Western Standard - The Pipeline： Federal election soon？ BC & Sask campaigns, & the Mohammed cartoons

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00:02:53.980 Mohammed cartoons. Oh, by the way, I think we actually had one in the corner the whole 0.53

00:02:57.380 time we were talking. Just Mohammed cartoons are wonderful. I love them.

00:03:02.380 Homage to Mo. 0.58

00:03:03.640 Gotta love Mo. So, more Mo. So, we'll get right into it. But before we start, just a reminder

00:03:13.440 that the Western Standard is one of the few media outlets in Canada that does not receive

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00:03:24.580 do, you like what you're seeing and reading, please consider becoming a member at westerncenteredonline.com

00:03:30.220 for 5, 10 or 20 bucks a month. You can help to ensure that we've got a genuinely free press

00:03:35.020 here in Western Canada. But let's get started. We're going to deal with the potential federal

00:03:41.000 election here that we're seeing. Dave, why don't you set up what's happening in Ottawa

00:03:47.960 right now with this anti-corruption committee and a potential election?

00:03:52.400 Right now in Ottawa, Derek, it looks like we have avoided the snap election. Deputy Prime

00:03:58.900 Minister Singh has come out and said that the NDP will support the government or will not

00:04:04.260 vote to hold an election. This all came about with the Finance Committee and the Tories and

00:04:11.920 the bloc on that Finance Committee that's looking into the WE scandal. They wanted to set up

00:04:17.240 an anti-corruption committee to look into stuff, you know, exactly like this WE scandal where

00:04:24.980 members of the Trudeau's family profited hundreds of thousands of dollars, his mother, his brother,

00:04:32.340 his wife, and they wanted to give the committee more powers. Obviously, the Liberals have something

00:04:41.700 to hide. If they're willing to call an election in the middle of a pandemic, they must have something

00:04:46.560 to hide. But it's, you know, it still could happen. It still could come down to a vote this afternoon,

00:04:54.320 Wednesday afternoon in the House of Commons. And pundits are saying it could come down to one

00:04:59.320 independent vote. And that's Judy Wilson-Raybould. And wouldn't that be an irony if it did come down 0.98

00:05:05.100 to her vote, guys?

00:05:07.060 So, Dave, that is really breaking news, I guess, kind of mixing up our broadcasts. You're saying

00:05:17.440 that the NDP have caved. They're not going to support the creation of the Anti-Corruption Committee

00:05:21.640 anymore?

00:05:22.060 That is correct. They're still going to go hard after the government. But, you know,

00:05:27.640 the NDP does not want an election right now. They don't have the finances. They don't have the

00:05:32.220 infrastructure in place. So it looks like the NDP are going to support the Trudeau government and

00:05:38.740 an election will be avoided.

00:05:40.540 Well, I don't think any of the parties really wanted an election, except possibly the Liberals.

00:05:47.340 Like an election is a way to, especially if they can secure the majority, it means they'll never

00:05:52.080 be answers on the We Charity scandal. It kind of completely shuts that down. This is, I don't know,

00:05:59.700 this is extraordinary, although not entirely surprising that the NDP have caved in. Corey,

00:06:05.420 what are your thoughts?

00:06:06.000 Well, it's striking. I mean, these games of chicken are going to come with a minority government, 0.97

00:06:10.480 but this one was really coming close to the brink and just over something that, I mean,

00:06:14.920 the Liberals are becoming almost hysteric on trying to cover up what's going on with this

00:06:19.060 We scandal. Like, it's obvious that there's more hiding in there. I mean, the way Wayne Easter

00:06:24.000 shut down that committee meeting last week, the way that they were willing to die on this hill.

00:06:29.320 I mean, as you said, perhaps they might want to go to the polls, but you want to go on the polls on

00:06:32.920 the right issue. You know, you want to fall on the right sword and going to the polls to say,

00:06:37.840 we must take it to all Canadians to avoid having an anti-corruption committee forming is not

00:06:43.240 something that any government would want to, you know, put themselves forward to the people on.

00:06:47.620 So there's just something bizarre going on. I think part of it too was just, you know,

00:06:52.120 yeah, Deputy Prime Minister Singh, as you're putting it, I mean, they've got to establish themselves.

00:06:56.680 You know, there are a couple of dogs that are circling. They don't want to admit that the

00:07:00.140 other one is in control at any given time. So they've got to try and save face on these issues

00:07:04.500 and push back and push close to the brink, but neither of them necessarily really wants to go

00:07:09.580 over. If we're going to see this happening with anything controversial coming before Parliament

00:07:15.320 in the next few months, so one of these times it's going to fall. Like you can't maintain much

00:07:19.060 longer with it constantly coming to threatening a confidence vote to stop things from a majority of

00:07:24.400 opposition parties getting up to do something. Why not? Because it does get tiresome. And of course

00:07:30.820 they're not afraid of being tiresome either, but eventually one of them is going to have to draw

00:07:34.360 their line in the sand with their own party members, their supporters and saying, well, okay,

00:07:37.400 we're going ahead and we'll see what happens. So this time might have been narrowly averted,

00:07:43.220 but now they're going to see how far they can push on something of more substance than

00:07:46.200 perhaps an anti-corruption committee.

00:07:47.820 Yeah, this is a pretty humiliating back down for the NDP, really confirming their status

00:07:55.380 as the junior coalition partner in the current government, really entrenching that. But they

00:08:02.480 have been, they've been, the liberals have been, as you just said, fanatical and breathless

00:08:11.480 about this. Dave just, I think this morning published a story on a liberal MP who said that

00:08:20.420 attempts to create an anti-corruption committee were McCarthyist. I don't know. I don't ever

00:08:25.980 see a problem with hunting down commies, but that's a different story. But in this case,

00:08:30.540 it's a committee to explore corruption on a very large scale involving potentially hundreds

00:08:37.340 of millions of dollars of spending that the government was intending to release to this

00:08:42.800 group. And that's considered McCarthyist. Like they're, they're quite fanatical about

00:08:49.180 this, but you know what? I actually think most liberal MPs believe it. I mean, like I can

00:08:53.600 tell you when you're in a caucus, there is some cool, there's a lot of Kool-Aid to be passed

00:09:00.440 around and people there believe it. So I, there's no signs that the liberal caucus has

00:09:08.940 anyone really bristling at this. I mean, the person with any real principle already left

00:09:14.480 it or was kicked out, Judy Raymond Weibolt and Jane Philippot, only one of which was reelected.

