Western Standard - CORY MORGAN SHOW： Premier Smith must schedule an independence referendum

00:00:00.000 good day welcome to the cory morgan show

00:00:29.480 We haven't been shut down yet by the new Mark Carney majority.

00:00:34.220 Welcome to the new Canada.

00:00:35.700 Something to look forward to, right?

00:00:37.600 Interesting times.

00:00:39.700 Let's see.

00:00:40.380 Lots of other things to cover.

00:00:41.780 You know, I actually was going to have a senator on.

00:00:46.640 In fact, two weeks ago, I was going to have a senator on.

00:00:50.360 And then today, I was going to have a senator on.

00:00:52.840 But, you know, I try to be nice.

00:00:55.640 I've been critical of senators, but I thought maybe they're doing something reasonable,

00:00:59.000 decent and so on. But apparently it's impossible for senators to figure out what Mountain Standard

00:01:03.840 Time means versus Eastern Standard Time and to be able to respond to emails. So I'm afraid

00:01:09.680 the chances of me having a senator on this show in the future have become very slim. You only get

00:01:13.820 two chances to stand me up on this one. So yes, it's put me off into a crabby mood to start things

00:01:17.760 off to begin with. But that's par for the course for me, isn't it? I'm going to talk to Chris

00:01:21.780 Oldcorn in a little bit. He's our opinion editor. We're talking about the woke. We're talking about

00:01:26.580 saskatchewan we're talking about politics in general lots to cover as an opinion editor he's

00:01:31.400 certainly got a lot of opinions to sift through so uh be sure to use that uh comment scroll guys

00:01:37.140 keep this interactive i see uh well you geez give me pronounceable names guys lz saying good

00:01:42.480 afternoon from grand prairie fio from mission and uh alberta nan for independence in fort mac people

00:01:48.260 all over the place tuning in so let's talk about what i want to rant about today this is going to

00:01:54.120 be the year of the Alberta independence referendum. It's not in question. Advocates for both federalism

00:02:00.120 and independence, they've collected hundreds of thousands of signatures demanding a referendum

00:02:04.880 be held and it's just time to schedule the voting date and get on with it. The authority to schedule

00:02:09.860 a binding constitutional referendum lands squarely in the office of the premier and she might as well

00:02:14.880 just bite that bullet and set the date. I mean the opponents to independence have morphed their

00:02:19.560 movement from one promoting federalism into one opposing democracy. They're using the courts to

00:02:25.020 try and block Albertans from having a democratic vote, and it's only fostering more division.

00:02:30.180 Their efforts are only going to delay the inevitable at best. I'm not saying a positive

00:02:35.320 vote for independence is inevitable, hardly. It's a long ways and a lot of work to be done,

00:02:39.100 but holding a referendum is inevitable. It's going to have to happen. The Clarity Act became law in

00:02:43.420 Canada back in 2000. It laid out the process for a province to exit the federation through a

00:02:48.820 referendum. And the process is a tough one, but it is a legal one. And it's been in place for a

00:02:53.700 generation now. It speaks volumes that Canada accepted this process as a national law when it

00:02:58.740 was under the assumption it would only be applied to Quebec. But when Albertans decided to pursue

00:03:02.340 a referendum, suddenly the ability to do so was brought before the courts. And that double

00:03:07.200 standard illustrates why a third of Albertans are ready to leave in the federation or more.

00:03:12.220 And that number is growing. The independence movement in Alberta has had its ups and downs

00:03:15.900 since the 80s. It's never been, though, so strong and widely organized as it is today. The 2025

00:03:21.680 federal election enraged the province and the fury wasn't short-lived as it has been. In the past,

00:03:26.660 it has been channeled into established activism and a massive petition campaign, actually two

00:03:31.760 campaigns, calling for a referendum, one on the pro and one on the against side. In 1995, the

00:03:37.540 message from Canada to Quebec as they headed towards a referendum was, oh, please, please don't

00:03:41.820 go. In 2026, the message from Canada to Albertans is you aren't allowed to go. In fact, you're not

00:03:48.500 even allowed to have a vote on the question. That's what it's down to. Not only is that an

00:03:52.440 assaulting double standard, but it also sets a dangerous stage. When a movement has momentum

00:03:57.460 with over one in three people asking for a democratic exercise, and then that democratic

00:04:01.420 mechanism is taken away from them, it doesn't kill the movement. It inspires some people to

00:04:06.280 work towards undemocratic means of change. Albertans at large have no interest in violence,

00:04:11.180 and even if the referendum was blocked, the vast majority of Albertans would never

00:04:14.220 consider such a thing. But let's not be so naive as to believe there aren't at least a handful of

00:04:18.480 unhinged individuals who might consider doing something stupid if they feel there's no other 0.99

00:04:22.400 path to change. A referendum releases that sort of pressure. The FLQ vanished in Quebec when they 1.00

00:04:28.240 began using democratic pursuits of independence. It would be foolhardy to foster the seeds of such

00:04:32.580 a movement in Alberta by denying the citizens the right to vote. Federalists are claiming

00:04:36.500 the independence discussion in itself will cause massive economic damage due to the instability

00:04:41.060 it would cause even if a yes vote doesn't happen. Now, that argument fails on two counts. I mean,

00:04:45.960 for one, Alberta had $670 billion in energy projects canceled or deferred over a decade

00:04:50.660 due to the federal government's interference. An independence referendum couldn't possibly do more

00:04:54.740 damage than staying the course will. Also, if you want stability, there's no better way to pursue it

00:05:00.240 than to hold a referendum on the issue and get it done with. Do you really think the instability

00:05:04.520 would disappear by removing the ability to hold a referendum? Do they think independent supporters

00:05:09.340 are just going to shrug and give up. The path to stability, whether yes or no on that, is peeling

00:05:14.420 off the band-aid and getting it done with. If federalists are confident support for an independence

00:05:18.460 will remain at the 30% range, they should be welcoming a referendum so we could be put to bed.

00:05:23.320 It's time to quit wasting time in the courts. Premier Smith has already said if a question on

00:05:28.840 independence is to be put to referendum, it'll be done on October 9th with the other questions.

00:05:32.740 She might as well take the word if out of that and just schedule the vote. No more asking judges.

