Western Standard - CBC Meltdown

00:00:00.000 Good day and welcome. Today is March 11th, 2026. I'm Derek Fuldebrand, publisher of

00:00:29.360 western standard and you're watching the pipeline i've got our usual crew rounded up here i got

00:00:35.840 western standard former opinion editor and nagel annaford still has opinions senior alberta columnist

00:00:41.760 cory morgan always a pleasure and news editor dave naylor great to be here okay uh we're going to

00:00:48.880 talk about meltdown at the cbc uh former uh cbc host and journalist uh travis donraj uh was

00:01:00.440 testifying before parliament yesterday and he had a few choice words and exposed uh a lot of the

00:01:08.140 dirty inside workings of the cbc i hope none of you get to go with parliamentary immunity and

00:01:13.540 Spill Your Guts About the Western Standard.

00:01:16.680 Yeah, I don't know what the worst thing is.

00:01:17.860 I'm saving it for a book.

00:01:19.800 Ah.

00:01:20.600 And you're telling me to retire.

00:01:21.980 Yeah.

00:01:22.640 You can spill the beans on Friday beers,

00:01:25.080 a beer o'clock.

00:01:25.980 Should we get your desk Friday?

00:01:27.420 Yeah, do desk Fridays, things like that.

00:01:30.920 Our notable lack of a DEI policy.

00:01:34.500 It shows.

00:01:35.220 It's working.

00:01:35.900 It's working.

00:01:39.660 Only white Anglo-Saxon elderly males.

00:01:42.500 I get a tan in the summer, so I get a little diversity.

00:01:45.420 A few points.

00:01:48.900 Roll off the order of Canada, by the way.

00:01:53.000 All right.

00:01:55.120 We're going to talk about, there was a floor crossing last night.

00:02:00.000 An NDP, an MP from, I think it was Nunavut.

00:02:02.740 She crosses the floor to the Liberals.

00:02:05.720 And then we've got three by-elections coming, too,

00:02:08.040 which the Liberals are virtually guaranteed to take,

00:02:10.600 a third of which they got a really good shot at.

00:02:12.500 And that looks like a liberal majority, effectively, in the works here.

00:02:17.540 We're going to talk about how likely is it, I say extremely likely, and what it's going to mean.

00:02:22.640 It doesn't mean we're not going to have an early election. I don't know.

00:02:26.340 But first, we're going to start with what is Mark Carney's position on the Israel-Iran war today?

00:02:33.440 um cory uh when this first came up uh mark carney says canada supports this we're in

00:02:43.700 and then uh and then he supports it with regrets and he got you got a tattoo i think it said some

00:02:49.540 regret no no regrets yeah uh listen yeah so uh canada supports it then canada supports it with

00:02:54.720 regrets canada supports it if it had uh but it really should have u.n authorization but then

00:03:02.480 Canada supports it with regrets. Should have UN authorization, but we're still okay with it

00:03:06.280 without it. Then it's Canada might send troops. We might go

00:03:10.220 die for this war. And then it is now Canada will definitely

00:03:14.480 not under any circumstance send troops.

00:03:18.920 It's Wednesday evening.

00:03:23.140 What do you think the position is going to be by the time we go to bed?

00:03:25.860 I don't know. I mean, he's unpredictable, if nothing else. Maybe he's trying to mimic

00:03:30.640 Like the southern leader we have on the other side of the border, we don't ever quite know where Mr. Trump's coming from.

00:03:34.700 To be fair, yeah, Trump's had even more positions on this war than Carney.

00:03:37.600 But the thing that gets me with Mark Carney is he's been actually kind of a bit of a dither or a flip-flopper since he began as prime minister.

00:03:46.240 But it seems to work for him.

00:03:47.500 It's not sticking with him.

00:03:48.640 He's taking all sides and taking no sides.

00:03:50.980 And his support numbers just continue to grow.

00:03:54.160 You know, most people, you wouldn't say that looks like weak leadership and disorganization and lack of control.

00:03:59.280 but it seems to slide off of him.

00:04:02.580 I mean, there's people who have written, they've talked about it.

00:04:05.000 You can certainly see how and why the Liberal caucus would be divided on this,

00:04:08.500 you know, with the extent of any involvement or no involvement

00:04:11.900 or even outright opposition.

00:04:15.360 But he seems to be trying to play to all of them.

00:04:17.500 And, well, again, so far it's working.

00:04:19.740 And the irony of it all is, to be honest,

00:04:22.380 Canada's stance on it's pretty close to absolutely irrelevant

00:04:25.560 to the whole scene of things anyway.

00:04:27.220 so we don't have a military force that would have a serious impact within that and i don't think

00:04:32.260 canada is viewed after the damage that trudeau did to our international reputation as a diplomatic

00:04:36.740 force that really would have an impact with whatever side we took anyhow so carney's only

00:04:41.860 concerns i think are domestic views of him and he seems to be playing it right somehow well you know

00:04:47.380 maybe i don't know whether i would go with that he said he's he's playing it according to form

00:04:53.060 some people can get away with that and some people can't polio could not get away with that

00:04:57.860 but mr carney has for so long been uh saying well we've gone we're gonna we've got an agreement well

00:05:04.180 actually we've got a memorandum of understanding actually we sort of shook hands on it and well

00:05:10.100 what what exactly are you committed to nothing you know and so then you can go and say well

00:05:16.660 we support it we don't support it we're gonna get involved people just say i don't care anymore

00:05:23.060 Well, I think

00:05:25.740 Nigel Corey's right that

00:05:27.260 Canada has no material

00:05:29.060 even if Canada

00:05:30.340 was like, yeah, we want to be involved

00:05:33.480 we might get

00:05:35.240 latrine

00:05:37.100 Maybe we get to defend

00:05:40.460 a rear forward position

00:05:42.220 in Bahrain, at best

00:05:44.000 I guess

00:05:46.740 maybe we could send a frigate or two

00:05:48.480 maybe, but there's nothing

00:05:50.440 really material Canada could do

00:05:51.920 but similar to Iraq, you know, George W. Bush

00:05:54.780 did not necessarily need Canadian

00:05:56.680 boots on the ground besides

00:05:58.080 he wanted a symbolic Canadian presence, you know, for the

00:06:00.580 Coalition of the Willing

00:06:01.480 they're not even really looking for that

00:06:04.460 from anyone besides, Israel

00:06:06.480 wants it from the States, but they're not looking really for anyone else

00:06:08.720 at least at this time

00:06:09.700 so Canada's material

00:06:12.700 involvement doesn't really matter, although I do have

00:06:14.680 to worry when we saw the new Canadian

00:06:16.600 Armed Forces recruitment commercial, a bunch

00:06:18.660 of tough looking white

00:06:20.620 guys in it for once uh that's the surest sign i've seen that we actually are going to be going

00:06:25.720 to a big war soon you know that they want our types again but um i i'm a bit sympathetic

00:06:33.520 ish to carney's stance here i hate saying this but like you know you know i think of the war

00:06:39.600 i think this is a bad bad war this is not in america's interest it's not in canada's interests

00:06:44.280 This is not our war in the West or Canada or America, period.

