Western Standard

00:00:00.000 Good day and welcome today's August 6th,

00:00:28.800 2025. I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard. You're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:34.200 I've got my usual crew of homies here, Western Standard opinion editor Nigel Hannaford, 1.00

00:00:40.120 who is on his, he's got only two and a half days of work left until he is officially retired for

00:00:46.500 the second time. Officially retired for the second time, yes. Drink it all in, the cup is running dry.

00:00:52.200 But like every good former employee, he intends to be reincarnated, come back as a contractor,

00:00:59.900 still doing work with us. You heard it here first, ladies and gentlemen.

00:01:04.540 And another former opinion editor who did the same, we've got Western Standard senior Alberta

00:01:08.880 columnist Cory Morgan. It's hard to escape. It's actually a career track.

00:01:14.440 I thought it's just because you love me. Yeah, it must be it. All right. And coming back to us

00:01:21.060 after an absence of a few weeks, we missed her dearly. We've got Erica Barudis, who is apparently

00:01:28.600 got gas. Okay, that's a weird thing for people. Look over your shoulder. I know, I understand what

00:01:35.240 the sign behind me says. Yeah, I don't have gas. I'm in the presence of gas. All right, Erica,

00:01:41.220 it was in the presence of gas. Yes. And what is my title, Derek? What do I do? I'm not doing it.

00:01:47.000 I just gave up on it. It's on the screen. Ah, yes. Department head of applied politics and public

00:01:52.780 affairs as Macamie College. I knew that not because it was on the screen. Yeah. And I'm just here for

00:01:58.540 Nigel. That's why I'm here today. This is farewell. You break my heart. You break my heart.

00:02:05.240 Okay. I think it's good for ratings that I keep you in your place. I think people like it. Yeah.

00:02:11.640 I think they do. So let's continue. People, okay, people like the mean girl. All right. Well, we're

00:02:16.920 going to talk about why are federalists so terrified of the Alberta flag? The self-appointed leader of

00:02:27.020 the federalist stay in Canada side of the forthcoming maybe sort of referendums.

00:02:35.240 And former deputy premier to Alice in Redford, Thomas Lukasik was caught. I don't know if

00:02:43.880 caught's the right word, but he's bragging about it. But we certainly picked it up once

00:02:47.160 Cory Morgan found it. Caught. Petitioning Safeway and other stores to take down that symbol of hate

00:02:56.500 on a flag. No, it's not that flag. It's the Alberta flag. Old blue. Ordering that they have to take down

00:03:05.640 this symbol of fascist oppression from stores. Lest people look at Old Blue and seethe with hatred

00:03:15.620 at Ottawa and decide to become their own country. Or I'll talk about that. A pipeline, if necessary,

00:03:22.340 but not necessarily a pipeline. Mark Carney saying one thing, but setting up potentially another.

00:03:30.980 Playing on kind of that old Canadian political trick of not appeasing those who need to be appeased,

00:03:39.860 but not really quite doing anything. Speaking of which, where we're going to start, a Palestinian 1.00

00:03:45.540 state if necessary, but not necessarily a Palestinian state. Nigel, just last week,

00:03:56.180 Prime Minister Mark Carney saying that Canada will recognize, intends to recognize a Palestinian state.

00:04:04.680 He hasn't formally recognized that Palestinian state yet. But attaching certain conditions to it

00:04:11.480 that make me think that if he does keep those conditions, he'll never be recognizing a Palestinian

00:04:17.880 state. That's how I read it. Well, that's called having your cake and eating it too. Let's say,

00:04:23.320 and that seems to be, I believe we're going to go into this a little bit more deeply later, but by and large,

00:04:29.560 Mr. Carney says what he would like to happen, then places conditions on it so that he's got an escape

00:04:36.120 route if things change. Now, in this case, it's not indigenous agreement and Quebec agreement that

00:04:44.120 he's looking for. That would be a pipeline. But he wants to set three conditions on it. Hamas would not 0.93

00:04:53.800 be part of any forthcoming, going forward, any Palestinian state. That the Hezbollah in West Bank 0.98

00:05:06.200 will also disarm, which to some extent, they've been disarmed, but they don't like it. I can't

00:05:12.920 imagine that they would ever want to stay that way. So, you know, you put these conditions out there,

00:05:18.280 and maybe they haven't, maybe they don't. And if they don't show up, you try it.

00:05:24.520 Corey, so yeah, you put these, Carney put down these conditions, and as did some heads of other

00:05:30.280 governments around the world. Hamas has to be disarmed, has to play no role in the government.

00:05:36.920 The hostages have to be released, and said Palestinian state has to recognize the right 0.89

00:05:43.240 of Israel to exist. I mean, where the border should get drawn, to some extent is a fair debate,

00:05:48.520 to some extent is a fraught debate. But these conditions are actually under those conditions.

00:05:57.080 If they were theoretically possible, I'd say, okay, actually, those are pretty reasonable

00:06:00.920 conditions, I think, to recognize a Palestinian state. The Palestinians have to recognize the Israeli 0.99

00:06:05.240 state, and not go to war for maybe a period of, I don't know, two weeks, if they can do that.

00:06:10.360 New record, yeah. Yeah. They're actually fairly, I think, reasonable demands to make that,

00:06:18.040 if met, I think, would be, you know, a good, you know, grounds for which to recognize a Palestinian

00:06:23.240 state. But I don't think there's any chance, like, Hamas is, I mean, the Gaza Strip lurks worse 0.98

00:06:32.840 than Tokyo or Dresden right now. It's gone. And they're still fighting. They're not disarming,

00:06:39.160 they're not giving up the hostages. I'm not really sure. The only reason I can see them

00:06:45.560 continuing to fight is it's imposing an increasingly great political price on Israel

00:06:51.160 and the Israeli government, turning world opinion against them, not necessarily in favor of Hamas,

00:06:58.200 but at least against the Israelis. That's the only reason I can see why they still keep fighting at 0.99

00:07:04.280 this point. Well, they're ideological maniacs. And you're asking for reason from them. I mean, 0.96

00:07:09.080 their response to having world countries saying, okay, let's reward them for their terrorism,

00:07:14.280 if they would just be nice again, and we'll give you your own state. And what they do,

00:07:17.800 they released videos showing them torturing the prisoners they still have in custody right now.

