Western Standard - Canada is broken

00:00:00.000 Would you let Jeffrey Epstein watch your kids?

00:00:07.440 Didn't think so.

00:00:08.780 What about his accomplice, Guy Lane Maxwell?

00:00:13.380 Hard pass.

00:00:15.520 So why trust him?

00:00:18.980 Mark Carney, Maxwell's friend, not yours.

00:00:30.000 Good day.

00:00:58.560 welcome to the cory morgan show first one post-election contrary to the ad you saw at the

00:01:03.840 start i'm afraid that mark carney is ours for now probably for i won't be shocked if they'll pull it

00:01:08.880 off for four more years yeah sorry to start off on a negative note i see commenter mark blaine

00:01:12.320 saying give us hope i'll offer some hope in different ways but tell you what when he talks

00:01:16.400 to the talking about the federal system it is hopeless uh hopefully enough people have realized

00:01:23.200 though because there are ways we can get change just going to stop playing with the uh rigged

00:01:28.480 game set which is never going to pay off for us so i'll talk a little later too with alexander

00:01:32.560 brown of the national citizens coalition we'll break down discuss what happened in the election

00:01:37.200 try to interpret what came about and what might be coming yet because yes we got a a carny minority 1.00

00:01:44.240 but you know that that minority is uh just shy of a majority and that might change too he might

00:01:50.160 be cutting some deals i suspect they just need a few seats and they'll be wheeling and dealing

00:01:54.800 uh betty commenting saying yes feeling like it's a lost cause jeremiah saying we need a better

00:01:59.280 voting system well voting system is one thing but it's the entire system of canada it's got

00:02:04.080 an issue but let me get ranting a bit about that and then we'll uh check in on some some news use

00:02:08.400 that comment scroll good to see all there tracy jeremiah uh keep things civil and keep the

00:02:13.440 conversation going okay so i mean if nothing else though positive has come out of this federal

00:02:18.880 election, it's awakened Westerners to the fact that they're never going to win in the current

00:02:22.940 system. Canada was designed with a system that centralizes political power while the outlying

00:02:28.180 provinces feed the middle. Even when the Conservative parties do enjoy those short

00:02:31.940 periods in power, they don't dare to try to change anything substantially, or they'll be sent back

00:02:36.040 into the political wilderness by Central Canadian voters. I mean, the Trudeau government was the

00:02:40.380 worst government Canada has endured in generations. Those Liberals lurched from scandal to controversy

00:02:45.600 as their ineptitude doubled the national debt, while the GDP per capita plummeted. Housing prices

00:02:51.200 went out of reach for young Canadians, while health care became increasingly inaccessible

00:02:55.580 due to unfettered mass immigration policies. Oil and gas resources were shut in through

00:03:00.740 regulations, reducing employment, raising energy costs, and making Canada almost entirely dependent

00:03:06.460 on the USA for exports. Authoritarianism reigned in shocking actions when they were taken against

00:03:11.940 peaceful protesters in Ottawa, while a blind eye is turned towards a campaign of terror by Hamas

00:03:16.480 supporters targeting Jewish communities in the streets of Toronto. Bills were crafted to control

00:03:21.920 media and online speech, while all efforts were made to cover up decades of Chinese Communist

00:03:25.840 Party interference and activity within Canada. Along with that, we had an opioid epidemic

00:03:30.340 exploding as Trudeau legalized hard drugs and thousands of Canadians died of overdoses.

00:03:35.000 Meanwhile, violent criminals victimized Canadians repeatedly while on bail,

00:03:38.140 and Trudeau chronically embarrassed the nation overseas as he pursued woke social justice causes

00:03:42.880 while the economy languished. Nobody cared about the alleged right of a transgendered man to 1.00

00:03:47.780 compete in sports against girls, yet those were the causes that dominated the news under

00:03:51.580 Trudeau's guidance. I mean, even his own think tanks. A Privy Council report predicted Canada

00:03:57.120 would sink into a dystopian world where citizens are going to be hunting and gathering to eat

00:04:01.580 as the wealth divide puts food and housing out of reach of the average person under continued

00:04:05.980 Liberal policies. So Canadians finally appeared to sit up and pay attention. Trudeau's popularity

00:04:10.360 plummeted so low that his own party finally turned on him and pushed him grudgingly from power.

00:04:15.460 The nation looked ready for a democratic reset as the Conservatives were poised to win a super

00:04:20.060 majority in Parliament. But then the Liberals rushed a leadership race and crowned Mark Carney

00:04:24.460 as their leader. And despite maintaining the same team and policy set as Trudeau,

00:04:28.980 the leadership swapped. It was enough for Eastern Canadians. They felt that's all the party needed. 0.99

00:04:32.760 there's a little change at the helm and they rewarded the Liberals with an increased seat

00:04:35.960 count that might even turn into a majority. They'll probably give Carney a majority the next

00:04:39.960 possible opportunity if it doesn't come sooner. Western Canada is going to continue to be

00:04:44.340 mercilessly milked through an imbalanced equalization and fiscal transfer system

00:04:48.240 while underrepresented in both the House of Commons and the Senate. The energy industry

00:04:52.580 is going to continue to be confined. Capital investment is going to dry up due to Carney's

00:04:56.200 aversion to pipelines and his plans to pander to Quebec. But bluntly, the West is screwed

00:05:00.440 and it's going to continue to be until the West heads for the door. The escape hatch exists. It's 0.95

00:05:05.960 called the Clarity Act. The act was designed to be applied to the Quebec independence movement,

00:05:10.080 but now it appears to have offered Alberta and Saskatchewan the path to escape the abusive

00:05:13.840 relationship they endure under the Federation. A clear yes vote and a provincial referendum on

00:05:18.260 independence obliges the federal government to negotiate the secession of a province voting to go.

