Western Standard - The independence movement isn’t going away no matter what the referendum results are

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:29.320 welcome to the cory morgan show we're going to be covering another insane week in western

00:00:34.760 canadian politics you know one comfort we can always take as albertans that no matter how zany

00:00:40.280 and weird our politics get and how much uh odd stuff is happening bc is just blowing us out of

00:00:45.960 the water and try to keep up with the political scene on what's going on out there uh for those

00:00:52.120 watching live by all means use that comment scroll send thoughts this way questions this way and you

00:00:58.600 you know just have a little discourse just keep things civil good to see al burton checking in

00:01:03.320 and gail uh yeah we're gonna have a good conversation today i got drew barnes coming

00:01:09.000 on in a little while you might remember him from his days as a wild rose member of the legislature

00:01:13.640 at medicine hat he's got a new initiative it looks like he's trying to get something going

00:01:17.800 federally that's gonna be a very interesting conversation i kind of i kind of like where

00:01:22.360 he's going though i'm certain some people will be conflicted on it i guess i'm gonna start this off

00:01:27.240 though with some bad news at least bad news for those who think that the referendum on october

00:01:33.720 19th is going to make the independence go movement go away not going to happen guys but there was a

00:01:38.840 recent study published by a legacy media outlet and they interviewed several pro-independence

00:01:44.040 advocates including myself i do talk to them we were asked what we would do if the referendum

00:01:49.640 results in 19 october 19th in alberta don't support continuing towards a binding referendum

00:01:54.920 in the near future and myself and the others answered that well we just continue campaigning

00:01:59.320 for alberta's independence and federalists online were furious they howled that the independence

00:02:04.920 movement wouldn't respect democracy as typical with the federalist left they don't have a deep

00:02:09.480 understanding of democracy much less any respect for it when a political party loses an election

00:02:15.000 do they fold up shop and dissolve the party does a an election forever settle who should govern a

00:02:21.160 jurisdiction of course not the losing political party or parties regroup re-evaluate their

00:02:26.200 campaigns and begin preparing for the next opportunity to contest an election they don't

00:02:29.960 sit silently in the years leading up to the next democratic exercise they spend that time trying to

00:02:35.000 shape public perception along with reconsidering their own messaging in hopes of winning the next

00:02:39.480 time or if it's a a new conservative party like the one in bc they dedicate their time to ripping

00:02:44.840 their own party to shreds and hope they can rebuild themselves for the next vote which it

00:02:48.680 it turns out is going to be right away, but that's fodder for a whole different

00:02:51.740 column. The point is they don't give up and they don't sit idle. Independence

00:02:56.840 advocates are no different. If indeed a majority of Albertans select option one

00:03:01.160 on a question ten, and we're certainly still gunning for option two, I mean guys

00:03:05.640 like me will respect the outcome of the referendum, but it doesn't mean we're

00:03:08.780 gonna stop making our case. To demand another referendum in the immediate

00:03:12.320 future, yeah that would be unreasonable and that would disrespect the choice of

00:03:15.080 Albertans, but to continue to work to create the winning conditions for a

00:03:20.020 referendum a few years down the road only makes sense for those who are

00:03:23.000 committed to Alberta's independence. Most Albertans understand this, even if the

00:03:27.900 reactive souls in social media don't. Polling by applicant data has found that

00:03:31.440 only 15 percent of respondents thought that the referendum would settle the

00:03:35.180 question for a generation, and 63 percent felt that this issue is going to keep

00:03:40.220 Albertans divided for years to come. Nearly half of the supporters for option

00:03:44.260 to feel the independence movement is going to continue to grow regardless of the outcome on

00:03:48.500 October 19th. For the independence issue to be resolved, something substantive must change in

00:03:54.180 Alberta and in Canada. Even if a strong majority of Albertans choose option one in the referendum,

00:03:59.460 and again, I hope they don't, the underlying issues that created the alienation that led to

00:04:04.120 the referendum in the first place will not have changed. For the unity issue to be resolved,

00:04:08.740 Canada needs structural changes, not just a change in political parties or attitude from the federal

00:04:13.800 government federalists wanting the issue to come to an end should be examining ways to achieve

00:04:20.520 constitutional reforms within the federation western alienation has been festering and growing

00:04:24.760 in canada for decades and the growth is going to continue as long as we have the status quo

00:04:29.720 meanwhile quebec's inching closer towards yet another referendum on independence

00:04:33.320 and we've got multiple provinces putting unity to the question it can't be denied that there's

00:04:37.720 something inherently wrong with the country's system on the independent side of thing advocates

00:04:42.520 will have to examine their own stance and understand why they didn't get their cause

00:04:46.160 over the line, if indeed it doesn't this time. Adding more depth to their case through studies

00:04:51.560 and policy papers can help, along with pushing for more sovereignty incrementally, like decoupling

00:04:57.940 the province from the federation through the Canada Pension Plan. They should follow Quebec's

00:05:02.380 lead in pursuing things such as a provincial pension plan, police force, and bringing home

00:05:07.120 the collection of corporate taxes. They can't sit and wait for the flawed system to do their job

00:05:12.640 for them. I mean, the status quo left unchecked, yeah, will lead to independence, but it's going

00:05:17.300 to be a slow and painful way to get there. We should advocate and be proactive. People are

00:05:21.180 understandably tired of the debate. Normal election campaigns are five-week affairs. This

00:05:25.400 referendum campaign is going to be over five months. Pointing at the referendum itself as

00:05:29.800 the source of the problem, though, or thinking it's going to fully resolve the issue is wrong

00:05:33.900 thinking it didn't come out of nowhere and the sources of discontent must be addressed

00:05:39.740 with it appeasing with it appearing that over a third of albertans are ready to walk down the

00:05:44.380 path to provincial independence the movement can't be dismissed or ignored people concluded

00:05:49.580 that canada's broken through decades of provincial inequity under an imbalanced federation most

00:05:55.020 committed independent supporters aren't flash in the pan advocates for the concept there's

00:05:59.580 a movement that's built a strong foundation which can't be can't be quelled it's hard to read the

