Western Standard - Quebec sends a message to Ottawa

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00:00:30.000 Good job of covering for me.

00:00:50.180 Listen, every time I go hunting, I get nervous, right?

00:00:53.200 So this is a tradition for me.

00:00:55.180 I leave almost exactly this week every year, you know, last week of September to the first

00:01:02.720 week of October, leave around September 25th, come back October 3rd.

00:01:07.440 Those are the dates that coincide.

00:01:09.500 I go up north to hunt moose, been doing it for 30 years.

00:01:13.000 And out of those 30 years, 15 times, I'd say half the times when I've come back and while

00:01:21.260 especially for the early years like while i was gone hunting there's no communication to the

00:01:26.480 outside world like 30 years ago we didn't have cell phones today we've had cell phones out there

00:01:31.740 for the last you know 20 years kind of thing but even where i hunt it's so remote like it's in the

00:01:36.600 area just south of grand cache and there's no cell coverage in our camp i know a couple of spots

00:01:43.300 where i can sneak off you know on my atv go climb a hill or if i happen to go buy certain hills i

00:01:49.400 I have a couple of hills that I'm familiar with that if I go on top of those hills and I hold my phone up,

00:01:54.000 I can get a little bit of cell coverage and read a couple of texts.

00:01:56.960 But, you know, I'm not there to do that.

00:01:58.860 I want to disconnect.

00:02:00.620 But in the past, a lot of times it was a total mystery when I came back from my hunting trip.

00:02:06.200 Fingers crossed, nothing bad happened while I was gone.

00:02:10.160 And what I was saying is that about half the time in the last 30 years when I've come back from my hunting trip,

00:02:15.840 something bad has happened while I was gone.

00:02:17.680 and usually it's something bad on a global scale right i came back from uh you know the the 2008

00:02:23.520 economic crash happened while i was out in the bush um i think the 2014 one has happened usually

00:02:30.240 it's a lot of it is financial right the stock markets sometimes do a lot of wonky things in

00:02:34.960 september october and um so anyways you know i so i was out hunting by the way successful

00:02:42.320 very successful uh as a group we had four tags and we filled two so we got our two moose i got

00:02:49.760 my cow moose and a buddy got his bull moose and uh i was present for both i have to be

00:02:58.400 uh the bull moose in particular was what i would call a quintessential hunt right like we we we

00:03:06.080 set out we he dropped me off I walked a perimeter in a in a favorite meadow of mine and then I came

00:03:14.520 back and I rejoined with him just as the sun was going down and we were sitting quietly and the sun

00:03:20.800 went down over the horizon and just as the sun went down literally right under the sun we couldn't

00:03:26.460 see the far end of the meadow because of the sun and as the sun finally went down it's like oh boy

00:03:31.460 look at this beauty and you know in hunting terms I always like a moose even sometimes a little

00:03:37.500 moose you gotta kind of look with the binoculars and make sure there's a there's a rack on there

00:03:42.260 they're not always huge this one from a distance he's about 350 yards away from a distance I'm

00:03:48.260 like oh my god he's got a sheet of plywood on his head so big moose typical very classic hunt you

00:03:55.940 know and uh paul shot it uh two shots dropped it needed a uh coup de grace we call it you know he

00:04:06.120 was still breathing when we walked up so we we uh humanely finished it off and then the work begins

00:04:12.660 right and i didn't get back into camp until about three in the morning and i was a little upset that

00:04:17.820 day because we had steaks in camp we're gonna have steaks we bring steaks we're gonna have steaks it's

00:04:22.560 middle of the week and i didn't get my my steak that night but um anyways so i come back out uh

00:04:29.120 sorry to drag on come back out hoping you know nothing too crazy happened and you know a little

00:04:34.720 bit of uh disruption in the stock market but nothing fancy but i come out and i get uh i came

00:04:40.800 out on uh saturday i didn't get home until sunday and then monday was the election in quebec and

00:04:48.000 boy oh boy was that ever fascinating right and that's the that's the sort of the topic that

00:04:54.240 that the producer john chose today is quebec sends a message to ottawa and boy did it ever not just

00:05:01.120 to ottawa but it sent the message i guess to politicians in general so so let's break it

00:05:07.520 it down real quick, right? Quebec has, let me break it down quickly. Okay, let me start back.

00:05:17.400 So Quebec in the last couple of years has been under rule by a group called Coalition Avenir

00:05:26.580 Quebec. So these guys, that was François Legault. Quebec had bounced back and forth over the years

00:05:33.620 between the Liberals, the local provincial Liberals and a group called the Parti Québécois,

00:05:38.420 which is a separatist party. When you talk about the referendums that occurred in Quebec in the

00:05:43.140 1990s and earlier, it was because of a very separatist sentiment and a separatist party

00:05:50.420 called the Parti Québécois, which in its constitution, like top foremost in its constitution

00:05:57.140 is is separation but uh so so quebec has bounced back and forth between those two but about six

00:06:03.780 or eight years ago coalition avenir quebec showed up on the scene and um presented an a different

00:06:11.220 alternative now for legault when he showed up he didn't really have a chance to present his

00:06:17.700 alternative view because covid hit and i was surprised because during covid that guy imposed

00:06:23.460 some pretty draconian mandates in quebec right like strict curfews he's the guy who almost who

00:06:28.820 was proposing you know denying benefits to people who didn't get vaccinated and stuff like that like

00:06:33.140 that was that was pretty ugly and i was surprised in 2022 when quebecers gave him a second mandate

00:06:41.060 so after covid they saw what i i guess they thought well he's a different he's a he was a

00:06:46.500 different choice he was something different from the liberals and the and the separatists and i

00:06:51.140 And I guess they gave him the benefit of the doubt that he didn't really have a chance to show what he could do because of COVID.

00:06:56.380 So when COVID was ending, they had an election and they gave him a second mandate.

00:07:01.640 I was surprised by that, but so be it.

00:07:04.160 And that was in 19, uh, in 2022 and he did nothing.

00:07:07.500 That poor guy did nothing and it went downhill and he was losing so much popularity that he stepped down as premier of Quebec back in, uh, don't quote me on this,

00:07:19.600 but I think it was February, March of this year, 2026.

00:07:23.500 In appears the new leader of that party,

00:07:27.220 Coalition Avenir Québec, a lady named Christine Frechette, 0.98

00:07:30.460 and she's, you know, she's kind of a lame duck. 0.82

00:07:33.220 I mean, the party's in trouble, and she has no choice. 0.92

00:07:37.620 There's an election, right?

00:07:38.600 It's a fixed election date, kind of, and so she went,

00:07:42.180 she campaigned, and boy, oh boy, the results were fascinating.

00:07:47.000 So, John, do you have a quick map?

00:07:51.060 So five parties were fighting for position in Quebec.

00:07:55.360 The old liberals, the provincial liberals, the separatists,

00:08:00.940 I'll just call them the PQ, the conservatives,

00:08:03.960 the conservative party of provincial party,

00:08:06.660 which has never won a seat in Quebec, they were fighting.

00:08:10.360 And then a couple of other fringe groups,

00:08:12.900 well, Coalition Avenir Quebec, the incumbents were fighting.

00:08:15.260 and then Québec Solidaire, which is kind of like their green, their NDP,

00:08:20.260 sort of a bit of an outsider group.

00:08:24.180 And here's the result.

00:08:25.220 So the light blue is the winner.

00:08:28.080 So the light blue is the Parti Québécois.

00:08:30.280 So the separatist party got back into power with a minority government, 59 seats.

00:08:35.800 I think they need 65 there to form a majority.

