Western Standard - Calgary’s woke want to kill cowboy culture

00:00:00.000 Good

00:00:29.880 day welcome to the cory morgan show last one before july today's supposed to be a nice summer

00:00:34.940 looking sort of day and it's supposed to go to hell again for a few days after that can't seem

00:00:39.200 to avoid it this year even my bees are behind on their production it's pretty frustrated this

00:00:42.920 global warming really needs to do a better job of things i say either way lots of stuff to cover

00:00:48.320 stampede season's coming i'm going to talk about my thoughts and some of that what's going on in

00:00:52.360 calgary shortly in a little while i'm going to have tanya clemens on she's the uh heading up

00:00:58.140 kind of the new third party advertising group called let Alberta decide the one tied in with

00:01:02.740 Keith Wilson. They did a big press conference for it last Friday and see what they've got on the

00:01:08.000 role as we move into referendum season for the summer and into fall. So first, I mean, if you've

00:01:14.360 been watching the news, what's going on with, uh, what turned into a politicized battle with,

00:01:20.700 well, it's left versus right as usual. It seems actually, you know, Premier Smith and other

00:01:25.480 conservatives saying that it's okay to have a party in the stampede, and some others on the

00:01:31.820 other side saying, no, the city needs to crack down on the noise and such. And I'll give it to

00:01:36.400 Rick Bell right in the middle, complaining and curmudgeonly about the whole thing, no matter

00:01:39.240 what. At least he's consistent. But it's an element of a bigger issue. And Calgary has a culture

00:01:45.420 problem. And the problem isn't among the citizenry, though. It's in City Hall, where these

00:01:50.780 woke self-loathing souls have taken up habitation and they've been actively trying to undercut civic

00:01:56.220 pride and change the nature of the city. They despise the agricultural and oil-filled roots

00:02:00.740 of the city and are incrementally trying to erase traces of them. The Calgary Stampede is just their

00:02:05.620 latest target and they're now trying to regulate the nightlife out of the world acclaimed party.

00:02:11.140 Every city on earth has some sort of annual festival or fair but there's only a handful

00:02:15.260 that have unique events that take over the entire city for a period of time and Calgary is fortunate

00:02:19.740 enough to be one of those. The Calgary Stampede began as a rodeo but has become much more than

00:02:24.520 that. It also has a large exhibition in Midway but again the event is much more than that. It's a

00:02:30.300 state of mind that grasps the city for 11 days every year. People across the city dress in

00:02:35.140 western wear from the tasteful to the outright cheesy. It doesn't really matter if a person's

00:02:39.400 a cowboy or not. It's a period of good-natured fun cosplaying and people come from around the

00:02:44.420 world to take part in it. Even downtown in the corporate world it's been a long-standing

00:02:48.980 tradition that dress codes are relaxed during the Stampede Week and employees can wear denim.

00:02:53.680 The events go well outside of the Stampede grounds themselves. Pancake breakfasts, barbecues,

00:02:58.420 parties held in every quarter of the city and in people's homes. Businesses are decorated with

00:03:02.640 hay bales and rail fences and windows are painted with western and cowboy scenes. You can't walk a

00:03:07.720 block in Calgary in any part of town during Stampede Week without seeing evidence that the

00:03:12.220 event is going on. Every bar turns into a party hub during Stampede Week. Western bars such as

00:03:17.400 the ranchmans have become legendary for the stampede parties held there. Downtown tents

00:03:22.180 are erected with stages where live acts perform and people party for every night of the event. Yes

00:03:28.320 it's just a giant piss up for many people but that's part of the whole affair. I mean should

00:03:33.600 we pretend that Mardi Gras or Oktoberfest are really any different? The stampede brings in over

00:03:38.340 720 million dollars in economic activity to Alberta every year and it's the envy of countless cities

00:03:44.060 that can only dream of having such a distinct and ongoing event.

00:03:48.160 Unfortunately, to woke snobs, however, they see the stampede as something shameful.

00:03:53.000 Look up Deborah Yedlin. She was complaining about the cowboy culture a few years ago. 0.99

00:03:56.400 That's the head of the Chamber of Commerce.

00:03:58.360 They envision cowboys as hicks and rodeos as primitive.

00:04:01.500 They envision a city of coffee shops and art galleries

00:04:03.800 unsullied by these hundreds of thousands of partygoers, 0.99

00:04:07.080 and these pompous, fun-hating fools are entrenched in Calgary's City Hall. 0.98

00:04:10.920 It really began during Nenshi's era and continued with Gondek. 0.99

00:04:14.440 They began filling the vacancies with woke hipsters and continued for over a decade.

00:04:19.000 Now we're seeing the fruits of all of that.

00:04:21.040 Fort Calgary was renamed the Confluence, lest its proper name offend an Indigenous person somewhere.

00:04:26.220 They tried to cancel the fireworks at Fort Calgary as well because they felt the city should be hanging its figurative head in shame over the Kamloops residential school child burial hoax.

00:04:35.040 Calgary's slogan was changed from Heart of the New West, because it was too Western, to be part of the energy.

00:04:39.740 but that referred to energy so then they changed it to the embarrassing and meaningless slogan of

00:04:44.700 blue sky city it took them two steps but they managed to eliminate references to the west

00:04:49.760 and oil field in a city slogan and it was no mistake now it's cracking down in the downtown

00:04:55.120 partying partying calgary city hall is attacking a vital part of the whole affair and they know it

00:04:59.520 the young people coming to the stampede are coming to party and to build memories if the lights are

00:05:03.680 cut early and the sound is kept down it isn't a party out of 1.4 million people just over 200 of

00:05:10.040 them complained about the noise last year and city hall felt that was enough to justify moving in

00:05:14.140 look the stampede's been happening for over 100 years and partying downtown's always been a part

00:05:18.160 of that if it's really that onerous for a few people living near these event tents they shouldn't

00:05:21.940 have chosen to live downtown it's like moving next to an airport and complaining about the planes

00:05:25.620 take a week out of downtown and move to the suburbs then if it's that bad the battle brewing over the

00:05:31.220 party tents is much more than a small point of principle it's over the city taking a big step

00:05:35.400 towards killing a festival that made the city famous people have to push back and not let these

00:05:40.120 self-loathing calgarians work towards turning the calgary stampede into just another milquetoast city

00:05:44.780 fair rest assured the latte lappers in city hall won't stop with just the tents it's part of a 0.94

00:05:49.740 larger uglier plan and they can't be allowed to win here guys well that's got me going how's it 0.95

00:05:56.120 going dave you going to the party tent uh no uh but i will say the the cowboys tent was not at

00:06:01.820 millennial park it was down near the stampede grounds oh they've moved now it's in the middle

00:06:05.740 of uh 9 000 families lived there so within earshot of it potentially i mean it's a few

00:06:12.300 tall condo buildings those buildings are brand new too i mean that was just more mawata stadium

00:06:16.680 and an empty lot until a couple years i don't i don't think your your airport references is fair

00:06:22.520 I don't know.

