Western Standard - The Pipeline： Devastation in BC and Conservative Chaos

00:00:00.000 .

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Good day. I'm Derek Fildebrand, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:01:48.420 Today is November 17th. I'm joined, as usual, by Western Standard news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:01:56.820 Hello, Dirk.

00:01:57.860 Hello.

00:01:58.960 And as usual, by Western Standard Alberta political columnist and host of the Corey Morgan Show.

00:02:04.140 Corey Morgan.

00:02:04.960 Good afternoon.

00:02:06.360 That's a good name of the show.

00:02:08.400 We've put a lot of thought into it.

00:02:09.760 Corey Morgan Show.

00:02:10.660 It took a lot of work.

00:02:12.460 Good.

00:02:13.000 Yeah.

00:02:14.460 Today, we're going to be talking about the devastating floods overtaking British Columbia

00:02:19.760 right now.

00:02:20.820 We've got reporters on the ground there.

00:02:22.900 So we're going to be talking about what's happening, the response, and what actions the provincial government there is expected to be taking today.

00:02:32.700 The United Conservative Party, so united, going into their convention this weekend in Calgary, Alberta, at the Grey Eagle Casino, where I'm told you smoke.

00:02:43.580 I'm taking him smoking again for the weekend.

00:02:46.300 At the very least, I'm going to get some cigars.

00:02:48.000 like roulette and cigars like it's just cool it's cool uh so we're gonna be uh they're smoking all

00:02:57.540 weekend um but we're gonna be bringing the whole crew myself dave uh cory james we'll also probably

00:03:05.020 have the uncensored panel that'd be bruce mccallister daniel smith rob anderson uh some of

00:03:10.620 our other columnists josh andrus we're bringing the whole crew there we're gonna be uh reporting

00:03:14.640 live. So, of course, you can watch westernstandardonline.com for updates on news and opinion coming there,

00:03:20.500 but we'll also be broadcasting live J.C. Kenney's speech, and we'll be providing reporting from

00:03:26.620 what's happening in the convention. A lot of drama is expected to be taking place. We're going to be

00:03:31.540 talking about it here, and we'll be talking about it on the weekend as it goes down. Speaking of

00:03:37.380 drama and leaders with some problems, Aaron O'Toole has moved to expel and has succeeded in

00:03:44.380 expelling Senator Bathurst from the Conservative Senate Caucus. She's gone because she started a

00:03:56.740 petition to have a review of Aaron O'Toole's leadership. If only Jason Kenney had the

00:04:02.220 remaining political capital to expel people for even saying there should be a vote on his

00:04:06.580 leadership. He may be in a room by himself then. Yeah. That's what we've got for today. But before

00:04:13.320 we get going, I want to thank all of our Western Standard members for your continued loyal support.

00:04:18.660 Without you, we couldn't do what we do. If you want to support our work and get unlimited access

00:04:24.760 to Western Standard content, go to westernstandardonline.com right now. Now, I'm

00:04:32.040 waiting. I'll wait. I'll wait. Right now, click on membership, fill it out. You can try it free

00:04:38.220 for 15 days. It's only $10 a month or $99 a year for unlimited Western standard content.

00:04:45.960 You're going to love it. Promise it. So let's get started, I guess, with the least

00:04:51.860 entertaining news that we're going to go through today. Assuming my mic didn't just die there.

00:04:59.260 British Columbia underwater, Dave Phillison. Terrible scenes in British Columbia, Derek.

00:05:05.160 uh it's what forecasters are calling a atmospheric river uh whatever the heck that means scary but it

00:05:11.640 brought record rainfalls and and record floodings basically if you want to drive from alberta to

00:05:18.200 vancouver you cannot do so you'd have to make a 12-hour detour through the united states

00:05:25.160 the roads are washed out highway section highway 5 the coca hollow which is everybody's favorite

00:05:31.000 route into vancouver has suffered major infrastructure damage including being washed

00:05:35.880 away completely in five different sections main highway one the old route into vancouver is

00:05:43.000 underwater there's highways covered in mud there's people missing in the mudslides there's people

00:05:49.480 hundreds of people trapped uh a school or sorry a church in uh in hope has taken in dozens and

00:05:56.440 dozens of people who were just can't get home because the the highways are blocked uh the

00:06:02.360 government of bc may call a state of emergency today uh but it's it's not getting any better

00:06:10.200 residents of uh areas around abbotsford near the sumus river have been evacuated and warned of

