Western Standard - October 31, 2026


THE PIPELINE： Is Danielle Smith facing a real UCP rebellion？

BREAKING： Premier Danielle Smith confirms Jeffrey Rath being ejected from UCP

Episode Stats


Length

46 minutes

Words per minute

171.68

Word count

8,005

Sentence count

282

Harmful content

Misogyny

22

sentences flagged

Toxicity

23

sentences flagged

Hate speech

12

sentences flagged


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Good day and welcome.
00:00:25.240 Today is October 28th, 2026.
00:00:28.400 I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.
00:00:32.480 We've got the normal crew today, except I'm missing in action, not in the studio myself,
00:00:38.400 but we've got the regular Dave Naylor, Nigel Hannaford, and Corey Morgan. I'm the odd man out.
00:00:50.880 I haven't been out to get anywhere that actually sells a poppy yet today, so you have to forgive
00:00:54.640 me especially cory cory i'm not i'm not a member of the ndp caucus here okay i'll uh photos yeah
00:01:04.080 okay uh we're gonna talk about uh a bit of the fallout from the bc election particularly just
00:01:11.040 some of the meltdown uh that's taken place you'd think that the reichstag fire has happened
00:01:17.600 uh lauren dirksen has seized all executive power and banned the opposition
00:01:23.200 Very serious stuff taking place on the West Coast. You wouldn't think that a relatively middle-of-the-road normie, for lack of a better term, kind of milquetoast conservative was elected. You'd think BC has just abolished the legislature, invested all powers in Lord Dirksen.
00:01:42.680 But before that, we're going to start closer to home with the continuing fallout from the Alberta series of referenda.
00:01:56.220 There's been a lot of noise about rebellion and a leadership review.
00:02:04.280 And I'm not quite sure yet what to make of it.
00:02:06.720 That's why we're going to talk it out for constituency associations in Alberta.
00:02:11.560 I think it's roughly 22, if 22 of the 87 constituencies for the UCP pass a special
00:02:17.200 resolution at their board level, they can force a special general meeting for a leadership review.
00:02:22.220 That is essentially how Jason Kenney was removed from power. They had a lot more than 22.
00:02:28.500 At the latest count, there's been four. The UCP's president, Rob Smith, sent out an email last
00:02:34.520 night saying that I think virtually all of the rest of them have passed resolutions saying they
00:02:39.520 don't want a leadership review we've got some reporters trying to verify that that that seems
00:02:44.520 like a big and oppressive number but i'm not sure uh but there have been voices coming from at least
00:02:52.880 some quarters of the independence movement uh really trying to rattle the cage and say danielle
00:02:59.440 smith is the enemy uh she's the reason we lost and we can't go forward as long as she is the leader
00:03:04.200 and the premier start with you cory um is this a real thing or is this just a few malcontents
00:03:12.040 and you know just four of the 87 constituency associations how real is this move to oust
00:03:18.680 smith from the leadership well i i think it's the same voices we heard years ago the 1905 committee
00:03:25.240 the usual chronic malcontents uh though they are backed with a larger group of people after
00:03:30.580 gathering so many over the course of that whole referendum campaign so there are going to be a lot
00:03:35.540 of discontented voices they're listening to these leaders and uh feeling that this might be the
00:03:42.500 reason that the referendum was lost and they're latching onto that message it should be kept in
00:03:46.340 mind that the prime voices on this were screaming about premier smith two years before the referendum
00:03:51.140 was called as well it seems more personal than realistic but it could cause a heck of a distraction
00:03:57.380 at the AGM. I mean, this is going to be a big one. This is the last AGM before the next general
00:04:01.240 election, and we're seeing, I guess, the battles going on as to how to try and
00:04:05.300 put this to bed or not. I think it's somewhat serious
00:04:09.340 as it could cause a headache, but I don't think there's any real overwhelming move
00:04:13.420 to try and replace her. It's not similar to the circumstance with Jason Kenney of a few years ago,
00:04:17.860 though some people like to think it might be.
00:04:20.100 One of the things is these guys tell you what they don't like, which is Daniel Smith,
00:04:24.420 but they don't tell you what they're for other than they want to sort of revisit independence.
00:04:30.000 Well, I mean, there may be a time for that, but I don't think the time is now.
00:04:33.460 Never mind what the Premier has said.
00:04:35.440 I don't think, like everybody's bored with that.
00:04:37.560 If it had been 45% or something where, okay, we could claim there was somebody put their thumb on the scale
00:04:42.200 or things like that, that maybe they'd change the outcome.
00:04:44.920 Come on, guys.
00:04:46.680 I'm an independent supporter, and I'm not done.
00:04:48.580 I'm only 55.
00:04:49.640 I can keep at this a bit.
00:04:51.360 But let's face it.
00:04:52.180 The appetite isn't there yet.
00:04:53.720 we've got to build the appetite that's our job no as you say malcontents it's
00:04:57.920 the same people that couldn't keep their mouths closed during the referendum 0.65
00:05:01.680 debate that that caused some problems with their respectability and
00:05:06.080 credibility they're the ones that are still mouthing off I don't you know
00:05:10.700 Banff can and ask us last night became the fifth constituency to vote for a
00:05:16.520 leadership review if you take president Rod Smith at his word 65 have already
00:05:21.860 supported her i assume he's got a list somewhere we're hoping he's gonna give it to us but it
00:05:27.060 doesn't seem like it's uh getting any traction well he's sticking his neck out to say it if it's
00:05:31.480 yeah so like that wasn't just an off-the-cuff comment that could be pulled back that was a
00:05:35.520 letter to the membership yeah yeah so now it's it's worth uh remembering uh rob smith is widely
00:05:41.860 considered to be if not an independent supporter probably at least independence adjacent uh i'm not