00:06:23.240 If you want the quiet family living, you're still downtown.

00:06:25.720 I mean, when it's not the stampede, all you're hearing is the sirens for the overdoses.

00:06:28.760 That's true.

00:06:29.580 That is true.

00:06:30.560 So I'm a bit nervous.

00:06:31.500 I forgot my lucky team Canada had at home.

00:06:33.660 Oh, no.

00:06:34.200 And they're about to kick off in like 50 minutes.

00:06:36.840 Switzerland.

00:06:37.420 Switzerland, yes.

00:06:38.220 And if we win or draw, we get to keep home field advantage in the knockout round.

00:06:43.140 Well, again, I'm not the big watcher of it, but I really hope.

00:06:46.940 I mean, it's been quite an affair.

00:06:47.840 A lot of people have had a lot of fun, and it's been exciting.

00:06:49.860 I hope Canada pulls it off.

00:06:51.280 Yeah.

00:06:51.520 I hear you've been living in sort of like third world conditions out on the compound.

00:06:55.520 Oh yes, it was a rough few days. Jane was lucky to be out of town for that period.

00:06:59.520 What happened?

00:07:00.520 Some people, a company installing a fiber optic line on the road outside of my place, managed to nail my gas line as they put the fiber optic cable in.

00:07:09.520 It took them three and a half days to repair it, during which I had no hot water or gas stove or oven or furnace for that matter.

00:07:16.520 Oh, it would have made you even more curmudgeonly than normal.

00:07:19.520 Yes, curmudgeonly and smelly.

00:07:21.120 Well, I mean, I could cold water wash to a degree, but it's just not quite the same.

00:07:24.340 It's not quite the same, is it?

00:07:25.300 So, yeah, lots of good stuff going on in the news.

00:07:28.580 We're leading off with a big drug bust in the lower mainland.

00:07:32.320 $1.5 million in cash seized, and they've got it all stacked up.

00:07:37.340 It's a lot of 20s to make that amount.

00:07:40.260 26 kilograms of cocaine seized, so it's a big dent in organized crime out there.

00:07:45.920 Our friend, long and never to be forgotten, Stephen Gilbo, was on a podcast yesterday saying that the U.S. under President Trump, who he absolutely despises, will do better on climate change than Mark Carney.

00:08:01.240 Wow.

00:08:02.220 So, that's kind of interesting.

00:08:05.020 Yeah.

00:08:05.080 A little bit better.

00:08:06.580 Terrible story out of the Netherlands where the government has confirmed they've put a 12-year-old to death in MAID.

00:08:14.160 uh 12 years old i mean how how can as a 12 year old can you consent to that

00:08:19.700 yeah i know i was talking earlier about that one that's a

00:08:23.000 getting a bit young to figure out if possible consent these are hard though i mean i i don't

00:08:28.420 know the condition of the kid either no yeah how terminal or how much discomfort or pain this

00:08:32.540 person was in but it's just these are tough tough cases yeah only gonna get worse uh speaking of a

00:08:39.580 little girl this is my favorite story of the day a seven-year-old calgary girl was out playing in a

00:08:44.540 neighborhood playground and was walking around the rocks piled on the outside of it looking for

00:08:50.860 bugs to keep in a jar and she came across what looked strange to her and she said i think this

00:08:56.620 is a fossil so she persuaded her parents to contact the royal turrell museum and they sent some guys

00:09:03.740 out and they said yeah it's a 250 million year old uh fossil of a sea star right on well yeah

00:09:10.780 sea star the other thing that's striking for her yeah a kid going out doing good kid things not

00:09:15.100 staring at a phone actually out looking at bugs and rocks it's great isn't it amazing what you

00:09:19.340 can do when you put the tablet down yeah so uh they cut it away and it's now being stored at the

00:09:25.020 at the museum so awesome for her yeah and uh our friend francis widdowson yes she was arrested out

00:09:31.420 at the university of uh victoria a while ago uh hauled away by big burley a policeman even though

00:09:38.060 she's only like what four foot eight yeah and uh they charged her with trespassing those charges 0.59

00:09:43.900 have been stayed as they always get seem to do so not in my case oh not in your case that is true 0.75

00:09:50.700 yeah is that a sore spot i touched her i was just getting tiresome they've kicked that one down now

00:09:56.140 into september it was supposed to go to court in a few days but they keep uh punting it farther down 0.98

00:10:00.780 the road well hopefully they'll be able to get their legal costs the jccf well from the natives

00:10:07.500 yes well we'll see how that all comes out so that that's it that's all i got a soccer game to go

00:10:13.020 watch right on well i won't keep you away from it any longer i hope the you know that you do

00:10:17.580 understand you'll be held responsible for the lack of that hat then if it can yes can it well but we

00:10:22.620 still will go ahead we're gonna we're pretty well guaranteed uh to advance just not in as good a

00:10:27.980 position well hoping for the best for me too right on thanks dave all right that is our news editor

00:10:34.880 dave naylor and rather than just nagging about subscription i'm going to remind you guys we've

00:10:38.220 got an event coming up it's not the party tent or anything like that but it is a stampede barbecue

00:10:43.520 with the western standard it's going to be on july 8th and at the senalta community hall

00:10:49.440 if you look on x and i'm sure there'll be emails coming up for subscribers things like that to show

00:10:53.920 where you can rsvp for it and it's going to be some fun there's going to be some weenies there's

