00:01:50.940So a big promotion for Mr. Nixon, who's never held any sort of financial position before.
00:01:57.880Also out is Matt Jones, who had one of the health ministries.
00:02:03.480And he is also not going to run for re-election.
00:02:07.400So he's asked to step away from the cabinet, his replacement to be determined.
00:02:13.060And 9.30 tomorrow morning, the premier will introduce the new members of the cabinet.
00:02:20.140but no media allowed oh so yeah that's very strange there will be a pool camera well i'm
00:02:30.300yeah i guess they really want to control some messaging right now i think they've got a message
00:02:34.940to control yes so nigel i guess start with you what do you think the motivations of a shuffle
00:02:40.620at this time might be well there's a few things it could be um if anybody is not 100 behind the
00:02:47.340premier on her dealings with mr carnegie that would certainly be uh cause for removal uh i
00:02:55.660don't know whether that is the case with either of the two who have uh have um let's say what it
00:03:02.620is been sacked um another possibility is that it would deal with their positions on alberta
00:03:10.700independence the premier is trying to walk a very tight line and i think she wants to be sure that
00:03:18.300everybody who is in that inner circle is on exactly the same page as she was now again i don't know
00:03:25.500that mr horner and the other chap were not but uh those are the kinds of things that as premier
00:03:32.700i would be thinking about right now because the stakes are really high with the pipeline
00:03:38.540with whether to put the question to the referendums on October the 19th.
00:03:46.100So many things going on here, all the months.
00:03:48.280Yeah, well, with a lot going on, I mean, Josh, there's always rumors.
00:03:52.860I mean, do you think there's turmoil hiding back there?
00:03:54.660I mean, this government's actually been pretty good as far as conservative governments go
00:03:57.740without seeing too many cabinet ministers or others suddenly flying off the handle
00:04:01.520or calling out the premier or anything like that.
00:04:04.180But it doesn't mean that they haven't kept some hot words behind closed doors.
00:04:07.940Yeah, and I think the timing of this announcement is a part of the story. It's, you know, on the eve tomorrow, they will be Daniel Smith will be likely having a televised address to the province on the upcoming independence referendum, whether they go along with Thomas Lukasik's referendum or tweak the wording is irrelevant.
00:04:30.320In this case, I think there is a large, maybe not large, but a segment of UCP, MLA's, cabinet ministers, staff that don't want to see this referendum move forward.
00:04:42.980And I think that's what we're seeing here is maybe not necessarily a public explosion, but something where, you know, the premier is trying to tighten up her ship, is checking loyalties and changes are being made as a result.
00:04:59.620now we only know two are going two are coming out and one is going in we don't know the broader
00:05:05.780shift of the shuffle we don't know um about any of the other portfolios i'm guessing that given
00:05:11.460you have a subtraction of one um there will be some shuffling maybe they will add another cabinet
00:05:17.860minister but i think uh this is just the premier kind of buttoning things up in cabinet and making
00:05:24.020sure that everybody is on board with the line that she is walking which is like nigel said it's a
00:05:29.060tightrope you've got on one hand those who seek independence on the other you have those who want
00:05:34.260to remain in canada and i think what she's trying to do is walk that middle line of people who are
00:05:40.580not necessarily ready to vote to leave but are you know not happy with the way things are and
00:05:48.660they have significant grievances with the federal government so which which side these two mlas
00:05:54.260go on is is or sit is a is a secondary question thomas lukasik of note uh tweeted earlier today
00:06:01.220that neither horner nor jones support having an independence referendum at all and align with his
00:06:08.020view that his quote-unquote citizen initiated referendum petition uh that isn't actually a
00:06:14.020referendum petition somehow i don't know how the logic works on that but then again i'm not in
00:06:18.420thomas's head but if that's what he's saying then i think there's a potential link that maybe these
00:06:23.620two MLAs weren't supportive of the government's position and are resigning as a result, even
00:06:27.540though their letters won't say that. Dave, have you seen if, I mean, you're stepping away from
00:06:33.620politics, but there's two ways that would go. Does that mean one of them or both of them might be
00:06:37.380saying, well, I'm out next week and we're going to need a by-election, or are they looking to write
00:06:40.420it out in the back bench? I think Jones is looking to write it out in the back bench, and I think
00:06:45.220Horner will likely want to go quickly. You know, going from finance minister to back bencher
00:06:52.020it's a bit of a as a as nigel quite said it it's a sacking right and he he was also a uh kennedy
00:07:00.660kenny era man and i i'm sure that's uh not lost on on people it's uh you know in terms of tightening
00:07:08.340up the cabinet one less kenny uh follower the better i think for you know david it does seem
