Western Standard - MARTY UP NORTH： Chaos at the Select Special Citizen Initiative Proposal Review Committee

00:00:00.000 welcome back how's everybody doing today um hey i'll tell you honestly i'm in a

00:00:29.920 of weird giddy mood feisty mood i'm in a good mood i was going to wear shorts i was going to

00:00:35.980 i was going to come to work calling it come to work i was going to come to the studio today

00:00:40.300 wearing shorts but then after this i'm heading over to the annual general meeting of a local

00:00:46.780 oil and gas company called paydo so i thought i better better dress up a little bit look like a

00:00:51.840 shareholder um it is it is that time of year right it's shareholder annual general meetings for

00:00:58.160 all industries basically i mean any business in canada that runs on a uh january 1st to december

00:01:05.440 31st calendar year usually finish you know waits about three months by march they've they've closed

00:01:12.820 out the year finish their books and then they spend time doing their annual reports and then

00:01:17.120 now's the season of annual reports and uh i like to go in person i'm glad because uh there was a

00:01:24.960 long period there where all annual general meetings were online and i hated that now we're back to

00:01:30.720 having them in person and i like going to uh to those meetings especially oil and gas ones

00:01:37.220 um so uh call in show folks it's all about you right so this works way better if you call in

00:01:46.280 you got the number there down on the bottom uh 1-866-479-WEST uh john the producer is working

00:01:53.620 on finding us a um switchboard but i think we've got things working pretty good now so when you

00:01:59.620 call uh he he might put you on hold while i'm talking to somebody else but i've got uh we we're

00:02:06.120 getting things figured out uh all right where where to go so um i you know the the i think the

00:02:13.560 thing i got i got about three topics uh high on my list that i want to talk about today of course

00:02:19.620 it's always a topic. It's always independence. And there's definitely been some movement

00:02:24.220 on independence. There was a weird event in the legislature yesterday, which I definitely

00:02:29.820 want to talk about. Smith had an announcement this morning. She did a minor shuffle on her

00:02:35.440 cabinet. I'd like to talk about that. On the Alberta-Ottawa relationship, I definitely want

00:02:41.960 to talk about the part two of the MOU in the meeting last week between Smith and Carney

00:02:48.500 talking about advancing pipelines i found that one a little bit weird we'll get into details but

00:02:53.900 you know he's kind of like saying one thing to us here in alberta and then he rushes over to bc and

00:02:58.660 then when he's in bc he's kind of like uh don't worry about what i said to those guys you know

00:03:02.820 and he he has sort of two stories and um and i want to talk about the snowbirds just from a

00:03:09.400 personal point of view um i i'm i'm always i just don't like what's happening to canada's military

00:03:15.960 And this is another example, but it's also speaks to the bigger picture of of of neglect and and failures of the liberals and then a couple of miscellaneous topics.

00:03:28.320 But let's so let's talk about what happened in the in the legislature yesterday.

00:03:34.280 So as part of as part of the Citizens Initiative Act, any group that petitions the government.

00:03:41.940 So there's two in front of the government right now.

00:03:44.220 there was the Lukasik petition and the Ms. Sylvester petition.

00:03:51.140 The procedure is once the chief electoral officer certifies a petition,

00:03:58.460 counts it, then he gives it to the government, to Danielle Smith,

00:04:03.180 and she is obligated under the act to form a small committee

00:04:07.820 to study what the petition asks, right?

00:04:10.720 So the petition doesn't necessarily ask for a referendum.

00:04:12.780 them it can ask for a change in policy or something else and so when thomas lukasik handed in his

00:04:19.300 petition at the end of last year a committee was formed and the committee is called the

00:04:26.560 the special the select special citizens initiative proposal review committee so that's the committee

00:04:33.820 it's a six-person committee was formed late last year and four members of the ucp and two members

00:04:40.900 of the NDP formed this committee, and then this committee was supposed to study Lukasik's question.

00:04:47.660 Now, they didn't meet for most of the last three months. They never met because that we were told

00:04:55.480 there was a specific reason for that, which was the government knew that Mitch had filed a petition

00:05:01.820 and that there would likely be a second petition. So they were kind of thinking, let's hold off on

00:05:06.280 this committee and let's wait until we get the Stay Free Alberta petition and then the committee

00:05:11.280 can study both at the same time. Well, as we all know, Mitch's petition is basically null and void

00:05:18.620 now because of the courts until there's an appeal. So that's all happening. So nothing much going on

00:05:24.900 with Mitch's petition. So bring back to the committee. The committee was meeting yesterday

00:05:29.020 to talk about Thomas Lukasik's petition. And the committee turned into a bit of a gong show.

00:05:36.280 Because halfway through, so the committee was scheduled to go from 2 o'clock to 4 p.m., just a two-hour long committee.

00:05:44.380 And right around the 3 o'clock mark, out comes a press release.

00:05:49.660 And the press release basically said that the committee had agreed to a variation or had agreed to some sort of independence question for a referendum, that it was going to make that recommendation to Danielle Smith.

00:06:06.280 Well, the committee was taking a break when that happened.

00:06:10.040 And when the committee came back and reconvened after their break,

00:06:14.320 the NDP immediately raised not just a point of order,

00:06:18.040 but a point of privilege and read this news release that had come out.

00:06:25.640 And the news release said that the committee had agreed on a motion,

00:06:30.100 you know, basically had decided on a question.

00:06:33.220 And the committee hadn't.

00:06:36.280 and so and the point of privilege is an important one right this point of privilege is a point like

00:06:41.240 was literally quote say trying to portray the committee as being not the committee the chair

00:06:47.480 of the committee as being in contempt of parliament and the point of privilege tried to pass a motion

00:06:55.880 asking that all the kerfuffle be forwarded to the speaker of the house for a a ruling and opinion

00:07:04.600 from the Speaker of the House.

00:07:06.580 Now, luckily for the Conservatives,

00:07:10.600 the motion as this point of privilege failed

00:07:16.380 because the two NDP voted for it,

00:07:19.820 but three members of the committee of the UCP voted against.

00:07:24.060 And then, of course, the chair didn't need to vote.

00:07:25.880 So it was defeated three to two.

00:07:28.380 And then that allowed the committee to resume.

00:07:31.740 But by then, the committee was running out of time.

00:07:33.420 And the committee had decided to run from two to four.

00:07:36.120 And so then the next order of business was to try and get the committee extended past four o'clock.

00:07:43.100 And at that point, the clerks reminded everybody that the only way to extend the timeline of the committee is by unanimous vote.

00:07:52.840 And as soon as it was brought up as a possible motion, the two NDP said no.

00:07:57.540 And so the meeting came adjourned right away without having done anything.

00:08:02.580 But the interesting thing about that, other than being caught with, you know, with either prematurely, well, by prematurely sending out that memo, it kind of shows that the UCP had a plan all along and their plan was to force some sort of motion and get some sort of vote on a referendum question.

00:08:24.660 There's no doubt about that because they issued a memo and they could have done that, right?

