Western Standard - Premier Smith must schedule an independence referendum

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:29.640 welcome to the cory morgan show we haven't been shut down yet by the new mark carney majority

00:00:36.040 welcome to the new canada something to look forward to right interesting times uh let's

00:00:41.720 see you all lots of other things to cover you know i actually was going to have a senator on

00:00:48.280 in fact two weeks ago i was going to have a senator on and then today i was going to have

00:00:53.000 a senator on but you know i try to be nice i i i've been critical of senators but i thought maybe

00:00:59.320 they're doing something reasonable decent and so on but apparently it's impossible for senators to

00:01:04.360 figure out what mountain standard time means versus eastern standard time and uh to be able

00:01:09.720 to respond to emails so i'm afraid the chances of me having a senator on this show in the future

00:01:14.280 have become very slim you only get two chances to stand me up on this one so yes it's put me

00:01:18.040 off into a crabby mood to start things off to begin with but that's far from the course for

00:01:21.880 me isn't it i'm going to talk to chris old corn in a little bit he's our opinion editor we're

00:01:26.600 talking about the woke we're talking about saskatchewan we're talking about politics in

00:01:30.760 general lots to cover as an opinion editor he's certainly got a lot of opinions to sift through

00:01:36.040 so uh be sure to use that uh comment scroll guys keep this interactive i see uh well geez give me

00:01:42.120 pronounceable names guys lz saying good afternoon from grand prairie theo from mission and uh

00:01:47.880 alberta nan for independence in fort mack people all over the place tuning in so let's talk about

00:01:52.600 what i want to rant about today this is going to be the year of the alberta independence referendum

00:01:58.680 it's not in question advocates for both federalism and uh independence they've collected hundreds of

00:02:04.680 thousands of signatures demanding a referendum be held and it's just time to schedule the voting

00:02:09.240 date and get on with it the authority to schedule a buying binding constitutional referendum lands

00:02:14.200 squarely in the office of the premier and she might as well just bite that bullet and set the date

00:02:18.600 i mean the opponents to independence have morphed their movement from one promoting

00:02:22.840 federalism into one opposing democracy they're using the courts to try and block albertans from

00:02:27.960 having a democratic vote and it's only fostering more division division their efforts are only

00:02:32.920 going to delay the inevitable at best i'm not saying a positive vote for independence is

00:02:38.040 inevitable hardly it's a long ways and a lot of work to be done but holding a referendum is

00:02:42.040 inevitable it's going to have to happen the clarity act became law in canada back in 2000

00:02:46.600 it laid out the process for a province to exit the federation through a referendum and the process is

00:02:52.200 a tough one but it is a legal one and it's been in place for a generation now it speaks volumes

00:02:57.160 that canada accepted this process as a national law when it was under the assumption it would

00:03:01.400 only be applied to quebec but when albertans decided to pursue a referendum suddenly the

00:03:05.880 ability to do so was brought before the courts and that double standard illustrates why a third

00:03:10.360 of albertans are ready to leave in the federation or more and that number is growing the independence

00:03:16.280 movement numbered has had its ups and downs since the 80s it's never been though so strong and

00:03:20.840 widely organized as it is today the 2025 federal election enraged the province and the fury wasn't

00:03:26.440 short-lived as it has been in the past it has been channeled into established activism and a massive

00:03:31.880 petition campaign actually two campaigns calling for a referendum one on the pro and one on the

00:03:37.320 against side in 1995 the message from canada quebec as they headed towards a referendum was

00:03:42.680 please, please don't go. In 2026, the message to Canada, to Albertans, from Canada to Albertans is

00:03:47.980 you aren't allowed to go. In fact, you're not even allowed to have a vote on the question.

00:03:52.340 That's what it's down to. Not only is that an assaulting double standard, but it also sets

00:03:56.220 a dangerous stage. When a movement has momentum with over one in three people asking for a

00:04:01.400 democratic exercise, and then that democratic mechanism is taken away from them, it doesn't

00:04:05.580 kill the movement. It inspires some people to work towards undemocratic means of change.

00:04:10.180 Albertans at large have no interest in violence and even if the referendum was blocked the vast

00:04:14.760 majority of Albertans would never consider such a thing but let's not be so naive as to believe

00:04:19.140 there aren't at least a handful of unhinged individuals who might consider doing something 0.96

00:04:22.200 stupid if they feel there's no other path to change a referendum releases that sort of pressure 0.96

00:04:28.280 the FLQ vanished in Quebec when they began using democratic pursuits of independence 0.99

00:04:32.020 it'd be foolhardy to foster the seeds of such a movement in Alberta by denying the citizens the

00:04:36.100 right to vote. Federalists are claiming the independence discussion in itself will cause

00:04:40.820 massive economic damage due to the instability it would cause, even if a yes vote doesn't happen.

00:04:45.700 Now that argument fails on two counts. I mean, for one, Alberta had $670 billion in energy

00:04:50.400 projects canceled or deferred over a decade due to the federal government's interference.

00:04:54.480 An independence referendum couldn't possibly do more damage than staying the course will.

00:04:58.880 Also, if you want stability, there's no better way to pursue it than to hold a referendum on

00:05:03.180 the issue and get it done with. Do you really think the instability would disappear by removing

00:05:07.620 the ability to hold a referendum? Do they think independent supporters are just going to shrug

00:05:12.060 and give up? The path to stability, whether yes or no on that, is peeling off the band-aid and

00:05:17.020 getting it done with. If federalists are confident support for independence will remain at the 30%

00:05:21.220 range, they should be welcoming a referendum so it can be put to bed. It's time to quit wasting

00:05:26.020 time in the courts. Premier Smith has already said if a question on independence is to be put

00:05:31.740 referendum it'll be done on october 9th with the other questions she might as well take the word

00:05:35.260 if out of that and just schedule the vote no more asking judges tell the chief electoral officer the 1.00

00:05:41.260 vote will be held and no other and and to either accommodate it or be replaced by a bureaucrat who

