Western Standard - THE PIPELINE： Federalists trigger Alberta independence referendum？

00:00:00.000 Good day! Today is October 29th, 2025.

00:00:28.340 I'm Derek Fildebrandt, public of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:32.820 I've got the usual lineup here for the show.

00:00:36.600 We've got former Western Standard opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford.

00:00:40.000 I thought you were going to say the usual suspects.

00:00:41.940 The usual suspects.

00:00:42.500 Yes, that works.

00:00:43.320 Here I am. Guilty as charged.

00:00:45.700 Back from crusading in the Holy Land is Corey Morgan.

00:00:49.460 Shalom.

00:00:49.700 It's all right. He doesn't mean it.

00:00:59.040 I don't know even where to go with that.

00:01:01.760 And Western Standard, BC colonist, Elise Mills. 0.95

00:01:06.780 Hi, from the regulatory and political dumpster fire of the country.

00:01:11.120 Nice to be here.

00:01:12.120 Very good.

00:01:14.920 Well, fun show today.

00:01:18.840 A group of kind of Ottawa suck-up super federalists to think that it doesn't matter under any circumstance,

00:01:27.300 no matter what, no matter how much, say, the Ottawa husband beats the Alberta wife,

00:01:32.840 Alberta should stay in Canada no matter what.

00:01:34.780 They say they have enough signatures to trigger a referendum on staying in Canada.

00:01:41.780 They didn't seem to think through the other side as if people vote no.

00:01:47.940 That would seem to imply Albertans would vote to leave Canada and become independent.

00:01:54.000 As that dawns on them, much hilarity is ensuing.

00:01:57.120 So we're going to talk about what appears very possibly to be an upcoming referendum on Alberta independence,

00:02:05.000 started by those who do not want independence.

00:02:08.480 Thanks for coming out, guys.

00:02:10.860 The Alberta teacher strike is over.

00:02:14.720 They've been legislated back to work.

00:02:17.200 No one seems to really know what they wanted at this point.

00:02:19.780 They were given pretty much everything they wanted, and they kept on saying no, no, no.

00:02:22.860 So the Alberta UCP government under Danielle Smith has legislated them back to work.

00:02:30.620 And union thugs are promising war, class war.

00:02:35.340 We're going to have a general strike or something crazy.

00:02:37.880 We're going to overthrow the government because teachers should only have to work 20 days a year or something.

00:02:42.460 I don't really understand what their grievance is, but we're going to talk about those grievances.

00:02:46.920 But first, Doug Ford swings and misses.

00:02:55.280 He spent $75 million of Ontario taxpayers' money on an advertising campaign in the United States,

00:03:05.740 making the case against tariffs.

00:03:10.960 Prima facie.

00:03:12.300 I mean, I can see it.

00:03:13.300 I actually didn't think it was a bad ad, Nigel.

00:03:17.200 It took part of something Ronald Reagan said about tariffs while he was president of the United States.

00:03:26.480 Donald Trump threw a bit of a fit over this, saying,

00:03:29.140 ah, it's taken out of context, misrepresenting the Gipper.

00:03:31.700 I don't think that was the case.

00:03:33.500 The Gipper was a pretty hardcore free trader.

00:03:36.280 I don't think it was unfair.

00:03:37.700 I don't think it was taken out of context.

00:03:39.120 I think what was trying to be achieved, you know, trying to fix our trade relationship with the United States, is laudable. 1.00

00:03:47.940 But what I thought about it, at first I thought, ah, this is just Trump being a jerk. 0.99

00:03:53.520 You know, he suspends trade negotiations. 1.00

00:03:55.420 Okay.

00:03:56.420 But then I thought, ah, we're not thinking about this from the perspective of Americans.

00:04:01.120 Because as much as Canadians are adamant, we are not 51st state, we are not Americans, we also still think of ourselves as Americans.

00:04:09.180 That we're allowed to intervene in their domestic politics and spending three quarters of a billion, no, no, no, no, 75 million dollars to intervene in American domestic electoral politics immediately before the midterm elections.

00:04:27.160 That's where control of the House is up for stake, possibly the Senate, probably less of the Senate, but maybe.

00:04:34.300 That is foreign meddling. 0.93

00:04:37.480 We don't think, we think of ourselves as we're not American, but then we immediately think of ourselves as completely American and fully entitled to meddle in their politics.

00:04:46.460 So, you know, I ask Canadians who are thinking, you know, starting with Doug Ford here, how would we feel if Donald Trump spent an American equivalent sum of money in Canada arguing against supply management?

00:05:05.240 I think supply management should be gone, but I think, I would certainly think that is dangerous and illegal foreign meddling for a foreign government to run advertisements on stations in Canada telling us to change our foreign policy.

00:05:22.040 I don't know, that's how I take it.

00:05:23.380 Yeah, well, I think anybody who thinks about it would take it that way.

00:05:27.140 There's more to it though than, or there seems to be more to it.

00:05:30.720 First of all, Carney was apparently, Mr. Carney was apparently advised that these ads were going to run, and he didn't kill the idea.

00:05:42.560 So why would it suit Mark Carney to have that out there?

00:05:47.260 First, to your point about whether there was any misrepresentation, I gather that the order of Reagan's speech had been altered somewhat, but whether it was, it wasn't, or whether it was completely misrepresented,

00:05:57.760 why did it suit Mr. Carney to poke Trump like that at this time?

00:06:05.600 Well, it's the good cop, bad cop routine.

00:06:07.320 Well, he plays the diplomatic good guy, Ford plays the pugnacious bad guy, but no one was falling for it this time.

00:06:15.360 No, nor should they have.

00:06:17.460 Ford is actually a bit of an airbag.

00:06:21.440 This is the guy who, right six months ago, threatened to cut off the electricity supply to three northern tier United States, states of the U.S.

00:06:35.560 And I think that lasted 45 minutes.

00:06:39.480 He got a call from Howard Lefnick, the American Commerce Secretary.

00:06:43.160 He said, look, you'd be opening a can of worms if you did that.

00:06:46.320 If you think that's funny, watch what we can do.

00:06:48.620 And it was all over, and he just got his little moment in the headlines of pugnacious Dougie Ford sticking up for Canada.

00:06:57.880 He didn't solve a problem, and he didn't solve a problem with this.

