Western Standard - The Pipeline October 28, 2020

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:59.980 Also from an undisclosed location in...

00:02:03.980 Oh.

00:02:04.460 Hi, I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.

00:02:09.060 Welcome to The Pipeline.

00:02:11.240 I'm joined today by Corey Morgan, columnist and podcast editor of the Western Standard,

00:02:16.560 and from an undisclosed location somewhere in Calgary, is news editor Dave Naylor.

00:02:22.480 How are you guys doing?

00:02:24.240 Good to see you guys.

00:02:25.380 Very good.

00:02:26.820 All right.

00:02:27.140 Well, we have the microphones on now.

00:02:28.360 That helps.

00:02:28.920 Yes.

00:02:30.380 Well, we're going to be going through a few very timely topics today.

00:02:35.000 We've got very interesting news out of Edmonton.

00:02:39.720 The NDP have introduced a motion condemning the Alberta independence movement in no uncertain

00:02:48.760 terms.

00:02:49.240 We'll be discussing that.

00:02:50.340 We're going to be discussing an exclusive Western Standard story from Dave Naylor on Alberta

00:02:58.060 Premier Jason Kenney and UCP operatives actively recruiting candidates for the Calgary mayoral

00:03:04.080 race.

00:03:04.440 We will be discussing threats from some of the public sector unions and the AFL that are

00:03:12.600 threatening a general strike, and how fun that will be.

00:03:16.240 We'll be discussing it.

00:03:17.480 And, of course, takeaways from the Saskatchewan election.

00:03:20.380 We had a live broadcast on that as it happened Monday, but we'll break it down.

00:03:24.660 Actually, we'll probably get into British Columbia as well with some of our takeaways there since

00:03:28.620 that was over the weekend.

00:03:29.560 But let's bring it back to our first topic right here in Alberta, the Alberta legislature

00:03:35.340 voting on an anti-independence motion that will be likely happening on Monday afternoon.

00:03:41.320 Dave, why don't you tee it up for us?

00:03:43.600 Derek, this is a story that's just broken in the last hour on the Western Standard website.

00:03:49.860 Basically, what it is is an NDP motion likely to be debated on Monday that's calling for

00:03:55.960 the legislature to denunciate the independence movement in Alberta.

00:04:00.800 It's brought forward by Edmonton Ellerslie, NDP, MLA, Rod Lalloya.

00:04:07.820 And I'll just read what it says.

00:04:09.880 It's only one sentence long.

00:04:11.960 Be it resolved, the Legislative Assembly affirm that it is unquestionably in Alberta's interest

00:04:18.040 to remain part of the Canadian Federation and unequivocally denounce calls for Alberta to

00:04:24.180 become a state that is independent of a strong and united Canada.

00:04:32.000 So that's going to stir up some debate, obviously.

00:04:35.060 Premier Kenney has always said he's a Canadian patriot.

00:04:37.920 But others, including some people of his own UCP caucus, have said that independence needs

00:04:43.960 to be on the table if we're ever going to get a fair deal out of Ottawa.

00:04:48.920 That's what UCP MLA Drew Barnes said in June when he wrote a dissenting report.

00:04:54.560 And that's basically what he told me about half an hour ago, Derek, when I got him by phone

00:04:59.240 as he was driving into Edmonton.

00:05:01.140 He says the motion comes as no surprise to him.

00:05:05.200 And he says until there are possible consequences on the table, Alberta is not going to get any

00:05:12.800 fairer deal in Confederation.

00:05:16.420 Thank you very much, Dave.

00:05:18.420 No surprise that Drew Barnes is continuing to maybe not march the party beat on this one.

00:05:26.040 This coming from Rod Loyola, which is which is interesting, although often this is done

00:05:34.160 in their names because it comes in a lottery for these kinds of private members motions.

00:05:37.940 And then the party kind of takes it from you.

00:05:42.340 Do you think there's like I think we can assume that Drew Barnes is not going to be voting

00:05:49.620 the party line.

00:05:51.160 The party line is almost certainly going to be to vote with the NDP on this one.

00:05:54.940 Might technically be a free vote, but there'll be a lot of pressure to vote with the government

00:06:00.000 against the or with the NDP on the motion.

00:06:04.580 Corey, do you think that there could be anyone besides Barnes who might not make this a unanimous

00:06:10.640 vote?

00:06:11.260 I don't know.

00:06:11.760 I'd have to study the caucus a little more closely, I guess.

00:06:14.920 It depends on who has cabinet aspirations and a number of other items with that sort of

00:06:19.040 thing.

00:06:19.260 But it's just a pure political posturing gotcha play.

00:06:23.040 It's a smart one.

00:06:23.840 It's divide and conquer.

00:06:25.680 It forces them to, you know, the denunciation game.

00:06:28.580 I get tired of it.

00:06:29.700 You know, let's waste the legislature's time and have everybody vote to denounce white supremacy. 0.99

00:06:33.860 Okay.

00:06:35.020 But nobody was really supporting it.

00:06:36.620 But now if you don't take part in that debate, that means you must actually support it.

00:06:41.580 You know, to be fair, I think this is a bit different.

00:06:44.720 I don't think there are any white supremacists in the legislature.

00:06:47.380 And they're not a significant political force in Alberta.

00:06:49.840 If you listen to Black Lives Matter, we are innately actually.

00:06:51.760 Yeah.

00:06:52.000 Well, of course, everyone's a white supremacist to these guys.

00:06:54.400 But, you know, I think this is a bit different.

00:06:56.900 Like, there's no white supremacists in the legislature.

00:06:58.740 There is at least one supremacist that we know of, Drew Barnes.

00:07:01.460 There could be a few others hiding in there who haven't yet kind of grown the gonads to speak out.

00:07:09.000 The legislature is on this.

00:07:10.800 Do I think it's a good use of its time?

00:07:12.640 I'm not so convinced.

