Western Standard - MARTY UP NORTH： Alberta independence blocked： What should happen next？

00:00:00.000 and we're live welcome back folks uh thanks for joining um

00:00:28.640 um i'm i'm smiling somewhat laughing a bit because uh i was on the elevator downstairs coming up

00:00:35.600 and i only show up like a few minutes before the show and just in the lobby was one of the

00:00:41.380 senior uh producers here at the show uh josh and he asked me he's like what are you going to talk

00:00:48.000 about today and i just laughed i'm like well i have a long list of topics but i don't think i'm

00:00:54.040 going to get to too many of them and then um and then i asked when i got in studio here i asked

00:01:00.580 uh john if we had done a live show commentary yet on the events of yesterday and he tells me no

00:01:10.060 because cory had done his show earlier so then uh you know the the rulings were subsequent to

00:01:16.600 cory's event so anyway so good news for me i'm the i'm the first live chat about the big events i got

00:01:22.700 a breaking story that's awesome um so before we go too deep or welcome back it is uh i think this

00:01:31.820 is about the 13th episode now that we've done uh they're they're getting better you guys are calling

00:01:36.300 but this is a show about you right i have topics but i want to hear what's on your mind and that

00:01:42.560 only happens if you call that number on the screen right there 479 whatever west i'll memorize it

00:01:50.420 someday uh 866-479-WEST and extension 711 and then uh John will put you in queue and we'll chat

00:01:59.980 um so I think I'll remember I mean I was expecting a I was expecting a ruling no let me backtrack I

00:02:08.940 wasn't expecting a ruling this week right so the injunction um the injunction there's there was

00:02:17.060 two rulings, right? There's two rulings because there was two cases before the court. Both were

00:02:22.560 sort of happened simultaneously, right? They happened about a month ago, between April 7th,

00:02:27.460 8th, 9th. One was a, one First Nation group was challenging the petition itself.

00:02:36.220 And I honestly didn't think there was any real grounds on for that group. And then there was

00:02:43.440 another group simultaneously was trying to go with a broader injunction just to pause the process

00:02:49.760 and um and that was a month ago and at the time after hearing all the arguments from the

00:02:57.320 plaintiffs i guess and from the defendant from the alberta prosperity project and stay free alberta

00:03:03.100 etc etc the judge stayed the petition process put a halt to it we saw what happened last week the

00:03:10.960 signatures were collected handed in to uh to elections alberta and and the stay was 30 days

00:03:18.700 so from april 10th to about you know may 10th so we expected kind of a ruling somewhere around this

00:03:25.280 time but i was on the camp i was on the side that honestly thought there won't be a ruling

00:03:31.100 that they're just gonna that the judge is just gonna delay delay delay extend the stay until

00:03:39.400 um too much time passes and we can't have a referendum so i was quite surprised yesterday

00:03:45.320 i'm in the backyard minding my own business doing my gardening garden 75 in by the way

00:03:50.780 and uh and then all of a sudden somebody uh calls me text me and uh calls me and says uh did you see

00:03:59.480 the ruling i'm like no i did not didn't expect it and then i went through the ruling the first

00:04:04.880 post i saw on the ruling i cheered i was like and me and perhaps i was too quick out of the

00:04:11.680 gate with that one but i cheered because the first part i literally read page like 28 right you you

00:04:18.420 sort of scroll through the ruling and you go to the bottom because you want to read like i just

00:04:22.040 want to see the conclusion like i'm just jumping ahead i want to see how this book ends and and

00:04:27.140 right there it's like uh i'm i'm the judge says i'm rejecting the injunction well holy smokes like

00:04:34.480 I'm cheering, right? Like I'm immediately posting about this saying like, wow, the injunction has

00:04:38.740 been rejected. My bad. I should have read more because, um, the, the, the, the ruling was on

00:04:45.800 multiple, uh, on the two cases, but higher up in there, the judge said that, um, that the petition

00:04:53.480 itself basically was, uh, a no go. Um, I don't know if she used the word illegal, but words to

00:05:01.520 that effect that the chief electoral officer, when Mitch Sylvester handed in the form, and Mitch

00:05:08.960 handed in the form twice, right? He handed in the form like midway last year, and then that ended up

00:05:14.260 in court, and there was some argument over the question and everything else. And then that

00:05:19.980 triggered Danielle Smith to change the law, the Citizens Initiative Act, to tweak it a little bit.

00:05:27.380 And while she was tweaking it and passing it, the judge at that time still opined and gave a ruling on the question.

00:05:36.120 So the question was thrown back to Elections Alberta.

00:05:40.140 And then Ms. Sylvester redrafted his question.

00:05:44.240 And we had a new bill from Danielle Smith, Modifications to the Citizens Initiatives Act.

00:05:51.280 And which is, by the way, is how things are supposed to proceed, right?

00:05:54.900 governments make laws and sometimes not sometimes almost every time laws have to be tested

00:06:00.340 and then and then in the process of testing the laws the courts it's the courts who can test the

00:06:05.680 laws uh or citizens who are acting in in good faith on how they interpret the laws and then

00:06:11.860 they might get you know stopped and caught and and then so then it ends up in front of the courts

00:06:15.820 and then the courts have to adjudicate and then if that's the case it's it's quite common for the

00:06:20.600 government to adjust the law and reissue a law. So that's just the way it works. And so the law

00:06:27.180 was modified. Mitch resubmitted his question. And as soon as he did that, then a First Nation group

00:06:33.120 from the Athabasca area immediately challenged the whole petition again on the grounds,

00:06:40.740 on various grounds. And basically what the judge said yesterday is that the petition

00:06:46.640 needs to be thrown out because steps were missed

00:06:51.300 and the chief electoral officer

00:06:54.980 shouldn't have approved Mitch's petition.

00:07:00.280 Like, that's dramatic.

00:07:01.280 That's bonkers to me, right?

00:07:02.620 So, and I'll go into,

00:07:05.920 I'll try and explain it a little bit further,

00:07:07.600 but what this means at this point

00:07:09.780 is that that box,

00:07:11.200 those 42 boxes of signatures that are sitting,

00:07:14.460 those 300,000 signatures that are sitting at elections, Alberta, they're, they're not going

00:07:19.920 to count them. They're, they're, I'm surprised the judge didn't order them destroyed at this point,

00:07:26.120 because I guess the judge knows that by legally, there'll be some appeals, but, uh, but those

00:07:30.880 signatures are sitting there as if they were, uh, had never been collected. And as if the whole

00:07:36.540 process was illegal and and the basic argument of the ruling is that um the judge looked at the

00:07:47.580 question right do you believe that alberta should cease to be a province uh part of canada and

00:07:53.820 become its own separate state paraphrasing that's not the exact wording and the judge looked at that

00:07:58.940 question and said okay if they collect enough signatures so there's two outcomes not enough

00:08:05.380 enough if they collect enough signatures then it goes to a referendum and if they win the referendum

00:08:10.600 two outcomes don't win win the referendum so one out of the four outcomes is a win if that question

