Western Standard - Alberta Republicans set back the independence movement

00:00:00.000 good day welcome to the

00:00:29.920 cory morgan show it's our last one before july into the summer i'm liking it the political

00:00:36.640 parties of course are all on their summer holidays now but the news doesn't stop lots to cover lots

00:00:42.340 to go on about lots to rant about even if the legislatures aren't sitting uh the show is live

00:00:48.360 as we can see i see no sense left and e-sharp checking in already use that comment scroll

00:00:53.220 send things my way ideas notions comments debate with each other just try to stay somewhat civil

00:00:58.600 with each other anyways. So I'm going to have Mike Thomas on in a little while. He's a Western

00:01:03.500 Standard columnist. You guys should be familiar with him. He writes on real estate, some business

00:01:07.920 stuff, and a lot of civic issues. And we're going to be hearing a lot from Mike as it's an election

00:01:11.480 year coming up in the municipal world. There's always some kind of election or another going on

00:01:15.680 and Mike's stuff is going to be very important in these months to come. As well, I'll be checking

00:01:21.080 in with Dave. He's been a hard one to catch lately. It seems he's bouncing around all over

00:01:24.700 of the place, but I've got him in for a news check-in. But I've got to go off on a rant before

00:01:28.120 that starts. Something else people were watching probably saw. There was a number of by-elections

00:01:33.800 the other day in Alberta, three of them. Now, Olds Didsbury Three Hills, for those not as

00:01:39.660 familiar with it, it's arguably the constituency with the strongest support for Western independence

00:01:43.980 in Canada. In 1982, it became the first constituency to elect an overt independence

00:01:49.440 candidate when they selected Gord Kessler as an MLA in a by-election. It's a rural constituency

00:01:54.380 with a strong conservative-leaning base.

00:01:57.360 If there's anywhere that an independence candidate

00:01:59.640 would do well in Western Canada, it's that constituency.

00:02:03.560 So in a by-election this week,

00:02:04.960 Alberta Republican Lardy Party leader Cam Davies

00:02:08.520 was solidly trounced in Old Stisbury, Three Hills,

00:02:11.540 garnering an embarrassing 17.7% support.

00:02:14.360 Even the NDP beat them.

00:02:16.580 The movement for Western independence,

00:02:18.200 it's been enjoying a surge of support

00:02:19.900 since Eastern Canada rewarded the Liberals

00:02:21.980 with a larger government last April.

00:02:23.560 So polls have indicated, I mean, they're all over, but around 30% of Albertans are looking

00:02:28.160 at considering a vote for independence if they get the opportunity to do so in a referendum.

00:02:32.120 The lackluster electoral showing from the Republican Party of Alberta just dumped a

00:02:36.920 cold bucket of water on the independence movement, just as the political doldrums of summer are

00:02:40.840 about to hit.

00:02:42.000 I mean, with that support sitting at around 30% in the province, it's likely closer to

00:02:45.820 50% or more in a constituency like Old Stisbury Three Hills.

00:02:50.300 Being in a by-election as well offered independent supporters an opportunity to send a

00:02:53.540 message by voting for an independence candidate without risking unseating the government.

00:02:56.820 It was the best electoral opportunity for an independence candidate seen in an Alberta election

00:03:02.260 since the 1980s. So why did the Republican Party fare so poorly? Well, there's a few reasons.

00:03:07.960 To begin with, they named themselves the Republican Party. Why embrace a distinctively

00:03:11.860 American brand in an Albertan party? Independent supporters want to celebrate and build Alberta

00:03:18.440 and its identity. We're not looking to dissolve into a larger one south of the border. The

00:03:22.940 Republican moniker divides an already fragile support base. Some independent supporters like

00:03:27.140 the idea of joining the U.S., while some have no use for it. That prevented independent supporters

00:03:31.800 from coalescing around one party. The party's self-appointed leader, Cam Davies, has a checkered

00:03:36.900 past in Alberta politics. He was neck deep in the now infamous kamikaze leadership campaign debacle

00:03:42.020 when Jason Kenney won the UCP leadership. Davies threw others involved in the affair under the bus

00:03:47.020 and found himself fined by Elections Alberta for his misdeeds. His history doesn't exactly exude

00:03:52.260 trustworthiness and his personal presentation has been off-putting for many people. He just doesn't

00:03:56.560 rub folks the right way. The campaign also seemed to be more focused on a personal vendetta against

00:04:02.260 Daniel Smith and the UCP rather than the merits of Alberta independence. I mean, many Alberta

00:04:06.760 independent supporters don't have a problem with Smith and weren't drawn in by the constant sniping

00:04:10.880 from Cam and the Republicans. The party itself was transformed from the morbid Buffalo party only a 0.98

00:04:15.780 few months ago, yet somehow garnered an astonishing amount of funds in a short time. That sets off

00:04:20.680 alarm bells for many people. It'd be interesting to see how the financials withstand the inevitable

00:04:24.260 audits to come. And having no established base of support yet, but having an oddly full bank

00:04:30.720 account, the Republican Party spent heavily on advertising and had what appeared to be a

00:04:34.060 paid groups of door knockers dropped into constituencies rather than organic volunteers

00:04:38.620 like other parties have. That didn't resonate well with voters at the doors and the election

00:04:43.020 results proved that out. The party also branded itself in liberal red and their campaign signs

00:04:48.500 were almost indistinguishable at a glance from federal liberal science seen only a few months

00:04:52.180 ago. Embracing the brand appearance of the most loathed party in the province demonstrates either

00:04:56.740 utter strategic ineptitude or a penchant for electoral self-destruction. The campaign really

00:05:02.860 was so bad it made people wonder if it wasn't being thrown on purpose. The party had also gotten

00:05:07.820 a hold of phone numbers and email lists for people and they were auto-dialing the cell phones of

00:05:12.080 Albertans, an annoyance tactic that couldn't have helped them. And now they also ran in the other 0.56

00:05:15.860 two Edmonton by-elections being held. There was no expectation they would do well there,

00:05:20.000 but they still managed to underwhelm with 3.6% support in one of them, and it's a ghastly

00:05:24.880 0.7% support in the other. The only term to describe that sort of electoral showing in

00:05:30.720 spite of all the spending is pathetic. Voters didn't reject the concept of independence in 0.96

00:05:36.140 the by-elections. They rejected Cam Davies and his weird little party. Unfortunately,

00:05:40.540 Federalists are using the defeat of Davies as a barometer of Alberta's support for independence.

