Western Standard - Blocked： Charest, Unifor and BC Ferries - The Pipeline, Episode 5

00:00:00.000 You're listening to The Pipeline, the Western Standards National Affairs program recording

00:00:14.520 this Tuesday, January 21st, 2020.

00:00:19.140 Each week we break down the issues, discuss them in depth, and examine some of the broader

00:00:23.500 implications for Western Canada and beyond.

00:00:27.520 Featuring from Calgary, the Western Standards publisher, Derek Fildebrandt.

00:00:31.380 Welcome, Derek.

00:00:32.380 Hello.

00:00:34.020 And from Strathmore, Deirdre Mitchell-McLean, our senior reporter.

00:00:38.920 Hello.

00:00:40.740 And myself, Paul Holmes, digital editor from the quaint island destination, Victorian British

00:00:47.200 Columbia.

00:00:49.900 This week, we're going to be talking about the Regina refinery strike.

00:00:54.540 Big news there.

00:00:56.020 So the BC Ferries blockade, not as big a news, but news nonetheless.

00:01:02.520 We're also going to be talking a little update to the Harry and Meghan situation.

00:01:09.640 And finally, some updates with the Tory leadership race that we've learned just this week.

00:01:16.520 So why don't we start, first of all, with the Regina refinery strike.

00:01:21.440 Some escalation there, Derek.

00:01:23.020 Why don't you fill in the details?

00:01:25.020 Well, actually, why don't we go to Deirdre?

00:01:28.020 Start with Deirdre.

00:01:29.020 All right.

00:01:31.020 Deirdre, why don't you fill us in on the very-

00:01:33.020 I don't have the station.

00:01:34.020 I have opinions.

00:01:35.020 All right.

00:01:36.020 So Regina refinery strike.

00:01:39.520 A little bit of escalation yesterday as the Unifor National and members from Unifor, like

00:01:49.640 from many different locals, showed up to take the place of Local 594 at the Regina refinery.

00:01:56.520 And the reason that they did that is because back in December, the courts in Regina, or sorry,

00:02:06.020 in Saskatchewan actually issued a note, or sorry, an order restricting Local 594 from restricting

00:02:14.780 access to and from the refinery.

00:02:18.020 And they restricted that to a maximum of 10 minutes or if people decided they didn't want

00:02:25.520 information, then they would have to let them go, whichever came first.

00:02:30.520 So that court order came out in December, and it was very specifically to the members

00:02:35.480 of Local 594.

00:02:37.320 So yesterday, when the local, or sorry, the national president, that's Jerry Diaz, and others

00:02:46.340 were actually stopping traffic from going in and out of the refinery, it technically wasn't

00:02:52.520 members from Local 594.

00:02:53.520 And yeah, so a little bit of, a little bit of, you know, legal loopholes there, but the

00:03:02.520 Regina police were on hand, and they did make arrests.

00:03:05.520 There were 14 people arrested, including the national president, Jerry Diaz.

00:03:10.520 And he had a, he had a media availability this morning that discussed, you know, he spent

00:03:17.640 seven hours in the cell, he has been charged with mischief.

00:03:20.520 And, I mean, they're still, they're still out there, they're back again this morning.

00:03:27.520 They are calling for a boycott of, you know, refinery products at gas stations and retail stores,

00:03:35.520 in Saskatchewan, and basically everywhere in support of, of their picket line at the moment.

00:03:42.520 So, with the narrowness of the original court order, were the Regina police out of order

00:03:49.520 in, in making those arrests, and interfering in the way that they, they did, or?

00:03:54.520 No, a spokesperson for the Regina police did say that even though Unifor has the right

00:04:01.520 to protest, and they have the right to picket, they do not have the right to, to restrict

00:04:08.520 business.

00:04:09.520 Okay.

00:04:10.520 So, in the way that they were doing.

00:04:12.520 And so, according to the Regina police, they, you know, there's, there's two sets of rights.

00:04:17.520 Right?

00:04:18.520 The business has the right to continue, and the union has a right to strike, or picket,

00:04:26.520 but they don't, you know, they can't really go to head, go head to head.

00:04:30.520 So, that's, so it doesn't seem like, but, you know, Unifor is definitely saying that they

00:04:36.520 want some de-escalation, or de-escalation from the police, who I'm sure would like to see

00:04:42.520 a de-escalation from the union, and it goes back and forth.

00:04:46.520 Well, and, and Unifor is based out of Toronto.

