Western Standard - THE PIPELINE： Carney clams up on Gordie Howe bridge deal

00:00:00.000 good evening i'm cory morgan senior columnist with the western standard and you're watching

00:00:29.920 the pipeline i know you usually have derek back here all bearded and gruff and doing the works

00:00:36.000 but you're getting a break from him for a second week in a row and you have me here this is our

00:00:40.000 weekly panel show with a few folks we'll break down some of the top issues the day and uh tell

00:00:45.600 you what to think about them or at least have our suggestions of them and there's lots to cover maybe

00:00:50.000 we'll start with our remote screen and bring in lindsey wilson she's uh coming in from elsewhere

00:00:57.120 to add her commentary to our discussion today hey lindsay how's it going fantastic thanks corey how

00:01:03.120 are you doing today very good very good enjoying summer see i'm tanning up i love it i love it i'm

00:01:09.840 darker than you i think right now love the sun right and then back in the studio here uh starting

00:01:17.200 right to my right uh as we say opinion editor emeritus nigel henniford it's nice to be to the

00:01:23.600 right of Corey Morgan. Good evening, everybody. And farther right, Dave Winnick, our intrepid

00:01:32.040 Calgary newsroom reporter and all things news. How's it going? Not too bad. How are you doing,

00:01:37.740 Corey? Good, good. So let's just dive into things. I will start with news. I guess, you know, global

00:01:45.620 is they've been having a hard time. Global media, I mean, they're tied with Chorus Entertainment.

00:01:50.320 I've been watching their share value for quite some time.

00:01:53.240 I believe about 10 years ago, it was worth about $14, $15 a share.

00:01:57.380 Now it's down to three cents, has been for probably a couple of years now.

00:02:01.160 So they're just cutting everywhere they can.

00:02:03.760 But they've really cut things in Alberta now.

00:02:06.740 Dave, you can lay out a bit what happened there.

00:02:09.520 Well, they said that they're shutting down all their offices, Global TV and Calgary for

00:02:13.320 the time being, they're relocating and consolidating everything in Toronto, which like you said,

00:02:18.060 I think part of that has to do with revenue.

00:02:20.460 And I'd like to know actually what their viewership and readership has been the last couple of years, because as you know, recently, 660 News Radio and Fan 960 as well were shut down in Calgary, just totally taken off the air midstream.

00:02:32.640 And basically, they were saying as well, viewership was down, revenues down.

00:02:35.420 So I think this is sort of a similar thing, Corey.

00:02:37.400 Like I said, I don't think any of the numbers have come out on what their exact viewership has been recently for global.

00:02:42.240 So that'd be very interesting to find out.

00:02:44.000 That's got to be one of the main reasons I'm thinking.

00:02:46.140 Yeah, well, I mean, an issue with local coverage, local media outlets, it's difficult to make money in that market. Maybe, Lindsay, you could speak to this a bit. I mean, you used to write, I think, for the Cochran Eagle, didn't you? You know, little newspapers like that were actually still put out some great copy and had some good, but they're having a very tough time now, I imagine. Like, how does this bode for local coverage on things?

00:03:09.820 Yeah, I don't want to pick on Cochran's newspaper, but certainly in the 10 years that I was there, it was a very different time. And we had a very robust paper and, you know, our advertising was doing well. And I was kind of there, like I was there from 2009 to 2019. And I really watched that, that transformation. There's no other way to describe that. It was, you know, when you went from the big days of traditional, costly newspaper ads, and then with the advent of being online.

00:03:37.220 and newspapers just never really figured out the model.

00:03:39.940 But we're really suffering.

00:03:42.300 You know, I lament about this a lot.

00:03:43.880 I've talked to you about this a lot, Corey,

00:03:46.400 is where do we go with journalism?

00:03:49.020 Because yes, it's excellent that we have,

00:03:51.200 you know, all these online platforms

00:03:53.120 and that we have all these independent voices.

00:03:55.820 But who is there to determine

00:03:57.760 where the truth is coming from, right?

00:03:59.840 So we have a lot of these so-called

00:04:01.240 self-appointed journalists,

00:04:02.800 but there's no metric.

00:04:04.540 There's no, I mean, regulatory body.

00:04:06.940 And I hate saying that because I don't I'm typically not a fan of more government regulation with anything.

00:04:11.620 But we really have to do something to stop this problem because it's not a viable industry.

00:04:16.320 It's been drowning for years. The transition to online, we just we still can't figure out a business model that really works.

00:04:23.480 And we're seeing that now with radio. It's I know the fan the fan was a big loss for Calgarians.

00:04:29.140 We're really lamenting that one. But I don't know the centralization.

00:04:32.960 it's just it's just not good we need Albertans telling Albertan stories that's for sure so

00:04:38.360 I'm hopeful to see that there's going to be some news on the horizon of of some local markets kind

00:04:43.560 of picking up where the space that the this leaves and yeah well I think Lindsay makes a really

00:04:49.080 important point there I mean one of you for all of our lives we've tended to think that the news

00:04:54.920 media are biased and so they have been but there's one thing that you know that if it's been through

00:05:01.640 the newsroom office, they may have taken a slant on it, but at least they have ascertained that

00:05:09.720 there is a story there. You know, we're going to be going back, I think, to the era when people

00:05:18.680 say the most ridiculous things. We're there already, actually. People say the most ridiculous 0.77

00:05:24.760 things and somebody will believe them you know and one thing much as i personally don't like the

00:05:33.400 editorial position taken by the toronto star and much as i don't trust the cbc entirely to give you

00:05:41.000 a nuanced balanced story of things i do know that serious newspapers are not going to run a story

00:05:48.360 about somebody who ran into elvis standing beside a flying saucer with a rhinoceros in the background

00:05:54.360 you know that there are certain basic things that the old media can still do and one of the

00:05:59.800 interesting ones is that and i and i almost hate this except that i realize that it's got its value