00:08:18.280 wins the referendum the that question forces uh the ucp government to do something so it can't so

00:08:29.560 that's what the judge is saying that the judge is saying that if you know there's a one in four

00:08:33.720 chance that we get enough signatures we win the referendum and this question therefore uh forces

00:08:41.080 the hand of danielle smith and the government they can't ignore the win they have to act on it

00:08:46.860 the referendum answer is binding is basically what the judge said and if it's binding and it forces

00:08:53.860 the government to act then it creates a problem because it affects treaties and other things and

00:08:59.080 therefore uh and and the consultation needs to occur before so i'd always heard you know that

00:09:07.000 that was a possibility and the assumption was that if there is a win in the future and there's a pro

00:09:12.600 the ball gets going then the consultation will occur i think that makes sense right you

00:09:16.760 you do things one step at a time and then and but in this case the judge said nope uh you need to

00:09:23.160 consult now and so basically uh in order to petition our government in order for citizens

00:09:29.960 to sit down collect signatures and just petition the government they need to consult with first

00:09:35.880 nations before they can even do that and and and i've said it all along i mean i have a pro i have

00:09:42.680 a problem with just the whole principle of me having to get permission from my government to

00:09:47.800 petition which we did this go around right uh we we mitch filled out the form and and and got

00:09:55.480 permission got permission he was okay you go ahead you can start collecting signatures collect the

00:10:00.680 signatures on this sheet of paper with a serial number ask for proof of citizenship and proof of

00:10:07.720 residence and collect the signature and a physical address and sign it in blue and you know what i

00:10:13.720 i mean like i already had a problem with that like as a citizen the the i have to i have to

00:10:21.380 ask permission from my government to be able to hold my government accountable you see it like

00:10:25.920 i mean that makes no sense right so there there should be i should be free to do that i mean one

00:10:30.580 of the outcomes for me is is heck who needs permission from anybody let's just start this

00:10:35.100 thing all over again and i'll go sit on the side of the road and everybody who signed the petition

00:10:39.680 before all 750 people just come on by and re-sign it again on a we'll sign down a separate piece of

00:10:45.700 paper i mean that's the most frustrating part for me right now is that um those those boxes those

00:10:52.740 42 boxes with 300 000 signatures are locked up like as if they don't exist i wish i wish i wish

00:11:01.320 mitch could go get those boxes and say forget about you guys and i'm just going to walk over

00:11:06.520 to danielle smith's office and deposit them there now in principle i think that is i mean in

00:11:13.680 principle danielle smith and uh you know pretty much every albertan at this point knows that

00:11:18.880 there is an independence movement and that collected 300 000 signatures and is upset

00:11:25.060 let's also remind ourselves that last year um stay or whatever they were called uh forever canada

00:11:33.100 Thomas Lukasik's group they collected 400,000 signatures so Daniel Smith has 700,000 signatures

00:11:40.260 in one way or another and is she going to ignore all of that just because a judge said she needs

00:11:47.000 to ignore it I mean she's got boy she's got a lot to think about now right she can either

00:11:51.840 appeal and keep kicking the can and pro and and and the process and I think that's wrong I think

00:11:59.240 That's a bad option because I predicted this, right?

00:12:04.480 They're going to change the rules and every step of the way,

00:12:07.440 they're not going to let us go easily.

00:12:09.140 They're going to keep changing the rules.

00:12:10.960 So she can do that, keep trying to fight and adapt and fight in court 0.96

00:12:17.400 and keep moving and Mitch and so forth.

00:12:19.100 But that's a war of attrition, right?

00:12:20.420 That's a war of attrition for Mitch Sylvester and for the independence movement. 0.73

00:12:23.480 Like this takes money and one side, the government, which in essence is backed by a carny, right?

00:12:31.840 I mean, the judge who ruled yesterday is a federally appointed judge from New Brunswick.

00:12:37.760 You know, wink, wink, like completely unbiased.

00:12:40.860 I don't think so.

00:12:41.600 But regardless, on one side, you got the government and the courts and they got an endless supply of money.

00:12:47.120 And on the other side, you got Mitch, an average private citizen who owns a business in Bonneville.

00:12:53.480 who's limited by their rules to only being allowed to raise $552,000.

00:12:59.880 So in this war of attrition, not very fair, right?

00:13:04.100 So that's one option.

00:13:05.740 Now, yesterday, I don't know.

00:13:10.040 Do you have the clip, John, of Danielle Smith?

00:13:14.320 Just very quickly, her 30-second answer where she said that

00:13:19.840 she didn't think that the

00:13:23.180 I think I have it

00:13:24.220 she called it incorrect

00:13:25.280 incorrect in law

00:13:26.920 she called the judge's ruling

00:13:28.620 incorrect in law

00:13:30.500 and anti-democratic

00:13:32.060 Will you put the referendum question

00:13:33.660 to the ballot as a government question

00:13:35.360 after the ruling today by Justice Cielo?

00:13:38.180 Well, although our government does support

00:13:40.860 Alberta remaining in Canada

00:13:42.720 we think that today's decision by the court

00:13:45.560 will deny an opportunity

00:13:46.980 to go over 300,000 albers

00:13:48.660 that we're doing a press conference yesterday this decision is incorrect and anti-democratic

00:13:57.460 and we will be appealing it as a result our cabinet dominated the conversation and when

00:14:03.060 asked about it she said she's to discuss the full context here she thought the judge

00:14:08.020 was incorrect in interpreting the law and anti-democratic and that her party was going to

00:14:13.300 appeal it or her government was going to appeal it but that doesn't at the end of the day

00:14:18.580 And all these appeals don't help because they just prolong the process.

00:14:22.900 And like I said, I keep worrying that we're going to run out of time.

00:14:26.980 Now, online, it's pretty obvious that Mitch Sylvester and Stay Free Alberta and others like that, they went to a plan, I don't know, B or C, but they started promoting the idea of, well, they've been promoting this idea for a while.

00:14:43.540 But everybody should get a UCP membership and try and trigger a special general meeting because there'll be an AGM.

00:14:51.760 There'll be an annual general meeting near the end of the year.

00:14:54.060 There always is around September, October.

00:14:55.760 But they're saying that some groups now are trying to influence the government, the UCP.

00:15:05.380 And one of the funny things is that yesterday, not yesterday, this morning, I don't think this is coincidence.

00:15:11.880 the UCP website crashed temporarily because I think too many people were trying to log in and

00:15:18.360 buy UCP memberships, right? So $10 memberships, there's already like 60,000 UCP members. And I

00:15:25.540 think that's a valid path going down the influencing from the inside and trying to 1.00

00:15:32.880 get Danielle Smith to just hold a referendum. That's in her powers to do. She can do that. 1.00

00:15:39.860 She can just add this question on independence on the referendum in October.

00:15:47.800 I was thinking there was a third path, but I don't see the third path at this point.

00:15:54.320 So, OK, well, so that's that's that's the events.

00:15:57.060 That's what happened yesterday.

00:15:58.140 So please call in, give us a buzz and let me know what are your thoughts on all of that?

