Scheer's Non-Non-Confidence Vote - The Pipeline, Episode 9
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Summary
This week, we discuss the ongoing blockades across the country, the latest developments in the tech project, and the latest on the Edmonton Eskimo blockades. We also discuss the Prime Minister's decision to cancel his vacation, and whether or not police should have been called in to help.
Transcript
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You're listening to The Pipeline, the Western Standards National Affairs Program,
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recording this Wednesday, February 19th, 2020. Each week we break down the issues,
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discuss them in depth, and examine some of the broader implications for Western Canada
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and beyond. Featuring from Calgary, the Western Standards publisher, Derek Fildemrand. Welcome,
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Derek. Hello, Paul. And featuring from Strathmore, Deirdre Mitchell-McLean, our senior reporter.
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Good afternoon. And myself, digital editor Paul Holmes from Victoria, British Columbia.
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All right, guys. Very interesting development this week. We have more blockades to talk about,
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and a couple of developments around the blockades. We're going to also talk about the block motion
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on the tech project. And we'll finish up with a little bit about the Edmonton Eskimos.
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So, we'll start off with the blockades. What's the very latest news? I mean, there's 13 things
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going on around the country. Deirdre, what have you observed this week?
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Well, this week, obviously, has been very big with the number of blockades. And I think,
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I mean, it's, Trudeau canceled his vacation, or not vacation, but what?
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It was a vacation. It was a vacation. He did cancel that after weeks of blockades. So,
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he did decide to stick around and, you know, maybe do something about it. But it's been,
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it's actually, it's actually ramped up this week, really. And we had one start this morning in just
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west of Edmonton. And that one already has some counter protests, or sorry, counter protesters who have
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arrived. They showed up around noon. And United We Roll is heading out there as well for a peaceful
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counter protest. And they should be arriving by about 5.15.
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blockaded or, I guess, picketed by, interestingly, by people who claim to be part of Extinction Rebellion,
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if I understand that, which is, which is new. I don't remember Extinction Rebellion taking
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any claim for this. And three were arrested. And I guess the Premier did confront, confront them. He
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came home while they were there. So that's, well, good on Horgan for finally drawing a line on when
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the police should intervene and illegal blockades. I guess the line is when it shows up on his driveway.
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Yeah, these guys were, it was really, their language was interesting. They, they were there to arrest,
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perform a citizen's arrest, or people's arrest, as they say, a people's arrest of the Premier for war
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crimes and crimes against humanity. Now, if that sounds a little overblown, it shouldn't be, because
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the Prime Minister endorsed the recommendations that came out of his own government, saying that
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there is a ongoing genocide in Canada. That was pretty wild language has obviously been terrible
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things done to First Nations in Canada's history. I, I don't think there's ever been a genocide of
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them in Canada. I think that's unfair. I think there's been terrible treatment.
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But I, genocide is a particularly loaded term. But it also said an ongoing genocide. So if,
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if there is an ongoing genocide, I think we should probably arrest the Fuhrer for it.
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Well, I do think that the, that historians would probably recognize the very early maritime
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contact as a form of genocide. But, you know, it's, it's debatable, I suppose, how to classify
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That's exactly, exactly right. Um, yeah. So, uh, I picked up my phone yesterday and
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I subscribed to The Economist magazine. And as a result, I get the, their daily hit. What's the
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biggest news story in the world? And the biggest news story in the world yesterday was, uh, the ongoing
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blockades in Canada. So, uh, we're now, uh, in case there was any question, this is now internationally
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famous news. We're, uh, affecting major parts of the economy. Obviously you can't move things around
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if, uh, trains can't go. Uh, so lots of, uh, rhetoric has been, um, raised lots of anger, uh,
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lots of anger from surprising places. Obviously the, the premier of British Columbia being, uh, one of the
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people that, you know, we would expect historically would be sympathetic. Um, obviously he was until they
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showed up on his doorstep. Um, and then we saw a, uh, uh, I guess the prospect of a motion, um, uh,
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from, uh, to take, to take down the government and where, how did that go play out? Uh, Derek,
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did you want to speak to that one first? Well, uh, word came, I think sort of leaking yesterday,
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but it's, uh, it, it, it was confirmed today that, uh, Andrew Scheer was moving to put forward a
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motion of non-confidence against the government. Uh, right before we started recording, uh, it,
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it came out, I think unsurprisingly to those of us watching closely that, uh, their non-confidence
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motion is now a non-non-confidence motion. They're not, uh, it'll be tabled for future use at some date,
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which is not unusual in the minority parliament, since you want the ability to use it when, whenever
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you want. Uh, but they're not going to put it forward, uh, both the Bloc Québécois and the NDP.
