WestJet shuts down most flights to the ‘Atlantic Bubble,’ woke CEO won't blame travel bans
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Summary
WestJet announces it s shutting down most of its Atlantic flights, but who s to blame? Ezra Levenkamp explains why, and why now. Plus, a new poll that shows Americans are twice as worried about the Ebola virus as they are about their political party.
Transcript
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Hello, my Rebels. Today, WestJet announced that they're basically stopping to serve
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all of Canada, east of Montreal. It's very sad, but completely predictable.
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The WestJet CEO put up a five and a half minute video explaining why, but did he really explain
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why? I think he was missing one key word in his blame storm. I'll show that to you in a minute,
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but first let me invite you to become a Rebel News Plus subscriber. Go to rebelnews.com,
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click subscribe. It's only $8 a month, $80 for the whole year, and my invitation to you is become
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a Rebel News Plus subscriber, get the video version of this podcast, and help the Rebels stay strong.
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We really rely on that $8 a month because we're not at the trough with the other media getting
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the Trudeau bailouts. We're independent. All right, here's today's podcast.
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Tonight, WestJet announces it's shutting down most of its Atlantic flights, but who does it blame?
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It's October 14th, and this is the Ezra LeVant Show.
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Why should others go to jail when you're a biggest carbon consumer I know?
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There's 8,500 customers here, and you won't give them an answer.
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The only thing I have to say to the government, the wire publishing, is because it's my bloody
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You know, my last big flight, I flew to London, England a couple of days before the lockdown
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came in. This is the departure area in Toronto's Pearson Airport. I took this photo as I was
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flying out. I was pretty much there all by myself. And this is Heathrow Airport in London. When I
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landed, normally one of the busiest airports in the world, it was a total ghost town. This is the
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arrivals area. There's normally hundreds of people there. That was March 12th, if I recall, with just
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days later, jurisdictions across the West would invoke their emergency powers laws and lock down
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and quarantine things. It hadn't happened yet the day I was traveling. There were no rules yet about
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the pandemic. People were just getting nervous. That's what kept them away. Authorities said two
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weeks to flatten the curve, and they were actually pretty much right. The pandemic peaked exactly a month
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after my last flight to Heathrow. Mid-April is when it peaked in most parts of Canada.
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And it has been trailing downwards ever since. Don't believe the BS about cases. A case is not
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someone being sick. It's not someone with symptoms at all, necessarily. It's just a case. And as Ontario's
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deputy public health officer says, about half the cases are just false positives, as in the test got
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it wrong. You know, I think a lot of people think that testing is going to really solve the whole
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problem. And it isn't. It's one component of a response. If you test somebody today,
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you only know if they're infected today. And in fact, if you're testing in a population that doesn't
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have very much COVID, you'll get false positives almost half the time. Yeah, so my point is,
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people were genuinely scared about the virus in March. And so on their own, as the personal photos
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I just showed you prove, people just stopped flying. Because we all had no clue what was coming,
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how bad it would get, how the virus was even transmitted, who was vulnerable. So people just
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stopped going places. I was on a plane in Canada a few months ago, and it was like being on a private
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jet, not a sole on the airline. But what's it like now? Is the virus still a risk? Are people
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choosing not to fly because they're scared of the virus? Like when they were scared back in March?
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What's actually going on now? Well, sure, some people are scared. Absolutely. Look at this
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fascinating poll by Gallup. This is in the United States. It asks Americans about their fears. And it's
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remarkable that people's fears correlate to their political party. They correlate a bit to gender.
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It makes sense. Women typically do less risky things than men do. It's one of the reasons women
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live longer, actually. But look at this chart. Attitudes and behaviors related to COVID-19
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by party and gender. Look at these questions. Are you worried about getting the coronavirus?
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About 80% of Democrats are, less than 30% of Republicans are. Are you worried about getting
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it at work? Democrats are twice as worried. Do you practice social distancing? Most Democrats do.
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Most Republicans don't. Are you avoiding going to public places? What a sad question that is, eh?
