Western Standard - The Pipeline： NDP candidates tied to anti-oil group

00:00:00.000 Good evening, I'm Derek Fuldebrand, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching

00:00:29.240 the pipeline. Today is February 8th, 2023. Thank you all very much for joining me. I'm joined as

00:00:36.460 usual by the Western Standards opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford. How are you, Nigel? Great to be

00:00:41.680 here. Doing good. And also joined by, sometimes nice to have, Western Standard senior Alberta

00:00:49.640 columnist, Corey Morgan. I'm somewhat happy to be here. Thank you. All right. Well, we've got a

00:00:56.940 somewhat good show for you today. Some work done by the Western Standards, one of the Western

00:01:04.960 Standards reporters here in our Calgary Bureau has found links between two NDP candidates, the

00:01:11.900 Alberta Provincial NDP candidates based in Calgary and an anti-oil group, the Pembida Institute,

00:01:17.460 which does kind of think tank work and whatnot against what they call the tar sands and various

00:01:24.020 other evil Alberta industries like that. So some controversy ginned up about it. We're going to

00:01:30.300 get into it as well. Miss Smith goes to Ottawa. Alberta Premier Danielle Smith has finally met

00:01:36.760 Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau face to face during the first ministers meeting dealing

00:01:42.440 with the ritual Canadian premiers begging Ottawa for healthcare dollars meeting.

00:01:49.300 And hijinks ensue. Very interesting things. I'm sure you've all seen the handshake felt around the world by now. Funny things like that. We're also going to talk about this weird Chinese bi-balloon that floated its way all the way across America. 0.99

00:02:09.020 Some of you are probably wondering, why didn't the biggest military on the planet, in the history of the planet, just shoot down the balloon?

00:02:18.980 It's a bit odd.

00:02:20.020 We're going to talk about the kind of the bizarre response to the Chinese spy balloon from the Biden administration.

00:02:27.280 Before we get going, though, I want to thank, or maybe Corey wants to thank my favorite sponsor, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:02:34.120 Sure. I mean, if you own firearms, if you like using them for any sort of all, like the name says, shooting sports, target shooting, hunting, collecting, it's really your business, whatever you want to do with firearms. You've got a government that's coming after them. And the Canadian Shooting Sports Association is there for you standing up to make sure you maintain those rates. And they offer all sorts of resources like any other association. I mean, if you own firearms, you really should be a member of them. All sorts of resources online.

00:02:59.040 I think they've even got a confiscation insurance. I'm not positive. I was talking to them and

00:03:05.520 either they were working on it or they have it. They have insurance for if the government tries

00:03:09.760 to confiscate your guns. Like most insurance, I hope you never need it, but it's an interesting...

00:03:14.800 But can you claim the confiscation insurance if the government says they're confiscating it,

00:03:18.640 but you refuse to give them up? Oh, well then starts getting convoluted.

00:03:23.200 Either way, we're going down a rabbit hole, but it is the Canadian Shooting Sports Association

00:03:27.600 with Tony Bernardo running it, and they're a fantastic group. And if you want a firearm,

00:03:31.120 you really got to be a member of them. It's affordable, and it's worth it.

00:03:34.080 You're at the cssa-cila.org, or as we always say, it's easy, just Google them,

00:03:39.520 Canadian Shooting Sports Association, and you'll find your way right there.

00:03:42.480 Beautiful. Okay, well, we're going to turn to the story here. As I said,

00:03:47.040 story done by the Western Centre's Jonathan Bradley, one of our reporters here in the Calgary

00:03:51.040 Bureau. Yeah, he did some work and found that two of their

00:03:56.500 candidates a sim and forgive my pronunciation here. Samir

00:04:02.260 Kayandi is the NDP candidate in Calgary elbow. And Nagwan

00:04:08.800 Al Gunid is the NDP candidate in Calgary Glenmore. These people

00:04:16.180 have been nominated by the NDP to carry the NDP's banner in

00:04:19.240 those constituencies in the next election. But both of them have worked for the Pembina Institute.

00:04:26.300 For those of you who don't know, the Pembina Institute is a think tank in Alberta that's

00:04:31.020 kind of like our own homegrown anti-oil lobby here. All green all the time. Yeah, they refer 0.86

00:04:39.960 the oil sands as tar sands. That's kind of the biggest litmus test right there. Call them tar

00:04:44.440 there's probably a 95% chance you don't like them very much. And they do all sorts of stuff trying to push governments to do things that are not pro oil and gas. And they are funded in large measure by governments. They get money from Ottawa. At various times, they've gotten money from the city of Calgary under Nenshi. They got money from the province of Alberta under Redford. These guys get a lot of government money over various times.

00:05:11.940 So, obviously, some NDP folks on Twitter, not very happy about the story. Not that their candidates are affiliated with this anti-oil group, but the reporter has made a deal of this at all.

00:05:30.040 Now, the NDP have been going to lengths, and I think to their credit, have somewhat succeeded in recruiting a better quality of candidate than they maybe had in 2015.

00:05:39.320 The NDP were not expecting to win the 2015 election, and that's why you had, you know, people, you know, flipping burgers, essentially, or working as baristas elected into the government.

00:05:52.500 And, you know, you can only build...

00:05:53.880 Drever was entertaining, though.

00:05:55.340 I mean, you've got to give...

00:05:56.140 Yeah, you know, she was a nice lady. 1.00

00:05:58.000 She was nice.

00:05:58.580 You know, it's up to voters to decide what they want. I don't think it's a good idea if every politician has to have a PhD and, you know, have made millions of dollars. That's not necessarily a good thing. But, you know, we want a little bit of resume, I think, to people who are electing.

00:06:16.140 The NDP have tried to, and they were kind of stuck with those people pretty much in 2019 because, well, they were incumbents.

00:06:22.140 And it's pretty messy to get rid of incumbents and not have them go against the leader.

00:06:27.140 So this time they're making a concerted effort to try and get a higher caliber of candidates.

00:06:32.140 Some of these people have impressive resumes.

00:06:35.140 It's more of an ideological question if this is a thing.

