Western Standard - The Pipeline： July 14, 2021

00:00:00.000 No.

00:00:01.000 Yeah, that's it.

00:00:02.000 I don't know.

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Hi, I'm Derek Felderbrandt, publisher of The Western Standard.

00:01:17.040 You're joining us today on The Pipeline on July 14th, 2021.

00:01:22.620 Thank you very much for joining us.

00:01:24.720 I'm with Western Standard news editor Dave Naylor today,

00:01:28.200 who is still sulking from their humiliating loss to Italy.

00:01:34.960 Yes, we can't win on penalties.

00:01:37.180 It's all there is to it.

00:01:38.860 No, but England made it further than usual.

00:01:41.660 Further than Germany. 0.76

00:01:42.760 That's all that matters to England, isn't it?

00:01:44.260 Sometimes.

00:01:44.980 It really is just victory for England. 0.85

00:01:47.260 And France.

00:01:49.440 See, France was out so early.

00:01:51.440 They still get to savor the victory.

00:01:54.340 Yeah, we don't even worry about the French anymore.

00:01:56.180 And, of course, joined by Corey Morgan, host of The Corey Morgan Show and Alberta political

00:02:02.780 columnist. Corey, keeping busy?

00:02:04.820 Oh, yeah. Stampede season.

00:02:06.820 Amen. Okay. Well, we want to begin by, as usual, thanking all of our members for their

00:02:13.480 continued generous support. If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, go to

00:02:17.620 westernstandardonline.com membership. You can try a Western Standard membership free for 15 days,

00:02:24.320 giving you complete access to all western standard content. This is bailout free media

00:02:29.600 working for western Canadians so we'd be grateful for your support and we promise to provide you

00:02:34.560 with great content, large quantities of it on a daily basis from our team here.

00:02:40.160 As well today's show is sponsored by the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights. The Canadian

00:02:47.120 Coalition for Firearms Rights works hard to protect your right to own and use firearms.

00:02:53.360 go to firearmsright.ca and click why join to learn more about how you can join them and add your

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00:03:16.960 a lot of coffee companies out there take a portion of their profits and they funnel it to the latest

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00:03:50.560 Standard by supporting one of our important advertisers, and you'll be getting great coffee

00:03:55.660 supporting great causes. Well, let's jump into what we've got on the show today. We're going to

00:04:02.180 be talking about Paul Hinman, new leader of the Wild Rose, lots of politics going on around the

00:04:08.840 Calgary Stampede. We'll be talking about that. And of course, we're going to talk about John

00:04:15.240 Carpe stepping aside as president of the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights. But we're going to

00:04:19.660 again with Paul Hinman, leader of the Wild Rose Independence of Alberta, a party of Alberta now

00:04:25.280 official. Dave, why don't you give us the rundown? Actually, as you know, Derek, this is the second

00:04:29.960 time Paul has led a Wild Rose party. He was one of the leaders of the old Wild Rose. He was the

00:04:36.860 first leader of the old Wild Rose. Yeah, back in those days. So he ran as leadership for the Wild

00:04:43.560 Rose Independence party. And obviously it was one of the most, actually probably one of the most

00:04:48.540 boring races in history. He was the only candidate. And because of COVID, you know,

00:04:53.980 he really couldn't get out and campaign much. But, you know, they had the forums and all that

00:04:59.380 sort of stuff. And the vote was over the last two days. And Tuesday night, it was announced he had

00:05:06.280 92% of members who voted support. So certainly an overwhelming mandate. I talked to him before

00:05:13.460 the votes were counted uh he says the plan now is to to hit the road get out and start meeting

00:05:20.020 albertans and having town halls where people can actually go and see them and talk to them and uh

00:05:26.980 you know they're doing well in the polls and uh that's really without even doing any social media

00:05:32.500 or any any campaign whatsoever so i think he's stepping into a good position there do we know

00:05:37.700 how many people voted in the leadership i want to say 1600 but don't quote me on that i wouldn't

00:05:42.820 imagine very high turnout when there's one candidate on the ballot um but i think right

00:05:47.220 now they're sitting around 10 000 members overall so it's a pretty low turnout but i mean it's hard

00:05:52.180 to motivate yourself to vote uh yes or no to something um i i guess just a few few areas we'll

00:05:59.140 we'll stab at this before we get into paul itself let's talk about the race or lack thereof uh

00:06:06.020 corey do you think it was kind of a missed opportunity for the party not to have a more

00:06:09.620 combative race with you know more than one candidate or do you think this is a better

