This week on The Cory Morgan's Second Take, we discuss the election of the new Prime Minister of Canada, the Alberta Prosperity Project, and why we should all be mad at Donald Trump for inviting King Charles to deliver the Speech from the Throne.
00:04:29.240There was not a single question from the national media about what, you know, the independence movement in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
00:04:37.500Not a single question, but the French press devoted all their attention to the sacrilege of inviting the king to give the throne speech in one of his countries.
00:04:47.760Well, I mean, I'm not a monarchist or a Western independent.
00:04:50.820I mean, I respect the institution and its history and everything it's been.
00:04:54.200But, I mean, the value everybody should remember, as goopy as Jaguars might look on the loonie, if he wasn't there, it'd probably be Pierre Trudeau.
00:18:40.640You see, for something they say isn't going to happen,
00:18:43.820And for something they dismiss so heavily and clearly, again, they sure are fighting it tooth and nail.
00:18:51.980I love how somebody else said, you can't do it unless you've submitted to Canada a costed breakdown of what your chunk of the debt would be and all that.
00:25:37.600And, you know, it takes somebody to stand up like the gents from southern Alberta there.1.00
00:25:42.720And hopefully your listeners might be interested to know if you were to go to the Ag Police Marketing Board office in Epitone there,
00:25:50.340The whole room, the whole board table and the lighting assembly above it is in a giant oval, the shape of an egg.
00:25:59.100You know, like there's no overboard craft going on there, you know, like farmers and producers or consumers actually would appreciate just the commercial price on eggs rather than having all this bureaucracy.
00:26:14.340Yeah, and I mean, and it just strangles creative and smaller operators.
00:26:18.280the craft brewery example you gave was perfect you know that that i remember again with the
00:26:23.620wheat board in saskatchewan there was a group in a town i can't remember it was smiley or
00:26:27.480lanceman or one of the smaller towns and they they had good durum in the area and they're
00:26:32.460actually looking to build a pasta plant and use their own wheat they figured they could do a
00:26:36.880value-added thing with a few producers together and sell a brand of pasta but then it was realized
00:26:42.260they'd have to sell all their product to the wheat board and then buy it back at an inflated
00:26:46.260price or it would be illegal so they had to abandon the idea it it's just so ridiculous on
00:26:53.660on so many levels likewise with eggs i mean you're allowed 300 hens people have to understand you
00:27:00.600know at best you're going to get 250 eggs a day this is not a large operator if you want to at
00:27:05.460least make it a small enterprise you need a couple thousand birds and and it's it's just such an
00:27:10.160assault the freedom to say you can't do that.
00:27:12.920You're exactly right, Corey. When you mentioned the pasta situation, there's a similar fractionating
00:27:22.160plant in Red Deer. We've sold grain to them over the years that fractionates the grain
00:27:28.660to separate the germ from other various parts of the product and then sell them separately
00:27:33.920in marketing. They had to buy their wheat from the wheat board. Right away, the wheat
00:27:40.000wanted to know well what are you selling your product for you know like it was
00:27:43.900like well it when that turns into any of your business will send you a wire you
00:27:48.120know how I think it was yeah it's deeply frustrating and Canadians are generally1.00
00:27:56.260good people but we're too complacent in some regard and willing to take on some
00:28:03.460these battles you know uh so uh you know to really the discussion that i overheard there about uh
00:28:10.740independence or some uh assertion of our rights in canada yeah well the independent to see how
00:28:19.700this proceeds yeah the independence movement really kind of has to begin with the individual
00:28:24.020and then they gotta you know cases like this i just like it because it drives home just how
00:28:28.740controlled we are we sent rcmp officers after a man because he was selling eggs i mean that's
00:28:34.820absurd but that's a reality well well and so much of it i think is based on accountability
00:28:42.420corey uh you know our judges are unaccountable look at that we have four guys that uh you know
00:28:47.620from a crowd uh that jason kenny at the time would even uh would even meet with with even
00:28:52.980One of my former caucus mates went down there to see the demonstration at Coots
00:28:58.520and just about got rounded out of caucus for the fact that he just went to see what his constituents were doing.