00:05:49.040 sure if he's said how he voted in the privacy of the ballot box, but there are pro-independence
00:05:55.860 people and independent sympathetic people on the board of the UCP, the provincial board,
00:06:00.920 and of course, many of the constituency associations. There are malcontents here, as Corey has
00:06:09.180 said, and they've always been angry. They will always be angry. There is no dealing
00:06:16.140 with them. The problem I want to go to though, where, where Daniel Smith might be exacerbating
00:06:22.360 things. Rob Smith's email that went out last night was very conciliatory saying, Hey, look,
00:06:27.780 you're a part of the team. Let's be a part of this. He didn't really, correct me if I'm wrong,
00:06:33.020 but I don't think he actually got into saying, Hey, all you independence people get out of here,
00:06:37.940 take off. But he did say, look, the leadership is just not changing. We've got enough constituency
00:06:43.120 associations that are backing the premier. So it's, it's not worth having a fight over.
00:06:50.640 He was more conciliatory than Smith. Smith has been using more divisive language.
00:06:57.380 You know, she did an interview with the CBC a few days ago, where she said she doesn't need
00:07:02.600 independence supporters in her party, which I think mathematically is highly debatable.
00:07:09.700 It makes up a majority of UCP voters, not a big majority, but a majority.
00:07:14.920 And I'd chance to say probably a fairly big majority of its active members.
00:07:19.280 And then now this just started going around.
00:07:23.520 Everybody running for the party's board at the AGM coming up in November here is expected to sign this loyalty pledge.
00:07:32.600 It's actually kind of reminiscent of after the U.S. Civil War, defeated Southerners were required to swear the Pledge of Allegiance.
00:07:41.440 That's where it comes from.
00:07:43.160 The Pledge of Allegiance that you support the United States and the United States is indivisible.
00:07:47.260 You can never fight about splitting it again.
00:07:49.560 And you cannot vote or run for office unless you swear the Pledge of Allegiance.
00:07:53.280 And we've got this now, this written pledge, essentially, that everybody running for the ECP board has to sign saying, we accept the results on the referendum, the independent side of the referendum, and we drop it for all time, essentially.
00:08:08.520 It's an odd thing to do, and I've never seen it before.
00:08:13.860 I know party, people who want to run for elected office often have to pledge to support the party's platform and values, et cetera, et cetera.
00:08:22.160 I've never seen this before, however, for an internal party elected position like the Board of Directors and party president, etc.
00:08:31.080 Maybe I'll put it back to Corey then.
00:08:35.440 That strikes me as unusual and perhaps needlessly antagonistic to the people that Smith probably should be trying to win over.
00:08:44.700 It is unusual.
00:08:46.480 I mean, you got to look at the phrasing, despite what some of the, again, some of the people are losing it over.
00:08:51.300 though it is unusual and it's asking a bit, but it's talking along of just saying you accept
00:08:55.060 those and it doesn't say you can't have the views or that you may not be able to promote them
00:08:58.820 down the road, but your role as a director is not to promote that particular stance while you're in
00:09:05.320 there because Albertans have voted. It just shows that there's a risk still that they see, I think.
00:09:11.220 I mean, I believe, and I listened to some of the language of the usual folks online, that they are
00:09:15.620 failing in getting the constituencies like they wanted to. So they pivoted to try and take over
00:09:19.460 the board because they think they can take over the party through the board and they're defensively
00:09:25.380 setting up to say you know if any of those board members go offline after they've signed that they
00:09:29.380 can eject them and say well you didn't listen to what you signed coming in it's a political play
00:09:33.620 but at the same time as you said it's antagonizing a large segment of the membership and and her
00:09:38.580 language has been a bit much i mean to invite them to go out and start another party be careful they
00:09:42.900 might take you up on that and even if it's just a a small amount of loud people who are representing
00:09:48.980 that. If you tick off the thousands underneath and that small amount of people manages to form
00:09:53.940 a party with a few thousand members, they could really cause almost as much harm as getting in
00:09:58.480 within the board. So there's a delicate dance, I think, going on. And Smith's been prone to
00:10:03.480 overcorrecting, I think. Seems to me it's an easy way to keep the troublemakers out,
00:10:07.840 right? You've got this faction that hates Smith with a venom. They've realized they can't do it
00:10:13.580 with a leadership review so they're going to try and uh and take over the board and this letter
00:10:19.100 this pledge uh gives the party the right if they do win to kick them out it seems to be like a
00:10:26.140 cover your hold on before nigel goes i i don't think it actually does that i mean uh a pledge
00:10:33.500 someone's forced to sign to be allowed to stand for election matters as much as an oath to the
00:10:38.060 king made by a elected member of the party quebecois to the quebec national assembly
00:10:44.620 you know if you're if you're forced to take a pledge you're forced to make an oath the oath
00:10:48.940 actually doesn't really hold much moral weight i mean it's like uh being forced to sign a document
00:10:56.940 with a gun to your head keep your fingers you're not actually that yeah you're not i don't think
00:11:01.980 think you're actually really morally bound to it and so i think a lot of people be like fine i'll
00:11:08.680 sign your pledge and then we'll just work to do this anyway and so it seems to me you know she
00:11:14.520 wants to keep out the the perennial malcontents the people who are always upset who for things
00:11:20.940 are never enough but the concern to me nigel is that this kind of thing um needlessly just kind 0.81
