Western Standard - The Pipeline January 6, 2021 Nenshi blows it, Kenney moves to the sky palace, Trudeau missing

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 Thank you.

00:03:00.000 good day i'm derek phildebrandt publisher of the western standard you're watching

00:03:11.360 the pipeline today on january 6 2021 uh i'm joined today in the western standard studio by western

00:03:20.240 standards uh podcast editor and columnist cory morgan how you doing cory good good you're looking

00:03:27.040 slick with your COVID haircut. Oh, yes. It's getting bigger by the day. Indeed. Also joining

00:03:33.600 us from beautiful British Columbia, Western Standard News Editor, Dave Naylor.

00:03:41.360 Derek, good afternoon, gentlemen. That's still morning there, isn't it?

00:03:47.120 For a few more minutes. You can't tell the sky is so dark anyways.

00:03:51.280 true can't tell the time of day or the season in bc and uh ken grafton our

00:03:56.320 ottawa bureau chief joining us from the lions then how you doing ken

00:04:00.480 good jerek how you doing fantastic uh well we've got an exciting show for you today

00:04:07.920 the great snowbird scandal of 2021 uh continues to claim victims uh but it's now taken on other

00:04:14.800 dimensions uh in alberta in particular it has virtually consumed the government it's brought it

00:04:21.040 almost to its knees and we're going to talk about that uh today um we're going to talk about the

00:04:26.800 very interesting case of uh calgary mayor nahid nenshi we were wondering where he was he has

00:04:33.680 something to say about everything and he was strangely quiet now we know why he uh was caught

00:04:41.280 But with his chief of staff and other staffers being in Hawaii, not himself in Hawaii, but

00:04:47.320 his chief of staff in Hawaii, no consequences, nothing.

00:04:50.600 And the left seems to have shut the F up pretty quickly when that happened.

00:04:55.300 We're going to talk about it.

00:04:57.360 In Alberta, boy, the Alberta government's meltdown continues.

00:05:02.340 News just breaking right now that Alberta Premier Jason Kenney has moved his office

00:05:08.880 into the former throne room of the Sky Palace, built by Alison Redford.

00:05:17.160 Probably not a good look.

00:05:18.360 We're going to talk about that and see if we're to discuss,

00:05:20.940 is this a fair issue, or are we just being a little oversensitive right now?

00:05:26.340 And, of course, where in the world is Justin Trudeau?

00:05:29.860 Someone else we haven't heard a lot from.

00:05:32.660 I don't mind.

00:05:33.840 It's nice. It's nice.

00:05:36.000 But we're going to get into it there.

00:05:38.040 So we're going to start right probably about a kilometer, kilometer and a half away from the Western Standard Studios here at the Calgary City Hall.

00:05:48.920 Calgary Mayor Nahid Nenshi, the latest victim of the Great Snowbird Scandal of 2021.

00:05:54.780 Dave, why don't you tell us what's happening?

00:05:59.400 Well, it's council starting to arrive back from holidays, I guess.

00:06:04.500 Derek, I hope the audience can hear you better than I can.

00:06:08.120 I was only getting about one every three words there.

00:06:10.500 But, yeah, it's turned out that Calgary Mayor Nahid Nenshi's chief of staff was one of the people that worked part of her holidays in Hawaii, I guess.

00:06:24.800 She flew out despite recommendations from the Provincial Health Authority against non-essential travel.

00:06:31.360 The lady's name is Devery Corbin. She's been with the city since 2012 and has been with the mayor's office, I believe, since 2018-19.

00:06:45.380 Another member of Nenshi's staff, an office administrator, also went to Hawaii.

00:06:51.800 As you said, Derek, Nenshi's been awfully, awfully quiet the last couple of days.

00:06:57.400 And he admitted when he met with the press yesterday, he admitted when Kenny held his bumbling press conference last Friday, trying to explain the UCP Snowbird scandal, he admitted that he was, quote, yelling at the TV in frustration because he was so angry about it.

00:07:16.260 But I guess when the shoe's on the other foot, you suddenly lose your moral high ground.

00:07:22.760 Nenshi says there will be no sanctions against these two staffers.

00:07:28.660 Ward 5, Alderman George Hall, put a public letter out, just published on the Western Standard website.

