Western Standard - THE PIPELINE： Conservatives Strike Back (at Alberta Independence)

00:00:00.000 Good day and welcome.

00:00:25.500 Today is June 10th, 2026.

00:00:28.020 I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:32.360 I've got most of our normal crew here today.

00:00:34.800 We've got former opinion editor Nigel Hannaford.

00:00:37.360 Nothing normal about me, my friend.

00:00:39.740 And our senior Alberta columnist and serial litigant against the powers that be, Corey Morgan.

00:00:47.680 Always a pleasure between court cases.

00:00:50.660 Indeed, I'm glad you can fit time between these cases.

00:00:52.480 Nothing normal about Corey either.

00:00:53.620 But we do not have Dave here today because we're down on the ground floor of the Global Energy Show at the BMO Centre here in Calgary.

00:01:03.420 And so we've left Dave back in the newsroom, minding the kindergarten in there.

00:01:11.040 We're going to talk about the events coming out of Belfast in Northern Ireland,

00:01:18.100 where an Irishman was nearly beheaded in the middle of a street by a migrant.

00:01:26.100 Northern Ireland in flames right now over this,

00:01:29.740 and there's very much international ripple effects

00:01:33.260 coming just right after the conclusion of the trial with Nowak in London

00:01:38.780 for another case involving migrant murders of indigenous Britons.

00:01:44.420 and what effects this is having on the global conversation around mass migration.

00:01:51.540 Just the other day, I think yesterday,

00:01:54.660 Pierre Polyev was in town speaking to a, I think, conservative federalist audience

00:02:02.040 making the case for Alberta staying in Canada.

00:02:07.180 Spoiler, he just said, vote for me.

00:02:10.300 I think that summarizes more or less his argument.

00:02:12.740 But we're going to talk, we'll talk about what he said, break it down, and talk about how effective or not it might be.

00:02:18.440 But we're going to begin with Alberta politics.

00:02:22.840 Is Danielle Smith purging independent supporters from the United Conservative Party?

00:02:30.240 So, the Premier has performed, as we've said many times here, an incredibly delicate and successful balancing act.

00:02:40.660 Really since her leadership campaign where she put forward the Sovereignty Act in its original form,

00:02:45.700 which was significantly more muscular,

00:02:47.780 but she's performed this balancing act between Alberta nationalists and federalists 0.93

00:02:52.160 and managed to keep them in the same party, walking together, compromising on the same team.

00:03:00.640 Ever since she announced the referendum question, since the courts made some bizarre

00:03:07.080 and I think what will prove on appeal ultimately unsuccessful and bad rulings,

00:03:11.280 but saying you're not allowed to have referendums on independents

00:03:13.600 until you first consult Indigenous people.

00:03:17.480 She put forward this kind of referendum to have a referendum question.

00:03:22.260 That's angered a lot of people in the independence movement.

00:03:24.560 There's a lot of nuance not really being discussed about it,

00:03:26.580 but it's obviously angered a lot of people, Corey.

00:03:29.760 And that has set off some in the independence camp

00:03:35.200 to want to now fight a two-front war, both the referendum and at the same time try to

00:03:39.900 oust her from the leadership and replace the premier, etc.

00:03:45.560 There's now, I think, very significant anecdotal evidence that she is moving to, at least at

00:03:56.520 some level, purge independence supporters from positions of responsibility in the party.

00:04:01.580 Not necessarily from membership, but from positions of responsibility.

00:04:05.400 There was, I don't recall his name, but there was a candidate for the UCP nomination for an upcoming by-election in Calgary, Shaw.

00:04:12.240 He was, he's an open independent supporter, and he was disqualified.

00:04:16.400 On pretty dubious grounds, it was, you know, we've seen this before.

00:04:19.500 Oh, your paperwork wasn't in line or something.

00:04:21.700 If the party wants you to be a candidate, they'll make sure your paperwork's in line.

00:04:25.080 If they don't want you to be a candidate, they'll find a comma in the wrong place or something and disqualify you.

00:04:29.260 This happens in all parties and all provinces, but they disqualified him.

00:04:35.200 We've had pretty significant reports of people who have been approached by UCP ministers saying,

00:04:42.340 if they believe that they're Federalists, saying, hey, if you're against independence,

00:04:48.040 we'll get you a free ticket to come to the convention and vote there.

00:04:53.020 Stop the independent supporters from stacking the board,

00:04:55.500 from potentially launching a leadership review, these kinds of things.

00:05:00.400 So, Corey, how real do you think this is?

00:05:03.980 Is it any kind of scale yet?

00:05:07.360 And do you think, is this wise politics on Smith's part?

00:05:11.540 I mean, to start off, I don't think it's wise politics.

00:05:14.120 As you said, it's been a balancing act.

00:05:15.960 I mean, Premier Smith shouldn't take a full-on pro-independence stance.

00:05:19.320 That would be a political suicidal move.

00:05:21.700 I mean, there's still probably not a majority support among Albertans for that sort of thing, even if it is a very strong level amongst members.

00:05:28.340 It's also taken an oath of allegiance to the Crown, hasn't it?

00:05:31.200 Well, there's some of that.

00:05:32.700 Ah, so do members of the Bloc Ibequois. 0.99

00:05:34.280 Yeah, so, you know, that's an area, but I mean, I don't expect her to do such. 0.98

00:05:39.640 And I don't, I'm not shocked that she presents herself as a Federalist, and that's fine.

00:05:43.920 But to start into a full campaign mode against the independent side, I don't know about the political wisdom of this. 0.95

00:05:50.840 it's there's a subgroup within the independence movement that's really wanted to rip her out of

00:05:56.420 power for quite some time and and they're working on that but i don't think they've been getting

00:06:00.380 anywhere with it because people want to deal with this referendum but if she keeps infuriating the

00:06:04.900 independence base they're going to start shrugging and saying well maybe that is the biggest hindrance

00:06:09.960 to our independence right now is the premier and maybe those other individuals have been correct

00:06:14.140 all this time and saying she must be removed and then you're going to have an internal party battle

00:06:18.400 As you said, with people trying to stack boards at the AGM, with people trying to take over nominations

00:06:23.260 and all of those joys that come with a split party from within that we've both been through already.