00:06:05.660 teleprompter today by a referendum vote advocacy groups politicians and other political figures

00:06:11.260 in the independence movement may come and go but the movement itself guys it's not going anywhere

00:06:16.860 anytime soon so again i just want to reiterate we're shooting for the goal posts but if we don't

00:06:21.660 get there we're still not done so uh settle in guys how's it going dave good trouble with the

00:06:27.180 the word quelled. Well, you can see it's dark for some reason a little bit. You know, hard on my

00:06:32.280 squinting middle-aged eyes. You must be so looking forward to the 20th of October. I am. I mean,

00:06:37.300 I'm looking forward to a good outcome, but I'm also just looking forward to a breather, as I said

00:06:40.960 in that column. I mean, five months, that's a long campaign. How many kilometers have you traveled,

00:06:45.340 do you think? Oh, I have no idea. It must be thousands and thousands. Oh, a lot. I mean,

00:06:48.520 I'm driving Uber a lot less. So, I mean, you know, on the car, I guess, but it's longer distances.

00:06:52.820 Every week I'm going to at least a couple or a few towns to public events.

00:06:56.620 Well, there you go then.

00:06:58.620 So you'll never guess who's leading off with the news again today.

00:07:01.500 It's Donald Trump.

00:07:02.520 Gee.

00:07:03.000 Donald Trump, what a surprise, man.

00:07:04.980 He tweeted bright and early this morning that Canada's heading for a disaster

00:07:09.800 because of all this unchecked immigration. 0.99

00:07:13.900 Can't really say he's wrong. 0.98

00:07:16.160 No, and, you know, we offer him low-hanging fruit.

00:07:20.400 which we can't complain when he takes a swing at it.

00:07:23.760 Exactly.

00:07:25.000 Speaking of Trump, City Council in Ottawa has voted to rename Trump Avenue.

00:07:30.120 It was in a sort of a neighborhood where everything's named after Americans,

00:07:34.580 and they named it after him 20 years ago when he was a prominent real estate developer.

00:07:38.880 Okay, I saw that headline in the Standard.

00:07:40.160 I was just wondering, though, was it just something that happened to be named Trump,

00:07:43.000 or was it actually named after him in the first place?

00:07:45.120 It was. It appears it was named after him in the first place.

00:07:47.700 So I have a $10 bet with Waleed Tantam, our Ottawa guy, thinking that it's going to be some sort of Indigenous name that's unpronounceable to anybody, including the Indigenous.

00:07:59.800 That's the trend these days, true enough, trading one problem for another.

00:08:05.020 What did you think of the B.C. election call yesterday?

00:08:08.400 Boy, what a pure exercise in crass opportunism.

00:08:12.280 I mean, people saw it coming, but boy, it's just blatant. 1.00

00:08:15.240 And I think it's going to bite him on the ass. 1.00

00:08:17.020 I think they're in big trouble. 1.00

00:08:19.300 And judging by the social media reaction, which, of course, isn't everything,

00:08:24.600 B.C. people aren't happy.

00:08:26.000 No.

00:08:26.360 And especially at the exact same time as municipal elections are going on.

00:08:31.740 I mean, they must be getting doorknocked to death. 0.99

00:08:34.280 Yeah, and, you know, he's counting on the Conservatives not getting their crap together 0.99

00:08:38.700 in the next 30-some days to pull this off. 0.88

00:08:41.960 But it's a desperation move as much as an opportunistic one.

00:08:44.800 I mean, you know, the Conservatives were imploding, but with two more years, they could have gotten it together, and he was sinking.

00:08:50.020 But it just, this is the sort of thing that makes people give up in politics.

00:08:52.960 Exactly. I agree.

00:08:54.580 The head of Imperial Oil has come out and put his company directly on the side of federalism, saying separation would be obviously a huge problem.

00:09:05.780 You were by my computer today.

00:09:07.500 We were watching the highlights of the Acro Canine crew.

00:09:10.880 Yeah.

00:09:11.380 They're awesome.

00:09:12.620 They are.

00:09:13.340 This is a group of young Edmonton girls and their dogs who are wowing the judges on America's Got Talent.

00:09:20.280 And even Daniel Smith made an appearance last night.

00:09:23.980 So if you haven't seen it, go on to our website.

00:09:26.320 The video is there.

00:09:29.020 Elizabeth May obviously got into the drinks cabinet yesterday where she said the Alberta to BC West Coast pipeline, there's no business case for it.

00:09:38.980 But I guess she hasn't seen all the tankers heading towards Asia from her Saanich office.

00:09:45.140 Well, they're a little blurry in the distance.

00:09:46.760 She's actually seen twice as many as most people would.

00:09:49.200 That is true.

00:09:49.940 That is true.

00:09:51.020 We got a cool video of a plane that was forced to land on a highway in Banff National Park, Trans-Canada Highway.

00:09:57.420 So plane landed, pilot got out, fixed something in the engine, took off again.

00:10:02.240 So I'm not sure I'd be wanting to fly over the mountains after that. 1.00

00:10:05.020 federal government good story out of black locks reporter today they built a thousand muslim prayer 0.98

00:10:12.020 rooms in federal buildings across the country in the last year well that's money well spent now

00:10:18.900 isn't it it is i think only two percent of federal workers are muslim but i guess they carry a lot

00:10:25.180 of weight give it time and a hate unusual hate crime in calgary these two guys saw a woman go 0.60

00:10:32.360 into an outdoor porta potty so they decided the thing to do would be to turn it upside down with

00:10:38.760 this woman trapped inside uh so yeah uh cops have investigated and said it was a hate crime

00:10:46.200 against the the woman and uh she got an unwelcome shower yeah well there's claims i guess that they

00:10:52.200 they'd also been berating her about her ethnicity yeah we don't know what that ethnicity is or

00:10:56.360 something i mean that's just a vile disgusting thing to do to somebody anyways there certainly

00:11:01.080 should be charges i was just wondering well does it matter what the motivation was i mean they

00:11:05.800 should be told they can get something yeah they did but if it's hate motivated they get a longer

00:11:10.200 jail longer jail time the bigger debate on whether or not it's a different crime for that anyways

00:11:15.320 two upstanding calgarians there yeah real winners those two but uh i can't sympathize with their

00:11:20.120 plate no no throw away the key all right that's it that's all i know there's a whole whack more

00:11:26.280 on the plate oh i guess poor alex zoltan is i think he had said he had five red bulls for

00:11:33.000 breakfast yesterday to try and get through the news of the morning well and he's been just

00:11:37.640 brilliant with it though he's on top of that stuff i mean i can't keep track of that convoluted i

00:11:42.040 mean at least he breaks it down so yeah there is a reason we pay him the big bucks yeah like all

00:11:47.800 the rest of us here sarcasm sarcasm all right well thank you very much for the update david

00:11:52.920 I guess we'll see you at the pipeline.