00:05:46.700 will this is all within the premier's authority it doesn't mean smith supports a yes vote but it

00:05:51.260 does mean she supports democracy and i suspect she would phrase it that way the discussion of

00:05:55.660 alberta's independence must be held in a full campaign and resolved one way or another now

00:05:59.820 it's the healthiest path we can take so quit trying to tell us we can't go we can and quit

00:06:05.580 telling us why we shouldn't just try telling us actually why we shouldn't choose to if you

00:06:10.540 support federalism let's get this campaign going and have that discussion all right that's what

00:06:15.100 i'm gonna piss in the morning about today how's it going there storms are coming yes i 30 centimeters

00:06:21.020 of snow i've caused a bit of a curse this year three weeks ago you said spring has finally arrived

00:06:26.140 well something like that i've kept my winter tires on too though well you're gonna need them

00:06:30.620 yeah i'm going to delburn tonight where is delbert oh so it's over east of red deer

00:06:34.300 east of red deer you've been doing a lot of driving i've been on the road a lot i heard a

00:06:38.220 rumor that you are giving up this gig and moving to lacrete yeah i don't know if i quite go that

00:06:45.900 far i don't know if i'd make a good man tonight but uh tell me about the creek it's really cool

00:06:50.940 yeah i worked seven so people know where it is 700 kilometers north of edmonton yeah we're getting

00:06:57.840 up towards the northwest territories border and if you look there's a little hook that comes down

00:07:01.740 it's truly in the middle of nowhere south of fort vermilion uh way up there i was doing a speaking

00:07:07.920 event up there i'd worked in the area but never been to lacrete itself you know so those towns

00:07:11.780 like fort vermilion high level peace river i mean they got their nice aspects but they get a little

00:07:16.380 run down and they can be pretty rough. I expected Lacrete to be similar, you know, and I get up

00:07:21.760 there and there's all this farmland opens up and suddenly you pull into this town and everything

00:07:25.960 is brand new. You know, the buildings are new, the businesses are new, there's construction going

00:07:31.580 on, there's new residential districts going on. They've had a growth rate up to 42% in a year

00:07:37.240 at times going on up there. Just a gem hidden in the north. Great food, really nice people. Again,

00:07:43.760 mostly mennonites no liquor stores it doesn't matter to me anyways but for those who like that

00:07:48.240 would help you and uh no bars that i could see but uh just as an unusual little corner of the

00:07:55.120 province i didn't uh realize what's going on yeah so i did a little bit of research settled by the

00:08:00.240 mennonites in the 1930s and a population of about 4 000 now yeah but i mean i think in the 80s it

00:08:07.040 only had like a few hundred or 600 or something so i mean it's really explosively grown lately

00:08:12.880 see the things you learn watching the cory morgan show yeah we're going for long long drawn out

00:08:17.360 drives and uh yeah it took us nearly 12 hours to get home with a couple of stops with jane and i

00:08:21.520 coming back she came up with me on that one and we're still married oh well we slept the whole

00:08:26.880 way then i'm thinking well she just tells me to shut up and i stare at the road there you go lots

00:08:31.440 to talk about in the news um leading off with a disturbing story involving uh former professor

00:08:38.480 Frances Widdowson, who you know has been a long champion of saying the Kamloops residential school

00:08:47.040 graves are a hoax, like you. We have a BC chief on a podcast saying that she wishes Widdowson

00:08:58.880 would be raped so that she could understand the violence that these people or the Indians 0.77

00:09:05.280 suffered at residential schools so not a very nice thing to say uh we've got the latest on

00:09:11.360 paul's pizza uh if you're not a regular reader uh the owner of paul's pizza put a uh a fairly

00:09:19.760 not very nice tweet out about the acronym missing murdered indigenous lbtgq lmnop plus

00:09:27.440 in the ampersand, saying that he was going to put a special on anybody who identified

00:09:34.560 as these crazy acronyms. And it was pointed out that it starts with missing and murdered

00:09:42.080 Indigenous women, to which he replied, well, I guess they're not getting the special then.

00:09:46.880 So, you know, it blew up in his face and the cancel crowd came out en masse. They put fake

00:09:54.560 reviews on the site. They put fake stories about cockroaches in his kitchen. They contacted his

00:10:02.980 family. One guy sent him pictures of his nephew and nieces because they doxed him. They contacted

00:10:10.900 charities that he gives to. I mean, they put on the full court pressure. So I kind of feel sorry

00:10:16.360 for him. Well, he kind of knows what he steps into because it's not the first time and they've

00:10:20.620 been trying for years to shut them down i don't think they will this time i mean it's at this

00:10:25.440 point where the hard left of verdry and other areas there's a few branches of this restaurant

00:10:29.260 already weren't going and uh now you're just bringing more attention to a place which

00:10:34.360 i'll say it they got good pizza there yeah it really is good food i mean if it's crappy food

00:10:39.080 i wouldn't say anything i got one down near my place in south calgary so i think i'm gonna go

00:10:43.220 on saturday and show my support yeah if you like like all meat pizzas where they just pack it

00:10:47.620 thick with meat and then really brown that cheese on it that's what they do it there it's like

00:10:51.300 it's uh not healthy but damn it's good i'm a ham and pineapple guy ah well that's a separate

00:10:56.580 discussion altogether but i'm certain their hawaiian is probably good as well probably 0.75

00:11:01.300 pretty good as far as those go uh we've got a story on ontario judge who hasn't read the uh

00:11:06.740 playbook obviously he's saying he's concerned that uh uh immigrant criminals are getting a

00:11:12.260 better deal than canadian criminals saying justice should be done by all uh we've got our bc reporter

00:11:19.460 alex zoltan there's been lots of controversy out there in the bc leadership race accusations of of

00:11:25.620 lying and uh all sorts of nasty stuff so he's got a column i think with the headlines saying with

00:11:31.780 friends like these who needs enemies and all the bcs can uh you see conservatives can destroy

