What does Trudeau's re-election mean for Alberta's oil patch？ (Guest： Robbie Picard)
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Summary
What does Justin Trudeau's re-election mean for Alberta's oil patch? In an interview with my friend Robbie Picard, we discuss the implications of the election results and what they mean for the future of oil and gas production in the province.
Transcript
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Hello Rebels, I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my show, The Gunn Show.
00:00:06.200
Tonight my guest is Robbie Picard from Oil Sand Strong.
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What does Justin Trudeau's re-election mean for Alberta's oil patch?
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I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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Justin Trudeau's ever-corrupt Liberals held on to their government,
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albeit with a minority in the House of Commons in Monday night's general election.
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Liberals held 157 seats, 20 fewer than they won in the 2015 election.
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And it was a complete and total wipeout on the prairies for Justin Trudeau's Liberals.
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In Alberta, 33 of 34 ridings went Conservative Blue,
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with a much higher vote share than they did in the 2015 election.
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70% of all votes cast in Alberta went to the Conservatives.
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And one province to the east, Conservative candidates made a clean sweep of all 14 ridings in Saskatchewan.
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Much to my delight, the longest-serving Liberal MP, that gun-grabbing farmer-jailer, Ralph Goodale,
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So what does all of this mean now for Alberta's oil patch?
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That Canada's anti-oil prime minister has to work with a bunch of anti-oil parties like the Bloc, the Greens, and the NDP
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to keep the Liberal government from heading into an early election.
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Joining me tonight on the show in an interview we recorded yesterday afternoon,
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after I rushed home from Conservative HQ in Regina,
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Joining me now from his home in Fort McMurray, Alberta,
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is my friend Robbie Picard from Oil Sand Strong.
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Hey Robbie, you were optimistic when I spoke to you before the election.
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I actually spoke to you when I was inside Conservative Party headquarters HQ.
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We were talking on the phone, and you were really optimistic.
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I don't know, maybe it's because you're an optimistic guy.
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And I guess, moreover to the point, what does this mean for Pipeline?
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Well, you know, so I guess what I'll say is that I'm not shocked.
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Well, I think, I don't think you're going to see a coalition right away.
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I think what you're going to see is you're going to see like a bunch of hot topics get put out.
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And I think the, I'm hoping you get Trans Mountain built.
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I'm hoping that they just say, you know what, the Conservatives and the Liberals will get that one thing done in the bag.
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The future for oil and gas after that is very, very up in the air.
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I think you're going to have an election in two years.
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I think all our political people are far too narcissistic to put their personal views of power aside to just make this work.
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I would also say that I learned some lessons from this.
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Lesson number one, Conservatives can't really go after things like blackface to the same extent.
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And I think the way the Conservatives, if they want to succeed, they need to reach out to more people outside of their bubble.
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I think most people are fiscally conservative, but for whatever reason, people are terrified.
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Justin's wounded, but he's definitely proven that he's not one to be taken lightly or, you know, misunderstood.
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I think Elizabeth May should resign as the leader of the Green Party because she's had her go and she can never get more than one or two to three seats.
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So I think that's time to kind of let someone else in the Green Party have a shot at it for a little bit.
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And the NDP, I mean, we've been here before, but as a person in Fort McMurray, I mean, people in the town are a lot more glum than I am.
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A lot of people are pissed off at Newfoundland right now.
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A lot of Newfies I know are pissed because I don't know what happens with Alberta.
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Alberta is the strangest place because, again, you cannot even count how many Newfies live in Fort McMurray.
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There's probably, they argue that they say that Fort McMurray is the second largest city, Newfoundland type city.
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But, you know, this is how it went and you have to be positive.
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I'm more concerned about this giant movement against fossil fuels, against pipelines that just seems to be getting more and more power.
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I can speak freely on my page without worrying.
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I also would question the timing of Greta Thunberg's visit.
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Very convenient that it was right around election time.
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You touched on the Alberta separatist sort of sentiment that's growing and that parade was marching, I think, long before the election and the writing was on the wall.
