Western Standard - January 2, 2020

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00:03:00.000 Happy New Year, it's 2020. I am Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard. You're

00:03:20.840 live on a special edition of the pipeline uh i'm joined today uh in beautiful hawaii

00:03:28.680 by uh western standard columnist and podcast editor corey morgan and by our uh news director

00:03:38.280 dave nailer who is unfortunately still in lockdown uh just outside of vancouver british columbia

00:03:44.600 But the weather is beautiful here in Hawaii.

00:03:48.900 Sorry, go ahead, Dave.

00:03:51.680 What's going on?

00:03:52.660 I'm the only staff member who's not in Hawaii.

00:03:55.940 Can I get a raise or something?

00:03:57.740 How am I stuck in Vancouver while you guys are in Hawaii?

00:04:02.040 You know, you're always bragging about the weather in Vancouver relative to the rest of Canada anyway,

00:04:06.900 so enjoy your lockdown.

00:04:09.420 Corey and I are sitting on a nice warm beach here sipping Coronas.

00:04:12.680 I'm a little overdressed for the beach, but nobody wants to see me without my shirt, I promise you.

00:04:17.680 And Dave, somebody's got to work.

00:04:19.680 That is true.

00:04:21.680 And you have been working hard.

00:04:23.680 We had 1.3 million readers in the last month due in very large measure to Dave Naylor.

00:04:30.680 So tip of the hat from all Western-Centered members and myself to Dave Naylor.

00:04:35.680 We're going to have the numbers soon, but we probably beat almost every single media outlet in Western Canada last month

00:04:41.680 uh with some of the news you've been uh producing so thank you

00:04:46.720 so uh we're here today um i think a lot of you know what this is about but we're going to break

00:04:51.280 it down uh you know when i was with the canadian taxpayers federation we had this thing called the

00:04:55.760 debt clock and it would show the debt ticking up in real time to try and help people get their

00:05:01.040 minds around uh how massive the debt was uh i think what we need now is a lockdown politician

00:05:08.400 breaking their travel restrictions clock because every few hours is just another one and another

00:05:13.840 one coming out. I think right now there's probably got to be a lot of politicians huddled somewhere

00:05:18.560 in warm climes wondering when it's just going to come out that they haven't been following the

00:05:24.800 lockdowns and travel restrictions that they've imposed on everyone else. But we're going to go

00:05:29.200 through it today about who's been caught so far, what the problem with this is, and how many more

00:05:36.000 could there really be uh it's quite something um i mean i don't think we need much of an introduction

00:05:41.840 everybody's watching this this is a huge story nationwide uh it's resulted uh at least outside

00:05:47.760 of the west in some resident you know at least one resignation already it's resulted in some

00:05:51.920 demotions uh but in the west here no consequences regardless um you know what i i think this is a

00:05:59.040 great uh normally go straight to dave but uh we're gonna go through dave on the piece by piece as we

00:06:04.640 We break it down by, you know, the Hawaii caucus, the Caribbean caucus, the American Southwest caucus.

00:06:11.740 We're going to go to date for that.

00:06:12.600 But I think this time we're going to go straight to Corey because I think we all just need to know what's on Corey's mind.

00:06:18.400 What does it mean he needs to get off of his shoulders right now?

00:06:23.600 You know, I can't set my expectations low enough, it appears.

00:06:27.840 How stupid can these people be?

00:06:29.680 And that's just what I'm going to be blunt about.

00:06:31.040 How stupid can you be?

00:06:32.860 You have locked down a province. You have told people that they can't visit families for Christmas.

00:06:39.600 You told them they can't have funerals for more than a few people.

00:06:42.740 I know it's not illegal to travel, but they're saying absolutely do not do so unless you absolutely must.

00:06:47.820 It's funny, you know, when I must travel, I've gone to places like Arkansas and some nasty spots for work in the past.

00:06:53.260 It seems that these mandatory travelers always end up in tropical nice spots.

00:06:57.760 The hypocrisy is just outstanding and so avoidable.

00:07:02.840 I'm just, what in the hell were you guys thinking?

00:07:06.340 You know, you've got people who are just suffering and miserable,

00:07:10.440 and the last thing they need to see are the people who legislated them into that position

00:07:15.560 just doing the opposite, going out and enjoying the high life,

00:07:18.600 not only the fact that we're not allowed or shouldn't be doing those things

00:07:22.340 if we're being responsible, as they chide us.

00:07:24.360 You know, they talk down to us.

00:07:25.340 I remember Premier Kennedy saying, knock it off to us.

00:07:27.680 I don't like being talked down to if somebody else isn't going to walk the bloody talk.

00:07:31.720 So I spent my time properly at home with a small gathering for Christmas,

00:07:37.580 and then we're seeing these guys jet-setting around.

00:07:39.640 And excuses like the one, well, it was a family tradition.

00:07:42.200 Well, Christmas for a lot of people is a family tradition.

00:07:44.880 Holding a funeral is a family tradition.

00:07:47.140 Sitting Shiva, whatever.

00:07:48.600 These people are putting off because of this.

00:07:50.740 And then to see our political superiors not walking the talk.

00:07:55.160 And this is going to come at a cost.

00:07:56.800 Like Kenny has already been scrambling, having difficulty in the polls.

00:08:00.260 I tell you what, there's no policy decision they could have made that would do more damage than a point of principle problem like this and losing their moral authority.

00:08:09.500 And he's really losing ground, and he better get on top of this fast.

00:08:14.780 I think he had a chance to get on top of it, and he failed in his leadership.

00:08:20.840 He could have fired Tracy Allard.

00:08:24.140 But then I think he probably knew he had a problem because half his caucus was away.

00:08:28.900 Kenny fell on his own sword and said,

00:08:31.920 ooh, I guess I just didn't issue enough warning.

00:08:34.880 And these cabinet ministers weren't smart enough

00:08:37.300 to realize that they shouldn't be traveling outside of the province

00:08:41.580 when regular people like us can't even see our grandparents,

00:08:46.200 can't even cross the street to see their relative in an old folks home.

00:08:51.900 This is without a doubt the biggest crisis of Kenny's leadership.

