Jeffrey Rath

But those in the Western province seeking independence have a very different perspective.

Jeff Rath, a co-founder of the separatist movement which calls itself the Alberta Prosperity Project, has labelled Mark Carney's government a communist regime.

And he's garnered enough support to ensure that a question on separation will be put to the Albertan electorate during a referendum on October 19.

So I understand that there are Canadians that are upset, especially in Ontario, that when Alberta leaves, that Ontarians, for the first time in their lives, are going to have to pay their own bills and pay the bills of the Maritimes that we've been paying for years.

Again, at the moment, all the statistics in the history would tell us there won't be a yes vote, but you don't need a yes vote for there to be an awful lot of trouble.

And when you combine the American presence with Russian disinformation campaign that is hitting all kinds of Western countries, I'm sure, including Australia, definitely including Canada, you see this manufacture of outrage and grievance and false information and just more wearing away at the fabric of our society.

And lest you think that America's intervention is being exaggerated, here's what secession campaigner Jeff Rath had to say about the high level of US support for his cause.

He's over the moon about it.

The APP and its offshoot, Stay Free Alberta, which was organizing the petitioning effort that just concluded, has emerged as the dominant voice and the leading organizer within this movement.

It's headed by the CEO, Mitch Sylvester, the citizen who initiated the petition, legal counsel, Jeffrey Rath, who we might see in the news every now and then, and the chair and founder, Dr. Dennis Modry, who we don't really see much from anymore.

The APP is registered as a non-profit under the Societies Act of Alberta, and this permits the APP to raise money, to spend money, to own property, sell property, things like that.

And with a non-profit leading the call for independence, the corporate structure of the independence movement seems a bit unusual at first glance.

I mean, that's up to UCP members.

But a lot of the people with these visceral reactions to Smith look a little farther down and see, well, who will we replace her with and how and why a year from a general election? Because if you got somebody with a pure independence mandate, let's just say you put Jeff Rath in the chair, unapologetically, purely independence.

I mean, he's not running for it.

I'm just throwing it out there.

Sometimes what I'm hearing is they found the answers a little pat.

They're just told, say yes say no but also a movement isn't just the leaders and so like tim was saying you know we hear a lot from mitch sylvester we hear from jeffrey rath we see them on tv so we wanted to know you know who are the other people who are the women you heard uh kathy fleet in there a little bit um and she's the part she's part of a third-party advertiser that specifically goes to women's homes uh or men i suppose if she they were invited and like has pie with them and talks to them about separation you're not hearing those stories in the mainstream

Yeah, I don't think it's been unfair, but I think when you're presented with such a divisive question like, do you think we should stay in Canada? You tend to really grasp at the first kind of gut feeling that you have.

And what you tend to grasp at is cartoonish type depictions of one side or another.

Minister, I want to ask you, you know, you've started the advertising campaign, you've produced this report, both of which I think give pretty clear indications that the government is genuinely invested in getting the information in front of Albertans and, as you say, campaigning for a sovereign and strong Alberta within United Canada.

But you hear Jeffrey Rath immediately respond yesterday, the leader of the separatists saying, well, this report is totally biased.

It's one-sided.

We wouldn't have to take any national debt.

I think the more information you can have, the better.

And then you see the response to it, and it's as you would expect.

Jeffrey Rath, who is the lawyer involved with the separatist group, one of the leaders of the separatist group, I think we agree on that, right? Says it's biased, it's one-sided, and he totally discounts it.

He actually said he doesn't think Alberta would have to take any share of the national debt.

The government-commissioned report from the University of Calgary's School of Public Policy says succession would cost on the low end at least fifty billion dollars over the first five years.

Jeff Rath, a lawyer and leading face in Alberta's separatist movement, says the report is a joke.

As far as I'm concerned, the report is completely one-sided, and, uh, it's a complete waste of time, but we expected it.

I mean, we expected Danielle to...