Rebel News - Iranians rally for freedom as Ayatollah toppled in US-Israeli strike
Aired: 2026-03-03
Duration: 34:26


=== Free Speech Prevails (04:57) ===

[00:00:03]  Shame on you, you censorious f**k!
[00:00:16]  She's probably in there stealing comedian land, where he ended a totally different, intimate stuff.
[00:00:22]  Oh wow!
[00:00:23]  Our beach!
[00:00:25]  Oh, thank you!
[00:00:28]  Free speech prevailed in Medicine Hat.
[00:00:31]  It's March 2nd, 2026.
[00:00:33]  I'm Sheila Gunread, but you're watching the Ezra Levant show.
[00:00:41]  It was Friday night in Medicine Hat, Alberta.
[00:00:44]  It was blowing snow and bitterly cold.
[00:00:47]  Not exactly the place the chattering classes in Ottawa imagine when they picture radical separatists plotting the end of Confederation.
[00:00:57]  It was really just a rented hall in Medicine Hat College, a stack of my notes, a microphone, and a room full of Albertans who are tired of being told to sit down, shut up, and just be grateful for everything.
[00:01:10]  You see, that's the thing about this independence tour with my friends Corey Morgan of the Western Standard and Freedom Convoy leader Tamara Leach.
[00:01:19]  It's a systems conversation.
[00:01:21]  It's actually not all that exciting.
[00:01:24]  It's a let's actually walk through the hard mechanics of independence conversation.
[00:01:30]  Pensions, debt, trade corridors, energy exports, equalization, indigenous jurisdiction, currency, courts, borders, the nuts and bolts.
[00:01:41]  The stuff that either makes a country work or doesn't.
[00:01:45]  And on Friday night, we brought that conversation to Southern Alberta.
[00:01:50]  The venue itself deserves a lot of credit.
[00:01:54]  Let's start there.
[00:01:56]  Because it takes real backbone these days for a public institution, especially a post-secondary one, to host a controversial event and not cave the second someone sends an angry email.
[00:02:08]  And boy, did they get angry emails.
[00:02:11]  And we've seen it happen.
[00:02:12]  A handful of complaints, if that, a social media thread, a media story, someone invokes safety, safety, and suddenly, poof, your booking just disappears.
[00:02:24]  Now that didn't happen to us.
[00:02:26]  Medicine Hat honored the contract to host us.
[00:02:31]  They didn't buckle to pressure.
[00:02:33]  They didn't invent some sort of technical glitch or a line in a contract that didn't exist.
[00:02:40]  They respected free expression even for ideas that make some, some people, deeply uncomfortable.
[00:02:47]  And that matters to me.
[00:02:48]  As you know, I have a strong commitment to free speech.
[00:02:51]  Not the trendy kind where you defend speech only if it aligns with your politics.
[00:02:56]  The real kind, the inconvenient kind, the kind where you let both sides speak and then trust the adults in the room to sort it out peacefully.
[00:03:05]  And both sides did show up.
[00:03:07]  Inside, we packed a room.
[00:03:10]  Ranchers, oilfield workers, retirees, students, families, small business owners, parents who brought their adult kids because they said, you need to hear this.
[00:03:20]  Some, most, were already sold on independence.
[00:03:24]  Others were cautious.
[00:03:25]  Some were skeptical but curious.
[00:03:27]  That's exactly who I want in the room.
[00:03:30]  Because this independence tour isn't about whipping up rage.
[00:03:33]  It's about answering objections.
[00:03:35]  It's about pressure testing the idea.
[00:03:38]  It's about learning from places like Quebec, which in 1995 ran 18 different traveling commissions.
[00:03:45]  They held 435 public hearings.
[00:03:48]  They heard from more than 55,000 citizens and submitted over 3,000 written briefs before asking a single referendum question.
[00:03:56]  Quebec did the homework.
[00:03:58]  And if Alberta ever takes this seriously, we have to do the homework too, because we only get one shot at this.
[00:04:05]  And then there were the protesters.