00:06:07.080 they still define what is a story you know one of the interesting things and one of the things that

00:06:11.640 saddens me is that we might hear of the western standard put it on a story and it's the truth

00:06:19.400 and nothing but the truth and it goes out and people say hmm that's interesting 10 days later

00:06:28.200 when the heritage media report the same thing people say oh did you see in the paper that

00:06:35.400 so it's got it's this unfortunate ability that they still have unfortunate from our point of

00:06:40.920 you to define what the story is. So when people like Chorus go out of business,

00:06:50.920 when newspapers go out of business, that is what we lose. I say this with some sadness because

00:07:00.040 right now our federal government is looking for ways to get rid of disinformation. That's one of

00:07:09.240 the objects of several of the bills that are going through the House right now. What's getting

00:07:15.000 rid of disinformation? Well, according to them, it could be things that here in Alberta we take

00:07:19.720 very seriously and with good reason. The newspapers, the regular press still has the ability to say,

00:07:25.160 yeah, actually there is a story here. Well, competition used to regulate things. I mean,

00:07:29.480 if a publication was known for misinformation over and over again, eventually people would just stop

00:07:34.200 reading or viewing or listening to it. But when you have fewer competitors out there to give

00:07:39.000 those alternatives or to hold their competitors in check it gets more difficult but another issue

00:07:44.040 and i mean i know like like dave you've got to pick which stories you're going to write which

00:07:47.240 you aren't we're not churning one out every few minutes the temptation or just the reality is too

00:07:52.600 when we talk about local coverage but you want to reach as broad an audience as possible a local

00:07:57.960 story that might be really important to southwest calgary is going to be placed farther down the

00:08:03.720 the back burner over something maybe of provincial or national interest because you just have to get

00:08:09.040 those clicks and viewers and broadly do that. So I mean this you know really changes the choices

00:08:14.580 that are made in newsrooms. I was going to say like how exactly would they sort of people say

00:08:18.740 in Alberta that are already skeptical about people that are running media in Toronto take to this

00:08:23.020 because for example I mean if they're doing a story say say I don't know of course there's a

00:08:28.120 story on Alberta politics after they've moved everything to Toronto well how do they know like

00:08:32.060 obviously alberta is very distinct politically you know culturally they're not gonna have people on

00:08:36.620 the ground that really understand what albertans like are about so how exactly is that going to

00:08:41.420 work really in essence when i think about because obviously as you said they're not local and i mean

00:08:45.580 they're going to probably tell it through a lens of well the reporter let's be honest is probably

00:08:49.420 from toronto might not have ever been to alberta so they're going to probably tell it from an

00:08:53.100 already biased liberal lens and that's probably just going to get worse now because they don't

00:08:55.980 have anyone on the ground in alberta in calgary etc yeah we're biased aside it'd just be less

00:09:01.100 good reporting on the ground hopefully they get a couple of stringers that's what we used to

00:09:05.580 you know even uh people like the calgary herald or the edmonton journal can't keep keep reporters

00:09:10.460 everywhere so you know in cameras you'd have somebody give you a call and there was a

00:09:15.740 drop fight in the back alley you know that's uh so hopefully chorus will be able to keep that

00:09:20.860 that is right they'll just use social media or whatnot see a video on there somebody posted

00:09:24.620 from calgary and that'll be it really yeah well one can hope i mean lindsay i'll throw you the

00:09:29.020 easy one what's the solution though where do we go right uh you know how do we make sure people

00:09:34.380 are informed with trustworthy sources of news well i mean first of all i want to say that i'm not a

00:09:39.820 fan of government regulation and and we see the bills c11 c18 and everything you know just

00:09:45.260 throttling free speech so i'm not a fan of the government regulatory approach but you know i i

00:09:50.220 would be open to something that's within the industry to have some real form of accreditation

00:09:57.260 and a real accountability because you know when i went to journalism school and when i was a reporter

00:10:02.460 there was really something when i would make a mistake in a print article and the next week i'd

00:10:09.820 have to run a retraction on it right like there's something very humbling about having to go through

00:10:14.060 that experience and journalists don't have to go through that because you can just hit delete

00:10:17.420 backspace you can go into the back end of your website and you can change that but when you come

00:10:21.820 from that school and you come from being trained that way it just makes you even more meticulous

00:10:26.700 and your work and so when i look at kind of like this whole stratosphere we have of online

00:10:32.140 commentators uh from the left to the right and i see a lot of um disinformation from both ends

00:10:39.820 of the spectrum i do think we need to have some kind of um industry body that is is having some

00:10:47.900 level of monitoring this how do we do that and separate it from the government i i haven't come

00:10:52.380 up with that yet but i think we could put our heads together and find something because we need

00:10:56.140 need something it is a little too wild west right now and uh and we can't we can't have this well

00:11:02.180 it's up to the individual consuming the news the onus is on these people to determine what is

00:11:07.240 factual not that's not fair that's that's not that's not a correct approach either but i think

00:11:12.580 we need to do something because it is too wild west right now lindsay i think you've said what

00:11:17.440 a lot of people think but i also have to take issue with you on that the day that you have to

00:11:23.300 have a license to be a journalist whether it is issued by the government or by a government-funded

00:11:28.280 industry body which is what we actually have at the moment there is the day that we say goodbye

00:11:35.080 to people having the right to free speech you've got to you you just cannot we've got to take it

00:11:39.980 away from the government this person is authorized to speak because they have the right opinions

00:11:43.640 how but how do we do it that we could take it away from the government and it's not connected

00:11:48.100 to the government that's the challenge that i don't know because the only solution has been

00:11:51.400 to regulate it through the government.

00:11:52.900 And we know clearly that that's not working.

00:11:55.960 No, I think what the solution is,

00:11:58.320 we all have to just, what's the expression?

00:12:00.660 Fight, fight, fight.

00:12:01.880 Never let the right to publish what you think is the truth.