00:11:37.060 themselves with infighting which conservatives tend to do right seems the conservatives love

00:11:41.940 turning their guns inward it's uh just seems to be the nature of yeah we got some wild video on

00:11:47.300 the website of a mass road rage ball brawl in edmonton uh yesterday four occupants of four

00:11:54.020 cars got out and started beating the hell out of each other right on the boulevard between the two

00:12:00.020 roads and it's a pretty good video pretty fun video i'll check that one and have you uh in your

00:12:05.620 road trips recently have you stopped at 7-eleven bought yourself a sub or a sandwich thankfully

00:12:12.340 i've just been getting the coffees and i've been tempted to try because they keep going on about

00:12:15.460 that that japanese egg salad sandwich you know everybody's been talking about that

00:12:19.940 and i haven't gotten one yet no maybe i won't no uh there's a big recall uh because the the subs

00:12:25.860 and the sandwiches have got listeria or some other disease so and the the best story of the day uh

00:12:32.900 And Toronto, and I'm going to get this story up after the meeting, Toronto has decided they're going to give away thousands of trees to, you know, get the canopy going bigger in Toronto.

00:12:44.960 But if you're white, you can't have a tree.

00:12:47.540 Oh. 0.98

00:12:50.120 And if your neighbor is white, you can't have a tree.

00:12:53.240 Well, are they going to maybe get, you know, like equity cards for neighbors and so on, like the NDP?

00:12:57.660 Yeah.

00:12:57.820 You know, you can turn it in for what you may or may not get in civil services. 0.97

00:13:02.060 Oh, my Lord, they're insane.

00:13:02.960 But it's about one of the wokest things I've ever seen. 0.95

00:13:06.440 It's crazy.

00:13:07.160 Ah, brilliant.

00:13:08.060 Well, keep it in Toronto.

00:13:10.120 Yeah, as long as the madness stays down there.

00:13:13.120 Well, I'll let you back into the newsroom to keep writing that dark comedy on the woke and the pushbacks on it.

00:13:19.560 And I appreciate the updates.

00:13:21.280 I hope the snow I brought isn't too excessive.

00:13:24.160 If I get stuck, I'm calling you.

00:13:26.440 Okay.

00:13:26.980 You can come and push me out.

00:13:28.300 We'll see what I can do.

00:13:29.400 There you go.

00:13:29.840 All right, thanks, Dave.

00:13:31.400 is our news editor dave naylor and yes lots on the go some funny again a lot of it's kind of

00:13:36.980 dark funny isn't it you know with the stuff of farouk and and other things but that's what

00:13:41.800 insane the world is look this is the time i like to remind you get on there subscribe the reason

00:13:46.560 we got people like dave or chris who's going to be on in a few minutes here and myself is because

00:13:51.520 you've been subscribing so keep us independent westernstandard.news subscription ten dollars a

00:13:56.480 month, $100 for a year, get past those paywalls and help us keep getting those stories going.

00:14:01.580 And there's so many. I just want to hit a quick run through some of the comments that I lost

00:14:05.300 today, which is great. I might have to catch up after I talked to Chris with some of those.

00:14:09.160 My thoughts on Carney saying he'll use the Emergencies Act to stop independence.

00:14:12.600 I heard about that, but I haven't seen it properly sourced yet. I don't know. I don't

00:14:17.600 think he'd be able to do anything. It's not like a concentrated emergency. Well, emergency,

00:14:21.240 that's a separate discussion but in say ottawa in a small spot if you had a majority of a province

00:14:26.920 vote to go what exactly would he be able to do with the emergency sacked uh just reminder search

00:14:33.800 through the western standard there was a great long story written on that pardon me that we have

00:14:40.040 more generals than tanks in canada we really do we have like 14 operational tanks i don't think it's

00:14:45.640 going to come to anything like that in canada but let's get realistic canada's military can't do

00:14:49.960 do much except come and throw tampons at albertans while the albertans chase them back out so uh i

00:14:56.100 wouldn't worry much about that though i do worry when carney talks about bringing foreign people

00:14:59.740 into the canadian uh military uh lots of other folks saying hello from calgary and so on i'll

00:15:07.700 go through some more of these comments because there's just lots to talk about today but

00:15:10.520 i want to bring in our opinion editor chris oldcorn uh in from saskatchewan and let's

00:15:17.520 chat about some of the stuff happening out there how's it going chris it's going well how are you

00:15:21.900 cory good good it's been a while since i've had you on we're overdue yes and uh i guess i just

00:15:28.560 a fun one yeah well as i said there's so much dark comedy in that sense that's led to other

00:15:34.540 things you might have heard with dave's news update so let's start with that you wrote just

00:15:39.060 on the absurdity and the insanity of the woke with that long acronym how many letters does it

00:15:45.740 before you can't even call it an acronym anymore from leah you know mostly seen that but what's

00:15:52.140 give us a recap what happened there uh well uh it is uh technically 15 letters plus the plus sign

00:15:59.500 so it's 16 uh 16 digits long uh which i mentioned my piece could be a guinness book of world record

00:16:07.980 for the length of an acronym. And basically what happened was a MVP, MP, I mean, Leah Gassman,

00:16:17.940 she was doing a press conference about some funding cuts to indigenous organizations that

00:16:23.040 the liberals did in their budget this year. And so what happened was she got up and she said this

00:16:30.500 big long acronym because she decided to put the murdered and missing indigenous women into 0.89

00:16:37.520 the what we'll call it sexual minority acronym you know lgbtq uh etc and put it and smush it all 0.55

00:16:45.840 together uh even though missing and murdered indigenous women has absolutely nothing to do with

00:16:53.040 sexuality or transgenderism so i'm not sure where her mind was when she decided that was a good

00:16:58.880 idea to put it together uh even one one senator said that she would not she would not use that

00:17:04.640 acronym. She continues the other one because this one doesn't make sense. And the other interesting

00:17:10.980 thing is too, the NDP seems to have a hard time defining what a woman is, but they put woman into

