00:01:48.860a three day atmospheric river, pretty good downpour.
00:01:52.020Rivers are running high, but not flooding.
00:01:54.420um the city issued a warning you know stay off the path kind of thing don't go on the river
00:01:59.780no incidents that's all good but then the rain subsided yesterday and then where i live it was
00:02:05.700obvious that everybody suddenly decided that they needed to get out and mow their lawns that's the
00:02:11.240one thing that happens when you get these good rainstorms early on in the season like this
00:02:15.040my lawn was like this tall kind of thing and the dandelions were just out of control anyways welcome
00:02:21.260back uh again this is a show about you know there's a theme john put the theme down there i
00:02:27.160he asked me for a suggestion i i want to start off talking about uh you know as always i mean
00:02:32.800it's on everybody's mind i want to talk about the referendum a little bit and then more specifically
00:02:36.400the 400 billion dollar um startup cost that the danielle smith was claiming but before i say that
00:02:44.160you know again it's a it's a show about you guys i have some ideas of what i want to talk about but
00:02:48.540basically i'm counting on you folks to call in you got the number down there at the bottom of
00:02:52.900the screen 1-866-479-WEST and uh we only have one line so if you call uh you might get uh put on
00:03:01.780hold uh let me know where you're calling from what you want to talk about we'll go from there
00:03:05.640uh okay so a couple of things uh since last week definitely uh one thing that happened after the
00:03:13.580show last week last thursday was that danielle officially danielle had officially mentioned that
00:03:20.740she was going to give us a referendum on a referendum that was a that happened two weeks ago
00:03:25.440but last thursday i believe it was through an order in council it became official so the order
00:03:33.400in council um just a one-page document i mean that's one way governments can make sort of
00:03:38.360rules right they don't always have to pass bills orders and councils yeah basically the the premier
00:03:44.680or the prime minister somebody can literally take a piece of paper and write something on there and
00:03:49.200then it becomes a de facto law it's one of their privileges so danielle issued uh an order in
00:03:56.320council that listed the actual question that we're going to be seeing in october and it's a two-parter
00:04:01.600It's interesting, right? So not a yes or no vote. Let me read it up here. So it says, option one, Alberta should remain a province of Canada. And option two, the government of Alberta should commence the legal process required under the Canadian Constitution to hold a binding referendum on whether or not Alberta should separate from Canada.
00:04:21.440so we're going to have a a two-part question you choose a or b i'm definitely telling people choose
00:04:27.840b even if you're not entirely in favor of separation choose b let's have uh let's have uh
00:04:36.000that's my opinion choose b right i'm a separatist let's let's not kid ourselves um hey already got
00:04:42.400a call on the line let's uh let's try and get i think the record now is nine calls in one hour
00:04:46.800let's try and get uh to ten today so go ahead where are you calling from what's your name please
00:04:51.440hi my name is sue i'm from beaver county hi sue how are you
00:05:01.520good good you've called before i think sue haven't we
00:05:11.280this week i'm a little more comfortable with that i mean last week i had a few things on my notepad
00:05:16.640but uh today uh i just wanted to talk about uh the pipeline uh that uh we're trying to get here
00:05:24.800in alberta through the mou um i i got thinking about this and i think you got a pipe but do you
00:05:32.640have any oil to put in that pipe i haven't seen anyone talk about uh what companies like i worked
00:05:40.800for almost 30 years and in the business um like you did um so i kind of know what what happened
00:05:47.600i worked out in the field and and in the office there so get some knowledge but i know that you
00:05:54.000have to dig the oil from the ground you have to take it to the processing plant and it has to
00:05:58.800come out the other end and going into a pipeline but so far i haven't heard anybody talking about
00:06:05.040which plants are all lined up or can they put out more than they're already putting out do we need
00:06:11.040a new plant to to supply this oil into this pipeline like i'm wondering how this is all
00:06:17.360supposed to come together uh actually a good question sue it is coming together uh i think
00:06:23.200it was last week um uh what are they called south bow so so you know trans canada used to own the
00:06:30.640the keystone pipeline they sold the keystone pipeline to a company called south bow so they
00:06:34.800spun it off and south bow i think it was last week announced he announced a successful open
00:06:41.500not open house there's a name for it but they went to the market and asked shippers to commit
00:06:47.540to 20 year um volume to volumes for the next 20 years and they they they got a successful
00:06:53.820i'll call it an open house i i don't i think that's the wrong term but maybe it is an open
00:06:59.060house and um they got they got shippers oil producers to commit to up to a million barrels
00:07:06.640for for 20 years so there's an appetite for it um you know alberta produces about four and a half
00:07:15.020million barrels a day and it wouldn't take up a long time to ramp up to five or six million
00:07:19.440barrels a day i mean the reserves are there the the big sun cores and the cnrls and the
00:07:24.940novices they can ramp up and and bump up the production
00:09:04.460And then on the back end, bigger processing facilities and stuff like that.