[00:04:07]  A solid turnout, actually.
[00:04:09]  Wasn't a handful.
[00:04:11]  It wasn't a token presence.
[00:04:12]  They came prepared.
[00:04:14]  Signs, slogans, and I guess energetic determination, I'll call it.
[00:04:22]  No, I'll be honest.
[00:04:24]  Many of them were prickly.
[00:04:25]  Especially with me.
[00:04:27]  Apparently my existence, my face, and my wardrobe choices were deeply provocative.
[00:04:33]  Who knew my belt could be so controversial?
[00:04:36]  Cultural appropriation, even, they told me.
[00:04:39]  And with Ezra, it was the same adversarial energy, let's call it.
[00:04:45]  But here's what didn't happen.
[00:04:47]  No violence, no shoving, no screaming in people's faces, no attempts to block the doors, no fire alarms were pulled, no vandalism, no theatrical black block nonsense.

=== Proving Something Important (06:22) ===

[00:05:00]  There were no Palestinian flags, no pride flags, no antifacause play, no outside agitator aesthetic.
[00:05:08]  Some of the crowd, let's be honest, look like they were manufactured in a lab to meet every one of my angry, white, liberal, middle-aged lady stereotypes, the haircut, the glasses, the disapproving stare that says, I've already decided you're wrong and I'm very, very tired of you.
[00:05:29]  But they were, by and large, well-behaved.
[00:05:31]  And that matters.
[00:05:33]  Because what we're building has to be better than what we're criticizing.
[00:05:36]  We're constantly told Alberta independence is driven by extremists, by angry radicals, by people who can't handle disagreement, so they're taking their ball and going home.
[00:05:47]  Yet on Friday night, you had a group of Albertans who fundamentally oppose the idea, standing outside peacefully exercising their rights, and you had a group inside doing the exact same thing.
[00:05:58]  That's democracy.
[00:06:00]  Not the sanitized, curated, liberal version.
[00:06:03]  A real one.
[00:06:05]  It's a little messy, but this way, everyone's rights matter.
[00:06:09]  And we even extended an invitation.
[00:06:12]  We said, come inside.
[00:06:14]  Ask your questions.
[00:06:15]  Challenge us directly.
[00:06:17]  You've got concerns?
[00:06:18]  Bring them to the microphone.
[00:06:20]  Let's talk about the CPP.
[00:06:22]  Let's talk about equalization.
[00:06:24]  Let's talk about what happens to federal employees.
[00:06:27]  Let's talk about trade.
[00:06:28]  Let's talk about risk.
[00:06:30]  But you know what?
[00:06:31]  They declined, which is unfortunate because we genuinely wanted to hear from them.
[00:06:36]  We're not afraid of hard questions.
[00:06:39]  In fact, I insist on them.
[00:06:41]  If Alberta is ever going to contemplate something as significant as sovereignty, the objections are the most important part of the conversation.
[00:06:50]  They're the things the mushy middle needs to overcome.
[00:06:54]  And while the protesters wanted to be heard, they weren't necessarily interested in hearing.
[00:07:01]  Still, I'll take that over chaos any day.
[00:07:04]  If more protests in this country looked like medicine had on Friday night, we'd be a far less divided place.
[00:07:11]  Inside the hall, the questions were serious.
[00:07:14]  What about my pension?
[00:07:15]  What about the treaties?
[00:07:17]  What about investment leaving?
[00:07:18]  What about the dollar?
[00:07:19]  What about federal retaliation?
[00:07:21]  What about being landlocked?
[00:07:23]  These are normal, rational, adult questions.
[00:07:26]  And we answered them like adults.
[00:07:28]  On pensions, we talked about Alberta's demographic advantage and net contributions.
[00:07:33]  On debt, we discussed negotiated asset and liability splits.
[00:07:38]  On trade, we talked about energy corridors and our existing export relationships.
[00:07:43]  On Indigenous issues, we acknowledge treaty relationships don't disappear with a change in jurisdiction, that the treaties have to be honored and even strengthened.
