“Guilbeault will be gone by Christmas” + absurd media coverage of Danielle Smith’s Alberta townhalls
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
191.10454
Summary
Brett Wilson is an investment banker, entrepreneur, and philanthropist. He's also hosted Risky Business on Slice and is a regular contributor on the Dragon's Den. In this episode, Brett shares his thoughts on Alberta's new town hall style town halls, Prime Minister Mark Carney's trip to Ontario, and the upcoming by-election in Alberta.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
Hi, I'm Candice Malcolm and this is the Candice Malcolm Show. Well, folks, it is the middle of
00:00:07.380
summer. I hope everyone is having a wonderful time. Hopefully you're spending lots of time
00:00:10.960
outdoors and family and friends, maybe out at a cottage or a cabin or wherever you might go and
00:00:16.300
do it in the summer. But given that we're in the middle of summer, I mean, it is mid-July,
00:00:20.420
usually it's quite quiet this time of year. There is a lot going on news-wise. We have these Alberta
00:00:24.820
Next Town Halls happening across Alberta. We're going to cover those and talk about those. And
00:00:29.500
then we have the premiers meeting in Muskoka, Ontario, and Prime Minister Mark Carney is out
00:00:35.420
joining them today. So we've got some clips and some updates from us. We have a by-election coming
00:00:39.580
up in Alberta where we will see whether Pierre Polyev, the leader of the Conservative Party,
00:00:44.220
can regain his position as a member of parliament and become the official opposition again. And to
00:00:49.660
talk about these topics and more, I'm pleased to be joined by one of my favourite guests here on the
00:00:52.900
Candice Malcolm Show. I'm talking about Brett Wilson. Brett is an investment banker, entrepreneur,
00:00:56.540
and a philanthropist. You probably know him from his days as the Dragon's Den star. And
00:01:01.340
he also hosted Risky Business on Slice. So Brett, welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for
00:01:05.900
joining us. I'm proudest of being a grandpa, but keep going. Okay, well, I'll add that into the bio for
00:01:11.960
the next time around. I want to get your thoughts on these Alberta Next Town Halls. So Alberta Premier
00:01:17.920
Danielle Smith has been hosting Alberta Next Town Halls. They've done two so far, and there will be
00:01:24.280
eight done in the future. So we saw her last week, first in Red Deer on Tuesday, and then Sherwood
00:01:30.580
Park. And they're certainly generating a lot of media, a lot of discussions about the tour itself
00:01:36.640
and, you know, the purpose of it, whether it's fulfilling a necessary role. We know that former
00:01:42.260
Alberta Premier Jason Kenney held similar town halls. And so there are six key questions that are being
00:01:48.020
posed to Albertans during these town halls, getting feedback from the public, basically discussing
00:01:55.060
things related to Alberta's autonomy. So the six questions that are being posed are, one, should
00:02:00.840
Alberta push for equalization reform? Two, should Alberta withdraw from the Canada pension plan and
00:02:06.860
create its own pension system? Three, should Alberta replace the RCMP and have its own
00:02:12.200
provincial police service? Four, should Alberta lead efforts with other provinces to amend the
00:02:17.060
constitution, strengthen provincial rights? Five, should Alberta take greater control over immigration
00:02:22.560
to counter Ottawa's open border approach? And finally, six, should Alberta collect personal income taxes
00:02:28.700
directly rather than through the CRA and have its own system of taxation? So all of these are really
00:02:35.460
interesting questions, certainly interesting in wake of the Liberal government getting re-elected again,
00:02:40.740
right? Like, it's hard to overstate this fact. But typically, in a democracy, you have a sway from
00:02:47.440
left to right, left to right. And it's a course correction, right? And so after 10 years of liberal
00:02:51.760
governments, and we had one of the most left wing liberal government in Canadian history with you just
00:02:57.660
known for its excesses in every area of life. It's like it's time for a shift back. And in a normal
00:03:03.340
democratic system, you would have eventually a shift back to the right. Except for in Canada, we didn't get
00:03:07.980
that. We got another liberal government under Mark Carney. So, you know, of course, there's a lot
00:03:12.300
of frustration bubbling up on the surface, especially in a conservative province like
00:03:16.200
Alberta. So before we get into any of the details of these, the first two town halls and how they went
00:03:21.860
for premiers, I'm wondering, like, what are your thoughts on the state in Alberta and whether you
00:03:26.280
think these town halls are a productive approach to sort of talk about a lot of the issues that are
00:03:31.080
bubbling up? Investing is all about the future. So what do you think is going to happen? Bitcoin is
00:03:36.780
sort of inevitable at this point. I think it would come down to precious metals. I hope we don't go
00:03:42.200
cashless. I would say land is a safe investment. Technology companies. Solar energy. Robotic
00:03:48.520
pollinators might be a thing. A wrestler to face a robot. That will have to happen. So whatever you
00:03:55.560
think is going to happen in the future, you can invest in it at Wealthsimple. Start now at
00:04:00.680
Wealthsimple.com. I think one of the most important things that Danielle is trying to do is raise the
00:04:05.940
profile of the conversation as opposed to limit it to the social media, limit it to legacy media,
00:04:13.220
and the noise that, to be blunt, it's just not as professional or thoughtful as it could be.
