Western Standard - The Pipeline： Hostage exchange - Windmills for oil

00:00:00.000 Good evening, I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching

00:00:17.280 The Pipeline. Today is August 9th, 2023. I'm joined as usual by Western Standard opinion

00:00:25.420 editor, Nigel Hannaford. Great to be back. Gonna be back here too. We've also got, as always,

00:00:31.960 Western Standard Senior Alberta Columnist, Corey Morgan. How you doing, Corey? Very good, thanks.

00:00:38.960 Okay, well, we've got a fun show today. First, a hostage crisis.

00:00:46.060 Ottawa has been taking hostages from Alberta for quite some time. The tech oil sands mine,

00:00:52.040 pipeline approvals, natural gas exports to Germany. They've taken a lot of hostages. But

00:00:57.780 all of a sudden, new twist in the story. Alberta's taken some hostages. The Alberta government has

00:01:04.060 put in place a six-month moratorium on so-called green energy products. That's windmills,

00:01:11.540 solar panels, hipsters on exercise bikes, different things like this.

00:01:17.720 ostensibly so that they can do a review around land use stuff, which makes some sense.

00:01:26.320 But I'm actually hoping that there's a bigger agenda at play here.

00:01:30.940 And that's that, well, if Ottawa is going to be shooting our prisoners, 0.97

00:01:36.780 then perhaps we should start shooting some of their dear green prisoners as well. 0.99

00:01:41.180 Just for the Facebook, YouTube, and Facebook, mostly Facebook and YouTube censors. 0.99

00:01:47.020 we're not actually talking about shooting people, metaphorical projects. We're going to be talking about housing prices, housing, housing, or house building and immigration, immigration levels already at massive record levels continued to be planned to go to even higher new record levels. And whatever else you might think about immigration, good thing, bad thing.

00:02:14.180 It's definitely far, far outpacing new home construction in Canada.

00:02:19.080 So we're going to be talking about that, particularly comes from a column that Corey wrote.

00:02:24.040 We're going to talk about Justin Trudeau's privacy tour.

00:02:27.060 Of course, I'm sure you've all seen the news.

00:02:29.820 Justin Trudeau and Sophie Gregor Trudeau have split, and they both issued a very, I think, reasonable plea for privacy to leave their family out of this.

00:02:41.400 This is a private matter.

00:02:42.800 And I think most reasonable people among us said, that seems reasonable to me.

00:02:48.120 And about two days later, Justin Trudeau trots out his Barbie son on social media,

00:02:54.700 doing anything but keeping his family life private from what's going on.

00:03:02.000 So I'm going to talk about Justin Trudeau's kind of very strange privacy tour here.

00:03:07.700 A little on the nose, but trying to contrast himself.

00:03:10.220 uh uh conservative leader peer poly of the conservative leaders new clothes a new set of

00:03:17.900 positive advertisements about the conservative leader uh released about how he is a great family

00:03:24.840 man and the regular guy and wink wink nudge nudge his family's together i think that part was a you

00:03:32.760 know a little maybe a little on the nose but uh we're going to talk about these new attack uh it's

00:03:37.180 not attack ads, the opposite of attack ads, positive, flowery, nice ads, meant to perhaps humanize Pierre Polyev as he continues to climb in the polls here.

00:03:48.820 Before we get started, though, we've got to thank my favorite sponsor, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:03:53.140 I was actually just talking to these guys this morning.

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00:06:05.080 Okay, let's jump into it. Hostage exchange. For a very long time now, at least since the Trudeau government came to power in 2015, they have been outright cancelling energy product, generally fossil fuel based energy products in Canada.

00:06:24.660 And, you know, we remember just a few years ago, the Tech Frontier Mine, a massive oil sands project, billions and billions of dollars of investment, tens of billions of dollars in economic activity and royalties over the projected life of the oil sands mine, just canceled by the Trudeau government.

00:06:46.680 No good reason other than we don't like it.

00:06:48.640 Too bad.

00:06:49.280 It's Alberta.

00:06:49.840 It's oil.

00:06:50.480 That's a double negative.

00:06:51.440 Can't do it.

00:06:52.940 All sorts of, you know, the no more pipelines bill, the no more tank, the West Coast tanker ban, all of these things designed to kill the oil and gas industry in Alberta.

00:07:01.600 So they've been taking hostages and shooting them to boot.

00:07:05.560 Well, all of a sudden, just a few days ago, a very interesting announcement in Alberta here.

00:07:12.740 The government's put in place a six month moratorium on wind and solar projects.

00:07:19.940 projects. Now, a lot of people who actually live near where they build these things don't like

00:07:24.520 them. They make the landscape look like crap. A lot of people live in the country because it's 0.98

00:07:28.080 beautiful and it's natural. It's a big reason to live in the country. Well, it doesn't look so

00:07:33.960 beautiful and natural when you've got giant mirrors for solar farms and wind farms polluting the

00:07:39.500 landscape. People who want them tend to live where these things aren't. So it disrupts landowners.

00:07:46.020 just helps their way of life. So they put in place a six month moratorium on that.

00:07:50.020 But I think there could be, I mean, critics of this are saying, well, maybe they're trying to strike back at Ottawa.

00:07:57.020 And I thought, oh, that's a great idea if it's true. I don't know.

00:08:01.020 Let's start with you, Corey. Is this a bit of column A, part of column B?

00:08:07.020 It is partially concerned of landowners having their landscapes polluted by these projects without any consultation with them.

00:08:14.020 Or is this primarily Alberta taking some hostages now and saying, geez, you killed our projects. 0.99

00:08:21.440 It'd be a shame if this wind farm was killed too.

00:08:24.700 Well, I think there's a bit of both going on.