00:04:49.520 I assume that the national president is probably also from Toronto.

00:04:53.520 Yeah.

00:04:54.520 And so, this is a fair, a very significant escalation for what is, is a national union

00:05:00.520 with, with locals all across Canada, right?

00:05:02.520 Yeah. 0.99

00:05:03.520 You'll never find a greater, greater gathering of scum and villainy than the Unifor headquarters 0.99

00:05:08.520 in Toronto. 0.99

00:05:09.520 Don't hold back, Derek.

00:05:11.520 Tell us how you feel.

00:05:12.520 Yeah. 1.00

00:05:13.520 Look, these, these guys are scum. 1.00

00:05:15.520 So the local, so, so Unifor here have, has been doxing people. 1.00

00:05:20.520 They've been putting out the pictures with names of what they call scabs, the replacement workers.

00:05:27.520 And this isn't just to shame them.

00:05:30.520 We know that unions do this with the, with the hope of trying to intimidate people, make

00:05:36.520 them feel physically unsafe in, in doing what they're doing.

00:05:40.520 Um, I mean, it is a moral decision if you want to cross the picket line.

00:05:43.520 Uh, but at the same time, you know, there's, these guys are saying to boycott the petroleum

00:05:47.520 products.

00:05:48.520 So are they really calling for people to not heat their homes when we've been in minus

00:05:52.520 40 and minus 50 for a week?

00:05:53.520 I mean, these people must be living in Toronto to think that this is a reasonable thing to

00:05:58.520 do.

00:05:59.520 Uh, if the reasons for their strike are legitimate or not, I don't know.

00:06:03.520 It's a, it's a local thing in Regina and, and that's between two, two parties, but, uh, but

00:06:10.520 their actions doxing people.

00:06:11.520 And then they doxed, um, this gentleman, uh, I know Deirdre did a story on it.

00:06:16.520 They doxed this gentleman, uh, who owned, who was the corner of a liquor store in Regina.

00:06:20.520 Happens to have the same name as one of the replacement workers.

00:06:23.520 And so all of a sudden he's now being harassed and publicly targeted by these people.

00:06:28.520 And Unifor has refused to apologize repeatedly when asked, you know, would you apologize to

00:06:34.520 this man?

00:06:35.520 Absolutely not.

00:06:36.520 They can do no wrong.

00:06:37.520 And now they show up and, um, you know, they've got every right to protest.

00:06:42.520 They've got every right to picket and, uh, to strike, but they seem to think they have

00:06:46.520 the right to block entrance to private property, uh, that they do not own.

00:06:51.520 And, and that's just outright thuggery. 0.74

00:06:54.520 So, uh, yeah, it's, uh, I, I, I really think the Regina police made the right call on this

00:07:00.520 one.

00:07:01.520 I, you know, I, it's interesting.

00:07:02.520 I saw the original video when they, they were showing faces and names of all of the replacement

00:07:09.520 workers in a video, they call it, you know, the scab expose or something.

00:07:15.520 And I was, I was shocked by that because to me, that's, you know, they're not, they're not

00:07:19.520 directly calling for violence or anything like that, but it was a super heated situation.

00:07:26.520 And, you know, like, can't be hard to find, you know, where these people live and all that

00:07:31.520 sort of, sort of thing beyond that.

00:07:32.520 Um, I thought I was surprised.

00:07:34.520 I was really surprised.

00:07:35.520 When I lived in BC, I was forced to be a part of a union for a year.

00:07:40.520 And, uh, I would get a mail from the union, uh, advising me to vote for the Marxist Leninist

00:07:45.520 candidates for, uh, for city council.

00:07:48.520 Uh, I responded by putting up, uh, right to work posters in my office.

00:07:52.520 Um, but they had my address and it made me feel, but not particularly safe knowing that,

00:07:59.520 uh, people urging me to vote for the Marxist Leninist party, uh, had my home address.

00:08:04.520 And so these guys are doxing people.

00:08:06.520 Uh, and it's, it's quite intentionally not safe and meant to intimidate.

00:08:10.520 The Marxists run Victoria now anyways, people not to cross the picket line.

00:08:14.520 They have every right to do that.

00:08:15.520 I mean, that's, that's their thing, but I don't, I think it's, um, it is, it's just wrong.

00:08:22.520 I think to try and intimidate people and to not, uh, into complying with what they want.

