Western Standard - The Pipeline： Ottawa's radical cut of energy industry.

00:00:00.000 Good evening, I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.

00:00:29.000 Today is March 30th, 2022, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:34.100 I'm joined, as always, by my good friends, Western Standard News Editor Dave Naylor.

00:00:39.480 How are you doing, Dave?

00:00:40.140 I'm doing okay, Derek. Thank you.

00:00:42.240 How is this track?

00:00:43.720 It is. I found my pocket handkerchief, which I thought I lost, but then I forgot I did home too.

00:00:49.960 So I feel shame and underdressed.

00:00:52.380 Practically naked.

00:00:53.160 Yeah, practically naked.

00:00:54.780 Fully clothed with us today is Western Standard Opinion and Broadcast Editor, Corey Morgan.

00:00:59.340 How are you feeling, Corey?

00:01:00.180 Good.

00:01:00.740 Overdressed, though.

00:01:02.220 Overdressed?

00:01:03.360 You actually have a, like, your tie is actually not terrible today.

00:01:06.700 Like, I just don't like having to be fully clothed.

00:01:09.840 Well, our workplace harassment policy is still in progress here.

00:01:15.320 You'll have to bear with us.

00:01:16.920 I'm working on this.

00:01:17.940 Yeah.

00:01:18.280 Are you like a closet nudist at home?

00:01:20.240 Oh, nothing closet about it.

00:01:21.620 Oh.

00:01:22.560 He's a chicken farmer.

00:01:23.460 He walks around his chicken pen.

00:01:25.280 No, he strangled all the chickens this week.

00:01:27.180 I choked my chickens.

00:01:28.120 You choked your chicken on a weekend.

00:01:30.460 That was what I did.

00:01:31.540 Yes, ate.

00:01:33.400 I didn't think I could choke ate one weekend at this age, but it's still possible.

00:01:37.380 Cory Morgan, his pecker while at work.

00:01:44.760 So yes, I go to the chicken farming business and on to beekeeping, which I'll report on

00:01:48.840 as I come back with the stings.

00:01:50.120 So that's why you got to wear clothes out there because you don't want to get stings.

00:01:53.080 i'd like to see you keeping naked i don't want to see it but i'd like to hear it i'm not that

00:01:56.760 advanced yet we'll work on to it but if i do get that to that point i'm sure certainly we'll have

00:02:01.000 video well we're off to a great uh pg family friendly start today uh we've got some interesting

00:02:08.360 topics on the docket for today uh ottawa's radical new emissions plan for uh the western energy

00:02:15.880 industry uh massive cuts and well and beyond they're already crazy plants i've already had

00:02:20.840 pipeline bans uh tanker bans carbon taxes it's not enough uh radical new stuff uh that ottawa has

00:02:29.960 um has put forward now on the table we're going to get into that uh we're going to do an update

00:02:35.500 on the conservative leadership race uh everyone and their uncle is in the race but it's still

00:02:41.700 kind of strangely uh i don't want to say it's boring because i want you guys to watch and listen

00:02:45.540 uh but it seems to have hit kind of a lull right now but we're going to talk about where the race

00:02:50.000 at, what are some of the key policies the candidates have been putting forward. And the

00:02:55.020 eco-terrorist attack in British Columbia. Yes, not protesters on Parliament Hill. Sorry,

00:03:00.740 terrorists. Those are terrorists, insurgents. But the peaceful protesters wielding machetes 0.99

00:03:07.460 and throwing firebombs in British Columbia. No charges. No charges there. We're going to talk

00:03:13.700 about why that might be. Before we get going, though, of course, we have to note one of my

00:03:19.540 favorite sponsors bitcoin well bitcoin well is uh is a founding sponsor of the western standard they

00:03:24.580 have uh you know these guys have been building their operations they've got bitcoin etms right

00:03:30.600 across canada uh they built one of the biggest bitcoin networks in north america making digital

00:03:36.840 currencies easy and accessible for people on a daily basis it's not uh you know the one of the

00:03:43.380 big disadvantages the bitcoin for much of its history so far has been that well it's not

00:03:47.820 accessible? How are you going to easily deposit cash into it? How are you going to take cash out

00:03:51.300 of it? Bitcoin addresses that. They've got ATMs across the country. If you're a small business

00:03:57.580 owner, you need to talk to Bitcoin about their Bitcoin savings plan. I wrote about this. I did

00:04:03.820 a bit of a, just a little profile, but what we do with it as a small business here. Instead of

00:04:12.400 matching RRSP contributions, the Western Standard for our employees, our reporters, our support

00:04:16.720 staff, we match up to 2% of their salary every month in a Bitcoin savings plan. So Dave takes

00:04:26.380 2% of his salary and says, I'm putting it into Bitcoin. The Western Standard matches that as

00:04:32.260 both an employee retention program so Dave doesn't leave us, but also helping to incentivize your

00:04:40.240 employees to save. This is something that every company should be looking at. It's smart and it's

00:04:45.180 easy it was much easier than i expected to they even brought people into our office here to give

00:04:49.500 a bit of a tutorial for some of the staff who are less up on up on what bitcoin is and how a bitcoin

00:04:53.900 savings program works okay uh oh before we get going of course i want to thank all our western

00:04:59.820 standard members uh without you we couldn't do any of what we're doing right now if you're not

00:05:04.300 yet a member of the western standard go to westernstandardonline.com memberships a membership

00:05:09.500 You can sign up. It's just $10 a month or $99 a year. You're going to love it. Huge. Swear to God.