00:33:13.220So I'd encourage all Albertans to stand up and call your MLA, be responsible, do your job, be an electorate that the MLAs should respond to.
00:33:28.040I see one guy, I think, I can't remember his first name, I think his last name is Stefan, and red deer there, is well-representing his people.
00:33:36.540And unfortunately, guys like Peter Guthrie and I can't remember the other gents from High Prairie, they're getting bounced out of caucus for exerting their opinion.
00:34:01.660Yeah, we've got a lot to get, you know, with the House in Order on our provincial level as well.
00:34:06.000aside from what we got to do in the feds but uh well we'll we'll keep at it so uh i'll uh like
00:34:11.680you said let you get back to the fields there and i appreciate you talking to us and i'll have to
00:34:15.840send you a text and find out see if that tea party gets going it sounds really interesting
00:34:20.400well thanks for allowing you to wrap cory i appreciate it i heard always appreciated rick
00:34:25.040good to talk to you and i'll talk to you again soon thank you again sir have a great day okay
00:34:29.840Okay. Thanks. So again, folks, yeah, that was Rick Strankman. And again, a very dedicated
00:34:35.380politically, as you can hear, I mean, and again, a hard worker, he's farming the whole time he's
00:34:40.240doing this, you know, he's a farmer at heart. But you know, he's fighting for that right and ability
00:34:46.040to keep doing these things. This is what we're about out here. And he stood up. He got arrested
00:34:52.320along as he said with, there was 13 of them went out. But what lunacy. We're at a point. Is it
00:34:59.060your property or not. And guess what? In Canada, we don't have property rights. So you farm,
00:35:04.280you grew that wheat, you owned it, but the law back then would tell you who you're allowed to
00:35:10.920sell it to. Well, then you don't really own it, do you? Likewise with the eggs, this is ridiculous.
00:35:16.820You do the inputs, you do the work, you clean the chicken coops, you build your customer base.
00:35:24.460But if it turns out you have 301 chickens, you've broken the law. If you've got even one cow
00:35:32.920that's producing milk and you sell a glass of milk without a quota, you have broken the law.
00:35:42.900That is wrong. It is so wrong. And as I said, a lot of average Canadians don't understand that
00:35:50.580that's the system we're under. You know, they live in the cities. They just go to the grocery
00:35:54.960store. They may wonder why so many food products are so expensive. Well, that's why. That's part
00:36:03.000of why anyways. I mean, look at the amount, especially in the West, of great agricultural
00:36:08.200producing land. Look at all the great producers, but they're handcuffed. They can't get creative.
00:36:14.580They can't develop value-added markets. They can't do different things. I mean, a large poultry
00:36:19.760producer, as we said, organic eggs, things like that, they could be adding to that market, doing
00:36:24.400more niche products, more local products, less trucking. It's funny, the irony of these
00:36:28.960authoritarians, and that's what it always comes down to, authoritarians, and a lot of them cloak
00:36:33.780themselves and, oh, we're green, we're saving the world from climate change and all that BS.
00:36:39.700Well, you know what? If we had local food producers, smaller, more local food producers,
00:36:47.060you don't have to truck the inputs and the products out as far do you you'd be supplying
00:36:52.060milk you're not trucking milk from quebec all over the place all the way out here you uh
00:36:57.480egg wise as well you can be supplying local stores local businesses reducing the amount
00:37:03.500of movement for these goods it's better for the environment it's better for the local economy
00:37:07.360it's just better all around but that's just one facet of so many facets of authoritarianism and
00:37:13.200problems we're dealing with in Canada. And it's a big one, though. And I was really glad I could
00:37:18.580get Rick on to talk about it. Joe Lawrence commentator saying, Mr. Morgan, can you explain
00:37:22.260the indigenous aspect of separating my best friend's Cree and I'm scared to death ever to talk1.00
00:37:26.400about it? Yeah, I spoke. I don't know if you got on just recently, Joe, but I was talking about that
00:37:31.500earlier and everything, too. And, you know, it keeps coming back to that because that seems to be
00:37:35.880the latest pushback is saying, you know, the First Nations won't let you. Well, they don't
00:37:42.960have the ability to stop us. They aren't nations. Nations have borders, currency,
00:37:49.860self-sufficiency, taxation abilities. The reserves are a special place. And they are Albertans.
