The Western Standard's senior Alberta columnist Corey Morgan and editor-in-chief Nigel Hanford cover the ban from Congress, the mayor and council of certain kinds of protests in Calgary, Alberta. They also take a look at the UCP nomination battle, and debate the long-term effects of the government's lockdown policies.
00:02:36.540Some people benefited quite a bit if you got the right kind of government contracts.
00:02:39.980But we're going to talk about what are the long-term effects retrospective, now that we can look in hindsight, three years from when this all started.
00:02:47.760Before we get going, though, we've got to thank my favorite sponsor, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
00:02:53.580Yeah, I know. You've heard me say it before. I've been a CSSA member for well over a decade.
00:02:58.600That's because I've trusted them this time to be my voice for gun rights in Canada.
00:03:05.060The CSSA is Canada's leading firearms rights organization.
00:03:08.940Without them, the federal government would have probably seized damn near everything by now, even my kids' BB guns.
00:03:15.760I just bought another gun yesterday and I felt confident doing so knowing that I've got an organization like the Canadian Shooting Sports Association that stands on guard for my right to responsibly and safely purchase, own and use firearms in this country.
00:03:31.080So if you're not yet a member of the CSSA, go to CSSA-CILA.org or do what I do, just Google them and become a member today.
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00:03:44.140All right, so we're going to dive into it here. Just the other day, Calgary City Council, led by the mayor, passed a new, quote, safe and inclusive access bylaws.
00:03:58.040So we have the story up from one of our reporters, Jonathan Bradley.
00:04:02.080This restricts protests objecting to or disapproving of, quote, race, religious beliefs, color, gender, gender identity, gender expression, whatever the differences between those.
00:04:16.380Physical disability, mental disability, age, ancestry, place of origin, marital status, source of income, family status, status, or sexual orientation.
00:04:26.580And people would be banned from engaging in protests about these topics within 100 meters of an entrance to a community center or library.
00:04:35.280And if you don't listen to Mayor Gondek, you can face a maximum penalty of up to $10,000 fine or a year in prison.
00:05:05.340I know not everybody here is in Calgary, the majority of our viewers are, but we've got a lot of people in Calgary.
00:05:09.360But what happens in Calgary doesn't stay in Calgary.
00:05:12.240Just, you know, Toronto does something wacky, Calgary normally follows soon after.
00:05:15.640But this is coming because there's been, I think, an increase in the number of protests primarily aimed at drag events targeted towards minors.
00:05:27.740In some case, very, very young minors.
00:05:30.100We've talked about this before, but there's been an increase in these protests.
00:08:24.300And when somebody does it, as long as they don't screw it up,
00:08:27.320as long as they make the facts of the case reasonable,
00:08:29.880They don't get into a struggle with a police officer or assault a drag performer with their sign as they enter the building or anything like that.
00:08:39.080As long as they make the facts reasonable, this will not hold up.
00:09:43.180Yeah. I'm inevitably going to have to toot my horn a little bit. I'll try to keep it to an absolute bearable minimum. So we go back to 2019. The NDP provincially introduced so-called bubble zone law to make it illegal to protest outside of an abortion clinic. And for the most part, at least the way it's portrayed in Hollywood, those are kind of nasty protests. People are hurling insults at women and being generally nasty, saying things I don't think are actually going to do the pro-life movement
00:10:13.180any good. But most of these protests actually tend to not be like that. They're very quiet.