00:11:54.640 See you on the pipeline.

00:11:55.460 Right on.

00:11:56.860 So lots on the go, guys.

00:11:58.120 That is our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:11:59.880 And I'd like to remind people that for right now, actually, the paywall is down until October 20th.

00:12:05.340 And this is a good time for you, BC viewers.

00:12:07.460 Get used to watching and reading at the Western Standard.

00:12:10.740 Watch Alex's stuff.

00:12:11.900 And we have other reporters across the country covering all sorts of things.

00:12:15.560 But, you know, that BC hornet's nest, boy, it's just something else.

00:12:20.720 And having somebody on the ground out there who can keep digging into it and breaking it down for those of us watching from the outside really, really helps.

00:12:28.680 And it's just so, so frustrating.

00:12:33.000 You know, for people like me, I mean, I'm an idealist.

00:12:35.980 I'm a political weenie.

00:12:37.460 I've always been in it.

00:12:39.100 But I still believe, you know, we should have some principles.

00:12:42.360 We should be trying to make these changes based on winning public opinion by putting something forward better for the electorate than what they're leaving.

00:12:50.720 And I know the political realities. I've been at it long enough, but it was just so crass for David Eby to call that election two years early, you know, purely for the reason of trying to save his political ass. 0.98

00:13:07.960 So putting the whole province on the line in a general election because he's hoping that the B.C. Conservative disarray will be enough to save his sagging government. 0.77

00:13:20.400 And I don't know if it will.

00:13:21.600 As Dave was saying with the update, looking at the response from people online, and not just conservative-minded people.

00:13:29.240 There's centrists and left-wing people who are pretty upset with Eby's election call going on there as well.

00:13:36.700 this might end really poorly for him but again we'll see at the same time the musical chairs

00:13:42.340 going on among the bc conservatives and who's in the main party who's come back i think 10 or 11

00:13:48.240 have come back but then there's some others are bounced over because they can't run because

00:13:51.900 they're trying to avoid the vote split and it has left them scrambling because this election call

00:13:57.140 was very sudden and you want to make sure to get on the ground and get campaigning as soon as

00:14:01.360 possible yet at the same time you want to be you know following democratic principles and making

00:14:07.300 sure the candidates worthy of running run what what a scene so as we're going these overlapping

00:14:13.640 campaigns we have a referendum campaign happening in alberta of course which we're very involved in

00:14:18.880 now we've got a provincial campaign going in british columbia that's just alex is going to

00:14:23.100 be covering and we'll be watching very closely and then might as well segue into my next guest

00:14:28.040 eventually we're going to have a federal campaign and we're talking about federal parties and where

00:14:33.940 things are going there so let's bring drew barnes in it's been a while since he's been on and uh

00:14:38.560 drew's from out in medicine hat as i said at the top of the show lots of people remember him from

00:14:42.180 his days in the wild rose party and uh well being another political addict obviously he can't stay

00:14:48.080 awake because he's diving in now on a federal initiative hey drew thanks very much for joining

00:14:52.860 us today uh good morning cory thanks for talking to me so i mean let's just get right to the point

00:14:59.000 uh you know i ran into you at the uh capitalism and morality conference which is a really great

00:15:03.800 event by the way uh and and it's where uh you were getting things together to form a new federal

00:15:10.580 political party uh under the the name for now of alberta now uh what's up there oh thank you

00:15:16.740 well cory it starts for years albertans have been telling me that they're tired of the lack

00:15:22.600 of representation for Alberta in Ottawa.

00:15:25.580 Our values, our ideas, our fairness, it hasn't been there.

00:15:30.360 And that's after years and years of sending Conservative Party of Canada MPs there

00:15:34.700 and nothing changing.

00:15:36.620 So, hey, you know, you keep hearing if Quebec's got it,

00:15:39.860 it seems to work for them, let's copy Quebec.

00:15:42.780 So I thought, and people working with me thought,

00:15:45.880 hey, let's go direct to the political part, what Quebec has.

00:15:49.240 Let's recreate the Bloc Quebecois.

00:15:51.220 Alberta now we're only going to run in the 37 seats that are solely within within Alberta and

00:15:57.940 provide effective real representation for for all Albertans yeah and I was very happy to hear of it

00:16:04.680 I really was I hope it comes together because I mean I'm of the old stock I was a young man at

00:16:09.280 the time but the reform party I thought the west was excellently represented during that time I

00:16:14.380 understand that Kretchen was in power for the whole duration of that but do we want an opposition

00:16:20.060 that's afraid to speak up against the government in power for fear of losing central Canadian

00:16:24.360 seats? Or do we want people who are just going to speak for their constituents? And I think that's

00:16:28.580 what reform did very effectively for some years. But one difference I kind of see. So you're talking

00:16:33.700 about just staying within Alberta, even not looking at British Columbia or Saskatchewan or

00:16:39.120 Manitoba. Why would that be? Well, it could just be because the needs of each province are a bit

00:16:44.800 different. They are certainly, you know, capable and they can, you know, form their own political

00:16:50.760 parties to do the same. But the key is to, first of all, become the voice for Alberta. And our

00:16:59.160 culture, our values, our needs are different from the other Western provinces. Secondly,

00:17:05.220 in a two-party system, which we've had a two-party system that has been totally ineffective for

00:17:10.960 Alberta when it comes to things like fairness and unequalization, let's focus on where we can have

00:17:17.400 some impact. And that will be, you know, that will be just in the Alberta boundaries, the borders.

