Western Standard - Minister-Chief Two-Spirits White Powder

00:00:00.080 Good day, I'm Derek Fildebrand, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:06.160 Today is November 20th, 2024. I'm joined by my favorite guys, Western Standard opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford.

00:00:14.080 What's to talk about today, Derek?

00:00:15.560 Indeed, there is. And Western Standard senior Alberta columnist, Corey Morgan.

00:00:19.920 He's happy to be here to rant.

00:00:21.500 Yeah. Oh, man. So much good stuff. So much good stuff.

00:00:24.980 We're going to talk. Justin Trudeau says, I did not believe this at first.

00:00:31.960 You guys were with me. We actually had to check the transcript. Didn't believe it.

00:00:36.060 I saw our own headline. I was like, has one of our reporters tweaked things?

00:00:39.280 No, they did not. He says the families should prioritize climate change, the fight against climate change over food and rent for your family.

00:00:50.440 I didn't even believe our own reporter. I said, who did that?

00:00:53.240 They're torquing the headlines. That's clickbaity.

00:00:56.740 Nope, it wasn't. My God. We're going to talk about it.

00:01:00.160 Alberta NDP leader, Nahid Nanchi, has asked the UCP to please give him a seat.

00:01:07.580 We've talked about this before.

00:01:08.740 The Alberta NDP leader does not appear to be able to convince a member of his caucus in a safe seat to step aside to trigger a by-election for him to get in and become the leader of the opposition in the legislature.

00:01:24.680 So instead, he said that the UCP, the UCP cabinet minister should resign so he can run.

00:01:30.220 I don't think that's going to happen.

00:01:33.680 But we're going to start with the big news today.

00:01:39.100 Chief Two-Spirit, white powder, Randy Bobandi Boisano.

00:01:45.500 Or perhaps the other Randy.

00:01:48.020 Whichever Randy we want to talk about.

00:01:50.240 Randy Boisano.

00:01:51.900 He is one of the very few, I think one of only two liberals, I think.

00:01:56.280 Two.

00:01:56.640 Two liberals.

00:01:57.000 The other one's been in trouble too.

00:01:58.440 Yeah, yeah.

00:01:59.120 George Chahal is in trouble for being a porch pirate.

00:02:02.580 Randy Bobandi here, though.

00:02:05.520 He is the only liberal cabinet minister from Alberta.

00:02:08.380 Well, I should say was the only liberal cabinet minister from Alberta because he just resigned today.

00:02:15.260 This one has been coming for a long time.

00:02:17.960 The guy is neck deep in not just little scanties.

00:02:22.160 These are not Bev Oda bought a $20 glass of orange juice and everyone just got their panties in a twist.

00:02:27.140 These are major corruption level serious allegations to which he has made no effort to clear himself.

00:02:36.220 So, just kind of recounting here.

00:02:37.900 Tell me if I've forgotten any because there's quite a few with him.

00:02:41.880 His company, which is supposed to be in blind trust, he's supposed to have nothing to do with it.

00:02:45.900 Turns out the company that he is the 50% owner of has been getting major juicy contracts from the federal government

00:02:53.280 while he sits around the federal government's cabinet table.

00:02:56.240 And it turned out, it appears very strongly, that he allegedly, we'll just try to get sued here,

00:03:05.620 has had dealings with this company while he is supposed to have it in blind trust.

00:03:10.700 He's supposed to have nothing to do with it.

00:03:12.380 And there are text or email chains discussing, look, I'll talk to Randy about this.

00:03:19.120 These messages have been acquired.

00:03:20.580 Well, Randy Boisoneau says that was another Randy.

00:03:24.700 That was the other Randy.

00:03:26.660 Well, you'd think if there was another Randy, he'd be really quickly trying to figure out who is other Randy.

00:03:32.700 So he could go to the Paralentic Committee investigating and say, here is other Randy.

00:03:37.200 This is the Randy they were talking about.

00:03:38.880 This has been going on for what?

00:03:40.480 Almost a year or something?

00:03:41.960 He has yet to produce other Randy.

00:03:43.520 One gets the impression there might not be an other Randy.

00:03:48.860 It's just Randy.

00:03:51.880 Then we've got, this started developing here.

00:03:55.780 This troublesome company, owned by, involving the other Randy, has, was listed as indigenously owned.

00:04:06.540 Entirely indigenously owned.

00:04:07.860 And if a company is listed as indigenously owned, I guess it gets some subsidies and tax perks and whatnot.

00:04:14.360 You'll come up here on the contract list if you're indigenously owned.

00:04:17.480 They desperately want to bring in as many as they can.

00:04:19.680 You're going to get some subsidies.

00:04:20.900 There's a lot of, there's some perks to being listed as an indigenously company.

00:04:25.780 And that's neither here nor there.

00:04:27.640 We can talk about that's a good thing or a bad thing.

00:04:29.480 Whatever. 0.99

00:04:31.300 But Mr. Randy Boisano is as white as pure Colombian cocaine. 0.89

00:04:36.480 Speaking of white, pure Colombian cocaine, it now seems that his company has had at least some role to play in some major cocaine smuggling operations.

00:04:48.940 Well, they shared a mailbox anyway.

00:04:51.040 That's, yes.

00:04:52.100 Yeah, yeah.

00:04:52.740 It's a bizarre connection.

00:04:54.180 It's a bizarre connection.

00:04:55.200 I don't know.

00:04:58.020 I don't know what was being dropped off and put in there.

00:05:00.080 But it's now touching it.

00:05:03.260 So, you know, we've dubbed him here Chief Two Spirits White Powder.

00:05:08.960 But he claims he is also known as a strong eagle among the Cree.

00:05:12.640 Maybe that's true or not.

00:05:13.860 But he is not Cree. 0.99

00:05:15.120 He is as white as the cocaine that ended up in his mailbox. 0.95

00:05:17.440 But he was in the Liberal Indigenous Caucus. 0.98

00:05:20.080 Yes.

00:05:20.820 The Liberals for a long time listed him as a member of the Liberal Indigenous Caucus.

00:05:26.320 Last time we checked, he doesn't have a drop of Indigenous blood in him.

00:05:30.620 So, then, I think it was just as recently as yesterday, Justin Trudeau was standing by him.

00:05:38.700 Stand by your man.

00:05:39.540 Not very usual for Trudeau to actually let go of a guy.

00:05:44.600 Start with you, Corey.

00:05:45.780 You're chomping at the bit, I see.

00:05:47.000 This seems to have been inevitable.

00:05:53.360 There was no way this guy could last.

00:05:55.280 Each one of these was a clearly fireable or resignable offense.

00:06:00.360 What took so long before they saw the inevitable here?

00:06:03.700 You know, I think if the Liberals had been a strong majority government and he had the room to just turf somebody and absorb it and move on, they would have.

00:06:11.840 But they're down to the threads now.

00:06:14.400 I mean, they're a government that's mailing it in, that's in dire trouble in the polls, though.