00:06:28.620 Several times. 0.99

00:06:29.880 My personal view, I really think she should back off on her hardcore Federalist campaign.

00:06:34.940 You can see some of the videos coming out with almost the exact same statement from senior MLAs

00:06:39.860 just talking about how they love Canada.

00:06:41.520 You know darn well that was scripted and pushed out there.

00:06:44.620 Just say you're a Federalist.

00:06:46.120 Say you want to see people vote to stay in Alberta.

00:06:48.400 And then get on to doing some things like maybe getting a pension plan and a pipeline.

00:06:51.880 That would be refreshing.

00:06:53.080 But going to war with the independent segment and the party, I don't think it's very wise right now.

00:06:57.540 Nigel, it's obviously, I'm shocked her balancing act has been successful for as long as it has been.

00:07:05.740 Because this is not a disagreement over a marginal policy.

00:07:10.000 Like, should the lowest income tax bracket be 8% or 10%?

00:07:14.940 Or should this be in the curriculum or not?

00:07:16.680 Those are issues on which people in a party, in a caucus, in a cabinet can put a little bit of water in their wine

00:07:22.660 and everyone can kind of meet halfway.

00:07:25.200 Independence is not really one of those issues.

00:07:27.500 You can't be half pregnant on this kind of thing.

00:07:29.780 So she's managed to do it successfully.

00:07:32.760 But now, ever since she announced the referendum, she's taken tremendous heat from the legacy media,

00:07:38.960 from a lot of establishment figures inside and outside of Alberta.

00:07:42.460 and I think my impression is that she's kind of overcorrected politically to the Federalist side

00:07:48.980 in her rhetoric around this and that has angered a lot of independent supporters where she was viewed

00:07:54.620 as a more or less neutral figure almost I'm re-watching The Crown right now you know watching

00:08:00.300 Queen Elizabeth bite her lip on issues it's quite something and Danielle Smith was doing a

00:08:06.300 a sort of version of that, where she's trying to just stay above it.

00:08:12.900 This is a referendum, it's a citizen's initiative,

00:08:15.560 and they can fight that out, and she's just staying out of it, more or less.

00:08:20.840 She's not doing that anymore.

00:08:22.140 I think she's overcorrected under the heat she's gotten from a lot of these figures.

00:08:27.720 And that has angered a lot of people in the independence movement.

00:08:31.980 And so now it's become a potential leadership threat to her.

00:08:35.540 The problem is, the more she tries to fight it, the more she aggravates that problem.

00:08:40.800 Remember Jason Kenney, as soon as he had an insurgency over COVID policies,

00:08:45.700 his failure to sufficiently fight Ottawa on some issues, to fight them, 0.88

00:08:51.300 he started calling them, you know, the lunatics taking over the asylum. 0.97

00:08:54.420 He said all of his critics were racists. 0.93

00:08:56.720 And by trying to fight his critics, he emboldened them, he swelled their numbers.

00:09:01.040 I think Smith has a real potential problem here 0.91

00:09:06.460 that the more she tries to fight back the independence movement in the party, 0.95

00:09:12.040 the more she alienates herself from them.

00:09:14.280 So one of the things that occurred to me was that 0.69

00:09:17.280 I wonder if she has her own internal polling

00:09:21.660 that indicates that maybe the pro-independence movement

00:09:26.280 is not quite as strong as the numbers are claimed she has to pick a side in the end as you said you

00:09:37.080 can't be half pregnant on this so the safer worry for her is to say listen I am we have the status

00:09:48.300 quo I'm a sworn member of the Privy Council I am loyal to the king but if people want to do

00:09:56.140 something different we will find out from us we will find out in october first of all that gives

00:10:01.660 her the summer during which she can retreat to that position to say well we'll see what people 1.00

00:10:06.780 say well the more she cracks down on them uh is the more she's going to aggravate them to come

00:10:12.380 after her well they're going to do that anyway i mean they're we have degrees of enthusiasm within

00:10:19.180 political movements. The people who are gung-ho, die-hard for independence will certainly do

00:10:26.380 everything that they can do or imagine to get their way, and that could well include taking

00:10:32.580 out the premier at a party conference. On the other hand, there are other people who say,

00:10:36.940 okay, we're not really ready to do this yet. Let's just give her time and see how this evolves.

00:10:44.500 So actually having the referendum in October,

00:10:48.040 whatever the mainstream media thinks about it,

00:10:50.360 not bad politics from her point of view.

00:10:52.080 It gives her all of June, July, August, and September to live.

00:10:57.160 I'm going to challenge you on a few points.

00:10:59.020 First, I don't think being a member of the Privy Council

00:11:02.260 and swearing allegiance to the king or queen

00:11:03.980 is contradictory to sporting independence

00:11:06.640 because nothing says, first of all, that Alberta would have to be a republic.

00:11:10.680 It's kind of assumed so rhetorically among a lot of people, but just as Canada became a dominion in 1867, that was not breaking away from the crown.

00:11:23.720 It was the establishment of a new and semi-sovereign crown within the empire and what would become the Commonwealth.

00:11:30.380 But everybody wanted it.

00:11:31.540 Yes, but there is technically nothing that would, very little that could stand in the way of Alberta simply becoming a separate dominion with the Crown.

00:11:41.000 So I would just challenge you on that, that it's not necessarily disloyal to the institution of the Crown.

00:11:47.540 Well, I would disagree with you, but anyway, that's fine.

00:11:49.640 I know I took this in a little bit of a rabbit hole.

00:11:51.980 That's not what everybody's talking about, anyway.

00:11:53.160 But look, there are elements within the independence movement that hate Smith, that have wanted her gone for a long time.

00:12:01.540 And they're still against her.

