Juno News - “Guilbeault will be gone by Christmas” + absurd media coverage of Danielle Smith’s Alberta townhalls

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm and this is The Candice Malcolm Show. Well folks, it is the middle of

00:00:07.320 summer. I hope everyone is having a wonderful time. Hopefully you're spending lots of time

00:00:10.880 outdoors and family and friends, maybe out at a cottage or a cabin or wherever you might go and

00:00:16.240 do it in the summer. But given that we're in the middle of summer, I mean it is mid-July,

00:00:20.360 usually it's quite quiet this time of year, there is a lot going on news-wise. We have these Alberta

00:00:24.740 Next Town Halls happening across Alberta. We're going to cover those and talk about those. And

00:00:29.440 then we have the Premier's meeting in Muskoka, Ontario and Prime Minister Mark Carney is out

00:00:35.360 joining them today. So we've got some clips and some updates from us. We have a by-election

00:00:38.900 coming up in Alberta where we will see whether Pierre Polyev, the leader of the Conservative

00:00:43.860 Party, can regain his position as a Member of Parliament and become the official opposition

00:00:48.400 again. And to talk about these topics and more, I'm pleased to be joined by one of my favorite

00:00:52.300 guests here on The Candice Malcolm Show. I'm talking about Brett Wilson. Brett is an investment banker,

00:00:55.700 entrepreneur and a philanthropist. You probably know him from his days as the Dragon's Den star and he

00:01:01.400 also hosted Risky Business on Slice. So Brett, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for

00:01:05.840 joining us. I'm proudest of being a grandpa, but keep going. Okay, well I'll add that into the bio for

00:01:11.900 the next time around. I want to get your thoughts on these Alberta Next Town Halls. So Alberta Premier

00:01:17.840 Danielle Smith has been hosting Alberta Next Town Halls. They've done two so far and there will be

00:01:24.220 eight done in the future. So we saw her last week first in Red Deer on Tuesday and then Sherwood Park

00:01:30.880 and they're certainly generating a lot of media, a lot of discussions about the tour itself and you

00:01:37.200 know the purpose of it, whether it's fulfilling a necessary role. We know that former Alberta Premier

00:01:42.840 Jason Kenney held similar town halls and so there are six key questions that are being posed to

00:01:48.820 Albertans during these town halls, getting feedback from the public, basically discussing things related

00:01:55.680 to Alberta's autonomy. So the six questions that are being posed are one, should Alberta push for

00:02:02.140 equalization reform? Two, should Alberta withdraw from the Canada pension plan and create its own

00:02:07.500 pension system? Three, should Alberta replace the RCMP and have its own provincial police service?

00:02:14.020 Four, should Alberta lead efforts with other provinces to amend the constitution, strengthen

00:02:18.400 provincial rights? Five, should Alberta take greater control over immigration to counter Ottawa's open

00:02:24.260 border approach? And finally, six, should Alberta collect personal income taxes directly rather than

00:02:30.080 through the CRA and have its own system of taxation? So all of these are really interesting questions,

00:02:36.280 certainly interesting in wake of the Liberal government getting reelected again, right? Like

00:02:41.360 it's hard to overstate this fact, but typically in a democracy, you have a sway from left to right,

00:02:48.140 left to right, and it's a course correction, right? And so after 10 years of Liberal governments,

00:02:52.400 and we had one of the most left-wing Liberal government in Canadian history with, you're just known for

00:02:58.000 its excesses in every area of life. It's like it's time for a shift back and in a normal democratic system,

00:03:04.060 you would have eventually a shift back to the right, except for in Canada, we didn't get that. We got

00:03:08.640 another Liberal government under Mark Carney. So, you know, of course, there's a lot of frustration

00:03:12.920 bubbling up on the surface, especially in a Conservative province like Alberta. So before we get

00:03:17.880 into any of the details of these, the first two town halls and how they went for Premier Smith,

00:03:22.620 I'm wondering, like, what are your thoughts on the state in Alberta and whether you think these town

00:03:26.680 halls are a productive approach to sort of talk about a lot of the issues that are bubbling up?

00:03:31.480 I think one of the most important things that Danielle is trying to do is raise the profile 0.91

00:03:36.220 of the conversation as opposed to limit it to the social media, limit it to legacy media,

00:03:43.000 and the noise that, to be blunt, it's just not as professional or thoughtful as it could be.

00:03:49.780 The coverage is so biased and it's very frustrating. Let's go back to the big picture. How many questions

00:03:55.840 of those six could be rephrased as, can we live the way Quebec lives in terms of CPP, in terms of RCMP,

00:04:06.000 in terms of collecting tax, in terms of the equalization structure? I mean, so much of what

00:04:11.720 we're asking is, can we not operate and function just like Quebec? And so for people to come out,

00:04:18.920 especially in the media, legacy media, criticizing the fact that we're questioning whether or not the

00:04:24.980 RCMP should be on our budget or part of a, or the Alberta police should be part of our own budget,

00:04:31.000 or should we be paying the RCMP as part of a federal initiative? There's virtually nothing on this list

00:04:37.900 that doesn't tie to the question, if Quebec has these rights, why can't we? And it's that simple.

