00:00:00.000Politics feels chaotic right now. Every day seems to bring another controversy, another crisis, another argument about where Alberta and Canada are headed.
00:00:10.380It can be difficult to know what matters, what is noise, and what any of it means for the decisions Albertans are taking and being asked to make on October 19th.
00:00:19.840How did we get here, and more importantly, what comes next? The best place to start is with perspective.
00:00:30.000This is a nation of people. I'm Natalie St. Hilaire and with me is Randy Royer.
00:00:49.480There are two eternal things about politics. First, like physics, for every action there
00:00:55.000is an equal and opposite reaction. Second, all politics is about the command and control
00:20:58.500Because that's what society, and add to that this concept that we talked about, about principle-based society.
00:21:06.560So if you have a principle-based society that has a duty to each other, to me, if the Conservative Party adopted that, I think they would become an incredible force in this country.
00:21:18.700Yeah, and I'll just say there's a book right now, Anti-Civilization, that talks about, you know, not exactly everything that you're talking about, but a lot of that sort of duty and how that is essentially what makes civilization is a sense of duty to one another.
00:21:35.500And that that doesn't come from the state, that that comes from each of us.
00:21:38.800So, you know, the state, you know, in a conservative, potential conservative perspective, the state sets the table. And then the people do their duty within that table. So one of the things, you know, we've talked, we introduced it is this concept of citizens guilt, where they actually actively, you know, regulate the government, watch over them, enforce the things that we the people want, rather than what the government wants to deliver.
00:22:18.540Well, I mean, you know, we've fallen into what I would refer to as a separation trap.
00:22:24.980And I'm going to describe this, and maybe you can help me on it, is, you know, I'm going to talk about a personal marriage.
00:22:31.360so uh one spouse has absolutely no say in what you know what we can do and uh and you know what
00:22:39.020the part what the couple does and and then when they just say you know i'd really like to go do
00:22:43.860you want a divorce you want a divorce so it's it's it's it's the position where you're not allowed
00:22:49.100any input except for something that is so extreme that you don't don't want to do it and and that's
00:22:56.640i mean i use the term separation trap that sounds like you know the separate separation that we're
00:23:01.520doing in in uh you know we're talking about in alberta but it's in any kind of human relationship
00:23:07.120and and uh and so we need to take a look at instead of just falling to the to the extreme
00:23:14.000which is a hard choice someone stuck in that position needs to figure out other things that
00:23:19.680they can do and other strategies yeah and uh what other options might there be well we're certainly
00:23:27.680in this episode sorry in this podcast we're talking about the you know looking at the
00:23:31.840constitution and uh you know what i'm coming to realize is that um you know we can in alberta
00:23:40.400have a vote on the constitution we can reject it and we can put something on the table
00:23:44.480the next step is and you know we'll talk about this again but the next step is to to take that
00:23:52.160idea to British Columbia both to me the idea of what a conservative post-materialist perspective
00:24:00.180might be which is duty as you said and duty to each other duty to the land also by the way
00:24:06.500but take that to British Columbia and if you look at the two provinces and and add in Saskatchewan
00:24:14.360hopefully manitoba if the west spoke in one voice uh we just the two provinces of alberta and
00:24:22.280british columbia have the same population as quebec right now in a few years because both of
00:24:29.640those provinces are growing and and ontario and quebec are really not growing uh british columbia
00:24:36.040will probably be in the magnitude of 9 million people and alberta will be 6 million people we
00:24:40.760will be the size together will be the size of ontario in population so if we work together
00:24:47.560we can make those changes and and we can really command what happens both to us directly and and
00:24:55.880possibly uh to the to the country yeah well i'd love to see alberta and bc on the same page that's
00:25:01.240for sure um okay so what's going on then like in the context of what we're talking about today with
00:25:07.400the post-materialism now you have the conflict that's going on and the tariffs that are going
00:25:11.640on with the us what's how does that fit in well this is uh you know the character of the united
00:25:17.880states we've talked about the west character the east character in canada and and the united states
00:25:22.680has its own character of course and one of the aspects of its character is there is a high degree
00:25:27.960of confrontation leads to violence and all that stuff i mean if you look at the history of the
00:25:32.600united states they've invaded a lot of countries in the last you know since world war ii they seem
00:25:37.560to be bombing somebody all the time currently they're bombing uh i mean they're embargoing
00:25:43.240uh cuba they're bombing iran they have a trade war with us they're very energetic in these kinds
00:25:49.320of conflicts um you know i can tell stories about uh you know going to meetings with americans and
00:25:55.480then they're just blowing up um and uh so part of the character is that and so part of the character
00:26:04.120and the equal and opposite reaction that the trump era was to this togetherness concept was
00:26:11.160the the concept of conflict and that people wanted conflict and they wanted to punish the other side
00:26:18.520so that the materialist folks said you know we've been controlled by these they didn't use words but
00:26:25.320post-materialists for so long and their love dove and all that stuff we want what we want
00:26:30.120is we want to get them back we want punishment and so the administration understands that and and
00:26:36.440and doling out punishment is part of their strategy to keep their folks behind them