00:05:22.440 It's democratic, it's reasonable, and it's the only option left for the West. A yes vote isn't

00:05:27.240 rejection of Canadians, it's a rejection of their system. It's a means to an end and it's a way to 0.99

00:05:31.400 start the ball rolling on true systemic change. Canada may not end after such a vote but the

00:05:36.680 contract that binds it would. Either the western provinces remain fully independent or they might

00:05:41.240 negotiate into a new federation that doesn't neglect provincial rights and abilities. Either

00:05:45.560 outcome is superior to the status quo. I mean Preston Manning shunted the western independence

00:05:51.160 movement at the end of the 80s with the reform party and the rallying call of the west wants in

00:05:55.080 well the reform party failed and faded and the west is no better off even manning's now hinting

00:05:59.400 at independence is an option the west has got to be considering there will be no more playing

00:06:04.120 within a rigged game canada is broken and the west wants out well that's where i am today let's see

00:06:11.240 what else is going on how's it going dave good i've been all cory i'm sitting here right next

00:06:15.320 to a best-selling author getting close getting close uh i'm in the well into the top 100 i think

00:06:21.080 yeah 76th book in canada ahead of andrew coin oh that makes your day i bet oh yes yes

00:06:28.120 so you're going for a second printing third printing uh well the nice thing is it's print

00:06:31.800 on demand through amazon and everything so it just ships and prints as the orders come in

00:06:35.960 so uh but it's definitely gotten a second life i mean that book's a little more than two years

00:06:39.720 old now the sovereign test handbook i appreciate you letting me make a plug there you go uh but

00:06:43.320 yes it's this election holy cow all of a sudden that book is rolling people are reaching out and

00:06:47.320 buying the guidebook to independence i guess this means i might have to finally read it

00:06:51.080 yeah well if you can get yourself through it so i can get past chapter one for the last few years

00:06:56.520 as it is yeah exactly so the uh fallout obviously continues uh from the election uh today all the

00:07:03.560 major energy uh bosses uh sent a open letter to carney uh congratulating him and said uh come on 0.96

00:07:11.000 you moron let's get some pipelines built they didn't quite use that language but that was the 0.97

00:07:16.040 the thrust of it uh donald trump just finished a cabinet meeting and he praised carney said he's a 0.99

00:07:22.600 very nice gentleman and uh that he's going to be at the white house within a week so that that'll

00:07:28.600 be interesting i bet they talk talk tariffs and he says uh poly have actually hated him more than

00:07:34.440 carney did so i don't know what paulia probably could have used that um more fallout from the 1.00

00:07:41.720 horrible uh filipino festival uh tragedy in uh in vancouver vancouver mayor sims says come on we

00:07:49.320 got to do something to to keep these people sort of uh locked up when they need to be locked up and

00:07:56.360 he's pleading for more provincial and uh and federal help and uh robbie starbuck you remember

00:08:01.880 the guy who's taken down company after company for their uh woke dei policies he's now suing uh mr

00:08:08.680 zuckerberg and and meta ai because apparently meta ai says nasty things about them uh when you

00:08:16.040 ask them to do it uh so he's uh so for that so you're just gonna get a bot on the stand and

00:08:22.760 see how that goes for so and we'll have lots more lots more follow from the ledge this afternoon

00:08:28.520 alberta ledge uh with daniel smith playing the uh sort of referendum card yesterday by

00:08:34.680 introducing a new law that would cut in half the number of signatures required to to hold a

00:08:40.520 referendum course so imagine you'll be a block captain signing people up uh we'll see like i

00:08:46.840 said i i am not a part of any party or group i mean i'm supportive of different ones and everything

00:08:51.320 but i i'll sit on the sidelines and offer guidance and uh take things where they go we shouldn't

00:08:56.760 forget with this whole thing i mean this referenda legislation of course the primary thing people

00:09:00.520 are thinking about is an independence referendum but this can apply to a whole lot of other things

00:09:05.080 i mean it was it was initially modeled just to give empower citizens if you want to make a major

00:09:09.480 policy change or something else i mean switzerland has this kind of legislation you know you can put

00:09:14.360 the power in the hands of the citizens i know that people are automatically going to say independence

00:09:18.200 every time they talk about that but there can be a lot of good coming out of this yeah was it only

00:09:22.200 171 000 signatures needed now something like that that's a heck of a lot more than a casual you

00:09:28.280 know oh boy i'm ticked off about my tax rate i'm gonna invoke a referendum you need a lot of friends

00:09:33.640 do you remember off the top of your head how much that calgary one got for gonda 69 000 out of

00:09:40.600 so and then they were all declared invalid the next day yeah yeah they said you know they didn't

00:09:45.480 cross a t or something like that so these are the things that and there'll be a lot of discussion

00:09:49.320 of that i mean again the bar i think you know smith has made it achievable but there's a heck

00:09:53.880 of a lot more hurdles yet roadblocks it's not as easy as some people might think but at least it

00:09:57.960 was impossible before she's changed it and you're ruling out leading the independence troops oh god

00:10:04.360 i've been there i did that and i sucked i mean i did that back when i was 29 and then we blew 0.63

00:10:08.680 up the albert independence party we formed it but we blew it up too i've learned a lot i got a lot

00:10:12.360 to offer i think but no somebody else can march in front of that parade you still got the name

00:10:16.680 trademarked no no it belongs to alberta it belongs to alberta all right all right well thanks for the

00:10:24.920 updates and i imagine just another thing on your front uh you mentioned you're going to be leaving

00:10:29.800 the country and uh traveling into the middle east yes i'm very excited going to go to israel next

00:10:34.840 month and uh poke around there see what's going on and uh hopefully file reports and videos and

00:10:41.400 all sorts of good stuff from there yeah that's going to be fascinating yeah i'm really looking

00:10:45.320 forward to what you see over there oh right on well i'll let you you know you know derek's just

00:10:49.600 gonna swamp you with stuff to get it all prepared in advance so oh exactly i'm gonna just hide in

00:10:53.960 the corner okay i'll let you get back to your corner then and appreciate the updates thanks

00:10:58.100 all right thanks dave that is our news editor dave nailer as you can see lots on the go he's

00:11:03.760 always managing those stories and we're putting them out guys we're beating the heck out of legacy

