Ryan Jesperson's show is off the air, Melanie Riston gets kicked by a man on a horse, and we talk about the upcoming leadership race in the Alberta Party leadership race. We also discuss the latest in the Ryan Jesperson saga.
00:00:30.000good morning march 21st 2022 a lot of those number twos coming along again welcome to triggered0.86
00:00:39.620i'm cory morgan i hope you all had a good weekend i know i did i went out and bought some bees and
00:00:46.000then i uh attended some protests in downtown beltline area calgary i mean what better way to
00:00:51.580spend some nice warm weather out there uh we can look forward to lots of reports of me getting
00:00:56.480stung head to toe as i take on that bee hobby but we won't have the hive live for another month and
00:01:01.340change so this is the western standards daily live show we come to you monday to friday 11 30 a.m
00:01:07.600mountain standard time and uh being live we invite those questions guys questions comments back and
00:01:13.120forth i do have as a guest today or i had john john charay he will be it will be a recorded
00:01:19.100interview that does run a little later in the show i couldn't get him on live it's hard with
00:01:23.180these contenders and so on, just like with Mr. Paliyev to get the scheduling with live. But it
00:01:28.960was good to get a chance to talk to him for about 15 minutes today and answer some questions. It's
00:01:33.360seven candidates in that race. So it's going to be a hotly contested one, obviously, and a lot of
00:01:41.000people going into it. So we're going to try and talk to every leadership candidate in the bunch,
00:01:45.260and it's going all the way until September. So we'll probably hear from them more than once.
00:01:49.180And then Melanie Riston's going to come in. She had a very interesting weekend there and got some great footage taking care of the protests and managed to get herself kicked by a gentleman riding on a horse. Life is always interesting when you head down to these kinds of events and things happen in unexpected ways. So we'll talk to Melanie about that. She's going to come in and we will discuss that.
00:02:09.140So I'm going to get on my usual rant for the day and this is something else. It was some great
00:02:16.040online drama and soap opera to watch. It was towards the end of the day on Friday and some
00:02:22.400people sent some links and said holy cow did you see what happened on Ryan Jesperson's show? I said
00:02:26.320no you know we had to watch that and wow this was something else. So for those who don't know Ryan
00:02:31.280Jesperson has a daily live show. It runs in Edmonton and it's essentially a left-wing version of what
00:02:36.680my show here is actually if we're to be fair we can call my show maybe a classical liberal version
00:02:41.240of his this show was created first after all to be fair there i usually don't bring up competing
00:02:46.920outlets but we have some special circumstances going on here i mean jesperson's been less than
00:02:51.800flattering of myself and the western standard on social media on his show on occasion so as far as
00:02:56.520i'm concerned the gloves are off we can we can snipe at each other for the moment ryan jesperson's
00:03:01.240show, which normally runs, you know, it's similar to this. It's live. It runs weekdays. It's down.
00:03:07.400It's shut down for the moment. They've canceled themselves. I don't know if or when it's coming
00:03:11.540back. Their site just says it's taking a break and they'll be back later. So we'll see what
00:03:16.760happens. Now, this is all over a minor incident last week on his show when he had a debate with
00:03:21.300one of his producers on the air that festered for two days until she had a brutal open meltdown1.00
00:03:26.400right in the middle of the show. She interrupted his show just before he's about to have guests on,
00:03:30.000demanded that he condemn some other lefty who had irked her on social media on Twitter,
00:03:34.300and then she stormed out of the studio.1.00
00:03:36.680It was an incredibly unprofessional scene.
00:03:39.560But if you like dark comedy and awkward moments,
00:03:41.900search it out, Ryan Jesperson, and check out his shows from last Thursday and Friday.
00:03:46.920I doubt Jesperson even knew what he did wrong,
00:03:50.700and still he didn't know when he pinned a groveling apology on his Twitter account
00:18:11.260But the motivations were, of course, a lot of people will read in and whatnot.
00:18:15.820Yeah, Cheryl's saying mail-in ballots are okay for federal elections, but not for the UCP vote.
00:18:19.520No, and that was a lot of the big battles before when this whole thing got triggered.
00:18:23.400Most of the constituency associations who wanted this vote to go wanted it to be at least some sort of online or mail-in or remote sort of ballot sort of system.
00:18:33.440and the premier supporters very much wanted, if it had to happen at all,
00:18:38.200to be an in-person thing where you can really limit and control,
00:19:15.920So, but the social responsibility, though, if everyone is able to spread or carry the social responsibility of it being a mandate, what's your thoughts on that?
00:19:25.780When it was at its peak, I completely understand why there was the mandate.
00:19:29.500I completely understand why it was put in for public places.
00:19:34.720And I mean, now that things are easing and that the strains aren't as serious,
00:19:38.120I do get also why they're easing the mandates, right?
00:19:41.240It's just, I think, part of the process of dealing with a public pandemic.
