Western Standard - MARTY UP NORTH： Alberta independence： Does $400 billion in startup cost pass the smell test？

00:00:00.000 all right welcome back um hey first off notice the changes right

00:00:28.960 it's a little bit different. I'm in the same studio, but our producer, John, rearranged it

00:00:35.060 a little bit. Remember, for the longest time in the background, we had the glass and we had some

00:00:39.440 of the staff working at their desks. Well, now there's a there's a curtain there gives those

00:00:44.160 folks a little bit of privacy. I don't blame them. I mean, you know, when you're working,

00:00:47.420 you don't necessarily want to be on the air. And then the big change for me is I'm looking at you

00:00:54.580 now here but i used to have a computer there and now the computer's on the other side so if i'm if

00:00:59.460 my if i'm pointing a different way once in a while i'm just getting used to it um hey great so welcome

00:01:06.340 back thanks for joining in i see lots of people in the chat already uh familiar names uh maybe a

00:01:12.020 couple of shout outs i see uh spencer from edson there uh good to good to have you join us again

00:01:17.780 i think he's a regular uh every week um and he's saying that they are getting rain in edson and

00:01:24.420 and people are saying they're getting rain in Grand Prairie.

00:01:27.640 Well, we just had, I mean, the humidity right now

00:01:30.660 is pretty high in the studio in Calgary in general.

00:01:34.400 We had what, what do they call it nowadays?

00:01:37.540 An atmospheric river.

00:01:39.540 You know, we used to call that like the Pineapple Express

00:01:41.860 or just a big brainstorm, but like everything else,

00:01:44.900 it has to be renamed.

00:01:47.020 We had a two, I think it was almost

00:01:48.860 a three day atmospheric river, pretty good downpour.

00:01:52.020 Rivers are running high, but not flooding.

00:01:54.420 um the city issued a warning you know stay off the path kind of thing don't go on the river

00:01:59.780 no incidents that's all good but then the rain subsided yesterday and then where i live it was

00:02:05.700 obvious that everybody suddenly decided that they needed to get out and mow their lawns that's the

00:02:11.240 one thing that happens when you get these good rainstorms early on in the season like this

00:02:15.040 my lawn was like this tall kind of thing and the dandelions were just out of control anyways welcome

00:02:21.260 back uh again this is a show about you know there's a theme john put the theme down there i

00:02:27.160 he asked me for a suggestion i i want to start off talking about uh you know as always i mean

00:02:32.800 it's on everybody's mind i want to talk about the referendum a little bit and then more specifically

00:02:36.400 the 400 billion dollar um startup cost that the danielle smith was claiming but before i say that

00:02:44.160 you know again it's a it's a show about you guys i have some ideas of what i want to talk about but

00:02:48.540 basically i'm counting on you folks to call in you got the number down there at the bottom of

00:02:52.900 the screen 1-866-479-WEST and uh we only have one line so if you call uh you might get uh put on

00:03:01.780 hold uh let me know where you're calling from what you want to talk about we'll go from there

00:03:05.640 uh okay so a couple of things uh since last week definitely uh one thing that happened after the

00:03:13.580 show last week last thursday was that danielle officially danielle had officially mentioned that

00:03:20.740 she was going to give us a referendum on a referendum that was a that happened two weeks ago

00:03:25.440 but last thursday i believe it was through an order in council it became official so the order

00:03:33.400 in council um just a one-page document i mean that's one way governments can make sort of

00:03:38.360 rules right they don't always have to pass bills orders and councils yeah basically the the premier

00:03:44.680 or the prime minister somebody can literally take a piece of paper and write something on there and

00:03:49.200 then it becomes a de facto law it's one of their privileges so danielle issued uh an order in

00:03:56.320 council that listed the actual question that we're going to be seeing in october and it's a two-parter

00:04:01.600 It's interesting, right? So not a yes or no vote. Let me read it up here. So it says, option one, Alberta should remain a province of Canada. And option two, the government of Alberta should commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada.

00:04:21.440 so we're going to have a a two-part question you choose a or b i'm definitely telling people choose

00:04:27.840 b even if you're not entirely in favor of separation choose b let's have uh let's have uh

00:04:36.000 that's my opinion choose b right i'm a separatist let's let's not kid ourselves um hey already got

00:04:42.400 a call on the line let's uh let's try and get i think the record now is nine calls in one hour

00:04:46.800 let's try and get uh to ten today so go ahead where are you calling from what's your name please

00:04:51.440 hi my name is sue i'm from beaver county hi sue how are you

00:05:01.520 good good you've called before i think sue haven't we

00:05:11.280 this week i'm a little more comfortable with that i mean last week i had a few things on my notepad

00:05:16.640 but uh today uh i just wanted to talk about uh the pipeline uh that uh we're trying to get here

00:05:24.800 in alberta through the mou um i i got thinking about this and i think you got a pipe but do you

00:05:32.640 have any oil to put in that pipe i haven't seen anyone talk about uh what companies like i worked

00:05:40.800 for almost 30 years and in the business um like you did um so i kind of know what what happened

00:05:47.600 i worked out in the field and and in the office there so get some knowledge but i know that you

00:05:54.000 have to dig the oil from the ground you have to take it to the processing plant and it has to

00:05:58.800 come out the other end and going into a pipeline but so far i haven't heard anybody talking about

00:06:05.040 which plants are all lined up or can they put out more than they're already putting out do we need

00:06:11.040 a new plant to to supply this oil into this pipeline like i'm wondering how this is all

00:06:17.360 supposed to come together uh actually a good question sue it is coming together uh i think

00:06:23.200 it was last week um uh what are they called south bow so so you know trans canada used to own the

00:06:30.640 the keystone pipeline they sold the keystone pipeline to a company called south bow so they

00:06:34.800 spun it off and south bow i think it was last week announced he announced a successful open

00:06:41.500 not open house there's a name for it but they went to the market and asked shippers to commit

00:06:47.540 to 20 year um volume to volumes for the next 20 years and they they they got a successful

00:06:53.820 i'll call it an open house i i don't i think that's the wrong term but maybe it is an open

00:06:59.060 house and um they got they got shippers oil producers to commit to up to a million barrels

00:07:06.640 for for 20 years so there's an appetite for it um you know alberta produces about four and a half

00:07:15.020 million barrels a day and it wouldn't take up a long time to ramp up to five or six million

00:07:19.440 barrels a day i mean the reserves are there the the big sun cores and the cnrls and the

00:07:24.940 novices they can ramp up and and bump up the production

00:07:31.660 are you still on the line okay so uh

00:07:35.580 yeah yeah i'm still here uh so you're saying that all the all various oil plants are going to just

00:07:42.220 ramp up extra production yep and and they're all going to have pipes that connect each plant

00:07:49.580 to the main to a main line that main line will will go out to the brand new tech that we're

00:07:55.820 going to build to the west coast to the west coast to the south yeah yeah there's no there's definitely

00:08:00.860 no shortage of oil and the ability to ramp up i mean and in fact the oil has been ramping up quite

00:08:05.900 nicely year after year after year like it is a bit of a miss um i've been surprised at how much oil

00:08:13.180 we keep producing and how it's been increasing and without pipelines we find all sorts of clever ways

00:08:17.740 what definitely one of the most clever ways we're getting our oil out of the province right now is

00:08:21.500 by rail which is highly inefficient so uh yeah no it's a great question and i'm yeah not worried

00:08:27.580 about that awesome thanks sue okay uh all right thank you all right cheers um yeah uh you know

00:08:38.780 it's the backbone of our economy and uh no it's a good question i mean in the good old days if if uh

00:08:43.660 ramping up production took a little bit longer.