00:10:57.520 going to be some burgers and there's going to be water balloons you can purchase water balloons

00:11:03.080 and throw them at Derek Fildebrandt this is a an opportunity that doesn't come around all the time

00:11:09.360 you know so you can have yourself a good bite to eat meet a few of the folks maybe yell at me for

00:11:14.880 some of the columns I've written things like that and then if you really want to buy a water balloon

00:11:20.560 and nail Derek Fildebrandt with it so check it out keep your eye on things stampede barbecue

00:11:25.240 you july 8th and again one one till four down in senalta which is right near downtown

00:11:30.080 that's what i'm talking about right like the stampede is much more and you go to other cities

00:11:39.320 people have been to them you know edmonton has k days it used to be klondike days and then they

00:11:43.200 uh turned it uh to k days because they just wanted to be more generic i guess it was strange

00:11:49.980 being klondike days when you're that far from the klondike i guess but nobody pays attention to it

00:11:54.920 You know, people in Edmonton enjoy it.

00:11:56.420 I mean, good on them, but it's just a big fair.

00:11:59.100 And it's not the same.

00:12:00.280 You know, to hit a place like Calgary during Stampede, the whole city takes part.

00:12:05.200 As I said, outlets like ours will have weird barbecues and things thrown around.

00:12:09.580 People will have their own parties in backyards and at their own place.

00:12:14.140 There's going to be the pancake breakfasts everywhere.

00:12:17.320 All of that.

00:12:18.540 And people coming from outside.

00:12:20.340 I mean, people within Calgary sometimes get a little tired of it.

00:12:22.420 You feel that you've seen it all a hundred times, perhaps, or whatnot.

00:12:28.500 But for visitors coming from outside of the city, particularly European ones, but also people from all over, they've never seen anything like that.

00:12:35.240 Like, it makes memories.

00:12:36.220 When you're driving around, you know, you go even into a bank and everybody's dressed Western and they've got the, you know, the bales in there and all of that.

00:12:44.600 It might seem cheesy to you, but it's actually something much larger.

00:12:48.000 And it is different.

00:12:49.560 It's special.

00:12:50.140 and so many cities would kill to have it i didn't have enough time to write if you look it up

00:12:56.280 you know that was the thing that really got me going with deborah yettle in the head of the

00:12:59.960 chamber of commerce in calgary she's terrible she's terrible she's she also said we're supposed

00:13:03.820 to work towards phasing out the oil field but she she also this is a supposed business leader

00:13:08.560 this is the business leader who said that vaccine passports improve business for restaurants like

00:13:14.460 just bizarre. And, uh, but she'd also said that Calgary should move away from the Western oil

00:13:20.180 image. She really did. This is a representative. Now she's not in city hall, but it represents

00:13:24.440 that culture, that group, those woke, they despise that whole concept of Calgary. They want some

00:13:30.680 weird Euro city and you know what? They won't succeed. You won't turn Calgary into Paris or 0.77

00:13:36.100 even North America, Manhattan. It's different. It's Calgary. It's got its own character. You

00:13:41.600 could work to erase the current character you could damage the current character but you're

00:13:46.220 not going to replace it with something else because there's it's not there this is who the

00:13:50.880 city is this is what it's about and you guys as i said it's incremental look what they did with

00:13:57.720 the branding as i said in my monologue it went from heart of the new west you know nice positive

00:14:04.260 but it mentions west they didn't like that oh west cowboy hats don't like that okay let's change it

00:14:10.200 to be part of the energy and literally when they changed that to blue sky city and they spent

00:14:14.120 millions to change that some genius in city hall got five million dollars to come up with blue sky

00:14:18.840 city man i'm in the wrong job why did they do that because energy was too controversial they're

00:14:24.940 moving us away from who we are don't let them push back guys i know some people think who cares

00:14:31.260 about a party tent where a bunch of young people drink too much and barf and so on that's just part

00:14:36.120 of the whole guys they're not they're picking at the low-hanging fruit and every year they're

00:14:39.980 going to try and go after something else don't let them do it all right let's move on get to

00:14:45.760 our guest i've been looking forward to this tanya clemens of the new third party advertiser let

00:14:50.980 alberta decide uh is on board here and uh well i imagine hitting the ground running how's it going

00:14:56.740 tanya it's going good thanks very much for having me on your show saying they're not going to be

00:15:07.500 It looks like we might have a bit of a rough connection with you there, Tanya.

00:15:14.640 Let me get that from you one more time.

00:15:16.680 Things are going good, you're saying?

00:15:22.580 Okay, perhaps we'll see if Tanya can reconnect.

00:15:24.920 I'll give a bit of background, though.

00:15:27.200 It's tied in. 0.76

00:15:28.060 It's a group called Let Alberta Decide, and it will be one of the primary campaigning mechanisms.

00:15:34.240 Some people are waiting for that as we have a referendum coming.

00:15:37.000 And Keith Wilson has been heading that.

00:15:39.420 He's going to be doing more academic papers, white papers he's talking about putting out to fill in more of the gaps left.

00:15:47.580 You know, one of the things upon us, the independents have been really pushing on, though I think wrongly to a large degree, saying there's no plan.

00:15:56.580 There's no plan. You haven't answered this. You haven't answered that. You haven't answered this.

00:16:01.540 Now, whether you like Alberta Prosperity Project or not, and Stay Free Alberta and such, they do have a plan.

00:16:06.900 They have their, well, I forget the name of it, the value of independence or something like that now.

00:16:13.880 Either way, they've got a document with a costed document on their website that covers and they worked hard on and broke down a whole lot of these things.

00:16:21.120 You might disagree with some of them.

00:16:22.520 That's fine.

00:16:23.040 Maybe some of the assumptions were too generous and wrong, but it is there.

00:16:26.740 It's not that there's no plan.

00:16:27.800 It's just a plan, perhaps, that they don't necessarily like.

00:16:30.980 And now it's going to be filled out more and differently from Mr. Wilson and others.

00:16:34.900 So we see Tanya's kind of popped back in and out.

00:16:37.880 Perhaps the connection has resolved itself.

00:16:39.700 We'll bring her in and see how things are going over there.

00:16:43.920 It's one of the challenges with remote guests and such.

