Western Standard - Poilievre’s leadership on the line this week

00:00:00.000 Good day and welcome. I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're

00:00:28.860 watching the pipeline today is january 28th 2026 i've got the usual lineup but not uh not entirely

00:00:38.940 we've got one additional one from us and uh cory morgan coming from elsewhere we've got as usual

00:00:44.740 uh nigel hannaford former opinion editor hi folks dave naylor senior news editor good evening and

00:00:52.020 joining us for the first time with the pipeline david veitschnik westminster business reporter

00:00:57.120 Thanks for having me.

00:00:58.380 And coming to us from an undisclosed location on a luxurious, warm compound somewhere in the Empire of America is Corey Morgan.

00:01:10.560 Hey, I'm a little overdressed today.

00:01:13.060 You're, you are rubbing it in.

00:01:15.260 You are sitting by a pool with a tan already, you son of a bitch.

00:01:20.140 That is, you are rubbing it in.

00:01:23.680 Okay.

00:01:24.200 Okay. Well, it was just yesterday we had, there was a huge rally and petition signing event held at the Big Four on the Stampede Grounds in Calgary for Alberta independence.

00:01:40.840 This is almost certainly the biggest independence rally in Alberta history.

00:01:46.260 We'll be talking about that event, the media's coverage of that event,

00:01:49.800 and where things are going in the effort to get a referendum launched in Alberta on independence.

00:01:56.280 Oh, and the loyalty pledges.

00:01:58.100 Don't let me forget, we've got to talk about the Nenshi's loyalty oaths that he demands of the UCP.

00:02:03.540 But first, we're going to start with what's coming up beginning tomorrow.

00:02:10.840 Here in Calgary, going all the way to Saturday, the Conservative Party of Canada's National Convention is in town.

00:02:17.760 Held every two years, members get together to vote on important things like constitutional resolutions and policy resolutions.

00:02:28.860 Mostly they get together just to drink.

00:02:31.980 And this time also, though, to vote on the leadership status of Pierre Polyev.

00:02:38.060 I'm not sure how the rules are set right now

00:02:40.780 if they have to face it, no matter if they win

00:02:42.600 or lose an election. I know in Alberta

00:02:44.140 win or lose an election, incumbent premiers

00:02:46.420 still have to face a leadership review. I don't

00:02:48.580 think that. I know it wasn't the case for the federal

00:02:50.380 conservatives. I'm not sure if that's changed or not.

00:02:52.580 But obviously, Pierre Polyev did not

00:02:54.600 form a majority government. It has to face

00:02:56.420 a leadership review.

00:03:00.000 And that's

00:03:00.840 that'll become... Dave,

00:03:02.460 which day of the convention is the leadership review?

00:03:05.140 I think the voting starts

00:03:06.620 on, is it Friday?

00:03:08.060 Yeah, so I think it was Friday, yeah.

00:03:09.440 I know, right.

00:03:10.040 Yeah.

00:03:10.520 So, yeah, Dave, Pierre Polyev facing a review to see if he gets to keep his job this week.

00:03:16.280 Yeah, it's important to note that all members of the Conservative Party do not get a vote.

00:03:21.980 It's only those who show up in Calvary.

00:03:24.780 So, expect several thousand of them at the BMO Centre.

00:03:28.600 As you said, Derek, arriving Thursday night, hospitality suites open, policy discussions throughout the day.

00:03:38.060 throughout the day on friday uh keynote speech by pier poliev voting opens on friday and i assume

00:03:45.100 they'll put out the release on or the number that he got on on saturday at some point there's no

00:03:51.020 specific time set for that uh nigel you know despite i i was chatting with with a guest we

00:03:59.660 have in uh office today uh you know about two hours ago uh you know saying oh what's all the

00:04:06.620 media saying oh i don't know if how polyev is going to do i i mean that's not that we haven't

00:04:12.780 done stories like this like but there is there are a dime a dozen speculation stories like is

00:04:17.980 there going to be an election and sometimes it's a legit like we had a column the other day hey

00:04:22.540 there might be an early election it's sometimes just legitimate speculation on the day by the way

00:04:27.180 okay there we go yeah uh and then sometimes it's just a slow news day and you know if a column has

00:04:34.140 If a columnist has nothing to write about, what's the go-to you can always do?

00:04:38.680 Should there be an early election?

00:04:40.080 Number two is, are they going to keep their leadership?

00:04:43.340 In Canadian federal history, I think only two people have ever lost a leadership review in Canadian history.

00:04:49.060 That's John Diefenbaker, for who the process was created, and then Thomas Mulcair.

00:04:54.860 Normally, a leader knows going into a convention if they're going to make it through.

00:04:59.380 And they save themselves the indignity of losing outright.

00:05:02.480 um yeah we had the funny situation in alberta uh with jason kenney yeah it's complicated but

00:05:09.920 uh no one i don't think is actually predicting poly of lose uh i think the question is you know

00:05:15.900 how strong a level of support is it uh you know joe clark's at the unofficial bar 68 69 percent

00:05:23.720 if you're below that well you probably if you can't get more than that with your own party

00:05:27.460 members you probably are not going to earn the trust of the broader public um how do you think

00:05:33.240 it's going to play out well i have no doubts that mr bollier is going to get a such a strong

00:05:40.500 vote that all this will seem very academic next week um i have no problem predicting that he'll

00:05:48.220 pull in over 80 percent there is nobody else nobody else is organizing and uh so if if they

00:05:55.160 were to turn him down, then there'd be this big question, well, what's this about? What are we

00:05:59.240 going to do now? You know, we suddenly go into a leadership race for which the party's totally

00:06:05.920 unprepared, either in organizational terms or even intellectually. So the question really is

00:06:14.280 what is he going to say in his speech, which, by the way, I see is on the schedule here for 6.30

00:06:21.680 on friday night and what is he going to say i mean he can either just give the usual thing or

00:06:28.480 he can be he can condemn mr carney which he's already done in his response to the carnage

00:06:34.560 devil speech or he can be forward-looking and put out a vision that um people haven't

00:06:44.240 haven't heard yet and i think you heard some i think we got a bit of a taste of what he might

00:06:49.520 have when he was saying in his response to Carney's Davos speech, just pointing out some

00:06:58.720 of the hokum in that speech, talks about the trade agreements, what stops us from growing

00:07:04.540 our trade. It's not the trade barriers they impose on us, the Americans, but the trade

00:07:09.700 barriers we impose on ourselves. They're all laws like C-69 and C-48.

