Jon Liedtke joins 610 CKTB’s Gene Valaitis for his regular weekly segment, Liedtke’s Got a Take!
Jon Liedtke discusses reports revealing Quebec and Alberta separatists made unauthorized visits to Washington seeking backing to leave Canada, condemning these efforts as treasonous and economically destructive, warning that invoking foreign interference subverts Canadian democracy, alienates investors, and fails to solve domestic grievances.
Transcript (Gemini Generated):
Gene Valaitis: It’s time for Liedtke’s Got A Take. Jon Liedtke, good morning.
Jon Liedtke: Good morning, Gene.
Gene Valaitis: So, Quebec voters are heading to the polls today, and Alberta’s referendum is taking place on the 19th of October. So, new investigations from the Globe and Mail reveal that separatist traitors on both fronts have quietly been making backroom trips to Washington asking for help. And that is just the definition of being a traitor. Now, Quebec tried to repeat what Alberta did and meet with the USA about a mutual exchange to help the province secede from Canada. Again, traitors. Now, I know it’s important, but you explain why this is important to everybody.
Jon Liedtke: Tell us how you really feel, Gene. Traitors. You know, we have to drop the polite diplomatic euphemisms. I’m glad that you are. Running to a foreign superpower to dismantle our country is not advocacy; it is administrative treason. And it’s infuriating, it’s deceitful, and it shows contempt for all Canadian voters—and not only their own, the secessionists. I mean, these weren’t harmless “get to know you” coffee chats in Washington. These were unauthorized backroom pitch meetings to break up the federation without a single federal official or representative from Global Affairs in the room.
After seeing that seceding during trade wars wasn’t going to poll well for Quebec, with only, you know, 30% right now supporting it, the PQ changed their tune and then they started to blame Donald Trump, and that’s just a cheap rhetorical scapegoat. So they want to kick now this referendum past 2029 when he’s out of office, which is just a joke, quite frankly. So, the PQ is using Washington to manufacture cover for a product that they wanted to sell, but they found out didn’t have any demand. But at the end of the day, soliciting foreign interference to subvert our domestic democracy should not just be politically embarrassing; it should be criminal.
Gene Valaitis: Yeah. Well, Ottawa doesn’t really seem to want to engage on either of these succession fronts here. Are they blissfully unprepared and under and unaware of the risk here? I mean, what’s Ottawa missing here? I don’t get it.
Jon Liedtke: I think Ottawa is suffering from institutional amnesia, Gene. I mean, they are sleepwalking into a legal trap, because I think that they think as long as polling stays below 50%, confederation is safe. But that’s naive, and former NDP leader Tom Mulcair has been warning that the PQ is engaged in linguistic gymnastics on the campaign trail, calling it a “consultation” right now to put the sleepy federalists to bed.
But behind closed doors, the real PQ plan is to draft a new provincial constitution to deliberately bypass Supreme Court succession precedents to pull off a unilateral declaration of independence. And Alberta? I mean, federal public safety and security officials are asleep at the wheel while foreign interference is occurring with US, Michigan, Trump-aligned operatives flying in on private jets to deploy voter software for the pro-secession campaign that ended up leaking the private voter records of nearly 3 million Albertans. So provincial factions see the US, Gene, as a weapon to bypass our, you know, Canadian democratic norms.
Gene Valaitis: You know, what I don’t understand, Jon, do these people in Alberta and Quebec don’t know that if they vote to secede—I mean, gone is the Canadian currency, your passport is no good, you don’t get CPP, you don’t get Old Age Security, come up with your own form of currency. You know, these traitors in Alberta, they’ve offered up resources to the US in exchange for formal recognition and the exit bill payment, I guess we could call it. Now, is this just building leverage in DC to show Ottawa they’re serious, or is it something more? ‘Cause it really ticks me off.
Jon Liedtke: This really upsets me as well, Gene. I mean, listen, there is no leverage for them to be building by speaking to Washington. And this argument is childish, it’s unpatriotic, it’s completely naive to offer up resources that aren’t entirely theirs, quite frankly. But if you want to shift federal policy, you do what serious leaders do: build coalitions, win national elections, and govern, for gosh sake. Stephen Harper proved how to do that. He didn’t go running to Washington unpatriotically to beg for help on his knees.
And we’ve seen that this is not strategic leverage; it’s a garage sale of Canadian sovereignty, and it’s unfiltered delusion to think that the United States is going to treat an independent Alberta or Quebec as an equal sovereign partner. I mean, they’re not going to be treated independent; they’re going to be treated as a subordinate vassal colony for Uncle Sam. I mean, so they can offer fresh water and oil royalties and energy corridors to Washington from Alberta to bypass the voters, but that’s not leverage; it’s turncoat madness.
Gene Valaitis: So, here’s what I don’t understand. Why are provincial leaders, I guess we can say, playing footsie with this and not getting serious?
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, to call these people leaders is like calling your Uber driver a professional pilot. I mean, they are both absolute disgraces. Instead of acting like the adults in the room they were elected to be, quite frankly, these party leaders, in quotation marks, are playing the role of political arsonists, walking around with kerosene and reams of referendum ballots, ready to burn down the country to remain in power in their own provinces.
But they know better. They have access to economic data, polling data, and national security briefings that show that this is not just a shell game; it’s an actual dangerous game, one of the most dangerous games. But instead of showing any moral courage or backbone to shut it down, they’re playing cowardly dog-whistle politics with fringe secessionists just to protect their party flanks and keep their nomination safe. It’s spineless, it’s destructive, and it’s playing with fire.
Gene Valaitis: So Stephen Harper had an op-ed in the National Post. He had harsh words for both provinces. I’m sure you read that; what was your biggest takeaway?
Jon Liedtke: “Thank you, Stephen Harper”—which I don’t think I’ve ever said that out loud before. My biggest takeaway is that Stephen Harper stated the cold, brutal truth that secessionists refuse to acknowledge, quite frankly. Using secession as a protest vote brings zero benefit and maximum economic risk.
Harper talked about how he lived through the Quebec referendums and how it reminded Albertans, and he reminded, excuse me, Albertans of the historical reality, and that is: two decades of Quebec sending messages to Ottawa didn’t give them supreme power; it permanently spooked institutional capital and it moved Canada’s financial heart from Montreal to Toronto, and it never looked back. Harper made it clear that threatening constitutional destruction destroys investor confidence instantly internationally. So playing games with Confederation doesn’t build leverage; it impoverishes your own province.
Gene Valaitis: All right, final take here. What would you say to voters in either Alberta or Quebec, or both, when and if it comes time to vote to leave Confederation?
Jon Liedtke: Gene, look, being frustrated, being furious at your government is a 100% normal, healthy Canadian thing to do, just like hockey. There is nothing wrong with being angry at Ottawa; it’s our national pastime. But in a democracy, when you get mad at management, you fire the manager—you don’t burn down the arena.
So organize, build coalitions, find common cause, elect politicians who understand your values, and campaign like hell against the ones who don’t. But tearing up Confederation, triggering a $170 billion economic shock, selling off national resources to a foreign superpower—that’s not democracy; it’s foreign collusion, and it should be criminal. We don’t solve Canadian problems on Capitol Hill; we solve Canadian problems on Parliament Hill. And it’s time for all separatists to stop running to Washington to beg for help to fix their own problems, eh?
Gene Valaitis: You nailed it. Excellent take today.
Jon Liedtke: Thank you, Gene.
Gene Valaitis: See you tomorrow.
Jon Liedtke: Cheers.
Gene Valaitis: Jon Liedtke, and Liedtke’s Got A Take.
This aired on 610 CKTB
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