00:08:46.700 You had to drill the wells and tie them in and stuff like that.

00:08:49.580 But now the big, big producers, like I mentioned, Suncor, CNRL,

00:08:53.400 all those producers, they have massive oil sand reserves.

00:08:58.320 And they can keep drilling, keep building steam facilities,

00:09:03.140 keep producing more oil.

00:09:04.460 And then on the back end, bigger processing facilities and stuff like that.

00:09:08.140 But it's all things that the industry has been doing forever and ever.

00:09:12.220 All right. So let's try and get back then, I guess, to what I wanted. So. So, yeah, we're going to have a referendum question. It's a two parter. And everybody's talking about independence. And I'm not surprised that there are now the other side is ramping up the the attacks against us, trying to dissuade people from from voting for independence and trying to keep Alberta in here in Confederation.

00:09:36.660 And one of the biggest attacks we're seeing right now is everybody's I call it, you know, fear mongering.

00:09:41.840 They're giving us all they're trying to give us all sorts of excuses why we should stay.

00:09:48.580 And the most the funniest one, the most interesting one is the one that came out this week.

00:09:53.400 And unfortunately, it came from our own premier, Danielle Smith.

00:09:56.520 I wasn't too happy when Danielle was up on stage and sort of threw out a number. 0.85

00:10:01.160 And she said, you know, it would cost 400 billion dollars in what she calls startup costs. 0.99

00:10:06.980 And she's trying to use that 400 billion dollars as as a scare tactic.

00:10:12.740 And apparently Trevor Toome, who's an economist that believes that the UFC is going to put together a report.

00:10:19.960 I mean, we've got conflicting reports, right?

00:10:21.900 Because so Trevor will put out his report.

00:10:24.680 The Alberta Prosperity Project last year put out their report called The Cost of Freedom,

00:10:29.760 where they outline what they thought it would cost.

00:10:32.440 And I just want to talk about this

00:10:33.880 just sort of at a very high level

00:10:35.400 and maybe get some of you folks' feedback, right?

00:10:38.660 We've said it before all along.

00:10:40.820 If, you know, the day after a successful referendum,

00:10:48.920 we're not independent and doing our own thing.

00:10:52.560 Like the day after a successful referendum,

00:10:55.160 there's a period, there's going to be months,

00:10:57.420 perhaps years where we transitioned to being an independent country and and danielle's right there

00:11:04.700 are startup costs right there are things that ottawa does for us for alberta that in the in the

00:11:12.700 in the years afterwards we would have to take over so for me the biggest one the the most obvious one

00:11:18.700 is um is protecting the border i get that and so the day after you know an independent alberta

00:11:27.420 there's the facilities to protect the border there is no protection right we live on the

00:11:33.480 along the longest undefended border in the world basically but we have to our south

00:11:40.320 six or seven border crossings with the U.S. well what happens the day after that we take over those

00:11:46.360 border crossings we buy the little buildings that are there we staff them with our own people most

00:11:50.980 likely those are all those are guys from the federal government and gals who would come work

00:11:55.440 for us so that's an example right you can't tell me that suddenly taking control of those border

00:12:00.560 crossings it's going to cost billions and then and then after that there'd be additional controls

00:12:05.740 we would need some some security we would need a supposedly perhaps maybe not even would we need

00:12:11.420 border control along the bc alberta border and the saskatchewan alberta border or could we enter

00:12:16.680 into an agreement with the rest of canada saying now if you're a canadian passport and you've been

00:12:21.560 let into the country, then you can cross into Alberta. I mean, why not? The EU does that.

00:12:27.760 If you, once you cross into, let's say France or Germany, you're now on the continent. And after

00:12:34.440 that, you don't keep showing your passport every time you cross, you know, by land into another

00:12:39.400 country. So that's an example. And then what are the other examples that she was saying for $400

00:12:46.120 billion dollars she talked about the courts okay so alberta has its own courts for civil matters

00:12:53.000 and things like that we don't have our own our courts the courts for criminal matters

00:12:58.800 are federal courts but could we not start handling those things in our own courts overnight just

00:13:04.800 just until we set up a criminal court in alberta i mean it's not going to take forever to do that

00:13:10.520 it's not going to cost billions uh policing sure ottawa has the rcmp managing small um you know

00:13:18.840 policing in small towns in alberta again the sheriffs are going to transition to that and

00:13:23.480 then and then we're gonna we're gonna do it ourselves currency everybody talks about the

00:13:28.360 currency oh we're gonna have to print our own currency again there are so many countries around

00:13:34.200 the world that don't even have their own currencies anymore so we could have you know

00:13:37.800 alberta tomorrow morning could continue using the canadian dollar that doesn't matter

00:13:41.720 or we could start adopting the american dollar overnight and then eventually down the road we

00:13:46.440 can start our own currency but also you know i i just like give me your thoughts on that

00:13:53.800 does the 400 billion dollars pass the smell test like that is that is that is that a fear or is

00:14:00.520 that legit that it would cost 400 million i don't think so i mean there's there's there's two

00:14:05.480 extremes there's a 400 billion dollar extreme and then there's like the low 30 billion dollar range

00:14:11.160 even if it's 100 billion or 200 billion dollars we make that up in what we'd make that up in a

00:14:17.160 decade because we are currently sending 20 to 30 billion dollars more to ottawa than we get back in

00:14:23.480 services so 20 or 30 billion dollars a year you do 10 years of that that's 200 billion dollars

00:14:28.440 so you know what i mean that's the that's the reality i i i didn't like that uh i don't like

00:14:34.980 that comment but i certainly look forward to seeing what uh trevor toom puts together as a um

00:14:41.240 as an estimate for startup costs uh well uh speaking of smith and and somebody called in

00:14:49.900 and asked about the pipeline earlier uh suited so smith's in quebec this week um actually kudos

00:14:57.500 to danielle smith she went to for one thing she went to quebec she's at a conference right now

00:15:02.800 and uh she spoke last night and her opening comments almost two and a half minutes of

00:15:09.620 opening comments by her were done in french a bit of broken french i don't she was reading

00:15:14.580 off script i don't think she'd be able to speak french you know uh off the cuff on their own but

00:15:20.700 uh good job premier smith you uh i could understand what you were saying when you were saying it in

00:15:26.000 french um she's there right now i i find the timing again i find the timing of her visit

00:15:34.260 to quebec quite interesting quite revealing i mean of all the places she could have gone right now

00:15:41.460 she's going to quebec and um and she has an excuse right she had an excuse to go to quebec so quebec

00:15:49.040 the uh the coalition avenir quebec the party that's currently in power in quebec had a change

00:15:58.240 of leadership so uh francois legault uh stepped down and they had a leadership race and they

00:16:05.780 elected a new leader and de facto that new lady i don't even know her name becomes the premier of

00:16:10.920 quebec i don't think she'll be the premier of quebec for very long because that party's popularity

00:16:15.980 in the polls is as low as we've seen in three or four years.

00:16:21.020 I think in the, and Quebec has an election in October.