00:05:37.340 tell the chief electoral officer the vote will be held and to either accommodate it or be replaced

00:05:44.020 by a bureaucrat who will. This is all within the premier's authority. It doesn't mean Smith

00:05:47.820 supports a yes vote, but it does mean she supports democracy, and I suspect she would phrase it that

00:05:52.800 way. The discussion of Alberta's independence must be held in a full campaign and resolved

00:05:56.720 one way or another now. It's the healthiest path we can take. So quit trying to tell us we can't go.

00:06:01.380 we can and quit telling us why we shouldn't just try telling us actually why we shouldn't

00:06:07.940 choose to if you support federalism let's get this campaign going and have that discussion

00:06:11.800 all right that's what i'm pissing the moan about today how's it going there storms are coming

00:06:16.560 yes i 30 centimeters of snow i've caused a bit of a curse this year three weeks ago you said

00:06:23.100 spring has finally arrived well something like that i've kept my winter tires on too though

00:06:27.880 Well, you're going to need them.

00:06:28.980 Yeah.

00:06:29.120 I'm going to Delburn tonight.

00:06:30.360 Where is Delburn?

00:06:31.100 Oh, south.

00:06:31.480 It's over east of Red Deer.

00:06:32.640 East of Red Deer.

00:06:33.260 And you've been doing a lot of driving.

00:06:34.460 I've been on the road a lot.

00:06:35.820 I heard a rumor that you are giving up this gig and moving to La Crete.

00:06:42.020 Yeah.

00:06:42.560 I don't know if I quite go that far. 1.00

00:06:44.420 I don't know if I'd make a good Mennonite. 0.73

00:06:46.460 Tell me about La Crete.

00:06:47.520 Well, La Crete is really cool.

00:06:49.380 Yeah.

00:06:50.420 So people know where it is.

00:06:52.620 700 kilometers north of Edmonton.

00:06:55.280 Yeah.

00:06:55.600 you're getting up towards the northwest territory's border and if you look there's a little hook that

00:06:59.280 comes down it's truly in the middle of nowhere south of fort vermilion uh way up there i was

00:07:05.480 doing a speaking event up there i'd worked in the area but never been to lacrete itself you know so

00:07:09.500 those towns like fort vermilion high level peace river i mean they got their nice aspects but they

00:07:14.240 get a little run down and they can be pretty rough i expected lacrete to be similar you know and i

00:07:19.660 get up there and there's all this farmland opens up and suddenly you pull into this town

00:07:22.640 everything is brand new. You know, the, the, the buildings are new. The businesses are new.

00:07:28.400 There's, there's construction going on. There's new, uh, residential districts going on. They've

00:07:32.400 had a growth rate up to 42% in a year at times going on up there. Just a gem hidden in the North.

00:07:39.840 Uh, great food, really nice people. Again, mostly Mennonites, no liquor stores. It doesn't matter 1.00

00:07:44.660 to me anyways, but for those who like, uh, and, uh, uh, no bars that I could see, but, uh, just

00:07:51.520 just an unusual little corner of the province.

00:07:53.800 I didn't realize what's going on.

00:07:56.200 Yeah.

00:07:56.420 So I did a little bit of research settled by the Mennonites in the 1930s and a

00:08:01.480 population of about 4,000 now.

00:08:03.400 Yeah.

00:08:03.880 But I mean, I think in the eighties it only had like a few hundred or 600 or

00:08:07.380 something.

00:08:07.780 So, I mean, it's really explosively grown lately.

00:08:11.220 See the things you learn watching the Cory Morgan show.

00:08:13.320 Yeah.

00:08:13.800 We're going for long, long drawn out drives.

00:08:16.020 And yeah, it took us nearly 12 hours to get home with a couple of stops with

00:08:19.320 Jane and I coming back.

00:08:20.280 She came up with me on that one and we're still married.

00:08:22.880 Oh, well, we slept the whole way then, I'm thinking.

00:08:26.100 Well, she just tells me to shut up and I stare at the road.

00:08:28.520 There you go.

00:08:29.100 Lots to talk about in the news.

00:08:32.460 Leading off with a disturbing story involving former professor Francis Widdowson,

00:08:38.020 who you know has been a long champion of saying the Kamloops Residential School graves are a hoax like you.

00:08:48.240 We have a BC chief on a podcast saying that she wishes Widdowson would be raped so that she could understand the violence that these people or the Indians suffered at residential schools.

00:09:05.740 So not a very nice thing to say. 0.89

00:09:07.920 We've got the latest on Paul's Pizza.

00:09:10.400 If you're not a regular reader, the owner of Paul's Pizza put a fairly not very nice tweet out about the acronym Missing, Murdered, Indigenous, LBTGQ, LMNOP+, saying that he was going to put a special on anybody who identified these crazy acronyms.

00:09:36.120 And it was pointed out that it starts with missing and murdered Indigenous women, to which he replied, well, I guess they're not getting the special then.

00:09:45.040 So, you know, it blew up in his face and the council crowd came out en masse.

00:09:51.480 They put fake reviews on the site.

00:09:56.540 They put fake stories about cockroaches in his kitchen.

00:09:59.920 They contacted his family.

00:10:01.740 one guy sent him pictures of his nephew and nieces because they doxed him. They contacted

00:10:09.100 charities that he gives to. I mean, they put on the full court pressure. So I kind of feel sorry

00:10:14.560 for him. Well, he kind of knows what he steps into because it's not the first time and they've

00:10:18.820 been trying for years to shut him down. I don't think they will this time. I mean, it's at this

00:10:23.640 point where the hard left of Airdrie and other areas, there's a few branches of this restaurant

00:10:27.460 already weren't going and uh now you're just bringing more attention to a place which

00:10:32.560 i'll say it they got good pizza there yeah it really is good food i mean if it's crappy food

00:10:37.280 i wouldn't say anything i got one down near my place in south calgary so i think i'm going to

00:10:41.260 go on saturday and show my support yeah if you like like all meat pizzas where they just pack

00:10:45.640 it thick with meat and then really brown that cheese on it that's what they do it there it's

00:10:49.220 like it's uh not healthy but damn it's good i'm a ham and pineapple guy ah well that's a separate

00:10:54.820 discussion altogether but i'm certain their hawaiian is probably good as well probably 0.83