[00:07:53]  Boring old mechanics of self-governance.
[00:07:57]  And here's what struck me most.
[00:07:59]  The mood in the room wasn't rage.
[00:08:01]  It was resolve.
[00:08:03]  People weren't there to burn anything down.
[00:08:06]  They were there because they feel ignored, because they feel overruled, because they feel like decisions that affect their livelihoods, and their families are made thousands of kilometers away by people who don't understand or don't care how this province actually works.
[00:08:22]  The people in that room wanted leverage.
[00:08:24]  They want respect, and they want options.
[00:08:28]  Whether independence ultimately becomes the path or a way to simply strengthen Alberta's negotiation position, the conversation itself is powerful and necessary.
[00:08:40]  That's why Friday Night Mattered.
[00:08:41]  It showed that we can still gather peacefully, that institutions can still stand firm, that opponents can still protest without trying to shut things down, that ideas can clash without fists flying.
[00:08:55]  That's not a small thing in 2026.
[00:08:59]  We live in a country where certain viewpoints are treated as inherently illegitimate, where dissent is often pathologized or even criminalized, where economic grievances are dismissed as regional arrogance.
[00:09:12]  Yet, in Medicine Hat, we had something healthier.
[00:09:16]  Disagreement without dehumanization, mostly, except for the sign depicting Premier Smith as a pig.
[00:09:23]  Now, was it perfect?
[00:09:24]  No.
[00:09:24]  The protesters weren't exactly warm and fuzzy.
[00:09:27]  I won't be getting any Christmas cards from that crowd.
[00:09:30]  But they weren't violent.
[00:09:31]  They weren't destructive.
[00:09:33]  And they didn't try to cancel the event.
[00:09:35]  And I respect them for that.
[00:09:37]  Because if we're going to ask for the right to self-determination, we have to model the kind of civic culture we want in a future Alberta, whatever its constitutional status might be.
[00:09:48]  I want an Alberta where you can protest, an Alberta where you can even argue, an Alberta where you can say, I think this is a terrible idea, without being silenced.
[00:10:00]  Friday night showed that's still possible.
[00:10:03]  Our independence tour isn't about isolating ourselves.
[00:10:06]  It's about strengthening ourselves.
[00:10:08]  It's about asking whether the current arrangement serves Alberta's long-term prosperity and autonomy.
[00:10:15]  And if not, what the alternative looks like.
[00:10:18]  We are builders in this province, pioneers, problem solvers.
[00:10:23]  We built industries from nothing.
[00:10:25]  We turned the prairie into productivity.
[00:10:27]  And we didn't do that by being timid.
[00:10:30]  And we're not being timid now.
[00:10:32]  We're being careful.
[00:10:33]  This before us is a generational decision.
[00:10:36]  And we owe it to the next generation to get it right.
[00:10:40]  So Friday night in Medicine Hat wasn't just another stop on a tour.
[00:10:44]  For me, it was a reminder.
[00:10:46]  A reminder that free speech still has defenders.
[00:10:49]  A reminder that civil protest still exists.
[00:10:53]  A reminder that serious conversations can happen in public without the sky falling.
[00:10:58]  You don't have to like my face.
[00:11:00]  You can send me an email telling me you hate it.
[00:11:03]  You can not like my clothes.
[00:11:05]  You don't have to like the idea of Alberta standing on its own two feet.
[00:11:10]  But in that hall and even outside of it, I think we proved something important.
[00:11:14]  We can still disagree without tearing each other apart.
[00:11:18]  And in this country right now, that's no small victory.

=== Free Speech Reminders (15:07) ===

[00:11:22]  Stay with us.
[00:11:22]  Rebel News Scarlet Grace joins us after the break to discuss the pro-Iranian freedom protests in Toronto in the wake of the death of the Ayatollah.
[00:11:38]  So joining me now is our very own Scarlett Gray.
[00:11:41]  Scarlett has done incredible work documenting the cries of the Iranian community in Canada for freedom from the Ayatollahs and the oppressive Iranian regime.
