Western Standard - MARTY UP NORTH： Alberta Prosperity Project continues to be harassed by Elections Alberta

00:00:00.000 all right we're live um well i can hear myself uh josh maybe uh yeah it's all good perfect

00:00:29.560 All right, folks, welcome back. Thanks for joining me and the Western Standard on Thursdays. Hey, we're going to have a lot to talk about. I mean, I was trying to think on the way here, what am I going to focus on? As I've said before, it's your show, right? I want you to call in and tell me what you want to talk about.

00:00:49.980 We always take a crack at what might be the topic of the day right there up top.

00:00:55.780 I don't know if you see it, but I see it.

00:00:57.260 You know, Alberta Prosperity Project continues to be harassed by Elections Alberta.

00:01:01.880 I think we're going to talk about that.

00:01:03.220 Danielle Smith just, just, just finished a press conference.

00:01:07.980 We'll talk about that a little bit.

00:01:10.060 But before we get too far, just, you know, I'm laughing a little bit.

00:01:15.280 I was going to start this show by saying, hey, guess what?

00:01:17.880 I'm out of jail.

00:01:18.740 and some of you will get the joke others won't get the joke but let me tell you what happened

00:01:24.540 this weekend or a couple of days ago I was on the side of the road I'm canvassing and then somebody

00:01:29.500 came to me and said hey I heard you were in jail and I was like wondering what was going on

00:01:35.140 and then then I got phone calls I even got a phone call from from the guys here at the Western

00:01:40.660 Standard I got a phone call from a lawyer and turns out that somebody put out a satire piece

00:01:48.000 saying that marty and uh an influencer uh in the separatist movement had been um arrested by

00:01:55.100 by whatever by the rcmp uh it turns out it was a it was satire it was by a group called uh i believe

00:02:03.000 they're called the satire squad or something like that and and it caught a lot of people off guard

00:02:08.000 and and people believed it which is which is kind of a reflection i think of the world we live in

00:02:15.820 Right. Because stories that in the past were exaggerated and people would have immediately says that's that's exaggerated.

00:02:21.980 That makes no sense. Nowadays, you can come up with some pretty exaggerated stories and people believe it because the line between parody and satire and the real world that we live in is is is is getting blurred.

00:02:36.400 right we uh we have lots and i've been caught myself i've what i've had i remember there used

00:02:41.840 to be uh when jagmeet singh was still the the leader of the ndp and in parliament there was a

00:02:48.320 jagmeet singh impersonator on x an account and he used to put out posts and sometimes i'd read it

00:02:56.160 and i'd just get mad because it literally sounded like something jagmeet would say you know and then

00:03:02.080 And then I'd look and go, oh, okay, it's satire.

00:03:04.760 Anyway, so I'm well, I appreciate.

00:03:06.800 But I will do say this, though.

00:03:09.300 Some satire sometimes goes a little bit too far.

00:03:12.760 This one didn't, but it did to the people who perpetrated this.

00:03:16.460 It did create a little bit of grief, right?

00:03:19.780 I kind of knew that it was a joke because obviously I'm not arrested.

00:03:23.400 But when people were calling my wife and asking if Marty's okay,

00:03:26.460 you did create a little bit of stress there.

00:03:28.780 And I had friends worried about me.

00:03:31.480 so you know be be be wary of that that your satire can go just a little bit too far once in a while

00:03:38.440 um where do we start uh well let's let's go with the prosperity project let actually let me let me

00:03:45.000 finish on on that thought real quick right so me personally i handed in my canvasser badge uh

00:03:51.640 yesterday um not not for political reasons it's truly uh i i'm done canvassing the canvassing

00:03:58.520 period is officially over on may 2nd and by law the collection the signatures have to be collected

00:04:05.840 aggregated and deposited with elections alberta on may 2nd so that's the law now may 2nd happens

00:04:13.460 to be a saturday so uh elections alberta and chatting with mitch sylvester the proponent

00:04:18.220 they've agreed that mitch can deliver the signatures on monday may 4th so hopefully

00:04:22.860 And I think Mitch is planning a big event when he delivers the signatures, wherever that is, the Office of Elections Alberta in Edmonton.

00:04:32.320 I'm sure he'll show the signatures physically to everybody, see what it looks like.

00:04:36.760 He'll reveal what his number is.

00:04:39.520 And as you guys know, there's a stay.

00:04:42.000 Elections Alberta will take possession of the signatures, but they can't count them and validate them.

00:04:47.180 so because the signatures had to be can only be collected until the second and have to be brought

00:04:52.160 up north uh there's been a decision internally to stop collecting signatures around you know

00:04:57.100 april 26 27 which is just around the corner and me personally um i can't do i couldn't collect

00:05:04.320 today and i can't collect this weekend because it's the end of the semester and i got kids to

00:05:07.720 move around on campus and stuff like that so uh it was a bittersweet moment for me uh i'm done

00:05:13.200 collecting signatures it was an it was an incredible experience otherwise for me I collected

00:05:19.080 between my wife and I we collected 1400 signatures I had a goal of a thousand but when I set myself

00:05:26.140 a goal of a thousand I thought I was going to be alone collecting signatures but it turns out that

00:05:29.960 I could you know gathered the little group and we had people I always had people I was never alone

00:05:34.420 which was fantastic and when we were collecting signatures we'd take turns writing them down

00:05:40.340 So basically, we got 1400 between me and my wife, which is almost 1% of the minimum necessary for the threshold, like if you think about it, and it allowed me to meet hundreds and hundreds of fellow Albertans to have some great chats, it prepared me better for the next phase of this independence fight.

00:06:01.440 um and and so yeah it's just it's just an end of a phase um the next phase is the next phase

00:06:11.460 will be to be determined in a couple uh you know in a couple of weeks from now we'll see what

00:06:15.980 happens with uh the injunction we'll see what happens with the signatures but if all goes well

00:06:20.780 if all goes well according to plan um and there's enough signature there will be a referendum on

00:06:28.480 October 19th and so if I go backwards from October 19th and there's a campaign period of let's say

00:06:33.520 45 days that means that somewhere between now and let's say August 1st the premier will have

00:06:43.280 to declare a referendum on independence and then there'll be an official campaign but there's a

00:06:49.160 period now after between May 2nd and let's say August 1st in the future there's a period where

00:06:57.300 there's no campaigning going on. But groups are allowed to advertise, to talk about independence,

00:07:06.480 to talk about the benefits, right? And that's what Alberta Prosperity used to do, right? That's what

00:07:10.720 Alberta Prosperity has been doing for three years now, is talking about independence, educating

00:07:16.400 people. Now, during this phase, while we're collecting signatures, Alberta Prosperity has

00:07:21.760 had to be quiet because if they weren't it'd be kind of deemed as interfering during a a process

00:07:28.720 similar to an election and that's not enough for elections alberta and i know and i got to be

00:07:34.840 careful here because elections alberta is feeling like they're being villainized by social media and

00:07:41.760 by independent media and so they're they've put us on warning not to be too critical of them well

00:07:47.280 I'm sorry, folks, but Elections Alberta is supposed to be a completely impartial, unbiased

