In this episode of The Pipeline, we discuss the Alberta NDP's motion condemning the Alberta independence movement, a Western Standard exclusive story on the growing influence of white supremacists in the Alberta legislature, and the AFL-CALG threatening a general strike in Alberta.
00:08:18.000All you get are private members' motions, private members' bills that come out through a lottery system.
00:08:23.720There's no ability, like in Ottawa, that you have opposition days every, you know, every two weeks or so, depending on how many seats you have.
00:08:30.680An opposition party gets to bring forward a motion of some kind for debate.
00:08:35.580It's very common that opposition parties will bring forward motions that they know are going to put a finger in the cracks of the government and try to pry that open.
00:08:44.000So I actually think this is actually kind of common in terms of it being a tactic.
00:08:48.820We did it in wild rows wherever we could, again, using our private members' motions and bills.
00:08:54.180But I think this is just different in the sense that this topic has never actually come to the floor of the Alberta legislature in a major way since we had a single Western Canada concept MLA in the 80s.
00:09:07.640And I suppose technically me, when I was pushing away, maybe a bit more moderately than this.
00:09:14.100But I think the discussions moved a fair bit more radically since my time in the legislature.
00:09:18.460But this is the first time that the two big parties in the legislature are going to potentially duel over the issue.
00:09:24.540Well, which is indicative when we're looking at probably 25% of Albertans are really looking at it.
00:09:28.640It's higher than ever, you know, depending on which poll you want to listen to.
00:09:32.400And, yeah, it shows the anti-democratic means of the NDP where they just want to slam debate shut altogether on something.
00:09:53.500The Tories are the ones who are desperate not to talk about this because this will divide them.
00:09:57.540The polling we did had between 40% and 45% of Albertans in support of independents, depending on how we ask that question.
00:10:05.680And of those, support within UCP voters who haven't already moved to one of the sovereignist parties, they were split right down the middle.
00:10:13.820There is no more dangerous issue for the Tories than this.
00:10:16.660I don't think their caucus is going to be split as evenly as their members.
00:10:19.720You know, they've got political careers to worry about, so there's more consequences to where they take.
00:10:24.860But it'll be fascinating to watch the political fallout here and if anyone else breaks ranks to vote against them, option.
00:10:39.800Right closer to where we are here in our Calgary studios, the Western Standard's Dave Naylor broke an exclusive story on Jason Kenney and some UCP operatives actively out recruiting candidates for the mayoral race in Calgary next fall.
00:10:58.680Well, Dave, why don't you let us know what was really the guts of the story that you broke yesterday?
00:11:05.680The guts of the story seem to be that Kenney and the UCP officials or other MLAs, other cabinet ministers, are desperately trying to recruit a Calgary mayoral candidate to be the voice of conservatism and run against Jeremy Farkas.
00:11:23.860Our sources tell us that the premier and Farkas don't see eye to eye.
00:11:30.900A top party source has told us that the premier personally met with former cabinet minister Gary Maher and tried to convince him to run, which Maher declined to do so.
00:11:43.760Our sources also say that UCP insiders have approached former Wild Rose leader Danielle Smith and encouraged her to run.
00:11:56.160And she told me yesterday her days in politics are over and done and her husband doesn't want her involved anymore.
00:12:03.000And you can certainly understand that.
00:12:05.380But it seems to me like there is some UCP meddling going on in the race for October 2021.
00:12:15.960And obviously the wild card is Mayor Nenshi and whether or not he's going to run again or not.
00:12:29.280I know the office of the premier refused to respond to comment on this.
00:12:35.100They have not issued a formal response other than some staffers on Twitter denying everything as we would expect them to.
00:12:42.020But still, no response from the premier's office on this.
00:12:48.420The story, as it concerns Danielle Smith, our sources line up actually with her story.
00:12:55.640That's the only place where the subject of a potential candidate lines up with what our source has said.
00:13:03.560You know, she met some people of it's been one of the worst kept secrets in Calgary for some time that there's been some effort to draft her into the race.
00:13:12.760She said she's met with some of these people who have tried to convince her like Alan Hallman, but that she has said no.
00:13:20.900And that I think at this point, I think that's going to be correct.
00:14:14.540We don't turn over mayors in Calgary very often.
00:14:16.680And it's a very influential and important and powerful position in Alberta.
00:14:21.620This is a person who's going to represent the largest city in the province.