00:20:18.700Well, I just need, like, I just am trying to talk with this fella and I'm getting surrounded
00:20:24.600people who are not even respecting any kind of no they're not I'm just trying
00:20:32.040to talk with this fella who's talking with me but these guys are not giving
00:20:36.480me any face even though the sign says practice physical distancing
00:20:49.920yeah but i'm asking you to do this asking you to ask them to do the same for us
00:20:55.600okay well let's do that perfect all right thank you
00:20:59.100okay well that looks like that was fun there uh melanie welcome to the studio this is our first
00:21:08.580one in actually with the newer expanded so we're not squashed in with each other yeah it's very
00:21:12.520nice and uh you had an interesting weekend so that was you uh attempting to get comments from
00:21:19.480the counter protesters yeah that's right so uh we went to where they typically gather which was at
00:21:25.720the law heat house um and literally were there to literally hear people we wanted to talk to people
00:21:32.020we wanted to hear what their suggestions were for a solution to this uh you know and immediately we
00:21:39.560were met with hostility and uh and it just it continued to the point where they were so in our
00:21:48.000space they were so um they were trying to get music playing into my microphone so that people
00:21:54.720would uh so we wouldn't be able to publish it on our social media channels and they were you know
00:22:01.520sort of cramming and ramming phones and and whatnot into our faces and really getting into
00:22:06.800our the personal space enough where where one of them did end up pushing me uh which i asked them
00:22:13.040not to push me um but what i think was the most disappointing for me was there were two police
00:22:19.120officers that were very close by to everything that was happening they were watching us literally
00:22:24.640get swarmed we were swarmed by anywhere from three to five people at any given moment and
00:22:29.920they were reaching in our personal space there were a couple of community um residents that
00:22:36.160did want to talk they did want to be heard and so i that's who i was interviewing uh and and
00:22:42.000it got to the point where i went to the police and just asked can you help can you at least ask
00:22:46.800these people to give me some personal space here uh they just shrugged they just kind of oh well
00:22:52.640we thought they were with you and i said well it's pretty obvious that they're not with us uh it
00:22:58.720they're they're causing quite a an uncomfortable situation here and um yeah i was very disappointed
00:23:06.720that basically the only thing the police did in that instance when i was asking them to to assist
00:23:12.640or intervene or even just speak to these people to give me some some personal space uh i was
00:23:19.760basically told well then you should leave the park yeah and it's intimidating when you get that
00:23:24.640coming in from all directions like that yeah you do want to feel like some of these people can be
00:23:29.440it was very it was there were there were times where it was very aggressive and uh uh you didn't
00:23:34.480see it in this video but we will have sort of a summary of of some video clips from from everything
00:23:40.480that transpired through the weekend events uh but you'll see they were they were literally accosting
00:23:48.240our cameraman uh they were physically getting into his face i mean i'm talking about like to
00:23:54.400the point where my face was almost like hit by phones a number of times so really uncomfortable
00:24:00.080and you know i i tried to make it really clear why we were there we were there to to really speak to
00:24:04.800them and wanted to hear from some of them and some of them did speak but yeah it was um
00:24:09.120it was a uh quite quite aggressive yeah well and it does go both ways you know i mean dave
00:24:17.200uh nailer was down there as well and there was a video clip some other uh lunatic posted because
00:24:21.920he was chasing dave around and getting on his case and in his face and that was from the pro
00:24:26.640freedom protesters i guess dave wasn't uh the western standard still wasn't quite conservative
00:24:31.040enough for him so i can't imagine what this gentleman wanted to see yeah there is a real
00:24:35.040trend and mistrust with media in general i mean it's coming from the left and it's coming from
00:24:38.720the right i mean at these protests nobody seems to be welcome anymore to cover them yeah well and
00:24:44.160that's uh that's the other thing it just you know being there to cover this uh you know there was
00:24:49.760you were just sort of lumped in with the rest of the protesters either side it didn't matter and
00:24:55.200And we have another clip of when the police, some, you know, tension was high at the, when everything was wrapping up at the Central Memorial Park.
00:25:08.980And it sort of centered around what looked like a white supremacist flag, you know, people taking offense to that.
00:25:19.520And so police started to just push people out.
00:25:21.580And we have another clip where the RCMP are using sort of the bicycle group, or sorry, not RCMP, yes, no, CPS, using the bicycles to sort of push protesters out of the park.
00:25:35.200And so we were complying and moving as we were reporting. And then I ended up getting sort of pushed. You can play the clip, Nico. I ended up getting pushed and pushed sort of backwards into a police horse came up alongside behind me, which I didn't recognize.
00:25:54.200i was just trying to get out of the way of the um the um bikes and ended up getting booted by this
00:26:01.240police officer on a horse uh just for trying to get out of the way it was we'll run that
00:26:07.480run that video and then have a look just to show a little bit of the chaos down there
00:26:13.240so we're just kind of seeing here what uh i mean again it seems like there's
00:26:18.840an altercation happening and the police are really just trying to keep a a barrier between
00:26:29.960uh between the freedom rally protesters and the community protesters community
00:26:36.680protesters are uh are just across the street here
00:26:48.840well i guess we'll make sure we don't uh get kicked by a police officer on a horse so just
00:27:04.680trying to get out of the way yeah so that was um kind of an interesting situation where i'm i
00:27:12.680really was getting pushed in a certain direction and then had an officer come alongside me and
00:27:17.480literally with his foot in his stirrup just kicked me yeah well i mean i i try to look at a bit of
00:27:23.400both the police are trying to keep the two sides from actually meeting though and getting into what
00:27:26.920could be a conflict i mean it was interesting i'm glad you got down there to see face to face that
00:27:31.640a great deal of those counter protesters had nothing nice in mind uh you know they're masked
00:27:35.880up it's the usual antifa guys let's face it you know i mean i'm certain there were some residents
00:27:39.240who were concerned about things well and there were you get those professional protesters they
00:27:43.560want to get that's why they don't want to be covered didn't seem because they don't want to
00:27:46.040be seen showing the instigating as they will yeah and I think that's what I could say I definitely
00:27:50.600noticed there was a real difference in the presence of the actual residents I did get to
00:27:55.420speak with some and you know what their current concerns are legitimate they don't want to have
00:28:00.240to compromise their peace in their community every Saturday you know fair enough our questions to
00:28:05.680them or what's a good solution for you you know how about these protests take a different route
00:28:10.060How about they go to City Hall, which they did end up doing on Saturday, to, you know, go to the areas that make more sense of where the decision makers are, where the, you know, the courts, maybe even the McDougal Centre, not through the belt line every time.
