Gene Valaitis and Jon Liedtke discuss Canadian unity amid Alberta secessionists “treasonously” seeking $500 billion in U.S. financing to exit confederation, comparable to the “Russian pretext” of manufactured regional grievances & security umbrellas. The conversation warns that if the federal union fails, the resulting economic “cardiac arrest” would devastate the country’s manufacturing heartland, shifting Canada’s status from a sovereign partner to a mere “resource colony” for a predatory U.S. administration.
Transcript: Succession and Treason (generated by AI)
Gene Valaitis: I love having him on. Jon Liedtke is here. I never know what he’s going to talk about, but it’s always a great observation about Canada and life. Jon, good morning, sir!
Jon Liedtke: Good morning, Gene. Let’s call it “Dispatches from the 42nd Parallel.”
Gene Valaitis: Okay, you’re on with that one. Now, I understand this morning you have observations on succession and treason: the new North American border war. Explain.
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, let’s forget the maps that you learned about in school; forget that handshake at the border. As of this morning, it’s no longer a border; this is a target. Our border used to be the world’s longest undefended border, but now it’s looking like the world’s longest “for sale” sign, quite frankly.
And this is all because of those secessionists in Alberta. And I don’t like dropping the “S-word” like that, but I mean, quite frankly, it’s the only word that you can say when it comes to people who are actively trying to leave our country.
We used to talk and tell jokes about Alberta becoming the 51st state because of how they were “more American” than Canada is—and that was before Trump used to start calling us the 51st state. But now we’re not talking about regional grievances or grumbling anymore; we’re talking about what could actually be a very serious unraveling.
We’ve got these secessionist proxies right now, and they’re not just sitting around in Alberta shooting back Molson having conversations about how terrible Ottawa is; they’re actually reaching out to Washington and asking for $500 billion to be able to bankroll their buyout.
We’ve got a US President right now referring to our Prime Minister as “Governor Carney,” following through with what he did with Prime Minister Trudeau before that. He signals to this world that he doesn’t view us as a sovereign partner, but rather just a resource colony ripe for corporate takeover.
And for us on the 401 corridor here, you know as well as I do, this is a very concerning thing because if this grinds to a halt, that’s cardiac arrest for the entire country. We’re not in a domestic dispute right now anymore, Gene. We’re in a 100-plus-year-old union that is in shambles, and we have one partner that’s looking to run away with another guy who doesn’t even want a partner—they just want to extract everything that we have.
Gene Valaitis: But what concerns me is the fact that actual Americans in Trump’s administration are meeting with these people in Alberta. And, you know, that’s called interfering with a foreign country. Now, the Americans may argue that Doug Ford’s two commercials about free trade, you know, were the same thing. I tend to disagree. But you know, an American administration should not be screwing around with a foreign country, i.e., Canada.
Jon Liedtke: I agree with you 100%, but we are well past the days of diplomacy. This feels far more the “Russian pretext,” quite frankly, than it does a diplomatic conversation with our neighboring partner.
We have right now Canadians who are traveling to Washington, having conversations with the Treasury Department of Trump’s administration, again, seeking $500 billion to be able to finance that exit from the country. That’s the one thing that we’ve always been able to say is, “Okay, you want to leave, right? How are you going to pay for it?” Well, they’ve actually got a plan.
And they’ve got the signatures too, they say, to be able to hold the referendum to be able to move forward. Now, we have clarity, of course, that’s been provided by the Supreme Court, but let’s be honest: Ukraine had sovereignty as well until those “little green men” started to show up and facilitating referendums as well.
So, this is really scary because it’s moving beyond just conversations to—we actually have modern historical pretext for this exact scenario that’s been unfolding. The Russian pretext is really simple: manufacture regional grievance, offer a security umbrella, and then boom—suddenly we might be seeing the maple leaf flying under stars and stripes.
Gene Valaitis: Yikes. Are these people in Alberta just like the Parti Québécois—traitors?
Jon Liedtke: I would say so. I don’t see any other way to label it. And of course, I’m not branding all Albertans or all Westerners by any means, painting with the same brush here. However, the ones who are actively doing this, they are secessionist traitors in my opinion, at least. And it’s not just my opinion; that is the opinion that’s shared by the British Columbia Premier who called them “treason”—David Eby.
Gene Valaitis: Yikes. So what is the Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith—what should her position be? What should she be doing? Because I mean, let’s not forget, she went down to Mar-a-Lago to kiss the ring.
Jon Liedtke: There’s one thing about kissing the ring; there’s another about fanning the flames of secession. If Danielle Smith wants to prove herself to be a noble, patriotic Canadian, she can do one thing very quickly: stamp this out.
Don’t fan the flames. Don’t provide any fire for it. Tell people this is wrong. Tell people you stand against this. Tell them that they are wrong, and do not even begin to have a conversation about why their grievances about things might have led to this.
Are there issues that exist in our confederation? Absolutely, of course. Should they be heard? Absolutely. Should we be ignoring these secessionists? No way, because it’s a very real thing.
Do I think that this is going to lead to anything in the short term? No. In the medium to long term? I think we need to be very concerned. We’re seeing a fractionalization of our confederation, and we need to get a hold on that.
Gene Valaitis: On the other side of the coin, I found it interesting that earlier this week the former Governor of Minnesota, Jesse Ventura, was suggesting that given the problems they’re having in their state with ICE, maybe it’s time for Minnesota to join Manitoba and become “Minitoba.”
Jon Liedtke: It is quite a surreal twist that Alberta is trying to claw its way out—or at least some secessionists there—and Minnesota is seemingly wanting in. And it goes to show that, you know, we do have allies on the other side of the border, maybe not at the federal level.
But this is a desperate trade: we’ve got Alberta’s resource wealth for Minnesota’s democratic stability?
Gene Valaitis: Well, it would also give Canada its first NFL team!
Jon Liedtke: Hey, there you go! It just goes to show that while Mark Carney is trying to play the “middle power” playbook—pivoting to the EU, joining these defense pacts, and trying to Trump-proof the economy—we can’t pivot globally if we’re falling apart internally. So we gotta—we gotta get a hold on this.
Gene Valaitis: Yeah. And Trump… you know, people always forget, I mean, Trump has only been in office for one year. We got three more years to go.
Jon Liedtke: We sure do have three years to go, and that is what’s concerning is just how quickly this is all unraveling and unfolding quickly. But it just goes to show we have a choice: we can’t keep pretending that this is business as usual until the 401 turns into a 350-kilometer parking lot.
We need to make sure that our manufacturing towns don’t become ghost relics. We need to get real about this. This secessionist threat, while it sounds funny and we can make fun of it and poke fun at them as being Westerners who are just out of it and not connected—we gotta figure out how to get this connection going between us all again.
Gene Valaitis: Well said. Jon, always appreciate your voice on a Tuesday morning. You always have something great to say.
Jon Liedtke: Thank you so much, Gene. Until next time.
Gene Valaitis: Okay, talk to you next Tuesday. There he goes, Jon Liedtke. I never know what he’s going to talk about, but man, he’s been hitting it—hitting it out of the park lately.
This aired on 610 CKTB
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