Western Standard - The Pipeline, November 11, 2020

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

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00:02:30.020 Welcome to the Pipeline, the Western Standard's weekly current affairs broadcast and podcast.

00:02:35.980 I am Western Standard publisher, Derek Fildebrandt.

00:02:38.800 Joining me today is Western Standard News editor, Dave Naylor.

00:02:43.160 Dave, how are you doing?

00:02:44.480 I'm well, Derek, how are you?

00:02:47.160 I'm great, thanks.

00:02:48.960 Today we're going to be covering a few things.

00:02:50.980 We will be covering ongoing controversy around the U.S. presidential election.

00:02:56.720 We'll be discussing if Joe Biden has a lock on things, as has been declared, or if there

00:03:02.900 is what the possibilities are that Donald Trump will be able to turn things around.

00:03:08.040 We'll also be talking about the fate of the Keystone XL pipeline if, in fact, Joe Biden

00:03:13.400 does manage to secure the presidency in the end and what that could mean for Alberta and

00:03:20.020 the rest of Western Canada, and we're going to be discussing Jason Kenney's challenge to

00:03:26.360 public sector unions with a 4% pay cut, what that means, what the politics will be, and

00:03:31.320 how that will impact the budget in Canada.

00:03:35.180 But before I do that, I want to turn to, I just take note that today, November 11th, is

00:03:44.960 Remembrance Day, a very important day for many people across Canada, not just Westerners,

00:03:52.200 people in many countries.

00:03:54.260 Today we had an editorial board publication on the six fallen Canadian soldiers who have

00:04:03.800 lost their lives in the line of duty in Canada, for Canada in 2020, written by our defense

00:04:11.360 columnist, Alex McCall, just a very nice tribute to those fallen.

00:04:18.780 So just to take note, lost in the line of duty this year was Corporal James Choi, I hope I

00:04:26.980 pronounced that correctly, Captain Jennifer Casey, and the crew of Stalker 22, that is

00:04:34.540 Abigail McBurrah, Sub-Lieutenant Abigail McBurrah, Sub-Lieutenant Matthew Pike, Master

00:04:42.760 Corporal Matthew Cousins, Captain Maxime Miron Morin, Captain Kevin Hagen, and Captain Brendan

00:04:50.260 Ian MacDonald, all of them, six Canadians, Canadian men and women who have fallen in the

00:04:57.020 line of duty in the Canadian forces in 2020, quite a large number considering we are in

00:05:04.120 what is more or less peacetime, no major military combat engagements overseas.

00:05:10.360 It's quite a few, I think, to be lost in a peace year, isn't it, Dave?

00:05:13.640 It's a sad number and certainly a day of reflection, and hopefully everybody takes a minute of silence

00:05:21.940 to, you know, give thanks to what these veterans have done and what we're able to live for and

00:05:28.440 through today.

00:05:30.580 Absolutely.

00:05:31.900 Okay, well, thank you all for watching.

00:05:34.500 Before we get into the meat of today, we want to thank those of you who are Western Standard

00:05:39.620 members for your contribution, those of you watching but who support the work we do of

00:05:44.320 having an independent, non-government-funded or licensed media, please go to westerncenteredonline.com

00:05:50.140 right now and become a Western Standard member for just a few bucks a month.

00:05:53.800 You can help us continue our work as the ultimate antidote to the CBC.

00:05:59.180 So let's start with, I'm kind of driven crazy when I see Canadian media focusing so much on

00:06:06.140 the U.S. election.

00:06:06.940 The CBC obsessed with Kamala Harris.

00:06:19.740 Lost you, Derek.

00:06:21.760 Oh, have you lost me, Dave?

00:06:23.320 Oh, no, you're back.

00:06:24.780 Okay.

00:06:26.440 You know, the obsession of the Canadian media, particularly the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation,

00:06:30.740 it's funded to the tune of around $1.3 billion a year because liberals are afraid that there

00:06:38.800 won't be any coverage of Canadian news without it, yet it spends half of its time covering

00:06:43.200 American news that is covered on, obviously, the American networks and still quite heavily

00:06:47.520 on the private or semi-private Canadian networks.

00:06:51.460 But nonetheless, it's interesting.

00:06:52.860 We're going to cover it here.

00:06:53.760 So, Dave, we'll go to you for kind of a rundown.

00:06:59.620 There's been a lot of controversy in many quarters, at least, and with many of our readers

00:07:04.620 and viewers, Western Standard, about the media calling the election for Joe Biden.

00:07:09.900 He is leading in the Electoral College right now.

00:07:12.800 That is not certified.

00:07:14.140 It hasn't gone through the courts and it hasn't yet been challenged in many respects.

00:07:18.180 Let's go to you, Dave, about where things stand, why the media have broadly called things for

00:07:26.100 Joe Biden and how appropriate that is with everything else that's going on.

00:07:33.200 Well, you'll have to remember, Derek, that most of the mainstream media in the United States

00:07:38.120 absolutely hates Trump.

