610 CKTB’s Gene Valaitis and KVETCH and RELEASE’s Jon Liedtke discuss his latest piece on KVETCH and RELEASE about Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s controversial appeal of a court ruling against her secession referendum petition. I critique Smith’s “scorched earth” strategy, arguing she prioritizes political performance over legal integrity and treaty rights. We also touch upon potential foreign interference and upcoming federal-provincial energy negotiations.
Transcript (Gemini Generated):
Gene Valaitis: It’s Gene Valaitis on 610 CKTB, Niagara’s News and Talk. Yes, very true. Our good friend, our storyteller, Jon Liedtke is joining us again this morning. Good morning, Jon. How are you?
Jon Liedtke: Good morning, Gene. I’m great. I’m so prepared for May 18 weekend right now. I’ve bought myself a bulletproof vest. I’ve got cocaine. I’ve got alcohol. I am ready with my AI girlfriend, we are geared up.
Gene Valaitis: [Laughs] Somebody’s been listening to the show this morning. Oh, you are hysterical. Oh, that’s just hysterical. Oh, that’s just… We’re going to talk about what’s happening in Alberta. And before I ask you some questions about this, I just need you to, uh, set the table, as it were. For people here in Ontario who haven’t been paying a lot of attention to it, um, there’s been this secession petition. There was a court ruling. Um, the information of some 300,000 Albertans may have been leaked into the public domain. Just set the table. What’s happening out there? And then I’ll ask you some questions.
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, I mean, listen. The Premier of Alberta, Danielle Smith, has decided to take a page out of the David Cameron—former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom’s—epic fail playbook, and she wants to use it for herself. He, of course, wandered into Brexit unknowingly as to what would occur, and she is eyes wide open, walking into a secession referendum. But not only that, she’s allowing the referendum to go forward, but when a court has quashed it down, she’s now saying, “I’m going to use the full weight of the government to appeal it.” It’s madness, it’s lunacy, it’s bad for Canada, it’s bad for Alberta, but it’s entirely Danielle Smith because it’s good for her brand.
Gene Valaitis: Hmm. You’re calling it the “scorched earth strategy.” Why the strong language?
Jon Liedtke: Well, this is a PR shakedown, plain and simple, Gene. It’s not a legal strategy. This is a collection racket for grievances. She has a base that wants a very messy divorce, the likes of which we’d watch on reality TV, and they want it from Canada. She’s terrified that the hounds that she released are going to start snapping at her heels. But when you weaponize the full weight and the taxpayer-funded treasury of the province to defend a petition that was built on a data heist—criminal actions—you’ve crossed the line. She’s not managing the base, Gene; she is literally dousing the fire station in high-octane gasoline, handing out blowtorches to the most radicalized corners of her caucus, of her base. This is scorched earth, quite literally. It’s a siege on reality itself.
Gene Valaitis: Yeah. Now, good viewership, you can read everything on the Kvetch and Release podcast and website that Jon runs. Now, I was reading your piece. You described this as a “Schrödinger’s petition.” What do you mean by that?
Jon Liedtke: Okay, well, you know, Schrödinger’s cat, right? It’s a thought process, it’s quantum mechanics. You take a cat, you put it in a box, and you have a gas poison pill that can kill the cat. And the thought process is, while the cat’s in the box, it’s both alive and dead because you don’t know what the outcome’s going to be. This, with her, it’s a Schrödinger’s petition. This is peak administrative hypocrisy. On the one hand, her government claims to be the party of law and order—she deserves a new Law & Order show, dun-dun—but on the other hand, they’re acting as the legal defense fund for a petition propped up by stolen data. She wants it every which way. I don’t know if you saw the movie last year or the year before, Everything Everywhere All at Once, but Gene, she lacks the charm or the cool factor to pull off that kind of multi-universe chaos. We’re left with a Premier who treats treaty rights, which are the architectural bedrock of our democracy, as a legal loophole or a nuisance that needs to be bypassed. But you can’t claim to respect the Crown while you’re trying to melt it down for scrap metal.
Gene Valaitis: Yeah. Well, the court ruling was centered on the duty to consult with the First Nations in Alberta. But she is framing it as an anti-democratic obstacle. I don’t get it.
Jon Liedtke: Yeah, this is the total betrayal of the office. Full stop, Gene. These treaties that we have aren’t dusty suggestions or old pieces of paper. These are the literal title deeds to the land. By framing the judiciary, by framing the indigenous partners as radicals or as obstacles that need to be cleared out of the way with a bulldozer, she’s doing the laundry for the very extremists she claims that she is just stage-managing. You don’t get to treat the foundation of our country like a speed bump just because it’s politically inconvenient. This is not just dangerous rhetoric, Gene. This is a forensic dismantling of the province’s legitimacy as a whole.