00:10:19.720They might be someone handing out a pamphlet with alternatives to abortion. Sometimes it's
00:10:25.000Linda Gibbons silently praying outside there. Yeah, but all of that was illegal. And the
00:10:31.040Knotley government brought this in, trying to catch Jason Kenney because he was known as a
00:10:35.620pro-lifer, trying to catch the UCP as scary social conservatives. And the UCP decided to abstain
00:10:42.040from voting, which you can't actually do under the rules, so they had to leave the legislature
00:10:45.640every time there was a vote on the law. They weren't counting on me putting, I think, 25 or
00:10:50.34028 amendments to it, so it actually, they had to skip dozens and dozens of votes. It turned out to
00:10:55.820be kind of an embarrassing thing, but the UCP kind of cowardly ran away from it. They didn't want to
00:11:00.700talk about it, but this is kind of based on it. You're banning protests on a certain location
00:11:05.840around a topic, which is one reason I'm not confident the courts will strike this down,
00:11:11.520because the courts have upheld that but this this is going another that
00:11:18.180legislation didn't mention what you're protesting said you can't protest at an
00:11:21.960abortion clinic theoretically you can't protest for abortion at an abortion
00:11:28.080clinic although that doesn't really tend to happen but you know what you were it
00:11:31.740was not about the topic it was the location so that seems to list the court
00:11:35.040challenges but Corey this is getting into the topic you cannot protest on
00:11:39.660on these topics. It's taking a, the legislation is very clear on what you can be for and what you
00:11:46.380can't be for. I don't know, do you think this, you're not a lawyer, but your view, do you think
00:11:52.920this has any chance of standing up in a court or are we, is this purely going to be just symbolic,
00:11:58.260gets struck down and we move on? I'm kind of with you. I think I'm with Nigel in that it shouldn't
00:12:03.760stand up in court. It's clearly unconstitutional, but I think it will. We'll see. Depends on who
00:12:11.840the first one charged is and what they've done. Well, that's what I say. You've got to make sure
00:12:15.480the facts. You've got Larry Heather in there, who's kind of a perennial chronic social conservative
00:12:20.560protester who can get pretty hysteric. It makes it hard defensively, you know, in front of the
00:12:27.320court. Again, people should say, well, he should be charged then for crossing lines of intimidating
00:12:31.280people or blocking access or things, but this was virtue signaling. I mean, the language in
00:12:36.920the city hall from Courtney Walcott, when he said, and if I were another counselor, I'd be
00:12:41.820outraged, is anybody who votes against this supports hate. That's what he said, right out
00:12:46.960right. Like, come on. And he's been known for his race baiting. I'll call him out on it because
00:12:50.640it's not conducive. There's real hateful people out there. But when you pull stunts like that,
00:12:55.640you just add to the division. You look at the protests outside of these, they're usually 10,
00:12:59.58011 people. We're not talking about a big groundswell or a real problem. It's just a symbolic problem. And they're trying to spot it with a hammer.
00:13:06.580It's obviously designed to send a message.
00:13:12.580And I guess they've done it. But I suppose it's not just the dreg shows. There's the case of trying to what to call it. I'm calling it for now the whippersnapper.
00:13:23.580The biological male who identifies as a woman who, according to multiple eyewitnesses to the Western standard, was walking around the female change room at the Canyon Meadows public pool in Southern Calgary, waving her penis around.
00:13:41.580Again, that's 2023 verbiage there. And there were protests against this and the usual suspects have said people who are opposed to this, people who have reported it are hateful.
00:13:55.580The Western Standard is hateful for talking about this, but we've got four or five eyewitnesses in person who saw the whippersnapper whipping around doing his or her thing.
00:14:08.580And there was protests against this, and they're very angry about it.
00:14:15.860Nigel, do you think this will be successful in kind of tamping down these protests?
00:14:22.980If they do it, $10,000 a year in prison, it's a pretty big price to pay for going out on Saturday and making yourself hurt.
00:14:29.080I think what it's more likely to do in the short term is discourage women from taking their daughters swimming in these municipally owned swimming pools, which is a great shame.1.00
00:14:39.880I mean, it shouldn't have to be that the person who is offended is the one who suffers the withdrawal of privileges and the person who is doing the offending.
00:14:49.260And it is offensive. You know, I think it's important for us to say that here at the Western Standard, we're not taking the position that transgender people are wicked or evil.
00:15:03.440we are saying that community standards that have served us very well
00:15:11.800are not to be forfeited to accommodate transgender people who somehow want to create a moment.
00:15:23.320And most don't even appear to be doing this.
00:15:25.180It seems to be a small minority of a small minority that are going out of their way to, you know, to do obscene things like the whippersnapper at the pool.
