Western Standard - Triggered： Alberta independence & Calgary LRT stations closures!

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 hey there it's january 10th 2022 and welcome to triggered i'm corey morgan we have survived into

00:00:40.040 our second week of the show and we're going to keep coming at you every day at 11 30 mountain

00:00:45.320 standard time monday to friday we're going to be covering those issues that the mainstream media

00:00:50.180 won't and talking about the things that the mainstream media don't comments are welcome

00:00:54.400 that's what i love about this this live format you know we can go back and forth but i should

00:00:58.380 mentioned, we're still working out some tech things. This show's a week old. We've got a lot

00:01:02.440 of great viewers on Rumble, and I see they've been commenting. With our system, I can't see

00:01:07.840 those Rumble comments as they come up, unfortunately. I can see the YouTube ones and the Facebook ones,

00:01:12.040 not the Rumble ones. We're going to fix that as soon as possible, but I just want to assure you

00:01:16.080 guys on Rumble that I'm not ignoring you. I just don't actually see those at the time. I do read

00:01:20.860 them a little later, though. I like to see what people are talking about as the show goes on.

00:01:24.440 You know, it's the interactivity of this, which is important and being able to see what

00:01:29.380 listeners and viewers want to hear and see and get their thoughts and share them with

00:01:33.540 some of the other listeners and viewers over at it.

00:01:35.680 So today I got a couple of great guests.

00:01:37.440 As usual, I got Lindsay Seewald.

00:01:39.020 She's with Alberta Proud.

00:01:41.680 They're a group that's been standing up for Alberta rights and, you know, just Alberta

00:01:48.900 issues in general.

00:01:50.000 Where do you begin, right?

00:01:50.900 It's going to be a good chat.

00:01:51.660 We only got 15 minutes.

00:01:52.560 But if you go to Alberta Proud on Facebook, if you're a Facebook user, they have a massive

00:01:56.040 following and they've been lobbying on behalf of Albertans for some time.

00:01:59.300 After that, I'm going to speak with author Michael Wagner.

00:02:01.440 He's written a few books, mostly on Alberta independence.

00:02:03.960 This is a subject, of course, near and dear to my heart.

00:02:06.880 And we're going to discuss a column he had recently released on using Alberta independence

00:02:11.740 as a form of self-defense.

00:02:15.260 I'm going to start first, of course, by talking about our sponsor, though.

00:02:19.440 That's Bitcoin Well.

00:02:21.040 These guys have been sponsoring us for some time.

00:02:23.160 They're fantastic.

00:02:24.580 If you're interested in cryptocurrencies, getting involved in them, checking them out,

00:02:29.480 investing in them, that's the site to go to.

00:02:31.460 Go to bitcoinwell.com and it leads you into showing you how we can wrap your mind around

00:02:37.500 how these cryptocurrencies work.

00:02:39.620 You can purchase it.

00:02:40.600 You can take cash out from ATMs.

00:02:43.000 Bitcoin Well has ATMs all over the West.

00:02:44.640 There's more springing up all the time.

00:02:46.440 Shows them on the website.

00:02:48.240 You can pay your bills with it.

00:02:49.520 It takes that from that mental thing of trying to wrap your mind around what is a cryptocurrency into that practical use, just like any other currency out there.

00:02:59.600 So check out BitcoinWell.com.

00:03:02.360 They will show you what it's all about and it's well worth getting involved with.

00:03:06.200 Now, let's go into what's got me triggered today.

00:03:09.120 And that is the closure of Calgary LRT stations at night and how it's punishing commuters.

00:03:15.660 Social disorder in Calgary's LRT stations have been growing.

00:03:18.300 It's been a growing problem for years.

00:03:20.140 I mean, we've got a broken economy.

00:03:21.480 It's coupled with an opioid addiction epidemic.

00:03:23.420 It's led to an explosion of addicts on the streets.

00:03:25.960 Many homeless addicts have taken to using LRT stations and trains in the city as heated shelters.

00:03:31.700 And it's come to a head.

00:03:33.000 Anybody regularly commuting by LRT this last few years has seen it.

00:03:36.700 Addicts have set up camp within stations and they're openly consuming drugs with them.

00:03:40.880 Discarded syringes have become commonplace along with other waste.

00:03:44.980 Many attics become aggressive, and they often confront commuters unaggressively. 0.98

00:03:49.980 This reduces the number of people willing to even ride on city transit, 1.00

00:03:53.360 and that allows the attics, of course, to further fill the void, 1.00

00:03:55.820 and things just continue to get worse.

00:03:57.740 It was almost a year ago when the Western Standard posted a video

00:04:00.340 of a man openly smoking crack on a Calgary train.

00:04:03.200 I can't link to it because YouTube bans videos depicting drug consumption,

00:04:07.800 and the Western Standard was actually reprimanded for it.

00:04:09.700 We had our thing pulled down.

00:04:11.040 That's part of why we do use Rumble whenever possible.

00:04:13.860 there's a picture of another gentleman he was smoking apparently heroin and that was on a train

00:04:17.700 in the open and this is becoming commonplace. Either way before that video we posted was pulled

00:04:23.120 down it made waves and it was referenced during a special meeting with Calgary City Council

00:04:26.780 and to their credit Council at the time increased the security budget for transit stations and

00:04:31.860 brought in dozens of new peace officers to try and maintain a degree of order in those transit

00:04:36.220 facilities. It helped for a little while but the solution was only a band-aid and the problem with

00:04:40.640 addicts has just still become acute and out of control, and we're really getting it today.

00:04:46.740 Most of us feel compassion for addicts, and we want to do what we can to help these guys break

00:04:50.380 free from their plight. I've written on that before. They are in trouble. They need help,

00:04:54.720 but we can't pretend that they're harmless. I mean, addicts, typically, they're desperate people.

00:04:59.020 They aren't in their right minds. Crime and disorder always comes with the gatherings of

00:05:03.340 addicts as they spread out, and they try to find funds to feed their habits. Robberies and break-ins

00:05:07.840 are at their highest in the city and areas near LRT stations,

00:05:10.680 along with other crimes.

00:05:12.200 There's a map that illustrates it quite clearly,

00:05:15.040 and you can see the correlation between crime rates and LRT lines.

00:05:18.160 Have a look at that.

00:05:19.120 It can't be ignored.

00:05:20.160 The darkened spaces you can see on there

00:05:21.760 where crime is highest in the city.

00:05:23.820 And it's no coincidence that most of those high-cry zones

00:05:25.940 actually completely follow the path of the LRT tracks.

00:05:29.640 City officials are between a rock and a hard place.

00:05:31.520 They're facing complaints from commuters and citizens

00:05:33.720 living near LRT stations,

00:05:35.980 and the people have to ride on them

00:05:37.020 due to the collections of addicts in the area but then when peace officers come in and evict

00:05:41.100 these addicts from stations the city gets branded as being heartless and cruel to them we saw that

00:05:45.340 when a video was released by ctv showing addicts being ejected from an lrt station on a cold night

00:05:50.140 it was heartbreaking the addicts in the video though had been consuming meth and they were

00:05:53.820 being aggressive with transit users that backstory was lost and the twitter mob went after calgary

00:05:58.940 city hall over the incident i mean are you supposed to just leave them there smoking meth

00:06:02.780 and assailing commuters, there's got to be something done about this. So City Hall finally

00:06:09.060 does realize that the situation on Calgary's transit system is untenable, but in their typical

00:06:13.460 fashion, they responded with a half measure that doesn't really serve anybody well. So beginning

00:06:17.840 today, a number of LRT stations are going to be closed at 10 p.m. every night. They're closing

00:06:22.360 those stations right up, Heritage, Anderson, Southland, because they have been turned into

00:06:26.680 evening consumption sites. Now they're offering transportation for addicts so they can be moved

00:06:32.640 to appropriate shelters and facilities, if they're willing to. I mean, meanwhile, commuters who have

00:06:37.500 to use that train to get to work at night, they could still use it, but they've got to take an

00:06:40.720 unheated rail crossing and stand on a cold, unheated platform as the buildings are locked up.

00:06:45.440 How is this fair to the law-abiding, tax-paying transit users who simply want a safe, warm ride

00:06:51.000 to work? I'm happy that Calgary City Hall is at least recognizing we can't allow the LRT stations

00:06:55.940 to continue to be used as de facto drug consumption sites, but closing the stations to everybody is

00:07:01.520 hardly a solution. I like the idea of offering transportation to addicts when you remove them.

00:07:05.520 I mean, tossing them out in cold nights is heartless and it could be dangerous. We don't want to kill

00:07:09.260 these guys. We don't want them to freeze to death. But we can do this while still keeping the stations 0.98

00:07:14.520 open. Yeah, it's going to take enforcement and sometimes it would have to get physical. They're

00:07:18.600 going to have to remove these guys. But whoever said things would be easy. Hey, that's why you

00:07:22.220 guys at City Hall get paid the big bucks. We've got to deal with this. And what people got to

00:07:26.500 understand with this is many of these shelters, many of the current shelters we have won't take

00:07:30.800 in people who are seriously drug impaired or want to consume drugs. That's the problem. They can't.

00:07:35.440 It's dangerous to everybody else in the shelter and order can't be maintained. I mean, for the

00:07:40.040 other people within the shelter. That's why the addicts gravitate to other places such as transit

00:07:43.960 stations. I mean, there's shelter space available. We've said that it's been quite open. They don't

00:07:48.160 have to be out in the cold, but they can't go in and use their drugs in there. And that's the

00:07:51.800 problem. So we need to find a way to provide sheltered addicts displaced from transit stations

00:07:56.100 and other inappropriate places. Maybe we could rent warehouse spaces somewhere or set up heated

00:08:01.600 tents. I mean, it doesn't have to be fancy. It just has to be warm and relatively safe. It's not

00:08:05.200 as if Calgary is short of commercial space. But again, it wouldn't be easy. I mean, who wants to

00:08:08.640 have that tent or warehouse set up next to their place of business or home? Again, though, it won't

00:08:13.080 be easy. But there's got to be more creative ways to resolve this problem. I mean, for now,

00:08:19.160 while the addicts won't be able to spend the nights in the LRT stations, they're still displaced and

00:08:22.440 and stuck in cold weather. And innocent commuters are being punished as they lose the heated spaces

00:08:26.860 there. Transit fares and tax dollars contributed to building. The city of Calgary has admitted

00:08:31.700 there's a problem. That's the first step in finding a solution. There's some more steps

00:08:35.400 required, though, and banning commuters from LRT stations at night is not a reasonable approach.

00:08:40.580 Think harder, guys. Think harder. We can get there. Okay, that's what's got me triggered today. It's

00:08:46.100 got to be terribly triggering for those people shivering on the LRT platforms. Of course,

00:08:49.740 They're not too thrilled with dealing with running the gauntlet of addicts every time they go to work as well.

00:08:53.520 So let's check into the newsroom and see what else is going to trigger me today.

00:08:56.860 And we've got Melanie Rizdin, who's been hammering away on the Monday morning stories today.

00:09:02.360 How are you doing, Mel?

00:09:03.680 Good. Good, thank you.

00:09:05.040 Yeah, we are working on a few stories.

00:09:07.420 First of all, I was going to point out a story that, speaking of transit, we put out a story over the weekend, just in case anyone missed it.

00:09:13.660 Transit systems could also be affected by the fact that the government subsidies that were put in place for transit over the pandemic are actually expiring.

00:09:25.660 They had put about 2.3 billion into transit services across the country to help offset the fact that the ridership has just dropped substantially.

00:09:38.660 So they have updated or so they had been contributing to updating the payroll for transit drivers.

00:09:48.920 And it looks like that is coming to an end here fairly quickly.

00:09:52.600 So I think they're hoping that the feds are going to be planning to subsidize it a little bit further while ridership is still quite low comparatively.

00:10:04.740 So that could also affect things with transit.

00:10:08.660 we also had some stories over the weekend too if anyone wants to head to the website and check them

00:10:12.500 out in case they miss them there was an update on the the bread pricing scheme that was happening

00:10:19.220 or the bread price fixing scheme that was happening and some update there on how there

00:10:25.620 were quite a few large bread makers colluding to creep the bread prices up and up and up i believe

00:10:33.060 They were increased over the last couple of years, 18 to 20 times or something to that effect.

00:10:41.600 I don't know.

00:10:42.600 Yeah, go ahead.

00:10:43.400 Food staples have been going through the roof.

00:10:44.580 We were talking about that in the newsroom before the show.

00:10:46.700 I mean, you were looking at a roast that was $100.