00:12:07.320 I mean, take it up with the courts later

00:12:08.840 if you get it wrong and you slander somebody.

00:12:11.780 But everybody has the right to free speech.

00:12:15.080 And when you start saying,

00:12:16.380 well, you have the right to free speech,

00:12:18.200 but only if we give you this driving license

00:12:19.920 to go on the internet, then legitimate opinions are going to be silenced.

00:12:25.780 This takes us, I won't take you back to the Canada of the colonial era,

00:12:31.060 but the case of Joseph Howe, for those who know it, is absolutely indicative. 1.00

00:12:34.820 The government said he had no right to say what he said, but he was right and proved it. 0.79

00:12:40.040 So, gee, I'm glad you're on the show today.

00:12:44.580 Well, a contemporary, as we kind of close off this part,

00:12:47.980 and humbling example I want to offer though with new outlets and new ways of doing things and

00:12:52.740 it's not a scab I'm sure Derek would want me to pick but it's worth showing the learning curve

00:12:57.400 when the western standard was in its early years we chased a story that turned out to be very

00:13:02.060 inaccurate we hit the publish button before we should have and it led to a very embarrassing

00:13:08.500 retraction and a whole bunch of other things which was awful and not good a lesson we shouldn't have

00:13:13.260 to learn i guess but what i kind of take heart from was our readers were furious and they let us

00:13:19.820 know and our subscriptions took a hit like people unsubscribed over that because they did not

00:13:25.580 appreciate being fed something inaccurate but that really let us know they are watching and there's a

00:13:31.580 degree of self-policing from the readers and viewers that if you are chronically and we aren't

00:13:37.900 that was a one-off we learned very well from that and certainly changed that never happened again

00:13:42.300 but they're the ones who punished us not a regulatory body or anything else they were

00:13:45.820 saying if you're going to do that to us you better find funding somewhere else because i'm not paying

00:13:49.660 for a subscription so gives a little bit of hope anyways i mean i i like to have some optimism so

00:13:56.380 i'll i'll flip into something different here fascist pancakes good lord on there cory i know

00:14:02.940 i had to that's for dave because he likes his his cheesy wordplay we don't have him here today

00:14:07.980 uh i should probably save this for a parting shot but you know fascist pancakes to me on

00:14:12.860 the video they look fairly fat what would coffee pancakes be like really thin enough

00:14:21.180 it would be rationed and we would all be on a diet

00:14:25.020 anyone's but i mean mussolini was famous for his pancakes just people don't know that little tidbit

00:14:30.540 but uh oh the italian breakfast they'd have at their stampede gatherings were unknown but you

00:14:36.380 And, you know, it gets to the, you know, the term fascist is being so liberally applied, thrown out at everybody.

00:14:45.640 People kind of laughed it off when this lunatic appreciation, I shall let you kind of lay out that story on where we're going.

00:14:51.980 Probably talk about Charlie Kirk and whatnot, because they kept, well, it seems like the left now labels everyone who disagrees with them on any little thing fascist.

00:14:59.340 And these, let's be honest, these are people that don't know anything about fascism or national socialism.

00:15:03.120 And probably they don't know anything about any of these policies.

00:15:04.940 And I'm trying to figure out how they'd figure that Danielle Smith is a fascist when she's pro-capitalist, pro-free market. 1.00

00:15:10.780 It's like Trump.

00:15:11.800 They go on about him being a Nazi and he's buddy-buddy with Israel and Jews.

00:15:14.680 I'm like, how exactly does this one work? 0.64

00:15:16.260 It's just basically just a term, basically, in my opinion, in essence, just to refer to someone as the big bad.

00:15:21.640 And it basically enables them, like you say, to dehumanize basically anyone they disagree with.

00:15:25.980 Because Nazi apparently, obviously, well, is the big bad for the last eight years.

00:15:29.520 So then they think that it's okay to use violence against them.

00:15:32.120 And that's basically what happened with Charlie Kirk. 0.97

00:15:33.500 They just kept referring to him as a Nazi, Nazi fascist. 0.59

00:15:36.080 And then look what happened. 0.64

00:15:36.800 Well, and the back story to this a little bit was at a pancake breakfast for K-Days in

00:15:41.460 Edmonton, Premier Smith was flipping pancakes and a lunatic chronic protester, some Michaela

00:15:46.940 gal, came up and, you know, had a fit. 1.00

00:15:51.040 And as she was dragged away, yelled out, F your fascist pancakes. 0.97

00:15:55.400 But the thing that isn't as disturbing as this particular one for Luke doing this, but 0.96

00:16:00.800 some other elected officials embracing it. You know, Lindsay, I'm certain you saw our member

00:16:07.160 of parliament representing the NDP in Edmonton proudly sipping from her coffee mug she quickly

00:16:12.580 had made to celebrate this little incident. I think it was the first image I saw when I clicked

00:16:18.460 online that morning, because this is about, what, three mornings ago or something like that,

00:16:22.460 a few days ago now. But I watched it and then I watched it again. And I think I even, I don't

00:16:27.260 often comment but i did comment in i mean it's shameful it's disgusting uh for the sake of the

00:16:35.260 readers i'm just going to read the definition of fascism fascism is an authoritarian authoritarian

00:16:40.140 ultra-nationalist political ideology that prioritize the nation above the individual

00:16:46.060 it is characterized by dictatorial power the suppression of political opposition and strict

00:16:51.420 state control over society and the economy none of which these things have been displayed by our

00:16:57.980 premier daniel smith so we like to throw around these terms the left likes to throw around fascist

00:17:04.460 and to be fair the right likes to throw around communists these things are i think we're a little

00:17:10.140 closer to communist communism in our society certainly than fascist ideals in our society

00:17:17.020 but this is so off base but what it really does it's so detrimental you know i always keep one

00:17:22.700 foot in the normal world right i'm out there with hockey parents i'm out there with other moms