00:04:19.840
The coverage is so biased and it's very frustrating. Let's go back to the big picture. How many
00:04:25.540
questions of those six are, could be rephrased as, can we live the way Quebec lives? In terms of CPP,
00:04:34.740
in terms of RCMP, in terms of collecting tax, in terms of the equalization structure. I mean,
00:04:41.180
so much of what we're asking is, can we not operate and function just like Quebec? And so for people to
00:04:48.640
come out, especially in the media, legacy media, criticizing the fact that we're questioning whether
00:04:54.820
or not the RCMP should be on our budget or part of a, or the Alberta police should be part of our own
00:05:00.800
budget, or should we be paying the RCMP as part of a federal initiative, there's virtually nothing on
00:05:07.560
this list that doesn't tie to the question, if Quebec has these rights, why can't we? And it's that simple. I
00:05:14.200
just don't understand the debate. Now, I've got several friends on the Alberta Next Committee. They were
00:05:20.340
delighted to be asked. They were provoked to be thoughtful and engaging. And please make sure if
00:05:27.240
you're in, you're in for every event. And a couple of my friends, I spoke with them last night,
00:05:33.280
were literally accosted because they were leaving the Red Deer site in an almost bullying way,
00:05:41.020
like saying, you've got to support separation, or you don't serve any purpose here. And some fairly,
00:05:46.540
again, animated, not physically violent, but certainly attempting to be emotionally abusive
00:05:52.880
conversations. And it just didn't make sense. The disappointment from a couple of my friends, again, who
00:05:59.440
attended these, was that the participation of younger people is very low. We kind of laughed and said it was
00:06:06.840
50 to 70, or you're not getting in. And whether that's absolutely true or not, the bias was to a much
00:06:13.900
older age group. And again, my hope, if anyone that thinks that Danielle Smith is the separatist
00:06:20.040
is delusional, misguided, misinformed, or stupid, any of those work.
00:06:27.020
Right. Right. Like one of the criticisms, certainly from legacy media and people on social media,
00:06:31.240
is that Premier Smith is stoking the separatist sentiment and that she's using these as a preference
00:06:37.620
to push the separatist idea. I actually see it as the complete opposite, right? She's like,
00:06:42.920
you know, there are legitimate concerns that are out there. And to your point, like,
00:06:47.940
there's already precedent in this country. We are a decentralized federation. There's precedent for
00:06:53.560
a provincial government to have more control over their own resources and over their own destiny.
00:06:58.780
And so if one province can do it, why couldn't another? I mean, it's almost absurd that that would
00:07:03.960
even be a controversial question. And so I do want to get to some of them. And oh, and just one other
00:07:09.260
thing, Brett, I will say that for young people, you know, it's the middle of summer. I don't blame
00:07:13.660
them, right? We get like two, three months of nice weather a year in this country. And, you know, if
00:07:19.040
you're young, you're going to be out with your friends. You're going to be out enjoying life,
00:07:22.100
maybe with your kids at home and not going to a political town hall. So I don't begrudge the young
00:07:28.200
for not going. Although I will say, you know, each of these, it seems that there's been 400 to 500
00:07:32.800
people attend in person, but then another, you know, couple hundred thousand online. So people
00:07:38.020
are still engaging with these town halls online rather than perhaps in person. So we'll start with
00:07:43.760
the Red Deer event, which happened last Tuesday, July 15th. Some 450 people showed up, according to
00:07:50.000
Global News, to put questions to Premier Smith and the 15 other members on the panel. This is sort of
00:07:57.100
what you expect. People go because they're animated, because they're worked up, rather that they really
00:08:02.600
believe in Alberta separation, or perhaps that they really oppose it or that they really oppose
00:08:07.640
what Premier Smith is doing and they're going to heckle her personally or just to show their
00:08:12.540
frustration with the system. I'm here for it. I think these town halls are a great exercise in
00:08:16.620
democracy. But I'll show you one clip from an attendee that I think captured a lot of the sentiment
00:08:21.000
that people were feeling around these panels. So a woman is said, look, sorry, I don't know if it's
00:08:27.620
actually a woman or a man, but an attendee argues that Alberta separation is basically the only choice
00:08:32.820
here. And that if you're not talking about separation, like what are we even doing here?
00:08:37.560
Your video said it's, uh, uh, Ottawa continues or has ignored us and will continue to ignore us.
00:08:44.360
It doesn't matter what we do here tonight or what the outcome of this is. They will continue to ignore
00:08:49.740
us. There's one question, one question only that needs to be on, on a referendum. And that is,
00:08:55.760
do you support Alberta exiting Canadian Confederation and becoming a sovereign nation?
