Western Standard - Ever wonder why Albertans have such a different attitude about government than people out East？

00:00:00.000 settling Western Canada, they had done a deal with the indigenous, they were going to bring

00:00:05.260 people out. Ontario had a problem. They didn't have enough loyal British citizens to populate

00:00:10.140 these vast lands of the West. And so what they did was they called out to people from all over

00:00:15.680 Europe to come to North America and settle in the Canadian prairies. So they didn't have that sense

00:00:22.200 of British loyalty. They came here, those people came here and they came from the Ukraine, from

00:00:26.620 Finland, from Italy, from all kinds of places, and some from the United States also. But they

00:00:32.880 came here based on going to the Western North America and finding freedom, democracy, and an

00:00:40.360 ability to build a new life. That's why we found this sense of self-reliance. That's why we have

00:00:46.540 the collaborative approach of building the barn together. And that's why we don't defer to

00:00:51.460 authority the same way that they do in Eastern Canada. We don't have a history of that. Instead,

00:00:56.140 we have this history of treaty where individuals have sovereignty versus

00:01:02.620 following the leader. And it's created a big conflict in Canada.

Western Standard - August 07, 2026