Western Standard - Can the Western independence movement keep it together？

00:00:00.000 good day welcome to the

00:00:29.520 Cory Morgan Show, second take.

00:00:31.620 Yes, our Friday show where we run down what's been going on through the week.

00:00:36.260 I know, I know.

00:00:37.420 Everybody's sick of politics.

00:00:38.440 Well, too bad.

00:00:38.860 We're all politics all the time here.

00:00:40.620 For the true addicts, this is the place for you.

00:00:42.560 Still keeping up on it.

00:00:44.000 And other news stories, discussions, ideas, notions, all of that.

00:00:47.160 We cover it all here.

00:00:48.980 The show is live.

00:00:49.860 Use the comment scroll.

00:00:50.740 I like seeing comments.

00:00:51.820 You know, send me questions.

00:00:53.400 Check in.

00:00:54.720 Converse with each other on there.

00:00:56.000 Just keep things civil.

00:00:56.920 You know, that's important.

00:00:57.660 We don't always have to be at each other's throats.

00:01:00.760 We can use Twitter for that.

00:01:02.720 I've got a couple of good guests coming up in a little bit.

00:01:05.300 Former MLA Rick Strankman.

00:01:07.200 He was with the Wild Rose Party.

00:01:08.360 I've known Rick a long time.

00:01:10.040 Folks might remember he kind of got his political start way back during the battles with the wheat pool because Rick was a farmer.

00:01:18.740 And it used to be illegal for a farmer to dare sell any of their grain to where they chose.

00:01:23.000 They had to sell it to the wheat pool.

00:01:24.600 and him and some other farmers uh took a couple of sacks of grain across the border down by

00:01:30.240 sweetgrass seems to be the place for that sort of thing and got themselves arrested that's what it

00:01:35.140 took to to break the stranglehold of the wheat pool well you might remember a story that we had

00:01:39.020 on the western standard recently a man was he ran afoul of the uh chicken collective the uh supply

00:01:45.720 management cartel and uh he had rcmp officers showing up because he sold eggs that's how

00:01:52.360 controlled we are and that's problematic. So either way, Rick's the perfect guy to talk about

00:01:55.720 some of that and it'll be a good conversation. I'm going to have Dr. Dennis Modry on a little

00:02:00.720 bit after that. He's with the Alberta Prosperity Project. He's also an interesting character in

00:02:06.000 general. I mean, he performed the first heart transplant in Alberta history quite some time

00:02:11.320 ago, but we're going to be talking about Western independence and those sorts of subjects

00:02:14.260 in the Alberta Prosperity Project because yes, Western independence sentiment is flaring and

00:02:19.140 i'm trying my hardest to make it burn because i'm just that way all right but let's check in and see

00:02:23.300 what else is going on we've got our news editor here in studio dave nailer and uh give us the

00:02:28.260 rundown what else is going on this week happy friday cory yes thank you yeah spring is apparently

00:02:32.820 sprung gonna be a nice weekend in the 20s yeah you know i am so old that i remember interviewing

00:02:38.960 dr modry when he did that heart transplant oh you are that's gotta be 30 30 years 40 years maybe

00:02:45.040 I'll go. Well, whatever. I mean, Dennis is no spring chicken either, but he's still

00:02:48.520 pushing out there and getting stuff done. He's quite the qualified man. So yeah, the election

00:02:56.100 happened on Monday. The natural ruling party won. And yeah, I guess that's it. Nothing else going on.

00:03:01.800 Okay. Oh, wait. Oh, wait. Mark Carney had his first press conference as the newly elected

00:03:09.480 the prime minister uh just wrapped up about half an hour ago lots of stuff to take out of it and

00:03:16.600 what i'm going to give him credit and what i think is a brilliant move uh to sort of give the big

00:03:21.560 middle finger to donald trump and his 51st uh state nonsense is that he's invited king charles

00:03:27.960 to come and deliver the speech from the throne on i guess may 26 or 27th uh so he's going to our

00:03:35.160 our head of state is going to be delivering it along with the queen queen camilla they'll all

00:03:39.320 be in their robes and and uh crowns and all that sort of stuff it'll be quite the spectacle and it

00:03:46.040 shows that donald trump that hey we are a sovereign state and you will never be our head of

00:03:51.080 state yeah and i hate saying it is a politically brilliant move there's no doubt about that

00:03:55.240 when is the last time a sitting monarch has given a speech from the throne i think queen elizabeth

00:04:00.520 did it uh many many years ago i don't have the exact date but uh a while i was talking to nigel

00:04:06.200 i wonder how they get their big thrones how does they how does that travel like does it just go in

00:04:11.160 the cargo hold or does it get it their own seat or they got separate pieces does it come apart i mean

00:04:15.960 they don't move those terribly often no no it's very rare state occasions so the block is a little

00:04:21.880 pissed about that oh the french journalists were outraged how dare the king come and do this you 0.76

00:04:27.720 You know, it was ludicrous.

00:04:29.240 There was not a single question from the national media about what, you know, the independence movement in Saskatchewan and Alberta.

00:04:37.500 Not 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.

00:04:47.760 Well, I mean, I'm not a monarchist or a Western independent.

00:04:50.820 I mean, I respect the institution and its history and everything it's been.

00:04:54.200 But, 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.

00:05:03.460 So that's providing a service.

00:05:05.100 Yes, I guess.

00:05:05.940 Never looked at it that way.

00:05:07.940 Lots of other stuff coming out of the press conference.

00:05:10.640 He was asked whether he would be trying to form a coalition with the NDP, and he was short and sweet with his answer.

00:05:17.360 He said no.

00:05:18.660 And then basically said, why would I?

00:05:21.600 You know, he thinks he can, you know what, I'll give him credit.

00:05:24.480 He sounded, he seemed to make all the right notes today.

00:05:29.280 He looked calm.

00:05:30.120 He was joking with the media.

00:05:31.360 He looked relaxed.

00:05:33.900 He announced next Tuesday is the Oval Office meeting.

00:05:37.400 And the reporter asked him if he was worried about getting Zelensky'd.

00:05:42.600 So I bet you he wears a suit.

00:05:45.040 It would be a nerve-wracking meeting to go into.

00:05:48.760 I mean, he was such a volatile guy.

00:05:49.940 I mean, he doesn't have private meetings.

00:05:51.540 He makes sure he can make a spectacle of it.

00:05:54.660 Well, I'm sure Secretary of State Rubio will be there

00:05:57.080 and all his fawning sycophants.

00:06:01.500 Carney just said, yeah, we'll go in prepared.

00:06:04.020 We'll study what he wants.

00:06:06.080 We'll make sure we know what we want.

00:06:08.260 And, you know, he's held high-level meetings before.

00:06:11.020 I'm sure he'll do okay.

00:06:14.360 The other big news today is Battle River Crowfoot MP,

00:06:19.640 Damian Kurek has resigned.

00:06:22.000 He's going to let Pauly have run in his seat.

00:06:24.560 Should be a fairly safe seat.

00:06:25.960 He only won by 46,026 votes on Monday.

00:06:30.100 Yeah, if he lost 10 or 20,000 votes, he'll still be doing okay.

00:06:32.780 Still be doing okay, and, you know, by-elections, pretty low turnout and all that.

00:06:37.180 Mark Carney was asked about it today before the announcement,

00:06:39.840 and he said he will call the by-election as soon as the conservatives figure out what they're doing.

00:06:46.340 He said right away, and then he said no games.

00:06:49.580 So, you know, again, said the right thing.

00:06:52.060 We'll see if he follows through.

00:06:53.280 I mean, you know, in theory, you could have a by-election within a month.

00:06:57.960 Yeah, well, he's playing smart, if nothing else.

00:07:00.540 Yep, yep.

00:07:01.360 So those were the highlights, Corey.

00:07:04.420 So, yeah, lots of stuff going on.

00:07:06.380 The NDP and the Green Party continue to be in disarray.

00:07:11.620 Green Party co-leader resigned.

00:07:15.280 Yeah, and I think they're just all in a state of shock at the moment.

00:07:18.680 Doug Ford came out and sort of doubled down on Pierre Polyev.

00:07:22.720 So those two will not be exchanging Christmas cards.

00:07:26.040 So, yeah, the fun in politics continues.

00:07:28.540 Right on.

00:07:29.220 Well, we'll be there to cover it.

00:07:30.740 I'll let you get back to your seat to get stuff together before you can sneak out and enjoy that weekend.

00:07:35.040 Oh, yes.

00:07:35.580 Hopefully, yeah, don't tell Derek.