00:14:24.940And it's looking increasingly likely that we may very well have a new mayor next year, whether Nancy doesn't run again or even if he potentially gets defeated.
00:14:33.600Because the sheen has really worn off for him.
00:14:35.660Polls are showing his supports in the toilet.
00:14:39.020I don't know if his ego could handle running and losing.
00:14:41.640He might just bail now and say family reasons and the usual things and move on.
00:14:47.780So the premier is looking at a few rough years as we're going, too.
00:14:52.740If they could get somebody cooperative into that chair in Calgary, I think they would see it as doing themselves a lot of favors going down the road.
00:15:01.080I mean, Jeremy Farkas is bright and he's conservative, libertarian leaning.
00:15:05.400He would certainly still be better, I think, than Nancy to deal with for the premier.
00:15:08.680But it's been very clear with Jeremy Farkas, he's his own man.
00:15:12.860And that is not something that a premier necessarily wants to see in the mayor's chair is somebody who will stand up and tell them to get stuffed if they don't agree, whereas somebody might be a little more inclined to be cooperative.
00:15:24.740So I don't know how hard the push is, but maybe some folks around to see if they can't find somebody who might be a little more malleable as a mayor going down the road than Jeremy Farkas.
00:15:33.320But it doesn't look like a lot of people are really biting either, because that would be a tough race.
00:15:36.700Yeah, you know, Farkas is connected to the UCP, but he comes from the Wild Rose wing and the libertarian wing.
00:15:45.260I mean, the social conservative and kind of red Tory wings and fiscal conservative wings have been, you know, fairly successfully integrated into the UCP.
00:15:54.560I think the libertarian wings, let alone the sovereignist wings, are very much wayward right now.
00:16:01.480I think, and Farkas is known pretty much to come from the libertarian side of things.
00:16:06.840In libertarians, we tend to be a much less go-along-to-get-along type.
00:16:24.280I think, you know, he'd be friendly towards Kennedy and the UCP.
00:16:27.160I think they'd align on a lot of issues.
00:16:29.700But he would form an independent power, conservative power base in the province.
00:16:34.420And that, you know, that's always a potential down-the-road political threat that you might want to snuff out.
00:16:40.640But again, we've heard nothing from the Premier's office directly on this.
00:16:45.560We know that there's been, for quite some time, shopping around for a more establishment-type Tory candidate, more of a Bill Smith type, a more conventional, button-down conservative.
00:16:58.800But, you know, especially if Ninchy's not running, or even if he is running, we know he's very vulnerable, there's an extremely good shot of Ninchy not being the mayor after this, regardless of what he decides.
00:17:12.340So I think the Tories are quite eager to have someone that is malleable to themselves there.
00:17:18.280I think they would settle for Farkas if they can't find a good candidate.
00:17:21.580He'd be a big improvement over Ninchy.
00:17:23.640Yeah, I think if, you know, if they can't find a big-name, credible candidate to go up against Farkas, my gut tells me that Tory establishment will say, fine, Farkas is good enough, we can deal with him.
00:17:36.780You know, he is definitely a conservative.
00:17:38.580He might not be as in the club as we want, but they can deal with him.
00:17:44.020So, you know, it'll be interesting to see if there is another person on the right on the ballot there.
00:17:49.180I think, I can never remember his name, but he's one of the councillors from southwest Calgary, barely sort of, more or less just due west Calgary.
00:18:21.620Okay, well, we'll move on to, when we're back towards Edmonton in the legislature area, we've got some of the big unions and labor organizations threatening a general, discussing, or more or less alluding to the threat of a general strike in Alberta.
00:18:40.600It sure must be nice to have such job security during COVID and a massive, prolonged recession that you can just walk off the job to make a political point.
00:18:54.640Dave, why don't you bring us up to date?
00:18:57.520You've had a story on the Western Standard on this today.
00:19:01.600Why don't you bring us up to date on what's going on with the potential of a general strike in Alberta?
00:19:09.120At Edmonton press conference this morning, Alberta Federation of Labor President Gil McGowan was joined by four of his colleagues from other provincial health unions.
00:19:20.360And, basically, they said, we are appealing for support from Albertans to stand up to what they say, you know, stand up to Premier Jason Kenney.
00:19:33.180McGowan said it's hoped the support will lead to province-wide protest actions and possibly a general strike.
00:19:39.860And then I really can't tell you much more because the union's Facebook feed froze.
00:19:46.320So, I'm not sure how they're going to organize a general strike when they can't even organize a Facebook feed.
