:00:35.080 thanks for calling i appreciate that all right he's gone uh all right i think we're out of time

01:00:41.880 uh i do my little last bit at the end here um thanks to the west thanks for joining me i'm here

01:00:47.240 every thursday one o'clock maybe i'll do a 90 minute show i want to start bringing guests i

01:00:51.880 think i'm going to bring guests but you guys are this is so encouraging i think i got nine or ten

01:00:55.480 calls today the most we've had in a while the show's about you um and uh make sure you uh subscribe

01:01:02.360 is $10 a month. The website's down there on the bottom, westernstandard.news. And see you next

01:01:07.900 week, folks. Cheers.

01:01:32.360 You

Western Standard - April 23, 2026

Alberta Prosperity Project continues to be harassed by Elections Alberta

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