Premier Danielle Smith... Between A Rock & A Hard Place
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Summary
Where does this leave Alberta's premier Danielle Smith after the federal government threw her a bone the other day? And where does that leave her in the short term? Well, here are the nine bad laws that critics say are slowing down Alberta's oil and gas industry.
Transcript
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Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel. Great to have you along today. It is 4.02 a.m. Thursday,
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November the 6th. I hope you're having a wonderful start to your Thursday morning. I tip my big blue
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mug of coffee to you. If you haven't subscribed to the channel at this point, what are you waiting
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for? Please just click on subscribe and you'll help out the channel. Let's get to 40,000. So
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before I start today's video, I got a couple of big names coming up, interviews on this channel.
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Big names in the independence movement here, people that you know. I'm not going to say who
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they are yet, but I will give you a hint. Two of the people on the stage a couple of weeks ago
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at the Alberta legislature for the independence rally. I'm excited about it. I'm hoping to set
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one up tomorrow and maybe one later today. So watch for those in the upcoming week.
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So today I want to talk about the budget, but in a different way from an Alberta perspective.
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Where does this leave Alberta after Mark Carney threw Danielle Smith a bone? There was not a lot
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of meat on the bone, but he threw her a bone the other day. And where does this leave Danielle
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Smith? We're going to get to that in just a moment. I was thinking about this this morning. How can
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you describe the predicament that Danielle Smith, the premier of Alberta, is in right now? Danielle
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Smith is between a rock and a hard place. The rock is the Alberta Prosperity Project,
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the independence movement, the hard places, the upcoming annual general meeting of the UCP,
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which is at the end of this month. More on that in just a moment. So where do we stand here in
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Alberta when it comes to our oil and gas industry? Well, here are the nine bad laws. Remember,
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Danielle Smith made a whole video on this and she said the next government prior to the election on
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April 28th must get rid of these nine bad laws. And she gave them six months. Six months have passed.
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She's now giving Carney up until the Grey Cup, which I think is in the middle of November.
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So here are the nine bad laws. You know them very well. Repeal Bill C-69, lift the oil tanker ban,
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scrap the clean energy regulations, and the prohibition on single-use plastics. Now,
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I've checked off abandoning the net zero car mandate, but the actual review on this ended
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on the day of the budget. So we're going to find out whether this comes back or not.
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I think it's coming back. I think they're just going to push it a little further down the road.
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Returning oversight of industrial carbon pricing to the provinces, halting federal censorship of
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energy companies. Well, that was part of the bone that Carney gave Danielle Smith the other day.
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I think of all these laws, that's probably the one at the bottom. Still a bad one,
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but one right at the bottom. Ensuring Alberta's oil and gas corridors have access to the northeast
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and west coast. That didn't happen. Eliminate the emissions cap. And this is the one everybody's
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talking about. If we go over to this article from the National Post, federal budget sends mixed
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signals to Alberta's energy sector. Leaders in Alberta's energy sector saw some things to like
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in Tuesday's federal budget. Mark Carney's first as prime minister are partial climb downs on the oil
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and gas emissions cap and federal provisions against greenwashing. Two of the nine bad laws
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critics say are throttling Alberta's oil and gas sector. The two leaders have signaled that they'll
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they'd like to strike a deal on resource development by mid-November. Smith said in a statement that she
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was withholding comment on the budget. Haven't heard anything really from her amidst the sensitive
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negotiations with the federal government. I think there's a little bit more down here we can read.
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Yes, Alberta Environment Minister Rebecca Schultz said she was disappointed that Carney didn't use
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the occasion to kill the electric vehicle mandate with the end of the Prime Minister's 60-day review
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of the suspended policy serendipitously falling on budget day. I absolutely think this is a missed
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opportunity for the federal government. Now, where do we stand? Where are we actually when it comes to
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moving forward with the oil and gas industry here in Alberta? Well, Dan McTague's very well known. Dan is
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with Canadians for Affordable Energy. I used to interview Dan many years ago when he was with
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GasBuddy.com. He's a former liberal and this is what he had to say about the budget the other day,
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particularly when it comes to oil and gas. And while there are no cuts in programs where there
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ought to have been some that should have been considered, there's a variety of them where the
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government could have gone, it feels that it did the right thing by getting rid of the carbon tax just
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before the federal election, but it's going to max out, it's going to supercharge an industrial carbon
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tax. That means every business is now a target in this country. Yeah, you might not see it directly
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on the invoice and the slip that you receive when you go and purchase whatever goods you have, but it
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will be there for businesses that elect to stay in Canada. This is going to be a real drag on small,
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medium, and even large businesses who are already under significant pressure, not just because of
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tariffs. But because this is a country that decided to put a lot of regulations on every aspect of
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production, manufacturing, resource extraction, resource refining, and it really made life more
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difficult for business. And as a result, many of those costs where they could were passed on to
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consumers. They will continue to be so. By the way, a link in the description to the full video from
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Dan McTague from Canadians for Affordable Energy. Go over and subscribe to their channel.
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And what's really interesting about this, as I said, Dan is a former liberal MP. This is what
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they used to be like. Reasonable. They're not like that anymore. Dan wouldn't be welcome in the
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liberal party anymore. Over to this article here from the National Post, Jesse Klein.
