Western Standard - Liberal Retreat： Mark Carney's role in the 'new' job

00:00:00.000 Good evening. Welcome to the pipeline. My name is Corey Morgan. I'm a senior columnist with

00:00:27.840 western standard this is our weekly panel show usually there's other people in a different lineup

00:00:33.040 you always get stuck with me i always show up i really don't have much of a life but other people

00:00:37.360 are doing other things and different things which is fine because we can diversify our voices this

00:00:41.040 time around we've got a lot of subjects to cover so i'm going to start on the end and introducing

00:00:45.520 james finkbiner you've been on shows before i don't think you've been on the pipeline yet have

00:00:48.640 you i i have been on the pipeline a couple of times but not uh actually not since the first

00:00:53.840 week i was back um june of last year okay well yeah it's been been over a well a year and a

00:00:59.760 half now quite a while well welcome back thank you we got jen hudson again this is the first

00:01:05.440 pipeline experience for you this time okay so there in general the pipeline has gotten a lot

00:01:10.320 prettier on that end of things i'm still here to hold up the ugly old guy uh corner for things so

00:01:15.440 we got the b team today yeah happy to help no this is gonna be good i'm looking forward to it so

00:01:22.320 Let's jump into the subjects and the issues. We've got federal politics to kick things off here.

00:01:29.200 Everybody's favorite, Justin Trudeau. It's an annual thing. They have their caucus retreat.

00:01:36.320 All the members probably get ready to take on the new year of politics.

00:01:41.920 They're in dire straits. I mean, this is a party in a heck of a lot of trouble.

00:01:47.200 I'll start with you, Jen, actually. I'll start in the middle. What did you see for reports

00:01:50.960 coming out of this? I mean, they were pretty tight. I didn't see any bombshells really coming

00:01:54.040 out of this meeting, this retreat. Not so far, only some commentary going into it. So the liberals

00:01:59.900 have faced a litany of challenges from the by-election loss in Toronto, the chief of staff,

00:02:07.100 or the national campaign director stepping down, not to mention the dissolution of the coalition

00:02:12.420 government with the NDP. So Trudeau has been facing a lot of obstacles. And what commentary

00:02:18.220 is saying is that the Prime Minister should be facing the whole rigmarole from his caucus.

00:02:26.360 However, probably that's not going to happen. They seem to be sidestepping it and very few

00:02:32.260 are willing to actually confront the Prime Minister and make any tangible change within

00:02:39.560 the caucus. However, we did see the other day the Deputy Assistant Speaker of the House

00:02:45.660 saying that her constituents are, many of them are calling for Trudeau to resign, citing weak leadership.

00:02:51.920 So he's getting it from all sides.

00:02:54.440 Yeah, the whisper campaign is beginning, but do you think they're going to speak up?

00:02:58.380 No.

00:02:59.480 Even the MP that you're talking about, she comes out, she speaks up, and she goes,

00:03:02.940 but the prime minister still has my support.

00:03:05.740 Are you kidding? 0.99

00:03:07.060 So you're just, all of your constituents, you're just going to slap them in the face,

00:03:11.040 and they want him gone, and you're just going to say, oh, no, I still support him.

00:03:15.660 I don't know. The Liberal Party operates like a mafia. And the lower you are on the food chain,

00:03:23.040 the less likely you are to speak out because you will have no chance of promotion. You will lose

00:03:27.260 your committee assignments and your career is basically over. You're just decoration at that

00:03:32.200 point. You're not getting anything done. And I just don't see any of them actually making the move

00:03:37.360 to address it. You know, the Leger poll that came out, I think it came out yesterday.

00:03:44.120 and it is like massive like the conservatives are at 45 percent like i i think the seat percent

00:03:50.800 projection and i'm don't quote me on this please i i think it was 263 that is a massive super

00:03:58.360 majority like i i think brian mulrooney was the last one that had a majority that big

00:04:02.980 and there's two big by-elections on monday and i think we will find out monday because that is

00:04:09.340 when parliament returns how much longer trudeau is going to last because if they lose those two

00:04:14.180 by-elections especially the one in montreal that has been a liberal seat i think since confederation

00:04:19.500 how can he remain the leader and it's a three-way race right now between the bloc the ndp and the

00:04:24.820 liberals in that in that riding so i don't know i i can't see anyone especially in his cabinet

00:04:31.840 standing up to him and making a move and i don't have faith that any of the other mps will either

00:04:36.120 But the self-serving, I mean, I'm cynical with liberals.

00:04:39.960 You know, a lot of them, when the push finally comes to shove, you think they want to protect their own skin.

00:04:45.120 I mean, if this party is facing certain obliteration in the next election, eventually some of these MPs would have to say, I've got nothing to lose.

00:04:54.340 You know, I mean, oh, kick me off the committee for the next six months.

00:04:57.600 Big deal.

00:04:58.440 I've got to speak up.

00:04:59.540 I mean, maybe I've got a 10% chance of salvaging my seat if I can show myself as having a backbone and calling out that this weak, directionless prime minister, but they don't do it.

00:05:10.880 You would think. And so it would seem like if someone did stand up and have a kind of backbone

00:05:17.760 in the Liberal caucus to say, hey, we still as Liberals, and again, I'm playing devil's advocate

00:05:24.320 from the other side. We're still Liberals. We have these kinds of values. Well, maybe we can

00:05:29.520 implement them if we didn't have this weak leader who is just riddled with scandal. However, we

00:05:34.880 don't see this. We see almost uniformly the Liberal MPs doubling down, especially the top-tier ones,

00:05:41.840 like Gilboa, Freeland, they are lockstep with Trudeau, and you don't see any kind of derision

00:05:50.960 from there, even though it would be warranted. So we just see the propping up of the Prime Minister,

00:05:56.720 and with the Bloc Québécois leader stepping into Jagmeet Singh's empty bed, so to speak,

00:06:03.600 with the coalition government, or attempting to anyways, he'll come right out and say,

00:06:09.860 well, we don't support the Prime Minister, and we don't want to elongate his reign any more than

00:06:16.220 possible. However, if it's in Quebec interest, then we'll make these certain concessions and

00:06:21.140 prop him up just like Jagmeet Singh did. Well, yeah, going further to that, then,

00:06:25.000 you know, James, like the politics that are going on now, I mean, part of Singh was, he's smart

00:06:29.660 enough to know this is the closest he's ever going to get to power, holding the balance of

00:06:32.840 power in a minority government is the NDP dream. They're never going to win government. But if you

00:06:36.700 can really pull the levers with these guys, and he got a lot out of them. He got the dental plan.