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I think it's it's the lack of pipelines and the inability for Albertans to get their resources to oil or their resources to market, coupled with a lot of other, I think, Western cultural issues.
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And I say Western, not as in Western, the Western world, but I think Western Canada, I would suggest that we have equally as distinct a culture here in the West as they do in Quebec.
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We're, you know, founded by different sorts of people.
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We have a different mentality when it comes to our resources, our industry and freedom.
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Andrew Scheer saw an increase in his vote share.
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But that's not because he was picking up votes in other parts of the country.
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It's because in places like Lakeland and in places like Fort McMurray, people came out in droves so that, you know, it's anywhere from 70 to 80 percent.
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Like in my riding, which is largely an urban riding, Garnet Jenis got nearly 80 percent of the vote.
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People in Alberta are voting to send a message, and they don't think the federal government is listening.
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And I don't think Jason Kenney can contain what's happening.
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The problem is it's sort of divided and it doesn't have a leader.
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And if it sort of coalesces around a leader, I think people are going to have a real tough time tutting conservatives and telling them, you know, like, this is just wishful thinking.
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Well, so when it comes to Quebec, I find Alberta separation quite an interesting topic.
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Because when it comes to Quebec, Quebec was trying to leave because they wanted more, give us more, give us more.
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Alberta's trying to leave because they're not letting us give more.
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It's like they – it's a weird – we're leaving because we – hypothetically, if we were to leave, it would be because they don't allow us to prosper.
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They're basically – it's the strangest relationship.
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It feels like you're dating someone who's just really ripping you apart and taking advantage of you.
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As long as they're – you know, if the government's borrowing money and propping up their economy, they have jobs.
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They don't care about people losing their homes.
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I was watching, like – actually, I'll give Nemchi credit.
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Like, the – I don't know the reporter's name, but she was the one that was in that picture with Gerald Butz a little while ago.
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And she's like, well, you know, knocking on doors and people in Alberta don't believe about climate change and blah, blah, blah.
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So, bottom line is, Alberta, I mean, we carry this country even now in our wounded state.
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We carry the economy in the entire country and the rest of the country.
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For some reason, they're quite okay with us doing that more ways than one.
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And, you know, we are the second largest country in the world, Latin mass-wise, with one of the smallest populations.
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And I think we're so spread out that, like, I mean, people feel, I mean, I'm trying to be positive.
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Like, I'm trying to, we'll sound strong, it's doing well, and I've got some plans.
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But it's hard when you feel such a divide, and they don't quite understand what we're going through.
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Yeah, I mean, nothing was more demonstrable of this disconnect than what happened with Husky and then with SNC-Lavalin today.
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I have somebody, a close friend who works for Husky, said it could be as many as hundreds.
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They rented several conference rooms to deal with the amount of employees they were laying off in downtown Calgary.
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And SNC-Lavalin, their share price went up today.
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Just a perfect encapsulation of what's going on in Canada right now.
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That this election was so important for Alberta.
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It meant so much, because there were so many jobs that were just waiting and hanging in the balance,
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coupled with all the hundreds of thousands of other jobs that were gone.
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The corruption increased its share price today.
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You know, though, what I will say, and it will be a little bit of hope, sometimes these things sort of work out.
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I think, I mean, I think we'll get Trans Mountain, and I think that'll start happening.
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I mean, I, you have a chance for, you have a chance for a new election in two years.
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But I, but I also would say, you know, was Andrew Scheer the right guy?
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You know, was he a guy that connected to people?
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I mean, he's only 38 years, he's a year, maybe a year younger than me.
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I mean, I mean, he has dual citizenship, and he was an aggressive insurance broker.
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But, um, uh, you know, I mean, was he the right guy?
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Or, you know what, maybe, like, I mean, how many times do you get a majority?
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It's very rare this happens where you unseat an incumbent.
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So, I mean, I mean, if you look at it from a different lens, I, I think we're super sensitive
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Our, Alberta's livelihood has never been, like, a question like this.