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Carney trolls Canada with claim buyers want low carbon oil. Budget 2025, another liberal exercise
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in central planning. And down here, it's interesting. I liked a couple of paragraphs down here. Again,
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link in the description. You can read this whole thing. Even the industrial carbon tax,
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which increases the cost of domestic manufacturing, making us less competitive
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internationally, is framed as a pro-business strategy. Quote, an effective industrial carbon
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pricing system, the budget claims, is essential to providing certainty to businesses looking to invest
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and compete internationally. Industrial carbon pricing drives investment to reduce emissions and
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build the competitiveness of Canadian business. It is expected to deliver more emission reductions than
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any other policy with negligible impacts and affordability for Canadians. Unquote. And if you
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believe that, I've got some meme coins to sell you. Dan McTague on this as well.
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The fact that the liberals cannot get rid of the carbon tax and they want an industrial carbon tax or
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that they won't get rid of emission caps unless there are a number of conditions that are met,
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much of which requires massive amounts of investment in carbon sequestration, what they call the carbon
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capture and underground storage. A very dangerous process, by the way. And although it's been done in
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Saskatchewan and it's promised we're doing it, the idea was that somehow these things would give a bit of a
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sop to those out there who believe that people will be lined up to make investments once again in
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Canada. No issue as to government investing in infrastructure dealing with pipelines.
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No infrastructures for natural gas or oil or LNG. All these things remain way up in the air and
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without any real takers, it's unlikely we're going to see much activity. In other words, putting a carbon
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tax on industry is not good for business. It's not good for investment. And Carney still hasn't given in
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on all those other nine bad laws that Daniel Smith demanded, what, eight months ago. Now,
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Smith is coming up, as I mentioned earlier in this video, between a rock and a hard place.
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There's going to be some real movement by the end of this month. And I've got a call to action for you
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in just a moment if you want Alberta independence. Here's Corey Morgan talking about this on his show
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yesterday. Link in the description. Go subscribe to The Western Standard, to Corey's channel as well on
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YouTube. And subscribe to The Western Standard as well. Give them some of your love because they're
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a good conservative news outlet. Scheduling a referendum would serve the UCP government well
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too. The deadline's fast approaching for the demands Premier Smith made to the Carney government,
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and so far he's completely ignored them. There's a few indications he's going to make any significant
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policy changes before her deadline to the Great Cup. He said he'd kill the emissions cap, but then he
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added a bunch of caveats to the policy. If Smith lets Carney laugh in her face after these demands,
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her government's going to be rendered impotent when it comes to federal incursions and the blockage
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of Alberta's industries. If she scheduled an independence referendum the day after Great
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Cup though, I think people across the country would sit up and take notice. Support for independence
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in Alberta might not have hit majority level yet across the province, but the independence
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faction within the UCP is significant. Those independence advocates are getting impatient and they're going
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to turn their guns towards the UCP if they don't see some action when it comes to dealing
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with a federation that treats Alberta poorly. The UCP AGM is approaching in just a few more weeks
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and there are movements afoot to try and turn the UCP in an overtly sovereignist party. This would be
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disastrous for the UCP. The best way Smith can take the pressure off from within her own party is to set
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an independence referendum date for mid-2026. Independence advocates can then turn their focus
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and energy into campaigning for the referendum and the Premier can just say she's letting democracy run
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its course, which it would be. Corey's right. Premier Smith, call for an independence referendum
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now and do it for next year because the shit is going to hit the fan real soon if you don't do that.
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Because, as Corey said, the United Conservative Party annual general meeting is coming up and it's
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on the way from the 28th to 30th and it's time and sorry for the defecation imagery here, folks.
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Because there's a reckoning coming and the gloves are off. In fact, at least one of the guests I
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mentioned at the beginning of this video that I'm going to be interviewing here is going to talk
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about this. They got a plan at this meeting that's coming up. Now, I'm thinking seriously about
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signing up as a member of the UCP. You might want to do that as well because then you'll be able to
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vote for their board of directors and who's up for re-election at the end of the month. Well,
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let's find out who it is. There's a number of people, but the number one thing is the president.
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We've got the VP of the communications secretary, VP fundraising. We can vote for all of the people
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that want to see Alberta independence. And then Daniel Smith is going to be, like I said at the
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beginning of this, really between a rock and a hard place. She's going to have to make a decision
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on this. And who knows? If we can change the United Conservative Party enough at the annual
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general meeting, we might get a good Christmas present, a vote on a referendum. Now, I'm going
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to leave you with a video from Dan McTague, just kind of summing up what the future holds when it
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comes to this ridiculous budget from the liberals the other day. I appreciate you being here. Thank
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you so much. I do appreciate it. If you like the video, give it a thumbs up, subscribe to the channel,
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ring the bell for notifications. I will see you in the next one. Dan McTague, take it away.
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The fact that they want to keep carbon taxes, the fact that they do not want to back away from net
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zero suggests to me that they're just Trudeau light. And what they're going to do is continue
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down this road of spending more money than we're taking in, driving out investments and driving
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next generation that wants to take over this country and prosper as we did. They're going
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to drive that generation right into the ground.