Western Standard - Election final stretch

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

00:00:07.080 Didn't think so.

00:00:09.080 What about his accomplice,

00:00:10.860 Ghislaine Maxwell?

00:00:13.020 Hard pass.

00:00:15.080 So why trust him?

00:00:17.700 Mark Carney, Maxwell's friend, not yours.

00:00:30.000 Happy Friday.

00:00:58.640 Hey, welcome to the Corey Morgan Show.

00:01:01.940 Second take.

00:01:03.160 Yes, this is my Friday show with the extended election coverage going on.

00:01:08.340 We're in the final days of this thing.

00:01:10.560 I'm sure just about everybody's sick of it.

00:01:13.020 But nobody's probably happy with how things are coming up.

00:01:16.200 Well, maybe the Liberals are.

00:01:17.000 They thought they were, you know, a month ago.

00:01:19.600 We all thought they were out of the race. 0.99

00:01:21.040 And now they still seem to be leading.

00:01:24.220 But it is neck and neck.

00:01:25.400 I mean, nobody, I think, can confidently say what the hell is going to happen on Monday.

00:01:29.500 Just be sure to tune in here at the Western Standard, 6 p.m. Mountain Standard Time.

00:01:34.560 We're starting that coverage of it, and we'll watch those results as they come in, good, bad, or ugly.

00:01:40.340 So I've got a few guests coming on today.

00:01:42.680 We've got Sam Cooper of the Bureau, and he's going to talk foreign interference.

00:01:46.800 This is his specialty there, and he's really opened up a lot of stuff.

00:01:50.180 It seems to have been forgotten in this election.

00:01:52.080 I mean, this is what was dragging the Liberals down for a year and a half, and now the election's on, and we're barely hearing about it.

00:01:57.840 But we're hearing about candidates being targeted and things. It's still going on. We're just not hearing about it.

00:02:02.260 Crystal Witt-Vrangel is going to come on from the Montreal Economic Institute.

00:02:05.420 Another thing that did come up, but it's still kind of been forgotten, is the no more pipelines bill.

00:02:09.940 And if the Liberals get in, they're going to keep it. So that means we're not going to get any more pipelines.

00:02:14.640 It doesn't matter what Carney's promising. He's kind of establishing himself as a pretty effective liar, but it doesn't seem to matter to the East.

00:02:21.460 And then we're going to talk to Jared Yeager of the Western Standard.

00:02:24.260 He's our BC fella out there.

00:02:25.900 He's been on the ground and just kind of wrap things up,

00:02:28.180 what he's seeing from that perspective out there in Lotus Land.

00:02:31.900 I mean, it's going to be kind of a swing province.

00:02:33.480 We don't quite know where BC is going to go.

00:02:35.080 That could be the one that decides things.

00:02:36.940 We'll see what happens.

00:02:38.080 So, yes, a lot to cover today and a lot to talk about.

00:02:41.260 Let's kick things off with a news update from our news editor, Dave Naylor, though,

00:02:44.520 and see what else is top of the headlines.

00:02:46.520 Hey, Dave.

00:02:46.840 Sorry, no news today, Corey.

00:02:48.080 No news today.

00:02:48.660 No news today.

00:02:49.580 It's kind of quiet in the newsroom today.

00:02:50.900 Well, everybody's out covering the election stuff.

00:02:54.040 So, yeah, you're right.

00:02:54.900 It's almost over.

00:02:55.740 Thank goodness.

00:02:57.040 I hear your long-suffering wife is actually suffering. 0.96

00:03:00.160 She is.

00:03:01.140 What happened?

00:03:01.800 Well, they gave her Tramadol for a prescription. 0.63

00:03:04.080 So, I mean, the suffering leaves for a little while.

00:03:06.240 Okay, we've got to tell people what happened.

00:03:07.740 She's at a quilt show setting up her booth in Sylvan Lake and got up on a step and fell off it and managed to break her arm.

00:03:14.600 Oh, no.

00:03:15.120 Yes.

00:03:15.600 You know, it's funny.

00:03:17.080 Another time she broke her arm was working on a wild road.

00:03:20.680 No, this was Alberta Alliance election campaign when Paul Hinman won in Calgary Glenmore.

00:03:25.260 She tripped on a guy wire while we were main streeting on the side of the... 0.96

00:03:28.860 She's always been a klutz. 1.00

00:03:31.080 Fantastic, wonderful, beautiful woman.

00:03:32.700 But boy, I'm going to have to get her like a hockey gear or something. 1.00

00:03:36.020 Or bubble wrap or something.

00:03:37.260 Do you feel a bit of guilt that you weren't there to do it?

00:03:40.040 Oh, no.

00:03:40.820 Not at all?

00:03:42.320 I wouldn't have helped.

00:03:43.520 I mean, if I was there, the accident could have been worse,

00:03:46.380 or I would have been at least blamed for the distraction that caused her to fall off of that. 1.00

00:03:49.780 So at least they'll get to come out and visit and help her tomorrow.

00:03:51.880 Exactly. Nice.

00:03:53.300 So, yeah, it's coming to an end, Corey.

00:03:55.500 I think everybody's grateful to that.

00:03:58.780 Polls seem to be narrowing.

00:04:01.820 You know, who knows?

00:04:03.480 It could be a conservative minority, liberal minority, liberal majority.

00:04:08.160 I don't think anybody knows.

00:04:10.620 We had all those millions and millions of votes cast early in the polls.

00:04:15.380 But again, nobody knows who favors that.

00:04:18.080 the riding with the most ballots was Carlton, where

00:04:22.660 Polyev is apparently, according to the Globe and Mail, in

00:04:26.460 deep trouble and could lose his seat. So

00:04:30.200 there's going to be a lot to keep an eye out on Monday.

00:04:34.820 We could hopefully hear the last that we'll ever have

00:04:38.620 to hear of Jagmeet Singh and Elizabeth May, because they're both

00:04:42.340 at the moment projected to perhaps lose their seats. So there's going to

00:04:46.620 be tons to keep an eye on on on Monday and as you said you've got you'll be in part of the show with

00:04:54.600 Derek and Nigel at six o'clock and I'll be busily right behind us here doing a live blog and writing

00:05:02.420 the election main we're gonna have Jared in beautiful downtown Burnaby covering sing we're

00:05:13.200 trying to anyways they haven't answered one of our emails the entire uh election you know tories

00:05:19.520 and uh and uh the liberals no problem but ndp is uh radio silence they don't lie they don't like us

00:05:25.680 cory no look what it look at what happened to rachel naughty when she didn't like it well and 1.00

00:05:32.240 yeah you know i'm gonna talk a little bit about that later when i'm talking on things but there's

00:05:36.400 been discussion too though that uh the conservatives have kind of taken a stonewalling to the media

00:05:41.680 approach throughout most of this independent and legacy. And, you know, I will get up and say

00:05:46.820 that's what made the difference and perhaps why they're lagging, but it certainly doesn't seem

00:05:49.800 to have done them any favors. No, and they're getting a lot of bad press about it from the

00:05:54.740 mainstream media. But just this morning, where Chris Oldcorn was at a rally for Polyev in

00:06:00.580 Saskatoon, and they allowed four questions. One of them was from the phone from Calgary,

00:06:07.880 from dinger oh that's half so there goes half the press conference two of them were in french

00:06:14.260 right so how many people in saskatoon do you think speak french right i know you've got to pander to

00:06:20.020 the to quebec but uh they do have some weird things going on with the media but uh um so

00:06:28.100 wrapping up the weekend here we've got uh uh jared will be at a big poly of rally in vancouver

00:06:34.500 Richmond to be exact on

00:06:36.240 Saturday

00:06:37.360 Jen will be a busy girl 1.00

00:06:40.900 she'll be traveling to Ottawa on Sunday

00:06:42.880 covering Poliev's final

00:06:44.880 rally there

00:06:46.380 in his home writing

00:06:47.940 they're not even calling it rallies anymore

00:06:51.140 it's just whistle stops

00:06:52.180 so I'm assuming it's just going to be Poliev

00:06:54.780 saying you know big house

00:06:56.940 nice street

00:06:57.660 you know safe crimes

00:07:00.240 under a flag

00:07:02.100 The Calgary one today is supposed to be only a quick...

00:07:05.320 A whistle stop.

00:07:06.460 ...blat out the door.

00:07:07.700 That will be the first time he's hit Alberta in this whole campaign.

00:07:10.120 Yeah, exactly.

00:07:11.840 So Jen will cover that rally, and then she'll be hopefully bouncing back 1.00

00:07:16.800 between Carney's headquarters and Paulyov's headquarters on election night.

00:07:21.920 So hopefully they're close.

00:07:23.900 We may have to pick one or the other.

00:07:26.360 That's where they book it.

00:07:27.440 I mean, that Ottawa Corps is pretty dense.

00:07:28.920 You can kind of cover some ground, but if they've stuck them across town,

00:07:31.860 it could be problematic it could be problematic uh and uh we're gonna we're gonna live stream

00:07:37.940 polio's uh stop in calgary uh starting at one o'clock today uh sean pulser the reporter is up

00:07:44.920 there uh so i assume he's gonna be checking in with you at some point uh i'm just letting people

00:07:50.080 know that is the plan towards the tail end of the show we should be checking in with uh sean he's

00:07:55.400 going up there and going to be covering things but just sometimes those field hits can go a little

00:07:59.940 difficult. So I'm not going to make a promise, but that's the intention. And then we will stream

00:08:03.800 that after this show. Yes. Yeah. Now, of course, you know, they're always late. So you may have

00:08:08.360 to drag this out for hours. I'll see what I can do. I mean, I've had a lot of coffee this morning.

00:08:14.000 I might need somebody to come in with a bucket or something. Well, you just send me a note and

00:08:17.620 I'll bring you one in and you'll be, you'll be good. But yeah, you like to talk. So I'm sure

00:08:23.820 you'll have no problem filling it. So, so yeah, it's a exciting days ahead. And the Western

00:08:28.820 standard is going to be in all the right places at the right time right on well i'll let you get

00:08:34.100 back to your guests yeah you can you get right into that uh this is why we need uh subscriptions

00:08:40.140 subscribers so we can get reporters out to these places absolutely i mean that's important it is

00:08:46.220 it pays the bills pays the bills right uh okay thanks dave you bet gory all right and yes as

00:08:50.860 dave said and he's our news editor the reason we can pay those bills this is how i mean it's the

00:08:55.280 bulk of our funding here at the Western Standard is subscribers. And you know, you just look at

00:08:58.860 the makeup of the things. I mean, you dance with the one that brung you. When you look at media,

00:09:02.780 legacy media, the way they lean to the government, well, why do you think they do? Because they're

00:09:06.060 getting tax funded. As long as we're relying on subscriptions to pay our bills, we remain

00:09:12.300 accountable to you. And lots of people have, thousands of people have subscribed. It's $10 a

00:09:17.720 month, $100 for a year. Well worth, it gets past that paywall. There is no paywall till the end of

00:09:23.460 election, but that's coming up in just a few days and then you'll still have to pay those bucks. So 0.85

00:09:27.280 come on guys, if you haven't subscribed, get on there, take one out. If you have already, thank

00:09:31.680 you very much. We really, really do appreciate it. Yeah. What a bizarre, bizarre election it's been,

00:09:37.960 you know, I just such a swing. So, I mean, that's where I'm not feeling good about Monday. I got

00:09:44.000 to admit, but I wouldn't take any prediction to the bank right now. I mean, the electorate is

00:09:49.340 volatile. It really is. So when, I mean, there's never been a time when we've seen it drop from,

00:09:55.060 from, from so, uh, you know, from, from so high to, to, to where it's gone. And, uh, that also

00:10:02.520 means it can swing the other way pretty fast. Uh, Roma Eterna saying, I can't believe the liberals

00:10:07.680 will take four Calgary ridings up from one, uh, worldwide mass immigration must end. The East is 0.99

00:10:13.060 already gone. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I'd blame that on immigration. You know, a lot of 0.99

00:10:20.500 new Canadians, I've worked on those campaigns, are very conservative, actually. We've got a lot

00:10:24.760 of conservatives out there. They don't want that either. We've got some serious issues going on.

00:10:30.060 It's an urban rural problem. It's been kind of larger. And I don't know if Fort Cowdery

00:10:36.020 writings are really in play or not. That one I'll see. That's a bit of a stretch.

00:10:43.120 But when you get into Northeast Calgary, you know, for example, that's where George Shahal is.

00:10:47.720 Now, he's also known, and I like to remind everybody of it, he's the porch pirate. 0.99

00:10:51.600 And in the last election, the fool went up to a household. He was delivering flyers, 0.99

00:10:56.500 a good, hardworking campaigner, good for you. But he noticed there was a conservative flyer

00:11:00.740 in the mailbox. So he, there was a doorbell cam, you know, this life today, you're always being

00:11:06.380 watched, but he didn't realize this. So he stole the conservative flyer and put the liberal one in.

00:11:12.120 And, uh, it, it still, man, he still managed to win the election. He's still the liberal member

00:11:15.980 of parliament up there and he's still running again, but, uh, it caused so much embarrassment

00:11:21.100 that he didn't even end up in cabinet. Like the, the way it typically works, if a government gets

00:11:27.420 Whoever an Alberta liberal is, and I said that in my last show, it doesn't do us any favors.

00:11:31.040 It doesn't matter.

00:11:31.700 The liberals will screw us, whether they're Alberta liberals or liberals from somewhere else.

00:11:36.140 But Chahal never got put in cabinet because, I mean, you can't put a porch pirate in your cabinet. 1.00

00:11:41.460 And then we had the Randys up at Edmonton.

00:11:43.460 That was the only other liberal.

00:11:44.580 And, of course, he resigned in disgrace, finally decided not to run because of just one scandal after another. 0.97

00:11:50.040 I mean, the problem is these liberals are corrupt to the core.