00:16:23.800 So I think that lady will be punted officially

00:16:27.720 and either the liberals in Quebec will take over

00:16:32.080 or even the Bloc, or not the Bloc,

00:16:36.020 the Parti Québécois, the Separatist Party.

00:16:38.980 So, but Danielle is there.

00:16:41.500 The new leader gives her an excuse to go visit there

00:16:44.540 And it gives her an excuse to look like she's extending an olive branch across the country, working with Quebec.

00:16:53.420 And everybody in Quebec is like, rah, rah, suddenly we're in favor of perhaps some oil and gas development.

00:17:00.560 That's the media telling us that.

00:17:02.260 And I'll come back to this.

00:17:03.500 I worked in Quebec doing oil and gas.

00:17:05.140 And there will be no the Quebecers have been convinced by years and years and years of propaganda that oil and gas is killing the planet and they're not going to they'll give her they'll give Danielle a warm welcome.

00:17:20.720 But that's about it. But simultaneously, while Danielle is there in Quebec, so is Carney this week.

00:17:26.480 Right. And so Carney was there yesterday announcing almost 10 billion dollars worth of new funding for Quebec.

00:17:33.600 So I, I, I, I find the optics of that event kind of funny because you've got Danielle who's struggling here, trying to extend an olive branch. We're not getting anything from Carney. And then while she goes there, Carney, um, steal some thunder from her and he's there at the same time, handing out goodies to Quebec. So I found, I found that whole thing quite amusing this week.

00:17:58.160 all right come on folks um you know don't make me talk for 40 minutes uh on my own because i got i

00:18:05.700 do have a list of topics i want to go through but uh i'm gonna run out of topics if somebody

00:18:11.800 doesn't call soon um all right well let's keep going down then i guess or let me see if there's

00:18:17.760 a couple of comments i mean that's something i got to get used to you guys are uh some people

00:18:22.000 like to make john did you see any interesting comments worth flashing up on the screen

00:18:27.180 uh give me a second here i usually scroll through there and see um there's one which one are you

00:18:34.780 highlighting there it doesn't pass this okay actually can you put it on there there it goes

00:18:39.320 it doesn't pass the smell test but even if that was the cost it would be worth it uh 400 billion

00:18:45.760 that's only u.s 280 billion since we have all that stuff already could we just buy alberta for

00:18:51.500 100 billion dollars um by the way yeah so thanks i agree no matter what the um the economics still

00:18:59.640 say we should go on our own because at the end of the day at the end of the day it's a similar

00:19:04.120 argument to you know you're you're we've used the and i've used the analogy i've compared it to uh

00:19:09.320 a marriage you're unhappy in your marriage and you want out do you do you pause and stay in your

00:19:15.440 unhappy marriage because you're afraid that you might have to uh get your own apartment and you

00:19:19.540 know where you're going to get an apartment so i'll come back to that all right caller on the

00:19:23.940 line go ahead please where are you calling from and your name hello hello go ahead yeah this is uh

00:19:37.060 ryan prince here uh is this uh who's my phone in here oh marty is this marty yes it's marty

00:19:45.060 oh sorry marty okay i didn't know you guys just put me right in uh yeah i just wanted to i'm just

00:19:52.160 from south of leftridge here i just want to thank you for coming to leftridge talking with us and uh

00:20:00.060 i want to uh i was here talking about daniel smear and i actually wish she would have done a few

00:20:08.280 things like maybe get the police force in for alberta maybe do the firearm thing you know

00:20:14.100 give an example of true freedom for Albertans but she never did but uh my my question is and

00:20:22.260 I I think you've seen this has to do with the 400 billion dollars but Canada just a couple days ago

00:20:30.900 uh they put out a I think a statement while the global news did uh as Canada faces crippling

00:20:38.540 debt, it must do the unpopular thing and cut elderly benefits. Do you think Alberta could do

00:20:45.560 better? Yes, 100%. I mean, we could do better for seniors and we can do better for retirees. We

00:20:58.180 could do better for a lot of people. I mean, we'd pay one less level of taxes, right? We've talked

00:21:06.280 about this so the the taxes we pay to ottawa now we have to use some of that here but there's a

00:21:12.260 there's a net saving overall uh we have a younger population i mean we're already subsidizing as you

00:21:18.460 mentioned you know the the canada pension plan ei things like that i i plus we we'd have a lower tax

00:21:24.640 rate sue called earlier i mean one of the cornerstones of one of the true advantages of

00:21:30.480 of an independent alberta is is not the status quo it's what we will be able to do right i mean

00:21:36.220 we'll be able to pump up our production and, and, and bring in more revenue.

00:21:40.660 So no, I, um, what, what's your thoughts?

00:21:44.160 I mean, you asked the question, but you.

00:21:45.760 Yeah.

00:21:47.120 Well, I'm, I'm, I'm looking at like, I've been, uh, I'm part of the, the independence

00:21:53.020 of Alberta here and you know, the people have been asking about their pension plans

00:21:58.840 and their benefits and what's going to happen with that.

00:22:02.620 And already, well, you see Canada is actually taking their benefits away,

00:22:09.040 the senior benefit.

00:22:10.200 They're going to start doing that.

00:22:11.900 The next is going to be their pension.

00:22:14.040 It's going to happen if we continue down this path.

00:22:18.920 And that's a perfect example of why we need to get out of Canada.

00:22:25.340 I just wanted to put that out there.

00:22:26.340 No, and stay on the line.

00:22:27.300 Stay on the line because I want to ask you a question.

00:22:28.800 But you're right.

00:22:29.240 I mean, I agree with you, right?

00:22:33.360 Ottawa has an insatiable appetite to spend.

00:22:36.260 There's no end in sight for them.

00:22:38.740 And it's on my list of topics today because we saw some crazy examples of that this week.

00:22:45.640 That story doesn't surprise me.

00:22:47.800 And it's a scary story, right?

00:22:49.160 That they might cut back benefits.

00:22:53.220 I think we all suspect that down the road, they'll increase the retirement age to 67.

00:22:58.180 I mean, they've talked about it in the past. Harper talked about it. Unfortunately, it's a reality. It's going to have to happen. And what else are they eyeing, right? Are they going to come after your RRSP? I think so. I think they're going to come after estate taxes and more things like that.

00:23:14.980 So I've always I was surprised that one of the group that more or less that are staunch supporters of the liberals are seniors, right, are boomers.

00:23:25.580 And I always found it surprising because I think they're on the radar. 0.55

00:23:28.440 I think their boomers are going to get, for lack of a better word, screwed by the liberals at some point.

00:23:35.300 Yes. Oh, yeah. Well, they should be looking at this right now and worrying about what's going on for sure. 0.96

00:23:42.160 And they used to be a big voting demographic, a large number, but they're getting smaller and smaller.

00:23:47.860 And so, yeah.

00:23:49.080 Now, before you go, I just want to ask you a quick question because it was sort of on my list of things to do.

00:23:54.820 A colleague here at the Western Standard has a sign up in Tabor, right?

00:24:01.860 So everybody saw Corey Morgan's pro-independent sign in Tabor.

00:24:05.340 I know it's a little bit, it's not in your neighborhood, but have you seen that?

00:24:09.680 Have you heard about it?