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More than 70% of Democrats say yes. Fewer than 40% of Republicans do. Are you avoiding friends and
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family? That has got to be the saddest question ever asked in a poll. More than 60% of Democrats are,
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only about 30% of Republicans are. Do you always wear a mask indoors? 90% to only 45%. Can you see I'm
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blending the gender numbers here since men and women are a bit more worried than men in each case? But
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really, I'm trying to show you the party affiliation here. And look at this question here. Do you always
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wear a mask outdoors? Think about that. Outdoors? Almost 40% of Democrats say they do. Barely 10% of
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Republicans say they do. I was at Lake Louise a few months ago, and I was in the middle of the lake,
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and I saw a husband and wife canoeing by. It was just the two of them in the middle of the lake
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with their masks on in the middle of a lake. I snapped a picture. I'm sorry. I just couldn't
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believe what I was seeing. Well, I've stopped snapping pictures of such insanity. I see it every day now.
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People by themselves in their own car, mask on in their own car by themselves. All right. Last poll
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question. Are you ready to return to normal activities? Only 5% of Democrat men, only 3%
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of Democrat women say they are, compared to 64% of Republican men, 54% of Republican women. Now,
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maybe these Democrats are lying to pollsters. They are expected to be scared, so they say they are.
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But if not, those are crazy numbers. Something's really wrong here. I mean, what is going on?
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Why are people so afraid? Or are Democrats just saying that to make it seem like Trump is reckless?
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I have no clue. Are they really that afraid of the world? Only 3% of Democrat women are ready to
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return to normal life? Are they just telling pollsters what they want to hear? I was a little
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bit afraid of the world back in April, but I'm not now. The pandemic is long over. And my point is,
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some people are still scared. The polls I showed you demonstrate that. At least they say they're scared.
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But a lot of other people are, you know, sort of ready to get on with their lives. Even if they want
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to wear a mask, they want to get on with life. So why are we going into new lockdowns now?
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Why are we quarantining our country still? I saw new lockdowns in various places, including
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Saskatchewan. In the past two months in a province aside of France, there have been two deaths from
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the virus, one per month in Saskatchewan. I'm not happy that anyone's dying, but sorry, that's not a
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crisis. But they just brought in the stricter rules. Because two people are in ICUs in the province,
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one in Saskatoon, one in Regina. I'm not kidding. Atlantic Canada has practically been spared from
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the bug. But they are in full panic mode. You can't even fly there from other provinces. I'm
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serious. So you know they have a regional quarantine. They actually sent police to the roads
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to do check stops to stop people from coming in. We wanted to send a reporter to cover a story in
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Nova Scotia. He was banned. Not allowed. Fellow Canadian. Not allowed. Which brings me to last
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night's sad announcement by WestJet. WestJet is shutting down their flights to Atlantic Canada.
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Just poof. Just, it's almost all gone now. Also Quebec City gone. They're still going to have a few
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flights to St. John's and Halifax once in a while, but devastated. Taking them 10 years to build up.
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They're just gone now. They're letting go 100 or so staff on top of those they already laid off.
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That's very sad. Let me play for you some of the video announcement by WestJet's CEO,
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Ed Sims. I can't stand the sight of him, I got to tell you. He's the wickedly woke social justice
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warrior who's come out against Wexit. And he's a weird mask extremist who insists babies wear masks
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on the plane, even though the government says babies are exempt. He's just an awful, awful
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political activist, totally contrary to WestJet's roots and their traditions. But even despite his
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odious politics, I feel for him, or more accurately, I feel for his staff who he's laying off, listen to
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this. I won't play the whole thing, but just listen a bit. But the lack of travel demand combined with
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domestic quarantines means that sadly, we can no longer maintain our full Canadian network of service.
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It has taken decades to build this robust Canadian network to its highly competitive position. And over
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the last eight months, we are beginning to see these efforts unravel. Effective Monday, November the 2nd,
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we will suspend service to Moncton and Fredericton, New Brunswick, to Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Charlottetown
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on Prince Edward Island, and to Quebec City. Services to Halifax, Nova Scotia, and St. John's, Newfoundland
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will continue, albeit with dramatically reduced frequency.