00:05:44.620 Whether independent supporters like it or not, Davies became the face of the movement for a short time, and he served it poorly.

00:05:50.700 With a referendum on independence likely to be held within a year, independent supporters just had a tough job made even tougher by the Alberta Republicans.

00:05:58.120 Well, let's just hope that a lesson was learned.

00:06:00.680 With a referendum campaign, a party isn't needed.

00:06:02.940 In fact, as we saw with Davies' efforts, the parties actually can make things worse.

00:06:07.700 Independent supporters must coalesce around advocacy groups and act individually to build the base for winning a referendum vote.

00:06:13.680 They can't afford to waste time and money on independence parties

00:06:15.960 and only divide the movement and fail.

00:06:18.100 Perhaps the Republicans provide an example of the futility of a party approach

00:06:22.040 early enough to have taught the lesson in time to recover from it.

00:06:24.700 Now, let's just hope they go away so the real independence movement can get to work

00:06:28.140 because they've got a lot to do.

00:06:30.060 All right.

00:06:30.920 That's what's got me going.

00:06:31.680 Let's see what else is going on there.

00:06:32.700 Hey, Dave.

00:06:33.420 Not a member of the Cam Davies fan club, I take it. 0.92

00:06:35.560 No, he's a weasel. 0.90

00:06:36.880 A weasel?

00:06:37.420 Weasel.

00:06:38.000 Weasel.

00:06:38.320 I know there's no shortage of those in the political world, but he stands out.

00:06:41.980 So, quick checklist.

00:06:42.740 you're a award-winning sorry best-selling author yeah a award-winning beekeeper

00:06:49.460 somewhat right i've got that third place ribbon at the millerville fair that's an award you won it

00:06:53.860 yeah and now you're expanding your business empire i say you're going into the chapstick business

00:06:59.140 chapstick so yes uh beeswax uh lip balms i make you well i had all that beeswax built up what

00:07:03.860 are you supposed to do with it i you know a few candles i guess but no uh look at those

00:07:07.780 burt's bee things they're like seven bucks for a tube yeah so yeah we're trying that so i made

00:07:11.860 a mess of wax and everything all over the counter at home and jane's pissed off at it so how much 0.54

00:07:15.220 are you going to be selling yours for you don't let the market decide i think a lot of it's just

00:07:18.500 gonna be gifts for uh you know rb and b guests or colleagues maybe i get chat lips i could bring

00:07:23.700 some by for sure there you go sell it at the end of your driveway during the summer quality control

00:07:28.180 anyways i'm not sure how many of duke's hairs managed to get into the mix while i was making

00:07:31.460 sell them to the cyclists as they pass by because they the sun right true enough and we get no

00:07:35.700 shortage of cyclists exactly and the chap butts on it anyways i wish you good luck oh thanks good

00:07:41.220 good luck. I keep busy. You do. You like the world's most interesting guy. Lots of good stuff

00:07:49.240 on the website this morning, if I do say so myself. Alberta energy regulators released their

00:07:54.780 yearly report on how energy is doing in Alberta. And as you might expect, we're booming record

00:08:00.340 production, record money, whether it's helium or lithium or hydrogen or bitumen, whatever it is,

00:08:07.840 we're uh we're getting it out of the ground and we're selling it so that's all good i read that

00:08:12.560 story on the standard i mean our natural gas reserve numbers are actually going up yeah so

00:08:17.600 i mean this is something interesting for people you know not familiar with the oil field i mean

00:08:20.880 yes we're producing but as we find improve more resources the amount's actually getting larger

00:08:25.840 yeah and we went from 15th in the world for lng supply to ninth yeah so and we still only have

00:08:31.280 that one port to export it so imagine what we could do if we actually got some stuff built

00:08:36.080 a good story uh out of ottawa today the uh there used to be a trades uh trade grant for men and

00:08:44.460 women who were thinking about getting into the trades and if you identified as a woman you got

00:08:49.640 double the amount of money because they were trying to attract more women's to women to the 1.00

00:08:53.460 trades but all they took as whatever sex you were going for was just self-identification of course

00:09:00.220 No, so if you're thinking, hey, a woman gets double, I think I'll just identify as a woman today and click that box. 0.63

00:09:08.240 So apparently lots of people have been ripping off the government that way, gender benders. 1.00

00:09:12.940 Who would have seen that coming?

00:09:13.980 Yeah, a high school teacher in Edmonton by the name of Jimmy Bueno has been charged with a whole bunch of child sex offenses.

00:09:22.720 And as the cops descended on the school to arrest him, they found he's fled the country.

00:09:27.620 No bueno.

00:09:28.220 So no bueno.

00:09:29.100 So he's, well, hopefully in a country where we can extradite him.

00:09:36.720 Interesting energy-type story.

00:09:40.280 The province is spending $5 million to build a direct air carbon capture,

00:09:46.300 where this thing will just sit in a field in Innisfail and suck carbon dioxide out of the air.

00:09:53.020 Sounds interesting.

00:09:53.980 If it works.

00:09:54.640 Interesting.

00:09:55.160 Where are they going to put it?

00:09:56.160 Somewhere near Innisfail in the field.

00:09:57.480 Well, I meant the carbon.

00:09:58.780 Oh, then they're going to take it wherever they bury it underground.

00:10:01.760 We can pipeline it into Quebec.

00:10:03.260 Yeah, exactly.

00:10:04.440 Set up a big fan at the Quebec border and blowing it that way.

00:10:08.720 And the Labor Board, the Federal Labor Board, has upheld a firing of an employment insurance operator who is bitching about Black Lives Matter and saying stuff like,

00:10:22.840 When do white people get their own day?

00:10:25.540 And saying what you said, the Kamloops school thing was a hoax.