00:06:49.100 But from a Canadian perspective, there is really only two objectives of Canadian foreign policy.

00:06:55.020 One is keep the Americans happy.

00:06:56.820 Two, domestic.

00:06:58.360 Always.

00:06:58.980 Canadian foreign policy is always at least 75% driven by domestic political concerns and 25% plus by keeping the Americans on side.

00:07:08.940 But Carney's really only advantage in one way or another was generally not to antagonize Trump.

00:07:17.140 So even though I think the war is a bad idea, I think he probably took the smart stance in terms of foreign policy for not unduly attracting Trump's ire.

00:07:29.060 Condemning it wouldn't do really anything because Canada has no political, no diplomatic weight anymore anyway.

00:07:34.980 Or at least anything of note. We rank somewhere around Denmark, probably.

00:07:38.940 Um, so condemning it wouldn't make it any less likely to happen or bring peace any sooner.

00:07:45.140 Uh, sitting, putting boots on the ground, wouldn't do anything.

00:07:48.460 We have nothing to contribute anyway.

00:07:49.920 So this was actually probably diplomatically the smartest position for him to take.

00:07:53.940 Well, but you look at Donald Trump's reaction yesterday, he tweets that, uh, Carney is

00:07:58.840 the, uh, future governor of Canada.

00:08:01.160 Yeah.

00:08:01.640 Right.

00:08:02.020 So, so he's obviously, Trump has obviously taken notice of it and, uh, has, you know,

00:08:07.600 stopped calling him prime minister and has said you know just like he used to insult trudeau

00:08:12.960 i mean yeah the actual to the degree that canada has a traditional stance on iran it is that we

00:08:21.040 are very against this regime back in the harbour days we closed their embassy for them i'm not sure

00:08:26.080 whether it ever did get the open or not but certainly we were highly objected to the murder

00:08:32.240 of a woman who was born in Iran

00:08:34.540 but had become a Canadian citizen.

00:08:37.320 I don't know if this happened 15 years ago.

00:08:41.460 But this is not a good regime.

00:08:44.380 So if Mr. Carney was critical of it,

00:08:46.560 good for him, he should be.

00:08:47.940 Well, everybody's critical of it.

00:08:49.020 Even people out post to the war are critical of it.

00:08:50.820 There is virtually no one besides crazy Hamasnik types

00:08:54.280 who are not critical of the regime.

00:08:56.300 Well, and there is something we could do.

00:08:57.640 I mean, where we concluded last week,

00:08:59.080 if we're talking about the war,

00:08:59.760 that we could agree on,

00:09:01.400 domestically we could deal with something.

00:09:03.100 I mean, Canada has apparently identified

00:09:04.860 700 IRGC members in the country.

00:09:07.780 How they know, I don't know,

00:09:09.160 with some sort of intelligence.

00:09:10.760 Why don't we clean up around here?

00:09:12.140 We don't have to go overseas.

00:09:13.420 We don't have to get...

00:09:13.980 But we all kind of agree

00:09:14.900 we don't want those types here.

00:09:16.860 Well, if we've identified them,

00:09:18.240 get them the hell out of here.

00:09:19.180 Leave an opponent to the war like me.

00:09:20.640 I'm all for that.

00:09:21.740 Get rid of these guys.

00:09:22.460 This is something we can do

00:09:23.500 because there is a concern with...

00:09:25.760 Despite what they think they're asking for,

00:09:28.180 people saying they want to globalize

00:09:29.400 the intifada these are the people who are going to globalize it for you if you keep them hanging

00:09:33.180 around here globalize it means bring it at home here yeah sadly all flights to iran have been

00:09:38.500 canceled at the moment well we don't have to we can charter something you know the uh you see them

00:09:43.480 and just wind it up conservatives today melissa lanceman and michelle rumple garner uh sort of

00:09:48.540 said this is ridiculous we got 700 of these guys running around uh we want the liberals to come

00:09:53.980 back with a policy what they're going to do with them within one week it's too urgent to delay

00:09:58.600 anymore. We could pair drop

00:10:00.700 them over Iran. Yeah, or

00:10:02.500 one of those frigates. I mean, you know, we could make room. It's not

00:10:04.620 like they're full of modern armaments, so

00:10:06.220 just put them in steerage and send them on over.

00:10:10.380 Steerage?

00:10:10.920 Nobody sends out since the

00:10:12.180 tight tight way down.

00:10:15.940 So,

00:10:16.700 I mean, the war is

00:10:18.580 you know, approaching

00:10:19.560 two weeks old now. Well, it's not a

00:10:22.600 war. Trump called it

00:10:24.440 an excursion.

00:10:27.040 America has not officially

00:10:28.340 It's been a war since 1945.

00:10:30.440 I mean, it's pretty ridiculous.

00:10:32.540 And that's a conspiracy of both the Democrats and the Republicans.

00:10:35.980 They want to just have Congress vacate its power for declaring more.

00:10:40.220 And both parties are in on it.

00:10:42.080 It's a conspiracy of silence.

00:10:43.840 But this is not gone.

00:10:48.240 I can't say it hasn't gone according to the plan,

00:10:49.980 because we never really knew what the plan was.

00:10:51.460 It was weapons and masks, destruction in the first 24 hours.

00:10:54.260 Then it was regime change.