00:06:18.880 I mean, again, you'd think political wisdom would say get rid of this anvil as fast as you can.

00:06:23.620 But they just weren't eager to lose another caucus member.

00:06:25.600 They've lost some in by-elections.

00:06:27.360 They just, it's just one more thing.

00:06:28.960 He didn't resign from the Liberal Caucus.

00:06:30.320 He resigned from the Liberal Cabinet.

00:06:31.420 Yeah.

00:06:31.740 But even then, he's got a weak cabinet, too, and he's running out of people to put in him.

00:06:36.980 But, I mean, the blood was in the water as soon as people smelled it.

00:06:40.380 I mean, this wasn't always a very strange character into a lot of troublesome things.

00:06:44.880 And, you know, people started digging, and sure enough, they found stuff.

00:06:47.980 There's probably more once you start seeing that much smoke.

00:06:51.180 And even then, though, he hasn't turned out a caucus.

00:06:53.900 He's just out of cabinet.

00:06:55.080 I think they're going to bury him on the back bench and just try to ride this out.

00:06:57.800 Well, to be fair, I mean, the accusations have been made.

00:07:02.900 They have yet to be proved.

00:07:04.160 So the appropriate thing, not that I am making a defense for strong eagle man.

00:07:11.880 Strong eagle man, yeah.

00:07:12.740 Strong eagle man, yes.

00:07:14.360 Not that I'm making a defense for it.

00:07:15.960 But if somebody is, if a serving politician is accused of something like this, then the appropriate thing is, yes, you step out of cabinet and you resolve it.

00:07:26.180 And some people have, I can't think of one, but some people, I can't think of a liberal anyway, who has actually successfully defended themselves against charges of fraud.

00:07:36.080 But maybe he will, and so you don't actually tie concrete blocks to his feet and drop him over the side.

00:07:44.760 You just say, well, you've got some business to attend to, sir.

00:07:48.720 Go attend to it and let us know when you're in the clear.

00:07:53.380 The thing that I, you can't help, as Corey was talking about, it was just yesterday.

00:08:01.140 But the prime minister was reported as saying, I have every confidence in Randy.

00:08:08.020 And he referred to him as Randy.

00:08:11.560 You know, it was very friendly.

00:08:13.460 And he said, and he's been representing Alberta.

00:08:16.960 And I thought, what exactly is it about Alberta that Mr. Boisinaud represents?

00:08:24.880 There's nothing that I can think of about him that says Alberta.

00:08:31.140 Yeah, he's, okay, the cocaine link to his company, that's an allegation that's yet to be proved.

00:08:40.500 But beyond a shadow of a doubt, we know for a fact, he lied about being indigenous. 0.87

00:08:47.500 That one we can confidently see.

00:08:49.920 There's nothing to clear his name around there.

00:08:52.480 He did it.

00:08:53.720 The liberal was on the liberal party's website.

00:08:55.520 And the thing is, the liberal party can't really claim to be innocent of it.

00:08:59.840 He was on the liberal's website as the liberal, a member of the liberal indigenous caucus.

00:09:05.440 It was their claim.

00:09:06.620 They backed up that claim.

00:09:08.360 I mean, I don't need a DNA test looking at this guy.

00:09:11.800 Yeah. 0.55

00:09:13.320 He's a cracker.

00:09:14.260 That claim was made in 2015.

00:09:16.080 And they proudly put up a poster with eight other individuals.

00:09:19.980 Here's our indigenous caucus.

00:09:22.420 And then he quietly disappeared from it.

00:09:24.920 So, obviously, somebody at some point said something a little funny about Strong Eagle, man.

00:09:32.700 And maybe we should just, maybe, but they didn't think it was funny enough.

00:09:39.100 White Eagle.

00:09:40.480 They didn't think it was funny enough to get him off the, out of cabinet at that point.

00:09:45.960 So, obviously, the standard for hiring is pretty low.

00:09:50.540 Well, I mean, they went by the honor system, though.

00:09:53.040 I mean, you can't expect a liberal government to say, okay, anybody applying or saying they're indigenous, you know, we're going to make you submit to a DNA test.

00:09:58.800 I mean, they kind of trusted.

00:10:00.440 No, no, no.

00:10:00.900 You're right about that.

00:10:02.520 You would think.

00:10:03.260 What if they have gotten the idea?

00:10:04.800 Oh, yeah.

00:10:05.140 Pull them off the poster.

00:10:06.160 That was fantastic.

00:10:06.540 They realized it later.

00:10:07.680 I mean, the memes are fantastic.

00:10:09.500 We're exposed.

00:10:10.180 Coquahannas.

00:10:11.520 Coquahannas.

00:10:11.960 Oh.

00:10:12.280 Was that made up by James, our VP operations?

00:10:15.260 Might have been.

00:10:15.720 I don't know.

00:10:16.680 I've seen it around.

00:10:17.560 Coquahannas was a good one.

00:10:18.620 But it's like Nigel said, yeah, they smelled the trouble brewing a while ago, but just kind of hoped that it wouldn't surface.

00:10:25.120 Well, let's talk about the pretendium thing here. 0.74

00:10:27.320 So, more than we have.

00:10:28.980 I want to get into this, because this is fascinating.

00:10:33.300 So, you look at, you know, you could look at some people and be like, ah, that guy is probably indigenous.

00:10:39.100 Some people, you have to look at them, maybe a little.

00:10:42.040 One look at Randy Boisano, and I'm like, no, no.

00:10:46.280 Based on the last name, I'm saying French.

00:10:47.840 You know, so you see French, but you're Canadian, it's possibly your Métis, but if he was, it'd be pretty far back. 0.95

00:10:53.320 So, no one looking at a, no one sitting in the liberal website design desk said, you know, took a look at his picture and said, this guy's indigenous.

00:11:01.760 Where did they, someone had to tell them.

00:11:04.540 Who would have possibly said, this man's indigenous? 0.98

00:11:07.240 It obviously has to come from him, so he was making the pretendian claim.

00:11:11.020 Um, yeah, he's, he's claiming this was all just some accident.

00:11:15.800 Accident.

00:11:16.420 Yet, the video is reserving of him showing, you know, at functions as well, identifying as himself as, yes, a standing eagle.

00:11:24.220 Strong eagle.

00:11:24.860 Strong eagle.

00:11:25.300 Strong eagle.

00:11:26.080 I mean.

00:11:26.400 And then, his business is registered as wholly indigenous. 0.82

00:11:31.520 Uh, I've never bid for federal contracts, but I, I've had to go through some dumb paperwork.

00:11:38.040 Uh, when we applied for, um, the federal government's media license, uh, as a joke to see if we could get it, I, I had to answer, uh, what percentage of the company was indigenous.

00:11:49.380 Uh, I don't think it was any, but I, I certainly didn't list myself as indigenous.

00:11:54.820 You have to sign off on those things.

00:11:56.620 You sign it.

00:11:58.020 So, he has told the liberal party at some point, uh, by the, by simple logical deduction here, he's told the liberal party he was indigenous for at least some time before that was quietly changed.