00:17:16.600 the acronym, which I thought was kind of weird because it's literally a party that if you ask

00:17:22.700 them what a woman is, they can't even define it. And she put it in and totally changed what the 1.00

00:17:29.800 acronym is like like there's even a plus sign at the end like what's a plus like a furry or

00:17:35.720 something like like in case she missed something she put a plus at the end in case 16 letters

00:17:41.660 wasn't enough like it's unbelievable some of the stuff especially if you go back their convention

00:17:47.360 a week before was a joke too and did they have two s in there i i i can't remember now because

00:17:54.520 that's okay because there's that's supposed to be the two-spirited thing and that's the two-spirit

00:17:58.420 yeah they become redundant as they try to cover all their ground and and contradict themselves

00:18:04.500 and it was a great follow-up from their own convention uh yeah you know what are your

00:18:10.180 thoughts on that in looking at opinion and everything the federal ndp i mean the ccf

00:18:14.900 saskatchewan that was the heartland of populist i guess democratic socialism you could say but

00:18:21.620 what on earth is this today i i mean i i see that uh saskatchewan's independent leader has been the 0.97

00:18:27.460 the most moziferous and saying, you know, I have nothing to do with these clowns, you 0.82

00:18:32.240 know, is that party done in Saskatchewan federally, you think? 0.93

00:18:37.440 Well, the Sask NDP, like the provincial party, they're in opposition here. We only have two

00:18:42.940 parties in Saskatchewan basically that get elected, which is the Sask party, which is

00:18:46.480 our sort of version of Conservative Party. And then you have the Sask NDP. I do know that

00:18:52.520 Karla Beck has almost no direct contact with Jagmeet Singh for a long time.

00:18:59.780 Like there was nothing going on between the two of them.

00:19:04.200 Even at their convention a couple of years ago when he was still the leader of the NDP,

00:19:09.300 they brought him in on a Zoom call.

00:19:11.180 They didn't even actually bring him into the convention, which is what normally would happen.

00:19:16.000 And I've talked to several SAS NDP MLAs who have told me off the record,

00:19:22.120 But like they have no connection to the federal party and that they have absolutely their policies are so different.

00:19:30.480 Like, like, for example, the NDP here in the province is not like super anti oil or anything like they're for responsible use of, you know, getting oil out of the ground and mining and stuff.

00:19:40.560 All the things that actually drive this is to capture an economy.

00:19:44.000 The like the two parties, if you line them up federally and provincially, it would not look like the same party.

00:19:49.340 But even after Lewis got in as the leader, I mean, Carla Beck the next day put out a press release saying we disagree with X, Y, Z and made a full list of like, no, we don't agree with anything that the federal party is basically doing.

00:20:04.320 So there is basically no connection between the two right now.

00:20:07.440 yeah no no spoken connection but one thing that is a connection that both in the head and h-e-n

00:20:12.960 and carla beck can't avoid and i'm sure scott moe and uh uh daniel smith in alberta i mean

00:20:20.220 they're just going to keep hammering them with that though is constitutionally they're tied

00:20:23.840 together even if they are emotionally used that way it's it's hard to deny that you're beholden

00:20:29.600 to them when it's written right in your your thing do you think there might be a move for

00:20:33.520 to finally formally say you know what we've got to break away and be fully independent from the

00:20:38.460 federal uh entity well saskatchewan's a weird province that way um they tend to once they

00:20:46.000 vote a party out they basically never voted back in they just like the sass party when it was

00:20:51.240 founded it was a combination of people who left both the conservative and the liberal party like

00:20:55.640 the progressive conservative party and actually the progressive conservative party still exists

00:20:58.800 in the province they just don't get elected um but it was a merger of the two because it's the

00:21:03.400 only way they were ever going to beat the NDP because they were just back then, and this was

00:21:09.200 25 years ago, Liberal Party and Conservative Party were kind of closer before all the stuff that's

00:21:14.160 happened in the last, you know, 10 years or so where there's been drastic change. I mean, we used

00:21:18.760 to talk about the parties all trying to sit on the center seat, and now no one wants the center seat.

00:21:23.920 Politics has changed drastically since the South Party came into existence. So it wouldn't surprise

00:21:29.300 me because even in the last election we had a new Conservative Party called SAS

00:21:33.080 United here they did fairly well with the Buffalo Party they did fairly well

00:21:38.120 like they came in second in a lot of ridings both well the Buffalo and the

00:21:43.100 SAS United Party and neither one got anyone elected but they did you know

00:21:47.300 they got significant percentage of the vote I don't know if the SAS NDP would

00:21:52.680 rename or not if they did I think they'd want to do it a couple years before an

00:21:56.180 election. And then people would get to know the name ahead of time. But yeah, it's definitely

00:22:04.740 a weight around Saskia MVP to be connected to the federal MVP. So coming up for our viewers from 0.85

00:22:12.000 outside of Saskatchewan, though, I mean, how is Scott Moe doing? He's becoming kind of more of

00:22:16.040 one of the senior premiers in Canada now. Actually, he's been in for a fair amount of time. Eventually,

00:22:21.460 every political leader starts to kind of wear thin on the supporters and so on are there

00:22:26.660 indications he might be looking to move along or is he still hanging in there and is his popularity

00:22:31.780 still strong his popularity is still strong um there was another election today the south party

00:22:37.640 would still be in uh probably somewhere around the same amount of seats um it's funny i actually

00:22:43.640 asked him not this christmas but the christmas interview before that what he wanted to do after

00:22:47.060 politics uh and he he had never been asked that question before i found it after uh they never

00:22:55.180 even prepped him for that question because it was just assumed he was going to be here forever

00:22:58.840 i just thought it'd be interesting to find out what he wanted to do after politics because he

00:23:02.500 was what he had done before and been in politics for at that point and he's been in about 15 16

00:23:09.640 years now uh he's been leader since 2017 so he's coming up on 10 years as leader as well

00:23:16.260 And his popularity is good.

