John Bolton - A BIG win For Mark Carney - Columnist James Albers (Western Standard)

00:00:00.000 hi it's john and welcome to the channel friday november the 28th 8 0 3 a.m i hope you're having

00:00:08.680 a great friday looking forward to the weekend as well in about uh 30 minutes or so i'll be outside

00:00:14.720 clearing snow off the ground once again we've got more snow here in calgary i've got my let me move

00:00:20.140 my mug down so you can see i've got the big blue mug here and as you can see we've got a guest with

00:00:24.160 us today and boy what a timely guest we've got i'd like to welcome james albers here james great to

00:00:29.940 have you here thank you good to be here again james is a calgary-based management consultant

00:00:35.420 specializing in leadership development and he wrote wrote an article for the western standard

00:00:39.920 guest columnist and this article went up james one week ago today and i'll tell you um we talked

00:00:47.780 earlier this week i said when did you want to do this prior to the announcement the pipeline

00:00:51.780 announcement with danielle smith and mark carney or after and we decided after i'm glad kind of glad

00:00:56.940 we did i went back and read your article this morning and it's almost almost more timely today

00:01:01.520 than it was one week ago explain your article canada is risking its own collapse by sabotaging

00:01:08.260 the west well basically in a nutshell we recognize that the economic engine of the country uh is so

00:01:16.660 dependent on western um western uh power not just uh oil and gas but mining and you name it there's

00:01:23.840 so many different things that we uh that we offer to the country and uh the energy sector is by far

00:01:29.960 the biggest one and so uh kicking kicking them in the shins is not doing canada any good and so they

00:01:37.500 really do uh threaten the livelihood of all of canada when they start taking shots at the west and

00:01:43.060 uh liberal policy over the last 10 years you know just i think most albertans shake their head and go

00:01:49.160 like what are you doing like why are you doing this it's like it's like somebody sitting on a

00:01:53.120 branch and sawing it off um you know and they're just like why you know we we shake our heads but

00:02:01.260 um it makes sense to somebody somewhere but not us for sure so what do you so what do you think has

00:02:05.820 happened let's let's talk about this a little bit in relation to what happened yesterday do you do you

00:02:11.080 think things are better today than they were yesterday or do you think they're the same it's just that

00:02:16.060 we don't know that because everybody's everybody's saying that um this pipeline's going to go through

00:02:24.320 i did a video earlier this morning saying i'm still skeptical about this there's so many barriers in the

00:02:29.440 way what are you thinking now well i think uh i think we have a right to be skeptical number one

00:02:35.440 but uh i'll i'll put it this way i'm going to go it on uh uh to use the same analogy i'm going to go

00:02:40.700 out on a limb uh this is a big win for mark carney uh i'll let me let me start with that he still got

00:02:48.160 his net zero agenda in place nothing has changed with with that whole approach uh none of his policies

00:02:54.880 have been substantively uh altered or changed or dropped or or any of that uh i heard the premier

00:03:00.640 yesterday talk about uh well we've got you know seven of the nine policies addressed i'm i'm going no

00:03:05.900 actually we don't there were carve outs uh for certain pieces even on the clean electricity piece

00:03:11.640 it's only for the pipeline pieces as i've read through the memorandum and there doesn't seem to

00:03:16.660 be you know any effort to drop that so in terms of who got their agenda through with that memorandum

00:03:23.560 yesterday mark carney did it in spades and let's be clear he wants this pipeline because he's looking

00:03:29.960 to reduce canadian dependence on the american market he needs to start moving energy to the to

00:03:36.300 asia and he may not say it out loud but ultimately this pipeline serves his purposes more than anything

00:03:43.560 else because he wants to lessen our dependence on the u.s market so i'll put that out there for for

00:03:49.820 discussion well yeah um so you think he wants an oil pipeline the guy who has been part of an

00:03:57.340 organization that wanted nobody to invest in pipelines a guy who wants to see oil left in the

00:04:04.160 ground do you not still think that there are the barriers in place i i talked about this this morning

00:04:10.100 they're already lining up the environment i think was 41 environmental groups are now saying that

00:04:14.100 they're going to get in the way of this pipeline aboriginal groups are saying no how no way i think the

00:04:20.020 ndp right now are fundraising off of this issue right now um and i don't see any barriers out of

00:04:28.180 the way at all i think they all still exist and i think mark carney knew that going in he said days

00:04:32.720 ago there has to be an agreement from bc there has to be an agreement from aboriginals they all have to

00:04:39.540 buy into this because we're canada first here and i don't think we're going to get all three of those

