Western Standard - Everything is about abortion, even it's not ... BUT IT IS - The Pipeline, Episode 11

00:00:00.000 You're listening to The Pipeline, the Western Standards National Affairs Program recording

00:00:15.940 this Wednesday, March 4th, 2020.

00:00:20.000 Each week we break down the issues, discuss them in depth, and examine some of the broader

00:00:24.420 implications for Western Canada and beyond, featuring from Calgary, the Western Standards

00:00:31.120 publisher, Derek Fildebrandt.

00:00:32.720 Derek, how are you this week?

00:00:34.720 Buongiorno, I'm good.

00:00:36.660 Awesome.

00:00:37.780 And featuring, returning this week, Deirdre Mitchell-McLean from Strathmore, a senior reporter

00:00:42.900 with the Western Standard.

00:00:43.900 How are you doing?

00:00:44.900 Very good, Paul.

00:00:45.900 How are you?

00:00:46.900 I'm feeling way better than last week when I had some mystery illness, which, hey, maybe

00:00:53.380 we'll even talk about a mystery illness this week, hosted by myself, digital editor Paul

00:00:58.780 Holmes, coming to you from Victoria, British Columbia, far away from the Alberta budget.

00:01:06.920 Topics this week will include the Alberta budget, and the Conservative Party leadership race,

00:01:16.660 and my coronavirus, the very latest on COVID-19 2021.

00:01:23.660 COVID-19, that is like a music, that's like a kind of a tech music festival, it sounds like.

00:01:31.420 Techno music for the kids.

00:01:34.060 You know, yeah, the joke doesn't work the second time.

00:01:38.060 Everyone knows, Paul forgot to hit play the first time we attempted to record this.

00:01:46.200 And for episode 11, I feel like, you know, forgetting once is pretty good on my previous

00:01:52.220 podcast.

00:01:53.220 You know, I did it every second week.

00:01:54.220 People don't know how many times you've missed this out.

00:01:55.420 I did it every second week.

00:01:56.420 People have no idea how many times you've missed it.

00:02:00.200 And actually, the last couple of weeks, we did a single take.

00:02:02.740 So anyway, before we get started, however, we are going to talk about membership of the

00:02:08.800 Western Standard.

00:02:09.800 It's very important.

00:02:10.800 It's what keeps us going.

00:02:12.840 If you are a member, thank you so much for signing up.

00:02:16.320 And if you are, if you've been thinking about becoming a member, check out the membership

00:02:20.120 page on WesternStandardOnline.com and consider becoming a member today and supporting independent

00:02:27.060 journalists free of government funding.

00:02:30.460 All right.

00:02:31.780 So the Alberta budget, I know that there was a very lengthy lockup and that's about

00:02:37.740 all I know.

00:02:38.740 So Deirdre, why don't you tell a foreigner like myself exactly what went down on budget

00:02:43.900 day in Alberta?

00:02:45.820 So budget day for those of us who actually live in, you know, breathe for this stuff,

00:02:52.220 it was a very long day.

00:02:54.600 Lockups started at seven o'clock in the morning.

00:02:56.280 The budget was not released until 315 PM.

00:02:59.420 So, you know, all of us here just on pins and needles, wondering what the budget was

00:03:03.840 going to say.

00:03:05.380 And I, I mean, it was, there were no great shocks.

00:03:09.800 They only released their previous budget four months ago.

00:03:14.340 So there's no real big changes from it.

00:03:20.300 too many shocks in this next budget.

00:03:23.260 It really piggybacks off of the last one.

00:03:26.260 All right.

00:03:27.260 And Derek, what was your thoughts on the budget?

00:03:32.220 Well, there was two schools of thought going into it.

00:03:36.380 From my perspective, I had the more pessimistic expectation.

00:03:39.260 The two schools of thought were it was just going to continue more or less implementing

00:03:46.760 what they did in the 2019 budget.

00:03:50.360 And the other school of thought was this is where they were going to get very serious about

00:03:54.020 reducing the size of government, really reducing spending.

00:03:58.820 I mean, some of the more hopeful conservatives thought that would be the case.

00:04:03.340 I was less optimistic.

00:04:04.540 And I love to say, I told you so that's exactly what happened.

00:04:07.860 It was more or less just as Deirdre said, continuing what happened in the first budget with a few

00:04:13.960 small changes, but nothing very radical.

00:04:18.020 It's really steady as she goes from the first budget, which is a cumulative $1 billion reduction

00:04:26.780 in nominal spending over four years.

00:04:30.140 Listening to the unions and to the NDP and too much of the media, you'd think that they

00:04:35.520 were cutting 50 or 70% of the budget, but it's just $1 billion out of a budget that'll

00:04:41.120 reach 50, 58 billion if I'm not, or revenue will reach 58 billion.

00:04:45.500 So spending around 57.5 billion by 2023, a $1 billion cut over that time, which is pretty

00:04:52.680 small considering that Alberta's got a massive budget per capita compared to other provinces.

00:04:58.920 We don't have to rehash that.

00:05:00.640 But if, you know, we had a huge, huge spending increases under Stelmac, huge spending increases

00:05:06.300 under Redford, Prentice was a blip that never really got his budget through, but he had planned

00:05:11.080 on just slowing growth.

00:05:13.180 And then we had big increases again under the NDP, although funny enough, smaller increases

00:05:17.060 proportionally under the NDP than we had under both Redford and Stelmac.

00:05:21.640 So if we were going into this, as the UCP told us, I think correctly that the NDP had blown

00:05:26.860 the budget and that Alberta was spending wildly.

