Separatism

And that leads me to... reflect on how in Britain we often think of separatism and devolution as trendy positions of the left.

And of course, the three separatist parties that currently occupy the top jobs in our devolved parliaments, Scottish National Party, Plaid Cymru and Sinn Féin, all position themselves as left of centre parties and indeed, really to the left of Labour in some respects.

But of course, Separatism is not inherently left-wing and there are right-wing separatists.

And devolution doesn't necessarily lead to left-wing policy outcomes.

It can lead to quite right-wing policy outcomes.

They don't really speak for any of the cities.

More Albertans believe in haunted houses being real than they do the separatist movement.

More Albertans voted for Justin Trudeau than they did the separatist movement.

This is a small, small number that has not necessarily ballooned, metastasized, grown, thanks to the hard work of many people, because there was an opportunity for that number to be larger, etc., But yes, this group will continue.

For them, having the process was a win.

Keith Wilson, one of the other leaders, more of a pseudo-constitutional, pseudo-legal kind of leadership approach.

perhaps in the eyes of the mainstream, a little bit more legitimate in how he carries himself, although the constitutional arguments do dissolve pretty quickly after a couple rounds of fact checking or back and forth.

They may have different means because you have to understand some people have joined the separatist movement.

You know, half of those Albertans that chose to have another referendum simply wanted to send a message to Ottawa and already said that if there was a second binding referendum, they wouldn't vote to separate from Canada.

And yet the leaders of the separatist movement seem to be very angry, questioning the legitimacy of this referendum.

I see a great schism in the separatist movement.

A lot of this was about seeking a mandate to get a separatism referendum.

The other was about trying to send a message to Ottawa.

I would hope that Albertans, like all Canadians, see this as a decisive victory for Canada, for our federation.

It was a significant turnout and a very clear result.

I don't speak for various factions in the Alberta separatist movement.

here.Uh, we're talking to Patrick Lennox, if you're just joining us.

A new book, On Treason: Alberta Separatism, Foreign Interference, and Canada's Survival in a Revolutionary Age.

We'll p- punch it into the show notes, uh, but you can check out patricklennox.com, uh, if you'd like to pre-order your copy.

Uh, Patrick, you, you've worked, uh, in, in Canada's security and intelligence communities.

Um, okay.

Well, let's make that our closing question, because your, your, your book, again, for people just joining our livestream, we're talking to Dr. Patrick Lennox.

His new book, On Treason: Alberta Separatism, Foreign Interference, and Canada's Survival in a Revolutionary Age.

Uh, Patrick, what's the call to action here when you're talking about Canada's survival, when you're talking about the unprecedented factors at play, the digital threats and other threats? I mean, this could, this could be nerve-wracking.

Environmental policies like the carbon tax and burdensome approval processes for oil projects and a general lack of support for pipeline development from neighboring provinces has held back growth and investment for Alberta's oil and gas sector.

And with majority of Canadians living in Ontario and Quebec alone, some have argued that Canada is experiencing Western alienation, this idea that Eastern provinces are largely dominating politics for the country, something that has contributed to this growing separatist sentiment.

Now, Canada is no stranger to separatist movements.

In fact, the country's predominantly French province of Quebec has already had two referendums on independence, the latter of which just barely saw the province remain as a part of Canada in 1995, with the remain vote winning by a sliver at 50.6% of the vote.

But compared to Quebec, Alberta doesn't have the same deep roots or cultural concerns around things like language and the like.

Across the table from me is Dr. Aaron Rock.

And today what we're going to be talking about is separatism.

Now, Separatism is something that over Canadian history we've seen.

There's been undercurrents and rumblings and in different pockets of Canada.

This has been a movement.

I will say that when I created the United Conservative Party, and I spent three years of my life doing that, I deliberately wrote in to the founding constitution, the merger agreement that was endorsed by 95% of its legacy party members, a commitment to a strong Alberta within a united Canada.

And I did that because having been in Alberta conservative politics my whole adult life, You know, I knew there were these marginal separatist movements that picked up every now and then, and I wanted to make it clear where we stood, that this was not going to be a vehicle for them to advance separatism.

And so, you know, as I mentioned, though, Amanda, during COVID, I was, I'll be very blunt, I was defenestrated by that, I'll call it populist alt-right cohort that had been radicalized during COVID.

It's no secret that they supported my successor on vaccines and things like that, ivermectin.

I mean, there's good academic work being done tracking that, but I do know, and I think there have been some public domain reports about this, but I can tell you, I know for sure that the responsible agencies in Canada are tracking this as best they can.

As far as I can tell, by the way, Ahmed, I get called every week by international prestige media that are sniffing around trying to track this down.

Is there foreign, is there mega money behind the Alberta separatist movement? They all have suspicions and hear rumors, but no one's been able to find hard evidence.

I think the mega influence, such as it is, comes out of that whole ecosystem, like the podcasters and the bloggers and the alt-right media that inform, that kind of create an opinion environment.