Western Standard - The Pipeline： Danielle Smith's t-shirt travails

00:00:00.000 good evening and happy calgary stampede as you can tell by my fine attire attire attire i'm

00:00:19.640 convincingly a cowboy sort this is when calgary uh all goes wild and does their best cowboy

00:00:25.080 cosplay we're not out to insult you real cowboys were the best flattery is imitation right so this

00:00:31.240 is the pipeline this is the western standards weekly panel show where we cover a number of

00:00:35.640 burning issues break them down and discuss them so you don't have to think too hard about them

00:00:39.800 we got all of the answers for you and you've got three good topics coming up today so yes it's

00:00:44.680 usually Derek Fildebrand our publisher in this seat but he's just been lapsed and this is the

00:00:48.360 third week in a row I think that you've got me for but that's okay because you need that snappy

00:00:52.520 cowboy dresser for this because i'm joined by our two knowledgeable compatriots from the newsroom

00:00:57.560 but both too stodgy to take part in this this stampede dressing up uh i'll start with with

00:01:03.480 dave nailer our news editor over on the end there how's it going dave good cory yeah second week in

00:01:09.240 a row i'm starting to feel a bit like he's furniture but i think nico should probably

00:01:14.760 put up a warning before the show starts cory's t-shirt may cause epilepsy yeah it is a little

00:01:21.800 funky your tie has got some great color on it it's nice actually nice ties they're standing out and

00:01:27.640 we have as always our opinion editor nigel hennifer how's it going oh good to be good to be here i

00:01:33.160 had the shirt too but it shrank yeah well i gotta be i've only got this i had to wash it after the

00:01:38.840 event last night wear today but it's going to last me 10 20 years because i only wear it a couple of

00:01:43.320 days a year sounds like that event might be worth talking about cory the event now we can quickly

00:01:49.160 give a nod to it you know we did have our our stampede gathering and uh it was at a bar in

00:01:54.920 calgary called balls group bills that's part of the fun again for our viewers all over you know

00:01:58.360 with a stampede everything kind of goes wild and they had their testicle festival at bottle screw 0.94

00:02:03.960 bills and our young intrepid formerly eastern reporter consumed a record number of balls that 0.99

00:02:10.840 night uh you know did an easy dozen of them it's hard to get that many balls down here in one night

00:02:17.400 typically yes seems to change man this morning that's for sure well he has a talent and maybe

00:02:22.680 one day he'll find it must be the hot sauce place to apply it it was a lot of fun though

00:02:26.920 and the stampede isn't it's a good time to lighten up and have some fun but not everything

00:02:33.800 goes lightly with the stampede actually i'm going to start with a talk about one of our sponsors

00:02:37.160 quickly and get that out of the way pay the bills and that is the canadian shooting sports

00:02:42.120 association these guys are great if you own firearms you want to own firearms you just

00:02:47.080 just want to support other people's right and ability to own firearms, you've got to be a member

00:02:50.100 of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. They advocate on your behalf. Their sites also,

00:02:55.940 like any association, has all sorts of resources for you for sports shooting, hunting, collecting,

00:03:00.140 all of those things. Check it out, guys. They're doing the work standing up for you because you've

00:03:04.440 got to help them stand up for you. So take out a subscription, be a member of them.

00:03:08.460 cssa-cila.org. And yeah, it's on you to help protect your rights because you know they're

00:03:17.080 under threat. All right. Now, speaking of expression, speaking of the stampede, Dave,

00:03:21.940 it's a stampede story we're starting with today. Premier Daniel Smith. I mean, the politicians

00:03:26.160 always all flock to the Calgary Stampede every year, but it looks like it just no matter where

00:03:30.840 she goes, somehow it turns into a controversy. It does. And this, I think, could be one of the

00:03:36.160 biggest non-story stories I've ever covered. She was having her pancake breakfast with

00:03:43.040 thousands and thousands of people at McDougal Center. And as you do in these things, you get

00:03:47.480 your picture taken with whoever comes up to you. And one gentleman came up to her wearing a shirt 0.69

00:03:52.580 that said, thank a straight person for your existence, you know, straight pride. And I saw

00:03:59.960 that on social media and I thought, oh no, here we go again. And it didn't take long. The left

00:04:06.140 wing media started coming out with stories on how she's anti lgbtq uh the uh the gay community 0.99

00:04:15.260 started coming out with stuff saying it's all hate you know she's a hateful woman and hate language 0.98

00:04:20.780 and and all this sort of stuff and even qp our union friends who are obviously ndp affiliated

00:04:27.580 uh took time out of their busy stampeding to issue a statement on it as well as the the ndp

00:04:33.420 The critic also said it was the worst thing she'd ever seen.

00:04:38.000 It's just, you know, if you remember the same thing happened with Pierre Polyev,

00:04:42.800 with the Diaglone guy who came up to him and had a picture taken.

00:04:46.520 Pierre Polyev had no idea who that guy was, yet he was raked over the coals for it.

00:04:51.340 Same with Daniel Smith.

00:04:52.540 I mean, how many other people with T-shirts had their photo taken?

00:04:56.400 But, you know, this one was a bit controversial.

00:04:59.440 Well, yeah, I'd never even heard of Diagalon before this faux scandal came up with Polyev 1.00

00:05:05.700 because he'd taken a selfie.

00:05:07.100 We've been to enough political events.

00:05:08.440 We've seen that.

00:05:08.940 That's the thing of today.

00:05:09.660 There's no more autographs or anything.

00:05:10.800 It's literally a lineup of people, and it's a production line.

00:05:15.040 Smile, picture, smile, picture.

00:05:16.660 You don't have time to look at every T-shirt and display, and this wasn't a swastika.

00:05:20.940 This was just some strange text.

00:05:22.960 I don't know.

00:05:23.380 What do you make of it, Nigel?

00:05:24.600 I don't think it's a strange text.

00:05:25.980 I mean, the guy, if you're out there with your rainbow flag and you're proud of the fact that you're homosexual, then presumably what's wrong with a guy who isn't homosexual saying I'm proud to be straight? 0.79

00:05:37.720 You know, where is the, there is this double standard.

