00:06:05.380Kenny's statement is too little too late.
00:06:08.620He said if this had happened on Friday,
00:06:10.960the statement in the firings it may have uh limited some political damages uh careful to
00:06:17.280say it wouldn't have eliminated uh but it does say it would have limited so so there you have it uh
00:06:23.840an absolute uh bloodletting in the alberta ledge this afternoon uh derek uh indeed yeah it's i can't
00:06:32.400recall seeing something like this uh scandal involves so many uh obviously there are controversies
00:06:38.000where leaders will sack someone for good reasons or bad whatever they are but I've rarely seen a
00:06:45.620bloodletting that involves such a large number of the caucus and and and a large number of very
00:06:53.480senior staffers although as far as I know only one staffer got the axe I don't think the other
00:06:58.240staffers who were off enjoying their non lockdown lockdown got the axe as far as I could tell but
00:07:06.980um it's uh it's quite they had to do something there was absolutely no way for them to do nothing
00:07:14.180that that was their plan uh kenny's never had a scandal he couldn't walk away from he's walked
00:07:18.660away from some pretty significant uh controversies before but they've always tended to be much more
00:07:24.500complicated uh much more difficult to explain uh people can rightly or wrongly dismiss it as saying
00:07:31.380oh this is just the leftist media uh this one they couldn't uh this one stung them it was
00:07:37.860uh easy to explain and while people are very personally feeling pain uh while the government
00:07:44.340says uh if you if we find you uh having too many people over for christmas dinner who are not in
00:07:49.860your household we're gonna send cops gatineau style kick down your door and arrest you um
00:07:54.820the same time as the government's doing something as wickedly authoritarian as that
00:07:59.700uh to have uh i think more than 10 of their of the entire legislature so probably uh close to
00:08:05.86015 or so of the ucp caucus and a bunch of their staffers overseas um i mean not to make too
00:08:13.460dramatic of a comparison but uh can you just imagine in uh an east german communist official
00:08:19.220with the ultimate lockdown of people uh from stopping people from leaving their own country
00:08:23.940but then heading off to West Germany to buy good cheeses and meats in West Germany,
00:08:30.580something that they would deny their own citizens. That's something they did all the time,
00:08:33.540something that undermined the Berlin Wall. Not to compare as quite apples and apples,
00:08:38.180I think it's matters of degrees, but I think it's that kind of wicked, wicked hypocrisy.
00:08:45.140And Kenny was hoping that this would just blow over. Dave, I know your news, but give me your
00:08:51.140sense do you think this is going to be enough uh to to make this all blow over now i i don't think
00:08:57.620so derek and i think it all goes back to bumbling by kenny himself his statement that he came out
00:09:03.540with on friday almost beggared belief uh he took the blame for all these ucp people traveling by
00:09:10.420saying he had not made it clear enough to them that hey perhaps you might not want to jet off
00:09:14.900to hawaii when the rest of the population is in lockdown i mean come on that's a silly silly reason
00:09:23.860that left the question open well okay if you left it up to these individual judgments do you really
00:09:28.980want a cabinet minister who's stupid enough uh when she's help helping roll out the uh the vaccine
00:09:36.660province-wide that she's stupid enough to go on a holiday tradition to hawaii should these people
00:09:42.420be in your cabinet and the answer was it was obviously no um kenny bumbled it from the
00:09:48.340beginning he bumbled it by sitting quiet over the weekend and not saying anything and the anger grew
00:09:55.140and the anger grew and the anger grew and you know it's to the point now we've even got songs
00:10:01.060being written about the allard family tradition and if you want to give a listen to that just
00:10:05.780just go on our our website westernstandardonline.com and and just listen to the song there is an anger
00:10:13.220build up in the province derek like i've never seen before uh politically wise and you know
00:10:18.500you can comment on your time in politics and and certainly as a close observer but uh
00:10:23.220have you seen anger like this before uh the closest i can think of would be allison redford's
00:10:29.140um fakes on a plane and allison redford sky palace um but those came when she was already
00:10:35.940effectively on her way out the door um they did not happen midterm like this where it's expected
00:10:42.500someone's going to continue on um and the it's not just a controversy it's the cover-up or lies
00:10:49.220about it i mean uh people screw up politicians screw up i can tell you personally they screw up
00:10:54.660The question is, do you take responsibility and fess up and show some accountability for it, or do you muddy the waters, try to politician your way out of things, blame other people, or even lie about it?