00:11:08.340 media again another record month for the standard for people coming out so thank you guys for coming

00:11:12.800 out and reading those stories and hey the paywall is going back up I hate to say it but you know we

00:11:17.280 gave it for free throughout the course of the election uh you know we wanted to get the news

00:11:22.340 out to people give you guys a taste of what's going on it's going to be going back up and uh

00:11:26.580 you know ten dollars a month come on hundred dollars a year you you don't think twice about

00:11:31.200 paying that for you know cable products or streaming subscriptions or you never thought

00:11:35.560 about it when you were uh getting a newspaper subscription in the past well make sure to

00:11:41.020 to keep in mind, you can do that for media today. That's the new media, you know, the advertising

00:11:45.760 helps and it's important, but the real model now is subscription. So if you haven't subscribed yet,

00:11:51.560 get on there guys, westernstandard.news slash subscription. If you already have, thank you.

00:11:55.560 I really appreciate it. We're going to talk about a lot of things. We're going to talk about

00:11:58.360 independence. We're going to talk about the election. I do want to talk about just that

00:12:03.160 horrific, horrific incident though in Vancouver, just something on a more recent news thing. I

00:12:08.780 I mean, that crazy man drove through, killed 11 people, injured others.

00:12:14.460 I mean, you look at some of the details, the stories, it's just awful.

00:12:17.840 One was a, it sounds like a girl lost her parents and a sibling.

00:12:22.020 And now, you know, it's one of those times where we, I mean, we're horrified, we're angry,

00:12:30.320 we point fingers, and we should, but we should use it productively now.

00:12:35.700 And the mayor of Vancouver is talking and he's right on something. The man who did this never should have been out and able to do that terrible, terrible action. And he's pointing where it belongs. Mental health institutions. We don't have them anymore. A stupid, well-meaning, well, you know, isn't that the nature of so many policies? We mean well, but they get unintended consequences.

00:12:59.640 So the movement for deinstitutionalization began decades ago. People thought it's much better that

00:13:04.840 we close these institutions and have people do community living. And it's nice minded,

00:13:11.960 but it's not realistic and it's dangerous. And when you get somebody who's truly mentally ill 0.88

00:13:18.920 and in bad, bad shape and a danger to others, I mean, don't look at it as being vindictive.

00:13:22.840 Don't look at it as being cruel. It's just, we have to sequester people from society,

00:13:27.560 try to treat them, but also recognize they present a hazard. And it's the humane way to go. We've

00:13:34.420 turned out so many people from our mental institutions because we closed them all down.

00:13:38.160 There's no room. I talked about this a couple of years ago, my own show. I had a family member who

00:13:42.480 had a mental breakdown. And I tell you what, to get somebody into mental health care, it took

00:13:49.020 over 30 hours of sitting in a hospital waiting room with a person who was not in control of

00:13:54.520 themselves. And then he was on a gurney for two days in the hallway. And then they got him into

00:13:58.420 a little ward within the hospital where they did secure him and realized this man is so far along,

00:14:02.980 we need to keep him secured. Then they medicate him and put him out after 40 days because there's

00:14:08.120 just no room. It was a tiny little thing. Look, we have to accept some people will need to be

00:14:13.840 secured, sometimes maybe for life. It doesn't have to be torture. It doesn't have to be prison.

00:14:18.260 It can be good facilities, as much treatment in life as we can allow for somebody when they are

00:14:23.640 in such mental state, but it has to be done. So in the case of this, this man who repeatedly had

00:14:30.760 mental health issues or repeatedly had problems with the police got released and the worst,

00:14:35.400 worst possible outcome happened. It was terrible. So we can't stop what happened there, but we got

00:14:41.240 to look at this and try and figure out how we can stop more of this from happening. And Mayor Sims

00:14:46.540 is right. We got to examine our system. Look on the streets, the amount of people on the streets,

00:14:50.320 It's the people who are addicted, the people who are shouting at the clouds walking up and down with their pants around their ankles.

00:14:56.920 Why are they in the streets?

00:14:57.980 Are we a compassionate society when we're actually letting our fellow citizens live in those conditions and be like that?

00:15:03.840 So let's re-examine our entire mental health systems, guys, for ourselves and for the mentally ill people.

00:15:09.700 It's just not right.

00:15:10.960 All right.

00:15:12.580 I'll go from one downer note to another.

00:15:13.920 Let's talk about the federal election, though, and we'll bring in Alexander Brown for the National Citizens Coalition.

00:15:18.300 let's uh start breaking down what happened monday hey how's it going cory uh gee uh not good not good

00:15:26.620 for for many reasons i'm also in vancouver myself and so that has been it's been a very difficult

00:15:32.300 few days for people to to sort of the wonderful filipino community out here um and just the the

00:15:38.860 obviousness of of the need for criminal justice reform and no more sort of hug a thug or hug

00:15:45.820 someone deeply unwell and that all this sort of vague harm reduction policy only ends up just

00:15:50.940 sharing the harm with the community and so so perhaps we're seeing some of that well-meaning

00:15:56.140 translate to what we're seeing with the election where it's not all ne'er-do-well types and and

00:16:01.660 skullduggery dooming you there are some people who do think they're making a difference but they're

00:16:06.220 actually making things for you and your and your family and safety and and affordability security

00:16:11.820 much, much harder. Yeah. So in this election, I mean, I guess one thing, you know, a lot of

00:16:18.200 people were kind of maintaining, you know, for people who didn't want to see another return of

00:16:23.000 the Liberals, believing that the polls were wrong, the polls were slanted, but they were actually,

00:16:28.520 what turns out, pretty darn accurate this time around. I mean, they made some mistakes before

00:16:31.820 in polling, but most of the pollsters pretty much saw this one coming. Yeah, it ended up being

00:16:37.060 remarkably close and funnily enough perhaps closest was measured by a and like an 18 year

00:16:43.300 old aggregator in ontario i think the the handle is real albanian pat or something like it but

00:16:49.840 we saw voter turnout was up too close to 69 we saw that the young vote was starting to really

00:16:57.600 come out for conservatives they won the student vote for perhaps the first time ever which is

00:17:02.400 which is really remarkable. But you did end up seeing what folks like me feared and what many

00:17:08.400 feared and what some of the third party ads, particularly from the NCC, were trying to adjust

00:17:13.580 for, which is that the boomers broke hard for Trump, Trump and only Trump. If you look at the 0.69

00:17:18.840 top 10 ballot issues, the sort of exit poll, it was Trump number one for them. And then like

00:17:25.800 housing, affordability, making Canada a better place to live, like dead last in that top 10.

