Western Standard - The Pipeline： Greenpeace extremist appointed environment minister, Equalization referendum ignored

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00:03:00.000 Thank you.

00:03:30.000 Thank you.

00:04:00.000 Good day, I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:04:12.200 Today is October 27th, 2021, and we've got a great program coming to you today, including some breaking news we're going to get into really quickly.

00:04:23.400 a sexual harassment lawsuit coming out of the Jason Kenney government hitting very close

00:04:30.500 to home involving a key senior minister, as well as the, well, getting into the Premier's

00:04:37.860 office itself.

00:04:38.700 We're going to be talking about the appointment of Stephen Jilbo, I don't know how to actually

00:04:42.980 say his name, but Jilbo, I don't know, someone can correct me if I'm wrong, probably am,

00:04:49.060 appointed as Federal Environment Minister, a radical Greenpeace activist.

00:04:54.700 This isn't your run-of-the-mill latte liberal here, becoming the Environment Minister.

00:05:00.520 We're going to talk about what this means for Alberta.

00:05:02.540 And we're going to talk about reaction to the equalization referendum being mostly nothing.

00:05:08.140 The silence is deafening, and we're going to talk about what's happening here.

00:05:11.780 Just before we continue on, there's a little bit of background noise echoing,

00:05:15.200 if we can just get our producer to take care of that.

00:05:18.280 Before we get into the show, I want to thank all of our Western Standard members for their continued support.

00:05:24.060 Without you, we can't do what we do.

00:05:25.900 If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, go to westernstandardonline.com, click on membership.

00:05:30.060 You can try it free for 15 days.

00:05:32.280 It's only $99 a year or just $10 a month to support bailout-free, independent Western media.

00:05:40.020 So before we get into the stories, I've forgotten to introduce my friends here.

00:05:44.360 I didn't want to say anything.

00:05:45.820 I wasn't going to get in the way.

00:05:47.020 You're just going to see how long I did it.

00:05:48.700 I was going to see how long you're going to...

00:05:50.020 No, no, I'm good.

00:05:51.140 I'm going to pick it up.

00:05:51.920 Okay.

00:05:52.320 You're not going to skip a beat.

00:05:54.040 You know what?

00:05:54.440 Just going to introduce yourselves.

00:05:56.180 I'm Dave Naylor, news editor of the Western Standard.

00:05:59.360 And that's Corey Morgan, columnist extraordinaire and political commentator.

00:06:03.480 Well, thank you, Dave.

00:06:04.300 I really appreciate the introduction.

00:06:05.120 Pleasure to have you on the show today, Corey.

00:06:07.300 You're just looking right past me.

00:06:08.960 Right past me.

00:06:09.860 Okay.

00:06:10.620 That's going to be like that.

00:06:11.520 All right.

00:06:12.140 Breaking news coming from the legislature.

00:06:14.720 your CBC reporting story that actually we've been aware of for some time but did not yet have a

00:06:21.380 source on the record. I feel a bit bad actually. We didn't pick this up. So I'm actually not very

00:06:25.440 surprised to see this story come out today. Dave, why don't you break it down? Yeah, this is a

00:06:29.080 massive bombshell, Derek. A chief of staff to one of the ministries in the Kennedy government

00:06:35.600 has filed a lawsuit. CBC has obtained the details of the lawsuit and they're shocking.

00:06:40.880 She alleges sexual harassment in the workplace at the Alberta legislature.

00:06:45.880 She alleges cabinet ministers were openly drinking.

00:06:48.880 She alleges sexual harassment from the said cabinet ministers.

00:06:53.880 She particularly names Alberta agriculture and forestry minister Devin Dreschen

00:06:59.880 as being one of the heavy drinkers and part of the problem.

00:07:05.880 part of the problem. This is a huge problem for Kenny. Did he know? Did he not know? It's going

00:07:15.720 to be a rough ride for him on this one for sure. The complainant in the lawsuit is Ariella Kimmel.