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That's bad news for passengers to, of course, get ready for fares to rise on whatever airline remains.
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We have dramatically increased service across Atlantic Canada over the last decade. And everywhere we have
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flown has seen a doubling of available flight options and a halving of the average airfare.
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Yeah, that's over. And get a load of this. Airports and Nav Canada, that's the Civil Aviation
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Service at airports. They've decided to jack up their fees now. They think it's a good time to raise
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fees at airports now, at least according to this guy.
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What has made this situation even more difficult is that five of the airports we currently serve in
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Atlantic Canada are part of a larger group of airports that have announced substantial fee increases.
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NAV Canada, the federal body responsible for air traffic control, is taking an almost 30% fee increase.
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With thousands out of work and a COVID-induced recession in full swing, price increases that make
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air travel even more expensive are not what the traveling public needs or can even afford right now.
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I'm sure that's true. I mean, Parliament voted to give MPs a raise in the deepest depths of the
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pandemic back in April. So yeah, of course, these federal agencies are grabbing more money. So it's
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tough to stay mad at this woke leftist WestJet CEO. But I don't really care about him. He's a gazillionaire.
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He'll do fine when he's done in Canada. He'll go somewhere else. It's his workers I feel bad for. But in
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his whole five and a half minute speech, I won't play all of it to you. He blamed the pandemic and
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he blamed higher costs and he mentioned reduced demand. And that's all true. But he only said the
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word quarantine once in passing and then immediately moved on and didn't expand on that. But like I say,
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I want to fly to Atlantic Canada. I want to send our staff to Atlantic Canada. But we're not allowed to.
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Because of what the governments there say, the provincial governments who have brought in the
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no-fly quarantines and the federal government that continues to bar most travel from the United States
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too. Why didn't this brave, woke WestJet CEO mention that? Let me be clear. The virus did not stop these
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flights. The virus is pretty much gone, at least gone to the point where it's no longer categorizable
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as a pandemic. The masks are just public health theater now. We're safe now. There are some cases, but
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hospitalizations are minimal. What's stopping people from flying now are the politicians and lockdowns
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and quarantines and panic mongers of whom Ed Sims is amongst the worst with his weird fetish for forcing
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babies to wear masks. Weirdo. That's an extension of the junk science fear mongering that's caused places
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like Prince Edward Island and New Brunswick to lock down. You know, no one has died from the virus in
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PEI. Not one person. A grand total of two people have died in New Brunswick. 800,000 people in there.
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But they're in a total political freakout. They won't let planes come in from Toronto or wherever.
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Rather, they won't let people in. The planes can come in, but not the people. So it makes no sense
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to let the planes in. That's what the WestJet CEO just said. What those cities all have in common
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is their panic zones. They're not pandemic zones. A grand total of four deaths in Newfoundland,
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Labrador. Lockdown. Sure, you can blame the virus. You can even blame passenger demand being low. It's
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true. But what's stopping people from flying to these very cities that are being shut down now,
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and what's stopping people from flying to and from the United States is not a Chinese virus.
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It's Canadian politicians. Too bad Ed Simms politics won't let him say that. Stay with us for more.
00:14:09.340
Well, we love Saskatchewan. It's rebel country, that's for sure.
00:14:12.700
For many years, it was the best governed province in Canada, but that wasn't always the case. I don't
00:14:20.380
know if you recall. Back in the day, that province had the nickname Red Square. It was run by the NDP
00:14:25.820
Socialists. I was worried about it, but then the Sask Party turned it around. The great Brad Wall
00:14:31.260
breaking through and winning. Scott Moe taking over the reins. What's going to happen this time? Will the
00:14:36.060
NDP make a comeback? I have my opinions, but look, I'm based out here in Toronto. What do I know?