00:48:35.280It is necessary to interview everyone who's running.
00:48:37.180is it yeah otherwise let me know better than you know mainstream media yeah you know we just
00:48:41.900kind of give it balance i mean it doesn't mean you have to vote for them and i i it was you'll
00:48:45.580see in a few moments when i do run that it was a good conversation with mr shere you know he's
00:48:50.220uh certainly too red for my taste i don't own a party membership anymore uh were i to choose to
00:48:56.000uh take part in those things again i i can't uh see him being the one who draws my vote
00:49:02.180but he's he's no fool and he's got some common sense in him and he's certainly got a lot of
00:49:07.320experience behind him and and uh it's worth listening to and i mean we're going to watch
00:49:11.880this campaign evolve and then as we get more and more guests on i'm looking forward to interviewing
00:49:15.920all of them we'll get those different voices and hopefully we'll have them on a second time or a
00:49:19.780third time uh and uh you know go from there uh somebody saying gene lost a family member a few
00:49:27.840days ago in his grieving. Well, this, he stood me up prior to that. Either way, why is Rempel
00:49:33.120backing Patrick Brown? Well, that you would have to ask Michelle Rempel, to be honest. I don't know.
00:49:39.640And I'm hoping to have Patrick Brown on the show, though, and we'll talk with him as well. I'm going
00:49:42.660to talk to every one of them, and it's very important. That's where these discourses are.
00:49:47.700And, you know, some people say I should get a little rougher on them. I have some good pointed
00:49:51.000questions you'll see in a moment, and definitely from a Western perspective, because you're not
00:49:54.700going to get those questions from central media outlets. You won't. So we got those and I'll give
00:50:00.060those questions to the other candidates too and you'll get a perspective that you wouldn't get
00:50:03.360elsewhere from these candidates and some questions they probably would rather not even have wanted to
00:50:07.940go into. But at least they're coming out and they're talking to us and it's important and
00:50:12.560I appreciate that. So yeah, as we're saying, I'm just looking at that news story with
00:50:17.34013,000 Conservative members. Right. So I think without further ado though, it is about time to
00:50:23.380put on the conversation I had with Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate Jean Charest
00:50:28.920and we'll talk a little more after that interview is done so stay tuned here guys and it was a good
00:50:34.120talk. Okay well thank you very much for joining me today Mr Charest we really appreciate it and
00:50:43.380hearing from you out west you kicked off your campaign out here in Calgary we don't have
00:50:47.820anybody at this point in the in the Conservative leadership race from the west so of course
00:50:51.860we have concerns and that's where a lot of the questions are going to land today
00:50:55.640well and i'm your western candidate if that's the case i'm happy to fill the belt for western
00:51:01.800canada court okay well we'll we'll see how that goes so i mean i'll start with one of the questions
00:51:07.900i got from a viewer the other day when i said you were going to be coming on some people are
00:51:11.420looking forward to it but she she was concerned uh of course out here the the firearm legislation
00:51:15.560things like that it's been going on since the 90s when when you were in parliament and uh yeah
00:51:19.480But with some of the cabinet recently admitted, like with some of the rifle bans, some of it overlapped and took on some hunting rifles and things such as that, as opposed to assault style is what the goal was.
00:51:33.920It was a Carol Seville was asking about that.
00:51:36.440And we're wondering, would you be looking at revisiting perhaps to make sure that firearms legislation is remaining a little more fair to people who have been legally using firearms?
00:51:43.260Corey, the focus of the federal government on firearms should be handguns in cities like Toronto and Montreal and working at the border to stop those handguns from coming into the country.
00:51:55.260That's where we should put our money and resources and not target hunters or farmers in northern Alberta.