00:05:20.240 Okay, so let's get into it. Ottawa's big new radical plan to cut production of the Western

00:05:29.720 energy industry. They say emissions, but we know what that means. That means cutting Alberta and

00:05:35.220 Saskatchewan, and Interior BC's energy production.

00:05:38.820 Dave, tell us about what Ottawa's doing here.

00:05:40.760 Well, don't forget this comes from Stephen Gilboa,

00:05:43.340 who was once jailed for his radical environmental protest.

00:05:47.440 So it's out there, that's for sure.

00:05:50.060 They want emissions cut to 40% of 2005 levels in only eight years, by 2030.

00:05:57.960 And they're looking for 75% of methane emissions cut.

00:06:04.320 The whole plan is just a mere $9 billion, but you know it's going to be a boondoggle.

00:06:11.540 It's going to go way higher than that.

00:06:13.180 They're looking at electric cars.

00:06:14.900 They're looking at building code changes.

00:06:17.440 They're looking at carbon capture programs.

00:06:21.300 Jason Nixon, the Alberta Environment Minister, called it, quote, insane.

00:06:26.860 Very strong words, and he said it was a direct attack on the Alberta oil and gas industry.

00:06:32.540 A similar response today we've got on the website from Saskatchewan's Minister of Energy.

00:06:40.140 They basically just don't know what the Trudeau government is talking about.

00:06:43.720 They don't know where they're getting their facts and figures from.

00:06:46.860 But it all, you know, even Rachel Notley says part of it is a bit of fantasy.

00:06:51.900 So, you know, when you've got the socialist premier of Alberta criticizing.

00:06:56.300 She's not the premier yet.

00:06:57.300 Oh, sorry, premier in waiting, former premier.

00:07:01.240 If she's criticizing it, you know it must be well out there.

00:07:07.940 It's not surprising that the liberals, especially with a guy like Stephen Gilbeau,

00:07:12.700 that they're moving hard on this stuff, very hard.

00:07:16.600 But 40% below 1990 levels.

00:07:20.020 2005.

00:07:20.620 Sorry, 2005 levels.

00:07:24.580 Do you think there's any hope that the liberals are lying as they traditionally did?

00:07:28.360 Like when they said, well, you know, they're going to sign the Kyoto Accord and they really didn't do anything.

00:07:32.600 It was such good news for the West that the liberals were just lying about those things.

00:07:37.520 They had no intention of doing it.

00:07:39.680 They haven't done one of their carbon targets yet.

00:07:44.340 Not one.

00:07:45.460 That's good.

00:07:46.320 I'm glad they're lying to us.

00:07:47.660 I'm not sure they're phrasing it like, OK, let's go lie to them.

00:07:51.020 But they're setting targets that are in, you know, you can't achieve them.

00:07:54.260 So my question is, Corey, do you think they actually mean to hit this target?

00:07:59.980 Or is this just what you would call a reach goal?

00:08:02.400 This is aspirational.

00:08:03.860 I think it depends on which liberal you're talking about.

00:08:06.900 With Gilbo, he is a fanatic.

00:08:09.020 I think he really believes that we can slash things hard enough, fast enough to bring it there.

00:08:14.920 I mean, we know it's completely unrealistic, but I don't think he's a realistic man.

00:08:19.180 When you get to Justin Trudeau or some of the senior members of the liberal government,

00:08:22.900 I think they know it's aspirational. But even then, if they even got it to 20% of the 2005 levels,

00:08:29.640 it would be economically catastrophic. I mean, the amount of slowdown we would have to do to meet

00:08:35.080 those targets, even half of those targets would be a disaster. So it signals that they still are

00:08:41.480 more than willing to stir our entire economy with a stick to try and bring these emissions

00:08:47.560 under control when they can. Dave, you said the price tag on this was $9 billion.

00:08:52.900 um yeah uh actually let's let's take it to face value the government will spend

00:09:00.740 nine billion dollars but did they have any projections on the economic cost of this like

00:09:05.940 what this will cost industry what this will cost and lost jobs lost tax revenue from what this will

00:09:12.360 do to the industry and the economy not that i've seen direct it's just pie in the sky ideas from

00:09:16.740 them at this point i'm sure there's some smarter brains than ours that are trying to figure that

00:09:21.460 all that out now parliamentary budget office and and those type of people as corey says it'll

00:09:26.820 decimate it'll decimate alberta's energy industry without a doubt and saskatchewan's uh so let's

00:09:34.500 talk corey about uh sort of the harder the hard left reaction to this if if we don't call trudeau

00:09:41.300 hard left which i mean i suppose they still officially call themselves progressive centrists

00:09:47.220 but I don't think that really means anything.

