00:01:19.000I love how the regime media are calling it a technical recession,
00:01:22.560as if that's a better kind of recession or something or not a real recession or something
00:01:28.240as opposed to calling it say literally a recession or just a recession because frankly
00:01:35.160it's never a recession for the cbc or the rest of the media political class they'll get more money
00:01:41.260this year than ever in history the cbc is getting the biggest payment ever the private sector i use
00:01:45.520the scare quotes for that because they're not private anymore when a third of their money
00:01:49.000comes from the government. The media bailout is the biggest ever, and it's going up. So
00:01:52.680for most journalists, it is a hypothetical recession. None of them are affected. We've
00:01:59.140been in a recession for years, actually, on an individual basis. What I mean by that is GDP per
00:02:05.320capita has been falling for years, starting in around 2022. That's one of the reasons why Trudeau
00:02:11.780and then Mark Carney went nuts on mass immigration, because by bringing in millions of people,
00:02:17.400the total size of the economy got bigger like the pie got bigger even though each of us got a
00:02:23.460smaller slice but they could use verbal trickery to say no we're not in a recession so we've been
00:02:28.820in a real recession on a per capita basis for about four years but now uh we're a real recession
00:02:35.640on a total gdb basis as in it's so bad mass immigration can't cover it up anymore now how
00:02:42.480is this possible? I mean, you can't go a week without some massive new investment announced
00:02:47.780by Mark Carney and his cronies. Next week, Mark Carney and his minister, Evan Salman, are about
00:02:53.120to announce their AI strategy. Of course, that only means one thing. They're going to spend
00:02:58.160billions of dollars. All the big AI companies are spending hundreds of billions of dollars,
00:03:03.960by the way. Some will succeed. Some will fail. It feels like the dot-com explosion around 25 years
00:03:09.520ago. Some huge successes came out of that frenzy. Google and Facebook being a couple of obvious
00:03:15.180ones. A lot of money was poured into losers too. A lot of money was lost. I think of some social0.90
00:03:20.260media platforms that failed like MySpace and Friendster. You remember those? You just know
00:03:26.220that Carney and Solomon are going to spend billions of dollars of your money trying to
00:03:30.160compete with trillion dollar companies like ChatGPT or Gemini or whatever. They'll spend a
00:03:35.540billion just to get a cool headline in the newspapers. But you see, they're not actually
00:03:40.300growing the economy. They're probably shrinking it, in fact, because they'll be taking the billion
00:03:45.060dollars they're going to spend away from successful Canadian companies who have to pay taxes and
00:03:50.760giving it to some scheme that is obviously not profitable, let alone workable, or else it
00:03:56.640wouldn't need a government bailout or government subsidy. There is not this. In Silicon Valley,
00:04:02.220they don't think, how can I get a grant? They say, how can I make this great product that's
00:04:07.240going to make venture capital companies invest in us? By definition, whoever Carney and Solomon
00:04:13.420support next week is a loser. It's a dud, or else they wouldn't take government money.0.97
00:04:18.760Reminds me of the tens of billions of dollars that the liberals just spent on electric vehicle
00:04:23.120batteries. Just nuts. It sort of is a message when no one else will spend it on it. I mean,
00:04:28.620it was a dumb idea and now we're all poorer my point is they're just moving the money around0.91
00:04:34.520from productive people to unproductive people that's not going to grow the economy0.96
00:04:38.340now they're talking about a 90 billion dollar monorail or whatever high speed rail scheme
00:04:43.260they're calling it between montreal and toronto again that will not grow the economy because it's
00:04:48.120just moving money away from the makers to the takers hey when was the last time you saw a good
00:04:53.980news story about the economy by the way i mean an actual company using its own money to invest and
00:05:00.200grow in canada is pretty rare i'm not talking about a government scheme i mean someone choosing
00:05:04.960to do business here rather than anywhere else sort of hard to think of one but i see you know
00:05:10.760i see the opposite in fact when it comes to tech i don't know you've been following it we'll have
00:05:14.880to do a show on it so many big tech companies from google to apple are saying they might actually
00:05:20.320leave Canada if Mark Carney insists on bringing in his new spyware law called C-22. That allows
00:05:28.200the government to spy on any social media app, any communications app. This, of course, would
00:05:34.020violate the privacy of users, violate the policies of these companies, probably violate the U.S. First
00:05:39.500Amendment. So yeah, Mark Carney is not so good at growing the economy, but if he insists on C-22,
00:05:45.440he's about to drive out billions of dollars of tech. Hey, but at least we'll have his homemade
00:05:49.700AI plans. But at the exact same time as I saw the news of a recession, I saw the first good news I've
00:05:55.980seen in a while. And of course, it was from the oil and gas industry. Look at this. This is a
00:05:59.980press release from a pipeline company called Southbow. It's a spinoff from TC Energy. They
00:06:07.740used to be called TransCanada Energy, but they're not really doing a lot in Canada since Trudeau
00:06:12.140and Carney took power. They made their name change back in 2019. It didn't take them that
00:06:17.320long to realize that Canada was a bit of a disreputable word when it comes to business
00:06:21.740and investment for oil. It's very sad when you think about it. Anyways, today there's some good
00:06:26.780news, sort of. It's good news from a business point of view. Southpaw had proposed to build
00:06:31.520a pipeline pretty much along the same route as the Keystone XL pipeline, which was proposed more
00:06:37.260than a decade ago and hasn't been built. In fact, it was killed by Barack Obama, if you recall.
