Western Standard - The Pipeline： Is the Danielle Smith campaign in trouble？

00:00:00.000 today i'm derek fildebrand publisher of the western standard you're watching the pipeline

00:00:21.360 today is july 27th uh i'm joined as usual by western standard news editor dave naylor how

00:00:28.560 How are you, Dave?

00:00:29.220 I'm very well, Derek.

00:00:29.960 Thank you.

00:00:30.660 Beautiful summer day.

00:00:31.660 It is.

00:00:32.540 Joined by the always sunny Western-centered opinion of broadcast editor, Corey Morgan.

00:00:37.660 Corey?

00:00:38.620 Good day.

00:00:39.720 As good as it gets.

00:00:41.080 Good time.

00:00:41.620 Ah, come on.

00:00:43.460 I want to tell you before we're on the air.

00:00:44.940 But I didn't today because I'm a jerk.

00:00:47.900 So we've got a good show.

00:00:49.340 We're going to discuss some of the stumbles the Danielle Smith campaign has had for the UCP leadership.

00:00:56.800 um or kind of frank talk coming from a talk radio background uh refreshing to some but uh opens you

00:01:04.480 up to a lot of errors none of us have ever said anything uh that we regret on live uh live broadcast

00:01:10.080 have we no no i'm very good no okay uh also uh stephen harper endorses here polliver a big moment

00:01:21.200 in the federal conservative leadership campaign or is it really going to make any difference at this

00:01:25.440 point. Speaking of making a difference, the Conservative Party of Canada says it's going to

00:01:29.880 hold a third official debate, and a lot of words being had about not wanting to have words. Is

00:01:36.220 Skippy going to skip the debate? That's what it looks like, and possibly Lesley and Lewis as well.

00:01:41.500 Big finds that would come with that. But no candidates are skipping the first official

00:01:45.980 Alberta United Conservative Party debate that is taking place tonight, and we're also going to talk

00:01:51.280 about an unofficial debate the Western Standard is holding. We're going to have a frontrunners

00:01:55.700 debate, and we're going to talk about how that might shape up with kind of the three big candidates.

00:02:02.540 And much to the delight, I'm sure, of many of you, an Ontario judge has absolutely ripped

00:02:09.080 a justice of the peace, who is not a judge, in fact, I'm told not even a lawyer,

00:02:14.100 who denied Tamara Litch bail, locked her back up.

00:02:19.000 You know, Tamara Litch, I'd say she is the lockdown champion.

00:02:22.760 She's been locked up and let out of lockdown more times than anyone in Canada.

00:02:26.720 So she's back out.

00:02:27.740 And boy, did the judge have some words for the shoddy ruling that put her back behind bars.

00:02:34.280 Before we get started, though, we want to thank my favorite sponsor,

00:02:38.200 the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:02:40.460 The Canadian Shooting Sports Association is on the front lines defending your right to own and use firearms safely in Canada.

00:02:49.300 These guys are working with the politicians and bureaucrats, crafting smart and reasonable firearms legislation.

00:02:57.480 And even more importantly, at least to me, is that they're out there educating Canadians on the need for smart firearms legislation,

00:03:04.500 not this knee-jerk stuff that you see from the federal government all too often.

00:03:08.900 And they're helping to educate Canadians on reasonable firearms legislation.

00:03:15.600 Taking firearms away from law-abiding gun owners clearly doesn't do anything to reduce gun crime.

00:03:22.880 They're trying to get the government to focus on things like smuggling of illegal firearms,

00:03:27.060 which is almost entirely where all the firearms used in the Commission of Crimes in Canada come from.

00:03:33.740 Without the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, we probably have lost all of our gun rights long ago.

00:03:38.100 So these guys are doing the best they can, and they're absolutely critical to the rights of firearms owners.

00:03:43.200 So if you are a firearms owner and you're watching or listening to this right now, go on your computer.

00:03:49.360 Go to cssa-cila.org and sign up.

00:03:54.100 Become a member of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:03:56.260 I've been a member for over a decade because I trust them to defend my rights as a firearms owner.

00:04:02.760 All right.

00:04:03.740 So let's bring it to Alberta here.

00:04:05.620 uh danielle smith has been i think uh setting the agenda of the leadership campaign so far it's fair

00:04:12.940 to say she you know the the sovereignty act in particular but a few other things that she's done

00:04:17.300 on banning lockdowns it's really set the agenda and it's kind of meant that all the other

00:04:22.080 candidates are more or less responding to her and taking other positions all in a spectrum relative

00:04:27.500 to her um and she's had an interesting campaign style she's doing the meetings in small towns and

00:04:34.340 stuff like that, coffees and that. But she's also seemingly not stopped being a radio host.

00:04:40.060 And when she quit the radio, she came to the Western Standard for a few months and continued

00:04:44.440 with a talk show there. I thought that was the end of her talk show days. She's not. It's got

00:04:50.540 her in some trouble, Dave. It has. She was sort of doing a talk show with a naturopath. Is that

00:04:56.920 what they're called? And they are a recognized practice in Alberta. There's nothing wrong with

00:05:02.620 naturopaths uh but she got herself into trouble when she was talking about cancer and what she

00:05:08.000 basically said was what she did say was that if you've got stage four cancer basically everything

00:05:14.900 that led up to it was your fault and you could have taken better care of your body and that's

00:05:19.720 not what she said she said that you're in control of things you're in control up until that point i

00:05:26.960 I don't think she said it's in the fall, but it's been interpreted by something like that.