00:09:01.880
At that point, at that point, then you'll be able to negotiate with Ottawa. Then you'll be able to
00:09:08.520
negotiate with Quebec. Without that, they will continue to ignore us.
00:09:13.200
So that's an interesting point because you could tell the crowd was mostly in agreement with that
00:09:17.820
gentleman there. He's not even necessarily saying that we need to separate, but he's saying that we
00:09:22.920
need to have a clear question on separation that we could take to the feds that we can take to Quebec
00:09:26.740
and have a better bartering chip. So I think that's an interesting perspective. What do you make of
00:09:32.480
Well, so I appreciate that. And in fact, that's the one part of the conversation that is important.
00:09:37.140
It's just, I kind of make fun. I've been on stage a few times in the last several months
00:09:40.540
talking about separation. And I asked the question, do you want a wall like Trump for put up between
00:09:46.460
Mexico and the US? Or do you want just a chain link fence? Or should we just build a moat between
00:09:52.200
Alberta and Saskatchewan? And people look at me like that's some of the stupidest thought process.
00:09:56.720
Imagine when I go acknowledge. Absolutely. Because the reality is that separation involves one thing.
00:10:02.400
That's paperwork. We got to get better paperwork. It's all the elements of the deals we've done
00:10:07.280
with the feds. And if we can use the separation noise, the leverage of the people saying enough is
00:10:14.500
enough is enough. And we need to change relative to call it sovereignty. I happen to be a little
00:10:20.800
biased. I've been asked to put money up and play a more active role in separation. My polite response
00:10:27.020
is, I believe in collaboration. Let's work as the West. And again, there's a group of provinces in
00:10:33.440
Eastern Canada, imaginatively called Atlantic Canada. Well, let's collaborate and become Western
00:10:40.600
Canada in a working way. Wob Canoe has expressed an interest in the idea of a northern corridor
00:10:46.560
coming from Churchill and maybe ultimately across into Alberta. And then Alberta goes all the way
00:10:53.940
out to Prince Rupert. I mean, there's so many great options embedded in doing things better.
00:10:59.400
But it's paperwork. And what's really interesting is Bill C-5, approved by the Conservatives and the
00:11:05.280
Liberals is in favor, is promoting the acceleration of projects. And the acceleration of projects creates
00:11:13.040
jobs. It creates royalties. It creates income. It creates wealth. And if we're doing that collaboratively
00:11:20.820
in the West, we win automatically. So let's keep those thoughts alive. Anyone thinking that Alberta
00:11:27.940
on a standalone basis is better off is misguided. I believe we need better rapport with the feds.
00:11:35.880
I'm with that person totally in the context of, can we do better with federal Canada? Well, yes. But
00:11:42.500
right from 1907, we've had that problem. Right. Well, I want to add in another element of this,
00:11:48.060
which seems to be that the media in Alberta are out to get Premier Smith and they want to paint this as
00:11:54.200
a train wreck and it as a disaster. So I'll point you to the Edmonton Journal, who was covering the
00:12:00.400
second event, which happened just outside of Edmonton. And so the headline that they put up
00:12:04.020
was, Smith hears mixed reviews from Edmonton crowd on Alberta next pitches. Smith's opening remarks
00:12:09.000
were interrupted by heckles and laughter on Wednesday in contrast to the friendly response
00:12:13.000
she and the panel received the night earlier in Red Deer. And so you would kind of think like,
00:12:18.380
oh, OK, maybe she got like booed off the stage or, oh, that sounds like pretty confrontational,
00:12:23.140
the way that the Edmonton Journal described it, that she was interrupted by heckles. So we went
00:12:27.500
and we watched her opening remarks to try to find the heckling and the laughter. But we had to watch
00:12:33.060
it a few times because you could you could be forgiven for missing it. It was very minor. It
00:12:36.800
was a very small group of people. You could tell. So we're going to play the clip of what happened.
00:12:40.980
And then, you know, the audience can decide for themselves whether Smith was really heckled and
00:12:45.220
laughed during her opening statement. Let's play that clip. Alberta has an Ottawa problem. For the last 10
00:12:51.020
years, Ottawa, led, it must be said, by successive liberal governments, has taken direct aim at
00:12:56.580
Alberta's core industries from it's the truth. If Alberta is to be a strong and unified country,
00:13:04.840
it has to include a strong and sovereign Alberta within a united Canada able to pursue our own
00:13:11.560
potential. So, yeah, there was one or two guys heckling and then it sounded more like there were
00:13:17.560
counter hecklers, like people telling the one or two hecklers to be quiet. And you could tell by the
00:13:22.240
time Smith finished her sentence that she had won over the room again. They were all cheering for her.