00:09:25.280 Well, let's, well, we got a couple of comments we can look at. I'm not sure how relevant they

00:09:30.080 are. Clint Upham says, I'm not sure if it's worth mentioning that, but I've noticed some

00:09:35.780 clickbait style headlines of our elected CPC members when doing live stream videos. I'm losing

00:09:39.920 faith in them by the day. Clint, that is because you're not watching it. If they don't use clickbait

00:09:45.620 headlines, you know, we've really tried hard here at the Western Standard not to use clickbait.

00:09:51.720 I mean, clickbait is what you call a headline that you don't like, but it's catchy. If you do like a

00:09:56.480 headline that's catchy, you just call it a good headline. Um, you know, and as the publisher here,

00:10:01.040 I can tell you, it's, it's a difficult task to try and find the right balance between getting people

00:10:05.700 interested and making sure it's representing what, what it's about. Uh, but yeah, I, I, I've certainly,

00:10:11.140 certainly seen this and, uh, you know, most MPs of all, in all parties, no one even knows who they are,

00:10:17.800 even in their own ridings outside of a couple of dozen people. Uh, so, you know, this is their way of

00:10:22.960 trying to actually get hurt because who's interested in interviewing most MPs when the

00:10:27.720 media would know very well that they have got no power. Yeah. Well, they've been doing some live

00:10:31.680 feeds, which are a valuable tool at the same time. There have been a couple, I have to admit to,

00:10:35.400 I've clicked onto with a headline of the live feed. I think that perhaps this was Clint's, uh,

00:10:39.040 referencing, I won't bother, you know, wish MPs or whatnot, but it sounds like something very

00:10:43.600 breaking and something big. And then you get onto it and then suddenly it's more like a fundraising pitch

00:10:47.760 and you're not getting much new out of it and so on. And that frustrates me because, okay,

00:10:52.760 well, I listened in, I thought you had something that was really going to grab me and something

00:10:55.940 new. And here I'm just, uh, okay, that was the headline now, please. Can you contribute?

00:11:00.160 Cause we might have an election. Just think of it. Uh, think of clickbait headlines as you're on a

00:11:04.380 dating app, you're on a Tinder and there's a very enticing looking picture and you show up for the

00:11:08.740 date and it's not quite there. Well, they're going to say, well, you wouldn't have showed up for the

00:11:12.400 date anyway, if I didn't have that nice, uh, very glamorous looking picture. So, so just buyer beware.

00:11:17.320 Uh, be it Tinder or CBC or members of parliament, it's going to be the same thing. Yeah. It's just

00:11:23.680 the way of the times. Let's go on to, uh, Keith, uh, Lorison. My understanding is that we got a

00:11:30.440 $30 million advance on the project. Did they return the money? Uh, yeah, we have, they have.

00:11:37.980 Yes. Yeah. The, the project didn't go ahead. Uh, so they, yeah, they, they returned. They've paid

00:11:44.700 back the money. Okay. Well, there we go. One good. Uh, I think this one's more of a comment.

00:11:54.100 Corey nailed it. I thought an election was breaking news. Ha ha. I don't know what you're talking

00:12:00.280 about Derek. Okay. Uh, maybe I don't know what Clint's talking about. We're not, well, he, he,

00:12:08.620 Clint likes you at least. There's at least one. Okay. Well, um, well, I, you know, I, I think most

00:12:16.720 experts are not really predicting this parliament to last much beyond the spring. Uh, that being said,

00:12:23.160 I mean, you know, the, the NDP, I, they just don't have the money right now. Uh, they consider

00:12:28.080 themselves fortunate in the last election to not lose even more seats than they already did. They,

00:12:33.060 they, they lost like half their caucus, but they declared it a victory because they were supposed

00:12:37.240 to lose four fifths of their caucus. So, you know, I guess it's all, it's all relative. Uh,

00:12:42.380 I remember 2015 with the wild rose, we won, uh, 22 seats and we felt like we had just conquered the

00:12:48.180 world because we had, uh, come back from the death after the mass floor crossing. We're down to five

00:12:52.220 seats, only three guys running for reelections. So we won 22 seats and we thought it was the best

00:12:56.420 thing in the world. So I guess it's, it's all relative, it's all relative, but yeah, the NDP are,

00:13:02.000 um, just not in the mood for an election. How, I don't know, how long do you think they can drag

00:13:07.540 this out for and still be able to tell their supporters there's a point to voting NDP rather than

00:13:12.200 just going for liberal and making it safe? Well, that's what I mean is this brinkmanship. I mean,

00:13:16.220 the NDP get a little weaker every time they cave on it. So eventually they'll have to draw a line

00:13:20.480 on the sand and stick to it. So they didn't draw the line of corruption. Well, yeah. And, but if

00:13:26.220 they keep getting pushed back and back, you know, they're going to lose their own base and, uh,

00:13:29.960 the pressures will just come on. I mean, they do accept that they're typically, I mean, right now

00:13:33.920 is as powerful as they'll ever get. Uh, that's their best possible position typically is, is being

00:13:39.120 holding a balance of power in a minority government. Uh, but at the same time, they've got to stand on

00:13:44.800 their point of principle. Then they're not looking to win. They're looking to be principled

00:13:47.580 and their supporters are going to get more and more upset every time they seem to back

00:13:50.560 down on something that they feel is important. So eventually they're just going to have to

00:13:55.060 cave and bring that government down. Uh, we'll see how this brinkmanship goes in the next few

00:13:59.100 months, I guess. Yeah. Oh, well, just an update, uh, from, uh, I guess confusion with Clint.