00:06:41.040 He got the pharma care and lunches for kids and just a giant NDP style intrusive government.

00:06:49.100 But now we could be handing off the partnership to somebody even more dangerous.

00:06:53.540 Blanchett's smarter than saying. Oh, way smarter. Way smarter. He makes no bones of what he's about.

00:06:58.800 No. Quebec first, Quebec only. And he says it all the time. But

00:07:02.180 is that a bad thing is that a bad thing for alberta well first because no because well

00:07:08.660 true that too but whatever he gives to the block for quebec alberta is going to be standing there

00:07:16.260 going and and premier smith will be like me too we want the exact same thing and what leg will

00:07:22.260 they have to stand on and and then that will give alberta different legal mechanisms to say look

00:07:27.320 you're giving this to Quebec, you're going to give it to us the exact same way. And I think

00:07:32.320 that there's going to be a big coalition of premiers who are also going to say, well,

00:07:37.160 if Quebec's getting it, we're going to get it too. So, you know, it might give some of the

00:07:41.660 provinces more leverage. You know, I don't have any sort of hope that Trudeau would do the right

00:07:46.700 thing and give Quebec one thing and give Alberta something completely different. We've seen that

00:07:51.100 with home heating oil and where his vote base is. But like the Leger poll has them completely wiped

00:07:56.600 out on the east coast so the home eating oil did no favors for him in the end anyways

00:08:00.880 and i don't know i i i it's going to be interesting but how long is the bloc going to be willing to

00:08:08.640 do that but that's the other thing this poll is showing the bloc is going to be the official

00:08:13.260 opposition well they aren't getting anything as the official opposition they are going to oppose

00:08:18.680 everything that Prime Minister Pierre Polyev is going to do. So, you know, he's going to want to

00:08:27.080 hang on with this minority government and try to get all he can out of Trudeau. So we may get all

00:08:31.540 the way to the fall of 2025 now if the bloc decide to prop him up. Whereas I like to pedantically

00:08:36.920 keep reminding people constitutionally, Justin could stretch it out until the fall of 2026.

00:08:42.420 I know that gives chills to people, but the set election date is just legislation. They can

00:08:48.360 always repeal that and stretch it another year. I doubt it's going to go to that. But there doesn't

00:08:54.520 seem to be a sense of desperation on Trudeau's part. As I was mentioning on my own show earlier,

00:08:58.480 I would have expected from one of these retreats, whether the cabinet or the caucus,

00:09:02.240 some big announcements, some big changes, some indication they realize that they have to change

00:09:07.180 course. There's nothing. Melanie Jolie, in the most insane thing I've heard out of her in a while,

00:09:14.120 She says, what she's hearing at the doors is Canadians don't want an election.

00:09:21.020 They just want the Liberals to do the job.

00:09:24.580 Madame Jolie, it's been almost a decade.

00:09:27.500 It's quite clear you guys are incapable of doing the job.

00:09:31.180 There is no leadership.

00:09:32.380 You are a rudderless ship.

00:09:33.920 You are running around and undoing your bad policies in one place and putting worse policies in the other place.

00:09:39.980 Nobody knows the direction of your government.

00:09:42.280 We want an election.

00:09:43.780 All of the polls are unanimous across the country.

00:09:47.040 We want an election.

00:09:48.060 We want an election now. 1.00

00:09:49.860 Yeah, well, Jolie's talents, she's not an intellectual. 0.61

00:09:54.400 So, you know, whatever maintains her cabinet position is a lot of speculation,

00:09:57.600 but it hasn't been her policy depth or ability to listen to what Canadians want in general.

00:10:02.400 But she seems to be pretty secure in cabinet no matter what seems to happen outside. 0.87

00:10:06.480 But, I mean, separately, besides me being a jerk today and employ things about Jolie,

00:10:10.440 hey, we've got somebody coming into the mix, not in cabinet, not in caucus, but who is smart, 0.95

00:10:15.780 who is frighteningly so, but is no less ideological. And that's Mark Carney. What

00:10:20.440 happened there? How has he suddenly surfaced? Right. So he seems to have just waltzed right

00:10:25.520 in. I remember about maybe winter of last year at the World Economic Forum events where he was

00:10:32.500 waltzing around there. And I started reading up on him then and saw that he did have a lot of

00:10:37.760 connection to globalists, and he has this global mindset. However, he has a long history with

00:10:43.800 liberal political figures, and so he stepped in as a kind of advisor, financial advisor.

00:10:50.600 Pierre Polyev this morning said that he's the phantom finance minister that's come in to

00:10:55.140 push Christian Friedland aside. Smart way to poke a little division into there,

00:10:59.240 because she's got to feel a little threatened on her flank with him popping in there.

00:11:02.300 Oh, but how about the insanity of the fact that they appointed someone who is involved on so many different businesses, not to a government position, but an advisor to the Liberal Party? And Western Standards Jared Jagger, he's at the convention in Nanaimo right now, and he actually talked to Stephen Gilboa and said, do you think there's a conflict of interest here?

00:11:25.760 Well, of course there is. He is on the World Economic Forum. He's the chair of Brookfield Investments. He's on the board of Stripe. So how can he, like these businesses are actively lobbying the governments in different ways. They have huge financial interests in government policy.

00:11:46.640 And then I believe it was the Globe and Mail is reporting now. It was the CPC's Michael Barrett last night that tweeted this out. The Globe and Mail is now reporting that Brookfield Investments is looking at moving their headquarters out of Toronto into New York.

00:12:02.460 So is that to move it so that it's no longer a Canadian company and it's not a conflict of interest?

00:12:07.880 But I mean, if he's the financial advisor to the Liberal Party and he's looking at moving one of his businesses out of the country,

00:12:13.720 what does that signal about our country?

00:12:15.440 What does that signal about his faith in the economy and the finances of the country?

00:12:21.580 What is he seeing that he's decided to make that decision?

00:12:24.920 So, yeah, it's interesting.