00:23:17.580 Like people like Scott Moe.

00:23:19.460 I mean, there are issues in the province, health care in particular, we're having a lot of issues with.

00:23:25.140 But at the same time, I think people are getting a lot of slack because the same problem is happening in every other province.

00:23:31.000 So it's not like people are like, oh, well, it's so bad here, but it's so much better next door in Manitoba or Alberta.

00:23:37.700 It's like everybody has the same problem recruiting, retaining staff, et cetera.

00:23:41.700 um so because it's a problem across canada it's not the same weight on his popularity and on the

00:23:49.080 sas party because i think people kind of understand it's a canada-wide issue it's not

00:23:53.740 just the saskatchewan issue so a lot of the ways that his popularity and particularly the sas party's

00:23:59.920 popularity could go down it's not just because i think people are understanding of how the issue

00:24:04.660 is across canada and i'm not sure he's going to run again in 2028 at the next provincial election

00:24:10.640 or he'll step down before that because at that point he'll be going on 12 years as leader and

00:24:16.240 that's a long time state leader of a party i mean sometimes people just need to change

00:24:20.720 their face at the top like they did when brad wall left and scott moe came in uh so i don't know if

00:24:26.080 he's gonna make it to 2028 but probably yeah there's a lot of parallels between saskatchewan

00:24:32.720 and alberta and in our politics and in our interviews uh and the independence movement

00:24:37.440 in saskatchewan has been simmering at a similar level 20 30 perhaps it's not insignificant and

00:24:43.440 we've got now a carny majority which i imagine has upset some conservative leaning uh saskatchewan

00:24:49.040 residents and so on but there isn't a vent for the independence movement in saskatchewan right now

00:24:56.080 though i don't think there's as much of the ground organization kind of pushing yet but they're

00:24:59.040 getting together uh there's no mechanism to petition and try to invoke a referendum but

00:25:05.440 But the Saskatchewan Prosperity Project, they have been holding meetings and trying to build that base so they can pressure the Moe government.

00:25:11.280 Do you think at some point, Scott Moe might bring in Citizens Initiative legislation to kind of at least take that pressure off his flank?

00:25:19.320 Well, the polls actually have shown that support for independence in Saskatchewan is actually higher than Alberta.

00:25:28.840 And that's without much of an organization.

00:25:32.060 Now, the Saskatchewan Prosperity Project has been doing some events.

00:25:35.200 I was at another event a while back and it was it was at one of the larger convention halls here in Regina.

00:25:42.880 Part of it was talking about independence. And then it was like a conservative type convention done by a group here that does once a year.

00:25:51.020 They do a weekend and they bring in speakers. Sometimes they're in person, sometimes they're on Zoom.

00:25:56.700 So I was there actually covering it as as a journalist. But, yeah, there was a couple of independent speakers there.

00:26:03.120 And I was at another event run by the Buffalo Party that was also Independence Conference.

00:26:11.200 It was well attended. So both those ones that I went to were sold out and they were ones that you had to pay to go to.

00:26:17.000 The three ones like the SAS Prosperity is doing, like they're they're filling up whatever space they can get.

00:26:23.640 So I think there's an appetite for it, particularly now that people feel like Kenny, or sorry, not Kenny, Carney kind of like stole his way into a majority because we didn't elect a liberal majority government.

00:26:38.760 It was it was by five people leaving their parties and going over to the liberals that did it.

00:26:44.960 And I can tell you, I was at an event last night.

00:26:49.060 People were not happy.

00:26:51.620 And it wasn't even a political event that I was at.

00:26:53.880 They were just not happy at how Carney got his majority.

00:26:57.320 And that's what I mean.

00:26:59.740 But you see, there's a hazard that something like the Buffalo Party or something like that could start gaining a foothold.

00:27:06.060 It's my view, I believe, anyways.

00:27:07.960 I mean, independence parties in Alberta haven't been able to do that, though some people have tried.

00:27:12.080 But it's because the independence movement is focused on a petition.

00:27:14.980 It's kept their energy on that.

00:27:17.260 And rather than going after the government in power, I would think there's a hazard of something forming that could be a vote splitter anyways for the SAS party if they can't give a mechanism to those people who want to pursue independence.

00:27:31.420 So this is kind of why I was wondering if maybe they would be looking at bringing something.

00:27:35.040 It's a balancing act because, of course, you know, the opposition will say, well, if you're bringing that in, it means you support independence.

00:27:39.180 Well, not necessarily. It just means you're supporting having that vote.

00:27:43.100 And it doesn't seem to be hurting Premier Smith. They've been calling her separatist solidly for six months now, and her support's climbing.

00:27:49.140 So, yeah, I mean, Scott Moe has been questioned during question period in the legislature about whether or not he would support, you know, an independence petition or whatever in the province and allow it to go to a referendum.

00:28:04.440 And he has said that, you know, he's. For the time being, he has not made any indication that he would support Saskatchewan leaving Canada.

00:28:19.180 However, he has said that he would support the will of the people if there was enough signatures to run a referendum here in Saskatchewan.

00:28:28.140 And there's actually even if you get enough signatures on a petition, it still has to be approved by the governments to actually go to a referendum.

00:28:38.920 It doesn't automatically trigger it. So there's there's that in it as well.

00:28:44.920 So they've even been asked, like, well, if there's enough signatures to do a referendum, would you allow it?

00:28:51.720 And once again, the answer there was, you know, we'll do whatever the will of people is.

00:28:58.140 So he's not going to stand in the way, but he's not out there championing it either.

00:29:02.280 Yeah, no, it's a difficult balancing act.

00:29:04.480 They're both kind of playing the same.

00:29:05.680 Again, it's just been interesting to watch how both provinces are moving so similarly.

00:29:09.240 So, you know, before I let you go, I mean, you're covering all things opinion as well as the opinion editor and watching things in Saskatchewan.

00:29:16.300 What should we be watching you for and your province for in the next coming days?