00:08:27.520 Well, and I, you know, I didn't respond on Twitter and frankly, part of the reason I didn't respond

00:08:32.520 on Twitter is because, um, you know, just the, whoever was managing the account was being

00:08:37.520 very aggressive.

00:08:38.520 I, if you looked at the tweets that followed, you saw that, um, they were very aggressively

00:08:44.520 blocking anybody who had a negative opinion on the video and, um, and who knows what sort

00:08:50.520 of list you got added to at that point as well.

00:08:53.520 So, uh, but I did ask my followers on my personal Facebook and some of, some of the people that

00:08:59.520 I'm friends with that are union organizers responded saying that this is a perfectly acceptable

00:09:04.520 tactic because everything else has failed and we have the moral authority to, um, proceed

00:09:10.520 in, in this way.

00:09:12.520 Nobody else does, but we do because, you know, we're in the moral right and everybody else's

00:09:17.520 is in the moral wrong here.

00:09:19.520 So, um, hard to, I would just, I would just like to add actually that the, that a 2013 Supreme

00:09:28.520 court decision is what has upheld the right of the unions to dox, uh, replacement workers.

00:09:36.520 Okay.

00:09:37.520 Well, there's a difference between a constitutional right to do something and something being

00:09:41.520 moral or ethical and they often shouldn't be the same thing.

00:09:45.520 Uh, I actually think from, uh, from a legal perspective, uh, the court might be correct

00:09:49.520 because it's a matter of freedom of expression.

00:09:52.520 And I don't particularly like the government policing, what can be put out on videos and

00:09:57.520 what cannot be, it should always lean towards, uh, no restriction rather than more restriction.

00:10:03.520 Uh, but I think there is a very ethical problem with what they're doing here is very intentionally

00:10:08.520 trying to intimidate people.

00:10:09.520 Well, of course they're not allowed to say on the video, go find these people and cut their

00:10:13.520 tires or beat them up.

00:10:14.520 That would be illegal.

00:10:15.520 That's advocating harm. 0.96

00:10:16.520 But, um, these guys know what they're doing and they're thugs. 0.83

00:10:21.520 I'm a little surprised.

00:10:23.520 Perhaps we're, uh, perhaps it's a good time to segue into other people who believe they

00:10:27.520 have a, a God given moral right to block things.

00:10:31.520 Well, that's an interesting segue Derek, because, uh, in fact, the BC ferries, uh, this

00:10:37.520 week were blocked by a group of protestors that, um, were, uh, in support of the Wet'suwet'en

00:10:46.520 First Nation, which is a First Nation, uh, way up North that, uh, is, uh, currently, uh,

00:10:53.520 battling LNG.

00:10:54.520 I believe that the hereditary chief there is opposed.

00:10:58.520 And, um, and so they actually ended up canceling, uh, ferries on Monday morning as a result.

00:11:05.520 And, uh, lots of people were inconvenienced and just kind of brought up the whole, uh,

00:11:10.520 topic around tactics.

00:11:11.520 A lot of, a lot of people were just very unimpressed.

00:11:14.520 You know, there's a lot of people that take the first ferry on Monday morning to take their,

00:11:19.520 their children with, um, cancer to the BC Children's Hospital.

00:11:23.520 Um, but you know, that's the, that's the ferry that they typically take for the week so that

00:11:27.520 they can get in there for their appointments.

00:11:29.520 Um, you know, and it's hard, you know, the, the protestors have, have a valid opinion.

00:11:35.520 Of course they do.

00:11:36.520 Um, but you know, the families of course that are affected and of course the other people

00:11:42.520 who were inconvenienced in other ways.

00:11:43.520 Um, you know, this is not, uh, not super appreciated.

00:11:47.520 And I think probably I would say also, um, really ineffective.

00:11:52.520 The, um, you know, I think most people will see this kind of problem.

00:11:56.520 We'll, we'll see this kind of protest and they'll, they'll just say, well, who are these people?

00:11:59.520 And you know, I'm certainly not going to take their side of this is the sort of tactics that they employ.

00:12:04.520 So there is definitely a, um, a question around tactics.

00:12:08.520 And we see this around the world with extinction rebellion and the like.

00:12:11.520 You said they were in support of the Wet'suwet'en who opposed the Trans Mountain pipeline.

00:12:15.520 So this was not the Wet'suwet'en themselves. 0.98

00:12:18.520 These were like, were these like just spoiled college kids looking for crusader?

00:12:22.520 Who were these guys?

00:12:23.520 I, it's hard to say, uh, you know, I saw some photos and, um, I didn't recognize certainly.