00:13:25.620
So it wasn't exactly contentious the way that the Edmonton Journal was making it seem. You know,
00:13:30.900
a handful of people, you know, if you were to say the statement that Ottawa has been getting in the
00:13:35.620
way of Alberta's resources, like 95 percent of people in Alberta would probably agree. And it just so
00:13:40.440
happened that the five percent that disagree happened to be in the audience and they heckled and then they got
00:13:43.880
counter heckled. And that's kind of the nature of these town halls. Right. That's the point. It's
00:13:47.840
like democracy in action. And it's great. And Daniel Smith handled himself incredibly well. But that's
00:13:54.060
not the way that the headline writes it. What do you make of it, Brett? Well, I certainly intend to
00:13:58.600
attend. So that's one. I want to see the noise and get a sense because I think there's an immediate bias
00:14:05.140
that there's a lot of call it. The noisemakers are attempting to attract other noisemakers to this sort of
00:14:12.120
situation. And again, I talked to a couple of the members of the next panel. They were delighted with
00:14:18.440
the engagement at a very professional level. One of them shared the experience leaving, being bullied
00:14:26.340
effectively by a couple of guys who were pro pro separation only, didn't understand the difference
00:14:33.560
between sovereignty and separation. And again, I get back to do we need independence within the country
00:14:39.540
of Canada? Well, yeah, there's an example. It's called Quebec. I mean, I just don't get why we
00:14:44.680
can't parallel what Quebec has done, other than the fact that we're one of the greatest resource
00:14:49.680
based nations. And I've been when I talk about nations, I'm talking about Western Canada,
00:14:55.320
Manitoba, Alberta, Saskatchewan, BC, you've gone in Northwest territories, what we have collaboratively,
00:15:00.420
every product we have as a nation, maybe no lithium, I don't know. But there's got to be a little bit
00:15:06.640
of everything and especially the uranium, especially all the copper and coal and gold and oil and gas
00:15:15.600
and, and trees and, and cows and, and farming. I mean, we've got everything. And if we can work
00:15:22.940
collaboratively, become a little more sovereign, absolutely. But sovereign doesn't mean that we
00:15:28.320
leave Canada. And I can tell you that the bias I hear amongst my own followers is, again, 98%.
00:15:37.740
Let's improve where we are in Canada. But let's not pretend we're leaving Canada.
00:15:44.720
Yeah, well, it's funny that you make the comment about how there was a couple of loud
00:15:47.560
people aggressively sort of pro American type. It's funny, because I hosted an event in Calgary
00:15:53.160
a few years ago, True North Nation, you were there, Brett. And there were a couple guys with
00:15:57.100
51st state hats. And this was way before Trump even said the thing. And it was kind of the same
00:16:03.320
thing. They were like aggressively interrupting and following me around at some point with a camera,
00:16:08.100
basically just trying to get me on record whether I would support the idea. And it's like,
00:16:11.480
that's not what we're even talking about. But I feel like the people who are really gung-ho about
00:16:15.400
that idea aren't exactly the polite types that go to a conference to sit quietly and listen.
00:16:21.200
They're usually there to cause a bit of a spectacle.
00:16:24.140
You know, what I really wish is that we could have one session for each of Kearney,
00:16:31.360
Polav, Mo, Smith, and Ford to start with, with Joe Rogan. Let's get them down and let Joe
00:16:41.860
pull them apart. Let Joe and his followers. I genuinely believe that if Pierre had been able
00:16:47.440
to swing time with a couple of the, call it the podcast kings of the United States, and there's
00:16:54.500
four or five, not just one, but Joe Rogan being the most obvious, I think he could have picked up
00:16:59.860
in the voting panels the two or three percent needed to have swung dozens of ridings, dozens
00:17:10.800
That's an interview because I've been talking about this with some people kind of behind the
00:17:14.600
scenes on the Poliav campaign. They basically just said, look, Poliav was painted as being
00:17:19.800
too pro-American and too right-wing, right? And so if he showed up on one of those podcasts that
00:17:24.400
the media deem as American right-wing, it would just, they would just have a field day. Like,
00:17:28.560
like the thing that Pierre was trying to win over was those like suburban boomers. And, and those were
00:17:33.940
the people that would pearl clutch the hardest overseeing. And, but I agree, I would love to hear
00:17:38.980
the thoughts, you know, I would like to have a debate, imagine a debate on Joe Rogan between
00:17:44.180
Mark Carney and Pierre Poliav. That would be amazing, way better than anything that the Debates
00:17:48.520
Commission could have presented. And I hope that, you know, in the future we have those kind of long
00:17:53.540
form conversations. And speaking of a couple of the names that you, you mentioned that you'd like to
00:17:57.540
see, a bunch of them were here in Muskoka, Ontario, just a bit north of where I am, having discussions.