[00:11:56]  Scarlett, thanks so much for coming on the show.
[00:11:59]  Scarlett, you were out this weekend as Iranians, Persians took to the streets in Toronto to celebrate the death of Khomeini at the hands of the Americans.
[00:12:11]  Tell me, first of all, what was it like?
[00:12:13]  Was it just pure jubilation?
[00:12:15]  That's what I was picking up when I saw your clips on X. Absolutely.
[00:12:20]  So this rally had been planned for some time.
[00:12:23]  These sort of massive demonstrations have been a bi-weekly occurrence for the last month and a half, two months or so.
[00:12:30]  So the atmosphere at them is generally, there's a sense of desperation in the air.
[00:12:36]  There's a fight happening.
[00:12:39]  There's a lot of sorrow too.
[00:12:41]  But when I arrived at the rally on Saturday, this was the morning after the strikes had begun, the mood was completely different.
[00:12:50]  It was celebratory.
[00:12:51]  As soon as I got to the parking lot, instead of tears, it was cheers.
[00:12:56]  And that was before we actually found out the news of Khamini's death.
[00:13:00]  That wasn't until kind of the end of the rally, but it really was incredible that everyone was already together for that, the whole Iranian community in Toronto.
[00:13:10]  It was historic.
[00:13:11]  It was crazy.
[00:13:14]  I guess for you, I mean, you've been documenting the anti-regime protests in the Iranian community in Toronto for months, years, even.
[00:13:26]  It's a movement that's near and dear to your heart.
[00:13:28]  What was it like for you to be there with them as they found out the news that the potential for their people to take back their own country was breaking?
[00:13:43]  It was kind of hard to keep it together because at the same time, I was still working and reporting.
[00:13:48]  I had our colleague Efron with me filming.
[00:13:52]  And I mean, when the news itself came out, it wasn't kind of one moment where everybody just started celebrating because when you're in a group that big, it's like the Freedom Convoy.
[00:14:03]  You can't connect to the internet because there's so many people there at once.
[00:14:07]  So the news was coming in very like patchy.
[00:14:10]  There'd be like pockets of people erupting in cheers.
[00:14:13]  Another one over here.
[00:14:14]  I kept trying to check my phone.
[00:14:16]  Like people were messaging me saying Homini's dead.
[00:14:19]  And I'm like, I need proof.
[00:14:20]  Someone send me a link.
[00:14:21]  Nothing would load.
[00:14:22]  So I got to the stage at the end and ran into my security friend who has direct contact with Israel.
[00:14:30]  And I was with him when the news came in from Israel.
[00:14:34]  And he ran to the stage to tell the speakers so the speakers could announce it officially.
[00:14:38]  And that's when everybody started crying.
[00:14:40]  And it was kind of one just emotional mess.
[00:14:43]  And I'm just, I was getting weepy too, interviewing people.
[00:14:46]  It was very hard to keep it together.
[00:14:48]  But yeah, a very emotional moment for sure.
[00:14:51]  You know, it's been nearly 50 years of that oppressive, murderous, I mean, terrorist regime in Iran.
[00:15:01]  And, you know, I just want to get your opinion on Trump's speech to the people.
[00:15:06]  It was an eight-minute speech.
[00:15:08]  I think it was one of the most important of both of his terms, telling the Iranian people that, you know, not that it was, that the Americans would be taking over their country, but he was making it possible for them to take back their own country.
[00:15:26]  I just wanted to get your take on Trump's speech directly to the Iranian people, which I understand the Americans then hacked Iranian TV and then broadcast that speech on Iranian TV to the people.
[00:15:40]  Yeah.
[00:15:41]  I mean, Iranians love Trump.
[00:15:43]  I think it's exactly what they wanted to hear.
[00:15:46]  He said something along the lines of we're with you and I'm willing to do what no president before has been willing to do.
[00:15:54]  And it's just, I think the person they've been waiting for.