00:05:41.400 So let's not confuse the issue here that whether she read the, whether she read the t-shirt or whether she didn't, why can't a guy wear a straight pride t-shirt?

00:05:53.100 Oh, well, as you see, that's not the narrative.

00:05:55.280 That's not politically correct.

00:05:57.000 So therefore, you jump on him, and you jump on the premier

00:06:00.200 if she happens to be caught standing beside him.

00:06:03.840 So it's the old political racket.

00:06:06.500 And, you know, they go after this because this is all they've got.

00:06:09.800 They can't beat her on economics, on health policy, 0.70

00:06:14.660 on any of the other things that government does. 0.53

00:06:16.820 So they try to make, they try to go for a way to cut her throat with, 1.00

00:06:20.960 Oh, you said the wrong thing and you stood in the wrong place. 0.96

00:06:25.600 It's kind of pathetic, actually, but if you've got to a world where you can't say there are men and there are women and say simple truths, 0.92

00:06:36.980 but that is all the other side has got. 0.91

00:06:40.080 And it's funny, the next day, or that day, actually, the Premier's office issued an apology.

00:06:46.020 Why? Why? Why would they have to issue an apology?

00:06:48.840 What was to apologize for?

00:06:50.340 And you know what? They don't accept it. They don't appreciate it. All they do is double down. They're thrilled because the premier's office just brought it back into the headlights again for another news cycle.

00:06:59.680 Yeah, you bet.

00:07:00.720 Well, I bet you next premier's breakfast, they've got at least one staff member standing in the head of the line looking at T-shirts, and it's ludicrous. 0.94

00:07:08.360 It is ludicrous. I mean, it makes it difficult. I mean, look, I don't see the point of such a T-shirt. I'll say that. 0.64

00:07:14.360 straight people haven't been oppressed. I mean, I can understand the reason why people who were 0.91

00:07:19.260 of the LGBTQ community want to express themselves because for decades it was told it was shameful

00:07:24.480 and your bars would get raided. But if you want to wear the damn, go ahead. 0.99

00:07:30.120 The love that once durst not speak its name now won't shut up. I think that is why sometimes 0.99

00:07:35.860 people get so sick of it that they decide the satire isn't. Well, as you said too, there is

00:07:41.320 nothing on Premier Smith. She's been a public figure for quite some time in Alberta, and she's

00:07:45.560 always been actually quite vocally supportive of the LGBTQ community. She's not known as a

00:07:51.560 social conservative. For them to try, with that many years of public record, to smear Smith because

00:07:57.100 of this, I got a feeling, though, the viewers and voters are going to be fatigued with this tactic.

00:08:00.720 Well, isn't that what cost the NDP the election? People were tired of all the negativity.

00:08:05.460 And in fairness, they haven't even stopped since the election. Every day, tweets and press releases

00:08:10.560 on how bad this is, how bad that is, how bad the UCP has screwed things up.

00:08:15.680 You know what?

00:08:16.260 Give it at least a couple of months break before you start that.

00:08:20.060 People are election fatigued after that endless election.

00:08:24.520 It didn't work to be complaining all the time.

00:08:26.980 Offer better solutions, not just complaints.

00:08:28.880 You know, it illustrates, just to be serious for about five seconds,

00:08:35.280 it illustrates the fundamentally different mindsets between the two sides the one

00:08:42.880 the conservative side thinks the other people are wrong the other people think the conservatives

00:08:51.420 are evil and so they are motivated by a deep this is not policy driven this is a spontaneous

00:08:59.140 eruption of loathing and disdain and they can't get over it beyond politics it's

00:09:05.200 created such a minefield for any discussion. I mean, something I throw out on Twitter is my

00:09:09.520 playground there, but every time this sort of thing happens, it keeps happening over and over

00:09:12.620 again. I've got a picture that I use, that I tweet out, that has Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at

00:09:17.820 the Calgary Stampede, smiling in a selfie with a gentleman whose name is Terry Lowe,

00:09:23.240 who was a candidate for the liberal-leading Alberta party, who ended up getting convicted

00:09:28.560 as a pedophile. Convicted, not one of those speculative things. But I also make a point,

00:09:32.920 because Trudeau took the picture with this odious man I don't see that as a

00:09:38.160 reflection of Trudeau that's just the nature of these things but if you're 0.97

00:09:42.820 gonna keep sharing that garbage I'm gonna keep reminding everybody who

00:09:46.240 Justin was cozy with the other day so let's just stop just words of wisdom 0.94

00:09:51.040 and I worry about how this affects political discourse I mean we want our

00:09:55.400 politicians to feel free to speak up not get pilloried whenever anything minor

00:10:01.160 happens again and the rules for the language are allowed now and with anything social is

00:10:05.820 like you might have seen it or not it was a big thing a couple of years ago but somebody started

00:10:11.800 putting up signs around some college that just said it's okay to be white it was just physical

00:10:16.880 trolling that's all it said was it's okay to be white there was a police investigation and then

00:10:21.960 they were actually kicking people off of some social media sites for daring to say it I mean

00:10:25.500 again it's just a nothing statement but they're saying oh it's a dog whistle this is a you know

00:10:30.660 start reading in something is innocuous. It's not saying it's supreme to be white or it's bad to be

00:10:36.180 another race. It's just, but this is how ridiculous the game has gotten to. Yeah, I don't see getting 0.99

00:10:44.020 any better anytime soon. The old ideas that we were brought up with, the idea that politics

00:10:49.940 was about debate and democracy and the best marketplace of ideas, it's a knife fight with

00:10:56.420 words yeah well and i want to try to destroy other people i want them to be out in the public i want

00:11:00.580 them to be taking selfies i want them to feel that they can be a bit candid even if once in a while

00:11:04.260 you might misspeak or get something that's taken out of context or stand next to somebody who

00:11:08.820 it turns out you didn't want to stand next to you but you know you don't

00:11:13.460 today's point you don't put a put a fire out by throwing more gas on it and that's what an apology

00:11:18.740 is I wish the Premier would just stop apologizing.

00:11:25.380 Exactly.

00:11:25.960 Get on with it.

