Western Standard - February 28, 2025


HANNAFORD: Grassroots politics over Big Government


Episode Stats


Length

24 minutes

Words per minute

158.85152

Word count

3,906

Sentence count

203

Harmful content

Misogyny

3

sentences flagged

Hate speech

1

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Fetiene Grzeski is a political commentator and former Conservative candidate nominee for the House of Commons and a candidate for the New Brunswick Provincial Legislature. In this episode of The Hannaford Show, she talks about the current political climate and the challenges facing Canada.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Good evening, Western Standard viewers, and welcome to Hannaford, a weekly politics show.
00:00:24.820 I'm Jen Hodson, filling in for Nigel Hannaford.
00:00:28.140 My guest today is Fetine Grzeski, a political commentator and former Conservative candidate
00:00:35.620 nominee for the House of Commons and a candidate for the New Brunswick Provincial Legislature.
00:00:41.300 But first, a word from our sponsors.
00:00:45.540 This episode of The Hannaford Show is sponsored by New World Precious Metals, based right here
00:00:50.260 in Alberta.
00:00:52.140 Years of inflationary money printing and rising debt have decimated the average Canadian savings.
00:00:58.020 Gold and silver are the only currencies that have held their value for thousands of years,
00:01:03.840 and last year saw 30% gains.
00:01:07.500 NWPM offers unique platforms to help protect and grow your hard-earned wealth with gold and
00:01:13.600 silver.
00:01:14.940 Check out newworldpm.com.
00:01:17.500 Fetine Grzeski, an Alberta-born girl and hockey mom, is a political commentator and host of 0.83
00:01:24.540 a national issues commentary show that airs on networks Canada-wide.
00:01:29.620 An executive director in the charitable sector and a candidate nominated for the Federal Conservative
00:01:36.660 Party and a candidate for the New Brunswick Provincial Conservatives.
00:01:41.500 Fetine, welcome to the show. 1.00
00:01:44.320 Great to be here, Jan.
00:01:45.720 Thank you so much for having me.
00:01:47.320 Oh, we're so delighted to have you.
00:01:49.780 So Fetine, given your history in politics as both a Federal and Provincial Conservative candidate,
00:01:56.440 and your work, I hear, with youth driving political change, I reckon you have some special
00:02:01.380 insight into the multi-level political chaos we face as the nation.
00:02:05.500 Yeah, well, you know, I, like you and all of your viewers, I love this nation, you know,
00:02:11.200 and I'm both a businesswoman and a mom, and so, you know, I interface with the issues of
00:02:16.340 the day from a variety of angles.
00:02:18.720 And, you know, the stakes are high, the issues are intense, and it is just a wild time in
00:02:23.560 politics right now, so I'm great to, I'm happy to be with you today to chop up some of
00:02:27.880 the issues of the day.
00:02:28.640 I do want to mention, though, at the federal level, I was a nomination candidate.
00:02:32.880 I lost the nomination by just a hair, and provincially, I was on the ticket, so.
00:02:39.040 Right.
00:02:39.340 I saw that it was really quite a close race, though.
00:02:42.000 It was just by a hair, as you say.
00:02:44.660 So we'll get back to any kind of political ideas you might have in the future towards
00:02:50.760 the end of the show, but for now, let's just jump right into it.
00:02:54.780 So the unelected Mark Carney appears to be a shoe-in for the liberal leader coming up.
00:02:59.680 We have a March 9th liberal leadership contest, and if he wins that, he'll become the next
00:03:06.260 prime minister.
00:03:07.300 And again, he's unelected.
00:03:09.400 So there is speculation that he would call an election right away, but some people are
00:03:14.160 saying that the liberals could de facto stay in power until 2026, even though there's an
00:03:20.680 election scheduled for October 2025.
00:03:22.920 And according to the Charter, I think it's Section 4, if there's an emergency situation,
00:03:29.920 like a tariff war, for example, that it could be even longer.
00:03:34.640 So what do you make of that?
00:03:36.820 Well, you know, what I make of the current political climate is that things are changing,
00:03:40.780 not just by the day, but by the hour, by the minute, right?
00:03:44.400 So I think so much of our political context right now definitely is responsive to what