00:19:52.620Well, to be fair, we've had trouble with a Facebook feed before.
00:19:55.820But we're not going to bring down the government.
00:19:58.120Well, at least not the Alberta government.
00:20:02.580I did talk with Franco Terrazoni, the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and he's disappointed to hear talk of a general strike being mentioned.
00:20:13.520He says, you know, quite correctly, you know, Albertans, there's many thousands and thousands of Albertans that would, you know, kill to get a job.
00:20:22.880And he just says by bringing down costs, health care costs, they could save billions and billions of dollars a year.
00:20:33.480So, I guess the next question is whether there is a taste out there for a general strike and whether the unions will get any public support.
00:21:55.140I don't know, I think the premier should make a very clear statement that if anyone does these wildcat strikes, they'll be fired on the spot and replaced by people who actually want a job.
00:22:06.660Well, yeah, there's a few levels of this.
00:22:08.620I can't think of too many things more profoundly stupid than to hold Albertans hostage in health care in the midst of a pandemic.
00:22:16.360And that's exactly what they're talking about doing.
00:22:18.980But, again, Gil McGowan is known for being profoundly stupid.
00:22:29.520And it should be noted, like the games they're playing.
00:22:32.140Oh, this was a spontaneous wildcat strike.
00:22:34.640Yet the head of the Alberta nurse, or no, the AUPE was standing out front at 8.30 in the morning with a podium, with a speech prepared and ready to go at one of the other Royal Alexandra Hospital, I believe it was.
00:22:45.000And it should be noted that the banner behind him also was promoting Marxism, literally, not figuratively.
00:23:11.060If it's going to be service workers and that's the hill they're looking to die on, we have a whole lot of very skilled hotel workers who know how to do laundry and clean up rooms very well.
00:23:19.980And we have a whole lot of cooks and restaurant service people who will happily take those jobs at a lesser rate than currently and take it over.
00:24:58.600MLAs can't just talk about whatever they want.
00:25:01.300They more or less have to go along with the government agenda.
00:25:03.500There is a very rare draw to get private members' motions and bills.
00:25:08.980So even if you wanted to – although there are a few tools like emergency debates that opposition parties can use to try and force things onto the agenda.
00:27:24.880And I can certainly appreciate that criticism.
00:27:28.020But as for, you know, some of our best independent-minded people actually were from other provinces or even other countries who have come out here.
00:27:46.120That if you're not born in Alberta, then you're not a real Albertan, and you shouldn't be talking about Alberta issues.
00:27:51.440That's something that the left tends to say, not understanding that, you know, we're not – the right in Alberta is not particularly prone to birtherism.
00:28:00.740We don't really care where you're from.
00:30:36.960You know, very boring in the sense that what we predicted was going to happen with the Saskatchewan party happened.
00:30:41.840It was just an absolute blitz over the NDP.
00:30:44.700Dave, before we go to Corey, do we have any sense yet of, has there been any update yet on Ryan Miley's seat?
00:30:58.820Because if he does not manage to hold on, and he was down, I think, from at least the ballot box votes, there's going to be a lot of mail-in votes, obviously, to come.
00:31:09.340But if he does lose, that'll be a hat trick for the NDP.
00:31:11.260He'll be the third NDP leader in a row to lose his seat.
00:31:13.920Just an absolutely wretched title for the NDP to achieve, a hat trick of losing their leaders in elections.
00:31:22.400Do we have any update yet on what's happening with that?
00:31:27.820I'm assuming all the mail-in votes will be announced at one time, and we're not going to get a running total until they've all been tabulated.
00:31:38.020Yeah, the, you know, the Western Standard, we, our news department, run by Dave, tries to, we keep with established journalistic principles and editorial controls.
00:31:52.520You know, we are alternative media, but we try to keep to a standard that would be recognizable in the mainstream media.
00:32:01.520But I think where we're very different is we focus our attention on areas that are ignored in the West, on issues and people and groups that are ignored.
00:32:10.420So we, we spend maybe a disproportionate amount of time talking about smaller parties, smaller movements, if it looks like there's, you know, a potential for that to grow in the future.
00:32:20.280Um, the mainstream media in Saskatchewan that I was watching, uh, almost entirely ignored the Buffalo Party, uh, spend more time on the Green Party leader, uh, in the Green Party in Saskatchewan than the Buffalo Party.
00:32:35.280The Buffalo Party ran in, uh, the Green Party, I think, ran in, uh, most, but not all ridings.