00:14:41.260
If you want to know what's really going on in Saskatchewan, talk to the man who has the ear of the
00:14:46.940
province. His name, of course, is John Gormley, and he is the most popular talk show host in the
00:14:53.100
prairies. He's the boss of Rolko Radio's flagship show, call letters CKOM and CJME. My friend John Gormley
00:15:02.140
joins me now. I am so glad to talk with you because every day you listen, you have your ear to the ground,
00:15:08.780
unlike anyone else I know. Well, it's been forever since you and I have chatted, Ezra. I hope you're
00:15:14.300
well. Yeah, the election, of course, we're a set election day regime, so we knew all along it would be the 26th of
00:15:23.420
October. The only question was, you know, how long would the writ be in this kind of thing? So it's a fast
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election, 28 days all around. It started very much as expected, and the Sask party goes into this.
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They, of course, were elected with Brad Wall in 07 and 2011 and 2016. Scott Mo takes over the reins in
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2018, so it's his first election as the Sask party premier and leader.
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Now, my sense of that province is that a lot of the antipathy towards parties with the name
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conservative or whatever was overcome. Brad Wall totally rebranded free enterprise and smaller
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government and made it part of the culture. That's my sense. And that the NDP now is, I'm not going to
00:16:14.060
call them a fringe party, but they're certainly a minority, and their strength is maybe the public
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sector unions. It's not so much farmers voting for the NDP anymore. Is that, am I aesthetically or
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emotionally summing it up that the Sask party is now sort of the center of opinion, and the NDP is
00:16:34.860
more the left, and the left in Saskatchewan just isn't that big anymore? You know, you summed it up very
00:16:40.940
well, and it's really odd when you chart. I mean, the NDP was the first, like Bill Aberhart, you know,
00:16:47.420
in Alberta, in Edmonton. Bible Bill Aberhart with social credit, Tommy Douglas with the NDP. These were
00:16:53.900
populist parties. You know, and Douglas, though a Fabian socialist, was able to knit together
00:17:00.140
organized labor, small business, farmers. He had this huge big tent and really governed this place
00:17:06.700
uninterrupted, with the exception of a quick blip in the 60s and another in the 80s. They governed here from
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1944 to 2007. So the NDP has very much moved now to a much more further left, university academics,
00:17:22.220
social justice activists, many of the public sector people. The Sask party, which was a formulation in
00:17:29.420
1997, where four liberal MLAs and four conservative MLAs joined together. But more than the center-right axis,
00:17:38.460
they broke the back of the old vote split. You know, only twice in that long run since 1944.
00:17:45.340
And the NDP actually, I think it was three times, not twice, three times, taking 50% of the vote.
00:17:50.220
They always split between conservatives and liberals. So now there's the NDP and other,
00:17:56.460
and others have been a lot bigger and more dominant. Yeah. You know, for a while there,
00:18:00.460
before Jason Kenney became premier of Alberta, and I think Saskatchewan is probably better run,
00:18:05.340
maybe because they haven't had it, weren't hit so hard. Alberta has just been hit again and again
00:18:11.900
and again. I like how Saskatchewan has been doing it, not only provincially, but they spoke out
00:18:18.060
against Justin Trudeau's carbon tax. And they seem, I mean, it's the little province fighting back. It's
00:18:22.940
only, what, 1.2 million folks, but boy, they were in some ways holding the fort as the official
00:18:28.860
opposition, really, to Trudeau. I mean, Kenny's joined that a bit now. But I really think there was
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a provincial pride, a pride in mining, a pride in oil and gas, the pipeline. I think that Saskatchewan
00:18:44.220
really kept the flame burning when the NDP took over Alberta. Let me ask you, in this election,
00:18:52.780
is there anything that looks like it might break loose? I mean, my hunch, but again, I'm here in Toronto,
00:18:57.660
what do I know, is that the Sask party is going to win it again because they're just providing
00:19:02.780
not only good government in these crazy times, but they were standing up with a bit of Saskatchewan pride
00:19:08.460
to Trudeau's depredations. That's my hunch. But you tell me if there's something cooking on the ground.