00:07:14.820to me that the premier really needs some kind of public guidance in october to preserve her own
00:07:24.580authority not just in cabinet but in caucus and in government if there is right now there
00:07:31.700are so many people who are playing with the idea of separation independence
00:07:39.460and they want to feel that there is going to be a result now if there is a pipeline approved
00:07:47.480and we and we can take it seriously a lot of that support is going to fall away i have to
00:07:55.580i have to think but the premier is hoping that the process that she's worked out with mr carney
00:08:01.200last friday is going to give her that escape route we won't have to act on it because oh
00:08:07.020everything's all right the independence numbers are down to 19 from 35 you know issue has gone
00:08:14.060away but if it doesn't go away well then it would be great for her to have the voice of the people
00:08:21.980speak and say what they actually want that gives her some options well i'm responding to i'm
00:08:27.580responding to what the public is saying well i think there's this independence chatter this issue
00:08:34.620it's going to dominate alberta for the next six months whether she calls a referendum to try and
00:08:39.740put this to rest and settle it or not i i personally from what we're seeing it's going to go one of two
00:08:45.180ways if there isn't something for that movement to shoot sink their teeth into the referendum then
00:08:49.660they are going to turn on her and then it's going to be other battles going on that she's going to
00:08:55.900have to be circling the wagons for all summer it's kind of a rock in a hard place you know
00:09:01.180corey if i i'm sorry yeah i was going to say that i think i i do think that there is going
00:09:07.740to be a referendum whether and again i don't know whether it's going to be on the kazik's question
00:09:12.460or on uh a government uh sponsored one i don't know if we'll know that uh today we'll we'll find
00:09:18.780out but um i think that the issue that the independent side has in this very moment is
00:09:25.340you have a lot of the leadership that are are attacking the premier that are going after the
00:09:29.580the premier for her lack of interest in what they're doing from their standpoint but if she
00:09:35.760puts a referendum on the table and they continue to attack her when they have a clear objective
00:09:41.300that they have to hit you have to win that referendum now and so if they're if you see
00:09:45.620kind of that split where the grassroots membership looks at the direction that the leadership is
00:09:50.180taking the movement and isn't talking about an independence referendum it's attacking the premier
00:09:54.460trying to remove her you're seeing sylvester right now pushing people into the ucp like you
00:09:59.320should be focused on what's coming and that's a referendum this is mainly not the way you wanted
00:10:03.600it but it is very much a showing and perhaps even like having luke hasick's question on the ballot
00:10:10.500where it's a not necessarily a constitutional question it's a policy question it might lower
00:10:16.760the stakes a little bit and get more people showing up and saying like look actually i want
00:10:20.100to send a message to the federal government i'm voting to not stay in canada because we need to
00:10:24.860send a message to ottawa and maybe that's what happens but i think part of the issue that we're
00:10:29.220seeing in the independence camp is is there even if they get their referendum they're going to turn
00:10:34.660around and they're going to attack the premier and i think that's a missed opportunity because
00:10:38.580you do have to be driving support to get the answer you want on that referendum question no
00:10:43.140matter what you know if i if i may just comment on that uh and you probably know what i'm going
00:10:48.660to say but it's if if you are in the independence camp you have to be really sure you know what you
00:10:57.780want and why you want it uh we can all agree we've often said it from this there's this table
00:11:05.060that the influence of eastern canada does alberta no good and it is the values as much as anything
00:11:12.900that are implicit in the liberal governments that we've had which make people just want to
00:11:18.580turn their back on the whole thing all the political correctness all the you know whites
00:11:23.460not needed for in the army the the green stuff which you know is is hokum all of those things
00:11:30.260are good reasons for albertans to be discontented but anybody i refer you to um judge leonard's uh
00:11:38.580decision on the uh on the referendum uh that was to be prompted by 300 000 signatures of angry
00:11:49.540albertans that should have been allowed to happen i view her um a decision as politically motivated
00:11:58.420she probably would say otherwise but i that's how i see it so what i'm saying is that you
00:12:05.300as a bona fide a peace-loving alberta independence seeker thinking to action the constitutional
00:12:13.620mechanism that is available for a province that wants to leave talking about the clarity act
00:12:18.660If you think that Ottawa is going to let you quietly do that and accept the results of a free vote and negotiate a peaceful exit with all our money, which keeps the rest of Canada going, so the narrative goes, I don't think it's going to work out like that.
