Is country star Paul Brandt signalling support for Alberta independence?
Canadian country music star Paul Brandt has sparked speculation of his support for Alberta separation.
Author: Quinn Patrick
Canadian country music star Paul Brandt has sparked speculation of his support for Alberta separation. The popular musician posted an image that overlaid lyrics from his well-known song, “Alberta Bound,” specifically highlighting the line about “independence.”
The star posted a photo of himself walking down a highway with the lyrics to his 2004 hit song superimposed over top, featuring the line “I’ve got independence in my veins” in bold.
Brandt, who is from Calgary and began his music career in 1995, was inducted into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame in 2017.
The post did not directly state Brandt’s support for the Alberta Prosperity Project, a committee that aims to bolster a sovereign state, or Stay Free Alberta, which is gathering signatures across the province in hopes of launching a referendum later this year.
However, the post appeared to be a message to the public on his stance, sparking a heated debate among X users, both for and against.
Stay Free Alberta requires at least 177,732 signatures by May 2 before the petition can be verified and brought to the Alberta legislative assembly.
Meanwhile, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith said separatists are not necessarily interested in joining the United States but are instead seeking a “new relationship with Canada.”
“I would say, when I talk to people (Canadians) who are frustrated with the way we’ve (Albertans) been treated (by Ottawa) for the past 10 years, they don’t say, therefore I want to be an American state. That is not what I am hearing,” Smith told listeners of her radio show on Saturday.
“They want a new relationship with Canada. And that’s what I’m doing,” Smith continued. “We’ve got a new prime minister, we’ve got an MOU (Memorandum of Understanding) – and we seem to have common cause in trying to get a new pipeline built.”
Is Premier Smith still committed to raise the industrial carbon tax on April 1 ?
NOT WHAT I VOTED FOR!
While I did vote for Danielle Smith, I reserve judgement on her policies and attendant political moves. I do not trust Carney to honour any supposed commitment in that infamous MOU. His abrogating his own prime ministerial responsibility and cavalierly granting pipeline vetos to B.C. Premier Eby and various first nations groups tells me that, by Carney's own quiet calculation, an oil pipeline to the northwest B.C. coast is already dead in the water. The MOU only gives Carney a superficial out that the mainstream media will wave and trumpet when the proverbial 💩 hits the fan when Danielle Smith realizes, by next summer, that Carney's played her for the fool. Mark Carney is fully committed to his green agenda, to the profit of his holdings in Brookfield and elsewhere. Frankly, any political neophyte can figure this out. If Carney was serious about an Alberta oil pipeline to the Pacific coast, other than the existing TMX lines to the lowered mainland, he would never have told Eby and the various B.C. indigenous leaders and groups that they have veto power over any future interprovincial pipelines built into and through B.C. This goes against the Canadian Constitution and Carney cannot actually grant such powers. But Mark Carney can and will actually bypass this neatly by refusing to exercise his own actual powers under the Constitution. So, Paul Brandt is a closet separatist. That would make me happy if it's true. Danielle talks about changing Alberta's place in Confederation but that really not possible without real, meaningful constitutional change which won't happen under the current constitutional amendments structure, the bar is too high, requiring seven provinces, which won't happen, not with 50% of the vote as well. As an example, equalization payments. Ontario might side with Alberta and Saskatchewan and even B.C. certainly would. That's over 50% of the population, but the Maritimes, Manitoba, and Quebec would be dead set against losing any part of their equalization money. That leaves Newfoundland which mostly gets some payment and has for most of the last 60+ years. With their oil and hydroelectricity revenue they have occasionally been on the have side of the equation during the past 30 years or so but is that enough for NL to vote for such a dramatic change, I doubt it. A vote for a 3E senate, Ontario and Quebec would oppose that so no 50% of Canada's population would be in favour of such change. You can go down the list and see that nothing about the Constitution that could be changed to better align with Alberta's values and desires will ever be changed because the system is rigged against the outer provinces, particularly in the west. I do hope Paul Brandt is an Alberta firster.