00:04:43.800 I just don't understand the debate. Now I've got several friends on the Alberta NEXT committee.

00:04:49.840 They were delighted to be asked. They were provoked to be thoughtful and engaging. And

00:04:55.440 please make sure if you're in, you're in for every event. And a couple of my friends,

00:05:01.580 I spoke with them last night, were literally accosted because they were leaving the Red Deer site

00:05:07.960 in an almost bullying way by saying, you've got to support separation or you don't serve any purpose

00:05:14.740 here. And some fairly, again, animated, not physically violent, but certainly attempting to

00:05:21.140 be emotionally abusive conversations. And it just didn't make sense. The disappointment from a couple

00:05:28.300 of my friends again, who attended these was that the participation of younger people is very low.

00:05:34.680 We kind of laughed and said it was 50 to 70 or you're not getting in. And whether that's absolutely

00:05:41.280 true or not, the bias was to a much older age group. And again, my hope, if anyone that thinks

00:05:47.840 that Danielle Smith is the separatist is delusional, misguided, misinformed, or stupid, any of those 1.00

00:05:55.620 work. She's right. Right. Like one of the criticisms, certainly from legacy media and people on social 1.00

00:06:00.480 media is that a premier Smith is stoking the separatist, you know, sentiment and that she's 0.85

00:06:06.140 using these as a preference to push the separatist idea. I actually see it as the complete opposite,

00:06:11.920 right? She's like, you know, there are legitimate concerns that are out there. And to your point,

00:06:17.060 like there's already precedent in this country. We are a decentralized federation. There's precedent

00:06:22.800 for a provincial government to have more control over their own resources and over their own destiny.

00:06:28.580 And so if one province can do it, why couldn't another? I mean, it's almost absurd that that

00:06:33.620 would even be a controversial question. And so I do want to get to some of them. And oh,

00:06:38.520 just one other thing, Brett, I will say that for young people, you know, it's the middle of summer.

00:06:43.060 I don't blame them, right? We get like two, three months of nice weather a year in this country.

00:06:47.760 And, you know, if you're young, you're going to be out with your friends. You're going to be out

00:06:51.080 enjoying life maybe with your kids at home and not going to a political town hall. So I don't begrudge the

00:06:57.860 young for not going. Although I will say, you know, each of these, it seems that there's been

00:07:01.440 400 to 500 people, 10 in person, but then another, you know, couple hundred thousand online. So people

00:07:07.800 are still engaging with these town halls online rather than perhaps in person. So we'll start with

00:07:13.540 the Red Deer event, which happened last Tuesday, July 15th. Some 450 people showed up, according to

00:07:19.800 Global News, to put questions to Premier Smith and the 15 other members on the panel. This is sort of

00:07:26.880 what you expect. People go because they're animated, because they're worked up, rather that they really

00:07:32.380 believe in Alberta separation, or perhaps that they really oppose it or that they really oppose what

00:07:37.660 Premier Smith is doing and they're going to heckle her personally or just to show their frustration

00:07:42.680 with the system. I'm here for it. I think these town halls are a great exercise in democracy, but I'll show

00:07:47.360 you one clip from attendee that I think captured a lot of the sentiment that people were feeling

00:07:53.020 around these panels. So a woman is said, look, I'm sorry, I don't know if it's actually a woman or

00:07:57.900 man, but an attendee argues that Alberta separation is basically the only choice here. And that if you're

00:08:03.540 not talking about separation, like what are we even doing here? So let's play that clip.

00:08:07.720 Your video said it's, uh, uh, Ottawa continues or has ignored us and will continue to ignore us.

00:08:14.060 It doesn't matter what we do here tonight or what the outcome of this is. They will continue

00:08:19.040 to ignore us. There's one question, one question only that needs to be on a referendum. And that

00:08:25.220 is, do you support Alberta exiting Canadian Confederation and becoming a sovereign nation?

00:08:31.880 At that point, at that point, then you'll be able to negotiate with Ottawa. Then you'll be able

00:08:38.140 to negotiate with Quebec without that, they will continue to ignore us.