00:08:56.720 And so far, he's failed to rise to the challenge, in my opinion.

00:09:03.140 Okay, well, I think what we should do now is go through some of the different ones here.

00:09:10.560 We've got people kind of all over.

00:09:14.760 We're going to kind of break it down a bit here.

00:09:16.640 We're not going to spend too much time on each one, but we're going to go through each.

00:09:21.100 We're going to start with the Hawaiian Caucus.

00:09:23.980 Dave, why don't you tell us which of these lockdown happy politicians have found themselves in beautiful Hawaii?

00:09:32.920 Well, currently, and I say currently because the list seems to change every 20 minutes,

00:09:38.820 you've got Municipal Affairs Minister Tracy Allard, who is continuing a 17-year tradition of family gatherings in Hawaii.

00:09:48.420 You've got Jeremy Nixon, Calgary Klein, MLA, who is also in Hawaii,

00:09:56.540 but he's been ordered on the first flight back.

00:09:59.420 And you've got a couple of press secretaries.

00:10:01.380 You've got Michael Forian, and you've got Elisa Snyder.

00:10:06.280 Sorry for mispronouncing your first name, Elisa, but there you are.

00:10:11.240 They make up the Hawaii caucus that we know about so far.

00:10:14.660 Yeah, I guess we'll go through just a little bit here. So, yeah, two of them are press secretaries.

00:10:24.720 Tracy Allard is the Minister of Municipal Affairs.

00:10:28.920 Municipal, and as is usually the case, the Municipal Affairs Minister is responsible for disaster and emergency coordination.

00:10:35.060 She is overseeing the distribution of vaccines in Alberta.

00:10:39.180 Additionally, she is also the, I believe the chair of the COVID response committee. So she answers just directly. She oversees the COVID reaction here. So she essentially oversees this reporting directly to Kenny. So this is someone who's who can't claim to be I'm just a backbencher. Maybe I don't like lockdown, but I'm too much of a coward to say, well, this is someone at the very center of decision making on locking people down on making gathering for

00:11:09.160 christmas illegal on uh getting people almost tasered uh to death uh for playing hockey people

00:11:16.120 getting charged for attending uh peaceful protests people being uh fined and charged for all sorts of

00:11:23.640 otherwise everyday activities this is someone very much at the center of that decision making

00:11:29.080 she can't claim to be a nothing backbencher who shouldn't speak out anyway because their voice

00:11:33.960 doesn't matter. She's very important in this decision-making process and she's in Hawaii.

00:11:41.640 Didn't admit to it. It came out through other sources. When she was asked by it,

00:11:45.800 when media outlets asked her and her office, she did not respond. She completely ignored it until

00:11:53.240 the CBC was able to find other sources, quote unquote, other sources to confirm that she was

00:12:00.040 in Hawaii over Christmas other sources I could tell you normally means internal

00:12:05.260 party rivals who have information on you but you never admitted it until even

00:12:10.720 when she was asked about it Nixon as well I don't think admitted it it it came

00:12:16.660 out but you know Dave maybe you can briefly tell us about how difficult it's

00:12:21.460 been to get any answer out of these guys when we asked them are you in the

00:12:26.560 Caribbean. Are you in Hawaii? Are you in one of these places? You've been trying to track them

00:12:30.740 down. Why don't you tell us what kind of response you're getting? It's been basically radio silence,

00:12:36.740 Derek. And I think that came quickly because they realized what a bad position they were in.

00:12:43.020 When news of Allard broke and we tried her office and we tried Kenny's office and, you know, we were

00:12:50.300 trying everybody and their dog, there was absolutely no answer. And then finally it was started to

00:12:56.300 come out that yes alid was there and and premier kenny found out about it uh on tuesday and

00:13:02.780 immediately ordered her to catch the next flight home but since then it's been this drip drip drip

00:13:10.300 of other people being found out i don't anybody's come forward to say hey raising my hand i was in

00:13:17.580 hawaii or arizona it's been between the media that has has uh has found everybody out and

00:13:25.740 the the drip drip drip is looking extremely bad on kenny you know perhaps they may want to come

00:13:30.620 out and say okay well here's the full list here's everybody who went uh because right now they're

00:13:36.700 looking pretty incompetent indeed um yeah it's just been it's been wild they uh they just don't

00:13:44.940 respond to emails and phone calls uh until it's already out there essentially uh well that takes

00:13:51.900 us from the hawaiian caucus let's now turn to the american southwest caucus uh dave why don't you tee

00:13:56.860 it up well that's led by uh tanya fur who was a former cabinet minister she was shuffled out

00:14:04.860 by the premier in august she went to visit her sister in vegas and you know maybe took in a

00:14:11.340 show or two or uh or did some gambling uh jason stefan a red deer south mla he's he's been very

00:14:20.700 strong he's publicly admitted that he is against premier kenny's lockdowns and i guess he took his

00:14:26.460 opposition so far to uh to travel did jason stefan say that he has he been on the record publicly

00:14:33.260 opposed to these lockdowns he's certainly sent out uh a media uh statements saying that saying

00:14:40.700 that he is and uh go ahead uh making up the unholy triumphant is uh saskatchewan highways minister

00:14:50.540 joe hargraves uh he must be uh trying to lower his handicap uh because he's in uh he's in palm

00:14:57.340 springs at the moment well uh on the jason stefan part uh you know he is uh one of the very very few

00:15:05.580 uh MLAs in the current ECP caucus who have stood out with any kind of backbone

00:15:10.140 um so if he has previously come on the record as opposing

00:15:14.460 lockdowns uh if that in fact is the case uh I'd say actually that's fine uh if

00:15:19.500 you if he obeyed quarantining rules because you know this

00:15:22.780 wasn't against the law it was against the government's

00:15:24.940 recommendations and if he's been out there saying uh

00:15:28.540 that these lockdowns are wrong and he's opposing his own government on it

00:15:32.460 publicly well then i don't think there's a case for hypocrisy there i think that's quite different

00:15:37.500 uh it's the opposite of something like tracy allard who is very directly responsible in

00:15:42.700 large measure for the lockdowns if jason stefan's been opposed to it i don't think it's at the very