00:10:59.540 pretty good as far as those go uh we've got a story on ontario judge who hasn't read the uh

00:11:04.980 playbook obviously he's saying he's concerned that uh uh immigrant criminals are getting a

00:11:10.500 better deal than canadian criminals saying justice should be done by all uh we've got our bc reporter

00:11:17.700 alex zolton there's been lots of controversy out there in the bc leadership race accusations of

00:11:23.540 of lying and uh all sorts of nasty stuff so he's got to call him i think with the headlines saying

00:11:29.300 with uh friends like these who needs enemies and all the bcs can uh you see conservatives can

00:11:34.820 destroy themselves with infighting which conservatives tend to do it seems the

00:11:39.300 conservatives love turning their guns inward it's uh just seems to be the nature of yeah

00:11:44.180 uh we got some wild video on the website of a mass road rage ball brawl in edmonton uh yesterday

00:11:50.660 four occupants of four cars got out and started beating the hell out of each other right on the

00:11:56.500 boulevard between the two roads and it's a pretty good video pretty fun video i'll check that one

00:12:02.580 and have you uh in your road trips recently have you stopped at 7 11 and bought yourself a sub or

00:12:08.820 a sandwich thankfully i've just been getting the coffees and i've been tempted to try because they

00:12:12.980 keep going on about that that japanese egg salad sandwich you know everybody's been talking about

00:12:17.140 that and i haven't gotten one yet no maybe i won't no uh it's a big recall uh because the

00:12:23.140 the subs and the sandwiches have got listeria or some other disease so and the the best story of

00:12:30.420 the day uh toronto and i'm gonna get this story up after the meeting toronto has decided they're

00:12:36.580 going to give away thousands of trees to uh you know get the canopy going bigger in toronto but

00:12:43.460 But if you're white, you can't have a tree.

00:12:45.860 Oh God. 0.99

00:12:48.680 And if your neighbor is white, you can't have a tree. 0.99

00:12:51.540 Well, are they going to maybe get, you know, like a equity cards for

00:12:54.180 neighbors and so on, like the NDP, you know, you can turn it in for what

00:12:57.560 you may or may not get in civil services.

00:13:00.320 Oh my Lord. 0.98

00:13:00.800 They're insane. 0.82

00:13:01.220 But it's, it's about the, one of the wokest things I've ever seen. 0.76

00:13:04.680 It's crazy.

00:13:05.360 Ah, brilliant.

00:13:06.260 Well, keep it Toronto.

00:13:08.420 Yeah.

00:13:09.380 As long as the madness stays down there.

00:13:11.220 Well, I'll let you back into the newsroom to keep writing that dark comedy on The Woke and the pushbacks on it.

00:13:17.920 And I appreciate the updates.

00:13:19.520 I hope the snow I brought isn't too excessive.

00:13:22.060 Well, if I get stuck, I'm calling you.

00:13:24.620 Okay.

00:13:25.200 You can come and push me out.

00:13:26.500 We'll see what I can do.

00:13:27.600 There you go.

00:13:28.020 All right.

00:13:28.300 Thanks, Dave.

00:13:29.840 This is our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:13:31.660 And yes, lots on the go.

00:13:33.280 Some funny.

00:13:34.120 Again, a lot of it's kind of dark funny, isn't it?

00:13:36.300 You know, with the stuff of Farouk and other things.

00:13:38.980 But that's what insane the world is.

00:13:41.160 Look, this is the time I like to remind you, get on there, subscribe.

00:13:44.460 The reason we got people like Dave or Chris who's going to be on in a few minutes here

00:13:47.880 and myself is because you've been subscribing.

00:13:50.980 So keep us independent.

00:13:52.080 Westernstandard.news slash subscription, $10 a month, $100 for a year.

00:13:56.100 Get past those paywalls and help us keep getting those stories going.

00:13:59.780 And there's so many.

00:14:00.240 I just want to hit a quick run through some of the comments that I lost today, which is great.

00:14:04.640 I might have to catch up after I talk to Chris with some of those.

00:14:07.360 My thoughts on Carney saying he'll use the Emergencies Act to stop independence.

00:14:10.780 I heard about that, but I haven't seen it properly sourced yet.

00:14:13.960 I don't know.

00:14:15.320 I don't think he'd be able to do anything.

00:14:16.920 It's not like a concentrated emergency.

00:14:18.900 Well, emergency, that's a separate discussion.

00:14:20.520 But in, say, Ottawa, in a small spot,

00:14:22.900 if you had a majority of a province vote to go,

00:14:26.900 what exactly would he be able to do with the Emergency East Act?

00:14:31.100 Just a reminder, search through the Western Standard.

00:14:32.960 There was a great long story written on that.

00:14:35.020 Pardon me.

00:14:37.060 That we have more generals than tanks in Canada.

00:14:40.200 We really do. We have like 14 operational tanks. I don't think it's going to come to anything like

00:14:44.940 that in Canada, but let's get realistic. Canada's military can't do much except come and throw

00:14:49.220 tampons at Albertans while the Albertans chase them back out. So, uh, I wouldn't worry much

00:14:54.880 about that though. I do worry when Carney talks about bringing foreign people into the Canadian,

00:14:58.720 uh, military. Uh, lots of other folks saying hello from Calgary and so on. I'll go through

00:15:06.160 some of more of these comments cause there's just lots to talk about today, but I want to bring

00:15:10.040 in our opinion editor chris old corn in from saskatchewan and let's chat about some of the

00:15:16.500 stuff happening out there how's it going chris it's going well how are you court good good it's

00:15:21.240 been a while since i've had you on we're overdue and uh i guess i just a fun one yeah well as i

00:15:29.340 said there's so much dark comedy in that sense that's led to other things you might have heard

00:15:33.440 with dave's news update so let's start with that you wrote just on the absurdity and the insanity

00:15:38.860 of the woke with that long acronym how many letters does it take before you can't even call

00:15:44.800 it an acronym anymore from leah you know mostly seen that but what's it give us a recap what

00:15:51.600 what happened there uh well uh it is uh technically 15 letters plus the plus sign so it's 16 uh 16

00:16:01.100 digits long uh which i mentioned my piece could be a guinness book of world record for the length

00:16:07.000 of an acronym. And basically what happened was a MVP, MP, Leah Gazin, she was doing a press