00:09:08.140But it's all things that the industry has been doing forever and ever.
00:09:12.220All right. So let's try and get back then, I guess, to what I wanted. So. So, yeah, we're going to have a referendum question. It's a two parter. And everybody's talking about independence. And I'm not surprised that there are now the other side is ramping up the the attacks against us, trying to dissuade people from from voting for independence and trying to keep Alberta in here in Confederation.
00:09:36.660And one of the biggest attacks we're seeing right now is everybody's I call it, you know, fear mongering.
00:09:41.840They're giving us all they're trying to give us all sorts of excuses why we should stay.
00:09:48.580And the most the funniest one, the most interesting one is the one that came out this week.
00:09:53.400And unfortunately, it came from our own premier, Danielle Smith.
00:09:56.520I wasn't too happy when Danielle was up on stage and sort of threw out a number.
00:10:01.160And she said, you know, it would cost 400 billion dollars in what she calls startup costs.
00:10:06.980And she's trying to use that 400 billion dollars as as a scare tactic.
00:10:12.740And apparently Trevor Toome, who's an economist that believes that the UFC is going to put together a report.
00:17:05.140And there will be no the Quebecers have been convinced by years and years and years of propaganda that oil and gas is killing the planet and they're not going to they'll give her they'll give Danielle a warm welcome.
00:17:20.720But that's about it. But simultaneously, while Danielle is there in Quebec, so is Carney this week.
00:17:26.480Right. And so Carney was there yesterday announcing almost 10 billion dollars worth of new funding for Quebec.
00:17:33.600So I, I, I, I find the optics of that event kind of funny because you've got Danielle who's struggling here, trying to extend an olive branch. We're not getting anything from Carney. And then while she goes there, Carney, um, steal some thunder from her and he's there at the same time, handing out goodies to Quebec. So I found, I found that whole thing quite amusing this week.
00:17:58.160all right come on folks um you know don't make me talk for 40 minutes uh on my own because i got i
00:18:05.700do have a list of topics i want to go through but uh i'm gonna run out of topics if somebody
00:18:11.800doesn't call soon um all right well let's keep going down then i guess or let me see if there's
00:18:17.760a couple of comments i mean that's something i got to get used to you guys are uh some people
00:18:22.000like to make john did you see any interesting comments worth flashing up on the screen
00:18:27.180uh give me a second here i usually scroll through there and see um there's one which one are you
00:18:34.780highlighting there it doesn't pass this okay actually can you put it on there there it goes
00:18:39.320it doesn't pass the smell test but even if that was the cost it would be worth it uh 400 billion
00:18:45.760that's only u.s 280 billion since we have all that stuff already could we just buy alberta for
00:18:51.500100 billion dollars um by the way yeah so thanks i agree no matter what the um the economics still
00:18:59.640say we should go on our own because at the end of the day at the end of the day it's a similar
00:19:04.120argument to you know you're you're we've used the and i've used the analogy i've compared it to uh
00:19:09.320a marriage you're unhappy in your marriage and you want out do you do you pause and stay in your
00:19:15.440unhappy marriage because you're afraid that you might have to uh get your own apartment and you
00:19:19.540know where you're going to get an apartment so i'll come back to that all right caller on the
00:19:23.940line go ahead please where are you calling from and your name hello hello go ahead yeah this is uh
00:19:37.060ryan prince here uh is this uh who's my phone in here oh marty is this marty yes it's marty
00:19:45.060oh sorry marty okay i didn't know you guys just put me right in uh yeah i just wanted to i'm just
00:19:52.160from south of leftridge here i just want to thank you for coming to leftridge talking with us and uh
00:20:00.060i want to uh i was here talking about daniel smear and i actually wish she would have done a few
00:20:08.280things like maybe get the police force in for alberta maybe do the firearm thing you know
00:20:14.100give an example of true freedom for Albertans but she never did but uh my my question is and
00:20:22.260I I think you've seen this has to do with the 400 billion dollars but Canada just a couple days ago
00:20:30.900uh they put out a I think a statement while the global news did uh as Canada faces crippling
00:20:38.540debt, it must do the unpopular thing and cut elderly benefits. Do you think Alberta could do
00:20:45.560better? Yes, 100%. I mean, we could do better for seniors and we can do better for retirees. We
00:20:58.180could do better for a lot of people. I mean, we'd pay one less level of taxes, right? We've talked
00:21:06.280about this so the the taxes we pay to ottawa now we have to use some of that here but there's a
00:21:12.260there's a net saving overall uh we have a younger population i mean we're already subsidizing as you
00:21:18.460mentioned you know the the canada pension plan ei things like that i i plus we we'd have a lower tax
00:21:24.640rate sue called earlier i mean one of the cornerstones of one of the true advantages of
00:21:30.480of an independent alberta is is not the status quo it's what we will be able to do right i mean
00:21:36.220we'll be able to pump up our production and, and, and bring in more revenue.
