Western Standard

00:00:00.000 G'day, today is June 25th, 2025.

00:00:30.000 I'm Derek Fildebrand, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:34.540 I'm joined by my two usual partners in crime, Western Standard Opinion Editor, Nigel Hannaford.

00:00:40.940 Criminal number one.

00:00:43.080 Criminal one.

00:00:44.700 And partner in crime, criminal number two, Corey Morgan, Western Standard Senior, Alberta colonist.

00:00:50.420 Charged, but never convicted.

00:00:52.480 There you go.

00:00:53.280 Not yet, but it's always tough.

00:00:55.480 Yeah.

00:00:56.240 All right.

00:00:56.820 Well, we're going to be talking about a commitment made just today by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney

00:01:05.720 that Canada is signing on to the new NATO spending commitment of 5% of GDP.

00:01:14.240 That would be a roughly threefold increase in Canadian military spending.

00:01:18.560 I mean, 5% is not a particularly heavily armed country, but it's a hell of a lot more than we have.

00:01:26.520 And it's probably a fairly reasonable peacetime amount to be at.

00:01:31.760 We'll be talking about that.

00:01:32.540 We'll also be talking about what's been happening with the U.S. intervention in the Iran-Israel war.

00:01:39.220 A war of words between Donald Trump and CNN, I think, and the New York Post or Times?

00:01:47.460 Times.

00:01:47.740 Times.

00:01:48.180 New York Times.

00:01:48.740 Um, about if they were successful or not.

00:01:52.300 We'll be talking about what's going on with Iran.

00:01:54.700 Uh, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, uh, has launched her Alberta Next panel, which will be touring Alberta.

00:02:02.360 Uh, coming up with, listening to Albertans about what they want to do going next, uh, forward.

00:02:08.300 And, funny forward, potentially a whole series of referendum questions around Alberta sovereignty-related issues.

00:02:15.400 Uh, that, but that comes right on the hills of, uh, fresh by-elections in Alberta.

00:02:22.480 Uh, Alberta NDP leader Nahid Nenshi was, uh, as expected.

00:02:28.000 He, uh, won Rachel Notley, his old seat, the safest NDP seat in Alberta.

00:02:31.720 He won it by a thumping, uh, 80% supermajority.

00:02:35.300 So he'll finally be in the legislature.

00:02:37.540 There was another by-election, another safe NDP seat in Edmonton.

00:02:40.680 No surprises there.

00:02:41.760 But there were, uh, there was a lot more interest in a by-election in Olds-Disbury-Three Hills, uh, in central Alberta.

00:02:50.760 That's a constituency, uh, where the upstart Republican Party of Alberta, uh, ran its leader and, uh, kind of threw the kitchen sink and tried to make an impact.

00:03:03.220 If not win, at least, uh, make an impact.

00:03:05.820 Um, the conservative vote there fell, I mean, it was still a solid win around 65, uh, 62, 61, I think.

00:03:15.160 I could be a-

00:03:15.860 Yeah, I mean, I mean, a win's a win, and that's still a big win.

00:03:19.840 Uh, but it's down from the roughly 75% that it was in the general election.

00:03:25.240 Uh, almost all of that, pretty much all of that vote went to the Republicans, who are running on an explicitly independence ticket there.

00:03:32.840 Um, and there's, uh, I mean, and the Republicans ran, uh, third place behind the NDP, just behind the NDP.

00:03:41.420 But, you know, I- I think going into this, uh, I had no expectations they could win it.

00:03:46.880 Uh, uh, Daniel Smith is very popular right now, particularly with conservatives and in rural Alberta.

00:03:53.780 Uh, you know, this is not like when, you know, Ed Stelmack is sitting around and there's a lot of discontent.

00:03:59.300 There's not a lot of discontent for Smith, especially coming from the sovereigntist and nationalist right in Alberta.

00:04:05.460 Um, so, you know, the Republicans, you know, I put it this way, a contextual win for them would have been to come in second place.

00:04:14.000 You know, to break into the 20s and beat out the NDP for second.

00:04:17.600 And I think they would have been able to claim a contextual victory in that.

00:04:22.300 Uh, you know, it's- this is a wildly safe, uh, UCPC.

00:04:26.920 Uh, and there's a- there's, I think, different ways we can parse this, but we'll talk to the reaction about it first.

00:04:34.320 Um, you know, the legacy media has almost universally said this is a repudiation of the independence movement

00:04:42.280 in rural Alberta, uh, and some history for this seat.

00:04:45.780 This holds Disbury Three Hills in 1982.

00:04:49.180 A different configuration of that same riding elected Gordon Kessler of the Western Canada Concept Party,

00:04:54.180 an Alberta nationalist who supported independence, uh, in a by-election.

00:04:59.720 Uh, you know, held it for a few months until then it was a general election.

00:05:02.200 But, you know, it had- it's a storied constituency for this.

00:05:05.760 So if there was gonna be a place for the- for an independence candidate to break through, that was it.

00:05:11.680 Um, so yeah, legacy media panned this and said, uh, of- this is people rejecting independence.

00:05:18.540 I mean, you- you could read it that way.

00:05:20.600 I- I saw it differently, uh, in my column.

00:05:22.900 I said that I see this as Danielle Smith relatively successfully keeping the independence movement within the UCP tent.

00:05:32.820 Um, now the UCP candidate there does not appear to be a nationalist.

00:05:37.580 She appears to- probably, uh, uh, probably a federalist. 0.83

00:05:43.020 Um, I'll put it to you first, Corey.

00:05:45.200 Uh, you know, do you see this, uh, is it glass half full, glass half empty?

00:05:50.800 There's different fair ways to come at this, I suppose.

00:05:52.940 The actual candidate supporting independence lost, came in, uh, I think a semi-respectable third.

00:05:59.480 For a third party, 20- uh, you know, 18% is not bad for a third-can- a third-party candidate.

00:06:05.380 Um, but I- I didn't see it as a repudiation of independence necessarily.

00:06:09.160 No, it definitely wasn't a repudiation of independence.

00:06:11.720 Uh, I'm still more on the glass half empty notion of this one, though.

00:06:15.440 As you said, as you kind of framed it, this was, in my view, the perfect storm for an independence candidate.

00:06:21.020 Uh, you had the, the spike in support for independence from the recent election.

00:06:25.320 It's been pulling high across the province.

00:06:28.140 Uh, by-elections are an opportunity for malcontents to safely vote for a different party.

00:06:33.020 Cause you don't have to worry about flipping over the party and power or anything like that.

00:06:36.540 I mean, a disaster would have been a nine, you know, or single digit support number for this party.

00:06:41.280 But I think if they were running exclusively on the independence thing, perhaps that's part of where they went wrong.

00:06:47.800 They should have scored higher.

00:06:49.540 I mean, polling is showing much higher for independence support, but they spent a lot of time too.

