Juno News - November 15, 2019The west is speaking up. Will Trudeau listen？
Episode Stats
Summary
Justin Trudeau has said upon re-election that he wants to be a voice for all Canadians, even those in Alberta and Saskatchewan, where the Liberals failed to win even a single seat. He made this promise on election night, basically acknowledging that he s heard the frustrations of Western Canadians. Well, if he has, it doesn t sound like he s doing anything about it.
Transcript
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Justin Trudeau has said upon re-election that he wants to be a voice for all Canadians,
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even those in Alberta and Saskatchewan where the Liberals failed to win even a single seat.
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He made this promise on election night, basically acknowledging that he's heard
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the frustrations of Western Canadians. Well, if he has, it doesn't sound like he's doing
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anything about it. Premier Scott Moe of Saskatchewan had a post-re-election meeting
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with Justin Trudeau, as all provincial premiers and all party leaders at the federal level are doing,
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and afterwards he said that he's got no confidence that there's going to be anything
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apart from more of the same in this second mandate for Justin Trudeau. Premier Moe said he raised with
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Justin Trudeau the possibility of pausing the carbon tax, the carbon tax that right now is subject to
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litigation that's going to the Supreme Court, and this was, according to news reports, rebuffed by
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Justin Trudeau. Andrew Scheer, the leader of the Conservative Party and leader of Her Majesty's
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Loyal Opposition, similarly had a sit-down in which he put to the Prime Minister Justin Trudeau
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this idea of repealing bills C-69 and C-48. These are bills that are very widely panned in Western
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Canada because they only aim to disrupt and hinder the growth of Canada's energy sector.
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And what did Justin Trudeau say? No, it's not going to happen. So Trudeau says he's listening
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to the frustrations of Western Canadians, but when solutions are put to him, there's no compromise,
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there is nothing that he's willing to do to meet in the middle on these issues. And this is why
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Western alienation is becoming a big problem for Justin Trudeau. It already is one. I caught up in
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Alberta recently with Arnold Veerson, a member of Parliament in Alberta, a Conservative, and asked him
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these very questions of basically how he, as an Alberta MP in this environment, stands up for the
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Alberta voice at the table. This is what he had to say. So there's like a huge frustration in Alberta.
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We pay the bulk of the taxes. We send our money across this country. And we expect that we don't need
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our fair share back. We just need to be able to access the markets that we need to get access to.
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You hear this line all the time, no pipelines, no equalization. I don't know how we're going to
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bring that back, but I do know that every opportunity our Alberta caucus has to talk about
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that, we'll be bringing that to Ottawa. We are a large contingent now. It's nearly a clean sweep here
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in Alberta. And our Saskatchewan brothers and sisters are definitely strong allies on this stuff too.
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If you allow a significant portion of the population, especially one that contributes
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so much economically to the country, to be alienated, you're going to breed secessionist
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or separatist sentiments. I'm actually, as you watch this, on my way to Red Deer, Alberta,
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where I'm speaking at a conference devoted to the very idea of exploring Western independence
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and Western alienation. Now, I don't have a dog in the fight on the separation question,
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not living in Alberta myself, but it's going to be something to watch because quite frankly,
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Justin Trudeau does not want to have the rise of Alberta separatism and the rise of Quebec separatism
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on his hands, which is where things are headed now because of his inability to hold together
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confederation with policies that aim to support the energy industry and support all industry and
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industry for all Canadians. I don't expect Justin Trudeau to become the Alberta-focused leader.
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I don't expect him to start catering policy to Alberta, Saskatchewan, even Manitoba or Northern
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British Columbia for that matter. That's not what we expect here. Those are always going to be
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conservative strongholds and the Liberals are always going to be more interested in Vancouver,
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Toronto and Montreal. But he has to remember that you cannot abuse and walk on such a portion of the
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country without it coming back to bite you in the rear end. And this is what's going on right now.
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When Albertans are saying things like no pipelines, no equalization, despite how equalization is
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ingrained in the constitution, it shows that they are getting to the point where they're prepared to,
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by any means necessary, cut the federal government off. Cut it off. What is the government going to do
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then? You cannot use and abuse Alberta and Saskatchewan with impunity, which is what the federal
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government has done for far too long. This means that Alberta representatives, not just at the
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provincial level, but Alberta members of parliament need to ensure they're using their voice to stand up
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for the West in parliament because no one else is and certainly no one in this government is.
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True North is standing up for the West. We're standing up for all of Canada, the values and issues that
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matter most, the ones the mainstream media are not reporting on. We can't do this alone. If you can ship
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in a few bucks or join my heritage club to support us year round, please do. There's a link in the
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description box or you can head on over to tnc.news slash donate. For True North, I'm Andrew Lutton.