00:07:15.660 He mentions the wire management in there, right?

00:07:17.360 Yeah, I'm not going to...

00:07:18.840 No, I'm joking.

00:07:20.080 I'm joking.

00:07:20.560 He did not.

00:07:21.120 No, he did not.

00:07:22.500 I know you do.

00:07:23.640 Let you wear it.

00:07:25.520 So, yeah, we're going to hear how we're going to do things differently,

00:07:30.900 and that's what's going to be the story out of this.

00:07:33.380 That's the story they want.

00:07:34.200 So do you think he's going to say Canadians on a nice house,

00:07:37.600 on a safe street, under a proud flag, guarded by a good military,

00:07:41.980 you know, a line that it was ad nauseum?

00:07:44.440 That seems familiar.

00:07:45.540 Yeah.

00:07:45.700 and hopefully it comes up with something new uh cory i i his what it's what's going to be a

00:07:53.780 speech is interesting i was kind of i was discussing this uh and the individual was

00:07:57.820 visiting us here today and you know i know his his go-to line was you know they'd always got

00:08:03.140 the biggest applause from the moment he launched his leadership race i remember you know his

00:08:06.940 leadership race came to cal calgary at an event at uh spruce meadows just packed the place and

00:08:14.340 when he said, and we're going to defund

00:08:16.220 the CBC, the place would go crazy.

00:08:19.380 Now, I thought

00:08:20.280 he would stop saying that once he had the leadership.

00:08:22.300 And to his credit, he did not. He kept on

00:08:24.160 saying that all the way through

00:08:25.860 until about halfway through the election

00:08:28.440 campaign. And he says,

00:08:30.100 he stopped saying it. It was no longer at his

00:08:32.340 rallies. When asked

00:08:33.900 from the media about it, because it was like the first time

00:08:36.260 he would never talk about it.

00:08:39.120 He said, you know,

00:08:40.040 we'll get to it eventually. It was always going to be like, this is the first

00:08:42.280 day kind of thing. We're going to shut them down.

00:08:44.220 We're going to sell the buildings and, you know, make it affordable housing for Canadian families.

00:08:51.340 I don't know.

00:08:52.080 Is he going to start talking?

00:08:53.280 You know, and then he backed down on getting rid of the media subsidies, more of the saying, I'm not going to get rid of them anymore.

00:08:58.800 I'm just going to make it available to everybody instead.

00:09:02.000 I don't know.

00:09:03.060 How well would that kind of stuff sit where he had backtracked on some of his positions?

00:09:07.180 it seems to me that

00:09:09.960 you know, once

00:09:11.520 this is nothing original I'm saying

00:09:14.000 but Justin Trudeau's resignation

00:09:16.120 he kind of lost his mojo

00:09:17.660 you know, Carney stole

00:09:19.760 you know, a fair number of chunks of his platform

00:09:22.260 obviously not everything

00:09:23.900 but he stole some of the big things like getting rid of at least

00:09:26.020 the consumer carbon tax

00:09:27.460 how is Polyev gonna

00:09:31.780 get his mojo back in an important

00:09:35.900 speech like this?

00:09:37.960 Yeah, I'm not sure how he's going to do it, but he's going to have to change some things.

00:09:41.420 As you pointed out, all those things he said were excellently received when he was running for the leadership,

00:09:46.760 as well as going into the last election.

00:09:48.940 He knows how to speak to conservatives, and I suspect, as Nigel was saying,

00:09:52.660 he's very comfortably going to win the leadership review.

00:09:56.300 I mean, most of the people who think that he's at risk, those are pundits we're hearing who are from outside of the party.

00:10:00.940 They're hoping for some intrigue. They're hoping for some upset.

00:10:03.740 but he's also obviously realized that he's not been able to reach that mushy middle of Canadians

00:10:10.480 and and you know us we certainly would love to see the demise of the CBC but even if we might

00:10:16.820 not like to admit it that's not a top of mind issue for most Canadians I wish it was it really

00:10:21.700 should be it's a billion a year down the toilet but that's not what's got to grab him so I'm

00:10:27.700 guessing he's going to have a measured you know that the leadership race will be or the review

00:10:32.640 will be behind him. The campaign kind of to try for a few years from now to win the next election

00:10:38.300 starts and it's going to be modeled. He's in Calgary. He's strong here. He doesn't have to

00:10:43.200 worry about reaching out to those conservatives. He's already got them. He's got to figure out how

00:10:47.660 to reach that mushy middle, particularly in central Canada. And we'll see how he models

00:10:53.700 his approach and which issues he wants to take on. He can't try to carve out of Carney's thing

00:11:00.560 going on the offensive with the Americans

00:11:02.580 or the trade deals, but at the same time,

00:11:04.540 that's that vulnerability that won the last election.

00:11:06.940 So where can he say he's standing up for Canada

00:11:09.680 yet not throwing rocks at the United States?

00:11:12.920 It's going to be a very carefully crafted speech.

00:11:15.060 I think he's going to be reaching for people

00:11:17.140 outside of the Conservative Party now

00:11:18.860 rather than the burden hand he has right now in Calgary.

00:11:23.220 I think actually to your point there, Corey,

00:11:25.640 when it comes to, he points out

00:11:28.480 that it doesn't matter what mr carney says we live right next door to the united states we do

00:11:34.320 90 of our business with them about eight times what we do with china you can't just turn that

00:11:39.200 around on a dime and start doing something different he made that point in his response

00:11:43.760 to the davos speech so i wouldn't be looking for anything other than we've got to fix it

00:11:49.200 up with the americans somehow and trump's only got three more years uh david um

00:11:54.800 Um, I was just, you know, kind of making fun of early election speculation columns, but

00:12:00.400 I think it is reasonable speculation right now.

00:12:03.560 One poll has got the liberals at 47%, which is damn, damn high.

00:12:08.540 I mean, uh, I don't, I don't really see the need for an election.

00:12:13.840 I think Carney is going to get his majority without an election.

00:12:16.860 I don't think he needs an election to get a majority.

00:12:18.360 You got, you know, he's very demoralized new Democrats sitting there.

00:12:22.840 You know, you could look to a conservative, a conservative MPs who are, you know, at the end of their political career or something, and they can say, whatever, I'll take a cabinet spot and maybe I don't get reelected because I'm in a hard conservative writing.

00:12:33.900 But, you know, that's a good way to finish my political career.