00:07:53.640 organization that supervises elections, counts votes, supervises recalls and citizens initiatives

00:08:01.080 and petitions and things like that. And they're supposed to be impartial. And they don't like the

00:08:05.040 fact that we're questioning their impartiality. Well, the reason we're questioning their

00:08:08.920 impartiality is because of a whole bunch of things that they've done lately. And so right now,

00:08:14.500 um the alberta uh the elections alberta is i don't know how to describe it but they're they're

00:08:21.700 they're also trying to place an injunction on the injunction and they're trying to muscle their way

00:08:28.660 and they're into the into the courts and they're trying to get the courts to order an audit of

00:08:35.140 uh alberta prosperity project you see what i'm talking about so it's getting super super super

00:08:40.100 complicated and to me it's getting uh some people are saying that it's just democracy and that um

00:08:47.300 you know they're making sure that groups are being transparent i'm like hey i'm i'm all for that i'm

00:08:52.500 a hundred percent in favor of absolute transparency when it comes to everyone i want corporations to

00:08:58.180 disclose their financials i want first nations to disclose their financials i'd sure love nothing

00:09:03.540 more than governments to be completely transparent about it and i'm okay with groups like what are

00:09:08.980 are called third-party advertisers i'm okay with them having to disclose their financials but right

00:09:14.740 now lately i see a lot of um a lot of harassment aimed at some groups in particular and i see some

00:09:21.660 double standards because the group on the other side of the aisle that you know thomas lukasic's

00:09:26.960 group i don't see them being in the news and being asked to disclose their financials and stuff like

00:09:32.340 that and there's a group that i'd sure like to uh to know more about their financials anyways that's

00:09:37.560 that you know i think i'll leave it at that um reminder folks please call in right it's it is it

00:09:43.640 is a show that uh we're trying to make this a call-in show uh you see the number there on the

00:09:48.520 bottom 866-479-9378 don't be shy uh i am just uh just an average joe i'm not uh i'm not i don't

00:09:57.760 bite um so all right what else well okay so let's let's keep talking so uh danielle just had a press

00:10:05.260 conference uh at 11 45 about uh what time is it now 11 that's about an hour and a half ago wow

00:10:12.080 time flies and um the the the the headline of uh josh do you have a a headline of the press

00:10:20.700 conference i think it was literally labeled um she was going to give an update on uh on um on the

00:10:27.940 petitions. And basically, here's what I heard. So she announced, let me paraphrase, let me

00:10:36.740 paraphrase what I heard. Danielle Smith told the province today that by all accounts, her data

00:10:45.780 shows that immigration is out of control and causing problems. And she has evidence to show 0.99

00:10:51.340 that. And I think we all know that. We all know what's happened to the price of housing and things

00:10:55.620 like that so she has evidence that shows that immigration is out of control she has she has

00:11:00.040 evidence that shows that uh mark carney and ottawa are interfering in alberta affairs and are

00:11:07.900 overstepping their mandate so she has evidence like uh carney um um you know setting up programs

00:11:16.880 that affect infrastructure and and and things like that so he's interfering in our affairs so

00:11:23.180 she has that evidence uh she has evidence that uh that the agreement between the provinces is

00:11:29.820 broken that we don't have a fair representation so she has evidence on her own and then she heard

00:11:35.860 from uh the membership at the agm last year and the year before that we're upset about those

00:11:42.460 things so she heard it there then she created a panel called the alberta next panel and she heard

00:11:48.160 and so she toured the province last year went to about seven town halls plus had these meetings

00:11:53.440 online and published a report afterwards so she heard clearly during those meetings that

00:12:00.320 immigration doesn't work there's problems between ottawa and and alberta and then she heard um

00:12:07.500 and then she started implementing solutions okay i'm going to pause there on the things she heard

00:12:13.200 but i got a caller on the line so i definitely want to go to the caller please uh reminder uh

00:12:17.480 let me know your name where you're calling from and what you want to chat about go ahead please

00:12:26.680 hello oh go ahead okay i can hear you now okay

00:12:33.480 go ahead am i on hold no no you're on the line

00:12:39.000 oh okay sorry sir um this is david calling from february ontario oh okay hi david

00:12:47.480 Hi, I just had a quick question. So once Alberta separates, for the normal people in Ontario,

00:12:54.540 is there going to be a temporary foreign worker program?

00:13:00.180 Well, I'd say short answer, no. But what's the context of your question?

00:13:09.540 Are you being really serious or are you being funny?

00:13:13.180 no no actually being serious like we're my fiance and i were we're young uh we would like to move

00:13:22.160 over uh we're just kind of holding our breath yeah kind of what happened first okay okay um

00:13:29.580 because then even in northern ontario it's like the cost of living the crazy yeah yeah no great

00:13:34.320 okay cool so you're you're probably so you're an ally so i mean in a perfect world i would

00:13:38.820 encourage you like a lot of other people have done lately is just to come to alberta and be

00:13:42.660 part of this exciting movement and and even if we fail at at uh at becoming an independent country

00:13:48.240 if you're like-minded and you want to just improve your life you should come to alberta like we

00:13:52.220 welcome people that are coming here to help us build that said if those are the skills you have

00:13:58.240 and that's the attitude that you have i would say in the future in an independent alberta you

00:14:03.300 wouldn't need to apply for a temporary foreign worker you'd just apply to to to immigrate here

00:14:08.620 and and we'd welcome you here so that's like i think hard-working like-minded canadians

00:14:15.580 uh who want to come here now or in the future should do so and shouldn't worry about independence

00:14:21.100 is that does that help is that answer okay oh yeah we're absolutely allies over here i think

00:14:26.780 there's more normal people in in ontario than uh you get credit for so if you and the slide

00:14:33.180 ended up doing some on the street interviews i would uh definitely come to northern ontario on

00:14:38.620 your way cool yeah yeah you're referring to the show we did the other day i i i if i for proper

00:14:44.940 content i don't want to do man on the street interviews in northern ontario i want to do man

00:14:48.700 interviews man on the street interviews in uh downtown toronto and see just how crazy that

00:14:53.580 toronto city landscape is awesome all right well thanks for calling from sudbury what's that

00:15:00.460 you might need a translator app when you're down there that's a good one all right thanks david

00:15:07.580 take care um so so back to what i was saying about danielle so she knows the problem it's

00:15:14.140 been identified we've told her we agree with the problem she already knows part of the solution too

00:15:18.700 right so she's identified the solutions to out of control immigration uh she started implementing

00:15:24.220 some of the solutions to the problem she's identified whether it's bill 25 26 or number

00:15:29.260 i think it's bill 30 addresses immigration so she had she knows the solution she knows the problem

00:15:34.480 she she and she so now she's saying she needs a better mandate and i and again i find that so

00:15:41.540 fascinating because she's elected she has a majority which as far as i'm concerned is a

00:15:46.980 mandate a government doesn't need to get a mandate in the vote all the time during their term the

00:15:52.260 government has a mandate if they have a majority so bring up your solutions in the legislature

00:15:56.460 debate them and then pass the necessary laws so you have the mandate but despite having heard all

00:16:02.940 of these things she still wants to have a referendum on October 19th where she will ask