00:21:40.660So no, I, um, what, what's your thoughts?
00:21:44.160I mean, you asked the question, but you.
00:22:53.220I think we all suspect that down the road, they'll increase the retirement age to 67.
00:22:58.180I mean, they've talked about it in the past. Harper talked about it. Unfortunately, it's a reality. It's going to have to happen. And what else are they eyeing, right? Are they going to come after your RRSP? I think so. I think they're going to come after estate taxes and more things like that.
00:23:14.980So I've always I was surprised that one of the group that more or less that are staunch supporters of the liberals are seniors, right, are boomers.
00:23:25.580And I always found it surprising because I think they're on the radar.
00:23:28.440I think their boomers are going to get, for lack of a better word, screwed by the liberals at some point.
00:23:35.300Yes. Oh, yeah. Well, they should be looking at this right now and worrying about what's going on for sure.
00:23:42.160And they used to be a big voting demographic, a large number, but they're getting smaller and smaller.
00:26:58.500And then they they tried to pass it as a crappy law saying, well, you're you're you're producing content that's being watched in Canada and and maybe you should produce more Canadian content.
00:27:13.060right they hit it that way so but what it was was a money grab but they tried to convince
00:27:18.180they passed a law through the bill c11 and the canadian crtc i can't remember what it stands for
00:27:24.020canada radio and television commission or whatever trying to force these companies to to spend a
00:27:29.940portion of the money to make canadian content and these companies push back they push back and and
00:27:37.140And all of a sudden, now, yesterday or the day before, Mark Miller, the minister responsible for culture, that's in his portfolio.
00:32:47.500Well, you're talking about the technical recession.
00:32:51.540I had one point that a lot of people seem to forget whenever they're looking at GDP.
00:32:57.780And if you do a GDP calculation, what most people don't realize is that the government spending is included in the country's GDP.
00:33:08.400And I don't have the exact fingers figures right here in front of me, but it is substantial.
00:33:14.400If we remove the government spending out of our GDP here in Canada, they're like 52% or something astronomical.
00:33:24.400Yeah, I agree. So government spending perhaps shouldn't be in GDP, but it is.
00:33:32.400I actually, I did a breakdown one time, I think it was last year, I did a quick breakdown of the GDP of the top, you know, 20 countries in the world by broad categories and see which one, you know, what countries sector of their economy made up the biggest number.
00:33:53.660And it was, you know, and don't quote me, but like France's biggest sector of its economy is food and tourism, let's say.
00:34:00.860Australia's biggest sector of its economy was mining.
00:34:04.100American was manufacturing and financials.
00:35:15.300Yeah, so for anybody who wants to see the real GDP, check that out,
00:35:18.560because it's an eye-opening experience, I'll tell you.
00:35:22.620Yeah. Now, the other problem that the it's an interest is our GDP is going down.
00:35:29.220And I think that's legit. Now, our GDP per capita is going up because people are leaving the country.
00:35:35.540Right. And so maybe we'll go back to having a realistic GDP per capita at some point when when everybody leaves.