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I'm not sure what the Greens said, but, uh, the, uh, the third and fourth parties said they will not
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support it. Uh, to bring down the government, you would need the support of all three major opposition
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parties. So all the opposition parties, less the Greens. And, uh, they didn't have that support.
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Um, but I also think that my, my suspicion is, and, and I got this sense, uh, speaking to some
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conservative MPs, uh, in the last few days here that, uh, this was, uh, one of two things and
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possibly combined. It, it was never actually meant to bring down the government. It was just to show,
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uh, the conservatives thumping their chest a bit. Um, but also a bit more, um, and a bit more of a
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Machiavellian sense. This was Andrew Scheer's last Hail Mary to stay the leader of the conservative
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party of Canada. Because if you go into an election, uh, right now and he, and he wins it,
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he gets to become prime minister and it's pretty hard to remove someone who has already won.
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Uh, so he may have been praying, uh, that, uh, the motion succeeds, brings down the government,
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even though the Tories are broke, they don't have money for an election. They're a pretty tough
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financial state, uh, uh, financial circumstances. They are relative to the other parties still have
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by far the best ability to pay off their debts and, uh, build a, a snap, uh, war chest to be able
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to fund a campaign. They might be broke, but the other parties are more broke. Uh, and so like in a
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war of attrition, you may have lost a lot of men, but if the other guys lost more, you're in better
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shape. So, uh, there, there was a lot of pushback in the conservative caucus, uh, that were kind of
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seeing through this, that this, uh, you know, but they'd be going into an election with an unpopular
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leader, not supported by the caucus, not supported by the party's rank and file and with, um, well,
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not that there's very many people of profile campaigning for the leadership of the conservative
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party, but there is a race going, uh, going on at least technically awaiting the final anointing of
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Peter McKay. So, uh, caucus kibosh that both because it wouldn't pass, but also even if it did,
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uh, I, most of the conservative caucus do not want to go into another election with Andrew Scheer.
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And I, I did notice on, uh, Twitter this week, Peter McKay actually had some very strong words
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in a video about the blockade, which was frankly surprising. Um, and, uh, got a lot of blowback
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from, you know, the usual, uh, detractors on, on Twitter that don't like, um, anything conservatives
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saying, but, uh, I thought it was, uh, I thought it was, uh, you know, very surprising to see him be
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that, um, forthright and, uh, strongly positioned on this issue. Deirdre, uh, what are you, what are
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your thoughts about the political side of this? Um, so like I was kind of talking about earlier, I'm
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really confused as, as a political watcher and have been, you know, since before Scheer became leader.
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I don't understand how he hasn't been forced to resign already. Like in, in what other situation
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has this happened where someone loses the election, steps down as leader, all of these things that have
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come out, the spending scandals, um, how is he still not even in the party, but in a position where
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he could force a non-confidence vote, just potentially, and run as prime minister later,
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run for prime minister again. Deirdre, you said you can't, uh, recall how, if that's,
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you can't imagine that's ever happened. It actually happened, uh, about a decade ago when, uh,
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Stefan Dion lost an election terribly, uh, lost half of his caucus, uh, got completely smashed,
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uh, announced his intention to resign as the liberal leader and, uh, and then a month after
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announces he's about to come to the prime minister of a coalition with the Bloc Québécois and NDP.
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So it has happened before where someone's attempted this. It just didn't end well.
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Mm. And one would, one would expect that it wouldn't end well again, but I'm, I'm really like,
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yeah, let's go all conspiracy theory here, but what on earth does Andrew Scheer have
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on the conservative party that they have not said, dude, you're done?
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Well, he's kowtowed to the dairy lobby, so there's that.
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Sorry, was that my outside voice? Sorry. Paul, did you realize how good that, uh, that pun was?
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Oh yes. The counter. Uh huh. I, you know, the best puns always are the ones you don't realize
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until the end. Uh, yeah, no, it's, uh, I'm, I'm as baffled as you are. I think the thing is, um,
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you know, you have a, and I've watched politics most of my life. I think the,
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the thing is you can't, you can't allow something like this and the seemingly aloof, uh, prime minister,
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you know, traveling around the world and just hoping that this problem fixes itself. You can't
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allow that to go unchecked, even if you are, um, leader in name only. Right. And so I think they had
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to do something, um, you know, and, and so, you know, did, did anybody, but now they look cowardly,
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but they, I mean, they could have put forward an emotion of censure. They could have, uh, right.
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You know, if the goal was to, to make clear that, uh, the prime minister's actions are flaccid and
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unacceptable, they could have put forward a motion of censure, which is like saying we don't have
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confidence, but not calling for an election, just saying we're angry at you. Uh, they could have done
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that, but instead they talked about a motion of non-confidence, uh, which has much graver
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implications for forcing an election. Yeah. And I wonder if the NDP would have,
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and, or the block would have supported a motion even of censure though.
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I'm not sure they would have because, uh, as much, as much as, uh, Trudeau has been kowtowing to the
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radicals here, uh, the NDP and the block do so even more. So if it was a motion of censure, it would
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have had to say specifically what about, whereas a non-confidence motion like the one they proposed
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was just very straightforward. It was just, uh, we, uh, have lost confidence in the government,
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therefore triggering an election. Uh, a motion of censure would, uh, would have to say what
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they were being censured for. And so it probably would have been just the conservatives voting with
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it. Well, then, then that's certainly, you know, that's a really good point. And it certainly backs up
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your, your case on the, the hail Mary for Andrew Scheer. Cause, uh, obviously, uh, um,
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not putting a descriptor on it opens the door for the NDP and the block to get behind the motion and
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without specifically appearing to go after the protesters. But I can imagine that the news would
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have played it, you know, the, that, that way. And I think the NDP, frankly, would have been harmed.
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Peter McKay's got a large contingent of the caucus supporting his leadership right now.
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And, uh, I would imagine that if Andrew Scheer had pressed forward with this, uh, he probably
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would have had a very large contingent of McKay's supporters, both the ones who are openly endorsed
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and the ones who are, uh, biding their time to endorse, uh, they, they could have been very well
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willing to break ranks. And so it would have been a humiliation of his leadership. So, uh, he had no
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choice but to pull this, even if he wanted to go forward, even for the best of reasons.
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Is there anything else to say about the, um, uh, the conservative leadership race other than the
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apparent fate of complete of Peter McKay's, uh, leadership before we move on to the block motion?
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Peter McKay's already won. Move on. Story, story's over.
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Peter McKay All right. So on that lovely note, the non-race race is on, uh, the,
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assuming that he can't just put his foot in it really bigly, bigly, uh, which I suppose remains
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to be seen, but, uh, not sure who, who comes out on top of it if he does that. All right. Uh,
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block motion on, on tech. Deirdre, I, you want to set this one up for us?
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Peter McKay So the block Quebecois, uh, has, they tabled a motion. It went largely,
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uh, unnoticed, at least by media sources. Um, it was tabled, what, even a day or two days before
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we wrote about it? Does that seem about right, Derek?
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Derek Yeah, I think it was tabled, uh, I think we picked it up on a Monday.
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Derek It was tabled, I think a day or two before we reported on it.
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Deirdre Yeah. And so, uh, so the, the blocks motion,
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and that's the motion that we should have actually had. Um, let me see here. I'll look
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that up actually, Derek, while you start going on.
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Derek Why don't you rant while we look at the block table to motion, uh, the way things work
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federally, it actually confused me because it uses different language than is used at the provincial
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level in Alberta. Uh, but parties, unlike in Alberta, opposition parties are allowed to actually
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table opposition day motions. Uh, you don't get that in Alberta. Opposition parties don't get to
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put anything forward unless they win a draw for a private member's bill or motion. Uh, but every,
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uh, every once in a while, depending on how many seats an opposition party has, they get something
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called an opposition day and you have to put those motions, uh, you have to table them in advance.
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Sometimes parties will table several of them and then pick from the one they want,
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depending on if it's opportune or not. So like the non-confidence motion, the conservatives have
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put it, uh, they've tabled it and they can pick it up at any time, but they're just not going to go
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forward with it. Uh, the block Quebecois used, uh, has tabled three motions. One of which is, uh,
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calling on is to ask parliament to, uh, put an end to the, uh, the tech frontier oil sands mine in
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northeast Alberta. And, uh, uh, so it's one of three, it's not guaranteed to go forward. Uh,
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but it, it was astounding to me. Uh, we were tipped off that this happened and, uh, our news editor,
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Dave Naylor, uh, broke the story and it went absolutely viral. It, uh, the Western standards
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website has had just wildly high readership numbers ever since that, that story is broken
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and absolutely no other major media outlet in the country has picked it up, including, uh, the
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Ottawa press gallery where people are paid full time to sit around and watch the minutiae of Ottawa.
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We don't do that. We've, uh, we're Western based. We don't have anyone sitting directly in Ottawa.
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Um, we're, we're, we're Western focused, but obviously much happens there that affects us
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and, uh, no one else had picked up on this. We broke it. And then much to my surprise,
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no one else has picked it up since, uh, this is a big deal. Uh, it's not guaranteed that this motion
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will actually come for debate because the blocks next opposition day when they would have the chance
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to put this motion forward is after the deadline, uh, for, uh, the federal cabinet to make a decision
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around tech. I, I suspect that, uh, if, if they approve it, uh, that motion might not go forward.
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Or, uh, I think the only way this motion goes forward though, is if, uh, decision around tech
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is delayed and there's a very strong chance of that. And delay could mean an actual delay
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or more likely delay actually just means it's been put into regulatory limbo and we'll be, uh,
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it's just sending tech a message that they should walk away from the whole thing. Ottawa wants to kill
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it, uh, but doesn't want to explicitly do so and trigger the wrath of Westerners. But either way,
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this, uh, this is wild that it's coming from the block in a quad that great defender of provincial
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rights. The party that is dedicated to keeping Ottawa out of their business is putting forward a
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motion to have Ottawa reach across a continent and kill a project that doesn't even involve any other
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profits. Uh, so there's the consistency of politicians for you. Well, they do draw a lot of their support
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from the left and, uh, you know, the left in the world doesn't like, um, oil or oil sands, especially.
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Well, the, the, the, the block Quebecois remember was founded primarily as the voice for Quebec,
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not necessarily a left wing thing being Quebec. It always tilted to the left, but it's,
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it's autonomous or independence agenda always was supposed to trump its ideological agenda. The
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ideological agenda was there, but it was always secondary to, to, uh, Quebec issues. Yeah. In this
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case, um, they're not necessarily that concerned with being consistent about keeping Ottawa out of
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their business. They're very happy to have Ottawa expand its powers and intruded to other provinces'
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business showing that, uh, and this has been the case for a very long time, especially post Lucien Bouchard,
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where the block has been, uh, more concerned actually with ideological issues than in protecting
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the jurisdiction of the provinces. And for anyone who studies history, Lucien Bouchard was first elected
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as a progressive conservative, if I recall correctly, and broke away from that party. So, um, yeah, there's, uh, and then,
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the block was formed. Uh, all right. Um, any other thoughts on that one, Deirdre?