00:06:16.680 quote catastrophic flooding uh pumping station there is failing even though they spent most of

00:06:23.880 of the night trying to build a dam around it and they say if that goes the consequences will be

00:06:29.160 will be unbelievable the entire area will be turned into a lake so there's mandatory

00:06:35.020 evacuations all over the place uh but you know alberta takes the blame because elizabeth may 1.00

00:06:42.280 says it's fossil fuels that are starting it so actually it's in particular it's cory's fault

00:06:47.160 it's cory's fault so yeah we'll apologize to british columbians for that uh one woman has

00:06:52.540 being killed. She was found washed away in a mudslide on one of the highways. So really bad

00:06:59.680 scenes. It's, you know, stores in the interior are going to be cut off from like fresh fruit and

00:07:06.300 stuff because you cannot get that stuff off the port in Vancouver. There's no rail traffic in or

00:07:11.980 out of Vancouver. And obviously there's no commercial trucks going there because the roads

00:07:17.420 the roads are not open, so

00:07:19.120 it's going to be a very bad scene, and it's going to

00:07:21.580 continue to be for

00:07:22.720 several days to come.

00:07:26.300 Well,

00:07:27.020 normally we talk about political chaos

00:07:29.640 and the kind of 1.00

00:07:31.460 bullshit that goes on there. This is a bit 1.00

00:07:33.340 different. I'm not sure I can have an

00:07:35.360 opinion on the matter

00:07:36.360 other than Elizabeth May, I suppose.

00:07:40.920 Of course

00:07:41.540 it's Corey's fault.

00:07:44.280 I don't

00:07:45.120 think there's really much we can say

00:07:47.200 other than just trying to keep our viewers abreast

00:07:50.200 of what's happening.

00:07:51.580 Our correspondent, Reid Small, is on the scene

00:07:54.040 and he files updates already.

00:07:57.100 There's already a story on there.

00:07:58.900 And if you keep checking back to westernstandardonline.com,

00:08:02.980 he will continue to have updates throughout the day.

00:08:05.640 Yeah, we've got Reid on the ground in the Lower Mainland.

00:08:08.800 So we'll have a lot more there.

00:08:11.100 Good luck, everybody out there.

00:08:13.180 Yeah, Godspeed, especially your family.

00:08:15.840 safe so far uh i i remember when we had the big flood in 2013 here in calgary i was living in

00:08:23.040 bonass at the time uh which was really hard hit but i was on high ground within bonass and that

00:08:28.740 that was that was a terrifying experience um i think i was young enough to still think i was

00:08:33.980 invincible so i didn't leave but uh there's a lot of farmers in the area that have spent their

00:08:39.760 entire life you know building up their herds now they're being told they have to let the

00:08:44.140 leave and let the animals die. So you're not going to get, you're going to get a lot of people

00:08:48.840 actually that refuse to leave and will do everything they can to protect their livelihood.

00:08:53.140 Well, so when my area was evacuated during the 2013 Calgary flood, I didn't leave because I was

00:08:58.160 concerned about looters and there were looters there and police do intentionally suppress news

00:09:03.520 of it because they don't want to raise alarm and have people, no pun intended, flooding back into

00:09:08.100 the area because they're concerned for their property getting looted. So news of that kind

00:09:13.560 of thing. I have no idea if this is happening in British Columbia, but it was taking place here

00:09:18.160 and it never really got talked about for that reason. But if you're in those areas, the smart

00:09:25.060 money is to leave. But I can very much appreciate, especially people with property who have spent

00:09:29.380 their lives building this kind of thing up, being a bit hesitant to go.

00:09:34.580 Poor BC, they must have done something wrong to somebody. The fire is early this year and

00:09:39.540 And now this, they just can't catch a break. 1.00

00:09:42.780 And Mother Nature is a bitch. 1.00

00:09:45.400 It's almost sounding like something about a revelation. 0.99

00:09:47.400 I mean, you know, I'm waiting for the locusts to come.

00:09:49.620 I mean, we've had the plague.

00:09:50.600 We're getting the floods.

00:09:51.820 We've had the fires.

00:09:53.080 Frogs. 0.80

00:09:53.560 We're just not getting a break.

00:09:55.580 But I mean, you know, and people familiar with that area, Princeton is an area I used to spend a lot of time in.

00:10:01.520 I used to have Placer Gold claims out there.

00:10:03.380 And you get the Similkameen River and the Toulamene River.