00:06:42.840Now, Trump is in office. He loves this Keystone XL pipeline. He approved Keystone XL once before, but then Joe Biden killed it a second time. So he approved it again now in its current form. I'm not going to read it all to you since it's pretty technical, but let me read one key sentence from his executive order.
00:07:04.500He said, quote, permission is hereby granted to the permittee to operate and maintain existing pipeline border facilities, as described herein at the international border of the United States and Canada, at Cavalier County, North Dakota, for the transport between the United States and Canada of all hydrocarbons and petroleum products of every description.
00:07:26.740In other words, Trump is ready to accept a pipeline from Canada's oil and gas industry.
00:07:55.220They say, Southboat Corp announces the successful outcome of its open season, which closed on March 30th, 2026, securing 20-year binding commitments for firm transportation service from Hardesty, Alberta to U.S. delivery points.
00:08:11.280So a bunch of oil producers said, yes, if you go ahead and build the thing, spend billions of dollars to build the pipe, we promise to use it for 20 years and we'll pay you.
00:08:21.520It's sort of the opposite of how Ottawa usually does business, which is to think of a press release, announce the biggest possible expenditure you can, realize that no one is buying what you just built, and when it goes out of business in a year, pretend you didn't know anything about it.
00:08:36.940It's so rare and unusual to see a real business operate without any government money.
00:08:40.540I'll read just a little more from the press release.
00:08:42.480They said, Southwall will continue advancing its proposed Prairie Connector project towards a final investment decision, FID.
00:08:50.620Targeted for mid-2027, while strictly adhering to the company's risk preferences and capital allocation priorities.
00:08:58.420In other words, they're saying, if things change for the worse, we're out of here.
00:09:03.540Next steps include acquiring remaining permits and government assurances for permit durability,
00:09:09.780advancing execution plans, finalizing cost estimates, engaging with communities, landowners, indigenous groups, and other stakeholders, and securing financing.