00:07:23.000 Like, yeah, Kearney is no fool, whatever he may be. There is no reasoning with Hamas. Hamas made it 0.99

00:07:29.880 pretty clear right off the bat. No, we aren't disarming. No, we aren't releasing. You know,

00:07:36.200 they've extended a nice big middle finger to the countries asking for that. And they want nothing

00:07:40.840 less than the complete obliteration of Israel. So I don't know where this is going to end, but

00:07:46.680 Kearney won't, he's just trying to play both sides and he's playing weak. I mean, what do people expect?

00:07:51.640 Israel is supposed to just leave them there to keep firing more rockets and grabbing more hostages.

00:07:56.200 The reality is the world is going to start calling for Hamas to bloody well, put the blame where it

00:08:00.760 is. This is only going to end when they stop. The Arab League just came out. They've come out. Yeah. 1.00

00:08:07.000 I mean, that's a big blow against Hamas when even the Arab League is like, guys, the jig is up. Time to go.

00:08:13.960 The other thing that has to be understood, as you pointed out, most of Gaza is rubble. And guess what?

00:08:17.800 Hamas is still hiding hostages and still launching rockets. Gazans are complicit. Not every one of them,

00:08:23.720 but let's not pretend that Hamas isn't operating without the blessing of a large part of the

00:08:28.680 civilian population as well. And I see it's showing clearly that it doesn't seem to matter how much

00:08:34.040 abuse they take. The civilians won't turn on Hamas, but this isn't ending until Hamas is done. 0.68

00:08:39.240 There's there's no other way about this. Erica, if say Palestine and I put that in air quotes,

00:08:47.880 there's two Palestinian governments. There's Hamas in Gaza and the Palestinian Authority in the West

00:08:52.360 Bank and then arguably Israel as well as a third order of government there. But if Palestine,

00:09:00.200 if we can call it that, you know, disarmed Hamas, Hamas did play no role. The hostages are released

00:09:07.960 and they agreed to recognize Israel. They probably wouldn't recognize their claim on on Jerusalem,

00:09:12.760 but let's say they recognized everything. But that was just left as a point of negotiation for later.

00:09:19.080 Do you think, you know, Carney and others would be right in recognizing a Palestinian state if those 0.77

00:09:26.600 conditions could be fulfilled? Well, I think if we're talking about sunshines and rainbows,

00:09:31.320 so sure. We are here. Yes. And yeah. And so sure. But like cart before the horse. And right now we,

00:09:40.360 like you said, but all the three of you separating Hamas from the state of Palestine is, I see it pretty 0.96

00:09:48.280 unrealistic in the current state. There's lots of what ifs that have to happen in order for that. So for our

00:09:54.520 prime minister to come out and say, okay, all of these conditions, this, this and this, which an average

00:10:01.080 Canadian isn't going through the fine print of these conditions that are hypothetical to some degree.

00:10:07.160 He's now sitting here saying all that Canadians pick up is I am going to recognize in September with other 0.94

00:10:14.840 nations. And I will say there is some Eastern or Western European countries that are also saying the same,

00:10:20.360 but that we're going to recognize Palestine as a state. I can tell you from the left leaning people

00:10:25.720 that I know and follow on social media, that was the whole message was like, regardless of that fine

00:10:30.520 print, the prime minister is going to recognize Palestine as a state. And I think what that did was

00:10:37.560 really divide our country even more. It also, you know, resulted in tariffs from the south to

00:10:47.000 respond to that decision that our prime minister premeditated or preemptively stated before even

00:10:55.000 getting to September. So sure. I think that we could say that's an appropriate thing if ABCDEFG happen. 0.98

00:11:04.360 I just think we're still at A. And so for what this means for Canada, we've already got some backlash of

00:11:12.360 taking that position. I also think it's setting a tone where if you've ever gone to Ottawa in the last

00:11:19.160 year or so, the disruption of their protests. We've seen it all across the country. We've seen

00:11:27.960 post-secondaries be taken over to stand out for the Palestinians. The fact that we are Canada and we have

00:11:37.000 taken an aggressive position on either side is disappointing to me at best.

00:11:43.240 I do agree with that. I mean, it's, I think we've got to get out of the habit, particularly of those

00:11:48.680 of us on a more conservative side of thinking we actually really have a stake there. We don't.

00:11:53.640 It's a different country. It's a different part of the world. I wish everyone there well, wish them peace

00:11:59.080 and prosperity. Well, for everyone, there's, there's side, both sides have been very guilty of hurting

00:12:04.760 innocent people. And I just, I think us taking a stance either way, especially when you said,

00:12:10.040 to what benefit of us? Exactly. What is in our national interest? What national interest is being served?

00:12:17.400 So Nigel, this raises the question, why? Why did Mark Carney say this? I think, I think Erica is correct,

00:12:26.200 that most people just heard Canada is going to be recognizing Palestinian state.

00:12:31.320 I think, you know, how many people see people do this all the time? They just read the headline

00:12:35.960 on X or where, or wherever. They don't read the story. If they read the story, I actually don't

00:12:41.480 think it's a particularly unreasonable way to go about it. I don't think there's any chance Hamas ever

00:12:47.720 agrees to it because it's too reasonable. They won't agree to it. Maybe I'm wrong. But, but like, why

00:12:55.160 is it simply the domestic voting audience that he's trying to appeal to, you know, the combination

00:13:03.720 of kind of campus lefties and, you know, the large and growing Islamic vote in Canada by saying this,

00:13:10.600 but then attaching conditions to it that make it highly unlikely that if he sticks to those conditions,

00:13:15.960 that Canada will ever be recognizing a Palestinian state in the near future?

