00:00:00.000It provides us an opportunity to convince Albertans why they should either vote in support of independence or even if they're not fully there yet but they're very concerned about how Ottawa is treating Alberta, they can send a message by in the referendum in October saying vote to require the Alberta government to hold a formal referendum on separate.
00:00:20.200And it's not all First Nations, and it's not all First Nations members.
00:00:24.300It's a few chiefs, and they didn't pull their communities.
00:00:28.700They're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of their people's money
00:00:31.480and giving it to lawyers, and I've heard from a lot of First Nations
00:00:35.400who are very upset about what's happening.
00:02:39.980Yeah. Obviously, the premier was in a tough situation just with the courts, all that working against her and obviously divisions in her own party.
00:02:49.280With that being said, you know, we also as advocates for independence have to take an honest look at where independence is at.
00:02:56.740We got a ways to go where, you know, anywhere, depending on the polls, you look at 35, the most ambitious ones, maybe 40 percent.
00:03:04.360in order for us to get to 50% plus one on an actual binding referendum on independence.
00:03:10.660There's a lot of work that needs to go in.
00:03:12.100I think there's a lot of organizations that are yet to come forward
00:03:14.500that will put that campaign together to get people there.
00:03:17.420How do you think the first two debates have gone this last month against Jason Kenney?
00:03:21.480Is this kind of what you expected in terms of the reception it's gotten in the crowds and what have you?
00:03:25.280Well, what surprised me is that the former premier has not brought forward any kind of plan
00:03:30.860to address the legitimate grievances, the harm that Ottawa continues to cause to Alberta,
00:03:36.720to our economy, to the opportunities for our children, for the cost of living.
00:03:41.560At no time has he offered any kind of plan, nor have any of the other federalists.
00:03:45.700And it's quite surprising to me, and maybe it's not,
00:03:48.080because the fact of the matter is you can't amend the Constitution.
00:03:51.380You've got to convince the rest of the country to change their ways,
00:03:53.960and they don't want to change their race.
00:03:55.140They kind of like all the money we send to Ottawa.
00:03:57.140so that surprised me and all he's had to support a stay in canada argument has been fear and and
00:04:06.820uncertainty i was going to say as well what do you think of premier smith's question that they've
00:04:10.340decided to put on the referendum in october she basically took the forever canada one then slapped
00:04:13.960a second part onto that what do you guys think about that well i'm not you guys i'm me i was
00:04:18.540in the pro-independence camp yeah so my view is that um she had no choice because of the court
00:04:25.180ruling and if the cabinet would have used its power and its discretion and its authority under
00:04:30.020the referendum act and set the question that way and if it was an up down question a yes or no it
00:04:35.460would have been subject to a court challenge and the whole process would have been put on ice
00:04:39.180and the independence movement would have lost critical time and lost momentum so it's not an
00:04:44.760ideal outcome it's not my preferred outcome but it's a reality and I can work with it I think
00:04:51.860other people in the independence movement can work with it provides us an opportunity to convince
00:04:55.740Albertans why they should either vote in support of independence or even if they're not fully there
00:05:01.860yet but they're very concerned about how Ottawa's treating Alberta they can send a message by in the
00:05:06.980referendum in October saying vote to require the Alberta government to hold a formal referendum
00:05:13.280on separation. Okay this is of personal interest to me the core blunt petition the whole Indigenous
00:05:18.160this consultation would that apply to his like i don't know how the legal would work for that one
00:05:22.160like it's obviously a citizen initiative would that also apply the way it's applied to the
00:05:25.720independence how does that work exactly or do you am i asking the right person on that well what
00:05:29.740you're seeing is the the selective nature of the first nations and what they're and it's not all
00:05:36.200first nations and it's not all first nations members it's a few chiefs and they didn't pull
00:05:41.960their communities uh they're spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of their people's money
00:05:45.840and giving it to lawyers and I've heard from a lot of First Nations who are very upset about
00:05:50.840what's happening they don't support it they actually support independence so it's politics
00:05:56.140I really think they're doing the bidding for Ottawa and trying to help Ottawa's aspiration
00:06:04.240of thwarting the independence movement. Thank you sir I appreciate it it's free time. If you're
00:06:08.360looking for more exclusive content like this you can subscribe to the Western Standard for $8 a
00:06:12.620month using code Alberta first. Thank you again. I'll see you again soon.