00:08:43.120 So that's an interesting point because you could tell the crowd was mostly in agreement with that

00:08:47.620 gentleman there. He, he's not even necessarily saying that we need to separate, but he's saying

00:08:52.520 that we need to have a clear question of separation that we could take to the feds that we can take to

00:08:56.320 Quebec and have a better barring chip. So I think that's an interesting perspective. What did you make

00:09:01.360 that one? Well, so I appreciate that. And in fact, that's the one part of the conversation that is

00:09:06.100 important. It's just, I kind of make fun. I've been on stage a few times in the last several months

00:09:10.340 talking about separation and I asked the question, do you want a wall like Trump for put up between

00:09:16.240 Mexico and the U S or do you want just a chain link fence? Or should we just build a moat between

00:09:22.000 Alberta and Saskatchewan? And people look at me like that's some of the stupidest thought process. 1.00

00:09:26.540 Imagine when I go acknowledge, absolutely. Because the reality is that separation involves 0.99

00:09:31.280 one thing that's paperwork. We got to get better paperwork. It's all the elements of the deals

00:09:36.580 we've done with the feds. And if we can use the separation noise, the leverage of the people saying

00:09:43.460 enough is enough is enough. And we need to change relative to call it sovereignty. I happen to be a

00:09:50.460 little biased. I've been asked to put money up and play a more active role in separation. My polite

00:09:56.320 response is, I believe in collaboration. Let's work as the West. And again, there's a group of

00:10:02.540 provinces in Eastern Canada, imaginatively called Atlantic Canada. Well, let's collaborate and become

00:10:09.720 Western Canada in a working way. Wob Canoe has expressed an interest in the idea of a Northern

00:10:15.840 corridor coming from Churchill and maybe ultimately across into Alberta. And then Alberta goes all the

00:10:23.580 way out to Prince Rupert. I mean, there's so many great options embedded in doing things better,

00:10:28.860 but it's paperwork. And what's really interesting is Bill C-5, approved by the Conservatives and the

00:10:35.080 Liberals, is in favor, is promoting the acceleration of projects. And the acceleration of projects creates

00:10:42.820 jobs. It creates royalties. It creates income. It creates wealth. And if we're doing that collaboratively

00:10:50.620 in the West, we win automatically. So let's keep those thoughts alive. Anyone thinking that Alberta

00:10:57.740 on a standalone basis is better off is misguided. I believe we need better rapport with the feds.

00:11:05.680 I'm with that person totally in the context of can we do better with federal Canada? Well, yes,

00:11:12.160 but right from 1907, we've had that problem. Right. Well, I want to add in another element of this,

00:11:17.800 which seems to be that the media in Alberta are out to get Premier Smith and they want to paint this

00:11:23.700 as a train wreck and as a disaster. So I'll point you to the Edmonton Journal, who was covering the

00:11:30.200 second event, which happened just outside of Edmonton. And so the headline that they put up

00:11:33.820 was Smith hears mixed reviews from Edmonton crowd on Alberta next pitches. Smith's opening remarks

00:11:38.800 were interrupted by heckles and laughter on Wednesday in contrast to the friendly response

00:11:42.800 she and the panel received the night earlier in Red Deer. And so you would kind of think like,

00:11:48.180 okay, maybe she got like booed off the stage or, oh, that sounds like pretty confrontational the way

00:11:53.220 that the Edmonton Journal described it, that she was interrupted by heckles and laughs. So we went

00:11:57.300 and we watched her opening remarks to try to find the heckling and the laughter. But we had to watch

00:12:02.840 it a few times because you could be forgiven for missing it. It was very minor. It was a very small group

00:12:07.520 of people. You could tell. So we're going to play the clip of what happened. And then,

00:12:11.140 you know, the audience can decide for themselves whether Smith was really heckled and laughed

00:12:15.460 during her opening statement. Let's play that clip. Alberta has an Ottawa problem. For the last 10

00:12:20.800 years, Ottawa, led, it must be said, by successive liberal governments, has taken direct aim

00:12:25.800 at Alberta's core industries. From, it's the truth, if Alberta is to be a strong and unified country,

00:12:35.140 it has to include a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada, able to pursue our

00:12:41.060 own potential. So yeah, there was one or two guys heckling. And then it sounded more like there

00:12:47.240 were counter hecklers, like people telling the one or two hecklers to be quiet. And you could tell by

00:12:51.880 the time Smith finished her sentence that she had won over the room again, they were all cheering for

00:12:55.180 her. So it wasn't exactly contentious the way that the Edmonton Journal was making it seem.

00:12:59.720 A handful of people, you know, if you were to say the statement that Ottawa has been getting in the

00:13:05.420 way of Alberta's resources, like 95% of people in Alberta would probably agree. And it just so

00:13:10.220 happened that the 5% that disagree happened to be in the audience and they heckled and then they

00:13:13.560 got counter heckled. And that's kind of the nature of these town halls, right? That's the point. It's

00:13:17.640 like democracy in action. And it's great. And Daniel Smith handled himself incredibly well. But that's not the

00:13:24.140 way that the headline writes it. What do you make of it, Brett? Well, I certainly intend to attend. So

00:13:29.240 that's one. I want to see the noise and get a sense because I think there's an immediate bias that

00:13:35.320 there's a lot of call it the noisemakers are attempting to attract other noisemakers to this

00:13:41.600 sort of situation. And again, I talked to a couple of the members of the next panel, they were delighted

00:13:47.920 with the engagement at as a very professional level. One of them shared the experience leaving

00:13:53.980 being bullied effectively by a couple of guys who were pro-pro separation only, didn't understand