00:07:36.400 Derek, he represents Ward 5, and it's one of the hardest hit areas of the city in terms of COVID.

00:07:43.280 But he says it's absolutely ludicrous.

00:07:45.940 Mayor Nenshi waited until today, or sorry, until yesterday to release the details of his wayward travelers.

00:07:54.720 He said it's been the big topic in the news, all the news headlines for five days.

00:07:58.680 And he's 100% right about that.

00:08:02.000 And he says this news should have come out from Nenshi way, way earlier.

00:08:07.380 He also points out that the restrictions seem to be good for one but not good for the other parts of Alberta society.

00:08:17.360 He says those with fiscal means don't seem to be suffering as much as those with, you know, we're on the lower end of the economic scale.

00:08:27.420 So lots of controversy at Calgary City Hall at the moment, and there's probably no happier person about that than Premier Jason Kenney.

00:08:37.380 Yeah, I think the real reason Nahid Nanshi was screaming at the TV is because he was angry about the whole situation. He was angry that he can't pontificate and lecture anybody else about it. I mean, if there is someone doing something on the other side of the planet that he doesn't agree with, you're going to hear about it.

00:08:59.120 Sorry, if anyone in Ottawa or in BC there is working with your hands,

00:09:03.480 it's making a lot of background noise.

00:09:04.600 So just please try to keep your outside noise to a minimum.

00:09:08.620 Absolutely.

00:09:10.380 It was incredible.

00:09:11.720 Just the man who pontificates about the time of day,

00:09:15.380 if he thinks people care about it,

00:09:17.340 had nothing to say about this.

00:09:18.980 And then he waits this long.

00:09:20.460 I think it was a smart political tactic.

00:09:22.660 Obviously, that political tactic was probably not advised by his chief of staff

00:09:26.560 because that people staff was in Hawaii at the time, but it was a smart tactic.

00:09:31.060 Kenny takes all the blowback.

00:09:33.620 He waits until the scandal is maybe, I think it's still pretty hot,

00:09:37.600 but it's not white blazing hot anymore.

00:09:41.320 It's now kind of entering the second phase, and he does this.

00:09:45.940 The interesting thing to me, though, is you're watching social media.

00:09:50.420 Left and right were united in rage about this scandal against the Kenny government.

00:09:55.580 NDP supporters, UCP supporters, and people on the right who aren't necessarily UCP, everyone's pissed.

00:10:02.600 But as soon as Nenshi came out, I think half of Alberta's internet connection went down.

00:10:08.620 I think we, Corey, tell us about, why don't you get into that?

00:10:12.740 Sure.

00:10:13.320 I mean, well, we're getting to see such a walking, talking example of the double standard that's out there in social media and in the mainstream media.

00:10:21.600 They were more than happy to dance all over and beat the hell out of Kenny.

00:10:25.340 And Kenny earned it with that mess with these guys going on out there.

00:10:28.220 But, I mean, as you said, with Ninchy, I mean, he was in the pack in December saying,

00:10:33.540 if Jason Kenney does not crack down on citizens and lock down, we the city are going to do it ourselves.

00:10:39.240 And I had Ninchy with his stay home, save lives in his Twitter profile sat quietly while Kenny saw the worst controversy of his terms so far.

00:10:50.620 and knew damn well his chief of staff

00:10:52.980 was suntanning and sat

00:10:54.760 on it to let Kenny eat

00:10:56.640 the bulk of the abuse for this

00:10:58.940 and then came out afterwards and it's true because he

00:11:00.760 knows the media. They're going to treat

00:11:02.660 Denchie with kid gloves. This issue's dead

00:11:04.800 now. It was Kenny's best

00:11:06.740 hope. I mean otherwise aside from a war breaking

00:11:08.680 out or something that could dominate the news scroll

00:11:10.500 having somebody left wing

00:11:12.040 being caught doing the same thing

00:11:14.580 suddenly the media, oh I got other things to talk about now

00:11:16.680 I'll move on. Now it's time to move on

00:11:18.740 from this issue i mean uh and i'll bring somebody up i don't name people off about mike morris and

00:11:22.660 everybody's beloved little activist on uh twitter was still going after kenny going after kenny all