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Um, I mean, it's, it is, it's an interesting issue, you know, as Derek said, because, uh, provincially it's,
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it's, it is a provincial slash federal matter. Um, but do we even want to get into the fact that,
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uh, the Alberta government right now is going to file an appeal so that they don't have to make
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a decision on a proposed, uh, oil sands project? Uh, Deirdre, why don't you give some more background
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on that? That's very interesting. And it's really kind of flown below the radar, uh, cause it doesn't
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have the, the aspect of outrage from Ottawa. I mean, Alberta's probably got more right to make
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these decisions than Ottawa, but it is Alberta making a very interesting Alberta's government
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making an interesting decision here. Why don't you give us some background? Um, so I have had,
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I have tried to actually put this into a headline at least twice, but it's very difficult to explain
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in a summary and, and something even pithy that the Alberta government is holding up approval on an oil
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sands project. So this has been going on for over a year and a half. It, so it started, it, it did
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apparently start under the NDP government. However, it has gone on, uh, with, uh, so it's Prosper Petroleum
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Limited. They have a project, uh, it's called the Rigel Project, R-I-G-E-L, and they would like
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to, to have an answer. Actually, it's not even, it's not even necessarily that at this point they're
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even, uh, begging for it to be approved. They want an answer one way or the other. They just want an
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answer. So they were just, they just won, uh, a court order. A judge said that the Alberta government
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has to make a decision within 10 days. And so this sort of popped up in, in that, right? That's that,
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that, uh, Prosper had won this, this judge's order to get a decision on their project within 10 days.
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And then it comes out almost like, not even a couple hours later that the Alberta government
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is going to appeal that. Like, it's just, it's so conflicting. And like I said, I can't fit it into
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a headline because someone would read it and think, you know, oh, the Alberta government is trying to get
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this approved. No, that's not the case. The Alberta government is holding this up. I mean, at the
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same time as their grandstanding about the federal government approving tech. So I'm really confused
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about this. I do, I will hopefully hear back from, uh, the ministry of energy today. I did receive an email
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saying that, that, uh, that the press secretary there, uh, would give me a call later today. And so I'm,
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I'm patiently awaiting that because this is just beyond. Well, I think, I think it is, uh, very
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hypocritical of the provincial government to, uh, be going at Ottawa for holding up approval of the
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tech mine, uh, while they're simultaneously doing this. That, that being said, a major project awaiting,
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um, regulatory and political approval, uh, if it's, if it has to be made by a government, it should be
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made by the government closest to the people that should be the provincial government making the
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decision. Which again makes this worse because they're the ones holding this up. Well, they're
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holding up a different project, but yes, very, very fair. Uh, so there, that's a fair point. It's
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wildly hypocritical. Uh, but it's a, it's a whole other argument to say, why should
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Ottawa have any say in this whatsoever? For me, actually, my issue isn't even really that
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Ottawa is holding it up. It's that, why does Ottawa have any say over it to begin with?
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They shouldn't even be allowed to say yes. They shouldn't have anything to say about it whatsoever.
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It takes place within Alberta. It doesn't cross a provincial boundary. There should be no federal
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issue here whatsoever. Period. Well, as a British Columbian, I'm very interested to hear what
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Alberta's Canadian Energy Center has to say. You know what? That's not on the agenda.
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There's another can of worms there, Paul. I think we need to talk. We haven't really
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got into that here. It's not on the agenda. I'm pulling rank as publisher and putting it on the agenda.
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Uh, let's talk about the Canadian Energy Center, otherwise known as the war room. Who wants to
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open that can of worms? Uh, I'll pass. Okay, I will start. Deirdre, let the hate flow through you.
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I will start. So, the $30 million per year propaganda arm of the Alberta government.
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Oh, no. That's one propaganda arm of the provincial government. There are several,
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most notably the Public Affairs Bureau, which has been around for about 20 years.
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But does it also cost $30 million a year? Uh, I don't have the exact budget in front of me,
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but I think it's actually more. Is there more than six people working there?
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There's quite a few people there. I just want to correct the record. This is
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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.
00:26:29.340
Freedom of information and privacy laws. Yes. Sorry.
00:26:34.460
I thought, I thought this was like some UK slang, bad word that she was using. So.
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.
00:27:35.740
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
00:28:06.140
even before it was brought in, uh, it was named war room and they very, they've made an aggressive
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
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.
00:33:37.500
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,