00:06:39.140 I'll start with you, Nigel, does this, you know, how do you think this thing is going

00:06:45.820 to play in Calgary, because both the NDP and the Pemba Institute have dismissed this saying,

00:06:49.960 oh, it's not anti-oil, we just support green energy.

00:06:52.900 Well, first of all, it would probably have been harder to find two NDP candidates who

00:07:01.580 were not of that persuasion, right, I mean, this is, this goes with the territory.

00:07:09.140 be fair, the Fraser Institute has informed a lot of conservative candidates. So it's

00:07:16.160 no surprise that the NDP would go to the Pembina Institute because they are fundamentally

00:07:22.740 an anti-oil organization. That is not the main point. The main point is that we need

00:07:31.580 to know that the NDP is a fundamentally anti-oil organization

00:07:38.140 and that if you are working in the patch,

00:07:41.560 if you make your money from the,

00:07:45.160 if you live your life with the salaries you make

00:07:51.180 from oil enterprise, pay your taxes,

00:07:54.220 or if you are living on the flow down,

00:07:58.220 what was it, the multiplier,

00:08:00.280 Other businesses that service the oil patch, the NDP is not going to be good for you.

00:08:04.940 In fact, they're going to be bad for you.

00:08:06.380 And when they had their turn before, they were not good for the energy industry.

00:08:13.100 They tried to do a deal with the federal government.

00:08:16.100 The federal government basically brushed them off.

00:08:18.260 Remember all that, trying to buy the social license.

00:08:20.480 And then when they had given everything away, including an emissions cap, the federal government did what it was going to do anyway.

00:08:27.140 So, yeah, sure.

00:08:29.480 These people, I bet if we go through the list, we'll find a lot who get on the Pembina Institute's distribution list.

00:08:38.620 But that's the thing.

00:08:40.180 The Pembina Institute is pushing an anti-oil industry point of view.

00:08:46.820 They're entitled to do that.

00:08:48.880 But we are entitled to know and put the NDP on the spot and say, is this what you really think?

00:08:54.740 And do you really want what the Pembina Institute says it wants?

00:08:58.460 Corey, Nigel said that the NDP is fundamentally anti-oil. I wrestle with it. I mean, there's obviously elements of the NDP that are clearly anti-oil and gas.

00:09:13.180 But, you know, when the NDP was elected in 2015, no one was more surprised than them, and they were saddled with all these promises they made, like, you know, royalty review, and they're like, shit, we are expected to do these things, and then they found out very quickly, even they knew they were bad ideas, so they kind of went through the motions of a royalty review and whatnot, and they did a bunch of things that were bad for the oil patch, emissions caps, and carbon taxes, and all this stuff that bought

00:09:43.100 wonderful pats on the back from Justin Trudeau. But do you think it's fair to call the, because

00:09:49.860 the NDP seem to walk this line where they're trying to take these kind of green anti-oil

00:09:55.440 measures to make their base happy, but they weren't dumb. They know that the oil industry,

00:10:01.980 gas industry is the golden goose in Alberta. You kill that, you can't afford any of the

00:10:05.620 social programs. So they're trying to do maybe two different things at once. Do you think

00:10:09.960 it's fair to call the NDP anti-oil? I think in general still is fair. I mean, it's in their

00:10:15.140 ideology. They're just trying to figure out how to walk that tightrope. And I mean, when you look

00:10:19.980 at the overtly anti-oil was like Berman, the mistake when they, you know, when Rachel Notley

00:10:24.940 appointed her in any sort of position. Yeah, there's no, and you know, Pembina really reflects

00:10:30.780 that though, because them as an organization, I really have a distaste for them because they're

00:10:35.060 disingenuous. I mean, Sierra Club, you know what they're about. Ecojustice. Pemida Institute

00:10:40.120 pretends to be, oh no, we're just a green organization. We support it. We just want it

00:10:43.580 cleaner. No, no. In fact, they're a member of, I looked it up, that Strathmere group,

00:10:47.480 14 members of which are the Suzuki Institute, Greenpeace. I mean, these guys are hardcore

00:10:54.560 anti-oil. They're anti-nuclear. They are, as well, they tried intervening, shutting down

00:11:00.860 in situ oil sands project. So these are an anti oil and gas organization that tries to cloak

00:11:06.800 themselves as something else. And that bugs me. And they get donations from Shell and other

00:11:12.020 companies following their ESG garbage, which is a separate discussion altogether. But it does make

00:11:16.780 them the ideal sort for the NDP to tap. This is the kind of person you can put out there and say,

00:11:21.040 no, no, I'm not anti-energy. I just want to be a little greener. I just want to make the world a

00:11:25.720 little prettier, when in reality underneath, they are just as vitriolic. But either way,

00:11:31.460 I wouldn't say they're all anti-oil. I mean, Margaret McQuaid Boyd really embraced some

00:11:36.000 pragmatism when she got in there. I wouldn't call her anti-oil. I think she did things that 0.98

00:11:39.000 were bad for the past, but I don't think she was fundamentally anti-oil. But they're going to have

00:11:43.420 to watch what they're doing. Calgary Elbow, those big houses down there in Britannia,

00:11:46.920 they weren't built through hemp farms and windmills. That's energy bucks down there, 0.80

00:11:52.720 So they best tread carefully.

00:11:54.460 One of the things that you've been quite emphatic about over the past few months is the link between the provincial NDP and the federal NDP.

00:12:03.680 So when we say the NDP is anti-oil, what do we think of Jagmeet Singh and the leadership that he is giving to the entire national party, of which this is just local branch office?

00:12:14.360 Yeah, they can't depart too far from the federal guidelines.

00:12:17.140 That's another tightrope for them to walk.

00:12:19.480 They're in a difficult position trying to win Alberta.

00:12:21.420 Yeah, so I think it's fair to say there. I'm not sure it's fair to say the NDP is outright anti oil. There are they can't be because they've got, you know, union members of whatnot that who support they at least need to get in the next election.

00:12:39.200 to form a government or come anywhere close to it, who are working in the oil patch. But then there are, I'd say, very powerful groups within the NDP that are clearly against it. But this kind of thing, you know, two candidates here who have worked for a anti oil group like Pemba Institute.

