Western Standard - The Pipeline May 19, 2021. UCP woes, Quebec & our constitution and drones!

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00:01:00.000 Thank you.

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00:02:00.000 good afternoon and uh welcome to the pipeline this is the western standards weekly show where

00:02:16.320 we cover the top news stories of the day and of the week and discuss and analyze them uh

00:02:22.800 typically we have derek phildebrand on with us our publisher but he's unavailable today

00:02:28.620 So who we do have, though, is Nadine Willwood, who's been doing some fantastic reporting for us

00:02:34.020 and doing some great interviews and videos.

00:02:38.800 So watch those on YouTube and some of the columns.

00:02:42.180 And thank you for joining us, Nadine, to fill in for Derek here.

00:02:46.520 My pleasure.

00:02:48.000 And, of course, we have Dave Naylor, our news guy, who just keeps churning out that fantastic news content,

00:02:53.640 making it well worth coming to the Western Standard online regularly to see what's happening

00:02:59.580 in the world day by day in the West. Hey, Corey, how's it going? Good, good. So I am going to start

00:03:06.960 though by speaking about our sponsor here, if I can get that overlay working.

00:03:16.160 Let me see here. Derek typically runs this, but our sponsor for this show,

00:03:21.660 it's brought by the canadian coalition for firearms rights and nobody works as hard as ccfr

00:03:27.100 to fight for your ability to own and use firearms uh check out what the cc ccfr is doing by going

00:03:33.820 to firearms rights.ca and clicking on why join us so that's firearm rights.ca and that's the

00:03:40.940 canadian coalition for firearms rights these times when our rights are at risk all over the place uh

00:03:47.500 it's good to see somebody's uh working to stand up for them for us out there anyways

00:03:51.980 so we'll get on with uh well these main subjects in the news today so you know there's a few to

00:03:57.340 cover and something that's really been uh making the headlines and is this just right for discussion

00:04:02.700 is this quebec has declared that they can unilaterally basically write the constitution

00:04:09.340 for themselves or amend it and change it in their own favor uh that's not terribly surprising quebec

00:04:15.020 never hesitated to just speak up and do things on their own what perhaps was a little bit surprising

00:04:20.300 though was justin trudeau said yeah i guess that's all right and uh apparently uh erino tour is now

00:04:25.980 joining justin trudeau and saying yeah quebec can just kind of do what they please with the

00:04:28.940 constitution maybe you could fill some detail in on that dave yeah every 10 years it seems we've

00:04:34.860 got to deal with this uh constitutional sandbox uh quebec premier francois lagault wrote to trudeau

00:04:41.260 on the weekend, informing him that they're bringing in some pretty strict language laws

00:04:47.580 a la Bill 101, and they're going to have to change the Constitution unilaterally.

00:04:57.100 Justin Trudeau, with his background as a part-time drama teacher, became an instant

00:05:04.300 constitutional expert and basically said, yeah, yeah, that's okay. You guys can do what you want.

00:05:09.200 More surprisingly, Aaron O'Toole came out and told La Presse out of Montreal that he's also in agreement with it.

00:05:17.360 So that's certainly caused some shockwaves out here in the West, Corey and Nadine.

00:05:23.860 I just got off the phone with Maverick Party leader Jay Hill.

00:05:29.100 He was shocked by it.

00:05:30.500 He said he expected Trudeau to roll over, but he certainly didn't expect O'Toole to join him.

00:05:36.560 And he described it as, quote, a body blow for O'Toole's support in the West, along with his flip-flop on the carbon tax.

00:05:45.380 He basically said O'Toole is going to be out of luck here in the West, Corey.

00:05:52.520 Yeah, that's just, well, I don't know, it's flooring.

00:05:56.380 As usual, all roads lead to Quebec, I guess, when it comes to election time.

00:06:00.780 Nadine, what have you been hearing in your political circles about these things as they develop?

00:06:05.360 Well, I don't think this should really shock anybody that O'Toole has come out and lent

00:06:09.120 support. I mean, he's been leaning further and further to the left, trying to win over votes

00:06:14.720 in Quebec and Ontario. So I'm not shocked by this at all. And to be honest, I went, this is awesome.