00:13:19.160 Well, I think after the events of October the 7th, 2023, nobody wants to see the

00:13:25.400 Hamas rewarded with its own state. But Carney is correct. Mr. Carney, I should say, is correct 1.00

00:13:32.680 in this much that a two-state solution has always been Canada's policy, even during the ministry of

00:13:41.800 Stephen Harper, who was famously very, very pro-Israel, and therefore by definition opposed to

00:13:49.320 Hamas and Hezbollah. He was, I pulled it off the files here. He made this statement in West Bank during

00:13:57.400 an interview back in 2014. And he said, let me just say the position of the government of Canada,

00:14:05.400 I think, as you know well, is we favor and indeed believe that these matters can only be resolved

00:14:12.920 through a two-state solution with two states. And of course, here came his conditions, which are

00:14:19.560 essentially the same as Carney's, just differently worded, two states that are viable, prosperous,

00:14:25.240 secure, democratic, and living in peace. So this has always been the Canadian position.

00:14:32.040 Mr. Carney, why did he say it now? That puzzles me deeply. I have a theory, but it doesn't actually

00:14:39.720 worth much. Why did he say it now? When we were in the middle of tariff negotiations with the United

00:14:50.120 States, first he encapsulated supply management into law. And then he said he was prepared to

00:14:59.480 recognize the Palestinian state under certain conditions, knowing full well that President

00:15:04.760 Trump A, hates supply management, B, is strongly pro-Israel. Why would you poke him like that

00:15:10.760 at such a sensitive time? Like it was the day before the August, July the 31st and the time limit there.

00:15:19.480 So all I can think of is that perhaps Mr. Carney thought there isn't going to be a deal anyway.

00:15:28.200 We're never going to close the gap on steel and aluminium tariffs. So I'll pick up a little bit of

00:15:34.760 free goodwill from people who don't like me by saying that under certain conditions I'm prepared

00:15:42.120 to recognize a Palestine state. Maybe he even thinks that's the right thing to do. But if he does,

00:15:47.000 well, I guess other prime ministers have thought the same thing under the same kind of conditions

00:15:52.120 that he outlined. He didn't think there was a big political cost in doing so.

00:15:56.520 Well, OK, before we move on to the pipeline side of things, Corey, I still haven't found a satisfactory

00:16:08.120 answer to why he's done this. I'm not sure I agree with you, Nigel, on the Trump thing.

00:16:16.280 Disagreement on the pipeline is a good thing. Yeah. Yeah. I'm not sure I agree on that. Like,

00:16:22.520 look, Israel, the United States is not acting in its national self-interest on the Israel question

00:16:28.680 right now. It's in the United States, United States' self-interest to have peace in the region.

00:16:34.920 I don't think Netanyahu was a big fan of that. I think while he was appalled by the October 7th

00:16:41.320 attacks, he also saw it as the perfect excuse to invade. I think it's pretty amply clear that he

00:16:47.560 wanted to. And I think his intention is ultimately to annex Gaza and expand the borders of Israel. 0.92

00:16:54.280 That seems to align with where he's going on this. But Canada's national interest is served

00:17:02.280 primarily by getting a trade deal. That is by far the most important foreign policy goal for the

00:17:06.840 Canadian national interest right now. And it's not in Canada's national interest to piss off Trump, but

00:17:13.240 it's... Well, I'm sympathetic to Trump on a lot of these things. I don't think that's necessarily

00:17:19.160 his business about our foreign policy on that issue. So I don't think it was that. I think it's more

00:17:27.960 likely he's trying to shore up a domestic Islamic voting bloc. It's a very, very large bloc in Canada.

00:17:38.280 And by saying this, he's, you know, making them happy. But by attaching these conditions to it,

00:17:45.720 he's making it unlikely that he would ever have to act on it and alienate Jewish voters,

00:17:50.360 which have traditionally made up a large bloc of liberal voters.

00:17:53.240 Yeah. Well, they made no bones about that. There was a couple of liberal members who said,

00:17:56.920 I mean, there was a candid conversation with one who said, you know, the demographics of my

00:18:00.840 riding, I have to keep the Islamic community happier. I'm not going to win my seat.

00:18:06.040 And before Carney came out with that statement on potential statehood for Palestine, it was said

00:18:11.240 that he's dealing with caucus pressures. He has a number of his own members of parliament who were

00:18:16.520 pressuring him to do this. He gave himself an out with the conditions that he attached to it. But yeah,

00:18:23.000 there's a lot at play in this and some of it's just pure politics in keeping his own caucus happy.

00:18:29.240 The Jewish vote has always been a tiny vote, though they probably donate a thousand dollars for every

00:18:33.800 dollar that an Islamic person puts forward. So you want the money or the votes? He's chose the votes 1.00

00:18:37.560 for now. But if there's just less when you're looking at it politically, there's less to gain

00:18:42.520 in Canada by with something divided between Jews and Muslims, the taking the Jewish side versus the

00:18:47.160 Muslim. Well, we're going to I think we've got a nice, neat theme here.

00:18:53.640 You know, we're kind of Canadian people in Canadian media, especially colonists do this way too often.

00:19:00.360 I'm guilty of it twice today. You know, paraphrasing William Mackenzie King and saying conscription if

00:19:07.720 necessary, but not necessarily conscription, which really was just the most Canadian political thing

00:19:13.080 to say ever, which is why we use it so often. It's it's this equivocation of not having to really

00:19:18.840 take one side. You know, the Canadian generals in the Second World War were demanding conscription.

00:19:22.760 We need more troops, but there was huge opposition to it in Quebec. So we had conscription sort of,

00:19:30.600 but only volunteers would actually go fight. The conscripts would stay and, you know, guard

00:19:35.240 a warehouse in Quebec City somewhere, you know, before the ships leave. So, yeah, a Palestinian state

00:19:42.760 if necessary, but not necessarily a Palestinian state. Same goes, I think, for pipelines. Nigel and I were

00:19:48.520 talking about this this morning, you know, he's brought forward. He said, we're going to build

00:19:52.600 pipelines. We're going to be an energy superpower. And that includes oil and gas, which require pipelines.