00:05:29.320 Yeah, things like your diet and exercise and all that sort of stuff.

00:05:32.980 And by the time it becomes stage four, she pointed out just how expensive it's become,

00:05:38.300 both in terms of hospital care and the effect that care has on your body with chemotherapy and all that.

00:05:44.780 But it was within minutes that this went out, Derek, that little clip that was a four words, Corey, I think you said it was.

00:05:51.720 Basically, that was the parts that killed it was the completely in your control.

00:05:55.100 When you see completely, it makes it sound rough for interpretation.

00:05:57.680 And there were some really angry responses.

00:06:01.120 You know, people were saying, you know, my child got cancer at four years old.

00:06:05.940 How is that her fault?

00:06:08.080 You know, my uncle died of pancreatic cancer.

00:06:11.000 He didn't ask for it.

00:06:12.460 So it was really a back, you know, very, very vicious backswing against her.

00:06:17.820 And not only by all, every single one of her opponents came out against it.

00:06:22.120 The NDP certainly came out against it.

00:06:24.500 Their leader, Rachel Notley, in a very strong statement, denounced Smith.

00:06:32.420 Smith fired back by basically saying, you know, you guys are all having misinterpreted me and you're using it for political.

00:06:39.620 And, you know, cancer is not something that we should be doing in that way.

00:06:43.360 But when you're the front runner, you're going to take shots.

00:06:45.980 But I think in this case, it was self-inflicted.

00:06:49.960 So I suppose there's two ways to look at this.

00:06:52.700 There's the most charitable interpretation, which would be she poorly delivered an otherwise reasonable point that you can be doing more for prevention and wellness.

00:07:06.120 Because you're talking to a naturopath, and I think this is largely about preventative health care.

00:07:11.120 So taking, I think, the more charitable interpretation is that she poorly expressed the point that we need to put more emphasis on preventative health care so that you don't get to stage four cancer.

00:07:22.700 the less charitable interpretation and shocking that you know someone's political opponents are

00:07:28.380 not going to take the most charitable outlook is that uh she blames you for cancer everyone's

00:07:32.940 responsible for cancer uh i don't know i don't know uh is one side closer to the other here

00:07:39.820 because i think at the very least it was a poorly delivered point it was awkwardly put out and i i

00:07:45.180 honestly think that she meant you know mitigation measures preventative wasn't out there to try and

00:07:50.220 and blame victims. I mean, come on. Danielle, she's not an evil monster. I mean, people might

00:07:54.920 think she might not be an appropriate leader, but she's not a psychopath. And that's what it would

00:07:58.720 take to blame cancer victims. But they pounced. It's, as I said, that's a risk she has. If people,

00:08:03.900 if you listen to a lot of her talk radio, what was interesting is she mentally meandered. That's

00:08:07.640 what she'd do. She'd just kind of speculate and talk and go on. But the risk of that is the more

00:08:12.200 word salad you throw out there, the more that somebody can clip out a piece and shoot it at

00:08:17.520 you and you know you're just giving more and more potential ammunition and being a perceived front

00:08:21.540 runner they've been watching her like a hawk to find something just like this to distract from

00:08:26.540 the narrative she's been leading all this time and they took it and ran with it and it's been

00:08:30.180 effective and she's gonna have to reevaluate it's kind of as I said the other day it's just that

00:08:35.940 she's taking talk host radio host skills and trying to apply them to a political campaign

00:08:40.220 you got to be a little more cagey you can't just go off the cuff where you see what happens well

00:08:44.360 I think it's a risky, it's an interesting way to campaign. I've never seen someone continue,

00:08:50.540 maybe it's been done before. Bill Eberhardt, when he ran for premier in like the 30s,

00:08:56.160 he kept his Bible bill, radio hour, or whatever it was called. But when you're doing interviews,

00:09:02.720 it might not be fair, but the implication is that you're also responsible for what the guest says.

00:09:07.840 And that's not fair in actual media. But as soon as you become a political candidate,

00:09:11.200 the rules change. And I think she's taking the tactics of one profession and playing with them

00:09:18.360 in another. How dangerous do you think this is? Do you think she's able to continue with

00:09:22.600 these? I think it's refreshing for a lot of people that it's a good exchange of ideas and

00:09:28.380 whatnot, but it's fraught with danger. It's extremely dangerous, Derek. I mean,

00:09:33.660 because you have to control the guest, right? If Corey's got a guest and the guest spouts out

00:09:38.440 something stupid, Corey's going to take the blame because this happened on the Corey Morgan

00:09:42.460 Triggered show. And it's the same thing. If Daniel Smith has a guest, that guest says something

00:09:47.780 stupid. Even if Daniel doesn't agree with it, she's going to be linked to it. You know, whatever