00:12:04.960 But I would say the vast majority of independence supporters within the UCP,

00:12:10.080 as both members and as voters, they have backed her.

00:12:14.400 And they have backed her until now.

00:12:16.360 Many of them still do.

00:12:18.120 So they want independence, but they have not viewed her as an obstacle to it.

00:12:22.600 In fact, many of the left have, or the Federalists, I should say,

00:12:27.360 have with some justification said that she is their enabler.

00:12:30.760 She is allowing them to do this.

00:12:33.300 Jason Kenney would have never allowed a referendum on independence, no matter what.

00:12:37.560 Rachel Notley never would have.

00:12:40.080 Jim Prentice, Alison Redford, none of these people would have ever under any circumstance allowed it.

00:12:45.620 Daniel Smith is not championing it, but she has allowed it to happen.

00:12:49.260 And so both the Federalists and the Alberta Nationalists, I think, have seen her as the enabler of at least allowing the vote to take place and that she is more or less neutral on it.

00:13:00.760 but by actively inserting herself into the debate she begins to be seen as an obstacle

00:13:06.360 and as she begins to be seen as an obstacle and you know they want to start to because there's

00:13:11.080 some challenge to her leadership now they want to remove some of these people from running for

00:13:15.400 party boards constituency associations candidates and nominations that would potentially aggravate

00:13:22.040 it and it paints her into a corner and let's remember the hardcore federalist side of the 0.55

00:13:26.760 the UCP didn't make her the leader. The people who made her the leader are the people who saw

00:13:32.560 the sovereignty act as a wink wink nudge nudge towards full sovereignty. Well when you use the

00:13:39.720 word enabler of course you immediately think of the negative connotations of the term enabler is

00:13:45.520 used by the pejorative by the Federalists. Facilitator is maybe the more positive one

00:13:50.680 from the nationalists.

00:13:51.680 I would certainly, but really you could just make the argument that she is doing her best

00:13:57.280 to give Albertans an opportunity to say what they think on what is the key political issue

00:14:04.640 of the year, maybe of the decade.

00:14:06.640 Sure, but now they're disallowing people to run for nominations because they're pro-independence.

00:14:11.520 They're actively trying to swamp the convention.

00:14:16.740 The significant anecdotal evidence suggests they're trying to swamp the convention with 0.58

00:14:19.520 Federalists.

00:14:20.520 This is very actively intervening, and that, I think, risks alienating the nationalists in the party.

00:14:26.420 This week's story, but the week before, the story was the reverse,

00:14:33.320 that pro-independence factions were trying to stack the party, and I believe that is the case.

00:14:40.320 I mean, that's what segment is about.

00:14:42.600 So you've got both sides trying to do what they can to strengthen their positions.

00:14:48.920 But what I'm saying is she has sided with the Federalists in stacking it in her favor.

00:14:53.920 You don't have to cloak yourself in the flag.

00:14:55.900 You don't have to go on press conference rants against the independence movement.

00:14:59.900 You can declare yourself a Federalist.

00:15:01.720 You could say you want Alberta to stay, but she's taking an active campaign role.

00:15:05.740 I think that's kind of the line that Somerset crossed.

00:15:09.920 But your point is that that's not getting her anywhere with the pro-independence movement.

00:15:14.500 She's not winning with either.

00:15:15.640 Again, just staying off to the side.

00:15:16.980 I mean, the thing is, it's not that it's a majority of people, but it's the majority of the party.

00:15:23.000 It's the members that act.

00:15:24.460 These are the ones that come to the conventions.

00:15:26.160 These are the ones that vote.

00:15:27.360 These are the ones that show up at these meetings.

00:15:30.260 And it makes them punch above their weight.

00:15:31.680 And that's part of the rough position because, yeah, it might only represent 20 or 30 percent of the province, 0.98

00:15:35.980 but it could still put her in dire trouble in the party.

00:15:38.680 And that's a tough spot she's in.

00:15:40.260 Well, as the premier of a province, you can go too far into actively advocating for that province leaving Confederation.

00:15:51.200 She shouldn't advocate for the province leaving, and she's already said she's a Federalist.

00:15:55.360 But if she wants to keep dedicating hours to lighting a fire under those independent supporters by campaigning overtly against them, she's going to make it worse.

00:16:03.760 That's what I'm saying. 0.97

00:16:04.600 She's jumping in front of a problem that doesn't need to be hers.

00:16:06.520 Yeah. Well, you could be right, but I still get the impression that maybe the independence movement is not as strong as we think it is.

00:16:16.680 So in which case she's going to find out.

00:16:20.740 I don't think any of the three of us here are under any illusions that it's at a clear majority support right now.

00:16:25.960 It's not. But it's a large minority in the general public.

00:16:29.740 and it's a majority, how big a majority, hard to say,

00:16:33.440 but it's a majority among UCP voters and especially among active members.

00:16:37.740 And so she represents the majority within the minority.

00:16:44.800 You know the other thing that we haven't talked about in this yet,

00:16:47.120 and that's the position of the NDP.

00:16:49.040 The NDP are missing in action.

00:16:51.500 They are really almost like a non-player at the moment.

00:16:54.840 So, you know, if you are a federalist and you are usually not that interested in politics, you're not probably going to look to the NDP for leadership on this because they have offered none.

00:17:11.220 So you might not normally support the premier, but in this case, on this issue, yes, maybe we will.

00:17:17.840 I don't think so. I think hardline federalists are more likely to back the NDP because the NDP's voters are 98% federalist.

00:17:28.580 The UCP's voters are, depending on the poll, 25 to 40% federalist. So they're divided.

00:17:37.660 The thing is, Nenshi has nothing interesting to say here because his federalist campaign isn't really a federalist campaign.

00:17:44.140 It's an NDP campaign.

00:17:45.920 He's just saying the whole problem with this is Danielle Smith.

00:17:48.660 This is not like what you saw in Quebec where the Federalists came together

00:17:52.620 and this was above-party politics, and they stood together.