00:08:28.740 If they hadn't issued that memo and if they had just let the committee proceed, they could have played, done the theatrics and pretended to listen and argued, you know, whether Lukasik wanted a referendum or not.

00:08:41.300 Because they brought Lukasik yesterday to the committee.

00:08:44.560 And by the way, I watch all this live.

00:08:46.420 Like I watch this because I'm still one of those guys who likes to watch the odd committee or watch question periods and things like that.

00:08:53.040 I get on my treadmill in the morning or in the afternoon and while I'm running, I got nothing else to do for an hour.

00:08:59.620 So I'll just watch some of this stuff.

00:09:02.400 And so then I like yesterday, I watched Lukasik trying to argue back and forth with Nixon that, no, he never intended his petition to be a referendum question, blah, blah, blah.

00:09:12.600 Now, the Conservatives, had they played this well, would have proposed a motion somewhere near the end of the committee and would have won on a vote three to two.

00:09:24.560 And the NDP, there's nothing they could have done about it.

00:09:26.580 And then they could have validly said, you know, presented Danielle Smith with some sort of question.

00:09:33.020 And by doing what they did yesterday, they made a mockery of the whole process.

00:09:40.120 They showed their cards.

00:09:41.240 I mean, I understand that, you know, I play both sides of politics and and I understand and I agree with the NDP who are upset about this and with people who are upset with the process.

00:09:53.000 I'm even upset about the process myself. Like, even though I know this is going on, when you see it so blatantly, it's a little bit upsetting.

00:10:00.340 And as a guy who spent hours collecting signatures, I mean, my preferred course would be that the signatures be counted and the process work.

00:10:10.560 And I'll get a question on the referendum the way we intended it.

00:10:16.700 Plan B would be a debate, a proper debate on Lukasik's question and maybe get it on the referendum that way.

00:10:24.080 But after the theatrics of yesterday, I'm afraid that it's going to be interesting to see how Smith manages to find a solution out of this because she's scheduled for a press conference later this afternoon, almost this evening.

00:10:43.480 I think it's at 6 or 7.

00:10:44.640 Don't quote me on that.

00:10:46.080 And the rumor is she was going to talk about this, about the referendum.

00:10:51.900 And so it's going to be interesting.

00:10:53.500 and that was pre-recorded.

00:10:55.260 So I think that press conference was pre-recorded yesterday.

00:10:57.640 So I imagine they're re-recording the conference

00:10:59.760 and we might see something different at seven o'clock.

00:11:03.440 I mean, my gut feeling right now is that an independence question

00:11:09.260 on the upcoming referendum in October is almost off the table.

00:11:14.940 All right, same rules as usual.

00:11:16.960 When you answer, let me know where you're calling from,

00:11:19.760 what your name is, and go ahead with a comment or a question.

00:11:23.500 Go ahead, call her. Where are you calling from?

00:11:28.320 Hey, Marty. Thanks for letting me speak. Nick from Edmonton.

00:11:33.380 I heard Mitch say that he was actually told by the Premier's office that it would be better to actually go via the referendum route as opposed to the Cabinet bringing the question in.

00:11:49.560 Clearly, that was the wrong route to take.

00:11:52.020 is there any issues now between the party leadership and the premier or what's the

00:11:57.880 premier doing here it seems like sabotage to me actually that's a good that's a good point just

00:12:03.340 stay on the line let's have a chat that when i saw the events yesterday that was almost the first

00:12:08.620 thought that crossed my mind is like somebody sabotaged this by releasing it prematurely to

00:12:13.420 the press right um listen at this point i i don't i don't nothing's off the table to me right i mean

00:12:22.540 we we've seen everything we've seen we've seen injunctions we've seen court battles we've seen

00:12:27.260 both sides fighting like i i i honestly don't know what to make of it um so i'm assuming you're a pro

00:12:35.500 independence well yes i am but i'm a little confused as to the tax the party's taken because

00:12:41.820 clearly there's a conflict now between the party and the leadership the leadership is um i guess

00:12:48.300 not a sovereignty while the party is so yeah you uh square the circle right well i mean there's

00:12:56.440 only one way to me for me for her to square the circle and that's to go with the membership right

00:13:02.140 and then the membership is beyond just the party and the people the mlas the membership is the

00:13:08.100 is the 30 000 uh ucp members that meet at agms and the and that that membership is pushing her

00:13:15.920 towards uh towards a referendum and towards um severing ties with ottawa and and i i i part of

00:13:24.620 me can see that she's trying to play the the the fine line it's a tight rope and she's trying to

00:13:29.580 please everybody but at some point she's gonna have to i guess by definition go with what the

00:13:35.080 leadership wants does that make sense well it does but i'm also confused by the fact that you decided

00:13:41.940 to pile on nine more questions on top of our referendum questions so i'm a little suspicious

00:13:47.480 of her motives here but i don't know what do you think about that yeah no um i i've said this

00:13:54.080 before i mean my opinion of what danielle's doing changes really weekly you can ask me this question

00:13:59.660 today. Today, I'm confused. You asked me the question a month ago, I had more clarity, you

00:14:05.280 know, and then, well, if you asked me the question last week, when she's all gleefully

00:14:10.220 meeting with Mark Carney and bragging about this pipeline deal and everything else, then I see her

00:14:16.200 as being a full-on federalist trying to keep Alberta within Canada. And then today, I think

00:14:24.740 we might see something different. She's really, really, really trying to please everyone. And I

00:14:28.800 think at the end of the day that's going to be almost impossible to do there's no win-win there's

00:14:33.120 no win-win-win-win right like the win-win-win is is satisfy the party satisfy the separatist

00:14:39.220 stay in power keep nenshi at bay keep ottawa you know in check i mean the win-win-win is difficult

00:14:46.380 and and i think we as a party have as a membership have asked have sort of chosen one path for her

00:14:53.120 which is like push for independence but she's she's stubbornly trying to find a win-win-win

00:14:58.420 somewhere that's my thoughts thanks nick any party any party comments or that's good nick

00:15:05.320 well i i kind of wanted to actually harken back to my first question with regards to the

00:15:11.440 referendum itself uh because it seems to me mitch uh was actually misled by the party in even

00:15:18.960 starting to get signatures for the referendum um because what but not the party but in the

00:15:25.020 premier's office right like uh basically wanting to kind of have this initiative from the bottom

00:15:31.800 up where it clearly should have come from the top down it's where the cabinet that should have

00:15:36.800 actually fielded the question yeah right so that that's kind of what what really makes me scratch

00:15:42.620 my head i mean does she is she not uh responsible to her party chair at all or what how does this

00:15:49.700 even work yeah no lots to unpack there and and the other thing that i'll add to that that that

00:15:56.080 i've also been a little bit disappointed and and and i'm disappointed with this in a lot of

00:16:00.500 governments lately is it she some days i think she's moving too fast i'm always critical of

00:16:06.280 governments who move too fast even if they're moving in my favor i'm critical so you know she

00:16:11.340 she passed these citizens well uh kenny passed the citizens initiatives act but it didn't really

00:16:16.600 get a test until recently with Lukasik and Sylvester, but then it failed some quick first