[00:16:00]  He released another speech yesterday, I believe, with an update on what he calls, I believe, Operation Epic Fury.
[00:16:09]  Great name.
[00:16:10]  Great name.
[00:16:11]  Yeah.
[00:16:11]  He's always got great names for things.
[00:16:13]  And I was with my Iranian friends in Toronto at dinner when that one came out.
[00:16:20]  And they all just, the reaction was, oh my God, I love this guy.
[00:16:25]  So he's really kind of the answer to their prayers.
[00:16:28]  And they're calling him Uncle Trump.
[00:16:31]  So it's nothing but Uncle Trump in Iran.
[00:16:35]  There's people calling him that.
[00:16:37]  So he's just, yeah, he's been, he's the answer to their prayers.
[00:16:40]  What I love seeing is the Persian community doing the Trump dance.
[00:16:44]  You know, his little.
[00:16:45]  The YMCA.
[00:16:48]  You know, there's, I think, a great admiration for him.
[00:16:52]  And I think it's wonderful to see the American flags at these protests, Canadian flags, Israeli flags, and then the proper Iranian flag at these protests.
[00:17:08]  It's a movement for unity and freedom.
[00:17:11]  And yet, and yet, you still see people like those deeply embedded in the NDP, their enablers in the media, the antifa types, the pro-Hamas types, who are willing to plan their own protests to protest the death of Khomeini at the hands of the Americans.
[00:17:36]  In your experience, how does the Iranian slash Persian community feel about that sort of stuff?
[00:17:42]  That was one of my questions for them yesterday.
[00:17:45]  I asked a lot of people, what do you think of the no war with Iran types?
[00:17:51]  And their answer overwhelmingly was, A, I don't think they really care because they're so happy right now.
[00:17:57]  It's kind of irrelevant to them.
[00:18:00]  Yeah, it's something, and it's something that they're used to.
[00:18:03]  I mean, they're used to the left and their kind of narrative and everything.
[00:18:09]  But it's they, the consensus is these people are either overwhelmingly ignorant and they don't know what they're talking about or they're siding with the regime.
[00:18:21]  There's kind of no in between.
[00:18:22]  They don't know what they're talking about or they're adamantly against them.
[00:18:27]  For me, I think it's a lot of just Western young people who they hear the word war so automatically bad.
[00:18:37]  But Iranians are not calling this a war.
[00:18:38]  They're calling it a rescue mission.
[00:18:40]  And if it is a war, it's not a war with Iran.
[00:18:44]  It's a war for Iran.
[00:18:45]  It's a war against the Islamic Republic occupying Iran.
[00:18:49]  Yeah, I think there's a healthy dose of your standard elbows up liberal type trained by the CBC to just be reflexively anti-Trump.
[00:19:03]  Even if Uncle Trump is saving the world from this world's largest state sponsor of terror, which includes sponsoring terror in Muslim countries, like you saw the Iranian regime over the weekend lash out against their fellow Muslim countries, like the UAE and Jordan.
[00:19:25]  They were firing missiles into those countries.
[00:19:28]  But some of these people, Trump could cure cancer and they would be mad about it.
[00:19:35]  And I think there's some of that too, that they just, no matter what Trump does, it has to be bad, even if it is making the world a safer place for all of us.
[00:19:45]  It's just overwhelming TDS, no matter what.
[00:19:50]  It's the same with, it's very similar to with what happened with Venezuela.
[00:19:54]  You know, you see, you see Venezuelans rejoicing, crying, screaming in the streets, thank you, Trump.
[00:20:00]  And it's what the people want.
[00:20:03]  It's the exact same thing with the Iranians, but because it was Trump who did it, bad, bad, bad.
[00:20:10]  It's insane.
[00:20:11]  Well, and we saw the, you know, the Trump is bad crowd being very upset about the civilian deaths, although there have been very few because the American military is so targeted and powerful.
[00:20:27]  Likewise, the Israeli military who is helping in this operation, they precision strikes, but there has been some civilian loss of life.
[00:20:40]  And the anti-Trump left is really up in arms about this.