00:07:23.480 Actually, I've known her for a long time. We were interns together many moons ago. She was brought

00:07:29.160 in as a staffer right after the UCP was elected as senior staffer. I don't want to get the order

00:07:33.880 wrong. I believe she started working directly in Kenny's office. She may have been a chief

00:07:39.820 of staff to a minister at some point. There was an on-again, off-again relationship with

00:07:43.560 the minister. That kind of stuff I don't think is our business, but it is stuff that's cited

00:07:48.480 in the lawsuit leading up. It alleges very heavy drinking. I can tell you, I spent some

00:07:54.820 time around the legislature. There is a lot of drinking going on around the legislature

00:07:58.180 and in private offices, and I don't think there's actually anything necessarily wrong with that,

00:08:04.800 but it's that some of this heavy drinking apparently devolved into some screaming,

00:08:12.440 bringing female members of the staff to tears, alleged sexually inappropriate comments.

00:08:19.000 Again, all of this is alleged, just bookending this entire part of the conversation

00:08:22.920 in case there's any lawyers who watch this after we speak today.

00:08:26.680 Everything we're saying here is just blanket alleged.

00:08:29.400 We're going to continue to try and say alleged, allegedly,

00:08:32.640 things, qualifiers like that,

00:08:34.600 but just as a blanket statement, alleged.

00:08:37.820 But these are, this is coming from Aria Kilmel,

00:08:41.060 a very senior staffer in the Kennedy government.

00:08:43.020 She was let go, and she is alleging that this has to do

00:08:46.940 with her raising complaints about sexual harassment 0.80

00:08:51.440 against other women in senior staff positions in the UCP government and 0.65

00:08:58.280 the Premier's office and other ministers offices, particularly Devin Drieschen.

00:09:03.020 It's not a good look. Corey, how big a problem is this going to be for the

00:09:09.920 Kennedy government right now? This is nuclear. I mean, we'll see. I mean, it's at the point of

00:09:14.820 it's an allegation. It seems to be a detailed one though. I mean, this isn't

00:09:17.960 isn't some, you know, junior employee who came in for a week and got fired and left with a chip on

00:09:22.640 their shoulder or something. This is, seems to be quite some, some substance to this, but again,

00:09:27.340 we'll see as it rolls out. I mean, things to be covered. We're at, I guess, the first draft and

00:09:31.720 one side of what has happened. I mean, so we do have to watch. I mean, we saw what the,

00:09:35.900 the recent, you know, Sean Chu mess. There was a, even though, I mean, clearly some impropriety,

00:09:42.280 there was definitely another side that didn't initially come out as well. So we all have to

00:09:46.440 be careful here. But I mean, what scandal is there worse these days than sexual harassment

00:09:52.900 and malfeasance? I mean, it seems the public is happy if they can waste their money and

00:09:57.000 throw it around. But when it comes to abuse of employees, particularly on a sexual, the

00:10:02.580 world doesn't have time for it anymore. We've grown out or should have grown out of that

00:10:06.080 by now. And if any of these start to prove it all true, I mean, this is a government

00:10:09.700 that's already in the toilet for support and trust.

00:10:14.100 I think the very least they should do is have Drieschen step aside and say, I'm going to

00:10:18.740 step aside while these are investigated, and how can he continue in that role when these

00:10:23.460 allegations are out there?

00:10:24.800 Well, so let's talk about that.

00:10:27.360 Former UCP cabinet minister Lila here tweeted, I think, either in all caps or mostly all caps,

00:10:35.480 that Kenny knew and that he should resign.

00:10:40.120 I mean, again, only allegations.

00:10:41.640 I will say that that aligns with allegations that have been made privately to me concerning this case.

00:10:48.580 We can't claim credit for the story because we did not break it.

00:10:51.940 CBC broke it, and whatever anyone thinks of CBC, and we've certainly got our opinions around the table here,

00:10:57.620 they have broken an important and significant story.

00:11:03.800 Leela here says Kenny needs to resign.

00:11:05.900 I think it goes without saying.

00:11:06.700 I think she thinks that Dresha needs to resign. 0.87

00:11:08.580 She's previously called for Kenny to resign.

00:11:10.240 I think it'd be difficult for Drieschen to continue with these kinds of allegations

00:11:17.840 leveled against him. That doesn't mean he should resign as an MLA. Because remember,

00:11:23.560 these are allegations. Nothing is proven in court. And unless allegations are so completely black and 0.84

00:11:30.780 white that we can make a clear determination, I think due process needs to play itself out.