00:12:08.540 And he told federal bureaucrats for his company bidding on federal contracts, which he's not supposed to have anything to do with when you're a federal cabinet minister.

00:12:16.460 He told them that he was indigenous.

00:12:18.380 This guy is like, he's a, he's a classic pretendian. 0.99

00:12:23.740 Well, and you know, the, uh, the thing is the story kept changing.

00:12:27.460 Uh, originally he was indigenous and then when he was put on the spot, he said, well, actually I'm sort of an adoptive Cree and the adoption came from my grandmother.

00:12:40.080 Now, I don't know what the rules say about indigenous companies and whether you can be adopted into the, into the tribe and claim to be indigenous for the purposes of getting a government grant.

00:12:56.660 Maybe that's allowed, but that was the, that was, that was the shtick.

00:13:00.900 And then there was another examination of him by, uh, uh, more serious, um, uh, indigenous person who I think is connected to the program.

00:13:10.940 And although he had more political savvy than to come out and say, this guy is just putting us all on, it made it very clear that, uh, clear to me anyway, that the adoptive side of the story didn't really hold up.

00:13:25.600 Well, it indicates kind of a bigger problem too.

00:13:28.780 It's almost, you know, fodder for a different discussion, but a lot of government programs, hires and so on, they're desperate to bring in as many indigenous companies as they can.

00:13:36.560 They have to show success.

00:13:37.660 They have to say, see, look at all of these indigenous companies that are doing well, thanks to our government programs.

00:13:42.700 And unfortunately, uh, there's a lot of socioeconomic challenges for indigenous people and indigenous companies.

00:13:49.740 And there's just a shortage of a pool of good qualified ones to fill those roles. 0.99

00:13:55.420 So when a government office sees one that looks like it's got its stuff together and will fill the role, they tend to grab them pretty quickly without a lot of scrutiny.

00:14:01.760 Well, and there's a lot of incentive.

00:14:03.420 I mean, uh, both for individuals and companies to list yourself as indigenous, both socially and with government.

00:14:09.360 With government, uh, you know, these companies, they're going to get contracts.

00:14:13.540 They might get some subsidies, uh, individuals.

00:14:16.580 I mean, there's obviously some favorable tax implications if you could be considered indigenous. 0.56

00:14:21.500 Uh, but then also socially.

00:14:23.000 I mean, uh, what was, uh, I can't remember.

00:14:25.420 I don't know her name.

00:14:25.720 She's before my time, but, uh, a big Canadian, iconic indigenous artist.

00:14:30.600 There's a Buffy St. 0.53

00:14:31.660 Marie.

00:14:32.160 Yeah.

00:14:32.760 Yeah.

00:14:32.940 I mean, uh, as white as Boisino.

00:14:35.480 Yeah.

00:14:35.780 She's as white as Boisino. 0.98

00:14:37.140 Now, I, I, somehow she made herself appear indigenous looking. 0.92

00:14:41.540 I mean, she, she passed it off since like the sixties or something before anyone got wise.

00:14:46.560 I mean, we get like Robbie Robertson, who was clearly indigenous and never rode that. 0.89

00:14:50.160 He went on his talent instead and it didn't matter.

00:14:52.660 He just happened to be indigenous.

00:14:54.120 Yeah.

00:14:54.140 You know, but, but, you know, there's incentive for, for people to do this and it kind of puts

00:14:59.480 lie to, uh, that everything is a systemic racism, white power.

00:15:04.160 It's like, if it was systemically racist, the white power, we'd all be, they'd all be pretending 0.78

00:15:08.480 to be white.

00:15:09.680 It wouldn't be going.

00:15:10.740 I don't know any, they just pretend to be white. 0.99

00:15:13.060 They might just live what, like, you know, average Canadians, but I don't know anyone lying

00:15:17.820 about their race to be white, but you know, you got all, all these Michael Jackson anyway.

00:15:22.340 Okay.

00:15:24.100 I stand corrected with Michael Jackson.

00:15:26.100 Uh, and who knows whatever reason he had, but, uh, yeah, this is just a bizarre story.

00:15:32.200 Uh, there is no clearing himself here.

00:15:34.180 Uh, maybe on the cocaine one.

00:15:35.960 Sure.

00:15:36.680 Uh, I, who knows?

00:15:37.940 I think it's quite a coincidence that.

00:15:40.040 Well, it says a lot about his company too.

00:15:42.000 If you've got a large company and so on, typically you'll have a mailing address and not a rented

00:15:45.480 UPS boxes, which is what this was.

00:15:47.660 And apparently a co-renter was a woman who was busted on coke smuggling twice. 0.99

00:15:53.280 Doesn't mean necessarily that his company was involved, but boy, that's an odd person

00:15:57.020 to share a mailbox with.

00:15:58.460 Like mailboxes are cheap to rent.

00:16:00.160 You know, you don't share a rented mailbox when you're a company.

00:16:03.400 That's an odd thing.

00:16:04.860 That's very odd.

00:16:05.800 But I mean, maybe there's some clearing to do there.

00:16:08.020 So maybe he's just, you know, Derek, I have to say this.

00:16:12.980 We have kind of swallowed the Kool-Aid ourselves because we are talking about this in terms

00:16:19.560 of whether this is a legitimate use of indigenous identity.

00:16:25.560 Actually, speaking for myself, it shouldn't be a consideration at all.

00:16:31.480 If you are putting out a, if you're bidding on a government contract, best one, cheapest

00:16:36.860 gets the contract.

00:16:38.720 We all know it doesn't always work out that way, but that's the standard.

00:16:42.980 And so we're saying, well, you know, they're having it when we're, we're almost justifying

00:16:47.500 this practice of affirmative action.

00:16:51.640 And when we talk about whether he was a legitimate recipient, he never could have been.

00:16:58.740 The program was illegitimate to begin with.

00:17:00.280 The DEI shouldn't be there.

00:17:02.220 Yeah.

00:17:02.300 Right.

00:17:02.920 Yeah.

00:17:03.320 Yeah.

00:17:03.700 No.

00:17:04.520 Absolutely.

00:17:04.960 100%.

00:17:06.000 I don't care if it's Korean Canadians or Swahili speaking Canadians.

00:17:10.900 They got a good company.

00:17:11.960 If you can win the, if you win, win the bid, you win the bid.

00:17:16.160 That's just not what we do.

00:17:18.640 This is Canada.

00:17:20.220 Oh, oh, I should have played this at the top, but we're going to finish this topic with this.

00:17:27.160 Nico, let's play the video from question period just the other day.

00:17:32.000 So for some background for you watching who aren't parliamentary rule nerds, MPs are not

00:17:38.640 allowed to use the name of another member of parliament.

00:17:41.360 They have to say, you know, the honorable member from, you know, Edmonton Grisbaugh, or they

00:17:46.060 have to say, you know, the minister of employment and make up work, stuff like that.

00:17:52.560 They can't refer them by name.

00:17:54.020 So if you refer to them by name, you get in trouble.