00:07:02.740 What the two of them did is they gave Mr. Carney an excuse to say, well, of course, I haven't got a trade deal with Mr. Trump.

00:07:13.080 You know, all the negotiations.

00:07:15.280 Meanwhile, he's off to China, and what's it going to be, Chinese cars for canola?

00:07:21.000 I don't know.

00:07:21.620 We'll see, I guess.

00:07:22.820 But these two are up to something, and it's skullduddery.

00:07:27.160 But I am not impressed, but I wouldn't give Mr. Ford being, if he's a patriot, he's the worst kind.

00:07:32.460 And at least, they've been doing this good cop, bad cop routine, and so, you know, it's until now at least not been called on.

00:07:43.400 I'm not positive who put it this way.

00:07:45.160 It may have been Jen Gerseth in the line who put it this way. 0.97

00:07:47.460 You know, they were doing good cop, bad cop, and Trump just shot the good cop and the bad cop and burned down the police station.

00:07:53.600 But, because it's obvious they're working in cahoots.

00:07:57.840 They're obviously coordinated.

00:07:59.340 The Ford government and the Carney government, or the Trudeau government before it, were not hostile.

00:08:03.320 They had extremely warm relations.

00:08:06.340 They've been working in cahoots together.

00:08:08.000 And I don't think it mattered at all to the Trump administration that, on paper, this was not the Canadian government.

00:08:15.780 This was a subnational government doing this.

00:08:20.660 I don't know.

00:08:21.560 What was Ford's motivation here?

00:08:23.080 Was it thinking that the commercial is going to change minds, or that it would lead to the defeat of Republicans in the House,

00:08:30.080 and somehow the Democrats are going to use their new leverage just to help Canada?

00:08:34.280 Or was it just for domestic consumption in Ontario that Doug Ford gets to look like he's Captain Canada again?

00:08:42.540 I get that.

00:08:43.440 And then, to the second, how is it now?

00:08:45.940 Are Ontarians going to say, ah, he tried.

00:08:48.940 He was fighting for us.

00:08:49.760 It felt good, even though Trump has now completely suspended trade negotiations?

00:08:56.000 So, let's just roll back the tape.

00:08:59.860 This is a small man.

00:09:02.280 Doug Ford is a very small man.

00:09:04.280 And that small man mentality, with a splash of, which reveals, I think, an inherent misogyny,

00:09:13.420 took a, that propelled him to take a massive swipe out of Daniel Smith,

00:09:19.460 who was working towards building a relationship because she trusted her instincts and they were right.

00:09:26.500 What Canadians have forgotten about is likability and common values are not just okay, they're essential to this particular administration.

00:09:35.180 They like the conversation.

00:09:37.140 They like the familiarity.

00:09:38.440 They like to understand who we are.

00:09:40.300 I personally have had an incredibly positive time, and I will tell you, there's no rudeness.

00:09:47.260 It's very diplomatic with the Washington team.

00:09:50.680 But Doug Ford, I think it, I think Carney is way out of his depth.

00:09:55.300 He is not a prime minister.

00:09:56.760 He's a banker.

00:09:58.340 He likes to think he's Canada's chief economist.

00:10:01.000 In fact, his spokesperson said that the, a couple of weeks ago now, that he's essentially Canada's chief economist.

00:10:06.320 I, he is, Carney, I expected to see more finesse, but I want to say this.

00:10:13.480 I don't understand why, I think it's a weakness on Carney's part that he wants to, I think he's sort of overwhelmed by Doug Ford, which is not a good sign.

00:10:23.520 But from all I understand, the Canadian team was doing really well before that ad dropped.

00:10:30.940 And I would say a couple of days before that ad dropped, things started to, the milk, the cream started to curdle.

00:10:39.000 And there were a couple of reasons that I, I, I'm not privy, I'm not allowed to necessarily talk about.

00:10:45.580 We're off the record.

00:10:46.800 But the ad was like, was a punch in the nose and a thumb on the scale.

00:10:51.800 And I wrote about that, not in our paper, but on Twitter.

00:10:54.840 It really was a punch in the nose and a thumb on the scale.

00:10:57.280 So the reason it's landed that way, and it doesn't matter what anyone's opinion is, it doesn't matter what my opinion is, or Doug Ford's, that's immaterial to this.

00:11:06.400 This is a trade crisis.

00:11:07.580 This is one of the worst things I've ever seen.

00:11:09.360 And I worked this off with Lumber deal.

00:11:12.440 They, the way that this GOP, the way that this White House, the way that this new generation of Republicans envisioned Ronald Reagan,

00:11:21.100 is a really important thing that we Canadians need to understand, if we want to get in the business of appropriating their guy.

00:11:29.420 It's also ironic, because that speech has been manipulated, when in reality, that was the beginning of a speech where he lays down some of the highest tariffs on Japan.

00:11:38.420 There was a huge trade deal, or trade argument there, but Ronald Reagan was standing up, what he said, bullies against American workers.

00:11:48.040 And it was the beginning of sort of the tech revolution as well.

00:11:52.820 Context matters here.

00:11:54.440 Then you're right, Derek, there is the thumb on the scale, not just midterms or it being an off year, but there is the Supreme Court issue.

00:12:02.360 The Supreme Court is currently weighing whether Trump's tariffs are legal, and that is not something they want to see during what they believe is their national pastime.

00:12:13.420 And now we've rolled into what I think is an even more concerning issue, which is the trouble that we're seeing and reports that we're seeing with the U.S. ambassador,

00:12:22.900 who, by the way, the stories that you're hearing about David Patterson, the Ontario's rep to D.C., is not 100% accurate.

00:12:31.480 And I'm not here to defend the ambassador, but I will tell you, I'm seething.

00:12:36.000 I wish I could speak about it, but I think this is a far bigger issue.

00:12:39.160 And I can tell you, the ambassador has said directly, now no longer will there be a deal done by American Thanksgiving.

00:12:45.760 And we were much closer to that deal than we had ever been before all of these shenanigans popped out.

00:12:53.340 All right.

00:12:55.220 I don't know.

00:12:56.140 Trump, Corey, had mentioned the Supreme Court.

00:12:59.140 He was going to try to influence the Supreme Court.

