Western Standard - THE PIPELINE： Pipeline later, carbon tax now

00:00:00.000 good evening i'm cory morgan and you are watching the pipeline this is

00:00:28.720 western standards flagship show actually our oldest video production and it's a panel show

00:00:35.120 where we're going to break down the breaking and top issues and there's just so much going on this

00:00:39.360 week and we've shuffled our panels so that we have some different faces to at least one different

00:00:45.120 face to talk about these things and yes i'm sitting in our usual host derek phildebrand's

00:00:50.320 chair so to get into the issues and i'll just introduce everybody from my right to my left we've

00:00:55.040 got our former opinion editor nigel hanaford still have opinions oh yes director of operations in

00:01:03.040 food reviews still john sanders fire chief and fire chief may wears many many fire warden

00:01:09.520 not chief don't promote yourself well i think yeah you gotta work i have to check what the

00:01:14.080 building code is but i am fire something fire warden okay fire warden we're on the fire warden

00:01:19.360 and our our ever harried and overworked news editor at the end there dave mailer hey gory good to be

00:01:24.320 All right. So we'll get into what's just been breaking out and we're still chewing on. It appears, Dave, that our government's going to have some different faces in the front.

00:01:33.920 We have a real-life cabinet shuffle going on as we speak.

00:01:38.460 As first reported by our publisher a week or so ago,

00:01:42.280 Nate Horner is out as finance minister.

00:01:45.500 He's going to retire from politics, apparently.

00:01:48.900 And Jason Nixon is in.

00:01:51.280 So a big promotion for Mr. Nixon,

00:01:53.760 who's never held any sort of financial position before.

00:01:57.840 Also out is Matt Jones, who had one of the health ministries.

00:02:02.920 and he is also not going to run for re-election.

00:02:07.400 So he's asked to step away from the cabinet,

00:02:10.420 his replacement to be determined.

00:02:13.020 And 9.30 tomorrow morning,

00:02:15.080 the premier will introduce the new members of the cabinet,

00:02:20.300 but no media allowed.

00:02:23.380 Oh.

00:02:24.040 So, yeah, that's very strange.

00:02:26.420 There will be a pool camera.

00:02:29.320 Well, yeah, I guess they really want to control 0.98

00:02:31.780 some messaging right now i think they've got a message to control yes so nigel i guess start

00:02:37.780 with you what do you think the motivations of a shuffle at this time might be well there's a few

00:02:42.980 things it could be um if anybody is not 100 behind the premier on her dealings with mr carney that

00:02:50.980 would certainly be a cause for removal uh i don't know whether that is the case with either of the

00:02:58.020 two who have uh have um let's say what it is been sacked um another possibility is that it would deal

00:03:07.220 with their positions on alberta independence the premier is trying to walk a very tight line and i

00:03:16.420 think she wants to be sure that everybody who is in that inner circle is on exactly the same page

00:03:22.900 as she was now again i don't know that mr horner and the other chap were not but uh those are the

00:03:30.980 kinds of things that as premier i would be thinking about right now because the stakes are really high

00:03:37.380 with the pipeline with the whether to put a whether to put the question to the the referendums

00:03:44.740 on october the 19th so many things going on here yeah well with a lot going on i mean josh there's

00:03:52.180 There's always rumors. I mean, do you think there's turmoil hiding back there?

00:03:54.660 I mean, this government's actually been pretty good as far as conservative governments go

00:03:57.720 without seeing too many cabinet ministers or others suddenly flying off the handle

00:04:01.500 or calling out the premier or anything like that.

00:04:04.160 But it doesn't mean that they haven't kept some hot words behind closed doors.

00:04:07.920 Yeah, and I think the timing of this announcement is a part of the story.

00:04:13.040 It's, you know, on the eve tomorrow, they will be,

00:04:16.420 uh daniel smith will be likely having a televised uh address to the province on the upcoming

00:04:24.040 independence referendum whether they go along with thomas lukasic's referendum or tweak the

00:04:29.040 wording is irrelevant in this case i think there is a large uh maybe not large but a segment of

00:04:36.180 ucp mlas cabinet ministers staff that don't want to see this referendum move forward and i think

00:04:43.680 that's what we're seeing here is is maybe not necessarily a public explosion but something

00:04:50.980 where you know for the premier is trying to tighten up her ship has checked is checking

00:04:57.260 loyalties and changes are being made as a result now we only know two are going two are coming out

00:05:02.700 and one is going in we don't know the broader shift of the shuffle we don't know um about any

00:05:09.080 of the other portfolios I'm guessing that given you have a subtraction of one there will be some

00:05:16.000 shuffling maybe they will add another cabinet minister but I think this is just the premier

00:05:21.220 kind of buttoning things up in cabinet and making sure that everybody is on board with the line that

00:05:26.360 she is walking which is like Nigel said it's a tightrope you've got on one hand those who seek

00:05:32.080 independence on the other you have those who want to remain in Canada and I think what she's trying

00:05:37.660 to do is walk that middle line of people who are not necessarily ready to vote to leave but are

00:05:44.860 you know not happy with the way things are and they have significant grievances with the federal

00:05:50.780 government so which which side these two mlas go on is is or set is a is a secondary question

00:05:57.980 thomas lukasic of note uh tweeted earlier today that neither horner nor jones support having an

00:06:05.100 independence referendum at all and align with his view that his quote-unquote citizen initiated

00:06:11.100 referendum petition uh that isn't actually a referendum petition somehow i don't know how

00:06:16.060 the logic works on that but then again i'm not in thomas's head but if that's what he's saying

00:06:21.100 then i think there's a potential link that maybe these two mlas weren't supportive of the government's

00:06:25.660 position and are resigning as a result even though their letters won't say that oh dave

00:06:30.860 have you seen if uh i mean they say you're stepping away from politics but there's two

00:06:34.380 ways that would go does that mean one of them or both of them might be saying well i'm up next week

00:06:38.460 and we're going to need a by-election or are they looking to write it out in the back bench i think

00:06:42.140 jones is looking to write it out in the back bench and i think uh horner will uh likely uh want to

00:06:48.060 go quickly you know going from finance minister to back bencher it's a bit of a as a as nigel quite

00:06:54.620 said it, it's a sacking.