00:10:05.580 They junction.

00:10:07.400 And that town is built right on top of it.

00:10:09.460 it gets flooded probably every 40 years or so. And then this one's just brutal. And there's

00:10:14.800 nowhere to go. You're in the valley. You've got to. So, I mean, all I can do, I mean, you know,

00:10:19.700 aside from Elizabeth May using it to score her climate change points, I mean, all we should be

00:10:24.160 doing right now is just hoping people can get out safely. We're going to see consequences for this

00:10:28.120 for a year. I mean, that highway has been wiped out. We've, you know, we already had a supply

00:10:31.660 chain nightmare. Nothing's coming off that coast to get out here for months.

00:10:35.600 Why don't you talk about Crave? There were no fires and floods before climate change.

00:10:39.240 Yeah, I know. This is the first decade of it.

00:10:43.620 When God flooded the earth and Noah got away, it's only because Noah was the only environmentalist, so he was spared.

00:10:50.540 God saved the drunkard.

00:10:51.760 Yeah. Okay, let's talk about something that I think is at least more entertainment, has some entertainment value.

00:10:59.140 the UCP convention coming up this weekend.

00:11:02.640 United Conservative Party.

00:11:05.440 Very united going into this weekend, right, Dave?

00:11:08.320 Not so much, Derek.

00:11:10.400 A blockbuster letter yesterday from MLA Peter Guthrie,

00:11:15.580 who represents Airdrie Cochran.

00:11:17.700 He was one of Jason Kenney's earliest supporters,

00:11:20.960 and he wrote him what can only be called a scathing letter.

00:11:24.560 I thought even that's almost mild.

00:11:26.020 It's almost mild. 0.82

00:11:26.860 It was a spanking. 1.00

00:11:27.840 It was a spanking, yeah. 1.00

00:11:29.140 basically said the UCP is on the verge of collapse

00:11:31.900 and accused the Premier and his office of using taxpayers' money

00:11:37.240 to work against MLAs that oppose him.

00:11:42.180 I mean, for anybody else, it would be a political suicide note.

00:11:47.100 But as you said, he just doesn't have the political capital

00:11:50.120 to be kicking out people left, right, and centre.

00:11:53.480 So several things to watch out for this weekend at the AGM.

00:11:56.880 The first thing Friday night is a debate on the governance issues.

00:12:02.180 This is where a motion being passed by an Edmonton writing basically says only Kenny can bring up new issues to the floor.

00:12:10.660 And that has caused a huge stir among the grasses.

00:12:13.580 No, no, no. It's already only Kenny can bring issues to the floor.

00:12:16.160 That Edmonton motion is to raise the bar on how many constituency associations it takes.

00:12:21.280 From 22 to 29.

00:12:22.360 Yeah, to force a leadership review.

00:12:24.980 Already, no one's allowed to bring forward new motions except for Kenny.

00:12:28.540 That's already the case.

00:12:29.720 They just did that.

00:12:30.820 There was no vote on that.

00:12:31.640 They had reached the threshold this week when they announced the press conference.

00:12:35.460 They have reached the threshold of 22 writing, calling for an early leadership review.

00:12:41.040 When asked about it, Kenny just said, well, that's party business.

00:12:44.320 They'll deal with it.

00:12:45.120 But he was certainly tense at the press conference with the prime minister on the daycare deal this week.

00:12:52.000 you could see he was edgy. And I'm sure he'll be questioned on the letter today during a press

00:12:58.840 briefing ongoing as we speak. So fun fact, most people don't know because it was only reported

00:13:05.280 in the Western Standard. Remember when we were live tweeting UCP caucus meetings? We live tweeted

00:13:10.080 weekly leaks. So when we were live tweeting the UCP caucus meeting where Kenny went to have

00:13:17.720 Drew Barnes and Todd Lohan expelled from caucus.

00:13:21.340 You know who was the cat's paw that he put up to make that motion to get rid of them?

00:13:25.920 I could take a pretty good guess.

00:13:28.000 That was Peter Guthrie.

00:13:30.100 Now, we're not supposed to know that.

00:13:32.440 But we, you know me, I've never missed a UCP caucus meeting.

00:13:35.400 So Peter Guthrie was the guy put up to do that.

00:13:40.320 It seems, so he was the most Kool-Aid drinking member of Team Kenny.

00:13:46.260 He was not just on-team Kenny.