00:15:47.100 least it's not hypocrisy then and he certainly has right from the beginning derek and when you

00:15:52.140 look at hypocrisy let's talk to about jason stefan he tweets a picture of himself i'm sorry he not

00:15:59.820 himself but he tweets a picture from lake louise on january or sorry december 30th

00:16:05.900 a december 30th picture from lake louise saying what a wonderful day to be at lake louise of

00:16:11.420 course he doesn't say he's at lake louise and in fact it turns out he's in arizona where they

00:16:15.980 probably haven't seen a snowfall in a while what was a picture of him at lake louise uh we just

00:16:21.340 don't know when or even what year that was exactly so if you want to talk about hypocrisy uh yeah

00:16:27.980 jason stefan is uh is uh you know clear while uh uh i'm sorry stefan is is right up there

00:16:38.860 i mean it's so confusing i'm getting them all mixed up derrick yeah there's too many names

00:16:46.700 uh okay well let's keep on moving through uh that was the american southwest caucus

00:16:51.660 Now, someone who I think it's impossible for Jason Kenney to say he didn't know was gone

00:16:58.000 was his chief of staff who traveled to the UK where there is a travel ban.

00:17:03.520 He had to go through the United States to come back.

00:17:06.760 You know, there's a new variant or strain or whatever of COVID from the UK.

00:17:11.900 I think UK variant of COVID.

00:17:14.820 That sounds racist to me.

00:17:17.260 Or the UK flu, we can call it now.

00:17:20.520 But his chief of staff.

00:17:22.060 Now, I can tell you, the chief of staff is the person a politician speaks to the most.

00:17:26.300 You speak to them every single day of the week, normally several times, and very often on the weekends.

00:17:33.080 If he is overseas, you would know about it.

00:17:38.800 At the same time, we also had Kenny's Twitter manager, Matt Wolfe, away as well in Saskatchewan.

00:17:48.420 but I actually don't think that was a big deal. Whatever else you think of the guy, I don't think

00:17:52.480 going to Saskatchewan was a big deal, but it means he was seeing family, breaking the lockdown rules.

00:17:57.960 He doesn't live in that household, which means he was breaking lockdown rules about seeing your

00:18:03.900 family if you don't live in the same household. So, well, I don't think it's actually a big deal.

00:18:08.780 I still think it'd be wildly hypocritical, but maybe I'll put it to you, Corey, for,

00:18:15.600 is it possible Jason Kenney did not know his chief of staff was overseas for an extended period of

00:18:21.540 time? It's possible. I mean, it makes it hard to believe because that's a very tight relationship

00:18:29.740 that's usually going to have a heck of a lot of communication. I would imagine right now that

00:18:33.620 they're in the midst of a political disaster of their own making. They should be in some pretty

00:18:37.460 close communication right now. And, you know, just some of the comments that I've seen from other

00:18:41.580 people. Yes, it's not illegal for these guys to have done that. That's not the point. Hypocrisy

00:18:47.660 is the problem, not law breaking on their part. Just because you can doesn't mean you should.

00:18:52.300 And then somebody saying that Derek sounds like Rachel Notley. I mean, I make fun of his voice

00:18:56.460 when he's not listening about other things, but he doesn't sound like Notley. The thing is, I'm

00:19:01.820 generally supportive of the UCP, but this isn't the time to circle the wagons and take a partisan

00:19:06.220 approach and say, we've just got to try and cover this up or not talk about it or suck it back. I'm

00:19:12.540 more upset when people on my team, or at least the Conservative side, screw up. I don't care

00:19:16.620 when the left screws up. I mean, I'll rub their nose in it, but that's fine. It makes it less

00:19:19.900 likely they're going to get in. This is the sort of thing that's going to lead us to another Rachel

00:19:24.620 Notley government, and I do not want to see it. Derek, I don't think you can underestimate the

00:19:30.780 anger of Albertans in this issue. I got an email last night from a UCP voter who said,

00:19:38.220 no more, this is it. I'm not voting for them ever again because of their actions on these travel

00:19:45.180 restrictions. Before this scandal came to light, personal popularity of Jason Kenney was around 30

00:19:52.700 with his handling of the COVID pandemic in Alberta.

00:19:57.700 This will push his personal popularity into freefall,

00:20:02.700 down in the 20% area, which is where Rachel Notley was,

00:20:07.700 at the height of Albertans' anger against her.

00:20:12.700 So is this going to put Kenny's leadership in jeopardy?

00:20:17.700 Won't she get down to 20% popular support?

00:20:20.700 It's a very, very dangerous level, as you well know, Derek.

00:20:23.760 Well, actually, if you get into the 20s, that'd be lower than Rachel Nottingly, I think, ever got.

00:20:28.060 Her popularity consistently outstripped the UCPs.

00:20:32.740 At least for the last year, generally, the UCP has been more popular than Jason Kenney.

00:20:37.580 Now, we've seen a series of polls showing them going down.

00:20:44.440 We've seen both Kenney and the UCP incredibly lower and lower and lower.

00:20:49.480 we're gonna have to see what the effect is but right now is a great time to

00:20:53.040 announce we are going to we're fundraising to commission a poll right

00:20:58.280 now in Alberta on the popularity of the government and we're all and how people

00:21:03.600 would vote for the different parties right now both federally and

00:21:05.880 provincially in Alberta this poll is going to include where people stand on

00:21:10.320 different issues where people stand on lockdowns where people stand on

00:21:13.860 mandatory masks should Albertans have the right to recall their MLAs and we'll

00:21:18.620 a bit more about that later and we're going to ask people you know a variety of issues to get

00:21:23.100 ignored by the mainstream media where people stand on independence where people stand on

00:21:28.460 firewall measures like establishing an alberta revenue agency things like that

00:21:32.700 uh so we're going to be doing a crowdfunding for that right uh we're going to be getting today

00:21:37.180 because within a few within a day or two we want to be in the field pulling where albertans stand

00:21:42.300 on these issues uh and asking questions uh with options available for those questions that the

00:21:48.460 mainstream media all too often forget. So that's going to be something we're going to have in the

00:21:53.560 field very soon if we can raise enough money from people like you watching. Let's go. So it's not

00:22:01.260 all just Tories doing this. The Tories aren't the only ones locking people down and then not

00:22:07.520 practicing what they're preaching, but they seem to be the only ones, at least in the West, with

00:22:12.080 no consequences for doing it. The NDP, one of the senior members of the federal NDP's

00:22:19.020 caucus, Nikki Ashton, I forget what her shadow ministerial portfolio or critic portfolio

00:22:24.180 was, but she was found, she is one of the most vicious pro-lockdown politicians. Anyone

00:22:31.220 who doesn't support lockdowns is a terrible human being and should not be in politics

00:22:35.440 supporting her. Well, if you can't see your family in Canada, you should go see them in

00:22:40.360 Greece. And so she went to Greece to see her family, and she has been tossed from her critic

00:22:46.980 portfolio, not from the caucus, but from her critic portfolio. So some actual consequences

00:22:51.800 for it. Dave, why don't you give us the lowdown of what really happened there?