00:10:30.920 Yeah, I'm not so big on the White Lives Matter day.

00:10:33.060 That's kind of self-evident.

00:10:34.680 So anyways, the board said that that wasn't creating a very good work atmosphere,

00:10:40.100 and they fired him.

00:10:42.340 I think it was.

00:10:43.520 It's one of those difficult areas.

00:10:44.780 I mean, you've got a public presentation of a person or a reflection on the place,

00:10:49.640 but at the same time is political correctness overriding the ability, so to speak.

00:10:53.900 Thank goodness we don't have an HR department.

00:10:56.120 No, well, political correctness isn't really a problem around here, typically,

00:10:59.220 as long as the mics aren't hot.

00:11:00.300 Exactly.

00:11:02.480 That's all you got today.

00:11:03.260 That's it, man. Isn't that enough?

00:11:05.000 As we're coming into July, no, as you said, the site is busy.

00:11:08.920 The news doesn't stop.

00:11:09.860 It doesn't, sadly.

00:11:11.160 Right on.

00:11:11.440 Just a slow day would be acceptable once in a while.

00:11:14.480 You've been bouncing around traveling.

00:11:15.380 You were in Banff for the G7 living in luxury.

00:11:17.560 You were eating steaks in Israel a little while ago.

00:11:20.640 Living in luxury.

00:11:23.140 They made us walk down the mountain because they wouldn't let us park at the BAM Center.

00:11:28.580 We had to walk down Tuttle Mountain.

00:11:29.940 People pay a lot of money to be able to go up and walk down those mountains.

00:11:32.840 I don't.

00:11:33.540 I'm not one of them, though.

00:11:35.380 Okay.

00:11:36.000 Well, I'll let you get back to your desk and recover from the hiking.

00:11:39.060 And appreciate the updates, Dave.

00:11:40.860 You bet, Corey.

00:11:41.800 Right on.

00:11:42.300 Thanks.

00:11:43.380 That is our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:11:45.220 And, yes, lots of stuff going up there.

00:11:47.160 It's a busy site.

00:11:48.080 We can see it looks like a new face behind me on the screen there,

00:11:51.060 making his premier appearance as well in the newsroom.

00:11:53.680 That nice thing with the glass, literal glass wall behind us here at the Western Standard.

00:11:57.880 Look, the reason we've got new reporters,

00:11:59.500 the reason Dave's busily trying to keep all those stories up and running

00:12:02.640 is because you guys have been subscribing.

00:12:04.960 So be sure to get on there, westernstandard.news slash subscription.

00:12:08.060 We don't take those tax dollars.

00:12:09.480 We're independent.

00:12:10.280 We answer to you.

00:12:11.960 $10 a month, $100 for a year.

00:12:13.600 Guys, if you've already subscribed, we really do appreciate it.

00:12:16.440 and if you haven't yet get on there it's just like a newspaper subscription and helps cover things

00:12:22.560 so let's have a look at things through the comment scroll what's going on out there e sharp kind of

00:12:27.860 checking in from saskatchewan uh perry uh dorsey saying the fact that they went on a summer holiday

00:12:33.200 tells you how little they care about canadians and how small that crisis to the uh yellow man 1.00

00:12:38.240 to the south why he's more orange i think but all the same as all smoking mirrors and bs from the 0.59

00:12:41.720 Liberals. Though, to be fair, a little bit fair, you know, and I beat on politicians regularly,

00:12:47.700 that's part of what I do. We do point out that it's a holiday over summer because the

00:12:53.100 legislatures aren't sitting. But most of them are actually pretty busy over the summer months.

00:12:59.740 They've got to stay on the ground. They've got to go to public events. They've got to

00:13:04.120 make appearances, do their things. I mean, some of them just kind of mail it in, but a lot of them

00:13:08.320 really work quite hard through those months too. Not whether they're working on anything that

00:13:11.680 actually benefits us. Well, that's a whole separate discussion altogether, isn't it? But, you know,

00:13:17.940 the legislatures do have to break now and then. I mean, one of the things is kind of good when

00:13:24.520 they aren't sitting, there's less chance that they can do much more damage to us. So they

00:13:27.580 tend to find ways. Let's see, a log 74 question. Is Carney just joined the EU without the rest of

00:13:35.220 the provinces voting on another $250 billion pact? Yeah, I know there's a big spending thing

00:13:39.760 through NATO, and Carney certainly has a big interest in Europe over North America in a lot

00:13:45.260 of ways. He seems to be wanting to pull us tighter over there. But no, we haven't informally or

00:13:50.200 formally joined the EU yet, but he really is pushing in that direction, isn't he? And well,

00:13:56.200 there's a lot of things, good things and bad things with the European Union, I guess. For the

00:14:00.740 most part, I don't want him. I mean, we're working hard enough to break out of the Federation, or at

00:14:04.120 least I am. Why would I want to get mixed up in yet another group of countries across a big pond

00:14:09.520 to make it even all the more complicated all right but let's get on to my guest here i got

00:14:12.840 in studio mike thomas you've read a lot of his stuff in the western standard and we've got him

00:14:17.840 here how's it going mike pretty good cory how are you doing good good i like summer so i'm actually

00:14:23.940 you know as far as i go with my grumpiness i'm in a good mood right now given the weather we've had

00:14:27.960 the last couple days it's actually warm out there today yeah well for people i think it's been ideal

00:14:32.900 weather you know that low to mid 20 degree area yeah i like it at 30 and above but yeah me too

00:14:37.920 you know jane disagrees vehemently with that uh but all the same this is good well next time you

00:14:43.120 can go to arizona leave her at home you know i can get myself a crap i don't need help you don't need 0.92

00:14:50.240 me right on well again i appreciate you coming in so i mean just reminding everybody we're coming

00:14:56.720 into a municipal municipal election year october 20th yes yeah and i mean we should be paying

00:15:03.840 attention to these things all the time but we don't uh this you know for the next few months

00:15:09.920 really should be the time people should be kind of scrutinizing those candidates well

00:15:14.240 stampede week is usually when the elections really hit the streets so to speak because