00:07:14.320 But I think it is still pretty different from these kind of systemic racism, everybody's evil person kind of motions.

00:07:21.340 Because there are solverists in the legislature. 0.94

00:07:23.060 I think it's a good thing that there are.

00:07:24.280 And actually, the NDP might be doing almost a favor to the movement unintentionally by giving it more airtime and letting it be heard.

00:07:32.640 Well, perhaps.

00:07:33.300 And if you want to play the game, and it is a game.

00:07:35.340 And as I said earlier when we were talking, well, let's have a counter motion.

00:07:38.060 I don't want to waste more legislature time.

00:07:39.440 I just think it would be ironic and appropriate.

00:07:41.280 Let's also have a motion to denounce Hugo Chavez, who Loyola found himself quite endeared to.

00:07:46.820 Perhaps even Castro, who Jagmeet Singh was mourning when he passed.

00:07:50.740 First, you know, let's have everybody motion whether or not we support communists and extreme socialists.

00:07:56.460 Because it puts them in that sort of exact same sort of spot.

00:07:59.960 Let's move on to policy in the legislature rather than these gotcha games.

00:08:03.160 But it's political gamemanship.

00:08:04.840 It'll be effective, as you said.

00:08:06.080 It divides and it forces a lot of tough questions for people in the legislature to answer to this.

00:08:10.940 Well, this is the kind of thing that, you know, opposition, even federally, has very little say over the legislative agenda.

00:08:15.900 In Alberta, it has virtually nothing.

00:08:18.000 All you get are private members' motions, private members' bills that come out through a lottery system.

00:08:23.720 There'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.

00:08:30.680 An opposition party gets to bring forward a motion of some kind for debate.

00:08:35.580 It'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.

00:08:44.000 So I actually think this is actually kind of common in terms of it being a tactic.

00:08:48.820 We did it in wild rows wherever we could, again, using our private members' motions and bills.

00:08:54.180 But 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.

00:09:07.640 And I suppose technically me, when I was pushing away, maybe a bit more moderately than this.

00:09:14.100 But I think the discussions moved a fair bit more radically since my time in the legislature.

00:09:18.460 But this is the first time that the two big parties in the legislature are going to potentially duel over the issue.

00:09:24.540 Well, which is indicative when we're looking at probably 25% of Albertans are really looking at it.

00:09:28.640 It's higher than ever, you know, depending on which poll you want to listen to.

00:09:32.400 And, yeah, it shows the anti-democratic means of the NDP where they just want to slam debate shut altogether on something.

00:09:38.860 Close that door. 0.89

00:09:39.680 Call it extreme.

00:09:41.080 That's a large chunk of the province.

00:09:42.800 You're telling that we shouldn't even discuss what they're thinking about.

00:09:45.720 On paper, the NDP are trying to shut it down.

00:09:48.700 But at the same time, funny enough, they're the ones bringing it up.

00:09:51.340 Oh, they want to inflame it.

00:09:52.340 They do.

00:09:53.500 The Tories are the ones who are desperate not to talk about this because this will divide them.

00:09:57.540 The polling we did had between 40% and 45% of Albertans in support of independents, depending on how we ask that question.

00:10:05.680 And of those, support within UCP voters who haven't already moved to one of the sovereignist parties, they were split right down the middle.

00:10:13.820 There is no more dangerous issue for the Tories than this.

00:10:16.660 I don't think their caucus is going to be split as evenly as their members.

00:10:19.720 You know, they've got political careers to worry about, so there's more consequences to where they take.

00:10:24.860 But it'll be fascinating to watch the political fallout here and if anyone else breaks ranks to vote against them, option.

00:10:36.720 Okay, well, let's move on.

00:10:39.800 Right 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.

00:10:58.680 Well, Dave, why don't you let us know what was really the guts of the story that you broke yesterday?

00:11:05.680 The 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.

00:11:23.860 Our sources tell us that the premier and Farkas don't see eye to eye.

00:11:30.900 A 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.

00:11:43.760 Our sources also say that UCP insiders have approached former Wild Rose leader Danielle Smith and encouraged her to run.

00:11:56.160 And she told me yesterday her days in politics are over and done and her husband doesn't want her involved anymore.

00:12:03.000 And you can certainly understand that.

00:12:05.380 But it seems to me like there is some UCP meddling going on in the race for October 2021.

00:12:15.960 And obviously the wild card is Mayor Nenshi and whether or not he's going to run again or not.

00:12:21.280 Yeah, thanks, Dave.

00:12:24.780 Thanks, Dave.

00:12:25.600 It's an interesting story.

00:12:29.280 I know the office of the premier refused to respond to comment on this.

00:12:35.100 They have not issued a formal response other than some staffers on Twitter denying everything as we would expect them to.

00:12:42.020 But still, no response from the premier's office on this.

00:12:48.420 The story, as it concerns Danielle Smith, our sources line up actually with her story.

00:12:55.640 That's the only place where the subject of a potential candidate lines up with what our source has said.

00:13:03.560 You 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.

00:13:12.760 She said she's met with some of these people who have tried to convince her like Alan Hallman, but that she has said no.

00:13:20.900 And that I think at this point, I think that's going to be correct.

00:13:25.660 Although things could change.

00:13:26.960 But I think that's going to stand.

00:13:28.560 But it's on the Gary Marr side.

00:13:30.240 He denied meeting with Kenny.

00:13:33.120 Again, we've heard nothing from the office of the premier on the topic.

00:13:36.260 But Marr himself has denied meeting with Kenny.

00:13:38.680 And but I know, you know, this kind of insider source, you'll just never get the news unless you protect anonymity.

00:13:47.340 And I know that can be frustrating and often abused by media.

00:13:50.760 But this is a source that went through some pretty strong vetting with us to make sure this was a credible source.

00:13:57.900 And this source spoke with Marr himself.

00:14:00.700 And Marr told him that Kenny sat down personally to meet with him to discuss this.