00:04:44.560 things and it's up to danielle smith now to get the aboriginals aboard to get bc aboard to get

00:04:49.180 investment to get the environmental things again nothing has changed but i just don't see how the

00:04:55.040 pipeline goes through and i think mark carney knows that uh i would i agree with you on the

00:05:00.880 for sure i nothing has changed with regard to the obstacles that are still in the way the only thing

00:05:06.040 that i saw that made me wonder at all was the premier made it very clear that there's no mention

00:05:11.180 in the mou of giving bc or the first nations groups uh a veto so that um that gave me pause for

00:05:18.560 thought uh so i want to you know i want to look at it on the face of it you're taking her at her

00:05:24.620 word for that and she has assurances from mark carney at this point that's what we have to do

00:05:29.520 because the devil as you know is in the details and what we saw yesterday um probably created more

00:05:34.900 questions than it answered i guess that's the best way to put it yeah and so we have to look at that

00:05:39.180 but i'm looking at uh you know he has not abandoned you know when you read his book and you look at

00:05:47.840 what he stands for none of those issues really are uh are being sacrificed he hasn't sacrificed

00:05:54.080 any part of his vision at this point with regard to the pipeline the pipeline is an economic lever that

00:06:01.380 he needs to move away from dependence on the u.s and that i think he's willing to do that temporarily

00:06:07.360 that's why you don't see these policies being dropped uh at some point when he decides it's time

00:06:13.500 uh they'll be closed again and you know get the pipe get the one pipeline through shut everything

00:06:19.020 else back down and we're back to where we were before what i'm concerned about is alberta has um

00:06:25.100 has given up uh some of its sovereignty over you know so for example the carbon tax um we we are

00:06:33.360 supposed to be doing that but ottawa carved out a piece of that saying no we we demand that that

00:06:38.820 carbon tax go up what six times i guess that's the number that they're talking about now six times so

00:06:44.360 that's what we had to give up in order to get uh this pipeline at least agree to uh and that's all we

00:06:50.440 can say at this point because i don't see any firm dates uh attached to this memorandum uh except when

00:06:57.080 it comes to carney's net zero agenda so the stuff that he wants we've got dates on the stuff that we

00:07:03.800 want as albertans in terms of a pipeline there's no dates on that there's no there's no uh commitment

00:07:08.600 to say shovels will be in the ground by this date uh and at that point then all these other things

00:07:14.440 will kick into gear what we're seeing is all these things are going to kick into gear and and we're

00:07:18.980 going to discuss the pipeline and we have a two-year window a two-year window quite frankly

00:07:22.880 is baloney uh i'm sorry it was like uh two-year window is you know the federal government has a

00:07:29.420 jurisdiction they could be putting that pipeline through right now if they wanted to it's in the

00:07:33.720 national interest everybody knows that even the people of bc know that uh and quite frankly most

00:07:38.920 of the first nations that would be impacted by that know that as well uh and so you know those

00:07:45.300 are the issues that we're dealing Alberta had i think has given up more than they got

00:07:48.920 I don't think Carney has had to budge on his agenda and his his mission whatsoever and even

00:07:55.900 though the pipeline seems like a bit of a strange thing uh I mean you're right we may well see him

00:08:00.880 let uh EB uh carry the no for him so that he doesn't have to be the bad guy but uh uh it's all gonna

00:08:07.580 my concern at this point is how is she going to sell this at the AGM well I was going to get to

00:08:13.960 I've got down here UCPAGM at the bottom I want to talk to you about that um you said in your article

00:08:19.860 last week again Canada is risking its own collapse by sabotaging the west link uh down below in the

00:08:25.320 descriptions you can read the whole thing and we'll talk James got another article coming up which we'll

00:08:28.720 talk about in just a moment uh you said in your article and yet the barriers continue to pile up the

00:08:33.280 federal government fixation on net zero targets layered over provincial and indigenous approval

00:08:37.620 complexities has produced a regulatory thicket so dense that projects which might take four years

00:08:43.320 elsewhere now take 10 or 15 years in the west it's little wonder that private capital looks

00:08:48.120 elsewhere investors require certainty Ottawa appears determined to offer only obstruction um yesterday I

00:08:55.400 played a clip on the channel here Ezra Levant asking um Premier Smith about the the carbon tax

00:09:01.280 which is going up apparently in April and we might not see a pipeline until 2040 uh we can't wait

00:09:07.240 four years it could take 10 to 15 years for this and let me ask you this you say if Mark Carney

00:09:12.120 Mark Carney really wants this pipeline if you were an investor James would you be investing in this

00:09:18.060 because there's still so much uncertainty and that's the thing that's driven investors