00:14:02.880 the difference between sovereignty and separation. And again, I get back to do we need independence

00:14:07.600 within the country of Canada? Well, yeah, there's an example. It's called Quebec. I mean,

00:14:12.880 I just don't get why we can't parallel what Quebec has done, other than the fact that we're one of the

00:14:18.660 greatest resource-based nations. And when I talk about nations, I'm talking about Western

00:14:23.960 Canada, Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC, UConn and Northwest Territories. What we have

00:14:29.000 collaboratively, every product we have as a nation, maybe no lithium, I don't know, but there's got to

00:14:35.720 be a little bit of everything and especially the uranium, especially all the copper and coal and gold

00:14:42.480 oil and gas and trees and then cows and farming. I mean, we've got everything. And if we can work

00:14:52.740 collaboratively, become a little more sovereign, absolutely. But sovereign doesn't mean that we

00:14:58.120 leave Canada. And I can tell you that the bias I hear amongst my own followers is, again, 98%. Let's

00:15:08.380 improve where we are in Canada, but let's not pretend we're leaving Canada.

00:15:14.420 Yeah. Well, it's funny that you made the comment about how there was a couple of loud, uh, people

00:15:18.360 aggressively sort of pro-American type. It's funny because I hosted an event in Calgary a few years

00:15:23.340 ago, True North Nation. You were there, Brett. And there were a couple guys with 51st state hats. And this

00:15:29.060 was way before Trump even said the thing. And it was kind of the same thing. They were like aggressively

00:15:34.420 interrupting and, and, uh, following me around at some point with a camera, basically just trying

00:15:38.620 to get me on record, whether I would support the idea. And it's like, that's not what we're even

00:15:42.000 talking about. But I feel like the people who are really gung ho about that idea aren't, aren't exactly,

00:15:46.780 um, the, the, the polite types that go to a conference to, you know, sit quietly and listen.

00:15:51.160 They're usually there to cause a bit of a spectacle. 0.78

00:15:53.260 You know what I really wish is that we could have one session for each of Kearney, Polav, Moe,

00:16:03.100 Smith, and Ford to start with, with Joe Rogan. Let's get them down and let Joe pull them apart. 0.62

00:16:13.120 Let Joe and his followers. I genuinely believe that if Pierre had been able to swing time, uh,

00:16:19.000 with a couple of, they call it the podcast Kings of the United States, and there's four or five,

00:16:24.760 not just one, but, uh, Joe Rogan being the most obvious, I think he could have picked up in the

00:16:29.880 voting panels, um, the two or 3% needed to have swung dozens of ridings, dozens of ridings.

00:16:40.040 I, I, that's an interview because I've, I've been talking about this with some people kind of behind

00:16:44.200 the scenes, uh, on the Polly of campaign. They basically just said, look, uh, Polly was painted

00:16:49.080 as being too pro American and too right wing. Right. And so if he showed up on one of those

00:16:53.560 podcasts that the media deem as American right wing, it would just, they would just have a field

00:16:57.720 day. Like, like the thing that Pierre was trying to win over was those like suburban boomers. And,

00:17:03.000 and those were the people that would pearl clutch the hardest overseeing. And, but I agree,

00:17:07.480 I would love to hear the thoughts, you know, I would like to have a debate. Imagine a debate on Joe Rogan

00:17:13.640 between Mark Carney and Pierre Polly. That would be amazing, way better than anything that the

00:17:17.960 Debates Commission, um, could have presented. And I, I hope that, you know, in the future,

00:17:22.040 we have those kind of long form conversations. And speaking of a couple of the names that you,

00:17:26.360 you mentioned that you'd like to see a bunch of them were here in Muskoka, Ontario, just a bit north

00:17:31.800 of where I am, um, having discussions, the premiers all met Muskoka, Ontario, uh, on Monday and

00:17:37.000 Prime Minister Mark Carney is there today, uh, mostly just discussing trade. The, the latest from

00:17:43.400 President Trump and the looming deadline on tariffs that are coming. So I think we have a quick clip

00:17:49.080 of, uh, Prime Minister Carney saying that, uh, you know, we're going to do what we can,

00:17:54.280 but the best thing we can do for Canada is just to improve our own economy. Let's play that clip.

00:17:58.600 We are looking, um, for the best deal for Canada. We're only going to accept the best deal, uh, for

00:18:04.280 Canada. That is very much informed by our, uh, discussions. We understand as well that,

00:18:10.040 um, we all understand that the global trade environment is changing. Um, and there are some

00:18:16.440 countries that are pulling back that are restricting market access. What we collectively,

00:18:22.040 uh, can most control is building a stronger economy. 0.61

00:18:27.000 So what, uh, what do you make of how Prime Minister Carney is handling all this, Brett?

00:18:31.720 Well, to start with the fact that the defense and the provincial leaders are meeting regularly.