00:14:04.240 Corey, why do you think this is all really going on?

00:14:10.120 Well, this is going to be, I think, a watershed election.

00:14:13.480 We don't see that often.

00:14:14.540 We don't turn over mayors in Calgary very often.

00:14:16.680 And it's a very influential and important and powerful position in Alberta.

00:14:21.620 This is a person who's going to represent the largest city in the province.

00:14:24.940 And 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.

00:14:33.600 Because the sheen has really worn off for him.

00:14:35.660 Polls are showing his supports in the toilet.

00:14:39.020 I don't know if his ego could handle running and losing.

00:14:41.640 He might just bail now and say family reasons and the usual things and move on.

00:14:46.300 He's had a good run.

00:14:47.780 So the premier is looking at a few rough years as we're going, too.

00:14:52.740 If 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.

00:15:01.080 I mean, Jeremy Farkas is bright and he's conservative, libertarian leaning.

00:15:05.400 He would certainly still be better, I think, than Nancy to deal with for the premier.

00:15:08.680 But it's been very clear with Jeremy Farkas, he's his own man.

00:15:12.860 And 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.

00:15:24.740 So 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.

00:15:33.320 But it doesn't look like a lot of people are really biting either, because that would be a tough race.

00:15:36.700 Yeah, you know, Farkas is connected to the UCP, but he comes from the Wild Rose wing and the libertarian wing.

00:15:45.260 I mean, the social conservative and kind of red Tory wings and fiscal conservative wings have been, you know, fairly successfully integrated into the UCP.

00:15:54.560 I think the libertarian wings, let alone the sovereignist wings, are very much wayward right now.

00:16:01.480 I think, and Farkas is known pretty much to come from the libertarian side of things.

00:16:06.840 In libertarians, we tend to be a much less go-along-to-get-along type.

00:16:13.500 We can be a stick-in-the-mud.

00:16:15.680 We're not great team players.

00:16:16.780 We're not the best team players.

00:16:18.760 Yeah, I think that's fair to say.

00:16:22.720 And yeah, he is his own man.

00:16:24.280 I think, you know, he'd be friendly towards Kennedy and the UCP.

00:16:27.160 I think they'd align on a lot of issues.

00:16:29.700 But he would form an independent power, conservative power base in the province.

00:16:34.420 And that, you know, that's always a potential down-the-road political threat that you might want to snuff out.

00:16:40.640 But again, we've heard nothing from the Premier's office directly on this.

00:16:45.560 We 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.

00:16:56.780 We saw that one.

00:16:57.900 Yeah, yeah.

00:16:58.800 But, 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.

00:17:12.340 So I think the Tories are quite eager to have someone that is malleable to themselves there.

00:17:18.280 I think they would settle for Farkas if they can't find a good candidate. 1.00

00:17:21.580 He'd be a big improvement over Ninchy.

00:17:23.640 Yeah, 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.

00:17:36.780 You know, he is definitely a conservative.

00:17:38.580 He might not be as in the club as we want, but they can deal with him.

00:17:44.020 So, you know, it'll be interesting to see if there is another person on the right on the ballot there.

00:17:49.180 I 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.

00:17:59.920 Ethan Davidson?

00:18:02.420 The name escapes me.

00:18:03.860 Either way, the candidate must not have great name recognition.

00:18:06.620 But there's a lot of pressure on him.

00:18:08.340 He's considered to be actively exploring right now.

00:18:12.220 We'll see how far it goes.

00:18:13.220 But, I mean, I think it'd be interesting to see a Farkas and Ninchy showdown. 1.00

00:18:17.900 That'd be a pretty good contrast.

00:18:21.620 Okay, 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.

00:18:40.600 It 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.

00:18:54.640 Dave, why don't you bring us up to date?

00:18:57.520 You've had a story on the Western Standard on this today.

00:19:01.600 Why don't you bring us up to date on what's going on with the potential of a general strike in Alberta?

00:19:06.220 Yes, Derek.

00:19:09.120 At Edmonton press conference this morning, Alberta Federation of Labor President Gil McGowan was joined by four of his colleagues from other provincial health unions.

00:19:20.360 And, 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.

00:19:33.180 McGowan said it's hoped the support will lead to province-wide protest actions and possibly a general strike.

00:19:39.860 And then I really can't tell you much more because the union's Facebook feed froze.

00:19:46.320 So, I'm not sure how they're going to organize a general strike when they can't even organize a Facebook feed.

00:19:52.620 Well, to be fair, we've had trouble with a Facebook feed before.

00:19:55.820 But we're not going to bring down the government.

00:19:58.120 Well, at least not the Alberta government.

00:19:59.760 That is true.

00:20:02.580 I 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.

00:20:13.520 He 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.

00:20:22.880 And he just says by bringing down costs, health care costs, they could save billions and billions of dollars a year.

00:20:33.480 So, 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.

00:20:42.500 Yeah, it's quite something.

00:20:45.840 And these are, so far, these have been wildcat strikes, which have been ruled by the Labor Board to be illegal.

00:20:52.880 You know, this is an opportunity for Kennedy to, I think, really step up and show some leadership.

00:20:59.320 The budget is completely, completely killed right now.

00:21:03.180 They have no chance of balancing the budget.

00:21:07.800 Even before the collapse of oil and COVID, they were, by my projections, not going to balance the budget on time.

00:21:13.500 Now, they're not even in the right universe.

00:21:15.880 They're really up the creek.

00:21:17.080 If these are illegal wildcat strikes, they should just, they should rule that they will fire on the spot anyone who does this.

00:21:25.160 Our hospitals now are over 100% capacity in some areas, which is damaging our ability to deal with COVID.

00:21:32.600 If COVID is this great crisis, then clearly everybody should be on deck.

00:21:36.200 If you have problems with the government, you can express yourself.

00:21:39.340 You can speak out.

00:21:40.800 You can strike legally in most cases.