00:10:55.520 then it's a decapitation

00:10:58.960 strike, but maybe a new guy

00:11:01.020 from within the regime takes power the way it was

00:11:02.860 in Venezuela, who's just a bit more pliable and compliant

00:11:05.080 that's obviously not happened

00:11:06.820 you have Khomeini's son

00:11:08.240 and he is, by some reports, even crazier

00:11:11.320 so, okay, that's not working

00:11:12.940 but impotent

00:11:13.900 he's got a softie

00:11:15.980 oh, is that a real

00:11:17.220 oh yeah, he had trouble getting away from

00:11:19.800 well, missile strike should be less of a problem

00:11:21.120 again, if they would just embrace the LGBTQ community

00:11:24.420 Maybe I suspect he's not impotent.

00:11:25.840 They've just presented him with the wrong target.

00:11:28.520 Maybe.

00:11:29.340 So anyway, we don't know what the goal is really here,

00:11:36.320 at least from the United States' perspective.

00:11:38.040 I think I know Israel's idea,

00:11:39.340 which is generally just to weaken Iran for regional power reasons.

00:11:43.140 The United States, we can't really tell.

00:11:45.120 One day it's, hey, we're done more or less, kind of maybe.

00:11:50.680 It can wind down.

00:11:51.940 And then literally hours later, Trump says, unconditional surrender, and if they don't open the Straits of Hormuz, we will destroy the nation, not the regime, the nation, so that it can never be rebuilt again.

00:12:03.780 All this is done.

00:12:05.840 Again, that's only two weeks in.

00:12:08.000 Who knows how much longer it goes.

00:12:09.780 But the idea that this is going to lead to a quick uprising of the people overthrow the regime that does not appear to be happening, what this has done, both the military strikes and the way Trump's talked about destroying the nation.

00:12:21.280 This has rallied people behind their government, behind the regime.

00:12:25.320 So this could go into a long, dirty war.

00:12:30.840 Iran knows now.

00:12:32.100 If they weren't building a bomb before, I guarantee you they are building a bomb now.

00:12:36.440 They realize what happens if a country has a bomb, you don't get attacked.

00:12:40.660 Ask North Korea how well that works.

00:12:42.220 They're even crazier in some ways than Iran.

00:12:44.700 They don't get attacked.

00:12:45.540 um so uh this could go on and on and on potentially is there a potential political

00:12:53.640 liability now that carney even though we don't have troops there carney's going to have to wear

00:12:57.880 this if this becomes because it's not popular even in america let alone canada if this goes on

00:13:03.800 and turns into another big iraq style quagmire is there a political liability for carney here

00:13:09.140 having at least on paper supported it with some regrets well he will simply say the situation was

00:13:16.340 what it was when i made those comments since then it's changed and uh well i stand against it

00:13:24.820 and he will say something else the week following if it is suitable the man does not have

00:13:30.340 consistent positions to be fair it makes it easier for him to back trap when that fluid

00:13:35.460 situation changes i mean in reality this is all in trump's weird little orange hands i i mean

00:13:40.420 whatever he determines to do it's i i don't think he won't set these crazy things he's not necessarily

00:13:49.540 uh trying to inform us he's trying to confuse the enemy trying to extricate themselves i would hope

00:13:54.500 i don't know i mean it's tough to get in their minds but i mean what more going you've blown

00:13:58.580 the main things out of there you're already now losing popular support you're if you want

00:14:02.580 want to look at just the cold-hearted way the dollars are massive that you're pumping into

00:14:06.360 there it's not helping your own economy when you've got uh it's good for alberta alberta's

00:14:11.940 gonna do okay from this so i mean i suspect the precious chimney is pretty hard and fast for him

00:14:16.560 to make his say well we've made our point now and we'll back out and let israel keep pecking that

00:14:21.460 but the iranians have to agree to peace and they they had the 12 day war before we're at what 12

00:14:27.060 days today practically these guys uh have i i think gotten the message that it's not going to

00:14:35.340 stop every they're just going to get weaker every war they're going to get weaker and weaker and

00:14:39.540 degraded they were not as weak it seems as the americans and israelis were saying or or thought

00:14:44.480 um but the iranians are going to look at this and say well why would we agree to peace now we're

00:14:49.600 going to need something because remember uh they were attacked both times in the middle of

00:14:52.800 negotiations. Generally, it's polite to break off negotiations before you send a carrier group to

00:14:57.980 attack. They didn't do that. So I'm not sure the Iranians necessarily just agreed to a ceasefire.

00:15:03.840 Maybe they do. You look, before the excursion started, tens of thousands of Iraqis took to

00:15:10.540 the streets demanding an overthrow. The regime slaughtered 35,000 of them, according to

00:15:17.000 reports. I even listened to a BBC report. It's funny how the tone had changed. From back then,

00:15:22.260 And I would talk to a person from a, there was a documentary piece on our radio, but with a woman who in her city, they had gone out and protested and they were wiped out with birdshot.

00:15:32.700 A whole lot of nasty things and stuff.

00:15:35.820 There really was something coming up.

00:15:37.700 But I mean, if it becomes, it looks like your liberators are worse than what you're dealt with.

00:15:41.680 And that can change.

00:15:42.340 Yeah, just yesterday, more than a million Tehranians, if that's the right word,

00:15:47.920 gathered in a square for some of the funerals of the killed military.

00:15:53.660 A million people all in support of the regime.

00:15:57.020 Whether they were all there willingly or not, I don't know.

00:15:59.480 It's hard to end up a million people at that point.

00:16:02.340 You have to have someone's genuine support.

00:16:05.320 We should for whispered regimes, too, though.

00:16:07.080 I mean, if you don't show your face, the knock on the door comes later.

00:16:10.280 Well, it might be good for your career to show up.

00:16:11.740 I feel like if you don't go to a rally.

00:16:15.320 Hey, look at the Australian women's soccer team.

00:16:19.680 Not Australian.

00:16:20.680 Iranian women's soccer team in Australia.

00:16:23.900 They all had a chance to defect, and only five of them did,

00:16:27.100 because the regime was threatening their families at home.

00:16:30.660 So, you know, if you defect, we're going to the back of the head

00:16:33.500 for grandpa and granddad.

00:16:35.700 So they're dirty.

00:16:38.100 There's no doubt about that.

00:16:39.460 There was plenty of opposition.

00:16:40.820 i'm sure there still is plenty of opposition to the regime in iran but when trump says we if you

00:16:46.340 don't open a straight up or moves we will destroy the nation so they can never be rebuilt again

00:16:51.600 that's not going to help unconditional surrender unconditional surrender means we invade and

00:16:57.020 occupy and dismember your country vis-a-vis germany 45 or nuke you vis-a-vis japan 45

00:17:05.120 No one likes that, even if you don't oppose the regime.