00:18:38.760 I mean, two weeks ago in Prince Edward Island, every cab, every energy minister met with Hodgson

00:18:44.280 and team. So they're meeting and meeting regularly. Why? Because talk is talk, action is action,

00:18:49.800 but you've got to start with talk. You can't just start building projects. You've got to get the

00:18:54.280 engagement to happen. And let's not forget for a moment that the liberal party hasn't used the word

00:18:59.240 Trudeau for any purpose whatsoever in three or four months. It's pretty clear that they're abandoning

00:19:06.520 what Trudeau attempted to do in terms of abusing our nation for his misguided beliefs in climate.

00:19:13.240 And, uh, you know, destroying the Canadian economy will improve the planet for everyone. That was

00:19:18.360 Trudeau's approach. Obviously the liberals are very, very conscious. Bill C-5 tells the whole story

00:19:24.520 from my perspective. There's some that argue that it's got too much power. Um, some of my first nations

00:19:29.640 friends are upset with their first nation friends for abusing the fact that C-5 is going to accelerate

00:19:35.640 all of this. C-5 doesn't override anything indigenous. It overrides some of the noise of 0.93

00:19:41.560 Bill C-48, C-69, things that the federal government imposed without logic or reason. All we're doing

00:19:48.040 is trying to accelerate. And so the first nations are rightfully saying, look, we've got to be part of

00:19:52.600 this. You can't ignore us. Well, that was never the intent. And that's the beauty I think of C-5, 1.00

00:19:57.080 if we can get that moving. So just going back to the big picture, you asked, I mean,

00:20:00.680 they're meeting in Huntsville. Um, the leaders are meeting regularly and that's obvious because

00:20:06.600 Ford, pardon me, the guy named Donald Trump is forcing them to meet.

00:20:10.520 Well, it's, it's really interesting. There's a couple of different dynamics, right? Like one

00:20:13.800 of them was the premiers were all asked about an East West pipeline, right? And it seemed like a few

00:20:17.560 years ago, this was, this was like a lost battle. It was off the table. And now here we are revisiting

00:20:21.880 it. And it seems like, you know, nobody wants oil that goes through the United States when you're in a trade

00:20:26.920 war with America. So it seems like there is more of an appetite to build an East West pipeline.

00:20:31.400 I want to zoom in a little bit on just the Trump tariffs though, because I, I want to point this,

00:20:36.760 uh, to people's attention in a CBC article that to their credit goes in depth. It says, uh, many

00:20:42.120 Canadian exports can avoid Trump tariffs if they're, and then I don't know why, but the C, uh, the CBC

00:20:48.280 calls it CUS, um, I think the Americans call it USMCA, uh, the next iteration of NAFTA, um, if

00:20:55.160 they're compliant. And so what does that mean? Well, basically the, the, the, this story says that

00:21:00.280 companies are, um, can be exempt from the tariff as long as they are compliant with the trade deal

00:21:06.920 that they've already signed. And that some 86% of the value of Canada's exports to the U S have the

00:21:14.040 potential to qualify for one of these exemptions just as long as they, as, as they adhere to, uh,

00:21:20.440 the, the, the trade agreement that we've already ratified and signed. And so all of this makes me

00:21:25.160 just think like, this is all just much ado about nothing. Like this is a bunch of, you know, people

00:21:30.360 getting really concerned, the media drumming this up, like tariffs, more tariffs are coming. It's

00:21:33.720 going to start the Canadian economy. And then it turns out, well, we already have a trade deal. And as

00:21:37.000 long as they're compliant with the trade deal that exists, they actually won't be subject to these new

00:21:41.320 tariffs. So I, I, again, this almost feels a little bit like a manufactured crisis here. What do you

00:21:46.920 think, Brett? It sounds like Canadian media taking control of the nonsense. I, I'm not as convinced 0.94

00:21:55.160 that Trump has a real vision and plan for what Trump's tariffs will look like. He wants a better

00:22:02.520 deal. And that's where, again, there's lots of reasons to disrespect Tom, but Trump, but when you

00:22:07.400 think about the big picture, protect the border, ruin, take, get rid of bad guys, try and stop the

00:22:13.880 wars on a global basis. I mean, the previous US government did nothing that was apparent in terms

00:22:20.280 of attempting to make the world a better place. Trump's trying to do it in the style of his own,

00:22:25.480 again, rhetoric, which is, you know, he'll promise one thing on Monday and by Tuesday he's forgotten,

00:22:30.840 but he's asking for better deals. And the idea of letters, trade agreements, tariffs, all that stuff,

00:22:36.360 his team's working hard. I was really impressed by the way, slight distraction with those four

00:22:41.400 senators that came to Canada to say, look, let's not forget, we're friends.