00:06:53.900 And that's what some people were getting a feeling that, well, maybe there's a bit of a personal vendetta, I guess, the UCP and Daniel Smith in this.

00:06:59.440 They should have focused more on the independence because that's what they were standing for and less time sniping at the UCP.

00:07:05.720 And maybe they could have cornered that market and cornered that as a vote to make a statement.

00:07:10.800 And they didn't do that.

00:07:12.360 And so I think they kind of grabbed the default of hardcore independence supporters.

00:07:16.520 But now, as you said, it's, it's, it's provided an opportunity to be framed and saying there isn't much support for it.

00:07:22.580 I mean, if you couldn't break 18% support in the strongest constituency in the whole province, and they got 0.7% support in Strathcona, which nobody expected much, but how are you going to do across the province?

00:07:34.900 And it doesn't bode well.

00:07:36.720 And I don't think it is representative of the independence support, but it's given opponents to independence some good ammunition now to claim there isn't support there.

00:07:44.680 And it's unfortunate.

00:07:47.340 Another reason I'd chalk up for the result the Republicans got here, Nigel, I think is the vote splitting PTSD that Alberta conservatives have.

00:08:00.080 The, you know, the 2015 win of the NDP is just mentally scarred conservatives in Alberta.

00:08:09.560 And some of that was good at jolted conservatives that get their act together, come together.

00:08:13.400 But some of it's not very rational.

00:08:17.460 A constituency like that, you could run four conservatives in and the NDP are still not going to win.

00:08:23.320 You could run, like, there's just a 0% chance.

00:08:26.880 But I don't think the average voter has a, I don't mean to sound elitist here, but I don't think the average voter has a particularly nuanced view of the electoral system.

00:08:36.660 Yeah, okay, if you did have multiple conservatives running, say, downtown Calgary, yeah, you're probably going to elect the NDP.

00:08:42.480 If you did it in suburban Calgary, you might elect the NDP.

00:08:46.880 If you did it in Old Vizbury, Three Hills, there's just a 0% chance.

00:08:51.140 You could safely vote for the most radical, right-wing, independent supporting candidate you want to your heart's content, and the NDP will never win.

00:09:00.080 But I don't think the average voter gets that.

00:09:02.740 And I don't think the Republican campaign there just appreciated how ingrained that is now in the conservative psyche in Alberta.

00:09:11.220 Well, the other aspect of all of that is the very name Republican is not really a winner in Canada, and not really a winner in Alberta, even though we think differently to the rest of Canada.

00:09:25.980 Calling yourself the Alberta Republicans is just, I think that was, I'm going to put some people off.

00:09:32.900 There was no relationship between the Alberta Republicans and the Republican Party in the United States.

00:09:39.600 Well, it'd be illegal if, it'd be illegal if.

00:09:42.180 Yes, exactly.

00:09:44.660 But, that said, it sort of sounds like it, and you just made the point in yourself, Derek, that a lot of people aren't deep thinkers on this stuff.

00:09:54.460 Well, is that Trump running here, you know? 0.86

00:09:58.520 I mean, silly as it is, that's the kind of thing that puts people off. 0.86

00:10:01.840 I was actually surprised they got the 17%.

00:10:04.880 But, where I may have a slightly different take on this with you two is, I certainly have a different take for the mainstream media who are saying, well, that's it.

00:10:17.940 That's repudiation of independences all over.

00:10:22.440 No, no, no.

00:10:23.200 This is coming back in about a year's time.

00:10:25.200 And, in the year, what we're going to see, people will give, fair-minded people, will give Mr. Carney a chance.

00:10:32.000 He will work things, he will work with Daniel Smith.

00:10:34.940 It won't work.

00:10:36.740 I don't think they're going to come together.

00:10:38.140 I don't think they're going to find a column ground.

00:10:40.620 I don't see how they can.

00:10:41.520 And, we're going to be where we were just before the election with Eastern Canada and all of its presuppositions and all of its prejudices about the West.

00:10:53.380 It will still be there.

00:10:54.740 And the value difference, never mind the money, the value difference between Alberta and the rest of Canada is still going to make people say, I want out of here.

00:11:02.700 Yeah, well, in a referendum, a referendum is going to be a whole different animal.

00:11:07.420 And it takes out, as Derek was talking about, that party aspect of it.

00:11:10.400 There's no fear of a vote split.

00:11:11.660 There's no strategic voting.

00:11:13.600 This is a yes or no when it comes to that, on that issue itself.

00:11:16.700 And you can add a lot more clarity on where you're going, you know, pun not intended on that.

00:11:21.560 But, so, I mean, that's, you lose a lot of those complications that come with trying to take a party approach when you move into a referendum situation.

00:11:27.700 So, marking this outcome is something that would reflect on a referendum.

00:11:32.860 No.

00:11:33.440 And, I mean, as Nigel was saying, too, at the Republican Monitor, I mean, I heard some people say, well, they're talking about Alberta being a republic.

00:11:39.280 Well, fine.

00:11:39.940 But we know, as campaigners before, if you're explaining at the door, you're losing.

00:11:44.660 You don't have time to spend a minute to explain your definition of your party name at every door.

00:11:49.920 And you can't be explaining vote splitting at the door.

00:11:51.620 That was an issue I've had where people are sold on you, but then they say, oh, but I can't split the vote.

00:11:58.300 And then you're trying to explain, like, well, we're in a rural constituency.

00:12:01.420 The NDP can't win here. 0.97

00:12:02.680 We're not running there, but we are running here.

00:12:05.800 It's just too bad.

00:12:06.540 The average voter is just like, you know, they're going to vote based on kind of a gut feeling.

00:12:10.980 And their gut says, hey, we had two conservative parties before, and we got the NDP.

00:12:15.480 Yeah.

00:12:16.060 And it definitely puts them at a disadvantage.

00:12:18.140 And it's going to be much more so if the party does continue to exist and tries to run a general election.

00:12:24.860 I think people are going to be, many are going to be very upset with them with the potential that they might bring about another NDP.

00:12:30.660 So let's chat about, you know, the party approach for independence versus the, I don't know, pressure group approach.

00:12:40.560 I mean, you know, if in a different universe, say, Jason Kenney was still the premier and, you know, the United UCP was a unconditional federalist party.

00:12:53.460 They were not going to allow a citizens initiative to referendum on independence, something like that.

00:12:59.020 I'd be inclined to say, yeah, that's the time for something like the Republican Party.

00:13:02.940 You're going to have to take the UCP down.

00:13:05.280 And maybe that does split some votes and whatnot.

00:13:07.720 But if that's your goal, you're going to have to take them down.

00:13:11.820 Smith, I think, recognized that, that that was an issue that would cause a mass exodus from the right flank of Hervardy.

00:13:21.540 Maybe beyond just the right flank of it at this point.

00:13:24.480 You know, 66% of UCP voters in Alberta support independence.