00:13:00.460 I'm doubtful that advertisements would ever have an impact on the Supreme Court decision.

00:13:08.660 Maybe I'm wrong.

00:13:10.100 But I definitely think, you know, they're doing this right on the cusp of the midterm elections.

00:13:16.380 That's where it's meant to have an impact, I think, mostly.

00:13:21.200 But, you know, let's perform a thought exercise here.

00:13:25.280 Doug Ford can do no wrong, and Daniel Smith seems to be able to do no right in the eyes of the national media and the chattering classes. 0.86

00:13:34.740 You know, Smith was the one saying, you know, don't overreact.

00:13:38.960 Cut off our nose to spite our face here.

00:13:40.660 It might feel good, you know, slapping a maple leaf on your backpack.

00:13:44.340 But don't overly provoke the Americans.

00:13:48.520 Let's do a deal.

00:13:51.000 She turns out to have been right.

00:13:52.760 Almost no one said, you know, sorry.

00:13:55.440 But let's just go through a thought exercise.

00:13:59.360 If Danielle Smith had done something, I don't know what, maybe run an ad. 1.00

00:14:04.400 I don't think this is how she would have handled the United States. 0.58

00:14:07.440 But say she had run an ad saying the United States should lift all tariff, should build pipelines.

00:14:17.380 You know, that's conceivably something she'd like to do.

00:14:20.840 But she had said, you know, and done it in a way that would be disadvantageous to Republicans, you know, days before the midterm election.

00:14:29.220 And Donald Trump reacted the same way, suspending negotiations.

00:14:32.720 How do you think then Mark Carney and the national legacy media, I don't overphrase it because I know exactly what you're going to say.

00:14:43.780 But like, why?

00:14:45.120 Maybe that's more interesting.

00:14:46.500 Why would the national media, the chattering classes, the political classes, why would they, do you think they would react so differently if Danielle Smith had done something similar and had the same catastrophic result come from it? 0.74

00:15:00.040 Well, it's because we have a political culture war going on in this country, really.

00:15:03.680 And the battle lines are drawn almost between the Ontario legislature, the federal parliament and Premier Smith, who's really kind of the last bastion of an unapologetic conservative in this country.

00:15:13.580 Scott Moell, I guess, arguably could be the same thing, but she's the figurehead of it.

00:15:18.300 And the legacy media for the most part are supportive of this progressive approach, this nouveau liberal approach, and they want to take any opportunity they can to undercut Premier Smith.

00:15:30.220 They can't allow her to have successes.

00:15:31.740 They can't allow to have her look competent and they will go far out of their way to put a spotlight on any errors she makes.

00:15:41.060 So there's a motivation going on out there, and we're only going to see more of it. 0.93

00:15:46.180 So there is that double standard, you know, Ford stepped in it, in my view, stupidly, but they're going to give him a pass because he's on the right side of the fence as far as they're concerned. 0.76

00:15:56.180 And it's not going to change anytime soon. 0.90

00:15:59.340 Yeah, this elbows up performative stuff.

00:16:03.360 As long as it feels good, you get a pass.

00:16:05.680 It doesn't matter if it's the smart thing to do or not.

00:16:07.500 It feels good, you get a pass.

00:16:09.160 Speaking of passing or failing, let's talk about Alberta teachers.

00:16:16.620 Failing grade, obviously, what they've done.

00:16:20.600 So Alberta has legislated the teachers back to work.

00:16:25.280 They've made a preemptive use of the notwithstanding clause here so that there's no uncertainty.

00:16:30.680 No, they're just back to work.

00:16:32.420 There's no real avenue for appeal here.

00:16:34.960 And that's a fake made up charter right.

00:16:36.640 The union rights are as a charter right.

00:16:40.100 That's a made up one that was read into it by activist judges after the charter was passed into law as a part of the Constitution of Canada.

00:16:47.920 There is nothing in the charter about unions.

00:16:51.640 I'm not wrong on that, right?

00:16:53.400 You're under free association.

00:16:54.740 Free association would be the...

00:16:56.380 Yeah, but I don't think it says everyone is required to be a part of a union and that...

00:17:00.920 Yeah, yeah.

00:17:02.440 Anyway.

00:17:02.880 So the union that we're forming here is not...

00:17:05.380 No, I should have done a company if we get a fake union.

00:17:09.780 I'll go work for rebel.

00:17:12.520 But they preempted it.

00:17:17.240 And it seems very common sense to me at this point.

00:17:21.720 Actually, I actually didn't think they should have legislated.

00:17:24.220 And my idea was that, no, we'll continue to negotiate.

00:17:27.020 But every single day this goes on, we're converting a public school into a charter school.

00:17:30.640 And then in week two, we're going to do two charter schools a day.

00:17:33.380 Week three, three charter schools a day.

00:17:35.340 The union would get the point.

00:17:36.840 And you could actually probably negotiate them to a lower salary than they're currently at...

00:17:40.980 Going to get.

00:17:42.280 But, you know, these guys were given everything.

00:17:44.780 They were given big raises, 12% for most, up to 17% for some, depending on where you're on the grid.

00:17:51.620 Commitments to hire that was like 2,500 new teachers.

00:17:55.400 3,000?

00:17:56.520 3,000.

00:17:57.480 Okay, yeah.

00:17:58.280 I mean, pretty damn big commitments.

00:18:00.240 And these guys just weren't agreeing to anything.

00:18:02.780 It seemed extremely political.

00:18:04.500 They rejected the advice of their own negotiating teams, negotiating committees at the ATA.

00:18:11.760 So they've sent them back to work.

00:18:13.400 And, you know, the NDP are predictably saying, well, this is the end of democracy.

00:18:19.600 Alberta is now, you know, the neck reich.

00:18:24.000 And, you know, it's been nice.

00:18:27.400 We're done here.

00:18:30.960 I guess I was just with you, Corey.

00:18:32.600 But I'll start with you.

00:18:34.000 Your thoughts first on, you know, is this a political win?

00:18:39.660 A lot of polls have showed support, I guess, for the teachers.

00:18:42.300 Because teachers are a nice, happy profession to have, even though they're very greedily just demanding more money from taxpayers when they only work 200 days a year.

00:18:51.620 But I don't know.

00:18:52.140 Who is the political winner, I think, in the end of here?