00:08:26.740 It's the government saying, you know what, we're not part of this almost craze for renewable energies.

00:08:33.300 We actually want to start appraising these and treating them as we do with other conventional energy projects for feasibility, environmental impact, things like that.

00:08:40.920 The icing on the cake, though, is telling Ottawa, well, yeah, we're not going to play your game with this.

00:08:47.300 We're going to develop our industry, as is our provincial, right, how we see fit.

00:08:51.760 We can debate whether it's a good idea or a bad idea to develop that way.

00:08:55.780 But she's, I think, sticking out the line, too, though, saying it's our choice whether it's good or bad.

00:09:00.020 This is our turf.

00:09:01.320 And what are you going to do about it?

00:09:03.960 And as you said, the hostage exchange might be pending.

00:09:06.940 Yeah, Nigel, the idea of the hostage exchange, you know, Alberta taking hostages to come back at Ottawa, didn't really strike me too much until this morning.

00:09:17.200 The discussion was mostly around, you know, on one side, while they're protecting landowners in rural areas from polluting their landscapes with, you know, wind and solar farms everywhere.

00:09:28.360 On the other side saying, oh, how dare you? This is a thriving industry.

00:09:32.140 You know, it's subsidized up the wazoo.

00:09:35.100 But, you know, they are being built.

00:09:37.220 They're just doing this because they don't like green energy.

00:09:39.840 I'm not convinced that they don't like so-called green energy.

00:09:43.820 But it struck me that this could be a hostage exchange.

00:09:45.980 When I was walking by in the hallway, we've got some kind of covers of our older issues here.

00:09:51.040 And headline, one of our earlier issues was, you know, if Trudeau kills the tech frontier mine, it's war.

00:09:57.460 And I thought, maybe there's a bigger, higher level politics to this, that this is Alberta frustrated that, okay, we can't do, this can't seem to do anything to force Ottawa to allow us to develop our industries as we see fit.

00:10:14.980 So perhaps we'll strike at them on our own soil, because we've got these little green, you know, these little solar and energy farms that Ottawa likes.

00:10:23.180 they're on our soil, and we can stop new ones from being built. We can play the

00:10:28.280 same game. I don't know, am I reading too much into this, that this is a hostage

00:10:32.840 exchange, or is this just more or less what it is on its face, that it's just

00:10:36.740 maybe they just don't like them, or maybe it is just a review for landowners?

00:10:41.060 So, I would say that the conversation that went, you know, we should start

00:10:47.980 stopping new green developments until they start allowing some new oil

00:10:53.080 developments was probably never that explicit because there are enough good

00:10:58.600 reasons which I may come to just to put a lid on the amount of new green

00:11:06.360 whether it's solar or wind development in this province. However I think everybody

00:11:13.260 sat back once they made the decision and said something along the lines of what

00:11:17.360 you saying that's kind of interesting actually we can do it too can't we it's sort of like the

00:11:22.640 sovereignty act only it's proactive instead of reactive but i i do strongly believe that

00:11:30.880 that this government would have been motivated by genuine reasons of of public concern they nearly

00:11:39.120 had a blackout before christmas we came that close and they are very aware that you cannot summon up

00:11:48.240 renewable energy on demand if the wind doesn't blow or if it's dark if it's cloudy whatever the

00:11:53.360 problem is you can't just say all right turn on the turbulence because nothing happens they also

00:11:58.880 articulated a number of other reasons that these things have got like a 20-year lifespan

00:12:02.960 and they're not recyclable so what do you what's the exit plan going to be and they say well this

00:12:07.520 is something we're not going to have any more of these things until we've developed that in six

00:12:10.880 months gives us a reasonable amount of time to do it but this is a province which lives four months

00:12:18.800 of the year below zero and tough you know it's it's you need power all the time and the idea that

00:12:27.040 the power could ever go off in the middle of the winter is something that provincial government

00:12:31.760 that allowed it to happen should be crucified for they're not going to lay themselves open to that

00:12:36.960 charge. I think it's kind of interesting that they've actually picked up and run with this

00:12:41.200 when so many previous provincial governments have not brought us this close to the brink.

00:12:47.520 Yeah, it's sort of Ottawa's, Ottawa doesn't really care how reliable this stuff is because it feels

00:12:52.160 good. They're happy to let the western bastards freeze in the dark. They don't care if this stuff 1.00

00:12:55.840 is reliable or not. And it was, you know, most of this stuff began in a really big way under the NDP.

00:13:02.160 They completely changed the way they did the power grid, introduced massive new subsidies in addition to subsidies that were already there federally and from the previous Allison Redford and Stelmack governments.

00:13:15.340 But the Kennedy government didn't really change anything on it.

00:13:18.900 They more or less just kind of left it in place.

00:13:22.100 And so far, this is early days for this UCP government.

00:13:25.560 Smith has only been premier in her own right since the elections, you know, May 31st, really.

00:13:32.160 They haven't had even a city of the legislature since the election, but it'll be telling if they start pulling the subsidies on these things.

00:13:40.000 Now, the old ones, there's old contracts signed to be very, pretty much impossible to get rid of the old contracts.

00:13:45.740 We're going to be stuck paying those for generations, just as Ontario is stuck paying them for generations back from the McGinty government.

00:13:51.920 But it'll be telling if Alberta does.

00:13:56.160 Corey, what do you think?

00:13:58.080 Do you think this would be the next move?

00:13:59.200 Is that Alberta starts pulling the subsidies out on these developments?

00:14:03.080 Well, it might.

00:14:03.600 If you don't like something, you probably don't subsidize it.

00:14:05.020 I mean, the whole case of whether they're viable or not is whether they could exist with just private investment.

00:14:09.300 I mean, you know, we would agree in this room anyways.