00:09:50.740 I want your take on Rachel Notley's reaction to this,

00:09:54.900 but also Jagmeet Singh's reaction.

00:09:57.260 Yeah, it's been funny to watch because both of them are NDP leaders in awkward positions.

00:10:01.540 Jagmeet Singh has to try and differentiate himself from Trudeau right now.

00:10:05.380 I mean, he's taken a beating with his alliance with him.

00:10:08.020 The core of the NDP, the real socialists,

00:10:10.540 I mean, the ones who take issue with the liberals for whatever reasons,

00:10:13.980 are not too thrilled with this.

00:10:15.680 He has to show that, no, I'm still my own person.

00:10:17.800 I will still differ with the prime minister on key issues.

00:10:20.940 And in order to do so, he actually swung even farther left to say that this wasn't harsh enough measures.

00:10:26.680 I think he's just posturing and gesturing, but it's just trying to differentiate himself.

00:10:31.460 Notley, on the other hand, understands that even Trudeau's version is complete political suicide in Alberta.

00:10:38.120 If she embraces that, Kenny could still manage to win the next election if he pulls off his leadership thing.

00:10:44.920 She can't get on board with that sort of thing, so she's had to speak out against it.

00:10:49.900 It's very interesting to watch, but it's all based on political fate for these guys, not actual policy realism or anything of the sort.

00:11:00.140 Well, okay.

00:11:02.480 Okay, I wanted to get into the Alberta carbon tax.

00:11:05.200 Okay, we're going to get into the Alberta carbon tax.

00:11:07.400 I can't resist this because the Alberta government pretends it doesn't exist.

00:11:13.100 Alberta has a carbon tax, a very big carbon tax, I believe $50 metric ton now, if I'm not mistaken,

00:11:19.260 went up on January 1st. You mentioned Jason Nixon. Which one have you mentioned Jason Nixon?

00:11:24.860 You mentioned Jason Nixon, the UCP environment minister, one of Kenny's allies, and Kenny,

00:11:30.540 both of them have been slamming this. They've slammed the coming federal carbon tax increase

00:11:38.860 on uh april 1st i do love how taxes go up on april fool's day surprise yeah um that reminds

00:11:47.580 me of something we're gonna i know what i know what you're thinking yeah yeah we have a project

00:11:51.420 um but like i guess i maybe i want your feedback cory um how does the alberta government square

00:11:58.140 having this massive industrial carbon tax they have in their own right they're not forced to

00:12:02.860 by Justin Trudeau. This is an Alberta UCP carbon tax. How do they square this politically? Because

00:12:09.200 they seem to largely get away with it. Jason Kenyon, Jason Nixon can stand up and say carbon

00:12:12.840 tax bad. Then they whisper, increase our carbon tax. It's political play again, right? They can't

00:12:20.860 be looking like they're doing nothing. Unfortunately, we're getting divestment. We're

00:12:25.840 getting environmental moves against. Investors are getting attacked. They're going to show that

00:12:30.280 we're doing something. And they don't want the public to be the ones directly seeing it. So

00:12:35.420 they're playing a shell game. Yeah, we can do it on our commercial emitters, but leave our public

00:12:39.880 alone. It's just, again, it's a political play to try and walk the fine line. I think it's a pass

00:12:45.420 from the media. Because did you know there's actually not a politician in Canada that supports

00:12:51.200 a carbon tax? There are politicians who support carbon levies. There are politicians who support

00:12:56.320 prices on carbon but there's actually no politicians in canada that say tax carbon at all

00:13:03.280 so the difference is between kenny's carbon tax and trudeau's carbon taxes kenny says his is a

00:13:09.200 price on carbon and kenny says trudeau's is a carbon tax that that that is the difference

00:13:15.200 that's it i think that's how they get away with it they just don't call it because trudeau does

00:13:19.120 not call his carbon tax it's a price on carbon it's carbon levy not only never called hers a

00:13:23.760 carbon tax it was a price on carbon carbon levy yeah the mainstream media just sort of let them

00:13:29.360 off the hook uh we did a story on the on it yesterday and uh it's it's yeah he's just smoking

00:13:37.120 nerves and you know most maybe this kind of comes to media criticism here but you know most media

00:13:43.280 tend you know you've worked in mainstream media newsrooms they've media tend to more or less use

00:13:47.600 the government's verbiage of things when the government says we're investing money on something

00:13:51.440 the media report that they're investing not that they're spending not that they're borrowing

00:13:54.560 not that they're subsidizing they're investing and when the government says this is a levy or

00:13:59.040 a price on carbon the media tend to repeat that so when the alberta government just says it you

00:14:04.640 know like we had the other day one of our reporters uh new reporter i won't mention who but reporter

00:14:08.400 made an innocent mistake they reported but the government said and said the government's investing

00:14:11.840 in this you could hear my ears burst off and splatter against the windows of my office when

00:14:18.560 and I read our story of that because we were using government verbiage and we immediately

00:14:21.720 corrected that. That's the kind of correction we make. We corrected. So we said, sorry,

00:14:25.940 we use government language. We don't use that. I think that's just kind of standard in most

00:14:30.260 of the media. They use whatever language the government uses. Exactly. Okay. Well, actually,

00:14:37.420 there's more carbon tax talk now. So we're going to go down to the conservative leadership race.