00:11:29.460 puts a little salt in the wound and needles people who are not perennial malcontents but who might 0.69
00:11:35.460 not be very happy right now and it and it could push them into a more antagonistic position
00:11:40.500 against her yeah these are absolute risks we're dealing with a situation where there aren't any
00:11:47.700 any answers that pleases everybody so what i see them doing is making sure that they don't
00:11:54.900 have a run of stories leading up to the election where people in key positions or positions that
00:12:01.860 are perceived to be key are revealed by antagonistic going through the the facebook
00:12:08.820 and x and everything this person is a secret separatist and they're a board member this
00:12:14.500 person is a secret and just a drip feed of stories coming out in the run-up to the election
00:12:20.340 of people who are disloyal that's what they're trying to get away from so this
00:12:26.520 way they've got it covered a lot of people will probably take the oath at a
00:12:30.540 pledge at its face value and say well if we sign it we'll observe it those that
00:12:35.660 don't come out later as separatists the premier and the party is perfect right
00:12:42.240 to say well look you signed the pledge you broke your word sorry you're not a
00:12:46.800 member anymore you find somebody else so this is about damage control before the before the uh
00:12:53.840 the torpedo has even arrived yeah i know that's the intent of this but i'm not sure it's going
00:13:00.880 to work you know it's uh you know it's the analogy of you know the tender you close your fist the
00:13:06.560 more the more uh people will slip between your fingers you're in a better position if you have
00:13:13.680 actually told little johnny smith that if you're going to be on the board this is the deal and then
00:13:18.960 johnny smith walks away from it three months before the election it doesn't damage you nearly
00:13:24.960 as much as just saying look well that's assuming she has the authority to enforce it though like
00:13:30.060 a majority of ucp voters voted for independence or the process for independence and a probably
00:13:36.380 big majority of its members voted and supported the process of independence it's not like this
00:13:42.460 is a small minority, a small troublesome minority that can be pushed out. These are largely the
00:13:48.860 people who put her into the leadership when she talked, when she campaigned for the leadership
00:13:52.840 on the Sovereignty Act, which at the time was a much more muscular, significantly more muscular
00:13:57.340 piece of legislation proposed than was actually passed. These are not people I think she can push
00:14:02.820 aside. She's in a tough position where the majority of her party are supporters of independence,
00:14:08.680 but the majority of Alberta is not.
00:14:12.180 And she has to walk that balance, and it's very difficult.
00:14:15.420 I don't think she's been walking it very well since some point in mid-July.
00:14:22.140 But now, as Corey put it, she seems to be overcorrecting,
00:14:27.940 and that could put her leadership in jeopardy.
00:14:32.460 Well, I don't fundamentally disagree with your assessment of the risk,
00:14:37.880 But it's a matter of picking the risk that you think is going to hurt you least.
00:14:41.840 And this one will probably work for her.
00:14:44.760 In a year's time, some of the energy will have gone out of these failings.
00:14:48.700 Not all of it, but some of it.
00:14:51.300 And if she spends the next year doing things that people like, 0.61
00:14:55.400 like making sure that DEI is not part of the hiring process,
00:15:00.260 and if you want a government job,
00:15:02.280 then they'll sort of grudgingly take her anyway as being better, at least, than the NDP,
00:15:09.100 which will be, of course, trying to push the wedge in on these divisions for all it's worth.
00:15:15.540 And with oil prices above $100 still, we're going to be awash in money, 0.99
00:15:20.700 and she's going to be able to promise to build everything in sight and give everybody raises.
00:15:27.260 And by the election time, everybody's happy again.
00:15:30.560 and the angry UCP separatists will go into the ballot box room and say,
00:15:36.500 well, I'm not going to vote for Nenshi and, you know, vote for Smith.
00:15:41.260 She's never going to get rid of them.
00:15:42.840 That should be understood. 1.00
00:15:44.380 But, I mean, the goal should be to put them into hibernation.
00:15:47.040 You know, just to see that it's not a priority until at least after this election.
00:15:51.360 That's a good way of putting it, hibernation.
00:15:53.080 Look somewhere else for a while.
00:15:54.540 Yeah, that's an issue.
00:15:55.520 But over here, we've got real stuff.
00:15:57.480 Yeah. Like I'm not a party member, but I think I represent a kind of a pragmatic end of the
00:16:01.420 independent supporters. I mean, I've been pretty stubbornly at it for a long time and I'm not
00:16:05.820 giving up, but I also understand where you, you take your losses when they come. I think a lot
00:16:10.300 of the members within it are feeling the same just because they're independent supporters
00:16:12.920 doesn't mean they're willing to burn down the house around them because they didn't get their
00:16:16.620 way. They're willing to bide their time and hang on to the structure that they have right now. And
00:16:21.840 at least if you, if you really want to go to war, do it on November, 20, 27, and you
00:16:26.640 got four years to hash it out, but right now is not a brilliant time to go to.
00:16:30.180 Interestingly, she's scheduled a UCP town hall for Saturday morning for, for all
00:16:35.820 members.
00:16:36.240 So it'd be interesting to see if she, uh, uh, what she says in that.
00:16:40.980 It's members only to see it.
00:16:42.720 Yeah.
00:16:44.440 Uh, we have our ways.
00:16:46.200 Yeah.
00:16:48.420 It's online.
00:16:49.340 I'm sure we shouldn't have terribly much trouble.
00:16:53.080 Remember that, Dave.
00:16:53.820 If we can't find our way into there, we're not doing our job right.
00:16:57.340 All right.
00:16:58.500 Well, Nigel touched on DEI and getting rid of DEI and things like that, which should make, you know, core constituents of the UCP happy, even if there was a loss on independence.