00:12:36.380 Then I can go lobby or conservatives in marginal seats who are fearful of losing their seat as conservative.

00:12:42.860 Maybe they'll actually have a better chance as a liberal because the liberals are higher in the polls right now.

00:12:46.120 I agree with that. He might get his majority one way or another, but there is some serious speculation.

00:12:51.180 and I don't think it's unfounded

00:12:53.200 that he pulls the trigger

00:12:55.380 in the spring. He's doing pretty high in the

00:12:57.320 pulls. A lot of

00:12:59.420 normal people I talk

00:13:01.380 to who just couldn't stand

00:13:03.140 Justin Trudeau's face and his voice

00:13:05.320 the bar

00:13:07.560 was set so low that they're

00:13:08.940 looking at Carney and saying, well, he's a grown

00:13:11.400 up. He shows up to work

00:13:13.280 with his pants on and he comes on time

00:13:15.360 to the office. And

00:13:17.360 you know, he

00:13:18.980 has a chance of getting a majority here.

00:13:22.640 But if that

00:13:23.360 happens, and Polyev was

00:13:25.360 to lose, I think, I mean,

00:13:27.300 it's been a while since a Conservative leader,

00:13:30.120 the Monoconservative

00:13:31.340 Party of Canada has only actually had one leader

00:13:33.180 be allowed to lose an election and contest

00:13:35.340 another. That was Stephen Harper 2004.

00:13:38.000 But that was a brand new party

00:13:39.280 and they brought them from majority to minority. There was progress.

00:13:42.660 But no one else

00:13:43.420 has even gotten two cakes at the can. Polyev is

00:13:45.220 almost certainly going to get two. But if he

00:13:46.940 doesn't make it at the next one, which

00:13:48.980 Could be as soon as this spring.

00:13:50.640 He's probably toast at that point, right?

00:13:52.240 Oh, I would assume so, yeah.

00:13:53.220 What are the Conservatives pulling it right now?

00:13:54.800 Because I saw something that was, what, 36% or 38%?

00:13:58.480 36% to 38% is what I'd say.

00:13:59.960 Yeah, that's what I was thinking as well.

00:14:01.060 So, yeah, early election, I think, well, I think maybe the Liberals could possibly get another point or two

00:14:05.800 and definitely get a majority for the government.

00:14:07.440 Because, I mean, there's a lot of people that talk about the Conservative leadership in Polyev,

00:14:10.400 and they don't like Polyev, and they wouldn't vote Conservative just based on him from some of the people I've talked to.

00:14:15.380 So, I don't really know leadership-wise.

00:14:17.300 I mean, obviously, like you guys said, that he's going to obviously get his leadership review.

00:14:20.560 He's going to get probably over 80%.

00:14:21.960 But on the offhand, chances of 20% that he doesn't get the leadership bid and they hold an early election.

00:14:28.220 What do you think would happen then?

00:14:29.900 Well, I think there's no way he's going to lose this leadership review.

00:14:33.620 Like, I think the bare minimum he gets is 75.

00:14:36.880 The bare minimum he gets in here is 75.

00:14:40.420 I'd be shocked if it was lower than that.

00:14:42.280 I would be too.

00:14:42.740 But is that good enough?

00:14:43.900 Yeah, exactly.

00:14:44.400 So when you've got 25% of delegates voting against you, can you honestly go forward as the leader and say, I'm the best part, I'm the best choice for this party?

00:14:53.320 I think he does better in 75. 75, 77, 78 is kind of a kiss of death number, at least in Alberta. That was the number Stelman got. He survived the leadership review, but he was ousted within a year. It was the number that Alison Redford got. She was ousted within a year.

00:15:09.620 So you get to fight on, but not necessarily for that long if you get those kinds of numbers.

00:15:14.620 I think he's probably going to get higher than that.

00:15:16.700 So I think he gets through this weekend unscathed.

00:15:21.280 Probably not with the numbers he would otherwise expect into the 90s.

00:15:25.180 What was it, Daniel Smith got?

00:15:26.520 Ninety, uh, 94?

00:15:29.700 94, something.

00:15:30.900 And there was apparently an organized effort against her that obviously...

00:15:35.580 One of the things here, Derek, is that if you're really against Pierre Poirier when you live in

00:15:41.100 central Canada, it's going to cost you a lot of money, $1,000 for the conference alone, plus hotels,

00:15:48.620 plus airfares, plus your wife, double times everything by two. To get here, to do what?

00:15:54.140 To say, I don't like the guy. So I think a lot of people who don't like him will probably just

00:15:58.460 watch from afar. Important in that, in particular,

00:16:02.380 is the interesting choice of timing for Doug Ford's Ontario PC Party convention this weekend.

00:16:09.520 It's being held at the same time.

00:16:12.400 They've known the timing of the Federal Consumer Convention forever.

00:16:15.520 And then the Ontario PCs intentionally booked a convention at the same time.

00:16:20.340 I think it's well known Doug Ford wants Pierre Polyev gone, probably wants his job.

00:16:25.600 It's been very obvious he was all but campaigning for the Liberals in the last federal election.

00:16:29.240 but I think they knew that

00:16:32.280 they couldn't out-organize Polyev

00:16:34.060 they couldn't beat him so this was a way of saying

00:16:36.020 well we're obviously not even trying

00:16:38.000 we're doing our thing at the same time

00:16:40.340 but it does mean

00:16:42.240 it probably strengthens

00:16:44.040 Polyev's hand a bit

00:16:45.980 because Ontario delegates make up one third

00:16:48.060 of the delegates at the convention

00:16:49.740 and the hardcore

00:16:51.760 Doug Ford guys are much more likely

00:16:54.040 to save a few bucks

00:16:55.580 and go to the Ontario PC convention

00:16:58.000 this weekend, rather than spend a bunch of money,

00:17:00.220 come out to Calgary, get yelled at

00:17:02.140 by people, just to register a vote

00:17:04.120 against PolyEF.

00:17:05.160 They would be hell.

00:17:08.660 But anyway, I think

00:17:09.820 the choice of timing for the Ontario PC

00:17:11.900 convention is going to strengthen PolyEF's

00:17:14.020 numbers a bit from Ontario.

00:17:18.740 Okay.

00:17:20.580 Anything else for the convention you guys

00:17:21.940 want to touch on?

00:17:24.280 No. Okay.

00:17:27.340 It's funny.

00:17:28.000 Because it is going to be held not in the same building, but on the Stampede Grounds.