00:12:59.200 Institute. I don't know how much traction you think this kind of thing is going to get when there's, you know, some kind of right leading candidate and they say there are two genders, you know, that's front page news. That's, that's, that's a big thing. And then, you know, the leaders force you to defend them or fire the candidates or something.

00:13:19.200 something. Do you think this kind of thing is going to catch on and affect the NDP negatively?

00:13:25.000 Because everybody knows it's cliche to say by now, but it's it's quite true. Calgary is the

00:13:30.300 battleground of this coming election. The NDP have got in Edmonton sewn up. UCP has got pretty much

00:13:37.200 everything outside the two big cities with a few minor exceptions sewn up. It's gonna be Calgary,

00:13:41.700 and there's a two Calgary candidates in writings that are currently held by the UCP. Elbow, I can,

00:13:47.160 I can definitely see going NDP if things go their way.

00:13:51.120 Glenmore, a little tougher to see.

00:13:54.820 They won it by about a dozen or so votes in 2015,

00:13:58.260 and that was with a Wild Rose PC split.

00:14:01.600 Glenmore, NDP are only taking Glenmore if the UCP are getting wiped out in Calgary.

00:14:06.200 But bring this back to Battleground Calgary.

00:14:09.880 How big of an effect do you think this kind of thing is going to have?

00:14:13.340 Well, I think it's got to have an effect, and it's got to be a measurable one.

00:14:17.160 I'm not alarmed by people going out and talking, by the way, about two genders.

00:14:22.600 At the time, people, I think, have had it with the woke gender bending and the woke everything else.

00:14:32.980 Party leaders may have to make a decision as what they say, but ordinary voters are just going to say, you know, it's the emperor's new clothes.

00:14:40.560 Let's go back to are these people going to be good for what I do?

00:14:45.400 I depend on the oil patch

00:14:47.760 you clearly dismiss it

00:14:50.920 you also say things

00:14:53.740 that are patently hard to defend

00:14:56.200 if not absolutely untrue

00:14:57.940 like men can have babies 0.96

00:14:59.180 I don't know whether that's true

00:15:00.320 in these two particular individuals

00:15:01.820 but you brought in the gender statements

00:15:05.260 people are going to

00:15:08.340 as long as the UCP

00:15:10.800 doesn't shoot itself in the head

00:15:13.780 then that's gonna hurt according to think they're able to thread this needle

00:15:21.460 though that because I think for a lot of people the centrality of the oil

00:15:30.220 industry and to a lesser extent agriculture in Alberta is not direct

00:15:34.480 people drilling and servicing rigs feel know it's direct people who are

00:15:40.060 engineers and buildings in downtown Calgary here, they know it. But people a step removed from it

00:15:46.720 who are not in the industry, I feel like, you know, every step removed from it, it's getting

00:15:52.860 weaker and Albertans don't quite understand their personal interests in the success of the oil and

00:15:57.500 gas industry. And, you know, these NDP candidates aren't coming out holding no more pipeline signs

00:16:05.200 And that's been haunting Notley for some time. These guys aren't as overt or over the top like those past protests were. And I guess it depends on how it's played. I do think Calgary Elbow, at least localized with these particular candidates, this can hurt. That's a swing riding. Elbow can certainly go either way. But at best, it's a center left.

00:16:27.180 I mean, when Alberta party took it, for example, you know, there was a pragmatic, not a hard left candidate who took that.

00:16:33.600 But likewise, they're just as happy to come in and take a very conservative candidate.

00:16:37.420 So how they present themselves down there really have an impact.

00:16:41.120 And the taint of potentially, though, being anti-oil and gas can very much hurt, though, as I said.

00:16:48.840 I mean, a lot of there's some very staunch or very involved energy people in that spot.

00:16:53.840 But whether it's a game changer for the whole election.

00:16:55.700 So, you know, there's also like, you know, dregs along 4th Street there that are kind of hipster.

00:17:01.220 Oh, and there's champagne socialists who don't understand where that money came from in the first place.

00:17:05.080 I'm not sure how much this hurts them there.

00:17:07.220 They're not holding no more pipeline signs.

00:17:09.480 They're just, you know, going to be able to kind of pass it off, float it off as Pemida did here and just saying, oh, well, we're just trying to find green solutions to make the world better.

00:17:17.320 Part of it will be making this disappear.

00:17:19.180 You know, if they don't have to address it, then they can probably get away with it.

00:17:23.440 But if they come out and say, no, no, I'm fully for oil and gas, well, they will lose that fourth street touch.

00:17:28.460 Well, so far, the Western Standard, as far as I know, the only media that's touched this.

00:17:32.600 So, I mean, it's not like the CBC and the Herald and the Sun are touching this yet.

00:17:38.080 So the ball's kind of in their court right now.

00:17:39.700 And as Nigel says, as long as the UCP doesn't blow it, I mean, if they don't overplay it as well and so on,

00:17:43.600 they can use that as a little bit of a knife to twist.

00:17:45.560 But it's not a break the party sort of issue yet either.

00:17:49.100 So, yeah. Okay, well, let's, we're gonna move on to Alberta Premier Danielle Smith, just traveled to Ottawa, I think she just came back from Ottawa now. And she met there, she was there for the first ministers meeting where, you know, every few years, the premiers, actually, every single year, the premiers get together on their own. And every single year, they beg daddy Ottawa for more healthcare money, seeming to forget that Ottawa was not supposed to have anything to do with

00:18:18.800 health care under the Canadian Constitution. But the Canada Health Transfer Accord is coming

00:18:26.160 up for renewal. That's always a time to try and squeeze more money out of Ottawa for it.

00:18:31.920 The federal government, I don't know why they went to Ottawa for this. The federal government

00:18:36.240 clearly decides these things before anybody gets there. So I'm not really sure what the

00:18:39.520 point of going to Ottawa is. But they're going to do $196 billion over 10 years. That's a $46

00:18:45.840 billion dollar increase to the baseline that was already slotted for that. That wasn't the

00:18:53.760 interesting parts though. Smith's interactions with Trudeau were much more interesting.