00:07:37.680 Right on, Dave.

00:07:38.480 Thanks.

00:07:38.980 You bet, Corey.

00:07:39.440 Thanks.

00:07:39.800 All right.

00:07:40.420 That is our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:07:42.200 Yes, lots on the go, lots to cover.

00:07:43.680 Things are developing.

00:07:44.380 Things are unfolding.

00:07:45.620 and we're always on top of it here at the Western Standard.

00:07:49.600 Lots of stories constantly going up on the site,

00:07:52.480 staying up to date and keeping you guys up to date.

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00:08:13.340 I always like to thank you.

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00:08:15.620 let's look at a couple of the comments here i see rick starting to get ready down in the lobby there

00:08:19.460 which is great i know we were getting ready for the communications and all that we'll have him

00:08:23.220 on in a short little while uh some of the questions and this has been something that's been uh coming

00:08:28.100 up good to see some of you guys there brian uh you know maveros andy and and of course uh freedom

00:08:33.220 honey there with mike asking about because that's been a discussion online when we're talking about

00:08:36.820 independencing uh can nato's can natives veto independence for alberta that's been coming up

00:08:44.900 up since a letter was issued by the Sturgeon Lake Band. They're a northern one up by Valley View

00:08:49.700 actually, basically saying you can't have independence without our permission. Well,

00:08:55.160 yes, we can. You know, I'm sorry, you self-important clown, but you are just a chief 0.99

00:09:01.420 of a First Nation and it's an important responsibility. But no, you don't have 0.98

00:09:05.960 veto authority over independence, nor do First Nations in general. We've got to remember

00:09:10.280 we're talking about a tiny minority of Alberta citizens. They have the right to participate in

00:09:16.260 the process, to vote, you know, to be a part of the referendum like anybody else, but they aren't

00:09:22.800 nations. You know, that's one of the things where you get difficulties, you know, some of the name

00:09:27.280 play, the word play and what it can lead to over time. That's why I get annoyed with land

00:09:31.720 acknowledgements, for example, because what they're doing actually is building a base for something

00:09:36.400 that's not true or not real. And when we change things from, you know, we keep going from,

00:09:41.240 we change from Indians to natives. Okay, that's fine. Maybe, you know, it was a misnomer because

00:09:45.160 they were talking about India and went to natives to first nations, indigenous, it's all over the

00:09:50.040 map now. Well, first nations, see, that's where you start getting the problems. We start pretending

00:09:53.120 that these are all a bunch of sovereign little nations. They aren't, they aren't. They're the

00:09:57.880 creations of treaties and past negotiations. There's a special status. They're not quite

00:10:03.360 like a municipality absolutely and there is constitutional mention of them but we always

00:10:08.660 got to keep remembering people redefine things they keep saying consult consult consult and

00:10:13.120 that's true they should be consulted but that's not consent consent consent we don't need

00:10:17.440 their consent if we need the consent of everybody to do anything we would never get anything

00:10:22.660 done and when when talking to people when it comes to these these these issues too what

00:10:31.040 I got to ask. And I think some people, I'm certain, you know, living on the reserves and

00:10:35.040 under the current system, again, you know, an independent West doesn't mean that the reserves

00:10:40.600 are going to be dissolved. They're still going to be the same chunk of land. They're still going to

00:10:44.120 be all the same challenges if we keep it the same that they have, the things that apparently the

00:10:49.200 status quo that they don't want to change. So if we want to keep things exactly like they are,

00:10:53.060 that's good that they can look forward to rampant poverty, massive unemployment,

00:10:56.380 climate, dying 19 years before the average Albertan, low graduation rates, high crime,

00:11:03.720 social disorder, wild dogs. I don't know what's so appealing with the status quo. And I think

00:11:09.520 the ones who were thrilled with the status quo were the chiefs, not the people living

00:11:13.900 in the reserves, the ones on the ground, the ones who actually have to deal with it.

00:11:19.920 So either way, and somebody else brought up the United Nations Declaration on Indigenous

00:11:25.000 people's. Oh, wow. I do not care what the UN thinks. I couldn't give the slightest shit

00:11:33.160 what the UN thinks. If a majority in a Western province votes to get out, 0.99

00:11:40.060 it's none of the UN's damn business. So, I mean, people are playing the what about game. What 0.96

00:11:45.680 about, what about, what about, what about, and trying to shut down the ability in advance. It's

00:11:49.760 funny because they're saying, well, there's nothing to this independence movement. There's

00:11:52.300 nobody, then why are you working so hard to try and debate against it? There is a risk. I don't

00:11:58.600 think, I'm confident there's not that tipping point. You don't have 50% support for independence

00:12:04.900 yet, but it's getting towards there. You know, when the numbers, again, it's funny when they

00:12:11.060 dismiss it, as Dave mentioned, you know, the press was all pandering, oh Lord, the king is coming and

00:12:15.820 it's going to tick off all the Quebecers. Let's ask 10 questions of the prime minister about that.

00:12:19.260 But, oh, by the way, we've got 30% support for independence in the West, but it's not worth

00:12:24.500 discussing yet? One in three people wants out of the Federation, and you guys don't think it's

00:12:30.600 worth discussing? I think it's a pretty big issue, guys. That's a pretty healthy chunk

00:12:35.320 of individuals. Again, nations have split, starting from a seed much smaller than that.

00:12:43.460 30% is a pretty good base to start with. Now, we've got to watch it. Again, I've been talking

00:12:47.300 about that on online and other areas. You don't want to pull the trigger too fast. It's not there.

00:12:51.620 You start a referendum now and you don't win. You come in with 30%, a strong 30%. So what?

00:12:58.460 You're not going to get another chance at a referendum for five, six, seven years, 10 years.

00:13:02.680 You got to wait. You got to build more base. You got to get more support, but that's a longer,

00:13:06.400 bigger discussion. And one of the other things is there is precedent. We got to look at that.

00:13:12.880 look around the world. A lot of people, if they don't read much European history, that's fine,

00:13:17.880 they can be forgiven. But Sweden and Norway used to be one country. They split based on a referendum.

00:13:25.220 And there was a lot of tension between those two countries before they did split.

00:13:29.340 And now they're very close, have a great relationship, almost open borders with each

00:13:34.000 other. But they're still two distinct nations. It can be done. It has been done. It's done

00:13:41.200 peacefully. And there's no reason that it can't be done here. As well as Slovakia and the Czech

00:13:48.720 Republic, they called it the Velvet Revolution. You know, Eastern Europe, I mean, we're talking

00:13:53.440 a volatile area. And, you know, it's right now Eastern Europe is immersed in a bunch of war

00:14:01.620 and tension. And still Slovakia and the Czech Republic managed to part ways and remain peaceful

00:14:07.760 and they're doing okay right now.

00:14:09.720 So, no, it's been done.

00:14:11.140 It can be done and it will be done.

00:14:13.140 Kenzie Kraken, a commenter said,

00:14:14.420 do you know Stephen Carson, a political strategist in Edmonton?

00:14:17.460 He vowed to fight hard against Alberta independence.

00:14:19.780 I don't.

00:14:21.040 If you're thinking about Stephen Carter,

00:14:22.720 he's based out of Alberta unless he moved. 1.00

00:14:25.880 And he is a political strategist and he's an ass clown. 0.99

00:14:28.940 And he was Ninchy's campaign manager 0.99

00:14:31.680 and Gondek's campaign manager.

00:14:34.120 And he's ushered in a lot of real winners for us.

00:14:37.760 uh Allison Redford he tends to get fired from almost all of them as well now he is a smart

00:14:43.500 strategist you got to grant him that and he gets things done and sure he'll fight independence but

00:14:47.940 all he's looking for is another job somebody toss me money so I can campaign against something uh 0.91

00:14:52.860 they're gonna fight it but that's fine that's that's what it's about it's democracy let's let's

00:14:57.220 get the job uh done all right well I see Rick kind of back and forth in there let's see if we can

00:15:01.780 bring him into the feed and uh have a conversation about some things are you hearing me all right

00:15:06.700 there, Rick. Yeah, I can see them moving around, but maybe there's not quite enough signal.

00:15:15.740 Well, we're having our troubles here, Corey. I'm apologetic. I can see the TELUS tower,

00:15:22.320 but it seems to be bouncing in and out. Okay. Well, maybe the bandwidth is a little bit limited.