00:11:52.680 But now Chahal is running again, and he might win.

00:11:55.240 if you've worked elections in Northeast Calgary, you do have to understand that the parties don't

00:12:03.780 matter as much as how you work the communities. And, you know, I got to watch how I phrase it.

00:12:13.520 Every party deals with the same thing. And there's some truth to that. Northeast Calgary is a

00:12:17.500 predominantly high new Canadian area. A lot of Indian, South Asian people living up there.

00:12:23.180 and they tend to vote based on where community leaders are telling them to go as opposed to

00:12:27.760 where parties will. So it's who's playing that ground game better who tends to win it. So it's

00:12:33.200 actually more swing ridings up there because you can see some of those northeast ridings going

00:12:37.220 strongly conservative sometimes. But yeah, they'll swing liberal the other. So whether or not

00:12:42.340 Chahal is going to get in up there, I don't know. But the game up there doesn't matter as much

00:12:48.300 uh on what's going on actually on the the central party front as it is the local candidate and how

00:12:53.580 they're connecting with that community it's a bizarre area to work and it's difficult uh when

00:12:58.840 we were up there i think i've told that story before when when the wildrose party was gone

00:13:01.820 we were running nominations this must have been 10 12 years ago daniel smith was leading it back

00:13:06.060 then and uh we had a problem we we had it was calgary cross i don't think that constituency

00:13:11.940 even exists anymore five people signed up to run in it and then it within days like this is for

00:13:18.160 the nomination, thousands and thousands of new memberships all poured into the party office

00:13:22.640 from up there. Like amazing. You know, nobody in a nomination tends to sell thousands of

00:13:26.300 memberships that fast. The party rules are everybody is supposed to buy their own membership

00:13:29.960 by themselves to avoid that kind of flooding. The reality is, and it turned out four out of the five

00:13:35.920 candidates all had the same lists of people, just basically cut checks for the amount of the people

00:13:40.400 bought memberships for them all automatically made up the whole works. It was brutal. There

00:13:44.700 was overlap, there was duplication. All of these candidates had sold to the same people, supposedly

00:13:49.940 sold to the same people over and over. Vitor Marciano, he was our executive director at the

00:13:54.280 time. I mean, we knew this is going to stink because the only candidate who didn't flood it

00:13:58.680 was, I mean, the others were all of Indian and South Asian origin. And the one non-Indian in the

00:14:05.940 bunch, the one white guy, wasn't the only one who didn't break the rules. But that's going to look

00:14:09.220 awful if you disqualify the four brown folks and keep the one white guy but what are you supposed 0.85

00:14:14.760 to do so he spent days him with some helpers knocking on doors gathering the evidence collecting

00:14:20.980 it just showing look at this this household's claiming it's got 12 people living in it there's

00:14:25.240 only two people here this person's been signed up by all four of the other candidates you know lots

00:14:30.220 of other things built a huge case before disqualifying those four candidates which we did 0.93

00:14:35.920 And the backlash wasn't too, too big because every other party who deals in Northeast Calgary also knows this could bite us in the butt one day too.

00:14:45.160 It's a different sort of politics up there.

00:14:47.300 It's an ethnic play and it's unfortunate. 0.83

00:14:50.480 I mean, it's great that new Canadians are taking part in the process, but in that particular community, they look at things differently.

00:14:58.200 And it's just more of a game to be won.

00:15:00.060 And the party doesn't matter as much.

00:15:02.160 It's a matter of who's where.

00:15:05.060 and it's a tough area to work.

00:15:08.480 Either way, that's where George Chahal's hammering around 0.98

00:15:10.700 and he might win his seat back,

00:15:12.140 not because he deserves it.

00:15:13.260 I mean, he's been an ineffective member of parliament.

00:15:17.240 Again, he's embarrassed things.

00:15:18.960 He's the porch pirate

00:15:19.760 and we'll see what happens up in there.

00:15:26.080 So some of the games being played,

00:15:27.940 speaking of which, it's not unique to there. 0.99

00:15:29.520 There's that stupid long ballot protest 0.99

00:15:33.100 you might've seen before. 0.99

00:15:35.060 Uh, out in Ottawa, Carlton, that's where, where, uh, Polly was running. It's his own riding.

00:15:43.780 And, uh, there's this anti-democratic, I'll say it group. And I got to wonder about a bit of this.

00:15:50.040 Okay. Uh, they, they've started this long ballot thing where basically, and they've done it in a

00:15:54.460 couple of by-elections. They just get dozens and dozens and dozens of people to sign up

00:15:57.900 as candidates in the election. Just so the bandit ballot has loads of people. They got 90 people

00:16:02.960 on the ballot so i mean somebody wants to go in and vote for anybody or if it's probably ever

00:16:08.220 anything they've got to search through all those and those bandits ballots are randomized they don't

00:16:13.120 even do it in alphabetical because it might give an advantage to something like they try to keep

00:16:16.360 things fair all over when it makes a mess you've got to search through 90 names to find him and why

00:16:23.400 what's your point what's your purpose and where's the money coming from like 90 you've got to put

00:16:31.920 in deposits of, I believe it's $1,000. It's refundable if you file your papers and everything

00:16:38.220 else. But, you know, we're talking possibly $100,000, $90,000. Plus, you've got to get

00:16:46.360 signatures of 100 people living in the riding with their phone number, their address, the

00:16:51.840 whole works on it. This is a real petition to run. It's not easy to do. That's a few

00:16:55.040 days work. So how did you find 90 people willing to spend that much money and that much time

00:17:03.480 to flood a ballot and screw up an election somewhere? I honestly feel it should be

00:17:09.160 investigated. I mean, you have a right to run and these people do. And, you know, there might not

00:17:16.120 be any law having been broken. Who knows? I just want to know who's behind it. Just because you

00:17:21.440 can doesn't mean you should, right? I mean, is your interest really democracy? Is your interest

00:17:25.380 really making it better? Or is it just throwing sand in the gears? It's not a democratic movement.

00:17:32.700 It's an offense to democracy. It's screwing with the process. If you really don't like him,

00:17:38.960 you campaign against him. You run seriously against him, not trying to flood a constituency

00:17:45.720 with people. Sam seems to be late again. That's why I'm rambling a bit. So let's talk about some

00:17:53.200 of the issues that have been going on. Somebody saying Chinese money, foreign money, and one of

00:18:03.240 the commenters I thought I saw there, but that could be. I don't know. And that's the issue.

00:18:08.760 Foreign interference, like I was talking about, it's been forgotten. This was one of the biggest 1.00

00:18:14.480 issues in Canada for years. You know, the Liberals got away with ragging the puck. You know, they

00:18:23.040 dragged it out. Trudeau appointed his buddy there to run, you know, be a special rapporteur and that

00:18:30.580 fell apart because it was stupid. And then we have one report after another report that doesn't say 0.99

00:18:35.460 anything and they're blacked out and we're holding or dragging our heels. And then there's another

00:18:39.520 one that comes up and basically says, yeah, 11 people were compromised, but yeah, it's not that

00:18:44.020 big a deal. Years of this. And he got away with it. Think about the gravity of what has happened.

00:18:52.840 Eleven elected people were compromised. And so they'll say, oh, well, it's only in a minor way

00:18:59.460 perhaps. What? And we never got to find out who they are. This is a big deal. These are people

00:19:05.640 in the highest positions of power were now beholden to somebody overseas. Everybody's

00:19:14.620 freaking out quite a bit about the American issues, which they should. We've got some 1.00

00:19:21.100 issues going on in the United States. There's no doubt about that. But what about this stuff

00:19:27.480 we've been documenting for so long already? This should be a bigger issue. We've barely heard about

00:19:33.060 it. So, I mean, we had a conservative candidate actually stop campaigning publicly because the

00:19:41.840 RCMP warned him that he might be in danger. Again, think about the threat to democracy this is. This

00:19:49.040 is not a minor affair. This should be headline sort of things going on. And, you know, we've

00:19:59.320 we've let it become overshadowed by the American mess that's going on, unfortunately. And we really

00:20:05.800 should, there would have been no better time to discuss this. Actually, the better time to discuss

00:20:08.660 it would be before the election, rather than even during, because I mean, we don't know if somebody's

00:20:13.420 compromised or they aren't. And it adds suspicion and it adds questioning of the process. And the

00:20:19.800 next best time would have been during the election. But we've barely ever heard about it, at least from

00:20:23.680 the candidates and parties. But somebody we've heard a lot about it from has been Sam Cooper

00:20:27.160 with the Bureau. He's been very prolific. Lots of stories. This is his file, and he's been

00:20:32.960 magnificent on it for years now, and he's still hammering at it. So thank you very much for

00:20:39.600 joining us today, Sam. Glad to be with you, Corey.

00:20:44.100 So, I mean, you know, you might have heard a bit of my preamble there. I mean, just that this

00:20:48.800 frustration, like I was trying to explain the gravity of what's going on. I mean, we've got

00:20:54.300 other nations using Canada as a playground to kind of play politics within it. And we're in

00:20:59.100 the middle of a federal election, yet this issue doesn't really seem to be resonating during this

00:21:04.840 campaign. Well, I agree with you. It's really confusing to look at the scale of foreign 1.00

00:21:15.040 interference. First of all, as you know, that I revealed in our recent elections, just there's,

00:21:21.080 I would say, as my document reporting has shown, Chinese Communist Party documents suggest that

00:21:28.640 China has been pleased in the recent elections that up to from 40 to 50 nominees it would be

00:21:36.320 supportive of were put forward for the major political parties. And the whole commission

00:21:43.140 completely minimized the evidence in my view of how deep the interference was. But as we see in

00:21:49.800 the current campaign. It's almost hard to list off all the known cases that have surfaced

00:21:56.660 from a former police officer suggesting his conservative rival could be taken to the

00:22:02.920 Chinese consulate for a bounty. That candidate replaced by Mark Carney with another former

00:22:09.300 police officer who my reporting revealed had traveled to Beijing for a high-level military

00:22:15.400 parade had any number of connections to Chinese United Front networks in Toronto. And so you're

00:22:23.600 right. For the people that are following it and now know what the United Front is, I think that

00:22:29.560 they've started to probably adopt the view that I have that this problem is getting worse in Canada.

00:22:35.580 And yet you're right. At the mainstream level, it hasn't gotten through to millions of Canadians

00:22:41.980 who, in my view, I'll just use the vernacular, have been gaslit very successfully by the Liberal

00:22:49.140 Party into believing that this election is all about repelling the invaders from the South,

00:22:56.920 which I just don't think is the case. And that's not to underestimate that President Donald Trump's

00:23:04.280 trolling of Canada has been confusing and even scary. But I just think that that's not the

00:23:10.380 concern for Canadians and those that believe that's the concern, I think they're living in 0.92

00:23:16.240 rather a disillusioned world that will not help Canada's standing in the long run.

00:23:21.840 And I know it gets really speculative. It's difficult to figure out the motivations,

00:23:27.180 but I was just gobsmacked. I mean, you can see something going wrong on a riding level. You

00:23:32.340 made a mistake. Things turned disastrous. That first policeman who, after those appalling

00:23:38.040 statements about his opponent he got pulled out but you would think then the liberals are going

00:23:41.400 to be really gun shy we're going to make sure we put in somebody who has absolutely no connection

00:23:46.120 to you know it would only make sense to to the to beijing on any level and they replace him with

00:23:52.500 somebody virtually as bad perhaps just not as badly outspoken as the last one is this a case of

00:23:58.360 incompetence or are they they compromised i i just don't get it well cory i could talk for for days

00:24:06.460 about this and i've written a book about it this if i would if i really want to be direct here

00:24:12.060 the uh the the liberal party of mark carney which mark carney took over essentially has

00:24:18.620 a system in place or rather has acquiesced to a system called beijing's united front

00:24:24.220 work department and it's very active by the way in other nations australia new zealand

00:24:29.660 the United States as well, where community groups in the diaspora, unfortunately, have been co-opted

00:24:37.420 and controlled by Beijing's agents who task business people in the community, get them to

00:24:44.540 surround our Canadian political leaders. And essentially, the trade is we will provide funding

00:24:50.800 for your party. We will provide votes, but we will get to essentially suggest to you the candidates

00:24:57.460 you should put in place so for mark carney to put a uh former toronto police officer senior

00:25:03.540 executive in place that as my reporting followed by the global mail revealed has very tight ties

00:25:09.540 to these very same beijing connected community groups i don't think that uh a mark carney really

00:25:16.420 has much of a choice unless he wants to buck that system and he won't buck that system uh i can say

00:25:23.940 You know, I'll get into the weeds a little bit here. The Globe and Mail, following my reporting, broke a story that Mark Carney had met with one of these very same Toronto-based community groups in January, signaling sort of to the community that he is friendly with these Beijing-supported groups.

00:25:44.320 And, you know, that message means a lot to the Chinese consulate people that are in charge of interference. And really, at the end of the day, these people, there's a trade going on. You support us. We support you and the candidates that Beijing favors will be put forward.

