The Pipeline： 3 Liberals Debate in BC
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Summary
In this week's episode of The Pipeline, we discuss the BC debate last night, the story of the day in Alberta, Justin Trudeau's decision to walk away from the We-Investigation, and much, much more.
Transcript
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welcome to this edition of the pipeline i'm cory morgan digital editor columnist
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ranter i'm sitting with our publisher derek phildebrand and we've got our news editor the
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man who's just been pumping out all those fantastic stories dave naylor who's dialing in
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morning gentlemen we got a few things to cover uh we had a live feed last night of the bc debates
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in their provincial election derek ran that and we'll have some things to say on it uh the world
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certainly all stirred up with the proposed changes to how uh some services are going to be done with
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the alberta health services or whether they're going to be in-house or outsourced uh there's a
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the story of the day there today in alberta and we've got uh justin trudeau saying that the we
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investigation is finished and done with uh that it's over we should just leave it behind us but
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we should start perhaps derek with the bc debate last night that the western standard covered and
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uh what conclusions you came to in your viewing there well there were uh officially the green
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party leader the uh the bc ndp leader bc liberal leader um but uh taken together with the moderator
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there really were four liberals uh in the debate uh just trying to see who could out left each other
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it was quite quite extraordinary um you know i think john horgan probably came across the best he
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was the only one who uh seemed confident in uh in his skin up there uh none of them really smiled
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except for john horgan uh where he had kind of a cheshire shitty grin on his face at one point uh as
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andrew wilkinson was talking about uh ending the complete government monopoly over auto insurance the icbc
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uh over there but he um you know they're all very dour the green leader uh in particular sonia
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uh really had just a scowl on her face the whole night so none of them came across very well i think
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but uh i think i think horgan still probably came out on top but nothing definitive i don't think if
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you're you know unless you're extremely unsure about how you're voting i don't think many minds were
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changed last night um but it was quite extraordinary the degree to which there were
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virtually unanimity on 95 of the issues between the three party leaders uh essentially opinions
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ranging from the center left to the very hard left uh and the moderator herself she did a good job of
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keeping order and control of the debate uh very much unlike you know the u.s presidential debate that we
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uh that we saw but it was um she was uh an outright combatant in the debate uh to an extraordinary
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degree she accused all three party leaders of white privilege she doesn't know these people she uh at
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least that i'm aware of she uh doesn't know their backstories doesn't know if any of them have
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you know uh perhaps not have uh been grown up with a silver spoon in their hand but she accused them
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all of white privilege um and with no check on the premise uh premises there was uh you know just
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she really kind of she said things that were not up for debate up for dispute and then put it out
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there uh she even had you know the bc liberally the bc liberal party is a very funny creature there it's
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essentially supposed to be a coalition of the anybody who's not a hardline socialist so it's sort of
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middle of the road liberals hard hard left liberals in bc tend to vote ndp but essentially middle of the
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road business liberals with conservatives uh you know i'm not a british colombian i lived there for
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a year uh when i was there i was you know if i'm politically homeless in alberta boy i was sure
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politically homeless in bc uh there is nothing to the right um i'd say you know the bc liberals are a
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little bit to the right of justin trudeau um but anything like i'd say probably a majority of
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people watching right now uh it really was a very weird debate to watch with a with remarkably low
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level of any kind of ideological diversity so that's it's unfortunate i know the bc conservative
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party has been struggling just to show some degree of relevance even or be seen on the scene uh they
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weren't even invited to the debate i don't imagine they had enough candidates to be considered uh welcome
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but i mean it's an unfortunate thing with an election that seems to be such uh kind of sliding
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under the radar and a done deal when you aren't seeing some uh diversity and options for the
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voters up there particularly during a debate so you know let's out left each other it's kind of
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frightening but david you spent some quality time in bc a little while ago uh you saw the campaign to
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be a little bit uh on the underwhelming side i guess uh or hard to even know what's going on
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it was uh cory i was there for five weeks uh very little talk about it very few signs uh as i mentioned
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earlier in my drive home from vancouver area i did not see one election sign all the way to calgary
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uh i just don't think it's coming the election's coming at such a horrible time during a pandemic
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people just want to get it over with and then try and get on dealing with kovat i think
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yeah well i'm guessing horgan riding high in the polls taking advantage of that early election call
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just wants to get it over with and renew his mandate and not have to uh answer to a green tail
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wagging his uh ndp dog like it's been the last and he did take some heat as as you would expect uh
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during the debate both the liberal leader and the green giving him hell for it but particularly the green
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uh leader you know they had a deal with him uh there's not just a fixed election date in alberta that
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you're presumably supposed to respect in some measure but they're also they also had a formal