00:11:28.500 afternoon and dead silent about nenshi so he didn't stop on kenny but he just pretended the

00:11:34.020 nenshi thing didn't even happen so yes i think the travel gators the snowbird scandal is going

00:11:39.060 to fade away because well the mainstream is going to stop covering it and uh it's impacted one of

00:11:45.620 their darlings yeah yeah just absolutely absolutely incredible the lack of attention paid on most of

00:11:53.620 the media have covered that they're separate with it sorry ken or dave you need to mute your phones

00:11:58.660 and stop making noise please or we're going to have to meet you guys please um it you know the

00:12:05.220 media have covered it but not with the same breathlessness i'm about to mute some of our

00:12:10.420 people in other offices mute all your other stuff um they have just not covered with the same

00:12:16.980 breathlessness the same rage um that i think deservedly went to the kenny government over

00:12:22.420 this but as soon as it's this uh really not much just nothing nothing so story's over folks uh

00:12:30.180 now that then she's been caught up on up in it it's time to move on from other things um or as

00:12:34.980 Justin Trudeau would say this is a learning moment for all of us so well

00:12:42.420 let's we're gonna stay in Alberta here before we move on to Justin Trudeau and

00:12:46.120 how we can learn from this really just not the headline Kenny wants to see

00:12:53.340 right now we all remember it's funny virtually every Albertan knows what the

00:13:00.180 Sky Palace is we know what that means and now Jason Kenny is I'm gonna put it

00:13:06.120 to Dave here to give us an update it's he did not move his residence into the

00:13:11.240 Sky Palace as Alison Redford had intended to do before her regime

00:13:15.180 collapsed but he has moved his office and Dave why don't you tell us more about

00:13:19.440 that Derek this story is just breaking right now in Edmonton Jason Kenny's

00:13:27.240 offices we are one of you has got something on and I'm gonna mute both of

00:13:33.180 you if I don't get you guys to turn off your dinging and electric devices I'm

00:13:37.200 sorry it's disturbing to our listeners nothing on here okay go ahead Dave okay

00:13:46.960 well it looks like yeah can hear me we can hear you but we can also hear your

00:13:57.020 dinging phone please mute it okay yeah the news is coming in on all fronts here guys uh sorry about

00:14:05.820 that uh jason kenny's office in the legislature is apparently undergoing uh some renovations

00:14:12.940 so they decided the smart thing to do was hey allison redford's old sky palace office is open

00:14:19.100 why don't we just move into there so that's apparently what he's done uh if you remember

00:14:24.860 way back in 2013 sky palace was one of the things that forced redford uh out of office 0.80

00:14:32.940 uh she was seen uh you know along with all her uh airplane rides with her daughters having a 1.00

00:14:38.540 culture of entitlement and in fact when rachel notley came to power she refused to work in the 1.00

00:14:44.860 sky office calling it quote a politically active or politically radioactive zone and a toxic symbol

00:14:52.380 of entitlement.

00:14:57.420 I think it was very much

00:14:58.280 about part of Chernobyl.

00:15:00.180 Yes, exactly.

00:15:02.060 Just to give you some of the totals

00:15:03.840 on what Redford was looking at spending,

00:15:07.060 she wanted to spend $45,000 just on drapes

00:15:11.260 and $43,000 on wall and porcelain tiles

00:15:17.780 and $26,000 just for painting.

00:15:21.200 and of course no office can be complete without a changing room and Redford was having one built

00:15:29.840 for both herself and her daughter at the time and that was going to cost taxpayers $14,000 so

00:15:35.320 so clearly there was a revolt back then and you know the optics just look bad on this one the

00:15:42.380 timing looks bad Derek they're going through the UCP snowbird scandal now the NDP will be jumping

00:15:48.720 on this as just another you know political culture uh showing that they're entitled and

00:15:56.420 they don't care about voters so uh really really bad timing for this one uh yeah it's it's not a

00:16:05.560 good look uh i remember when i was at the legislature um so that just so people know

00:16:10.160 the sky palace is a penthouse a luxury penthouse that was built on top of something called the

00:16:15.180 federal building. The federal building was a very swanky building that most of the MLAs,