00:12:30.520 Um, obviously I don't know anybody from the Wet'suwet'en nation, but not a lot of the people looked like they were first nations.

00:12:37.520 It looked like a lot of people, um, who were, you know, just, uh, um, you know.

00:12:43.520 There's nothing better than rich, spoiled white liberals being outraged on someone else's behalf.

00:12:48.520 These are my favorite people.

00:12:49.520 Potentially that was, that was the case.

00:12:51.520 And, and it's, uh, yeah, it, you know, again, they have, do they have an opinion that's valid?

00:12:58.520 Sure.

00:12:59.520 And, you know, that we should be debating these opinions, but, you know, blocking fairies just struck me as kind of a. 1.00

00:13:06.520 Well, there's a difference between saying whatever you're saying, uh, smartly or not.

00:13:11.520 Yeah.

00:13:12.520 And then blocking property and people's right to go about their business.

00:13:16.520 That's, that's quite, quite different.

00:13:18.520 So.

00:13:19.520 Exactly.

00:13:20.520 Yeah.

00:13:21.520 So yeah.

00:13:22.520 Interesting side news.

00:13:23.520 We'll see, we'll see what happens there, but it certainly ties in with, uh, with, uh, the general

00:13:27.520 opposition, let's say of the left, um, to energy development and definitely a little closer to

00:13:33.520 British Columbia.

00:13:34.520 Speaking of British Columbia, the backwater of Vancouver Island, um, was featured on the

00:13:39.520 Daily Beast this week.

00:13:41.520 Uh, actually today they, uh, they sent out a tweet talking all about the, um, how horribly

00:13:48.520 backwards Vancouver Island was and why on earth would Harry and Megan want to move there?

00:13:54.520 Uh, which of course naturally offended yours truly who took to Twitter to respond.

00:13:59.520 Uh, one of the, uh, one of the points that they, uh, that they liked to make.

00:14:04.520 Well, cause the person who'd written the article had visited Vancouver Island.

00:14:07.520 So they were clearly, they knew what they were talking about and, um, uh, you know, forgot

00:14:13.520 that Victoria had the capital city of British Columbia.

00:14:16.520 Um, and I think probably the funniest thing that they wrote was that only recently was the highway

00:14:24.520 expanded to the North of the Island, the city of the North being Port Hardy, British Columbia.

00:14:28.520 Um, that only recently was actually in 1976.

00:14:33.520 So, so this particular right writer, uh, might, might not have been aware of it.

00:14:38.520 They also referred to the one major thoroughfare called the, the Island Highway that cuts a curvy swath

00:14:45.520 along the Island's east coast.

00:14:48.520 Uh, but that was actually supplemented by the Inland Highway 19 years ago.

00:14:54.520 So, uh, so for those of you who are, especially if Harry and Megan are listening, Vancouver Island

00:15:01.520 is not the backwater.

00:15:02.520 It's a beautiful place.

00:15:03.520 Come visit.

00:15:04.520 We have highways, we have infrastructure, we have a booming tech sector, and I personally

00:15:10.520 will welcome with open arms, uh, our new King and Queen, uh, Harry and Megan.

00:15:17.520 So you want to see our beautiful, uh, Twitter, um, discussion on that.

00:15:23.520 You can follow me on Twitter at TP Holmes and, uh, and you can, um, also troll me there.

00:15:31.520 Um, so, and you guys.

00:15:34.520 I would just like to say that I will now be, uh, referring to my birthday or sorry, my birth

00:15:41.520 year as recent, which is awesome.

00:15:44.520 That's good.

00:15:45.520 Yeah.

00:15:46.520 The next time someone asks me my age, I would say, well, I was recently born.

00:15:51.520 I was recently born.

00:15:52.520 Yeah.

00:15:53.520 Yeah.

00:15:54.520 I was born in the seventies as well.

00:15:55.520 So it's fairly recent.

00:15:56.520 Yeah.

00:15:57.520 Before the highway, however, but you know, we're not going to talk about that.

00:16:01.520 Well, we are going to talk about, however, is the Tory leadership race.

00:16:05.520 And, uh, the very, very latest, uh, our, our very favorite candidate, Jean Charest, Derek,

00:16:14.520 uh, sadly has, um, passed.

00:16:17.520 Oh, I don't know.

00:16:19.520 Deirdre, you want to set it up and then I'll complain.

00:16:22.520 Well, I would love to, Derek, because Jean Charest was actually, to me, a good choice.