00:16:47.960 Let's see.

00:16:48.600 Have we got you now, Tanya?

00:16:51.600 No?

00:16:52.140 Okay.

00:16:52.520 Well, we're doing what we can.

00:16:54.860 You know, Tanya on X, if you follow on there, I believe her handle is FarmGeek.

00:17:01.860 And that's part of her background very solidly.

00:17:04.620 So she's, she's rural. I'm guessing she's coming from somewhere down South and the internet isn't

00:17:09.680 behaving very well for her down there. It happens now and then. So we'll give it a minute and see

00:17:15.420 if that comes along a little more. Oh, there we go. Are we getting you now, Tanya? Is that,

00:17:22.260 is that working any better? I hope so. Is that coming in a little bit? Okay.

00:17:29.000 No, it can be a little frustrating. Okay. So I just wanted to start, I guess you guys kicked

00:17:33.040 this off at a press conference last Friday. How have things been going for the new third-party

00:17:37.240 advertisers since then? It's been going really great, actually. Like really positive support

00:17:42.920 and lots of engagement with people. Donations are coming in, which is going to help us with

00:17:48.160 being able to do all the priorities that we have set out to do. And yeah, so far it's been really

00:17:52.860 positive. So I think people were looking for, you know, a little bit of space to have some civil

00:17:58.400 discourse and ask questions and to get some answers to their questions so that part has been really

00:18:03.360 great great so the the third party advertising group is is let alberta decide what is the mandate

00:18:10.560 of that group there's many many third party groups out there now sort of where is the focus of this

00:18:15.220 one going to be yeah so the focus of this one is to be able to reach that group of undecided people

00:18:22.020 or maybe even folks that are a little bit in opposition to the independence movement at that

00:18:26.060 moment, and engage them in conversation, deliver some education to them. Lots of that group of

00:18:31.680 people are, they share the commonality with us, with most Albertans that we're frustrated with

00:18:36.600 our place within confederation. And I think it's just a matter of being able to explain

00:18:42.880 what has happened historically, why we're frustrated, and that there is a path out of

00:18:48.380 this frustration that leads away from that. So it's engaging that group in some civil discourse

00:18:53.440 and conversation yeah one thing i found that was uh striking on the site when i went on to it you've

00:18:59.480 got a live counter a second you enter the site it shows how many dollars have left alberta

00:19:03.700 to go into the federation without return on that investment and boy it ticks up pretty quickly

00:19:09.400 there it's nice to see a visual to kind of remind people of just how poorly uh we get a fiscal

00:19:14.700 return on things yeah the website's pretty awesome we have a great team that's using some of the

00:19:21.060 coolest technology to implement things in our campaign but that website is pretty awesome and

00:19:25.860 when you're seeing that that number scroll up so so so so fast you really get a good visual for how

00:19:31.300 much money is bleeding out of this province and just continues to all the time so as your group

00:19:37.220 you know you plan to reach out to the people who are undecided or considering you know uh independence

00:19:42.180 curious whatever way you want to put it uh what is the plan to reach them though they're going to be

00:19:46.500 public events? Are you coordinating volunteers, door knocking, literature? What sort of aspects

00:19:52.620 of a campaign have you guys got planned? Well, a lot of that undecided population lives in the

00:19:59.680 world of mainstream and legacy media. So one of our big plans is to make sure that we're out there

00:20:04.520 and available for engaging with the media. That hasn't always been the case in the past, and it's

00:20:09.400 been met with a little bit of opposition, a little bit controversial. So we want to make sure that

00:20:14.240 we're willing to engage with that part of our world. And then also there will be a kind of a

00:20:19.540 hybrid of traditional marketing campaigns. There will be some door knocking and educational

00:20:24.900 brochures and information that goes out that way with our website and different avenues.

00:20:29.180 But then also we'll be doing some really high-end digital marketing and social media marketing and

00:20:36.020 campaign that way. We have a really great team that's very specialized in that part. So that

00:20:40.380 it will be exciting to see that shift a bit too. Great. And then, so this is, I mean, how do you

00:20:46.300 distinguish, I guess, you know, I mean, people work with more than one group. They work with

00:20:49.620 more than one thing. Uh, Mr. Wilson is, is working with creating a white paper and, and, and items

00:20:55.260 such as that, but he's still a part of this group that's formed as well. Like, like what's the,

00:21:00.040 how's that whole relationship kind of work? Oh, we declared ourselves a third-party advertiser

00:21:05.600 group as as you're kind of aware with how those groups work as well because we have a huge

00:21:11.040 intention of spending well over a thousand dollars advocating for a certain outcome with the

00:21:16.200 referendum questions so we've been working on that but then also if you're not advertising

00:21:22.520 for a specific outcome and the Alberta Transition Council is just doing some education and research

00:21:27.960 and putting together information for the general public of how a transition could happen for Alberta

00:21:33.120 going from a province to a nation that's just educational material it's not not advocating

00:21:39.520 either way and yeah so they're well inclined to be able to do a little bit of all those things

00:21:44.880 i love that there's so many third-party advertisers out there that are all advocating for it and

00:21:49.040 people often ask why we don't just have one and stick under one big umbrella and i don't know if

00:21:53.840 like the public's quite aware that if you do that you're limiting yourself to a maximum limit that

00:22:00.080 that you can spend on your campaign, which is $607,000 by having multiple third-party advertisers

00:22:06.520 and each kind of taking their own routes to advocate for that same outcome.

00:22:10.320 Then we have each group has that maximum amount to be able to spend.

00:22:14.500 And when we're fighting against some of the huge opposition we are with the big bank accounts

00:22:18.540 that we are, it's more important, I think, to have multiple people with multiple voices

00:22:22.760 and bigger campaign to be able to work with.

00:22:25.760 Yeah, so that press conference on Friday was very, you know, professional and well planned and organized. And there was a great deal of legacy media in attendance, wanting to see what's up and asking questions and such. What is your reaction or response been since the conference now as people have heard of you guys and, you know, are having a second look at you and considering getting involved?

