Western Standard - LIVE - Triggered： Representation by population set aside for Quebec

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 good morning it's march 7th 2022 welcome to triggered i'm cory morgan happy monday this

00:00:40.500 show is going to be coming live daily it's the western standards news and commentary show where

00:00:44.640 i vent and interview what i hope and intend to be interesting people we run every day from 11 30 a.m

00:00:50.740 mountain standard time uh till around one o'clock usually monday to friday comments always love the

00:00:57.460 comments. Bring them in. It's one of the great things about being live. You know, get that scroll

00:01:00.800 going and you get me going sometimes. I don't always agree with the commenters. I know a lot

00:01:04.720 of them certainly don't always agree with me. As long as we can keep it somewhat civil, it's a good

00:01:09.660 thing. It's interactive. I'll try to pass on comments to guests when I can. I don't always

00:01:14.600 get the chance. You know, the interviews get busy, but I do see them all and it's an important part

00:01:19.340 of the whole thing. I got a couple of really good guests on today. I got Dan McTeague. For some

00:01:24.160 people if they're familiar with him. He's been very active with the energy price issues. He's

00:01:32.080 a former Liberal Member of Parliament, but from back in the days when the Liberals actually had

00:01:35.920 some principle in Parliament, it did happen in the past. There were some good ones. That's why he's

00:01:39.740 not there anymore. And I've got Michelle Ripple-Garner coming on. She wrote a column for 1.00

00:01:44.700 the Western Standard recently on proportional representation, looking at different models on

00:01:49.580 how maybe the West or Canada could get some better representation or people with different points of

00:01:53.880 views, rather than the current one, which just seems to be constantly failing and favoring,

00:02:00.500 of course, Central Canada, Quebec, or some progressive issues. It'll be an interesting

00:02:04.980 talk. Anyways, I'm not a huge proportional representation person, but I mean, we do have

00:02:09.260 to start examining and looking at different things. Good to see you, Claudette and Marilyn.

00:02:13.080 So I'm going to talk, though, about what does have me ticked off and triggered with our system,

00:02:17.820 that's for sure. I mean, as if Canada didn't need more challenges to national unity,

00:02:22.960 Parliament's decided to divide the nation further and yet again has imposed a double standard

00:02:27.920 upon the nation when it comes to Quebec.

00:02:30.700 Last Wednesday, while most of the nation was distracted with the horrific scenes coming out of Ukraine,

00:02:35.460 Canada's members of Parliament voted to set aside the principle of representation by population

00:02:40.200 in order to indulge a bloc Quebecois motion.

00:02:43.640 So to give some background on this, every 10 years in Canada,

00:02:46.640 we review the parliamentary seat distribution across the country

00:02:49.440 and we adjust it to reflect changes in the population.

00:02:53.020 It is, or at least it should be, a relatively simple exercise.

00:02:56.700 You set a bar for how many citizens per MP we should have,

00:03:00.000 and then you assign them to a province appropriately.

00:03:02.940 Some exceptions have been made.

00:03:04.580 The territories in Prince Edward Island, for example,

00:03:06.340 just don't have enough population to meet the standard of the formula,

00:03:08.640 so they actually have fewer citizens per MP than other regions.

00:03:14.080 In the bigger provinces, though,

00:03:15.600 determining the number of MPs is pretty straightforward.

00:03:17.380 forward. I mean, once that's done, then the fights can begin over where the boundaries of the riding

00:03:21.140 will be, and that usually leads to some pretty ugly political play, but that's to be expected.

00:03:26.840 Gerrymandering starts. This year, though, it was found that due to population growth and migration,

00:03:32.640 Alberta was going to gain three seats, Ontario was going to gain a seat, BC was going to gain a seat.

00:03:38.060 Only makes sense. They all had steady growth and population in the last decade. Quebec, however,

00:03:43.100 has had slower population growth than the rest of the country. And that meant they're going to be 0.88

00:03:48.040 slated to lose a seat. Oh, well, this couldn't happen. Unsurprisingly, the Bloc Quebec was

00:03:53.600 furious with this. The Bloc said that this proposal fails to acknowledge Quebec's official

00:03:59.200 status as a nation. I'm sorry, Quebec, you aren't a nation yet, though I, as well as you, dearly wish

00:04:05.360 you were. I really do. I don't care what you want to call yourselves, but as long as you're a chronic

00:04:11.320 drain upon the rest of the country's taxpayers. You're not a nation. You're a dependency. But

00:04:17.120 you're a dependency that wags this dog. The Bloc launched a motion in the House of Commons demanding 0.88

00:04:21.460 that Quebec should never lose a seat, no matter how low their population may get relative to the

00:04:25.880 rest of Canada. Trudeau's Liberals, well, they quickly lined up in support of the Bloc. Their

00:04:31.560 lips are never far from the collective asses of Quebec voters. Most of Jagmeet Singh's NDP members 0.99

00:04:36.600 got on board with the Bloc as well, because Jagmeet's lips are never terribly far from Trudeau's

00:04:40.980 nether regions. All of that's predictable in a country that's allowed Quebec's, the Quebec tail

00:04:45.740 to wag the national dog for generations. What was infuriating, though, was seeing nearly 50

00:04:50.520 Conservative Party of Canada members also voting in favor of the Bloc-Quebec motion.

00:04:55.620 It was refreshing to see a free vote in an issue, but still I would have hoped for better.

00:04:59.860 The vote, essentially, I'm going to paraphrase it, this isn't the way they phrased it in the

00:05:03.120 House of Commons, but they should have, was asking, shall we respect the simple and fair

00:05:06.460 principle of representation based on population, or shall we throw it out the window because

00:05:10.720 Quebec's having a temper tantrum. The vast majority of the House voted to indulge Quebec's

00:05:15.940 tantrum. The entire country, particularly the West, was just reminded that they're second-class

00:05:20.180 citizens when it comes to parliamentary powers in Quebec. Quebec already has a guaranteed number

00:05:24.760 of senators and seats on the Supreme Court in the nation. Now they're going to have a guaranteed

00:05:28.700 number of members of parliament, no matter how low their population might get. Now this should

00:05:32.920 be making waves across the country, but we're really actually not hearing that much about it.

00:05:36.820 The mainstream media, of course, is beholden to Trudeau's liberals. I mean, they need their

00:05:40.240 funding, right? And the Conservative Party

00:05:42.300 of Canada is dominated by regional

00:05:44.020 cowardice. Interim leader Candace

00:05:46.300 Bergen voted in favour of the

00:05:48.240 bloc motion, by the way. She's

00:05:50.160 from Manitoba. If Quebec's 1.00

00:05:52.420 population growth is lagging, 0.99

00:05:54.420 it's their own damn fault. 0.99

00:05:56.360 The Canada-Quebec Accord in 1991 0.99

00:05:58.140 made Quebec is the only province in the country

00:06:00.240 with full control of their own immigration numbers.

00:06:02.940 Clearly they did a piss-poor job 1.00

00:06:04.500 of making their province a destination for immigrants. 1.00

00:06:06.780 Maybe their racist legislation, such

00:06:08.300 as Bill 21, has something to do with that. 0.97

00:06:10.240 The other way Quebec could grow their population is through childbirth.

00:06:14.400 Alas, they aren't keeping up in that regard either. 0.99

00:06:16.980 Perhaps that French disinclination towards consistent personal hygiene has something to do with that. 1.00

00:06:21.400 But they need to breed better if they want more Quebecers in order to warrant more seats. 1.00

00:06:26.220 Quebec's the spoiled brat of Confederation, and nobody's willing to take them on.

00:06:30.540 If even the Conservative Party of Canada is unwilling to take a strong stance against what was such a clearly undemocratic move, who will?

00:06:38.200 I know it's just one seat, but points of principle are rather important, particularly in affairs of

00:06:43.820 governance. If we can't even maintain a basic policy of seat distribution based on population,

00:06:48.840 Canada is truly broken and probably beyond repair. That's what's got me triggered today.

00:06:55.800 So let's bring in our senior news reporter, Melanie Risden, we have today to talk about

00:07:01.580 the other stories that are top in the news today. Hey, Mel, how's it going?

00:07:04.040 Good, thanks, Corey. Listen, on the topic that you were just speaking of, we just put out a story

00:07:12.120 with reaction to exactly that topic from Maverick Party Interim Leader Jay Hill, as well as former

00:07:20.440 Conservative Saskatchewan Premier Brad Wall, both calling out Conservatives for voting in this

00:07:26.440 direction, you know, kind of asking, would we see the same in reverse? So you can check that out on

00:07:32.200 the website. We've got a columnist who also calls it unfair and designed to continually

00:07:40.520 over represent Quebec and its part in Canada's constitution. So you can check out that column

00:07:49.160 from Alex McColl. Thousands of pages of content have been scrubbed from the National Archive by

00:07:57.320 canada's top archivist in an effort to remove what is being determined as offensive content now

00:08:04.840 uh they're admitting in the story they don't really have a parameter but you know anything

00:08:09.720 to do with uh residential schools or john a mcdonald flagging things that are lacking

00:08:15.480 indigenous perspective uh so sounds like over 7 000 pages were scrubbed from the national archive

00:08:24.520 So that's really, you know, sort of scratching away at our history. That can be read on the

00:08:32.120 website. We've also got a story about rising central bank interest rates that are pushing

00:08:37.240 Canadians to the brink financially. You know, a lot of people are struggling under just the

00:08:45.080 increased inflation alone. And so now people holding mortgages are also going to be struggling

00:08:50.920 with that rise in central bank interest rates. We've got that story on the website. Looks like

00:08:57.580 Rachel Notley, who is triple vaxxed, has now come down with COVID. So we've got that up on the

00:09:04.500 website. You can check that out. Oil prices continuing to soar across Canada and the world,

00:09:10.820 of course. In fact, a story we've got up on the website right now, it looks like the West Texas

00:09:19.500 International went above, or sorry, no, this one was one of the, yeah, no, it was, sorry,

00:09:26.680 West Texas International went above $130 a barrel on Sunday. That's a large jump from about a month

00:09:36.060 ago when oil was sitting at about $90 a barrel. So you can check out that story on the website as

00:09:43.180 and coming up we've got more examples of Trudeau hypocrisy. It looks like Trudeau met with the Queen

00:09:51.820 for her first in-person appearance since she recovered from COVID and nobody was wearing masks

00:10:00.780 even though it looks like more than half of Canada is still being mandated to to wear masks.

00:10:06.940 And at 12.30 today, thankfully, Kenny is going to be outlining relief at the pumps for Albertans.

00:10:14.800 So we're going to have that live on the website at 12.30.

00:10:18.840 Yeah, it will be interesting to see what Premier Kenny is going to do.

00:10:22.140 You know, we've got a lot of politics at play going on.

00:10:24.500 I mean, high oil prices, that West Texas intermediate record.

00:10:28.560 I mean, it's great for the royalties, brings in a lot for the government.

00:10:31.120 But it's still your average person on the ground, unless they're working directly for an energy company.