00:22:56.880 Well, Ashton was the transportation critic, Derek, and she went to Greece to visit a seriously

00:23:03.220 ill grandmother. And now she had to get approval from the Greek government to travel because

00:23:09.540 their lockdown as well the greek government gave her the approval so she traveled and and visited

00:23:15.460 her sick grandmother uh ashton's problem was she didn't tell anybody in the party and uh it first

00:23:21.940 came to light when she tweeted uh the fact that that she had gone to greece and she was able to

00:23:28.740 visit her grandmother and i guess that was spotted by uh you know ndp staff members uh who passed it

00:23:37.220 up the chain and she's being demoted uh no longer a transportation critic uh corey so at least in

00:23:48.020 the west you know she's from manitoba i think she represents in northern manitoba riding around

00:23:51.940 i think churchill or something like that um do you think her being fired from her critic portfolio

00:23:58.980 was the appropriate response and is that something that we should have seen uh in alberto or

00:24:04.020 saskatchewan with pro-lockdown politicians not following their own lockdown well you know this

00:24:11.940 is tough by the way i should know you see they're popping up we did miss the mexican caucus uh with

00:24:17.380 pat rain i believe is that again there's we're coming to the mexican caucus so many you see

00:24:25.220 oh okay sorry about that yeah somebody down there it's hard to keep up with it so we'll get there

00:24:29.060 uh i i believe it was the right response on jameet singh's part because you put that fire

00:24:33.700 out now while you can hypocrisy burns it burns you from within it costs you moral authority and

00:24:40.140 it hurts your whole party uh at least he showed that we're not you know accepting it and tolerating

00:24:45.300 it and he did something about it part of a problem kenny has though is if he shuts down every mla at

00:24:50.500 the rate he's going he's going to end up with a minority government pretty soon so uh i guess

00:24:54.440 maybe the problem is he's got to figure out how many of his members are actually overseas right

00:24:58.260 now before he can see if and when or how he might be able to disappoint it's just a disaster

00:25:03.520 I'm just astounded by this.

00:25:07.060 Sorry, I think Corey's hit the nail on the head with,

00:25:10.500 I'm not sure if Kenny knew how many of his caucus had gone away.

00:25:14.820 I was writing, I knew Allard was going to have a press conference,

00:25:18.500 so I wrote up a story in advance that was almost ready to go,

00:25:22.820 and I had written that Jason Kennedy has accepted the, quote,

00:25:26.340 resignation, or Jason Kennedy had fired Tracy Allard

00:25:30.600 for disobeying

00:25:32.440 recommendations.

00:25:34.340 And I think Rick Bell of Post Media, the Calvary Sun

00:25:36.620 put it best when he said, I'm gobsmacked

00:25:38.780 at your stupidity.

00:25:40.520 And as the press

00:25:42.660 conference progressed and

00:25:44.620 it became clear that Kenny was not going to

00:25:46.560 fire Howard, I also became

00:25:48.680 gobsmacked because it was such

00:25:50.620 a wrong political decision

00:25:52.640 to make. But then

00:25:54.140 when you see all the other people that have come

00:25:56.580 out next and next and next

00:25:58.360 and next then you understand kenny couldn't he couldn't fire alert because then he'd have to fire

00:26:03.320 nixon then he'd have to fire uh you know a long litany of people who had been away he was he was

00:26:10.280 painted into the corner his only political move was to fall on his own sword and albertans aren't

00:26:15.400 buying it whatsoever uh yeah well actually good follow-up here question for you here uh dave uh

00:26:24.360 i know the answer to it but i'm gonna ask you anyway uh the press conference where kenny was

00:26:29.160 uh essentially defending allard or or more or less protecting her i should say not defending but um

00:26:36.520 were you allowed to ask any questions or have you ever been allowed to ask a question at a press

00:26:40.440 conference you've been you've been at not not at a kenny press conference uh i keep dialing in the

00:26:46.680 20 minutes early i keep uh pressing the button to ask a question but uh hey it's you know i never

00:26:52.840 get selected uh i don't want to whine like a rebel reporter would but uh i also didn't get

00:26:59.240 selected uh the outward press conference uh but you know they seem to have their list of

00:27:04.280 of people that they always ask the post media columnist and uh actually several columnists

00:27:10.200 and reporters and they always end with a french cbc question so you know it is what it is

00:27:15.480 Well, we're going to now segue to the Caribbean Caucus, which will include Mexico in that

00:27:24.220 does much of it obviously is long along the Caribbean. There we had Ontario Finance Minister

00:27:30.420 Rod Phillips in St. Bart's. I think a lot of us were not even aware of the existence of St. Bart's

00:27:35.860 until he showed up there. That's the Ontario Finance Minister and Pat Wren, the MLA ostensibly

00:27:42.440 for Slave Lake let's go to you Dave about Rod Phillips and then I'm gonna punt Pat

00:27:50.400 ran over to to Cory well Derek if you've ever seen lifestyles of the rich and

00:27:56.540 famous with Robin Leach and a champagne ball that's where Rod Phillips was in the

00:28:03.320 luxury island of st. Barts and when when Ontario Premier Doug Ford found out

00:28:11.300 about it he was fuming he was angry he was furious whatever whatever verb you

00:28:17.800 want to use he ordered Phillips home right away and actually know Dave I

00:28:24.380 think you need to correct you there he was not fuming when he found out he was

00:28:29.300 fuming when it became public Doug Ford knew about it I think roughly two weeks

00:28:33.300 before maybe he wasn't pleased about it but he did not order him back as soon as

00:28:37.220 he found out about it. He ordered them back once it became public, and then he expressed

00:28:42.460 how angry he was about it, but he didn't seem to do much about it when he found out

00:28:45.900 two weeks prior.