00:06:14.020 position that he comes out of it unbruised no i i personally think a race would have been better i

00:06:18.660 mean races can have pitfalls you get some lunatic candidates you get some infighting they can be

00:06:23.220 divisive there's totally hazards to come with a leadership race if it's run poorly or you've got

00:06:27.460 the wrong people but they're also a huge opportunity i mean a good competitive leadership race you get

00:06:32.660 these candidates pounding the pavement they're selling memberships they're interacting with

00:06:36.580 people they're making news they're bringing it into the scroll of course that didn't happen as

00:06:40.900 you said it's the well i'd say the second most boring leadership race in alberta because the

00:06:44.820 alberta party said theirs going for a month and some they don't they don't have any candidates

00:06:49.620 so uh you know the wild rose party has one more candidate than the alberta party they have 100

00:06:54.500 more candidates that's right yeah so i i mean it's it's good that they're coming out of this

00:06:59.620 they can go straight to work and paul certainly is a ground worker but i i think they would have

00:07:04.740 have done much better to have a good competitive couple of months of campaigning race, you know.

00:07:09.300 I think the biggest, I think there probably were going to be a few candidates, but they put this

00:07:13.060 ridiculously high entry fee to entering the race. It's $30,000. It's not unusual to have an entry

00:07:20.180 fee into a leadership race, but $30,000, I forget exactly how much it was in 2015, Wildrose race,

00:07:26.580 but that was when Brian Jean won. The party was in terrible shape, but still it was technically

00:07:30.980 still the official opposition the media had written it off its opponents had written it off

00:07:34.820 some of its own members had written it off but at least it still had a couple seats in the

00:07:38.820 legislature it was official opposition i mean it was it was at least some kind of a prize to be had

00:07:44.180 and i don't think it was even thirty thousand dollars that thirty thousand dollars is a massive

00:07:47.800 entry fee and i think that was probably the single biggest barrier to people getting in well that's

00:07:52.940 obviously to keep the lunatics out and you know look at the calgary merrill merrill race i mean

00:07:58.140 That's just overrun now, and I think they're up to, what, 15 or 16 candidates, and yeah,

00:08:06.380 some of them are, shall we say, on the fringe.

00:08:08.900 So I agree with you, Derek, $30,000 is way too much, but the $100 is ...

00:08:13.960 Well, I agree.

00:08:15.220 Where you find the balance of these things, I don't know.

00:08:17.640 $10,000 will keep a lot of kooks off a ballot, but I think it's probably more reasonable.

00:08:23.860 And UCP was something like, I don't know, something like that.

00:08:28.440 It was, but I mean, that was a case of where you pretty much knew the winner of that race

00:08:32.700 was probably going to be premier.

00:08:33.780 So people were willing to invest some money and take a gamble.

00:08:37.160 As you said, even the old Wild Rose Party, they were the official opposition.

00:08:40.960 They had some seats.

00:08:42.260 This is a new entity or, you know, in a sense, and there's just, you're not gambling on an

00:08:48.460 asset here and there's no prize for a second.

00:08:51.220 Yeah.

00:08:51.620 There you got to be leader of the official opposition, probably got to be premier, but

00:08:56.200 I've been involved in the negotiations that between the Wildrose and PCs that had created

00:09:00.120 the UCP, that those negotiations were structured to have two real candidates on the ballot,

00:09:07.680 really.

00:09:08.680 And they had a $50,000 entry fee very specifically, not just to keep kooks out, but to keep everyone

00:09:13.860 out.

00:09:15.480 And that pretty much succeeded.

00:09:16.860 At the end of the day, only one other got on the ballot. 0.71

00:09:18.860 You know, I understand setting a bar to keep the lunatic. So it's just hard to find that. 0.54

00:09:24.220 I think 10,000 is reasonable. You know, I mean, your average person that you're not just going

00:09:28.740 to throw that away on a whim. I mean, maybe some of that case will, but that's where you have a

00:09:31.760 leadership committee too. I mean, if somebody's spending 10,000 just to troll a party and it's

00:09:36.480 clear that that's the case, you can still have a leadership committee say, no, you know what?

00:09:39.720 We don't believe you're in this best interests of the party and we won't let you go.

00:09:43.240 Yeah. But this was an acclimation, which I say, I feel wasn't, didn't serve the party well in the

00:09:48.080 i mean i think paul's great he'll do a great job but that just wasn't the it might be the best way

00:09:52.400 to get there yeah i think it was a missed opportunity yeah i i don't i i know for sure

00:09:57.280 i know i could say matter of factly there were some other fairly credible candidates looking to

00:10:02.480 run but um 30 000 remember that's three thousand dollars to get your name on the belt that's not

00:10:06.800 thirty thousand dollars for campaign funding you have to raise that beyond it so uh and significantly

00:10:12.320 more expensive if you actually had a contested campaign in this case him then really had to

00:10:16.640 to raise the $30,000, and that was it, because he was only God. But I guess let's talk about Paul

00:10:21.460 himself and what this means for the Wild Rose and the broader political landscape. You know,

00:10:26.580 as you said, Dave, this is the second party with Wild Rose in its name that he's led. He led the

00:10:31.920 Wild Rose Alliance as its founding leader. Wes created also a merger of two smaller parties on

00:10:38.160 the right, the Alberta Alliance and the Wild Rose Party. He became the first leader. He eventually

00:10:45.040 stepped aside for Daniel Smith to become the leader, but he still, even after he was stepping

00:10:50.260 aside, he won a by-election in Calgary that really shocked Alberta and catapulted the

00:10:55.880 Wild Rose from not being taken seriously at all right to the forefront. But he's coming

00:11:00.960 into this at a different, at a time when Wild Rose is starting to get noticed by the mainstream

00:11:06.160 media. I mean, it's hitting 20% in polls, which is credible. I don't know if it'll continue

00:11:11.240 to grow or can proceed a bit if people's anger has boiled down a bit from the end of lockdowns.

00:11:18.520 What do you think polls election means for the party itself in the broader political landscape?

00:11:23.000 Well, I think a more experienced person, as you said, he's been around the block

00:11:31.080 several times. Our exclusive Main Street poll has him as high as 20% in the province.

00:11:36.760 No, no, that was Angus Reid. Ours had him at 17th.

00:11:39.480 Oh, okay. Well, we'll believe ours over here. But our pollster, Akito Maggie, said there's

00:11:45.560 more than enough support there to get MLAs. So once he gets his foot into the door, he knows

00:11:52.120 how things operate. He knows the legislature system and whatever sort of number of seats he

00:12:01.080 has, he knows how to manipulate them in the best way possible. So what you could see in the future

00:12:07.160 is uh you know not necessarily beyond the realms of possibility is a you know an ndp minority 0.58

00:12:13.080 government and then the ucp and the wild rose and the oppositions having to deal with each other

00:12:19.000 well if it's a minority government even if the ndp has the most people got to understand

00:12:23.320 the party with the most seats if they don't have a majority are not necessarily the government

00:12:27.720 that's not the way or so then this is kind of something people don't understand anymore after

00:12:31.160 the whole you know when steven harper had a minority government and there's this coalition

00:12:35.560 that came up to try and overtake them uh it may have been dirty but what they were doing was not

00:12:40.440 unconstitutional by any stretch and so canadians i think that warped the opinions of a lot of

00:12:45.140 canadians about how our system works uh you could have like look at christy clarkton bc she was one

00:12:51.060 seat shy of a majority she had the most seats uh but she didn't get to form government because the 1.00

00:12:55.920 two smaller parties the ndp and the greens got together you could see something conceivably like

00:13:00.740 that in alberta where uh because right now clearly the ndp would win the most seats in alberta but

00:13:05.520 I'm not convinced it's a majority government because they're so concentrated in Edmonton and kind of the inner city parts of Calgary.

00:13:16.680 They've got no support in rural.

00:13:18.800 They've got no support in rural right now.

00:13:20.240 So it'd be hard to see them winning seats outside of big cities other than maybe the two Loughbridge seats, maximum one other.

00:13:28.320 So we could see a minority where Wildrose would hold the balance of power.

00:13:31.840 But as it is right now, Wildrose is anywhere near 20%.

00:13:35.140 It seems impossible that the Conservatives can win a majority.

00:13:37.900 Agreed.

00:13:38.620 And certainly Jason Kenney is hoping COVID goes away and people forget about it.

00:13:44.220 And I'm sure one of the things that Paul will be mentioning wherever he goes is, don't forget, Kenney did this to you.

00:13:51.020 He took away your livelihoods.

00:13:52.700 He locked you in your houses.

00:13:54.540 He shut down your business.

00:13:56.260 He's been advocating against the lockdown since day one.

00:14:00.740 I'll talk to our producer.

00:14:01.840 We just don't want to keep the comments up as long, especially if they're long comments

00:14:06.060 that take up half the screen.

00:14:08.340 And that's kind of a note to those of you commenting.

00:14:10.380 If you want your comments to be shown on the screen, please keep them short because if

00:14:13.760 they're too long, it takes up half the screen.

00:14:15.460 We can't really display that.

00:14:17.080 Shout out though to operations manager, James.

00:14:20.580 This is why we're looking a little better than we normally do, even Corey looks more

00:14:24.400 handsome.

00:14:25.400 I thought I looked better when I had a bit of blur.

00:14:28.300 So we're not disappearing into the green screen anymore and stuff like that.

00:14:32.300 Your glasses are a little bit.

00:14:35.100 It's not a green screen.

00:14:36.100 This is the window of our office.

00:14:37.100 Yeah, that's true.

00:14:38.100 We do have the best view in the city.

00:14:40.200 So thank you to James.

00:14:41.200 Yeah, I mean, it's where does Paul take the party from here?

00:14:47.200 So, you know, it's the first step is to get up and the people know who he is because the average, you know, I couldn't pick out of the police on it because he's been away from public sight as, as, as, you know, most of the, most of the people during COVID.

00:15:06.160 So now we can get out.

00:15:07.560 Now we can get a space show.

00:15:09.060 Now we can meet people.

00:15:10.140 Now we can knock on doors.

00:15:11.680 Now we can go to community barbecues.

00:15:13.980 And he's a veteran.

00:15:15.760 he'll know exactly what to do. It won't take him long to get his name known.

00:15:20.880 And because of the, you know, we were the only media when we did polling to specifically get

00:15:29.440 Wildrose support. All the other media just clumped him in with others. And you get this,

00:15:34.720 you know, this other bar that nobody knew what it was.

00:15:37.280 Yeah. So I want to ask you about that, Corey. For the longest time, yeah, the other media,

00:15:41.600 and they would pull they put into other and other would be like almost tied with the ucp i mean

00:15:47.360 it's growing and growing you think at some point you're gonna say what is this yeah but they didn't

00:15:50.800 want to look yeah yeah it was bizarre i mean if other gets above five percent you're you're

00:15:57.680 supposed to look at that okay so above something above five percent that probably got some kind

00:16:02.480 of significance and you know i mean all the other polls other would be like 20 or 25 something huge

00:16:09.120 and they would just they refused to look at it and you have to wonder why uh we'd pull and ask

00:16:14.720 about wild rose and we'd like we know what the other is this is what it is we're pulling all

00:16:18.640 these other smaller options this is the one that's standing out here um so they're sitting at between

00:16:24.560 17 and 20 percent right now the polls uh ours and main street at 17 and then about two weeks later

00:16:31.040 angus breed out of the 20. um but things have you know alberta is pretty much completely reopened

00:16:36.400 and now borders are still closed and things like that,

00:16:38.400 but that's under federal.

00:16:40.300 Do you think that with the reopening

00:16:42.100 that this is going to really take the steam out of Wild Rose,

00:16:45.120 or are these voters lost to Kenny at this point?

00:16:48.280 I don't think the reopening,

00:16:50.040 I mean, it might stop the bleeding for Kenny,

00:16:52.060 but getting them back,

00:16:53.600 I mean, one of the things he's got to keep in mind with Paul, too,

00:16:55.680 he's a party builder.

00:16:57.180 He's not one of the ones that you'll see front and center

00:16:59.060 and firing brimstone and making the great quotes,

00:17:01.580 but he works the ground,

00:17:03.080 and he's already saying he's going to hit those constituencies.

00:17:05.520 He's going to get those organizations going.

00:17:08.220 He's going to get that campaign machine going, which you need when the time comes.

00:17:11.020 And that's why he keeps getting underestimated because where did this guy come from?

00:17:14.320 Well, he built a foundation there that came in and whipped you and you weren't paying attention to it.

00:17:19.020 And that's what happened to the media. 0.55

00:17:19.980 He didn't pay attention to these guys and Paul was working it for some time and building that up out there.

00:17:25.080 But the thing is with Kenny, this is the Wildrose Independence Party.

00:17:28.820 And we're going into a federal campaign probably this fall that's going to be very divisive.

00:17:34.020 And from all accounts and all appearances, we might get a liberal majority out of this.

00:17:38.740 And Kenny has been notoriously weak in dealing with Ottawa.

00:17:41.840 He won't stand up to him.

00:17:43.160 He talks big.

00:17:44.320 He backs down.

00:17:45.620 And that's a giant hole for Paul to fill.

00:17:47.740 That's a great area to capture votes.

00:17:51.160 And, I mean, he's making no bones about where he's going.

00:17:53.540 He's moving towards Alberta independence.

00:17:54.960 He's moving towards getting a police force, getting the pension plan.

00:17:58.560 Not just talk, talk, talk, talk, talk.

00:18:00.160 We've heard for two years of the UCP.

00:18:01.940 He's going to move on it.

00:18:03.100 and that's what's grabbing solid, dedicated supporters.

00:18:06.280 So Kenny's really got to up his pro-Alberta game.

00:18:09.760 He's got the COVID thing handled, and it seems to have worked out well,

00:18:12.540 and that's going to help him. 0.99

00:18:13.740 But that independent thing is going to bite him in the ass 0.99

00:18:16.080 if he doesn't figure out how to consolidate it. 0.99

00:18:18.380 Yeah.

00:18:19.180 Okay, well, let's move things real local here.

00:18:23.240 Right now, you can see I'm not my regular suit and tie here.

00:18:29.340 We've got a stampede party after work today.

00:18:31.860 It is the Calgary Stampede.

00:18:33.540 Thank God it's on.

00:18:34.380 I know some of you don't want to go because it's not perfect.

00:18:38.480 But I say don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good.

00:18:43.260 It's just great to see people out and living, breathing the free air now.

00:18:48.960 People are sitting on patios, drinking beers.

00:18:52.360 There's some rodeo going on.

00:18:53.540 And this rodeo doesn't get you sent to jail.

00:18:55.500 That's important to note.

00:18:57.720 It's great to see.

00:18:58.760 And, you know, this is kind of the place where every politician likes to come to.

00:19:03.900 Justin Trudeau visited Calgary, but right before Stampede started.

00:19:07.300 I don't think he's actually going to Stampede because that would not send the right virtues.

00:19:10.540 It would not signal the right virtues.

00:19:13.780 I don't think Jake needs – some people can forgive me, correct me if I'm wrong,

00:19:17.220 but I don't know if Jake Bixian has ever been to Calgary Stampede.

00:19:19.960 He might be the only national partier who's not from the bloc at a quad to do that.

00:19:23.500 I'm pretty sure the bloc leaders visit Calgary Stampede more often.

00:19:26.760 They actually might be welcome.

00:19:28.540 Yes.

00:19:28.960 I think the block leaders are welcome here.

00:19:31.260 I think it's time for Alberta to get right behind those guys. 1.00

00:19:33.800 Oh, yeah, absolutely.

00:19:35.680 But at least on the provincial level, it is full campaign season.

00:19:39.640 It is the greatest campaign event on earth.

00:19:42.660 Dave, why don't you tell us what's going on with the political groundscape here? 0.62

00:19:47.400 Oh, a silly season in Calgary.

00:19:49.340 As you mentioned, Derek, the prime minister touched down for a few hours the day before the kickoff. 0.50

00:19:55.420 Conservative leader Erin O'Toole popped into town for a press conference before heading west.

00:20:03.180 Jason Kenney, you'll recognize him.

00:20:05.360 He's walking around with the biggest grin on his face in Calgary.

00:20:10.360 He's going to the Premier's Stampede breakfast.

00:20:14.720 That was packed.

00:20:16.060 Hey, even NDP leader Rachel Notley, who questioned way back in May,

00:20:22.120 said the Stampede probably shouldn't go ahead because it's going to be a super spreader event.

00:20:28.840 She wasted no time in getting down here and holding a big party. She'll be around town

00:20:34.920 all week, various functions. She is super spreading everywhere. Yes. So it's just an

00:20:42.920 event that politicians cannot miss. And, you know, the people come to them. The people will go

00:20:49.480 and to get a free pancake and sausage at the community constituency offices and all that sort

00:20:58.440 of stuff. So I don't think there's a better time than Stampede Week for politicians to actually

00:21:03.160 get out and meet Albertans. And of course, there's Albertans from across the province here

00:21:08.520 coming down for the rodeo and the stampede. So it's a must-tend event for politicians.

00:21:15.560 Well, this rodeo is just not as fun as Bojan because, you know, just when something's

00:21:19.740 illegal, it's a lot more fun.

00:21:21.740 I mean, when I was in high school, I used to smoke pot, it's not fun anymore.

00:21:29.160 I feel like illegal rodeo is so much more than the legal variety.

00:21:33.440 Absolutely.

00:21:34.440 It takes some of the thrill out of the whole thing.

00:21:36.560 At least we get to see, you know, Rachel getting out there and I bet you she's thrilling in

00:21:41.800 the thrill of the hypocrisy.

00:21:43.120 You know, knowing that you went out there and said that anybody going to the Stampede is going to put people at risk. 0.94

00:21:47.900 Anybody going to the Stampede is going to be a super spreader and is going to kill people.

00:21:51.680 And now she's out there shaking hands, smiling, talking to people and doing everything that she said two months ago was inhuman. 0.99

00:21:58.820 So, you know, there's going to be a bit of a thrill in the doing something so out of sorts, I guess.

00:22:05.760 I could say it's that.

00:22:06.660 I mean, it's just the hip and the arm.

00:22:07.820 So yesterday, you know, every politician around is having their stampede breakfasts or barbecues.

00:22:14.400 Well, not only breakfast, because it's cheaper to put on.

00:22:16.580 A very interesting one yesterday.

00:22:18.360 They were not Calgary politicians, but they had their breakfast anyway.

00:22:23.320 Drew Barnes and Todd Lowen, the two UCP MLAs, originally elected to Wildrose,

00:22:28.620 who were thrown out of the UCP caucus by Jason Kenney.

00:22:31.600 Todd Lowen, because he said Kenney should resign, and Drew Barnes, because he doesn't like Drew Barnes.

00:22:37.820 um they had a they had a stampede breakfast yesterday uh there was quite a fairly pretty

00:22:44.660 big turnout there um brine gene showing out with kind of a cheshire cat smile on his face

00:22:52.860 um there were um so you know we we had someone there there were quite a few wild rosers there

00:23:01.860 from the from the original wild rose they were there fairly large numbers uh what do you think

00:23:06.940 those two are up to having an event in Calgary so far from their constituencies you know I don't

00:23:12.220 know if they've got anything formal on the go but they're definitely thinking I mean it's something

00:23:16.300 that's got to keep Kenny nervous I mean these guys are working together uh Brian Jean whether

00:23:21.180 he's interested in putting his you know foot back into the ring or not it's hard to say because he

00:23:25.720 likes poking from the sidelines too uh he likes to just kind of stir things up and troll them but

00:23:30.740 when you see those three together in one spot and this was definitely predetermined I mean yeah

00:23:34.680 they're not Calgary MLAs. You know, Todd had to drive from Valley View.

00:23:39.400 Drew had to come from Medicine Hat.

00:23:40.920 Brangina had to come from Fort Mac. Like these guys converged.

00:23:43.720 And that gives you the feeling, well,

00:23:44.840 you're trying to gain Calgary support for some reason.

00:23:46.840 If you're trying to gain Calgary support for some reason, what are you up to?

00:23:50.040 But it leaves it wide open to speculation then.

00:23:52.520 Are they looking to form their own party in caucus?

00:23:54.440 Are they looking to join Paul?

00:23:56.920 Or are they just sitting on the groundwork thinking maybe eventually they go back to UCP?

00:23:59.960 I don't know, but it gets us all spanking and wondering about it anyways. 0.89

00:24:03.000 they're not quietly sitting in the background right now and is it showing more you know the

00:24:07.080 merger that i think everybody thinks is the building between the old wild roses and the old

00:24:12.760 stories uh and starting to split back up into their own tribes is this uh you know public showing

00:24:19.320 them and you know there's certainly the barbecue last night was crowded uh and anybody that was

00:24:26.920 there was probably not a fan of the premier at all. Okay, let's deal with, I guess,

00:24:35.240 take a little further away from home here. So John Carpe, president of the Justice Centre for

00:24:41.400 Constitutional Freedoms, they're based in Calgary, but they've been taking on constitutional cases

00:24:46.280 across Canada, really leading the fight in the courts against lockdowns and other restrictions

00:24:52.760 that they believe are unreasonable intrusions on constitutional freedoms. They've had some

00:24:58.440 successes, some failures, but they do seem to have stepped in it recently. It came to light

00:25:05.800 that John Carpe had hired or authorized the hiring of a private investigator to find out if a judge

00:25:16.440 judge around Winnipeg who is overseeing the case that they're in right now.

00:25:24.040 The judge in Winnipeg is dealing with a case where seven churches in the rural parts of

00:25:30.880 Manitoba are taking the gun to court over the lockdowns.

00:25:35.800 The judge is overseeing the case, private investigator was hired.

00:25:40.400 Dave, why don't you fill in the rest, because I'm not telling the story very well.

00:25:45.080 Why don't you tell us exactly what happened and why John Carpe is at least on a leap of

00:25:51.520 absence right now, president of the JCCF?

00:25:54.080 Certainly.

00:25:55.080 Well, nobody, John Carpe is being a tireless worker, working probably 24-7 for months on

00:26:01.080 end to defend people's constitutional rights.

00:26:05.140 His group is swamped, they're desperate for lawyers.

00:26:09.720 And I think he was probably, in his case, he was sitting there thinking about Jason Kenney

00:26:15.820 and the Sky Palace and those public photos that showed him breaking COVID regulations.

00:26:21.640 And I'm just guessing, but probably what went through his mind is if they can catch this

00:26:28.620 judge or something like that, then, you know, that's going to be a good stick in their arsenal.

00:26:34.860 So they hired a private investigator to follow this judge, and by all accounts, didn't do

00:26:40.860 a great job, was easily spotted by the judge the first time.

00:26:45.480 They followed him out to his cottage, which I don't know where it is, but if it's a longer

00:26:52.100 rural area, it's kind of tough to follow anybody there and not get noticed, but they were quickly

00:26:58.860 spotted. The judge obviously realized this is a concern, notified the police, and made

00:27:06.820 it public. That same day, John Carpe, the sort of fell on the sword, said he'd made

00:27:16.440 a mistake, and the next day he announced he was stepping away as head of the organization.

00:27:23.700 The board of directors...

00:27:24.700 He's on leave, he's not on leave.

00:27:25.700 No, we're still there.

00:27:27.700 The board of directors said they had nothing to do with it.

00:27:31.700 They were not informed about it.

00:27:33.700 So obviously a decision John took on his own.

00:27:38.700 He has stepped aside for an unspecified amount of time. 0.98

00:27:44.700 Yeah, it was a dumb thing to do.

00:27:48.700 So, Corey, this has obviously got a lot of the lockdowners jumping for joy. 0.83

00:27:55.860 They're like, ah, we got you.

00:27:58.640 You know, carpe's bad. 0.94

00:28:00.080 These people are bad.

00:28:01.040 They're doing bad things.

00:28:02.720 I think his critics are fair to say that this was not a good idea.

00:28:09.980 This is, you know, not the norms of how we deal with things.

00:28:14.240 It's not right to be hiring PIs and spying on people.

00:28:16.780 but i gotta we gotta ask is it okay for the government to be spying on people

00:28:22.660 i mean canadian governments the feds and the provinces every single province have had police

00:28:28.740 and civilian government officials spying on civilians for a year and a half they set up

00:28:34.880 snitch lines and encouraged people to spy on their neighbors on people walking down the street their

00:28:41.400 friends and their family and report it and snitch it to the government for a year and a half

00:28:45.680 The government is spying on us, and now we spy on the government, or we're just spying on the government.

00:28:53.460 I don't think two wrongs make a right, but how do you think the JCCF was, how do you think Carpe and the JCCF were squaring this in their minds?

00:29:02.740 Why did they think this was a good idea?

00:29:04.420 Yeah, I mean, it was clear, and I think if anybody knows more than anybody right now that that was a terrible lapse of judgment, it's John.

00:29:09.940 I mean, you know, hindsight, maybe I can't explain.

00:29:13.780 and we know John's a smart guy, a dedicated guy, and to, of all people to follow, you know,

00:29:18.780 a judge in an inactive case, I mean, the optics of it and what it sets as a precedent is, you know,

00:29:23.160 can be read into very terribly. I think what he had in mind, though, as Dave was pointing out

00:29:27.960 at the Sky Palace, if it had been anybody other than the judge, the stuff you'd get elected

00:29:31.400 officials who are demonstrating hypocrisy, if you can get health officials demonstrating

00:29:35.860 hypocrisy, the people who are telling you, because it does help invalidate the law. If

00:29:39.960 you've got the person saying, this is the law, but it doesn't apply to me, that is something

00:29:43.420 you'd even almost bring up in a courthouse to say, look, how can we call this a valid law when

00:29:47.820 the people who implement it aren't following it? Though I think perhaps he should have been

00:29:52.500 watching legislators rather than the judiciary in that case. And I'm certain he's reevaluating

00:29:57.920 that decision. And it's too bad because of, as we said, he's done so much great work. That

00:30:01.820 organization has been so important for government overstepping its boundary. And the government did

00:30:07.300 create that atmosphere of everybody spotting on each other. I mean, I remember Mayor Nietzsche

00:30:10.740 going on about call that snitch line if you see your neighbor having you know a strange car parked

00:30:15.460 in front of their house or three people in the backyard you call up and get them in there and

00:30:19.700 it's turned us into these these karens as the overused term goes to keep moving on each other 1.00

00:30:26.340 so i mean it was just an extension of more of that same attitude but it really was it was poorly

00:30:30.980 conceived and it's really too bad it really is yeah well so he he's not resigned he's not been

00:30:37.620 fired by the board um i mean he's large i think he's pretty much built the organization from

00:30:42.060 scratch um and it has really come to the fore as probably the most prominent constitutional

00:30:47.980 freedoms organization in the country by far i think there's there's also the um canadian

00:30:52.540 constitution foundation they used to be the most prominent but i think they've they've been a lot

00:30:57.480 less prominent especially during lockdowns perhaps they're more resident uh want to touch this

00:31:03.740 There's also things like the BC Civil Liberties Association.

00:31:07.640 They're more concerned with burning down churches.

00:31:11.820 If we want to speak about legal organizations that lost credibility, those guys, I'm sorry.

00:31:16.700 To me, John took the blame for it immediately.

00:31:22.180 He didn't try to weasel around it.

00:31:24.220 He said, I did it.

00:31:26.000 I was wrong.

00:31:27.040 I'm going to step aside.

00:31:28.900 And I made a mistake.

00:31:29.940 And the board admitted that when they put out their statement.

00:31:33.400 And they said, John immediately owned up.

00:31:35.940 So, I mean, come on, we've all had brain farts.

00:31:38.100 We've all made wrong decisions.

00:31:41.120 As long as we admit them, I think most people are given another chance, right?

00:31:45.160 And you move on and you learn and you get better.

00:31:47.880 And he's not letting it distract from him.

00:31:49.340 I mean, that's an organization with a lot of lawyers with a lot of irons in the fire.

00:31:52.480 They got a lot of important work to do.

00:31:54.200 And with this blowing up, at least John's not that distracted and sidetracked from all the rest of the work they're doing.

00:32:00.160 If he was an NHL player, he'd get a three-game suspension.

00:32:04.340 Yeah, I think that's, I mean, still my organization.

00:32:08.220 But, I mean, if I was a member of that board, I think, you know, brief two, three-week suspension, slap on the wrist, put him back on the ice.

00:32:18.500 Because he's a good player that you don't want to bench for long.

00:32:22.240 No, he'll come back rested and more focused and with a clear head.

00:32:26.840 Guy probably needed a vacation anyway.

00:32:28.400 I think he probably did.

00:32:29.780 Yeah.

00:32:30.160 Okay. Well, that's it for today's show. I want to thank, of course, Corey and Dave for being with us and especially all of our Western Standard members. If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, please go to westernstandardonline.com slash membership. Try out your membership free for 15 days. You can cancel at any time if you don't like what Corey has to say. If you don't like what I have to say, you have no choice. You've got to keep paying.

00:32:54.680 And, of course, today's show is sponsored by Resistance Coffee.

00:33:01.420 Resistance Coffee is a fantastic company that takes 10% of the proceeds of the sales of their coffee

00:33:10.600 and pass it on to organizations supporting your constitutional freedoms.

00:33:14.000 I don't know if they're supporting the Canadian Constitutional Freedom.

00:33:16.600 The Justice Center for Constitutional Freedom.

00:33:18.560 I don't know.

00:33:19.880 That is one of the ones they don't.

00:33:21.460 Apparently, I'm getting the thumbs up.

00:33:22.920 they do if you support the justice center constitutional freedoms i could use a couple

00:33:27.000 of limo tears right now yeah it's always refreshing cory drinks it every morning uh so uh support

00:33:33.720 resistance coffee support good causes that they uh they back with some of their profits so go to

00:33:38.520 resistancecoffee.ca use promotion code western standard to get 10 off of your first order that's

00:33:45.480 one word western standard as your promotion code getting 10 off of your uh first order

00:33:52.520 As well, today's show is sponsored by the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights.

00:33:58.480 The Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights works tirelessly for your right to own, use, and just have a lot of fun safely with firearms.

00:34:07.960 They're a fantastic organization that's on guard for you.

00:34:12.240 I know these guys, they've got an office perched out in Ottawa in a place you don't want to be with people who want to take away your guns.

00:34:20.600 they're there working the halls of power and doing advocacy on your behalf to be able to keep your

00:34:26.500 firearms. So go to firearmsright.ca and click why join to find out more about why you should join

00:34:34.800 the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights. That's it for today's show. We appreciate all of you and

00:34:41.540 all of your time. God bless.

Western Standard - July 15, 2021

The Pipeline： July 14, 2021

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