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You know, so it wasn't like he had all these people around him.
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Ah, I mean, he might have been doing other, other things.
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I mean, I, I, I think Albertans, I mean, we're in a, we're in a, it's the strangest climate.
00:13:59.680
Like, here, um, for instance, too, it's like, there's, David, David Jaguar, I think, got the
00:14:08.160
highest vote in the country, you know, and there's still people that, like, that are,
00:14:13.400
I guess, from liberals that just don't, they don't get it, what's happening, why people are
00:14:19.000
Um, Alberta's a bit of a hostage right now, and, um, we have no say.
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Um, and that's, I think that's what hurts people right now.
00:14:32.140
Yeah, and I think, too, if we look at it through the lens of the National Conservative Party,
00:14:40.000
Um, and I think it's because they will be, if we leave, perpetually damned to be in the
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opposition, because if Alberta goes, we take with us 34, 33, 34, pretty reliably conservative
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And so that means they will never, ever, ever be able to topple a liberal government.
00:15:04.080
So I think a lot of the, um, criticism of a separatist movement, you're going to see it
00:15:13.980
Um, now we've done enough lamenting of, uh, the predictable, um, bad news that came this
00:15:22.400
I wanted to talk to you about, you touched on it earlier, Greta Thunberg.
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Uh, my friend, Kian Bexty, uh, located her and sort of, uh, killed her with kindness until
00:15:37.580
he could press her with some tough questions, but I was down there at the climate march.
00:15:47.020
I was there by myself and I tried to approach it, um, a little bit like wildlife photography.
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You know, you just wanted to see these creatures in their natural environment.
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I didn't want to really interact with them because I was by myself and I've, you know,
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I've had some, um, things go sideways when I've interacted with the far left and the radical
00:16:05.140
Um, but what really stuck out for me, and I think stuck out for a lot of our viewers,
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besides the sheer volume of the crowd that was grossly overestimated by the mainstream
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media, they first reported 10,000 EPS said 4,000, which is roughly about the March for
00:16:22.400
Um, the under-reported March for Life, but it was the use of Aboriginal people and First
00:16:29.040
Nations people and Canada's Indigenous people as props for this march.
00:16:40.520
Um, you know, people are out there that think that way and you've seen, I've seen them on
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the internet say these things, but I've never actually seen it for myself.
00:16:48.080
They were saying, um, Indigenous people to the front, white people to the back of the
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And, uh, and I, it was, I think, 50% racism and 50% we're just going to use Indigenous people
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So I have never been more conflicted on how I feel about something, not, not necessarily
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conflicted in the sense that I'm just conflicted with myself.
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It doesn't matter what skin color you have that you need to stand in the back.
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Cause I promise you the people that they don't care about Indigenous issues, they're just
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Um, when Greta came to Fort McMurray, I chose to stand down and this is something that I
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And trust me, my blood was boiling where I was conflicted and I'm, I'm, I'm conflicted
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I'm conflicted as a Métis guy in town, a business owner, a huge proponent of Fort McMurray
00:18:09.780
businesses, um, and conflicted because when Jane Fonda came to Fort McMurray, it wasn't
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Cause she got a little piece of her own medicine in a parking lot on a minus 40 day in February.
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I'm proud I got to stand up to her and that didn't go perfectly.
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Now, Greta, I will say that, um, you know, it, she got some blowback, but.
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Um, and I'm glad there was some, and I don't think the trip was perfect for her.
00:18:45.200
Um, but you're dealing with this strange situation and, and I'm trying to find a way to coin something
00:18:54.760
You cannot say, well, she's a 16 year old girl.
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You can't challenge her or question her, but all of a sudden she's in front of the world
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And because if you try to say something to her, well, she is a 16 year old girl, but
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yet when she, they're talking about changing the voting age to 16, which is it?
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Is 16 mean you're an adult and you can take heat or are you a tiny little kid?
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I'm not, I'm not in, in, in, in scared to confront her.