00:52:03.260and so on the legislation itself, I think we would need to look at what it does exactly to
00:52:08.880make sure it's efficient and not just for the pleasure of trying to further legislate. So I
00:52:15.940would think that we would want to put together, maybe because it's done on a regulatory basis,
00:52:21.860there has to be a better control and a more rigorous control of who makes decisions on what
00:52:26.940it is exactly that we want to ban. And instead of just addressing appearances, why don't we
00:52:31.920address the real fundamental issue which is handguns in cities. Okay I think that's what a lot of people
00:52:37.920wanted to hear. There was a bit of a knee-jerk I think response and some things get banned and it's
00:52:41.300not necessarily actually impacting anybody except law-abiding firearm owners. Yeah so getting on to
00:52:47.400another policy then that's quite big out here of concern is the carbon tax of course. That was
00:52:53.280a large dividing issue with the conservative party in the last couple of years and it's certainly a
00:52:58.060strong issue with us in the west energy prices are very high it's hard on agricultural producers
00:53:02.680and whereas bc's had a carbon tax for quite some years now it doesn't seem to have had an impact
00:53:07.980on emissions so where are you standing on a carbon tax or emissions control we have to be
00:53:14.780smart about this which means a comprehensive climate and energy policy which includes carbon
00:53:20.880capturing storage biofuels hydrogen blue or green hydrogen small modular reactors hydro all these
00:53:28.720things and oil and gas and the only way to do it cory effectively is if the industry's in the room
00:53:34.400helping to design it and they buy into it and the same is true for the provinces so i i'm certainly
00:53:41.680able to look at a policy and have a policy that has carbon pricing into it it has to be flexible
00:53:47.200simple, flexible enough to avoid increasing the carbon tax as the Trudeau government wants to do
00:53:53.200on the 1st of April, and it doesn't make sense. And then it should not discriminate against rural
00:53:58.640Canadians. It cannot be a wealth transfer tax. So we can walk and chew gum at the same time.
00:54:04.160Alberta has done it. I mean, Alberta has a price on carbon for industrial emitters,
00:54:09.440and they have a policy that makes sense. So that's the way we need to approach it. And if
00:54:15.120If we approach it that way and deal with the transition, which includes natural gas, and we'll include the use of oil,
00:54:21.560well, then we'll get to the same objective, but we'll do it in a smart way as opposed to just doing it while excluding industry or excluding the provinces.
00:54:30.400Yeah, because Western energy producers, I think sometimes haven't gotten enough credit for how much they have innovated and reduced emissions
00:54:36.620or taken on means of carbon capture or even taking carbon and turning it into other products.
00:54:42.160So it'd be good to see that recognized and pursued.
00:54:44.460So now we've still got the ongoing issue of getting our products to market, and that's been quite a battle going on, whether it's coastal pipelines, east, west, or in any direction, to be frank.
00:54:54.600How can we get assurances that we're going to still manage to meet those world energy needs?
00:54:58.760I mean, we may transition away eventually, but for the time being, the world needs a lot of our product right now.
00:55:04.020And this conflict in Europe, you know, the invasion of Ukraine by Russia now has shed light on what it is that we should have been doing.
00:55:12.740And Canada should have been building pipelines.
00:55:16.740The last pipeline built in Quebec, by the way, was built under my government.
00:55:19.740I've always been pro-pipeline and pro-oil and gas.
00:55:23.740And the reason for that is the common sense that we all need to abide by as we see what's happening in Europe in this conflict,
00:55:31.740where we could be an alternative of oil and gas for Europe as opposed to being shut out, as we are right now.
00:55:38.740So but to do that, Corey, requires that there be a prime minister who actually stands up from time to time and says, I'm in favor of a pipeline, as opposed to to not saying anything at all or not supporting the industry.
00:55:52.260That's what has been sorely lacking in the last few years.
00:55:56.220And now to have someone like myself, who has been Premier of Quebec, out there saying and defending these things, which I did when I was Premier and what I did when I left office, I think gives us much more chances of succeeding at getting big projects done than if it were someone else.
00:56:14.440Well, there's definitely been an investment chill.
00:56:16.860I mean, we've had an ideologically driven government for quite some time,
00:56:20.380and a person doesn't feel confident in investing in a large infrastructure project
00:56:25.000when it sounds like the federal government wants to pull the rug out from under it.
00:56:28.140So, I mean, changing that atmosphere would certainly be a good start
00:56:30.820to improving our production facilities.
00:56:35.600And to get a prime minister who actually stands up and says,
00:56:38.660this is a good idea, this project should be done,
00:56:42.780And then says, we'll do it right environmentally, we'll do all the work that needs to be done so that it's environmentally sound, which we can do, and we can do in reasonable delays, and do it in a fashion that is predictable, which in industry, which everyone wants, would be a 100% change relative to what we've seen with the Liberal government.
00:57:06.380So moving more into regional challenges and issues, Senate reform, you know, again, I was
00:57:12.540of the old reformers back in the 90s and Triple E was the big call. I understand reforming the
00:57:18.480Senate itself would be a very large task to be done. But for the more immediate term, what are
00:57:23.460your thoughts on appointing senators that have been elected in provinces? It's been something
00:57:26.760of a tradition for some time if we do choose to elect them that often conservative governments
00:57:30.740will appoint them. Well, for a while, that's what the federal government was doing.
00:57:35.420during the Meech period where they appointed provincially nominated candidates to the Senate.
00:57:42.140The Senate, when it was thought and designed, it was to be a house where the provinces were
00:57:47.340represented. That's the core idea of what the Senate was designed to be. It's not that now.
00:57:55.000And that's one of the issues that needs to be addressed in the future. The bigger question is,
00:57:59.560does this mean we reopen the Constitution? I think there's probably other options that would allow
00:58:04.520the provinces say and how we nominate senators and that may be a an option that we would look at i'm
00:58:13.000open to those ideas if the province of alberta brings something forward and says here is something
00:58:17.880that we would like to do i would be very open to that corey well and going farther though i mean
00:58:25.000we went through that with charlottetown and meach lake but uh at some point down the
00:58:29.000road are you receptive to looking at constitutional reform in canada
00:58:33.360Well, I don't see now how it can be done because the conditions are not there.