00:06:24.560 If Quebec can do it, then so can Alberta. Really, we just need the political will here to do so.

00:06:30.640 so you know um i'm not upset the fact that quebec is pushing uh its rights as a nation within a

00:06:38.320 nation because right now we have indigenous populations that are nations within canada

00:06:43.280 we have quebec which is a nation within canada well why can't alberta be a nation within canada

00:06:49.440 so i think anybody who's looking for greater independence for alberta and albertans you know

00:06:57.280 Quebec just made this really easy for us. Yeah, Michelle Rempel, Calgary MP, literally seconds

00:07:06.240 after Trudeau agreed, tweeted out, hey, if it's good for Quebec, it's good for Alberta too. And

00:07:13.760 she suggested that Alberta rewrite section 36 of the constitution, which deals with economic

00:07:19.760 development and everybody having a level playing field. And now she was obviously pointing out

00:07:24.880 the fact no pipelines seem to get uh get built out uh out west but interestingly she spoke before

00:07:32.160 aaron o'toole uh gave his approval for it so it's going to be interesting to see if any of the the

00:07:37.680 western tory caucus members have uh have the guts to speak up about this because they they certainly

00:07:43.520 didn't on the carbon tax did they no when they're into a light about the carbon tax he left his mps

00:07:49.440 flat-footed uh to have to deal with it so it's not surprising that he didn't let them know that

00:07:54.080 that he was going to join Trudeau in supporting Quebec and ripping up our constitution.

00:07:58.620 I mean, this just, I'm sure there's better legal minds than me to speak to this,

00:08:03.640 but it seems to me we've got legal mechanisms that say Quebec just can't do this.

00:08:08.600 It's not a matter of opinion of the prime minister or the leader of the opposition.

00:08:12.680 There are formulas about how we have to change the constitution if we're ever going to.

00:08:16.720 I mean, we went through that with Meech Lake in Charlottetown.

00:08:19.860 We can just bypass that, apparently.

00:08:21.660 all it took was the will of one premier to say that we don't need to do all that we'll just do

00:08:26.060 it that's absurd i i don't see where this is coming from and to be honest i'm a bit confused

00:08:30.620 what do you think maybe like is there do you see a mechanism here well i mean it's very clear in

00:08:35.820 the constitution that to make changes there is a process and um you know you for any one person to

00:08:42.620 be able to come out honestly and say that we can unilaterally amend it i think is uh incorrect but

00:08:50.220 you know then again if you look around politically what's happening today nothing makes any sense

00:08:55.020 there doesn't seem to be anybody following the process it seems to be just everybody's

00:09:00.380 run amok um whether it's liberal you know ndp conservative nobody is kind of following the rules

00:09:07.900 so you know i i one of the things that i'm going to do actually and i've reached out today to uh

00:09:13.420 the jccf and to james kitchen constitutional lawyers to ask them you know how is it that quebec

00:09:21.100 can um you know proceed with such a thing and you know how is it that the prime minister can just

00:09:28.140 unilaterally decide that yeah that's okay so it'd be really interesting to see from the legal

00:09:33.260 standing and and footing you know where they're going to proceed with this yeah that's a good

00:09:38.220 point, Nadina. Look at Alberta. How long has Alberta been banging its head against the cement wall 0.99

00:09:43.740 on Senate reform? Decades and decades and decades. And we haven't gotten anywhere.

00:09:50.780 So it's particularly galling, I would think, for Albertans to see the Premier of Quebec just

00:09:56.060 standing up and saying, okay, we're going to do it, you know, when Albertans have been fighting for,

00:10:01.740 you know, a little bit of change for decades, Corey.

00:10:04.820 Yeah, well, it brings into question whether or not Canada, to be honest, is a country.

00:10:09.820 I mean, if individual provinces can just jump up and change the rules at will, what is the confederation exactly?

00:10:17.080 This isn't the constitution.