00:19:57.720 Now we're going to build pipelines. Asterisk, if everyone agrees, as long as, yes, we will build pipelines

00:20:07.960 as long as Quebec is okay with it. As long as every single indigenous group, even vaguely and peripherally 0.99

00:20:16.280 affected, agrees to it. We'll build pipelines. I don't know. You could take it from here.

00:20:24.600 Yeah. I mean, I think the big thing with Carney is what we're learning is he's a little mushy middle.

00:20:29.480 He doesn't want to take sides on anything. He is trying to not be the bad guy in the conflict in

00:20:38.680 Gaza. And so he's hoping that he'll be like, okay, here's all the conditions. Oh, sorry. Hamas couldn't 0.63

00:20:43.640 separate themselves from the Palestinian people or couldn't remove themselves from this conflict.

00:20:51.080 Therefore, don't blame me blame them. I think the same thing is, oh, I'm going to be pro energy,

00:20:56.600 like renewable and traditional. But if it's going to be someone's fault, it's going to be Quebec's

00:21:03.720 because they won't give you market access, or it's going to be the indigenous that are going to, 0.99

00:21:09.480 you know, stomp and scream and fight saying that they're not getting their fair share or whatever

00:21:16.200 it is. And so I think he's trying to be something for everyone and half baking all of these policies

00:21:22.440 that he's announcing or positions he's announcing. And the pipelines where we've already seen his first

00:21:28.360 meetings with indigenous groups, mainly in Northern BC have basically said like, nice try guy, but like,

00:21:36.360 we're not going to entertain this. Um, see you later. He can now point to them to be the bad guys.

00:21:43.160 And I think that's what he's trying to set up. He's trying to be this prime minister for everybody.

00:21:47.640 And he's going to end up being prime minister for nobody.

00:21:51.000 Uh, Corey, uh, I don't know. We, we haven't seen, I mean, we have seen a bill on this actually,

00:21:57.640 you know, the national infrastructure priorities, whatever the building Canada,

00:22:02.120 the building Canada. Yeah. Um, we've seen something, but it's, it still seems nebulous.

00:22:07.960 Uh, we haven't had the application for a pipeline come in yet. Um, but requiring essentially unanimous

00:22:15.960 consent of everyone gives everyone a veto. And when you have a veto, you could demand so much more to

00:22:22.120 the point where it might not even make sense to go forward. Um, I mean, provinces should be consulted,

00:22:28.120 I guess, for pipelines going through, I don't think that's unreasonable. Uh, first nations 0.65

00:22:32.040 should be consulted. If it goes through their land, there should be some benefit to them. Uh,

00:22:37.160 but if everyone's got a hard veto, uh, it ups everyone's negotiating power to the nth degree,

00:22:43.720 to the point where the proponent of the, uh, uh, you know, is facing, uh, so many roadblocks that

00:22:49.720 it could be damn near impossible to make a profitable case to do these things.

00:22:53.160 Yeah. He, he has to, again, it's an effective theme. He's got to show a stance. Yes or no.

00:22:59.080 Cause this wishy-washy thing companies aren't going to commit billions to that. Uh, he's got to stand

00:23:04.200 up and define the difference between consent and consult. Uh, Sean Fraser, his own minister dared to

00:23:09.720 do that. What a couple of months ago, and he got pilloried for it and apologized. Cause he actually

00:23:14.440 stated the law that I'm sorry, but we don't need consent from indigenous people. We are obligated to

00:23:19.880 consult and they went bananas and he retracted it and apologized, but he was absolutely right.

00:23:25.720 So if they can't even say it out loud, no company's going to put the money in, no application's going

00:23:31.800 to come. And I fear what he's building up is he's an ideological leader as well, though he could say,

00:23:35.960 well, look, I tried, but it would be similar to like Justin Trudeau. There's obviously no business

00:23:39.160 case because no private interest has stepped up and he'll lay it on that rather than the reality that

00:23:44.920 nobody in the right mind would invest in that climate. Why spend hundreds of millions,

00:23:48.440 possibly billions on the studies and the, the applications and all of that only to be hitting

00:23:53.720 a brick wall as other companies have done? Uh, Nigel, I, I think the building of what Corey said,

00:24:00.200 I think in both cases, recognize a palette, recognizing a Palestinian state on pipelines.

00:24:06.920 I think he actually wants a no on both. I think, uh, just judging by what he's set up as the criteria

00:24:15.160 for both. He just doesn't want to be the one to say no on a Palestinian state. Hey, look,

00:24:20.520 I want to recognize a Palestinian state. I want to go there, but look, these are the reasonable 1.00

00:24:25.480 conditions I set out. Hamas won't disarm, et cetera, et cetera. Sorry. It wasn't my choice.

00:24:32.040 That was them similar on a, on a pipeline. I think he wants to know, cause we know he's got a long

00:24:37.800 ideological track record. He's written books on this stuff. He, you know, uh, was he a sudden

00:24:43.960 convert to pipelines? No, he's a sudden convert to political reality. And if you keep Alberta

00:24:50.280 in Canada, you can't just say, no, no pipelines. If you want to appear to be the reasonable moderate guy

00:24:55.720 who's not as crazy as the ideologue, Justin Trudeau, you can't just say no to pipelines,

00:25:00.920 but he can go through this, set up a new set of roadblocks to the point where other companies

00:25:06.840 aren't willing to go forward. They don't have to be projected. They're going to say, hey,

00:25:09.640 these roadblocks are, we just can't get through it. And then they withdraw. As Corey said,

00:25:14.440 he is not the one saying no to pipelines. It's just, ah, those pipelines couldn't meet these

00:25:19.400 reasonable conditions that I've set out. I think this is actually just very smart politics. This is

00:25:26.520 3d chess that he is able to get a no on these things. He wants to know to by just setting up,

00:25:32.920 uh, you know, setting a line that he knows no one's going to meet.

00:25:38.280 You know, on those two particular items, I think you may be right. I mean, before you came in this

00:25:45.080 morning, we were having a discussion about sometimes just doing nothing until you're absolutely forced

00:25:51.720 to do something is smart politics. The issue I have with that is that sometimes you want

00:26:02.040 a politician to actually say, this is what I believe in. And although there is opposition,

00:26:07.960 I am going forward. You know, one of the, one of the things that is helping us right now

00:26:13.240 is that quite a steel and aluminum, except that a lot of Canadian exports are presently protected

00:26:21.560 by the, um, the, the, the U S, uh, Mexico, Canada trade agreement, otherwise known as CUSMA.