00:17:12.080 So let's talk about that.
00:17:14.160 Um, just yesterday, the UCP tabled legislation to end DEI in all government hiring. Uh, that means no more hiring someone just because they are a, uh, you know, a disabled, uh, you know, add all your groups up here.
00:17:37.060 you're a disabled lesbian muslim indian uh you know i add up your points there that system is
00:17:44.480 going to be gone from all government hiring it is shocking that this has not been gone a long time 0.85
00:17:50.780 ago uh you know jc kenny didn't do it and smith didn't do it until now i find it very odd that
00:17:58.280 they did not do this until now but better late than never and this is the kind of thing that
00:18:03.080 is is good politics independent support is popular within the ucp but not with a majority
00:18:08.520 of albertans getting rid of things like dei tends to be hyper popular within the party
00:18:14.800 and generally popular with most voters in the general public um but do you dave do you think
00:18:23.240 this is just kind of a move coming before the agm to just try and you know give a little shot
00:18:29.460 to the troops that, hey guys, I know you're kind of pissed off about a few things, but
00:18:33.280 look over here. I'm going to give you this, this shiny apple. I'm sure that's part of
00:18:39.420 it. But, you know, we've all seen those ads you've been talking about, Derek, for, you
00:18:44.280 know, University of Alberta needs a professor for gender studies. It must be a handicapped 1.00
00:18:50.260 lesbian, Aboriginal, and some of them go so far as to say white folks don't apply. So 0.99
00:18:57.440 Oh, it's good.
00:18:58.300 That's in the universities.
00:18:59.560 That's mainly in the universities.
00:19:01.360 And I think that's mainly where this act is targeting.
00:19:05.400 We're not going to turn this wokeism around until we start dealing with it in the schools, right from grade school up to the universities where it is the absolute worst.
00:19:17.000 So if it takes any small step to where we're getting to a better place where the best candidate will get the job, then I think that's a great thing.
00:19:27.440 Yeah, 100%, Dave. I mean, you do not want to fly on an airplane piloted by a DEI hire and maintained by DEI hires, an air traffic control operated by DEI hires.
00:19:41.920 You don't want to drive a car that's put together by people who are chosen as engineers for any other reason, that they know their job better than anybody else.
00:19:52.240 I mean it's a ridiculous 0.59
00:19:54.220 wave to run a country and 0.98
00:19:56.140 it will collapse on its own eventually
00:19:58.400 it's just that you don't
00:20:00.220 want it to collapse because of the
00:20:02.060 catastrophes that
00:20:04.020 fall out of it
00:20:05.020 Corey, I mean
00:20:07.180 among people on
00:20:10.220 the right side of things
00:20:11.720 it's virtually unanimously
00:20:13.640 agreed that this kind of thing is insane
00:20:16.080 it's destructive
00:20:16.780 in fact it probably provokes
00:20:20.240 you know if you're going to do identity
00:20:21.940 politics on the other side, it inevitably provokes a reaction of identity politics on the other side,
00:20:29.500 which they tend to find very scary. Everyone agrees this is stupid, you know, except for 1.00
00:20:36.060 people who are kind of way on the other side here. But the timing of this, it does, you know, 1.00
00:20:42.920 let's not be naive enough to think that the timing, you know, that politics never comes into
00:20:47.900 things that you try to marry good policy with good politics you know before the last ucp agm um
00:20:54.860 where i think there was a leadership review um smith brought forward the new transgender policy
00:21:02.060 on you know men and boys playing in girls and women's sports and things some you know it's kind
00:21:07.080 of identity politics but very popular with people on the right side of things and generally popular
00:21:11.900 with the public at large that probably did not hurt her support with the members before the last
00:21:17.760 convention the DEI thing similarly is kind of this anti-identity politics of the right
00:21:25.460 probably going to be very popular with people do you see this as you know we all agree it's it's
00:21:32.020 good policy but it's very delayed I like this should have been kind of a day one thing I think
00:21:38.120 it was literally one of the first executive orders in the first 10 minutes of Donald Trump in office
00:21:41.700 was getting rid of DEI.
00:21:43.900 The timing of it does seem a bit odd
00:21:46.460 that it's been delayed this long.
00:21:48.700 Oh, absolutely, no.
00:21:49.540 This is a pure political play and a smart one.
00:21:51.800 When you've got an 80-20 issue
00:21:53.300 you can keep in your pocket for a time when you need it,
00:21:55.880 now is the time they needed it.
00:21:57.480 They sat on this until they got to now
00:21:59.760 and they want to turn the page.
00:22:01.080 The legislature on its first day was nothing but Nenshi
00:22:03.220 still trying to accuse them all of being separatists.
00:22:05.800 Now he's had this dropped unexpectedly on his lap
00:22:08.340 and he's floundering to try and oppose it
00:22:09.920 and he's having a hard time with it.
00:22:11.240 they've managed to turn the page on him on an issue. Again, it's an 80-20 issue. Most people
00:22:16.340 are like, this is a foolish policy. It never should have been there in the first place. It was 0.99
00:22:20.660 a trap. And if Nancy wants to continue with an issue that isn't before the legislature while 1.00
00:22:26.760 they push this through, he looks ineffective. And if he tries to oppose this, he looks ineffective.
00:22:31.040 And it also gives her room to, with the independent sector that's trying to make this
00:22:35.700 the heart of the debate right now, she said, look, we're busy with more important stuff like this
00:22:39.200 right now. We're going to move ahead with this. It was, oh, it was definitely politically
00:22:44.200 constructed. We understand the merit of it, but the timing of it and the way it was dropped. I
00:22:48.020 mean, the legislative schedule was mostly dropped already. And then suddenly one day in, oh, by the
00:22:52.720 way, we're going to do these justice bills. And the other half of that bill too was another one