00:10:50.200 I'm hoping to get Kelly Malmberg back on.

00:10:52.340 We had him last week.

00:10:53.280 He's an agricultural producer, and he was going to talk about that, and he could probably talk to the bread thing as well.

00:10:57.380 I mean, you know, we're getting these prices that are just slamming consumers on the essential

00:11:01.380 goods like food and beef and bread, but the producers aren't seeing the money hitting

00:11:05.240 their wallet.

00:11:05.840 So we should try and look into it and find out where is that money going?

00:11:08.540 Yeah, it'd be nice to know.

00:11:09.480 I know I was just grabbing groceries last night and mentioned I was looking in the meat

00:11:14.240 section at a roast, you know, normal size roast, maybe a family of four or five.

00:11:19.060 And that roast was over a hundred dollars.

00:11:21.920 So I would also encourage you to get to the bottom of that as well.

00:11:26.700 that's that's pretty pricey meat um we've got a couple of stories that we're working on today

00:11:33.100 we've put out one on parliament questioning if uh canadian cops are treating white pandemic

00:11:39.900 protesters differently with much less aggression than those who are say leading indigenous protests

00:11:48.620 or Black Lives Matter protests. We also have a story on chartered professional accountants

00:11:57.580 telling Parliament that they need to stop the spending, they need to show some fiscal discipline.

00:12:04.780 Now a previous record for a total deficit spending was set in 2010 to the tune of 55.6 billion

00:12:13.580 dollars you'd be surprised to know that for 2021 that new deficit record has jumped almost 10 times

00:12:24.380 so we're sitting at 511.6 billion dollars in deficit spending for 2021 so uh yes that's

00:12:34.940 that's a story that we've got up right now we're also working on one the federal departments are

00:12:40.140 getting called out to stop tipping off their favorite contractors when it comes to bidding

00:12:48.300 processes. Apparently a new report has come out that shows that these phone calls that are not

00:12:54.620 being documented between government members and these contractors are sort of tipping off

00:13:02.940 some of these favorite contractors and it seems to be happening more and more these days. So

00:13:07.660 calling on that to get rained in a bit. And our reporter Eva is working on another story out of 1.00

00:13:16.380 BC. This one's about case reports for COVID-19. Sounds like BC is now testing everyone who comes

00:13:25.660 through the hospital. And if they do test positive for COVID-19, whether they're in there for COVID-19

00:13:31.580 or not, they will be classified as a COVID-19 case. And I know Ontario recently was discussing

00:13:39.240 the fact that that is something that they are looking to move away from so that they can have

00:13:44.820 more accurate numbers as to who is being hospitalized because of COVID-19, not with

00:13:51.120 COVID-19. So I was working on that. Yeah. Great. Well, that discussion has been livening up and

00:13:56.800 I'm really happy to see it coming out. I mean, I wrote on that last week as well, because even

00:14:00.920 Patrick Brown, I mean, a very progressive mayor who I don't think much of, but was calling out

00:14:05.100 the Ontario's chief medical officer who did come out and say, yes, as many as 50% of the people

00:14:09.520 we're listing as being in hospital due to COVID were actually people who came in for other causes

00:14:14.900 but happened to test positive. And that would change the numbers by half, and that should

00:14:19.140 affect our policy. But he said he's going to correct it soon, but he hasn't gotten around to

00:14:22.820 it. And in Alberta, we're hearing people asking for it, but it sounds like Dina Hinshaw doesn't

00:14:27.240 know. I mean, how do you not know? Do you not keep records of why somebody's in or why they

00:14:30.900 aren't? It's that the pressure is rising though. I think it's a good sign. Well, and I think too,

00:14:35.640 I mean, especially with the new variant Omicron that is showing, you know, quite mild symptoms

00:14:41.660 comparatively. I think it's kind of, it seems to me more important now than ever that that be

00:14:47.820 differentiated because if you're in there with the Omicron variant and you have very slight symptoms,

00:14:54.060 but yet you're in there for some other health reason. I think it's important that that is not

00:14:59.580 contributing to COVID count numbers. Yeah, well, that's it. I mean, this is spreading widely.

00:15:06.220 The case numbers, I mean, the positivity rate is through the roof. The case numbers are really

00:15:11.360 going high. So it makes sense that somebody going in with a broken arm or anything else

00:15:15.220 might test positive, but it doesn't mean they were there because of it. So if we're going to

00:15:19.260 go into the panic and raise the alarm bells and do lockdowns due to hospital overcrowding,

00:15:23.280 well, this isn't the appropriate numbers to be utilizing to do that with.

00:15:26.960 Yeah, that's right.

00:15:28.140 Agreed.

00:15:28.820 Yeah.

00:15:29.220 So that's what we're working on right now.

00:15:30.680 And I'm sure we will have more by the end of the day.

00:15:33.540 Well, thank you very much, Mel.

00:15:34.860 We'll talk to you later and be sure to go for everybody else to westernstandardonline.com.

00:15:40.060 That's where you'll see those stories by Melanie and Eva and so many others that are

00:15:45.340 working.

00:15:45.660 We've got within the staff columns, original content, all that good stuff.

00:15:49.060 And you can take out a membership.

00:15:50.200 So we'll check in with you tomorrow, Mel, and thanks again.

00:15:54.000 Sounds good.

00:15:55.420 Okay, and before we move on, I do want to talk about another one of our sponsors,

00:15:59.560 and that's the Canada Shooting Sports Association.

00:16:02.900 These guys are out there on your behalf.

00:16:06.560 They have legal challenges on behalf of firearms owners, and they need members.

00:16:10.540 So get out there, search them out.

00:16:13.140 Their URL, their website is cssa-cila.org,

00:16:18.760 or just search Canada Shooting Sports Association, and they need you to join. They need members so

00:16:23.980 they can stand up for you, so they can stand up for your right to own and enjoy firearms

00:16:28.460 responsibly, safely, like the vast majority of us do. I mean, that's what we do. We have our

00:16:32.620 firearms and we utilize them for hunting or target shooting or even just collecting. Some people have

00:16:36.440 a whole lot of them. They never fire even. They just like them. And there's nothing wrong with

00:16:40.980 that. But our government is trying to take those away. Every year they're making more and more of

00:16:45.620 these pieces of property illegal and trying to get them out of your hands. So check out the Canada

00:16:50.320 Shooting Sports Association and see how these guys are standing up for your right to use and

00:16:57.460 enjoy firearms. Now, before I get on to my next guest, Lindsay, she's going to be coming into the

00:17:02.060 studio. I want to run a video and we're going to discuss that a little more later. But I mean,

00:17:06.200 something that's been going on too from the Omicron and what Melanie was talking about was,

00:17:10.480 you know, this is spreading everywhere and it's cutting through vaccinations like a hot knife

00:17:15.180 through butter. It's clear that vaccinations, and again, it's debatable and a lot of us get in the

00:17:18.700 big fight, they can reduce the impact of an infection once you've gotten it. We know we

00:17:24.060 can fight that another time, but they don't do anything to stop the transmission, particularly

00:17:28.220 with Omicron. And the people who were pushing vaccinations so hard before, though, were all

00:17:32.760 saying, well, we never told you it was going to stop transmission. We didn't say that. We were

00:17:36.600 always just saying that we want to do it to reduce hospital burden and we want to protect you from

00:17:40.560 yourselves. Well, no, no, they were saying it's going to stop transmission. That's how they were

00:17:45.300 selling it. That's how they were pushing it. That's how they were flogging it. So somebody,

00:17:48.560 and I wish I knew the originator of it, but all of a sudden they've put together a great video

00:17:52.520 collage showing a whole bunch of influential people telling us in the last year, uh, just

00:17:57.740 what vaccines are supposed to do. So let's feed them their own words and remind them of what they

00:18:02.100 said during 2021 we should be able to manufacture a lot of vaccines and and that vaccine uh key goal

00:18:10.980 is to stop the transmission to get the immunity levels up so that you get almost no almost no

00:18:16.260 uh infection going on whatsoever everyone who takes the vaccine is not just protecting themselves

00:18:21.840 but reducing their transmission uh to other people and allowing society to get back to normal we can

00:18:28.020 kind of almost see the end. We're vaccinating so very fast. Our data from the CDC today suggests

00:18:35.020 that vaccinated people do not carry the virus, don't get sick. Now we know that the vaccines

00:18:41.720 work well enough that the virus stops with every vaccinated person. A vaccinated person gets exposed

00:18:47.500 to the virus. The virus does not infect them. The virus cannot then use that person to go anywhere

00:18:53.400 else. You cannot use a vaccinated person as a host to go get more people. That means the vaccines

00:18:59.520 will get us to the end of this. Essentially, vaccines block you from getting and giving

00:19:06.680 the virus. If you are vaccinated, they can feel safe that they are not going to get infected.

00:19:11.400 We have all the vaccines we need. We just need our people to take it. A, for their own protection,

00:19:18.900 for the protection of their family, but also to break the chain of transmission.

00:19:25.380 You want to be a dead end to the virus.

00:19:27.980 So when the virus gets to you, you stop it.

00:19:31.120 You don't allow it to use you as the stepping stone to the next person.

00:19:36.720 I think given the country as a whole, the fact that we have now about 50% of adults fully vaccinated

00:19:43.260 and about 62% of adults having received at least one dose as a nation,

00:19:49.940 I feel fairly certain you're not going to see the kind of surges we've seen in the past.

00:19:55.620 If you're vaccinated, you're not going to be hospitalized,

00:19:59.440 you're not going to be in an ICU unit, and you're not going to die.

00:20:02.860 You're okay. You're not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.

00:20:14.040 Okay. Well, we're working on our transitions.

00:20:16.320 We're getting better at that in this modest studio here.

00:20:19.360 So I'm joined in studio with Lindsay Seawalt. Am I pronouncing it right? Yes.

00:20:22.560 Okay. With Alberta Proud. So thank you very much for coming in to talk with us today.

00:20:26.400 Yeah. Thanks for having me. It's a, it's a real pleasure to be here.

00:20:30.840 Able to chat about Alberta Proud. So I took this on.

00:20:34.200 I've known some of these folks for awhile and I,

00:20:36.600 and they asked me to come on board and become the spokesperson and president of

00:20:40.260 Alberta Proud. So if you've heard of Alberta Proud,

00:20:43.260 proud, it's probably because you follow us on social media. We have a Facebook page of over

00:20:48.200 200,000 people. We also have Instagram and Telegraph and Twitter as well, of course, but

00:20:55.260 Facebook is our main following. And, you know, we're out there just to tell everybody to tell

00:21:00.220 the world that Alberta is the best place, the most innovative place to live, work, do business,

00:21:05.080 raise a family. And we're proud of our pipelines. We're proud of our Alberta oil and oil and gas.

00:21:10.740 So that's what we're here for.

00:21:12.660 Well, that's good.

00:21:13.240 I mean, I like the name in and of itself.

00:21:15.320 And I know I'm going to a little bit of sometimes people have tried to connote it with Proud Boys or things like that.

00:21:21.260 And it's not related whatsoever.

00:21:22.980 And, you know, let's not let other things associate with what's a good word.

00:21:26.400 I mean, proud. 1.00

00:21:27.160 I mean, Alberta's been getting beaten on for, well, for decades.

00:21:30.080 We're a alien confederation.

00:21:31.620 And we've had a lot to be proud of.

00:21:33.000 I mean, let's just stand up for ourselves and unapologetically say we've got a hell of a good province here.

00:21:36.820 And we've got to do what we can for it.

00:21:39.080 Absolutely, Corey.

00:21:39.800 And you know what?

00:21:40.260 it's time to call the bluff on these self-serving celebrities who are so out of touch, you don't

00:21:45.880 even live in this country, let alone this province, who are talking badly about what we deliver and

00:21:51.080 about our pipelines. They are the safest way to move natural gas and to move oil. And we stand

00:21:57.280 by that. And we do take issue with the Trudeau government and with the Alberta NDP government

00:22:04.640 and their job-killing policies and their anti-energy approach.

00:22:09.000 And we often use humor as a way to show the world,

00:22:13.480 hey, look what these guys are doing.

00:22:14.740 Never forget.

00:22:15.560 I've lifted some great memes from your site.

00:22:17.800 I try to attribute when I can, when I take them,

00:22:20.340 and sometimes I just steal them.

00:22:21.860 But I mean, that's part of it.

00:22:23.820 We can make the message digestible.

00:22:25.480 I mean, we write a lot of long columns here

00:22:27.900 and academic pieces, and those are all important.