00:12:40.620So just how much do you want to put into this?
00:12:42.880well i think i agree with that sentiment and i think that the federal government
00:12:48.080they're going to interpret the clarity act however they see fit in that moment i think
00:12:53.280that that's going like that kind of creates that deeper resentment and and it may shift a lot of
00:13:00.320people that like we know that there's discontentment towards ottawa i mean that shows up every time we
00:13:06.400go to the polls and elect you know 33 conservative mlas but or mps but at the same time like if they
00:13:13.520continue to take this path it's going to harden support and and yeah maybe uh maybe it's not this
00:13:19.760wave that gets to over the 50 maybe it's the next one like i think they're playing with fire here
00:13:24.080they also have you know potential pq government in quebec to deal with that's watching this like
00:13:29.120none of this is happening in a vacuum and i think the liberals are are hardening something where
00:13:36.240And even this MOU, I don't necessarily think that's going to help, right?
00:13:39.480I mean, it's a pipeline by 2034 is when they're expected to have it completed
00:13:44.120in exchange for concessions on the carbon.
00:13:47.640Well, I mean, they don't get built overnight.
00:13:49.340The key date is approval, 2027 September, right?
00:13:54.440And after a year-long and only a year-long review process.
00:13:58.980But, you know, I think Nigel hinted on it earlier on.
00:28:31.340what happens if they've got stuff up and running in two years and that you know it's like so we
00:28:35.020have to worry about market share and all of this and once you lose market share you're kind of
00:28:39.720hoping for like a catastrophe in iran to gain it back kind of a thing like you you lose market
00:28:45.400share it's hard to build it back and i i do worry about the future of our industry still to this
00:28:50.480day and i in my opinion the mou hasn't done anything to fix that the appetite for oil in
00:28:55.600Asia will be just increasing and increasing and increasing for the next several decades.
00:29:01.720Getting back to actually just a lot of something out of the blue that just kind of occurred to me
00:29:05.180though, we're looking at caucus divisions and possible ways that conservatives love to blow
00:29:09.120themselves up. A favorite is to form a new party. There's a lonely Pete Guthrie sitting over in the
00:29:15.100corner of the legislature who would certainly love to grab a couple of wayward ex-cabinet
00:29:18.960ministers or even other discontented people. Do you think there's any chance of that sort of
00:29:24.180gong show erupting no zero especially as they're both retiring or leaving politics they say but
00:29:31.260i mean you know we've heard liberals say they're going home to spend more time with their family
00:29:34.580and then discover they're not like their family when they find a better opportunity that is true
00:29:37.660warner coming out as a red tory uh would be quite damaging to him and drumheller stetler unless he
00:29:44.220wanted to switch ridings and run somewhere in central calgary for guthrie i don't i think
00:29:48.880corners uh i think he's retiring at the end of this term i think he'll be done um if he does go
00:29:54.220to the what are they calling themselves now the united tory party united tory party because they
00:29:58.860can't call themselves progressive like why don't they just call them the red tories like i mean
00:30:03.800like let's be real here so yeah no i i i don't i don't think i'm not worried about horner going to
00:30:11.660guthrie too much matt jones southeast calvary riding maybe he thinks he's got to play like if
00:30:16.440is one of those like if the reason he is quitting is because he thinks that this this entire situation
00:30:22.600is so damaging to his personal reputation that he has to exit stage right as fast as possible
00:30:28.520maybe i'm just looking at risks to parties right i mean one way you can maintain unity to a degree