00:17:33.180 The Conservative Convention, I think, is at the BMO Center on the Stampede Grounds, right?

00:17:36.760 Yes, it is.

00:17:37.700 Also on the Stampede Grounds is the Big Four.

00:17:40.400 And yesterday at the Big Four.

00:17:42.920 Monday.

00:17:43.320 Monday.

00:17:43.760 Monday night.

00:17:44.440 Was it Monday?

00:17:45.000 Oh, yeah, yesterday was Tuesday.

00:17:46.120 Sorry.

00:17:46.380 Monday.

00:17:46.800 Monday evening.

00:17:48.880 David, you were on the ground for the Western Standard there for a big independence rally.

00:17:54.740 There was people lining up long, long before to sign the location to get a referendum on independence.

00:18:00.860 Tell us about the event.

00:18:02.240 Well, I mean, what can you say?

00:18:03.200 It was absolutely historic.

00:18:04.320 I mean, the turnout, I think the official numbers came in.

00:18:06.340 I think it was 4,900 and some people.

00:18:08.740 They counted just under 5,000.

00:18:10.720 And yeah, they had, I think, people were lining up, I think, at 10 o'clock in the morning.

00:18:14.420 It opened at 11 to sign the petition.

00:18:16.560 I think one of the organizers told me there was 750 people already lined up at 10 a.m. to get in, waiting an hour.

00:18:22.320 and then it just was kind of just progressive throughout the day and they didn't i asked how

00:18:26.360 many um signatures they got they wanted to release the actual numbers but it had to have been in the

00:18:30.560 thousands because i went down to where the 150 campuses were and it was packed and this would

00:18:34.100 have been probably at about five o'clock at night and it was absolutely packed so yeah i wouldn't be

00:18:37.660 surprised if they got several thousand signatures from that alone in just this one event and then

00:18:41.600 it was yeah probably like you said earlier it's probably the well it is the largest indoor

00:18:46.300 independence event that's ever been held in alberta history the biggest one's actually the

00:18:49.640 one that they had at the legislature, Armidson,

00:18:51.640 that I think got about 14,000 people.

00:18:53.320 But yeah, this was unbelievable, really.

00:18:55.080 It was just great to be there.

00:18:55.800 It was a historic night,

00:18:56.620 and I can't believe that Corey didn't actually get there,

00:18:59.080 of all people.

00:19:02.060 Well, I know it ate me up.

00:19:04.320 I mean, talk about a part of history,

00:19:06.060 but I've got to keep the stability of my marriage in mind

00:19:12.060 versus my political loyalties.

00:19:14.600 And if we passed up on our trip to the South in January

00:19:16.960 for me to go to a rally,

00:19:18.500 Jane probably would have gone without me.

00:19:20.740 But I'm certain there's going to be more rallies.

00:19:23.400 I mean, the strength of this is just striking.

00:19:26.460 That's the first of, you know, we've got months of campaigning that's going to happen.

00:19:29.900 There's going to be a referendum coming up.

00:19:31.900 I mean, the signatures are just going wild.

00:19:33.700 There's no doubt they're going to pass that bar.

00:19:36.080 I would suspect the organizers are going to be planning some huge rallies

00:19:40.040 because then you can start using outdoor venues again in May and June

00:19:44.120 and getting into fall and kicking it off like this is something else.

00:19:48.280 I mean, yeah, as a longtime independence advocate and, you know,

00:19:51.500 person who worked on this for longer than I like to think.

00:19:54.620 I mean, the largest really famous one, if people remember,

00:19:57.780 there's a picture of Doug Christie with the Western Canada concept.

00:20:00.240 I think it was 1981 at the Jubilee Auditorium and he had his hands up

00:20:03.980 and it was a photo that went across the entire nation

00:20:07.920 that something was building in Alberta.

00:20:09.820 and this rally

00:20:11.920 blew that out of the water with the turnout

00:20:13.960 and only because the room was full

00:20:15.980 I mean if they could have booked a saddle dome it would have been

00:20:18.000 interesting to see just how many people

00:20:20.020 would have gotten up and come out to this

00:20:22.120 rally we're seeing something really

00:20:24.140 unique building up right now

00:20:25.600 and assuming the organizers don't blow up

00:20:28.200 or something it's only going to get

00:20:30.120 stronger

00:20:30.480 yeah I mean it was

00:20:34.060 an incredible event to see

00:20:36.060 the room looked totally

00:20:38.120 packed

00:20:38.600 um dave did you watch uh the video from there i've seen dave's videos they were excellent yes

00:20:44.620 what stood out as the main uh well just the overwhelming number um you know i i i don't

00:20:53.280 think there's there's no doubt they're going to get enough signatures right there's there's

00:20:56.680 absolutely no doubt about that so behind the scenes if they want to succeed then they need

00:21:02.480 to be making their, their, their plans on the day that the government announces the, the, uh,

00:21:08.660 the, the petition has passed that somebody comes out and becomes the leader of this independence.

00:21:14.840 Yeah. Uh, because right now you've got petty squabbling between, uh, various people, uh, who

00:21:21.500 are, are all claiming to be leaders to be, none of them right now are going to win the, win the day.

00:21:29.920 So they need to, you know, I've said this before, they need to, when the petition is ratified by Elections Alberta, they need to have a press conference and say, this is our leader.

00:21:41.880 And I would hope they're smart enough that those discussions are going on behind the scenes.

00:21:47.120 Yeah, Naito, this seems to be the big question hanging over it right now, is leadership.

00:21:56.140 I'm not sure it could just be a noitant.

00:21:58.000 maybe it could be, uh, hard to say. Normally, you know, when we have had Quebec referendums in the

00:22:05.380 past, the natural, the natural leader is the Quebec premier. You had René Levesque, and then you had,

00:22:11.460 um, uh, uh, no, no, Lucien Bouchard took over after because, uh, the premier Jacques Perizeau

00:22:20.300 was kind of a, he was kind of a, he was not going over very well. And so, uh, actually on paper,

00:22:26.440 he remained the leader of the S-Side, but

00:22:28.580 they made Lucien Bouchard chief

00:22:30.420 negotiator or something, and he became

00:22:32.400 the de facto leader, the

00:22:34.340 de facto spokesman. But you had

00:22:36.420 a clear political, you had

00:22:38.300 political parties from which to draw

00:22:40.440 on. The UCP's membership

00:22:42.460 is dominantly pro-independence,

00:22:44.400 not uniformly so, but dominantly.