00:18:03.920
The premiers all met in Muskoka, Ontario, on Monday. And Prime Minister Mark Carney is there today,
00:18:10.360
mostly just discussing trade, the latest from President Trump and the looming deadline on
00:18:16.440
tariffs that are coming. So I think we have a quick clip of Prime Minister Carney saying that,
00:18:21.920
you know, we're going to do what we can, but the best thing we can do for Canada is just to improve
00:18:26.680
our own economy. Let's play that clip. We are looking for the best deal for Canada. We're only going
00:18:33.040
to accept the best deal for Canada. That is very much informed by our discussions. We understand
00:18:39.340
as well that we all understand that the global trade environment is changing. And there are some
00:18:46.340
countries that are pulling back that are restricting market access. What we collectively can most control
00:18:57.000
So what do you make of how Prime Minister Carney is handling all this, Brett?
00:19:02.300
Well, to start with, the fact that the Fence and the provincial leaders are meeting regularly.
00:19:09.180
I mean, two weeks ago in Prince Edward Island, every energy minister met with Hodgson and team.
00:19:15.220
So they're meeting and meeting regularly. Why? Because talk is talk, action is action.
00:19:20.000
But you've got to start with talk. You can't just start building projects. You've got to get the
00:19:24.580
engagement to happen. And let's not forget for a moment that the Liberal Party hasn't used the
00:19:29.280
word Trudeau for any purpose whatsoever in three or four months. It's pretty clear that they're
00:19:35.600
abandoning what Trudeau attempted to do in terms of abusing our nation for his misguided beliefs in
00:19:42.980
climate and, you know, destroying the Canadian economy will improve the planet for everyone.
00:19:47.720
That was Trudeau's approach. Obviously, the Liberals are very, very conscious.
00:19:53.300
Bill C-5 tells the whole story from my perspective. There's some that argue that it's got too much
00:19:57.740
power. Some of my First Nations friends are upset with their First Nation friends for abusing the
00:20:04.160
fact that C-5 is going to accelerate all of this. C-5 doesn't override anything Indigenous.
00:20:09.460
It overrides some of the noise of Bill C-48, C-69, things that the federal government imposed
00:20:15.660
without logic or reason. All we're doing is trying to accelerate. And so the First Nations
00:20:20.300
are rightfully saying, look, we've got to be part of this. You can't ignore us. Well,
00:20:24.420
that was never the intent. And that's the beauty, I think, of C-5, if we can get that moving. So
00:20:28.680
just going back to the big picture, you asked, I mean, they're meeting in Huntsville.
00:20:32.520
The leaders are meeting regularly. And that's obvious because, pardon me,
00:20:40.840
Well, it's really interesting. There's a couple of different dynamics, right? Like one of them was
00:20:44.500
the premiers were all asked about an East-West pipeline, right? And it seemed like a few years
00:20:48.100
ago, this was like a lost battle. It was off the table. And now here we are revisiting it. And it
00:20:52.560
seems like nobody wants oil that goes through the United States when you're in a trade war with
00:20:57.720
America. So it seems like there is more of an appetite to build an East-West pipeline.
00:21:01.660
I want to zoom in a little bit on just the Trump tariffs, though, because I want to point this
00:21:07.040
to people's attention in a CBC article that, to their credit, goes in depth. It says many Canadian
00:21:12.740
exports can avoid Trump tariffs if they're, and then I don't know why, but the CBC calls it C-U-S,
00:21:20.240
I think the Americans call it USMCA, the next iteration of NAFTA, if they're compliant. And so
00:21:26.460
what does that mean? Well, basically, this story says that companies can be exempt from the tariff
00:21:34.180
as long as they are compliant with the trade deal that they've already signed and that some 86%
00:21:40.920
of the value of Canada's exports to the US have the potential to qualify for one of the exemptions
00:21:46.320
just as long as they adhere to the trade agreement that we've already ratified and signed. And so all
00:21:54.960
of this makes me just think, like, this is all just much ado about nothing. Like, this is a bunch of,
00:21:59.340
you know, people getting really concerned in the media drumming this up, like, tariffs more,
00:22:03.300
tariffs are coming. It's going to start the Canadian economy. And then it turns out, well,
00:22:05.940
we already have a trade deal. And as long as they're compliant with the trade deal that exists,
00:22:09.460
they actually won't be subject to these new tariffs. So again, this almost feels a little
00:22:15.280
bit like a manufactured crisis here. What do you think, Brett? It sounds like Canadian media
00:22:20.380
taking control of the nonsense. I'm not as convinced that Trump has a real vision and plan
00:22:28.660
for what Trump's tariffs will look like. He wants a better deal. And that's where, again,
00:22:34.060
there's lots of reasons to disrespect Trump. But when you think about the big picture, protect the
00:22:39.800
border, ruin, get rid of bad guys, try and stop the wars on a global basis. I mean, the previous US
00:22:47.020
government did nothing that was apparent in terms of attempting to make the world a better place.
00:22:52.860
Trump's trying to do it in the style of his own, again, rhetoric, which is, you know, he'll promise
00:22:57.940
one thing on Monday and by Tuesday, he's forgotten. But he's asking for better deals. And the idea of
00:23:03.740
letters, trade agreements, tariffs, all that stuff, his team's working hard. I was really impressed by
00:23:09.660
the way, slight distraction with those four senators that came to Canada to say, look, let's not forget,
00:23:15.260
we're friends. Well, exactly. And I think that, you know, we have a lot more in common than the
00:23:22.820
things that divide us. And I mean, there's a reason why we have these trade agreements, right?
00:23:26.820
It's like we all have industries that we want to focus on, that we want to protect. I mean,
00:23:32.780
Canada's certainly very guilty of doing that with our dairy industry. And, you know, it makes sense
00:23:37.100
that the Americans will say, look, the whole purpose of trade is based on reciprocity. So if you
00:23:42.000
want to subsidize one of your industries, you're going to have to get hit with tariffs. And that's
00:23:46.180
just the way the trading world goes. It's not something that Trump invented himself. And I
00:23:50.400
think that we would all be better off if we remembered that, you know, our economies are
00:23:54.540
very intertwined. Our cultures are very intertwined. Our communities are intertwined. Many of our
00:23:58.860
families are intertwined across both sides. So, yeah, I don't like the drumming of the anti-American
00:24:05.100
sentiment that has been being pushed in Canada last year. I really, really don't like it at all.
00:24:10.700
Now, to jump on your point, I don't want to be the 51st state, but paperwork is paperwork. And if
00:24:17.240
we can get a better deal done with the Americans, for example, just Western Canada trading North,
00:24:23.040
South, then East, West, well, that's a Canadian problem, but it's a win for a, for call it Western
00:24:29.400
Canada or the, I keep calling it the collaboration, but we, so much we can do. By the way, in the
00:24:35.340
background, I'm starting to move into the coal industry, all hands in, all hands on deck, so to
00:24:41.440
speak. I'll be writing checks, I'm going on boards, and I'll play a more active role in raising the
00:24:46.900
profile of steelmaking for export-only underground coal. I mean, there's absolutely no objection,
00:24:55.380
potential, possible, legitimate, for saying no to steelmaking coal being shipped to the world.
00:25:01.680
One of the greatest ways of making money for Canada. And it's going to be interesting because
00:25:06.060
there's, we've got environmental groups opposed to any coal, any coal. Well, where does that come
00:25:12.660
from? Anyway, just share some of the noise that's in the background that we all have to deal with.
00:25:17.520
Well, it's one of the frustrating things in Canada generally is that there is a large
00:25:22.380
environmentalist group. And look, I love the environment. I love the natural environment. I
00:25:25.660
take time with my kids and spend time in nature every day. But, you know, there is a contingent
00:25:31.740
of the population. It's very small and very fringe, but they're very active. And, you know, any project,
00:25:36.800
any pipeline, any natural resource development, they will get in front of it. You know, they have
00:25:42.980
knowledge of things that are happening. And it's like they have an outsized impact, partially because
00:25:47.920
the media allows them to, partially because our legal system and police sort of treat them with kid
00:25:52.840
gloves. But I think, I think Canada, I mean, that, that's a, that's a whole other. It's an ongoing
00:25:57.480
charge. Yeah. Okay. I want to, a final topic that I want to cover with you today is the longest ballot
00:26:03.060
initiative, because this, again, it's just out of control, right? Like during the federal election
00:26:06.540
in Pierre Polyev's home riding of Carleton, there were some 120 or 160 people on the ballot. It was
00:26:13.360
ridiculous and embarrassing for Canada. And you would think that Elections Canada would do something
00:26:17.500
about it. No, they have not. And now in the upcoming by-election that Pierre Polyev is running in,
00:26:22.840
there are, sorry, there's 132 people on the ballot, 132 people on the ballot. So the longest ballot
00:26:32.860
initiative record of 91 candidates was broken when it reached 100. It's now, okay, sorry, 138.
00:26:39.060
I mean, this is absolutely absurd. We have Pierre Polyev speaking at a town hall in Stetler,
00:26:44.800
Alberta, just saying that this is a total scam. Let's play that clip.
00:26:47.940
If you can fix this, we can simply, for example, say that everybody who gets on the ballot should
00:26:53.140
have to have a thousand unique signatures from residents in the community, and that no one can
00:26:58.460
sign such a petition twice. That would make it impossible for 200 people to go out and have
00:27:05.580
their names piled onto the list. There are a number of other things that you could do that would make
00:27:09.820
it so that only real candidates who are truly running to put their name forward in our democracy
00:27:14.480
are on that list. But either way, we have to take action because this is, this is a scam.
00:27:23.480
Like, I get that the point that people are trying to push is that they
00:27:26.380
believe in proportional representation. So they want to draw attention to the fact that
00:27:31.480
the candidate's vote doesn't necessarily relate to how many seats are in order or whatever.
00:27:37.620
But like, like, why are they allowed to do this, right? Like they can make that point through,
00:27:42.360
I don't know, like an advocacy campaign and writing op-eds in the Globe and Mail or something.
00:27:46.420
Like, why do they have to do it by flooding Pierre Polyev everywhere he goes with all of these
00:27:51.380
candidates? It just makes it confusing. And again, it makes Canada look like an absolute joke.
00:27:57.640
Well, there's certainly nothing to be said that these people are claiming advocacy for the benefit of
00:28:03.120
Canada. They're just disturbing or whatever the right term is offline. But, you know, I'm aware
00:28:09.460
that something like 50 or 60 of the names that were in Ottawa are now in Alberta. Well, how did
00:28:15.320
that qualify? How did that happen? I mean, obviously, didn't they say, oh, well, Pierre moved or Polyev
00:28:20.780
moved. So it's okay. Well, let's be crystal clear. There's, and Polyev has said, and I, I agree with
00:28:28.600
them for the most part, I actually like the idea of requiring a $5,000 deposit. And if you don't get
00:28:33.600
1% of the votes, you're out. Too bad. So sad. But Polyev's approach, which was let's get a thousand
00:28:39.060
signatures, legitimate, local, dedicated, single purpose only support for a nomination. That's
00:28:47.300
fine. You can vote for whoever you want, but let's get the nominations properly organized. And the fact
00:28:52.100
that Canada hasn't got that organized, it's an embarrassment in terms of stupidity. And now
00:28:56.920
Elections Canada can just bow their head and say, well, too bad. I mean, the solutions are so simple,
00:29:04.020
a deposit or minimum names, number of names for, for the nomination. It's so simple.
00:29:09.480
Exactly. Like, it's not like they need to pass whooping legislation to fix this. It's like a
00:29:13.080
procedural thing. Just like, make them put a deposit down or make, make them have proof of
00:29:16.820
address in the writing. How about like, even something very simple like that. It's like, they just,
00:29:21.240
they were humiliated and then they did nothing. And now it's happening again.
00:29:24.420
I know. It's madness. And I mean, I actually talked to a lawyer a while ago and said,
00:29:29.400
is there anyone I could sue over this? And again, just the goal was to pot disturb in terms of what's
00:29:35.920
going on, but it served no benefit. So there's no one particular group. There's a group of people
00:29:41.880
seem to be collaborating, but they don't belong as a group. They aren't the undermine Canada group.
00:29:47.660
Well, and it's also, it just seems a little misguided, right? Because it's like,
00:29:51.860
Pierre Polyev is the leader of the opposition, right? So if this is a group that's trying to
00:29:56.100
get the attention of, I don't know, the liberal government, like, why wouldn't they go after
00:30:00.540
liberals? Why wouldn't they go after Mark Carney or previously Justin Trudeau? No, it's because
00:30:04.480
these, these, all of these advocates, it's always, they have like a secondary motive, which is just
00:30:09.460
that they hate conservatives and they have like an anti-conservative bias. So they're trying to
00:30:13.120
humiliate him. And then they're also supposedly making this other point about direct democracy.
00:30:18.320
Last word to you, Brett. Well, I get a lot of noise on social media. I've learned a long time
00:30:23.980
ago to stop reading it. I get the odd piece I like and I'll compliment it. So reinforce the positive,
00:30:29.580
ignore the negative, but that's hard for people to do on social media. And I even deleted a couple
00:30:35.300
of tweets that I put out on Nahid Nenshi a couple of weeks ago when I had a private moment with him at a
00:30:41.860
social event and realized I was pushing him a little too hard. So I backed off a little bit,
00:30:47.020
but the noise and the way we use social media, and again, go back to legacy media, the two just
00:30:53.240
don't really give us democracy. And these open houses, which is where we started this conversation,
00:30:59.120
aren't really a, it's a great element of the process. So Daniel can look back and say,
00:31:04.460
I visited eight country or eight cities, eight regions, eight areas. And I did so with 10 or 15
00:31:09.660
qualified business leaders, people who have legitimate investments in Alberta. They're not
00:31:15.700
just one vote. Yes, we're all just one vote, but they influence other outcomes because of their,
00:31:20.820
of their role in, uh, in the business world. And I like what she's trying to do. And again,
00:31:25.200
I appreciate that 450 people coming out to rant and who knows what the next six will be.
00:31:31.560
Legacy media is trying to fill the rooms with, um, with rhetoric and, uh, and noise.
00:31:36.460
Right. Well, just final thought is that I remember talking to Preston Manning during COVID and we were
00:31:41.960
talking about the 2021 election and how hard it was for those politicians because everything was
00:31:46.560
done via zoom. They weren't allowed to do big, uh, rallies and conferences and stuff like that.