00:26:05.540 yeah and well and i'm glad you brought up your book because you wrote a fantastic one that kind

00:26:10.680 of goes really into the weeds and the depth i mean this is an issue that goes back a long ways

00:26:16.420 and is entrenched in a whole number of areas and and it's not just the liberals i mean even this

00:26:21.180 is going back prior to stephen harper even we've had problems with this issues with this

00:26:25.440 and governments that are just very reticent on stepping in and doing anything about it as you

00:26:32.340 wrote, you know, the money laundering in West Coast casinos. I mean, it all, the tentacles of

00:26:38.420 how this all ties together, even in your most recent story on the fentanyl triangle. It's such

00:26:44.860 a webbed unravel. Maybe it's the fact that it's so bloody complicated that people are having

00:26:49.140 trouble grasping just what this is all about. I really do think that's the case. And, you know,

00:26:55.040 if we're talking about successive governments, some of them more, some of them less being

00:26:59.800 influenced by Beijing, I think at the end of the day, this is a little bit of a West versus East 0.64

00:27:06.520 story. And if we really want to delve into the weeds or maybe get to the core of it, there's

00:27:11.680 something called the Canada-China Business Council, which has been historically, some have called it

00:27:17.820 the power behind the throne of liberal prime ministers, starting with Pierre Trudeau. We

00:27:23.200 literally have various liberal prime ministers that have sat on the boards of, you know, a powerful

00:27:29.560 Quebec corporate entities that I have reported for the Bureau. Jonathan Manthorpe did a great

00:27:36.260 book as well. These Quebec corporate industrialists have direct ties to Chinese Communist Party,

00:27:43.040 senior business families. And I think that's what's behind this. Conservative prime ministers

00:27:50.980 have been influenced that as well. We have Stephen Harper, who my reporting shows was taking a

00:27:56.860 stronger national security line against Beijing, was willing to stand against some of the oil

00:28:02.920 resource field investment from Beijing entities, but was sort of, that position was watered down

00:28:10.740 again by this East Coast Canada-China Business Council, which at the end of the day, I'm

00:28:15.580 thinking, I'm asserting, if you look at Mark Carney's choices, there's a lot of smart people

00:28:21.940 I talk to in the security world that say it's the business, the Canada-China Business Council

00:28:27.380 behind him that's really pulling a lot of those strings. So, I mean, we won't know until Monday

00:28:33.740 what our government's going to look like going forward. This issue isn't going to go away,

00:28:38.660 but what's it going to take to get it rectified? I mean, we've had so many now panels and

00:28:43.840 commissions and just, you know, they drag their feet and they hide the data. I won't be shocked

00:28:49.980 if we find out six months after this election, oh, by the way, there was interference in this

00:28:53.700 writing, this writing, this writing, and this writing, but we're not going to tell you anything

00:28:56.100 about it. What on earth does it take anymore? Well, I do think that if a conservative government

00:29:05.120 won, there would be a disruption to the system in place, which I'm asserting with good confidence

00:29:11.480 is a great deal of corruption going on involving politicians, law firms, corporations that really

00:29:18.800 have a great deal of uh business interest tied to beijing and at the end of the day i have argued

00:29:25.520 that beijing's intelligence and saturation level in interference in canada is about splitting

00:29:32.640 ottawa from washington in other words splitting canadians from our closest and deepest allies our

00:29:38.240 american cousins and brothers and sisters so what's it going to take i believe it would at

00:29:44.720 the end of the day the conservatives would be you know a directional improvement they probably

00:29:50.240 wouldn't really get to the bottom of things because they have their own issues uh as you know

00:29:55.600 as uh you know you cannot say that the conservative party would just snap their fingers and do away

00:30:01.840 with chinese interference or interference from india or the corruption that is in canada's

00:30:06.800 government i'm saying so what does it take uh it'll take a lot more hard action from washington

00:30:12.480 I believe, and a lot more tough medicine that a lot of sort of elderly, more socialist leaning

00:30:18.600 Canadians don't understand that the U.S. does have some deep and real concerns about Canada's

00:30:25.300 lack of seriousness on national security. Yeah, well, I'm glad you brought that up because it

00:30:31.720 kind of hit the news recently. China kind of made a bit of a play almost, and it wasn't well received

00:30:36.080 by most people, but they're kind of along the lines of, you know, well, you've got that wild

00:30:39.660 man south of the border you got president trump uh he's difficult to deal with but here we are

00:30:44.620 come on we can tighten our relationship now's the time canada and china should be become closer

00:30:49.400 and it was almost a transparent uh reach into uh canadian politics uh you know

00:30:57.300 when uh the americans are providing such a distraction i mean the reality is

00:31:02.280 they're still going to be our best ally our largest trading partner down in the united states

00:31:06.480 No matter, you know, Trump is off the rails, he's Trump, but he's not going to be there forever.

00:31:11.500 And the Americans will. So tightening ties with China right now, I don't I mean, we can't abandon them. 0.77

00:31:17.920 We're very integrated with them. But it just seemed like a pretty transparent grab at things while we were, I guess, on the outs with our neighbors right now.

00:31:27.580 Yeah, I believe so. And this is this story is being played out in Europe. It's being played out around the world.

00:31:33.020 When I really stepped back, I was talking to a security community friend today and said, look, if you would ask me five years ago after, you know, I was digging into my book, Willful Blindness, what should Canada do?

00:31:47.440 I would say, year by year, we should be cutting trade ties with China. We should be manufacturing 1.00

00:31:53.380 in North America. If they are intentionally sending fentanyl precursors into our nations

00:31:59.460 to kill our citizens, the only responsible thing to do if they don't stop is basically stop trading

00:32:04.960 with them, trade with the rest of the world. So what's happening south of the border in a very

00:32:09.800 abrupt, explosive way, President Trump is doing that. And he's making it worse by being very

00:32:16.940 mean-spirited in his language with people around the world, you know, just playing sort of the

00:32:23.360 American high horse. And everyone knows in diplomacy, you know, a spoonful of sugar makes

00:32:29.280 the medicine go down. So they're messing up what I believe should be the strategic direction of

00:32:36.580 the world, which is to shift away from China, but do it slowly, surely. Don't start any wars.

00:32:43.000 And you're right. So what happens when they handle it rather badly in Washington? You get diplomats from China saying, let's get closer. We're really friends. We respect you. To which I have a visceral reaction saying, yes, some Canadians were recently killed in China. You take our citizens hostage.

00:33:02.560 I myself have been told I can't safely travel to China.

00:33:07.640 So and I even posted on X.

00:33:11.780 Ironic that you'd say, China, you want to get close to us, because I know from my police 1.00

00:33:16.360 sources that your diplomats in Canada are surveilled meeting with drug dealers.

00:33:22.340 So indeed, I would never think or advocate that Canada should get closer to China.

00:33:27.960 but it's a world of political turmoil and a lack of diplomacy we're in the middle of right now.

00:33:35.040 It's something else. And the discussion just keeps going on and on. I mean, I just really

00:33:39.580 appreciate you working so hard to, well, to have brought it up in the first place and you're

00:33:43.040 keeping it going because we're going to need to have this discussion going forward and for

00:33:46.820 more time to come. So before I let you go, I mean, your book's Willful Blindness.

00:33:52.540 It's available, I imagine, on Amazon and the usual places.

00:33:55.320 Yeah, you can find it most easily on Amazon. I saw that it got up to the top 100 again in Canada. So that's quite the feat, really. I'm pleased that after four years on the market, and especially at thebureau.news, the platform where I'm breaking similar sort of deep reporting almost every day. So go to thebureau.news and read that type of reporting that was in Willful Blindness.

00:34:20.140 yeah no your book is fantastic and and i've told people that before and i strongly suggest folks

00:34:25.760 go out and get a copy it gives a real great background give it more understanding kind of

00:34:29.940 the whole roots of this whole this whole mess and and then and again as you said the bureau boy yeah

00:34:34.760 it just keeps uh uh i look forward to the emails coming into my inbox you guys are covering stuff

00:34:39.520 fantastically there so i thank you again sam for your work and for coming on today to talk to us

00:34:45.300 Great to be back, Corey. Thanks. Great. Thanks. So yes, guys, that was Sam Cooper. And like I said,

00:34:50.600 the book is Willful Blindness. And as I said as well, he's speaking up, he's carrying on. This

00:34:55.960 is his issue. He's owned it and he's done a fantastic job with it. So seek him out, check

00:35:01.820 it out and see what you got to do with it. Okay. Let's talk about a couple of the questions. I see

00:35:07.140 Kenzie said, you know, what about the tariffs with China? And that's another issue

00:35:11.080 um that uh is big and uh there's a trade war going on with china and that's being overlooked

00:35:18.220 and part of it is we got ourselves into it i say i hate to say we but you know canada

00:35:22.800 put tariffs on chinese vehicles which led to reciprocal tariffs which are now harming

00:35:27.700 uh farmers in central canada you know through the prairies because the china is one of the

00:35:33.980 bigger buyers for seed crops and oil crops and things such as that. And it's just that I brought

00:35:42.280 Sam on no more to talk about the interference issue. You know, it's such a difficult thing.

00:35:47.860 I mean, China is a huge nation. They are patient. They're smart. The Chinese government,

00:35:55.460 uh they they take their time and they look and plan long and it's difficult to deal with as well

00:36:05.560 because China provides us a lot of good things I mean that you know our consumer products are as

00:36:10.700 low as they are in many many levels because they were manufactured in China if you really want to

00:36:15.800 bring things home like like Trump keeps talking about others and we want to reduce the dependence

00:36:19.340 there's no doubt about that but if you want to talk about shutting down trade with China

00:36:23.120 it could be done, but you better be prepared to spend a whole lot of more money on pretty much

00:36:28.340 everything. Now we've let ourselves get into that position. Suzanne saying, I received my book this

00:36:35.560 week, Willful Blindness. Thank you, Sam Cooper. Yeah. And Kenzie saying, you know, bought the

00:36:40.920 book as well. Again, and that's what's important to support independent journalists like Sam,

00:36:45.200 buying the book, subscribing to his thing, the Bureau, because nobody else, you know,

00:36:50.100 legacy media is really digging into that. Sam was digging into this when he used to be

00:36:53.820 with Global, and he's not with them any longer. And he's really the only one still digging into

00:37:00.900 this very important thing. And it's not just China. Canada's a soft touch for a number of

00:37:05.980 them. He did mention India. And India has been playing games in Vancouver, you know,

00:37:11.440 with stuff going on with the Sikh separatist communities. And those battles are going on

00:37:17.560 within Vancouver. We start taking on these battles by proxy and it just shows that Canada's not got

00:37:23.320 good control of its own borders, which is really distressing in general. You know, lots of other

00:37:29.580 countries are going to come in and meddle around because they're looking out for their own interests

00:37:32.940 and they find Canada a good place to do it, especially as we are a good jumping off point

00:37:36.600 right next to the United States. Kenzie Singh, I think Sam is a brave man. He is. And when I had

00:37:41.540 him on my show last time, he had spoken that there were potentially threats. Like it's a dangerous

00:37:45.960 place to get. A lot of the Chinese population who came to Canada still have strong ties in

00:37:54.000 China. They immigrated here to start a new life, get away from other things, but they still have 1.00

00:38:00.040 family members over there and they remain very tight-knit with the communities here in Canada.

00:38:06.920 Unfortunately, you see most of these interference cases, the stuff we're seeing going on, the threats,

00:38:10.560 the things like that, are by Chinese Communist Party agents within Canada. They have those

00:38:16.720 Chinese, they call them police stations within Canada, in Canada. And these are who they tend

00:38:22.200 to target are new Canadians who came from China. And they can twist their arms, they can threaten 1.00

00:38:26.200 their families back in China, or they can threaten them here. And that's why it was so appalling 1.00

00:38:31.680 for that liberal candidate to threaten his other candidate who was wanted by the Chinese

00:38:36.960 communists to say we should turn them in over to them and let the Chinese communists do what 0.93

00:38:43.760 they will with them. I mean, that's unbelievable when you think about it. And again, it didn't

00:38:47.920 make nearly as much of the scandal as it should have. Somebody mentioning the opium wars, and

00:38:54.780 we want to go far enough back. Sure, you know, drugs addiction, they've been used as means to

00:38:59.880 mess with other cultures for, yeah, centuries. But right now, the problem is the consumers of

00:39:06.240 the drugs are all over the world. And in North America, we're dealing with it because fentanyl

00:39:11.480 is killing young people here and older people. It's killing people all over the place in Canada,

00:39:17.460 the United States. It's an epidemic. None of us have seen anything like this in our lifetime.

00:39:20.500 And China is tied in with that. It's a part of it. And again, Sam covers that in his book. He's

00:39:25.780 covered that in his most recent posting from the Bureau there. But at the same time,

00:39:32.740 we got to worry about paranoia and introversion. And that's what I worry about with some of this

00:39:42.160 too. We really do have interference going on. We really do have some people

00:39:45.740 being targeted and being pressured, but most of the Chinese population by far

00:39:53.740 just want to take part in the economy and live peacefully and happily here like the rest of us.