00:08:38.160 So they came in strong with an amazing leader, young man,

00:08:41.700 and Oxford educated

00:08:45.020 with some great ideas

00:08:45.880 but still fundamentally a separatist

00:08:47.600 and then you can see

00:08:49.400 there's some red

00:08:50.300 and if you actually zoomed in

00:08:51.920 on Quebec

00:08:53.020 on Montreal

00:08:53.980 which we don't need to do

00:08:54.920 but the province

00:08:57.200 the town of Montreal

00:08:58.860 the city of Montreal

00:08:59.800 stayed red

00:09:01.020 stayed liberal

00:09:02.060 and they're forming

00:09:04.020 the opposition

00:09:05.520 there you go

00:09:06.260 it's completely red

00:09:07.620 and so the provincial liberals

00:09:10.080 are only

00:09:11.260 Basically, only in Montreal. Crazy, but only in Montreal.

00:09:14.860 Some people are attributing that to more of an ethnic vote

00:09:19.260 and more of an Anglophone community.

00:09:23.820 And then you got this weird chunk around Quebec City.

00:09:28.060 I don't know how you guys know, familiar with the geography,

00:09:30.340 but you can see the St. Lawrence.

00:09:31.620 And then the first major town along the St. Lawrence is Quebec City.

00:09:35.100 And Quebec City, that area, went conservative.

00:09:37.820 boy the conservatives in quebec had a major breakthrough i um i can't remember i i don't

00:09:45.000 know what they ended up with in the end john do you have a uh there you go i can't read it is it

00:09:51.360 nine i think the conservatives ended up with about nine seats or uh yeah conservatives ended

00:09:56.660 up with nine seats still you know not fully official but the conservatives did uh did good

00:10:03.680 oh no more than nine sorry 19 wow what a what a breakthrough right 19 seats and so and then here's

00:10:11.640 the fascinating thing the very bottom there with zero seats is the incumbent coalition

00:10:18.360 the ruling party in the province got zero seats like wow congratulations quebecers by the way 0.76

00:10:27.760 that's how you send a message to politicians not just in your own province but that's the title 0.51

00:10:32.560 today that's how you send a message across the province i wish more places would do that right

00:10:38.960 if you underperform and you don't deliver you're done and so they're so done i mean i i don't know

00:10:44.000 if they'll be able to continue to exist they lost all funding they're not they've lost party status

00:10:48.960 they don't have a leader at this point she stepped down i don't know what they got left but they're

00:10:53.040 completely crushed so and when i look at that it's a couple of interesting points right a they sent

00:11:00.080 a message and they zeroed out that party and then that left four other parties to fight it out.

00:11:06.800 For all intents purposes, the other four parties did a lot of splitting and this is always going

00:11:11.440 to happen in Canada. And I think this is going to happen in Canada going forward a lot more often,

00:11:16.240 right? Because of our first past the poll voting system, you don't need a majority,

00:11:23.760 you need a plurality. You just need to have the most votes. And so if you have three parties,

00:11:29.120 then the plurality is 33.3 percent if you have four you can win with 25 and if you have five you

00:11:35.760 can win with 20 so mathematically um minority governments are going to be on the rise in our

00:11:43.280 country anywhere where there's more than two parties and so um quebec sent a couple of messages

00:11:51.040 bye-bye for the the incumbent and then they split the vote and they got a minority government which

00:11:57.520 which will force the parties to work together.

00:12:00.160 But one of the interesting things about Quebec

00:12:02.060 that I really appreciate, that I'm happy to see,

00:12:04.980 is that weird divide, right?

00:12:06.640 They had urban and rural,

00:12:09.000 and they had Quebec City and Montreal.

00:12:11.280 And in the end, practically speaking,

00:12:14.480 the urban vote won.

00:12:16.560 When you look at it, it's the urban vote won.

00:12:18.880 It's like, it's the most common sense people,

00:12:21.320 the light blue is the urban regions

00:12:24.220 outside the two major cities,

00:12:26.280 decided this election. And that gives me hope for, I mean, it's a divide. It's a divide that

00:12:32.680 exists across the country. I think every province has that divide, has that urban versus rural. I

00:12:38.860 know we definitely have it here in Alberta. BC has it. And I think that's something that

00:12:45.520 more politicians need to take note of, right? There's something broken going on within different

00:12:51.420 provinces but this also sends a broader message to mark carney and to others which is um at the

00:13:00.620 end of the day the separatist party won in quebec now because they're a minority right now at this

00:13:06.140 point they're going to have to try and form a coalition and work with the other parties to try

00:13:10.060 and stay in power we'll see how that goes i i've been you know i speak french i follow quebec

00:13:16.060 politics i follow all politics one of the things about this coalition is going to be it's going to

00:13:20.860 be difficult for a coalition to emerge in quebec because the leaders don't like each other they

00:13:25.660 really don't like it's uh um it's gonna be tough and historically coalitions in our country in

00:13:32.860 general but in quebec rarely last more than about two years all right cool so uh maybe this is a

00:13:39.580 topic of interest for folks today i want to i want to talk about this but i also want to talk about

00:13:44.780 whatever you guys want to talk about so uh don't be shy give us a buzz let me know who you are

00:13:50.860 where you're calling from and what's on your mind so go ahead caller where you're calling from

00:13:56.220 hi marty can you hear me perfectly all right this is lena i'm from stony plain

00:14:04.380 go ahead what's on your mind my question my question to you is how much do you think quebec

00:14:09.660 is relying on the historical

00:14:11.620 of Canada

00:14:13.620 bowing down to their demands?

00:14:16.660 Oh,

00:14:17.020 a lot. I mean, that's

00:14:19.280 actually, that's a great question.

00:14:23.800 Quebec,

00:14:25.640 let's expand on your question.

00:14:27.560 Are they just playing the game again?

00:14:30.120 Yes, yes.

00:14:31.540 They're playing the game, but they're getting more

00:14:33.480 serious every time, right?

00:14:34.720 And this is something

00:14:36.460 about Quebec

00:14:37.880 politicians and the quebec strategy the quebec strategy is an all or nothing strategy

00:14:44.540 so they're going to make your right so they're going to make requests now from carney and

00:14:48.840 carney's going to have to figure this out and they'll make their requests will be all or nothing

00:14:54.000 that's how they're kind of brutal at it and it serves them in a sense i mean i

00:14:58.520 i wouldn't want to run that way like i'm not you know i'm not interested in getting more out of

00:15:04.620 ottawa i'd rather be separated but um i agree yeah but but but actually on that point i do want

00:15:11.820 to mention well i'll go to this quebec separation yes it's a little bit about getting more from

00:15:21.020 like people ask this are they bluffing yes and no they're they're they do aspire i think to a real

00:15:29.900 separation for different reasons than maybe we do i think quebecers really and and their new leaders

00:15:35.020 said this again right they want to separate for cultural reasons they've always said that right

00:15:40.060 they're great they're french within uh uh you know on a continent surrounded by anglophones

00:15:45.260 and they want to separate to protect their culture but in the meantime until they achieve

00:15:50.060 that separation they're going to milk the rest of canada and canada for everything they can

00:15:53.900 does that make sense yeah yeah what do you think of the election were you surprised or

00:16:00.660 are you optimistic how do you think it helps us oh um it proves that it can be done yeah

00:16:07.260 it proves it proves that we can get leverage even even if the referendum doesn't go our way

00:16:13.680 at least we'll still have leverage right yep yep do you have friends in quebec by any chance i don't 0.61

00:16:19.060 Because I see the history of Quebec fucking using this referendum as a leverage point to make Canada capitulate to their wants and needs. 0.83

00:16:29.800 Well, Alberta could do that too, couldn't we? 0.98

00:16:32.020 Oh, absolutely. Absolutely.