00:26:30.600 And it is a successor to what, to the North American free trade association,

00:26:36.440 which Brian Mulroney won for us back in the 1980s.

00:26:40.760 Well, if Brian Mulroney had taken the Carney-esque approach to politics,

00:26:46.200 he would have probably found a reason not to complete the negotiations

00:26:51.800 that led to NAFTA, because a lot of people didn't want it. The unions were dead set against

00:26:56.280 it. The NDP were campaigning on it. The liberals didn't like it. But Mulroney stuck to his guns.

00:27:03.160 He got NAFTA. And today we have the advantage of that through the legacy treaty that still protects

00:27:12.360 some Canadian exports from the tariffs that Mr. Trump has applied over and above. So there is a value

00:27:20.760 to a politician believing in something, going forward, making it happen, making it work,

00:27:25.960 in staying the course. What we see from Mr. Carney is actually a recipe for the Canadian drift that

00:27:34.680 we have been experiencing since, certainly since the, uh, start of Mr. Trudeau's, uh, coming to

00:27:42.200 office back in 2015. It's getting us nowhere. It's taking us nowhere. Maybe if you actually want

00:27:48.520 to build a stronger Canada, I think Mr. Carney may find he's going to have to be a little stronger himself.

00:27:54.520 But how did Brian Mulroney's Prime Minister ship end? He did take big, bold gambles. It paid off on

00:28:03.240 NAFTA. But he also took a big, bold gamble on the GST. And ultimately that policy did endure. It

00:28:10.280 can endure to this day. It was a very, it was on wildly unpopular. But in hindsight, everyone agrees that

00:28:16.840 that was a no brainer fix to the economy and the finances of the country. Uh, he took big,

00:28:24.440 bold gambles on the constitution at Charlottetown and at Meech Lake. Uh, I think they were well

00:28:30.600 intentioned, but they were, they were terrible and rightfully defeated, but, um, they ultimately blew

00:28:38.280 up his political coalition and left him politically radioactive until pretty much near the end of his

00:28:43.640 life. Um, making big, bold decisions, I think is the reason you should be in politics to change things.

00:28:50.760 But it invariably, I think, shortens your political life. It's going to make you unpopular. It's going to,

00:28:56.440 it's going to limit your time in office. It's going to limit, uh, how many people like you.

00:29:02.120 If your goal is power over the longterm, the more indirect, some would say cowardly approach,

00:29:10.360 but you know, the indirect, you know, maybe more, it's this, it's a Sun Tzu indirect approach.

00:29:14.600 Perhaps that is better. I'm not sure Brian Mulroney is a great example of big political

00:29:19.000 gambles paying off very well. Well, it pays off for the country. I mean, you could, when you're

00:29:23.240 choosing a prime minister, you're going to either pick a guy who wants to be the prime minister,

00:29:29.320 or you can pick a guy who wants to get something done. Now, the guy who wants to get something

00:29:34.520 done may well pay the political cost. You use up your political capital and then you disappear.

00:29:40.680 It's unfortunate, but, um, you know, I've never been a big more Brian Mulroney fan,

00:29:47.000 but right now I can see where, what he did is paying off for Mr. Carney, little people.

00:29:53.720 Um, Erica, this might be a good pivot to where we're going to go.

00:29:56.840 Uh, you know, I've said that Mark Carney is, you know, on both Palestine and pipelines,

00:30:02.360 he's putting up these conditions that he doesn't, I, I suspect he doesn't think will be fulfilled.

00:30:09.240 And these ideas can be shot down, not by himself. He could say, ah, it was out of my hands.

00:30:14.600 Some would accuse Danielle Smith of doing the same thing with Ottawa. She has put down conditions by 0.90

00:30:20.280 which, uh, Alberta would be happy and content in Confederation. That's, uh, ending equalization,

00:30:26.920 essentially to Quebec and Ontario, uh, that we build pipelines. We end, uh, Ottawa's meddling in

00:30:33.000 areas of jurisdiction under the guise of the environment, et cetera. You know, she, she has her

00:30:37.720 seven big conditions or 11 if it's parsed out more. Some would say that, uh, she knows Ottawa. I, you know,

00:30:45.560 I, I've, you know, read some of these lefty columnists who say she knows Ottawa will never

00:30:50.040 say yes to these things. I always consider those to be an extremely low bar, uh, for accepting rule

00:30:58.280 by Ottawa. But yes, of course we should not be funding Quebec from Alberta tax dollars. We should

00:31:03.400 not be, uh, allowing Ottawa to, to meddle in our provincial jurisdiction, et cetera. For me,

00:31:09.400 those are a pretty, they're actually, those conditions are not enough to make me content

00:31:14.040 with Ottawa rule, but, uh, she's been accused and I can see where they're at least coming from

00:31:18.200 of maybe similarly setting up these conditions that she knows cannot be fulfilled. And that, uh, acts as,

00:31:25.800 you know, cause for her potentially to come out in favor of an independence referendum at some point. 1.00

00:31:30.280 Uh, what are your thoughts? Well, I think a few things first off, she is playing by the rule book

00:31:37.640 of how the constitution is structured, where in this case with pipelines, the federal government

00:31:44.360 to many of our points is consulting versus consent working. If the provinces are asking for it and

00:31:51.400 they're okay, like that's their natural resources falls to the province. So I think she's playing the

00:31:56.040 game a little bit more by the playbook, um, where the jurisdiction of those national projects or our

00:32:05.640 international relations is up to the jurisdiction of the prime minister. So I, I do sympathize with

00:32:11.640 what you're saying on, is it, you know, um, pot calling kettle black. I actually don't think it really

00:32:18.120 is as clear as that because she's looking at things that should be reset to ultimately get back to say

00:32:25.720 equalization where the province are equal partners to the federal government, where each of them stay

00:32:31.560 in their own lanes. So, but to your point, is it ever going to actually like, is an equalization formula

00:32:39.320 change really realistic? Who knows? But I would say... Well, even Paul Yev doesn't, he says he won't

00:32:45.240 change it. No, or, or looking at different things. So, yeah. And, and so where I think Alberta is going 1.00

00:32:51.720 and I think where we want to take the conversation is, okay, what does that mean for Albertans? I mean,

00:32:57.080 I still get really happy that she's standing up for that because there's other provinces that do.

