00:04:30.000Good morning, very, very early morning.
00:04:52.720It's 4.49 a.m. here in Alberta, Mountain Standard Time.
00:04:58.060I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.
00:05:01.860I've just gotten into the newsroom here, been briefed on where we are at with the results of the 10 Alberta referendum questions coming in.
00:05:13.080We've had kind of a skeleton crew on the graveyard shift all night long here doing yeoman's work.
00:11:38.660Of that, 427,000 are in support of it, 250,000 to post.
00:11:44.540Now, again, these lower questions have less results reported yet because they counted it in order of question 10, which is the independence question.
00:11:52.440And then they go in numerical order, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, etc., etc.
00:11:59.120So the further down we get, the less results we have, and the less results we have, the less reliable they will be.
00:12:05.500But there's still a lot, enough coming in that we have a pretty good picture of things.
00:13:07.560Actually, no, I'll go to it a bit, but I'll elaborate it with a graphic in a moment.
00:13:12.560But those who voted on Election Day in person on the independence question, it was about 42, 43 percent in support of independence, much closer than the 24, 25 percent it gets overall.
00:13:26.460People voted in special mobile polling stations, which tend dominantly to be things like seniors' homes.
00:13:35.440They voted like 90% for the Federalist side.
00:13:41.520So the advanced polls tend to favor the Federalist side.
00:13:47.340The special ballots favor the Federalist side.
00:13:53.800Mobile ballots favor the Federalist side.
00:13:55.540but people voting in person and on election day tend to overwhelmingly not overwhelmingly but
00:14:01.020much more significantly favor the independent side so i would imagine that there's some carryover
00:14:07.640the federalists tend to be uniformly on the uh sorry leftists tend to be uniformly on the left
00:14:13.280while the more conservative people are are split and the results would indicate that probably
00:14:20.180somewhere over just a little over half of ucp voters in alberta have voted for independence
00:14:25.700here uh and just a little under half of ucp voters have voted against independence while
00:14:31.300as the left has voted almost as a monolithic block against it
00:14:38.580uh all right uh question seven here asks if you support the government of alberta working
00:14:44.260with the governments of other willing provinces to amend the canadian constitution to abolish the
00:14:49.380unelected federal senate uh 500 about 592 000 ballots counted so far 311 in favor of abolishing
00:15:00.840the senate 281 000 against it again i don't even actually i don't like any of the options on this
00:15:10.160i believe in a reform senate if you're going to have a federation you actually have to have an
00:15:13.580upper house representing the sub-national units every democratic federation in the world has got
00:15:18.600some form of elected upper house the united states germany australia um it's it's it's
00:15:28.880kind of table stakes for having a federation as we do uh so i would have performed a reform senate
00:15:35.680uh but here i i think i think we've seen in a lot of the data uh leftist voters in alberta just
00:15:43.280voted straight no to anything. They don't believe in reforming the Canadian constitution. Alberta
00:15:48.720should just accept what it has right now. That's just the way it is. Question eight asks if they0.99
00:15:57.420support the Alberta government working with other governments to amend the constitution to allow
00:16:01.700provinces to opt out of federal programs that intrude on provincial jurisdictions such as
00:16:05.940health care, education, social services without a province losing any of the associated federal
00:16:10.100funding for its social programs. So that one is the only one of the nine that is currently
00:16:15.500headed for defeat. So there is 586,000 ballots counted so far, 283,000 in support, 302,000
00:16:29.500opposed. Now, that one, I need a lot of coffee to keep my brain working today, pretty early.
00:16:43.380So, that one is probably, arguably, the most convoluted of all of the questions that were
00:16:49.260asked. I think some people would read that and say, oh, they're asking for the right to take
00:16:55.360away health care education and social services that's not actually what it's asking but i i can
00:17:00.840understand how a very casual voter who doesn't understand this kind of thing might think that
00:17:06.540and then of course leftist voters who are just kind of voting straight down the ticket
00:17:10.300as they would perceive it pro canada anti-separatist that's how they would view it
00:17:15.480any of these questions asking uh you know saying we should have in the constitution more provincial
00:17:20.760autonomy over what we do in our own jurisdiction they would perceive that as uh separatist coded
00:17:26.140or something like that so you would have them voting against it plus i i do think you'd have
00:17:31.160some kind of middle of the road voters who are just kind of confused by this question um and
00:17:35.940then you know probably some people in the middle who actually maybe just just oppose that they think
00:17:39.780no the federal government does have a role in setting these kinds of things and if ottawa says
00:17:44.120this is how social programs work then that's just the way it's going to be so there's probably a
00:17:48.600combination of reasons for that. That being said, there's still a lot of votes to be counted in
00:17:55.260question eight. 587,000 counted so far. That one could go either way.
00:18:07.500All right, then we've got question nine. Thank you. I got my staff here doing God's work,
00:18:16.080bringing me espressos trying to pump me full of uh caffeine to get my brain up to half functional
00:18:24.120levels uh question nine asks if people support the government of alberta working with the other
00:18:31.040provinces to amend the constitution to better protect the rights provincial rights from federal
00:18:35.580interference by giving a province laws dealing with provincial or shared areas of constitutional
00:18:41.320jurisdiction priority over federal laws where the province's laws and federal laws conflict
00:18:45.940Again, a bit of a convoluted question. 547,000 votes counted so far on that question. 282,000 in support, 265,000 opposed.
00:19:07.600So those in support of amending the Constitution for that winning,
00:19:11.100but there's still a lot of votes to be counted on Question 9.
00:19:14.820So that one, there's still enough to go that it could still break another way.
00:19:22.680All right, I want to talk about how the vote's broken down so far by type of vote.
00:19:30.800We're going to pull up a graphic here.
00:19:33.180It focuses on question 10, but I think we could probably extrapolate fairly reasonably how this has affected other questions that were asked.
00:19:44.260John, let's pull up the graphic I sent you in WhatsApp there and non-text.
00:19:51.040This is question 10 by type of vote. Remain in Canada versus start separation referendum process.
00:19:57.040We're just going to pull that up right now.
00:19:58.560so okay you'll see the graphic in a moment but uh what's interesting so overall the results so far
00:20:07.380at least at the time of this snapshot was taken it's changed a bit it's moving about one percentage
00:20:12.700point for the pro independent side but uh at least when this was taken are we having trouble
00:20:18.740getting the graphic yeah okay uh i uh i sent it right to you yeah uh so uh this had 76 percent
00:20:33.220for the federalist side around uh 24 for the uh independent side of those who voted on election
00:20:42.660day this is very interesting those who just voted on election day the way most people used to vote
00:20:47.540until fairly recently 57 percent voted uh for the federalist cause 43 voted for independence
00:20:57.540so much much closer it would still be a win for the federalist side but it would be remarkably
00:21:02.820closer uh than it is but what what's going on this is a just a graphic i sent you can
00:21:40.340Okay. So, those who voted in the advanced polls, 72% voted remain, the Federalist side, 28% voted for independence. Special ballot. So, those are requested ballots. And this was about 313, a bit over 313.
00:22:06.140Okay, here we go. I'm going to start right at the top again. You see the overall results. Now, these ones are a little bit dated. The independent side has moved up a bit, but I think it's still close enough to where we're at right now that it's still a useful graphic.
00:22:19.480This has just under 77% for the Federalist side, 23.4% for the Independent side.
00:22:27.060Overall, total out of 1 million votes.
00:53:37.960all right uh cory morgan he's off to talk to the cbc he will be back with us uh and uh we've got
00:53:44.600we've got people trickling into the newsroom slowly but surely here to leave our graveyard shift
00:53:50.520um okay let's check in the results right now
00:53:59.400uh the results are stalling a little bit not a ton more boring in the past looking in
00:54:06.920so as cory and i were discussing the um mail-in ballots were overwhelming
00:54:16.860on uh the federalist side and against independence uh pushing independence into the single digits
00:54:23.540if you voted by mail in ballot that's a bit suspicious i don't know what it means uh do
00:54:31.720not mistake that for saying that there's a fraud or anything anything afoot there i'm just saying
00:54:37.640it's a massive deviation from the overall result particularly the election day but even the advanced
00:54:44.720reports uh and mail-in ballots are significantly more susceptible to fraud there is no evidence of
00:54:52.400fraud at this time though uh also keep in mind special ballots make up uh on the current camp
00:54:59.360uh just 8.3 of the ballots cast so it's uh it's a relatively small minority of it but it's a big
00:55:08.560it is still a sizable chunk and that has gone almost uniformly for the federalist side and
00:55:15.360i would imagine probably also for the pro-ottawa anti-constitutional reform and anti-immigration
00:55:21.680form side as well uh maybe not as straight down the line straight down the ticket but still
00:55:27.920significantly so uh let's see if we've got it up yet uh
00:55:39.600okay uh yeah we've also if if you've got your phone or your computer pretty you should check
00:55:45.200out the western city right now we've got the new story up on this the one for albertons thank you
00:55:50.800have uh voted for independence and at least eight of the nine other questions are likely to pass
00:55:57.120i'm going to go out on a limb and say probably all nine of those questions are going to pass
00:56:03.360because right now it's disproportionately uh ballots counted from uh the uh the mail-in
00:56:11.200ballots and that's going to juice the numbers in the pro audible side so i think that number
00:56:16.560is going to very possibly tilt back over to straight ticket uh in favor of the nine questions
00:56:25.440on immigration reform and constitutional amendments uh we'll see but we've also got
00:56:30.400our editorial up now um i want to talk about this actually a bit uh john let's go to the
00:56:37.200home page of the western standard bring up the editorial it's the second story down editorial
00:56:41.600independence for now let's uh let's bring that up i want to i want to talk to folks about that i
00:56:47.600think we've uh so myself uh this was a combined effort of our editorial board um where we've
00:56:57.600we were able to we had a pretty reasonable idea expecting how it's going to go we pre-wrote some
00:57:03.200of it we've uh we've uh we made sure we we made sure it was up to date and correct uh for the
00:57:11.120results as they've come in so we've you know we were working on it this morning uh led by our
00:57:15.600opinion editor chris old corner uh so the two big two big takeaways on the top line question
00:57:27.040albertans have rejected independence today
00:57:31.840and the independent side has to accept that yeah it was an unfair campaign the federalist campaign
00:57:39.760forever canada did not need to register they were able to uh solicit donations from any source they
00:57:46.480wanted any people they wanted no donation limits they could uh they solicited donations from
00:57:51.760outside of alberta possibly even outside because they were not elections did not require them to
00:57:57.280submit to any election finance law whatsoever and they were able to spend as much as they wanted
00:58:03.120and on whatever they want that being said we have to accept the result it is what it is
00:58:13.360uh the federalists they have to accept the result here too and the result is that they won
00:58:20.560but that this is also no longer able to be dismissed as a small fringe minority one in
00:58:27.920four albertans have voted for independence in the independence process that cannot be dismissed
00:58:36.480uh jason kenny and rachel notley have been going around uh arm in arm dismissing this as a tiny
00:58:44.160little fringe minority oh they get one or two percent well it's never been tested until now
00:58:49.440and at one in four albertans that means even if you are a staunch forever canada federalist
00:58:55.360and you think Ottawa should control everything, you voted against the nine.