00:16:34.320 We have the resources Quebec doesn't.

00:16:39.480 We have the resources Canada needs.

00:16:41.440 So why shouldn't we do what Quebec does?

00:16:43.420 Right. And actually, that's an interesting point.

00:16:45.800 But when people say, is Alberta, like, who's stronger at the negotiation table?

00:16:51.760 I think Alberta is stronger at the negotiation table, right?

00:16:54.280 Fundamentally, what's Quebec negotiating with Kearney?

00:16:56.940 Give us more money or we'll leave?

00:16:59.720 Okay.

00:17:00.440 Pretty much.

00:17:01.200 Yeah, yeah.

00:17:01.720 Thanks for calling.

00:17:03.920 Thank you.

00:17:04.760 Cheers.

00:17:05.860 John, was there a beep on the line?

00:17:07.400 Somebody else is on the line?

00:17:08.580 Or no?

00:17:10.240 Hung up by accident.

00:17:11.180 Yeah, no, I think Quebec is, this group, this party, the party itself is serious, the Parti Québécois is serious about separation, but I think this election is not about separation.

00:17:28.320 This election was really about not being happy with their incumbent and trying to send a message to a bunch of people at the same time.

00:17:38.360 Got another caller.

00:17:39.180 Go ahead.

00:17:39.580 What's on your name and what's on your mind, please?

00:17:43.360 Hey, this is Chris from Calgary.

00:17:45.520 Hey, Chris.

00:17:46.000 How are you?

00:17:47.680 Good, good.

00:17:48.360 I actually met you when you were canvassing out on the highway there with the maintenance guy.

00:17:54.160 Ah, the good old days.

00:17:55.640 That seems like an age.

00:17:57.860 The good old freezing cold days.

00:18:00.520 Yeah.

00:18:00.680 But the one thing I wanted to get your opinion on, it's like, I think this really ups the stakes for the Alberta also pursuing an independence vote, because now that Quebec is pretty much locked in and they're going to be putting this on the table for the next two years, you know, because they're not going to have the referendum until Trump's out.

00:18:20.340 So they're going to hold this card for two years over our head.

00:18:23.920 And if we vote option one, I wonder where Ottawa is going to get the money to pay off Quebec, to placate them, to keep them in Canada.

00:18:33.260 This sounds like the same old story again and again and again, because we vote option one.

00:18:37.840 We're just basically saying, go ahead, Ottawa, you know, whatever you want to take from Alberta or whatever, environmentally carbon, whatever, to satisfy Quebec, go for it.

00:18:48.180 whatever you want to tax us to retaliate against trump go for it like it's just well here i'm

00:18:54.760 horrified hang on one second hang on a second chris so let me ask you a question right so i had

00:18:59.540 so i'm i actually had sort of a little notes on my sheet here and the next thing i was going to

00:19:05.420 talk about is what does this election mean for carney and then what does this election mean for

00:19:09.360 alberta so let's stick with carney so what do you think what do you think carney was feeling

00:19:14.880 the next day when he saw the election results

00:19:17.280 or the night when they were happening.

00:19:18.620 How's he, what's he, what's on his mind this week?

00:19:22.740 Well, no, I think he's really between a rock and a hard place

00:19:26.260 because on the one side, you got him out here saying,

00:19:29.620 oh, well, we're going to put in a pipeline.

00:19:31.500 Well, we know Quebec doesn't want the pipeline.

00:19:33.940 So like, how do you, how do you please two masters?

00:19:37.160 He's really between a rock and a hard place.

00:19:39.420 But again, I think this kind of just shows the validity

00:19:43.500 to both independence movements.

00:19:45.340 Canada does not work as a country.

00:19:47.680 We have different interests.

00:19:49.200 Quebec has their interests.

00:19:50.500 Alberta has our interests.

00:19:52.460 Ontario has their interests.

00:19:54.140 I mean, even right now.

00:19:54.780 You just gave me goosebumps.

00:19:56.560 You just gave me goosebumps with that message.

00:19:59.180 That's awesome.

00:19:59.940 I agree.

00:20:00.820 I agree.

00:20:01.680 Do you want to continue on?

00:20:02.880 What do you think it means for Alberta?

00:20:04.540 Is it good or bad?

00:20:05.920 How do we play this?

00:20:06.800 How do we capitalize on this?

00:20:09.520 Well, I actually think it's really good.

00:20:12.640 for for alberta because like i say if we if we vote option one this is basically alberta

00:20:20.380 signing up the maid like that that's it put put put put the fork in us we're done right

00:20:26.900 yeah awesome awesome awesome awesome all right well thanks for calling in by the way are you

00:20:31.520 one of the guys who brought me a coffee when i was on the side of the road freezing or we just

00:20:34.840 had a chat no i think i think we just chatted freezing cold day i stopped a couple times i

00:20:41.200 always gave you a good honk honk whenever we were driving by awesome thanks for your support cheers

00:20:47.380 really thanks thanks marty enjoy the show keep up the good work you bet thanks um yeah so these

00:20:54.540 are all great points right i think uh yeah it's a it's a tough one for carney i've talked about

00:20:59.940 this in the past i think i think carney and the liberals are feeling that the country is on the

00:21:08.340 verge of maybe a real crisis. And so Carney came to Alberta and gave us that MOU. And I've said

00:21:16.480 this before, as soon as he gave us that MOU, a lot of Quebecers felt betrayed, like to the point

00:21:21.720 where Stephen Gilbeau resigned over it and other Quebecers online and in the news started whining

00:21:26.640 about it, which really, really highlighted that there's a big divide in the way we think about

00:21:32.940 you know something like energy development and it was and i thought it was a risky game that

00:21:39.080 carney was playing i thought he was playing it deliberately he had no choice he had to throw

00:21:43.340 some carrots to alberta and temporarily um uh you know sacrifice some goodwill in quebec i'm sure he

00:21:54.880 wished that the quebec election was after our referendum but the timing for us turned out to

00:22:01.000 be great because um it it showed it showed that divide got another caller i'm going to take the

00:22:07.680 callers man this is what i wanted to do so go ahead caller where are you calling from what's

00:22:11.380 your name please hi uh marty is gordon calling from edmondson hi gordon uh yeah no just in

00:22:19.820 regards to the correct election that uh yeah you know it's a separatist vote but their separation

00:22:25.120 is not the same as ours they've done this before it's mostly a bluff just to get more of what they

00:22:30.120 want. I'm going to just say this. They're never going to separate because they are one of the

00:22:36.900 founding of the founding nation. They're of upper Canada, lower Canada, the history. They will never

00:22:42.540 go anywhere, but they will pull all the strings they can to get what they want. And when you say

00:22:47.760 they're looking after their culture about English and French, well, no, it goes deeper than that 0.85

00:22:54.300 now because now they're even happy with the situation with the Muslim, Islam, Muslim culture 0.93

00:23:00.360 and the difficulties they have. These kind of things go deeper now. And it's not just black 1.00

00:23:07.820 and white anymore. There's multifacets to it. But our separation is different. Our separation

00:23:15.060 is not to negotiate. Well, I guess we are. But the end game is out. Theirs is not.

00:23:22.000 no i somewhat agree i'll maybe i'll just uh ask you this right um do we run the same like

00:23:33.380 theirs was dragged out i think theirs started out probably they did start out wanting separation

00:23:38.500 right like in the 1960s and 70s they were really back when they really really really were a distinct

00:23:44.920 society so is that a risk that we run because what you're saying i agree with right their society's

00:23:49.800 been dissolved and now that willingness to separate kind of erodes away because you got

00:23:55.740 so many new groups are in there do we face the same risk in alberta like is time something we

00:24:01.740 need to worry about well what we do but with separation we can change that because we won't

00:24:10.860 have to worry about carney and his immigration policy i think that's what you're getting at

00:24:16.180 I was a teenager when the FLQ crisis happened, and that was the start of the separation, if we remember back when, the kidnappings and on and so forth.

00:24:26.480 That got pretty ugly. 0.74

00:24:28.100 And, of course, you know, it's evolved since then.

00:24:31.740 And, yeah, that was pretty ugly back then.

00:24:34.080 But, you know, we never want to see that here.

00:24:38.200 But I think our endgame is probably for separation.

00:24:41.700 I think if we get to that vote, if we can get past October the 19th with good results, we'll be negotiating because, yeah, they're going to come to the table.

00:24:54.000 Ottawa's not going to have a choice.

00:24:55.840 Yeah, yeah, we definitely have a choice.

00:24:57.160 Both the provincial government and Ottawa are going to have to come to the table.

00:25:01.280 But I still think the end game will be separation.

00:25:03.800 We definitely have a stronger negotiating position.

00:25:06.140 I agree 100%.

00:25:07.360 Awesome.

00:25:08.980 Thanks, Gordon.

00:25:09.760 You said Calgary, right?

00:25:11.700 No, you said Edmonton.

00:25:13.740 Are you going to the rally on the Hill or at the legislature on the 17th?

00:25:20.700 On the 17th, yep, on Friday, Saturday, 17th.

00:25:23.960 Yep, no, I've been to actually two rallies there now.

00:25:26.620 Okay, awesome.

00:25:27.180 I'm not going to miss the third one.

00:25:28.420 All right, thanks for calling, Matt.

00:25:29.680 Thanks for calling, bud.

00:25:30.640 Hopefully you'll call again.

00:25:31.780 Cheers.

00:25:33.460 Yep, thanks, bye.

00:25:34.980 Yeah, so just a reminder, I guess I'll throw it out there.

00:25:37.920 There is a rally on October 17th.

00:25:41.020 So the referendum vote for us is right around the corner, right?

00:25:44.300 It's not this Monday coming up.

00:25:45.760 It's next Monday.

00:25:46.440 I think it's, if I do the math, what's today?

00:25:49.760 Today, it's in 11 days.

00:25:51.320 So there's one big last push on the 17th at the legislature.

00:25:56.320 And I think it starts at 3, but, I mean, people will be there earlier.

00:25:59.740 I'll be there.

00:26:00.320 So I'm just saying, I'm just putting it out there.

00:26:02.420 I will be there on Saturday next week at the legislature.

00:26:07.920 I'll be there as early as possible.

00:26:09.540 if you see me come you know say hi don't be shy and uh hopefully we get a great turnout i mean i

00:26:15.600 was at the last one last year in october um had about uh you know i saw all sorts of estimates

00:26:22.440 from five to twelve thousand people i don't know but let's fill it up quickly and make a make a big

00:26:28.320 push to the end so uh i guess i'll keep talking right so i i think i've i've i'm pretty clear

00:26:35.160 that uh yeah i think it's uh it's interesting for carney it's a dilemma for carney um it shows that

00:26:41.880 there's some fractures uh that some people are unhappy we'll see what happens in bc in a couple

00:26:47.320 of weeks although that's that there's no in separatist movement in quebec uh what does it

00:26:53.160 mean for alberta what it means for alberta is it's it shows a lot of things right it's been

00:26:58.040 interesting to watch now the pundits uh pro and against people coming out and saying all sorts

00:27:04.360 to things like oh you you uh you can't separate unless you uh form a party you know referendums

00:27:11.480 are invalid you need to form a party i've heard that argument over and over we saw quebec so

00:27:16.280 quebec is going that path right so i i hear that in alberta people go hey if you want to separate

00:27:20.760 in alberta form your own party i'm like okay we'll form you know that's an interesting thing i mean

00:27:25.080 democracy to me democracy can be grassroot i don't need a party but then quebec shows us that

00:27:31.160 they're forming a party so quebec forms a party gets elected now what does everybody say oh they

00:27:35.320 don't have a mandate they only got you know 42 of the vote and blah blah blah and so you know and

00:27:41.720 i'm glad that that happens because you start seeing the other side show their colors like

00:27:46.120 you're never going to let us win this easily you're going to keep changing the rules and so

00:27:50.360 it's it's just good to see these things being uh experimented on and happening across the country

00:27:56.600 so we can see by the way i hate that one right well i saw that over and over and over and over

00:28:01.860 this past week oh it's a it's an illegitimate government uh they only have um 42 of the votes

00:28:08.360 i'm like i think trudeau won uh a majority with uh a lot less than that and uh didn't win the

00:28:14.980 popular vote and still you know ran the country and nobody complained when he was doing it

00:28:19.720 so you know tit for tat you got to pick your lane if the rules are the rules are the rules

00:28:24.780 And if you win, you win. That's it. I'm happy to see that.

00:28:30.200 Actually, what do you guys think of the fact?

00:28:31.780 Well, that was a, I don't know. Do you have a tweet that you could show, John?

00:28:35.200 I don't know, but somebody else, a really interesting person weighed in on the results, right?

00:28:40.940 And that was Elon Musk. Did you guys see that? Maybe you didn't.

00:28:43.640 But Elon Musk put out two tweets or two posts yesterday.

00:28:48.800 One saying sort of like, congratulations to Quebec, you should separate.

00:28:53.520 And then underneath, he added a second post saying,

00:28:57.240 and Alberta and Saskatchewan should too.

00:29:00.380 It's like, wow.

00:29:01.500 And again, that's another one of those weird things

00:29:03.560 where everybody, a lot of people started piling up on Elon

00:29:08.020 going, well, that's foreign interference

00:29:09.600 and this and this and this and this.

00:29:11.100 It's like, no, no, no, no.

00:29:12.300 Again, the internet's forever.

00:29:13.940 God, I love the internet for this, right?

00:29:15.520 Like we live in a new era where it's a lot easier

00:29:18.220 to find stuff from the past

00:29:19.900 and remind people of their hypocrisy.

00:29:22.440 So everybody who said, oh, no, Elon is foreign interference, Elon's a Canadian citizen, okay?

00:29:27.200 He has a Canadian passport, so it's not foreign interference.

00:29:31.120 So then somebody like Jason Kenney said, well, Elon should do the noble thing and renounce his Canadian citizenship.

00:29:39.200 Really? Again, now you're being a hypocrite because Mark Carney has a Canadian citizenship, an Irish one, and an EU one. 0.82

00:29:47.500 So how come you never asked him to renounce? 0.91

00:29:49.220 By the way, 39 MPs in this country, 39 at last count,

00:29:54.080 members of parliament were not born in Canada.

00:29:56.820 So don't start lecturing people on the concepts of foreign interference.

00:30:01.420 And then when Elon speaks his mind, he's allowed to speak his mind.

00:30:05.700 And then, yeah, they would be better off.

00:30:08.420 Alberta and Saskatchewan should separate too.

00:30:11.060 So that was, thank you, Elon, for doing that.

00:30:13.400 Thank you, Elon, also for giving us a voice and for salvaging Twitter,

00:30:19.560 which had started to, you know, it's a free speech platform,

00:30:22.700 and I think he's honouring that, and he's like, eh, different topic.

00:30:27.280 But I like when somebody like Elon makes a statement,

00:30:30.420 and it brings out a whole bunch of people.

00:30:32.220 Like, heads exploded because Elon can't make that statement.

00:30:35.280 It's foreign interference. 0.91

00:30:38.200 Foreign, you know.

00:30:39.300 I'm surprised, I'm honestly surprised that liberals still use the word foreign interference.