00:35:45.380Maybe. Yeah. When all the top one percent leave or the top 10 or whatever that could be.
00:35:50.280Yeah. Yeah. Awesome. Okay. Well, thanks. Thanks for bailing me out and calling again. I know you're, you're a brave man. You do it every week. Almost. Cheers, bud.
00:35:59.260Thanks. Take care. So where was I going? So I was talking about spending and Carney and, oh yeah, I know where it's going to go with this one. So, so Carney is toned down the rhetoric that's aimed at the Americans, right? It served him well. It served him well.
00:36:17.740He got elected on being on using Trump as a boogeyman.
00:36:38.500Whatever Trump is doing is working right now.
00:36:41.940The U.S. economy is firing on all cylinders.
00:36:44.480People generally in the U.S. are generally happy.
00:36:48.880Like, by the way, when Stats Canada announced that we and the Bank of Canada agreed that we are in a technical recession, we're the only country in the G7 that's in a recession right now.
00:37:03.020OK, so Carney is doing all these backflips, trying to blame it on other people.
00:37:11.460Well, if the conditions were universal and were causing depression around the world, then everybody would be in a technical recession, but they're not, right? He's blaming tariffs. If Trump tariffs were causing us to be in a recession, then Trump tariffs should cause Italy and France and Japan and others to be in a recession. But we're the only ones in a recession.
00:37:33.800So the idea that there's these global forces and somehow or other, they only affect us, that doesn't work. So that's point one. Point two, the American economy is firing on all cylinders. They're going bonkers right now. And so much so, this has happened in the past in the US, right? Remember, maybe some of you don't remember this, but when Ronald Reagan came into power, people didn't like Reagan at first. And it was kind of like Trump.
00:37:58.900There was a derangement syndrome around Ronald Reagan.
00:44:03.380Keep government out of people's lives.
00:44:05.900My son, my youngest son, who's working in the oil field, he's a trucker.
00:44:12.020He said, if we had to pay the $400 billion that she's claiming, which is bullshit, but whatever, that she's claiming that what would happen, it'd be worth it.
00:44:25.040Yep. Yeah. Well, which was what I was, which is what I was saying to my, you know, when I compare our separation to a divorce, right? How often like some people, you know, will decide that they're unhappy in a marriage and some people will stay. It's too bad. But some people are terribly unhappy and they'll stay. Others will just take a leap and say, I'm unhappy and leave. And how many times I'm sure, you know, people who've been divorced, right?
00:44:51.660How many people who've been divorced and made that leap go back four years
00:44:56.060later and say, boy, I really regret getting divorced. Like, you know, if,
00:45:00.520if you're unhappy, you're unhappy and you, you make that leap. And, uh,
00:45:03.660and generally things work out better. Plus I have confidence in Albertans,
00:45:06.840right? So I, I, I'm on that page. I think I agree with your son,
00:45:10.960the $400 I'd pay it anyways, the 400 billion,
00:45:14.160but I think we'll do it way cheaper than that.
00:45:17.040Oh, I'm sure we will. I don't, I don't,
00:45:19.340they have to do something because they can't give us a reason to say.
00:47:28.400We won't need a Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
00:47:31.120And that that was always one of the ones that I that I worked in the oil patch and I've I've I was on a job one time we're doing a pipeline crossing and then all of a sudden I look over my shoulder and there's this blue truck and it said Department of Fisheries and Oceans on it.
00:47:47.120You know, I'm up in the middle of the bush by whatever Manning, Alberta or something, and I can't remember what river we were crossing, but technically the river we were crossing was navigable and any navigable river in Alberta or anywhere in Canada.
00:48:01.120It falls under the jurisdiction of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
00:48:05.420And so some guy had come to witness our pipeline crossing.
00:48:09.200I thought that was just the most hilarious thing in the world.
00:48:26.360Um, and maybe what I need to do next time is, is sort of lay out a whole bunch of my topics and let you guys know some of the things I'm interested in talking. Maybe that'll spur some, some discussion such as this next topic, right? It's, it's, it's innocent this week, Danielle, um, announced that Alberta is getting a new form of ID, right? It sounds innocent, right? It's, we're getting, um, the driver's licenses are starting July 1st or July 2nd.
