Western Standard Opinion Editor Nigel Henniford and Senior Alberta Columnist Corey Morgan discuss the possibility of an independent Alberta police force, the Alberta Budget, and China's influence in Canadian politics. The Western Standard is produced by Derek Fildebrandt and Corey Morgan.
00:05:16.940so is an Alberta police force off the table?
00:05:21.700And Travis Tave says, yes, it's off the table.
00:05:25.220There's no money budgeted for it, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:05:28.040So, you know, we talked about, you know, this came to my attention, most of our attention during the morning news meeting today when our Edmonton reporter, Arthur Green, brought this up.
00:05:40.660And, boy, she landed like a stink bomb.1.00
00:05:42.980I just, you know, immediately, I said, that's our priority for the day.
00:05:45.780We're going to get to the bottom of this.
00:05:47.580Since then, I know you've talked to Public Safety Minister Mike Ellis, and, well, what did they say?
00:05:55.920So what they are saying is that he misspoke.
00:12:47.520But if you're going to sit here and make it look like it's bait and switch like Premier Kenny did, I don't think it's going to pay off.
00:12:52.680I don't see whose vote they're saving in doing this because Smith is on the record probably a hundred times saying there should be an Alberta police force.
00:13:00.460Travis Taves is on the record a bunch of times.
00:13:02.720Jason Kenny even said that there should be.
00:13:35.060And I've got a column that came out today focused on this, but kind of dealing with kind of some of the other broken or watered down promises of the government since Smith came to power.
00:13:49.560A sovereignty act, as was originally envisioned by Smith when she put it out there, was, let's say, robust, to say the least, revolutionary, if you will.
00:13:58.180And, you know, then you had all of the UCP leadership candidates save Todd Lowen denouncing it, saying it's terrible.
00:14:05.180You had Jason Kenney coming after it. And then she kind of really soft peddled it.
00:14:10.180And let's just say took some of the bloodier teeth out of it.
00:14:15.180And then what got passed even had a different name, the Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act.
00:14:21.180And it was watered down. So something was passed, but it wasn't really what people had expected it to be.
00:14:27.180it to be. And then there was, you know, Smith had promised that she was going to amend the Human
00:14:31.780Rights Act with the right to refuse that mandatory vaccination from the government in there. That was0.81
00:14:36.680totally scrapped. There's been a number of these kind of big leadership campaign promises that she
00:14:42.940made that seem to have gotten lost. And I don't know if that is her climbing. There's what the
00:14:51.360reasons are for climbing down. I think a lot of it is that she was dealing with a largely hostile
00:14:55.660caucus. It was still half that caucus was still roughly Kenny's guys, and they were very angry
00:15:00.220about her winning. So I don't know. So with you, Corey, is there a risk? How big a risk is there
00:15:08.060in Smith and kind of watering these things down? Is it risking losing the base and her credibility
00:15:13.180is the fearless kind of poly unconventional politician? Or is that gonna be compensated
00:15:19.820for by being seen as more modern, reasonable by centrist voters? I don't know. She's got a
00:15:24.380a juggling act, as you said. I mean, there are some elements in caucus. The last thing she needs
00:15:27.940is that with an election pending in a few months is suddenly to have a few MLAs go rogue and start,
00:15:32.900you know, publicly infighting. We know how devastating that was to the UCP before too.
00:15:37.580And I think a lot of why the UCP support was plummeting wasn't just an unpopularity of
00:15:41.640Premier Kenney, but it looked like he had no control of his government. If people don't see
00:15:45.640a government in control, they get uncomfortable, they move away. So she does have to be cognizant0.96
00:15:50.880of how those caucus members feel who got elected on more of the soft stance with Kenny. But at the
00:15:55.360same time, I mean, she's leading in a province with us, putting a long and storied history of
00:16:00.900firing our premiers if they don't listen to us. So all I can say is I can understand why they're
00:16:06.760doing it. I don't know what their intent, though, whether it's a permanent scrapping or a hidden
00:16:10.220agenda, but they just best tread very, very carefully because this could really blow up
00:16:15.340and she could be just another one that comes and goes in a short period of time.0.85
00:16:18.260So, Nigel, I know you had a column, I think, just yesterday dealing with the budget.
00:16:23.040Yeah, it came out right after the budget there.