00:18:54.260 I have a feeling in the long run, it still might be Smith.

00:18:57.020 I mean, as people watch and dig into this, I know people don't watch and dig into enough things in depth at times.

00:19:01.600 No one's reading the contract.

00:19:03.000 This was at an impasse.

00:19:05.040 I mean, if Smith had come in while, say, there was some sort of offer on the table from the teachers and they were negotiating something, then you've gone and cut off a negotiation.

00:19:14.080 But there was nothing.

00:19:15.200 They were spinning their wheels.

00:19:16.140 People kept asking, well, what do you guys want?

00:19:18.420 What do you guys want?

00:19:19.580 They won't say what they want.

00:19:20.820 All they'll say is what they don't want.

00:19:22.580 And what they really don't want is charter schools, private schools, which have nothing to do.

00:19:26.580 A union shouldn't be negotiating that sort of policy anyways.

00:19:29.560 Yeah.

00:19:29.700 So I think with more nuanced discussion in the longer run, I mean, as I've been pushing and coming in my column, coming up in a bit too, I think we're going to see more support for people looking for charter schools because they want stability for their kids and looking for non-union options.

00:19:46.940 Because again, they want stability for their kids and not this push and pull going on.

00:19:51.640 Even if they like the teachers, they don't like the fact that their kids have to pay the price during these labor disputes. 0.57

00:19:57.200 So I think in the longer game, the teachers have really, well, done themselves harm as far as a union idea goes.

00:20:03.440 I think maybe it's a good thing for all of Alberta because we'll start to reimagine our whole education system.

00:20:07.360 Yeah.

00:20:07.640 I mean, my kids didn't miss a day of school.

00:20:10.400 One's in preschool, so that didn't count.

00:20:12.020 But the other one, you know, third grade, she's in charter school.

00:20:15.640 It's not private.

00:20:16.600 There's no tuition.

00:20:17.960 But it's not the government union school.

00:20:20.360 She didn't miss a single minute of school because of the strike.

00:20:24.140 I mean, I know there's other kids in the neighborhood and they're like, well, why is my daughter going to school?

00:20:28.520 I'd say that's because her teachers aren't greedy.

00:20:31.900 But what was the union trying to achieve here that like they were given?

00:20:36.780 I was angry at Smith and education minister Demetrios.

00:20:40.520 I was angry at them for giving them too much.

00:20:42.320 I was like, why are you giving these guys so much?

00:20:44.360 You're no one, no one in the private sector is getting this stuff right now.

00:20:47.840 Everyone's just happy to keep their jobs.

00:20:49.420 These guys have got damn near guaranteed jobs.

00:20:52.680 You've got to be particularly appalling and downright criminal to lose your job as a teacher in Alberta.

00:20:58.840 You know, they work 200 days a year.

00:21:00.760 They got pension.

00:21:02.220 They got benefits.

00:21:03.440 They're getting a big 12 to 17 percent raise, depending on where you're on the grid there.

00:21:07.420 What the hell do they want?

00:21:09.120 Why did they strike like this? 0.92

00:21:11.400 I still don't understand it.

00:21:12.480 You know, I don't think they actually were honest about what they want.

00:21:16.800 I struggle to be fair to the teaching profession at large, but individual teachers, some of whom are my friends and are actually conservative teachers, they're part of that 11 percent that actually voted in favor of the contract.

00:21:32.440 You know, the problem here is immigration. 0.82

00:21:37.020 We have had so many people brought into Alberta in the last couple of years that it is very hard for some teachers in some classrooms to get their heads around it.

00:21:49.160 What are you going to do if you've got a class of 50 kids?

00:21:52.220 And that's not typical, but it does happen.

00:21:56.420 And, you know, 30 of them don't speak English very well, and five of them don't speak English at all.

00:22:04.000 Now, you're not in there on your own.

00:22:07.280 You do have assistants.

00:22:09.860 But the satisfaction that comes from teaching is actually seeing your students learn and do well.

00:22:18.300 I mean, the school that you go to, that your little girl goes to, that's how they see it, Dada.

00:22:24.580 That's why those people teach in that environment.

00:22:29.360 So the satisfaction of the job isn't there for quite a few people, but they won't come out and say, this is the problem.

00:22:38.320 They just say, oh, well, the government is terrible.

00:22:40.340 Well, and there are, I'm afraid, there's an awful lot of people who make a lot of noise that the teachers, the ATA meetings, I actually wouldn't even want them teaching my kids.

00:22:51.240 You know, like these are the people who think that they should be running the education system, determining the wages, determining the curriculum, and parents stay out of it.

00:23:00.040 Well, to the degree that Danielle Smith is taking on that mentality, we've got to back her all the way. 1.00

00:23:06.360 But there is a bit of an issue with too much being thrown out of the system all at once.

00:23:13.980 Well, yeah, I guess, I mean, immigration never really got into the debate on the teacher strike in Alberta, Elise, on any of the surface level.

00:23:24.200 Like, it just wasn't mentioned.

00:23:26.640 Well, that'd be racist, wouldn't it?

00:23:27.720 It would be.

00:23:29.020 It would be.

00:23:29.320 So you see how this... 0.98

00:23:30.220 Anyway, that's why you're a racist. 0.94

00:23:32.120 And, you know, it's... 0.98

00:23:36.940 No one wanted to talk about it.

00:23:38.320 You're talking about overcrowding in schools.

00:23:39.800 How is it that we're overcrowding in schools?

00:23:42.000 Like, how is it possible?

00:23:44.220 We are building schools like mad in Alberta.

00:23:47.660 We are building a lot of schools.

00:23:50.360 We're hiring a ton of teachers.

00:23:53.300 We're paying them extremely well.

00:23:55.140 And our birth rate might be the highest in Canada, but it's still not high.

00:23:59.900 It's still not even close to a replacement birth rate.

00:24:04.540 So it's obviously a lot of people coming here.

00:24:06.820 Now, we have the biggest interprovincial migration in Canada, which I've always considered a good thing. 1.00

00:24:11.620 But it obviously begs the question.

00:24:16.120 That's still not even close to the number that's coming in.

00:24:19.480 You know, and I've known teachers who teach in parts of Calgary that are very heavy on migration.

00:24:26.960 And they're just...

00:24:27.780 They don't...