00:07:40.180 So, any sort of glimmer at the end of the tunnel, they are going to grab.

00:07:44.740 Now, it certainly looks like Biden will emerge eventually the winner, but he's not now the

00:07:51.960 winner, but eventually.

00:07:53.660 He's got enough Electoral College votes that should give him the presidency.

00:07:58.660 But President Trump is claiming widespread voter fraud and he's not conceding.

00:08:06.020 There's court challenges going on all over the United States.

00:08:09.880 An army of Trump lawyers is going and trying to get some election results overturned.

00:08:16.720 They haven't had any success yet.

00:08:19.100 Whether they will have success remains to be seen.

00:08:22.620 And whether or not it ends up in the Supreme Court also remains to be seen.

00:08:28.820 Certainly, Trump is not conceding.

00:08:31.320 He went to Arlington National Cemetery today for Veterans Day ceremonies there.

00:08:37.440 And while world leaders from Justin Trudeau to Boris Johnson to Angela Merkel have all contacted

00:08:47.700 Biden to congratulate him and say how much they're looking forward to working with him,

00:08:53.580 such a call has not come from Trump.

00:08:56.700 He has not conceded, nor does it look like he's going to concede.

00:09:01.840 As Biden says, though, he's taken a hit in terms of what this will do to his legacy.

00:09:09.920 If he's eventually removed kicking and screaming from the Oval Office, you know, how is that

00:09:15.340 going to look in the history books?

00:09:17.820 But yeah, looking good for Biden, but you cannot declare him the ultimate victor quite yet.

00:09:25.160 Yeah, I mean, a lot of people are saying the media shouldn't be calling this until it's done.

00:09:33.220 The fact is the people don't like it when they call it when your side loses and they do like

00:09:36.900 it when your side wins.

00:09:39.500 We do, you know, if there was no calling of things, there'd be no point to even watching

00:09:44.460 election results.

00:09:45.300 We would just wait for election officials to certify things at the end.

00:09:48.180 So I don't think there's anything wrong with the media making a judgment call.

00:09:52.940 I think where the mainstream media goes wrong is in saying that this is a done deal.

00:09:58.820 I'm not sure I would call him president elect yet.

00:10:02.480 I'm not sure that's language I would use.

00:10:04.260 I would say he is the leading candidate for president right now, based on the numbers that

00:10:10.220 are there, based on the status quo, pre-court challenges and any changes that could take

00:10:18.400 place around mail-in ballots and potential fraud, he is on track right now to become president.

00:10:25.260 So I think it'd be fine to call him the presumptive president.

00:10:31.040 That might be a more appropriate term than president elect until these court challenges

00:10:34.760 are done.

00:10:35.120 Remember that Al Gore was the president elect or presumptive president for 32 days plus

00:10:42.960 before he lost in court and Florida flipped to George W. Bush. 0.51

00:10:50.140 So this is going to go on for some time.

00:10:53.440 A lot of people are saying there's mass fraud.

00:10:56.100 I don't think many people actually can say that matter of factly yet.

00:11:00.480 I think there is beyond a doubt a lot of big red flags in some key swing states in Pennsylvania,

00:11:08.840 in Wisconsin, in Michigan, to an extent in Georgia.

00:11:13.080 There are some major red flags around mail-in votes and the vote dumps.

00:11:18.560 It's too, I think, presumptuous right now to say that is voter fraud.

00:11:22.820 There could be perfectly good explanations for that.

00:11:26.240 But that's going to have to be proven in court, as it should be, for people to have any kind

00:11:31.680 of confidence in the final result when it comes.

00:11:36.600 But that's going to require quite a few court battles to be successful.

00:11:42.160 That's going to require at least Pennsylvania.

00:11:44.940 It's going to require Georgia.

00:11:46.920 And I think Trump has held North Carolina, if I'm not mistaken.

00:11:53.140 But it's going to require overturning enough votes in Georgia and Pennsylvania,

00:11:57.880 and either one of Nevada, Arizona, Michigan, or Wisconsin.

00:12:04.220 One of those four would have to flip to give Trump his 270 electoral college votes.

00:12:10.640 So if he does that, then he remains president.

00:12:13.240 But that is a steep hill to climb.

00:12:17.940 The initial results in elections don't often change very much in recounts.

00:12:23.280 But this is an extraordinary case.

00:12:24.820 You have massive records for mail-in ballots.

00:12:29.240 And in some states, they took the bizarre step of sending everyone a mail-in vote

00:12:34.640 and allowing them to vote in person.

00:12:36.980 You're just supposed to honor the system and not vote in person if you voted in the mail.

00:12:40.500 That seems quite bizarre to me.

00:12:41.960 In Canada, we've got our own problems.

00:12:44.400 But we seem to have, in provincial elections we've had recently,

00:12:48.460 there's been no mass mailing of everybody a mail-in vote.