00:22:46.800 There are UCP

00:22:48.340 MLAs who support independence, but it's

00:22:50.340 very quiet. There are UCP

00:22:51.960 cabinet ministers, very quiet.

00:22:54.540 It's not really, they're not really out there

00:22:56.340 publicly. Some are

00:22:57.560 wink-wink-nudge-nudge more than

00:23:00.240 others, but we're not really

00:23:02.320 able at this time yet to draw on a political

00:23:04.140 class. Danielle Smith has said,

00:23:06.240 it's for the Alberta people. I'm staying out of it. I'm staying neutral.

00:23:08.780 The other side is going to be

00:23:10.320 at least

00:23:12.240 a pantheon of leadership. It'll be very

00:23:14.500 entertaining seeing

00:23:16.080 Nahid Nenshi,

00:23:18.420 Thomas Lukasik, and Jason Kenney have to share

00:23:20.320 a stage on the

00:23:22.220 Federalist side

00:23:23.080 with Antifa supporters.

00:23:25.980 We've got a story coming out on that.

00:23:29.620 That'll be fun.

00:23:31.080 But on the pro-independence side,

00:23:34.380 the politicians are naturally risk-averse.

00:23:38.760 And this is a risky political position to take,

00:23:41.600 to come out and say, yes, I'm pro-independence.

00:23:44.960 You're not going to see federal conservative MPs do it

00:23:47.340 because they're in the Conservative Party of Canada.

00:23:49.300 There are certainly some who sympathize,

00:23:51.240 but they can't.

00:23:51.980 They're sitting in a federalist party.

00:23:53.920 so it'd have to come from the ucp so we don't have the natural reservoirs of political talent

00:23:59.080 to draw on that the federalist side does we don't have the natural reservoirs of political talent

00:24:04.700 that they do in quebec where you have the pq you have the bloc uh i'm not sure where this is coming

00:24:09.820 from but if we don't figure this out soon it's all for nothing it's all for nothing and there's

00:24:16.460 some good folks involved right now and you know some of them i like more than others but i mean

00:24:21.840 They're all generally trying to pull in the same direction.

00:24:24.440 Some of them tend to let their own personalities, I think,

00:24:27.240 dominate things more than they should.

00:24:30.960 But they're trying to pull in the same direction.

00:24:32.300 But there's no clear, recognized leader at this time.

00:24:36.920 If the movement does not figure that out,

00:24:39.220 it's got no chance of success.

00:24:41.360 Right, so really what tends to happen

00:24:43.720 in other successful examples of the genre

00:24:46.160 is that you have a political conference.

00:24:49.780 You get all the people together,

00:24:51.080 and you try to decide exactly what you're going to do.

00:24:56.260 It happened in the early days of the United States.

00:24:59.080 It happened during the French Revolution.

00:25:01.520 There's a number of precedents for this, but you get all sides out there.

00:25:06.780 They actually have a, if they want it, they have a constitution

00:25:10.080 courtesy of Bruce Party, who wrote up an Alberta independence constitution.

00:25:15.740 Probably wouldn't satisfy everybody, but at least there's a starting point.

00:25:19.460 Well, that's for a state.

00:25:20.240 for the movement, for a yes side of

00:25:22.360 a referendum camp. And you need all the

00:25:24.480 groups. This is the point you're making.

00:25:26.260 Unless we know what we're going to do with this when we get

00:25:28.440 there, then it could be all for nothing.

00:25:31.000 It's not a bad idea to have an

00:25:32.400 idea of whether at least we're going to be a monarchy

00:25:34.400 or a republic.

00:25:36.620 Some things like that could be set in fairly

00:25:38.600 easily. Monarchy, and I'm the

00:25:40.480 camp. That's simple.

00:25:42.260 Well, there we go.

00:25:44.400 That stuff I actually think is best done

00:25:46.300 after. You do that in a constitutional convention,

00:25:48.500 you get people to agree on the independence or not i mean if we started arguing now about are

00:25:54.140 we a constitutional monarchy are we a republic these things i mean you lose i gotta i gotta

00:26:01.660 disagree with you i gotta disagree with you sorry nigel but if if if i if i'm being offered uh

00:26:07.360 independence yes or no i want to know what independence looks like i want to know whether

00:26:11.500 you're going to support the monarchy or not but no i want to know what you're i know of course

00:26:16.260 It's not even a government-led initiative.

00:26:19.840 This is a citizen initiative petition.

00:26:22.480 So unless it's like, the referendum would have to be then adopt this constitution or the status quo, not independence.

00:26:30.620 Because the premier is not even openly campaigning.

00:26:33.240 So there's absolutely no way to say, we can have discussions about monarchy versus republic and these kinds of things.

00:26:41.360 But there's absolutely no way you could do that.

00:26:44.460 You have to decide first, well, do we want to be independent?

00:26:47.540 When the United States, when the Continental Congress declared independence,

00:26:51.580 there was still every possibility that they would become a monarchy.

00:26:55.980 That was not decided until the Constitutional Convention.

00:26:59.140 It was the Continental Congress with a variety of different states,

00:27:02.740 and then they figured it out.

00:27:03.860 Well, then you'd have to do another referendum.

00:27:06.560 Yes.

00:27:07.080 I think you would.

00:27:08.180 Okay, so yes or no.

00:27:09.440 Yeah.

00:27:10.100 Then you have a referendum with specific plans.

00:27:13.000 this is what we're going to do here here you know involving everything because it's quite

00:27:17.720 complicated to become your own country i imagine and i don't want a bunch of people that have no

00:27:23.140 idea what they're doing in charge of it if i'm going to vote for independence so i i would i

00:27:29.640 i would think that there would be some some platforms put forward during the during the

00:27:35.240 campaign saying okay this is what we would do if we were in charge in terms of you know agriculture

00:27:41.540 or something like that, or even just

00:27:43.600 cross-border business with

00:27:45.600 B.C. What's going to happen to

00:27:47.480 B.C. wines if an independent

00:27:49.580 power comes into Alberta?

00:27:51.200 But it's all speculative. I think you'd first

00:27:53.560 vote on independence, and then you'd have to have a

00:27:55.360 constitutional convention. They write

00:27:57.220 a constitution, and then that

00:27:59.360 constitution's put to the people for ratification.

00:28:01.720 That's the way the United States did it after

00:28:03.420 independence. I think that's a generally

00:28:05.300 responsible way to do it.