00:12:25.800 like Kearney has given himself that one separation from an electable role, but still close to the

00:12:31.680 liberal throne. He can be involved, he can be at the higher levels of the party, but he's

00:12:35.640 inoculated himself for the inevitable crash when they hit the polls. That's right. He's quite

00:12:41.120 positioned himself rather cleverly. So he's never been elected, yet he's right there whispering

00:12:46.600 into the prime minister's ear. And by juxtaposition, comparing Trudeau to Kearney, they're two very

00:12:53.080 different characters. And after nine years of Trudeau, the drama teacher who has just had

00:12:58.480 scandal after scandal, perhaps to some Canadians, liberal-leaning Canadians, having a figure like

00:13:04.860 Mark Carney, they might perceive him to be someone who's more level-headed, someone who is, and I'm

00:13:10.380 not saying I agree with this, but more trustworthy, more able to handle the books and things like this

00:13:15.440 just because he doesn't have a track record like Trudeau does. So there might be a certain advantage

00:13:21.880 for him swooping in like this in case he does position himself for the next election.

00:13:28.860 A lot of intrigue. I mean, this is a party that's swirling the drain, and people will realize it'll

00:13:33.120 still be a path to power the Liberals will get in at some time or another, whether it's one or

00:13:36.480 two or three election cycles, but they're going to come back. But that's a tough, long game to

00:13:40.880 play amongst a lot of sharks to be in position when the time gets up. And it'll be interesting

00:13:45.540 to see if Mark Carney is still there by the time this is done. Like, this is the former governor of

00:13:49.720 the Bank of Canada. And he gets a lot of credit for the Great Recession and keeping the Bank of

00:13:54.300 Canada stable through that. I personally don't give him all the credit. I think Harper deserves

00:13:58.420 more credit than that than he does. I think Obama pushed both Carney and Harper to spend more money

00:14:04.760 than we should have coming out of that recession. And that caused some issues there. But, you know,

00:14:09.080 he did a good enough job that the Bank of England, he went over there. But he's on all of these

00:14:14.620 boards he is making so much money why would you want to dive into politics unless you're going to

00:14:22.760 be the prime minister at this point but even then in in four years in six years in eight years

00:14:28.520 is that even going to still be something he wants or is he going to be looking at like retiring on

00:14:33.780 uh whatever private island uh what's his face uh the leader of the ppc uh maxine bernier where

00:14:40.680 he's building his beach front house. I don't know. Yeah. So it'll be interesting because

00:14:46.800 like if it's anything like last time, like, you know, there was that big, massive liberal wipe

00:14:52.200 out. Jack Layton's NDP came in. They were the official opposition. The liberals were

00:14:57.660 essentially extinct. You know, is Mark Carney then going to pick up the corpse of the liberal

00:15:03.900 party and revive it to put himself in the prime minister's chair? Or is he going to sit here,

00:15:09.900 Make some money off the party.

00:15:11.340 Whisper into the prime minister's ear.

00:15:12.980 Try to fix Freeland's disastrous budgets.

00:15:16.580 And when it all implodes, say, well, I tried to fix it, but, you know, it was just way too far gone.

00:15:22.540 It's going to be interesting to watch anyways.

00:15:24.900 But we'll switch to some more insane politics in a moment.

00:15:27.100 Actually, I've got to get a quick plug to the folks out there to remind them the reason we have these panels,

00:15:31.540 the reason we've got all these stories breaking, the reason we've got the staff is because you guys have been subscribing. 0.72

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00:15:43.880 We aren't asking for government dollars and we aren't taking them.

00:15:46.040 I don't think they're really in a rush to give us any anyhow.

00:15:48.380 But if you want good, honest coverage, you know, you've got to support it, guys.

00:15:51.740 So if you've subscribed already, thank you very much.

00:15:53.560 We really, really do appreciate it.

00:15:54.860 If you haven't yet, come on, get on.

00:15:56.300 It's only $10 a month.

00:15:57.060 You're probably paying more for like a World of Warcraft or an OnlyFans account or something.

00:16:01.380 So this is more productive than that.

00:16:03.560 Jump on boards.

00:16:04.380 All right.

00:16:04.940 So let's go on to something less controversial.

00:16:07.560 The Americans had a debate last time.

00:16:09.060 Oh, did they ever.

00:16:11.220 I put myself through that.

00:16:14.280 I watched it.

00:16:17.720 Boy.

00:16:19.220 Let's get you to start the last one.

00:16:21.900 We'll get James to kind of frame what was your impression or what do you think you see coming out here?

00:16:27.000 I actually had a conversation with actually a good friend of mine, Kristen Raworth, right?

00:16:32.460 So she's generally considered a bit of a red Tory. And to her, Kamala Harris won that debate. And I said, maybe, but to normies, I said, you don't understand mega people. You don't understand Trump supporters. 1.00

00:16:49.600 And I said, I live in that world. I'm in that world. And I'm telling you right now, Trump won that debate. And the reason why Trump won that debate is because today, every single person on earth is talking about people eating cats and dogs and executing babies.

00:17:10.580 Nobody is talking about policy.

00:17:12.800 Nobody's talking about deficit.

00:17:15.560 Nobody's talking about debt.

00:17:17.060 They're talking about the immigration, but they're talking about immigration because Trump's saying they're eating cats and dogs.

00:17:23.380 Trump debated to his people last night.

00:17:26.400 He was looking in the camera.

00:17:28.300 He was focused, and he was talking to his supporters, and he gave them the greatest hits. 0.81

00:17:32.820 He gave them their rapists.

00:17:34.120 He gave them their murderers.

00:17:35.340 He said they're coming into the country and taking our jobs.

00:17:37.820 They're doing this. 1.00

00:17:38.660 We got to deal with China. There wouldn't be a war with Russia. He hit all of his greatest hits last night. And I think Kamala failed to land any big jabs at Trump. I don't think anything she threw at him actually stuck. She took nothing away from his supporters. He gave his supporters and his people everything they wanted. I don't think she was effective last night. 0.73

00:18:03.040 So to go further, kind of one of the things that's amazing in American politics, these hard fought elections, a two party system, yet it's almost always only within a point or two, a calm election time. It's amazing how close it is. There's rarely a blowout. And I imagine it's similar right now. Part of it too, though, is how many undecideds watched last night? 10? 11? You know, like either side.