00:16:24.000 passes, right? Remember the judge last year didn't approve the initial question and then it got

00:16:29.140 slapped and she changed the law quickly. And now, you know, I don't like that. I don't like

00:16:34.600 making laws back and forth between, you know, the courts and the government and then adjusting on

00:16:41.580 the fly like maybe maybe there needs to be a rethought on on the whole process um yeah appreciate

00:16:48.180 the call nick thanks for calling in have a good one yeah you do um yeah it's um yeah that's a

00:16:56.220 that's a real frustration that's a real frustration of mine and that's a real frustration of a lot of

00:17:00.580 other people right like the the the law in this instance i get that i get that governments pass

00:17:07.320 a law and then the law has to be tested and some laws don't get tested very often you know as an

00:17:14.220 example the emergency measures act it got passed like 30 years ago and finally gets enacted and

00:17:19.200 then the courts decide that it was incorrect now the government has time to change it in this

00:17:25.960 instance the citizens initiative act was passed a you know less than less than a decade ago less

00:17:31.600 than five years ago kenny passes it and then it gets tested and it fails gets adjusted gets tried

00:17:37.000 again fails gets adjusted like i don't like i don't like that's not a very good process that's

00:17:42.780 the engineer in me speaking like you know uh design by trial and error is not my favorite way

00:17:48.480 it's an approach you can do it but um sometimes you look a little bit silly doing it that way

00:17:53.740 and so um well we'll see so there's um you know the the is the referendum is the possibility of

00:18:02.780 an independence question on the referendum dead uh i'm i'm i'm weighing it 50 50 at this point

00:18:09.680 and we'll see what the what the premier has to say later this afternoon um she did have though

00:18:16.280 a quick press conference or not a press conference there was a there was an event this morning it was

00:18:21.900 uh it was televised or on video she did shuffle her cabinet and and again uh this is so new

00:18:30.860 haven't had a chance to completely digest it uh people here uh derek uh had a piece on this

00:18:38.060 derek predicted some of this quite accurately and uh so go read derek's piece on that but

00:18:44.940 two ministers stepped down uh in the last couple of days um all right well let's go with the call

00:18:51.580 on the line i i really prefer chatting with people than reading sort of my script but i

00:18:56.380 gotta remember where i'm at so i'm talking about minister so go ahead caller where are you calling

00:18:59.820 from cochran hey and what's your name stew stew how's it going stew not too bad um daniel

00:19:12.140 cliff should fire the people that pushed her into the moq that's my opinion what do you think the

00:19:18.700 mo say that again fire who the people that pushed daniel cliff into uh setting up the mou i you're

00:19:29.660 You're you're you're I wish you would have called a few minutes from now when I'm I'll dive into the MOU, but I will dive into the MOU.

00:19:37.040 I I I used to think that maybe somebody else came up with the MOU and that she was, you know, my my original theory on the MOU was simply that she had a sort of an image problem and some difficulties with with the separatists and and and the NDP and others.

00:19:57.560 And my opinion last year, because remember last year when the MOU came, it came just before the annual general meeting in Edmonton. So I used to think that she had some difficulties at the time. Carney had difficulties at the time. And I used to think that they just got together, slapped together this MOU to try and find something, you know, to benefit each other. Both could talk about it positively.

00:20:19.380 and i agree and last year i used to think it was a bad deal i think it's an even worse deal

00:20:24.460 now that i've seen the details and we'll talk about i'll i want to talk about it a little bit

00:20:29.300 later not not just now but i so uh but to your but to your point i don't i think she's i think

00:20:35.480 she had a part in it i don't think she just gave it to somebody else interesting yeah well that was

00:20:42.400 a big mistake yeah well we'll see so okay so i i've noted it dan thanks for the i'll i'll uh

00:20:48.480 I'll, I'll, I'll bring it up in a minute here. I'll keep talking about it, but yeah, I appreciate the call.

00:20:55.280 Thanks for taking my call.

00:20:56.440 You bet. Yeah, I'm, I'm tempted to jump right into the MOU because it is something I wanted to talk about, but I, but I, I just want to finish on the two ministers that, that resigned yesterday or this week.

00:21:07.000 Nate Horner is the was the finance minister. And, you know, he's been a minister for about

00:21:15.940 five years now. It's his second term. And me personally, I'm not sad to see him go. I don't

00:21:23.640 think he did the best job as a finance minister. That's one of the things that I'm very critical

00:21:30.140 of this government is that the budgets have outpaced population growth and inflation.

00:21:40.020 And I really wish that Alberta would bring its budget under control and shrink the size

00:21:46.900 of government.

00:21:48.380 And so I don't think Nate gave Smith the ammunition necessary to do that.

00:21:53.620 Now, he's gone.

00:21:54.640 He's simply saying that he's just not running again in a year from now and is stepping

00:22:00.000 down to give whoever is going to replace him time to get up to speed well um i can and cannot buy

00:22:09.060 that i mean that's um you know i i think something else happened there but we we won't know maybe you

00:22:15.220 guys have an opinion on what happened to nate horner and then uh matt jones he stepped down he

00:22:20.840 was in charge of hospitals i think for him it's more and back to nate i think nate might have

00:22:27.280 push the wrong way against Smith. And she kind of might have said, you know, you need to step

00:22:33.000 aside. And he kind of got displaced. And that's my basic theory. Matt Jones, I think just literally

00:22:41.000 his is legit. He's not seeking reelection. And I think being in that portfolio in charge of

00:22:48.120 hospitals and everything else, again, he didn't do a very good job there. Just this week, there was

00:22:52.940 another story of somebody you know dying while waiting in an emergency room somewhere and and so

00:22:59.180 you need somebody really tough to want to tackle Alberta health and and reform that we've talked

00:23:07.760 about you know tackling Smith where Smith was a big help in tackling education and going against

00:23:15.120 the teachers but she hasn't been very vocal when it comes to going after Alberta health and she's

00:23:19.860 left that entirely to her ministers and her ministers are kind of struggling to bring Alberta

00:23:24.980 Health under control. So they both resigned. And then this morning, she made the announcement

00:23:31.920 of who's stepping in and Horner's being replaced by Nixon, which I find to be a completely

00:23:39.520 interesting case. Again, he's been a longtime minister. He wasn't in this cabinet, actually.

00:23:47.980 That's an interesting thing. He was snubbed recently, but he's been a minister in the past and he but he has zero financial background, zero whatsoever.

00:24:00.220 And I think that's super critical. You know, to me, the finance minister is kind of like the second in command.

00:24:06.880 And I really don't see Nixon as being the second in command. So I'm so again, we'll time will tell why he was put there.

00:24:16.040 I'm sure if you guys have opinions, let me know.

00:24:18.440 And I actually can't even remember who got Matt Jones's position.

00:24:25.420 I think it was, I was going to say Lagrange, I thought, maybe got shuffled around.

00:24:33.720 But sorry, I didn't write that down.

00:24:37.300 Anyways, that's what it was this morning.

00:24:39.800 So some interesting development.

00:24:41.900 So it should make for an interesting press release or press conference later this afternoon.