00:19:14.540
Not much. There is a softening. Of course, Regina, when the, you know, when the NDP starts to come back,
00:19:21.900
they usually come back in Regina. Of course, it's the capital city. Nothing quite like Redmondton in
00:19:26.860
Alberta. But, you know, there are some dominant and long-time historic NDP seats in the capital.
00:19:33.500
Right now, a new poll out this morning actually shows the NDP just a nose ahead in Regina. A poll two
00:19:39.020
days ago showed them just behind. But even in Regina, you've got certain riders that go very strongly
00:19:44.620
Sask party, very strongly Regina. So there are three seats that the NDP could snatch away from
00:19:52.140
the Sask party, but really everywhere else. You know, Saskatoon, the two parties are always a bit
00:19:57.820
closer, but the Sask party has a pretty robust lead. Again, there are three seats if the NDP,
00:20:03.180
you know, bangs on all cylinders they take from the Sask party. But outside of that, I mean,
00:20:08.300
let's give the NDP, you know, those six or seven seats, you know, they're only at 13 seats in a 61
00:20:13.980
seat house. You go outside the two big cities, it is, I mean, the popularity runs 65 to 70 percent
00:20:21.500
Sask party. So they're pretty strong, but I think you're correct. Saskatchewan has food,
00:20:26.620
fuel, and fertilizer. I mean, we're the number two oil producer. Our conventional oil production in a day
00:20:32.300
isn't that far behind Alberta. But of course, Alberta has the oil sands. So we're number two,
00:20:36.700
but we're a bit back. We are the number one producer of lentils, mustard, and peas on earth,
00:20:43.580
not just in Canada. So our food production here puts us, we punch so far above our weight. You know,
00:20:50.300
we're like Kansas, Nebraska, you know, everything rolled into Saskatchewan. And then of course,
00:20:55.100
we have fertilizer. The potash play, which of course, 70 million new people on earth every year need
00:21:01.420
food protein, they need hot ash. So we're a more diverse economy than Alberta. And unlike Alberta,
00:21:07.900
and I lived and practiced law in Edmonton for a number of years. Sadly, when Alberta is rock, you
00:21:14.060
know, all cylinders are clicking, Alberta tends to spend to meet the surplus. Then of course, when
00:21:19.580
there's a downturn, it's a really tough remake. Saskatchewan is much more conservative fiscally,
00:21:25.820
even in the old NDP days, they were socialists, but they were very conscious on balanced budget.
00:21:31.820
There's a thing in our DNA, which, you know, you might grow and expand a bit, and we've got a $2
00:21:36.940
billion deficit. Big number, but boy, you compare us to Alberta or anywhere else, that $2 billion,
00:21:43.260
we're going to pay down fairly quickly. Whereas other places with the pandemic, it's a challenge.
00:21:47.980
And of course, the pandemic itself, there's very much, I think, a favor to the incumbency,
00:21:54.460
you know, in the pandemic. So those things factor to not really give the NDP very much,
00:22:00.380
you know, if we do the football analogy, they haven't got much of a hole to hit in this line
00:22:04.700
running the ball. Right. I think that frugality, maybe that comes from being farmers and a farming
00:22:10.780
province going back to the Great Depression. You learn if you have something to save, you save it
00:22:15.260
for a rainy day. I think that's a great trait of Saskatchewan people. Let me close with one last
00:22:20.220
question. You're very generous with your time, John. It's great to talk to you again.
00:22:23.820
You mentioned the pandemic, and I think you're right, that in times of distress or confusion,
00:22:30.540
people maybe stick with the devil they know, the government they know. They don't want to change
00:22:34.220
horses. They don't want to have a sudden shift. I get that. And I think we're seeing that in other
00:22:39.260
jurisdictions, other provinces, and even federally too. But that said, I keep an eye on Saskatchewan.