00:39:58.740 You know, one of the things that's, it's fantastic if you travel around, I worked in the oil field

00:40:03.600 for 20 years. I hit, you know, I lived in hotels and camps for all that time. One of the neat

00:40:08.600 things is no matter where you go in North America, if you go to a town and it can only sustain one

00:40:14.220 restaurant, it's 90% likely it's going to be run by a Chinese family. And hey, these things are 0.96

00:40:21.100 important. If you're in a small prairie town that only has, you know, say a gas station and, you

00:40:27.220 know maybe a little hardware in one restaurant I mean having no restaurant sucks guys you need a

00:40:31.940 place to gather to get together to grab a meal to do those things and the only folks the reasons

00:40:37.200 there's a few reasons that it tends to be run by Chinese people I mean the history of it's really

00:40:40.860 fascinating if you want to dig farther into it a lot of it started kind of from the ones left

00:40:44.800 you know when the railroad was finished being built over 100 and some years ago they spread

00:40:48.540 across the prairies just trying to find places they open laundries and restaurants but nobody

00:40:54.020 else can run that tight. I owned a pub and restaurant for a while. And I tell you what,

00:40:58.760 I mean, you're talking 5% margins. It's difficult. And in some small town, it's even worse. When you

00:41:03.760 have a family who's, and you see the family, they work their butts off. They got the kids serving

00:41:08.140 tables after school and they're working in the kitchen night and day and they're doing the works

00:41:12.780 there. They're great people. They're a part of the community. They take part, but they are still

00:41:19.480 tightly connected back to China too. Not in the interference sense, but just that that's the

00:41:22.860 homeland. That's the way it goes. And, uh, they're valuable members of the community. But I finally

00:41:28.120 asked one person because his, uh, his name was Jimmy and the name of the restaurant was Jimmy's

00:41:33.780 and this Jimmy was only couldn't have been in his thirties, but he has a strong Chinese accent in

00:41:38.920 the, in a small town I was in and the restaurant's called Jimmy's, but I knew that the restaurant

00:41:43.120 had been called Jimmy's for probably since before I was born. So I said, look, you know, how is it

00:41:49.540 this restaurant's you know 80 90 years old you're running it and it's still named after

00:41:53.620 you're named jimmy he says well no i moved here with my family i bought it off the last family

00:41:58.040 that owned it and i just changed my anglicized name when i got here to jimmy so it matches the

00:42:02.640 restaurant and uh the way it works for a lot of those families those he'll be here he gets his

00:42:07.980 kids educated in canadian schools they work very hard in the community and then when it comes time

00:42:13.420 to retire he'll sell the restaurant often to another chinese family who's coming over to get

00:42:18.240 their foothold, you know, to start in North America, too, because I was kind of fascinated,

00:42:21.500 you know, it's a restaurant, it's 100 years old, why is that English is so, you know, still a second 1.00

00:42:26.800 language, because you're a new Canadian. And that's not the case with every restaurant. But

00:42:29.480 it's just a cool part of the prairies and small towns, and part of our populations. And I think

00:42:35.760 it strengthens us that, you know, these people coming out and working with us and joining our

00:42:40.520 communities. So we got to watch when we talk about the bad side, the interference, the Chinese 1.00

00:42:45.900 government, the Chinese communists, we've always got to remember that the vast majority of the

00:42:50.380 Chinese people who came to Canada, they come here to make a life. They're coming to get away 1.00

00:42:55.600 from the communists. They want no part of it. They want less of that than we do.

00:43:00.980 So don't take out the frustration with the unchecked interference issues that are going on

00:43:05.940 on the Chinese population in general. That's wrong. That's not doing ourselves favors. It's 0.97

00:43:10.280 certainly not doing the Chinese new Canadians any favors. What we got to get on to, of course, 0.98

00:43:15.500 is our bloody politicians who are too chicken to take these issues on too chicken to to really dig 0.91

00:43:21.900 into the interference issues to the people being threatened the canadians and these are canadian 0.94

00:43:26.060 citizens even if they're chinese origin that are being threatened by chinese communists here in

00:43:30.540 canada this is outrageous this is we aren't doing our job as a as a welcoming country if we can't

00:43:37.820 protect people from the government they fled and if our politicians don't have the courage to do it

00:43:43.260 So these things are important. And that's why, you know, Sam labeled his book, willful blindness,

00:43:49.840 because we've known about this. This has been going on for decades. There were reports in the

00:43:54.380 nineties about this problem, but politicians are too chicken shit to take it on. And the ones 1.00

00:44:00.500 suffering the most are a lot of the new Canadians, Chinese people who are here, fantastic citizens,

00:44:05.420 and they're getting targeted and pushed and pressured around. Plus, yes, we've got this

00:44:08.340 stuff going on from India and God knows where else because we won't control things within our

00:44:13.760 own borders. We're too busy pointing at the crazy orange man south of the border and seeing that's 1.00

00:44:18.100 our biggest threat. Now, Trump's a pain in the ass and he is crazy, but he's only going to be 1.00

00:44:22.580 there a few more years. We've got bigger issues. This interference issue has been going on for 1.00

00:44:26.200 decades and we've really got to sort it out. All right, let's talk a little more about some

00:44:31.120 domestic policy though and bring in Crystal Widvrongel from the Montreal Economic Institute

00:44:36.580 And well, we could talk a little bit of energy.

00:44:39.600 Thanks for joining us today, Crystal.

00:44:41.340 Thanks for having me.

00:44:43.280 So it's from a couple of weeks ago, but you put a piece out of, you know, we heard a little

00:44:47.440 bit about it and it kind of disappeared, but we're talking about, you know, C-69, the

00:44:52.520 bill that's supposed to facilitate the construction of major industrial projects. 0.97

00:45:00.100 We're not going to get rid of it by the sounds of it if the Liberals become reelected anyways.

00:45:04.660 And maybe not enough people understand that I think the, the promises of expanding our, our domestic energy infrastructure are pretty hollow if we don't get rid of that bill.

00:45:14.660 Yeah.

00:45:15.660 So really what we were talking about is the impact assessment act, which is part of C 69 and it oversees the major infrastructure in this country.

00:45:24.660 A lot of which is the energy stuff that has really been in the limelight lately, especially with all of the issues, tariffs and all of that talk.

00:45:34.660 But really, there are very deep problems with the Impact Assessment Act. And we've looked at it at MEI for years, ever since it came in basically in 2019, and have been criticizing it along with other voices.

00:45:47.920 um and unless there are some big changes made we're going to continue to see uh investment

00:45:54.500 not made in Canada projects not being built jobs not being realized and all of this at a time when

00:46:02.240 you know Canadian productivity is really in the dump uh so it's we need to do something about it

00:46:09.000 desperately and this act I mean this applies you know we talk mostly about it in Alberta and when

00:46:14.740 it comes to oil and gas. And just to remind folks, I mean, you're with the Montreal Economic

00:46:18.920 Institute, but you're Western-based and cover a lot of issues out here. But I mean, this impacts

00:46:23.900 a lot of things, mining projects, any large resource projects across the entire country.

00:46:30.740 Exactly. And so one of the problems with the Impact Assessment Act is there is a list of

00:46:37.520 projects or thresholds rather that kind of dictate when you you know pass a certain threshold the

00:46:44.880 project will need to be subject to a federal review or if it impacts areas of federal jurisdiction

00:46:52.240 like fisheries and these sorts of things that seem fairly clear so you can say okay my project will

00:46:58.320 need a federal impact assessment however you can also have you know whoever wanting to start a

00:47:04.800 project that is designed within those thresholds, where they think I am within it, I don't need this

00:47:12.000 federal impact assessment based on the way that it is outlined. And the Minister can actually turn

00:47:17.440 around and say, you know what, you do need it. So even if you design it within the confines of what

00:47:24.080 is outlined, there still is the real risk of requiring one which doesn't really do much for

00:47:30.560 certainty, especially when we're talking investments in these, you know, huge sums of

00:47:35.520 dollars. Well, people have to understand. I mean, even if you're a big company, you're playing a

00:47:40.280 long game and you're going to play the game of four or five, six years of applications and

00:47:45.200 hearings and consultations and licensing and all that. There's no guarantee that you're going to

00:47:49.560 get a thumbs up at the end. You could pour millions and millions of dollars into something

00:47:53.720 and still never actually get it off the ground. I can't think of a better way to chill investment.

00:47:58.680 I mean, who in their right mind would commit themselves to something like that?

00:48:03.440 Exactly.

00:48:04.560 And so, you know, over the past decade, when investment has been increasing in other areas of the world in these areas, we've seen a decrease in Canada.

00:48:14.120 And one of the issues is because of the Impact Assessment Act.

00:48:17.220 Since it came in in 2019, there's only been one single project that has successfully went through the entire process.

00:48:25.140 And that took about three and a half years.

00:48:26.960 And that was facilitated in part because of what's called a substitution agreement, where the federal government with the British Columbia government has stated and has an agreement with them that if they are to do their assessments at the provincial level, the federal government recognizes that as being acceptable and meeting their needs.

00:48:49.920 And so it really was that one project, one review that we're hearing about. That's what happened in that case. And so British Columbia is currently the only province that has an agreement with the federal government where they can take that route with their projects.

00:49:05.200 So even if we see, you know, a government who doesn't want to repeal or significantly reform the Impact Assessment Act, you know, in the future here, we can only hope that we would see more of these substitution agreements, which is something that the Liberals have stated that they would look into with, you know, a reformed Impact Assessment Act.

00:49:27.700 And so, you know, three and a half years is how long that project took, and we can only hope that it speeds up for future projects as we need them desperately in this country.

00:49:36.620 Well, yeah, I mean, I think for the first time in, you know, living memory, at least we have appetite across this country, a realization that we have to develop our domestic resources and our ability to get them to diverse markets.

00:49:48.640 That's a win sort of, but only if we make sure we're capable of developing and getting those

00:49:55.600 resources to those markets. So Mr. Carney has said he won't get rid of the act, but is there

00:50:05.040 an ability you think then to amend it, to change it? And I mean, it would have to be done relatively

00:50:09.760 fast too, or it's not going to be any better than what we're stuck with.

00:50:12.240 yeah so i mean ideally when we see so many issues with something it might be easier just to start

00:50:19.600 from square one but if that's not there out we go as a country uh significant reform and amendment

00:50:25.840 is needed and can be done um there are certain things that can be targeted so you know having

00:50:32.560 these additional substitution agreements to cut down on some of the duplication and streamline

00:50:38.800 some of the processing and regulatory burden behind that that's one thing and then having a

00:50:44.880 little bit more certainty as I was talking about earlier with the project list or you know if

00:50:50.240 you're going to need a impact assessment that's another area that can be amended we can cut back

00:50:56.960 on the scope of factors to be considered in an impact assessment because that is a major issue

00:51:03.120 it went under the previous legislation from consideration of environmental factors and you

00:51:10.520 know health and social these sorts of things to a wide ranging list and really a list that kind

00:51:18.080 of can go on and on and so that has been one of the things that has chilled investment as well

00:51:23.280 and can be targeted so I mean ideally we you know have something new and fresh but the current IAA

00:51:29.840 can be amended in a very targeted manner to hopefully bring some of the certainty back to

00:51:36.760 our economy in these areas of major investment. Well, and part of the role of the federal

00:51:43.540 government, I mean, you know, it's kind of debatable where it sits, but they should be

00:51:47.020 there actually to facilitate projects that cross provincial borders. That's kind of the role of a

00:51:51.480 federal government rather than hindering it. In fact, they should sometimes, though I can't

00:51:57.700 imagine seeing it almost be able to put their foot down sometimes when one province is hindering a

00:52:02.660 neighboring province on some sort of development and say, I'm sorry, but constitutionally you can't

00:52:08.400 do that. This project has to go. You know, can something like that be built into the act? I

00:52:16.480 mean, pointing out like this is the final authority on this project? I mean, I know that there's been

00:52:22.300 some discussion on national interest designations and these sorts of topics within the context of

00:52:28.620 the IAA but when it comes to it really uh national natural resource development and resource

00:52:35.260 development is a provincial jurisdiction and that needs to be respected so any discussions of that

00:52:41.660 manner really need to keep that in account um and you know on the other side of that the federal

00:52:48.140 government has been criticized for overdoing it and stepping into areas of provincial jurisdiction

00:52:54.540 which is why the iaa was amended last year but also is still open to further future legal challenges

00:53:01.980 because some critics do state it still is unconstitutional in that it steps into these

00:53:07.340 areas of provincial jurisdiction so there's definitely a balance that needs to be struck

00:53:12.060 but it is the provinces that have the jurisdiction with that regard with regard to the project itself

00:53:19.180 but if it's a project that crosses provincial borders then it becomes federal like a a energy

00:53:24.460 transmission line or a pipeline or a highway for that matter uh i mean again you don't want to

00:53:29.820 fight with the province if you can avoid it but at the same time if a province said you know what no

00:53:34.220 i'm not allowing that highway through here anymore i i i know the government would step in and say

00:53:37.980 well that's unfortunate but you can't do that uh but they seem to allow the provinces to have a

00:53:43.100 veto when it comes to pipelines they're kind of selective on where they want to head die on hills

00:53:47.660 when it comes to that yeah definitely that one's a lot more political and you know i don't expect

00:53:53.740 that to change in the future in terms of the politics surrounding especially pipelines um

00:53:59.740 in certain provinces but we will be watching to see with whatever a future government uh whatever

00:54:05.500 future government does come in what happens with that and how that is handled so the conservatives

00:54:11.500 have vowed to to get rid of and repeal c69 uh the impact assessment act presumably though something

00:54:18.940 will replace it uh what would you like to see then in a new i mean something does have to be there

00:54:25.580 we we need some degree of regulation we want to minimize it but what should be put in place then

00:54:30.540 if we were going back to basics of essentially an environmental assessment and what's needed to

00:54:37.740 perfect to prevent environmental damage and to protect the environment that should be sort of

00:54:43.100 at the forefront of any sort of new legislation and building on previous legislation but in ways

00:54:50.860 that take into account current context so for instance if we are looking at a parcel of land

00:55:00.380 that has already been developed in some way if we're adding an additional thing to it so say

00:55:06.220 we're adding twinning a pipeline for instance should that need to undergo a brand new impact

00:55:11.820 assessment or can that be you know a smaller simpler process so a new environmental assessment

00:55:19.180 act of whatever it would be titled could take things like that into account but it would need

00:55:24.380 to be up and running quickly especially from the investment certainty standpoint because without one

00:55:30.380 or without, you know, any sort of certainty in that regard, that doesn't do much for investment

00:55:35.540 certainty either, which we see, you know, a lot of waffling about when it comes to this sort of thing.