00:16:09.320 a bunch of questions to make sure she gets a mandate and and as far as I'm concerned

00:16:16.380 she should if she's that she doesn't need this referendum to get a mandate on immigration 0.98

00:16:22.460 but if she wants one then she should wait until her next election because referendums as far as

00:16:29.040 I'm concerned should be reserved to the citizens it should be up to the citizens to demand referendum

00:16:33.540 not up to the government so that's my thought so when I saw that today as far as I'm concerned I

00:16:39.240 just saw an announcement by Danielle Smith introducing a new website where you're going

00:16:43.180 to have more information we'll see what's on there if it's useful but as far as I'm concerned

00:16:47.060 she's kicking the can down the street on solving real problems that exist today you don't need

00:16:52.900 sorry madam premier but you don't need a mandate from from albertans you heard us loud and clear

00:16:58.180 keep working on getting control of immigration and and solving those kinds of problems all right

00:17:04.660 we've got another caller on the line go ahead please where are you calling from name and where

00:17:08.020 where are you calling from hey it's alan from calgary cool alan how are you good how you doing

00:17:15.180 i was watching you last night and uh i i actually was getting frustrated about the same things uh

00:17:21.620 as you were like it was question after question about you know the federal government and it's

00:17:26.040 like you know i i agree completely i i just don't get two f's and the only thing i have anxiety

00:17:34.720 about what's going on is uh i guess this this deal with the states and like uh they were talking

00:17:41.040 about um i guess the cats and die uh industry um and i mean all the manufacturing actually in

00:17:49.360 in alberta as well and what kind of damage that's going to happen and that's going to be right

00:17:54.080 around the same time as as our independence vote maybe depending on how they're going to

00:17:59.760 um uh what they're gonna do with it um i guess it's not really a question i guess it's like

00:18:08.600 some anxiety no it's uh thank you so yeah we uh so people who didn't watch my show last night

00:18:15.860 so i do different shows right so i was i was i was doing a show last night and i was asking

00:18:20.100 callers to call in and the people who were calling in were mostly complaining about stuff that's going

00:18:24.640 on in ottawa and i got i i i got short tempered because i keep people keep asking the same

00:18:32.380 questions how can we how can we change ottawa but how can we change what's going on in ottawa

00:18:37.140 and i'm like you can't you can't like we can't we're watching we're watching the destruction

00:18:42.760 of canada in slow motion from afar and we don't control what's going on in ottawa and that and i

00:18:49.240 And I think the frustration is finally surfacing and becoming clear to some people.

00:18:54.720 We're not going to vote our way out of this, and we don't control what's going on in Ottawa.

00:18:58.260 Sorry, Josh, did the caller hang up, Alan?

00:19:03.060 Yeah, he did.

00:19:04.360 Okay.

00:19:05.100 Anyways, yeah, thanks for calling, Alan.

00:19:08.540 Yeah, well, Alan's from Calgary, so he knows the frustration.

00:19:12.480 I mean, it's on my topics today.

00:19:15.000 I do want to talk about this trade delegation and what I think that means.

00:19:18.640 But we got another caller on the line.

00:19:20.680 Go ahead, please.

00:19:26.060 Go ahead.

00:19:26.740 Hello?

00:19:27.240 Go ahead.

00:19:27.820 Yeah, yeah.

00:19:29.900 Yo, can you hear me?

00:19:31.040 I can hear you.

00:19:31.700 Go ahead.

00:19:33.580 Okay.

00:19:34.700 Marty, a question I've got is, what, what, it's Jerry from Edmonton.

00:19:41.820 Sorry.

00:19:42.360 Okay.

00:19:42.660 the uh how are we going to handle the influx of people that want to come to this

00:19:50.580 province when they know that we are successfully uh independent

00:19:55.480 yeah um well i mean it's uh yeah it's a good question it's similar to the first question right

00:20:05.040 Right. And we listen, we don't know all we this is the frustrating part for a lot of people.

00:20:13.440 Right. I don't I I can only I can offer a suggestion to a question like that.

00:20:17.440 But honestly, I don't know the true answer. Right.

00:20:19.680 All I can say conclusively right now is that Alberta to me is getting a bum deal in Confederation.

00:20:25.460 I can say that we're underrepresented. We are our voices aren't heard.

00:20:31.020 We send money over there that doesn't come back. So I can identify a lot of problems.

00:20:35.040 I can identify one pretty important solution to those problems, which is an independent Alberta.

00:20:41.400 What I can't do is tell you exactly what the independent Alberta will look like.

00:20:46.380 That requires a bit of a leap of faith.

00:20:48.180 We have to become we have to vote for independence.

00:20:50.380 And once we vote for independence, then we will have that period where as a nation, we will decide what our future looks like.

00:21:00.020 and and so and on that question in particular I imagine that an independent Alberta would have

00:21:07.960 control over its immigration so the border would be closed and a border would be closed probably

00:21:14.540 pretty tightly for people coming from say Africa or some other place and we wouldn't have a

00:21:20.080 temporary foreign worker but I have a program but I have a feeling that we would have a mechanism

00:21:25.260 and play favorites with people from the rest of Canada who would come here

00:21:29.860 as long as they pass certain requirements and weren't coming here just to abuse us.

00:21:35.760 So that's the short answer.

00:21:37.960 I don't know if that helps, but I don't think it'll be otherwise.

00:21:43.280 We will need good people.

00:21:46.100 We need people now to come, and we will need good people in the future.

00:21:49.460 I don't think that changes, but in an independent Alberta,

00:21:52.360 will take control of who we allow in and out,

00:21:56.020 and I would suspect that we will favor highly people

00:21:59.200 who come from Ontario and Quebec and the Maritimes

00:22:01.660 with the right attitude and the right skills.

00:22:03.960 Hope that helps.

00:22:06.760 Well, it's an answer anyway.

00:22:08.480 Yeah.

00:22:09.400 Yeah.

00:22:09.760 Well, what's your concern?

00:22:10.940 I mean, are you fundamentally worried that too many people will come?

00:22:14.260 What would you suggest?

00:22:17.460 I'm not worried at all, 1.00

00:22:18.860 but my concern would be a big rush of floods of migrants from eastern Canada or BC or whatever 1.00

00:22:25.620 like that. People sitting in the bush and thinking, oh boy, it would be great. And all of a sudden, 0.98

00:22:30.180 they are independent. Pack up, honey, we're moving to Alberta. How do you stop that?