00:16:17.100 conference about some funding cuts to indigenous organizations that the liberals did in their

00:16:23.320 budget this year. And so what happened was she got up and she said this big long acronym because

00:16:29.780 she decided to put the murdered and missing indigenous women into the, we'll call it sexual

00:16:37.900 minority acronym, you know, LGBTQ, et cetera, and put it and smushed it all together, even though

00:16:45.820 missing and murdered indigenous women has absolutely nothing to do with sexuality or

00:16:52.300 transgenderism. So I'm not sure where her mind was when she decided that was a good idea to put

00:16:57.960 it together. Even one senator said that she would not use that acronym. She would continue to use

00:17:05.000 the other one because this one doesn't make sense. And the other interesting thing is too,

00:17:10.600 the NDP seems to have a hard time defining what a woman is, but they put woman into the acronym,

00:17:16.120 which I thought was kind of weird because it's literally a party that if you ask them what a

00:17:21.240 woman is they can't even define it uh and they put and she put it in and totally changed what

00:17:27.860 the acronym is like like there's even a plus sign at the end like what's a plus like a furry or

00:17:33.920 something like like in case she missed something she put a plus at the end in case 16 letters

00:17:39.860 wasn't enough like it's unbelievable some of this stuff especially if you go back and their

00:17:45.220 convention a week before was a joke too and did they have two s in there i i i can't remember

00:17:52.320 now because that's okay because there's that's supposed to be the two-spirited thing and that's

00:17:56.000 the two-spirit yeah they become redundant as they try to cover all their ground and and contradict

00:18:01.580 themselves and it was a great follow-up from their own convention uh yeah you know what are your

00:18:08.400 thoughts on that in looking at opinion and everything the federal ndp i mean the ccf

00:18:13.100 saskatchewan that was the heartland of populist i guess democratic socialism you could say but boy

00:18:19.420 what what on earth is this today i i mean i i see that uh saskatchewan's ndp leader has been the most 0.97

00:18:26.140 moziferous and saying you know i have nothing to do with these clowns 0.90

00:18:29.660 uh you know is that party done in saskatchewan federally you think 0.55

00:18:35.180 uh well the sask ndp like the provincial party uh they're in opposition here we only have two

00:18:41.020 parties in saskatchewan basically that get elected which is the staff party which is our sort of

00:18:45.100 version of conservative party and then you have the sask ndp um i do know that carlo beck has

00:18:51.980 almost no con direct contact with jagmeet singh for a long time um like there there was nothing

00:19:00.620 uh going on between the two of them even at their convention a couple years ago when he was still

00:19:05.580 the leader of the ndp uh they they brought him in on zoom call they didn't even actually bring

00:19:10.540 him into the convention which is what normally would happen uh and i've talked to several sas

00:19:16.940 ndp mlas who have said told me off the record but like they have no connection to the federal party

00:19:24.380 and that they have absolutely their policies are so different like like for example the ndp here

00:19:31.020 in the province is not like super anti-oil or anything like they they're for responsible use

00:19:36.300 of you know getting oil out of ground and mining and stuff all the things that actually drive the

00:19:39.820 to catch an economy uh the like the two parties if you line them up federally and provincially

00:19:45.820 it would not look like the same party like even after uh lewis got in as the leader i mean carlo

00:19:52.060 beck the next day put out a press release saying we disagree with xyz and made a full list of like

00:19:58.940 no we don't agree with anything that the federal party is basically doing so there's there is

00:20:03.500 basically no connection between the two right now yeah no no spoken connection but one thing

00:20:08.860 that is a connection that both Ned and H-E-N and Carla Beck can't avoid. And I'm sure Scott Moe

00:20:13.880 and Daniel Smith in Alberta, I mean, they're just going to keep hammering them with that,

00:20:20.160 though, is constitutionally they're tied together. Even if they're functionally used that way,

00:20:25.440 it's hard to deny that you're beholden to them when it's written right in your thing. Do you

00:20:30.620 think there might be a move for Beck to finally formally say, you know what, we've got to break

00:20:34.480 away and be fully independent from the federal entity well saskatchewan's a weird province that

00:20:41.640 way um they tend to once they vote a party out they basically never voted back in they just

00:20:47.240 like the sas party when it was founded it was a combination of people who left both the conservative

00:20:52.520 and the liberal party like the progressive conservative party and actually the progressive

00:20:55.760 conservative party still exists in the province they just don't get elected um but it was a

00:21:00.200 merger of the two because it's the only way they were ever going to beat the NDP because they were

00:21:04.840 just back then. And this was 25 years ago, liberal party, conservative party were kind of closer

00:21:10.720 before all the stuff that's happened in the last 10 years or so where there's been drastic change.

00:21:16.480 I mean, we used to talk about the parties all trying to sit on the center seat and now no one

00:21:20.340 wants the center seat. Politics has changed drastically since the South party came into

00:21:25.160 existence so it wouldn't surprise me um because even in the last election we had a new conservative

00:21:30.600 party called sas united here um they did fairly well with the buffalo party they did fairly well

00:21:36.680 uh like they came in second in a lot of ridings uh both well the buffalo and the sas united party

00:21:42.200 they neither one got anyone elected but they did you know they got significant uh percentage of the

00:21:47.640 vote um i don't know if the sas ndp would rename or not if they did i think they'd want to do it

00:21:53.400 a couple of years before an election and then then people would get to know them get to know

00:21:59.160 the name ahead of time um but yeah it's it's definitely a weight around sasca dp uh to be

00:22:06.280 connected to the federal mvp so so coming up for our viewers from outside of saskatchewan i mean

00:22:11.480 how is scott moe doing he's becoming kind of more of the one of the senior premiers in canada now

00:22:16.680 actually he's been in for a fair amount of time eventually every political leader starts to kind

00:22:21.880 kind of wear thin on the supporters and so on.

00:22:24.360 Are there indications he might be looking to move along

00:22:27.480 or is he still hanging in there

00:22:29.020 and is his popularity still strong?

00:22:31.360 His popularity is still strong.

00:22:33.960 There was another election today.

00:22:35.340 The South Party would still be in,

00:22:37.280 probably somewhere around the same amount of seats.

00:22:40.680 It's funny, I actually asked him not this Christmas,

00:22:42.940 but the Christmas interview before that

00:22:44.380 what he wanted to do after politics.