00:17:24.900 And, you know, we'd like to be the voice for Alberta. Secondly, we'd like to elect a few MLAs.

00:17:29.960 Third, we'd like to gain some leverage. And if we ever had the balance of power,

00:17:34.420 that's when things would really start to happen for Alberta.

00:17:37.700 Yeah. And I'm certain you've already been hearing it and you're going to hear it a lot,

00:17:40.680 though, and it'll tie into, well, the stuff that's going on in British Columbia. Both of us as

00:17:45.520 veterans of the Wild Rose days know that the vote split discussion is a strong one. And sometimes,

00:17:52.280 I mean, a partisan effort can lead to an unintended consequence that's pretty ugly.

00:17:56.280 How do you respond to that on the federal front? Well, this is not vote splitting at all. It's

00:18:01.580 totally different constituents. If you're going to vote for the Conservative Party of Canada,

00:18:05.800 what you're saying, Corey, is you're willing to send somebody down there who's even fiscal

00:18:10.400 conservative beliefs are suspect at times, but always, always willing to let your vote be whipped

00:18:18.380 to support a federal or a conservative leader initiative for Quebec, Ontario, or the Maritimes.

00:18:25.400 Our 37 candidates, our 37 members of parliament will be there just for Alberta. And of course,

00:18:31.160 that means conservative fiscal values, but it means, you know, looking at reform and equalization,

00:18:37.280 looking at more provincial autonomy constitutional change has to happen and enemies not allowing your

00:18:44.100 vote to be whipped in case somebody needs to win some votes in quebec you will all be about what's

00:18:50.280 best for alberta well that's it i mean it's supposed to be a system of local representation

00:18:54.800 our members of parliament in my view anyways the very first thing they should be looking at when

00:19:00.200 they're pitching a policy or if they're supporting one or opposing one was based on is this in the

00:19:06.060 interest of my constituents. Not is it in the interest of my party winning a majority? Is it

00:19:10.920 in the interest of the people who elected me? And when you have federal, you know, a full federal

00:19:15.820 majority government aspiration in mind, you can't allow the members of parliament to speak their

00:19:20.320 minds like that because it might not pull well in the east. And that's what we're suffering from

00:19:23.800 right now. Yeah, exactly what we're suffering from. And Albertans' needs and ideas get forgotten

00:19:29.240 all the time. And your Reform Party example, you know, the Reform Party forced the Christian 0.96

00:19:36.260 government into fiscal reform, and it made all Canada stronger. Where the reform went

00:19:42.980 south was when they decided to cross the Manitoba-Ontario border and represent all of Canada.

00:19:48.740 Then it became the same, you know, population control, urban centre control, and Albertan

00:19:54.760 values being forgotten. It's important that the things that are important to Alberta

00:20:00.680 finally have some effective real representation in Ottawa. And, you know, Corey, it's a little

00:20:06.140 deeper too. I think back to, you know, how this conservative opposition since the last government

00:20:12.600 vowed strongly that they were going to bring this federal government down. And then when they had

00:20:17.500 their chance to, you know, after the budget four or five months ago, you know, Andrew Scheer and

00:20:23.120 Scott Reid actually hid behind curtains until they were sure that the budget vote was going to be passed

00:20:28.420 and they weren't going to have to return to another election.

00:20:32.780 You know, the status quo is not working for Alberta.

00:20:35.720 The status quo is not working for our freedom, our prosperity and our families.

00:20:40.020 And it's time to fight for that.

00:20:42.520 Absolutely. I mean, so I mean, a number of our members of parliament, I do know them.

00:20:47.440 They're good people, a lot of them.

00:20:49.500 and they've got good conservative credentials and genuine principles,

00:20:53.980 though they have, you know, decided that the party will have to come first,

00:20:58.160 so they sit quietly, I guess, on regional issues rather than speaking up for them. 1.00

00:21:02.340 I believe you'd spoken against, though, you're not interested in floor crossers 1.00

00:21:06.940 if any of them were to come over, but would that not also be a potential way 1.00

00:21:10.540 to sort of kick-start things?

00:21:12.080 I mean, it's kind of hard to get a party going from, you know, a standstill

00:21:15.120 if you had a few of those members who were popular in their ridings

00:21:18.060 and we're willing to speak for the locals, would it not be a consideration?

00:21:21.780 No, it wouldn't.

00:21:23.380 We're 100% against floor crossing.

00:21:25.680 The voters' rights, respect for the voters has to be paramount.

00:21:31.100 And so, hey, any Conservative MPs are certainly welcome to come to us

00:21:35.720 and seek the nomination in their constituency

00:21:39.020 or one of the 37 Alberta constituencies for sure.

00:21:42.820 But let's not forget where these parties get offside

00:21:46.340 and have more trouble with foreclossing and, you know, statements and stuff being out of the

00:21:53.320 mainstream is when the leaders start to nominate and appoint people, those are the people that

00:21:59.600 are not connected directly to the constituents' needs and desires. And that's what we have to

00:22:04.460 protect. We're just in the early stages. We are seeking registration. We're having great,

00:22:10.260 great luck getting our signature so far. But, Corey, our desire at this point is a grassroots

00:22:15.480 roots members driven party fiscal conservative values that just runs in the 37 alberta seats

00:22:22.080 yeah and i would love to see an end to whipped votes i mean i i really wouldn't be that frustrated

00:22:26.700 if it was a conservative party that had a few members say urban and they were in downtown areas

00:22:32.020 that felt their constituents went a different way from the party so be it vote for your constituents

00:22:36.040 it's not the end of the world and the rural ones vote for how they felt but we never get to see

00:22:40.840 that. When I see them lockstep, I see 80, 100 or more people on any party that 100% vote the same

00:22:47.600 way. I just find it, that's not how democracy is supposed to work, especially when regions

00:22:52.920 have differences. Absolutely. You're absolutely right. Free votes in the parliament and the

00:22:58.300 legislature are so necessary. I laughed back at my 11 years, and I think it was three different