00:55:43.900 Yeah, it's quite an issue going on with that. What about, you know, I mean, I guess you'd want

00:55:52.380 to avoid duplication. That's something else too. I mean, you know, the province is making the same

00:55:56.620 demands is the federal government. I mean, the environment's the same darn thing, whether it's

00:56:01.040 a federal study or a provincial study for that matter. But I mean, it'd just be tough. You want

00:56:06.960 to get fast with it, then I guess if you're bringing in this new act, I mean, the government

00:56:10.560 can be as slow in bringing in legislation as they are in utilizing that legislation to get projects

00:56:15.200 done. Exactly. And the opposition to it and what that has to look like and taking public interest

00:56:21.740 into consideration and those sorts of things like it's it's a very complicated scenario sort of

00:56:27.740 either way but um you know as we started off in this conversation about you know the potential

00:56:33.660 to reform or amend the impact assessment act you know carney has been on the record saying that

00:56:39.580 that would give more certainty um rather than having a brand new piece of legislation that's

00:56:45.020 open to legal challenges but I think it needs to be you know reiterated that the current IAA

00:56:52.460 does need significant amendment in order to avoid further legal challenge on its own and

00:56:57.100 that's something that top legal firms across the country have been saying since the previous

00:57:02.060 amendment so we need to make sure to get it right this time whichever way we go with it as a country

00:57:09.020 yeah well I believe there was a ruling against that act basically saying it was in violation of

00:57:13.580 of the constitution, but it does seem, I don't know, that's a larger discussion in Canada. We

00:57:18.000 can have our senior court saying, you're right, this is against the constitution and the government

00:57:21.780 says, oh, that's a shame. Well, we're coming full of steam ahead anyhow. And there's not really a

00:57:25.540 heck of a lot we can do about it. Yeah. And so I believe the Alberta government has already

00:57:31.180 challenged again. And, you know, we're going to see more of that, but also we're going to see

00:57:37.880 and changes with whatever government comes in, in the near future here too. So, um, I mean,

00:57:43.880 I know that I'm watching and feel quite nervous about it. Um, and I, I'm not a major investor,

00:57:49.720 so I can only imagine what that would look like from an investment standpoint. Um, when I'm

00:57:54.360 feeling this way, it's just, you know, your everyday regular Calgarian. So. Yeah. I mean,

00:57:59.640 we just need a, uh, all they want to see is a framework, you know, here it is steps A to Z.

00:58:04.920 these are all the check marks you need to fill but a good assurance that once you get to zed we

00:58:09.400 promise you we'll let you start moving dirt and we don't quite have that confidence ability yet

00:58:15.560 exactly and that is one of the big problems um and you know i could go into more i know we're

00:58:21.240 running short of time here so i won't go too far but um there are other things within the ia that

00:58:27.400 really make it um give the potential for further delays in the process um when it comes to politics

00:58:36.760 versus policy for instance um that the minister can delay some of these timelines which are

00:58:43.320 legislated timelines so a new iaa should have that be really um bulletproof if you will or a

00:58:50.360 new piece of legislation where you know a timeline a legislated timeline is a timeline um and that

00:58:55.800 needs to be respected um obviously there needs to be flexibility for certain considerations but for

00:59:02.200 the most part this is this is a huge problem and we need to look at that as well yeah well you know

00:59:07.720 you don't want to the other thing that could happen if the timeline is too long is you can get

00:59:11.800 a government change and a rug pull happen to you when you're part way through we saw that with

00:59:15.560 keystone where they batted it back and forth oh look at that president trump said we could do it

00:59:19.880 We've built it to each side. And then Biden came in and he said, no, we're shutting it down.

00:59:25.560 And those lawsuits failed from, from TCPL too. I mean, they just basically said, oh,

00:59:29.880 sorry, you're on the hook for, you know, a couple of billion dollars. It's a shame.

00:59:33.800 And that's a huge, huge hit to potential investment because either long-term projects,

00:59:39.800 like they take many years to build and get up and get running. And so if the regulatory process is

00:59:45.800 also, you know, five to seven to 10 years, we will see multiple changes of government, you know,

00:59:51.700 at the provincial level and at the federal level over that time span. So it's not doing much for

00:59:58.160 people wanting to, or companies wanting to step into that space. The bottom line is we most

01:00:03.900 definitely just got to speed it up one way or another, even if it's more fast track thumbs

01:00:08.640 down, at least then they know what they're pursuing and they can quit wasting time on it,

01:00:12.680 move on to something else. Well, let's hope for the best. As you said, we've been nervous going

01:00:18.880 forward, seeing where they're going with this. It seems more like Mr. Carney recognizes that

01:00:24.700 it's a problem, but he doesn't seem that eager to deal with it. We'll see, I guess, the day after

01:00:29.960 the election. We don't know who the prime minister is going to be after Monday anyways, but

01:00:33.600 well, that's one of the things that we hope that stays on the priority, no matter who the government

01:00:37.980 is, because we've just got to get this stuff done. So I appreciate the work you guys do with

01:00:42.160 the Montreal Economic Institute and keeping the, you know, these issues alive and giving

01:00:45.980 some good reports on it. Yeah. I know you guys write on healthcare and a lot of great things as

01:00:49.500 well. So before I let you go, where can people find your stuff and keep up with you? Our website

01:00:54.880 is www.iedm.org. And we do have offices in Montreal, Calgary, and Ottawa. So MEI is where

01:01:06.080 you can find us. Great. Well, thank you again. I always appreciate it when you come on. It's just

01:01:11.500 a nice breather of common sense. So I'll let you get back into work. I'm sure you've got some data

01:01:16.720 to dig into and translate for the rest of us there on the next reports coming out. So thanks again,

01:01:22.320 and we'll talk again soon. Thanks for having me. All right. So again, guys, yes, Crystal Witt-Wrangel

01:01:29.260 and look it up, the Montreal Economic Institute. Again, it's almost a misnomer, you know, some

01:01:34.020 Albertans worry that, you know, it's an Eastern-based organization or something like that,

01:01:39.940 as she said at the end, no, they got offices all across the country and then they really put out

01:01:43.800 some good stuff. Those think tanks, you know, they, there's where you can get the tall foreheads

01:01:49.580 working on things. And as I said, they can dig into the data, compress it into something more

01:01:54.500 palatable for us and, and digestible. And then we can get the summary. And as they've been

01:02:00.740 pointing out, as, as Crystal has, that act, that impact assessment act, we've always called it

01:02:07.280 in Alberta, the anti-pipeline bill. Because, I mean, it really is built to hinder. You know,

01:02:12.540 a more courageous thing on Trudeau's part, I'm going to mention that jerk's name. He's been out 0.99

01:02:16.620 of sight, but the damage he's caused is far from gone. And his little gang is still there in Ottawa.

01:02:22.900 That bill was meant to kill oil and gas development. It always was. Justin Trudeau

01:02:28.420 always had that as his ideal. He was said it over and over years ago. We want to phase out the oil

01:02:35.580 sands. We want to phase out oil and gas. And he, but he didn't have the balls to come up and just

01:02:40.980 say, we're going to ban it, which I, you know, I'm glad he didn't do that, but, but this is a 0.97

01:02:47.020 backdoor way. We won't ban it. We will just make so much paperwork and garbage and trash and

01:02:52.660 regulations that nobody will dare invest in it. And, uh, it worked as Crystal said, only one

01:02:59.780 thing has gotten done over the years since that thing came in. And it's hard. Joe Mills saying

01:03:07.680 certain provinces have stood in the way of developing theirs and leeched off others. Yes,

01:03:10.940 and I know which certain province you're talking about, Joe. This is where we get a tough balance.

01:03:16.060 You know, I've had those discussions online. I'm very much big on having provincial independence,

01:03:21.100 provincial authority, provincial sovereignty as much whenever possible. But, and this is where

01:03:29.260 we come to it. And that's where I, as yes, and independent supporters start questioning

01:03:33.640 the point of a federation. The point of a federation is to have some overriding rules

01:03:41.180 though, that make it that you can all work to each other's benefit. It means that as I was

01:03:46.940 saying to Crystal, you can't stop a railway. You can't stop a pipeline. You can't stop a highway

01:03:52.480 because a province, that's federal jurisdiction. The feds are there to just make sure that the 0.98

01:03:58.560 goods and services can flow across the country, but they lose their balls whenever it comes to 0.98

01:04:04.660 Quebec. Quebec says we won't allow the pipeline. Now, constitutionally, Quebec has no bloody 0.75

01:04:10.460 ability to do that. None. Zero. None. A government with courage, and we won't get one, conservative

01:04:17.940 or liberal, when it comes to that, because nobody stands up to Quebec. A government with courage

01:04:22.460 will say that's too bad. That's a shame, but you can't stop it. It's not part of being within the

01:04:29.020 federation. Instead to say, well, we can't do it because the Quebec went less. Another one,

01:04:35.700 another area, and this is something in our developments and we've got to start straightening

01:04:40.020 some stuff out on, is the indigenous authority. Now, if we got a project that's on indigenous

01:04:47.820 land. If it's on a reserve, crosses the reserve or somehow directly impacts the reserve. Okay.

01:04:54.500 It's pretty important that we, if it's, especially if it's on their land itself,

01:04:58.340 they got a veto. That's different. That's on their land. But we've gotten to this point now

01:05:03.100 where we're pretending there's a veto authority for indigenous groups on everything, everywhere,

01:05:07.820 all the time. And that's a bunch of bullshit. They aren't sovereign nations. That's bullshit too. 1.00

01:05:13.180 These land acknowledgements are bullshit. We're trying to build these nations within nations. 1.00

01:05:17.200 and what they aren't.

01:05:18.160 They're dependencies

01:05:18.820 and they're dysfunctional dependencies.

01:05:21.200 And we have screwed up

01:05:23.200 with this constitutional requirement

01:05:25.260 to consult.

01:05:26.700 Remember the word consult

01:05:28.280 indigenous groups

01:05:30.900 when we want to get things done.

01:05:32.400 Doesn't mean we need consent.

01:05:34.960 It both starts with C. 0.99

01:05:37.140 Big difference in meaning though.

01:05:39.400 I think to be respectful,

01:05:41.580 anything within potential impact

01:05:43.140 of somebody,

01:05:43.580 you should of course consult.

01:05:44.800 You should talk about

01:05:46.020 how it's going to impact that area, how you can make things run as smoothly as possible. But if

01:05:50.460 at the end of it, they still say, well, no, I don't like it. Then you said too frigging bad.

01:05:54.640 Sorry, sucks to be you. It's going anyway. We consulted, we tried. The Trans Mountain Twinning 0.99

01:06:03.220 is a huge example of that. For the most part, that thing was built in the 50s. We were talking

01:06:10.220 about expanding a pipe 20 feet over and putting in one right next to it not even a new pipe

01:06:16.940 and it took years the permits came in at the thousands i remember writing a column on that

01:06:21.260 years ago when kinder morgan was still trying to do it and we're talking 1600 permits just in bc

01:06:28.620 alone on things which you have an expiry date and here's some of the irony you might finally get

01:06:33.740 through all of them find out the first ones you started on expired and then you got to start that

01:06:36.700 process again. We've got to get realistic. Kenzie Kraken saying adding, you know, First Nation

01:06:43.760 consultation to everything is mostly unhelpful. And it's true. I mean, I don't, we shouldn't be

01:06:50.360 at a point where there's zero, but we've got to quit pretending that all these different groups

01:06:53.780 have a veto authority. They don't. And we will never get anything done in this country until

01:06:58.160 we accept that. If we want to talk about First Nations being sovereign nations, let's talk about

01:07:03.820 fine. Have your own taxation power, have your own passports, have your own currency, have your own

01:07:08.420 military, have your own trade agreements with other countries. That's what a sovereign nation is.

01:07:13.380 What First Nations are, are this weird hybrid thing we built under the Indian Act with the 1.00

01:07:19.060 reserve system. It's failing catastrophically. They're living in squalor and misery. I've been

01:07:23.520 doing videos showing that lately. And boy, they sure don't like that being exposed to. By the way,

01:07:29.540 yeah, I've got the Canadian Charter Advocates. I really strongly suggest you don't have to check

01:07:35.300 those guys out. They're fantastic. They're helping me out. They're taking that on because yes,

01:07:40.400 the Siksika Reserve has actually tried to fine me $2,000 for shooting video on the reserve,

01:07:44.320 exposing how bad this sovereign nation is failing. This sovereign nation of Siksika got $1.2 billion

01:07:52.520 from Trudeau a few years ago and the houses are falling apart. The addiction rates are through

01:07:57.080 the roof. The crime is through the roof. There's no industries being developed on there to speak

01:08:00.720 of. And then we just keep perpetuating this illusion as if we're this nation that has these

01:08:07.920 hundreds of little sovereign nations within it that are all functioning little happy little

01:08:12.620 elves out there within amongst us and everybody's getting along fine. No, it's a bizarre

01:08:17.340 sub-government creation we've made and it's not serving anybody.

01:08:21.940 when will it get to a point when a government has the courage to take on indigenous groups 0.99

01:08:28.940 and quebec i don't know that's where we get back to i got a feeling we're going to be talking a lot

01:08:33.260 about that after monday it's probably going to be a lot of provincial independence talk

01:08:37.380 because it's time for a new system there's only one way to get a new system that's breaking out

01:08:42.480 of the last system and that's one of those independence talks that people talk about too

01:08:46.380 well you'll never be able to break a province out without indigenous permission really where

01:08:49.200 Where? Where was it written that I have to get their permission?