00:28:46.900 Well, and in fairness, Phillips realized within hours of himself getting back onto

00:28:53.540 Canadian soil that his position was untenable, and he resigned, and Ford obviously accepted

00:29:00.620 resignation part of uh phillips's problem was he was also producing a string of social media posts

00:29:08.700 uh you know him in front of his fireplace and his writing and you know warm wishes to everybody and

00:29:15.340 happy new year and merry christmas all the time while he was walking on the beaches so there was

00:29:21.180 a subterfuge that phillips tried to create that perhaps wasn't in the other foreign travelers

00:29:28.380 plan so his position really was untenable and and he had to go and in

00:29:37.380 fairness he did which a lot of the Western politicians haven't done so well

00:29:43.380 and those kind of misleading social media posts either saying explicitly

00:29:48.960 or implying extremely strongly that he's locked down at home and snow you know

00:29:54.720 in snowy Ontario. We saw the same thing with the, I think the vast majority of the Alberta MLAs who

00:30:02.120 have been caught not being locked down. The exception being Pat Wren, who we're going to get

00:30:05.880 to in a second. Pat Wren just posted a picture of himself in a cave in Mexico as if it was the

00:30:12.420 problem. So at least hats off to Pat. He wasn't trying to hide this from people. He wasn't trying

00:30:18.980 to deceive people by putting out a little video of him sitting at the Christmas tree or a picture

00:30:23.660 of him on a mountain skiing somewhere in alberta he just said hey i'm in mexico it's beautiful and

00:30:29.180 warm merry christmas so uh but yeah uh rod phillips one of the most senior politicians in canada the

00:30:37.100 ontario finance minister that's not an insignificant position uh bit the dust over this um uh but you

00:30:44.460 know he did take responsibility he did fess up he took accountability um but he did attempt to hide

00:30:50.620 it. It's not like he just did this, didn't think it was an issue. He actively did try to hide it.

00:30:56.400 And that's, I think, where the biggest issue is here. And I think it's set up. I think

00:31:01.520 Alberta Premier Jason Kenney was not very happy when he resigned because it set a precedent that

00:31:06.800 this is required. This is what's expected if this happens and you're getting caught.

00:31:12.740 But I think as both of you have said, that's not really a possibility for Jason Kenney.

00:31:18.300 he can't fire these people because he'll end up losing half of his caucus probably.

00:31:23.420 And a ton of his staff, he'll lose his chief of staff, he'll lose a bunch of press secretaries.

00:31:27.740 It would not just be a symbolic bloodletting to scapegoat one or two, it would be a massacre

00:31:36.300 of the government and it's just not possible. So it's quite a position to be in that he's not

00:31:42.540 able to scapegoat anyone in this case. Corey, let's go to you about Pat Wren, the ostensibly MLA for

00:31:52.780 Slave Lake. Well, yeah, I mean, he's a backbench MLA. You don't hear a heck of a lot about him.

00:32:02.780 I don't know if it was him being honest in a little act of rebellion by actually tweeting

00:32:07.260 where he was or maybe just a case of not even realizing that it was going to take people off

00:32:12.860 or that he was doing something that would be perceived as wrong uh kind of like we talked

00:32:17.120 about we would accept it if there are any of them who were outright being vocal and i'd say recently

00:32:22.140 vocal saying you know the lockdowns are are pointless or they don't need to be followed or

00:32:27.700 you know we can still get out and visit and so on but they all towed the line with the lockdowns

00:32:32.160 and the legislation and said we're all in it together which is a statement i am loathing

00:32:36.700 more than ever these days and and then we see them down there not to mention there's the other

00:32:42.860 aspect of it aside from the principles but a lot of us are going broke this year a lot of us have

00:32:48.140 lost businesses we've been laid off we're dipping into our last of our savings we aren't even looking

00:32:52.780 at a tropical vacation for years to come and it feels almost like these six-figure people with uh

00:32:57.980 solid income uh are rubbing our noses in it hey you know how's that winter doing up there in

00:33:03.740 Canada, I'm out in the beach, you know, tanning. It's just a disaster. And as I said, in Ontario

00:33:09.920 and with the NDP, at least they put the fire out, you know, they had to. It's a fire. And right now

00:33:15.760 this fire is burning and spreading in Alberta. And I don't know what he's going to do. But again,

00:33:20.280 he's got to do something pretty darn soon. Backdrop, Leah. Yeah, no, that's a beach back

00:33:26.580 there. This is a great part of this sort of format. I'm actually wearing Speedos under this

00:33:31.180 jacket, but Derek wouldn't let me stay. This is a family show, Corey. We were not going to put up

00:33:38.260 with your speedo nonsense here. It was a bit much. I think one of the key things, Derek, is Kenny has

00:33:48.140 now lost the moral high ground. What if the numbers don't go down and in the next week or so

00:33:53.900 he has to extend the lockdown? How can he look Albertans in the face and say, look, we need to

00:34:00.340 be all in this together we need to extend the lockdown to try and flatten the curve

00:34:05.620 knowing that a good chunk of his caucus buggered off during the holidays and went somewhere warm

00:34:12.580 is lost the moral high ground and that's how can any premier rule from uh you know from

00:34:19.140 the valley he's created on on himself uh absolutely well let's um one of the issues

00:34:28.660 is like one reason this is so damaging is this all didn't just come out at once in one big story

00:34:32.820 it's a drip drip drip as dave uh dave was saying to me uh offline here um it's it's just every few

00:34:40.080 hours almost uh i think it's it last night it was about every two hours it comes and goes you know

00:34:45.680 journalists go to sleep and stop digging uh but it's every few hours it seems um i think it's

00:34:52.240 is it seven or is it eight and counting i think we have eight and counting in alberta at least

00:34:56.920 Well, I did a service for Western Standard readers, Derek.