00:17:27.500 my friends who are non-political and the reason that they don't show up to vote particularly in

00:17:32.220 municipal elections is because they feel like it's so hateful and vitriolic so this like when

00:17:38.460 we're starting to do things like this that are just so obscene it's gross behavior it's certainly

00:17:43.260 not appropriate for children it's just normalizing this really heavy intense vitriol and it's so

00:17:50.140 bad it translates to the electorate in such a negative and toxic way it does not inspire

00:17:55.420 people to get out and volunteer and door knock let alone to vote and it does not do anything

00:18:01.340 for democracy so i was really disappointed to see this and then i was really disappointed to

00:18:07.660 see some of the ndp constituency associations play on these words of the here fascist pancakes and

00:18:14.860 the branding and the the message behind that i just i was really in shock they went with this

00:18:19.580 i understand this party has become extraordinarily negative under the leadership of nahed nenshi

00:18:25.340 uh it's a very different tone than it was under uh rachel notley but um their polling is not doing

00:18:31.020 so well for them so i don't know why they think that this negativity is being embraced by albertans

00:18:36.460 in general i mean it's really bananas i can't make i can't make any sense of it you know what

00:18:42.780 i'm seeing here is the outpourings of the outworkings of a book that came out in the 1960s

00:18:50.440 rules for radicals a guy by the name of sol alinsky's as you're going back and lindsay into

00:18:56.220 your definition of fascism which is entirely accurate uh what did alinsky say alinsky said

00:19:05.140 that if you want to change a democratic society, don't get into the war of ideas because you

00:19:11.820 will lose. The democratic society is a good way to live. Therefore, you have to demonize

00:19:22.160 your opponents. You have to call them fascists. Fascists, as you just said, can mean anything 0.73

00:19:29.280 you want it to mean, but it's always something bad. This girl who uttered the phrase about the

00:19:37.200 fascist pancakes is not a debater. She is an accuser. And that is the way that, unfortunately,

00:19:46.560 the entire political spectrum is now dividing. I mean, I have to say that you mentioned that

00:19:52.880 sometimes the right calls people communists. They're probably right more often than they're 0.99

00:19:56.800 wrong. But it's still not a well-argued, thought-out, carefully articulated commentary. It's

00:20:04.240 just, get out of my face, commie. So we have, in other words, this society split down the

00:20:12.260 middle. Neither side knows much. One side is particularly prone to violence because

00:20:20.780 they are on the outside looking in. And you saw a perfect example of it. It is actually

00:20:26.400 extremely distressing for our democracy right now well it's dangerous and and you know dangerous

00:20:32.800 that thought exercise a lot of people do you know if you could go back in time and you know find

00:20:37.520 hitler and kill him before world war ii would you do so and such unfortunately i think that's kind

00:20:41.920 of the thing that comes into the unhinged minds of the occasional person and when they've really 0.99

00:20:46.480 actually convinced themselves that this politician or that public figure may be the next mass murderer

00:20:53.200 they feel that they're you know they're they got to screw loose they're they think they're doing

00:20:56.620 the world a favor by taking them out like we shouldn't tolerate this did you guys watch the

00:21:01.260 video did you watch the video of this yes i don't even want to say her name because i don't want to

00:21:05.840 give any more air time to these lunatics so let's just not even say her name the person who's

00:21:09.820 recording this i watched it on that breakdown and the honestly i was left like i mean like that like

00:21:16.940 the hair stood up on the back of my neck because i thought if these people keep going like this

00:21:21.500 somebody's going to hurt this premier the rage like they're just you could feel this woman just

00:21:26.460 shaking and the rage towards the premier who's as always very calm and collected it's uh it's

00:21:33.000 really disturbing so um i'm not a big fan on government spending more on on a whole lot of

00:21:38.140 things but i'm okay with them upping her security detail for security for sure but as i said you

00:21:43.660 know the names didn't come up but i'm going to name them janice erwin and heather mcpherson who

00:21:48.020 were both elected officials on two levels of government who both celebrated this.

00:21:52.380 They celebrated it and propagated it further.

00:21:55.580 That's a new level of irresponsibility.

00:21:58.240 I mean, these are people who are at a different level of what should be a respectability.

00:22:03.340 They would both get thrown out of the legislatures that they speak in if they use that term on

00:22:08.340 the floor to describe an opponent, but they feel that they can embrace that sort of attitude

00:22:13.780 right now.

00:22:14.460 So here's a question for you, Corey.

00:22:15.760 What do you think it would have done for NDP popularity if either one of those individuals had come out after the incident and said, look, we have our disagreements with Premier Smith, and there are many.

00:22:26.980 However, there are limits to what we're prepared to support, and this was way past anything that we could support.

00:22:35.740 We are sorry for the Premier having this awkward moment, and we frankly have no sympathy for the person involved.

00:22:41.180 I think it would have done them well with voters in the middle.

00:22:43.040 Their scores would have gone up, yes.

00:22:44.340 rational people for the most part

00:22:46.600 do you think that they actually

00:22:49.080 believe this themselves or do you really think that they are

00:22:50.920 just pandering to like a certain part of their base

00:22:52.960 and how big is this that's like the far real radical

00:22:55.140 left base of the NDP

00:22:56.740 that would agree that Daniel Smith is a fascist

00:22:58.760 that's what I've been trying to figure out

00:23:00.000 I don't know if you listen to Heather McPherson

00:23:01.340 yeah I mean Irwin 0.81

00:23:04.300 she's actually pretty rational

00:23:06.620 when she starts speaking

00:23:07.740 she is a bright woman she's definitely way over on the left

00:23:10.880 fringe but McPherson 1.00

00:23:13.020 she's pretty if you listen to her you're getting some pretty crazed rhetoric out of that lady so i 0.99

00:23:18.540 think she might be able to or speculating uh you know i don't want to speculate on them being true

00:23:22.780 believers of an extreme ideology or i'm starting to become as irresponsible as they are i guess

00:23:27.580 but they really should know better than to to promote this you know the way much as we disagree

00:23:33.420 with mark carney we do try to um express it by referring to him as mr carney and not as

00:23:39.340 as Carney or Mr. Trudeau, of course, got several epithets directed as Weibo.