00:22:45.500
And luckily, it has not been hit badly, at least compared to, say, Quebec or Alberta or Ontario,
00:22:54.140
by the pandemic. Last I checked, there were a grand total of nine people in the hospital,
00:22:59.020
two in ICUs, one in Regina, one in Saskatoon. Now, two deaths in the last two months. Now,
00:23:05.740
any death is a tragedy, but it is not the same kind of mass panic event that you saw in New York
00:23:12.860
State, for example. So I got a question for you. Do you think there will come a time when folks in
00:23:20.300
Saskatchewan say we can normalize again? Thank God the worst of it never came here. Let's just
00:23:27.660
stop living in fear. Teresa Tam and the World Health Organization thanks very little, but we think
00:23:34.780
we're ready to go the way of Kristi Noem, the South Dakota governor, who's saying, look, freedom is our
00:23:41.340
way. If you want to wear a mask, go ahead. If you want to be careful, you know, God bless you. But we're
00:23:47.100
not going to live in fear and panic in a lockdown. That's a prairie sentiment also.
00:23:53.980
I'm waiting for that moment in Saskatchewan, because I think that they're living like they're
00:23:58.140
in Montreal, instead of in the Great Prairies. Now that's, again, me from far away. What's it like
00:24:03.740
on the ground there? You know, it's an interesting prescription. We have, we had the very first reopen
00:24:10.140
plan. We announced it first, we actioned it first. So we've had full retail, all our stores,
00:24:15.260
everything have been open since June. We've, you're right. We've been fortunate. I mean,
00:24:19.740
we had active cases last week in the twenties. All of a sudden they're now up over 200. But we
00:24:25.500
had that earlier in the summer. We went back to the thirties. So we've had a bit of a yo-yo,
00:24:29.580
but we've had 25 deaths. You're correct. We have a hundred intensive care beds in the province.
00:24:34.700
The most we've ever had in them have been four patients. We've got two in them today. So touch wood,
00:24:40.140
we're doing well. But we've also got a chief medical health officer, Dr. Saqib Shahab,
00:24:45.020
who exemplifies Saskatchewan life. You know, the guy's all about calibrating in tiny bits.
00:24:51.020
For example, he won't mandate masks. He said, you know better, wash your hands,
00:24:55.180
don't touch your face, keep distance, and wear a mask if you're indoors and you can't assure distance.
00:25:00.940
In many ways, if it gets worse, you'll see him say, okay, let's go to mandatory masking. But he wants to
00:25:07.900
leave it up to the judgment and the willingness of people to do it right. So we flattened the curve,
00:25:13.740
but boy, by no means are we out of the woods. But so we're not quite at Kristi Noem level. I don't
00:25:19.020
know if we will be, but boy, our province and our chief medical health officer have been all about
00:25:24.380
gradualism, trusting citizens to be smart and touch wood and fingers crossed it's continuing to work.
00:25:32.300
Well, it's a wonderful place. I keep thinking the word neighborly. When I think Saskatchewan,
00:25:39.180
that word neighborly, it's one of the best places in the world. You know that.
00:25:42.860
And I love to visit and I got to get out there soon. We've got a couple of folks out there today
00:25:49.020
covering the debate in Regina. I'll be doing a live stream tonight with Sheila Gunn-Reed at 7.30
00:25:54.140
p.m. Mountain, sorry, Eastern Time, 5.30 p.m. Mountain Time. Is Saskatchewan on Mountain Time?
00:26:01.420
I better check. That's the other thing. We never change. That's right. I got to check my time zones.
00:26:07.900
Yeah. So half the year Alberta comes up to us and then we call ourselves Mountain because Alberta wants
00:26:12.620
that. Right, right. The other half we're Central because Winnipeg wants that. We never change. We are
00:26:16.940
always in a state of Saskatchewan first. That's right. You know what? I got to get my ducks in a row. I got to
00:26:21.980
read Saskatchewan to fly my life. John Gormley, thank you for taking the time to be with us.
00:26:27.900
May you go from strength to strength. Your show is one of the reasons Saskatchewan has that community
00:26:34.460
feeling, that neighborly feeling. And I know driving on those highways in Saskatchewan, which is how
00:26:40.540
Saskatchewan people spend quite a bit of their lives, just on those highways, listening to the common
00:26:45.580
sense on your show and calling in and having that way to express themselves. That is the citizens'
00:26:51.420
democracy that really characterizes that great province. So keep it up and consider us fans.