00:22:36.320 Yeah, yeah. No, I hear you. Well, it's honestly happening. It's interesting that it's happening

00:22:43.340 right now. It's noticeable that there are people coming, but it's also noticeable that people are

00:22:48.580 leaving so um hey at the end of the day we do have the capacity to take you know look at look at the

00:22:55.560 size of our province it's a huge province absolutely resource rich and with a ton of space

00:23:02.460 with about 5 million people in it so i mean i'm happy at 5 million don't get me wrong i'm happy

00:23:08.500 and i'd stay at 5 million pretty much indefinitely i remember in alberta when we only had 2 million

00:23:13.600 people here but would 10 million people in alberta stress me out no if done properly right and over

00:23:19.960 the next 30 or 40 years but if if suddenly an extra 100 000 hey i mean we brought in 600 000

00:23:25.460 people in the last two years that's the problem that we created right now we brought in 600 000

00:23:29.900 people who aren't necessarily here to help build but are more here to take so uh yeah great great

00:23:37.040 comment thanks for uh thanks for calling in uh oh okay cool i love date all right this is what i'm

00:23:42.700 hoping for this is how i want the days to go by so we got oh we lost that one ah we lost that one

00:23:49.920 kind of like fishing you gotta you got somebody on the line and then we lost them because i've

00:23:55.100 said before we don't have a switchboard so we can't just stack the um the the people here um

00:24:01.320 hey canada u.s trade it it is going to be something we're going to hear about right so

00:24:06.040 okay i'll give this credit to carney he's creating a little team right now um to go

00:24:13.180 listen we're not renegotiating the trade okay so canada right now has a pretty big agreement

00:24:19.400 we used to just call it the free trade agreement but it's the canada u.s mexico or the canada

00:24:24.480 mexico u.s or the u.s canada mexico agreement depends on what country you live in how you call

00:24:29.460 it right so uh i call it the the kuzma agreement canada u.s mexico and um it's it's it was signed

00:24:38.380 several years ago and it's not it's due for kind of like a renewal not a you know we we get to sit

00:24:44.840 down and we talk and say do we just keep it as is and are we happy and if we keep it as is it goes

00:24:50.940 on for another couple years and then it'll have another review period or as part of the review

00:24:55.460 We can say, ooh, maybe we open it up and we renegotiate a couple of things.

00:25:00.120 Or we could say, ooh, maybe we cancel it.

00:25:03.260 So there's a milestone coming up for this agreement that we've had for several years.

00:25:08.560 And the milestone is, like, on July 1st.

00:25:11.580 So in preparation for that, Carney is organizing a team.

00:25:16.760 And he's making the team somewhat nonpartisan.

00:25:22.240 He's picked people from he's picked a couple of conservatives.

00:25:25.340 He's got a bunch of liberals and he's even picked a few people from industry to be on

00:25:29.280 the team to chat among themselves right now before they start with the U.S.

00:25:33.760 That looks like a good first step.

00:25:35.440 That's a that's a pretty good first step, but it's a first step for nothing.

00:25:39.540 If he continues doing what he's what he's doing, which is on the side, he keeps pissing

00:25:44.300 off the Americans.

00:25:45.060 Right.

00:25:45.420 I mean, Carney did a State of the Union address on, I believe it was on Sunday morning. He had that eight minute State of the Union address where in his State of the Union address, he's holding up a little figurine, right? A little toy soldier of General Isaac Brock.

00:26:04.840 and um makes the whole story that every time i walk into my office i'm i'm reminded by this

00:26:10.920 little figurine he got the figurine as a gift apparently from mike myers and then for and

00:26:15.380 and if you're in albertan and you don't know who isaac brock is that's not a surprise um probably

00:26:21.440 the only people who know who isaac brock is are people who who live in southern ontario and people

00:26:27.700 who've been to niagara falls and seen his monument or people who've heard of brock university

00:26:31.520 but brock was like a lieutenant governor and a general who was sort of in charge of defending

00:26:37.340 he represent he was a british general fighting the americans in the war of 1812

00:26:42.080 and so when when carney does that announcement and he specifically picks that person brought you

00:26:49.380 know that that man that's kind of a way of antagonizing the americans and it goes against

00:26:55.220 it goes with his theme right what does carney keep saying all the time oh well our trade deal

00:26:59.660 Our, our, our 200 year relationship with the Americans is done and we need to rethink it.

00:27:05.000 Okay.

00:27:05.500 And then we're going to be independent.

00:27:07.120 Okay.

00:27:07.660 And then he throws salt in the wound by saying, by being super nostalgic, look at this little

00:27:12.580 guy named Brock. 0.98

00:27:13.540 He's the guy who kicked your butt way back when in 1812. 0.95

00:27:17.460 And so it was kind of interesting that he picked all those, you know, that character 0.97

00:27:22.380 as a symbolism for the battle that's brewing between our two nations right now.

00:27:27.700 I don't like what's happening.

00:27:28.920 I don't like that the America that the that Carney is picking a fight with the U.S.

00:27:35.420 And if you think that that's a strategy to help in the negotiation, I like you haven't watched Trump lately and see how he negotiates.

00:27:43.400 Right now, at the end of the day.

00:27:46.420 When I bring it back to here in Alberta, I'm not that worried because we have an amazing we do, you know, one hundred and seventy billion dollars worth of trade in every year in Alberta.

00:27:57.260 We do about $90 billion with the U.S. and then $10 billion with other nations and then $60 or $70 with the rest of Canada.

00:28:05.020 And generally speaking, we're not affected by these upcoming negotiations because we sell oil to the Americans in a separate deal, almost a one-on-one deal, and we're really not affected by these negotiations.

00:28:16.980 So when Carney's doing that, he's just sewering Ontario and Quebec, and he's antagonizing, and I have a hard time understanding what he's doing.

00:28:27.260 Did we lose the caller, Josh?

00:28:28.780 Did I wait too long?

00:28:30.400 Go ahead.

00:28:31.140 All right.

00:28:31.540 Caller name.

00:28:32.440 Where are you calling from, please?

00:28:35.960 Yeah, go ahead.

00:28:38.400 Hi.

00:28:38.980 I'm Nathan.

00:28:39.720 I'm calling from Vancouver Island.

00:28:41.440 How are you doing?

00:28:42.060 Good, good.

00:28:43.540 I have a question about what's going to happen with BC

00:28:48.840 if Alberta does gain independence.

00:28:50.740 I really hope that you guys do.

00:28:52.120 But what do you think is going to happen to the problems of BC

00:28:54.880 as far as trade and things traveling through alberta and that kind of thing my short answer

00:29:01.040 to that is always nothing right i mean we we uh like we're not we're not i don't think we're

00:29:06.980 antagonistic to other parts of the like we don't want to we're not wishing ill will on anybody else

00:29:12.240 we don't want to piss off anybody else we just don't like the deal that we have with ottawa 0.97

00:29:16.680 right ottawa interferes in our affairs all the time like they they you know they they step in

00:29:22.480 when we're trying to negotiate pipelines and implement their own rules that we don't agree

00:29:26.820 with. And so we just, we just want Ottawa, we just want to break away from Ottawa and that

00:29:32.340 interference. But after that, I mean, our deal with our trade with the BC, I don't think that'll

00:29:38.840 change. I mean, it's, it's mutually beneficial, right? We, we, we're, we're, we send goods to

00:29:44.280 the ocean via you guys, and then you guys need to send your goods to Ontario and the, and the

00:29:50.020 maritimes and whatnot so i i i really don't see anything changing except maybe we'll become better

00:29:56.260 partners because we won't have ottawa telling us what to do we'll be it'll be alberta negotiating

00:30:02.460 directly with bc so i does that does that make sense do you think that that's going to be or

00:30:09.580 are you worried about yeah i'm just wondering if like you can take out uh take bc with you

