Does CBC Get Marching Orders From The Liberals, Or WHAT?

Added: 2026-05-26

[00:00:05]So, my pattern recognition noticed something this weekend, and it almost seems like David and Rosemary are giving the same talking points to sweep for the Liberals. So, let's take a look at what they're complaining about this week. You know, it's something that's got to do with the Conservatives, and this week they're talking about the Alberta separation, and it seems like someone might be panicking. So, welcome back to the Freedom Pines podcast. I'm your host, Jamie B. This is where we debrief and discuss Canadian politics from an independent perspective. If that interests you, don't forget to like, comment, subscribe, hit that notification bell, and share this with your friends cuz I need to get my name out and call me Canada. Let's get into it. So, let's see if this work. Yeah, I have Tik Tok likes to do this thing to me where I record a 10-minute video and then I go out and look at it and it's not it has no sound.

[00:00:59]So anyways, today we're looking at the NDP in Alberta and what they're saying about this because everyone's just lying about Danielle Smith and setting some sort of narrative and it's sincerely bothering me. Okay, week after week we see Power and Politics, David come out and uh what is the other one? Rosemary Barton live I guess and both of them have the same talking points about certain things. Now, this week it is Alberta and I was watching Society Unveiled's video and why Claypool's video and I couldn't help but notice some of the same talking points and some of the same almost annoyance. Like they get annoyed that they know if they don't sweep good enough for the Liberals that they might get in trouble. But, you know, that's just something I've noticed. I don't. And then we have Neni who seems even more unhinged as he picks his nose during a a conference in front of everybody. Seems more unhinged by the day in the lies that he spreads and seems like he's doing a lot of sweeping, but at least at least he's the opposition. Okay, David and Rosemary, I don't know why you're going to die on this hill, but David comes out. Okay, the first part of this is so dramatic.

[00:02:16]Eyes are on Alberta as a province asks its residents to weigh in on staying in Canada or starting the process that could lead to the breakup of the country. We begin our show today by hearing from the province's leader.

[00:02:29]Alberta Premier Daniel Smith joins me now. Uh Premier Smith, third Friday in a row. Uh thank you for making time for us yet again. We appreciate it.

[00:02:36]>> Hi David.

[00:02:38]>> If you are so determined to put this question to Albertans, why not just call an election and make it the central issue? because this is a process that seems to satisfy neither of the parties agitate.

[00:02:48]>> Okay. So, why would she do that, David?

[00:02:52]Why would she do that? What is the ballot going to say?

[00:02:56]Um, conservative United Conservative Party. Okay. It's going to say NDP and then what else? And then separation and then what would happen after that? I don't I'm not too sure that that's how this works, but you Danielle Smith repeatedly in this interview says, "I am not a separatist and I'm going to be making my case as to why I think we should stay in Canada over and over and over again." But that's not the response, the logical common sense response that David wanted to hear, okay, from Danielle Smith >> on this.

[00:03:32]>> Well, I would say a couple things. I mean, the position of my government is that we want to remain in Canada. It's part of the reason I've been working collaboratively with the federal government to try to address some of the legitimate grievances that arose over the last 10 years.

[00:03:45]>> Not only 10 years, though. I will disagree with her on this. Uh, this is a problem that's been going on a long time. And it just so happened that Justin Trudeau came in and radicalized everybody about this situation. But this goes deeper than just Justin Trudeau. I believe that's why it's called the United Conservative Party now is because there was a bunch of separatists and they and during Steven Harper's era they came together to form the United Conservative Party. Now I could be wrong about that. But if I if my recollection is true, that is why it's called that.

[00:04:20]But anyways, >> but I would say that we have a citizen initiative petition process. 400,000 Albertans signed that they wanted to hold a referendum to remain and 300,000 signed a petition saying that they wanted to hold a vote on whether to leave. Um the court does not allow for a binding referendum because of a recent court decision uh which we're appealing.