00:24:47.280 I guess we're going to. OK, so if nobody's calling, I guess we'll this does tie in nicely.

00:24:52.200 I wanted to talk about the MOU and and I think I want to dive into that one a little bit more.

00:24:59.200 Right. So last week, Carney came to Alberta and him and Danielle again did the press conference holding up kind of like the Trump thing.

00:25:10.340 And, you know, they hold the MOU with their signatures on it and stuff like that.

00:25:14.440 And the MOU, Carney would, let me, let me step back.

00:25:20.180 I, I predicted a week, a couple of weeks ago before the by-elections, right?

00:25:25.380 When Carney still had his minority government, he was focused on censorship and he was focused on really minor stuff, you know, like food stamps for people and, and GST rebates and stuff like that.

00:25:40.100 he wasn't rocking the boat he wasn't he was proposing stuff but he wasn't moving on anything

00:25:44.380 and i i said this right very clearly that once he got his majority even though it's small once he

00:25:50.240 got his majority we would see a different carny and we are seeing that different carny immediately

00:25:55.360 the carny that came visiting here this week is the carny from from from the last decade it's the

00:26:02.500 Kearney who's pro, who truly believes in climate change as a calamity.

00:26:08.880 It's the Kearney who believes in net zero and then electrifying and doing all these things.

00:26:14.900 That's the Kearney that we're seeing now.

00:26:17.780 And when he came back this, you know, a year later after signing the MOU, there's been no progress.

00:26:23.720 Nobody has stepped up to build a pipeline.

00:26:26.840 And Carney and Smith both basically signed an agreement to increase the carbon tax.

00:26:39.220 So, John, can you quickly bring up the graph on Canada's greenhouse gas emissions?

00:26:46.020 Because I think it sort of explains this quite nicely.

00:26:49.420 So that's don't you don't need to go hard into the details, but that's Canada's greenhouse gas emissions, you know, for the last 25 years kind of thing.

00:27:00.500 And there's a little arrow there in the middle, which is 2005, which is the year that they they at the Paris Accord and other accords, they agreed that that was the baseline year, which I can't zoom in.

00:27:14.780 I think it's 862 or something like that.

00:27:17.760 And, and we agreed that we would reduce, not we, I would never agree to this,

00:27:22.900 but the liberals agreed that we would reduce,

00:27:25.480 Canada would reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40% lower than the number

00:27:31.100 that's on the screen right now. And if you look at the, and if you put that number,

00:27:35.020 if you put a red line somewhere on that, on that graph, it'd be like so low.

00:27:39.980 We're never, ever, ever, ever, ever going to meet our greenhouse gas emissions.

00:27:44.780 not the way we're going and so i'll come back to that um but let's go to the caller on the line

00:27:50.240 but i definitely want to come back to that go ahead uh where are you calling from and name please

00:27:54.320 hey marty it's maverro's from february holy smokes yeah almost uh almost my old uh stomping ground

00:28:04.100 good how are you oh you you are next to a neighbor for a while i guess uh long long time ago uh 40

00:28:12.380 I'm 58, so about 60 years ago, we lived in Timmins.

00:28:19.340 Oh, nice.

00:28:20.380 Yeah.

00:28:20.720 Timmins is great.

00:28:22.020 Okay, I've got a tough one for you today because I kind of agree with what you're saying in that you're saying that Carney isn't giving up his net zero.

00:28:32.440 I don't think he ever intended to.

00:28:35.060 I think that's still the ideology that's chiefly driving him and most of his decisions.

00:28:40.220 But I really don't have a clear answer as to why he would politically risk his position because it's a weak minority.

00:28:51.060 It's incredibly weak. I mean, pardon me, a majority.

00:28:55.260 It can break at any moment. He's got people leaving in the summer.

00:28:59.740 They're going to possibly have elections to come up.

00:29:02.620 So I don't think he's ever been in a position of strength that he's going to use or risk that political capital by signing the MOU.

00:29:13.400 I'm wondering how, in your mind, he justifies this risk.

00:29:17.900 Because if I listen to, you know, the mainstream media, they're talking on the exact opposite of what we're talking about here at Western Standard. 0.83

00:29:26.240 They're like, this guy's crazy.

00:29:27.920 He wants a pipeline. 0.87

00:29:29.120 He doesn't care about the environment.

00:29:30.480 they're seeing the exact opposite so he's risking a lot and i'm wondering how how you uh yeah i mean

00:29:38.540 that in your mind how no i i hear you i hear you i mean and stay on the line like you're right like

00:29:43.900 when you just remember when he signed the mou last year he pissed off steven gilbeau to the

00:29:48.640 point where gilbeau like i'm out of cabinet right and um and right yeah yeah if you read uh quebec

00:29:55.640 media in particular he's losing a lot of popularity but but but he's sacrificing a little i i think

00:30:02.880 he does currently have a minority but if you look at his projections in the polls and whatnot

00:30:07.800 if there was an election tomorrow he'd still win like he would still win right so in fact i'm

00:30:13.940 surprised he hasn't called an election because i think he is he is still that popular so he's he's

00:30:18.540 he's i think he's playing that game a little bit he knows that he's got an opportunity to make a few

00:30:23.620 unpopular decisions to win a little bit of support and a little bit of time i don't think he's

00:30:29.460 fundamentally worried about losing a general election if there was one and and the other

00:30:34.240 reason i don't think he's worried is a he is fairly popular but he was installed right i mean he like

00:30:40.400 there's powers that be and when and and so he's he's cocky confident to the point of being cocky

00:30:46.740 because he knows he's not going to lose does that make sense i would agree with your statement that

00:30:53.340 There was some level of installation there because it wasn't a democratic process by which he was initially put in.

00:31:00.600 He was just placed there.

00:31:02.640 And then we ended up with an election shortly thereafter.

00:31:06.800 And I'm going to say he's democratically elected officially, yes.

00:31:11.900 but he appeared in an entirely undemocratic way

00:31:16.460 where he just suddenly appeared

00:31:17.880 and took over the leadership of the party

00:31:20.160 by some flimsy rules

00:31:21.800 that probably should be looked at in the future.

00:31:25.460 Yeah, now let's expand on that just a little bit.

00:31:28.460 So you're calling from out east.

00:31:29.740 So what, like, I mean, to me,

00:31:31.860 he's, as an Albertan,

00:31:34.200 I can see that he's gaining a little bit of popularity here

00:31:37.160 and it's working well for him.

00:31:39.200 Is he really losing that much out east?

00:31:41.280 like is he pissing off people out east like friends not talking say in his cabinet but

00:31:46.240 around you are people pissed off at him no because i'm in sudbury and you know the people who are in

00:31:53.460 the northern ontario tend to think a little bit more independently than those in the major cities

00:32:00.080 so we still have a dedicated movement towards you know uh values that are more traditionally based

00:32:07.860 I would say, than the big cities, which are much more, you know, they ebb and flow away

00:32:13.040 from mainstream ideas.

00:32:16.020 They reject capitalism all of a sudden.