[00:20:43]  But where were they when 30,000 plus Iranians were slaughtered really since December at the hands of the regime?
[00:20:53]  It's, I mean, there's also been a lot of misinformation, of course, pushed by the left and pushed by regime bots.
[00:21:01]  There was a story going around yesterday.
[00:21:04]  Oh, America and Israel, they slaughtered 50 school children in Iran in the bombings when it turned out that that was actually a regime bomb that did that, that misfired, and they took responsibility for that.
[00:21:16]  They'll take any little thing and twist it to make America and Israel look bad.
[00:21:25]  And yes, I mean, it's been tens of thousands of innocent unarmed civilians that have been slaughtered by this regime in the last two months.
[00:21:33]  It's like, it's unlike any massacre we've seen.
[00:21:37]  And I mean, even if the numbers coming out of Gaza, coming from Hamas, the Ministry of Health, were correct, which they've been proven not to be, and Hamas has even admitted to inflating those numbers, they wouldn't even come close to comparison to the loss of lives at the hands of this regime.
[00:21:57]  And it's been crickets from that crowd that has been having a meltdown if a child stubs their toe in Gaza.
[00:22:04]  So what are you hearing from the people on the streets, from the Iranian expat community?
[00:22:10]  What do they want to happen to their country?
[00:22:13]  Who do they want to be in charge?
[00:22:17]  You know, power abhors a vacuum.
[00:22:21]  It'll suck right in to fill it back up.
[00:22:23]  And I think if Trump kills enough of the bad guys at the top, they'll stop stepping in to lead.
[00:22:30]  But what do the people want?
[00:22:33]  What sort of governance structure would they like to see in Iran?
[00:22:39]  So this is an important question because this is something that the mainstream media loves to omit for whatever reason, for whatever side they're taking.
[00:22:48]  And Iranians have really caught on to this too.
[00:22:51]  They want the message that the world hears from them and knows from them is that they have a chosen leader and they are more united than they've ever been.
[00:23:00]  And this is not just the Iranian diaspora.
[00:23:02]  This is within Iran too.
[00:23:04]  You will hear calls from protesters.
[00:23:06]  You'll see signs.
[00:23:08]  I personally have connections in Iran as well, and it's the same thing from them.
[00:23:14]  Yes.
[00:23:15]  They all are calling on the return of Reza Pallavi, the crown prince, and the son of the last Shah.
[00:23:22]  And Reza Pallavi himself has said he has no desire for a crown.
[00:23:27]  He has no desire for power.
[00:23:29]  He has a plan to transition Iran to democracy after the fall of the regime.
[00:23:37]  And this is who Iranians overwhelmingly trust to do this.
[00:23:41]  They have a long history with him, of course, and he's been fighting for this since he was exiled.
[00:23:48]  And the mainstream never wants to include that.
[00:23:51]  Iranians have caught on to this.
[00:23:52]  They will bring signs and make sure every other person in the crowd has either a picture or a sign with Reza Pallavi's face or name on it so that they can't do a shot of the crowd and miss it.
[00:24:06]  And that's the most important thing that Iranians want people to know.
[00:24:09]  We know who we want to help us at this transitional time, and it's Reza Pallavi.
[00:24:15]  Now, before we close, I just want to ask you about the Canadian reaction to this.
[00:24:22]  I see Anita Anand, our foreign affairs minister.
[00:24:28]  She came out and said, Canada wasn't involved.
[00:24:31]  We weren't notified.
[00:24:33]  And we don't have an intention to be involved in any military strikes or operation.
[00:24:38]  And Canada believes in a diplomatic and peaceful solution.
[00:24:42]  So I guess my takeaway from that is the Americans and the Israelis couldn't trust us to be involved.
[00:24:49]  No, of course not.
[00:24:50]  And also we're not equipped to be involved.
[00:24:53]  Like, what are we going to do?
[00:24:56]  But also that the Canadian government is crazy enough to think that there was ever a diplomatic solution with the world's largest state sponsor of terror.