00:14:11.400 So I could say, yeah, the thumbs up is going on, but we're yanking our portion of it.

00:14:15.740 If you can bring in the private capital and follow the proper environmental hoops, go to town.

00:14:20.380 But in the meantime, we're done backstopping this because we have to bring more reliable things onto our grid, such as gas or, you know, dare I say, who knows?

00:14:29.240 Maybe, you know, modular nuclear and a lot of other options out there.

00:14:32.600 Ottawa killed the subsidies for oil and gas, which was precisely zero dollars.

00:14:38.600 So in response, we have to kill the subsidies for Ottawa's green projects, which is a lot more than zero dollars.

00:14:45.560 And there's a reason to, just for cost-benefit analysis, like I did a comparison, that Traverse Solar Project, it's already generating, it's in the grid, it's, the numbers offhand, I think it's 340 megawatts it generates, which is sizable, but it takes up 3,200 acres of land down there.

00:15:03.700 Now there's the Calgary Energy Project, it's a newer energy plant that was built, it's natural gas fired outside of Calgary, which generates about 320 megawatts, a little bit less than that one.

00:15:13.700 But it only takes up about 10 acres. So when you're talking environmental footprint too, I mean now the gas one has emissions, the solar doesn't, but there's more to be discussed.

00:15:22.700 There's not a lot of emissions in natural gas.

00:15:24.700 No, relative to a lot of other forms. So tapping the brakes, because there's 50, if you go to the

00:15:32.220 Alberta website, it's very good for the government, 50 large renewable energy projects in the

00:15:37.600 application or pending construction stage right now. Like there's a lot and that's ones that are

00:15:42.200 five million dollars or more. They're usually in the hundreds of millions. It's a good time to

00:15:46.060 rethink those things. Of course, this will be totally misrepresented to the Central Canadian

00:15:51.760 Oh, of course, we're Alberta.

00:15:55.020 Well, let's talk about how effective a strategy this might be.

00:15:58.120 If it is, in fact, a strategy.

00:15:59.560 Maybe we're reading way too much into it.

00:16:01.540 Nigel, you've said maybe it wasn't an explicit discussion.

00:16:05.120 I hope it was, actually.

00:16:07.000 Like, I hope that the Greenies' worst fears here is actually true, 1.00

00:16:10.780 that this was a very intentional and strategic move to retaliate against Ottawa.

00:16:16.820 And maybe if it wasn't intentional to begin with,

00:16:20.680 Maybe it was just, oh, we just need to, you know, for land development stuff, we need to look at that.

00:16:25.440 It seems to actually be a potentially great move for the province to make if they want to strong-arm Ottawa,

00:16:31.060 because Ottawa seems to have held all the cards, the Supreme Court stacked.

00:16:34.400 It's chosen exclusively by federal politicians, which is Trudeau and before them Harper.

00:16:41.700 Do you think this is an effective strategy, if in fact it is a strategy, to strong-arm Ottawa and to relenting on canceling Alberta projects?

00:16:49.080 Hard to say. On the surface, yes, it is. We can play that game, too. Under the surface,

00:16:59.160 what will the federal government do? What will the Liberal Party, more to the point,

00:17:04.200 do with this narrative of an obstreperous, obstructive Alberta government?

00:17:08.920 Will that be a bit rich? Oh, Alberta's stopping energy projects.

00:17:12.920 Well, stopping green energy projects.

00:17:14.600 I would love to see them say that. It'd be hilarious.

00:17:17.400 Well, it would, but it would sell very well to the central Canadian electorate,

00:17:23.080 which doesn't believe the best of Alberta in the first place, and would probably react quite

00:17:27.720 strongly to an emotional pitch from the prime minister. And Lord knows he's going to need some

00:17:33.400 effective emotional pitches in the two years' time.

00:17:36.520 Well, let them hit on Alberta. Who cares? 0.84

00:17:38.600 whether that will actually force them to relent the thing that we need to be building more natural

00:17:49.000 gas generators now that's what we know how to do that's what we know works and we have

00:17:54.920 the natural gas to do it with it is the nuclear nothing against nuclear but i think there's a

00:18:01.320 little bit more of a time lag between saying yes we'll do it and actually turning it on it also

00:18:07.560 happens to be that we have all hell for a basement of natural gas we have virtually infinite natural

00:18:14.920 gas under us and it's cheap but you made a point about the ndp a few minutes ago about how this

00:18:20.120 started they were the ones who actually started decommissioning the coal fire generating plants

00:18:23.880 which is the by far the cheapest way to generate electricity and all that had happened is that

00:18:31.400 they have completely bought the program unthinking unquestioning an emotional appeal oh we must do 1.00

00:18:38.200 our part too so let's get you know more harm is done by stupid people than evil people i don't 1.00

00:18:46.040 think the ndp were evil but they certainly were stupid on this whole file and now we've got a 1.00

00:18:53.560 government that is i think trying to pick up the beat well not think it is manifestly obvious 1.00

00:18:57.880 they're trying to pick up the pieces and make sure that the lights don't go off. 1.00

00:19:01.240 Well, I think we've got Nigel's slogan, more harm is done by stupid people than even evil people. 0.99

00:19:06.200 Well, it's not original. I'm sure observed it. 1.00

00:19:09.560 Yeah. All right. Well, we're going to switch it up to another federal provincial issue here.

00:19:18.440 That housing, the relationship between housing and immigration.

00:19:23.240 People watching are probably gonna have different views on immigration.

00:19:26.520 But, you know, Canada was populated, other than the very first people here, by immigrants.

00:19:31.380 We've, you know, and our birth rates are low that probably can't be forced that much higher through whatever incentives.

00:19:38.980 Immigration is a pretty important part of the economy here, especially as we have this upside down pyramid scheme of the welfare state between health care and pensions and things like that.