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agreement with the ndp that was supposed to last four years um i mean i guess that's politics uh
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people will keep their word uh so long as it's convenient for them and as long as it's not once
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it's not convenient anymore uh well then that's just too bad uh but you know horgan's argument for
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the early election was uh you know it's never wrong to ask british columbians what they want
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no one care parties don't care what people want other than just as much as the polls dictate what's
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popular i mean uh it's pretty clear they've got high polls right now they're virtually guaranteed a
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significant size majority government that's why they're doing it but i suppose it would be a bit
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strange for someone to actually admit that so i guess turning into alberta here dave you've been
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busy with a number of stories from different perspectives uh coming in on uh proposed changes
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to uh where alberta health service is going to be sourcing some some of the services such as laundry
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and uh food preparation and other uh items can you fill us in on that all sorts of controversy on it
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cory on tuesday the ucp health minister tyler shandro announced the alberta health services plan they're
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going to lay off 800 jobs none of them will be actual layoffs they'll all be through attrition
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they will transfer 9700 jobs off the government payroll and to the private sector uh those will be
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2 000 laboratory jobs 4 000 housekeeping jobs 400 laundry jobs and uh can't read my notes here uh 3 000 in
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the in food services so the uh alberta unions have reacted with chalk and horror uh and are
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i don't think it'll happen but there's even some rumblings of a general strike uh they say that these
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layoffs are going to predominantly affect women because the vast majority of the workers that are
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involved here are women but uh derek the unions are losing their minds well you know that's that's
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a sign that the government's doing something right is when uh the alberta federation of labor and public
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sector unions uh when their heads are exploding that means something's normally gone right uh i mean
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this government has been remarkably timid on actually cutting any kind of cost particularly on
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the uh you know the government employee side of the ledger which is where
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three quarters of government spending goes is to paying government employees
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uh you know i remember when i was uh finance critic for the ball of rose the uh you know we were
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dumbfounded that the ndp would uh they spent they costed millions and millions of dollars to cancel
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contracts with private uh private firms so that they could create a bunch of unionized government positions
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uh for housekeeping and laundry in the in the healthcare system and so you know predictably
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the ndp and the public sector unions afl there's they're saying uh not having government employee
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official government employees cleaning uh the laundry and doing the housekeeping is now american style
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privatized healthcare yeah i i don't really have a problem with that but that's not actually what's
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happening what's happening is they don't have bureaucrats cleaning the laundry that's it and uh they're
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lighting their hair on fire saying these are huge cuts and i and i really don't think a lot of the
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mainstream media is helping with this they're they're labeling this as uh this is ahs layoffs and for
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most people who just read the headline or the first two sentences of a story they're seeing this and
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saying well that must mean uh thousands of doctors and nurses and people who actually do things in the
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healthcare system are not to diminish that you need housekeeping whatnot but you know you don't need
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to be a government employee to do these things but you know people who are actually delivering the
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frontline healthcare a lot of people are mistaking that the ndp and the unions are obviously playing
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into that that's you know i suppose that's just fair politics um but i don't think the government's
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being aggressive enough in in fighting on this they're they're very timid and afraid of these unions i find
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uh and i i think they would just be better to uh say fine the ndp's platform is to have a government
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washing bed sheets uh you know government government jobs don't exist to keep people employed they
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they exist to do jobs that the private sector and private society couldn't otherwise reasonably be
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expected to do and if you if you don't think the private sector can wash the bed sheets then uh well
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then that's your world view well and there's a lot of i think bad narrative going on with this like
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for example they do keep talking about 11 000 jobs lost well wait a minute at worst they're shifting
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i mean it's not like they're getting rid of these services they're just talking about somebody else
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providing them now a private sector provider may be more efficient and it may indeed you know what used
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to take 3 000 people to do the laundry might now be uh 2500 doing it but but it's still not a total wash
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and loss of jobs if jobs are the only focus by the way a reminder we are live so people are welcome to
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comment uh we can see those on the screen and we'll happily answer them uh see some folks lurking
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in there you're welcome to speak up on it uh so that narrative annoys me when i see that coming out
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but also just that assumption that yeah that somehow unionized government workers are going to do it
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better or more efficiently than others uh you weren't here back in those times derek i i suspect dave might
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have been with the days when the government ran the liquor stores so you had you know maybe a dozen
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liquor stores and i was in kindergarten yeah okay they were uh open during banker's hours uh they
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seemed to go on strike every couple of years uh the beer was only warm you couldn't get it cold