00:16:32.520 Now, hold on, hold on.

00:16:34.520 The reason that I liked Jean Charest is number one, because he was, because he's a former

00:16:41.520 Premier of Quebec.

00:16:42.520 That gives him a little bit of an in.

00:16:45.520 Now, the other thing is for the last, I don't know how many years he's been a resident here

00:16:52.520 in Calgary.

00:16:53.520 So he's got this little bit of the West East thing going on.

00:16:59.520 Um, he's got, he has name recognition.

00:17:02.520 He has, um, he has some solid values that I can really get behind.

00:17:11.520 So as a, I, I'm a swing voter, I'm not, I'm not really stuck on a particular party.

00:17:20.520 So for me, I thought that he was a fantastic potential leadership candidate.

00:17:28.520 And, uh, you know, back in the good old days, he was the political leader in Canada that

00:17:35.520 had the great hair, which of course the mantle has been passed along to, uh, our current

00:17:41.520 prime minister.

00:17:42.520 Derek, do you have any thoughts about, uh, Jean Charest?

00:17:44.520 I am, you know, uh, well, yeah, yeah, I might have a few.

00:17:50.520 Um, for every reason Deirdre says that she finds him appealing, I find him revolting as

00:17:57.520 a conservative leader, just absolutely the most terrible ever.

00:18:02.520 Um, okay, let's start first off.

00:18:05.520 He's a liberal.

00:18:06.520 So he was a progressive conservative first under Brian Mulroney.

00:18:09.520 And as a progressive conservative, he was a part of a government that had the F-18 maintenance

00:18:13.520 fiasco directly designed to screw the West just to help a Quebec company.

00:18:18.520 You had Meach Lake, you had Charlottetown designed, uh, there to forever protect and

00:18:23.520 enshrine Quebec's special status in the constitution, the direct expense of the West and lock the 0.91

00:18:28.520 West place into Confederation down even further than it is.

00:18:31.520 He supported the long gun registry.

00:18:33.520 He supported the Kyoto Accord.

00:18:35.520 He supported the carbon tax, uh, a long list of things, each one of which disqualifies

00:18:42.520 someone from ever receiving my vote.

00:18:44.520 Uh, not to mention he's under very serious criminal investigation for massive, uh, corruption

00:18:50.520 charges, which is to be fair, just kind of par for the course for Quebec politicians for the most part.

00:18:55.520 That doesn't make him special.

00:18:56.520 It just makes him par for the course.

00:18:58.520 Um, I could tell you.

00:19:00.520 Is that it?

00:19:01.520 That's it?

00:19:02.520 That's the short list.

00:19:04.520 Okay.

00:19:05.520 But here's why I kind of wanted him to win. 0.72

00:19:10.520 Because he's so terrible.

00:19:11.520 Um, there, there is a strange logic that if you are just done with trying to work within the current

00:19:20.520 federal party system and you wanna, you wanna really shake it up either through full independence

00:19:25.520 or seeking a Western, uh, Western kind of block party to represent the West because you don't

00:19:30.520 think it's very effective within the conservative party, uh, this would be the guy to do it.

00:19:35.520 Um, this would be the guy to probably break the West away.

00:19:38.520 So the West will probably come down to, he'll get one vote in the West and it'll be Deirdre.

00:19:43.520 And, uh, the conservatives would be just utterly decimated in the West as they were in 1993,

00:19:49.520 when he was one of only two progressive conservatives elected in the entire country.

00:19:52.520 Who retained their seats.

00:19:54.520 Technically he was the only one to retain his seat because the other one was a new MP.

00:19:58.520 So technically he was the only MP to retain his seat.

00:20:00.520 Um, out of 150 odd, uh, MPs the PCs had that year in a majority government.

00:20:06.520 That was a different time though.

00:20:08.520 And I don't think you can blame Jean Charest for that.

00:20:10.520 In fact, if anything, he rose above what was going on and, and retained his seat, right?

00:20:15.520 Oh yeah, certainly.

00:20:16.520 Uh, but he was a part of the whole crew and, uh, you know, Meech Lake and Charlottetown

00:20:20.520 were probably the big things that led to the total collapse of the PCs, both, uh, to the

00:20:25.520 Bloc Québécois and to the reform party.

00:20:27.520 And he was fully supportive of Meech Lake and Charlottetown and everything that went on.

00:20:30.520 It's kind of ancient history.