00:06:57.680 And he was also

00:06:59.060 a Kennedy-era

00:07:01.400 man, and I'm

00:07:03.280 sure that's not lost

00:07:05.080 on people.

00:07:07.080 In terms of tightening up the cabinet,

00:07:09.160 one less Kenny

00:07:10.300 follower, the better, I think, for the Premier.

00:07:13.560 You know, Dave, it does seem to me

00:07:15.260 that the Premier really needs

00:07:17.380 some kind

00:07:19.420 of public guidance

00:07:20.480 in October to preserve

00:07:23.280 her own

00:07:24.620 authority not just in cabinet but in caucus and in in government if there is right now

00:07:31.500 there are so many people who are playing with the idea of separation independence

00:07:41.980 and they want to feel that there is going to be a result now if there is a pipeline approved

00:07:48.140 and we and we can take it seriously a lot of that support is going to

00:07:52.460 to fall away i have to i have to think the premier is hoping that the process that she's worked out

00:08:00.420 with mr carney last friday is going to give her that escape route we won't have to act on it

00:08:06.480 because oh everything's all right the independence numbers are down to 19 from 35 you know issue has

00:08:13.900 gone away but if it doesn't go away well then it would be great for her to have the voice of the

00:08:21.580 people speak and say what they actually want.

00:08:24.560 That gives you some options and say, well, I'm responding to, I'm

00:08:27.680 responding to what the public is saying.

00:08:30.320 Well, I think there's this independence chatter, this issue, it's going to

00:08:35.160 dominate Alberta for the next six months, whether she calls a referendum to try and

00:08:39.820 put this to rest and settle it or not.

00:08:42.460 I personally, from what we're seeing, it's going to go one of two ways.

00:08:45.560 If there isn't something for that movement to sink their teeth into the referendum,

00:08:49.600 then they are going to turn on her.

00:08:50.920 and then it's going to be other battles going on

00:08:55.320 that she's going to have to be circling the wagons for all summer.

00:08:58.840 It's kind of a rock and a hard place.

00:09:01.120 Corey, I'm sorry, what are you going to say?

00:09:03.200 Yeah, I was going to say that I do think that there is going to be a referendum.

00:09:08.940 And again, I don't know whether it's going to be on Lukasik's question

00:09:12.260 or on a government-sponsored one.

00:09:16.520 I don't know if we'll know that today.

00:09:18.040 We'll find out.

00:09:19.020 But I think that the issue that the independent side has in this very moment is you have a lot of the leadership that are attacking the premier, that are going after the premier for her lack of interest in what they're doing from their standpoint.

00:09:35.060 But if she puts a referendum on the table and they continue to attack her when they have a clear objective that they have to hit, you have to win that referendum now.

00:09:43.760 And so if there if you see kind of that split where the grassroots membership looks at the direction that the leadership is taking the movement and isn't talking about an independence referendum, it's attacking the premier, trying to remove her.

00:09:55.360 You're seeing Sylvester right now pushing people into the UCP like you should be focused on what's coming.

00:10:00.800 And that's a referendum. This is mainly not the way you wanted it, but it is very much a showing.

00:10:06.460 and perhaps even like having lukhasik's question on the ballot where it's uh not necessarily a

00:10:13.260 constitutional question it's a policy question it might lower the stakes a little bit to get

00:10:17.840 more people showing up and saying like look actually i want to send a message to the federal

00:10:21.140 government i'm voting to not stay in canada because we need to send a message to ottawa

00:10:25.820 and maybe that's what happens but i think part of the issue that we're seeing in the independence

00:10:30.220 camp is is there even if they get their referendum they're going to turn around and they're going to

00:10:35.400 attack the premier and i think that's a missed opportunity because you do have to be driving

00:10:39.880 support to get the answer you want on that referendum question no matter what you know if i

00:10:44.840 if i may just comment on that uh and you probably know what i'm going to say but it's if if you are

00:10:51.720 in the independence camp you have to be really sure you know what you want and why you want it

00:10:59.160 uh we can all agree we've often said it from this this this table that the influence of eastern

00:11:06.920 canada does alberta no good and it is the values as much as anything that are implicit in the

00:11:13.960 liberal governments that we've had which make people just want to turn their back on the whole

00:11:19.720 thing all the political correctness all the you know whites not needed for in the army the the 0.82

00:11:26.360 green stuff which you know is is hokum all of those things are good reasons for albertans to

00:11:31.800 be discontented but anybody i refer you to um judge leonard's uh decision on the uh on the

00:11:42.360 referendum uh that was to be prompted by 300 000 signatures of angry uh albertans that

00:11:51.400 should have been allowed to happen i view her um a decision as politically motivated she probably

00:11:59.080 would say otherwise but i that's how i see it so what i'm saying is that you as a bona fide

00:12:07.240 peace-loving alberta independence seeker thinking to action the constitutional mechanism that is

00:12:14.760 available for a province that wants to leave talking about the clarity act if you think

00:12:20.040 that ottawa is going to let you quietly do that and accept the results of a free vote and