00:24:28.580 It must not even be...

00:24:30.060 It must be less satisfying.

00:24:31.300 I even thought it from a fact perspective.

00:24:32.600 I thought it from a perspective of how frustrating it is.

00:24:35.420 They need all these teaching assistants in the class because half the kids aren't even functionally speaking English.

00:24:43.680 They're not speaking English in the home, so they're not really getting it there either.

00:24:47.040 But yeah, I think this debate, it's a big debate, but it didn't reach the surface level because the two parties in this was the government, which is going to be politically risk-averse.

00:25:00.280 And then the teachers' union, which is hyper-woke, loves mass migration.

00:25:07.080 But yeah, we just don't hear the unions at least saying, perhaps we should just not bring in 3 million people in a single year kind of thing.

00:25:16.240 That might alleviate our class size issue.

00:25:19.340 Yeah.

00:25:19.580 Well, and you have us naughty British Columbians, you know, crossing the border, running across the border, speeding across the border to Alberta.

00:25:26.920 And you have a lot of our teachers.

00:25:28.320 So you've imported a lot of socialists and, you know, the blue-haired people with the rainbow T-shirts and all the alphabets in there.

00:25:36.480 So I apologize.

00:25:37.680 That's also largely to do with why your politics have changed from between Atlantic Canada coming out for oil and gas and British Columbians escaping.

00:25:44.620 The fabric of your conservative union is slowly, you know, pushing and pulling.

00:25:51.960 But I do think as a parent, what I did notice in British Columbia is ground zero for strikes, teacher strikes specifically.

00:25:58.840 My daughter had six years of rolling strikes from kindergarten to grade six. 1.00

00:26:02.260 And we don't have the same situation as you do in Alberta.

00:26:08.900 So, number one, we can barely build a school.

00:26:11.820 You know, we can't even get ferries built as well.

00:26:14.320 So we're terrible at delivering and executing on that type of funding.

00:26:19.160 So we are, teachers have a very, I'm supportive of their concerns about what's in their classrooms, like, in regards to the demographic.

00:26:28.060 But there's the other issue is that Canadian parents, whether you're in Alberta, and I think if you're in Alberta, you have a better chance economically, socioeconomically, than the rest of us do, especially in British Columbia.

00:26:39.500 But there's the breakdown of family, and it's the breakdown of family in the sense of this country is so hard to survive in if you are not making more than, say, $75,000, $80,000.

00:26:52.640 And that used to be a lot of money.

00:26:54.540 It doesn't matter where you are.

00:26:56.020 You've got parents that have arrived from different countries.

00:26:58.780 Yes, English is a second language.

00:27:00.280 And they're not spending the time with their children to integrate them like my friend's parents did, for example.

00:27:06.560 So you've also now got onsets of all different types of learning disabilities.

00:27:11.360 There are some now that I can't even catch up with.

00:27:14.300 My daughter's out of the school system now. 1.00

00:27:18.220 But I empathize with teachers because I agree with what Nigel said.

00:27:22.080 You don't get into teaching because you're just looking for a soft landing.

00:27:26.080 That is hard, especially when you're an early new teacher.

00:27:29.240 You have to really cut your teeth in there and work.

00:27:32.840 Now, later on, there are ways to kick your feet up and actually not work, especially in British Columbia.

00:27:38.840 But we'll leave that for another day.

00:27:40.440 But I am concerned.

00:27:42.280 I think the social fabric of our country is just shredded.

00:27:46.540 And I know how I feel after a long day.

00:27:49.540 I'm not so sure I could, especially as a single parent, which I was,

00:27:54.660 I don't know if I'd have the energy to deal with every single,

00:27:58.560 it's the bullying, it's the social media, it's the phones,

00:28:02.380 then it's then maybe a learning disability.

00:28:04.420 And that's the fact that my child can't get the attention of her teacher.

00:28:07.680 There's all these things happening.

00:28:09.140 And I'm also working 80 hours a week to make sure that I can,

00:28:13.280 we can have the things that we need.

00:28:14.920 There's no time for family.

00:28:16.540 And teachers used to rely on parents to be,

00:28:19.080 they're sort of co-pilots in the education as well.

00:28:22.440 And so I think there's something there.

00:28:25.640 And I'm not making excuses for what the union did.

00:28:28.320 The union, I think what the membership,

00:28:30.380 and just watching what was going on there with the APA,

00:28:32.960 I think the membership generally would have taken that initial deal.

00:28:39.480 And by the way, our teachers in BC,

00:28:42.400 that is amazing what they have out there.

00:28:46.180 But I think the union played a shell game.

00:28:48.920 And I think it's a revenge thing.

00:28:50.360 I think it has everything to do about with the quote unquote book banning.

00:28:54.360 I think it has to do with certain pieces of legislation

00:28:57.880 that Smith has taken on.

00:29:00.160 And it's not just social.

00:29:01.860 I think it's their environmental policies.

00:29:03.800 I think they just were looking for a fight.

00:29:06.360 And I think that union can walk into an empty room and make a fight.

00:29:10.780 Yeah.

00:29:11.540 All right.

00:29:12.560 Well, speaking of fights in Alberta,

00:29:15.080 we're headed to a referendum on independence.

00:29:20.820 I don't know how to say it otherwise.

00:29:23.340 So this goes back.

00:29:27.420 The Kennedy government brought in citizens initiative legislation,

00:29:30.140 had an extremely high bar to set on being able to get the signatures to trigger it.

00:29:36.520 It was unreasonably high.

00:29:38.420 It's obviously theoretically possible to get it.

00:29:40.980 I didn't think these guys would do it.

00:29:44.280 It appears prima facie, they have got the numbers.

00:29:47.360 He's got this.

00:29:48.400 So it's called Forever Canada.

00:29:49.480 It's this group led by Thomas Lukasik.

00:29:51.180 The media like to call him the former progressive conservative premier of Alberta.

00:29:54.820 And then they neglect that he's actually been an NDP supporter provincially

00:29:58.220 and a liberal supporter federally ever since.

00:30:00.260 He was from the hard left wing of the old progressive conservatives when that party was around.

00:30:06.840 So he's never actually been a united conservative member in Alberta.

00:30:10.100 He's never been a member of the Conservative Party of Canada, as far as I know, at least.