00:23:04.240 leaders, and everybody always said, we believe in free votes. But as soon as you said, you are

00:23:08.860 going to vote different from the leader or caucus oh they did everything they could to talk you out

00:23:13.540 of a free vote uh behind behind closed doors uh you know cory like like it's important that

00:23:19.620 democracy be open and transparent and constituents especially know what their elected representative

00:23:25.820 is doing but maybe it's important that the leader doesn't know maybe from time to time in in the

00:23:30.940 legislature or the parliament we need a secret ballot uh so people can truly vote uh you know

00:23:37.660 the way that they think is best. Yeah, well, in a sense, and I know it's kind of getting a little

00:23:42.740 higher level, but for some of the members, it could be empowering when you don't have a party

00:23:47.980 that could, for example, form a cabinet. I mean, that's always been the thing that can be used as

00:23:52.540 the carrot or the stick to kind of control caucus and maintain the aspirations. I mean,

00:23:58.420 even a backbench opposition conservative member of parliament, they're doing okay. You can pay

00:24:03.840 the mortgage, you're going to be doing all right. It's not a bad gig. And I think people could be

00:24:08.340 resigned to saying that's where they will maintain where they're at. And then they can just stick to

00:24:11.640 principle. They're not striving to try and find a cabinet seat or something like that. And in a

00:24:18.220 smaller party, it's just not even there in the first place. So they can just stick to their

00:24:21.120 mandate. Yeah. Again, you're right on where the problem is. The leader has a lot of cookies and

00:24:28.120 goodies to give out from a cabinet post with considerably higher pay to media time to question

00:24:34.000 period time. So, all that has to be addressed. But, you know, that's what I like about our

00:24:38.540 Alberta Now initiative. We're just going to be focused on 5 million Albertans, 37 Alberta

00:24:44.760 constituencies. We're not going to have to worry about some of those distractions. And in our

00:24:50.440 system, which is so broken and with our constitution, you know, really it's an immovable

00:24:56.340 force right now when you need seven out of 10 of the provinces with 50 percent of the population

00:25:01.420 to vote to change it. That is not going to happen. So within the system, Alberta now will hopefully

00:25:07.200 someday gain us a voice, gain us some leverage, gain us the balance of power. Corey, look at how

00:25:13.980 the NDP, you know, just recently with four or five members had the balance of power. You know,

00:25:19.680 look at the Bloc Quebecois. They have contested 11 elections and sometimes they win over 50 of

00:25:25.500 of the 75 now 50 of the 78 seats uh they are a tremendous voice for quebec and as we all know

00:25:32.780 here in canada quebec's needs quebec's ideas and and and too much equalization and support ends up

00:25:39.260 in quebec but it's the political system that works for them and uh it will work for alberta as well

00:25:46.380 yeah i mean in a minority government situation a regional party could be very very powerful

00:25:51.260 actually and we could get far more accomplished i think in that circumstance if it came about than

00:25:55.580 even if a conservative party won a majority because majority conservative parties don't

00:25:59.020 want to shake up the system but uh a case where you have a minority government you could cut a

00:26:04.980 deal that might make some real changes uh you mentioned the bloc though and i mean this will

00:26:09.820 have to be addressed as well i mean the bloc is at least ostensibly a party that supports full

00:26:14.520 quebec independence eventually where would alberta now land on that i mean it's a question you

00:26:19.160 wouldn't be able to fully avoid it's certainly brewing right now and it would be an ongoing one

00:26:23.780 yeah yeah thanks for that question um alberta should absolutely be the freest most prosperous

00:26:30.560 place in uh in north america um and if that's part of canada that's great if that's not part

00:26:38.260 of canada that's great as well uh so again i i envision alberta now following the the will of

00:26:44.720 Albertans. And if that's to push for independence, we will be there. If that's to push for a stronger

00:26:50.540 part for Alberta within Canada, we'll be there. Corey, but it does start with getting some of

00:26:58.080 the correct information out of there. Again, I'm such a Western Standard supporter because of all

00:27:03.560 the subsidies and all the bias in the other mainstream media. But I'm looking at the fact

00:27:09.080 like landlocked. You know, we are always pushed with this idea that we're landlocked. Well, my

00:27:14.480 goodness, every day we sell about 3.8 million barrels of oil to America. You know, it's, you

00:27:21.300 know, 1.5 million pounds of beef, tons of wheat every day that Alberta does to lead the country

00:27:29.520 in prosperity and make Canada stronger. And it's time to insist on some recognition for that.

00:27:34.200 It's time for Alberta to push for change.

00:27:37.740 You know, Corey, we're pretty young.

00:27:39.780 In 1905, I think there was only about 60,000 of us out here.

00:27:43.540 Now there's 5 million, and we've become such a bigger, stronger, more important part of Canada.

00:27:50.720 At a time, Canada has drifted into progressive socialism to the detriment of all of us,

00:27:57.640 and a stronger Alberta, independent or part of Canada would be good for everyone.

00:28:03.780 So let's get into the mechanics of things a little bit. I mean, forming a federal party,

00:28:09.440 what are the requirements? How has it been going so far? And what do you need to do to get

00:28:14.680 registered so you can fundraise and promote and all the stuff that comes with it?

00:28:18.660 Perfect. Thank you for the question. It's really odd. To form a provincial party,

00:28:22.660 you need about 9,000 signatures. To form a federal party, you only need 250 verified signatures.

00:28:29.080 So we just announced this is about 10 days ago now.

00:28:32.620 Our website and stuff is just up today.

00:28:35.340 And we're well over the halfway mark just asking our friends at coffee to sign or text messages and then returning it.

00:28:43.660 So we're well on the way.

00:28:44.980 We're planning in the next two weeks to submit, you know, over 500 signatures to Elections Canada.

00:28:50.820 Corey, we're presuming they'll need three months to verify the signatures to verify us.

00:28:55.780 You need a chief financial officer and six other directors in position.

00:29:02.260 We've got all that for our application, so we're good to go.

00:29:06.000 Like I say, the website and the data management system will be in effect today.