00:16:04.860 I mean, the title today was what are the next path, the next steps?

00:16:09.860 for the independence movement.

00:16:12.120 We're running out of time for this year.

00:16:15.260 We're running out of time

00:16:16.460 if we want to get a question in October.

00:16:19.260 I think probably the most direct path right now

00:16:23.020 is to try and influence Danielle Smith

00:16:26.040 as much as possible

00:16:27.400 and get her to just add it to the referendum in October.

00:16:32.180 I also wanted to, actually, and just on the topic,

00:16:34.360 I mean, I really found,

00:16:37.020 like I'm going to have to reread it another time,

00:16:39.680 But I really found it interesting in her ruling, right?

00:16:42.300 The ruling is long, like it was 28 pages.

00:16:45.620 And I really found it interesting that the judge took that, you know, the decision tree

00:16:53.260 approach, I called it, right?

00:16:54.700 What if they get the right number of signatures and what if there's a referendum and what

00:16:58.540 if they win?

00:16:59.500 And so she went down, she went down the what if they win and ruled on the what if they

00:17:04.720 win.

00:17:05.180 But there was three other outcomes, right?

00:17:06.800 We could not get the right amount of signatures, which would not lead to a referendum, or we could get the right amount of signatures and not win the referendum.

00:17:15.560 So there's a lot of outcomes.

00:17:17.880 And with that line of thought, it also made it interesting that you could have applied the same, like, let me collect my thoughts.

00:17:30.180 Thomas Lukasik's petition wasn't challenged.

00:17:33.180 Why not?

00:17:34.160 Right?

00:17:34.380 I guess nobody challenged it, but by her reasoning, Thomas Lukasik's petition is also illegal and requires some consultation because he was asking the inverse of Stay Free Alberta's question.

00:17:53.400 His question is, do you support Canada or Alberta staying in Canada?

00:17:59.400 Well, I can do the same thing.

00:18:00.980 I can do the decision tree and say, okay, if he's got enough to get it as a referendum question, what if he loses?

00:18:07.380 What if everybody votes no, we don't want to stay in Canada?

00:18:12.940 Then doesn't that also trigger an obligation on the part of the government, which would lead to consultation, which would mean that his question should have been rejected to start with?

00:18:23.400 You know, I hate going there.

00:18:25.400 John, is that her caller on the line or are they?

00:18:27.940 Okay, go ahead.

00:18:28.520 Call her as usual name, please.

00:18:30.320 Where are you calling from?

00:18:32.980 Marty, it's James calling from Devin.

00:18:35.520 Can you hear me?

00:18:36.140 Yeah, yeah, perfectly.

00:18:37.020 How are you?

00:18:39.620 Oh, third class this morning, man.

00:18:41.940 Not a great day.

00:18:44.180 Cheer up.

00:18:44.740 I mean, it's not the end of the world.

00:18:45.880 I'm kind of wondering.

00:18:47.800 No, no, but I'm kind of wondering.

00:18:50.300 And how much more does Alberta need to prove to the rest of the country that Canada is objectively not a free country, not a democratic country, not a fair country?

00:19:01.540 Like, how many more stories like this need to pop up in the news before the rest of the country wakes up?

00:19:10.660 Well, I don't think there's an there is no.

00:19:14.380 No, to the answer is there's not enough of these events to make the rest of the country wake up, which is why we're doing what we're trying to do, which is why we're trying to separate.

00:19:23.680 Right. I know where you're getting at, but I think separatists in Quebec should be livid this morning.

00:19:30.400 Yes. Yeah, no, I agree.

00:19:35.500 So separatists in Quebec, people in Saskatchewan should be pissed about this decision.

00:19:40.220 No, there's people in D.C.

00:19:41.780 Hey, hey, like, at what point is our justice system just in balance?

00:19:48.580 Yeah, yeah, no, you're correct there.

00:19:50.200 And you remind me of a great point, right?

00:19:52.100 We do live in a common law society, except for Quebec.

00:19:56.540 Quebec's got a civil code.

00:19:58.980 But a ruling like this becomes—

00:20:01.080 Yeah, this one rules for them all the time.

00:20:02.780 Yeah, a ruling like this becomes precedent-setting for other parts of the country.

00:20:07.360 Absolutely.

00:20:07.720 I think the ones who should be most upset are just everyday citizens who, specifically here in Alberta, but everywhere else, right?

00:20:16.120 I mean, this is an erosion of our democratic rights.

00:20:22.460 Well, we here in Alberta have long known that our votes don't matter, but I still think that this decision is, well, I think it's a provocation, to be honest with you. 0.96

00:20:31.620 i think they're they're hoping that somebody from the movement does something stupid at this point 0.94

00:20:36.660 but i need to urge people no don't do any stupid as much as we're angry at this decision you know 0.99

00:20:42.980 the last thing we need is somebody going out and doing something exceptionally dumb yeah no i agree 0.97

00:20:49.300 i agree no thanks thanks for the call um have a great day in devon yeah thank you marty keep doing

00:20:57.060 what you're doing my man yeah you're welcome um yeah it's it's um i've i heard that sentiment

00:21:05.700 online i mean the sentiment online actually that was a that was another observation that was that

00:21:09.700 was made right what about the precedent of quebec right quebec had two referendums and how come

00:21:15.540 quebec was able to have two referendums and we can't even we never mind a referendum man we can't

00:21:21.540 even get to the question like we're not allowed like we need permission to petition i i i still

00:21:25.940 have a hard hard hard hard time getting over that that that uh that citizens who want to just collect

00:21:33.860 signatures and ask the government to do something first need permission and need to consult before

00:21:39.700 they can even like as step one it's it's uh it's super frustrating um and and tying this into uh

00:21:50.180 Tying this into Carney and the rest of the Canada, as James was just alluding to, I mean, the timing of this, of some of the announcements that are going on today, make this even more frustrating, right?

00:22:04.400 Again, so just this morning, Ottawa announced, what's it called?

00:22:12.720 I don't know the exact name, but, you know, Carney announced a big strategy to further electrify the country, right?

00:22:22.060 He wants to double the amount of electric power generation in this country.

00:22:26.400 So he's betting on electricity.

00:22:28.440 And I'm not surprised.

00:22:29.760 And when he's betting on electricity, he's talking about renewables and small nuclear and things like that, things that he's not talking about coal-fired power or natural gas-fired or anything like that.

00:22:42.140 He's betting on the things that already have.

00:22:44.600 And he wants to double the electricity generation capabilities of the country, which is ridiculous to start with, which is absolutely never going to happen.

00:22:57.020 but it's also not his responsibility like developing resources and developing your

00:23:02.820 electric grid and developing your energy is the provincial jurisdiction so carney keeps

00:23:09.020 poking danielle smith in particular and and and you know i don't know when she's going to wake up

00:23:16.400 and i'll come back on that but i got a call on the line go ahead where are you calling from

00:23:19.880 hello oh we lose one john

00:23:27.560 don't oh got another one maybe go ahead

00:23:33.760 they'll call back um yeah so uh you know danielle danielle keeps hoping right she keeps using the

00:23:46.200 words, a stronger, sovereign, independent Alberta within a united Canada, a sovereign

00:23:54.020 Alberta within a united Canada.