00:17:56.160 So let's show here.

00:17:57.280 This is a conservative MP who's been in trouble in the House of Commons for referring to, quote,

00:18:02.980 cocaine Randy.

00:18:08.220 You guys actually all saw that clip, right?

00:18:09.880 Yes.

00:18:11.320 Okay.

00:18:11.640 Guys, I spent four years in the Alberta legislature.

00:18:15.740 I think I had some funny moments.

00:18:17.360 I've seen some funny moments.

00:18:18.960 That's the best.

00:18:20.620 That's the best.

00:18:21.560 Playing with the rules.

00:18:22.720 I wasn't referring to that Randy.

00:18:24.420 I was referring to the other Randy.

00:18:27.340 That kind of brings back to what we were saying at the beginning with other Randy.

00:18:32.980 I guess I can't say matter of factly without 100% chance of not getting sued.

00:18:36.980 But I'm going to say it is highly, highly, highly improbable there is an other Randy.

00:18:44.600 There's just one Randy, but he might go by an Indian name or something.

00:18:48.700 But I'm telling you what, if there is another Randy, he's keeping his head down.

00:18:52.020 He doesn't want to.

00:18:53.560 I don't blame him in that case.

00:18:55.000 Where's the other Randy?

00:18:56.000 He's had lots of time.

00:18:57.420 Actually, and the conservatives had a great way of resolving this because they can.

00:19:02.220 What's the term?

00:19:03.340 They can summon someone to appear at a committee.

00:19:05.260 Subpoena.

00:19:05.800 Subpoena.

00:19:06.120 Yeah, they can subpoena someone to appear in front of the committee.

00:19:08.220 So the conservatives moved a motion to subpoena other Randy.

00:19:11.780 He has to show up.

00:19:13.620 Knowing what they're doing, that Randy Bozano has to show up.

00:19:16.700 Whoever is the Randy in this email has to show up.

00:19:19.980 And, of course, the NDP playing defense with the conservatives.

00:19:24.800 Didn't pass.

00:19:26.340 Okay.

00:19:27.780 That's enough of Chief Two Spirits White Powder for now.

00:19:32.600 Okay.

00:19:33.000 So, zoom in a bit more local into Alberta here.

00:19:38.660 Alberta NDP leader Nahid Menchi is still not yet the leader of the opposition.

00:19:44.480 Now, when someone becomes the leader of a political party that forms the government, they instantly become the premier as soon as this one.

00:19:52.560 They get sworn in as premier right away.

00:19:53.800 The constitutional convention is that they have to seek a seat in the legislature at a reasonably earliest available opportunity.

00:20:03.760 That means either immediately calling a general election or triggering some by-elections.

00:20:07.900 You know, a lot of people remember Jim Prentice became PC leader.

00:20:10.720 He was sworn in right after as the premier.

00:20:13.760 And then he triggered a series of by-elections that had a whole other – with ripple effects that we're still feeling today.

00:20:20.620 But he had by-elections.

00:20:22.020 He came in.

00:20:22.800 The rules are different for an opposition party leader.

00:20:25.400 You can be the leader of an opposition party, but you're not yet the leader of the opposition in the legislature until you have a seat in the legislature.

00:20:33.220 So Nahid Menchi's not breaking any constitutional convention here, perhaps breaking political convention.

00:20:39.580 I mean, if it's a small party without a bunch of seats to trigger a by-elections, there's not really a huge expectation.

00:20:44.760 You know, if you have four seats, you might not trigger a by-elections.

00:20:47.860 That's a too high risk of proposal.

00:20:49.960 But the NDP has a lot of seats.

00:20:51.800 They're a pretty big opposition party caucus.

00:20:54.360 They got a lot of MLAs in Calgary, a lot in Edmonton.

00:20:58.640 And yet it appears not a single one of them is willing to resign to let them in.

00:21:04.620 I would have thought at least maybe Rachel Notley, you know.

00:21:07.780 Like, she's got the safest NDP seat in Alberta, Edmonton, Strathcona, right in the dead center of Edmonton, full of hipsters and weird folks there, bureaucrats, things like that.

00:21:20.740 But he hasn't been able to trigger a by-election.

00:21:22.460 And there's a by-election happening right now in Lethbridge in a relatively reliable NDP seat.

00:21:28.640 Well, we can pass that off saying, oh, okay, he's a big city guy.

00:21:30.940 He wants to run a Calgary Red.

00:21:32.560 Lethbridge is out of the way.

00:21:33.840 Fine.

00:21:34.460 We've got to get one of your people to resign.

00:21:36.240 And we haven't seen it yet.

00:21:39.220 So then I think, maybe a mistake, but I think this is in response to a question from Western Standard reporter Jonathan Bradley, asking him,

00:21:48.020 are you going to get a seat anytime soon?

00:21:50.020 I told him, ask him every time you see him.

00:21:52.520 When are you running?

00:21:53.000 When are you running?

00:21:53.420 And then she says, well, the UCPFLA should resign. 0.95

00:22:00.120 He says, all these useless UCPFLA's, they should resign. 0.94

00:22:03.780 And then let me run. 0.92

00:22:08.100 We're getting an emergency alert system test.

00:22:11.040 Yes.

00:22:11.420 Okay.

00:22:13.260 He says, a conservative should resign so I can have a seat.

00:22:16.960 Now, to be fair, I think he was being a bit tongue-in-cheek.

00:22:23.980 Like, he doesn't expect it to happen.

00:22:26.320 But this strikes me, Corey, as a classic kind of ninchy arrogance that, you know, the government should just, you know, plow the way for him to get into the legislature.

00:22:40.580 One of his people shouldn't have to resign, as we've done for, I don't know, 400 years of Westminster tradition.

00:22:46.400 Well, I think some of it, too, is that it is getting under his skin.

00:22:49.420 You know, Jonathan asked the question he really didn't want to touch.

00:22:51.900 It's already a weak position to be in.

00:22:53.580 It's almost, you know, a little humiliating.

00:22:55.540 You're standing in the atrium begging for coverage.

00:22:57.280 You're down there when you should be getting those quotes in the legislature and hammering on things.

00:23:02.620 So, I think he tried for something he thought would be one of those quotable things.

00:23:06.420 And then she's a bright guy.

00:23:07.220 He can get some good ones out now and then.

00:23:09.060 But it just kind of fell flat.

00:23:10.540 He took the wrong tack with it.

00:23:12.660 And I think it's an indication, though, of just how much it is actually bugging him when it got to his composure rather than giving a good answer on it.

00:23:20.040 Well, I guess it was a quotable moment.

00:23:22.000 And here we are.

00:23:22.840 We're talking about it.

00:23:23.140 Not a good quotable moment.

00:23:24.700 You know, I mean, you get the ones you want and the ones you don't.

00:23:28.120 That's the thing. 0.90

00:23:28.880 I mean, anybody who is not following politics closely and who stumbles across this is going to say, well, that's kind of a dumb thing to say.