00:17:57.140 You'd have Jean Charest and Jean Chrétien working together.

00:18:02.120 Nenshi is making this a partisan issue, trying to maximize NDP votes.

00:18:05.720 So he doesn't have anything interesting to say.

00:18:08.040 The only people with things interesting to say are the independence crowd

00:18:10.660 and then conservative Federalists.

00:18:13.520 So that's a good pivot, I think, to where we want to go next, which is Pierre Polyev's address, I think.

00:18:19.380 Was it yesterday?

00:18:20.280 It was Monday.

00:18:21.080 Monday?

00:18:21.680 The day before, yes.

00:18:22.540 Okay.

00:18:23.080 So Pierre Polyev in Calgary, speaking, as best we can tell, to a group of people who are already Federalists, but they're Conservatives.

00:18:32.780 And so the message was, it was a less condescending version of Jason Kenney.

00:18:39.240 Jason Kenney, you know, likes to, you know, go after any Alberta nationalists and independent supporters.

00:18:47.100 Polyev did not do that, but his argument was, look, I understand your frustrations.

00:18:52.460 Your frustrations are real, but the way to fix your frustrations is to just vote for me.

00:18:58.400 I will fix your problems.

00:19:01.580 There was two problems, I think, in this.

00:19:03.540 It was a fine speech.

00:19:05.380 I think it's going to be fairly effective with people,

00:19:08.640 but I think there was two big holes in it.

00:19:10.740 The first, Corey, was that he never mentioned any issues really beyond pipelines and guns.

00:19:19.440 Pipelines and guns, he mentioned.

00:19:21.180 Okay, and the Conservatives are better on pipelines and they are better on guns.

00:19:25.040 But not a single word about fiscal transfers out of Alberta to the rest of the country.

00:19:29.580 Equalization and other forms the fiscal transfers take disproportionately to other places in Canada.

00:19:34.200 Not a word about mass migration, which is a huge concern that is kind of a big tertiary issue within the independence movement now.

00:19:47.660 And or representation for Alberta in the House of Commons or representation for Alberta in the Senate.

00:19:53.460 So none of these issues that are major longstanding Alberta grievances, he mentioned a word about because he can't.

00:20:01.320 that would cost him votes in other parts of Canada.

00:20:05.160 The second biggest problem with his argument,

00:20:07.740 which was, vote for me and everything will be fine,

00:20:09.740 was, we just did that.

00:20:11.780 A year ago, Albertans overwhelmingly voted

00:20:14.180 for the Conservatives and Pierre Polyev.

00:20:17.140 And it didn't change anything.

00:20:19.100 And then the time before that,

00:20:20.460 Albertans voted overwhelmingly for Aaron O'Toole

00:20:23.000 and the Conservatives.

00:20:24.160 And nothing changed there.

00:20:25.040 And then before that,

00:20:26.300 they voted for Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives.

00:20:29.140 Nothing changed there.

00:20:29.900 And then the last time Harper ran, they voted for Harper and the Conservatives, and again, nothing changed.

00:20:35.500 So his argument is, vote for me and everything will be fine, unlike the last four times you very specifically did that.

00:20:43.900 So I think it's an argument with some pretty big holes that he's making,

00:20:48.640 but I think among people who aren't paying a ton of attention, it'll be fairly effective.

00:20:53.240 Well, the independent supporters understand, for the most part, the issue isn't policies, it's the system.

00:20:58.340 and that's things like equalization that's things like the senate representation that's

00:21:03.080 that's things like these these issues where the constitution's not being upheld when it comes to

00:21:07.300 a federal government in you know in enforcing allowing infrastructure to cross the country

00:21:11.500 and then otherwise the constitution seems to be holding us up when we try to do other things

00:21:15.160 and no he's not touching it with a 10-foot pole don't blame him that's just part of the political

00:21:20.080 game you're not going to win in toronto and montreal by talking about those things but at

00:21:23.420 the same time then why are you pissing on our leg and telling it's raining in alberta go away

00:21:28.140 hey, we're here to raise funds for you.

00:21:29.420 You know we're going to vote for you no matter what you do.

00:21:31.980 It's similar to Premier Smith wrapping herself up in the Federalist cause.

00:21:36.060 You guys have got other things to do. 0.85

00:21:37.740 The Premier's got a lot of provincial things she should be doing.

00:21:40.140 Mr. Poliev should be trying to win those votes in Montreal and Toronto and the Maritimes,

00:21:45.980 and he should be campaigning over there.

00:21:47.940 Again, he's just inflaming the independence movement out here,

00:21:51.160 offering platitudes when we are well aware that the best that the Conservatives can offer

00:21:55.500 There is a term of perhaps a government that will be less bad than the last one.

00:21:59.660 But it's, again, I understand he's a federalist.

00:22:03.640 I don't expect him to.

00:22:04.840 He's been more respectful to the independent set than other leaders have.

00:22:08.460 Absolutely saying, you know, he understands some of the problems, and I appreciate that.

00:22:11.860 But these guys jumping in on this is not helping with the movement.

00:22:16.040 Their best asset in the movement of the independence movement is that they're horribly disorganized and infighting, 0.96

00:22:20.780 so they probably aren't going to get anywhere if they don't get their crap together pretty soon.

00:22:23.220 but they're not making a good case to turn people away from that right now so i partially disagree 0.73

00:22:31.200 with cory on this one he is running to be prime minister he is the federalist leader of a federalist

00:22:36.840 party so i and he's from alberta and he has a seat in alberta i mean i'm not sure what he considers

00:22:43.800 himself more of an ontarian alberton at this point but either way he um he has a lot of support in

00:22:49.940 Alberta. And I think he does need to be seen to be campaigning for the federalist cause in Alberta.