00:18:24.920 People already have their mind made up.

00:18:26.000 Was there anybody who was really going to change a mind in that debate?

00:18:29.080 Well, as James mentioned, the normies, right?

00:18:32.800 So people that are just tuning into politics without looking at things like policy or thinking

00:18:38.760 about what the implications of those policies might mean, they might go along with an emotion

00:18:43.960 that they feel.

00:18:44.960 So what really stood out to me during the debate was Kamala's biggest swing, what I 0.99

00:18:48.580 thought was on abortion, where she really went for that emotional factor.

00:18:53.500 Are you really going to do that to someone who's been raped or is a product of insistence?

00:18:58.520 Are you really gonna do that?

00:18:59.880 And I think that that really gets a lot of people

00:19:02.860 from the normal aspect to have that emotional response to it.

00:19:07.260 However, it is still talking about abortion

00:19:09.780 and murdering the child in the mother's womb.

00:19:12.240 So I think when Trump addressed these issues head on,

00:19:16.100 he really was, as James is saying, talking to his audience.

00:19:19.020 That is what they wanna hear is that

00:19:20.960 that's actually where we draw the line as Republicans.

00:19:24.680 And we don't want to just be emotionally caught up

00:19:28.100 with how Kamala is spinning it.

00:19:30.960 So getting into a different crowd,

00:19:32.880 I talked a little bit about that earlier,

00:19:34.060 and I'll give you a little bit of a warning,

00:19:35.200 I wanna go there, but it's different.

00:19:37.120 The Taylor Swift factor, which I think might really be one.

00:19:40.480 I think so too.

00:19:41.320 Not so much the undecided, but the indifferent.

00:19:43.280 I mean, there's a lot of young people who just never voted,

00:19:45.660 never paid attention really, or anything else,

00:19:47.340 but they are fanatically dedicated to Taylor Swift.

00:19:50.460 We're not talking about a few thousand,

00:19:51.780 we're talking millions of people.

00:19:54.420 And she has come out and very directly endorsed

00:19:58.000 Kamala Harris. If those Swifties come out and vote, that, when I'm talking about those 1% type 0.99

00:20:03.380 swings in an election, she could be the game changer in this. Like, what a strange time to 1.00

00:20:07.980 be in. Well, think of Taylor Swift's army. Think of her tour. Her tour has a GDP that's bigger than

00:20:14.100 most countries at this point. The amount of power and sway and celebrity that she has. People go to 1.00

00:20:20.980 her concerts and, like, faint. Yeah, they go to the concerts and they go and watch the concert

00:20:26.540 from outside and just to listen like outside of like it'd be like standing outside the saddle

00:20:30.720 dome just listening to the noise inside but if the Swifties mobilize like they have against some

00:20:37.780 other things and they actually like if if the Swifties help Kamala's team with GOTV with get

00:20:45.120 out the vote it could be massive honestly that that is like that is like a whole secondary army

00:20:52.860 coming in and like the DNC and the RNC and these elections they have armies of door knockers

00:20:59.140 canvassers whatever if the Swifties mobilize into door knockers canvassers stuff like that

00:21:05.340 the undecideds could get pushed that way very rapidly well speaking of they just

00:21:10.540 yeah right speaking of Swifties mobilizing though however I saw a trend on social media just

00:21:16.940 last night or the night before I saw it come up Swifties for Trump believe it or not yeah

00:21:22.640 and so there's all these it looks like a faction of swift supporters who are voting for donald

00:21:29.200 trump they have t-shirts they're doing dances on tick tock so there's a whole line of them that

00:21:34.560 are saying okay well you know our queen says this and we can still be swifties however it doesn't

00:21:40.080 have to be political but i think that's a small faction and the majority of them as you say

00:21:45.440 are going to get caught up in this mob mentality oh well taylor swift said to vote for kamala well

00:21:51.120 well, then we must mobilize and get ready.

00:21:53.740 However, Swifty's going out to door knocking for a political cause.

00:21:57.200 I don't know if I quite see that.

00:21:58.800 I don't know.

00:21:59.660 You never know what to expect.

00:22:00.640 You never know anymore.

00:22:02.520 We're talking about eating cats and dogs and executing babies and Swifty endorsements.

00:22:08.760 All of the normal rules in politics are out the window.

00:22:12.560 That's it.

00:22:13.140 I mean, celebrities, you know, speaking of politics, do nothing new.

00:22:16.640 And it's had a little bit of influence and so on.

00:22:18.420 But I mean, this is a titanic force we're talking about, like we haven't seen before.

00:22:22.880 I mean, we're the modern equivalent of the Beatles or something huge in their time.

00:22:28.240 And they didn't directly endorse candidates in elections.

00:22:32.500 It's just an interesting factor to be measured, you know, if it mobilizes them with her coming out like that.

00:22:37.800 I mean, it could bring backlash, too. 0.97

00:22:39.600 Yeah.

00:22:40.260 Well, and that's why Taylor Swift is a state out of politics, right? 0.99

00:22:43.460 Because her roots were in country music.

00:22:45.080 so you're not going to have a massive liberal leaning audience when you come from country music

00:22:50.880 your base is going to be mostly republican mostly rural her first tours were like with brad paisley

00:22:58.040 like she's not really built on a liberal platform she's built on more of a conservative platform

00:23:04.480 until she went to hollywood and yeah but and then there was like a few years and just certain

00:23:08.700 policies she's always kind of been clear that she has leaned towards the democrats because of lgbt

00:23:13.340 issues and her personal stance on abortion and I mean fine most uh celebrities you know like I mean

00:23:19.920 Kid Rock and Hulk Hogan were at the the RNC convention so I yeah why wouldn't Taylor Swift

00:23:26.180 jump in on the other side at this point right sure but I mean you know Kid Rock just isn't

00:23:29.760 gonna pull him like no no and the influence she's had like even myself as an NFL fan and now she

00:23:35.580 you know she's dating Kelsey so there's a whole new audience the viewership has gone up

00:23:41.040 For Kansas City games, just because these are new viewers, that's what I'm seeing, the factor with this voting, she didn't change anybody who already had team loyalties, but she brought in a whole new raft of people that never watched in the first place.

00:23:54.620 And that's what I see with the election, she's going to bring a bunch of non-voters into the mix, and their votes count just as much as a registered Republican or Democrat.

00:24:02.840 Well, I mean, me, if I'm in a press scrum and Kelsey's right in front of me, the first question I'm asking is, who are you voting for?

00:24:10.080 so you know maybe we're going to see a familial split here where you know they don't agree but

00:24:16.200 they agree to vote separately like that happens a lot that happens a lot in the states for sure too

00:24:21.380 but what if he says he's going to back Harris what if a bunch of the NFL players especially

00:24:28.320 with some of the BLM stuff and through some of their own movements a bunch of NFL players start

00:24:33.780 coming out and they endorse Harris which it would be interesting to see athletes starting to endorse

00:24:39.020 candidates but could that also mobilize you know the average person who sits at home who just

00:24:44.500 watches football on the weekends and they decide they're going to vote what if he endorses trump

00:24:48.960 like there's it's a fascinating whole new world well you have to wonder too if swift came out of

00:24:56.340 her own volition and endorsed kamala that way or if there has been some kind of influence who knows 0.93

00:25:03.240 where the money is moving if how do you influence her yeah how big a bribe would you need to influence 1.00

00:25:09.960 swift right i mean she can buy countries you know yeah there's nobody has the money to influence her 0.93

00:25:15.800 that way i mean they can influence her but that's what's interesting too even if she gets a bit of 0.58

00:25:20.520 backlash loses a bit of following she's too big to fail as the old saying goes but i mean she's

00:25:25.880 gonna lose uh those people maybe in the states but she still has the entire rest of the world

00:25:33.000 so i actually seen uh it was a while ago someone actually broke down to the median family income

00:25:39.720 comparing what her income is and basically to her the hundred thousand dollars each to all of the

00:25:47.240 truck drivers and bonuses she gave amounts to a dollar 67 or something it was basically it was

00:25:53.240 less than a cup of coffee is what it actually costs to her so for me making whatever I make

00:25:58.600 what a cup of coffee costs to me her giving one point whatever million dollars worth of bonuses 0.76

00:26:03.700 to the truck drivers equates to her about the same as a much of much as a cup of coffee so I 0.98

00:26:09.400 like I honestly think the amount of like the entire spend of Kamala's campaign wouldn't be

00:26:15.760 enough to influence her to endorse I think that's coming straight from her and it was funny that she

00:26:21.340 signed it off as the childless cat lady because trump has been calling liberal women a bunch of

00:26:27.680 childless cat ladies and uh you know and also kind of funny that she posted a picture of her and a

00:26:33.640 cat after trump said the immigrants were eating cats the internet is absolutely on fire but that

00:26:39.420 but that's the thing that's why trump won the internet is all full of memes about stuff trump

00:26:44.420 said nobody remembers policy nobody remembers policy that's part of why i was a little rough

00:26:49.960 on Trump on my show. And I still, I'll say it again. I don't like the guy. If I was in the

00:26:54.680 States, I'd probably vote for him because I'd still want to see a conservatively government

00:26:57.580 better than Kamala, but I do not like him, but I'm a policy guy. I want to see policies. And

00:27:02.720 that's why I'm frustrated. That's, but I'm in the minority. As you said, sound bites,

00:27:06.880 capturing news, dominating the memes is how you capture the vote now.

00:27:12.640 Trump called that out last night too. He said, that's a lie. And that was,

00:27:16.160 that was that was a soundbite and really made me angry there was four or five times I think Ben

00:27:23.960 Shapiro actually pointed a few of them out too last night where Kamala flat out lied and they

00:27:29.520 did not push back on her and that was frustrating too and but that also directly feeds into Trump's

00:27:35.520 narrative about the fake news the fake media they're all against me they're saying I'm a danger

00:27:41.340 to democracy, but look at how they behave. He has denounced Project 2025 repeatedly from the

00:27:49.360 beginning. Yes, some of his team did write that. He has not endorsed it. He has said he will not

00:27:55.400 put that policy in place. And she said he was going to do it. He had to push back on it. And

00:28:00.580 neither of the hosts said a damn word. And that was frustrating. That's true. And it does only 0.93

00:28:05.020 play into Trump when, you know, it's like the old saying, it's not a conspiracy when they really are

00:28:09.600 all out to get you. And the bias in the moderation of that debate was terrible. And, you know, I

00:28:16.260 tweeted that. I just said, geez, I hate it when moderators jump in on the debate. And I don't

00:28:19.240 care what side. I didn't tune in to listen to the stinking moderators. I tuned in to listen to 0.98

00:28:24.200 the candidates. And the role of the person to counter Trump's lies, and he lied a lot.

00:28:29.600 That's Kamala's role. That's your job. And Trump, likewise, the other way you correct her,

00:28:35.500 You know, for example, with her denying that she was donating to, you know, get Black Lives Matter people on bail.

00:28:41.520 She did. 0.81

00:28:42.100 Yeah.

00:28:42.440 Her own tweets out there.

00:28:43.580 But that's his job.

00:28:45.000 Keep the moderators out.

00:28:46.080 So when it does, when people view that and see, holy cow, those two moderators are totally against Trump, and they were.

00:28:52.260 Yeah.

00:28:52.880 That really entrenches the Trump supporters.

00:28:55.200 Yeah. 0.96

00:28:55.320 Not gay new ones, but it certainly galvanizes the existing ones. 0.60

00:28:58.460 See, and I actually think it does push some of the more moderates in swing states.

00:29:05.700 I'm thinking specifically of like Arizona, because they're not really extreme Republicans there.

00:29:11.400 But when you hear the media and you hear this and everybody is against the person, you kind of start to gravitate towards that person if you're a center right person.

00:29:19.900 Because you're like, what are they doing?

00:29:21.760 Because I would say ABC is an extreme liberal network, and you have probably one of the most extreme liberal candidates in the history of the presidency of the United States.

00:29:33.140 And if I'm sitting there as a center-right person and a moderate, and I'm seeing, okay, Kamala, the news, everyone else is all ganging up on Trump, maybe there's something here that I should push towards Trump on.

00:29:46.180 I also like fighting for an underdog, too.

00:29:48.320 Anybody with an anti-establishment attitude is going to feel more well.

00:29:51.640 The establishment doesn't like this guy.

00:29:53.460 I don't like the establishment, so he's getting my ex.