00:12:28.120 negotiate a peaceful exit with all our money which keeps the rest of canada going so the narrative

00:12:36.360 goes i don't think that's i don't think it's going to work out like that so just how much

00:12:41.480 do you want to put into this well i think i agree with that sentiment and i think that the federal

00:12:45.960 government uh they're gonna interpret the clarity act however they see fit in that moment i think

00:12:53.320 that that's going like that kind of creates that deeper resentment and and it may shift a lot of

00:13:00.360 people that like we know that there's discontentment towards ottawa i mean that shows up every time we

00:13:06.360 go to the polls and elect you know 33 conservative mlas but or mps but at the same time like if they

00:13:13.480 continue to take this path it's going to harden support and and yeah maybe uh maybe it's not this

00:13:19.720 wave that gets to over the 50 maybe it's the next one like i think they're playing with fire here

00:13:24.040 they also have you know potential pq government in quebec to deal with that's watching this like

00:13:29.080 none of this is happening in a vacuum and i think the liberals are are hardening something where

00:13:36.120 and even this mou i don't necessarily think that's going to help right i mean it's a pipeline by 2034

00:13:42.200 is when they're expected to have it completed in exchange for concessions on the carbon well i

00:13:47.720 mean they don't get built overnight the key date is approval uh 2027 september right and after a

00:13:55.400 year long and only a year long review process but you know i think nigel hinted on it earlier on 0.93

00:14:02.360 i think smith not a stupid woman she's obviously been optimistic about the pipeline all the way 0.92

00:14:08.520 through she i think she's uh optimistic she can find a proponent uh and i think she's optimistic 0.99

00:14:14.840 that she's going to have a have a shovel ready proposal to to to give to ottawa to uh to approve

00:14:22.920 by the end of the year uh and hopefully before the referendum and that kills off any hope of

00:14:28.200 independence yes i don't believe that whatsoever i mean the problem is another maybe another

00:14:34.040 possibly another potential the movement needs a yes it needs to see dirt moving it needs to see

00:14:41.080 not more pushing this this thing up i mean i could see progress on this slowing the movement

00:14:47.800 absolutely but like as you said maybe knocking it down to 17 i think oh what would happen there's

00:14:52.920 the 30 that are done they've had it they're ready to roll but it won't grow if it looks like there's

00:14:59.560 progress on that i mean they could get to the referendum and it's going to be a 30 vote

00:15:04.040 they're not going to get any closer to that 55, 50, whatever they may think they need.

00:15:09.500 But they've got to see something.

00:15:11.340 Well, that's another question too.

00:15:14.000 I mean, the federal judges have better watch it because they might not care about Alberta.

00:15:18.880 But when they tell us we can't do it, they're also telling Quebec they can't do it.

00:15:22.400 And they're scared of Quebec.

00:15:23.820 So there's a lot of stuff at play.

00:15:26.260 But I don't know if the timeline works for Premier Smith right now.

00:15:30.040 you can't say well we got to defer this referendum until we get a positive thing out of the mou and

00:15:35.400 all that they're not going to wait for that you know no no i wasn't suggesting that they defer the

00:15:40.200 no i know the referendum that's still going to go ahead in october but if substantial progress

00:15:46.600 is made during that time between now and october you know look i mean independence has been the

00:15:53.080 top total the top subject in alberta for a year now a couple years now and it has not moved the

00:15:59.240 independence movement very much uh from uh you know from the high of the mid-30s that's maybe

00:16:05.080 a lack of leadership but that's well yeah i mean that that is certainly the case it's it's it's

00:16:09.960 100 the case and and it's it's a lot easy to say you know when some random polling company calls

00:16:16.760 you up and says yeah i've had enough i'm gonna vote to leave uh to leave canada it's tougher

00:16:21.880 when you're in that ballot box and you're thinking wow this really could have the repercussions uh

00:16:27.080 Where's my Canada pension check?

00:16:29.080 Yeah, where's my Canada pension check?

00:16:31.080 And that's the thing I'm not seeing from the independence movement right now is any answers to any questions.

00:16:38.080 Where's my pension check? How is this going to work? How is that going to work?

00:16:41.080 Actually, it's all posted in detail through multiple meetings and lawyers online, but it doesn't seem to be getting out.

00:16:47.080 It's not getting out. The message isn't getting out.

00:16:49.080 But yeah, there's a lot to be done if you're looking to change things.

00:16:53.080 things. I just, the way the timeline's working, I could see this, if Smith can balance it,

00:16:59.540 you've got to give him the question to get it out of the way. You're a federalist. I mean,

00:17:02.160 you've got to be sick of this talk. And if you're really that confident, Albertans don't want to

00:17:05.660 go. There's no other way to put it to bed. Put it to the vote, let it loose, and then you can

00:17:11.500 move on if you're that confident. And Premier Smith could have that where again, yeah, saying

00:17:16.020 in the announcement she's looking at is by September or so saying that we'll have our plan

00:17:21.280 that we will submit that hopefully gets approved within a year right before the next provincial

00:17:27.600 election if i dated well that would date well for it i mean if the referendum gets out of the way a

00:17:32.020 month and some later and then the talk is kind of on the shelf for a year then she can focus on

00:17:36.280 actually getting this thing perhaps done uh moving because now we're not talking about that as an

00:17:41.620 option or something that's in the background okay well let me ask you a question cory if the

00:17:46.580 independence vote fails like i think it will how long does the issue go away for before

00:17:53.300 it starts beating again personally i think a couple of years they're tired they're exhausted

00:17:59.600 this would be a five-month campaign of everybody putting in everything they have they've already

00:18:05.140 done four months of petitioning the hardcores have and i mean i'll say no as a supporter of