00:37:57.220They are Saskatchewan citizens. They're BC citizens. They're Westerners. They deserve
00:38:01.160respect. They deserve to be consulted. They should be at the table. We should be talking
00:38:04.420about these things. But no, they do not have a veto over this. And you know what? The reserves
00:38:11.080can still be there the day after independence it'll still be there it'll just be a reserve
00:38:15.040within an independent west people say oh there's some of the other baloney uh people pointing out
00:38:21.360too it's crown land it's actually the crown that owns it oh really really that's like saying you
00:38:28.260know it's the indian act does that mean india owns them come on no the crown yes the crown is the
00:38:35.080term for it and actually the crown there's a bunch of crown land in india too do you think
00:38:39.200king charles could just come march in and take the land it's just a term guys it's it's it's not
00:38:46.020actually owned by the crown that's done in fact they're managed by the provinces and people talk
00:38:53.800about well there's federal land that wouldn't be uh you know so the national parks wouldn't oh stop
00:38:58.980it you're playing stupid what about ism right again these games weren't played when quebec held0.73
00:39:05.420their referendum they weren't saying well quebec could leave but you couldn't keep a national park
00:39:08.920Yes, you can. This is dumb. But don't let them control the narrative. That's the problem. They're going to try and keep pulling people down rabbit holes, trying to pull you off to the sides and everything else. The bottom line is, if a province votes with a clear majority, and I know technically that's 50% plus one, but it should be more like 55%. You got to make it very clear.
00:39:30.580on a clear question to move and separate and become independent, nobody's going to stop them.
00:39:40.460They can try, they can yell, but I tell you what, you intervene now at that point when you've had
00:39:45.100more than half of a province come out and cast a ballot and say they want to go,
00:39:49.700you're going to make a very dangerous situation by trying to override that. Because if people
00:39:54.220can't leave utilizing established recognized democratic means then they'll move on to other
00:40:03.200means and that's i don't it's not going to come to that that's not our nature here but people
00:40:09.100saying again you know the supreme court will shut you down if you even if you voted 60 they'd just
00:40:13.220rule against it afterwards well if that happened if you got actually 60 of a province saying we
00:40:18.720want out they're going to put up a wall at the border anyways and say what are you going to do
00:40:22.440about it and they won't be able to do anything about it uh as others have said i mean i i've
00:40:30.840been putting other videos out on my own channel and they've been very popular and stuff from my
00:40:34.520book because i've been over this case so so many times but i do want to share more of those things
00:40:39.380and explain to people this case has been going on for a long time and made a lot of ways and
00:40:45.160And there's a lot of well-established counterpoints to the tiresome, tiresome counterpoints being made against independents.
00:40:57.420Another point, I see Jordan bringing up Texas, you know, talking about being forced to the USA in the past.
00:41:05.460But I saw that brought up online as well with somebody else saying, you know, because we're talking about the order of things.
