Western Standard - Danielle Smith, heroine or villain of the piece？

00:00:00.000 Mark Carney has three passports, Canada, United Kingdom, Ireland, a globalist with options.

00:00:10.620 He hasn't seen Canada in a decade, calls himself a European, not a Canadian.

00:00:20.220 Told U.S. Congress last year, he's a Brit, he's back to lord over you.

00:00:27.340 Canada's not his home.

00:00:29.320 It's his throne.

00:00:48.440 Good evening, Western Standard viewers,

00:00:50.840 and welcome to Hannaford, a weekly politics show.

00:00:53.820 It is Thursday, March the 27th, and my guest today is Erika Baroutes.

00:01:00.880 Erika is the Department Head of Applied and Public Affairs,

00:01:05.320 which is a way of saying that you're teaching the younger generation to do politics up there at Macamie.

00:01:11.660 Welcome, Erika.

00:01:13.120 Yeah, thank you for having me.

00:01:15.320 Well, it's always a pleasure.

00:01:17.400 And the interesting thing with having you here is you're still politically active,

00:01:21.720 keeping an eye on what's going on with the UCP and especially with Premier Danielle Smith.

00:01:28.460 And it's the premier we want to talk about today. And we're going to go right to that.

00:01:32.480 First, though, a word from our sponsors. This episode of Hannaford is sponsored by New World

00:01:38.320 Precious Metals, based right here in Calgary. Years of inflationary money printing and rising

00:01:45.040 debt have decimated the savings of the average Canadian. Gold and silver are the only currencies

00:01:51.280 that have held their value for thousands of years.

00:01:54.280 Last year saw 30% gains.

00:01:56.460 New World Precious Metals offers unique platforms

00:01:59.180 to help protect and grow your hard-earned wealth

00:02:02.320 with gold and silver.

00:02:04.980 Check them out at newworldpm.com.

00:02:10.100 Erica, yesterday,

00:02:12.380 that was a tremendous speech that the Premier gave,

00:02:15.780 and I think to everybody, certainly to me,

00:02:18.280 it sounded like something had been simmering for a while and then just finally boiled over.

00:02:24.600 You know the premier fairly well. Where did all that come from?

00:02:28.660 Yeah, so if we're talking about her statement in the House yesterday to start off, you know,

00:02:33.180 question period, where I think this stems from is a few things. We have a federal election going on

00:02:39.880 and the left has really tried to push this narrative that the premier's speaking, you know,

00:02:45.900 encouraging the U.S. to hold on their negotiations waiting for a conservative aka Pierre Polyev and

00:02:54.860 they're trying to throw everything that they can at her from this is election interference with 1.00

00:02:58.960 which Elections Canada, Elections Alberta have you know said no that's not the case this doesn't

00:03:03.540 really count for that. This is from her comments on Breitbart which were before the federal election

00:03:09.440 and just in some of her comments she's been making about our need to have a strong voice that can

00:03:14.940 negotiate with Trump. So all of that brings us to why is she doing it now? Well, she's headed

00:03:21.100 back down to the States. And I think she's just saying, you know what, NDP, you know what,

00:03:25.620 liberals, you can, you know, crap on me for standing up relentlessly for Alberta, but I'm 0.76

00:03:30.980 going to do it. I'm not going to be quiet. I'm not going to listen to you. And so she's trying 0.98

00:03:35.560 to basically just say, this is why I'm going and I'm going to continue going no matter what you

00:03:40.640 tell me to do? Constitutionally, I do believe that nobody would argue that foreign affairs are

00:03:47.760 basically the job of the federal government. However, we're in a rather unique situation

00:03:53.060 that the president of the United States chose a time to apply tariffs when the federal government

00:04:00.520 was in disarray. In fact, I don't think disarray quite does justice to the state of sheer chaos

00:04:09.100 that had emanated from the fact that a very unpopular prime minister was being persuaded

00:04:14.960 to step down, and then there was a peculiar process by which a replacement was inserted

00:04:21.280 into the party and then went right to an election. To put it bluntly, these guys didn't have their

00:04:27.540 eyes on the ball, and so the premiers stepped up. Doug Ford did what he did. There's some

00:04:34.900 contention as to whether it was effective or not, but certainly he presented a strong front.

00:04:40.800 So did one of the eastern premiers. But above all, it was Premier Smith who reacted quickly

00:04:46.780 and said more or less, look, Mr. Trump, if you have a problem with the border,

00:04:51.300 we can deal with that. We have people. And within hours, I think, we had sheriffs patrolling the

00:05:00.000 border and looking for illegal immigrants and trying to put a stop to cross-border shipments

00:05:05.440 with drugs. So she stepped right up when the federal government was doing nothing.