00:23:45.100 I said few, but we don't sell coffee mugs, have we?

00:23:48.680 We don't sell the coffee mugs, no.

00:23:50.620 No, but I mean, and again, you could search my Twitter scroll. 0.99

00:23:55.980 I'm an inflammatory jerk online. 0.98

00:23:58.280 I call people a lot of things and make fun of them. 0.99

00:24:00.720 I spoke of Trudeau being pegged recently.

00:24:03.000 I'll let others look up what that means.

00:24:04.460 But the difference is, you know, out of all of those things, I've never called him a communist because he isn't.

00:24:15.060 He's many, many things.

00:24:16.600 But Trudeau wasn't a communist.

00:24:18.220 So I just don't go there.

00:24:20.540 So even somebody as belligerent as myself knows better than to cross that bigger line, you know, because that would also be dangerously, you know, dehumanizing Trudeau or Kearney, you know, trying to compare them to Massey Tongue or,

00:24:34.220 or Joseph Stalin, it's not a valid comparison to make with them. I call Trudeau an idiot, 0.99

00:24:40.540 and I think I can make a very good case for it. But communist? No. But that's where the 1.00

00:24:45.500 rhetoric's going. I, you know, it's always been around, I think, to a degree, but social media

00:24:49.900 really helps inflame it more definitely. Well, let's get onto an easy subject, Trump.

00:24:56.540 and we've got more tariffs or more tariff threats. I got to admit, this broken record of this endless

00:25:05.740 threats back and forth and pushing between Trump and the federal government. What's going on now?

00:25:14.460 Well, I'll give you my best shot, Corey, but this is actually, as you said, a pretty big subject.

00:25:21.420 so back in harper's time there was a deal we were going to build a second bridge right now there's

00:25:26.780 there's one in operation the ambassador bridge and there's something like four billion dollars

00:25:32.140 worth of goods going backwards and forwards over the ambassador bridge every single day that's what

00:25:37.660 that's what's at issue here so it's kind of a lot of eggs to have in one basket

00:25:42.380 um plus the american ownership of the ambassador bridge was uh not all no it didn't always make

00:25:48.940 things easy for us so the decision was taken there would be a second bridge the deal was done

00:25:53.660 we decided to call it the gordy howe bridge a good sell in canada for for major project

00:25:59.420 infrastructure and the deal was originally that canada would get the tolls until they had paid

00:26:05.180 for the bridge because we have permission to put the other side on the american soil but they're

00:26:09.900 not contributing to the finances of it well then they finished the bridge now mr trump is president

00:26:18.940 And the thing to know about, there's a lot of things to know about Trump, and in fact

00:26:24.160 there's a chap who just published a book called Negotiating with Trump, and sort of the quick

00:26:30.620 calls note on that is that he said, look, Trump is not actually a long-term thinker.

00:26:35.100 He'd like you to think he was, but he's not.

00:26:37.260 He's opportunistic, and he's always looking for a win.

00:26:41.340 And a win is just, for him, it's like winning a soccer match or something like that.

00:26:47.800 play the game it's done you grab the trophy and you're on to the next thing this this is a trumpian

00:26:53.720 win so somebody said mr president the canadians have just built a bridge and we're not getting

00:27:03.720 anything out of it that is like lighting the blue touch paper and he was off and so we've got a

00:27:12.200 And he said, well, I guess we need to have something.

00:27:15.380 I need a win.

00:27:16.760 Give me money.

00:27:17.760 And I gather the original deal was that they were going to take 50% of the tolls

00:27:24.400 and just take that much longer to build a thing.

00:27:29.000 You know, unfortunately, Mr. Carney let that happen

00:27:32.020 because we want wins as well in this country.

00:27:36.740 And there are things that the Americans want, like critical minerals,

00:27:42.200 like us taking a higher profile in continental defense

00:27:48.220 that we could have levered to get our own win but we didn't so we basically gave away the farm

00:28:00.460 this is how i interpret it um and the and mr trump's goal said all right if you're going to

00:28:10.560 roll over, I'm going to walk over the top of you, which is what he's doing right now.

00:28:15.700 Mr. Trump's actions make perfect sense if you are an American, if you are a Canadian.

00:28:21.360 That's something we should have been resisting more strongly.

00:28:24.400 Well, I mean, where, you know, this is one of the areas I'm not typically sympathetic

00:28:29.320 to Mr. Carney, and I think he's done some terrible things in response.

00:28:32.180 I want to go into that a little later because he's kind of eating a whole lot of his own

00:28:35.480 words or dodging eating his own words right now.

00:28:37.740 But what on earth do you do when trying to negotiate with somebody like President Trump?

00:28:43.780 Are any agreements worth the value of what they were saying?

00:28:47.080 I mean, it was 2012 when that agreement came about. 0.98

00:28:50.580 You know, like, Lindsay, what's a prime minister supposed to do, you know, when you're dealing with somebody like the orange man south of the border? 0.97

00:28:58.240 Well, I'll tell you what he's not supposed to do is to be reactive like, you know, Premier Ford is. 0.96

00:29:05.180 I mean, all I really want to add to this is that I really think and I'd love to see this Western alliance that's shaping up, certainly with the the election of the new B.C. conservative party leader, Carolyn Finley.

00:29:17.760 And I think that I think that her approach and Premier Daniel Smith's approach is probably the most level headed.

00:29:24.160 Right. You don't take a knife to a gunfight.

00:29:26.900 Don't poke the bear.

00:29:28.400 Retaliatory tariffs are not where it's at.