00:30:32.600is if there's nowhere else for them to go yeah if there's not a home they can land in then yeah
00:30:37.640maybe they'll just go home as as it appears but i i can speak a little bit to this from like
00:30:43.720experience because i was helping rick strengthman in 2018 when derek fildebrandt came to us and
00:30:50.120said would you join the freedom conservative party sorry derek we said no um so it's one
00:30:55.720of those things where it's like yeah maybe there's a fit ideologically but from a political
00:31:01.080standpoint i don't know i don't see the tories going anywhere no no so narrowly with guthrie
00:31:06.680i just throw it out there i mean going back to our own experience too even prior to that
00:31:09.800show my grayness, but when we had a lone MLA in there with, with Paul Hinman,
00:31:15.160but these changed really fast or dramatically when suddenly we had Rob Anderson, we had Heather
00:31:19.160Forsyth, uh, and, uh, Guy Boulier. Yeah. And now suddenly you've got this corner in the legislature
00:31:24.920that's drawing funds and research and getting questions. It really only takes sometimes a seed
00:31:29.320and then you get a real headache. Though I like to remind all our listeners and everything,
00:31:32.840the ultimate end of that was four years of nothing. Yes. And then there was, but even when
00:31:37.160kenny merged the wild rose and pcs together there was that small little rump that from a
00:31:42.280job like rick fraser i think went and i don't know the sandra jansen ended up in the ndp yeah
00:31:49.400i mean but they had this little wrong so i mean it's it's a risk um it's always a risk to
00:31:57.400leave the government um but i don't know like it's it's going to be interesting to see how
00:32:02.840this develops over time and whether horner and uh jones just kind of sit quietly in in the back and
00:32:10.440work their way towards retirement i mean or if they do become thorns and public thorns in the
00:32:16.680side but i don't know i think they're in a difficult position because i mean what are
00:32:21.240they going to do endorse nenshi's position on on not having an independence referendum go ahead
00:32:28.120but one thing you can say about them because there is no pension for serving as an mla at
00:32:36.040least you can't throw that at any of them who they're not hanging on for the pension no they're
00:32:41.000not john give them credit for a little bit of uh what's what's the word uh dignity in their beliefs
00:32:50.040i'll give you credit for that yeah well let's turn the page a bit onto something that's been
00:32:54.040kind of emerging in the north uh sturgeon lake cree nation i believe they go by uh they're
00:32:59.960recently in the news because their chief was one of the ones challenging the the ability to hold
00:33:03.800the referendum appears they feel they may have found their own personal cantaloups yeah apparently
00:33:09.720the uh they're they're saying that they're uh they're missing 82 kids uh that went to the school
00:33:17.880in the last you know back in the in the olden days so to speak residential school
00:33:22.680and they think they found potential grave sites of 62 of them so cory here we go again
00:33:31.000uh we uh we interviewed frances widdowson uh on it today and she'll she says the exact same
00:33:37.560thing you will say the only way to deal with this is to excavate get a shovel
00:33:44.280so yeah i mean whether this is a uh a ruse to get money which the kamloops tribe
00:33:52.200They certainly did. They got, I think, close to $13 million and haven't done anything with it, except I think they've opened up a museum or something.
00:34:01.780So whether this is just a ruse to get some more money, we'll have to see.
00:34:05.980We'll have to see if any level of government falls for it again.
00:34:10.420Well, I mean, the world doesn't seem to be falling for it this time, though, right?
00:34:14.100Like, I mean, we've got a jaundiced eye from the public, I think, at this point.