00:19:48.580 But whatever you level you think immigration should be at. We have to agree that I would think that if you know housing prices are already so stratospheric that it's your only way if you're a young person today to get a house is that your parents give or lend you the money or you win the lottery that at a minimum we should at least be building enough new homes in Canada so that it stays roughly equivalent with with availability.

00:20:18.580 relative to immigration. Well, that's very much not the case. Corey, you had a column on this.

00:20:24.180 Yeah, I did, or the column is coming out soon anyways, and I did talk about that on the show,

00:20:29.700 I did. Yeah, I mean, the numbers, it's just straight math. The Trudeau government is

00:20:34.100 stubbornly sticking to their 500,000 a year target for immigration of people to come into Canada.

00:20:39.220 That was one of the first things asked of the new immigration minister. Will you, even progressive

00:20:43.220 outlets are starting to question, would you start considering slowing it down? We've got a problem.

00:20:46.980 We said no.

00:20:47.580 Not cutting it, but just slowing it down the growth.

00:20:49.360 If anything, we might even increase it, he said, actually.

00:20:52.200 So we have $500,000 planned to come in every year.

00:20:55.020 Our housing units right now, and that's housing, it's apartments, that's houses, it's everything, is roughly about $230,000.

00:21:01.700 So, I mean, this is a...

00:21:02.420 And not every immigrant needs their own unit, because there's a lot of families coming.

00:21:05.960 That's right.

00:21:06.640 It's not straight across, but it's certainly not enough.

00:21:09.520 Plus, if they're coming in, either whether the immigrant can't find a new home or they get into the bidding and the costs go up.

00:21:16.320 because we're having difficulty with citizens here now, affording to get into either buying

00:21:20.660 a home, as you said, or even renting. It's eating a larger and larger part of people's incomes.

00:21:25.320 This is a collision course going on, and it's going to lead to some very, very big challenges.

00:21:30.840 I looked up some of the numbers because we were talking a bit earlier, you know,

00:21:33.600 what's the incentive? Why is the government so stuck on this? Well, it's according to the IMF.

00:21:37.600 So if Canada sticks to its immigration targets, we will see our GDP increase by 1.5% because 0.61

00:21:43.600 in incoming immigration does generate activity and GDP. But of course, when you break it down

00:21:49.840 to per capita GDP, that's where the difference lies, because that will drop not by 15.5%. But

00:21:57.380 they're predicting 0.2% to 0.5%. Because sure, you've increased the economy by one and a half

00:22:02.360 percent, but you're spreading it amongst 500,000 extra people every year. And so let's, you know,

00:22:08.000 more people will have less, but it helps them balance the books, it helps them avoid the R word,

00:22:13.020 there's no recession as long as the GDP is ostensibly growing. But this again, as you said,

00:22:18.740 it's a pyramid scheme, and it's going to crash eventually. We can't just keep maintaining this

00:22:23.320 by pumping people into support to the population demographic changes we have, we've got to get the

00:22:28.640 housing. Nigel, you don't have to be anti-immigration to have legitimate concerns about

00:22:35.380 this stuff. I mean, you can be very pro-immigration, say, well, first of all, I'm not sure any society

00:22:41.820 in the world can absorb this proportion of people. I mean, I think reasonable people would agree

00:22:47.940 that a society can absorb a certain number of newcomers from foreign languages, foreign

00:22:56.120 religions, foreign cultures. We can absorb a certain proportion every year. What is the

00:23:01.400 proportion we can absorb and what point does it tip over that we can't? I don't know. I mean,

00:23:07.360 There's a lot of examples in Europe that they have absorbed a lot more than they can handle. Canada's been relatively successful-ish in absorbing people, but at some point it's going to tip over.

00:23:21.020 But now it's getting into a very beyond the traditional cultural arguments, which dominate discussions of immigration. It's now getting into basic economics of it.

00:23:30.360 And that is much more difficult for the liberals to argue with, saying, yeah, housing is a problem, but we're going to continue to bring in many more people every year than we're actually building the necessary homes for.

00:23:44.780 Do you think, you know, if the government continues on this, and the conservatives haven't, the conservatives have been so shy around this because they don't want to get painted as anti-immigrant.

00:23:55.760 I mean, saying, well, we're not going to bring in half a million a year.

00:23:58.320 We're going to bring in 4.5, you know, 450,000 a year.

00:24:02.340 The liberals are saying, well, you're racists.

00:24:04.320 Even if Canada still had the highest immigration levels in the world, it's less than the liberals. 0.89

00:24:08.100 Therefore, you're racist.

00:24:08.860 The conservatives have been very tepid around this.

00:24:11.140 I don't know where they're going to go with it.

00:24:12.660 But do you think, regardless of what parties in power, this housing issue with immigration poses a risk of causing an anti-immigration backlash

00:24:23.600 that could maybe turn to a naster form of xenophobia?

00:24:27.580 I hope it doesn't come to that, Derek.

00:24:29.400 I really hope it doesn't come to that.

00:24:32.360 But you are going to be seeing more stories

00:24:34.540 about immigrants living in tense cities.

00:24:37.680 Because if there literally is no place for them to go,

00:24:42.040 what are they going to do?

00:24:43.920 They will do what they can,

00:24:45.740 and they will find temporary accommodation.

00:24:49.560 And it's going to be a terrible story for the liberals.

00:24:52.300 We've already got that.

00:24:53.160 Look, that just happened in Toronto.

00:24:54.440 Now Toronto's screaming for money to house these poor people 1.00

00:24:58.220 who we invite to our shores, and we have got to work for them to stay.

00:25:01.600 That's right.

00:25:02.280 So, I mean, keep this up, and that's only going to be a growing problem.

