PETE HOEKSTRA AND THE STOLEN VOTER DATA ?!!

Hey there Midas Canada viewers, Resisters from all over.Let's talk about the guy that you really hate.Pete Hoekstra.Yeah, the ambassador.to Canada from the United States, who is continually gaslighting our nation, undermining us, insinuating threat.Just this past week, he was supposed to speak at this right -wing conference in Ottawa.

Of course, we called him out on that.At the very last minute, he suddenly had important meetings he had to go to.Well, what he was really having to deal with is that this is political interference.As an ambassador, you're not Your job is not to go and light the fires with the far -right separatists and the Daniel Smiths and Pierre Polyevs.But this is the Pete Hoekstra playbook.It was one he used in the Netherlands, was called out for political interference in supporting the far -right.

We see now that he's been talking, he's speaking all the time on right -wing networks in Canada, and he's now blaming Canada.for the trade crisis.He says it's our fault.We're being mean to the United States.And he says the Americans would love to work with us.Right.

Sure.We've got a really interesting conversation today.We're talking with Luke LeBron from Press Progress.You've got to check out Press Progress.Really, really, really important news service in Canada covering stuff the mainstream media isn't.And Luke has been looking into the connections between We've talked about all the stolen data of the electorate list in Alberta, how it was given to far right conspiracy groups who are using this app to be able to track.

Yes, if you're watching from Alberta, they're using this app to track you.And there's a connection to guess who?Pete Hoekstra.Yeah.So we're going to unpack all of that today.Luke, we are thrilled to have you on the show.

I just want to say we really, really admire your tenacity and your bravery in taking on So many of the dark forces right now is a journalist.So welcome.to Midas Canada.

Thanks so much for saying that, Charlie, and thanks for inviting me on.

Well, let's just talk about Piet Hoekstra.I mean, you know, we've had, ambassadors are tended to be guys who talk in the back rooms.They're very polite publicly.Not this guy.He's got a really bad track record going all the way back to anything to do with foreign affairs.He seems to have big black X's over everything he's ever said, including getting called out in the Netherlands for foreign interference.

Not the kind of guy you put in to deal with your number one trading partner, unless you hate your number one trading partner, which seems like the reality.What's your sense of Pete Hoekstra's role in Canada as the MAGA ambassador?

Yeah, good question.I mean, typically one would expect an ambassador to be diplomatic and Pete Hoekstra has been anything but for sure.I mean, you know, I mean, even going back to the early days of the, I guess now second Trump administration, where Trump was musing about annexing Canada and turning us into the 51st state, Hoekstra really has not done much to try to downplay that or try to smooth things out.Instead, he's sort of acted as a bit as an enforcer for for President Trump.I think the other thing, as you sort of intimated before, what really strikes me is the extent to which the ambassador has been making, I suppose you could describe it as inroads with the Canadian right or even Canadian far right.He has been appearing on a number of right -wing alternative media outlets.

He's been appearing with Canadian right -wing think tanks, most recently I guess there was the Canada strong and free network conference in Ottawa, which he, you know, sort of mysteriously pulled out of last minute.So, yeah, he has kind of been sort of an enforcer of sorts.for the Trump administration and, you know, has just been really aggressively pushing the Trump administration's, I guess, agenda as it relates to Canada.

Yeah, we see that he's just given this talk with, I think, a Canadian businessman, where he's saying that the United States is frustrated with Canada.He says, they want to work with us.I mean, this is when Donald Trump said that copper from Canada was a national security threat, which I think national security threats are like the level of terrorism, the arbitrary tariffs they've thrown at us.And he said that they really want to grow prosperity and protect freedoms, but they They're warning us about the decisions that we are making, which to me is very much shot across the bow time.We've just seen how they've walked on the U .S.

-Canada Defense Board that's been in place for 86 years.How do you think his role in sort of talking with far -right and right -wing Canadian sources is actually undermining the traditional relationship of Ambassador Washington and our Prime Minister in Ottawa?