00:14:06.140 It was, he was confused. I was talking about what Tinder, but he also says we can also use

00:14:09.860 Grindr if that's your thing. Well, he's familiar with the apps then. All right. All, all power

00:14:15.960 to you. Whatever, whatever app you want to use. Good, good on you. Um, okay. Well, let's

00:14:22.140 move on to, uh, my hands are above the counter. Oh, well, what was it? What was it? What was

00:14:27.860 it? The New York post or times? Uh, what was it? Who was he with? Well, he was also a CNN commentator,

00:14:33.860 whatever that gentleman's name was. I ranted about him. And, uh, just that reminder people,

00:14:39.640 the cameras, uh, and mics may always be hot. Uh, if you really feel compelled to have to do

00:14:44.600 something to yourself, perhaps just make sure. Just make sure. Uh, you know what? I, I don't even

00:14:50.300 trust that the government's not watching. So always just put a, put a piece of tape or something

00:14:54.280 over your camera. You never, you never know, you know, but definitely don't do things while

00:15:00.320 you're on a work call with zoom. No, it was, especially if you're a public figure who used

00:15:05.340 to be employed. Yeah. Anyway, let's very quickly move on from this topic. Yeah. Um, so, uh, let's

00:15:13.740 talk, uh, British Columbia. We've got, uh, we're headed into the final weekend of the campaign.

00:15:20.600 New polls out. Uh, Dave, why don't you bring us up to speed? Yeah, I don't think it's anything

00:15:25.920 that the liberals will be dancing in the middle of the streets for them, but the poll latest

00:15:30.800 poll this week shows that the gap is narrowing. Uh, John Horgan NDP is down from 49% to 45%.

00:15:40.120 And the Wilkinson liberals have gained two percentage points up to 35%. So it's still a fairly substantial

00:15:47.640 lead. And I don't think anybody's picking anything other than a Horgan majority on Saturday.

00:15:53.740 Um, yeah, I suppose it's not worth dancing in the streets over. It's those kinds of numbers. So

00:16:02.280 there's no chance. I mean, even if, uh, the polls are overpegging the NDP, there's just no way they're

00:16:07.920 going to get anything but a majority. I guess the question is, is it a crushing majority or not?

00:16:12.220 Uh, Corey, um, do you think there's really anything that can happen at this point in the campaign of

00:16:18.660 DC? Extremely unlikely, especially with so many mail-in ballots having gone too. So even if an issue

00:16:22.880 broke at this point, a lot of people already cast their ballot, so they couldn't change their mind

00:16:27.320 and get that letter back and change it. I mean, polls have been absurdly wrong over the years.

00:16:31.860 We've seen that a number of times, but that's such a wide gap that it's pretty unlikely to see that

00:16:36.980 change. But what we can watch for, and you know, we'll be covering that live on Saturday night,

00:16:40.900 uh, is some symbolic victories. I mean, there's a lot of, you know, swing ridings. Uh, there's a new

00:16:47.560 green leader and the greens are a much bigger player in BC. I mean, they're not going to win the

00:16:51.120 election, but they want to win a handful of seats. They certainly, again, held that little

00:16:54.780 balance of power for a while. Uh, a few of those lower mainland seats, just to see which way they

00:17:00.200 may go. There might be some incumbents coming and going, but as for forming government, it's looking

00:17:04.280 like a, at this point, it's going to be a crushing victory for Oregon. Yeah. Uh, I think the biggest

00:17:09.920 loser in this is going to be the greens, because even if they held on all three of their seats,

00:17:13.840 which they're not expected to, they're expected to probably come away with one or two. Um, but even if 0.98

00:17:19.840 they held on to all three, even if they gained a couple of seats, they're not going to have the

00:17:24.180 balance of power. That was a very specific and rare circumstance. That is really the sweet spot

00:17:29.600 for small third parties to have, especially one with just three seats. They were really in the

00:17:34.020 sweet spot and able to control a large degree of things. And, uh, John Horgan, uh, said, screw you. 0.99

00:17:39.740 You already gave me what you already gave me the premier share. I had it for long enough. 0.98

00:17:43.120 Pulls are good and I'm done with you. So the, the greens, I, I think are going to have a hard

00:17:48.060 time recovering in this. Even, even British Columbians who were sympathetic to the plan

00:17:52.420 of the greens here that, you know, the NDP were playing dirty pool. They're going to say,

00:17:56.620 yeah, well, we, we might like the greens, but at the end of the day, what's going to be

00:18:01.640 the point of them? Uh, so I think it's going to make it hard for them in the longterm to

00:18:05.500 justify their relevancy. And frankly, I, I, I just have, uh, again, it's, you know, we've

00:18:11.000 discussed this in previous episodes, especially during the BC leaders debate. What's the point

00:18:15.140 of a BC green? I mean, it's just, uh, you're just, uh, you're just like a new Democrat,

00:18:20.660 but an opposition. So I'm not really sure what the point is. You know, it's hard for

00:18:25.640 me to see through their eyes because they're just such a radically different ideology.

00:18:29.160 But, uh, you know, it's, I think there's going to be big questions coming out of this

00:18:32.100 election, but what the point of the BC greens is, well, they've also kind of been representing

00:18:36.460 though, that far left wing of even the NDP. Uh, because I mean, in being in power this

00:18:41.200 long, the NDP became pragmatic. They had to, when you get into government, it's one thing

00:18:44.520 to stand in all your socialist principles when you're not becoming, once you're in,

00:18:48.000 you've actually got to start getting a little more realistic about some things, but then

00:18:51.940 that, that disenfranchises the real hardcore left, the real activists, the radicals. And

00:18:57.020 a lot of them have gone around the greens. They had some scandals about, you know, uh, quotas

00:19:00.980 and whatnot for their leadership and, and, you know, social justice.

00:19:04.300 Yeah. They had a retiring MLA and white men are not allowed to replace them in incumbent seats.