00:12:51.440 Plus in person election day, it's been you had to request a mail-in vote.

00:12:57.060 That seems to be a lot less susceptible to voter fraud.

00:12:59.780 So it is entirely plausible that things are going to turn around and that some of these key swing states will flip over.

00:13:09.120 But it is a tough hill to climb.

00:13:12.040 And I can't say, I wouldn't put my money on Trump.

00:13:16.840 I think he is certainly less than 50% likely to do it.

00:13:21.800 But I think it's important that these certainly big red flags are resolved in court.

00:13:30.680 Otherwise, there's no hope whatsoever of the United States American people rallying around Joe Biden.

00:13:36.740 No, I think the Biden camp would call that kind of thinking, Derek, a bit delusional.

00:13:45.820 You know, you talked about the number of different states that have to be overturned and whatnot.

00:13:50.180 But we're not talking about Biden winning these states by a couple thousand votes.

00:13:55.940 He's got huge leads in these states.

00:13:58.800 And, you know, are they going to find 40,000, 50,000 ballots that were not counted or illegally counted?

00:14:07.140 You know, you're right about most ballots are counted pretty closely.

00:14:12.360 Then you may get a couple of votes one way or the other being changed in a recount.

00:14:17.540 But certainly not the massive swing that the Trump campaign is hoping for.

00:14:23.480 So, you know what?

00:14:25.340 The B.C. election results that was held at the end of October weren't finally announced until this week.

00:14:32.100 So it does take a while.

00:14:34.620 And the Biden people are going to have to be patient a little bit longer.

00:14:39.640 And we'll see where the court system goes. 0.67

00:14:43.760 Yeah, indeed.

00:14:45.060 It's a bit rich right now for Democrats to be demanding that Trump concede now.

00:14:52.520 I think it is certainly not a legal requirement, but it is a, I think, important political convention that the man or woman who loses the election does concede.

00:15:07.600 Remember that Hillary Clinton did not concede on election night 2016.

00:15:11.300 She gave a very grudging kind of hissy fit of a concession the next day.

00:15:18.820 But then it was absolutely clear, no recounts, no court challenges, had any possible math of reversing her defeat to Trump in 2016.

00:15:27.280 Certainly there's nothing stopping Trump from picking up the phone, calling Biden, saying, hey, good race.

00:15:36.500 It was close.

00:15:37.160 You know, good job on what you've done, but I am not going to concede until we get the final polls in.

00:15:44.140 But to completely ignore Biden, to not even pick up the phone and ludicrous stuff like Secretary of State Pompeo saying that the transition shall run smoothly into the second Trump administration.

00:15:59.020 And the sort of night of the Pentagon and Trump firing all the top officials, and it seems like he is taking his revenge while he's got time.

00:16:09.760 yeah uh it he i don't think trump has any um i don't think there's any has any obligation to

00:16:17.560 concede yet but once these court battles are finished if in the end uh he does not uh manage

00:16:24.760 to get uh you know if there is no voter fraud found if there is no significant errors or glitches as

00:16:30.560 they're calling them found and he does in fact lose uh i think while it's not a legal requirement

00:16:35.560 it is a moral requirement of donald trump to concede at that time he has no he has no obligation

00:16:40.240 to do so before then i think opening the lines of communication between trump and biden would be

00:16:45.060 positive getting both men to agree that uh once the courts have settled things uh whoever does not

00:16:51.840 emerge victorious should um should be clear about trying to get the country to rally behind the

00:16:57.640 president whoever that might be i don't think that's going to happen regardless but i think

00:17:01.780 that's what would be best for the uh american people in the united states um but trump uh

00:17:07.840 it'll be it will he concede if in fact he loses in court uh it is not a given that he's going to win

00:17:13.780 it's not a given that he's going to lose but if in fact he loses in the end will he concede and will

00:17:19.680 he leave the white house of his own accord um trying to predict what trump does is a mugs game derrick

00:17:26.120 yeah yeah we should all know by now there's not even trying yeah we shouldn't even be trying at

00:17:32.100 this point but we're going to do it anyway uh because it's fun but um you know uh this will be

00:17:38.460 the big determiner about uh if in fact he loses um you know if he if he still refuses to leave the

00:17:45.940 white house and has to be removed forcefully uh then his worst critics will have been proven correct

00:17:51.600 but if after losing in court if in fact he loses um he says fine okay uh we've done our due diligence

00:17:59.440 and we've done our best we might not agree with the courts but uh they've spoken and that's the rule

00:18:03.940 of law and he goes uh then i think a lot of these um trump's critics that said this man is an aspiring

00:18:09.680 dictator uh they'll have been proven wrong it won't be much credit uh comfort to trump uh if he if he

00:18:15.960 loses and leaves the white house but uh it is very difficult to foresee this man um well it's very

00:18:22.600 difficult to predict what he's going to do but i i'm not in the camp to believe he's an aspiring

00:18:27.060 dictator uh that he won't leave the white house under any circumstance uh to not leave the to lose an