00:16:26.500You know, it was talking about just a lot of this is maybe just kind of political necessity.
00:16:32.480We're going to hold off on the budget itself, actually, for a second.
00:16:35.140Kind of the broader pattern of these either broken or watered down promises.
00:16:40.960Do you think there's much risk for Smith in this?
00:16:42.760Or do you think, you know, people are just going to buck it up, get through the election because the NDP is the threat and she doesn't really have to worry about bleeding support from people who might be a bit disillusioned by it?
00:16:54.000Well, you know, I think her biggest challenges would come after a successful election.1.00
00:17:00.560These people would be stupid to take their divisions public now.
00:17:06.400That's not to say there aren't some stupid people, but, you know, I think if you want to get re-elected in your own seat, never mind see the government itself re-elected, just keep quiet until May the 30th.
00:17:20.480If Smith wins with a substantial majority, obviously, that will strengthen her hand.
00:17:29.120If she's hanging on there by two votes, then the wingnut factions within that party are going to be very, very hard for her to handle.0.99
00:17:38.240There's constantly going to be the threat.
00:17:40.500Well, if you don't do this, then we're going to create a situation that you can't handle.
00:17:45.320So far, the rebellious side of the party has been the more establishment Kenney side of the party. That's the side that's been revolting. We had, you know, we've confirmed already that, you know, there was significant movement in one constituency, Raymond v. Rocky Mountain House Center, to reopen the nomination there.
00:18:06.020There, they'd use dirty tricks to get Jason Nixon, Kenny's right-hand man, acclaimed as the candidate.
00:18:13.680The party refused to allow anyone to cast a ballot in the nomination in that constituency to protect Kenny's guy who was facing likely defeat to a guy named Tim Hoven.
00:18:24.520And Nixon's board got completely voted out, replaced by a new board that wants a nomination.
00:18:31.220Half the UCP's Central Alberta board was up for election at their recent convention.
00:18:37.340Every single one of those spots was won by people who wanted to see that nomination reopened.
00:18:41.880But then there was a revolting caucus.
00:18:43.640Nixon had successfully gotten some others together.
00:18:46.500Apparently some who don't even necessarily like Nixon in the back end, but they were worried that, well, what if my nomination comes back into question?
00:18:52.460So Smith had a whole caucus revolt over this stuff, and it's mostly been coming from kind of the Kenneite faction.
00:18:58.420And that seems to be where, which is funny,
00:19:01.420because it's the opposite side that was rebelling against Kenny.
00:19:03.980You know, Kenny had more of the Wild Roser, populist wing coming after him.
00:19:08.640It's now the more traditionalist, PC and Kenny-ite wing that's coming there.
00:19:20.000I mean, only in the sense that, Danielle, why aren't you more hardcore right wing?1.00
00:19:24.180That would be the, and she would probably welcome that pressure from the right to give her something to work with against the others who clearly are not pulling very hard on the same.
00:20:45.760They have introduced balanced budget legislation, which is nice. You know, once upon a time, I worked at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. We always liked that stuff. But in time, I don't know. I think this stuff is kind of gimmicky because, you know, a government passes a bill saying, in the future, we're not allowed to do this. We're not allowed to run a deficit.
00:21:04.960but you know what happens every time anything goes wrong they amend the legislation or they
00:21:10.160repeal the legislation so alberta had balanced budget legislation under ralph klein and uh you
00:21:17.280know as soon as uh anything went wrong ed stelnack amended it and things continue to go wrong and
00:21:22.160allison redford amended it several times um prentice amended it and then richard dotley amended
00:21:28.720it several more times and so this stuff seems to be pretty toothless bc used to have a balanced
00:21:34.240budget law that if the government ran a deficit, the cabinet had to take a pay cut.
00:21:38.000Well, they ran deficits for quite a while. You know how many years they took a pay cut?
00:21:41.760Not a one. Not one year did they take the pay cut. So governments always amend this stuff. So
00:21:47.360maybe before we get into the overall budget, let's just talk about the balanced budget
00:21:51.760legislation stuff. I'll start with Corey. The balanced budget legislation,
00:21:57.280good and useful or nice and symbolic, but ultimately useless?
00:22:03.940That's the second answer. It's just a gimmick. It looks nice. It shows a degree of commitment.