00:05:12.780 Now, I don't see that as a problem. Do you? No, I think the only criticism I have on this is

00:05:19.520 I completely agree. I think the federal government was in a dumpster fire. I'll use that term.

00:05:24.940 it was pure chaos and that we did see a lot of support across Canada as well as especially here

00:05:33.960 at home in Alberta for Premier Smith to roll up her sleeves go down there and have all of these

00:05:38.760 conversations I think the criticism that's coming now and even from myself on how she should approach

00:05:44.620 and tread during a writ period is a little bit different I still think she should go down if 1.00

00:05:50.580 She's planned a trip.

00:05:53.460 Go on Ben Shapiro's show.

00:05:55.980 Ben Shapiro has been very critical of Alberta,

00:05:59.060 but in the sense that he's been very critical

00:06:02.760 and said it's a weak country under Trudeau.

00:06:05.900 So this is actually an opportunity.

00:06:07.140 Erica, I think that criticism was leveled at Canada, not Alberta.

00:06:11.260 It was, yes.

00:06:12.240 And so I think that it was very critical of Canada being weak under Trudeau.

00:06:16.620 I think the premier, because we know that Trump isn't answering car news,

00:06:20.580 calls, and Pierre is campaigning across the country, that Premier Smith is going down there

00:06:27.700 to hopefully change Ben Shapiro's mind and talk to those conservative voters. Now, I do think she

00:06:33.360 needs to tread lightly when it comes to addressing the federal election, talking about how she's 0.73

00:06:38.140 championing Pierre Polyev. Of course she is. So I don't think she needs to go down there and say

00:06:43.040 that and maybe just not speak about the federal election as she's been criticized for, but just

00:06:48.920 solely go down to advocate for Alberta, which we all know indirectly advocates for the Canadian

00:06:54.980 economy. Yeah. Now, you were relating to me an interesting anecdote about the whole matter of

00:07:03.540 talking to right-wing pundits. I mean, Ben Shapiro is a very successful podcaster. There's no question

00:07:11.980 which side of the intellectual spectrum he occupies, but the premier has also done an

00:07:18.900 in-depth interview with Jordan Peterson. I do remember Tucker Carlson last year being in

00:07:26.720 Alberta and doing a show in Calgary and one in Edmonton. I believe in the one in Edmonton that

00:07:31.080 she did have a conversation with him. It was the Breitbart interview that you gave recently.

00:07:36.500 what did you advise her the first time those kinds of opportunities came up yeah so this was right i

00:07:44.540 was on her transition team and her principal secretary this was in the first month that

00:07:49.000 premier smith was in office and there was an opportunity to do jordan peterson as a as a staff

00:07:54.780 and a team you assess the risk reward given we were going into an election there was a few of us

00:08:00.000 that thought that we maybe shouldn't do this conversation i think we underestimated daniel

00:08:05.200 Smith's ability to have constructive conversations push back the narrative that she wanted or she

00:08:11.120 would like those individuals that she's being interviewed by to look at. And so I had to eat

00:08:17.380 my words when I said, don't do Jordan Peterson. We went ahead and did it. And I think it was quite

00:08:21.660 a big success and got her profiled in Alberta on the international stage. So I think that when

00:08:28.400 people criticize like Nenshi coming out and saying she shouldn't go down and talk to Ben Shapiro,

00:08:32.520 um it's because he knows that she is probably one of the only individuals that can do this

00:08:38.380 I wouldn't ever advise Doug Ford to go down and have these conversations so I do think that her

00:08:44.720 going down um is is a is a fine step for Alberta as long as she pushes back on Ben and you know 0.99

00:08:51.940 corrects him and admit has him admit that he saw Canada is weak under a liberal and under Justin

00:08:58.840 Trudeau specifically, and that, you know, he's having her on his show to talk about the relationship

00:09:04.740 with Alberta. And I think that could be a positive impact for her. But, you know, I don't think

00:09:10.580 everyone should do the Danielle Smith approach because I just don't think they have the tools

00:09:15.580 to do so. Yes, she is. Having served on the Calgary Herald editorial board with her for a number of

00:09:22.140 years, she has an ability to argue you to stand still. It's impressive. She once had me thinking

00:09:29.960 that the city of Calgary should privatize the sidewalks. She was only kidding, but I didn't