00:30:13.640 But the media like to try and portray him as a conservative,

00:30:16.120 even though there's not a single conservative who would take ownership over this guy in Alberta.

00:30:19.600 So he wanted to preempt the independence movement from going out and triggering a referendum on independence,

00:30:29.720 which would have words that meet the Clarity Act requirements for a constitutionally valid referendum.

00:30:39.500 The warning that had been proposed by the Alberta Prosperity Group was something to the effect of,

00:30:43.960 should Alberta become an independent and sovereign country?

00:30:50.060 Something like that.

00:30:51.640 And that should, I think, meet the Clarity Act definition.

00:30:54.260 These guys wanted to get, they wanted to frame the question differently.

00:30:56.840 It says, should Alberta remain in Canada?

00:31:00.180 I think, is that the question?

00:31:03.060 Yeah, it is actually.

00:31:05.420 But you know, by asking Albertans whether the province should remain in Canada is one step closer to being voted.

00:31:11.340 So that would give the more favorable wording, I guess.

00:31:14.360 But the implication is, if people then voted no to that,

00:31:19.740 is that Albertans then voting to become independent.

00:31:22.900 So these guys have triggered, these guys went out and they've triggered a referendum, it seems, on independence.

00:31:30.300 Now, it's not 100% sure yet.

00:31:32.800 They got over the threshold required for the number of signatures,

00:31:36.520 but these signatures now need to be validated and checked against the eligible voters list.

00:31:41.900 So you need some margin of error.

00:31:43.960 So it's possible that they actually fall short a bit if they don't have enough signatures that turn out to be valid.

00:31:51.340 But prima facie, let's just say they've got the signatures now.

00:31:56.320 Corey, does that mean that the referendum question that goes forward is exactly this one?

00:32:00.900 I feel like regardless of what side you're on, the question should be as neutrally worded as possible.

00:32:08.120 Like if you want independence, the question should not be, should the kick-ass land of the free Alberta be the coolest, richest, most amazing country in the world and leave those dirtbag freeloaders in Canada?

00:32:22.740 You can't, that's not a fair question.

00:32:26.380 You know, a fair question here should be, you know, if you wanted to word it from their side, should Alberta remain in Canada or should Alberta become an independent country?

00:32:36.860 I think that would be a very, that'd be fair.

00:32:39.720 And I'd still ask the question with the yes on their side, the no on the independent side.

00:32:45.180 Is there any opportunity, like, is the question as is, is that it or?

00:32:49.520 No, it's no.

00:32:50.320 It has to go to the legislature.

00:32:51.680 And that's where the referendum, if it were to be called, gets called and they can rejig the framing of the question.

00:32:58.780 So if they're staying true to the question, I mean, if they, you know, made it a question about something completely unrelated, that would be violating the basis of the thing, but they could change it to, you know, should Alberta become an independent province?

00:33:12.020 It's the same question.

00:33:12.960 It's just asking a different way, which would put it into the more positive yes end of it, but it's still a referendum on independence.

00:33:19.420 The other thing is too, it seems like Lukasik's already backtracking a bit.

00:33:23.220 He's saying, no, no, no, no, I, this, I wasn't trying to trigger in a referendum.

00:33:27.240 We're trying to just have the question go to the legislature, but his own initial paperwork says, no, you're going for a referendum.

00:33:33.320 Let's play that clip from Danielle Smith at the press conference where, uh, okay, just roll it.

00:33:38.880 I don't want this up right.

00:33:40.040 Um, Mr. Lukasik's vote is, um, uh, yes, no question.

00:33:44.840 It is a separatist referendum.

00:33:46.460 He may be trying to characterize it differently, but if you ask people, if you want to remain

00:33:50.940 in Alberta, yes or no, there are implications if people answer no.

00:33:55.760 So, okay.

00:33:56.120 So, so Danielle Smith says, uh, all right, thanks for coming out, Tom.

00:33:59.380 Uh, you just triggered an independence referendum.

00:34:01.140 He's like, no, that's not what I meant to do.

00:34:04.460 He's like, well, that's what you did do.

00:34:05.820 Yeah.

00:34:06.360 Hey, you know, the father of Alberta independence, found his father of Alberta's Republic, Thomas Lukasik.

00:34:13.020 Well, I mean, to, to the credit, you know, that was quite an effort, 400 some thousand.

00:34:17.840 Listen, they did more than I would imagine.

00:34:19.640 That was a sign of good organization, but it comes right down to careful what you wish

00:34:23.740 for, Fabio, because you just got it.

00:34:25.560 So, and, uh, the campaign will begin, uh, sometime next year.

00:34:29.680 Yeah. 0.76

00:34:30.220 Uh, at least, uh, I, I don't know how much you know this, this, this clown or not, but,

00:34:34.140 uh, I, I, okay.

00:34:36.420 I didn't think they could do it.

00:34:38.160 Uh, I, I, at some point, someone's going to check the tape to when this started.

00:34:43.160 And I was like, you know, Bob's my uncle.

00:34:45.260 If they can actually get the signatures, because it credit where it's due.

00:34:48.900 So that's a lot of signatures to get, and it may or may not be valid after they verify

00:34:53.120 every single name on the voters list.

00:34:54.740 They've hired, like, a ton of staff to go through it.

00:34:56.900 Um, but yeah, um, we, we've got this guy here who's just on the side of every single

00:35:04.760 left-wing cause.

00:35:05.560 He never appears on the conservative side of anything, but the media can try to portray

00:35:08.760 him as a conservative because he was a progressive conservative under Alison Redford.

00:35:11.840 That's like saying I was a moderate in the Bolshevists at some point, you know?

00:35:16.080 Um, uh, but yeah, uh, I, I, I don't know, just your reaction that we've got a hardline

00:35:22.860 left-wing federalist in Alberta who just seems to have woken up to the realization that his

00:35:28.220 referendum is a referendum on independence.

00:35:32.740 I, this was what I never understood about him.

00:35:36.120 I mean, I understand that he's a, um, Edmonton coattail writer.

00:35:39.960 So that's how he was in the PCs.

00:35:42.360 He knew he could win.

00:35:43.760 Um, and you know, he's from Edmonton.

00:35:46.580 Um, but you know, I, that's what I never understood about him.