00:09:21.400 away for years in this province and in the country as well yeah I don't think that it has I don't think

00:09:27.680 it's cleared that climate up at all to be totally honest except for those people that go okay we've got

00:09:32.680 a we've got a really small window uh let's see if we can get that pushed through if if he had come in

00:09:38.060 yesterday and said okay we are going to mandate that this is in the national interest and so um we're going

00:09:43.900 to clear away all the regulatory issues so that this pipeline can be built we have a one-off and so

00:09:49.180 you'll get investors for that but that doesn't clear away all the other issues that would happen

00:09:53.740 subsequent to that and that's the issue that I think uh Premier Smith was trying to address with our nine nasty

00:09:59.580 policies those haven't been addressed that really hasn't cleared the air with regard to making an environment

00:10:06.460 that investors are going to feel confident with well James she said um I think it was March

00:10:11.180 if I remember correctly about March 16th last year get rid of these nine bad things or we'll have a

00:10:16.860 national unity crisis and you said they aren't gone of course we're talking about uh c48 c69 tanker

00:10:22.780 pipeline ban um plastics I think net zero I think net zero is one of them EV I think the EV mandate is

00:10:30.860 coming back they've already looked into that they finished up their um their discussion about that I

00:10:36.300 think that's coming back as well and there's a number of other ones as well so obviously Daniel

00:10:42.780 Smith gave he said we'll have a national unity crisis she put up the barrier she said here it is

00:10:48.060 we must get rid of these things and now she's backing off on that does this make her look weak

00:10:52.940 I think that's what she's going to find out this weekend uh to be completely honest and you know my

00:10:57.900 question is how does she control the narrative at this point she's uh at least from what we saw

00:11:03.100 yesterday she's touting this as a win and I think if she goes into the AGM saying that this is a big

00:11:08.780 win for Alberta she may be in for a bit of a rude awakening because I don't think the base is buying

00:11:13.820 it to be completely honest um so yes I I think she she may be in for a bit of a wild ride I I put in

00:11:21.180 bold from your article a paragraph I'd like to read it in in total if I can again you can read the whole

00:11:27.020 article and we'll I'll give you uh a little information about James's new article in just a

00:11:31.820 moment but I wanted to read this whole thing okay if you if you'll let me and so the truly

00:11:37.180 uncomfortable question is not what Ottawa will offer talking about this deal here but what position

00:11:42.780 that offer will force Daniel Smith to occupy a mediocre deal rich in language but poor in substance

00:11:49.420 filled with modest timelines and unconditional promises would not simply disappoint it would become

00:11:54.940 a political trap if she accepts it she risks signaling that half measures and photo opportunities

00:12:00.220 are sufficient responses to an existential threat if she rejects it she'll be branded unreasonable

00:12:06.060 uncooperative even divisive this is the bind that western leaders have long faced accept crumbs and express

00:12:12.540 gratitude or demand substance and be scolded for disunity are we filled with modest timelines and

00:12:19.260 unconditional promises here and how much of that rings true you wrote this a week ago James

00:12:24.860 yeah it was a little um it was a little unnerving to see how this all unfolded yesterday and I thought

00:12:30.540 oh man she has she is now I think very firmly placed herself in a very precarious position

00:12:37.100 she has to sell this to her base uh at the AGM I think Albertans in general aren't uh

00:12:44.460 are committed one way or the other uh around this with the exception that I think universally Albertans don't

00:12:50.460 really trust Ottawa at this stage of the game and so we're waiting for the other shoe to drop if that's

00:12:55.580 a good way to put it but what she does in the next three days is going to uh truly truly determine uh

00:13:03.740 what Alberta looks like going forward and I think she needs to be very very reticent about how she frames us

00:13:10.380 and um if she's going to try and do a PR job and sell this as a big victory I think that spells trouble

00:13:18.140 for her well you uh you also wrote in your article a thin deal does not resolve tension it deepens it

00:13:25.020 it tells Albertans their warnings were politely heard and fundamentally ignored it signals that

00:13:29.260 the economic engine of this country is not a strategic priority but an inconvenience to be managed

00:13:35.180 with press conferences and carefully crafted phrases did you have did you look into a crystal ball uh

00:13:41.180 last week when you wrote your article I was thinking this morning after I read it again I thought you

00:13:46.380 know he needs to do an addendum to this like a follow-up couple of paragraphs because a lot of this came

00:13:51.740 true it's the word omniscient I think I think you were um yeah it's a great it's a great article I hope

00:13:56.700 everybody will read it once again the AGM I I talked a little bit about that this morning and I I said I'm not