00:15:28.520 We're hearing you a little bit. Yeah, I'm hearing you now and seeing you kind of move around. Maybe

00:15:34.840 we'll try dialing rick in and okay so maybe rick if you want to try and disconnect it's

00:15:39.720 offering we'll get our reporter or our producer to phone you and bring you in uh through audio

00:15:45.560 did you catch that rick just just uh close the connection and we'll uh

00:15:52.140 we'll phone you in okay yeah it's rick's out there on the the farmland so i mean there's

00:15:58.160 limited amount i mean rick is a farmer and that's why he can speak to these things but of course it

00:16:01.980 leaves, uh, uh, less, uh, uh, technical ability for some of these things. We'll get them in here

00:16:08.840 and start talking about these things. Uh, let's see, uh, this, uh, rucking there, uh, nice name 0.86

00:16:15.880 rucking around. Yes. I like the fact people are talking any discussion about this potential

00:16:19.780 separation is needed and we need to have all the cards on the table and inform people can vote.

00:16:23.940 Yeah. We got to have the discussion and there's a lot of talk and what gets me right now is,

00:16:30.340 the amount of misinformation and efforts that are being done just to distract and dissuade.

00:16:37.060 Like I said, people are making stuff up in opposition, claiming that, again, that you

00:16:40.800 need consent from Indigenous reserves. We don't. I mean, it would be irresponsible not to consult 0.98

00:16:47.160 them. They're Albertans too. But I've seen a couple asking, you know, I think Pierre will

00:16:52.740 try to interfere with the independence movement, taking a seat in Alberta. No, I don't think so.

00:16:57.060 It's a federal seat.

00:16:58.460 He's not going to come out in support of it.

00:17:00.140 I know that.

00:17:02.480 He'll come out against it.

00:17:03.960 I'm sure of it.

00:17:05.100 And every member of parliament, unless they break free and cross the floor or something like that, is going to do that.

00:17:11.040 Likewise, Premier Smith, if you're waiting for her to come out and openly support Alberta independence, it's not going to happen.

00:17:18.640 She's not going to do it.

00:17:19.920 I don't know what's in her own heart as far as that goes.

00:17:22.180 she's been though the most outspoken premier we've ever had uh on provincial rights and pushing these

00:17:30.620 things i don't know if they've been all that effective necessarily either and these are

00:17:33.520 things hopefully they can correct and get better with one of the things she did do that got 0.67

00:17:37.060 everybody worked up though was she gave us the mechanism uh before with the the uh the legislation

00:17:46.140 that we used to have that Jason Kenney put in made it impossible, outright impossible

00:17:52.040 to reach the bar to invoke a referenda.

00:17:55.680 And now that Premier Smith has lowered that bar to within the realm of possibility, in

00:18:00.920 fact, probability, we're probably going to see something coming soon.

00:18:06.620 Too soon, though.

00:18:07.480 We've got to be careful with it.

00:18:08.240 But the fact that she even put it in there has stirred everybody up.

00:18:10.740 I mean, the opponents wanted to make sure Albertans never even had the ability to hold

00:18:15.540 a referendum.

00:18:16.140 and now that ability's there, and they have to deal with it.

00:18:22.720 So we'll see where it's going to go.

00:18:27.380 Yeah, there's some of it.

00:18:28.740 Kenzie saying Smith may as well support it.

00:18:30.920 Everyone on the left believes she's a secessionist anyways. 1.00

00:18:33.800 You know, and Mavro saying CBC has an article up right now

00:18:37.660 attacking the tax break economic benefits of independence.

00:18:40.200 Yeah, I know.

00:18:40.640 You see, for something they say isn't going to happen,

00:18:43.820 And for something they dismiss so heavily and clearly, again, they sure are fighting it tooth and nail.

00:18:51.980 I 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.

00:18:59.800 Oh, baloney.

00:19:00.860 Baloney. 0.99

00:19:01.680 Look, again, talking about the double standards in Canada, you didn't hear all this crap when Quebec was looking to go. 0.99

00:19:07.560 I'm hearing something in the background. 0.97

00:19:08.880 Have we got Rick on now?

00:19:11.280 You hear me there, Rick?

00:19:12.120 Hopefully you can hear me.

00:19:13.820 i can hear you can you hear me cory i do yes i hear a little bit of breeze but we've got you

00:19:20.380 okay i'll try and get away from that right on no it's good good to hear from you though i know

00:19:25.820 you've been bouncing around trying to trying to cross paths in arizona the last couple years

00:19:29.980 never had any luck with it but at least i got you on here well thanks uh thanks for reaching out

00:19:36.380 gory i appreciate that i certainly enjoy uh your story there regarding uh the egg police

00:19:43.660 uh something that i kind of uh i think if it's the same uh fellow that's involved that was in

00:19:50.060 the same guy he was having trouble with those clowns as well when he when i was elected yeah

00:19:56.620 yeah i mean we get certain prickly producers who kind of you know they're just not gonna feel like

00:20:00.940 they want to play by the rules and and uh they're they're gonna rebel uh you you can relate well

00:20:06.300 with that that's why i thought you'd be the perfect person to speak to on this i gave a bit

00:20:09.580 of background to to people at the start of the show who might have uh you know been newer to

00:20:14.700 alberta or something but you're very familiar with uh fighting against marketing boards

00:20:21.900 well i don't know hopefully i i don't exactly fit the description of quickly but i appreciate that

00:20:29.660 I appreciate that, Corey.

00:20:31.460 Yes, it's overarching federal legislation, you know, that reaches into our lives,

00:20:38.980 and particularly our property rights.

00:20:40.640 In this case, if I'm accurate, the gentleman involved doesn't necessarily own those 300 hens.

00:20:48.360 But what he does is he amalgamates or co-ops or pools the eggs of other producers

00:20:55.360 who are under the criteria of 300 laying hens.

00:20:59.660 And then he sells them.

00:21:01.560 He's created a market and done very well for himself.

00:21:04.740 But the egg police take great offense to his, how do I put it, his innovativeness.

00:21:13.460 And that's what's going on here.

00:21:16.420 It's frustrating.

00:21:17.780 And right now, like my son was just telling me to the joys and benefits of supply management,

00:21:23.460 the cost of milk is $10 a gallon. 0.98

00:21:26.900 uh you know uh how many working class families that is can afford that crap oh yeah i mean 1.00

00:21:33.240 it's ridiculous there's there's been studies that have come out and it could be costing 0.82

00:21:37.300 canadian families i mean it depends on which study upwards of 400 to 900 per family per year

00:21:42.800 it increased food costs just because it's supply management because it's on your poultry it's on

00:21:47.080 your eggs it's on your dairy and your average person doesn't realize this i mean we're an

00:21:50.960 agricultural powerhouse we should have some of the most inexpensive food products on earth but 0.98

00:21:55.260 these marketing boards make sure we pay a premium well and that's some of the problem with our

00:22:02.060 good friends to the south they're aware of that 258 percent or almost 300 possibly i i don't know

00:22:11.100 the accurate numbers of uh of tariffs on the importation of cheese and our dairy products

00:22:17.900 into canada and a lot of that is uh held again uh with the supply management producers of quebec

00:22:25.740 and ontario which dictate to us uh in the prairies and a lot of the supply management producers

00:22:32.140 believe that they come from some high moral ground uh saying oh well we're predicting our producers

00:22:38.620 well yeah you're not necessarily if you're giving them false incentives and you're destroying a lot

00:22:44.940 of the uh as you're saying the the family units because they simply can't afford their products

00:22:50.140 it's overpriced yeah well your battle was with the wheat board i mean essentially it was illegal

00:22:55.340 for for grain producers to sell to anybody but one board and uh you you ended up getting charged

00:23:01.580 because you you you know uh purposely sold uh outside of that the old arguments are the same

00:23:08.700 though with supply management today they're just saying that these farms will disappear and the

00:23:11.900 market will be destroyed if we don't have these market control mechanisms uh when the wheat board 0.69

00:23:16.780 went away wheat farmers didn't disappear did they well in fact right now i think there's more action

00:23:25.820 certainly if it would be reflected in land prices i don't know what's all going on there whether

00:23:31.580 they're or maybe they're all excited uh to be farming for carney or farming for farm credit

00:23:37.500 corporation it seems like the money is just uh flowing like water in some of these uh situations

00:23:44.940 so yeah it's a it's a paradigm that uh you know there's not people marching in the streets to

00:23:51.420 get the wheat board back that's for sure no no but part of the problem was too and i mean you

00:23:56.380 dealt with that there weren't people marching in the streets exactly to get rid of those boards

00:24:00.300 either because your average citizen you know they live most people live urban and they don't even

00:24:05.740 realize these boards exist it took actions like yourself or or even the egg man down south perhaps

00:24:11.100 to bring it into the news and and help people understand the ridiculousness of this system

00:24:17.340 yeah you're you're right cory uh i can't singularly take uh all the credit uh we

00:24:23.180 call ourselves a dirty dozen although there were 13 of us that went to jail in lethbridge back in

00:24:28.940 2002. We did our free market expedition into the US in 1995-1996. Corey, it's coming around

00:24:39.020 us 30 years ago. A lot of people aren't that old. Maybe a lot of the consumers are recognized

00:24:46.700 when they're drinking craft beer. Even when I was back elected, we were on a train ride

00:24:52.620 in South of Stetler, and Jason Kenney, then running for the leadership of the party, the UCP,

00:25:01.460 was holding the craft beer in his hand, and he says, well, I didn't see that much change

00:25:06.060 because the results were changed to the report, Rick.