00:20:31.520 These are battle scars from before my time.

00:20:33.520 Um, although I suppose it is recent.

00:20:35.520 But, uh, he is the worst possible guy they could have had.

00:20:42.520 It is notable that all of the, um, what it looks like will be the candidates for the conservative

00:20:48.520 leadership are from the East.

00:20:49.520 Not a single Western candidate, even a token Western candidate, uh, will be on the ballot.

00:20:54.520 Chere would have been. 0.98

00:20:55.520 Pardon?

00:20:56.520 Chere at least would have been a token Western candidate. 0.99

00:21:00.520 Oh! 0.60

00:21:01.520 Quebec Liberal Premier cannot be a token Westerner.

00:21:04.520 I'm sorry.

00:21:05.520 The only token Westerner I will accept from Quebec is Maxine Bernier.

00:21:09.520 Well, I, for one, I'm happy that he's out of the race because now you two can be friends 1.00

00:21:14.520 again.

00:21:15.520 So.

00:21:16.520 Oh, no.

00:21:17.520 We would have potentially voted for him, just for radically different reasons.

00:21:20.520 Yes.

00:21:21.520 Very radically different reasons.

00:21:22.520 I would have voted for him to blow the whole thing up.

00:21:25.520 Uh, so, so it does leave, uh, Peter McKay and Pierre Polyev, who seem to be the frontrunners.

00:21:31.520 Uh, are we going to see any other serious, uh, candidates or is this what it's going to

00:21:35.520 come down to?

00:21:36.520 Erin O'Toole will be pretty serious. 0.98

00:21:38.520 Uh, there's another lady, uh, she's in the story. 0.98

00:21:40.520 I, I can't recall her name, but.

00:21:42.520 Glad you.

00:21:43.520 Marilyn Glad you.

00:21:44.520 Sure.

00:21:45.520 I thought you were saying glad you mentioned it.

00:21:47.520 Um, I thought that's what you're saying.

00:21:50.520 Uh, they set the bar bizarrely high to get in.

00:21:53.520 I mean, there were too many candidates last time, but they didn't, um, there's ways to

00:21:58.520 solve that.

00:21:59.520 You can do like they do in the United States and have early voting, staged voting in different.

00:22:02.520 Our idea.

00:22:03.520 Our idea.

00:22:04.520 That was our idea.

00:22:05.520 Yeah.

00:22:06.520 Um, so, you know, make Prince Edward Island, like the Iowa votes early.

00:22:09.520 It doesn't really matter.

00:22:10.520 It's not many votes, but it kind of cuts the field down a bit.

00:22:13.520 They didn't do that instead.

00:22:14.520 They just made sure you had to pay up some obscene amount of money to get in and meet

00:22:19.520 these bars.

00:22:20.520 And it's designed to be a very exclusive club.

00:22:22.520 Having just a few candidates is fine, but you have a few candidates by the end at the

00:22:26.520 beginning.

00:22:27.520 It doesn't matter if you have a dozen or more, but they made it an exclusive club.

00:22:30.520 And I, I guess even though, uh, the powerhouses of the party are in the West, I'm

00:22:35.520 guessing they, uh, they look, they surveyed the landscape and they said, as we've discussed

00:22:40.520 before, Westerner is probably not allowed to be the leader this time because it's been

00:22:45.520 Western leaders before.

00:22:46.520 And, uh, the East wants in now. 0.95

00:22:48.520 Final thoughts, Deirdre.

00:22:52.520 And Deirdre, your final thoughts on the conservative leadership race.

00:22:57.520 So my final thoughts would be that I'm still hoping for, I'm hoping for a leader that can

00:23:05.520 unify East and West.

00:23:07.520 I am hoping for a leader who is going to try and bring the CPC into the modern world.

00:23:17.520 I'm hoping that we will get someone that swing voters like myself can get behind because I

00:23:24.520 think that having a strong opposition and a potential winner for the next election gives

00:23:30.520 us both better government this time and next time.

00:23:34.520 So I, I want someone very strong and I'm not sure we have that just yet.

00:23:39.520 Well, if Deirdre gets her wish, the Tories can count on not having my vote.

00:23:43.520 But I'm a particularly strange voter to please in any case.

00:23:47.520 Well, and it, I mean, it does raise a very interesting divide, right?

00:23:52.520 There is definitely, um, two, two competing factions on the conservative, uh, well, there's

00:23:58.520 a few, I suppose, competing factions in the conservative camp.