00:18:10.460 independents. As the board looks right now, some things have got to change dramatically if they're

00:18:18.300 to hope to win it this fall. And as a federalist, I'd be saying, let's just open this thing up and

00:18:25.000 get it done. I mean, they're still formally leaderless. They got some other issues going

00:18:30.340 on within. There's potential vents happening. Let's just get this thing done. But if something

00:18:38.280 adverse happens between now and then, I guess that's a risk if a new national energy program

00:18:42.160 comes along. Or I heard somebody, I think it was Andrew Coyne, talking about how the risks of this,

00:18:47.560 not to give him much credit for things, but if we remember the Quebec referendum in the 90s,

00:18:51.580 support can change really fast over a little thing. And there was a scene of people dancing

00:18:54.920 on the Quebec flag during the referendum campaign that infuriated Quebecers, and that

00:18:59.780 alone probably shot it up by a few points. Yeah, if I can jump in too, I think the overreaction

00:19:06.000 by ottawa is something that we aren't really factoring in like we saw it with like them

00:19:11.200 shutting down the concept of a referendum in the using federally appointed lower court justices

00:19:18.560 to do so to me is an indication is that lord no no it's not longer it's medium she's on the

00:19:25.200 court i'm sorry it's medium size not well i mean just from context i mean i don't want to assume

00:19:30.400 too much about the way she thinks from past decisions but they are a bit of a pointer

00:19:35.040 this is the same judge who uh granted a restraint on danielle smith's policy of no sex change

00:19:43.760 operations for kids under 18. somebody challenged it she was the one who said the key with this

00:19:48.800 judge is she's true to appointed she's true to a boy didn't i don't think she would have i don't

00:19:54.080 think trudeau would have appointed somebody who was one of us yeah that's agreed 100 but i think

00:19:59.600 just like the way that the the system is designed it's it's going like as we move the ball forward

00:20:06.480 in this referendum process i can imagine that the sentiment coming out of the rest of the country

00:20:10.880 becomes more hardened against alberta you see more anti-alberta stuff so i'm showing up on social

00:20:16.480 media more toronto star articles smearing whoever speaks out in favor of it i think that the reaction

00:20:24.000 by the stay in canada no matter what crowd uh will just it'll diminish the the people who

00:20:34.640 aren't necessarily separatists and are frustrated with the federal government they're they're the

00:20:39.360 lost sheep and if the federal government is coming down hard they vote well then that's how will they

00:20:45.920 vote i think is the question i mean do they go it does ottawa come down hard on on us or the flip

00:20:51.920 side is maybe the real mark carney stands up after the referendum loss maybe we see carney's hammer

00:20:58.400 maybe the pipeline deal gets rejected i don't know what happens after this card gets played if if the

00:21:03.280 referendum doesn't uh come off successfully so there's if i may throw one i don't know whether

00:21:09.520 you want to move this in a different direction but carry on before we go one thing about

00:21:13.280 Now, Carney, none of us are giving him any credit for.

00:21:20.380 He has a significant green caucus.

00:21:23.940 There are probably about two dozen people who think that Stephen Gilbeau had the right idea

00:21:30.620 and that it's been terribly handled, and they're very suspicious of Mr. Carney,

00:21:35.360 the banker, the businessman, you know, what have we got in Brookfield, sir?

00:21:39.180 You know, all that line of thinking.

00:21:41.400 and he's got a majority of about two

00:21:45.700 and he's going to lose that over the summer

00:21:48.060 when they resign for different reasons.

00:21:50.260 One's taken a diplomatic post

00:21:51.760 and the other one just wants out.

00:21:54.160 So he won't even have his majority for very long.

00:21:57.280 So much as I suspect his motives,

00:22:01.540 don't care for his policies

00:22:02.560 and I'm highly suspicious of him,

00:22:05.000 I have to admit that as a matter of political chess playing,

00:22:08.580 he's got a couple of knights and queens

00:22:11.400 in the wrong place at the moment

00:22:12.640 and this has got to be a

00:22:15.240 consideration for him. If he came out and said

00:22:17.080 look, pipeline, let's go

00:22:18.980 we'll

00:22:20.400 just let you start digging in September

00:22:23.320 we'll scrap all the approval process

00:22:25.000 on you go

00:22:25.940 that's obviously an exaggeration

00:22:29.180 for effect but he is going to have

00:22:31.220 trouble in his caucus. He'll find himself

00:22:33.100 in another election before he's

00:22:34.720 you know, before Christmas.

00:22:36.600 He's both got balancing acts going on, no doubt there.

00:22:39.900 He's got a divided caucus.

00:22:41.020 Smith, to a degree, must have it as well.

00:22:43.560 I mean, it's something I would see, kind of get back to what Dave was asking.

00:22:45.800 What would cool him down, though, is that private proponent?

00:22:49.000 Can Smith pull a rabbit out of a hat, some company that has the means to say, yes, you

00:22:54.340 know what, we'll start committing to working towards this process.

00:22:58.660 We believe this process will lead to an end with a pipeline.

00:23:02.340 Thus, we're raising our hand to say we'll take part in it.

00:23:05.360 I think that would make, because then it's not a politician talking.

00:23:09.020 It's somebody with money in the game who's had the football pulled away from them many times already.

00:23:14.140 They believe it enough to say, we will commit towards moving on this.

00:23:19.000 And the closest I've seen so far from business leaders is hope.

00:23:23.800 Optimism.

00:23:24.880 But she might get one.

00:23:27.960 Let's look at what is actually happening under our feet right now.

00:23:30.680 Now, Bridger, the little pipeline company, Southpaw, has grabbed the KXL assets.

00:23:40.560 The pipeline is already in the line.