00:58:39.260I don't, you know, if we undertake a round of constitutional discussions, we do it only if there is a huge and very substantial buy-in and preparation from the provinces.
00:58:49.780That work has not been done, and I don't see it right now, but that doesn't mean that there are not alternative things that can be done in the meantime that would allow this federal system of ours to work more effectively.
00:59:01.480And by the way, Corey, that's one of the things I want to bring to this job as leader of the Conservative Party and Prime Minister.
00:59:12.360And I know how to make it work to get big things done.
00:59:16.120It would be a breath of fresh air in Ottawa to have a Prime Minister who has that direct experience and able to connect Quebec to Alberta,
00:59:23.880able to connect the West to the East and Central Canada to make our country work.
00:59:29.440It's the only way for Canada to be efficient, by the way. And so as a prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, that would be right up our alley in terms of what we represent, in terms of our views and our values and our history of making this country work.
00:59:43.760okay and then likewise uh i guess in a theoretical example but something a very recent one we had
00:59:49.320that vote in the house of commons over protecting quebec seats no matter what the population
00:59:53.720distribution would be i mean our our parliament is supposed to be repped by pop at least and at
00:59:57.960that point we we basically seem to have voted to override even that principle which sort of upset
01:00:02.260some people out there i understand it's just a single seat but that's a big principle uh how
01:00:06.200would you have responded to that if you were in at that time well there was a second vote to which
01:00:10.280all the conservatives voted in favor of that says we could maintain the minimum level of seats in
01:00:15.360Quebec at 78 and then add, and then you'll get the same outcome. Well, I mean, that's a common
01:00:22.100sense solution that the government should have applied. And it avoids reducing the number of
01:00:28.620seats in Quebec, but also increasing the number of seats elsewhere where the rep BIPOC should be
01:00:34.120respected. I mean, isn't that the right solution? Isn't that the one? That's the one the conservative
01:00:38.620caucus voted for and i and from my perspective works well for everyone including western canada
01:00:45.180well it does lead to more politicians which could be a problem for people in general i guess but
01:00:49.340uh the only one thing would be more journalists but you know it's not a perfect world court
01:00:54.940no no i understand uh okay well going forward something else and same thing you know i understand
01:01:00.780the equalization that's a big issue out here it is constitutionally entrenched but it is the
01:01:05.260government who does maintain you know periodically adjusting the formula and uh there's been a lot of
01:01:11.180uh you know concern that the formula really hasn't been well adjusted by conservative or liberal
01:01:15.180governments over the years and it just seems no matter how hard times get alberta keeps paying in
01:01:19.500and when the times are good we pay in it's consistent that way if nothing else how could
01:01:23.260we adapt with that well and you're right i mean equalization is written into the constitution so
01:01:29.420it's not as though we can just discard it we have to apply it how we apply it's the issue
01:01:34.620and i went through different debates where on the calculation whether we should or should not include
01:01:40.460the revenues from non-renewable resources or renewable resources we have to look at the
01:01:46.220the way it's calculated that's where the real decision is made that's where the real impact is
01:01:51.020felt and and ensure that it's fair and it has to be revised periodically anyway i think it's on
01:01:57.500every five years so let's look at it so that it's it's fair for everyone including the people of
01:02:02.540alberta and and of western canada in general so i've i've been through the process of revising it
01:02:10.300and we've made it better in those days it's un it's imperfect but let's look at it with again
01:02:15.980a view of making it fair for everyone including alberta okay now we're getting into some times
01:02:22.300with uh foreign relations of course are between the ukraine russia conflict and as well with with
01:02:28.620China is really looming as a large power on the world scene. And in my view, Canada has been
01:02:33.500fairly weak internationally, unfortunately, though traditionally we've been a very respected player
01:02:37.980on the world scene. How can we reclaim our space, I guess, as a country to be respected in that sense
01:02:44.300and have a role on the world governance scene? Well, Corey, Canada is, under this liberal
01:02:51.020government, has a weakened position internationally. I mean, we are not the voice that we once were.
01:02:56.780and let's start with our immediate neighbor the united states with whom obviously the relations
01:03:01.180are not as good as they were i mean they are as a protectionist as they were under the biden
01:03:06.140administration as they were on the trump administration one of the messages coming
01:03:10.220out of that is that we have to rely on ourselves we have to diversify trade we have to do it
01:03:14.780aggressively we have to get out in the world more and depend less on the united states the other
01:03:19.260part of it is defense which the terrible conflict in the ukraine has brought home i mean it's
01:03:24.540It's heartbreaking for us to watch the reports every day on the news, but what lesson should
01:03:50.200you know, Corey, even in the Northwest Passage, the Americans do not recognize the Northwest Passage
01:03:55.440as being Canadian territory. That speaks volumes of the fact that we have to be much more assertive
01:04:03.280in our foreign policy across the world. It starts with defense, but it also starts by being present
01:04:08.800in Africa and the Middle East, where we're missing in action in a lot of places in the world,
01:04:13.660Where our interests are at play, Asia is part of that. Now, we do need an Indo-Pacific strategy that puts China in the context of Asia, but not only China. We need to look at the broader Asia area and region, which includes India, which includes ASEAN, which includes Southeast Asia.