00:09:18.100permit durability as in will the liberals pull the rug out from under us as they did with energy east
00:09:23.920last time the final investment decision will be subject to the satisfaction of these activities
00:09:29.200the company will provide more details regarding expected pre-fid activities and spending profile
00:09:34.940as part of its second quarter disclosures in other words they're ready their customers are ready
00:09:41.180the only thing left is politics that's what engaging with communities landowners indigenous
00:09:47.720group and other stakeholders mean. You can predict the price of steel, or the property tax rate over
00:09:53.560the land you traverse, or the cost of construction. You could predict those plus or minus five or ten
00:09:58.580percent, right? They've done the math and they think it's a go, at least within their risk
00:10:03.580parameters. Their customers think it's a go too. Imagine signing up for a 20-year deal. You have
00:10:09.120to have confidence. Wow, they're ready to go. But that one phrase, engaging with communities,
00:10:14.100landowners indigenous groups and other stakeholders really means two things mark carney
00:10:18.040and liberal judges who like to invent new rights for indigenous activists like the right
00:10:23.020to stop 300 000 albertans from signing a petition or the right in british columbia to the land other
00:10:29.380under someone's house so yeah this is a test isn't it they say they're going to make the final
00:10:35.920go or no go decision in mid 2027 one year from now so let's see i mean obviously this project
00:10:43.260makes sense it's a huge infrastructure project probably going to cost five billion dollars to
00:10:48.660build amazing imagine all the construction jobs imagine all the steel jobs you know i was out in
00:10:53.460algoma a few months ago and every single steel worker i spoke to loved the idea of building oil
00:10:59.180pipelines with canadian steel remember that how are we have a billboard truck and we say build
00:11:04.140steel pipelines if we could get an oil pipeline from alberta to bc we could use algoma steel what
00:11:09.580think of that that's a perfect idea that's great for the community versus saint marie for algoma
00:11:15.980i love it i think it gives us jobs as canadians considering steel's not really selling in the
00:11:21.260states right now it's a good idea right on cheers you work here yeah good luck yeah thank you thanks
00:11:25.820what do you think of that idea i agree i absolutely agree i think that's a good idea
00:11:30.300pipelines are made of steel algoma makes steel it seems like a natural fit i totally agree i just
00:11:36.460love canadian steel right on me too you know there'd be a billion dollars worth of steel
00:11:41.580in a pipeline from alberta to the west coast i think it should be bought right here what do you
00:11:45.580think i think so too right on i'm glad to hear you say that listen i wish you good luck our
00:11:50.140heart's breaking for what's going on because trump's putting the tariffs on but trump cannot
00:11:54.140put a tariff on a canadian project yes exactly all right well good luck thank you nice to meet
00:11:59.980you. I would take the opportunity, get more jobs out here. What do you think? It's so un-Canadian
00:12:07.660though to actually build something with your own money, private money, investors money, oil and gas,
00:12:13.500real stuff, not wind turbines or other subsidy stuff. I mean, where can liberal lobbyists get
00:12:18.540their snouts in to get a cut? So it's one year to live or die this pipeline. By the way, this is
00:12:23.500already all being approved. Like I said, the Keystone XL pipeline had this very similar route.
00:12:28.060It was actually approved in terms of regulations and the environment and consultation.
00:16:25.520Let's have Keith Wilson, who's a separatist, and the former premier, Jason Kenney, debate on the future of Western Canada.
00:16:32.780And we expanded it to Western Canada, Ezra, very simply because it's not just Alberta, right?
00:16:37.240I've grown up in the West, British Columbia.
00:16:39.300I was born and raised, been in Alberta for some decades now.
00:16:42.440But if you look at the separatist sentiment, there's a bit of it in Manitoba.
00:16:46.080There's a bit more of it in B.C., but, of course, it's the largest in Saskatchewan and Alberta.
00:16:51.120So we expanded it to talk about the West and Canada.
00:16:54.340I think that's a very good move. We had a town hall meeting in Regina on independence, and it was actually larger than any of the ones we've done in Alberta, which is very interesting to me. And I think Scott Mo is watching very carefully what Alberta does. So who was in the crowd? Because it seemed to be a pretty revved up crowd. Were they just general tickets for sale? Or did each side have an allotted number? How did you do that?
00:17:20.680No, that would have been far too organized.
00:17:22.500We just wanted to throw it up and open and first come, first serve.
00:17:27.580And I think there was a few more separatists in the crowd than what you'd call federalists, to use the old Quebec language of separatists versus the federalist forces.
00:17:37.220And Keith was aware of that, so he tried not to encourage them too much.
00:17:41.040Plus, he quite charmingly said, look, don't interrupt me because I want to win this debate.
00:17:45.600And so I think the former premier was a bit outnumbered.
00:17:49.980Look, we should say, by the way, at the Aristotle Foundation, I set this place up along with the staff and board because we wanted to renew Canada, as you know.
00:17:56.900So we're focused on the entire country.
00:17:59.680I understand the grievances, if you even want to put that negative spin on them, in terms of Western Canada.
00:18:05.460Look, I voted against the Charlottetown Accord in 1992 because it gave special status to Quebec.
00:18:10.780I've written on equalization as much as anyone in the country.
00:18:14.000I, as you know, was in the war room that the provincial government set up to fight for oil and gas.
00:18:19.600So I'm quite aware of the issues out here in the West and I'm a born and bred, bred Westerner. So we are pro Canada, full confession. And I told the crowd that and they had to live with it and they were fine. But we wanted a debate because you don't get anywhere in this country, as you well know, if you don't have open debates and too many people shy away from open debates, too many politicians, as you know, like to restrict open debates.