00:13:27.820 I mean, that's not a majority of Albertans, but, you know, it was the majority of your own party either.

00:13:33.560 You know, so if the UCP was taking an unconditionally federalist approach, I think something like the Republican Party or before that, the Wal-Rose Independence Party, all the different iterations we've had at these things.

00:13:45.400 They would, you know, they'd have a better casus belli for war themselves.

00:13:53.180 I keep on using that.

00:13:53.860 I'm using that word too much lately.

00:13:55.080 But they would have their own justification for that kind of partisan warfare.

00:13:58.820 They don't seem to have it now.

00:14:00.880 And Smith, I think, has been successful in trying to keep it within the tent.

00:14:05.580 But does that have the horsepower to go all the way?

00:14:08.360 Because I don't think you win a referendum unless the UCP is actually more on side, putting the full weight of its campaign organization behind a referendum.

00:14:16.480 It's hard to say.

00:14:17.380 I mean, the UCP is not going to go full independence.

00:14:19.920 It's not going to happen.

00:14:21.340 But they're getting as close as you possibly.

00:14:23.320 She loves walking that line, though.

00:14:24.960 I mean, as you're saying here, Bouchard is holding an event, you know, a sovereignty.

00:14:31.080 That's a UCP, a million, South Carolina.

00:14:32.760 Yes, and a Federalist Party would never even allow for a second in MLA to hold an event like that.

00:14:39.180 So they're kind of walking that line.

00:14:41.580 And it gives, as you said, too, though, it's like a pressure cooker, but you've got that little valve to let off some steam.

00:14:47.880 And the referendum allows independence-minded people to be channeling their energy towards that, towards a vote.

00:14:54.600 Whether or not it could succeed or not, as you said, it'd be very difficult no matter what, especially without UCP support.

00:15:00.700 But it does keep an organized group that would eat up 20% of their party or 30% of their party and possibly cause that.

00:15:07.760 It's tactically quite smart.

00:15:09.460 Whether or not people agree if she's a Federalist or not, it's a separate question.

00:15:12.060 I think Smith has gone as far as she can go right now.

00:15:15.620 But I'm not sure that she and the UCP are as far as they will go.

00:15:20.440 I mean, there is going to be a convention for the party, an AGM, in the fall.

00:15:26.820 I can very much foresee a situation where a change to policy of the party comes forward or a change to the party's constitution comes forward.

00:15:36.140 66% of the general voting members of the UCP, not members, just of the public.

00:15:41.320 And those are motivated ones.

00:15:42.520 Those are the ones that would come out to conventions.

00:15:43.920 Yeah, they're much more motivated, just as we saw around COVID with the insurrection against Kenya.

00:15:51.760 I think if you're going to be fighting in a partisan way on this, they could do it within the UCP and formally make the UCP an officially sovereignist party.

00:16:03.700 They could do it by simply winning a vote there.

00:16:07.260 I mean, that's much easier than starting another party, going through a full civil war, Wild Rose PC style, probably have an NDP government, at least in the interim.

00:16:16.220 So now you're talking eight to 12 years to get there.

00:16:18.820 You could do it in the fall.

00:16:20.360 You could simply just take over the UCP.

00:16:22.440 And that would be dangerous for the UCP, though, because you got to remember 35% of them.

00:16:25.640 And this is a very, there's not many in-betweens on that when it comes to that level.

00:16:29.200 So there's some people that much connected to the federation that that's where you could actually get them swinging.

00:16:35.340 Well, the NDP, the only ones representing federalism, I will go there.

00:16:39.300 Like, it would be very, very dangerous if the UCP took on a formal, sovereignist stance, I think.

00:16:47.760 But there's that damage with that.

00:16:49.300 Split them aside or what.

00:16:50.300 This is not a debate over what the curriculum is or what the marginal tax rate should be.

00:16:54.280 This is an existential constitutional.

00:16:55.780 But if you can keep it towards a referendum and not party policy, you can potentially sidestep that.

00:17:01.400 But we'll see.

00:17:01.920 But it does give Premier Smith a good, strong hand when she's dealing with parties.

00:17:08.120 She represents herself as the voice of reason that stands between hardline separatists within her own party.

00:17:15.880 And we do have these legitimate demands.

00:17:18.920 And, you know, sir, do you want to be the prime minister who stood on your principles and caused massive disruption in confederation?

00:17:30.620 I'm, you know, off camera, you know, we have the same problem.

00:17:36.380 Sure. 0.76

00:17:36.600 If our goal is to try yet another round at saving Canada, I think that is a fool's errand.

00:17:43.160 I think she has to at least attempt because I think doing a referendum. 0.93

00:17:47.060 That's really my point.

00:17:48.460 Before she can actually, even if she wants to lead an independence movement, and I actually don't see anybody else with a persona who could pull it off at the moment.

00:17:59.540 Maybe there's somebody out there and maybe you know who they are.

00:18:02.800 But at the moment, I don't think anybody's got the credibility.

00:18:07.600 But everything that we put towards bolstering the independence movement actually strengthens her hand when she is negotiating with Carney.

00:18:19.600 Sure.

00:18:20.320 Yeah.

00:18:20.680 But I don't think a referendum will actually win in the end unless you've got Smith and the full campaign machinery of the UCB.

00:18:27.680 Because the NDP's full machinery is going to be on the stay side. 0.90

00:18:32.280 The Federal Conservative Party is going to put as much of its machinery as it can into the stay side.

00:18:38.360 Because what's not going to be good for the Conservative Party of Canada?

00:18:41.840 Losing Alberta seats and voters.

00:18:44.240 You know, they're going to have to be on the no side here.

00:18:47.900 So there's going to be massive campaign organization funding human resources on the Federalist side.

00:18:53.500 But the Independent side, as it's got the Republican Party.

00:18:59.620 To strengthen Smith, it only has to be a strong response.

00:19:04.980 It doesn't have to be a majority response.

00:19:07.320 If she's got 45% of Alberta's voting in a referendum for independence, Carney's got to listen to that.

00:19:14.400 Yeah, but I'm just not interested in threatening.

00:19:16.020 I'm interested in action.

00:19:17.340 Like, we've threatened and we've threatened and we've threatened.

00:19:19.700 We've tried Reform Party.

00:19:21.020 We've tried Social Credit.

00:19:21.840 We've tried Wild Rose.

00:19:22.800 None of it will ever work.

00:19:25.100 Ever.

00:19:25.340 You know, if Carney doesn't budge.

00:19:28.060 But you're only going to get one vote.

00:19:29.340 You're not going to get two votes.

00:19:30.420 You're not going to get one.

00:19:31.180 That's what's interesting, though.

00:19:32.260 This year we're having that discussion for real because there's going to be a vote coming.

00:19:35.740 And there's a lot of variables, as you said.

00:19:37.420 Where's the party going to sit?

00:19:38.520 How's the organizations on either side going to get together?