00:23:43.300 They pitched the U.S. government with permission to connect that to the system in Wyoming.

00:23:50.640 Trump signed off on it.

00:23:53.040 And when they finish completion, which construction is supposed to start next year,

00:23:59.540 they'll be shipping 500 000 barrels a day so that's one i'm told by those who know more about

00:24:05.460 this than i do which is just about everybody but uh you know that's really a recommendation

00:24:10.500 for what i'm about to say line three and enbridge are optimizing and deep bottlenecking their lines

00:24:16.740 and there's hundreds of thousands of barrels per day that can that could be added to that basically

00:24:22.420 the premier wants to export eight million barrels a day right now on a good day we do 4.1 so you

00:24:29.620 know you put together your bridger your line three your line we still need this pipeline for the

00:24:34.900 last two million barrels a day yeah well one of the symbolic victories that have been getting to

00:24:40.180 bigger markets i mean just still selling at a discount though more of it at a discount to our

00:24:45.700 sole customer it's good but we've been yelling for a decade we need to get it to the coast yep

00:24:52.900 and just again the symbolism of it it's absolutely these are optimistic things i mean it puts people

00:24:56.900 to work it brings in revenue to the country to the province but unless somewhere to a deep water port

00:25:03.620 we're looking at a pipe i think that's really what that's the point i'm drawing from this is

00:25:07.380 yeah these people are sitting still they're not standing back waiting for things to happen they're

00:25:12.100 doing what they can and if it comes up something solid that they can grab onto and say yes to

00:25:17.220 they'll be there for it but they with the indigenous component crossing bc the no tanker

00:25:22.740 van eb's hostility mr carney is going to have to show what the canadian prime minister's powers are

00:25:30.020 well that's the big if going on and that's that chicken today because i think some companies

00:25:33.620 aren't going to stick their neck out again unless they're confident the prime minister

00:25:37.300 is going to stop the axe from getting them again like if he isn't he's throwing out a bunch of

00:25:42.100 maybes and that goes back to nigel's point about his caucus like if he's walking on knives edge

00:25:47.300 which i think both i think like the mou in in the way it turned out is reflective of both

00:25:54.660 carney and smith kind of tight roping their own caucus like you've got potentially i mean if we're

00:25:59.860 right about if if thomas lucasic is right and nate horner and matt jones are drawing the line on

00:26:05.540 calling an independence referendum and that's why they're leaving then on one hand she's got

00:26:10.740 this pressure and carney's got the pressure from the left so you get kind of this mishmash of a

00:26:16.420 policy in the middle that they both agree to to keep everybody happy and but carney's carney's

00:26:23.220 the one who's laughing all the way to the bank like his poll numbers are up like he's i and it's

00:26:29.300 it's i don't like it's i don't i i don't know what the fix is i i don't know how i i don't

00:26:37.300 have any advice for pierre polyev right now i i'm i i feel bad for the entire situation up there and

00:26:43.780 so yeah i don't i don't know how things will get better given that you know the political calculus

00:26:52.020 in ottawa is the same you again like you said you've got those green mla or mps in carney's

00:26:57.700 cabinet they aren't going to let him go very far and if he starts dragging his feet that's going

00:27:02.800 to create more tension in it with uh the residents of alberta maybe not the caucus or the cabinet i

00:27:08.540 mean i don't know we'll see what happens after this uh after tomorrow morning but i mean there's

00:27:13.720 yeah it's it could potentially lead to a very interesting october as we head through the summer

00:27:20.420 with again like i get like we're we're talking about pipeline approvals that are you know we

00:27:26.660 don't have a proposal and we won't have an approval again for another 12 months so we're

00:27:31.060 pushing papers but again we're not pushing dirt like that's what we need to see and if if we were

00:27:36.340 pushing dirt like this should have happened we should have had approvals for this like three

00:27:40.420 years ago i think there was a pipeline in dubai they approved and dave you might know the story

00:27:44.340 better than i do aren't they building it in a year uh i'm surprised it would be taking that long

00:27:49.620 yeah i think it's something like that there are to be fair okay they're just digging across a

00:27:55.160 desert, they don't concern themselves with human rights, and they can use slavery.

00:27:58.900 They don't paint around the bush. 0.88

00:28:00.280 I think the Germans built an LNG plant in just a matter of a few months.

00:28:04.940 194 days.

00:28:06.200 TC Energy had a project off Mexico.

00:28:08.720 I think it was 18 months from the time they made their first request to the time they

00:28:12.600 started running gas through it.

00:28:14.080 The Alaska Pipeline took eight months.

00:28:16.280 I mean, not the Alaska Pipeline, the Alaska Highway, I should say, but that's a big project.

00:28:20.160 If we want to get things done, if the government can, is willing to get out of the way, if

00:28:24.640 truly believe in the national interest please get done well what if they move fast on venezuela like

00:28:30.080 they're predicting five years what happens if they've got stuff up and running in two years

00:28:33.520 and that you know it's like so we have to worry about market share and all of this and once you

00:28:38.080 lose market share you're kind of hoping for like a catastrophe in iran to gain it back kind of a

00:28:43.920 thing like you you lose market share it's hard to build it back and i i do worry about the future of

00:28:49.120 our industry still to this day and i in my opinion the mou hasn't done anything to fix that the

00:28:54.240 The appetite for oil in Asia will be just increasing and increasing and increasing for the next several decades.

00:29:01.700 Getting back to actually just a lot of something out of the blue that just kind of occurred to me, though,

00:29:05.340 we're looking at caucus divisions and possible ways that conservatives love to blow themselves up.

00:29:10.580 A favorite is to form a new party.