00:18:41.580They just, you know, they think, oh, that's that. We shouldn't talk about that in polite company. Yes, we should. Because you're not going to settle anything if you don't actually talk about it out loud. And look, you know more that, you know, know that more than anyone. I remember your time, you know, plumping for free expression against the Alberta Human Rights Tribunal. So, look, that was one of the reasons we held the debate was to, you know, clear the air, so to speak.
00:19:03.780Well, that's great. Now, did anyone, I'm just curious, because I'm thinking about how you describe the importance of the debate and maybe how sometimes it's more rare than it should be. Did you get any negative feedback, people saying you should not platform someone who's for independence? I'm just curious.
00:19:19.780Not really. I mean, I've seen a few comments online to that effect. But I don't think you like this is the problem with sometimes some of our fellow Canadians, you know, so yeah, some just like, well, you should just ignore the topic. I mean, those are minority from what I can see from the online comments. And it just doesn't make any sense to me. I mean, even the referendum angle. I mean, I disagreed with a judge a few weeks ago who said you can't hold a referendum until you consult every First Nation, whatever she said in her judgment.
00:19:46.920that's that's nonsensical look the swiss use referendums all the time to settle tough
00:19:52.580questions right from should we join the united nations i think they said no on that
00:19:56.800to should we abolish the army no and so on and so forth immigration reform the swiss debate all
00:20:02.780sorts of controversial things and so i've always admired the swiss for being able to do that and
00:20:07.200i actually think and look you're familiar with this as right behind closed doors politicians
00:20:10.840will sometimes look down their noses at citizens or get frustrated with the voters you know because
00:20:15.700um sometimes you know politicians do try and do the right thing and um you know it's a tough
00:20:21.160thing to govern province be an mp for riding whatever and um sometimes citizens and i've been
00:20:28.260one you've been one criticize politicians so fine if governments don't want to deal with an issue
00:20:32.800throw it to a referendum and let citizens debate it just like we did the charlottetown accord many
00:20:37.800years ago when you and i were a bit younger point is you can get through some of these tough issues
00:21:07.740that a referendum is like a safety valve
00:21:09.260for things that politicians don't want to talk about.
00:21:10.840And I would rather it be thrown to millions of Albertans or any other subject, millions of Canadians, than than resolved by one judge, because that's not going to that's not going to.
00:21:25.540Look, I was a political science student.
00:21:27.040I think you were close to being in law school or already in law school at the time.
00:21:30.820And I remember fellow students who weren't interested in politics or policy of the Constitution at all debating the proposals in 1992.
00:21:39.0401992, the Charlottetown Accord. Should we give a special status for Quebec? Should native Canadians
00:21:43.720have, you know, receipts reserved for them in parliament? This sort of thing. And I remember
00:21:48.460people who had no interest debating this sort of thing over coffee at the University of Alberta,
00:21:54.720at the hall there, and talking out loud about it because they had a stake in the outcome. They had
00:21:59.720a vote that they had to decide on whether they were going to vote pro or con on Charlottetown.
00:22:03.240So to me, that was a perfect example early on of why referendums should be used.
00:22:07.620Yeah, I see right now that the Swiss, I don't think they've had the vote yet. I think it's looming to have a referendum on capping Switzerland's population at 10 million, which is a very interesting way to phrase an immigration debate. Alberta, of course, has some immigration questions, too. And there are some people who are saying they want to challenge the legal right to do so. And that I think that shows an authoritarian streak.
00:22:31.140I think it was a very good thing for Danielle Smith to put the spicy stuff in a referendum.
00:22:35.980By the way, it got her plausible distance saying, well, you know, I'm just asking questions for the people to answer.
00:22:42.320And it allows her to keep arm's length from these spicy things while also getting credit for platforming.
00:23:10.120In fact, I believe Alberta is the most Canadian of provinces because we have been by far the biggest recipients and I would say beneficiaries of interprovincial migration.
00:23:20.460More people in Alberta have been born in other provinces than is the case in any other part of Canada.