[00:04:40]But I want to get an indication from Albertans about are we going to have this debate, which direction are we go going to go and let's get the debate the uh the vote over with on October 19th and move on. And I hope that that vote is to remain and that we can move on with fixing Canada. The >> the Canada forever initiative though was sort of started as a a preventative measure against the separatism referendum. Is I I don't think Thomas Lazic would have done his thing if the threat of a referendum to leave wasn't a material thing under your law. So I don't know if you can really use that 400,000 as people clamoring for a referendum as that was largely an initiative to >> Okay. But that also means that there was 400,000 people who were passionate enough against the Alberta referendum or um against Alberta separation that they want to have their voices heard too. So I'm not quite sure how in democracy both sides would end up losing if both sides were allowed to say have their say in a vote like that. Like yes, there are people who are that passionate about not leaving Canada and they have every right to be as much as the Alberta uh the Albertan separatists have every right to want to separate >> who oppose the Jeff Wrath Miss Sylvester effort to get things uh on the ballot.

[00:05:57]>> Well, I I know that they're trying the proponents trying to rewrite history on that, but if you go back and look at the comments, it was very clear that that was the intention. That's why 400,000 people signed up. And that's what I've got to be looking at is what was the intention of the people who signed those two different petitions. 700,000 people is a lot of people asking for a democratic process. And that's what we're trying to do. We're trying to do it within the limits of the law, within the limits of the court decision. But I need to get an indication of whether Albertans want to, as I do, remain in in Canada or whether they want to initiate a legal process for a binding referendum. And that's what we're going to be asking in the fall.

[00:06:30]>> You've made >> insane democracy. I know. insane to the liberals, having people's voices heard.

[00:06:36]Insane.

[00:06:37]>> You disagree with the court decision, but we do have a court decision that that stands as of right now that said the Citizens Initiative petition by the separatists didn't meet the burr.

[00:06:45]There's been a data breach and the sharing of private information that is now still visible on American websites.

[00:06:51]>> Really, David? Because we had foreign interference in our last election as well. And you know, there are some people who would question the the legitimacy of our last election because you guys told us that there was foreign interference in favor of Mark Carney, although they did not phrase it that way. I wonder why. Um, and nothing was done about it. So, how do we know our last election was even a legal legally binding one when we had foreign interference in the last election? I mean, I know I'm crazy and a conspiracy theorist for asking those things, but that's a legitimate question. If this is a legitimate question, if he actually means what he's saying right now, >> and David Parker is refusing to cooperate with the Elections Canada in Elections Alberta investigation. Excuse me. So, with all of that swirling around this, how is any of this in the best interest of all Albertans?

[00:07:43]>> Because all Albertans will be able to vote because that's democracy, David.

[00:07:48]Okay. Wow.

[00:07:50]>> Well, it's all the reasons why it can't be a binding referendum and why it's being put forward as a a policy referendum. Our policy is to remain in Canada, but there is a group of people who want that policy to change. And I I guess the the question is you don't have legislation uh called the Citizen Initiative Act if people are going to go out in a with a with goodwill and with good intentions, get signatures, and then ignore it. And so I I feel obligated to make sure that we have an opportunity for voices to be heard. uh 700,000 Albertans is about 25% of our total adult electorate. And so we now have uh several months here where we'll be able to go out and make our case.

[00:08:27]I'll be making the case about why we should remain in Canada and why Canada is working better now than it has for the last 10 years. And I hope to to help >> I don't agree with her on that either.

[00:08:36]>> And so that's what the next five months is for.

[00:08:39]>> But you know, Premier, you keep pushing because in the same time frame that this is happening, the pipeline is going to move through whatever processes it's going to move through. You keep pushing for a pipeline, the private capital, and you keep taking these steps that could lead either to separation or or make the separatist movement a a permanent and enduring part of Alberta politics. Why would any private sector company bet on Alberta under these circumstances?

[00:09:02]>> Okay, because the whole problem is that we have federal laws that are stopping us from stopping Alberta from tapping into their natural resources. While British Columbia has coal plants that they're a-ok okay with having. Okay.