00:21:43.400 But, you know, health care workers cannot. 0.67

00:21:47.680 They are, they're like the military.

00:21:49.800 They are an essential service.

00:21:51.440 And people can die if they do it.

00:21:53.680 It's wildly irresponsible.

00:21:55.140 I 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.

00:22:06.660 Well, yeah, there's a few levels of this. 0.94

00:22:08.620 I can't think of too many things more profoundly stupid than to hold Albertans hostage in health care in the midst of a pandemic. 0.99

00:22:16.360 And that's exactly what they're talking about doing. 1.00

00:22:18.980 But, again, Gil McGowan is known for being profoundly stupid. 1.00

00:22:21.640 So this doesn't shock me. 1.00

00:22:22.980 And it's, the battle lines are being drawn, though.

00:22:27.380 We have a big showdown coming.

00:22:29.520 And it should be noted, like the games they're playing.

00:22:32.140 Oh, this was a spontaneous wildcat strike.

00:22:34.640 Yet 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.

00:22:45.000 And it should be noted that the banner behind him also was promoting Marxism, literally, not figuratively.

00:22:49.740 It said Marxism at the bottom of it.

00:22:51.680 These guys are coming out.

00:22:55.020 And it's time to push back.

00:22:56.540 This is the time.

00:22:57.760 We're going broke.

00:22:58.740 We can't afford this.

00:22:59.740 I mean, in the private sector, we're just seeing we're going to be losing thousands more oil field jobs in downtown Calgary.

00:23:04.980 The restaurant sector is decimated.

00:23:07.220 The hospitality sector is decimated.

00:23:10.180 And you know what?

00:23:11.060 If 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.

00:23:19.980 And 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. 0.99

00:23:28.780 So you know what?

00:23:29.480 Bring it on.

00:23:30.160 It's time.

00:23:30.720 Let's get this out of the way then because we've got to reform our system.

00:23:33.900 Dave, have we had any reaction from the provincial government to the threat of this action and a potential general strike?

00:23:45.080 Not that I've seen, Derek.

00:23:46.620 There may be.

00:23:47.300 But I've been a little busy today.

00:23:50.780 So I will be updating the story throughout the afternoon.

00:23:54.540 And if they do make a statement, we'll definitely put it in there.

00:23:58.660 Great.

00:23:59.540 Well, we're going to go into the fallout from both the Saskatchewan and B.C. elections.

00:24:04.760 But before that, maybe we'll go through some of the comments.

00:24:07.640 We appreciate everybody sharing their thoughts and questions with us.

00:24:14.260 Why don't you lead our comment section here?

00:24:18.000 What do you got?

00:24:18.900 Julie Houston, yeah, saying, you know, do we not have more important things to debate in the legislature?

00:24:22.900 And she's right.

00:24:24.380 And, you know, we kind of cover that at the start.

00:24:26.160 We do.

00:24:26.940 And there are bigger things.

00:24:28.560 But as Derek also said, there's limited tools in the toolbox for opposition parties.

00:24:32.820 And this is one of the ones that can be used.

00:24:35.200 So we've just got to kind of hold your nose and endure it.

00:24:37.340 And we'll get back on to debating and putting bills forward.

00:24:41.120 Yeah.

00:24:43.520 I suppose a different take on it from Cheryl Wiseman says, how about a vote on independence?

00:24:49.220 And I'll be more interested.

00:24:50.300 So rather than, you know, the NDP's motion, which is a vote against it, let's have a motion on it.

00:24:56.120 Well, that's difficult.

00:24:58.600 MLAs can't just talk about whatever they want. 0.98

00:25:01.300 They more or less have to go along with the government agenda.

00:25:03.500 There is a very rare draw to get private members' motions and bills.

00:25:08.980 So 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.

00:25:16.140 It doesn't normally work, but –

00:25:17.960 Well, that would give them an out, because, you know, even if we're going to look at the Clarity Act, then it has to go to referent.

00:25:23.160 I mean, it gives members a reason to say, look, I can't vote for a pro-independence thing in the legislature at this point.

00:25:28.560 But there's also no pro-independence party in the legislature to bring it forward right now.

00:25:32.900 There's one Federalist party and one hyper-Federalist party.

00:25:38.480 So I'm not really sure.

00:25:42.060 You know, I think if Drew Barnes brought forward an independence motion, he'd probably get kicked out.

00:25:46.800 You'd have an independence party in there after that.

00:25:48.800 I think then we'd see at least one member.

00:25:53.740 I can tell you how well that goes.

00:25:54.980 But, you know, yeah, nothing so far.

00:25:58.220 Well, yeah, Mac's covering it there.

00:26:03.360 You know, Mac Cummings, Albertans are fed up with the terribly unfair treatment.

00:26:06.640 I should read these out.

00:26:07.400 Some people follow the podcast as well.

00:26:09.760 That the Eastern elites have taken advantage of Alberta and expect Alberta to do the work and pay the bills for all of Canada. 0.98

00:26:14.740 And, yeah, Albertans more and more are getting fed up.

00:26:17.380 I mean, we go through this year after year after year and just nothing changes.

00:26:21.320 So the independence movement, I mean, we can draw the lines in the sand.

00:26:25.280 We can posture over it as we are right now.

00:26:28.580 But it is slowly but surely growing as people hit the end of their rope with this status quo.

00:26:33.200 And then it's not going away.

00:26:36.920 Yeah.

00:26:39.240 Steven Magusiak.

00:26:43.700 I almost certainly got that wrong.

00:26:47.220 Says Franco, I think Franco Terrazano, is a very real job and should be listened to.

00:26:51.300 I agree.

00:26:51.980 I used to have that job.

00:26:53.140 Yes.

00:26:53.340 It's a very real job.

00:26:55.280 And it should be listened to.

00:26:56.640 Very much agree.

00:27:01.180 So from Bill Dilcox, is that why we have a premier from Oakville who raised Quebec's transfer payments?