00:34:18.200it's only you know insensitive souls like me and francis widowson to come right out and say there's
00:34:23.420nobody buried in kamloops and and put that on but also those who really were saying banging that
00:34:28.160drum that there was people buried they've at least gone silent and this revelation from from sturgeon
00:34:33.820we're not hearing much of it if i could provide a suggestion to the university of lethbridge
00:34:39.420administration if you really want to uh save your reputation as an evidence-based institution you
00:34:46.600can fund the excavation yourself they kicked you out didn't they i know i graduated but they might
00:34:52.920take my degree can they do that could they take my degree back they could strike you off the rolls
00:34:59.640i don't know let's not keep on the universe it's not like you're doing much with it yeah exactly
00:35:08.280there's those different people shonegan lake celebrates that barry cooper went to their school
00:35:11.880i don't think they mentioned that i was yeah well nobody watches even derek so
00:35:19.720so here's the thing with this story from sturgeon lake are are the indigenous leadership out there
00:35:27.080claiming that these are children who were murdered or is it just that they they don't know which
00:35:35.320grave belongs to which paperwork because they're asking for the paperwork from the federal government
00:35:39.480need the records these are our children well you know the way things were done and 30 40 50 years
00:35:47.080ago the simple wooden cross that would have been placed upon the grave would have eventually rotted
00:35:53.320and withered and been cleaned up and sure enough there could well be graves there but does that
00:35:58.680does not mean that there is something terrible or malicious it merely means that eventually the
00:36:05.080grave became overgrown and uh but we knew that so-and-so died and that's where they that's where
00:36:13.400they put them somewhere over there there's no there's there's no doubt children died at indian
00:36:18.120residential schools but they had a little thing called the spanish flu to deal with they had
00:36:22.840tuberculosis to deal with and kids died of that right everywhere yeah well you know across canada
00:36:30.040of people died from that not just indigenous children so yeah the life for a settler wasn't
00:36:35.140exactly you know what we have today i mean they were living on the land like i i mean i can look
00:36:40.420at my own family tree and i'll see you know kids died at 11 7 in 1919 or you know somebody fell off
00:36:48.940a bridge you're like i mean life was just more perilous and your mortality rates were higher i'd
00:36:53.860like to see the i mean they they're confident that 82 children have been located and maybe in 62 on
00:37:00.860mark graves at the site but again like are they saying that they were abused in the system and
00:37:07.060that the system is the reason that they died or is it just you know they're just even bringing it up
00:37:13.900that's what they're hoping people think oh they must have been they must have been murdered or
00:37:18.360anything like you know stuff like that but on the bright side we're not seeing mark carney with a
00:37:23.420little teddy bear on one knee uh ordering the uh flags to be lowered this time yeah that's what
00:37:29.680i'm saying is the world's not jumping to attention with this this time nearly as as much it's like a
00:37:35.500oh we'll see what happens no i don't i don't think you'll see any international media jumping on this
00:37:40.040one well it was originally a port uh reported by aptn news which is the group that's tied to the
00:37:46.860current uh we'll call it a developing scandal out of ottawa where a aptn news partnered with cbc
00:37:56.540entertainment division and uh brought dr francis widowson lindsey shepherd and a few others i think
00:38:03.020you covered it on your show earlier today corey so i mean i don't know if maybe this announcement
00:38:07.740is a direct reaction to that because they're wearing a bit of a black eye right now publicly
00:38:12.220and it's coming from aptn news like this is not being reported related to what their beat
00:38:17.500ostensibly would be too they are the aboriginal networks so but i mean they'd be the first to
00:38:22.540get on that i guess i noticed on the story as well though that the rcmp has said that yeah
00:38:26.860we're not having anything to do with this that's a note that a lot of people don't mention but the
00:38:31.420reason that the rcmp never dug in kamloops is because there's no evidence of murders you know
00:38:37.180the rcmp's mandate i mean people we've seen all those stories twists and turns oh culturally
00:38:41.340they're not allowed to in it no no it doesn't work that way i can't murder somebody bury them
00:38:44.940on a reserve and say sorry it's all done you can't go they will go in yeah they will exhume
00:38:48.940and they will arrest or investigate but if there's no evidence that there was actually a crime yeah
00:38:53.500they're not going to spend the resources and the time to dig a hole oh that's the sandbox is
00:38:57.900bullshit well i i'm not taking that bet hey just because derek's here doesn't mean you can't swear