00:14:42.940 There's been some policy floating around, no complete platforms from candidates yet.

00:14:47.840 it's always kind of funny when candidates put out platforms of policy, yet the members haven't voted

00:14:52.940 on it. But I think it's kind of expected that the leaders are going to talk about the policies they

00:14:57.560 believe, and maybe it's inappropriate, like a grassroots guarantee, then to put it to the

00:15:02.420 members and let them decide. You can call it a grassroots guarantee. So let's go through a

00:15:08.060 couple of the policies we've had from at least some of the major candidates. And I know there's

00:15:11.300 like a dozen candidates out there right now, but we don't have all day. So we're going to deal

00:15:16.900 kind of the major candidates the ones you have sort of a prayer of winning that would be you know

00:15:21.300 pierre polliver jean chouret patrick brown leslund lewis i i'd uh you get pretty good odds betting

00:15:28.100 on anyone else after that uh so let's talk carbon tax cory you've uh you've had a lot of these uh

00:15:34.340 candidates through your show uh and you've been putting some pretty basic questions to them that

00:15:39.300 i think are important to most westerners things carbon tax equalization senate um

00:15:44.420 Don't forget your favorite, supply management.

00:15:48.640 Supply management.

00:15:49.360 Oh, God.

00:15:50.140 Don't get him going.

00:15:51.580 Oh, okay.

00:15:53.480 Thank you.

00:15:53.920 Thank you for getting me going.

00:15:55.960 Okay, let's talk.

00:16:00.260 You've interviewed most of them, everyone except for Patrick Brown now.

00:16:03.300 Yeah, the majors and some less majors.

00:16:06.620 And the main thing I get, I should just say high level, though, is they're being cagey.

00:16:10.600 They're really not committing to any specifics on too many things yet right now.

00:16:15.360 So some distinguishing areas, though, at least carbon tax, absolutely.

00:16:19.960 You can see Sheree, he's fine with the carbon tax.

00:16:23.840 Kaleev, absolutely not.

00:16:25.780 Well, even Sheree and Brown, who are pro-carbon tax, they have been a bit cagey about it,

00:16:29.780 saying, well, we should not increase it on April 1st, but they will never say we should get rid of it

00:16:35.920 because they have records in their own right as pro-carbon tax.

00:16:38.700 Yeah, they talk around it.

00:16:39.880 But none of them, for example, when it came to supply management,

00:16:43.680 they're terrified of the dairy lobby in Quebec not a single one will touch supply management 0.98

00:16:47.980 that one is great even Pierre I had some hope that Pierre would have the cojones

00:16:52.280 to take that on and not not not one of them what about Lesley Lewis you had her on yesterday yeah

00:16:57.920 no she doesn't want to touch supply management in fact she uh uh I was a little disappointed too

00:17:03.000 because I recognized some of the lines she said in response to it which came straight from the

00:17:06.320 Dairy Commission's website so uh really yeah you should write something up on that uh perhaps we'll

00:17:12.380 Keep that in mind. Yeah. So it was frustrating though. And it tells me that she was ready to

00:17:18.300 answer that question, but she was trained on keep your dairy cartels happy. And, you know, 1.00

00:17:25.000 they're a strong political cartel. I mean, that was the big turning point with the Scheer and

00:17:29.600 Bernier race. That was each took their side and then it edged Bernier out by 1%. Now, none of them

00:17:36.880 are going to take a contrary position on this. And I'm certain I'm just throwing it out. I don't

00:17:41.800 low for sure, but I suspect just about every major campaign has gotten at least a bit of a

00:17:45.500 contribution from the Dairy Commission. So it was unfortunate. Well, the Dairy Commission can't

00:17:50.060 contribute directly, but their members can. There's ways and there's ways, yeah. Yeah. So

00:17:54.600 they're supporting. We'll say it that way. Some kind of support, yeah. Yeah. Our Parliamentary

00:17:59.440 Bureau Chief, Matthew Horwood, has actually done a story on Lewis's interviews with Corey,

00:18:07.020 and that's up on the site right now. Well, actually, so let's segue to that one. A new

00:18:11.080 issue that i've never seen discussed before in a campaign and i'm very happy to and i'm i'm sure

00:18:15.720 our sponsor bitcoin will is happy to see this uh pierre poliver released a pretty significant policy

00:18:21.800 package on digital currency uh bitcoin being by far the most prominent of them but you know

00:18:27.880 more broadly putting in place legislative regulatory frameworks for these things

00:18:32.120 uh let's talk about that i know uh let you know we have a story on leslin lewis's uh less than

00:18:38.280 an enthusiastic reception of the policy, but Dave-

00:18:40.780 And on Bitcoin too, separate stories.

00:18:42.460 Well, that's what I'm talking about.

00:18:43.780 Yeah, Bitcoin, digital currency.

