SHEILA GUNN REID | Cory Morgan on Calgary's $87B climate plan and the CPC leadership race
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Summary
In this episode of The Gunn Show, host Sheila Gunn-Reed talks to a bit of an expert on Calgary politics and politics in general. She talks to Corey Morgan about the Western Standard Federal Conservative debate, and why he thinks it was a great idea.
Transcript
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City of Calgary's new climate scheme is going to cost over 80 billion dollars and Justin Trudeau
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had a whistle-stop tour of the Calgary Stampede and if you got all your news from the mainstream
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media it went well. It did not. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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Calgary remains one of the most conservative places in the entire country but you would never
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know it if you paid careful attention to municipal politics there. The new mayor, a far left-wing
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I guess I might call her a bit of an extremist as far as her politics go, G.O.D. Gondick
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has recently signed on to a climate scheme that's in excess of 80 billion dollars. They're really
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giving the city of Ottawa a run for their money there but do the people really want to pay for
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this nonsensical virtue signaling? And then Justin Trudeau, he was recently in Calgary for the Stampede
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as politicians tend to do. They go to pancake breakfast and they glad hand and they politic
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and they campaigned there and the mainstream media said that it was just a love-in for Justin Trudeau.
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He was beloved by the public and the people but the lie detector test determined that was not true.
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There's so much to talk about in Calgary and with regard to the Conservative Party leadership race
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and then the race to replace Premier Jason Kenney here in Alberta as the leader of the United Conservative
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Party. And so I thought I would call a bit of an expert on Calgary politics and politics in general.
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So joining me tonight in an interview we recorded earlier in the day is my friend Corey Morgan.
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He's a columnist at Western Standard Online and the host of Triggered. Take a listen.
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Joining me from the Western Standard offices in Calgary is my friend Corey Morgan. Corey thanks for
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agreeing to come on the show. I know you're a very busy guy. Before we get into you know the the
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politics of well everything right now it's just nothing but leadership races. I wanted to talk a
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little bit about the Western Standard Federal Conservative debate. I think it was great in
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spite of itself and I don't mean that you know critically. I mean you know it was cancelled because
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he didn't have Pierre Polyev coming and then Lesley Lewis didn't come and then Patrick Brown was
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sneaky Patrick and he was unceremoniously booted from the race. But I think in spite of all of that
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with Derek pivoting to a fireside chat I think it went off great and I learned things about Jean
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Charest's position that left me saying well you know what he's a red Tory but he's right on that.
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What was the feedback that Western Standard got on the debate? Yeah that was sort of a lot of it. It
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was hard for the people who'd signed up because we were constantly changing the format but when you're
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working with something fluid you know what can you do? It was a brilliant idea initially you know we
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know they're all going to be in Calgary for Stampede. Heck we can get them all in one spot and do a
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debate but then when Polyev was unavailable we moved it by a day and that made it yeah as you said
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Lesley couldn't make it and then with Brown being dumped we had to change it because the debate with
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just three out of five candidates would have been pretty dull. So it was that was changed basically
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that morning into a fireside chat. We had no idea how well received it would be but as you said I think
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being able to get some extended answers unpressured from three of those candidates was good and people
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also like the the informal nature of it you know there was only a couple of hundred people in the
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room you could actually join them for cocktails afterwards it was a different sort of event so as
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you said it was successful despite itself and we learned a lot. Well and I liked the fact that it was
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Western focused so often even when these things are held in Edmonton or Calgary it feels like a space
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alien is asking the questions and I guess in you know in the case of Edmonton that may or may not
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be true but these were questions that I think Westerners cared about and we don't often get
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that so I really appreciate the Western standard for bringing forward those Western concerns because
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you know they pay a lot of lip service the candidates to Western issues but a lot of times
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it seems surface and talking points and I think Derek did a good job of drilling down on what they
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really think about those things. Yeah we're unapologetically Western around here and that
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was the goal I mean if we didn't have that we would be just like any other I guess you know interviewer
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debate we stick to our what our audience wanted to hear about and it came out well. Now I wanted to
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ask you about Pierre Polyev skipping the debate but he's been skipping these things he's skipping scrums
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all over the place and I'm having a difficult time reconciling the fact that he will go and speak
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to Jordan Peterson about the value of independent media and how he's going to defund the CBC but when
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he has the opportunity to speak directly to independent media and the people who watch independent
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media and consume independent media there's just tumbleweeds blowing past where he's normally
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standing. I get why he's doing it he's the front runner and it's too risky I probably according to
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his hangers-on but I I want to see where the rubber meets the road and I'm just not seeing it right now.