[00:25:06]  I mean, even Trump was supposedly in negotiations with them before this, and which everybody knew was futile.
[00:25:14]  Well, I think from what I understand, sorry to interrupt.
[00:25:17]  No.
[00:25:18]  I think it was a distraction tactic.
[00:25:20]  I think so too.
[00:25:21]  Yeah.
[00:25:22]  I mean, you never know with him what his strategy is, but I mean, it worked out in the end.
[00:25:27]  Yeah.
[00:25:28]  But you can't negotiate with terrorists.
[00:25:31]  You can't negotiate with people who want your destruction, who, you know, since birth have been trying to indoctrinate their people by chanting death to America, death to Israel.
[00:25:41]  You can't negotiate with those people.
[00:25:42]  So I don't know what's her name thought could be done in that aspect.
[00:25:48]  But there was a statement that was put out by Mark Kearney, I believe, yesterday, saying that they support what America is doing.
[00:25:55]  I think he's just jumping on the bandwagon because it's happening anyways.
[00:25:59]  But Iranians, when I asked them about that yesterday too, they were shocked, but they were happy with the statement.
[00:26:06]  Yeah, now I think it's time to throw the IRGC operatives out of this country, send them back to Iran to face the consequences of what they have been part of doing to their own people for so many years.
[00:26:23]  Scarlett, thank you so much for the work that you do to give a voice to the Iranians in Toronto.

=== Why Alberta Wants to Stay (06:44) ===

[00:26:30]  They know, and as well as we know, that you just can't trust the mainstream media, but I know that they trust you.
[00:26:37]  Awesome.
[00:26:38]  Thank you so much for having me.
[00:26:44]  As always, the last portion of Ezdazara's show, but also my show, belongs to our viewers at home because without you, there's no Rebel News.
[00:26:52]  So today's viewer emails, feedback, comments come to us by way of your responses to last Friday's episode of the Ezra Levant show, where we played speeches from the Western Standards, Corey Morgan, Tamara Leach, my friend and colleague here at Rebel News, but also you know her, you love her as leader of the Freedom Convoy, my boss, Ezra Levant, who normally hosts this show,
[00:27:22]  and of course my own speech from the Independence Tour.
[00:27:25]  So Daniel Taylor writes and says, if Alberta separates, the number of conservative seats in Ottawa is reduced by 30 plus, and this would guarantee a liberal majority in the House of Commons of the new Canada forever.
[00:27:39]  So the Libs just might want Alberta to leave Canada, but we'll never admit it.
[00:27:44]  There's some truth to that.
[00:27:46]  However, I don't think the Liberals want their gravy train with biscuit wheels rolling out of the station either.
[00:27:54]  They, I think, believe the current structure works perfectly for them.
[00:28:01]  They get to milk the cash cow without the cash cow ever getting a say in any of this because of the electoral math, which you rightly point out.
[00:28:13]  We don't have enough seats to overcome the central Canadian and Eastern Canadian liberal voting boomer bloc, which guarantees the liberals a majority, I think, in the next election.
[00:28:30]  We can't vote our way out of that.
[00:28:32]  So the structural inequities currently work for the liberals.
[00:28:37]  So I don't necessarily think they want us to leave.
[00:28:41]  They love how things are right now because we pay the bills.
[00:28:44]  We just have to shut up about it.
[00:28:46]  However, your electoral math exposes something else.
[00:28:52]  Some of the most vicious opponents to Western independence are going to be the federal conservatives.
[00:29:03]  And so we should get ourselves ready for our friends to become our enemies real fast because they never win again without us.
[00:29:12]  You know, and I'm not just talking about Alberta because if Alberta leaves, and I think we're closer now than ever before, Saskatchewan will leave shortly thereafter.
[00:29:24]  And then you never have a conservative in the prime minister's office ever again, or at least for a very, very long time.
[00:29:33]  And we're already seeing that with the likes of Jason Kenney being trotted out as a federalist to call people names, to accuse them of bootlecking.