01:08:54.200 Alberta citizens who happen to be Indigenous would have just as much right to vote in a

01:08:58.340 referendum as anybody else, as they should. That's about it. There's no other part that

01:09:02.980 says that their permission is required. Treaties are still there. Fine. The boundaries of the

01:09:07.520 reserves are still there. The Indian Act, that's legislation, guys. Legislation. Most of the things

01:09:13.760 people keep assuming are treaty rights or charter rights are actually just packed into the Indian

01:09:17.800 Act. Even the name itself tells you how out of date that act is. Call people Indians anymore 1.00

01:09:26.300 unless they're from India. But we can't even update the name of the act, much less the content

01:09:31.360 of it. Here's an irony. If you want to look something up, you know, after the show, of course,

01:09:37.220 listen to this first, but look up the white paper. It may be poorly named, but it was in the late

01:09:42.980 60s. It was written by Indian affairs minister of that time, Jean Chrétien, under the authority of

01:09:48.300 Pierre Trudeau. And it's a brilliant paper. It was something that was going to work things

01:09:55.260 towards the end. It was something that was showing even then, even over 50 years ago, they realized

01:10:00.560 this system is failing. It's failing the First Nations people. It's failing the Indigenous 0.92

01:10:05.460 people. It's dead end. It's going badly. It's going poorly. We need to start phasing people

01:10:10.120 out of it. We need to have permanent settlements and get out of this and everybody can get

01:10:15.500 together. It was a fantastic piece of work. It was respectfully written, even if it was in the

01:10:20.120 old language. But unfortunately, the parasites in the bureaucracy and in bad administrations 0.96

01:10:29.040 and the lawyers who make a fortune out of this lit their hair on fire. The pressure came on 0.97

01:10:35.280 and Trudeau and Chrétien backed off. You know what? It would have been the best thing Pierre

01:10:39.480 Trudeau ever bloody did. If he'd have followed through on what he'd started, everybody should

01:10:43.960 read the white paper. Look it up online that Pierre Trudeau wrote with Jean Chrétien back

01:10:49.380 then. Because I tell you what, things would be so much better for everybody today if that thing had

01:10:57.120 passed, if that had gone through. Would it have been magical? Would it have been easy? Would there

01:11:00.840 not, you know, would there have been failures here and there? Would there have been challenges? Of

01:11:03.640 course there would. But it had long-term thinking because the one thing that's lacking in

01:11:09.280 indigenous affairs is long-term thinking. I keep asking that. I keep saying that in those videos

01:11:14.580 that they're all pissed off at me about creating because I keep asking people, what do you see

01:11:19.180 here in 10 years? What do you see here in 2050, a hundred years on this reserve? I show the images

01:11:24.960 of a reserve. I show the wild dogs, the dilapidated houses, the high crime, the lack of resources.

01:11:32.080 So what is your vision? How is this possibly going to be better 30 years from now? And these are the

01:11:41.080 ones down south. Look at some of the northern ones. Look at a map. Google Maps is wonderful.

01:11:45.600 And look at some of the places we've got people living in and ask yourself, how are they going

01:11:50.160 to be in 50 years, 100 years in those spots? Why are we keeping them there if there's no resources?

01:11:55.140 Really, seriously, in the modern world, when they're dying 20 years younger than the rest of us?

01:12:01.020 yeah that's what's happening 19 years actually but the average indigenous man in alberta dies 19

01:12:06.300 years younger than the average non-indigenous person that alone should tell you how badly 1.00

01:12:11.180 the system is failing yet we're not supposed to talk about it we want to live in this little

01:12:15.180 illusion of these little sovereign nations that are functioning they aren't functioning guys

01:12:20.060 they're dependencies and they're miserable and they're in a terrible spot a sub dog saying most

01:12:24.380 the problem the bands of the corruption and there's a lot of corruption happening within

01:12:27.500 the bands but also the fact is even if it's a non-corrupted band what do you do what what do

01:12:33.420 you do if you're the white fish band you're you're up there out north of uh the little slave lake 0.63

01:12:39.580 and uh the lesser slave lake i should say and you've got very few resources around a small

01:12:46.720 population it's dysfunctional in a lot of trouble your only resource your revenue is nothing but

01:12:51.940 government a little bit of oil and gas revenue it's uh there's not much you can do the people

01:13:00.180 are in this half in one world and half in the other and not doing well in either of them

01:13:05.540 uh sub dogs in the reserves are meant to keep the traditions not the modern but you know what 0.99

01:13:09.700 even if that was the truth it's failing isn't it because you you go on the reserve and you're not

01:13:13.940 seeing a lot of traditional living which it would be ridiculous to expect people to they're not

01:13:18.580 living in teepees anymore and in subsistence hunting. That's just not part of it. The world

01:13:25.160 moved ahead and it should, it has to. But is that what people envision? I kind of wonder that with

01:13:30.700 downtown, you know, urban dwelling liberals, or no, it's not just liberals, but just people who

01:13:35.720 think that it's a sustainable system. And they have this romanticized version in their head of

01:13:41.860 these noble little Indians running around living traditionally off the land in these reserves.

01:13:45.380 reserves. That's why I'm going out and doing videos of them because people, you don't know

01:13:49.160 what these reserves are like. It's not turning out like that. And what is it? What, your little

01:13:53.500 vanity, you think it's your feel good project in the world. You got a little, it's like a zoo.

01:13:57.600 Yeah. A little zoo. Look, look, we can go study this, this group of people that didn't advance

01:14:01.980 over the last hundred years because we created a reserve and they can stay traditional, but they

01:14:05.660 didn't. You know, unfortunately they didn't have to deal with fentanyl a hundred and some years

01:14:13.300 ago. But I had a commenter on one of my videos, I got very upset, saying, oh, it's you guys,

01:14:18.640 Falcon, us and them, the usual divisions of this and so on. And he was talking about how everything

01:14:23.960 he really was saying was brilliant and wonderful when they were in teepees before the nasty

01:14:29.060 settlers came along and everything. Guys, these were nomadic people living a really rough-ass life, 1.00

01:14:36.440 short, typically, and they were warring with each other. Every society had that at certain

01:14:41.700 degrees in their evolution. And it's not, nothing to fault the people of today with. No, but do you

01:14:48.320 really want to go back to that? Really? Come on, let's get serious here. Let's get serious. As bad

01:14:54.700 as things are on the reserves, they're a hell of a lot better than they were 200 years ago.

01:14:58.860 And we can't turn the clock back. Nobody really wants to. And spare me this romanticized, again,

01:15:06.960 you know, fictional vision of what people thought that it was some sort of Disney thing where

01:15:11.260 they were just, you know, running around with Bambi and the flowers and the skunk and thumper

01:15:15.700 and living this little natural cartoon world before Europeans came along and just made life 0.80

01:15:20.440 hell on earth. It was a tough go. We got to start looking reality. I've talked about this before.

01:15:28.440 I talk about policy. We need to base policy on the outcomes, not the intent. We got to look at

01:15:37.120 what's actually working or what's not. Cause I don't give a shit what you think it's supposed 0.98

01:15:42.120 to do. If it's not working, you stop doing it because the intentions aren't worth a piss hole 1.00

01:15:50.000 drilled in a snowbank. I'm just using those words while I can. I've got this special show on Fridays

01:15:54.340 that doesn't get put out to the cable channel so I can use some of those words, but I mean,

01:15:57.960 don't worry. I'm not going to go off on a blistering tirade of obscenities, but at least

01:16:01.760 it allows me to vent and express myself a little more on that. Okay. Let's turn the channel a

01:16:06.120 little bit and bring Jared Yager in. And he's coming in from BC. He's our guy out there. He's

01:16:11.480 been covering this election for the last month, like everybody else. How are you doing, Jared?

01:16:16.000 Oh, pretty good. How are you?

01:16:17.880 I'm all right. Ranting, raving, pissing, moaning the usual stuff out of me, but that's what I do.

01:16:23.820 So you're in a very interesting place for this election. I've said that before. I mean,

01:16:29.560 BC's really got some of the most swing ridings going on in the country. They always kind of do

01:16:35.060 in the lower mainland. And I don't think this election has been any exception, has it?

01:16:40.040 No, no. And it's really interesting because there's an added dimension to it because we

01:16:43.900 have two of the federal party leaders here in BC. And this time around, it's not just a question of

01:16:50.900 how well the party will do, but whether it will survive. And if they will survive,

01:16:56.260 not only being the party leaders, but also their seats, both Elizabeth May over Saanich Gulf Islands 0.99

01:17:03.920 and Jagmeet Singh in the new writing of Burnaby Central.

01:17:11.180 Nobody's really sure if they're going to be able to pull through

01:17:14.800 and win those writings or if they're going to be taken over

01:17:16.880 by the Conservatives or even the Liberals.

01:17:20.060 It would almost be a mercy to Jagmeet Singh at this point

01:17:25.840 if things come along the way the polls are indicating,

01:17:28.800 if it turns out that the NDP is just a shell of a party

01:17:32.080 and it's time to find a new leader.

01:17:35.260 It's kind of easier to ride off into the sunset

01:17:36.880 if you're still not a member of parliament

01:17:38.380 and have to maintain your seat.

01:17:40.100 You can just kind of, you know, shuffle away

01:17:42.480 and let the party start working on rebuilding itself.

01:17:45.140 I mean, I don't think he wants to throw his riding,

01:17:47.880 but I don't think the worst thing

01:17:49.280 that could happen to him personally at this point

01:17:50.860 is losing his seat.

01:17:53.000 Yeah, yeah.

01:17:53.640 You know, he's still campaigning out there

01:17:55.280 and over in Burnaby, he still had some support.

01:17:58.960 So I'm not sure.

01:17:59.900 it's really it's really a toss-up right now yeah you can't count anything out I I just envision

01:18:07.320 you know again if he won his seat but it's one of five NDP seats or something it's it's going to be

01:18:12.020 a stressful place to be in that first session of parliament and I imagine there'd be a lot

01:18:16.660 of pressure on him to uh to let somebody else take the reins for a while yeah and BC has long

01:18:22.440 been a NDP stronghold that's where they have most of their their support and uh this time around

01:18:27.440 according to the latest 338 Canada projections, there's only one riding in the entire province

01:18:33.080 that's safe for the NDP. All the others that they held the last time around are toss-ups

01:18:40.540 or they've switched to likely for the Conservatives or the Liberals. So it's looking more like a two

01:18:47.160 horse race over here. Yeah, and that's been a lot across the country to a degree. With the

01:18:52.960 Conservatives, I mean, one of the areas I would think, I mean, the Lower Mainland's a tough nut

01:18:56.640 to crack. It's a volatile area, but it's also been an area where the two big conservative

01:19:01.860 issues that they used to own were really resonating, which is housing affordability

01:19:05.600 and crime. But I mean, is that helping? It must be helping them to some degree

01:19:12.040 in Vancouver and area right now still. So in the lower mainland, obviously you have

01:19:17.700 downtown Vancouver and that area, which is more liberal. You know, Hedy Fry, she's been the MP

01:19:24.960 for Vancouver Centre since before I was born.

01:19:28.260 So we'll see what happens there.

01:19:30.400 Yeah.

01:19:31.500 And the NDP candidate, Avi Lewis, he's gaining some ground.

01:19:35.340 He's been out every single day talking to voters.

01:19:38.560 So I think if there's a chance for the Liberals to lose a seat

01:19:43.800 in the Vancouver area, it would be here in Vancouver Centre to the NDP.

01:19:49.380 But elsewhere in the Lower Mainland, the further east you go,

01:19:53.380 that's where you see the more more conservative areas and in uh out closer to the fraser valley

01:19:59.600 that's you know that's conservative territory but pierre he's done well um trying to uh connect

01:20:06.740 with voters in richmond um especially with the with the chinese community who have been very

01:20:12.960 outspoken on issues that uh pierre has also talked about and so whether that pays off we'll we'll see

01:20:20.000 but he's definitely trying to bring more people in the Vancouver area into the conservative fold.

01:20:27.600 Did you say Abby Lewis is running against Hedy Frye? 0.55

01:20:31.200 Yes.

01:20:32.320 Okay. Well, that's interesting to get back a bit of your youth and a little of the history of

01:20:36.080 things. And yeah, Hedy Frye has been in there forever. She pulled off that 1.00

01:20:38.480 stunt saying they were burning crosses up in Prince George back in the 90s. And yeah,

01:20:43.520 she's a special piece of work that one. But Abby Lewis, speaking of NDP pedigree,

01:20:49.040 His father, I believe, is Stephen Lois, who was one of the main founders of the NDP in the past.

01:20:54.200 Boy, if he won, he would be sort of a natural person to kind of start looking towards to rebuild that party, wouldn't he?

01:21:01.620 Yeah, yeah. And I've spoken with him a few times now.

01:21:04.860 And that's kind of the sense I'm getting is that he wants to see the party go in a new direction.

01:21:10.620 And, I mean, it's pretty obvious that Jagmeet Singh is not going to be leader for much longer.

01:21:17.000 But yeah, we'll see. Maybe Lewis can rebuild a party that is, for all intents and purposes, dead.

01:21:25.340 Yeah, it's quite interesting. He's just very much an unapologetic socialist, a pure-blood NDPer. 0.75

01:21:30.640 I just didn't even know he was running. I don't like the thought of him getting too close to power,

01:21:35.180 but it certainly adds a new interest to looking at the future of the NDP,

01:21:39.340 because people will be saying, who would be leading next?

01:21:40.980 But I could certainly see Avi as a natural candidate to try and take that on and start rebuilding.

01:21:47.000 Wow. And then we're really starting to get into legacies in Canada. Pierre Trudeau goes down to

01:21:54.080 Justin Trudeau. We have Stephen Lewis and Abby Lewis. And Ben Mulroney has been pretty outspoken

01:21:59.060 this last couple of years too. You got to wonder if he doesn't have his eyes towards a political

01:22:04.620 future as well. We might just... Yeah, you never know. I'm kind of mixed on that. I find it neat

01:22:10.340 for trivia, but I'm not sure if political dynasties are good for democracy. Yeah, no, for sure.

01:22:16.160 So getting on Vancouver Island, that's another, you know, just neat kind of mix and everything.

01:22:20.480 And Aaron Gunn, if you look at some of the polling and everything, he's looking pretty comfortable to potentially win a seat, even though there's been a lot of people screaming that he shouldn't be in the race.

01:22:31.980 Oh, definitely, definitely.

01:22:33.020 And we saw there was a protest a couple of weeks ago now of mostly NDP supporters who went to his office and basically voiced their opinion about why they think he shouldn't be in.

01:22:45.240 but i think most of the most of the people up in that area of the island they're kind of fed up

01:22:51.740 with how things have been over the past few years and we saw that in the provincial election as well

01:22:56.280 where you know that that uh that area went blue so aaron gun he's really you know stuck to his

01:23:05.900 guns and not uh succumb to all the pressure and and pierre he's actually holding a rally

01:23:11.020 tonight up in that area.

01:23:13.160 So I think he's really going for that.

01:23:16.400 Which will be interesting.

01:23:18.360 I mean, you know, and Aaron's history in the provincial politics was led to,

01:23:23.940 well, there's a whole different hornet's nest we'll talk a lot more about

01:23:27.020 after the federal run, but, you know, his disqualification

01:23:30.280 from the leadership of the BC United Party was kind of one of the catalysts

01:23:34.980 that led to the end of that party, I believe, in some ways.

01:23:38.160 But he's going to be an outspoken voice within the Conservative caucus,

01:23:41.820 whether it's a government caucus or an opposition one.

01:23:45.020 There'll still be people pretty upset with his presence even,

01:23:47.800 and it's going to be something for Mr. Paliyev to deal with after the election.

01:23:51.820 Oh, definitely, definitely.

01:23:53.520 Yeah, I'm sure he'd be interesting to see him in the House of Commons.

01:24:01.000 Yeah.

01:24:01.440 After years being outspoken on all these issues.

01:24:06.040 And he's not as controversial as the nutcase is opposing and make it out to be.

01:24:09.700 I mean, Aaron's a smart guy who hits on some really good points.

01:24:13.340 I'm looking forward to seeing him with a seat.

01:24:15.380 I'd prefer to see it in the government seat, perhaps, but I guess time will tell on that.

01:24:20.280 What about internal, you know, interior and northern BC?

01:24:23.200 It's mostly pretty solidly conservative still at this point, isn't it?

01:24:26.980 Yeah, I know it's pretty firmly in the conservative's grasp.

01:24:30.860 um yeah i would say

01:24:34.260 one writing that i'm really looking at is uh abbotsford south langley and what happened there

01:24:44.180 is you have uh you know veteran politician mike de jong he was seeking the conservative nomination

01:24:51.460 and then the party said uh no we don't want you and they picked someone else who is a a local

01:24:58.480 farmer with not too much political experience and uh instead of just dropping out uh the young he's

01:25:05.680 going to run as an independent and some of the the polls from that writing show that

01:25:11.600 voters still prefer him so i don't know if the conservatives kind of shot themselves in the foot

01:25:18.080 there by by not allowing the young to run but it looks like we could have a an independent

01:25:24.800 coming out on top in that road.

01:25:27.760 Yeah, and that's pretty rare in the Canadian system.

01:25:30.180 And it's usually somebody who had a falling out with a party.

01:25:33.140 Federally, I'm thinking the Liberals had John Nunziata.

01:25:36.740 He had a big falling out with them and left cabinet.

01:25:40.480 It was out east.

01:25:41.340 And he won, I think, two elections after that.

01:25:43.620 And they could be wrong.

01:25:44.440 I know he won at least one.

01:25:46.200 But outside of that, independents winning are a pretty rare outcome.

01:25:51.320 But do you think the blood would be so bad

01:25:52.880 that he would stay as an independent afterwards

01:25:55.280 or perhaps maybe after an election

01:25:57.200 they would

01:25:57.660 make up their differences and come back

01:26:01.380 together? I don't know.

01:26:03.460 He felt kind of betrayed by

01:26:05.380 the party, so it would probably take a lot

01:26:07.480 for him to come back in

01:26:09.500 after all that.

01:26:11.700 True enough. I mean, it's one of the worst,

01:26:13.560 most divisive areas for people who've played

01:26:15.460 within politics.

01:26:17.160 The party politics, when it comes to nominations, 0.98

01:26:19.700 is where you get some of the backroom crap 0.99

01:26:21.480 going on. And when you've got members who work their butts off to get somebody nominated to 0.97

01:26:27.000 represent them and then somebody higher up in the party says, yeah, we're going to put this person

01:26:30.140 in over here. And every party does it and it rarely ends well. It's just something that I

01:26:36.540 think inside players can't resist themselves. But it'll be interesting one to watch that night for

01:26:42.380 sure. So I've heard we're trying to get you into the cover things at the NDP headquarters on Monday.

01:26:49.360 how things been progressing with that um well i i have yet to hear back um every time i try to

01:26:58.320 rsvp for an ndp event here in the lower mainland i don't hear anything back so we'll see we'll see

01:27:08.000 well you know there's ways and there's ways i'm certain if a person's persistent and tries to

01:27:14.240 I figured you could probably find your way in there.

01:27:17.780 I mean, barring that, you know,

01:27:19.080 what are you going to be covering in this last few days of the campaign now?

01:27:23.480 So Pierre Polyev, he's going to be back in the Lower Mainland tomorrow.

01:27:27.800 So he's got his rally on the island tonight

01:27:29.520 and then another one tomorrow in Delta.

01:27:32.960 So I'll be covering that.

01:27:34.280 One last final push here in BC.

01:27:36.800 And then he heads back off to the east.

01:27:39.140 But it's been really nice to see all the party leaders

01:27:43.420 spend more time I feel than usual in here in BC because they realize you know this isn't uh you

01:27:50.540 know with with the collapse of the NDP like this is kind of up for grabs and so both the liberals

01:27:56.140 and the conservatives have been uh spending a lot of time here Carney he was here yesterday and then

01:28:03.180 made his way out uh out east but I mean being unpredictable makes you uh get garner attention

01:28:10.620 at least i mean that's one of the things alberta does it doesn't do themselves any favors uh pierre 0.96

01:28:15.420 polyev is starting a rally here in half an hour and that'll be his first appearance in alberta

01:28:19.580 for the whole campaign i mean this is a conservative stronghold but the reason is well you pretty much

01:28:24.300 know that you got most of the province in the bag they're going to focus in the areas that have more

01:28:28.380 swing in them and pc as you said is beginning a lot of attention because boy you've got a whole

01:28:32.780 lot of writings that are a little too close to call right now yeah yeah yeah for sure all right

01:28:40.380 Well, before I let you get going, then, you know, let's get a prediction out of you before Monday comes.

01:28:48.640 It doesn't have to be partisan, but where are you thinking things sit?

01:28:53.820 I would say, I don't know, there's enough appetite for change, I think, here in B.C.

01:28:58.780 that we will see, not just on the Conservative side, but across the board.

01:29:04.320 You know, so I think we'll see the Conservatives make gains on Vancouver Island

01:29:07.880 and in certain parts of the lower mainland.

01:29:11.520 And I feel like the NDP, they're really not going to do so well this time around.

01:29:17.840 The only upset I see is maybe Abby Lewis winning here in Vancouver Centre 1.00

01:29:22.840 and unseating Hedy Fry.

01:29:25.220 But, yeah, I think it'll really come down to the Conservatives and the Liberals

01:29:30.000 where they can find the most support.

01:29:33.200 Right on.

01:29:33.940 Well, I'll let you get back to it.

01:29:35.400 Thanks for coming in to give us an update.

01:29:37.160 and I'm sure we'll be checking in with you

01:29:39.120 a few times over the course of Monday night.

01:29:41.440 No, for sure.

01:29:42.040 Yeah, thank you.

01:29:43.180 Right on, thanks.

01:29:44.220 So yes, that is our BC man on the ground,

01:29:46.340 Jared Yagerin.

01:29:46.920 Yeah, by the way, if you remember,

01:29:48.200 he did some of those great videos

01:29:49.620 during those crazed Hamas protests

01:29:51.460 out in Vancouver and things.

01:29:52.840 It's not just the political races.

01:29:55.240 He's been focused on that.

01:29:56.120 We all have been a lot in this last month.

01:29:58.140 Of course, it only makes sense,

01:29:59.300 but he's busy hitting things out there

01:30:01.440 and getting content all the time.

01:30:03.020 Just that reminder again, guys, subscribe.

01:30:04.940 That's the way we pay those bills 0.98

01:30:06.020 and get guys like Jared out there to cover this stuff for us.

01:30:09.000 It's so, so important.

01:30:11.220 You know, some of that talk,

01:30:12.260 seeing that discussion online with, you know,

01:30:15.300 why we should fund the CBC

01:30:16.500 or why we should have funding for local journalism.

01:30:19.820 Look, guys, it should be up to us,

01:30:21.400 not the government to do it.

01:30:22.560 And the way we can do it,

01:30:24.480 subscribing to places like us,

01:30:26.600 westernstandard.news slash subscription,

01:30:28.100 so we can keep funding and keeping those reporters

01:30:30.460 in those spots on the ground across there,

01:30:32.660 not asking the government to do it.

01:30:34.100 Then you just get more CBC. 0.99

01:30:35.180 see, you don't need more of that crap. Doesn't do you any good. Let's see. So yeah, Sandy saying 0.99

01:30:42.960 there was a rally in Niskaya with 10,000 people with Polyev. Yes, no, I know. I believe, I could 0.74

01:30:49.500 be wrong though. I could stand, be corrected. I believe that was before the election was called

01:30:53.220 though. It was massive, but it was before. Could be wrong in that though. But he hasn't been here

01:30:58.080 a heck of a lot. And it was a massive, massive rally though. And people were dismissing it. You

01:31:02.160 know what I think that was during the campaign so I could be wrong on that one for when it landed

01:31:05.840 but he hasn't been here a lot which is fine you look you're the leader you got you know 30 some

01:31:11.280 days to try and convince as many people as possible to vote for your party and strategically

01:31:17.080 well Kenzie's saying it was only two weeks ago okay I don't know everything drags out well that's

01:31:20.940 why I like these live shows people can correct me as it goes so thank you for the correction guys

01:31:25.720 rock girl as well two weeks ago see my timelines are all scrambled I was wrong there make a note

01:31:31.380 of that one. I know Jane always makes a note in her book when I admit that I'm wrong. It happens

01:31:36.080 sometimes. So thank you. He has been out here and it was just a couple of weeks ago and it was a

01:31:40.480 big rally. And the other one's starting in half an hour. We've got Sean Polzer on the ground

01:31:44.920 at the Calgary one, or he's trying to. Oh yes. Okay. So we're just getting an update from that.

01:31:50.040 Sean's having difficulty getting through because of internet problems. This is something that

01:31:53.880 happened um and this happens uh at uh oh come on vamp fashion saying cory is old hey come on i'm

01:32:01.640 not at the point of getting senile yet i'm only 54 uh give me a little more time to but i guess

01:32:06.100 some of the things aren't firing as well as they can uh sean's trying to get through but i know

01:32:11.620 i see him down there let's see if we can't uh get him we'll give it a crack and if the coverage

01:32:15.980 isn't good enough we'll move on sean how are you doing are you hearing us there i can hear you can

01:32:21.080 hear me corey yeah you're coming in pretty good actually a little bit breezy so uh does it look

01:32:25.960 like a crazy turnout of folks out there already or what there's a crazy turnout probably about

01:32:32.920 3 000 people they're saying that the building is probably about four and it's uh it's pretty good

01:32:38.440 full we have to come out because we're so bad but uh yeah i've been trying it's uh we've got bagpipers

01:32:47.080 we've got uh it's a real festive atmosphere uh the plane is pulled up he's he's just waiting but

01:32:52.680 we're expecting to show up anytime here i i don't know if he's gonna stick to the script and be on

01:32:58.840 time or if he's gonna come out earlier okay yeah so yeah getting a bit of a racket there it's a

01:33:04.120 a little difficult but uh all the same how about protesters you got any uh clowns out there trying

01:33:10.040 to make uh problems or is it uh all just supporters that you can find that's pretty much all uh

01:33:15.720 supporters there's no real uh protest or anything a couple people got turned away but they're kind

01:33:20.280 of more like the alt-right media you have to kind of register you know what i mean like you got to

01:33:25.480 be pretty proud of the prince to get turned away from here but yeah there's been a couple so they're

01:33:31.560 not giving the western standard any difficulties with access or anything so far then we're

01:33:36.840 celebrities i'm being treated like gold here uh well you can you know i mean he's on the podium

01:33:44.200 and it's like because i'll piss everybody off at some point uh no i'm trying not to 0.54

01:33:52.760 especially not the police i don't know here maybe we could do a

01:33:57.800 sure yeah maybe give me a shot behind me but 0.96

01:34:03.000 so uh his plane is i don't know yeah he's come up there and then people are all just going in

01:34:08.840 through the through the door over there okay it doesn't look that big from that angle but uh

01:34:13.560 you know i've heard that before well this parking this parking lot was packed like about half an

01:34:18.120 argo is completely packed but yeah we are because i don't know if they've got blockers i've never

01:34:23.320 had good luck with the cell reception inside an airplane hangar so yeah well i think part of it

01:34:31.080 oh it's all right i'll let you get back in there and then cover them then yeah so i appreciate

01:34:34.760 the update and uh we'll be streaming that yeah yeah i think you're gonna have to take the party

01:34:41.160 feed we were we were gonna try to stream it but uh there's no way the connection is gonna be

01:34:44.520 strong enough to be able to so yeah it's packed in there it's like it's like a rock concert i

01:34:49.960 not quite the stones but you know uh i would say like who billy holliday

01:34:57.640 next best thing it's not it's not taylor swift it's not quite taylor yeah

01:35:01.720 okay talk to them cheers all right thanks sean so yeah this is sean pulser and uh as you said yeah

01:35:08.280 like this is something that we've had happening in um uh when i went to the ucp agm and uh we we

01:35:14.980 didn't uh buy the right connections and whatnot but the reality is you get thousands of people

01:35:18.840 in one spot and everybody's got their phones going at the same time and they're all hitting

01:35:23.840 things at the same time and they overload the local tower and you've got next to nothing for

01:35:27.900 coverage so uh but it sounds like again that a whole lot of people are showing up and going out

01:35:34.620 there. And yeah, quite a schedule because he was in Saskatoon this morning. He's doing that. And

01:35:38.580 then he's going to be in BC tonight. So they're just bouncing around. I mean, whatever happens

01:35:42.900 for Polyhev and all of them after this campaign is we know they're going to sleep for a week.