01:04:34.940That's the only way for us as a country to be able to have a strong, relevant presence in those parts of the world.
01:04:43.660I appreciate that you brought up Arctic sovereignty. I spent a number of years working up there, actually, and ironically, some government scientists would come to our oil field camps to study because they didn't have the means to get as far north as we did, which is pretty unfortunate when you look at things.
01:04:57.840You know, the private industry can get up there, but not government funded things. And we're leaving a big space up there unattended. So it's kind of hard to claim sovereignty if we can't even get to it.
01:05:05.680And, you know, Stephen Harper made annual trips to the north, and people, you know, sort of pooh-poohed it. They thought, well, what's the point? It was very relevant. We look back on that. It establishes a presence that is extremely important in a tangible way. So at least the minimum is that we have to occupy our own territory.
01:05:27.120So going a little further, you were talking about international relations with the United States.
01:05:30.580I'll kind of close out, and it's been a sticking point regionally as well, though.
01:05:34.180And a sticking point when it comes to trade is supply management, our dairy system and poultry and such.
01:12:21.060These guys will go a little further with some of the stuff they can do.
01:12:25.240Assuming you want to get into digital currencies, you know,
01:12:27.280you've gone through their stuff they've got the uh online academy uh Athabasca ed they've
01:12:33.000they've partnered with so you could learn they call it uh bitcoin university or bitcoin academy
01:12:37.380they call it go through some of those and if you decide it's for you you know this is the stuff you
01:12:41.140want to get into of course they'll help you along and you always hold control they're non-custodial
01:12:45.460you always have control of your own money there's all sorts of ways you can utilize it they've got
01:12:50.100atms all over western canada if you go to their site you can see bitcoin atms all through the
01:12:54.920West. And I think there's some in Montreal as well and some other spots, a great map for that.
01:12:59.280Also, some of the things, if you want savings, they call it set it and forget it. Just be like
01:13:02.180a car payment or whatever. You're going to have some money, just come out of your account once
01:13:05.240a month and go into your Bitcoin wallet where it can stay good and secure wherever you're keeping
01:13:10.020it. And as well, they've got corporate packages and that's kind of neat. We're doing that here
01:13:13.840at the Western Standard and they do it for other companies where it's set up. It's voluntary for
01:13:17.740employees, of course, but you're going to have a portion of your salary every month will go into
01:13:22.380your Bitcoin wallet. And actually, Derek's been quite generous here. He'll match up to a maximum,
01:13:27.000of course, a portion of what we put in as well. So you get that nice little side savings and it's
01:13:31.600trouble-free and it's kind of almost automatic. And so, I mean, you can set that up at your own
01:13:35.580company for your employees if they want it, or as an employee, maybe ask your boss if you want to
01:13:39.480set that sort of thing up. Diversify your funds, take control of your money and Bitcoin Well,
01:13:44.880these guys will show you how to do it. Bitcoinwell.com. All right, let's look into a little
01:13:50.460bit uh yeah ashley ellis you know celebrities are the biggest abusers of gas and oil isn't0.90
01:13:53.740it great you know you have giant yachts flying all over the world first class no less i've walked
01:13:59.580past first class seats before they look very comfortable um but then they want to tell us
01:14:04.060i'll tighten their belts they want to tell us to just don't worry as biden said just drive electric
01:14:07.980you can't afford gas just buy a seventy thousand dollar electric car and do a ten thousand dollar
01:14:12.620upgrade to your house and take on another 500 a month in electric bills and drive an electric car
01:14:16.940It's easy, isn't it? Why not? These guys are totally disconnected from reality.
01:14:21.460But unfortunately, they do seem to have an influence. Look at the press they get.
01:14:24.040This is a bunch of ding-dongs, you know, these celebrities.0.87
01:14:27.580I mean, hey, I'm not going to try and tell them how to act. I don't know how to act.
01:14:32.260Man, but I do know politics. I know energy. I know the Bush. I know First Nations people.
01:14:37.080I can speak to those things. These Hollywood hammerheads can't, but they continue to.
01:14:42.180So, again, I'm looking forward to seeing what Melissa has to say about and to these guys on the show as we get going on that.
01:14:49.640So let's see some of the other news items.
01:14:51.140Reid Surs, he was the ambassador who was in Kabul and took off out of there like a bat out of hell1.00
01:14:55.900when the Taliban came packed back in there and left 1,250 Canadians behind.
01:15:00.860So there's a common special committee have summoned him for questioning and asking why he closed the embassy
01:15:06.600while thousands of Canadians and Canadian allies were pleading for help.