00:10:35.480 that's a big cost of living jump for them and it's pressuring them. Plus, Jason Kenney, of course,

00:10:41.520 has a lot of pressure on his own leadership right now too. So I'm certain he wants to throw a bone

00:10:46.100 to Albertans and keep them happy right now. So I suspect it's going to be a pretty positive

00:10:50.960 leaning conference, whatever it may be. Yeah, we're thinking so too and hoping so. They sort

00:10:57.120 of signaled that this was coming this week. So we'll have to find out at 1230 and hoping it's

00:11:02.320 going to bring some relief for sure. Great. And they'll be streaming on the Western Standard

00:11:06.040 online, you said, right? Yes, that's right. Excellent. Well, thanks, Melanie. I'll let

00:11:10.640 you get back to the news stories there and we'll talk to you later. Sounds good. Thanks, Corey.

00:11:15.180 Great. So yeah, there's the reminder. And as you can see from Mel, Monday morning,

00:11:18.760 and there was stuff going up all weekend as well. The newsroom is busy as all get out. We're putting

00:11:23.980 stuff up as fast as we can and we do stuff live, you know, so I mean, you can pick up the Kenny

00:11:29.060 conference and other spots but we we stream those as well directly from the site so if you just go

00:11:33.860 to westernstandardonline.com you can be there to see kenny announcing whatever the heck he's going

00:11:38.900 to announce there uh in a while but you better wait until the show's over first uh as well so

00:11:43.780 it's that reminder for western standard uh members you know take out a subscription this is how we can

00:11:47.940 keep doing it this is how we stay independent as a media source this is why i'm not afraid to take

00:11:53.140 shots at the liberals in ottawa because they're not going to defund us because we don't take their

00:11:56.740 money but we do rely on you guys to take out subscriptions and uh you know if you use the

00:12:01.380 coupon code triggered as you can see nico put in the bottom there if you're signing up you'll get

00:12:05.380 a discount on your membership and subscription as well it's a free trial for two weeks so you really

00:12:11.060 got nothing to lose here you guys get on there sign up for two weeks and you know what after two

00:12:15.300 weeks 95 of people say yes this is well worth 10 bucks a month it's like an old newspaper subscription

00:12:20.820 only we're modern we're fast you know you don't have to wait once a day we break stuff as soon as

00:12:24.420 as it comes up. Check them out, and thank you all who have already subscribed. I'm looking at some

00:12:29.720 of the comments, and yeah, somebody was asking how Pierre Polyev voted on that bill in Quebec.

00:12:35.100 I believe he was one of the few who abstained, actually. He kept his head low and didn't vote

00:12:40.140 at all, which is, in my view, and I really like Pierre, but come on, man, take a stand. I know

00:12:45.820 you don't want to tick off those Quebecers, but too bad. It's time somebody did. How much longer 1.00

00:12:51.760 We've got to put up with this. I mean, this is representation by population. You know,

00:12:57.920 you have a million people here, a million people there. They should each have the exact same number

00:13:03.020 of representatives. That's the way it works. The Senate supposedly is supposed to balance that,

00:13:07.720 but it doesn't. We know that in Canada, that's a mess too. Quebec has guaranteed number of Senate

00:13:11.540 seats. I think they have 24. Alberta has six. How much more do they need? And this capitulation,

00:13:19.300 it doesn't gain us anything, doesn't garner us anything. Quebec's as miserable and demanding as 0.99

00:13:25.560 they've ever been, and we don't have anything on the federal front. And again, maybe Michelle

00:13:29.220 Rempel-Garner, she's talking about proportional representation. Changing the entire system like

00:13:33.980 that might be the way to go. But again, getting large-scale electoral reform, that's a difficult

00:13:38.720 thing to pass as well. I mean, that would take constitutional reform.

00:13:44.080 Canada desperately needs constitutional reform. But do we have the means to do it? That means we

00:13:49.120 need seven provinces with over 50% of the population represented to make any constitutional

00:13:54.220 change. And rarely does that ever actually come about. We tried with Charlottetown and Meach Lake

00:14:01.120 and it failed. Was that Cheryl saying, does O'Toole even go into parliament or does he vote from

00:14:05.420 home? I don't know. But I did look at that list of the, I found 48, I believe, conservatives who

00:14:10.400 voted for the Quebec motion to keep their seats even if their population declines. And O'Toole

00:14:16.100 was one of the ones who voted in favor of the block motion. So keep that in mind. No loss,

00:14:20.740 no harm with him no longer leading that party. But again, if Polyev isn't going to show the

00:14:25.400 gumption to get up there and vote against, well, who is? And to her credit, Michelle Rempel-Garner,

00:14:31.500 she wrote that column. You can find that in the Western Standard online. She'll be on later.

00:14:34.840 She did. And she says it right in the column. She voted against that. She voted in favor of

00:14:38.160 proper representation by population. And she understands how important it is. But do we have

00:14:46.080 enough members to do that it doesn't look very good you know and a lot of bc members voted in

00:14:50.000 favor of that one like guys where are your loyalties you're supposed to be regionally

00:14:54.240 representing people you're supposed to be standing up for albertans that's why we have hundreds and

00:14:58.080 hundreds of members of parliament not just four or five party leaders you know you should be

00:15:04.080 standing up for what your constituents think not what your leader tells you or not what some wiener

00:15:08.800 of a staffer is saying the best stance for you for uh you know future leadership aspirations

00:15:14.000 or things like that. Show some principle. Stand up to this crap for a change. You know, I know that

00:15:19.220 even if every single conservative voted against, it still would have passed. You know, that's what's

00:15:24.640 happening in this minority situation. But at least they would have had some principles to stand on. 0.83

00:15:30.900 We can still respect them afterwards. They could hold their heads up high. I think they should be

00:15:34.940 ashamed of themselves right now. Brad, asking my thoughts on the West becoming sovereign? Oh, Brad,

00:15:39.040 I've talked about that quite a bit. And as I say, and often in my columns and my rants, you know,

00:15:45.060 I think Canada's broken. I think the system's broken. I don't think we can tinker and fix

00:15:49.360 these things. I think it needs to be torn down and at best rebuilt. So the best catalyst for that,

00:15:56.840 as I said, Quebec should be a nation, let them go. I think a province has to either

00:16:00.220 be right on the brink of going again, or one has to go right out because we do need to fix

00:16:05.880 the constitution. As I said earlier, the formula to change it is very difficult. You got to have

00:16:11.640 over half of the population of the country and seven provinces signing on. And of course,

00:16:15.880 when you try to do large changes, getting that much consensus, nearly impossible. But if you

00:16:21.020 get a true crisis going on, you get a true piece of the nation has said, we're done, we're out.

00:16:28.740 Then you get, it does, I look at it as a beginning, not an end. You know, it's an opportunity. Once

00:16:34.500 the contract's been torn up, we've got room to draw up a new one. One of the questions I like

00:16:40.520 asking people a lot, you know, when it comes to independence and things like that, and others

00:16:44.660 have probably seen that discussion point, if Alberta or any of your provinces, Saskatchewan,

00:16:50.120 BC, you know, let's say Confederation hadn't been formed yet. It's just an Eastern Canadian thing,

00:16:54.100 and they want us to join them. They want to form a big country. Would you sign on to join under the

00:16:59.740 terms of the conditions we have right now? Would you say, yeah, I like that. I want to be raped by

00:17:05.000 equalization, underrepresented in parliament, underrepresented in the Senate, underrepresented 0.98

00:17:08.640 in the Supreme Court of Canada. Sure. That sounds like a hell of a deal. Oh, and you're going to

00:17:12.600 subsidize central Canadian companies over top of ours to compete against our own. You're going to

00:17:16.800 block our pipelines and stop us from making a living. Oh hell, where do I sign up? Think of it

00:17:22.080 that way. Don't think about what it takes to get out. Think about would you really actually go into

00:17:26.120 it. So can any of those things be fixed from within? And I'm losing complete

00:17:30.080 faith in that. We can't even get a Conservative Party to vote just to

00:17:34.120 stand up on principle against the Bloc of Agua on a motion

00:17:37.980 that, again, was just grossly wrong. Grossly wrong.

00:17:42.320 It was going against everything we were based on with Rep by Pop.

00:17:46.260 So when you're asking about sovereign

00:17:50.180 and separation, Brad, well, you know, that's open to interpretation

00:17:54.320 on what people talk about. One thing I like to avoid is the term, you know, separation, separatist.

00:17:59.320 There's just a lot of negative connotations to that word in itself. I mean, there have been some

00:18:03.520 very violent separatist movements around the world, some very, some ones that aren't, you know,

00:18:08.720 trying to separate into something better. Sovereign, that one's a really ambiguous one,

00:18:14.420 are you a sovereign state within a larger nation? Are you truly independent? That's up for

00:18:19.600 discussion um you know quebec tried for their sovereignty association that was a loaded term

00:18:24.760 they used in the past but that just basically was saying we're going to grab as much as we

00:18:28.100 possibly can but not quite be out because we need the welfare um i i do believe i mean the clarity

00:18:35.340 act kind of covered that that's part of why it came about that was in the 90s for the younger

00:18:39.160 viewers uh just after the quebec referendum when it came within one percent of quebec leaving and

00:18:43.980 that's what they were voting for they were voting to go there was no ambiguity on the part of the

00:18:47.000 voters. Chrétien scrambled and put together what they call the Clarity Act because they tried to,

00:18:52.580 they didn't want to believe that that many Quebecers really actually wanted to go. They

00:18:55.580 couldn't convince them. They said it must have been because it was such a deceptive question.

00:18:59.220 That's the only reason they would possibly consider leaving. So they formed the Clarity Act

00:19:03.600 and that act calls for, well, it sounds like its name, right? A clear question. It has to be yes

00:19:08.960 or no, stay within confederation or leave. And then the rest of the country is obligated to

00:19:16.760 negotiate the secession of a province once that vote goes through. So I think that helps with some

00:19:23.560 of the sovereignty association ideas and things like that, because you've got to make it clear,

00:19:29.140 are you in or out, not halfway in, halfway out, not one shoe on one side of the border and on the

00:19:33.640 other. So we aren't in the point where anywhere close to a majority of anybody in any Western

00:19:38.380 province wants to go yet. But I think we're moving fast towards that place. When we keep banging our

00:19:42.760 head against the wall, trying to make change from within, it's failing. So the Clarity Act provides

00:19:48.080 another means to potentially do that. So yeah, with Cheryl talking about, do we think, sorry, 0.74

00:19:57.840 I'm just getting messages from the guests there. What's Kenny going to say this afternoon when he

00:20:02.880 announces? Yeah, I don't know. I mean, he really needs to buy himself some breathing space right

00:20:06.380 now. He's in a tough position. The question, I think he's either going to cut the provincial

00:20:11.740 fuel tax so you get a break at the pumps, or I think he might do the Ralph Klein method and

00:20:18.460 actually just issue a check directly to Albert and say, you know, hey, we've got this windfall,

00:20:24.020 we've got these royalties, and I've just got to send a link somewhere just for a guest.

00:20:33.360 Nico, could you send a link to, if you've got a pen, President?

00:20:35.960 Oh, you got it?

00:20:37.300 Okay.

00:20:38.280 I just want to be sure for the next guest.

00:20:39.900 He needs it emailed at President at, sorry, I know your listeners are dealing with this,

00:20:45.660 but just things at affordableenergy.ca.