00:23:55.740 That's her stance, right?

00:23:57.420 And I don't see it happening.

00:24:01.020 I mean, you know, she's being, as far as I'm concerned, she's being played.

00:24:06.480 Tomorrow, we're going to hear tomorrow about a supposed pipeline deal.

00:24:09.460 There's no pipeline deal.

00:24:10.420 There's no proponent.

00:24:12.880 This is a chicken and egg thing, right?

00:24:14.260 Nobody's going to want to build a pipeline.

00:24:16.440 Like Carney said, I'll fast track a pipeline if somebody proposes one.

00:24:21.980 But no, that's not how it works.

00:24:23.520 You have to eliminate the laws, the rules that are scaring away investors.

00:24:27.840 And then you'll bring back investors and then the pipelines will go.

00:24:32.820 But the laws are still in place.

00:24:34.360 The tanker ban and the carbon emissions and all of that that are scaring away investors.

00:24:40.140 All right, let's go on the line again.

00:24:41.600 Let's try it again.

00:24:42.200 Maybe it's the same person.

00:24:42.960 Go ahead.

00:24:43.360 Where are you calling from?

00:24:44.260 hello hello hey it's uh paul i'm up in thorsham by the uh genesee power plant um i just want i

00:24:55.780 just want to sorry no no go ahead paul that's just saying interesting coincidence that you're

00:25:01.540 close to a power plant is that that's that used to be cold right they're still mining it actually

00:25:08.580 It's all being sent to China.

00:25:11.580 Okay.

00:25:13.340 Yeah, it's gas-powered, the power plant now, but they're still mining coal.

00:25:18.120 They're still strip mining here.

00:25:20.200 And they're loading it up, and it's being sent to the West Coast.

00:25:23.760 Okay.

00:25:24.440 So what's your comment this morning, Paul?

00:25:28.940 Yeah.

00:25:29.940 Well, I saw this morning the UCP website crashed.

00:25:34.760 people i assume are uh going and buying new memberships the website's uh backed up now i

00:25:40.740 went and did that a week ago i'm glad i did but um yeah i see jason candy and old uh tyler shandro

00:25:47.900 there they're uh they're out on twitter kind of saying hey why don't you uh start a separatist

00:25:54.080 party blah blah blah and uh well the thing is i think most people who were founders of the ucp

00:26:00.960 such as myself. I was there when the parties reunited. And I think most of us kind of had

00:26:07.700 inklings back then that, you know, Jason Kenney was going to be the last hope before we decided,

00:26:14.380 you know, if they're not going to help us now, that independence is the next step that we're

00:26:20.220 going to have to take. But, you know, Jason, we got the referendum on equalization and then he

00:26:26.860 didn't do anything about it. And I think that was the last stand before people started to really

00:26:33.620 think, you know what, if Canada is not going to negotiate with us, if our own premier isn't going

00:26:39.140 to stand up for us and enter constitutional negotiations with regard to equalization,

00:26:45.620 we're not going to get very far in Canada. They're never going to give us everything that we need.

00:26:50.520 and most of us we we were all proud canadians for a long long time but we're you know 10 years of

00:26:58.840 justin trudeau and now mark carney people who uh don't give a flying flip about you know the needs

00:27:05.480 of alberta because we don't have the voting power and we're never going to vote liberal anyway even

00:27:10.360 if we did um yeah we we kind of just said we kind of just said you know what this is it and

00:27:18.360 so so and now we're we're kind of happy yeah let me ask you a quick question then so uh

00:27:23.880 because that is probably that is one of the more popular comments these days we should there should

00:27:28.920 be a separatist party there kind of is one you know the republican party but what's your thoughts

00:27:34.120 on the separatist party because i mean there's pros and cons um would would you would you support

00:27:40.280 that option if it came down to it if we uh if the ucp isn't going to represent the membership

00:27:49.240 yeah but the problem is there's several of them what they need to do is get together have some

00:27:53.880 kind of convert convention or something and form one large separatist party you got the wild rose

00:27:59.880 alliance uh the republican party the independence party of alberta and the alberta independence

00:28:06.680 party so they're there you know there's a lot to choose from and they're everybody is kind of

00:28:13.400 looking for the position of who's got the uh pure uh policies on independence yeah what they need

00:28:19.960 to do is just get together and and form one large party you know but if you're going yeah but if

00:28:26.200 you're going to do that then i i think then then sort of taking better control of the ucp is

00:28:31.560 probably the answer my fear with another uh you know a couple more let's face it right a separatist

00:28:37.320 party would be right leaning no matter what and it would probably attract people from the ucp

00:28:43.240 which ends up splitting the right and then leaving the door wide open for the ndp that's my fear but

00:28:48.520 um uh yeah appreciate the comment uh paul thanks and do you just quickly do you work in that

00:28:53.960 industry do you work at the power plant or you or you just live there no i actually i'm uh back at

00:29:01.320 the farm i'm visiting my parents but i grew up here okay excellent all right well thanks for

00:29:07.460 calling in um yeah no worries yeah no worries uh seeing some you know this thing on the theme

00:29:13.600 of electricity seeing some interesting uh comments going by on the on the on scrolling by here i want

00:29:19.900 to pull one up somebody said um electricity was a good way to keep us in 15 minute cities i don't

00:29:27.520 who said that i can't find the comment but that is a that that is an interesting thing i i fear

00:29:32.720 i fear that when carney push promotes something i just don't trust him and so when he's promoting

00:29:37.760 something like electricity it's either because it's going to benefit very specific provinces

00:29:41.920 like uh like quebec and maybe manitoba and bc or he's got some ulterior motive uh behind it

00:29:49.360 uh go ahead caller where are you calling from and name please

00:29:52.080 go ahead

00:29:57.900 I'm calling from Pomona

00:30:01.820 I can barely hear you

00:30:10.580 say that again

00:30:13.920 this is just a distraction

00:30:19.200 to take out Daniel Smith

00:30:20.840 and reintroduce the, yeah.

00:30:28.160 I, I missed that.

00:30:31.400 All right.

00:30:32.180 He'll have to call back, I guess. 0.99

00:30:33.980 A distraction to take out Danielle Smith.

00:30:36.460 That's the only part I got out of that.

00:30:40.260 Yeah, he's cutting in and out is what John says.

00:30:43.180 And I, yeah, he's probably driving in,

00:30:44.780 you know, near Cremona.

00:30:46.440 I know where that is.

00:30:48.300 Unfortunately, an interesting concept.

00:30:50.340 i wanted to follow up on that he's at this an attempt to take out danielle i

00:30:57.620 now we're playing 4d 5d chess right i i um i don't think that uh that's being played that way okay um

00:31:08.500 so yeah so you know that's the that's the big story this week and um yeah i guess we'll see

00:31:14.660 where it goes um the i really find i really find the uh the sgm special general meeting option

00:31:25.220 interesting i don't know how that functions i i honestly don't know how that functions i mean

00:31:31.380 is it is it somebody who writes uh uh how maybe somebody can call in or maybe uh cory morgan will

00:31:38.740 We'll have to comment on that in this upcoming show.