00:25:08.920 That, I think, is going to be a backlash against the government 1.00

00:25:11.820 that once more was stupid as opposed to manifestly evil 1.00

00:25:16.500 for just not getting it right. 1.00

00:25:19.020 I mean, you can have different ideological ideas,

00:25:21.620 whether it's about green energy or climate change

00:25:25.680 or about the level of immigration.

00:25:27.840 But whatever your ideological idea is,

00:25:30.300 you've at least got to do it properly

00:25:32.360 and according to the mathematics.

00:25:34.760 I thought Corey was off on an interesting point there,

00:25:37.200 but you didn't go very far into it.

00:25:39.680 And that was, is the impetus to bring in more immigrants,

00:25:43.700 to bring in more taxpayers,

00:25:46.100 because the whole social benefit scheme in Canada

00:25:48.800 is actually a massive Ponzi scheme.

00:25:51.620 And we could not depend, like this generation could not depend on the generation that's following to, frankly, pay the bills, to pay the CPP, to pay the OAS, to pay the GIS, to pay the cost of health care.

00:26:06.520 You know, so you bring in more immigrants, you have more taxpayers, and now we've got enough money, and I'll be somewhere else by the time that all this comes home to roost. 1.00

00:26:18.780 I have to wonder whether that's really what it's all about.

00:26:22.760 Well, that's maybe where I want to go next.

00:26:25.200 And this one's going to be a bit more politically sensitive by its nature.

00:26:29.600 Immigration, the politics of immigration in a lot of countries is sometimes set by ideology,

00:26:36.240 but often it's more just practical politics, stacking the deck one way or another to favor one political party or another.

00:26:44.900 And some of that will overlap to an extent. But like you look in the United States, generally Democrats favor immigration more than Republicans do. Both are generally fairly pro-immigration, but, you know, Democrats more so.

00:26:59.580 But one of the big reasons for that is that recent immigrants and visible minorities vote in significantly larger numbers, proportionally Democrat.

00:27:09.940 So the Democrats have a political incentive for higher immigration, whereas Republicans have a political incentive for lower immigration.

00:27:19.920 And there's a similar, although maybe not as strong, correlation in Canada that, you know, how many, you've all heard it before with some older immigrants.

00:27:28.900 Well, I, my family came here under Trudeau, senior Trudeau, so I feel obliged to vote liberal. The liberals have painted themselves very effectively as the party of immigrants, rightly or wrongly, they have.

00:27:42.120 You know, Mulroney opened Canada up to record levels of immigration. He passed the official multiculturalism act, but somehow did not steal the political star as the party of immigration from the liberals.

00:27:52.840 The Liberals have retained it. The Conservatives closed the gap quite a bit when with the Harper majority victory in 2011, you know, with Jason Kenney's work and things like that.

00:28:02.480 But that was fleeting. That seemed to have been largely a one-off kind of thing.

00:28:07.180 The Liberals do seem to have a strong partisan interest in higher immigration because there are people who are more likely to vote Liberal once they can get their citizenship than not.

00:28:21.520 Is that what's driving this and the consequences of these kind of insane levels of immigration be damned? 1.00

00:28:28.040 Or is it just that they think it's the right thing to do?

00:28:31.100 Well, I go back to what I just said.

00:28:33.260 I do think that the incentive, the economic incentive is very strong.

00:28:38.740 Bring in more people, pay more bills, worry about the consequences in the end when they have to be worried about.

00:28:46.840 But for now, we need more taxpayers.

00:28:48.800 That, I think, is the driving thing.

00:28:50.880 Because the bringing in more people also brings in more carbon dioxide emitters.

00:28:58.260 It's not going to make the net zero any easier to meet by 2035 if between now and then you bring in, what, another 6 million people?

00:29:10.180 That's counterproductive in a lot of ways.

00:29:13.500 Carbon dioxide emitters, that is what we should just call humans now.

00:29:16.940 Well, consumers and carbon dioxide emitters, that's right.

00:29:20.040 Corey, same thing to you. Do you think this is driven by, rightly or wrongly, this is driven by the partisan political incentive for the liberals that, you know, immigrate, at least more recent immigrants, it's less of a withholder, more established immigrants, but this, that they're more likely to vote liberal and that's why they want to bring these people in in such numbers?

00:29:41.080 I think secondary to the economic case, that could be part of it for sure, because traditionally, demographically, that's a better area.

00:29:46.880 But those who came in and felt gratitude towards, say, Trudeau Sr. didn't come in and have to spend their two first years in a tent camp,

00:29:53.880 waiting for a year to find a doctor for a checkup, and having an increasingly hostile citizenry,

00:30:00.300 which is going to happen if, again, we don't properly integrate new Canadians.

00:30:05.240 I don't know if they're going to feel such a sense of gratitude to the existing government for the situation they got put in

00:30:10.160 as past immigrant, you know, immigrants may have had. So I wouldn't count on their support later. 0.72

00:30:14.980 Okay. Well, we're going to change from kind of federal government to Trudeau more personally.

00:30:21.380 So everyone knows Justin Trudeau and Sophie Gregor Trudeau split. They put out kind of

00:30:29.940 at the same time, simultaneous statements that I think were very, you could tell there was a lot

00:30:35.480 of communication strategists behind this. The deal was already arranged to make it as neat as possible. And in there, they included a very reasonable and humane plea for privacy for their families that we try to, you know, keep

00:30:52.640 try not to make the personal political here. And the media more or less do normally respect that, at least for liberals, liberals, private lives are generally considered more or less off limits.

00:31:03.380 But then, and we're going to have to bring the picture up here. I think it was about two days later, Justin Trudeau posts this picture of him and his son. I didn't even know what his son looks like. He has appeared in photos. It's not like they've been totally sequestered and hidden, but haven't really been trotted out too much.