00:11:27.260 These people, you will never satisfy these people.

00:11:29.860 So just ignore them and say, you know what?

00:11:32.100 I said what I said.

00:11:33.420 Get used to it.

00:11:34.920 So as I said at the start too, I mean, the stampede does attract politicians like flies to honey.

00:11:42.740 And they all come out.

00:11:44.300 So they took advantage of that opportunity.

00:11:45.500 You know, Prime Minister Trudeau was in Calgary at the same time as Premier Smith, and they actually sat down for a chinwag, right?

00:11:52.460 They did, last Thursday afternoon at the McDougal Centre, and oh, to be a fly on the wall in that room.

00:12:02.600 You know, obviously they have a lot to talk about, number one being the just transition and the Liberals' attempt to basically shut down Alberta's oil industry.

00:12:12.340 I think the one thing they came out with was they agreed to, you know, have a provincial federal team get together and talk in the future.

00:12:22.840 But in terms of Trudeau's environmental goals, he stood his ground.

00:12:29.140 So I think the meeting ended with, you know, basically more harsh words from Premier Smith and, you know, the more threats of lawsuits.

00:12:39.860 And if that doesn't work, the Solventry Act down the road.

00:12:44.460 Yeah, you know, I think it works for the prime minister to have a feud with the western province.

00:12:51.740 It always used to be that it was the provinces.

00:12:54.760 It worked for them to have a feud with the federal government.

00:12:57.660 But in this case, Mr. Trudeau was looking at a federal election no later than October 2025, just over two years' time.

00:13:05.700 No guarantee that he'll even get there, unless the NDP is cooperative.

00:13:12.260 So it could actually happen at any time.

00:13:15.120 And for him to go back to central Canada, where, let's face it,

00:13:21.700 it seems people think differently to how they think out here,

00:13:25.800 and point to the Confederate states of Saskatchewan and Alberta and northeastern PC,

00:13:32.980 and say, you know, we have people with what's his phrase

00:13:39.600 about attitudes or unreasonable.

00:13:44.460 Unacceptable.

00:13:45.060 Unacceptable.

00:13:45.740 Unacceptable.

00:13:47.100 Yeah.

00:13:48.580 Borderline racists. 0.99

00:13:50.280 Misogynists. 0.99

00:13:51.020 Misogynists.

00:13:52.040 Yes, all of these things.

00:13:54.340 And he will do this if he feels it's in his interest to do it

00:13:58.180 because he's done it before.

00:13:59.040 They are evil people, and you must vote for me to protect you against them. 0.83

00:14:05.860 Those were the people who said, let the Eastern Bastard freeze in the dark. 0.61

00:14:09.740 He will go on like that would be an election-winning strategy for Mr. Trudeau.

00:14:18.000 And the mirror of that is that for Danielle Smith,

00:14:22.960 there is nothing to be gained by making life too comfortable for mr trudeau especially on this file

00:14:34.520 and on this particular file she actually happens to have the facts on her side exactly this what

00:14:40.320 trudeau is doing is is impossible what he's asking for is impossible it's intentionally impossible

00:14:46.640 will provoke this very situation. Well, and that's it. And he's clearly intractable. But I mean,

00:14:53.700 Trudeau is built, if he's looking for a legacy, clearly, he wants to be the prime minister who

00:14:58.360 conquered climate change, or at least as far as Canada's role within it is. And, you know, that

00:15:03.980 was part of, I guess, what anybody would look for. They didn't expect Smith and Trudeau to come out

00:15:07.740 hand in hand and say, wow, we've mended fences, and we're going to work together. But if there

00:15:12.760 a chance you were going to see perhaps a little compromise, a little room, a little ability to

00:15:17.720 say that we can move on some of these targets. That was it. And it's quite clear he's not going

00:15:21.960 to budge an inch and nor is Premier Smith. And you know, it's when you read a bit further down

00:15:27.560 in this in the story, so to speak that and you look at some of the things that the Prime Minister

00:15:33.640 says, you realize how contrived this is. I mean, pick this up from I think, the CBC,

00:15:40.520 they reported Mr. Trudeau as saying people know, even here in Alberta, as if we're too thick to

00:15:47.620 understand anything really, but even here in Alberta we understand that the only way to build

00:15:52.760 a strong economy for the future is to protect the environment. That's actually 180 degrees

00:15:58.780 the wrong way around. You want to see a really poor environment, go to a really poor country.

00:16:04.500 If you want to protect the environment, you have to build a strong economy. And this is the kind

00:16:09.640 of tripe that he trots out but back east they won't you know they won't see through that well

00:16:14.840 and his obsession with the climate and such we're seeing that with the housing for example i mean

00:16:20.420 i'm just kind of sidetracking a bit but it still helps you know reflect where the trudeau government

00:16:24.440 is coming from they acknowledge we have a housing crisis i mean rents are flying through the roof

00:16:29.640 real estate prices at the same time they have half a million immigrants a year they plan to bring in 1.00

00:16:34.000 though they don't know where they're going to put them i had uh shane wenzel from shane holmes on

00:16:39.200 before. And he pointed out, I think new builds for houses, if you follow all of the new restrictions

00:16:44.860 and things to be green, I'm paraphrasing, but it was, I believe $75,000 a house, it's going to add

00:16:50.540 to the cost of a dwelling. So their views conflict and they cause trouble for themselves,

00:16:56.960 but their stubbornness on this climate file will not allow them to move on it.

00:17:00.840 No, and especially with the interest rate hike today up to 5%, highest in 22 years,

00:17:06.240 who can afford a house you know who can afford to start a mortgage mortgage now obviously prices

00:17:11.600 of houses will come down because in the end you do the math you sell the house for what you can

00:17:16.640 get for it and if the mortgage is high then you won't be able to ask they're not coming down in

00:17:21.040 calgary we'll see give it time uh get my towels in here but uh that that is um another example of

00:17:31.760 where you and you you find this so frequently with this government that the policies conflict with

00:17:37.760 each other if it is so important to bring down carbon emissions why would you increase the number

00:17:45.200 of people coming into this unit of geography that you want to where you want to reduce emissions

00:17:52.560 because every individual person generates carbon emissions they either they need a place to live

00:17:59.680 their house will generate carbon emissions they need to get around whether they go by car by

00:18:04.240 train whatever they're going to generate carbon emissions the mere act of living here

00:18:10.000 is generates carbon emissions so if you increase the if you increase the population by a significant

00:18:16.880 fraction you're working against your whole strategy of reducing carbon emissions what are

00:18:23.120 these people supposed to do you know and i said as i was saying with the home prices i mean those

00:18:28.160 things are luxuries if you want to have the solar panels and all of these fantastic green notions

00:18:33.280 you need that money has to come from somewhere if you have a great deal of royalties coming in or a

00:18:39.040 lot of highly employed people very well paid they'll take on those luxuries but they're taking

00:18:44.080 away our means of making the money to do it while making the demands for us to pay for these changes

00:18:50.080 it has to come to a crash well i mean just look at the electric vehicles right most of them are

00:18:54.480 priced way out of range of most car buyers right and then you get them and you got the you get the

00:19:01.840 charger you have to buy you can only do a couple hundred kilometers on it at the best of times

00:19:07.280 god knows if we'll even start in minus 40 calgary night you know you can't drive to vancouver

00:19:13.840 without stopping a couple times and sitting there and getting it all powered up you know these are

00:19:18.480 all obstacles that are being placed in front of you and they still want you to buy the the electric

00:19:24.160 vehicle right it's the same situation as homes the thing that concerns me about the homes is that

00:19:32.000 speaking specifically of alberta now and the demand that they meet zero carbon emissions

00:19:39.680 in the electrical generating uh industry by 2035 smith says it's impossible it is i believe it is

00:19:50.480 impossible it takes 10 years to get the approvals to build a two-inch pipeline across a field so

00:19:59.680 how long is it going to take before they even begin the basic design of the facilities to get

00:20:07.200 the permission approval the environmental permissions to build the new sites that the

00:20:17.520 We're going to generate electricity from what?

00:20:21.920 Sun, wind, maybe nuclear.

00:20:25.380 Have we got a design for a nuclear reactor yet?

00:20:27.360 The green crowd's against nuclear.

00:20:28.880 We're not allowed to do that one either.

00:20:30.620 So, you know, I see, and I have not got this as a direct quote from her,

00:20:37.280 but I believe from what she's saying that Danielle Smith foresees the future.

00:20:42.340 If we just give in to Ottawa,

00:20:44.140 where we'll be facing brownouts and blackouts in 10 years' time 1.00

00:20:47.560 if Ottawa insists on zero emissions

00:20:50.760 because we simply do not have time to build the new structures.

00:20:55.500 Even if we had the money,

00:20:57.560 which I guess we probably could find if we had to,

00:21:01.400 there isn't time the way we do things in this country

00:21:04.200 to get all the approvals lined up

00:21:05.700 and the stuff ordered and contracted and constructed,

00:21:08.740 put into service.

00:21:09.720 It can't be done in the 12 years we have.

00:21:11.920 There was a good incident yesterday

00:21:13.240 that I think sums it up nicely. Natural Resources Minister Wilkinson was giving away more millions

00:21:21.660 of dollars. He was up in Drumheller yesterday for solar power, made this big announcement

00:21:28.340 in a field, and everybody looked up, and cloudy as hell. Couldn't see a thing. You couldn't

00:21:34.960 see the sun anywhere. That was just like a metaphor of where it's going.

00:21:39.740 So, I mean, we know, though, you know, as political wonky sorts, I mean, there's expediency politically to have a foil.

00:21:46.600 Every politician, you have to have either an issue or a person or a movement, but to be able to point to and say,

00:21:51.800 you must support me because I will protect you from him, her or that.

00:21:57.320 So it's going to be valuable for Premier Smith to, of course, you know, keep that the fire stoked with Justin Trudeau.

00:22:04.180 He seems to be quite a willing participant, but the price, the price is going to be, we've got support for secession as I'm sitting at 20, 25 percent steadily these days.

00:22:15.360 It'll only grow if those two keep fighting. 0.98

00:22:17.700 Yeah, and I think what Smith has to do is more than what Kenny did.

00:22:23.180 You know, Kenny would strike a panel to study something or send a letter to Trudeau.

00:22:28.440 So, if it comes to, you know, the Liberals move ahead with all these things, which it appears they are,

00:22:35.440 Smith has to take another step, whether it's yet another court battle or more likely the Sovereignty Act,

00:22:42.900 you know, that's what she's got to do. 0.97

00:22:45.240 Well, I mean, the Sovereignty Act is intended to kick in when the federal government makes a demand

00:22:53.320 that is not within their jurisdiction to make.

00:22:56.040 presumably that is going to come in through how bill c69 is administered bill c69 is generally

00:23:07.980 thought of as the no pipelines bill and that's correct that is certainly what it is but that was

00:23:13.060 in in the context of pipelines from alberta to the coast any pipeline uh crossing provincial

00:23:20.260 borders but it covers much more than pipelines and i believe that the intention of the federal

00:23:25.400 government is to insist that they have the right to apply it within the province and not only where

00:23:33.000 the project concern crosses a provincial boundary well the second they start doing that that is

00:23:38.680 where the sovereignty act kicks in and then it'll be up to the federal government to sue

00:23:44.680 so that buys time and as we're talking about election uh expectations i mean i think a lot

00:23:52.680 of this is predicated on the on the hope that there would be a change of government in auto

00:23:57.400 in a couple of years time we just got to get there you know i also note uh our energy reporter sean

00:24:03.720 polster this week has churned out several stories norway makes the biggest oil discovery in 10 years

00:24:09.720 you know expectations of crude oil barrels of crude oil a day you know going up over the next

00:24:15.880 decades significantly natural gas uh britain signed a huge deal with the united states to

00:24:22.280 import natural gas you know and of course we're sitting here with and germany of course and and

00:24:27.000 and germany there's no business case for canadian gas in germany right so the rest of the world

00:24:31.720 seems to be heading one way canada seems to be heading the other way and i'm not sure we're

00:24:36.920 heading the right way yeah well they're facing reality in the other parts of the world i mean

00:24:40.440 I mean, the part that they've realized, but it really brought it into focus with the Ukraine war, with the dependency on Russian gas and the realization that demand isn't going away.