[00:09:19]Alberta is the only place where their natural resources are demonized.

[00:09:27]Demonized to the point that you guys have made legislation to make sure that they can't touch their natural resources or at least make it very hard to. Okay.

[00:09:36]So, now we're going to listen to the insufferable Rosemary. It's enough.

[00:09:39]David, let's listen.

[00:09:41]>> Well, thanks for having me on, Rosemary.

[00:09:42]wi-i with your new job title. I appreciate you being here. Um I I'm just going to simply start by asking you why the government is moving forward with this choice of either remaining in Canada or beginning the process of a referendum.

[00:09:55]>> Is that okay? She worded that weird, but I'll allow it.

[00:10:00]>> Well, Alberta has citizen initiated referendum laws. They've existed for a long time in our province. Uh Alberta's government uh believes in allowing our citizens to be able to participate in democracy. The reality is over 700,000 people have signed two different petitions asking to have a conversation about this issue. The government's position is very clear and the premier's position is clear. We believe the best way forward for Alberta and for Canada is to have a strong Alberta and a united Canada. And that's >> I I I I understand all of that obviously, but but there are also millions of Albertans who don't want this debate. the the the other option was for the government to simply just walk away instead of now owning the questions uh yourself.

[00:10:41]>> Yeah. So, Rosemary, that's what the vote is about. That Albertans, all Albertans will have a say. It's not like democracy is not about shutting down the debate entirely. It's about voting and seeing what the people want. And maybe if they didn't want to give them that 700,000 um number, okay, maybe they shouldn't have, you know, done their own little referendum where they asked people if they wanted to stay in Canada. Like, how isn't it fair to hold this question and ask, "Hey, do you want to stay in Alberta or do you want to separate?" I don't I don't understand what's controversial about this. This is literally democracy, friends.

[00:11:27]>> Well, again, but to walk away would be walking away from hundreds of thousands of Albertans. It's not an insignificant amount. Yeah.

[00:11:33]>> Over 700,000 Albertans signed uh petitions calling for referendums on this issue, including those who uh the biggest petition calling for a referendum for people that want to vote to make clear they want to remain in Canada, right?

[00:11:45]>> Uh and so for the government to proceed or not proceed with acknowledging that would be disregarding almost 700,000 voices in the province. Uh and and and frankly would be breaking our own rules and laws.

[00:11:58]>> Yeah. So So you've said you you want to remain in Canada that the premier has made that clear as well. What is your government going to do to make that case to Albertans?

[00:12:08]>> Well, the premier is already out making that case. I mean, if you seen her comments >> Exactly. And I will say props to Rosemary because she the next question she does ask is what can the federal government do? I don't know. Stop demonizing pipelines. Seriously, nothing drives me more insane than the fact that there were 14 people that signed this.

[00:12:28]Okay, so are those 14 people going to tell us how they plan on extracting green energy and making sure that we run a green energy grid? Okay, clean energy grid. How are you going to do that without gas and oil? How are you going to mine those things without gas and oil? Can you guys let me know? all of those 14 people who want to stop a pipeline. Can you guys let me know why you think it's okay to exploit other parts of the earth but not touch Canada?

[00:12:58]>> I I'm glad you brought up the pipeline because I and now in your new role as a minister of finance, I wonder if you are worried that this period of instability uh leading up to October 19th is going to create problems to for attracting a private proponent or just David asked the same question by the way. Yes, he did. And oh, maybe people in other countries in America uh will find it easier to work with the Albertan government if they are sovereign when they don't have ideologies running the laws of the land.