00:31:22.500 To Trudeau's credit, you know, he hasn't used his kids' props too much, at least that I've seen.

00:31:27.940 But then he trots out his son as a prop here, and they're both dressed in pink, and, you know, it's labeled Team Barbie.

00:31:35.620 And, I mean, it's fine, go to see Barbie.

00:31:37.760 I'm disappointed I couldn't take my daughter to see Barbie here.

00:31:40.680 My wife took her instead, because I had to watch the baby. 1.00

00:31:44.800 But, you know, it's fine.

00:31:48.520 You really want to see Barbie?

00:31:50.100 Out of all movies I could watch with my daughter in a theater, it looked like a funny one.

00:31:54.820 It probably had its moments.

00:31:55.960 Like, if you're going to go to a movie theater with a six-year-old girl, I mean, you could probably see worse. 0.98

00:32:01.980 You could probably see worse.

00:32:03.060 It sounded kind of funny with some jokes that go over the heads of kids, but we'll meet in an adult.

00:32:09.780 So, no problem with that.

00:32:12.040 But just, I can't put my finger on it, but it was just the look of them.

00:32:17.900 I've used this term for Trudeau before we have a word in German for it it's very hard to pronounce

00:32:23.540 which translates roughly a punchable face and he just had such a punchable face in it

00:32:34.420 it's smug it's that smug little but did whatever else you think it was very clearly

00:32:40.160 sending some kind of message using his son as a prop like less than 48 hours after he makes a plea

00:32:47.880 for privacy and it just reminded me of you know uh harry and megan merkel touring around the media

00:32:55.260 going on oprah screaming please respect our privacy you know just kind of like that uh that

00:33:01.060 that south park episode and harry and megan's privacy tour gory well yeah i mean you know stop

00:33:09.080 You know, give us our privacy. And they're holding signs and marching in front of the cameras. And within two days, there he is. And it wasn't a case of he'd gone to the theater and some individual had taken a picture with their camera and posted it. This was a staged, posed, hey, look at me. But you know, it's pure Trudeau. It's pure, it has to be about him. It's that shallow, you know, all eyes on me. Look at me. I'm the dad going through a separation.

00:33:37.060 You know, somebody on social media pointed out an interesting thing.

00:33:39.640 You know, maybe his messaging was actually more petty than that.

00:33:41.980 Even it was actually directed towards Sophie.

00:33:43.660 Hey, I got him for the weekend.

00:33:45.420 Look what I'm doing.

00:33:46.380 That's speculation.

00:33:47.420 But you see, when you're going to play that game and you're inviting that speculation.

00:33:50.640 Well, that's the problem.

00:33:50.880 Yeah, you invite it.

00:33:51.640 Just, you know, you have your personal pictures.

00:33:53.960 I have pictures with my kids.

00:33:55.600 I do my political stuff on Twitter.

00:33:57.260 And boy, I invite the backlash and the headaches.

00:33:59.500 But I don't post my family pictures on there.

00:34:01.540 I post them in other areas where I'm sharing with family.

00:34:05.040 He's choosing to expose that.

00:34:07.320 It doesn't mean it justifies hostile reactions or attacks against his kids,

00:34:11.020 but it also says, dude, your request for privacy was more than a little overblown.

00:34:15.660 Yeah.

00:34:16.740 You know, last week I wrote something right after the news came down.

00:34:22.460 I said, you know what, I disagree with Mr. Trudeau on just about everything,

00:34:25.960 but on this, I understand the situation.

00:34:29.420 And I'm happy to just say, go take the space you need, you and Sophie.

00:34:36.640 And then the first thing that comes up is this.

00:34:38.720 I kind of wish I hadn't written it.

00:34:39.960 I feel like I've been deceived, you know.

00:34:42.000 Surely.

00:34:42.840 Wouldn't be the first time.

00:34:44.740 But the guy just can't help himself.

00:34:47.420 He's a publicity hound.

00:34:49.060 If the cameras are not pointing in his direction, he's over here, you know.

00:34:54.500 It's sad.

00:34:55.180 It actually is kind of sad that a fellow with that mentality is leading the country.

00:35:01.540 And it does make it hard, I think, for other politicians to make the same plea who actually mean it.

00:35:07.720 Like, hey, I'm going through something personal here.

00:35:11.480 Please leave my family out of this.

00:35:13.380 This is our personal life.

00:35:15.580 We shouldn't get chewed up at home for this.

00:35:18.000 You know, they're human beings.

00:35:19.680 And people have respected it.

00:35:20.960 I mean, there haven't been paparazzi climbing the walls, trying to get pictures of the Trudeau family or tailing Sophie to see if she has a new date yet or anything like that.

00:35:30.540 But again, at the same time, it would be more like, OK, I'm going to leave the family thing here and we're going to have the political thing here.

00:35:35.380 But no, he's still got them quite well immersed in the public eye.

00:35:39.140 Yeah. And I have a feeling that Sophie Grigor, you still call her Trudeau?

00:35:44.860 Maybe she keeps the name because it's got some cachet.

00:35:46.820 I don't think the court settlement is rich yet, so legally she's probably... 1.00

00:35:51.280 But who knows, maybe she keeps it because it's got some cachet, who knows.

00:35:56.600 But I have a feeling she's not going to just quietly ride into the sunset.

00:36:00.160 I mean, most people still remember Margaret Trudeau, and she used that platform into some kind of career.

00:36:10.760 Sophie Trudeau is probably going to do something similar. 1.00

00:36:14.660 I doubt she's going to ride into the sunset.

00:36:16.040 She doesn't seem to have that craving of attention that we see out of Justin, which I think he inherited from Margaret.