00:59:00.400One in four Albertans voted for independence. That means if you know 10 people, at least one of them
00:59:08.160is going to have voted for independence. Also, independent supporters need to not be living in
00:59:15.280a bubble. I know a lot of independent supporters say, I don't know how this can fail. Everyone I
00:59:21.840know is voting for independence well that's not true as well you'll be surprised how many people
00:59:28.080still voted for the federalist cause um carney and smith both campaigned uh carney and paulia
00:59:41.120campaigned against it um but while paulia was here i saw him speak uh it was uh i think right
00:59:50.160at right before the debate i did with kenny on independence here also the peace party and elan
00:59:55.120harper uh he told albertans not to vote for independence but he was silent on the nine
01:00:02.000questions and he will no support whatsoever for constitutional reform the conservatives have to
01:00:09.040take a very deep work here because if 25 percent of albertans have voted for independence and
01:00:14.720roughly half of Albertans are conservatives, that means half of conservative voters have
01:00:20.400voted for independence and probably almost all conservative voters voted to perform the
01:00:25.600constitution. The conservatives should no longer be allowed to get away with taking
01:00:32.480the votes of Albertans for granted. The liberals need our money, the conservatives need our votes,
01:00:37.680but what do the conservatives do to earn our votes? Precious little sometimes.
01:00:42.640fair they have supported pipelines and you know they were against things like the west coast tanker
01:00:49.780ban when that was all the rage and eastern canada liberals they were on the right side of that but
01:00:56.580the conservatives campaigned in the last election explicitly on a promise to keep equalization
01:01:01.620intact they have explicitly rejected ever changing the constitution well if the conservatives
01:01:10.240federally want to continue to have the support of Albertans. This is going to need to change.
01:01:16.360The conservatives are going to have to stop taking Alberta for granted. And if they do not stop
01:01:22.580taking Alberta for granted, Albertans, Alberta conservatives, are no longer obligated by some
01:01:29.620sense of unity, you know, unite the right, keeping things together, if the conservatives don't get
01:01:34.980the conservatives are a federal party they're a federalist federal party they're not independent
01:01:41.940so any of you who are upset at polio for opposing independence uh give your head a bit he's trying
01:01:46.900to be prime minister he doesn't he's not trying to be prime minister he's trying to be prime minister
01:01:53.220that's what he's and until a year ago represented in ontario constituency so give your head but
01:02:00.660But it's a federalist party at the federal level, but it has an obligation to represent its voters, and its core voters are in Alberta, Saskatchewan, Interior, British Columbia, rural Manitoba, rural Ontario.
01:04:06.800You're going to hear, if you haven't already, some people in the independence movement are going to say, time for another referendum right away.1.00
01:04:57.260So there is a victory of a kind here for the independent side.
01:05:01.620A message has been sent, not as strongly as independent supporters have wanted,
01:05:08.040but a big message has been sent nonetheless.
01:05:10.620us but those who are saying we need another referendum right now uh i think it would make uh
01:05:18.780everybody we're gonna bring in chris old corn actually very soon here uh john he says he's
01:05:22.700ready so let's get him right up ready up in the queue let me know when he's ready
01:05:28.140uh but uh if you go straight to another referendum right now it would make the movement look silly
01:05:36.460like what would be the point of it lucerne who led the quebec referendum in 1935 well he took
01:05:45.020over from jacques perizot's efforts were faltering uh he became quebec premier right after the 95
01:05:54.060referendum and he wanted to hold the third referendum but he said he would only do so
01:05:58.700under winning circumstances and winning circumstances for me mean first exhausting
01:06:06.540every other possible option to reform the canadian federation before in the question
01:06:12.140of independence to albertans i've always believed that was the right thing so as i as i said earlier
01:06:17.100mccorry and i've said many many times over the last decade albertans should not be voting on
01:06:22.380independence until they first voted on good faith constitutional reforms for the canadian federation
01:06:31.020and wait for those reforms to be turned down after good faith attacks the past
01:06:37.820well albertans it appears again it's not 100 yet but it appears albertans have voted for
01:06:44.860constitutional reform they did not choose independence but they chose constitutional
01:06:49.100reform in some cases by a pretty large margin
01:06:54.540now it is the job premier danielle smith to advance the constitutional amendments that
01:07:01.740albertans have supported uh last night and this morning and to make progress on that0.99
01:07:11.580if she cannot she's going to have a real problem she has put all of her eggs in the constitutional0.97
01:07:18.700over if she had decided to advance that first and then have an independence question later i think0.99
01:07:29.180she'd be in a stronger position but by doing it at the same time i think it undermines her
01:07:34.300but she is now going to need to show she can deliver some results
01:07:40.300and i'm frankly a bit skeptical i'm a lot skeptical but i hope i'm i've always believed
01:07:46.140that reforming canada is better than independence as cool as independence might be you know i still
01:07:54.220feel very deeply canadian i just feel we've lost our country and our country isn't capable of
01:07:58.540reforming itself and i pray to god maybe i am but uh now the mandate is for alberta's
01:08:06.380government to advance constitutional reforms that means getting mostly other provinces and
01:08:10.540audible onside and we should all wish the alberta premier genuine good luck in that
01:08:21.260but if smith cannot successfully achieve any constitutional amendment within the next year
01:08:33.980then then i think she's faced with either going to have to support independence herself
01:08:40.540Or move on. I know some say she's move on right now. I don't. I think that's I think that's chuffing the gun. I think that's chuffing the gun. I don't. I think it'd be far too disruptive right now to push Smith out. We do. Alberta conservatives do this all the time. And I've been a big part of that.0.61
01:09:06.100But keep in mind, the Federalists hate Danielle Smith right now. The leftist ones and a lot of the establishment conservative ones hate Danielle Smith because she allowed this referendum, period.0.80
01:09:20.140you. I don't think he would have gotten a referendum with any other Premier, any other
01:09:26.700Conservative leader. She gave you something. I don't think she did it right. I think it
01:09:31.580was clumsy. I think it was Aspen Edwards voting on constitutional amendments on the exact
01:09:35.380same day, the exact same ballot box as constitutional amendments. They should have been one before
01:09:42.080the other amendments and then independence if the amendments fail uh but i uh she gave more
01:09:51.120than you would have gotten from anyone else and i think that simply replacing the premier putting
01:09:58.240something else in there uh i don't think would have uh necessarily resulted it is going to result
01:10:04.240in anything better in fact it would probably just result in a bigger defeat and then finally
01:10:11.120an NDP government in law. So the priority now needs to be giving her a chance, as unlikely
01:10:20.160as I think she is to succeed, giving her a chance to advance constitutional amendments
01:10:24.780with the other provinces and with Ottawa, and wishing her sincere good luck in doing
01:10:30.260so, as steep as those odds are going to be, and focusing on defeating the NDP in the next
01:10:36.720election now all of that is contingent on daniel smith uh acting in good phase with
01:10:44.880independent supporters if there's substantial indication that he's following the advice of
01:10:50.480jason penny and purging independent supporters from the ucb all bets are off and some of them0.99
01:10:56.680are assholes i know some of them are definitely assholes but don't harder them don't give them0.99
01:12:54.700I mean, a lot of the issues that are affecting Alberta, I mean, it's also affecting us here in Saskatchewan, are dealt in those nine questions.
01:13:03.940But the real hard part now is how is Daniel Smith going to go about trying to change some of those things?
01:13:12.040And right now, it looks like it's going to be around 24%, 25% for an independence.
01:13:19.100This was a referendum, to have a referendum on independence.
01:13:22.600But it looks like it's going to be around a quarter of the voters are dissatisfied as being part of Canada.
01:13:29.920And that's a very strong message to send to Ottawa.
01:13:33.140And it's one that Danielle Smith is going to have to figure out how is she going to make sure that Ottawa hears it
01:13:38.140and try and make some of the changes that the electorate has now told her that they want changed.
01:13:47.600um and so I think it's definitely a decisive moment in Alberta history um people have spoken
01:13:55.640they're very unhappy with a lot of what's going on in Ottawa but not quite unhappy enough to
01:14:01.840actually want to like go and create their own independent country yet um as Cory's been saying
01:14:25.620And as you guys have already said, like, inside the UCP,
01:14:29.880it's probably at least half the party.
01:14:32.580And we're going into, you know, Alberta election in 2027.
01:14:37.400So Daniel's going to have to figure out a way to keep everybody happy and keep them in the tent and ignore Jason Kenney and his purge independence supporters from the UCP, which is like literally like, why don't you just hand the keys over to Nenshi now?