00:19:10.500 It has to be a woman or a visible minority, or a minority of some kind. But then they 1.00

00:19:15.060 had a federal NDP heavyweight come in and they waived the rule. And then, so there was

00:19:19.280 kind of a whole scandal there because, uh, the NDP dared to have a white man as a candidate.

00:19:24.140 But that's where they position themselves, I guess, is to try and grab that, that real,

00:19:28.120 you know, fringe for the NDP, which if anything, I think does Horgan a favor because it lets off

00:19:32.220 steam, you know, when you've got the real hardcores, the radicals, the crazy ones, you can kind

00:19:36.120 of quietly say, well, perhaps when the BC NDP is not crazy enough for you, that's right.

00:19:41.520 There's always someone go, go green, you know?

00:19:44.100 Yeah. Uh, Dave, um, uh, there was another, uh, there's another story, uh, coming out of

00:19:51.560 BC today, uh, with you, uh, the BC liberals running an ad, uh, warning against vote splitting

00:19:58.380 with the very small, but, but there, uh, BC conservative party. Do you want to fill us

00:20:05.080 in on that?

00:20:06.180 Yeah. The BC conservatives last election, uh, Derek took 0.5% of the vote, not a lot. Uh,

00:20:14.460 but the, uh, liberals have put out an ad today on Facebook urging voters not to vote conservative

00:20:20.760 because of vote splitting. They say those 0.05% of votes gave the Horgan NDP two additional

00:20:28.180 seats. And those were the seats that Horgan needed to, uh, consolidate his power. So they're

00:20:34.480 saying a vote for the conservative is really a vote for the NDP and you might as well stick

00:20:39.320 your vote with the liberals.

00:20:40.320 Yeah. Uh, I mean, 0.5% of the vote isn't, uh, isn't that much, but it's, uh, and you know,

00:20:50.320 they didn't have candidates in a lot of the ridings, but I guess they were, you know, they

00:20:53.200 were, they were around. Uh, I mean, it might be fast. I think there's only two provinces

00:20:57.800 in Canada that, uh, have no explicitly conservative party on the ballot, uh, or major conservative

00:21:05.820 party, I should say. Um, you know, that is, uh, Quebec with, yeah, but the, the sort of

00:21:12.080 conservative option is the, uh, the CAC, the CAQ, uh, what a terrible acronym. I'm not sure

00:21:18.680 if it translates the same way in French, but, um, and then, uh, British Columbia where you

00:21:23.660 just have, you have the greens, you have the NDP and then you have the liberals and conservatives

00:21:27.980 are supposed to just hold their nose and be a part of it. Uh, I mean, you could maybe

00:21:32.320 say Saskatchewan, but I think the Saskatchewan party is a pretty conventional center-right

00:21:37.020 party by now. It's, it's, it's, uh, it can be simply put on par with the UCP or the Ontario

00:21:43.520 PCs. Uh, Corey, what do you, do you think this is, uh, an effective strategy for the liberals

00:21:51.200 to say to those, to the few disenfranchised people thinking about winning conservative

00:21:54.820 as a protest, you know, come back home to the liberal mothership?

00:21:58.100 I don't know. It sounds desperate. I mean, I, I tried to look to see signs of life from

00:22:02.240 the conservative party because they do have a long history in BC, you know, they've, they've

00:22:04.980 been dead for quite some time. I mean, with the, uh, obliteration of social credit though,

00:22:10.520 it seemed it would have left some room for a conservative named party to, to come up. But,

00:22:14.840 uh, I did actually send communications to the conservative party, uh, leadership and was starting

00:22:19.940 towards, uh, moving on an interview and then they suddenly ghosted me. So they appear to

00:22:24.040 like being invisible and that's no problem. I'm happy to help them with that. Uh, I, I,

00:22:29.880 it just seems kind of bizarre with such a minor player for the liberals to, to take the time

00:22:34.460 to speak up on it. I mean, they shouldn't be courting centrist NDP voters to say, look,

00:22:39.240 we need, you know, more reasonable voices to come on over to us. You're not going to win

00:22:43.040 it by chasing out.

00:22:44.040 Or alternatively, if you're trying to get conservative voters to vote for you, maybe try

00:22:49.520 by being a little bit conservative, like that, you know, that that's an idea for them. And

00:22:54.300 due to their credit, like they do have one conservative policy, you can call it that in

00:22:59.040 their platform. That's the, uh, ending the ICBC monopoly on auto insurance. Um, I mean,

00:23:05.820 it's not in the, it's in the right direction. I mean, I think it's insane to even have a government

00:23:10.180 auto insurance company, but, uh, I mean like that's, that's an olive branch to people who

00:23:16.100 are, you know, to the right of Justin Trudeau, but maybe they should do a bit more. The, uh,

00:23:20.880 the, the liberals are promising huge deficits. They're promising increases in the carbon tax.

00:23:26.060 They're doing, uh, they're, they're, they're running more or less as liberals in most other

00:23:31.880 provinces. The only difference is their relative position to their main opposition is that

00:23:36.080 they're on the right of that main opposition so that they look more reasonable. But if, uh,

00:23:40.880 the BC liberals, so some free advice for BC liberals, you want conservative votes try being

00:23:46.640 mildly conservative. Yeah. Well, I mean, part of it too, though, is there has been no conservative

00:23:51.700 contender managing to grab that disenfranchised conservatives and, and, and bring them up.