I mean, hugely, I think that you would typically expect an ambassador, especially an American ambassador to Canada, to try to be, you know, developing, you know, economic ties and trade ties with Canada, you know, and trying to, you know, bring in more trade, I suppose, on the American side.But I mean, I think even just looking more broadly at Trump's foreign policy, I mean, you see in Europe, you know, Trump and the sort of wider MAGA movement has been quite obsessed with backing far -right parties, for example, in Europe.I mean, I think even, I mean, there was Elon Musk, for example, who went to Germany and he attended the Alternative for Deutschland's political conference.and was endorsing them before elections there.I mean, you've seen this, I mean, also in the UK and elsewhere.So yeah, it is really hard to figure out what exactly they're up to.

But I mean, it does seem to, it does seem to really underline the extent to which I guess, you know, not just Trump, but the wider MAGA movement is a transnational movement.And one in which I guess, to them, borders don't really seem to matter.They seem to be trying to actively build up sort of right wing, ideologically sympathetic you know, political actors, parties, and so forth in various countries around the world.And to what end, it's not really clear to me.

Well, I think I'm really glad you raised the issue of the FD in Germany.We have lots of viewers in Europe who are very concerned and we saw JD Vance undermining the Democratic movements in Germany, interference in Romania, interference, of course, with Nigel Farage.But in Canada, it seems to be focused on driving the separatist agenda.And we've been getting these very disturbing stories of the Alberta separatist crew who are quite the motley lot.I mean, this is very much like Donbass.You don't need credible people to break up a country when you're dealing with a gangster regime.

But that they were high -level meetings in Washington.They've talked about a $500 million slush fund.Is it possible to believe that they had these meetings in Washington without Pete Hoekstra or the Canadian or the U .S.Embassy in Canada not being aware that these connections were being made between far right Alberta separatists and the White House?

Well, I mean, the U .S.State Department has actually confirmed that these meetings happened and that there were multiple meetings.So, yeah, I mean, it seems pretty implausible to think that they wouldn't have been aware of that.

I mean, I find that just shocking, you know.I mean, what we're talking about is treason.People who go to a foreign country and ask for a slush fund and money to break up our nation, and the State Department says, yeah, we met with them.I mean, as if they see Canada as a banana republic.So let's go to, speaking of banana republic, let's talk about what happened when the private information of three million Albertans was doxxed.put online.

We've seen video footage of these extremist groups talking about using it as a searchable database to identify individual people in Alberta.And you've done a piece on the connection between the app that they're using and the American ambassador.So walk us into this rabbit hole.

Sure.Yeah.So where to begin, I mean, I guess some of your viewers might be aware already of, you know, the scandal in Alberta involving the private information of over 3 million, sorry, nearly 3 million voters.that was basically made accessible to separatist activists through this app.A lot of the news coverage that I had heard over, I guess, the last, this has been sort of playing out for the last two or three weeks in Alberta, but a lot of the news coverage that I heard was sort of focusing more on the data set itself, which to be clear is pretty significant because, you know, Elections Alberta alleges that this is data from the official list of electors and if you If you misuse that data, that could involve criminal, you know, like going to prison basically for a year or like massive fines.So it's a pretty serious offense to do that.

But what hasn't really gotten a lot of attention was the app itself.So we did, as you mentioned, see this one video where David Parker, the leader of the Centurion Project, the Centurion Project is the Alberta separatist group.that was, you know, running this app.So they were holding these training sessions over Zoom, basically.And in one of these Zoom training sessions, for example, they were showing how you could find Jason Kenney, the former premier of Alberta's home address, just by typing in his name and so forth.So I thought it was interesting that there wasn't really a lot of attention on the app itself.

And so I started to pull on some threads as an investigative journalism does.And yeah, no, I immediately just sort of started finding some really interesting things.So I guess first of all, David Parker, again, who's the leader of the Centurion Project.So he has done podcasts where he's sort of talked at length about this app and its connections to some people in Michigan, some Republican operatives in Michigan.I guess before I go further, maybe I'll just explain what the app actually is.So basically, it's actually pretty.

Yeah, it's pretty simple.So I mean, it's basically a database.You just type in anyone's name and you can find their contact information.The way this app works, or I guess the theory behind it is they ask people to sign up for the app and then identify 10 friends, 10 family members, coworkers, neighbors, people at your church or whatever.People who you think are politically aligned with you, but might not be the type of people who show up to vote reliably.And so this was developed by a group called 10X Votes, which is, as I mentioned, based in Michigan.

During the 2024 US presidential election, they actually used this app.The people who made it, I mean, they claim that their app helped to basically sway the outcome of the vote and deliver Michigan's 15 electoral college votes to Donald Trump.you know, I don't know if that's true or not, but that's what they say.And basically, the idea behind theis that you identify people in your own personal networks, and then you basically pressure them into voting.And so this is a way to get out the vote and get out people who you think are people who you think are on your side, but might not actually get out to vote unless they get an extra push.

So basically, in these podcasts, David Parker of the Centurion Project, he basically talks about how he encountered this group, and he was really inspired by it.And he wanted to bring that technology and that methodology to Alberta to help with basically pushing for a referendum on Alberta independence.So that's kind of the backstory behind the app.And as I mentioned, You know, as I kind of pulled on these threads, I realized that there are quite a few connections to, for example, wealthy Republicans in Michigan to some MAGA influencers and Pete Hoekstra, the US ambassador to Canada.

So, now Pete Hoekstra, I mean, he was raving about this app.Now, I haven't really heard this app being used much outside of Michigan.But, you know, remember, 10 -time votes, Hoekstra told the rally in Warren, Michigan.It's an app that you can download in real time, up -to -date data.It will tell you whether your friends and family have voted or not.It's called 10 -times vote, he repeated again.

You need to go out and get a few more folks to the folks so that to the polls so we can swamp the vote.So we I mean, it's like right now we have two points that don't necessarily connect, but we have Hoekstra.tied to an app that he's been promoting and promoting and promoting.We have the separatist group that's undermining Canada, who just happened to be using a Michigan -based app with the same intention, which is about being able to identify people, getting them to vote, influencing the outcome of a referendum that could destroy our country.Do we know if there's any connection at all, or is this just, wow, what a strange coincidence between Pete Hoekstra and the Alberta separatists, both tied in on the same Michigan app?

Yeah, I mean, so I should say at the outset, so I actually asked the U .S.Embassy about this connection, and Ambassador Hoekstra's official position is that he knew nothing of the Alberta separatist group using this app.That being said, I mean, you just look at all the different connections and it is, you know, a pretty wild series of coincidences here, right?I mean, just to be clear, like there are quite a few apps, there are quite a few, you know, digital platforms that are used by political campaigns in Canada, in the US, across the world.This isn't really one of them.

I mean, this is a very, very obscure app that only exists in Michigan.Pete Hoekstra was like the loudest public backer of this app.As you mentioned, you know, he repeatedly at multiple Trump rallies during the 2024 U .S.presidential election was pleading with the audience to download this app and to start using it.You know, as I get into in my article, I mean, he's We can place them at this VIP.

VIP suite at a Tucker Carlson event with Kid Rock.And, you know, so it's him in the in the VIP suite with the representative from this app, very small, obscure app, kind of kind of strange, just all these connections.You know, in fairness, at the time, Hoekstra was the he was the chair of the Michigan GOP.So, you know, according to him, you know, in his role as the chair of the Michigan GOP, it was his you know, it was his responsibility to promote these kinds of things.Fair enough, but it is very strange that that app would then somehow end up in the hands of, you know, Albert a separatist after he's become theambassador to Canada, right?

And then if you start looking into the actual individuals who are involved in this app who actually developed the app.So there's two guys, I won't get into all the weeds about who they are and all that sort of stuff.But I mean, I will just say that the two guys who are running this app are Michigan Republican political operatives.They have like family ties to some pretty wealthy people.The main guy, I mean, his father actually donated to Hoekstra when he was a congressperson about 10 or 15 years ago.So there's the other guy there.

He's actually family.He has a family connection with Eric Prince of Blackwater and Betsy DeVos.Trump's former former education secretary.There's photos of them at like, you know, Mar -a -Lago, and they're attending these Turning Point USA fundraising galas.There's a number of, you know, photos of them with some pretty influential kind of MAGA influencer type people.I mean, Alex Jones of Infowars also endorsed this app.

So you can just go through the whole list of things.It is very, very odd.The usual suspects.Usual suspects the Omega suspects.

Yeah.Yeah.

Yeah, the one other thing too I'll just say quickly is that one of the guys who runs this app was actually involved in this Kind of like a political pressure group in Michigan that was devoted to opposing the construction of an EV battery plant for some reason so, you know, there's a lot of a lot of A lot of connections between Hoekstra and these people.I mean, it doesn't necessarily indicate that Hoekstra knew about this or that he's, you know, pulling all the strings, but you look at the networks that are involved here and it is very strange that, you know, it is very strange and quite a coincidence.that, you know, the people in Alberta are suddenly using this technology.

Yeah, this is this is really fascinating.So yeah, of course, what we're saying, my viewers is that, you know, this is all very strange.It's all super coincidental, right?But how are we going to find out?Are we going to trust elections Alberta?to investigate this or the Alberta Privacy Commissioner.

I've been pushing, and I will continue to advise Albertans, call on the Federal Privacy Commissioner.He may say he doesn't have jurisdiction, but they have the tools to find out who stole your data and who has your data, because we need to know this database.Is it being run out of Michigan?Is it being run out of Mar -a -Lago?I mean, is it being run out of St. Petersburg right now?But the other thing, and Luke, I want to get your opinion on this, is that we've been calling for, we need a foreign interference inquiry to find out, you know, about these offers of money, about who's involved, and if it goes all the way to the that giant Darth Vader building off Sussex Street in Ottawa called the American Embassy, then we need to know.

We need to know who's involved.And Canadians are going into this blind, Albertans are going into this blind, but the other side are not blind at all.And I would just also say, talk to Thomas Lukasik with the Forever Canadian campaign.They don't have access to a database.They don't have access to people's information.But the people who want to break up our country, they have all the information.

So what do you think about the need for a foreign interference investigation into US interference in our country?

Yeah, well, I mean, the thing that that makes me think about is how, I mean, in Canada, we did have a foreign interference inquiry a few years ago.But it mainly looked at China.It did look at India.It looked at Iran.Yeah, Iran.you know, you know, so Russian, all that sort of stuff.

But it didn't look at the US and it is kind of interesting.You know, even if it's not, you know, some sort of like CIA backed, you know, covert operation.I mean, clearly, we have a lot of, you know, independent US political operatives that are you know, in trying to influence politics north of the border in Canada, you have these sort of influencers who are also similarly doing that kind of stuff.So yeah, I mean, it really does beg a lot of a lot of questions.And I do think that, you know, it makes me think to myself, like, if this were the Russian ambassador, if this were the Chinese ambassador, if we're the, you know, Iranian ambassador, and you know, it just so happened that all these you know, all these people surrounding the ambassador were involved in an app that was being used by, let's say, a New Brunswick secessionist group.You know, what would people say?

I mean, it would look very fishy and certainly people would want more answers than they're getting right now.

Luke, I really thank you for coming on, folks.Pressprogress .ca, right?That's right.How they can support you.You guys are frontline, great journalism, fearless, absolutely fearless, and suffering all kinds of intimidation constantly for being fearless.

So we really thank you for coming on.We hope we can have you on again, because what you're bringing to people really does matter.So I just want to thank you so much for the work that you have been doing.

For sure.And thanks so much for saying that, Charlie.Anytime.I'm happy to be on anytime.

All right, folks, you know the rules.We've got to keep kicking in the darkness until it bleeds daylight.And it is starting to bleed daylight, because we are starting to see through the cracks in that ugly MAGA machine.So thank you, merci, and miigwech.

Well, that's you.