00:22:08.520It does make it a little more embarrassing if and when you have to repeal it to go into deficit.
00:22:13.560That was spoken on earlier. The first time I ever actually got a seat in the gallery in the
00:22:17.200legislature was when Stelmack, shamefully with his caucus, just kind of quickly before the budget
00:22:21.700came in. They waited right until budget day. Quick motion popped in, repealed the balanced
00:22:26.240budget legislation, and while the room is still settling, then they table the budget. So, I mean,
00:22:31.880there's not much to it. It's just a gesture, but it's at least a gesture. If you wouldn't see one
00:22:36.980like that from the NDP, he'll give it that. So, Nigel, today I was having a chat with Chris Sims.
00:22:41.560She's the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, a job I used to have.
00:22:45.480And we were having exactly this conversation. She says, I love it. Balance budget legislation. And I
00:22:50.380said, you know, it's gimmicky. You know, they just amended it, repeal it whenever it's in trouble.
00:22:53.700She says, yes, they do. We'll give them hell. I said, yeah. And I gave Redford and Prentice hell. And before me, Scott Hennig gave Ed Stalmack hell. And after me, Paige McPherson and Colin Craig gave Rachel Notley and Jason Kenny hell. Like, I don't know. Is this stuff got any value? Like, I guess it attaches a little political cost to repeal this stuff or amend this stuff. But it doesn't seem to stop anyone from actually running a deficit if you have a balanced budget law.
00:23:23.080I think Corey came close to it when he said you wouldn't get this out of the NDP.
00:23:47.380It's the tribute that vice pays the virtue.
00:23:50.700You know, they are, they are, when you have somebody like the NDP, for that matter, like the Federal Liberal Party, that just does not believe in balancing budgets, doesn't behave that way, doesn't try to, certainly would never pass a balanced budget act.
00:24:09.640Well, you know what you're dealing with there.
00:24:11.100At least these guys, you think to yourself, well, if they could, they would.
00:24:15.160And we know stuff happens, and they probably won't.
00:25:43.160Yeah, you know, with Harper, if he had not done what he did, there would have been, the three other parties would have forced an election, which Harper would probably have lost.
00:25:52.220But then he bragged about running a deficit and how it was a good thing and a necessary thing.
00:25:57.520He wasn't saying, I'm doing it because they're forcing me to.
00:25:59.800He says, deficits are good when I run deficits.
00:26:03.220Then he restored it to balance before he left office.
00:31:57.480There's a reason I'm not a politician.
00:31:59.300I'm saying, but if you really want to fix health care, we're not wrong, by the way.
00:32:03.320We've been throwing money at this stuff forever.
00:32:05.540More money, sure, you could do more with more money, but it's pretty diminishing returns at this point.
00:32:09.740If you really want to do it, you want to bring in more money without raising taxes, you've got to bring in private insurance.
00:32:14.800I have under no illusions that that is a terrible election idea, even in Alberta, where we have a higher tolerance threshold for private health care.
00:32:25.000I don't think people are quite ready to go there yet.
00:32:27.980Well, you know, they've been told they're not ready to go there, so they tend to think that they're not ready to go there.
00:32:32.740But if we, back in the Ralph Klein days, if instead of Klein bringing in Bill 11 and making it illegal to run a private medical facility in Alberta,
00:32:43.740he had said, we will put out a tax break, bring your medical facilities here, and you can just bid for government work, our bills would be a lot lower.0.68
00:32:57.480Now, I know there's arguments against it.
00:32:59.100So I know we're quickly turning into a discussion on just health care.
00:33:02.600But get your thoughts, Corey, on the overall budget.
00:33:07.040I know health care is a big part of it.
00:33:08.440So every budget always tends to at least somewhat of a discussion on health care.
00:33:12.680But, you know, there's a not insubstantial increase in spending here.
00:33:27.540I know that Premier Smith is a fiscal conservative.