00:14:02.380 a violent person I I don't want people to throw things at Daniel Smith but the way I look at this

00:14:06.780 James and you're a little more optimistic about it than I am because I don't trust the liberals as

00:14:10.700 far as I can throw them um but I thought you know people might start throwing things at her because

00:14:17.100 this gets worse the more I look at it this deal the so-called deal and that's the way I'm seeing it

00:14:21.740 we hear more and more about it all the time we give this and and like you said right off the top

00:14:26.700 this is a big win for Mark Carney is it a big win at all for Alberta at this point we can't see and

00:14:33.420 that's the problem with this memorandum we we really don't know because there's so much that isn't uh

00:14:39.820 talked about isn't addressed there is no firm commitment on the part of our government other

00:14:44.380 than to uh at least let Alberta talk to BC who we know has been a little bit petulant about the whole

00:14:50.060 process right from the very start so uh I don't see that we have anything of uh real tangible

00:14:56.300 substance coming out of that memorandum at this point because and again they're not those dates

00:15:01.340 aren't tied together it would be one thing if if she said yeah we're going to increase the carbon tax

00:15:05.820 on April 1st because we will have an agreement for the pipeline on April 1st those two are tied

00:15:12.380 together and so that's what we're going to get but none of that exists we have a promise that in two

00:15:16.940 years we're going to we're going to hopefully have a pipeline in place but the carbon tax goes ahead

00:15:21.660 regardless and for me that's a bit that's a that's a capitulation and we really need to

00:15:27.820 reconsider that for sure the other thing I've thought about quite a bit I remember when uh

00:15:33.020 Danielle Smith and Scott Moe the um the caucuses for Alberta and Saskatchewan sat down back in June

00:15:40.220 and I remember them in a news conference after that and they asked Scott Moe they said you know about

00:15:46.140 major projects because I I'm wondering at that time I'm thinking c5 had just been passed or it was

00:15:51.980 very close to being passed and this gave Carney an override when it came to bill c69 and things like

00:15:57.180 this but he said we have hundreds of projects ready to go and Danielle Smith was sitting there nodding

00:16:05.820 her head and you you brought this up in this interview here we get the one thing and then he may back off

00:16:12.060 and we and it's the only one thing we get and I wrote down here is one enough I certainly don't

00:16:18.380 think it is and again we'll go begging to the liberals if they're still in power again and

00:16:22.460 that's what really bugs me about this that's why I want independence we're on our knees our premier's

00:16:27.660 on our knees begging Mark Carney and the liberal party that have abused us for years we're begging

00:16:32.540 them for prosperity here is one enough James one pipeline absolutely not and I and I think what people

00:16:38.060 are going to find confusing if that's a good way to put it is that she's done I'll give her credit

00:16:44.700 she's you know I've met her several times she's one of the smartest politicians I've ever met and

00:16:48.940 she's like James people we I like her but I'm disappointed in her with this one I really am and

00:16:55.020 I think she's going to hear it like you said at the AGM which starts today so it's it's these two issues

00:17:00.940 where she's done so much at and that's what we're going to be talking about a little bit later but

00:17:05.580 she has done a lot to to um uh firewall Alberta from uh harmful Ottawa policies a lot of her her

00:17:13.740 legislation is exactly that people are applauding her for it I I support that a hundred percent

00:17:19.980 that's why this this capitulation on the issue around carbon tax and giving Ottawa any kind of

00:17:26.460 franchise with regard to or a say with regard to how Alberta is going to set its own carbon

00:17:31.260 uh pricing um that that just rubs completely the other way with regard to what she's been doing so

00:17:39.500 far and I think that's going to be the question that that uh folks at the AGM are going to be asking

00:17:44.140 her about for sure yeah I I don't I mean I don't want to get into a deep philosophical or um discussion

00:17:50.140 about independence I I certainly don't think this does anything people who want Alberta independence I I

00:17:55.580 haven't changed my mind one bit and it will be impossible for me to do that I think an article

00:18:00.300 ran in the National Post just yesterday saying that this will you know the independence movement

00:18:05.260 will be um calmed down a little bit over this thing what what do you think about the situation

00:18:10.300 right now and do you think maybe some of this has to do with with that as well that Danielle Smith

00:18:15.100 is a little bit concerned about that well I'm sure she is and she well ought to be I think the issue

00:18:20.780 is it hasn't tapped that issue down at all I think if anything it is uh intensifying it and I look at

00:18:27.420 that and I go why do we we are supposed to be an equal partner in Confederation and we are constantly