00:30:16.220 um as someone i i moved out to bc during covid we lived in ontario and covid had all these

00:30:21.820 lockdowns and stuff and so bc was very open at the time so we moved our whole family out here

00:30:26.760 and like no sooner did we arrive than they implemented all this crap and you know i love

00:30:30.940 alberta you know you want to be independent you want less government you want less regulations 0.91

00:30:34.940 like in a way but like you want more freedom uh to do and build businesses and be prosperous right

00:30:40.780 and you know yeah yeah no i've to be honest i've heard some really weird stories right like people

00:30:49.840 people i mean i i describe it this way right there are there are five phases of of grief and i think

00:30:55.320 the five phases of grief kind of apply to to alberta independence there's some people right

00:31:00.780 now that that that don't think it's happening then there's other people that are that will

00:31:05.080 start to mock it then they'll start to oh you know get into uh into um maybe self-preservation

00:31:12.440 then it'll get into hate and then maybe they'll get into uh admitting that it's happening and a

00:31:18.380 lot of people are in that hate stage already um especially in british columbia i'm not i'm picking

00:31:24.300 i'm not picking on british columbia but i've heard it a lot from people there if you guys separate

00:31:28.900 we're going to block you from accessing the ocean that's you know that's an example of of of vitriol

00:31:34.800 and and to that one i always say well be very careful because if you block you know people

00:31:38.860 always say alberta would become landlocked because bc would be on the other on one side but in effect

00:31:43.800 bc would become isolated from the rest of canada right and so and i don't want to get like i hope

00:31:49.580 we're beyond that we won't get into that kind of um pissing contest i hope we'll just be supporting

00:31:55.400 each other instead i mean we've been allies and friends for a long time literally it's a it's a

00:32:00.440 it's a relationship that's not working and we want to move on a little bit

00:32:05.960 absolutely yeah i totally hear that yeah excellent okay well thank you for calling

00:32:12.040 all right so um where were we so i just finished talking about trade um i i got so many topics that

00:32:20.680 i wanted to talk about today let's talk about let's bring a little bit of humor just for a

00:32:25.480 minute into the um into uh what's going on did you guys see the post this week um about canada

00:32:35.080 wanting to build a space launch facility in nova scotia oh man okay so this is this is nothing new

00:32:45.000 About every 10 years, we get all pumped up and we talk about, hey, we're going to launch rockets from Canada.

00:32:52.680 We're going to build an aerospace industry.

00:32:54.760 We're going to diversify and we're going to build an aerospace industry.

00:32:58.480 And that announcement was, you know, it gets made about every 10 years.

00:33:01.860 And about a month and a half ago, there was another announcement quietly that Ottawa was going to fund a spaceport, call it, in Nova Scotia.

00:33:13.920 and yesterday a couple of stories broke one one broke from an investigative journalist in uh in

00:33:19.120 halifax or whatever broke a story and there was a picture that showed um this literally this

00:33:25.280 concrete pad in the middle of nowhere and i don't know if you can find that picture quickly josh or

00:33:31.120 whatever but it was there was a concrete pad in the middle of nowhere that was being leased and

00:33:35.920 to the tune of like the announcement from ottawa was about 200 million dollars over the next 10

00:33:42.080 year so it's 20 million bucks a year and and then immediately people who started investigating were

00:33:48.800 finding links to ukraine and so it's bad enough right it's uh so i i just want to talk about it

00:33:56.000 on just a couple of points right there's there's four there's four there's four groups on the

00:34:02.320 planet right now that launch rockets right the the russians launch rockets into space

00:34:07.440 the americans launch rockets into space the chinese launch rockets into space and then

00:34:12.480 the european agency launches rockets into space and some of them collaborate so the americans

00:34:17.520 often collaborate with the russians and and the european space agency and we launch rockets from

00:34:24.160 about four places the americans launch them as far south as possible on their country so they

00:34:29.040 go right to the bottom of florida almost and they launch them from there and there's a reason they

00:34:33.440 launch them from there is because of the equator when you're launching a rocket you kind of want

00:34:37.840 to shoot it uh as close to the equator as possible and you and you're not shooting directly away from

00:34:43.760 the earth you want to kind of shoot and then start to you know get parallel well yeah there's the pad

00:34:49.680 look at that pad so you and i are paying 200 million dollars for that um it's never going

00:34:54.560 to happen so what i'm saying is this is this i'm not surprised that there's a connection to ukraine

00:34:59.760 and this will never happen. This is what I was about to say. We'll never launch rockets from

00:35:04.200 Canada, okay? The Americans launch them from as far south as they can because they're close to

00:35:09.020 the equator. The European Space Agency goes a little bit further. They have an island in like

00:35:13.520 the Caribbean somewhere or French Guyana. They launch from there. The Russians, they're not so

00:35:18.980 lucky. They're not close to the equator. So they have to launch from their own territory. And

00:35:24.440 consequently, when they launch, they have to launch bigger rockets and spend a lot more money on fuel

00:35:29.300 to get them to where they want to be.

00:35:31.740 But there's an advantage to being close to the equator. 0.70

00:35:34.420 China, they launch them from wherever, the Gobi Desert, 0.92

00:35:37.040 they do their thing.

00:35:38.060 We're never going to launch rockets from Canada, folks.

00:35:40.380 It's a pipe dream.

00:35:41.900 If there was a value in it,

00:35:43.360 somebody would have approached us 30 years ago

00:35:46.040 to build a launch site somewhere.

00:35:48.020 There's no advantage to it.

00:35:49.720 And it's just another example of your money being,

00:35:53.700 us being taxed and the money being wasted.

00:35:56.100 it. So I just wanted to just to go there with that. What else happened this week? Let me see.

00:36:05.760 All right. Oh, call on the line. Hang on one second. Something's sweet. Go ahead. Where

00:36:10.920 are you calling from? Hello? Go ahead. Somebody, did we lose somebody? Somebody?

00:36:26.100 oh no hello martin yes go ahead yes how's it going good how many people how many people did

00:36:35.240 sign the uh the separation uh vote uh well the only official number we don't have an official

00:36:43.080 number so mitch mitch did a did an announcement a semi-press release a couple of weeks ago where

00:36:49.400 he said we'd met the threshold so that there was that would mean there was at least 177 000 give

00:36:54.280 shake um and then that was about two three weeks ago and and he's he's sort of talked casually about

00:37:01.460 it lately saying a collection was going well and they were coming in fast and fierce so

00:37:05.520 i i'm i messed i'm guessing that it's going to be in the 300 000 to 400 000 mitch had set a goal

00:37:12.260 mitch wanted to beach to beat thomas lukasik like he wanted mitch wanted to get 450 000 signatures

00:37:18.400 but we won't we won't know officially until next week when he uh delivers them to elections alberta

00:37:24.280 So, how many people have signed the Forever Canadian vote?

00:37:30.900 Ballpark 415,000, something like that.

00:37:35.600 And it was done under a slightly different circumstances, right?

00:37:39.220 The Forever Canada petition was less regulated, right?

00:37:43.480 They were able to just go around, collect signatures.