00:17:10.660 Arguably, the Second World War requirements for unconditional surrender

00:17:13.880 made a speedy end of the war, even still victorious, impossible.

00:17:19.500 People will then, who oppose, say, the Japanese regime or the German regime,

00:17:23.880 they were like, well, I guess we're in it to the end,

00:17:25.840 because unconditional surrender means I'm being ethnically cleansed,

00:17:28.980 destroyed, and subjugated.

00:17:30.840 people that will rally behind regimes they don't like if a foreign power that requires

00:17:37.860 unconditional surrender. Thankfully, I don't think Trump understands what unconditional

00:17:43.160 surrender actually means. I think he means that just means we win big. I think that's what he

00:17:47.340 thinks it means. But it doesn't matter. The Iranians can now use that for propaganda. I can

00:17:52.840 say, do you want to be like Germany or Japan in 1945? And the answer from even the most liberal

00:17:58.060 dissident of the regime will be no the other part of that too that we haven't mentioned much of

00:18:03.940 though is even if trump goes out israel's not going to rest until that threat's gone they've

00:18:09.020 had enough that's kind of the culmination of october 7th the nuclear threat was destroyed

00:18:13.440 in the 12 days before yeah we're talking about the money that goes to hezbollah hamas

00:18:16.900 the houthis you name it it's something going after the nukes again this time i understand but

00:18:21.680 uh they are determined to make sure that iran's not in a position to start to and it's going to

00:18:27.680 start again. It's a cycle, it seems, but to knock that ability down as much as they humanly can,

00:18:32.980 because it is a threat that's just sitting there. And it was a country, we can't forget that the

00:18:37.400 leader said over and over and over again, we're going to eliminate Israel. It's a very, it's not

00:18:41.440 an imagined threat to Israel, or perceived threat. It was a very direct threat that was made. I mean,

00:18:47.220 you can question whether or not the United States was justified in slapping at Iran, but Israel,

00:18:52.520 any country when asked if they were provoked

00:18:55.060 into fighting back, they were quite

00:18:57.020 well provoked. Yes, if the

00:18:58.560 U.S. stops their incursion today,

00:19:00.920 Israel will continue it tomorrow.

00:19:02.980 Though the U.S. will probably fund Israel a lot

00:19:05.100 to do that.

00:19:07.160 Welcome to geopolitical...

00:19:08.860 I don't know. Maybe this all

00:19:10.980 just ends tomorrow. You know, that'd be

00:19:12.600 nice. That'd be good. I'm not

00:19:14.840 convinced it does because I'm like last time

00:19:16.600 I'm not sure Iran necessarily

00:19:18.900 at least agrees to a ceasefire

00:19:20.720 and cries uncle. Well, this will not

00:19:22.380 end until they open up

00:19:24.460 the Straits of Hormuz again.

00:19:26.660 You've got a lot of countries, China

00:19:28.220 among them, who are very concerned

00:19:30.600 about their ships stuck up

00:19:32.280 the North End. But this is the card that

00:19:33.860 Iran has to play. They

00:19:35.660 seem to be able to keep the Straits

00:19:38.240 closed. Even with their navy at the

00:19:40.320 bottom of the sea, they seem to

00:19:42.320 be able to keep those Straits closed.

00:19:44.320 The best case scenario is

00:19:46.320 the war ends, but the Straits remain closed,

00:19:48.200 so Alberta makes money.

00:19:50.380 That's win-win, people.

00:19:52.220 How much do you

00:19:53.340 pay for your gas, Derek? You've got a big

00:19:55.540 truck. I will

00:19:57.020 make that sacrifice for

00:19:59.600 Alberta because we'll be swimming in money.

00:20:02.740 It's been

00:20:03.260 eight.

00:20:05.080 We'd be able to fund our expansion into interior BC.

00:20:07.840 We're a retired gentleman. We have to be careful

00:20:09.740 about that sort of thing.

00:20:11.560 Okay.

00:20:13.660 So, speaking of Kearney,

00:20:15.520 last night,

00:20:18.140 I don't remember

00:20:19.620 her name. Nobody knows. She's some bad

00:20:21.280 that true. But an NDP, one of the

00:20:23.340 last NDP MPs, one of the

00:20:25.360 last seven.

00:20:28.260 There were six.

00:20:29.500 Yeah. She's the

00:20:31.060 MP for Nunavut.

00:20:33.060 And you know, we've always

00:20:35.160 predicted it was likely they're going to get floor crossers

00:20:37.120 from both sides.

00:20:39.360 I mean, how conservative can

00:20:41.080 Matt Jenneru and what else is his name?

00:20:43.840 Oh, if Mark Carney is

00:20:44.920 a real conservative, I could go work with him.

00:20:47.180 Oh, he's attracting socialists too.

00:20:49.140 So maybe rethink that. But

00:20:50.800 Government of National Unity

00:20:53.360 Yeah, there you go

00:20:54.900 So

00:20:56.100 She comes across last night

00:20:58.960 And there's three by-elections coming up

00:21:01.040 This looks like majority to you

00:21:03.100 It does

00:21:04.120 For those who don't take care of the details

00:21:08.360 There are 343 seats in the House of Commons

00:21:12.220 Therefore, to get a majority

00:21:14.500 You need 172

00:21:16.660 But really, you need 173

00:21:19.260 because your 172nd will become the speaker.

00:21:24.060 The other thing, of course, is nobody needs to get sick.

00:21:27.760 So this defection from the NDP gives them 170,

00:21:32.940 and they have three by-elections coming up.

00:21:36.800 Two of them are pretty safe liberal seats.

00:21:39.460 So there's your 172.

00:21:41.740 They kind of need one more, really,

00:21:43.580 to have what they would call an operating majority,

00:21:45.680 but it's a majority if it's 172.

00:21:49.260 And this woman from Nunavut actually won her seat by 100 votes from the Liberals.

00:21:58.920 But there's so few voters in Nunavut.

00:22:00.280 That's not as close as you think.

00:22:01.880 Well, true.

00:22:03.060 But nevertheless, there is a fair amount of support for her locally going to the Liberal Party.

00:22:13.960 So the thought that strikes me is that this is probably to the benefit of both the Liberals and the Conservatives.

00:22:27.820 Polls suggest the Conservatives wouldn't do very well if there was an election this spring.

