Alberta Delegates Head to DC for Statehood Talks

The 22 minute YT clip below is dated Mar 3, 2025, so it's possible that the meetings have already taken place?

A partially edited transcipt of the conversation follows:

Rachel Parker: I am joined by The man behind the idea, Alberta lawyer Jeff Wrath of Wrath and Company. So first and foremost Jeff maybe you could just give us a brief synopsis what is it exactly that you are proposing to do?

Jeff: Well what we're proposing to do first and foremost is to free Alberta from governance by idiots in Ontario and Quebec. So, I've been involved with an organization called the “Alberta Prosperity project” for a number of years. Interestingly we're now up to over 60,000 members which is more members than the United conservative party of Alberta at this point. We're a number of the organizations's goal is to educate Albertans on the benefits of Independence —free of you know the structural problems caused by Canadian federalism, which has effectively turned Alberta and Albertans into colonized citizens of you know —- into a colony of Quebec and Ontario—which were all sorely fed up with. And you know the impetus for all of this of course was you know Justin Trudeau starting a trade war with the United States. You know and we all think it was done intentionally so that he can cling to power and so the you know the liberal government Ottawa will have an excuse to run up another trillion dollars in debt that's going to be paid for by hardworking albertans. and so that they can get reelected when no trade War needed to have happened. You know effectively what president Trump was saying was that Canada has been freeloading off of the United States for decades which is undeniable when you look at the fact that our current NATO spending uh is 1% of GDP or 1.1 or 2% of GDP, when you know the treaty commitment is 2% and then you know given the global situation you should be closer three —which is you know 3 or 4%— which is what president Trump is asking for. So rather than acknowledging the truth of that and apologizing to President Trump for the fact that Canada has been freeloading um off of the US for decades and that we've effectively become a military protectorate of the United States of America, and apologizing for that. Instead, you know Trudeau provokes this stupid trade War, to, you know, to help himself and the Liberals get reelected. So of course, as an Alberton who has been more than fed up with the degree to which um Alberta has been mistreated. We've literally had hundreds of billions of dollars siphoned out of this province to go to Quebec to fund Social Services in Quebec that Albertans could only dream of, while Quebec runs Surplus budgets and Alberta is continuing to have to borrow money to build hospitals, pay our doctors, pay for our roads and the rest of it—while we're being sucked dry by Quebec as a so-called “have not” Province.

Uh we're just fed up and then what we find after Trudeau provokes this trade war with president Trump at Mar a Lago, what we find is that people in Ontario and Quebec are so idiotic they don't even know where their oil comes from. So they're suggesting that oh well we'll teach Donald Trump a lesson we're going to shut off Alberta oil. Notice that Doug Ford isn't saying hey we'll teach him a lesson in the integration of the you know of the North American Auto industry will shut down all Ontario parts plants for two or three days and cause all of the supply chains to come to a crashing halt….oh no no no we'll [instead] shut down Alberta oil — harming our citizens and our economy because that's the right of Ontario to kick Albertans in the teeth anytime they feel like it. So of course the the the humorous thing about that is that somebody quietly points out to both Trudeau and Ford, who thought that this was a really good idea, that, well, you can't really do that. Well, what do you mean? Well all of your oil comes through line nine that comes from the United States right. so they're so stupid they don't even know that their own oil comes from the United States and if you shut off the oil out of Alberta that they’ve effectively shut off the oil to Eastern Canada!

And these are the people that are purporting to “govern us.” So you know, myself and a number of of other um Albertans have decided that enough is enough. We're tired of being governed by complete idiots and we're at a unique point in history with uh the newly elected Trump Administration um to you know send a delegation to Washington to discuss with the Trump Administration their support for Alberta Independence, and to gauge their you know uh to 1) gauge the level of support in the Trump Administration for an independent Alberta free of Free of Canada. 2) uh to gauge their support um for um Alberta either becoming a US Territory or a US state.

I think the internal discussions are that the independent republic of Alberta um as a US Territory like um the British Virgin or the US Virgin Islands, Guam or Puerto Rico is probably the best way to go and I'll explain why in a second.