00:15:36.520You know, why should a thousand people be inconvenienced, offended, or feel that they can't safely go to a swimming pool to accommodate the one person who wants to make a point by strolling around?
00:15:48.240What you're saying now is essentially a hate crime in Calgary.
00:15:50.900If you were to express that view within 100 meters of the swimming pool in question.
00:15:57.420I'm wondering if maybe we should test this bylaw ourselves.
00:16:04.280You have a way with words that you might not make for the best case, Corey.
00:16:11.040You know, I heard an interesting thing, and I doubt the people who like protesting and making a lot of noise,
00:16:15.840the Larry Heathers and some of the others will be satisfied with changing tact.
00:16:18.620But it was an interesting approach at an event I'd gone to, and somebody had asked the speaker about those issues of the libraries anyways, not the pool.
00:16:26.740And he asked in the room, how many people here have been on the board of their local library?
00:16:33.360And, you know, those are the positions that really, if you've got 12 people together and show up at a library AGM, you can take over the entire board and you will not have another drag show there ever again.0.53
00:16:43.340So maybe they should redirect, though.
00:16:45.960So, I mean, I'm not saying that we don't have a bigger issue with the threats to public protest and things, but the protesters perhaps could do their cause a better favor as well by being less loud and obnoxious.
00:16:56.680I agree, but I'm also not sure it's reasonable to think that to exercise your right to free speech, you need to join such an exciting and esteemed group as your local library board.
00:22:30.580Well, that certainly is the historical experience.
00:22:34.960What Mr. Hoven might well illustrate by his unsuccessful attempt
00:22:40.920is just how badly divided the party is.
00:22:44.900If he, you know, if he pulls in 500 votes and everybody votes for Jason Nixon, well, I guess people are going to make this thing work.
00:22:56.380And those who we describe as Kenneites march on.1.00
00:23:04.080But if Mr. Hoven should gain substantial voter attraction, not win, but really make a hole in Mr. Nixon's majority, which he will win, well, I would have to say that the fight remains on.
00:23:23.480And that going forward, assuming that Danielle Smith wins, which I think is a reasonably safe assumption, that she's going to have to deal with this for the next four years.
00:25:08.780That's why I'm in here and not in the legislature.
00:25:11.560She's got some very difficult rifts to heal there.
00:25:15.500And Nixon is just, he's a walking, breathing symbol of Kenny walking around her caucus right now that she's going to have to deal with down the road, if not sooner.
00:25:28.680I mean, he apparently had sold over a thousand memberships, you know, when trying to win that nomination before.
00:25:33.860Again, he won't win the race, but as Nigel said, he could take a very strong, symbolic bite out of it that make them realize that you've really got something to worry about.
00:25:43.320So I guess the only advice I could offer then if it's if it's Jason Nixon still in there after the election is Daniel Smith has got to figure out how to heal that rift and turn it into a unified party because there's going to be more fighting to come.
00:25:57.560Well, let's turn to a very symbolic writing, Calgary Lougheed.
00:26:01.320So this is symbolic for a few reasons.
00:26:04.680It's named after Peter Lougheed, who I think represented at one point.
00:26:09.480And it had another premier representing it until very recently, Jason Kenney.
00:26:14.800He won in the by-election there in 2017 and then represented since the last general election.
00:26:37.560And he is, I think it's fair to say for the profiling we've seen by the likes of Linda Silbodian of him, pretty much an anti-Kenny candidate.
00:26:47.560He comes from the more libertarian populist wing, hardcore anti-lockdown.
00:26:52.560He was a business owner who felt that Kenny's lockdowns and mandates devastated his business and others.
00:26:58.560And at least as Bouchard tells it, he was organizing other business owners who were angry at Kenny for this and managed to win.
00:27:06.560And I'll start with you, Corey. How significant is it that like an anti-Kenny candidate is now the UCP candidate of the party Kenny more or less founded in Kenny's own constituency?
00:27:21.600That's hard to say. I think he was better organized. I mean, from what I read, too, he was just shy of winning on a first ballot, actually, with five other contenders.