00:29:12.980 There's a lonely Pete Guthrie sitting over in the corner of the legislature who would certainly love to grab a couple of wayward ex-Cabinet ministers or even other discontented people.

00:29:21.360 So do you think there's any chance of that sort of gong show erupting?

00:29:25.860 No, zero, especially as they're both retiring or leaving politics.

00:29:30.260 They say, but I mean, you know, we've heard liberals say they're going home to spend more time with their family

00:29:34.560 and then discover they're not like their family when they find a better opportunity.

00:29:36.900 That is true.

00:29:37.800 Warner coming out as a red Tory would be quite damaging to him and Drumheller-Stettler

00:29:43.760 unless he wanted to switch ridings and run somewhere in central Calgary for Guthrie.

00:29:48.120 i don't i think corners uh i think he's retiring at the end of this term i think he'll be done

00:29:52.840 um if he does go to the what are they calling themselves now the united tory party united

00:29:58.040 tory party because they can't call themselves progressive like why don't they just call them

00:30:02.200 the red tories like i mean like let's be real here so yeah no i i i don't i don't think i'm

00:30:08.600 not worried about corner going to guthrie too much matt jones southeast cavalry riding maybe

00:30:14.920 Maybe he thinks he's got to play like if he is one of those, like if the reason he is quitting is because he thinks that this this entire situation is so damaging to his personal reputation that he has to exit stage right as fast as possible.

00:30:28.500 Maybe.

00:30:29.080 I'm just looking at risks to parties, right?

00:30:30.740 I mean, one way you can maintain unity to a degree is if there's nowhere else for them to go.

00:30:34.540 Yeah.

00:30:34.760 If there's not a home they can land in, then, yeah, maybe they'll just go home as it appears.

00:30:40.040 but i can speak a little bit of this from like experience because i was helping rick strengthman

00:30:46.700 in 2018 when derek fildebrandt came to us and said would you join the freedom conservative party

00:30:52.140 sorry derek we said no um so it's one of those things where it's like yeah maybe there's a fit

00:30:58.600 ideologically but from a political standpoint i don't know i don't see the tories going anywhere

00:31:05.240 no no so narrowly with guthrie i just throw it out there i mean going back to our own experience

00:31:08.680 too, even prior to that, it showed my grayness, but when we had a lone MLA in there with Paul

00:31:14.220 Hinman, but days changed really fast or dramatically when suddenly we had Rob Anderson, we had

00:31:18.960 Heather Forsyth, and Guy Boulier, and now suddenly you've got this corner in the legislature

00:31:24.800 that's drawing funds and research and getting questions.

00:31:27.840 It really only takes sometimes a seed, and then you get a real headache.

00:31:31.180 Though I like to remind all our listeners and everything, the ultimate end of that was

00:31:33.900 four years of nothing.

00:31:34.600 yes and then there was but even when kenny merged the wild rose and pcs together there was that

00:31:40.560 small little rump that for a moment rick fraser i think went and i don't know if sandra jams and

00:31:46.320 ended up in the ndp yeah i mean but they had this little rump so i mean it's it's a risk um it's

00:31:55.140 always a risk to leave the government um but i don't know like it's it's going to be interesting

00:32:02.440 to see how this develops over time and whether horner and uh jones just kind of sit quietly in

00:32:09.160 in the back and and work their way towards retirement i mean or if they do become thorns

00:32:15.560 and public thorns in the side but i don't know i think they're in a difficult position because

00:32:20.520 i mean what are they going to do endorse head nenshi's position on on not having an independence

00:32:26.280 referendum go ahead but one thing you can say about them because there is no pension for serving

00:32:34.360 as an mla at least you can't throw that at any of them who they're not hanging on for the pension 0.78

00:32:40.600 no they're not john give them credit for a little bit of uh what's what's the word uh

00:32:47.400 dignity and their beliefs i'll give you credit for that yeah well let's turn the page a bit

00:32:53.320 onto something that's been kind of emerging in the north uh sturgeon lake crea nation i believe

00:32:58.520 they go by uh they're recently in the news because their chief was one of the ones challenging the

00:33:03.160 the ability to hold the referendum appears they feel they may have found their own personal

00:33:07.320 cantaloups yeah apparently the uh they're they're saying that they're uh they're missing 82 kids uh

00:33:14.840 that went to the school in the last you know back in the in the olden days so to speak residential

00:33:21.960 school and they think they found potential grave sites of 62 of them so cory here we go again uh

00:33:31.320 we uh we interviewed francis widdowson uh on it today and she'll she says the exact same thing

00:33:37.720 you will say the only way to deal with this is to excavate get a shovel yeah so yeah well i mean

00:33:45.160 whether this is a uh a ruse to get money which the kamloops tribe certainly did they got i think

00:33:54.520 close to 13 million dollars and haven't done anything with it except i think they've opened

00:33:59.640 up a museum or something so whether this whether this is just a ruse to to get some more money

00:34:05.000 we'll have to see we'll have to see if any level of government falls for it again well i mean the

00:34:11.560 the world doesn't seem to be falling for it this time though, right? Like, I mean,

00:34:14.560 we've got a jaundiced eye from the public, I think at this point, it's only, you know,

00:34:20.180 insensitive souls like me and Francis Whittowson to come right out and say,

00:34:23.280 there's nobody buried in Kamloops and, and put that on. But also those who really were saying,

00:34:27.640 banging that drum that there was people buried, they've at least gone silent.

00:34:31.280 And this revelation from, from Sturgeon, we're not hearing much of it.

00:34:35.920 If I could provide a suggestion to the University of Lethbridge administration,

00:34:39.940 If you really want to save your reputation as an evidence-based institution, you can fund the excavation yourself.

00:34:49.900 They kicked you out, didn't they?

00:34:51.420 No, I graduated, but they might take my degree back.

00:34:54.780 Can they do that?

00:34:55.820 Can they take my degree back?

00:34:56.920 I don't think so, but they could strike you off the rolls of heaven.

00:35:00.080 I don't know.

00:35:02.580 It's not like you're doing much with it.

00:35:06.380 Yeah, exactly.

00:35:07.040 there's those different people shonegan lake celebrates that barry cooper went to their school

00:35:11.840 i don't think they mentioned that i was there yeah well nobody watches even derek so so here's

00:35:20.400 the thing with this story from sturgeon lake are are the indigenous leadership out there claiming

00:35:27.520 that these are children who were murdered or is it just that they they don't know which grave belongs

00:35:36.000 to which paperwork because they're asking for the paperwork from the federal government need the

00:35:39.840 records these are our children well you know the way things were done and 30 40 50 years ago the

00:35:47.760 simple wooden cross that would have been placed upon the grave would have eventually rotted and

00:35:53.440 withered and been cleaned up and sure enough there could well be graves there but that does not mean

00:35:59.520 that there is something terrible or malicious it merely means that eventually the grave became

00:36:05.760 overgrown and uh but we knew that so-and-so died and that's where they that's where they put them

00:36:13.920 somewhere over there there's no there's there's no doubt children died at indian residential schools

00:36:18.960 of course they did but they had a little thing called the spanish flu to deal with they had

00:36:22.800 tuberculosis to deal with and kids died of that right everywhere you know across canada people

00:36:30.480 died from that not just indigenous children so yeah the life for a settler wasn't exactly you

00:36:36.080 know what we have today i mean they were living on the land like i i mean i can look at my own

00:36:40.920 family tree and i'll see you know kids died at 11 7 in 1919 or you know somebody fell off a bridge

00:36:49.400 you're like i mean life was just more perilous and your mortality rates were higher i'd like to see

00:36:54.440 the i mean they they're confident that 82 children have been located and may be in 62 on mark graves

00:37:01.320 at the site but again like are they saying that they were abused in the system and that the system

00:37:08.280 is the reason that they died or is it just you know they're just even bringing it up that's what

00:37:14.360 they're hoping people think oh they must have been they must have been murdered or anything

00:37:18.920 you know stuff like that but on the bright side we're not seeing mark carney with a little teddy

00:37:23.880 bear on one knee uh ordering the uh flags to be lowered this time yeah so that's what i'm saying

00:37:29.960 is the the world's not jumping to attention with this this time nearly as as much it's like a

00:37:35.560 oh we'll see what happens no i don't i don't think you'll see any international media jumping on this

00:37:39.960 one well it was originally a port uh reported by aptn news which is the group that's tied to the

00:37:46.840 current uh we'll call it a developing scandal out of ottawa where a aptn news uh partnered with cbc

00:37:56.520 entertainment division and uh brought dr francis widows and lindsey shepherd and a few others i

00:38:02.920 think you covered it on your show earlier today cory so i mean i don't know if maybe this

00:38:07.000 announcement is a direct reaction to that because they're wearing a bit of a black eye right now

00:38:11.720 publicly and it's coming from aptn news like this is not being reported related to what their beat

00:38:17.480 ostensibly would be too they are the aboriginal network so but i mean they'd be the first to

00:38:22.520 get on that i guess i noticed on the story as well though that the rcmp has said that yeah we're not

00:38:27.320 having anything to do with this that's a note that a lot of people don't mention but the reason that

00:38:31.880 the rcmp never dug in kamloops is because there's no evidence of murders you know the rcmp's mandate

00:38:38.280 I mean, people, we've seen all those stories, twists and turns.

00:38:40.660 Oh, culturally, they're not allowed to.

00:38:42.080 No, no, it doesn't work that way.

00:38:43.740 I can't murder somebody, bury them on a reserve and say, sorry, it's all done.

00:38:46.540 You can't go.

00:38:47.140 They will go in.

00:38:48.080 They will exhume and they will arrest or investigate.

00:38:51.500 But if there's no evidence that there was actually a crime, yeah, they're not going to spend the resources and the time to dig a hole. 0.99

00:38:56.840 I bet you can't box this bullshit. 0.99

00:38:58.620 Well, I'm not taking that bet. 1.00

00:39:00.920 Hey, just because Derek's here doesn't mean you can't swear.

00:39:03.480 Oh, sorry.

00:39:03.900 You see, it looked like John could get away without having to edit, and you didn't even give him that one-week breather.

00:39:11.600 Man.

00:39:12.340 Sorry, guys.

00:39:13.340 Sorry.

00:39:14.820 What if you would have thought it'd be me who would have done that?

00:39:16.940 I actually was expecting it.

00:39:18.440 I had to, yeah.

00:39:20.260 Call yourself a fire warden.

00:39:22.760 All right.

00:39:23.620 Well, let's see.

00:39:24.980 We're getting into the last few minutes here.

00:39:27.300 We'll see what happens up in Sturgeon Lake.

00:39:29.580 I mean, it's not impossible, but we just need to see more evidence.

