On this episode of the Western Standard, we have a special guest on the show, Jay Hill, the interim leader of the Maverick Party in the upcoming election. We also have a look at the Canadian oil pipeline strike in Saskatchewan and the reaction of the media.
00:02:00.000Hey, welcome to The Cory Morgan Show, getting into mid-November 2021. I just want to go
00:02:07.880on a quick, well, actually, first I've got to start by thanking our subscribers. I've
00:02:12.080always got to thank them. I tend to forget sometimes. If you haven't subscribed already
00:02:15.440to the Western Standard Online, go there, westernstandardonline.com. Take out a membership.
00:02:21.740It's 10 bucks a month. You get a free trial for a couple of weeks. You'll find it worth
00:02:25.000your while. You honestly will. That's where you can get the commentary, the columns without
00:02:29.040out of paywall, videos, news reporting, breaking news, things like that. Take it out. And for those
00:02:35.060who've already subscribed, thank you very much. That's what keeps us going. That's how you have
00:02:38.360independent media who will speak on the truth, who will speak on these things. And I'll tell you,
00:02:43.320I saw an example just today from the Toronto Globe. Some people call it the Globe and Mail.
00:02:48.500We know where it's focused. It was talking about how Saskatchewan was bizarrely talking about
00:02:55.360declaring itself a nation. You know, they say that, right? Oh, right. It's bizarre when
00:03:00.040Saskatchewan does that. You know, you would think maybe it is, except Quebec just did that.
00:03:05.740Why does that quote unquote national newspaper refer to an action of Saskatchewan that's exactly
00:03:12.840the same as what Quebec did as bizarre, unthinkable, stupid, foolish, but doesn't utter a peep when0.62
00:03:18.800Quebec wants to do the same thing. It's a great reflection on how screwed up our media is in
00:03:23.160Canada and how screwed up Canada is in general. You know, Quebec wags this dog and we know it.
00:03:28.840And the tax-funded media, well, they do what their tax-funded funding masters tell them.
00:03:35.200So with that subsidies to media, plus, you know, of course, constant threats of censorship coming
00:03:38.860out of the federal government, media doesn't know if it's coming or going. They'll just comply
00:03:44.180and do as they're told. The Western Standard won't. Nobody's subsidizing us. Nobody's offering
00:03:49.600us tax dollars to keep operating. We aren't asking for them. We'll report on and comment
00:03:54.620on what we think is important and what our listeners and viewers and readers think is
00:03:58.960important. Getting onto that federal front, where is O'Toole? What a sad sack of a leader
00:04:07.060that guy has been so far. But we've got Trudeau, again, gallivanting around virtue signaling,
00:04:13.640talking about putting an emissions cap on Western resources and phasing out the oil field.
00:04:18.200O'Toole's hiding from that. He's putting out fires within his own party. Line five,
00:04:23.560and I've got a separate column on that. Be sure to read that. Check it out or catch it read out
00:04:28.940by me and a different rant on video. But I mean, this is just another symbol. This is something
00:04:33.860that's huge. It should be huge. It should be making waves across this nation. People should
00:04:38.420be getting up because this critical oil infrastructure line is on the brink of being
00:04:44.320shut down. And our leadership doesn't care. People in Sarnia are going to be outworked by the
00:04:51.300thousands. Our leadership don't care. You know, I mean, they're going through the motions. They
00:04:55.160talk about things and treaties, but they haven't made a push. When they really want to get something
00:04:58.620done, you hear about it. They're just going through the motions. Quebec and Ontario are
00:05:03.260really going to feel it. I propose shutting it down. Shut it down. Let's do it. Fine. Let's just
00:05:07.160do it. Give them what they're asking for. Let them freeze for a little while. Let those airfares0.97
00:05:11.840double. Let the airports in Pearson and Montreal and even Detroit shut down. Get that taste of it.
00:05:17.760Maybe some of our political leadership will start to wake up. Though I don't hold out much hope for
00:05:22.620it, but at least some people will get a taste of reality because reality is missing a lot.
00:05:29.000So for today's show, we're going to go in on the federal front. I've got Jay Hill. He's the
00:05:32.940interim leader of the Maverick Party coming in. Now, the Maverick Party had a less than spectacular
00:05:38.680showing in the last federal election, but they did establish themselves. They're new and they
00:05:43.440are Western focused. That's all they're going to be. There's questions of whether they're
00:05:47.420separatist or they're not separatist, but there has been now a full leadership race scheduled
00:05:53.220and declared. So somebody new is going to be taking the helm of that party. They're going to
00:05:56.740be going into the next election organizing in the West. Perhaps there'll be a few candidates to
00:06:01.380offer a few senses of direction of where it's going to go. We do need some more voices because
00:06:05.280again, as been pointed out with Trudeau's climate notions and things such as that, our Western
00:06:11.080members of parliament haven't exactly been lighting the world on fire over all of that either.
