I bumped him. That’s the first thing I owe him publicly. I had a paper calendar mix-up, got Mitch Sylvestre on Saturday, and moved Peyman Askari to Sunday. He took it well. Said he’d been bored either way. That’s a good sport.
Peyman was born in Iran in 1983, three years into the war with Iraq. He tells the story of his mother having to call her brother to come and sit in the house so it was protected, while his father was out somewhere trying to make money, and bombs were landing outside. That’s the childhood. Then Canada — West Vancouver, a computer science degree, a PhD in computational neuroscience, a software company. Then 2020, and like a lot of us, he stopped being able to look away. He volunteered with the National Citizens Inquiry. He interviewed Canadians. And in 2025 he put his name on a ballot in West Vancouver–Sunshine Coast–Sea to Sky.
Now he’s in Florida, and he’s helping other people leave.
That’s the part that stuck with me. He’s not moving Bay Street bankers. He said doctors, lawyers, law enforcement — he’s helped an RCMP officer — border security, military. People who are supposed to believe in the thing. He said they’ve lost faith in the Canadian project. He mentioned Armed Forces veterans who told him that if the Americans ever came across, the flag’s going on the porch and they’re not fighting.
I don’t like hearing that. I’m not leaving. But I’m not going to pretend I’ve never looked at the exits either.
The most useful twenty minutes of the conversation was on the Clarity Act, and I’d encourage you to go back and listen to it twice. Here in Alberta we spent the winter gathering signatures. When it came time to turn them in, a judge stayed the whole thing — the count, the transfer of the information to the government, all of it — on the argument that First Nations needed to be consulted. On a citizen-led petition, which has nothing to do with the government.
Peyman’s read is blunt. Quebec’s question went to the Supreme Court, the Court kicked it to Parliament, and Parliament wrote itself a law about when and how a province may leave. His objection is that a federal statute cannot amend the constitution, and that’s effectively what was attempted. And then the duty to consult inside that act — his position is that it was never written as a permission slip you go and collect before you’re allowed to hold a vote. It’s a thing you settle on the way out the door.
Whatever you make of that, it is a real argument, and it’s one you almost never hear made in plain language on Canadian television. Which is roughly why this show exists.
He also thinks the attack on the movement was surgical rather than clumsy. First through the courts, because a judge’s signature gives the whole thing the appearance of legitimacy. Then through the calendar — because a question stacked on a question, with a referendum window that can’t sit too close to an election, pushes the whole exercise down the road. “They’re trying to tire you guys out,” he said. Cool your jets. Lose steam.
I told him I’ve noticed something else. The movement has deliberately avoided having a single leader, so there’s no one target. But look back at it and they’ve gone after whoever happened to be standing at the front on any given week. Jeff Rath. David Parker. Mitch Sylvestre. Whoever shows up next.
And Peyman put the flip side of it on us, which I think is fair. He brought up David Parker’s line about the school library — ask a room who’s worried about what their kids are reading and every hand goes up, ask who ran for trustee and the room goes quiet. Peyman’s version of that is harsher: a lot of people’s patriotism runs about a week, then they vote for half an hour, then they go back to Netflix, and the politician does the math and realizes nobody’s watching. Except that this time a lot of people did step up, and they got crushed for it. Lich. Barber. The Coutts Four. Helen Grus. He called them sacrificed, and said we weren’t organized enough to help them.
There’s more in the episode than I can fit here. Bill C-9 and what the Justice Centre is apparently already hearing about. What happened to British Columbia and why he insists it’s the Lower Mainland and not the province. A BC Nurses Union funding arrangement where the money went up and the ratio went the wrong way. His view of Mark Carney, which is unprintable in places and which I mostly share.
And the three things a Quebec delegation reportedly brought to Alberta when this started: line up governments abroad who’ll recognize you, get an agreement with the First Nations because otherwise it gets torpedoed, and make sure you have a Premier who’s actually on board. One of those three is looking shakier than the others heading into November.
October 19 is the referendum. November 6 is the UCP AGM. The last one was spicy. This one’s going to be spicier.
Before you go — August 29, 1:00 p.m., the Alberta Legislature in Edmonton. Alberta Prosperity Project campaign kickoff. Bring your kids, bring your dog, bring your neighbour. Pack the grounds.
And September 11 and 12, Capitalism & Morality here in Calgary at the Croatian Cultural Centre. VIP dinner Friday, full program Saturday. I’m on the media panel and I’ll have the merch table. Code UTN10 takes 10% off.
Thanks as always to NuggetStacker — gold and silver, 1-866-644-2121, free delivery anywhere in Canada on orders over $600. Not investment advice. But I own some.
Share this one out. Get some more eyeballs on it. We’ve got to wake them up.
Stay sane. Keep your head on a swivel. — Bruce