00:24:10.640 have you seen the backlash that's happening yes i well i just seen it on x and uh yeah i uh there

00:24:19.040 was a uh person in taber i think it was it wasn't a counselor but no it was a uh citizen and they

00:24:27.280 put out there that the council in taber should be looking at this and uh they should uh um

00:24:36.400 be respected

00:24:37.720 of all Canadians and they should

00:24:40.780 take this down and 1.00

00:24:42.640 I'm seeing a lot of that with

00:24:44.740 the APP

00:24:46.520 and the different groups they're

00:24:48.680 trying to get like

00:24:50.300 the Rogers Stadium

00:24:51.800 they're trying to get

00:24:54.280 all those too and everybody's

00:24:56.580 denying them and they're just

00:24:58.060 they're throwing everything at this

00:25:00.820 whatever they can to get rid of

00:25:02.820 it right? Yeah and that's an

00:25:04.540 interesting shift right in canadian politics because i mean it's almost like saying um you

00:25:10.080 know if we had a general election by the way this is official now right it's official you're we're

00:25:14.220 going to have a referendum on this question so so groups are allowed to talk about this

00:25:18.280 and it's as if somebody's you know was criticizing one candidate and saying we shouldn't advertise

00:25:22.980 liberal candidates or conservative candidates like it's yeah i'm surprised we've gone this far

00:25:28.600 i i saw that in taber i was just wondering if uh i i saw it online but i was wondering if it was

00:25:33.940 making it you know if it was felt on the street as well yeah well i'm hoping it well it's got a

00:25:40.220 state they should be able to have that that's that's the freedom in canada we're supposed to

00:25:47.100 have freedom in canada that's freedom awesome yeah yeah awesome all right well thanks for calling in

00:25:53.420 yeah thanks for what you do man you're welcome um yeah uh that that i saw that story i to be

00:26:02.760 honest i glanced over it and i kind of thought it was maybe um a false story uh but i'm it probably

00:26:09.460 does have you know everything where there's smoke there's always fire and i think that that is

00:26:14.300 probably something that the liberals are looking at um listen there's no choice i mean they're

00:26:20.300 they're like i said they have an insatiable appetite and they're running out of ways to

00:26:24.160 tax us like we saw it again this week actually we had a great example of that this week um

00:26:31.480 We had Bill C-11, otherwise known as the Netflix tax, right?

00:26:37.800 So this was an attempt by the government to pass on, let me simplify it.

00:26:45.920 The government wanted a piece of the action, right?

00:26:47.660 So you got Netflix, you got YouTube, you got Meta,

00:26:50.040 you got a whole bunch of organizations that are making a lot of money.

00:26:54.220 And the Canadian government simply said, we want a piece of that.

00:26:57.360 We just want a piece of that.

00:26:58.500 And then they they tried to pass it as a crappy law saying, well, you're you're you're producing content that's being watched in Canada and and maybe you should produce more Canadian content.

00:27:13.060 right they hit it that way so but what it was was a money grab but they tried to convince

00:27:18.180 they passed a law through the bill c11 and the canadian crtc i can't remember what it stands for

00:27:24.020 canada radio and television commission or whatever trying to force these companies to to spend a

00:27:29.940 portion of the money to make canadian content and these companies push back they push back and and

00:27:37.140 And all of a sudden, now, yesterday or the day before, Mark Miller, the minister responsible for culture, that's in his portfolio.

00:27:45.240 He kind of reversed the law.

00:27:47.060 Not only did he reverse the law, but now he's basically having to pay those guys, the Netflixes of the world, money.

00:27:54.580 You and I are paying the money to have them stay and keep producing content in the country.

00:27:59.460 You know what I mean?

00:27:59.920 So it backfired on them.

00:28:01.960 not only did the and what they should have done is just cancel the original uh legislation and

00:28:07.720 just say whatever let netflix let the markets decide right if canadians don't like what's on

00:28:13.940 netflix what are they going to do they're going to cancel their netflix subscription like don't

00:28:17.980 don't force the producers the companies to to to make a content that perhaps nobody wants but it

00:28:24.520 was just a money grab and it backfired on them and and it's just another example i mean i i've

00:28:30.500 been basically saying like what has Carney done for the last year not much except reverse a whole

00:28:36.700 bunch of unpopular liberal policies right he's he's reversing this one he reversed the carbon tax

00:28:42.700 he reversed he's reversing immigration I wish we had it I don't want to put John on the spot but

00:28:48.320 I mean Carney who got caught you know he not got caught but he was walking up the stairs in the

00:28:53.460 in the house of commons and some some journalists a couple of journalists you know uh scrummed him

00:28:59.160 and asked him a bunch of questions.

00:29:01.300 And I found his answers absolutely telling and funny

00:29:05.740 and also simultaneously discouraging.

00:29:08.560 I was wondering, like, does anybody not listen

00:29:10.360 to what this guy is saying?

00:29:11.960 Because they asked him about, well, it goes back to,

00:29:15.240 sorry, I'm going all over the place here today.

00:29:17.120 It goes back to one of the other things

00:29:19.120 that happened this week,

00:29:20.020 which is that the Stats Canada published

00:29:25.200 the quarterly gross domestic production numbers

00:29:29.540 and GDP has gone down two quarters in a row.

00:29:31.920 I think GDP has gone down something like

00:29:33.680 six out of the last eight quarters, right?

00:29:36.400 And so technically the Bank of Canada

00:29:39.220 finally had to admit that we're in a technical recession.

00:29:43.040 And all fingers of that technical recession point to Carney

00:29:47.560 and Carney got cornered outside the House of Commons

00:29:51.300 in the stairs.

00:29:52.880 And he basically said, well,

00:29:55.200 um he he tried to brush it off it's not my problem i inherited the problem it's like you

00:30:01.560 inherited the problem but you were advising trudeau you've been advising trudeau before you

00:30:06.000 became the prime minister you've been advising him since 2020 you were once the the the governor of

00:30:11.560 the bank of canada plus all the ministers that you've inherited are still ministers so like who

00:30:16.940 are you going to and and the liberals have been in power for 11 years so who are you going to blame

00:30:20.940 but he found a way to backflip it and blame other people but then i found some of the language

00:30:26.700 interesting like in his language he said something like in his question in his answer he's like we

00:30:32.200 retook control of immigration i'm like you retook control of immigration if you say you retook

00:30:38.220 control then by definition you had lost control he actually i think he even used the words we

00:30:44.700 retook control of of out of control immigration so who'd you regain the control from from your

00:30:52.040 own party and then in the same sentence in the next sentence he said we're curbing our um our

00:30:58.280 spending which had grown by 10 annually 10 annually the government spending is growing by 10 annually 0.95

00:31:05.400 so now carney carney's realizing all these things right the the economy's the shits and he can't 0.92

00:31:10.860 hide behind whatever story he wants. It's coming out. It's coming out. It's coming out. 0.96

00:31:16.280 And he's being put on the spot and he's going to have to do something about it.

00:31:19.800 And he knows what he has to do. But but people are addicted to spending and to getting benefits

00:31:26.660 from the government. And so we're we're not helping. It's it's it's such a mess. It's such

00:31:31.460 a mess. All right, folks, you got the number down there. Last week was such a great show.

00:31:37.200 I think I had like nine calls last week. Let's break that record.

