Western Standard - Alberta independence： Does $400 billion in startup cost pass the smell test？

00:00:00.000 all right welcome back um

00:00:28.560 um hey first off notice the changes right it's a little bit different i'm in the same studio

00:00:33.600 but uh our producer john rearranged it a little bit remember uh for the longest time in the

00:00:40.080 background we had the glass and we had some of the staff working at their desks well now there's a

00:00:44.880 there's a curtain there gives those folks a little bit of privacy i don't blame them i mean you know

00:00:49.040 when you're working you don't necessarily want to be on the air um and and then the big change for

00:00:54.940 me is i'm looking at you now here but i used to have a computer there and now the computer's on

00:01:00.540 the other side so if i'm if my if i'm pointing a different way once in a while i'm just getting

00:01:05.260 used to it um hey great so welcome back thanks for joining in i see lots of people in the chat

00:01:11.900 already uh familiar names uh maybe a couple of shout outs i see uh spencer from edson there uh

00:01:18.060 good to good to have you join us again i think he's a regular uh every week um and he's saying

00:01:24.300 that they are getting rain in edson and people are saying they're getting rain in grand prairie

00:01:29.820 well we just had i mean the humidity right now is is uh pretty high in the studio in calgary in

00:01:36.140 general we had what what do they call it nowadays uh an atmospheric river you know we used to call

00:01:42.380 that like the pineapple express or just a big brainstorm but uh like everything else it has to

00:01:47.500 be renamed uh we had a two i think it was almost a three-day atmospheric river pretty good downpour

00:01:54.140 rivers are running high but not flooding um the city issued a warning you know stay off the path

00:02:00.440 kind of thing don't go on the river um no incidents so it's all good but then the rain subsided

00:02:05.940 yesterday and then where i live it was obvious that everybody suddenly decided that they needed

00:02:10.840 to get out and mow their lawns that's the one thing that happens when you get these good rain

00:02:15.500 storms early on in the season like this my lawn was like this tall kind of thing and the dandelions

00:02:21.360 were just out of control anyways welcome back uh again this is a show about you know there's a

00:02:27.240 theme john put the theme down there i he asked me for a suggestion i i want to start off talking

00:02:32.580 about uh you know as always i mean it's on everybody's mind i want to talk about the

00:02:36.760 referendum a little bit and then more specifically the 400 billion dollar um startup cost that the

00:02:43.320 danielle smith was claiming but before i say that you know again it's a it's a show about you guys

00:02:48.600 i have some ideas of what i want to talk about but basically i'm counting on you folks to call

00:02:53.160 in you got the number down there at the bottom of the screen 1-866-479-WEST and uh we only have one

00:03:00.600 line so if you call uh you might get uh put on hold uh let me know where you're calling from

00:03:06.200 what you want to talk about we'll go from there uh okay so a couple of things uh since last week

00:03:12.280 definitely uh one thing that happened after the show last week last thursday was that danielle

00:03:20.040 officially danielle had officially mentioned that she was going to give us a referendum on

00:03:25.160 a referendum that was a that happened two weeks ago but last thursday i believe it was through

00:03:31.080 an order in council it became official so the order in council um just a one-page document i

00:03:38.600 mean that's one way governments can make sort of rules right they don't always have to pass bills

00:03:43.240 orders and councils yeah basically the the premier or the prime minister somebody can literally take

00:03:49.480 a piece of paper and write something on there and then it becomes a de facto law it's one of

00:03:53.960 their privileges so danielle issued uh an order in council that listed the actual question that

00:04:00.680 we're going to be seeing in october and it's a two-parter it's interesting right so not a yes

00:04:05.480 or no vote uh let me read it up here so um it says option one alberta should remain a province of

00:04:13.480 canada and option two the government of alberta should commence the legal process required under

00:04:18.280 the canadian constitution to hold a binding referendum on whether or not alberta should

00:04:22.280 separate from canada so we're going to have a a two-part question you choose a or b i'm definitely

00:04:29.000 telling people choose b even if you're not entirely in favor of separation choose b

00:04:34.760 let's have uh let's have uh yeah that's my opinion choose b right i'm a separatist let's

00:04:41.880 let's not kid ourselves um hey already got a call on the line let's uh let's try and get

00:04:46.680 i think the record now is nine calls in one hour let's try and get to 10 today so go ahead

00:04:51.640 where are you calling from what's your name please hi my name is sue i'm from beaver county

00:04:59.880 hi sue how are you

00:05:03.800 good good you've called before i think sue haven't we just calling today

00:05:13.560 this week i'm a little more comfortable just that last week i had a few things on my notepad but uh

00:05:19.640 today uh i just wanted to talk about uh the pipeline uh that uh we're trying to get here

00:05:27.080 in Alberta through the MOU. I got thinking about this and I think you've got a pipe but do you

00:05:34.960 have any oil to put in that pipe? I haven't seen any talk about what companies. I worked for almost

00:05:44.080 30 years in the business like you did so I kind of know what happened. I worked out in the field

00:05:51.380 and in the office there so that's some knowledge but I know that you have to dig the oil from the

00:05:57.560 ground you have to take it to the processing plant and it has to come out the other end

00:06:02.120 and go into a pipeline but so far I haven't heard anybody talking about which plants are all lined

00:06:09.420 up or can they put out more than they're already putting out do we need a new plant to supply this

00:06:16.420 oil into this pipeline like i'm wondering how this is all supposed to come together

00:06:21.140 uh actually a good question sue it is coming together uh i think it was last week

00:06:27.380 um uh what are they called south bow so so you know trans canada used to own the keystone pipeline

00:06:33.780 they sold the keystone pipeline to a company called south bow so they spun it off and south

00:06:38.980 bow i think it was last week announced announced a successful open uh not open house there's a name

00:06:45.380 for it but they went to the market and asked shippers to commit to 20 year um volume to volumes

00:06:53.060 for the next 20 years and they they they got a successful i'll call it an open house i i don't i

00:06:59.060 think that's the wrong term uh but maybe it is an open house and um they got they got shippers oil

00:07:05.540 producers to commit to up to a million barrels for for 20 years so there's an appetite for it um you

00:07:14.260 You know, Alberta produces about four and a half million barrels a day, and it wouldn't take up a long time to ramp up to five or six million barrels a day.

00:07:22.300 I mean, the reserves are there. The big Suncores and the CNRLs and the Synovuses, they can ramp up and bump up the production.

00:07:33.720 Are you still on the line?

00:07:34.820 Okay, so you're saying that all various oil plants are going to just ramp up extra production?

00:07:46.280 Yep.

00:07:46.460 And they're all going to have pipes that connect each plant to a main line?

00:07:54.200 Yeah, yeah.

00:07:54.460 And that main line will go out to the brand new pipeline that we're going to build to the west coast?

00:08:00.020 To the west coast, to the south.