00:29:11.500 We're well on our way.

00:29:13.280 But, you know, Corey, maybe the most important thing, for me, it's between five and ten people a day.

00:29:19.260 Some that I haven't seen for years, but back to my provincial politics time, texting me, messaging me,

00:29:24.920 saying, hey, I love your idea. I want to be a member. I want to support you. I played a quick

00:29:31.480 round of golf yesterday, and the two guys in the foursome ahead of me walked back and said,

00:29:35.560 where do I sign up? And so there's a lot of support. There's a lot of desire for Albertans

00:29:41.060 to be truly represented in Ottawa. Great. And then I guess on a timeline,

00:29:45.880 if it's a few months from now, things went all well, you would presumably schedule a founding

00:29:50.180 convention at some point or something of that sort where a lot more has to be hammered out.

00:29:54.460 But I would guess the timeline looking at late winter, early spring, perhaps.

00:29:58.780 Yeah, you're bang on. That's what we're thinking late winter.

00:30:01.940 You know, we have to finalize our policies, our strategy, our bylaws.

00:30:05.740 We have to finalize our membership.

00:30:08.600 And then we have to make sure that we have 37 captains in the 37 Alberta constituencies.

00:30:14.920 Make sure that our ear is always to the needs and the ideas of 5 million Albertans.

00:30:20.000 make sure that that gets communicated loudly and clearly in ottawa and uh yeah there's there's

00:30:27.380 some groundwork to do but uh at this point in time there's already tens and tens of volunteers

00:30:32.420 uh we're off to a good start great well it's uh all good to hear i'm uh looking forward to seeing

00:30:40.000 how it develops and moves along it's uh certainly you know the front that's kind of being forgotten

00:30:44.940 as we're dealing with such an independence movement

00:30:46.920 and crazy provincial politics going on as well.

00:30:50.400 So before I let you go,

00:30:51.400 you said the website has just come up online.

00:30:54.040 Where can people find information to support

00:30:56.060 or just get more answers to their questions

00:30:58.360 and things like that with this party?

00:31:00.260 Yeah, thank you, Corey.

00:31:01.460 Alberta Now, please go to albertanow.ca

00:31:05.820 or you can also catch up to me on Facebook or Twitter

00:31:10.060 and we will make sure that you're an active part

00:31:13.460 of the process, if that's your desire, and we're here for Alberta becoming the free and most

00:31:19.240 prosperous place. Excellent. Anything else you'd like to let the viewers know before I let you go?

00:31:24.520 Well, just, Corey, just thanks for this, and thanks to everybody for reaching out,

00:31:28.440 but clearly nothing moves unless it's pushed. Alberta is young and growing, and let's work

00:31:34.640 together to make sure that our needs are understood everywhere, and we do everything we can to fight

00:31:39.620 for change great well thank you very much for your time today drew and the work you're doing i got a

00:31:44.500 feeling we'll be talking again sometime soon i hope so corey all the best thank you great thanks

00:31:49.640 and there's the url on the screen guys john's always quick on the jump with that albertanow.ca

00:31:55.080 to find yourself for uh some more information on that and where it's going and yeah lots of

00:32:00.020 questions i saw one question coming up from an individual in the comment section saying you know

00:32:04.340 why dedicate these resources to another party when, you know, we could be putting that towards

00:32:12.040 independence. I mean, in my view, I think we can walk and chew gum at the same time. And there's,

00:32:17.440 the thing is, we have to have federal representatives all the way until we're

00:32:21.500 independent anyhow. And I'd rather have them serving us as well as possible in the period to

00:32:28.800 whenever that may happen. I mean, they're going to be there regardless. I do understand resources,

00:32:35.320 energy, time. They're finite resources in general. So, you know, splitting it and doing some federal

00:32:43.040 work as well as some provincial can be difficult. Now, if talking about, say, an expressly

00:32:47.540 independent-minded federal party, I don't know. I mean, I can't speak for them, but

00:32:51.820 as Drew kind of covered it, I don't know if that's necessarily a route to go. I mean,

00:32:55.880 independence has to be a provincial initiative anyhow. So that's the realm of the provincial

00:33:00.560 world. I mean, everything kind of overlaps. You've got the same supporters, you get similar goals,

00:33:04.880 things like that. And a federal party, like you can see envisioning like the bloc, which is

00:33:09.820 supportive of, of course, the independence side in Quebec, but they can't directly do anything

00:33:15.820 towards it necessarily either because they're in the House of Commons, not in the National

00:33:20.220 Assembly, as Quebec calls it. So I see it as an important thing. I don't feel, I'm just fully

00:33:28.120 withdrew on this. I don't feel we're being properly represented federally. I don't think it's because

00:33:33.540 the people in that party are bad, whether it's the elected members or the hardworking volunteers and

00:33:38.320 the EDAs all around either. But they're working on a mathematical formula that means that you

00:33:43.740 are trying to win a majority government across this country and everything you say has to be

00:33:50.540 tempered with how is that going to be received in Toronto and Montreal and an Alberta-based party

00:33:59.440 with no aspirations of trying to win over there doesn't have to ask themselves this when they're

00:34:04.380 going to work in the House of Commons or when they're talking to their constituents. All they

00:34:08.980 can be focusing on or should be focusing on is, what do my constituents want to see? What's in it

00:34:14.260 for us? Call it selfish if you like. It doesn't matter. That should be the nature of representative

00:34:19.100 democracy. I don't think members would be going forward wanting to harm the rest of Canada. I

00:34:25.400 would imagine, say, if we had a government that was in a minority position and this party

00:34:32.580 had a balance of power, well, the MPs will be deciding to vote based, again, yeah, first on

00:34:37.560 the interest of their constituents, but they're not inhuman. Let's see if it's in the interest

00:34:42.640 of everybody. They can make that choice for themselves as elected members. I'm just going

00:34:47.820 to be watching with a great deal of interest. I really want to see that void filled, and I'm

00:34:53.520 looking forward to reporting on its progress as it moves along. There's the hard part, I guess.