00:31:40.860 uh all right well let me carry on i don't know where do i go do i go alberta or do i stay on

00:31:47.060 federal um let uh let's go let's stay on alberta for or no let's go federal for a second right

00:31:55.800 because all these things are are piling up on uh on carney simultaneously having to reverse a whole

00:32:03.380 bunch of policies one of the policies sort of broadly speaking that carney is reversing

00:32:08.400 is

00:32:09.700 have you noticed

00:32:11.240 has anybody noticed

00:32:12.140 that he softened

00:32:13.060 his attacks

00:32:13.760 against

00:32:14.480 Donald Trump

00:32:16.900 I

00:32:17.880 oh

00:32:18.520 alright

00:32:19.120 saved by the

00:32:20.140 saved by the caller

00:32:21.320 go ahead

00:32:22.640 where are you calling from

00:32:23.800 hey

00:32:25.900 Jess

00:32:26.520 and GP again

00:32:27.420 hey Jess

00:32:28.300 you always save me

00:32:29.540 how are things bud

00:32:30.360 good

00:32:32.120 how are you man

00:32:32.740 yeah

00:32:33.180 is it true

00:32:34.600 you guys are getting

00:32:35.280 the rain we had

00:32:36.200 the other day

00:32:38.400 It's not as bad where I'm at, but I'm south of GP.

00:32:41.820 But up north, they're getting it, yeah.

00:32:43.500 And it's coming.

00:32:44.620 Right on.

00:32:45.300 What's on your mind?

00:32:47.500 Well, you're talking about the technical recession.

00:32:51.540 I had one point that a lot of people seem to forget whenever they're looking at GDP.

00:32:57.780 And if you do a GDP calculation, what most people don't realize is that the government spending is included in the country's GDP.

00:33:08.400 And I don't have the exact fingers figures right here in front of me, but it is substantial.

00:33:14.400 If we remove the government spending out of our GDP here in Canada, they're like 52% or something astronomical.

00:33:24.400 Yeah, I agree. So government spending perhaps shouldn't be in GDP, but it is.

00:33:32.400 I actually, I did a breakdown one time, I think it was last year, I did a quick breakdown of the GDP of the top, you know, 20 countries in the world by broad categories and see which one, you know, what countries sector of their economy made up the biggest number.

00:33:53.660 And it was, you know, and don't quote me, but like France's biggest sector of its economy is food and tourism, let's say.

00:34:00.860 Australia's biggest sector of its economy was mining.

00:34:04.100 American was manufacturing and financials.

00:34:06.780 The British were financials.

00:34:09.060 Italy was manufacturing and so forth and so forth.

00:34:11.660 And then you get to Canada and yeah, the biggest sector of our economy is our government.

00:34:16.840 Like it's government and it's like services that to me don't fundamentally produce.

00:34:22.860 We got it backwards.

00:34:23.980 We totally have it backwards.

00:34:27.300 Yeah.

00:34:27.700 So if anybody wants to do a quick little Google search when you're doing GDP,

00:34:32.900 add the term less government spending, and you'll get the real –

00:34:37.280 it's called the private sector GDP, right?

00:34:39.660 And it's a scary, scary-looking thing, right?

00:34:43.220 And then so just to remind everyone, because I think a lot of people seem to forget,

00:34:49.020 perhaps not all the callers here, but a lot of government employees,

00:34:52.620 seem to fail to realize that that money comes directly from the private sector tax dollars

00:34:59.500 that fund the government.

00:35:02.100 Yeah, I mean, it's recycled dollars, right?

00:35:05.040 Yeah, I didn't know that.

00:35:07.240 Thank you for pointing that out, though.

00:35:08.380 I did not know that you could easily do a private sector GDP.

00:35:13.180 Good to know.

00:35:15.300 Yeah, so for anybody who wants to see the real GDP, check that out,

00:35:18.560 because it's an eye-opening experience, I'll tell you.

00:35:22.620 Yeah. Now, the other problem that the it's an interest is our GDP is going down.

00:35:29.220 And I think that's legit. Now, our GDP per capita is going up because people are leaving the country.

00:35:35.540 Right. And so maybe we'll go back to having a realistic GDP per capita at some point when when everybody leaves.

00:35:45.380 Maybe. Yeah. When all the top one percent leave or the top 10 or whatever that could be.

00:35:50.280 Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Well, thanks. Thanks for bailing me out and calling again. I know you're, you're a brave man. You do it every week. Almost. Cheers, bud.

00:35:59.260 Thanks. Take care. So where was I going? So I was talking about spending and Carney and, oh yeah, I know where it's going to go with this one. So, so Carney is toned down the rhetoric that's aimed at the Americans, right? It served him well. It served him well.

00:36:17.740 He got elected on being on using Trump as a boogeyman.

00:36:21.780 He got elected on that.

00:36:23.780 But down, you know, I have a buddy who just came back from the U.S. this week.

00:36:28.540 He went down to Austin.

00:36:29.980 He just came back.

00:36:30.860 I was in the U.S. late last year and he came back and he's just like, Marty, the U.S. is booming.

00:36:37.160 I'm like, yeah, we all know it, man.

00:36:38.500 Whatever Trump is doing is working right now.

00:36:41.940 The U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders.

00:36:44.480 People generally in the U.S. are generally happy.

00:36:48.880 Like, by the way, when Stats Canada announced that we and the Bank of Canada agreed that we are in a technical recession, we're the only country in the G7 that's in a recession right now.

00:37:03.020 OK, so Carney is doing all these backflips, trying to blame it on other people.

00:37:06.460 But he's blaming certain conditions.

00:37:11.460 Well, if the conditions were universal and were causing depression around the world, then everybody would be in a technical recession, but they're not, right? He's blaming tariffs. If Trump tariffs were causing us to be in a recession, then Trump tariffs should cause Italy and France and Japan and others to be in a recession. But we're the only ones in a recession.

00:37:33.800 So the idea that there's these global forces and somehow or other, they only affect us, that doesn't work. So that's point one. Point two, the American economy is firing on all cylinders. They're going bonkers right now. And so much so, this has happened in the past in the US, right? Remember, maybe some of you don't remember this, but when Ronald Reagan came into power, people didn't like Reagan at first. And it was kind of like Trump.

00:37:58.900 There was a derangement syndrome around Ronald Reagan.

00:38:01.700 He was just an actor.

00:38:02.800 And then Ronald Reagan had these Reaganomics and he was going to reform.

00:38:06.620 Ralph Klein had the same thing.

00:38:07.820 When Ralph Klein in Alberta came in power and he was going to cut costs and do things, people hated him.

00:38:14.540 But at the end of the day, results speak for themselves.

00:38:17.960 So under Reagan, the economy prospered.

00:38:21.240 After a few years, you couldn't hate Klein anymore because all the things that had been predicted didn't happen.