00:32:18.540 They take on woke ideologies. 0.96

00:32:20.760 They take on all sorts of crap as almost like a fact, whereas that didn't hit, I think, 0.88

00:32:29.660 cities like Timmins or Sault Ste. 0.89

00:32:31.820 Marie or Sudbury as hard.

00:32:33.960 Now, you said something.

00:32:35.740 Go ahead.

00:32:37.860 No, you said something interesting, though.

00:32:41.980 So you said that he's going to lose some people in the summer.

00:32:47.080 What rumor are you hearing about losing people?

00:32:50.640 The only person I can think of that you might lose out of cabinet is Nate Eskier or Erskine

00:32:55.860 Smith.

00:32:56.860 Right.

00:32:57.860 I don't have anybody extra on top of that, but I've heard rumors from the big networks

00:33:06.620 like CBC and CTV, that this has created a backlash in caucus in general, not within the

00:33:14.260 cabinet for certain, but definitely in caucus, pushing for this pipeline, because they see

00:33:18.700 it as a rejection of net zero values.

00:33:22.320 So there could be further dissension in the ranks.

00:33:26.380 And Northern Perspective is one show that talks about this.

00:33:29.240 Yeah.

00:33:29.860 Those two guys on there.

00:33:32.000 you know you'll we'll let you go here in a second but keep listening to the show but when i will

00:33:37.580 talk about the mou and the pipeline you know he like this mou for me as an albertan it's all about

00:33:44.220 greenhouse gas and net zero like he he he you know he he made danielle smith increase the carbon tax

00:33:51.400 and we have to build this thing called the pathways alliance like we have to build this

00:33:56.620 giant co2 capture system so he's selling it that way hard and in the short term in the short term

00:34:04.380 i mean if the people out east are upset about the pipeline what he'll probably remind him is he'll

00:34:09.820 do the same thing he did to be seal he'll put his hand like this he'll go like i promised them a

00:34:13.820 pipeline but that pipeline is never happening you know like in the short term uh co2 capture will 0.64

00:34:19.660 happen i mean that's what scares me is that in the chicken and egg thing we're the what alberta's

00:34:24.060 committing first and i don't think he will follow through on his promise interesting right yeah one

00:34:30.460 of the things they're one one of the things they're upset about already is the reduced uh carbon tax

00:34:37.100 so they're like saying how did they get it so low for alberto now they're going to want it low for

00:34:42.300 every other province whereas alberta's saying this isn't low enough i think it's 140 right i saw your

00:34:48.140 reaction there yeah we don't 140 isn't good but at least they're like no no it should be higher

00:34:54.140 it was originally said higher so it should be higher and now other provinces are going to peak

00:34:59.020 it lower this so it's interesting that yeah the kind of arguments you get are the exact opposite

00:35:05.260 this this awesome thanks for that i mean that ties nicely into what i'll finish on my chat on

00:35:10.140 greenhouse gas so appreciate the call absolutely thank you um hey john just scroll down uh i think

00:35:16.220 we need to recognize once in a while we get these super chats, right? So somebody, R.C.

00:35:22.060 Lamoureux there said that less than 30 days, politicians and bureaucrats are going to be

00:35:26.860 arrested and jailed for treason. I wish we could have a follow up to that comment. I'm wondering

00:35:33.260 where that comment comes from. When's the last time somebody in this country was arrested for

00:35:40.540 treason? I think it goes all the way back to Louis Riel. So I hear those comments all the time. I'm

00:35:44.780 kind of smiling i i've had some interactions with rc and i think he's a bit maybe pulling my leg but

00:35:50.940 thank you for that comment um well what do you got there you got another question i thought the mou

00:35:57.260 was danny's way of showing that working with the feds doesn't work that's a spin right i mean um

00:36:05.020 that's a possibility for sure so let me let me uh let me quickly finish on uh on my graph there so

00:36:11.100 So at the end of the day,

00:36:14.520 Alberta, Canada is not going to meet

00:36:16.060 its greenhouse gas emissions, right?

00:36:18.180 And I think Carney is still committed to that.

00:36:20.580 And as the caller just said,

00:36:21.780 a lot of people have bought into this narrative

00:36:24.120 and they believe in climate change

00:36:26.340 and they want us to do something.

00:36:28.480 Now, if you see what,

00:36:31.720 if you break down where Canada's

00:36:33.360 greenhouse gas emissions come from,

00:36:35.580 sure, about half of them come from industry

00:36:37.780 and then industry includes trucking,

00:36:40.320 rail transport stuff like that but then a big chunk of it comes from oil production in the

00:36:45.440 process of making oil in alberta we produce a lot of greenhouse gas emissions the other half

00:36:50.240 of canada's greenhouse gas emissions is personal it's people burning gas in their furnaces at home

00:36:55.840 and oil in their furnaces and and and gasoline in their cars and stuff like that and the targets that

00:37:01.360 the government have set are absolutely ridiculous and and if if they were honestly truly serious

00:37:07.760 about meeting them, then they would have to go after the public and, you know, force people into

00:37:14.480 driving less, flying less, burning, building smaller homes. And we know that's never going

00:37:19.500 to happen. So they keep going about it the way that the only way that they can, which is targeting

00:37:24.240 industry in these most ridiculous ways. And here in Alberta, this whole, this whole Pathways

00:37:30.320 alliance building a 30 billion dollar system to uh inject carbon dioxide underground makes almost

00:37:38.160 everything else that comes after that uneconomical and you you can get rid of that graph there john

00:37:44.080 where but so and and and carney keeps talking about this right so i'm i'm worried about that

00:37:49.760 because danielle signed on board with this she's gonna do she's agreed to keep pushing the it's a

00:37:57.920 It's a chicken and egg, right?

00:37:59.180 So let me continue on that, right?

00:38:03.600 Well, let me give you a very, very, very personal experience.

00:38:06.600 So I worked for TransCanada and I was working for TransCanada

00:38:09.940 when we were developing Keystone and Keystone XL.

00:38:15.440 And so let me tell you how that works, right?

00:38:17.280 So for when we were thinking of building Keystone,

00:38:21.140 it's a chicken and egg thing.

00:38:23.100 So we went, we sent people to go meet with industry.

00:38:27.060 TransCanada has got an idea.

00:38:28.420 It's like, we think there's value in building a pipeline from Canada down to Houston.

00:38:32.920 So then we send out crews of marketers and people to meet with industry.

00:38:37.520 And we asked, we asked Synovus, CNRL, Husky, all the producers, what kind of forecast do

00:38:43.720 you have in the future?

00:38:44.560 How much oil are you going to produce?

00:38:46.000 And where do you think you'll sell that oil?

00:38:48.120 And they all came back to us saying, ah, I can do 100,000 barrel.

00:38:51.300 I can do 100.

00:38:52.240 This guy can do 100.

00:38:53.240 And so we all start to, you know, agree. So you got a bunch of producers that said, we will, if you build a pipeline, we will commit to filling the pipeline. You see how it works? So you need to mutually trust each other.