00:29:58.740 Yeah, and another thing last night that really stood out for me that really made me angry

00:30:03.280 was Kamala taking a victory lap on not having servicemen serving anywhere around the world right now.

00:30:10.960 Everyone's at home. We're not in an active war zone, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:30:13.760 It's especially embarrassing that today is September 11th.

00:30:16.840 Yeah. I had friends that fought in Afghanistan for Canada. Both of them have PTSD. One of them

00:30:24.360 has a service dog. They have gone through extreme mental anguish. And there are so many more

00:30:31.960 American veterans that went through so much worse in Afghanistan and Iraq. And her withdrawal and

00:30:40.400 the blood on her hands from that withdrawal from Afghanistan, the people we left behind,

00:30:45.220 the weapons and ammunition and the machinery and the equipment that we left behind and the people

00:30:51.680 that died she should have apologized for that and not taken a victory lap to me it was disgusting

00:30:59.800 to me she pivoted off of it when Trump said you didn't even go see those families and I did

00:31:05.500 and she pivoted off of it to a victory lap and I think that was disgusting yeah no the veterans I

00:31:11.520 I think in typical or in general

00:31:13.220 aren't gonna be heavily Democrat these days.

00:31:15.160 It's just not where they're sitting.

00:31:16.600 No kidding.

00:31:17.440 All right, well, let's get onto something.

00:31:20.760 You know, I don't have any light going on today.

00:31:22.580 No, not at all.

00:31:24.100 Let's go to Coutts, Canadian-American border.

00:31:27.880 The trial is gonna be closed.

00:31:29.420 James, you've spent a lot of time.

00:31:31.640 You had my, oh, I'll say my pity while you were there

00:31:35.020 because it just seemed like he's gonna be back tomorrow.

00:31:36.240 Yep, yep, no, it's still going.

00:31:37.880 Tomorrow, no, weather's horrible. 0.96

00:31:40.120 People are crazy.

00:31:41.060 Art Pawlowski's Art Pawlowski and but still I mean the the fallout from this whole thing 0.60

00:31:46.740 the separate thing from that mean there's a lot of confusion that's what you lay out there was

00:31:50.980 almost two protest or two events yeah the the border protest and blockage and then the coots

00:31:56.500 four yeah which uh the coots four the last the two just got sentenced yeah yes so I was in coots

00:32:03.460 the entire time uh I would we we actually we got tipped off on this it's so the the whole way the

00:32:09.860 the whole coots protest went was uh my brother was a truck driver and he sent me the flyer i seen the

00:32:16.300 flyer and i thought holy they're gonna go to the border they're gonna shut down the border i gave

00:32:20.080 the story to mel and dave mel chased it down we broke the story and actually that night was the

00:32:24.980 night that jason kenny lifted the restrictions on the pub so we were all down at the fox and we were

00:32:30.100 all discussing it and i said well you know what i have family in coots i haven't seen them i'm just

00:32:34.380 gonna drive down there i'll check it out and we thought it was gonna be one and done we drove

00:32:38.980 down there that day. The highway was still moving. Everything was all good. I walked around. I did a

00:32:44.100 couple of interviews. I chatted with a few people. I called it Trucker Protest Fest because it was

00:32:49.280 like a music festival. Everybody was happy. Everybody was having a good time. And then I

00:32:55.060 thought the next morning when I rolled out there that it would be done. But no, there was more

00:33:00.160 people showing up. And Derek said, well, you know what? It's probably going to peter itself out. Come

00:33:04.440 back to the office. So I came back to Calgary and the next morning I came in and it wasn't even nine

00:33:10.180 o'clock. And actually by that time, a couple of the guys from the rebel, they got down there and

00:33:14.960 we started seeing their reports and it was still growing. So Derek said, go. So I raced down there

00:33:22.180 and I grabbed clothes for two or three days. I had all of the wrong clothes for the weather.

00:33:26.460 And I was there right till the end. Now there was, there was two protest areas. There was Milk River

00:33:32.080 just outside of Melk River and there was coots and the main area coots was the saloon and then

00:33:37.280 there was a house in town where some of the folks were hanging out the the coots for the folks with

00:33:43.000 the weapons they mostly hung around there they kind of came into the other area Marco Alex and

00:33:49.480 I'm sorry his name's escaping me right now those guys were mostly on kind of this committee and

00:33:56.060 there was some truckers and other farmers that were there as well and they made up that committee

00:33:59.920 And these other four weren't really part of that.

00:34:03.200 I never heard a word the entire time down there about weapons.

00:34:07.080 I never heard anybody say we're going to have a shootout with the police.

00:34:10.560 The closest it ever came to it was during Art Pawlowski's sermon where he said, this is our Alamo.

00:34:17.440 We need to stay. We need to shut down this border.

00:34:20.500 We can't leave when we're about to win.

00:34:22.780 Then he left.

00:34:23.680 Yeah, and then he left.

00:34:24.640 but that was the closest to dangerous or violent or anything that I ever heard that whole time that

00:34:33.180 was down there um you know uh now the trial's over they were found not guilty of conspiracy

00:34:40.300 to commit murder uh the people who keep continuing to say that they had a plot to kill the police

00:34:45.620 you're wrong that did not happen a jury of their peers examined the evidence and they have decided

00:34:51.640 that did not happen so people need to take that off the table and now we need to look at the

00:34:57.520 weapons so they had guns they had a restricted weapon it was possession of a restricted weapon

00:35:02.860 and from what I understand they just didn't have the license to have the weapon but this is Canada

00:35:07.620 we have very serious charges for weapons offenses and I have been a long-time advocate of stiffer

00:35:14.320 sentences no bail for criminals with dangerous history and they were charged with conspiracy

00:35:21.240 to commit murder, I would expect them not to get bail. Now, there are a lot of people that are very

00:35:27.240 upset, and understandably so, because it is very provable that people charge with more serious

00:35:33.600 offenses. For example, there was a shooting in Medicine Hat where someone actually got shot

00:35:38.460 a few weeks ago. The person who shot him is out on bail right now. So these guys just had a supposed

00:35:45.080 a conspiracy, yet they were held in jail without bail for 900 days, and this guy actually shot

00:35:51.760 someone and he's out. People are frustrated about that, the double standard in the system.