00:13:48.100 He was Kenny.

00:13:51.020 And it seems that has changed.

00:13:54.220 So this shows that that vote to expel Barnes and Lowen barely passed.

00:14:01.200 Barely, barely passed.

00:14:02.800 So at that point, Kenny, you could argue, commended a bare majority of his caucus.

00:14:07.760 And if you have a guy like Peter Guthrie, who was way over here, he was super team Kenny,

00:14:12.860 and he is now completely on the other side in a matter of just a few months.

00:14:16.920 This shows that the situation in that caucus is still very fluid.

00:14:21.140 Kenny is not winning former allies back to himself.

00:14:26.840 He's losing allies, turning them into implacable enemies.

00:14:30.740 Well, I think it's a case of, you know, Kenny's been in the 20s, popular support for ages now.

00:14:37.120 But I think these individual MLAs are coming to the conclusion,

00:14:39.740 I'm going to lose my job in less than two years.

00:14:42.120 And I think that's when, where the real panic is setting in, they're afraid of losing a

00:14:46.440 good job, a high paying job, uh, that they most certainly will cause UCP is going to

00:14:51.480 get wiped out if polls continue the way they are.

00:14:54.360 That's exactly what it is right now.

00:14:56.200 You know, I mean, when you look at the timelines, I mean, if you're looking at a general election,

00:14:59.560 that's only a year and a half away now, like that's how fast the time has gone.

00:15:03.160 And if you're going to move a leader out, hold the leadership race, which is going to take

00:15:07.240 some months and then establish a new leader to hopefully turn that boat back around into

00:15:11.800 winning conditions, that new leader is going to have a year or less to do it. The caucus knows

00:15:16.120 we can't kick that can down the road anymore. We're either going to have to hang with Kenny

00:15:21.080 and somehow hope he can bring himself on a 20% support in a year and a half or flush him out of

00:15:27.080 there and get somebody new and hope for the best. You know, as people are trying to blame it all on

00:15:33.160 and Gene certainly is coming out of the woodworks and stoking the fires, but there's more to it.

00:15:37.400 I mean, somebody else other than Gene might win. I'm certain there's other people with ambition,

00:15:41.560 but this weekend is that chance.

00:15:43.820 This is where they're going to either rip them out

00:15:46.300 or they're going to settle in with them.

00:15:47.480 So I was talking to one MLA in the UCP caucus a few days ago,

00:15:52.420 and this individual said, I won't even say he or she,

00:15:54.960 this individual said,

00:15:56.460 I wouldn't mind being unpopular if I felt we were doing the right thing.

00:16:04.000 That says a lot about where they are.

00:16:05.560 Right now, these guys feel they're doing the wrong thing

00:16:08.180 and they're unpopular.

00:16:09.600 Most politicians, the majority, are perfectly happy to do bad things that are against their

00:16:15.860 principles if it's getting them popular, if it's going to buy them some votes, if it's going to

00:16:19.920 get them reelected, keep them in power. They're happy to do the wrong thing. Some politicians

00:16:24.760 are happy to be on, they're fine being unpopular if they feel they're standing on principle doing

00:16:30.260 the right thing. But to do, to have a government that you think is doing the wrong thing and to

00:16:35.580 still be unpopular. I mean, that is on the grid of political decisions. That is the red zone.

00:16:41.460 That is where you do not want to be. And that's where I think a majority of UCP MLAs and their

00:16:48.040 grassroots members feel right now going into a convention. Now, this weekend, there's not going

00:16:52.960 to be a vote on Jason Kenney's leadership. It's not on the agenda. You remember there was a big

00:16:58.440 flare up. Caucus was going to take Kenney down. He fought back, kind of kicked the can down the

00:17:05.440 wrote a bit and said, fine, we'll have a leadership review. And it's going to be in, what was it?

00:17:09.960 April, I think. April, late April or something. But this was going to be under his control,

00:17:15.900 the central party's control. That wasn't good enough. So now you have these constituency

00:17:19.720 associations, which have hit the 22, which is required. They're going to try and overturn that

00:17:24.360 at this convention. There's a couple of motions. Kenny has to retain control of the board because

00:17:28.980 remember they're electing a new board here. There was an anti-Kenny candidate for the presidency

00:17:32.920 of the party. They just disqualified the guy. Won't even let him run. If you're running against

00:17:36.740 Kenny for the presidency, not allowed to run. But there is, Kenny still has

00:17:40.760 to fight to maintain control of that board.