00:22:49.860 well i think it's actually opened up the door for conversation with uh mainstream media which is

00:22:57.860 great that was kind of the intent to it we wanted to engage them in conversation and make sure that

00:23:01.860 you know we're available to be able to discuss with them there was a great article just yesterday in

00:23:06.180 the edmonton journal um about our tpa launching about let alberta decide coming on the scene

00:23:12.260 so i think that it's been positive so far there's definitely a couple things that they've they've

00:23:16.340 said in the media like when they first um ran the stories right after that launch was that you know

00:23:22.180 they tried to make it seem like it was a rally a rally of 35 people showed up to support this launch

00:23:28.020 knowing full well that it was kept small intentionally because it was a media event

00:23:32.580 targeted specifically an invitation only to the mainstream media so there was a little bit of

00:23:38.100 obscuring of words there but overall it's been really positive so far yeah that's that frustration

00:23:43.700 and we see that in general, and that's what leads, I guess, some of the groups and individuals to

00:23:49.640 sometimes refuse to speak to legacy media outlets, but at the same time, as you said, you got to

00:23:55.200 reach the people who watch those, so even, I mean, most of the outlets can be pretty fair when you

00:23:59.720 talk to them, but once in a while, they'll pull stunts, as you mentioned. Hopefully, they remain

00:24:05.540 somewhat fair until the end of the campaign. We got to get to everybody. A question from Stuart,

00:24:11.000 just saying, are you going to have signs or flags from your organization?

00:24:15.600 I think that we will have some of those right now. We're not,

00:24:19.060 there is quite a few organizations that are doing some excellent signage and

00:24:23.780 we're happy that they're doing that and kind of want to stay in our own lane.

00:24:27.780 So we're not overlapping and, and taking, you know,

00:24:30.460 funding away from where it's best used by the people who know how to do it the

00:24:34.220 best. But yeah, there's been some requests for, for signs and flags.

00:24:37.340 So we'll get those available, I'm sure, in the coming days there as well.

00:24:43.200 That's something that has been kind of unique.

00:24:45.120 And I mean, I guess it remains to be seen whether this turns into a really good campaign with a bunch of different groups biting off chunks or if it turns into a gong show, I guess, by October, hopefully the former.

00:24:56.460 Because, yes, it allows, I guess, some groups to say, well, we could take that part off our plate and focus on this over here and we can deal with this rather.

00:25:04.240 Because, I mean, when you're a political party, you have to do everything.

00:25:06.220 and with a tpa you can actually focus a little more yeah and also with a political party your

00:25:13.780 campaign timeline is usually about a month if that we have a very very long campaign period

00:25:19.960 with this so i think it's kind of important to try to allocate our resources accordingly and

00:25:25.300 to not wear people out and then our big focus again is just like to really normalize the

00:25:31.500 conversation around Alberta independence that that's not a traitorous conversation. It's not

00:25:37.400 evil. It's not coming out of hatred or disgust. It's coming out of frustration and it's, we're

00:25:42.640 going to be asked this gigantic question on referendum day. Alberta should be able to have

00:25:47.240 some conversation and discussion around it. Yeah. So some of the, there's constraints with 1.00

00:25:52.560 third-party advertising and what can be raised, what can be spent. An interesting question from

00:25:56.500 Carl Peterson saying, how do you know when a group has reached their maximum contributions,

00:25:59.740 you know and then you would have to go somewhere else but i i believe the groups would report it

00:26:03.820 themselves if they've hit the top they're just gonna have to say well we got to work with what

00:26:06.980 we got yeah i would think that's how it would have to go because you have to report every week

00:26:11.840 i don't do the reporting part for our tpa but the really smart people in that area of it they're

00:26:17.440 doing that for us which is awesome but you would know quite a bit about that as well too

00:26:20.580 so i'm yeah we're not we're not anywhere close to hitting that and then i guess yeah once

00:26:27.600 yeah and once the tpa has hit that and you make that announcement then there is lots of other

00:26:34.320 great tpas that would happily take those donations yeah and i don't know the state of every tpa but i

00:26:40.980 suspect most of them aren't pushing on the brink of 600 000 yet uh but it's still a very good

00:26:45.960 question because people want to support and it's different you know there's no maximums giving to

00:26:49.580 well there's maximum individuals but there's no maximum a political party can collect for example

00:26:53.980 like some of those distinguishments between political parties and third-party advertisements

00:26:57.980 some people are going to have a bit of confusion in the next few months figuring that out

00:27:03.740 yeah even for personally donating like lots of people don't realize that you can donate 5 000

00:27:08.380 but that's the maximum you can donate for all the tpas combined your maximum donations right

00:27:13.500 and you can also donate as your corporation so people are are wanting to cut some big checks and

00:27:19.820 they're being very generous but you are limited by that amount so have your corporation write one

00:27:25.660 have your your spouse write one have all of your adult children there's ways that you can donate

00:27:30.560 more if you need to you just have to be aware that it is for all the tpa donations combined

00:27:34.980 that you're writing yeah so uh you know i'll kind of leave off because since you're going to be

00:27:40.040 the the person speaking for this group what drew you to uh jump out and get active on this and

00:27:45.460 become the the face of this new movement here i don't know if i'm the face of it just one of

00:27:51.160 yeah one of the faces and one of the people willing to stick their neck out of it but i have

00:27:55.360 been involved with this for quite a few years now i've worked with the alberta prosperity project

00:27:59.520 and worked with a bunch of different groups and then just on my own trying to engage albertans

00:28:04.960 in the conversation so keith actually approached me and asked if i would be interested in doing

00:28:08.880 this with him and for someone of his status that i respect so much and has spoken so calmly and

00:28:15.620 respectfully to people about this topic i jumped at the chance to work with him and the team that

00:28:20.960 we've got compiled is fantastic but yeah just working with everybody in this whole movement

00:28:26.220 has been really great yourself for scott there's a lot of awesome people i've enjoyed working with

00:28:31.560 yeah people are coming from all sorts of fronts that's for sure it's it's whatever happens is it's

00:28:38.020 to be a first we've never quite seen something like this and we just want to make sure it's a

00:28:41.460 positive first uh so before i i let you go then where can uh you know remind people where they

00:28:47.620 can find your organization how they can support it and uh what what might you have in the works

00:28:52.260 in the the near future yeah so if you go on to let albertadecide.com uh let alberta decide on