00:20:48.740 And that'll get him in here right away.

00:20:51.240 And let's get back to chattering as I keep distracting.

00:20:53.900 Live shows, they're always a handful, but it's worth it.

00:20:57.740 You know, we get that interaction.

00:20:58.700 We can talk about these things as they break.

00:21:00.720 So, I mean, it's going to be very interesting, though, to see what Kenny's going to do.

00:21:05.120 I think he's going to go for the check.

00:21:07.060 It feels good.

00:21:07.780 He needs to buy that support on April 9th.

00:21:09.640 You know, that's a month away with that review.

00:21:12.380 And it's not just buying the love of the delegates.

00:21:15.800 He's got to show that he's doing better in the polls.

00:21:18.480 He's got to show that there's a chance that the UCP can get reelected under him.

00:21:23.100 And I was upset when Ralph did the Ralph Bucks thing.

00:21:26.460 I like permanent changes.

00:21:28.020 I like to see lasting policies that are going to make it through, you know, so a tax break will do that.

00:21:38.340 A check in my pocket is a one-off, and the government remains bloated, it remains spending, it remains troublesome.

00:21:45.480 Though, you see, people see the savings a lot faster when they get a check in their hands or a transfer or something like that.

00:21:51.020 that uh that's uh rochelle saying is the visa the pumps uh won't that attract uh over the border

00:21:57.140 crossing for gas yeah possibly but you know that pays off for albertans as well if people are

00:22:01.840 coming from saskatchewan to fill up or uh we'd have to drop in a whole lot to get cheaper than

00:22:06.000 montana for example so i don't think we'd get a lot of that anyway a bit of bc there always has

00:22:10.600 been i don't know if people traveled a lot up from grand prairie to dawson creek for example

00:22:15.440 but there's a gas station a fast gas at least there was it's been about eight or nine years

00:22:20.660 since I've been up there. And it was literally right on just into the Alberta side of the border

00:22:24.500 up there in BC. Because that way BC people could fill up their tanks before they pop into British

00:22:30.360 Columbia and, you know, save a few bucks on the fuel because it's always been cheaper in Alberta.

00:22:37.400 So, I mean, if we reduce it at the pumps, it could lead to a bit of that, but it helps Alberta

00:22:40.600 producers again. The other thing is, though, if you reduce it at the pumps, that doesn't do at

00:22:46.020 least as directly or as quickly. It doesn't help people who don't drive personal automobiles.

00:22:49.740 it uh doesn't uh you know they don't feel there are some retailers i mean some people rightly

00:22:56.980 point out well they might not necessarily you know if the 10 cents a liter comes off the alberta

00:23:00.840 provincial gas tax uh does that mean that it will also come 10 cents off at the pump and if it's

00:23:07.420 not a principal gas station owner that might not happen so uh i think he's going to throw the check

00:23:14.760 at us that's that's what i think or maybe even a monthly thing for a little while you know so that

00:23:18.520 it feels good for a bit. I mean, he's going to, we're looking a year away from the next

00:23:22.100 general election and he really needs to turn things around. I'm just going to quickly check

00:23:27.520 in here. Maybe we'll call up our sponsor and I'm going to see about our guest there. So

00:23:31.500 have a listen to our sponsor here from Algodex and we should be back soon with Dan McTeague.

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00:23:45.680 digital currency world, Algodex is a great way for you to use the digital currency Algorand

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00:24:08.800 the beck and call of governments and inflation. Algodex is making digital currencies usable in

00:24:14.780 a day-to-day basis. Okay, we're back. And I do see Dan sitting in the lobby there, which is great.

00:24:23.880 I will pull him into the show here right away and we will get chatting. So, hey, Dan, good to see

00:24:30.840 you again. Corey, it's always a pleasure. Just what a day. Oh boy. Yeah. Well, for a person with

00:24:36.200 your specialty, some of the commenters have already been looking forward to seeing you. I

00:24:39.680 mean, you've been outspoken on energy issues and consumer issues for a long time. And as I

00:24:44.700 kind of said now's the period where it's a mixed blessing where you can say I told you so I mean 1.00

00:24:49.600 you've been shouting this from the rooftops for a long time and now it's really come home to roost

00:24:53.160 hasn't it well you know I live here in eastern Canada in Oakville it's nice to be able to finally

00:24:57.220 look at my neighbors and say uh uh you believe me now what did it take a dollar 85 a liter heading

00:25:04.300 to two dollars a liter before uh uh you know you finally woke up uh my uh my kids say it's a little

00:25:10.180 bit like shaking someone's head and hearing the rattle here um there's a little less of that now

00:25:14.220 thankfully. So, I mean, you know, something you didn't see, I'm sure, not many of us. I mean,

00:25:20.080 we saw the lack of local energy security, and we've been kind of throttling our local production

00:25:25.140 abilities and transportation abilities for oil and gas. But we didn't anticipate the Ukraine-Russia 0.92

00:25:31.500 war to really take it and exacerbate it so quickly like this. We're in kind of a lot of trouble

00:25:36.760 across the country. This, you know, on top of the inflation from a lot of other factors,

00:25:40.140 we're in for a rough ride I imagine. Well look denying your own resources and your ability to

00:25:46.120 help stabilize the world after what 30 40 years of being subject to the vagaries of

00:25:51.080 inflation and OPEC should have waken people up to the reality that the hard-fought move in the

00:25:57.780 mid-20s 2003 to 2010 both to increase Canada's oil capacity and the U.S. fracking wasn't done

00:26:07.860 out of you know uh you know out of the goodness of our hearts or because we got we were bored it

00:26:12.020 was done because the alternative uh was that we were on our knees and uh you know at the beck and

00:26:17.900 call of those who had uh oil and those who had hydrocarbons the fact that we got there only to

00:26:24.440 find a generation of people uh now saying times are good you know money's easy uh we got all our

00:26:31.780 fat pensions we got all of our roads paid for and all our hospitals paid for not really but

00:26:36.520 But, you know, I think we've taken for granted the very thing that gave Canada a substantial boost in its prosperity over the past 20 to 25 years.

00:26:47.680 And we've looked a gift horse in the mouth by saying, hey, who gives a damn that we can raise 25 net billion dollars from the oil and gas sector that pays for our hospitals, that pays for education, that pays for our roads?

00:26:58.840 And it doesn't matter where you are in this country.

00:27:01.460 I think what's happened now, Corey, is that this is a little bit like dumping a coal pail of water

00:27:06.980 on everyone's head and making them stand up and realize, hey, you can't take these things for

00:27:11.900 granted. You got Russia laughing. You got the United States embarrassingly going on bend knee 0.56

00:27:17.080 to Iran and to Venezuela, two countries with great environmental track records, great human rights

00:27:23.240 records. Now we're saying, oh, can we get a bit of oil, please? Because we were too busy shutting

00:27:27.660 down the keystone xl pipeline i spent a lot of time working with media in the united states in

00:27:32.620 my previous job at gas buddy and it's uh it's amazing they could not see what was happening

00:27:37.420 in canada the deconstruction the attack the activism the foreign funded groups that were

00:27:43.260 destroying our oil and gas sector while canada sat back and live high on the hog the americans

00:27:48.700 didn't believe this is going to happen well now reality is beginning to bite and uh they're having

00:27:54.620 none of it unlike many canadians who is realized far after it's too late america's actually

00:28:00.380 preemptively saying to mr biden you and your congress uh you and your democratic friends over

00:28:05.500 in the house of representatives get ready because we're going to put you on the 30 yard line and

00:28:08.940 we're going to punt you right through the end zone yeah they've got some midterms coming up that

00:28:13.100 they're not looking very good for right now and nothing uh sours political support faster than

00:28:17.420 hitting everybody in the pocketbook just before the election but they don't seem to be showing

00:28:21.500 like what i'm wondering are we going to learn and i mean we in general not to mention that the

00:28:25.420 government's learning from this like biden as you said is going and groveling to saudi arabia

00:28:30.220 but he's never uttered a peep on even considering increasing canadian supply we're right on his

00:28:34.460 doorstep and he just absolutely will not consider that as an alternative no no because they're

00:28:39.740 beholden to the uh to the green grifters who have been uh having a good run of his party i mean

00:28:45.180 there's actually some people i speak to many of my friends in america in america say they didn't

00:28:49.340 like trump but uh that it was sure a heck a lot better back then than it is now look uh you limit

00:28:55.340 your options when you forget the recent history of your country and americans have to be able to

00:29:00.940 understand that uh their place in the world and you know global security goes hand in hand with

00:29:05.900 energy security the extent to which you compromise that you play games with that you'll learn the

00:29:11.420 lesson the europeans are learning even boris johnson today knows that his net zero fantasies

00:29:16.140 have been blown to smithereens. Like it or not, they've got to frack. Like it or not, they've got

00:29:21.740 to build nuclear. Like it or not, they've got to accept that oil is still very much a part of the

00:29:26.380 foreseeable future for the next 50 to 60 years. So all these ideas of, you know, this political

00:29:31.620 demagoguery of, you know, we have to have net zero by a certain period of time. We have to get

00:29:35.520 rid of, you know, internal combustion engines. That is now very seriously being challenged and

00:29:40.860 not by folks like me or you. When Elon Musk says you got to make more oil, it kind of makes it a

00:29:45.560 little interesting for the greenies to go out and say that you know it's all about climate we have

00:29:49.560 to get rid of these things no one in the right mind wants to go down that road and so I think

00:29:53.300 we have to have policies in this country based on reality not stuff of you know magic and make

00:29:58.900 believe and a narrative that I think has been you know has led us to this point where demagogues

00:30:04.180 and very you know unsavory dictators like like Vladimir Putin and like you know Maduro and

00:30:11.040 others hold the balance of power by holding the energy which we currently have well so i mean

00:30:18.240 are we seeing any rumblings of reality coming from the east now i know energy east for example it

00:30:22.240 wouldn't help us right now unless it was already in the ground of producing are we finally starting

00:30:26.560 to set our sights farther down the road like uh we understand that you know it would take years

00:30:32.320 to get some sort of good energy corridor going you know connecting the country east to west

00:30:36.880 but can't we get started on this thing realistically not regulating it to death not

00:30:41.280 trying to throttle it and we're not seeing any of that discussion starting either well you know the

00:30:45.440 damage is there isn't it but then the main line which is energy east is already built to ontario

00:30:51.040 people it was two-thirds built you sat around you farted around you did your your nonsense uh

00:30:57.040 you need the same thing for you know uh for uh trans mountain pipeline you wound up costing the

00:31:01.440 taxpayer tens of billions of dollars that could otherwise go to i don't know programs that would

00:31:06.560 help Canadians especially in difficult circumstances instead our virtue signaling our desire to ignore

00:31:13.840 reality our desire to wish away that which is obvious a little bit like the governments are

00:31:20.000 taking the view that you know the sun rises in the west and settles in the east I mean if we

00:31:23.600 want to be a bunch of flat earthers about this that's fine but perhaps you want to choose another

00:31:28.160 job rather than leading a country because what you've done here is led the country down a very

00:31:31.520 dangerous path it can't pay back its bills it's not attracting capital it's incapable of maintaining

00:31:39.120 its economic growth at a time in which prices have risen 60 cents a liter just in the past

00:31:45.120 you know two months alone i don't see how we're going to get out of this unless someone finally 1.00

00:31:49.520 has the gumption to stand up and say um it's pipelines stupid it really is and that's what 1.00

00:31:56.640 what it's coming down to. Yeah. I mean, there's no single item really of any kind of good we can 1.00

00:32:01.820 point to that raises every single aspect of our standard or cost of living aside from energy. I

00:32:07.220 mean, that one's a, you know, when it goes up, everything goes up. We can't avoid that. I mean,

00:32:11.100 we're just, like I said, seeing the first tastes of the inflation. Once trucking companies,

00:32:16.220 farmers, of course, producers, we're going to be in a great deal of trouble once those prices come

00:32:21.460 all the way down to the consumer level. Trans Mountain, there's another one, as you said,

00:32:25.780 I mean, they bought it because they'd cornered the company and pushed it too far, but that

00:32:30.000 thing's been stalled.