00:17:44.720 And there's a couple little proxy fights we're going to see. But the big thing is, and I'm looking

00:17:48.600 forward to seeing how it goes down, is what's the reception of his keynote speech

00:17:52.600 at lunch on Saturday? Now, we're going to carry that speech live. I want

00:17:56.720 to know, though. Normally, I've never been to a convention where everybody didn't

00:18:00.440 stand and cheer for the leader like it was Stalin speaking. I mean, good parties and bad parties,

00:18:05.420 everyone does it. You rally around the leader. Daniel Smith's last speech as Wild Rose leader,

00:18:12.020 it was a bit tepid. You know, there was some upset people with her in the room, 0.99

00:18:16.520 but it was never hostile. I want to see, how is this room? Is it just going to be kind of muted

00:18:21.360 and people sit on their hands? I don't know. I think he's got to give the political speech of

00:18:26.760 his life, just to even, you know, to try and stay alive. And this should have been a good week for

00:18:32.120 Premier Kenny. $7 billion worth of new investment into Alberta, from Amazon to, you know, big

00:18:40.380 investments up in New Airline, and big investments up in Northern Alberta. It should have been a

00:18:46.900 good week for him. But nobody's talking about that. Well, other than the Canadian win over

00:18:52.200 Mexico, everybody's talking about, uh, you know, the Kenny, the Kenny leadership, I was following

00:18:58.720 it to bits. What do you expect to happen this weekend? I really don't know. I mean, I've attended

00:19:02.880 a lot of these AGMs, as you said, you know, usually get that rah-rah speech. There's always

00:19:06.260 some discontent. I remember that with Daniel Smith had a couple, there were movements to try

00:19:09.500 these. These are pretty small. These are small and he's got it coming from a few directions right

00:19:14.660 now. And some, some members are going to be furious. We're seeing some nasty backdoor play.

00:19:19.980 I mean, the policy wonks are saying, look, these are the, this is our bylaws.

00:19:23.460 This is the rules we set about just for this kind of situation.

00:19:26.660 And you're going to come in and try and change the rules retroactively when we've invoked it.

00:19:31.800 That's not going to be well received.

00:19:33.440 And I think there's going to be some people screaming from the audience if they can't, you know, feel that they're being aired.

00:19:38.340 I mean, that was the point of that trigger with those constituency associations.

00:19:42.920 That was the bar set.

00:19:44.120 what is the point of the party if they're going to just change the rules when you utilize the

00:19:48.300 rules that were given to you to begin with? It says a lot about Kenny's recall legislation that

00:19:52.700 he hasn't bothered putting in as well, because he knows damn well it's going to get used against him.

00:19:56.260 Well, because this thing where you get 22 CAs to force a leadership race, it is effectively a form

00:20:01.260 of recall of leader. And so the first person recalled in the history of Alberta has been

00:20:07.200 Jason Kenney. He has been recalled. Now there's still going to be a vote on if he's going to be

00:20:12.480 ousted, but they have met the bar to have

00:20:14.520 a recall vote. Jason Kenney is the first

00:20:16.560 recalled politician in Alberta history. And he's

00:20:18.600 going to try political maneuvering to

00:20:20.400 undercut and say that that's not valid

00:20:22.500 after the fact. Because, I mean, that's been presented

00:20:24.680 now. That's been signed. It's delivered

00:20:26.680 under the rules of that party. But that's a constitutional

00:20:28.540 amendment. They're going to need three quarters to pass that. 1.00

00:20:30.340 I believe so. Let's see.

00:20:32.300 And that could be a very heated room going

00:20:34.480 on. So

00:20:35.060 it's going to be something else to watch.

00:20:38.240 It wasn't on our agenda, but maybe we'll just take a moment

00:20:40.460 to go through it. With the

00:20:42.360 Mainstream media and mainstream commentators say is a good news story.

00:20:47.540 I think less so.

00:20:50.240 Sharing a very friendly, warm, and cuddly moment was Alberta Premier Jason Kenney

00:20:56.400 and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

00:20:58.480 They shared a podium today.

00:21:01.360 Now, minutes before that press conference took place,

00:21:04.920 you had those 22 constituency associations announce that they're recalling Kenney.

00:21:10.380 Minutes later, he has to stand hand in hand with Trudeau announcing that the federal government is now going to impose its policies and provide funding for government control over daycare in Alberta.