00:19:32.140
I, it just, that moment in time when she was here, um, I, I mean, I could have had a lit
00:19:38.000
I could have asked to have a coffee with her or, I mean, or whatever, some vegan thing.
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Um, I could have done a bunch of things, but I just chose to let her be and not tweet about
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Now, when that BBC documentary comes out, I'll probably regret my decision.
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Um, but I, I, I'm, she's being toured with a BBC documentary crew and they're coming,
00:20:04.740
And then when she leaves, when she's safely back, wherever she lives, um, you know, they're
00:20:11.000
going to come at us with quite a bit of anger and they're going to be saying, shut the oil
00:20:15.840
And we've worked really hard to get past that point.
00:20:18.660
So, um, uh, my, my page, I've been pretty strong with her and my engagement right now,
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not that I want to brag or anything, but for a while there, I was number one in Canada
00:20:31.320
Um, not that I want to brag, but I like, I mean, I have nothing else Ontario proud.
00:20:37.960
Um, and it's a hot topic and, um, people need to provide a voice for this, like using
00:20:47.420
And if we don't figure out how our side is going to deal with this, there's going to
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be other child shields or children use as props and they're going to come and try to
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shut us down and we're not going to know how to respond to it.
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We have the stange, the strangest case of Stockholm syndrome.
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Um, I hope Jason Kenney, our premier has a way to deal with it.
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I thought maybe we would hear more from his, um, war room when she was here, but it seemed
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as though the war room was radio silent and maybe that was by design.
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Maybe they just didn't want to be perceived to be fighting with this, uh, way fish, malnourished
00:21:36.240
Um, but you know, when I was in Edmonton, there's, there's a frenzy about, uh, Greta.
00:21:44.540
She's a celebrity and she really is untouchable.
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And it's, I mean, that's why they, they chose a child for this is because she is untouchable.
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Now, when she went to Fort McMurray, she was there with chief Alan Adam, um, who's tides
00:22:02.200
We know that, um, but the, uh, the Aboriginal businessmen had to put out a statement saying
00:22:08.840
that basically the Aboriginal and Indigenous people they're using as props, including Alan
00:22:14.640
Adam, don't speak for the Indigenous business owners in Fort McMurray.
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And I promise you there's going to be a lot of private conversations happening right now
00:22:26.220
because these are the same people that want this pipeline.
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Alan Adam himself did a big CBC, we want pipelines, we want pipelines.
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But you're a kid and you don't speak on behalf of us or our, I mean, it's really easy for
00:22:56.560
She's a multi, she's friends with multimillionaires.
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She's got tons and tons of money and, and celebrity.
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And, um, it's like, it's not the same for Aboriginal kids, you know, in reserves in Canada because
00:23:14.080
the oil industry is going to be, you know, less because of layoffs.
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And there's not going to be jobs and opportunities for them.
00:23:20.600
Like, I mean, I, I, I, I, this is an interesting one.
00:23:25.340
This is one where I like, um, I'm not sure, you know, five years from now, if it'll be on
00:23:34.300
Most times in my life where I felt like I should do something I have.
00:23:49.060
She will do whatever she's going to do in her little documentary.
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And then by the time the shine wears off this tiny little bobble of a girl, um, no one's
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going to care about her anymore, including all the people who are using her to promote
00:24:03.040
their agenda right now and who are paying her parents to promote their agenda.
00:24:06.460
Um, I think by the time she's 18, um, she's going to be pretty well washed up in the world
00:24:11.900
of activism, um, because there will be some other cherub faced little girl or little boy
00:24:21.180
So that should check off even more social justice boxes.
00:24:26.660
So I don't think you should beat yourself up too badly, um, about what you did or didn't
00:24:32.860
Now, Greta's off to the Vancouver area next, allegedly in the Tesla.
00:24:41.900
She's going to have a tough time when she's on Burnaby Mountain visiting the tank farm
00:24:46.740
because it is so well hidden, um, in the middle of a residential area.