00:17:31.160 And that equation was different for the under 55s, for younger generations, folks in their 30s, such as myself. And so the polls were not entirely wrong. Did they nail certain dynamics and surges and popularities? I don't believe so. But I think many fears have come true.

00:17:50.500 what i would also say though is the polls were saying going into election day that the liberals

00:17:55.120 had a 70 chance of a majority and while it might end up being a a pseudo majority if a few ndpers

00:18:02.580 cross the floor they cut a little deal while the party rebuilds for two or three years

00:18:07.280 it is a small solace but um the worst case scenario in some ways was avoided but of course

00:18:18.020 we are sort of grasping at straws, so to speak, with independent sentiment now rising, with

00:18:24.920 people feeling so aggrieved, with young people losing a measure of hope. It's still not the

00:18:30.620 ideal response to the last 10 years. And there are a lot of people who are feeling very let down

00:18:37.060 right now. Yeah, well, and a commenter, Betty, said, you know, fear won the election. I mean,

00:18:42.500 something that really turned the tides wasn't just getting rid of Trudeau, though. Lots of

00:18:46.100 people were sick and tired of him. And it wasn't just bringing in Carney. It's not like he was

00:18:50.980 such a dynamic leader that he pulled people over. But just that external perceived threat of Trump,

00:18:58.740 they really felt, I think, that that's when you suddenly, when you're worried about something

00:19:03.540 from outside, you introvert. You're not looking to shake up your own home. You want to stay the

00:19:06.740 same so you can deal with what's going outside, even if it probably didn't make it any more

00:19:10.740 effective in dealing with the external threat. But it was just a factor nobody could have seen

00:19:14.460 coming. And it turned out to serve the incumbent party very well. Yeah. I mean, for a party that

00:19:20.180 lowered the flag for a few years, all of a sudden they were allowed to rally around the flag and to

00:19:25.400 benefit from the rally around the flag effect. Angelo Isidoro put this in a post yesterday. He's

00:19:32.580 the BC Conservative Party sort of strategist. And, you know, that dynamic broke hard in the

00:19:39.460 liberals favor it by you know being able to point to orange man bad and orange man was very bad for

00:19:45.080 the conservatives and very obnoxious for for for businesses at threats of tariff um it offered them

00:19:51.980 not just a social license to excuse the failures of the last 10 years but it also gave them a chance

00:19:58.420 to not have to run on their record and by not having to run on their record they were able to

00:20:04.180 secure, what presently looks like a strong minority that at its base is very unstable for

00:20:11.540 the relationship between the West and the East. So, I mean, we're stuck with Carney as a prime

00:20:17.080 minister for a period of time, no matter, you know, like it or a lump of it, that's the way it

00:20:20.740 goes. But I mean, it doesn't mean the work of the NCC or us or citizens is done by any means. I mean,

00:20:25.940 we got to hope to be able to nudge Carney into governing as well as we could possibly hope.

00:20:32.040 As Dave mentioned in the news update, for example, you know, the energy industries are trying to pressure and say, OK, look, let's get on with it.

00:20:38.720 Then follow through with your promises. Let's see some pipelines. Let's see some infrastructure. Let's see some movement.

00:20:44.020 Do you think Carney's going to move, though?

00:20:47.860 I think, yeah, I feel like my pause there probably tells you something.

00:20:51.540 But I think you might see movement at the very start where, I mean, like we I think there's been to the conservatives credit and I think to the movement's credit, whatever that movement is, grassroots, you know, the official party, small C, big C.

00:21:08.480 The conservatives have dominated policy and the policy conversation and dragging the liberals and the far left back towards the center to do right by some real big F-U-C-K ups.

00:21:23.920 But we all know that promises during elections might not mean a whole lot.

00:21:30.400 So he might offer some vague olive branch, like you get one pipeline or you get this or you get that.

00:21:36.080 but his record speaks for itself like it's all there it's in his book i i i had the misfortune

00:21:42.240 of reading it and put it in a western standard piece like like a few others have um there's a

00:21:48.000 roadmap to to big trouble here bigger trouble for the west for affordability for for so-called

00:21:54.960 housing solutions which are just soviet housing blocks in major cities instead of addressing

00:22:00.560 issues of immigration or getting out of the way of developers who can build actual homes that aren't

00:22:06.240 like brookfield owned trailers so you might get you know just these little trinkets but i think

00:22:14.800 very quickly and i think others have suggested as such we might be looking at a cure starmer effect

00:22:20.480 like within within six months and then is there something you can work with with the ndp there to

00:22:27.280 to to pull the trigger earlier than expected i don't know you're already seeing the bloc quebecois

00:22:32.560 who did not have a good election night signaling all kinds of trouble and and increased resistance

00:22:38.320 to pipelines with their sort of spiritual ndpness which will never quite make sense for quebec

00:22:44.080 nationalism uh to me and to the west um but it doesn't it doesn't bode well it doesn't bode well

00:22:50.080 it it might not be the asteroid that we all think it is but after such a period of time and so much

00:22:56.240 resentment and people deserving catharsis and to feel like the government is getting out of their

00:23:00.240 way a little bit to even just let them bring their energy projects to market perhaps more importantly

00:23:06.320 is like the vibe the mood is just it's off it's bad it's it's you know you you dust yourself off

00:23:13.280 and you get back out there because you have no choice no one's coming to save us but us

00:23:17.760 but it's it doesn't it doesn't bode well it doesn't mean we we don't give up but i don't

00:23:22.880 have high hopes I don't have high hopes at least for the immediate future yeah and I mean well

00:23:28.400 the conservatives I mean it's this is kind of the the the mixed outcome of this election in a lot

00:23:33.600 of ways I mean if people there's no way about it it was a loss but not because of how they did I

00:23:39.120 mean they increased their vote share they increased their seat count it was forward momentum but the

00:23:44.800 one thing that happened it has really really put them in a bad position and hamstrung them

00:23:49.040 was that Paulie have lost his seat.