00:08:01.600 yeah yeah there's no there's definitely no shortage of oil and the ability to ramp up i

00:08:05.840 mean and in fact the oil has been ramping up quite nicely year after year after year like

00:08:11.120 it is a bit of a miss um i've been surprised at how much oil we keep producing and how it's been

00:08:17.120 increasing and without pipelines we find all sorts of clever ways what definitely one of the most

00:08:21.200 clever ways we're getting our oil out of the province right now is by rail which is highly

00:08:25.040 and efficient so uh yeah no it's a great question and i'm yeah not worried about that

00:08:32.560 awesome thanks sue okay uh just kind of wondering all right thank you all right cheers um yeah uh

00:08:40.800 you know it's the backbone of our economy and uh no it's a good question i mean in the good

00:08:44.640 old days if if uh ramping up production took a little bit longer you had to drill the wells and

00:08:50.400 and tie them in and stuff like that but now the big big producers that like i mentioned suncor

00:08:55.200 cnrl all those producers they they have massive oil sand reserves and um they can you know they

00:09:02.320 can keep drilling keep building steam facilities keep producing more oil and then on the back end

00:09:07.680 uh bigger processing facilities and stuff like that but it's it's all things that the

00:09:12.480 that the industry has been doing forever and ever all right so let's try and get back then i guess

00:09:16.800 to what i wanted so so yeah we're gonna have a referendum question it's a two-parter and uh

00:09:22.560 everybody's talking about independence and and i'm not surprised that there are now the other

00:09:27.040 side is ramping up the the attacks against us trying to dissuade people from uh from voting

00:09:34.160 for independence and trying to keep alberta in here in in confederation and one of the biggest

00:09:39.840 attacks we're seeing right now is everybody's uh i call it you know fear-mongering they're giving us

00:09:45.200 all sorts they're trying to give us all sorts of excuses why we should stay and the the most the

00:09:52.080 funniest one the most interesting one is the one that came out this week and and unfortunately it

00:09:56.640 came from our own premier danielle smith i wasn't too happy when danielle was up on stage and sort

00:10:02.560 of threw out a number and she said you know uh it would cost 400 billion dollars in what she calls 1.00

00:10:08.080 startup costs and she's trying to use that 400 billion dollars as um as a scare tactic and

00:10:15.440 apparently uh trevor toome who's an economist that uh believes that the ufc is going to put together

00:10:21.040 a report i mean we've got conflicting reports right because so trevor will put out his report

00:10:26.880 uh the alberta prosperity project la last year put out their report called the cost of freedom

00:10:32.000 where they outlined what they thought it would cost and and i just want to talk about this just

00:10:36.240 sort of at a very high level and maybe get some of you folks's feedback right we've said it before

00:10:42.320 all along if um uh you know the day after a successful referendum we're not independent

00:10:53.520 and doing our own thing like the day after a successful referendum there's a period there's

00:10:58.560 going to be months perhaps years where we transition to being an independent country

00:11:04.320 and and danielle's right there are startup costs right there are things that ottawa does for us

00:11:11.840 for alberta that in the in the in the years afterwards we would have to take over so for me

00:11:18.400 the biggest one the the most obvious one is um is protecting the border i get that and so the day

00:11:26.800 after you know an independent alberta there's the facilities to protect the border there is no

00:11:34.260 protection right we live on the along the longest undefended border in the world basically but we

00:11:41.200 have to our south six or seven border crossings with the u.s well what happens the day after that

00:11:47.520 we take over those border crossings we buy the little buildings that are there we staff them

00:11:52.100 with our own people most likely those are all those are guys from the federal government and

00:11:56.740 gals who would come work for us so that's an example right you can't tell me that suddenly

00:12:00.980 taking control of those border crossings is going to cost billions and then and then after that 0.89

00:12:06.840 there'd be additional controls we would need some some security we would need a supposedly perhaps

00:12:11.840 maybe not even would we need border control along the bc alberta border and the saskatchewan alberta

00:12:17.660 border or could we enter into an agreement with the rest of canada saying now if you're a canadian

00:12:22.940 passport and you've been led into the country then you can cross into alberta i mean why not

00:12:28.060 the the eu does that if you once you cross into let's say france or or or germany you're now on

00:12:35.260 the continent and after that you don't keep showing your passport every time you cross

00:12:39.500 you know by by land into another country so that's an example um and then what are the other examples

00:12:46.620 that that she was saying for 400 billion dollars she talked about the courts okay so alberta has

00:12:52.860 its own courts for civil matters and things like that we don't have our own our courts the course

00:12:59.660 for criminal matters are federal courts but could we not start handling those things in our own

00:13:05.500 courts overnight just just until we set up a criminal court in alberta i mean it's not going

00:13:11.500 to take forever to do that and it's not going to cost billions uh policing sure ottawa has the rcmp

00:13:18.700 managing small um you know policing in small towns in alberta again the sheriffs are going to

00:13:24.540 transition to that and then and then we're gonna we're gonna do it ourselves currency everybody

00:13:30.140 talks about the currency oh we're gonna have to print our own currency again there are so many

00:13:35.900 countries around the world that don't even have their own currencies anymore so we could have

00:13:39.820 you know alberta tomorrow morning could continue using the canadian dollar that doesn't matter

00:13:43.980 or we could start adopting the american dollar overnight and then eventually down the road we

00:13:48.700 can start our own currency but also you know i i just like give me your thoughts on that

00:13:56.060 does the 400 billion dollars pass the smell test like that is that is that is that a fear or is

00:14:02.860 that legit that it would cost 400 million i don't think so i mean there's there's there's two extremes

00:14:08.220 there's a 400 billion dollar extreme and then there's like the low 30 billion dollar range

00:14:13.420 even if it's 100 billion or 200 billion dollars we make that up in what we'd make that up in a

00:14:19.420 decade because we are currently sending 20 to 30 billion dollars more to ottawa than we get back in

00:14:25.740 services so 20 or 30 billion dollars a year you do 10 years of that that's 200 billion dollars

00:14:31.580 so you know what i mean that's the that's the reality i i i didn't like that uh i don't like

00:14:37.180 that comment but i certainly look forward to seeing what uh trevor toome puts together as a

00:14:42.940 um as an estimate for startup costs uh oh well uh speaking of smith and and somebody called in and

00:14:52.380 asked about the pipeline earlier uh suited so smith's in quebec this week um actually kudos

00:14:59.820 to danielle smith she went to for one thing she went to quebec she's at a conference right now

00:15:05.740 and uh she spoke last night and her opening comments almost two and a half minutes of opening

00:15:12.220 comments by her were done in french a bit of broken french i don't she was reading off script

00:15:17.420 i don't think she'd be able to speak french you know uh off the cuff on her own but uh good job

00:15:24.300 premier smith you uh i could understand what you were saying when you were saying it in french

00:15:29.420 um she's there right now i i find the timing again i find the timing of her visit to quebec