00:19:41.560 This is unique.

00:19:42.380 I've got to admit, as a political weenie, I'm just pumped.

00:19:44.920 I know the outcome I want, but it's also the process I'm looking forward to.

00:19:49.400 As an Albertan, I want to see it gone.

00:19:52.220 Just as a political watcher, I'm just looking forward to the intrigue and the tactics we're going to be observing this next year.

00:19:58.920 Okay.

00:19:59.500 Well, we'll move it into the next, the logical progression of this conversation.

00:20:06.780 So, the day after the by-elections, yesterday, Premier Smith announced the appointments of this Alberta Next panel.

00:20:17.860 Fairly broad.

00:20:18.720 It's not all just the people you'd expect.

00:20:22.200 It's, you know, it's got people a bit more on the nationalist side.

00:20:24.740 It's got some pretty well-known hard-line federalists.

00:20:27.100 It's got some expert opinion.

00:20:28.600 It's got politicians and whatnot. 0.75

00:20:30.380 It's not, it's, it's pretty rounded, but it's going to travel around, chaired by Smith herself.

00:20:36.800 This is not like Kenny's fair deal panel where he just says, okay, go off and write room a report that I can ignore.

00:20:43.020 She's sharing this herself.

00:20:44.320 So, she's going to have to wear this.

00:20:46.840 She's going to be expected, I think.

00:20:48.400 Corey, why don't you elaborate on what she's doing here?

00:20:51.780 Well, I'm glad you mentioned the fair deal panel, though, because that's one of the concerns is it smacks a bit of fair deal part.

00:20:57.120 And that thing was something that Kenny did, speaking of taking pressure off from the regionalist and independent side.

00:21:04.540 Okay, well, let's just hold a bunch of hearings, let everybody vent, and then we'll just kick the can down the road and not do anything about it.

00:21:10.140 And that's part of, I think, what built, the people who crossed the line said, well, that's it.

00:21:13.500 We've got to go all out because we can't.

00:21:15.580 So, that's some of the first thing with this Alberta Next that the Smith and her panel are going to have to deal with. 0.97

00:21:20.440 So, the people saying, again, like a lot of these things we've discussed already.

00:21:23.620 How long is it going to be before you actually do something?

00:21:27.700 But it is an interesting panel.

00:21:29.480 She's got, yeah, like Trevor Toome on it.

00:21:30.820 He's certainly not a hardcore independence type.

00:21:32.940 He's not going to be towing an independence line.

00:21:35.340 No, and he's been critical of the Alberta Pension Plan, for example.

00:21:38.260 But he's given, I think he gave actually a very good balanced interpretation of it.

00:21:41.400 So, I mean, we're going to see some good discussion, good policy, something that's different.

00:21:44.660 Yeah, she's wearing it.

00:21:45.500 She is the chair.

00:21:46.580 It's going to be Premier Smith sitting at these, listening to it.

00:21:51.220 I guess a lot of the question, though, is are they going to follow through on what they find at these?

00:21:58.400 I just saw today Kathleen Ganley. 0.98

00:22:01.240 You know, so we know the opposition is coming.

00:22:03.220 And the UCP has been planning this for a while.

00:22:05.700 They already had like a promotional video on it on the concept of an Alberta Provincial Police Force.

00:22:09.820 So there's already the promo.

00:22:12.400 And you can see that they know which direction they want this panel to go.

00:22:15.320 Kathleen Ganley with the NDP called it, she put this on the X today, absolutely disgusting that they're discussing this.

00:22:22.980 That says a lot, too, though.

00:22:24.540 It's still disgusting that Ontario and Quebec had.

00:22:26.240 Yeah, they have their own police force. 0.99

00:22:27.620 Apparently, they're disgusting, too. 0.99

00:22:29.120 Yeah. 0.96

00:22:29.540 But it shows how this rhetoric is going to go out of this whole thing.

00:22:34.520 It's going to be interesting to watch.

00:22:36.040 And you notice the timing of it.

00:22:37.080 These things are going to be spread out all the way between now and shortly before their AGM.

00:22:41.720 I think they're going to have their conclusions.

00:22:43.340 They're talking about putting things on a referendum this time, though.

00:22:45.540 They weren't talking about that with Jason Kenney's Dog and Shoney Pony show.

00:22:50.340 So I think their plan is to come up with a number of items that would probably be coupled with an independence referendum.

00:22:55.340 We'll have a referendum with a number of questions on it.

00:22:58.220 And this will be the tactic they'll use to defuse or try to use to defuse attempts at the AGM to bring about more policies.

00:23:05.720 They'll say, well, that's going to be on the referendum question.

00:23:07.860 We don't need to embrace that.

00:23:08.900 That's going to be on the referendum.

00:23:10.460 So I think we're seeing some deep political strategy going on here.

00:23:13.940 Nigel.

00:23:15.540 My concern with having, you know, a whole bunch of referendum questions at the same time is, you know, Albertans, I think, share the Canadian compulsion for moderation.

00:23:28.820 And if you give Albertans, Canadians or Albertans, a choice of one, two, and three, they always choose two.

00:23:36.140 You'd say one, two, three, four, and five.

00:23:37.900 They choose three.

00:23:39.320 It's just kind of a natural instinct.

00:23:40.880 Even if you kind of like one or three more, it just seems reasonable to choose two.

00:23:46.600 And so if your question is, it's not just independence over here, but you've got all these other things.

00:23:51.040 I kind of feel like that's going to come into play that they say, well, okay, I'm on independence, but let's be reasonable here.

00:23:58.060 And I'll just check yes to all these things, but then no to here.

00:24:01.240 What do you think?

00:24:01.720 Well, I'm not sure that that's actually really what's going on here.

00:24:05.800 To me, you know, the point's made, well, you know, we've been through all this before.

00:24:12.320 Yeah, but you can't really expect anybody to rely on discussions that took place in 2020, which is the Fair Deal panel, which under a different premier.

00:24:24.720 So even if you take the thing at face value, she almost has to go out and ask the questions herself and get the answers and make it her own.

00:24:34.820 Yeah, but I'm talking about the rougher end, of course.

00:24:36.700 Well, we'll get there, but I'm not even sure that that's the idea.

00:24:40.780 Really, what she's doing is getting people engaged, is making them get up out of their armchairs, go to the meetings, listen, react, and frankly, put some wind in her sails when she goes to deal with the prime minister.

00:24:56.200 That's what this is about.

00:24:58.160 I mean, I'm going to play cynical devil's advocate here.

00:25:02.080 What, again?

00:25:02.800 Yeah, I know that's just still.

00:25:04.540 I know I did still.

00:25:05.920 For months.

00:25:06.600 When does this ever stop?

00:25:07.420 But we've all been to town hall meetings for politics, you know, political matters and things like that.

00:25:16.460 It's the hyper-engaged who show up.

00:25:18.560 Average people tend not to really come to these things.