00:35:56.240 I agree. It's even more insane, but I support stiffer sentences, so I'm okay with their sentence,

00:36:04.040 but compared to other situations, I believe it was Andy Lee who pointed this out on Twitter,

00:36:10.440 there was somebody who cracked open a police officer's head with a skateboard, got less time

00:36:16.900 in jail. The two kids that ran over the cop here in Calgary and killed him, they got less time in

00:36:24.360 jail. You can kill a cop in this country and get less time in jail than these guys got for weapons

00:36:29.520 offenses. That is what people are so mad about. That is the part of the system that is broken,

00:36:34.960 and I agree, but I also agree that we are a country of laws and order, and there are consequences for not following those laws.

00:36:44.420 Yeah, well, the question, though, is the sentence, right?

00:36:46.740 So, Jen, like, on these charges, I mean, the judge, okay, the jury made the decision, the judge chooses the sentencing, and he picked a very large one.

00:36:55.500 Typically, in Canada, it's two to three times the amount you spent in remand gets credited towards your sentence.

00:37:00.720 I believe they gave you double time.

00:37:03.020 Was it double, or was it?

00:37:04.040 I think it was 1.5.

00:37:05.360 Okay, because it's judicial discretion there too.

00:37:07.480 I mean, he could very well have given them a sentence of a few years, but then credited and released them.

00:37:14.060 I mean, if you're looking to make an example of these guys, I think it's already been made.

00:37:19.360 That's right.

00:37:20.160 And he could have been a lot more forgiving in that sense.

00:37:24.640 I myself went down to the courthouse in Lethbridge and witnessed the sentencing.

00:37:29.200 The judge spent about almost three hours reading the decision. And in that decision, he cited several precedent cases, maybe 18 to 20 other cases in Canadian history, reaching back to the 80s, as recent as 23, where each of these cases had far less sentencing decisions than what he handed out to these coots boys. 1.00

00:37:56.140 So many of these prior cases had three years, four years, and then he turned 1.00

00:38:01.600 around and gave Tony and Chris this 6.5 year sentencing, and that is for the

00:38:08.260 weapons offense. They also got sentenced to six months each for mischief, and this

00:38:15.060 sentence can be served concurrently with their other ones, so it still

00:38:20.380 sets a precedent for others facing mischief charges, especially from the

00:38:25.140 time of the Freedom Convoy in Canada. So here in Alberta, the COOTS III you mentioned, Marco and

00:38:31.760 Alex, the three of them, and also Tamara Leach in Ottawa. So I learned that in Alberta, if there's

00:38:39.540 a mischief sentence or any sentence, then that is a required sentence for all other cases like it

00:38:46.920 in the province. So that means that the other COOTS III are expecting to get that six months at least,

00:38:53.140 And it sets a precedent for other provinces. So Leach in Ontario, for example, they'll look at this case, and that will at least set kind of a minimum. But the judge said outright that he was using this as an example. He said this is so that you two boys, but also the rest of Canada knows that you can't be getting up to this kind of behavior.

00:39:18.020 I mean, you know, how much do you think it would impact anybody who really, I don't know what was going through their minds. I know one of them, personally. He's from out in my area in Pritis and so on. And at least from, you know, my anecdotal and knowledge of him, he's not a violent guy. He wasn't going to go kill people or start a revolution. He made, in my view, some stupid decisions. And those decisions have consequences. But they weren't going to start a revolution.

00:39:47.480 even if they wanted to, they're four guys. Those four people could cause a lot of damage. Fair enough.

00:39:51.560 Now, if somebody's really convinced themselves in a crazed world of cosplay that they're on the

00:39:57.400 cusp of the revolution, they're on the brink of the world truly falling apart and becoming

00:40:02.200 dystopian, do you think any of them would really think twice or care less what the last sentence

00:40:06.840 was for somebody who did that? No, I don't think that that was something that was on their mind.

00:40:11.720 however the judge he explicitly said okay so these men had were acquitted they were found

00:40:18.360 not guilty for the conspiracy charges to murder a police officer and by the way he made it clear

00:40:24.440 too that there was no terrorism related offenses here contrary to common allegations on social

00:40:30.680 media yeah that that's just not a thing in this case however even though that was he they were

00:40:38.200 acquitted of that charge, he continued to circle back to that theme, and he was trying

00:40:45.360 to make this connection for using the weapons for a dangerous purpose, which brings up the

00:40:50.500 explosive that Tony was sentenced to further charge an extra six months, and the judge

00:40:58.240 came right out and said, well, I don't know that you were using this for a dangerous purpose

00:41:04.320 or if it's for something else like work.

00:41:06.500 I can't say beyond a reasonable doubt

00:41:09.840 that this was for a dangerous purpose.

00:41:12.320 However, he's still got the six month sentence

00:41:15.520 for that anyways.

00:41:16.820 Well, and the Crown is still, it sounds like appealing

00:41:18.640 and they're gonna try and get a conviction

00:41:20.080 on the conspiracy to murder RCC officer.

00:41:24.860 So it's your offense.

00:41:26.100 To be honest, in my view, I'm not a lawyer,

00:41:27.600 but I think they're wasting time.

00:41:28.920 They're absolutely wasting time.

00:41:30.820 And to me, it actually, I find it offensive.

00:41:34.320 A jury trial is selected for a reason. And a jury of their peers has examined all of the evidence and decided their case did not meet the threshold. They were not guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. And it is a waste of government money. There are serious criminals out there. There are serious crimes going on.

00:41:56.180 We have already spent so much on the prosecution of these protesters, and we have also seen that protesters who get charged in BC that are in alignment with the federal government and are supposed to be deported out of our country will be saved by a minister.

00:42:13.240 At this point, I believe someone needs to stand up and say an appeal is not in the public interest. It is not in the fiscal interest. Enough. You failed.

00:42:26.180 That plot did not exist.

00:42:28.300 They were found not guilty.

00:42:29.860 You held them responsible for taking the weapons there.

00:42:32.860 That was the crime they did commit.

00:42:34.340 Now, I'm 50-50 on this explosive device.

00:42:38.060 I understand someone did testify and said that it was something work-related,

00:42:43.580 but it wasn't at the protest site either.

00:42:47.380 It was not in Coots.

00:42:48.580 It was several hundred kilometers away in his home.

00:42:51.680 But the thing is, when you get arrested and you are charged for suspicion to commit murder, your house is going to be searched.

00:42:59.160 And if there is a secondary crime in your house, such as an explosive weapon, you will be charged with that.

00:43:05.320 That's what happens.

00:43:06.380 This is a terrible analogy.

00:43:08.000 I don't want to compare it with these guys.

00:43:10.380 But if the RCMP searched their house and found child porn, you would expect they also get charged with that.

00:43:19.260 So that is just the way the system works.

00:43:21.380 Now, I don't understand, but the jury, obviously, through listening through everything with the trial, decided that he was guilty of the possession of an explosive weapon.

00:43:32.940 So I'm going to go with what the jury decided.

00:43:35.640 Now, there is also the secret envelope.

00:43:38.740 Yes.

00:43:39.340 I don't know.

00:43:40.220 I don't even want to speculate.

00:43:42.560 If the defense appeals on the grounds of that envelope and said that the judge erred, I agree in defensive appeals.

00:43:50.780 I don't agree in prosecutors appealing a jury decision, unless it's like outright, the judge really did something.

00:43:58.960 But I don't think the judge did something wrong in this case.

00:44:01.800 And there are reasons inside law where certain evidence is excluded.

00:44:06.920 That is just part of the system, and it's about fairness of the trial.

00:44:10.700 So, you know, we will probably never know what's in that envelope.

00:44:14.500 Maybe someday we will know.

00:44:15.960 Maybe somebody does actually know.

00:44:17.940 Maybe the defense appeal will see what's in it.

00:44:20.360 but um i i just i don't know like i i think at this point it's done i realistically these guys

00:44:29.300 have been model prisoners they will probably be released within six months on good behavior

00:44:33.980 anyways um but i i just uh it it is it is uh it is a double standard they were held to a higher

00:44:43.660 threshold. They were held more accountable than everyone else. But me personally, I want to see

00:44:50.500 criminals punished more. And not them, but all of the other ones as well. Just to your point about

00:44:58.980 the sealed envelope, I spoke with Carbert's attorney and she confirmed of the envelope. She

00:45:05.260 said that she actually has seen it herself. And in closed door meetings, they had a decision to keep

00:45:12.500 bit client attorney privilege. And so I have also heard speculations about what is contained

00:45:21.480 in this envelope in terms of incriminating behavior of one of the Crown prosecutors and

00:45:29.100 the RCMP, but we don't know for sure. We only have this speculation. However, she did confirm

00:45:35.260 that in the appeals process, so she's going to be appealing the sentences handed down this week,

00:45:41.260 And that is when the envelope is going to be addressed again.

00:45:44.920 So I don't think that we've heard the last of the sealed envelope mystery.

00:45:49.860 And if that's what's in that envelope, then I would expect that we actually have an investigation into the prosecutors then.

00:45:56.180 Because I think there is a general mistrust of the judicial system in Canada right now.

00:46:01.920 And if we have prosecutorial misconduct going on, then I think it's time for the government to stand up and do something and bring faith back into our judicial system.

00:46:13.660 That's good.

00:46:14.340 And there's lots to be done.

00:46:15.980 We've heard of the clock.

00:46:16.760 There's going to be this.

00:46:17.280 Obviously, this issue isn't finished yet, though.

00:46:19.140 No.

00:46:19.680 That trial is.

00:46:20.780 But there's still more.

00:46:21.700 There's going to be appeals.

00:46:22.520 There's going to be discussion.

00:46:24.240 And there's going to be a lot of conspiracies.

00:46:26.060 So, you know, before I let you go, I want to clarify something on there, too.

00:46:28.940 So I'll say goodbye to you guys.

00:46:31.300 James and Jen, thank you very much for joining the pipeline today.

00:46:34.920 Thank you.

00:46:35.560 And with the online discussions, I just want to remind people too,

00:46:38.160 because I've seen that there's some confusion about the role of a premier

00:46:40.960 and what they can do. 1.00

00:46:42.720 She can't commute sentences. 1.00

00:46:44.840 She can't pardon people. 1.00

00:46:47.500 She can't override a conviction. 0.96

00:46:50.140 That's not Canada. 1.00

00:46:51.160 That's not the role she has.

00:46:52.560 It's fair critique to say you want her to speak up on this.

00:46:55.420 Speaking as a political guy, I put on my political wonk hat,

00:46:57.840 and I'd say don't say a peep because it's just something you don't want to

00:47:00.440 step into when you got a million other irons in the fire. I know that sounds unprincipled,

00:47:04.340 but that's the way politics works. But just for people thinking that, oh, she could release them 1.00

00:47:09.220 tomorrow. No, she can't. It's just not the way it works, I'm afraid. Scream at Justin. He's the man

00:47:13.240 at the helm of things. He can't pardon people either, actually, but he is the guy at the head

00:47:17.100 of the federal jurisdiction of this whole thing. All right. But that was a lot of crazy subjects

00:47:22.120 to cover. So thank you very much. Yeah, nice, light, easy stuff. You know, I just save it for

00:47:26.900 when you guys come to the pipeline. So thank you all for tuning in, guys. And again, be sure to

00:47:32.000 tune in to our other shows. Hannaford is fantastic. Once in a while, I do all right on mine at the

00:47:36.200 Cory Morgan Show. And be sure to subscribe to the Western Standard and catch those things as

00:47:40.900 they're happening. So thanks for tuning in, and I will see you next time. If the name Ted Byfield

00:47:44.780 brings back fond memories, well, we got a party coming up for you guys. On September 25th,

00:47:49.500 Toasting Ted is what it's called. It's going to honor a great conservative who published

00:47:53.800 Alberta Report News Magazine.

00:47:55.540 It's going to be bagpipes, singing, live auction stakes,

00:47:58.460 speeches by Premier Smith, Preston Manning, Stephen Harper.

00:48:00.960 Quite a lineup.

00:48:02.000 The Western Standard is the final incarnation

00:48:04.420 or the latest incarnation of Alberta Report

00:48:06.720 that Ted Byfield founded.

00:48:08.800 And I mean, he was a great Albertan.

00:48:10.700 He really made his mark on this province.

00:48:12.480 And this evening of celebration for him

00:48:14.120 is really going to be outstanding.

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Western Standard - September 12, 2024

Liberal Retreat： Mark Carney's role in the 'new' job

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