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Yeah it's been frustrating and it's definitely strategic you know when you're the perceived
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front runner then it's sort of like nobody moves nobody gets hurt you know or the rag in the pot
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try and get to the end is the word you know you won't gain any support by going to these events
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but you could step on your tongue and lose a bunch of support if you did something wrong.
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He did sit down with me actually the other day for an interview but and it was good but again it was
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very canned and cagey it wasn't the pair of Polyev we know from parliament who's throwing out those
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great one-liners and shots it was all very careful answers and and it's frustrating it's the campaign
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Polyev I guess you could say and it leaves people wondering what he would be like I guess after the
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leadership comes in I mean he's still very popular and I think he's still got all that Pierre Polyev in
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him but he's he's being very restrained in the later part of this campaign. Yeah it's weird because
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if the concern is that Pierre Polyev is going to step on his tongue I've never seen it happen
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never once seen it happen so why would it start now I think these are opportunities for him to shine
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and show people that he's doing things differently but he keeps just doing everything the same.
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Yeah and and I think it's advice probably from those around him you get the Ottawa staffer crowd
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on the go and eventually they they knock you down I mean the rhetoric's changing you can tell with
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the media used to be looking at him as a curiosity but letting him go and of course it's already
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shifting to the old tried and true well he's clearly a dog whistling to the racists or the extremists or
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the insurrectionists or whatnot and I guess they're trying to insulate themselves from that but it won't
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work they're going to attack him with that no matter what you do. Yeah that's the thing that's
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that's the thing you're never going to turn those enemies into friends and I'm sure his you know his
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Venezuelan wife will be surprised to find out that he's a white supremacist and probably his little
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children will be disappointed too yeah. Yeah um now I wanted to talk to you um you know you're in the
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heart of Stampede uh Trudeau was in town the other day for Stampede and if you got all your news from the
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mainstream media it was just an absolute love fest I think one of the headlines was that he was mobbed
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uh throngs of supporters which is an overused phrase you see in the mainstream media but that's
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fake news why don't you break that down for us? Yeah it was laughable I mean I it's as I said the
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other day too I I don't knock the liberals for doing it that way look you don't want to have the prime
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minister show up and be surrounded by a thousand angry screaming Calgarians it just doesn't make for
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good optics so they snuck him in basically with no warning the only person who knew was their lone
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member of parliament out here George Shahal and one or maybe two hand-picked media members who they
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knew would be friendly were tipped off to show up and cover this thing and then that one from the
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Canadian press put out that article you know with hey yeah Trudeau mobbed by adoring supporters or
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whatever it was and the part that was really stomach-turning though was just watching every major
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news outlet in Canada just cut and paste that story and stick it in there I mean if you even
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looked at the picture closely you could see that mob outside of that 30 people it was an empty parking
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lot like this was that staged event as you said it was it was fake news and I just love seeing the
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the mainstream media embarrass itself keep working on it guys we're here to replace you
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well that's the thing like they they really don't seem to like you and me the mainstream media
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but I will never go away if you don't start doing your job they're giving us the the void to fill so
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so carry on guys yeah I do appreciate the job security um and it's it's funny because the liberals
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really every time they come into town they just throw everything they've got at old uh George the
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porch pirate and and it's odd because you think they would be distancing themselves from him but not at
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no well he's the only one they got they they've got to try and polish that individual and uh
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you know it's the it's a leak a liberal toehold in Calgary so even if he's got such an embarrassing
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history and unfortunately voters and news watchers are myopic you don't hear about that anymore this
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was a a liberal incumbent who got charged you know for stealing mail this is not a minor thing
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and uh it's been forgotten by most outside of Calgary election meddling that's what it would be
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if a conservative did it it would be you know they would be questioning the integrity of the
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electoral process if a conservative looked wrong at a liberal lit drop but this guy could snatch it
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from somebody's mailbox get caught on a ring video doorbell and they're like you know who knows it happens
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yeah frustrating but now um i also wanted to ask you um jason kenny did he's doing a very um
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i don't know i want to say it's smarmy but in a good way i don't know how i don't know what the word