00:39:03.340oh sorry you see it looked like john could get away without having to edit and and you didn't
00:39:08.380even give them that one week breeder man sorry guys sorry what if you would have thought it'd
00:39:15.900be me who would have done that i actually was expecting it i had to yeah call yourself a fire
00:39:21.500warden all right well let's see we're getting into the last few minutes here uh we'll see what
00:39:28.060happens up in sturgeon lake i mean you know it's not impossible but we just need to see more evidence
00:39:33.180you know more than just that's all anybody has ever asked for show us the evidence and then
00:39:38.220they'll take it from the league zoom do it as donald trump said dig baby dig yeah something
00:39:45.180like that uh maybe they'll find hoffa all right never know so we'll start with some parting shots
00:39:55.020on that uh note of tastelessness uh sure i'll give you one so i have quite a few people from
00:40:02.860the military environment to email me what what's going on in the military and i guess it's uh
00:40:09.580i guess it's really hard if you're a white guy to join the army they they'll take your
00:40:15.340application but they'll put in a separate pile while they go off to find the people they want
00:40:20.540to hire so that there is this picture of the armed services as a microcosm of the society
00:40:29.020they want canada to become so if they're you know every demographic group is percentage-wise
00:40:38.300represented so what what the emails coming in are saying is that in order to get
00:40:43.980the visible minority proportion that they want for canada they have been recruiting
00:40:51.660and the deal is that if you sign the if you take the king's shilling you'll get canadian
00:40:56.300citizenship they've been recruiting in cameroon and ivory coast so you have to ask yourself
00:41:03.500what kind of a cruel joke this is on everybody involved but in order to get the candidate you
00:41:09.980want represented in the armed forces you have to go abroad to find one of these and one of those
00:41:15.900and we need some from this country so that you have the appearance what a way to run an army
00:41:22.620we're gonna lose a war well yeah like what happens like do they speak english no so like
00:41:27.820what happens if like it well some of them speak french well they're coming from french okay so
00:41:32.220we've got like we now need all of our like lieutenants all the way up to generals to speak
00:41:39.740every language you know message across after colonel i believe you have to be bilingual but
00:41:44.460you like when you get to carol just so you know the rules you're not allowed to comment on people's
00:41:48.780parting shots oh sorry they're going a long time yeah i know you're a newbie
00:41:56.220interesting and no swearing yeah all right well what have you got josh it's a party um
00:42:02.780not much it's been a crazy week uh i'm interested to see the rest of the cabinet shuffle um we know
00:42:10.700obviously the two names that are leaving we're pretty confident that jason nixon is the one
00:42:16.700going in i'd be interested to see whether uh some other ministers are shuffled around tomorrow
00:42:21.980um that's something i'm keeping an eye on um and and then obviously the big news will be the
00:42:28.060independence referendum um and presuming just presuming that that is what uh premier smith's
00:42:35.500addressed to the province is about tomorrow so yeah i'll be keeping an eye on that but i don't
00:42:40.140have much else great i'm going to steal one that nigel had in mind and i hope i can remember it
00:42:46.300word for word because it was pretty good uh we heard news this week that the snowballs snowballs
00:42:53.100see even i did it the snowbirds uh jet acrobatic team uh being uh mothballed i mean the planes
00:43:02.620are old there's no doubt about that they're they're falling apart there's no doubt about that
00:43:07.180but apparently they're being replaced by prop planes so only in canada do you go from a jet
00:43:14.940airplane to a prop airplane and call it progress yeah certainly moving forward how'd i do there
00:43:20.460nigel i remember pretty well you you got it exactly yeah all right well i'll close it off
00:43:25.100just something i ranted a bit on my own show but still floored me i don't know why i allow myself
00:43:28.460to get floored anymore but let's talk about the beauty of state-funded media the bbc put out this
00:43:34.140sob story with the sad looking man if you look it up online saying he's selling children selling
00:43:41.100children to survive, Afghan fathers forced to make impossible choices. So they're talking about,
00:43:45.600and they profiled a couple, a gentleman was selling two of his daughters, this gentleman's
00:43:48.800selling one of his daughters, because they can't make ends meet, and they're poor, and they're
00:43:52.560going to sell their five-year-olds into sexual servitude, and apparently it happens all over
00:43:56.100Afghanistan. The BBC paints it as if this is a tragedy that these guys were courted into,
00:44:01.180despite, I don't recall, the Irish potato famine fathers selling their daughters or anybody else,
00:44:05.100it seems to be kind of unique to Afghanistan. How low do you have to get to try and put a
00:44:10.560sympathetic eye on men who are selling their