00:05:30.680 You think we'd see some actual big spending cuts, but we're seeing $1 billion over four years,

00:05:35.860 they are cutting some spending significantly within departments and moving things around.

00:05:41.480 So within health, for example, spending on health is staying about the same.

00:05:44.320 It's a minor, minor increase, I believe, but it's effectively the same, although not accounting

00:05:50.420 for inflation.

00:05:51.420 You'll want to point that out, but it's more or less staying the same, but they're moving

00:05:55.300 spending around within health.

00:05:57.220 And that allows the unions and the NDP to say, look, this particular item, normally in

00:06:02.100 acute care where the unions are more sensitive, that's getting a reduction.

00:06:06.360 That's because money's moving from A to B within a department.

00:06:09.980 So the narrative around this is that spending is just getting slashed and burned, that they're

00:06:16.220 taking an ax of things when in fact they're taking a scalpel to it.

00:06:18.920 So they're taking all of the heat that they would take politically for genuinely large spending

00:06:25.440 cuts right now, but they're not going to actually get much of the credit for it because as we'll

00:06:30.340 get into on the revenue side, it is hopeful at best that they're even going to get to a balanced

00:06:36.980 budget in four years, because these spending cuts are not that big.

00:06:42.700 And they're not that big in certain areas.

00:06:47.240 So post-secondary funding saw probably the biggest cut at around 20%.

00:06:53.900 That's a Klein era cut.

00:06:58.860 And now granted, like you said, it's the overall that they're looking at.

00:07:04.620 So overall, they're only cutting 3% in funding, but, or sorry, 3% of their spending.

00:07:10.680 But some areas are definitely seeing a lot more than, than others.

00:07:15.780 So while health may be maintained or the health budget may be maintained, post-secondary budget

00:07:22.800 has, has seen a huge decrease.

00:07:25.720 And that will, that will be passed on, of course, to future-

00:07:30.060 Well, I actually, over the four year period here, they're, they're actually just cutting

00:07:32.900 a 1.2 to 1.5 billion.

00:07:34.980 So it's, I'm sorry, percent.

00:07:36.980 So it's, it's, it's about a billion over four years out of a $58 billion budget.

00:07:43.440 Spending is as high now as, as it was, it'll be, spending will be virtually the same as when

00:07:48.940 they came to power.

00:07:50.420 Um, but Deirdre is correct that some departments are going to, are getting, uh, getting it harder

00:07:55.240 than others, like, like post-secondary, uh, not to say post-secondary is not important,

00:07:59.460 but on the, uh, in the pyramid of our needs, I mean, uh, probably police and firefighters

00:08:08.200 are at the top.

00:08:09.580 Yes, but the government is passing that on to residents.

00:08:13.200 So they're not even paying for that.

00:08:16.360 Well, a typical-

00:08:16.780 No, but in terms, in terms of what government should do, post-secondary is important, but

00:08:20.380 a lot, remember, a lot of post-secondary isn't even actually, uh, teaching anybody and getting

00:08:24.920 anybody degrees.

00:08:25.640 A lot of it is just research and things like that.

00:08:28.280 And it's up to universities to determine, uh, you know, how much is, is going to actually

00:08:32.920 go towards that.

00:08:33.960 And, uh, so the government's actually bringing in new, enabling legislation on this, uh, which

00:08:38.660 is going to give the minister of, uh, post-secondary education, uh, Dimitri Nicolaes,

00:08:43.200 the greatest, uh, greater power over how, how universities are spending their money here

00:08:47.540 if they want to be able to get government money.

00:08:49.840 But in the bigger picture though, this is Deirdre is right.

00:08:53.880 Some departments are, are getting, uh, a significant haircut here.

00:08:57.740 Others are, are actually going to see increases.

00:09:00.720 Uh, you're probably going to see more money.

00:09:02.980 Uh, if, if J.C.

00:09:04.420 Kennedy's talk about government getting directly involved in business, the way, uh, say the

00:09:09.640 Trudeau government was federally in the old, the old Trudeau, pure Trudeau or

00:09:13.060 law heat in Alberta with the government owning companies, which they're talking about.

00:09:16.940 Now you're going to see probably big spending increases in some departments.

00:09:20.620 You're seeing freezes and others like health.

00:09:23.200 Um, and considering health takes up about 40, 45% of the budget, it probably does need

00:09:28.060 to get at least frozen.

00:09:30.460 But the politics of this is they're, they're taking the heat as if they're slashing and

00:09:34.120 burning the government when things are more or less staying the same.

00:09:37.140 Uh, so I would figure, uh, and of course I would say this, but I would figure they may

00:09:41.640 as well just significantly cut spending because the headlines will be exactly the same regardless.

00:09:47.440 Uh, but right now that they, they risk having the worst of both worlds where they take all

00:09:52.080 the heat for cutting some spending here, but they might potentially not even get to a balanced

00:09:57.500 budget in their fourth year.

00:09:59.140 If they're wild, wild revenue projections don't come to pass.

00:10:04.200 Uh, they're, they're predicting oil to average over the next three years, between the three

00:10:09.080 years, about, uh, a little, I think they're going to get, they want to project to get the

00:10:13.400 65, but, uh, projecting, uh, an average of about 61, $62 a barrel on average over this time

00:10:20.740 with, uh, revenue increases, a super boom of increases of $4 billion in 2022 and, uh, another

00:10:27.900 $4 billion in 2023.