00:16:21.080 all the opposition and some of the government MLAs had their offices in. You're very fortunate

00:16:26.660 to work in that building. It is very nice. But on top of it, Alison Redford, without proper

00:16:33.400 financial authorization, had ordered the construction of this luxury residential penthouse

00:16:40.360 uh when the uh pcs lost power it was a given that it'd be a wild rose or ndp whoever took over

00:16:47.960 uh that was not going to continue the project was was kiboshed um i remember i i i this was

00:16:55.700 not an official government plan but i had discussed with brian gene at the time the towards

00:16:59.600 the end of the 2015 campaign um we kind of chuckled about it but it was i think a real

00:17:05.540 possibility that if Wildrose had won, we were going to stage the world's greatest press conference.

00:17:11.460 We were going to take a giant crane with a massive wrecking ball, and on live television,

00:17:20.420 blow the Sky Palace up. Not the whole federal building, but the penthouse. We were going to

00:17:25.220 literally blow the Sky Palace up. Obviously, Wildrose didn't win. It came in a strong second,

00:17:30.660 came back from the dead in 2015. The NDP won. The NDP, I didn't blame them for not blowing it up,

00:17:37.480 but they just essentially turned it into kind of a conference space. They didn't really use it for

00:17:42.520 much. Mostly, it was just a place where the NDP MLAs could go to smoke, technically illegally

00:17:49.240 smoking on government property, but it was on an out, they were on the kind of the terrorists on

00:17:52.640 the outside of the penthouse. I wasn't angry that they were smoking on government property. I was

00:17:56.200 just angry that the Wild Bros MLAs weren't allowed to go and smoke illegally on government property.

00:17:59.900 That was my only problem with it. But other than entitling themselves to a private smoking area, the NDP never really used the Sky Palace for anything. But now we're learning that it's been converted into an office. I don't think it's, I want to get your opinion, Corey. I personally don't think it's quite comparable to turning this into a luxury residential penthouse, custom design for Kenya's family, however that is.

00:18:27.720 but it is, it's probably a bad look. What do you think the politics of this? 0.99

00:18:32.440 Yeah, no, I think the motivation is probably just, well, we've got some space,

00:18:36.520 we can utilize it. Let's get it rolling. But again, it's forgetting, it seems. It's

00:18:40.920 a bit of a tone deafness. Symbolism matters, whether it's fair or not. And that's, we've seen

00:18:46.920 so much of it this last few months. And I'd like to keep going back to the old

00:18:50.920 Bavota $16 orange juice disaster. It's the little things that drive the citizens and the electors

00:18:57.320 crazy when they feel like they're contributing and the people are asking them to contribute aren't

00:19:02.680 walking the talk all this we're all in this together what a line now that's so sour coming 0.99

00:19:07.960 from so many of these hypocritical politicians and jason kenny's really taken a beating from his 0.77

00:19:12.360 populist front with that the whole vacation the snowbird scandal and wild rose supporting people 0.88

00:19:18.360 from the past who supported the merger of them but were reticent worried about the old pc taint

00:19:23.560 coming in uh to see more of that coming in and there's no name more toxic still to this day with

00:19:30.200 the pcs than allison redford so i mean it's just you know it's this isn't going to be a government

00:19:36.440 crushing episode or anything like that but they've really really got to work on their optics and

00:19:41.000 think about every step they do because people like us are going to be on their case well at least we

00:19:45.640 know where jason kenny is now he's uh refused to come out uh and speak to albertans or to the press

00:19:51.000 since the i think widely acknowledged disaster of a press conference on january 1st

00:19:56.280 where he refused to do anything about the snowbird uh scandal uh now we know where he is he he's in

00:20:02.840 he's in the sky palace um i don't know if i'm advising him if i'm his uh interim chief of staff

00:20:09.640 i don't know if i'd advise him to come out i if i was a political advisor i might tell him yeah just

00:20:13.640 shut up stay quiet like just yeah let the new cycle move on yeah uh that's probably what i do

00:20:20.280 although I don't think they have that choice because, and we'll probably discuss this on

00:20:24.280 tomorrow's show, but the government has to make a decision very soon on if they're renewing the

00:20:28.100 lockdown or not, and boy, I would not want to be in the UCP government right now making a decision

00:20:34.440 about if they have the moral authority to lock Albertans down for another month. That doesn't

00:20:39.260 sound fun. Speaking of a great moral authority, we're going to talk about where in the world is

00:20:46.020 Justin Trudeau. I think this story was yesterday. Ken will clarify if it was yesterday or the day

00:20:52.440 before. We were on this. Most of the media aren't really touching it. But Justin Trudeau has issued

00:20:57.560 a statement from on high, decreeing that politicians who are traveling right now are bad.