00:23:56.440 So the liberals can afford to keep swinging left. I know the conservative has been trying

00:24:01.040 there for some time. I remember right after I finished university, I lived in, uh, British

00:24:04.960 Columbia, Victoria for a year. I didn't really know much about the politics of it, but I very,

00:24:09.880 which quickly figured out that all these conservatives told me to vote liberal were

00:24:13.920 wrong. I remember I, I called, I called up the number for the BC conservative party and,

00:24:18.940 uh, the leader answered the phone. He's just like, hello. I'm like, who's this? He's like,

00:24:23.220 I'm, I forgot the name of the guy. I'm like, is this the BC conservative party? He's like,

00:24:26.480 I'm the leader. I'm like, yeah, I didn't expect that. There was, it was a pretty mom pop or

00:24:31.880 a shirt somewhere though. Uh, you know, they did have a blip, I think one or two cycles ago where

00:24:35.980 they had a former, I'm not sure if it was John Cummins or something, but they had a former

00:24:39.640 federal conservative MP come in. They've had brief moments where they've tried to get going

00:24:44.800 and had a little bit of success, but they have been pretty successful at cowing center

00:24:50.280 right voters in BC. They're just saying, look, you might hate the liberals, but you hate the

00:24:55.040 NDP more. And that's a, that's a pretty successful strategy in, in most, uh, most jurisdictions.

00:25:00.960 Okay. Well, let's move on to, uh, our friends in Saskatchewan here. Um, uh, Dave, why don't

00:25:12.160 you give us an update on where the polls are at? They're also the final weekend as we head

00:25:16.740 in.

00:25:17.020 Derek, you've heard the phrase ahead by a country mile that doesn't even begin to describe the

00:25:25.400 lead that, uh, premier Scott Mo has, uh, on the NDP in Saskatchewan. He's now up by 25 points.

00:25:32.960 A recent poll had in Saskatchewan party 56% and the NDP at 31%. So I think much like the British 0.97

00:25:43.980 Columbia election, this one's not going to be close and it'll be another majority, uh, for

00:25:49.540 premier Mo in the Saskatchewan party.

00:25:51.400 Well, it's, it sounds like it'll be even less close than British Columbia. Um, the gap

00:25:57.000 is even larger and there's no third party to complicate. Well, there are other parties,

00:26:02.260 but there's no other party with seats in the legislature or that is very likely, I think,

00:26:06.660 to win a seat. Uh, it's really just a two horse race here. Uh, actually in a multi, uh, multi

00:26:13.600 party system, it goes to the advantage generally of the really big party. Cause then they, you

00:26:18.700 know, the splits more off and work in their favor. If you're the really big party with

00:26:22.200 a big lead. Uh, but yeah, this looks like a crushing, crushing lead for, uh, for Scott

00:26:28.740 Mo. Uh, you know, I think it was New Brunswick or I think it was New Brunswick in the early

00:26:32.980 nineties under Frank McKenna. They won every single seat in the legislature and, uh, the liberal

00:26:38.340 premier had to appoint the PC leader is the unofficial leader of the official opposition or something.

00:26:44.800 And he sat in the gallery and asked questions, but he had to be very polite in his questions

00:26:48.800 cause if he wasn't, the premier could just kick him out of the legislature cause he didn't

00:26:52.500 actually have a seat. Um, but I think that was a bit of a, again, there were more parties

00:26:57.580 involved in the splits worked in a certain way when, so that the BC liberals won literally

00:27:02.040 every single seat. That would be a very boring legislature.

00:27:05.600 And it's not a healthy one. I mean, a democracy, an opposition is critical. It's important. I mean,

00:27:11.800 they don't necessarily have to be threatening power, but you've got to have at least a diverse

00:27:15.700 number of members who are going to dig into some issues, research things, you know, call

00:27:20.740 up, hold the government to account on things when it's left or right, it doesn't matter.

00:27:25.900 So it's actually kind of dangerous for Saskatchewan. You don't want a government with, with too

00:27:30.740 strong a hold on power. That's never good.

00:27:32.600 Well, I don't think they're looking at a Frank McKenna style every single seat, uh, because

00:27:38.180 the NDB do have a certain geographical concentration, yeah, the, the downtowns of the two major

00:27:44.560 cities, sorry, Saskatchewan, if we call those major cities, but you know, Saskatchewan, Saskatoon

00:27:50.040 and Regina, um, you know, we, you know, the NDP in the, in the downtown core is there.

00:27:55.680 I mean, geez, there was even a liberal in, uh, in Regina was gonna till, uh, a year ago.

00:28:03.040 So there, there's still going to be some NDP MLAs there. Uh, they're just going to be possibly

00:28:10.280 an even smaller group than they are right now.

00:28:12.420 Yeah. Just, just hope there's a voice for, for reason and balance. I mean, remember back

00:28:16.100 in Saskatchewan, the reason the conservatives got obliterated was, uh, was divine. It was

00:28:21.180 the old state saying to air as human to truly F up is divine.

00:28:25.040 Because with the, the corruption they had in their caucus, I mean, it was outstanding and

00:28:30.760 it, it, it put the party into the history books. They're done. They're gone. That's

00:28:33.760 why the Saskatchewan party's here today. So, uh, let's just hope that Saskatchewan has a

00:28:37.780 good tempered government coming out of this, this next election. But yeah, I'd be, you'd

00:28:41.340 be really gambling to think that, to bet on anybody else but, uh, but Mo right now.

00:28:45.040 Yeah. And I, I, I got, I guess I'll be able to bring this back to Ottawa here. Um, I mean,

00:28:52.100 if we, uh, we, we've now seen, I think it was Nova Scotia that had an election, uh, moving

00:28:57.180 there, but no, New Brunswick had an election moving their minority government, PC government

00:29:02.240 to a majority. Uh, BC looks like it's going to do that going from a minority semi-coalition

00:29:09.300 to a majority. Uh, and Saskatchewan's going to go from majority to another majority, potentially. 0.92

00:29:15.020 to perhaps an increased majority. If that happens, the temptation for Trudeau is going

00:29:20.680 to be tremendous to, to engineer his defeat in the house. Um, I mean, you'll have then

00:29:28.780 had, uh, three governments, uh, two governments go from minority to majority status and another

00:29:34.520 one keep itself. It's, this is a, this is the time of incumbents, uh, a crisis time and

00:29:41.540 panic time. People tend to rally around the flag. They rally around the strong man leader.