00:33:01.400 I'm in Saskatchewan where I was born and raised right now and they feel the same way. They're just not as

00:33:05.400 good about advocating for it vocally on the national stage. Um, so we'll see, you know, how that plays

00:33:12.760 out. She's also making very bold moves here that could play out really well for her or not. So, I

00:33:18.680 think we also kind of were foreshadowing Alberta from some of the Brian Mulroney decisions, how healthcare

00:33:24.760 reform is going to play out, how looking at some of these, um, exploring pension, that kind of flopped.

00:33:31.160 Now we're looking at the provincial police and the Alberta next panels. I'm actually going to

00:33:35.320 the one in Edmonton on the 14th. So I should be able to report back how that, that lands. Um,

00:33:42.520 but either way, how we started this show is you talking about one of my least favorite politicians

00:33:47.400 or wannabe politicians, Thomas Lukaszek. I don't care how you feel about federalism. I love federalism

00:33:53.560 on how it's actually supposed to be constructed. But the fact that we have an individual that's trying to

00:33:59.160 say that the Alberta flag is a negative thing is I think completely distasteful

00:34:05.640 and something that our viewers should be hearing more about to, to really educate themselves on what

00:34:11.880 that means for unity and for our province. Yeah. All right. We're transitioning beautifully.

00:34:17.960 Uh, Corey, it was actually your tweet that, uh, brought this to my attention.

00:34:22.520 Uh, you found, uh, okay. So just so people know, both people don't know who this guy is.

00:34:28.280 I'm thinking, I don't know.

00:34:29.720 Oh my gosh. He was the first politician at the legislature I worked for.

00:34:33.480 Oh yeah.

00:34:33.880 He was the first politician. I worked for him.

00:34:36.120 Sorry, sorry.

00:34:36.680 You worked for him?

00:34:38.520 Yeah. When he was the minister of education, my first job at the legislature. So

00:34:43.400 it's a whole, yeah, I have a difference.

00:34:46.040 Thank God you found Jesus. All right. Um, well, okay. So just so people know,

00:34:51.400 most people don't know who this guy is. He, uh, I guess he was a progressive conservative MLA.

00:35:00.040 Uh, when Alison Redford comes to power, uh, wins in 2012, she makes him deputy premier.

00:35:06.040 Uh, with no other portfolio. Can we just mention that he was the deputy premier with no other portfolio,

00:35:11.960 basically giving someone a make believe job. So they'd be quiet.

00:35:15.080 Yeah. Yeah. Generally when I was there, I can say it.

00:35:17.640 Yeah. Well, when you see, uh, a leader, a deputy leader of a party without a portfolio,

00:35:21.960 it means, uh, they're probably not very good normally. Um, so, uh, but anyway, this, he

00:35:29.320 fell out of that office with Al's Redford's collapse. And, you know, you have like a $20,000

00:35:33.640 phone bill or something while he's on vacation that he put the taxpayers. And so he was out,

00:35:37.320 he lost his seat in 2015 when the NDP came in. Uh, and I don't know if he's had a job since,

00:35:42.920 I think he's just been on Twitter. Uh, I don't know how he's been paying his bills. Maybe,

00:35:46.760 maybe see if he makes a lot. I don't know. I don't know, but I'm not aware of,

00:35:50.840 he's a kept man. That's his business. Yeah. Uh, but as far as I know, he's just

00:35:54.360 been tweeting for the last decade or so. Uh, but he is, uh, fashioned himself, uh, Captain Canada here.

00:36:01.320 He is, um, uh, yeah. Uh, so he, he was up to something. You found it. We've done a bunch

00:36:07.400 on it since, uh, just, but just tell people exactly what happened. Yeah. And to be fair to

00:36:11.160 Lukasik and I find him as odious as most of us here do, uh, it wasn't him directly who, who decided 0.81

00:36:17.480 it was a good idea to crap on Alberta's flag. It was one of his followers on his Facebook group for

00:36:24.280 I guess I gotta give some more backstory. Lukasik is trying a counter petition to the independence

00:36:28.200 movement to hold a fake referendum, which would just say, we're all happy. We're going to stay

00:36:32.760 in Canada, which doesn't change anything. It's like a trolling move. They have a book that they

00:36:37.000 call or a Facebook page. They called forever Canadian where they were organizing and gathering

00:36:41.800 other members to push this petition and get it going. And I just checked it out and I scrolled my

00:36:47.400 way down. I guess more of it curiosity. And I found this posting from one of their supporters

00:36:52.120 who had put a picture up on that group days before saying, yeah, I'd found this Alberta flag

00:36:57.480 hanging in a Safeway and medicine hat. And I control, I complained to the Western managers

00:37:02.520 and they pulled it down and we got to stop, you know, getting, we got to get these symbols torn

00:37:06.280 down of, of this, this separatism and this terrible things, the Alberta flag. Part of why I lay this on

00:37:11.080 Lukasik's feet is, Hey, if you're going to head the movement, you wear what your supporters do and you

00:37:16.760 control their communications on a page that you is representing you. I mean, you can't control this one

00:37:22.440 dingbat, but I had thought he was, uh, he was pushing, but if he'd done that five days before

00:37:30.360 by then, somebody should have said, you know, we might want to pull that off there before some 0.52

00:37:34.680 clown like Cory Morgan spots it and throws it out on X and completely embarrasses you. This went bad 0.85

00:37:39.720 to the point that they shut down that Facebook page. Lukasik has reopened his old campaign page

00:37:44.680 from 2014 to use as a new Facebook hub to try and rejuvenate because you don't attack the symbol

00:37:53.400 of a province. I mean, symbols are important. They're emotionally, they're attached to people.