00:09:53.340 stupid comment you want to make, it will say stupid comment on the Daniel Smith show. Daniel

00:09:58.060 Smith then says she agrees with stupid comment. You know, that's just the way it is. So you got

00:10:02.920 to be really, really careful. Um, so I think it's the kind of the first real chink in her armor

00:10:09.920 here. Uh, it's obvious. I, I think it's far from a debilitating blow to her campaign, but it is a

00:10:15.320 blow here. Um, and it was not just the NDP that have jumped on her, her, her opponents, uh, Brian

00:10:21.020 Jean and, uh, Travis Taves. And I think probably some of the, at least a few of the other, uh,

00:10:26.900 lesser known candidates have jumped at her for this. Corey, do you think this is actually going

00:10:36.340 to hurt her chances in winning? Because she doesn't have the kind of lead that Oliver has

00:10:41.200 in the federal race, but she's a front runner. Do you think this is going to be a significant

00:10:44.920 step back for her? It'll hurt it, but I don't think it'll crater it. I mean, there's still

00:10:48.520 some months left in time to make up. I think though she's going to have to re-evaluate her

00:10:53.560 approach. If she's going to do a bunch more interviews and a lot more talk over two more

00:10:57.000 months, rest assured, there's going to be a couple more things that get clipped out of there. I mean,

00:11:01.300 as you said, it's been a successful tactic too. It's been refreshing. It's been good to hear. I

00:11:05.360 mean, that's how she came from the ashes of the Wildrose floor crossing and actually rebranded

00:11:10.760 herself was years of talk radio work. And she's taking that strength and applying it to this.

00:11:15.680 It's interesting, but it's coming, as Dave said, with dangers. So I hope for her sake,

00:11:20.620 the campaigns looking within and saying, got to be a little more cagey with how we're doing this,

00:11:24.920 with this, this candid speaking, because people like it, but it can be a minefield. And I said

00:11:29.740 as well, the other day, it's regretful if she does tighten up, because I, I tire of that. I was

00:11:33.760 missing with other guests. I've had a couple on who were candidates in that race too. And it's

00:11:37.660 painful. I mean, I'm just getting target points out of them. I might as well just read their press

00:11:41.040 release and get on to the next guest. So I will see how she adapts to it. But this did, this was

00:11:47.240 a bad misstep, I think. And it's made national news. I mean, even, you know, others are taking

00:11:51.240 advantage of Warren Kinsella was on Twitter calling her a loon today and things like that

00:11:54.760 over it. Like, it'll take a bit to recover from. Well, I'm sure conservatives are always paying

00:11:58.880 attention to Warren Kinsella. That's an endorsement in some people's eyes anyways.

00:12:02.880 Haters going to hate. Yes. Yeah. Okay. Well, let's turn to the federal race for a minute.

00:12:10.180 We're going to come back to the UCP in a few moments, but pretty big news on the campaign

00:12:14.920 Trail, Stephen Harper endorsing Pierre Polivar.

00:12:19.680 Yes, good news for Pierre Polivar, if that's what you want to call him, Mr. Polivar.

00:12:24.960 I speak Albertan.

00:12:26.960 Speak Albertan.

00:12:28.560 Yeah, it was weird how it kind of came out.

00:12:30.840 It was late at, not late at night, but seven o'clock at night and a video all of a sudden

00:12:36.760 appears and there's former Prime Minister Harper saying, in his opinion, Polivar is

00:12:43.460 the best for the job, to lead the

00:12:45.460 CPC, talked about his time

00:12:47.460 when Polia was in his cabinet

00:12:49.440 and

00:12:50.400 gave him a glowing reference

00:12:53.660 that he's our man.

00:12:55.860 And you would know more about

00:12:57.040 in terms of the analytics, in terms of

00:12:59.520 how powerful it will be, but he's like

00:13:01.560 the godfather. He's the godfather of

00:13:03.500 the modern conservative movement.

00:13:05.680 So I think his

00:13:06.520 recommendation

00:13:09.500 will carry a lot of weight.

00:13:11.320 I guess Jean Charest camp.

00:13:12.840 They're waiting for Brian Mulroney to come out and support him.

00:13:15.820 Not sure if that'll happen.

00:13:17.800 He'll be dueling with former prime ministers.

00:13:19.920 Yes, a lightsaber fight or something.

00:13:21.640 Yeah, big get for Paulio, without a doubt.

00:13:26.100 Corey, this is a pretty late move in the campaign.

00:13:28.640 There's still a fair bit of time,

00:13:29.680 but the membership deadline has already long since passed.

00:13:33.380 Some of the voting has already even started, in fact.

00:13:36.140 uh oliver is far and away the front runner probably headed towards a first ballot victory

00:13:43.260 i'd be surprised if it's anything but is this too late to make any substantial difference

00:13:48.460 uh that's hard to say whether it'll be a substantial difference or not i think it'll

00:13:51.880 make a difference though i can't think of a better endorsement he could have gotten as i said it was

00:13:55.700 just late in the game but i mean harper never endorses since he left you know the prime

00:14:01.780 ministership he stayed out of all of these races he doesn't poke around so it says a lot when he

00:14:05.900 decided to sort of come out of his quiet space to say so overtly, you know, and take a side in this

00:14:11.320 race. I mean, that carries a lot of weight. And he was the last successful conservative leader.