00:18:45.660 Tell us about the Paul Lever announcement

00:18:48.160 around Bitcoin and digital currency.

00:18:50.320 Well, Paul Lever actually went to a restaurant

00:18:52.220 and bought lunch with it down in Ontario using Bitcoin.

00:18:57.600 He says, you know, Canada should become a leader,

00:19:01.220 fully embracing digital currencies

00:19:03.980 and everything surrounding it.

00:19:07.800 So I know, Corey, you talked to Lewis, didn't get that kind of eager response, but Polyev is all in.

00:19:16.580 Yeah, I know I saw, you know, some of the kind of establishment conservative types, Andrew Coyne, we were calling up Bitcoin bros, just a lot of shade from the Canadian establishment.

00:19:26.960 I think the Canadian establishment is starting to realize how subversive Bitcoin is now, how subversive these kinds of digital currencies are, but really led by Bitcoin.

00:19:36.800 especially after the RCMP couldn't get their hands on it yeah yeah like you know we remember

00:19:41.720 after you know the government's trying to seize people's bank accounts and they ordered this

00:19:45.720 bitcoin company in Ontario to hand it over and they oh geez this is a family-friendly show so

00:19:50.380 I can't really look I guess they said in a family-friendly way but they more or less told

00:19:54.200 them to f off it's non-custodial they said we'll be here to service you that being the government

00:19:59.940 after the Canadian dollar is worthless it was it was the greatest middle finger I've ever seen

00:20:05.180 someone to give to government. It was practically a speech that could have been given by a John

00:20:12.360 Galt. Like it was just amazing. But Corey, just yesterday you interviewed Leslyn Lewis

00:20:18.680 on this. Not too happy about it. No, she didn't appear supportive of digital

00:20:23.240 currencies whatsoever. Not to the point of, I guess, looking to legalize them, but she

00:20:28.000 didn't feel that there's any need to expand with them or that they're really much of an

00:20:31.680 asset to look forward to she didn't uh again was was cagey in her answers and such i mean it wasn't 0.99

00:20:36.960 quite like she opposed them but she definitely wasn't comfortable with the subject either i got

00:20:40.800 honestly i got the impression she didn't really know much about it and frankly i don't think a

00:20:45.120 lot of policymakers a lot of politicians actually understand digital like the federal government

00:20:49.600 didn't understand it when they thought that they could seize people's order people's bitcoin

00:20:53.560 accounts seized you just can't do everybody in this office knew it because we've got bitcoin

00:20:57.900 accounts now. And unless you put a gun to my head and convince me to give you the password to it,

00:21:02.300 you can't touch my Bitcoin. I don't think most policymakers know.

00:21:06.140 I think that's most Canadians too. I think most Canadians as a whole really don't understand.

00:21:12.620 It was a curve ball to Ms. Lewis too. I mean, whoever, if you're writing odds and what subjects

00:21:16.620 were going to come up during a CPC leadership, Bitcoin would have come. I mean, you can only

00:21:21.020 prep for so much and then suddenly you've got Bitcoin on your lap. Well, I was ready to talk

00:21:25.260 about senate reform well it's it's the first time that i've ever seen kind of bitcoin become a

00:21:29.900 significant campaign issue well we'll see how significant an issue becomes but i i think it

00:21:34.460 increasingly will be uh it's now you know digital currency bitcoiners kind of stepping center stage

00:21:41.020 and as the canadian dollar it's becoming a bigger issue as the canadian dollar continues to be

00:21:44.860 debased with inflation out of control people are going to turn to this kind of thing this is not an

00:21:49.580 infomercial this part for bitcoin here um but it's going to become an increasingly big part of our

00:21:54.700 politics, I think. China's tried to ban Bitcoin about a hundred times

00:21:58.960 enough, but you can't ban it. That's the beauty of it. It's money finally not under

00:22:03.520 the government's control, and governments are terrified of it because control of

00:22:06.340 monetary policy is one of the most powerful tools they've got. Well, you know,

00:22:10.240 if the Chinese can't get at it, it must be pretty good. Well, Trudeau will try. 0.99

00:22:17.140 Okay, well then, quick, you were kind of going through, you know, kind of the top

00:22:21.640 Top five, are you pro-Western questions, equalization, Senate, what were some of the main responses?

00:22:28.540 Yeah, and with it being this early and what's going to be a long campaign, I just wanted

00:22:31.560 to frame it.

00:22:32.560 I'm hoping to talk to all of these candidates again as things develop.

00:22:35.440 So Senate, I did try to pin down every one of them on a commitment to appoint our elected

00:22:39.760 senators in Alberta.

00:22:41.940 All pretty much sounded committal to that, except for Sharae, he sort of deked and dodged 0.78

00:22:46.760 on that a little.

00:22:47.760 He didn't say he wouldn't appoint them, but he didn't say he would either.

00:22:50.560 He said something like, well, I don't know about that, but if Alberta comes to me with a plan, I'll review it.

00:22:57.620 Alberta's had a plan since the Charlottetown Accord that he was a part of in like the 80s.

00:23:03.900 We've been electing senators since like the 80s, early 90s, and conservative governments have generally promised to appoint whoever we elect.

00:23:11.640 And back to Charlottetown, and I've asked kind of a couple of ways that if anybody's at all interested in poking around with constitutional reform, none of them want to go down that road.

00:23:19.340 So that applied when it came to equalization questions.

00:23:22.660 And I did ask about the formula because they could change that.

00:23:26.060 And, again, got a lot of long answers on how, well, yes, it is inherently unfair and it's not working well.

00:23:31.960 And we've got room to improve it, which, you know, is good language, but no specifics.

00:23:35.940 They're not letting themselves get pinned down on anything at this point.

00:23:38.440 I think the highlight of the week was Paulie has been holding packed rallies all in Ontario.

00:23:44.700 People just jammed in the rafters.

00:23:46.300 And one former liberal MP accused him of maybe, maybe they were Photoshopped, and those people actually weren't there.

00:23:54.420 Conspiracies abound.

00:23:55.560 Conspiracies abound.

00:23:56.520 Liberals for truth.

00:23:59.200 Yeah.

00:24:00.540 Yeah, the equalization.

00:24:01.600 I've been pretty disappointed from all the candidates on equalization.

00:24:04.540 Some have been even more weaselly or cagey than others, but even at best, it's been weaselly and cagey in the best of circumstances.

00:24:10.960 No direct solid answers on that one.

00:24:12.660 Yeah. And so, you know, I just, I don't really have a dog in the fight. I'm not a conservative

00:24:17.200 member. I'm not going to vote in this. But I just recommend to folks, don't vote unless they give

00:24:23.540 you specific policies. If your issue was equalization, or your issue was Western

00:24:28.380 representation, fixing the Senate, things like that, don't give them your vote based on platitudes.

00:24:33.020 Demand hard, detailed policies. Because unless they give you that, and here's a hint,

00:24:38.440 they will get less conservative the further away from the leadership race they get.

00:24:42.660 Remember Aaron O'Toole? He ran as True Blue, and then he was just as red as a liberal the next day.

00:24:48.180 And to some extent, that is pretty much anyone ever.

00:24:51.080 They're always running more towards the base when they need that basis vote in a leadership or a nomination.

00:24:56.120 And then they go to the center after.

00:24:57.520 So you need to pin them down on solid policies while they're seeking the leadership.

00:25:00.620 The most solid was out of Dr. Lewis, I guess.

00:25:02.760 And in a sense, she did point out that it's too slow to adjust in equalization to changing times.

00:25:07.500 Like, it's a three-year turnover on this thing.

00:25:09.840 So she just said, we're going to speed this up.

00:25:11.460 So it could reflect current economic circumstances rather than those from three years ago.

00:25:16.020 So don't forget, we're, what, six months away from this thing actually happening?

00:25:20.920 The platforms will get, you know, bulked up and firmed up.

00:25:25.500 I won't vote for one anyway because I, you know, in media, I don't have a political party membership.

00:25:29.960 I'll tell you, I wouldn't vote for any of them, period, unless it's just get rid of equalization.

00:25:34.700 Quit pussyfooting around.

00:25:36.340 I understand, you know, as an Albertan, I want it gone yesterday.

00:25:39.300 as a national leader you'd probably have to phase it out over a decade or something and you know

00:25:43.640 what frankly i'd take it i'd take it but it's you know it's time we got like we don't have any real

00:25:48.700 western leaders in this debate you had well you one guy on from saskatchewan today yeah he was

00:25:52.420 on today joseph joseph joseph yes joe joe for leader okay i'm terrible i talked to him all

00:26:00.120 afternoon and he was outspoken he was very clear on things unfortunately because he is i kind of

00:26:05.220 demonstrated not really a really known commodity in political play yet. Chances are really tight

00:26:11.400 for him to actually make a mark in this. But we do never know. I mean, he also laid out that he's

00:26:15.640 going all over Alberta. He's hitting all the small towns. He's got a plan and he's targeting and he's

00:26:20.640 going to be like in Lacklebish and a bunch of places like that. And with a weighted system

00:26:25.000 with members, you never know. He could actually rise more than people in anticipate. And his

00:26:29.780 answers were very clear on things, again, like equalization. And he did say he was receptive

00:26:33.940 to constitutional reform and supply management supply management he said he'd examine he was

00:26:39.180 mealy mouthed i mean if you're if you're i mean no offense to candidate joe but uh or joe for pm

00:26:45.840 no offense but like if you've got such a small chance you may as well put some meat on the bones

00:26:50.100 give us some solid policies like mealy mouthed equivocating is for front runners you know when

00:26:57.240 you got something to lose if you're way on the back you throw something against the wall and

00:27:01.620 It was the strongest of the bunch where he said we could examine ways to phase it out because, you know, the quotas are an asset to the farmers and so on.

00:27:09.980 He at least acknowledged more than any of the others gave.

00:27:13.220 I'll give him credit.

00:27:14.000 It was far more than any others gave.

00:27:16.980 We're going to move on, but I'll just I'll finish with this.

00:27:19.080 Remember, when Bernier was running for conservative leader, he had a plan to compensate the farmer, the dairy farmers for their quotas, those artificial, the artificial value created by these government invented quotas.

00:27:31.240 He was going to pay them out, compensation for the dairy farmers.

00:27:34.260 And I remember it was about 10 minutes after it was announced he had lost the conservative leadership race.

00:27:39.000 We were back in his war room, and he was addressing the team.

00:27:44.740 He was standing beside me, and he was giving his kind of private concession address to the team.

00:27:52.340 Everyone's kind of gloaming, and he says, Derek, next time, no compensation for the dairy farmers.

00:28:00.560 It didn't seem to buy any goodwill, but he was promising to buy it out anyway, so to hell with it. 0.70

00:28:05.800 If you're going to end supply management, let's just end the bloody thing. 0.95

00:28:09.080 Rip the Band-Aid off.

00:28:11.040 So, okay, before we move on, we've got to note our second sponsor of the show today, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:28:21.040 The CSSA, you guys have heard me before.

00:28:23.680 I am a longtime member of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:28:26.480 I've been a member for over a decade.

00:28:27.620 um they're a fantastic organization right across canada with a membership from coast to coast

00:28:33.740 that's uh fighting for your right to own use and uh purchase firearms safely in canada

00:28:39.740 they're uh they work to craft smart firearms legislation and and regulations to help help

00:28:46.500 the politicians have some bloody idea what they're doing unfortunately most of the time

00:28:50.100 that doesn't work and they're out there doing public education because at the end of the day

00:28:54.240 the politicians are going to follow whatever where the public is they're going to follow where the

00:28:57.700 voters are but they also you know and things like what we're seeing right now uh the uh the cssa is

00:29:04.260 going to play it is playing a significant role in the conservative leadership race uh helping

00:29:08.820 move candidates to get them to adopt smart firearms policies uh they've had better luck

00:29:15.140 with some candidates than others i know they've been very critical of jean charay jean charay

00:29:18.440 famously still supports uh the federal liberal gun registry even though the liberals don't support

00:29:23.200 the Liberal Gun Registry anymore. Jean Charest does, supported its continuation in Quebec in

00:29:30.000 another sort of strange form and still hasn't backed away from it. But what they're, you know,

00:29:35.400 they're doing a lot to help educate Conservative members on where the candidates stand on different

00:29:39.660 firearms policy. I know that's not the biggest issue for everybody, but it's, if I was to vote

00:29:45.400 in this, you know, their positions on firearms, something I would be paying a lot of attention to.

00:29:50.760 My default is more, more firearms, less legislation.

00:29:56.340 So check them out.

00:29:57.840 Corey, what's their website?

00:29:59.820 CSSA-CILA.org.

00:30:02.820 We need to make a jingle.

00:30:04.640 CSSA-CILA.org.

00:30:07.780 C-I-L-A. 1.00

00:30:09.720 I keep on thinking it's like C-I-L-L-A.

00:30:12.760 Can we make it?

00:30:13.660 Okay.

00:30:14.420 Make your gun rigid.

00:30:16.380 Okay, Corey.

00:30:17.720 Corey.

00:30:18.200 you won't forget that now will you okay you know um harder firearms legislation there we go

00:30:26.000 don't you need to erect some beehives oh yes okay okay uh and just you know this is kind of insider

00:30:32.740 but you know we've got staff awards we do around christmas every year and cory has an award named

00:30:36.920 for him i'm not going to explain it here but there's a there's the starfish award and it's

00:30:41.220 that's named for cory morgan it's for biggest mess up of the year and uh so for cory uh this show

00:30:47.580 could be it really we should just call it start the starfish live okay okay um okay we're gonna

00:30:56.300 move on now the um the eco-terrorism attack for the coastal gas link pipeline uh you know that

00:31:03.440 happened while the whole thing in audible was going on there was no state of emergency declared

00:31:06.700 in bc where they had a violent terror coordinated uh eco-terrorist attack but you know a couple of

00:31:13.100 protesters in Ottawa, and everyone loses their minds. No charges placed yet. Dave, give us an update.

00:31:20.240 This was 40 days ago. Our REIT Small, our BC correspondent, did a deep dive into it and did a

00:31:27.400 nice long feature on the weekend. 40 days since this incident happened. No updates from the RCMP,

00:31:33.100 no charges laid. You know, they didn't earn the moniker of the silent service for nothing. This

00:31:38.740 is the way the RCMP always operates. They don't give any updates. They don't let the public know

00:31:44.100 what's going on. But the planning of this attack was great. You know, 20 people armed with fire

00:31:53.060 bombs and all sorts of mechanical equipment did millions and millions of dollars worth of damage

00:31:58.840 at this coastal gas link site. They physically attacked, seemingly even tried to kill people.

00:32:05.480 Yeah, well, they set a bus on fire that was full of workers. So you can imagine the terror that they were going through. There were RCMP officers who got close enough to be firebombed. They threw firebombs at the RCMP officers. One suffered injuries, but the RCMP won't even say what injuries he suffered. Right? I mean, it's just crazy.