00:22:47.400 Well, exactly. And, and I think that, you know, we have a lot more in common than the things that

00:22:52.840 divide us. And I mean, there's a reason why we have these trade agreements, right? It's like, we

00:22:57.160 all have industries that you, that, that we want to focus on, that we want to protect. I mean, Canada's

00:23:02.840 certainly very guilty of doing that with our dairy industry. And, you know, it makes sense that the

00:23:07.320 Americans will say, look, the whole purpose of trade is based on reciprocity. So if you want to

00:23:12.360 subsidize one of your industries, you're going to have to get hit with tariffs. And that's just the

00:23:16.120 way the trading world goes. It's not something that Trump invented himself. And I think that we would

00:23:20.760 all be better off if we remembered that, you know, our economies are very intertwined. Our cultures are

00:23:26.200 very intertwined. Our communities are intertwined. Many of our families are in trying to cross both

00:23:30.520 sides. So yeah, I don't like the drumming of the anti-American sentiment that has been being pushed in

00:23:38.120 Canada last year. I really, really don't like it at all. Now, and to jump on your point, I don't want

00:23:42.520 to be the 51st state. But paperwork is paperwork. And if we can get a better deal done with the Americans,

00:23:50.040 for example, just Western Canada trading north, south, then east, west, well, that's a Canadian

00:23:55.960 problem. But it's a win for, call it Western Canada, or the, I keep calling it the collaboration.

00:24:02.280 But we, so much we can do. By the way, in the background, I'm starting to move into the coal

00:24:07.720 industry, all hands in, all hands on deck, so to speak. I'll be writing checks, I'm going on boards,

00:24:14.600 and I'll play a more active role in raising the profile of steel making for export only,

00:24:20.360 underground coal. I mean, there's absolutely no objection, potential, possible, legitimate,

00:24:27.800 for saying no to steel making coal being shipped to the world. One of the greatest ways of making

00:24:33.080 money for Canada. And it's going to be interesting because there's, we've got environmental groups

00:24:38.040 opposed to any coal, any coal. Well, where does that come from? Anyway, just share some of the noise

00:24:44.920 that's in the background that we all have to deal with. Well, it's one of the frustrating things

00:24:49.400 in Canada generally is that we, there is a large environmentalist group. And look,

00:24:53.720 I love the environment. I love the natural environment. I take time with my kids and

00:24:57.080 spend time in nature every day. But, you know, there is a contingent of the population. It's very

00:25:02.360 small and very fringe, but they're very active. And, you know, any, any project, any pipeline,

00:25:07.320 any natural resource development, um, they will, they will get in front of it. You know,

00:25:11.640 they, they, they have knowledge of things that are happening and it's like, they, they have an

00:25:15.880 outsized impact partially because the media allows them to partially because our legal system and

00:25:21.240 police sort of treat them with kid gloves. But I think, I think Canada, I mean, that, that's,

00:25:25.720 that's a whole. It's an ongoing charge. Yeah. Okay. I want to, uh, final, uh, topic that I want to

00:25:30.600 cover with you today is the longest ballot initiative, because this, again, it's just out

00:25:34.680 of control, right? Like during the federal election in Pierre Polyev's home riding of Carleton, there

00:25:39.400 were some 120 or 160 people on the ballot. It was ridiculous and embarrassing for Canada. And you would 0.92

00:25:45.800 think that Elections Canada would do something about it. Uh, no, they have not. And now in the upcoming

00:25:50.360 by-election that Pierre Polyev is running in, there are, sorry, there's 132 people on the ballot, 132

00:26:00.280 people on the ballot. So the longest ballot initiative, uh, record of 91 candidates was

00:26:05.320 broken when it reached a hundred. It's now, okay, sorry, 138. I mean, this is absolutely absurd.

00:26:10.760 We have, uh, Pierre Polyev speaking at a town hall in Stetler, Alberta, just saying that this is a total

00:26:16.600 scam by the clip. If you can fix this, we can simply, for example, say that everybody who gets on the ballot

00:26:22.680 should have to have a thousand unique signatures from residents in the community and that no one can sign

00:26:28.600 such a petition twice. That would make it impossible for 200 people to go out and have their names piled

00:26:36.280 onto the list. There are a number of other things that you could do that would make it so that only

00:26:40.440 real candidates who are truly running to put their name forward in our democracy are on that list.

00:26:45.640 But either way we have to take action because this is, this is a scam. It is unfair. It is unjust and it must

00:26:52.520 stop. Like I get that the point that people are trying to push is that they

00:26:56.680 believe in proportional representation. So they want to draw attention to the fact that

00:27:02.040 the candidate's vote doesn't necessarily relate to how many seats are in order or whatever.

00:27:07.880 But like, like, why are they allowed to do this? Right? Like they can make that point through,

00:27:11.960 I don't know, like an advocacy campaign and writing op-eds in the Globe and Mail or something. Like,

00:27:16.200 why do they have to do it by flooding Pierre Polyev everywhere he goes with all of these candidates?

00:27:21.960 It just makes it confusing. And again, it makes Canada look like an absolute joke. What do you make

00:27:26.200 of this, Brett? Well, there's certainly nothing to be said that these people are claiming advocacy

00:27:31.960 for the benefit of Canada. They're just **** disturbing or whatever the right term is offline.