00:24:52.480 Despite what all we've been scolded and lectured for over the last couple of decades on oil and gas, we still, world demand is growing for it.

00:25:02.340 And you can fight it all you like.

00:25:04.460 All it means is consumers pay a higher price, but they still need it.

00:25:07.740 but the other countries are realizing that hard reality, but Canada isn't.

00:25:11.940 Well, it doesn't care to. It's become a personal thing.

00:25:16.640 And that's something, I mean, the Liberals have changed, though.

00:25:20.740 I mean, when I speak of Dan McTeague, for example, you know, he was a Liberal member of Parliament.

00:25:25.740 He's been on my show a number of times. He's quite outspoken against the Trudeau government.

00:25:29.240 Is this his gas buddy?

00:25:30.240 Yes, yes. And he's very, you know, common sense, pragmatic.

00:25:34.240 He still considers himself a Liberal, just a Liberal of that time.

00:25:37.340 I mean, the Liberals were still a party of commerce and business if left leaning in the 90s.

00:25:43.180 You know, they were more pragmatic.

00:25:44.540 They weren't so dogmatic with shutting things down like we have under this Trudeau Liberals right now.

00:25:51.240 Look at who's leading the government, right?

00:25:53.660 Nigel's 100% right to Trudeau's legacy.

00:25:56.420 The only thing he's got a chance at is Mr. Climate, right?

00:25:59.680 So he's going to forge away.

00:26:01.060 The environment minister is a former Greenpeace radical, arrested, you know, for, you know, climbing onto Premier Klein's house.

00:26:11.460 You've got Wilkinson, you know, also a very, you know, his job is to kill the oil industry.

00:26:18.700 So, yeah, they're not going to make any changes.

00:26:20.700 They'll keep going the way there.

00:26:22.780 Well, this feeds an investment chill as well.

00:26:25.000 I mean, that's one of the things.

00:26:25.700 They don't necessarily have to legislate us out of development of our resources out here.

00:26:30.120 we can't get capital because of investors looking at that anti-energy crowd.

00:26:34.840 Well, let's just talk about investment chill for a second. One of the people who is often

00:26:41.320 touted as a replacement for Mr. Trudeau is none other than former Bank of Canada Governor Mark

00:26:48.520 Carney. If Mark Carney has made it his business to go to investment houses and argue with them

00:26:58.600 against investing in energy specifically hydrocarbon energy so and then of course it becomes

00:27:07.720 a self-fulfilling prophecy they they people you'll read the reports investment houses are turning

00:27:14.120 against uh mark carney says investment houses are turning against investment in oil well he told

00:27:21.880 them to. I guess they, I guess they listened, you know.

00:27:25.000 Who'd have thunk it?

00:27:26.040 Yeah, you know, and even if nothing ever happens, the fear factor in there is the possibility

00:27:31.960 that something like that could happen. It just chases people out of Canada and off to places

00:27:38.120 like Norway, which don't have that same policy set and have a very different view of the world.

00:27:45.960 Well, getting back kind of a bit to the unity as these intractable battles happen,

00:27:51.640 we seem to see natural allies developing between Daniel Smith and Premier Moe in BC. It's a little

00:27:57.720 different than with the other... Saskatchewan. Sorry, Saskatchewan is a little different than

00:28:01.320 when BC used to be actually quite regionalist, but aside from northeast BC and the interior,

00:28:06.600 David Eby doesn't have much interest in allying with Premier Smith and Moe. And Manitoba supports

00:28:14.040 kind of a swing, I guess you could call it. But you can see a battle with a block, like there's

00:28:19.880 There's been a lot of discussion of having a utility corridor going to Hudson's Bay, perhaps, for example.

00:28:24.920 Now, that would cross provincial borders, so it would be the federal's, you know, government's role to give a thumbs up or thumbs down.

00:28:31.100 But if they give a thumbs down, if there really is a serious proposal to do that, again, I think the rage on the prairies is going to be pretty strong.

00:28:37.520 Well, I think that's coming. I think the Hudson Bay route, I think you'll see more developments on that in the next, before the end of the month.

00:28:47.000 And I think that's going to be a huge, huge story.

00:28:50.660 Yeah, yeah.

00:28:52.440 And that would be going nowhere if Quebec were more tractable.

00:28:57.560 They've taken a moral position or, you know, fracking.

00:29:01.780 Don't want to do that.

00:29:03.000 And even that's against the majority of Quebecers' wishes.

00:29:06.840 Yeah.

00:29:07.240 You know, they want more availability of energy.

00:29:11.340 But again, it's their government's ideological standing.

00:29:14.000 I don't know who Mr. Legault thinks is going to pay the bills of the Alberta camp.

00:29:17.840 No, exactly.

00:29:18.840 Anyway, not to be, and I'm not even anti, you know, I'm not sort of reflexively anti-Quebec.

00:29:25.400 Some great people there, but the policies that they vote for, the majority,

00:29:31.580 certainly are against the interests of the West.

00:29:35.340 And it's quite tiresome because in so many ways, the political ambitions of Quebec,

00:29:39.280 which is keep the federal government in its place, are so similar to ours.

00:29:43.160 and it's painful that we can't work together.

00:29:45.140 Yeah, we should be best buddies.

00:29:46.940 I think.

00:29:47.780 And I mean, in speaking many years ago

00:29:50.440 when I was a little more immersed in regionalism,

00:29:53.300 and I did meet with some members of the Bloc Quebecois

00:29:55.380 and Gilles Duceppe was leading them at the time.

00:29:58.240 There was a bit of discussion on our part

00:29:59.700 on seeing if we could,

00:30:01.720 the term I was given was hammer and anvil.

00:30:03.780 Boy, if Alberta and Quebec were both

00:30:06.180 smacking against Ottawa,

00:30:08.260 you could really squish them in the middle

00:30:09.440 and put them in their place.

00:30:10.460 But there's no discussion like that

00:30:11.860 happening between the province of Alberta and Quebec at this time.

00:30:14.960 No, it's just going to be Alberta, Saskatchewan, I think.

00:30:18.300 And maybe New Brunswick.

00:30:19.840 Well, yeah, we're seeing, you know, frustration with the centralized government

00:30:23.880 and regionalism happening in other provinces springing up.

00:30:26.640 So is the Manitoba government a weak link in that Hudson's Bay proposal?

00:30:32.380 They've never come out and said they would support it.

00:30:35.500 So I would think the weak link description fits at the moment.

00:30:40.520 Well, she's a weak Premier. 1.00

00:30:42.280 She's got the lowest ranking in Canada, Premier Stephenson.

00:30:46.620 So, yeah, she's probably not in a position to do anything controversial at the moment if she wants to get elected. 1.00

00:30:53.900 The best that can be said is they haven't come out against it either.

00:30:56.380 They just aren't touching it.

00:30:57.460 But, I mean, it would certainly be a serious issue impacting their province.

00:31:01.240 You would think the Premier should be speaking up on it.

00:31:03.040 But, again, let's get this done.

00:31:04.720 If we were any other country in the world, we would see these problems coming down the pipe.

00:31:09.180 and take action now to do it.

00:31:12.060 But we don't, right?

00:31:13.120 As Nigel says, 10 years to get a two-inch pipeline at 100 feet.

00:31:16.460 A tactic I saw, though, that Premier Smith seems willing to embrace.

00:31:21.100 We saw that with addictions treatment centers.

00:31:24.500 We've seen it with the clinic on the Enoch Reserve.

00:31:27.400 It's partnering with First Nations and Indigenous people

00:31:29.960 because it really puts those progressive politicians on the spot.

00:31:33.180 And I remember running, you know, Notley's nose in it a little on Twitter

00:31:37.680 just when she's opposing private health care 0.99

00:31:40.000 and every other aspect,

00:31:40.620 they say, well, when are you going to shut down

00:31:41.620 the clinic on the Enoch Reserve?

00:31:43.060 You don't get an answer on that.

00:31:44.800 But they're talking about partnering.

00:31:46.680 Well, I'm sure, why not?

00:31:47.620 It crosses a lot of First Nations land

00:31:49.260 with them to get that corridor in.

00:31:51.660 And if you've got some chiefs getting up saying,

00:31:53.380 hey, are you going to approve our project or not?

00:31:55.600 It's going to make it a lot more difficult

00:31:56.920 for Trudeau to shut that down.

00:31:59.300 And it only, sorry, Nigel,

00:32:00.680 it only benefits the Indigenous people 1.00

00:32:03.740 whose pipeline it crosses

00:32:05.340 to the economic benefits.

00:32:06.940 they get from it, it's huge.

00:32:09.780 Although that doesn't seem to have been a completely persuasive argument

00:32:13.400 in British Columbia, does it?

00:32:14.860 Well, it has.

00:32:15.540 I think the vast majority of the chiefs...

00:32:18.060 Well, they're on site.

00:32:18.860 The actual chiefs on site, but the hereditary chiefs are not,

00:32:24.140 and obviously made a lot of noise about it.

00:32:27.020 I'm getting a fact.

00:32:28.080 There were other pipelines, other projects,

00:32:29.780 and it didn't matter how much, for example,

00:32:32.960 until the Northern Gateway Project was totally supported

00:32:37.180 by the chiefs along the way.

00:32:39.700 And the key was turned, and that was that.

00:32:42.560 Yeah.

00:32:43.860 True enough.

00:32:45.160 I mean, they're supported by, but not necessarily invested

00:32:46.560 in the ways that they might be.

00:32:48.520 I mean, you're talking as if you think

00:32:50.160 that the liberal government actually believes what they are

00:32:54.460 saying about indigenous reconciliation.

00:32:58.420 I think they think they believe it.

00:33:01.960 When it comes to actually putting the thumbprint of approval on something that the indigenous 1.00

00:33:08.800 peoples have decided would be a good thing for them, well, it conflicts with their climate

00:33:12.900 change agenda, suddenly that's not quite such a serious consideration, is it?

00:33:17.720 Exactly.

00:33:18.720 Closing out on that topic, I guess, you know, filling with a metaphor for Trudeau's visit

00:33:22.140 to Alberta was his fine attempt at the simple, relatively simple task of flipping a pancake

00:33:30.680 the stampede as every politician does and uh well it seems to have blown up in his face or on his

00:33:36.760 lap actually it's uh it's funny the instant i saw that you know here we go within minutes it was a

00:33:44.920 meme going across canada you know he was just ridiculed uh we had a story with calgary nose

00:33:52.600 hill mp michelle rempel garner saying this was a politician's worst nightmare and she actually

00:33:58.200 gave instructions on how to do it probably, because I'm sure she's flipped a few pancakes

00:34:03.640 in her lifetime too. Yeah, I mean, what a mess. I'm sure the PR people would have just sat there 1.00

00:34:10.920 shaking their heads. To be fair, I hate to be fair, but when a certain conservative

00:34:19.000 prime ministerial candidate by the name of Robert Stanfield fumbled a ball, you know,

00:34:25.640 that was taken as a metaphor of his competence to govern and i believe i believe i'm correct in

00:34:32.200 saying that he in the in the warm-up the practice where they this is how we do it let's get it right

00:34:38.040 he he was doing perfect perfect and then the when the real thing came he dropped it you know the

00:34:46.200 best prime minister canada never had was the legend was born so i as i say i'll attack mr

00:34:52.520 of Trudeau day and night on his climate change policies

00:34:55.240 and a lot of other things besides,

00:34:57.180 but I can forgive him for squishing a pancake.

00:34:59.120 Everybody has their moments, you know,

00:35:01.180 you slip and it splattered,

00:35:02.440 there was too much grease or whatever.

00:35:04.100 It just, it does hit on people.

00:35:05.640 As you said, was Stanfield fair or not fair?

00:35:07.440 Because part of the image of Justin Trudeau too-

00:35:09.520 Am I getting my age away here?

00:35:10.780 Is a gentleman who never, well-

00:35:12.680 You're a student of history.

00:35:13.760 Yes, right.

00:35:14.600 A student of history.

00:35:15.440 Trudeau's a guy who's never really cooked a meal

00:35:17.120 for himself and his size.

00:35:18.460 Exactly, how many does he spend on groceries a year?

00:35:20.860 $60,000, $70,000 or something like that.

00:35:22.900 Flipping a pancake is usually kind of a rudimentary

00:35:25.060 kitchen skill.

00:35:26.060 It's a metaphor for how he's running the country.

00:35:28.920 I mean, I do know that back in my PMO days,

00:35:32.300 you would not have had to tell Stephen Harper

00:35:34.400 how to flip a pancake.

00:35:35.960 No.

00:35:36.960 Well, if there was any doubt about it,

00:35:38.800 there would have been a practice.

00:35:42.200 Let's get this right.

00:35:43.220 But again, like the t-shirt thing with Smith.

00:35:45.060 It's just something to chuckle over.

00:35:46.160 But it's not the issue of this decade.

00:35:49.320 we've got bigger ones with Prime Minister Trudeau.

00:35:52.380 What if we could chuckle a little again?

00:35:53.760 You're trying to be-

00:35:54.260 Any time we can mock them, the better, right?

00:35:56.280 Well, it makes me think of like,

00:35:57.520 there's a Homer Simpson meme, you know,

00:35:59.000 from where he's trying something on The Simpsons

00:36:01.100 or he's trying to make a recipe, you know,

00:36:03.140 with milk and cereal and he pours the two together

00:36:05.880 and it catches on fire. 1.00

00:36:06.840 That's how inept you are. 0.99

00:36:08.820 And it's just what's kind of funny. 0.99

00:36:11.080 Yeah.

00:36:11.920 All right, getting into something less funny.

00:36:13.880 And back to the federal government, but not as regional.

00:36:17.560 This is still pretty directly affects us.

00:36:20.020 That's Bill C-18 and Ottawa's strategic withdrawal in this fight for democracy.

00:36:26.540 Yeah, it was you knew it was going to come or some form of it was going to come because the government had said no to, you know,

00:36:35.440 giving huge amounts of cash or asking for a huge amount of cash from Google and Meta for Facebook.

00:36:41.680 And the law passed, and those two tech giants said, oh, we're cutting off your news supply.

00:36:48.420 And, of course, everybody started to panic about that, because most Canadians probably do get their news through Google searches or Facebook posts and threads that they click on.

00:36:59.840 So last week, the minister responsible, Pablo Rodriguez, put out a statement.

00:37:09.280 Well, actually, he didn't put out a statement.

00:37:10.600 his department put out a statement basically backtracking bottom line is google may be okay

00:37:19.640 facebook meta likely not but they're open to more more negotiations and i think we're we're

00:37:29.000 we're months away he said we're months away from implementing you know this anyways so there's

00:37:34.040 still lots of time for lots more developments in their liberals effort to kill off the news industry 0.95

00:37:39.560 Well, you can totally understand where Meta was coming from,

00:37:43.020 that they have absolutely no control over what will turn out to be a very significant cost.

00:37:49.920 How many people are going to click?

00:37:51.420 Every time they click, it's another royalty going to the newspapers.

00:37:59.960 And if you are in business, there is no way that you would tolerate a cost

00:38:06.760 that you couldn't control that you had no idea excuse me that'll be just it would have been

00:38:16.520 a money loser and of course whatever happened here in canada they'd have been stuck with around the

00:38:21.840 world and the thing the strong point for meta for facebook is that they're in the business of

00:38:28.300 supplying content it doesn't have to be news you know how many people actually uh everybody who

00:38:36.660 everybody who goes on facebook needs to just sort of have a moment of self-reflection here

00:38:41.660 yes i went on to read the news i ended up looking at kitten pictures so they have the kitten pictures

00:38:50.960 they have the beauty they have the sports they they they have the sort of the real life stuff

00:38:57.720 the entertainment and the fashion and everything else why do you think we started putting those

00:39:03.560 things on the front pages of newspapers in the skyboxes because we knew that

00:39:07.560 was actually celebrity slobber that drew people so uh they can do that they do not need to claim

00:39:14.920 to impress well everybody that's the nature of facebook that's what they seem to have forgotten

00:39:19.240 everybody's a content producer the the guy taking the picture of his food bowl and putting up there

00:39:25.160 is a content producer the guy sharing the little video of his niece with her first steps is a

00:39:31.240 content producer that's what generates it it doesn't mean that those people are stealing

00:39:36.680 something from facebook and that's the language they used i mean you can see why facebook dug in

00:39:40.120 you know i mean that's going to be really insulting so we're providing this giving you

00:39:45.160 a platform to share these things and reach wider and we have this government turn around and accuse

00:39:50.280 us of stealing from them i guarantee if if you were to take a if you could get an accurate measure

00:39:58.200 on a news story uh today of how many people read it and you took the measurement of how many read

00:40:05.080 it on print and how many read it on facebook and you wait until a year after this legislation has

00:40:13.480 taken taken effect with facebook not being part of the action you'd still have that little bit

00:40:22.360 of print that still goes out perhaps a little guarantees but let's hope and there would be

00:40:29.240 nothing so total readership is going to go down and that's not helping corey had an excellent

00:40:36.360 interview today on his show with peter menzies uh former crtc vice chair and and publisher of

00:40:42.840 the herald and he said yeah basically the news industry has to find a way to survive

00:40:47.960 and that way to survive is is for people for outlets like ourselves is through memberships and

00:40:55.080 and subscriptions so we have to provide something that they people can't get anywhere else yeah

00:41:02.280 exactly and we have to people have to get in their mind that if you want good um accurate not fake

00:41:10.760 news you may have to pay for it and people are right now cannot get that around their mind a

00:41:17.960 few years ago they had no problem paying 10 bucks a month uh and having the door to you know having

00:41:23.560 the paper delivered every morning uh but they're unwilling to pay 10 bucks a month to get the same

00:41:29.480 sort of access on on their computer or on on their phone or tablet uh so that's sort of the mentality

00:41:37.080 that the news industry has to be leading the change on i think to be fair some people are