00:29:30.460 You know, you're going to have to give Trump the win somehow.

00:29:35.180 or make you know at least the win at least because that's how it is and you know he's bigger and

00:29:41.720 bolder and and uh he he will win so why make it worse but retaliatory tariffs and you know like

00:29:49.380 little things like what they did in bc pulling all the american booze off the shelves like things

00:29:53.800 like that don't really that it just it just flames uh it just it uh fans the flames you know

00:30:01.500 Well, Lindsay, isn't it interesting that Mr. Carney will go to the wall for supply management

00:30:07.700 so that we all pay more than we have to for eggs and butter and milk and dairy products?

00:30:13.360 He went as far as putting that into legislation that whatever happened next, this was not up for

00:30:19.160 sale. But he gives important concessions on this bloody bridge. Where are his priorities?

00:30:27.900 and you probably have a theory on that yeah i don't know i don't know if i have a lot to lend

00:30:33.100 to that i think both governments are lying to us it's the best i can come up with it's easily a

00:30:37.660 safe bet yeah any more independent journalists yes i mean you know in in trying to cover it

00:30:47.100 though i mean i'll go into that other part and you know dave there's something you got to work

00:30:51.900 on you can kind of hit for the first time i think this is one of the hugest stumbles though carney's

00:30:56.300 made since becoming prime minister. He's actually been pretty good at just staying steady. He's not

00:31:00.740 getting anything bloody accomplished, but he still seems to ride above things. But he went sprinting

00:31:06.680 from a press conference. He is hiding from questions right now. He looks dejected. And I

00:31:12.780 mean, just saying some of his quotes only on July 16th, saying there will be no toll or profit

00:31:18.740 sharing until Canada's debt is repaid. And the question people are asking, because the agreement

00:31:23.700 came up the new agreement came up prior to that yeah so are you incompetent or are you lying mr

00:31:29.400 prime minister and and uh he won't answer the question because there's no good answer to it's

00:31:34.160 probably a good possibility he was lying but i mean i was looking here as well like apparently

00:31:37.280 he said canada is now in a stronger position than it was when the trade conflict began and trump

00:31:41.200 started putting tariffs on us months ago how does he figure that exactly like we have like you were

00:31:45.920 talking about before how do you deal with trump well trump always goes for the zero-sum game you

00:31:49.420 basically are going to have to let him have what he wants in order to get a deal otherwise he's

00:31:52.660 going to keep slapping tariffs on you taking them off like he's been doing for several months now

00:31:57.700 and i just don't really know where it goes from here it's the whole idea as well like

00:32:01.460 do we really want to keep pissing off the americans when what is it 90 of our exports

00:32:05.220 go to the states it's like that whole was it was it pure trudeau that talked about the elephant and

00:32:10.660 the mouse the economy it's like the american economy is the elephant we're the mouse we're

00:32:14.740 not going to do anything basically against them like doug ford said i want to go to tariff war

00:32:18.820 with them that's going to backfire horribly like our whole auto industry that's struggling anyway

00:32:22.660 is going to be gone if we keep putting tariffs on everything it's just i don't see how we come

00:32:26.740 out of this except giving trump basically what he wants really at the end of the day

00:32:30.180 i mean we can maybe like finesse that but and doug ford is is just out of control to be blunt

00:32:36.980 i saw brad wall slapped him down nice and hard online and scott moe did a fairly good thing too

00:32:41.540 premier smith i think has been too too polite to the individual right now because doug ford

00:32:46.580 is threatening Trump with our industries. Now we're starting to get into an entity issue in

00:32:50.880 Canada because Doug Ford's saying, he's claiming that the Western provinces aren't pulling their

00:32:54.860 weight, if you listen to that conference, with the trade deal with the United States. And he's

00:32:59.800 saying that, you know, our potash, our oil, our gas should now be on the table to try and push

00:33:04.660 back. It's nice. Thanks, Doug, for saying you're going to sacrifice our industries, you equalization

00:33:10.220 receiving bum, because you blew it with your negotiations and putting money into subsidized

00:33:15.360 battery plants that nobody wants in and out that we paid for as well out there and i tell you for

00:33:21.480 into independence advocates like me keep it up doug it's gold because every time you open your 0.97

00:33:28.060 flaccid lips and put that crap out my support goes up another few percent but there's a lot of 0.97

00:33:35.040 ongoing damage being caused through this thing beyond just the north south when doug ford starts 0.99

00:33:39.860 taken at east west i'm sorry cory did you say that there is a politician in ottawa or in ontario

00:33:47.240 making decisions for us in alberta yeah i know it's unprecedented isn't it i never heard of such

00:33:53.040 a thing but i mean that that really turns this into a bigger mess we are in the middle i mean

00:33:59.400 this country is as disunified as it's ever been i think in any of our lifetimes except maybe some

00:34:05.020 pre-confederation individuals around here, but it's really not necessarily a responsible time

00:34:12.180 to start stirring up the unity pot. And that's what Ford has gone and done. You know, he was

00:34:18.900 hand in hand recently with Premier Smith talking about maybe having a pipeline going from Alberta

00:34:22.820 to Ontario. Maybe that's why Premier Smith didn't speak up like Scott Moe did and Brad Wall in

00:34:28.860 chastening forward but this is not responsible behavior well he has not been responsible since

00:34:36.220 trump came to the start of his second term he's been he thinks that people who support him in

00:34:42.700 ontario want him to be combative and to be you know mr carney thought of the term elbows up

00:34:51.340 luckily he dropped it fairly soon after but i guess mr ford does not have the message

00:34:56.140 because he just reacts the kind of things he said are designed it seems to draw their action yeah

00:35:03.600 you tell them doug well it's fine you can say that but it's not going to help back it up yeah

00:35:11.340 well you got no force to back it up that's part of it i mean it's a tough spot you know it's true

00:35:16.720 when dealing with a bully i mean if you back down it's only going to get worse and trump does

00:35:20.700 respond i think better to people he respects who he feels are on some solid ground are you saying

00:35:25.260 any respects Doug Ford? No, not a bit. And that's part of the problem. So if Doug's kind of posture

00:35:30.440 like that and act like that, but with a man who doesn't, I think just getting to the point of

00:35:34.940 viscerally disliking him, it's only making it worse. But I mean, again, where the hell do you go?