00:09:34.420 know what to say. Anyway, look, just a note on Ben Shapiro for people who maybe don't follow

00:09:41.760 that particular part of the spectrum. He's a comedian. I know he's Jewish. He's about seven

00:09:51.180 feet tall and he has a sense of humor that that splits your sides but i mean he's a serious player

00:09:57.480 right he is definitely i think he has one of the second largest i think um political followings

00:10:03.280 if you watched anything on the u.s election he was on numerous panels his show actually did like

00:10:10.020 a live broadcast um throughout doing rapid response uh charlie kirk is close with him i

00:10:16.820 think they were on a panel together. So he is one of those key players that definitely can influence

00:10:22.900 probably the Trump administration to some degree, but also just the conservative base that you see

00:10:28.520 across the US. So, you know, I get why she wanted to do this. I get why she's going.

00:10:34.780 I do think it's unfortunate that it's timing during a rip period, but I can kind of understand

00:10:40.780 why she's not backing out because it wouldn't, it wouldn't look strong. And, you know, she's been

00:10:47.440 said, I'm walking into the lion's den. I don't think she's the type of person to back down when 0.98

00:10:51.840 she's already walking towards it, which she is. So I do think, again, I hope that her team is

00:10:58.280 briefing her on, you know, focus on the Alberta narrative, focus on the relationship and how much

00:11:04.300 the U.S. actually does depend specifically on Alberta for forestry, for agriculture, for oil

00:11:11.680 and gas. And then that will ultimately help the Canada narrative. But I think she should just try

00:11:17.880 and really tone down any type of partisanship of the obvious, which is that she wants a conservative 1.00

00:11:24.200 federal government. Did you text her on that? I haven't yet. I'm sure I'll get some notes because

00:11:30.900 my podcast is talked about that this week too okay look um let's just uh so so ben shapiro is

00:11:39.540 influential i guess joe rogan is the uh is the big guy the big guy but uh ben shapiro has a

00:11:47.060 has a tremendous following i noticed when he was in town here last year they couldn't get near the

00:11:52.980 locale for parked cars. Everybody was there. So the strategy of talking to somebody like Ben

00:12:04.180 Shapiro speaks to people who tune into Ben Shapiro, ordinary Americans who just want to

00:12:11.880 see it from a different point of view. Does that have any utility talking to the administration?

00:12:19.600 i think because of his size it would be the best chance i mean nothing is better than talking to

00:12:26.740 the administration directly but these are a lot of trump supporters they're also a lot of republicans

00:12:32.720 which sometimes can be a different thing and so i think that when we look at the businesses and

00:12:38.500 the industries that maybe trump is going to be um consulting or his team will be consulting as they

00:12:45.620 go through this and the direct impact it has on those businesses, I think that this is a third

00:12:51.120 party validator for why not screw over Alberta and ultimately Canada. So we saw tariffs come in

00:12:58.860 against Doug Ford. You know, Trump hasn't talked very kindly about Doug Ford, Justin Trudeau,

00:13:06.180 even Pierre Polyev. And so I haven't really seen him come out and say anything really negative

00:13:11.300 about Danielle Smith. So if she's the one that can get through to those support bases and

00:13:17.500 industries, I think the industries are the ones that are going to have to champion that

00:13:21.600 to the Trump administration. Yes, that would be the rationale, all right. And certainly she's

00:13:27.540 worked very hard at that for the last three months. I don't know how many trips she has

00:13:32.680 made to the United States. You may, but I know she went to the inauguration. A handful for sure.

00:13:37.680 But there's also ministers. I want to point out too that obviously Premier Smith gets a lot of exposure. We do have offices all across that are doing, you know, international offices that are doing that work on the ground, as well as other ministers talking about those industries. So they don't get as much gravitas per se, but there are a lot of Alberta ministers also doing that work on the ground and advocating for Alberta.

00:14:03.600 Do you have any sense at all as to, although they, I mean, we have a liberal government, and liberals fighting to get back into power, so anything that we do in Alberta is likely to be unpopular, because it was us in Alberta who did it.

00:14:20.500 But do you have any sense that, although they wouldn't want to admit it, they might concede quietly in the corridor that what Premier Smith has done, the contact she's made and the confidence that she's generated among key cabinet ministers in the United States administration, has actually been helpful to Canada as a whole?

00:14:45.360 I completely agree. I think the challenge is that President Trump is very much his own person and he will do what he wants to do. Do I think that April 2nd tariffs will disappear? No, especially because our election isn't until the 28th.

00:15:02.700 But I do think she's paved a lot of groundwork for when we see and the Trump administration sees how drastic those impacts of these tariffs have on their industries.

00:15:14.700 And I bet you that one of his first calls or where he's telling his administration to go work with Canada will be with Premier Smith because she's made so many inroads with different governors and senators, as well as the administration itself and with their national news outlets.

00:15:31.300 So she's a voice that I think he's respecting and that we will be the first, one of the first calls when we realize how drastic some of his policies may be for both us as well as the American citizens.

00:15:45.900 Now, I'd like to ask your opinion on something that we published last night.

00:15:51.440 Our columnist Chris Nelson, a very entertaining read in the Western Standard, his basic thesis was that if the president is successful in repatriating, as he would think of it, the auto industry to the lower 48, it's going to leave the cupboard bare in Ontario.

00:16:15.440 at which point all the opposition to Alberta pumping oil and natural gas will disappear

00:16:25.320 because the central government, the federal government, whoever it is, is going to be

00:16:31.060 desperate for the revenue that comes from it. What do you make of that argument?

00:16:36.860 I mean, I understand the thesis that was displayed. Again, I think that Trump is shooting

00:16:45.040 from the hip and that assumptions of tariffs on the auto industry, we've already seen them on

00:16:50.520 steel, aluminum, et cetera. We're seeing the impacts that steel and aluminum have had on the

00:16:55.700 U.S. and that that industry is calling for, we can't do this. We can't build homes at the price

00:17:01.300 in which Americans can afford because we're having to pay such a high amount for that product. 0.97

00:17:08.280 So I think it's all going to come back to the fact that the money and the cost and the impact it has on Americans is going to have the president come back to the table.

00:17:19.760 He can't completely diversify their economy, even forestry.

00:17:23.620 They can maintain 60 to 70 percent, but we supply 30 to 40.

00:17:28.000 So they are going to feel an impact when it comes to that.

00:17:31.140 in the auto industry, it might take longer just because of the back and forth that we saw

00:17:36.500 from Detroit to Southern Ontario or Windsor. But I don't know if I agree with Chris that

00:17:45.140 it's going to either hurt or help our oil and gas sector or shipping it out. I think what we've

00:17:51.200 learned from this entire experience is we need to create very strong interprovincial trade in Canada

00:17:58.000 and open up our corridors.

00:17:59.620 And I think that's going to happen regardless

00:18:00.980 because we can't be in a situation like this ever again.

00:18:04.760 That certainly is so.

00:18:06.560 So sorry, Chris.

00:18:08.220 Yeah, I'll pass that along.

00:18:11.740 Mr. Carney has said that he supports pipelines

00:18:17.280 to the West Coast, to the East Coast,

00:18:19.760 and then under his breath and with his fingers crossed behind his back,

00:18:23.020 he said it will, of course, depend upon buy-in from Indigenous peoples

00:18:26.980 and from Quebec. So do you have much confidence in, do you have more confidence than I do,

00:18:34.620 shall we put it that way, in furthermore pipelines to carry product, at least to the West Coast,

00:18:40.580 if not to the East? I mean, if we're talking under a carny leadership, I don't trust anything 0.97

00:18:46.620 he says. I didn't know him very well, obviously just knew his resume before he became Prime

00:18:51.340 minister, which I think is the same for a lot of Canadians. I hope he opens his mouth up more

00:18:57.060 because the more he talks, the more I think you see who he truly is. He's talking about building

00:19:01.800 pipelines, but then says, okay, you need Indigenous buy-in. You don't think energy 0.52

00:19:07.160 companies have been doing that for the last nine years that you've been stopgapping this,

00:19:11.740 exploring those opportunities? I think Indigenous people saying that they don't already have buy-in 0.98

00:19:18.140 is also assuming something for a stakeholder that he should know a little bit more about.

00:19:22.680 And then lastly, it's really nice to say, yeah, we'll explore that. But then you still have an

00:19:28.260 emission cap, which is a production cap. So dear Mr. Carney, please explain. You're going to build

00:19:33.820 pipelines, but then you're not going to be able to do anything with the natural gas that's in them

00:19:39.880 because you have a cap on production as well. So I think he's whimsically speaking, and I'm very

00:19:45.540 excited for the debates where we can have the leader of the conservative party ask him that

00:19:51.800 exact question. Yes. Well, in one month and one day, I guess we all get to vote on that. Look,

00:19:59.500 very quickly, before I let you go, I just want to ask you one thing about the so-called scandal

00:20:05.900 in AHS. For those of us who have been watching it and kind of lost the thread, where does it stand

00:20:14.760 and how does the premier sit?