00:29:22.800 Well, the stats legislature is still sitting right now.

00:29:26.020 However, there's not much exciting stuff going on. Budget's already kind of been presented and going through the for the opinion.

00:29:34.800 We have a ton of stuff coming in on Carney from all kinds of different angles with how he got his majority.

00:29:39.980 We already have a couple up, including former opinion editor Nigel Haniferts.

00:29:43.760 His was up earlier today on the conservatives.

00:29:47.880 And basically, his argument is like, you've got to bet these candidates better because you've got four that, you know, jumped ship since November and gave Carney a majority.

00:29:58.580 So that's an excellent read.

00:29:59.780 I'll read Nigel's column.

00:30:00.720 It's very interesting.

00:30:02.000 But, yeah, there's other columns up there as well that are connected to Carney.

00:30:05.440 And then we also have some other ones on some other issues coming up, too, that are very important.

00:30:10.100 A lot of stuff on independence related stuff.

00:30:13.760 as well as we've got a couple on education coming up that'll be up on the weekend that are quite

00:30:18.720 interesting right on well i know you've got your hands full in a lot of content that you're working

00:30:23.520 through so i appreciate you taking some time to talk to us today about you know your own one that

00:30:27.680 came out recently and and just stuff out in saskatchewan that we don't we don't watch nearly

00:30:32.000 closely as as we should so thank you for that and thank you for keeping on all that opinion content

00:30:38.160 for us and i'm sure we'll talk again soon chris sounds good thank you very much gory all right

00:30:42.320 thanks so that is our opinion editor chris old corn and yeah much like dave you know just running

00:30:47.120 hard lots on the go things are happening so uh yeah saskatchewan a lot of parallels let's get

00:30:53.280 through some of these comments again uh carol scoby saying it can snow every month in the year

00:30:56.960 in alberta there's some truth to that it's not unique that it's happening in april but it just

00:31:01.120 keeps happening over and over and over and over again if it would just give us a bit of a break

00:31:06.000 uh save canada one two three saying 50 plus one is all it takes to join canada and that's all it

00:31:11.040 it takes to leave some people have talked about that when we're talking about independence votes

00:31:14.620 and things because you know that was kind of the formula for newfoundland to come in

00:31:17.720 but getting realistic a couple of things the clarity acts is a clear majority not a simple

00:31:22.300 majority 50 plus one is a simple majority and unfortunately it's one area where the clarity

00:31:27.080 act isn't very clear at all because well what's a clear majority i'm just want to talk about

00:31:32.220 pragmatically realistically if it's under 55 it's not going to happen i'm just saying that

00:31:37.860 There will be so many challenges, protests, pushbacks, things going on.

00:31:42.440 It will be mired in that for years.

00:31:45.320 It would go much like Brexit, whereas Brexit got the momentum, they got it moving, they

00:31:51.900 got it across the line, and then things never really kind of came together afterwards because

00:31:56.180 they didn't have a strong enough mandate to push back on the politicians who were fighting

00:31:59.660 it from within.

00:32:00.880 So just an independent supporter should be shooting for 55% to 60% to be realistic if

00:32:05.600 you're really looking to get out.

00:32:06.640 it really the worst we could possibly get would be 50 plus one because it does put everything

00:32:13.080 make it stall and and go on hold but uh it doesn't get us there uh let's see cbc cbc doesn't the

00:32:23.060 conservative party doesn't want alberta to separate well no they're a federal party and uh

00:32:27.540 it's just you know people going after smith saying she should come out in support of independence or

00:32:32.020 poly that's why we don't bother with the party system with independence it has to be advocates

00:32:36.400 they're not going to come out in support of it they can't it's not their mandate but uh you know

00:32:41.200 we still need to also have a provincial government and do what we can with our federal mps until a

00:32:45.600 promise becomes independent so you know be a little pragmatic but they're not going to come

00:32:48.800 out in support of it uh barbie hill saying uh had a great time in lacrete with corey yeah great to

00:32:53.200 see you up there barbie i appreciate the work and everything you guys are doing in the north

00:32:56.880 i tell you that's where the the hub of great people and independence movement is it's strong

00:33:01.920 up there uh let's see what else we got here i like pierre but this is a far deeper movement

00:33:09.360 uh it's for the children and future generations sorry pierre but candace toast yeah like you

00:33:14.480 know people are frustrated they're throwing their hands up especially when we see uh

00:33:21.280 the majority this is the very first time a majority government has come through

00:33:24.960 just floor crossers just floor crossers floor crossers have been around they've come and gone

00:33:29.120 over the years they've impacted governments impacted policy but not to the point of actually

00:33:34.320 changing the government from a minority to a majority and yeah that's got a lot of people

00:33:38.640 pretty ticked off especially when you get pure gross opportunistic ones like gladi you know

00:33:47.120 look jenneru in edmonton he was always a liberal anyways he was just looking for a way to get a seat

00:33:51.920 he always was i'm surprised he lasted as long as he did before he crossed uh gladiou though i mean

00:33:58.000 an established conservative been there for over 10 years i believe more conservative than me in

00:34:04.480 most regards socially for sure and then joining the liberals oh they offered her something nice

00:34:10.160 let's not pretend they offered her something nice that builds cynicism that builds a sense of

00:34:16.480 futility and that is what leads to things like an independence movement you know we've had it

00:34:21.440 and that's why again you know some people might like polyev or others but they're just saying

00:34:25.040 what's the point anymore right uh somebody's saying smith will do whatever queen charles

00:34:32.420 tells her to do i'm not sure where you're going there okay uh either way the monarchy that came

00:34:36.940 up in the question the other night i was speaking in hilda hilda last i didn't get home till

00:34:40.560 near two in the morning the monarchy is irrelevant it really is it's just a past thing

00:34:46.060 it's it's it's a for the people thinking the king could stop independence or uh you know it's just 0.89

00:34:51.340 as bad as those indigenous people going over thinking he can step in he can't he won't it's

00:34:55.660 irrelevant let's get into contemporary times to talk about what we're doing we're breaking out

00:34:59.620 of a system here uh joel saying paul's pizza is great no press is bad press so yeah the owner of

00:35:05.040 paul's pizza and there's some of the things i get a chuckle out of and yeah he's got a pretty

00:35:09.080 narrowly sense of humor you know with the joke he made about the mmlbq wxyz but whatever he's

00:35:17.720 been going on for years with this he was on my show a couple of years ago you could see the old

00:35:20.900 one about that. These guys have come after him. But his name is Farouk. And he keeps getting

00:35:27.140 called a white nationalist. I just get a chuckle out of that. I mean, I don't know. I don't have

00:35:30.760 the NDP equity card handy to see what the point system is. But as far as I can tell, Farouk ain't

00:35:38.440 a white bread sort of fella. But that's the always the immediate response to the left isn't. That's

00:35:43.260 all they've got. That's all he goes is just keep throwing that out there, smearing that out there

00:35:46.900 for Barry. Well, it's falling flat. And people like Joel pointing out it's great pizza and no

00:35:52.300 press is bad press. Well, sometimes there's bad press, but it's still at this point, I think a

00:35:58.820 lot more people are going out and testing the pizza out than anything that was lost because 0.96

00:36:01.820 most people don't care and they are sick of the idiocy and acronyms and endless victimhood. 0.98

00:36:08.540 When we talk about that missing and murdered Aboriginal Indigenous woman thing, I mean, that's been one of those other failures. 0.99

00:36:18.960 That's a Trudeau initiative. They put the whole commission together, all the works, and realistically, whatever happened, because they really thought it was some sort of conspiracy, right?

00:36:26.640 There's been people stealing Indigenous women and raping them and murdering them and hiding them, and they've been unsolved, and the authorities aren't trying to track down who did it and all of this, and what did it turn out to be?

00:36:38.540 It did turn out there are more women going missing and being murdered in the Indigenous community.

00:36:45.600 But the solve rate for those murders and such is as high or higher for the Indigenous woman as for anybody else. 0.93

00:36:53.820 And it's because most of the crimes are committed by other Indigenous people.

00:36:57.560 That's the conclusion that it wasn't a white nationalist conspiracy.

00:37:01.660 It was massive social disorder and distress and the horrific nightmare that's going on in the reserves.

00:37:07.420 uh abused neglected impoverished troubled and drug abusing young ladies are often running off

00:37:15.860 from the reserves you saw them in the vancouver's lower east side 30 years ago and you're still 0.97

00:37:20.080 seeing them today and it's getting worse because we keep hanging on to this broken ridiculous system 0.90

00:37:25.340 of apartheid we call the indian reserve system so get used to it quit trying to blame whitey for it 0.81

00:37:31.060 it's the system guys and it's not going away but then they make it sacred right they make it the

00:37:37.300 way you can't even question those that acronym is as absurd as it then you're you're dissing

00:37:42.200 these poor murdered and missing indigenous women no we aren't but people are pushing back against 1.00

00:37:46.860 the stupid narrative the tiresome narrative that keeps trying to blame everyone else rather than 0.99

00:37:53.720 it just accepted that we got to change this system or it's gonna get worse it's gonna get worse and 1.00

00:37:58.440 I drove on the way to Hilda yesterday Hilda's way over north of onto the Saskatchewan border

00:38:04.400 for Medicine Hat. I went through

00:38:06.420 because it's straight through and it's a public highway. 1.00

00:38:08.340 The Siksika Reserve, those clowns who charged me 0.94

00:38:10.460 with trespassing. I took a couple pictures on my way 0.83

00:38:12.420 through. From the public highway, guys.

00:38:14.860 The houses are still falling apart. 0.67

00:38:17.120 Garbage is still all over.

00:38:18.300 The wild dogs are still running around, boarded 0.69

00:38:20.360 up places. Junk

00:38:22.320 on the lawns. 0.98

00:38:24.380 They just got $1.3 billion from Trudeau

00:38:26.440 four years ago. What happened? Where's

00:38:28.360 it gone? I don't know. But it sure hasn't

00:38:30.280 gone to building houses. I thought I was in Tijuana

00:38:32.100 for a minute. But it was windier.

00:38:34.400 weren't palm trees so we got to start questioning these things we got to stop letting these activists

00:38:40.080 these chiefs these losers and these lia guys and say we can't talk about it and uh cancelling

00:38:45.440 somebody like uh you know farook or trying to with his pizza place because he mocked it oh well 0.89

00:38:51.920 maybe don't give him the material to work with uh let's see

00:38:56.560 weird we never used to have these problems um just trying to catch up on the comments uh

00:39:06.100 republic of alberta ruck and ruckine hound yeah okay so that you solve a lot of problems for

00:39:10.120 albertans maybe uh j the albertans say 58 percent of people might be against us but if half of them

00:39:17.160 don't turn up the vote uh they won't matter okay here's something with the independence movement

00:39:20.680 as well to keep in mind when quebec held their referendum 93 percent of people came out with

00:39:26.420 something this big, this important, people are going to come out. It's going to be a high

00:39:31.140 turnout referendum. It's going to be big. You got to win it. Somebody else pointed out the 42%

00:39:37.200 number. We're seeing polls all over the place. I keep saying 30 because you know what? I've seen

00:39:41.300 them as low as 20. I saw that 42. I don't believe the 42. I don't believe the 20. When the spread

00:39:47.080 is that huge, that 42, if you break down that poll, comes more into people saying, would you

00:39:52.200 vote that way as a negotiating tool rather than wanting to go. When you start asking questions

00:39:56.700 and polls that get that long, guys, those are leading and they're push polls. And to be honest,

00:40:00.840 they're not terribly accurate. The reality is though, independent support is stronger than ever.

00:40:05.400 It does have momentum and it's growing. As I said, with the Brexit thing, very possible

00:40:13.700 that it could move on into an independence vote, a positive one coming, but it's up to us. We will 0.65

00:40:20.640 see what happens so we said they're getting too old for this nonsense i hear you uh boy we got a

00:40:25.960 lot of comments today i really appreciate it be patient with me as i scroll through it uh canada's

00:40:30.960 broken a common one uh troglonite saying albert ottawa can either let albert go peacefully or and

00:40:37.520 then the dots yeah i don't know and the main thing the strength has to be in a solid large vote you

00:40:44.660 got to win again that's what i'm talking about 55 60 or more i would rather and i know some people

00:40:49.820 get upset and debate with me i'd rather see 48 than 52 because with 48 we can keep things rolling

00:40:58.600 having another one in four or six years and probably turn that into the 55 or 60 or more we

00:41:02.620 need but 52 that's a disaster that puts it on the shelf for years that's the instability

00:41:08.820 we're gonna have to worry about um somebody else saying you know why do you think the confiscation

00:41:16.040 is ramping up yeah they're coming for the firearms but they're failing that's another

00:41:18.840 fun program to talk about isn't it uh you know they want it but nobody's participating this is

00:41:24.280 going to fail just like every other initiative that's come out of them recently uh you know we

00:41:31.320 can be critical of the provincial government and things here's one of the areas i want to hit on a

00:41:34.840 bit and that's the gas tax the fuel tax in alberta the premier smith not cutting it all right this

00:41:42.120 is where you want to get on the provincial government's case rather no she should be

00:41:45.640 be outright becoming an independent supporter. There's one of the more clownish people who heads 0.99

00:41:50.880 the independence movement in some ways and speaks for quite often. He's just got an incredible chip 0.87

00:41:54.780 on his shoulder when it comes to Premier Smith, wasting a lot of energy going after her when he

00:41:59.560 really should just stick to putting out, try to get that yes vote. Either way, there's things that

00:42:03.720 Smith needs to be criticized on, not trying to turn her into an open secessionist, but why on earth is 0.80

00:42:09.100 she not cutting the gas tax? Come on, I don't care because they're saying we got our own law and we

00:42:13.760 don't cut it until July 1st you guys write the law you've got a majority and you're also for every

00:42:20.780 dollar the price of a barrel oil rises the Alberta government gets about 700 million dollars in their

00:42:27.260 budget okay and I understand that's over the course of a year but still we're talking oil has gone up

00:42:34.100 by what 60 70 dollars and it's been hanging there and it's going to for a while we can afford to cut

00:42:40.640 the gas tax and if you can't afford to cut the gas tax it really does mean you're spending

00:42:44.900 way way way too much so cut some spending be conservative that's the critique we need

00:42:50.840 and that's how we need to keep pushing our honor uh let's see uh i support any independence for uh

00:42:59.520 if people vote for independence parties there's a fear the ndp slipping into power again i hear you

00:43:03.320 and it's not just a fear thankfully uh you know the only real kind of party going is the republican

00:43:08.060 party and it's led by a knob and it's not going anywhere. But if, if Smith doesn't allow a

00:43:15.720 referendum to get going, I don't think the Republican party will get anywhere, but somebody

00:43:19.560 rational and reasonable might get up and form something. And that could split that vote and

00:43:24.160 that could set things way back. So just watch this movement, watch it for, as an activist rather than

00:43:31.120 a party activist though, because you're just going to cause more damage than you want. One more thing

00:43:35.940 that's been in there and we're looking into some of that. Let's get on with some of our fine folks

00:43:42.080 on the Indigenous reserves because it's a huge issue and we need to have the courage to talk

00:43:45.300 about them. There's a chief up in Fort Mac or Fort Chip or up there somewhere claiming that

00:43:49.740 the cancer rates are way above for Indigenous people and everybody else. Well, they are, 1.00

00:43:55.880 but they are in every reserve, not just up there. He's blaming it on oil and gas. And of course,

00:44:00.220 it was his own study that he commissioned to find this alleged rise in cancer rates. Guys,

00:44:05.180 Indigenous people suffer from higher cancer rates on every reserve in Canada.

00:44:09.080 And let's get to the point.

00:44:10.220 They're socially distressed, go onto a reserve, and meet some of the people.

00:44:13.760 That's why I shoot the videos on there, and let's show it.

00:44:16.340 And what's happening?

00:44:17.700 Well, they're chain-smoking, living on Cheetos and cornflakes and pop.

00:44:22.200 They're drinking a lot.

00:44:23.540 These things all cause a lot of cancer, more so than other areas.

00:44:27.760 You want to get upset with me?

00:44:29.800 Prove otherwise.

00:44:30.820 anybody who's claiming that not true has not been on a reserve as well if the oil sands was causing

00:44:37.280 higher cancer rates it would be hitting everybody on the reserve on the river up there and throughout

00:44:42.180 that area not just that reserve all we're seeing is somebody else throwing something else just like

00:44:46.860 the the hoax and cam loops let's make a fake myth about things that are happening and then ask for

00:44:53.020 more money they always do 12 million dollars to try and find bodies without actually looking here's

00:44:59.080 a neat one. Oh, cheese, a commenter. Let's leave it at that saying, respect our treaties. And that's

00:45:03.540 what I'm doing. Your treaty said that 98.7% of Alberta is forever permanently seeded. You can

00:45:09.580 keep your 1.3%. The rest of us are leaving. Pay your own bloody bills. All right. I'll leave it

00:45:14.420 at that. Happy note, guys. Thank you very much for tuning in today. Well, I'd make sure to watch

00:45:19.540 the pipeline tonight and check this out next week at this time. I really appreciate all those

00:45:24.120 comments. I couldn't keep up with them today. That's the way I like to see it happening. Lots

00:45:27.220 of interaction because there's lots going on and I can learn some lessons here too. So thanks for

00:45:31.560 tuning in. See you next week at this time.

00:45:57.220 You

Western Standard - April 15, 2026

Premier Smith must schedule an independence referendum

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