00:24:02.520 And, uh, uh, I don't, I don't see a unifier that's going to bring all of those people together.

00:24:09.520 Uh, certainly emerging on the scene just yet.

00:24:12.520 And maybe that person will, but, um, I'm not sure.

00:24:15.520 It still happens until February 27th.

00:24:17.520 Well, and, and they have to wrestle together.

00:24:19.520 Was it $600,000 or?

00:24:21.520 It's $200,000 for their entry fee, $100,000 for the compliance fee, which is probably not

00:24:30.520 as much of an issue.

00:24:32.520 I mean, it is an issue for normal people, but it's probably not as much of an issue as the

00:24:37.520 3000 signatures that they need from members.

00:24:41.520 Sorry.

00:24:42.520 People who have been members for at least 21 days.

00:24:44.520 Okay.

00:24:45.520 That, that could be the real sticking point.

00:24:47.520 And do they have to have a.

00:24:49.520 Very small window they had though, uh, from the time they released the forms and these

00:24:53.520 things, they made it a very small window.

00:24:55.520 So it can only be someone who's already got a significant average, uh, organizational capacity

00:25:01.520 right now.

00:25:02.520 There's no room for kind of a real.

00:25:04.520 I mean, at Tories.

00:25:05.520 Uh, no.

00:25:06.520 Yeah.

00:25:07.520 But there's also no room for kind of a dark horse anti-establishment candidate unless they've

00:25:10.520 already got significant organization in place.

00:25:13.520 Well, and I would, I would add to that a little bit that there is there, there, you know, we,

00:25:18.520 we, we look at, um, uh, Bernier last time coming so close to winning without, with what, did

00:25:25.520 they have one MP endorse him or is it.

00:25:27.520 Oh yeah.

00:25:28.520 He had a roughly a half dozen.

00:25:30.520 Yeah.

00:25:31.520 More MLAs in Alberta endorse them than federal MPs.

00:25:33.520 Yeah.

00:25:34.520 And, and so you look at it, you know, I, I thought, I assumed that the signature, uh, thing, you know,

00:25:39.520 with the dates and stuff had more to do with, um, with, you know, making sure you have somebody

00:25:44.520 that's, that's friendlier to the establishment in Ottawa, basically.

00:25:49.520 Um,

00:25:50.520 Oh, I believe that's, that, that is what this is.

00:25:53.520 Certainly not.

00:25:54.520 It's certainly not a membership drive.

00:25:56.520 Having, uh, the, the signature requirements, you know, having some signature requirements

00:26:01.520 is not unusual, but these high ones and in such a short period of time and the high entry

00:26:06.520 fee, uh, I think there's a very explicitly designed to have this be, uh, both a smaller

00:26:12.520 number of candidates compared to last time, but also try to keep the field to, uh, more

00:26:18.520 establishment approved candidates.

00:26:19.520 Well, and, and, and a slap to the Bernier supporters as well.

00:26:23.520 Right.

00:26:24.520 Cause many of them, of course, packed up and left canceled their memberships.

00:26:28.520 Uh, they certainly could have, um, rejoined the party if, uh, if they, if they, to, to vote,

00:26:36.520 but, um, obviously can't in this situation.

00:26:39.520 Oh, no, that's not correct.

00:26:40.520 They, they, they, if they so decided, I'm not sure how many will, but if they decided

00:26:44.520 they could still sign up to vote.

00:26:46.520 Uh, I think what they're saying is to be able to, to, to, to be able to, to, to, to

00:26:49.520 sign the petition, uh, into the race, you got to be a member already.

00:26:53.520 I said, I think if, uh, if a former Bernier, the Bernier supporter from the last race or

00:26:59.520 his PPC now, whatever they are, they could still sign up, uh, for whenever the vote is,

00:27:04.520 is going to be.

00:27:05.520 Gotcha.

00:27:06.520 Signatures aren't actually due until March, March 25th, I believe.

00:27:12.520 Okay.

00:27:13.520 So I could become a member today and still sign somebody's nomination forms.

00:27:17.520 Which I'll share yet.

00:27:18.520 I don't think I will.

00:27:19.520 And highly recommend it.

00:27:20.520 I really want people to get involved.

00:27:23.520 And it is, it is tough because it's mostly the partisans who will get involved, who will

00:27:29.520 pay attention.

00:27:30.520 But as I said, I think that, I think a strong opposition gets us good government today and

00:27:37.520 after the next election.

00:27:39.520 So I really want to see, you know, people should get in there.

00:27:43.520 If a guy like Sheree was the Tory leader, he would probably not even be the leader of

00:27:48.520 the opposition. 1.00

00:27:49.520 I like the Tories would fall apart into a heaping pile of shit very, very quickly. 1.00

00:27:56.520 It would not end well. 1.00

00:27:57.520 There is absolutely no way he would ever become prime minister because the whole base of the

00:28:01.520 party would walk away.

00:28:02.520 But you, but you do realize that Maxine Bernier, who had so much support during the leadership

00:28:09.520 race, absolutely tanked it during the election.

00:28:13.520 Why?

00:28:14.520 Because that's not what people wanted.

00:28:17.520 You need to, you need to be someone who is palatable to the majority, not the minority.

00:28:23.520 Well, actually, governments almost never get a majority of voters.

00:28:27.520 We, in our first past the post system, 38% is often enough to claim yourself have a majority

00:28:32.520 mandate.

00:28:33.520 Parties of all starts.

00:28:34.520 But 3% is really far from that.

00:28:36.520 Yeah.

00:28:37.520 But I don't think that was based on policy.

00:28:38.520 I think actually most conservative voters, if we're just talking, we did kind of the blind

00:28:43.520 taste test.

00:28:44.520 I think most conservative voters would actually prefer Bernie's policies.

00:28:46.520 But we know that people are more like, much more likely to vote against what they really

00:28:51.520 hate and who's got the best chance of defeating who that is, in this case, the Tories against

00:28:56.520 Trudeau, than for something they want.

00:28:58.520 If we, so if we did kind of an ideological blind taste test, I bet actually what Bernie

00:29:02.520 was running on is much more popular with most conservatives.

00:29:05.520 Well, and I don't, I don't think.

00:29:07.520 Because they want to get rid of Trudeau.

00:29:09.520 I don't think it was necessarily a good litmus test how everything went down too.

00:29:14.520 I dare say if he had become leader of the conservative party, he would have done better than 3%.

00:29:19.520 You know, or whatever it was in the end.

00:29:23.520 Whether or not it would have been enough to win an election.

00:29:26.520 So that's your premise, Deirdre, that if Bernier had been Tory leader, they would have gotten

00:29:32.520 3%.

00:29:33.520 Oh, no.

00:29:34.520 No, no.

00:29:35.520 See, because as long as you have the right sign, it doesn't matter what your policies are.

00:29:42.520 And on that fantastic note, we have given the last word to Deirdre.

00:29:51.520 Thank you so much for joining us this week on the pipeline from Calgary.

00:29:56.520 Again, the Western standards publisher, Derek Bilderbrand.

00:29:59.520 Thank you, Derek.

00:30:00.520 And from Strathmore, Deirdre Mitchell-McLean, our senior reporter.

00:30:04.520 And myself here in the backwater of Vancouver Island in British Columbia.

00:30:10.520 No snow on the ground this week.

00:30:12.520 You look like you're in a backwater with your Guantanamo Bay studio. 0.99

00:30:16.520 Coming to you live from a cave in Vancouver Island, digital editor Paul Holmes.

00:30:23.520 Thanks for joining us.

00:30:24.520 And we'll see you again next week, assuming that the coronavirus doesn't wipe us all out.

00:30:30.520 Where is the mist?

00:30:31.520 In the backwater.

00:30:32.520 Wait so much for it.

00:30:33.520 What's the case about this moet?

00:30:34.520 We'll see you.

00:30:35.520 As soon as we get into this, we'll see if you get into this, it's the climax.

00:30:36.520 We are then invited here back to your radio channel of Calgary.

00:30:37.520 Why?

00:30:38.120 From one point, thanks for breathing?

00:30:38.520 Your TVIRE license?

00:30:39.520 Maybe it's the outlook.

00:30:40.520 Any question when this También joins us here?

00:30:41.520 You can find a ribbon at 1 on which.

00:30:42.520 For the bad Run on a cooler so that we force you to give you like each other skill

00:30:46.520 as possible forrispacks cover this language from?

00:30:47.520 So many more things compared to Terra?

00:30:48.520 Of course.

00:30:49.520 Probably when things like most seeing your attention through this, but sometimes you're

00:30:50.520 Unin chickpe beaded.

00:30:51.520 But, you know what's being open for the speed?

Western Standard - January 24, 2020

Blocked： Charest, Unifor and BC Ferries - The Pipeline, Episode 5

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