00:10:18.560 This is a set of guidelines.

00:10:20.260 And a set of guidelines is just what some other independent nations might have in rough trading agreements.

00:10:25.440 And we've seen that, too, where provinces have been allowed to restrict trade between other provinces with impunity.

00:10:32.700 We're seeing that now with restricting movement, though they're using the pandemic as a reason for it.

00:10:36.620 This has been, I think, an unprecedented year where we're seeing a challenge to the very basis of whether Canada is actually a nation.

00:10:44.780 And, Corey, I think you hit the nail on the head there.

00:10:47.240 It's is Canada truly a nation?

00:10:50.440 Trudeau has already said, you know, a post-nation state.

00:10:54.580 Now he's giving provinces the ability to amend the Constitution.

00:10:58.920 We do have interprovincial trade barriers.

00:11:01.000 We do have, you know, COVID checkpoints now at provincial borders.

00:11:05.960 There's so much going on here that's unprecedented.

00:11:08.540 But I think what it's really done is pointed out the division that we're now seeing happen.

00:11:16.120 People have been feeling it for a long time, but now it's really come to the forefront.

00:11:20.960 You know, Dave, you know, Premier Kenney certainly doesn't seem to like talking tough when it comes to Ottawa,

00:11:27.340 or at least he talks tough, but never really does much.

00:11:29.840 Has there been any response from the Premier on this?

00:11:32.900 I mean, Quebec and the opposition leaders are speaking up,

00:11:35.520 but I haven't heard anything from Premier Kenney yet.

00:11:37.920 No, he hasn't said a word yet, Corey.

00:11:41.340 Ironically, he is holding a press conference as we speak

00:11:44.320 on a job creation matter in Alberta.

00:11:47.240 So I'm sure one of the reporters on there will ask him about it,

00:11:52.860 and we'll certainly get a story out on what he says this afternoon.

00:11:57.520 Well, if one of the chosen ones wants to dip in onto that issue for him,

00:12:01.060 I guess we'll see what happens.

00:12:02.540 But it seems with some sticky stuff like this,

00:12:05.720 these are areas that Premier Kenney tries to stay out of

00:12:09.080 with the regionalist end of things.

00:12:10.880 But I think he's kind of getting painted into a corner.

00:12:13.260 He's going to have to start addressing Alberta's role in confederation soon,

00:12:16.160 I think.

00:12:17.060 Oh, yeah.

00:12:17.460 I mean, he's got to say something.

00:12:19.360 And if he's not asked at this press conference,

00:12:22.000 I'll get a hold of his office and get a statement that way.

00:12:25.240 but this is something he can't ignore when one of his his premier colleagues says he's

00:12:30.760 they're going to go it alone he cannot stay silent on this issue no so moving along since we are

00:12:38.040 starting into uh premier kenny and the ucp uh this is as i said it's been six days now but

00:12:43.800 you know this is the first pipeline we've had since uh all hell sort of broke loose in caucus

00:12:48.840 And the rebellion went from beyond, you know, writing letters differing with COVID policies and exploded right into Todd Lowen demanding that Jason Kinney step aside as leader of the party.

00:13:01.760 And then the party turned around and decided to not only eject Todd Lowen, which wasn't terribly unexpected, but kicked out Drew Barnes while they were at it.

00:13:10.720 Which, again, wasn't wholly unexpected, but he really didn't have anything to do with that letter.

00:13:14.340 It was just kind of, I guess, if we're going to do house cleaning, we might as well get both of them.

00:13:17.320 Dave, where are things that have been sitting in the news with that so far?

00:13:21.180 Well, I think the dust is slowly starting to settle.

00:13:25.020 As you know, Lowen and Barnes were kicked out.

00:13:28.020 I think one of the surprising things was that Dave Hansen,

00:13:32.400 who came out publicly and supported the call for Kendi to resign,

00:13:36.040 was left alone and he was allowed to stay.

00:13:41.160 Both Nadine and I have done interviews with Todd and Drew.