00:31:41.040 But how do we get a special general meeting convened by the party?

00:31:46.560 Is it a motion that's sent to the premier on behalf?

00:31:50.240 Is it a petition? 0.89

00:31:51.800 Yeah, wouldn't that be silly?

00:31:53.080 Like the way to get a special general meeting is for members to petition?

00:31:58.360 I mean, the part that upsets me the most about all of this, really, honestly,

00:32:01.700 is I spend about 120 hours on the side of the road collecting signatures.

00:32:05.320 Now, a lot of people are mocking me and, you know, being critical of me. I don't care. I mean, you know, I I believed in what I was trying to do. And and this outcome doesn't surprise me. I mean, I did not think that any parties would let us just separate without throwing everything at us.

00:32:25.000 I've said this before, and I don't think we've seen the end of this.

00:32:27.900 I mean, even if we started our own party and won,

00:32:30.640 I still think there's something that they'll do to block us.

00:32:33.500 I don't know what, but there will be obstacles at every step of the way.

00:32:37.880 So, you know, mock me for having a belief

00:32:41.600 and mock me for sitting on the side of the road

00:32:43.860 for 120 hours collecting signatures.

00:32:46.200 That's fine. I don't care.

00:32:47.600 I believe in something and I tried.

00:32:51.280 I'll mock people who don't try.

00:32:53.200 So so mock me for having tried. That's like that's like mocking somebody who tried to start a business and was unsuccessful.

00:33:00.660 I mean, entrepreneurs know actually in life in general, it's it's not our victories that define us.

00:33:08.160 It's our defeats. And when you get defeated and you brush yourself off and you try again, those are the generally the better life lessons and and lead to better outcomes.

00:33:18.960 So if you don't, if you haven't had a lot, a few defeats in life, you're just not trying.

00:33:24.340 So I don't feel bad about having, well, I do feel bad.

00:33:27.540 I mean, I do feel bad that my signatures are sitting in the box, like, and not being counted.

00:33:32.520 If I'd collected them and they were counted and there wasn't enough or some other thing, you know, that I, some other sort of logical outcome, I could live with those consequences.

00:33:43.800 But I have a hard time right now just accepting that some unelected appointed judge just says, you know, that the chief electoral officer screwed up and therefore all these signatures are invalid.

00:33:57.660 Like that's that's that's frustrating to me.

00:34:00.920 All right. What other stories have I got here?

00:34:03.780 A couple of interesting ones.

00:34:08.620 Well, let's go on something light.

00:34:11.040 I mean, I got a whole bunch of stories here, but let's go on something a little bit light.

00:34:15.940 John, do you have a picture?

00:34:17.460 I hate to put John on the spot.

00:34:18.800 I should come in a little bit earlier and get John.

00:34:21.200 Do you have a picture of people returning their census forms, return to sender or all sorts of commentaries?

00:34:28.460 Like there's a there's a weird movement going on.

00:34:32.740 Right. So census, the census form landed in people's homes, I think, on May 4th, started arriving.

00:34:39.420 and then you supposedly have until this week to complete your census it goes on every five years

00:34:46.220 there's two forms there's the there's the uh 75 of us there you go 75 of us i'm speaking from

00:34:54.560 experience i got the short form census so 75 of us get 75 of households get the short form census

00:35:00.940 very basic questions um how many people live in the house their ages and what languages do they

00:35:07.640 still speak kind of thing but then about 25 get a long-form census which is really to me intrusive

00:35:13.760 right like your religion your sexual orientation uh the size of your house uh where you work blah

00:35:20.940 blah blah lots of questions and and then there's been this weird online protest maybe there's been

00:35:26.040 protests like this in the past but i but this one's really strong this year lots of people are

00:35:30.740 taking their census form like that and writing return to senders or i do not consent or i don't

00:35:36.160 whatever and um returning them to uh stats canada and um i i i just think it's funny to uh to see

00:35:46.060 that apparently there's a it's a it's a criminal offense or a civil offense not to complete the

00:35:51.980 census it could be a 500 fine all right caller go ahead where are you calling from name please

00:35:56.620 hey marty it's mike here i'm calling from edmonton hey mike what's on your mind hey

00:36:05.200 first time caller long first time caller long time listener and i'm curious like i was the

00:36:10.540 canvasser like yourself and the biggest question or the biggest reservation that most people had

00:36:17.100 when i spoke to them was uh their pension they were concerned about their pension and i was just

00:36:22.080 curious what was kind of the feedback that you were getting from people out there um the pension

00:36:29.480 came up a lot. Probably the pension was the number one question. And I found that that one

00:36:36.220 was an easy answer. Basically, I always told them, do you know anybody who's retired and spending

00:36:43.180 half the year in Costa Rica and places like that? And everybody seemed to know somebody. And I'm

00:36:47.480 like, well, then that's an example. If you live in Costa Rica, you still collect your pension.

00:36:52.200 So if you live in Alberta, even though you collected it in, you once lived in Canada,

00:36:57.380 nothing's affected there so i i didn't have a hard time with that one um the the one that gave more

00:37:03.300 of a hard time that i couldn't and i couldn't honestly answer it is when people said you know

00:37:08.580 what kind of the uh what kind of constitution will we have what kind of military what kind

00:37:14.380 of currency and those kinds of things and you know um that was a lesson learned right a lot of people

00:37:20.140 can't just make that leap of faith you know they're unhappy and just vote and then and let

00:37:25.300 the chips fall in and we'll we'll define that later because that's the true answer like we'll

00:37:29.760 define our constitution our courts all of that after we win the referendum but for a lot of

00:37:35.520 people they couldn't get past that and they wanted answers so i i guess if we don't do this referendum

00:37:41.540 this time and we have to pause and wait a couple of years maybe and maybe that's the one good thing

00:37:47.380 that comes out of the next couple years right i mean it's uh i i think ultimately the will of

00:37:52.720 people prevails and there will be a referendum and so maybe if we have time to pause we can we

00:37:58.640 can go back to educating people and maybe have some conventions and some conferences where we

00:38:03.520 debate these kinds of ideas but what what did you hear on the trail uh that was the biggest one like

00:38:11.040 the biggest by far was everybody just couldn't wrap their head around the pension thing and like

00:38:17.360 the only other thing that i that i actually you know came across was people that were scared like

00:38:23.280 like they were saying earlier about people were scared to actually sign right yeah and other than

00:38:30.560 that it was it was like everybody with their gotcha moment you know what are we going to do

00:38:35.280 about the airports it's like well bob works at the airport today and we'll just give bob a new shirt

00:38:41.200 and he'll work for us tomorrow you know like it's yeah people are just narrow-minded they just

00:38:46.640 they just couldn't think for themselves i had my funniest comment was one guy said what are you

00:38:51.760 guys going to do about the trans canada highway i'm like i was so off caught off guard i was like

00:38:57.000 i didn't even know what to say i'm like well well if if we need to add that in the negotiation and

00:39:02.560 give ottawa a few bucks for whatever buying the trans canada highway i guess that's what we'll do

00:39:07.180 if not i said we'll but we'll build one alongside it i don't know like yeah yeah uh when people are

00:39:13.340 scared they'll do all sorts of things yeah okay thanks mike thanks for anybody all right have a

00:39:22.680 great day um yeah that's uh that's another thing that happened uh maybe people uh let let me explain

00:39:30.480 that very quickly right so um before the referendum before this whole petition thing like uh you know

00:39:40.300 in 2025, the Alberta Prosperity Project was sort of taking the lead, right?