00:32:31.120 I mean, they keep saying it's under construction, but it should have been done a while ago.

00:32:34.700 And from what I can hear, it's funny.

00:32:36.240 They got a cone of silence on it too.

00:32:37.460 I can't get any workers to talk to us.

00:32:39.240 They'll be fired for even considering talking to us.

00:32:41.860 That thing isn't moving.

00:32:42.820 It's not going anywhere.

00:32:44.940 Again, shouldn't we see some movement to expedite it?

00:32:46.960 I mean, that won't help with domestic supply, but it'll bring in some income because we've

00:32:50.340 maxed out our export capabilities and we could pay for, as you said, hospitals and all the

00:32:54.120 other things people want.

00:32:55.720 let me make it really easy for people that are listening in here corey um if you open one uh

00:33:01.080 pipeline say the trans mountain expansion was open tonight that 28 cent uh discount the canadian

00:33:07.960 dollar is getting versus the u.s greenback uh is contributing to the inflation of everything we

00:33:13.640 have open up a pipeline and you'd go back to the good old days of 2010 2008 2014 where the

00:33:20.200 the Canadian dollar was trading on par, sometimes stronger than the U.S. greenback. Let me put it in

00:33:26.320 very simple perspectives. You'd be saving 28 cents a liter on the price of gasoline. You'd be paying

00:33:31.060 28 cents on what you're paying today. No amount of taxation removal or anything can do what that

00:33:36.900 once did. We have sacrificed our status as a petroleum producing country capable of sending

00:33:42.960 our products that are desperately needed to a world that is lined up to say the most ethical

00:33:48.360 nation that produces energy is in fact canada and you don't just do it you have the best practices

00:33:53.240 for it and despite the negativity and the you know the disinformation that alone would save

00:33:59.880 every person driving a car today 27 cents a liter now think about it you multiply that by your dodge

00:34:08.200 caravan which takes 70 liters now that's a 15 savings right from the get-go every single week

00:34:17.080 what would that mean over the year a savings of fifteen to eighteen hundred dollars

00:34:21.800 cory this is a no-brainer but obviously some people are conflicted with it and it seems to

00:34:26.280 me that if we don't want to build pipelines in this country then be prepared to accept a decrease

00:34:31.480 in your standard of living because you have voted for especially the folks around here in eastern

00:34:35.240 ontario uh and in the gta and around toronto um it's a bitter harvest we're about to uh we're

00:34:41.480 about to indulge in and for that reason it's not just gasoline it's not just diesel it's the price

00:34:46.680 price of everything, most notably food where we can't, there's no room for argument or there's

00:34:51.040 no room for debate. Yeah. Well, and the reality check is definitely here. I just, I wish I could

00:34:56.620 hear more rumblings of voices like yours with people saying, well, okay, this is where we're

00:35:00.100 at. This is how we got to get out of it. This is what we could do to ease it. And I'm not seeing

00:35:04.600 that discussion yet. And it really worries me. Even from the, if we want to play the, well,

00:35:09.500 we want to be good world players and help the world and be selfless. Well, the best way we

00:35:13.740 could do that is getting good clean liquid natural gas to these countries that are suffering in this

00:35:18.520 energy crisis right now or getting good ethically sourced canadian oil products out to them and and

00:35:23.660 again we we aren't uh allowing any coastal access these things are all choked up they are and it's

00:35:29.140 a deliberate policy and uh i know that people don't like it but uh i gotta tell you cory it's

00:35:34.980 a little easier to make that argument now than it was two months ago um you know the old expression 0.97

00:35:39.420 tennison was it uh to hear the truth you've spoken twisted by days to make a trap for fools

00:35:44.860 seems to ring very uh very true here i think we're getting more people listening and those 0.74

00:35:49.820 who don't listen those who think that they control the message well pox on their doors but they're

00:35:55.100 going to become increasingly irrelevant and i would uh challenge of course my friends who i've

00:36:00.300 worked with for 30 years in the mainstream media good luck with continuing to try to suppress that

00:36:05.100 i had a cbc uh talk show host try to do that to me last week oh there's nothing clean about oil

00:36:09.980 i said to him i remind him name a single project in this country that can be built without name a

00:36:14.460 single ev that can be built without it name to me any windmill or any photovoltaic any solar panel

00:36:20.540 that can be built without it the fact of the matter is and even elon musk recognizes this

00:36:25.580 uh oil may not be what you want it to be but at the end of all of this it's the main reason why

00:36:30.780 we prosper as a country and we are moving ahead in a very clean way as a civilization and that's

00:36:36.220 probably bad news to the bad news uh to the uh to the bad news green bears out there well and just

00:36:41.980 one final question it's from a commenter peter lafontaine says uh you know can dan comment on

00:36:46.220 the green saying this is why we need to accelerate the expense of renewables and i'm hearing that from

00:36:49.740 some others they're saying well this is actually evidence that we need to move harder on windmills

00:36:53.260 and we need more solar and and more i don't know goat power or whatever we're supposed to do

00:36:59.420 uh but they're they're actually taking that tact rather than recognizing that maybe we need these

00:37:03.900 petrochemicals right now yeah they got it spectacularly wrong and now they want to do

00:37:07.100 even more look uh i think the i think fanaticism has to end and sooner or later they have to give

00:37:12.620 their heads of shape because frankly they got it wrong spectacularly wrong and dangerously wrong

00:37:17.580 and they've made the world a far more dangerous place and they've created two problems which is

00:37:22.060 greater than their climate emergency or climate crisis we have an energy crisis a real one that's

00:37:27.660 hurting people and we have now a global security crisis that's something that has never been

00:37:31.820 discussed uh you know what folks you've had a two for one shot and you lost it's time to pack up and

00:37:37.100 go well i really appreciate that and i know you're going to be in for a busy week and you already

00:37:42.780 have been as uh people keep calling back geez dan you were right uh so i uh you know but the

00:37:49.100 discussion is not over as we said you know we really got to make sure okay people realize there's

00:37:53.180 a problem but we've got to make sure they realize where the solution is too so the work isn't done

00:37:58.540 and i appreciate you always speaking out in that front uh you're the only uh among the few uh

00:38:02.940 liberal uh uh former liberal member of parliament that i enjoy talking we'll have a few more watch

00:38:08.460 the day's young cory oh there's some out there i know that and i appreciate it i was one of the

00:38:12.780 young ones 20 years 30 years ago so uh some of them are a little max but uh there's a change

00:38:17.580 that change is afoot so where can people uh keep up with what you're doing dan and find out more

00:38:22.380 about you sure uh i run uh affordableenergy.ca the site often has blogs and this kind of

00:38:28.860 information that gives people a bit of a heads up in terms of what's on my mind i've been a

00:38:33.260 little bit busy of late so you haven't seen as many uh also go to gaswizard.ca uh i don't just

00:38:38.860 talk about energy and uh you know say it's wrong or right or it's expensive i actually try to do

00:38:43.980 something about it by predicting those prices a few days ahead so try to go there i'll try to save

00:38:48.380 you a few bucks and uh maybe along the way uh this uh this current form of the liberal party do will

00:38:53.980 do what i did which was to give two energy rebates and maybe some help to canadians rather than

00:38:58.220 finding cute trendy ways to uh as it were fleece them excellent well thanks again dan always a

00:39:04.780 pleasure talking to you and keep up that good work you're back take care bye carrie all right

00:39:11.100 yes this is dan mcteague it's nice that i could be genuinely enjoying guests actually uh you know

00:39:16.220 As the commenters are seeing, he's very well spoken.

00:39:18.520 He knows this issue well.

00:39:20.440 And, you know, there's that mixed thing. 1.00

00:39:23.400 We want to kind of rub some people's noses in. 1.00

00:39:25.040 Hey, I told you so.

00:39:25.780 I told you so.

00:39:26.200 But at the same time, okay, fine.

00:39:27.700 We're over that part.

00:39:28.460 Now, what are we going to do about it?

00:39:29.360 Because we've got a real big problem here right now.

00:39:31.760 As I saw more of the discussion talking about whatever Premier Kennedy is going to try and do when he goes forward.

00:39:37.300 I mean, you see, I prefer permanent changes or reduces in home heating costs, things like that.

00:39:42.500 But when it comes to making political points, I think that the check or transfer even, you see,

00:39:47.540 somebody was pointing out that the checks are expensive to send out. Yeah, but times have

00:39:50.920 changed. It's pretty easy for the government now, actually, just to fire out some sort of program.

00:39:54.540 Serb sort of proved that. I think he's going to go into the piggy bank. But we'll find out in a

00:40:00.220 little while. And that doesn't solve our longer term problems. That just solves some of the UCP's

00:40:04.620 immediate problems and maybe helps some people out who are having a little difficulty making

00:40:08.660 the rent and making the car payment and things like that right now. But we got much bigger things

00:40:14.620 going on. I'm going to talk about a sponsor quickly before I talk some more about news items. And

00:40:21.340 before we get to Michelle Rempel here, Michelle Rempel-Garner. Politicians keep getting married. 1.00

00:40:27.000 I can't keep up with their names. So let's talk about the Canada Shooting Sports Association.

00:40:32.180 These guys have been a sponsor for us for quite some time and they're a good one. Hey,

00:40:35.600 If you like firearms, you like enjoying them, whether you collect them, you target shoot,

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00:40:44.500 wrong with it, it's a good hobby, but you need an association, and this is what these

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00:40:49.200 It's where you can network with other firearm owners, responsible, legal ones, you know,

00:40:53.320 not the gangsters that we see that the liberal government likes to point to and claim that

00:40:56.860 legal firearms are contributing towards.

00:40:59.640 Check these guys out, this is where they got resources, everything from safe firearm use

00:41:03.880 to places where you can trade shows, things such as that.

00:41:08.440 And then, of course, my favorite and most important part, I think,

00:41:11.740 of what these guys do is they've got a number of legal challenges

00:41:15.300 up against the federal government right now on behalf of firearm owners

00:41:19.860 standing up for us to say, hey, quit taking away our property

00:41:24.080 because that's what's happening.