00:20:16.960 Yeah, so actually on my podcast,

00:20:18.620 The Discourse,

00:20:19.540 where I am the right representation,

00:20:22.060 who's always right,

00:20:23.160 and then left Cheryl Oates, 0.99

00:20:24.900 we break this down almost every week

00:20:26.580 because there's, as you mentioned,

00:20:27.960 so much happening, Nigel.

00:20:29.840 Right now, if we're working backwards,

00:20:31.840 we have both statements of defense

00:20:33.820 by the individuals that were put forward

00:20:37.020 in the statement of claim

00:20:38.200 by Athena Menzelopoulos earlier this year.

00:20:41.260 So she named the government,

00:20:42.980 specifically the minister of health who released theirs uh earlier early last week or or you know

00:20:50.360 about a week ago and about a couple days after that ahs who was also named um in the statement

00:20:56.060 of claim has also released their defense and i caution people when you're reading this if you're

00:21:00.680 nerdy like me and actually read the statements of defense um we have to remember and i think where

00:21:05.900 the narrative is getting away and where opposition is dirt like grossly taking it is that athena made

00:21:12.340 a lot of allegations in her statement of claim she's trying to protect herself and say that she 0.95

00:21:17.600 was fired for wrongful dismissal etc to get this 1.7 million dollars out of the taxpayers now

00:21:25.000 this is not about procurement this is not about all those other things in if we're looking at

00:21:30.340 the statement of claim in the statement of defense that is about if this woman was doing her job if 0.72

00:21:37.060 she was fired they obviously make it without cause because that's the only way you can package

00:21:41.400 someone and give them a severance, which she received. And so it is more of an HR if you read

00:21:47.400 the AHS statement of defense, because it's going over how she did not meet those expectations.

00:21:54.220 I think we've got a whole nother piece when you talk about this scandal, or I like to call them

00:21:58.780 the allegations because I never want to get sued by anyone. And not to say you would, but we've

00:22:05.300 tried to frame it out that way. That'll be, I think, a whole different narrative. So what's

00:22:11.200 of Anna doing her job. One question, was she rightfully dismissed? We'll decide through that

00:22:17.460 process. But then there's also all of these independent studies. So we have an independent

00:22:22.060 review by the government led by one of the deputy ministers who's removed from the process.

00:22:29.480 Then we also have the auditor general involved. The RCMP is also now investigating. So I think

00:22:36.220 For Albertans, the truth will be told one way or another, but there is two separate pieces when

00:22:42.540 we're looking at this issue that the government is facing right now. Okay, thank you, Erica. So

00:22:48.460 I think I'm correct in saying that the Ben Shapiro interview takes place at six o'clock our time. I

00:22:55.600 don't think it's going to be a podcast live. I may be wrong on that. Things change. But I do believe

00:23:04.180 that it will be recorded and released later so that we can all see how the Premier has dealt

00:23:12.580 with Ben Shapiro. I'm sure it'll be an exciting interview. And meanwhile, teaching young people

00:23:19.700 to do good work for the popular vote and the people of Alberta at Macamie College. You're

00:23:28.760 doing God's work there, Erica. Well, I would like to say, because I know your viewership spans

00:23:34.080 beyond alberta as well our um may program and thereafter uh is going to be in the evenings

00:23:40.240 online because we want to make it accessible to people not just in edmonton and calgary but

00:23:44.600 all of alberta specific and then outside um so that we can offer this canada why because it's

00:23:51.340 the only one of its kind in our great nation so macmecollege.com uh will give you all the

00:23:57.240 information about the applied politics program that's exciting news that is going is going

00:24:01.760 going further Lord knows we need people to get good politics we need people who

00:24:07.420 know how to do good politics and have the what can I call it the character to

00:24:12.200 go with it Erica Baruti's thank you very much for joining us this evening for the

00:24:18.360 Western Standard I'm Nigel Hannaford what does success mean to you peace of

00:24:23.900 mind financial freedom generational wealth what do you see in your future

00:24:29.620 Investing in gold and silver can help you get there.

00:24:32.440 Through our trading partners, New World Precious Metals offers safe, affordable, secure international accounts to help you meet your unique financial goals.

00:24:42.060 Connect with one of our experienced team members.

00:24:45.000 Invest in gold and silver today.

00:24:59.080 Thank you.

Western Standard - March 28, 2025

Danielle Smith, heroine or villain of the piece？

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript