Western Standard - August 25, 2026


Could Alberta’s Yes vote be stronger than anyone expects?


Episode Stats


Length

3 minutes

Words per minute

169.28

Word count

526

Sentence count

7


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 What does success look like?
00:00:04.520 What would be the kind of outcome?
00:00:07.940 I'm talking about the percentage support, perhaps.
00:00:11.500 But regardless of the final numbers, how do you hope that this settles out?
00:00:18.980 Because somebody is going to be disappointed.
00:00:21.860 Someone's going to be disappointed.
00:00:23.220 and i'm hoping that we can find something that replicates what has happened in alberta's history
00:00:30.420 which is that we find common ground amongst the people not a political common ground but a common
00:00:36.280 ground for the people and that we can have a massive movement towards that that's that's my
00:00:41.180 aspiration i don't exactly know what that is and it's part of our process they have to be i have
00:00:45.620 a mechanism to express it and that's where you run into the well cynical central government uh well
00:00:52.660 Well, I mean, I think that this referendum is, it could potentially, I'll put it that way, be that mechanism, because we saw that through the Quebec separatist movement, Canada changed.
00:01:06.220 And there's two scenarios that we're looking at.
00:01:09.540 One is where Alberta starts its march out of the country, or alternatively, Canada might say, this is our time to grow up and to actually start thinking.
00:01:20.600 and i'm seeing it right across the country right now this movement is alberta is causing people
00:01:25.000 to say well what have we done wrong and that might be it are they really asking themselves that i
00:01:30.840 think there are some that are or are they just oh there goes alberta again there's some that are
00:01:35.560 doing that too um no but you what you want to do is is again if you look at the entrepreneurial
00:01:40.760 class in in ontario they're questioning because they're a little bit sympathetic you look at the
00:01:46.760 individualists in in quebec they're questioning because they want individualism to rise so i think
00:01:54.920 that it's not everybody but there are those that are questioning so i think that if we decide to
00:01:59.640 stay in canada i'm hoping to think it's a cathartic moment that canada can come to life and to start
00:02:06.360 being what it actually could be and and i think alberta separatism could be the catalyst for that
00:02:13.000 last question to both of you how strong will the yes vote be not elite i think it's going to be
00:02:19.240 stronger than people think i think that a lot of people are going to be a number oh a number i think
00:02:25.320 there's a good chance they win really yeah all right i do right now okay how about you randy i
00:02:31.160 have no idea um oh come on i i think you know it's all going to unfold with what happens what
00:02:36.440 the leaders decide to do um right now i think i mean i just go with what the polls are saying 30
00:02:42.200 in favor but i think what natalie is thinking is that the no side the remain side may not show up
00:02:48.760 because they messaged us this is a silly question and i think it's dangerous to not be engaged
00:02:55.160 and that really is your message isn't it it is yes yeah thank you