Maple-Dipped Maga

So Danny, when Mitch talks, there's a lot of numbers we need to talk about.

Yeah, so I, I heard him say we're passing communist bills, and also that Mitch somehow isn't worried about Americans meddling with Canada or Alberta, and I think a lot of people are gonna disagree with him on that.

But mostly, I heard extreme money projections.

Yeah.

Mitch suggested we will save 50 billion a year by not sending it to Ottawa.

So in 20 years, he figures that gives us $1 trillion, and the result is the separatists suggest Albertans won't pay taxes if we're an independent country.

Well, that sounds exciting, but maybe too good to be true.

Has anyone challenged Mitch's numbers? I mean, we heard Cathy have trouble convincing a crowd when she talked about temporary foreign workers and healthcare.

Yeah, lots of people.

Premier Danielle Smith is one of them.

She said Alberta's portion of Canada's debt is about 170 billion.

We'd likely have to pay that off if we became independent.

Smith also said it will cost Alberta about 50 billion per year to replicate programs or money that it would lose by separating, and a new report from the University of Calgary suggests the same basic price tag, and it also points to Alberta's economy suffering if we separate.

So there goes all that extra money.

Exactly.

And what has the separatist response been?

Well, Jeffrey Rath, who's the other larger than life figure in the separatist movement, has claimed Smith's numbers are, quote, "insane," end quote.

Rath told the CBC, quote, "It's just trying to terrify Albertans into not wanting to leave," end quote.

Oh, that's an interesting way to counter a fact.

You're just trying to scare us with facts.

Yeah.

You know, I think many of us believe that facts can discredit non-facts and bring people together around a truth, but I'm not sure that's the case for many people, including separatists.

What do you mean they don't use facts?

My sense talking with them is that it's more like they decide they're separatists first and then find facts to support that second.

Let's go back to Scott Russell from episode one.