00:38:27.840 the economy didn't melt down it got better and trump's facing the same thing his whatever he's

00:38:33.280 doing is starting to work you can there's there's still people trying to hate him and and the trump

00:38:38.320 derangement syndrome is real but it's wearing thin and wearing off because he's delivering results

00:38:43.680 and what he's doing is working and i think carney has realized that to a certain extent he can't

00:38:48.960 keep playing trump as the boogeyman because what trump's doing is working what carney's doing is

00:38:54.080 not working and and then so and then in that softer tone we saw it this week when um i think

00:39:02.880 it was dominique leblanc but you know we have this this canada usa mexico free trade agreement

00:39:09.440 that is up for it's a con it's complicated right it's not necessarily up for renewal but it's up

00:39:16.000 for review right you get to review it and then after you review it you can decide if you want

00:39:20.640 to renew it or adjust it but step one is some sort of review and we finally extended send a memo to

00:39:29.760 the US saying hey we're interested in reviewing this I mean the deadline for sending the memo

00:39:34.560 was like July 1st if we didn't send the memo on July 1st then I guess automatically something

00:39:41.200 could have happened to the trade I guess it auto renewed or something like that but we flinched

00:39:47.040 first and we extended an olive branch to the U.S. saying, hey, we'd like to review this free trade

00:39:53.360 agreement. Now, simultaneously gets really weird because Donald Trump in the last few months, as

00:40:00.120 successful as he's been, he's had some of his tariffs reversed. And then this week he hit us

00:40:04.920 with this really weird argument around the I call it the the the the sweatshop cheap labor. We'll

00:40:11.960 get back to I got to hold that thought. Go ahead, caller name. Where are you calling from, please?

00:40:17.040 Hi, I'm Deanne Warholme. I'm calling from, well, nearby British.

00:40:25.700 The frustration I'm having is my husband works in the oil corps.

00:40:31.780 He did work in the oil field.

00:40:33.320 He's been laid off since last Christmas.

00:40:36.180 And I just see our oil field just still being battered by that MOU that Danielle signed off on.

00:40:44.800 That's taxing us apparently to death.

00:40:47.040 with more and more carbon taxes. 1.00

00:40:50.080 I think we're being crippled by stupidity. 1.00

00:40:53.600 Yes. 1.00

00:40:55.160 Yeah, and at the very least,

00:40:57.440 and we're being crippled by that,

00:40:58.900 and we're also being crippled.

00:40:59.840 I mean, unfortunately, we are being a bit,

00:41:02.520 the prices are high because of the conflict in Iran.

00:41:07.660 She could give us a break on the fuel taxes

00:41:11.520 and stuff like that, right?

00:41:15.140 Yeah, sorry to hear that.

00:41:17.040 I just know that there's, I have family members, their kids are all moving back home.

00:41:23.420 One of my sons moved in with us.

00:41:26.780 It seems to just be getting worse and worse.

00:41:30.560 Went through with my mom.

00:41:32.480 She just passed away here recently.

00:41:35.040 And dealing with health care, it all seems to be just an evil joke.

00:41:41.960 Yeah, and so, sorry to hear that.

00:41:44.520 so just just for you what would you what what do you see as one of the solutions

00:41:51.560 well one of the biggest solutions is is is independence i don't see another solution

00:41:58.680 because as long as we're tied to ottawa calling the shot i don't see how we get out of anything

00:42:07.160 so a solution is our independence i mean as everybody in my family agrees

00:42:12.760 so trying to find somebody who doesn't agree with me seems to be hard in my family good good so has

00:42:19.320 it changed has the sentiment changed in the last year or uh sort of stayed the same oh it's just

00:42:26.920 increased the more urgency to get out my father's 82 he wants out he like i went through the time

00:42:35.720 where the first Trudeau

00:42:37.480 messed this over

00:42:39.140 and my mortgage

00:42:41.760 was of 11,

00:42:44.160 12, 13 percent

00:42:45.860 interest.

00:42:49.580 We're never going to get better

00:42:51.220 as long as we have

00:42:52.860 Ottawa as our leader.

00:42:57.260 Ottawa

00:42:57.820 is the problem and

00:42:59.180 Daniel Smith isn't helping right now.

00:43:02.560 It's gotten to the point

00:43:03.880 I can't even watch her. She makes

00:43:05.720 me angry okay um yeah well i mean here you're talking to the converted you're preaching pretty

00:43:14.880 much everybody who's listening to the show right now i think is on is on the same page as you i

00:43:19.280 mean i'll add one thing right and i i think it ties in nicely to what the the what i talked about

00:43:24.060 at the start of the show i independence is the way forward but my hope too is that once we're

00:43:29.700 independent like somebody mentioned you know danielle mentioned this 400 billion dollar startup

00:43:34.120 costs. One of the things that many, many, many people brought up after that is like, that's a

00:43:39.240 ridiculous cost. And it also assumes that we would do things the same way as Ottawa. And I hope that

00:43:44.740 an independent Alberta will do something very different, right? We don't want to be a mini

00:43:50.200 Ottawa with the same institutions and all the bureaucracy. We want to be an independent country

00:43:56.520 that does things simply and keeps government small. At the end of the day, I always think

00:44:01.220 The smaller the government, the better.

00:44:02.760 That's it. 0.98

00:44:03.380 Keep government out of people's lives.

00:44:05.900 My son, my youngest son, who's working in the oil field, he's a trucker. 0.77

00:44:12.020 He said, if we had to pay the $400 billion that she's claiming, which is bullshit, but whatever, that she's claiming that what would happen, it'd be worth it. 0.90

00:44:25.040 Yep. Yeah. Well, which was what I was, which is what I was saying to my, you know, when I compare our separation to a divorce, right? How often like some people, you know, will decide that they're unhappy in a marriage and some people will stay. It's too bad. But some people are terribly unhappy and they'll stay. Others will just take a leap and say, I'm unhappy and leave. And how many times I'm sure, you know, people who've been divorced, right? 0.96

00:44:51.660 How many people who've been divorced and made that leap go back four years

00:44:56.060 later and say, boy, I really regret getting divorced. Like, you know, if,

00:45:00.520 if you're unhappy, you're unhappy and you, you make that leap. And, uh,

00:45:03.660 and generally things work out better. Plus I have confidence in Albertans,

00:45:06.840 right? So I, I, I'm on that page. I think I agree with your son,

00:45:10.960 the $400 I'd pay it anyways, the 400 billion,

00:45:14.160 but I think we'll do it way cheaper than that.

00:45:17.040 Oh, I'm sure we will. I don't, I don't,

00:45:19.340 they have to do something because they can't give us a reason to say.

00:45:25.260 We don't have any reasons to say.

00:45:29.200 Yeah, no, exactly.

00:45:30.960 No, all they got is fear.

00:45:34.720 And by the way, I also, thanks for reminding me a couple of things.

00:45:37.560 I mean, we do save a lot of money, right?

00:45:40.240 Think of all the things that Ottawa does that we wouldn't need.

00:45:44.640 Do we need all the things Ottawa has?

00:45:47.160 Do we need a ministry of whatever culture and a ministry?

00:45:51.660 Do we need a Coast Guard?

00:45:52.700 We won't need a Coast Guard. 0.96

00:45:53.720 We won't need a Navy.

00:45:54.760 Think of the money we save right there.

00:45:57.940 Well, but the thing is, we probably have a better Army anyway and Air Force.

00:46:04.380 We would actually fund them.

00:46:06.500 Yes.

00:46:06.960 And give them things like sleeping bags that actually keep them warm.

00:46:10.680 Oh, you saw that story?

00:46:12.000 What a terrible story, eh?

00:46:13.360 What a terrible story. 0.95

00:46:14.320 That's disgusting.

00:46:14.840 Yeah.