00:11:36.000 These are very serious allegations, they're backed, they're submitted court documents

00:11:42.320 and affidavits, but they're yet to be upheld in court.

00:11:47.660 But do you think this is going to, do you think this is actually going to restart calls

00:11:52.000 for Kennedy to resign?

00:11:53.000 Well actually, it already has.

00:11:55.000 Continue, continuing.

00:11:56.000 Sorry.

00:11:57.000 Lila has certainly brought up the tone of it.

00:12:00.060 And that's a pretty bold statement.

00:12:01.060 I mean, when we're being careful to point out this is alleged, but she's saying outright

00:12:05.320 that the premier's office knew and here is no fool I would imagine she's got

00:12:10.140 something to substantiate that call you know things like this sometimes when

00:12:14.000 they happen oh no it is a it's in the the documents in the file that they knew

00:12:17.540 involves I think I don't have it in front of me but I think involves Matt

00:12:21.220 Wolf who's in the premier's office senior member of the premier's office and

00:12:24.160 that nothing was done the person who was alleged to have engaged in sexual

00:12:30.080 harassment was not disciplined in any way for this. Again, this all aligns with what I've been

00:12:36.680 told privately in allegations that are not proven in court. You hear me, lawyer?

00:12:41.960 And these can cascade, though. I mean, once one starts, if there are other cases of people,

00:12:46.640 this can often embolden them to say, you know what, I got to come up and speak now as well.

00:12:51.500 I mean, maybe they won't. Maybe this is all alone, but it looks pretty darn serious. And

00:12:56.360 And the court of public opinion in politics is more important in the long run than the actual judicial court.

00:13:03.160 I mean, this is a government, as I said, that is already lacking in a great deal of trust and support from Albertans.

00:13:09.160 And then to get a blow like this is killer.

00:13:11.540 Derek was saying at his time there was almost like a culture of drinking.

00:13:15.220 Maybe Kenny's got to come out and ban alcohol from the legislature because it's obviously leading to some problems.

00:13:22.560 That would lead to a revolt.

00:13:23.740 You know, I think there's a lot that can be done to improve things around politics, but less drinking, I don't think is one.

00:13:31.280 That's how we get our best story.

00:13:32.560 Like, it's already, I mean, if you want good people to serve, there's already a lot of good reasons for good people not to serve.

00:13:38.440 Banning drinking, no offense to our Mormon listeners, but there'll be nothing but Mormons in the legislature. 1.00

00:13:45.040 Well, leave the legislature, go across the street to a pub.

00:13:48.420 I mean, to me, just sitting there.

00:13:49.720 But the UCP made it illegal to go to the pub, and so during the lockdown, they had to drink in their offices.

00:13:55.060 This is something that we got a lot of information about, drinking in their offices,

00:13:59.580 because they could essentially be like their own private pubs there.

00:14:03.320 Staff could bring them liquor and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:14:06.360 But they couldn't go across the street and drink.

00:14:08.180 So you have to drink in your office.

00:14:10.060 Yeah, but it's obviously leading to problems.

00:14:12.140 It doesn't help.

00:14:13.360 I mean, you know, I've written a column on it.

00:14:16.380 I've had issues with drinking.

00:14:17.580 I haven't drank in years now. 0.96

00:14:19.340 But among all the idiotic things I did while drinking and so on, I never groped anybody. 0.95

00:14:29.080 I didn't sexually harass people. 0.98

00:14:30.800 I mean, there's a bigger issue.

00:14:32.340 I'm going to ask Jay.

00:14:32.780 The liquor can help facilitate it, but I never groped the unwilling.

00:14:38.720 But that's one element of a big problem.

00:14:42.780 I mean, yes, if you get the drinking out of the offices, perhaps it'll help some people maintain control.

00:14:48.120 But I mean, if they've got a problem with mistreatment of staff and female workers, 0.97

00:14:53.400 that's not going to change even if you take the liquor element.

00:14:55.440 That's a bigger problem.

00:14:56.440 I don't think stopping drinking in the office, because also remember, MLAs are expected to

00:15:02.560 be adults.