00:22:46.880 And he had never been asked that question before.

00:22:50.540 i found it after uh they never even prepped them for that question because it was just assumed he's

00:22:56.220 going to be here forever i just thought it'd be interesting to find out what he wanted to do after

00:22:59.580 politics because he was what he had done before and been in politics for at that point and he's

00:23:05.820 been in about 15 16 years now uh he's been leader since 2017 so he's come up on 10 years as leader

00:23:12.940 as well uh and his popularity is good like people people like scott moe i mean there are problem

00:23:19.020 issues in the province healthcare in particular we're having a lot of issues with but at the same

00:23:23.980 time i think people are getting a lot of slack because the same problem is happening in every

00:23:27.660 other province so it's not like people are like oh well it's so bad here but it's so much better

00:23:34.140 next door in manitoba or alberta it's like everybody has the same problem recruiting

00:23:38.380 retaining staff etc um so because it's a problem across canada it's not the same weight on his

00:23:45.980 popularity and on the sas party because i think people kind of understand it's a canada-wide

00:23:51.020 issue it's not just the saskatchewan issue so a lot of the ways that his popularity and

00:23:56.940 particularly the sas party's popularity could go down it's not just because i think people

00:24:01.580 are understanding of how the issue is across canada and i'm not sure he's going to run

00:24:05.980 again in 2028 at the next provincial election or he'll step down before that because at that point

00:24:11.500 will be going on 12 years as leader and that's a long time state leader of a party i mean sometimes

00:24:17.820 people just need to change their face at the top like they did when brad wall left and scott moe

00:24:22.060 came in uh so i don't know if he's gonna make it 2028 but probably yeah there's a lot of parallels

00:24:30.060 between saskatchewan and alberta and in our politics and in our interviews uh and the

00:24:34.780 independence movement in saskatchewan has been simmering at a similar level 20 30 perhaps it's

00:24:39.980 not insignificant and we've got now a carny majority which i imagine has upset some conservative

00:24:45.340 leaning uh saskatchewan residents and so on but there isn't a vent for the independence movement

00:24:52.860 in saskatchewan right now though i don't think there's as much of the ground organization kind

00:24:56.380 of pushing yet but they're getting together uh there's no mechanism to petition and try to invoke

00:25:01.980 a referendum but the saskatchewan prosperity project they have been holding meetings and

00:25:06.220 trying to build that base so they can pressure the mole government do you think at some point

00:25:10.780 scott mo might bring in citizens initiative legislation to kind of at least take that

00:25:14.620 pressure off his flank well um the polls actually has shown that uh support support for independence

00:25:23.340 in syscapital is actually higher than alberta uh and that's without much uh an organization uh now

00:25:30.220 now the SAS prosperity project has been doing some events.

00:25:33.500 I was at a, another event a while back and, and it was, it was at one of the

00:25:37.800 larger convention halls here in Regina.

00:25:40.780 Uh, part of it was talking about independence and then it was like a

00:25:44.280 conservative type convention, uh, done by a group here that does a, uh, once a

00:25:49.000 year, they do a, uh, weekend and they bring in speakers.

00:25:52.340 Sometimes they're in person, sometimes they're in zoom.

00:25:54.760 Uh, so I was there actually covering it as, as a journalist.

00:25:58.500 um but yeah there was a couple independent speakers there and uh i was at another event

00:26:03.780 uh run by the buffalo party that was also uh independence uh conference uh it was well attended

00:26:10.580 so both those ones that i went to were sold out and they were ones that he had to pay to go to

00:26:14.980 uh the free ones like that sas prosperity is doing like they're they're filling up whatever

00:26:20.820 space they can get so i think there's an appetite for it particularly now that people feel like

00:26:26.340 Like, Kenny, or sorry, not Kenny, Kearney kind of like stole his way into a majority

00:26:32.320 because we didn't elect a liberal majority government.

00:26:36.740 It was by five people leaving their parties and going over to the liberals that did it.

00:26:43.200 And I can tell you, I was at an event last night.

00:26:47.320 People were not happy.

00:26:49.840 And it wasn't even the political event that I was at.

00:26:52.080 They were just not happy at how Kearney got his majority. 0.65

00:26:54.700 and that's what i mean but you see and there's a hazard that something like the buffalo party

00:27:00.880 or something like that could start gaining a foothold i it's my view i believe anyways i mean

00:27:06.320 independence parties in alberta haven't been able to do that though some people have tried but it's

00:27:10.840 because the independence movement's focused on a petition it's kept their energy on that and

00:27:15.680 rather than going after the government in power i would think there's a hazard of something forming

00:27:21.560 that could be a vote splitter anyways for the SAS party

00:27:24.360 if they can't give a mechanism to those people

00:27:27.120 who want to pursue independence.

00:27:29.620 So it's just kind of why I was wondering

00:27:30.960 if maybe they would be looking at bringing something.

00:27:33.240 It's a balancing act because, of course,

00:27:34.460 you know the opposition will say,

00:27:35.480 well, if you're bringing that in,

00:27:36.260 it means you support independence.

00:27:37.380 Well, not necessarily.

00:27:38.540 It just means you're supporting having that vote.

00:27:41.400 And it doesn't seem to be hurting Premier Smith.

00:27:43.180 They've been calling her separatist solidly

00:27:44.680 for six months now, and her support's climbing.

00:27:47.840 Yeah, I mean, Scott Bowe has been questioned

00:27:51.540 during the question period in the legislature about whether or not he would support, you know,

00:27:58.840 an independence petition or whatever in the province and allow it to go to a referendum.

00:28:04.020 And he has said that, you know, he's, for the time being, he has not made any indication that

00:28:13.500 he would support Saskatchewan leaving Canada. However, he has said that he would support the

00:28:20.880 will of the people, if there was enough signatures to run a referendum, uh,

00:28:25.360 here in Saskatchewan, there's actually, even if you get enough signatures on a

00:28:29.460 petition, uh, it still has to be, uh, approved by the governments to actually

00:28:36.360 go to a referendum.

00:28:37.120 It doesn't automatically trigger it.

00:28:39.640 Um, so there's, there's that in it as well.

00:28:43.240 So they've even been asked like, well, if there's enough signatures, uh, to do

00:28:48.080 a referendum, would you allow it?