00:37:58.280 You can attack the independence movement. You can attack the individuals, but when you start

00:38:02.920 besmirching the flag of Alberta that had the exact opposite effect of what they were looking to do,

00:38:09.400 but it does show the mindset of the following. Cause it wasn't just this gentleman who did that to

00:38:14.680 Safeway, which by the way, Safeway put it right back up once the backlash hit them. I think they

00:38:18.520 just wanted to sell groceries. They didn't want to get in the middle of them. Yes. It was just a flag.

00:38:22.280 Uh, but it was all the other people commenting below, gee, where do I contact my local Safeway?

00:38:26.760 I better do this for other businesses. Like that also started to show. And that's why they had to get

00:38:30.280 rid of that Facebook page. Cause it's not just one nut. It's Lukasik's gang of little elbows up

00:38:35.080 minions started going after the Alberta flag. And, uh, they actually had to crash their whole

00:38:40.440 page to get out of the mess they stepped in. It says a lot about how well organized his little

00:38:44.040 movement is too. Uh, Erica. Um, okay. So Lukasik, I guess, wasn't behind the campaign itself to

00:38:51.000 remove Alberta flags. So I, if I miss, uh, yeah, no, I, I thought the same, but that was because I read

00:38:56.520 the same thing. But I, but, but it is, it is his organization. And I, I half agree with you,

00:39:02.680 Corey, that you have to wear what your supporters do. I half don't, I mean, like anyone who's ever

00:39:06.920 been a part of a big movement or in a political party knows you've always got some nutters,

00:39:10.760 but if someone goes particularly far off the reserve, you've got to make the point that no,

00:39:15.560 that guy doesn't represent us. I think that's fair. And you don't have to do it for every little

00:39:19.560 asshole who says something stupid, but if you've got something and you've left it up there and your 1.00

00:39:23.720 people are clearly ginned up and excited about it. No, you have to wear that if you, if you're not going 1.00

00:39:28.280 to condemn it, but I, I, okay. I, coming back to you because I didn't know you worked for Lukasik,

00:39:34.200 but, uh, when I was discussing this, I learned so much. Yeah. When I was discussing this with,

00:39:38.760 uh, Nigel and Corey this morning, when we're figuring out what we're going to talk about,

00:39:44.120 I, I thought, isn't it incredible that Thomas Lukasik is the face of the federalist cause here.

00:39:50.120 And I thought, you know, if I was running like the, an Alberta counterintelligence agency,

00:39:55.400 like Daniel Smith created the Alberta CIA and I was in charge of it or something. And I got to do

00:40:01.080 all sorts of subversive counterintelligence things. I would have planted Thomas Lukasik as,

00:40:08.120 as like the boss of the federalist side. If I could have picked like which greasy, 0.99

00:40:15.800 unarticulate, inarticulate, uh, disreputable guy, can I get to lead the other side? So it's

00:40:23.720 still to discredit that side. I would've been like, ding, ding, ding, Thomas Lukasik. Let's,

00:40:29.000 that's the guy we want. How in the hell have the federalist side seemingly accepted

00:40:36.680 Thomas Lukasik as their captain candidate here? Well, I think he's been positioning himself by

00:40:42.360 seeking a job for the last decade of becoming very much a, you know, distancing himself from what he

00:40:50.280 once was, which was a red Tory to a pure red liberal. Um, and so he has been very vocal,

00:40:59.160 hated Jason Kenney. Like when they were both, uh, ministers, they fought, um, very publicly as I

00:41:06.840 think many might remember. He didn't like Daniel Smith ever. So this was a great opportunity to give

00:41:14.520 someone that wanted it a platform. Now I will say Thomas worked really hard. Like he was a very

00:41:19.880 hardworking MLA, very good to his constituents. So I ideologically, I disagree with everything that

00:41:26.520 he said. Um, but he, he, he is a hard worker. So I think from the left, they're like, well,

00:41:33.480 this is a guy that will actually roll up their sleeves and pound pavement and be loud about it.

00:41:39.080 Um, and, and, you know, not being born and raised here or coming here at a young age has a story that

00:41:44.680 might be relatable to a lot of people we want to get behind, um, this movement. And so I can see on

00:41:51.720 paper or maybe just doing a quick search of him, but you're right. If I was running like oppo research

00:41:57.800 or like behind the scenes stuff, I also would put Thomas Lukasik there because I think it actually does

00:42:03.720 help contrast between Danielle Smith or even any of the, the individuals, uh, working towards

00:42:11.640 looking at what separatism or independence would look like. I would love to have Thomas Lukasik

00:42:18.360 as the alternative, because I don't think it helps their cause.

00:42:21.720 Uh, I guess just quickly before we go to our parting shots, Nigel, um,

00:42:26.200 um, the federalist conservatives in Alberta, I mean, a majority, a pretty big majority of Alberta

00:42:33.880 self-identified conservative voters say they support independence, but there's a

00:42:38.520 pretty sizable minority who do not, uh, who are federalists. Um, and, and that's disproportionately

00:42:46.600 a higher number, the higher up the political food chain you go, you got, you know, you're Jason Kenney's,

00:42:50.840 et cetera. How do you think those guys are going to feel, uh, marching in Thomas's little band?

00:42:59.240 Well, you know, they don't have to wait to march in his band to feel a bit awkward because

00:43:04.680 they may still be federalists, but that doesn't mean they like the values that the liberals are

00:43:11.880 pushing and imposing on the rest of the country. They don't want that in here in Alberta. So they're

00:43:18.120 just really not quite ready to, uh, to raise the revolutionary flag, but you know, people aren't

00:43:25.960 happy. I think Thomas is going to be the gift that keeps giving. Oh, I'm planning on making a match.

00:43:32.440 I think he can. He's the next Nenshi. Like that was a great gift for conservatives to have Nenshi

00:43:37.880 as the NDP. And now we have, uh, Thomas leading loud and proud of the, uh,

00:43:42.680 You don't think one Nenshi is enough? Go Fabio. Hey, if it helps our movement,

00:43:48.840 they can both do whatever they want. Okay. All right. Uh, well, let's move it into parting shots

00:43:55.480 since you've been missing, uh, from us for some time. Erica, why don't you start? Well,

00:44:00.040 I was here when you weren't just for the record and we had quite a time. That was one week. And I,

00:44:04.680 you guys said, I know Derek's not watching. I watched. No, I think you said we don't miss him.

00:44:09.480 I think that was different and I don't remember, but something along those lines. Anyways. Okay.

00:44:13.640 My parting shot is not directed at you, Derek. Um, it is directed at Elections Canada. Uh,

00:44:20.200 I think it's actual complete bullshit and an insult to democracy that after what happened in the 0.97

00:44:25.240 Carlton riding of Pierre Polyev that they weren't looking to streamline or make this process or disregard 0.98

00:44:33.160 or like make some quick changes in regulations or something to address the fact of having 200

00:44:39.400 candidates, all 180 or so that have the same CFO, the same, um, official agent, all of these things,

00:44:48.680 same signatures. Like to me, that is not a demo democratic, um, reflection of how Canada is

00:44:54.840 supposed to work. And so I know that they've made this piss poor attempt to list all of the candidates.

00:45:02.200 Now you have to write them in, but as a result, I will personally be going and scrutineering,

00:45:07.240 uh, to make sure that every vote for Pierre and the conservatives is clear and counted and that

00:45:14.120 they can't make excuses for misspelling or any of that sort. So I think it's like a, you know,

00:45:20.440 uh, half-assed solution to something that they should have addressed from the outset.

00:45:24.920 Okay. Nigel. Oh, no, no. You're going to be the last one today. Cause today's your last parting

00:45:29.800 shot. No, Corey. Well, I'll be quick here. Then, uh, Travis Donrudge is the latest senior CBC

00:45:35.320 reporter who has left, uh, and, uh, has been speaking out about the working conditions at the

00:45:40.120 mother corp there. And Catherine Marshall's his lawyer. And I caught her in an interview where she's

00:45:45.160 speaking of some of the things she's learning about the working conditions. And this just says so much

00:45:48.440 about the CBC. Apparently they have designated crying rooms for staff within the CBC. If you're

00:45:56.840 overwhelmed, if it's all just too much, if you just can't take it anymore, we shouldn't have you

00:46:01.160 crying around the rest of you. So hello to your designated crying room, have a good cry and get it

00:46:05.640 out. What a pathetic organization. Well, that's what I call your office here, the crying room. 1.00

00:46:09.640 Robyn, when you make me cry, we have it right in public in front of everybody. And if I didn't hear

00:46:14.280 you. Your desk is actually not at all. You're in the middle of the newsroom. So when you

00:46:18.360 cry, we all hear it. That's right. Yeah. Uh, I'm sure I'm going to take mine real, real quick.

00:46:24.600 You get the last one. Uh, and it's not really a regular parting shot, but I just want to say

00:46:29.000 I have become addicted to the Tucker Carlson podcast lately. It is, uh, so taboo and so in depth.

00:46:36.680 It's, um, it's, uh, he's just the most incredible guests on, um, exploring, uh,

00:46:44.600 uh, Hey, I'm listening on the Oklahoma city bombing right now. I thought I knew everything

00:46:49.400 about it in a quite a bit of detail. I'm learning all sorts of new stuff. Uh, so it's not a regular

00:46:54.360 parting shot in the news. I just want to call attention to it. I normally don't listen. I

00:46:57.960 don't consume a lot of American news content. I'm very much an exception to most Canadians.

00:47:02.920 We actually prefer American news over Canadian, but, uh, I just want to flag attention to that.

00:47:06.920 That has become a phenomenal program to listen to. Uh, and for his final parting shot, we will

00:47:14.680 have him back in the future, but his final parting shot as opinion editor of the Western

00:47:19.160 standard before he arrives into retirement sunset, Nigel. I feel like I should say something

00:47:24.360 terribly profound and, but really what I, what I need to say is what a incredible three years

00:47:30.920 it has been here at the Western standard. What an honor to work having started in newspapers

00:47:36.760 that still had led presses to come. I was all online, but above all, to present a conservative

00:47:41.800 point of view to a conservative audience, you know, a chance to say what you want to say.

00:47:46.760 Phil LeBrand has never censored me that I appreciate. So thank you for that, Derek.

00:47:52.280 You're not allowed to say that. Cut the camera. Thank you, Nigel. Uh, Nigel, no, it's been, uh,

00:47:58.600 a profound privilege working with you. You've, um, you really upped, uh, the quality of, of debate

00:48:05.640 and argument, uh, and polemics here. I am, uh, so glad to have had you and we're, we're very sad to

00:48:12.440 miss you. Um, but we're, we're going to get you back in for the pipeline, uh, from time to time here.

00:48:17.400 And, uh, um, we're still going to be counting on your columns. All right. Thank you. All right.

00:48:23.400 Uh, everyone in the comment sections, you should leave, uh, some nice thank yous to, to Nigel if,

00:48:28.920 if you like him, if you don't like him, say some mean things. We like mean things here too.

00:48:32.600 It's okay. All right. Nigel, Corey, Erica. Thank you. Thank you, John on production.

00:48:38.120 Thank all of you who have, uh, joined us today. We appreciate the time you've shared with us.

00:48:44.600 Thank you for everything you've done. Go to westernstandard.news right now. Click on

00:48:48.360 subscribe. It's only $10 a month or a hundred dollars a year for unlimited access to all

00:48:52.440 Western standard content. That is how we're going to keep the doors open and the lights on here at the

00:48:57.880 Western standard as the rest of the media goes through an apocalypse and turns into a desert

00:49:03.480 of broken down presses and cameras. We'll survive because we've got people like you willing to put

00:49:09.160 in a few bucks a month to support our work. Thank you very much for joining us today and God bless.

00:49:24.520 Thank you.

00:49:40.840 Thank you.

THE PIPELINE： Carney： A decision if necessary, but not necessarily a decision

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