00:46:15.280 for for for viewers who didn't see the story the canadian army sleeping bags just one example but

00:46:21.300 a memo went out to uh to to veterans so people who just recently left the army like hey can you

00:46:27.160 bring send back the gear um you know i guess the odd guy kept his sleeping bag or kept that piece

00:46:33.420 of equipment i i i can see how that happens but the army is running out of gear and asking guys

00:46:38.460 to return the gear what a terrible thing what a terrible thanks for calling here about the gucci 0.90

00:46:43.540 gear no the guys who paid for their own helmets and stuff yeah yeah yeah that that's how pathetic 0.60

00:46:53.300 we are as a country we can't even get put some give our our men who are supposed to be protecting

00:47:00.340 us here well they're also paying for their own uh accommodations and meals and places like the

00:47:06.820 The guys that were deployed in Latvia and places like that because, yeah, terrible, terrible, terrible.

00:47:14.260 I think we could do that better in Alberta.

00:47:17.280 I think so, 100%.

00:47:18.800 Absolutely.

00:47:19.660 Thank you for the call.

00:47:20.740 Have a great day.

00:47:21.600 Okay.

00:47:22.300 Bye.

00:47:23.960 Yeah. 0.96

00:47:25.480 Yeah, we won't need a Navy. 0.96

00:47:27.200 We won't need a Coast Guard.

00:47:28.400 We won't need a Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

00:47:31.120 And that that was always one of the ones that I that I worked in the oil patch and I've I've I was on a job one time we're doing a pipeline crossing and then all of a sudden I look over my shoulder and there's this blue truck and it said Department of Fisheries and Oceans on it.

00:47:47.120 You know, I'm up in the middle of the bush by whatever Manning, Alberta or something, and I can't remember what river we were crossing, but technically the river we were crossing was navigable and any navigable river in Alberta or anywhere in Canada.

00:48:01.120 It falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

00:48:05.420 And so some guy had come to witness our pipeline crossing.

00:48:09.200 I thought that was just the most hilarious thing in the world.

00:48:12.820 Okay, a couple of things.

00:48:15.280 I'm always surprised.

00:48:16.500 I mean, you know, sometimes I panic a little bit.

00:48:18.680 I'm like, okay, I got to have something to talk about.

00:48:21.040 There's always something to talk about.

00:48:23.020 It is way better when you guys call.

00:48:24.960 I'll tell you, it's way better.

00:48:26.360 Um, and maybe what I need to do next time is, is sort of lay out a whole bunch of my topics and let you guys know some of the things I'm interested in talking. Maybe that'll spur some, some discussion such as this next topic, right? It's, it's, it's innocent this week, Danielle, um, announced that Alberta is getting a new form of ID, right? It sounds innocent, right? It's, we're getting, um, the driver's licenses are starting July 1st or July 2nd.

00:48:54.360 you have your uh you have your driver's license and then you can put the um alberta health card

00:49:00.200 on it and your citizenship and i think there's some potential things there so maybe maybe maybe

00:49:07.240 we can talk about that but i got a caller on the line so let's take that call go ahead please

00:49:13.080 yeah you can hear me marty you bet okay bud i never know what's the delay whether i'm on

00:49:20.040 or not i don't like to waste my talents anyways uh i've got a few things that i want to bring up

00:49:27.160 and i'd like you to let me just list through them and speak for a bit and then i'd like 0.98

00:49:31.000 you to speak to them sure and danielle smith has come out and claimed 400 billion dollars

00:49:39.800 correct yep okay now the uh uh first of all currency wise everybody got

00:49:47.880 blah blah go digital boom done military not required who the hell's going to attack us

00:49:53.960 right border patrol not required go with an alliance between alberta and uh usa they'll

00:50:00.360 happily help us out there until we can afford our own uh forever group is nothing but uh doom and

00:50:08.040 gloom that's all they act to us and uh they they they talk as though what do you think is going to

00:50:15.400 happen we're going to do this we're going to do that well we talk as though they're the only ones

00:50:19.240 got a rock to throw and a slingshot so if they get it get rough and grass with that we close our

00:50:25.640 border phone into the trucking cross problem we shut off the the pipelines and gas lines boom

00:50:31.880 everybody's going to start crying and i think the aggression is going to stop immediately yep

00:50:37.800 so the border closes your two-way street if negotiations go to aggression and shut down

00:50:44.200 shut down the airflow is what i just said would not not uh if the negotiations we feel are not in

00:50:50.520 good faith we could shut it down state so and declare uh sovereignty immediately all of this

00:50:59.880 they have to remember is one phone call to trump and we'll have f-35s overhead of alberta in about

00:51:06.040 five minutes and the bullshitt will stop right there so you don't don't don't get threatening

00:51:12.040 people you're gonna who cares if we lose our canadian passport we're trying to get away from

00:51:15.800 that anyways anyway i throw it a lot out of there but the last thing you got to say is i've called

00:51:20.840 five times and 7-1-1 put me through to some john uh his his call line it defaulted to to this guy

00:51:29.320 answers with voicemails john i've called two or three points of your of your uh organization and

00:51:36.200 told them marty's dying online because people can't get through get a hold and get this thing

00:51:40.680 changed you need to check and make sure your numbers are correct yeah well the way i got

00:51:45.400 through this they listen the way i get through this time was i dialed the number and before the

00:51:50.840 lady even get started talking i hit 7-1-1 and i get in yeah you're losing you're dying out there

00:51:58.040 you're dying out there from lack of uh callers calling in i think part of it's your system

00:52:02.520 thanks thanks for that well uh john is the producer so yeah he heard you and we're working

00:52:07.400 on that i think we'll have thanks for reminding we'll make it clear you have to call the number

00:52:11.480 and do extension 711 but john the john you're talking about is in studio with me right now

00:52:16.440 appreciate the call um and if you hang up and i'll i'll just talk to what you just said appreciate

00:52:21.800 it thank you um yeah you know it's a good reminder you know i i wanted to talk about this a little

00:52:29.560 bit more but let's let's just finish it this set the 400 billion dollars yes forget about the 400

00:52:37.800 billion when we the the next day like i said let's rethink right like the caller just said let's

00:52:43.480 rethink do we need all these things right everybody's automatically assuming that just

00:52:47.880 because we already have something that's provided by ottawa that we need to continue doing that no

00:52:52.520 maybe we don't right embassies was another one that somebody mentioned like do we need embassies

00:52:57.880 I mean, do we need, does Alberta need an embassy in every country around the world?

00:53:04.640 I mean, you can, same thing, you can partner up, look at your passport, actually open your

00:53:08.420 passport right now. If you have a passport and you open your passport, it says right in your

00:53:12.480 passport that if you can't reach a Canadian embassy and you're in trouble, go to a British

00:53:17.420 embassy. We could do the same thing. Alberta could say, have an agreement. And if you can't reach,

00:53:22.880 Maybe Canada will be mad at us and they won't want to assist us.

00:53:26.640 That's fine.

00:53:27.380 Then we reach an agreement with the Americans and it just says in your passport,

00:53:30.760 if you're in trouble somewhere around the world and you're in Albertan

00:53:33.560 and you can't find an Alberta embassy, go visit an American embassy, right?

00:53:38.060 Just the point is we just need to rethink about all of this.

00:53:41.660 I don't want to, the starting point for me, the day after independence

00:53:45.820 is not to duplicate everything we currently do in Canada.

00:53:51.140 And I agree on the on the digital currency and things like that.