00:28:49.720 And once again, the answer there was, you know, we'll do whatever the will of the people is.

00:28:56.340 So he's not going to stand in the way, but he's not out there champing it either.

00:29:00.480 Yeah, no, it's a difficult balancing act.

00:29:02.680 They're both kind of playing the same.

00:29:03.880 Again, it's just been interesting to watch how both provinces are moving so similarly.

00:29:07.440 So, you know, before I let you go, I mean, you're covering all things opinion as well as the opinion editor and watching things in Saskatchewan.

00:29:14.480 What should we be watching you for and your province for in the next coming days?

00:29:19.720 Well, the stats of legislature is still sitting right now. However, there's not much exciting stuff going on. Budget's already kind of been presented and going through. For the opinion, we have a ton of stuff coming down on Carney from all kinds of different angles with how he got his majority. We already have a couple up, including former opinion editor Nigel Haniferts. His was up earlier today on the conservatives.

00:29:45.720 And basically, his argument is like, you've got to vet these candidates better because you've got four that, you know, jumped ship since November and gave Kearney the majority.

00:29:56.780 So that's an excellent read. I'll read Nigel's column. It's very interesting.

00:30:00.240 But yeah, there's other columns up there as well that are connected to Kearney.

00:30:03.860 And then we also have some other ones on some other issues coming up, too, that are very important.

00:30:08.320 A lot of stuff on independence related stuff, as well as we've got a couple on education coming up.

00:30:15.080 that'll be up on the weekend that are quite interesting right on well i know you've got

00:30:19.460 your hands full in a lot of content that you're working through so i appreciate you taking some

00:30:23.300 time to talk to us today about you know your own one that came out recently and and just stuff out

00:30:27.940 in saskatchewan that we don't we don't watch nearly closely as as we should so thank you for

00:30:33.520 that and thank you for keeping on all that opinion content for us and i'm sure we'll talk again soon

00:30:37.820 chris sounds good thank you very much for it all right thanks so that is our opinion editor chris

00:30:42.700 old corn. And yeah, much like Dave, you know, just running hard, lots on the go, things are

00:30:47.720 happening. So yeah, Saskatchewan, a lot of parallels. Let's get through some of these

00:30:51.960 comments. Again, Carol Scobie saying it can snow every month in the year in Alberta. There's some

00:30:56.160 truth to that. It's not unique that it's happening in April, but it just keeps happening over and

00:31:00.780 over and over and over again. If it would just give us a bit of a break. Save Canada 123 saying

00:31:05.780 50% plus one is all it takes to join Canada and that's all it takes to leave. Some people have

00:31:10.200 talked about that when we're talking about independence votes and things, because, you know,

00:31:14.060 that was kind of the formula for Newfoundland to come in. But getting realistic, a couple of

00:31:17.840 things. The Clarity Act says a clear majority, not a simple majority. 50% plus one is a simple

00:31:22.420 majority. And unfortunately, it's one area where the Clarity Act isn't very clear at all,

00:31:26.740 because, well, what's a clear majority? I just want to talk about pragmatically, realistically,

00:31:32.160 if it's under 55%, it's not going to happen. I'm just saying that. There'll be so many challenges,

00:31:37.560 protests uh pushbacks things going on it will be mired in that for years it would go much like

00:31:44.920 brexit whereas brexit got the momentum they got it moving they got it across the line and then

00:31:51.840 things never really kind of came together afterwards because they didn't have a strong

00:31:55.420 enough mandate to push back on the politicians who were fighting it from within so just an

00:31:59.860 independent supporter should be shooting for 55 to 60 to be realistic if you're really looking to

00:32:04.580 get out it really the worst we could possibly get would be 50 plus one because it does put

00:32:11.040 everything make it stall and and go on hold but uh it doesn't get us there uh let's see

00:32:18.840 cbc doesn't the conservative party doesn't want alberta to separate well no they're a federal

00:32:24.140 party and uh it's just you know people going after smith saying she should come out in support of

00:32:29.720 independence or poly that's why we don't bother with the party system with independence it has

00:32:34.020 be advocates they're not going to come out in support of it they can't it's not their mandate

00:32:38.100 but uh you know we still need to also have a provincial government and do what we can with

00:32:42.340 our federal mps until a promise becomes independent so you know be a little pragmatic

00:32:46.240 but they're not going to come out in support of it uh barbie hill saying uh had a great time

00:32:50.380 with corey yeah great to see you up there barbie appreciate the work and everything you guys are

00:32:54.200 doing in the north i tell you that's where the the hub of great people and independence movement is

00:32:58.920 it's strong up there uh let's see what else we got here i don't like pierre but this is a far

00:33:06.620 deeper movement uh it's for the children and future generations sorry pierre but candace

00:33:11.020 toast yeah like you know people are frustrated they're throwing their hands up especially when

00:33:14.860 we see uh the majority this is the very first time a majority government has come through

00:33:22.660 just floor crossers just floor crossers floor crossers have been around they've come and gone

00:33:27.400 over the years. They've impacted governments, impacted policy, but not to the point of actually

00:33:32.460 changing the government from a minority to a majority. And yeah, that's got a lot of people

00:33:36.900 pretty ticked off, especially when you get pure, gross, opportunistic ones like Gladue.

00:33:44.300 You know, look, Jen Aru in Edmonton, he was always a liberal anyways. He was just looking for a way

00:33:49.600 to get a seat. He always was. I'm surprised he lasted as long as he did before he crossed.

00:33:53.760 uh glad you though i mean an established conservative been there for over 10 years i

00:34:00.040 believe more conservative than me in most regards socially for sure and then joining the liberals

00:34:06.740 oh they offered her something nice let's not pretend they offered her something nice that

00:34:11.020 builds cynicism that builds a sense of futility and that is what leads to things like an

00:34:18.020 independence movement you know we've had it and that's why again you know some people might like

00:34:22.000 Polyev or others, but they're just saying, what's the point anymore, right? There's somebody saying

00:34:29.000 Smith will do whatever Queen Charles tells her to do. I'm not sure where you're going there. Okay.