00:27:29.560They seem to all be more clustered together. They were voting for the other guy, so we took a few ballots from the win.
00:27:33.160Yeah, to pull that extra few percent, there was him versus the rest.
00:27:37.800So there was the anti-Kenny and the Kenny, but it was close.
00:27:40.440And again, it illustrates some ongoing, perhaps a bit of division going on.
00:27:45.580But as far as the public notices, it's not the case of him knocking off an incumbent like we were talking about with Nixon.
00:27:50.820It's not going to be quite the hard feelings or the symbolism of how much that necessarily means.
00:27:55.780To walks like us, we can read in and see that we're getting some non-conventional candidates winning these nominations that we thought before, but whether or not that bodes, you know, bigger division later on, I don't know if we can read too much into that.
00:28:10.020Nigel, Kenny was famous, if nothing else, for being a great organizer.
00:28:15.560I mean, even his greatest detractors, don't take that away from him.
00:28:21.780He could organize better than anyone else.
00:28:24.380And no doubt he had his own organization in Calgary Law. He used it as the base as constituency association as the base for his campaign for him to keep the UCP leadership.
00:28:34.380They were in all the calls and stuff to be paid for by his local CA going out in support of keeping him as leader.
00:28:41.380But what does it say that Kenny's organization would seemingly be unable to hold the UCP nomination in Kenny's own seat?
00:28:52.380Well, there are two things that it could possibly say. One is that the organization wasn't trying. That's possible. The other is that there has been a genuine groundswell going with the new Premier.
00:29:08.920And, I mean, Bouchard is, says he's never met Daniel Smith, but he says he's a big supporter of Daniel Smith.
00:29:18.660Perhaps that's an indication of just where public sentiment is in the politically interested in Calgary Lockheed.
00:29:27.100And I qualify that by saying the politically interested because, to my observation,
00:29:33.100In rural areas, such as we were just talking about, Remy, with Jason Nixon, people are a lot more interested in who their MLA is.
00:29:44.440They tend to just be more aware of those people.
00:29:48.280Whereas in a downtown constituency, they're busy, going to work, getting on with it, going to the grocery stores.
00:29:57.200Oh, yeah, somebody knocking on the door.
00:30:03.100and that's about as much as it gets. So it may not indicate terribly much about the feelings in
00:30:09.980the constituency, but it does tell you something about the feelings within the party in that
00:30:15.420constituency. Clearly, they are not backing anybody who rides on Mr. Kinney's foottails.
00:30:22.300So we're switching out Lacombe Pinocca. So, you know, just a bit north of Red Deer,
00:30:27.500There's rural and small urban constituency in central Alberta. There it was at least portrayed, I think fairly, as kind of a showdown between the Smithites and the Kennyites.
00:30:43.900You had Jennifer Johnson representing kind of the populist insurgent wing, and Dusty Marshall, who, at least as it's been written, I don't know the individual, coming more from the Kenneite faction, and Jennifer Johnson beating Marshall there.
00:31:02.220And this is replacing Ron Orr, the current MLA who's not seeking re-election, who, I think, Kenny has Minister of Culture and maybe women's issues or something?
00:31:30.080I did do a brief tabletop interview with Ms. Johnson here about six months ago, and, you know, she described very much the same kind of feelings within the people who were interested in politics in the constituency that you described with
00:31:58.360Rimby Rocky Mountain House Sundry. They were worried that the party was taking too much
00:32:05.100interest in the nomination process. But she stuck it out. I mean, she's a very credible individual.
00:32:11.540You meet her, you think, oh, yeah, well, this one will do well. And so I guess she did.
00:32:17.380Mr. Marshall, I have not met, have not interviewed. Just reading his campaign material,
00:32:23.340he seemed like a sensible guy but I should note in in almost all of these not necessarily all all
00:32:30.540but most of them especially in safe or winnable UCP seats it's also not been battled just between
00:32:35.820candidates and factions but between political action committees PACs and that's that's going
00:32:40.380behind the scenes and it's only now starting to get a little bit of mention in the legacy media
00:32:45.100you've got take back Alberta on one side and then a variety of other PACs I won't name them
00:32:50.380them, so I don't get it wrong, but more PACs that had been affiliated with Kenny in the past and
00:32:55.140other kind of groups. And so there's money and organization on both sides. And they're kind of
00:33:00.700dueling out. It's almost like these PACs are mini parties that have an election, have a nomination
00:33:08.020before the election. Then in the general election, well, whatever candidate is in there gets to
00:33:12.700carry it forward. But it's quite the series of proxy wars from top to bottom across Alberta.