00:36:23.800 Sophie likes the spotlight a bit, but she doesn't seem to be quite as obsessed with it.

00:36:28.800 So I don't know if a comparison to Margaret is fair.

00:36:31.260 But if she reinvents herself as a public figure, then... 0.98

00:36:33.980 The name's an asset.

00:36:35.420 Yeah, yeah. And Jen Gerson, the line, I think, had a... 1.00

00:36:38.660 I'm guessing it was her who wrote it, which is the editors.

00:36:41.840 But the line, they had a good column on this about, okay, well, she's off limits for now. 0.71

00:36:47.400 But if she tries to reinvent herself as a public figure, she becomes fair game again.

00:36:51.960 And I have a hard time believing she's just going to totally go away and live like the Unabomber. 1.00

00:36:58.960 We'll see.

00:37:00.340 Probably not like the Unabomber, no.

00:37:04.640 Well, the last few years, he was really mailing it in.

00:37:06.860 It's usually me who pulls these stunts on.

00:37:12.780 James, who's operating the camera today, got that one.

00:37:17.340 Okay.

00:37:19.460 Okay, the Conservative leader's new clothes.

00:37:23.120 So, Pierre Paulyab has been undergoing some of an image makeover lately.

00:37:28.160 He's gotten rid of the glasses.

00:37:29.940 I'm guessing he either got laser eye or contacts.

00:37:32.300 I find it looks a bit weird because I feel like he feels like he looks he looks almost naked with

00:37:38.060 it and now that night might just be I remember my dad had a mustache for a time while I was a kid

00:37:41.840 and for a few years and he shaved it and I was like who the hell is this guy maybe just get so

00:37:46.280 used to someone and he's just always had glasses I think since he was born but you know he's been

00:37:53.720 shown less in his pinstripe suits and more you know in athletic gear and doing stuff he's been

00:38:00.260 working out uh but now there's um now these these new uh these new ads that have come out

00:38:06.240 not attack ads they're positive ads and positive ads are so much less cool than attack ads i like

00:38:13.680 attack ads even bad attack actually especially bad attack ads but these ones are they're kind

00:38:18.500 of corny it's got his wife talking about how uh he's a good guy cares about where you're going

00:38:25.300 not where you're from uh he's got one with uh one of his kids i think his boy um they're nice

00:38:32.340 and fluffy uh Nigel do you think these are gonna have i don't know any real effect of trying to

00:38:38.260 rebrand him from being kind of the i hate to say this but the millhouse poindextery political nerd 0.63

00:38:45.060 attack dog who's always going for the throat to be you know the nicer dad husband you think this

00:38:51.620 is these might be effective or his image makeover in general effective? Well look women vote and 1.00

00:38:59.860 women like Trudeau or have in the past so there's no good saying well I don't care about all that 1.00

00:39:06.100 sort of thing I'm just going to have to you know change the carry on and get the message right

00:39:12.260 and we'll see see where it goes on the election because it may not go well. So you know about

00:39:20.260 Two months ago, we ran something about how women didn't like Bolivar.

00:39:24.480 And a lot of the things that were claimed by various people working for the Toronto Star, the Globe, and Mail, the CBC,

00:39:34.260 were that he was harsh, that he always seemed to be ready to fight, he was aggressive, he was nice.

00:39:43.780 All right, well, if that's an issue for women, it's not an issue for men. 0.84

00:39:48.060 But if it's an issue for women, what are you going to do about that? 0.72

00:39:52.040 Why don't we do a blue pullover?

00:39:53.520 No, that didn't work for Harper. 1.00

00:39:56.020 Let's not do blue pullovers.

00:39:59.060 You know?

00:40:00.340 So we go, how about laser eye surgery?

00:40:04.280 Yes, we could do that.

00:40:05.900 And look, I know a really good hairdresser.

00:40:08.520 We could tweak it a bit.

00:40:10.780 And so the thing starts to go. 0.98

00:40:12.940 And it's horrible to have to admit the politics comes down to this kind of trash. 0.98

00:40:19.380 But it does. 0.99

00:40:20.800 Well, I don't think it is just women as well.

00:40:23.700 Image matters to both male and female voters.

00:40:27.040 Yeah, but his male image was fine.

00:40:29.860 I think it was better than it was with women. 1.00

00:40:33.420 But I think even a lot of men thought, he looks like a bit of a nerd.

00:40:37.660 Not sure I could have a beer with him kind of thing.

00:40:39.880 So I think, you know, he might be actually even, it's probably geared primarily at women, but I think also at men. You want to appear, you know, one of the famous, I think they started polling this in the 2000 US presidential election. Who would you rather have a beer with? George Bush or Al Gore? George Bush beat the hell out of Al Gore, which was funny because George Bush had quit drinking at that time and somehow seemed to become dumber when he was sober.

00:41:06.800 but uh that really wasn't a fair fight come on like go to my way to avoid love to drape have a

00:41:17.120 beer with george bush like that would be a good time yeah um but that was a that was an interesting

00:41:23.820 kind of poll it's not saying how you're gonna vote but it said a lot about relatability and

00:41:27.640 likability and i think this might also be a bit with the men that you know he's gonna seem a

00:41:34.800 little less nerdy, you know, like, not doesn't look like a guy who's like, you know, a conservative

00:41:39.920 intern and just worked just from there. Somebody's been a bit more in the real world.