01:14:56.520I mean, it's his viewpoint of kicking people out is ridiculous.0.98
01:15:01.220I mean, we've had a couple, obviously, a couple, you know, opinion stories on how stupid Kenny's comments are and how just out in left field he is.0.99
01:15:13.140I mean, he was the guy that helped create the, and I quote, united conservative party.0.96
01:15:19.360And now he wants to disunite it and literally open the door for the NDP to walk into the premier's office and the legislature with the majority, which is exactly the opposite of almost every single thing that this entire referendum was about.
01:15:37.500I mean, this was about, like, the Conservatives in Alberta are saying loud and clearly that they're not happy with Canada.
01:15:47.960But that doesn't mean you purge them from the political party that represents Conservatives in the province of Alberta.0.87
01:16:02.580uh maybe you marked yourself down to the saskatchewan legislature today uh and asked
01:16:08.180scott moe for his reaction particularly to the nine questions and if saskatchewan is now going
01:16:14.740to formally back alberta's call for constitutional reforms here um i mean saskatchewan is a pretty
01:16:22.660minimum bar to meet for alberta like if we can't get saskatchewan on side uh we're not we're not
01:16:28.660going anywhere. I suspect the Saskatchewan government is probably sympathetic to these
01:16:34.660nine questions, and the four in particular dealing with constitutional amendments. What do you expect
01:16:42.100the reaction of the Mill government to be there in Saskatchewan? Well, independent support in
01:16:48.580Saskatchewan is actually higher in the polls than it is in Alberta. We've had polls showing as high
01:16:55.220as 35% of people in Saskatchewan are interested in pursuing independence and leaving Canada.
01:17:03.940So the support here is actually pretty good. Now the question is, kind of funny that you mentioned
01:17:09.640Scott Moe, he's in presently in the Saskatchewan Witness Protection Program because no one knows
01:17:15.580where he is. He has not been in Regina for at least approximately, I'm going to say at least
01:17:22.220four months at this point um i'm told he works out of the saskatoon cabinet office but um yeah he's
01:17:29.800uh trying to find scott moe right now is is like trying to find waldo uh it's
01:17:36.740it i'm not sure what the thinking is with the sas party right now in the government but yeah
01:17:44.240it's fun times i will reach out to them and see if i can get scott moe on something but
01:17:49.080well if not scott no uh someone someone from the saskatchewan government's going to have a
01:17:53.400reaction to this today uh i did find it interesting that uh mark carney when he was uh
01:18:00.440you know giving he gave a speech i think one in calgary one in red here one in edmonton
01:18:04.760uh telling albertans to vote against independence but he also he did not make this a highlight but
01:18:10.040he did speak against nine questions immigration reform which is interesting and he uh spoke
01:18:15.960against the four constitutional amendment questions so he was saying right out of the
01:18:20.600gate don't vote for independence and also don't get any funny ideas about actually fixing this
01:18:25.960country to make it acceptable to albert um but now that the results are well the results aren't
01:18:33.720final yet but uh the results uh the preliminary results are pointing towards most if not all but
01:18:40.680at least most of the constitutional amendment questions passing and that becoming a political
01:18:45.480fact, it'll be interesting to see what his reaction will be. You know, what do you think
01:18:53.000the chances are that, you know, Mark Kearney wakes up, I guess it's 8 o'clock in the morning
01:19:00.040in Ottawa now, so they're probably awake there, but he looks at this and says, okay, Albertans
01:19:05.980voted against the independents, but one in four are ready to leave right now, but a majority
01:19:11.340of albertans have voted for these constitutional amendments it's clear that a lot of people are
01:19:16.140unhappy but most still want to try to fix canada before actually pulling the nuclear the trigger
01:19:22.940on the nuclear option maybe it is time to reopen the constitution um what do you think the chances
01:19:30.700of that are reopening the constitution probably zero carney being open to it carney being open to
01:19:39.260it he might be open to it but even if we did the the way the changes have to be made in terms of
01:19:47.020how many provinces have to agree and and things along that line so i don't think that it can
01:19:53.180change and and a lot of the issues that are on those nine questions carney and his government
01:20:02.540have signaled the complete opposite of what people of alberta been been saying over the last
01:20:09.26024 hours and it's just like his government like he did that uh interview with the new york times
01:20:17.280talking about increasing immigration again well they don't even fix the problems from the immigration
01:20:21.300that they did under trudeau and then the other day in the house of commons they said they're
01:20:26.440going to ramp up immigration again um which is exactly the opposite of of what people in alberta
01:20:35.000want. So I mean I only see independence growing at this point because the federal government is
01:20:44.920putting in policies and their actions are the exact opposite of what the people of Alberta want.
01:20:50.520And the interesting part here is they might not have voted for independence like in this referendum
01:20:56.920But they voted for policies that are, sorry, they voted, the nine questions they voted on, they're all questions related to unhappiness with Ottawa, essentially.
01:21:11.120And so they've sent the message quite clearly that they're unhappy with how Ottawa's operating.
01:21:17.600and so if this referendum happened five years from now i wouldn't be surprised if you know
01:21:23.600they had on another 10 to 15 percent uh because there'll be another five years of ottawa doing
01:21:29.000the exact opposite of what people in alberta want um and mark carney needs to start listening
01:21:35.020yeah he's going to have a real problem yeah i definitely agree with that obvious derrick had
01:21:42.240to step out for a minute i'm josh andrus director of operations uh happy to be back on the air
01:21:47.140yeah i was uh i was going until 3 a.m so uh i am running on fumes right now i just started the
01:21:54.100coffee i've got a mcconnell's order arriving in three minutes i'm gonna have to get someone from
01:21:59.380the office to run down and get him so it's a bit hectic down here but uh one of the number uh
01:22:04.740votes we've been watching all night and i'm not sure if derek had a chance to get into it with you
01:22:09.860but it was uh question number eight uh which is uh should the alberta government
01:22:15.220blah blah like it was very long-winded it was very complicated question i don't know if that
01:22:19.780played into the results at all but i think last i checked we were at 47 yes 52 no so the purpose
01:22:27.480of this question is to seek the approval of albertans to uh opt out of federal programs
01:22:36.640such as the health care transfer and other social transfers effectively without a mandate on this
01:22:46.420it's going to be difficult uh the vote totals uh look pretty rural uh heavily heavily rural
01:22:55.000uh in terms of the yes vote on opting out of these federal programs and that's basically a
01:23:00.420function of the fact that we pay 15 percent of all federal taxes that are collected are collected
01:23:04.400from alberta and they send us back only 11 so the health care transfer we get short changed
01:23:09.820how do you think smith moves forward given the rural urban divide on this question and the
01:23:16.360chance that there is no mandate on question number eight
01:23:22.080um there seems to be strong support in alberta for their own police force for example uh i know
01:23:31.460here in Saskatchewan, we've started to look at creating our own, basically a Saskatchewan
01:23:37.060revenue agency. And I mean, 47, like, let's say it stays at 47%. That's still basically
01:23:46.300almost half of Albertans want the provincial government to pursue, you know, independent
01:23:55.800programs and get opted of some of the federal ones. And I'm, you know, I'm, I can't prove this,
01:24:05.400but I'm guessing that most of the 47% are probably UCP voters. So Smith can still take that as being
01:24:13.220like, you know, most of her party probably wants the provincial government to opt out of multiple
01:24:20.620federal programs uh so overall with everybody voting in the province it's you know didn't pass
01:24:29.660by three percent but i'm betting within the ucp you know it was probably 85 90 percent voted for
01:24:36.740it um so that's still somewhat of a mandate uh from the people who are the ones that are putting
01:24:43.500danielle smith into the premier's office and putting the ucp candidates uh into the alberta
01:26:08.540Um, like, the MOU to me, the Memorandum of Understanding concerned me because it was kind of a, you know, how far is the Alberta government willing to go to prove how patriotic it is?
01:26:24.840I guess the question is, how do I phrase this?
01:26:31.380Do you, like, I know how we think Smith should handle it.
01:26:37.180Will she, you know, say, look, we lost question eight, let's drop the entire fiscal imbalance discussion, or do they seek a different path in dealing with this?
01:26:50.280Because the fiscal imbalances is the biggest grievance, at least in my opinion, with the federal government.
01:26:56.340Yeah, I mean, I think she has to move forward slightly on question eight.
01:27:02.220And the difference between rural and urban, you know, that plays out across Canada.
01:27:09.920You see that in Ontario where, you know, like the ridings around Toronto can go conservative, but inside Toronto, they're mainly liberal.
01:27:16.900And, you know, I don't think Danielle Smith really has to look at pleasing people in downtown Redmonton.
01:27:22.820You know, so she needs to please the voters who are going to vote for her.1.00
01:27:28.680You know, most rural writings are conservative across the country, but especially in Alberta.0.80
01:27:35.000So she has to please the voters who are voting for her.
01:27:39.820The chance of a UCP candidate winning in downtown Edmonton is probably as close to zero as you can get.
01:27:48.300Unless for some reason the UCP ran a socialist candidate in that in that writing for some reason.
01:27:53.920But I highly doubt it. That would be that would be a little off brand.
01:27:58.680It might even hurt them in other writings if they did do something like that.
01:28:03.580But, you know, basically there's going to be an Alberta election in the next year.
01:28:11.080And Smith, between now and then, has to figure out how to make sure she keeps the coalition of UCP voters,0.51
01:28:16.960both ones who support independence and ones that don't, in the tent.0.99
01:28:21.020It needs to stay as a big tent conservative party to keep the NDP out.
01:28:26.200And we know the NDP will be a complete disaster.
01:28:28.120they were the last time they were in uh and this independence thing is not something that can just
01:28:34.760be pushed under a rug and the whole opting out of federal programs and things like that can't be
01:28:39.960pushed under the rug either because almost 50 have said they they want it we'll see what the final
01:28:44.920number is who knows it could actually even be closer it might go up to 49 you know like i mean
01:28:51.040that was the one i mean last night we were watching the results come in and i've obviously
01:28:57.440there was the letdown uh when they announced uh they put the numbers out on the independence
01:29:03.280uh question but that was one that it it it the gap is pretty narrow and it's it it was all it
01:29:11.540was narrow all through the night like it started out like there's a pretty big gap between yes and
01:29:16.400no a bit heavier i'd say maybe 55 45 but by the time i went to i i signed off the air here at
01:29:24.180three o'clock that was flipping back and forth so i how much vote is there still to come in
01:29:31.860uh i'm just looking right now um 77 has come in so far okay so 23 that haven't come in and
01:29:44.500it's it's actually i was just looking through the 10 questions here
01:29:47.700most of the questions were very decisively yes um this it only looks like the little
01:29:56.180seven eight and nine were the ones that were close at all um the other ones are are pretty
01:30:03.460decisive like you know over a hundred thousand difference yeah the constitutional questions being
01:30:09.720close uh i found that interesting especially when you juxtaposition that with the results from the
01:30:16.780equalization referendum just five years ago uh pretty much it might have even been on the same
01:30:21.780day in 2021 uh actually no i think it was october 21st but five years ago alberta voted to remove
01:30:30.340the principle to seek the removal of the principle of equalization we're not talking about the
01:30:35.540formula itself the formula is not in the constitution but just to remove the principle
01:30:40.400of equalization from the constitution and just five years later uh a lot of these questions are
01:30:47.740close on the 50 50 scale so to me that's it's a fascinating uh kind of uh way to look at these
01:31:00.160like the shift in i don't know i don't know it is it a shift in in voter demographics um
01:31:07.200Or do you think that Mark Carney has managed to change the horse for the federal liberals has made the difference here?
01:31:20.880Well, I think anything that Trudeau would have said on anything would not be popular in Alberta.
01:31:26.800Mark Carney has seemingly been able to, I mean, he resurrected the Trudeau liberals from, you know, they were going to be completely wiped out before Carney came in as leader.
01:31:41.620And it looks like, for the time being, some Albertans are buying into Carney's message.
01:31:50.840The question is, Kearney so far has been riding on, you know, principles, not actual results.
01:32:00.180You know, look at the MOU for the pipeline.
01:32:03.340Like, the chances, I don't think that pipeline's ever going to be built, but he's done just enough to try and get people in Alberta to think that they'll actually get another pipeline.
01:32:13.840uh carney sort of being from alberta might help him a bit a little with uh getting voters in
01:32:22.620alberta because it tends to be that you know the province and or city that the prime minister's
01:32:30.640from gets a little bit of a bump because you know he's the hometown boy who became prime minister
01:32:36.420right like so there's all these other little factors that go into it but it but he he seems
01:32:42.500to be able to get more Albertans to buy in to his party than Trudeau.
01:32:51.620I mean, by the time Trudeau was done, I mean, he couldn't even fly over Alberta,
01:32:56.440never mind put his feet on the ground.
01:32:59.660Carney came, did multiple rallies to push for the Federalist side.
01:33:07.340and obviously some Albertans are listening to him
01:33:12.860and some of them are believing what's coming out of his mouth
01:33:16.620however he is starting to get to the point in his prime ministership
01:33:20.960where he can talk about what he wants to do
01:33:28.540but now we need to start to see the results of that
01:33:32.520so it would be interesting to see what happens when those results don't happen
01:33:36.320uh because i think a lot of what he has said and talked about uh he's not able to back up um and
01:33:44.900if we don't get a trade deal with the u.s that's going to be a major you know it's going to be a
01:33:51.860major negative on his uh time as prime minister and depending on what happens he might only be
01:33:58.440a one-term prime minister if he doesn't get a free trade deal done with the u.s well in the
01:34:03.020The trade situation, I'm glad you brought that up, actually, because it is a fascinating one if you look at the situation.
01:34:10.040You have an economy in Ontario that is heavily reliant on an automotive sector, especially a lot of the small, I think it's a small, not necessarily the full vehicle, but the parts that go into that are manufactured.
01:34:33.020And industry, for that matter, the U.S. trade where the tariffs have almost directly been targeting that, whereas Alberta has been relatively not touched.
01:34:46.480And Carney, to his credit in the last couple of months, has said that he isn't openly considering it, but he's written books in which he has effectively demonized the oil and gas industry in Alberta.
01:35:00.360Do you think that now that the referendum is over and Albertans have so overwhelmingly opted in to Confederation that his attitude might change?
01:35:11.460Or is it one of those things where it's this is working up in the polls so dramatically that he just continues to leave oil and gas off the table?
01:35:21.900yeah i mean right now saskatchewan and alberta um there hasn't been much impact to the economy
01:35:30.600here uh in the trade war with the u.s because the u.s they need new oil from alberta and the u.s
01:35:37.320farmers need the potash from saskatchewan so they've been largely untouched in the whole
01:35:42.480tariff war but i grew up in ontario uh specifically in areas where uh cars are manufactured
01:35:50.480And like, for example, Honda doesn't make all the parts to their car.
01:35:56.600They, you know, they have a supplier that does the seats.
01:35:58.680They have a supplier that does the steering wheels.
01:36:01.180And some of those suppliers are in Canada and some are in Michigan and Ohio and upper New York state as well.
01:36:09.300And so the average car, the parts for a car, you know, go back and forth over the border like 300 times plus on every single car.
01:36:19.500So you have the big car company names that you, you know, you go to the dealership of, but almost everything that's made inside that car, all the parts came from other manufacturers who specialize in making only that part.
01:36:36.460And so if Kearney can't fix Ontario and the automotive industry,
01:36:43.380there's only one option for the car manufacturers,
01:36:47.020and that is to make 100% of the car in the U.S.,
01:36:52.680and it is a massive negative for Ontario specifically.
01:36:57.540So if Carney can kind of get some sort of trade deal done, it might not be as, let's say, as good as the previous ones.
01:37:13.100But if he doesn't get one done, period, it's going to drastically affect the Ontario economy, which is that also means that more money will have to come from Alberta to pay for programs in Ontario.
01:37:24.140that's the that's the part that i think should be most concerning to albertans is that if carney
01:37:32.180can't fix the problems with trade specifically for ontario it's going to mean more money leaving
01:37:39.420alberta and going to other provinces to pay for programs specifically a lot of that money is going
01:37:46.360to have to go to ontario yeah that's where i think because equalization payments is one of the biggest
01:37:53.500part to this entire independence referendum is how much money are we sending to ottawa we had a
01:37:58.220story the other day uh from lenny kaplan who used to be in the finance department for the alberti
01:38:02.380government and he did the calculations between now and 2050 and just given the current situation
01:38:12.780ottawa between now and 2050 will send 900 billion dollars more to ottawa than they'll get back but
01:38:19.660But that analysis was based on the current scenario, not problems in Ontario and manufacturing because that would require even more than $900 billion sent to Ottawa that's not coming back to Ontario to help, to Alberta, to help Ontario out.
01:38:38.720And that, I think, is a number that is quite shocking because it could reach a trillion dollars if Ontario manufacturing collapses.
01:38:48.180Because we're not just talking auto. There's other industries as well in Ontario for manufacturing that are also having issues.
01:38:56.200For example, look at the whole Stelco thing that's back with the bottle that's going on now.
01:39:01.460Which, yeah, so it's not just autos. You're dealing with a steel industry as well that's massive, particularly in the Hamilton area.
01:39:11.040I mean, I grew up in Ontario. Everybody calls Hamilton steel town.
01:39:14.040because like half the people there have some their job has some connection to steel and there's
01:39:20.540tariffs on steel so this is it's if the auto industry collapses and the steel industry
01:39:27.820collapses in ontario it's the economic outlook for canada becomes even worse than it already is
01:39:34.840i think that's what a lot of people's concerns were during the campaign obviously you had the
01:39:42.240entire establishment from the prime minister's office to the alberta government sans one uh the
01:39:50.540federal conservative party was on board the provincial ndp uh was pro-unity the business
01:39:58.240community almost to a entirety including the calgary chamber of commerce was against this
01:40:05.020if this goes the way that it could go and donald trump puts the screws to the rest of the
01:40:12.200country how likely do you think it is that mark carney either puts an export tax on canada's oil
01:40:20.100and gas or um create some kind of a national energy program 2.0 designed specifically to
01:40:29.120tax albertans more than they spend in alberta so that they can offset shortfalls in other parts of
01:40:36.000the country? Practically speaking, I think it's the only way the Canadian government would be
01:40:45.120able to afford the programs that they have in place. If they can't get a deal done and it
01:40:52.720collapses, then Canada's in a very bad place, which means they're going to have to figure out
01:40:57.740some way to generate more revenue. And Alberta seems to be the cash cow that
01:41:03.900it looks like they might actually, you know, put even more taxes and fees in place.
01:41:13.260And all of that also works negatively against industry in Alberta.
01:41:21.320The more you put in regulations and taxes and fees,
01:41:25.060the less likely you're going to get more investment into Alberta.
01:41:28.860And right now we need investment across the country.
01:41:31.500We need to be actually making Canada much more competitive.
01:41:35.880I mean, the tax competitive survey report came out, I think it was yesterday.
01:41:43.140Canada's way down the list in terms of tax competitiveness.
01:41:47.560That report looks at the 38 OECD countries, and Canada was like 18th.
01:41:55.320Not a position you wanted to be in, and they were particularly bad on business taxes
01:55:29.420Yeah, there's quite a large number of people
01:55:31.280So we would give it away for free. I am surprised.
01:55:34.280You know, I've been saying since all these ballot measures were announced, I've been saying for a long time that I think that because it's in the ballot,
01:55:44.560at the same time as the independence question, you're going to get a lot of hard lines, particularly on the left, voting the straight ticket.
01:55:51.640they see it as uh you know if you vote against independence you should therefore you're voting
01:56:00.260for canada voting for canada means you vote against all provincial powers you vote against
01:56:05.120all these migrations good canada support open borders and that's migration as they would
01:56:11.060perceive it so i think because of that you're going to get higher levels of support even though
01:56:16.880those sides are going to lose on those counts, it's artificially going to juice the losing side of the nine questions.
01:56:24.880Well, and the other way to look at it is 390,453 people think that the 528,815 people voted in support of this reference in question are all racist.
01:56:38.880So, I'm surprised that I was beginning to bring it up earlier, but that was a big talking point that I saw from a lot of the notes.
01:56:49.180Well, there you're talking about, I think, when you were voting on your video, you'd never have a good idea.
01:56:53.840No, you were talking about the number of 30.
01:56:57.200Actually, that one is even more decisively headed for a corruption history.
01:57:01.720So that is, should the government of Alberta have a law requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship,
01:57:06.920such as a passport birth certificate or citizenship card to vote in a alberta potential election
01:57:12.840oh number is just updated now 839 840 we'll call it thousand dollars counted 529 000
01:57:21.400for the measure just 310 000 against um so a lot of races in albert yeah 64 percent of albertans
01:57:31.080It actually harks back to your comment
01:58:21.020Well, let's say I'm going to look at them.1.00
01:58:24.400We're trying to fight putting citizenship markers
01:58:28.440on the driver's license oh yeah because apparently my marginalized communities do not have birth
01:58:38.760certificates or any other pieces of information that can identify themselves well that's what
01:58:48.360they were saying i'm not saying i agree with them but uh yeah that's how that was recent
01:58:53.720yeah okay uh we'll go to the next question uh these are so the next ones are all constitutional
01:58:59.000amendments you know if you think they're gonna pass they get a bridge to sell you like if you
01:59:05.320think like lots of the concert should not actually get changed but this is how albertans have voted
01:59:09.880for them and i wish the block um so uh question six you know should the government of alberto
01:59:18.920to amend the Canadian Constitution to have provincial governments not the federal government
01:59:24.680select justices appointed to the provincial king's bench and appeal courts uh 818 000
01:59:33.400votes counted so far this one's fairly close i mean it's i don't know why it was but the pro
01:59:40.280again the pro side is likely to pull ahead uh further here as actual election day voting day
01:59:56.760I mean, just as an aside on that, it was a federally appointed judge who actually declared,
02:00:18.760in my view wrongly, but that's for the legal eagles to sort out, declared that the original
02:00:25.940referendum question which the government was putting was a constitution to the just to the
02:00:33.860general point that judges determine who we're going to be where what we think and how we're
02:00:41.220going to be governed to a degree that most people don't realize you hear about judicial activism
02:00:45.860well okay that exists but under the way the constitution is worded they actually do have the
02:00:52.180the task of keeping Canada's laws in what be considered in accordance with the current point
02:00:58.460of view. So when you get federally appointed judges, you are getting the federal point of
02:01:02.640view inserted into Alberta's life in politics. We may not necessarily want that. In fact,
02:01:08.780I'd argue strongly that we don't. That animated a lot of the people who said, you know, let's
02:01:13.820leave. So that's an interesting thing that half the people still seem to think that it's a good
02:01:18.940idea to have a lot of appointed judges setting the tone for politics in the
02:01:23.660overtures, disproportionately at least, the ones, non-parallel, disproportionately ones,
02:01:29.580who are saying, oh, we're going to need a classic jail sentence so you don't get deported.
02:01:34.860Yeah, well, that's, that is guidance from the center. That's, they don't make this up on the floor.
02:01:40.940Well, to add to that, we have a revolving door bail policy that has effectively been brought on by a whole bunch of liberal justices ruling that reasonable bail is an intelligent term to letting people out of jail.
02:01:57.860Like me, you can commit a crime at breakfast and be out by noon to commit another crime to be out by supper.
02:02:03.980Like, it is a, it's, yeah, I was surprised it was as close as it was.
02:02:13.280Again, the mail-in ballots are a definitively factor here.
02:02:17.460But, yeah, like, that's been a huge issue.
02:02:22.000I think maybe, like, just how closely they were tied to attempting to shut the referendum
02:10:14.220Now, again, because of the way the different kinds of voting are skewed, the pro-provincial Alberta side of the libertarian,
02:10:23.360I would expect that side to grow in its margin over the more pro-federal control side.
02:10:31.220Now, that one's actually very bold. I would certainly have a problem with it where, you know, we're talking about exclusive areas of provincial jurisdiction, but where they actually, you know, in shared areas, that's actually very bold to say, no, the provinces should trump.
02:10:47.260And I'm actually not even positive that's a good thing, because you could have areas dealing with permitting pipelines that is shared jurisdiction.
02:10:55.860It could be B.C. that actually have an easier chance legally to veto, say, a pipeline through B.C.
02:11:04.680Either way, it is still on track to win at that point.
02:11:08.840So one thing that has bugged me this entire time is Section 121 of the Constitution effectively creates an environment where there should be unrestricted free trade across Canada.
02:11:25.220about it in the constitution but we've had activists and federal judges over the years
02:11:30.140dating back to the 1920s that have ruled effectively that these trade restrictions
02:11:37.320are not just legal but they're part of the canadian society we now have a situation so this
02:11:44.720is this one is kind of you go back to the last 10 years the federal government has been used
02:11:50.940shared jurisdiction through environment which is shared jurisdiction between provinces and
02:11:57.580the federal government to basically you know waylay all uh all construction and so on and so
02:12:06.700forth of any energy project again this one where i look at the wording how long it is and think
02:12:13.420meg i don't know how many people actually because it's yeah it's a very convoluted question but for
02:12:22.300someone who's been paying attention for you know as long as i have i i understood it but for the
02:12:28.140average voter of the you know 3.6 million voters or however many people end up voting today or
02:12:35.420yesterday i think it's a convoluted question i think it was a hard sell but again all the
02:12:40.380constitutional questions have been very very close so uh it'll be interesting to see how
02:12:47.420these play out in the next few hours it is because all the migration questions are stumping
02:12:55.740there's and i should say something considering we have so many migrants in alberta and in canada
02:13:01.580even here in alberta we have got a lot with i i need to we don't do exit polling here it's actually
02:13:08.860illegal in canada because you're not allowed to ask them how they voted within like 100 meters
02:13:13.420i think that's because that's really insightful data that you get from from the united states
02:13:18.060from the united kingdom from france from germany and you can really figure out why did this group
02:13:22.220vote this way how did this group vote it helps you better predict what the results are going
02:13:25.820to be early so you don't have to wait literally 24 hours like we're doing now uh but you can also
02:13:30.860understand why things why you got the result that you did and so i don't know does this mean that
02:13:38.860a lot of migrants who are citizens are voting similar to the native-born Alberta population,
02:13:46.540or does this mean that the native-born Alberta population is voting
02:13:50.380through probably one way? We don't know that for sure. Either way,
02:13:57.180huge majorities of Albertans voted for the migration questions. So if we take, you know,
02:14:04.300question one uh 56 question two 57 question three 58 question four 57 question five 63
02:14:16.140that's a really racist one we have to have an id to vote everyone's totally racist so uh0.92
02:14:24.460again i always said like this is stupid why are we even voting on these ones that people0.99
02:14:27.260clearly support it implement the damn policies already so one way or another daniel smith like0.99
02:14:33.340passed that yesterday that might be bill one uh i mean they go back october the 20th something0.98
02:14:43.100next week when do they go back uh soon yeah they gotta sound back right right away maybe that is
02:14:49.100bill one um like she's gonna need to do something when you get numbers at 63 that is it especially0.96
02:14:57.180with voter turnout the way it is in this election like that is an absolute mandate
02:15:01.420um i think that she's gonna have to push hard on it but then again immigration is is not provincial
02:15:08.780jurisdiction so but it's fair enough it's very good yeah but uh the question and you've got a
02:15:16.140question nine is uh is you know it's 50 in favor of uh shared jurisdiction yeah so yeah it'll be
02:15:27.420interesting i'd like to do a breakdown of like exactly where people voted uh for question nine
02:15:33.420i know you can't do that i don't have my computer in front of me so i can't do it here but
02:15:37.660um yeah she has a mandate to move on this she can do it right away and i think she should do it0.93
02:15:44.140because she needs to find that unit something that unifies uh some subsection because the
02:15:51.420independence vote comes in pretty low so she's and i think that more out in the ucp is low i think
02:15:59.980right now the poll numbers have about 50 50 uh for the p i don't think that's you know i think
02:16:05.980there's a lot of conservative voters that are not impressed with smith both on the independent side
02:16:11.740and non-federal side so she's going to need that policy that creates a vision of alberta that
02:16:19.340people will get behind so yeah absolutely and that's actually where she came in three years
02:16:25.660ago it's with a strong pro-alberta sovereign first act was the sovereignty act uh and this
02:16:32.620is is the saving grace of this whole thing it does come out of it something that she
02:16:38.700i want to just take you up on the point when you said that uh the
02:29:00.280And I think there was a deliberate attempt for the early parts of the movement to stay leaderless.
02:29:07.460I'd say officially we're still leaderless, but the population, the membership, the medias have kind of migrated towards Keith, and Keith surfaced to the top, I agree.
02:29:19.280And the movement can never really go forward until somebody is the leader.
02:29:24.780I mean, how can you follow six different people?
02:29:27.300We were going to need a leader for the next phase, no matter what, no matter what, yeah.
02:30:07.220The more Keith comes, the more Mr. Rath comes out strongly against Danielle,
02:30:12.840I think the bigger the sympathy reaction for Danielle.
02:30:15.820I agree, dude. Actually, that's kind of where I was going, is that there's an argument within the movement that some individuals caused more harm to your ability to make the case for independence.