[00:13:35]All it takes is quite literally common sense. Okay. uh the people will speak up because there are people who are against the data center that Telus is putting in and the federal government is putting into Vancouver which yeah if there's one person I really want to be involved with data centers and mass surveillance it's the federal government we need to have solid environmental laws absolutely and workers rights and all these different things however they've taken it too far they've taken it too far with the environment mentalism like we demonize uh pipelines but British Columbia has has coal plants. I used to go to a camp called Camp Onida and it was in Nantacoke uh and that was where a massive coal plant was. It was really pretty at night actually and I loved watching the ships come in. But anyway, uh dead fish everywhere until that coal plant closed down. And I'm talking everywhere. It was so noticeable that it was very much a part of camp for us that if we went swimming, we probably would actually bump our head on a dead fish.

[00:14:46]So I understand and that's just anecdotal but um the fact that British Columbia has coal plants but god forbid a pipeline be built because in my opinion David Eie and the tantrums that he did this weekend is just proof that he he only wants British Columbia. He honestly he acts like a British Columbia separatist more than the se anybody I've seen in the United Conservative Party that Daniel Smith has act like a separatist. David Eie only wants British Columbia to I was going to say succeed but that doesn't seem right either does it?

[00:15:25]>> Understand the government's desire to to have this out and sort of move forward and put it past you and and all the rest >> but as you well know sometimes you end up with results you don't want. uh David Cameron comes to mind. So I I I I do just want to ask again whether you think there is any risk here because it seems to me there is there's real risk for Alberta and for the country.

[00:15:47]>> Oh, I would say it's more for the country than it would be for Alberta.

[00:15:52]Now I'm not to there's no you know uh like Society unveiled said I'm sure it won't be a smooth ride becoming independent right away. I think in the long run though, I do think Alberta would be able to. And I think that they're scared that this might trigger the separation of a lot of different places from Canada, like Quebec, Saskatchewan. I don't know. David Eie seems to only care about his province and his province only. So, I almost feel like I need to make an entire video about this Neni character because let's listen.

[00:16:24]>> She understands that if she comes out as a fullthroated separatist, she loses the election. But if she comes out as a fullthroated Canadian, she loses her job as leader of the UCP.

[00:16:35]>> No. United Conservative Party in Canada.

[00:16:40]Okay. Anyways, >> so let's be extremely clear. The separatists got her the job as leader.

[00:16:47]They installed her as >> Yeah. They installed a federalist, someone who believes in the federal government where she said over and over again that she will be trying to convince Albertans to stay in Canada this summer. But >> David Parker admits that every day and that's why they've had such entitlement through this whole thing. We always knew that >> entitlement to democracy >> owed them something. We never knew precisely what the deal was or what she owed them. And now we know what she owed them was a referendum this fall. If she didn't want if she doesn't want Alberta to leave, then she would have said, >> "Honestly, when Danielle Smith got in, I don't think anybody in Alberta actually thought that this country would be dumb enough to vote in another liberal."

[00:17:36]Okay. I don't think Alberta wanted to leave. I I don't.

[00:17:41]>> But the fact that he's allowed to get up here, maybe I'll just I'll cover it in a short or tomorrow's video in full. This is what I mean by this message is repeated over and over and over and over and over. This is a bad idea. This is risky. Blah blah blah blah. The dramatic music, all of it is used to manipulate the masses. They're scared because their cash cow is threatening to leave. And even, you know, they haven't tried to work with Alberta once over the last 10 years. In fact, Justin Trudeau forgot to say Alberta in his acceptance speech to being the prime minister. They've been demonizing the only way, well, one of the only ways, not the only way, but one of the main ways that Alberta makes its money. And Alberta is sick and tired of this. You should know that as a leader of the NDP in Alberta, you should know that there are legitimate voices out there who are deeply concerned concerned by Comey Canada. Okay? But that's where this video ends today. You guys let me know some of the similar patterns that you're seeing, okay? And uh even on the radio, the way that they talk about it just I wish I could whip out my phone fast enough to record the things that I hear. But uh anyways guys, I want you guys to know that you matter. You belong here. May the odds be ever in your favor. Let's take a deep breath.

[00:19:06]Save democracy in Canada and let them have a vote to see if they want to stay or not. That's all I'm going to say. See you guys tomorrow.