00:30:46.120 In fact, the liberal, what's his name, John?

00:30:49.640 I don't know if you, I'm sorry to put you on the spot, John,

00:30:51.680 but the liberal foreign, the liberal minister for national security

00:30:57.760 put out a statement today or yesterday saying Ottawa is concerned

00:31:03.920 about foreign interference in the upcoming Alberta referendum.

00:31:09.300 And I'm like, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.

00:31:13.900 Like a guy from Ottawa who himself has been, remember two years ago,

00:31:19.920 remember in 2024, there's two RCMP officers that were whistleblowers

00:31:24.220 that wrote a letter naming nine MPs that they said were compromised, okay?

00:31:30.820 And the minister is one of them.

00:31:32.620 So I don't think federal ministers should be talking about foreign interference

00:31:38.000 and they shouldn't even be interfering in the affairs of Alberta at this point.

00:31:43.100 Sorry, I want to take that call, but in a second.

00:31:45.300 In fact, the more a federal minister from an outside province interferes,

00:31:51.020 the more he validates the reason why we're disgruntled, right?

00:31:54.340 So I guess I should say to the minister, hey, keep interfering.

00:31:57.420 You're making our point.

00:31:58.940 Go ahead, call her name and where are you calling from?

00:32:03.180 Hey, Marty, it's Mike from down south.

00:32:05.160 How's it going today?

00:32:05.920 Mike from down south. How are things? Good, Mike. What's on your mind?

00:32:13.280 Hey, just watching and listening to everything in that. I think the Quebec election, that's good for everything.

00:32:20.000 It's actually really impressive that the Conservatives got 19 seats in Quebec, especially since they haven't had it in over 100 years down there, I think they were saying.

00:32:29.520 But one thing I've noticed, with Carney making, Carney is a mainstream media,

00:32:35.920 making everyone all disgruntled with the United States and everything like that.

00:32:39.560 It seems like a hidden agenda to make the majority of the Canadian population accept this honorary membership to the EU.

00:32:50.440 And then basically when that happens, my thought is that 100 million population number, 0.89

00:32:55.700 they're going to try and flood Canada 0.97

00:32:57.220 like they have the rest of Europe. 0.92

00:33:00.840 That's my thought, and I could see it happening,

00:33:03.620 and it's kind of odd how,

00:33:06.040 with all the other bills and everything,

00:33:07.520 like, you could be like the Canadian government

00:33:09.520 totally controlling the internet,

00:33:11.140 and now haven't they basically kicked Starlink

00:33:13.960 out of Canada or something almost,

00:33:15.560 or they're kind of trying to avoid a bunch of it 0.99

00:33:17.360 for basic shit? 0.99

00:33:19.680 Well, I didn't hear that, but I could see it, yeah. 0.99

00:33:25.700 Well, because even with the Starlink, we've got our governments trying to run all this fiber optic line in the ground, which is basically a waste of money and out in the rural.

00:33:35.720 Because if everyone just spent 75 bucks and bought a Starlink dish, pick your package and there you go.

00:33:41.640 Now you've got internet.

00:33:42.340 Well, actually, you remind me, remember last year, that was one of the things that the Ontario Conservatives had chosen Starlink as part of their plan to deliver the internet to Northern Ontario.

00:33:55.700 And then Doug Ford, all pissed off during the trade war, said, oh, I'm cancelling the deal.

00:34:02.480 And Elon must have been laughing all the way to the bank because the deal, sure, you can cancel it.

00:34:07.000 But there was all these penalties or whatever. 0.95

00:34:08.720 And to your point, it just shows how silly we are some days, right?

00:34:12.260 Like it's, boy, I could talk about this topic a lot longer.

00:34:16.260 But I got another call on the line, Mike.

00:34:18.220 So if you got one more comment or.

00:34:22.000 No, no, I just wanted to put my two cents in.

00:34:24.680 you guys have a great day and on to the next one thanks mike take care um cheers is there another

00:34:32.520 caller john i heard the beep maybe they got hung up actually on that topic i i want to stay on

00:34:38.920 quebec but i just want to bring this up really really quickly uh on waste of money right so one

00:34:43.880 of the initiative and it's related to elon god elon's related to everything these days right

00:34:48.840 so one of the big waste of money remember earlier this year like oh canada is going to get into the

00:34:53.960 the space launching business or whatever.

00:34:56.580 And they've had like a bunch of failed launches in Newfoundland,

00:34:59.280 like tried to like launch a couple of home rockets, blah, blah, blah.

00:35:02.900 Well, I think it was on Monday, on October 1st, or maybe on the 2nd,

00:35:09.020 they bragged about how this Canadian space company

00:35:12.880 had launched a satellite in space.

00:35:15.160 Okay, we built a satellite and it's in space,

00:35:18.200 but you had to dig deep into the story to realize,

00:35:20.720 no, no, you know who delivered the satellite up in space?

00:35:23.140 SpaceX.

00:35:23.960 Like, we're going to try and compete against SpaceX.

00:35:27.200 By the way, just before I got here, I watched Dragon 12, the latest manned flight.

00:35:35.700 So, you know, they went up to the International Space Station,

00:35:38.200 picked up the four astronauts and brought them back to Earth.

00:35:40.740 Absolutely fascinating, man.

00:35:42.500 Elon makes going to space look so smooth and so orchestrated and so brilliantly.

00:35:49.680 I just want to stay on a couple of things about Quebec

00:35:53.140 that I had wrote down on my note here.

00:36:00.120 So I'm looking forward to seeing what Plamondon,

00:36:02.900 their new leader, does.

00:36:03.840 He's going to have to navigate and try and stay in power

00:36:09.560 with his minority government for a while.

00:36:11.500 But he made an already interesting statement this week,

00:36:15.300 like a real statement.

00:36:16.680 They have to be sworn in.

00:36:18.720 uh him as the premier and and his mlas and he's already said that the the oath of allegiance that

00:36:25.760 they're taking will not be to the king i'm not sure how that's going to work out how they're

00:36:30.720 going to do it but he's pretty much saying i'm not taking an oath of my oath of allegiance will

00:36:35.500 be to the people of quebec and not to the king so i i don't know constitutionally how that works

00:36:40.980 i guess we'll have to see uh i i guess it's in it's it's their parliament they can do whatever

00:36:46.560 they want uh they can they can rewrite the oath no matter what it makes it again it makes a

00:36:52.080 statement it it's it is a move in towards independence maybe that's a great way to start

00:36:57.600 right you start by saying hey you know what i don't take allegiance to the king anymore it's a

00:37:01.800 pretty it's a solid statement um and it's a step so it's going to be interesting to see how i mean

00:37:08.880 and we've already taken those kinds of steps already in the past right so you can take an oath

00:37:13.320 to, like when you're in court, you can swear on a Bible

00:37:16.740 or you can just take an attestation or whatever they call it.

00:37:20.380 So that was interesting.

00:37:22.900 And then the other thing, it's unrelated to the politics,

00:37:27.380 but I want to congratulate Elections Quebec.

00:37:32.520 So I was glued to my computer screen on Monday night

00:37:37.200 watching the results come in.

00:37:38.720 and elections quebec kudos on conducting an election counting it so efficiently and reporting

00:37:49.340 on it so beautifully like i didn't go to the media or anywhere else i just went to the election

00:37:54.260 quebec website and the data there was beautiful like on the fly rapidly like within a couple of

00:38:01.220 like it took barely a couple of hours there was six million or six or so million eligible electors

00:38:07.320 about 4.3 million came out the vote so they counted 4.3 million votes they counted them in two hours

00:38:14.040 they reported on them the statistics are fabulous when i was on there i could see writing by writing

00:38:19.000 box by box you know the voter participation the number of spoiled ballots who was in the lead

00:38:25.680 uh just brilliant brilliant brilliant data and and and i can tell you like it adds so much

00:38:33.700 confidence when you're a citizen and you're watching that and you go wow good job right

00:38:38.500 and then i got to bring that back to our our guys here in the elections alberta i've been critical

00:38:43.240 of them and i'm going to continue to be critical of them i i think i'm afraid that maybe intentionally

00:38:50.200 or unintentionally that the that the referendum on the 19th might end up being uh uh forgive my 0.82

00:38:56.960 french or forgive yeah i'm going to use the same language as uh jeremy farkas might be a shit show 0.83

00:39:02.580 So, you know, today we learned that 600,000 ballots have been mailed out. 0.96

00:39:08.900 Not today, but we know that about 600,000 mail-in ballots have been sent to people.

00:39:13.240 We know that people have been receiving them that are incomplete.

00:39:16.000 They're missing pages.

00:39:17.480 They're confused.

00:39:18.320 Do I fold it in half?

00:39:19.420 Do I fold it three ways?

00:39:20.560 Blah, blah, blah.

00:39:21.740 And then Elections Alberta has already said that they've only received about 60,000 ballots.

00:39:26.820 And of the 60,000 they've received, they haven't given an exact number,

00:39:31.800 but they're saying there's a lot of them that are being disqualified.

00:39:34.600 They're not, you know, they're incomplete or improperly filled,

00:39:39.020 which is always going to be an issue with mail-in ballots.

00:39:42.040 And then you got Nenshi talking today, making a video about this,

00:39:46.260 saying, you know, there's 500,000 that haven't been received.

00:39:50.060 I know he's tracking this.

00:39:51.660 Like, the way he talks about it, I really get suspicious of him.

00:39:55.060 I mean, it really sounds like he put in a giant campaign to get the mail-in ballots.

00:40:00.520 So I just wanted to say that about Elections Quebec.

00:40:05.380 I thought the folks there did a great job, which which not reminds me of another thing.

00:40:12.680 One of the callers, I think it was Gordon or maybe it was Mike, talked about how the conservatives had a breakout in Quebec.

00:40:20.320 Right. And they won 19 seats. And that was another thing that's really noticeable.

00:40:24.980 You can download the data and you can look at the voter participation as an example.

00:40:33.400 And the writings where the Conservatives won had a statistically significant higher voter participation than the other writings.

00:40:45.520 So that tells me something.

00:40:46.740 that means that there's some like in the quebec city area they got extremely well organized and

00:40:51.700 they got out there and they got the people to come out and vote and so it's statistically

00:40:56.900 significant you can see that the conservative writings outperformed got a greater turnout

00:41:03.380 and again to the people of quebec congratulations i mean some of those writings had like

00:41:08.020 80% turnout. I think there was at least 20 ridings in Quebec that had greater than 75%

00:41:17.140 voter participation. That's huge. That's huge. We'll be lucky here some ridings to get like 40

00:41:24.660 or 50%. So they really knocked it out of the park. And again, those are those behind the

00:41:30.380 scenes statistics that politicians need to pay attention to. When your citizens come out in huge

00:41:36.940 numbers to vote don't pat yourself on the back i had a politician i i went to the agm a couple

00:41:43.140 years ago in edmonton and uh oh no the one in red deer and uh it was shane um uh gets in the

00:41:50.680 i don't think he's an mla anymore but shane was like hey this is fantastic you know we got uh

00:41:55.560 6 000 people to come out and i i looked at him i'm like what are you bragging about 0.59

00:41:59.280 we're not here because you did a great job like if you were doing a great job we wouldn't be at

00:42:05.180 the AGM. We'd probably ignore it. But the more we come out, we're coming out in force because

00:42:11.580 we're upset. So, you know, and that's another message. And I think we probably will see that

00:42:17.760 in the B.C. election in the coming weeks. Maybe we'll pivot to that, right? I think I beat the

00:42:25.060 horse to death there on the Quebec politics. But October is election month in Canada. There's

00:42:33.460 municipal elections and provincial

00:42:35.400 elections in BC. I think there's

00:42:37.300 municipal elections in Nova Scotia

00:42:39.560 or in Manitoba.

00:42:41.420 I think there's a provincial election in the

00:42:43.440 Yukon next week. There's a couple of other

00:42:45.440 elections, but now that

00:42:47.160 the next one is a referendum,

00:42:49.640 all eyes will be on our referendum.

00:42:52.480 And by

00:42:53.420 the way, get out to vote, man.

00:42:56.140 That's an equally

00:42:57.180 strong message, right? The outcome of the

00:42:59.140 referendum is a message,

00:43:01.580 but the

00:43:02.340 there's other statistics I mean

00:43:05.120 regardless of the outcome

00:43:07.440 if 4 million Albertans

00:43:08.900 it can't be 4 million if 2.8 million let's say

00:43:11.260 90% of Albertans vote that's a

00:43:13.260 message in and of itself right

00:43:14.900 that politicians have to

00:43:17.280 pay attention because

00:43:18.200 that's one of the things politicians fear the most

00:43:21.320 is an

00:43:23.140 engaged populist like if we're engaged

00:43:25.160 and we're voting that's a

00:43:27.240 really really really really really strong

00:43:29.320 message to the politicians so that's

00:43:31.100 That's my encouragement to you.

00:43:32.500 Get out to vote on October 19th.

00:43:36.120 Actually, you have almost all of next week to vote, by the way, right?

00:43:38.700 So you can vote, I think, Monday through Thursday next week in advance polls.

00:43:44.260 It's getting too late.

00:43:45.500 I think today is the deadline.

00:43:47.760 No, tomorrow is the deadline for mail-in ballots.

00:43:50.560 You could request them up until the 25th of September,

00:43:54.420 and then I think you have until tomorrow.

00:43:56.420 They have to hit the Elections Alberta's office in Edmonton or something like that.

00:43:59.820 So I think you're running out of time for mail-in ballots,

00:44:02.020 but lots of opportunities next week.

00:44:06.400 Quickly on BC election, I think I'm starting to believe the polls,

00:44:16.140 and I think David Eby is going to regret this one.

00:44:19.820 He's not doing so hot.

00:44:21.900 He looks stressed out, right?

00:44:23.380 There's lots of clips of David sort of like looking around,

00:44:26.900 and I think he's regretting this one.

00:44:29.820 He's rambling. He's not making sense.

00:44:33.040 And then his strategy is one of the most bizarre strategies at this point.

00:44:36.880 I mean, he's almost betting on,

00:44:38.800 I'm going to make BC the most expensive jurisdiction in the world

00:44:42.340 with the highest tax rates.

00:44:43.660 Like, that's such a weird strategy.

00:44:45.940 All right, I got a caller. Go ahead, caller.

00:44:47.380 Where are you calling from and what's your name, please?

00:44:50.520 Hey, Marty, it's James from Kevin. Can you hear me?

00:44:52.820 Yeah, yeah, perfectly. How are you?

00:44:55.480 Oh, not too bad.

00:44:57.320 A lot on my mind today. We'll see what we can get to.

00:44:59.820 uh Elon Musk did he interfere no who cares right let's uh let's look back at our previous election

00:45:12.120 uh China interfered with that election India interfered with that election the Russians

00:45:18.480 interfered with the election the Americans interfered with the election Doug Ford

00:45:23.940 interfered with that election.

00:45:26.420 So why do we care what Elon Musk is doing

00:45:29.860 when literally half the planet has their fingers in our election? 0.85

00:45:34.440 It's hypocrisy.

00:45:36.440 You're preaching to the choir, I agree.

00:45:38.440 But they fear Elon because Elon has a big platform, right?

00:45:43.560 Like if Elon says, I'm pro-independence, they fear him.

00:45:47.480 It's simple as that.

00:45:51.740 Yep, simple as.

00:45:53.500 They just, it's anything they can do to make them shut up.

00:45:58.120 They just don't want to hear it.

00:45:59.700 Yeah, and then on the flip side, right, remember last year,

00:46:04.400 Carney brought out Mike Myers, right?

00:46:07.080 Carney brings out Mike Myers and uses Mike Myers in an advertising.

00:46:10.880 And Mike Myers is no more Canadian.

00:46:12.840 I mean, he's also got a passport, a Canadian passport,

00:46:15.500 but is Mike Myers more Canadian or more American than an Elon Musk?

00:46:19.200 You tell me.

00:46:19.760 i think more canadian than uh mark carney who i thought was irish there you go exactly exactly

00:46:28.900 yeah yeah what else is on your mind you said you had a couple of things we could unpack a couple

00:46:32.920 of things pick something up that one of the other callers mentioned you were asking if you thought

00:46:38.660 mark carney cared about what was going on in quebec or with the bc election yeah i don't think

00:46:44.780 he cares in the slightest i don't think he cares about this country at all i think he would burn

00:46:50.540 down the entire nation for another zero on his network based on the way he was acting in the

00:46:58.460 house of commons yesterday i would tend to agree i mean he was so flippant yesterday right like

00:47:03.300 pierre is back to his usual self like what have you done to help canadians and carney

00:47:08.060 carney had a smirk on his face he almost couldn't contain himself like he's he views a lot of this

00:47:14.520 as a joke the man has possibly the worst poker face i've ever seen you can tell when he's lying

00:47:21.380 from 100 miles away well you know how you can tell he's lying his lips are moving on his face

00:47:27.880 every time no his lips are moving yeah awesome okay well no um yeah no thanks for calling and

00:47:37.440 um are you uh any chance you'll be at the uh rally on saturday or you're busy you got other

00:47:43.740 The things are too far.

00:47:44.880 Possibly.

00:47:45.560 I'm going to try and make it, but things are busy right now.

00:47:51.400 Yeah, yeah.

00:47:51.880 Things are real busy.

00:47:53.080 As long as you get out to vote, that's what matters the most.

00:47:57.480 Oh, wild horses couldn't drag me away.

00:47:59.620 Awesome.

00:48:00.140 Thanks for calling, bud.

00:48:02.660 Thank you, Marty.

00:48:03.480 Have a good one.

00:48:04.140 You too.

00:48:05.780 Yeah, how can you tell Mark Carney's lying?

00:48:07.740 His lips are moving.

00:48:08.740 It's as simple as that.

00:48:12.440 What was I going to say?

00:48:13.280 Oh, just back to the rally, I don't know the website, like Keith Wilson and Tanya Clemens have their website.

00:48:22.320 What's their, their group is called Let Alberta Decide.

00:48:27.740 You know, everybody's got third party advertisers.

00:48:30.600 Corey Morgan's done fantastic.

00:48:32.340 Like Corey's plastered the southern part of the province.

00:48:36.380 Jason Levine is, I mean, that was one thing that was absolutely gorgeous for me to witness, right?

00:48:42.120 But on my way to go hunting, I drive up along the Cowboy Trail.

00:48:46.160 So I leave Calgary.

00:48:47.200 I go through Sundry, Caroline, Rocky Mountain House, Drayton Valley.

00:48:51.400 I cut across.

00:48:52.240 I go up through Cynthia.

00:48:53.720 Most of you have never been to Cynthia.

00:48:55.820 Then I do Carrick Creek, Edson, Hinton, Grand Cache.

00:49:00.100 And that's where I go hunting.

00:49:02.040 And that Cowboy Trail, it's officially called the Cowboy Trail, Highway 22.

00:49:05.960 The number of flags that keep popping up there, the number of blue flags is heartwarming.

00:49:10.840 It's, oh, now you're just reminding me of a story.

00:49:14.320 Did you guys see the story yesterday of apparently, I don't know,

00:49:19.220 there's a bit missing to the story, but apparently some kid

00:49:22.880 or somebody at the Oilers game in Edmonton at Rogers Place

00:49:26.380 got tapped on the shoulder.

00:49:28.380 Somebody complained about them because they had an Alberta flag

00:49:30.860 and then they were deemed disruptive and then got kicked out of the game.

00:49:37.820 I mean, and again, people were like, this is more evidence of a double standard,

00:49:44.320 because now somebody said, oh, well, there's a rule against flags.

00:49:48.480 Well, as soon as they said there's a rule against flag,

00:49:50.580 everybody brought up all these pictures of people waving.

00:49:54.140 Yeah, there you go.

00:49:55.200 Fans allegedly.

00:49:56.820 Why does it say allegedly?

00:49:58.880 John can't answer me.

00:50:00.220 It's a rhetorical question, I guess.

00:50:01.940 But was it just not proven?

00:50:04.180 or anyways it's a bad look okay it's a bad look it's a bad look if you if you start getting kicked

00:50:10.420 out of of events because you have an alberta flag that's a bad look and then when you try and

00:50:16.440 justify by saying oh well we don't allow flags and then somebody says well you got the ukraine flag

00:50:20.800 and the and the palestinian flag and the whatever all these other flags then then you're applying

00:50:25.940 a double standard they're making too much noise whatever whatever whatever like you know a lot

00:50:31.240 these events expose a lot of double standards and a lot of bias and a lot of flawed thinking so um

00:50:39.720 we'll see what happens the next home game for the oilers is coming up in a couple of days and

00:50:44.440 everybody's saying i'll bring out the flag so maybe uh maybe that'll be uh again a catalyst

00:50:50.520 perfect timing it's the streisand effect right folks it's the streisand effect like

00:50:54.680 Like, sometimes when you single out a person for doing something,

00:50:59.700 you amplify the movement.

00:51:02.480 So you kick out one.

00:51:03.680 I mean, that's what Corey did.

00:51:05.000 Thank you, Corey Morgan, right?

00:51:06.220 That's what Corey did.

00:51:07.020 The city of Tabor said, hey, you can't have a sign.

00:51:11.400 It's offensive for whatever rules.

00:51:13.400 No, it doesn't fall under the rules.

00:51:15.080 We followed the rules.

00:51:16.320 But, okay, rather than you made a complaint about one sign,

00:51:20.800 Corey went and put up two more and then three more and four more

00:51:23.860 and a dozen more.

00:51:25.160 And I'm sure the people at the city of Tabor

00:51:26.920 who made that complaint wished they hadn't.

00:51:29.900 So, and I'm okay with that.

00:51:34.860 Okay, I'm running out of time.

00:51:36.480 I want to, I got a couple of other topics

00:51:39.860 I wanted to mention, but I think I'm run,

00:51:44.120 I wanted to talk a little bit.

00:51:46.140 Well, let's talk, can you,

00:51:47.380 let's do one funny one real quick.

00:51:49.720 John, can you find just a picture of Chrystia Freeland 0.94

00:51:53.000 and holding up her new book.

00:51:55.020 Because I thought it was parody, but it is not parody.

00:51:58.040 Like, this is bonkers.

00:52:00.480 So I'll give him a second to find it.

00:52:05.920 You guys can go maybe find it afterwards.

00:52:07.980 You'll find the videos.

00:52:09.340 So Chrystia Freeland, we all know Chrystia Freeland, right?

00:52:11.740 Used to be, it's a book about her boyfriend, right?

00:52:16.520 Like, yeah, so Chrystia Freeland.

00:52:20.560 so i thought this was a joke now i think maybe the full content of the book might be a joke

00:52:27.960 maybe it's just a title but she's she she did a this thing it's not parody she's on she there's

00:52:34.420 a live video of her saying uh you know i wrote this book my unreliable boyfriend talking about

00:52:39.740 donald trump and quote the betrayal of donald trump like come on like that's trump derangement

00:52:48.680 syndrome on a whole new level okay this again this is coming from somebody who was uh a very senior

00:52:59.160 minister in canada okay very senior like second in command like basically the deputy minister

00:53:05.480 and the finance minister like the highest cabinet possible and she resigns and where is she now

00:53:12.600 she's working for zelinski in ukraine helping him launder money and collect money and whatever so 0.96

00:53:21.400 i think there's going to be a second book at some point it's her unreliable boyfriend by the way she

00:53:26.920 wasn't a boy like how she makes that link that trump was her boyfriend like that's that's a

00:53:33.080 weird assumption right like you could have said the unreliable neighbor or something like that

00:53:37.000 but to call it the unreliable boyfriend really christian you and donald trump were boyfriend

00:53:42.360 and girlfriend i i'm more likely to believe that you and zelinski were boyfriend and girlfriend

00:53:48.420 and i'm curious to you know i'll be curious to see how that relationship ends for you christia

00:53:54.280 freeland so uh anyways just just strike that up you know this is um this is something in general

00:54:00.600 that i talked about i mean um the summer was quiet because uh all the politicians were in recess and

00:54:07.720 And now they're all back at work, and as soon as they're back at work, the insanity

00:54:14.980 starts.

00:54:15.980 Okay, I'm not really running out of time, but I'm going to go one last quick one, one

00:54:23.100 last quick story, and I got two to choose from, but I'm going to pick on Jeremy Farkas

00:54:31.040 for the last bit of the show.

00:54:35.860 You guys saw a couple of weeks ago, Jeremy Farkas got upset

00:54:39.780 because somebody inside council did some whistleblowing

00:54:45.540 and showed up that there's going to be a huge tax increase

00:54:49.900 that are being proposed because everybody's having their hand out.

00:54:52.540 Everybody wants more money, more money, more money, more money.

00:54:55.760 And then Farkas comes out this week and puts out a video

00:54:58.660 pleading with everybody like our water infrastructure

00:55:02.400 is in really bad shape and he's trying to justify the fact that I'm surprised he didn't go as far

00:55:08.180 as blaming his predecessor because honestly he could blame Nenshi and Gondek directly for

00:55:15.420 mismanaging the infrastructure but he didn't go that far he basically said the infrastructure

00:55:20.680 is crumbling and I need to charge you guys more money my question exactly to him is

00:55:28.180 how come edmonton's infrastructure is not crumbling how come toronto's infrastructure

00:55:33.300 is not crumbling how come uh you know vancouver's and other places aren't crumbling to quite the

00:55:39.240 same extent as we are here in calgary like rather than rather than do whatever you're saying how

00:55:46.400 about you just come out and admit it and say that that the city was mismanaged and point the finger

00:55:53.740 directly because he took a little bit of blame on it oh i was part of the council when this happened

00:55:58.540 yeah you're part of the council blame put the blame squarely where it belongs on nenshi and

00:56:04.560 on gondek we already know gondek's under some sort of weird investigation right now she won't break

00:56:09.500 her phone but uh put it on nenshi right now nenshi's running in in uh is still a politician

00:56:17.280 provincially gondek or farkas won't do it i'll do it for you uh jeremy

00:56:23.940 naheed nenshi mismanaged the city and he shouldn't be managing anything all right there i said it

00:56:34.600 now the interesting follow-up on that is that uh after he made his announcements

00:56:39.600 to me farkas looks like he's really really really really really trying to distract right so he's

00:56:46.220 really on board right now he's he's taking a lot of time out of his busy schedule instead of

00:56:50.900 managing the infrastructure and worrying about the city he's taking a lot of time out of his

00:56:55.340 schedule to fight against alberta independence which i don't think is his mandate he should just

00:57:00.840 sit on the sidelines for this one and he should just shut up but then he went further and two

00:57:07.120 days ago he declared that october was don't quote me exactly but i think his terms were you know

00:57:13.720 October is Muslim or Islam Awareness Month, or something like that, which again,

00:57:22.360 I take objection to that simply for the fact that it's not your mandate, okay? 0.67

00:57:31.560 Declaring an Awareness Month, I don't even like Awareness Month, right? I don't like Ice Cream

00:57:36.920 Awareness Month, Black History Awareness Month, whatever, you know, Aquarium Awareness Month, 0.81

00:57:44.500 like it's getting ridiculous. There's Awareness Months for all of these things and they're

00:57:47.800 insignificant. Who gives us, you know, who cares? I don't need that stuff. But it's bad enough that

00:57:53.500 Ottawa does it. I don't need the provinces and then down to the municipal level doing it. So

00:57:58.060 Jeremy Farkas, declaring a month as a certain Awareness Month is none of your business. It's

00:58:02.960 not your mandate you have bigger things to do but i found it particularly weird that he chose

00:58:08.740 monday to declare an awareness month and then yesterday or yeah yesterday was the

00:58:16.320 terrible anniversary was october 7th which is that terrorist attack uh in in uh israel against those

00:58:24.980 kids that were having that festival and others right there's 1200 victims and so on the same

00:58:30.260 weak as that you know you see where i'm going with this and then and then yesterday he tried

00:58:36.320 to save face a little bit by saying hey you know jewish people in uh i've never been under bigger

00:58:42.400 threat uh in since the holocaust i'm like well so jeremy do us all a favor bud worry about the water 0.70

00:58:53.060 worry about the sewers worry about the garbage collection and worry about making sure that

00:58:58.620 whenever a young boy like Parker goes missing,

00:59:01.640 that your Amber Alerts go out quickly so we can find him.

00:59:05.920 So you have bigger things to worry about

00:59:07.500 other than cultural awareness months.

00:59:10.820 All right, I made my piece.

00:59:12.220 Listen, folks, great show.

00:59:14.080 Thanks for calling.

00:59:15.600 I mean, I was a little worried that I was out of touch

00:59:19.160 because I was gone for 10 days,

00:59:21.460 but you guys made this show today.

00:59:23.180 It was a fantastic show.

00:59:24.160 Thanks for calling in.

00:59:25.640 I talked a lot,

00:59:26.600 But you guys brought up some great points.

00:59:29.920 Just a reminder, the PayPal, or the PayPal,

00:59:32.700 the paywall is down for the Western Standard.

00:59:35.060 So take advantage of it.

00:59:37.280 Go read the great stories.

00:59:38.880 We got great people here that are breaking stories

00:59:41.660 and bringing you some great, you know, some reports,

00:59:44.840 some great stories.

00:59:46.740 I've said it.

00:59:47.260 I'm sounding like Donald Trump.

00:59:49.120 We have people here that do great stories.

00:59:52.080 I wanted to talk about Donald Trump

00:59:53.920 and his quote about the purple diesel,

00:59:56.100 but some other day uh go read the stories and hopefully you'll you'll you'll like him enough

01:00:02.820 that uh that you'll subscribe when the paywall goes back up uh as far as i know the the subscription

01:00:10.660 is still the same it's ten dollars a month or it's a hundred dollars a year it's a fantastic deal

01:00:16.100 And I look forward to chatting with you guys next week.

01:00:18.980 Same time.

01:00:19.580 Cheers, everyone.

01:00:46.100 You

Western Standard - October 08, 2026

Quebec sends a message to Ottawa

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