01:35:49.760 Anybody who's ever actually worked full time on a campaign, I tell you, it's a workout. It's just

01:35:54.080 exhausting. I managed a couple provincially and it just sucks everything out of you. If you're

01:36:00.180 taking it seriously, you're on the clock every day. I mean, you might not be door knocking day

01:36:05.900 and night and everything, but you're always doing something. And if you aren't doing it,

01:36:09.560 you're always thinking about it. It was almost like when I owned that bloody restaurant,

01:36:12.200 you just don't get away from it. So everybody's on the home stretch now. They're pretty tired

01:36:16.480 and no matter which team they're on, and they're going to be running hard for this last bit.

01:36:22.960 I still had to laugh at it. Yeah. Abby Lewis, boy, I didn't realize he's, I guess I don't

01:36:28.640 watch NDP closely enough and NBC it's a bigger name but as I said he's he's NDP royalty as far

01:36:34.040 as the family goes we saw Rachel Notley her father was a the Grant Notley who ran the NDP in Alberta

01:36:40.320 too we're really seeing family dynasties starting to pop up in Canadian politics and Abby Lewis used 0.74

01:36:46.600 to have a show on CBC of course and he's just been a far left sort of person but he's out there

01:36:53.760 interesting to hear of some media being turned away. Now here's something that's been mixed and

01:37:00.640 I understand being careful, but the conservatives, all of them, every party, but the conservatives

01:37:07.700 have been tight with allowing media access as well. We've been trying. And I mean, they're

01:37:12.680 fearful, of course. I mean, there's the reality of today. You get one misstatement, one thing

01:37:18.000 taken out of context, one whatever, and suddenly it dominates the social media and the news for

01:37:22.980 days and you lose days of campaigning because you're doing damage control. But at the same

01:37:27.020 time, if you spend 38 days of pretty much saying nothing, uh, you don't gain a lot of ground either.

01:37:33.520 So people forget that we should have for every party, 300 and some individual candidates running,

01:37:41.040 but when you keep them all shielded from media statements or talking to them and, and they can

01:37:46.260 put out nothing besides, you know, written, canned sound bites, uh, people don't necessarily

01:37:52.500 embrace your team. Uh, you know, they got to get to know the candidates. They got to get to know

01:37:57.540 the party. It's tough. It's a balancing act, but the balance with media, independent media, even

01:38:05.480 and, and, uh, probably have did a podcast a few days ago. I know you can only do so much. You

01:38:09.960 can't be on every, uh, apparent, you know, every show and give time to everything. But at the same

01:38:14.840 time. You can't be hiding from them all the time either. What was it I heard with the Saskatoon

01:38:19.860 one? He only took four questions. This was just today. He took four questions from media and two

01:38:25.540 of them were in French in Saskatoon. We want to hear more guys, you know, don't be so afraid

01:38:33.680 of failing. In fact, if you aren't garnering traction in the campaign, then perhaps you should

01:38:40.880 be taking some chances. Just go for it. Let some of your more vocal candidates speak a bit. We'll 0.96

01:38:47.340 see. I mean, it's easy to armchair quarterback, but it's getting pretty scary. It's Kenzie saying

01:38:52.620 he always only takes four. Well, that's too few. He shouldn't always only take four. He should take

01:38:57.180 more. He really should. And, you know, Carney's guilty of it. You know, they're all guilty of it,

01:39:04.860 but too damn bad. You're in the big boy chair. You got to take questions. You got to be able

01:39:10.780 answer them. And if anything, and it's been frustrating to watch because people saying,

01:39:15.580 oh, Polyev speaks in nothing but soundbites. They got no policy. They got no policy. No,

01:39:18.320 there's a lot of policy actually. And if you dig into it and everything, but at the same time,

01:39:22.920 he does fall back on those little soundbites all the time. And again, I think that it breeds a

01:39:31.340 little bit of distrust. It's as bad as when Trudeau, rather than going to a theme or a soundbite,

01:39:36.860 he would just give you a big, long rambling word salad, never actually say anything. And it will

01:39:41.340 be most of us learn to loathe him. But likewise, if you just keep going to ax the tax and, and,

01:39:47.320 you know, hug a thug and all of those little catchy, uh, themes, well, it doesn't help for

01:39:54.820 people thinking that they're, they're, they're, they're connecting or getting trust with the

01:39:58.080 candidate either. So, uh, but yeah, you know, it'll be one of the things building. I mean,

01:40:03.400 we've had a perfect storm that made things difficult for the conservatives on all levels.

01:40:07.660 Trump was a factor that came out of nowhere. And the liberals effectively had just kept smearing

01:40:14.720 the conservatives as if they were to be associated with Trump. And even if you do like Trump, well,

01:40:19.160 you got to understand most Canadians don't. So if your party becomes associated with somebody or

01:40:25.860 something that most Canadians don't like, it's not good for you in the campaign. The other part

01:40:31.000 was Singh. I mean, he's just tanked the NDP, and he's been terrible for years with the NDP,

01:40:38.920 but it became even worse. Now it's only the hardcore of the hardcore, and the Conservatives,

01:40:44.320 I mean, they never would win elections with, you know, 60% support or something. They always could,

01:40:47.960 if they were going to win government, they relied on the NDP or the Bloc or somebody

01:40:51.240 taking a bite out of the Liberal votes. The Bloc has been suffering too. Same thing,

01:40:56.360 Because when you get an external threat, which Donald Trump presented to them,

01:41:00.620 while Quebec voters used to be more independence-minded,

01:41:04.180 they now rallied around the Liberals because they wanted to feel,

01:41:08.740 well, we've got to be a little stronger as Canadians right now.

01:41:11.000 And that, again, served the Liberals really well.

01:41:13.400 So the Conservatives just had a bad time no matter what they did.

01:41:16.900 Van Fashion saying, we don't need lib-shill media questions.

01:41:19.240 Let them talk to the people.

01:41:21.420 You know, I don't like a lot of the legacy outlets and the Liberal questions,

01:41:25.580 but no, you got to take the liberal questions along with the conservative ones. Or you're no

01:41:29.180 better than Jagmeet Singh when he stands there and Rebel asks him questions and says, I don't

01:41:35.120 answer questions from you. Well, then you're not a leader. And if you won't answer questions from

01:41:40.720 CBC reporters or liberal leaning reporters, you're not a leader either. You have to show that you can

01:41:46.520 respond to those tough questions and be better than them and knock them down. Hiding from them

01:41:51.420 doesn't help. They're not going away. So they're going to write something bad about you later

01:41:57.500 anyways. So I don't know. Again, we'll see. We'll see. Monday night's coming up fast. People are

01:42:03.780 going to be getting out to vote. Nenshi, let's travel. Speaking of people who might look for

01:42:08.700 the federal leadership, I doubt he would do it, but there's a people throwing that

01:42:11.640 name out there as a potential replacement for saying, you know, when they're talking about

01:42:16.320 your replacement before the election's over, you know, there's problems. But Nenshi is the leader

01:42:19.800 of the NDP opposition in Alberta for folks who aren't as familiar with Alberta politics here.

01:42:24.060 He was the mayor of Calgary. He's the left of the left of the left. He's a deceptive weasel.

01:42:27.600 He presented himself as a pro-business conservative when he ran for mayor, and 0.96

01:42:31.240 now he's leading the NDP. It tells you all that he's about. But he's in New York pushing anti-oil

01:42:35.940 and gas rhetoric. I just want to remind the listeners that that's what Ninchy's about today.

01:42:40.480 He talks about being pro-Alberta, then leaves the province and speaks against Alberta. And,

01:42:45.960 oh no, he's not anti-Alberta. I'm in New York talking about the transition. Yes,

01:42:49.060 because we're all going to have fluffy little windmills and solar pads and we're just going to

01:42:53.520 shut in the oil and we'll all be rich and happy in a woke little Ninchy world. It doesn't work 0.97

01:42:57.120 that way, you asshole. Ninchy also gave tens of thousands of tax dollars to the Pembina Institute 1.00

01:43:02.340 when he was the mayor of Calgary. The Pembina Institute is an anti-oil and gas group. So I'm

01:43:09.080 just doing my NDP counter work now before it comes to election time. To remember in Alberta,

01:43:14.380 whatever niche he might be, he is not good for this province or this country.

01:43:22.320 Looking at unintended consequences, I heard the numbers for Tesla recently, and it looks like

01:43:26.420 Musk is finally kind of backing away from the Trump and the Doge and things like that. It was

01:43:31.880 always supposed to be temporary, and that's fine, and it's fair. But Tesla's had sales dropping in

01:43:35.580 this quarter. We're looking at 70%. I'll tell you, mixing politics with business is never a good

01:43:42.580 idea. Never. Especially when you're in a country like the States where, I mean, it always astounds

01:43:48.840 me how close their elections are. They are a two party system and they're very polarized. So you're

01:43:52.440 on one side of your one on the other. If you visibly associate your company with one side or

01:43:56.760 the other, you are alienating a giant customer base. And that's what's happened to them. I mean,

01:44:01.360 there's been a few other things. People are getting sick of electric vehicles. They're

01:44:04.120 realizing they're crap and that they always were crap. I mean, that's the news out in Canada 1.00

01:44:07.540 lately too, that electric vehicle sales just aren't taking off Tesla or otherwise because 0.70

01:44:11.760 they're crap but we've had them shoved down our throats for years and uh carney is still going

01:44:16.120 to try and ban oil and gas and and uh vehicles when that comes up this is going to lead to 0.99

01:44:20.540 another financial disaster that we're heading towards but musk i mean it's not like he's going

01:44:26.480 to have to worry about putting food on his table at any point in his life you know he could set

01:44:30.160 aside one billion and probably still do okay for retirement but to devastate your business like

01:44:35.600 that by having a political association i mean when i used to own my pub i'm an outspoken political

01:44:39.940 guy always happened. And I was then, but I didn't have political things going on in my pub and

01:44:45.260 stuff like that. I didn't hang signs and things in there just because my people are coming there

01:44:49.860 for burgers and beer and the band, not to come for the politics. And if I started playing the

01:44:55.120 politics in my pub, I might draw a few folks, but for the most part, I'm going to lose a whole bunch

01:45:00.460 of my customers because they didn't come for that in the first place. So it's just a sad thing to

01:45:04.240 watch. I'm not saying everybody should be gagged, but just be careful with what you jump into when

01:45:08.080 you, you know, decide to be outspoken in politics if you're going to be in a public business

01:45:13.420 position as well. Liberal candidates, here's a, you know, Jared was talking about the BC one who's

01:45:21.080 running as an independent who might disrupt things. In Edmonton, one of the interesting ones,

01:45:25.060 Rod Loyola, he was one of Ninchy's members of the legislature. And Loyola is a communist. I'm not

01:45:31.320 saying it figuratively. He's a communist. He marched in communist marches and things like that.

01:45:35.140 and he's also pro-Hamas. He's very much so in all of that, to the point where even though he was the 0.60

01:45:41.620 Liberal candidate for a little while, they kind of realized, holy crap, this guy's too crazy for us. 0.95

01:45:46.540 Wasn't too crazy for Ninchy, but he's too crazy for the Liberals, so they wouldn't let him run 0.98

01:45:50.820 for the Liberals. Well, he kept his Liberal signs, and the Liberals are trying to get a court injunction

01:45:56.680 to stop it, so there's Rod Loyola signs all over the place, I guess, with the Liberal red and the

01:46:00.500 whole work's going on, just to confuse voters in Edmonton. He's bitter. What do you expect?

01:46:04.260 communists always are. That's going to be a funny one to watch in Edmonton anyways.

01:46:12.020 Politics is just such a bizarre nutty game. And that's why it attracts bizarre nutty people like

01:46:16.200 me and all the others. But okay, I've rambled long enough. We were kind of hoping we were going to

01:46:20.200 get a live stream, but as Sean said and so on, it's just, we can't quite get the coverage up

01:46:24.220 there. There's going to be lots of stuff going on, but please, please, please guys set your clocks.

01:46:29.140 we're going to be doing the live coverage. We'll have lots of bandwidth for that. From here,

01:46:34.120 the Western Standard, whatever channel you're watching it on now, it's going to be there,

01:46:37.620 whether it's YouTube, whether it's X, whether it's Facebook, LinkedIn, we're going to have panels,

01:46:42.960 we're going to have guests, and we're going to watch those results come in. Don't give your time

01:46:47.360 to the legacy media. You don't need to do that anymore. Come here, participate, use the comments,

01:46:52.580 let's cover and watch what the hell's going to happen on Monday together. Of course, I'll be

01:46:57.280 here for that and spread the word. Share that link. Nag other people. Say, hey, don't watch

01:47:02.220 CBC. Don't watch CTV. Don't watch Global, all those media prostitutes. Go to Independent Media 1.00

01:47:08.560 here at the Western Standard. Get all your coverage here and get other people to do it.

01:47:12.900 This is how we'll beat the system. Guys, stay independent. And then after that, I think the

01:47:17.660 word independent is going to come up a whole lot. I'm sure we're going to talk about it a lot,

01:47:20.640 depending on how things come out on Monday. Either way, I'm going to let you go. I'm going

01:47:23.840 get ready for the weekend. I hope you all have a good weekend and we will see you all on Monday night.

01:47:53.840 You

Western Standard - April 26, 2025

Election final stretch

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