00:14:16.740 You know, this isn't one of the also-rans from the past. This was the prime minister who had a

00:14:21.300 majority. So I think for what few undecideds, there's still always a few. And that was a very

00:14:27.160 powerful tool, I think, to help them make their mind up and say, yeah, you know what, I'm going

00:14:30.520 to go with what Mr. Harper said.

00:14:34.640 So I'm hesitant to think there's actually going to be a big difference here because it's so late.

00:14:38.420 I think the big difference, the impact this might have, I want your feedback, Dave,

00:14:44.500 is not so much in terms of the vote total, but in terms of unity of the party.

00:14:49.620 You've got at least sections of the establishment of the party

00:14:53.240 and the more red Tory left-leaning side of the conservatives that are just convinced that

00:14:59.220 Oliver is just Hitler or Trump, because those are the same thing, right?

00:15:06.920 So they're very, very nervous about him.

00:15:10.780 And, you know, every side always says in the leadership race,

00:15:13.400 well, if we lose, we're going to leave and form a new party.

00:15:15.100 And they never really do.

00:15:18.280 What do you think the impact is going to be?

00:15:19.620 Do you think this will have a big impact on maybe holding the party together

00:15:24.860 and calming down some of the more nervous, reddish elements of the party?

00:15:29.220 It might. I mean, every new leader has to reunite the party because, as you just said, there's always going to be people who are upset about it.

00:15:38.120 The last leader failed to do it.

00:15:41.280 You know, he failed to quell the far right wing, led to the expulsion of Derek Sloan and whatnot.

00:15:47.640 So there will be people who no doubt will leave the CPC if Polyev is elected.

00:15:52.900 No doubt that'll happen.

00:15:54.680 Where they will go, will they be so disillusioned they'll go to Trudeau? I don't know.

00:15:58.740 Will they go to the NDP?

00:16:01.100 Will they just not vote?

00:16:03.060 But there will be a small section.

00:16:05.180 Sheree was very quick when Harper made his announcement.

00:16:09.980 He put out a release saying, well, you know, he respected Prime Minister Harper's opinion,

00:16:14.100 but, you know, it's just one vote and Conservatives must unite no matter what.

00:16:18.860 And under his leadership, if he wins, he says he'll do that job.

00:16:22.120 So certainly at the beginning, Sheree was making the right noises in terms of not trying to split the party apart.

00:16:29.780 I actually thought it was a fairly graceful response from Sheree.

00:16:34.800 You know, I would imagine the response from Patrick Brown would be like, well, I always hated Stephen Harper.

00:16:39.020 I don't want Stephen Harper's support anyway.

00:16:41.760 Sheree was like, well, you know, that's unfortunate, but, you know, that's fine.

00:16:46.520 And, you know, when I'm the leader, Harper will still be allowed in, even though he didn't support me.

00:16:51.160 Yeah, I thought it was.

00:16:51.820 I'm sure Sheree knew it was coming.

00:16:53.920 I mean, an endorsement like this doesn't usually come as a big surprise to those in the race.

00:17:01.160 I was actually told about four months ago this was coming, but we weren't allowed.

00:17:05.480 It was given to us on an understanding we're not allowed to use it.

00:17:08.560 I'm like, well, that's pretty useless.

00:17:11.480 Okay, well, we're going to keep with this a bit, but we're going to mix it with Alberta.

00:17:15.280 We're going to bring it back all together.

00:17:18.260 Federal conservatives are having a third debate.

00:17:21.160 Then we're going to turn to the UCP side.

00:17:23.380 Let's talk about the federal conservatives having a third official debate.

00:17:30.960 Oliver and Louis not seeming too happy about this.

00:17:34.340 No, Polly Ev has said he's not going to attend.

00:17:37.900 And we can almost bring it back to what Daniel Smith said.

00:17:40.680 She said something silly that was misinterpreted and has caused her a lot of grief.

00:17:45.460 Polly Ev just wants to avoid that thing happening to him.

00:17:48.740 As the frontrunner, he will be attacked by everybody else.

00:17:51.740 So he's got no real reason to show up.

00:17:55.820 He fulfilled his debate earlier, obligations earlier.

00:18:00.900 This was an added one.

00:18:02.180 He says he's not going.

00:18:03.600 Leslie Lewis today basically said she's not going.

00:18:06.520 She just hasn't come out and said it yet, but she's hinted strongly.

00:18:10.400 Both of them are going to face $50,000 fines.

00:18:13.220 So what they're going to be left with is the same three candidates that we had

00:18:16.400 at our Western Standard Leaders debate just a couple weeks ago.

00:18:20.200 And, you know, you can go back and view that.

00:18:23.440 You don't have to do it again.

00:18:25.740 Tory party members, just go back, watch ours.

00:18:29.040 You know, it doesn't do anybody any good

00:18:31.180 because you're dealing with people that don't have a chance to win.