00:23:25.720and indeed nearly half of people in this province are born elsewhere they're Albertans by choice
00:23:34.300and not chance and for so many of those Albertans their primary loyalty while they love Alberta and
00:23:40.400are proud of it and want it to thrive and prosper their primary loyalty is to our country to Canada
00:23:48.120well if that's the case I'm sure the referendum will go in Jason Kenney's favor and what has he
00:23:53.440got to worry about hey um mark i want to talk to you about one more thing before we let you go
00:23:58.980and it's an interesting flip flop flip and then flop again by mark carney i'm getting whiplash
00:24:05.080trying to understand where he stands on the united states one day he's in china talking about the new
00:24:10.420world order and pivoting towards them calling them you know a strategic partnership then the
00:24:14.880next day he's in new york or wherever he was saying that a strong canada will make america
00:24:21.060great again. And he's sounding like what the liberals would call maple MAGA. And then he's
00:24:27.260just, you know, every week I feel like he's taking a different position. He wants to join
00:24:31.260the European Union in some way. He wants to buy Swedish military equipment. But then he,
00:24:38.480I just don't know where he stands. Canada provides the United States with reliable power,
00:24:43.580with critical minerals that help fuel American growth.
00:24:47.62099% of U.S. natural gas imports, 85% of electricity imports,
00:25:29.500But historically, my PhD thesis is on the rhetoric of anti-Americanism in Canada, right?
00:25:34.040And politicians often play with anti-American sentiment, rightly or wrongly, from John
00:25:38.660Diefenbaker to Mark Carney and before John Diefenbaker.
00:25:41.920So, but on Carney himself and the Americans, look, you cannot ignore the biggest market in the world for Canada. If you're a small business in Saskatchewan or southern Ontario, you're not going to really be able to export to what, France or Poland or Germany or even the UK?
00:25:59.640Like, come on. The easiest thing to do is to try and secure market access, try and ship your products or your services south of the border because it's such a massive market and it's it's a land border.
00:26:11.420So you don't have to cross an ocean to get your widgets down south.
00:26:15.320So I think perhaps the prime minister has recognized that despite the rhetoric, it's not like we're going to replace 80 percent of our trade or whatever it is these days, 85 percent of our trade or any big chunk of that by getting to Europe and Asia.
00:26:29.780And of course, as you know, I think we're in agreement on this, Ezra, I would guess. I mean, our biggest export value wise is energy. And that's something we probably can get to Europe and Asia. But Mark Carney's party has been a problem on that for some years.
00:26:44.680so um and he's seems to be turning a bit of a corner but not quickly enough so insofar as you
00:26:50.940get to the americans look yeah ship all we can down there uh market all we can down there but
00:26:55.160yeah do trade with the rest of the world but then drop the ridiculous anti-oil and gas stance that
00:27:00.920so many in in uh the federal government have had since 2015 uh drop that like a hot potato and move
00:27:06.440on you know i i just am confused by the mixed signals i mean he's talking about tripling taxes
00:27:11.780on us social media platforms and i and that's getting the ire of the tech industry i just
00:27:18.120i i don't know it feels incoherent yeah so he's i i think he's yeah i think what it is as right he's
00:27:23.100and i don't know if he's sincere or not uh look he got elected by by doing what he did um you know
00:27:29.300what's the tension there in the air is the reality you cannot ignore the american elephant and the
00:27:34.040market that it is and the importance that it is to many canadians um and on the other hand he wants
00:27:39.440to play with the anti-American rhetoric
00:28:07.760So perhaps Carney recognizes that he can't simply snub the Americans, which, you know, to some degree, his rhetoric has, of course, been doing over the past year and some months.
00:28:19.440You mentioned the oil, Patrick. I've got one last question for you about that. And thanks for your time today.
00:28:24.340The oil and gas exports of the United States are by far Canada's biggest exports, much larger than the auto sector, for example.
00:28:31.580um and early about about a year ago actually donald trump issued some executive orders
00:28:38.380allowing the american side to get ready for an oil pipeline from canada sort of where keystone
00:28:46.600xl was going to go and i see today that the company that sort of inherited that on the
00:28:52.820canadian side it's called southbow says that they now have sufficient orders that they want to build
00:28:59.440a 550,000 barrel a day pipeline to the states.
00:29:02.900And like I say, the American side's ready.
00:29:04.740Trump has already issued the orders ready to rock.
00:29:07.680And they've done what's called open season.
00:29:10.140So everyone says, well, I'll buy this much capacity