00:35:01.560 I listed everybody in one story, and I headlined it the not-so-magnificant seven.

00:35:07.620 And then at the very end, I was very clear this list will be updated as needed.

00:35:12.480 And that story only lasted 20 minutes.

00:35:15.900 In just a little over 20 minutes, I had to scrub out the magnificent seven, and I had to say, it's eight and counting.

00:35:23.880 So that's up there now.

00:35:25.060 How long will that list?

00:35:26.120 last who knows it's it's just a disaster it's Kenny's worst nightmare and how he

00:35:33.740 how he stops this I've no idea well if Jason Kenny thought that 2021 was gonna

00:35:40.700 be better than 2020 I'm not sure that's correct I predicted 2021 would be worse

00:35:45.380 than 2020 at least that's more entertaining so far I mean honest

00:35:53.420 mistakes happen. You know, when you make a mistake in public life, there's a lot of lenses on you,

00:36:00.820 a lot of scrutiny. When you make a mistake, we want people to fess up and take responsibility.

00:36:07.280 But I can tell you that is not a good political strategy. You are generally better just to muddle

00:36:11.680 your way through, make a couple of excuses, and hope that things move on. And I think that that

00:36:17.520 is that has been uh generally the mo for the kenny government here but the problem is this one is

00:36:24.160 really touching people people have been told uh we're going to tase you for playing hockey

00:36:31.360 people have been told that cops are going to show up and fine or arrest you for having uh christmas

00:36:39.120 with your family um people have been told to make incredible sacrifices here um not asked to make

00:36:46.000 sacrifices but ordered to make sacrifices and then the very people making this ordering are

00:36:52.240 making these orders are seem to have so little regard for them and there seems to be nothing

00:36:57.280 he can do he he cannot fire these people it would be far far too many he would uh he would be and

00:37:05.760 we just don't know like they're as we've discussed earlier they're not answering calls uh they are

00:37:11.040 not responding to media inquiries saying hey uh even when we've got a lead like hey we've got a

00:37:16.880 lead that you're in hawaii we've got pretty good sense that you're in hawaii are you in hawaii now

00:37:23.840 the mla is probably on a beach so maybe that's the reason he's not answering his phone but his

00:37:28.400 office is there and i can tell you if you're um someone working at an mla office gets a call from

00:37:34.080 this uh from a media outlet saying hey uh boss um joe blow from uh xyz network wants to know if

00:37:42.400 you're on a beach in hawaii they're going to call the mla and let them know immediately that they're

00:37:46.640 getting those calls and they're not responding so how many are actually getting away with it so far

00:37:52.080 uh how many of them have already booked emergency flights back so that they can uh pose in their

00:37:58.720 constituency beside uh you know the town hall in their in their riding with a picture of today's

00:38:04.080 paper and prove that they're elsewhere i bet you there are quite a few at this point that we have

00:38:09.760 not found and uh several have probably already returned to try and avoid the controversy and

00:38:15.760 part of the problem derek for for kenny's government is that say things were back to

00:38:22.080 normal and people went to work and they went about their business you know this may get forgotten

00:38:26.480 about but because people are locked down because they're in these pandemic regulations because they

00:38:32.480 still can't go and visit their relatives because they still can't go and visit a relative in a

00:38:39.520 old folks home this anger will build and build and build every day they'll be reminded of it

00:38:46.800 that hey you know you you're doing the best you can you are are following the guidelines

00:38:53.200 but our caucus is not and that anger is going to get to a boiling point in the next weekend.

00:39:03.440 Corey?

00:39:07.120 Yeah, it's kind of just connected to what Dave said. I would bet actually a lot of the big MSM

00:39:12.560 outlets who have those tax funded budgets have also probably got some interns at least camped

00:39:18.080 out in international airports across Canada right now with lists of pictures of members of parliament

00:39:23.900 and MLAs. There's got to be more out there, not just in Alberta. I mean, this is the vacation

00:39:28.860 season for these guys, and they're sneaking back all over the place. We're going to see more of

00:39:33.680 this unfold. You know, I wouldn't try to put myself in their shoes. I was thinking if I was

00:39:40.720 you know if I was a politician coming back from Hawaii I'd probably fly first to Vancouver never

00:39:48.260 leave the airport and then I'd take a take a transfer to like Prince George or something

00:39:54.540 because they're not you know the media is not going to put any any reporters at the Prince

00:39:58.820 George airport looking for you no one's going to recognize you there likely especially if you're

00:40:03.920 out of province rent a car and then drive to where you are I bet you if there are politicians

00:40:10.700 making these emergency flights back, which I almost guarantee you there is, then if they're

00:40:17.100 smart, they're not going to fly straight to Calgary International. They're not going to fly

00:40:20.580 straight to Edmonton International. They're going to transfer in a little bit, and then they're

00:40:27.040 going to rent a car to come in the rest of the way. Well, so yeah, we don't know how many of

00:40:35.000 they are, but there are almost certainly many, many more. We'll probably find quite a few more,

00:40:39.560 but I imagine a good number are going to get away from it.

00:40:43.480 But this all raises the question of recall legislation.

00:40:48.520 You know, it's funny when an old tweet goes viral again.

00:40:52.020 There was a tweet from Jason Kenney during the 2019 election

00:40:54.760 where he tweeted about their promise to give recall legislation to Albertans the right to,

00:41:01.040 and he put it in big letters,

00:41:02.280 we're going to give Albertans the right to fire your MLA

00:41:05.820 when they lose the confidence of their constituents.

00:41:07.740 And even when I've been in trouble before, I've always believed in the right to recall from the very beginning.

00:41:15.940 I've been wondering why the UCP has been dragging its feet on recall.

00:41:21.440 Backbench MLA Mark Smith brought in a private member's bill to fulfill the government's promise on recall.

00:41:28.420 And even though he was high in the draw, the government was not really in a hurry to pass that bill.

00:41:34.660 It never got passed, I believe.

00:41:37.740 And that's an easy promise to keep. This is not something that requires a bunch of studies and blue ribbon panels about a police force or something or an Alberta revenue agency. This is a simple piece of legislation. It exists in British Columbia already. Alberta's planning to model its recall legislation on British Columbia's, but they haven't brought it in. I suspect if we ever do get recall legislation, it's probably going to be brought in so that there's no time to actually recall anyone before the next election.

00:42:06.300 Corey, why do you think we've not yet seen this otherwise easy promise to keep past the floor of the legislature?

00:42:16.440 To be blunt, because they're afraid it'll be used.

00:42:19.180 You know, I guess you go in with confidence and things like that.

00:42:22.760 But, you know, I've been VP of policy and model policy for recall.

00:42:27.000 You don't want to make the bar too low.

00:42:28.400 You don't want a recall effort to start the day after somebody got elected.

00:42:31.560 But you've got to make a realistic petitioning level.

00:42:34.080 and yeah if that legislation was right in right now you know some people would be leading the

00:42:38.920 charge in a few constituencies they sure don't want to suddenly go to a bunch of by elections

00:42:43.180 it's as simple as that they don't want it used against themselves uh this it would be quite a

00:42:48.980 gamble but it could almost be an escape hatch for kenny there slap it through fast put in recall

00:42:53.240 legislation say look i'll leave it to the constituents to lay judgment on these mlas to

00:42:57.380 see if they should continue to serve or not but that would be a pretty long shot gamble on his

00:43:01.840 part i i'm not expecting to see recall legislation anytime soon now uh derek uh franco terrazano of

00:43:08.800 the canadian taxpayers federation a very smart cookie as we all know he's uh everyone who works

00:43:14.240 there is i assure you exactly he's he's been on the board a few times says he makes a good point

00:43:20.320 he says well jason kenny's not ready to to sanction or fire his his uh mlas for this

00:43:28.320 transgression then albertans are and he's you know he's making the same point you guys are where is

00:43:34.000 this recall legislation that was promised uh is this just one of these things that they say to

00:43:39.680 get elected and then it'll never happen it certainly appears to be the case right now

00:43:47.040 uh indeed uh well here uh i need to uh i'm gonna get something for our viewers here uh

00:43:53.600 why don't you lead the conversation just for the uh for the next two minutes and i'll be back with

00:43:57.760 us with an important one. Okay. Well, that sounds ominous. I'm not sure. Is Derek changing

00:44:05.680 into a Speedo? God, let's hope not, Corey. Let's hope not. But as mentioned, the counter

00:44:17.160 clock of MLAs from the UCP side that have gone over badly and gone on Hawaii is now

00:44:25.360 up to eight so we're going to do our best over the holiday period and over the holiday weekend as

00:44:30.880 as others are no doubt scurrying back into the province to keep that figure updated and

00:44:38.720 i'm sure it's not going to stop at eight how high it will go remains to be seen but

00:44:44.540 it's going to be an interesting few days that's for sure so make sure you follow along at

00:44:51.300 uh standardonline.com and here he is here he is derek's back okay folks well uh as i said i

00:44:58.100 i promised we were going to do a poll um we need to crowdsource for this poll to make sure we've

00:45:03.940 got the money for it uh we have shared a link to it in the comments section right now uh i'm also

00:45:10.740 we're also going to put it up on the screen here in a second uh there we are uh just go to donorbox

00:45:18.180 dot com sorry dot org slash poll crowd sourcing campaign that is maybe more

00:45:26.980 complicated it should be but we're we're gonna share as well in the headline of

00:45:30.640 this on Facebook live so they'll be easy link for you to click but if you click

00:45:35.960 on that that link you're going to be able to donate to our or help us

00:45:43.760 crowdsource a poll. We want to see what Albertans think about this. How upset are Albertans? I

00:45:50.900 suspect pretty upset, but do Albertans feel they should have the right to recall MLAs right now

00:45:55.960 over this? Do Albertans think that there should be resignations over this? Do they think that

00:46:04.420 this weakens the case for lockdowns and charging people for not wearing masks while they're playing

00:46:10.920 hockey or something. And we want to see, has this changed the popularity of the government itself?

00:46:16.120 Has this changed how people plan to vote? Is this going to shift people to the NDP,

00:46:20.200 or is this going to shift people to the right, to something like the Wild Rose Independence

00:46:24.680 Party, or a centrist party like the Alberta Party, or central left, I would say? Is this

00:46:30.760 going to change how people are going to vote? Could this have implications for the next election,

00:46:34.760 and who holds power in Alberta? I don't know. I have suspicions,

00:46:39.400 but those are just suspicions unless we get it confirmed with good hard data uh we're going to

00:46:44.520 contract a um if we raise enough money we're going to contract uh a good credible third party uh

00:46:51.960 polling firm to do this for us we don't do the polling we we contract someone else who are

00:46:56.680 experts at it uh you know me and dave and corey aren't sitting around calling people saying hey

00:47:01.800 how do you plan on voting the next election are you pissed off we don't do that we we put this

00:47:06.040 out to experts who do this scientifically and we will share the results with all of you but

00:47:11.960 we don't accept government money at the western standard we're funded uh by some advertisers

00:47:17.560 and by uh members people who donate on a monthly basis so first of all uh if you enjoy what we're

00:47:23.880 doing if you like having a media outlet like us that are willing to punch up uh consider going to

00:47:30.280 to western standard uh western standard online.com and click on membership become a member or you

00:47:36.280 can just uh on this right now we're changing the headline of um uh of our uh of our broadcast

00:47:44.040 right here we're going to put the link for uh the crowdsourcing and you can donate just to help us

00:47:48.360 get this poll done uh but before we go i'll put it to um both of you we'll start with dave uh some

00:47:54.840 closing comments i think derek and corey this is a long way from being over i think at some

00:48:02.040 point in the next week tracy allard will realize her position is untenable and she will resign

00:48:08.680 and i think this whole scandal will send jason kenny's popularity and the ucp's popularity to

00:48:15.480 record lows all right well like dave yeah this is gonna hurt them it's gonna hurt them a lot i i

00:48:24.120 I imagine they've got to be meeting and discussing and trying to figure out how to get themselves the hell out of this mess of their own making.

00:48:30.300 2021, everybody kept talking about looking forward to the end of 2020.

00:48:33.900 Well, this isn't shaping up to be an easier year for the UCP right now.

00:48:38.700 So we're just going to keep watching and waiting to see what unfolds.

00:48:43.540 So, Dave, I want to kind of follow up on what you said there.

00:48:45.960 Are you predicting that her position in particular will become untenable and that she will eventually resign?

00:48:51.480 I think so, Derek. I think, you know, she could have saved herself a lot of trouble, could have saved the UCP a lot of trouble by doing what Rod Phillips did and honorably resigning.

00:49:06.160 I think the political pressure will grow. I think that the public pressure, we haven't even heard from the public yet.

00:49:13.700 We need to hear from her voters in Grand Prairie what they think. And I don't think they're going to be happy.

00:49:20.600 So she should take a spoonful of medicine, resign, go to the back benches, sit in the back benches for a year,

00:49:27.620 and maybe she'll get back in cabinet in another year.

00:49:30.900 I think that's her only way out.

00:49:34.340 It's an interesting question.

00:49:35.780 I mean, I'll come back to Corey on this.

00:49:38.720 I mean, there are far too many people for Kenny to fire every one of them.

00:49:42.520 He can't fire at least one minister that we know of, probably more.

00:49:47.440 and he can't fire what'll probably turn out to be at least half a dozen of his

00:49:52.940 MLAs from the caucus. And he can't fire his chief of staff, several press

00:49:59.880 secretaries, and God knows how many more. Corey, do you think if Tracy Allard

00:50:06.100 falls on her sword here and resigns, will that be enough to kind of hush this the

00:50:11.220 way it's been hushed in Ontario? In Ontario, people are still pissed off, but

00:50:14.540 you know, they got blood. There's blood on the floor. As far as they know, there hasn't been a

00:50:19.800 bunch of other MPPs there traveling around. But in the Alberta's case, it seems like it's a

00:50:25.740 cottage industry of lockdown MLAs breaking their own lockdowns. If Tracy Allard falls on her sword,

00:50:31.840 do you think that'll be enough to at least show enough blood on the floor that the government

00:50:38.100 can get past this or not? You know, I mean, she may resign on her own because of the pressure,

00:50:45.040 but I don't know if that'll help the government because, yes, that's falling on her own sword.

00:50:49.340 But you see, people want to see action now. They want to see that this isn't tolerated by the

00:50:53.600 leadership. So I think if it's going to have any impact, that has to come from above. She needs to

00:50:58.400 be actually canned. And again, may not, you know, throw out a caucus, but stuffed onto the back

00:51:02.640 bench uh how can you further punish a backbencher who's already a backbencher you know because we

00:51:08.480 got a number of them i i don't know but there definitely needs to be some sort of active

00:51:14.320 sanction he can't can them all and there could be more coming but he can't just let this go

00:51:18.720 obviously people are waiting to see some sort of punishment or backlash there has to be there's no

00:51:24.080 leadership if you don't well generally uh it's extraordinarily rare to officially fire a minister

00:51:30.960 it's generally understood that well sometimes people do resign of their own will but you often

00:51:38.180 get resigned you know you sit down with the leader and the leader says okay you need to go and I'm

00:51:44.040 asking for your resignation and it's kind of a little gentler uh like the minute the Ontario

00:51:49.320 Minister of Finance Rod Phillips he got resigned he probably almost certainly wouldn't have just

00:51:54.500 resigned because it almost certainly and I don't think Doug Ford would dispute it uh he was

00:52:00.800 asked for his resignation. That's generally the way things go. What you're saying, if I get this

00:52:08.060 correct, Corey, is that Kenny has to actively fire and put her head on a pike to make an example in

00:52:14.460 order to absolve enough of the others of any blame and show accountability, but that her simply

00:52:20.100 resigning wouldn't be enough? I think there has to be something showing that he has cracked down

00:52:26.220 on his caucus and ministers.

00:52:28.440 I understand what you're saying,

00:52:30.040 but politicos like us know that,

00:52:32.320 but your average citizen doesn't necessarily realize that.

00:52:35.040 They need to see that from above.

00:52:36.280 I mean, we know how it's played inside there,

00:52:37.920 but they need to see the Premier getting up

00:52:41.340 and getting this under control.

00:52:43.300 And having her resign on her own,

00:52:44.860 even if we know that there's still an invisible boot print on her butt,

00:52:48.560 wouldn't demonstrate that.

00:52:51.000 There has to be some action from the Premier's office of some sort.

00:52:54.080 Whether or not it's her, it's going to have to be something.

00:52:55.720 he can't let this one go all right uh well we've been following your questions and comments uh

00:53:02.920 they've been informing our discussion as we go along even if we haven't referred to them directly

00:53:07.560 but um there's just far too many for us to get through i i i can't give you a number but i think

00:53:14.040 they're oh i'm seeing at least 174 the last time i checked uh we can't go through them all but um

00:53:20.120 just a heads up remember if you're if you're put it if you're commenting it

00:53:24.980 can't be too long otherwise we can't put it on the screen we're not going to

00:53:27.960 cover up the whole screen with the comments they've got a shortened suite

00:53:30.280 so they go along the bottom no swearing try to keep personal attacks out of it

00:53:34.440 don't put links to other things in it because that's gonna make it too big but

00:53:38.660 we appreciate everybody's interaction with the show today great feedback and

00:53:43.640 even if we haven't mentioned your tweets or your your comments we it is informing

00:53:49.100 our discussion. Again, if you're not already a member of the Western Standard, go to

00:53:53.020 westernstandardonline.com, click on membership and help support an independent Western media

00:53:58.980 that punches up and does not accept any government subsidies. If you're already a member, we

00:54:03.840 thank you very much. And if you want to help out, member or not, also you can go to doorbox.org

00:54:10.680 poll crowdsourcing campaign and help us commission a poll to figure out what people in Alberta

00:54:18.520 are really thinking about this right now but uh corey dave thank you very much for joining me today

00:54:24.440 thanks derek and uh thank you all very much aloha from beautiful hawaii

00:54:48.520 You

Western Standard - January 03, 2021

January 2, 2020

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