00:25:08.840 And I said, well, you're holding it right in your hand there, sir.

00:25:12.340 You know, he didn't even know.

00:25:14.160 Even though he had voted on the policy I saw him vote in the House of Commons,

00:25:17.920 we were there that day that Mr. Harper changed the law.

00:25:21.340 And some of those guys, you know, that close to it didn't understand the consequences or the effects of what they had done.

00:25:31.620 You know, it's subliminal. You're exactly right, Corey. 0.53

00:25:35.900 It's a subliminal thing.

00:25:37.600 And, you know, it takes somebody to stand up like the gents from southern Alberta there. 1.00

00:25:42.720 And hopefully your listeners might be interested to know if you were to go to the Ag Police Marketing Board office in Epitone there,

00:25:50.340 The whole room, the whole board table and the lighting assembly above it is in a giant oval, the shape of an egg.

00:25:59.100 You 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.

00:26:14.340 Yeah, and I mean, and it just strangles creative and smaller operators.

00:26:18.280 the craft brewery example you gave was perfect you know that that i remember again with the

00:26:23.620 wheat board in saskatchewan there was a group in a town i can't remember it was smiley or

00:26:27.480 lanceman or one of the smaller towns and they they had good durum in the area and they're

00:26:32.460 actually looking to build a pasta plant and use their own wheat they figured they could do a

00:26:36.880 value-added thing with a few producers together and sell a brand of pasta but then it was realized

00:26:42.260 they'd have to sell all their product to the wheat board and then buy it back at an inflated 0.65

00:26:46.260 price or it would be illegal so they had to abandon the idea it it's just so ridiculous on

00:26:53.660 on so many levels likewise with eggs i mean you're allowed 300 hens people have to understand you

00:27:00.600 know at best you're going to get 250 eggs a day this is not a large operator if you want to at

00:27:05.460 least make it a small enterprise you need a couple thousand birds and and it's it's just such an

00:27:10.160 assault the freedom to say you can't do that.

00:27:12.920 You're exactly right, Corey. When you mentioned the pasta situation, there's a similar fractionating

00:27:22.160 plant in Red Deer. We've sold grain to them over the years that fractionates the grain

00:27:28.660 to separate the germ from other various parts of the product and then sell them separately

00:27:33.920 in marketing. They had to buy their wheat from the wheat board. Right away, the wheat

00:27:40.000 wanted to know well what are you selling your product for you know like it was

00:27:43.900 like well it when that turns into any of your business will send you a wire you

00:27:48.120 know how I think it was yeah it's deeply frustrating and Canadians are generally 1.00

00:27:56.260 good people but we're too complacent in some regard and willing to take on some

00:28:03.460 these battles you know uh so uh you know to really the discussion that i overheard there about uh

00:28:10.740 independence or some uh assertion of our rights in canada yeah well the independent to see how

00:28:19.700 this proceeds yeah the independence movement really kind of has to begin with the individual

00:28:24.020 and then they gotta you know cases like this i just like it because it drives home just how

00:28:28.740 controlled we are we sent rcmp officers after a man because he was selling eggs i mean that's

00:28:34.820 absurd but that's a reality well well and so much of it i think is based on accountability

00:28:42.420 corey uh you know our judges are unaccountable look at that we have four guys that uh you know

00:28:47.620 from a crowd uh that jason kenny at the time would even uh would even meet with with even

00:28:52.980 One of my former caucus mates went down there to see the demonstration at Coots

00:28:58.520 and just about got rounded out of caucus for the fact that he just went to see what his constituents were doing.

00:29:05.200 It's bizarre. It's just bizarre.

00:29:07.020 And actually, I don't know, this might be a good time to announce it, whether it all comes to pass, Corey,

00:29:13.600 but that's a little border town over here of Cobb Pier.

00:29:17.420 They actually have an NHL-sized hockey rink, and it's a fantastic building.

00:29:22.980 And I'm thinking about conspiring to have a tea party.

00:29:29.160 I think it's time that Western Canadians did, similar to what happened 250 years ago in the U.S., 0.99

00:29:35.580 start throwing some tea in the harbor and create a lot of controversy.

00:29:39.780 So I'm thinking it might be a good time to have some fun and meet people who are like-minded.

00:29:44.520 And hopefully, with any luck, these tea parties might become infectious.

00:29:49.500 I don't think there's a vaccine available for that.

00:29:52.980 So I think it would be great fun.

00:29:56.180 That sounds very interesting, Rick.

00:29:58.480 You'll have to send me a note afterwards and let me know about this.

00:30:02.880 We're certainly in a period of, I guess you could say, unrest,

00:30:05.860 and we've got a lot of Westerners ready to shake the tree.

00:30:08.400 I can think of no better time to try and put something together like that.

00:30:12.400 Well, I think I'm always up for a little bit of fun,

00:30:15.860 and I think it would be a great chance.

00:30:18.760 At the end, it's out in the middle of nowhere,

00:30:20.240 And we're about 140 miles away from a can of Coca-Cola, but the police only

00:30:27.380 barely know that the place is there.

00:30:30.020 So I think it could be a lot of fun and we could, you know, and people

00:30:35.020 of both provinces who are like-minded could realize that there are others

00:30:39.980 who think the same.

00:30:45.440 It's good to see you're still full of piss and vinegar then too.

00:30:47.880 You're not just hiding out in Arizona all the time.

00:30:49.880 watching us you're still out to fight the good fight well uh maybe it's because it's unfortunate

00:30:56.280 uh because i'm out here uh we're doing our farming uh we're getting some seeds in the

00:31:01.800 ground here today and it's that time of the year so uh yeah spring's eternal in the springtime

00:31:09.080 literally and uh it's uh yeah it's what we do and uh property rights uh you know are uh near

00:31:17.880 dear to my heart, it's making me

00:31:19.520 some time to understand from my

00:31:21.960 American lineage why that is, but

00:31:25.080 it's important to our society, and

00:31:27.420 if people are just going to knuckle

00:31:28.900 down and, you know, and want to

00:31:31.160 live their life on a bend at D,

00:31:32.800 well, go ahead, but I want to stand

00:31:35.320 and be free.

00:31:37.780 I appreciate that, and it just,

00:31:40.200 yeah, exemplifies the good old,

00:31:41.440 you know, stubborn individualist 0.98

00:31:42.780 Albertans, damn it, we're not 1.00

00:31:44.100 going to put up with it. 0.99

00:31:45.080 well i'm a prickly beekeeper you know we've got our

00:31:54.500 i don't see prickly as a bad term i think it's a it's not a not a pejorative uh well well that's

00:32:03.140 right on i'll let you get back to seed and i know it's a busy time of year but i appreciate you

00:32:07.380 coming on to talk to us about this today and then just you know help people realize like it takes

00:32:11.620 these grassroots movements to make change

00:32:13.640 and that you haven't given up.

00:32:17.320 Well, and I want to encourage all your listeners, Corey,

00:32:20.940 that that's what I did when I was elected too.

00:32:24.120 I only wanted to be the water boy or the fat boy

00:32:27.340 on a really good team.

00:32:29.660 And the whole crowd, you know, took advice

00:32:32.580 at one point there from Presto Lenning

00:32:36.280 about crossing the floor.

00:32:38.400 It was just bizarre.

00:32:39.400 You know, the electorate didn't want that.

00:32:42.680 And so now we need to call Drain in 95 in Manitoba.

00:32:51.840 There was an old World War II vet who was in our crowd there.

00:32:55.320 And he said, you know, I went to Europe a long time ago.

00:32:59.080 We've fought this ship before.

00:33:01.600 And I thought to myself, no, I can coin that phrase. 0.98

00:33:05.200 I'm old and crafty and I fought that crap before, too. 0.99

00:33:09.400 So it's time to fight it again. 0.97

00:33:13.220 So 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.