00:41:24.940 The Liberals keep recategorizing what's legal and what's not legal,

00:41:28.080 and then they take your firearms away,

00:41:30.260 and they pay you some whatever amount.

00:41:31.840 It shouldn't matter.

00:41:32.400 It doesn't matter.

00:41:33.000 It's not for sale. It's not for you to take. Well, these guys are standing up for you,

00:41:38.220 but they need your help to do it as well. Of course, you've got to join up, take out a

00:41:43.520 membership with them. It pays off for yourself. It pays off for them. So Canada Shooting Sports

00:41:48.200 Association, you can Google them and find them. It looks like Crystal Drury said she bought her

00:41:51.440 membership. So great. Or unless she met with the Western Standard, either way, buy a membership

00:41:56.120 with both. CSSA-CILA.org. Okay. And yeah, it was more of the talk. We've got, yes, a lot of

00:42:04.820 discussions on what might be happening with today's announcement from Premier Kenny.

00:42:11.160 Somebody talked about the old popcorn and beer talk. Yeah. Boy, you know, if it does turn out

00:42:16.220 to be a handout to people, there's going to be a lot of that discussion. There's going to be a lot

00:42:19.300 of rhetoric. And I think it's kind of a simple attempt at a solution for a complicated problem.

00:42:25.020 And Kenny's a smart man and, you know, he doesn't look at things simplistically, but

00:42:31.280 at the same time, he's a guy who's in a bad corner right now and in some trouble when

00:42:35.320 it comes to keeping his party's head above water.

00:42:39.840 And with these high energy prices, as I said, they're good for Albertans as far as the government

00:42:44.280 budget goes, it's great for companies.

00:42:46.680 If you're working in the energy sector, it's fantastic.

00:42:49.880 But if you're like most Albertans and you're a consumer or just pretty much anybody in

00:42:53.220 Canada, these high energy prices are putting a heck of a lot of pressure on them and they're

00:42:58.320 having a hard time. I mean, we had inflation issues going on already thanks to massive federal

00:43:04.320 government overspending. Well, actually every level of government was doing it throughout the

00:43:06.880 pandemic. The Bank of Canada is now raising interest rates, that's raising costs. So we've

00:43:12.480 got a big jumbled, massive inflation and cost of living hikes hitting us right now. And it's

00:43:18.580 putting people on a foul mood. And the last thing Premier Kenney wants right now is people being in

00:43:25.100 a bad mood when he's facing a leadership review on April 9th. So we're going to know when, well,

00:43:30.920 the conference is supposed to start at 1230. But those who follow Jason Kenney's conferences,

00:43:34.820 you know, it's going to be closer to 1240 or so. And if Rick Bell gets a question, it'll be 1250

00:43:38.700 because his preambles take a long time, though they're fun. So we will see, but we're going to

00:43:42.860 get an answer to that. That's going to be something big in the news today. I see Michelle in the lobby

00:43:49.980 if she's ready to roll. It's a little early, but I'm quite fine with that. So we have Member of

00:43:55.560 Parliament, Ms. Michelle Rempel-Garner here. She wrote a column for the Western Standard recently

00:44:00.700 on proportional representation, which is not something we hear from conservatives that often,

00:44:05.360 but it's different getting that point of view on it. So let's bring Michelle in and talk about why

00:44:09.660 she felt compelled to write this. Hey, how you doing? I'm good. Thanks for having me, Corey.

00:44:15.920 Oh, good to see you on the show there. And yeah, you've, well, you picked some good years to be

00:44:21.460 in Ottawa, that's for sure, to keep life interesting and lively. That vote, I did state

00:44:28.200 earlier because I did start the show with a bit of a rant on the motion to guarantee Quebec seats

00:44:32.680 in Parliament. I did point out you were one of those who voted in favour of your constituents

00:44:36.680 and said that this isn't the way to go but it still leaves a remaining problem then and a lot

00:44:41.360 of things with our electoral system and votes and you've written something on pitching proportional

00:44:46.660 representation maybe you can expand on what compelled you to write that up well I mean look

00:44:53.060 I think the vote was the catalyst for me the fact that western Canada doesn't get equal representation

00:45:02.000 compared to other regions of the country in the house of commons it is an accelerant for western

00:45:07.880 alienation and people in my community this is not a partisan stripe issue like people want to be

00:45:13.800 represented equally in the house so when i watch this vote play through and i understand

00:45:17.900 in theory why some of the members of my caucus voted that way our party leader voted for the

00:45:24.380 block Quebec law motion, some of our leadership candidates abstained on the vote. But I guess we

00:45:32.740 have to wonder if there's a better way, right? And it's not just about regional representation,

00:45:38.440 it's also about region representation along ideological lines. There are many people in

00:45:43.740 Canada, left and right, who don't feel like their vote counts, be it a social conservative who's

00:45:51.720 living in downtown Toronto or a social progressive who's living in rural Saskatchewan. I think that

00:45:59.320 those voices need to be addressed in terms of how our electoral system is managed. And frankly,

00:46:08.340 even just watching some of the drama in my caucus play out over the last couple of months,

00:46:15.000 it feels like history is just repeating itself with social conservatives, social progressives,

00:46:21.720 fighting, carrying grudges forward over years, everybody, you know, badly behaving. And it's

00:46:28.120 like, is there not a better way? Do we have to do this? Do we have to ask people to put water

00:46:33.620 in their wine? As I said in the column, I'm hopeful that the leadership race that the

00:46:40.660 Conservative Party is in right now will be a pressure release valve and will serve to

00:46:45.080 unite that caucus but I think long term these are issues that we have to address perhaps by

00:46:52.220 looking at electoral reform again. Yeah so you talked about a part of the problem I think one

00:46:58.220 of the things that's hindered proportional representation movements in general is a lot

00:47:02.140 of those systems to try and cover every contingency become really complicated you know you talk about

00:47:06.280 a mixed members type of system because one of the risks you have is well you could lose your very

00:47:10.880 local representation, if it's a pure proportional representation system, you know, that could be

00:47:17.200 selected, your representatives could be selected by a central party leader rather than yourself

00:47:21.280 or things like that. But then once you build in such a big complex policy like that, we saw in

00:47:26.840 BC, for example, it went to referendums a couple times. And personally, I think the reason they

00:47:30.660 rejected it was that your average voter couldn't wrap their head around it. I totally agree. And

00:47:35.460 that's why I didn't advocate for a specific system in the article. But I think it is something that,

00:47:44.400 to your point, Corey, hasn't really been colloquialized or explained well to the voting

00:47:49.800 public in terms of a value proposition, what's in it for the voter, and then addressing it in

00:47:55.440 very simple terms, in terms of how can we change the system to make democracy stronger. That's not

00:48:03.060 to say that those efforts aren't important. But the other key thing I firmly believe is that any

00:48:09.460 changes to the electoral system has to be done in some sort of nonpartisan consultation way so

00:48:16.400 that it's not about politicians gaming it for their own benefit. And also it has to be taken

00:48:22.720 to a referendum. You know, I don't want to surmise the voters of British Columbia rejected it just

00:48:28.040 out of complexity they might not have wanted that system but I think it's also different looking at

00:48:33.420 it from a federal perspective than it is necessarily from a provincial perspective because

00:48:37.560 our country I've door knocked in almost every part of the country and we have regional concerns we

00:48:43.400 have different we have urban versus rural concerns um and and I have to think that there is some room

00:48:50.140 for the Canadian public to talk about what democracy 2.0 looks like in Canada almost you

00:48:56.500 know pushing on 200 years after confederation so i think it's something that i would encourage

00:49:02.380 you know particularly conservative and western conservative voters to really think about

00:49:06.920 in terms of that it could actually allow us to form government in the future and perhaps

00:49:12.960 allow regional voices to be heard in a more constructive way well that's been part of uh

00:49:19.200 i guess the the soup that the conservatives have had trouble trying to to make for years i mean

00:49:24.380 provincially, federally, all over. We've got the libertarians like me who are prickly individualists

00:49:29.880 who are always crabby about any authoritarian changes. We get social conservatives who get

00:49:34.500 crabby about people like me who don't respect their... I like your prickly libertarianism though,

00:49:39.560 Corey. It's good sauce. Well, much appreciated, but not everybody does. And people take things

00:49:45.460 personally and you get meetings and people storm out of the room and off we go and there's another

00:49:49.160 splinter party um i i see kind of what you're saying i mean with a pr sort of system you you

00:49:55.360 can give a vent to that even if it's a minority position if it's only 20 of the the party group

00:50:00.160 well they're going to feel represented though because they actually have people on the ground

00:50:02.920 in there not somebody who's always just uh i guess campaigned effectively but on a campaign

00:50:07.400 of compromise which sort of doesn't really and that's the thing like i i think when you when

00:50:12.460 you look at the political culture across canada right now there there is a lot of people across

00:50:18.380 political spectrum who don't feel heard and like that frustration is boiling over into civil

00:50:24.780 disobedience and ignoring that sentiment is is is super damaging for canadian democracy so we should

00:50:31.900 be asking how do we channel that into a way that people can have confidence that the democratic

00:50:37.340 system in canada is working and i i don't believe that going to a different electoral system

00:50:46.460 precludes the right of center in canada from forming government it might just mean that we

00:50:51.180 have a constellation of parties who agree to work and push forward on you know the 60 to 80 percent

00:50:58.540 of things that we do agree on that we need to have uh addressed in the country but also agreeing that

00:51:05.580 we're not going to compromise on that other 20 percent so i i i just i i think what i've watched

00:51:14.300 in the last year, Corey, is really important issues in the country be weaponized for political

00:51:22.360 gain, be simplified down into sort of tribal comments that I think are just super damaging.

00:51:32.280 And we should have a democratic system where challenging each other's political dogma is

00:51:38.000 healthy, as opposed to it being this, you know, you know, like as Trudeau and others have said,

00:51:43.940 You know, like like these labels, like these basket of deplorable labels that serve no one.

00:51:49.060 So, you know, you and I can agree to disagree on certain issues, but I bet you we agree on a lot of things.

00:51:54.100 And that's, I think, where the productive consensus building conversation could come from.

00:51:58.320 And we wouldn't be voting on things that dilute Western Canadian voices in the House of Commons any longer.

00:52:04.820 Yeah, well, and I'd like to see. I mean, there's one of the frustrations I've always put out on the system in general.

00:52:09.800 I mean, I'm a little more negative as I was pushing more towards independence every year as I live.

00:52:13.580 But all the same, if, you know, imaginary reforms could come, great, or not necessarily imaginary, real ones down the road, one of the things that drives me nuts is whipped votes.

00:52:22.280 I mean, with the emergency, for example, something so contentious and big as that and nuanced as that and regionally charged, yet everybody voted.

00:52:32.560 And I was almost as disappointed with the uniform voting of every conservative against it as with every liberal for it.

00:52:38.040 because i i figured that many hundreds of people there's got to be a few who are differing from it

00:52:42.220 but there was no way they were going to speak up and and step out of line and that's just not a good

00:52:46.640 form of government i mean like anybody like how like i think there's two alberta liberal mps i'd

00:52:53.080 be curious how they voted like how how could they in good faith vote for that bill like i i don't

00:52:59.080 how could any of my colleagues in good faith who are from western canada vote in favor of that bill

00:53:04.200 And that like having that that ability to say, you know what, this is not in the best interests of my constituents. 0.88

00:53:14.340 Let's go back to the drawing board. That's not a bad thing.

