Roman Baber speaks on the Emergencies Act, Senate Appointments, Supply Management among other issues
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Summary
In this episode, I sit down with Alberta s Lieutenant- Governor General, Shep McInnes, to discuss the February 18th protests in response to Bill C-69 and the government's response to them.
Transcript
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So I guess it'd be safe to assume you would have opposed the imposition of the Emergencies Act
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against Canadians who were protesting against the mandates.
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Absolutely. Well, first of all, the invocation of the Emergency Act does not meet the letter of the
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law in that there's other pieces of legislation that are able to deal with it, in that there is
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no prevalent national emergency that was dangerous to many lives or safety of Canadians. And to add
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insult to injury, the emergency itself was invoked by Parliament after the alleged emergency
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was over. You know, when I think back to the invocation of the Emergencies Act, I think back
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to February 18th, which was probably a very difficult day for many Canadians, including myself, to watch
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truly peaceful protesters be handled in that manner by police. But I think a wonderful thing has also
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happened that day, in that we saw that there was no injuries to the police, there was no resistance
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by the protesters, and that they peacefully accepted regretfully the regretful conduct of the police,
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and had vindicated all of those that have accused this movement, be it the mainstream media or the
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government, and proved that indeed, that was a peaceful movement. And that is how we'll choose to
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remember it and hope that history will reflect on it appropriately.
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Yeah, I believe, I mean, hopefully we'll see some investigations and look back and really get a
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clear picture of what happened there, because we can't let this be swept under the rug, such an
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unprecedented and dangerous move in Canadian history.
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Look, we've seen regretfully a lot of overreach by the federal government. I think what's most regretful is
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that Justin Trudeau, or in fact, no level of government had the decency or the leadership to
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speak to the truckers or anyone else there about the reason they were there, which is mandates.
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And I'm on record, in fact, I'm the only politician to my knowledge in Canada that brought legislation
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to protect workers against workplace mandates. And in Ontario, unfortunately, my jobs and jabs bill was
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defeated by the Duckport Conservative government on second reading. But no, no one had the decency to
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speak to them about the reason they were there, which is their ability to put food on the table
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without doing something against their will. And that is a trite proposition that I would think
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most Canadians would agree with. And it's regretful that the conversation had delineated to this discourse.
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Yeah, there's a lot of lives, unfortunately, have been very disrupted and ruined through all of that.
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So I'll pivot back, though, to some more broad concern, you know, as I've been asking other
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candidates on some of those federal issues, and we come quite often from a regional approach,
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of course, we're a Western publication, and there's been a lot of regional, you know, unrest,
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I guess you could say, from the West. Some of these issues, well, one's a little bit regional,
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but I might as well jump right to that, because I was talking about it just before you came on,
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and that's our supply management system. That's been, you know, an issue and problematic for some
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people and dairy producers, well, dairy consumers, for some years now, would you be willing to start
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looking towards dismantling that? I don't know, I'll have some consultations on that issue.
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But I certainly appreciate that. I think that the global supply chain has been disrupted by
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lockdowns and government overreach. And then regretfully, when you reopen the market,
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then you obviously have a great deal of demand. And that in part causes a significant appreciation
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in pricing. But I think that generally, I think Ottawa needs to rethink the way it deals with the
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West. I'm going to embrace Canada's natural resources, I will not let oil and gas be cancelled.
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I think our natural resources are a blessing, and not just energy, I think we need to develop mining for
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precious metals that are very much needed right now around the world. We need to stop buying resources
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from rogue regimes, not just to fix our balance sheet, but I think doing so will be better for
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the planet, because Canada will do it safer and cleaner than anyone else in the world. I think we
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need to repeal Bill C-69 to build new pipelines, and to ensure that provinces, all provinces are included
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in the national conversation. Great. So I'm going to move on to Senate for a moment, and something I've
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asked every candidate as well. In Alberta, we've had a tradition for quite some time of going through
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the motions, at least, of electing our senators to nominate, I guess, as a province to put forward.
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Sometimes that's actually succeeded, and we've had some who were appointed after we've elected,
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and other times we haven't. The Liberals are very strongly against that. But would you commit as a
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leader in assuming, presumably, eventually Prime Minister to appoint elected senators from provinces,
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whether Alberta or otherwise? I think as someone who is very interested in the Charter and
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Canada Constitution, I am a lawyer by profession. I practiced for 12 years prior to my election to
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Parliament, primarily in commercial and civil litigation. I think that perhaps a national
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conversation may be in order about the role of the Senate. I think that, if anything, the role of the
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Senate has been magnified subsequent to the invocation of the Emergencies Act, because I'm of the view,
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and I suspect that, in fact, Justin Trudeau withdrew the legislation because he didn't have the votes
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in the Senate. It appears as if the House of Sober Second Thought, as our first Prime Minister referred
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to it, may have a much greater role to play in our democracy than we frankly thought. I think that,
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as Prime Minister, I will engage in robust conversation to see not just what makes sense
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for Canada and Canada's democracy, which is the principal reason why I'm in the CPC leadership race,
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but also to see what our provincial partners might be thinking and what is on the table. I would not
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want to presuppose that outcome, but I certainly think that there's room to improve Canada's democracy.
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Okay. And then going further, we also had a referendum here in Alberta recently on equalization.
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Most of the province, at least the citizens, feel that the program, the way it's set up right now,
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hasn't been fair to Alberta and much of the West. And we do understand it's constitutionally entrenched,
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but the formula is within the authority of the federal government to calculate, and it doesn't
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feel like it has served us well. Would you look at equalization reform?