00:21:21.940 Federal government control over daycare in Alberta.

00:21:25.320 Something that Kenny has always said, hell no, come hell or high water, Ottawa does not get to run this.

00:21:30.380 This is strictly provincial jurisdiction.

00:21:32.340 Ottawa has as much business in daycare as Alberta has in running, you know, ordering the army to attack Kandahar or something.

00:21:40.600 They have no business in it as we have no business with the military, not their job.

00:21:45.480 But money's money, and he's caved in.

00:21:50.240 Tell us a bit about the announcement, and what was that presser like?

00:21:53.780 You watched it.

00:21:54.460 It was tense.

00:21:56.000 It was very tense.

00:21:56.820 uh uh trudeau uh you could almost see him smirking behind his uh his face mask and because he knew

00:22:04.100 that that the 22 writing story had come out about an hour or so before you could just see kenny was

00:22:10.180 tense and uncomfortable uh the daycare announcement as you know somewhere in the neighborhood of uh

00:22:15.940 four billion dollars of federal money coming into alberta to create ten dollar a day uh daycare

00:22:21.700 spaces within five years Albertans get their daycare rates cut in half starting next year

00:22:28.420 so it's it's again another piece of good news really for Alberta good news if you think the

00:22:33.620 government should take care I mean apart from Kenny breaking another promise but I got a vaccination

00:22:38.500 card to show you if you believe that yeah you could see Kenny was uncomfortable he was asked

00:22:46.020 about it during the press conference which had to be a major embarrassment to him because he could

00:22:51.460 feel Trudeau's eyes behind him, you know, burning a hole in his back and smirking.

00:22:57.360 When asked about it, he was very terse, basically said, it's a party issue, I have no comment.

00:23:03.340 And they went on and bumped elbows at the end of it and went their separate ways.

00:23:10.340 So yeah, tense would be the word used to describe that.

00:23:13.840 I have never in my life enjoyed a Justin Trudeau quip until then.

00:23:22.420 He had something to say.

00:23:24.700 Justin Trudeau was asked about J.C. Kenney's woes.

00:23:27.100 As J.C. Kenney is standing there beleaguered at the podium,

00:23:30.420 he looks like the Black Knight in Monty Python, no arms and legs left.

00:23:33.600 It's just a flesh wound.

00:23:35.700 And Justin Trudeau was asked about, well, the guy standing next to you is practically dead.

00:23:40.140 What do you think about this?

00:23:41.800 And Justin Trudeau's only answer was,

00:23:43.760 the liberals have never been so united as we are right now.

00:23:48.620 And I don't know.

00:23:51.280 I've never actually thought anything he said was particularly witty.

00:23:54.340 And I thought that was a, you know,

00:23:55.420 he can't turn around to the guy right beside him and say,

00:23:57.780 yeah, Jason Kenney is a X, Y, Z, and that's very unstatesman-like.

00:24:02.380 But his answer was actually strangely decent.

00:24:06.480 That was the culmination of political games.

00:24:08.300 And Kenny was grossly outmaneuvered by Trudeau.

00:24:11.420 I mean, he was in a rock and a hard place.

00:24:13.020 He was put into a position where he's going to say,

00:24:15.180 what are you going to say, no to a guy standing there with a check?

00:24:18.340 So you can't say no to it, but you've already built your wall

00:24:21.720 and said that we're never going to take it.

00:24:23.640 So he was already, yeah, bleeding on the ground.

00:24:25.860 Not to mention you got your own party, you know,

00:24:28.100 flaming in the background behind you.

00:24:29.700 And yeah, Trudeau took advantage of that and twisted that knife.

00:24:32.700 You know, it's just a rotten week.

00:24:35.380 The only thing I can say is I think if Kenny has any hope of recovering and getting a mandate that could be accepted,

00:24:41.420 I think he should say, let's do it.

00:24:42.940 Let's go for it.

00:24:44.120 Head to the review.

00:24:46.340 Pull it down and start campaigning for himself and get out there and get a mandate from the members

00:24:51.240 because he's not going to have one otherwise.

00:24:53.060 The only way this guy gets through it is they're going to have to cheat.

00:24:56.500 They're going to have to cheat.

00:24:57.980 That's it.

00:24:58.920 There is no way to get through it.

00:25:00.220 Kenny is more popular with the public at large right now than with his own party.

00:25:03.480 and he is not popular with the public at large.

00:25:06.400 He's about 24, 25%, depending on the day.