00:31:51.420
And one of the things that you get from being in a physical room full of people is you get immediate
00:31:56.400
feedback, right? Like when you're online and you're tweeting, you get like your eco chamber. So you get
00:32:00.800
like your trolls that hate you and then your fault, your legion of fans that love you. And, and you don't
00:32:05.040
really get the middle. Right. But if you, if you're forced to go out and go to these kinds of events
00:32:09.380
in like Daniel Smith is doing, right? Like she goes to a friendly place like Red Deer, but then she'll
00:32:13.740
also go to Edmonton where she may not have gotten very many votes or where there may be more people
00:32:17.100
that oppose her. And she, she, she tests different ideas. She says different things. She sees, you know,
00:32:22.360
which one gets a positive response, which her doesn't. And she owns her message and it impacts her.
00:32:26.040
It has an impact. And that is what you want of your leaders. You want them to be out there
00:32:29.700
meeting Canadians, hearing different perspectives and different voices so that they can go back
00:32:34.040
and decide the best course. And so, you know, I didn't have a lot of good things to say about
00:32:39.260
Justin Trudeau, but I did like the fact that he would go out and do these town halls because it
00:32:42.900
shows that he has confidence in his ideas to go and debate them. Although it didn't always go very
00:32:47.740
well for Justin Trudeau when he was doing that, but for Daniel Smith, certainly she has the ability
00:32:52.040
to stand on her feet. Someone hackles her. She takes it in stride. She goes and by the time she finishes
00:32:56.420
her sentence, the room is behind her and cheering her. And so I think it shows a very confident
00:33:00.240
politician that is able to take all that feedback in real life, but also, you know,
00:33:05.460
stand on their ideas and work through even though there may be, you know, what the media
00:33:11.920
pushes, heckling and laughing and cheering, which was pretty mild. But still, I think these are
00:33:16.800
great exercises. I want more politicians to do them.
00:33:19.460
Well, the fact that we've got the federal leadership and the provincial premiers meeting on a much more
00:33:28.460
frequent basis than ever occurred under Trudeau, and I ain't even using his word or his name.
00:33:33.680
But the fact that we're trying to move forward and get things done, actions, I mean, the objections are,
00:33:41.740
again, First Nations, for example, it's okay for them to object. It's not okay for them not to come to
00:33:48.300
the table and have true, thoughtful, ongoing conversations. And so there's so much still to be
00:33:53.900
done. And whether you voted Liberal, Conservative, or the odd NDPer, basically, the parties have said,
00:34:00.860
let's get rolling. And that's what excites me for Canada. Would I rather that Paul Lowe was in the
00:34:05.960
driver's seat? Yeah. Would I wish that he had gone to visit Joe Rogan? Yeah. I mean, there's lots of
00:34:10.880
things that we wish we could have done differently. But moving forward, I'm excited that we're actually
00:34:15.720
in conversation. Again, Bill C-5 was one of the most pivotal bills that I've ever seen in all of my life,
00:34:22.780
watching activity proposed. Without C-5, it would be pointless. It'd be a waste of time.
00:34:30.780
Yeah. I mean, it would have taken a long time to undo all of the disastrous bills that
00:34:34.460
Trudeau is pushing. And let's just make it be known that Mark Carney was behind the scenes
00:34:38.740
pushing those kinds of bills as well. So it is good to see.
00:34:46.340
It's annoying that Carney could move from such an extreme. But again, they blocked Trudeau. We talked
00:34:52.860
about this before. They put him in a cupboard. They've deadbolted the door. They're not killing
00:34:56.620
him. But they're taking him out of the picture completely. And I'm hopeful. I mean, I really do
00:35:02.900
believe that we can get some things done. It's going to take forever to unwind any of those. I mean,
00:35:07.160
let's go back to the big picture as well. EV mandates. Telling us all we have to buy 20,
00:35:11.900
35 cars. I've pitched Hodgson and others saying, instead of an EV mandate, why don't you celebrate
00:35:17.600
what hybrids can do and make it interesting, make it exciting. But stop telling us what we have to do
00:35:23.680
to encourage us in terms of what we could, should, and might want to do. And that's just one example.
00:35:29.020
The CER regulations. I think Deebo is going to be out of the room. We haven't heard
00:35:32.940
the word Deebo in a month. He gets no profile now. He's been blocked by a party called the Liberal
00:35:40.300
Party. So I think he's going to lose his role in cabinet in the next three to six months because
00:35:47.500
he's irrelevant. And the only way they can really get rid of the noise that he created under Trudeau
00:35:53.360
is to get rid of Deebo as well. And that's my bet right now. I'm putting three to one odds
00:35:58.020
on him being gone by Christmas. Wow. Well, I don't want to bet you against you because I hope
00:36:03.180
you're right. And I hope that that is the direction that the Kearney government takes us in. Well,
00:36:07.280
Brad, that's an optimistic note to end the podcast. And so thanks so much for joining us. That is
00:36:11.500
Brett Wilson, investor and entrepreneur. That's all the time we have for today, folks. We'll be back
00:36:16.300
again tomorrow with all the news. I'm Candace Malcolm's Candace Malcolm Show. Thank you and God bless.