00:35:42.660 Yeah, exactly. I fear for a tariff being slapped on our stuff out in the West. I mean, part of what

00:35:49.020 I saw also out of Doug Ford, in my view, was dripping envy. Because yes, we have not been

00:35:55.400 hit as hard with the tariffs, with the potash and the resource items out here that the manufacturing

00:36:00.780 sector in central Canada has. But couldn't part of that be due to the fact that we didn't have

00:36:05.260 a premier who was constantly beaking over the border and ticking off the man who's going to

00:36:10.980 bring those in? It could also be that actually the United States wants. Well, that's part of it.

00:36:18.260 The oil, the potash, whereas they'd be quite happy to make their own motor cars.

00:36:22.580 I was going to say as well, I think Alberta and Saskatchewan haven't taken American liquor off the shelves.

00:36:27.320 Do you think that maybe has something to do with it, too?

00:36:28.820 It's like they've kept all the American products on there.

00:36:30.400 I know it's a small thing, but I mean, Trump probably is aware of that.

00:36:33.420 And he's like, OK, well, they haven't done that.

00:36:34.700 We want their oil and gas.

00:36:35.600 So it all plays one sort of role in the bigger picture, I guess, maybe.

00:36:39.640 Well, I mean, yeah, the liquor removal is, you know, a symbolic thing.

00:36:43.640 I mean, it's certainly not, you know, crushing anybody except maybe Elizabeth May, who can't get her favorite bourbon any longer.

00:36:49.560 But aside from that, you know, the American producers aren't hurting out of this.

00:36:54.520 But those are the sorts of things that get under President Trump's skin.

00:36:59.440 And then he responds worse.

00:37:02.520 But again, fair enough.

00:37:04.860 You look like you're capitulating if you don't do anything, though.

00:37:07.640 I mean, there's where I offer.

00:37:09.480 That initial point, though, there are things that we have that they actually do want.

00:37:13.640 Well, yes, but they're out here in the West, and Doug's talking about using those as his levers.

00:37:18.860 That's right.

00:37:19.780 Mr. Carney is capable of rising above that.

00:37:22.960 He is not an Ontario representative.

00:37:25.980 He is a Canada representative.

00:37:29.540 And if it's in Canada's best interests to remind Mr. Trump that there are things in Saskatchewan that he would like,

00:37:36.460 there are energy sources in Alberta that he would like, you know?

00:37:41.400 well and then that comes with a consequence then you know i'll light my hair on fire

00:37:45.660 uh fundraising for my little group that i got on the go will shoot up and and a referendum that

00:37:52.020 looks like it might be 30 to 40 support might start moving towards i didn't set this up by the

00:37:56.340 way no but i'm going to steer everything into it hey i didn't put the url for donations yet or

00:38:02.320 anything shameless plug for self-promotion but

00:38:06.820 Absolutely. No, I'm warning them against doing it on my behalf like this. But that's part of the position that's difficult for the Prime Minister as well. I mean, starting to use Western resources as leverage, you know, there's going to be a pretty swift response on the part of people on the ground out here. But, Lindsay, maybe you can explain though, boy, Premier Smith's been uncharacteristically quiet on this whole thing. What's going on there?

00:38:35.340 I just think that she's in it for the long game.

00:38:38.280 This is like flip-flopped and, you know, we'll see.

00:38:42.140 Are these tariffs? Is it coming? Ahead? The bridge? All of this stuff.

00:38:46.180 I think she's in it for the long game.

00:38:49.060 And I think she's done some really commendable work developing good relationships, North and South.

00:38:55.380 And I think, you know, maybe Premier Ford could take note.

00:38:58.380 But I'm not saying she knows more than we do.

00:39:01.040 I like to think all elected officials know more than we do and on some degree, and we know more than them on others.

00:39:06.360 But yeah, I think she just sees like, again, you don't take a knife to a gunfight and like this too shall pass and, you know, set Trump up for some kind of a win, right?

00:39:18.180 Get that bridge open.

00:39:19.340 Let's just go.

00:39:20.460 And yeah, you're the big guy.

00:39:21.980 You win.

00:39:22.860 And I think she's just being very patient and biding her time with all of this.

00:39:28.700 Well, and diplomatically, Premier Smith has been quite smart all the way through.

00:39:32.960 I mean, since becoming Premier, I think for the most part.

00:39:36.820 But I mean, she's also painted herself into some corners here as well.

00:39:40.500 I mean, often the role of a Premier in Alberta is expected, you know, not to be an independent supporter,

00:39:45.580 but to take an adversarial role with the federal government, at least be critical of them.

00:39:50.040 But she's been very close with the Prime Minister for a while, which I think is costing her some conservative points out here.

00:39:57.160 I understand being purely adversarial all the time isn't beneficial.

00:40:00.900 You have to work with who's in.

00:40:03.120 But eventually she's going to start showing a little bit of teeth with Ottawa.

00:40:06.440 That's part of why I wonder maybe she hasn't spoken up on this

00:40:09.360 when you've got an Eastern Premier threatening our resources as a leverage bar.

00:40:16.480 Yep, that may be the job of the independent journalist to point that out.

00:40:21.560 Oh, we will. 1.00

00:40:23.680 She's probably in a position where she's better off to stay a little bit quiet

00:40:27.100 until after the referendum on this kind of business that's what I'm thinking is it has been a very

00:40:31.640 charged time and there's um you know at the end of the day we want a better deal for Albertans

00:40:36.600 whatever way that ends up looking like but um you know this is the democratic process and it's being

00:40:42.160 put to you know this this referendum and these questions and um I think probably just drawing

00:40:48.400 more attention to that it's just it's it's a very divisive thing right now so strategically if I was

00:40:53.860 of her advisors i'd i'd tell her to just hang back a little bit longer but you're right eventually 1.00

00:40:58.500 something has to come through and and and she's going to have to you know put her teeth in when

00:41:04.900 it comes to ottawa not coming through with their end on things yeah well we'll watch the coverage

00:41:09.780 as this unfolds i i just to tie this into our legacy media outlets our beloved stalwarts out

00:41:15.620 there still remaining i read a ctv story on this today and boy do they ever bend over backwards

00:41:22.500 to kind of sugarcoat what seems to have happened with the prime minister but the language i had to

00:41:26.740 cut this out of the cbc story when they referred to cbc or ctv i should say uh which is becoming

00:41:33.540 a little better than cbc it seems these days but they referred to conflicting messaging and uh said

00:41:40.340 that you know the events contrasts previous comments made by prime minister mark carney

00:41:46.260 is such nice words to say he was lying through his teeth and i understand that it's not the place of

00:41:51.700 of a news outlet to come out and call the prime minister a liar but holy cow guys uh contrasts

00:41:58.880 previous comments made by prime minister mark carney i mean come on which one of his speech

00:42:05.500 writers gave you that one oh that's but i guess so delicate yes they reported on it a little bit

00:42:12.460 they had to i mean the bottom line is because it contrasted rather sharply so oh well that's the

00:42:18.300 place for me to go online and just remind people of how to translate that word salad well tell you

00:42:23.500 what cory you know the ctv has got the same global got the same issues to deal with as uh chorus i

00:42:32.540 don't think they're quite so far around the drain as chorus is but uh they're they're getting money

00:42:39.060 from the federal government through the fund well you want to be respectful don't want to rock that

00:42:45.600 boat all right well let's get to the parting shots and a few things i i hope you have one

00:42:49.920 lindsay i'm not sure if you were prepped for this yes well let's let's i'll leave you with

00:42:55.360 one on the on the uh liquor sales direct to consumer if uh i i'm a big fan of this right

00:43:02.560 um if we can trust albertans to pick their own home insurance and uh internet provisors i think

00:43:08.080 that we can entrust them to pick their purveyor for a bottle of vino absolutely it's astounding

00:43:16.480 that that had to be controversial all right mr winnick what do you got this has to do with the

00:43:22.400 kerpan the seek ceremonial blade i'm sure you guys know there was a big controversy about this seek

00:43:27.280 man went into a good life fitness place in windsor ontario and got turned away by the female employee

00:43:32.240 because he was wearing it out in the open and this is bringing up a whole controversy relating

00:43:38.340 to the legislation which i think from the supreme court's 2006 the maltani ruling that said that

00:43:42.620 they can sikhs can have a kerpan on them on their person in public places but it has to be concealed

00:43:48.800 so basically under clothing and you see so many videos now of them wearing it out in the open 0.98

00:43:54.040 and it's just bringing in like questions about are the rcmp going to start checking these kerpans to

00:43:58.780 see if they can be opened and unsheathed because they're supposed to not be allowed to do that or

00:44:02.400 able to do that they're supposed to be under clothing so people are wondering are the rcmp

00:44:06.200 going to start actually enforcing the supreme court's decision and they're going to maybe start

00:44:11.040 talking about maybe hopefully maybe re-looking at that legislation again because it's 20 years old 1.00

00:44:15.620 now so yeah well let's see yeah i think the first time i heard about it i was told by a sieke that 0.97

00:44:22.420 look you can have one that small you can have one on a chain and that just goes in your in your 0.98

00:44:26.820 turban. You've met your religious obligations. My parting shot has got to do with the federal 0.56

00:44:35.480 government's ever-increasing number of bills that affect the way we think and what we're

00:44:41.020 allowed to think and what we're allowed to say and what we're allowed to do. Keep an

00:44:45.380 eye on Bill C-34, the Digital Safety Act. They're selling it as something to keep young people

00:44:55.580 from looking at internet pornography in fact they're creating a new super office

00:45:02.940 of the digital safety commissioner with no statutory rules everything to be determined

00:45:08.620 after the bill is passed by orders in council in other words the cabinet could just say we

00:45:13.260 need to do this we need to do that and by the way we can we can now define what hate speech is and

00:45:19.900 you have no comeback against it through the law. This is very, very serious. Keep an eye on it.

00:45:26.780 All right. And I'll just hit with a quick one on our Honorable Paula Simons, Trudeau appointed

00:45:32.940 senator who went on to a British Columbia podcast and mentioned not once but twice about going

00:45:39.660 elbows up. And one of the two times though wasn't even elbows up with President Trump,

00:45:44.140 it was elbows up against Albertans who were considering independence.

00:45:48.420 So really embracing that whole elbows up attitude and at least showing us all 0.71

00:45:53.480 why a person like her had to be appointed to office, 0.85

00:45:55.600 because there's no bloody way Albertans ever would have elected her to it.

00:45:59.360 All right, I'll leave it at that.

00:46:00.860 Thank you very much, Lindsay, for joining us today to add a much needed,

00:46:06.620 better looking perspective to our usual lineup here.

00:46:11.600 and Dave and Nigel

00:46:13.840 thank you very much

00:46:15.700 always a pleasure

00:46:16.340 and well thank all of you for tuning in

00:46:19.400 we will see you on the pipeline

00:46:21.600 again next week at this time

00:46:23.660 and I'm certain to have a whole new batch

00:46:25.640 of issues to dissect for you

00:46:27.440 so thank you again for tuning in

00:46:29.200 and we'll see you then

00:46:41.600 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - July 25, 2026

THE PIPELINE： Carney clams up on Gordie Howe bridge deal

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