00:11:08.000Now, you just said you were referring to Kenny's statement where he says, I did not I'm going to take responsibility for this because I didn't tell my MLA's cabinet and staff in clear enough terms that they're not supposed to travel abroad for non-essential reasons during a lockdown.
00:11:28.540Well, let's go to a story you had yesterday.
00:15:16.680so she's gotten the pass and I think that might that that's probably reasonable but you know
00:15:23.260you've got a large number of other MLAs who are in Hawaii who were in who are in Mexico in the
00:15:31.680American Southwest why don't you tell us about what Kenny's Kenny's rap on the wrist for them
00:15:39.560is about well they're losing uh legislature committee jobs uh derek the uh you know being
00:15:47.880the parliamentary secretary to this cabinet minister or or that cabinet minister and sitting
00:15:53.400on legislature committees all of which brings in extra cash for them um derek you may know
00:16:00.280more than i do you know what it's going to cost allard losing a cabinet minister
00:16:04.840job, but it will be a significant haircut for her. The other ones will be less harsh.
00:16:13.720But it's more than the loss of money, it's a loss of reputation. In Grand Prairie, Hawaii
00:16:22.940writing now, the Tracy Allard supporters are in for a very big fight. They've got protests
00:16:28.960in front of her office, they've got a Christmas tree adorned with suntan lotion as a decoration.
00:16:36.460And they're expecting protests because they've already put up a sign saying,
00:16:40.540hey, protesters, keep off our sidewalk.
00:16:42.880So all these MLAs are going to have to deal with that at the next election,
00:16:47.820the loss of face, and it's going to be hard for them to overcome it.
00:16:54.180And if I was thinking about running against them in the nomination, you know, for the UCP party, I might seize on this already and get to work on it.
00:17:04.200Well, I can tell you from experience, UCP nominations have a lot less to do with the local members than they do tend to do with who has the support of the leader.
00:17:12.320The question will be, does Kenny want to replace some of these MLAs?
00:17:15.820If that's the case, then you will get a nomination in that riding.
00:17:19.160But if Kenny is still, if these MLAs are still on Kenny's good side, I can tell you, you can get all the memberships you want.
00:17:27.960Nominations won't defeat an MLA, only a general election will.
00:17:31.240I'm not sure how they could be on Kenny's good side.
00:17:33.920I mean, talk about landing your boss in the muck.
00:17:37.240You know, and where was the chief party whipping all of this?
00:17:40.180Why didn't he know all these people were leaving the province?
00:27:42.800Well, the three major parties federally,
00:27:46.320the Liberals, the Tories, and the NDP have all had people.
00:27:50.840As far as I know, there's been no discipline on the Tory side,
00:27:54.520but there has been on the Liberal side and the NDP side,
00:27:58.480Which just made it more uncomfortable for Jason Kenney that the bar for accountability for a Trudeau Liberal or a Jagmeet Singh New Democrat Socialist is higher than for an Alberta Tory.
00:28:14.020Derek, when you see Liberals voluntarily stepping down and UCP guys in Alberta doing nothing but trying to hide, then yeah, that's a huge problem for UCP Party.
00:28:25.760i think one reason he may have waited so long wasn't just that he thought it would blow over
00:28:30.600but potentially because they still just didn't know how many were out i mean uh i mean if it
00:28:36.720was just tracy allard and they were confident it was just tracy allard maybe she would have
00:28:41.080been fired right away but they had no idea how many it was and if you fire one you have to fire
00:28:45.620others uh so i think they would they wanted to have discipline come down all at once rather
00:28:50.220than piecemeal because if you fired allard and then it came out nixon or fur or one of these
00:28:58.220others we're doing it then you have to fire each and every single one of them and eventually you
00:29:02.460get down to a minority government caucus um last i heard they haven't even been able to find uh
00:29:08.300uh ford mcmurray mla yow he's in mexico somewhere but they haven't even been able to contact him to
00:29:15.020to say get your ass home so i know tany personally uh he's a likable guy but he is in for a very bad
00:29:22.700moment when he gets back to cell reception and turns on his phone uh that is going to be uh
00:29:28.940that'll be a rough that'll be an unfortunate day yeah he's going to be going from about plus 30
00:29:35.980minus 15 celsius when he lands in uh in fort max so talk about a chilly reception yeah indeed um
00:29:43.820well let's talk more about uh political fallout on the right um the uh you know broadly speaking
00:29:51.900not to overly simplify things but i think fairly break things down um uh you know peter mccaffrey
00:29:58.300from the alberta institute i think put it really well there's roughly 35 percent of the left tribe
00:30:03.660in alberta which identifies with the ndp that have been angry that lockdowns aren't hard enough they
00:30:09.340they weren't fast enough, that they want more draconian measures. You have 35% roughly of
00:30:16.540Albertans who are from the old Wild Rose tribe who believe that the lockdown and the restrictions
00:30:23.200have already been too draconian, too authoritarian, that the government is just caving to political
00:30:28.500pressure, and they've already not been happy. And then you've got roughly 30% of the, let's call it
00:30:33.440a center or progressive conservative tribe. And they kind of, more or less, they generally thought
00:30:41.180Kenny has made the best of a bunch of bad options. All three of these tribes are very, very pissed
00:30:47.860off right now. And the one that's very dangerous is that right Wildrose populist tribe. You know,
00:30:55.440they're now able to say, I think very correctly, this was already too far. We don't think you even
00:31:02.400believed it when you did it, but then you didn't even abide by it yourself, you need to end the
00:31:06.640lockdown now. And cabinet renewal of the lockdown is coming up in just a few days. I cannot see how
00:31:15.300the government has the political capital right now to renew the lockdown. If they renew the
00:31:20.760lockdown, the friggin' legislature will get burned down. People are going to say, you have no moral
00:31:26.400right to lock us down when you're doing this. You may have cut off the head of one minister,
00:31:30.680but what about the other uh five or six mlas and the other staffers who have had just a tiny slap
00:31:36.520on the wrist if i have uh dinner with my christmas dinner with my family i get cops at my door and i
00:31:41.960could get arrested um so i think i think this is the end of the lockdown i cannot see how they have
00:31:48.680the political capital to renew this now oh yeah i think the key is going to be the number of reported
00:31:53.880cases of covet that we're having over the next couple days today should be a very very high
00:31:59.160number because we didn't get reporting or accurate reporting over the weekend you look at ontario
00:32:05.240three thousand plus cases today it's out of control the virus is out of control in ontario
00:32:11.400and they're bringing in even harsher lockdowns uh scotland back in lockdown as of tonight great
00:32:17.160britain back in lockdown as of tonight so if these numbers continue to rise in in uh in alberta and
00:32:25.160And, you know, I tend to agree with you.
00:32:27.020I can't see Kenny extending the lockdown.
00:32:29.860Then is he going to lift it when the pandemic is still raging?
00:32:35.500And I wouldn't want to be in his shoes.
00:32:38.460Well, he's going to have a hard time from either angle.
00:32:41.740If he does end the lockdown, because he doesn't have a political capital for it,
00:32:46.640the NDP, from their perspective, will be able to say,
00:32:49.640you're not following the science, you're not following the advice of Henshaw.
00:32:54.180you're ending the lockdown, which is necessary because of your political scandal. So your
00:32:59.780political scandal is now getting in the way of public health. That's what the left is going to
00:33:03.180say. And from their perspective, they're going to have a real argument to make about that. That's a
00:33:08.120fair point from their perspective. But from the other perspective, much more dangerous, I think,
00:33:14.260politically for Kenny, is he has no way of extending this lockdown further after what has
00:33:21.700just happened. I mean, if you think, you know, a couple of hundred freedom marchers in downtown
00:33:27.300Calgary, Edmonton, and Red Deer are a problem now, you just try extending this lockdown when
00:33:32.760we've just come through a scandal like this, or we're still in the middle of a scandal like this.
00:33:37.260I think he's between a real rock and a hard place here. Well, Wild Rose leader, Paul Hinman,
00:33:42.960in an exclusive column today that's on the Western Standard website at the moment, Derek,
00:33:47.940he calls on Kenny to immediately lift the lockdown.