But first and foremost we need to have a referendum in Alberta. But we're going to go to Washington we're going to discuss these things with members of the Trump Administration and then we're going to come back to Alberta and continue with Alberta Prosperity's mission to educate Albertans on the benefits of Independence and be able to spell out for them exactly what it would mean for citizens of Alberta if we were to vote to be independent of Canada —1) free of the multi-trillion dollar debt that Trudeau's racked up through his administration, 2) free of the idiotic administration of uh you know of the the Trudeau Liberals, 3) free of the influence of people in Ontario that don't even know where their oil comes from 4) and move forward as a as an independent state or as an independent nation state or an independent republic, affiliated in an economic Union with the United States, either as a US Territory a US state or some other form of economic Union. So those are the options that we're looking at pursuing and

Rachel: could you explain the the differences and the benefits of becoming a US Territory versus becoming a US state?

Jeff: well the main reason that I had the benefit of having one of the members of our steering committee was a former member of parliament, who spent quite a bit of time researching this issue and has had the benefit of even discussing the issue with us State Governors like Sarah Palin who said that you know Alberta might want to consider being a territory. She said, that there were a lot of people in Alaska that didn't want to vote for Statehood because one of the benefits of being a US Territory is you don't have to pay us federal taxes.

So were Alberta to vote independent from Canada we 1) wouldn't be paying Canadian federal income tax, 2) we wouldn't be paying GST. 3) we wouldn't be paying any federal excise taxes. And, obviously you know by agreement with the United States, there would be zero tariffs on any Alberta Goods going into the United States and of course it would be in accordance with president Trump's suggestion would be reciprocal free trade zero tariffs on this side of the Border zero tariffs on that side of the border—-Alberta would be experiencing an economic boom unlike any that it's ever seen before. US financial institutions would be free to come and locate in Alberta; they would be free to open up branches in Alberta, the Alberta dairy industry could expand you know tenfold or 100 fold or whatever the market would bear because we'd be free of supply constraints, marketing board constraints etc etc

So you know overall um you know the feeling is that this would be a huge positive for Alberta and you know we think that having a conversation with our fellow albertans about how much better our lives would be —-free of federal income tax, free of GST, free of carbon tax. Everybody wants to talk about the 20% tariffs that the US is putting on us but what about the 20 some odd percent increase in carbon tax that Trudeau's about to kick us in the teeth at the beginning of April??

So you know, we'd be free from all that foolishness as well. So there's a lot of benefits to exploring this idea. Obviously this is a democratic process. You know our fellow citizens are going to have a say. But you know. we think that right now that the sentiment in favor of um uh of Alberta Independence in the province running between 20 and 34% without any real attempt at public education and without knowing fully what the United States would be willing to do for an independent Republic of Alberta. So even without any of that information, you know, those are you know these are the current numbers. So that's roughly between 750,000 to a million Albertans currently in according the polls are in favor of Independence.

I would wager that support for it is much higher in rural Alberta and certainly much higher amongst the Daniel Smith's base, in rural Alberta. I think that obviously a lot of the leftwing academics, ie, all the same people that wanted to see us lock down during Covid, and all of the people with socialist tendencies in the province are going to have a tough time swallowing this, but I think honestly you know, given the ability to do a massive marketing budget for a carefully planned educational campaign leading up to a referendum, I think it wouldn't be that tough of a Sell at this point in history to get more than 50% of Albertans to say “that we've had enough” and
”we deserve to be prosperous and we deserve to be decolonized from Quebec and Ontario,” and that it's time for us to stand on our own two feet and go our separate ways.

Oh, and if we have to use you know the US dollar and if we have to have a US passport instead of a Canadian passport um so be it. We'd want to be trading in US Dollars anyway and obviously part of the discussions with the United States would be converting all Alberta pensions um savings, retirement funds you know Etc at par with US Dollars. In order to make this happen but you know there's lots of things that need to be considered.

That's why we're looking at sending an exploratory committee you know down to Washington to meet with the members of the Trump Administration and to discuss you know what is and isn't possible. in the context of you know what's you know frankly a fairly ambitious project.