00:15:20.240 yeah there's so many receptions and the and the candidates and the wannabes are

00:15:24.240 are at every single one of them um and then they disappear totally in august for the most part

00:15:30.960 because council doesn't sit in august take the month off um but the uh the shift in in council

00:15:39.360 will hit the fan on labor day that that weekend is just boom away they go yeah yeah just full

00:15:45.120 board campaign time after that yeah so something i mean a recent piece of yours and you got a lot

00:15:49.920 of them but just one that caught my eye because it's a pet peeve of mine but watching those poor

00:15:53.440 businesses in marta loop for people not familiar with it it's kind of it was a nice little

00:15:57.840 neighborhood it was a little corner of kind of older city but it had businesses around nice

00:16:02.880 little houses and they have taken it on upon upon themselves to rebuild it and they have destroyed

00:16:08.800 that area well you know and i mean martin loop is not that far from where they

00:16:14.400 messed up by count bennett high school that's another um but the city's on this rampage of

00:16:19.840 densification that um i'm convinced it's because of federal money uh they signed an agreement with

00:16:29.280 the housing accelerator fund that i've gone through and looked at and calgary got 228 million dollars

00:16:37.520 uh in the agreement plus bonus money for every multi-family permit billing permit it issues

00:16:46.320 so they got i think it was something like 22 million dollars in bonuses a couple weeks ago

00:16:50.960 so the fan the same thing in edmonton the same deal going on out there um so they're just

00:16:57.600 indiscriminately putting up uh multi-family housing um i mean we need housing that's that's

00:17:05.360 clear about that but um to do what they've done in martyr loop is is atrocious it doesn't need

00:17:12.480 to be done there but the planners have it in their heads that there's these things called

00:17:17.600 main streets and 33rd avenue which runs from if you're familiar with calgary 14th street west to

00:17:25.200 crow child trail is a very heavily traveled route many roads that go across crotch out so you have

00:17:31.360 to use that yeah yeah and so their their dictum for lack of a better word is that they just want

00:17:39.280 to densify the hell out of uh of those main streets and they take into account they do not

00:17:45.200 take into account um the the nest it's what i'm trying to say they don't care what neighborhood

00:17:53.600 it's in is what i'm trying to say um and martin loop is is a like you said it was a heritage i've

00:17:58.400 been born and raised in calgary i used to hang around there i went to like i've been at high

00:18:01.680 school um so i'm very familiar with the area and it was a really cool neat neighborhood yes it did

00:18:07.920 There's a place if you want to do an in-city day trip, you could go down there, check out Casablanca Video or some of the other restaurants.

00:18:13.860 All those places.

00:18:14.680 The old theater.

00:18:16.140 I remember going to the Marta Theater to see movies there.

00:18:20.940 So they got to clean up Marta Loop, they said.

00:18:26.740 But what they're really doing is they're putting infrastructure in that will handle 26-story apartment buildings.

00:18:33.880 And that takes a lot of work.

00:18:36.340 and that's very old infrastructure in there obviously i don't think it's been changed since

00:18:39.860 1950 i don't know um but uh they just messed it up so badly and it's it's not going to take 18

00:18:49.220 months longer than what they said it would take because they get down there and they go boy this

00:18:52.820 is a big mess um and so um i know people say well how come it takes so long is it any different in

00:19:01.300 calgary in terms of other projects um i don't know i don't i i'm not an expert at construction i just

00:19:09.060 expert at criticizing yeah well that's part of what i wanted to get into though i mean can calgary get

00:19:13.780 anything done in decent timelines because the issue with martin loop wasn't just the construction

00:19:17.700 they started over two years ago yep they've ripped up this this three block area of streets these

00:19:22.740 businesses are going broke because people are avoiding the area like the plague and they still

00:19:27.060 aren't done. And I've been out there recently.

00:19:29.320 I have to drive the city all the time.

00:19:31.400 It's not that different. They widen the sidewalks

00:19:33.460 a little, put in some planters. I'm guessing

00:19:35.300 it's underground utilities. It's all the underground

00:19:37.080 stuff. But how can they

00:19:39.280 take so long? Well, you know,

00:19:40.720 I don't know if they

00:19:43.160 take longer in Calgary than, say,

00:19:45.160 they would do longer than in Edmundsburg.

00:19:47.180 It's a municipal problem altogether.

00:19:49.060 Yeah. So, I mean,

00:19:51.540 I'm going to get, I mean,

00:19:53.100 certainly it's not the people working

00:19:55.180 not at street level or not to blame for this i mean the story i wrote when uh the guy from uh

00:20:01.820 diner deluxe vince said that he was getting more information from the guys digging the holes than

00:20:07.980 he was from city hall and therein i think lies the problem because it's not necessarily i mean

00:20:13.740 you're going to run into problems digging that deep into old infrastructure you're just going

00:20:17.100 to have it you don't really know what's there till you get there so that's i i'll give you that but

00:20:23.100 But communication is the problem.

00:20:25.720 The city of Calgary is just terrible at communications.

00:20:30.500 They seem to think, and I sit through all kinds of different things.

00:20:34.340 I've talked to a bunch of the people involved in all these new developments

00:20:39.560 who said that the city hosted these events to get input and stuff like that.

00:20:46.380 And just everybody I talked to says that they didn't.

00:20:50.260 They didn't listen.

00:20:51.000 You know, they lecture. They don't listen.

00:20:53.280 They go through the motions.

00:20:54.120 Yeah, they go through the motions and then they go back to City Hall and a report came out.

00:20:59.080 I can't remember if it was yesterday or last week about what a great job the city does in interacting with Calgarians.

00:21:08.660 And it's bull, total bull.

00:21:10.920 And so I think, I mean, I think probably if they had a martyr loop marshal for the city who went around the neighborhood every Monday morning, the Monday morning marshal.

00:21:26.580 There you go.

00:21:27.340 I like that.

00:21:27.840 You can get that comp's position.

00:21:29.080 I'm going to write that down.

00:21:30.940 And just say, look, we've run into a problem over here, and it's going to take a little bit longer, but they're not doing that.