00:48:54.360you have your uh you have your driver's license and then you can put the um alberta health card
00:49:00.200on it and your citizenship and i think there's some potential things there so maybe maybe maybe
00:49:07.240we can talk about that but i got a caller on the line so let's take that call go ahead please
00:49:13.080yeah you can hear me marty you bet okay bud i never know what's the delay whether i'm on
00:49:20.040or not i don't like to waste my talents anyways uh i've got a few things that i want to bring up
00:49:27.160and i'd like you to let me just list through them and speak for a bit and then i'd like
00:49:31.000you to speak to them sure and danielle smith has come out and claimed 400 billion dollars
00:49:39.800correct yep okay now the uh uh first of all currency wise everybody got
00:49:47.880blah blah go digital boom done military not required who the hell's going to attack us
00:49:53.960right border patrol not required go with an alliance between alberta and uh usa they'll
00:50:00.360happily help us out there until we can afford our own uh forever group is nothing but uh doom and
00:50:08.040gloom that's all they act to us and uh they they they talk as though what do you think is going to
00:50:15.400happen we're going to do this we're going to do that well we talk as though they're the only ones
00:50:19.240got a rock to throw and a slingshot so if they get it get rough and grass with that we close our
00:50:25.640border phone into the trucking cross problem we shut off the the pipelines and gas lines boom
00:50:31.880everybody's going to start crying and i think the aggression is going to stop immediately yep
00:50:37.800so the border closes your two-way street if negotiations go to aggression and shut down
00:50:44.200shut down the airflow is what i just said would not not uh if the negotiations we feel are not in
00:50:50.520good faith we could shut it down state so and declare uh sovereignty immediately all of this
00:50:59.880they have to remember is one phone call to trump and we'll have f-35s overhead of alberta in about
00:51:06.040five minutes and the bullshitt will stop right there so you don't don't don't get threatening
00:51:12.040people you're gonna who cares if we lose our canadian passport we're trying to get away from
00:51:15.800that anyways anyway i throw it a lot out of there but the last thing you got to say is i've called
00:51:20.840five times and 7-1-1 put me through to some john uh his his call line it defaulted to to this guy
00:51:29.320answers with voicemails john i've called two or three points of your of your uh organization and
00:51:36.200told them marty's dying online because people can't get through get a hold and get this thing
00:51:40.680changed you need to check and make sure your numbers are correct yeah well the way i got
00:51:45.400through this they listen the way i get through this time was i dialed the number and before the
00:51:50.840lady even get started talking i hit 7-1-1 and i get in yeah you're losing you're dying out there
00:51:58.040you're dying out there from lack of uh callers calling in i think part of it's your system
00:52:02.520thanks thanks for that well uh john is the producer so yeah he heard you and we're working
00:52:07.400on that i think we'll have thanks for reminding we'll make it clear you have to call the number
00:52:11.480and do extension 711 but john the john you're talking about is in studio with me right now
00:52:16.440appreciate the call um and if you hang up and i'll i'll just talk to what you just said appreciate
00:52:21.800it thank you um yeah you know it's a good reminder you know i i wanted to talk about this a little
00:52:29.560bit more but let's let's just finish it this set the 400 billion dollars yes forget about the 400
00:52:37.800billion when we the the next day like i said let's rethink right like the caller just said let's
00:52:43.480rethink do we need all these things right everybody's automatically assuming that just
00:52:47.880because we already have something that's provided by ottawa that we need to continue doing that no
00:52:52.520maybe we don't right embassies was another one that somebody mentioned like do we need embassies
00:52:57.880I mean, do we need, does Alberta need an embassy in every country around the world?
00:53:04.640I mean, you can, same thing, you can partner up, look at your passport, actually open your
00:53:08.420passport right now. If you have a passport and you open your passport, it says right in your
00:53:12.480passport that if you can't reach a Canadian embassy and you're in trouble, go to a British
00:53:17.420embassy. We could do the same thing. Alberta could say, have an agreement. And if you can't reach,
00:53:22.880Maybe Canada will be mad at us and they won't want to assist us.
00:54:02.100But, you know, the idea, the idea sounds good on paper.
00:54:08.340I'm OK, perhaps, with your driver's license having your Alberta health number.
00:54:13.760Right. Who who here doesn't have a ratty old Alberta health card that's been you know, we're still using paper in Alberta.