00:15:03.560 I mean, most MLAs having a beer after they get out of the legislature in their office,

00:15:09.720 in my experience, there was never a problem, really.

00:15:12.400 Sounds like we can start drinking in the Western Standard offices now, eh?

00:15:15.560 Start.

00:15:16.560 Hello!

00:15:17.560 I've never allowed alcohol in the Western Standard offices, including on this table.

00:15:23.560 I've never allowed it. We're strictly on the wagon here.

00:15:28.560 Allegedly.

00:15:29.560 Yeah, allegedly.

00:15:30.560 No more beer on the desk for Fridays, I guess.

00:15:33.560 No.

00:15:34.560 Okay, where does this go from here?

00:15:37.560 This is just breaking now.

00:15:39.560 We've got Melanie in our newsroom is working on a story as we speak. 0.97

00:15:43.560 this happened right just kind of as we're coming into the studio here we're going to talk about

00:15:46.840 other issues which we will still get to um where does this go from here is this uh i mean like

00:15:54.760 it's not like they had a lot of capital to spend in fact they've been in a deficit of capital kenny

00:15:59.080 is now uh according to some polls the least popular premier in the history of alberta as

00:16:03.240 long as we've had my modern scientific polling uh he people have not stopped asking for his

00:16:09.560 resignation and then you add this on and one of the key allegations in the lawsuit that's

00:16:14.520 been filed, allegations, is that senior people in Kenny's office knew, it would then therefore

00:16:21.580 be difficult to believe that people they might report to would not know.

00:16:25.380 They've got to respond soon and somehow, I mean the legislative session just began.

00:16:29.580 If we want to see the whole thing distracted by nothing but, which might be unavoidable

00:16:33.380 now anyways, you know, this potential breaking scandal, the government has to come out with

00:16:38.560 response to this the the premier's office has to respond as dave said it maybe at least just to show

00:16:44.080 we're taking it seriously we're looking into it we're investigating you know have

00:16:49.440 devon dreeshan step aside citizen mla and say you're still innocent until proven guilty but

00:16:54.320 for the time being we have to take this seriously and investigate ourselves and see well just for

00:16:59.280 people to know uh whenever we have many uh allegations against cory i always take it

00:17:05.840 seriously. Yes. Although he is still here. Question period should be interesting today.

00:17:11.440 Assholery is still legal. Yeah, you know what? We should maybe make a point of getting a question

00:17:16.320 period broadcast today. I think it might be something Western Standard readers and viewers

00:17:21.840 would be interested in watching. I think it's going to be a spicy question period. It will be.

00:17:25.280 Well, let's go from the bizarre to the deranged.

00:17:34.000 Jebo, he was a radical member of Greenpeace and Equiterre, some other environmental loopy group.

00:17:44.880 And, you know, you'll talk about the background of some of the things, stunts he pulled before he was environment minister.

00:17:51.080 But Trudeau did not put him straight into environment as he probably would have hoped

00:17:56.540 after the last election.

00:17:58.300 He went into Heritage, where he earned essentially the moniker as the Minister of Censorship.

00:18:03.800 He has been the one leading bills about benevolently regulating content on the Internet

00:18:10.300 to make sure everyone's getting the good information approved by the government.

00:18:14.520 Those bills are still going forward.

00:18:15.860 But that's really been his preoccupation as Minister of Heritage.

00:18:19.640 Now he has been sworn in as Minister of the Environment.

00:18:22.820 Dave, tell us a bit about Mr. Jebo.

00:18:26.860 Well, basically, you could accuse him of being an eco-terrorist.

00:18:31.040 He was involved back in the day.

00:18:33.600 Allegedly.

00:18:34.080 Allegedly, for all the news.

00:18:35.160 Allegedly, some would say.

00:18:37.040 He was convicted.

00:18:38.060 He has been arrested.

00:18:39.400 He dropped the alleged on that.

00:18:40.400 He's been arrested twice, not allegedly.

00:18:42.720 He was part of a group that, back in the day, climbed in the night, climbed onto the roof of Premier Ralph Klein's home.

00:18:51.880 And while his family and children cowered inside because they didn't know what was going on, started installing solar panels on Klein's roof.

