Gerald Butts

speaker

1,669 appearances 11 recordings 1 series first heard Apr 2026 last heard 15 Sep

Gerald Butts’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 11 in all, peaking in Aug 2026 with 3.

Appearances

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The Bridge with Peter Mansbridge · Moore Butts Conversation Encore - Is Ottawa Ready For A Possible Two Front Referendum Battle? · 12 Aug 2026 podcast

And it's it's perfectly foreseeable for me that Trump and MAGA America would be active participants in looking to see Canada be broken up from the inside out.

Jerry.

So how do you deal with this dual threat?

Well, the most important thing, and I think the prime minister won't surprise you to hear me say this, Peter, but I think the prime minister is doing a fine job of it, is to consistently articulate the positive case for the country.

And I said this in the piece last year that I thought one of the reasons...

I was worried about that prospect this time last year was the negativity that our politics seemed to have gotten steeped in, that both the then prime minister and the leader of the opposition, for their own political reasons, found it impossible or political constraints, found it impossible to give a full-throated defense of the country.

And

I don't think Prime Minister Carney is going to let himself get put in that position.

So I think most importantly, it's that.

I would also say, I mean, let's not overstate how many Albertans want to leave Canada or how many Quebecers want to leave Canada.

My experience throughout my life in politics was that this is kind of a...

You know, irresponsible politicians like to play this card to get what they want in the short term and beggar the long term interests of the country.

And I am definitely more of a hard ass on separatism than a lot of people in public life and in the party.

I think, of course, the big thing that has changed is.

between from a canadian legal perspective between 1995 and now is the advent of the clarity act which requires a clear question i mean my view is that that's um cold comfort because i'm not sure that we would ever end up if there were a serious threat to secede from the country i'm not sure they would let the clarity act and it's

parameters guide their question designed and then we might have end up having a referendum about whether or not the question is fair and that could end up in a lousy place so i you know there's no substitute i say this in the piece peter there's no substitute for the vast reserve of goodwill that fellow canadians feel for one another

And ultimately, that's the ballast we have whenever irresponsible politicians of whatever political persuasion want to pull at the fabric of the country.

And I have a lot of faith that people will stand up to any serious attempt to do that wherever it may happen.

But I also think it's important for us to realize that, you know, once the puck gets dropped in that hockey game,

Very strange things can happen.

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