Stephen Harper Enters the Alberta Independence Debate | Brian Lilley

The buzz around Alberta separation continues to stir up contention across our nation.We'll be chatting about this today along with Canada -U .S.relations as we are once again joined by Brian Lilly, political commentator with the Toronto Sun.Brian, good to have you with us of course.Why don't we start with former Prime Minister Stephen Harper, apparently going to be speaking out over the summer against the idea of Alberta separating.

And Brian, you've covered Stephen Harper for a long time, you know the guy, so does this surprise you in any way?

No, not at all.And look, Stephen Harper was born and raised here in Toronto.He grew up in an area called Leeside, East York, very leafy, nice, middle -class neighborhood of Toronto.But he's lived in Calgary since he was 18 years old.So his adult life has been spent in Alberta, and he definitely identifies as an Albertan.refer to Stephen Harper as an Ontarian and he'll look at you sideways.

So, but he is definitely on the federalist side.Does he understand legitimate grievances of the people of Alberta?Absolutely.And when he was prime minister, he tried to fix them.He came up with a new plan for equalization that tried to take Alberta's concerns into account.He tried to bring about a not quite a Tripoli Senate because, quite frankly, that's close to impossible, but he tried to bring in better representation.

He made a lot of moves.And of course, there was no Alberta separatist movement when Stephen Harper was prime minister.In fact, there was no Quebec separatist movement.Well, I mean, at the beginning, by the time he left office, the The separatist movement in Quebec was done and dusted, it seemed.Separation has been brought about both in Alberta and Quebec by more than a decade of liberal governments that can't stay in their own lane, that constantly want to interfere in areas of provincial jurisdiction.or get in the way of provinces doing what they do best.

And so I'm not surprised that Stephen Harper is going to campaign against this.I was listening to his former Deputy Chief of Staff Howard Anglin on another network the other day saying, look, You people in central Canada, you need to start owning up to some of your issues in this in terms of your attitudes towards it.So I think we'll hear a positive reason for Alberta's stay in Canada from the Prime Minister and hopefully a bit of a nudge to the rest of the country to say, look, Alberta had some real issues.Listen up, straighten up and fly right.

Yeah, a few things we can learn from Stephen Harper's government, for sure.And this week, Premier Danielle Smith pegging the cost of Alberta separating and starting up a new national government, as opposed to a provincial government at $400 billion.

If that sounds big, it's because it is. I feel like they should be doing the pinky thing like Dr. Evil in the Austin Powers movies.

Yeah, yeah, it's a big number, right?Is she going to come out with a report on this apparently as well?And those numbers, do they sound anywhere near accurate to you at all?

To me, they seem high.And look, Glamour Smith is also on the Remain side.She wants Alberta to stay in Canada.And so I hope that this report that she comes out with is fair and accurate because, you know, I'm on the Remain side.I want Alberta to stay in Canada.And I'll make that point when I visit you guys in about a month's time, you know, for another visit.

But the You know, you can't scare people into staying and you can't over exaggerate.$400 billion is about the cost.Not quite.Well, actually, I was looking at the numbers.Let me get this straight.The total federal government budget this year is about $580 billion.

That's for the entire country.And so $400 billion to start up a new national government for one slice of the country with about 5 million plus people, instead of 41 million people, that seems like it's an overestimation.But, you know, look, I I have a lot of time for Premier Smith.I think she's a smart woman, an accomplished politician.Hopefully she does the right thing and comes out with a report that is serious and legitimate.It is going to cost you more than you think for those who are in favor of separation, but will it be $400 billion?

That seems on the high side.

Yeah, I think most of our viewers like truth, not embellishment on either side.It would be nice.

The folks trying to sell you on separation are going to tell you that it'll cost nothing and it'll be easy and smooth.And some of the people on the other side are going to try and scare you into staying.Let's just deal in the area of facts.

Yeah, politics of fear.I hate it.Anyway, three pipeline routes for a possible new pipeline to the northwest coast.So, what do you think about these, you know, proposed routes here and how likely are any of them to actually move forward and get approved by all parties involved?