00:15:38.860 quite interesting quite revealing i mean of all the places she could have gone right now

00:15:44.300 she's going to quebec and um and she has an excuse right she had an excuse to go to quebec so quebec

00:15:51.260 the uh the coalition avenir quebec the party that's currently in power in quebec had a change

00:16:00.520 of leadership so uh francois legault uh stepped down and they had a leadership race and they

00:16:08.060 elected a new leader and de facto that new lady i don't even know her name becomes the premier

00:16:12.960 of quebec i don't think she'll be the premier of quebec for very long because that party's

00:16:17.720 popularity in the polls is as low as we've seen in uh in three or four years i think in the in

00:16:24.020 and quebec has an election in october so i think that that lady will be punted officially and

00:16:30.540 either the uh the liberals in quebec will take over or even the uh bloc uh or not the bloc the

00:16:38.420 party quebecois the separatist party so but danielle is there uh the the new leader gives

00:16:45.400 an excuse to go visit there and it gives her an excuse to look like she's extending an olive branch

00:16:51.480 across the country working with quebec and everybody in quebec is like rah-rah suddenly

00:16:58.280 we're in favor of uh perhaps some oil and gas development that's the media telling us that and

00:17:04.760 i'll come back to this i worked in quebec doing oil and gas and there will be no the quebecers

00:17:09.800 have been uh convinced by years and years and years of propaganda that uh oil and gas

00:17:17.480 is killing the planet and they're not gonna they'll give her they'll give danielle a warm welcome but

00:17:23.240 that's about it but simultaneously while danielle is there in quebec so is carney this week right

00:17:28.920 and so carney was there yesterday announcing almost 10 billion dollars worth of new funding

00:17:35.320 for quebec so i i i find the optics of that event kind of funny because you got danielle who's

00:17:41.580 struggling here trying to extend an olive branch we're not getting anything from carny and then

00:17:47.480 while she goes there carny um steals some thunder from her and he's there at the same time handing

00:17:54.880 out goodies to quebec so i found i found that whole thing quite amusing this week all right

00:18:01.380 come on folks um you know don't make me talk for 40 minutes uh on my own because i got i do have a

00:18:08.860 list of topics i want to go through but uh i'm gonna run out of topics if somebody doesn't call

00:18:14.980 soon um all right well let's keep going down then i guess let me see if there's a couple of comments

00:18:20.800 i mean that's something i gotta get used to you guys are uh some people like to make john did you

00:18:26.440 see any interesting comments worth flashing up on the screen uh give me a second here i usually

00:18:31.860 scroll through there and see um there's one which one are you highlighting there it doesn't pass

00:18:39.520 this okay actually can you put it on there there it goes it doesn't pass the smell test but even if

00:18:43.860 that was the cost it would be worth it uh 400 billion that's only u.s 280 billion since we

00:18:50.780 have all that stuff already could we just buy Alberta for a hundred billion dollars um by the

00:18:56.820 way yeah so thanks I agree no matter what the um the economics still say we should go on our own

00:19:03.300 because at the end of the day at the end of the day it's a similar argument to you know you're

00:19:08.080 you're we've used the and I've used the analogy I've compared it to a marriage you're unhappy in

00:19:13.180 your marriage and you want out do you do you pause and stay in your unhappy marriage because you're

00:19:19.020 afraid that you might have to uh get your own apartment and you don't know where you're going

00:19:22.640 to get an apartment so i'll come back to that all right caller on the line go ahead please where

00:19:27.180 you're calling from and your name hello hello go ahead yeah this is uh ryan prince here uh is this

00:19:42.240 Who's my phone in here?

00:19:45.380 Oh, Marty.

00:19:45.880 Is this Marty?

00:19:46.540 Yes, it's Marty.

00:19:48.360 Oh, sorry, Marty.

00:19:50.000 Okay, I didn't know you guys just put me right in.

00:19:52.680 Yeah, I just wanted to, I'm just from South of Lethbridge here.

00:19:56.360 I just want to thank you for coming to Lethbridge, talking with us.

00:20:01.780 And I want to, I see you're talking about Daniel Smith.

00:20:06.920 And I actually wish she would have done a few things like maybe get the police force in for Alberta, maybe do the firearms thing, you know, give an example of true freedom for Albertans, but she never did.

00:20:21.320 But my question is, and I think you've seen this, it has to do with the $400 billion, but Canada, just a couple days ago, they put out, I think, a statement, while the Globe and News did, as Canada faces crippling debt, it must do the unpopular thing and cut elderly benefits.

00:20:46.520 Do you think Alberta could do better?

00:20:48.180 uh yes 100 i mean you know we um we i we could do better for for seniors and we can do better

00:20:59.060 for retirees we could do better for a lot of people i mean uh i'm we'd we'd pay one less

00:21:06.740 level of taxes right we we've talked about this so the the taxes we pay to ottawa now we have to

00:21:12.780 you some of that here but there's a there's a net saving overall uh we have a younger population i

00:21:18.820 mean we're already subsidizing as you mentioned you know the the canada pension plan ei things

00:21:24.080 like that i i plus we we'd have a lower tax rate sue called earlier i mean one of the cornerstones

00:21:30.280 of one of the true advantages of of an independent alberta is is not the status quo it's what we will

00:21:37.180 be able to do right i mean we'll be able to pump up our production and and and bring in more revenue

00:21:42.940 so no i um what's your thoughts i mean you asked a question but you yeah well i'm i'm looking at

00:21:51.660 like i've been uh i'm part of the the independence of alberta here and you know the people have been

00:21:58.460 asking about their pension plans and their benefits and what's going to happen with that

00:22:03.820 and already well you you see Canada is actually taking their benefits away the

00:22:11.380 senior benefits they're going to start doing that the next is going to be their

00:22:15.320 pension it's gonna happen if we if we continue down this path and that's a

00:22:22.480 perfect example of why we need to get out yeah I just wanted to put that no

00:22:28.720 and stay on the line stay on the line because I want to ask you a question but

00:22:31.160 You're right. I agree with you. Ottawa has an insatiable appetite to spend. There's no end in

00:22:40.320 sight for them. And it's on my list of topics today because we saw some crazy examples of that

00:22:45.320 this week. That story doesn't surprise me. And it's a scary story, right? That they might cut

00:22:53.020 back benefits. I think we all suspect that down the road, they'll increase the retirement age to

00:23:00.020 67 i mean they've they've talked about it in the past harper talked about it unfortunately it's a

00:23:04.380 reality it's going to have to happen and what else are they uh you know eyeing right are they going

00:23:09.500 to come after your rrsp i think so i think they're going to come after estate taxes and more things

00:23:16.740 like that so i i've always i was surprised that one of the group that more or less that are staunch

00:23:24.720 supporters of the liberals are seniors right are boomers and and i always found it surprising

00:23:29.140 because i think they're on the radar i think their boomers are going to get for lack of a