00:29:00.580 any of the social media platforms there is donation links on our website so we would really

00:29:05.700 appreciate the donations to help get us rolling get us going we've got our team started on the

00:29:12.020 social media and the the digital advertising so that's kind of our our first steps is to really

00:29:17.760 get that going so it can kind of start to compound and and grow exponentially over the coming months

00:29:22.740 yeah so we'd appreciate it check that out great well i thank you very much for getting that rolling

00:29:29.300 tanya and for taking some time to come in today to talk to us about it and looking forward to

00:29:34.880 seeing how that uh tpa develops in the next few weeks and months yeah well thank you very much

00:29:40.600 for having me and thanks for all you do as well pleasure all right thank you so that was guys

00:29:46.180 tanya clemens of the new third-party advertising group let alberta decide and i i think a lot of

00:29:51.900 people have been looking forward to seeing something i mean there's there's stuff going on

00:29:55.840 it's that mixed blessing i guess of having different groups all coming from different

00:30:00.020 directions. There's advantages, but there's disadvantages. The primary groups that were out

00:30:05.080 there, Alberta Prosperity Project and Stay Free Alberta, it sounds like they might be getting

00:30:09.040 some stuff rolling now. I'm not too sure. I'm not a member of them, but they were stalled for

00:30:14.120 whatever reasons. I leave that to them to explain whatever happened. But this referendum campaign

00:30:19.620 was getting rolling and those groups weren't budging. And now it sounds like there's things

00:30:25.580 happening. I think Mitch Sylvester's speaking at an event in Red Deer tonight or something like

00:30:29.800 that. So good. The more, the better. But having all these groups coming forward now, we need them

00:30:36.340 focused on their own areas, perhaps. So this one looks really, really good. And as Tanya said,

00:30:41.420 we need a rational approach. And we've got to remember, something I think that's happened in

00:30:46.120 the independence movement a bit is some echo chambering. You know, the petitioning period

00:30:50.080 pulled a lot of people together, and it was really interesting and striking to watch. And all those

00:30:54.740 people you know getting moving towards a common goal like that but at the same time they weren't

00:31:00.000 reaching I think too many of the new people or the people on the brink and that's who really

00:31:05.280 must be reached now the people who aren't sure the undecideds there's always going to be 30%

00:31:10.340 that never support a cause like this in a million years fair enough but there's a big piece that

00:31:15.720 could consider it and we got to figure out how to reach out to them and and being in echo chambers

00:31:20.180 won't do that. That's why, as Tanya mentioned, there could be some real unfair crap out of legacy

00:31:25.780 media with that one example, for example. But at the same time, a lot of the outlets covered things

00:31:31.260 fairly as well. Or sometimes people will see an unfair coverage from legacy media, but they know

00:31:35.560 it's unfair and it still helps your group. So don't antagonize legacy media. Don't completely ignore

00:31:43.160 them because you've got to reach everybody by every means you can. Whether we like it or not,

00:31:47.920 There's a whole lot of people still get the bulk of their news from CBC or CTV and things like that.

00:31:53.420 I'll just offer one of the tricks that, you know, happened in a sense with the issue I had going on with my work with a billboard down in Tabor and the battles going on there.

00:32:02.840 But one of the outlets, Global, went down and managed to find in Tabor, Alberta, one of the most conservative towns in the whole province.

00:32:12.120 Apparently, every person they approached did not like my billboard and felt the town was well justified in trying to have it removed.

00:32:19.140 I was quite astounded. Wow. Boy, that town really hates it.

00:32:22.940 CTV went out, on the other hand, spoke to a few people and found more mixed views.

00:32:27.140 A few people saying, I don't agree with the guy's message, but it's OK to have a billboard.

00:32:30.560 And they found a couple of people who said, yeah, I fully agree with that messaging and that billboard.

00:32:35.020 That's called doing streeters and media does it all the time.

00:32:38.660 It's one of the best ways you can take what looks to be a newscast and spin it to look like, well, to whatever aspect you want.

00:32:47.140 I've got to wonder with the other coverage, how many people did they have to ask before they could find a few who really hated that sign

00:32:52.680 and make sure that those were the only ones that made the coverage?

00:32:54.800 You can never tell when you're watching the show, unfortunately.

00:32:59.300 But some of them are quite fair.

00:33:00.920 Some of them aren't.

00:33:01.580 We've just got to cut through the BS to a degree for ourselves.

00:33:04.020 but we've got now it's just a bit less than four months to reach a lot of people and try and swing

00:33:12.740 their minds if you want to get an independence vote out of things. CB fixes all says let everyone

00:33:17.680 know that each person can spend up to a thousand dollars on their own for this. That's an interesting

00:33:21.240 point because I mean I spoke to a person who reached out and said you know look I got a big

00:33:26.220 spot on my land and I want to put a big wrap on this this old building or whatever and and you

00:33:32.180 know can you have that made uh with your organization and send it out to me i said well

00:33:35.560 it's kind of outside i don't do custom things and everything we we're already kind of scrambling to

00:33:39.220 keep up with what we do he said well i talked to a printer out here and he could do it for 700

00:33:43.020 so well you know what if it's just your own barn you can put your own flag up and whatever you

00:33:47.680 like if you're spending under a thousand as cb fixes all you don't have to be a third party

00:33:53.220 advertiser that that that's you can spend your own money on that bit of promotion just be careful

00:33:57.340 you know don't press the limits that's something we everybody's going to have to watch as well some

00:34:03.540 of the discussions uh I saw somebody else in the comments reminding as well or maybe 10 you

00:34:10.020 mentioned it but it's cumulative when you donate to these organizations and they do track it that's

00:34:15.900 why they make these all of these organizations input their financials every week so if you've

00:34:23.640 donated $500 here, $1,000 there, $2,000 here, $600 there to a bunch of different groups,

00:34:29.960 Elections Alberta will compile all that. They'll get it in the reporting. And if you cross the

00:34:34.600 $5,000 limit, you will go over. So it's kind of on you because the organization you donate to

00:34:41.760 doesn't know who else you donated to. So you could just end up in a little bit of soup that

00:34:48.120 way and having to get money, you know, collected or something like that. So watch for some of the

00:34:53.280 rules because it's not like a political party where it's a little more nuanced and easier to

00:34:58.040 figure out, you know, what you're allowed to spend on and what you're not allowed to spend on.

00:35:02.360 But it's something like we've never seen before. And for people spending that $5,000, you know,

00:35:06.320 I mean, yeah, for most of us, I don't have to worry about it. I'm not going to forget how much

00:35:10.200 I ever spent. And I'm not in a position to make contributions to anything that high. But some

00:35:15.100 people are and just take care. Don't get in trouble. We've seen some of the issues with

00:35:20.360 the campaign because of some groups already that got caught uh just having very serious issues with

00:35:25.840 elections alberta rules and uh lists and things such as that and uh let's avoid the distraction

00:35:32.020 uh d robert also pointing out thanks for liking it helps a lot yes do the likes the shares all

00:35:36.520 that stuff i like it when people remind me of that to help get our channel out there and reaching

00:35:40.160 more people uh let's see what else is going on you know i i had a discussion with one of the folks in

00:35:47.360 the newsroom about that case with a 12-year-old child getting medical assistance and dying in

00:35:55.300 the Netherlands. It's awful. And that individual I spoke to doesn't support medical assistance

00:36:00.940 and dying in any circumstance, no matter what for anybody. Fair enough. There's people who have

00:36:04.760 misgivings about it, whether it's religious or personal or whatnot. But it's just such a tough,

00:36:12.380 tough issue. It really is. We don't know, in the case of that 12-year-old, for example, and I get

00:36:18.240 worried because we're hearing about some cases where MAID has been applied to people where it

00:36:21.280 really does not belong. People with, you know, mental health issues, depression, diabetes,

00:36:27.900 these are not things that make sense to have somebody be killed for. But we don't know the

00:36:35.140 condition of this child? You know, was it, you know, confident that there was a few weeks of

00:36:42.780 agony and misery to live through, or they'd have to be just drugged into a coma to survive it out?

00:36:47.780 Or was there something more? But we need, this is really turning into a worldwide issue,

00:36:54.040 because MAID is being used more and more. The numbers are going up. And as they go up,

00:36:59.000 we're hearing more cases where it's not being properly applied. And that's frightening. I mean,

00:37:06.080 if the state's going to take on that ability to offer that, we got to be, we got to have as many

00:37:11.560 guardrails as possible. And anybody thinking about a 12 year old, but I mean, it might've

00:37:16.340 been terminal too. Cancer is a horrible disease. I don't even know if it was cancer, but I don't

00:37:20.220 know. These, these, these, these things are tough. These are just really, really tough.

00:37:24.500 Actually, here's a good question. I might as well crab that before I go to the next subject too.

00:37:27.360 listening Albertan says please explain if people from outside of Alberta can donate uh if you have

00:37:31.520 I apologize but please repeat that's okay so yeah I will remind you nobody from outside of Alberta

00:37:36.480 can donate to third-party advertisers uh for the sake of Tanya's group and every other one of them

00:37:42.140 and the grief that mine found by the way to start with if you donate more than 50 we must have your

00:37:49.560 personal information absolutely must in e-transfers things like that we don't necessarily get anything

00:37:54.560 but a first name and a last name. We've got to have more to stay compliant. And if we can't find

00:38:00.480 it, if we can't get that information, I'll tell you the worst thing that'll happen, let's say you

00:38:05.320 gave $500 and we never got the information, we have to give it to the government. You don't want

00:38:10.040 to do that. So please, please, please, whoever you give it to, make sure they get that information.

00:38:15.080 And no, you cannot donate from outside of the province. It has to be from within.

00:38:20.380 So, you know, speaking of some of the other things, here's an interesting one out of the

00:38:24.020 government. And we'll see how well that might work. But it's a positive announcement from the

00:38:28.900 provincial government. They've got a 10-year cancer care strategy, talking about screening

00:38:34.000 programs, diagnoses, and improving treatment and support. See, one of the things that people

00:38:39.040 oppose made, fine, fair enough, but then let's make sure that we really invest in all the possible

00:38:43.760 ways to treat or make people comfortable when they get these kinds of diseases, particularly

00:38:50.740 cancer. It's just such an awful one. And it's one that diagnostics really are often so integral for.

00:38:57.500 I mean, your chances of being able to treat or deal with something are so much higher if you

00:39:02.340 manage to get diagnosed early. But if you wait too long, you hear too often about that, whether

00:39:07.800 it's prostate, colon, you know, a breast lump that's forgotten, and then you find out it's just

00:39:12.820 too late. You only get one shot at life. So having the government invest in some of those things

00:39:17.260 could be a good thing i want to see good health spending not more dumped into unions not

00:39:21.860 other things because i think and of course maybe that's what the opponents to smith as they always 0.52

00:39:26.100 will they'll say well she just wants to get more private diagnostics and things go on well if it's

00:39:29.940 going to speed up the lists good good uh what are some of the other things the unfortunate alberta

00:39:36.980 connection to that shooting in montreal speaking of of media what a mess you know so uh this this 0.93

00:39:46.880 guy from apparently Lethbridge, a young man, clearly sick and insane. He wrote a massive 0.90

00:39:54.080 manifesto full of just bizarre ramblings. It was 150 pages long. I skimmed it. Rebel Media was,

00:40:00.400 you know, first to put it right out there in full. And this guy had all sorts of crap going on 0.99

00:40:05.440 between his ears. But it's funny how so many people scrambled, oh, it's not this, it's not 0.97

00:40:09.160 that, it's not this. Well, wait, let's have a look. And he's got a whole whack of anti-Semitism

00:40:14.480 his impact in there. He's worried about the Jewish

00:40:16.220 conspiracy, his usual crap like that. 1.00

00:40:18.420 He also did have some huge beefs with 1.00

00:40:20.400 women. He was whining about how

00:40:22.460 women only sleep with attractive

00:40:26.540 men, and men just have to take what 1.00

00:40:28.420 they can get.

00:40:30.900 Just a 1.00

00:40:31.820 bitter, screwed up young man. 1.00

00:40:35.140 And he went on a shooting rampage 1.00

00:40:36.480 that thankfully wasn't as long as

00:40:38.280 some of these can turn into.

