Western Standard - September 21, 2026


Danielle Smith fights back tears as she makes the case for Alberta to remain in Canada

MARTY UP NORTH： Is Carney flirting with the EU a good idea？ Europe wants Canadian LNG and oil — and may help pay for it

Episode Stats


Length

2 minutes

Words per minute

102.27

Word count

242

Sentence count

11


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Western frustration with Ottawa is not new.
00:00:03.020 It's not only Albertan.
00:00:05.760 One of our hosts today, of course, built a national movement on four words.
00:00:10.280 The West wants in, and that was nearly 40 years ago.
00:00:13.660 Many Westerners still feel like we're still waiting.
00:00:17.580 But for Alberta, the last decade has cut especially deep.
00:00:20.840 Our economy runs on energy.
00:00:23.040 Oil and gas pay for a large share of our schools, our hospitals, and our roads,
00:00:27.600 and a good share of Canada's as well.
00:00:30.000 and for years it felt as though ottawa was working to shut our economy down
00:00:38.320 we watched pipelines cancelled
00:00:42.960 we watched a lot passed
00:00:46.720 that albertans came to call the no new pipelines act
00:00:53.040 we watched an emissions cap aimed at one industry ours
00:00:56.480 in essentially one region alberta
00:01:05.200 and electricity regulations that would have made it hard
00:01:11.840 to keep the lights on in one of the coldest places in the country
00:01:19.760 meanwhile western canadians send roughly twice as much of their taxes to ottawa
00:01:26.480 As they do to their provincial governments year after year, Ottawa sent far more than came back and far too often we were told we were the problem.
00:01:39.480 So when a proud, hardworking people feel their contribution is taken for granted and their livelihood is treated as something to be phased out, some begin to ask a painful question.
00:01:55.480 does this country actually want us
00:02:04.360 so
00:02:11.740 that question is what 700,000 signatures represent