00:13:45.960 drew says he's considering perhaps running as a independent mla in the next election i don't

00:13:52.200 think todd has has decided yet but i don't think it's over and if you want to read an excellent

00:13:59.880 column by our publisher derek fildebrand it's it's on the site now he's talked to several people

00:14:05.400 within the tory caucus who say uh you know this is almost just the beginning uh it's not the

00:14:11.960 the beginning of the end but the beginning of the beginning so as we get especially closer to the

00:14:16.760 next election and uh and jason kenney's poll numbers keep continuing to tank more and more

00:14:22.520 mlas are going to speak out because they're going to be in fear of their of their jobs nadine and

00:14:27.960 and uh you know that's the bottom line is keeping their jobs as you get close to the

00:14:32.120 to the election but you you interviewed both of them uh what did they tell you well i i agree i

00:14:38.200 I think this is just the beginning of what we're going to see from the UCP caucus.

00:14:44.200 And, you know, for Todd Lowen in particular, this is a very atypical type of reaction for him.

00:14:52.400 He's more reserved.

00:14:53.800 You know, Drew has been very outspoken and very critical of Jason Kenney.

00:14:58.220 And, you know, I think Jason Kenney definitely saw this as an opportunity to get rid of Drew,

00:15:05.900 which like you said it's interesting that Dave Hansen is the one who publicly speaks out in

00:15:10.560 support of Todd Lowen and Drew is the one that got the boot but more importantly I mean it's

00:15:17.200 what Todd had to say that I found particularly interesting you know he really did state he

00:15:23.680 didn't mince words and it was Kenny is a one-man show he doesn't listen to caucus he doesn't

00:15:28.880 respect his caucus. He dismisses ridicules. That's not the role of an MLA or the government.

00:15:37.160 You know, they're to bring forward the concerns of their constituents. So to ridicule or to dismiss

00:15:43.280 the MLA is really to ridicule and to dismiss, in my opinion, the people that they represent.

00:15:49.540 And that's just not acceptable. So, you know, I think Kenny, I said this in the last pipeline,

00:15:55.080 I don't think he can recover from this I think he realistically is grasping at straws he's trying

00:16:01.320 to regain some control but he's using fear rather than building confidence and the trust that has

00:16:07.800 been destroyed amongst caucus and amongst the public and we're seeing that in the polls

00:16:14.200 I don't think there's any coming back from this I think Kenny ominously should look at a resignation

00:16:20.600 and should be looking for somebody to to fill his his position as a premier

00:16:27.160 yeah well we've seen this before you know and i've written on it that you know conservatives

00:16:32.360 are a real pain to lead i mean we're independent minded we we don't like being told what to do

00:16:37.560 uh we chafe under it you know that's probably we don't see progressive parties getting this

00:16:42.360 kind of infighting splitting up but that is because there's a bit of an inherent nature

00:16:45.720 oh they're grumbling on the inside with their leadership but they toe the line

00:16:49.540 It takes a real special sort of leader.

00:16:52.300 There's not too many who can do it, who can manage to keep conservatives, you know, walking in a row.

00:16:57.380 And so far, Jason Kenney just hasn't proven to be able to do that so far.

00:17:02.700 But, yeah, I mean, we haven't seen any rumblings coming from the rest of caucus.

00:17:07.740 But the thing that gets me is the startling silence from the rest of caucus right now.

00:17:11.500 I mean, we know there's more discontent in there.

00:17:13.620 We know there's more MLAs who have got one foot out that door.