00:33:30.040have. I'm sure if she thought she could win in May, by holding the line on spending or even1.00
00:33:36.380cutting it a little, she would. But you're buying the love of Albertans for an upcoming election.0.68
00:33:42.420And, and I noticed that practically every single line item has an increase. But they're modest
00:33:47.640ones. Actually, they're not huge. She's not going mad with it. And then healthcare, for example,
00:33:52.300as I just said, it's gone up, but not by all, it's not a massive increase. I mean,
00:33:56.220But it's taking a lot of bullets out of Rachel Notley's gun because I mean, they can't point it anywhere and say you cut this or you didn't increase this or you're starving this because she's increased it a little bit everywhere. So again, it's, you know, the, looking at the pragmatism versus principle, as much as a fiscal conservative, I think we could get by with a quarter less spending and the world wouldn't end. But I also know it would be electoral suicide.
00:34:22.140So I think it was a fairly reasoned budget.
00:34:25.840Being careful with oil forecasting, they've always done that.
00:34:29.300Ralph Klein used to do it too, because you look great if it comes in above,
00:34:32.620because now you've got this extra money.
00:34:33.720If it comes in below, you're not into a budget disaster.
00:34:38.000So it was a good hold-to-line election budget.
00:34:40.660So, Arthur, you raised a good point, which I think is a point of discussion here.
00:34:45.260The NDP's reaction to it, they didn't really have a lot they can do.
00:34:49.540But even before the last election, Rachel Notley would say the UCP is going to slash and burn. I think that was their terms. Slash and burn. They're going to gut and devastate government services and blah, blah, blah. Jason Kenney ran on more or less holding the line on spending modest increases. And lo and behold, that's actually one of the areas where he did what he said he was going to do. They more or less just held the line on spending.
00:35:12.440and Rachel Notley has been sitting there kind of spinning her wheels.
00:35:17.800They keep on claiming that the UCP is going to gut and slash.
00:35:22.200I mean, I'm not in charge of the government.
00:35:24.280It doesn't seem like that's something they're going to do, but I don't know.
00:35:27.100Are there any openings for the NDP here?
00:36:05.880You know? But she'll never deliver what she's promising. Oh, all right. I think the jury's out on that.
00:36:13.220Smith's only been there for four months, five months. People are going to make that judgment in a couple of years.
00:36:20.800Okay, well, we're going to switch up a little, move to Ottawa.
00:36:25.300So this has been building for some time. We had, there was a CSIS report leaked that shows that the Chinese were very clearly and deliberately trying to interfere in the lab,0.98
00:36:35.220at least the last two federal elections and have had at least some modest success with that. I
00:36:41.460think there was one liberal in the greater Toronto area. I can't remember what's his name.
00:36:49.220Handong. And, you know, he was quite clearly targeted to be supported by the Chinese Communist
00:36:58.660Party. There were certain Chinese conservatives who were targeted to lose because they were
00:37:04.980Chinese that's the most dangerous to the Chinese they probably don't care if some cracker like me1.00
00:37:10.100is there because you know I probably not gonna greatly influence Chinese balls one way or another
00:37:14.980they want to they target ethnic Chinese and help those who were at least perceived as supportive
00:37:20.900of the CCP and attack those who are seen as hostile to the CCP. And so this has been building
00:37:29.140for some time. Now we have word, you know, that the Chinese communists were flowing money into
00:37:35.220the Trudeau Foundation, and even tried to, although I guess they didn't get, but even tried to
00:37:42.420lobby for the Trudeau Foundation to build them a statue of Mao in Montreal,
00:37:47.300Mountrial, I guess, something like that. But this building, and it's, and it's becoming
00:37:53.060apparent that this is not a little thing. Now the Liberals have said, well, the reports say that it
00:38:01.620did not influence the outcome of the election. And I can probably buy it that Chinese support0.99
00:38:08.060of certain primarily Liberal candidates didn't result in the Liberals winning overall more seats
00:38:13.500than the Conservatives. But it seems to have clearly compromised the Liberals, that the
00:38:19.120Liberals now have a vested political interest in China, and China in the Liberals, and did sway at least a few seats.
00:38:26.340It didn't change who was in government, but it has changed the makeup of the government and the makeup of Parliament.
00:39:16.920You know, I think they absolutely should.
00:39:18.540I mean, this is so serious, so serious.
00:39:20.520And the evidence is already so compelling that we really need to blow the lid off this thing
00:39:24.980and find out just how deep it is and what's going on.
00:39:27.540But this party just never seems to cease to surprise with its indifference to accountability.
00:39:33.520And the electorate seems to be okay with it.
00:39:35.860I mean, I'm really getting frustrated with people in general.
00:39:38.160I mean, you've had a foreign rogue nation meddling with your elections.
00:39:43.280We should be protesting in the streets.
00:39:46.500Prime Minister Trudeau is shut down questioning, saying you're a racist if you even talk about it.
00:39:51.440And it looks to me like the public's already starting to shrug.
00:39:53.820The parliamentary committee, yeah, they're doing their beating back and forth.
00:39:56.620I watched an NDP member, I tortured myself in the newsroom with the TV with it on the committee.
00:40:01.160The NDP member gets up and says, so let's talk about the Russian influence on the convoy.
00:40:05.980Well, what on earth does that have to do with Mr. Dong?
00:40:10.640They're just spinning their wheels in there.
00:40:13.280Well, the only evidence of any Russian inferences in the convoy was a CBC reporter claiming there was and later having to retract it because there was.
00:41:11.580Alright, I'll back off now. Did you coin that phrase or is that from something else? No, I just coined that one for now. You know, that sounds like a good column headline right there. I'll keep that in mind.
00:41:22.720Yeah. So, you know, you know, Corey referenced what Trudeau said, you know, more or less saying, well, you're racist against Chinese people.
00:41:31.940Actually, the victims of Chinese influence in Canada are mostly other Chinese people.
00:41:37.920Of course, you know, no community, you know, despite progressive ideology, minority communities are not homogenous and no one speaks for them.
00:41:48.000And there's going to be diversity within it. Obviously, there's going to be some are sympathetic to the CCP.
00:41:52.720Most Chinese I've met are clearly not, and they're the victims of this kind of thing.0.97
00:42:13.840Okay. He, one reporter noted, I forget where, but they did some good, just quick little search of the voting record in Parliament.
00:42:29.060And you'll remember, not that long ago, there was a vote in Parliament at the House of Commons condemning the genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Western China.
00:42:38.600And Mr. Dong was in Parliament that day voting before that resolution and voting after that resolution, but was mysteriously absent during the vote condemning the Chinese Communist Party's genocide weaker Muslims.
00:42:53.600And so I don't know. Are we racist for for mentioning his voting record and that he was directly targeted for support by the CCP.
00:43:03.600I mean, that's just the default Trudeau response to any problem is to try and look for an angle
00:43:11.140so that he can call his accusers or his questioners racist.
00:43:15.860And I think that's what probably offends me most about the whole situation is not that
00:43:20.320the Chinese are trying to influence our politics.0.99
00:43:29.960Czechoslovakian people tried to influence British politics in the 1930s to get us on site. You know,
00:43:35.260I mean, there's a history of this. And the Americans have almost certainly tried to
00:43:39.120manipulate our politics at times. It'd be crazy not to. Certainly. And everybody else's as well,
00:43:44.660if you go back since the war. Look, we know it goes on. It's what response do we want from our
00:43:52.160leaders when they are told about it? The response we got was not, okay, thanks, guys. That was good
00:43:59.480work we'll take it from here it was well it's not up to the security agencies to say who we can and
00:44:06.600can't run as a candidate i don't think anybody ever suggested that it ought to be but they did say
00:44:13.880you look over here sir look over there look over there you have some foreign influence going on
00:44:19.800here which may you may want to be aware of and for that they got their they got their ears scorched
00:44:27.000That is not leadership. That is not the Prime Minister who's got the interests of the country at heart.
00:44:34.000So I think we're pretty subtle on the table. Should there be a public inquiry? Of course there should be.
00:44:40.000But I'll put the same question to you as I put to Corey.
00:44:43.000Do you think at the end of the day the Liberals will agree to one kicking and screaming?
00:44:49.000They obviously don't want to have one. It's never good news for the government.
00:44:53.000And I'm not, it's not necessarily the case that the liberals would welcome Chinese help, you know, limited or widespread, whatever it is.
00:45:04.600But, you know, it taints your victory to some extent.
00:45:08.100And they've said, one liberal MP said, you know, referring to this all as Trumpian.
00:45:13.260You know, in fact, although I think she's mixing it up, it was actually the Clintons who accused the Trump campaign of receiving foreign influence from Putin.
00:46:00.560Well, we're going to call it quits there.
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