00:27:06.720 We hate Eastern elitists?

00:27:08.380 Question mark.

00:27:10.600 I don't know.

00:27:12.060 I mean, he served in federal office and was in Ontario a long time.

00:27:16.580 He was born in Saskatchewan.

00:27:17.960 But to question Jason Kinney's credentials as an Albertan, I don't think is necessarily fair.

00:27:23.360 I think he's too federalist.

00:27:24.880 And I can certainly appreciate that criticism.

00:27:28.020 But 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.

00:27:34.860 Stephen Harper was from Toronto.

00:27:37.740 I mean, I really don't think it matters where you're from.

00:27:42.580 This is something the left in Alberta doesn't get.

00:27:44.580 They're actually particularly nativist.

00:27:46.120 That if you're not born in Alberta, then you're not a real Albertan, and you shouldn't be talking about Alberta issues.

00:27:51.440 That'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.

00:28:00.740 We don't really care where you're from.

00:28:01.980 Albertanism is a feeling.

00:28:05.420 It's a mentality.

00:28:07.860 It's an ethos.

00:28:08.920 It's nothing to do with blood and soil.

00:28:12.320 Well, let's move on.

00:28:13.900 Thanks for your comments.

00:28:15.280 We'll come back to comments after we're done with BC and Saskatchewan.

00:28:21.220 We've got some comments on the U.S. election and its effect on Alberta and Canada.

00:28:25.520 We'll come back to that.

00:28:26.920 But let's turn to our friends in Saskatchewan.

00:28:30.260 We had a live broadcast as the results came in there.

00:28:33.800 Boy, could we call that early.

00:28:36.080 That was not particularly close.

00:28:39.860 But it did have some interesting takeaways.

00:28:43.900 The Buffalo Party coming in just months after foundation, coming in third place, despite only running a small handful of candidates.

00:28:51.920 And NDP leader Ryan Milai or Melly.

00:28:57.200 I'm not sure how you say it.

00:28:58.360 Miley.

00:28:58.980 Miley.

00:28:59.320 Yeah, I keep thinking of Cyrus, and then it keeps it in my head.

00:29:01.880 Okay.

00:29:03.420 Rias O'Malley.

00:29:04.740 There we go.

00:29:06.140 So potentially not winning his seat.

00:29:08.300 We're not going to know until the mail-in ballots come in.

00:29:11.140 But, Dave, why don't we turn to you for kind of a summation of what happened on Monday night in Saskatchewan.

00:29:19.640 Well, I think the Western Standard Election Desk called it at 8.01 after the polls closed with a Scott Moe resounding victory.

00:29:28.700 They're currently leading 46 seats to the NDP's 15.

00:29:34.540 There's still about 60,000 mail-in ballots to be counted.

00:29:38.220 But that's obviously not going to change things a great deal.

00:29:42.260 I think you're right, Derek.

00:29:43.240 I think one of the stories of the night was the Buffalo Party running second in several ridings.

00:29:51.080 So it was an evening they'll be happy with.

00:29:53.480 It'll be an evening the NDP will say, well, it's probably what we expected.

00:29:58.940 If Miley loses his seat, obviously that'll put a damper on things.

00:30:06.280 But no great surprises at the end of the day.

00:30:08.760 And the best part of our broadcast was, I'm going to mispronounce his name, Quick Dick McQuick or something like that, was it?

00:30:16.260 Quick Dick McDick.

00:30:17.180 Yes.

00:30:17.660 There you go.

00:30:18.900 Yeah.

00:30:19.160 I can tell my grandchildren that I was on a broadcast with Quick Dick McPick.

00:30:24.740 Quick Dick McDick.

00:30:26.460 Ah, sorry.

00:30:27.460 Yeah.

00:30:28.380 Say that 10 times fast.

00:30:29.960 Yeah, it was a pleasure having him on.

00:30:31.220 Also our Saskatchewan correspondent, Lee Harding.

00:30:34.820 Fascinating evening in some respects.

00:30:36.960 You know, very boring in the sense that what we predicted was going to happen with the Saskatchewan party happened.

00:30:41.840 It was just an absolute blitz over the NDP.

00:30:44.700 Dave, before we go to Corey, do we have any sense yet of, has there been any update yet on Ryan Miley's seat?

00:30:58.820 Because 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.

00:31:09.340 But if he does lose, that'll be a hat trick for the NDP.

00:31:11.260 He'll be the third NDP leader in a row to lose his seat.

00:31:13.920 Just an absolutely wretched title for the NDP to achieve, a hat trick of losing their leaders in elections.

00:31:22.400 Do we have any update yet on what's happening with that?

00:31:26.400 Not as far as I know, Derek.

00:31:27.820 I'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.

00:31:37.400 Very good.

00:31:38.020 Yeah, the, you know, the Western Standard, we, our news department, run by Dave, tries to, we keep with established journalistic principles and editorial controls.

00:31:52.520 You know, we are alternative media, but we try to keep to a standard that would be recognizable in the mainstream media.

00:32:01.520 But 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.

00:32:10.420 So 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.

00:32:20.280 Um, 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.

00:32:35.280 The Buffalo Party ran in, uh, the Green Party, I think, ran in, uh, most, but not all ridings.

00:32:41.120 Uh, the PCs ran in roughly 25, I might be mistaken.

00:32:45.960 Buffalo Party ran in 17.

00:32:47.700 In those 17, as Dave said, they placed second in quite a few of them, uh, and third virtually anywhere else.

00:32:54.260 Uh, they beat all of the smaller parties, uh, in every riding that they matched up except for one where the PCs edged out slightly.

00:33:02.340 And the, um, uh, and, and they even beat the NDP in quite a few.

00:33:07.680 In Estevan, uh, actually, they, uh, they got into approximately 25% of the vote.

00:33:13.740 Well, that's not chump change.

00:33:14.800 You know, it was still a long ways away from the Sask Party, uh, candidate who, you know, that's a super safe riding.