00:32:26.400 So Reid talked to a retired RCMP official, and he basically says, you know what, they may not be saying anything, but they're probably working on it hard behind the scenes.

00:32:37.200 They're going after social, you know, basically looking at social media posts and just sort of trying to find out who these guys are using social media posts.

00:32:47.700 But this, you know, it happened in a small town near BC.

00:32:51.800 Was it Houston?

00:32:52.580 I think it was.

00:32:53.280 Yeah.

00:32:53.720 But, you know, somehow these 20 people got there.

00:32:59.960 Did they come across the border?

00:33:01.800 Were they all Canadians?

00:33:04.360 You know, who are they?

00:33:06.240 Somebody must know.

00:33:07.480 Somebody must be talking out of this group of 20.

00:33:10.780 It was a well-planned, deliberate, eco-terrorist attack.

00:33:14.080 And Canadians know absolutely nothing about what the National Police Force is doing to solve this.

00:33:20.860 Corey, you think this is a priority for the federal government overseeing the RCMP?

00:33:25.260 I would think at least for the RCMP's sake it's a priority, you know,

00:33:28.060 aside from what their government guidance might be because the government doesn't seem to care about Western energy infrastructure.

00:33:33.360 But as Dave said, this is extremely serious, and any serious police officer knows, like, this can escalate.

00:33:39.960 It was a miracle almost that somebody wasn't seriously hurt or killed in that incident,

00:33:45.840 and it's going to happen again if they don't get this under control

00:33:48.380 and somebody's going to get killed.

00:33:50.040 So I think they're taking it seriously, but what are they doing?

00:33:52.980 I mean, we do have to hear about it.

00:33:54.300 We're spending money.

00:33:55.040 Like, how much are you dedicating towards this?

00:33:56.760 Do you have a task force?

00:33:58.020 Do you, you know, have any leads?

00:34:00.080 I mean, I don't expect you guys to give details on undercover operations,

00:34:03.400 but this tone of silence doesn't make people more comfortable.

00:34:06.440 Dave said workers must be terrified.

00:34:08.200 You don't know if they're coming again for you or what.

00:34:10.080 I think it leaves the public with the impression that there's one lone constable

00:34:14.840 sitting in the Houston RCMP detachment, you know, searching the internet.

00:34:19.200 That's what, you know, that's what the impression was left.

00:34:22.120 Well, it's a time to allow these guards to be armed because, I mean,

00:34:24.820 there were guards there who were attacked.

00:34:26.920 They were firebombed and attacked various ways.

00:34:30.000 But what are they supposed to do?

00:34:31.140 These guys didn't have guns.

00:34:32.720 I don't know what they had on them.

00:34:34.680 Maybe they had tasers or something.

00:34:36.400 But, yeah, you're looking at a dangerous escalation.

00:34:39.780 That way, if they've got guns and someone is coming at you with a firearm,

00:34:43.200 they're going to be used, right?

00:34:44.840 So then you've got dead terrorists, which I don't know.

00:34:48.100 Well, I mean, if someone's going to be dead, then...

00:34:50.040 Better a terrorist than an oil worker, for sure.

00:34:53.200 Yeah, but these things can certainly spiral.

00:34:55.080 I mean, that's a bad degradation.

00:34:56.460 Well, Dave, that won't work because the guns will be illegal.

00:35:00.680 The terrorists can't get guns.

00:35:02.640 That's right.

00:35:03.380 All they've got is firebombs.

00:35:05.000 Yeah, they can't get guns because the guns will be illegal.

00:35:08.280 Therefore, terrorists don't have guns.

00:35:10.000 Good point.

00:35:10.740 So that's why only the good guys have guns.

00:35:13.140 But either way, this story has been sliding under the radar.

00:35:15.040 And I mean, you know, it came up large when we reminded everybody, holy cow, it's been this long.

00:35:20.880 What happened?

00:35:21.620 Because people were already forgetting about it, which I think some people rather we did.

00:35:24.320 Like, this was one of the more major organized terrorist attacks in Canadian history.

00:35:30.060 We shouldn't be forgetting about it.

00:35:32.640 And people are concerned just judging by the number of page views we've got on the story.

00:35:37.400 It's been our most popular story all week.

00:35:39.720 So obviously, citizens are concerned.

00:35:42.340 all right and they get nothing okay well we're gonna wrap it up there uh dave cory thank you

00:35:49.440 very much for joining us today and i thank all you for joining us if you're not yet a member

00:35:53.500 of the western standard go to westernstandardonline.com membership it's only ten dollars a month

00:35:58.620 or 99 a year for unlimited access to all western standard content we've now got a network of

00:36:03.640 reporters stretching from ottawa all the way to vancouver island uh probably building one of the

00:36:08.240 bigger news teams in Canada at this point. We're building quite a crew of some excellent

00:36:13.720 reporters, and we've got a lot more to come. If you support us, we're going to continue to

00:36:18.500 support you, reinvesting every dollar back, improving our coverage. Thank you very much

00:36:23.000 for joining us today. God bless.

00:36:38.240 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - March 31, 2022

The Pipeline： Ottawa's radical cut of energy industry.

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