00:29:46.560 People like incumbents. They like stability. And, uh, and so that I think is resulting at

00:29:52.740 least in Canada where our politics, we kind of like our politicians, milk toast and boring

00:29:57.740 very much in contrast to how things are in the States right now. Um, yeah, I, I, I think

00:30:03.400 this is going to really add to the temptation for Trudeau to engineer his defeat. Uh, Dave,

00:30:09.100 is there, um, I know we don't, Ottawa is not our main focus of attention here. Uh, but it

00:30:15.280 unfortunately still exists. So, uh, are there any signs, uh, in Ottawa right now that, uh,

00:30:23.100 Trudeau is going to have other opportunities to engineer his defeat and get an election that

00:30:27.480 I increasingly suspect that he wants? I think his major problem right now is the, uh, the

00:30:35.020 time of year, Derek, Canadians traditionally have not gone to the polls in the dead of winter.

00:30:40.220 And it's getting to the point now where we're going to be in winter across the country that

00:30:45.820 and the, uh, the pandemic makes any sort of election call now very, very dicey. I think it

00:30:52.660 all depends on what he's trying to hide in this week committee. Uh, but it, you know, uh, Trudeau's,

00:30:59.540 uh, I'm sure Trudeau's thinking right now of the next way he can bring his own government down because

00:31:04.420 that's the way he operates. Yeah. Well, you know, we had an election in the dead of winter actually,

00:31:12.740 uh, over Christmas, even in, uh, 2005, six, when, um, Paul Martin was defeated by, uh, Stephen Harper when

00:31:20.180 formed his first minority government, they, what they did is because it was over Christmas, they

00:31:24.260 actually, um, had a very long rip period so that it would go into, into the new year because so

00:31:29.780 that otherwise the, the rip would have been between Christmas and new year's or something. Cause you

00:31:33.700 can always draw, draw that out. They took a holiday break in the campaign for about a week in the

00:31:38.180 middle of it. It was really different. It was a very different election. Uh, but in that case,

00:31:42.340 all three major opposition parties were up in the polls. They all had a money for an election

00:31:47.780 and the liberals were, uh, there was just no possible way for the opposition parties to support.

00:31:53.220 It was the height of the sponsorship scandal. They were dead. Um, I don't know. Uh, I, I think

00:32:00.100 Trudeau wants an election now and when the government wants an election, they can find a lot of ways to

00:32:04.900 do it. Um, the conservatives are obliged to like, they're supposed to be the only party that has a real

00:32:12.500 ideological difference with the block of left parties, the four other parties that are there.

00:32:18.180 They are essentially obliged to oppose the government on virtually everything. They're

00:32:22.260 the official opposition. They're the government waiting. Um, so Trudeau's got a, if Trudeau wants

00:32:26.980 an election, he has to find something to unite all the other ones. And traditionally that has been

00:32:31.220 ethics issues. That is not a strictly left, right issue. So, you know, Trudeau and his family

00:32:37.220 taking money from a, you know, what increasingly does not look like a real charity, uh, to do this

00:32:45.140 kind of stuff and then giving them a multi hundred million dollar, uh, contract, sole source for the

00:32:51.540 competition, that would normally unite all the opposition parties. Um, so Trudeau might have a real

00:32:58.660 problem getting the NDP to not vote, uh, against him. I think Trudeau wanted the NDP to vote for their

00:33:05.540 anti-corruption committee because that's the only stuff that can unite opposition parties, uh, that

00:33:09.780 are on the, both the left and the center right right now. And they didn't do it. The NDP I think

00:33:16.020 are so desperate to avoid an election. They will vote for anything at this point. Well, if he's going

00:33:20.740 to engineer an election, I mean, he's going to have to find the right hill to die on. So come up with some

00:33:25.300 fiscal plan that's going to be, so this is so important that we have to take it to Canadians

00:33:29.620 in this time of crisis, you know, we must do this to save everybody. That's we have to get behind

00:33:36.820 the liberals, but you can always carefully throw a poison pill in there. I mean, it's one area

00:33:41.620 easily enough to lose NDP support, take a swipe at the union somehow, throw a little something that

00:33:47.300 smells of right to work legislation or just a little bit, just enough. Cause I mean, if the unions turn,

00:33:52.500 the NDP can't support it. They can't, I mean, they decimate.

00:33:56.020 If they do, so it would have to be, well, we're long over, this is the longest Canada in its

00:33:59.700 history. I think it's ever gone without a budget and a budget. You can put in stuff that piss off

00:34:04.100 people on all sides, a la Jim Prentiss. You consult your budget with things that everybody's got

00:34:10.020 something to like, but everyone's got something to hate. So I could see that happening in spring,

00:34:14.180 you know, or after Christmas, I mean, finding that hill and trying to model it. If things don't fall

00:34:18.340 apart beforehand over something like, as we saw today coming closer. Well, uh, let's go even further away

00:34:24.180 than Ottawa. Let's go all the way to Paris and sort of back home and let's talk about, uh, Muhammad 0.99

00:34:31.540 cartoons and what's going on. Uh, murder in Paris that is kind of sparked this, uh, Dave, why don't

00:34:39.460 you give us some background on what's going on with the latest in cartoons? Absolutely horrible story,

00:34:46.100 this week out of Paris. Uh, Derek, uh, teacher at a school in a Northern suburb was teaching his class

00:34:53.060 about censorship. He was a history teacher and a geography teacher, and they were talking about

00:34:58.900 censorship. And he brought up the old Danish Mohammed cartoons from back in the mid 2000s. These cartoons

00:35:07.460 showed the prophet Mohammed, and it was very, very offensive to Muslims. There was marches around the

00:35:14.020 world, uh, terrorist attacks. You remember the Charlie Hebdo, uh, terrorist attack in Paris that

00:35:21.380 killed a dozen people. So this teacher had shown his class these cartoons. The fact that he did this

00:35:30.020 got out to some parents of some Muslim, uh, uh, students. Uh, apparently one of the Muslim parents

00:35:37.460 declared a fatwa, uh, holy war on the teacher, and a terrorist stood outside the school.