00:39:46.540 They were the group that was going out there and putting together the documentary, you

00:39:50.920 know, the cost of freedom.

00:39:52.020 What will it look like?

00:39:53.340 And that was their opinion and really good.

00:39:55.620 Very well done, right?

00:39:56.840 So Alberta Prosperity Project was Mitch Sylvester and Jeff Rath and Dennis Modry and a whole

00:40:02.420 bunch of other people.

00:40:03.200 And so they had spent years promoting independence, talking about the problems with

00:40:09.620 confederation and what it could look like so that they were a great website during this weird period

00:40:16.000 during this petition period one of the rules was that um alberta prosperity project had to go

00:40:24.560 dark silent they could no longer be promoting independence because that would be considered

00:40:31.540 interfering like this is ridiculous right so they went dark the website was sort of turned off

00:40:37.800 and then Stay Free Alberta appeared.

00:40:39.960 And people were confused about that, right?

00:40:41.600 But Stay Free Alberta only existed 0.97

00:40:43.480 to help Mitch collect the signatures.

00:40:46.260 Well, now the signature period is done.

00:40:49.940 So Stay Free Alberta is the website that now goes dark.

00:40:52.500 It's done its job

00:40:53.500 and Alberta Prosperity Project reappeared.

00:40:56.360 So I just noticed yesterday and today

00:40:58.500 a couple of tweets online

00:40:59.900 from the Alberta Prosperity Project.

00:41:02.080 So give those guys a follow,

00:41:04.660 join that group

00:41:06.360 And and then hopefully they work on building more of those great documents to help, you know, educate the people to the benefits of an independent Alberta.

00:41:17.700 If you and like and and despite everything that happened, again, thank you, Mitch.

00:41:22.000 Thank you, Jeff. Thanks to all the people who the canvassers who who poured their heart into this.

00:41:27.420 The battle is not over. Go ahead. Caller. Where are you calling from?

00:41:30.220 from edmonton good morning or good afternoon what's your name

00:41:36.480 lori hi lori what's on your mind hi oh i was just wondering i mean obviously i'm as upset as

00:41:46.300 everybody else about the results yesterday but i was just wondering if anybody considered uh carny

00:41:51.800 uh talking about this 30 percent of canadian lands and turned over to what sort of nature

00:41:58.180 preserve i was wondering if anybody else thought that that might be another tactic he's using

00:42:03.300 against separatism um to be honest that's news to me um a little more context is this a recent

00:42:12.420 recent announcement or is this sort of general this is this is this is within the last week

00:42:18.500 he's talking about you know making 30 of when nature whatever that means there's been no

00:42:25.940 details about it or anything yeah that's classic carney right he i mean make big bold announcements

00:42:31.700 with no details and um uh fair question and you know i think you and i are on the same page i

00:42:39.620 don't trust carney i mean like when he makes a statement like that it's almost never with really

00:42:44.500 pure intentions he's got something evil in mind i think we're seeing i i predicted this right i said

00:42:50.100 this a couple of weeks ago i said that after the by-elections when uh when carney secured his

00:42:56.500 majority as small as it as it is he still has a majority i knew we'd see a different carney and

00:43:01.220 he's back to showing his true colors which is uh the guy's uh he he believes in climate change he

00:43:07.140 believes in uh in controlling capital he believes in picking losers and winners and and redistributing

00:43:14.020 money he believes in all those things uh he he was a un envoy he is a member of the world economic

00:43:21.540 forum he's he's just not a good guy i i don't i don't like him i don't trust him and and i'm

00:43:27.460 getting the sense that you're probably on the same page laurie oh absolutely and he was great behind

00:43:33.940 the whole setting up of carbon credits in the first place to look into the history of that

00:43:37.940 Yeah. Well, closer to home, did you see, I mean, there's an announcement supposedly tomorrow on pipelines, but leading up to it, like Danielle Smith and him agreed that they're going to raise the industrial carbon tax to, I think, $130 a ton by 2030. Like that's right around the corner. And that's huge.

00:43:56.780 yeah and and normally i support the things that daniel smith does but in this i think she's

00:44:03.000 absolutely going the wrong direction there is no demand for oil that costs more than everybody else

00:44:09.020 right and that's really all it is yeah yeah no i i drove by the gas pump today and i think it

00:44:15.420 was a buck 89 and i you guys are always a little bit cheaper because you got the refineries nearby

00:44:19.660 but uh um just last question while i got you on the line what do you uh if you're danielle smith 0.98

00:44:29.160 what would you do right now tough one uh well it is a tough one for her because i mean she's sort 0.97

00:44:36.760 of walking a fine line she's got to put the referendum on regardless regardless you know 0.91

00:44:42.780 yeah i mean one of my co-hosts here if she doesn't she

00:44:46.980 no i was just going to say uh cory morgan cory morgan's been talking about this a lot right like

00:44:53.260 cory's pretty sure that if she doesn't do this she's she's starting to uh she's putting a nail

00:44:58.320 in her coffin if she doesn't do this quickly yeah and well yes she is she is because that's

00:45:05.800 not the will of the alberta people no and and welcome to alberta where we um where we often

00:45:11.780 turn on our leaders pretty quickly. There's a lot of history of that, right? Quite a few

00:45:17.060 leaders in the last 20 years have not finished their natural terms. So thanks.

00:45:23.380 That's right. There's just one last point that I want to raise. I want everybody to just remember,

00:45:29.060 and I'm sure you feel this way, but it's not the First Nations people that did this. It's just

00:45:34.500 leaders. They're no more responsible for it than we are for carnies junk. 0.97

00:45:39.060 good point thanks a good reminder you're right and i'm guilty of that i've i've said some very

00:45:45.000 critical things in the past and i should always qualify it and say the first nation chiefs right

00:45:50.540 the and and some of their leaders are good they have elected leaders and then they have some

00:45:55.580 appointed leaders and then they have some i don't know called uh hereditary hereditary yeah um and

00:46:02.860 and and along those lines uh i think you i think it was the western standard here that had a story

00:46:07.920 on that this week how um independence support among first nations is actually particularly

00:46:14.000 high like it's in the 50 60 range kind of thing i saw the figure 46 46 okay okay it could be more

00:46:23.400 than that that was just through one poll of 3 000 people right yeah no that's great yeah awesome

00:46:28.980 okay well thanks for calling lori okay thank you have a great day um all right i'm just gonna keep

00:46:36.840 going down. I got a couple of other, you know, I never get around to international stories.