00:19:02.080 And then they phoned the media and said, hey, you better get down here.

00:19:04.480 We're doing this.

00:19:05.780 He was also involved in stunts at the CN Tower and, you know, all sorts of weird eco-warrior stuff.

00:19:14.860 So he's now being appointed Minister of Environment.

00:19:18.820 And this is a guy who hates pipelines.

00:19:21.080 He has been talking publicly about banning pipelines outright for years.

00:19:25.440 He even mocked Trudeau for his lack of blocking them during a 2017 or 2019 Liberal Convention in Winnipeg.

00:19:35.440 Trudeau is clearly too moderate.

00:19:38.440 Yeah, so this is going to be a major problem for Alberta. I'm sure Corey got opinion on it.

00:19:44.440 Premier Kenney had a press conference yesterday. He called the appointment, quote, very problematic, quote.

00:19:52.440 So, yeah, as Derek said, this is a guy who tried to shut down the internet for Canadians.

00:19:57.640 So now he's in charge of the environment.

00:20:01.300 It'll be interesting to see what he says in Glasgow next week.

00:20:03.960 Well, at least we might be protected by the new Minister of Natural Resources,

00:20:08.180 who was the last Minister of the Environment.

00:20:10.200 Yes.

00:20:10.540 So now you've got the last green maniac in charge of Natural Resources. 1.00

00:20:14.960 And, well, if the last guy was a maniac, this guy is like Hannibal Lecter of the oil and gas sector, of the energy sector.

00:20:24.920 He is not using the typical bourgeois, liberal, middling language around net zero and reducing emissions and stopping growth and all this stuff.

00:20:38.420 Jebeau is shut it down.

00:20:40.920 He has explicitly said he wants to landlock Alberta oil.

00:20:44.080 He wants to stop pipelines. He wants to end all oil and gas, all fossil fuel use.

00:20:51.660 This guy would be on the radical side of the Green Party, but like some more career-oriented activists do,

00:21:03.320 they don't go for the Green Party or for the NDP.

00:21:05.800 They go for the liberals and just try to pull them along as sort of a pragmatic play.

00:21:10.200 I think he calls himself a radical pragmatic.

00:21:12.580 And I think that's maybe suitable.

00:21:14.380 Like, this guy would be a better fit as the extreme end of the Green Party.

00:21:18.340 But he went liberal because it gets him into power.

00:21:21.780 Corey, Kenny has said this is, what was it, problematic?

00:21:24.920 Very problematic.

00:21:25.740 Very problematic.

00:21:28.180 Wave of the finger.

00:21:31.020 The liberals killed the tech mine, and Kenny more or less said that was problematic, too.

00:21:36.120 We got a press, yeah, there was a press release.

00:21:38.100 There was a press release when the Liberals killed billions and billions of dollars in investment in the oil sands with essentially regulatory red tape.

00:21:48.440 Is there anything we can expect beyond press conferences from Kenny in response to this?

00:21:52.100 I don't know. Here yet again, we have a big crisis looming and we've got a premier now who's in the midst of a new mire.

00:21:57.260 And I don't know if he's going to have time to address this, which is, I don't think we can state strongly enough

00:22:04.380 on what this signals to Western Canada or all of Canada.

00:22:08.260 I mean, Trudeau's, you know, these aren't things that surfaced since he's been appointed.

00:22:12.020 Everybody, this is on the record.

00:22:13.180 We know what Gilboa is about.

00:22:14.360 You know he's an extremist.

00:22:16.300 And when you put together a cabinet with a new government,

00:22:19.640 I mean, this is a newly elected government anyways,

00:22:21.540 and you build your cabinet, that is how you signal what your plan is,

00:22:25.060 your agenda, your mandate.

00:22:27.440 And when you take somebody like Gilboa and put them in an environment,

00:22:29.960 that's a purposeful move.

00:22:31.180 That's them saying our mandate is to shut down the oil field. 0.86

00:22:34.380 And you take the environment minister who also was in the business of alternative fuels and put him into natural resources.

00:22:44.160 I mean, this is saying, like, Trudeau wants his legacy to be the man who greened Canada.

00:22:49.140 He's the man who shut down the oil field.