00:22:30.460 But at times, just sometimes a short message

00:22:32.180 getting out there can have an impact on people and change perceptions it's incredible so so my

00:22:38.700 background i was a reporter i'm a journalist by trade and uh in my heart i think i i'll always

00:22:43.440 i'll always relate to that but you know we've seen media change so much and we are showing

00:22:48.160 albertans and we're showing canadians hey you know you don't have to rely on mainstream

00:22:53.000 news as much anymore look to alternative publications look to online publications

00:22:58.220 and you know like the western standard i mean i think you guys are just doing a really great job

00:23:01.900 about standing up for Alberta and telling our stories in a way that's unfortunately not getting

00:23:07.180 covered by the mainstream media so and as you know I was I was working in weekly newspapers

00:23:14.060 you know before the internet kind of took over and and we've watched this transition and you see

00:23:19.840 that you have to get the message across to people really poignantly really funny and and and memes

00:23:25.700 have become a great way to actually tell a story you can put a lot right there and tell a story

00:23:29.920 We also share really thought provoking content and editorials and op-eds and

00:23:35.600 you just kind of got to hit people from all angles and we're really finding that now.

00:23:39.520 Yeah. And then getting it out and about there. And I mean, part of it, cutting through the

00:23:44.800 mainstream media, I mean, they're still there and there's still some good stuff, but they've

00:23:48.160 really gone downhill. I'm thinking of, especially when it comes to a pride issue, CBC commissioned

00:23:53.440 that ridiculous poll a little while back talking about who would be comfortable moving to Alberta.

00:23:59.920 from across the country and everything and they found that something like 54 percent of people

00:24:02.880 said they'd rather not so they reported on that look at that you know most upper most canadians

00:24:07.280 wouldn't want to live in alberta and they got a lot of backlash so you know what a divisive

00:24:10.800 ridiculous pull to even hold i mean you know a lot of people just want to stay home it doesn't

00:24:14.080 mean they have a problem with alberta or things like that so they thought they'd hold another one 0.57

00:24:18.160 and they did and they cut and they added all the regions it turned out only 24 of canadians

00:24:21.840 wanted to move to quebec so that one they're a little more quiet on when they got the results

00:24:26.480 of it. But it shows that agenda that we like kind of always poking and backhanding and slapping

00:24:33.600 Alberta. And it's time we stood up for ourselves. Absolutely. And really, that's what we're here

00:24:38.980 for. And we're encouraging people, reach out to us, send us funny meme ideas, send us links to

00:24:44.320 great editorials written by your favorite reporters, your favorite columnists, your favorite

00:24:50.880 experts. Just connect with us, share stuff with us. We want to tell your stories.

00:24:54.800 Yeah. And we'll hit that at the end again, too. But I mean, just that reminder. So I mean,

00:24:58.980 your main area is Facebook. You got a massive following there. Not everybody's on Facebook,

00:25:03.640 though. Where else can they interact with Alberta Proud and, you know, share stuff with you or find

00:25:07.900 stuff that you're sharing? Yeah, absolutely. I mean, you can always reach out to us through

00:25:10.820 social media or through email or through our website, which is albertaproud.org. And you can

00:25:17.700 sign up for our email newsletter. We send that stuff out. And so, I mean, really email,

00:25:24.260 website. We kind of hit everything through the internet. So yeah. And the newsletters are good.

00:25:28.600 I mean, people complain about getting some every day, but you know, if you don't want it, it's not

00:25:31.220 that hard to delete it. Absolutely. And it's a great alternative for people who aren't on social

00:25:34.800 media and don't want to be bothered. Yeah. And then you can just get the morning email and get

00:25:38.160 those highlights and see what you're on about and hopefully some good things. So energy has been a

00:25:42.080 lot of your focus, but with a positive bent. I mean, we understand the world changes. There's

00:25:47.220 differences in demand and our energy sector has been adapting. It's been changing. It's been,

00:25:52.560 producing differently and looking into that. And you guys are talking to that because we're not

00:25:57.160 getting any credit anywhere else for what our energy sector has been doing. Absolutely. And

00:26:00.680 we shouldn't put up with that. So pipelines are the safest way to transport oil and they're safer

00:26:05.760 than rail cars. And our pipelines, our big producers, they do a lot to give back to

00:26:11.980 communities, to give back to the environment and to compensate when accidents do happen as well.

00:26:16.900 So we just feel like the media is always ready to go after pipelines, always ready to go after

00:26:22.380 Alberta energy and you know this is the safest cleanest way to produce it and and to grow our

00:26:28.020 economy and to create jobs and it's just a no-brainer and and we're just we're sending a

00:26:33.300 strong message that we're not going to put up with it anymore and we're not going to put up with

00:26:36.520 the abuse quite frankly from the from the federal liberal government and constantly punishing us

00:26:41.280 and punishing Alberta and you know one of the one of the biggest campaigns that we came out with was

00:26:46.720 last fall during the federal election, of course, was we pushed really strongly for the equalization.

00:26:53.220 We want Alberta to have more autonomy. We want Alberta to get a better deal.

00:26:57.720 And, you know, hopefully we'll start seeing some successes on that. 0.54

00:27:00.960 Yeah. And that equalization referendum, I mean, it was, it got sidetracked a bit,

00:27:05.520 but it was still definitive that most Albertans, at least it was, it was a poll that you could

00:27:08.760 say it wasn't an internet poll. It wasn't a Twitter poll. It wasn't something like that.

00:27:11.140 This really was Albertans getting up, casting a ballot. I was surprised it was actually as high

00:27:15.380 it was for Albertans still saying as much as some might have been ticked off with the provincial

00:27:18.660 government or using it for other messaging still the majority said no this is not a good program

00:27:23.940 I think it helps empower at least politicians when they're going to Ottawa it doesn't change

00:27:27.380 anything immediately but gives them the basis say look it's not sustainable our population

00:27:32.260 is upset with this we've got to change it I know it's frustrating we all want things fixed yesterday

00:27:37.940 but it's a step in the right direction yeah I think so I think it sent a message you know another

00:27:42.180 campaign that we recently took on as we pushed for the university of alberta to revoke david

00:27:46.660 suzuki's honorary degree and you probably saw that floating around that got tremendous impact

00:27:51.140 we have i think we're close to six thousand signatures on our petition um and you can find

00:27:55.380 that through alberta albertaprag.org and uh we're calling on them to hey like why are we why are we

00:28:00.980 giving an honorary doctorate from somebody who's who made the comments that he made back in late

00:28:04.820 november saying you know to basically to get attention we're gonna have to what's it gonna

00:28:08.900 take to start blowing up pipelines. Like when we're letting these, these so-called leaders

00:28:13.700 and environmental activists advocate violence to get attention. I mean, it's just the extreme

00:28:20.100 left going way too far. No, it was, it was beyond the pale. And that's

00:28:24.180 some of the stuff we have to do is call it out because everything's about shaping public perception.

00:28:29.620 And, uh, you know, Suzuki had been made almost a sacred Canadian icon. Oh, he's the,

00:28:34.340 and I gotta admit, I grew up, you know, as a kid and I watched the nature of things,

00:28:37.220 i thought it was a cool show and things like that but i mean once i grew older i realized that he's 0.86

00:28:41.220 a raving lunatic um walking hypocrisy yes so we need to bring up and we know the state broadcaster

00:28:48.660 isn't going to expose zizuki for who he is and what he's about so yeah bringing it to light to 0.95

00:28:53.300 people this guy was inciting people to blow up pipelines there's no getting around that that's

00:28:59.620 you know the double speak on it was too much with people trying to defend it too so it was good to

00:29:03.700 to see an organization reaching out so much and say, no, we're not sitting and letting you talk

00:29:08.200 like that without some sort of pushback. Yeah, I think we have to stop, you know, we have to stop

00:29:12.860 being so afraid of being politically correct. We have to just, sometimes you just got to do what's

00:29:17.840 right. And I think if you, if you just stay consistent, people, people will get it. They'll

00:29:22.840 get the message. Yeah. Well, political correctness hasn't been a big mainstay for me over the years,

00:29:27.260 typically on social media. I mean, that's where social media provides good and bad opportunities.

00:29:31.880 I mean, we can reach so many more people.

00:29:34.480 We can bypass the mainstream, the gatekeepers of information.

00:29:37.400 I mean, we're in a wonderful age where, yeah, a group like this can immediately reach out to a couple hundred thousand followers on Facebook alone.

00:29:44.220 Or I can get on Twitter and in 180 characters piss off as many as 20,000 people in 30 seconds, which sometimes is productive, sometimes it isn't.

00:29:54.060 But, I mean, it's new and we can turn it into something really good.

00:29:59.360 It's really powerful.

00:30:00.460 It's really powerful.

00:30:01.880 We aren't dependent on the old institutions any longer.

00:30:05.320 It's all changing.

00:30:07.480 So what other initiatives do you guys, I mean, you've got more in the cooker

00:30:10.360 coming up for the season this year.

00:30:11.800 Yeah, we're kind of in talks and see how, you know, see how we want to move forward into 2022.

00:30:17.560 You know, we really want to capitalize that the forecasts look really good.

00:30:20.920 Like we're, we're on our way back up and we, you know, we just need to send the message out again,

00:30:26.600 just to support Alberta oil and gas and, and keep moving forward on that note. So

00:30:32.440 as far as specific campaigns, I think we'll have some, some stuff coming up here in the next few

00:30:36.360 weeks. So good. Yeah. Cause I mean, something that's happening is things are looking good.

00:30:40.840 We're seeing some positive reports. Alberta is doing all right. I mean, yeah, it's not necessarily

00:30:45.000 the government spending that responsibly, but they are getting that oil and gas revenue back in again.

00:30:49.560 But sometimes they're worried that also puts a big target on our back. It's it's, you know,

00:30:53.720 the feds want money they see that egg sitting over there pierre trudeau couldn't resist it

00:30:58.920 when that happened back in the 70s and 80s and he came after it uh we do have to fear the current

00:31:04.520 government they might say you know what oil and gas isn't such a bad thing but now it's a national

00:31:08.040 resource we we've got to take this because canadians are suffering so i mean we've got

00:31:12.280 to prepare to stand up for ourselves if that comes and that's where this kind of organization helps

00:31:15.960 us as well absolutely and that's where you know that's that's what you guys are doing too is the

00:31:20.440 the Western standard is telling those stories. And it's really important because I think you're

00:31:25.400 right. I think Alberta is always going to have a target on its back. We are the economic engine of

00:31:29.840 the country. And I think we're on our way back on top. We were down, we were kicked while we were

00:31:35.080 down, but I think we're on our way. Yeah. And you'd mentioned with the liberals, but I mean,

00:31:39.600 you aren't a partisan organization. I mean, I think for the most part, the followers are going

00:31:44.060 to adhere to one party or another. And there's certainly some parties we see as more detrimental

00:31:47.880 than others but you know for example our federal conservatives haven't been the the most uh at least

00:31:53.480 the the leader hasn't necessarily stood up for alberta as much as we would have hoped he would 0.93

00:31:57.160 and i mean that's part of it we gotta we gotta be the nipping pain in the butt to those leaders as

00:32:00.920 well and hey hey we're here you know you gotta speak for all of us not just come back in ontario 0.63

00:32:04.520 while you're on the job absolutely well you can't have them get too too complacent and too comfortable

00:32:08.600 so um you know like the federal conservatives have been in flux for a number of years now so

00:32:13.240 we'll see how that shapes up. I know. I mean, it's very, very important. Like we are,

00:32:16.360 we are nonprofit. We have no government funding whatsoever. We're, we're just funded by everyday,

00:32:22.280 everyday Albertans. Yeah. You're getting the same amount of government funding that we are

00:32:26.760 here at the Western standings. But I mean, it is, it's nice to be able to say that it's

00:32:32.040 a point of pride. Like we can see what we like. We aren't, you know, that's it. When you get

00:32:37.720 funding from the government, you become behold to them. There's no avoiding it. I mean, if you

00:32:42.360 suddenly three of your staff are dedicated because of that amount of subsidy that comes in. It's

00:32:46.200 going to be hard when the government ministry of truth person phones up and says, we don't want to

00:32:50.680 see that column run. We don't want to see you report on this, or we need you to report on that.

00:32:55.320 It's going to be hard to say no. Well, case in point is sorry about the CBC,

00:32:59.160 you know, having journalists like last week stepped down to say, I can't take it anymore.