00:23:34.000 better word screwed by the liberals at some point yes oh yeah well they should be looking at this

00:23:40.700 right now and worrying about what's going on for sure and they used to be a big voting uh demographic

00:23:47.540 a large number but they're getting smaller and smaller and so um yeah now before you go i just

00:23:52.480 want to ask you a quick question because it's sort of it was sort of on my list of things to do

00:23:55.620 colleague here at the at the Western Standard has a sign up in Tabor right so everybody saw

00:24:04.740 Cory Morgan's pro-independent sign in Tabor I know it's a little bit it's not in your neighborhood

00:24:10.100 but have you seen that have you heard about it have you seen the backlash that's happening

00:24:15.020 yes i well i just seen it on x and uh yeah i uh there was a uh person in taber i think it was

00:24:24.660 it wasn't a counselor but no it was a uh citizen and they put out there that

00:24:30.560 the council in taber should be looking at this and uh they should uh

00:24:38.180 um be respected respective of all canadians and they should take this down

00:24:43.960 and I'm seeing a lot of that with the APP and the different groups they're

00:24:50.920 trying to get like the Rogers Stadium yeah that alone they're trying to get

00:24:56.500 all those two and everybody's denying them and they're just they're throwing

00:25:01.660 everything at this yeah yeah and that's an interesting shift right in Canadian

00:25:08.960 politics because I mean it's almost like saying you know if we had a general

00:25:13.240 election by the way this is official now right it's official you're we're going to have a referendum

00:25:17.560 on this question so so groups are allowed to talk about this and it's as if somebody's you know was

00:25:22.600 criticizing one candidate and saying we shouldn't advertise liberal candidates or conservative

00:25:27.160 candidates like it's yeah i'm surprised we've gone this far i i saw that in taber i was just

00:25:32.600 wondering if uh i i saw it online but i was wondering if it was making it you know if it

00:25:37.560 was felt on the street as well yeah well i'm hoping it well it's got a state they should be

00:25:43.420 able to have that that's that's uh freedom in canada we're supposed to have freedom in canada

00:25:50.500 that's freedom awesome yeah yeah awesome all right well thanks for calling in

00:25:55.620 yeah thanks for what you do man you're welcome um yeah uh that that i saw that story i to be

00:26:05.060 honest i glanced over it and i kind of thought it was maybe um a false story uh but i'm it probably

00:26:11.760 does have you know everything where there's smoke there's always fire and i think that that is

00:26:16.580 probably something that the liberals are looking at um listen there's no choice i mean they're

00:26:22.580 they're like i said they have an insatiable appetite and they're running out of ways to

00:26:26.500 tax us like we saw it again this week actually we had a great example of that this week um we had

00:26:34.380 bill c11 otherwise known as the netflix tax right so this was an attempt by the government

00:26:42.540 to um to pass on to let me simplify it the government wanted a piece of the action right

00:26:49.820 so you got netflix you got youtube you got meta you got a whole bunch of organizations

00:26:54.220 that are making a lot of money and the canadian government simply said we want a piece of that

00:26:59.580 we just want a piece of that and then they they tried to pass it as a crappy law saying well

00:27:05.180 you're you're you're producing content that's being watched in canada and and uh maybe you

00:27:13.260 should produce more canadian content right they hit it that way so what what it was was a money

00:27:18.140 grab but they tried to convince uh they they passed a law through the bill c11 and the canadian

00:27:24.380 crtc i can't remember what it stands for canada radio and television commission or whatever

00:27:28.700 trying to force these companies to to spend a portion of the money to make canadian content

00:27:34.960 and these companies push back they push back and and all of a sudden now uh yesterday or the day

00:27:42.540 before mark miller the the minister responsible for culture that's in his portfolio he kind of

00:27:48.060 reversed the law not only did he reverse the law but now he's basically having to pay those guys

00:27:54.220 the netflix's of the world money you and i are paying the money to have them stay and keep

00:28:00.040 producing content in the country you know what i mean so it it backfired on them not only did the

00:28:05.540 and what they should have done is just cancel the original uh legislation and just say whatever let

00:28:11.500 netflix let the markets decide right if canadians don't like what's on netflix what are they going

00:28:17.100 to do they're going to cancel their netflix subscription like don't don't force the producers

00:28:21.900 the companies to to to make a content that perhaps nobody wants but it was just a money grab

00:28:27.800 and it backfired on them and and it's just another example i mean i i've been basically saying like

00:28:33.940 what has carney done for the last year not much except reverse a whole bunch of unpopular liberal

00:28:40.840 policies right he's he's reversing this one he reversed the carbon tax he reversed he's reversing

00:28:47.140 immigration i wish we had it i don't want to put john on the spot but i mean carney who got caught

00:28:52.540 you know he not got caught but he was walking up the stairs in the in the house of commons and some

00:28:57.620 some journalists a couple of journalists you know uh scrummed him and asked him a bunch of questions

00:29:02.760 and and i found his answers absolutely telling and and and funny and also simultaneously

00:29:09.820 discouraging i was wondering like does anybody not listen to what this guy's saying because

00:29:14.460 they asked them about well it goes back to sorry i'm going all over the place here today it goes

00:29:19.920 back to one of the other things that happened this week which is that that the that the stats

00:29:26.180 canada published the quarterly gross domestic production numbers and gdp has gone down two

00:29:33.320 quarters in a row i think gdp has gone down something like six out of the last eight quarters

00:29:37.740 right it and uh so technically the bank of canada finally had to admit that we're in a technical

00:29:43.700 recession and and all fingers of that technical recession point to carney and carney got cornered

00:29:51.320 in the house outside the house of commons in the stairs and he basically said well um he he tried

00:29:59.320 to brush it off it's not my problem i inherited the problem it's like you inherited the problem

00:30:04.860 but you were advising trudeau you've been advising trudeau before you became the prime minister you

00:30:09.520 had been advising him since 2020 you were once the the the governor of the bank of canada plus

00:30:15.200 all the ministers that you've inherited are still ministers so like who are you going to and and the

00:30:20.320 liberals have been in power for 11 years so who are you going to blame but he found a way to back

00:30:24.960 flip it and blame other people but then i found some of the language interesting like in his

00:30:30.080 language he said something like in his question in his answer he's like we retook control of

00:30:35.600 immigration i'm like you retook control of immigration if you say you retook control then

00:30:41.200 by definition you had lost control he actually i think he even used the words we retook control of

00:30:48.560 of out of control immigration so who'd you regain the control from from your own party

00:30:55.200 and then in the same set in the next sentence he said we're curbing our um our spending which had

00:31:02.080 grown by 10 annually 10 annually the government spending is growing by 10 annually so now carney 0.94

00:31:08.960 carney's realizing all these things right the the economy's the shits and he can't hide behind 0.78

00:31:14.720 whatever story he wants it's coming out it's coming out it's coming out and he's being put 0.89

00:31:19.520 on the spot and he's going to have to do something about it and he knows what he has to do but but

00:31:24.320 um people are addicted to spending and to getting benefits from the government and so we're we're

00:31:31.040 not helping it's it's it's such a mess it's such a mess um all right folks you got the number down

00:31:37.680 there last week was such a great show i think i had like nine calls last week let's break that record

00:31:44.000 uh all right well let me carry on i don't know where do i go do i go alberta or do i stay on

00:31:49.360 federal um let uh let's go let's stay on alberta or no let's go federal for a second right because

00:31:59.040 all these things are are piling up on uh on carney simultaneously having to reverse a whole bunch of

00:32:05.920 policies one of the policies sort of broadly speaking that carney's reversing is uh have you

00:32:13.040 noticed has anybody noticed that he softened his attacks against um donald trump i oh all right

00:32:21.680 saved by the saved by the caller go ahead where are you calling from

00:32:27.760 hey jess and gp again hey jess you always save me how are things bud

00:32:34.080 good how are you man yeah uh is it true you guys are getting the rain we had the other day

00:32:40.560 it's not as bad where i'm at but i'm south of gp but up north they're getting it yeah yeah

00:32:45.920 Right on. What's on your mind?

00:32:49.700 Well, you're talking about the technical recession.

00:32:54.420 I had one point that a lot of people seem to forget whenever they're looking at GDP.

00:33:00.060 And if you do a GDP calculation, what most people don't realize is that the government spending is included in the country's GDP.

00:33:10.900 Yep.

00:33:12.180 And I don't have the exact figures right here in front of me.

00:33:15.920 But it is substantial.

00:33:17.360 If we remove the government spending

00:33:19.400 out of our GDP here in Canada,

00:33:21.780 they're like 52% or something astronomical.

00:33:27.860 Yeah, I agree.

00:33:29.520 So government spending perhaps shouldn't be in GDP,

00:33:32.480 but it is.

00:33:34.520 I actually, I did a breakdown one time.

00:33:39.220 I think it was last year.

00:33:40.660 I did a quick breakdown of the GDP of the top

00:33:45.920 you know 20 countries in the world by broad categories and and see which one you know what

00:33:51.720 what countries uh sector of their economy made up the biggest number and it was you know and don't

00:33:57.500 quote me but like france's biggest sector of its economy is food and and and tourism let's say

00:34:02.980 australia's biggest sector of its economy was mining american was manufacturing and financials

00:34:09.020 the british were financials uh italy was manufacturing and so forth and so forth and

00:34:14.020 And then you get to Canada and yeah, the biggest sector of our economy is our government.

00:34:19.580 Like it's government and it's like services that to me don't fundamentally produce.

00:34:25.320 We got it backwards.

00:34:26.320 We totally have it backwards.

00:34:28.320 Yeah.

00:34:29.320 So if anybody wants to do a quick little, you know, Google search when you're doing

00:34:34.120 GDP, add the term, you know, less government spending and you'll get the real, it's called

00:34:39.980 the private sector GDP, right?

00:34:42.060 it's it's a scary scary looking thing right and then so you know just to remind everyone because

00:34:48.760 i think some a lot of people seem to forget perhaps not all the callers here but a lot of

00:34:53.780 government employees seem to fail to realize that that money comes from directly from the private

00:35:00.800 sector tax dollars that fund the government yeah i i mean it's recycled dollars right i yeah i would

00:35:07.980 i i didn't know that thank you for pointing that out though i did not know that you could

00:35:11.740 easily do a private sector GDP good to know yeah so for anybody who wants to see the real GDP check

00:35:20.360 that out because it's it's you know it's a an eye-opening experience I'll tell you yeah now

00:35:25.520 the other problem that they the uh it's an interest is our GDP is going down and and I

00:35:32.040 think that's legit now our GDP per capita is going up because people are leaving the country

00:35:37.460 right and um so maybe we'll go back to having a realistic

00:35:41.460 gdp per capita at some point when uh when everybody leaves

00:35:45.920 maybe yeah when all the top one percent leave or the top 10 or

00:35:51.300 whatever the heck it is yeah yeah awesome okay well thanks uh thanks for

00:35:55.200 bailing me out and calling again i know you're you're a brave man you do it

00:35:58.560 every week almost cheers bud okay take care um so uh where was i

00:36:05.980 going so i was talking about spending and carney and oh yeah i know where it's gonna go with this

00:36:10.940 one so um so carney has toned down the rhetoric that's aimed at the americans right it served

00:36:18.640 him well it served him well he got elected on being on on using trump as a boogeyman he got

00:36:24.300 elected on that but down you know i have a buddy who just came back from the u.s uh this week he

00:36:30.940 he went down to austin he just came back i was in the u.s late last year and he came back and

00:36:36.780 he's just like marty the u.s is booming i'm like yeah we all know it man whatever trump is doing

00:36:43.100 is working right now the u.s economy is firing on all cylinders people generally in the u.s are

00:36:49.100 generally happy like uh by the way the like when when when stats canada announced that we and the

00:36:58.140 the bank of canada agreed that we are in a technical recession we're the only country in

00:37:03.220 the g7 that's in a recession right now okay so carney is doing all these backflips trying to

00:37:07.500 blame it on other people but he the he the he's he's blaming certain conditions well if the

00:37:14.220 conditions were universal and were causing uh depression around the world then everybody would

00:37:19.380 be in a technical recession but they're not right he's blaming tariffs if tariffs if trump tariffs

00:37:26.400 were causing us to be in a recession then trump tariffs should cause italy and france and japan

00:37:32.840 and others to be in a recession but we're the only ones in a recession so the idea that there's

00:37:37.780 these global forces and and somehow or other they only affect us that doesn't work so that's point

00:37:43.960 one point two the american economy is firing on all cylinders they're going bonkers right now

00:37:49.140 and so much so this happened this has happened in the past in the u.s right remember maybe some of

00:37:55.400 don't remember this but when ronald reagan came into power people didn't like reagan at first and

00:38:00.040 it was kind of like trump there was a derangement syndrome around ronald reagan he was just an actor

00:38:04.840 and then ronald reagan had these reaganomics and he was going to reform ralph klein had the same

00:38:09.800 thing when ralph klein in alberta came in power and he was he was going to cut costs and and do

00:38:14.920 things people hated him but at the end of the day results speak for themselves so under reagan the

00:38:21.000 economy prospered after a few years you couldn't hate klein anymore because all the things that

00:38:28.520 had been predicted didn't happen the economy didn't melt down it got better and trump's facing

00:38:33.320 the same thing his whatever he's doing is starting to work you can there's there's still people

00:38:38.600 trying to hate him and and the trump derangement syndrome is real but it's wearing thin and wearing

00:38:44.120 off because he's delivering results and what he's doing is working and i think carney has realized