00:21:36.300 But if you tell people, look, it's going to take a little bit longer.

00:21:40.180 sorry about that um how can we what can we do to help you or whatever uh people go oh okay at least

00:21:46.940 you're telling me and that's the big problem is they don't communicate it so this i mean as much

00:21:53.980 as it's a big big project for the people down there this is a drop in the bucket compared to

00:21:57.960 i'm going to bring up the monster the green line because that's going to be coming up in this

00:22:01.220 election a lot that monster has been going on for years now it's an lrt expansion project that keeps

00:22:07.900 growing in size and then shrinking but the budget just keeps exploding and they haven't

00:22:11.980 they haven't laid a mile of track yet no uh there's a groundbreaking ceremony tomorrow

00:22:18.020 yeah well if they move at the speed they did with martyr loop my great-grandchildren won't

00:22:21.120 see this thing completely no they won't um i don't know what the timeline is on that i've

00:22:25.300 written quite a bit about it and i haven't seen that because they they haven't decided i only

00:22:29.240 decided a little while ago that when they're when they're going to start uh building the thing but

00:22:34.140 But the difference there, I think, initially, anyway, is it's really not heavily populated where this thing is going.

00:22:42.380 And there's no deep –

00:22:44.000 It's cutting through a bunch of light industrial.

00:22:45.920 Yeah.

00:22:46.380 So I think it will go quickly by city standards.

00:22:51.320 Because you've got bigger properties and some of them aren't – yeah, there's –

00:22:54.720 But no, it's easily – I think it's at least five years away.

00:22:58.360 I'm not sure.

00:23:00.140 And I'm not a big fan of the Green Line.

00:23:02.280 I don't know.

00:23:03.180 I sure have.

00:23:04.140 uh i don't know why they why they did that i have i really don't understand it well so getting on

00:23:10.220 i'll get more into your specialty as you've written on for decades on real estate housing

00:23:15.180 it's again going to be an issue the blanket rezoning the candidates for mayor and council

00:23:20.140 are already shooting at each other over the blanket rezoning and such where do you think

00:23:24.540 hopefully this campaign will go to work towards maybe a better council and mayor for a little while

00:23:29.100 well um in terms of whether or not they're going to be able to uh repeal the the blanket zoning i

00:23:38.860 don't know um what do you do how do you compensate people who have now you know a 16 unit condo or

00:23:49.340 row house next to nor your single family home i mean they should quit it but again it goes back

00:23:56.700 to the housing accelerator fund because um it's all multi-family homes that are come under that

00:24:02.940 blanket zoning and the city gets bonus money for permits issued um they get bonus money for

00:24:10.140 multi-family anywhere in the city but including in there and that was part of the it's in the

00:24:14.940 agreement i've read it it says uh no multi-family no changing the zoning no money well it's one of

00:24:22.300 those areas in a sense the federal government is really indirectly but still directly meddling in

00:24:26.940 municipal affairs because they dangle the money and and they'll play that i mean you know if the

00:24:31.980 city doesn't utilize those dollars you know the other politicians will say well look at that they

00:24:35.820 left money on the table they're throwing away the federal dollars that were handed out to you

00:24:40.220 it's an ugly political game they play well it is um the uh yeah i mean the money the taxpayers money

00:24:46.940 that's the lot because it's still all hours no matter how you look yeah because edmonton uh

00:24:52.300 bought into it as well and now um on monday at edmonton city council there is a petition or

00:25:00.540 motion going forward to adjust their blanket up sony so that they can't put big 16 uh unit

00:25:10.380 row houses in the middle of the street if they want them you got to put them on the corner

00:25:15.580 which which is probably i mean it's it's a concession to single-family people um the

00:25:23.140 if they're if the homes the raw houses if they're on the corner then the people probably aren't

00:25:29.180 parking in the middle of the street because i mean all the issues that go with that it's

00:25:32.900 incredible so whether or not that i think it's going to get passed because uh you mentioned

00:25:37.940 the election, the whole thing about three of the mayoral candidates announced this week

00:25:49.200 they were going to repeal it if they were elected, which leaves two people who haven't

00:25:54.720 mentioned it, and one of them is Jody Gondek, who wouldn't even give a thought to repealing

00:25:59.540 him.

00:26:00.140 No, and Thiessen's probably the other one.

00:26:02.140 Thiessen's the other one, and he wouldn't either.

00:26:06.240 he's a he's a old civil servant who uh you know um so what's going to happen with it i don't know

00:26:15.040 can they repeal it i don't know what are the ramifications i mean it's uh but it's interesting

00:26:22.400 that they're all making it uh an election issue yeah yeah and it's it's part of it now that it's

00:26:29.600 already been in i mean people have to look at what happens well if there's companies have already

00:26:32.800 invested or started the planning or purchased properties that the city could be very liable

00:26:37.440 if they get rug pulled well no um or they can't they won't be able to cancel any permits that

00:26:43.280 have been issued that's what i mean yeah okay yeah you know the gears that are already in motion

00:26:46.560 yeah and and you know what and that's that's another thing um they're talking about using

00:26:52.080 this thing to solve our housing crisis we don't have a housing crisis in calgary we have an

00:26:57.840 affordability crisis in calgary um we've got there there are more active list listings on the calgary

00:27:04.960 real estate board website right now than have been in three or four years like people are are listing

00:27:10.720 their houses that they're selling them they want to get out of them so that puts product on the

00:27:15.120 market but what we don't have is enough uh non-market housing and and all of this stuff

00:27:23.120 that's being built under the blanket zoning bylaw none of it is market housing there's no stipulation

00:27:30.960 in there for somebody to go in there and say okay i want a permit for this rule house for 16 units

00:27:36.640 they go yeah here you go uh but they don't say oh no wait you got 16 four of them have to be

00:27:41.360 non-market which would just make make it even a bigger problem for them but that's the issue

00:27:47.680 with me is that they're uh none of this stuff that they're building under that bylaw is affordable

00:27:54.720 housing i mean you're if if you go into let's say mount royal and knock down a two million dollar

00:28:00.400 house that you want to put row homes in there what do you think those are going to sell for

00:28:05.200 you know that's like the infills of the inner city before i left calgary it was 12 years ago

00:28:10.240 and i lived in highland park an older area a lot of the infills were going in and then some

00:28:13.600 neighbors did that in the corner tore down the house put up to a big giant gray duplex and they

00:28:20.560 sold for 600 000 each half a duplex for 600 000 in an area where you could buy a whole house for

00:28:25.600 400 000 at that time but if you're not making things more affordable you just go a couple

00:28:29.520 blocks south here into lower mount royal and it's a mess like that it's an absolute disaster area

00:28:36.080 well i mean there's lots to cover and the housing is your beat but still in general so is civic and

00:28:40.560 And I just wanted to bring you in, you know, kicking off this season because we really need people to be watching your stories.