00:22:34.960 But there are so many NDP voters just ready to come back to the NDP.

00:22:43.060 but it would cost the Liberal Party something. They shouldn't assume that everything they have

00:22:46.900 now they would have after an election. There are three ridings in which the NDP and the Liberals

00:22:59.940 are with 1,000 of each other, which is considered to be a swing seat, and the NDP lost 1.2 million

00:23:10.740 votes over their 2021 vote score 3 million in 2021 and 1.2 in 2025 if a lot of those voters

00:23:23.380 decided that okay we've made our point we don't like what the liberals have been doing in sacking

00:23:29.140 civil servants and we choose to believe mr carney really likes the war in around you know what

00:23:35.860 or going back to the NDP. There's room there for the Liberals to lose on this too. So,

00:23:41.540 Mr. Carney, I say, will do everything he can to avoid the election and things seem to be breaking

00:23:46.820 his way. I think a lot of it's going to depend on who the new leader of the NDP is. You may see some

00:23:52.580 of those current NDP thinking, oh, I can't work with this guy or gal, then they defect to the

00:24:00.180 the liberals yeah who are you uh rooting for there um they're all in my cases abby lewis

00:24:08.920 there's only two person and abby lewis yeah those are the two likely front runners abby lewis does

00:24:13.880 not have a seat and he's seen as more radical so who knows um but dave uh so there's three

00:24:19.120 by-elections i think two of them are in toronto in very safe liberal seats i would put those

00:24:23.780 pretty solidly in the Liberal Bank. Scarborough

00:24:25.880 and University

00:24:27.720 of Rosetail. Yeah.

00:24:29.520 The other one is in Quebec. It's something called

00:24:31.760 Toblerone or something.

00:24:34.380 That's Switzerland, I think.

00:24:36.040 I don't know. I'm calling it Toblerone. That's

00:24:37.760 the closest I can get to it.

00:24:41.020 So,

00:24:41.580 but this seat was

00:24:43.680 won by exactly one

00:24:45.760 vote, technically,

00:24:48.320 during the last election over the

00:24:49.700 Bloc Québécois.

00:24:52.100 But

00:24:52.580 There was some small errors from Elections Canada that in a normal election, not decided by one vote, you could say, ah, it wouldn't have impacted the ultimate result either way.

00:25:06.440 You know, maybe a few votes move here and there, but not enough to make any material difference.

00:25:10.340 When you're at one vote, it is enough.

00:25:11.920 So a court, I don't know if this has ever happened before, but a court ruled that election invalid through the MP out of Parliament.

00:25:20.180 They're having a by-election.

00:25:22.880 So on paper, I guess you could say that

00:25:25.000 that by-election could be 50-50

00:25:26.680 between the Liberals and the Bloc.

00:25:29.560 But both of them, you know,

00:25:30.740 the Liberals could bring a lot of pork barrel spending to bear

00:25:32.740 to get over the hump there.

00:25:35.000 Alternatively, the Bloc can say,

00:25:36.160 hey, this seat decides the balance of power in Parliament.

00:25:39.820 This MP will have incredible leverage.

00:25:44.500 But if, I think that's the only by-election

00:25:47.460 really worth watching, that one seat.

00:25:49.520 if you don't want the liberals to have a majority

00:25:51.520 you've got to root for the block

00:25:53.120 in that riding in Toblerone

00:25:54.960 yeah it's terrible

00:25:56.260 I like Toblerone

00:25:59.240 I'm going with Toblerone

00:26:01.360 yeah it's going to be interesting to watch

00:26:03.600 I mean will Mark Carney stay in the

00:26:05.620 country long enough to go

00:26:06.820 you know glad handing in Main Street

00:26:09.260 and will he show up there

00:26:11.340 will the Blanchette

00:26:13.540 show up there I'm sure he will

00:26:14.940 but yeah that could go

00:26:16.700 either way

00:26:18.000 We got some weird polling happening. It's funny with Quebec and Alberta and looking at the federal and the provincials because the PQ is surging in Quebec, but actually the bloc is sagging and Alberta is looking similar. Whereas at least, you know, UCP and independence leaning support. I mean, we've seen that with the standard polling. And at the same time, we've seen the liberals are surging here. The conservatives aren't federally doing well in Alberta. And we've seen that with multiple polls. It's not an outlier, it seems.

00:26:46.140 So the block in that by-election might not be as strong as would have thought with a one-vote difference a year.

00:26:53.340 And that's another thing to think about.

00:26:54.860 I mean, at some point, I mean, the polls are looking great for Kearney right now.

00:26:59.060 If they go up another point or two, the urge to call an election may become overwhelming for him.

00:27:05.540 And just, you know, grab that majority, super majority.

00:27:09.780 Yeah, it's going to be hard to justify calling an election so soon after the last one when you have a majority.

00:27:16.140 but it will be the barest majority.

00:27:18.040 You can always find a way, yeah,

00:27:20.020 it's not as I was pointing out, it'll be a functional majority,

00:27:22.500 even if all the stars line up, and it's looking that way,

00:27:25.520 but 173, I mean, you're one bad case to the trots

00:27:28.320 away from losing an ill-timed confidence vote.

00:27:32.080 You might feel better to have a 10 or 15 vote buffer

00:27:34.820 if you have a majority.

00:27:36.720 Agreed.

00:27:37.360 But I mean, even if you wanted to engineer his own defeat,

00:27:40.680 other parties could get cold feet.

00:27:42.220 The NDP, sure shit, does not want an election yet.

00:27:44.620 the conservatives do not

00:27:46.740 they can't all skip

00:27:48.800 the vote but a couple of them can skip the vote

00:27:50.560 Elizabeth May, ah she's just happy

00:27:52.840 to be there getting a paycheck

00:27:54.840 at this point. We know that game

00:27:56.800 is played though, I mean you don't have to engineer a defeat

00:27:58.900 the confidence vote, you can come up

00:28:00.840 with a big bill of something so big

00:28:02.740 and radical that suddenly you rethink, you know what

00:28:04.880 this is so important, we must

00:28:06.960 take it to the electorate rather than the

00:28:08.840 House of Commons, it's our duty

00:28:10.900 to do so. This beautiful

00:28:13.040 bill. Yes. Jim Prentice

00:28:15.200 did. He's like, we need a mandate from the people for this

00:28:17.100 budget. I remember dreading him. I was like,

00:28:19.080 oh no, we're going to get crushed by the PCs in this

00:28:21.000 election. And then I was in the lockup. I saw the budget. I was

00:28:23.080 like, oh my God, I hope they

00:28:25.080 can't not call the election

00:28:27.000 now. I want to run against this budget. This is

00:28:29.000 amazing.