00:27:37.000 But, you know, I'm aware that something like 50 or 60 of the names that were in Ottawa are now in

00:27:43.240 Alberta. Well, how did that qualify? How did that happen? I mean, obviously, didn't they say,

00:27:48.600 oh, well, Pierre moved or Polyev moved, so it's okay. Well, let's be crystal clear. There's,

00:27:55.480 and Polyev has said, and I agree with him for the most part, I actually like the idea of requiring

00:28:00.920 a $5,000 deposit. If you don't get 1% of the votes, you're out. Too bad, so sad. But Polyev's approach,

00:28:07.720 which was let's get a thousand signatures, legitimate, local, dedicated, single purpose only

00:28:14.280 support for a nomination. That's fine. You can vote for whoever you want, but let's get the

00:28:19.240 nominations properly organized. And the fact that Canada hasn't got that organized, it's an

00:28:24.520 embarrassment in terms of stupidity. And now Elections Canada can just bow their head and say, 1.00

00:28:30.600 well, too bad. I mean, the solutions are so simple, a deposit or minimum names, number of names for,

00:28:37.000 for the nomination. It's so simple. Exactly. Like, it's not like they need to pass

00:28:40.920 whooping legislation to fix this. It's like a procedural thing. Just like,

00:28:44.040 make them put a deposit down or make, make them have proof of address in the writing. How about

00:28:47.720 like even something very simple like that? It's like, they just, they were just humiliated and

00:28:52.200 then they did nothing. And now it's happening again. It's madness. I mean, I actually talked to

00:28:57.560 a lawyer a while ago and said, is there anyone I could sue over this? And again, just the goal was to

00:29:03.080 pot disturb in terms of what's going on, but it served no benefit. So there's no one particular group.

00:29:10.920 There's a group of people seem to be collaborating, but they don't belong as a

00:29:14.440 group. They aren't the undermine Canada group. Well, and it's also, it just seems a little

00:29:19.960 misguided, right? Because it's like Pierre Polyev is the leader of the opposition, right? So if this

00:29:24.440 is a group that's trying to get the attention of, I don't know, the liberal government, like why

00:29:29.400 wouldn't they go after liberals? Why wouldn't they go after Mark Carney or previously Justin Trudeau? No,

00:29:33.640 it's because these, these, all of these advocates, it's always, they have like a secondary motive,

00:29:38.680 which is just that they hate conservatives and they have like an anti-conservative bias.

00:29:42.120 So they're trying to humiliate him. And then they're also supposedly making this other point

00:29:46.280 about direct democracy. Last word to you, Brett. Well, I get a lot of noise on social media.

00:29:52.600 I've learned a long time ago to stop reading it. I get the odd piece I like and I'll compliment it. So

00:29:57.960 reinforce the positive, ignore the negative, but that's hard for people to do on social media.

00:30:02.920 And I even deleted a couple of tweets that I've put out on Nahid Nenshi a couple of weeks ago when

00:30:09.400 I had a private moment with him at a social event and realized I was pushing him a little too hard.

00:30:15.400 So I backed off a little bit, but the noise and the way we use social media, and again,

00:30:20.440 go back to legacy media, the two just don't really give us democracy. And these open houses,

00:30:26.600 which is where we started this conversation aren't really a, it's a great element of the process. So

00:30:32.600 Danielle can look back and say, I visited eight countries or eight cities, eight regions, eight

00:30:37.240 areas. And I did so with 10 or 15 qualified business leaders, people who have legitimate

00:30:43.560 investments in Alberta. They're not just one vote. Yes, we're all just one vote, but they influence

00:30:48.760 other outcomes because of their, of their role in, uh, in the business world. And I like what she's

00:30:54.040 trying to do. And again, I appreciate that 450 people coming out to rant and who knows what the

00:31:00.040 next six will be. Legacy media is trying to fill the rooms with, um, with rhetoric and, uh, and noise.

00:31:06.120 Right. Well, just final thought is that I remember talking to Preston Manning during COVID,

00:31:11.240 and we were talking about the 2021 election and how hard it was for those politicians because

00:31:15.720 everything was done via zoom. They weren't allowed to do big, uh, rallies and conferences and stuff like

00:31:20.680 that. And one of the things that you get from being in a physical room full of people is you

00:31:25.640 get immediate feedback, right? Like when you're online and you're tweeting, you get like your

00:31:29.480 eco chamber. So you get like your trolls that hate you and then your fault, your legion of fans

00:31:33.400 that love you. And, and you don't really get the middle. Right. But if you, if you're forced to go

00:31:37.160 out and go to these kinds of events in like Danielle Smith is doing, right? Like she goes to a friendly 0.59

00:31:42.280 place like Red Deer, but then she'll also go to Edmonton where she may not have gotten very many votes

00:31:45.640 for where there may be more people that oppose her. And she, she, she tests different ideas.