00:46:42.720 But before I go to a few international stories that I thought were interesting this week,

00:46:46.200 I do want to talk about one other big story that was that happened out east that I thought was

00:46:50.820 absolutely funny. So the Ontario Liberals are looking for a leader. I can't remember. I don't

00:47:00.780 even know who their last leader was uh what was that crazy lady before ford anyways um so the

00:47:07.560 ontario liberals are looking for a leader so they had a um uh and then to be a potential leader of

00:47:15.320 the party there you first have to win a seat so in some places like in some depending on the rules

00:47:20.840 of different uh political parties or whatever you can be a leader without a seat but it sounds like

00:47:26.640 in ontario that you needed to win something anyways there was a there was a or maybe it was

00:47:33.020 just a nomination maybe it was just a leadership nomination or a writing nomination i think that's

00:47:38.500 what it was it was a writing nomination so in a in a in an ontario in the scarborough west

00:47:44.280 writing uh there was a nomination they were trying to choose who's going to be the candidate for that

00:47:50.760 writing in the next provincial election and one of those candidates is somebody who is hoping to be

00:47:55.640 the leader and that's a guy named nate eskier smith and uh he's currently um a federal mp

00:48:06.200 and i knew that we it wasn't a it was a long-standing rumor everybody thought that he

00:48:11.640 was going to take a run at the liberal the provincial liberal leadership so we thought

00:48:17.080 he'd have to step down i was counting on him as one of the guys would have to step down and then

00:48:21.720 and Carney would lose his majority.

00:48:25.160 Okay, he didn't step down the run.

00:48:27.640 He will have to step down if he gets elected.

00:48:30.840 But his dreams and aspirations were crushed on the weekend

00:48:36.040 because he lost the nomination vote by 19 votes.

00:48:41.980 And now he's filing an appeal

00:48:44.440 because he's claiming that there was some irregularities.

00:48:48.200 can you imagine a liberal claiming irregularities in an election okay and i'll come back to that

00:48:56.120 one but or did we lose the yeah there he is did we lose the caller john or okay caller left but

00:49:00.340 so and there was a cute video of him like um well i mean he lost to he lost to a guy who

00:49:08.480 no slouch i mean he lost to a guy who came here as a as a as a student you know a decade ago

00:49:17.360 and did very well for himself.

00:49:19.880 I mean, the guy he lost against

00:49:21.320 owns something like a dozen Domino's Pizza franchises

00:49:25.600 in that neighborhood in Scarborough.

00:49:28.920 And this guy played the game the way liberals played the game.

00:49:32.740 I mean, and he's from the Tamil community, right?

00:49:37.760 From Sri Lanka.

00:49:39.140 And he went around and he gave ballots to people

00:49:42.560 written in Sri Lankan that showed how to vote and whatnot.

00:49:46.200 And he handed them out and he played the game.

00:49:49.580 But I guess they're saying there were some irregularities.

00:49:52.480 Like there was something like 34 more ballots were counted than registered voters.

00:49:59.340 Nate's scrutineers were reporting that, you know, mysteriously, like 80 people showed up and had lost their license and couldn't prove their citizenship, stuff like that.

00:50:12.360 Folks, these are all the rules that the Liberals, federally, provincially, and the left have put in in the last few years, right? 0.52

00:50:21.100 They bring in a bunch of immigrants and they make voting ridiculously easy and they keep lowering the criteria, right?

00:50:29.340 I mean, look at what we just had to, like, let me contrast that to what I just had to do as part of collecting signatures for this petition. 1.00

00:50:37.920 I had to ask people, like, are you a Canadian citizen? Are you an Alberta resident? Are you 18 or over? Please show me your ID. Oh, sorry, your ID doesn't have a physical address. It's only a post office box. I can't accept it.

00:50:52.500 And then here, we're witnessing other places, other provinces where the rules and the guidelines have been lowered so much. And now it's actually come to bite the liberals in the butt. 0.99

00:51:06.400 We'll come back to that. 0.99

00:51:07.500 Go ahead.

00:51:07.860 I got a caller on the line.

00:51:08.820 Where are you calling from and name, please?

00:51:15.100 Hello.

00:51:15.860 Hello.

00:51:16.240 Marty?

00:51:16.680 Yes.

00:51:18.020 Oh, hi.

00:51:18.740 This is Patricia from Edmonton.

00:51:21.020 I have a question about the voting.

00:51:23.900 I don't really understand why there would be a possibility to split the vote provincially if we vote for independence.

00:51:32.260 Would that not invalidate provincial elections?

00:51:42.160 Expand a little.

00:51:43.120 Are you referencing to the comment I just said about vote splitting

00:51:46.640 if we have another separatist party?

00:51:50.200 Yeah, I've heard a lot of people talk about vote splitting because of that.

00:51:54.900 That's exactly what I'm referencing.

00:51:56.580 Okay, okay. So forget about referendums or anything like that. Lots of people have said we should have a separatist party. So call it the Wild Rose Party for now. There's the Wild Rose Party.

00:52:10.940 the danger of the wild of a of a purely separatist party is that it would attract a lot of people

00:52:17.020 that currently vote for danielle smith the vote for the ucp and so the fear is outside of a

00:52:23.260 referendum just at the next election if we have a strong separatist party people are scared that

00:52:28.680 you know the wild rose might get 30 seats the ucp might get 29 and then the ndp get whatever 42 and

00:52:36.420 and then the ndp end up being in power so that's the fear of having just just another party on the

00:52:43.380 right that's the fear and then if that happens if we if we re-elect the ndp forget about uh forget

00:52:50.740 about a referendum because i think like nenshi is so crazy i think if he got into power he would

00:52:57.620 cancel the citizens initiative act and he would reverse a whole bunch of things that that smith

00:53:03.380 has done so we we we cannot afford yeah i i do not want the nvp to win but i i guess i don't know

00:53:12.340 how referendums work because i thought you know this october if we get a referendum then that

00:53:18.820 would just if anybody if everybody says or enough people say yes we want referendum yeah patricia

00:53:28.340 the part is referendums have nothing to do with parties you're right like if we have a referendum

00:53:32.420 it doesn't matter it's just yes or no if there's a referendum that i guess the people from the

00:53:39.040 separatist parties would vote some people from the ucp and the ndp so a referendum is totally

00:53:43.980 separate from a general election totally independent of part okay well okay well thank

00:53:51.060 you very much and i really enjoy your show you're welcome have a great day thanks um

00:53:56.080 yeah i i never um let me backtrack a little bit i mean i there is a path forward to an

00:54:06.780 independence party i think a party could move forward with perhaps some collaboration and make

00:54:13.480 sure that they don't run against each other i don't know there's there's there's a path forward

00:54:18.260 but the more i think about it though at the end of the day i'm not these days i'm not too worried

00:54:23.820 about the NDP right Nenshi right now like when I watch Nenshi on on uh on social media talking

00:54:30.400 about whatever's happening he sounds like he's completely unhinged he sounds a bit like a

00:54:35.760 lunatic he's not making a lot of sense and then um and then people are actually turning on him

00:54:41.840 I've seen I've seen calls right now for uh Rachel Notley to come out of retirement and and you know

00:54:47.480 People want to pull Menchie off the stage and silence him.