00:18:33.560 election uh at least according to the courts and to refuse to leave the white house would trigger a

00:18:38.440 civil war and that's just not in the cards it's not going to happen um but i can tell you this

00:18:43.100 if uh if the if trump wins in court and and he stays uh it'll be interesting to see all the

00:18:49.660 democrats if they will continue their language about the need to rally around the new president

00:18:53.860 and come together uh and i have a strong suspicion that uh the peace that has reigned since the

00:19:00.100 election will be ended uh and we'll see riots in the streets uh very very quickly to an unprecedented

00:19:06.100 level in american history i don't think there'll be any parallel to the violence we would see

00:19:09.960 if uh if trump uh emerges victorious in the end i think the united states is on the precipice derek

00:19:16.080 and uh hopefully they can figure it out indeed well uh let's bring it a little closer to home but

00:19:22.940 still related to this uh if uh joe biden does manage to emerge uh victorious in the electoral college after

00:19:31.320 the uh court challenges have been completed uh if he does um there is now a very big question mark

00:19:39.600 over the future of the keystone xl pipeline uh while he was vice president to president obama obama

00:19:45.520 uh stretched out uh delayed the approval process for keystone before eventually using an executive order

00:19:51.980 uh to kill it himself uh trump reversed that and uh and issued an executive order to approve the

00:19:59.300 construction of keystone xl uh and construction is now underway with a very healthy dose of alberta

00:20:05.920 taxpayer dollars i was pretty suspicious uh about uh of course we want to see keystone xl built here at

00:20:13.040 the western standard but uh you know i'm a bit more suspicious about using government money for a

00:20:19.680 private project that's corporate welfare it normally ends badly if um you know the government's uh jason

00:20:25.680 kenney's reasoning for using taxpayers money into this was that the private sector wasn't doing that

00:20:30.480 but a normal conservative would say if the private sector isn't doing something

00:20:34.000 it's normally for good reason that the private sector sees risk in something and that it's not

00:20:38.320 economically viable or the risk is too high uh and now it looks like there's a significant

00:20:43.360 possibility that joe biden will follow through on his promise to cancel uh the construction permit for

00:20:48.720 keystone and uh that could leave a lot of egg on the face of alberta taxpayers um and obviously the

00:20:55.200 future of the oil and gas industry here dave um what has uh where does that commitment from joe

00:21:02.960 biden to cancel keystone xl stand right now with both himself and the democratic party uh do we

00:21:09.200 expect him to follow through on it if he in fact uh does become the next president united states

00:21:14.640 well biden was vice president and in the oval office when barack obama signed the order killing

00:21:21.040 the pipeline uh he made the promise to uh biden made the promise again to kill it during the

00:21:27.200 the campaign uh of course he also said he wasn't going to ban fran at fracking which he has said

00:21:32.960 many times he wants to do uh along with uh vice president elect uh kamala harris uh so yeah i you

00:21:41.120 know if he remembers he made the promise uh he'll he'll follow through and cancel it i think the only hope

00:21:48.720 is for the the lobbying of justin trudeau on a person-to-person basis with biden uh jason kenny

00:21:57.360 has said albert is gonna lobby as much as they can and they have a trade envoy in washington but let's

00:22:03.520 be honest uh joe biden doesn't know kenny from a hole in the ground it's got to come from the prime

00:22:08.800 minister's office so i guess the question is privately how badly the prime minister wants this

00:22:15.840 how badly you know trudeau hasn't done much in terms of pipelines so but he says this government

00:22:21.840 uh or his government it's one of their top priorities is to build the pipeline so i think

00:22:27.120 the only way that it's going to get done is if trudeau can whisper in biden's ear and say look

00:22:32.880 these are the jobs that is going to create in the states this is how it's going to give you uh

00:22:38.400 petroleum uh sustainability uh this is how it's going to help with the environment

00:22:45.360 and if if trudeau can put forward good arguments in all those sectors then maybe it's got a chance

00:22:51.680 but uh uh if you're a betting man i don't think the odds are for it at the moment yeah yeah um i i

00:22:59.120 think there's some um hand wringing in the premier's office right now uh this would be the single largest

00:23:05.200 corporate welfare boondoggle in alberta history it would uh it would completely blow out of the water

00:23:11.760 um things like novitel and those big scandals that plagued the getty government when the government

00:23:16.480 was involved in uh direct funding of private uh investment ventures then and led to ralph klein

00:23:23.840 cancelling and selling them all off getting the government out of the business of business uh

00:23:28.720 the in the government uh funding that has gone in from alberta taxpayers into the keystone excel is

00:23:34.560 quite substantial and would be larger than any of those uh and it would be an absolute political

00:23:39.040 disaster uh that would compound just how bad it is to have the pipeline itself cancelled it would then

00:23:44.640 have the blowback of all the taxpayers money that's been sunk into this as well it would be an absolute