00:54:21.140So adding the number there, maybe, but part of me in this day and age also worries that the more of these things that I put on one card, like I start to get nervous about having one card.
00:54:34.280And on that one card is my driver's license and my hunting permit and my gun permit and my passport and my Alberta health, right?
00:54:42.440We're going to that digital ID, which starts to make me nervous.
00:54:46.400and and and the one in particular that kind of makes me nervous is putting the citizenship on
00:54:52.440there right and that sounds simple enough like uh your show your driver's license that it'll have
00:54:57.800your citizenship but it's already problematic that some people associate a driver's license with a
00:55:02.820with a citizenship it's not like anybody who comes to alberta even a even a temporary foreign
00:55:10.340worker can go and get a driver's license like it's not it's you don't need to be a canadian
00:55:15.400citizen to get a driver's license and so i worry about that one that suddenly the driver's license
00:55:20.540will kind of be equated as the equivalent of a passport and uh and and will be but more importantly
00:55:27.100for me it's the fact that we're we're putting everything on one piece of of id the digital id
00:55:32.320thing starts to really really really scare me personally but that's that that's me um what
00:55:38.100other comments we got here any uh i don't see anything crazy all right well let me go down i
00:55:44.720I got a couple of I actually I went so fast.
00:56:08.380I consider people in Saskatchewan my brothers.
00:56:10.660I don't always say I don't I have a hard time saying the same thing about people in BC. I find that I don't share a lot in common with BC, perhaps it's because of the last 1015 years in BC with their NDP and Liberal governments. But I was very happy that this weekend, BC elected a pretty solid conservative leader. So congratulations to Carrie Lynn Finley. And, you know,
00:58:31.320There's been a push to get people to buy their conservative UCP memberships.
00:58:36.420You know, there's a push to try and take over more constituency associations and perhaps get a special general meeting.
00:58:43.700I don't know how successful that's going to be.
00:58:46.080I kind of think that that's the wrong approach in the short term.
00:58:50.840I think the focus should be on educating people and trying to get a legitimate vote in October for a second referendum.
00:59:00.240But that said, do get your conservative membership. And just this week, the official notice of the annual general meeting came out. So the UCP put it out. So the annual general meeting is, oh God, I don't even have the dates.
00:59:17.340I think it's at the, I think it's very early November here in Calgary at the BMO center this
00:59:22.960year. So you need to have your membership, I think before, uh, October 6th or November 6th,
00:59:30.360like you need your membership a couple of days, a month before the AGM to qualify, to vote at the
00:59:35.380AGM. Anyways, long story short, get your UCP membership and go to the AGM. It's an amazing
00:59:42.160event they're always fun um there it is one of the biggest conservative events you'll see in the
00:59:48.640country i mean two years ago we had 5200 people in red deer last year was a little more subdued
00:59:53.640only 4 000 people in uh edmonton i think this year we'll be back to a five six thousand people
00:59:59.100in calgary and if you get your membership and you get your agm uh ticket right now there's an early
01:00:06.560bird price for tickets uh right i think probably for all of june like if you get it before the end
01:00:11.880of June it's 139 bucks 179 bucks if you bought why do I know these things I I sound like I'm
01:00:18.420promoting the UCP I'm not I'm just a freak who likes to go to these things and I pay attention
01:00:23.560to these kinds of things so get your if you've never participated in democracy that's one great
01:00:29.580way to participate come to the annual UCP membership or AGM John's giving me the signal
01:00:35.780we're running out of time uh folks again thanks for joining me join me again next week um or an
01:00:43.460organization like this the western standard does not work on uh charity we do uh appreciate people
01:00:51.400getting memberships so that we can bring you content like this this costs all these little
01:00:55.900changes to the studio they look small but they they cost a few bucks people want us to get our
01:01:01.040better um uh switchboard so that costs a few bucks so they're on the screen westernstandard.news
01:01:07.740subscription ten dollars a month hundred dollars a year and they're running a promo right now if
01:01:13.780you get a new membership right now i think you'll get a either a discount or a free uh item from the
01:01:19.760merchandising store i saw last week we talked about it the for me the the ralph klein uh coffee
01:01:27.120mug is my absolute favorite i need it on my desk next week for my coffee and uh thanks for joining
01:01:33.980folks we'll see you next week same time cheers