00:23:52.520 And they, you know, if you've increased ground

00:23:55.940 but lost your leader's presence in the House of Commons,

00:23:59.040 you have a hell of a dilemma.

00:24:00.760 I mean, people are talking about possibly somebody stepping aside

00:24:03.160 in a safe seat or something, but boy, what a distraction

00:24:05.840 when they should be preparing to set up to be an effective,

00:24:09.380 strong opposition, at least, which is the mandate they got.

00:24:12.360 And they're going to have a lot of trouble dealing with that.

00:24:15.820 They are.

00:24:16.280 And it's going to be really, because I don't believe a by-election

00:24:18.920 has to be called for for six months either and so if you're the liberals i mean perhaps the greatest

00:24:25.660 house of commons attack dog in the history of canadian politics is pierre and so you're gonna

00:24:31.420 you're gonna bench him for as long as you possibly can and you'll likely see like a melissa lanceman 0.98

00:24:36.520 really step up she's ostensibly his deputy his number two but it's it's gonna fall on her and

00:24:42.520 and i think he could have been dealing some really big blows it's not that she's not capable it's not

00:24:47.020 they don't have gifted communicators but um no that's going to impact them that that that down

00:24:52.300 ballot initiative that was that took place in that riding there was there was some sort of

00:24:58.220 skullduggery with with a ton of sign smashing and vandalism and like i was in ottawa um two to three

00:25:05.500 weeks before the um the election day and and there was a there was a real hostility you know in a

00:25:11.740 vibe towards the conservatives largely sort of carried out by great-haired socialists and uh

00:25:17.420 the the sort of public sector workers and the folks that wanted to you know keep growing the

00:25:23.900 endless bureaucracy um and so but it was effective as as nefarious as it was they still spiked voter

00:25:30.860 turnout in the riding to like an incredible number and it's it's it's monkey business aside like they

00:25:37.420 they got them they got them but the conservatives can of course also point to that was a very small

00:25:44.060 and narrow sabotage sort of attempt and they've made massive gains everywhere else with young

00:25:52.620 canadians with with with their highest sort of voter turnout since mulrooney like we're talking 1.00

00:26:00.300 better voter shares than even the harper majorities which we now all look back on you know and and

00:26:05.580 And wish, you know, they would return like so badly.

00:26:10.360 And so there's, there's, they've, they've put up a blue wall in, in Southwestern Ontario.

00:26:15.220 And so it's, it's not all bad, but it's like, that's, that's a narrative point for them

00:26:20.340 that is going to really stick in their craw.

00:26:22.700 And, you know, their, their political enemies are going to just wield that over them.

00:26:26.960 Well, where's Pierre?

00:26:27.660 Where's Pierre?

00:26:28.300 And so it's going to be a frustrating time for them.

00:26:31.260 Oh, yeah.

00:26:31.580 And it goes both ways.

00:26:32.600 I mean, Alberta, they've been beating the heck out of Nenshi for a long time because he's been a leader without a seat in the provincial legislature.

00:26:38.920 That's just the nature of the game.

00:26:40.420 It just puts them at a rough disadvantage.

00:26:42.020 As you said, Melissa Lansman's, you know, fantastic in covering things.

00:26:44.960 But still, when it's not technically the leader of your party, it just doesn't work as well.

00:26:51.540 I mean, an interesting development.

00:26:52.840 We really have become a two-party system.

00:26:56.300 I mean, that's been the outcome of this.

00:26:58.640 The block are still there, but they've been reduced.

00:27:00.520 The NDP is almost completely irrelevant now. Maybe it's time for the Conservatives to change tactics a little, too, and start looking at things, you know, building it. It is a black and white now.

00:27:10.660 yeah well i mean you've you've seen them sort of already start

00:27:14.420 adjusting for that change in some ways which is that the conservatives are becoming the party of

00:27:21.660 unions and trade unions and and these were traditional ndp that was the ndp they were

00:27:28.780 the party of the worker um the sort of trotskyist you know we will help you you know as you work

00:27:36.460 with the, you know, on the means of production. But now that's, that's very much the conservatives

00:27:41.300 zone, because the NDP have become the party of the teacher's lounge, and abdicated on any real

00:27:48.320 pseudo socialist or working class responsibilities. And so that has fallen to the conservatives,

00:27:54.480 they've done a very good job with that, to the credit of even Ontario provincial conservatives,

00:27:59.440 who made a complete mess of this federal election in a few ways. They've been, they've done really

00:28:04.500 quite well at that as well. And so that pivot has already started. The young people are voting

00:28:10.200 conservative more than ever before, trade unions, et cetera. But now they have a tricky decision to

00:28:17.580 make. It's like, because normally conservatives benefit from a strong NDP. That's part of the

00:28:23.500 ecosystem, right? You need someone drawing votes for you in the other direction. But do you let

00:28:28.680 them up off the mat? Do you give them a helping hand? Or do you know that even after you do that,

00:28:33.340 they might still turn on you and create another set of these endless coalitions that only end up

00:28:38.780 driving working Canadians and regular Canadians completely nuts. And then congratulations, 0.98

00:28:44.160 you just rearmed your opponent. And maybe you should have just accepted that this is now and

00:28:50.220 may be a two party ecosystem going forward. Yeah, well, I mean, it's going to be a lot of

00:28:55.980 soul searching for the parties on all ends. For the immediate term, though, as I said,

00:29:00.020 that the conservatives hamstrung sort of and just everything in flux uh i'll kind of you know use