00:28:30.760 Yeah, I don't know. Even if he gets his majority,

00:28:33.340 I think it delays an election

00:28:35.040 from this spring.

00:28:36.580 Probably. But yeah, it's

00:28:38.940 got to be tempting for Carney to

00:28:40.760 to pull it

00:28:42.800 right now. And that would be the end

00:28:44.760 of Polioff. He's going to get a second

00:28:46.780 kick at the can here. I don't

00:28:48.820 think he gets ousted before another election.

00:28:51.320 But if he doesn't

00:28:52.380 take the ring this time, that's it for

00:28:54.780 Polioff. Yeah, that'll be two kicks to that cat.

00:28:56.660 He's only got one more electoral shot.

00:28:58.620 Yeah. I mean, the only one who ever got two kicks at the can

00:29:00.760 before Polioff was Harper.

00:29:03.080 Scheer did not get it. O'Toole did not

00:29:04.700 get it.

00:29:06.680 You know, Tew's considered pretty generous

00:29:08.720 by our standards now for a non-NDB leader.

00:29:10.760 okay um let's talk about our friends at uh the cbc uh dave uh you got you and the newsroom

00:29:22.660 covering this yesterday uh travis donraj we um he issued a call for the cbc to broadcast

00:29:29.500 his hearing uh at a parliamentary committee uh they did not do that right no no they did not

00:29:35.880 But we did.

00:29:36.800 Yeah, we did.

00:29:37.720 And some other independent media outlets did.

00:29:41.000 And it was certainly must-watch TV.

00:29:44.820 Mr. Donraj, as you may know, got fired or let go from...

00:29:49.920 He resigned.

00:29:50.540 He resigned.

00:29:51.980 And then they tried to not let him resign.

00:29:53.380 Yeah, the owners tried to...

00:29:55.240 Anyways, he resigned because he'd lost editorial control over his show.

00:30:00.680 He was told he couldn't hire, he couldn't bring on certain guests.

00:30:04.060 And then that's what he talked about.

00:30:05.420 He talked about an absolute toxic culture at the CBC where conservative voices are blacklisted.

00:30:14.480 And he said there's a list of 46 people, I'm sure Corey's on it, that the CBC hosts are not allowed to interview.

00:30:24.180 And apparently this came up through Rosie Barton, our favorite host, and David Cochran, our second favorite host.

00:30:31.560 those two came off looking absolutely terrible David Cochran came off as a

00:30:37.680 as a vile little man who called Tamara Leach trailer trash and he just went on

00:30:43.580 for a while he's conveniently on medical leave yes he went on medical leave

00:30:47.040 yesterday at least he doesn't have a hot mic no no but it was oh yeah Rose just

00:30:55.800 make this stuff up yeah the rosemary is the uh the trudeau loving uh host of power not power in

00:31:03.480 politics but she's the cvc main political correspondent and it just exposed he went on

00:31:08.680 for a couple hours just exposed the absolute dire culture and the need for an absolute either

00:31:14.500 cutting the funding off or reforming it or doing something with it because right now it's a 1.4

00:31:20.980 billion dollar black hole it's got no no viewership whatsoever and the advertising

00:31:26.660 rates continue to decline and they've got this uh this government subsidy to fight against other

00:31:32.260 media you know for advertising it's absolutely stunning in his testimony he was he said that

00:31:36.820 they had a list of 45 people in public life who they were not allowed to bring on a show

00:31:43.380 whatever whoever's show it was he says i've got the list i want that list real bad i really want

00:31:50.340 to be on that list no he said that he was going to give it to the committee yeah uh i know reporters

00:31:56.100 asked cbc for that list yesterday and they refused to uh to give it out that they did

00:32:01.860 but they didn't deny it exists yeah yeah

00:32:07.460 i don't have a show we're ever going to be as tough and big as we need you know we need a black

00:32:12.420 list we should have one damn it i mean we've got people we like and don't like but we don't have a

00:32:18.500 list. Yeah, not a formal list.

00:32:20.720 I mean, it'd been on the mood, you know?

00:32:22.320 I mean, if ratings were low and we wanted some insanity,

00:32:24.460 we could bring Rachel Gilmore on, but would it be...

00:32:26.600 I've invited Rachel Gilmore before.

00:32:28.900 I mean,

00:32:29.700 Rachel wouldn't be productive.

00:32:32.320 Might have to add her to a list after.

00:32:34.000 See, that's kind of the opposite of the CBCs.

00:32:37.000 I like having people

00:32:38.380 I really hate the views of,

00:32:41.440 might even personally detest.

00:32:43.560 I love having them on.

00:32:45.220 It makes for a way better show.

00:32:47.220 It's more...

00:32:48.500 Look, the four of us sit here most agreeing about most things other than more wars.

00:32:53.640 Well, media bias is nothing new.

00:32:55.680 I mean, since the first newspaper was ever printed, the editor had some control on where that was going to be.

00:33:00.580 Of course we do, but here we were on the other side. It's more fun.

00:33:03.420 The CBC of all outlets at all, because it's a public broadcaster, should be striving.

00:33:10.620 And everybody's always known it's had a left lean.

00:33:12.800 But, I mean, that lean from the 70s has turned into a socialist tilt on that thing for decades now.

00:33:19.860 And, you know, it should be obligated to at least make an effort to show violence.

00:33:24.040 It has it for a long time.

00:33:25.040 What's actually more insidious is the box they draw around acceptable conservatism.

00:33:29.960 Because they have token conservatives, but they tend to be...

00:33:32.560 And I don't...

00:33:33.560 I've got friends who appear on there, so I don't mean to slay them, but when they go on, they're pretty well behaved.

00:33:38.380 Well, they're the only ones who pay people to go on their panel, too.

00:33:40.700 Yeah, they pay people to go on.

00:33:41.120 You don't pay any guests ever.