Gene Valaitis: You know what concerns me? There’s—I forget the guy’s name—but there’s a lawyer out there who represents the separatist movement in Alberta. And he’s making, you know, he’s not hiding the fact that he has been going into the US and he is meeting with US officials. And, you know, to me, that’s called foreign interference in another country.
Jon Liedtke: Ha! You could call it that. I would say that some—I won’t—but some might refer to it as seditious actions to try to circumvent our federal government against the benefits or the overall standing of our country for the benefit of yourself and for a foreign nation. But again, I wouldn’t make that claim because my lawyer tells me not to go and make such verbose claims on the radio. But listen, this is not a win in the courtroom, Gene. This win is the grievance. As long as she’s able to just keep this process on life support, she’s able to fundraise.
Gene Valaitis: Ah, okay. Because legal experts are saying this appeal is really a long shot at best.
Jon Liedtke: Dead on arrival. Yeah. She can keep the outrage machine fueled. She can campaign against the “activist judges” or the “indigenous veto” to distract her base from the fact that her policy shop is effectively bankrupt. She’s using the legal system as a stage for performance that has nothing to do with the law and everything to do with keeping her throne from wobbling into decay. This is a theatrical shakedown of the judicial system, and we’re all paying for tickets to the show. And quite frankly, a judge should just shut this all down.
Gene Valaitis: Hmm. Okay, well, you know, I love your style of writing. And in your column, again, it’s on Kvetch and Release, the writing blog. Um, you write that, quote, “Smith…”—only you would write this—”Smith would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven.” So what’s the long-term consequences for the rest of Canada?
Jon Liedtke: [Sighs] Yeah, this is the ultimate ego trip. Danielle Smith would rather rule in Hell than serve in Heaven. But the problem, Gene, is that when you light a fire that big just to keep yourself warm, you don’t get to control which way the wind blows the sparks. The rest of Canada is being forced to breathe the smoke from the fire that she lit willingly. It’s destabilizing our trade, it’s fracturing our federation. It’s telling every other would-be aspiring populist secessionist that the truth is whatever you can get 300,000 people to sign off on a petition for, even if the signatures were harvested via a criminal data heist. She’s playing a zero-sum game. The rest of us are all footing the bill for the losses. And even if it goes well, I don’t think you and I are getting any shareholder dividends, Gene.
Gene Valaitis: No, you’re right. Okay, you put it in perspective. I get it. And you know what’s going to be really, really interesting? And Danielle Smith is meeting up with the Prime Minister in about an hour and a half. And you know, I… they’re announcing some sort of an energy deal. And I was thinking, “Yeah, we’re going to finally put a shovel in the ground. We’re going to start selling our oil to the air.” And then I’m watching the news this morning and I’m doing my homework for the show, and what do I start hearing? Carbon pricing, carbon pricing. And then, you know, you probably heard the clip of Prime Minister Word Salad I played on Valaitis on the News. I don’t even understand what he’s talking about. So my prediction is: no shovel in the ground, no pipeline announcement. It’s just going to be, like I said, the MOU, the E-I-E-I-O, the Wingo-Tango-Wango-Bango of never getting a pipeline developed. And man, we could sure use the dough right now.
Jon Liedtke: The Wawa-Bing-Bang. I love it. Um, yeah, you know, listen, I just… you know, I think that there are built-in poison pills into that that the federal government is able to come forward and say, “We want this. It’s going to happen. Look at all the money that we’ve allocated. Oh, gosh darn it, if only, you know, things A… if preparations A, B, and C fail, what are we going to do?” But that’s why I guess there’s always preparation H, right?
Gene Valaitis: [Laughs] Yep. Liedtke, great job as usual. And I just want to wish you a very happy Victoria May 18 weekend.
Jon Liedtke: Thank you, Gene. Enjoy your cocaine and alcohol.
Gene Valaitis: No, I don’t do that! That was a news story! You can’t say things like that, people are going to think you’re serious! That was…
Jon Liedtke: Oh, okay, I’m sorry. Don’t go hang out with your AI girlfriend then either, okay? You’re going to get four years in jail if you do.
Gene Valaitis: You’re killing me here!
Jon Liedtke: Love you, Gene. Have a great one.
Gene Valaitis: See you later. [Laughs] That was… we were talking about a story in the news in Valaitis on the News that I had. That was classic. That was just epic. Only Liedtke. Okay, let’s take one last look at the weather for the May 18 weekend. Cue the music, please.
This aired on 610 CKTB
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