00:21:02.960 But we haven't really seen much about where he is. But we're going to go to our Ottawa Bureau

00:21:06.760 chief, Ken Grafton, who's going to put some meat on the bone here and update us on where in the

00:21:12.540 world as Justin Trudeau? Well, I guess that's the question, Derek. And this story,

00:21:18.720 as you mentioned, hasn't been covered widely in Ottawa or any other location.

00:21:26.700 It arose out of a tweet that came from someone at the International Airport in Barbados,

00:21:32.860 who reported seeing a, well, what he described as the Prime Minister's jet.

00:21:38.740 And, you know, from that, we can take it's part of the VIP fleet that's run by the Royal Canadian Air Force.

00:21:45.660 So it must have had the markings on it.

00:21:47.760 And this person that tweeted, and I think there were actually more than one person involved in that, didn't identify who was on the plane.

00:21:57.540 So this is where the question, where is Justin Trudeau came from?

00:22:03.040 Or where is he?

00:22:04.240 It was noted, subsequently, that the plane didn't originate in Ottawa, but in, I forget the location, in Puerto Rico, somewhere else in the Caribbean, but that could have been an interim stop, so we really don't know the origin of the flight when it departed Canada.

00:22:22.620 So, these planes, the VIP flight, are used for VIPs on government business, and it had to be someone with some horsepower in the government to warrant flying on, in essence, a private jet to the Caribbean and back.

00:22:40.300 the prime minister's office issued a statement the same day denying that the prime minister was

00:22:48.400 in Barbados and a CTV journalist confirmed that he was in fact on Harrington Lake at the prime

00:22:57.500 minister's official summer residence Harrington Lake for those who don't know is in the Gatineau

00:23:03.220 park area of quebec just north of ottawa about 25 minutes or so by automobile and so that's where

00:23:13.380 he was reportedly uh over christmas was adhering to the lake yesterday his official uh itinerary

00:23:20.900 on the government website noted that he was at rito hall or sorry real cottage for um for a

00:23:28.580 meeting at rio cottage the previous day he had a virtual meeting on his calendar but there was no

00:23:36.180 physical location attached to that so it didn't say whether he was at harrington lake or rio

00:23:42.180 cottage or somewhere else and that's really all the information that is out there now there are

00:23:50.100 people i gather from from some subsequent tweets that uh were actually trying to track down uh

00:23:57.940 inbound flights at the auto airport and had also researched uh flight numbers and tail numbers on

00:24:05.300 on the internet to try and identify which uh which one of the challenger jets this was and

00:24:11.620 who was using it um that's all the the meat of the story really at this point so ken

00:24:19.620 i guess well he's issued a statement condemning the snowbirds um i mean i mean we're not going

00:24:26.180 put hypocrisy beyond him. I mean the whole story is about hypocrisy and we're talking about Justin

00:24:30.260 Trudeau here, but putting out a statement condemning it, it seems to be a good sign that he didn't do it.

00:24:40.820 Did Justin Trudeau or his office explicitly deny traveling outside of the country over the last

00:24:48.100 two months? A spokesman from the PMO did make that statement, Derek, that he was not there,

00:24:56.880 or sorry, that he hasn't traveled over Christmas. Was it just that he didn't go to Barbados or

00:25:02.040 that he just did not travel? That he did not travel over the Christmas period. That was the

00:25:07.320 statement issued by the PMO. Well, I mean, it's not beyond a government to lie, but I mean,

00:25:15.180 if they have put out a statement saying it, that would be a wildly risky move if it's a lie.

00:25:22.160 So it would, if I'm a betting man here, I'd say he probably didn't travel in that case.