00:41:43.000 willing to pay that and that's what we've found you know with the western standard it's a business

00:41:48.120 like anything else once you've convinced a person that there is something behind that paywall that's

00:41:53.000 worth ten dollars a month to me they will which you guys should subscribe and take out that ten

00:41:58.200 dollars a month to help support the western standard and other independent outlets i mean

00:42:02.200 that's the way it's going the government's fighting that anyways we're inspired to make

00:42:05.960 sure we're providing products that they don't feel disappointment in their investment I guess

00:42:10.200 you could say into that and and it's worked but rather than with the global mail to a degree with

00:42:14.920 their paywalls I mean I think they've actually been doing a little well fiscally relative to

00:42:18.920 some of the other publications New York Times yeah so this is a formula that can work this can be done

00:42:25.560 without shaking down the social media platforms yeah I'd say I noticed the uh the deal between

00:42:34.120 Post Media and Thorstar has gone south. So it can be done, but not everybody's doing it. I would

00:42:42.780 have to conclude. I'm not sure if that was Post Media's last hope to avoid bankruptcy, but, you

00:42:50.120 know, they are a struggling corporation at the moment. They have no active newsrooms, like in

00:42:56.200 Alberta, for example. Well, we're the only one that actually has a newsroom, except for maybe

00:43:01.200 the cbc uh everybody else has their handful of reporters working from their basements so you

00:43:07.760 know it's uh it is an industry in major flux there's no doubt about it it has been for uh

00:43:13.680 for several years and we're approaching the the crisis point the tipping point and uh you know the

00:43:21.280 it's like a battle of nature the you know the strong will survive and the weak will perish

00:43:25.360 Well, I just want to say, part of what seemed to happen too was the government was shocked

00:43:30.880 as somebody stood up to them. I mean, the indignant rage coming from the Prime Minister

00:43:36.320 and the Heritage Minister over this, like they were just shocked that their bluff got called,

00:43:41.520 shocked that Google and Meta weren't bluffing. They said, we just won't carry it.

00:43:45.760 Well, they were describing it as a fight of the century and, you know,

00:43:48.560 Canadians to the ramparts. World War II comparisons and everything, you know.

00:43:52.880 I don't know, was it Peter said in his little piece something about it took them a week to go from invoking Dunkirk and D-Day in the defense of democracy to negotiating the terms of their own surrender.

00:44:06.800 It was very well put.

00:44:08.460 It was a total climb down.

00:44:10.980 I mean, they haven't trashed the bill.

00:44:13.620 It's still a threat and it's still a problem.

00:44:16.620 You know, when you talk about investor chill, but boy, you know, I mean, that's some of the discussion we had online.

00:44:21.100 two people say, are you for Canada? Or are you for some

00:44:23.920 foreign billionaires? Like, I don't care. You know, they don't 1.00

00:44:28.840 play the envy game with me. I don't care if you like

00:44:31.300 Zuckerberg or Google. It doesn't matter. This is a

00:44:36.040 shakedown. I don't care if you steal from the homeless person

00:44:41.140 down the street who can ill afford it or you steal from

00:44:44.340 Zuckerberg, it's still theft. And I will put up with it. No.

00:44:51.100 I mean, we have had our own issues with Facebook trying to report certain elements of news.

00:44:59.420 Yes, we've been bad. We've been put in Facebook jail.

00:45:01.920 Put in Facebook jail.

00:45:03.060 And YouTube jail.

00:45:04.300 You know, it's not that we're carrying a flag for Mr. Zuckerberg. Far from him.

00:45:10.980 And if you remember, they were very strong in censoring a lot of vaccine content.

00:45:19.580 And, you know, they did a good job of muzzling the media, no doubt about that.

00:45:23.680 We're not great friends of them.

00:45:25.020 We just want to see that modern press diversity.

00:45:28.620 Well, looks like we've kind of covered it all for this week, guys.

00:45:32.000 So thank you for joining in this different seating and in my loud shirt today.

00:45:38.640 You put up with it.

00:45:39.940 So, Nigel, Dave?

00:45:42.480 I'm seeing six fingers here.

00:45:44.240 Yes.

00:45:45.260 It's bad for anybody with a hangover.

00:45:47.720 Some folks in this office don't have to look at me that much.

00:45:51.180 It's probably for the better.

00:45:53.000 Yeah, great to be here tonight.

00:45:54.160 Yeah, and yeah, thank you guys for tuning in.

00:45:57.340 And again, make sure to subscribe.

00:45:58.660 That's how the independent outlets are going to survive.

00:46:00.920 That's how we stay independent and we're responsible to you rather than to a government.

00:46:05.880 So, again, thank you all for tuning in this week.

00:46:09.140 and be sure to come in again next week and we'll solve all the world's problems on that day for you

00:46:13.380 as well the current lethbridge feed grain prices read as follows cash barley's at 428 feed wheat's

00:46:20.500 at 418 and corn is down three dollars at 3.90 per metric ton in the milling wheat markets

00:46:26.660 september minneapolis futures lost 15 cents at 849 with local hard red spring bids for july

00:46:32.980 movement at $9.75 per bushel. In the oilseeds, nearby canola futures increased $11.20 at $7.98.30

00:46:41.900 per ton, with delivered values for August movement at $18.33 per bushel. In the pulse markets,

00:46:48.600 nearby red lentils are trading at $0.34 a pound, and yellow peas remain at $11.50 per bushel.

00:46:54.180 In the cattle markets, August slide cattle are down $0.22 at $1.78.60 per 100 weight.

00:47:00.200 For more information on grain marketing, call me at 403-394-1711.

00:47:06.400 I'm Sean Smith at Marketplace Commodities, accurate real-time marketing information and pricing options.

00:47:12.340 Canadian Shooting Sports Association. Without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago.

00:47:19.240 These guys are on the front lines helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in Canada.

00:47:26.460 and more importantly, educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.

00:47:32.240 To become a member, it's absolutely worth every penny.

00:47:37.080 You can become a Western Standard member for just $10 a month.

Western Standard - July 13, 2023

The Pipeline： Danielle Smith's t-shirt travails

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