00:18:35.180 fighting with the federal government to get simply our fair share uh to get our our product to market uh

00:18:43.020 we're fighting with BC like this shouldn't even be an issue this shouldn't even be a discussion you

00:18:47.500 don't hear that happening down in the US for example between various states it's like they're

00:18:52.220 all in it together we have a system where for whatever reason Ottawa and the east have worked

00:18:57.660 really hard to tamp us down don't understand why but at some point you have to say well enough is enough

00:19:03.180 yeah what happened to team Canada so you have another article coming up in the um in the western

00:19:07.980 standard uh has it got anything to do with this uh it will touch on that uh the the title is a bit um

00:19:18.300 i'm not sure how i want to state it but the concept is basically this um not all ideas are equal and

00:19:23.420 neither are all cultures and the idea is that it formed the west and i don't mean just western Canada

00:19:29.260 but the western world right good ideas and there we know that because people have been moving from

00:19:35.180 other countries to western countries because of those good ideas and so when we look at Canada

00:19:41.420 we see a federal government that has in some cases and i think in large part abandoned those ideas as

00:19:48.060 embarrassing and they're trying to replace it with something else which is why we have the issue with

00:19:53.660 with Ottawa that we do right now and so the final question that i put to the premier in the article is

00:19:58.540 simply this how many policies how many pieces of legislation do we have to put in place to protect

00:20:04.300 Alberta from Ottawa before somebody goes wait a second why are we constantly doing this clearly

00:20:11.340 this is not just a policy difference anymore this is a fundamental cultural um disagreement and we

00:20:17.900 need to make steps to to go for independence i look forward to reading and i've something came to

00:20:23.340 mind when you were saying that i want to i want to finish on it back in uh in 95 i was living in

00:20:30.460 eastern Ontario at the time in Cornwall Ontario as a radio announcer there and that's when the

00:20:35.340 referendum happened and i went i wouldn't do it today i got on a bus i remember Dennis Sabaran was

00:20:41.100 the the local liberal there he got a whole bunch of buses together and we went to Montreal for that

00:20:46.780 huge rally they had in downtown Montreal there was a huge Canadian flag i was under that flag i took this

00:20:51.980 cell phone that was bigger than my head it was like one of those big remember those phones yeah like a

00:20:56.620 giant five bricks it's all tied together and i did a report very very sketchy cell phone coverage in 95

00:21:02.700 in Montreal but the words that came to mind all the time were distinct society that's what they said

00:21:10.620 about about Quebec and and i moved out here 13 years ago James i think the west is a distinct society

00:21:17.980 i don't think the east understands us i don't put bc in there i think they're a little bit different

00:21:22.860 than us but Saskatchewan and Alberta for sure do you think we're a distinct society absolutely in fact

00:21:29.260 i would i would venture to guess that we're really more of what Canada used to be

00:21:34.460 which now makes us distinct and i know that's a sad thing to say but the east has moved so far from

00:21:39.820 its roots in terms of what created Canada and what made Canada a great nation and we still believe

00:21:45.660 those things here in Alberta that i think truly does make us distinct and and that's i think part of

00:21:51.340 what's fueling you know when we look at independence we used to think well you know what it's policy

00:21:56.620 difference there's structural issues with confederation that are driving this but it's

00:22:01.340 more than that now because we see the eastern Canada stepping further and further away from the values

00:22:07.980 and the the history that made Canada what it was whereas out here in the west we still hold true to

00:22:14.300 those things and you know individualism hard work uh freedom those radical concepts

00:22:23.420 we still believe in those things and i think now that you're right it truly does make us a distinct

00:22:28.060 society yeah i think we're going to get a feel for that in your article when we read it right for sure

00:22:33.260 absolutely and you actually spoke to Danielle Smith for your article uh no i i have not spoken with her

00:22:39.580 okay but i've i've i've met her several times and um like i say i applaud what she's been doing

00:22:46.060 she's a smart bright politician um but sometimes you know everybody anybody can make a mistake and i

00:22:53.180 think this one um she's gonna have to take a cold sober second look at it's gonna be interesting to see

00:23:00.460 what happens this weekend yes you know the old chinese proverb may you be cursed to live in interesting

00:23:05.260 times well congratulations we are living in interesting times before we started recording

00:23:10.780 i said boy the stuff that's happened in the last year in this country has been unbelievable and

00:23:15.340 certainly here in alberta as well james we'll leave it at that it's wonderful to talk to you again

00:23:19.740 we'll get you back on we'll keep uh keeping

John Bolton - November 28, 2025

A BIG win For Mark Carney - Columnist James Albers (Western Standard)

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