00:18:38.420 I actually thought, obviously, we thought that there was a need for another debate,

00:18:41.740 especially a Western debate, because the French debate always panders to Quebec.

00:18:45.300 The English debate is just kind of everybody else, 75% of Canada.

00:18:50.280 So I think there was real value in at least trying to get a frontrunner like Polivar or Polyev into a frontrunner's debate here.

00:18:58.540 And I'm generally in favor of more debates.

00:19:00.340 When you watch like the Republican primaries, there's like a friggin' dozen debates.

00:19:04.840 I never watch after like the third one, but they have a lot of debates.

00:19:08.680 And they're in that system, because of the way the primaries work, staggered on different days in different states.

00:19:13.480 the field narrows down really quickly.

00:19:15.540 So the first debate, there's like 20 guys on stage

00:19:17.760 and they're all just shouting

00:19:18.560 and nothing good comes out of it.

00:19:21.040 But after Iowa and New Hampshire,

00:19:22.320 you're down to like four, three or something.

00:19:25.560 Frontrunner's debate, if you will.

00:19:27.060 That's foreshadowing for those of you

00:19:28.620 paying attention at home.

00:19:32.700 But I think, Corey, is the risk for Poliver here

00:19:37.940 that he looks like he's afraid to debate?

00:19:40.120 He skipped the Western Standard debate.

00:19:41.500 And actually, one of his excuses that he used for not going is like, well, the last the English debate that the Conservative Party held was by Tom Clark and Global News.

00:19:50.260 And it was an absolute shit show. It was mainstream media.

00:19:54.460 It was these stupid questions about what are you binging on Netflix and what's, you know, what's your favorite monkey?

00:20:01.200 Sad trombones. Don't forget the sad trombones stuff. It was dumb. It was poorly done.

00:20:06.440 The questions weren't even really geared towards a conservative audience.

00:20:09.020 It was more geared towards like mainstream media audience.

00:20:11.500 I mean, with the Western standard, I don't think could have been accused of doing the same thing

00:20:17.940 here. What's the risk for him? Is it that he just looks like he's afraid to debate?

00:20:22.660 Well, I mean, there's a risk that he looks afraid to debate. As you said, he's willing to take that

00:20:26.180 risk. As you said, there's not a lot of undecideds left at this point in the race either.

00:20:31.000 But I mean, so you can't pull more into your camp very easily. But as we know, you step on your

00:20:37.440 tongue, you can drive away really hard and fast. It's a lot easier to lose than to gain. So it's

00:20:44.460 just strategic. I think that the swats he'll take for dodging the debates won't be nearly as bad as

00:20:50.400 the potential risk of a misstep during a public debate. As Lewis said today, what questions

00:20:56.940 haven't been asked? After months of questionings, months of press conferences, months of appearing

00:21:02.640 on Corey's show, what questions are there remaining? Well, in terms of debates, most

00:21:06.300 questions haven't been asked because that one English debate they had, well, they were asking

00:21:10.760 about Netflix and what you're binging and all these stupid questions. They didn't ask a lot of

00:21:15.240 the real policy questions. There's a lot of policy that has not really been discussed,

00:21:20.900 especially in a combative exchange in a debate. But let's talk about Lewis.

00:21:26.880 She sort of surprises me more. She is not on track to win right now. She would benefit by

00:21:33.560 more exposure. But I think her strategy, if she's smart right now, is to ingratiate herself,

00:21:39.500 Oliver, to get a front bench spot in the shadow cabinet. And then if he wins and becomes prime

00:21:44.020 minister, then in the cabinet itself. I'll ask you both. Do you think the reason she is saying

00:21:49.700 she wants to dodge the debate kind of gives him a bit cover and ingratiates herself a bit?

00:21:54.700 Well, you were at that first or the other debate in Montreal, or was it Ottawa?

00:22:01.000 The unsanctioned one.

00:22:02.800 Corey and I both thought she did poorly.

00:22:05.220 You were there.

00:22:06.060 You thought she did well.

00:22:07.540 And she didn't stand out in the second debate in Edmonton either.

00:22:11.980 Maybe she just doesn't like the debate format.

00:22:14.440 Maybe it's better off for her to continue going around the country.

00:22:17.700 Did I say she did well?

00:22:19.380 Yeah, you did that first night.

00:22:20.740 Okay, well, I retract that.

00:22:22.040 Yes, we thought she didn't do very well.

00:22:23.980 I think she wasn't the worst on the stage.

00:22:28.360 But debating is not her.

00:22:29.880 The two great debaters in this is Oliver and Sheree.

00:22:34.100 Those guys love a knife fight.

00:22:36.660 But bottom line is, I'm sure Polyev is quite happy that Lewis is saying she's going to pull out.

00:22:42.680 Gives him a bit of cover.

00:22:43.660 Yeah, absolutely.

00:22:44.940 I think Dave pretty much said it.

00:22:46.420 You know, I mean, it's just not her strength.

00:22:48.300 And why not?

00:22:49.400 At this point, I mean, getting more exposure, sure, it's okay.