00:03:50.040 is happening in the United States, specifically with President Trump, and it changes, can change
00:03:56.680 by the day, by the minute.
00:03:57.940 So, you know, in terms of the possibility of the federal election being pushed all the
00:04:03.500 way to 2026, I think the only way that Canadians would have an ounce of that without a major 0.97
00:04:11.020 outcry would be if there was a legitimate national crisis.
00:04:17.320 You know, many people would say that the crisis that we're facing right now is not only external,
00:04:23.940 wasn't just created by the Trump tariff threat, but it's been created by poor domestic policies.
00:04:29.940 The fact that we haven't been able to get our act together on the issue of domestic trade,
00:04:34.900 the imbalance with equalization payments.
00:04:37.720 There's a lot that we could do internally, I think, to bolster our economy, or not I think.
00:04:43.500 There's a lot that we can do internally, domestically, you know, to bolster trade,
00:04:48.980 to bolster the economy, to strengthen our essential industries before we have to go so far as to
00:04:55.960 declaring a national emergency that would cause the election to be delayed a year.
00:05:01.620 So I think the liberals have a pretty hard sell, given the fact that a lot of the economic
00:05:06.300 crisis that we're facing was created by them and by their policies, they're going to have
00:05:11.900 a hard sell with Canadians to push that election all the way to 2026.
00:05:15.660 But, you know, it's a crazy time.
00:05:17.420 It's a wild time and anything could happen.
00:05:19.220 I think we've learned that.
00:05:21.920 Yeah, absolutely.
00:05:23.080 We really do have to be prepared for anything.
00:05:25.480 And just to your point about all of the internal solutions that Canadian politicians, both federally
00:05:33.660 and provincially, could be doing, you mentioned the internal trade.
00:05:37.720 I've recently discussed with both the Alberta Chamber of Commerce and the Canadian Chamber
00:05:44.800 of Commerce, amongst some other business agencies here in Canada at both federal and provincial
00:05:50.180 levels, and they are actually all singing a similar tune, that the tariffs are creating
00:05:56.780 a big problem.
00:05:57.680 And should they go through, there's going to be massive impacts.
00:06:00.500 But this isn't just the beginning of a new issue.
00:06:04.060 It's actually been something that's been going on for years or even decades with all these
00:06:09.720 barriers for trade.
00:06:11.020 I also heard about high taxes.
00:06:13.460 You know, we have the carbon tax being spiked again on April 1st, and that's going to be
00:06:19.860 like a 20% increase for, you know, forgive me if I'm slightly off about that, but it's
00:06:24.600 a substantial increase in the carbon tax as well.
00:06:28.180 So it's not like Donald Trump just came along and created these problems for Canada.
00:06:33.480 They were longstanding before.
00:06:35.380 And that's without even touching on the illegal immigration issues that Canada has had for
00:06:40.780 years, and even legal immigration has been so wildly out of control.
00:06:46.660 And in addition to that is where we're learning more and more just what an issue this fentanyl
00:06:52.980 problem has been.
00:06:54.540 So in light of the liberal leadership race, it's like Parliament has been put on pause for
00:07:01.400 this prorogation.
00:07:03.060 Prime Minister Justin Trudeau on January 6th, as you know, he announced his intention to
00:07:08.780 resign, but we haven't actually seen any fruit of that except for a prorogued parliament
00:07:13.840 and a liberal candidate scrambling to get their act together for this leadership contest.
00:07:21.820 So how do we square this circle when we have so much going on that needs to be addressed
00:07:28.200 from not just an internal perspective, but internationally?
00:07:33.700 We're dealing with Trump and the tariffs and all the different issues that are collectively
00:07:42.320 adding towards something that we need to really address.
00:07:46.060 But we don't have anyone seated in the House of Commons right now.
00:07:50.980 Yeah, it's incredibly concerning and disappointing, obviously, to have a dysfunctional parliament
00:07:55.920 at such a critical moment in our national timeline here.
00:08:00.460 So, you know, listen, there are so many different things that you said there, but let's go with
00:08:05.260 the low-hanging fruit, first of all.
00:08:06.860 Let's get our domestic trade flowing. 0.69
00:08:10.040 And let's face it, if the one thing that Trump's tariffs threats accomplish is that we get those
00:08:17.940 pipelines built, that we get Energy East flowing, that we start getting our resources to market
00:08:23.260 on both the Pacific and the Atlantic coast, you know, that will be a huge win.
00:08:28.040 Now, obviously, that's not going to happen in a minute.
00:08:30.400 It takes more than a day to build a pipeline.
00:08:33.760 And so we have to be looking at what are some of the other economic levers that can be pulled
00:08:37.680 that are immediate other than just starting a massive trade war with the United States
00:08:44.200 of America.
00:08:44.780 And the low-hanging fruit, Jen, is that carbon tax.
00:08:48.900 It really, really is.
00:08:50.280 This has been one of the deepest grinds on Canadians in the last decade.
00:08:56.080 And the average Canadian household right now, as I understand it, is paying just under $1,000
00:09:01.760 per annum in carbon tax.
00:09:04.420 Well, let's get rid of that.
00:09:06.120 That's just the household burden.
00:09:08.000 You know, we understand as well that this carbon tax is putting immense pressure on our industries,
00:09:12.720 that those costs are being passed on to the consumer in a multiplicity of ways.
00:09:18.880 It is a massive contributor to inflation.
00:09:22.600 So let's start with what we can do right now.
00:09:25.920 And I just, I want to applaud the voices of common sense that have been saying this really
00:09:30.240 now for years.
00:09:31.700 And sometimes, you know, a little bit of an external pain makes us wake up to some of the
00:09:37.800 conversations that we might not have been open to in the past.
00:09:40.460 And I want to say this, like, I'm an Alberta girl originally, but I've really lived all
00:09:45.280 over the nation.
00:09:46.680 I lived in Vancouver, went to university there, and then have built my life kind of across the
00:09:51.380 nation.
00:09:51.780 We're in New Brunswick right now.
00:09:53.460 And, you know, Jen, I've noticed that, you know, a lot of Eastern Canadians really don't
00:09:59.060 understand the policy press that has been put on the financial economic engine of our
00:10:05.120 nation, namely Alberta and Western Canada.
00:10:07.760 They just, it's not that they don't care, it's just that they don't know.
00:10:10.540 It's not something that is widely talked about.
00:10:13.400 And what's happening here with the discourse surrounding the tariffs and with the strong
00:10:18.220 leadership of Premier Danielle Smith is it's bringing this conversation to the fore in a
00:10:24.000 way that I think is really critical, important, and probably the lightest word in the mix I could
00:10:29.600 use there would just be healthy.
00:10:30.820 Like, this needs to be a conversation where we've got $300 billion in equalization payments
00:10:37.300 over the last several decades, and yet an all-out war on the very industry that makes those
00:10:44.360 payments possible.
00:10:45.880 You know, we need to have a conversation.
00:10:47.520 So I would say, I would advocate for beginning with the conversations we can have domestically,
00:10:52.020 internally.
00:10:52.400 Let's get some stuff done here at home.
00:10:54.600 And then let's learn how to be diplomats on the international stage and not just throw
00:10:59.540 mud from over the fence.
00:11:01.300 Like, I applaud Danielle Smith and her leadership.
00:11:04.020 I think she's demonstrating how to get it done.
00:11:07.300 Yes, I agree.
00:11:08.280 I think that Premier Smith is doing a great job.
00:11:10.620 It's really refreshing to see such a strong, level-headed voice come out in defense of Canada,
00:11:19.420 in defense of Alberta.
00:11:20.440 And without taking on this Team Canada rhetoric either, that the federal liberals are all of
00:11:27.160 a sudden putting forward, without, too long ago in recent memory was the Freedom Convoy,
00:11:36.400 where the federal liberals, of course, were acting like anyone who was on so-called Team
00:11:43.060 Canada was some kind of a domestic terrorist or something, calling the Emergencies Act, which
00:11:48.060 was recently appealed in the federal court by the Trudeau liberals.
00:11:53.540 So to circle back to about what you mentioned about the carbon tax and how that is impacting
00:11:59.560 us internally, how do you think that makes us look on the world stage?
00:12:05.200 We're really the only nation that has these kind of measures anymore.
00:12:10.000 We see other Western nations walking back these climate policies.
00:12:14.380 So how do you think it makes us look and what does it do for our attractiveness as global
00:12:21.100 trading partners?
00:12:22.380 You know, we're facing down the barrel of a gun of this looming trade war.
00:12:27.680 Who's going to be wanting to do business with Canada with all of these extra taxes, including
00:12:32.540 this astronomical carbon tax that is tacked on to all of our goods and commodities?
00:12:38.820 Yeah, you make a really important point.
00:12:41.140 How do we look on the international stage?
00:12:43.060 I haven't asked any of my international friends and colleagues, particularly on this issue,
00:12:48.340 but I'd have to say we look ridiculous.
00:12:50.400 You know, our emissions output is 1.4 percent of global emissions.
00:12:55.560 The last time I researched it, maybe we're somewhere near 1.6 percent, but we're definitely
00:12:59.900 not past two.
00:13:00.820 I hadn't even heard, you know, for decades, you know, I remember back in probably around
00:13:06.600 2009, Stephen Harper saying, listen, we could tank our entire economy as we drive towards
00:13:13.940 net zero and really make almost no impact on the global emissions footprint.
00:13:19.460 And, you know, that's just logical, right?
00:13:22.300 And so, you know, we do need to think about our families.
00:13:25.460 We need to think about our businesses.
00:13:27.280 We need to think about creating that climate once again, speaking of self-sabotage, creating
00:13:33.540 that climate once again, where Canada becomes attractive to business and that those of us
00:13:39.160 here that are business owners like myself, you know, are actually able to flourish and
00:13:43.980 build a life for their families that is prosperous.
00:13:47.280 And so these are no-brainers.
00:13:48.860 These are no-brainers.
00:13:49.680 And we are at a time where the pendulum needs to come back.
00:13:53.220 Crazy has just gotten more crazy on some of these frontiers.
00:13:58.120 And it's time to begin to look at these things pragmatically, logically, and ask those tough
00:14:03.660 questions like why in the world are we killing our economies, these various industries, when
00:14:08.000 it's really having a negligible impact on global emissions?
00:14:11.920 Yeah.
00:14:12.260 We really got to get the adults back in the room, back in the House of Commons, where these
00:14:17.020 matters can be actually discussed with leadership and with a leader that has a mandate from the
00:14:24.260 Canadian people.
00:14:26.120 So just again, back to the Mark Carney and liberal leadership.
00:14:30.740 So Carney, there's, again, there's speculation that he would call an election right away because
00:14:36.180 he would just become the de facto prime minister if he wins the leader liberalship race, which
00:14:44.280 it looks like he's going to do.
00:14:46.400 So what do you see happening?
00:14:49.720 So Parliament is coming back March 24th.
00:14:53.060 That's when the prorogation is over.
00:14:55.060 The leader liberalship contest is going to be just a few weeks before that on March 9th.
00:14:59.860 So we're going to have a new prime minister in place.
00:15:04.300 And it's not going to be elected by Canadians.
00:15:08.480 It's going to be someone elected by liberals, essentially.
00:15:11.580 And they're going to be leading the country.
00:15:13.260 So a lot of people are looking at the polls, looking to see when is the next election, because
00:15:19.920 many Canadians are liking what they hear from Conservative leader Pierre Polyev.
00:15:25.560 But it seems like there's still a few hurdles to jump over.
00:15:29.760 And as I mentioned at the beginning of our discussion, it seems like there is a constitutional
00:15:36.420 mechanism.
00:15:37.800 I think you even said that earlier, that would keep the liberals and ergo Carney, should he
00:15:44.740 win the leadership race in power, even beyond 2026, if Parliament votes to repeal, of course.
00:15:54.060 And with the support of Jagmeet Singh and the NDP, that very well could happen.
00:15:59.160 Yeah, there's so much in what you just outlined there.
00:16:02.920 But just to say this, in politics, usually polling rules the day, unfortunately.
00:16:08.080 And that is, again, so discouraging and disheartening as someone who loves Canada.
00:16:12.820 And I know you're in the same boat and is deeply concerned about the trajectory that our
00:16:16.840 nation has been on.
00:16:17.460 We need an election for the sake of the will of democracy to be expressed.
00:16:24.720 But we know that political parties, they're going to be looking at the polls.
00:16:27.940 They're going to be looking at the temperature of what's happening, how what's happening in
00:16:33.560 the United States of America and President Trump's policies, how that's going to be impacting
00:16:38.880 the political climate.
00:16:39.940 It seems like the liberals are trying to set themselves up to be campaigning against President
00:16:45.180 Trump, not against Pierre Polyam.
00:16:48.060 And so they're going to be watching these things.
00:16:50.280 Obviously, political parties always try to strike when they think that it is most beneficial
00:16:55.300 to them.
00:16:56.480 So, again, like I said earlier, anything could happen.
00:16:59.320 So I really feel like it's wisdom just for people to engage at the grassroots level right
00:17:04.520 now and not take anything for granted.
00:17:07.060 You mentioned the whole dynamic that we will have a prime minister that was not elected by
00:17:13.100 the Canadian people, but rather by the members of the Liberal Party.
00:17:17.840 And now the deadline has passed.
00:17:19.540 I don't know what the membership is out right now for the federal liberals.
00:17:22.840 But I do know that when Justin Trudeau ran, he won, I think, believe it was with 90,000
00:17:29.240 votes.
00:17:29.840 So if you weigh 90,000 votes up against 40 million people, that's 90,000 people deciding
00:17:35.740 for 40 million that Justin Trudeau was going to be the official leader of the opposition
00:17:40.980 back in the day.
00:17:42.300 So, yeah, you're right.
00:17:43.640 But this just illustrates why it is so important for people to get involved in grassroots,
00:17:49.520 partisan politics with the party that most represents their views and values.
00:17:54.060 Because if you're involved in things like these leadership races, you're going to be
00:17:57.660 the one that sets the temperature in the room.
00:18:01.500 And I think it goes without saying, I need to highlight this right now because I'm not sure
00:18:04.860 why we're not talking about this one more.
00:18:06.620 And that is that there are nominations that are being rolled out all across Canada right
00:18:12.300 now.
00:18:12.500 As a matter of fact, I just got an email yesterday from somebody, right?
00:18:16.640 Just a stone's throw from you right there, Jen.
00:18:18.880 In Calvary, there's a nomination that just opened up in Bow River, I believe.
00:18:22.820 It'll be huge by the time this is airing.
00:18:25.720 But these nominations are rolling out right now.
00:18:27.860 And lots of these nominations will be determined by just a couple dozen Canadians that buy a membership
00:18:33.740 in the party that they resonate with.
00:18:36.640 And it's going to be those Canadians that literally set the climate for our nation going
00:18:43.280 forward.
00:18:44.520 You know, we know up until about a month ago, most of the polls were projecting a super
00:18:50.100 majority for Pierre Polyev.
00:18:51.980 So to be honest, the more important elections, it's really not the liberal leadership race,
00:18:58.520 if those polls are true.
00:18:59.420 It's actually those nominations that are happening all across Canada right now that are going
00:19:04.220 to determine the climate of the Conservative Caucus and the climate of the House of Commons
00:19:09.560 here within, well, we'll see, six or 18 months.
00:19:14.240 Yeah.
00:19:14.640 Well, that's such an interesting point because I think for a while there, the Conservative movement
00:19:20.440 was feeling pretty confident that Pierre Polyev had it in the bag or has it in the bag for
00:19:26.900 a super majority.
00:19:28.520 However, there's been kind of a toss up since this Liberal leadership race got going with
00:19:34.780 a lot of Liberals who had jumped ship under Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
00:19:40.780 Now with Mark Carney, things, you know, seem to have shifted a little bit.
00:19:45.340 He seems to have some appeal for some former Liberals or Liberals that were starting to feel
00:19:50.980 wishy-washy and maybe said that they would vote Conservative because they want to see someone
00:19:56.100 that's a little bit more competent in the leadership role as the nation's leader.
00:20:02.960 And so people, I think, are finding some likability perhaps in Mark Carney.
00:20:09.200 And we see in the polls recently, you know, you say polls are what really demonstrates the
00:20:15.300 situation that actually the Liberals are starting to gain a little bit more ground.
00:20:21.520 So just as we're wrapping it up, you know, you mentioned about grassroots movements and
00:20:27.240 that it's not so much the big general election that is going to have the poll, but in these
00:20:34.720 smaller by-elections.
00:20:36.580 And what are some other ways that people on a more local level or more grassroots level
00:20:44.020 can get involved and can really play a role, a democratic role in what is to come of this
00:20:52.060 nation?
00:20:53.020 That's a great question.
00:20:54.140 And thank you so much for it.
00:20:55.500 I think the most important thing that your viewers can do, the listeners can do after they
00:21:01.260 are done listening to this podcast is to go and make sure that your membership is active
00:21:08.000 in the party that most represents your views and values and just get in the room.
00:21:14.400 It's not the people that are outside of the room that determine the temperature and the
00:21:18.580 conversations.
00:21:19.100 It's the people that are in the room.
00:21:20.960 And then once you're in the room, raise your hand, you know, every time that there's an
00:21:24.900 opportunity to volunteer and to serve.
00:21:27.560 And I always encourage the people that I lead to come with a service heart, to come with a
00:21:33.060 heart of honor.
00:21:33.740 I think we are all so weary and tired of toxic politics, right?
00:21:40.160 And we can be that change.
00:21:41.900 I say, get in the room, get in the room with courage, be a voice for the things that you
00:21:45.780 care about, but also do it in a way that is going to foster unity and a culture of kindness.
00:21:52.520 Like I just came through one of the most toxic elections that, oh my gosh, it was crazy.
00:21:58.740 I, it was just crazy.
00:22:01.180 And I just, you know, all of us have to decide, number one, we're either going to be in the
00:22:05.100 room or we're not, because it's only going to be the people in the room that have sway.
00:22:08.760 And number two, we're going to be that person in the room that contributes to a healthy culture
00:22:14.400 within our political discourse, or we're not.
00:22:17.740 And so I think those are the two, if we all just did those two basic things, got in the
00:22:21.400 room and then helped contribute to a healthy culture, then we would see change in our nation
00:22:27.180 within short order for sure.
00:22:30.000 Wow.
00:22:30.300 That is so good.
00:22:31.620 Thank you so much for that perspective and for wrapping up the show on a positive note,
00:22:36.280 because, you know, we can sit back and comment on all these political unfoldings, but until
00:22:42.880 people realize that actually it's up to we, the people and decide to get involved ourselves.
00:22:49.180 And that's where the change really comes from.
00:22:51.780 So I love hearing that.
00:22:54.080 And Fetine, it's been amazing to have you on the show.
00:22:57.040 Thank you so much for joining us.
00:22:59.060 This is Fetine Grisecci, who has her show on Fetine TV, and she is a former conservative
00:23:06.780 candidate for the House of Commons nominee and for the provincial legislature in New Brunswick.
00:23:15.080 Fetine, any last words?
00:23:16.540 Oh, no, it's just been wonderful to be with you, Jen.
00:23:19.360 This is great.
00:23:20.420 And maybe I'll just land it with the words of a very Honorable Albertan, the Honorable
00:23:26.880 Preston Manning.
00:23:27.800 Let's just get out there and do something.
00:23:31.060 Sounds great.
00:23:32.500 Yeah, those are amazing parting words.
00:23:34.660 So thank you to you.
00:23:35.500 Thank you to the Honorable Preston Manning for his insight.
00:23:39.080 I saw that you just recently did a segment or four-show segment with him.
00:23:43.500 So thank you, Fetine, and all the best to you.
00:23:46.620 Thank you, Jen.
00:23:48.080 Thank you for joining us for The Hannaford Show this week.
00:23:51.040 I'm Jen Hodson.
00:24:12.920 Thank you.
00:24:14.000 Thank you.
00:24:34.640 Thank you.