02:30:30.460uh they uh whether it's fair or unfair is is a secondary question but is were those guys
02:30:42.260an albatross around the independence movement's neck and now that the results are in how much
02:30:49.160credibility do you think that uh wilson or not wilson uh wrath and sylvester have to speak on
02:30:55.460behalf of people like you ah wow that's a okay well that's the elephant in the room this week
02:31:02.120i think so first of all i i i gotta preface it this way we definitely owe those gentlemen
02:31:10.160a big thank you like uh keith i'm sorry jeff rath and mitch sylvester they got us the referendum
02:31:18.880in fact i mean the referendum is that to me was a consolation prize the one we got but you know
02:31:24.680they've been at this for a long time i mean i was at an i was at a rally last year in on at the
02:31:30.680legislature and the the idea of a referendum was an idea the fact that we had one was impressive
02:31:37.520and and and then you got to remember all the steps leading to this right they organized
02:31:42.360a lot of people app at one point had 300 000 members people signed in volunteers like i was
02:31:49.460volunteer i had an army of volunteers to help me collect signatures and things like that so they
02:31:55.460did something remarkable but similar to what happens in industry sometimes you have you know
02:32:01.300you got the creative genius who has the idea for a business but he's not necessarily the guy who
02:32:06.020should run the business or be the face of the business and i think in this instance that's
02:32:11.300what we saw and and i wish we'd realized it earlier like mitch had the vision and he was
02:32:17.700good at one part but he wasn't good at others and so um and that's i guess that can be resolved when
02:32:24.820you have a really formal movement but this was after all a grassroots movement so but your direct
02:32:31.620question was did they did they help did they help or hurt yes and no i mean i i heard a lot of those
02:32:40.020criticisms aimed at say a guy like mitch but i also saw mitch in places where he really resonated
02:32:49.060with the locals right and so you can't have one it comes back to you can't please all the people
02:32:53.700all the time so one individual will not please everyone and i think that's the that that could
02:33:00.580be a risk going forward we well we see it with we see it with leaders all the time right so um so i
02:33:06.020So I think the movement, when I think about it, yeah, one leader is necessary,
02:33:09.900but there's a difference sometimes between the leader and the spokesperson and other roles.
02:51:56.420There are some significant differences, and the amount of funding you get from Ottawa when you live in an urban setting is more than in a rural setting, I would say.
02:52:07.700Yeah, but when you see what they do with it, like ruin your neighborhood, then why would you want to support that?
02:52:16.560I know, but it brings me to my next question, and this is something that will be discussed at length as we move into the analysis of the results.
02:52:29.880But mail-in ballots jumped from 60-odd thousand in the 2023 general election to over 418,000 counted, I believe, is what we're anticipating.
02:52:45.780That's a jump in a magnitude of almost...
02:52:49.760Almost 10. I'll do it in my head. It's at least 8.
02:52:55.580So what do you think drove that, and where do you think those ballots were coming from?
02:53:01.940Well, what drove it is, I think what drove it is not what everybody wants to say it was, you know, the NDP or Thomas or somebody like that.
02:53:11.100Everybody wants to go there, but there's been an increase in mail-in ballots across all jurisdictions.
02:53:23.700there's a modern day i mean i have adult kids my daughter was literally one of those saying like
02:53:28.500why can't i just vote on my phone so there's there's a change in in in how people want to vote
02:53:35.220um so so that's that but but there are definitely groups that are taking advantage of that change
02:53:42.820and i would say in in alberta the ndp and thomas's side took were brilliant at using that
02:53:50.740that tool uh it's simple i dare say it's like i mean i can almost go to your house i can tell
02:53:58.020you know the way i can do this is i can get a group of people and say i'll even order the
02:54:03.300ballots for you give me a bit of information i'll make it it's almost like telling it helping people
02:54:08.420vote i can get i can get a group of people order your ballots you get them then we'll all get
02:54:13.220together in the gymnasium or at the we'll have coffee somewhere and we'll your center senior
02:54:17.860center and we'll all fill him out together and then mail him at the same time i mean i would
02:54:22.220love as a guy who's deep into data i would love to get my hands on like the envelopes to see where
02:54:28.740they all came from the date stamps and stuff like that i guarantee you there's some interesting
02:54:32.860patterns in there i'd be very curious and this is a completely unrelated question but forever
02:54:39.680Canada was uh that's Thomas Lukasik's group um they were uh caused some I don't know how to put
02:54:49.340it there was a they felt then that they were not uh advertising for this uh referendum and that
02:54:57.540they were not or the perception of others was that they were they explicitly said that they
02:55:02.220were not campaigning on this referendum question and therefore did not right right right have to
02:55:06.580register with elections alberta or share any information on their campaign financing expenses
02:55:11.860or anything um and yet every uh independence supporting organization there was a double
02:55:21.620standard yeah that i i guess uh just kind of in the immediate fallout of last night's vote
02:55:28.160what what's your takeaway from the double standard and why that was allowed to go on for so long why
02:55:35.160How did Elections Alberta wait until, you know, was it two weeks before the referendum to change their tune?
02:55:41.280As opposed to while the Forever Canada organization was able to effectively operate with no scrutiny on its activities for the better part of a year.
02:55:54.720Elections Alberta, Elections Canada, Elections BC, they are supposed to be non-partisan.
02:56:00.920But there's no such thing as non-partisan when you work for the government.
02:56:04.000And I don't care. Your paycheck is signed government of Alberta one way or another.
02:56:08.880So you are in a you are you are in a conflict of interest no matter what.
02:56:13.760And and they try and hide their bias. And but the bias comes out.
02:56:18.280That's my that's my opinion. That's my opinion is that there's a strong bias in all government institutions and and a group like Elections Alberta is not exempt from that.
02:56:31.060so and and and it's gonna in in this day and age now i mean one of the things i will be doing i've
02:56:40.100been doing it now we've been doing it and i'll continue to do it when we see all the results i
02:56:44.280want to see those things that we said i'd love to see the envelopes but i won't see the envelopes
02:56:48.720but i can dig into the data they will show us the you know the spoiled ballots and all that
02:56:54.160information nobody's talking about that but i think we're gonna i hope it's transparent and i
02:56:58.140hope they ran a good election but if they didn't we'll we'll try and highlight some of those things
02:57:02.880but at the end of the day i think they're just biased yeah i think that and somebody will say
02:57:07.160well the chief isn't sure the chief electoral officer is not there's no such thing but his
02:57:11.560opinion yeah like i mean every decision you make in your life is introduces bias or or it comes
02:57:18.700from a place of bias you can't physically like i mean but what's shocking is how some people
02:57:22.920accept that bias right like you're like that's a perfect example i don't know how somebody could
02:57:27.420not how i i call it mental gymnastics some people were doing saying oh well no they're not they're
02:57:33.980not like you said they're not advertising they're not campaigning and i'm really like
02:57:39.340they got a they got a lawn on they got a sign on my lawn like that's campaigning
02:57:44.300yeah and and even i think the uh public sector unions were free from scrutiny i saw someone
02:57:51.500sent me a picture of a i think it was not directly referencing but the at or the calgary public
02:57:59.040teachers uh were campaigning on behalf of the no to the nine side so i mean there's it's yeah i
02:58:06.920think elections alberta is in a tricky position they will claim that it is because they didn't0.96
02:58:11.720have enough money but i mean i mean there's any government yeah agency just they just money sucks0.70
03:17:01.640You have another, you know, a party that it's not an upstart party.
03:17:06.000The PCs have been around for a long time.
03:17:07.760But Peter Loughey took a more bound party that had zero seats in the legislature and led them to a majority government within, you know, five years of taking over the leadership.
03:17:18.800So, yeah, I mean, it is historically something that Alberta does.
03:17:25.380And yeah, it's same with turning over our leaders.
03:24:33.480Like there's a – and they're basically – the Quebec voters are basically telling the politicians, you guys, we're not happy.
03:24:42.000We don't have a solution, but we're turning to you guys, and you guys better start working together and figure this out.
03:24:48.120And I think the underlying message is if you don't figure this out in the next year or two, then the next vote is going to be really ugly.
03:24:55.660And I think there's something – and the Quebec media was coming here to listen to what's going on.
03:24:59.800And I have a feeling when they go back in this week, they're going to spin it going, it's the same sentiment in Alberta.
03:25:06.440So the Albertans – like it's not clear exactly what the issues are, but I think there's – it's pretty obvious to say that there's a lot of division and a lot of issues, separate issues.
03:25:15.900and the politicians like danielle this morning she's got to look at this and go oh my lord where
03:25:21.360do i start i think uh like on most of the questions like she's getting a pretty good
03:25:28.020she's going to get another mind she's going to get another earful at the agn and other places
03:25:32.740basically what the left is saying is that yeah 63.14 percent of albertans who support the
03:25:41.960government introducing a law to provide proof of citizenship are racist. I do think that the
03:25:48.160federal conservatives have room to move on the immigration stuff. I think that there's a missed
03:25:54.140opportunity there. I mean, if 67 percent of Albertans have an opposite viewpoint of Prime
03:26:00.080Minister Mark Carney, who believes that we should be increasing the level of immigration, I think
03:26:04.060you've got to nail the hit there. I think Pierre has missed lots of opportunities to go further on
03:26:11.120immigration well and that's another point too is that um quebecers are pissed off with ottawa and1.00
03:26:18.720so are albertans to to a certain degree but for different reasons yeah well and that's it's
03:26:25.680interesting quebecers don't like carney's pivot away from the green agenda and they view some of
03:26:33.460his concessions to us as a betrayal well it's that is the number of his own
03:26:40.420mp's oh I am quiet I'm sitting absolutely absolutely yeah much as one
03:26:46.180tries to be fair to mr. Carney and that is certainly a point that you have to
03:26:49.780consider when you're but nevertheless his response this morning was rather too
03:26:55.020gloating and I didn't even see his response can we play it or do you have
03:27:00.040can you find that John and maybe we can it was very jolly everything's worked
03:27:05.020out yeah I mean but common sense has come to the fore and Canada is safe how
03:27:11.920do you think he's gonna react to the immigration questions I know he has only
03:27:16.360addressed question 10 how is he gonna react when you know he very clearly is
03:27:23.140indicating that he wants to increase the immigration levels once again in
03:27:27.460and Alberta just strongly denounced that concept.