00:35:02.340 As I said, there's a lot of good people in the existing conservative federal party, and some

00:35:06.500 people are going to be upset, wondering if this is a shot at them. I don't think it should be

00:35:10.080 personal. They got to realize it's political. It's just that we need direct, real representation,

00:35:16.000 and it can't be done through the old system the way it's sitting right now. We've come full circle,

00:35:23.040 kind of back to where reform was. And I did have a couple people, because I was talking on a

00:35:26.380 different live stream about how thrilled I am to see this coming about, wondering if I'm looking

00:35:30.200 to go that route. No, not whatsoever, by the way. I have zero electoral aspirations or ambitions.

00:35:35.640 i like where i am in the setup right now as a voice as an activist sure an advocate and a lot

00:35:42.800 of things but no electoral politics are not in my future they're not going to be there so i'm

00:35:49.000 supportive of this but no i i'll uh i like where i am right now i don't have a membership in any

00:35:54.680 political party the only thing i guess i kind of have a membership in is the third party advertising

00:35:59.020 group that i started on my own but i'm not a member of other groups or things like that i can

00:36:03.240 support and not support other things. I like that fluid ability. Plus, in not having a membership in

00:36:09.160 all of those things, and I do say it bluntly when people say, well, you know, why can't you get a

00:36:15.060 membership with the UCP or this party or that? Well, because I look at my job as, my job is also

00:36:21.420 to rip the heck out of you when you screw up. My job is to be critical if things aren't going in

00:36:26.940 the correct direction. And if I have a membership in one of these parties or groups, though, then

00:36:31.440 i've already got a built-in bias and i might not be able to properly offer critique in what i would

00:36:38.400 see as constructive i guess but if i'm entrenched within it then i'm not giving a good view on

00:36:43.120 things i mean i'm a biased person i don't beat around the bush this is an opinion show i write

00:36:47.920 opinion columns but i like to be open about it like my interests to be in what i see for alberta

00:36:53.280 not necessarily for a party that i'm a member of and whatnot and uh ken finley says so let's just

00:36:59.440 kind of pivot a little let's talk about some of the weirdness of partisanship and everything

00:37:02.880 uh saying how credible is jeffrey rath's allegations of bribery i i guess you're

00:37:06.800 talking about that story the western standard covered it about allegations that jeff wrath

00:37:11.680 was offered millions of dollars by uh somebody connected with the the the ucp to to be nicer on

00:37:18.880 daniel smith i don't know i it just sounds extremely hard to believe i don't want to get

00:37:25.280 into the mire on that whole thing but it's just bizarre i really doubt it i'll leave it at that

00:37:32.720 i don't want to get into it with jeff again and whatnot but there's just a lot of strange stuff

00:37:36.560 going on in there in general for the time being that's one of the things you know i was i was set

00:37:41.680 to speak at an event uh the night before last in northeast calgary and i did speak at it it was a

00:37:46.320 packed house actually went very well but jeff rath was also supposed to be a co-speaker and

00:37:51.200 mitch sylvester was there and i guess the organizers uh decided or something had happened

00:37:56.240 in short notice and said said to mr wrath they'd rather not he came and spoke there

00:38:01.120 and uh cancelled his appearance and some people said i should boycott it or not show up in that

00:38:06.480 case well no jeff can speak for himself and do what he will but there's one of the the things

00:38:11.360 we have going on in the independence movement in a sense that we can have different advocates

00:38:16.400 still all pushing for the same outcome jeff and i agree on 80 of things we agree on wanting to get

00:38:24.720 alberta independent we want to get people voting to keep this moving and get on to option two so

00:38:31.360 right now when it's so important and we're working on a campaign

00:38:34.640 i don't feel like getting into a big scrap with jeff on the 20 of things we fight about we can

00:38:38.880 fight about that on october 20th perhaps if we really still feel so inclined to get on each

00:38:42.880 other's cases uh but there's strange stuff going on in there jeff hasn't been you know he's always

00:38:48.640 been vocal there's there's no doubt about that but he hasn't been really in any formal role or

00:38:53.120 speaking for the movement necessarily itself or anything in some time either it's been moving up

00:38:57.760 you know uh parallel to what he's doing so we'll see what's going on there's a lot of weird things

00:39:04.560 happening you know it's gonna be the latest report over i think 600 000 mail-in ballots

00:39:12.080 and i've been ordered it's just weird i'm getting concerned about that i'm still i've talked about

00:39:17.520 others i know there's the controls that are in elections alberta and things like that i'm still

00:39:20.880 not worried about rigging of the election but i am worried about this thing just being overwhelmed

00:39:30.080 elections alberta has not shown good competence they haven't shown good planning i mean they

00:39:34.480 didn't even get the the attestation correct on the ballots they sent out for a mail-in ballot

00:39:38.960 It's something that an intern with 20 minutes should be able to proofread and look at and say,

00:39:42.620 hey, wait a minute, we might want to correct this before we send it out to half a million people. 0.91

00:39:46.760 So not so much rigging, but I can see it being such a gong show disaster trying to manage it 0.84

00:39:52.440 that nobody is going to take the results seriously.

00:39:57.520 And that's really frustrating.

00:39:58.860 When we've been campaigning for months, when we've got such an opportunity, such a huge exercise,

00:40:04.120 if this turns out to be something that nobody takes seriously at the end of it, what a disaster.