00:37:46.960 They weren't obligated to verify driver's licenses and place a residence and stuff like that.

00:37:52.500 So their rules for collecting signatures were a little bit looser, but they claim to have collected four hundred and fifty thousand.

00:38:01.880 Plus they were in the summer versus us in the winter.

00:38:06.020 But so what's your thought?

00:38:08.020 Did you sign yourself or what's the sentiment among people you hang out with?

00:38:13.220 Well, no, I'm actually in the process of moving to Alberta so I can vote no.

00:38:19.120 OK, to vote no.

00:38:20.600 so you're going to come here to vote no yeah i gotta save canada wow okay that's that's bold

00:38:28.900 so you're going to leave some part of the world that you live in so what's your reasoning so

00:38:34.160 actually this is interesting i've never had somebody who so sell us on that so why what's

00:38:38.640 what what do you want to save well i had plans to uh head out that way anyway um i'm getting into

00:38:47.220 some mining and so I'm just adding the two together and I'm just like well I'm

00:38:53.460 glad I'm heading out that way anyway so I can vote no oh okay well cool all

00:38:59.520 right interesting good luck with that then thanks thanks for calling okay we

00:39:06.120 got somebody else on the line Josh go ahead oh so I'm just adding I'm just

00:39:12.220 like well hang on one second i might have two people here so we got lots of people on the line

00:39:20.380 okay somebody stirred in the hornet's nest somebody wants all right go ahead whoever's

00:39:23.980 on the line name where you calling from please medicine hat go ahead

00:39:29.680 hi is it marty yeah yeah it's marty oh hey how you doing partner hey listen uh i just wanted to

00:39:40.020 phone in and congratulate you and all of the people that have been

00:39:44.060 working on this. It's time that Alberta

00:39:47.480 had its true passion

00:39:51.660 recognized and I hope and pray that Albertans really wake up and

00:39:55.960 vote yes to this independence movement because we've

00:39:59.460 been abused for far too long. I'm a native

00:40:03.200 Calgarian born and raised in Alberta. I love this province but I want to

00:40:07.960 see a future for my kids so god bless all of you guys for all the hard work you've done i just

00:40:13.700 wanted to phone in and say thank you appreciate that thank you so much um yeah um you know what

00:40:22.420 i mean i should have maybe kept the last caller on a little bit longer but i but it's been my

00:40:27.920 experience um in just through canvassing for the last two weeks that when you uh um people some

00:40:37.400 i don't know how to say this i haven't found any really good arguments for wanting to stay

00:40:42.380 and i haven't found anybody who wants to stay who's who's very genuine in wanting to debate

00:40:49.140 so they tend to come here come to me in particular and they just want to shove something down you

00:40:54.500 know their opinion on me and they're not really interested in debate i would love to have an

00:40:59.280 actual genuine debate with somebody on on uh why they think that alberta should stay in this failed

00:41:06.280 experiment called confederation now i think the best example of that we're going to have it in

00:41:10.360 the coming weeks here keith wilson is going to debate jason kenney and i think the first debate

00:41:16.680 is uh don't quote me and i think it's in edmonton there's there's one in edmonton and one in calgary

00:41:21.720 there's going to be two and i look forward to that i have actually reached out to friends

00:41:27.720 out east and i have a i have a friend and not another online personality who actually he's an

00:41:35.160 ontarian he actually supports us leaving okay so he's in favor of us leaving but he's agreed in

00:41:43.540 principle to have a debate with me and we're going to have a very civil debate but he you know he

00:41:48.440 says that if that he could put it he can articulate why we should stay even though he doesn't think we

00:41:54.860 should stay he can articulate why i'm like okay that's interesting so uh his name is greg and

00:42:00.140 i'll see if i can uh i've been trying to set up something i don't want to do it now because i

00:42:04.240 I don't want to – I had other priorities.

00:42:07.220 But in the coming weeks, maybe I'll have that chat with Greg.

00:42:09.360 We'll do that online debate.

00:42:11.060 And even though he supports us, Greg will try his best to portray the stay side.

00:42:17.220 I definitely look forward to hearing Nenshi tell us why we should stay and others.

00:42:22.800 All right, caller, go ahead.

00:42:23.920 Name, where are you calling from, please?

00:42:28.440 Yes, hi.

00:42:29.280 It's Gordon calling, and I'm calling from Edmonton.

00:42:33.060 Go ahead, Gordon.

00:42:34.240 Yeah, I just want to ask you in regards to Elections in Alberta. Who is it? What exactly, why do they have such authority to be blocking and doing the things they do? And who can make them fall in line and do things fairly for both sides? Because obviously there's a bias going on here. Anybody can pick that out.

00:42:54.260 it's it's a it's a yes that's great question i mean um i don't know the solution to people

00:43:03.040 like i don't know individuals marty yeah marty i'm talking listen to me who can stop the individual

00:43:09.580 from being that way the premier who can stop him because he needs to be stopped we can't that's

00:43:16.980 system we we we keep vet uh that that the individual was put in place by the ndp by

00:43:24.300 rachel notley and they're put in place by law for whatever a five-year term so we're stuck with it

00:43:29.680 i think i think the best thing i mean i don't know the solution to that to me it'd be it'd be

00:43:34.740 some of these non-partisan roles should be either elected or appointed to shorter terms or we should

00:43:40.160 have uh recall petition i don't know it's a great question uh gordon it's a great question but i

00:43:46.120 I mean, it's the same problem with judges.

00:43:48.220 It's the same problem with so many people, right?

00:43:50.060 They're appointed and they're unelected and they're biased.

00:43:54.380 I agree they're biased.

00:43:55.620 Not only are they biased, but they're also in a conflict of interest

00:43:58.660 because they'll argue that they're unbiased and impartial.

00:44:02.300 You can't be impartial when you work for the government.

00:44:05.820 So, yeah, it's a problem.

00:44:07.840 I don't know the solution, Gord.

00:44:09.680 It's a great question.

00:44:10.460 I don't know the solutions.

00:44:11.580 What do you propose?

00:44:12.440 well we've got it there's got to be a check and balance in place somewhere that they can block

00:44:17.820 this yeah usually the check and balance it'd be um yeah it would be shorter terms or or dual role

00:44:24.680 or uh or co co-chairs co-leads right maybe have two elections officers two chief electoral officer

00:44:31.520 instead of one and have have them appointed you know two years apart on a four-year term so that

00:44:36.620 it's always balanced out i mean there's lots of great solutions and and and and thanks for bringing

00:44:41.840 that up i mean these are these are the things that when we talk about an independent alberta we have

00:44:46.080 to solve some of these problems right and there are other nations on earth that seem to run

00:44:50.640 elections and have no problem i i'm i'm i'm on i believe that i i don't have a faith in

00:44:56.480 elections in canada anymore i just don't i just want to bring up one more issue and it's just in

00:45:03.840 regards to the alberta prosperity project see now that they're going to be able to get involved and

00:45:09.440 speak before us and uh uh and put in their two cents now all of a sudden he's making issues

00:45:16.240 with them correct so yeah absolutely he he's making issues with boy okay so let's go back

00:45:27.200 and that was the theme of the show today the alberta prosperity project right is the the