00:28:45.380 They're going to be important in this this next few months.

00:28:48.320 What do you see or what do you anticipate covering in this election as it starts ramping up?

00:28:53.660 Well, the stages are being set.

00:28:58.860 There are going to be a minimum of six new phases on council because I've got a list here to the people who've said they're not running.

00:29:08.100 um and a question mark with sean shoe i'm not sure so that could make a seven but um

00:29:15.140 sean can win if he wanted to yeah i don't i don't know i have no i'm not going to wager on anybody

00:29:21.440 um but if you look at it one two three four five six of them voted for blanket up zoning

00:29:30.220 and now all of a sudden they're not running so now whether or not that's got anything to do with

00:29:35.040 i don't know i'd like to think so that they learned their lesson and they're getting off

00:29:38.960 the voters and they're getting the heck out before they get kicked yeah yeah um so so anyway there's

00:29:45.280 a minimum of six maybe seven new faces to to run for council we got five people running for mayor

00:29:52.720 i don't think there'll be any more um there might be a couple of counselors yet to to uh

00:29:58.640 throw their hat into the ring i don't know um i think that that it's going to be i say this every

00:30:08.320 year the most important election in calgary's history but this one is is is um the warring i

00:30:14.880 mean it's a split council it is so divided it isn't funny i mean i was in council yesterday

00:30:21.040 watching them talk about uh they were notice a motion came in about is the city of calgary

00:30:28.480 infringing on responsibilities that are the alberta government or the federal government

00:30:33.280 and and it was brought to uh to council by sonia sharp who is running for mayor and um

00:30:41.760 there's a great big argument going on in this split council no we have to do everything we

00:30:46.720 possibly can regardless of whose responsibility it is and and and that that was the the pro blanket

00:30:54.640 zoning people the self-important ones i think the city city state almost they're they're they don't

00:31:02.640 i don't think they think of themselves as counselors first that's that's their second

00:31:07.520 job their first job is to to manipulate and and and do whatever they can to get people to live

00:31:14.880 they want the way they want them to live social engineering yes social engineering the dei stuff

00:31:19.600 all of that stuff um there's two guys on council that are really bad at that that's karra and

00:31:26.080 walcott uh both of whom are bailing yeah um and uh so those seats are open where i'm going with this

00:31:34.920 i think is is that um traditionally turnout in the civic election in calgary is is terrible

00:31:42.940 I think it's like 16 or 20 percent or something like that. So you get what you don't ask for.

00:31:50.620 If you don't go in there and tell them, you, I'm voting for you, a big turnout will shake this council up.

00:31:59.520 It didn't shake them up when they had the big public hearing because they had that all that money from the liberals behind them.

00:32:05.600 but um i think calgary i hope calgarians are more aware of what's going on because of the nature of 0.95

00:32:14.760 this current council which has done so many stupid things so maybe i don't know i uh and that's that's 0.92

00:32:21.160 the big issue is get get off your duff and make a plan to to check out all of the people who are 0.97

00:32:28.300 running uh and check them out really well in terms of the type of person you want to have

00:32:34.380 in the government and don't just read their their uh election literature yeah i mean find what

00:32:40.820 what job did they have before this or what job did they have now that they're prepared to leave

00:32:45.980 to go to council um uh where they've worked in the past can tell you a lot more about them

00:32:52.760 than i promised to uh peach in every pond you know so well we only get one crack at it every

00:32:58.880 four years so if there's any time they're actually going to listen to you it's this next five months

00:33:03.140 because they're all trying to win the job.

00:33:06.200 So, I mean, it's kind of, as you say, 0.99

00:33:08.000 it's on you to get off your butt and pay attention 0.98

00:33:10.340 and make a good choice because you're stuck with them 0.99

00:33:12.340 for four years after that.

00:33:13.660 Yeah.

00:33:14.460 Well, we'll be covering it and you'll be covering it

00:33:16.660 and, you know, informing people as much as you can

00:33:19.060 before the election date comes.

00:33:21.100 Well, there's, you know, I'm a little annoyed

00:33:24.120 that they're not going to be in council in August

00:33:26.840 because we'll have nothing to bitch about. 0.95

00:33:29.240 Oh, I'm sure there's always something to bitch about. 0.99

00:33:31.480 we always can find something to go bitch about. But have you got anything in the cooker for your 0.93

00:33:36.160 next article coming up? I got a couple of things, but I don't want to blow them out right now

00:33:43.060 because I just, I got some reports from the city that look a little silly that you have to.

00:33:49.000 That's unusual. Well, and it goes back to the blanket zoning and how proud they are that

00:33:54.060 they've issued a record amount of building permits in the last couple of years. Calgary

00:33:58.980 home builders have been leading the country um with with home building and the city's taking

00:34:04.100 all the credit and which is really silly because the population growth in calgary has been 90 000

00:34:09.940 100 000 people coming here from uh ontario and bc and they've got people coming from bc and ontario

00:34:19.380 where the average housing is a million dollars that's the average price so they're bringing big

00:34:24.420 bucks here and they're just buying brand new houses and so the builders are going in and the

00:34:28.820 city's going good for us just a minute uh they'd love to pat themselves on the back yeah all right

00:34:34.820 well thanks for coming in and talking thank you great to see you anytime looking forward to the

00:34:39.220 stories in the months to come great i'll i'll look after you then right

00:34:45.380 take care yes mike thomas it's been a while since he's been on overdue and uh yes covering

00:34:51.620 the municipal beat he sits through those god awful city council meetings and reads those

00:34:56.980 everdell reports so you don't have to because there is a lot of important stuff in both but

00:35:02.580 uh you know it's got to be summarized for a lot of us to to digest and make our choices but this

00:35:07.300 is the year for edmonton calgary i'm in a rural area i got a you know a local counselor and we

00:35:12.740 have a reeve and she yeah she's been all right i'm not going to complain about her but she gets

00:35:17.940 It's acclaimed every time.