00:39:09.520 so when after a bunch of negotiations trans canada said okay it looks like we could build

00:39:15.180 a pipeline for about 500 000 barrels a day because we got five we got producers committed

00:39:20.440 to 500 000 barrels a day for the next 30 years so it's all profitable it's all worth doing and

00:39:26.680 and then and then everybody signed agreements and trans canada said we'll build this pipeline

00:39:31.200 within these tolerances give or take you know 10 billion dollars give or take and and then if it's

00:39:36.420 a little bit over we'll buy the overage but if it's right on target you guys are committed to

00:39:41.280 producing and it worked and we built the pipeline and everybody's happy if you try and do that today 1.00

00:39:47.380 um first of all the trans canadas of the world they got burnt they're not interested in doing 1.00

00:39:53.380 this anymore because their 10 billion pipelines end up being 20 and 30 billion dollar pipelines

00:39:59.320 it's too complicated and the producers they're not interested in doing it because they don't

00:40:04.160 think the pipelines will get built. And then the people who finance this, they're not interested

00:40:08.160 in coming here to finance this because it takes too long. The dollar that they invest sits on the

00:40:15.560 sideline for too long, doesn't have a return on investment. You see what's happening? And there's

00:40:19.600 too many regulations. So how do you break that vicious cycle? Well, to me, the way to break that

00:40:26.780 vicious cycle is for the government to bring back a climate, an environment, a regulatory framework

00:40:35.400 where people will want to invest. Because all these parties that I talked about, they're worried

00:40:41.320 about risk. They're worried about how long things will take, changing regulations, changing

00:40:47.080 governments, being competitive with other jurisdictions. And in this country, how do we

00:40:54.280 break that cycle what happened in the last 10 years the like something broke in the last 10

00:40:59.180 years too many regulations too many too much talk about greenhouse gas and stuff like that

00:41:03.960 so if Carney's serious about building pipelines here he would have to piss off the people out

00:41:09.320 east like we just heard the caller say and he would have to repeal bill c69 bill 47 he would

00:41:15.900 have to get rid of the tanker ban he would have to stop talking about he'd have to stop imposing

00:41:21.380 um requirements that the that the like why is he deciding on you know decarbonized oil let the

00:41:29.560 client decide what kind of oil and i want to come back on that decarbonized oil so uh call

00:41:34.020 can you guys tell i'm a little bit agitated right now i love this topic so

00:41:38.640 go ahead caller where are you calling from hey marty jesse and gp here hey jesse we've talked

00:41:45.240 before right oh yeah yeah yeah um i'm wondering do you think that you speed has given the electorate

00:41:52.640 the opportunity to see for themselves for this mou or any other subsequent agreement that's

00:41:58.160 beholden to carbon tax is not the right direction for alberta within canada

00:42:02.920 rephrase that a little bit like expand on your thought on that one

00:42:08.680 um well i think you know perhaps uh danielle is creating or the ucp is creating this mlu or the

00:42:18.420 you know the agreement or updates to the agreement that just happened that shows um how we are

00:42:22.980 beholden to this carbon tax and that it's probably not in the best direction for alberta for carbon

00:42:28.940 tax right um and then it brings it to the public's attention more so because the mainstream media or

00:42:35.620 the legacy media is not going to, which is actually kind of funny because they're talking

00:42:41.200 about more carbon tax, which is driving more people to Albert Independence, which is probably

00:42:45.060 our only viable path, in my opinion.

00:42:48.380 Yeah, no, I guess you're sort of the second person to bring up that angle today, right?

00:42:58.480 You know, is she setting up Carney for failure is basically what you're asking, right?

00:43:04.580 Pretty much.

00:43:05.200 Yeah, so the electorate can then do their own research so they understand that there's no getting away from this carbon tax with the current Liberal government or any other subsequent government going forward in the Federation.

00:43:21.140 Yeah, it's an interesting argument.

00:43:23.340 I mean, you know, like it also goes back to last week when she made the announcement

00:43:27.900 and we're making the announcement.

00:43:29.280 There was surprisingly nobody from industry there, right?

00:43:31.560 Like if this was a good deal, like if truly this was a good deal,

00:43:34.940 there would have been right over her shoulder.

00:43:36.740 There would have been somebody from Synovus and Meg Energy and whatever,

00:43:40.260 all the big boys, but they weren't there.

00:43:45.640 No.

00:43:46.500 And previous, well, previous, that week previous, they just,

00:43:50.560 came out with a statement, a few of them indicating how the current climate is not conducive to

00:43:56.840 investment due to the carbon tax, right?

00:43:59.780 Yeah.

00:44:00.500 Right there.

00:44:01.720 Yeah.

00:44:02.320 No, if I have to weigh, like, is she doing it to look, is she doing it to appease her base here

00:44:07.580 and look like she's, or part of her base, part of Albertans, and is she doing it to look like

00:44:12.640 she's working with Carney instead of against them? 0.79

00:44:15.100 or is she or is she doing it to um as some sophisticated education campaign so that we

00:44:22.560 will all finally realize what's happening i'm going to go with the first one right that she's

00:44:27.300 genuinely just trying to work with carny and and like i said at the beginning of the show

00:44:31.900 she's navigating she's walking a tightrope and trying to please a lot of people that's my gut

00:44:38.480 that's the one i'm going with i mean and and the reason i'm still going with that gut

00:44:42.680 is like we just had how many other nations now have dropped their carbon taxes and have dropped

00:44:49.700 all talk about net zero and carbon and have bailed out of the Paris accord I mean even the United

00:44:55.720 Nations last week basically said hey sorry our bad you know all our predictions about the climate

00:45:01.080 change were wrong right like we're we're we seem we seem to be one of the last places hanging on to

00:45:07.200 that and and and i and when and carney's one of the guys hanging on to it now the bigger question

00:45:14.080 to me is is he genuinely does he genuinely think that way or is he just milking it and trying to

00:45:20.660 be profitable for you know like selling heat pumps for brookfield as long as possible like

00:45:25.300 what is it when it comes to carney yeah and it's keeping his g fans and his pocketbooks um all

00:45:32.660 topped up right yeah and uh i agree and one last thing i'll just say that you know obviously that

00:45:38.440 statement from the gentleman in the east uh regarding the higher carbon tax and how the east

00:45:42.440 wants wants more carbon tax and it's not enough we need to do more clearly indicates that our only

00:45:49.200 viable path is saying yes yeah to that independent flow okay cool i'll let you go uh but uh appreciate

00:45:57.900 the call and uh and as usual i mean you call every week almost i really appreciate it but you you

00:46:02.660 I'll let you go, but you made me think of one quick thing.

00:46:04.980 So thanks.

00:46:06.660 Chat later.

00:46:07.540 You bet. 0.93

00:46:08.760 You know, he brought up the East.

00:46:12.740 And again, I'm going to say there's a bit of hypocrisy here on the East when they talk about carbon tax.

00:46:18.040 And I said it earlier, right?

00:46:19.700 They want to help the environment, but not if it affects them, right?

00:46:26.320 So they want to, a lot of people are like that.

00:46:29.060 Not just the East.