00:25:22.520 It's going to be, you're going to have hardcore independence supporters, sovereignty supporters show up.

00:25:26.620 You're going to have, you know, organized unions and lefty groups show up.

00:25:32.800 I think that'll be, that's about it.

00:25:34.940 Like, you know, if they go to, you know, Airdrie, it's just going to, it's not going to be many people actually from Airdrie there.

00:25:41.480 It'll be people from elsewhere who have really strong opinions on different sides.

00:25:45.860 They're going to be talking about RCMP.

00:25:48.500 Well, you know, the federal police union is going to show up.

00:25:52.500 They're going to be there as well as like people like us who want them gone.

00:25:57.080 I just don't think the average people don't go to these things.

00:25:59.720 They've got better things to do with their lives.

00:26:02.640 That is largely true.

00:26:04.720 However, the very fact that on this panel we've just resurrected a set of discussions that took place five years ago

00:26:12.680 shows that those discussions actually had some weight and some impact at the time.

00:26:19.460 And indeed, they led to a vote on the equalization and then nothing happened,

00:26:24.360 which soured a lot of people on the process.

00:26:27.720 But the actual act of going out generates headlines every time she has a meeting.

00:26:35.080 Well, what did they talk about today?

00:26:37.060 This is what they said.

00:26:38.100 And so it becomes a live issue, even if it is – I mean, you're quite right about the likely participation of who's going to show up.

00:26:45.700 I wouldn't challenge that for a moment.

00:26:47.660 In fact, it would be a daunting prospect for, you know, what is it, Harry and Martha, the Rothkline, you know,

00:26:55.220 for them to go to these kinds of meetings.

00:26:57.080 But it'll be an event, and it'll be an event that'll make headlines for several months.

00:27:00.720 And then it'll go into the public recollection of that this thing happened, and this is where we had –

00:27:07.380 So as an exercise in generating – I like the phrase wind in her sails as she goes to meet Mr. Carney, it has value.

00:27:17.840 Yeah, well, and it's that –

00:27:18.820 No matter who shows up to it.

00:27:20.480 You know, speaking as the cynical tactician sort and with what they're doing, and as you said,

00:27:24.500 they're going to be bringing it to the debate and bringing the subject up.

00:27:28.180 If you want it to die, you don't want to hold a bunch of meetings all over the place, keep it in the news scroll.

00:27:31.820 I had Mike Thomas, one of our columnists in, to speak about municipal things.

00:27:35.620 One of the things he talked about is these preordained consultation meetings where you go there,

00:27:39.500 but the city already knows what conclusions they want to see.

00:27:42.300 They're just going through the motions of doing it.

00:27:44.440 You just lately require it to consult.

00:27:46.080 And I've got to admit, that's kind of what it looks like when these were just declared,

00:27:49.660 and already there's videos that are basically making the pitch for an Alberta police force

00:27:53.520 that the premier is posting on X before these meetings even happened.

00:27:58.180 And that they want to just reaffirm kind of where they're already going with it,

00:28:01.680 which I'm fine with because I like where they're going with it.

00:28:03.760 Yeah.

00:28:04.120 But as for – so it's going to be a room full of – not full of undecided people.

00:28:08.640 They're going to have their one side or another, and then we're going to see whatever outcome they want to see.

00:28:11.860 I think the premier has a pretty good idea where she wants to go. 1.00

00:28:14.160 But, you know, she's got panel members like Trevor Toome, who I don't think has a, you know, smart economist.

00:28:21.620 He's informative.

00:28:23.340 He's typically pretty good for being balanced, actually.

00:28:25.000 Yeah.

00:28:25.380 But I don't think he has, you know, a particularly strong Alberta nationalist drive.

00:28:32.580 You know, like for me, the biggest reasons for an Alberta pension plan and Alberta police force these things

00:28:37.820 is not that we would save money and they'd be better financially, which I believe they would be.

00:28:41.980 That's not why I want them.

00:28:43.520 I want them because it's Alberta.

00:28:45.400 I don't want – I don't want to have anything to do with Ottawa that's not negotiated in a treaty.

00:28:50.560 That's why I want – it has nothing to do, actually, with the dollars and cents.

00:28:54.300 And I don't think guys like him have any shared sense of that.

00:28:59.240 Yeah, we can't get out of equalization as constitutionally entrenched right now,

00:29:02.360 but I think we should reframe it as foreign aid.

00:29:04.400 There's a lot of things we could do to start moving away.

00:29:07.020 We'll funnel it through the UN.

00:29:08.260 Yeah, there we go.

00:29:11.840 Okay.

00:29:13.740 Well, let's look a bit – we'll turn a bit more – well, to federal and then international here.

00:29:19.480 You know, there was a meeting of NATO just today, Nigel, and Canada's arming back up.

00:29:29.900 Well, 5%.

00:29:30.680 We haven't even done 2% forever, so –

00:29:35.120 So that's a trickling of the military.

00:29:36.840 Yeah, it's – well, that's the thing, you know.

00:29:39.260 It's one thing to say we're going to spend the money.

00:29:41.500 The other thing is, well, how quickly can you buy something?

00:29:45.540 Like, even if you want to buy a motor car, if it's ordered from a factory, it's going to take six months to get here.

00:29:51.500 Now, you imagine going by a destroyer or a tank or fighters.

00:29:56.120 We can't procure anything.

00:29:58.100 Like, this has always been the issue.

00:30:00.880 First, in the defense industry, they can't make their mines up.

00:30:05.240 When they do make their mines up, it's got to be bilingual.

00:30:07.880 And then after they've sorted all that out, then they actually get to place the order, by which time the price has increased.

00:30:15.300 So it goes back to the start for a further review.

00:30:19.980 Now, I mean, Mr. Carney has pledged a tremendous amount of money into this thing.

00:30:24.180 But we had a – we ran a piece by Roy Rempel just last week.

00:30:29.080 Now, Roy Rempel was a defense policy advisor to Stephen Harper back in the – you know, in the days 2010 to 2015.

00:30:38.140 So I knew him fairly well.

00:30:39.680 We talked about this stuff a lot at the time.

00:30:42.300 And they just don't actually know how to say yes and write a check.

00:30:47.600 A lot of the departments where you would think, well, they would be able to – they should be able to buy bullets.

00:30:53.340 You find that actually, no, they count.

00:30:54.840 It's got to go back through public works, and then it goes through a whole separate chain of approval.

00:31:00.300 Well, that's one of the causes of delay.

00:31:03.260 But what Roy says about adding this – all of this money to the budget, it's just going to go in cost overruns.

00:31:12.740 So much of it will just be eaten up by the length of time it takes to actually place an order and take delivery.

00:31:20.960 I mean, the F-35 program is a perfect example. 1.00

00:31:23.360 Well, if we have bought those fighters –

00:31:25.320 Trying to get a gun.