00:54:52.460 So that's how bad he is.

00:54:54.360 So for me, at this point, I'm like, well, let him talk. 0.94

00:54:57.180 And I mean, Danielle's got a huge popularity.

00:55:01.040 I'm not her political advisor, but if I was one of her political advisors, maybe now is the time to call a snap election and forget about all of these things.

00:55:11.060 I mean, she wanted a referendum on constitutional questions and things like that.

00:55:16.280 forget about it just just just just call a snap election campaign on those things and uh and and

00:55:23.420 and try and get elected and then go from there i mean that's that's the option i would suggest to

00:55:28.640 her uh a couple more calls hopefully before the time's up time just flies when we're doing this

00:55:33.900 go ahead caller where are you calling from and name please this is john i'm calling to calgary

00:55:38.820 hey john what's on your mind i'm just i'm trying to figure out what our path forward is here i'm

00:55:45.460 looking at all these comments uh some people are saying like think about the referendum once we

00:55:50.440 have it what happens after that's your question like what happens if we have a referendum

00:55:57.400 yeah but let's say the referendum is up and we we win and the answer is yes we want to move well

00:56:04.560 what happened what happened uh well the next morning um we we would do two things the next

00:56:12.540 morning a was we would start to negotiate with ottawa um financially you know what's our share

00:56:21.620 of the debt what's uh how much do we owe you for the prisons that are federal uh the border stations

00:56:28.660 a couple of things so we start negotiating with ottawa uh financially and then the other thing we

00:56:35.400 would have um uh probably probably smith would resign i don't know we'd have another election

00:56:44.040 to choose a new leader going forward and then and then immediately that lead that new leader or or

00:56:50.840 if it's smith i think we'd have to propose something like a constitutional conference

00:56:56.920 and bring together you know scholars and people from government and academics and then start to

00:57:02.900 think about um a new constitution and how we shape the the the country going forward so i i mean we

00:57:11.640 we'd want to think about those things we've been thinking people have been thinking about those

00:57:15.640 things what the what a future alberta looks like in the future but but officially we can't implement

00:57:21.960 any of those things until the people vote on it the day after the referendum so there's a referendum

00:57:27.100 and then after that we start having a whole bunch of discussions and votes on on all the different

00:57:32.340 institutions we need does that make sense because i i think like my main concern is like what if

00:57:38.460 the federal government just says no they can't well it's a it's a valid concern and you're right

00:57:44.220 i mean anything's possible but by according to the clarity act and according to the constitution

00:57:50.660 the way it's written and all sorts of other things uh the federal government can't say no

00:57:55.680 they can drag it out they can be stubborn about the negotiations but they can't just say no

00:58:00.380 well we have to amend the constitution right because like in the clarity act it says an

00:58:05.960 amendment to the constitution of canada would be required for any province just to speak from

00:58:09.820 canada some people think that that amendment is sort of just a matter of um of cleaning up things

00:58:17.180 right like for instance alberta leaves and alberta is no longer part of canada and we've gone on our

00:58:22.900 own the rest of the country still has to amend the constitution because the word alberta still

00:58:27.720 appears right so and we don't care i mean we're gone we're alberta we're our own country and then

00:58:32.480 and then the rest of canada has to clean up their constitution because in the constitution it says

00:58:37.820 whatever alberta gets a certain number of seats in the house of commons alberta is entitled to

00:58:42.160 this alberta gets its share of the equalization you know what i'm saying so then they have to

00:58:46.320 change their their constitution to rebalance everything with alberta gone so i don't think

00:58:51.180 it's a it's not necessarily an amendment to make sure we're allowed to go it's just the clean up

00:58:55.940 on their part that's my interpretation um and the way it's been oh i understand yeah yeah so we'd

00:59:01.460 already be gone at that point okay we're gone and then and then keith wilson and others say that

00:59:06.260 the negotiation written in the law has to happen in good faith and has to happen quickly and and

00:59:11.660 if ottawa says well you know uh we got your receipt we and we're ignoring it we go well

00:59:18.360 that's fine then well i guess you by default you're assuming the airports are ours that kind

00:59:22.300 thing right i mean if they don't negotiate then what are they going to do come back here and say

00:59:27.260 we want that uh uh we want that military base back i'll be like sure take the bricks do whatever you

00:59:33.100 want right so yeah good question thank you for that but uh yeah all right thank you yeah yeah

00:59:38.380 have a great day yeah you too all right cheers um all right john am i allowed to go over by a minute

00:59:47.420 just a minute or two i wanted to i never even got to talking about trump maybe i'll talk about

00:59:53.180 trump's visit to china next week i will talk about that next week but i will just bring up this one

00:59:58.140 story really crazy again john john sorry to put you on the spot but find the uh find the non-bear

01:00:05.660 non-binary transgender indian who was elected to uh the scottish parliament this week

01:00:11.900 just again these are rules and when they make the rules and the rules backfire on them i think it's

01:00:20.360 funny and it's hilarious right so uh scotland had a scott and the uk and by the way a labor party in

01:00:26.760 the uk got absolutely demolished in their recent round of elections uh uh starmer is not resigning

01:00:35.700 but people are calling for his resignation he might resign in the coming weeks we don't know

01:00:40.300 But show this picture. So this this gentleman named Q Manivan and something identifies as a non-binary transgender Indian, and he's in the UK on a temporary student visa, which has like an expiration date of like a couple of years.

01:01:03.000 And he just got elected to the Scottish Parliament. And his term in the Scottish Parliament is four years could be as much as five. And then he gets a £77,000 salary, like $150,000 salary. So like this is the ultimate in exploiting loopholes, right?

01:01:22.200 So Scotland allows, I guess, permanent residents, non-citizens to vote. 0.70

01:01:28.100 And this is the this is the result that opens a can of worms, man. 0.88

01:01:32.140 They're going to have to shut that down.

01:01:33.380 Otherwise, like people have identified a huge loophole.

01:01:36.300 Just come into Scotland on your temporary student visa, run for politics, get elected and get to stay indefinitely and get paid doing it.

01:01:43.860 Like what a fantastic what a fantastic scam.

01:01:48.100 All right.

01:01:48.720 Well, that's about it.

01:01:50.060 The usual sign off.

01:01:51.600 Thanks for calling, folks. Join me again next Thursday. We do this every Thursday at the same time. Please, if you haven't done so already, this is not free. We can't just do this for free.

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01:02:34.340 I think the promo is done, right?

01:02:36.000 That was a promo last week for you missed it or hopefully a bunch of you got the promo.

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01:02:43.460 Cheers.

01:03:06.000 Thank you.

Western Standard - May 17, 2026

MARTY UP NORTH： Alberta independence blocked： What should happen next？

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