00:33:52.040And he's been opposed to it since day one.
00:34:17.220So a reminder here, we want to know what Albertans are thinking about this. I got a pretty good idea, but it's one thing to watch the comments on this broadcast or comments on Facebook or Twitter, social media.
00:34:31.220While we appreciate it, it is not a representative sample, a scientific sample of what people at large think. We want to get a really good idea of people who are not necessarily as engaged in current issues as all of our viewers might be right now.
00:34:44.220as might be right now. So we're going to commission a professional independent poll on this and we
00:34:49.960need people to donate to do it. Remember, we don't take a penny from the federal government's media
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00:35:01.520like you. If you want to contribute, go to Western Standard Online, click on membership and become a
00:35:06.920member. Or if you're already a member, please go westerncenteredonline.com slash donate dash poll
00:35:13.100slash and there you can make a donation to help us commission the poll we want
00:35:18.200to get it out in the field tonight we want to know what people are thinking
00:35:20.780right now do they think that there needs to be more resignations here do people
00:35:27.260think that we need recall legislation do people think we need to end the lockdowns
00:35:31.520does the government have the moral authority to continue lockdowns and we
00:35:35.180want to see what the political fallout has been in terms of how people actually
00:35:38.300intend to vote are people just angry right now but come election time gonna
00:35:42.080say well i guess that's the we have to pick the lesser of evils or are people going to do something
00:35:48.480different we want to know so if uh you know uh we understand a lot of people are out of work right
00:35:53.680now but if you are able to afford it please go to the website become a member or donate to help us
00:35:59.120get this poll done um god we just got comments pulling in here we can hardly uh stay on top of
00:36:07.200it but we're we're seeing a hell of a lot just a reminder to folks uh we will only display your
00:36:12.560comments if they're relatively short uh here i'll find an example of one we cannot display here see
00:36:19.680if it looks like we're drowning in comments we don't show comments like that it's not because
00:36:24.400of the content of what you're saying it's just because it's too big keep it nice and short and
00:36:29.360then we can put her up on the screen uh also without swear words too would be nice yeah we've
00:36:35.760got one the very latest comment right now sorry we can't show uh we'll allow shit shit's allowed
00:36:43.520ass asshat um but uh we're gonna draw the line somewhere unless you're particularly funny if
00:36:51.440you're if you've got a cuss in it and you're particularly funny and if dave and i have been
00:36:56.720drinking maybe maybe we'll put you up but uh so just just be aware there's some ground rules uh
00:37:06.480dave anything else before we wrap up i'd like to ask you a favor if you could derek could you turn
00:37:11.120off the news taps for just like an hour or so this afternoon so we can all watch canada russia
00:37:16.320in the junior year oh uh you got to take that up with the government uh god it has been exhausting
00:37:22.880um i haven't had much of a weekend i'm not sad about it because our our readership numbers are
00:37:28.160off the chart uh you know some of our viewers might know last month we had 1.3 million readers
00:37:36.000on the western standard that makes us one of the biggest news websites in all canada not just the
00:37:41.280west but on a national stage uh it's absolutely phenomenal and it's thanks to our members who
00:37:47.360are contributing to help us do this without government bailouts and to our great journalists
00:37:51.440and columnists uh like dave who is just an absolute machine uh you were working at midnight
00:37:57.280last night uh i think the last one of the day was the um where you had the inside scoop on
00:38:04.180allard resigning the western standard was the only source in canada that was able to confirm
00:38:08.900uh that she was expected to resign today and that turned out to be true uh although between you and
00:38:13.960me dave um even if she didn't uh even if it turned out not to be true i think it was inevitable
00:38:18.180that our story would eventually be right so even even if our source was bad we
00:38:23.460would the story would probably still be correct so like we could have like a
00:38:29.220broken clock you only have to be right twice a day right indeed indeed all right
00:38:34.680well thank you very much Dave and thank you all our viewers who have joined us
00:38:38.820today to our members thank you so much from the bottom of our hearts for
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00:39:14.620on your side. Thank you all very much for joining us today. God bless. Enjoy the end of your holidays.