00:35:44.340 Sorry, anyone can declare a fatwa? Hey, I'm declaring a fatwa. 0.67

00:35:51.300 The, uh, the terrorist waited outside the school. The teacher was pointed out to him,

00:35:56.340 and the teacher was then horribly mutilated and decapitated. Uh, responding police, uh, shot the

00:36:02.820 terrorist dead. Uh, teacher has since become, uh, a hero in, uh, in France and been given the

00:36:09.700 country's highest awards. Uh, but no, the Western Standard has a long history with these cartoons,

00:36:15.140 Derek, and I'll, I'll let you, uh, go through that. Uh, yeah, I, I suppose we do. Uh, like this is,

00:36:24.020 this was really kind of the finest hour of the Western Standard long before any of us were involved

00:36:28.260 with it. I was a mere subscriber to it. I was in university at the time, uh, when, when these

00:36:33.220 cartoons came out and there were just, you know, there were riots and bombings all over the planet.

00:36:38.500 It was the biggest story on the planet for months on end and not a single media outlet in Canada or

00:36:45.300 even across the world except for the Western Standard and another outlet out of Israel were

00:36:50.260 the only two on the planet of any significance to publish the cartoons. And I remember just being so

00:36:55.860 proud to get my Western Standard that they had the balls to do this. I remember I clipped some, 0.70

00:37:00.260 some cartoons out and I posted them around the university just to see what would happen. I heard

00:37:04.100 people scream and yell. And as I ran away, it was as if people just had just seen a murder scene,

00:37:09.380 it was quite something. Um, but, uh, yeah, and I, and the human rights commissions and the courts,

00:37:15.300 uh, took the Western Standard to court to try and silence it. And the Western Standard had none of

00:37:20.580 it, fought it the whole way. And then it was so embarrassing for the government. They tried to

00:37:24.420 withdraw themselves from the case. And the Western Standard said, no, we're guilty of

00:37:27.940 whatever hate crimes you are accusing us of because they wanted to go to the Supreme Court and challenge

00:37:32.500 the human rights commission's ability to censor, uh, the media. Uh, it was really a historic moment,

00:37:37.700 uh, that made me very proud just to be a subscriber of the Western Standard at that,

00:37:41.700 at that time. Um, you know, fast forward, you know, 2015, we have the Charlie Hebdo murders,

00:37:47.460 dozen people viciously massacred at the Charlie Hebdo. Uh, they're kind of like a magazine,

00:37:53.380 cartoon magazine in Paris. Uh, I don't read French, but the cartoons don't look particularly

00:38:00.420 funny, but you know, that's not the point. They're, you're allowed to have them. And,

00:38:04.420 you know, so they had some stuff that was offensive. They'd show like a Muslim cleric 1.00

00:38:07.860 making out with another, with a Charlie Hebdo, uh, sketch artist, uh, you know, offensive to some 0.73

00:38:13.540 people, but, uh, apparently offensive enough to get, to get a bunch of people killed. Just a month

00:38:17.780 ago, a meat cleaver attack outside the Charlie Hebdo offices, um, because Charlie Hebdo republished

00:38:24.660 the cartoons again. Well, when this happened in France, because a man was killed over this,

00:38:28.660 uh, I felt that the Western Standard had, had an obligation because of our history associated with

00:38:34.020 this, one of the only two media outlets on the planet, to publish the Muhammad cartoons, uh, 0.60

00:38:38.900 after the, uh, initial round of riots when these cartoons came out of Denmark. So we, we republished

00:38:45.540 them. We've had, uh, tremendous support, I think, from people. Um, you know, uh, our, our intent is not

00:38:52.740 to offend our, our Muslim readers and viewers. Uh, we value you, uh, just as much as, uh, heathens like, uh, 1.00

00:39:02.420 like Corey and... I'm like dedicated past a farion. There you go. To each their own. Um,

00:39:09.620 so, you know, we, uh, the attention isn't to offend. Uh, if anyone had been murdered over the

00:39:14.500 Piss Christ, uh, so-called art display, I would have displayed that too. I linked, I linked to it

00:39:20.260 on the website. It offends me as a Christian, but that's too bad for my feelings. Uh, I have no right 0.64

00:39:25.300 to silence anybody. So, uh, we, we published this. We had tremendous feedback. Uh, we did have, uh, one

00:39:31.460 message from, uh, a Hussein something. I figured his last name was Hussein something. And, uh, he,

00:39:38.820 he sent a curt letter to the editor, uh, fuck off. Um, I wanted him to elaborate a little bit more. 0.99

00:39:45.460 If he, uh, if he would elaborate a bit more, I'd be very happy to share the whole thing and all of

00:39:51.140 its expletive, uh, glory. Uh, we want to hear from you if you don't think we should be doing this.

00:39:56.500 But I felt it was the right thing to do for media to assert their right to do this. I remember just

00:40:01.220 how cowardly the CBC and the Toronto Star were. They were, at the time, they were saying, oh,

00:40:06.580 this is culturally insensitive. Cultural sensitivities that they don't show towards

00:40:10.500 Christians or Jews. Um, either you have to be culturally sensitive and, uh, step on eggshells 1.00

00:40:17.060 for everybody or for nobody. And that's the right way to do it. Um, you know, but even, even more,

00:40:23.220 uh, conservative outlets like the national post didn't do it, their reasoning I thought was a

00:40:29.380 bit better is like they said, well, we're afraid of being bombed or attacked and that's fair. I mean,

00:40:34.900 um, I'm not going to say that terrorists will get, uh, won't get shot if they attack the Western

00:40:41.460 standard offices. Uh, but you know, it's a, that's a legitimate concern to have and I get it,

00:40:48.420 but I felt that we had to do it, uh, to assert our right to do it. Uh, you know, it's, uh, you know,

00:40:54.980 I, I do think rights are, um, use them or lose them from time to time. Maybe, uh, Corey and Dave,

00:41:01.780 you guys can chime in on how this whole thing played out. Well, yeah, with these, I mean, it's,