00:39:33.220 you know more than just that's all anybody has ever asked for just show us the evidence and then

00:39:38.180 they'll take it from especially exhumed do it as donald trump said dig baby dig yeah

00:39:44.660 something like that ah maybe they'll find hoffa all right never know so we'll start with some

00:39:54.100 parting shots on that uh note of tastelessness uh sure i'll give you one so i have quite a few

00:40:02.340 people from the military environment to email me what's going on in the military and i guess it's

00:40:09.540 i guess it's really hard if you're a white guy to join the army they'll take your application but

00:40:16.020 they'll put it in a separate pile while they go off to find the people they want to hire

00:40:21.380 so that there is this picture of the armed services as a microcosm of the society they

00:40:29.140 want canada to become so if they're you know every demographic group is percentage-wise

00:40:38.260 represented so what what the emails coming in are saying is that in order to get

00:40:44.020 the visible minority proportion that they want for canada they have been recruiting

00:40:51.700 and the deal is that if you sign the if you take the king's shilling you'll get canadian

00:40:56.340 citizenship they've been recruiting in cameroon and ivory coast so you have to ask yourself what

00:41:03.780 kind of a cruel joke this is on everybody involved but in order to get the candidate you want

00:41:10.340 represented in the armed forces you have to go abroad to find one of these and one of those and

00:41:16.020 we need some from this country so that you have the appearance what a way to run an army we're

00:41:22.740 gonna lose a war well yeah like what happens like do they speak english no so like what happens if 0.99

00:41:28.660 like it well some of them speak french well they're coming from french okay so we've got like

00:41:33.060 we now need all of our like lieutenants all the way up to generals to speak every language you

00:41:40.500 know you got a message across after colonel i believe you have to be bilingual but you're like

00:41:44.900 when you get to carl just so you know the rules you're not allowed to comment on people's parting

00:41:49.220 shots oh sorry

00:41:50.280 I know you're

00:41:53.160 a newbie

00:41:53.680 and no swearing

00:41:57.500 all right well what have you got Josh

00:42:00.940 not much

00:42:03.440 it's been a crazy week

00:42:05.340 I'm interested to see

00:42:07.460 the rest of the cabinet

00:42:09.340 shuffle we know obviously

00:42:11.240 the two names that are leaving

00:42:13.100 we're pretty confident that

00:42:15.020 Jason Nixon is the one going in

00:42:17.300 I'd be interested to see whether

00:42:18.880 Some other ministers are shuffled around tomorrow.

00:42:22.580 That's something I'm keeping an eye on.

00:42:25.420 And then obviously the big news will be the independence referendum.

00:42:30.160 And presuming, just presuming that that is what Premier Smith addressed to the province is about tomorrow.

00:42:37.680 So, yeah, I'll be keeping an eye on that, but I don't have much else.

00:42:41.820 I'm going to steal one that Nigel had in mind, and I hope I can remember it word for word because it was pretty good.

00:42:48.880 we heard news this week that the snowballs snowballs see even i did it the snowbirds

00:42:56.240 uh jet acrobatic team uh being uh mothballed i mean the planes are old there's no doubt about

00:43:03.760 that they're they're falling apart there's no doubt about that uh but apparently they're being

00:43:08.240 replaced by prop planes so only in canada do you go from a jet airplane to a prop airplane and call

00:43:17.040 the progress yeah certainly moving forward how'd i do there nigel i remember it pretty well you

00:43:21.920 you got it exactly yeah all right well i'll close it off just something i ranted a bit on my own

00:43:26.480 show but still for me i don't know why i allow myself to get floored anymore but let's talk

00:43:29.840 about the beauty of state-funded media the bbc put out this sob story with the sad looking man

00:43:37.440 if you look it up online saying he's selling children selling children to survive afghan

00:43:42.480 fathers forced to make impossible choices so they're talking about and they profiled a couple

00:43:46.640 a gentleman was selling two of his daughters, this gentleman

00:43:48.640 is selling one of his daughters, because they can't

00:43:50.740 make ends meet, and they're poor, and they're going to 0.92

00:43:52.720 sell their five-year-olds into sexual servitude, 0.88

00:43:55.020 and apparently it happens all over Afghanistan.

00:43:57.560 The BBC paints it as if

00:43:58.800 this is a tragedy that these guys were courted

00:44:00.780 into, despite, I don't recall, the Irish potato

00:44:02.800 famine fathers selling their daughters, or anybody

00:44:04.720 else, it seems to be kind of unique to Afghanistan. 0.99

00:44:08.000 How low do you have to

00:44:08.840 get to try and put a sympathetic

00:44:10.760 eye on men who are selling their children?

00:44:13.860 The BBC managed to 0.99

00:44:14.780 do it.

00:44:16.640 all right well on that note happy happy times well yes there's going to be happiness somewhere

00:44:23.600 so just so as you know you don't have me next week okay okay well that means we're stuck with

00:44:28.560 josh for two weeks in a row now all right we'll see if derek lets me on the air we'll put you in

00:44:32.720 your your obscenity training with the shock collar next week and uh it's been proven effective and as

00:44:41.760 we know there is no hr department here well it's me so if i put the collar on it's my own fire

00:44:47.600 warden and hr yeah you wear a lot of hats my friend i actually start to wonder what derek

00:44:53.360 does around here okay time time to kill a team we're gonna find out if he does watch this show

00:45:05.520 the email will be incoming yes all right well thank you all for helping dissect this ornit's

00:45:10.240 nest and mush of miss issues we've got today guys and uh i'll see some of you next week not you

00:45:16.160 enjoy the breather and again thank you to all you guys for tuning in one more reminder the reason

00:45:22.560 we can pay all these folks even with that half-ass hr department is through your subscriptions it's

00:45:28.800 ten dollars a month hundred bucks for a year get on there guys western standard news slash

00:45:32.400 subscription keeps us rolling let's us get that news as it's breaking and interpreted for you on

00:45:37.760 shows like this after it is broken so thank you all very much for tuning in subscribe to

00:45:43.200 those channels we'll be breaking the news as soon as we find out about it and sharing it with you

00:46:07.760 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - May 23, 2026

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