00:31:26.300 Frigates, all of it.

00:31:27.260 Yeah.

00:31:28.280 It's all going to cost more by the time.

00:31:30.240 And this 5%, it probably is not going to produce the effect that Mr. Carney is promising.

00:31:37.500 You know, the only procurement I ever saw that really, really worked fast was during the Afghan war.

00:31:46.100 Even with the armed services at war, you still couldn't actually buy equipment, but you could lease it.

00:31:53.100 So they wanted a drone to keep an eye on things.

00:31:55.800 They rented one for Donald Detbiler in Vancouver, shipped it to Afghanistan. 0.81

00:32:01.880 The MDA guy went with it, and he would jockey the thing out to the button on the runway, get up out of the chair.

00:32:08.400 The Canadian Armed Forces personnel would occupy the chair, take control of the joystick, fly the mission, bring it back, land it, get up out of the chair.

00:32:17.080 The MDA guy would come in, taxi it into the hangar.

00:32:19.780 That way they maintained the fiction that they were buying a service.

00:32:23.360 Why would you just subcontract up the whole military at this point?

00:32:26.120 You know?

00:32:26.560 I don't really have jokingly saying that.

00:32:28.140 Yes.

00:32:28.620 That's the way they did it.

00:32:29.840 And if you have to go to that much trouble, even in a war, to get stuff, then you have got a problem with spending money on the military.

00:32:39.240 And it's not the unwillingness.

00:32:41.260 Mr. Carney has clearly demonstrated that.

00:32:43.720 It is simply the way that bureaucracy works. 0.96

00:32:46.300 Absolutely ridiculous.

00:32:48.460 Well, there's also, Corey, the issue of manpower. 0.70

00:32:51.880 Maybe, you know, they'll get some more recruits with more attractive pay for, you know, soldiers and airmen and sailors here.

00:33:02.080 But morale is beyond craters.

00:33:05.180 I mean, you know, I've got family members who quit not that long ago from the forces.

00:33:11.160 You know, they joined up to be in the army.

00:33:14.920 Instead, they go to the washroom and there's tampons of the men's room. 0.72

00:33:18.400 I mean, it's, you know, can you imagine, you know, the drill sergeant from Full Metal Jacket walking in?

00:33:26.420 I think his head would have popped.

00:33:27.840 He would have preferred the bullet he found in the men's room over the tampons. 0.96

00:33:31.960 Yeah. 0.99

00:33:32.620 He'd rather see the crazy guy with a gun. 0.79

00:33:35.540 At least he ties the soldiers back.

00:33:37.640 Well, I mean, like, I mean, people don't want to join.

00:33:40.920 Like, we've spent over a decade at least denigrating the very existence of Canada, denigrating a real sense of nationalism, not this faux Canadian post-nationalist anti-American elbows up nationalism.

00:33:56.520 No one joins the military for that.

00:33:58.060 You know, and then the military itself denigrated as an institution and, you know, prizing things like DEI over warfighting capacity.

00:34:09.420 Unless there's a huge cultural change in the forces, I'm not seeing large numbers of young men and women lining up to go through the hell of boot camp and then serve in a fairly Spartan existence in the military for their career.

00:34:24.980 Yeah, well, and so, I mean, you've hit on it.

00:34:27.320 There's kind of three problems going on.

00:34:29.300 The big one, though, credit where due with Kearney, where nobody else really was willing to do it, though, was the first part was committing, the signing a big check.

00:34:36.060 I mean, that nobody else had the courage to say even to get to 2%, much less commit now to 5% and in the short term getting to 2%.

00:34:42.980 So, okay, you did that.

00:34:44.240 But, yes, procurement's a god-awful mess.

00:34:46.800 And if they really, I mean, they just recently changed out their World War II-era sidearms.

00:34:51.160 And they spent 20 years navel-gazing, messing around.

00:34:55.140 They could have gone to Cabela's and upgraded them cheaper and faster.

00:34:59.040 That's what everyone did.

00:34:59.660 The day the Liberals announced they're banning, they're going to get in concert.

00:35:02.380 But they can't do it.

00:35:03.280 And then, yes, the huge one is the culture.

00:35:05.240 In a recent article that just came out, there was apparently raises for the existing members aren't on the table.

00:35:10.360 So they aren't.

00:35:11.000 Now, I got a feeling that they probably, that was an oversight pretty stupid because most people are going to realize, well, for one, if you've got this extra money, start paying your personnel a little better. 0.98

00:35:20.700 And, yes, they have to change that culture, that woke garbage that they've really let sink in. 0.97

00:35:25.540 You know, rainbow flags are pretty, but they make terrible camouflage. 0.96

00:35:28.200 And people join the forces with a vision in mind.

00:35:33.540 They aren't going out to join the trades.

00:35:35.220 They aren't going, they're, we have to admit it, they're young people looking for adventure, for a tough world, for that sort of experience as they're going forward.

00:35:44.500 And they want to serve as well.

00:35:45.780 And they want to feel proud for it.

00:35:47.040 They realize that they're never going to be getting rich through that course.

00:35:49.840 And they're going to put themselves at risk.

00:35:51.740 But they want to also feel that, that they're part of something important, that they're part of something that's more than just a woke exercise of foolishness.

00:36:00.260 So they've got to take that on.

00:36:02.160 A little bit of your sense of honor.

00:36:03.440 Yes, exactly.

00:36:04.420 It's a martial culture.

00:36:05.600 Kearney's done step one.

00:36:06.880 We're explicitly anti-martial culture.

00:36:08.620 So hopefully they've got a plan to get on with those other two steps.

00:36:11.880 As Nigel said, I mean, we could raise it to 10%.

00:36:15.840 Nothing will change unless they change their processes a bit because it's a bottomless pit.

00:36:19.620 You could throw money into.

00:36:20.800 And it's not going to be effective unless you make those personnel change that culture and turn it into what a military force is supposed to be.

00:36:29.620 Works for the civil service, though.

00:36:31.240 Oh, God.

00:36:32.140 They scare me more than the military.

00:36:34.260 Well, they're getting the people they deserve.

00:36:37.700 Well, so this kind of feeds in.

00:36:39.460 Trump was at NATO today.

00:36:42.680 And he was fielding questions.

00:36:45.260 The CNN and New York Times are reporting from a leak somewhere in the Defense Department claiming that the U.S. airstrikes on Iranian alleged nuclear facilities were not as successful as claimed.

00:37:05.340 But it's a bit, it's he said, she said, because I think it's, I mean, even if these facilities were in perfectly working order, it's pretty hard to get someone in to take pictures of the thing.

00:37:18.320 I mean, one level of destroyed or not, it's going to be hard to provide that kind of evidence.

00:37:28.420 Nigel, it's kind of he said, she said on two fronts.

00:37:31.780 One is, did Iran pose an imminent threat of obtaining nuclear warheads?