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I would certainly look to have a conversation with all provinces about where we are. But I think that
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we need to have a greater conversation beyond equalization. And that is, I think that
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I'm running on restoring not just Canada's democracy, which I feel has been eroded, but also
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Canadian opportunity. And that's by way of housing, by way of access to healthcare. We know that Canada has
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one of the lowest number of beds per capita in the OECD countries. I think we need to look at energy and
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the way that we transport energy across the country, and frankly, allow every province to be included in
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the national conversation. And that would probably include a discussion as to how we do equalization in
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our country. Okay. Something that came out kind of out of the blue, but I mean, it was refreshing to
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see something new in a leadership race, but I didn't quite anticipate, but it was when Mr. Paglia
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mentioned expanding the role of digital currencies or encouraging it and things such as that. Do you
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see a role in embracing further with digital currencies within Canada or how it should be regulated or dealt with?
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So I respect and like human ingenuity. And when it comes specifically to cryptocurrency, I would suggest
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that I would encourage the progress that we're making as Canadians on cryptocurrency. As long as it
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meets principal conditions, which is transparency in the market and equal access to the market, then I'm
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in favor of that. What I am, however, concerned with is any friction by government as to the ability
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of Canada's citizens to use digital currency or currency generally. That's the nature of cash,
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is that it is negotiable. And that means that it's non-negotiable. It doesn't matter who uses a $20 bill
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or where they use it. It's just as good, a $20 bill anywhere or by anyone. And it's that nature of currency
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that I do not wish for government to interfere in any way. I think that in the last couple of years,
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we have seen a great erosion of rights and freedoms around the country. And I do not believe that we
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want to go down the path where government has any friction as to how Canadians deal with their monetary
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currency. Okay. So going a little wider into foreign affairs, which of course is very pressing right now.
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We've got a terrible situation going on in Eastern Europe in particular. And sort of in a broader question,
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what do you see as Canada's role on the international scene? Like, are we to be something of a military power,
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a peacekeeper, an intervener or staying clear? Where do we land and where do you see Canada in the future?
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Sure. Well, you know, my mom's family is from Ukraine and I myself was born in Russia when it was still
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the Soviet Union. And I'm very heartbroken by the events in Ukraine. And we're witnessing a catastrophic
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loss of life and infrastructure. And I believe that first and foremost, there needs to be a greater
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effort to end the conflict. And so I'm glad that negotiations are ongoing, but I think we have to
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bring the parties to a ceasefire. With respect to Canada's general role in the world,
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I think that I would not be in favor of interventionism, but I would want to broadcast
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a hopeful message of human rights and Canada's democracy around the world. However, I think that
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that opportunity is now eroded because Canada's credibility on the world stage as a democratic
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nation has eroded. And so really, we can't be advocates for democracy around the world,
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where three and a half million Canadians cannot board a plane because of their medical status,
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or when folks are losing jobs daily because they made a different medical choice. And so I think
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that before we can restore Canada's standing around the world, and before we can be a credible voice
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in international affairs for the better, we have to have to restore Canada's democracy.
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Great. I'll kind of finish here perhaps with one more kind of economic
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question. Since I just remembered it's April 1st, our carbon taxes went up yet again.
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Where do you stand on carbon taxes and pricing in the future?
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So I oppose the carbon tax. Today's increase increased, I think the price of a litre of gas
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by about 2.2 cents to a total of 11 cents per litre just vis-a-vis carbon. And look, I'm on record.
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I do not believe that taxing Sally at the gas pump or making everything more expensive
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by virtue of the carbon tax will do anything for global temperatures. And so it's regretful at a time
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when life in Canada is already unaffordable. And especially with the price appreciation,
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the price inflation that we're seeing in the last couple of years as a result of us overprinting
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money and the result of the jolting in the market resulting from lockdowns and then reopening of the
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economy that we would further burden the consumer with what I believe to be effectively a virtue signaling
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Great. So just in kind of wrapping up, it's going to be a long campaign. It's going all
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the way till September 10th there. It's quite the marathon. Can we look forward to you coming out
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Absolutely. I anticipate being in Manitoba over the next couple of weeks. I then believe I have
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a trip to Saskatchewan. And also we are just in the process of finalizing a trip to Alberta,
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literally in the next two weeks. And I'm looking forward to having conversations all around the
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country. I think that we are in a very, I would say that we're in a very challenging time for Canada's
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democracy. I think that without democracy, we don't have anything. And it's not just democracy
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that's being eroded. It's Canada's opportunity. I may take a moment. I'm an immigrant to Canada.
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I came here when I was 15 and I had every opportunity to work, to succeed, to join a small
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business, to be elected from the very electoral district that welcomed me as an immigrant. And
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I don't think that many Canadians feel the same optimism that I felt about our freedoms and economic
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Okay. Well, that's excellent. I do appreciate you putting yourself out there. We got such a wide
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range of candidates this time around. It makes it hard, but the more we can talk to it and can,
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you know, I'm a free market person and it comes to that with democracy, the more we get in there,
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I like to think that the best we'll get in the end. So where can people find more information
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Well, our website is just being finalized, but I do see, I do see the temporary homepage at
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www.joinroman.ca. That's joinroman.ca. But of course, folks cannot give us their vote unless they
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register to vote with the Conservative Party of Canada, and they can do that at our portal at