00:10:30.500 I mean, I have a hard time seeing how that's happened.

00:10:33.540 Those are numbers that would require like a PST to take place and their numbers are not

00:10:37.800 showing a PST in here.

00:10:38.740 And I don't think they're going to do that.

00:10:40.160 So the point is that they might take all this heat over cutting some, a little bit of spending

00:10:45.000 and not actually get the credit for a balanced budget at the end of the road, unless these

00:10:48.360 revenues take place.

00:10:49.520 Oh, a provincial budget is typically just health, education, and then a bunch of other

00:10:56.480 things, right?

00:10:57.700 I mean, you, you can't cut a budget.

00:11:00.280 Yeah.

00:11:00.580 You can't cut a provincial budget in this country without cutting health and education

00:11:04.660 in some, some, some substantial way.

00:11:07.420 Right.

00:11:07.820 That's where we spend the most.

00:11:08.840 So exactly.

00:11:09.800 Yeah.

00:11:10.480 That's where I always kind of thought their, their campaign commitments on this were a

00:11:14.560 bit funny is they said, well, you know, we're not going to touch health and education.

00:11:19.020 Well, that's 60% of the budget and everything else, you know, like if you're taking the biggest

00:11:24.940 piece off the table, um, health and education sound the nicest, but remember those departments

00:11:30.480 are just as wasteful as any other department.

00:11:32.580 There's a ton of bureaucrats in them. 0.99

00:11:34.120 There's a ton of Alberta's government employees are the best paid in the country.

00:11:38.860 Uh, in many cases by a huge margin, that's, what's driving up the costs.

00:11:42.480 And if you're not going to touch those things, you're not going to get to a balanced budget,

00:11:45.680 which is one reason the Tories, uh, maybe, maybe Deirdre can elaborate on this.

00:11:49.960 She did, uh, she did an article on this yesterday.

00:11:52.980 Uh, why the Tories have been actually raising some significant taxes in the background, but

00:11:58.940 really downplaying it, actually denying that they're doing it, even though it's right there

00:12:02.620 in black and white in the budget.

00:12:04.520 Yeah.

00:12:05.200 And so as much as, you know, why don't you run us through some, maybe some of the taxes

00:12:11.260 that are in this budget in the last that have not really gotten very much attention.

00:12:14.440 So in the last budget, of course, was bracket creep.

00:12:19.200 And I think that we did talk, we have talked about that before, but what bracket creep is,

00:12:25.280 is when the government doesn't index income to inflation.

00:12:31.840 And so what happens when they don't do that is that if you do get those increases during

00:12:38.580 the year, your, uh, tax bracket actually doesn't move with those regular cost of living, uh,

00:12:46.180 increases.

00:12:46.680 So people move into a different tax bracket.

00:12:50.220 Now, I will say as well that Alberta has what we have three tax brackets, like we're not

00:12:56.500 like other provinces that have like six or seven.

00:12:59.700 Um, so it's, it's not as, uh, much of an issue in Alberta, but at the same time, if those

00:13:08.220 brackets don't change, when most people are getting, like I said, a cost of living increase

00:13:13.540 each year, or just a general raise, they can move into the next tax bracket.

00:13:19.140 Um, and normally that would have been indexed to the cost of living and the, uh, cost of

00:13:24.900 inflation.

00:13:25.820 So that was introduced in 2019.

00:13:29.760 And that one's always fun because Jason Kenney as Alberta director of the Canadian taxpayer

00:13:34.660 Federation was a staunch defender against bracket creep and had been even at the federal level

00:13:41.980 when he was a federal politician.

00:13:44.280 So it was just major hypocrisy when he actually gave bracket creep to Alberta was fantastic.

00:13:55.480 Well, that's the big one.

00:13:57.300 And then they brought in, uh, they brought in another of other taxes, uh, more along the,

00:14:01.680 uh, education property tax, which people don't really understand very well.

00:14:07.480 Cause it's much more complicated.

00:14:09.180 The municipalities collect it for the province.

00:14:11.780 Uh, so when education property taxes go up, people tend to actually blame the municipalities

00:14:16.400 for it, not the province, but it's, it is a provincial tax that goes to education.

00:14:21.560 It's a very strange and regressive tax that we still have, but you know, one of the things

00:14:26.120 that's going to be going up by a massive margin.

00:14:29.320 Well, it's, it's 3.1% on average, but, uh, I did, um, I did have a friend suggest that

00:14:37.260 what the municipalities should do, just like with the carbon tax, when that was listed on

00:14:42.860 your, uh, power and gas bills, that it should be listed as, um, you know, provincial government

00:14:50.240 education tax increase.

00:14:52.480 They do that in British Columbia, when you get your, when you get your property taxes,

00:14:56.640 uh, in most, I think every, I think every municipality, cause we have a government agency that, that

00:15:02.660 oversees all that, right?

00:15:03.960 A provincial government agency.

00:15:05.240 And there's a standard statement you get, and it shows you what each of those taxes are,

00:15:09.900 who gets that money and what you're actually paying.

00:15:13.260 And so people do know when they, when they pay the education component, how much of their

00:15:17.340 property tax.

00:15:18.340 It is there on your statement when you get your, would you get your property tax form

00:15:21.780 here?

00:15:22.780 Uh, but I'm not sure how much the control the municipalities have to more clearly specify.

00:15:28.680 This is for the province.

00:15:29.720 We did not increase this tax, the province did, uh, cause the municipalities don't, don't

00:15:34.620 get to, uh, get to collect that.