00:37:39.280 That's one question that, I mean, there's been some claims around it, but no hard evidence yet to substantiate it.

00:37:46.580 That's he said, she said one.

00:37:48.720 He said, she said two is, were these facilities completely destroyed, as Trump said?

00:37:54.740 So, there are two things here.

00:37:57.920 The first is, that for 45 years, Iran has terrorized the Middle East, caused enormous problems, killed people, and threatened to kill Americans. 0.98

00:38:09.080 Meanwhile, they point to their atomic facilities and have basically said, when we get a bomb, we're going to use it.

00:38:16.180 But maybe against America, maybe against Israel.

00:38:18.800 But they have, if this was all a bluff, they have paid dearly for their bluff.

00:38:30.700 I don't know, they have insisted that they're not building a nuclear bomb.

00:38:34.760 Oh, well, Israel's never admitted they have one yet. 0.76

00:38:39.300 If they're not building a bomb, why do they have to bury the facility underneath a mountain?

00:38:45.040 Obviously, they're really wanting to protect this thing.

00:38:48.120 other people who are using nuclear power for civil purposes is there in the open.

00:38:54.340 Well, it's also because, okay, I don't want to be in the position of defending the bloody Ayatollahs here. 0.99

00:38:58.660 They're about the worst people in the world.

00:38:59.880 Well, we've discussed this before.

00:39:00.740 You said just now, you want to be a devil's advocate.

00:39:02.780 Be a devil's advocate.

00:39:03.640 You're going to defend the Ayatollahs. 0.98

00:39:04.800 I won't be Ayatollahs advocate. 1.00

00:39:08.080 I'm going to get in trouble for that one.

00:39:09.980 That's all the way.

00:39:11.560 Peace be upon him.

00:39:12.640 Do not edit that out.

00:39:13.580 But, okay, we've already discussed before.

00:39:19.160 These are the worst guys.

00:39:20.200 They do terrible stuff. 0.98

00:39:21.640 But, no, these guys are not on the record saying we're building a bomb and when we get that bomb, we're going to nuke Israel. 0.98

00:39:26.360 Now, they've said death to America, death to Israel. 0.80

00:39:28.480 They like to say it about 40 times a day.

00:39:30.760 Maybe more.

00:39:31.240 But, no, they have not claimed that they're building a bomb.

00:39:34.560 They have not claimed that they're going to use that bomb then against Israel and the United States.

00:39:39.020 That isn't to say that they're not building a bomb.

00:39:40.800 That isn't to say that they wouldn't use the bomb against Israel and the United States. 0.77

00:39:43.700 But, it is still an unsettled question of if they were on the cusp of obtaining a nuclear warhead.

00:39:52.640 That is still not a settled question.

00:39:54.660 And, now there's the second question of was the American strike successful on destroying the facilities that were allegedly producing a nuclear bomb?

00:40:03.580 So, there's two questions.

00:40:04.660 And, we only have he said, she said on both of those questions.

00:40:06.700 Yeah, but you've got to consider the source.

00:40:09.680 Same source that said Iraq had them.

00:40:11.780 Yeah, well, so, the CNN and the New York Times are part of the anti-Trump lineup.

00:40:19.700 Yeah.

00:40:19.980 So, somebody comes along and says, well, you know, I don't think they really, they seize on that.

00:40:26.000 They say, well, we can't possibly reveal the source.

00:40:28.600 And, now they sow the seeds of doubt.

00:40:30.780 And, that's all that is intended to do.

00:40:32.840 No, Trump didn't do a good thing.

00:40:34.340 Trump couldn't do a good thing.

00:40:35.440 You don't have to be a defender of Trump to say that that is the strategy that the left uses to never, ever admit that Trump ever did a good thing.

00:40:48.440 Well, CNN and New York Times were both cheerleaders for bombing Iran, though.

00:40:53.260 They were in the pro-war party on this.

00:40:55.500 Well, that's great.

00:40:57.120 They get to have it both ways, don't they?

00:40:59.720 Sure.

00:41:00.300 But, what I'm saying, a quick story on this, is there's still the two big questions around this.

00:41:07.160 And, we still have, just as she said.

00:41:09.080 There's always going to be doubt.

00:41:10.040 But, I think it was pretty much a wide open secret that they have been pursuing it.

00:41:14.140 There's no doubt they've been trying.

00:41:16.140 The question is how far along they were.

00:41:19.800 Were they scratching the luminescent ends of Timex watches to build up their radioactive material?

00:41:25.300 Or, had they actually gotten a hold of some uranium, you know, plutonium that they're trying to upgrade into a nuclear?

00:41:31.640 I mean, they wanted it, you know, but just wanting it alone isn't a crime in itself.

00:41:36.040 I guess we're always going to be debating that.

00:41:37.740 But, they were up to it, sure.

00:41:38.720 But, it might have been 30 years away from where they were.

00:41:40.620 Or, it might have been two weeks, is Israel saying?

00:41:42.180 I don't.

00:41:42.660 Israel has been saying for over 30 years.

00:41:44.340 Yes, they're always two weeks.

00:41:46.600 Now, that does mean at some point that they wouldn't be on the cusp of it.

00:41:49.400 But, I mean, your credibility is a little strained at that point.

00:41:51.840 And, whether it's successful or not.

00:41:53.380 I mean, they talked about what these bunker buster bombs, the munitions for the United States.

00:41:56.760 And, apparently, this is exactly what they're designed for.

00:41:59.980 I mean, not just for bunkers in general.

00:42:01.980 But, that Iranian one. 1.00

00:42:03.340 Well, the Iranians are insane. 1.00

00:42:05.460 And, they're bloodthirsty. 1.00

00:42:06.780 But, not all of them are stupid. 1.00

00:42:08.540 So, I would think then you're going to drop that thing even deeper into a mountain. 1.00

00:42:12.500 And, as powerful as the big bad U.S. is,

00:42:14.720 if you get 1,000 feet in a little rock,

00:42:17.560 it's just going to be difficult with anything less than a nuke to actually shake it loose.

00:42:21.200 So, I wouldn't be surprised if the damage was superficial.

00:42:24.760 And, that has been one of the fears for a long time,

00:42:26.980 is that it's going to take a tactical nuclear weapon.

00:42:28.940 Not a strategic nuke that destroys a city,

00:42:30.980 but a tactical nuke underground.

00:42:33.300 Or, do it like a hornet's nest.

00:42:34.700 Find all the entrances.

00:42:35.800 Fill them with concrete.

00:42:36.640 And, whoever's down there will have a good, you know, entombment.

00:42:39.500 It's another pyramid.

00:42:40.580 Yeah.

00:42:41.720 Okay.

00:42:42.320 Well, before we go to our parting shots,

00:42:44.120 I think we should actually give the first parting shot to Donald Trump.

00:42:49.000 His remarks, you know,

00:42:51.160 he got Iran and Israel to agree to a ceasefire.

00:42:56.040 And, both sides do not seem to be meticulously abiding by said ceasefire.

00:43:03.080 And, he had some remarks.

00:43:04.540 Let's give the last word, the first parting shot to Donald Trump.

00:43:09.480 You know what?

00:43:10.260 We basically have two countries that have been fighting so long and so hard 0.99

00:43:15.340 that they don't know what the fuck they're doing. 0.98

00:43:18.000 Do you understand that? 0.99

00:43:20.320 All right.

00:43:20.700 Not the most presidential thing.

00:43:22.040 Not up there with the Gettysburg Address or, you know,

00:43:26.320 the day after Pearl Harbor.

00:43:27.880 But, effective at getting his point across, I think.

00:43:32.540 So, I'm supposed to follow that with a parting shot.

00:43:35.040 Yeah, yeah.

00:43:36.540 You're up first.

00:43:37.900 A little bit of inside baseball.

00:43:39.380 Here are one of the most popular articles that has appeared in the Western Standard

00:43:43.000 during the past week, measured by Patriots.

00:43:45.700 Absolutely astonishing response.

00:43:47.540 It was the item in which we wrote about 91-year-old Don Cherry,

00:43:52.500 who we all thought had retired, but he's going to continue with his podcast.

00:43:56.740 He's coming back.

00:43:58.000 And, this is a great line.

00:44:00.600 Tens of thousands of people logged into that.

00:44:03.080 A lot of them left enthusiastic comments.

00:44:05.760 And, I like the one, I like this one that was left on our website.

00:44:09.700 He said, you know, the thing about Don Cherry,

00:44:11.720 he grew up at a time when it was okay to have an opinion.

00:44:17.280 And, you could disagree with him, or you could agree with him,

00:44:20.420 but it was okay, and you carried on.

00:44:24.240 Well, of course, the Don Cherry story really is a living proof of how,

00:44:31.480 in our bid to be sensitive and kind to everybody,

00:44:34.920 we have actually suppressed free speech, and it's all to our detriment.

00:44:37.720 So, I say, God bless Don Cherry, and I hope he carries on,

00:44:40.400 given his opinions, for a lot longer.

00:44:43.040 Just a little addition to that.

00:44:45.320 When he got canned, the Western Standard was very young at the time,

00:44:48.320 but we got a good scoop.

00:44:49.940 I managed to talk to him myself when he got canned from Hockey Night in Canada.

00:44:55.420 It was a real fangirl moment.

00:44:58.200 Oh, yeah.

00:44:58.800 He's an icon.

00:44:59.720 Yeah.

00:45:00.160 Corey, your parting shot.

00:45:01.380 Well, mine's going to be more of a parting plug,

00:45:02.740 but it segues into this, and free speech, and being unapologetic.

00:45:05.720 And the Western Standard's been sort of sponsoring that.

00:45:08.620 There's an event coming up, or a few events, actually,

00:45:11.020 with a member of European Parliament, Christine Anderson,

00:45:13.560 who some people get upset because she's dared to speak

00:45:15.460 the things that Starmer says today.

00:45:18.220 And I'll be speaking at one of those events as well in Calgary.

00:45:21.220 So, if people really want to celebrate speech unrestrained,

00:45:24.140 whether some people all agree or is controversial or not,

00:45:27.040 check it out.

00:45:27.540 It's Trinity Productions, and, well, we'll be talking about

00:45:31.080 whatever the heck we want to talk about for a couple hours.

00:45:33.080 Just a background for those who don't know, Christine Anderson

00:45:35.400 is a member of the European Parliament for the AFD party,

00:45:40.020 Autority of the Deutschland, the right-leaning party in Germany.

00:45:43.400 No, not that really right-leaning one, though she's accused of it.

00:45:46.920 They got accused of it, but as you said, the stuff that got them

00:45:50.220 called Nazis yesterday is the stuff that left-wing politicians

00:45:54.920 like Keir Starmer are saying today as people wake up and see that

00:45:58.040 maybe Europe's got a little problem.

00:46:01.460 Yeah.

00:46:03.140 Okay, my parting shot.

00:46:08.180 There's, this is found by a Black Locks reporter,

00:46:12.240 reported in our pages today.

00:46:14.420 There's a federal grant program that's encouraged more women 0.83

00:46:17.920 to enter the skilled trades.

00:46:21.080 Well, shock of shockers when there's a benefit to be had

00:46:26.200 by being a woman, many men will consider themselves to be women.

00:46:32.300 They believe the apprenticeship grants evaluation report found

00:46:36.320 that applications were approved solely based on self-identification

00:46:39.580 and a few focus group participants.

00:46:42.100 18% reporting that male applicants have received the grant

00:46:45.840 by declaring themselves female on the forms.

00:46:48.560 You bigots who would question that those people are actually, 0.95

00:46:53.160 no, trans women. 1.00

00:46:53.960 They were just women with penises, that's all. 1.00

00:46:55.740 It's chicks with dicks. 1.00

00:46:56.900 Yes. 1.00

00:46:57.800 We've had a lot of swearing between Donald Trump now.

00:47:00.680 I'm not an alien.

00:47:01.580 That's why I stay clinical.

00:47:03.180 Yeah.

00:47:03.320 So, yeah, you can get an apprenticeship incentive grant for women

00:47:08.500 offered up to $8,000, double the amount available to men

00:47:11.720 to boost female participation in trades like plumbing, welding, 1.00

00:47:14.720 electrical work.

00:47:15.740 Well, if you weld the right parts on, you can, or off,

00:47:21.240 you can get in on that too.

00:47:24.040 Great.

00:47:24.900 All right.

00:47:26.380 Well, gentlemen, thank you for joining.

00:47:28.840 Thank you, John, for producing today's show.

00:47:31.700 Also, we want to thank all of you for being with us

00:47:35.920 and your support.

00:47:37.440 Remember to go to westernstandard.news, click on subscribe.

00:47:40.120 It's only $10 a month or $100 a year to get full access

00:47:43.740 to all Western Standard content and to be supporting the work

00:47:46.840 that we are doing, being the independent voice of the New West.

00:47:50.800 Thank you very much for joining us today.

00:47:52.440 God bless.

00:48:01.700 God bless.

00:48:03.120 God bless.

00:48:04.580 God bless.

00:48:06.880 God bless.

00:48:07.840 God bless.

00:48:08.540 God bless.

00:48:09.340 God bless.

00:48:09.820 God bless.

00:48:10.720 God bless.

00:48:11.380 We will.

00:48:12.380 God bless.

00:48:12.880 God bless.

00:48:13.540 God bless.

00:48:14.800 God bless.

00:48:17.340 God bless.

00:48:17.840 God bless.

00:48:19.500 God bless.

00:48:19.960 God bless.

00:48:20.740 God bless.

00:48:21.680 God bless.

THE PIPELINE： Canada is arming back up

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