00:41:06.980 I know that those cartoons are offensive to, to devote Muslims and I know that 99.9% of them are 1.00

00:41:14.260 going to curse or at worst send an email telling us to fuck off. Uh, I love getting all those emails 1.00

00:41:20.260 anyways. Oh yes. But, but I mean, they're not going to go out and assault somebody or cut their

00:41:25.860 heads off or things like that. But unfortunately there are a tiny number of them who feel that a

00:41:30.740 violent response is the way to deal with it. And I understand when people get afraid of that,

00:41:35.940 publishers get afraid of that reporters get afraid of it, but we can't let that sort of action

00:41:42.820 suppress coverage of things. I mean, the, the, the, the Western standard didn't even really

00:41:47.620 initially publish those pictures to offend people that they knew it was going to happen,

00:41:52.740 but it's because it was a current story. I mean, we're not sure we can do it.

00:41:57.300 Well, and to say, this is the cartoons that set off the riots all over the place. How can we talk about

00:42:01.620 them, but not actually show them how offensive were they? What were they? Uh, you can't let that

00:42:08.180 shut you down. And then the worst part was the followup with Canadian institutions.

00:42:11.860 That's just the human rights commission and their kangaroo court and the other saying,

00:42:15.540 you can't do that. And, and for people like you and I, and Ezra was, I mean, when you're told you

00:42:21.220 can't do that, we're going to do it and we're going to double down. And I mean, that's part of it too,

00:42:27.460 is letting people know with the free press, free expression, free speech. If you keep pushing us,

00:42:32.660 we're only going to get worse. So lay off. I'd be more than happy. We don't have to talk about

00:42:37.140 Muslim cartoons of, of, of Muhammad ever again, but it's becoming a story because we're being told 0.99

00:42:43.860 that we can't, and it's just not going to happen. Uh, that those murders were horrific over something

00:42:48.420 that really, again, is, is trivial. I mean, not trivial to devote, uh, followers, but I mean,

00:42:54.340 it's just going to happen. You're going to see things you don't like get over it. Uh, we need a free

00:42:58.100 world, a secular world as far as laws go anyways. And, and, uh, that's, that's why the standards

00:43:04.100 not be pushed around. Yeah, absolutely. Uh, Dave, do you have any closing thoughts before we go?

00:43:14.980 Uh, no, just to say a busy weekend ahead. Uh, the, uh, uh, second part of the, uh, UCP AGM is on

00:43:23.380 Saturday. Uh, many big speakers, including Erin O'Toole and, uh, Leslyn Lewis and Jason Kenney with

00:43:29.620 a keynote address. So, so I'll be covering that. Uh, there's the election, uh, out of BC on Saturday

00:43:34.740 night. So, uh, it should be a fun weekend. Sorry, the UCP is splitting their AGM up into two weekends

00:43:43.060 virtual. Yes. They had, they had the first part last weekend, uh, with all the sort of policies and

00:43:48.260 the motions and whatnot. And then the speeches are this Saturday. Interesting. Well, uh, yeah,

00:43:54.820 we'll, we'll, we'll continue to cover that. Um, I mean, it's an interesting experiment in how parties

00:44:00.180 can try to make the best of these, of these, uh, virtual AGMs. They seem to have, uh, by all reports

00:44:06.740 managed to actually pull it off. I'm not highly doubtful. It's going to have the same enjoyment

00:44:11.380 because you're not around seeing, you know, your friends or frenemies and whatever you're going to see

00:44:15.860 at these things, but you're, you're, you're locking the interaction there. They're not drinking in the

00:44:19.780 hospitality suites and in the bars after, but for the actual brass tacks of, you know, the policies

00:44:25.300 and all this stuff, they seem to be pulling it off reasonably well. They've had 1400 people, uh,

00:44:32.740 have registered for it. So it has seems to be a bit of a success. Yeah. Well, before we go, uh, just a

00:44:40.660 heads up on, um, uh, Dave, uh, BC election, that is Saturday or Sunday, Saturday. Yeah. Even though

00:44:49.220 they have said they will not have final results for several weeks because of the, uh, number of

00:44:54.180 mail-in ballots, but, uh, yeah, it's Saturday. Okay. Well, uh, tune in here Saturday evening.

00:44:59.860 We're going to have live coverage of the BC election as the results, at least as we have them come in.

00:45:05.700 Uh, and the same on Monday, we're going to have live results for the Saskatchewan election.

00:45:10.900 Saskatchewan Monday or Tuesday? Oh, Dave. Yeah.

00:45:14.180 It's the 26th. So Monday, I guess.

00:45:19.700 Okay. Just want to be sure before we tell people.

00:45:22.020 Yeah. Well, whenever the Saskatchewan won on the 26th, then yeah, we'll be here and we'll be covering it.

00:45:26.500 Yeah. And, uh, we'll send out, uh, if you're subscribed to our email list, you'll get a notification.

00:45:31.620 Uh, so westernstandardonline.com. As I said before, make sure you become a member. Also,

00:45:37.700 you can also just sign up for our email newsletter. We'll send you a top stories of the day, uh,

00:45:42.420 normally five or six days a week. And we'll give you a notification when we're doing live broadcasts,

00:45:47.460 like we will be for the BC and Saskatchewan elections. And of course, when we get them, uh,

00:45:52.420 close to the big U S election, uh, it might be pretty far from, um, our headquarters in Calgary 0.95

00:45:58.420 here, but goddamn, that's going to be fun to watch. All right. Well, thank you very much, uh, for joining 0.96

00:46:05.300 myself, uh, Corey Morgan and Dave Naylor here today. Uh, but so for all of us here at the Western

00:46:11.700 Standard, uh, we appreciate your time and your support. Take care.

00:46:28.420 We'll be right back.

00:46:37.380 Uh,

00:46:49.140 Um,

Western Standard - October 21, 2020

The Pipeline： Federal election soon？ BC & Sask campaigns, & the Mohammed cartoons

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