00:29:05.540 that as a segue for you guys to talk about your organization because it'd be important now for

00:29:08.660 though for advocacy groups third parties to make sure that the policy discussions remain happening

00:29:14.100 i mean the conservatives are going to be talking amongst themselves we need people talking to

00:29:17.060 canadians these policies still exist we we want to make sure then if uh if carney stole the

00:29:23.620 conservative platform that's fine but you better bloody implement it we've got to stay on their

00:29:27.460 case i imagine you guys are going to so uh what's the citizens coalition going to be up to now post

00:29:32.500 election and how can people find you yeah it's it's very much going to be about okay you stole

00:29:37.620 the platform this is what people need this is this is the mandate beyond trump you got to pretend

00:29:44.980 your mandate was just trump it was a satisfying bomb to a select set of people and a and a efficient

00:29:53.300 voter demographic in cities that's great working canadians needed all the things that you suddenly

00:30:00.260 claim to care about and so you have to deliver on them and and we know that he's not going to deliver

00:30:05.860 on many of them there are still major solutions required and and and grassroots full-throated

00:30:13.860 you know defenses of the much needed changes to immigration to housing that involves the

00:30:19.380 provinces too like changing zoning you know lowering development costs you know there does

00:30:25.780 need to be of course federal reform in the courts and and when it comes to catch and release justice

00:30:33.940 and and the approaches to harm reduction and drugs and crime and it's just it's just this

00:30:39.700 there there are failures on every single file and those failures remain and so as a third party we

00:30:46.260 are of course very frustrated um by the results we we are we are small c conservative and so it's

00:30:52.580 you know you could have you can live with minority governments and you you i'm not wearing a jersey

00:30:59.860 when i'm when i'm rooting for what happens on election nights but it's it's at least a at least

00:31:04.980 a stronger minority for the conservatives um in opposition would have gone a long way like the

00:31:11.460 worry of course is the liberals just partner up with the ndp again and we're looking at maybe three

00:31:16.100 years if you were game planning that out for an election and so it's going to be about if we were

00:31:22.660 able to increase the voter turnout this year to be a part of that to to embolden the missing middle

00:31:27.060 to it's the best election turnout in 31 years that is that is something that is close to 69

00:31:33.700 you wanted to see it go over 70 you did but it's going to be about giving people

00:31:40.420 their agency where they don't feel like they're feeling that from the parties it's going to be

00:31:44.180 about emboldening them to to not give up and and lay down in the street and just take another start

00:31:50.580 of a lost liberal decade and because we have to do right by our industries by our energy industry

00:31:55.620 by our working families who can't afford homes and don't feel safe in their neighborhoods and so

00:32:00.180 it is going to be doubling down on those priorities and those principles and and hoping to continue to

00:32:07.540 good do good work on behalf of people because we have no choice but to continue to do the work

00:32:11.700 Because in a vacuum, this can get worse.

00:32:15.560 This could have been an overwhelming majority.

00:32:18.060 And it is our job, it is all of our jobs, particularly the third parties, to stand up for the little guy and to stand up for Canadian business interests and family interests right now.

00:32:28.440 Well, the campaign never officially stops, really.

00:32:30.680 It's just an ongoing thing.

00:32:32.200 So I appreciate your work and I appreciate you coming on to talk to us about it today.

00:32:36.740 And I'm sure we'll talk again soon.

00:32:38.360 Thanks so much, Corey.

00:32:39.560 Great.

00:32:39.820 Thank you.

00:32:40.180 So that was Alexander Brown of the National Citizens Coalition. Again, I mean, it's a solid organization that's been around a long time pushing common sense and conservative ideas. You might remember that's where Stephen Harper really kind of broke ground and got his start as a public person after his first term as a member of Parliament with the Reform Party.

00:32:59.800 So, yeah, we've got some interesting things going on.

00:33:05.640 You know, watching right now, I mean, there's going to be a few recounts, a few challenges,

00:33:10.740 but for the most part, there's nothing that's really going to change the outcome.

00:33:14.140 The bigger question now is will Carney be able to pull those NDP members in and make a government out of them?

00:33:22.160 And I think he's going to get away with it personally.

00:33:25.940 We'll see.

00:33:26.240 I've been wrong, but there's seven of them to choose from. They are now in a party that's

00:33:34.980 devastated. The NDP is dead in the water. Jagmeet Singh resigned in disgrace after basically crushing

00:33:39.860 into the dust. Carney can offer those seven. Even four of them will be enough. Some cabinet

00:33:47.440 positions, things like that, and make a deal so he will get a majority. Once he does that,

00:33:54.700 Well, then we're looking at at least four years of Liberal government, guys.

00:33:57.040 Four years.

00:33:58.020 No way to get out of it, no matter what we do.

00:33:59.560 Well, in the federal election.

00:34:01.740 So let's talk about the other part, the independence card.

00:34:03.540 It's been coming up and talking.

00:34:05.880 Now, okay.

00:34:07.160 So I see a commenter, Nicely Lynn, saying petitions at over 90,000.

00:34:10.540 Let's do this.

00:34:11.000 I'm guessing you're talking about the petitioning by the Alberta Prosperity Project moving towards an independence referendum.

00:34:18.640 Independent sentiment in the West is exploding.

00:34:21.340 There's no doubt about it.

00:34:22.000 We knew that would happen with the Liberals being reelected.

00:34:24.220 You know, I wrote The Sovereign's Handbook, as Dave was, you know, gave me the chance to point out.

00:34:28.300 The book, of course, my sales are surging, and we're talking about things.

00:34:32.900 But let's talk about the petitioning.

00:34:34.760 Let's talk about the steps to get towards independence.

00:34:37.500 And I like the way the APP is doing this, and Dr. Modry and some others have been doing this for quite a while.