00:38:49.080 that to a certain extent he can't keep playing trump as the boogeyman because what trump's doing

00:38:54.440 is working what carney's doing is not working and and then so and then in that softer tone we saw it

00:39:01.080 this week when um i think it was dominic leblanc but you know we have this this canada usa mexico

00:39:10.200 free trade agreement that is up for it's a conv it's complicated right it's not necessarily up

00:39:16.760 for renewal but it's up for review right you get to review it and then after you review it you can

00:39:22.280 decide if you want to renew it or adjust it but step one is some sort of review and um and we

00:39:28.680 finally extended uh sent a memo to the us saying hey we're interested in reviewing this i mean the

00:39:35.320 the deadline for sending the memo was like july 1st if we didn't send the memo on july 1st then

00:39:40.120 i guess automatically um something could have happened to the to the to the trade i guess it

00:39:46.120 auto renewed or something like that but we flinched first and we extended an olive branch to the us

00:39:52.520 saying hey we'd like to review this free trade agreement now simultaneously gets really weird

00:39:59.320 because um donald trump in the last few months as successful as he's been he's had some of his

00:40:04.440 tariffs reversed and then this week he hit us with this really weird argument around the uh

00:40:09.560 i call it the um the the the sweatshop cheap labor we'll we'll get back to i got to hold

00:40:15.720 that thought go ahead uh caller name where are you calling from please hi uh i'm bianne warholm

00:40:22.760 i'm calling from uh well nearby british um i i'm i the frustration i'm having is my husband works

00:40:33.000 in the oil for did work in the oil field she's been laid off since last christmas and uh

00:40:39.400 And I just see our oil field just still being battered by that MOU that Danielle signed off on, that's taxing us apparently to death with more and more carbon taxes. 0.99

00:40:52.400 I think we're being crippled by stupidity. 1.00

00:40:55.840 Yes. 1.00

00:40:57.440 Yeah, and at the very least, and we're being crippled by that, and we're also being crippled.

00:41:02.040 I mean, unfortunately, we are being a bit, the prices are high because of the conflict in Iran.

00:41:09.400 um she could give us a break on the fuel taxes and stuff like that right um

00:41:17.640 yeah sorry to hear that i i just know that there's i have family members their their kids are all

00:41:24.120 moving back home i one of my sons moved in with us and it just it seems to just be getting worse

00:41:32.120 and worse went through with my mom uh she just passed away here recently and and dealing with

00:41:38.360 health care, it all seems to be just an evil joke.

00:41:44.280 Yeah, and so, sorry to hear that.

00:41:47.060 So just for you, what do you see as one of the solutions?

00:41:53.680 Well, one of the biggest solutions is independence.

00:41:58.980 I don't see another solution.

00:42:01.000 Because as long as we're tied to Ottawa, calling the shots, I don't see how we get out of anything.

00:42:09.360 A solution is our independence.

00:42:12.820 Everybody in my family agrees.

00:42:15.380 So trying to find somebody who doesn't agree with me seems to be hard in my family.

00:42:20.420 Good, good.

00:42:21.380 So has it changed?

00:42:22.240 Has the sentiment changed in the last year or sort of stayed the same?

00:42:27.880 Well, it's just increased.

00:42:29.800 The more urgency to get out.

00:42:32.980 My father is 82.

00:42:34.780 He wants out.

00:42:35.540 Like, I went through the time where the first Trudeau messed us over, and my mortgage was 11%, 12%, 13%, you know, interest.

00:42:50.820 Like, we're never going to get better as long as we have Ottawa as our leader.

00:42:59.840 Ottawa's the problem, and Daniel Smith isn't helping right now.

00:43:03.760 i just you know it's gotten to the point i can't even watch her she makes me angry okay um

00:43:12.320 yeah well i mean here you're talking to the converted you're preaching

00:43:16.880 pretty much everybody who's listening to the show right now i think is on is on the same page as you

00:43:21.360 i mean i'll add one thing right and i i think it ties in nicely to what the the what i talked about

00:43:26.320 at the start of the show i independence is the way forward but my hope too is that once we're

00:43:31.920 independent like somebody mentioned you know danielle mentioned this 400 billion startup cost

00:43:36.760 one of the things that many many many people brought up after that is like that's a ridiculous

00:43:41.960 cost and it also assumes that we would do things the same way as ottawa and and i hope that an

00:43:47.240 independent alberta will do something very different right we don't want to be a mini

00:43:52.480 ottawa with the same institutions and all the bureaucracy we want to be an independent country

00:43:58.820 that does things simply and keeps

00:44:00.980 government small. At the end of the day,

00:44:03.100 I always think the smaller the government, the better.

00:44:05.040 That's it. Keep government out of people's lives.

00:44:08.180 My son,

00:44:09.660 my youngest son

00:44:11.020 who's working in the oil field,

00:44:12.780 he's a trucker. He said

00:44:15.120 if we had to pay

00:44:16.980 the $400 billion that 0.99

00:44:19.000 she's claiming, which 0.98

00:44:20.960 is bullshit, but whatever, 0.99

00:44:23.260 that she's claiming that 1.00

00:44:24.560 what would happen, it'd be worth

00:44:27.080 it.

00:44:27.320 Yep. Yeah. Well, which was what I was, which is what I was saying to my, you know, when I compare our separation to a divorce, right? How often like some people, you know, will decide that they're unhappy in a marriage and some people will stay. It's too bad, but some people are terribly unhappy and they'll stay. Others will just take a leap and say I'm unhappy and leave.

00:44:50.020 and how many times i'm sure you know people who've been divorced right how many people who've been

00:44:55.200 divorced and made that leap go back four years later and say boy i really regret getting divorced

00:45:00.540 like you know if if you're unhappy you're unhappy and you you make that leap and uh and generally

00:45:06.560 things work out better plus i have confidence in albertans right so i i i'm on that page i think

00:45:11.860 i agree with your son the 400 i'd pay it anyways the 400 billion but i think we'll do it way

00:45:17.580 cheaper than that oh i'm sure we will i don't i don't they have to do something because they can't

00:45:24.940 give us a reason to stay right they don't have we don't have any reasons to say

00:45:30.300 yeah no exactly no uh it's uh it's a all they got is fear and by the way i also uh thanks for

00:45:38.740 reminding me a couple of things i mean um we do save a lot of money right think of all the things

00:45:43.480 that ottawa does that we wouldn't need we we you know do we do we need all the things ottawa has

00:45:49.440 like do we need a ministry of of whatever culture and a ministry do we need a coast guard we won't

00:45:55.260 need a coast guard we won't need a navy think of the money we save right there well but the thing

00:46:01.440 is we probably have a better army anyway and air force like it we would actually fund them yes and

00:46:09.440 give them things like sleeping bags that actually keep them warm oh you saw that story what a

00:46:14.400 terrible story eh what a terrible disgusting yeah for for for viewers who didn't see the story the