01:15:11.400Well, these politically appointed ambassadors often aren't necessarily people of the best
01:15:15.000character. They're just the people who have the best political connections. I tell you,
01:15:18.700it's a nice gig if you can get it. I did know somebody who was an ambassador at a location
01:15:23.980once years ago. We visited, I won't bother with which country and so on, but you live this life,
01:15:29.680you get a full paid for home, you get the servants, you get the works, and then your
01:15:34.080salary basically is just going straight into your bank account. It is among some of the top gigs to
01:15:38.760get if you're a well-connected government person. But when push comes to shove, when it really
01:15:42.760actually comes to doing your job, you're not just there to renew people's passports if they lost
01:15:46.980them or things like that, and you've got a conflict like that, and you've got a lot of Canadians and
01:15:50.980Canadian allies in trouble, that's when an ambassador should show their mettle and be strong0.93
01:15:54.840and stand for those citizens. And yeah, it means taking a risk sometimes, but no, we saw this
01:15:58.720appointee, and I don't know who appointed him, but I got a strong suspicion. I do. I just fled
01:16:02.860the scene and said, sorry guys, I'm out of here. And tail between the legs, abandon those people
01:16:07.040back there to a terrible fate. Dave talked about this. Customs officers at airports are going to
01:16:13.760be armed. It shows how long we got away with things in Canada with them not being armed this
01:16:17.540long. But part of the problem is gun coding smugglers and gangland criminals are now
01:16:23.140present, they say, in the department. And yes, I mean, the guns, that's what we keep getting back
01:16:28.160to with these registries and trying to criminalize legal firearm owners. It's not where the guns are
01:16:34.340coming from they're being smuggled up criminals are bringing those guns up and no laws targeting
01:16:40.240duck hunters firearm collectors target shooters trap shooters he's going to stop that it's not
01:16:45.400going to stop it yet and uh it's gotten to the point i guess where so many are coming across that
01:16:50.400uh yeah we're having to have more arms for our customs agents because this gets dangerous you
01:16:54.860know i mean i imagine a pretty dangerous person to uh get into conflict with is somebody who's
01:17:01.120smuggling a firearm, I can think of a viewer that I'd like to have a problem with. Ashley
01:17:07.120pointing out lithium mining is worse than gas and oil. Yes, you know, that's, people forget,
01:17:12.620you know, that there's this talk, we're going to go electric, go electric, go electric.
01:17:16.540Going electric comes with a cost. It's not just magical power from the sky, sunshine like that.
01:17:22.220It doesn't work that way. And these heavy metals, lithium, cobalt, things like that,
01:17:27.000there are mines in some very environmentally sensitive areas. There's terrible, almost slave
01:17:31.700labor being used to get it out of there. Don't virtue signal sipping your windmill powered heated
01:17:37.720latte and think that you're saving the world by switching to these things. You're just transferring
01:17:42.900it. And it's often to somewhere worse. But one of the things is the smearing of the oil and gas
01:17:48.140industry. Think of the idiot Trudeau, what he did, banning tankers on the West Coast. There was some
01:17:52.240virtue signaling. But something that doesn't help, and this is interesting, so a Department of
01:17:57.540Transport report talks about we were supposed to have this world-class federal oil tanker safety
01:18:03.680system, and it lacks clarity and focus. This program, this is just for a system, $395 million.
01:18:10.360They launched it nine years ago, and it's just a bunch of paperwork and crap. I think even nine
01:18:16.280years ago, the liberals knew, we're just going to, you know, or whoever, farther up, just we're
01:18:21.440going to ban these tankers anyway so we don't have to worry about having a plan to clean it up
01:18:24.220if any of them leak but it makes us look all the more unsafe i think their solution would be well
01:18:29.680we can't safely even though it's so rare when those tankers do leak by the way but they were
01:18:33.720going to say we can't safely do it so we'll just maintain the bans you know it just makes me think
01:18:39.860of some other things the ocean's not as sensitive as people like to put it out to be like look all
01:18:45.520the way back to world war ii i mean because the way they act they act as if an oil tanker leaks
01:18:49.000the world's going to end. There's no recovering. It's going to be irreversible. We don't want to
01:18:53.700see one leak. It's terrible. It does make a mess. It'll kill birds. It'll hurt fish. It'll do a lot
01:18:57.520of damage. Think of World War II, though. How many thousands of ships loaded with bunker oil,
01:19:06.120crude oil, refined products got sunk. They were sunk daily. Dozens and dozens and dozens of them
01:19:12.060daily for years. And they surely caused a lot of environmental damage when it happened. Absolutely.
01:19:19.000But the ocean recovered. It did recover. I mean, we want to mitigate environmental harm. You see, there's this zero harm cultists almost. I mean, it comes to them with the COVID as well, and it comes with the environment. You can't get zero. You just want it as low as possible. Or somebody putting out the BP leak in the Gulf. Yeah, that pumped an incredible amount in, and it did damage. It did damage to the shrimp industries. It was not harmless, not by any means, but it recovered. It does recover.
01:19:44.400So let's quit pretending that these tankers are some sort of horrific things that could bring the world to an end.
01:19:50.700They're something we want to safely get across the ocean without leaking, absolutely.
01:19:55.340But the hysteria when it comes to them is just beyond the pale.
01:20:00.640And it just gives more excuses, again, to these delusional, green-type advocates and people to try and shut in our industries and stop us from exporting to the world.0.97
01:20:10.040which ironically leads to them burning more coal, firewood, dung in some of the developing countries
01:20:16.600because we can't send them ethically sourced, clean energy sources that we've produced over here
01:20:21.400because we get this fear-mongering about transporting it even. Speaking of transport,
01:20:27.080let's see the Canadian Pacific Railway, which is now in strike. What a mess that is.