It's going to be difficult, no doubt, and that's why Premier Smith and Prime Minister Carney have also talked about potential southern route.Premier Smith has talked about potentially going to a route that would go through the United States and out to a port in Washington state.That would be the least beneficial option, and not just because it would mean Canada needs to use the United States to sell our products to Asian markets, but also because it puts the oil further away.The benefit of a northern route up towards Prince Rupert area is that it puts you a couple of days closer even than Vancouver.So if you go further south to Vancouver, it's going to add more time.You go further north, you're taking a couple of days of shipping, two to three days of ship time off of the transport of that oil to Asian markets, so that is a good thing.

One thing that I did notice is that it avoids the Wet'suwet 'en territory on the routes that it goes, and that's one of the First Nations groups that really clashed over coastal gas link.Coastal gas link was the pipeline that didn't come from Alberta, so it wasn't dirty natural gas from Alberta the way that everyone describes any fossil fuels that come from your province.It was clean natural gas from British Columbia, and yet there were problems with getting that pipeline built.And so it avoids their territory completely, which tells me that they're finding other First Nations groups that they're able to do perhaps have some good initial conversations with, that there might be more acceptance of the pipeline along that route, but we'll have to wait and see over the coming months what happens.This is still going too slowly for me, Paul, but thankfully it is moving forward.

Yeah, and you know, it is good to mention that there are, you know, there are certain First Nations groups that are actually in favor of some of these pipelines.

They see the economic benefits of it.Northern Gateway Pipeline had dozens and dozens of First Nations groups who supported it all the way along.And yet that was still shut down by the Trudeau government.They would have had ownership stake and, you know, ongoing payments, things like that.It was still shut down by the Trudeau government.

Selective hearing.Yeah, well this morning...very interesting, American Ambassador Pete Hoekstra, he posted about Canada becoming the 51st state.Okay, so you say if that's how he feels about this whole thing, he should be kicked out of the country.That's pretty dramatic from you there, Brian.So what's going on?

Well, it's quite dramatic for me to say that, because unlike most people in the Canadian media who beat up on Ambassador Hoekstra all the time, I've defended him and have said at times that I think he's treated too harshly.He has a job to do.He has to represent the Trump administration.He has to put forward the American line of thinking.And he's a pretty blunt guy.But, you know, I don't think he deserves the treatment that he's received.

All right.But that said, given what he did this morning, he deserves whatever he gets from the Canadian people right now.He knows that the Canadian people do not like the idea of the 51st state.So why he posted what he did this morning is beyond me.It was on Monday night at about 9 .30 Eastern that President Trump went on his true social and he posted a link to a Bloomberg story about how Canada is in a quote unquote technical recession.And then said his only comment on it was 51st state exclamation mark.

Well, Hoekstra took a screenshot of Trump's post on True Social, added a screenshot of the Bloomberg story that Trump had linked to and posted it on X and other social media platforms.There was no need for him to do that.You know, he's in Quebec City right now.He is having good meetings with people.He is, you know, he was getting decent press, which is tough for him to do.And then suddenly he decides that he's going to post this If that's what he believes, he should leave.

Now, I sent a bunch of questions to his office, to the embassy, and asked about his intention, and does he believe this?And they said that they are amplifying the president's message.Well, the president was trolling Mark Carney.That's all he was doing, and Canadians can roll their eyes at that.But by reposting it the way he does, or the way he did, Ambassador Hoekstra looks like he's endorsing this, which he hasn't done before.So there's no diplomatic benefit.

for either country for him to do this.It's unacceptable.

Well, what happened to diplomacy, right?I mean, you're shooting yourself in the foot here.So yeah, he needs to perhaps apologize.So it might go a long ways if it's a genuine apology.But you mentioned the technical recession here.Of course, Stats Canada announcing that here recently that, well, the economy is shrinking.

you know, news flash, right?I mean, that has some saying that the recession is real, others are saying no, it's just technical.Now, Prime Minister Carney finally commented on this, so what's his response all about now?