00:19:00.160 Particularly the handshake that was that was awkward. Some have said that, you know, maybe

00:19:08.400 Trudeau really leaned into trying to be intimidated by squeezing you know when you see it zoomed in

00:19:15.200 There's a very clear white mark surrounded by red

00:19:18.180 where it appears as maybe his thumb was pressing.

00:19:21.740 I don't know.

00:19:23.580 Was this just awkward?

00:19:25.560 You know, you've met people before.

00:19:26.920 You're like, you know, then you go in and you get a weird handshake.

00:19:30.140 Do you think it was just an awkward weird handshake?

00:19:31.780 Or was this Trudeau kind of coming in,

00:19:34.040 trying to go for the power-dominating handshake over her?

00:19:37.500 I don't know.

00:19:37.720 What do you guys think?

00:19:38.840 Well, you know, I'm for the dominating.

00:19:43.640 I actually went and found somebody from Reader's Digest

00:19:46.740 had a great article just a couple of months ago

00:19:48.680 quoting a personality analysis specialist by the name of Dr. Lillian Glass.

00:19:54.920 And she defined the different kinds of handshakes for us.

00:19:57.940 So this is the dominant handshake.

00:20:00.620 The person goes in too hard.

00:20:02.560 You never want the other person to feel like you're trying to take the upper hand

00:20:05.720 by forcing their palm up.

00:20:07.580 So when you look at that, I'm sure that Danielle Smith

00:20:11.260 was not trying to show that she was too friendly with Mr. Trudeau, like, I don't know, we have a

00:20:17.740 clip, I think, of... We're going to show them talking in a moment. His predecessor, Rachel

00:20:23.460 Notley, was obviously very, very enthusiastic to meet the... Well, you were seeing her looking up

00:20:29.240 lovingly into his eyes. And there was a terrible moment for Peter Lockheed 40 years ago when he

00:20:36.500 met with Justin Trudeau's father, and they appeared altogether too friendly.

00:20:41.940 I'm avoiding making a joke there.

00:20:43.640 Yeah, you should.

00:20:47.400 So it would not play well to the Premier Smith's base to go in looking like everything was

00:20:53.960 fine, and we were just going to have a nice chat, and we're super friendly with Mr. Trudeau,

00:20:58.400 because he is somebody who's trying to put us out of business.

00:21:01.060 don't talk about anti-oil there's somebody who is self-proclaimed anti-oil and done a lot to

00:21:07.260 bring it about and to destroy the industry here so there's no percentage in here so she was a

00:21:12.320 little hesitant in offering her hand he sort of grabbed it and did exactly what Dr. Glass says

00:21:17.500 you shouldn't do squeeze too hard I don't know about you Derek but I can't remember a time

00:21:25.180 when somebody has shaken my hand upon meeting me for the first time

00:21:30.940 and left a visible white mark where the circulation has been temporarily cut off.

00:21:37.200 Clear intimidation tactic, I would say.

00:21:40.660 Corey, what do you think?

00:21:41.400 Was this kind of a dominating intimidation tactic?

00:21:45.640 Or maybe did Premier Smith just kind of make awkward contact

00:21:50.620 and he just ended up grabbing around it?

00:21:52.420 Well, I mean, from what I read into it, I watched it a number of times and things. As you said,

00:21:56.260 these things are all settled. I mean, this is that this whole affair is a photo op. That's

00:21:59.540 what the whole meeting is about. Premiers meeting premiers premiers, premiers meeting the prime

00:22:02.580 minister, getting their pictures. And both Daniel, Premier Smith and Prime Minister Trudeau wanted

00:22:09.460 two very different pictures to be going out. Prime Minister Trudeau wants to be showing I'm the

00:22:13.740 person who's in charge, but still negotiating in good faith and has a good relationship with every

00:22:18.240 premier even premier smith whereas premier smith wants to say well i'm here because this is my

00:22:24.560 obligation but i'm not thrilled to be associating with this individual and i can't i won't let

00:22:29.240 myself be seen with a big grin on my face shaking hands as as my predecessor notley had so because

00:22:35.500 those pictures will be rubbed in now i don't what i'm guessing is happening premier smith has shaken

00:22:41.620 thousands and thousands of hands she knows how to come in for a handshake quickly clearly and 0.99

00:22:46.240 and defined. She didn't want to have a good solid handshake. And when it became evident to Prime

00:22:51.820 Minister Trudeau that she wasn't coming in well, he grabbed, which was really actually, again,

00:22:57.360 I don't think it was planned aggression, but it was aggression. And he held on so she couldn't

00:23:01.620 pull away. I mean, it wasn't even a handshake. It was a thumb over top odd grasp. I mean,

00:23:07.360 some people are saying it's a Freemasons handshake. I'm not going down that road.

00:23:11.520 I think he just...

00:23:13.280 It's not secret. How would they know? Unless they're a Freemason.

00:23:15.100 There we go. I didn't think he, again, intended to have that weird. But now once they were locked, now it's time to stare at the cameras no matter what. And he wasn't letting her hand loose. It was just a bizarre thing. I think he was a bit upset that she'd pulled that with him too. And that's part of why he gave that squeeze. And I think in hindsight, he's probably thinking, oh, God, I should have known better than that.

00:23:34.180 I do, I remember, you know, Kenny and Trudeau got their photo, and I think Kenny got it pretty right, you know, he looked like stern, it was like, it looked like if, I don't know, George Bush met Kim Jong-il, like, fine, we're going to meet, but they don't like each other, and, you know, I think Kenny got the photo he was looking for, he was looking stern, and, you know, back in the era before we realized it, I'll just be angry letters sent to Ottawa.

00:24:03.560 It was kind of the photo he was looking for.

00:24:05.800 I'm not sure either of them got the photo they were looking for here.

00:24:09.020 I think it was just awkward and weird.

00:24:10.600 A bad moment happened.

00:24:11.340 Speaking of awkward and weird, let's look at this video of, you know, this is kind of a new thing, you know, kind of like a diplomatic meeting.

00:24:24.500 You know, you see this in the White House.

00:24:26.220 Now the president will have the president of Ukraine over, the Canadian prime minister, UK prime minister.

00:24:32.180 Let's look at this video of Justin Trudeau and Danielle Smith sitting down, having some pictures taken of them, just chilling.

00:24:40.380 And remarks from Alberta Premier Danielle Smith.

00:24:44.100 I'm delighted to be able to have an opportunity to talk about some areas of common interest, maybe some areas of diversion, to see if we can find some common interest.

00:24:54.040 We have, I think, a lot of shared goals in addressing issues of Indigenous health care and health addiction, home care, community-based care as we transform our health care system, so I'm pleased that we'll be meeting with all of our help, all the other bringers today.

00:25:10.240 But, of course, I did write a letter to the Prime Minister a couple of weeks ago expressing concern about some of the major initiatives that have been announced without much consultation with Alberta that stand to have a huge impact on our province, the just transition of our legislation, which is the impression that the energy sector is going to be phased out and it's not going to be phased out.

00:25:35.340 We're transforming away from high-intensity emissions to lower emissions, and we have some shared priorities on that.

00:25:43.340 LNG export to reduce emissions using the green transfer mechanism to get credit here.

00:25:50.340 That would also help British Columbia, working on critical minerals, hydrogen, geothermal.

00:25:56.340 I think there's a lot of opportunity for us to find some common ground.

00:26:00.340 I'm also concerned about the green electricity regulations. Our province has 90% of our electricity grid on natural gas and so a fairly phase out of natural gas is just that we're not going to result in a reliable and affordable option for our province and so we had also a proposed emissions cap on the energy sector. We've said very clearly that an aggressive emissions cap such as was initially proposed would really be a production cap.

00:26:29.340 Yeah, because there isn't a feasible way for us to achieve that within eight years.

00:26:34.140 So with that, I think we'll find some common ground on some of those issues today.

00:26:37.560 Sometimes it's going to be for all of Canada that we need to find common ground

00:26:43.600 so that we can continue to move forward on the rest of the issues.

00:26:47.560 All right.

00:26:48.200 Well, as we saw there, I actually haven't seen this with premiers and the prime minister before.

00:26:54.020 Maybe it's been done before, but I've generally only ever seen it at the White House

00:26:57.200 where they sit sit together and they answer and you're it's kind of like a very casual press

00:27:04.400 conference it's postal but you're but you know when you're standing beside the leader you're

00:27:11.040 with here the opposing leader you're expected to be kind of in very good your best manners you

00:27:17.360 know danielle smith slams on trudeau trudeau has nasty things to say about smith the sovereignty

00:27:22.760 act and stuff and but you know you're side by side with each other you're always more friendly to

00:27:26.900 That's why everybody's a tough guy behind the wheel of a car behind the keyboard. Meet them in real life. It's different. But, you know, Smith was trying to walk off a fine line here. She's trying to be friendly, be personable with Trudeau because he's right beside her in the chair. But she's also talking about just transition stuff. But I did notice her language was much softer than it normally is.

00:27:56.880 expect that because you know she can't sit you know i i wouldn't sit here and say you know nigel 0.99

00:28:02.160 is you know these bloody english bastards uh you know i wouldn't say nasty things in front of you 0.99

00:28:07.520 you know if i'm gonna say nasty things i'd probably want to i'll say it in my car behind a keyboard 1.00

00:28:11.440 right it's a little harder face to face get out of reach we'll talk about this later yeah yeah

00:28:15.840 you know what he says about you oh yeah you don't even know i saw it scrolled in the washer yeah

00:28:20.400 uh so let's start with you you corey um how about you think she walked the line on this one because 1.00

00:28:25.120 it's tough. She's expected to be tough and oppositional with Trudeau. But at the same time,

00:28:30.080 she's sitting beside him. How do you think she handled it? It was a bit awkward. I think she

00:28:35.100 did okay. I mean, there wasn't anything really resolved or settled. So there weren't big things

00:28:39.100 you could speak to. I mean, they've made their statements. She wants to look as if she's standing

00:28:44.180 strongly for Alberta, but you still have to be diplomatic. You don't want to, nobody wants to

00:28:48.360 see her go there and put the finger right into the prime minister's eye. I mean, there's no sense 0.64

00:28:52.380 bringing on more fight than we've already got. We've got plenty of fight. I think a lot of people

00:28:55.440 do want to see that. I'm not sure. I think a lot of people want to see at least. A certain segment

00:29:01.260 wants to see that. And I wouldn't lose a lot of sleep seeing it. But realistically, if you want

00:29:06.100 to be an effective government and representing the whole province, you still have to be diplomatic.

00:29:10.380 And she did what she could with it, as did Trudeau. I mean, he didn't bring up a start a fight while

00:29:16.380 he was there either, which I don't think would have served either of them well. So it was kind

00:29:19.960 apart from the, for the course, for what we would expect aside from the handshake, which shows

00:29:24.140 just how much underlying tension there really is there. I don't know, how do you think she

00:29:28.760 handled it, Nigel? Because it was awkward. No, it was. Well, look, obviously, you have,

00:29:36.320 you save your, you save your strongest arguments and your most vociferous statements for behind

00:29:42.500 closed doors when only the staff see it. It's not recorded. It would not have played well in the

00:29:49.300 rest of the country. I mean, the national press is just waiting for a chance to jump on Danielle

00:29:55.220 Smith and say, well, she's, look at her, she's just a something from Alberta and we don't need 1.00

00:30:02.000 to pay this person any respect or take her seriously. You walk in there with your boxing

00:30:07.620 gloves on, that's the treatment that she would have got. I thought that she laid out Alberta's 0.98

00:30:15.060 position very

00:30:17.280 clearly.

00:30:18.940 He said that he would look at it.

00:30:22.220 That's the kind of

00:30:23.520 exchange that you would

00:30:25.440 expect from that sort of an occasion.

00:30:28.560 The fighting

00:30:29.840 is going to come later.

00:30:31.360 She's a pro. She handled it very well.