00:40:08.960 some heads should be rolling and definitely within elections alberta over it i mean part of the

00:40:13.320 mistrust and it's very well founded mistrust of elections alberta has been their double standard

00:40:18.480 with thomas lukasic and his forever canadian thing who now mr lukasic has suddenly come out

00:40:25.100 and said you know what i've decided after three and some months of campaigning and raising and

00:40:29.880 spending hundreds of thousands of dollars that i'll admit that we're running a campaign he didn't 0.58

00:40:33.860 even say it that way of course he's an inveterate liar he's just saying we're going to start

00:40:36.960 campaigning now what on earth is going to be different about what lukasik is doing today and 0.81

00:40:42.160 what he was doing a month ago nothing he was always campaigning and it just beggared belief

00:40:48.080 that elections alberta could look at that and say no no no he's not campaigning he doesn't need to

00:40:52.080 tell everybody where his funding has been coming from he doesn't have to follow the maximum spending 1.00

00:40:57.040 limits or donation limits that everybody else does yeah that's sort of idiocy and it is idiocy out of 0.99

00:41:03.920 elections alberta that double standard has cost so much credibility and that's an institution in 0.99

00:41:10.080 every province that really must have credibility for the sake of electoral trust it's integral

00:41:18.320 and they really eroded it needlessly on themselves all they had to do is stand up and say no

00:41:23.280 you're being ridiculous register report your spending you're clearly campaigning just follow

00:41:28.560 the rules like everybody else and i don't think the rules are unreasonable i think their ability 0.95

00:41:33.440 to input the contributions could be streamlined, so we're not sitting up until late at night on

00:41:39.020 Thursday nights to get it done every week. But I don't think asking us to report on who's been

00:41:42.960 donating is unreasonable. I don't think perhaps having some maximums is unreasonable. I definitely

00:41:48.580 think it's reasonable to have outside donations banned. I don't want to see American money or

00:41:53.540 British Columbian money or Chinese money or Russian money, you know, whatever, coming into

00:42:00.700 a campaign that's local. And we have controls to avoid that, unless you don't apply them to

00:42:06.240 certain people. Where did Lukasik get his money? We don't know. He hasn't had to report it.

00:42:12.060 So that's bizarre. And it's foolish. And it's bringing problems on Elections Alberta 0.99

00:42:15.540 all by themselves that they didn't need to do. So who is going to trust the result when the time

00:42:22.300 comes? I don't know. It's going to be a long few days. I mean, I'm also warning people that the

00:42:29.460 time to get in on these mail-in ballots sounds like lots of people obviously are already that

00:42:33.340 that timeline ends at the end of the week advanced polling i think they're going to have something

00:42:37.220 like five days of it you can do take advantage of it guys i mean think about it just in a regular

00:42:44.720 election how long the lines can be and now people have got to go in and they got 10 questions on

00:42:49.980 that ballot 10 things and they're long word salads daniel smith gave not some very clear ones

00:42:55.700 they're big long questions people are going to be taking at least at least three times longer in that

00:43:03.080 little cardboard booth to mark their things than they used to how long is that going to make the

00:43:07.500 lineups how much is it going to back it up and then how long is it going to take to count it all

00:43:12.180 if they're understaffed if they're under competent you know if we're waiting for four days to get

00:43:18.120 the results of this thing man the mistrust is going to be through the roof i mean there's going

00:43:22.120 be scrutineers there's going to be people watching but this is just leading up to something that

00:43:26.520 looks like it might be after all of this money and time and effort and i'm not going to say

00:43:31.320 anything's been wasted as i said in my opening monologue this built the basis of an independence

00:43:35.720 movement that's not going anywhere and but if we have a referendum outcome that that nobody

00:43:43.960 feels they can believe what the hell have we just done with the last five months

00:43:47.560 that is really scary and unfortunate uh let's see what else we got

00:43:54.840 we got a break on our fuel tax i guess a little bright news to finish up on the show

00:44:01.740 you know it took a long time it was like pulling teeth this is a government like any other government

00:44:06.160 they call themselves conservative but they get in and they love to spend and our provincial

00:44:09.920 government has been no exception that's why they were running deficits before you can't blame

00:44:13.720 low oil prices all the time for your deficits. It also means you're spending too damn much.

00:44:19.680 But because, I guess, thanks to the war that Trump kindly started in Iran, it shot oil prices

00:44:26.460 through the roof, which does shoot an injection into the government and royalty revenue. So they

00:44:30.560 decided they can afford to give us a break on the taxes at the pump in gas. So I thank you for that,

00:44:37.500 I guess. But yeah, it's something else. Sorry, William St. Corey, can't Albertans get sample

00:44:46.440 ballots prior to going into the booth so they can decide on how they wish to vote on each question?

00:44:51.040 Well, you can look online and you can see where all the questions are going to be. And I got my

00:44:55.160 mail-in ones. They're pretty straightforward. So I mean, some research, you should be able to see

00:44:59.360 things and know where you're going with stuff. And maybe if you're worried about taking a while,

00:45:03.920 You should look into stuff prior to going so you can speed it up a bit yourself.

00:45:07.560 I don't know about particular sample ballots, though.

00:45:10.620 But, yeah, a little advance work on a person's own part can speed the process when you go through it.

00:45:15.540 But I'm not sure if everybody will do that.

00:45:17.020 We should encourage people to do it, though.

00:45:18.240 Just know what you're going to go with.

00:45:19.660 That's why I think some of the campaigns are being pretty simple.

00:45:21.640 Yes to the nine, no to the nine.

00:45:23.020 And then, of course, question 10, which is the big one.

00:45:24.980 Choose option two, guys, no matter what.

00:45:26.780 That one I'm pushing on.

00:45:27.700 Choose option two.

00:45:28.660 By the way, one other question people get before I close this show off.

00:45:32.400 You can just vote on one of them.

00:45:34.320 You don't have to vote on all of them.

00:45:35.800 I mean, I think you should vote on all, but that's your business.

00:45:37.820 You won't invalidate your vote if you just choose one of the ballots

00:45:40.740 and don't bother with the rest.

00:45:42.720 The one that you chose is still a valid vote.

00:45:45.040 All right, I'm out of time, guys.

00:45:46.640 Lots going on.

00:45:47.520 Lots more will be going on.

00:45:48.680 Be sure to subscribe, like, share, do all of that.

00:45:51.140 Like I said, the paywall's down.

00:45:53.480 You can get our stuff for free for a while.

00:45:55.620 Check it out.

00:45:56.100 Check out all that great reporting and writing from our Calgary newsroom,

00:45:58.500 from Alex, from Wallet out in the east there.

00:46:02.480 and be sure to tune into the pipeline tonight we'll be breaking down a few more of those issues

00:46:06.880 we'll see you again next week at this time

00:46:32.480 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - September 23, 2026

The independence movement isn’t going away no matter what the referendum results are

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Transcript