00:41:10.460and Texas eventually became an American state, of course, but they were independent for nine years
00:41:14.800before they became an American state. We're talking about one of those chicken and egg
00:41:18.780discussions in a sense, especially when we get some conflict with some people who feel that
00:41:23.240a province should jump straight into joining the United States and skip the portion of
00:41:28.020independence. Well, I think you're getting ahead of yourselves, guys, and you're splitting things
00:41:32.420up. We need to get independent first. Then we can indulge a lot of conversations after about
00:41:36.480which path that's going to take. And so, you know, before I get to Dr. Modra, I'm looking forward to
00:41:43.400more of that discussion. I just want to cover a little bit of what we're up against too
00:41:46.020federally. I mean, things are developing fast still. I mean, it's still the week of the election,
00:41:50.780essentially, that's going by. And I guess it's good and bad. When I watched, I was in the newsroom
00:41:55.760and I watched Mark Carney's first major press conference since becoming prime minister. And as
00:42:02.320Dave said, I mean, I am not a fan of Carney or the liberals or that government by any means.
00:42:07.880And it cuts both ways. The conference and his speaking in the direction is actually quite smart,
00:42:13.600level-headed, and very tactically bright. I mean, bringing the king over here
00:42:18.520to give the throne speech is a masterstroke. Even though it's going to stir up Quebecers,
00:42:23.100it's actually going to strengthen where he's standing, where he's at least positioned himself
00:42:27.380in this role with what they feel is an external threat in the United States.
00:42:32.320you know, likewise, he sounded conciliatory. He said during, so as Dave also reported,
00:42:39.260Pierre Polyev is going to be running for a by-election, it looks like, in Battle River
00:42:42.540Crowfoot. That's a safe, safe, safe Alberta riding. And Carney was asked, you know, how soon
00:42:49.000would he hold a by-election for that? He said he'll hold one as soon as possible. That, again,
00:42:55.460it's smart. It shows some class. I'm not trying to plug for Carney. I'm just saying that they're
00:42:59.800playing smart right now they would just look petty and stupid if they do i i gotta admit like
00:43:03.940the smith government is right now by holding ninchy off and not letting him run for a seat
00:43:08.400in edmonton come on it's a safe seat just get it over with and let the guy do it and likewise now
00:43:15.040carney isn't taking that path it sounds like we'll see i mean you don't believe it until that
00:43:18.580by-election is actually pulled uh but it looks like you know it's going to be held he's he's
00:43:25.320playing smart which i mean i we've already seen what an incompetent prime minister is going to
00:43:29.640do to us. We've seen that for the last 10 years. That's why we are where we are right now. Because
00:43:32.920even though there's 10 years of incompetence, Canada said, you know what, let's give them
00:43:36.540another mandate and see how badly they can really screw us for a few more years. They changed the
00:43:40.320head. It's got to be better, right? I'm happy to see them being a little less incompetent. But at
00:43:45.000the same time, I worry because now we're dealing with a smart liberal government and it doesn't
00:43:49.400have us in their interests at all. But if they're playing tactically smart, it makes our job tougher.
00:43:55.620we have to be smart too. We have to be smarter. And rage isn't enough. We need a plan. And one
00:44:05.340of the guys who's been working on this for quite a while and has a good plan is Dr. Dennis Modry.
00:44:09.720He's been on. It's been a while since Dennis has been on the show, but he's been active. One of
00:44:14.380the founders of the Alberta Prosperity Project and then talking about independence and how to
00:44:17.840get there. And he's here to talk to us today. So thanks for joining us, Dennis.
00:44:24.140So, boy, we're into some interesting times.
00:44:27.660Finally, I mean, I think we've kind of always seen this coming, but now it's here, kind of an event to really drive home to so many people the futility of trying to make change within the existing system.
00:44:38.840And they're starting to realize that they've got to look at the other options.
00:44:41.840And those are the kind of options that the Prosperity Project is sort of offering, right?
00:44:46.640As you are well aware, Corey, we've been at this for quite some time, but just to orient your readers, the Alberta Prosperity Society is a registered society with Service Alberta that's a non-profit, non-partisan educational society.
00:45:04.560It has a board of directors that I chair, but the society governs the Alberta Prosperity Project, and the purpose of the Alberta Prosperity Project has been to educate Albertans on the rationale and merits of Alberta sovereignty.