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and uh it was just terrible and uh and you know the union screamed bloody murder when client privatized
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them but you know who really actually wants to go back to that or auto registries you used to have
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to take a day off work to go in and take a number and sit there to renew your driver's license with
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some again if they weren't on strike that month uh very well compensated union government worker
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the services from registries are no worse i mean these are things that clearly outside services can
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provide with just as much quality uh so the end user isn't getting hooped it's not just a broad cut so
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for dipping their toe in the water of health reform it's as you said they've been scared of the unions
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so far it's pretty modern at least if this is uh health care reform just that the government
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doesn't wash the sheets anymore uh with the government's still going to get your sheets
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washed but not physically doing it itself that's pretty tepid stuff uh but this kind of comes back
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to how the ucp i think is kind of getting the worst their strategy in communicating these things and and
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in their actions kind of the worst of both worlds they dip their toe and get these guys lighting their
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hair on fire then they don't actually go that far and do that much i mean at the end of the day
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this is going to be a good thing but it's not going to revolutionize the health care system
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it's just going to save a little bit of money so if they're going to piss these unions and the ndp
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off anyway but then really piss them off get something done so you actually have something to
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show for it at the end of four years it's a lot more you do i think one of the things that one of
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the things that's not being talked about is ahs management they have 3 300 managers i'll say that
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again 3 300 in management you can just imagine and i think i think they said 17 vice presidents
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just a crazy number so but the government has said you've got to cut 100 100 out of 3 300
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not exactly a drastic cut to management no and i would hope then maybe if they're outsourcing some
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of these other services it would tell me that you need less managers to deal with that aspect of things
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too so i think they could cut some fat in that department while they're at it
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well why don't we move on sure we can move on to uh well the the we scandal the only thing that's
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really been dogging the federal liberals i mean we had the trudeau show going all spring with his
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morning uh addressed to us all uh which actually seemed to help him and he was really rising in
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the polls i thought we might be in for a federal election this fall and the same opportunism as the
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bc uh approach uh but then the we scandal broke and everything sort of hit the fan and fell apart and
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some of the the sheen finally started uh washing off the the the prime minister blackface there and
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he started dropping in the polls and so he cut a deal with the ndp and off we go but now that they've
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prorogued parliament they've cut their deal it sounds like they're shutting down the committees and
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trying to shut down any more talk or discussion on this and saying the case is closed but i think it's
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anything but yeah prime minister prime minister trudeau held a press conference on uh tuesday
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where he said uh in in effect yeah cases closed on the we we've been transparent we've released
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thousands of pages of documents those are real quotes by the way people yeah we've been transparent
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on the case is closed yeah these are these are real quotes these are not uh dave taking any liberty and
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paraphrasing things these are real quotes from the prime minister yes we have been transparent and as
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far as the liberals are concerned it's case closed on the we scandal trudeau said if the tories continued
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to wanted to ask questions about it that's up to them but they were getting on with the job of
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governing the country through a pandemic the liberals meanwhile are into their second week of filler
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bustering uh trying to stop the tories from accessing more more documents uh i think they're trying to
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get specific on how much money the trudeau family the close relatives of trudeau has made and i think
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the current total is above 700 000 between his uh his mother and various siblings and uh his wife was
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in there for a few thousand too so uh yeah trudeau may want it to go away i don't see the opposition
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letting it go do you gory no and i don't think we're gonna let it go either uh this is a sick story
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of self-serving corruption i mean it i think part of why it grabbed this much attention too though
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was it showed that disconnect i mean trudeau is not an everyman he's a laurentian trust fund baby
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who felt a sense of intelligence he really you could tell didn't understand even what they did wrong at
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first he didn't get it well so i got mom a couple hundred grand you know so i got my brother 10 20 grand
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that's what we do that's where we're trudeaus i mean they didn't understand that to people like us
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who are struggling to pay our mortgages this is odious this is outrage and and and not just in
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alberta so uh i think they finally realized how damaging it is now maybe not why but but then
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they don't know how to put the lid back on the bottle yeah i mean it's been almost uh a kafka-esque
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farce uh in in how far the liberals have gone to stop this uh so uh tori finance critic pierre
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polliver or polyev however you want to slice that um he uh you know he was trying to bring forward a
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motion to strike a special committee uh to investigate the weed corruption scandal and uh
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wayne easter all these people are meeting remotely uh you know they're they're behind computers they're
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not physically in a room together right now and uh wayne easter the liberal chair of the committee
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uh literally just hit stop on the zoom meeting without a vote which is quite illegal and uh
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unconstitutional uh for a committee meeting to end at least under those kinds of rules certain
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committees have automatic drop dead times i used to try the public accounts committee and i remember
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the ndp tried to stop us from investigating something once they brought forward a motion to stop us
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and we filibustered until we ran out the clock and i said meeting's over and because it was automatic
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that was the rules but in the rules of this particular committee the meeting only ends when
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the committee votes to end the meeting otherwise it goes on forever and he just hit stop on on the zoom
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and ended the meeting before there could be any kind of discussion or debate on uh having a special
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uh anti-corruption committee so you know it has really just been a farce uh how far the liberals are
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going to keep a lid on this but you know as bad as it is and it has softened them in the polls i
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don't think it's going to soften them that much more at the end of the day uh you know people
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support a party they assume that everything is corrupt everything is bad so as long as it's our
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guys who cares i mean it's not like all liberals are going to stop voting liberal a couple of people
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on the fence will peel left to the ndp couple people on the right will appeal appeal to the tories
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but that's going to be about it i don't think you know unless there is a criminal charges which is
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damn near impossible to prove in something like this uh unless there are criminal charges i don't
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think this is going to bring the the government down but it certainly makes for a bad day yeah it's
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a good day for us uh so uh speaking of uh stories and such have you got more coming here dave uh you're
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working on this week well we've got the saskatchewan uh federal elect or not federal uh provincial election
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debate uh that's happening tonight uh i think the three of us will be back on the screen uh for that
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and uh we'll just keep plugging away whatever comes up we're going to uh cover it yeah tonight uh six
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o'clock uh mountain time uh seven o'clock pacific we're gonna have a live broadcast of the saskatchewan
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leaders debate uh that is the ndp and saskatchewan party leaders we're actually uh right now in
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negotiations with the leaders of some of the smaller parties who were not invited to the leaders
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debate potentially to have the western standard host uh the other leaders debate uh the second
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tier if you will and uh we'll have more news on that hopefully soon but uh six o'clock tonight
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mountain we're gonna have the saskatchewan leaders debate followed by uh uh kind of an analysis
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breakdown by uh the three of us uh who are here dave and uh corey uh so we'll be carrying that live
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and uh obviously we'll have more as we get to uh the actual election days of both british columbia
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and saskatchewan uh before we go though i want to thank everyone who's donated to our crowdfunding campaign
00:20:11.540
uh to fund a poll we are um in the western standard uh semi-regularly we try to get um we hire uh an
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independent pollster to uh to ask questions of westerners that are often ignored by the mainstream
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media uh so we'll ask them more fair and balanced questions uh you know we'll ask we'll ask people
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uh westerners about the independence question we ask them do you support independence or not we don't say
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you know do you support separating from your beloved mother country you know we we ask fair
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questions we have we want to ask about uh support for provincial police forces provincial pension
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plans collecting our own taxes a lot of issues and also uh you know where parties sit in the polls and
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we include most part you know you can't include the infinite list of like the animal alliance and
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whatnot but we try to have a much longer list than the media will ask for when uh when we see polls
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recently in the media with eight percent other uh that makes me scratch my head and say well who the
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hell are the eight percent so we want to do polls and figure out who are those eight percent um so we're
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does not approve of the western standard although occasionally they do quote us when they're like
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well what uh what do the crazy westerners think yeah let's i guess western standard is where you go to
00:22:27.620
find out well the cbc wouldn't know that's for sure uh just following up too and the part of why we do
00:22:32.340
this live though is we can get those comments and they'll be kind of fun during the debate tonight we
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can chat while we go we've had a few people uh dan uh mason i'm probably slaughtering the french as we
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always do but pointing out that it's funny that's the news yeah okay funny criminals don't get the
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privilege of telling us when a case is closed yeah if you're in the right family uh you so you get to
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say case closed not for your uh run-of-the-mill criminal and andrea kettle uh yeah who's on quite
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regular ask you it's four eastern standard time for the uh saskatchewan debate i believe that would
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be right uh because uh saskatchewan and alberta are on the same time for the next few weeks now we
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are the same most of the year but every once in a while for half of the year we're an hour off yeah
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yeah so but uh yeah if you're watching from the east as i'm i'm guessing that's why andrea is probably
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i'm saying ontario okay if you're ontario uh it'll be 4 p.m uh eastern time um you can tune in uh it'll
00:23:24.820
be 90 minutes so 8 p.m pardon wouldn't it be 8 p.m uh yes actually it starts at 6. yeah oh yeah we're
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doing it there later okay that's this math is hard yes yeah so yeah so it'll be uh 8 p.m if you're in the
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east um it'll be 90 minutes long so uh you know by our time six uh so by 7 30 uh the three of us will
00:23:50.580
be live directly here and we'll uh we'll kind of give a bit of a breakdown and analysis of uh of what
00:23:56.900
happened and what we think the fallout is going to be for for the election all right well i i think
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that's it that's nice well thank you very much for watching today we uh we appreciate your time uh to all
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