00:45:31.440 is is a legally is a separate entity from uh stay free alberta but it but it but they have

00:45:39.580 some of the same personnel and mitch sylvester is the sort of the the president of of both

00:45:45.720 um he was mentioned in the in the legislature two days ago i mean nenshi had had it in for him like

00:45:52.500 kept kept mentioning mitch mitch mitch mitch and then nenshi was making allegations that mitch was

00:45:57.260 working directly for the premier they're all unfounded but in the in the legislature they're

00:46:01.760 almost allowed to lie because they have this privilege but but that's a separate thing um

00:46:06.920 i i i've already seen this and i'm happy that this is happening i think in the next phase

00:46:12.940 and i talked about it a little bit at the beginning of the show i have a lot of people

00:46:16.840 that say we need one leader okay this is a perfect segue for that i disagree this is a

00:46:21.900 grassroots movement and we don't need a single leader because a there is no leader that will

00:46:26.680 appeal to everyone some people say oh you know they don't like mitch or they don't like keith

00:46:30.280 they don't like whoever you'll never find the perfect leader that's but that's a separate

00:46:34.600 problem the moment we have a leader in a grassroots movement that leader becomes a target of of attack

00:46:40.660 from from concentrated attack so i'm i'm advocating for no leader at this point we don't need one we

00:46:48.100 can we can have an education campaign without a leader and we can have a vote and then later on

00:46:53.580 we can choose a leader but what i'm really encouraged about what's happening right now

00:46:58.160 is the fact that uh you got the alberta prosperity project but you're going to see a whole bunch of

00:47:03.940 other groups appear that are going to help in the education and in the fight for independence so

00:47:09.000 you're going to have i can't remember what he's called but but chris scott with the whistle stop

00:47:13.580 up in in and mirror he's forming a group basically and then you got kathy flatt and and angela taback

00:47:20.000 and others they got their women in an independence group or whatever it's called uh as far as i'm

00:47:25.800 concerned cory morgan's almost a a one-man machine on his own uh doing some education i'm i'm

00:47:33.040 associated with a group called the centurion project and there was another one that appeared

00:47:36.700 yesterday so in the coming weeks you're going to see six seven eight nine groups show up each of

00:47:41.640 them playing a different role in promoting alberta independence i'm pretty confident that behind the

00:47:47.160 scenes those groups will work together and start forming sort of a loose coalition and not interfere

00:47:52.580 with each other but I also hope that they don't decide that they need one leader uh is Gord still

00:47:59.420 on the line or I got somebody else okay so sorry about I hope that answered the question Gord uh

00:48:03.500 who's on the line go ahead please this is Bridget um I'm just calling I'm a young mom who has three

00:48:10.680 children and I'm a huge supporter of the Alberta independence movement and I just want to encourage

00:48:16.200 like all the young moms out there to just reach out like at your school group like we're all have

00:48:22.360 to stand around at school pick up i've met so many young women who are their families are looking to

00:48:28.440 move out of the province unless this independence movement goes through and i just want to encourage

00:48:35.960 all those young women out there just like you can educate people on your own get yourself educated 0.60

00:48:42.040 first of course learn about our trade learn about our economy and and the horrible bills

00:48:49.240 that are making it impossible for our province to flourish but i just wanted to also thank you

00:48:56.120 marty i just love your show no thank you so yes you're you're fantastic so you thank you for

00:49:02.360 reminding us all you said the key thing there right and then it ties into what i just finished

00:49:06.600 we don't need leaders individual leaders and put all the burden on the leaders take some of the

00:49:11.720 burden yourselves right and you're doing that so i mean there's there's nothing more convincing than

00:49:17.560 you having a chat with like you said your neighbor or somebody at the school or whatever and then

00:49:22.520 chatting among yourselves and educating yourself so thanks for doing that you by the way where

00:49:27.080 what part of alberta were you calling from oh i'm in andre and our our neighborhoods are just

00:49:32.760 littered with republic of alberta flags people have massive alberta flags in their yard

00:49:38.520 it is like super encouraging out here awesome awesome awesome yeah i tried to get uh paul's

00:49:45.100 pizza owner on the show and maybe he'll come in next week he's he created a bit of a firestorm

00:49:50.920 with some of his comments but then it keeps uh but but then he's he's impossible to cancel and

00:49:56.520 everybody's going there somebody brought me a paul's pizza on uh uh on the road the other day

00:50:01.620 have you ever have you been there absolutely yes absolutely i've been there we actually the first

00:50:06.980 well which firestorm it's hard to actually pick one of the firestorms he started but

00:50:12.740 not this last one where he made a joke that may have been a little inappropriate but it was funny

00:50:18.780 nonetheless um we went there for lunch with my kids and it was packed and there was signers there

00:50:27.140 um i also got my badge so i can sign people up but uh an old man actually came to post pizza

00:50:34.860 So while I was there with my kids to scream at the volunteers there and luckily I was just driving by so I kind of just went in between him and my windows were down and he could see that I had kids and he backed off but it was an interesting lunch.

00:50:52.160 Yeah, no doubt, no doubt. So just while you're on the line, just one last quick question. So do you still, what do you say to people who say that this is a fringe movement? Has your thoughts on that changed a little bit?

00:51:04.640 Do you think it's French or do you think?

00:51:06.000 Oh my goodness.

00:51:07.200 No, I don't know anybody who is voting to stay.

00:51:11.140 Okay.

00:51:11.340 Like I do actually, I have 60 plus people in my family.

00:51:14.360 I have a very large family, Norwegian family, and everybody but one person is voting for independence.

00:51:24.320 My neighbors are voting for independence.

00:51:27.400 Every young person I meet is voting for independence.

00:51:29.500 it is so rare for me to actually be able to discuss except for at school pickup where there

00:51:37.280 are people who just don't know about it but yeah it's uh it's all right it's going very well

00:51:43.180 excellent well thanks for calling in i appreciate it and thanks for showing people that it's not

00:51:47.360 scary to call in right i'm not uh i'm just an average awesome thank you awesome okay have a

00:51:53.620 wonderful day you too cheers yeah see that's awesome right um i i i i feel encouraged when

00:52:01.860 i hear that i mean i have days i had more good days than bad days canvassing and early on there

00:52:08.240 were some more opponents but then the opposition disappeared slowly and i and i and i and i i said

00:52:15.380 this in a video the other day and i'll say it again right i there were definitely days where um

00:52:20.760 i noticed a pattern right so i would go and set up and canvas and it basically i was set up on a

00:52:28.180 service road with my truck and a table and a whole bunch of flags and some days there'd be two three

00:52:33.420 of us so when there was two three of us rather than all sit around the table i had a flag on a

00:52:37.900 hockey stick and i would walk literally up and down the highway waving my flag and waving at people

00:52:43.720 and i got honks and everybody was most almost everybody was super nice but but i could tell

00:52:49.380 some people would kind of like drive with their blinders on you know kind of like don't look don't

00:52:54.500 look don't look like as if they don't want to you know life is they want to keep their life simple

00:52:59.280 they want i call it living in blissful ignorance like don't look don't look don't don't wonder why