Well, he's saying, look, there's some weakness, but things are good and we're making the right changes.And he's downplaying it.And yet when he was the Bank of England governor, he was asked about a technical recession in England and Britain over that.And he said, well, you know, two quarters of contracting contraction in the economy is a recession.When Stephen Harper was prime minister in 2015, we had very similar.You know, the quarterly numbers were different, but the aggregate over the two quarters was very similar.

And the media at that time mostly turned around and tried to explain why Canada was in a recession.And now they're mostly going out of their way to explain why it's not really a recession.It's a technical recession.It's, you know, technically you were going, you know, 130 and 110 zone.But, you know, technically, were you speeding?Yeah, you were.

And so we're in a recession right now.The prime minister is admitting some weakness.Look, GDP is shrinking.We have more people who are unemployed now than we did a year ago.The unemployment rate is up, which, by the way, doesn't always equate with more people being unemployed.There are some bizarre numbers around that.

Bankruptcies are going through the roof.The Canadian economy is not doing well.But we weren't doing well a year ago either.This is not about Donald Trump.Three of the last four quarters, Canada's economy shrunk.This is not all about Donald Trump and the tariffs.

But that seems to be the get out of jail free card for an awful lot of Canadian politicians.They just blame Trump.And that's what Carney is going to try and do and say, well, we're restructuring the economy.to deal with the uncertainty.No, you need to restructure the economy so that it is strong and resilient and not reliant on government favors to be able to move forward.Preach it, my brother.

I mean, you're telling the truth there, I think.Now, the Prime Minister also giving a speech on the scourge of anti -Semitism in Canada.And you're writing about his speech that it had some mixed reactions, but it was what he did afterward that undid any of the good words that he had in that speech.So tell us what that's all about.

So the title of the speech was The Canadian Covenant, and he talked about covenant a lot, which was, you know, interesting.If you know anything about, you know, biblical history, the Jewish people had a covenant with God.That is, throughout the Bible, throughout the Old Testament, he invoked the prophets Isaiah and Amos.He invoked, you know, at times, you know, you can tell his own Catholic faith as he was talking about this.and he acknowledged that there is a real problem with anti -semitism and that this isunique and different.

So he mentioned Islamophobia, he mentioned other forms of racism, he mentioned transphobia, but he said, the fact that I'm mentioning them doesn't take away from the fact that you're dealing with something different and unique and we must respond and the Canadian covenant is broken for Jewish Canadians and we need to do better.And so I'm announcing a council that's going to deal with antisemitism.And so the speech was pretty good.And he even said, look, when you come to this country, we welcome people from around the world, but leave your old hatreds behind.And I don't think that was aimed at Jewish Canadians.And then he announced who's on the council.

And there are a number of people that everyone in the Jewish community that I'm speaking to, including those who had a pretty positive reaction to his speech, are saying, what on earth are you doing?There's one lawyer out of Edmonton who represented the encampments that went up at the University of Alberta to denounce Israel, and those encampments across the country were 100 % anti -Semitic.Why is that person on a council to deal with anti -Semitism?There's one Jew, several Muslims, and Karina LeMay Doan, a speed skater, an Olympian.It's a very puzzling situation, and that has even the people that had a a positive view of his speech, scratching their heads and saying, look, pretty words aren't enough.We need action and you're not delivering.

Hmm.Wow.

That's interesting.Yeah.I mean, does he have ears to hear what people are saying on this one?Or is he just going to leave it as is and good speech and basically nothing changes?

I don't think he does.I think he is actually trying to gaslight the Jewish population and the rest of the country.And look, if you're not in the Jewish community or you're not close to it,this is not an issue that affects you and so most people don't think about it but the rabid anti -semitism on our streets at protests on our campuses across the country is real and it is revolting it is the worst it's been in decades something needed to be done I was hopeful this speech would be part of it.And listening to the speech, I thought he's moving in the right direction, but needs to do more.And then he announced this council and like it's over.

I'm out of time here, Brian.Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts with us here today.Thank you.