00:30:33.840 Well, just talk quickly about the

00:30:35.500 health care deal. I don't know.

00:30:37.180 You can't really call it a deal.

00:30:39.880 Premiers don't have any say. 0.99

00:30:41.380 It's kind of like equalization. They can lobby

00:30:43.040 They can lobby for these things publicly and privately, but at the end of the day, it's the federal government.

00:30:48.660 I was surprised not to see much from Alberta and Saskatchewan against increasing the health care transfer because people don't understand this.

00:31:00.920 These dollars are not equal.

00:31:02.760 Now, they're not as bad as equalization because we do get some.

00:31:05.620 Alberta gets some, Saskatchewan gets some, but it's not on a per capita basis.

00:31:09.400 But taxes to Ottawa are not paid on a per capita basis. They're based on our incomes. And our businesses pay more in tax than places outside of Alberta and less than Saskatchewan. And our people pay more income tax than people outside of Alberta and a lesser degree Saskatchewan.

00:31:25.680 So we're paying way more per capita in taxes to Ottawa. Then Ottawa kicks some of the money back to the provinces per capita. Also, we have a younger, healthier population than most other provinces and Saskatchewan to an extent as well.

00:31:39.320 So the fact that there is any health care dollars going from Alberta or Saskatchewan to Ottawa and then back to the provinces is never in our interest.

00:31:49.380 I don't recall seeing Scott Moe, I don't recall seeing Danielle Smith saying cut health care transfers because that would have kept more net wealth in Alberta and Saskatchewan than doing this.

00:32:01.360 So this seems actually to be a big loss for Alberta, even though Alberta and Saskatchewan

00:32:08.980 get more money, net based on what we're paying in, we're getting less.

00:32:13.780 Seems to me this is a loss.

00:32:15.120 Well, you could sure argue it that way, but you know what?

00:32:18.860 I don't, like there's eight other premiers and some provincial territorial leaders there

00:32:25.020 who would have just loaned it open if...

00:32:28.480 They would have been very angry if they say, give us less.

00:32:31.700 And it's not like, let's put this in perspective for the numbers.

00:32:35.560 This is $46 billion that the Prime Minister has laid out there over 10 years.

00:32:40.640 So that's $4.6 billion a year divided between 12 jurisdictions.

00:32:47.620 13.

00:32:48.180 13, I beg your pardon, you're right.

00:32:50.460 That works out to something like, there's about 1% increase, which is not even worth

00:32:57.880 fighting over. So Alberta presently spends $22 billion a year on health. That's more than a

00:33:07.540 third of the provincial budget. So this is not going to change the way anybody lives.

00:33:13.200 So I don't see that there's a lot of incentive for Alberta or any of the provinces, frankly,

00:33:21.040 to step up and say, yeah, give it to us and we'll do whatever you want. Because don't forget the

00:33:25.940 deal here is that if you take the money you also are signing on for your full support for the

00:33:34.420 Canada Health Act which is translated in Ottawa ease as no private health care where that is

00:33:45.380 actually the solution 60% according to a recent poll 60% of Canadians are now prepared to say

00:33:53.220 As long as it's a single government pair, let's by all means use anybody who's got a surgery and a clinic and who can push people through.

00:34:01.240 This is actually what the government of Alberta is presently doing is they've expanded, I believe, 3,000 extra surgical procedures, mostly for orthopedics.

00:34:13.900 These are the people who've been waiting years, not months.

00:34:18.300 This is the route forward.

00:34:19.820 If they take the money, that is going to be harder to do.

00:34:24.340 So I can readily appreciate, well, they just sat there, let the Prime Minister say his piece.

00:34:31.040 And when we get back to Alberta, when we get back to Toronto, when we get back to Regina,

00:34:38.800 you know, we're going to move ahead with our solutions to fix our problems, not Ottawa.

00:34:44.880 Corey, do you think, you know, so Nigel's talking about, you know, this money comes with strings attached from Ottawa, even though the federal government has no role whatsoever for health care in the Constitution, the Supreme Court of Canada throughout the history of Canada has much more often than not sided with not just federal power, but federal executive power.

00:35:04.520 And with that comes the so-called spending power, which was not something granted to the federal government under the Constitution, just something given to the federal government constitutionally by the Supreme Court, where, yeah, I was not allowed to control health care directly, but they can indirectly control it by putting out money with strings attached to it, like it was foreign aid, essentially.

00:35:26.720 This new money comes with strings attached, just as all the existing money in the pot comes with strings attached.

00:35:31.740 but you know the premiers were all saying they wanted more money

00:35:36.520 do you think it was possible for say smith and mo if they wanted to

00:35:41.300 politically to say no stop giving us health care money or would that just

00:35:46.100 create too many enemies with the other provinces and isolate them

00:35:49.480 because clearly they'd probably just be the two and not just with the provinces

00:35:52.520 but with their own voters like what you spoke of before with how it works you

00:35:55.800 know if the provinces declined it yes technically it would mean more for us

00:35:59.680 but try and sell that to the person when Rachel Notley is up there saying they're passing up on

00:36:03.940 healthcare dollars while our patients are waiting in waiting lists. Like it would be very difficult

00:36:09.040 to sell. It's kind of like you say, if you're explaining, you're losing. And you know, you had

00:36:12.700 to speak for a couple of minutes to explain how that works. And of course, but so politically,

00:36:17.160 I mean, it would be a terrible stance to take a very difficult one anyways. As Nigel said too,

00:36:23.400 the amount isn't that high. I mean, where the battles will go, there are strings, but the only

00:36:27.860 And there hasn't been a lot of talk about that, though, very directly, as much as Jagmeet Singh's been demanding it and others to crack down on Ford or Smith for expanding things.

00:36:36.400 All Trudeau kept saying was it's going to stay within the Health Act.

00:36:38.900 And if you look within the Health Act, there's nothing stopping private provision, actually.

00:36:42.240 That's just a matter of, you know, interpretation at best. 0.92

00:36:47.240 It's only private payment that's illegal, which still sucks.

00:36:50.800 Which hasn't been happening.

00:36:52.440 So I didn't see some of the clashes I thought might come.

00:36:55.640 I thought Trudeau actually has been showing a little more pragmatism on that front lately.

00:36:59.380 He's been, I think it's because of his close relationship with Ford and Ford's moving that route.

00:37:03.560 He doesn't want to get into the fight in Ontario right now.

00:37:07.060 I mean, I remember the 90s well enough where Jean Chrétien was battling with Klein over private MRIs

00:37:11.900 and he was cutting health transfers because we were doing that out here.

00:37:15.220 And remember, I think my mom is pretty folky, but Chrétien actually flew somewhere and went to a private clinic for private health care

00:37:24.020 while he condemned Klein for allowing any private health care.

00:37:27.880 That wouldn't surprise me.

00:37:29.260 But that was some very distinct battles between,

00:37:32.260 and I didn't see any of that sort of rhetoric coming out of this meeting.

00:37:35.640 I don't think any of the leaders are really spoiling for a scrap on this front.

00:37:39.240 They want more money.

00:37:39.880 Every leader always wants more money, but they're not looking for a battle right now.

00:37:42.980 You know, Corey, maybe they should just take what's offered and go home.

00:37:46.000 It's not as if the federal government has got such wonderful finances

00:37:49.280 that they can afford to give the provinces all that they would like if they had the chance.

00:37:53.420 Well, just really quickly, the federal conservative critique of this, so lame, it was so lame.

00:38:01.660 They just said, they weren't saying necessarily that the federal government should have spent more money,

00:38:07.380 but they were saying, well, Trudeau spent the cupboards bare, so there is no more money.

00:38:12.100 Okay, yeah, Trudeau did spend the cupboards bare, but take a firm position.

00:38:16.680 Should the federal government be involved in areas outside of its jurisdiction or not?

00:38:20.240 Jake Mead seeing it is at least consistent. Yes, it should be. It should absolutely be outside of its jurisdiction. The NDP's policy for a long time has been more or less, Canada should be as close to a unitary, centralized state as possible, with the exception of Quebec, which gets to do whatever it wants.

00:38:37.260 So the NDP have been consistent, but the conservatives are just kind of sucking and blowing on this one.

00:38:43.660 Just, you know, if you're not going to have a good reason, thoughtful criticism of the government, shut up and don't make a criticism. 0.88

00:38:50.020 There's enough to criticize the government on. 0.95

00:38:53.260 Speaking of sucking and blowing, Joe Biden and the balloon.

00:38:58.940 How do you like that segue?

00:39:02.860 So, you know, this is not breaking news.

00:39:05.100 You've all seen it.

00:39:05.860 The Chinese spy balloon that made its way over the somewhere, I guess, around the Pacific and gently drifted all the way across America.

00:39:18.860 And, you know, by the time we found out about it, you know, I'm sure the American military and intelligence establishment had probably known about it for a long time.

00:39:28.100 By the time we find out about it, it's, you know, it's old news.

00:39:31.220 and you know the press ask

00:39:35.320 President Biden

00:39:36.340 are you going to shoot this thing down

00:39:38.920 like it's spying on us

00:39:40.460 I'm not sure we could actually see it with the naked eye

00:39:42.820 because it was really high up there

00:39:44.340 but it was a balloon

00:39:45.280 and there's no

00:39:47.140 and they said safety reasons

00:39:49.820 and it's over in like Dakota

00:39:52.140 you know how many people are in Dakota

00:39:53.740 not a lot

00:39:54.800 the chances of it falling and hitting someone 0.60

00:39:57.260 are pretty friggin small

00:39:59.220 plus you get to pick your spot 0.82

00:40:01.160 too. You don't have to do it over Bismarck. No, no, no. There's places to do it, and you could use

00:40:08.840 the right kind of warheads to make sure that it's fairly small things that fall. Say, okay,

00:40:13.960 everybody in, I don't know, Milwaukee, stay inside between two and three o'clock Tuesday.

00:40:22.040 There'll be raining Chinese spare parts. And, you know, use a warhead that's not going to leave 0.99

00:40:27.240 big chunks and there's there's ways to do it you know use some overkill but pretty much incinerate

00:40:31.480 the thing they said no it was a safety thing and they just let this spy balloon drift all the way

00:40:36.760 over america until it was off the coast of the atlantic from carolina before they finally down

00:40:41.720 the thing um start with you corey what conceivable reason can you think of because safety doesn't

00:40:49.160 really seem to be it until you were literally over the eastern seaboard where it's densely populated

00:40:53.400 it doesn't seem to make any sense.

00:40:55.820 I can think of one potential one, and play a bit of devil's advocate.

00:41:00.100 I mean, this thing was just made for memes, so it's hard to, you know,

00:41:02.740 there were so many humorous things about it,

00:41:04.760 but this is actually quite serious on a lot of levels.

00:41:06.720 I mean, the basis, why would China need to put a spy balloon over us?

00:41:10.600 Well, we can go on Google Earth,

00:41:11.560 and you can tell what makes your neighbor's car is on their driveway.

00:41:14.740 You don't need to float a balloon over North America to see what's going on anymore.

00:41:18.760 But something that China was testing not too long ago,

00:41:21.180 and that was reported on, was actually using high altitude balloons to deliver hypersonic missiles.

00:41:26.940 And I could be just going off on a stretch here.

00:41:30.740 But I mean, if they're concerned that there are ordnance on that balloon,

00:41:34.920 then there very well could have been something dangerous on that if they did shoot it down.

00:41:38.420 But if there's ordnance on the balloon, it's still better to blow it up in the air before it can launch.

00:41:42.660 Well, there's that too.

00:41:43.840 But I mean, do you want to be the one who cut the string and it does land next to Bismarck?

00:41:47.980 I'm just, again, throwing out.

00:41:49.340 saying, if pieces of missiles came out, it still would have been a lot worse if those missiles

00:41:53.620 were launched and hit targets. Yeah, I'm just guessing perhaps some of the reason for reticence

00:41:57.720 was that they just weren't too sure exactly what is on this darn thing, and it could cause more 0.84

00:42:01.800 damage than they're trying to solve if there was something important. Other than that, I mean, 0.94

00:42:06.740 yeah, it's caused a political crap show that they're still enduring right now with people

00:42:11.000 saying, why did you let that thing go across? I mean, it went over our houses. It should have

00:42:15.560 dealt with long before it got here. Nigel, this is, it's pretty undeniably, I think, humiliating

00:42:21.400 for America. They've got the greatest military force that has ever existed. They even have space

00:42:26.760 force now. They've even got space force. I mean, that was the real thing. They should have called

00:42:32.660 it Starfleet or something. They already borrowed the Starfleet symbol for it. They ripped it right

00:42:36.600 off. But it was humiliating for America that they just allowed this drift right over them,

00:42:42.920 and they could have shot this down with their eyes closed

00:42:45.900 with the kind of technology they've got.

00:42:49.200 Do you think there'll be any kind of political ramification for this

00:42:52.180 for the Biden administration?

00:42:53.500 Oh, yeah.

00:42:53.940 I mean, the Republicans will ride it, and they should.

00:42:56.860 But, you know, the question nobody is asking is,

00:42:59.520 why didn't Canada shoot it down?

00:43:02.640 With what?

00:43:03.360 Well, we have CF-18s.

00:43:05.120 We have Sidewinder missiles.

00:43:06.500 How do you think they get that high?

00:43:07.840 Those things are, like, almost twice as old as I am.

00:43:10.320 I mean, not that old, but they're well older than I'm old.

00:43:14.340 Service ceiling for an F-18 is 50,000 feet.

00:43:18.300 This thing was floating around about 60, which is less than two miles.

00:43:22.160 The range of a sidewinder is up to 20.

00:43:24.840 It was over American airspace.

00:43:27.120 We couldn't have done it without a normal airspace.

00:43:28.460 It didn't get from Canada for something.

00:43:30.000 Was it over Canada?

00:43:30.620 Yeah.

00:43:31.260 Okay, but did we even know it?

00:43:32.900 Well, that would be a good question to ask the Prime Minister.

00:43:36.740 But, you know, you're talking about why this ever happened.

00:43:41.020 The Chinese just get a kick out of poking the United States. 1.00

00:43:46.580 So, yeah, we floated a balloon, and they didn't have the bulls to shoot the thing down for a week. 0.63

00:43:53.120 Well, I would do it again if I was them, Mike.

00:43:54.500 I like teasing my kids.

00:43:56.520 I tease my wife.

00:43:58.580 I tease people.

00:43:59.620 I tease you guys.

00:44:01.480 Some of you I tease more than others because some of you I get a better rise out.

00:44:04.420 Honestly, you know, picture yourself out in your back 40, you've got a double-barreled 12-gauge shotgun, and there's somebody's full drone going over.

00:44:14.300 Your neighbor keeps sending it.

00:44:15.160 You think maybe you would blast the thing out of the sky on principle because they shouldn't be doing it.

00:44:21.040 You don't need to have a terribly sophisticated view of international relations to say that that is a hostile act,

00:44:27.620 to float a balloon across your territory without sort of saying, well, it's this kind of a mission

00:44:34.440 or it's that kind of a mission. Is it okay with you if you do that? If you just send the thing,

00:44:39.060 that's hostility. So, all right, if the Americans don't shoot it down over Alaska,

00:44:45.760 let's us shoot it down over British Columbia. Learn the buggery. Doubtful Canada even knew about it. 0.55

00:44:52.100 I mean, you know, I guess it's all a part of NORAD, but I doubt Canada knew or had much of a capability to deal with it.

00:45:01.380 I hope you're wrong about the capability, but anyway.

00:45:04.240 When I was a kid, I wanted to join the Navy and be a submarine captain.

00:45:07.160 I gave up that dream when I realized Canada had no submarines, and we still don't have functional submarines.

00:45:12.120 So I made a good career choice based on that.

00:45:15.440 I even thought about the Air Force, and I thought, like, yeah, these planes are older than me.

00:45:19.700 And I think they're going to continue to be older than me for a long time.

00:45:23.040 Well, yeah.

00:45:23.680 I mean, as Nigel said, too, though, I mean, that's, you know, China likes giving the finger to the West.

00:45:28.880 And that was a great big white middle finger.

00:45:31.560 We didn't disappoint.

00:45:32.620 No.

00:45:33.020 We were totally lame.

00:45:34.160 I can imagine what the reports are over in China.

00:45:36.540 They're laughing their heads off.

00:45:38.020 Oh, I would be.

00:45:38.960 We floated a balloon over them.

00:45:41.660 And China didn't even make an attempt to shoot it until it floated past their borders after going the whole way. 0.91

00:45:47.800 I'd be like, yeah, they're not very serious people

00:45:50.280 We can continue to poke them

00:45:51.420 For all the reasons you gave

00:45:52.820 There's nothing they could have found out with that balloon

00:45:54.940 That they couldn't have got off the internet

00:45:56.460 It was purposeful

00:45:59.020 There must have been something to it

00:46:00.980 Other than just pissing us off

00:46:02.580 I don't know

00:46:03.320 Okay, well, if you want to continue to get pissed off

00:46:07.100 Make sure you subscribe to us

00:46:08.600 On your favorite podcast app

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00:46:28.480 listen to us while you're driving to work in the morning, driving home in the evening,

00:46:33.340 that kind of thing. Very relaxing, listen to Corey's silky voice. And if you're not yet a

00:46:39.580 member of the Western Standard, make sure you subscribe right now. Go to westernstandard.news,

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00:47:00.080 all for joining us and Corey and Nigel. It's been a wonderful

00:47:04.680 time.

00:47:05.120 Always a pleasure.

00:47:06.020 Always fun.

00:47:06.740 All right, I'm gonna float on out here. Thank you very much and

00:47:09.300 God bless.

00:47:09.860 The current Lethbridge feed grain price is read as follows, cash parties at $4.18, feed

00:47:15.740 wheat is at $4.36, and corn is trading at $4.40 per metric ton.

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Western Standard - February 09, 2023

The Pipeline： NDP candidates tied to anti-oil group

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