00:23:49.360 uh economic fiscal and political disaster in alberta uh and it is quite concerning as you said that

00:23:54.960 this might all be now in the hands of justin trudeau justin trudeau has been willing to approve

00:23:59.840 the keystone excel pipeline because it doesn't cross any other provincial boundaries it goes straight

00:24:04.480 from alberta into the united states um so he doesn't have to worry about upsetting british colombian

00:24:09.920 or quebec or ontario voters in that case he has to only deal with albertans because it's it's not

00:24:15.120 crossing any of our boundaries so so he has agreed to that one um and he does support it publicly and

00:24:20.560 on paper uh the bigger question will be how deeply do we believe that he supports it in his heart is he

00:24:27.680 really willing to go to bat for this if justin trudeau genuinely believes that i think he actually can save

00:24:33.760 it um you know he is uh among progressive liberal left liberals around the world justin trudeau is

00:24:40.640 still a celebrity icon they love the guy liberals united states love justin trudeau um he is what

00:24:47.760 they want their people to be and uh and he's very popular with the left of the democratic party

00:24:53.680 um so upsetting justin trudeau would be a big no for for uh for joe biden if justin trudeau says look

00:25:01.440 if you do this we are going to hit back there will be uh there will be diplomatic repercussions

00:25:06.000 there will be economic repercussions if you do this uh justin trudeau i think does have the ability

00:25:10.480 to save this um now i know a lot of people in the mainstream press have been saying that this is an

00:25:16.160 opportunity for kenny and uh justin trudeau to hold hands in kumbaya jason kenny should give up their

00:25:21.680 opposition to the portion of the federal carbon tax that they haven't already implemented in alberta

00:25:26.800 uh but alberta's already got a carbon tax on the oil and gas industry uh so alberta's already given

00:25:31.360 in to ottawa on that front canada has a carbon tax um and they're the alberta government's not

00:25:37.600 actually challenging the federal government's ability to impose a carbon tax on the industrial

00:25:42.000 side where alberta still kept the ndp's carbon tax they just renamed it uh a fancy less threatening

00:25:47.760 name than carbon tax so uh yeah but joe biden already the democrats are uh rife with recriminations

00:25:56.160 about how this election has gone joe biden is currently leading to become president of the

00:26:01.040 united states but the democrats have shockingly and unexpectedly lost seats in the house of

00:26:05.840 representatives and they have failed to pick up seats in the senate to give them control there

00:26:11.120 uh so this is an extraordinary election where at least for now they have won the presidency

00:26:17.280 but they have lost everything else uh and uh democrats are fighting themselves right now

00:26:23.920 uh moderate democrats ones that remain are accusing the uh the aocs and bernie sanders of the party

00:26:32.240 on the on its left flank for putting forward this uh you know green new deal and defund the police

00:26:38.800 agenda scaring away moderate voters which has cost them seats when the democrats expected to

00:26:44.400 significantly increase their majority in the house of representatives now they have the smallest

00:26:48.080 majority in 20 or 22 years of any party and uh and they failed to pick up the senate looks

00:26:53.680 like republicans are very likely to retain control there uh and so the democrats are kind of falling

00:26:58.400 into a big fight right now the question is is joe biden going to side uh with the radical wing

00:27:04.240 which he does not represent he is the establishment uh career politician moderate if you will wing of

00:27:10.800 the democratic party is he going to side with the the left of the party to keep them under control

00:27:16.400 and working with him in congress because he needs the house of representatives or is he going to

00:27:20.240 go to the moderates and try and broker deals with republicans and i think keystone excel will be one

00:27:24.560 of the big telltales of that if he's going to pick uh working with moderate republicans and democrats to

00:27:30.480 try and get something done or is he going to uh work with the left of the democratic party uh to try and

00:27:37.040 keep his party together and i think one uh one angle that we haven't talked about derek is is unions uh the

00:27:44.240 democratic party has always been the party of unions uh traditionally and how many union jobs will be

00:27:51.440 lost you know from uh from montana to nebraska to build this thing if biden cancels it so the unions

00:27:59.680 i think are going to have a powerful say uh as to whether or not he does or not very true although

00:28:06.800 most of the workers who are going to be building the keystone excel pipeline on the american side are in

00:28:10.960 red states the democrats are not likely to win anyway we're talking about montana and dakota's

00:28:15.840 utah and idaho that area that is solidly red and had no chance of going blue no matter what you said

00:28:22.160 dave montana never goes blue um those are in red states so even if they're uh union voters uh they

00:28:30.400 uh they're in states where their numbers don't really matter to the democrats so uh i'm not sure if

00:28:35.760 that how much that'll do but uh i guess this gives us a great time to transition to another

00:28:40.960 discussion about unions even closer to home here uh jason kenny has uh laid down the gauntlet

00:28:48.080 uh to public sector unions um dave why don't you uh fill us in on uh what has happened there what is

00:28:56.080 some of the background leading up to this and uh what is it jason kenny has asked of the unions and