00:33:02.600 So, um, no, for me, it's, it's a, it's a point of pride to, to be able to say, you know,

00:33:07.880 know, we're not bought and paid for. Yeah. And yeah, there was another one. I got to see Rex

00:33:14.180 Murphy speaking in a fair in Banff last summer. I'm not sure if you were at that one, but he's

00:33:21.160 great. And he has no shortage of critique for the institution that he still recognizes and respects

00:33:27.040 the CBC. And I mean, it did build him up through the, I believe the sixties when he began perhaps

00:33:31.780 in the seventies and eighties even, but he realized that institution has degraded into something

00:33:37.020 terrible that we just we should be pushing getting rid of to be honest as it stands but the content

00:33:43.180 is just so slanted yeah and it's too bad because there's i mean i've i've had friends that have

00:33:47.480 gone on and worked for the cbc you know when you're a young reporter starting out you know

00:33:50.940 friends go to all sorts of different networks and it was the dream to work for the cbc and you know

00:33:55.260 to see that it's let down so many journalists with the you know with the with the bias that's

00:34:01.880 really quite frankly become infiltrated throughout the organization you know it's

00:34:05.860 it's just disappointing and i hope that i hope that changes yeah i hope so i mean they used to

00:34:10.040 do some fantastic investigative journalism actually they would break stuff and i'm a libertarian i

00:34:14.660 still can't i can't conceive of supporting a state broadcaster under any circumstance but

00:34:18.420 at least i have to admit back when they were funded by that 20 30 years ago it did give them

00:34:23.600 the leeway other media outlets didn't have where you could afford to sick a reporter on a subject

00:34:28.240 for a month and have them dig in and follow up and do some great investigative work that's more

00:34:33.260 difficult to do now with the resources. Absolutely. And some of their international

00:34:36.120 coverage was phenomenal. So, I mean, they birthed a lot of incredible journalists and incredible

00:34:40.840 stories. So, and I like to think of them in that light when I think of them, because what's

00:34:44.680 happening nowadays, it's just not, it's not palatable. No, I'm afraid those days are gone.

00:34:48.660 Well, thank you very much for coming in to see us today. And you're our first,

00:34:52.240 with the show triggered in-studio guest. Oh, I feel so honored.

00:34:55.800 So as the plague eases back, we intend to have more of them coming on boards.

00:35:00.900 So thanks for testing our systems and having a great chat with me today.

00:35:04.160 I'm certain we'll have you back again.

00:35:05.680 I would love to come back anytime, Corey.

00:35:06.940 And I'll just do a little shameless plug for, you know, if anybody wants to check it out,

00:35:10.840 we just launched a new merch line, great hoodies, toques, sweaters, even onesies for babies.

00:35:16.000 And you can find that at shop.albertaproud.org.

00:35:20.120 Great.

00:35:20.620 Thanks so much for having me.

00:35:21.600 And go to that Facebook page.

00:35:22.880 There's all sorts of good stuff.

00:35:23.920 All right.

00:35:24.480 I'm sure we'll talk again soon.

00:35:25.800 You bet. Thanks, Corey.

00:35:55.800 Okay. Welcome back. Yeah. So, uh, working those transitions, there's run somebody in and out

00:36:03.820 without tripping over cables is a thing we're going to be practicing getting better at as we

00:36:07.740 go. I think that went pretty good for one of our things, eh, Nico? I mean, we've had some

00:36:10.780 other challenges. We're getting better all the time. So let's have a look through the

00:36:14.880 comments a bit here. You know, uh, Pat is Andrusiac. Is it a oil and gas is our bloodline

00:36:22.980 in Alberta. You know, that's one of the things, Alberta Proud, things like that. That's it. Let's

00:36:27.500 talk about these things. Let's be proud of these things. Let's not apologize for being who and what

00:36:31.960 we are anymore. I mean, that's what's been happening. So that's why I like the name of

00:36:36.100 that organization. It just says, we're going to talk positively about who we are, what we are.

00:36:41.940 I'm not going to apologize for it. Check those guys out. They're really good.

00:36:45.160 um nikki hurley saying the government ignores petitions uh yes and no i mean uh they they do

00:36:53.400 to a degree but it does show things they're watching you know i mean i did work in partisan

00:36:57.360 politics in the past and these politicians are always watching they're always polling

00:37:02.720 they're always worried i mean it's self-interest most of them just want to make sure they keep

00:37:06.940 their jobs but they've got to see where public sentiment is going in order to do that i mean

00:37:12.540 They might want to mold public sentiment to a degree, but they also want to lead it.

00:37:15.960 I mean, Ralph Klein's favorite saying was always, you know, find the parade, get in front of it.

00:37:21.560 I had to drink some of that great Alberta water.

00:37:25.020 So petitions, if they're coming in and they really do have strong, big numbers, we'll make some politicians think twice.

00:37:32.260 We've got people saying all parties are corrupt.

00:37:34.560 Well, I know it's a cynical outlook, but I've worked in them enough that they're bound and they're limited

00:37:41.080 and they don't necessarily get the job done for us, but they aren't necessarily corrupt.

00:37:46.540 But a lot of individual politicians, unfortunately, are.

00:37:49.660 And it is a difficult route for us to change things, but it's the best one we've got.

00:37:53.600 In fact, it's the only one we've got.

00:37:55.540 So, I mean, I'm going to get on.

00:37:57.300 I might as well get the comments really stirring up fast.

00:37:59.660 For those who follow me on Twitter, Corey B. Morgan, I get into things on there a lot.

00:38:06.560 Now, something that happened recently was protesters went outside of Jody Gondek's house over the weekend, 30 or 40 of them.

00:38:15.380 I'm just going to throw a guess out there, and it's Art Pawlowski's gang.

00:38:19.800 Stop it. Cut it out. It's idiocy. It's bloody idiocy.

00:38:25.260 Okay, guys? You are not doing the cause any favors. Not whatsoever. 1.00

00:38:31.280 I mean, people on Facebook or Twitter, oh, there's nothing else we can do. There's bullshit. 0.99

00:38:34.640 shit. There's stuff that can be done and you can do it without intimidating people at their 1.00

00:38:39.240 personal households. As I was talking about, when I'm talking about politicians being swayed,

00:38:43.720 when I'm talking about being pushed, and as frustrating as it is, what you've got to do

00:38:48.220 is move the needle of public opinion and the politicians will follow. When you make Alberta's

00:38:55.100 health minister or Calgary's mayor objects of pity, you don't do your cause a favor. When you

00:39:01.640 look like a bunch of goons, you don't do your cause any favors. Sylvia is saying it had nothing

00:39:08.000 to do with art. I'm willing to stand corrected on that. I was just speculating. So fair enough,

00:39:12.500 whoever it may have been, it was only 30 or 40 people. And people said, it's the only way we're

00:39:17.480 going to convince them. Well, you know what? You won't with 30 or 40 people. You will with thousands

00:39:23.140 of people. And you don't have to go to their houses to do it. You've got to go on the streets.

00:39:27.440 I had somebody else talking. It was another Twitter person coming at me. And this is

00:39:31.480 something I've gone on over and over again, and I'm going to keep going on. I got assigned over

00:39:35.980 last summer and in the fall, and I went to a number of protests. I went to them over and over

00:39:40.160 again, hoping to see them grow. I want to see people pushing back against restrictions. I want

00:39:45.460 to see the public showing that, yes, we've had enough, cut it out, lay off, let us get on with

00:39:50.480 our lives. But when I go to these, it's always the same people leading those protests. And I guess

00:39:55.240 hats off, they're getting out and doing, trying, but most of them are crazy. Most of them are 0.99

00:40:00.980 talking about chemtrails and mind control and lizard people. And I know you get upset when I

00:40:05.740 mentioned that, but I literally heard all of those things at these protests, not from everybody,

00:40:10.500 but from enough of them that your average person going to one of these things is not going to come

00:40:15.760 back. They're going to realize that this isn't rational. This is insane. I don't belong here.

00:40:20.980 And if though you can start building that, if you get these things going where people show up who

00:40:28.060 haven't shown up to these before and they nod their heads when the speakers go and they feel

00:40:32.240 comfortable around the other people and they understand that this is a movement that's building

00:40:35.820 this is a pushback that's building they're going to come back to other protests those protests

00:40:39.660 will get bigger then you're going to see decision makers paying attention then they're going to get

00:40:44.800 worried then they're going to change policy trying to up the crazy which is what's happening when you

00:40:51.260 go to people's personal households is not going to improve it i remember somebody else talked

00:40:56.900 about before. Think about it. If it was you, if you got somebody screaming, you got to remember,

00:41:00.160 you got perhaps your wife and kids in the house, you got neighbors, and you got these people out

00:41:03.680 on your sidewalk protesting, intimidating you at your household. Are you going to feel more

00:41:09.040 inclined to cooperate with these people, to bend to their will, to do what they want you to do?

00:41:17.080 If it was me, I'd dig my feet in and say, there's even less chance I'm going to have anything to do 0.98

00:41:21.940 with these clowns. I am now ticked off at them, and I'm actually going to go out of my way to 0.97

00:41:26.340 antagonize them. We're starting to see the needle move. I think we are, and we can do it through

00:41:32.340 reason. It's slow and it's frustrating and people are being put out of work and people are being

00:41:36.200 shut up from visiting families and we're having our rights infringed upon. We have a federal

00:41:40.560 minister, the health minister saying we need to get mandatory vaccinations. Yeah, that's outrageous.

00:41:48.000 We have to push back on that. We absolutely do, but we have to be rational about it.

00:41:52.620 You know, when you do stuff like that, when you intimidate people at your homes, what you do is you empower the state to say, you see, we have to actually crack down on protests.

00:42:00.160 We have to hinder it because these people are becoming dangerous, whether that's right or wrong or fair or not.

00:42:05.000 That's what they will do.

00:42:05.980 We can't give them ammunition for that.

00:42:08.620 We have to be reasonable with these things.

00:42:12.240 And it's not helping.

00:42:15.000 So that video, that three-minute video, I'll get back to that.

00:42:17.840 You know, wasn't that great, though?

00:42:18.620 all those guys. I mean, I love feeding people their own words at times. I mean, hey, we make

00:42:23.320 mistakes and that's fine, but they're not standing up today and say, well, we were wrong. That's,

00:42:27.220 that's what I want to hear out of them. They got to say, we were wrong. We made a mistake.

00:42:31.000 We thought the vaccinations would stop the spread. It obviously didn't do so nearly as much as we

00:42:35.800 hoped it would. So, and this is our new narrative, but no, they're kind of starting to say, well,

00:42:42.820 no, we never claimed that. We, we, we said it was just to reduce negative outcomes in healthcare.

00:42:47.940 well no there's your words there's all those clips there's rachel maddow there's president

00:42:51.300 biden they're all these uh influential people they were all telling us that this was going to

00:42:55.780 stop the spread they were wrong so now that we know that that's wrong what we need to do is

00:43:01.300 change our policies i mean our policy so many of them the main one i think i think something we can

00:43:07.860 push back against right now is the vaccine passport we don't need it if the vaccination

00:43:16.100 doesn't stop the spread, what's the point of the passport? You know, I mean, if it doesn't make a

00:43:21.080 difference with people going into a restaurant together, whether they're vaccinated or not,

00:43:24.220 it doesn't change the likelihood of one or another getting infected. Why are we dealing with this

00:43:29.820 passport? Why are we forcing restaurants, bars, other places to have to scan everybody when they

00:43:35.580 come in, to annoy them, to put their front end staff through the stress and abuse that some of

00:43:39.680 them have been taking through this? This is a target I think we can rationally go after.

00:43:44.700 we can start saying to our provincial government, get rid of that legislation because the basis of

00:43:49.100 it was flawed. I like to think you guys believed it was a good idea. I like to think you really

00:43:54.680 thought vaccinations would stop the spread. So if we could just only keep vaccinating people,

00:43:59.500 you know, that way it would slow it down. But obviously that's not the case. So what's the

00:44:03.360 point of the passport? So target that. And yes, people say, well, what are you going to do? Well,

00:44:10.120 do everything you can. Speak on social media, phone your elected official, sign those petitions,

00:44:15.820 attend rational protests, go out to them, take part in one, organize one, speak at one. I don't

00:44:20.800 care. Just don't go harassing people at their houses. It won't help. It's not going to bring

00:44:26.020 them on board, but we can start climbing our way out of this wretched situation we're in.