00:35:50.440 And I, I don't tangle with him because there's no point.

00:35:53.400 There's no point in calling him out on Twitter, but it was very obvious to many of us conservatives

00:35:58.040 in BC.

00:35:58.600 And I think, uh, federally as well, that it seemed counterintuitive.

00:36:02.580 But as I said to one former wild rose MLA, uh, Nate, did he need a job?

00:36:09.620 And he didn't seem to think so because he has a whopping pension, um, from his time at

00:36:15.360 the Alberta legislature.

00:36:16.360 So I didn't understand it.

00:36:18.480 And I didn't understand that he didn't understand it.

00:36:21.400 No, uh, Alberta MLA's, uh, haven't had a pension since 1993.

00:36:25.480 Oh, there were something called transition allowances that were brought in.

00:36:29.160 That's what I'm talking about.

00:36:30.280 Yeah.

00:36:30.760 A transition allowance.

00:36:32.480 They're, they're a temporary thing.

00:36:34.360 It's not like a lifetime pension the way, say, members of the federal parliament have.

00:36:38.000 It's not quite the same system.

00:36:39.880 Yeah.

00:36:40.460 That I, we were speculating on what he did with that money and it doesn't matter.

00:36:44.660 It's his money.

00:36:45.280 It's his business, but it seemed really like make a job for him.

00:36:48.980 And then when you were, I was inundated with his Instagram posts and I don't know why this

00:36:53.640 is showing up in my feed, but I thought it was just so creepy.

00:36:57.040 I mean, he did the bedroom files from his RV, uh, you know, and PJs with his hand on his,

00:37:03.300 you know, with his legs kicking up at the back.

00:37:05.280 And I just thought this is a sexual harassment case waiting to happen.

00:37:09.240 Uh, you know, I could not unsee Fabio lay in there.

00:37:15.540 Uh, Oh, you know what I'm talking about?

00:37:18.440 Like, you know, Oh, and I, I just felt like he needed something.

00:37:22.840 And I just thought, you know, his wife was once a respected CTV news anchor.

00:37:26.720 And I thought, is she even in the picture anymore?

00:37:29.120 Because a good wife would just literally take the, you know, the, the cane and pull him off 1.00

00:37:33.180 the stage. 0.99

00:37:34.200 Um, because he's made, he's, he's so foolish and so embarrassing, but you know, there are 0.98

00:37:40.460 Albertans that really believe in staying in the, in the knitted into Canada. 0.98

00:37:44.720 But I think we also, and I'm sure you guys would agree.

00:37:48.020 There are, are Alberta Albertans that do support staying, but there are, it's conditional.

00:37:53.220 It's not, Hey, the relationship is awesome.

00:37:56.200 Let's throw a party.

00:37:57.240 If we win, it's, it's not about that.

00:37:59.220 But all of us were sort of waiting for, for Thomas to understand his own punchline to all

00:38:05.080 of this, that you're going to trigger a referendum.

00:38:07.440 Uh, but again, I think just as it always is with Thomas, it's about his own bank account,

00:38:12.480 his own image, his own social media and building out what might be further contracts or opportunities

00:38:18.920 to show his mug off.

00:38:20.720 Yeah.

00:38:21.480 Uh, look, I, I don't know what the guy does for money, but, uh, as far as I could tell,

00:38:26.100 the guy doesn't really appear to have had much in the way of gainful employment since

00:38:30.660 he, uh, lost in, you know, since he was done from cabinet, uh, when Alice Redford went

00:38:37.100 down and then lost the seat in 2015.

00:38:40.320 Uh, he does not appear to have done anything other than like rant against conservatives on

00:38:46.440 Twitter since, I guess a decade now.

00:38:49.120 It's been a decade for God's sakes.

00:38:50.480 Well, he was a menacing caucus.

00:38:52.600 He was a menacing caucus.

00:38:53.820 I don't, I don't, I don't, yeah, I don't know the caucus, like the guy, um, he's, I don't

00:38:58.680 know.

00:38:58.780 I think he saw this as his way of trying to be relevant again.

00:39:04.120 Now I do, I, I don't doubt that the guy's a hardline federalist that he believes he's

00:39:08.340 actually believes in what he's doing, but I mean, it was a way of, uh, I don't know.

00:39:12.200 I think most people, yeah, most people who are out of politics want back in the main reason

00:39:19.700 I don't want back in is because I get my fill of politics doing what I'm doing and I don't

00:39:23.640 have to deal with most of the bullshit of actually being in politics.

00:39:26.720 Fabio hasn't been relevant in any way. 0.91

00:39:29.560 He's just got like, you know, he just gets a tweet into the dark and it doesn't lead to

00:39:34.920 anything.

00:39:36.000 Um, I don't know, but maybe he tries to see this as an on-ramp to become a part of the

00:39:40.660 NDP caucus at some point.

00:39:42.340 I don't know.

00:39:42.920 Uh, but, uh, the end of the day, Nigel, uh, Captain, uh,

00:39:49.700 Canada here has, I mean, are, are we going to erect a statue one day to, uh, General

00:39:56.480 Fabio as, you know, our George Washington who led us to independence?

00:40:03.380 You know, we opened the program talking about Doug Ford, uh, what a windbag he was.

00:40:10.580 That was my phrase, not yours, but I think there was a consensus leading that way

00:40:15.460 that, uh, he swung, he missed, and you ask, why does he do it?

00:40:20.560 And the answer is it puts him in the headlines.

00:40:24.820 The news media are generally favorable to those kinds of gestures.

00:40:29.920 And as we get into the last minutes of the program, bless my soul, we find ourselves

00:40:35.860 talking about Mr. Dukasic, who is also making these wild, uh, patriotic gestures.

00:40:45.240 Um, as Derek said, I dare say he believes in what he is doing, but do you know the common

00:40:52.420 thing between Ford and Dukasic and so many other people who have yet to be in the headlines?

00:40:59.600 They don't have any solutions.

00:41:02.900 You know, you can make a little tiny fest and wave it and, uh, say, I'm proud to be Canadian

00:41:08.460 and I want to, you know, I will, Alberta will stay and we got to stand up to the United States.

00:41:15.980 How?

00:41:16.940 In what way exactly do you want us to do that?