00:34:33.540 Either way, the monarchy, that came up in the question the other night. I was speaking in

00:34:36.620 Hilda last. I didn't get home till near two in the morning. The monarchy is irrelevant. It really

00:34:42.960 is. It's just a past thing. It's for the people thinking the king could stop the independence or

00:34:48.540 uh you know it's just as bad as those indigenous people going over thinking he can step in he can't 0.98

00:34:52.420 he won't it's irrelevant let's get into contemporary times to talk about what we're doing 0.99

00:34:56.480 we're breaking out of a system here uh joel saying paul's pizza is great no press is bad press

00:35:02.240 so yeah the owner of paul's pizza and there's some of the things i get a chuckle out of

00:35:05.180 and yeah he's he's got a pretty narrowly sense of humor you know with the joke he made about the

00:35:10.300 mmlbq wxyz but whatever he's been going on for years with this he was on my show a couple of

00:35:17.960 years ago. You could see the old one about that. These guys have come after him, but his name is

00:35:22.800 Farouk and he keeps getting called a white nationalist. I just get a chuckle out of that.

00:35:27.760 I mean, I don't know. I don't have the NDP equity card handy to see what the point system is,

00:35:33.560 but as far as I can tell, Farouk ain't a white bread sort of fella, but that's the, always the

00:35:39.580 immediate response to the left isn't. That's all they've got. That's all he goes is just keep

00:35:43.400 throwing that out there, smearing that out there for battery. Well, it's falling flat and people

00:35:48.120 like Joel pointing out it's great pizza and no press is bad press. Well, sometimes there's bad

00:35:52.220 press, but, uh, uh, it's still at this point, I think a lot more people are going out and testing

00:35:58.300 the pizza out than anything that was lost because most people don't care and they are sick of the 0.95

00:36:03.000 idiocy and acronyms and endless, uh, victimhood. When we talk about that missing and murdered, 0.95

00:36:09.340 uh aboriginal um indigenous woman thing i mean that's been one of those other failures that's

00:36:17.420 a trudeau initiative they put the whole commission together all the works and realistically whatever

00:36:20.880 happened because they really thought it was some sort of conspiracy right there's there's been

00:36:25.560 people stealing indigenous women and raping them and murdering them and hiding them and they've

00:36:30.480 been unsolved and this is the authorities aren't trying to track down who did it and all of this 0.91

00:36:35.120 and what it did turn out to be.

00:36:37.200 It did turn out there are more women going missing

00:36:41.200 and being murdered in the Indigenous community. 0.81

00:36:43.320 But the solve rate for those murders and such 0.66

00:36:47.120 is as high or higher for the Indigenous woman

00:36:49.740 as for anybody else. 1.00

00:36:52.020 And it's because most of the crimes are committed 0.99

00:36:54.340 by other Indigenous people. 0.99

00:36:55.760 That's the conclusion that it wasn't

00:36:57.700 a white nationalist conspiracy.

00:36:59.860 It was massive social disorder and distress

00:37:02.900 and the horrific nightmare that's going on in the reserves.

00:37:06.980 Abused, neglected, impoverished, troubled, and drug-abusing young ladies 1.00

00:37:12.720 are often running off from the reserves. 0.81

00:37:15.040 You saw them in the Vancouver's Lower East Side 30 years ago,

00:37:17.680 and you're still seeing them today, and it's getting worse 0.90

00:37:20.380 because we keep hanging on to this broken, ridiculous system of apartheid 0.91

00:37:24.220 we call the Indian Reserve System. 0.95

00:37:26.200 So get used to it. 0.98

00:37:27.840 Quit trying to blame Whitey for it. 0.99

00:37:29.260 It's the system, guys, and it's not going away. 1.00

00:37:32.900 But then they make it sacred, right?

00:37:35.000 They make it the way you can't even question those, that acronym is as absurd as it was

00:37:39.060 when an MP puts it out, because then you're, you're dissing these poor murdered and missing

00:37:42.960 indigenous women. 1.00

00:37:43.680 No, we aren't, but people are pushing back against the stupid narrative, the tiresome 1.00

00:37:48.720 narrative that keeps trying to blame everyone else rather than it just accepted that we 0.99

00:37:54.280 got to change this system or it's going to get worse.

00:37:56.660 It's going to get worse.

00:37:57.640 And, uh, I drove on the way to Hilda yesterday.

00:38:00.940 Hilda's way over north onto the Saskatchewan border from Medicine Hat.

00:38:05.480 I went through, because it's straight through, and it's a public highway, 0.91

00:38:07.920 the Siksika Reserve, those clowns who've charged me with trespassing.

00:38:10.820 I took a couple pictures on my way through from the public highway, guys. 0.54

00:38:14.440 The houses are still falling apart.

00:38:16.700 Garbage is still all over.

00:38:17.880 The wild dogs are still running around, boarded up places, junk on the lawns.

00:38:23.820 They just got $1.3 billion from Trudeau four years ago.

00:38:27.300 What happened? Where's it gone? I don't know.

00:38:29.280 But it sure hasn't gone to building houses.

00:38:30.940 I thought I was in Tijuana for a minute, but it was windier and there weren't palm trees.

00:38:35.980 So we got to start questioning these things.

00:38:38.020 We got to stop letting these activists, these chiefs, these losers, and these Leah guys and say, we can't talk about it.

00:38:43.880 And canceling somebody like Farouk or trying to with this pizza place because he mocked it.

00:38:50.180 Oh, well, maybe don't give him the material to work with.

00:38:55.540 Let's see.

00:38:56.340 weird we never used to have these problems um just trying to catch up on the comments uh

00:39:05.700 republic of alberta ruck and ruckine hound yeah okay so they solve a lot of problems for albertans

00:39:10.060 maybe uh jay the albertans say 58 of people might be against us but if half of them don't turn up

00:39:17.180 the vote uh they won't matter okay here's something with the independence movement as

00:39:20.440 well to keep in mind when quebec held their referendum 93 of people came out with something

00:39:26.320 this big, this important, people are going to come out. It's going to be a high turnout referendum.

00:39:31.620 It's going to be big. You got to win it. Somebody else pointed out the 42% number.