00:17:16.740 it's going to be interesting to see if he stemmed that tide or if it's just going to be one more

00:17:21.140 thing tick somebody off we're going to see three more you know they might not be getting kicked

00:17:24.240 out they might start quitting pretty soon well don't forget there was what 18 mlas who signed

00:17:29.320 the uh the letter protesting kenny's lockdown that's a good chunk of his caucus uh you know

00:17:34.900 are all 18 of those uh now happy i don't think so uh obviously two have been kicked out but i don't

00:17:41.360 think the remaining 16 are all bundles of joy and i i think kenny's got a bigger problem is that

00:17:48.080 it's not just mlas it's the grassroots it's down at the party constituency association level where

00:17:55.840 there's numerous constituency associations trying to gather signatures and and vote on whether or

00:18:01.200 not to hold a leadership conference so it's once it gets into the grassroots corey i mean you know

00:18:07.840 you're you've been there a lot once it gets into the grassroots uh very very difficult to try and

00:18:13.440 come back yeah well and it was interesting having been there in a sense like i was sort of a daniel

00:18:20.000 smith loyalist with the wild girls party when things were getting rough and so on and and there

00:18:24.320 was a push at the final agm she was involved with to try and get her to step aside as leader and i

00:18:30.640 pushed back hard against that you know like hey cut it out we've got to stick together but you

00:18:36.000 you know shortly after that danielle took off with the floor crossing and as she's explained

00:18:40.880 since though it was when caucus it wasn't us on the floor that got her it was though that was a

00:18:46.360 sign of things it was caucus you know when they turn on you you're up the creek as a leader i

00:18:51.500 mean you you just can't uh maintain it uh and nadine i mean you've been watching perhaps some

00:18:56.680 of the constituency actions what they need i believe 22 of them to force a leadership review

00:19:00.880 though or yeah they need a significant number at least one third to to force the leadership review

00:19:06.800 and it sounds though that kenny has um managed to push that out so you know and and skirted that

00:19:15.200 issue so it looks to me again and and these are todd lowen's words you know kenny is serving his

00:19:20.960 own best interest uh not the interest of the party by pushing out the leadership review and it looks

00:19:26.480 like now it has been pushed out it won't happen until about six months before the next scheduled

00:19:32.160 provincial election so that doesn't leave a lot of time for a new leader to come in and rally the

00:19:37.600 troops and build some momentum and you know campaign to the grassroots so it'll be really

00:19:42.560 interesting um you know to follow that along and to see what caucus decides to do and you know i'm

00:19:48.960 just talking about local constituencies here as well there's a lot i mean we saw the secretary

00:19:54.800 you know, stepped down. There's a lot of people within the CAs that are speaking out very vocal

00:20:01.280 about the, you know, how Kenny has been dealing not only with COVID, but with Ottawa. Todd Lowen

00:20:08.300 made this very clear. This is not just a COVID response. He's lacked on all the promises that

00:20:14.120 he came in and he campaigned on, and he just hasn't followed through. Again, let's look at

00:20:19.740 what's just happened in Ottawa, going back to our first topic, Kenny's silent, right?

00:20:26.540 Where's his comment on, you know, okay, well, if Quebec can do this, Alberta can assert its

00:20:32.060 independence in a greater capacity as well. And he's just, he's consistently refused to do so.

00:20:38.360 Yeah, I, like every other UCP supporter, I expected Kenny to be driving to Ottawa in his

00:20:45.960 big blue pickup truck and causing havoc and standing up for alberta and there is such a

00:20:52.440 level of disappointment out there that he didn't do that and hasn't done that uh that it's it's

00:20:59.800 palpable and and corey is right in that it's very hard for a conservative leader to actually lead

00:21:06.120 they like to eat their own corey i mean well they booted out ralph klein arguably the most popular

00:21:11.960 premier in alberta history and he got what 77 was it uh and uh he that was enough to make him resign

00:21:20.200 so uh lord knows what kenny would get at uh leadership review at this moment but uh i can't

00:21:25.880 see it being above 50. no we're just seeing a real void in leadership from the ucp again

00:21:33.080 a lot of us disappointed i mean i was very optimistic about jason kenny i wanted him to

00:21:36.520 do really well i i as i said i've grudgingly come to the point where i'm thinking okay it's two years

00:21:41.240 in i i don't think this can be recovered i mean if uh i believe todd said tonight the other day if

00:21:47.240 if an election was held the ndp uh you know if the election was held today we'd get an ndp

00:21:53.400 government that's frightening i mean this isn't a vote split we're talking about this is a