00:29:01.040 what has the government union's uh response been so far uh kenny is asking government workers to take a

00:29:07.840 four percent rollback this comes after the uh he took a rollback on uh uh or ucp staff took a rollback

00:29:15.920 of seven percent so he's asked the unions to do their bit try and help to cut the the the debt and

00:29:21.680 the deficit by taking a four percent rollback uh you know hundreds of thousands of albertans have lost

00:29:27.360 their job and and are currently struggling to make ends meet so kenny's asking the uh the unions uh to do

00:29:34.480 their part the union's uh reaction has been obviously to fall off their chairs laughing uh and uh basically

00:29:41.600 saying no chance they're starting uh lobbying campaigns petitions uh they want albertans to join

00:29:50.560 them in the fight against kenny uh interestingly derek a government uh arbitrator gave uh aupe workers

00:30:00.320 in various colleges uh across the province a one percent raise so i think that's what you know if

00:30:07.920 the unions are lucky that's what they may end up getting uh which won't please uh kenny's people at

00:30:14.080 all yeah yeah um you know i've said for some time that uh i i believe that kenny has been wasting his

00:30:22.160 mandate and uh not being tough enough with the government sector unions uh there is no chance of

00:30:28.400 balancing the budget even before covet even before the uh russian saudi oil war uh there was no chance

00:30:34.560 of seriously balancing the budget without major cuts to no kenny said he wasn't going to do this

00:30:42.480 during the election uh i thought it was a mistake now he says he is going to do it um so it is kind

00:30:48.320 of breaking an election committed but i think it's a good commitment to break uh if we're going to take

00:30:52.000 us a given that these guys are going to break their commitments we hope they break them in the wrong

00:30:55.200 direction rather than we broke break them in the right direction rather than the wrong direction

00:30:59.440 so i i think this is a win and i think it's bold uh four percent pay cut is not going to do it but it

00:31:04.800 is a significant step in the right direction um the ucp has already cut mla pay uh for the premier and for

00:31:12.400 all mlas uh by five percent uh the premier i think took a bit more than that um so they had lead by example

00:31:19.040 and i thought it was a bad move at the time because they weren't doing it at the exact same time as

00:31:23.600 asking the rest of the public service rest of the government employees to do it if you're going to

00:31:28.480 cut mla pay you're going to cut the premier's pay the main point it's not actually going to save much

00:31:33.280 money it's at the end of the day it's actually it's kind of a it's a very it's a drop of a drop in

00:31:38.320 a bucket uh in the larger uh sense of uh what government spends every year but uh the point to do

00:31:44.560 it is to give the politicians the moral authority to get the the pay of the rest of the public service

00:31:50.000 the bureaucracy and all the other uh employees under control and they should have done it at

00:31:54.400 the same time it would have given them that moral um that moral gas in the tank to to take them on

00:32:01.200 and say look we're doing it we're taking a hit uh we all have to do this we're all in it together

00:32:06.720 they can still say that but politically they should have really done it at the same time

00:32:10.880 they would have uh i think had much uh greater success with the public i think the public is still

00:32:16.800 probably on side with them uh the public sector has had massive pay increases uh beginning at the

00:32:22.560 end of the client era really ramping up over stalemath but continuing through redford and prentice

00:32:30.160 notly limited their pay increases to relatively modest amounts but because it was so high already

00:32:36.960 uh it really didn't amount to much in terms of the overall books and can't alberta's government

00:32:42.160 employees are in most cases wildly overpaid compared to the private sector and even government

00:32:47.200 employees in other parts of the province these people enjoy uh virtual guaranteed jobs uh if

00:32:52.800 you're a teacher to lose your job you've got to be caught doing something pretty terrible um

00:32:58.720 same goes in many other areas of of government employees you just don't lose your jobs when

00:33:02.800 you're in a government union um they've got pensions they've got benefits and they've had

00:33:09.760 perfect job security when uh the private sector in alberta has been getting the crap kicked out of it

00:33:15.200 so it's time for the public sector to do its uh to do its part and i think uh you know uh we have to

00:33:21.120 give credit where credit's due uh they're actually uh you know to jason kenney and finance minister tapes

00:33:26.400 they're actually showing some uh some backbone here we wanted to have cory morgan on today but we had uh

00:33:31.200 technical difficulties getting him to uh getting an internet connection from wherever it is he lives out in the

00:33:36.000 middle of nowhere and um but corey wrote a piece on this about this is the do or die time for jason

00:33:42.240 kenney uh reference that got actually picked up in the global mail and some other mainstream outlets

00:33:47.280 um and uh it looks like uh they're serious now the question is is four percent what the government's

00:33:54.320 really demanding of the public sector unions or is this kind of just the opening position and they're

00:33:58.640 hoping to whittle them down to one percent cut or freeze or a modest increase dave in your

00:34:06.240 in your view do you think this is what they're demanding or do you think this is just an opening