00:22:56.620 that is going to be very hard for people to oppose. So no, it was a political decision. And
00:23:00.980 you know, I guess if you look at it from a political watcher, it was excellently played.
00:23:06.300 if you look at from the cynical hey if you knew this was an issue you should have done it your
00:23:09.340 first day in power well there's some truth to that well there is but then there she did a lot
00:23:13.180 on the first year in power i mean they came out with a with the very first thing was the alberta
00:23:19.100 sovereignty act and confronting ottawa on some of its encroachments i mean it took up a lot of
00:23:26.060 oxygen it's not that they couldn't have done this but you you had no need to do it at that particular
00:23:31.740 We're four years into Smith. I mean, three years into her term here, but she's been premier for about four years. So there's kind of been time. It's one piece of legislation. But I take your point, Nigel.
00:23:44.280 uh well let's talk about more timing though what one that i think is not good political timing uh 0.98
00:23:51.840 so you know i i've been critical of danielle smith putting all these other questions on the 0.78
00:23:57.760 referendum ballot at the same time uh she put four constitutional amendments on there i thought that 0.88
00:24:04.080 was silly that you have a separate referendum for constitutional amendments you vote on that
00:24:08.320 six months or a year before you vote on something like independence instead we put she put these
00:24:12.740 things on the ballot at the same time. I always warned that that one actually provides an off
00:24:18.920 ramp for people who are open to independence, but they would see this as an off ramp for a lesser
00:24:23.000 option. But at the same time, it would likely drive up opposition to these things, even though
00:24:29.520 these things I think are actually extremely popular, things like reforming or abolishing
00:24:34.400 the Senate, more power to provincial governments vis-a-vis Ottawa, that kind of thing. These are
00:24:39.800 long-standing popular things in Alberta. My concern was that by putting them on the ballot
00:24:44.400 at the same time as independence, hardcore federalists, and particularly hardcore federalists
00:24:49.540 on the left, would vote the straight ticket pro-Ottawa, or as they would see it, pro-Canada,
00:24:54.480 which means against even reforming the Constitution. And as a result, every single one
00:24:59.020 of the constitutional amendments proposed failed once all the mail-in ballots were finally counted
00:25:07.240 here. I have a hard time believing for one second that most Albertans think that Alberta should have
00:25:14.420 half as many senators as New Brunswick and have no say whatsoever in appointing them. I'd chance
00:25:20.720 to say I've never met a single Albertan who would actually agree with that, but that's technically
00:25:24.220 how Albertans voted. So Smith was defeated on the constitutional amendment side, and I think that
00:25:28.760 has significantly weakened Alberta's position in agitating for reform of the Federation. Where she
00:25:35.160 did win uh at least was on the five immigration related questions voter id uh allowing alberta
00:25:44.140 have more say over immigration allowing us to charge premiums for temporary foreign workers
00:25:49.020 to actually pay for the public services that they're using while they're visiting
00:25:52.620 their while their guest workers in alberta a majority of albertans voted for that but
00:25:58.260 uh they announced as they as the legislature was coming back that there's not going to be
00:26:04.480 any legislation on this yet. They're going to slow walk it, that they're not immediately going
00:26:09.540 to be introducing this stuff. It strikes me, Dave, as bizarre that they did not have bills
00:26:15.480 already written for this stuff. This stuff shouldn't have even been a referendum. They
00:26:18.940 should have just done it over a year ago. And if the left doesn't like it, they could have gone
00:26:24.160 and got the signatures to force a referendum to repeal it. But instead, she put it on the ballot.
00:26:29.480 It strikes me as bizarre that there's no legislation written for this yet. There's no
00:26:32.660 plan for implementing these things yet other than voter id that i think they do actually have uh
00:26:38.580 they're going forward on that front uh it strikes me as very strange that they're not moving forward
00:26:43.460 on these things right now that are one approved in a referendum two are broadly popular with
00:26:50.020 albertans and three is desperately needed i think she's she's taking the prime minister
00:26:57.060 At his word, you know, she she was ended up getting a pipeline in the major projects office.
00:27:05.140 And I think she's trusting Carney again with immigration the day the day after the referendum.
00:27:12.060 Carney said he's willing to work with Alberta and he was willing to work with any provinces who have complained.
00:27:18.020 Saskatchewan's also complained. Some eastern Canadian provinces have complained.
00:27:22.100 So I think she's sort of holding her fire until she sees what the Prime Minister actually comes forward and does with immigration.
00:27:32.260 He said he's not going to take it to below sustainable levels, but obviously everybody agrees that something needs to be done.
00:27:40.340 We cannot have the same level of immigration that we currently have and student visas and whatnot.
00:27:47.220 but I think Smith is just okay Carney the ball is yours we'll give you a
00:27:52.900 certain amount of times run with it and give us a proposal mm-hmm yeah and if
00:27:59.980 mr. Connie's smart he will actually bring back something like the old points
00:28:03.580 system this idea that you show up and you can initiate your immigration process
00:28:11.280 is just is outrageous always was nobody ever liked it except the people who are
00:28:16.320 benefiting it from the career colleges who made a lot of money out of it well now we need to go
00:28:21.600 back you want to come to Canada what can you do you're you have these qualifications right we're
00:28:25.740 looking for those come on in that's a that's how it was 50 years ago and the fact that it was ever