00:44:31.140 Other stuff we talked about with Melanie too, we're starting to see some of the BS. And I think

00:44:34.500 the public's losing trust with those who were cracking down on us. And I think that's a good

00:44:38.060 thing. I mean, it's sad that our institutions have given up our trust, but it's good to see

00:44:45.000 the public starting to question things. So as I said, when I see Patrick Brown actually shooting

00:44:50.880 at his own health minister and saying, hey, give me that information. Where is it? That's a good

00:44:57.300 thing. Because if we're not filling the hospitals up, if we aren't filling the ICUs up, it's time

00:45:04.260 to say this is endemic, but everybody's lighting their hair on fire over cases, cases, cases,

00:45:08.520 cases. You know, it's one of those buzzwords of it's true, case-demic, you know. This is looking

00:45:14.580 more like a coldest, and people are saying, I think Delta is still floating around. We've still,

00:45:17.700 the last time I checked in Alberta, we're 64 people in ICU, and these were, when it hits the

00:45:22.460 ICU point, it is due to COVID, not with COVID, as a lot of those other hospitalization cases are.

00:45:28.780 It's still serious, and it can still harm some people. Let's not pretend it's not there,

00:45:32.460 But it's at a manageable level, which means we can let us get on with our lives and try and protect the vulnerable as much as humanly possible, while allowing the freedoms of association, travel, commerce, all of those things that we've been getting stepped on for two years now.

00:45:51.940 And nothing much has changed. How different do we look today than we did two years ago? We have this much more knowledge, but our policies don't seem to have changed. We can't hide from this thing.

00:46:01.380 So let's adjust the policies, but it's going to take discourse.

00:46:04.860 And again, it's going to take a rational approach.

00:46:08.700 Screaming, shouting, threatening, intimidating isn't rational.

00:46:13.360 It's not what we're about.

00:46:14.260 We've grown past that.

00:46:15.400 We're better than that.

00:46:17.040 It's not during the fairs.

00:46:18.240 Don't make excuses for those people going to people's personal homes.

00:46:21.660 You don't have to.

00:46:23.180 I mean, people say, well, nothing else has worked.

00:46:25.380 Well, this won't either.

00:46:27.220 So pull it out of your toolbox and find a new one.

00:46:30.380 You know, what else are we supposed to do? Well, let's talk about it. Let's talk about things we can do. I'm just telling you one thing not to do. And I assure you, it's not a good idea to do it. It's not working. It's not swaying public opinion. It's not going to get those policies changed. That's what we want. And it doesn't always have to be, you know, rational appearing. You can have fun. You can be a little strange with protests. I mean, I'm certainly not innocent of that.

00:46:57.440 I mean, people who know me, I mean, I parked my car in the middle of the Occupy protests, my truck, safely, by the way.

00:47:03.420 So people say, oh, he drove through a bunch of protesters.

00:47:04.880 No, I didn't.

00:47:05.580 I parked a truck down there because Ninchy was scared of those Occupy guys squatting in Olympic Plaza.

00:47:11.340 And I made a bunch of ridiculous demands like ending marmot tickling and two-ply toilet paper in public washrooms.

00:47:18.080 You know, some important things at the time.

00:47:19.460 and force the city to determine whether I'm allowed to protest downtown like that 0.98

00:47:25.760 because they're allowing all the tenters and everybody else to do it, 0.82

00:47:29.040 or if they're going to show their hypocrisy by having me charged and removed from there.

00:47:32.500 They chose hypocrisy, charged me, moved me from there.

00:47:35.340 I played it all down to $100 later anyways.

00:47:37.660 But two days later, the Friday, and then she said it was impossible

00:47:41.920 to arrest somebody based on a bylaw violation

00:47:44.400 and that the charter protects keeping them down there. 1.00

00:47:46.980 Well, the Monday, the city sought injunctions to get those idiots out of the park. 0.99

00:47:50.620 See, I did something that was a little bit bizarre, a little haywire, but it made headlines 0.99

00:47:54.260 across the country, and it changed public policies.

00:47:57.200 Don't forget that final part.

00:47:59.100 Your action has to lead to changing the policy.

00:48:02.220 Otherwise, it's pointless.

00:48:03.320 Then you're just venting.

00:48:05.260 Venting's fine.

00:48:05.960 Do it at home.

00:48:06.420 Do it on the internet.

00:48:07.200 Don't do it outside the houses of politicians.

00:48:09.780 We can do protest actions.

00:48:12.880 We can do a lot of things that will get the attention of the public in general, and it'll

00:48:16.620 get the attention of these politicians. And it's important. That's a right. We shouldn't

00:48:22.360 stop people from having that right to protest as well. But we've got to keep it in the realm

00:48:27.460 where people will look at it and they'll nod their heads and say, yes, people are getting fed up. I

00:48:31.460 want to get on board with that movement. I want us all to push back. And maybe we can actually

00:48:35.360 change and start regaining our freedoms. We'll rant a little bit more about that after I'm done

00:48:40.060 with my next guest. It looks like he's on deck. So I'm going to speak to our sponsor one more time

00:48:43.640 quickly. The Canada Shooting Sports Association, I mentioned them earlier. I'll mention them again.

00:48:50.500 These guys stand up for shooting sports. It's in the name. Their website is cssa-cila.org.

00:48:58.360 Like so many other rights too. See, these guys take a rational approach. It's as frustrating as

00:49:02.920 it is. We've got the government infringing on our rights of property, our right to just

00:49:06.140 go out and enjoy ourselves, to hunt, to collect, to do things such as that with firearms. And these

00:49:11.520 guys have got court challenges on the go, pushing back against that. These guys are gathering other

00:49:16.080 citizens and public members to stand up for their rights, to have these firearms, enjoy them

00:49:20.340 responsibly and safely, as most of us all do. It's important. And if we don't stand up for our own

00:49:25.840 rights, there's something that's true with the people I've been arguing a bit, you know, when

00:49:28.600 it comes to protesting that though, we do have to stand up for ourselves because no one is going to

00:49:31.640 do it on our behalf. It's our, it's on us. And these are one of the organizations that helps

00:49:36.460 facilitate us to do it. So go to the Canada Shooting Sports Association. They got all sorts

00:49:40.580 of resources there. You can take out a membership, help them help you. Now, speaking of somebody

00:49:46.440 else helping us, I have Michael Wagner on deck. He's going to come on board. And we'll talk

00:49:53.220 Alberta independence, one of my favorite subjects. So let's see, where are you, Michael? Ah, there

00:49:57.980 you are. How are you doing? Oh, we seem to have you muted there, perhaps. Oh, maybe not. Okay.

00:50:09.040 Hmm. I've seen Michael's mouth move, but I don't have sound. There we go.

00:50:15.820 Do you have sound now?

00:50:16.880 Gotcha. Perfect. Thank you very much.

00:50:18.680 So that was at your end and I take it.

00:50:21.080 Oh, probably. You know, when you're live, I mean, it cuts both ways.

00:50:25.160 I mean, it's a great way to go with things, but of course it comes with some challenges now and then.

00:50:28.920 Our audience is understanding. There's some great people.

00:50:31.180 They're mostly Albertans, so they're going to appreciate what we're going to talk about in the next little while.

00:50:35.100 So thank you very much for coming on to join me.

00:50:38.280 I know we've crossed paths and social media a number of times over the years.

00:50:41.360 And I think we've even talked on the phone some years ago or something, but

00:50:44.160 we never actually kind of met.

00:50:45.600 So good to meet you, Michael.

00:50:47.120 Nice to meet you as well.

00:50:48.600 And we will start, you know, you've got quite a background when it comes to talking

00:50:51.840 about independence and you've been, I believe, an associate university professor

00:50:56.680 or were you a professor?

00:50:58.120 No, no, I haven't been a professor.

00:50:59.320 I was just exceptional for one time.

00:51:00.960 Oh, OK.

00:51:01.520 See, I didn't go to university, so I'm not sure how all those things work.

00:51:04.680 But I know you're you're very well educated in these issues and such.

00:51:07.400 you do have a PhD, if I recall. That's correct, yes. Okay, there we go, and you've written a number

00:51:11.160 of books on that, so if we can give some background on the books you've released on this sort of issue

00:51:14.760 before we get onto the column you recently put out. Sure, that'd be great. Well, the first book

00:51:19.040 I wrote about the Alberta independence movement was, it came out in 2009, if I can just show it

00:51:24.420 here, Alberta Separatism Then and Now. So this is a history of the Alberta separatist movement

00:51:30.760 from its very beginning up until about 2008 or so, and I just have to point out that it has a

00:51:36.920 really nice endorsement from a fellow named Corey Morgan, who had been the founder of the

00:51:41.440 Alberta Independence Party. So that book is a history of the separatist movement itself. So

00:51:46.060 it's not an advocacy book, but it's a very detailed history showing the people that were

00:51:49.860 involved in the organizations that got going and how it got started basically in the 1970s

00:51:53.840 and how it kind of faded out with the Reform Party kind of absorbed the separatist movement

00:51:58.900 and took all the energy of the separatist movement. That was actually an intentional

00:52:01.740 thing on Preston Manning's part. He saw the energy of the separatist movement and he thought

00:52:06.900 but that he could bring it into a party that would help strengthen Canada rather than tear it apart.

00:52:11.880 And so that was part of the incentive for creating the Reform Party in the first place in the late 1980s.

00:52:16.640 Then the book that I've written more recently is this one here.

00:52:21.160 No Other Options, Self-Determination for Alberta.

00:52:24.000 This is an advocacy book.

00:52:25.560 It's promoting Alberta independence, explaining why Alberta should become independent

00:52:29.440 and why it's constitutionally able to do so, like through constitutional law,

00:52:33.680 namely a Supreme Court decision from 1998, this secession reference case,

00:52:37.680 which made it possible for provinces to legally secede from Canada under certain conditions.

00:52:43.780 But nevertheless, it is a possibility now in constitutional law.

00:52:47.040 And that was unclear before 1998.

00:52:48.860 So having that clarity with 1998 makes things better for the movement now that we know what exactly we're trying to achieve if we want Alberta to become independent.

00:52:56.380 So those two books, the recent one is available on Amazon.ca.

00:53:00.820 and the other one is available on a website called merchantship.ca that's a local Alberta

00:53:07.260 business a small business a family business operated out of Didsbury so merchantship.ca

00:53:11.800 it actually sells both those books but the first one is only available there so those are the two

00:53:16.920 books and so I have been you know on top of these issues for many years and it's very important to

00:53:22.880 me personally so that's why I've written those books because I do believe in this movement yeah

00:53:27.960 Well, in explaining the Clarity Act and things like that, the mechanisms for how we would get there when we get there is important.

00:53:34.620 A lot of people misunderstand what it's about.

00:53:36.340 I mean, I think it was unintentional on the part of Chrétien, but what he did do was create us the roadmap when he thought he was fighting Quebec secessionism by implementing that legislation.

00:53:45.580 But it's told us the steps that we have to achieve now, really.

00:53:48.720 Well, the basis is relatively simple.

00:53:51.580 Have a clear majority in a referendum with a clear question on independence.

00:53:55.140 Now, getting to that tipping point of support and having that held and everything, we've still got a heck of a lot of work to go, but we know what we have to do.

00:54:05.540 Exactly. Yes. And like you say, I mean, this was done, the decision was for Quebec.

00:54:10.160 I mean, if it had been a decision for reference to Alberta, who knows how they would have decided.

00:54:13.860 But because they had to keep Quebec happy, you know, they had to decide a certain way.

00:54:17.820 But in making an avenue open for Quebec, they made an avenue open for every province, including Alberta.

00:54:23.040 Yeah, well, for some of our younger viewers, I mean, when the referendum went on in Quebec, there was a bit of a valid point that they kind of tried to play both sides.

00:54:31.840 Their question was very ambiguous.

00:54:34.080 And then to some people, they'd kind of be saying, well, no, it doesn't really mean independence.

00:54:38.420 We're just talking about kind of a sovereignty association.

00:54:40.360 To others, they would say, no, we mean we want out.

00:54:42.460 The bottom line is you didn't know which way, and they used that muddied water in order to gain supports.

00:54:48.260 I believe if we're going to go, we should have a clear question.

00:54:50.660 Basically, are you staying or are you going?

00:54:52.040 not some 10-paragraph thing that you got to study.

00:54:54.880 You're absolutely right.

00:54:56.080 I mean, Quebec did have fuzzy questions in both referendums.

00:54:59.780 And so, you know, that really defeats the purpose on the one hand.

00:55:03.660 But on the other hand, they did that to bring in more support.

00:55:06.160 Because, you know, what does sovereignty association mean?

00:55:08.480 And so, I mean, it's easier to sell something that's less radical than pure independence.