00:33:44.200 So you have a bigger incentive

00:33:45.440 to keep the CBC happy when you show up

00:33:47.180 the panel with them. Exactly. And they have

00:33:49.080 a box around like what kind

00:33:51.260 of... I've never seen them actually have

00:33:53.320 somebody maybe have had

00:33:55.160 someone on, but I've never actually seen that they discuss

00:33:57.120 like Alberta independent stuff all the time. I've actually

00:33:59.240 never seen them have an Alberta independent supporter

00:34:01.280 on. Like someone who

00:34:02.460 actually knows who these people

00:34:05.100 are, what makes them tick,

00:34:07.460 what animates it. They don't know.

00:34:09.180 that's outside the box so they'll get an alberta conservative on but they'll find someone i don't

00:34:13.600 mean it's like anyone's gone on sorry guys but like you know it'll be very

00:34:19.280 politically correct for a conservative you know this is the bounds of acceptable discussion for

00:34:26.340 conservatives everything beyond that it doesn't exist it doesn't appear on the cbc unless it's

00:34:31.240 about how hateful it is to date

00:34:33.560 Bikrula Bish.

00:34:35.500 Oh, of course.

00:34:37.340 Okay.

00:34:38.140 You've got to go to England if you want to get

00:34:42.960 the latest on Alberta

00:34:44.740 separation, independence.

00:34:48.320 Jeff Rath just did an extensive

00:34:49.840 interview with a spectator.

00:34:52.060 And

00:34:52.380 there it is. Just came out today.

00:34:55.440 But what's the chances that he would get himself

00:34:57.540 on CBC?

00:34:59.880 No comment.

00:35:01.240 That's different.

00:35:01.780 No comment.

00:35:02.780 Yeah, okay.

00:35:03.600 Well, yeah, they went to a guy in the States for his expert opinion about Alberta independence,

00:35:08.420 but they actually don't talk to Alberta independence people.

00:35:11.360 They won't talk.

00:35:13.620 They won't have on people who are hardline opponents of mass migration.

00:35:18.040 They'll bring on a conservative who says,

00:35:19.940 well, perhaps we need to tighten up the numbers a little bit

00:35:23.340 and make sure that everything is legal.

00:35:26.320 And, okay, well, that's the hard take that's allowed.

00:35:29.580 That is the hardest boundary of discussion on these topics.

00:35:33.360 So they do have conservatives on the CBC, but there's a very narrow spectrum of conservatives that's allowed on.

00:35:41.680 The CBC?

00:35:43.040 Sorry, go ahead.

00:35:44.220 All right, let's just take it quickly.

00:35:45.900 They think that they are actually correct.

00:35:49.660 They are representing a good, morally defensible, fair examination of different ideas.

00:35:56.420 They can't conceive that somebody could think differently than they do and be a decent person.

00:36:02.160 And we can't have a non-decent person on the Canada semi-official news agency.

00:36:08.320 No.

00:36:09.300 You've got the editor-in-chief, Brody Fenlon or something like that, and the CBC CEO,

00:36:17.300 both testifying and saying, you know, this is the most unbiased organization they've ever worked for.

00:36:22.840 You're right.

00:36:23.620 They do believe it.

00:36:24.260 But the voice of the CBC is the voice of Andrew Coyne and Chantelle Hebert and, you know, and David Cochran and Rosemary Martin.

00:36:35.280 They're all just socialists, right?

00:36:38.680 I mean, come on.

00:36:40.780 Unbiased my ass.

00:36:44.280 I don't know.

00:36:45.080 I've never really believed there was necessarily a vast conspiracy within the CBC to be left.

00:36:49.540 It was just more of a natural, organic way just works out.

00:36:52.880 Most media is left, and

00:36:54.660 of course it's left.

00:36:56.360 But if they do have an outright list, then perhaps

00:36:58.920 it is actually a bit

00:37:00.300 more of an organized thing.

00:37:02.960 Or formalized by us.

00:37:04.860 Yeah, like

00:37:05.460 I want it gone. I don't even want to just

00:37:08.800 defund it. I want it shut down

00:37:10.760 and its assets sold off.

00:37:12.560 Alternatively, you could turn it into a right-wing media

00:37:14.600 propaganda outlet. Just to rub

00:37:16.740 the left's nose in it. You know, make Fox News

00:37:18.600 look like pussies. Pardon my French.

00:37:20.940 But like

00:37:21.420 you know I want it gone

00:37:23.920 but I've generally given it the benefit of the doubt

00:37:26.460 that you know it's not a

00:37:27.840 organized conspiracy against

00:37:30.280 the right and that it isn't you know

00:37:32.200 it is a planned thing to do this

00:37:34.480 but

00:37:36.100 if this list exists

00:37:37.800 that

00:37:39.200 well it would be very interesting to see who's on it too

00:37:42.460 I mean are these then this list very

00:37:44.560 people very far into the fringe

00:37:46.620 I guess in thought in general

00:37:48.220 or are they moderate minded

00:37:50.620 ones there's the thing you gotta wonder are they moderate minded ones who would have made a case

00:37:55.380 they didn't like that's where the i mean you don't necessarily want the the head of some white

00:38:01.360 nationalist group on your organization fair enough both these are in the news if they're doing the

00:38:05.560 news about the way you know you know what i'm saying where so perhaps they could feel that

00:38:09.860 they're justified in making a list of such names but if these are public names that are not really

00:38:14.780 considered that far out and that'll be interesting to read it to see where i know that's a subjective

00:38:20.500 sort of thing and the list shouldn't be and who you should read if you need a list that shows

00:38:24.900 you're not sure about the people who they could make a mistake well maybe put a conservative

00:38:29.380 picture on it might not be just also purely ideological also might be who are critics of the

00:38:34.260 cbc you know i uh you know previous life i was on the cbc all the time i had a regular segment

00:38:40.820 but i was talking about kind of normie conservative stuff taxes and spending and accountability stuff

00:38:46.740 Stuff that's, you know, motherhood, apple pie, conservatism.

00:38:51.920 But, you know, in general, you know, when I was at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,

00:38:54.800 at that time, we didn't criticize, we didn't call for defunding or privatization of the CBC

00:38:59.460 because we were on the CBC all the time.

00:39:02.040 We just didn't want to pick a fight with it.

00:39:04.620 CTF has changed that.

00:39:06.080 They openly call for it now.

00:39:07.440 So good on, good for them.

00:39:09.120 But I was never openly calling for getting rid of the CBC.

00:39:12.620 I was talking about normie conservative issues.

00:39:14.380 Since then, you know, I talk about war, mass migration, national identity, independence, and regularly beat the drum for getting rid of the CBC.