00:41:44.300 So what we've actually got to find out is who is advising him? Like, who's the wizard who is

00:41:48.820 taking charge of the external profile and is making these decisions on behalf of him and the

00:41:56.200 party? RuPaul. Oh, God. But I mean, popular, you know, as shallow as it is, it is a popularity

00:42:03.780 contest. And if anything's been nagging them or hanging over them in the polls, the party's

00:42:09.340 growing and growing and doing better. But personal popularity, he's people don't like him. He's been

00:42:15.660 doing okay. Yeah, but he's not been matching the party. So I mean, they've maxed out what they can

00:42:20.940 do with policy. Now let's soften the person. I think it's a good tactic. It's unfortunate that

00:42:27.080 policy alone isn't necessarily enough, whether it's male or female, though, they feel with the

00:42:31.800 person. We saw that with Preston Manning too, when he softened things up in the 90s, suddenly the

00:42:35.500 glasses were gone, the hair was a little better. So he got rid of that, hi, Preston Manning voice.

00:42:40.320 And he never became prime minister. But to be honest, as a younger Canadian voter at that time,

00:42:44.480 I was already a reformer, but I found that more appealing. I was just a little more, a little less

00:42:48.680 dorky, a little more human. So I think we're going to see more of it. The big question,

00:42:53.800 like you're asking those, whether or not it's going to work, that we'll see.

00:42:56.340 You know, Corey, it depends a lot at the election time as to what kind of a mess we're in.

00:43:01.800 Like, if you've got a serious medical condition, you want a good doctor, and it won't necessarily be the personality doctor.

00:43:11.680 It might be somebody who's a miserable sub to work with, but he knows where to put the knife, and he has a perfect record.

00:43:17.920 So if farms are good, then the voters may well choose somebody who's likable and wears odd socks.

00:43:25.060 But image matters, and it does say a lot.

00:43:27.140 Like, when someone comes for a job interview with me, I'll admit it.

00:43:33.220 Come in with a face tattoo, I'm going to have a really hard time getting over that, even if you've got great qualifications.

00:43:41.380 I'm going to get sued now by everyone with a face tattoo who's applied for a job here and not getting more.

00:43:44.580 Well, there's been a lot of those.

00:43:46.200 But, I mean, like, your presentation matters.

00:43:48.680 Are you dressed for the job? 0.97

00:43:50.500 Did you dress like a slob? 1.00

00:43:52.920 Did you comb your hair? 0.99

00:43:54.740 Do you care about how you present yourself?

00:43:56.220 So it's not just that. And, you know, we all don't think so, but we've, you know, there's ample studies to show how a politician looks matters. How someone applying for a job, men and women matters. Even men are more likely to hire handsome looking other men.

00:44:14.560 just because maybe

00:44:17.640 it's been almost a year now

00:44:20.540 that's why I hired you two

00:44:21.840 bring up the levels around here

00:44:24.660 or maybe it's a proof that I'm just

00:44:26.780 so much less shallow that you two are here

00:44:28.600 but I mean

00:44:30.760 image matters and it's

00:44:32.760 unfortunate we all like to pretend

00:44:34.440 well it does to everybody else but not us but

00:44:36.380 even subconsciously it's hard

00:44:38.900 to get over and the way

00:44:40.400 we were just talking about

00:44:42.080 Justin Trudeau and his

00:44:44.160 punchable face, the way 0.79

00:44:46.580 he looks. I mean, just for some,

00:44:48.800 some people love that stuff, but

00:44:50.280 others of us, I don't really know what was wrong

00:44:52.600 with the substance of it, other than I looked at it

00:44:54.580 and said, hmm, I really don't

00:44:56.700 like him today. Oh, it's just so visibly fake.

00:44:59.060 That's the right thing.

00:45:00.620 But, you know, this stuff,

00:45:03.080 I don't know, I think it

00:45:04.100 sinks in and it matters on some level.

00:45:07.800 You're going to work that

00:45:08.660 word, how many syllables in it? Ten was it?

00:45:10.880 I am almost surely mispronouncing

00:45:12.780 it because it's the last part of it sounds like history, Geschichte, but I pronounce it

00:45:18.380 Bekfeifen Geschichte. And any Germans watching right now, feel free to very much correct me on 0.97

00:45:26.620 it because I feel like it's wrong. Bekfeifen Geschichte. Bekfeifen Geschichte. Give me the

00:45:33.820 spelling. A punchable face or a face in need of punching or a slappable face, all acceptable 0.84

00:45:38.940 translations. And all things I feel. Okay, Cory, Nigel, thank you very much for joining. I thank

00:45:46.620 all of you for joining us today. If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, go to

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00:46:22.280 month right now thank you very much for joining us and god bless here's an update on commodity

00:46:27.960 prices in lethbridge for today cash barley is down three dollars at 385 feed wheat is also down three

00:46:34.280 at $3.87 and corn is steady at $3.86 per metric ton. In the milling wheat markets, September

00:46:41.040 Minneapolis futures are lower 7.5 cents at $8.23 per bushel, with local hard red spring

00:46:46.880 bid for August movement at $10.20 per bushel. Looking at canola, November futures are down

00:46:52.660 $6.40 at $7.84.50 per ton, with delivered values for August-September movement at $17.44

00:46:59.760 per bushel. In the Pulse markets, nearby red lentil prices are trading at $0.32 per pound

00:47:05.600 and yellow peas are at $10.70 per bushel. And in the livestock markets, October live cattle

00:47:11.360 added $0.70 at $1.80.40 per hundredweight. For more information on pricing or picked up options,

00:47:17.680 give me a call. I'm Matt Buscombe at Marketplace Commodities. Accurate real-time marketing

00:47:22.800 information and pricing options. Canadian Shooting Sports Association, without the CSSA,

00:47:28.720 our gun rights would have been taken long long ago these guys are on the front lines

00:47:33.840 helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in canada and more

00:47:40.320 importantly educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people

00:47:44.960 We've become a member. It's absolutely worth every penny.

Western Standard - August 10, 2023

The Pipeline： Hostage exchange - Windmills for oil

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