Did I hit my head and wake up in July 2025?Standing in the back of the room with the rest of the media at the Conservative Party's annual Heritage Park Stampede BBQ on Saturday night, I genuinely started to wonder if I was having déjà vu.After country music singer Brett Kissel got the crowd geared up, Tory leader Pierre Poilievre took the stage to rapturous applause and began delivering his speech.Right from the get-go, it felt familiar: same venue, same speaker, many of the same faces from last year, and many of the same lines.Less than two minutes in, “Of course we have too many Conservative MPs here to name them all, but they are Canada’s affordability team,” Poilievre said.“Three priorities: affordability, affordability, affordability.”There it is.Throughout his roughly 24-minute speech, taxes, inflation, building projects, unlocking Canada’s resource potential, crime, and, of course, telling Mark Carney and the Liberals to “get out of the way” all made an appearance.And everyone clapped.The same slogans and the same campaign lines..On mass immigration — the real biggest issue of our time, not just in Canada but across the Western world — Poilievre said his party would “end the handouts to fake and phony refugees, and cut foreign aid because it’s time we took care of our own people.”He also spoke on toughening up our borders to keep “criminals, terrorists, and gangsters out.""We will deport the Bishnoi gangsters who've been harassing our people and extorting our businesses,” Poilievre stated.Great, most Canadians would support deporting foreign criminals.Now, what about temporary foreign workers and international students?What about population growth, housing demand, and the immense pressure that mass immigration has placed on wages, rental markets, and the country's already overstretched institutions — all while young Canadians are trying to build a life and find a job?In 2025, research from Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC) found that immigration was associated with approximately 11% of the increase in house prices and rental costs across Canadian municipalities between 2006 and 2021.It also found that immigrants occupy more housing units per capita than Canadian-born residents, while non-permanent residents rely heavily on rental housing. So much for affordability for Canadians.Also, the latest Statistics Canada data from May shows youth unemployment across the country was 13.4% among those aged 15 to 24..You want affordability?How about deportation, deportation, deportation?Just kidding, you’ll never hear that come out of a politician’s mouth in Canada.Too many ethnic votes to pander to these days.The big elephant in the room — Alberta independence — remained largely untouched, except near the end of the speech, where Poilievre reiterated his support for a united Canada, saying that he and the Conservatives would fight “to win back Albertans through hope, not by wagging our fingers or lecturing them, nor by threatening them.”Through hope?This was a speech delivered in Calgary in the middle of the biggest constitutional debate Alberta has experienced in decades — certainly in my lifetime.The October 19 referendum is on the horizon, and while current polls show it is unlikely that the independence movement, which wants to see Premier Danielle Smith’s government take the next steps in commencing the legal process to hold a binding provincial vote on whether or not Alberta should leave Canada, will win, the sentiment isn’t going away anytime soon.Thousands of Albertans are openly discussing independence in a way that was politically unthinkable only a few years ago.Poilievre's answer to the question amounted to little more than “trust me.”.Hope that Ottawa will listen, and if not, then maybe the next prime minister will be different. Maybe. Hope the next pipeline gets approved… Okay, with the recent deal Smith and Carney announced, we’ll have to wait and see on that one, but like many, I remain skeptical.Either way, at some point, people start demanding results.In the past few months since the independence movement has really taken off and politicians have really started standing up and taking notice, I’ve talked to a bunch of people on the pro-independence side. Each time I do, they ask the same question: What has the federalist side done to make us want to stay in Canada? What solutions have politicians like Poilievre, Smith, and former premier Jason Kenney put on the table? They never give any details on an actual, concrete plan. Negotiate a better deal with Ottawa? Take a look at the last 60 years and see how that’s gone.The independence movement emerged because many people have concluded that decades of politely requesting ‘a new deal’ have produced nothing but lectures and derision from the Laurentian elites.But it is funny how quickly the political establishment has changed its tune in recent weeks.Suddenly, everyone is flying into Calgary for a full-court press during Stampede.Conservatives and Liberals. Cabinet ministers and MPs. You name it.Everyone wants to talk about Canadian unity and wants to reassure Albertans that they're being heard, and the people will predictably be bombarded with more buzzwords and empty platitudes from all of them.However, actions speak louder than words, and more and more people are realizing Canada’s political class — Poilievre included — is all hat and no cattle.