00:26:42.760unfortunately because canada is you know the we're the we made ourselves the weak boy on the on the
00:26:48.920playground uh we're the easiest ones to punish and that's what trump is doing okay interesting
00:26:54.440perspective um and then alberta because that's where we're from how does alberta fit into that
00:27:01.240cycle well i mean we're part of the punishment routine right now and that's what he's going
00:27:06.040after but we have uh we have another issue and that is um that is our oil reserves and so if you
00:27:13.800look at um look at the four top nations uh that have of oil reserves in the world so proven
00:27:20.440reserves top four countries that have the highest proven reserves they are number one venezuela
00:27:25.760oops invaded that now trump has done a deal where he gets 65 billion barrels got good got that under
00:27:33.200control second one is saudi arabia they have an existing relationship with saudi arabia that's
00:27:38.400pretty posy um you know they're investing in uh trump's son's company i think there's two billion
00:27:45.120dollar investment so there's a pretty good relationship there they don't need to worry
00:27:48.420about them the third one is iran and they're of course they're currently bombing iran and and i
00:27:54.620don't think anyone would think that this isn't partially about their oil reserves and the fourth
00:27:59.420one is canada slash alberta so uh if if one can assume that uh the american imperialism
00:28:11.200which has emerged now is about gaining control of oil reserves therefore exerting their power
00:28:17.900through oil reserves which is it's not a new plan uh that translates to uh if you have the five
00:28:25.040countries including the u.s which is actually the biggest producer in the world i think the numbers
00:28:30.640are that uh the it represents almost 50 percent of that's actually 40 something percent of the
00:28:39.040actual global oil reserves and 50 of the production so that is less than what sorry
00:28:47.540That is more than what OPEC had when it turned the world upside down.
00:28:52.960So one would look at that, and we have to be realistic, that for all the world, it looks like there is a strategy there where the U.S. administration is trying to control the global reserves and the global production of oil and therefore express and therefore have the ability to push people around.
00:29:15.120Yeah, you wouldn't be alone in the viewpoint that there's some sort of control of the hemisphere and of oil also going on.
00:29:23.340I mean, it's apparent something like that's happening.
00:29:25.740And I think it's been said, but won't that change with the next president?
00:29:32.560You know, there is, you need to remember that there is a contingent that, you know, 80 million people voted for this administration.
00:29:41.440And so there is a contingent that wants these things to happen.
00:29:44.980You know, the United States clearly does not want to, you know, be the benevolent leader of the world that it has been, but it still wants to get its way in the world.
00:29:57.580I mean, the national security document specifically says that they are going to assume their natural role of being the dominant entity in the Western Hemisphere.
00:30:08.420So we're back to the same game that we started with, which is domination and control of the elites and over the populace.
00:32:07.660Well, I know it's difficult for conservatives sometimes to feel that they're in partnership.
00:32:15.460We tend to be more individualistic, right?
00:32:18.020And I think that, you know, understanding that Alberta is completely covered in treaty land helps me understand differently, because sometimes when I think about indigenous rights, I think about them as being on the reserves and that that's the land that they were sort of given.
00:32:33.960But what I'm to understand is if we're going to go back and look at the Constitution and make that right, we also have to look at the treaties which cover the entirety of Alberta and our pre-existing, I believe, even our Constitution and make everything sort of workable.
00:32:52.260Yeah. Because overall, I would say the situation we're in, whether you look at it in Confederation or whether you look at it through what's happening with the Indigenous and the consultation that needs to go on before projects are started and sort of a lack of completion in that process has led to just a lot of like unworkability in our economy and our country.
00:33:16.500I mean, one of the problems, we're not on the same page. So if you build a, you know, build a mine somewhere in Alberta, the Indigenous don't get any more money from that. So why would they say yes? So, you know, one of the things I learned in business, and this is just a business case. It is what it is. How do we make the circumstances to our advantage?0.95
00:33:41.620and uh and this you know the indigenous view it the same way sure you want a gold mine there
00:33:47.860what do we get out of it why should we say yes and and our structure it doesn't accommodate that so
00:33:53.220what we're going to talk about is sort of a new a modern version of the treaties and and how do we
00:33:58.980actually now that we understand it how do we get people on the same page how do we give them
00:34:04.100financial autonomy how do we how do we create the situation where our partners prosper as we do
00:34:09.460Well, I look forward to all the ideas and talking with you more in that episode. Thanks, Randy.
00:34:14.000I look forward to it. Thanks, Natalie.
00:34:15.880We didn't just somehow descend into this political situation. We arrived here in a series of actions
00:34:22.100and counteractions. By understanding the events and the consequences, we can better understand
00:34:27.800the coming circumstances and measure our action to mold the future of our choosing. But that also
00:34:33.720requires a modicum of self-awareness of not just who we are as individuals but as a society
00:34:40.000and in Alberta that in society includes the origins in treaty and the impact of Indigenous
00:34:46.020aspect of our identity. That will be the topic of our next podcast as we welcome our first guest
00:34:52.560Roy Fox, the past chief of the Blood Tribe of the Blackfoot Nation in Southern Alberta. See you then.