00:53:17.340 Like, I don't know where, you know, the Canadian public has allowed the centralization of power in, you know, the leaders offices of various political parties.

00:53:26.320 like that's actually a I think what that that culture has created and everyone's guilty of it

00:53:31.660 is this sense in the Canadian public that dissenting voices can't be heard um and and there's

00:53:39.040 got to be a better way so you know I hope that this column like my goal with it was not to be

00:53:43.700 prescriptive on any particular system but just to say even from my own lived experience in my own

00:53:49.720 party um you know we've we've won the popular vote but we haven't formed government we've gone

00:53:57.160 through two very contentious ousters of leaders you know one who was on the red tory side one was

00:54:04.040 on the blue tory side there's got to be a better way and i just hope that the canadian public will

00:54:09.160 say like look we might not agree on all policy but maybe we should agree that you know the canada of

00:54:14.920 2022 might need a system upgrade from the one that was put in place and you know all that time time

00:54:21.560 ago right so yeah no i mean to go into every system and all of that i mean there are literally

00:54:28.240 entire books about it and you can't cover that much in a column it would have killed me as an

00:54:32.100 editor to try and get through that i think it would have killed the reader too so yeah but at

00:54:37.040 least to broach the subject i mean i i was speaking with a recent guest about systems as well

00:54:42.120 and he pointed though Italy you know you have a unfortunately an endless turnover of governments

00:54:46.700 because they have a you know a piece of parliament there where they just can't seem to find consensus

00:54:50.460 and then you're in a constant electoral mode you know again it's there's probably ways you could

00:54:56.380 build a system where you have better checks and you don't end up in that kind of cycle as well

00:54:59.880 but you got to start the discussion somewhere I guess. I agree and I also somewhat reject all

00:55:05.760 the comparisons of Canada to countries like Italy or other European countries where you just don't

00:55:12.700 have the regional diversity. Canada is 33 plus million people living in a vast regionalized

00:55:21.780 economy versus a similar population in a small, not regionally diverse European country. So

00:55:29.080 I think that from that perspective, we are perpetually going to be talking about

00:55:35.540 the weight of Western representation versus the weight of, let's say, Quebec representation.

00:55:42.060 And I don't think that either of those are wrong conversations to have. I understand why people in

00:55:46.480 Quebec want to have guaranteed representation in the House, because it goes back to their culture

00:55:51.380 and their regional identity and their economic needs. It's actually not a dissimilar argument

00:55:57.160 from the ones that I would make on behalf of my constituents in Calgary. The difference is that

00:56:04.080 all of the policy discussions to date have been focused on instead of saying how can both regions

00:56:09.520 win it's one has to be at the expense of the other and i don't like there's got to be a better way

00:56:15.120 to do do it than that and i i also think that you know even if we're arguing on behalf of quebec

00:56:20.960 let's say a different electoral system could perpetually allow a party like the bloc quebecois

00:56:26.960 to have fairly significant representation in the house of commons because there's a significant

00:56:31.760 chunk of Quebec voters who vote on regional identity issues first. And so I think from that

00:56:38.520 perspective, Canada is a different context than other countries like Italy, where perhaps regional

00:56:44.620 interest and that trying to build regional consensus of policy could support and justify

00:56:50.360 a change to the electoral system. So the first step towards it, I guess, is just even opening

00:56:55.860 the conversation. As you said, it's unusual for conservatives to talk about. Part of the problem

00:56:59.500 too, is any party, once they're in power, is usually going to feel favorable to whatever system

00:57:03.580 got them there in the first place. So they have a built-in disincentive against reforming it.

00:57:08.600 Prime Minister Trudeau had promised electoral reform on his way in, and it fell pretty quickly

00:57:13.420 by the wayside once he got there. What steps do you think, you know, if people started wanting

00:57:18.800 to move towards that, where could we go in a sense? It would have to be a non-partisan move

00:57:22.300 in some sort of means in order to get it there in the first place, I believe.

00:57:26.360 I totally agree. And it's that's why, you know, it's certainly not to my political gain to put this forward. But that's why it has to be a multi partisan approach, right? So me coming out and talking about this, and I know there are other conservatives who feel the same way that I do, but perhaps aren't ready to sort of come out of the closet on this issue yet.

00:57:45.360 I think it paves ground for people of all political persuasions to say, you know, we might not agree on policy, but we agree that there there might it might be time for some change or some upgrading to the system.

00:57:57.840 So I think step one is acknowledging that this is a valid topic of concern and could be it could be something that benefits democracy as an institution in Canada.

00:58:09.720 The second thing, you are so right, Corey, this cannot be driven by partisan elected officials, because it'll never come to pass if it's just held at our discretion.

00:58:22.540 I think that any changes to the electoral system has to go to a referenda.

00:58:27.660 But I also think that elected officials should have a say in what works and what doesn't from lived experience.

00:58:38.100 But there has to be that balance between citizens driving it for the betterment of democracy and elected officials saying, look, we're working in the system.

00:58:48.640 Here's what we think could work or what wouldn't.

00:58:50.920 And then ultimately have the public say, have their say in a referenda.

00:58:54.840 Yeah, well, I think more people these days just due to, it just seems to be a perpetual state of crisis lately.

00:59:00.700 Or at least concluding that the system as it stands just isn't working.

00:59:04.720 it's not working uh how it was originally intended and and there's no indication that's

00:59:08.400 going to improve anytime soon so i i just appreciate some of the discussion then at

00:59:12.160 least it's systematic change rather than just policy change because we've got to

00:59:15.840 change how we're doing things not just what we're doing i mean the the frustration that we're seeing

00:59:22.000 in the canadian public right now is justified and we have to look beyond what the policy irritants

00:59:27.600 are be it pandemic restrictions or you pick the topic um we have to look beyond that and say why

00:59:34.400 are people feeling like they can only resort to civil disobedience as a way to be heard because

00:59:39.600 that's a problem for every Canadian regardless of how you vote and I think that that sense of

00:59:48.000 loss of control that many Canadians went through through the pandemic I think it's exacerbated or

00:59:54.160 it's magnified these these the the sense that democracy isn't working for Canada and that is

01:00:02.160 something that the Canadian public should be concerned about, regardless of how you vote.

01:00:07.840 Democracy only works when people believe that the system reflects their wills and their will and

01:00:15.040 needs, right? And I think that there's a sense not just in Canada, but in other developed countries

01:00:20.640 that the system is failing in that regard. So if we don't have the Canadian public's

01:00:27.280 buy-in that democracy is working. I mean, even look at the Emergencies Act being used in

01:00:32.660 parliament. I think that eroded public trust across political stripe as well. If we don't

01:00:37.600 have that public trust, then how do we have any legitimacy in terms of continuing the narratives

01:00:42.920 that we're on? And so I think it is time, particularly after the pandemic, after this

01:00:47.580 shared national trauma, that we take a step back and we say, is the system working? Can we improve

01:00:55.060 upon it. And again, I'm not advocating for any particular system other than what I'm saying is

01:01:00.860 we have to acknowledge that it's not working and I'm not convinced that, you know, another election

01:01:08.180 is in and of itself is going to fix that. Well, I appreciate where you're going. I know what's

01:01:15.760 that? I said it's ending on such a cheery note, Corey. Oh, it's probably for my show. I'm always

01:01:20.320 a sour guy going on about the negatives anyways. But again, I mean, it's similar to I was talking

01:01:25.440 earlier about systemic reform to the feeling of it, things almost have to just get a lot worse

01:01:28.840 before people are ready to make it better. So to start at least looking at different ways to do it

01:01:34.220 before it's forced upon you is a more proactive way to examine it. So I appreciate you opening

01:01:38.720 the discussion on the proportional representation. As I said, people aren't even talking about

01:01:42.020 systemic change. So maybe we can get some more discussion going and actually lead somewhere in

01:01:46.620 years to come. Great. Well, thanks for having me on your show today. Well, thank you very much and

01:01:52.440 look forward to, well, seeing what you get up to in these crazy years to come here in Parliament.

01:01:57.380 Take care. All right. Thanks. So yeah, it was Michelle Rempel-Garner. I know she's not the

01:02:04.020 most popular with everybody, but she's speaking on issues that, well, hey, which politician is

01:02:09.200 popular with everybody? And it was different to get out and speak of something outside of the box,

01:02:14.120 even if it's something whether you agree with or don't agree with. We got to start talking about

01:02:18.520 these things. Where are the few things we agree on? Well, Ms. Garmer, Rempel Garner,

01:02:25.260 these long names mess with me, agrees that the system's not working. That's a start.

01:02:32.380 Personally, I don't think we'll be able to fix it from within. It's kind of what I was talking

01:02:35.080 about before. We have to get to a point of succession. But then if, let's say, the West

01:02:40.320 says they want to go. We finally get that referendum or a province would have to under

01:02:44.620 the Clarity Act. Maybe a couple did. Well, fine, but what's the system after that? Where do you go

01:02:49.100 in an independent new nation? You wouldn't want to bring in the exact same system you just fought

01:02:54.560 to get out of. My concerns isn't usually so much when I look at those sorts of things though with

01:03:00.400 the form of system like proportional representation or first past the post as we have

01:03:07.180 currently, I want to see more decentralized power. That's the thing I think we need to do.

01:03:13.420 We got a lot of regional disparity going on, right? We got different views in different parts

01:03:18.180 of the province even. Edmonton thinks quite differently than the people over by Lethbridge

01:03:23.060 and the people in different parts of Lethbridge think differently than the people up in Grand

01:03:28.080 Prairie, you know, and Calgarians are their own voters as well along those lines. You need to be

01:03:33.980 able to address those regional differences rather than always having a centralized control because

01:03:37.500 that's how you get the breakdown of unity. That's how you get people frustrated. That's how you get

01:03:41.240 independence movements. I mean, in Canada, we're trying to mash everything in from a central

01:03:45.380 government in Ottawa when Alberta, BC, Newfoundland, the territories were all very different from each

01:03:51.620 other. And yeah, as you for conservatives saying, greater autonomy for all provinces. The thing is,

01:03:56.860 we've got to change the system if we're going to do that. And that means constitutional change.

01:04:01.200 And again, I don't think it's going to come without a full unity crisis, such as a province being on the brink of or actually getting out. 0.63

01:04:10.700 We were talking earlier about different systems like the Italians. 0.64

01:04:13.280 Yeah, they've got a – and when it comes to mixed parliaments, that's the problem.

01:04:18.300 They can never get a majority.

01:04:19.280 They've got a whole raft of parties there, and they're always fighting like hornets, and they're going into one election after another election after another election.

01:04:26.640 But, I mean, I look at countries like Switzerland, and I've talked about them before.