00:39:37.860 We're seeing polls all over the place. I keep saying 30 because you know what? I've seen them

00:39:40.980 as low as 20. I saw that 42. I don't believe the 42. I don't believe the 20. When the spread is

00:39:46.780 that huge, that 42, if you break down that poll, comes more into people saying, would you vote that

00:39:52.200 way as a negotiating tool rather than wanting to go. When you start asking questions in polls that

00:39:56.940 get that long, guys, those are leading and they're push-pulls. And to be honest, they're not terribly

00:40:01.140 accurate. The reality is though, independent support is stronger than ever. It does have

00:40:06.360 momentum and it's growing. As I said, with the Brexit thing, very possible that it could move

00:40:15.160 on into an independence vote, a positive one coming, but it's up to us. We will see what

00:40:20.560 happens so we see they're getting too old for this nonsense i hear you uh boy we got a lot of

00:40:25.740 comments today i really appreciate it be patient with me as i scroll through it uh canada's broken

00:40:30.820 a common one uh troglodyte saying albert ottawa can either let albert go peacefully or and then

00:40:37.200 the dots yeah i don't know then the main thing the strength has to be in a solid large vote you got

00:40:44.440 to win again that's what i'm talking about 55 60 or more i would rather and i know some people get

00:40:49.580 upset and debate with me i'd rather see 48 than 52 because with 48 we can keep things rolling

00:40:58.180 having another one in four or six years and probably turn that into the 55 or 60 or more we

00:41:02.200 need but 52 that's a disaster that puts it on the shelf for years that's the instability

00:41:08.380 we're gonna have to worry about um somebody else saying you know why do you think the

00:41:15.020 confiscation is ramping up yeah they're coming for the firearms but they're failing that's another

00:41:18.400 fun program to talk about, isn't it? You know, they want it, but nobody's participating. This

00:41:23.820 is going to fail just like every other initiative that's come out of them recently.

00:41:29.920 You know, we can be critical of the provincial government and things. Here's one of the areas

00:41:33.800 I want to hit on a bit, and that's the gas tax, the fuel tax in Alberta, the Premier Smith not

00:41:40.060 cutting it. All right. This is where you want to get on the provincial government's case rather

00:41:44.300 oh, she should be outright becoming an independent supporter. There's one of the more clownish 0.96

00:41:48.960 people who heads the independence movement in some ways and speaks for quite often. He's just 0.88

00:41:53.480 got an incredible chip on his shoulder when it comes to Premier Smith, wasting a lot of energy

00:41:57.280 going after her when he really should just stick to putting out, try to get that yes vote. Either

00:42:02.420 way, there's things that Smith needs to be criticized on, not trying to turn her into an 0.80

00:42:06.260 open secessionist, but why on earth is she not cutting the gas tax? Come on, I don't care because

00:42:12.020 are saying we got our own law and we don't cut it until July 1st. You guys write the law. You've

00:42:17.020 got a majority. And you're also for every dollar, the price of a barrel oil rises. The Alberta

00:42:23.660 government gets about $700 million in their budget. Okay. And I understand that's over the

00:42:30.780 course of a year, but still we're talking oil has gone up by what, 60, $70 and it's been hanging

00:42:36.620 in there and it's going to for a while. We can afford to cut the gas tax. And if you can't afford

00:42:41.960 to cut the gas tax, it really does mean you're spending way, way, way too much. So cut some

00:42:47.100 spending, be conservative. That's the critique we need. And that's how we need to keep pushing our

00:42:53.360 honor. Uh, let's see. Uh, I support any independence for, uh, if people vote for

00:42:59.860 independence parties, there's a fear of the NDP slipping into power again. I hear you. And it's

00:43:03.280 not just a fear. Thankfully, uh, you know, the only real kind of party going is the Republican

00:43:07.640 party and it's led by a knob and it's not going anywhere. But if, if Smith doesn't allow a

00:43:15.280 referendum to get going, I don't think the Republican party will get anywhere, but somebody

00:43:19.120 rational and reasonable might get up and form something. And that could split that vote and

00:43:23.720 that could set things way back. So just watch this movement, watch it for, as an activist rather

00:43:30.560 than a party activist though because you're just going to cause more damage than you want uh one

00:43:35.060 more thing and that's been in there and we're looking into some of that uh let's get on with

00:43:39.300 some of our uh fine folks on the indigenous reserves because it's a huge issue and we need

00:43:43.900 to have the courage to talk about them there's a chief up in fort mack or fort chip or up there

00:43:48.460 somewhere claiming that the cancer rates are way above for indigenous people and everybody else

00:43:53.240 well they are but they are in every reserve not just up there he's blaming it on oil and gas

00:43:58.800 and of course it was his own study that he commissioned to find this alleged

00:44:02.360 rise in cancer rates. Guys, indigenous people suffer from higher cancer rates on every reserve

00:44:07.300 in Canada. Let's get to the point. They're socially distressed. Go onto a reserve and

00:44:12.480 meet some of the people. That's why I shoot the videos on there and let's show it. And what's

00:44:16.220 happening? Well, they're chain smoking, living on Cheetos and cornflakes and pop. They're drinking

00:44:22.460 a lot. These things all cause a lot of cancer, more so than other areas. You want to get upset

00:44:27.940 with me prove otherwise anybody who's claiming that not true has not been on a reserve as well

00:44:35.540 if the oil sands was causing higher cancer rates it would be hitting everybody on the reserve on

00:44:40.260 the river up there and throughout that area not just that reserve all we're seeing is somebody

00:44:44.740 else throwing something else just like the the hoax and cam loops let's make a fake myth about

00:44:50.100 things that are happening and then ask for more money they always do 12 million dollars to try

00:44:55.860 and find bodies without actually looking here's a neat one oh chiefs a commenter let's leave it at

00:45:00.500 that saying respect our treaties and that's what i'm doing your treaty said that 98.7 percent of

00:45:06.320 alberta is forever permanently seated you can keep your 1.3 percent the rest of us are leaving

00:45:11.640 pay your own bloody bills all right i'll leave it at that happy note guys thank you very much

00:45:16.000 for tuning in today well i make sure to watch the pipeline tonight and check this out next week at

00:45:21.960 this time i really appreciate all those comments i couldn't keep up with them today that's the way

00:45:25.480 I like to see it happening. Lots of interaction because there's lots going on and I can learn

00:45:29.800 some lessons here too. So thanks for tuning in. See you next week at this time.

00:45:55.480 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - April 18, 2026

CORY MORGAN SHOW： Premier Smith must schedule an independence referendum

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