00:22:51.020 We are in dire trouble.

00:22:52.720 Like, this is just what they've lined up the chess pieces as.

00:22:56.260 They haven't started moving yet.

00:22:57.900 And, of course, Kenny's in the midst of his own scandal right now, so I don't see how he's going to help stand up for us.

00:23:03.040 This is it. 0.99

00:23:03.840 I don't think this is Ottawa being meddlesome and troublesome and a pain in the ass anymore. 0.99

00:23:10.540 I think you put it right. 0.97

00:23:11.860 They have moved the pieces on the board to get ready for a checkmate of Alberta's energy industry here.

00:23:18.160 This is it.

00:23:19.620 And they're going to move.

00:23:21.080 I think it should be very clear.

00:23:22.080 They're going to move now.

00:23:24.680 I mean, if the federal government did this with any equivalent industry,

00:23:29.260 especially one that's important to us, but in Quebec,

00:23:33.000 Quebec would raise an army.

00:23:35.880 They wouldn't just declare independence.

00:23:37.280 They'd probably try to attack Ottawa.

00:23:39.100 They'd start lobbing artillery over the Ottawa River from Gatineau.

00:23:42.460 I mean, there is no way that Quebec would accept this.

00:23:45.980 And frankly, few places in the free world would ever accept this.

00:23:51.560 But I don't think the Alberta government is going to be in any position to do anything about it

00:23:57.000 because they're just consumed with scandal and internal political intrigue right now.

00:24:02.100 And it's already damaging us.

00:24:03.480 You know, like, just think of the investment chill.

00:24:05.320 I mean, how it must be to be, you know, a broker in Alberta who's been trying to sell

00:24:08.780 and getting foreign investment, it's already been a pain.

00:24:11.320 We've already had a hostile federal government, and heavy-duty investors are not fools.

00:24:15.220 They research the jurisdictions where they're putting money in, and they see that.

00:24:19.660 I hate to say it about my own province, but I think you'd be insane to invest in the energy sector in Alberta right now.

00:24:24.000 Especially when you've got the mayor of the big city saying that we're declaring a climate emergency.

00:24:29.580 That's not going to do anything to bring in...

00:24:32.160 Well, now Trudeau can literally point to the mayor of Alberta's biggest city and say,

00:24:35.620 look, your own mayor agrees that this is a climate emergency and we're going to treat it as an emergency.

00:24:41.100 And would government has ever given itself emergency power that it has not exercised towards authoritarian ends?

00:24:47.720 That is the point of extraordinary powers.

00:24:50.160 and governments have gotten very liberal with the use of declaring emergency powers for themselves.

00:24:56.300 We just have to look at the last nearly two years in Canada and across the globe.

00:25:00.820 Governments grant themselves extraordinary emergency powers

00:25:03.660 and they do some pretty radical things with it.

00:25:06.420 So I think, I mean, the Globe and Mail snickers at this kind of thing,

00:25:11.740 the Toronto Star snickers at it.

00:25:13.100 Frankly, even much of the mainstream government subsidized press in Alberta

00:25:19.380 kind of snickers at this, that, you know, this is just worry-mongering.

00:25:23.540 Well, no, the Liberals weren't going to strike to shut down Canada's biggest industry overnight.

00:25:28.500 You have to put the pieces in place.

00:25:30.300 And now it looks like the Queen has got a straight run at our King. 0.95

00:25:35.380 Scary days.

00:25:37.340 Well, speaking of Alberta not being happy, but being able to do absolutely nothing about it.

00:25:43.840 Albertans voted 62% on the yes side of the referendum with just under 40% turnout.

00:25:51.940 I mean, not quite as massive a mandate as we would expect on something like equalization,

00:25:56.760 but I think it's pretty accepted wisdom at this point that it was the massive unpopularity of the Kennedy government right now that drew that vote down.

00:26:05.720 But it is still a clear mandate, 62%.

00:26:08.520 It was never expected that, I've never expected much to come from this.

00:26:13.100 I voted yes. I felt that it's something we should do regardless.

00:26:19.100 But that nothing was going to come from it unless we had to do something about equalization or else option.

00:26:25.100 And Kenny has explicitly taken every single or else option off the table.