00:32:41.120Uh, the PCs ran in roughly 25, I might be mistaken.
00:33:33.820Well, and because it was such a blow for the Sask Party, there's really only so much you want to discuss on it.
00:33:39.700Uh, we might as well look at the up and comers, look at the close races, look at the things that perhaps are outstanding or indicative of future trends.
00:33:46.160And, uh, yeah, the NDP's trend is terrible.
00:33:49.680It's, it's, it's quite a blow to them.
00:33:51.500If they lose their leader, even, it might have to go into a leadership race potentially, or have a leader outside of the house as they try to serve in opposition.
00:33:57.640Uh, but the Buffalo Party is worth mentioning because as we said, now this was a party that's brand new.
00:34:03.500They, they got registered in March, I believe they ran 17 candidates on a shoestring.
00:34:09.500I mean, when I led the Alberta Independence Party into, uh, the 2020 election, uh, our founding convention, they called the election, uh, two weeks after that, or not 2020, 2000 election.
00:34:28.440I mean, they didn't threaten on any of these seats, but they were the strong second choice and that can change and that can grow.
00:34:35.000Uh, so they're the force on the flank.
00:34:37.340I, I also know though, that between elections is the hardest time of all for alternative parties, whether it was back when we were at the Alberta Alliance or Wildrose to try and raise funds, try and keep people together.
00:34:47.800There, there, there's that post-election hangover, there's being tired.
00:34:50.760So seeing how well they can hold it together and organize now when they got a four year run before they can really take another swipe at it will be, will be interesting to watch.
00:35:00.720Uh, really the only time I've seen the Buffalo Party in a headline on any of the news aggregators was, uh, yesterday, Tuesday with the surprising result of the Buffalo Party.
00:35:14.180You know, not, not, not, uh, you know, we shouldn't flog it too much.
00:35:17.800They're just a little under 3%, but 3% when you run an only, uh, 17, 17 ridings, you know, uh, roughly a third or a quarter of a constituencies.
00:35:28.140That's, that's a significant, uh, heartbeat that they're showing.
00:35:31.480It's not a breakthrough, but it's a heartbeat that they're showing and it's, it's got the potential to go.
00:35:35.520Although I think, you know, those kinds of Western solomonas parties are going to have a harder time catching on outside of Alberta because for, for the, for the idea.
00:35:44.180To be even vaguely plausible, Alberta kind of has to be the first has to kind of lead it.
00:35:49.200And so for Saskatchewan or anyone else to be a part of it, uh, I think very much it's seen as they have to go in conjunction with or following Alberta.
00:35:58.260So it's, it's a harder case to make, but the Buffalo party, you know, talked about a lot of other stuff.
00:36:02.800It was, uh, they pulled a lot of pages out of Jason Kenney's book with the fair deal, uh, but also going much further and much more aggressively about taking control, uh, provincial control over areas that have fallen to the federal government.
00:37:25.760And that's, that's what all the polls, uh, pointed to.
00:37:28.540I, I think we're really in the era of the incumbent.
00:37:31.180Uh, this began in New Brunswick where the PCs called a snap election.
00:37:35.520Um, you know, in most places, uh, government's popularities have gone up with COVID.
00:37:42.420I think it's a part of the human tendency to rally around the flag, rally around the strong leader that, you know, and understand the W, you know, in times of crisis.
00:38:16.760Uh, I think he's quite happy to do it.
00:38:18.800Um, so I, I think this is increasingly, uh, and I'm hearing, uh, from sources I've gotten in the Ontario PC party that Doug Ford, uh, maybe we'll have to dig up a story on this.
00:38:31.660Um, but I, I've, I've got some, uh, fairly good sources in the Ontario PC party that Doug Ford is considering going, uh, early.
00:38:38.800Although he would be going wildly early.
00:38:41.920It would be wickedly, um, uh, uh, opportunistic for him to do it.
00:38:49.140But, you know, he, he's riding high in the polls after being very, very low.
00:38:52.420I think we're in the age of the incumbent.
00:38:54.900Um, what do you see is, do you think there's any real impact, uh, from the change, the change in the configuration of the government in BC?
00:39:05.240Uh, you know, it's, it's just a, he went from a majority to a stronger one.
00:39:08.680Uh, if anything, I mean, it was a government that was starting to get more pragmatic, uh, after it being wagged by the green, uh, you know, party for a few years there.
00:39:17.440And, and, uh, so, I mean, as with Notley, who wasn't a hard, hard left while she was in, I mean, in our eyes, it certainly was.
00:39:24.440But as far as NDP philosophy goes, you know, she was somewhat pragmatic, uh, to that degree and had to back off on her anti pipeline feelings and things like that.
00:39:32.740Uh, in BC now we've got an incumbent NDP government that's going to be in for yet another term.
00:39:37.740Uh, they're just going to be very similar to where they were before and won't have many clashes.
00:39:42.740It is that temptation for, for Trudeau and others to strike while the iron's hot on these things, perhaps though, and reestablish, uh, their majorities.
00:39:50.740Uh, people get crabby when they get an early election, but you know what, a week later, it's forgotten.
00:40:09.500Well, let's, uh, we'll kind of come back to comments here.
00:40:12.500Um, Mike, uh, Kennelly, what are your thoughts on the effect Biden would have on Canada if he wins?
00:40:20.500Uh, well, I'll put it out to you guys first.
00:40:23.500Well, he's already said he'll, uh, cancel the Keystone XL pipeline.
00:40:29.500And obviously that's got thousands and thousands of Alberta jobs at risk.
00:40:33.500Uh, Premier Kennedy has said that if Biden does win, he will be, you know, lobbying the hell out of them, uh, to try and show them the benefits, uh, uh, to the United States of the, the pipeline.
00:40:45.500But that's the biggest threat that, uh, uh, Western Canada is, uh, is facing if, uh, if Biden is elected.
00:40:53.500No, that, that's, you know, says it, I mean, whether he follows through again, we know it's one thing to say it when you're campaigning though.
00:40:59.500And we'll see what happens if he wins.
00:41:01.500Uh, because it, that thing is pretty much built.
00:41:03.500I mean, it's just a matter of opening the tap at the border.
00:41:05.500And I can't imagine some of the lawsuits and pressures that are going to come from the investors who put into this pipe campaign promise or not to have you suddenly turn around and they're not just going to let this go.
00:41:59.500Uh, my feeling is that this stuff is just kind of trying to keep his more radical green base on side.
00:42:05.500Uh, and he may try to veto it, but at the end of the day, uh, the pipes already mostly laid, uh, for him to, to veto this at this point would open them up to massive, massive lawsuits.
00:42:16.500And, you know, he might, he might pull the John Horgan, do what he can politically to kill it, lose in court and say, Hey guys, I tried.
00:42:41.500So from Doug code, if Alberta decides to collect their own taxes, that mean all the transfer payments have to go through the Alberta government to get to the federal government first.
00:42:48.500Well, so yeah, there's, and there's a lot of the equalization program and transfer payments.
00:42:53.500I mean, it's a big complex, ugly formula.
00:42:55.500Uh, the left likes fighting us saying they never actually write a check to Ottawa for equalization.
00:42:59.500Yeah, I know technically that's not what happens, but what happens is we all get overtaxed like crazy and Ottawa doesn't send us nearly as many services back through a number of transfer schemes as what we paid out.
00:43:11.500Uh, one of the areas we could collect our own taxes is like with Quebec where it's a single return rather than two.
00:43:16.500They collect the funds and then they remit to Ottawa, but Quebec remits, they don't hold on.
00:43:22.500No, no, no, Quebec doesn't do that yet.
00:43:36.500There, Ottawa still directly collects federal taxes and Quebec collects provincial taxes.
00:43:41.500Um, Quebec has asked for the right to just have a single, uh, income tax and business tax, uh, form and that they would remit the difference to Ottawa.
00:43:49.500The conservative party of Canada has said that they support this.
00:43:54.500Uh, Quebec would have no right, uh, no reason to hold anything back.
00:43:57.500Cause if they didn't send their share to Ottawa, well, they get far more from Ottawa than they get back.
00:44:02.500So Ottawa would say, fine, keep the money.
00:44:04.500We're just not going to send you as much done.
00:44:06.500Very different in the case of Alberta where we sent far, far more to Ottawa when we get back.
00:44:11.500So there's kind of two parts to your, your, your question, Doug, uh, if Alberta collected its own taxes, no, they wouldn't, uh, federal taxes would not come through.
00:44:20.500Um, but if Alberta was granted the same rights as the conservatives want to grant to Quebec, uh, then, uh, Alberta would then cut a check to Ottawa.
00:44:31.500And that is, that would provide a huge point of leverage for Alberta.