00:33:19.780 That's, that's about as dark green as it comes.

00:33:22.200 But, um, they made a real impact and they're only a few months old as a party.

00:33:27.520 Um, where, where do you think things go in Saskatchewan?

00:33:30.200 The Buffalo Party and the Saskatchewan lay out from here.

00:33:33.660 Yeah.

00:33:33.820 Well, and because it was such a blow for the Sask Party, there's really only so much you want to discuss on it.

00:33:39.700 Uh, 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.

00:33:46.160 And, uh, yeah, the NDP's trend is terrible.

00:33:48.920 It's noteworthy.

00:33:49.680 It's, it's, it's quite a blow to them.

00:33:51.500 If 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.

00:33:57.640 Uh, but the Buffalo Party is worth mentioning because as we said, now this was a party that's brand new.

00:34:03.500 They, they got registered in March, I believe they ran 17 candidates on a shoestring.

00:34:08.300 I know this very well.

00:34:09.500 I 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.

00:34:19.020 I'm getting old.

00:34:20.100 Either way, you know, some, some deja vu.

00:34:23.040 And we didn't finish anywhere nearly as well as this, the Buffalo Party did.

00:34:26.340 I mean, it's, it's striking.

00:34:28.440 I 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.

00:34:35.000 Uh, so they're the force on the flank.

00:34:37.340 I, 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.

00:34:47.800 There, there, there's that post-election hangover, there's being tired.

00:34:50.760 So 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.

00:34:59.940 Yeah.

00:35:00.720 Uh, 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.

00:35:14.180 You know, not, not, not, uh, you know, we shouldn't flog it too much.

00:35:17.800 They'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.

00:35:27.080 That's not jump change.

00:35:28.140 That's, that's a significant, uh, heartbeat that they're showing.

00:35:31.480 It's not a breakthrough, but it's a heartbeat that they're showing and it's, it's got the potential to go.

00:35:35.520 Although 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.

00:35:44.180 To be even vaguely plausible, Alberta kind of has to be the first has to kind of lead it.

00:35:49.200 And 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.

00:35:58.260 So it's, it's a harder case to make, but the Buffalo party, you know, talked about a lot of other stuff.

00:36:02.800 It 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.

00:36:13.820 Uh, it'll be interesting to watch.

00:36:16.920 Uh, and, uh, just a few days earlier on Saturday over the weekend, British Columbians went to the, went to the ballot box.

00:36:24.680 A very similar result to, uh, Saskatchewan, the incumbent government reelected, uh, everyone else kind of put in their place.

00:36:34.380 Uh, but the big difference is they went from minority to majority government.

00:36:37.760 Uh, Dave, why don't you, uh, bring us up to speed about what happened, uh, with our friends in BC?

00:36:43.120 It's amazing how the fortunes of the NDP can change in, uh, a thousand kilometers or so, but, uh, great night, Saturday night for the NDP.

00:36:51.020 Uh, John Horgan, the premier there, they, uh, won 55 seats, uh, for an absolute majority after running a minority for a couple of years.

00:37:01.440 The liberals under Andrew Wilkinson had their worst election showing since 1991 and came away with only 29 seats.

00:37:10.320 And that cost, uh, Wilkinson his job.

00:37:13.460 Two days later, uh, he said he was stepping down and he's, uh, staying on as leader until a new one is selected.

00:37:19.780 So, uh, NDP majority in British Columbia.

00:37:25.080 Yeah.

00:37:25.760 And that's, that's what all the polls, uh, pointed to.

00:37:28.540 I, I think we're really in the era of the incumbent.

00:37:31.180 Uh, this began in New Brunswick where the PCs called a snap election.

00:37:35.520 Um, you know, in most places, uh, government's popularities have gone up with COVID.

00:37:42.420 I 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.

00:37:51.380 This happens in wars.

00:37:52.700 This happens in any kind of major crisis.

00:37:55.440 And I think COVID has now fall, has fallen into that.

00:37:58.640 Um, and so people are rallying around incumbent governments.

00:38:01.660 We saw this in New Brunswick.

00:38:03.400 Uh, we saw it in BC.

00:38:04.760 We saw it in Saskatchewan.

00:38:06.240 And I think that is also adding to the, uh, willingness of Justin Trudeau to go to the polls.

00:38:12.440 Uh, hey, Parliament, you want an anti-corruption committee?

00:38:14.500 Fine.

00:38:14.920 Let's go to an election.

00:38:15.800 I don't care.

00:38:16.760 Uh, I think he's quite happy to do it.

00:38:18.800 Um, 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.

00:38:31.660 Um, 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.

00:38:38.800 Although he would be going wildly early.

00:38:40.880 He's got a majority government.

00:38:41.920 It would be wickedly, um, uh, uh, opportunistic for him to do it.

00:38:49.140 But, you know, he, he's riding high in the polls after being very, very low.

00:38:52.420 I think we're in the age of the incumbent.

00:38:54.900 Um, 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?

00:39:03.560 No, not much at all.

00:39:05.240 Uh, you know, it's, it's just a, he went from a majority to a stronger one.

00:39:08.680 Uh, 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.

00:39:17.440 And, 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.

00:39:24.440 But 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.

00:39:32.740 Uh, in BC now we've got an incumbent NDP government that's going to be in for yet another term.

00:39:37.740 Uh, they're just going to be very similar to where they were before and won't have many clashes.

00:39:42.740 It 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.

00:39:50.740 Uh, people get crabby when they get an early election, but you know what, a week later, it's forgotten.

00:39:54.500 It really is.

00:39:55.500 Uh, it's kind of our own fault that we don't punish them for taking advantage of the electoral system.

00:39:59.500 We did in Alberta, but I think that was a combination of issues.

00:40:02.500 There was a number of issues there.

00:40:03.500 That was many, many things.

00:40:04.500 Uh, yeah, I, I, I, I agree with that.