00:21:56.440 conservative party that is tanked so badly in the polls that socialists are going to beat them in

00:22:02.120 alberta like how long can we let this plummet go on like this and i'm certain a number of urban

00:22:09.560 mlas are starting to think about this you know it's the rural ones that we hear of of the small

00:22:13.480 c conservatives and they're getting crabby but the urban ones are ones that are they won by narrow

00:22:18.200 margins these guys are in there with with some tight uh seats and they really need a big turnaround

00:22:23.800 if they're going to keep their jobs i mean i like to think they're thinking of all their constituents

00:22:27.400 as well but they're going to start looking out for their own butts too and uh as nadine said you know

00:22:32.360 yeah kenny's kicked it down the road to uh six months before the election but i i think the

00:22:36.840 The realists in the party also understand that if there's going to be a replacement of the leader,

00:22:40.420 it has to be done in the next, in this coming six months or so,

00:22:43.640 so that you do have time to get ready for the next election.

00:22:45.700 So I don't think this is over by a long shot.

00:22:49.840 But getting on to party disarray, I guess, you know, here was a story that popped in and out.

00:22:55.040 I guess we should give a nod to Peter McCaffrey with the Alberta Institute for catching it.

00:23:00.640 It looks like the government for a little while wanted to use drones to watch us

00:23:03.700 and then suddenly backed off on it.

00:23:05.360 Dave, what happened there?

00:23:06.840 This is my favorite story of the week, Corey. The federal, or it's not the federal, the provincial government put out a request for a proposal on Friday. They wanted somebody to operate a drone that would spy on Albertans during long weekends.

00:23:24.120 It was to be looking out for overcrowding.

00:23:27.320 You know, keep in mind, right now, Albertans aren't allowed to gather more than five people outside.

00:23:31.320 So you can imagine them buzzing campgrounds and whatnot, looking for people breaking COVID regulations, looking for people breaking campfire regulations.

00:23:43.640 So that was what the request wanted.

00:23:45.780 They wanted somebody to operate this drone and then give them proof, give them, I guess, photographic evidence of people breaking the law.

00:23:54.120 And because campsites have to be reserved under your name, obviously, the government would have an easy way to give out the tickets.

00:24:02.800 And there you go.

00:24:05.720 Certainly when we went to press with the story early in the morning, reaction was just utter outrage.

00:24:13.500 People thought it was an April Fool's joke, Corey.

00:24:16.240 And sadly, it wasn't.

00:24:19.120 A short time later, Jason Nixon, the environment minister, nixed the whole project, said that he hadn't been informed.

00:24:29.440 And while drones could be used as a benefit in search and rescues and forest fires and stuff like that,

00:24:37.740 it would never, ever be used to spy on Albertans enjoying a campfire and a beer.

00:24:43.800 So a very strange thing to get as far as it did, Corey.

00:24:48.520 Yeah, well, you know, they can back off on it and say, yeah, we're using it for other things.

00:24:53.040 But it was pretty explicit in the call-out for what they were seeking.

00:24:56.400 They wanted them to go out there and spy on campers.

00:24:58.960 There's no beating around the bush with that.

00:25:01.980 And, you know, Jason Nixon, of course, backed off on it right away.

00:25:05.600 I do believe with some people making excuses saying he didn't know they were doing that.

00:25:08.580 Okay, that's fine.

00:25:09.260 But then we've got a question of competence.

00:25:10.560 Because if they're moving that far along on something this odious and you didn't know,

00:25:15.120 who is in control out there if you aren't in control of it who is like Nadine what do you

00:25:20.640 think of as an indication of his ministry here and I like Jason too I don't like seeing him in

00:25:24.620 trouble but come on this is definitely one of two things incompetence or lies and you know as

00:25:32.920 somebody who actually did a lot of RFP work in response to the federal government my time in

00:25:38.360 aerospace and defense you don't submit an RFP a request for proposal without knowing what's in it

00:25:44.800 and it's gone out so i would suggest probably the latter in this um and they just got caught

00:25:51.200 and i think now that's the backtracking they got caught saying that they were going to spy