00:25:10.100 He's more popular with them than with his own members right now.

00:25:13.700 I mean, if you let his own caucus vote on it with a secret ballot,

00:25:16.320 he'd have been gone months ago.

00:25:18.480 And party solidarity is a good segue into the next section.

00:25:23.300 I agree.

00:25:24.980 Erin O'Shul, Denise Bathers.

00:25:27.320 So Denise Bathers, Batters? 0.66

00:25:29.160 Batters. 0.52

00:25:29.680 She's a senator from Saskatchewan.

00:25:33.480 She launched a petition on Monday saying it's time Aaron O'Toole has basically abandoned all the conservative policies.

00:25:42.860 She calls for an immediate review within 60 days.

00:25:46.980 That didn't go over too well with leader O'Toole.

00:25:50.020 He came out the next day and actually fired her over voicemail and said that kind of dissent is not going to be tolerated.

00:25:58.240 That's what I do when I'm being a tough guy.

00:25:59.660 I fire everyone by voicemail.

00:26:00.500 Exactly.

00:26:01.540 I've got a tape full of them.

00:26:03.480 Um, batters, we always make up batters is not the, uh, the first conservative would come

00:26:10.240 forward. There was a member of the Tory national council called, uh, uh, Bert Chen, who had

00:26:14.620 the day after the election called for, uh, for Kenny to be, uh, of his leadership.

00:26:19.240 Oh tool.

00:26:20.240 Oh tool.

00:26:21.240 We're mixing up.

00:26:22.240 Yeah.

00:26:23.240 Sorry about that.

00:26:24.240 Yeah.

00:26:25.240 Uh, he was, he was rewarded with a 60 day, uh, suspension.

00:26:31.160 And so there is simmering discontent.

00:26:34.280 There's no doubt about it.

00:26:36.120 So now you've got MPs twittering out, you know, they're lining up behind O'Toole and

00:26:42.500 he's our man.

00:26:43.680 But, you know, there's some talk going on in the back rooms, I'm sure.

00:26:48.940 Fun fact, since Denise Batters is gone, there is now not a single conservative senator from

00:26:57.580 Alberta or Saskatchewan.

00:27:00.140 Not one.

00:27:01.160 is that wild like we have these uh senate spots that we don't get to pick uh and so with her 1.00

00:27:10.740 ousted by uh with with trudeau refusing to appoint elected conservatives to these spots

00:27:16.580 and uh o'toole firing the unelected conservatives from these spots there is now not a single

00:27:22.420 conservative senator from saskatchewan or alberta is black retired so yeah yep oh actually he was

00:27:29.340 already gone he was in the and when i say when i say conservative i mean the official conservative

00:27:33.560 caucus there's the um independent senate group there's two independent groups yeah but i think

00:27:38.700 black was considered conservative wasn't it well he was elected as a conservative but then he left

00:27:42.160 and went with a different group there's a couple of different groups that have conservative small

00:27:46.860 c conservative people but there's not a there's now no longer a capital c conservative senator

00:27:52.120 from either province quite incredibly um is this um okay so when you know barnes and lowen spoke

00:28:01.740 out against kenny he brought the hammer down they were gone now he could he barely managed to get

00:28:06.740 that through kenny has not since fired everybody who has spoken out from caucus against him because

00:28:13.100 he would have almost no caucus left did um but it is for better or worse it's a symbol a sign of

00:28:20.420 strength when a leader can bring the hammer down on you and get rid of someone at their will. It

00:28:26.680 shows that they're in command of the party. They're in command of caucus. I think it's a bad thing that

00:28:31.440 we have to do this, that this is how we do it. But Kenny can no longer exercise that. Now, you have

00:28:37.440 tons of MLAs saying, this guy's a bozo. He's got to go. Kenny does not get rid of them. It's not

00:28:42.620 because he's just allowing. It's not because he doesn't have the power to anymore. You know,

00:28:46.560 O'Toole's case, he did manage to get rid of the senator. Is this a sign that you think that O'Toole

00:28:52.220 still has control over his caucus? It's not a good sign at all. I mean, you know, and a senator,

00:28:59.180 she's going to remain there. I mean, she's not going away. No, Denise Batters is a relatively

00:29:03.020 young one. Actually, she could stay there for decades. I mean, this is Canada. It's not like,

00:29:07.200 okay, I kicked her out. She's going to have to run as an independent. She'll be gone in a year and 1.00

00:29:10.220 no, she's going to be there and she's pissed off and she's got a platform. You, you, you know, 0.99

00:29:16.100 as a symbolic spanking. She's going to have a job longer than Aaron O'Toole. 1.00

00:29:19.480 Yeah. At this rate, you know, both leaders are in terrible trouble. I mean, what do you do?