00:22:55.320 I think it is expected of him, at least in the rest of the country, that he will do that. So I

00:23:01.240 don't actually blame him for that so much. I think it'd be a bit different if you had

00:23:07.060 Mark Carney, who, I mean, he's born in Alberta, but I don't think he really identifies in his

00:23:14.480 heart of heart as, I'm an Albertan, and that's my major identity. He needs to be seen to be

00:23:19.600 campaigning for the Federalist cause in Alberta as a federal political party leader trying to be

00:23:23.520 Prime Minister. I'm actually okay with that, even if I disagree. My problem is that he's just

00:23:28.800 offering platitudes and bromides. It's just, vote for me and everything will be fine. And we've done

00:23:35.220 that every single time, practically since Confederation. And every once in a while we

00:23:39.840 get small marginal gains, but very few of these big issues ever really get settled. I know you

00:23:44.860 always don't like it when I go after the Harper government. The Harper government was good years

00:23:48.560 for Alberta, but it didn't really fix, beyond getting rid of the wheat board, it didn't fix

00:23:53.820 any of the big structural issues. Senate, House of Commons, equalization, none of those things

00:23:59.980 were touched. And so he's just saying, vote for me and everything will be fine. But he's not saying,

00:24:06.620 and I am so serious about keeping Alberta inside of Canada that I'm willing to perhaps not get rid

00:24:12.200 of equalization, but make some significant reforms to it, to make it fairer to Alberta.

00:24:16.980 I'm willing to reopen the Constitution to make sure we have got a more reasonable level of representation by population in the House of Commons for all provinces, including Alberta.

00:24:29.320 And we're going to amend the Constitution so that in the Senate, Alberta, with twice the population of all four Atlantic provinces, doesn't just have half the senators of little old New Brunswick.

00:24:40.840 That's my problem.

00:24:42.000 My problem is not that he's campaigning here for the Federalist side.

00:24:44.700 is that he's not coming with any meat on the bone.

00:24:47.960 Yeah, well, I mean, to some degree, the speech that he gave was meant to be an emotive one.

00:24:52.860 It was not a long one.

00:24:53.960 And to get deeply into the weeds on specific policies and so on,

00:24:58.380 probably not the place to do it.

00:25:01.360 No, no, but he did get into it on pipelines.

00:25:03.500 He did get into it on guns.

00:25:05.580 He did talk about policies where you can do things without costing votes elsewhere.

00:25:08.960 These are Alberta issues.

00:25:10.140 Like, nobody else gives a rip about pipelines.

00:25:12.700 They may give a rip about firearms, but this is the speech that he's going to be giving across the country for the political party barbecue season that begins about now and runs through to Labor Day.

00:25:24.660 And so this will be the framework for a speech that he's going to give right across the country, but amended for local audiences.

00:25:33.220 So that's the first thing. But the key policy, the key thing that he said, the thing that stayed with me is that we don't need a different country.

00:25:42.700 We need a different government in out of it.

00:25:45.900 Now, that was the key message.

00:25:49.500 It's also one of the most disappointing ones.

00:25:52.360 Yeah, you can't promise that.

00:25:53.380 Because you can't promise that.

00:25:54.400 And, you know, there was a time, and the time was in the late 1980s,

00:25:58.640 when out here in Alberta and in B.C. and in Saskatchewan, we said we've had enough.

00:26:06.120 The West wants in.

00:26:07.520 them and hundreds of thousands of people gave that message everything they could they gave

00:26:14.580 her their time their money their organizational skills and they actually displaced the unworthy

00:26:21.000 progressive conservatives in western canada and in a handful of ontario writings two things yeah

00:26:29.600 going to weren't going to weren't weren't buying it and so in the end to get anywhere they had to

00:26:36.560 make join forces with the uh central and atlantic uh canada uh forces and that meant compromise

00:26:46.000 and this is what he's going to run to into as well but he had to say something and this was at least

00:26:52.160 well you know look i'm a federalist through and through and you guys gonna have to get used to it

00:26:57.120 He couldn't say that, certainly couldn't say the other.

00:26:59.840 So this is a middle road, it's about the best that he's got.

00:27:03.800 Unfortunately, you know, look, he talked about what we're fed up with as Canadians,

00:27:11.960 new policies, criminal justice, what's with pandering to immigrants,

00:27:15.780 two-tier justice, race-based justice, catch and release bail,

00:27:19.100 firearms, pipelines and so forth.

00:27:20.960 These are all things that could be fixed

00:27:23.140 and would make a lot of people happier here in Western Canada.

00:27:26.020 But he never made the case why that's easier to do inside of Canada than outside

00:27:31.900 and just do it ourselves without asking Toronto and Montreal for permission.

00:27:36.240 He's not going to send a separatist message.

00:27:38.780 I mean, that's a tough one. I'm glad I didn't have to write that.

00:27:41.760 But he did not make the case why that is better to do inside of Canada than outside of Canada.

00:27:47.320 He just said you should.

00:27:48.820 Well, he sort of did, actually, because he talked about the many commonalities,

00:27:53.000 that common opinions

00:27:55.180 that people, you know, you go to the

00:27:56.920 Canadian Legion in Calgary, you're going to hear a certain

00:27:58.940 point of view. You go to a Canadian Legion

00:28:00.700 ranch in rural

00:28:03.080 Ontario, you're going to see it at the same point of view.

00:28:05.420 Like, there's more that

00:28:06.660 his point is that there's more

00:28:09.180 that unites us

00:28:10.460 than divides us.

00:28:12.780 So let's work on that. It's not

00:28:15.060 perfect. It's not the speech

00:28:17.200 that you would want him to give, but I

00:28:19.140 don't know what else he could have said.

00:28:21.300 Yeah. Well, and that just

00:28:22.760 unfortunately or unfortunately depending on the point of view but reinforces the independence

00:28:26.760 case the futility of trying to play within the system and and and as we said he's doing the

00:28:31.640 politically wise course it's the only course he has you know it makes perfect sense i i am not

00:28:36.600 surprised but where he's going like i said maybe some of the ire was similar to what i offer for

00:28:40.920 smith and i understand why you have to take that position and be public with it but you also don't

00:28:44.840 have to make it your main uh focus for the next four months if you don't want to infuriate that

00:28:49.800 crowd. I mean, I think it's a mediocre speech. Well, it's mediocrity. It was outstanding. Exactly.