01:04:30.120 I just love them as a European model. I mean, they're small, they're landlocked. They got 26

01:04:34.240 cantons, you know, they're divided into 26 little pieces of variable things. They got four official

01:04:39.520 languages and their federal government is extremely weak. It's just there for national

01:04:47.420 issues, you know, national defense, currency, I think postal services, you know, a number of

01:04:53.280 things that they feel have to be done by the federal level of government. Everything else

01:04:56.660 comes down to the local level. And if you listen to the centralized government, the authoritarians,

01:05:03.460 the ones who believe the status quo in Canada should work, they think if we could make Ottawa

01:05:07.980 just powerful enough, it'll unify everybody. If we could just force everybody into that box harder

01:05:14.020 and harder, they'll become unified. But it does quite the opposite. Just ticks us off. It's like

01:05:18.820 trying to shove a couple of magnets with the polarization, you know, they're going to push

01:05:21.900 away from each other. You can force it, but you're only making it worse. So, I mean, we've got to

01:05:26.700 examine systems that can allow for local diversity of thought, different points of view. You don't

01:05:34.440 hear about secessionist movements in Switzerland, do you? You know, I mean, I'm sure that there's no

01:05:40.220 such thing as a perfect system, but boy, theirs is old. It's been there a long time, and it seems to

01:05:45.360 be working really well. It's one of the most prosperous nations on the planet. Again, it's

01:05:49.700 landlocked. It's got limited resources for languages. We can't even maintain two in Canada

01:05:53.820 and we're all at each other's throats. You know, change that aspect of the system. Other things,

01:06:01.740 you know, proportional representation. See, one of the risks and problems that comes with it too,

01:06:05.880 let's say it was a simple system. That's where she was talking about mixed member proportional

01:06:08.880 representation. So see, that's what I mean. It starts getting complicated. But let's say Alberta

01:06:14.040 it was just allotted 100 seats this is it and every party is going to get a seat based on every

01:06:20.220 percent they won in it so you know this party got eight percent support they got eight seats this

01:06:24.140 party got 12 support they got 12 seats so on and you end up with a whole big mixture of all these

01:06:28.360 different parties in in the legislature all representing the province so that's great

01:06:31.500 but what if in my area i really liked my local candidate and uh they weren't chosen by the party

01:06:41.380 they weren't one of the, say it was a minority when I voted for, you know, at 10%. Only 10

01:06:45.920 representatives went to Edmonton and mine wasn't one of them. Well, why did I vote for my local

01:06:50.300 guy? And who represents me? I mean, we need somebody to represent my area just south of

01:06:55.160 Calgary because I have different needs than somebody just outside of Edmonton. How do I get

01:06:59.800 that local representation? So that's where you talk about systems where you're going to have

01:07:02.940 some local representation that'll be directly picked by the people and some who are proportional

01:07:08.140 representation, which means it'll be that big pot. And then see, it starts getting really

01:07:12.540 complicated and tough. I mean, hey, just get something tough doesn't mean it's not worth

01:07:16.900 pursuing, but it gets really difficult. One of the things that perhaps that could be done,

01:07:21.640 again, if we're talking about systems is if we had a true bicameral system in a new independent

01:07:26.340 West, you'd have a Senate, but a real Senate, you know, elected. But maybe you did your Senate by

01:07:31.400 proportional representation. How about that? So you kept all of your local represent, you know,

01:07:36.680 elected people, as we do currently, first past the post, and divide it up into regional

01:07:41.160 ridings. But then you had a second house that's just as powerful, but it was based on proportional.

01:07:48.180 Then you could have both levels, and they'd have to try and figure out how to work together,

01:07:51.700 one would hope. Or you could just get a bad hornet's nest and be as dysfunctional as we are

01:07:54.880 now. That's the catch-22 of things. With human nature, I think, we seem to fight means of

01:08:02.520 governing. I see somebody commented and said, Tamara, just to break away from that now, Tamara

01:08:07.920 Litch, that's going on with her bail hearings ongoing. Canada's political prisoner. She's being 0.94

01:08:12.480 held without bail on a bloody council to commit mischief charges. It's ridiculous. It's embarrassing. 0.99

01:08:18.060 It's wrong. Again, it shows how Canada's broken, that you would do this to somebody. I mean,

01:08:23.740 we can debate whether or not she should be charged, convicted, fine, whatever. But in our system,

01:08:30.320 means you get charged with something. Unless you're presenting a threat to the public, you go

01:08:33.560 out on bail and then you work your way through the system from there. They're using remand as a form

01:08:37.780 of punishment and they're keeping you locked up, essentially in solitary confinement, to make a

01:08:44.460 point. They make a threat. They want to make sure nobody else stands up to them. Either way, it

01:08:48.960 sounds like somebody was, I just see that from the commenting, I don't know, but somebody was trying

01:08:52.740 to live stream the trial, so the judge has recessed now and they want to address that. We'll

01:08:59.380 see what happens. That's an issue. I know some people say, well, why can't I always just take

01:09:03.920 pictures in a courthouse or live stream it or whatever? I understand it's open to the public

01:09:08.680 and you should be able to get there. And it's not a matter of things so much in Tamera Leach's case,

01:09:13.520 but you got to think there's some sensitive cases where people, particularly jurors, don't want to

01:09:18.380 be identified for their own safety and things like that. So there are reasons for privacy in

01:09:24.340 court houses and keeping things

01:09:26.700 under some degree of control

01:09:28.540 even if it seems less transparent. Either way

01:09:30.500 let's just hope they bloody will let her out on bail 0.98

01:09:32.680 this is ridiculous, it's wrong 0.98

01:09:34.900 and she just needs to get out 0.98

01:09:36.660 back to her family and relax and then she can

01:09:38.640 worry about her defense and things going forward

01:09:40.940 I can't believe it's gone on

01:09:42.820 this long, or actually I should, I can

01:09:44.740 believe it, and I wish

01:09:46.600 that's not where we're sitting

01:09:48.740 these days, it's

01:09:49.960 there. So we've got Darlene to St. 0.97

01:09:52.740 Kenny, because she was watching the conference there, okay, Kenny just eliminated 13 cents tax 1.00

01:09:55.940 at the pumps. When oil is over 90 a barrel, this is in effect. Okay, that's interesting. So yeah,

01:10:00.880 he set a baseline. So that way, I guess if the oil drops below 90 bucks, which looks like it

01:10:05.880 could be a while before that happens, the tax will come back on. For the time being, it gives

01:10:12.780 us a break at the pumps. And I thought he was going to go for the cash toss out. That still

01:10:17.280 might happen as these royalties keep rolling in. I talked to Ken as Alberta's finance minister the

01:10:22.360 other week on the budget. And they budgeted for $60, $70 a barrel oil. And now we're 120 or so

01:10:27.620 going on. So they're going to be, the government's going to be pulling a lot more money than they

01:10:30.640 anticipated. And well, you know, we know the reality of government politics. They're going

01:10:35.280 to use that money to try and buy our electoral love. So I suspect we'll see more. But a break

01:10:39.760 in the pumps is going to help Albertans. Even if you're not a driver, like people have got to

01:10:43.200 understand, it's just like with property taxes going up. People say, oh, it doesn't matter to

01:10:47.980 me, I'm a renter. Well, yeah, but your landlord is going to build that in on your cost of rent.

01:10:56.340 They also got Mike Baker saying $150 rebate in natural gas. So yeah, this is streaming at the

01:11:00.560 Western Standard online, but I'm being selfish. I don't want to direct you guys towards it right

01:11:03.880 now because I still got my show going on. But it's good to see these things break as they come

01:11:07.740 out. I'm learning from my commenters rather than reporting to you, but I appreciate that. I

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01:14:03.020 subscribed if you've liked you've done all those things you'll see them as they come

01:14:06.680 And we're in a world where information is pretty critical. I'm going to cover a little bit more news as we get towards the end. Yes, the Freedom Convoy fundraising, you know, we're starting to get more information coming out on what happened. And let's see, it was blocked on GoFundMe after Ottawa Mayor Jim Watson's office claimed political protesters committed violence, damage and destruction. And we know, no, they didn't. But that's what they claimed when they went after the crowdfunding site. And that's what the site's lawyer saying.

01:14:32.380 Well, Watson, so a longtime liberal, by the way, was referring to neighborhood allegations, not criminal charges, a spokesperson explained.

01:14:40.860 So, in other words, he was talking about rumors.

01:14:43.460 Oh, I heard that there's violence.

01:14:44.840 I heard there's disorder.

01:14:45.980 I heard.

01:14:47.240 So you seized money.

01:14:48.500 So you shut it down based on rumor.

01:14:51.280 That's not good enough.

01:14:52.420 Where are the charges?

01:14:53.960 That's one of the things I get with the Tamara Leach trial going on and all that, too.

01:14:56.900 People saying, oh, this was huge. 0.99

01:14:59.040 It was a billion dollars in damage, which is a load of crap. 0.99

01:15:01.860 You know, even millions of dollars in the damage, a load of crap. 0.99

01:15:04.780 Or there was an insurrection. 0.99

01:15:06.460 Really?

01:15:07.720 You know, that an insurrection is actually criminal.

01:15:12.040 It's treason.

01:15:13.220 Why has nobody been charged with it yet, then?

01:15:15.120 Not a single one. 0.65

01:15:15.820 She's been charged with mischief. 0.99

01:15:17.760 Mischief, that's the best they can get.

01:15:19.140 And they're talking now, these are the quotes from this with the mayor, violence, harassment, damage.

01:15:24.160 Well, then again, these are all criminal charges.

01:15:26.460 Why was nobody charged?

01:15:27.840 Because it didn't happen.

01:15:29.200 These have been the most peaceful protests I've ever seen.

01:15:32.720 By the way, tomorrow I'm going to have a trucker in, in person,

01:15:36.640 and he's going to be talking about what he experienced on the ground at the Ottawa protest.

01:15:42.360 Somebody just an unvarnished view on what he saw while he was there

01:15:46.200 and giving a perspective of it because it was striking

01:15:49.360 and it was different to see that much of a peaceful sort of thing going on.

01:15:53.700 So yeah, it looks like we've got something breaking.

01:15:55.000 We've got our news editor, Dave Naylor.

01:15:56.520 He's going to pop in and, oh, just a moment.

01:15:59.840 Let me check this again.

01:16:02.520 And yes, we're going to bring Dave in and just get an expansion.

01:16:05.100 As some of the commenters have been saying, Jason Kenney's finished his conference and

01:16:08.120 we'll find out what's going on there.

01:16:09.680 So we'll pop Dave into the room here.

01:16:12.480 Hey, Dave, how's it going over there?

01:16:14.260 Good, Corey.

01:16:15.060 Just some breaking news for you.

01:16:17.340 Jason Kenney's still holding his press conference right now.

01:16:20.500 But what he's done is he said as of April 1st, the province will stop collecting the Alberta portion of gas taxes that will save 13 cents a litre off record high gas prices and also $50 a month for the next few months on the winter electrical bills.