00:44:35.500If, if we're, uh, you know, if Ottawa was trying to shake us down, we'd say, fine.
00:44:39.500Uh, checks in the mail, let us know when you get it.
00:44:47.500From, from Julie Houston and I'll address your second question there quickly while I'm at it too.
00:44:50.500She, she mentioned something a bit personal, but worth it mentioning, but yeah.
00:44:54.500And instead of punishing in this case, lower income workers who took part in a strike, could we punish the union leadership?
00:44:59.500I fear many of the people who participated did not really understand the implications, what they're doing and possibly were misled by the leadership.
00:45:05.500And I think there is a degree of that.
00:45:21.500If it was actually union organized, these are actually considered essential workers and the unions could get in a great deal of trouble.
00:45:28.500And come on, it's baloney that these people actually just spontaneously all up and walked out all over the province at the same time.
00:45:33.500There was a core of organization, but you'd have to prove it was the unions.
00:45:37.500But because of that degree of separation too, we can't talk about punishing the unions because technically the unions had nothing to do with those walkouts.
00:45:46.500Uh, it is these workers who are going to pay in the end.
00:45:49.500And that's where the workers have to speak up, uh, to their own union leadership, uh, then, and tell them, you know what, we're willing to take wage concessions or perhaps negotiate some other things to keep these jobs in house.
00:46:01.500Because right now it's just not an option.
00:46:03.500But I'll just follow up quickly because Julie did mention it.
00:46:06.500I got that message earlier today about, uh, some folks who listen, they might know he was a social media character.
00:46:11.500He's been a conservative, uh, worker and activist on campaigns and, and, uh, a friend.
00:46:16.500Uh, he kind of dropped off the radar a few years ago.
00:46:18.500He moved to the Philippines with a wife.
00:46:22.500And, uh, he really liked to stir things up online and, and he's very gravely ill right now.
00:46:29.500I, I have to admit I was floored when I saw the pictures of poor Richard out there in the Philippines.
00:46:33.500He's in intensive care and it looks pretty grim.
00:46:37.500Uh, but we can always hope for the best, uh, the, the, the praying sorts of people, please, you know, uh, send Richard a prayer and we'll hope that, uh, he can manage to come out of this.
00:46:47.500Are you asking people to pray on behalf of your heathen ass?
00:46:50.500Those who are into the praying thing and I will send a note to the spaghetti monster.
00:46:54.500But, uh, yeah, poor, poor Richard is in terrible shape.
00:46:57.500And I, I really appreciate him as a friend and, and everything he's done for upper politics.
00:47:01.500Everyone's an atheist until you get sick.
00:47:03.500Well, so, uh, let's, uh, hope for the best for Richard there.
00:47:07.500And, uh, yeah, well, that's the best I can do is give a shout out to Richard.
00:47:33.500And when I was Canadian taxpayers federation, uh, we were discussing equalization and fairness and whatnot.
00:47:39.500Uh, but the independence movement really, really was in the basement at the time.
00:47:44.500You know, there's good people who were involved, but they were, uh, there would have been probably half a dozen serious activists in the province at the time.
00:47:51.500It was really just on the back burner.
00:47:53.500It was, I think, with the election of Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau that it really came again to the fore.
00:47:58.500Uh, and since Justin Trudeau's reelection kind of morphed into a more credible, organized movement.
00:48:03.500Uh, so I, I'm not sure it's fair to, there's a lot I like to blame Prentice for.
00:48:07.500I'm, uh, very much not his biggest fan, but, uh, I'm not sure it's fair to put him on there.
00:48:12.500But I think more to the point about Kenny.
00:48:15.500Well, for one, Kenny didn't campaign on an independence platform.
00:48:19.500So it's still at that point unfair to expect him to put something forward like that.
00:48:23.500Those of us who came to the conclusion that independence is a better option and impatience is difficult.
00:49:51.500Well, I know we've got other questions and comments, but, uh, we can't take every single one every day, but, uh, we, we appreciate everybody who's participated.
00:49:59.500Everyone who's tuned in, uh, if you're not yet a member of the Western standard, please go to Western standard online.com and go to membership, uh, for just a few bucks a month.
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00:51:01.500Uh, I'm Derek Phil, the brand publisher of the Western standard.
00:51:03.500Thank you, Corey, uh, podcast editor and columnist and Dave Naylor, news editor of the Western standard and reporter extraordinaire.
00:51:11.500Thank you very much for joining us today.