00:28:55.360 And I mean, Alberta, our own biggest sin is that we're predictable. That's how we get taken for

00:29:00.200 granted by the Conservatives and the Liberals, because the Liberals have nothing to gain here

00:29:03.420 and nothing to lose. And the Conservatives have the same way. We're just, though we are a

00:29:07.720 fundraising spot, whereas perhaps some funds could end up directed towards things like

00:29:11.980 Independence TPAs versus the Conservative Party federally. Good, good plug for billboards and

00:29:17.380 Tabor, Corey.

00:29:18.420 Yeah, but aside from that, it's just the nature of the politics in Canada

00:29:23.040 and that frustration that, you know, if you have swing seats, you get attention.

00:29:26.960 We don't have those.

00:29:28.160 Yeah, or very few.

00:29:29.620 Okay.

00:29:30.000 Yeah, as I said, my problem is not that he came here and made the case for the Federalist side.

00:29:35.040 It's that he had nothing to offer besides asking for our votes.

00:29:40.160 We don't have answers either.

00:29:42.180 I mean, we can't give it.

00:29:43.140 What could he offer?

00:29:44.040 But what is he going to give to us in exchange for those votes?

00:29:47.980 And it's not much.

00:29:49.880 All right.

00:29:50.480 Well, more than what you'd get from the Liberal candidate.

00:29:53.360 Well, you said he's less bad than he is.

00:29:54.780 Yes, that's the endless Conservative argument in Alberta.

00:29:58.120 At least we're not as bad as the Liberals.

00:30:01.380 And I've got to say, that's not a compelling case.

00:30:04.120 That's not a very compelling case.

00:30:05.460 It'll work for a lot of people, and it'll work in elections.

00:30:07.480 It works every time.

00:30:08.760 But I'm kind of sick of that message.

00:30:10.220 You know, Derek, what would have the Alberta independence movement on its feet if you had a bunch of liberal MPs supporting the bad things that the liberal government initiates in Ottawa?

00:30:26.080 That would send people crazy.

00:30:28.160 At least right now, we do still feel that we have somebody to represent our point of view.

00:30:33.560 Anyway, time to move on.

00:30:35.520 Yeah. All right. Well, speaking of uniting against common foes, Northern Ireland.

00:30:42.960 So coming right on the heels of a young man, Nowak, an indigenous Briton, brutally murdered by a migrant in London.

00:30:55.520 And the police, and that was probably the most outrageous one because of the actions of the police,

00:31:02.080 where the murderer of a migrant background said that the guy was a racist,

00:31:07.280 and then they just stood there and let him bleed out and die.

00:31:11.780 This one's perhaps not as egregious because there's not the police angle in it,

00:31:15.220 but egregious nonetheless, and it's had a massive impact.

00:31:20.280 A man in Belfast attacked by a migrant, I think Sudanese, 0.78

00:31:27.060 Yeah, Sudanese. And he, the Sudanese man tried to saw his head off in the middle of the street with people all around. This thing was filmed. And other indigenous northern Irish had to come up and save this man.

00:31:47.100 And, you know, I was young during kind of the last era of the Troubles, but, I mean, the Northern Irish are not known as a sedate bunch. 0.76

00:32:00.380 I mean, for Europeans, some have said they're the least European of the Europeans because of just how rowdy they get.

00:32:07.340 They're not solving this in Parliament. They'll take direct action, often violent.

00:32:11.920 And I don't believe there's been a moment since the Reformation when Catholics and Protestants have ever stood together really on the same side.

00:32:23.920 They have, for moments, stopped killing each other, but they've never stood side by side against a common foe.

00:32:30.320 You've always got to know which side of the, which foot you kick with. 0.66

00:32:35.260 That's, they all, I forget which foot is Protestant and which foot is Catholic, but that's fundamental information.

00:32:42.760 We've now seen Catholics and Protestants marching side by side in demonstrations against this.

00:32:48.800 In some areas, it's turned to violence and rioting.

00:32:52.800 Some of it going in through, if I understand it correctly, I don't want to get it wrong,

00:32:56.900 but I think government-funded, taxpayer-funded housing for migrants, 1.00

00:33:02.280 which is wild. 1.00

00:33:03.540 Why in any of our countries are we paying for other people to be here

00:33:07.480 when we can't take care of our own people first?

00:33:09.680 But it's resulted in some less than civil reaction.

00:33:16.420 And not to excuse it, but to understand it,

00:33:19.600 I think it's because in virtually every European country,

00:33:22.580 people have voted to end illegal migration and to significantly limit legal migration and no matter 0.89

00:33:29.860 what happens it only gets worse and now their streets are overrun with barbarians who are

00:33:37.940 killing people uh harassing women you name it there's a whole long list and so they're they feel

00:33:44.900 out of options at the ballot box to do it and i don't know how far this will spread i don't know 0.94

00:33:49.940 how long it goes on in Northern Ireland, but the Northern Irish, who have a history of taking this

00:33:54.820 out directly, seem to be doing that again. Yeah, well, they sure are, and they've had a lot of

00:34:00.500 practice over the years, so I actually don't have an optimistic point of view on this at all. I'm

00:34:07.960 not able to come out and say, well, you need to do this, you need to do that. There was a very

00:34:13.720 prescient book written back in the 1960s. Enoch Powell was a member of Parliament, distinguished

00:34:20.120 Britain, veteran, gentleman, and he wrote the book, I see the Tiber running with much blood.

00:34:29.360 Yeah, we discussed this last week. Yeah, just like we were talking about Nowak last week.

00:34:32.760 So, you know, up until now, we've substantially been able to dismiss that as rhetoric. Now we're

00:34:39.620 actually starting to see blood and i think there will come a point and it may come very soon where

00:34:45.620 the british public and the irish public which has been told you know you have to be nice you have to

00:34:51.180 be kind don't be racist that's fine as long as the people were not being racist about or respectful

00:34:57.140 in return but the second that they start trying to behead people on the street the second that they

00:35:02.020 stick a knife in somebody and he dies and you find that the police have been told effectively

00:35:09.020 to stand down then people are just going to go out the front door and it's going to be like that 0.50

00:35:14.880 scene my man is hell and i'm not going to take it anymore when the saxon began to hate well and

00:35:19.800 that's kipling for you and awfully so like i supposed to know that as a german saxons we

00:35:25.300 share that between the yeah but i mean it's it's going to descend into mob rule and this is what

00:35:30.560 happens when cowardly governments abdicate their duty to actually represent the population and

00:35:35.100 protect the population they took what they thought was the point of least resistance and it kept the

00:35:39.980 floodgates open and the powder keg just kept filling and the pressure kept building and citizens

00:35:45.860 when they feel unsafe when they feel their children are unsafe when they feel that they don't have a

00:35:50.440 future being safe they will take it up in their own hands and then we've seen belfast is the perfect

00:35:55.160 spot for it to really flare but this is a risk of happening in every western country around the

00:36:00.920 world and it's if they don't stop I think it's too late to be honest I think it's just a few

00:36:05.960 more incidents from this happening in Paris from happening in Germany from happening in the

00:36:10.240 Netherlands even it's gone too far the citizens are going to push back and it's going to be bloody

00:36:15.080 and I don't want to see it because innocent people get mob mentality is awful innocent people

00:36:19.560 you're the wrong color you're in the wrong place at the wrong time you could be terribly harmed or

00:36:24.300 killed and i blame the wrong place at the wrong time by being a five-year-old girl in a place 0.59

00:36:29.360 that too and and and that's what i mean so i blame governments though for being too weak to

00:36:34.020 address this and unfortunately now it's going to descend into chaos to become resolved so i don't

00:36:40.000 you know no one should mistake this for excusing mob violence it's not the way to do it um but

00:36:46.900 to build your on your point it is the responsibility of the state the sovereign entity responsible for

00:36:53.940 collectively representing the people to represent its own people first to stop

00:37:00.360 illegal migration to make sure that legal migration is not out of hand and

00:37:05.400 to remove people who should not be there and the state has for decades in every

00:37:11.620 Western country virtually failed to do its basic duty removing people who

00:37:17.940 should not be there should be done in a legal safe and organized fashion by the

00:37:23.880 The state, its failure to do so has now resulted in violent mobs going door to door.

00:37:31.660 And that is not the way you want to see it.

00:37:33.740 Innocent people will be hurt.

00:37:35.380 And even people who are there illegally, who are not innocent, they still don't necessarily deserve a mob coming in, kicking down the door and hurting someone.

00:37:45.500 That is not what we want to see.

00:37:47.420 But I think we're seeing that because the state has utterly abdicated its duty.

00:37:51.560 In fact, on the contrary, it has acted against the indigenous populations of Western countries, as we saw with the murder of Nowak, where the police stood down to protect the murderer over the person who got murdered.

00:38:04.940 That's why I think we're seeing it turn into mob violence now.

00:38:07.860 And I think Corey is right.

00:38:08.620 It's not just in Ireland.

00:38:10.800 It's not just in Britain.

00:38:13.220 It is right across continental Europe, possibly the broader West, where I don't know how many more incidents we are away from this.

00:38:21.560 getting to something much bigger and nastier but it i it will happen just as an aside derek it's

00:38:26.500 you don't see it in hungary where orban actually closed the border to mass migrations there is a

00:38:32.140 government i mean he's out of office now and he was never popular outside hungary when he was in

00:38:37.400 office but there is a government that did what you have just said needs to be done protect the

00:38:42.400 people that it has yeah i mean he had a simple population uh policy which was to keep hungary

00:38:48.940 Hungarian and that shouldn't be a controversial thing to do that doesn't

00:38:53.380 mean you dislike other people but it means you love your own people the most

00:38:57.520 you're not against anyone necessarily but you're for your own people and that's

00:39:01.700 not controversial if you are the president of Zimbabwe it's not

00:39:06.700 controversial if you're the chairman of the party in China or or the prime

00:39:11.860 minister of Japan it's not controversial anywhere else except for our countries

00:39:16.620 but it's a crime when we do it when we do it here it's a very particular

00:39:21.720 spiritual rot anyway yeah we have an agreement on that yeah somebody God

00:39:28.840 bless Ulster and I don't know I'm not optimistic this this ends nicely I'm 1.00

00:39:37.920 afraid I share your sentiments yeah okay well we'll wrap it up with parting

00:39:43.720 Well, I'm just intrigued by this chap who flew for Air Canada for 19 years now.

00:39:51.880 That's impressive.

00:39:53.040 It's like the catch-me-if-you-can guy.

00:39:54.680 Yeah, exactly.

00:39:56.020 And the Wall Street, there's a lawyer in the Wall Street film.

00:40:00.920 So here's the thing.

00:40:01.800 I mean, the guy had his pilot's license.

00:40:04.880 He was type-rated for everything that he flew.

00:40:07.340 There is one other layer of bureaucracy you're supposed to satisfy.

00:40:12.180 It's called an air transport.

00:40:13.720 license. He didn't have that. He should have. And so, you know, we can't condone it, but

00:40:19.760 I got to say that, you know, give him marks for Chutzpah. I kind of like the idea of the

00:40:27.820 old Mikado, you know, make the punishment fit the crime. So you get this guy out of

00:40:31.920 jail and you put him in charge of compliance at Air Canada. As long as he's...

00:40:37.020 It's like a catch me with the can guy, because I'm in charge of, like, check fraud.

00:40:40.020 I think he should just keep flying. He's proven he's pretty good at it.

00:40:42.460 Well, that's kind of the thing. He shouldn't do it.

00:40:45.720 But he's been doing this one since, what, the 90s or something?

00:40:49.200 He's flown 900 flights.

00:40:51.800 I could only do one.

00:40:54.240 Probably about 100,000 passengers have been safely guided to their destination

00:40:58.540 by this guy who doesn't have a piece of paper, but doesn't know how to fly an airplane.

00:41:03.240 He should have the piece of paper, but he's clearly not bullshitting.

00:41:09.220 Yeah, I'm a little mixed.

00:41:11.320 All right, Corey.

00:41:12.020 I didn't think I want to clear.

00:41:13.600 I'll give a quick self-serving plug then.

00:41:15.620 If people are interested in a story, look up billboards and Corey Morgan. 1.00

00:41:18.780 You stole my parting shot, you son of a bitch. 0.99

00:41:20.260 Okay, well, you can expand on it because it actually, aside from my self-serving part, 1.00

00:41:24.320 it really is actually a democratic issue going on with election interference.

00:41:27.600 I'll let you finish it because we're running long on time anyway.

00:41:29.820 No, I'll go on another one.

00:41:30.840 I'll just let people know.

00:41:32.900 What a great show it is down here.

00:41:34.360 That's one thing.

00:41:34.960 Yeah, yeah.

00:41:36.120 The Western Standard had reached out to Thomas Lukasik,

00:41:38.900 the head of the Forever Canada petitioners.

00:41:42.180 Very friendly conversations with those guys,

00:41:45.560 inviting them to have a debate.

00:41:46.960 We offered to pay for it.

00:41:48.140 We offered to give them half the tickets

00:41:49.420 so it's not just stacked with Western Standard subscribers and fans

00:41:52.680 and that we would have a mutually agreed upon neutral moderator.

00:41:56.660 And we actually had a very good conversation.

00:41:57.980 I was actually quite optimistic this would happen.

00:41:59.740 It mostly took place over the phone, a little bit by email,

00:42:03.980 but mostly just over the phone with these guys.

00:42:06.500 In the end, Thomas Lukasik chickened out, didn't want to do it,

00:42:11.140 and so we issued then a public challenge,

00:42:13.800 and awarded pretty friendly, I think, at first,

00:42:16.360 challenging him to a debate, and then these guys went out. 0.99

00:42:20.360 You know, he couldn't just say, I'm too chicken shit for this. 0.98

00:42:23.680 He had to say, the Western Standard is out there saying that I've agreed to a debate. 0.98

00:42:28.320 I have not.

00:42:28.900 We never once, ever said that Thomas Lukasik agreed to a debate,

00:42:32.760 Because he never did. We had good faith discussions and were optimistic at one point that he would potentially agree.

00:42:39.940 But anyway, he's out there. I mean, lying is no new thing to him.

00:42:44.420 But he was out there saying, the Western Standard's claiming he agreed to a debate.

00:42:49.740 Never once. Pull the tape. You can't find it anywhere.

00:42:53.720 He lies about the issues and he's lying about this.

00:42:56.880 Well, that's okay. We've made an appeal to our subscribers to help fund a debate because we're going to have a debate regardless.

00:43:07.020 It's just not going to be with Big Chicken Lukasik.

00:43:09.440 So if you want to donate, you can go to westernstandard.news.

00:43:12.940 There's a donate section that'll help us put on a debate at hopefully minimal ticket price for people so we can make it as widely accessible to the public as possible.

00:43:22.540 We're going to find, you know, and there are lots of great and articulate Federalists out there

00:43:27.440 who I'm sure are a little braver and willing to make the cause in front of people

00:43:32.240 that are not a curated and sycophantic CBC reporter.

00:43:36.880 So I'll leave that at that.

00:43:40.180 All right, Corey, Nigel, thank you.

00:43:42.980 Thank you, John, on production.

00:43:44.380 We also got a bunch of our staff here at the Global Energy Show.

00:43:46.840 We got Jessica, we got Josh, we got David Veitschnik.

00:43:50.840 And we also want to...

00:43:52.380 Oh, come on in.

00:43:53.720 Come on in here. 0.98

00:43:54.660 Group shot.

00:43:57.140 And we also want to thank all the organizers at the...

00:44:01.020 Oh, yeah, just walk straight in front of the camera, guys.

00:44:03.240 Brilliant.

00:44:03.960 Brilliant.

00:44:05.480 John.

00:44:06.060 John's never been seen on this side of the camera.

00:44:08.120 On the camera, John.

00:44:09.120 John runs the show.

00:44:12.780 But because he just called them out here, this is my opportunity to embarrass John.

00:44:17.360 John, stop fiddling.

00:44:18.560 Get out here right now.

00:44:20.080 John, John, come, come, get in front of the camera.

00:44:24.220 He's got to keep the shot.

00:44:25.260 Put it down, put it down, put it down.

00:44:27.120 Oh, he has excuses.

00:44:28.080 We're over.

00:44:28.440 John doesn't really exist.

00:44:29.860 He's actually, he's AI, he's a bot.

00:44:32.780 Okay, and I want to thank the organizers of the Global Energy Show here in Calgary.

00:44:36.060 It's a fantastic event.

00:44:38.020 We're at it every year with our booth.

00:44:40.260 If we're still here until what day is it?

00:44:42.560 Tomorrow?

00:44:43.120 Tomorrow.

00:44:44.100 If you're in Calgary, you're working in downtown Calgary, come on down to the Global Energy Show.

00:44:48.380 And when you come into the exhibitor area, just kind of go to the right.

00:44:51.160 You can't miss it.

00:44:52.260 You'll find our friendly staff down here.

00:44:54.400 Come meet a bunch of the team.

00:44:56.760 If you're not yet a subscriber, go to westernsnetter.news.

00:44:59.120 Click on subscribe.

00:45:00.020 $10 a month, $100 a year for unlimited access to everything.

00:45:04.040 Thank you very much for joining us today, and God bless.

00:45:17.840 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - June 13, 2026

THE PIPELINE： Conservatives Strike Back (at Alberta Independence)

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Transcript