00:25:55.840 on albertans and that that's just not something that happens in a democratic society this you

00:26:01.680 know the the things that the government has been doing and i'll even bring up with pastor

00:26:06.400 stevens for example who you know was arrested on an injunction that was put into place on may 6

00:26:12.560 to stop uh a protest um at the whistle stop well they arrested this pastor saying that he was aware

00:26:20.480 of this under the same injunction but it was an illegal arrest that had been amended by uh judge

00:26:27.440 brooke and you know didn't apply so you know the government is doing things right now that

00:26:33.840 you know the albertans are catching on and this is i think the backtrack they just happen to get

00:26:40.320 caught on this one before it became um an issue and oh and then plead ignorance so i i honestly

00:26:48.560 believe that you know there's a lot more going on here behind the scenes that uh Albertans are not

00:26:54.400 aware of and i think that speaks to what Todd Lowen and Drew Barnes have been saying about the

00:26:58.080 secrecy and how caucus has actually said we're going one direction and Kenny just continues to

00:27:04.160 go down his own direction. So there's so much happening right now in caucus and with government

00:27:11.920 that people are just not aware of. Caucus is finding out about things themselves, you know,

00:27:17.200 at the time that Kenny happens to release it to everybody. So who is running the ship right now?

00:27:23.920 Nadine's right, Corey. You look at it, some bureaucrat has to go through a good amount of

00:27:29.440 research because that was a very detailed request and probably spent several days on it coming

00:27:35.840 all together but he wouldn't have just published it himself he would have taken it up the chain

00:27:40.320 to his superior so somebody at some level of management in the provincial government thought

00:27:46.160 it would be a good idea to launch a drone to spy on campers i mean come on nonsensical but somebody

00:27:53.600 and the government approved it uh and the dean's right what the hell is going on yeah well it's 0.71

00:27:59.760 such a huge as you said it seemed like it was an april fool's joke i mean what were you thinking

00:28:04.480 moment like this is right out of for those of reddit 1984 government having big brother zooming

00:28:10.640 along watching you behave yourself because we could be having a little camera hiding behind

00:28:15.440 the trees watching you know i've done some things in the woods while camping i don't want a drone

00:28:19.600 broadcasting i gotta feel a lot of people aren't gonna want to see that either i mean this is

00:28:24.560 putting somebody else at risk sitting in a vehicle uh spying on us but i mean it was just absurd like

00:28:30.640 nobody at any of these levels there wasn't somebody said gee you know they might get an

00:28:35.200 adverse response to this one like i it's it's just astounding i kind of expected as you said

00:28:40.480 lower levels of bureaucracy okay so i'm pinhead recent graduate who really hadn't thought it

00:28:44.640 through but it's got to go through a few levels i mean it's an rfp if you could just let anybody

00:28:48.720 put one out there you can imagine the corruption as you start getting uh different proposals going

00:28:53.520 and such as well i mean there's layers of controls and they seem to have been okay with this yeah and

00:28:59.280 to think that they might get away with it uh you know let's assume the worst that they they knew

00:29:05.120 what they were trying to do uh and they just thought okay no albertans won't care we we've

00:29:10.960 managed to do this to them so far they'll they'll let us do this but at some point albertans are

00:29:16.400 are going to stand up and say, no, that's a right that I will not lose. And this is where I stand

00:29:21.920 my ground. This is the hill to fight on. Yeah, well, and this got exposed at the point, as I

00:29:26.800 said, Peter McCaffrey caught it and good on him. But I mean, what if this had gotten farther along

00:29:31.200 and we'd gotten to a weekend and it hits the news once somebody shoots one of the things out of the

00:29:34.960 sky? Or, you know, when somebody does find themselves suddenly presented with a ticket

00:29:39.200 and what, for evidence, they'll show these aerial pictures of them camping? This isn't going to look

00:29:43.460 good. I mean, this would have turned into a disaster farther down the road as well. People

00:29:48.140 would have been furious. I'm just floored, you know, and I guess just disappointed. I'd like to,

00:29:54.820 you know, go on to more positive things about our government one of these days, and I'm sure

00:29:58.680 sometimes something's going to happen, but it's just not this week. We'll get something right.