00:31:50.600 She says different things. She sees, you know, which one gets a positive response,

00:31:53.480 which it doesn't. And she owns her message and it impacts her. It has an impact. And that is what

00:31:57.160 you want of your leaders. You want them to be out there meeting Canadians, hearing different

00:32:01.080 perspectives and different voices so that they can go back and decide the best course course. And so,

00:32:06.600 you know, I didn't have a lot of good things to say about Justin Trudeau, but I did like the fact that

00:32:10.520 he would go out and do these town halls because it shows that he has confidence, um, in his ideas to go

00:32:15.560 and debate them. Although it didn't always go very well for Justin Trudeau when he was doing that,

00:32:19.000 but for Danielle Smith, certainly, um, she has the ability to stand on her feet, someone heckles her, 0.99

00:32:23.480 she takes it in stride, she goes, and by the time she finishes her sentence, the room is behind her

00:32:27.560 and cheering her. And so I think it shows a very confident politician, um, that is able to take all

00:32:32.760 that feedback in, in real life, but also, uh, you know, stand on their ideas and, and, and, and work

00:32:38.360 through even, even though there may be, you know, what the media pushes, heckling and laughing and

00:32:43.000 during which was pretty mild, but, but still, I, I think these are great exercises. I want more

00:32:47.800 politicians to do them. Well, the fact that we've got the federal leadership and the provincial

00:32:55.960 premiers meeting on a much more frequent basis than ever occurred under Trudeau, and I hate even using

00:33:02.280 his word or his name, but the fact that we're trying to move forward and get things done,

00:33:07.240 actions. I mean, the objections are, are, are, again, first nations, for example, it's, it's,

00:33:14.760 it's okay for them to object. It's not okay for them not to come to the table and have true,

00:33:19.800 thoughtful, ongoing conversations. And so there's, there's so much still to be done. And whether you

00:33:24.760 voted liberal, conservative, or, uh, the odd NDP, or the, basically the parties have said, let's get

00:33:31.080 rolling. And that's what excites me for Canada. Would I rather that Paul Lev was in the driver's

00:33:36.040 seat? Yeah. Would I wish that he had gone to visit Joe Rogan? Yeah. I mean, there's lots of things that

00:33:40.920 we wish we could done differently, but moving forward, I'm excited that we're actually in

00:33:45.880 conversation. Again, Bill C5 was one of the most pivotal bills that I've ever seen in all of my life,

00:33:52.760 watching activity proposed without C5. We, it would be a pointless, it'd be a waste of time.

00:34:00.200 I, well, yeah, I mean, it would have taken a long time to undo all of the disastrous bills that

00:34:04.280 Trudeau is pushing. And let's just make it be known that Mark Carney was behind the scenes

00:34:08.680 pushing those kinds of bills as well. So it is good to see.

00:34:11.320 Oh, right. Yeah. You're not supposed to say that.

00:34:15.240 Well, it's, it's annoying that Carney could move from such an extreme, but again, they,

00:34:20.520 they've blocked Trudeau. We talked about this before they put them in a cupboard.

00:34:24.360 They've deadbolted the door. They're not killing them, but they're taking them out of the picture

00:34:28.760 completely. And I'm hopeful. I mean, I really do believe that we could get some things done.

00:34:34.120 It's going to take forever to unwind any of those. I mean, let's go back to the big picture as well.

00:34:38.520 EV mandates telling us all we have to buy 20, 35 cars. I've pitched Hodgson and others saying,

00:34:44.760 instead of an EV mandate, why don't you celebrate what hybrids can do and make it interesting,

00:34:50.120 making it exciting, but stop telling us what we have to do to encourage us in terms of what we

00:34:55.240 could, should, and might want to do. And that's just one example. The, uh, CR regulations. I think

00:35:00.760 Deebo is going to be out of the room. And we haven't heard the word Deebo in, in a month, 0.95

00:35:05.320 he gets no profile. Now he's been blocked by a party called the liberal party. So I think he's going to

00:35:11.800 lose his, uh, his, uh, his role in cabinet in the next three to six months because he's irrelevant.

00:35:18.360 And the only way they can really get rid of the noise that he created under Trudeau is to get

00:35:23.720 rid of Deebo as well. And that's my, that's my bet right now. I'm putting three to one odds on him

00:35:28.360 being gone by Christmas. Wow. Uh, well, I don't want to bet you against you because I hope you're

00:35:33.000 right. And I hope that that is the direction that, uh, the Kearney government takes us in. Well,

00:35:36.920 Brad, that's a optimistic note to end the podcast. And so, uh, thanks so much for joining us. That is

00:35:41.240 Brett Wilson, investor and entrepreneur. Uh, that's all the time we have for the today folks. We'll be back

00:35:45.960 again tomorrow with all the news. I'm Kenneth Malcolm's Kenneth Malcolm show. Thank you. And God bless.

Juno News - July 22, 2025

“Guilbeault will be gone by Christmas” + absurd media coverage of Danielle Smith’s Alberta townhalls

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript