Western Standard - Scheer's Non-Non-Confidence Vote - The Pipeline, Episode 9

00:00:00.000 You're listening to The Pipeline, the Western Standards National Affairs Program,

00:00:15.360 recording this Wednesday, February 19th, 2020. Each week we break down the issues,

00:00:22.060 discuss them in depth, and examine some of the broader implications for Western Canada

00:00:26.660 and beyond. Featuring from Calgary, the Western Standards publisher, Derek Fildemrand. Welcome,

00:00:33.660 Derek. Hello, Paul. And featuring from Strathmore, Deirdre Mitchell-McLean, our senior reporter.

00:00:42.540 Good afternoon. And myself, digital editor Paul Holmes from Victoria, British Columbia.

00:00:48.520 All right, guys. Very interesting development this week. We have more blockades to talk about,

00:00:55.980 and a couple of developments around the blockades. We're going to also talk about the block motion

00:01:02.540 on the tech project. And we'll finish up with a little bit about the Edmonton Eskimos.

00:01:10.960 So, we'll start off with the blockades. What's the very latest news? I mean, there's 13 things

00:01:19.420 going on around the country. Deirdre, what have you observed this week?

00:01:24.980 Well, this week, obviously, has been very big with the number of blockades. And I think,

00:01:34.480 I mean, it's, Trudeau canceled his vacation, or not vacation, but what?

00:01:39.520 It was a vacation.

00:01:40.160 It was a vacation. It was a vacation. He did cancel that after weeks of blockades. So,

00:01:46.300 he did decide to stick around and, you know, maybe do something about it. But it's been,

00:01:54.100 it's actually, it's actually ramped up this week, really. And we had one start this morning in just

00:02:01.520 west of Edmonton. And that one already has some counter protests, or sorry, counter protesters who have

00:02:08.180 arrived. They showed up around noon. And United We Roll is heading out there as well for a peaceful

00:02:14.400 counter protest. And they should be arriving by about 5.15.

00:02:18.860 And here in Victoria, the Premier's house was

00:02:23.760 Yes.

00:02:24.700 blockaded or, I guess, picketed by, interestingly, by people who claim to be part of Extinction Rebellion,

00:02:32.540 if I understand that, which is, which is new. I don't remember Extinction Rebellion taking

00:02:38.020 any claim for this. And three were arrested. And I guess the Premier did confront, confront them. He

00:02:46.900 came home while they were there. So that's, well, good on Horgan for finally drawing a line on when

00:02:51.860 the police should intervene and illegal blockades. I guess the line is when it shows up on his driveway.

00:02:56.620 Yeah, these guys were, it was really, their language was interesting. They, they were there to arrest,

00:03:05.660 perform a citizen's arrest, or people's arrest, as they say, a people's arrest of the Premier for war

00:03:12.400 crimes and crimes against humanity. Now, if that sounds a little overblown, it shouldn't be, because

00:03:18.380 the Prime Minister endorsed the recommendations that came out of his own government, saying that

00:03:25.900 there is a ongoing genocide in Canada. That was pretty wild language has obviously been terrible

00:03:31.420 things done to First Nations in Canada's history. I, I don't think there's ever been a genocide of

00:03:37.660 them in Canada. I think that's unfair. I think there's been terrible treatment.

00:03:41.260 But I, genocide is a particularly loaded term. But it also said an ongoing genocide. So if,

00:03:50.540 if there is an ongoing genocide, I think we should probably arrest the Fuhrer for it. 0.97

00:03:55.900 Well, I do think that the, that historians would probably recognize the very early maritime

00:04:02.620 contact as a form of genocide. But, you know, it's, it's debatable, I suppose, how to classify

00:04:10.860 it. So I, pick it up with the queen.

00:04:13.260 That's exactly, exactly right. Um, yeah. So, uh, I picked up my phone yesterday and

00:04:20.540 I subscribed to The Economist magazine. And as a result, I get the, their daily hit. What's the

00:04:25.980 biggest news story in the world? And the biggest news story in the world yesterday was, uh, the ongoing

00:04:33.660 blockades in Canada. So, uh, we're now, uh, in case there was any question, this is now internationally

00:04:40.060 famous news. We're, uh, affecting major parts of the economy. Obviously you can't move things around

00:04:46.140 if, uh, trains can't go. Uh, so lots of, uh, rhetoric has been, um, raised lots of anger, uh,

00:04:54.060 lots of anger from surprising places. Obviously the, the premier of British Columbia being, uh, one of the

00:04:59.820 people that, you know, we would expect historically would be sympathetic. Um, obviously he was until they

00:05:05.580 showed up on his doorstep. Um, and then we saw a, uh, uh, I guess the prospect of a motion, um, uh,

00:05:15.820 from, uh, to take, to take down the government and where, how did that go play out? Uh, Derek,

00:05:21.020 did you want to speak to that one first? Well, uh, word came, I think sort of leaking yesterday,

00:05:28.300 but it's, uh, it, it, it was confirmed today that, uh, Andrew Scheer was moving to put forward a

00:05:33.500 motion of non-confidence against the government. Uh, right before we started recording, uh, it,

00:05:41.420 it came out, I think unsurprisingly to those of us watching closely that, uh, their non-confidence

00:05:47.580 motion is now a non-non-confidence motion. They're not, uh, it'll be tabled for future use at some date,

00:05:52.380 which is not unusual in the minority parliament, since you want the ability to use it when, whenever

00:05:57.180 you want. Uh, but they're not going to put it forward, uh, both the Bloc Québécois and the NDP.

00:06:03.980 I'm not sure what the Greens said, but, uh, the, uh, the third and fourth parties said they will not

00:06:08.300 support it. Uh, to bring down the government, you would need the support of all three major opposition

00:06:12.700 parties. So all the opposition parties, less the Greens. And, uh, they didn't have that support.

00:06:18.700 Um, but I also think that my, my suspicion is, and, and I got this sense, uh, speaking to some

00:06:26.780 conservative MPs, uh, in the last few days here that, uh, this was, uh, one of two things and

00:06:34.220 possibly combined. It, it was never actually meant to bring down the government. It was just to show,

00:06:39.340 uh, the conservatives thumping their chest a bit. Um, but also a bit more, um, and a bit more of a

00:06:48.620 Machiavellian sense. This was Andrew Scheer's last Hail Mary to stay the leader of the conservative

00:06:54.780 party of Canada. Because if you go into an election, uh, right now and he, and he wins it,

00:07:00.780 he gets to become prime minister and it's pretty hard to remove someone who has already won.

00:07:05.820 Uh, so he may have been praying, uh, that, uh, the motion succeeds, brings down the government,

00:07:13.020 even though the Tories are broke, they don't have money for an election. They're a pretty tough

00:07:16.060 financial state, uh, uh, financial circumstances. They are relative to the other parties still have

00:07:22.780 by far the best ability to pay off their debts and, uh, build a, a snap, uh, war chest to be able

00:07:29.420 to fund a campaign. They might be broke, but the other parties are more broke. Uh, and so like in a

00:07:34.380 war of attrition, you may have lost a lot of men, but if the other guys lost more, you're in better

00:07:38.540 shape. So, uh, there, there was a lot of pushback in the conservative caucus, uh, that were kind of

00:07:45.340 seeing through this, that this, uh, you know, but they'd be going into an election with an unpopular

00:07:50.540 leader, not supported by the caucus, not supported by the party's rank and file and with, um, well,

00:07:57.260 not that there's very many people of profile campaigning for the leadership of the conservative

00:08:01.100 party, but there is a race going, uh, going on at least technically awaiting the final anointing of

00:08:06.460 Peter McKay. So, uh, caucus kibosh that both because it wouldn't pass, but also even if it did,

00:08:13.420 uh, I, most of the conservative caucus do not want to go into another election with Andrew Scheer.

00:08:18.620 And I, I did notice on, uh, Twitter this week, Peter McKay actually had some very strong words

00:08:24.300 in a video about the blockade, which was frankly surprising. Um, and, uh, got a lot of blowback

00:08:30.620 from, you know, the usual, uh, detractors on, on Twitter that don't like, um, anything conservatives

00:08:36.620 saying, but, uh, I thought it was, uh, I thought it was, uh, you know, very surprising to see him be

00:08:42.860 that, um, forthright and, uh, strongly positioned on this issue. Deirdre, uh, what are you, what are

00:08:49.020 your thoughts about the political side of this? Um, so like I was kind of talking about earlier, I'm

00:08:56.780 really confused as, as a political watcher and have been, you know, since before Scheer became leader.

00:09:06.380 I don't understand how he hasn't been forced to resign already. Like in, in what other situation

00:09:13.100 has this happened where someone loses the election, steps down as leader, all of these things that have

00:09:19.660 come out, the spending scandals, um, how is he still not even in the party, but in a position where

00:09:29.900 he could force a non-confidence vote, just potentially, and run as prime minister later,

00:09:36.380 run for prime minister again. Deirdre, you said you can't, uh, recall how, if that's,

00:09:41.900 you can't imagine that's ever happened. It actually happened, uh, about a decade ago when, uh,

00:09:46.860 Stefan Dion lost an election terribly, uh, lost half of his caucus, uh, got completely smashed,

00:09:54.140 uh, announced his intention to resign as the liberal leader and, uh, and then a month after

00:09:59.900 announces he's about to come to the prime minister of a coalition with the Bloc Québécois and NDP.

00:10:05.020 So it has happened before where someone's attempted this. It just didn't end well.

00:10:09.020 Mm. And one would, one would expect that it wouldn't end well again, but I'm, I'm really like,

00:10:16.380 yeah, let's go all conspiracy theory here, but what on earth does Andrew Scheer have

00:10:21.180 on the conservative party that they have not said, dude, you're done?

00:10:27.740 Well, he's kowtowed to the dairy lobby, so there's that.

00:10:33.580 Sorry, was that my outside voice? Sorry. Paul, did you realize how good that, uh, that pun was?

00:10:40.220 Oh yes. The counter. Uh huh. I, you know, the best puns always are the ones you don't realize

00:10:48.140 until the end. Uh, yeah, no, it's, uh, I'm, I'm as baffled as you are. I think the thing is, um,

00:10:56.940 you know, you have a, and I've watched politics most of my life. I think the,

00:11:01.260 the thing is you can't, you can't allow something like this and the seemingly aloof, uh, prime minister,

00:11:09.660 you know, traveling around the world and just hoping that this problem fixes itself. You can't

00:11:14.300 allow that to go unchecked, even if you are, um, leader in name only. Right. And so I think they had

00:11:21.500 to do something, um, you know, and, and so, you know, did, did anybody, but now they look cowardly,

00:11:28.060 but they, I mean, they could have put forward an emotion of censure. They could have, uh, right.

00:11:33.340 You know, if the goal was to, to make clear that, uh, the prime minister's actions are flaccid and

00:11:38.860 unacceptable, they could have put forward a motion of censure, which is like saying we don't have

00:11:43.660 confidence, but not calling for an election, just saying we're angry at you. Uh, they could have done

00:11:48.700 that, but instead they talked about a motion of non-confidence, uh, which has much graver

00:11:53.980 implications for forcing an election. Yeah. And I wonder if the NDP would have,

00:11:59.660 and, or the block would have supported a motion even of censure though.

00:12:05.020 I'm not sure they would have because, uh, as much, as much as, uh, Trudeau has been kowtowing to the

00:12:10.460 radicals here, uh, the NDP and the block do so even more. So if it was a motion of censure, it would

00:12:17.420 have had to say specifically what about, whereas a non-confidence motion like the one they proposed

00:12:21.420 was just very straightforward. It was just, uh, we, uh, have lost confidence in the government,

00:12:26.940 therefore triggering an election. Uh, a motion of censure would, uh, would have to say what

00:12:31.580 they were being censured for. And so it probably would have been just the conservatives voting with

00:12:36.300 it. Well, then, then that's certainly, you know, that's a really good point. And it certainly backs up

00:12:40.620 your, your case on the, the hail Mary for Andrew Scheer. Cause, uh, obviously, uh, um,

00:12:47.340 not putting a descriptor on it opens the door for the NDP and the block to get behind the motion and

00:12:52.540 without specifically appearing to go after the protesters. But I can imagine that the news would

00:12:57.500 have played it, you know, the, that, that way. And I think the NDP, frankly, would have been harmed.

00:13:02.220 Peter McKay's got a large contingent of the caucus supporting his leadership right now.

00:13:05.900 And, uh, I would imagine that if Andrew Scheer had pressed forward with this, uh, he probably

00:13:12.460 would have had a very large contingent of McKay's supporters, both the ones who are openly endorsed

00:13:18.460 and the ones who are, uh, biding their time to endorse, uh, they, they could have been very well

00:13:23.420 willing to break ranks. And so it would have been a humiliation of his leadership. So, uh, he had no

00:13:27.900 choice but to pull this, even if he wanted to go forward, even for the best of reasons.

00:13:31.180 Is there anything else to say about the, um, uh, the conservative leadership race other than the

00:13:37.980 apparent fate of complete of Peter McKay's, uh, leadership before we move on to the block motion?

00:13:43.980 Peter McKay's already won. Move on. Story, story's over.

00:13:46.700 Peter McKay's the new leader.

00:13:48.060 Peter McKay's the new leader.

00:13:48.460 Peter McKay All right. So on that lovely note, the non-race race is on, uh, the, 0.95

00:13:56.220 assuming that he can't just put his foot in it really bigly, bigly, uh, which I suppose remains

00:14:03.900 to be seen, but, uh, not sure who, who comes out on top of it if he does that. All right. Uh,

00:14:08.620 block motion on, on tech. Deirdre, I, you want to set this one up for us?

00:14:12.540 Peter McKay So the block Quebecois, uh, has, they tabled a motion. It went largely,

00:14:20.540 uh, unnoticed, at least by media sources. Um, it was tabled, what, even a day or two days before

00:14:30.780 we wrote about it? Does that seem about right, Derek?

00:14:33.180 Derek Yeah, I think it was tabled, uh, I think we picked it up on a Monday.

00:14:37.500 Derek It was tabled, I think a day or two before we reported on it.

00:14:41.420 Deirdre Yeah. And so, uh, so the, the blocks motion,

00:14:45.500 and that's the motion that we should have actually had. Um, let me see here. I'll look

00:14:51.500 that up actually, Derek, while you start going on.

00:14:54.460 Derek Why don't you rant while we look at the block table to motion, uh, the way things work

00:15:01.100 federally, it actually confused me because it uses different language than is used at the provincial

00:15:05.020 level in Alberta. Uh, but parties, unlike in Alberta, opposition parties are allowed to actually

00:15:10.540 table opposition day motions. Uh, you don't get that in Alberta. Opposition parties don't get to

00:15:15.740 put anything forward unless they win a draw for a private member's bill or motion. Uh, but every,

00:15:20.620 uh, every once in a while, depending on how many seats an opposition party has, they get something

00:15:24.060 called an opposition day and you have to put those motions, uh, you have to table them in advance.

00:15:29.100 Sometimes parties will table several of them and then pick from the one they want,

00:15:32.540 depending on if it's opportune or not. So like the non-confidence motion, the conservatives have

00:15:37.180 put it, uh, they've tabled it and they can pick it up at any time, but they're just not going to go

00:15:41.340 forward with it. Uh, the block Quebecois used, uh, has tabled three motions. One of which is, uh,

00:15:50.940 calling on is to ask parliament to, uh, put an end to the, uh, the tech frontier oil sands mine in

00:15:59.340 northeast Alberta. And, uh, uh, so it's one of three, it's not guaranteed to go forward. Uh,

00:16:07.740 but it, it was astounding to me. Uh, we were tipped off that this happened and, uh, our news editor,

00:16:13.900 Dave Naylor, uh, broke the story and it went absolutely viral. It, uh, the Western standards

00:16:21.180 website has had just wildly high readership numbers ever since that, that story is broken

00:16:26.460 and absolutely no other major media outlet in the country has picked it up, including, uh, the

00:16:31.580 Ottawa press gallery where people are paid full time to sit around and watch the minutiae of Ottawa.

00:16:36.860 We don't do that. We've, uh, we're Western based. We don't have anyone sitting directly in Ottawa.

00:16:42.140 Um, we're, we're, we're Western focused, but obviously much happens there that affects us

00:16:47.020 and, uh, no one else had picked up on this. We broke it. And then much to my surprise,

00:16:51.740 no one else has picked it up since, uh, this is a big deal. Uh, it's not guaranteed that this motion

00:16:57.500 will actually come for debate because the blocks next opposition day when they would have the chance

00:17:02.700 to put this motion forward is after the deadline, uh, for, uh, the federal cabinet to make a decision

00:17:10.460 around tech. I, I suspect that, uh, if, if they approve it, uh, that motion might not go forward.

00:17:18.540 Or, uh, I think the only way this motion goes forward though, is if, uh, decision around tech

00:17:24.460 is delayed and there's a very strong chance of that. And delay could mean an actual delay

00:17:29.740 or more likely delay actually just means it's been put into regulatory limbo and we'll be, uh,

00:17:35.660 it's just sending tech a message that they should walk away from the whole thing. Ottawa wants to kill 0.96

00:17:39.660 it, uh, but doesn't want to explicitly do so and trigger the wrath of Westerners. But either way, 0.98

00:17:46.460 this, uh, this is wild that it's coming from the block in a quad that great defender of provincial

00:17:51.660 rights. The party that is dedicated to keeping Ottawa out of their business is putting forward a

00:17:57.500 motion to have Ottawa reach across a continent and kill a project that doesn't even involve any other

00:18:04.860 profits. Uh, so there's the consistency of politicians for you. Well, they do draw a lot of their support

00:18:13.420 from the left and, uh, you know, the left in the world doesn't like, um, oil or oil sands, especially.

00:18:23.900 Well, the, the, the, the block Quebecois remember was founded primarily as the voice for Quebec,

00:18:28.780 not necessarily a left wing thing being Quebec. It always tilted to the left, but it's,

00:18:34.460 it's autonomous or independence agenda always was supposed to trump its ideological agenda. The

00:18:39.900 ideological agenda was there, but it was always secondary to, to, uh, Quebec issues. Yeah. In this

00:18:47.020 case, um, they're not necessarily that concerned with being consistent about keeping Ottawa out of

00:18:53.740 their business. They're very happy to have Ottawa expand its powers and intruded to other provinces'

00:18:59.420 business showing that, uh, and this has been the case for a very long time, especially post Lucien Bouchard,

00:19:06.300 where the block has been, uh, more concerned actually with ideological issues than in protecting

00:19:12.220 the jurisdiction of the provinces. And for anyone who studies history, Lucien Bouchard was first elected

00:19:19.100 as a progressive conservative, if I recall correctly, and broke away from that party. So, um, yeah, there's, uh, and then,

00:19:29.740 the block was formed. Uh, all right. Um, any other thoughts on that one, Deirdre?

00:19:37.900 Um, I mean, it's, it is, it's an interesting issue, you know, as Derek said, because, uh, provincially it's,

00:19:47.420 it's, it is a provincial slash federal matter. Um, but do we even want to get into the fact that,

00:19:58.300 uh, the Alberta government right now is going to file an appeal so that they don't have to make

00:20:03.100 a decision on a proposed, uh, oil sands project? Uh, Deirdre, why don't you give some more background

00:20:10.060 on that? That's very interesting. And it's really kind of flown below the radar, uh, cause it doesn't

00:20:14.460 have the, the aspect of outrage from Ottawa. I mean, Alberta's probably got more right to make 0.96

00:20:18.620 these decisions than Ottawa, but it is Alberta making a very interesting Alberta's government

00:20:23.820 making an interesting decision here. Why don't you give us some background? Um, so I have had,

00:20:29.180 I have tried to actually put this into a headline at least twice, but it's very difficult to explain

00:20:36.540 in a summary and, and something even pithy that the Alberta government is holding up approval on an oil

00:20:43.820 sands project. So this has been going on for over a year and a half. It, so it started, it, it did

00:20:49.820 apparently start under the NDP government. However, it has gone on, uh, with, uh, so it's Prosper Petroleum

00:20:57.420 Limited. They have a project, uh, it's called the Rigel Project, R-I-G-E-L, and they would like

00:21:06.540 to, to have an answer. Actually, it's not even, it's not even necessarily that at this point they're

00:21:11.580 even, uh, begging for it to be approved. They want an answer one way or the other. They just want an

00:21:18.300 answer. So they were just, they just won, uh, a court order. A judge said that the Alberta government

00:21:25.180 has to make a decision within 10 days. And so this sort of popped up in, in that, right? That's that,

00:21:33.260 that, uh, Prosper had won this, this judge's order to get a decision on their project within 10 days.

00:21:41.340 And then it comes out almost like, not even a couple hours later that the Alberta government

00:21:46.460 is going to appeal that. Like, it's just, it's so conflicting. And like I said, I can't fit it into

00:21:53.260 a headline because someone would read it and think, you know, oh, the Alberta government is trying to get

00:22:00.620 this approved. No, that's not the case. The Alberta government is holding this up. I mean, at the

00:22:06.220 same time as their grandstanding about the federal government approving tech. So I'm really confused

00:22:13.260 about this. I do, I will hopefully hear back from, uh, the ministry of energy today. I did receive an email

00:22:19.900 saying that, that, uh, that the press secretary there, uh, would give me a call later today. And so I'm,

00:22:28.300 I'm patiently awaiting that because this is just beyond. Well, I think, I think it is, uh, very

00:22:37.580 hypocritical of the provincial government to, uh, be going at Ottawa for holding up approval of the

00:22:42.620 tech mine, uh, while they're simultaneously doing this. That, that being said, a major project awaiting,

00:22:51.020 um, regulatory and political approval, uh, if it's, if it has to be made by a government, it should be

00:22:59.740 made by the government closest to the people that should be the provincial government making the

00:23:04.300 decision. Which again makes this worse because they're the ones holding this up. Well, they're

00:23:08.940 holding up a different project, but yes, very, very fair. Uh, so there, that's a fair point. It's

00:23:14.620 wildly hypocritical. Uh, but it's a, it's a whole other argument to say, why should 0.90

00:23:21.420 Ottawa have any say in this whatsoever? For me, actually, my issue isn't even really that

00:23:25.820 Ottawa is holding it up. It's that, why does Ottawa have any say over it to begin with?

00:23:30.460 They shouldn't even be allowed to say yes. They shouldn't have anything to say about it whatsoever.

00:23:35.820 It takes place within Alberta. It doesn't cross a provincial boundary. There should be no federal

00:23:40.780 issue here whatsoever. Period. Well, as a British Columbian, I'm very interested to hear what

00:23:47.740 Alberta's Canadian Energy Center has to say. You know what? That's not on the agenda.

00:23:54.700 There's another can of worms there, Paul. I think we need to talk. We haven't really

00:23:58.780 got into that here. It's not on the agenda. I'm pulling rank as publisher and putting it on the agenda.

00:24:04.540 Uh, let's talk about the Canadian Energy Center, otherwise known as the war room. Who wants to

00:24:12.060 open that can of worms? Uh, I'll pass. Okay, I will start. Deirdre, let the hate flow through you. 1.00

00:24:21.580 I will start. So, the $30 million per year propaganda arm of the Alberta government.

00:24:29.820 Oh, no. That's one propaganda arm of the provincial government. There are several,

00:24:34.860 most notably the Public Affairs Bureau, which has been around for about 20 years.

00:24:37.660 But does it also cost $30 million a year? Uh, I don't have the exact budget in front of me,

00:24:42.540 but I think it's actually more. Is there more than six people working there?

00:24:48.220 There's quite a few people there. I just want to correct the record. This is

00:24:51.580 one of the propaganda arms of the government. All right, all right. So, one of the many propaganda arms.

00:24:58.940 Oh, of the Alberta government. The Canadian Energy Center, uh, I mean, has, it's been under fire for,

00:25:08.540 it's been under fire since it started, right? Uh, it, it, it stole a logo, uh, which apparently

00:25:15.820 it paid for. Well, it paid another company to steal it for them, essentially. Uh, they did change it.

00:25:21.820 They did come under fire again about that logo, but apparently decided that it's not really quite

00:25:27.100 close enough. And so there, there was the logo issue. There's been, uh, the latest was a Twitter

00:25:35.500 thread that just, it, it attacked the credibility of the New York Times and just wildly out of its own

00:25:46.140 element here. And it actually did end up, uh, the, whoever had posted them did end up deleting them.

00:25:52.780 The CEO, uh, Tom Olson, former journalist, uh, did come out and apologize for these, these tweets.

00:26:02.300 Um, the thing is, this is, this is a very costly, interesting experiment into what government can,

00:26:13.180 I guess, spend their money on. And of course, this is all the more interesting because

00:26:19.740 it's not foipable. This is, this has been created as a, uh, a private corporation.

00:26:26.300 Please explain what is foip to our listeners.

00:26:29.340 Freedom of information and privacy laws. Yes. Sorry.

00:26:33.420 Beautiful.

00:26:34.460 I thought, I thought this was like some UK slang, bad word that she was using. So. 0.96

00:26:39.820 Which, you know, almost. Um, so this, uh, the company,

00:26:44.700 the Canadian energy center is not subject to requests for

00:26:50.060 any information really. Um, this is, it's, it's, it was set up that way on purpose so that, uh,

00:26:58.300 I believe some government representative or Jason Kenny himself at one point said that the reason

00:27:04.860 that they were making it so that no one could request information was because they didn't feel

00:27:09.820 like giving out their strategy would be beneficial to their overall strategy. Uh, their overall strategy

00:27:16.380 appears to be really nothing at all. Um, but they are, I mean, they, they, they've made themselves

00:27:24.940 a national embarrassment. They've made, uh, Alberta communications a national embarrassment.

00:27:30.860 And they're the three directors of this

00:27:35.740 private company, um, are the energy minister, Sonia Savage, uh, environment and parks minister,

00:27:43.100 Jason Nixon, and the justice minister, Doug Schweitzer. And I did actually send a request for

00:27:48.700 comments to all three of those departments asking if anyone of those directors was going to come

00:27:55.340 forward and say anything. I did not get a response.

00:28:00.780 You know, this has just been a shit show since the beginning. Uh, it's actually been criticized 0.99

00:28:06.140 even before it was brought in, uh, it was named war room and they very, they've made an aggressive 0.77

00:28:10.460 effort to not be known as the war room, but it's hard to be known as anything, but the war room,

00:28:14.140 when you're, when the public was told it'll be a war room and it very much has acted in that way.

00:28:19.660 Uh, I was pretty skeptical of from the beginning. I mean, I, I, and I'm sure many of our listeners

00:28:25.180 are as frustrated as anyone about misinformation about, uh, Alberta and Canadian energy in the media.

00:28:31.740 Uh, the New York times I think is got some credibility issues to be called into question,

00:28:37.020 but not by a government funded propaganda arm. If you're going to call into question the credibility

00:28:43.180 of a news outlet, you should not be a government news outlet with government, uh, bureaucrats

00:28:50.140 who call themselves reporters when they call other, uh, other media outlets. There's a credibility

00:28:55.660 problem there. And so all you do is strengthen the hand of something like the New York times,

00:29:00.380 which, you know, my, I think many of our listeners would not find, uh, particularly worth the money to

00:29:06.460 buy, but, uh, they've just made an abs. They've got this whole thing ass backwards. I mean,

00:29:12.220 if you're conservatives, you generally are supposed to believe at least theoretically

00:29:16.860 that governments can't do most things as well as the private sector. The private sector, uh,

00:29:23.580 is supposed to be the news business, the information business, not the government. Uh,

00:29:28.700 and the government's already got a huge budget for communications within every single minister's

00:29:32.860 office, within every department, within the premier's office, within the public affairs bureau.

00:29:37.420 So when I say that this is one of many, uh, propaganda arms, I, I really do mean it.

00:29:42.140 Um, not that we would take the government money, but this thing's getting $30 million.

00:29:47.820 If the Western standard had one 20th of that budget, just imagine the chaos we could create

00:29:55.340 with these green hippies. We could savage them mercilessly and we would have way more fun and we'd be way better 1.00

00:30:01.500 at it, uh, than some government propaganda arm. And there's actually some pretty smart people working there,

00:30:07.420 but they're out of their element because some of the really smart people who are working there,

00:30:11.580 some of which I know, they're now doing government communications in an area that's not supposed to

00:30:17.660 be government communications. This is supposed to be advocacy groups, groups like, uh, like CAP,

00:30:23.100 the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers, the Canadian Oil Drillers Association, uh, Canada Action,

00:30:29.500 and many sympathetic media outlets like the Western standard. We do this stuff a lot better

00:30:34.460 than government possibly can. And so I think this has finally reached a breaking point. I'm seeing

00:30:40.140 a lot of right leaning conservatives, including some people who are dangerously close to being

00:30:46.060 Kool-Aid drinkers within the UCP who have now said, this has failed. We got to stop it. The problem is

00:30:52.780 that, uh, this government doesn't exactly like to admit when it's wrong. Politicians in general don't.

00:30:58.380 I can tell you it's not a good idea to admit when you're wrong politics, but they are wrong and they've

00:31:04.780 got to be trying to find a way out of this. And so either they're going to sacrifice an individual

00:31:09.980 like Tom Olson who, who heads it or they're, or the, or the entire operation itself or alternatively.

00:31:16.620 And I think most likely, uh, they say they can get away with anything and just tell it to keep a low

00:31:21.820 profile for the next three years. For those of you who are watching this video, uh, see our related video

00:31:28.140 called Phil DeBrand owns the green hippies. All right. Uh, that's rated R.

00:31:34.780 I tried, I tried that fell. Maybe somebody laughed like this video. If you laughed about it. All right. Um,

00:31:42.780 so we're laughing on the inside for you. Okay, good. Whew man. Don't quit your day job. All right. Uh, so, um,

00:31:53.100 that I, you know, and you're right. The, I, I would just say quickly when I first heard about this,

00:31:58.300 I thought, Oh, that's great. You know, there's, uh, it's good that Canada has a center that's going to,

00:32:04.860 you know, tell the other side of the story and not just be a propaganda or maybe be an education, uh,

00:32:10.380 thing. And it obviously has been disappointing all around. Uh, not much more to say on that.

00:32:15.180 Finally, uh, the Edmonton Eskimos, uh, Canada's, um, most politically incorrect, uh, football team,

00:32:23.740 um, decided to keep their name. Uh, I guess they, uh, reached out to some Inuit communities,

00:32:30.460 polled some people, had some conversations and determined that, uh, this is okay. Any thoughts

00:32:36.860 on that? It turns out the only people who were offended were white urban liberals. There are

00:32:42.380 actually people called Eskimos. It's not a derogatory term. Um, I mean, like there are some sports

00:32:51.020 teams like the Redskins where it's like, it wasn't meant to be racist or offensive. I mean,

00:32:56.060 you don't name a team, something that is bad. You know, that's why they're, they're Titans. They're

00:33:01.020 Vikings. I mean, we don't hear our Norwegian Canadians complaining about the Vikings. And

00:33:05.340 right. I mean, that term has got some negative connotations. Uh, but it's not like the Redskins

00:33:10.780 here or something where it's genuinely offensive. Uh, there are Inuit communities known as Eskimos.

00:33:18.460 They don't take offense to this. And so it turned out that, yeah, the only people who

00:33:22.700 are bleeding on about this weren't any actual Inuit peoples or Eskimos. It was people in downtown,

00:33:30.620 uh, Edmonton and Toronto who thought it was offensive to their white liberal sensibilities.

00:33:35.900 Beardree, what are your thoughts?

00:33:37.500 Well, I do believe that the comedian Jim Jeffries did a fantastic exploration of this.

00:33:47.100 And if you haven't seen it, I highly recommend that you do. He came to Edmonton. He went up to

00:33:54.220 the Northwest Territories. He had some conversations. Um,

00:33:59.820 he was essentially disappointed that, uh, that there wasn't more controversy actually there because

00:34:07.260 a lot of Eskimos fans did say, you know, if this was, if this turned out to be something that was

00:34:12.780 really hurtful to a community, you know, if we have to change the name, we have to change the name.

00:34:19.420 I believe at that point, Jeffrey said, that seems like the most Canadian end to a controversy possible.

00:34:27.580 Um, it was, but it was, it was so well done. And the thing is, I mean, I think like I, I honestly

00:34:35.580 love the fact that they did reach out to communities and say, you know, Hey, we've never really asked your

00:34:43.100 opinion before. Is this a problem? Like that's in, in so many cases, sometimes that's all that people

00:34:50.540 are looking for is just, you know, Hey, ask us. And actually during Jeffrey's, uh, visit as well,

00:34:57.260 when he was, when he was talking with a couple of women from, uh, from the Northwest Territories,

00:35:02.380 and I don't remember exactly where it was, which is unfortunate, but, uh, they said, you know, no,

00:35:07.420 we're not offended. We felt like this was our team because it was called the Eskimos. And so that was

00:35:13.500 kind of like, that was, but that was kind of cool. It was a, you know, it was a real answer to a,

Western Standard - February 19, 2020

Scheer's Non-Non-Confidence Vote - The Pipeline, Episode 9

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