00:34:43.200 What they're doing, this was under the presumption, and I'll talk about how that's changed too,

00:34:47.680 but the presumption at that time was that Alberta needed over 600,000 signatures on an official position,

00:34:52.580 official one, paper one, hand signed with, witnessed on official government papers

00:34:59.020 to invoke a referendum. It was an impossible bar. But what the Alberta Prosperity Project was doing

00:35:05.060 was, well, let's database base. Let's get the people who would say they would sign a petition

00:35:09.340 and get them all together so that when the time comes, then we know where they are, we can reach

00:35:13.300 out and we can really accomplish this. And yes, I'll get to that with now we only need 177,000.

00:35:20.480 So bear in mind. So what the APP is doing is just databasing. It's like an internal petition.

00:35:26.120 This doesn't count towards the real petition whenever that happens. Now, Premier Smith came

00:35:32.020 out yesterday and said she was going to fix the legislation because we had crap legislation. We 0.99

00:35:37.640 had fake legislation. Jason Kenney put in referendum legislation, but what he did was set the bar so

00:35:43.260 high, it was impossible to accomplish. What Premier Smith is going to do is now to invoke

00:35:48.240 a referendum, you need 10% of the amount of people who turned out at the last election

00:35:53.120 on an official petition to invoke a referendum, which comes to about 177,000.

00:35:59.780 And I was saying earlier, if you've ever run for election or done anything where you were

00:36:02.440 an official real petition, you need at least, at least 10% more of that on there. Because some

00:36:08.140 names are going to get stricken off, whether it was a person who you couldn't read it, or they

00:36:11.900 gave the wrong address or whatever else. So that already increases the bar a little bit. And as I

00:36:17.160 said, it has to be on an official position paper. Daniel Smith also is going to expand the period

00:36:22.620 because it used to be only 90 days you could do it. And now it's going to be 120 day period to

00:36:30.320 be able to do it. So it's definitely within the realm of being accomplished now, which is great.

00:36:39.100 And I mean, it's an interesting way for Premier Smith to shoot a shot across the bow of Central

00:36:44.600 Canada without jumping on and embracing an independent stance. She's just saying it's up

00:36:49.440 to Albertans, but I'm going to give them the tools if they want to utilize them. The thing I'm getting

00:36:55.560 worried about as, again, a very dedicated independent supporter, I've been at this since

00:37:01.060 I was in my 20s, don't pull the trigger yet. I'm seeing some people out there yelling, we need

00:37:08.260 a referendum tomorrow. We need a referendum next week. We need a referendum next month.

00:37:12.620 no we don't because we don't have the support for it yet yet it's not saying we're giving up

00:37:19.400 but do this with a plan do this carefully just because you're mad today doesn't mean there's

00:37:24.840 enough Albertans mad today saying yes to independence uh to a pollster on a phone

00:37:31.020 is still a world of difference from putting a mark on the ballot when push comes to shove

00:37:37.940 and uh yeah nicely lynn says you know knows and and yeah i think a lot of people do but we got to

00:37:43.320 watch the activists who are some activists who are really trying to get this done quick because

00:37:47.580 if you want to set it back for years it's not like we can run referendums over and over and

00:37:52.080 over again it's not that easy you want to set this movement back by a couple of years a few years

00:37:57.960 hold a referendum in a couple of months and lose hold a referendum and come out with 30 percent

00:38:04.760 on it. And you're going to be years away from the next chance to do it.

00:38:10.760 What we need to do is independent supporters, whether it's different groups, parties, whatever,

00:38:16.720 is build the base. Keep doing as the APP is already doing. Build the network.

00:38:21.020 Get the pre-names ready. Get the plan together. Get the team together. I mean, just, you know,

00:38:28.360 when a referendum is called, whenever it happens, it means you're going to have to have a heck

00:38:34.260 of a campaign on the ground. Kenzie Kraken saying there's going to be a strong campaign against

00:38:38.620 independence. Yes, there will. This will be a campaign and it'll be a different sort of campaign.

00:38:43.760 A referendum campaign is a different animal. So you don't have an organized political party

00:38:50.300 managing that campaign. You're going to have a number of groups and a whole lot of individuals

00:38:53.480 working on it. And if they're putting out a bunch of different disparate messaging and it's not

00:38:57.460 organized and it's not going well, the referendum is going to lose. If there isn't get out the vote

00:39:04.300 campaigns, if there isn't some kind of standardized signage, I mean, there's going to be a whole lot

00:39:08.420 to be done. And that's going to take some months, maybe a year or two before we're ready

00:39:13.120 to actually pull that trigger. So hang on, maintain your dissatisfaction. I'm not saying

00:39:19.940 sit on your hands. There's a lot to do. There's a mountain of things to do. And Paradoxy pointing

00:39:25.880 out. I did a video on this on my YouTube channel. Yeah, it's taken off quite well, close to 60,000

00:39:30.540 views on that one already. It's great. People are interested. People want to get active on these

00:39:34.120 things and they should, but do it with plan guys, because we can blow this up. We can screw it up.

00:39:41.120 The other thing is that's different with a referenda is that it's not a political party

00:39:48.020 thing. Look, there's a right to have political parties, form them by all means, you can get

00:39:53.200 messages out, but it's wasted energy right now. Dedicate that time and energy to working on

00:40:01.300 getting a referendum win ahead. Political parties have to deal with a bunch of policies. They have

00:40:07.880 to deal with healthcare. They got to deal with schools and so on. If you don't have all those

00:40:12.860 policies, you won't win an election. That's what the point of a party is. A referendum is different.

00:40:17.780 It's just a question. So if you mess around with all these parties fighting with each other,

00:40:21.720 you're not getting anywhere closer when you can be moving closer to working to win the

00:40:26.020 referendum because that's all that matters. It's really all that matters. So these parties are

00:40:31.160 spawning up and new ones even, of course, reaching out for your wallet. Money is going to have to be

00:40:37.040 spent on things, but it should be spent with the focus of a petition, getting a winning referendum

00:40:43.100 condition, getting it done. Because, I mean, look at last election results, including even the

00:40:49.680 government independence party that I took against Klein you know 20 some years ago they don't get

00:40:54.720 anywhere in the last election we had five independence parties and we can't pretend that

00:41:00.440 they were splitting the vote because out of all five together they didn't break one percent

00:41:05.980 it just doesn't go there so if you want independence just look at it rationally

00:41:11.320 look at what's making ground look what's getting you closer what's not and more independence parties

00:41:17.120 aren't getting us any closer.