00:34:10.480 move well as in all negotiations derek i'm sure it's just an opening move they would love to get four

00:34:17.040 percent and i'm sure they'd settle for anything but a raise but i think the people of alberta you know

00:34:25.920 they're fed up they're fed up with the economy they're fed up with coronavirus they're just no they're

00:34:31.040 they're fed up with getting kicked in the groin the last uh the last couple years so i'm not sure

00:34:36.800 the people of alberta want more union shenanigans i don't think the union will get public support and

00:34:44.240 i think that's what the uh the kenny government is counting on and i think uh uh corey hit the nail on

00:34:49.600 the head and on his piece when he says you know this is the the key time in uh kenny's pres or

00:34:55.360 premiership so you know we'll see whether or not uh that they stick to it indeed uh yeah we'll see

00:35:03.840 if they do this uh we had uh corey actually uh as i said corey wanted to be on we wanted corey on the

00:35:10.160 broadcast today but his connection wasn't good enough but it seems he can at least comment uh

00:35:14.320 corey morgan joining us via the comment section today uh the unions will go crazy on the ucp no matter

00:35:19.680 what they do little to lose and taking them on now they were never going to support uh never going

00:35:24.320 to cooperate start cuts uh i think corey's dead right uh the aupe the afl these are partisan uh

00:35:31.440 organizations directly connected or uh strongly connected in many ways uh to the ndp uh the tories

00:35:38.720 could give them a five percent pay increase uh when everybody else is losing their jobs and these guys

00:35:43.520 will still not be happy they will fight them no matter what um but beyond just the politics of it

00:35:49.040 uh they need to do something about this there is just as without a giant oil boom coming which uh

00:35:55.120 we can't we can't continue to hope is going to come uh which they did in the last budget they need

00:36:00.880 to get serious about this and i think um uh you know we know covet is temporary we hope it's not

00:36:06.960 going to be too long the vaccine is now likely on the way um but uh oil prices uh i i think the the

00:36:14.400 drop in oil prices really shocked the tories uh out of their complacency and around hoping that boom

00:36:19.840 times are going to return on this the fact is i mean we we can do certain things to attract investment

00:36:25.200 but at the end of the day without pipelines on the one side and uh uh peak in oil prices on the other

00:36:31.840 which is out of government's control uh there's just not much that we can do and we're going to have

00:36:36.640 to get our own finances under control before this um before we really hit a debt wall and we are

00:36:43.360 hitting a debt wall our deficit is the largest per capita in canada by a massive margin uh on

00:36:48.560 a per capita basis we're running deficits bigger than justin trudeau so it's kind of rich for

00:36:52.240 conservatives to be lecturing justin trudeau when we run even bigger when conservatives run even

00:36:56.160 bigger deficits on a per capita basis and what is supposed to be the heartland of conservatism in

00:37:00.880 canada so um i i think that drop in oil prices spurred by um uh spurred by the uh russian saudi oil war

00:37:13.600 has potentially really shaken them out of their complacency and that's a good thing well any union

00:37:19.200 that is refusing to work with the ucp as you as you touched on derek the the ucp hasn't really cut

00:37:25.920 anything since they came to power uh obviously the covert pandemic has had a lot to do with that and

00:37:31.280 the emergency spending that they've had but these unions better be careful what they what they wish

00:37:36.480 for and all they have to do is look back to the day days of uh of ralph klein now that was chopping

00:37:42.960 and uh the alberta go out the alberta people supported ralph klein's cuts by a massive margin there

00:37:49.520 were still you know the same people ndp supporters who who complained and didn't like it but for the

00:37:55.520 most part albertans said those cuts are needed and you remember at the end of the day uh uh klein

00:38:02.240 holding up that big check uh you know debt paid in full and that was because of the cuts he made so

00:38:09.360 we'll see absolutely uh okay well before we wrap it up we'll just go through some of the comments

00:38:16.560 uh not a ton today but uh we'll try to answer your questions uh steve uh mugridge says hey guys a

00:38:22.880 little off topic here but where are we with respect to western independence my view is there's too much

00:38:27.760 division on the conservative side to pull together and get it done uh and he is from brooks alberta

00:38:33.760 good people in brooks i'll tell you um well it's not a topic we're covering today but uh you know it's

00:38:39.680 always uh important to check back on that issue uh as it continues a low boil um uh the conservatives

00:38:47.040 are divided over this uh polling that we did uh in the early summer i think uh right before uh may

00:38:56.400 had um support for independence uh between 45 and 48 depending on how we asked that question

00:39:04.160 um and the way that broke down within parties was interesting uh obviously within the wild

00:39:09.600 rose independence party voters uh which were i think uh around 10 of the vote in that poll

00:39:15.760 uh they were uh about 90 in favor of independence that's not surprising that's in the name of the

00:39:22.000 party uh ndp supporters were uh very strongly federalist uh they were 90 against independence

00:39:29.600 but uh ucp voters uh was very interesting so they had already lost a lot of votes in current polls to