00:45:19.620And the mission, of course, in terms of the petition for a referendum, is to empower the provincial government to restructure Alberta's relationship with Canada.
00:45:30.740It can't be any simpler or more straightforward. And really what has been going on for the last few years, we've been building this. And if you go to our website, the albertaprosperityproject.com website, there's a wealth of information there that speaks to the rationale for Alberta sovereignty and what it would look like in terms of policies and governance of a sovereign Alberta.
00:45:54.960And there's also a section, I think, that's really quite important on the website, Corey, and it's the section entitled Frequently Asked Questions, of which there's about 71 questions that have been posed and answered.
00:46:12.360You know, the results of the election, of course, we were pulling for Mr. Palibov, and we've seen that, you know, Alberta and Saskatchewan are blue and the rest of the country is red.
00:46:24.280But the election of Mr. Carney has been like pouring kerosene on the flickering flames of Alberta sovereignty, and it's really, really burst forth.
00:46:37.060And the number of people that have registered their intent to support the petition to force the referendum has exploded.
00:46:48.060Yeah, and that's something I really wanted to have you on to clarify and talk about.
00:46:51.880Because, you know, some people, this is kind of the first time they're looking at this whole thing closely.
00:46:57.140And people are getting barraged with a number of petitions or just asking to sign up for this or sign up for that.
00:47:04.540I mean, you can only speak for the one from the Prosperity Project and Society.
00:47:10.620But, you know, the intention, I mean, some people think almost that signing up with the petition with this APP is a step, you know, towards invoking a referendum.
00:47:19.960and that's a step towards a step in a sense, I guess. People have to realize it's joining a
00:47:24.800group and getting ready. Well, this is correct. Of course, the Citizens Initiative Act, which was
00:47:30.280passed by the Alberta government in May of 2022, permits a petition that can bring about a change
00:47:39.620to the Constitution. And the petition originally would have required 600,000 signatures
00:47:48.960gathered within 90 days which is an impossible task and so what we've been doing is we've been
00:47:56.540collecting the contact information of the individuals who would support a petition
00:48:01.040that would then be certified by Elections Alberta and then the provincial government would therefore
00:48:07.540be obligated to hold the referendum and so I think that if the threshold is lowered as
00:48:15.840has come out in the media recently to 10 percent of the number of people that voted in the last
00:48:22.660election. That would be about 180,000 people. And I believe that we are we are at that point
00:48:31.300or greater already in terms of the people who have registered with the Alberta Prosperity
00:48:37.520project, their contact information. And so to make it a little bit more significant at this
00:48:47.320particular point, where we are at, Jeff Rath, who's general counsel for the Alberta Prosperity
00:48:54.040Society, and another constitutional lawyer, Keith Wilson, have come up with the petition
00:49:01.540question already. And we've made some modifications to the question, but the question really
00:49:07.020pertains to alberta sovereignty not sovereignty within canada not joining the u.s but sovereignty
00:49:14.140for alberta as an independent nation so that's really uh really where we're at right now and
00:49:21.900we're just working hard on loading all of the people who are who have expressed an interest
00:49:26.620to support the petition and who likely will support the referendum as well yeah i mean and
00:49:32.380the petition is a critical step so now it's become a reasonable bar to surpass but as you said you're
00:49:39.580an educational society there's still a whole lot of groundwork to be done around the province to
00:49:44.940make people understand i mean what the process would be what the benefits would be and with the
00:49:48.380drawbacks there's definitely potentially some that that's been the role of the app i imagine
00:49:53.820that there's going to be a lot of events and and uh functions coming soon well that's true uh there
00:49:59.340will be a lot of the events i think we've got some 50 town halls planned for the next three months
00:50:05.020there's a number of zoom conferences that have been set up and of course we've been happy to
00:50:09.260speak to the media to give them information that is educational and in value it's not opinion
00:50:17.500related it's it's basically the facts and um and one of the things that i'd like to point out
00:50:23.900corey is that you know from from what everything that we're doing follows a legal pathway um and
00:50:30.700that legal pathway of course starts with the petition the petition um when successful goes
00:50:38.060to the provincial government and then the provincial government um is empowered then to
00:50:43.260uh to and obligated to hold that referendum and once the referendum is successful
00:50:49.420then of course the provincial government is in a position to negotiate the terms of secession
00:50:57.260with the federal government and the other provinces, but they can do so from a position
00:51:01.420of strength. And one of the things that I think is extremely important for people to understand
00:51:05.740is when you want to legitimize your sovereignty, you need to know that you have other countries
00:51:13.900that will recognize your newfound sovereignty as an independent nation. And I can assure you that
00:51:23.500from the meetings that we've had with senior administration in the US, that there is tremendous
00:51:33.820support for Alberta sovereignty. And I would think as well, Saskatchewan sovereignty as well.