00:28:07.360 The founding father, the Continental Congress

00:28:09.420 didn't sit around and devise

00:28:11.140 three orders of government and you know but you know they have the senate they have the house

00:28:15.620 they have the judiciary and the president they didn't figure that out uh until after independence

00:28:21.700 was achieved i i think it would be similar if it goes down this way well you may be right but the

00:28:28.900 the point when you know you know people who aren't into this stuff the way we are come to be asked

00:28:37.300 they would say well i don't know what i'm voting for yes i don't like ottawa and i think

00:28:42.500 equalization is a terrible thing but i don't like the attitude from some of the people with down

00:28:47.780 east but like what's this going to look like well i still have my count of the pension trial the

00:28:53.220 answer is yes you should but you know well that's something i know that they want certainty on all

00:28:58.420 of those those things have easy answers those are those are policy questions they're not fundamental

00:29:02.740 constitutional questions fundamental constitutional questions uh that's a whole other process who is

00:29:08.900 actually who am i voting for here yeah well technically you still have the same great

00:29:15.780 i'm saying getting back to kind of where we began with this they they can get away with it for a

00:29:20.740 while with having a number of voices because the goal is just getting the signatures on a petition

00:29:25.140 to get a referendum going but they need when they move past the petitioning portion that's into the

00:29:30.740 the real campaign and they're going to have to have a centralized figure, a face speaking for

00:29:36.820 the movement because you can't have mixed messaging starting to come out or people won't vote. As Dave

00:29:41.580 said, well, is it this? Is it this? You need sort of one voice who's going to say, this is where

00:29:46.840 we're coming from with it. And we've seen, as was kind of referred to, and I'll mention names, you

00:29:51.560 know, we had Jeff Rath said something that stirred a bunch of people up and then a statement came out

00:29:56.960 backed by Mitch Sylvester saying well Jeff when he tweets is speaking for Jeff he's not speaking

00:30:01.940 for the movement and then Jeff recently says I'm down in the United States and I'm negotiating a

00:30:07.060 500 billion dollar line of credit with the USA where on earth did that come from and that's just

00:30:12.220 kind of fallen by the wayside they're not going to win a campaign if they got to keep correcting

00:30:16.000 and going back and forth as was said I think once the petitioning phase is over some sort of

00:30:22.240 convention has to be held it's uncharted territory so that's what makes it difficult as Derek said

00:30:27.480 when you have a premier doing it it's not a natural position in Quebec but we don't have that

00:30:31.820 they're going to have to select somebody who's at least the official spokesperson the the one who's

00:30:36.840 going to speak for the movement when it comes to these things and that you still have other voices

00:30:40.640 contributing but right now you've got a number of names and nobody really kind of taking that

00:30:44.720 authority and responsibility and I think human nature still says even though they're voting on a

00:30:49.580 concept rather than a party or a person. They want to see one

00:30:53.780 figure, one person as the voice speaking to this

00:30:57.860 and they just don't have that yet. I think they can get away with it a little longer, but once

00:31:01.840 it moves into the referendum campaign stage versus the petitioning stage,

00:31:05.940 it's going to have to change. It's up to the leadership, I guess, of those guys to figure out how

00:31:09.740 they're going to do that.

00:31:12.520 Let's bring it back then to what I was getting at a little bit earlier.

00:31:16.340 who is a spokesman

00:31:18.820 for the Federalists, the no side

00:31:20.820 of the referendum. Thomas

00:31:22.760 Lukasik wants the job. I don't think

00:31:24.800 many on that side want him to be

00:31:27.420 their spokesman.

00:31:29.640 But for sure.

00:31:31.800 Well, Nick Nenshi will

00:31:32.840 want the job.

00:31:34.700 In Quebec,

00:31:36.100 you would have a PQ Premier,

00:31:38.840 which is the official yes guy.

00:31:40.160 The no side would be a combination of

00:31:42.700 federal liberals, federal conservatives,

00:31:44.760 but generally led by the provincial liberals,

00:31:46.940 the leader of the opposition.

00:31:48.460 That's traditionally it,

00:31:49.360 but this is not a premier versus opposition leader thing anymore.

00:31:53.140 Nancy would probably want the job.

00:31:56.960 It would appear to me J.C. Kenney wants the job.

00:31:59.660 It's kind of a way to get himself back out into the public.

00:32:04.020 I'll put it to any of you.

00:32:05.960 Who do you think are the leading contenders

00:32:08.880 to lead the no campaign, the Federalist side?

00:32:12.760 Well, I'm not sure there's the same necessity for somebody to personally represent that side of the campaign. All I've got to say is, I just don't want any change. Nobody needs to articulate that for me. The people who do need to have a leader, we've just spent 20 minutes on it, is the independent side. Yeah, they've got to have a focal point.

00:32:33.480 But if anybody can go out there, and you've mentioned three people,

00:32:38.920 we're all keen to do so and say, we just shouldn't change anything.

00:32:42.140 We should stay part of Canada.

00:32:44.000 It doesn't need to come together as one credible point.

00:32:48.400 So you've got these two opposites going head to head.

00:32:51.300 You have somebody who's very driven on the independent side,

00:32:54.180 or you would like somebody very driven on the independent side,

00:32:57.060 just pushing against the storge of everything going on just as it's ever been.

00:33:02.380 I agree that it's not as critical

00:33:04.700 the status quo side is

00:33:06.860 stronger, they've got much more

00:33:08.660 institutional support

00:33:10.940 and

00:33:12.920 they've got several obvious potential

00:33:14.620 nothing's going to change

00:33:15.720 but

00:33:17.400 I don't know, but it is, they're still going to have

00:33:20.860 to pick someone, that's the way the rules work, there's going to be a

00:33:22.800 yes committee, there's a no committee, there's going to

00:33:24.900 be a leader on the other side

00:33:26.740 who do you guys think are the obvious guys?

00:33:29.700 Any names beyond what I've

00:33:30.880 side i don't think so really to be completely honest i've been just thinking like you guys

00:33:34.660 have more about the independence movement they need a charismatic leader that people can actually

00:33:38.100 look to to see what they have to say so maybe cory should get out of the desert and step up

00:33:41.520 then maybe he's already ruled that out not a chance uh another name to bring up though who

00:33:48.440 we haven't who's been kind of quiet on this so far is mark carney you're the prime minister of

00:33:52.980 this country with a budding independence movement within it and i don't know what so much coming in

00:33:57.220 opposition to the independence movement because that would probably just inflame it further

00:34:00.860 but something of an approach trying to you know reach out to albertans and say guys i think this

00:34:06.960 isn't the route you should go this is why the future is bright with not going that path the

00:34:11.260 thing that we've seen a lot in in this so far was the difference in attitude in 1995 when again

00:34:16.180 everybody was saying please go back please don't go right now the federalist forces are saying you

00:34:20.540 aren't allowed to go or you're rednecks if you want to go or you're selfish if you want to go

00:34:24.120 So that attitude is pretty different, which is fine as an independent supporter, because I think that only helps build the base.

00:34:28.940 But as a national leader, Mark Carney has got a bit of a responsibility then to quell this movement, to convince Albertans why this isn't the path they want to go.

00:34:37.800 And so far, he's held his tongue on this.

00:34:39.580 So we'll see if he comes out more vocally and trying to make that case for why the status quo should be maintained, because he hasn't done anything yet.

00:34:47.140 yeah ironically he's in a meeting uh this afternoon with uh david eby and daniel smith

00:34:54.980 yeah and i think the topic of discussions will be pipelines i assume so um if if we get a pipeline

00:35:02.020 going uh before the end of the year i think that would kill off any independence uh vote possibly

00:35:08.900 um because i mean that would end the ottawa's against us i don't know what he says uh you know

00:35:15.700 It would have to come along with the lifting of the tanker ban and stuff like that.

00:35:20.480 But Danielle Smith seems to be happier with Kearney than she was with Trudeau.

00:35:29.020 And she's sort of saying, you know, I know what's going on behind the scenes.

00:35:32.800 Let's let this process play out.

00:35:35.820 So I think she's very optimistic that she's going to get pipeline approval by the fall.

00:35:42.140 And if that is the case, I think that's going to take a good chunk of wind out of the sails of the independence movement.

00:35:49.060 Just to make sure, Mr. Carney is pushing ahead with the gun grab so that if Alberta does vote for independence, it will be a disarmed Alberta, he would hope.

00:35:59.760 Yes. Well, I don't think they're getting many calls from Alberta to say there is my gun.

00:36:04.980 Yeah. During the 1995 Quebec referendum, there was a Quebecer as Prime Minister, Jean Chrétien, and the yes side generally tried to keep him at arm's length because they didn't like the perception of federal politicians intervening.

00:36:23.640 uh he did intervene somewhat but it was it was gentle i don't uh he'll try to portray himself

00:36:30.160 as an alberton uh if you haven't lived here in a better part of half a century i don't think

00:36:36.440 i think you lose your alberta card at some at some point um but one to watch and i would not

00:36:43.280 be surprised at all to see some nod to it at the convention this weekend is pure polyev pure

00:36:48.720 polyev is born and raised alberta he spent the majority of his life and his entire adult life

00:36:52.560 in Ontario, in Ottawa.

00:36:55.980 But he's still born and raised out here,

00:36:58.060 has a lot of support out here,

00:36:59.780 and since he lost his seat in Ottawa

00:37:01.540 and ran a by-election in Battle River Crofit,

00:37:04.000 he now represents an Alberta constituency.

00:37:07.440 That is someone who is not going to be able

00:37:09.940 politically to stay silent.

00:37:11.620 I'm not sure how aggressively he'd be here

00:37:14.040 campaigning or not,

00:37:17.160 but he'd be a powerful weapon

00:37:21.640 on the Federalist side

00:37:23.340 you know because

00:37:25.820 the independence movement in Alberta is

00:37:27.560 almost uniformly a phenomenon of the right

00:37:29.760 it's a right wing and it's a center

00:37:31.800 right thing it's there's not

00:37:33.820 really any notable lefties

00:37:35.880 of any number who

00:37:37.640 support independence so I

00:37:39.860 would keep my ears open

00:37:41.700 this weekend for him to

00:37:43.220 mention in his speech like you know

00:37:45.920 I understand the frustrations

00:37:48.240 he'll say something like that

00:37:50.620 But, you know, leaving is not the way to go.

00:37:52.460 The way to go is to vote for me, and I'll fix everything.

00:37:55.140 It'll be great.

00:37:56.300 You'll probably see, I'd be surprised, actually,

00:37:58.740 if we didn't see something along those lines come from him.

00:38:02.480 Interestingly, though, he said he's not going to run again in Alberta already.

00:38:06.700 You know, he just got into power, and then the Conservative Party has already said,

00:38:10.580 nope, he's running somewhere else.

00:38:11.660 Well, he's had to give his seat back to Damien Kirk.

00:38:13.640 Yeah, exactly.

00:38:14.500 So he won't be a, he won't be a sitting, he won't be a future Alberta MP after the next.

00:38:21.420 But during the likely coming referendum, he will be.

00:38:24.360 And there's no way that the leader of the opposition with an Alberta seat is going to be quiet on that.

00:38:29.220 He's going to be campaigning on the other side.

00:38:32.260 Okay.

00:38:33.720 Well, let's, we'll then go to our parting shots.

00:38:37.160 Let's start with Dave.

00:38:39.120 Well, the final bill is in for the Great Ostrich Massacre of 2024 in British Columbia.

00:38:48.800 A total of $6.1 million, Nigel, to have 6.1 million.

00:38:56.460 How much per bird is that?

00:38:58.700 Yeah, it's a lot.

00:39:00.880 But they apparently ate a lot of hay in the time that they were under.

00:39:05.420 They fed them?

00:39:06.340 they wanted they wanted to be well fed when they were slaughtered yeah so they all wanted steak

00:39:13.700 so yes 6.1 million that could have could have helped a lot of the poor families in the country

00:39:19.780 i mean it would have helped more poor families if they have i mean i'm just truly against this

00:39:24.100 anyway but if you're going to kill them at least get them on the dinner plate for heaven's sake

00:39:28.260 yeah exactly feed the homeless yeah uh nigel so i'm just delighted to learn that uh we're now

00:39:34.580 getting into the you know into the days before our return to the moon that nasa's artemis 2

00:39:42.100 expedition supposed to take off between now and february the 6th the astronauts have entered the

00:39:47.940 entered the um the room that says like quarantine so somebody gets a cold before they leave

00:39:54.740 we've got one canadian aboard uh this is a speaking of somebody kind of said you don't

00:40:00.420 late watching the the moon landings in 1973 first shot around the moon in 68 and all that sort of

00:40:06.580 thing uh sorry about the moon landings in 69 and the subsequent uh skyline up and all that went

00:40:13.700 with it and then they stopped doing it you know the great adventure became sending remote control

00:40:20.980 that's because we never went around to the soldier that's because it was it was recorded in the

00:40:25.060 the deserts. Until now, you haven't done this.

00:40:27.260 But anyway,

00:40:28.100 this is by the Western standards.

00:40:31.760 You know.

00:40:34.920 Anyway,

00:40:35.600 great. Go, guys.

00:40:37.000 Go for where we are going for the first time now.

00:40:39.400 If you're interested, David did

00:40:41.140 an in-depth story on it yesterday.

00:40:43.400 It's on our website.

00:40:44.700 I'll give you all the details.

00:40:48.940 David, your first

00:40:50.460 parted shot.

00:40:52.040 Oh, I don't really have one, but the gun grab's annoying me again

00:40:54.800 the whole program, because yet again I saw that

00:40:56.780 there is another police department

00:40:59.020 in Ontario that's saying that they're not going to have

00:41:00.800 anything to do with this. So when are the Liberals going to wake up

00:41:02.940 that even people in Ontario, Liberal

00:41:04.860 Powerhouse Ontario, want nothing to do with the gun grab

00:41:06.940 program, and how much more money are they going to spend on this?

00:41:09.360 Lots. Lots and lots and lots.

00:41:11.340 Yeah, they will spend money until

00:41:12.800 they work on half a billion dollars, I think,

00:41:14.920 if I remember correctly, what the numbers are.

00:41:17.080 This is funny. It's like a stick hub,

00:41:18.940 except we have the guns. Basically,

00:41:21.080 yeah. Give us your

00:41:22.900 guns! No?

00:41:24.800 yeah this is an odd stick up isn't it okay uh cory your parting shot well just desperately

00:41:32.300 seeking political and moral courage on on medical assistance and dying it's the stories are really

00:41:37.880 coming out now you know a woman that sounds like possibly put to death against her will because of

00:41:44.120 caregiver fatigue another one now we hear of obesity you know i i do believe perhaps people

00:41:50.400 in a case with extreme

00:41:52.520 circumstances and pain

00:41:54.120 can make a decision to go with dignity at the time

00:41:56.580 of their choosing, but it's clear that Maid's gone

00:41:58.580 totally off the rails and out of control

00:42:00.560 with whatever the original intents were

00:42:02.380 and nobody's got the courage to hit the brakes

00:42:04.420 on this thing and say, let's get this

00:42:06.460 back in order for what it was supposed to be meant for

00:42:08.620 so I don't want to read about any more

00:42:10.540 of these stories. Let's get on

00:42:12.620 our politician's case to say, hey

00:42:14.440 speak up on this because this is

00:42:16.000 really reprehensible

00:42:17.860 That's disappointing

00:42:20.240 do you have anything else to add to your parting shot i know you want me to jump in that pool

00:42:25.940 and i'm just not gonna do it uh for the sake of my gracious hosts uh who have to pay to have it

00:42:34.160 clean you know i mean i'm just not dressed for the event just just so all our viewers know cory

00:42:38.760 morgan uh is above bribery i offered him money before that we started the show when we were off

00:42:44.460 I offered him money.

00:42:46.000 Not enough.

00:42:46.840 I don't know.

00:42:47.240 Obviously not.

00:42:47.740 Okay, yeah.

00:42:48.340 So maybe he still has a price.

00:42:50.320 Maybe he has a price and I'm just too cheap.

00:42:53.740 Name your price, Corey.

00:42:55.600 Oh, I just don't have one at this point.

00:42:58.480 I wish you'd know.

00:42:59.280 Everyone has a price.

00:43:01.420 Everyone's got a price.

00:43:02.760 If I said $1,000, I bet you would have.

00:43:06.000 Yeah.

00:43:06.580 $1,000 I would, but I know you're not going to do that.

00:43:09.420 So we'll get an AI image of me for the next show or something.

00:43:13.360 I'll put myself in a spot where I'm not imposing as much

00:43:16.600 But yeah, but now it's going to be

00:43:18.540 AI of you and a speedo

00:43:20.160 Yeah, there's something to look forward to

00:43:22.560 There we go

00:43:23.920 Okay, ladies, make sure you get the

00:43:26.060 2026 Western Standard calendar

00:43:27.840 Swimsuit calendar

00:43:28.980 My parting shot

00:43:30.820 I mentioned the Ontario PC Convention

00:43:33.420 And the timing of that has some impact

00:43:35.820 I think on how the vote will go with the National

00:43:37.900 Conservative Convention taking place in Calgary

00:43:39.800 But

00:43:41.300 Very interestingly, our new Ontario legislative reporter, we've got Jeremy, he tells us that the Ontario PCs have banned the media from covering their convention.

00:43:57.580 Now, it's not the first political party to ever do it.

00:43:59.860 I know it's happened in Alberta before, and I think it was Tom Korski of Blacklocks who snuck in.

00:44:06.540 yes we smoked into the kitchen and listened to literally a glass on the door yeah so uh guys

00:44:13.900 you could like it says ralph klein tried it and failed in the 90s because an intrepid reporter

00:44:19.300 put a glass against the door and listened in on the whole thing you've got thousands of people

00:44:24.560 at this thing all with recording devices in their pockets you're not going to keep anything secret

00:44:32.340 it uh i don't know what doug ford's trying to do the ontario pc party is the shittiest political

00:44:38.220 party in the country it is the most vanilla of pull of of vanilla parties whenever you want to

00:44:44.020 know forget whatever they vote on at policy resolutions whatever they're going to do is

00:44:47.560 whatever the polls say they should do whatever is going to make doug you know give doug ford a one

00:44:52.400 percent bump in the polls that day that's what they're going to do i don't know what the hell

00:44:56.560 they're trying to hide um anyway uh we wouldn't be the western standard if we took no for an answer

00:45:04.000 so stay tuned all right gentlemen uh nigel david dave and mr sunshine

00:45:13.120 thank you very much and uh john on the studio thank you very much thank all of you for joining

00:45:19.880 us today remember the western standard is only ten dollars a month or a hundred dollars a year

00:45:23.380 for unlimited access to all western standard content get you past the pesky paywall so you

00:45:28.400 can read us with your morning constitutional uh thank you very much for joining us today

00:45:33.300 and god bless

00:45:53.380 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - January 29, 2026

Poilievre’s leadership on the line this week

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