01:20:31.700As if we needed more supply and chain issues, as if we needed more farmers having a hard time
01:20:37.800because they need it very much for fertilizer, for crops, for seed, you name it. The agricultural
01:20:44.680industry is still one of the key areas where the rail is important, and this is not going to help
01:20:50.680them whatsoever. Let's just hope this thing gets settled as soon as possible. Meanwhile, they are
01:20:56.740facing, and that's been our top story for a bit now, the Canadian Pacific Railway is facing a
01:21:00.900lawsuit from 84 of its employees, and they're seeking a million dollars each in damages over
01:21:04.860of the country's COVID-19 policies. They were placed on unpaid administrative leave on December
01:21:10.5202021, and they're claiming damages for violations of their rights under the charter. A lot of this
01:21:17.100is going to go on. I mean, it's not just people pushing back against the government. Some of
01:21:19.800these, well, CPs, I almost call semi-private. They're so regulated and such a monopoly, but
01:21:23.920either way, they're going to start paying a price for it. I see CNRL has finally gotten rid of all
01:21:28.360of their, I believe, mandates on that sort of thing. As Nico's shown there, yeah, CP strike
01:21:33.160is hitting saskatchewan hard of course because saskatchewan really needs that rail as people
01:21:37.840are saying as pat pointed out they need the fertilizer and they need seed and they need a
01:21:41.780lot of things that are transported ammonia and they can't get it it's going to slow it down it's
01:21:46.620going to set it back and i mean they've already been dealing with drought and everything else so
01:21:49.62015 percent of cp's workforce is in saskatchewan and this strike is going to hit them very hard
01:21:55.600potash potash for the uh it's a huge product in saskatchewan where they mine it and export it and
01:22:01.780send it around and it's a component for fertilizer as well. Rail, it needs rail. So let's hope that
01:22:07.460strike gets settled. It's all over the pension plan, I guess. What else have we got coming up
01:22:13.720here? I got scrolling through. I think we're going to get ready for what's coming up tomorrow.
01:22:22.160So yeah, I've been talking with others, by the way, I'm trying to get those other candidates
01:22:25.580on. I think I might have Leslie Lewis coming pretty soon. And I do want to talk to each and
01:22:30.020every one of them. As for tomorrow, speaking of energy, though, I'm going to have the president
01:22:34.360of the Canadian Nuclear Association, John Gorman, on. We're going to talk about that really gets
01:22:38.840thrown and forgotten all the time. Nuclear is a power source. Saskatchewan has loads of uranium
01:22:44.560and we can very safely produce nuclear energy. And then some of those smaller,
01:22:49.900what do they call it, modular nuclear power plants, things like that, whether it's the oil sands,
01:22:54.360I think they're sending one to the Arctic. We've got the energy prices through the roof.
01:22:57.900all these clowns are always pushing us for windmills and solar panels that don't produce
01:23:02.020nearly enough power. Nuclear isn't necessarily the most efficient either. But if we're looking
01:23:06.740at alternatives, we shouldn't be dismissing it. It doesn't emit. It's very safe these days,
01:23:12.360despite what people like to fearmonger about it all the time. And it's going to be a good talk
01:23:16.780with him. So John Gorman of the Canadian Nuclear Association and Western Standard columnist Dave
01:23:21.900Makachuk. And it's funny, he's going to be talking about Arctic sovereignty. As Sheree came up on
01:23:29.100there too, and I didn't expect that, but it's true. I spent some years working up there.
01:23:32.720And I am really, this is where Canada has really dropped the ball on sovereignty.
01:23:36.960We've really screwed up. I mean, you look at the map of Canada and the amount of space we
01:23:41.440claim way up north there, and there's a lot of resources in that space, but we can't even get
01:23:46.820to it. We aren't there. The dew line's gone. We don't have bases up there. We don't have citizens
01:23:51.840up there because it is too horrible and miserable. And for a large part of it, I ranted about this
01:23:56.040earlier, we can't get to it. When the ice cap is out there, the only thing that'll get around is
01:23:59.540heavy, heavy duty icebreakers. We have some degree of that, but not heavy enough. Or Arctic subs. We
01:24:04.720don't have any of those. Meanwhile, China, Russia, the United States are all playing games under our
01:24:09.020ice with those nuclear subs. If any of them wanted to start taking Arctic resources off us, what the
01:24:14.600could we do about it and what could our claim be i mean if we went to a world court you know if i
01:24:18.680were a judge in some world court and i got these countries all saying we want that this chunk of
01:24:23.000the arctic it's ours it's ours it's ours say well canada says it's theirs but there's no roads to it
01:24:29.640no people living in it they don't have any they haven't developed it they even shut down their
01:24:32.840only pipeline that was proposed to go up to anuvik to uh to deal with it well why have they got a
01:24:38.360claim on it if they're not even doing anything with it you know the russians could say well
01:24:41.960well, we're going to develop it. The Americans could say they're going to develop it because
01:24:44.560they got the means to get there. Even China. China has better access to the higher reaches
01:24:49.020of Canada's Arctic than Canada does. That's pretty embarrassing. And it's a problem. It's a big
01:24:54.000problem. And we better address it. So Dave Makachuk wrote a column on that and we're going to talk
01:25:01.220about that tomorrow. So again, for these columns, for the rest, get onto the westernstandardonline.com
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01:26:20.980haven't already and share it with your friends. But okay, I've talked to your ears off enough for
01:26:25.500today. Thank you all for tuning in and let's keep watching the social media soap opera of the
01:26:31.840Jesperson show with again, that dark comedy sort of way and see what comes out of all of that.
01:26:36.960and I will see you all tomorrow morning at 11.30 a.m.