00:35:21.260 They don't even have people running against them.

00:35:23.820 Once they're an incumbent, they realize you just can't knock off an incumbent,

00:35:26.300 so people don't even run against them.

00:35:28.180 We really, really overlook our municipal level of government.

00:35:32.880 They tax the heck out of you.

00:35:34.500 They impact your life on so many levels.

00:35:37.100 As Mike said, you can see the frustration in them.

00:35:39.500 It's one of the dismal turnouts. 0.99

00:35:41.240 These guys, they bleed you dry, and they regulate the crap out of you. 0.94

00:35:45.840 you should get up once every four years and get out and vote and uh i know it gets frustrating 0.97

00:35:53.400 and say well you vote you put them in it turns out they lied and they didn't do any of the

00:35:56.960 things they said they promised and yeah that happens but that means you got to go out the

00:35:59.880 second time and fire them see part of the problem with uh you know many of the problems but with

00:36:07.000 municipal governments again is that they get in once they're in that incumbent is in there it is

00:36:12.380 difficult to dislodge them and get them out. So they take it for granted that we won't

00:36:20.560 trouble ourselves to fire them. The thing with democracy that people don't like, and it's a

00:36:26.960 right-left thing, it's a complacency thing, it's apathy. It puts the responsibility on us.

00:36:32.760 We have to take part in it. And we don't like to. We make excuses not to. You know, the people say

00:36:39.700 my vote doesn't count. My vote doesn't matter. Well, not if you don't bother. No, it doesn't.

00:36:45.000 And they say, oh, vote, I get the same thing. True. Well, then fire them. Next one does it

00:36:49.100 again. Fire them again. I promise you a lot of politicians actually want to get the job for more 0.99

00:36:53.740 than four years. But if they know that you won't get rid of them, if they fed you a bunch of crap, 0.99

00:37:00.140 well, then they're not going to change anything. And that's whether it's Edmonton, Calgary, 0.99

00:37:05.180 but we've got the whole province going into a race and as dull as it sounds. Something that's

00:37:08.840 different this time in alberta is that uh we got the the party system going on we got a number of

00:37:15.600 parties i think they've been having some challenges i i had the fellow from a better calgary come on

00:37:20.140 and talk about things uh but it is the first time parties have been in i got a feeling

00:37:25.540 not even a feeling it's clear they need a little more time to flesh out and get the feel of this

00:37:30.500 system all together and become more functional so the parties are a part of this election i think

00:37:35.220 they're going to be a bigger part of elections down the road, but, uh, right now they're kind

00:37:41.200 of in a bit of disarray and trying to establish themselves. And most people can't, can't name

00:37:45.320 them. So they don't know who's doing what. Uh, let's see here. Some of this stuff going on.

00:37:55.600 Dave covered a lot of this, stole my thunder on a bunch of things. Here's an interesting one.

00:37:59.520 speaking of cover-ups and things that come out in uh uh federal government is uh the business

00:38:07.260 development bank invokes solicitor client privilege and censoring all records regarding

00:38:11.260 executive donations to the liberal party yeah so basically senior people with uh government funded

00:38:18.320 agency are donating money back to the party members in the government i mean it's money laundering

00:38:23.300 basically guys and now they've just invoked solicitor client privilege to say we will never

00:38:27.340 tell you how much money we gave. It sounds like the bank's chair was also the financial agent for

00:38:33.680 Transport Minister Chrystia Freeland, who used to be Finance Minister. Boy, it's an inbred, 0.90

00:38:38.800 ugly sort of thing. I see some questions in the debate going on. Yes, whether I'm a farmer,

00:38:46.560 beekeeper, I call it flying livestock. Yes, I keep bees and I did own a pub. But a question

00:38:54.120 asked whether I support independence. Yes. I've been very open about that. If there's a referendum,

00:39:01.000 I'm voting yes. I want the referendum. I want a yes, no vote. That's how we got to keep it clear.

00:39:04.820 That's how we have to do it. And when the time comes, I'm going to vote yes. Now, whether or not

00:39:08.300 enough Albertans actually vote yes at that time, we got a long ways to go. We got to get a lot of

00:39:14.600 realism back into this movement. There's a lot of confirmation bias on our own part,

00:39:22.400 thinking there's a heck of a lot more support there than there is and is there it's growing

00:39:28.880 it's stronger than it's ever been but we have not nearly cultivated and expanded it to the point of

00:39:33.960 well past 50 uh percent that we need and that's where i got annoyed with the oxygen that went

00:39:41.360 towards this weird republican party thing that didn't bring us any closer to it than where we

00:39:46.320 had been. And there's some people pushing, thinking that, you know, that the UCP and

00:39:52.660 Premier Smith should take on a full-out independent stance. Now, I don't agree with that for a couple

00:39:56.720 of reasons. One of which is just, they weren't elected on that. That was not what they campaigned

00:40:02.460 on. That's a big, huge, personal sort of decision for every person to make, which is why I think

00:40:07.760 it's too important for the parties to make. That's why it should go to a referendum rather than to

00:40:11.060 a party. But a party shouldn't take that kind of stance without actually having gone to the voters

00:40:17.120 on. It's not something that big. As well, as I said, the support is not strong enough for

00:40:23.680 independence yet to do that. If the UCP took on a full out, full independence stance as a party,

00:40:31.880 Nenshi would become the next premier. Simple as that. There would be no

00:40:38.160 winning in the next election because it's just not there yet. It's not the place for a party.