00:15:37.340 Uh, it's the same way as when people, when you pay your income tax, you're not, uh, you're

00:15:42.020 not necessarily, people don't even know how much is going to the federal and how much it's

00:15:45.340 going to the provincial and how much of that gets washed around and the bureaucracy of Ottawa.

00:15:49.680 They have, they have no idea.

00:15:50.680 Uh, they've also brought in some sin taxes.

00:15:53.100 Uh, now a lot of kind of big government conservatives are okay with these things.

00:15:57.280 They say, well, if you don't like tobacco tax, don't smoke.

00:15:59.900 Okay.

00:16:00.900 Well, the answer should be, if you don't like income tax, don't work.

00:16:02.900 The fact is, this is a, this is a personal choice people make, uh, unless the government's

00:16:07.580 got a right to tell you what to do with your, with your own adults, what to do with their

00:16:10.800 own bodies.

00:16:11.800 Um, they don't make much sense, but they've increased the tobacco tax in the province.

00:16:16.000 So big government, uh, progressives and big government conservatives, both like them.

00:16:20.900 Uh, and Alberta's first vaping tax.

00:16:24.300 Yes.

00:16:25.300 Woo hoo. 1.00

00:16:26.300 This is the dumbest tax I have ever seen. 1.00

00:16:29.300 I mean. 0.99

00:16:30.300 This affects Derek directly, Ozzy.

00:16:33.300 No, it does not.

00:16:35.300 Um, but you know, look, vaping is the biggest victory for getting people off of tobacco since

00:16:43.800 we learned that tobacco was bad for you.

00:16:46.160 This is a wildly safer or less harmful, I should say, alternative to smoking.

00:16:52.300 Uh, they're saying they're going to do this to prevent youth from getting it.

00:16:55.480 Well, it's already illegal for youth to get it.

00:16:57.480 If youth are getting this stuff, then clearly the problem was, is with the point of sale

00:17:01.680 access.

00:17:02.480 It's not with the price here.

00:17:04.480 Uh, so.

00:17:05.480 Is it less than the tobacco tax though?

00:17:07.480 It is.

00:17:08.480 Well, then there you go, Derek.

00:17:10.480 You know, it's still bad.

00:17:11.480 It's just not as bad.

00:17:12.480 And so.

00:17:13.480 But you're, you're, you're, you're decreasing the marginal attractiveness of one versus the 0.79

00:17:17.580 other.

00:17:18.480 So now on a relative scale, smoking becomes more economical.

00:17:22.480 It's still more expensive.

00:17:23.480 Yeah.

00:17:24.480 There's more, there's more taxes.

00:17:25.480 Uh, the cigarette tax is approximately 142%.

00:17:28.480 Oh wow.

00:17:29.480 Yeah.

00:17:30.480 That's the cigarette.

00:17:32.480 That's the tax on tobacco product.

00:17:34.480 I don't even believe in tobacco taxes.

00:17:35.480 Baking, vaping products are 20%.

00:17:38.480 So there's, there's still.

00:17:39.480 Yeah.

00:17:40.480 One is 120% too high.

00:17:41.480 The other one's 20% too high.

00:17:42.480 Well, you know, the vaping tax.

00:17:43.480 Personal business.

00:17:44.480 And it's not the business of politicians to say what we can put in our bodies.

00:17:48.480 If I want to drink gasoline, that's my business.

00:17:50.480 And that's why we have to get rid of the gasoline tax too.

00:17:53.480 The vaping tax in the province of British Columbia is 7% because that's our sales tax.

00:18:00.480 So you guys really shouldn't complain.

00:18:01.480 You don't have one of those.

00:18:02.480 That's the, the BC advantage.

00:18:05.480 Yeah.

00:18:06.480 If you're vaping, uh, you know, come to British Columbia, you pay lower taxes now than Alberta.

00:18:11.480 All right.

00:18:12.480 The point of all this is on taxes though, is, uh, Deirdre reported in the standard yesterday.

00:18:17.480 Um, the finance minister and the premier are going around saying, we promised we would balance the budget without raising any taxes.

00:18:24.480 Right.

00:18:25.480 And there's, there's a growing list of taxes.

00:18:27.480 Some of them big, some of them small tobacco and vaping on the small side, but very big.

00:18:31.480 Uh, especially over time will be the education property tax and, uh, the bracket creep increase to, uh, to our income taxes.

00:18:39.480 So this is, uh, you know, so people bleeding that, oh, this is all just spending cuts and no tax increases.

00:18:45.480 It's tax revenue.

00:18:46.480 That's going to grow, uh, 800% more than spending will be cut.

00:18:52.480 So people who want more taxes and more spending should are getting eight times a better deal out of this than libertarians and conservatives who want to see this done on the spending side.

00:19:00.480 From a government revenue perspective, bracket creep is the best thing ever because every additional dollar of taxes comes in at the highest marginal rate for that person.

00:19:09.480 And so, you know, you're not getting, if your lowest marginal rate is 15%, you're not getting that on every additional dollar people make.

00:19:17.480 You're getting the 35% or whatever percent at the high end, right?

00:19:20.480 Yeah.

00:19:21.480 But remember, Alberta only has three tax brackets.

00:19:24.480 Yeah.

00:19:25.480 Right.

00:19:26.480 Our, our taxes don't increase until we reach 120, is it 120,000?

00:19:32.480 A hundred.

00:19:33.480 It was, it was just under whatever MLAs made.

00:19:36.480 Right.

00:19:37.480 Actually.

00:19:38.480 Oh, okay.

00:19:39.480 That's, that's the first tax bracket.

00:19:41.480 So our first tax bracket is up to a hundred and some thousand dollars.

00:19:47.480 So like that is, that, that is something that no other province has.

00:19:54.480 Every other province has at least two to three before they hit 120,000.

00:19:59.480 Right.

00:20:00.480 Like we're, Alberta's just so.

00:20:02.480 I didn't know we were talking about Bernie Sanders on the podcast today.

00:20:06.480 So, so the, uh, to conclude this segment then provincial governments like to tax people.

00:20:12.480 All right.

00:20:13.480 Uh, on we go.

00:20:14.480 The, uh, speaking of politics, the conservative parties leadership race.

00:20:19.480 Now, uh, uh, looks, you know, we talked about, I think last week, Derek, that, uh, Peter McKay

00:20:25.480 had this in the bag.

00:20:26.480 Uh, we're seeing a lot of, uh, uh, O'Toole's racking up quite a few endorsements.

00:20:31.480 I saw that, uh, there was an endorsement from Chuck straw this morning.

00:20:36.480 Um, came through on my, uh, my magic email.

00:20:39.480 Um, is there any hope here left?

00:20:41.480 Is there anybody else we should be looking at?

00:20:43.480 Uh, why don't we start with you, Deirdre?

00:20:45.480 What, what, what do you see happening on the ground?

00:20:47.480 Well, I, I do agree that Peter McKay has this in the bag because he has, he has the rec, the name recognition.

00:20:56.480 He has the, uh, political history and the background to really be able to take away this race. 1.00

00:21:05.480 But I mean, Andrew Scheer in my mind was not even a contender in 2017.

00:21:13.480 Right.

00:21:14.480 Yeah, me too.

00:21:15.480 So, you know, look what happened there.

00:21:18.480 Um, so I think it's important that we do pay attention to the other leadership contenders,

00:21:23.480 because what if you have another Andrew Scheer and, and who might that possibly be?

00:21:30.480 Well, and, and it's interesting cause we're seeing down, you know, just for comparison,

00:21:35.480 cause I watch us politics a lot with the democratic race, you know, uh, it started out as being

00:21:41.480 Biden versus Sanders, but then all these other people came in and all, you just never know

00:21:46.480 how these things are going to shake out.

00:21:48.480 And then here we are, you know, a few months later, it's Biden versus Sanders.

00:21:52.480 And, and I, I suspect that's probably, uh, you know, what we're going to see, you know,

00:21:58.480 in, in the conservative party here is we're going to see a lot of, you know, names fly

00:22:02.480 by.

00:22:03.480 And I think we have seen that already, but, um, I know you, there was some candidates in

00:22:07.480 particular that you were looking at, um, for leadership, uh, uh, Deirdre, um, that were

00:22:13.480 worth, worth, uh, mentioning and discussing where, uh, before the show.

00:22:18.480 Well, and okay.

00:22:20.480 So even though I don't see them as having a huge opportunity to, you know, really,

00:22:28.480 become something in this leadership race, but there's only two female contenders, Marilyn 1.00

00:22:34.480 Gladjew out of Ontario and Leslyn Lewis also out of Ontario.

00:22:39.480 Um, but still there's only, there's only two female contenders. 1.00

00:22:43.480 One is, uh, backed by campaign life coalition.

00:22:47.480 So very pro life and, you know, has, has their endorsement.

00:22:53.480 Marilyn Gladjew has really walked.

00:22:56.480 I think, uh, I think she has walked a good line on allowing private members bills, allowing 0.74

00:23:05.480 free votes because, and I mean, she's just using basic, uh, math saying over 70% of over 75% 1.00

00:23:14.480 of Canadians want to have things like abortion services available through the public health

00:23:21.480 system.

00:23:22.480 That's a really big number.

00:23:23.480 But so Marilyn Gladjew is looking at that and saying, um, you know, private members can

00:23:29.480 certainly bring this forward.

00:23:30.480 We can have a discussion about it, but I really don't think it's going to gain traction.

00:23:34.480 She doesn't see any need to institute something like, uh, like whipped boats when it comes to 0.98

00:23:40.480 conscience, uh, related matters.

00:23:43.480 And, you know, and I think that's important.

00:23:46.480 Leslyn Lewis, like I said, uh, you know, very pro life.

00:23:50.480 And now whether or not the thing is as much as some people, I'm sure Derek, you'll comment

00:23:56.480 on this as much as a lot of people don't want to see this as gaining, uh, sorry, they don't

00:24:04.480 want to see these types of issues gaining traction during the conservative party leadership race.

00:24:09.480 Andrew Scheer or his critics, cause it could, it may have not actually stemmed with Andrew

00:24:16.480 Scheer, but it kind of did, but his critics made it a really big issue about whether or not,

00:24:23.480 um, he would legislate on social issues in that way.

00:24:27.480 And the thing is that there are a lot of swing voters in Canada.

00:24:31.480 There are many, much less partisan people.

00:24:35.480 They're the ones that will move their vote.

00:24:38.480 And one of the things that critics and analysts and pundits suggested during the 2019, uh, general

00:24:48.480 election was that Andrew Scheer's waffling on the subject just didn't give people, uh, the

00:24:57.480 faith that they needed to have in him as a leader to not make these massive changes.

00:25:03.480 So whether, whether people like it or not, this is of concern.

00:25:10.480 I think to a number of Canadians that would possibly vote for a conservative, um, leader,

00:25:18.480 a conservative prime minister, I think it's an issue.

00:25:21.480 And I think it's one that they have to deal with and they have to deal with it well in order

00:25:25.480 to be contenders in 2023 or whenever that happens.

00:25:28.480 I have some, uh, some, some thoughts on that.

00:25:31.480 Derek, you want me to go first or you want to?

00:25:33.480 Well, you know, here's, here's where I'm at.

00:25:38.480 I, you know, I, if you'd asked me a few years ago, I would have said that I was reluctantly

00:25:43.480 pro-choice.

00:25:44.480 I might've been the, I might've been the Hillary Clinton of a decade ago opinion, you know, safe,

00:25:50.480 legal, and rare.

00:25:51.480 And, and my opinion, frankly, has evolved over the past few years to become less pro-choice

00:25:56.480 than before, because we see these crazy radicals, you know, in the past few years to become less

00:26:02.480 vulnerable, you know, uh, you know, that are just, you know, I just wish in this country

00:26:08.480 and in the, in the U S as well.

00:26:10.480 And I probably watched too much U S politics for my own health, but you know, can we, can

00:26:14.480 we have a mature adult conversation about this issue without everybody freaking out?

00:26:21.480 Like, you know, no, there's no way to have a mature conversation about this.

00:26:25.480 And, and, and Canada is fairly unique in the world.

00:26:28.480 And so far as like, we have zero regulations on, on abortion zero and most countries in

00:26:34.480 the world have some, and they're still somehow surviving and getting along.

00:26:39.480 Right.

00:26:40.480 And so, so that's, that's the big problem I have with this is like, you know, if, if you, and

00:26:46.480 there was a poll that came out, I wish I could remember the source.

00:26:48.480 There was a poll that came out and asked about in particular Canadians supported third trimester

00:26:54.480 abortions. 0.94

00:26:55.480 And the majority of Canadian, I think it was McLean's, but I can't remember.

00:26:59.480 And the majority of Canadians are opposed to third trimester abortions.

00:27:04.480 Right.

00:27:05.480 As the only guys, guys, guys, guys, this is, let's not, I see what Paul said.

00:27:09.480 We can't have a reasonable conversation.

00:27:11.480 We're trying to discuss the politics around this.

00:27:13.480 Yeah.

00:27:14.480 And we are really just about to dive into making this the abortion episode.

00:27:19.480 So I'm going to abort this conversation.

00:27:23.480 Do you agree?

00:27:24.480 If you have something to add to this, go, go ahead.

00:27:26.480 But like, I really don't want this to be.

00:27:28.480 I will, I will add to this really quickly.

00:27:31.480 Yeah.

00:27:32.480 Um, women don't decide in the third trimester that they no longer want to have a baby. 0.77

00:27:38.480 Okay.

00:27:39.480 So this is, this is, Oh, I agree with you.

00:27:43.480 I agree.

00:27:44.480 Conversation that belongs between a woman and her doctor.

00:27:47.480 And the thing is Ireland was the most perfect example. 0.78

00:27:50.480 They had, um, I got guys, guys, guys, this is now an abortion.

00:27:55.480 We are talking about the Tory leadership race and now we're talking about Ireland.

00:27:59.480 Okay.

00:28:00.480 And I, I am pulling rank and I'm pulling this back to the Tory leadership race.

00:28:06.480 This is, there are some pro-lifers in it and that's controversial.

00:28:10.480 Well, and I, and I think to Deirdre's point and I'll, I'll scale back on this Derek.

00:28:15.480 Cause you're right.

00:28:16.480 Um, you know, we don't want to turn it into that episode, but.

00:28:18.480 Oh, it's already there.

00:28:19.480 And I'm trying to point.

00:28:20.480 There is, this is an issue.

00:28:22.480 Like, you know, people, people are, they're going to look at their leadership camp.

00:28:27.480 You can't this leadership campaign and who ultimately the person that is elected leader of the conservative party.

00:28:32.480 This is, they're going to have to have a stance on this and it's going to have to be saleable to the Canadian public.

00:28:37.480 Right.

00:28:38.480 That's right.

00:28:39.480 And this is going to be a perennial issue in every leadership race.

00:28:42.480 Yeah.

00:28:43.480 And what normally happens is anyone who's got a real chance of winning takes a very soft position on it.

00:28:50.480 They're trying to middle.

00:28:51.480 They're trying to take a position that don't entirely alienate social conservatives, but don't scare off everybody else who's afraid of anything happening on this.

00:29:01.480 I think Paul's right.

00:29:02.480 I think actually the majority of Canadians are open to something on this.

00:29:05.480 The problem is the debate it's polarized everywhere on the planet.

00:29:09.480 You have this, but it's particularly polarized in Canada.

00:29:12.480 Anyone brings this up and pro-lifers do themselves no favors when they're saying like, yeah, let's just ban it.

00:29:19.480 And because, because that sounds wild.

00:29:21.480 That is a very small proportion of Canadians of even pro-lifers who want that.

00:29:25.480 But anyway, this, none of the pro-life candidates are going to win.

00:29:30.480 In fact, no one besides anyone named Peter McKay is going to win.

00:29:36.480 So I agreed to have this as a topic on here because it's happening and it's important, but it's also not important because it's already finished.

00:29:44.480 The party's decided who's going to win.

00:29:46.480 The dairy cartel has already spoken.

00:29:49.480 Peter McKay is the leader elect, or he is essentially the crown prince of the party right now, just waiting for the current king to expire.

00:29:57.480 It's already over.

00:29:58.480 And I'm actually curious, Derek, because I think you may have paid more attention than I did in the 2017 leadership race.

00:30:05.480 Did you see the possibility of it coming down to Andrew Scheer and Maxine Bernier?

00:30:13.480 We always knew it would be once Kevin O'Leary was out.

00:30:16.480 With Kevin O'Leary in, we thought it would be Bernier versus O'Leary.

00:30:21.480 Funny enough, he actually, O'Leary actually may have won.

00:30:25.480 I think that's what scared him.

00:30:26.480 I don't think he wanted to win by the end.

00:30:28.480 But once O'Leary was out, we knew it was going to come down to Scheer at the end of the day.

00:30:32.480 But as much as we might compare this to, say, the Republican or Democratic primaries, they're not the same. 0.95

00:30:39.480 Because there's no way to weed people out, except in the rare circumstances like O'Leary, where he just decided, oh, shit, I might win this thing. 0.88

00:30:46.480 I'm out. 0.90

00:30:47.480 Because, you know, in the states, they stagger voting.

00:30:50.480 You know, you have Iowa, then New Hampshire, South Carolina, Super Tuesday, and they vote in pieces.

00:30:57.480 And so you have a way to test the candidates and the field narrows out.

00:31:01.480 You know, so, OK, Bloomberg, he's not going to be able to buy his way to the presidency as easily as he thought.

00:31:06.480 So he's out.

00:31:07.480 So he's out.

00:31:08.480 And so the field will narrow down.

00:31:10.480 That does not happen in any Canadian race because we don't have any kind of staggered voting.

00:31:14.480 It's always on one day.

00:31:15.480 And, yeah, people will drop off the ballots.

00:31:18.480 But it's not.

00:31:19.480 It's got much less drama and much less strategy behind it than in the American system.

00:31:24.480 I thought Andrew Scheer had a chance of winning it.

00:31:27.480 I went into the convention believing that Bernier had a very strong chance.

00:31:33.480 I thought better than 50% chance of winning.

00:31:38.480 But I was not discounting Andrew Scheer as crazy as a decision as that might be.

00:31:45.480 Really?

00:31:46.480 I think as an outsider, you know, just, you know, because I wasn't involved much in that one.

00:31:52.480 I knew who Andrew Scheer was and I kind of, you know, I didn't have a strong opinion one way or the other.

00:31:59.480 And I really thought the guy didn't have a chance.

00:32:02.480 Like, you know, I knew he'd be in the top five.

00:32:05.480 But, you know, I.

00:32:07.480 Yeah.

00:32:08.480 Anyway, that was my totally outside opinion.

00:32:11.480 I think because I did join to vote and I think I had him like third or fifth or something on my own ballot.

00:32:16.480 Because it's like, OK, I had him like 15th.

00:32:19.480 He was he was milquetoast enough that I could, you know, I could I could, you know, hold my nose.

00:32:26.480 But yeah, no, it was.

00:32:28.480 Yeah.

00:32:29.480 Anyway, it's very different this time.

00:32:30.480 I really think you guys.

00:32:31.480 I think I like to wrap it up, you know, in lieu of a future abortion episode.

00:32:37.480 We're going to have to just do an abortion episode so you guys can get this off your chest. 1.00

00:32:44.480 Well, you know, we can.

00:32:45.480 We, you know, when you get three people who are nominally pro-choice in a room fighting on the issue of abortion.

00:32:50.480 It's just goes to show you the the level to which this this issue.

00:32:55.480 Well, I'm not a abortion pro-choice.

00:32:57.480 I'm pro-everything choice.

00:32:59.480 There you go.

00:33:00.480 The term has got a very different meaning for radical libertarians than for abortion activists.

00:33:08.480 Fair enough.

00:33:09.480 Fair enough.

00:33:10.480 All right.

00:33:11.480 So.

00:33:12.480 So that's it.

00:33:13.480 For those of you who tuned into the virus.

00:33:15.480 No, no, I know.

00:33:16.480 For those of you who tuned into the Conservative Party race, it's over.

00:33:19.480 So onto the coronavirus and which, by the way, we should probably not call it the coronavirus

00:33:25.480 because I learned this week from the WHO that the coronavirus is actually a virus that exists in many forms all over the world all the time.

00:33:34.480 There are coronaviruses.

00:33:36.480 There are many coronaviruses.

00:33:38.480 And this the one in particular that we're concerned about is called COVID-19.

00:33:43.480 Yeah.

00:33:44.480 So we will talk about COVID-19.

00:33:46.480 So we are not considered.

00:33:47.480 We're going to have to.

00:33:48.480 This is going to be truncated.

00:33:49.480 We're almost out of time here.

00:33:50.480 Almost out of time.

00:33:51.480 Hopefully Paul's been recording this though.

00:33:53.480 Absolutely.

00:33:54.480 Yeah.

00:33:55.480 So.

00:33:56.480 So we see lots and lots of people.

00:33:58.480 Now people are dying in the US state of emergency, very close to Canada.

00:34:02.480 What's.

00:34:03.480 Washington state.

00:34:04.480 Yeah.

00:34:05.480 We're.

00:34:06.480 Everybody's got to be aware of this.

00:34:07.480 We're watching.

00:34:08.480 What's going on.

00:34:09.480 Well, let's let's zero to one here.

00:34:10.480 Like I.

00:34:11.480 Yeah.

00:34:12.480 Last week on our morning call, there was some talk about us doing a coronavirus story.

00:34:16.480 And I said, no, no more coronavirus.

00:34:19.480 The media are trumping this up all the time.

00:34:22.480 I mean, it's it's just kind of a clickbait thing.

00:34:24.480 We're the Western standard.

00:34:25.480 We focus on Western Canada.

00:34:27.480 So, you know, if there's a big story related to it, uh, to Western Canada, and it's not

00:34:32.480 just a little clickbait thing, uh, fine, but I more or less said, that's it.

00:34:36.480 No more coronavirus.

00:34:37.480 A couple hours later, we get a phone call and Deirdre's breaking, uh, biggest story in

00:34:42.480 the country that day on coronavirus.

00:34:44.480 So Deirdre, why don't you tell us about what the hell happened, uh, to cause me to tear

00:34:49.480 up our no more coronavirus story, uh, rule two hours after I pronounced it.

00:34:55.480 So what happened was we had insider information that a flight in, or sorry, a flight from Vancouver

00:35:04.480 to Winnipeg had been basically quarantined upon landing in Winnipeg because there was

00:35:12.480 a passenger who had become unresponsive during the flight.

00:35:17.480 And so as, as everything was unfolding, I was basically going off of information from

00:35:25.480 this one source.

00:35:27.480 It couldn't be verified.

00:35:28.480 So no one else was writing about it.

00:35:31.480 We were, we were all trying to get more information, but because we had insider information, we were,

00:35:38.480 we were moving off of what they were telling us.

00:35:41.480 And so the update came, um, I mean by five o'clock I had now heard back from the Winnipeg

00:35:50.480 airport authority.

00:35:51.480 I had heard back from West jet and both of them.

00:35:55.480 I mean, I, I, I, I got an email from West jet, but I actually spoke to, uh, I believe is

00:36:02.480 Tyler McAfee from the Winnipeg airport authority.

00:36:05.480 And he's, he was, you know, Oh yeah.

00:36:08.480 Every day is busy at the airport, you know, no big deal.

00:36:12.480 I'm like, uh, okay.

00:36:14.480 And you know, so it was, um, it was, it was really interesting.

00:36:19.480 But the thing is that that incident, which actually, uh, the, the passenger who became

00:36:28.480 unresponsive during the flight, uh, she, she did test negative for the Corona virus.

00:36:34.480 And she was specifically tested for that.

00:36:36.480 That was, that was the big fear at the time because this passenger had connected in Vancouver

00:36:42.480 from China.

00:36:44.480 So, I mean, obviously we know that that's kind of ground zero at the moment.

00:36:48.480 Well, it used to be before Iran popped up with all of these cases, but, um, 0.85

00:36:53.480 It's nice to blame Iran again. 1.00

00:36:55.480 Yeah.

00:36:56.480 Right.

00:36:57.480 Luckily I'm still following all those.

00:36:58.480 And the Italians, the Italians are.

00:37:00.480 Yes.

00:37:01.480 Yeah.

00:37:02.480 Italy has it as well.

00:37:03.480 Like they've got over, I think they have over 25 cases now.

00:37:06.480 Well, what was, one thing that was really interesting.

00:37:08.480 Or 29 deaths.

00:37:09.480 Sorry.

00:37:10.480 One thing that was interesting, uh, in the remaining time we've got here is, uh, so the,

00:37:15.480 the sources we had said that, uh, the, this passenger had, was unresponsive, essentially

00:37:20.480 passed out on the floor with a high fever.

00:37:22.480 Uh, and they had come in from China wearing a face mask.

00:37:26.480 Now we all want to be sensitive here, but I would not like to sit beside that person on

00:37:30.480 the plane right now.

00:37:31.480 I think we'd all feel a little bit nervous.

00:37:33.480 Um, but it was very strange.

00:37:35.480 None of the rest of the media noted that this person was a connection coming in from China

00:37:39.480 via Vancouver.

00:37:40.480 That was entirely left out of every other media outlet story.

00:37:43.480 And we don't know if that was this, them being a bit of a, you know, politically correct

00:37:47.480 and sensitive, or if that was just that the airport authority and WestJet were just not

00:37:52.480 giving them that information.

00:37:53.480 We had a totally different, uh, pipeline of information, no pun intended.

00:37:58.480 Um, uh, that gave us that information.

00:38:02.480 Uh, but no, none of the others were reporting that.

00:38:05.480 And again, we don't know if that's just, they were being, uh, politically correct about

00:38:08.480 it or, or if they just didn't have it, but either way, it was a big one for the Western

00:38:14.480 standard.

00:38:15.480 And we had Deirdre breaking, uh, break a biggest story in the country that day, even if it turned

00:38:19.480 out not to be Corona virus at the end of the day or whatever we were supposed to call

00:38:24.480 it.

00:38:25.480 Well, that's it guys.

00:38:26.480 Uh, COVID-19.

00:38:28.480 COVID-19.

00:38:29.480 Yeah.

00:38:30.480 So, uh, thanks for joining us this week.

00:38:33.480 Uh, Deirdre, great to see you.

00:38:35.480 Uh, as always great to see you, Derek.

00:38:37.480 And, uh, if you haven't already, be sure to like, subscribe, hit comment.

00:38:42.480 I don't know, share, do all the things.

00:38:45.480 Um, we'll see everybody next week.

00:38:48.480 Ciao.

00:38:49.480 Bye.

Western Standard - March 05, 2020

Everything is about abortion, even it's not ... BUT IT IS - The Pipeline, Episode 11

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