In this episode, Western Standards National Affairs' Peter McKay and Fildebrandt discuss the dramatic increase in restricted firearm sales in Canada since Prime Minister Justin Trudeau came to power in 2015, and the implications for the country s gun control laws.
00:14:13.600I mean, I think for a very long time, pride parades were an important statement for an oppressed
00:14:19.200people for them to to come out of the closet and show that they're not afraid.
00:14:22.800The first few pride parades in Calgary, people wore masks.
00:14:26.800It was roughly a dozen people and they wore masks for fear of reprisals, either violence or being fired from their jobs.
00:14:33.800So even even wearing a mask was a very brave thing to do.
00:14:37.000And I think it was necessary trying to normalize the gay and lesbian community in the eyes of people and pushing for equal rights.
00:14:45.800But it's now become, you know, in this intersectional madness, the leadership of many of these pride societies has been hijacked by radical intersectional social activists.
00:14:57.600And they're banning police officers, in some case military and whatnot, because they're, you know, police would be used to raid bathhouses back in the day.
00:15:08.200Most of these police forces have had their historical apology sort of tour.
00:15:12.200And no one there is even most of them are several generations removed from active duty of anyone who did did those kinds of things.
00:15:20.200And it seems odd to me that they're trying to not just that they're excluding someone from an organization that's supposed to be about inclusion.
00:15:29.000But they're they're not taking a victory, showing this huge symbol of acceptance from the military, from from police.
00:15:36.800And what's really interesting is there are two groups opposed to police marching in uniform and pride parades, the pride societies and homophobes.
00:15:47.800Homophobes don't want to see the police marching in these parades.
00:15:51.400They're like, oh, this is denigrating the uniform.
00:15:57.000So people who are actually actually do have some lingering bigotry towards the gay and lesbian community.
00:16:03.500They they want to ban police from marching in these things and simultaneously the extreme intersectional social justice warriors want to ban them.
00:16:12.100And so I think politically, this has become a hot potato.
00:16:16.600And so McKay has come out and said these are critical and important and whatnot.
00:16:23.600And O'Toole has come out and said, I'd be happy to march into them if if they stop this the silliness.
00:16:30.100And I think that's probably a more balanced perspective to take to take in something like this.
00:16:36.700But it is interesting to see how parades are becoming sort of this litmus test line in the sand.
00:16:42.500Yeah, I know in Vancouver, the band department at UBC because they hosted speak speakers that they didn't like.
00:16:54.400And I actually did a if you go to the Western standards YouTube channel, I actually did an interview with the UBC free speech clubs executive director.
00:17:03.100And they actually brought in that controversial speaker that ended up inevitably getting UBC banned from the Vancouver pride parade.
00:17:12.100So, you know, it is there is a lot of silliness and I would, you know, again, I don't and I don't identify with the LGBTQ community myself.
00:17:20.600So I'm only an outsider looking in, but it's the whole thing just does does seem a bit a bit ridiculous.
00:17:31.100Tech oil sands project, Dave, why don't you bring us up to speed on what's happening there and the implications that there may be some tie in with the carbon tax as well, as I understand.
00:17:43.600Well, Tech is a giant project proposed for Northern Alberta during its construction.
00:17:50.600It'll create 7000 jobs in a province where those jobs are desperately needed.
00:17:55.600And when it's done, it'll pump out 260,000 barrels of oil a day.
00:18:00.600It's been undergoing an environmental assessment since, you know, all the dinosaurs were here, it seems like.
00:18:08.600The provinces come to agreement or the companies come to agreement with 14 indigenous bands in the area.
00:18:17.600So it's all systems go except for federal approval.
00:18:20.600Environment minister yesterday in Ottawa hinted that, you know, the government approval may hinge on what Alberta is doing with its carbon tax.
00:18:32.600The minister noted that is currently in court trying to oppose the federal carbon tax.
00:18:40.600And he's basically calling on the province to do more to help Canada get their net emissions down to zero by 2050.
00:18:48.600So it's some very, very deep implications there on what it may mean.
00:18:54.600Government supposed to rule by the end of February on it.
00:18:58.600But they're already talking about delaying.
00:19:02.600So, you know, we could be in the old retired journalism home before these guys get it approved.
00:19:07.600What's the, you know, I understood that there was a fairly established process for approval of projects like this.
00:19:16.600And, you know, you had to tick the boxes and go through the process.
00:19:18.600And it sounds like the companies behind this did a lot of that legwork.
00:19:23.600But I guess there is, is it, is it part of the standard process, Derek, for a minister to approve it at the end of that whole application and review process?
00:19:34.600It wasn't before, but it very much is now.
00:19:37.600So if you remember, Justin Trudeau jumped on with the NDP, the Green Party and the other extreme green groups in trying to discredit the previous approval process that we had before.
00:19:47.600It certainly wasn't perfect, but it was, had a lot more certainty.
00:19:50.600And then they brought in bill C 69 and C 48, which were vigorously opposed by not just the energy industry, but by a lot of major industries that do major infrastructure projects.
00:20:02.600And now it is a very politically loaded process.
00:20:06.600But at the end of the day, the politicians have a much more direct say in, in its approval or disapproval.
00:20:13.600So this is now going to be par for the course.
00:20:16.600And I think what it's going to increasingly do is discourage major investors from even bothering to apply because it's not like you're not going to spend any money before you apply.
00:20:26.600You will spend millions or tens or even hundreds of millions we see with Trans Mountain on this kind of project before you even know if you can build it.
00:20:36.600So why would, without any kind of certainty, why would anyone go forward and do this?
00:20:39.600I, I think anyone who invests in these kinds of projects is a madman now in Canada.
00:20:44.600And if not for the fact that this project's been going forward for some time, I don't think they would have started it today for the uncertainty of it.
00:20:51.600But it's interesting. So they're the federal, the feds are saying implying very strongly saying so in everything but plain English that Alberta needs to get on board and fully embrace Ottawa's carbon tax, or this might not get approved.
00:21:11.600First of all, Alberta has a carbon tax.
00:21:13.600The NDP had a carbon tax and they called it a carbon levy.
00:21:17.600The Tories canceled what they called the carbon tax and they kept four fifths of that carbon tax and nearly all of the regulations around the energy industry in Alberta.
00:21:29.600And they just renamed it the tier program, which is an acronym for something technology innovation, something, something program here.
00:21:37.600They kept almost the entire NDP program in place, except for the consumer carbon tax.
00:21:42.600They still have to place the industrial carbon tax, which is two thirds of it and most of the regulations.
00:21:47.600So Ottawa complaining that Alberta is not supporting a carbon tax is pure politics, just as it is on the Alberta government side when they say they don't have a carbon tax because they very much do.
00:21:57.600At the same time, why should Ottawa have anything to do with this whatsoever?
00:22:16.600I don't think Alberta should be even engaging the federal government on this.
00:22:19.600We should tell them to butt out for the simple reason that can we imagine for a second the federal government even having a question mark over if Quebec was allowed to engage in a major infrastructure project.
00:22:31.600So when Quebec builds hydro dams, those are extremely disruptive to the environment.
00:22:37.600They're often a good idea, but they are extremely disruptive, much more destructive than most oil sands mines.
00:22:42.600And can anyone on the show, any one of our listeners, recall a single time that Ottawa threatened Quebec to fall in line with some of its policies in order to have permission to go forward with an energy product?
00:22:57.600No, because Quebec would split overnight if they were ever condescended to that way.
00:23:02.600So I think it's wild what Ottawa is doing, but I think Alberta's government is being very weak in just fighting for the project.
00:23:11.600It should be telling Ottawa it has no business in this whatsoever.
00:23:14.600And if they if they insist on inserting themselves into it, they should be prepared to go it alone with the many reasons Albertans and Westerners more broadly already have to seek independence.
00:23:27.600All right. Well, on one final note, a public service announcement.
00:23:33.600If you are a consumer of Corona beer, don't worry, you're not going to get the Corona virus from your beer.
00:23:44.600Well, I don't want to say that with 100 percent certainty, but it's let's just say it's probably not going to happen that way unless you share your beer with somebody who has the Corona virus, in which case that's problematic.
00:23:56.600But a funny article posted today from Vice of all sources and yes, I read right, left and otherwise.
00:24:05.600And it was all about how the number of searches for the Corona beer virus has gone up dramatically on Google.
00:24:15.600People clearly not connecting the Corona virus with Corona meaning crown and this virus coming out of China, not the beer making regions of Mexico.
00:24:28.600So very clearly the human race is beyond redemption and perhaps we do need to be wiped out to start over.
00:24:35.600I did. This gives me that article gave me gives me such little faith for the future of the human race.
00:24:42.600So perhaps it is time we hit the reset button.
00:24:44.600Well, and we predicted it actually in this show last week that the Corona virus would wipe out all of humanity in the last seven or eight seconds.
00:24:54.600You have to go back and watch last week's episodes where yours truly made the formal prediction that that was going to happen.
00:25:02.600I thought it would happen by now, but you know, we've got a couple more weeks, so we'll see.
00:25:07.600All right. Well, that's the show for this week. Don't forget to go to Western standard online dot com.
00:25:13.600Become a member today and like subscribe.
00:25:16.600Find us on YouTube if you're listening on your favorite podcast app and find us on your favorite podcast app.
00:25:22.600If you're listening to us on YouTube, let's say that right.
00:25:26.600Thanks for joining us today. Derek from Calgary and Dave also from Calgary.
00:25:31.600And we'll see you guys on the range very soon.
00:25:34.600Thanks Paul. I'm off to have a Corona now.