00:55:14.200 And so they did want to muddy the waters that way.

00:55:15.880 And so the Supreme Court, I think, did well in making sure that it would have to be a clear question

00:55:21.480 on a referendum for independence.

00:55:24.320 Yeah, and when we go,

00:55:25.400 and I think it's going to happen.

00:55:26.920 It has to happen.

00:55:27.960 When we go, I want to feel confident

00:55:29.880 that the majority of Albertans

00:55:31.180 are ready to roll.

00:55:32.060 That's what they really want to do.

00:55:33.560 Not through subterfuge

00:55:34.620 or tricky ways in a question.

00:55:36.040 We want them to say,

00:55:36.980 yeah, we're done.

00:55:38.560 Tear up the agreement.

00:55:39.700 We're starting on our own

00:55:40.640 and we'll go from there.

00:55:43.100 That's actually really important

00:55:44.220 because in order to do something

00:55:46.500 quite drastic like starting a new country,

00:55:49.080 you do have to have everybody involved.

00:55:50.800 everybody on board I mean I mean you can't start a new country with with just a

00:55:54.880 bare very bare minimum majority or something like that I mean people have

00:55:58.660 to be really committed so I think having a clear majority maybe something more

00:56:02.080 than 50% plus one just to show that there is a very deep commitment within

00:56:05.680 the province for that because if you have an equally divided province trying

00:56:09.100 to create a new nation that's just going to create new problems of its own so so

00:56:12.820 I think having a clear majority is actually a prudent way of proceeding on

00:56:17.560 that. Yeah, well, since I've got you here, Peter LaFontaine's asking a really good question. It's

00:56:22.800 kind of unrelated to the column, which I will get to in a bit here with you. There's so much to cover

00:56:26.460 in another independent supporter. But he's wondering, you know, if we think Alberta could

00:56:31.200 go it alone, or if we need Alberta, BC, and Saskatchewan. And the Western Standard did a

00:56:34.760 bunch of polling, actually. One thing that was striking, particularly, say, is a partnership

00:56:39.180 between Alberta and Saskatchewan, that the strength of support for independence shot up dramatically

00:56:43.360 when it was partnered with a province or another province. But the Clarity Act makes sure it

00:56:47.480 There has to be individual provinces doing that movement initially, at least, doesn't

00:56:50.240 it?

00:56:51.240 That's right.

00:56:52.240 It has to be province by province.

00:56:53.240 And I do think, I mean, an independent Western Canada that included more than Alberta would

00:56:57.600 be a stronger unit, it would be a stronger political unit.

00:57:00.860 But but because it has to be province by province, it needs to start in Alberta, Alberta is the

00:57:04.840 only Western province where there has been a strong independence movement over the years

00:57:08.900 off and on.

00:57:09.900 And so it has to start with Alberta, Alberta has to lead.

00:57:12.680 But it would be a better nation if Saskatchewan and BC and maybe Manitoba came on board.

00:57:18.060 I mean, the original idea, like in the early 80s for Western independence was all of Western

00:57:22.920 Canada.

00:57:23.760 But Alberta is where the core support is.

00:57:25.960 And Alberta is the most likely province to be able to go in that direction.

00:57:29.020 So it has to start with Alberta.

00:57:30.600 Alberta has to lead.

00:57:32.300 Yeah.

00:57:32.840 So the essay that you, or essay, a column you put recently in the Western Standard actually

00:57:38.660 came out over the weekend.

00:57:39.780 for people who want to go to westernstandardonline.com.

00:57:42.300 You'll see it there.

00:57:43.500 And you proposed using Western independence

00:57:45.600 or Alberta independence in particular

00:57:48.340 as a self-defense mechanism.

00:57:49.940 Now, there's another thing.

00:57:51.660 Some people feel though,

00:57:53.260 and that might be misinterpreted

00:57:54.220 with what you were getting at,

00:57:55.720 that it's a sword to be rattled,

00:57:58.180 but not actually used.

00:57:59.500 You want to use it to try and scare people,

00:58:01.160 but you don't actually want to pursue it.

00:58:02.280 That's not what you were proposing in that column, right?

00:58:04.740 No, no, I'm serious. 0.98

00:58:05.820 I want Alberta to become independent.

00:58:07.260 I mean, I think especially in the earlier days when the movement was just getting going in the 80s, I think there was a lot more of that kind of use it as a tactic approach.

00:58:16.460 You know, let's threaten this and see what they do.

00:58:18.540 But I mean, if it's not serious, they're not going to take it seriously anyway.

00:58:21.760 Like the only way we would ever get any benefit from the federal government is if they thought we were serious.

00:58:27.260 And I am serious.

00:58:28.140 And I think we need to be serious, you know, in venturing out to create our own country.

00:58:32.760 So if they know it's a tactic, it has no impact whatsoever.

00:58:37.260 like then you know it's just it's kind of like a it's just a bluff then right and I'm not bluffing

00:58:42.640 and I hope others aren't bluffing as well I mean but there are people though who do see it kind of

00:58:46.540 as a tactic to negotiate a better deal with Canada and you know I can understand you know

00:58:51.160 that's not an unreasonable position but when they know it's a bluff I don't think they're going to

00:58:55.720 you know I don't think it'll carry any weight in the negotiation. No I mean it's playing cards you

00:59:01.960 know playing poker with your cards turned outward if they know your intent's a bluff then they can

00:59:05.700 just ignore whatever you're threatening. And it has to be real. And there's no point. Something

00:59:10.360 I learned while I was leading the Alberta defense party, I learned a lot. I mean, I, for the most

00:59:13.540 part, I really didn't know what the hell I was doing. I got myself into quite a situation as a

00:59:17.520 29 year old, but I, again, learned quite a bit at that time. And I actually was meeting with a

00:59:22.800 couple and communicating with some people from the Bloc Quebecois of that time. It was under

00:59:26.320 Gilles Duceppe. And I sat with a fellow named Richard Marceau, and he came out to Alberta and

00:59:34.820 we had a supper and talked. And a bunch of our members got really mad at me because I was talking

00:59:38.360 to those Quebecers and there was a trader, blah, blah, blah. There's part of it. We got to quit

00:59:41.720 fighting with ourselves. But I was under the impression, we'd always been told a lot in

00:59:46.020 Alberta too, that these guys in Quebec, they're just, they just want to threaten. They just want 0.82

00:59:49.100 to get stuff out of Canada. Some perhaps, but when I talked to him, he was dedicated. He wanted out.

00:59:56.040 He was a sovereign test. He said, no, we want out. And we had that discussion. He said, well,

01:00:00.340 fiscally, you know, you guys are going to take a beating if you leave, particularly back at the

01:00:03.660 end of the 90s when I was leading that he said we don't care they want their sovereign state whether

01:00:08.320 it's you know for richer or for poorer and that's more important to them so and that's what gave

01:00:13.580 their strength movement at that time I mean these weren't guys coming out to bluff in that referendum

01:00:17.020 they knew what they were voting on and they wanted out yeah I mean there's definitely a hardcore

01:00:21.960 group there in Quebec who would like independence I mean that goes back really uh to the earlier

01:00:27.280 days because I mean they're they're culturally so different and linguistically so different and so

01:00:31.780 committed to defending their language and their culture they're willing to take the financial hit 0.95

01:00:36.020 in order to defend their nation because there is a sense in which you know quebec is is uh you know

01:00:40.980 culturally and linguistically a nation separate from english canada and they want to defend that

01:00:45.700 and they think they can only defend that if they have you know a government that represents only

01:00:49.940 them as an independent country and that makes sense to some degree i mean alberta is different

01:00:53.700 i mean alberta does have some kind of milder cultural distinctiveness from the rest of canada

01:00:58.660 but it's not as obvious as the distinctiveness of the Quebecois.

01:01:03.500 And we don't need to take the financial hit.

01:01:05.300 That's what's different is if we become independent,

01:01:08.300 we will be much stronger financially.

01:01:10.780 We'll benefit financially from that, whereas they would be hurt by it.

01:01:14.940 So we have a from a financial perspective,

01:01:16.780 we have more of an incentive to do that, but less of a cultural incentive.

01:01:20.740 Yeah. And that's always been a hard thing.

01:01:22.260 I mean, Alberta is definitely culturally distinct.

01:01:25.620 Central Canada certainly likes to admit that

01:01:27.260 when they're making derogatory statements about us.

01:01:29.640 But then when we say that we are distinct,

01:01:31.500 otherwise they mock us for it.

01:01:32.800 But we don't have that very unifying distinction

01:01:37.560 of language that Quebec has.

01:01:39.100 Ours is very much financial, systemic even.

01:01:41.680 We know that the system is serving us poorly,

01:01:43.840 but it's a tougher glue for us to hold it together as well.

01:01:46.560 I mean, when times get good,

01:01:47.960 sometimes we kind of, well, we don't need it right now.

01:01:49.620 We can put it off.

01:01:50.300 So how do we maintain that support and strength

01:01:54.240 for independence even through the times

01:01:55.960 when it's not as pressing?

01:01:57.060 because that's when it's dangerous.

01:01:58.040 That's when the movement fades and it gets forgotten.

01:02:01.340 Yeah, it always fades away when there's not a distinctive threat.

01:02:04.280 Right now, with the Liberal government maintaining itself

01:02:07.220 and maintaining its attack on Alberta,

01:02:09.260 the movement can maintain its strength.

01:02:11.340 But theoretically, let's say a Conservative government got in

01:02:14.220 that was pro-development, support for Alberta independence would decline.

01:02:17.600 But I think, and I argue in my book No Other Option,

01:02:21.060 that there should be a more conscious acknowledgement

01:02:23.800 of Alberta's cultural distinctiveness,

01:02:25.420 like our historical distinctiveness and how Alberta you know our political values have

01:02:30.620 been somewhat different from the rest of Canada and this can be seen in our history like we were

01:02:33.820 the bedrock of the social credit movement throughout the time of that movement you

01:02:38.620 know throughout the mid-20th century and that reflected the fact that we were culturally

01:02:42.700 different you know also the fact that you know Alberta since probably the 1930s or so has voted

01:02:48.300 consistently for small c conservative parties much more so than any other part of Canada

01:02:53.260 So these are just kind of indicators of Alberta's distinctiveness to some degree and I think if

01:02:58.540 Albertans knew more about their distinctive history, knew more about how they were distinct

01:03:02.460 culturally, that this could help to provide a stronger basis for belief in an independent

01:03:08.300 Alberta because we'd realize that there is something more about us than just the oil

01:03:13.820 industry and the money that we get from the benefit of the development of energy in Alberta.

01:03:19.140 So speaking actually of, you brought me on to a distinctive Albertan culture, a very distinctive

01:03:25.360 Albertan who was a part of our culture passed away just before Christmas. And that was Ted

01:03:29.280 Byfield. I'd had the opportunity to speak with Ted a number of times on independence, which was an

01:03:35.000 issue, you know, dear to his heart as well, or even refederation and things such as that. And

01:03:39.720 you'd written a column about that as well, talking about Ted. He really documented and enshrined,

01:03:46.560 I mean, most Albertans, a lot, didn't come from outside Alberta, but they become incredible Albertans once they're here.

01:03:51.460 And Ted was certainly one of them.

01:03:52.880 He had an impact on this province, and he really helped to define the Albertan culture.

01:03:59.300 Yeah, Ted became quite the Alberta patriot once he was here.

01:04:02.520 And this is actually relevant historically because, you know, from the late 1970s and 1980s,

01:04:08.920 Ted Byfield's Alberta Report was the single strongest media voice for Alberta by far.

01:04:14.240 Like no other media outlet, whether it was a newspaper or television station, advocated and articulated the Alberta perspective the way Ted Byfield did.

01:04:22.220 And that was very much a conscious choice on his part.

01:04:24.840 He said he wrote specifically, you know, we are Alberta's independent media voice and we are going to represent Alberta and Alberta's position, you know, in defending Alberta against Pierre Trudeau.

01:04:33.660 And so Alberta report was a very important part of the movement, you know, in the late 70s and early 80s to defend Alberta against Pierre Trudeau and to, you know, help to generate the kind of thinking that would lead to the independence movement and to the strengthening of the independence movement.

01:04:52.220 So Ted Byfield played a very important role in kind of developing this Alberta mentality that we have to, you know, defend ourselves against the federal government when there's federal government encroachments on our jurisdiction and on our energy.

01:05:04.660 Yeah, it was such an important publication.

01:05:06.700 And I mean, that's what's inspired and it was kind of part of the chain of events that led to what the Western Standard is today.

01:05:12.080 Even our color scheme, you know, is still matching the old Alberta report of those days.

01:05:16.540 And one of the things I look forward to is leading the Alberta Independence Party is if I had an Alberta Report interview, because at least I knew they'd be fair with me.

01:05:24.640 They'd still cut into me and they'd be critical.

01:05:27.420 But I mean, when I go on with the Globe and Mail or the CBC, I mean, they would just, you know, wail on me as, again, a 29, 30-year-old party leader didn't really know what the heck he was doing.

01:05:37.240 I had a safe space with Alberta Report to actually talk about the issues.

01:05:41.660 Yeah, Alberta Report was very important when I wrote that first book, Alberta Separatism.

01:05:46.280 then and now because um it covered the entire period of the independence movement and it did

01:05:51.940 so from a sympathetic perspective like you said it wasn't uncritical i mean the by fields never

01:05:55.980 were uncritical about any person or any movement they were always you know looking at it with a

01:06:00.340 critical eye but they did have you know a strong pro-alberta pro-conservative position and so they

01:06:05.280 covered the independence movement from a sympathetic perspective and they covered it thoroughly so i

01:06:10.360 was able to use alberta port as my main source for most of that book because of the you know

01:06:15.220 So because they looked at it objectively and sympathetically, whereas much of the media, most of the media was very critical to the point of, you know, trying to highlight every little, every little, you know, miscue or something that they could to make it look like a terrible movement.

01:06:30.440 Whereas Ted Byfield and Alberta Report, they really understood the movement.

01:06:33.800 They understood the motivation and why Albertans were feeling the way they were.

01:06:37.560 And so they had a much better analysis of the movement and a better understanding of it.

01:06:41.920 And so that comes across very clearly in my book because I use them, use Albert Report so much for so much of the period that's written that the book covers.

01:06:50.980 Yeah. And as Jerry Clausen's a commenter saying, wasn't Byfield instrumental in publishing the History of Alberta series books?

01:06:57.180 And yes, he put some great ones out there, actually.

01:07:00.040 Yeah, that's a 12-volume History of Alberta, and it's a great series.

01:07:03.800 I mean, it was very successful.

01:07:05.120 And this is quite a quite a unique thing in Canada, because, you know, who would think, you know, 12 hardcover volumes in Alberta history would be successful financially in Canada.

01:07:13.820 Most publishing is subsidized by the federal government, and this was not subsidized at all.

01:07:18.820 And yet it was quite successful because many Albertans were very interested in their own history.

01:07:23.220 And, you know, of course, they did that with it was a journalistic perspective and they had lots of pictures and maps and things.

01:07:28.940 But it's perfect for children who want to learn about the history of Alberta.

01:07:31.700 it's very interesting you know and there's lots to keep your interest there in terms of the pictures

01:07:35.720 and the maps and the diagrams and stuff so and yeah so that's a very fantastic 12 volume history

01:07:40.360 of Alberta and it can help itself to help Albertans understand how they're distinctive

01:07:45.560 from others yeah well we're starting to push over time a bit which I do would be a very real hazard

01:07:50.440 when we go into this subject with somebody of like mind with me but that's fine I'm certain

01:07:55.080 and I hope we can get you back on again to talk about it further I do want to finish I keep

01:07:58.660 touching upon that column you recently put out so part of it is though we maybe just we'll lay out

01:08:03.400 in closing Alberta is in a place where we need self-defense we are threatened right now even if

01:08:08.120 we don't see it or feel it directly we've got to watch we we're vulnerable and uh independence is

01:08:13.420 one of the the as far as I'm concerned the tool the only tool that's really going to stop further

01:08:17.860 incursions from us yeah I mean Justin Trudeau has made it very clear that he wants to phase out

01:08:23.860 Alberta's oil industry and that's our main industry and as he does that that's a threat

01:08:27.800 to the prosperity of every Albertan, not just those who work in the oil industry, because

01:08:31.360 there's so many spinoffs throughout Alberta's economy that result from the development of

01:08:36.380 energy resources. And if the federal government continues to shut down, it shuts them down by

01:08:41.100 preventing pipeline development and preventing not granting permissions for different kinds of

01:08:46.580 projects to go ahead. And Trudeau has indicated that's the direction he wants to go. So as he

01:08:52.060 does that, it's going to put the squeeze on Alberta and it's going to hurt everybody.

01:08:54.720 The only way we can fight against that and get control of our own economic development is by being independent.

01:09:00.920 There's no other way.

01:09:01.800 Like even a Tripoli Senate, it's not going to do it.

01:09:04.000 We need to be independent so that we can decide on our own energy development policies

01:09:08.920 and reap the benefits of the resources that we have.

01:09:12.480 Right on.

01:09:13.180 Well, thank you very much for joining me today, Michael.

01:09:15.340 That was a great chat.

01:09:16.340 It went by quickly.

01:09:17.740 So just that reminder, where can we find your work aside from on westernstandardonline.com?

01:09:22.520 Where can people see what you're up to?

01:09:24.720 Well, I guess mostly it's through my books, which would be, you know, my No Other Standard,

01:09:31.280 or sorry, No Other Option book is on Amazon.ca and Alberta Separatism Then and Now is on

01:09:36.520 Merchantship.ca. Both books are actually at Merchantship.ca, but a lot of people like to

01:09:40.840 buy from Amazon. So that would be the best way to get a hold of my writing would be searching my

01:09:46.000 name on Amazon.ca or Merchantship.ca. Great. Well, you have a good day, Michael, and let's talk again

01:09:53.620 soon. Great. Thank you so much for having me. Great. So yeah, like I said, I could go on and

01:09:59.700 on and I will, and I'll be writing other things down the road. As I said, I've had quite a history

01:10:05.320 with Alberta independence and it hasn't gotten away. I mean, I'm trying to find more nuanced

01:10:11.100 ways to getting there. I mean, the problem is we're not there yet. One of the things with

01:10:16.780 independence minded people, I try to talk them down a little bit. I mean, I understand the

01:10:21.520 impatience. I mean, I've been at this for 20 years now, and we're still don't seem to be any closer

01:10:25.280 than we used to be. Say, let's hold the referendum tomorrow. Well, wait, no, no. I mean, if 80% of

01:10:30.500 Albertans wanted to go, then yes, but we aren't that close yet, not even. So if you want to set

01:10:34.380 independence back by 15 years, hold a referendum tomorrow and have us lose, because it'll be a long,

01:10:42.360 hard ride to get back there to hold another one when we're starting to get closer to

01:10:46.500 that tipping point that we need. And kind of like what Michael was saying, too, we want to win it

01:10:50.640 definitively. You know, if it's 51%, you're going to see a recipe for a lot of fighting and messing

01:10:56.540 around and, and, uh, negotiations and difficulties. We got to make it good and clear, and it's going 0.90

01:11:01.980 to be a lot of work and it's going to take us some time to get there. And he does lay that out

01:11:05.000 excellently in his books. I should mention, I've read both of them. Yeah. I endorsed one of them

01:11:08.820 and I did buy and read the other one. Cause of course, how could I pass up a book on,

01:11:12.560 on Alberta independence? Um, but let's talk about some of that patience, the challenges we've had.

01:11:18.620 I mean, there's different points of view on how to get there.

01:11:21.260 As we said with Michael and I, the Clarity Act is essential.

01:11:24.720 We have to get to a point, though, where there's going to be a referendum held, and there is a win.

01:11:29.060 There's a positive win.

01:11:30.000 Well, how do we get there?

01:11:31.820 People think an independence party is the way to go.

01:11:33.820 I'm starting to think along the lines that it's not, though, I mean, it's certainly debatable.

01:11:37.440 And, hey, I'm a guy who started one, but where did it go?

01:11:40.420 I mean, there's a number of reasons why that fell apart, not the least of which my own inexperience at the time.

01:11:44.920 But these things have a difficulty holding it together.

01:11:47.620 There's different interests, there's infighting, there's leadership contests.

01:11:51.420 We need a movement, and that's more it can withstand.

01:11:55.940 And we need to pressure the existing politicians to put the mechanism into the hands of the citizens.

01:11:59.940 You see, Premier Kenney gave us this legislation for referenda, but he set the bar in such a ridiculous way that we're never going to actually meet it.

01:12:09.660 It's a step in the right direction.

01:12:11.680 You see, that's the out we can give politicians, too.

01:12:13.940 I was talking about that before.

01:12:14.980 If they see a large groundswell of support for something, they will get in front of it.

01:12:19.980 But we have to build that support.

01:12:21.580 They're going to have to be drag kicking and screaming towards supporting these things.

01:12:24.520 And giving us the ability to invoke a binding referendum is an out for them.

01:12:29.120 It's a way to say, well, it wasn't me that did it.

01:12:30.740 I'm just giving Albertans the power.

01:12:32.200 And hey, if the citizens chose to do so, that's the way it goes.

01:12:35.260 But if you're going to wait for a sitting premier to promote independence, I hope it happens one day.

01:12:40.140 But I'm not holding my breath on it.

01:12:41.860 Premier Kenney has most definitely, if nothing else, always been an unapologetic federalist.

01:12:45.960 He's not going to go down that route.

01:12:47.420 He didn't campaign on that route.

01:12:48.580 To be fair, it wouldn't be appropriate for him to go that way.

01:12:52.300 Now, Paul Hinman is very openly promoting independence and secession.

01:12:56.340 I had him on the show a little while ago.

01:12:58.620 He's going to be working on a by-election up in Fort McMurray.

01:13:01.440 We'll see how that goes.

01:13:02.740 The Wilder's Independence Party, though, they're having a pretty tough slog.

01:13:06.440 But we'll see.

01:13:07.540 We'll see.

01:13:08.000 They're pushing the issues.

01:13:09.140 They're doing what they can. 0.96

01:13:10.000 but it's, it's, it's a tough row to hoe, especially if you start losing elections and 0.88

01:13:16.320 things such as that. Um, darn thing. But, uh, yes, where was I lost my train of thought? 0.99

01:13:25.040 Well, we're still on Albert independence and there's lots of room to work on that. So where

01:13:29.640 else to go? As some people were saying, you know, petitions, protests. Yeah, it's hard. There are

01:13:33.600 groups. Um, you know, when I was talking with Lindsay, with Alberta proud, and they're not a

01:13:37.560 separatist group, but we do have these means of organizing that weren't at my disposal when I

01:13:41.480 led the Alberta Independence Party. I mean, we've got social media groups. I think Wexit, when that

01:13:46.040 kind of really took off a year and a half ago after that federal election, or I guess it's two

01:13:52.300 years ago now, they got over 200 and some thousand followers on that Facebook group and it kind of

01:13:58.100 faded away. That was part of the problem. They went towards a party model and then they had a

01:14:02.160 leader and then they started fighting with each other. I'm not sure what the heck they do anymore.

01:14:05.660 And you see, that's what we do ourselves as independent supporters.

01:14:08.280 We have these ebbs and flows with it.

01:14:10.300 It comes and goes, and it just doesn't seem to hang there long enough for us.

01:14:14.140 So we've got to find the means to get there.

01:14:18.660 And we've got to be reasonable about it.

01:14:20.380 So we've got to figure out, okay, we know politicians only do things when it's their own interest.

01:14:25.920 Fair enough, for the most part anyways.

01:14:27.660 So how do we make it in their interest?

01:14:29.880 We have to change the level of support where they say, it's my benefit to support this concept.

01:14:37.980 That's ground organization.

01:14:39.360 That's cooperation.

01:14:40.380 And again, that's getting back to being rational about things.

01:14:43.800 One of the other things we're talking about was shortcuts.

01:14:45.680 I've had people send me stuff over the years so many times saying, oh, the Constitution was never appropriately signed or Alberta isn't really a part of Canada or Confederation isn't real or things like that.

01:14:55.860 I don't know. I don't want to fight over that nitpicking and hair splitting on whether, you know, these theories on whether or not the confederation is real. It's a way of trying to sneak out of things without going through a referendum and so on. And it's not going to wash with Albertans. This is one of the areas where perception is reality. As far as I'm concerned, as long as the vast majority, and they do, the vast majority of Albertans feel that Alberta is a part of Canada and Canada is a legitimate country, though they may want out of it. In fact, I want them to want out of it later.

01:15:23.580 We can't try and sell something and say, well, despite what you think, the country's not real,

01:15:28.180 we're separate as of yesterday. It's not going to work. It's not going to fly. And it's not

01:15:33.640 realistic. So realism, you know, one of those important, important things. So let me see,

01:15:39.900 I'm going to go through the news a little bit as we work towards the end of the show here.

01:15:43.580 A top story that we've had again, though, and that came up a bit. It's at westernstandardonline.com.

01:15:49.720 And I got to talk quickly about the standard anyways, you know, I've got to make our plugs

01:15:52.920 for ourself, as well as, you know, for our sponsors and such. We don't get tax funding,

01:15:59.540 as was covered earlier. We rely on sponsors, people who take out membership subscriptions.

01:16:04.280 If you haven't subscribed already, I mean, like I said, you can see it from Melanie,

01:16:07.720 you can see it from Michael, we get some great columns, we get some unique content,

01:16:11.280 we speak unapologetically for the West and for Alberta. Take out a membership, it's 10 bucks a

01:16:16.440 month, you get a free trial. So you get full unimpeded access towards all of our content.

01:16:22.420 It's less than an old newspaper subscription used to be. You know, we're used to seemingly

01:16:25.580 getting everything for free all the time. But what do you get for free? You know, quote unquote

01:16:28.600 free CBC. Is that worth it? Globe and Mail is behind a paywall. And you know, a lot of the

01:16:34.440 other mainstream media is garbage for 10 bucks a month. You help us and it works. Plus with shows 0.96

01:16:39.960 like this, I mean, we need your help to share it, you know, share that YouTube link, share the

01:16:44.820 Facebook link. We're streaming on that. Share the Rumble one again. I'm sorry for not seeing

01:16:48.660 your comments, guys. We're going to get that set up too, so we can all discuss those things.

01:16:53.140 We can bypass the mainstream media. We don't need them, but we do need you to help us to keep doing

01:16:59.420 it. And so that talked, actually quickly, Peter LaFontaine is asking, will Jason Kenney join your

01:17:04.960 show to have this conversation? Premier Kenney, he gave me a half hour interview on a podcast

01:17:10.620 year and change ago, just before Christmas

01:17:13.140 the year in 2020.

01:17:15.880 I haven't really heard much from

01:17:17.180 since, though we've been pretty critical

01:17:19.200 of a lot of his actions at the Western Standard.

01:17:21.440 I did actually reach out and ask him

01:17:22.880 to try and come on to talk about some things,

01:17:25.360 particularly the vaccine mandate,

01:17:27.180 actually, but I haven't gotten a response.

01:17:29.280 He's certainly more than welcome to come on here anytime

01:17:31.100 he likes. I'd love to talk

01:17:33.160 to him. I'm sure some people, whether they like him

01:17:35.160 or don't like him, would like to hear directly

01:17:36.940 from him.

01:17:37.620 And so, yeah, it was just at least saying,

01:17:40.960 yeah, the Toronto Suns 275 has two pages of news

01:17:43.280 and the rest about movie stars.

01:17:44.500 And that's what I mean.

01:17:45.420 You know, you get a good value for your dollars

01:17:47.140 taking a subscription for alternative media providers

01:17:50.220 like ourselves.

01:17:51.220 So please do so so that we can keep making more good content

01:17:56.080 for you guys all the time.

01:17:57.620 And yeah, that top story, it's a rare thing when Derek,

01:17:59.580 he's our publisher, Derek Fildebrand, writes a column.

01:18:02.100 He doesn't do a lot.

01:18:02.780 He's mostly busy running the standard now

01:18:04.640 rather than writing in it.

01:18:05.700 But it's been the number one trending story if you go to westernstandardonline.com, talking about how mandatory vaccines are the point of no return in our descent into authoritarianism.

01:18:16.900 I mean, I can't think of anything more odious than forcing a medical procedure on somebody.

01:18:23.440 And that's what that is.

01:18:24.780 That's what they're talking about.

01:18:26.120 That's what Austria is doing.

01:18:28.320 This seemed completely unimaginable in the modern world only a couple of years ago.

01:18:33.480 and they're talking about it now they're doing it in some countries and they're talking about

01:18:38.260 it in Canada this is a problem this is more than a little problem this is the sort of thing if we

01:18:43.740 want to get back to where if they try to actually follow through that we should be taking to the

01:18:48.100 streets not outside the houses of politicians to the streets to the legislatures to the city halls

01:18:53.940 to downtown parks whatever but doing it in numbers and pushing back and saying no that's enough that

01:19:02.700 will not happen. We cannot do that. Again, when it gets to that point of showing anyways, you can't

01:19:10.140 make that pretense of forcing everybody to get vaccinated to protect everyone else. It doesn't

01:19:14.500 stop the spread. So that's not valid anymore. And it never was anyways. We still weren't justified

01:19:19.660 in forcing it. Like everything else, if you're trying to get people to get vaccinated, you've

01:19:23.820 got to do it for a reason. You've got to ask people to get vaccinated. And if they say no,

01:19:28.780 you have to respect that. Where does the, where did that federal minister want to go when he was

01:19:34.540 talking about mandatory vaccinations? That's scary in itself too then. What are we talking about?

01:19:40.440 You know, fines, bankrupting people, and we've been chasing them around already. We've been

01:19:44.920 putting them out of work. We've kept them from traveling anymore. We've ostracized them. Our

01:19:49.880 imbecile of a blackface wearing peckerhead Trudeau was calling them racists and misogynists and 1.00

01:19:56.100 every other thing you could think of. And still they think they need to go further. 1.00

01:20:01.560 This is beyond the pale. So this is why, again, we have to get galvanized and we have to be real

01:20:06.080 reasonable. And so when you're a little late to the party, Corey, hey, better late than never.

01:20:11.160 And I've been pushing back on this stuff for two years. And again, if it's one of those things,

01:20:14.520 we should have been screaming outside of politicians' houses. Well, it doesn't work.

01:20:18.480 It doesn't. And I've always been against mandatory vaccinations. You can look up every column I got.

01:20:24.740 I know some people say, oh, now you're saying, I've always said it, and I'm still pro-vaccination.

01:20:28.400 I'm getting my booster.

01:20:29.260 I know I'm going to get all the comments. 1.00

01:20:30.260 Oh, you're a virtue signaling jerk. 1.00

01:20:31.720 Oh, whatever. 1.00

01:20:32.700 I chose to, and I hope other people choose to, but I support choice.

01:20:37.680 That's what it gets down to.

01:20:39.380 Choice, individual choice.

01:20:42.140 I would like other people to choose something otherwise, but if they choose not to, I will

01:20:45.960 respect that choice.

01:20:46.880 In fact, I will stand up for that choice.

01:20:49.040 We need to protect that choice.

01:20:50.720 That's how we can get along.

01:20:51.840 That's how we get a larger movement between people who are vaccinated and non-vaccinated.

01:20:56.580 There's part of what needs to happen is you need the vaccinated people to say they've got to stand up on behalf of those who choose not to get vaccinated.

01:21:03.560 They've got to be the ones also getting up and saying, that's it.

01:21:06.240 It's got to stop here.

01:21:07.180 We can't force people to do this.

01:21:09.620 And screaming haywire protests outside of the homes of politicians and talking about chemtrails and lizard people is not going to bring those people on board.

01:21:17.360 But talking about individual rights can.

01:21:19.200 You know, talking about those concepts that we all share, or at least most of us do, and, you know, making people understand just how horrific that is.

01:21:27.200 I'm not afraid of the vaccines.

01:21:29.200 I don't think they're going to hurt me.

01:21:31.200 But a lot of people do think that.

01:21:33.200 And it's debatable.

01:21:34.200 And there's certainly some evidence to make people kind of wonder about some of them.

01:21:37.200 So if a person is truly terrified that that's going to harm them, how on earth can we force somebody to do that?

01:21:43.200 You can't.

01:21:44.200 You never should.

01:21:46.200 That's where we're going.

01:21:49.200 Well, this is what we're speaking to. So yeah, independent media, online organizing and organizing on the streets. It's not a lost cause. It's not a lost battle. I think some of these mandates, some of these pushes, some of these efforts are falling apart. I think they're fraying at the seams. People in general are getting tired. They've had enough. They want to get back to normal. We need to give them that path to get there.

01:22:11.920 And if we put out a rational path for people to get there, I think even some of the politicians want out of this.

01:22:18.400 They don't all necessarily want to live in this control freak world.

01:22:21.380 They want to get on with things and put this behind us and have it going into history.

01:22:25.820 So let's keep rational. Let's keep talking.

01:22:29.120 Let's keep debating these things and quit screaming too much.

01:22:33.260 And maybe we can get some positive change and start getting ourselves back out of this a bit.

01:22:38.020 Now, tomorrow, I got a couple of good guests on at 1130.

01:22:41.560 Again, we're on five days a week. Lots of comments and discussion we could have. I've got Ernie Sue.

01:22:48.120 He's with the Alberta Hospitality Association. He's going to talk about the challenges restaurants

01:22:51.480 and bars are facing during the pandemic. I used to own that pub out in Prentice for five years.

01:22:56.460 I sold just before the plague hit. I tell you, owning a bar, if you want a tough, narrow margin

01:23:01.940 business, that's the one. It's difficult. And that was pre-pandemic. I mean, that was the most work

01:23:07.040 for the least amount of money I ever did.

01:23:09.740 Hats off to those guys who are still managing

01:23:11.640 to run businesses in the hospitality sector today

01:23:14.620 with the pandemic challenges

01:23:17.320 and everything else that goes along with it.

01:23:19.580 It's quite something.

01:23:20.860 I'm also gonna speak to Jacob McGregor.

01:23:23.160 He wrote, he's written a couple of columns.

01:23:25.120 He wrote one recently talking about universal basic income.

01:23:29.040 And Jacob also ran for city council in Ward 1 in Calgary.

01:23:33.240 He's a young man, very smart.

01:23:34.620 I had him on my podcast while he was running, but Jacob has a cerebral palsy and, you know,

01:23:41.680 he has some challenges. It's difficult getting around, particularly in a winter city and things

01:23:45.540 like that. But he's been very clear. He's a good common sense young man. He wants to get out. He

01:23:50.620 wants to work. He wants to make a living. And he doesn't want someone to pay him to sit at home.

01:23:55.780 He doesn't want a universal basic income, but he does understand that UBI money could go towards,

01:24:01.960 you know, those supports, access, things like that to be able to get around. I mean,

01:24:07.300 he's in a wheelchair and in a city covered in snow with some buildings that still don't have

01:24:12.640 good access, but he doesn't want a UBI. It's nice to hear somebody speaking common sense like that.

01:24:19.720 Jacob, yeah, he's great to chat with. So I'm looking forward to that. And I'll speak one

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01:24:42.620 And that's where Bitcoin well comes in. This is where you can get into the world of cryptocurrencies.

01:24:47.080 You can get yourself away from the government, central bank currencies. Check them out. They

01:24:52.400 got seminars they'll hold to teach you about what it is, because it is kind of a weird concept to

01:24:55.940 wrap your head around an alternative currency, but they're out there and they're huge. I mean,

01:24:59.260 these are growing things. And what I like about them, as I've said before, they turn it practical

01:25:04.440 for you. It's just not something you just invest in and watch the numbers go up and down. No,

01:25:08.160 this is something you use like any other currency. You can take cash out of ATMs that these guys have

01:25:12.680 all over the place. You can set up your online bill payments to come out of your Bitcoin account.

01:25:17.960 It's just like any other bank account. This is the way it kind of converts. It pays your bills

01:25:21.840 for you. It's a perfect service. So they've been a great sponsor for us. They're allowing us to

01:25:26.240 keep producing the material we produce. So that's about what I've got today, guys.

01:25:34.320 What's this? Somebody's saying Halifax is the equalization payment capital of Canada. Average

01:25:38.160 price residential real estate is $510,000, Edmonton $376,000. Well, yeah, equalization,

01:25:44.440 it's a big discussion all its own in the Maritimes. You know, the thing with the Maritimes is they

01:25:48.980 take a whole lot of it, but they don't bitch about as much about it as Quebec do while they're at it.

01:25:53.260 So maybe that's part of why they get away. But the country is imbalanced because of our

01:25:56.700 interprovincial welfare system, which we do call equalization. That's all I've got for today,

01:26:01.200 guys. Thank you very much for joining in. Be sure to share it. Be sure to check out our sponsors

01:26:05.020 and be sure to come back tomorrow at 1130. I'll have a new rant. I'll be triggered with something

01:26:09.360 else and we'll have a good time. Talk to you tomorrow.

01:26:18.980 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - January 11, 2022

Triggered： Alberta independence & Calgary LRT stations closures!

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