00:29:24.720 You can't let them keep going, you know, picking at you from the sidelines either. But when you

00:29:28.280 come down like this, it's not saving you. Batters said she will not be silenced. I think the quote

00:29:33.820 was she will not be silenced by a leader so weak he has to do it by a voicemail. Yeah,

00:29:38.840 The next conservative leader will put her back in caucus.

00:29:41.680 She's going to be back because Erin O'Toole, I mean, he could last six weeks, six months, maybe six years.

00:29:48.160 Who knows?

00:29:48.920 But one way or another, she's not going away.

00:29:52.200 And there'll be another conservative leader who says, yeah, I'd like to have another senator in our caucus.

00:29:57.700 She's going to be back.

00:29:58.680 She just sits pretty, doesn't change anything for her.

00:30:01.780 She just doesn't have to deal with this.

00:30:03.180 Nice work if you can get it.

00:30:04.440 Yeah.

00:30:04.880 Yeah.

00:30:05.080 Yeah. It does seem that Aaron O'Toole is not on solid ground, but I'd say compared to the

00:30:11.920 situation with Kenny in Alberta, he's got an iron grip on that party compared to what we're seeing

00:30:19.280 in Alberta right now. It's less bad than Kenny's situation, but it's not good.

00:30:22.260 Well, but I've never seen a situation as bad as Kenny's right now. Redford had more control over

00:30:27.340 her party the day she stepped down than Kenny has today. I've never seen anything like this.

00:30:32.440 And remember, O'Toole was able to get rid of Derek Sloan, too.

00:30:36.200 Yeah.

00:30:36.600 So he had enough power then.

00:30:37.880 There was a secret ballot, but I'm not sure how close it was.

00:30:41.080 But Sloan ended up getting canned.

00:30:44.260 Yeah.

00:30:44.560 But, you know, you can do that with your MPs.

00:30:46.520 You can do that with your MLAs because independents don't really get elected.

00:30:49.820 So you can get rid of them. 0.99

00:30:51.380 Okay, they're a pain in the butt until the next election, whenever that is. 0.98

00:30:54.480 But then they're very likely going to be gone. 0.97

00:30:56.780 It's extremely rare that an independent like Judy Raymond Weybold will get elected.

00:31:02.440 Well, the senator, good point.

00:31:05.260 They don't go away.

00:31:06.620 There is no election.

00:31:08.000 They're just going to sit there like a gargoyle on the parliament buildings looking at you long after you're gone.

00:31:14.180 They're not going anywhere.

00:31:16.360 Okay.

00:31:17.440 Well, let's wrap it up there.

00:31:19.820 I want to thank all of you for joining us today.

00:31:22.100 Thank Dave and Corey for your usually intelligent comments.

00:31:28.000 And all of you who are loyal Western Standard members.

00:31:31.960 If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, go to westernstandardonline.com.

00:31:35.880 Click on membership.

00:31:36.780 You can try it free for 15 days.

00:31:39.480 It's only $10 a month or $99 a year for unlimited Western Standard content.

00:31:45.520 Be sure to tune in this weekend.

00:31:48.500 We're going to have live coverage from the Alberta Very United Conservative Party Convention.

00:31:54.180 We're going to be there Friday, Saturday, and Sunday if we're feeling good.

00:31:59.500 we're going to be covering the Kenney speech

00:32:02.000 and some of the debates from the floor

00:32:03.380 we expect this to be

00:32:05.920 as we were saying kind of

00:32:06.960 this is one of the lead up battles

00:32:09.700 this is not going to be the big battle I think

00:32:11.500 but it's going to be a pretty big and important one

00:32:13.300 in shaping the future of the United Conservative Party

00:32:16.300 and the future of Alberta Premier Jason Kenney

00:32:19.060 so tune in

00:32:20.320 it's going to be fun I promise

00:32:21.780 thank you all very much for joining us today

00:32:24.260 God bless

00:32:25.220 good luck to the people in BC

00:32:29.500 .

00:32:59.500 You

Western Standard - November 18, 2021

The Pipeline： Devastation in BC and Conservative Chaos

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