00:46:20.960 canadian army sleeping bags just one example but a memo went out to uh to to veterans so people who

00:46:27.360 just recently left the army like hey can you bring send back the gear um you know i guess the odd guy

00:46:33.680 kept his sleeping bag or kept a piece of equipment i i i can see how that happens but the army is

00:46:39.120 running out of gear and asking guys to return the gear what a terrible thing what a terrible thanks

00:46:44.300 for calling here about the gucci gear no the gucci gear is the guys who paid for their own helmets 0.81

00:46:50.560 and stuff yeah yeah yeah that's how pathetic we are as a country we can't even get put some give

00:46:59.160 our our men who are supposed to be protecting us here well they're also paying for their own

00:47:05.980 uh accommodations and meals and places like the guys that were deployed in um in latvia and places

00:47:12.480 like that because uh yeah yeah terrible terrible terrible yeah i i think we could do that better

00:47:18.320 in alberta i think so 100 absolutely thank you for the call have a great day okay yeah yeah bye

00:47:25.080 yeah um yeah we won't need a navy we won't need a coast guard we won't need is a department of

00:47:32.500 fisheries and oceans and uh that that was always one of the ones that i've that uh i worked in the

00:47:38.640 oil patch and i've i've uh i was on a job one time we're doing a pipeline crossing and then all of

00:47:44.700 a sudden i look over my shoulder and there's this blue truck and it said department of fisheries and

00:47:48.640 oceans on it you know i'm up in the middle of the bush by whatever uh manning alberta or something

00:47:53.980 and i can't remember what river we were crossing but technically the river we were crossing was

00:47:58.340 navigable and any navigable river in Alberta or anywhere in Canada falls under the jurisdiction of

00:48:05.740 the Department of Fisheries and Oceans and so some guy had come to witness our pipeline crossing I

00:48:11.560 thought that was just the most hilarious thing in the world okay a couple of things I'm always

00:48:18.200 surprised I mean I you know sometimes I panic a little bit I'm like okay I gotta have something

00:48:22.640 to talk about there's always something to talk about it is way better when you guys call I'll

00:48:27.660 tell you it's way better um and maybe what i need to do next time is is sort of lay out a whole bunch

00:48:33.500 of my topics and let you guys know some of the things i'm interested in talking maybe that'll

00:48:38.540 spur some some discussion such as this next topic right it's it's it's innocent this week danielle

00:48:46.060 um announced that alberta is getting a new form of id right it sounds innocent right it's we're

00:48:51.420 getting um the driver's licenses are starting july 1st or july 2nd you have your uh you have

00:48:58.300 your driver's license and then you can put the um alberta health card on it and your citizenship

00:49:04.780 and i think there's some potential things there so maybe maybe maybe we can talk about that but

00:49:10.460 i got a caller on the line so let's take that call go ahead please you can hear me marty you bet

00:49:17.580 okay bud i never know with the delay whether i'm on or not i don't like to waste my talents

00:49:24.520 anyways uh i've got a few things that i want to bring up and i'd like you to let me just

00:49:30.920 list through them and speak for a bit and then i'd like you to speak to them sure 0.99

00:49:34.640 danielle smith has come out and claimed 400 billion dollars

00:49:40.260 correct yep okay now the uh uh first of all currency wise everybody blah blah blah go digital

00:49:51.540 boom done military not required who the hell's going to attack us right border patrol not

00:49:58.580 required go with an alliance between alberta and uh usa they'll happily help us out there

00:50:03.840 until we can afford our own forever group was nothing but doom and gloom that's all they act

00:50:11.840 to us and they they they talk as though what do you think is going to happen we're going to do

00:50:18.400 this we're going to do that well we talk as though they're the only ones got a rock to throw

00:50:23.280 and a slingshot so if they get it get rough and rough with us we close our borders boom

00:50:28.640 end of the trucking cross problem we shut off the the pipelines and gas lines boom everybody's

00:50:34.560 going to start crying and i think the aggression is going to stop immediately yep uh so the border

00:50:40.720 closure two-way street if negotiations go to aggression and shut down uh shut down the air

00:50:47.200 flow is what i just said would not not uh if the negotiations are we feel are not in good face

00:50:53.440 we can shut it down state so and declare sovereignty immediately all of this they

00:51:02.400 have to remember is one phone call to trump and we'll have f-35s overhead of alberta in about 0.98

00:51:08.240 five minutes and the bullshit will stop right there so you don't don't don't get threatening 0.95

00:51:14.260 people you're gonna who cares if we lose our canadian passport we're trying to get away from 0.98

00:51:18.140 that anyways anyway i've thrown a lot out of there the last thing i've got to say is i've

00:51:22.960 called five times and 7-1-1 put me through to some John's, his call line. It defaulted to this

00:51:31.400 guy who answers his voicemail, John. I've called two or three points of your organization and told

00:51:38.860 him, Marty's dying online because people can't get through. Get a hold and get this thing changed.

00:51:43.600 You need to check and make sure your numbers are correct. The way I got through this time was I

00:51:51.280 dialed the number and before the lady even gets started talking i hit 7-1-1 and i get in

00:51:56.680 yeah you're losing you're dying out there you're dying out there from lack of uh callers calling

00:52:03.200 in i think part of it's your system thanks thanks for that well uh john is the producer so he heard

00:52:08.640 you and we're working on that i think we'll have thanks for reminding we'll make it clear you have

00:52:13.120 to call the number and do extension 7-1-1 but john the john you're talking about is in studio with me

00:52:18.420 right now appreciate the call um and if you hang up and i'll just talk to what you just said

00:52:23.680 appreciate it thank you um yeah you know it's a good reminder you know i i wanted to talk about

00:52:31.420 this a little bit more but let's let's just finish it the set the 400 billion dollars yes

00:52:38.080 forget about the 400 billion when we the the next day like i said let's rethink right like the

00:52:44.840 caller just said let's rethink do we need all these things right everybody's automatically

00:52:49.220 assuming that just because we already have something that's provided by Ottawa that we

00:52:52.920 need to continue doing that no maybe we don't right embassies was another one that somebody

00:52:58.200 mentioned like do we need embassies I mean do we need does Alberta need an embassy in every

00:53:05.200 country around the world I mean you can same thing you can partner up look at your passport

00:53:09.780 actually open your passport right now if you have a passport and you open your passport

00:53:13.420 it says right in your passport that uh if you can't reach a canadian embassy and you're in

00:53:18.720 trouble go to a british embassy we could do the same thing alberta could say have an agreement

00:53:23.240 and and if if you can't reach maybe maybe canada will be mad at us and they won't want to assist

00:53:28.660 us that's fine then we reach an agreement with the americans and it just says in your passport

00:53:32.900 if you're in trouble somewhere around the world and you're in albertan and you can't find an

00:53:37.400 alberta embassy go visit an american embassy right just the point is we just need to rethink

00:53:42.700 about all of this i don't want to at the starting point for me the day after independence is not to

00:53:48.940 duplicate everything we currently do with ca in canada and and i agree on the on the digital

00:53:55.740 currency and things like that maybe maybe it's time to think differently so speaking of digital

00:54:00.300 currency so let's just finish like i'm running out of time maybe we'll bring it up next week but

00:54:04.540 But, you know, the idea sounds good on paper.