00:24:51.120
Um, and, and so well cared, well kept and well cared for that she's, um, going to have
00:24:57.280
a hard time finding things to be critical of, but I'm sure the, um, the, uh, perpetual
00:25:03.400
indigenous activists there will come out and, uh, complain like they did when they built
00:25:08.360
their disgusting little encampment on Camp Cloud.
00:25:10.980
Well, I was just going to say, maybe, uh, that would be a good opportunity for her to,
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I wonder how long she would sleep at Camp Cloud.
00:25:28.140
Speaking of Camp Cloud, uh, I think Kenuous Manuel was in jail for a little bit there.
00:25:33.200
So, uh, they, uh, RCMP arrested her and she broke her wrist apparently.
00:25:37.380
And, um, so I don't know if she's out of jail now on bail or whatever.
00:25:43.380
It's just, it's just nice to see the, uh, law enforcement picking up these law-breaking
00:25:50.500
Now, Robbie, I think with the results of the election, we need you and your activism and
00:26:08.640
Can you please let people know how they can find all the work you're doing, support you?
00:26:21.580
Um, we are revamping our website and, uh, we are going on the road.
00:26:25.940
I plan on spending a lot of time in small town Ontario in the near future where I have
00:26:30.900
a lot of family in Sudbury in a place called Levesque.
00:26:34.040
And I'm going to be doing a new, a show called All Sun Strong Boots on the Ground, where I
00:26:38.920
really want to connect some dots between us here in Alberta and the small towns in, um,
00:26:45.480
Ontario, because we, we have similar stories and, uh, we need to build this nation.
00:26:52.560
But, um, my, I mean, at this moment in time, I like, I'm just going to go back.
00:26:58.100
Um, I don't see this as a total defeat, Sheila.
00:27:00.340
I see this as just a postponement of the inevitable, which who knows what's going to
00:27:06.840
Um, we've, uh, but we, as a country, if we don't figure out how we are a country soon,
00:27:17.140
we're not going to be a country for another hundred years.
00:27:23.080
We have to, every part of this country needs to be okay.
00:27:26.660
And Alberta has not been okay for about five, six years now.
00:27:33.880
Um, and Albertans did, they say, well, you can vote for change.
00:27:38.800
Well, Alberta's, they can't, with the exception of Strathcona, Alberta really made a statement.
00:27:44.180
And even Strathcona, you can argue, is a statement.
00:27:47.040
So, I mean, you know, and well, even, even the fact that went NDP federally, I mean, which,
00:27:52.200
you know, I don't, I don't know how that could happen in Alberta, but, um, uh, it's a sign
00:27:57.960
that, you know, Justin Trudeau spent a lot of time in Calgary.
00:28:09.060
And that shouldn't it be his job to, to connect with people, you know, anyway.
00:28:13.820
Well, I think when he goes to places like Quebec, and he campaigns on fighting against
00:28:22.540
those Western premiers, um, it's pretty hard for him to connect with Albertans on the ground
00:28:29.940
when he goes to an entirely other province and then paints us as the enemy.
00:28:34.580
I've never seen a prime minister with this type of division, divisiveness before.
00:28:41.420
And I mean, his, you know, as Jean Chrétien had class, I, it remains to be seen if Justin
00:28:51.620
Oh, I think we've given him a lot of opportunities to do it.
00:28:57.200
Robbie, I want to, I want to thank you for your time.
00:28:59.660
Um, I know that, uh, you, uh, jumped on here with me with some pretty short notice.
00:29:05.380
Um, and I want to thank you for your analysis and we'll check back in very soon.
00:29:11.420
With regard to the rise of Western separatism and the very real desire for Alberta to have
00:29:26.060
more sovereignty, whether that is within Confederation or without, I think we're in
00:29:31.740
for a hell of a ride because the most dangerous time to be in an abusive relationship is when
00:29:40.280
Well, everybody, thanks so much for tuning into the show tonight.
00:29:43.980
I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.
00:29:48.240
And remember, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.