00:40:44.640 This is a question that should go to Albertans. And what the UCP has done has given us the ability,

00:40:49.400 which is perfect. They've given us the means to start a referendum, to campaign and hold it and

00:40:55.640 let Albertans decide. They shouldn't need to do any more than that. Now, Smith has started this

00:41:00.980 Alberta Next thing, which I'm not so thrilled about. I mean, it keeps things in the discussion.

00:41:05.800 fine but it sounds a lot like Jason Kenney's fair deal panel but I see from a lot of politicians

00:41:11.840 that they take things and they kick them down the road so let's have a whole bunch of hearings and

00:41:17.040 then never actually do anything about it the fair deal panel came up with things like talking about

00:41:21.420 a pension plan talking about a police force that stuff was done what seven years ago eight years

00:41:25.940 ago none of this is here yet so why do we need another you know Alberta next thing to come up

00:41:32.500 and talk some more. I'm tired of listening to Gumsflap. I want to see some action.

00:41:37.820 But there has been some. Maybe a bit fair. One of the discussions, one of the things

00:41:41.800 Smith was talking about, you know, was the police force thing. Well, let's, boy, they must be

00:41:48.340 constructing new housing somewhere nearby. I'm not sure if that's coming through to you guys.

00:41:53.960 She's been taking an incremental approach, which has been interesting with that.

00:41:57.420 And, you know, we're seeing municipalities, Grand Prairie, others where they took on municipal forces and got rid of the RCMP coverage.

00:42:04.740 And we're seeing more sheriffs, Alberta sheriffs moving in.

00:42:07.980 So I think they're basically just squeezing the RCMP out rather than making one big blanket change.

00:42:12.800 You know what?

00:42:13.280 Different paths to the same end.

00:42:14.860 I'm fine with that.

00:42:16.600 I mean, as long as it gets the job done.

00:42:20.640 But it's going to take a while.

00:42:22.120 The pension plan, I think the provincial government blew it.

00:42:24.580 They didn't sell it well.

00:42:26.680 And now the report came out recently that didn't look good for them, that the government

00:42:31.480 sat on, because they did a whole big survey on Albertans with the Alberta pension plan idea,

00:42:36.040 and their own survey found at that time, and I think it's changed since then,

00:42:40.200 but still at that time, about 63% of Albertans didn't want to go to an Alberta pension plan,

00:42:45.560 which means they sold it badly. Because we, like with so many other things federally,

00:42:50.760 we get robbed on the pension plan, we get a raw deal on it, we get a bad deal on it.

00:42:54.280 and selling the better deal of an Alberta pension should be a thing we can do if you do it right,

00:43:02.620 but they didn't. And now we're paying for that because we should be well on our way towards

00:43:07.520 when they obviously haven't given up on the plan. And I think that's a bit of what they're going to

00:43:10.700 throw onto this part of what these hearings or whatever you want to call it, town halls that

00:43:14.940 are going to be traveling around and doing that. The thing that Smith's getting into with this

00:43:18.880 Alberta next, they're going to be talking about the pension plan. They're going to be talking

00:43:21.740 putting other things to a referendum question as well as independence. Independence, that would 0.70

00:43:26.460 probably have to become citizens initiated. Okay, fine. But they might put some other things on the

00:43:30.880 ballot that they're going to get out of this hearing. So there might be a pension question

00:43:33.740 on there as well as an independence question. I'm not sure yet if that's a good or a bad thing for

00:43:38.160 the independence movement, to be honest. It causes some distraction, but it moves in the right

00:43:41.380 direction. And I like direct democracy. I like the idea of having more citizens voting directly

00:43:45.860 on some of the bigger policies rather than leaving it just to the politicians themselves. But

00:43:50.140 we'll see. Speaking of spending and some of the other talk, yeah, you know, news that's breaking,

00:43:54.980 I'm kind of, you know, running out of time to hit them all. But yeah, NATO and Canada,

00:43:58.840 now Carney's promised to spend 5% of GDP on defense by 2035. Now, Canada has been riding

00:44:04.780 the coattails of other countries for decades and spent, what, 1.6% of our GDP on defense. I mean,

00:44:10.920 we wouldn't even get to 2% as we're supposed to. Now he's making the late all the way to 5%.

00:44:16.680 might be a good thing, I guess. It shows us paying our bills on the international front,

00:44:20.880 but boy, he's not wasting time. What I get worried about is where's the money going to come from?

00:44:26.100 I think getting up to two would be good. It was good. Maybe five is good. I'll leave the jury

00:44:31.580 out on that, but I worry. He sure is spending and spending and spending. Where is he going to get

00:44:38.700 the money? I worry about another national energy program. All right, before I get going, there's

00:44:41.900 going to be speaking of the ucp and things uh he was on last week the guest uh eric bouchard he's

00:44:47.420 the mla for fish creek calgary ucp mla he's got a sovereignty town hall tonight that's being held

00:44:52.920 it's called the courage to listen i think it's at the courage to listen.ca i don't know if they

00:44:56.900 have tickets left or not but i'm going to drop by and check that out and listen to it there's a lot

00:45:00.140 of interesting speakers and stuff going on in calgary so i'll be out there in the audience

00:45:03.520 i'm not speaking at one of these things for a change and hey albertans day is going to be in

00:45:08.360 mirror alberta at uh chris scott's whistle stop cafe i'm going to be set up out there as well

00:45:14.000 actually i'm going to i'm looking forward to always good food there great people very interesting

00:45:18.380 tamara leach is going to be playing and uh christine anderson's going to be speaking there

00:45:22.680 of all things so if you're looking for something to do in alberta and central alberta mirror

00:45:26.220 alberta whistle stop cafe i'll see you there if i can uh pipeline is going to be on tonight and

00:45:32.520 nigel with his other shows i think coming on friday just keep watching all our channels guys

00:45:37.880 lots more to cover we'll be carrying on throughout this summer to make sure you're

00:45:42.040 up to date on the news so thanks for tuning in today guys and we'll see you on the next one

00:46:07.880 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - June 26, 2025

Alberta Republicans set back the independence movement

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