00:40:41.100 It sounds like the

00:40:42.020 innocent person who got killed in this

00:40:44.480 was a rabbi who was actually just trying to help somebody

00:40:47.760 or running around and it was a police officer shot.

00:40:49.540 But when you're in a panic circumstance

00:40:50.780 with a shooter going on, I don't know,

00:40:53.600 it's hard to put yourself in the shoes of the others

00:40:55.640 and tell if they acted correctly or not.

00:40:59.860 And the two officers got shot too.

00:41:02.340 But either way, not a proud moment for Alberta, I guess.

00:41:09.140 Times like this, I'm not sad when the shooters die.

00:41:11.100 I got to admit that.

00:41:11.780 We don't need this person lingering around.

00:41:14.480 uh, dragging things through the courts. You can't cure that. You can't fix that.

00:41:19.520 And I like some of the early discussions with people saying, you know, well, we would have to

00:41:24.900 determine if it was, you know, this person had mental health issues or not. I know when it comes

00:41:28.280 to a plea to try and get out of criminal responsibility, you can do that, but come on,

00:41:31.040 let's face it. Anybody capable of picking up a firearm and going out and starting to shoot people

00:41:36.420 has screws loose. They have mental health issues. That's a given. You know, I guess you could talk 1.00

00:41:40.940 about how premeditated it might have been or things like that. But nobody sane commits acts

00:41:47.680 like that. Awful, awful stuff. But we got to watch as it was breaking, as it was coming out,

00:41:54.760 as on Twitter, X as it is now. And the reason I like X is because that's the place to be when

00:42:00.660 something's breaking. You really do see live reports. You see it as fast as it's going to

00:42:05.460 happen. But you got to be really careful on there too, because the BS spreads as fast on there,

00:42:10.940 as the as the facts do it did sound like this could have been a case of targeted uh you know

00:42:17.980 an attack on jews or something because the the the victim happened to be a rabbi

00:42:22.380 and uh as it was found with this guy's manifesto he had a problem with jews but it was the cop who

00:42:29.500 shot the rabbi and and uh it was just a mess and the officer who got killed in that his first name

00:42:34.940 name was Mohammed. So, you know, these things, when people made speculation right off the bat

00:42:40.660 on how it was targeted or what's going on, we just got to hold our horses sometimes a little

00:42:44.400 on social media and wait until some of those facts come out. Let's see. Another thing, you know,

00:42:53.800 one of the things that I think ruins a little bit of the legitimacy of the whole mess that we've

00:42:58.060 got now with citizens initiated referendum, which is a policy I've always really liked. I liked,

00:43:01.880 like Switzerland has them all the time.

00:43:03.860 They hold a referendum and people do it through petitioning.

00:43:06.420 And in Alberta, on two fronts, there's a problem.

00:43:09.200 One was the ridiculous ruling that we needed to consult

00:43:12.040 every Indigenous person in the world

00:43:13.440 before holding a citizens-initiated referendum. 1.00

00:43:15.960 It's absurd.

00:43:16.800 It was a Liberal-appointed judge who shut things down.

00:43:19.560 Dead wrong, undemocratic ruling.

00:43:22.400 But then I see, and there's one of the problems.

00:43:24.540 See, when the government doesn't like

00:43:25.780 where the citizens' initiative goes,

00:43:27.160 they can step in and stop it.

00:43:29.480 And I'm usually quite, you know, again,

00:43:31.000 defend Premier Smith.

00:43:31.880 But this this coal petition that was done by that country singer, Lund, and he wants to ban coal mining on the Easter Slope.

00:43:39.680 I don't agree with him. I don't at all. But he used the process properly and he got the requisite number of signatures, it sounds like.

00:43:47.740 And it sounds like that the Smith government's now found a loophole. Well, it's too late.

00:43:50.900 You haven't got it in on time and we're just not going to allow that one to go on the ballot this time around.

00:43:55.400 Like, the spirit of the point of allowing people to initiate their own referenda has been completely screwed up in Alberta between two things.

00:44:03.620 One, I think activist judges, and two, a provincial government that doesn't actually want citizens to bring about petitions on things that they don't want to face.

00:44:13.240 You need real legislation.

00:44:14.460 You need to be binding.

00:44:15.600 You need to be fully taken out of the hands of the government.

00:44:18.400 They're not the ones to make that final choice, but that's not where we're at yet.

00:44:21.780 But we are working on what we've got so far, I guess, with the fall referendum.

00:44:28.240 It's going to be the subject all summer long and into fall.

00:44:32.260 We're already seeing it.

00:44:32.960 The headlines are about Alberta unity, about the province, about the country.

00:44:36.640 I think it's a good thing.

00:44:38.040 Have that conversation.

00:44:39.760 Have this going on because it is a mess.

00:44:42.460 I think it's a lost cause in the Federation, but that's my view.

00:44:45.500 Maybe people think they can fix it.

00:44:47.200 This is going to be the year to talk about all these things.

00:44:49.280 I mean, we've never seen it like this.

00:44:50.720 Never at all.

00:44:51.220 and people are saying, well, it's not a real question. It's not binding. It's not a real

00:44:54.580 referendum. Fair enough. It is a question about holding a question, but it has become a de facto

00:44:58.620 referendum on independence. There's the two camps, the two sides, the two campaigns, and one is going

00:45:03.880 to declare a victory out of this. So if they're really dedicated to one side or another, it's

00:45:07.560 incumbent on you to make sure you show as well as possible in it this fall. All right. That's what

00:45:12.160 I got today, guys. Thank you very much for tuning in. Be sure to tune in next week. I think we might

00:45:18.520 run the show a day early because we'll have Canada Day hitting on that particular day. We'll

00:45:23.640 see how that scheduling goes. Of course, we'll post that online so you know it. Watch the pipeline

00:45:27.580 tonight. We'll be breaking down some more stuff on some panels and subscribe and share all those

00:45:31.740 Western Standard things. And be sure to subscribe to Western Standard itself. It's $10 a month,

00:45:36.240 $100 a year. Well worth it. An investment in good news for yourself. Thanks for tuning in,

00:45:42.280 guys, and we will see you all again next week.

00:45:48.520 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - June 24, 2026

Calgary’s woke want to kill cowboy culture

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