00:22:51.600 But she's working out there and getting that exposure.

00:22:54.180 And if it's pretty much getting assumed that Polyev is going to win,

00:22:57.200 And this is a good time to be nice to Mr. Paulyov so that you can potentially, as I said, end up in a shadow cabinet and maybe a cabinet position.

00:23:04.880 So let's talk about a debate with the opposite problem, where everyone wants to come, but not everyone's invited.

00:23:12.140 So I know some of you are upset on this one.

00:23:15.160 So the Western Standard is putting together, we're hosting on August 9th in Calgary at the rooftop, right in downtown Calgary here.

00:23:23.060 We're putting on a frontrunners debate.

00:23:25.720 There were two reasons for that. One was stage was literally not big enough. It's a big hall, fits a lot of people, but the stage, it's meant to hold a band. And it's just not big enough to hold seven candidates on it. So we were going to have to limit that down.

00:23:41.000 And we thought, you know, there's already two official conservative debates going on.

00:23:46.980 I expect to be kind of a dull affair party.

00:23:49.500 Official party debates tend to appoint kind of a party apparatchik.

00:23:53.200 And the goal is not actually fireworks in exchange.

00:23:55.760 It's everybody be nice and see what we can agree on.

00:23:58.420 The questions tend to be easy and scripted.

00:24:01.960 But we're having a frontrunner's debate.

00:24:03.700 And based on every professional poll done, that's Danielle Smith, Brian Jean, Travis Tabes, in that order.

00:24:10.260 everyone else polls well down um i know so i know that you know some of our viewers and listeners

00:24:16.020 were upset that todd lowen's not on and i really didn't like him not being on either because i've

00:24:21.220 known todd a long time he's a solid guy i know a lot of western standard folks like him but he he

00:24:27.620 just was not pulling high enough and the western standards poll on our website is not a scientific

00:24:33.140 poll that is a poll of western standard readers and particularly when the lowen campaign told

00:24:39.860 everyone to go onto there and click on Todd 10 times that made Todd look Todd has uh actually

00:24:46.340 I think been putting forward some solid ideas uh I think he's got a fair bit of support in the party

00:24:50.820 but uh there is just I cannot foresee any scenario where where he's going to be potentially a finalist

00:24:56.660 in the top three um I think he'll have a strong showing I think it'll make it impossible for them

00:25:01.060 not to let him back into the UCP caucus I think the only reason he's not in yet is because Kenny

00:25:05.860 is still hanging around sticking up the room um we're looking at a front runners debate now

00:25:12.180 dave what are you expecting

00:25:15.460 i think uh you know you you hit the nail on the head uh it'll be more exciting it'll be

00:25:20.180 more controversial uh the the party debates tend not to draw out the um the differences in the you

00:25:28.180 know the you know the anger the emotion there there is none of that um when you've got everybody

00:25:34.100 involved, 7, 10,

00:25:36.060 28 people, whatever it is, running

00:25:37.920 and they're all trying to get in. They can't be heard.

00:25:40.140 You can't get a good point across.

00:25:42.480 You focus on the top three.

00:25:45.000 Some of them in the

00:25:45.900 Lege pull were pulling zero.

00:25:48.740 Zero.

00:25:50.980 They literally didn't

00:25:51.980 have a single respondent to give

00:25:53.980 them even a point something.

00:25:56.360 I think that was

00:25:57.520 Raj and Sonny and Lila

00:25:59.820 here pulled zero.

00:26:01.480 Todd did pull above zero.

00:26:03.620 To Todd Pult, 2%.

00:26:05.280 And to Daniel, 22%, Brian, 20%, and Travis, 15%.

00:26:11.920 So those are, and then the rest, two or zero.

00:26:14.580 So they are clear frontrunners.

00:26:17.280 And yeah, it's a shame we can't have everybody,

00:26:19.540 but I think it will make for a more intense emotional debate,

00:26:24.240 and questions may actually get answered.

00:26:27.020 Corey, this is going to be the only debate that we know of.

00:26:30.660 It's just going to be kind of the big three.

00:26:33.620 there's not going to be seven on stage here, kind of mixing up.

00:26:38.680 It's going to be three.

00:26:40.640 What are you expecting to take place on that stage?

00:26:44.980 It's a tough call.

00:26:45.940 You know, I mean,

00:26:46.240 it is going to be a totally different environment than the one with the

00:26:48.340 seven because with the seven,

00:26:49.960 every of the others are all just trying to get some profile for

00:26:51.620 themselves.

00:26:52.700 The other thing you would get if you get too many and there's a

00:26:55.280 perceived front runner with seven, say you're going to get a pile on.

00:26:57.660 They're all just going to keep eating on the front one,

00:26:59.360 but you only got three people.

00:27:00.580 leaves a lot of room for interchange. And it's heated. And I mean, I think they're relatively

00:27:08.000 close to each other. I mean, that poll is difficult. Taves, I think, is underreported

00:27:12.240 in that poll. We have to remember, they didn't poll just members. They polled in general.