00:53:04.240 people on the side of the road don't wonder why they're signing a petition ignore everything

00:53:08.080 and i knew that over time by being there day after day after day those people that were driving by

00:53:14.160 couldn't ignore me and and so perhaps they went home that night and they talked about it with

00:53:18.540 somebody perhaps they read a story perhaps whatever so that's why i did it right i and and you can

00:53:24.280 there's so many ways to winning over people it's not it's not always just whatever commercials and

00:53:29.040 and radio shows uh we're still good for time yeah excellent go ahead caller man we've had a great

00:53:34.920 turnout thank you for calling today where are you calling from and name please

00:53:37.840 oh did you miss him josh oh sorry go ahead

00:53:44.060 sorry hello hello yeah yeah go ahead i'd like to speak to uh marty speaking you got him oh

00:53:56.380 okay because i hear there must be a delay anyway why i'm calling is i'm helen and i'm calling from

00:54:05.640 the side of Calgary and I too have great concerns about the election Alberta and I did not know

00:54:14.120 that the head person or individual was elected or chosen by Rachel Notley and I don't think that

00:54:23.320 that's a proper system whatsoever but I think I may have a solution and that solution is that

00:54:30.200 level of consciousness where people know themselves well enough they're not connected to any party

00:54:37.720 whatsoever and they're therefore non-partisan and a non-biased and that's because they know

00:54:48.200 themselves and their high a very high level of consciousness now that's um comes from uh the

00:54:56.840 power of power versus force the hidden determinants of human behavior and most of us

00:55:04.200 have been so conditioned through the education system and through institutionalized learning and

00:55:10.280 through our parents that we have not developed the necessary skills of a level of consciousness

00:55:20.520 to be able to get to obtain such titles no i i i agree i mean uh you know and and those qualities

00:55:28.840 should apply to somebody applying to be a chief election officer a judge even a parliamentarian

00:55:35.320 even a member of uh mayor lots of people right and and i think you're pointing out that something's

00:55:40.600 lacking in a lot of people in our society and and in the case of the chief elections officer

00:55:46.600 we're supposed to find that out because the the the person's name is supposed to be submitted to

00:55:53.300 the legislature and then people are supposed to have a chance to question that person to find out

00:55:57.560 their character and see if they're unbiased before they're appointed and i think that's a problem

00:56:02.060 right we i i can think of hundreds of individuals who've been appointed to roles under that system

00:56:08.040 that shouldn't have been appointed so unfortunately we're we're going to need something um a little

00:56:14.340 more rigorous but appreciate the comment and the call thank you for calling

00:56:21.540 yeah did she did we okay sorry all right um yeah you know that there's again that this is one of

00:56:30.500 the fascinating things um we when when an independent alberta if it's just a mini version

00:56:39.540 of canada won't work that's not what i want i don't i don't want a mini version of canada

00:56:45.060 i want to think boldly and change and identify some of the things that don't work like we just

00:56:51.720 did right so i i don't think the election system works hell think of all the problems with the

00:56:56.640 election system i don't like i don't i don't even like first past the post we never even got to

00:57:01.160 talking about um the redistribution of boundaries that's occurring right now and the the claims that

00:57:06.860 there's some gerrymandering maybe that'll be next week's show because we'll have more on that but

00:57:11.200 you know a lot of things about our elections can be changed the way we vote like first past the

00:57:16.340 poll could be replaced by ranked ballots could be placed by popularity there's lots of things

00:57:20.760 we could eliminate parties and only vote for representatives we can do lots of things i don't

00:57:25.820 know the answers but when i i hope that in independent alberta we will be bold and think

00:57:31.820 about these problems and and fix some of these problems but the other thing is when you're

00:57:36.400 fixing problems I'm an engineer a lot of times when I was solving problems I didn't start by

00:57:42.040 by by by just diving into a problem and then trying to come up with my own solutions a lot

00:57:47.880 of problems have been solved by other people and so you know if I got a corrosion problem in my

00:57:54.000 pipe or if I keep having flats on a tire and then something doesn't work I can go see what other

00:57:58.340 people have done to fix that problem well the same thing applies to our democracy there's no

00:58:03.180 like we we can go look to see how other nations deal with um with roles or you know like like

00:58:10.860 like chief electoral officers do they elect them do they do they have more than one do they give

00:58:16.700 limited terms things like that right so that's i i just want to say that we we need to um re

00:58:22.600 rethink out of the box okay uh producers flashing that we got about a minute left i got a call on

00:58:29.140 the lines it's probably just going to be a comment on your part go ahead where are you calling from

00:58:32.560 and what's your comment yes hi uh i'm calling from uh well i'm from leduc but uh calling from

00:58:39.600 highway 16 currently um just had a quick statement uh i moved to canada as a kid in 2004 went through

00:58:48.560 the canadian school system and figured out that my vote in western canada wasn't going to count

00:58:53.120 for anything so i never even bothered to get my citizenship in all these years until

00:58:58.160 we come to this question where should uh alberta you know try to get its own uh independence here

00:59:07.020 right uh the first time i feel like there's actually hope and uh that a vote from a citizen

00:59:14.760 here in western canada would count for something that's awesome um just where'd you come from

00:59:19.920 uh germany i was born in germany okay so uh and they came here and then uh interesting so you were

00:59:27.060 you were a permanent resident for a long time was it pretty uh matter of fact to get your

00:59:32.180 citizenship in the last couple years like uh sort of a rubber oh yeah yeah it's fairly easy but yeah

00:59:37.620 it's fairly easy but for me it was just i pay my taxes like everybody else and if i vote or don't

00:59:43.300 vote it doesn't really make a big difference right in the grand uh in a grand picture of things yeah

00:59:50.660 Yeah, yeah, no, you're symbolic of a lot of Albertans, right?

00:59:54.360 We used to, we'd wait, we'd turn on the TV at 8 p.m. on a Monday night

01:00:00.620 during the election, and we'd find out already that the government

01:00:03.560 had been selected and declared before they even counted our votes.

01:00:08.160 So, yeah, yeah, no, thank you for that.

01:00:11.460 And thanks for, congrats on becoming a citizen.

01:00:14.860 And yes, and, you know, a great reminder to everybody,

01:00:17.680 if we get to that referendum and you're in that box and you got those three walls and you get the

01:00:22.480 vote take a pause just take a brief pause and think about what you're about to do uh it could

01:00:28.940 be super symbolic so thanks for calling i appreciate that all right he's gone uh all right

01:00:35.960 i think we're out of time uh i do my little last bit at the end here um thanks to the west thanks

01:00:41.260 for joining me i'm here every thursday one o'clock maybe i'll do a 90 minute show i want to start

01:00:46.320 bringing guests i think i'm going to bring guests but you guys are this is so encouraging i think

01:00:49.840 i got nine or ten calls today the most we've had in a while the show's about you um and uh make

01:00:56.200 sure you uh subscribe it's ten dollars a month the the website's down there on the bottom

01:01:00.500 westernstandard.news and uh see you next week folks cheers

01:01:16.320 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - April 27, 2026

MARTY UP NORTH： Alberta Prosperity Project continues to be harassed by Elections Alberta

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