00:46:29.960 A lot of people talk a good story until it affects them.

00:46:33.300 Ask somebody out east if they're willing to give up the, you know, go to half the horsepower on their cars or be forced to smaller buildings or things like that.

00:46:42.620 And I think you'll get a different reaction.

00:46:44.760 And an example of that, I've always pushed for this, right?

00:46:47.420 And it ties again to this MOU.

00:46:49.420 You've got Carney coming here telling us that the world wants decarbonized oil.

00:46:53.880 And then you've got everybody out east going, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:46:56.060 Everybody wants decarbonized oil.

00:46:57.980 I disagree.

00:46:58.560 it's not up to him to decide what our customers want how about we ask our customers and and and

00:47:05.480 if i make a deal with china and i sell them oil and they're happy to buy my oil are they going

00:47:10.240 to come here and see how i'm making that oil i highly doubt it and to bring that argument closer

00:47:15.220 to home i guarantee you that if i'm at the pump if i put a you know you go fill up at shell in

00:47:20.780 or petro canada in eastern canada and if at the pump i had you know regular gas premium premium

00:47:27.560 plus and then i had this category at the bottom that said decarbonized and um and that the

00:47:33.400 decarbonized was like 50 more than the regular gas because it's decarbonized because you get

00:47:39.400 some offset credit how many people do you think will actually pick up the decarbonized one and

00:47:44.080 put that in their car not a lot i mean it's the same argument that's been made remember remember

00:47:49.780 like 20 years ago mutual funds start and businesses started talking about you know oh we we are ethical

00:47:57.120 funds we don't invest in sweatshops in china and we we only do green this and green that all those

00:48:03.700 mutual funds failed because they were novelty but nobody bought into them because at the end of the

00:48:09.540 day the mighty dollar speech right i mean there's so many examples of that like go to go you know

00:48:16.080 people talk about um you know like i said go to a walmart and put apples that are there that are

00:48:23.480 organic apples net zero apples and and regular apples and these ones are a buck two bucks and

00:48:29.900 three bucks and you tell and you watch all day long who's buying what you'll see so that's where

00:48:34.800 it's interesting to observe the difference between what people say which we often refer to as being

00:48:39.400 virtue signaling versus what they actually do and and so i find i find that disconnect fascinating

00:48:47.440 And so at the end of the day, the MOU last week was, I think, a disaster.

00:48:56.320 And I don't, I guess you guys are seeing it the same way.

00:49:00.800 I don't see the win-win.

00:49:01.900 I just don't see why Danielle keeps going down this path, or Carney for that matter.

00:49:08.340 Well, I guess I see why Carney's doing it because he's buying a bit of favor from Alberta.

00:49:14.780 And he has a, well, again, I can go both ways on this, right?

00:49:19.180 We've talked about this.

00:49:20.700 Carney has an advantage of letting us go.

00:49:22.760 We could go for, if Alberta disappears and goes its own way,

00:49:26.600 then there will never be a conservative government in this country ever again.

00:49:31.300 So I can see how Carney would have a reason to want to piss us off

00:49:35.520 and let us go on our own.

00:49:36.800 But then is he more interested in the money, hypocritically speaking?

00:49:41.140 Very interesting.

00:49:42.080 um okay well we gotta um let's let's keep going down i got a couple of the other big story i wanted

00:49:49.200 to talk about last week again it all ties into some of this in one way or another um who here

00:49:55.820 was upset about the announcement regarding the snowbirds like i i i was and uh so the snowbirds

00:50:04.380 um aerial demonstration right every almost every country in the world has an aerial demonstration

00:50:12.060 team so we we had uh we had a predecessor to the snowbirds i can't remember what they were called

00:50:18.860 but well i wasn't around but we've had an aerial demonstration team as far back as like right after

00:50:24.980 world war ii so in the 50s and 60s we had aerial demonstration teams in canada and then in the

00:50:31.560 1970s the snowbird there was a naming contest and the snowbirds uh the demonstration team

00:50:39.140 became the snowbirds and then the snowbirds started flying those little planes that you

00:50:44.040 see right there those little planes are called tutors and so in canada in every military every

00:50:50.340 air force around the world needs to train pilots and when you train pilots and if you you you start

00:50:56.040 training pilots in planes that are called trainers so trainers are special planes that are

00:51:00.760 more easily easy to handle more forgiving and usually have two seats either side by side or

00:51:06.760 back to back so that the the student can be in the front and the instructor in the back

00:51:11.700 and when you start in the Canadian Air Force you're training your first stage of training to

00:51:17.580 become a pilot is in a propeller driven plane so most pilots learn in a propeller driven plane

00:51:23.400 and then some will stop there and then they go on to propeller driven planes like the Hercules and

00:51:28.500 other things like that. But some of our guys in Canada, we've had jets as part of our arsenal

00:51:35.900 since the 1950s, right? We had Sabres, Voodoos, Canucks, the F-18. And in the future, we're going

00:51:43.440 to get the F-35. So because we are an Air Force that had jets, we had little prop planes for

00:51:49.280 training, and then we had little jets for training. And that's the plane you're seeing on the screen

00:51:54.060 right now the tutor it's called tutor t-u-t-o-r teaching tutor was a small canadian made plane

00:52:02.140 developed for specifically to train future jet fighters so we've had tutors in this country

00:52:09.500 for since like the 60s but somewhere along the way in the 1970s the tutors were adopted by the

00:52:16.620 the snowbirds as the demonstration plane.

00:52:19.980 So who's seen them fly?

00:52:23.180 I've seen them fly hundreds of times, right?

00:52:25.280 Like a Canada Day celebration without the snowbirds

00:52:29.640 is unimaginable.

00:52:30.700 You've seen them at air shows.

00:52:32.120 I mean, we're lucky.

00:52:32.940 We live in Alberta.

00:52:33.780 I used to live up north.

00:52:35.140 Cold Lake is an amazing base.

00:52:36.900 We got the bombing run at,

00:52:41.620 God, I'm drawing a blank.

00:52:43.000 But, so the snowbirds have been around forever,

00:52:47.100 but those little planes are getting old.

00:52:49.920 And people in the military, in the Air Force,

00:52:52.940 have been saying those planes are getting old

00:52:55.160 forever and ever.

00:52:56.380 I mean, those planes are 60 years old.

00:52:58.440 So somewhere around, like in the 90s,

00:53:01.720 they started saying they're old.

00:53:03.000 In the 2000s, they're saying they're old.

00:53:04.900 In the 2010s, they were saying they're old.

00:53:07.480 And the liberals put it off, put it off,

00:53:10.760 put it off, put it off, put it off.

00:53:12.980 And never found a replacement jet trainer.

00:53:19.320 Now, we found a replacement propeller trainer.

00:53:22.480 So for the last few years, we've had a propeller-driven plane that's used for training.

00:53:27.800 But we don't have a jet trainer, which is completely remarkable because we're about to buy.

00:53:34.180 We've bought the most sophisticated jets in the planet or some of the most sophisticated jets.

00:53:38.560 We bought the F-35s.