00:23:38.640 Why on earth would the government ask one of their people to step aside so the opposition leader can come in?

00:23:45.920 That doesn't make any sense.

00:23:47.560 And not making any sense is not a good look if you are the opposition leader.

00:23:52.200 And now they've also, as you mentioned just a moment ago, they've now called the Lethbridge by-election.

00:23:59.800 So the answer will be, there's an open seat.

00:24:05.840 Oh, for it, Mr. Nenshi.

00:24:07.440 We know he doesn't want to.

00:24:08.900 And he's probably got reasonably good reasons for not wanting to.

00:24:12.900 Not the least of which is that it's not actually a slam dunk for him.

00:24:15.900 Oh, it's not a safe, safe NDP seat, but it's pretty safe.

00:24:19.500 But it would be embarrassing, like Don Getty lost after he won his leadership in trying to get a seat.

00:24:24.360 Well, he lost in a general election.

00:24:25.780 Yeah, but they still had to carve up in Stettler for him.

00:24:28.980 It was an embarrassment.

00:24:29.900 But when you're in the party in power, you can pull it off.

00:24:34.480 But he doesn't have that strength.

00:24:35.620 If he lost a by-election down south, it would be such a blow to him, it would be very difficult to recover from,

00:24:41.780 even as much as he's getting weakened by his outside status right now.

00:24:46.020 I don't hold it against them not running the Lethbridge, because the leader of a party should generally run in a safe seat.

00:24:52.400 Danielle Smith, remember, did not run in Calgary Elbow when Calgary Elbow was open, because that was not a safe seat. 0.96

00:24:57.860 That would have been a stupid thing for her to do. 0.56

00:25:00.360 The NDP won it in the general election. 0.99

00:25:01.880 They very well could have won it in that by-election and torpedoed her premiership outside the gate.

00:25:07.280 So, you know, I think Nietzsche actually would have had a good chance of winning Lethbridge West.

00:25:11.320 Yeah, not good in the flow.

00:25:13.360 But it's also far away.

00:25:14.080 You're betraying a generosity of spirit there that most people probably wouldn't.

00:25:18.380 You're right, of course it would.

00:25:20.520 Although there is, it was held by the NDP part, so.

00:25:23.840 They keep their caucus discussions, you know, tight there.

00:25:27.160 We don't get the leaks like we used to.

00:25:28.760 But I just wonder about how insecure he's feeling.

00:25:31.940 Like, he appointed Christina Gray as the official opposition leader in there.

00:25:36.020 And, I mean, look, I don't want to knock Ms. Gray that she's won her seat and so on.

00:25:40.120 But you get stronger MLAs and weaker ones for public persona and being there.

00:25:44.820 She's one of the weaker ones.

00:25:46.440 And it just tells me he doesn't want to be outshone by somebody in the legislature until he can get there.

00:25:50.960 I know her quite well, actually.

00:25:52.700 When I was chairman of the Public Accounts Committee, it's the one committee that the opposition chair is, not the government.

00:25:58.160 And she was the co-chair.

00:25:59.480 So she had a majority, but I got to be chair.

00:26:01.100 So it's a weird balancing dynamic.

00:26:04.900 She's a smart, capable lady. 0.99

00:26:07.220 But, I mean, I wouldn't put her on the short list of parliamentary reform.

00:26:11.820 That's what I mean.

00:26:12.240 I'm not trying to insult her abilities.

00:26:14.340 I'm just saying she's not one of the front and center, let's make sure the party is really in the headlines.

00:26:18.120 And, yeah, I do think it's intentional.

00:26:19.960 He doesn't want the face of the party to become somebody else.

00:26:22.520 I just got a devious, devious idea.

00:26:26.320 And if someone in the UCP caucus or premier's office is watching right now, this crazy idea might actually be worth it.

00:26:34.600 I think a UCP MLA should resign to let them run.

00:26:38.900 Now, you do it, the most conservative seat in Calgary.

00:26:42.160 Do it in, like, the deep southeast or southwest.

00:26:44.360 Do it in the deep south of the city.

00:26:45.740 You wanted a Calgary by-election from a resigning UCP MLA?

00:26:51.340 Let's go.

00:26:52.020 And that MLA could run in their own by-election.

00:26:53.900 They could run in their own by-election, reclaim their seat.

00:26:56.480 They could do it over the Christmas break so that I'm missing the legislature.

00:27:00.020 Call them on it.

00:27:01.060 Because if the leader of a party loses a by-election called for them, they're done.

00:27:06.180 They're done.

00:27:08.300 I'm not sure how much voters might react to that political posturing.

00:27:11.820 It's games.

00:27:12.480 From our point of view, it would be fun.

00:27:13.620 But then she's the one who called for it.

00:27:14.880 True.

00:27:15.920 It's Nenshi who said it.

00:27:17.640 Remember when, you know, Stockwell Day, you know, dared Jean Chrétien to call an early election?

00:27:22.740 He didn't really want him to, but he dared him to.

00:27:24.980 But then Chrétien was like, okay.

00:27:28.180 Caught him with his pants down.

00:27:30.620 I mean, if your opponent asks you to do something, but they don't want you to do it, you should do that thing.

00:27:38.640 I think the conservative, I think the UCP should give Nenshi a by-election in, like, southwest or southeast Calgary.

00:27:45.680 Run against MacGyver or something.

00:27:47.620 Yeah.

00:27:47.720 Meanwhile, Christina Gray for leader.

00:27:55.420 Maybe a commercial opportunity there. 0.88

00:27:57.820 I, you know, this stuck in, popped into my head is kind of a crazy, silly thing.

00:28:03.140 But I don't think it's actually the craziest thing.

00:28:05.300 I think the UCP should take him up on the challenge.

00:28:07.540 Call a by-election.

00:28:08.340 Give him a conservative seat to run it.

00:28:09.600 I know a couple of their members tend to watch our shows every now and then, so we'll see if that goes around.

00:28:14.460 Let's see.

00:28:15.080 Sorry for you guys in southeast Calgary, if you're watching.

00:28:19.200 But I think you've got an opportunity to make a bit of a splash.

00:28:22.780 Okay, I'll start with you, Nigel.

00:28:24.200 How long can Nenshi stay out of the legislature?

00:28:27.140 He's been the NDP leader since, what was it?

00:28:30.800 Was it May?

00:28:31.220 May or June.

00:28:32.060 Early summer, anyway.

00:28:33.040 Yeah, early summer.

00:28:33.800 Time for the stampede, sir.

00:28:34.900 Yeah.

00:28:36.060 I mean, he won that leadership in a...

00:28:39.600 Fantastic fashion.

00:28:40.760 85%, I believe it was.

00:28:42.460 Yeah, he won with, like, you know, Kim Jong-il level support.

00:28:49.000 And it wasn't a leadership review.

00:28:50.400 That was a leadership vote, which is harder than a leadership review.

00:28:52.940 He won it handily.

00:28:54.840 So he's got a rock-solid mandate to lead that party.

00:28:57.940 Much more solid than I thought you'd get.

00:29:01.760 But how long...

00:29:03.580 I don't think he's at risk with the caucus and the party here, because he won it so overwhelmingly.

00:29:07.960 But with the public.

00:29:09.860 But does the public care?

00:29:11.700 They just know that there's an NDP leader.

00:29:13.340 No one actually watches Question Period, except for dorks around our newsroom.

00:29:17.860 Sorry, guys.

00:29:18.920 But, like, no one watches this stuff.

00:29:21.140 Does the public care?

00:29:22.060 We watch, but we don't question.

00:29:24.920 Fair enough.

00:29:25.660 But how long does he have?

00:29:26.940 You know, to be honest, Derek, I would have thought that he was at that point now, or maybe last month, when, if you haven't already got yourself into the legislature, people have got to seriously ask, well, what's the matter with you?

00:29:42.420 Well, it's a curious thing that there is not one of those NDP MLAs who has got enough dedication to the party to actually say, well, I will give up my seat so that you can run, sir.

00:29:57.240 That's interesting.

00:29:58.160 There isn't the level of commitment.

00:30:02.500 And the only thing that I think permits him to get away with it is that eyes are so focused on Daniel Smith and on what the government is doing.

00:30:13.620 And it has been doing a lot that nobody is really paying very much attention to the NDP if they were paying more.

00:30:20.820 Like, if the NDP mattered more, then the fact that he's still outside the legislature would matter more.

00:30:26.380 So the answer to your question is, yes, I think he's actually passed the point, but he can probably get away with it for another six months.

00:30:33.900 Because why?

00:30:35.940 Who's asking?

00:30:37.180 Well, the legacy media is playing the part of the official opposition quite effectively anyways.

00:30:40.440 Well, Corey, you were involved in the early Wild Rose party, and Daniel Smith did not have a seat.

00:30:46.540 But that was a radically different circumstance.

00:30:50.280 The Wild Rose began after the previous election in 2008 with zero seats, I think.

00:30:55.920 Oh, no.

00:30:56.420 We went to one with Paul Hinman.

00:30:57.800 No, the by-election.

00:30:58.540 In and out, and then the Calvary Glenmore just before Premier Smith won the leadership.

00:31:02.500 Paul Hinman lost his seat in 2008.

00:31:04.540 And then he won Glenmore.

00:31:05.920 So Wild Rose had zero seats. 0.95

00:31:07.360 Then Hinman won a by-election in Glenmore.

00:31:09.540 And then three other PCMLAs became...

00:31:13.880 They didn't cross until Smith became leader.

00:31:16.140 Yes.

00:31:16.560 So she became leader.

00:31:18.380 By the time she settled in the leader's office, Wild Rose was up to four seats in the house.

00:31:23.560 The NDP has got, what, 30-something?

00:31:27.380 High 30s?

00:31:29.700 Something like that.

00:31:30.880 They're in there.

00:31:31.460 They're close to 40-ish seats.

00:31:33.020 They can spare one.

00:31:33.780 They're in the high 30s.

00:31:34.620 They've got a lot.

00:31:35.660 They're an established party.

00:31:36.680 But Smith still led the party from outside the legislature.

00:31:39.840 And it may have been a small party.

00:31:41.360 But by the time they got close to the election, it was the clear contender.

00:31:44.520 It was not the NDP.

00:31:45.360 It was not the liberal.

00:31:46.220 It was the second party.

00:31:47.240 Yeah.

00:31:47.520 They were the small party outside the legislature coming in.

00:31:51.840 But she led the party pretty successfully from outside the legislature for roughly three years.

00:31:57.060 She wasn't expected to play the role of official opposition leader in the house.

00:32:02.560 But do people really care?

00:32:04.120 So I'm starting to wonder, like, yes, this is unusual.

00:32:07.840 This is showing signs that, you know, he may have won the party membership over, but perhaps the caucus is probably not going to revolt against them.

00:32:15.340 But no one's putting their hand up to take one for the team.

00:32:18.620 But does it really matter?

00:32:20.420 Is he actually going to think he's going to be fine going the whole four years outside the house?

00:32:24.800 Well, he could pull it off for three.

00:32:26.880 I think he's got to get at least one year in there before the next election.

00:32:30.680 I mean, this would be hard on him to continue outside of it, but he could get through it.

00:32:35.180 He did get a strong mandate from members.

00:32:37.520 They aren't the types of caucuses that tend to revolt, even if they don't seem to support him enough to want to have anybody fall on the sword for him.

00:32:44.640 But he's going to need one year in that legislature.

00:32:47.740 People still want to see him holding Premier Smith to account.

00:32:51.500 They want to see him fire a question.

00:32:53.480 Even if your average viewer doesn't watch that, you kind of expect the odd clip over the course of time.

00:32:57.680 You want to see the picture of him in the legislature, something.

00:33:00.160 And he's just not painting that picture of a government and waiting if he can't get himself into the legislature.

00:33:06.760 So he's got time, but it's ticking and it's annoying him.

00:33:11.400 And he's going to get all the weaker the longer it takes.

00:33:14.060 You know, you've got to kind of wonder about the water cooler conversation within the NDP caucus.

00:33:18.500 Were you going to resign and give him?

00:33:19.800 No, I'll do that.

00:33:21.120 I worked hard for this.

00:33:22.580 You know.

00:33:22.940 Well, he's still considered an outsider by the caucus.

00:33:25.160 I mean, he brought in a lot of new members.

00:33:26.840 Fantastic.

00:33:27.440 Great work.

00:33:27.960 Incredible ground campaign.

00:33:29.800 But that doesn't mean he endeared himself to the others.

00:33:31.880 In fact, it feels more like he kind of butted into their little club.

00:33:34.540 So there's an obvious seat for him here.

00:33:39.120 And he opened himself up to this.

00:33:41.180 It wouldn't have been an issue if he said, I want a Calgary seat.

00:33:44.500 But he said he wants a Calgary or Edmonton seat.

00:33:47.020 This is what he said because of why he's not running in Lethbridge West.

00:33:49.300 And I think among the new Democrats, even among some conservatives, there's a bit of snobbishness that senior ministers, leader of the party, they have a Calgary or an Edmonton seat.

00:34:01.600 They're a bit more prestigious than having something way out in the sticks in Lethbridge.

00:34:06.120 I mean, it's surrounded by blue, for God's sakes.

00:34:08.480 You know, it's a little orange island.

00:34:10.000 It's not prestigious.

00:34:10.840 It's also, and to be fair to him, he's not a Lethbridge guy.

00:34:14.520 And it's a long ways to go if you're going to actually do some constituency work.

00:34:18.180 It's a ways to go.

00:34:20.400 It's the opposite way from Edmonton.

00:34:22.760 And it's not really where other seats are that the NDP is very likely to win.

00:34:28.580 But he opened himself up when he said Calgary or Edmonton.

00:34:33.240 And that raises the question of former leader and premier Rachel Notley.

00:34:37.220 She has the safest New Democrat seat in Alberta.

00:34:40.840 You could run a GOAT with an orange sign, and it's going to win that seat.

00:34:45.720 He has a 100% chance of winning that seat if there's a violation, 100%.

00:34:49.500 Maybe Rachel Notley will tire of it before the end of the four years.

00:34:54.160 But why is Rachel Notley not stepped aside?

00:34:56.680 It's a pretty traditional thing for the outgoing leader to offer their seat to the incoming leader.

00:35:01.480 It's pretty usable.

00:35:03.900 Good question.

00:35:04.580 And for the record, Casey Kenney did not for Danielle Smith.

00:35:10.840 He resigned his seat like a week before the writ dropped.

00:35:13.460 I mean, he actually never sat in the legislature once Danielle Smith won.

00:35:16.480 But he didn't resign his seat until the very end, so he could kind of say, I'm resigning my seat.

00:35:22.120 But it was way too late.

00:35:23.000 Oh, no, no, he didn't do it before the writ dropped.

00:35:24.680 He resigned his seat like days after she called the by-election in Brooks Medicine hat for her to run, denying her the Calgary.

00:35:32.060 Kenney had more reason to be bitter.

00:35:33.400 Yeah, you know, Notley did resign as leader on her own, not pushed out like Kenney was.

00:35:39.120 Yeah.

00:35:39.220 But it just does show that she doesn't feel like shortening her final term in there for the sake of Nietzsche.

00:35:45.300 Yeah.

00:35:45.960 She's drawing a paycheck. 1.00

00:35:47.120 Yeah.

00:35:48.320 And in the absence of a pension scheme, I guess that keeps the job going a little longer.

00:35:54.340 Might meet some personal objectives.

00:35:56.120 More severance.

00:35:57.280 No, there's no more.

00:35:58.900 Did they get rid of that too?

00:35:59.740 They got rid of that.

00:36:00.320 Oh, okay, cool.

00:36:00.800 Maybe she just enjoys being an MLA.

00:36:07.160 Former leaders don't tend to do much around when they're at the end of their career like this.

00:36:10.680 Like Andrew Shearer's got a second lease on life.

00:36:13.600 Stockwell Day had a second lease on life.

00:36:15.500 Joe Clark did.

00:36:16.400 But I don't think she's doing that.

00:36:17.660 I don't think she's planning on sticking around to be the minister of finance for Premier Nenshi.

00:36:21.980 I think she's done.

00:36:23.880 But she's not resigned yet.

00:36:26.040 Curious.

00:36:26.520 I don't think she was terribly thrilled about Nenshi winning because he's not as old school.

00:36:32.400 He's not old school NDP.

00:36:33.860 He's more of a new NDP.

00:36:38.060 We'll see.

00:36:38.840 As Nigel said, it'd be nice to get her in their water cooler because I'm sure there's some interesting discussions.

00:36:42.680 Okay.

00:36:43.940 With the remaining time we got left, let's talk about Trudeau's new home finance recommendations for Canadian families.

00:36:52.520 So, Trudeau was down in South America for some confab.

00:36:57.680 I think it may have been at the G20 where he said this.

00:37:00.000 It was in the G20 summit in Brazil.

00:37:02.600 You've got the quotes?

00:37:04.140 Yeah.

00:37:05.180 Why don't you just read it?

00:37:06.320 Let me just read it out here.

00:37:07.920 This is from the Western Standard.

00:37:10.200 And Trudeau, speaking at a global citizen conference at the G20 summit in Brazil, touted his government's carbon tax and said more countries need to take climate change more seriously.

00:37:24.680 And here is the direct quote.

00:37:26.100 It's really, really easy to say, okay, let's put climate change as a slightly lower priority when families are worried about how to pay the rent this month and how to buy groceries for the kids.

00:37:42.100 Said Trudeau, we can't do that around climate change.

00:37:47.040 So, don't pay the rent, just suck up the extra cost that is incurred by this wretched carbon tax and every other government policy that has contributed to inflation and a rapidly rising cost of living. 0.98

00:38:04.260 The man is insane.

00:38:06.140 Easy to say when you're born into wealth and privilege that the government pays for your housing and the government pays for all of your food and your family's food.

00:38:13.440 Easy to say from that perch.

00:38:17.040 Nigel, I don't think he just hears himself sometimes.

00:38:22.760 He's just living on another planet from the average Canadian who does have to worry about paying rent or your mortgage, who does have to worry about putting food on the table, who's actually had to work in a job outside of government at some point in their life.

00:38:37.340 No, I think when he got back to Ottawa, there might have been a couple of people within the prime minister's office who said, sir, did you really have to say that?

00:38:45.260 I don't know if anybody says that to him anymore.

00:38:47.460 Well, I don't think they do.

00:38:48.700 Maybe Katie Telfer. 0.99

00:38:49.920 I wouldn't be an elected member, but some of the senior heads with whom he does must confer from time to time about strategy.

00:38:58.640 Well, that wasn't really a winning comment.

00:39:00.820 We can play it down, but, you know, you can bet that that's going to be like both bad budgets that balance themselves.

00:39:08.080 And not worrying yourself about monetary policy has got to come back, sir.

00:39:13.120 You know, Corey, this, I try, no matter how crazy and out there someone sounds, I try to try to get in their head, however scary a place that is.

00:39:23.780 I try to understand why he would say something like this.

00:39:27.920 And what makes sense to me is that among, you know, the urban, like kind of Laurentian progressive elite, climate change, global warming is the most important thing in the world.

00:39:42.940 That it is on par with, you know, fighting a world war for your very survival as a nation, as a people.

00:39:52.500 If you lose that, you will cease to exist.

00:39:55.200 And from that perspective, if you truly believe that, you know, this is that level of danger and crisis, then he's actually quite reasonable.

00:40:05.520 I mean, in wartime, extreme wars, we ration food, we have wages and price controls.

00:40:13.400 So, I mean, from that perspective, it's actually an entirely reasonable situation if the world will end if we don't, you know, have carbon tax.

00:40:21.620 I think there's ideology of that with him believing that there's climate change, but I think it's more selfish than that when it gets down to the basis of it.

00:40:28.760 That he wants his legacy, though, to be the one who held off, staved off climate change through his initiatives, through the carbon tax.

00:40:35.580 And he is kind of realizing that people are rejecting it.

00:40:38.000 It is failing.

00:40:38.720 People do realize that the carbon tax is costing them money.

00:40:42.180 And he's worried about his legacy.

00:40:43.800 So, again, in his narcissistic world, though, it's you guys have to take one for the team.

00:40:49.680 You're being selfish.

00:40:50.440 We have to save the world.

00:40:52.140 You have to tighten your belts.

00:40:53.560 Your kids need to eat a little bit less.

00:40:55.240 You need a little more modest of a home because it's so important for climate change.

00:40:59.440 But I still think in the back of that strange place that's his head, it's also, this is important for my legacy.

00:41:04.940 And that's, I think, unfortunately, the real bottom line of this.

00:41:08.020 And it's ugly.

00:41:08.960 It's really ugly.

00:41:09.500 The legacy has actually burned 300 tons of, produced 300 tons of carbon, apparently.

00:41:14.540 Just going there.

00:41:15.240 I don't know who calculates these things, but, you know.

00:41:18.180 Yeah, burn more carbon going there than I do in a year.

00:41:20.140 Yeah, exactly.

00:41:21.400 And I burn a lot of carbon.

00:41:23.060 This is not to mention the trips to Tofino.

00:41:25.640 So, yeah.

00:41:27.900 Yeah.

00:41:30.420 It shows that privilege, too, though.

00:41:32.000 I said only a person who never really has to, has lost sleep wondering how to pay the rent or, you know, how you're going to get better clothes for the kids for the school year or build a car up to get to work.

00:41:43.800 He's never had to deal with any of that.

00:41:45.820 So it's pretty easy to flippantly say, this is the sort of thing you can stop worrying about because climate change is a bigger deal.

00:41:51.040 Well, it's, he's just disconnected from reality.

00:41:55.840 Okay.

00:41:56.660 We're going to put a pit in that there and go to our parting shot.

00:41:59.320 So let's start with Nigel.

00:42:01.200 Yes.

00:42:01.760 Well, this one will appeal to you, Derek.

00:42:04.140 There was a big gangland shootout in Toronto.

00:42:06.820 I think it was Monday of last week and there were a hundred shots fired, 23 people arrested.

00:42:15.720 They weren't very good shots.

00:42:16.720 No one going, oh, wow.

00:42:19.340 Obviously, nobody took the firearms course on safe handling.

00:42:22.520 But, you know.

00:42:23.680 They did go to shooting edge in Calgary.

00:42:25.780 They certainly did not go to the shooting edge.

00:42:28.020 But anyway, here's the thing.

00:42:30.060 Not one of the handguns involved in all of that had ever been legally owned in Canada.

00:42:35.360 They've all been brought in from the United States, smuggled in.

00:42:39.920 And yet the Trudeau levels are still offering the confiscation of guns, long guns, I argue, as the solution to gun crime in Toronto.

00:42:51.980 And banning of handguns.

00:42:53.400 And banning of handguns.

00:42:54.500 Well, that would be logical, except...

00:42:55.820 No, no, they did ban handgun sales.

00:42:57.300 Yeah.

00:42:57.600 But that would seem to address the handgun aspect of this.

00:43:02.040 But in the end...

00:43:02.400 Not a single one of them was from Canada. 1.00

00:43:03.820 And these people, again, I say it again, they're insane. 0.99

00:43:09.340 Corey. 0.96

00:43:09.980 Well, to get in on the Trudeau pile on with insanity, North Volt, some people might remember it.

00:43:14.760 They announced a great fanfare that it was going to invest in Quebec and build a big battery plant and employ thousands of Quebecers and bring the EV revolution.

00:43:22.500 Well, $4.3 billion in subsidies.

00:43:25.080 And it sounds like possibly billions in pension funds have gone into this.

00:43:28.940 Nothing's been built.

00:43:29.960 They're based in Sweden.

00:43:31.020 And it sounds like the company's on the brink of bankruptcy now.

00:43:34.160 So those dollars could be totally flushed.

00:43:36.440 Not a single job created.

00:43:38.280 And let's not forget, that's just a few billion out of the $50 billion he's dumped into these battery plants.

00:43:43.620 And they aren't bearing fruit.

00:43:44.920 They're going broke.

00:43:46.020 So I got a feeling this is just the first domino in a bunch to go down.

00:43:49.760 And when you said pension funds, that's CPP, Canada Pension Plan.

00:43:55.100 Oh, no.

00:43:55.880 There should be so terrible if Alberta ran its own pension plan because Ottawa does it so responsibly, doesn't it?

00:44:02.960 Okay.

00:44:03.840 My parting shot.

00:44:06.320 Well, that's not a bad one right there, actually.

00:44:08.820 Fair enough.

00:44:11.320 Aftershock.

00:44:13.160 You know, AIMCO, the Alberta Investment Management Corporation.

00:44:18.520 It's, you know, it manages Heritage Fund and all stuff like that.

00:44:23.200 The province was, I got to give the CBC some grudging credit here on a great headline.

00:44:26.860 It said, Ready AIMCO fired.

00:44:30.080 They, the province, the Smith government fired the entire board.

00:44:34.220 They seem to be pretty obsessively into some DEI stuff.

00:44:38.940 I'm not sure what other reasons they had for here.

00:44:41.340 But they, they nuked the whole thing. 0.93

00:44:43.260 And former Prime Minister Stephen Harper has been made, I think, what's the role?

00:44:49.200 Chairman?

00:44:49.740 Yeah, he's chairman.

00:44:50.620 Chairman of the board.

00:44:51.300 I gather he's doing it for a dollar a year.

00:44:54.380 That's a bargain.

00:44:55.360 Yeah.

00:44:55.540 If he does well.

00:44:57.260 I mean, he's, Stephen Harper, you know, we were chatting about this offline.

00:45:01.500 He's not an investment manager.

00:45:03.100 He's not a, you know, finance expert.

00:45:05.940 I mean, he's got a, he's got a, he's an economist, but that's, that's macroeconomics.

00:45:08.700 It's different than investment management.

00:45:11.020 But the man knows how to run an organization.

00:45:13.400 And, you know, he wasn't happy with everything he did as Prime Minister, but he, he ran a competent-ish government.

00:45:20.740 And competent-ish is extremely competent by the standards of any government.

00:45:23.900 So, you know, we'll see where that goes.

00:45:27.260 But, you know, doing on a dollar, hard, hard for the opposition to criticize that.

00:45:31.900 But, you know, Elon Musk and, and his partner running Doge in the United States, and Nancy Pelosi saying, oh, this is so inefficient.

00:45:39.120 They're doing it for, two, two guys doing one job.

00:45:40.980 And he said, yeah, well, we're doing it for zero dollars.

00:45:42.680 So, yeah.

00:45:43.780 Eat that.

00:45:44.660 Eat that.

00:45:44.960 All right, gentlemen, thank you much, very much for joining on the pipeline today.

00:45:50.240 And thank all of you for, for joining us here on the pipeline.

00:45:53.380 Remember, the Western Centre is one of the very last independent media left in Canada that refused to take Justin Trudeau's big federal media government bailout.

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00:46:17.980 If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, please go to westernstandard.news right now.

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00:46:28.860 We've got a big newsroom here with more reporters than almost any other paper left in the country at this point.

00:46:35.800 Only CBC has got more than us, I think, at this point.

00:46:38.200 We're going strong, expanding in British Columbia and Saskatchewan as well. 0.97

00:46:42.120 And even if you poor eastern bastards when I come along for the ride, I think you're going to enjoy what you get. 1.00

00:46:47.420 Thank you very much for joining us here today, and God bless. 0.96

Western Standard - November 21, 2024

Minister-Chief Two-Spirits White Powder

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