00:26:59.980
Thank you very much, my friend. We'll see you again soon.
00:27:02.140
All right. There you have it. John Gormley. He's with Rolko Radio. You can find him on the
00:27:06.300
call letters CKOM and CJME. Obviously, I'm a super fan and I don't care who knows. All right. Stay with us. More ahead.
00:27:13.820
Hey, welcome back. Marion writes, I had pleasure meeting Rob on a few occasions from his council
00:27:31.420
days all the way to mayor. He was truly awesome guy. I respected Doug is just liberal in hiding.
00:27:35.980
He's been praising Justin and helping his agenda. I just think that Rob knew who he was. However
00:27:44.700
troubled he was and however foolish he was sometimes, he actually had a core there. A heart of gold, as
00:27:51.180
people would say, but he knew who he was and he knew who hated him and he knew who loved him and vice
00:27:55.420
versa. Doug, I think, is enjoying being, you know, the toast of the town at all the cocktail parties.
00:28:02.540
Ted writes, Jim and Belinda are normal and prove their actions and consequences to be
00:28:08.220
independently thinking Canadians. They represent our views and act normally and got disapproval from
00:28:12.860
globalists. It tells us everything. We must now unite to put them into power. Let's do it,
00:28:17.180
Canadians. You're talking about their proposed new blue party. Listen, I'm hopeful. Not because,
00:28:24.380
you know, they came up with the idea, oh, let's start a party. Yeah, you and what army? The answer is
00:28:29.020
they had an answer to the what army. Belinda is an MPP and Randy Hillier, an MPP may join. So
00:28:35.500
suddenly you got two MPPs. Now you're cooking with gas. Can you get that up to three or four?
00:28:41.740
Probably through defections. And then you actually have a kind of an opposition.
00:28:47.340
Bruce writes, all former Ford Nation folks should join and support the new blue party.
00:28:51.980
Doug Ford is a typical politician. He is the backbone of an invertebrate.
00:28:58.620
We need convictional conservatives like Jim and Belinda to lead the way out of the Ford fraud
00:29:03.020
government. Well, let's see if we can do it. I mean, let's see if they can do it. I mean,
00:29:09.260
as I said to them yesterday, it's one thing to be the party of Ford dissenters.
00:29:15.980
But you've got to be more than just people who have rejected or have been rejected by
00:29:22.700
Doug Ford. You have to stand for something. And you've got to show the ability to grow
00:29:27.420
and put together a coalition. I was saying to one of my colleagues here, when Stephen Harper took over
00:29:33.900
the Canadian Alliance Party way back in the day, the first thing he did was try and rebuild the
00:29:38.940
coalition. He reached out to Chuck Strahl, Deborah Graham, Monty Solberg, Jay Hill that had that breakaway
00:29:43.980
Democratic representative caucus or whatever. And he put that back together. He started putting the
00:29:50.380
pieces together and reaching out beyond his comfort zone, reaching out to the conservatives, Peter
00:29:56.140
McKay. So he showed, Harper showed an ability to grow and to compromise and be a diplomat. I wonder,
00:30:04.620
it'll be interesting to see if Jim and Belinda Carahelios, who are scrappy and prickly sometimes,
00:30:10.380
if they can compromise and bring others aboard. You can't just have two people as MPPs in a party.
00:30:18.940
That's, you've got to show reasons for people to join. You've got to show the possibility of growth.
00:30:24.700
That's the challenge. I watched Preston Manning do it for years when I was a youngster
00:30:28.460
in the reform party. It is hard work. You're on the hustings 200 days a year. You're just going all the
00:30:35.420
time, church basements, hotel rooms. I guess these days you're doing it more in Zoom meetings. But it's
00:30:41.420
a heck of a job. It'll be interesting to see if they do it. Well, that's our show for today. Until
00:30:45.900
tomorrow, on behalf of all of us here at Rebel World Headquarters, to you at home, good night,