00:06:15.940So maybe it's time to go back to something like the old reform days. And Jay Hill was an old
00:06:19.920reform member. It'll be an interesting chat. So stay tuned and let's see what his plans are going
00:06:25.220forward. All right. Thanks for joining me, Jay. It's been a little while. I think we did have you
00:06:29.920on election night briefly there and chatted. So the Maverick party is, I guess, hit its
00:06:36.880next point in its evolution. You guys have run through an election. You're established. Some
00:06:41.340people know who you are. I mean, there was no seats won or anything like that, but everything
00:06:46.340comes in steps, I guess. I'd like to begin with those. So you've declared a timeline for a formal
00:06:52.660leadership race now to bring in a permanent leader. Can you expand on that?
00:06:56.060Certainly, Corey. First of all, I guess I'd just step back and say that, yes, we finally got registered so that we're on a level playing field with all the other parties. And of course, you're well aware that the registration process is such that you have to be eligible with Elections Canada rules, eligible for registration as a federal political party.
00:07:17.980And then, of course, you have to go through an election campaign.
00:07:21.100And once your first candidate is confirmed by Elections Canada, then you're officially registered.
00:07:26.240And, of course, what is important about registration is that a political party can issue tax receipts, quite generous tax receipts to their donors, to their supporters.
00:07:34.500So we've cleared that hurdle in this first election campaign.
00:07:38.800Obviously, as you and I discussed before, we didn't do near as well as we'd hoped.
00:07:42.540And there's a variety of factors that play into that.
00:07:44.860One of the things that we did here was that people wanted to see a leader, the sort of traditional leader that was running for the party, running for a seat in Parliament.
00:07:55.800And of course, I did not. I felt and still feel that I've served my time.
00:08:00.820And so now we're officially into a leadership race. I'm quite excited about it.
00:08:05.680It'll be obviously our first leader for the Maverick Party will be elected, and we've set the date for that.
00:08:12.060And so there's a number of different steps along that path between now and May.
00:08:23.480Well, let's assume some of the viewers still might not be quite familiar with the Maverick Party.
00:08:27.140Now post-election and on to this next, I guess, level of the evolution.
00:08:30.240What is the party in a nutshell and what are you trying to pursue with it right now?
00:08:33.880Well, if I had to sum it up just in a few words, Corey,
00:08:37.220Maverick Party is all about respect and autonomy for Western Canada.
00:08:41.260And there's a variety of different reasons that you would be more familiar with than many Westerners of why Western Canada needs to assert that autonomy, that separatism, if you will, from Ottawa.
00:08:56.180Ottawa and our federal governments keep infringing on provincial jurisdiction.
00:09:02.600It's been happening more and more and certainly has become very prevalent under the current prime minister and his government.
00:09:09.060And so Maverick Party is all about convincing Westerners that they need a different way of approaching federal politics.
00:09:21.560It does no good to elect NDP, Conservative, or Liberal members of Parliament.
00:09:29.060Nothing's going to change for the West with the status quo.
00:09:33.000Recent events have really demonstrated that, I think, quite well with, I mean, as predicted,
00:09:38.240Justin Trudeau went off to the COP26, made some bold declarations on emissions caps and
00:09:45.360targeting, outright targeting Western Canada's oil and gas sector.
00:09:50.180And the silent sort of O'Toole has been deafening.
00:09:52.540We've got a federal leader who relies on Western support, takes the Western contributions.
00:09:57.900But when the time comes to stand up to them, you won't say anything for fear of alienating Central Canadian voters.
00:10:03.060So it leads to a standoff that's not serving the West right now.
00:10:07.420And the great irony, of course, is even before and certainly since the September 20th election, when largely Prairie Westerners, I'll call them, re-elected their Conservative incumbents.0.94
00:10:19.120So we've got all these Conservative members of Parliament that were re-elected again with massive majorities in most cases.
00:10:39.500I guess equalization, which Alberta just had a referendum on that.
00:10:44.40062% of Albertans supported scrapping equalization, if that was ever possible.
00:10:49.780and yet no words, not only from Mr. O'Toole, but from our very own conservative members of
00:10:55.420parliament, just silence, as you say. Yeah, well, and it's not sellable in central
00:10:59.120Canada. So, I mean, I think that's where Westerners have really got to reevaluate where you're going.
00:11:03.320People say, oh, you can split the vote, get more liberal. We've already got them.
00:11:06.440We don't have much to lose. Plus, we don't even have an effective opposition speaking up
00:11:10.420for us with a liberal government. So, I mean, we're back to, I mean, to turn the clock back
00:11:16.340in the sense whether you're self-representing it, but the reform party days, we'd hit that
00:11:19.940stalemate. The Mulroney government certainly wasn't representing Western interests at that
00:11:23.800time in the CF18 contract. I mean, it took him a couple of years to get rid of the national1.00
00:11:27.640energy program. He didn't hurry to get rid of that thing. So what would be different than the
00:11:32.880reform this time? I mean, I thought reform was great. I thought some of our best federal government
00:11:36.040we ever had actually was Kretchen with the reform and you guys breathing down his neck.
00:11:40.500Is that kind of what you re-envisioned coming again in a sense, a conscience in the house,
00:11:44.240perhaps pushing a government into a more capable role or? Well, certainly Maverick members of
00:11:50.140Parliament would be similar to reformers in the sense that they would be speaking out
00:11:53.740very volubly on issues of importance to their constituents in Western Canadians.
00:11:58.300They wouldn't have to consider every position and every speech in the House of Commons
00:12:02.640framed in the sense that, oh, well, will this offend anybody in Quebec or Toronto? Well,
00:12:09.540Mavericks won't care. Mavericks will be there to, as reformers were, to speak out on issues of
00:12:15.280importance to their constituents and Western Canadians. And so, yes, it's an incremental
00:12:19.500step. There are people and a growing number of people in Western Canada, obviously, that
00:12:24.560support outright sovereignty, that think that we need to move. And indeed, we may end up moving
00:12:30.100towards a completely separate nation. But the majority of Westerners are not there yet.
00:12:35.940And I've always maintained, Corey, that if Western Canada, whether it's Alberta or Saskatchewan or parts of the other provinces, if we ever get to the point where they want to move towards a completely separate sovereign nation, you have to win that referendum first.
00:12:53.880You don't want to repeat the mistakes of Quebec once you get to that point and lose.
00:12:59.420So incrementally, Maverick Party supports the Fair Deal panel recommendations.
00:13:05.860I see that Premier Scott Moe in Saskatchewan now is moving.
00:13:10.300He's actually talking about the very same thing that I sent him a letter on the 25th of May
00:13:15.740suggesting he started talking about a nation within a nation.
00:16:09.900So it's good that you're providing an outlet for the people who are frustrated, a place to go, a place to dedicate their energies, and hopefully, you know, achieve some change.
00:16:17.200So kind of finish up with the timeline.
00:16:19.360I'd say your race is going to open up in January, I believe,1.00
00:16:22.240and it's closing in May for the leadership.
00:16:24.160Well, as per our constitution, which we passed at our first convention on the
00:16:28.120seventh of August, the first step was to strike a committee.
00:16:31.840Once I let it be known that I'm going to be stepping down and sort of a firm
00:16:35.760date for that, we struck a committee of, of counselors,
00:16:40.420members of our governing council, and they not right now are doing the research
00:16:44.320and putting together the draft rules and regulations for contestants for
00:16:48.640this leadership race. So we hope to report back in early December. Obviously, we'd be letting
00:16:54.160yourself and other members of the media know what the rules are the council comes up with.
00:16:59.360Then we're going to have it out there over Christmas so that would-be contestants will
00:17:04.720have some time to consider the rules, see if they make sense to them, see if it's workable for them.
00:17:10.240And then we'll start accepting applicants in early January. That will give them about four
00:17:16.080and a half months to get out there, raise money, sell memberships, and hopefully have
00:17:21.540a real robust leadership race with two, three, four, however many there are. Hopefully not
00:17:28.720like the recent conservative leadership race where you had 12 people on a stage. I would
00:17:34.560hope that it's a half a dozen at most of very serious contenders, and it'll culminate on
00:17:41.980the 14th of May. So not a lot of time to put this together. And we hope to generate a lot of interest.
00:17:48.540Yeah. And I mean, leadership races can really help build a party. I mean, it really shows
00:17:53.020some people on the ground, get out there, sell those memberships, sell the party, sell themselves.
00:17:56.460Yeah. I'm just guessing it still goes to community. Would this be probably a one member, one
00:18:01.660vote type of leadership race, not the delegated sort or weighted by region or any of that complexity?
00:18:07.020Exactly. And I'm glad I used the word complexity. I would have said, you know,
00:18:10.620that's a sort of nonsense that do we see the conservatives go through with the quality of
00:18:15.020all the ridings regardless of whether you have 50 members in that riding or 5 000 and that's
00:18:20.140always as a reformer that always stuck in my craw uh in our constitution and bylaw that we passed
00:18:25.900at our convention again on the 7th of august uh it calls for one member one vote so that's already
00:18:32.060been decided we don't need the government council to make that decision uh the delegates at our
00:18:37.340convention uh supported that overwhelmingly so it will be one member one vote doesn't matter
00:18:42.620whether the person holding a maverick party membership is in tuktuk or vancouver or or
00:18:48.700downtown calgary every vote counts the same excellent well uh where can we find more
00:18:54.380information i guess then your site and such for the race if people are interested in joining
00:18:57.900or supporting or just want to find out more about you guys yeah exactly we've just launched a new
00:19:02.860refurbished website uh we have all of the members of our governing council and the board of directors
00:19:09.100for maverick party fund our not-for-profit corporation that does is the financial arm of
00:19:14.380the party uh similar to the conservatives and liberals uh in how we operate so all of that
00:19:19.740information is on our new website and uh we would ask people to check us out and and hopefully buy
00:19:24.940a membership get involved in the party everyone's welcome yeah and that url is maverick party dot
00:19:29.500maverickparty.ca. Very simple. Yep. Great. Well, I'm sure we'll be talking again before the race0.98
00:19:35.240is up and thanks for the work you've done so far. And well, hope the rest of your holding the helm
00:19:41.480for this term goes smoothly for you. Thanks very much, Corey. Appreciate it. Appreciate
00:19:45.600being asked on your show again. Okay. Thanks, Jay.