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is um he's stealing labor day from the unions and i couldn't be happier about it why don't you break
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that down for us yeah so jason kenny did the big announcement at the premier's stampede breakfast
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the other day that september 1st will always be alberta day and it's a day to uh celebrate alberta
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just its greatness and its entrance of into confederation which some people might be mixed
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on but of course yeah that lands right smack pretty much where labor day is going to be all the time
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i mean second only to mayday for our local uh socialists to celebrate organized labor and and
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communism uh so uh yeah i think it was definitely uh on the way out the door a finger in the eye to
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alberta's left uh you know a little bit of legacy premier kenny can leave behind is this this
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celebration of alberta on the day when we're all supposed to be singing solidarity forever so uh
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i think it was a beautiful move on premier kenny's part me too uh i've been a kenny a kenny skeptic and
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a kenny critic from time to time but this is one of his better better trollings that he's done and i
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couldn't be happier about it um i wanted to ask you about calgary's climate plan because these you
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know when people people told me to settle down when calgary declared a climate emergency but these
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things flow from each other first you call you declare climate emergency and then you introduce
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the multi-billion dollar climate plan to address it um and this these sort of things are happening
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in cities all across the country ottawa did the same thing i think ottawa's is 80 billion
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how are the citizens of ottawa going to come up with 80 billion i guess in the same way that the
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citizens of calgary are going to come up with a similar number yeah it's ludicrous and again it
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shows the legacy media dropping the ball this should be making news across the country a civic
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government a municipal government has come up with a plan that will cost 175 000 a household when you
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break it down i mean i mean it's insane this should be making headlines they should be questioning the
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mayor they should be questioning council how do you feel we're going to accomplish these crazy proposed
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changes when we're already hearing the recession word i mean we can't take more pressure right now
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but the crickets the silence oh look at that they've embraced a climate plan yeah an 87 billion with a b
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for one city i think it's bigger than the federal plan right now and i mean it's all the people say
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oh it's spread out over 28 years oh good that's slow death it's that works out to 3 000 per taxpayer
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every year for 28 years and you know they're going to go beyond the budget yet again it's not making
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waves it's it's astounding well and it jody gondick your mayor she's acting as a scarecrow for
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investment the oil patch is just starting to recover you might see some people move into the
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downtown core you guys are sort of downtown your offices um you know how vacant things are down
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there landlords are throwing things at you to get you to move into a building and she's not making it
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any better when you see you know as a oil patch company the opportunity to move to a city where they
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have this over 80 billion dollar climate policy or you could just go to midland texas where taxes are
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low and they want you there i i don't know how the downtown ever recovers from her it's not going to
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and it just got reported the other day we broke a new record of uh vacancy down here i mean the oil's
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been back for a bit we're up at 34 official vacancy now that's just what is actually open and vacant
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there's a lot of empty space all over in these buildings it's just in long-term leases so these
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companies can't get out of it yet but they're not coming back and yeah gondick well you've had almost a
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year to work on this ninchy you've had years to work on this is 2015 you've poured 100 million
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into a slush fund with a calgary economic development to try bring in investment and
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it's failing we've we've got a ghost town and one of the most major uh you know urban centers in north
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america and uh they're oblivious they're just oblivious if you're going to keep scaring away
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investment as you said who's going to move there when you've got this 87 billion plan hanging over
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your head when you've got a city council that plans on punishing businesses and households for
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for existing and using power i i got a feeling that that 33 percent that we're sitting at right
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now it's just the tip of the iceberg well yeah and the true uh the true people who will benefit
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from it are likely places like airdrie and okotoks oh yeah the growth in uh the county you know
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county of rocky view just outside of calgary has been fantastic uh you know new amazon centers and
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shopping malls and uh light manufacturing they're sitting up all around the border of the city and it
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drives gondek bananas it used to when she was a counselor but what do you guys expect you know
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you can't cork that bottle and likewise for households people are are fleeing outside of the
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cities into the bedroom communities they're exacerbating the problem they keep saying they
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want high density they want everybody to live downtown yet they're driving everybody out of it
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but they just don't get it they won't accept their ideologues so you can't reason with them well and
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you would think that they people would sort of be over this you know this drive for us to be
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high density we're one of the most sparsely populated countries on the face of the earth
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by the way there's a lot of open space around calgary yeah i get the the pressure not to use up
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arable farmland but that's not what that's not what's motivating these sort of policies they want
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everybody stacked on top of each other in these 600 square foot coffins and you would think you just
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came through covid where everybody was locked in their homes maybe you would want to make a home
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a place that you would have a little bit more room for the next time china tries to kill everybody
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well yeah and that's part of uh part of what they don't understand or won't understand too and yeah
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there will probably be a next time there's always a next time yeah people's outlooks have changed they
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don't there's the other thing with calgary's transit is down uh 40 percent in in return ridership
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since the beginning of the pandemic but that's because they've let it be overrun with with junkies
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and and garbage uh as well on top of that people's attitudes have changed there's no appetite to get
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jammed onto a public transit unit squeeze yourself into a packed elevator work yourself up to a big busy
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bustling office with public you know shared washrooms people have learned that if it's possible to work
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from home they're going to do it and if they're going to work from home they don't want to be as you said
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in a 600 square foot coffin they want to be in the suburbs or even a bedroom community where they got a
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yard and fresh air and a little bit of space and the city council can't accept that but i mean it
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doesn't matter whether they can accept it or not the city is is bleeding yeah it's like they don't
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understand human nature whatsoever and they don't understand that they just spent two years telling
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everybody to stay far apart from each other and then they want you to literally be warehoused
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in these little like i said 600 square foot coffins now um i wanted to ask you about the ucp
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leadership race um you guys are watching it really closely we are too over here at rebel news who do
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you think the front runner is is it gene is it daniel smith i i'm not seeing a lot of polling yet
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there hasn't been a lot there was one recently and i think it showed daniel with a slight lead and
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paves farther back and i think that's somewhat accurate i'm just going by field because there
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hasn't been a lot of polling i don't think brian gene is actually really a strong contender at this
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point and people sort of hung around him because they disliked kenny so much they wanted gene to
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help knock him down but now that kenny's stepping aside they're like well we don't really like you
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that much either there seemed to be other options than at the time there it was just gene and we'll
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see it's still relatively early in the campaign i mean danielle's hit the ground running i think part
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of the strategy is because while her biggest handicap of course was her floor crossing and her history
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there and as long as she's constantly putting out releases and forcing discussion on things such as
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you know autonomy and and sovereignty acts uh there isn't time to question her on her past things she's
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leading the news cycle and it's pulling people uh to her and she's standing out uh taves on the other
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hand for people who do want a feeling of stability uh he's the establishment candidate there's no doubt
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about it and that's a significant number of people who don't want to rock the boat they just want
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what they feel to be uh secure steady government so i think it's a race between those two at this
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point and as much as there's a very broad field of other contenders they're still in an also ran
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status you're just not hearing anything about them yeah i think the beauty of daniel smith's campaign is
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she's leading with her chin you know she doesn't do what we see a lot of politicians do when they have
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a past scandal and they say well i've already addressed that you know i've already answered that
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question she never says that she takes all these questions about her past and continues to answer
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them and also apologize she keeps admitting she was wrong and i think she's reading the room well
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in that she's looking at the things jason that probably cost jason kennedy the leadership probably
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knocked about 15 off and it that's the civil liberties the the people who care about civil liberties
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couldn't bring themselves just to uh vote for um to vote to keep them on the job she's looking at that
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and saying okay that was a major issue for people it's going to be a major issue for me yeah and she's
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she's i guess you know gathering certain core groups of supporters and very motivated ones like
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the people with the civil liberties over the pandemic lockdowns as well with people who were uh you know
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western alienated individuals whether they're looking for full independence or at least just chafing
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under confederation and i think it's very smart because when it comes to a leader a membership
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based race these are people who will buy memberships and they will come out to vote which is critical
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as much as taves is is targeting the people who want steady as she goes those are also people who
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aren't terribly angry or upset and it's going to be really hard to get them out to take the time
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and and cast that ballot the worry is will that translate into a winnable base of support if she becomes
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the leader of the party because then the general election is coming and that gives a whole lot of
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wedges for notley to start attacking and and she will and as much you know you can't underestimate
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that ndp we certainly learned that lesson so hopefully she doesn't come into a winning the
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battle and losing the war scenario but we'll see as things unfold yeah i think also taves has uh
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i guess in some circles the stigma of being one of jason kenney's right-hand men and jason kenney is
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unlike by a lot of the party membership but also the mainstream media yeah but taves of all the
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cabinet senior cabinet members he seems to have gathered the least of it i mean he was also one
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of the ones sitting on the sky palace but nobody remembers that they remember jason nixon they
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remember you know the the other cabinet but taves always kind of slides under the radar i mean he's a
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smart guy he's a solid guy he's got no personal scandal attached to him but he's dull as dishwater he's
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boring but that's an advantage sometimes steven harper spent spent 10 years in government being
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boring yeah exactly so so i mean you can't call it a full uh disadvantage it depends i mean justin
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trudeau is a lot of flash and fireworks or he was and look what that got us so uh you know you taves
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is a it's a serious campaign absolutely and i he's definitely going to be tied to the kenney
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administration but he's he's i guess of all the senior members of it he was the best place to
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break free from that yeah yeah yeah he doesn't have the full kenny stink um now cory i know that you
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you've got to get going and so do i but how do people find the work of the western standard and
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more importantly uh throw some support behind the western standard to keep independent journalism going
00:22:37.000
uh it's much appreciated yeah we're at westernstandard.news and we're subscribed
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subscription based just like you guys at rebel um which keeps us accountable to the viewers and
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readers rather than the government like the other ones so just head out to westernstandard.news check
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out what we've got and a person can take out a trial subscription and see if we're worth following
00:22:55.700
up on i believe you are thanks cory have a great day we'll talk again very very soon you bet thanks
00:23:03.160
well this is the portion of the show wherein we actually welcome your viewer feedback unlike the
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cbc and the mainstream media who just want your money but they don't want to hear from you and
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they close their comment section we leave our comment section wide open including our email inboxes
00:23:24.060
if you want to send me an email directly to be read on the show it's really easy sheila at rebelnews.com
00:23:29.920
just put gun show letters in the subject line so i know that it is viewer feedback but also let me
00:23:36.240
encourage you to leave comments on our rumble videos or on youtube because i do go looking
00:23:43.280
through those comment sections too sometimes for viewer feedback but this week it's from the email
00:23:49.180
and it's from sandy who writes to me hi sheila i wanted to express our tremendous appreciation
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for all you and the rebel news gang provides in the way of alternate journalism from the mainstream
00:24:01.020
nonsense we've been subjected to as many canadians i was not cognizant of how far the media has swung
00:24:07.120
to misinformation until the events of february 18th to 20th in ottawa especially after having enjoyed
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the incredible atmosphere with the truckers convoy on february 5th and 12th witnessing the unbelievable
00:24:19.180
actions that occurred and the scandals and hypocrisy from the government and all is nothing short of
00:24:23.600
astonishing and criminal what has happened to canada we are in the midst of moving and very
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busy but i listened to much of rebel news programming and wanted to let you know to please keep up the
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great work thank you again sandy and steve cree you know sandy and steve i i don't think you're alone
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in your sudden epiphany about just how bad the mainstream media really is i think people know that
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the mainstream media was bad but a lot of people saw it firsthand they saw the lies unfolding around
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them a lot of people had visited the convoy in ottawa or visited other smaller convoys and demonstrations
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in their own city and they were able to see for themselves what the media was showing them were lies
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and that's why it's so important that our rebel news team was there on the ground to bring you the
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other side of the story and a lot of the times their work was just simply live streaming the things that
00:25:22.720
they saw in front of them so that an accurate record was put down contrary to the mainstream media's
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pro justin trudeau narrative well everybody that's the show for tonight thank you so much for tuning in
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i'll see everybody back here in the same time and in the same place next week and remember don't let
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the government tell you that you've had too much to think
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the government tell you that you've had too much to think about it and it's the same thing that you've had too much to think about it