03:30:37.300And given the MOU, the memorandum of understanding that we have with Carney, it's one of those things where, like, I mean, you're kind of at his mercy in a lot of ways, where if the federal government wants to start delaying pipeline development because you're not taking the number of immigrants that he wants you to, he's got full authority to use that leverage.
03:31:01.260I mean, we are effectively, I mean, it will be interesting to see how the MOU and his commitment to not put an export tax on our oil and gas
03:31:15.340maintains in the conversation when we are on opposite sides on immigration.
03:31:50.520So, and we have to replace the workers to maintain the standard of living that we have, or we have to really adopt technology and go with and boost our productivity.
03:32:04.480And attempts to boost the productivity right now, they're failing because our productivity comes from extracting resources.
03:32:14.400There's no, like, that's what we are as Canadians.
03:32:17.120And Alberta is traditionally the youngest and wealthiest population in the country.
03:32:25.280And it's a function of our natural resources.1.00
03:32:28.140I mean, we need a young working class population to extract those resources from the ground to provide that life-creating energy that comes from the industry.1.00
03:32:38.520But if we start, like, I mean, I'm advocating for a temporary, a big freeze on immigration to let other things catch up.1.00
03:32:46.660We need to let the infrastructure, the schools, the buildings, that catch up.
03:32:52.040But the moment we freeze immigration, if we do, the population starts going down.0.93
03:32:57.620I think that we had so much growth that you're right.0.98
03:34:57.760But there are others who may still be federalists in their inclination,
03:35:02.960But when they find that the federal government is getting in their way and they feel it personally, as opposed to in theory, that we will, they'll change their mind.
03:35:45.180And then there is that second large group that came here from somewhere else where things were worse.
03:35:51.660And that group, I encountered that group all the time.
03:35:54.700You know, those are the ones that say, Marty, you're just complaining.
03:35:56.960I'm like, I know I sound like a complainer.1.00
03:36:00.080If you came here in the last 10 years and you came here from, I don't know, pick a country, you came in from Vietnam, life here is pretty good.
03:36:08.820So there are people that just don't want to rock the boat, that find everything good because of what they get from Ottawa.0.69
03:36:16.120Like there are, yes, on aggregate we get less back from Ottawa, but man, there's a lot of people that get something from Ottawa.
03:43:49.020if canada is to be supported then by all means let's let's do that but let's know what we're
03:43:57.340supporting and he just don't even look yeah i mean i don't know how you ever get away from that photo
03:44:04.480i i i mean to me it's like he publicly has declared that he is not seeking public election
03:44:13.580at any point in the future and i would you know be very happy if that is the case but
03:44:18.620He also publicly declared in summer of 2021 that we would, yeah, he changes his stripes so often that you start to wonder whether or not his real, the real Jason Kenney is the one that was working in Ralph Goodale's office in 1980-something.
03:44:39.200And it's, he did, he worked for Ralph Goodale before he was recruited at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
03:44:44.680um so yeah i think the follies of youth yeah well is it i would or is that the real jason
03:44:54.720i would have to give mr kenny the grace on that one if he worked for a liberal and has when he
03:45:00.820was 20 and then never worked for a liberal again and has hung around conservative causes i suspect
03:45:06.620that what he saw what's the expression if you don't vote liberal when you're young you're heartless
03:45:12.360and if you don't vote conservative when you're old you're brainless but now he's sitting on one
03:45:17.480year with wolf goodale was enough he's been a conservative forever until now uh well he probably
03:45:23.720would still consider himself a conservative okay um uh can we actually do we have a clip of uh
03:45:32.440mark carney's comments uh i'd also like to hear uh jeremy farkas did he pronounce himself last
03:45:38.440night or is waiting till today i have not seen anything from farkas honestly i it's been a
03:45:43.640whirlwind uh i haven't been on social media much uh but we'll just run that clip really quickly
03:45:49.800here and do a quick lineup change cory morgan is finally ready to join us he has been running
03:45:56.120the media gauntlet warming up in the bullpen warming up in the bullpen we've had him up and
03:46:00.760down uh his arm is loose and ready to go also i did not see who won the baseball game last night
03:46:07.080but i believe uh was it uh we may have a world series so speaking of that but i'm just filling
03:46:15.640time now while we get this clip ready if uh i just uh yeah i i think
03:46:24.840yeah carney's reaction we talked about it earlier it was pretty gloating um yeah i want to see that
03:46:32.280clip i haven't seen it yet i honestly haven't seen that clip so yeah but you weren't expecting
03:46:37.000anything different canada's problem no i wasn't but i was still triggered i'm not gonna lie
03:46:43.960honestly like one of the most difficult things about the last six months is watching daniel
03:46:49.160smith stand on a stage next to mark carney yep like i there's images that like the the notly
03:46:55.880kenny image actually i don't really care if it's a carney clip i just want any clip
03:47:00.360is that but uh it's been watching the patriotism over partisanship act um
03:47:12.760smith and carney well it's the blind patriotism i'm all for patriotism it's the blind patriotism
03:47:21.480yeah okay put the graphics up Marty yeah while we get Cory in here do you just
03:47:36.660want to talk about where your heads at heading into the the rest of the the
03:47:43.560rest of the year and what do you what do you think that the independence movement
03:47:47.720should be focusing on uh over the next 12 months uh i think it needs to regroup and uh do a post
03:47:56.940mortem on what worked what didn't that's that's top of my list of what they should do and and
03:48:04.240like anything i mean you don't you don't rush back after an event you just analyze it and i think uh
03:48:10.280the movement should sort of step back a little bit and just watch what the other side does for a
03:48:14.240I mean, like I said earlier, the movement is an expression of some of the problems, and if the problems persist, if Carney continues doing crazy things, or if he stays on this path and maybe does pivot, then the movement will adjust accordingly.
03:48:31.300But yeah, in the short term, nothing dramatic.
03:48:33.480Well, one thing you can be certain of, Marty, is that there's not going to be anything coming out of Ottawa
03:48:39.740that's going to recognize what 25% of the voters yesterday identify as a problem.
03:48:48.960That's why I'd like to see Carney's speech.
03:48:50.720Did he even acknowledge that yesterday, that 25% had voted one way, or did he just glance over it?
03:48:58.340I just had the mispleasure of waiting on hold with CBC for half an hour as they bumped me for Carney.
03:49:03.480Kearney and McGinty and Dominic LeBlanc, and I finally told them I have no more time for them.
03:49:08.700So I listened to Kearney and the Minister LeBlanc.
03:49:14.140They did kind of gloss over, and there were questions asked
03:49:17.240and whether they would consider constitutional change,
03:49:19.100and it was just more political, mealy-mouthed, we'll look at things down the road, and so on.
03:49:43.600He's having to make a few concessions.
03:49:46.360I'm ultimately worried that he's going to go back to his agenda.
03:49:51.300Yeah, I think you're right to be worried about that.1.00
03:49:54.780um because he's because as we said earlier he is currently upsetting quebecers and so he's gonna1.00
03:50:02.440he's he's walking that tightrope and he's and i think he will ultimately make the decision that
03:50:06.940those votes really matter ours matter actually ours matter less um but marty we're all driven by
03:50:16.240some sentiment or other and he is adjusting to what he perceives as the realities around him
03:50:22.960But just as your sentiments and mine and Corey's work in a certain way when we default to the position of being proud of who we are and wanting the best for people that we are responsible to, so Mr. Carney does the same.
03:50:42.320but he has a different set of people in mind so he doesn't like the United
03:50:46.940States that is a deeply emotional point it's not based on policy because it was
03:50:50.720based on policy we'd be doing something different in the United States yes so
03:50:54.740it's it's personal it's visceral he does like Europe and he may have to moderate
03:51:00.260his enthusiasm for Europe and in view of the flames that are currently raising
03:51:06.380but those flames will go down and then he will sort of come back and make the
03:51:09.640The metaphoric flames are the real flames that are currently raging across Europe.
03:51:14.400And it'll be all Davos and globalism again.
03:52:52.200You know, you were just saying before you came on the show there
03:52:55.460that the value of those nine questions to her now
03:52:58.640are she's actually got something which the Albertans have said yes to.
03:53:02.180She's got a mandate, and she's answered us, not him.
03:53:04.280She's got a mandate, but all those questions, all the projects, all the MOUs,
03:53:09.960those are all things that don't result in any change until years down the road.
03:53:15.420So they just bought themselves two years, three years in any event
03:53:20.080to where they can keep saying well it's happening it's happening it's happening
03:53:24.560i mean some people think that the pipeline is enough the mou is enough well i think some people
03:53:29.920do think that and it's a shame that they it is because because i i even even if there was absolute
03:53:36.080intent to make it happen it's still two three years away oh yeah at least right so and just one
03:53:42.880you know like this is a we have the capacity to build that that that uh industry to to build it
03:53:53.060up the premier wants to ship eight eight million barrels a day i think uh they're we're up to about
03:53:58.000five and a half at the moment with uh but i mean there's so much more to do and it could make so
03:54:02.540much difference and the bolshie thing about it all is that it does us good but it also does the
03:54:08.860federal government good in terms of revenue they should be with us on this thing they should be
03:54:14.960showing a sense of urgency and there hasn't been any no there's talk but all i've seen is actually
03:54:20.880it seems to me they formed yet another level of bureaucracy they've slowed the pipeline
03:54:24.520down if it's going to go this this this project of you know national interest well then this should
03:54:29.500have been on the books a year ago what are you doing so one thing about the energy industry
03:54:34.240In Alberta, we're supposed to decarbonize our oil, which is a metaphor for burying as much carbon dioxide as it takes to produce the oil that we produce, which is vastly costly, increases the, frankly, makes our oil uncompetitive on the world market.
03:54:54.880Why is there no necessity to decarbonize the oil that is imported into eastern Canada, which comes from, you know, look, it's a rhetorical question.
03:55:05.980I'm not suggesting that, oh, well, just let me explain that.
03:55:09.600No, but that's the kind of inequity in the treatment of different parts of the country,
03:55:16.260which gives people the license to say that the federal government is against Alberta.