00:25:29.980 I mean, someone else is missing though, Derek.

00:25:33.120 That's it. So if we can, if we can say that the Challenger jet was in Barbados,

00:25:38.840 well, there's not many people who use the Challenger jet. It'd be the prime minister,

00:25:42.160 it'd be the foreign or whatever they call it now the global affairs minister global canada

00:25:46.880 minister whatever the hell it's called um or the uh uh chief uh or the chief of defense staff uh so

00:25:54.640 the head of the canadian armed forces very very few people would really have access to those

00:25:59.800 challenger jets no no uh the mp from um from timbuktu is not going to have access to a challenger

00:26:08.880 jet that is a major major operation it's only for top vips in the canadian government uh i'd like to

00:26:15.760 know who that is i i believe derek that uh sorry to interrupt but i believe that the deputy prime

00:26:22.640 minister would would have access to those flights as well and uh freeland has been uh noticeably

00:26:29.600 quiet uh since before christmas so uh that question hasn't reached the media yet uh but um

00:26:40.400 you know where is christia freeland might be uh an equally interesting question to pursue

00:26:48.000 uh yeah well uh ken we've got you in ottawa if you can track this down i gotta stay dinner with

00:26:54.320 your name on it well uh i'll hold you to that derrick i i've got family in ottawa so uh i might

00:27:03.520 engage in some unsanctioned travel uh to get out there and we'll stake if you can if you could land

00:27:08.160 that story and figure out the mystery of the missing challenger jet sounds good very good

00:27:15.520 well uh before we go today i want to uh again thank everyone who is a western standard member

00:27:20.080 for your support if you're not yet a member please go right now to westernstandardonline.com

00:27:25.360 click on membership if you support a free and independent western media uh that doesn't take

00:27:31.200 guff from left or right uh we just report what we can find our opinion uh definitely falls on

00:27:37.840 one side of the things but we got guys like dave nailer and ken grafton uh i think dave's trying

00:27:42.400 to talk but he's got his mic muted um yeah your mic is muted dave um and that was not me uh

00:27:52.800 okay well in any case uh we appreciate everyone's support right now we are crowdsourcing a major

00:27:58.560 poll we have contracted main street research they are one of the very top polling firms in canada

00:28:05.120 uh eminently credible uh but it's a very expensive poll we're trying to figure out what albertans

00:28:10.320 think about things right now this poll is just going to be in alberta so if you're outside of

00:28:13.760 alberta well you can kick in if you like but it's not not necessary um but if you're in alberta

00:28:19.520 where we're polling right now um how do albertans feel about the great snowbird scandal of 2021

00:28:25.920 do they think there needs to be additional actions uh for accountability around this scandal should

00:28:30.960 there be resignations or not uh from ucp mlas uh we want to know uh is there going to be a change

00:28:38.320 in how people intend to vote. Are people angry, but they're going to just go back to voting NDP

00:28:43.040 or UCP? Or is there going to be wider fallout, either support going to the NDP or rightwards

00:28:49.840 to something like Wild Rose? We want to figure this stuff out. Also, we are going to poll

00:28:55.040 the Calgary mayoral race. There's been no polls right now about how Nenshi is going to do against

00:28:59.760 his primary opponent, Jeremy Farkas, or some of the other lesser known candidates. We want to

00:29:05.440 to pull that. And we've already, we've contracted it. We've signed a contract. Please make sure

00:29:09.900 the Western Standard doesn't go bankrupt by funding this big giant poll. We need you to kick

00:29:14.780 in. So if you can, please go to westernstandardonline.com slash donate dash poll slash

00:29:20.960 or you go in the comment section and you'll see we've posted the link right into there.

00:29:25.440 We greatly appreciate your help to make sure we can fund a poll like this. We don't accept a penny

00:29:29.680 from the government, media bailouts. We have to do this with your support.

00:29:33.800 But thank you all very much for watching. Thank you, Corey, Ken, Dave, for joining us.

00:29:41.800 We appreciate all of your time. Godspeed.

00:29:45.960 Thanks, sir.

00:30:03.800 You

Western Standard - January 07, 2021

The Pipeline January 6, 2021 Nenshi blows it, Kenney moves to the sky palace, Trudeau missing

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript