The Pipeline： Kenney's long goodbye.
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Summary
A week ago today, Jason Kenney resigned as leader of the United Conservative Party of Alberta, and now it's time to figure out who's going to replace him. Who's next? And what will happen to the party now that he's gone? We talk all that and much more on this episode of The Pipeline.
Transcript
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Good evening. Today is May 25th, 2022. I'm Derek Fildebrandt and you're watching The Pipeline.
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Thank you all for joining us. I'm joined, as usual, by the always dapper Dave Naylor, Western Standard News Editor. How are you, Dave?
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I like these chairs. You know who doesn't like these chairs is Western Standard Opinion and Broadcast Editor Corey Morgan.
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He has to sit up straight now on his daily show, don't you?
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Yes, it ruins my slouch, but it helps me get that crabbiness up that I help to share with everybody daily.
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He's extra pissed off that he has to sit up straight now.
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A week ago today, Jason Kenney resigned, or announced he will resign.
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And, well, it's going on a lot longer than was expected.
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We're going to talk about what led to his resignation, obviously,
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in that leadership review and the long, drawn-out process
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that now seems to be coming for his long goodbye.
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The leadership race for the United Conservative Party of Alberta is already heating up.
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Actually, I don't know if it ever ended with Brian Jean.
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I think just the 2017 campaign just continued on through.
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But the race is heating up with candidates, several candidates having already launched campaigns and other campaigns in the works.
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And we've got a lot of the scuttlebutt on that.
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And Tamara Leach, Freedom Convoy organizer, she is out of jail, staying out of jail for
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We're going to talk about the case that was just settled on that around bail and keeping
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Before we dive in, though, I want to thank all of our Western Standard members for your
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uh kenny's long goodbye week ago we sat in this room and um watched as uh the vote came in 51.4
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roughly or so um clearly not enough for any leader to stay on leading a political party jason kenny
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resigns that's what we thought but but hasn't really happened everything before the butt is
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Everything for the butt. Well, I mean, yeah, it was exactly one week ago tonight. We all thought he was going to stay on because he'd repeatedly said, including to our Rachel Emanuel and an exclusive interview the day before the vote, that he was going to stay. Anything above 50% plus one. We all said it was going to be disastrous and tear the party apart. But he repeatedly said he was going to stay. So when he did, when he came on and announced he was resigning, it was quite a shock. He certainly had to scramble that night.
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Maybe he'll go to the Ledge MacDougall Center, clean out his desks.
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And the common sense seemed to be appoint an acting premier,
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much like they did with Dave Hancock when he was appointed.
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Yeah, that's the one new follow-between Alice at Redford.
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I'm pretty sure almost no one knows who that is.
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But he's got a big portrait in the premier's gallery.
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He's on the wall, but I don't think, I'll bet you a beer that if, when we go out and watch the game, no one is going to be able to tell us who Dave Hancock is.
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All right. Sad, really. But rumbling started right away that Kenny was not going to leave immediately, and he confirmed it at the caucus meeting the next day at McDougal Center, Thursday morning, that he was going to stay on as Premier until his successor is Pitt.
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And that would be up to the UCP party to decide when and where.
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So he could be premier for several more months.
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He was raised in a Jesuit school, a very religious man.
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I think he wants to be the premier when the pope touches down in Edmonton in July.
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He wants to be the first one in line on the tarmac when the Pope descends from his El Italia jet and kisses the ground.
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When he gets up, I think Jason Kenney wants to be that first guy.
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Maybe that, I think at the least, that probably plays into it at least a bit.
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I think the reason he wants to stick around primarily is to try and shape his legacy.
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If you leave right away, well, you're kind of Alison Redforded at the door.
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Having a few more months as Premier, I think, allows him to do a couple of popular things
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and try to rewrite history a bit so that, you know, with the benefit of hindsight,
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you know, he hopes that we'll look back and say, ah, it wasn't so bad.
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um cory why do you think it is kenny what do you think kenny wants to hang on why didn't he just
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say screw you guys i'm going home um oh no first they said oh my god they killed kenny and then
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screw you guys i'm going home why didn't he just uh pack up and leave if the party needs to move on
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i think it's part of what you both said actually you know i mean they tie together sort of i mean
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that's one more positive thing to end on you know there's the imagery of meeting the pope which is a
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you know, a big deal to a person who's an observant Catholic and it stands out and it's
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a part of the legacy. I mean, a papal visit to Alberta is pretty rare a thing to be a part of,
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you know, so he's not cutting the ribbon at a Commonwealth Games again or something,
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but there was something unique that he was in for and perhaps a couple of policy initiatives
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to come in because he obviously didn't want to go. So let's hang on and see if we can't build a
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little bit of a legacy on the way out. And a few things, as you said, people can look back on and
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say, well, this happened during his term, rather than the very final action and everything
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remembers was him being picked out by his own party.
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The downside to it is it gives the NDP several more months of shooting A at him and B a leaderless
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I mean, it's not unprecedented for a leader to stay on until the replacement is selected
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But in the case when it was an unwilling ejection almost, it is a little more unusual to stay
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in, but it's not out of the unexpected either. I mean, we just didn't expect that this, we never
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really thought of it. We thought he's either going to be in or out, not this kind of in-between.
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Well, he's in a lame, he's kind of in this lame duck phase now, but arguably,
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you know, like lame duck presidents in between, you know, losing an election or being replaced,
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if they're termed out, and the new guy coming in, they don't have a lot of political capital,
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but at the same time, they sometimes do get interesting things done because
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what's anyone going to do about it? You've got nothing to lose. Maybe you'll do some of the
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more controversial and interesting things. You know, like there was talk
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that Donald Trump would pardon like Edward Snowden or something.
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Obviously he didn't do that. But, you know, really controversial things
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What do you guys, we'll begin with you, Dave, then I'll go to you, Corey. What do you expect
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from him? Other than kissing the Pope's ring, what do you
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expect from a Premier Kenney for the remaining, you know, probably three, four months he's got?
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I think it'll just be the economy. Just, you know, he'll be crowing about how well Alberta's
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getting investments into it. Companies are coming here. And I think he'll spend the next three or
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four months just trying to firm up more deals and work on pipelines. You know, we've got the
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lingering energy crisis now. I'm sure he's going to work on that and try and get some pipeline
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action into the states. So I think he's going to try and leave Alberta in a better state than
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he found it maybe in terms of finances anyways and business. I think he's upset. He's hurt,
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I guess you could say, but I don't think he's going to be embittered. I mean, the other fear
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is a scorched earth thing, like, well, you know what? I'm just going to lay some poison pills or
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leave a grumpy in the premier's desk for whoever the next person is coming in there you would think
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of that that's very amber herdish of you well i mean some people do things when relationships split
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but i mean he's he's uh it's the end of a long political career i think he might come up with
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something like that we're not thinking of i mean you want something that you can point out like
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that was mine you know not just a city park or uh a small item there may be some sort of legacy
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but it's gonna be hard because the legislature is closing up it looks like in the next week too so
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So I mean, outright legislation, it'd be difficult to pass.
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Well, let's talk about what this means for the party.
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UCP members, at least half of them officially here, said it's time to go.
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The other half, I don't think, relatively unenthusiastically said you can stay.
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Jason Kenney, in his departure speech, said that it's time to put the past behind us.
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it's time to move on. He was saying the whole thing in the lead up to the vote, hoping people
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would forget about his actions over the last two years. But now it's time to move on from the
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divisiveness of Jason Kenney here. But he's still there. And at least two of the candidates who are
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running already, Brian Jean and Danielle Smith, both of them are fairly critical, I think it's
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fair to say, of Jason Kenney and how he's governed and his policies. You know, Brian Jean more
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critical of kenny's style and daniel smith probably more critical of jason kenny's policies
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um it's gonna probably be a bit awkward having a guy that you're essentially running against
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still leading the party that you're hoping to lead it's it's gonna make for an awkward uh
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i mean it's it's gonna kind of stick up the room um how difficult do you think this is
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going to be or how awkward do you think it's going to be for the party to be able to move
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on quickly and uh choose new leadership while while kenny's still there well i think kenny's
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made it extremely difficult i think what people want to see now is somebody who's going to come
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forward and say okay i'm going to do things differently just associate themselves with
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with jason kenny and his policies but how are people like say okay jason nixon say he's going
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to run how how can he then say sit there while the premier is still the premier and say i disagree
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completely with what you've done. I'm going to do things differently. Well, he was a member of
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the inner circle too, right? So he's got that going for him. Well, that's the issue we're going
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to see with Travis Taves. So what we're seeing right now, and we're going to have some reporting
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on this, is Travis Taves is very quickly becoming the Kenny candidate. The people around the
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premier's office, a lot of people in the cabinet, the Kenny establishment of that party, they're
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very quickly rallying around Travis Taves as the kind of continuation.
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He'll probably have a few token breaks from the past,
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but there is going to be at least one Kenny torchbearer of Kenny's legacy in this race.
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I mean, I would think the average UCB member wants Kenny and his entire office gone.
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Now, I suspect that half were much less enthusiastic about keeping him
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then the other side were about getting rid of them. But half that party voted for Jason Kenney.
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And how much do you need to win? 50% plus one. And so I think there is a path to victory for
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a candidate who, at the very least, is uncritical of the last three years and the legacy of Kenney
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as premier. There is, but I would argue that we're less than a year away from an election now.
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They don't have time to reinvent themselves as Kenney Light. They need to be something as
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kenny different uh and travis daves if he if he i would think his best bet is to distance himself
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from kenny uh because then there's 51 percent of people who say it's just gonna be another kenny
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same 51 percent of people who voted to to oust him um so again he's he's he's hobbled candidates by
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staying around um because like it or not there is a stink to jason kenny right now
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And I think he should have removed himself quickly and cleared the decks and let the party just, you know, fight it out and have a good open contest.
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Corey, what do you think this means for the ability of the party to be able to move on to a new leader and kind of a new era in this party's history while he's sticking around?
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And how much do you think this is going to affect the dynamics of the leadership race as we're just talking about here?
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I don't think it's going to handicap it as much as some might think. As I said, the session's
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ending, so Kenny is now going to be a lame duck fingerhead traveling around, still technically
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the premier, but not really, aside from orders and counsel and some other things, doing much.
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But at the same time, too, even if you're, you'll have to be careful. There's no sense shooting at
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the lame duck. You know he's on the way out. He's been rejected. And as was pointed out,
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nearly half of the party, at least in that vote, whether lukewarm or not, supported him. So you
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don't, they're not necessarily going to enjoy more attacks on him. I mean, the first task was done,
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at least by the Brian Jeans and the ones who just wanted him out at all costs. Now they got to say,
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well, okay, why am I the better replacement? I think they'd be wiser to focus their campaigns on,
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yes, distinguishing themselves from the past administration. Why would I be fresh? Why would
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I bring in something new? But there probably won't be much sense in even bringing up Kenny at that
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point. You know, I would think like it's, he's done. So there's no sense on that. Now, why am I
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the one? And I think that's where Brian Jeans is going to have a much harder time. He's modeled
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his whole being and just being the anti-Kenny. Okay, we got that done, Brian. Now, what are
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you representing? And they have to pivot to do that. Well, this is the perfect pivot to the
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second part of what we're talking about is now that Kenny's gone, who comes next? And I suppose
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I wrecked my own rules and attempting to schedule. Keep our comments segmented here and kind of
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getting into Travis Taves. But we're going to talk now about what comes next, this leadership
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race. So maybe we'll come back to Travis Taves in a few minutes, but let's, I divide it up
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into four categories. You got Gene, you got Smith, you got Taves, and others. I think there'll be
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some smaller candidates, some people who run just to get their name out. There'll be some smaller
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ones on the right pushing particular issues and whatnot. But we'll kind of deal with the three
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big ones and then kind of a free-for-all round for the smaller other maybes. Let's begin with
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Brian Jean. He has, he played at least a significant role in pushing out Kenny. I think
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not as big as, I think a lot of the mainstream media, because they don't understand internal
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conservative party dynamics, conservative movement dynamics, I don't think they really get what
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proportions are correct or not. But he did play a significant role in pushing Kenny out.
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um Corey what is the game plan for Gene now if you're advising Brian Gene what are you telling
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him he needs to do between now and you know let's hypothetically say the vote is October uh October
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1st uh between now and October 1st if we're going to pick a date um what does he need to do coming
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out of the out of the gate here to brand himself as more than just uh the guy the candidate uh
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designed to just get rid of Kenny, because Kenny's gone.
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I mean, the next role now is also to convince the members,
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I'm going to not just vote for me, but vote for me because I'm the one who can beat Notley next year.
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And Gene, again, everybody remembers that disastrous debate between Gene and Notley,
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and there were other factors as to why that performance was as it was or whatnot.
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So he has to convince people, well, that's not the performance I would bring about in another election.
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When I get one more kick at the cat, I'm going to present something different.
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And that's a different thing than a negative thing.
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He's got to now campaign about himself and being positive.
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A lot of it now, if you're turning the guns, you've got to turn him at Notley.
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And Burton still don't really know him all that well necessarily.
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And this will be his opportunity where he's going to have to do that.
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I'd say out of the three candidates, Gene is probably the most well-known, followed very closely by Danielle Smith.
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I don't think many people know who Travis Taves is outside of 100 yards of the legislature.
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But if, you know, you quit the Western Standard today and tomorrow you're in Brian Gene headquarters, what are you telling Brian he needs to do on his campaign?
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Get policies out there and explain to people he's not going to quit.
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You know, every job he's had, he's ended up quitting early.
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I think people just want to hear policies and ideas.
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You know, that's what any leadership race is about.
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And as Corey says, how am I going to, how is he going to beat Knottley?
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Because that's the big fear conservatives now have, less than a year away from the convention.
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What distinct policies can you put up that will stop people voting NDP?
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I think a lot of people, party members in a leadership race are looking for policy, but
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I think a lot of them are looking for winnability. That's a huge one. There's a lot of intangibles
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they're looking for. And remember, parties are tribes and conservative parties, particularly
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Alberta conservative parties are tribes of tribes, and there are clear tribes within the United
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Conservative Party. And it is fascinating that we're going to have two leaders, two former leaders
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Danielle Smith, you know, at least early on in her career,
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She had a very short run here at the Western Standard.
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But I think she needs to continue her apology to her.
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you know, one of the first things she did was admit she was wrong.
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You know, you remember your anger as an MLA at the time.
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It's what made me quit my job and become an MLA.
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and has apologized and says she's learned from it.
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So now she's got to convince Albertans of that.
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So we're going to get to Travis Taves in a second,
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so Travis Taves is in and he's more or less running at least as not the anti-Kenny candidate
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he's quietly essentially the candy candidate he probably won't go around doing photo ops with
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Kenny that probably would be a bit too far but let's say for the sake of argument he's running
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more or less as the Kenny legacy candidate you've got Gene on the other side who brands himself as
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the anti-Kenny. Do you think Smith is smart to also go as hard anti-Kenny or try to position as
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maybe a bit of a bridge between the two camps so that when you get to a final ballot, if she's on
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that final ballot, if it's her versus Jean, well, the Kenny guys, they're not going to vote for
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Jean, so they have to vote for her. Or if it's her versus Tabes, well, the anti-Kenny guys
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You think that's where she's trying to position herself?
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Well, I think that's where she already had, kind of.
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Danielle had said clearly, even when I'd asked her,
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And I do believe her that she would have stayed
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and bowed at her time, perhaps work towards cabinet.
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I don't think Kenny would have let her run as an MLA,
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Well, that's no separate, but it's all speculative.
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whereas the longevity of St. Brian Jean in that circumstance wasn't going to happen if Kenny was
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going to remain. But I mean, she was trying to not be anti-Kenny while still vying for his job.
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It was a balancing act. I think she kind of pulled it off. But she'll have to distinguish
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herself in this. And as Dave said, too, it's trust. There's that other, you know, word. It's
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not policy, but it's important. Like, you've got to feel like you can trust her. She's owned her
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mistakes. There's no doubt about that. She does all the time. I mean, the comments whenever she
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gives up my show, people still keep bringing it up and they will. She has to convince people
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that she won't have another lapse in judgment. I mean, just because you owned it, that's fine.
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And that's a good sign. But also have, will there not be another one in the future? And if she
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can convince people of that, I think she can be winnable for sure. So let's talk about Travis
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Taves. He is a very low profile finance minister. I think his, his personal, I don't know the guy,
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out of the three, he's the only one I don't really know. But his persona is very much that of the
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dour accountant. You know, he's not a lot of flash. You kind of just picture him sitting in a dark
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room at the legislature late at night, you know, punching an old, old calculator like it's, that's
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kind of, you know, a very almost bureaucratic or technocratic leader. People I've spoken to in the
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party say, oh, he's really conservative. And maybe he is, but just a lot of that doesn't really
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come through because he's not he's not a particularly charismatic character um but what
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we're seeing right now is just folks around the premier in his office in the caucus in the cabinet
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they're coming around travis tapes so that is instant even though he's not well known he's
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going to be well known very soon uh that machine is going to put him up front if you saw a question
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period today uh rachel emmanuel our alberta legislative reporter she says that um guess
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was taking all the questions today it was travis tapes already the premier's office is putting him
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up front trying to get some more spotlight on him trying to show him as a leader not just to the
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public but also to the caucus so the caucus sees him as maybe an anointed successor they could see
00:24:11.220
himself in the premier's shoes um how dangerous is it for for travis tapes uh to run more or less
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on the kenny legacy perhaps without calling it that but to more or less run on the kenny mantle
00:24:26.900
he hasn't been tainted in the lockdown scandals as much as other cabinet ministers uh he's going
00:24:34.340
to if if he runs he keeps the same low profile scandal free and he just watches that oil money
00:24:40.100
come in and come in and come in hundred dollars a barrel treasury bills bills bills and early next
00:24:47.060
year he will bring in a budget that albertans will have never seen in their history and the
00:24:51.700
the handouts will be incredible. And the building and the, you know, investments and everything,
00:24:57.600
and maybe even Travis Bucks, you know, who knows, he's going to have so much money to spend,
00:25:02.200
he won't know what to do with it. And it's going to be his call as treasurer. So he could come out
00:25:08.040
of that budget wildly popular. Well, the point I was making earlier was that I'm not sure it's
00:25:16.200
terribly dangerous for him to run as the county candidate. I think it is for the general election,
00:25:20.120
But within the party, half the party voted back.
00:25:23.200
Kenny, now, in a leadership race, it's not uncommon to win with 51%.
00:25:28.460
In a race, in reviews, leaders that succeed normally are in the high 80s into the 90s.
00:25:34.280
Richard Notley got something like 98 or 99 numbers that Kim Jong-un would be grateful for.
00:25:43.140
I don't know if that 50% means that those 50% would still vote for him if it was just a race overall again.
00:25:49.300
I'm doubtful of that, but there is still a significant Kenny contingent to that party.
00:25:56.260
And running as, like a better term, a Kenny candidate, it comes with a lot of automatic support.
00:26:01.600
People around the premier, that is instant support that didn't have to be painstakingly built up over years.
00:26:08.380
Do you think Travis Taves running as, you know, the more, let's say, less hostile successor to Kenny is going to be an asset or a net negative?
00:26:19.920
I think potentially he's very well placed, actually.
00:26:23.300
Among Kenny's inner circle, kind of as Dave was saying,
00:26:25.740
I mean, we have Jason Nixon, we have Tyler Shandro.
00:26:39.600
And, I mean, so, I mean, every one of them has got to deal with baggage in a sense
00:26:47.140
I mean, he's the unknown, but he's been solid. And also, if Gene and Danielle want to go at it
00:26:53.140
tooth and nail with each other, Taze can sit in the middle as the quiet, steady hand saying,
00:26:58.500
well, you know, he's got the Kenny vote. And plus, we know how these races work. If it's very
00:27:03.620
personal between Gene and Danielle, say, for example, well, everybody will pick the other
00:27:07.720
Taze for their second vote. And that could be the best place you could possibly be sometimes. So
00:27:12.480
he's not one to be underestimated. And you know what? The appetite of the electorate might not
00:27:22.860
the show before, and it was kind of as described.
00:27:26.720
personable as far as that goes, but it was like talking
00:27:30.620
But maybe that's a little what people want right now.
00:27:40.780
Spending is higher now than when they took over from the
00:27:44.940
in spending relative to what the NDP planned to spend, but he was hardly, you know, some great
00:27:50.780
slash and burner of budgets. Yeah, I think you're onto something there, Corey.
00:27:59.200
You know, we saw that kind of with Ed Stalmack. Now, I think that Travis Tavis, most indications
00:28:05.060
are Travis Tavis is probably a bit more politically astute than Ed Stalmack, but he seemed to have a
00:28:09.120
Similar kind of persona, slightly folksy, but quiet.
00:28:14.140
Maybe not, maybe Dower was the wrong term for me to use, but.
00:28:21.220
But all the same, it held some appeal for the stability and steady aspect.
00:28:26.780
And we have had nothing but political turmoil in this province for almost 20 years.
00:28:32.580
I mean, when you had the leadership review with Ralph Klein getting 55%, he says, okay, time to pack it in.
00:28:39.120
that's the starting gun on what became two decades of chaos in Alberta.
00:28:45.380
You got Ed Stelmak, and everything looked fine.
00:28:47.420
But then, you know, you're into Stelmak, you got the royalty review,
00:28:51.840
and then, boom, Wildrose begins becoming a thing.
00:29:06.880
And that's why he has to write a big signature.
00:29:12.520
And then, like, it has just been a constant, constant rollercoaster in politics.
00:29:17.540
Maybe there is an appetite for let's just try being boring.
00:29:21.420
Ontario is having an election right now, and they make less political news than Alberta.
00:29:31.140
I mean, a leadership race is where we're going to see if he comes out and into his being or not.
00:29:35.440
I mean, we'll see, because he's going to have to come out of the cabinet shadows then and present himself.
00:29:42.440
I think among a lot of centrist voters, there might be an appetite for that kind of quiet, managerial, almost technocratic feel to government.
00:29:51.880
But I think among conservative voters and especially conservative members right now, it's quite the opposite.
00:29:56.860
You know, we're seeing Pierre Poliver running the most radical federal campaign since Bernier, possibly even more so than Bernier in some respects, at least.
00:30:05.440
You know, leaders getting toppled all over people are an angry, pissed off. Maybe they want an angry, pissed off leader.
00:30:12.360
Well, then maybe Drew Barnes will be there. I mean, there's other names that can come out of the woodwork, too. Leadership, racism, volatile things.
00:30:19.240
Yeah. And we won't even get any others right now. There is a long list.
00:30:27.540
Yeah. Well, and those two, Todd Lohan and Drew Barnes, there's very good chance they're going to end up back in the UCP caucus now.
00:30:32.440
boy, they're going to love strutting back into there in front of Jason Kenneheimer. I did a
00:30:37.380
similar strut in front of Brian Jean once. Okay. Well, before we move on to speaking of Freedom
00:30:43.720
Convoy and stuff like that, we're going to move on to Tamara Litch and what's happening with her.
00:30:46.700
But before we do that, Corey's going to tell you about, well, you should be a member of the
00:30:51.260
Canadian Shooting Sports Association. Because for responsible law-abiding firearm owners,
00:30:56.500
which is what the vast majority of everybody is, I mean, again, with firearms, you know,
00:31:00.820
I should talk about it. It's a controversial thing with the American activities. And we got to
00:31:05.320
distinguish between those of us who responsibly enjoy firearms, who are law abiding people and
00:31:09.880
never want to hurt anybody. You have to protect your right to do that. You associate with other
00:31:14.380
law abiding firearm owners. And that's what they're about. It's an association of fellow
00:31:18.340
firearm owners with all sorts of resources from target shooting, trap shooting, hunting, collecting,
00:31:24.380
whatever it may be. They're getting together, sharing those resources, videos, trade shows,
00:31:30.080
things such as that, plus keeping you up on the news for things and lobbying to make sure you
00:31:34.400
maintain that right, which is really important. They stand up for you as a firearm owner,
00:31:38.160
pushing back against the Liberal government that's trying to arbitrarily take away your property,
00:31:42.160
firearms. So it's important to stand up for yourself and be together and work, I guess,
00:31:46.000
with a sort of solidarity and you've got to be a member in order to do that. It's well worth it.
00:31:55.400
Tamara Lich, probably the most prominent leader of the Freedom Convoy in Albertan.
0.60
00:32:06.960
She decided to take a little trip down to Ottawa, and it's been quite a saga.
00:32:12.040
The government's been trying to keep her in jail the entire time.
00:32:19.000
But there's some news on that front today, Dave.
00:32:21.920
She served, what, three weeks, two weeks in jail when she was first arrested?
0.53
00:32:26.760
So since then, the judge kicked her out of Ontario.
0.99
00:32:29.200
You can knock off a liquor store and you get less than that in Canada.
00:32:31.480
You can murder somebody and get less than that.
00:32:33.360
So the judge kicked her out of the province and said, never return.
00:32:38.100
And she said, yeah, I'll follow those bail conditions.
00:32:41.360
Then, lo and behold, the JCCF, Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms,
00:32:46.100
decides to award her with the George Jonas Award,
00:33:02.020
decided that was a breach of her bail conditions.
00:33:15.820
several times, but man, did he want Tamara Leach back in jail for saying that she was going to
00:33:20.780
accept this award that was going to be handed to her in Ottawa. She told us, Toronto, I'm sorry,
00:33:28.060
she told the Western Standard that, you know, she would accept it via video, but she wasn't going to
00:33:32.760
break her bail conditions, but I wasn't good enough for this Ottawa crown. So that was last
00:33:37.860
week. The judge came out with his ruling Wednesday morning. Finally, a judge with some common sense
00:33:43.460
who basically said look we're not the thought police here uh justice justice system cannot
0.98
00:33:49.440
operate like the thought police and not only said she's not going back to jail but he removed the
00:33:55.600
conditions um not being allowed into uh ontario so i'm not sure when the date of the dinner is but
00:34:02.300
i assume tamara leach will be down there accepting it in person she can if she chooses to anyways
0.84
00:34:07.940
It's a funny thing, we've got to watch, that's dicey, and they want to pounce on her if she violates a bail condition.
1.00
00:34:14.500
So she could go, she could accept it, but she can't promote the convoy.
00:34:22.200
Is that condition now gone too, that she's not allowed to speak positively?
0.73
00:34:24.680
No, no, she's still banned from social media and all those things.
00:34:28.520
So if she says thank you very much and leaves, it should be a problem.
0.89
00:34:32.680
But if she came out and then started anything that seemed to be promotional of more protests or the convoy, she could get into the suit.
00:34:42.300
And it was just ridiculous that they put her on the carpet for something stupid as just responding with an affirmative.
00:34:50.220
That we have government orders saying you're not allowed to speak positively about a protest.
00:35:16.180
about how superior our justice system is to America.
0.83
00:35:26.220
The judge did make, I think, the appropriate decision, but you still had the crown pursuing a clearly political, even partisan agenda against a woman who was considered no great threat, people paid no attention to until, you know, she got upset with the way things were going in this country and decided to go to her nation's capital.
00:35:46.480
And don't forget about the previous liberal appointed judge who put the bail conditions on her, right? So it's been political since the day she was arrested, without a doubt.
00:35:56.220
It was just absurd. And you know what? I'm glad to see the government increasingly absurd. Maybe
00:36:01.840
some people will wake up. I mean, if she'd been doing something ridiculous, even the social media
00:36:06.060
ban, which is questionable, but fine, she stayed within it. If she'd been flagrantly disregarding
00:36:10.520
it, putting up Facebook posts, you know, pictures from the convoy or saying, or she'd been saying,
00:36:14.700
let's get ready to roll again. Let's get going. Well, then you're looking to reoffend. If indeed
00:36:18.880
there was an offense, then perhaps it's time to push in. But she did nothing of the sort,
00:36:23.220
not even close. She tried very carefully to remain within what were ridiculously restrictive
00:36:28.380
conditions as it was. So look out Gene Smith and Taves Tamara Lich for UCP.
0.99
00:36:34.980
Oh, never thought of that. Yeah, there's no condition against running for the leadership
00:36:38.800
of the UCP. Now would they stop her from speaking on the campaign? No, no questions about the
0.99
00:36:44.220
freedom convoy. Bernier has been arrested for speaking at rallies. So not about not about the
00:36:49.660
content of a speech show. Just for speaking. Just speaking publicly
00:36:57.720
an interesting get-out-of-jail-free card. If he runs, good
00:37:01.680
luck arresting someone. Who knows? Who knows? Maybe we'll be in monkeypox locked down by
00:37:09.540
speaking of more portents of doom, the Battle of
00:37:45.780
and they've certainly not been able to stop the world's greatest player.
00:37:53.140
So this magnificent thing I've been growing about a month now.
00:38:00.640
I fear Friday morning I may have to shave it off.
00:38:03.900
You young guys, I can grow that in an afternoon.
00:38:12.720
Corey, are you going to be able to get on the Edmonton bandwagon
00:38:18.320
I mean, I've never presented myself as being the hardcore hockey fan.
00:38:31.700
You know, I'll be disappointed, but it's not the end of the world.
00:38:34.020
But then again, then my season's done as far as hockey is concerned for me.
00:38:39.260
But from watching last night's game and even as a not a hardcore fanatical hockey kind of person, I could tell when a team is being terribly dominated and they are they're going to have to play dramatically differently if they're going to pull this out of the amount of social media aggravation I've got from some Edmonton fans means I'll be cheering for Colorado.
00:38:57.000
uh yeah i i don't pretend to be a hardcore hockey fan as well i'm a football guy stamps are on i
00:39:05.020
got i'll have season tickets i'll be there but i'm once the playoff start and our team is in
00:39:09.600
i'm in but um i'm i'm a i'm big enough as a man to support the alberta team that goes on i i i know
00:39:18.600
i know and that that that is an indication i'm probably not a really a good flames fan is that
00:39:23.040
I have, I have, there's any circumstance under which I can cheer for Edmonton,
00:39:26.680
but it's an Alberta team. Uh, I just will never,
00:39:29.080
it's just Toronto and Montreal that are off, uh, off the table for me at all
00:39:32.560
times. So I don't know if, um, if Edmonton goes, I can do it.
00:39:40.560
it's got to piss people in Toronto off that the only two teams in Canada left
00:39:44.260
in it are both from wild Rose country. And that feels good.
00:39:47.780
And they have to stay up till late or 10 30 at night to watch it.
00:40:20.760
for joining us and thank all of you who have been with us today. Thank you all for your continued
00:40:25.680
support. If you're not yet a member of Western Standard, go to westernstandard.news, click on
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00:40:34.140
independent bailout free content for only $10 a month or $99 a year. That's it. That's all.
00:40:41.480
Go Flames Go. Thank you very much and God bless.