[00:29:47]  If I were the Federal Conservative Party worried about alienating Albertans if we don't leave, you might want to shut that guy up and fast.
[00:29:58]  Lillian Kelly writes, I love Canada.
[00:30:00]  I don't live in Alberta.
[00:30:01]  I live in BC.
[00:30:02]  What happens to BC if Alberta leaves Canada?
[00:30:04]  I don't want to see Canada split up, although I can understand the concerns.
[00:30:09]  Why not change Canada?
[00:30:10]  I know it's a big job.
[00:30:11]  We've tried to change Canada.
[00:30:17]  The bar for constitutional reform requires seven of 10 provinces to agree to open up the Constitution.
[00:30:25]  Do you think they're going to do that to us?
[00:30:29]  If it were able for us to fix, we would have done that already.
[00:30:34]  I think most, no, I don't want to say most, but there is a good portion of separatist-minded Albertans who are reluctant, who they love Canada just like you, or at least they love what Canada used to be, but they just don't see another way because they've tried to fix it.
[00:30:57]  I mean, Alberta has tried lawsuits and the Sovereignty Act.
[00:31:03]  And, you know, we've tried appointing our own senators, but the prime minister, sorry, rather, we've tried electing our own senators, but the prime minister, or at least the liberal prime ministers, have decided they're not going to appoint to those ones selected by the province of Alberta.
[00:31:20]  You know, we've tried so many things and we don't want to crack the country apart either.
[00:31:30]  But this is a matter of self-preservation.
[00:31:33]  And I guess to answer your question about what happens to BC, that ultimately will be on the people of BC to decide.
[00:31:42]  But I think you are dealing with some of the same things that we are.
[00:31:46]  As in British Columbia, I think right up until Chilliwack, you're pretty darn conservative, but you're governed by a cluster of radical progressives out of Victorian Vancouver, right?
[00:32:03]  I think you are as, you know, as Western as the rest of us in Alberta and Saskatchewan.
[00:32:12]  And if Alberta left, would BC break in half?
[00:32:16]  I think there's some potential for that.
[00:32:19]  And I think maybe those conversations will start happening after Alberta has its vote.
[00:32:25]  Don Harr no, Don Ono.
[00:32:32]  Efron, did you really pick this name?
[00:32:34]  What are you thinking?
[00:32:39]  Check that.
[00:32:39]  Rare her check.
[00:32:41]  Don Rareher Check.
[00:32:44]  Hopefully I'm saying that right.
[00:32:46]  He writes, separate Alberta or at least vote to separate.
[00:32:50]  Then follow the necessary steps.
[00:32:52]  Do not believe anything that Rotowa says that is smoke and mirror.
[00:32:56]  Sorry, but in my opinion, this is the only way to leave the liberal corrupt government.
[00:33:03]  At the very least, it gives us leverage.
[00:33:08]  Leverage that Quebec already has.
[00:33:10]  Separatist sentiment is polling higher in Alberta than it does in Quebec.

=== Leverage and Leaving (01:11) ===

[00:33:14]  Why?
[00:33:15]  Because we actually want to leave and we're just not doing this for emotional and financial blackmail.
[00:33:21]  I think that's it.
[00:33:24]  Yeah, there's for many Albertans, I just don't think that they can fix what's broken.
[00:33:30]  And we don't think the liberals are good faith partners in confederation with us.
[00:33:39]  And we just want to be able to live in a place that is reflective of our culture and our values.
[00:33:50]  And it's, you know, it's sad for some.
[00:33:53]  It's not really all that sad for me.
[00:33:55]  Kind of eager.
[00:33:56]  But it is sad for some.
[00:33:59]  But as my son said to me over the weekend, he was promised to Canada that he and his friends never got.
[00:34:08]  So he's going to take it for himself by voting in that referendum.
[00:34:14]  Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
[00:34:15]  Thank you so much for tuning in.
[00:34:17]  I think Ezra's back in the chair tomorrow.
[00:34:20]  And as I say on my show, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.