00:33:28.040 I 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.

00:33:36.540 And 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.

00:33:48.400 Like, what's the matter with that?

00:33:49.620 It's all about, you know, driving the herd together.

00:33:53.000 You know, like, who are these people?

00:33:55.240 The unelected water cooler guards are just running the place.

00:33:59.580 And that's improper.

00:34:01.660 Yeah, we've got a lot to get, you know, with the House in Order on our provincial level as well.

00:34:06.000 aside 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

00:34:11.680 you said let you get back to the fields there and i appreciate you talking to us and i'll have to

00:34:15.840 send you a text and find out see if that tea party gets going it sounds really interesting

00:34:20.400 well thanks for allowing you to wrap cory i appreciate it i heard always appreciated rick

00:34:25.040 good to talk to you and i'll talk to you again soon thank you again sir have a great day okay

00:34:29.840 Okay. Thanks. So again, folks, yeah, that was Rick Strankman. And again, a very dedicated

00:34:35.380 politically, as you can hear, I mean, and again, a hard worker, he's farming the whole time he's

00:34:40.240 doing this, you know, he's a farmer at heart. But you know, he's fighting for that right and ability

00:34:46.040 to keep doing these things. This is what we're about out here. And he stood up. He got arrested

00:34:52.320 along as he said with, there was 13 of them went out. But what lunacy. We're at a point. Is it

00:34:59.060 your property or not. And guess what? In Canada, we don't have property rights. So you farm,

00:35:04.280 you grew that wheat, you owned it, but the law back then would tell you who you're allowed to

00:35:10.920 sell it to. Well, then you don't really own it, do you? Likewise with the eggs, this is ridiculous.

00:35:16.820 You do the inputs, you do the work, you clean the chicken coops, you build your customer base.

00:35:24.460 But if it turns out you have 301 chickens, you've broken the law. If you've got even one cow

00:35:32.920 that's producing milk and you sell a glass of milk without a quota, you have broken the law.

00:35:42.900 That is wrong. It is so wrong. And as I said, a lot of average Canadians don't understand that

00:35:50.580 that's the system we're under. You know, they live in the cities. They just go to the grocery

00:35:54.960 store. They may wonder why so many food products are so expensive. Well, that's why. That's part

00:36:03.000 of why anyways. I mean, look at the amount, especially in the West, of great agricultural

00:36:08.200 producing land. Look at all the great producers, but they're handcuffed. They can't get creative.

00:36:14.580 They can't develop value-added markets. They can't do different things. I mean, a large poultry

00:36:19.760 producer, as we said, organic eggs, things like that, they could be adding to that market, doing

00:36:24.400 more niche products, more local products, less trucking. It's funny, the irony of these

00:36:28.960 authoritarians, and that's what it always comes down to, authoritarians, and a lot of them cloak

00:36:33.780 themselves and, oh, we're green, we're saving the world from climate change and all that BS.

00:36:39.700 Well, you know what? If we had local food producers, smaller, more local food producers,

00:36:47.060 you don't have to truck the inputs and the products out as far do you you'd be supplying

00:36:52.060 milk you're not trucking milk from quebec all over the place all the way out here you uh

00:36:57.480 egg wise as well you can be supplying local stores local businesses reducing the amount

00:37:03.500 of movement for these goods it's better for the environment it's better for the local economy

00:37:07.360 it's just better all around but that's just one facet of so many facets of authoritarianism and

00:37:13.200 problems we're dealing with in Canada. And it's a big one, though. And I was really glad I could

00:37:18.580 get Rick on to talk about it. Joe Lawrence commentator saying, Mr. Morgan, can you explain

00:37:22.260 the indigenous aspect of separating my best friend's Cree and I'm scared to death ever to talk 1.00

00:37:26.400 about it? Yeah, I spoke. I don't know if you got on just recently, Joe, but I was talking about that

00:37:31.500 earlier and everything, too. And, you know, it keeps coming back to that because that seems to be

00:37:35.880 the latest pushback is saying, you know, the First Nations won't let you. Well, they don't

00:37:42.960 have the ability to stop us. They aren't nations. Nations have borders, currency,

00:37:49.860 self-sufficiency, taxation abilities. The reserves are a special place. And they are Albertans.

00:37:57.220 They are Saskatchewan citizens. They're BC citizens. They're Westerners. They deserve

00:38:01.160 respect. They deserve to be consulted. They should be at the table. We should be talking

00:38:04.420 about these things. But no, they do not have a veto over this. And you know what? The reserves

00:38:11.080 can still be there the day after independence it'll still be there it'll just be a reserve

00:38:15.040 within an independent west people say oh there's some of the other baloney uh people pointing out

00:38:21.360 too it's crown land it's actually the crown that owns it oh really really that's like saying you

00:38:28.260 know it's the indian act does that mean india owns them come on no the crown yes the crown is the

00:38:35.080 term for it and actually the crown there's a bunch of crown land in india too do you think

00:38:39.200 king charles could just come march in and take the land it's just a term guys it's it's it's not

00:38:46.020 actually owned by the crown that's done in fact they're managed by the provinces and people talk

00:38:53.800 about well there's federal land that wouldn't be uh you know so the national parks wouldn't oh stop 0.96

00:38:58.980 it you're playing stupid what about ism right again these games weren't played when quebec held 0.97

00:39:05.420 their referendum they weren't saying well quebec could leave but you couldn't keep a national park 1.00

00:39:08.920 Yes, 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. 1.00

00:39:30.580 on a clear question to move and separate and become independent, nobody's going to stop them.

00:39:40.460 They can try, they can yell, but I tell you what, you intervene now at that point when you've had

00:39:45.100 more than half of a province come out and cast a ballot and say they want to go,

00:39:49.700 you're going to make a very dangerous situation by trying to override that. Because if people

00:39:54.220 can't leave utilizing established recognized democratic means then they'll move on to other

00:40:03.200 means and that's i don't it's not going to come to that that's not our nature here but people

00:40:09.100 saying again you know the supreme court will shut you down if you even if you voted 60 they'd just

00:40:13.220 rule against it afterwards well if that happened if you got actually 60 of a province saying we

00:40:18.720 want out they're going to put up a wall at the border anyways and say what are you going to do

00:40:22.440 about it and they won't be able to do anything about it uh as others have said i mean i i've

00:40:30.840 been putting other videos out on my own channel and they've been very popular and stuff from my

00:40:34.520 book because i've been over this case so so many times but i do want to share more of those things

00:40:39.380 and explain to people this case has been going on for a long time and made a lot of ways and

00:40:45.160 And there's a lot of well-established counterpoints to the tiresome, tiresome counterpoints being made against independents.

00:40:57.420 Another point, I see Jordan bringing up Texas, you know, talking about being forced to the USA in the past.

00:41:05.460 But I saw that brought up online as well with somebody else saying, you know, because we're talking about the order of things.

00:41:10.460 and Texas eventually became an American state, of course, but they were independent for nine years

00:41:14.800 before they became an American state. We're talking about one of those chicken and egg

00:41:18.780 discussions in a sense, especially when we get some conflict with some people who feel that

00:41:23.240 a province should jump straight into joining the United States and skip the portion of

00:41:28.020 independence. Well, I think you're getting ahead of yourselves, guys, and you're splitting things

00:41:32.420 up. We need to get independent first. Then we can indulge a lot of conversations after about

00:41:36.480 which path that's going to take. And so, you know, before I get to Dr. Modra, I'm looking forward to

00:41:43.400 more of that discussion. I just want to cover a little bit of what we're up against too

00:41:46.020 federally. I mean, things are developing fast still. I mean, it's still the week of the election,

00:41:50.780 essentially, that's going by. And I guess it's good and bad. When I watched, I was in the newsroom

00:41:55.760 and I watched Mark Carney's first major press conference since becoming prime minister. And as

00:42:02.320 Dave said, I mean, I am not a fan of Carney or the liberals or that government by any means.

00:42:07.880 And it cuts both ways. The conference and his speaking in the direction is actually quite smart,

00:42:13.600 level-headed, and very tactically bright. I mean, bringing the king over here

00:42:18.520 to give the throne speech is a masterstroke. Even though it's going to stir up Quebecers,

00:42:23.100 it's actually going to strengthen where he's standing, where he's at least positioned himself

00:42:27.380 in this role with what they feel is an external threat in the United States.