00:33:17.340You know, it's interesting how some people sneer at PACs,
00:33:21.620and yet PACs are doing exactly what we were saying earlier.
00:34:02.560But the amount of impact versus when suddenly, you know, particularly when it turned with Take Back Alberta,
00:34:08.420well, you know what, we're going to focus on these micro races, not the general election,
00:34:12.420and we're going to win these things by bite.
00:34:16.060the other packs have responded that's the real election and uh absolutely it's interesting to
00:34:20.860watch it does make me nervous as i said with conservatives how bent out of shape are the
00:34:26.060losing candidates going to be because that's that risk that say daniel smith wins but with a reduced
00:34:30.940majority and suddenly you get five people across the floor forming a party and off to the races
00:34:36.780here we are with conservatives isn't letting the party again i uh we'll just see but there's
00:34:40.780there's definitely still some still move on to one that i don't think is as much of a proxy
00:34:45.820battle. Now, we have to give a clear disclosure here of a massive conflict of interest on this
00:34:52.280one. Cyprus Medicine Hat, where James Finkbeiner is fighting against Justin Wright for the UCP
00:34:59.680nomination. Conflict of interest because James Finkbeiner is the former director of operations
00:35:04.240for the Western Standard. Now, it was not an editorial position behind the camera, behind the
00:35:09.300pages, but running a large part of the business and day-to-day functions of the standard here.
00:35:14.120So, a friend of the standard. So, clear disclosure of conflict of interest. You know, if I lived in Cyprus, Minnesota, I might vote for James, but I don't, and we're just going to try and take more of a, as much as we can, a clear-eyed analysis of it.
00:35:30.260So Finkbeiner, you know, is a big Smith fan.
00:35:38.140Justin Wright, I think, is more of, you know, from the kind of older member among the constituency association board, local businessman, but it's a big fight, and it's guaranteed whoever is the candidate in this riding is going to be BMLA.
00:35:54.920potential independent challenge. This is currently represented by Drew Barnes.
00:36:00.080Drew Barnes, you'll remember, was kicked out of the UCP caucus or they didn't really name what,
00:36:06.300just being a pain in the ass that Jason Kenney was.
00:37:37.500But, you know, I'm privy to some of the things that have been happening in that campaign.
00:37:41.580you know, very whisper campaigns, nasty, quasi-hateful things that are not published in the
00:37:50.220newspapers, but they're whispered around in phone calls and at the coffee shop. And it's really
00:37:55.520nasty stuff. And it's the kind of thing you often see in local constituency level party politics.
00:38:01.180You probably know what the kind of thing I'm talking about, Corey. I've heard some of the
00:38:04.440things already. Yeah, it's nasty stuff. But, you know, how significant a role can the kind of
00:38:10.940whisper campaign play in a race like this? Because it's not in the newspapers. I doubt anyone would
00:38:17.320put their name to it in the paper. It makes it personal. And if it is tied directly to another
00:38:22.600campaign rather than a campaign supporter, whoever wins afterwards, you could end up with a very
00:38:27.140divided constituency with at least the group of people who would have been your supporters and
00:38:31.540campaigners in the general election. You know, as you said, it's not in the papers. General people
00:38:35.640don't know it. But internal party things, and with that one being such a weird hornet's nest,
00:38:40.220If Drew decides to run again, and as an independent, his odds are really slim, but as an incumbent, he's going to take a good bite.
00:38:47.200And if you've got a group of the UCP that are really out of joint going suddenly behind Barnes, you might see something unusual happen.
00:38:56.320I watched actually, there wasn't much else going on that night that I saw pop up, but I watched the candidate debate between Justin and James.
00:39:03.620And, you know, it was a typical nomination, one pretty dull for the most part.
00:39:07.760But I did see a bit of a theme, at least a difference between the two.
00:39:11.280And James is not really a hardcore social conservative by those measures.
00:39:15.740And Justin seems to be kind of trying to collect the social right together.
00:39:20.020And that's one of the areas where conservatives love to divide themselves up a bit as well.
00:39:24.820So, I mean, it can harm the party level organization if you get those rumors.
00:39:28.160I hope they don't cut too deep with it.
00:40:00.060And, oh boy, what an interesting candidate. Former Liberal Party of Alberta leader Raj Sherman, the Shermanator.
00:40:10.060Now, to be fair, Raj Sherman was actually a PCMLA originally. I'm not sure if he was under Klein at all or just under Stomach.
00:40:18.060I think he was just under Stomach, but it could be wrong.
00:40:21.060I know he was at least there in 2008 when Stomach won. I'm not sure if he was there previously, all at the end of Klein.
00:40:26.060Klein, but he's always been an interesting guy. Anyone will agree about that with Raj. He's
00:40:31.700interesting. I like Raj. He's a fun and personable guy, a bit to my left, but yeah, and he was the
00:40:41.020liberal leader in 2012 and stepped down as liberal leader like five minutes before the 2015 election.
00:40:49.700But he was in a seat, but he's high profile. He tried to run for the UCP leadership. The party
00:40:54.920disqualified him without really saying why. I mean, I'm not inclined to vote for people who have ever
00:41:01.000been liberals, but I mean, Jason Kenney was a liberal at one point. But yeah, he wasn't allowed
00:41:08.800to run for the conservative leadership. He had no chance of winning. I don't know why they
00:41:13.140disqualified him, but he kind of kept on trucking anyway. He had a deckled out van. He wrapped his
00:41:18.000whole truck in everything. Yeah, his truck. He had a campaign wrapped around his truck. Even after he
00:41:22.520was disqualified. He's like, I don't care. And he just kept on campaigning for the leadership
00:41:25.200anyway. I kind of liked his charge at the enemy style, even in a hail of arrows. I don't know.
00:41:35.600He's high profile. He was a liberal leader. He's won an Edmonton seat before. It's not the same
00:41:39.480seat. He's running in a seat on the outside that's a more conservative place at Edmonton,
00:41:44.040but the NDP is so damn strong in that city. Do you think the Shermanators got any chance?1.00
00:41:48.920I don't know. I like the way you put it as a charge, because he makes me think of Don
00:41:52.060Quixote almost. I mean, he's a bit of a character. He's kind of in his own world. He just, Raj is
00:41:57.880going to do what Raj is going to do. It was a cannon fodder riding. The worst thing that could
00:42:03.520happen in white mud is that he'd lose. I mean, the UCP wasn't going to take it any other way.
00:42:08.320And he does have some history there. And who knows, maybe he'll galvanize voters. I think
00:42:13.100it's a pretty long shot, but he'll make what would have been a pretty boring Edmonton election
00:42:16.800interesting, I'm sure, because Raj is just Raj. You're saying all those old liberals are going
00:42:21.500come out and support him now. I don't know, but he could engage people you wouldn't expect him.
00:42:27.100He's a colorful, attention grabbing individual. Yeah. We'll go to the new fair. That's the last
00:42:35.660one here, Nigel. Grand Prairie Wapiti. Not sure if they've had a nomination there yet or not.
00:42:45.260Travis Stave still hasn't decided whether he's going to run or not as far as I know.
00:42:49.180So Travis Tays, finance minister, he ran to succeed J.C. Kenney, largely carried the Kenney banner into that leadership race, kind of a Kenney establishment candidate, but, you know, conducted himself pretty well, but obviously did not catch fire, did not win.
00:43:04.300Smith kept him on as finance minister, but it's pretty strongly suspected that he's not going to run yet, but he hasn't said.
00:43:13.420Over or under, is Travis Tays running or not? Are we going to have a UCP nomination in that routing?