00:54:10.600 I'm okay, perhaps, with your driver's license having your Alberta health number, right?

00:54:16.160 Who here doesn't have a ratty old Alberta health card that's been, you know, we're still using paper in Alberta.

00:54:23.340 So adding the number there, maybe.

00:54:26.920 But part of me in this day and age also worries that the more of these things that I put on one card,

00:54:34.040 Like I start to get nervous about having one card and on that one card is my driver's license and my hunting permit and my gun permit and my passport and my Alberta health, right?

00:54:44.720 We're going to that digital ID, which starts to make me nervous.

00:54:49.540 And the one in particular that kind of makes me nervous is putting the citizenship on there, right?

00:54:55.780 And that sounds simple enough, like you show your driver's license that it'll have your citizenship.

00:55:00.700 but it's already problematic that some people associate a driver's license with a with a

00:55:05.720 citizenship it's not like anybody who comes to alberta even a even a temporary foreign worker

00:55:13.040 can go and get a driver's license like it's not it's you don't need to be a canadian citizen to

00:55:18.520 get a driver's license and so i worry about that one that suddenly the driver's license will kind

00:55:23.500 of be equated as the equivalent of a passport and uh and and will be but more importantly for me

00:55:29.780 it's the fact that we're we're putting everything on one piece of of id the digital id thing starts

00:55:35.300 to really really really scare me personally but that's that that's me um what other comments we

00:55:41.060 got here any uh i don't see anything crazy all right well let me go down i i got a couple of um

00:55:49.220 oh actually i went so fast i forgot one thing i want i wanted to uh uh i was happy this week um

00:55:56.260 our neighbors i always consider me personally i always consider saskatchewan to be like cousins

00:56:03.920 almost brothers right like the americans are my cousins people in montana north dakota whatever i

00:56:09.600 consider them my cousins i consider people in saskatchewan my brothers i don't always say i

00:56:14.600 don't i have a hard time saying the same thing about people in bc i i find that i don't share

00:56:20.640 a lot in common with bc perhaps is because of the last 10 15 years in bc with their ndp and

00:56:26.680 liberal governments but i was very happy that this weekend uh bc elected a pretty solid

00:56:33.320 conservative leader so um congratulations to uh carolyn uh finley and uh you know she won

00:56:44.180 on the fourth ballot so it was a tight race uh what was the other lady's name carolyn elliott

00:56:49.940 so anyways i i i i won't lie i was incredibly disappointed in john rustad i had met john

00:56:58.100 rustad here about a year ago and maybe more than a year ago maybe a year and a half ago and i thought

00:57:05.380 even at that time okay he might be okay as a conservative leader but you know the party

00:57:11.620 imploded around him hopefully um uh carrie lynn can carry the party and reunite the party

00:57:19.220 and make a good strong showing at the next election i definitely think eb is on his way

00:57:25.400 out if if bc re-elects an ndp government i won't i i'll i'll give up on you guys i won't know what

00:57:32.620 to uh what to say about that um oh god what else was i going to say work uh well i was going to

00:57:40.580 talk about the canada post strike but that's uh that's probably pretty minor but just just for

00:57:45.780 people who didn't know that actually canada post had been on strike for two years i think we'd all

00:57:50.000 forgotten about it right so canada post actually uh resolved its dispute with its uh union and

00:57:57.800 but i think that's the union finally realizing that they they're working for a dying organization

00:58:03.480 i mean canada post lost 2.1 billion dollars last year so you're fighting for benefits in a dying

00:58:10.580 organization and i think the union finally uh saw the light i'm reading a comment going by marty do

00:58:18.020 you think it's possible to do both get rid of smith and oh that's what uh and get and and get a vote in

00:58:26.420 october good reminder good reminder right um yesterday so there's been a push there's a been

00:58:34.180 a push to get people to buy their conservative uh ucp memberships you know there's a push to try and

00:58:39.780 take over more constituency associations and perhaps get a special general meeting

00:58:45.620 i don't know how successful that's going to be i kind of think that that's the wrong approach

00:58:51.320 in the short term i think the focus should be on educating people and trying to get a legitimate

00:58:57.780 vote in october for a second referendum but that said um do get your conservative membership

00:59:08.020 and just this week the official notice of the annual general meeting came out so the ucp put

00:59:14.820 it out so the annual general meeting is uh oh god i don't even have the dates i i think it's at the

00:59:20.900 i think it's very early november here in calgary at the bemo center this year so you need to have

00:59:26.980 your membership i think before uh october 6th or november 6th like you need your membership a couple

00:59:34.020 a day a month before the agm to qualify to vote at the agm anyways long story short get your ucp

00:59:40.600 membership and go to the agm it's an amazing event they're always fun um there it is one of

00:59:48.780 the biggest conservative events you'll see in the country i mean two years ago we had 5200 people in

00:59:53.660 red deer last year was a little more subdued only 4 000 people in edmonton i think this year we'll

00:59:59.500 be back to a five six thousand people in calgary and if you get your membership and you get your

01:00:05.700 agm uh ticket right now there's an early bird price for tickets uh right i think probably for

01:00:12.420 all of june like if you get it before the end of june it's 139 bucks 179 bucks if you bought why do

01:00:18.520 i know these things i i sound like i'm promoting the uh ucp i'm not i'm just a freak who likes to

01:00:24.120 go to these things and i pay attention to these kinds of things uh so get your if you've never

01:00:29.640 participated in democracy that's one great way to participate come to the annual ucp membership or

01:00:35.720 agm john's giving me the signal we're running out of time uh folks again thanks for joining me join

01:00:43.000 me again next week um or an organization like this the western standard does not work on uh charity

01:00:50.840 we do uh appreciate people getting memberships so that we can bring you content like this this

01:00:57.160 cost all these little changes to the studio they look small but they they cost a few bucks

01:01:01.800 people want us to get our better um uh switchboard so that costs a few bucks so they're on the screen

01:01:08.420 westernstandard.news subscription ten dollars a month hundred dollars a year and they're running

01:01:15.100 a promo right now if you get a new membership right now i think you'll get a either a discount

01:01:19.500 or a free item from the merchandising store i saw last week we talked about it the for me the the

01:01:27.260 ralph klein uh coffee mug is my absolute favorite i need it on my desk next week for my coffee

01:01:34.620 and uh thanks for joining folks we'll see you next week same time cheers

Western Standard - June 04, 2026

Alberta independence： Does $400 billion in startup cost pass the smell test？

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