Rachel: the number one complaint or criticism that I've heard of this proposal is simply people saying that you're a traitor that this idea is treacherous and traitorous what is your response to that my response to that

Jeff: Canada left me a long time ago so I don't really consider myself to be Canadian anymore I think I largely consider myself to be an Alberton full stop. Once Trudeau started seizing the bank accounts of, you know, of single moms in Chilak, when they supported the truckers Convoy, when they declared martial law during covid because they couldn't stand the thought of Albertans and their smelly diesel trucks and their dirty oil coming to Ottawa to express their displeasure um with the manner in which we were being foolishly our rights were being trampled by a dictator in Ottawa.

When all of that happened, I think like a lot of Albertans, I felt progressively less and less and less Canadian because “what the ideals were of Canada that have been thrown out the window?” I really don't think that any of us are Canadian anymore because what we used to take to be Canadian values have been completely shredded by the government we have in Ottawa right now.

Rachel: I know that most the people involved in the delegation are currently keeping their names private but can you give me a sense as to what type of Coalition you're putting together here because you've you know we've spoken about this matter a number of times now and it sounds like you have some former politicians um and in this project maybe even some sitting Alberta MLAs.

Jeff: well let's be clear there's no such thing as a former politician right?

[Doug here, I’ve stopped editing at this point, and what follows is the YT transcript that you can read for yourself or listen to the podcast] what's the what's the old line it's a a Statesman is a dead politician we need more Statesmen so let's just leave it at that but no I mean we have uh you know former M uh former members of parliament we have uh sitting mlas that have expressed a great deal of interest in in what we're doing and support for what we're doing um I literally just got off the phone with a a retired Justice um who phoned me to express his support and congratulations for the work that we're doing and and saying that it's about time that we pursue this you know senior lawyers from uh you know retired from large Calgary law firms Edmonton Law Firms have been reaching out to me to tell me that they you know that they want to be part of this and they want to help uh you know senior oil and gas guys billionaires I mean there's all kinds of you know people from every Walk of Life Farmers ranchers you know certainly amongst all my ranching Buddies and farming buddies I mean this idea is wildly popular so when that Premier Smith says oh I don't sense the enthusiasm for this idea I don't think she's really in touch with her base right now because the level of enthusiasm that I'm sensing from my phone ringing off the hook and the I guess we're pushing now six million views on that one little snippet um we've struck a chord with people and I think there is real enthusiasm you know in Alberta for this to happen obviously um uh there are people um that are not happy with this our office has already been receiving death threats so for that reason I'm not disclosing the identities of uh you know of any of the other members of the steering committee and as you know as we move forward I'm sure that'll all become you know known in time um but um yeah I mean it's you know we're a bunch of very serious-minded albertans that are all just completely fed up and have had enough with being governed by a bunch of idiots from Ontario and Quebec that don't even know where their oil comes from one of the most common questions I'm hearing right now from Alberta Martens is I'm excited about this project I'm interested how can I help what's your response my responses were probably going to have to set up a website but I would I would direct them to a direct them to the Alberta uh Prosperity uh project I would uh urge them to sign up I would urge them to volunteer um there's a petition what the AP is doing they have a referendum project that they're currently working on both with regard to an Alberta pension plan and with regard to Alberta sovereignty because of the way that Jason Kenny drafted the you know the the referendum petition bill you have such a short window to get the signatures together what we're trying to do is Prather all of the names and signatures so that we can you know force a referendum within the 90-day period by having all the signatures pre-loaded so if people want to volunteer with ap to help the Alberta Prosperity project to help uh in those Endeavors and to join AP that right now off the top of my head is probably the best way that you can help and you know I I appreciate uh all the expressions of support that I've been getting uh from my fellow albertans I would urge people also that support this project um to write to Premier Smith and email Premier Smith to say that this is you know on an exploratory basis this is something that citizens of Alberta are very interested in exploring um not necessarily committing to you're not asking the government to commit to anything at this point this is a democratic process we're asking everybody to you know deep breaths behave themselves you know no threats of violence no Mis Behavior you know we're doing this you know by the book by the numbers under the law of uh under the current law of Canada which contemplates a province leaving under the Quebec sucession reference contemplates a province being able to leave Confederation on a clear vote and a clear referendum on a clear question and that's what we're working towards and I would urge all of the people that think it's appropriate to call my office and utter death threats and you know all of these other types of behavior um to please stop doing that we live in a civil society this is this is a democratic process and uh you know we would urge you to start your own committees and you know start working on the no campaign because the yes campaign is uh is uh is going to be in full swing here shortly and and by the way for all the people that have been phoning our office and issuing death threats we'll be phoning the RCMP shortly and investigations are going to commence when we last spoke you mentioned that this delegation was hoping to go down to DC within the month I'm wondering if that's still the plan and secondly you know it's very difficult to get meetings with high level officials in the Trump Administration so what kind of access and what kind of meetings are is your delegation actually going to be able to set up we're we given given the caliber of the people that are involved in the steering committee and the people that we're working with um you know we're working with people that have had previous contacts with and again I'm not going to be naming you know the names of the people that were you know that we're contacting and that we're working with but you know that have had contacts at the highest level in you know the United States government as you know former members of parliament as uh you know uh uh you know uh retired justices of courts in Canada uh you know you know you know uh extremely successful Alberta oil and gas uh developers real estate developers Etc um a lot of the people on the steering committee have those contacts already um you know obviously um you know with this entire um 30 second video clip going viral um you know this has gotten more and more and more attention in the United States uh people have been from the US have been reaching out to me for my contact information um you know the thing's taking on a life of its own because I think clearly you know on the American side of the Border um you know people you know in in the United States here the clear benefit of uh an independent Alberta um uh joining in an economic Union and an economic partnership with the United States I mean obviously we're not appreciated in Canada so you know maybe it's you know it's time to you know to pack up our dirty oil and diesel trucks and go and the good news is we don't even have to leave home and so sorry just that first question there you're still planning on going within the month not with well if you're talking within the month being within the month of March that might be a bit tight I think when you and I were talking the other day we sort of were working on a 30 30-day window I mean obviously um the steering committee that I'm working with we're putting together briefing documents we're putting together you know um uh you know packages for um you know to you know to guide our discussions um you know with the American officials that we're going to be meeting with um and you know and looking to move this project forward and hopefully you know just getting some answers to some of our questions is this even possible I mean it's you know this is this is an exploratory delegation to see whether or not uh uh you know anybody within the US Administration you know thinks that this makes sense I suspect um listening to president Trump's um uh State of the State of the Union or address The Joint uh uh address to the Joint Congress uh last night where you know he you know basically shouted out his uh support for self-determination of Greenland I would think that if that's his policy towards Greenland um I wouldn't imagine that he wouldn't uh extend the same policy to Alberta given the fact that Alberta would be uh joining in an economic Union with the United States along with the third largest oil reserves in the in the known world so you know I I I think we're cautiously optimistic that uh uh that there will be a high level of interest uh within the president Administration to support Alberta Independence