00:41:19.400 If you don't like what the Alberta prosperity

00:41:21.380 project is doing,

00:41:24.880 maybe look to form another group

00:41:26.160 or join another group

00:41:27.100 or just work as an individual.

00:41:28.820 I mean, I'm going to talk about

00:41:29.900 a lot of those things in time to come too.

00:41:31.960 You know, you build the grassroots.

00:41:33.540 That's the neat thing with a referenda campaign.

00:41:36.340 It's just a single issue thing.

00:41:37.960 I know there's a million little branch issues on it

00:41:39.640 and that's where we can get into the weeds

00:41:40.760 and get in trouble.

00:41:41.480 Don't stick to just the independence part.

00:41:44.140 Just that.

00:41:44.800 Keep it there.

00:41:45.360 Don't let them keep pulling you over here

00:41:46.520 and over here and over here and over here. Don't let the whataboutisms stop you because there'll

00:41:50.260 be whatabout, whatabout, whatabout, whatabout. Well, that's fine, but don't let them pull you

00:41:53.900 off course. Keep focused. We got an opportunity and things are going to happen. J.R. Michael

00:42:03.200 saying, let's utilize the UCP power to act on Albertans' interests. They will if we get the

00:42:07.200 signatures. I mean, yeah, they're putting it in the hands of Albertans. And that's the other thing

00:42:10.200 too, and I've said before, I mean, I do still think that the movement should be getting,

00:42:14.680 people should be active within parties. It doesn't mean you have to love the party,

00:42:18.720 but get active within it. But at the same time, don't try and turn it into an independence party

00:42:21.900 because that'll kill it the same way as past

00:42:26.500 independence parties have died. I mean, I've run under an independence banner

00:42:30.400 before. And you know what happens? You knock on the door, you have become a single

00:42:34.460 issue party. And single issue parties don't go places. The marijuana party 0.88

00:42:38.500 didn't go places. Things like that don't

00:42:41.900 get there. Then all you can talk about is independence. And even though a lot of people

00:42:45.580 are interested in independence, they aren't going to vote in a general election on a party based on

00:42:51.380 that. And if you turn the UCP into an overtly independence party, you're going to kill them, 0.98

00:42:55.220 and then she's going to be our next premier. But it doesn't mean you can't nominate a lot of people

00:43:01.240 who are independence-minded within that party as candidates, talk to those, and keeping policies,

00:43:06.860 things that need to be done. Something else I've said before too, it's pretty hard to make the case

00:43:11.600 that Alberta is going to be better off independent when our own provincial government is a gong show 0.98

00:43:17.280 right now. As one of the commenters mentioned, I'm sorry, I went up the scroll. I saw somebody

00:43:20.700 mention, when am I going to talk about the AHS schedule? Yeah, that's a huge one. There's a mess

00:43:24.000 going on. It sounds like there's procurement disasters. We've got multiple investigations,

00:43:28.520 stuff going on in the Smith government over healthcare reforms. We got to clean up our own

00:43:33.480 act first. We got to show that we're better. There's other things that we got to get them

00:43:37.980 back on track on the provincial government messed up. The Canada pension plan, the Alberta pension

00:43:42.180 plan idea died on the vine because the provincial government rolled it out terribly. And they

00:43:46.620 allowed the federal government to rag the puck on it and put out a report that still never clarified

00:43:51.120 what the share of the CPP Albertans would get in pulling out. Let's fix that. We got to get back on

00:43:55.540 that. Let's get the RCMP out of here. We can get a provincial force. Enough of the talk. Let's get

00:44:00.080 it done. So I'm not saying for people to do nothing, not by any means, but I am saying cool

00:44:07.400 your jets if you think we should get a referendum right away. That's foolish. It's not going to get 0.98

00:44:13.360 you closer to where you have to go. And if you want to shake Canada up, you want to make change

00:44:17.740 across the country, because I think these referendums, Saskatchewan, Alberta, it'll be good

00:44:21.060 for all of Canada to change things. We've got to do it right, guys. Got to do it carefully. Got to

00:44:27.160 do it with the plan. We're mad right now. And we know when we do things, when we make choices,

00:44:30.640 when we're angry, they aren't always the best choices. Keep the anger simmering. Don't let it

00:44:35.060 overwhelm you. Keep it, harness it, turn it into something productive, change the system. Remember

00:44:42.840 guys, it's the system, not the party. And that's what people always have to remember. Don't let

00:44:47.020 them grasp the false hope. I still think they should support federal conservative parties

00:44:50.340 because they'll be better for the West, but it won't fix the problems. So don't give up on

00:44:54.080 changing things on the federal front, but you know the exit later because a conservative party can

00:45:00.760 only do so much because it's a broken system, not just who's in there right now. So look at all

00:45:07.040 these things. This election bummed us out. We're going to get some problems. They're going to be

00:45:11.260 a pain to Alberta as they always have. And it's the liberals, they're in power, but we can make

00:45:15.540 things better. We can turn this into a positive. The independence movement is livening up again,

00:45:19.540 but let's keep the movement alive and look long-term and make it into something. And finally,

00:45:24.900 finally break this broken system. Okay. That's the time I got for today, guys. The pipeline's

00:45:28.580 going to be on tonight tune into that we'll be breaking some more stuff down with the panel

00:45:31.820 I'll be back again with my show on Friday and I believe Nigel's got another one coming out

00:45:35.820 tomorrow and Derek's got a special interview too so keep watching all those western standard

00:45:39.900 channels guys lots of shows and things coming on and of course keep going to the site to get your

00:45:44.440 news thank you all again coming from the permanently ceded territory of Calgary I will see you all on

00:45:50.920 the next one.

Western Standard - April 30, 2025

Canada is broken

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