00:39:26.160 I have been invited to the CBC for a very long time.

00:39:30.060 Well, even outside where you were, though, I mean, but the peril is Franco.

00:39:33.600 I don't watch, so I don't know, but he appears on a lot with the Taxpayers Federation, just for folks who don't know about Franco Tarzano.

00:39:39.960 I wonder if he appears on CBC.

00:39:41.800 I mean, I've seen it on CTV.

00:39:42.880 at least not that often i don't see him he's the sort of person i'm talking about who perhaps would

00:39:48.320 be on that subtle list i'm talking about he's a normie conservative it's it's he's just it's

00:39:51.760 taxes and spending you can't call that stuff far right you know okay rachel gilmore's of the world

00:39:56.560 will but like you know regular people couldn't call that far right but you know okay he wants

00:40:02.480 cbc gone does that disqualify him i don't know that's that's why we're all celebrating to see

00:40:07.280 that list i want that list oh we should have a that could be an interesting office pool who's on

00:40:12.240 the list i still haven't been paid out for the iranian excursion no you didn't you didn't meet

00:40:19.920 it the war happened after the deadline like reading the fine we have a date on there february

00:40:26.400 first it says that's the fine print darren the fine print i can see it way from over here way

00:40:32.320 over i was i was right you guys were wrong and you just can't admit it so you're right

00:40:37.200 No, I think it was actually going to be a war, but the bet was before February 1st, you lose.

00:40:45.820 My sources in the White House told me it would be after.

00:40:49.400 I see.

00:40:50.640 Okay, well, let's go to one parting shots.

00:40:53.780 Start with Dave.

00:40:55.220 Sad day.

00:40:56.360 Sad day for Great Britain when they're going to replace Winston Churchill on the five-pound note.

00:41:04.460 They're going to take his portrait off.

00:41:06.320 One of the greatest Britons ever.

00:41:08.420 We'd all be talking in German if it wasn't for him.

00:41:13.080 Instead of Arabic.

00:41:13.760 Instead of Arabic.

00:41:16.680 One of the titans of history.

00:41:20.280 And they're taking it off and replacing him with a hedgehog.

00:41:23.900 And I'm serious about that.

00:41:25.540 Hedgehog.

00:41:26.940 England is getting close to it being officially fallen, if it hasn't already.

00:41:32.160 Well, they'll be doing

00:41:36.360 land acknowledgements for your people one day.

00:41:38.040 Yeah, they will.

00:41:40.760 Corey?

00:41:41.700 I just wanted to address

00:41:43.620 Grand Chief Nenshi and his

00:41:45.560 collection of assorted

00:41:46.880 Indigenous leaders in Alberta on the steps of the

00:41:49.780 legislature the other day, holding a

00:41:51.900 stunt, and that's the only

00:41:53.820 word for it, where they called for a non-confidence

00:41:55.960 vote which doesn't exist

00:41:57.220 against the legislature, and upset that the

00:41:59.800 legislature didn't recognize their false

00:42:01.800 non-confidence vote and then actually because he got called on it went out and

00:42:06.120 tweeted that it wasn't a stunt which only led to 1700 replies saying that's exactly

00:42:12.080 the definition of us holding a non-confidence vote outside the legislature but it really is

00:42:16.240 indicating speaking of a leader who can't seem to be getting his feet under him and moving carny

00:42:21.300 it just seems all things line up for him then she is not grabbing the interest of albertans

00:42:26.860 And it's showing, I think, with more desperation and stunts like this.

00:42:32.540 Nigel?

00:42:33.320 Yeah, well, maybe we need some stunts on the other side, I'll tell you.

00:42:37.580 I've been very caught this morning by the exchange in one of the committees

00:42:43.820 where they can't actually just say, yes, we should get some proof

00:42:51.160 that there are bodies in graves in some of these.

00:42:54.840 They have to talk around it and say, well, yes, but we need to trust and so forth.

00:43:01.220 I think anybody, any fair-minded person, if shown proof of these claims are true, will change their minds.

00:43:09.720 Well, no, no, no, we don't want to get, because there will always be people who will be against you.

00:43:14.800 And meanwhile, in BC, you've got a guy who says, no, I don't see any more than two genders here.

00:43:20.920 And then he's slapping with a $750,000 fine.

00:43:25.360 One of these two go together.

00:43:27.200 You are not allowed, it seems, to just state what you see or what you think.

00:43:34.820 We are moving into dark times, and this is the beginning, not the end.

00:43:38.800 If you want to know who your true enemy is, look for the people who make it illegal to criticize them.

00:43:42.960 You bet.

00:43:44.060 That's exactly what it is.

00:43:45.720 Sorry to end on a sober note.

00:43:47.220 Nah. Well, on a pleasant note, I want to give a tip of the hat to a relatively new independent media organization without diminishment.

00:43:56.440 That's mostly some younger folks, I think, clustered mostly on the West Coast.

00:44:01.440 They're given a really interesting and punchy but thoughtful take on the issues of the day.

00:44:07.580 It's not doing news, you know, they don't have a newsroom the way we do, but it's commentary and analysis from a younger perspective on the right.

00:44:17.180 It's not the kind of conservative I grew up within, where we're kind of worshipping at the altar of Ronald Reagan.

00:44:23.640 Everything was supply-side economics.

00:44:25.980 These guys are talking about more existential issues we face today of do we exist as people?

00:44:31.840 What is Canada?

00:44:32.940 Who are Canadians?

00:44:34.720 How does Canada survive as a people, as a country?

00:44:39.180 And they do it in a tasteful, very thoughtful way.

00:44:41.400 I think they're adding a lot to the conversation.

00:44:42.840 So I wanted to give a tip of that to folks that, without diminishment,

00:44:46.920 that they got a good sub stack going but i recommend do they have a list uh i'm pretty

00:44:52.600 sure we're not on it so your turn you have time all right dave cory nigel thank you and john for

00:45:00.120 on its studio and all of you for joining us and sharing your time with us here today uh remember

00:45:05.420 the western standard relies on support for people like you go to westernstandard.news click on

00:45:10.920 subscribe it's only ten dollars a month or a hundred dollars a year for unlimited access to

00:45:14.820 all western standard content and to support the work that we do here thank you very much

00:45:19.940 for joining us today and god bless

Western Standard - March 12, 2026

CBC Meltdown

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