01:16:41.800 that doesn't come in cash form that will be a rebate taken right off your bill so that each

01:16:48.840 and every albertans should see that on their on their household gas bills so a bit of good news

01:16:54.120 for consumers today cory well that's good i mean we're all experiencing sticker shock with those

01:16:59.360 those gas pump prices so i guess yeah and getting a little break on our our gas bill at home it's

01:17:04.460 still winter is going to be uh giving some relief to some people i know it's been pressuring a lot

01:17:07.960 right now. Yep, still going to get chilly nights out there. This week, I think we're going down

01:17:11.760 to minus 20. Yeah, that's the last of it, damn it. Then we're going into spring. That stupid 0.99

01:17:16.040 gopher said we were going to be in for, what, six more weeks of winter. I guess he was right this 1.00

01:17:19.860 year, but yeah. Damn those gophers. Yeah. All right. Thanks, Dave. You're welcome, Corey. See 1.00

01:17:26.020 you in a bit. So yeah, as Dave said, as these things break, we bring them to you guys. So yeah,

01:17:31.760 Jason Kenney is cutting the provincial fuel tax and giving that rebate on your utility bill,

01:17:36.560 which is good news you know uh we're getting those royalties let's use and let's keep in

01:17:41.600 alberta we put them in too much of a pot you know ottawa is going to come for it uh so yeah we'll

01:17:47.520 keep following up on that let's see a little more of the news here it's canada's entering year three

01:17:51.800 under covid uh this is according to dr tam our federal medical health officer which is a we must

01:17:58.000 ease on, focus on easing societal disruption. Okay, that's fine. But the biggest disruption

01:18:06.860 we've had has been from the restrictions and mandates, not the pandemic itself. So, I mean,

01:18:11.220 I hope, though I doubt, what she's talking about is doing the things to ease the disruption, such

01:18:17.220 as ending the mandates and getting them out of the way so people can get back to their lives and

01:18:21.660 they aren't out protesting, they aren't losing their jobs, they aren't going broke, the government

01:18:26.220 isn't borrowing us into oblivion. That's what I would hope, but I got a feeling that's not what

01:18:30.700 she's talking about. We need health care reform. I mean, the pandemic, you know, it's not going

01:18:36.260 away. We need health capacity. We need to get, you know, it's going to have its ups and downs.

01:18:41.580 And if it's not COVID, you know what, a few years from now, there's going to be another one.

01:18:45.240 And we can't just keep this ridiculous myth thinking that we can govern ourselves out of

01:18:50.620 a pandemic. We can't, but we have some great health care providers and we do have modern

01:18:54.780 health facilities. And if we can expand the capacity and the ability to respond to these,

01:18:58.480 the chances of disruption will be lower. Yeah, here we go. Cabinet's use of Emergencies Act

01:19:05.180 has prompted a private bill to prohibit political discrimination in federal law.

01:19:08.860 You know, this was an interesting one. So Garnett Genwiese, a conservative member of

01:19:13.940 Parliament in Sherwood Park, it's a private member's bill, so it's not going to go anywhere

01:19:16.820 probably, but at least it's brought up to talk about. And some of that chat, and as he said,

01:19:22.240 the justice minister demonstrated political views were a factor in considering whose bank accounts

01:19:26.040 would be frozen. And when he spoke up about, you know, the people supporting it being Trumpists

01:19:31.940 and things like that in a pro-Trump movement, he said, if I think you're a member of a pro-Trump

01:19:37.320 movement who is donating hundreds of thousands of dollars, millions of dollars, this kind of thing,

01:19:40.920 then you ought to be worried, said Lamedi. Look, I'm not a Trump fan. I know I get my commenters

01:19:45.180 all squirreled up when I say that, but I'm not. I never have been. I mean, he's better than the,

01:19:48.880 are you better than Clinton? Absolutely, I'll agree there, but I didn't think he was all that

01:19:53.680 great. I hope the Republicans come up with somebody good in the future, because they really

01:19:57.940 need good government south of the border as well. But either way, whether a person's a Trump supporter

01:20:02.960 or not, political targeting is a problem. I mean, just because a person's a Trump supporter doesn't

01:20:09.480 mean that they shouldn't be allowed to donate to political movements and things, and this is a

01:20:13.140 thought crime, and that's scary. So there's some follow-up happening in the House of Commons on

01:20:17.460 that. We'll see if it goes anywhere. But we're having the post-catastrophe discussions now

01:20:22.200 and looking into things. And maybe we'll get some good outcomes out of some of these things.

01:20:31.420 What was this criminology professor? And this is a Western Standard story that's up there already.

01:20:36.560 He says his city's so used to corruption when he brings up patterns of wrongdoing to people there,

01:20:41.680 they don't even recognize a problem. You know, that says a lot. You remember the culture of

01:20:45.500 People in not just Toronto, but downtown Toronto and parliament area of Toronto.

01:20:50.440 These are bureaucrats, senior bureaucrats, staffers, politicians.

01:20:54.700 They don't live in the same world as the rest of us, guys.

01:20:57.440 They're not in the world of honour, unfortunately, for a lot of them, or a world with a lack of corruption.

01:21:05.620 So they've learned to embrace it.

01:21:07.420 And Daryl Davies spent his early years in Saskatchewan, but spent most of his decades living in Ottawa as a professor at Carleton University.

01:21:15.500 And he's saying he loves his city and everyday residents, but he thinks the response to the

01:21:19.320 Freedom Convoy revealed Ottawa is a city of talkers who seem to just screw up everything

01:21:23.540 they touch, aided by a lack of direction, lack of leadership, and lack of accountability from

01:21:27.600 all forms of government. Now, that's scathing. Well said, though. I'll certainly give him that.

01:21:33.000 Again, keep reading these as we go through. Oh, yeah, the UCP nomination mess, this thing going

01:21:39.560 on. Jody Gateman, I've known her for a while. She was on the board with me with the Wildrose

01:21:45.460 Party many years ago. Lives down in Southern Alberta. I guess she was running for the

01:21:50.560 nomination in Karsten Taper Warner and they found a couple of social media postings. One she'd shared

01:21:56.480 of other peoples that they felt were problematic and the committee disqualified her as a nomination

01:22:02.280 challenger on that basis. Yeah you know parties always have a lot of ways to keep the what they

01:22:09.880 feel is undesirables out. The UCP, as I said, is in a great deal of trouble. They've got leadership

01:22:16.180 challenges, nomination challenges, stuff coming at them from all directions. I don't know how

01:22:20.880 they're going to recover from it. We're looking at just a little over a month till Kenny's

01:22:24.600 leadership review. He's putting out the good news things, but is it going to turn people around?

01:22:28.620 I don't know. Something somebody else talked about before, there's Hoven, I think his name is,

01:22:34.680 and he's challenging Jason Nixon up there for a nomination, and that's a big race. We're talking

01:22:38.400 and potentially, I guess, 1,000 memberships he sold or something.

01:22:42.600 If he gets cut off in that nomination, those members are going to be furious.

01:22:46.500 And what are they going to do?

01:22:47.300 Well, they're all going to show up in Red Deer in April,

01:22:48.620 and they're going to vote to get rid of the leader.

01:22:51.120 So Kenny's in a terrible position.

01:22:55.300 Brad's saying, do you think Brian will bump Kenny?

01:22:57.200 I don't know. 0.98

01:22:57.940 He's a real pain in the butt for Kenny right now. 0.92

01:23:01.120 You know, he's certainly, I mean, he's running an unofficial, 0.97

01:23:03.100 well, he's running two races.

01:23:04.400 He's running one to get rid of Kenny,

01:23:05.620 and I'm certain he'll turn around for the next race and run to replace him.

01:23:08.400 To be honest, just my view, I don't think Brian will be any better. I'm not a big Gene fan myself, but Kenny's in a lot of difficulties right now. And we'll see what is going to happen with that in these weeks and months to come. What a period of turmoil. I mean, so let's say April 9th, they do vote and Kenny is out.

01:23:28.600 well then you're into a leadership race

01:23:31.240 and you're going to have to want to run it pretty fast

01:23:33.180 because you need to establish somebody new because we're like

01:23:35.100 a year away from the next

01:23:37.280 general election so a new leader

01:23:39.180 is going to have to establish, turn around

01:23:41.260 public opinion on the UCP

01:23:43.380 and win. Can it happen? Yeah maybe

01:23:45.460 things that, you know, stranger things

01:23:47.180 have certainly happened in that

01:23:48.240 but we'll see as things

01:23:51.280 go

01:23:51.640 What else we got here?

01:23:55.140 Just somebody talking about the, oh yeah

01:23:57.140 Quebec, you know, I mean, speaking of human rights being stepped on, emails from Radio Canada show

01:24:01.720 the province of Quebec decided to issue their curfew last New Year's Eve. Remember, they didn't

01:24:04.840 let anybody out. This is, again, wartime sort of stuff. You know, when you're not allowed out of

01:24:09.360 your house, it's illegal to leave your house to be outside. And it turns out there was no medical

01:24:15.720 basis for it. Well, we kind of always knew that, but those facts are all starting to come out now.

01:24:20.020 Similar to the energy thing and everything, though, we always knew all these things. Now

01:24:23.080 we're able to say, I told you so, but are we going to get to the point of learning from it? And I

01:24:27.680 don't know. I worry about that. As Mel was talking earlier, Canada's chief archivist ordered the

01:24:33.680 removal of offensive content on thousands of national archives webpages. So employees

01:24:39.420 complained the purge was so sweeping, they were left to guess which historical content meant with

01:24:44.720 her disapproval or not. And this is all over things, the thing, you know, the old colonial

01:24:48.300 past, it wasn't properly representing it and things like that. Guys, this is history. We got

01:24:51.800 got to be really careful. You don't just delete it if you're squeamish with the way it was written

01:24:55.520 back then. If you're squeamish about what the government did at that time, which we've evolved

01:24:59.700 beyond, taking an eraser to it doesn't help. That's not how we stop repeating errors. We have

01:25:05.840 to look at the errors and learn from them. So right now we're in the midst of an error and

01:25:10.780 whether or not we're learning, that's what I was talking to Dan about. I don't know. He's out there

01:25:14.140 being vocal and hopefully we do come out of this somewhat positively. So I'm going to wrap things

01:25:20.700 up. As I said, tomorrow I'm going to have Rob Booth. He was a trucker. He's going to be in studio,

01:25:24.340 and I just want to have a good unvarnished chat with somebody who was on the ground, somebody

01:25:28.120 who was at the protests, because we got so much disparate point of view. We got so much bad

01:25:32.580 reporting coming out of there, so much biased stuff. I mean, I'm certain Rob will have his

01:25:36.020 bias towards things, but at least it'll be a straight view of it, and we'll see. He's not a

01:25:42.080 man with horns in his head. He's not some crazy insurrectionist. He's not a white nationalist. 0.58

01:25:47.120 LST was just a concerned person.

01:25:49.360 And it sounds like he still plans on doing some protests.

01:25:51.220 And I'm not sure where the protests want to go at this point.

01:25:53.380 I mean, it's difficult.

01:25:54.420 Things are starting to wind down.

01:25:55.820 So we'll hear one more time from our sponsor, Algodex.

01:25:58.080 And I'll let you guys go for the day.

01:26:01.000 We'll start digesting more news.

01:26:02.280 And I'll have a whole fresh show for you tomorrow morning at 1130 a.m.

01:26:06.080 Thanks for tuning in today.

01:26:09.260 Algodex is owned by Algonaut.

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01:27:09.380 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - March 08, 2022

LIVE - Triggered： Representation by population set aside for Quebec

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