00:27:15.400 It was likely UCP. No, it wasn't in general. It was among people who say they're likely to vote

00:27:19.620 UCP. How do you... Because it's pretty much impossible unless you have the party's membership

00:27:24.260 list to poll how the race is actually going. They were a distinct top three, but I think Taves

00:27:28.500 being so tight with the establishment mechanism has got some good membership sales out there. So

00:27:32.580 you got three people with everything to gain in this, and they're going to be taking it just very

00:27:38.360 seriously. And it's hard to tell what the attitude, whether it's going to be a matter of trying to

00:27:43.500 prop themselves up or tear the other ones down. One of those three will be Alberta's next premier.

00:27:48.160 Yeah. Right. So we're not talking about just being the leader of a party. We're talking about

00:27:51.740 being the leader of the province. And it's only going to come from those three, those polling

00:27:57.180 zero and 2% aren't going to win. Sorry to disappoint you guys, but it's going to be one

00:28:02.580 of the three. If I'm wrong, I'll put the intern in charge. I'll leave. And to be fair to the

00:28:09.820 others who are running, it's not insignificant that they're in there and they get a decent

00:28:13.880 amount of support and things. They impact the race. I mean, who they sort of, whether they

00:28:18.060 formally endorse or seem to endorse when it comes to second choices and things like that. If it's

00:28:22.560 three candidates who are tight, there can be kingmakers among the other four. So, I mean,

00:28:27.360 I don't want to dismiss their efforts and their impact on races, but they just can't all be

00:28:30.900 standing on the podium at the same time. If there was no other debates, well, then we would have to

00:28:36.060 put all seven on stage, but there are two other debates. I'm not going to say they're going to be

00:28:41.500 lame before they happen, but the official party ones tend to be... So now you'll get your chance

00:28:45.540 to see how seven works out. Yeah. And I encourage you, if you guys are upset that, you know, we

00:28:50.560 don't have all all seven on stage we'll watch the one tonight the western standard is going to

00:28:54.240 stream it we're also going to stream the other official party debate room you should watch it

00:28:58.500 because uh the other kid i was excluded from a debate once that really sucked and they actually

00:29:02.700 literally changed the rules to keep me out of a debate but um it's a front runners debate that

00:29:08.880 because there's two others i i think it's important we get we get to see the three who really

00:29:13.320 could get at it um you guys think it's going to get nasty

00:29:17.100 probably not

00:29:19.800 I'm thinking of throwing a knife onto the stage and seeing what happens

00:29:21.620 I guess it all depends on the moderator

00:29:23.000 I don't know

00:29:25.100 we have some good drinks before it starts whiskey

00:29:27.160 it is going to have a bar open

00:29:29.960 for a while beforehand

00:29:31.720 so my hope is the candidates drink

00:29:33.780 more before the debate than after

00:29:35.180 okay

00:29:37.600 well

00:29:38.740 we're going to move it on back to Ottawa here

00:29:42.040 the judge

00:29:45.280 reviewing the latest fight in Tamara Litch's battle to be not sentenced before her trial

00:29:55.080 more than a child molester gets. The judge ripped the justice of the peace that sent her back to

00:30:02.040 jail after she accepted an award. What the hell's happening, Dave? I wish I knew, Derek. Tamara

00:30:09.060 Leach has spent, I think it was 49 days in jail since she was picked up on the latest alleged

00:30:15.780 impropriety. There's a machete attacker in Calgary who did less time than that.

00:30:19.060 There is. And he's convicted. A justice, like a week after she was arrested,

00:30:24.660 she was brought in for a bail hearing, a justice of the peace who is not a lawyer.

00:30:29.780 So he must have been appointed to the job. I wonder who appointed him.

00:30:33.700 Exactly. Well, to be fair, that that's a provincial appointment through a bureaucracy,

00:30:37.620 But still, so he said Tamara was obviously a risk to society and said denied bail.

00:30:48.440 So then it worked its way through the system to a Superior Court judge in Ontario this week who looked at the JP's decision and said ridiculous.

00:30:57.680 Basically said that freeing Tamara Leach is not going to bring the reputation of justice into disrepute.

00:31:04.020 and he finally let her out under the same bail conditions that she was out before.

00:31:09.800 And those conditions were already ridiculous.

00:31:11.480 She's not allowed on social media.

00:31:12.860 She's not allowed to talk to the press.

00:31:14.240 And she was basically arrested by Ottawa homicide detectives who flew out there

00:31:19.440 because she posed for a picture next to somebody who she shouldn't have been associating with

00:31:24.020 for that three seconds.

00:31:26.200 So, I mean, it is perhaps the most ridiculous court case in Canadian history.

00:31:31.600 She's now free.

00:31:32.600 She's walking the streets.

00:31:34.020 I don't know about you, Corey, but I'm feeling no, I'm not, I don't feel unsafe.

00:31:39.180 I'm not looking behind my shoulder.

00:31:40.860 I'm not sleeping with a knife under my pillow because she's out.

00:31:44.660 The whole thing's ridiculous.

00:31:45.980 The whole thing's a fiasco right from the start.

00:31:50.460 Yeah.

00:31:50.960 I mean, the judge made it clear and he distinguishes it.

00:31:53.400 There's some big differences and I'm watching the online debate.

00:31:55.800 I'm not a lawyer, but I mean, it forces me to study and learn some of these things.

00:31:58.440 And there's quite a difference between a bail hearing and her trial.

00:32:02.020 And the JP was, you know, that's their job.

00:32:05.620 Yes, you can look at a bail hearing because you're looking at one narrow thing.

00:32:08.780 You're not looking at the whole encompassing works.

00:32:11.160 And that's a lot of what Judge Goodman spanked the JP about and the prosecutor saying, look, you're trying her.

00:32:16.520 You're bringing up evidence about the protests and stuff.

00:32:18.800 That's for her trial.

00:32:20.020 We're here to talk about the bail violation.

00:32:22.200 We're here to talk about whether she presents a risk to society and things like that.

00:32:25.800 And she clearly does not.

00:32:27.800 And he did say in a very diplomatic way, you know, good language, but of, you know, two superior court judges have found she should be out, two justices of the feces are what kept her in.

00:32:38.600 This is why kind of the real judges should step in on this one.

00:32:41.840 You even learned Latin, didn't you? Speak it to me.

00:32:43.500 I forgot that word already. It was mens rea?

00:32:45.920 Mens rea, yes.

00:32:47.140 Mens rea, saw these things.

00:32:50.100 Well, I think the next time Ottawa sends federal police to Ottawa, we should have put people in protective custody.

00:32:57.240 We should refuse to hand people over to Ottawa if we feel that it's not reasonable.

00:33:01.400 They want to come and get a murderer, and we agree this person's a murderer.

00:33:04.860 Take him.

00:33:05.700 But let's treat it like extradition to another country.

00:33:08.580 I don't think we should be allowing Ottawa police officers in here to come and arrest our citizens who have done nothing wrong.

00:33:15.740 You may have to vote for Danielle Smith then.

00:33:17.680 Wow.

00:33:19.400 Sovereignty act.

00:33:20.540 And that's what that mens reo was about, though, was talking about whether she even knowingly infringed on her bail.

00:33:26.640 and the conditions were ridiculous

00:33:28.520 but I mean

00:33:29.060 you can't get together with these guys

00:33:32.700 and organize another protest. That's kind of what they're

00:33:34.760 saying. Yeah, it's not saying someone can't come up and mug

00:33:36.680 a picture with you when you're receiving an award. Yeah,

00:33:38.620 it was just ridiculous. And this is

00:33:40.740 a grandmother who probably hasn't had

00:33:42.740 a speeding ticket in her life

00:33:44.200 and knows more about the Canadian prison system

00:33:46.880 than most people. Well, and the

00:33:48.820 judge also pointed out, he said, this woman with no criminal

00:33:50.880 record on these charges, that she's already

00:33:52.720 served more time than she's likely going to get

00:33:54.940 even if she's found guilty on these charges.

00:33:57.160 I think that the prosecutor and cop,

00:34:00.380 if she's sentenced for less time

00:34:02.220 than she already served,

00:34:03.240 the cops and prosecutors should do the time.

00:34:05.320 I like that.

00:34:06.160 They should have to do the time

00:34:07.260 because this is just absolutely criminal.

00:34:09.640 Well, and in the Canadian system,

00:34:10.900 it's three to one, I believe,

00:34:12.000 is what they give you

00:34:12.600 if you're serving time in remand.

00:34:14.320 So she's already got the equivalent

00:34:15.640 of 120 days in the bank on this thing.

00:34:20.860 You know what?

00:34:21.340 I see at the end of the day

00:34:23.000 a very credible case for malicious prosecution and uh and a big lawsuit she wins grandmother

00:34:32.200 with no criminal record small town matey organized against an injustice from the government under any

00:34:40.920 other circumstance she would be put on a coin and given a cbc documentary well maybe in a

00:34:47.640 a generation, she will. I don't know about the CBC documentary.

00:34:50.800 Well, hopefully we won't have a CBC documentary. Yeah, CBC will

00:34:52.500 be long gone. It'll be the Western Standard documentary

00:34:55.260 after we're dead or retired. Okay, gentlemen. Well, thank you

00:35:00.400 very much for joining us. And thank all of you. If you're not

00:35:03.180 yet a member of the Western Standard, please go to

00:35:05.460 westernstandard.news. You could sign up. We've got great

00:35:09.260 promotions on you can try for almost free. It's like a buck to

00:35:12.000 try it for a week if you're not yet a member. That'll give you

00:35:15.240 unlimited access to all Western Standard content, and you'll be supporting independent,

00:35:19.580 bailout-free Western media. You want there to be media that doesn't take money from the government

00:35:24.320 in the big media bailout, you need to support independent media. So check it out. We guarantee

00:35:30.620 you're going to love it. We've got reporters right across Canada, particularly in the West here,

00:35:35.340 and we think we're going to give you good value for your money. So go to westernstandard.news,

00:35:38.940 sign up now. Thank you very much for joining us today, and God bless.

00:35:45.240 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - July 28, 2022

The Pipeline： Is the Danielle Smith campaign in trouble？

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