00:39:35.200 uh to uh to independence parties like wild rose independence uh and of the remaining voters 52

00:39:41.760 still supported independence 48 opposed it um that is a very dangerous place for a party to be on any

00:39:48.880 issue and they are uh dead set on not discussing it to allow those divisions to come into the open

00:39:55.200 uh their position is that well we are federalists we don't contemplate independence under any circumstance

00:40:01.200 but unlike the ndp we have respect for people who want independence and want to leave and we'll at

00:40:06.320 least hear them out uh even if we're not going to do anything about it that's the position they've

00:40:10.320 tried to take uh and they went to extreme measures uh to keep uh that debate under wraps by uh for the

00:40:16.640 first time that i'm aware of in alberta history ending private members business uh so that the

00:40:21.760 legislature couldn't debate uh a motion discussing independence and uh as we had him on last week uh rogue mla

00:40:28.640 uh drew barnes broke with the ucp to say no uh private members that is non-cabinet members in the

00:40:35.120 legislature and the opposition have the right to bring forward these private members motions and

00:40:39.040 private members bills and i want to discuss it uh because i support under certain certain

00:40:45.040 circumstances independence and uh and i think we should have that debate and the ucp went to

00:40:49.840 extraordinary lengths to not even have that debate so yeah i think you're right steve conservatives are

00:40:54.800 very divided on it um but as it is right now uh that party has no interest whatsoever in even

00:41:01.920 discussing the topic uh their position is that we're federalist we're going to remain federalist under

00:41:06.880 any circumstance but that we're um we're at least going to be respectful of those who disagree

00:41:12.720 uh dave what's your what's your take on where things are at i think you're right derek i think it's

00:41:17.760 on the the pot is on simmer at the moment i think there's a lot of work going on behind the scenes

00:41:23.600 uh you take the maverick party for example i'm sure jay hill is putting the miles on by

00:41:30.880 by trying to set up constituencies and get the they were looking at a 39 candidates they want

00:41:37.760 to get ready to go uh when the next election is called uh hopefully they're going to uh jay says

00:41:44.080 they hopefully they want to expand on that the longer trudeau uh holds off i think provincially yeah

00:41:50.320 i think they're just trying to stay below the radar i think what they need is another huge issue

00:41:56.000 uh that they'll come up and and uh and express their opposition maybe it is a cancellation of the uh

00:42:03.360 the keystone pipeline and uh whatnot so yeah they're just uh everybody's laying low and uh you know

00:42:09.760 checking out the territory at the moment uh we'll go to ron hi raf uh regular uh viewer there can't be any

00:42:16.800 negotiations negotiations with unions four percent rollback is a must my government did five percent

00:42:23.360 in 94. i think he's referring to ralph klein and you can't balance the budget without doing for a four

00:42:28.800 percent rollback um so i think taking a very similar position that uh well that we have said here and uh

00:42:35.920 cory morgan has said uh there just is no balancing the budget without a rollback of uh the government

00:42:40.800 unions pay um the big thing though is i think the tories have squandered a political opportunity

00:42:46.640 to cut mla pay and deal with uh this uh government union sector uh rollback at the same time that's

00:42:56.320 probably because they had no intention of doing it when they cut mla pay that was uh that was an

00:42:59.920 election promise that people liked to get mla pay brought uh to a more reasonable level and uh and so

00:43:06.960 they did that as as a standalone uh they knew it would give them some moral authority later on but

00:43:10.880 i don't think they had any intention of of a rollback at that time i think it was the collapse

00:43:14.960 in oil prices and the uh continued refusal of the alberta economy to do what they want and uh and turn

00:43:20.720 around um so but by not doing it right up front although they couldn't have done it up front because

00:43:26.960 it wasn't in their election platform uh but by not doing it up front at the same time as the mla pay cut

00:43:32.480 i think they have uh seriously damaged their ability to actually get it done uh so we're

00:43:37.280 going to see if is this just an opening position for them to try and get some concessions from the

00:43:41.040 unions who are being wildly unreasonable right now promising or threatening things like uh general

00:43:46.480 strike uh or is this something that they're intent on getting okay well uh thank you all very much for

00:43:54.800 watching um remember if you are a western standard member we thank you very much for your support

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00:44:13.680 media licensing um we we would greatly appreciate your support um again uh you know we uh ask that

00:44:22.720 even though people aren't going in large numbers to remembrance day ceremonies today

00:44:26.560 uh take uh just take a few moments to uh remember uh our fallen in particular this year uh the six men

00:44:34.080 and women who uh gave their lives in the line of duty in the canadian armed forces uh in 2020 and uh

00:44:40.800 and lost their lives please take a few moments to remember them if uh if you if you can uh thank

00:44:46.320 you very much for joining us uh dave always a pleasure try to stay warm and uh thank you all very much for

00:44:52.480 thank you all very much for your time god bless

Western Standard - November 11, 2020

The Pipeline, November 11, 2020

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