00:28:31.860 changed was an act of foolishness these these colleges are a huge scandal in Ontario at the
00:28:38.400 moment three hundred and eighty five million dollars they were given in one year demands for
00:28:44.280 the university ministers to resign of being rebuked.
00:28:48.640 But the file has been passed on to the OPP.
00:28:51.600 So somebody lined their pockets without a doubt.
00:28:55.080 And, you know, it gave some good students a big headache.
00:28:59.920 Yeah, Carney has been a bit more, let's say,
00:29:04.400 less promiscuous in his language around immigration than Trudeau.
00:29:10.840 And things have been reined in a bit.
00:29:12.000 But things have gone so extreme, Corey, that the scandal is not just to the Canadian or the Ontario taxpayer. It's to the Canadian citizen who has seen their society ripped apart by mass open borders immigration here. 0.93
00:29:28.740 And regardless of what Carney promises, I doubt he is going to go to the extent needed.
00:29:35.340 And Albertans gave Smith a mandate here.
00:29:38.360 They rejected independence.
00:29:40.480 They rejected, at least on paper, and you have to accept it regardless of the reasons, pushing forward on reforming the Constitution.
00:29:47.640 But the government did get a mandate on these questions.
00:29:50.480 And yet she's not acting on it.
00:29:52.160 And they haven't even prepared, at least they say, they haven't even prepared legislation to move on it.
00:29:55.780 It would seem to me that like the DEI legislation, this would be one of those intersections of good policy and good politics that would probably help shore up Smith's leadership going into this convention in November.
00:30:12.000 Why do you think she is not ready and moving on this right now?
00:30:18.380 Well, she got a mandate. She got a weak mandate. I mean, it was pretty flaccid. We're talking just over 50% on these things. 1.00
00:30:24.760 These were very questionable.
00:30:26.520 I think, I think they were hoping that this was going to turn into something
00:30:29.920 where they would have a good 60% or more on all of those other questions and they
00:30:33.660 could hit the ground running in the legislative session and they could shut
00:30:36.380 down the opposition every time by saying, look, Albertans just voted on this.
00:30:39.680 Albertans want it.
00:30:40.880 We're going to go ahead with it.
00:30:41.960 But now we got this borderline one and I think it was due to a lot of things,
00:30:46.320 you know, bad campaigning, uh, uh, mistrust, all sorts of stuff that
00:30:49.940 happened with it, which again, that's where I think they kind of keep that
00:30:53.800 back pocket card with okay well we were going to jump in with this but this isn't really where we
00:30:59.560 want to hit right now let's do with the dei and uh you know sexual images and things like that
00:31:05.160 and try and maintain and we'll push this into spring when it's it's cooled down a little i
00:31:10.360 think part of it is too is because i don't think albertans really enjoyed the referenda unfortunately
00:31:16.840 or the concept of it being held to a degree it was just it got away from them
00:31:20.920 they want to turn the page and get out of that for the moment they want to get out of that
00:31:24.360 back into regular legislative things i don't think they've given up on the immigration
00:31:27.720 reforms because we should be charging premiums and things like that but they're going to give
00:31:31.320 it a few months to cool down that's my suspicion i think you're probably right cory and you know
00:31:36.440 one of the things that we were talking about on this panel last week was just how many people did
00:31:42.440 vote a straight ticket well i think we've got a rough idea now the the decision the yes or no to
00:31:49.000 independence that was that was the question yes 25 no 75 after that half of the people just
00:32:00.360 voted a straight ticket and if they said no to independence they said no to all these nine
00:32:06.680 questions but there was another half and this is where we get this sort of 50 to 45 to 50 percent
00:32:14.200 who thought all right well i definitely don't want independence but yes i will do this and this and
00:32:20.920 these things and so there definitely is a constituency and a larger one that the numbers
00:32:27.800 reveal for moving ahead on these constitutional issues not everybody voted the straight ticket
00:32:34.120 some people are really interested in this those many people did uh especially i would call it the
00:32:40.120 non-sovereintist conservatives.
00:32:42.680 That's where you saw a split ticket, where they
00:32:44.380 voted against independence and for
00:32:46.480 some of the other measures. But
00:32:48.260 the left, when you see the left
00:32:50.160 federalists, they tended, I
00:32:52.120 think, to be fair to say, to vote the straight ticket.
00:32:54.420 They voted no to independence, no to
00:32:56.180 constitutional reforms, no to immigration
00:32:58.520 reforms. It's on the conservative
00:33:00.520 side where you saw split tickets,
00:33:02.380 where some voted yes to independence
00:33:04.100 and some voted no to independence
00:33:06.440 and then they may have voted on different spots
00:33:08.360 on the other questions.
00:33:10.120 Look, if Danielle Smith had proposed free beer, they'd have voted against that as well. 1.00
00:33:15.340 It's just all about her. 0.95
00:33:17.700 So a more isolated vote will come across differently.
00:33:22.980 Okay, well, let's turn our attention to our friends on the West Coast today.
00:33:28.460 We only have Alex Zoltan with us right now.
00:33:31.020 He is currently en route to Ukraine.
00:33:35.080 Beautiful country, not very nice this time of year.
00:33:38.320 I'm not talking about the weather.
00:33:39.520 other things falling from the sky but uh so he's unfortunately not able to join us today
00:33:44.920 uh to talk about the fallout of the bc election but the reaction in bc is it's chef's kiss it's
00:33:53.220 delicious uh lauren dirksen i don't know the guy i don't think i've ever met him maybe i've
00:33:58.280 bumped shoulders with him but i i don't know the guy i don't know very much about him he seems like
00:34:03.640 a decent and reasonable guy, but he certainly does not strike me as a fire-breathing right-wing
00:34:10.760 populist. He strikes me as a relatively conventional conservative. Somebody would
00:34:18.060 probably take me some convincing to vote for, but I might be able to see myself voting for him in
00:34:22.740 certain circumstances. The circumstance of having a premier like David Eby would probably do a lot
00:34:27.320 to encourage me to vote for him but uh you know he this is no um this is no uh northern local
00:34:36.900 branch of mega as david eby tried unsuccessfully to paint him as but the reaction in bc is you
00:34:44.000 would think that democracy has been abolished and uh lauren dirksen is opening up uh labor
00:34:51.400 camps in the peace country to send 1.00
00:34:53.360 unemployed hippies to go 0.99
00:34:54.920 drill for 0.80
00:34:57.460 some natural
00:34:58.040 gas or something
00:35:00.960 in labor camps. The reaction
00:35:03.340 is delicious. Alex Zoltan
00:35:05.340 went out and found a great
00:35:07.440 he put together kind of a good
00:35:09.260 compilation of some of these reactions in
00:35:11.320 short videos. Let's just roll that quick.
00:35:13.240 Well I just went through the Conservative Party's
00:35:15.320 platform and their ideas
00:35:17.000 and they'll be removing
00:35:18.880 SOGI123.
00:35:20.080 so why did you take what was a small but a an actual lead you know you could have just called
00:35:28.660 one by election and then been back in the lead by one vote folks in bc it has certainly been a time
00:35:34.420 hasn't it what a terrible election result for anyone that has ever read a book before wow
00:35:40.060 by now you've probably seen the disastrous results from the bc snap election giving a majority
00:35:44.660 government to one of the most reactionary right-wing conservative governments on turtle
00:35:48.420 island in canada the same people who tried to remove the bc human rights tribunal who promised
00:35:52.660 to repeal the declaration on the rights of the indigenous peoples act who promised to destroy soji
00:35:57.220 make no mistake this is david eby's fault so um if you're a lefty in bc you are probably
00:36:03.940 really angry right now and i just want to start off by validating your anger because
00:36:09.620 the situation we have found ourselves in 0.84
00:36:12.260 is really fucking maddening. 0.96
00:36:19.700 So, I mean, 0.99
00:36:20.860 I could watch that all day.
00:36:24.200 And they just keep coming.
00:36:27.400 You know,
00:36:28.300 we've all been on the losing side 0.98
00:36:30.420 of elections, and it sucks. 0.89
00:36:32.440 And it's hard to be 0.99
00:36:34.420 graceful in defeat.
00:36:36.780 But God, you gotta try.
00:36:38.100 You know, in Alberta, there was a lot of, you know, 25% of Albertans were very disappointed with the results of the referendum.
00:36:48.700 And some are lashing out in political ways, but I at least have not seen a flood of TikTok and Instagram videos of independent supporters clutching their phone and crying and, oh, it's the end of the world.
00:37:03.020 You just haven't seen that, but we're seeing floods of it in BC, and they're pretty funny.
00:37:13.140 But yeah, maybe go to Nigel just on what, we're not British Columbians here, we're Albertans,
00:37:22.540 but you spent a lot of time actually, you were a British Columbian actually for some time, Nigel.
00:37:27.100 what is inside the heads of these people right now that is driving them to think this is
00:37:32.720 just such an apocalyptic event in bc well first of all there's a very high quality
00:37:39.700 of marijuana that is grown there
00:37:41.560 i mean let's give the give them credit for where they've earned it so nigel it's a true okie from
00:37:50.180 muskokee yeah i'm afraid so and and actually you are correct that i spent a long time in bc but 0.61
00:37:56.840 The only time that I talk about a lot is the time that I spent up around Fort St. John and Fort Nelson, Dawson Creek, Prince George, all those places.
00:38:07.680 They may as well be Alberta.
00:38:09.140 Should be part of Alberta.
00:38:10.720 You know, they'll take them with us.
00:38:12.600 But look, you know, people drift west and all the nuts end up there.
00:38:16.380 The weather's nice and living is easy.
00:38:18.760 And they've cultivated a very high sense of entitlement and expectation.
00:38:25.800 and, with it, a willingness to show their emotions.
00:38:32.400 I mean, these people are—you're laughing at them right now, and you should.
00:38:38.000 And, quite frankly, I was hoping that we were going to send young Alex over to the grief swim
00:38:42.500 because that particular one just—
00:38:45.900 That's a real thing for people. Let's put the headline up. That's a real thing.
00:38:49.680 Yeah, the grief swim, and it's organized by this couple,
00:38:52.780 and the woman calls herself an end-of-life doula.
00:38:57.040 For those who aren't up on...
00:38:59.300 I mean, a doula is somebody who helps you give birth. 0.99
00:39:03.960 Well, this woman claimed to be somebody who would help you die.
00:39:08.180 So the grief swim was looking for people that she could drown?
00:39:11.620 Well, she's building a business. She is a capital. 0.91
00:39:15.160 You know, one glance could have been enough. 0.97
00:39:16.460 Let's face it, they're all loons. 1.00
00:39:18.100 They're nuts. 1.00
00:39:19.160 They're nuts. 1.00
00:39:19.540 But then the best, I mean, the top response came from a non-BC person, Rachel Gilmore. 0.98
00:39:28.080 How do we describe her?
00:39:29.380 Journalist, influencer?
00:39:30.580 I don't know. 1.00
00:39:31.240 She's a category all the time. 1.00
00:39:33.240 It's a conservative win. 0.93
00:39:35.600 The orcas will die. 0.89
00:39:37.660 Yes, Rachel, Lauren Dirksen's out there now harpooning killer whales as they swim through the...
00:39:42.960 They're on the menu on Granville Island now, I think.
00:39:46.080 Lauren Dirksen's beast. 1.00
00:39:47.080 He's killing whales right now. 1.00
00:39:48.780 don't be so ridiculous bc types yeah yeah that's that that was that's a good point 0.97
00:39:56.000 that was my favorite response i forget who was it responded as like lord dirkson so based and 0.96
00:40:01.820 he's just like someone had like an image of him just like yeah just sticking away like was moby
00:40:06.580 dick or something um uh okay cory i know you you could respond to that if you want but i also want 0.59
00:40:14.920 to talk about reactions from uh some of the aboriginal chiefs there some elected some
00:40:21.240 unelected hereditary uh self-appointed monarchs but um many monarchs perhaps but uh you know
00:40:28.720 there's you know the conservatives were elected on a platform that includes the repeal of drippa
00:40:32.820 the declaration on indigenous rights it's a u.n thing um and you know this is obviously a big
00:40:40.760 thing even the ndp kind of quietly knew inside even they had to get rid of it because you have
00:40:44.660 this total disaster with property rights in British Columbia right now, where people's land
00:40:50.680 titles and mortgages have huge question marks over them because of these bizarre court rulings
00:40:55.700 that are interpreting DRIPA in a way that was very obvious that it was going to be interpreted.
00:41:01.540 And a lot of these chiefs are saying, if you get rid of it, it's war. Not so subtly implying
00:41:07.600 combinations of civil disobedience and violence if the government acts on the mandate that it
00:41:13.540 just elected on yeah well i mean drippa was the beginning of the end of the ndp it really was i
00:41:18.740 mean that that really blew it and was a turning point even the ndp was discussing getting rid of
00:41:23.300 it within so this is an issue that for the public they want that thing gone and yeah the activist
00:41:29.700 element among the the natives and we're seeing that with the one declaring war we gotta remember
00:41:33.540 he's a wet sowson self-appointed hereditary chief and who was sitting right next to him but chief
00:41:38.580 allen who's the rented chief who took 50 000 he's an albertian chief at that to oppose oil development
00:41:44.580 these guys i mean yeah chief allen went to war with rcp officers outside of a casino got the
00:41:49.220 crap beat of them i recall and uh i don't think there's as much public appetite for these activist
00:41:54.420 chiefs at this point there's stuff to be resolved but this isn't even the the relatively mainstream 0.96
00:41:59.700 of chiefs now this is the fringe kooks among them so we'll see what happens but i think drip is done
00:42:04.660 these guys can scream all they like but it it was something that tried and failed and and it's gone
00:42:09.940 we'll see what happens well they are going to have to take a look at security for um infrastructure
00:42:15.140 yeah you know the terrorists will come you've got it you i lived in fort st john i tell you the
00:42:21.940 pipeline goes right by the peace river bridge you can get out of your car go up and touch it
00:42:27.060 stick a little plastic there you know it's uh it's very vulnerable so they're going to have
00:42:32.820 to actually think this one through when they do it but when they get the nuts rolling you've got
00:42:36.900 to watch you in a handful albert has got the legislation uh you know if you screw around with
00:42:43.220 infrastructure you're off to jail yeah yeah okay let's uh we're gonna put a pin it there and uh
00:42:49.540 quickly shoot to our uh parting shots start with uh dave uh i like calgary flames i like to watch
00:42:57.060 them on tv that's why i have a sportsnet uh subscription but now many times many nights
00:43:03.460 during the week i cannot watch my beloved flames because i do not have prime i do not have sportnet
00:43:10.180 plus i do not have rogers gold card membership and there's growing anger uh going across the
00:43:16.900 country now that if you want to watch your hockey team play you're going to have to shell out four
00:43:21.620 or five hundred bucks and there's letters going into an nhl commissioner uh gary bettman hey you
00:43:28.500 better do something about it and if i was a smart conservative politician i might pick up on that
00:43:35.140 all right nigel yes well mr karny's just got back from his world tour this time he was he's been to
00:43:42.020 saudi arabia he's been to china this time he was in turkey he's been to qatar and every time that
00:43:50.740 he comes back there's the press release saying how we share values with these countries what values
00:43:57.860 do we share with countries that seem to be complicit in slave labor with the with the very
00:44:09.860 reverse of the what we are pushing here in canada the gay rights trans rights and all this everything
00:44:15.860 try it in turkey try it in qatar you won't get very far i know what he's trying to do
00:44:22.660 but somebody needs to get to him and say don't talk about canadian values and qatari values
00:44:30.820 or turkish values being the same thing because they're not and to be honest we'd rather have
00:44:36.100 the american values if it comes to a choice like that well this is the guy who said muslim values
00:44:41.460 are canadian values well he did and then he came out and he supported uh the terrorists in israel
00:44:47.540 so you know he's been very open about what he's doing i don't like what he's doing all right cory
00:44:56.660 well apparently european values aren't canadian values either because the eu told him to take his
00:45:00.740 associate membership and stuff it right back wherever he pulled it out of which is a great
00:45:04.660 embarrassment for him he's not making legacy media news but it's making news everywhere else he's got
00:45:10.020 his big gathering of all the eu uh folks coming up and they've said the associate membership thing
00:45:15.540 is not on the table so i'm not sure what he's going to try and close that deal with next
00:45:19.780 uh i just want to say that eu conference goes in montreal tomorrow our wally tantam will be there
00:45:25.780 providing uh coverage for the western standard all right well i want to congratulate the eu
00:45:30.740 on a rare good decision uh at least four canadians here thank you very much for keeping us out of your
00:45:37.620 club we uh not sure what we were doing at the door anyway okay uh dave nagel cory thank you
00:45:45.860 very much thank you john running production today and all of you who joined us on the pipeline uh
00:45:53.060 we're out of time i'm going to keep it short so thank you very much and god bless
00:46:07.620 We'll be right back.