00:30:05.180 Well, either way, I think we've kind of covered it for this week. What are you working on for

00:30:09.900 up-and-coming stories, Dave? It seems to be all constitutional all the time at the

00:30:14.620 moment. I published the O'Toole story this morning. I just published a Jay Hill

00:30:20.400 Maverick Party reaction and then as soon as we're done from here I will find out

00:30:26.340 what Premier Kenney has to say. Great. Nadine, what have you been up to here?

00:30:30.880 Well, we're hopefully gonna get some more interviews with some of the people

00:30:35.380 around these constitutional issues and follow-ups obviously we did a great follow-up with uh ty

00:30:41.220 northcott for the no more lockdowns rodeo and uh you know we haven't heard from uh chris scott yet

00:30:48.100 so hopefully we'll we'll get a chance to speak with him as well in his experience and uh we'll

00:30:53.140 just keep uh we'll try it's so hard right now to be honest uh derek and i were talking the other

00:30:59.140 day and he's like what do you report on there's so much going on and and like the rfp that we just

00:31:06.200 talked about the request for proposal you know people just don't pay attention to that type of

00:31:10.940 stuff right i mean people come they look for headlines they look for for quick news and

00:31:15.980 there's so much going on in pretty much any area i mean dave has got to be just swamped with

00:31:24.320 what picking and choosing what am I going to report on today what's what's at the highest top

00:31:29.580 of the the bank there I feel like a doctor in triage yeah what patients can I say what patients

00:31:37.000 can't I say so that makes it interesting well and and to pat our own back a bit you know what these

00:31:43.100 things is they broke I mean the live reporting of the caucus meetings that were coming through and

00:31:46.840 the updates that you were putting out Dave and and uh with this exposure of the the drone idea

00:31:52.600 like this didn't come from the the mother corp cbc this didn't come from post media it's it's

00:31:57.960 small groups and media sources that are breaking this sort of thing and and that's what the western

00:32:02.360 standard's about uh and you know just to get into it like we need our subscribers we appreciate

00:32:07.960 our subscribers they've been doing great it's growing uh you know it's well worth it to to

00:32:12.840 jump in get a subscription all these breaking news stories things and it helps us be able to

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00:32:22.200 produced and everybody's happy except for the people we report upon and uh yeah so uh you know

00:32:27.960 be sure to subscribe subscribe to the youtube channel as well and facebook you know so that

00:32:32.040 you can catch these updates these shows when they pop up we do specials sometimes as things break

00:32:36.600 and you'll see them as they're coming out and again you know sponsor consider sponsoring us

00:32:41.240 or definitely consider you know supporting our sponsors because they're helping us out and that's

00:32:45.400 the canadian coalition for firearms rights and uh nobody works as hard as them as we said to uh

00:32:53.800 fight for your ability to use and own firearms uh what do we got there oh yes the ccfr they're

00:32:59.880 suing the federal government on behalf of federal gun owners right now actually so i mean consider

00:33:04.200 becoming a member donating to their legal funds because again if we don't stand up for our rights

00:33:09.960 they're going to be taken away we know that and these guys are standing up for them so go to

00:33:14.520 firearmrights.ca and you can click why join and you can support them and they're supporting us

00:33:20.360 i mean again we're all standing up for ourselves in that good conservative albertan western sort

00:33:25.200 of way so thanks again dave and nadine and everybody who tuned in today uh don't forget

00:33:30.660 to tune in tomorrow we've got uh nathan guilla with his fantastic show mountain standard time

00:33:35.940 from 10 till noon he gets some great guests on there and i'll be on friday ranting and raving

00:33:40.760 with a number of guests as well between 10 and noon.

00:33:44.360 So thanks again, and we will talk to you all later.

Western Standard - May 20, 2021

The Pipeline May 19, 2021. UCP woes, Quebec & our constitution and drones!

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