00:40:08.500 Uh, okay.

00:40:09.500 Well, let's, uh, we'll kind of come back to comments here.

00:40:12.500 Um, Mike, uh, Kennelly, what are your thoughts on the effect Biden would have on Canada if he wins?

00:40:20.500 Uh, well, I'll put it out to you guys first.

00:40:23.500 Well, he's already said he'll, uh, cancel the Keystone XL pipeline.

00:40:29.500 And obviously that's got thousands and thousands of Alberta jobs at risk. 0.98

00:40:33.500 Uh, 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.

00:40:45.500 But that's the biggest threat that, uh, uh, Western Canada is, uh, is facing if, uh, if Biden is elected.

00:40:52.500 Yeah.

00:40:53.500 No, 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.

00:40:59.500 And we'll see what happens if he wins.

00:41:01.500 Uh, because it, that thing is pretty much built.

00:41:03.500 I mean, it's just a matter of opening the tap at the border.

00:41:05.500 And 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.

00:41:21.500 Oh, okay.

00:41:22.500 Well, it's done.

00:41:23.500 Uh, but it's not going to help Alberta.

00:41:25.500 It makes us look that much more unstable, that much more difficult to get our product to market.

00:41:28.500 And it's just not going to be a good thing for us.

00:41:30.500 Yeah.

00:41:31.500 My hope is that, uh, well, he, he is seeing Biden is not actually an ideological leftist.

00:41:36.500 Like he leans that way, but that's just cause he's a Democrat from Delaware.

00:41:40.500 He has to, he's more of a career politician.

00:41:43.500 He's been a Senator since before I was born.

00:41:46.500 Uh, I mean, he's, he's been in politics continuously extensively extensively.

00:41:50.500 Uh, except for the last four years, uh, since the seventies.

00:41:54.500 So he's, he's a career politician.

00:41:55.500 He's obviously got staying power.

00:41:57.500 He knows what to say and what to do.

00:41:59.500 Uh, my feeling is that this stuff is just kind of trying to keep his more radical green base on side.

00:42:05.500 Uh, 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.

00:42:16.500 And, 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.

00:42:22.500 It's over.

00:42:23.500 So, uh, you know, it might not be the end of the world.

00:42:26.500 Uh, you know, from that perspective, if Biden wins that he might not be able to change it.

00:42:31.500 He just probably is unlikely to approve any future pipelines going.

00:42:36.500 Yeah.

00:42:40.500 Yeah. Well, that's a big question.

00:42:41.500 So 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.

00:42:48.500 Well, so yeah, there's, and there's a lot of the equalization program and transfer payments.

00:42:53.500 I mean, it's a big complex, ugly formula.

00:42:55.500 Uh, the left likes fighting us saying they never actually write a check to Ottawa for equalization.

00:42:59.500 Yeah, 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.

00:43:11.500 Uh, one of the areas we could collect our own taxes is like with Quebec where it's a single return rather than two.

00:43:16.500 They collect the funds and then they remit to Ottawa, but Quebec remits, they don't hold on.

00:43:22.500 No, no, no, Quebec doesn't do that yet.

00:43:23.500 No.

00:43:24.500 So, so, so this, this question, I think it's a mess.

00:43:27.500 The question needs to be parsed a little bit.

00:43:28.500 Uh, right now, Ottawa collects all of the taxes federally and provincially of every province in Canada, except for Quebec.

00:43:35.500 Okay.

00:43:36.500 There, Ottawa still directly collects federal taxes and Quebec collects provincial taxes.

00:43:41.500 Um, 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.

00:43:49.500 The conservative party of Canada has said that they support this.

00:43:52.500 Uh, that's interesting.

00:43:54.500 Uh, Quebec would have no right, uh, no reason to hold anything back.

00:43:57.500 Cause if they didn't send their share to Ottawa, well, they get far more from Ottawa than they get back.

00:44:02.500 So Ottawa would say, fine, keep the money.

00:44:04.500 We're just not going to send you as much done.

00:44:06.500 Very different in the case of Alberta where we sent far, far more to Ottawa when we get back.

00:44:11.500 So 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.

00:44:20.500 Um, 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.

00:44:31.500 And that is, that would provide a huge point of leverage for Alberta.

00:44:35.500 If, if we're, uh, you know, if Ottawa was trying to shake us down, we'd say, fine.

00:44:39.500 Uh, checks in the mail, let us know when you get it.

00:44:42.500 It would bring things to a peak.

00:44:43.500 That's for sure.

00:44:46.500 Yeah.

00:44:47.500 From, from Julie Houston and I'll address your second question there quickly while I'm at it too.

00:44:50.500 She, she mentioned something a bit personal, but worth it mentioning, but yeah.

00:44:54.500 And instead of punishing in this case, lower income workers who took part in a strike, could we punish the union leadership?

00:44:59.500 I fear many of the people who participated did not really understand the implications, what they're doing and possibly were misled by the leadership.

00:45:05.500 And I think there is a degree of that.

00:45:07.500 What is going on?

00:45:08.500 Uh, the, uh, thing that's going on is the leadership was very careful too, because it's not illegal for these individuals to go out.

00:45:15.500 It's illegal for unions to put them out.

00:45:18.500 That's why they're saying it's wildcat.

00:45:19.500 That's why they're saying it's spontaneous.

00:45:21.500 If it was actually union organized, these are actually considered essential workers and the unions could get in a great deal of trouble.

00:45:28.500 And come on, it's baloney that these people actually just spontaneously all up and walked out all over the province at the same time.

00:45:33.500 There was a core of organization, but you'd have to prove it was the unions.

00:45:37.500 But 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.

00:45:44.500 But how else do you prevent it then?

00:45:46.500 Uh, it is these workers who are going to pay in the end.

00:45:49.500 And 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.

00:46:01.500 Because right now it's just not an option.

00:46:03.500 But I'll just follow up quickly because Julie did mention it.