00:51:39.580So you got right into what I was going to ask next, because, yes, our cousins in Saskatchewan, I mean, if anything, it might even be a stronger support for independence there.
00:51:51.920I would think there's going to be some people hopefully pushing the Saskatchewan government to say, hey, you know, we need citizens initiated referenda ability here, too.
00:52:00.400Has there been any discussions with Saskatchewan counterparts or talking about, you know, spreading out in that direction a little bit?
00:52:06.380Well, you know, there has been more so in the past than recently, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are individuals and organizations that reach out to us yet again.
00:52:18.960But I think in Saskatchewan, I think there's a pretty strong movement there unto itself, and they pretty much know what they want, and I think they want the same thing that we want.
00:52:31.040I mean, in an ideal world, it would be wonderful if Saskatchewan and Alberta at the same time were holding a referendum on secession.
00:52:42.960I think it's something that the premier and Scott premier of Alberta and the premier of Saskatchewan could work together on if it gets to, you know, some point in time over the next little while.
00:52:57.540But, you know, Corey, I think the interesting thing right now, which is very different than it has been in the past, is that we have a premier here who has stated publicly on more than one occasion certain demands of the federal government.
00:53:12.180And if they're not met, that could be a threat to national unity.
00:53:17.600And then when the senior statesman, Mr. Preston Manning, comes out with a statement, as he did in the National Post not too long ago, stating that the election of Mr. Carney would assure Alberta secession, you know, these are powerful individuals and powerful statements that mean a lot.
00:53:44.160And when you unpack what they're saying, it's that Albertans are tired of being under the thumb and control of the federal government and are tired of the usurpation of provincial constitutional authority by the federal government and are tired of the foisted upon us cultural changes and are tired of the pillaging and plumbering of the economic reality of what Alberta could be.
00:54:14.160If we were retaining our own wealth rather than having it confiscated by the federal government in various forms of taxation and regulations.
00:54:25.260So at this point in time, as you know, Corey, there has been a long history of frustration with the relationship of Alberta within Confederation with the rest of the country.
00:54:41.040But I don't think the significance of Alberta sovereignty has ever been more profound than it is now and more understood than it is now.
00:54:53.960And one of the things I'd like to point out, I think that is very interesting to think about, we look at polls now and they tell us a certain thing.
00:55:02.500But let's look at something in reality that happened.
00:55:05.820And I take you back to 2021, when we had a referendum to end equalization, and 62% of Albertans voted to end equalization. Ask yourself this question. Could that be a proxy, how Albertans would vote if it was a referendum on secession and not a referendum simply on ending equalization?
00:55:28.920And why I say that, in terms of polling, is because we still live in this era of cancel culture. And a lot of people don't want to admit to a pollster how they are feeling about, for example, Alberta sovereignty. They don't want to necessarily be identified or cancelled.
00:55:49.400And I think that's something that people should think about. If you voted to end equalization, and you know that it can never happen now because that's what happened, but there is one way to make it happen, and that is for Alberta to become a sovereign nation, then you end equalization, you end all of the federal transfers to the federal government.