well Jee thank you so much for your time today and of course I will be following this issue very closely so I'm sure we'll be hearing from you again soon all right well thank you very much. all right everyone well thank you so much for tuning in to episode one of Rachel Parker I hoped you enjoyed my interview with Jeffrey Wrath of Wrath and& Company please let me know know what you thought of the interview in the comment section below I know that a lot of you have questions about what is going on why did I leave True North what is my new channel going to be about what type of content am I going to be doing I do plan on answering All Those Questions we actually weren't planning on launching today we had the launch date scheduled for a few weeks out and due to just the breaking and explosive news that I reported on yesterday I felt that we really had to hop on the momentum and make sure that we were getting some content out as soon as possible because one of the main things about going independent is making sure that your audience can actually find you and I suspect that will be an issue that we're going to have in the weeks to come so please do share this content and send it to your friends and family so people who have enjoyed my content in the past or even people that you think would like it know where to find me and please do subscribe to my YouTube and like this video and you know within the next few days or next week I will give you guys a bit of an update about what's going on what type of content we have planned for the future you can expect to see a lot more of the same for me a lot more interviews but we also have some new and interesting things planned for you guys some of you have been asking me to upgrade my game a little bit we also are going to be changing the studio around some of the things that I've ordered haven't arrived yet so you guys are just going to have to be a bit patient with me but as I said I did really want to hop on this breaking explosive news I hope you guys enjoyed the interview as I said please like this video And subscribe to my channel and I'll be back with more content for you all soon God bless