00:53:54.700 Maybe maybe it's time to think differently.

00:53:56.980 So speaking of digital currency, so let's just finish.

00:53:59.320 I'm running out of time.

00:54:00.780 Maybe we'll bring it up next week.

00:54:02.100 But, you know, the idea, the idea sounds good on paper.

00:54:08.340 I'm OK, perhaps, with your driver's license having your Alberta health number.

00:54:13.760 Right. Who who here doesn't have a ratty old Alberta health card that's been you know, we're still using paper in Alberta.

00:54:21.140 So adding the number there, maybe, but part of me in this day and age also worries that the more of these things that I put on one card, like I start to get nervous about having one card.

00:54:34.280 And on that one card is my driver's license and my hunting permit and my gun permit and my passport and my Alberta health, right?

00:54:42.440 We're going to that digital ID, which starts to make me nervous.

00:54:46.400 and and and the one in particular that kind of makes me nervous is putting the citizenship on

00:54:52.440 there right and that sounds simple enough like uh your show your driver's license that it'll have

00:54:57.800 your citizenship but it's already problematic that some people associate a driver's license with a

00:55:02.820 with a citizenship it's not like anybody who comes to alberta even a even a temporary foreign

00:55:10.340 worker can go and get a driver's license like it's not it's you don't need to be a canadian

00:55:15.400 citizen to get a driver's license and so i worry about that one that suddenly the driver's license

00:55:20.540 will kind of be equated as the equivalent of a passport and uh and and will be but more importantly

00:55:27.100 for me it's the fact that we're we're putting everything on one piece of of id the digital id

00:55:32.320 thing starts to really really really scare me personally but that's that that's me um what

00:55:38.100 other comments we got here any uh i don't see anything crazy all right well let me go down i

00:55:44.720 I got a couple of I actually I went so fast.

00:55:48.560 I forgot one thing I want.

00:55:49.900 I wanted to I was happy this week.

00:55:54.400 Our neighbors.

00:55:56.060 I always consider me personally.

00:55:58.960 I always consider Saskatchewan to be like cousins, almost brothers.

00:56:02.460 Right.

00:56:02.800 Like the Americans are my cousins, people in Montana, North Dakota, whatever.

00:56:07.240 I consider them my cousins.

00:56:08.380 I consider people in Saskatchewan my brothers.

00:56:10.660 I don't always say I don't I have a hard time saying the same thing about people in BC. I find that I don't share a lot in common with BC, perhaps it's because of the last 1015 years in BC with their NDP and Liberal governments. But I was very happy that this weekend, BC elected a pretty solid conservative leader. So congratulations to Carrie Lynn Finley. And, you know,

00:56:40.660 She won on the fourth ballot. 0.92

00:56:43.640 So it was a tight race. 0.97

00:56:45.660 What was the other lady's name? 1.00

00:56:46.780 Carolyn Elliott.

00:56:47.840 So anyways, I won't lie.

00:56:51.020 I was incredibly disappointed in John Rustad.

00:56:54.980 I had met John Rustad here about a year ago and maybe more than a year ago, maybe a year

00:57:01.520 and a half ago.

00:57:02.380 And I thought even at that time, OK, he might be OK as a conservative leader.

00:57:06.740 But, you know, the party imploded around him. 0.55

00:57:10.900 Hopefully, Carrie Lynn can carry the party and reunite the party and make a good, strong showing at the next election.

00:57:21.320 I definitely think EB is on his way out.

00:57:23.440 If if BC reelects an NDP government, I won't I'll I'll give up on you guys.

00:57:29.680 I won't know what to what to say about that.

00:57:34.200 Oh, God. What else was I going to say?

00:57:36.280 Well, I was going to talk about the Canada Post strike, but that's probably pretty minor.

00:57:41.980 But just for people who didn't know that, actually, Canada Post had been on strike for two years.

00:57:47.140 I think we'd all forgotten about it, right?

00:57:49.020 So Canada Post actually resolved its dispute with its union.

00:57:55.480 But I think that's the union finally realizing that they're working for a dying organization.

00:58:01.560 I mean, Canada Post lost $2.1 billion last year.

00:58:04.840 So you're fighting for benefits in a dying organization.

00:58:09.020 And I think the union finally saw the light.

00:58:13.600 I'm reading a comment going by Marty.

00:58:15.660 Do you think it's possible to do both, get rid of Smith and, oh, that's what, and get a vote in October?

00:58:24.880 Good reminder.

00:58:26.040 Good reminder, right?

00:58:28.580 Yesterday, so there's been a push.

00:58:31.320 There's been a push to get people to buy their conservative UCP memberships.

00:58:36.420 You know, there's a push to try and take over more constituency associations and perhaps get a special general meeting.

00:58:43.700 I don't know how successful that's going to be.

00:58:46.080 I kind of think that that's the wrong approach in the short term.

00:58:50.840 I think the focus should be on educating people and trying to get a legitimate vote in October for a second referendum.

00:59:00.240 But that said, do get your conservative membership. And just this week, the official notice of the annual general meeting came out. So the UCP put it out. So the annual general meeting is, oh God, I don't even have the dates.

00:59:17.340 I think it's at the, I think it's very early November here in Calgary at the BMO center this

00:59:22.960 year. So you need to have your membership, I think before, uh, October 6th or November 6th,

00:59:30.360 like you need your membership a couple of days, a month before the AGM to qualify, to vote at the

00:59:35.380 AGM. Anyways, long story short, get your UCP membership and go to the AGM. It's an amazing

00:59:42.160 event they're always fun um there it is one of the biggest conservative events you'll see in the

00:59:48.640 country i mean two years ago we had 5200 people in red deer last year was a little more subdued

00:59:53.640 only 4 000 people in uh edmonton i think this year we'll be back to a five six thousand people

00:59:59.100 in calgary and if you get your membership and you get your agm uh ticket right now there's an early

01:00:06.560 bird price for tickets uh right i think probably for all of june like if you get it before the end

01:00:11.880 of June it's 139 bucks 179 bucks if you bought why do I know these things I I sound like I'm

01:00:18.420 promoting the UCP I'm not I'm just a freak who likes to go to these things and I pay attention

01:00:23.560 to these kinds of things so get your if you've never participated in democracy that's one great

01:00:29.580 way to participate come to the annual UCP membership or AGM John's giving me the signal

01:00:35.780 we're running out of time uh folks again thanks for joining me join me again next week um or an

01:00:43.460 organization like this the western standard does not work on uh charity we do uh appreciate people

01:00:51.400 getting memberships so that we can bring you content like this this costs all these little

01:00:55.900 changes to the studio they look small but they they cost a few bucks people want us to get our

01:01:01.040 better um uh switchboard so that costs a few bucks so they're on the screen westernstandard.news

01:01:07.740 subscription ten dollars a month hundred dollars a year and they're running a promo right now if

01:01:13.780 you get a new membership right now i think you'll get a either a discount or a free uh item from the

01:01:19.760 merchandising store i saw last week we talked about it the for me the the ralph klein uh coffee

01:01:27.120 mug is my absolute favorite i need it on my desk next week for my coffee and uh thanks for joining

01:01:33.980 folks we'll see you next week same time cheers

01:01:57.120 Amen.

Western Standard - June 07, 2026

MARTY UP NORTH： Alberta independence： Does $400 billion in startup cost pass the smell test？

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