00:41:19.460 And you contrast that with genuine conservatives and our own premier would be obviously in Alberta,

00:41:25.860 the one to call them on, who actually have ideas and are driving ideas that change things

00:41:32.700 and will make Canada a better place.

00:41:36.740 So I have to wonder why Mr. Dukasic gets the ink he does.

00:41:43.480 All right.

00:41:44.280 All right.

00:41:45.160 Well, let's give Elise the, uh, first shot on parting shots today. 1.00

00:41:50.400 So I, as we were just talking about your independence and then obviously there was the question of,

00:41:55.500 you know, what would happen with your treaty or ceded lands, right?

00:41:58.860 It made me think about what's happening in British Columbia, where we have unceded territories

00:42:03.780 all over the place and specifically what's happening in Richmond.

00:42:07.280 And that's why I have my, you know, my point of view here today is that, uh, John Rustad,

00:42:14.540 the leader of the conservative party in British Columbia or the BC conservative party, I should

00:42:18.560 say, uh, my message is to him.

00:42:21.780 It is painfully obvious that you cannot win an election.

00:42:25.020 And it is painfully obvious that you have a caucus cowering to a large degree because they

00:42:30.500 don't understand what they're, how the avenues to take you out.

00:42:34.800 But the reality is we've had three polls and three polls in the last seven days have told

00:42:39.460 us that you're at least 10 points behind.

00:42:42.040 This province is in a regulatory political dumpster fire.

00:42:46.120 Uh, we are economically vulnerable and there are financial and fiscal liabilities all over

00:42:51.260 the place, not including the loss of homeowner or land ownership or property rights in British

00:42:57.580 Columbia.

00:42:58.020 So it's time that Mr.

00:42:59.260 Rustad stepped down.

00:43:01.660 All right.

00:43:02.700 Corey.

00:43:03.040 Uh, well, just back to BC for a bit, but, uh, again, with how the woke have gone well

00:43:10.320 beyond the goalposts and have just gone mad, we had a race based parking fees now happening.

00:43:16.200 You know, was this what Martin Luther King envisioned?

00:43:19.640 Uh, they've come full circle and they're segregating now.

00:43:22.300 So it's not just park access, but the parks where we allow mixed access of races, the first

00:43:27.480 nations get the park for free.

00:43:28.700 I'm not sure how they're going to check for that, uh, blood test or, uh, color shaded strip

00:43:33.200 or something.

00:43:33.420 They'll have license plates, uh, you can have, or, or, or, uh, little cards you can put your

00:43:37.920 windshield.

00:43:38.880 What that's going to be is everyone's going to get their native license plates stolen or

00:43:42.980 they're going to get their, uh, their windows broken.

00:43:45.400 People are going to steal their parking passes.

00:43:47.340 Either way.

00:43:47.600 It's just absurd, but just another small march towards the lunacy of a racially divided society 0.53

00:43:53.240 that progressives are bringing us.

00:43:55.720 Nigel.

00:43:55.960 Well, you know, a few years ago, Bill Gates and Mark Carney were together at, uh, a meeting

00:44:02.220 of, uh, the world economic forum in Davos and they were talking about how climate change

00:44:08.380 was going to kill us all.

00:44:10.200 Well, now Bill Gates has done a complete 180 and says climate change is important, but it

00:44:16.580 isn't the existential crisis.

00:44:18.240 He thought it was.

00:44:19.960 Other things are more important than climate change.

00:44:22.760 And that leaves Mr. Carney, who has yet to recant running Canada with the idea that climate change

00:44:33.140 is all that matters and driving policy from emission caps to decarbonized oil because we've

00:44:41.440 got to save the climate.

00:44:42.700 Uh, Mr. Gates has thought it through Mr. Carney needs to think of, uh, you know, some of us have been saying this for 30 years.

00:44:51.700 What is it going to take?

00:44:53.660 All right.

00:44:54.580 Uh, I want to throw some attention to Fred Delory's, uh, sub stack.

00:45:00.500 He's an interesting, uh, guy.

00:45:02.040 He was the executive director of the conservative party of Canada under Aaron O'Toole.

00:45:05.500 Uh, he's got an interesting sub stack, uh, kind of political analysis and whatnot.

00:45:10.320 People across the spectrum, he doesn't really argue ideologically for anything.

00:45:13.180 It's just, it's generally pretty smart analysis, but he's arguing there's going to be an early election.

00:45:18.600 Uh, I feel so strongly there's not going to be an election imminently here that I've got bets with, uh, two people here.

00:45:26.820 Uh, news editor, Dave Naylor, and, uh, oh, you know, you can see him right in the corner here.

00:45:32.060 Uh, Jeremy Borg.

00:45:33.400 Oh yeah.

00:45:33.880 He knows I'm talking about him.

00:45:35.200 Hi, Jeremy.

00:45:35.820 Yeah, there you are.

00:45:36.660 Hi.

00:45:37.520 Um, I've, I've given these guys three to one odds, uh, bet them just, just five bucks, but give them three to one odds.

00:45:43.740 There's not going to be an early election before December here.

00:45:46.660 The math just doesn't add up.

00:45:49.140 Mark Carney and the liberals have a de facto majority government.

00:45:52.040 They're essentially one seat short.

00:45:54.000 Uh, all they got to do is, you know,

00:45:56.820 uh, plant a tree for Elizabeth May to get her vote. 1.00

00:46:00.260 Um, and, you know, bribe one member of the NDP with a cabinet spot or something.

00:46:05.820 And then they've got their seats.

00:46:07.500 The only way we're getting an early election is that the liberals call it themselves.

00:46:11.500 And they're not going to call one this early.

00:46:13.440 Uh, they're sitting pretty, pretty.

00:46:15.700 Uh, if they call one, it'll be maybe next year when they think they can get a majority government or something.

00:46:21.180 If they do even that, because I've got a de facto majority right now.

00:46:24.620 So, um, anyone else want to take me up on the bets?

00:46:28.340 I'm giving three to one odds.

00:46:29.520 Just put it in the comments and you're, uh, you're welcome to give me your money.

00:46:33.140 All right, Corey, Nigel, Elise, thank you very much.

00:46:38.660 And John on production.

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Western Standard - November 03, 2025

THE PIPELINE： Federalists trigger Alberta independence referendum？

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