00:56:13.440We retain $70 billion. We get out from under overfunding a pension plan, overfunding employment insurance. We get rid of a fuel tax, carbon tax, GST, etc. We even have the opportunity in this province to perhaps eliminate property tax.
00:56:32.320So there's a number of real significant opportunities here with benefit to First Nations in particular as well. So I think that we are probably closer to Alberta secession and Saskatchewan secession than hitherto has been experienced in Alberta and Saskatchewan's history.
00:56:56.960So I want to get like a, we'd have to get a little speculative, but looking at some of the
00:57:01.120timelines, like there's a few things that still have to happen yet. The legislation, the, you
00:57:05.660know, the, the basically amending the past act has been put forward, but that's still got to get
00:57:11.300through the legislature. And then once it gets royal assent, that's when technically somebody
00:57:16.940could trigger at least the petitioning for a referendum. That would take at least three months
00:57:22.220because of the 120-day period given, and if that part was successful, it would still take a few
00:57:30.160months, I imagine, before the province would actually declare a referendum. So, I mean,
00:57:34.700I think at the soonest, we'd probably be looking at six months at the very fastest. I'm just
00:57:39.140guessing here. Well, I think you're probably correct on that. I know that we have contemplated
00:57:45.400the idea of getting to the point where we could hold a referendum at the time of the
00:57:52.600midterm municipal elections on October the 25th.
00:57:55.300That timeline would be a bit tight, according to what you've just said.
00:57:59.700But there could at least conceivably be a modification of that legislation in which
00:58:07.640if the threshold is reduced to 177,000 as it is, and Mr. Rath, our constitutional lawyer,
00:58:19.680submits the petition question to Elections Alberta, it's certified, we will be able to
00:58:25.480collect the signatures on the 180,000 within a month. And then under those circumstances,
00:58:34.700if the legislation were to to say um within uh within 120 days so in other words it doesn't have
00:58:43.260to be 120 days but within 120 days then then conceivably let's just say for example um
00:58:52.300by the end of the by the end of may we have the referenda i believe sorry we we uh we have the
00:58:58.060petition already collected so the question goes to elections alberta next week it gets it gets
00:59:07.500certified we send out the canvassers we get the we get the requisite number of signatures
00:59:14.860elections alberta certifies it and by june some point in early june the the certified petition
00:59:24.060goes to the provincial government the provincial government then has an opportunity to hold the
00:59:30.700referendum at a time of their choosing i just want to make it clear to the public that it is up to the
00:59:36.540provincial government as to the timing of holding the referendum we of course don't want to be
00:59:44.220subject to Mr. Carney's dictates for very long. And we're not sure of the sort of things that he
00:59:54.620will do that we think he may do, which will further compromise Alberta. And I think these
01:00:00.860are the things that the provincial government is concerned about as well. So it behooves the
01:00:05.020provincial government to contemplate as well a sooner rather than later referendum
01:00:11.340if we're able to get the petition to them sooner rather than later.
01:00:19.140Now, insofar as setting the conditions, et cetera,
01:00:22.480what is it going to look like after a successful referendum?
01:00:27.220Well, again, that's up to the provincial government,
01:00:29.300but we've done a lot of work with constitutional lawyers,
01:02:38.940And I was saying with other things too that people might put forward,
01:02:41.940I mean, you know, any policy theoretically can be put onto a referendum ballot
01:02:47.380if somebody can get 170,000 valid signatures on there.
01:02:52.780uh that as you said you it could go quickly with triggering through uh the app with such a
01:02:59.740an engaged database already yeah within 30 days of petitioning but there might be a couple other
01:03:04.380petitions for other things that may still take the whole 120 and there'd be no sense holding three
01:03:07.820separate referendums rather than having one with a number of questions but you know when you think
01:03:12.140about it corey really the sovereignty rep the sovereignty referendum really is the key because
01:03:19.740Because following a successful sovereignty referendum, everything else falls from that.