00:42:32.320 you know, likewise, he sounded conciliatory. He said during, so as Dave also reported,

00:42:39.260 Pierre Polyev is going to be running for a by-election, it looks like, in Battle River

00:42:42.540 Crowfoot. That's a safe, safe, safe Alberta riding. And Carney was asked, you know, how soon

00:42:49.000 would he hold a by-election for that? He said he'll hold one as soon as possible. That, again,

00:42:55.460 it's smart. It shows some class. I'm not trying to plug for Carney. I'm just saying that they're

00:42:59.800 playing smart right now they would just look petty and stupid if they do i i gotta admit like 0.97

00:43:03.940 the smith government is right now by holding ninchy off and not letting him run for a seat 0.98

00:43:08.400 in edmonton come on it's a safe seat just get it over with and let the guy do it and likewise now

00:43:15.040 carney isn't taking that path it sounds like we'll see i mean you don't believe it until that

00:43:18.580 by-election is actually pulled uh but it looks like you know it's going to be held he's he's

00:43:25.320 playing smart which i mean i we've already seen what an incompetent prime minister is going to

00:43:29.640 do to us. We've seen that for the last 10 years. That's why we are where we are right now. Because

00:43:32.920 even though there's 10 years of incompetence, Canada said, you know what, let's give them

00:43:36.540 another mandate and see how badly they can really screw us for a few more years. They changed the

00:43:40.320 head. It's got to be better, right? I'm happy to see them being a little less incompetent. But at

00:43:45.000 the same time, I worry because now we're dealing with a smart liberal government and it doesn't

00:43:49.400 have us in their interests at all. But if they're playing tactically smart, it makes our job tougher.

00:43:55.620 we have to be smart too. We have to be smarter. And rage isn't enough. We need a plan. And one

00:44:05.340 of the guys who's been working on this for quite a while and has a good plan is Dr. Dennis Modry.

00:44:09.720 He's been on. It's been a while since Dennis has been on the show, but he's been active. One of

00:44:14.380 the founders of the Alberta Prosperity Project and then talking about independence and how to

00:44:17.840 get there. And he's here to talk to us today. So thanks for joining us, Dennis.

00:44:21.680 Delighted to be here, Corey.

00:44:24.140 So, boy, we're into some interesting times.

00:44:27.660 Finally, 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.

00:44:38.840 And they're starting to realize that they've got to look at the other options.

00:44:41.840 And those are the kind of options that the Prosperity Project is sort of offering, right?

00:44:45.580 Well, that's correct.

00:44:46.640 As 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.

00:45:04.560 It 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.

00:45:19.620 And 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.

00:45:30.740 It 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.

00:45:54.960 And 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.

00:46:08.240 And, you know, we're very excited.

00:46:12.360 You 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.

00:46:24.280 But the election of Mr. Carney has been like pouring kerosene on the flickering flames of Alberta sovereignty, and it's really, really burst forth.

00:46:37.060 And the number of people that have registered their intent to support the petition to force the referendum has exploded.

00:46:45.360 So really, that's where we're at.

00:46:48.060 Yeah, and that's something I really wanted to have you on to clarify and talk about.

00:46:51.880 Because, you know, some people, this is kind of the first time they're looking at this whole thing closely.

00:46:57.140 And people are getting barraged with a number of petitions or just asking to sign up for this or sign up for that.

00:47:04.540 I mean, you can only speak for the one from the Prosperity Project and Society.

00:47:10.620 But, 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.

00:47:19.960 and that's a step towards a step in a sense, I guess. People have to realize it's joining a

00:47:24.800 group and getting ready. Well, this is correct. Of course, the Citizens Initiative Act, which was

00:47:30.280 passed by the Alberta government in May of 2022, permits a petition that can bring about a change

00:47:39.620 to the Constitution. And the petition originally would have required 600,000 signatures

00:47:48.960 gathered within 90 days which is an impossible task and so what we've been doing is we've been

00:47:56.540 collecting the contact information of the individuals who would support a petition

00:48:01.040 that would then be certified by Elections Alberta and then the provincial government would therefore

00:48:07.540 be obligated to hold the referendum and so I think that if the threshold is lowered as

00:48:15.840 has come out in the media recently to 10 percent of the number of people that voted in the last

00:48:22.660 election. That would be about 180,000 people. And I believe that we are we are at that point

00:48:31.300 or greater already in terms of the people who have registered with the Alberta Prosperity

00:48:37.520 project, their contact information. And so to make it a little bit more significant at this

00:48:47.320 particular point, where we are at, Jeff Rath, who's general counsel for the Alberta Prosperity

00:48:54.040 Society, and another constitutional lawyer, Keith Wilson, have come up with the petition

00:49:01.540 question already. And we've made some modifications to the question, but the question really

00:49:07.020 pertains to alberta sovereignty not sovereignty within canada not joining the u.s but sovereignty

00:49:14.140 for alberta as an independent nation so that's really uh really where we're at right now and

00:49:21.900 we're just working hard on loading all of the people who are who have expressed an interest

00:49:26.620 to support the petition and who likely will support the referendum as well yeah i mean and

00:49:32.380 the petition is a critical step so now it's become a reasonable bar to surpass but as you said you're

00:49:39.580 an educational society there's still a whole lot of groundwork to be done around the province to

00:49:44.940 make people understand i mean what the process would be what the benefits would be and with the

00:49:48.380 drawbacks there's definitely potentially some that that's been the role of the app i imagine

00:49:53.820 that there's going to be a lot of events and and uh functions coming soon well that's true uh there

00:49:59.340 will be a lot of the events i think we've got some 50 town halls planned for the next three months

00:50:05.020 there's a number of zoom conferences that have been set up and of course we've been happy to

00:50:09.260 speak to the media to give them information that is educational and in value it's not opinion

00:50:17.500 related it's it's basically the facts and um and one of the things that i'd like to point out

00:50:23.900 corey is that you know from from what everything that we're doing follows a legal pathway um and

00:50:30.700 that legal pathway of course starts with the petition the petition um when successful goes

00:50:38.060 to the provincial government and then the provincial government um is empowered then to

00:50:43.260 uh to and obligated to hold that referendum and once the referendum is successful

00:50:49.420 then of course the provincial government is in a position to negotiate the terms of secession

00:50:57.260 with the federal government and the other provinces, but they can do so from a position

00:51:01.420 of strength. And one of the things that I think is extremely important for people to understand

00:51:05.740 is when you want to legitimize your sovereignty, you need to know that you have other countries

00:51:13.900 that will recognize your newfound sovereignty as an independent nation. And I can assure you that

00:51:23.500 from the meetings that we've had with senior administration in the US, that there is tremendous

00:51:33.820 support for Alberta sovereignty. And I would think as well, Saskatchewan sovereignty as well.

00:51:39.580 So 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.

00:51:48.700 They don't have a mechanism yet.

00:51:51.920 I 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.

00:52:00.400 Has there been any discussions with Saskatchewan counterparts or talking about, you know, spreading out in that direction a little bit?

00:52:06.380 Well, 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.

00:52:18.960 But 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.

00:52:31.040 I mean, in an ideal world, it would be wonderful if Saskatchewan and Alberta at the same time were holding a referendum on secession.

00:52:41.340 I think that would be novel.

00:52:42.960 I 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.

00:52:56.140 And we'll see where that goes.

00:52:57.540 But, 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.

00:53:12.180 And if they're not met, that could be a threat to national unity.

00:53:16.180 Well, that can only mean one thing.

00:53:17.600 And 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.

00:53:44.160 And 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.

00:54:14.160 If we were retaining our own wealth rather than having it confiscated by the federal government in various forms of taxation and regulations.

00:54:25.260 So 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.

00:54:41.040 But 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.

00:54:53.960 And 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.

00:55:02.500 But let's look at something in reality that happened.

00:55:05.820 And 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?

00:55:28.920 And 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.

00:55:49.400 And 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.

00:56:13.440 We 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.

00:56:32.320 So 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.

00:56:56.960 So I want to get like a, we'd have to get a little speculative, but looking at some of the

00:57:01.120 timelines, like there's a few things that still have to happen yet. The legislation, the, you

00:57:05.660 know, the, the basically amending the past act has been put forward, but that's still got to get

00:57:11.300 through the legislature. And then once it gets royal assent, that's when technically somebody

00:57:16.940 could trigger at least the petitioning for a referendum. That would take at least three months

00:57:22.220 because of the 120-day period given, and if that part was successful, it would still take a few

00:57:30.160 months, I imagine, before the province would actually declare a referendum. So, I mean,

00:57:34.700 I think at the soonest, we'd probably be looking at six months at the very fastest. I'm just

00:57:39.140 guessing here. Well, I think you're probably correct on that. I know that we have contemplated

00:57:45.400 the idea of getting to the point where we could hold a referendum at the time of the

00:57:52.600 midterm municipal elections on October the 25th.