00:26:31.100 The government is completely consumed in a chaos of daily evolving scandals, like just today.

00:26:39.100 So Albertans did this, and what's been the reaction, Dave, in the rest of Canada?

00:26:45.100 Crickets, to be honest.

00:26:47.100 Kenny called 62%, a tremendous mandate.

00:26:51.100 Really hasn't been much response from Trudeau.

00:26:55.100 Former Prime Minister Jean Chrétien did a series of book interviews on the weekend.

00:27:01.100 He said the whole thing was silly, that it's not going to have any effect whatsoever.

00:27:06.100 pointed it out, you need seven out of the provinces to agree with it.

00:27:11.220 Naheed Nenshi, the former mayor of Calgary, doesn't seem to be going anywhere.

00:27:14.880 And he's piped in.

00:27:16.620 He says Trudeau should reject the referendum.

00:27:20.520 And then he called it just a sleazeball attempt by Kenny to try and, you know, shift focus

00:27:28.380 and pick a fight with Ottawa.

00:27:31.200 So, as you sort of hinted at, Derek, what needs to happen now is Kenny needed to be on an airplane to Ottawa today.

00:27:40.280 He needed to have set up a meeting with Trudeau today, and he needed to say, here are the results, Mr. Prime Minister, let's talk.

00:27:48.100 He's not going to do that. He's fighting for his political skin right now.

00:27:52.340 So there is nobody from Alberta who's going to take these results and go down east and, you know, do a tour in Toronto, do a tour in Montreal and say,

00:28:00.240 We should just get appointed, go to Ottawa, and see if anyone talked to us.

00:28:04.680 You'd probably have about as much effect.

00:28:06.540 Yeah, exactly.

00:28:07.720 So, crickets from the rest of Canada, and even people here saying it's not worth the paper it's printed on.

00:28:16.380 So, I've thought that, whatever else I think of Kenny,

00:28:19.180 very clearly this was not some last-minute distraction trying to save his political skin.

00:28:25.720 This was a promise that went back before Jason Kenney even considered entering provincial politics.

00:28:30.240 It went back to the Wild Bros Equalization Fairness Panel, of which I sat on.

00:28:35.020 It was a professor, Brian Jean and I.

00:28:38.800 So this was announced back in 2016 or maybe early 27.

00:28:43.540 I think 2016.

00:28:44.880 Yeah, 2016.

00:28:46.620 And, I mean, years, more than two years before Jason Kenney became Premier of Alberta.

00:28:51.640 It's before he even considered entering provincial politics.

00:28:55.500 But I suppose they're going to try and play it that way.

00:28:58.460 But I think there's a bigger problem here.

00:29:02.060 Kenny's Fair Deal panel was in a response to the explosion of the Wexit movement

00:29:05.680 immediately after the previous federal election in October 2019.

00:29:10.580 We were covering that because the Western Standard launched two days after that federal election.

00:29:15.040 And I remember I was in the room when he announced the creation of the Fair Deal panel

00:29:19.320 and its mandate.

00:29:20.860 And it was meant to suck the oxygen out of the Wexit guys and try to channel it to say,

00:29:25.860 Okay, well, I'm going to at least do a bunch of the things you like, so you need to continue to back me.

00:29:30.380 Well, nothing's come of it.

00:29:32.160 The equalization panel was kind of a flop.

00:29:34.520 Not a lot of real strength came out of it.

00:29:36.940 We've now held the equalization referendum.

00:29:40.900 Well, crickets.

00:29:42.780 Absolutely nothing's happening.

00:29:45.620 Is this going to, do you think, the failure to get results for Kenny,

00:29:49.300 is this going to further weaken him on his right, somewhat sovereign to his flank?

00:29:53.200 Like, how is Paul Hinman feeling right now?

00:29:56.200 Well, probably frustrated as an Albertan, but happy in that, yeah, Kenny's just losing

00:30:00.380 support on yet another front further.

00:30:03.440 As you said, I mean, the Fair Deal panel came about to calm the outright secessionist pressures

00:30:08.280 that were starting to rise up, and I think it worked.

00:30:10.040 Gave people another outlet.