01:03:25.660Okay, so every other thing that you would want would be able to be achieved once you have a sovereignty referendum that is successful.
01:03:35.920Oh, absolutely. I mean, it would be the paramount one, even if there were four others.
01:03:39.160I mean, the other questions are going to be kind of forgotten.
01:03:40.940If over 50% of people voted for sovereignty anyhow, then it's time to start looking at it.
01:03:45.440The reason why I bring it up like that is because if you put a whole bunch of other questions into the mix, that takes away from what really the primary purpose is.
01:03:57.580And, you know, so some people might might vote against sovereignty because there's a couple of policy things that they like.
01:04:05.940Oh, yeah. So so so I think my bias would be and I think the bias of the our board of directors as well is that it's a single question.
01:04:16.060What we what we are really after is sovereignty. And I want to make it clear.
01:04:19.980We're not talking about sovereignty within Canada. You're talking about sovereignty as a new nation.
01:04:25.620And perhaps as a as, you know, depending on what the provincial government wishes following a successful referendum, it could be a constitutional republic that's that has a relationship with the with the Commonwealth, for example.
01:04:46.280There would be nothing wrong with that.
01:04:47.740I mean, as you know, Corey, there are 56 Commonwealth countries and 36 are independent constitutional republics.
01:04:56.100So, you know, there's different ways to consider this.
01:05:00.520But the key thing is, is that we're after one thing, and that's for Alberta to become a sovereign nation.
01:05:07.240And we would like Saskatchewan to come along with us.
01:05:11.700Absolutely. Well, you know, before I let you go, where can people sign up, of course, get their names on there if they haven't already and keep an eye on things, events and happenings as they're coming from you guys?
01:05:21.980Sure. Well, the place to go is albertaprosperityproject.com. There is an event section. I think it will be populated, if it's not populated already, with some 50 different venues coming up in the next three months.
01:05:39.960And that's the place where you can register your interest, register your contact information if you are inclined to support a petition that will obligate the provincial government to hold a referendum on Alberta sovereignty.
01:05:58.380So please go to our website, review some of the information, all of the rationale for Alberta sovereignty is there. And thank you for your support.
01:06:09.960All right. Excellent, Dennis. Thanks. I'm sure we'll be talking again soon. And
01:06:14.040I don't know. I think things are looking bright.
01:06:18.400Well, you know, hope springs eternal, Corey.
01:06:23.640Absolutely. We've been at it a while waiting for this.
01:12:59.180there's a word we can look up and talk about. I appreciate corrections on things here now and
01:13:04.220then though, guys. And, and, uh, well, there's going to be multiple referendums or referenda
01:13:09.620held over time. That's just one of the things I was wondering with Dr. Modry, what I was talking
01:13:13.680about, uh, was, uh, other things could be put up. Healthcare reform could be put on a ballot.
01:13:22.480Uh, if 170,000 people come up with something, there's nothing we can do to stop it.
01:13:26.820And as Dennis said, it'd be nicer to have it all on one, just one referendum at a time.
01:13:31.600But if five qualify, we could have a ballot with five different questions.
01:13:35.020I don't know if that's necessarily bad.
01:13:36.240It would be distracting from the independence idea, but it also would be a good democratic development.
01:13:43.780We're talking about different systems.
01:13:45.080Again, you get down the rabbit hole, right?
01:13:47.100Do you want to be, you know, something like the American constitution or myself?
01:13:51.880I wrote that in my book, My Thoughts, and Dr. Maudry mentioned that, you know, Switzerland, the Canton system, because what that does is it's a small country, but it's broken into many, many very independent cantons.
01:14:05.820They're like the version of a province, and it allows for a lot more disparity in points of view.
01:14:11.300That's the problem with Canada is that we're huge and we're still overshadowed by a federal government that gets in our faces all over the way.