00:57:55.300 That timeline would be a bit tight, according to what you've just said.

00:57:59.700 But there could at least conceivably be a modification of that legislation in which

00:58:07.640 if the threshold is reduced to 177,000 as it is, and Mr. Rath, our constitutional lawyer,

00:58:19.680 submits the petition question to Elections Alberta, it's certified, we will be able to

00:58:25.480 collect the signatures on the 180,000 within a month. And then under those circumstances,

00:58:34.700 if the legislation were to to say um within uh within 120 days so in other words it doesn't have

00:58:43.260 to be 120 days but within 120 days then then conceivably let's just say for example um

00:58:52.300 by the end of the by the end of may we have the referenda i believe sorry we we uh we have the

00:58:58.060 petition already collected so the question goes to elections alberta next week it gets it gets

00:59:07.500 certified we send out the canvassers we get the we get the requisite number of signatures

00:59:14.860 elections alberta certifies it and by june some point in early june the the certified petition

00:59:24.060 goes to the provincial government the provincial government then has an opportunity to hold the

00:59:30.700 referendum at a time of their choosing i just want to make it clear to the public that it is up to the

00:59:36.540 provincial government as to the timing of holding the referendum we of course don't want to be

00:59:44.220 subject to Mr. Carney's dictates for very long. And we're not sure of the sort of things that he

00:59:54.620 will do that we think he may do, which will further compromise Alberta. And I think these

01:00:00.860 are the things that the provincial government is concerned about as well. So it behooves the

01:00:05.020 provincial government to contemplate as well a sooner rather than later referendum

01:00:11.340 if we're able to get the petition to them sooner rather than later.

01:00:19.140 Now, insofar as setting the conditions, et cetera,

01:00:22.480 what is it going to look like after a successful referendum?

01:00:27.220 Well, again, that's up to the provincial government,

01:00:29.300 but we've done a lot of work with constitutional lawyers,

01:00:32.340 multiple constitutional lawyers.

01:00:34.360 And what things could look like is already on our website in a section,

01:00:38.960 in the education section entitled proposed policies and governance of the sovereign

01:00:44.080 province of alberta notwithstanding the development of an alberta constitution

01:00:49.040 but you know you can you can just contemplate let's just say october the 25th referendum occurs

01:00:54.800 it's successful and there's a plurality and the u.s government says calls up the premier and says

01:01:03.040 we recognize Alberta as a sovereign nation, even before the negotiations that would be required

01:01:10.020 in the context of the Clarity Act. But when you look at that Clarity Act, those negotiations

01:01:15.800 should be about what the terms of secession are, not terms of trying to get out of Canada. Those

01:01:23.500 would be the terms of what would it look like if Alberta was separate from Canada. Those would be

01:01:30.500 the kind of terms that we would expect that would be discussed. Yeah. So, I mean, it is looking

01:01:37.760 interesting and very promising. Another aspect, I mean, I've always liked citizens initiated

01:01:40.960 referenda in general. We can't forget that possibly people could be getting some initiatives

01:01:49.020 going that don't have anything to do with independence as well. There could be separate

01:01:52.460 policy initiatives put forward. I like to look at Switzerland, you know, they have a very

01:01:58.000 referenda-based model, and they'll have a kind of a referenda period every couple of years or a year

01:02:01.660 with a number of questions on a ballot. You know, you can answer a few policy questions at once. I

01:02:06.140 just wonder, we might see independence on a ballot, but there might be four other initiatives at the

01:02:10.640 same time, which makes it more efficient. Well, you know, that's a point well taken,

01:02:16.900 Corey, and of course, I personally am a fan of either a constitutional republic

01:02:22.780 or a Canton system like there is in Switzerland.

01:02:28.420 They're both far better than the system of governance that we are laboring under right now.

01:02:37.280 No, absolutely.

01:02:38.940 And I was saying with other things too that people might put forward,

01:02:41.940 I mean, you know, any policy theoretically can be put onto a referendum ballot

01:02:47.380 if somebody can get 170,000 valid signatures on there.

01:02:52.780 uh that as you said you it could go quickly with triggering through uh the app with such a

01:02:59.740 an engaged database already yeah within 30 days of petitioning but there might be a couple other

01:03:04.380 petitions for other things that may still take the whole 120 and there'd be no sense holding three

01:03:07.820 separate referendums rather than having one with a number of questions but you know when you think

01:03:12.140 about it corey really the sovereignty rep the sovereignty referendum really is the key because

01:03:19.740 Because following a successful sovereignty referendum, everything else falls from that.

01:03:25.660 Okay, so every other thing that you would want would be able to be achieved once you have a sovereignty referendum that is successful.

01:03:35.920 Oh, absolutely. I mean, it would be the paramount one, even if there were four others.

01:03:39.160 I mean, the other questions are going to be kind of forgotten.

01:03:40.940 If over 50% of people voted for sovereignty anyhow, then it's time to start looking at it.

01:03:45.440 The 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.

01:03:57.580 And, you know, so some people might might vote against sovereignty because there's a couple of policy things that they like.

01:04:05.180 You see what I'm saying?

01:04:05.940 Oh, 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.

01:04:16.060 What we what we are really after is sovereignty. And I want to make it clear.

01:04:19.980 We're not talking about sovereignty within Canada. You're talking about sovereignty as a new nation.

01:04:25.620 And 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.

01:04:46.280 There would be nothing wrong with that.

01:04:47.740 I mean, as you know, Corey, there are 56 Commonwealth countries and 36 are independent constitutional republics.

01:04:56.100 So, you know, there's different ways to consider this.

01:05:00.520 But the key thing is, is that we're after one thing, and that's for Alberta to become a sovereign nation.

01:05:07.240 And we would like Saskatchewan to come along with us.

01:05:11.220 Absolutely.

01:05:11.700 Absolutely. 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?

01:05:21.980 Sure. 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.

01:05:39.960 And 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.

01:05:58.380 So 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.

01:06:09.960 All right. Excellent, Dennis. Thanks. I'm sure we'll be talking again soon. And

01:06:14.040 I don't know. I think things are looking bright.

01:06:18.400 Well, you know, hope springs eternal, Corey.

01:06:23.640 Absolutely. We've been at it a while waiting for this.

01:06:26.440 We sure have.

01:06:27.600 All right. Well, thanks. And I'll talk to you again soon.

01:06:30.880 Take care, buddy. Bye-bye.

01:06:32.760 So that was Dr. Dennis Modry. And yes, you know, speaking with the Alberta Prosperity Project,

01:06:37.600 check out that site, get on there. And yeah, there's more than just signing up. If you're

01:06:41.920 looking at a lot of those questions, they've been working on this for years because a lot of the

01:06:45.380 questions repeat. They're common questions and they're fair questions. They're good questions

01:06:48.660 people have. And that's sort of one of those frequently asked questions zones. As Dr. Modri

01:06:56.480 said, a lot of them can be answered just by skimming through that. And if there are questions

01:06:59.960 you have that aren't on that list, send one over to them. They'll answer you or they'll start

01:07:05.620 seeking around. They've really got a great focus on this. And that's a word I want to use. If you

01:07:12.140 look at the title of the show I made today, can the Western independence movement keep it together?

01:07:15.380 And I'm not meaning to be negative or inflammatory, but there's always a risk. And that risk is

01:07:23.640 that this could splinter, that this could get confused, that people with disparate ideas

01:07:28.760 on where they want to go and what they want to do could break this up. And as we're talking about,

01:07:35.220 you know, I was talking about multiple questions on the, uh, referenda, for example, what the

01:07:39.220 absolute worst possible multiple questions you could have is starting down the rabbit hole of,

01:07:45.500 do you want to be independent as a province alone or independent? And then another question,

01:07:51.220 do you want to be independent, but with Saskatchewan and BC, or do you want the province

01:07:55.060 to join, uh, as an America 51, putting all those in the ballot, all your dead. None of them are

01:07:59.260 going to get past 50%. So you've got to keep it straightforward. And on 347, even the word

01:08:10.180 sovereignty might not be clear enough. So let's talk for a moment about the Clarity Act. This is

01:08:14.780 the mechanism that's going to be used to guide a referendum if it's held. And for those of us old

01:08:23.640 enough to remember the referendum in Quebec in 1995, they came within 1%. And a lot of the

01:08:28.220 apologists, the people making the excuses, they liked to claim that the reason it came so close

01:08:33.040 is because Quebecers didn't really know what they were voting for because it, and it was, it was a

01:08:36.860 weird, long, convoluted question. But Quebecers knew what they were voting for. The bottom line

01:08:42.320 is you were voting yes or no to stay or go. But they called it the Clarity Act because they did

01:08:46.920 make it a rule that the question has to be clear. So when the time comes, when the time comes, and I

01:08:54.040 hope it's not too early. We got a lot of ducks to get in the row still. But when the time comes,

01:08:59.160 the question has to be very straightforward and clear and in or out. Do you want to be

01:09:05.140 in the Federation or out of the Federation? And people have to vote based on that. It has to be

01:09:12.980 clear. And Wildrow is saying the same thing. So sovereignty, I mean, yeah, it can have a lot of

01:09:19.480 definitions out. It's one of the things Dennis clarified, you know, while he was on there was

01:09:24.760 saying, he said that by sovereignty, I mean, fully sovereign outside of the Federation. But there's

01:09:31.300 a lot to do. And in an area where I'm butting heads with a few people

01:09:36.340 is there's people sprouting up political parties. A political party is not going to get you there.

01:09:46.100 It's going to divide resources. 0.90

01:09:49.080 By its very nature, a political party is a confrontational organization.

01:09:53.900 It's trying to compete with others, even if they have similar goals.

01:09:59.740 Alberta has four or five registered independence parties right now.

01:10:05.520 And the last election, none of them could get anywhere near 1% support.

01:10:11.060 but they took a lot of hard work from some smart good people within them well that we're going to

01:10:17.480 be better dedicated to a group or even as an individual to try and build the foundation for

01:10:23.680 an independence vote the vote has to be straight to the people that's the point of a referenda

01:10:28.240 get it out of the party world there's too many people want their own little fiefdom they want 0.69

01:10:32.640 their own little party they want their own little organization they can run and uh as it sits right

01:10:40.000 now they're a waste of time parties serve a purpose and there's a reason to get involved

01:10:43.800 and i've talked about that if you must get involved with and i still say get involved with

01:10:47.580 the ucp not saying because you love them but because there's things you want to fix within it

01:10:50.400 then and get on with the constituency association pressure the member of the legislature you have

01:10:56.620 or the people aspiring to be a member of the legislature that you have uh jordan yeah i've

01:11:03.120 seen a couple of times he said something about breaking news i'm afraid i'm locked in the studio

01:11:06.240 for now. I can't find out what that might be, but I'm afraid after the show, we'll be able to find

01:11:14.440 out what it is, but Dave's busy on it, whatever it might be. Normally, we'd have them cut in

01:11:18.400 sometimes if it's something really earth-shattering, so something's breaking out there, but

01:11:22.600 I'll have to have a look after the show. There was a mention of, I can't remember what that is,

01:11:30.520 somebody brought up a commenter. Oh, I'm going back, and I appreciate all those comments. Yeah,

01:11:35.000 makes it hard for me to get one. Somebody brought up that there was a video going around basically

01:11:40.400 talking about how there's no need for a referendum because the provinces are already sovereign. The

01:11:45.240 illusion of Canada, I think it's called or something like that. I've warned about these

01:11:48.560 things too. These are shortcuts. These are constitutional interpretations. These are

01:11:52.600 rabbit holes, even if they're well-meaning. And like it or lump it, Alberta is in the Federation.

01:12:00.200 Saskatchewan's in the Federation. You could split hairs about what this meant during the

01:12:04.620 constitutional signings or the original Federation of Canada or whatever. The bottom line is, if you

01:12:09.780 go around, even look on the moral level, the majority of citizens feel that they are currently

01:12:16.160 in the Federation and they have to be asked if they want to leave it. There has to be through

01:12:25.260 a referenda. There's no shortcut. There's no just saying we declare ourselves independent.

01:12:31.140 It wouldn't be the wrong way to go.

01:12:32.500 Plus, it would give the room for all of the other outside interference to come in because they're saying we're not doing it the right way.

01:12:39.180 And if the majority of Albertans don't want to go, then we don't deserve to go.

01:12:43.900 We have to be able to win a referendum.

01:12:45.980 So, again, that's what I'm talking about, sidetracking.

01:12:47.820 Don't sidetrack with the parties.

01:12:49.060 Don't sidetrack with the theories of unilateral declarations of independence.

01:12:55.680 Referenda is plural, referendum, I know.

01:12:58.160 Okay, now, pedantic.

01:12:59.180 there's a word we can look up and talk about. I appreciate corrections on things here now and

01:13:04.220 then though, guys. And, and, uh, well, there's going to be multiple referendums or referenda

01:13:09.620 held over time. That's just one of the things I was wondering with Dr. Modry, what I was talking

01:13:13.680 about, uh, was, uh, other things could be put up. Healthcare reform could be put on a ballot.

01:13:22.480 Uh, if 170,000 people come up with something, there's nothing we can do to stop it.

01:13:26.820 And as Dennis said, it'd be nicer to have it all on one, just one referendum at a time.

01:13:31.600 But if five qualify, we could have a ballot with five different questions.

01:13:35.020 I don't know if that's necessarily bad.

01:13:36.240 It would be distracting from the independence idea, but it also would be a good democratic development.

01:13:43.780 We're talking about different systems.

01:13:45.080 Again, you get down the rabbit hole, right?

01:13:47.100 Do you want to be, you know, something like the American constitution or myself?

01:13:51.880 I 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.

01:14:05.820 They're like the version of a province, and it allows for a lot more disparity in points of view.

01:14:11.300 That'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.

01:14:17.040 a smaller system like Switzerland,

01:14:21.700 well, Edmonton's a little different than Calgary

01:14:23.220 and Calgary's a little different than Lethbridge.

01:14:24.840 Lethbridge is different than Grand Prairie

01:14:26.040 and they can have a lot more local governance

01:14:28.200 taking care of a lot of things

01:14:29.320 and not as much overriding federal one.

01:14:31.600 But you see, those discussions are all big,

01:14:36.720 high-level things.

01:14:38.780 The bottom line is first, first,

01:14:41.480 none of all these others matter

01:14:43.300 until there's a positive vote on a referenda.

01:14:49.060 So be careful.

01:14:50.060 We can't be pulled off and we got to stay focused.

01:14:52.740 There got to be like a laser beam on this thing, guys.

01:14:55.140 It's going to take a lot of work.

01:14:56.380 It's got a long way to go.

01:14:57.720 And Don was saying the breaking news was that Polly Heff will be running

01:15:00.480 after the resignation.

01:15:02.440 Yeah, we mentioned that at the start of the show.

01:15:04.260 I guess some would see it as maybe Polly Heff officially announced it,

01:15:07.020 but we saw the resignation.

01:15:07.960 We knew that's why he was going to do with it.

01:15:10.100 um but yeah there's going to be a by-election in battle river and then probably i was going to be

01:15:15.120 in there now when uh carney calls it who knows but i just do want to leave you guys for the week

01:15:19.860 and remind you take care we're going to uh we got promising things but we don't want to pull

01:15:25.360 the trigger too early the loudest voice calling for a referenda as soon as possible right now

01:15:30.800 isn't ahead and inchy it really is why is he doing that because he knows if it was held tomorrow it

01:15:36.700 would lose. The organization isn't there. The support isn't there. It's growing and it's on

01:15:42.260 its way, but it's not there yet. Ninchy, whatever it might be, isn't stupid. And if a referendum 0.99

01:15:48.500 was held tomorrow and 30% of people voted for it, we're not getting another one for a long, long

01:15:51.860 time. So let's think carefully. Let's stay on the right road and get this thing done, guys. Okay.

01:15:59.840 I'm going to let you go get on with the weekend. It's a beautiful one out here on the West. I hope

01:16:04.220 wherever you are. The weather is good. Thank you for tuning in. I'm going to be back on Wednesday,

01:16:09.240 of course, with my regular show. Be sure, you know, subscribe to these channels, share them.

01:16:14.660 Let's keep media independent. Subscribe if you haven't already so you can get past that paywall.

01:16:18.620 The election's over. It helps fund our reporters, our columnists, our studio, all of that stuff.

01:16:24.520 And yeah, if you want to send me further feedback or anything, X is a good spot for it or email.

01:16:28.180 Let's keep things interactive and let's make the West a better place. Thank you all. And I'll see

01:16:33.900 you next week.

Western Standard - May 03, 2025

Can the Western independence movement keep it together？

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