03:55:22.260And it has been, before Mr. Carney came, I don't want to go back over the Trudeau years, it hurts too much,
03:55:28.060but these were the guys who said we need to phase out the oil sands.
03:55:31.900Well, that's a, you go to Ontario and say we need to phase out the auto industry, we're now seeing what that looks like.
03:58:08.100Yeah, because I think something that I think has inflamed a lot of the UCP membership and those of us on the independence front is the endless bait-and-switch.
03:58:16.160Jason Kenney's tour around the province, looking at all these things we're going to do.
03:58:44.360I think she's she's taken she's she's taken a calculated approach in her mind.
03:58:51.020She's well, it's proved out in the results.
03:58:55.360Obviously, a lot of Albertans think she's done enough or she's doing enough on that front, on that front in general.
03:59:01.540She's fighting a good fight. She's defending us against Ottawa. She's getting victories. She's working collaboratively with Kearney. And people at this point are giving her and Kearney the benefit of the doubt. I don't know how much longer that goes, but...
03:59:18.920Well, that's a bit of my fear. And it is a fear. I'm not trying to get on Premier Smith's case.
03:59:22.840I'm fearful of a segment that is not representative of the majority of the province,
03:59:27.880but it's representative of a massive part of the UCP base, which could turn this into an internal battle,
03:59:35.900which might lead, and I know they hate hearing it, but it might lead to Premier Nenshi, and that terrifies me.
03:59:42.560Well, while you were chatting with your friends on the CBC,
03:59:47.540We were actually addressing that very thing and, you know, both sides of the UCP, if they are sensible,
03:59:59.540are going to say they're worse off if they stay home.
04:00:05.540If you think Alberta should separate, how deeply do you hold that conviction?
04:00:12.540and we know how deeply you hold it a lot of people say yeah given the choice i'd rather separate
04:00:17.660but i sure don't want an ndp government so i'm going to stay with daniel and then you can look
04:00:23.580at it from the other side and say well given the choice i'd rather stay with canada and that's how
04:00:29.180i voted but boy oh boy i i will prefer premier smith to premier nenshi so i'm staying with the
04:00:36.380the I'm staying with the with the leader yeah and if you don't get everything you want at least you
04:00:42.400don't get what you don't want well that's that's it I mean I'm in the middle of it you know I was
04:00:46.460writing while I was waiting a column on where I think things should kind of go and I mean again
04:00:50.920I'm not giving up I've been keeps getting pointed out in interviews but not this 26 years I'm very
04:00:55.200stubborn and possibly what's in your column it is along the lines of where to go next and again
04:01:00.920not focusing on the party we've gained a lot we didn't gain independent support really when you
04:01:05.480Look at the polling of people where it was a month and some ago.
04:01:14.520I'm not sure if that's going through to everybody else or what.
04:03:51.880I think some some of the things that were lacking was there were multiple voices
04:03:55.540there was no centralized voice this person's considered a leader of the
04:03:58.760movement here and this person's a leader over there and this one's one over there
04:04:01.120and they're giving multiple mixed messages which as democracy people have
04:04:05.140the different but when you're looking to vote on something people are also
04:04:07.640asking themselves were these the people are gonna lead us into the independent
04:04:11.320Alberta well I have a lot of question marks and I don't know if I can check
04:04:14.800off of that right now I think the movement really has to examine itself
04:04:19.000here and not be reactionary, you know, I think a great victory was won. We've had five months
04:04:24.420of discussion of Alberta's place in the Federation like never before, and the country is paying
04:04:29.740attention, and it was paying attention, but we've also built a foundation, and to go off,
04:04:35.800you know, half-cocked and starting another war off to the side when we've actually built something
04:04:40.300that we could build further on, I think would be really counterproductive. So, Corey, how much of
04:04:43.720On that 24.5%, how much of that do you think might have been people who were following the advice to send a message to Ottawa?
04:04:55.600And how much was actually sort of hardcore people who are...
04:04:59.780It's impossible to guess. I don't think it was a lot of it, because this is still that core support of people who've always been there, who've always wanted independence.
04:05:06.680So they came out, I think, a portion wanted to send a message.
04:05:10.300But I think the questions one to nine gave people a more appealing thing to send a message, they thought, than rather question 10 at this time.
04:05:17.220See, the way that the questions one to nine invited that straight down the ticket makes me wonder how well informed the reactions were.
04:05:27.420we were just before you came in we were we were talking about people who had to
04:05:31.560show ID to get into what was it? Thomas LeCastig event at the Nemo Center.
04:05:37.080You had to show more ID to get into that than you did to go and vote so
04:05:42.540people obviously are not making these connections and I have I could be wrong
04:05:49.980But I have the sense that the 24% who voted for independence are a little better informed about what they're voting for than quite a lot of the 75% who voted to stay, where it was just a total vote for sentiment.
04:06:10.460You know, I was born Canadian, I've lived Canadian, I'll always be Canadian, that's all I care, and, you know, I mean, I sort of respect that to a degree, I don't like people who are always complaining, but, on the other hand, they don't realize, or choose not to inform themselves about the things that Marty here is so strong on, and how they are actually being shortchanged by the system they say they believe in.
04:06:40.460Yeah, but it's also a function of most people are quite comfortable with the status quo.
04:22:02.240I was going to say something spiteful.
04:22:04.160Now, okay, you are of the view, Corey, that this is a significant moment in the whole independence movement, that it is going to need to come together and operate as a movement, not as a political party.
04:22:24.860So my question, not that I'm the host or anything, but my question, Marty, is that how you see it?
04:23:01.540But I haven't even decided if we need one in the future.
04:23:04.160I mean, something that was a disadvantage in this referendum, had there been a political party that had it together and was able to campaign effectively, this is a structure that would have legal access to the electors' lists, that would have the ability to offer tax credits for contributions, doesn't have the spending maximums that other third-party advertising groups had.
04:23:27.800Keith Wilson's hit the maximum a few weeks ago.
04:23:31.180So a party can be a tool, even in referenda, but it can be a terrible tool in a general election.
04:23:39.940Yeah, I guess I've got to qualify my answer.
04:24:13.640Whether it's shifting the party in power or creating a new one, but you've got to show the support first.
04:24:17.400If the problems get bad enough and people get really disenfranchised and want to change and the change isn't happening, I think a party will recognize that.
04:24:25.800Hopefully it's an existing strong party.
04:24:27.680We'll just make that part of the policies and start moving that way.
04:24:33.400So there are a number of other significant players,
04:24:36.640Mitch Sylvester, for example, and I just have to wonder, Corey,
04:24:42.460can you see people coming together on this?
04:24:46.260I guess we'll have to ask them that question to get the answer,
04:24:49.900but it does seem like the independence question attracts lone rangers yeah and i i mean i mitch i
04:24:59.560guess the last that came out of him was that he's just going to chew on things for 24 hours to see
04:25:02.860how he wants to go with things and moving forward uh you know mr rath is to be named at times it's
04:25:08.120been pretty clear i guess because somebody you don't have to wonder where he's coming from he's
04:25:11.000quite clear about that he's he's been gunning for premier smith for years uh he wants that to be the
04:25:17.040full focus of everything right now and there's going to be some others who want another random
04:25:22.520right away i mean i can i can counsel but they want that but maybe to even look at it maybe a
04:25:27.540party provides event for that group then fine you know what go off put it all in there see what you
04:25:33.460can do well the rest of us work on something over here and some people as you're saying who might
04:25:38.040come up keith wilson's really been very solid throughout this i think i don't know if it needs
04:25:42.940to be a singular leader but i think we need a singular group or at least a dominant one
04:25:46.860yeah yeah you know that that's part of it i i think there might be less room
04:25:55.420me personally i'm i'm curious to see um who continues to strongly advocate for this and
04:26:04.540who starts to take a step back i think some people will wisely look at the results and just
04:26:10.300go back into the shadows and keep doing their things quietly um yeah yeah well i mean the
04:26:17.660public are tired and it's been yes clear and yeah and i think part of it is people got to take a bit
04:26:22.700of a breather there's just no doubt about that yeah it's been we've never had a campaign this
04:26:28.220long yeah usually it's 40 days or something of this i'm i'm actually surprised at the voter
04:26:34.700turnout because i thought there was a bit of voting fatigue in the nation right now i mean
04:26:39.180there's been a lot of elections lately maybe not here in alberta well actually we've had our fair
04:26:43.420share of elections in alberta um yeah but it's where are we at with our um what's the latest
04:26:50.940numbers on uh i see you're looking at your phone there on voter turnout did we i haven't established
04:26:57.100it i mean wow okay and what and the i think the last provincial election was like 66 low
04:27:04.940We certainly never seen a general election hit those heights.
04:28:55.70046.5 to leave that's pretty strong you know above other uh regions and such it's an outlier it's a
04:29:04.340statistical outlier and i'm not saying this lightly you had an impact on that and you spent some good
04:29:10.260coin i had billboards going for a long time and jason had an impact in the nordeg or in the rocky
04:29:15.460mountain house uh breton area for sure for sure for sure so if we're gonna wrap things kind of
04:29:20.180up maybe i'll start just with some closing statements to leave things off on this day
04:29:23.860was starting the end there and uh what do you got for us um i i think no clear winners no clear
04:29:31.700losers and and a lot to digest and i wouldn't want to be danielle smith right now no you know
04:29:40.580that's if i that's it that's my closing statement right now i wouldn't want to be danielle
04:29:45.860So, I do see a path through the troubles for Danielle, and quite frankly, there's nobody else that I would want to see taking the province forward to an election next year.
04:30:00.860On the larger question of independence, if this is ever going to happen, it is going to happen after the independence movement has got its head together.
04:31:14.620Well, and I'll just leave it saying, you know, it's been a history-making time.
04:31:18.840It has, and a lot has been accomplished right now.
04:31:22.380I think this next week is just a time for everybody to kind of take a breather, temper down a bit, and think, you know, just dwell on things for a bit.