00:46:06.500 I got that message earlier today about, uh, some folks who listen, they might know he was a social media character.

00:46:11.500 He's been a conservative, uh, worker and activist on campaigns and, and, uh, a friend.

00:46:16.500 Uh, he kind of dropped off the radar a few years ago.

00:46:18.500 He moved to the Philippines with a wife.

00:46:20.500 Uh, his name is Richard Evans.

00:46:22.500 And, uh, he really liked to stir things up online and, and he's very gravely ill right now.

00:46:29.500 I, I have to admit I was floored when I saw the pictures of poor Richard out there in the Philippines.

00:46:33.500 He's in intensive care and it looks pretty grim.

00:46:37.500 Uh, 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. 0.99

00:46:47.500 Are you asking people to pray on behalf of your heathen ass? 0.97

00:46:50.500 Those who are into the praying thing and I will send a note to the spaghetti monster. 1.00

00:46:54.500 But, uh, yeah, poor, poor Richard is in terrible shape.

00:46:57.500 And I, I really appreciate him as a friend and, and everything he's done for upper politics.

00:47:01.500 Everyone's an atheist until you get sick.

00:47:03.500 Well, so, uh, let's, uh, hope for the best for Richard there.

00:47:07.500 And, uh, yeah, well, that's the best I can do is give a shout out to Richard.

00:47:11.500 Yeah.

00:47:12.500 Uh, Max Cummings says without a vote on independence, Kenny has won and done.

00:47:15.500 And he is a Trojan horse for Eastern conservatives.

00:47:18.500 And his job is to kill independence in Alberta, much like Prentice tried to.

00:47:22.500 Uh, I don't think independence wasn't really on the radar during Prentice's time.

00:47:27.500 I mean, the idea of, uh, fighting back against Ottawa was an issue.

00:47:32.500 I mean, we were in the wild rose.

00:47:33.500 And when I was Canadian taxpayers federation, uh, we were discussing equalization and fairness and whatnot.

00:47:39.500 Uh, but the independence movement really, really was in the basement at the time.

00:47:44.500 You 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.

00:47:51.500 It was really just on the back burner.

00:47:53.500 It was, I think, with the election of Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau that it really came again to the fore.

00:47:58.500 Uh, and since Justin Trudeau's reelection kind of morphed into a more credible, organized movement.

00:48:03.500 Uh, so I, I'm not sure it's fair to, there's a lot I like to blame Prentice for.

00:48:07.500 I'm, uh, very much not his biggest fan, but, uh, I'm not sure it's fair to put him on there.

00:48:12.500 But I think more to the point about Kenny.

00:48:15.500 Well, for one, Kenny didn't campaign on an independence platform.

00:48:19.500 So it's still at that point unfair to expect him to put something forward like that.

00:48:23.500 Those of us who came to the conclusion that independence is a better option and impatience is difficult.

00:48:27.500 Yeah.

00:48:28.500 You want to get out, get moving and get a new system going.

00:48:31.500 But to be honest, if an independence vote were held tomorrow, it would lose and it would lose terrifically.

00:48:36.500 If we're talking about incumbents, uh, managing to hold power, that even if it was 20, 30%, that would be a strong independence vote.

00:48:43.500 But it would also be a much stronger vote to stay.

00:48:46.500 And you're not going to get that on the ballot for another decade.

00:48:48.500 So I, what I can counsel is patience.

00:48:51.500 Personally, I think one way Kenny should deal with this and juggle with it though and respect Albertans.

00:48:55.500 He did campaign on citizens initiated referenda, full out on the ground, not, not just the government initiating referenda, which is nice.

00:49:02.500 But, uh, you know, you set a bar, you put a certain degree of signatures required.

00:49:07.500 Well, they have, they are bringing that forward, but there's a difference.

00:49:10.500 They're not allowing it on issues of cons of the constitution, which is essentially saying you can vote on, uh, speed limits.

00:49:17.500 We can vote on taxes, but you can't vote on those big questions.

00:49:21.500 We've got to get a wide open citizens initiated referenda plan.

00:49:24.500 If the support is really there, leave it to the Albertans to bring it forward.

00:49:28.500 Nobody else.

00:49:29.500 And yet the bar is said, hi, if it's real there and it's strong Albertans can do it, get out there, pound the pavement and have it out.

00:49:34.500 But until then is we're not quite there yet.

00:49:37.500 Yeah.

00:49:38.500 I think if you want to kill the movement, you hold a vote today and then, then you're just done.

00:49:42.500 Uh, people in Quebec, even the sovereignists generally don't want to hold a vote for the most part.

00:49:47.500 Uh, cause they think they'll lose again.

00:49:49.500 It'll put them back even further.

00:49:50.500 So, uh, okay.

00:49:51.500 Well, 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.

00:49:59.500 Everyone 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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00:50:16.500 Uh, we are one of a very, very small number of, uh, genuinely free press organizations, um, that, uh, that are not accepting government funding, not, not complying with government media licensing.

00:50:30.500 Uh, so if you want to support our work, please go become a member on Western standard online.com.

00:50:35.500 Also, uh, we're still, uh, fundraising for our CBC legal defense fund.

00:50:40.500 Uh, go to Western standard online.com slash CBC, and you can make a donation to our fund to defend against, uh, the CBC is a, uh, threat to, uh, to sue, sue the Western standard, uh, for some pretty frivolous, uh, trademark infractions that they're, they're quite bizarrely claiming, but, uh, thank you very much.

00:51:01.500 Uh, I'm Derek Phil, the brand publisher of the Western standard.

00:51:03.500 Thank you, Corey, uh, podcast editor and columnist and Dave Naylor, news editor of the Western standard and reporter extraordinaire.

00:51:11.500 Thank you very much for joining us today.

00:51:13.500 Have a good one.

00:51:31.500 Thank you.

Western Standard - October 28, 2020

The Pipeline October 28, 2020

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