00:30:11.040 I mean, the term I've always used for Albertan is reluctant separatists.

00:30:13.800 We know we've got to go, but we're going to try everything before we get there.

00:30:17.680 And we keep falling for it, you know, whether it was the firewall letter back in 2000, up

00:30:23.180 to now. We just keep grasping at straws. And meanwhile, the government punishes us further

00:30:27.160 and further and further. I mean, this is something he should have been able to pick up and run with.

00:30:31.660 I mean, even if within a moment of modesty to say, look, I mean, I know the bulk of the province

00:30:35.460 has ticked off with me right now, but still two thirds of them at least recognize that equalization

00:30:39.400 stinks. It's robbing Albertans. It's an unfair program. It's not good. And we've got to start

00:30:44.400 talking about this because it's just not sustainable for us right now. Move with it,

00:30:49.180 use it. And then when you

00:30:51.180 get, yeah, as you know, Nenshi giggling

00:30:53.120 along saying they'll ignore you, you're right in the head.

00:30:55.960 So then we move on to something else.

00:30:57.820 Where's our pension plan, Kenny?

00:30:59.360 That was part of the panel. Where's the police force?

00:31:01.360 Do something. Quit firing friggin' blanks. 0.99

00:31:03.340 I'm sick as hell of that. Writing letters. 0.99

00:31:05.320 They don't give a shit what you think, Jason. 0.99

00:31:07.220 So you gotta do something. But now, 0.99

00:31:09.140 might be too late.

00:31:11.540 I don't think I can top that. No.

00:31:13.720 Let's pull a George Costanza.

00:31:15.280 Just end it right there. I'm out.

00:31:17.160 Happy birthday, by the way.

00:31:19.480 Oh, thank you.

00:31:20.400 Thank you.

00:31:21.960 I was for the two years of us.

00:31:25.300 Two years of us.

00:31:25.980 Oh, yes.

00:31:27.340 Yes.

00:31:28.300 Happy birthday to the Western Standard.

00:31:30.320 The Western Standard is now two years old.

00:31:32.880 I wasn't even thinking.

00:31:34.220 Yeah, Western Standard turned two years.

00:31:37.260 It's two years of us.

00:31:38.520 It's been a wonderful time.

00:31:40.180 I didn't get you flowers.

00:31:41.780 Maybe a beer.

00:31:42.660 Maybe I'll get you a beer.

00:31:43.440 Sure.

00:31:43.900 But except there's no drinking in the office.

00:31:45.400 No, we would never drink in the office because Cory will harass us. 1.00

00:31:49.520 That's right, that te-totaling pain in the ass. 0.99

00:31:51.520 Yeah, two years of the Western Standard, it's been a hell of a ride. 0.99

00:31:56.620 I mean, we started as a pretty small startup, working out of our basements, essentially.

00:32:03.500 And we have just grown tremendously.

00:32:06.140 We've brought a great team together here.

00:32:09.620 I'm really proud of everyone.

00:32:10.840 I'm getting all teary.

00:32:11.800 I'm getting all flustered here.

00:32:12.860 We brought a great team together of reporters, of columnists, of people on the operational staff that you don't normally see behind the camera or behind the computer screen.

00:32:25.420 And all of it is thanks to our members.

00:32:28.940 With your support, we've rebuilt some independent Western media where next to none was really existing before.

00:32:36.980 And I think there's a long way to go here.

00:32:39.440 We're going to continue to build.

00:32:40.640 We're going to get bigger.

00:32:41.300 We're going to get better.

00:32:42.240 We're going to continue to produce more and better quality news and opinion and video content for all of you guys.

00:32:51.040 That's a great way for me to say, continue with your Western Standard membership.

00:32:57.020 If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, we need you.

00:32:59.980 Check us out, westernstandardonline.com slash membership.

00:33:02.860 Try it free for 15 days.

00:33:04.840 It's only $99 a year or $10 a month.

00:33:08.600 Bailout free, kick-ass, independent Western media.

00:33:12.240 Thank you very much, all of you, and God bless.

00:33:42.240 Thank you.

Western Standard - October 28, 2021

The Pipeline： Greenpeace extremist appointed environment minister, Equalization referendum ignored

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