00:53:39.860 We collaborated with the Americans and other nations to develop this really amazing.

00:53:44.480 Can you find a picture of the F-35, John?

00:53:48.380 So we bought the F-35.

00:53:50.560 We're about to start taking, well, maybe we won't because the liberals seem to change their mind on everything all the time.

00:53:56.780 But at last news, at last I checked, we were taking possession of the F-35s, but we have nothing to train the new pilots on the F-35s.

00:54:07.340 Never mind the F-35s.

00:54:08.500 We have no jet to train the new pilots, so we can train pilots on prop planes, but we have no jets.

00:54:14.760 And and and that's that's weird.

00:54:16.920 And so now and now they the the Tudors are finally sold that the government this week said they're unsafe to fly and they're going to let them fly for this season.

00:54:27.100 And then and then that's it. And then no snowbirds until we get a replacement plane.

00:54:32.900 And I thought, OK, so we're getting a replacement jet trainer.

00:54:35.400 No, we're getting the replacement plane that the snowbirds are getting is the is the prop driven version.

00:54:42.420 And we get those in 2030. So for four years, we will have no snowbirds.

00:54:47.080 And when the snowbirds reappear in 2030, they'll be flying in in propeller driven planes.

00:54:53.120 And everybody's like, well, they still go fast. It won't be the same.

00:54:56.260 And watching propeller planes versus watching jets is not going to be the same.

00:55:01.060 So, you know, and this, and Carney yesterday in a press release said something like, well, I inherited this problem. Really? You inherited this problem? The liberals have been in power since 2015. The minister of defense, the minister of procurement, the minister of all these ministers, they're all the same people.

00:55:20.180 So maybe you, Kearney, are different, but the whole organization that you work for has been in power for 11 years, going on 12, and you're trying to blame this on your predecessor?

00:55:29.880 This is just pure lack of planning.

00:55:34.540 There's no other explanation for it.

00:55:37.180 And sadly, it's just another nail in the coffin for the poor Canadian forces and military.

00:55:44.700 I feel bad for people who dreamed of joining the Air Force.

00:55:51.100 You're a 12-year-old kid who saw the snowbirds a decade ago, and then you finally turned 18.

00:55:56.940 You joined the Air Force.

00:55:58.020 You're learning to be a pilot, and you're hoping someday to get tapped on the shoulder and go fly with 413 Squadron and be one of the snowbirds.

00:56:04.700 And now you're finding that there will be no snowbirds for the next four years.

00:56:08.140 And they'll reappear in 2013.

00:56:09.760 By then, think of the institutional knowledge, the traditions that will have been lost.

00:56:14.100 It is so discouraging when I see stories like that.

00:56:18.900 And I'm trying to stay positive on behalf of our soldiers because they have an amazing reputation of doing the best with absolutely terrible equipment.

00:56:29.080 But this is government incompetence.

00:56:31.180 And it's a double slap in the face when you know that they're wasting money on so many other things and sending money overseas to Ukraine and places like that.

00:56:39.920 And we can't keep enough money for our guys.

00:56:44.100 Which led to, which is, you know, we're running out of time, but this will maybe be the last thing I talk about.

00:56:49.200 So this week, all of this came to a head with the Americans and Donald Trump, indirectly Donald Trump, but the Americans announced that they were pausing the Canada Defense Board, right?

00:57:02.140 So there's this group, there's this U.S.-Canada alliance called the U.S.-Canada Defense Board, where we talk about future strategies together and make sure we're aligned, right?

00:57:16.280 Like when you're making, we do it as part of NATO, but we do it very closely because we're so close to the Americans.

00:57:22.520 So when we buy stuff, we need to make sure it's compatible and we share each other's long-term plans and we share long-term opportunities.

00:57:29.700 Like, hey, if you buy those planes, maybe I can train your guys.

00:57:33.400 And if I buy your boats, maybe you can train my guys.

00:57:36.820 And we collaborate.

00:57:38.220 We plan exercises in the future.

00:57:40.060 We do all those kinds of things.

00:57:41.880 And Trump put an end to that board right now.

00:57:44.580 And it's kind of, it's another symbolic, not a symbolic, it's more than symbolic.

00:57:49.440 It's another example of this ongoing tension between Carney and Trump is going too far.

00:57:57.540 Like it's going too far, right?

00:57:59.380 It served Carney well to, to, to vilify Trump and get elected, but he's gone too far with this. Right. And so, and I think that's another example of that. And like Trump basically said, he's tired that Carney's all words, right? Like Carney said, we're going to increase the spending on military to, to more than 2% of our GDP. He even bragged about making it 5%.

00:58:25.380 percent well giving raises to our soldiers and spending a few more bucks on upgrading the barracks

00:58:31.140 and fixing the runway at the edmonton airport whatever those although they might have a military

00:58:36.940 application that's not what trump wants when he talks about military spending going up to two

00:58:42.060 percent gdp and and the whole fiasco with the snowbirds is that an example of a missed

00:58:47.900 opportunity we could have just carney could have just sent some generals down to the u.s and on a

00:58:54.020 shopping trip you know give him five billion bucks and then they could have gone and said

00:58:57.540 we need little trainers what do you got and the u.s would have said well you could buy these t5s

00:59:02.040 or these t6s how many do you want we could have said 20 as a starter the u.s would have said

00:59:06.680 sounds good imagine how how much that would benefit the relationship between our two countries

00:59:12.220 to do something like that but instead the liberals are going to study this problem for the next 30

00:59:17.000 years they're going to order planes that are bilingual good for minus 50 weather and all

00:59:22.100 sorts of other ridiculous requirements uh what uh what uh what uh what a what a what a world we live

00:59:29.380 in um all right well listen uh thanks for calling in let so yeah recap i mean it was an interesting

00:59:36.180 week uh it's it's going to be quiet in the coming days because or coming months now uh here in

00:59:44.020 alberta uh the legislature recessed last week doesn't resume officially until october 27th so

00:59:50.320 And now we've got four months with no major legislative activity going on in Alberta.

00:59:58.460 Ottawa is also in its summer recess.

01:00:01.700 So I don't know.

01:00:02.580 Hopefully we keep finding things to talk about on this show.

01:00:05.640 Again, thanks for calling in.

01:00:07.460 It all depends on you guys.

01:00:08.760 Please don't be shy.

01:00:09.500 Make sure you join every Thursday at 1 p.m.

01:00:13.980 and as always thanks for the western standard for giving me the opportunity to share their studio

01:00:21.640 and and lending me the space to to have a voice thanks to you guys for calling in make sure you

01:00:28.700 support the western standard it's only ten dollars a month it's a hundred dollars a year if you get a

01:00:33.700 yearly subscription bringing you content like this doesn't come for free we need a few bucks to buy a

01:00:38.500 new switchboard by the way and um the link for for the subscriptions right there on the screen

01:00:44.340 www.westernstandardnews-subscription and uh hope to see you guys next Thursday cheers everyone

01:01:08.500 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - May 24, 2026

MARTY UP NORTH： Chaos at the Select Special Citizen Initiative Proposal Review Committee

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript