THE PIPELINE： Poilievre’s leadership on the line this week
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Summary
Join us as we discuss the upcoming Conservative Party of Canada's national convention in Calgary this weekend, including the leadership review of current leader Pierre Polyev, Jason Kenney, and his loyalty oath. We also discuss the latest on the independence movement in Alberta, including a rally and petition signing event on the Stampede Grounds in support of an independent Alberta.
Transcript
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Good day and welcome. I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're
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watching The Pipeline. Today is January 28th, 2026. I've got the usual lineup, but not entirely.
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We've got one additional one from us and Corey Morgan coming from elsewhere. We've got, as usual,
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Nigel Hannaford, former opinion editor. Hi, folks. Dave Naylor, senior news editor. Good evening.
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And joining us for the first time at The Pipeline, David Veitschnik, Western Standard business
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reporter. Thanks for having me. And coming to us from an undisclosed location on a luxurious warm
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compound somewhere in the empire of America is Corey Morgan. Hey, I'm a little overdressed today.
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You're, you are rubbing it in. You are sitting by a pool with a tan already. You son of a bitch.
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That is, you are rubbing it in. Okay. Well, it was just yesterday we had, there was a huge rally and
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petition signing event held at the Big Four on the Stampede Grounds in Calgary for Alberta independence.
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This is almost certainly the biggest independence rally in Alberta history. We'll be talking about
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that event, the media's coverage of that event, and where things are going in the effort to get a
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referendum launched in Alberta on independence. Oh, and the loyalty pledges. Don't let me forget.
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We're going to talk about the Nenshi's loyalty oaths that he demands of the UCP. But first, we're going to start
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with what's coming up. Beginning tomorrow here in Calgary, going all the way to Saturday, the Conservative
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Party of Canada's National Convention is in town, held every two years. Members get together to vote on
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important things like constitutional resolutions and policy resolutions. Mostly they get together just to
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drink. And this time also, though, to vote on the leadership status of Pierre Polyev. I'm not sure
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how the rules are set right now, if they have to face it, no matter if they win or lose an election.
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I know in Alberta, win or lose an election, incumbent premiers still have to face a leadership review.
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I don't think that, I know it wasn't the case for the federal conservatives. I'm not sure if that's
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changed or not. But obviously, Pierre Polyev did not form a majority government. It has to face
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a leadership review. And that's, that'll be come out. Dave, which day of the convention is the leadership
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Yeah. So yeah, Dave, Pierre Polyev facing a review to see if he gets to keep his job this week.
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Yeah, it's important to note that all members of the Conservative Party do not get a vote. It's only those who
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who show up in Calgary. So expect several thousand of them at the, at the BMO Centre. As you said,
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Derek, arriving Thursday night, hospitality suites open, policy discussions throughout the day,
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throughout the day on Friday, keynote speech by Pierre Polyev, voting opens on Friday, and I assume
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they'll put out the release on or the number that he got on on Saturday at some point. There's no specific
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Nigel, you know, despite, I was chatting with a guest we have in the office today, you know,
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about two hours ago, you know, saying, well, what's all the media saying? Oh, I don't know
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how Polyev's going to do. I mean, that's, not that we haven't done stories like this, like,
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but there is, there are, those are a dime a dozen speculation stories, like, is there going to be
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an election? And sometimes it's a legit, like we had a column the other day, hey, there might be
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an early election. It's sometimes just legitimate speculation. Still on the day, by the way. Okay,
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there we go. Yeah. And then sometimes it's just a slow news day. And, you know, if a column has,
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if columnist has nothing to write about, what's the go to you can always do? Should there be an
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early election? Number two is, are they going to keep their leadership? In Canadian federal history,
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I think only two people have ever lost a leadership review in Canadian history. That's
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John Diefenbaker, for who the process was created. And then Thomas Mulcair. Normally a leader knows
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going into a convention, if they're going to make it through. And they, and they save themselves
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the indignity of, of losing outright. Yeah, we had the funny situation in Alberta with Jason
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Kenney. Yeah, it's complicated, but no one, I don't think is actually predicting Polyev lose.
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I think the question is, you know, how strong a level of support is it? You know, Joe Clark's
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at the unofficial bar, 68, 69%. If you're below that, will you probably, if you can't get more
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than that with your own party members, you probably are not going to earn the trust of the broader
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public. How do you think it's going to play out? Well, I have no doubts that Mr. Polyev is going
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to get such a strong vote that all of this will seem very academic next week. I have no problem
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predicting that he'll pull in over 80%. There is nobody else. Nobody else is organizing. And so if
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they were to turn him down, then there'd be this big question, well, what's this about? What are we
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going to do now? You know, we suddenly go into a, into a leadership race for which the party's
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totally unprepared, either in organizational terms or even intellectually. So the question
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really is, what is he going to say in his speech, which by the way, I see is on the schedule here for
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six 30 on Friday night. And, uh, what is he going to say? Cause I mean, he can either just give the
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usual thing, or he can be, he can condemn the Mr. Carney, which he's already done in the, his response
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to the carnage devil speech, or he can be forward-looking and, uh, a vision that, um, people haven't, haven't
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heard yet. And I think you heard some, I think we got a bit of a taste of what he might have when he was
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saying in the, in his response to Carney's, uh, Davos speech, uh, just pointing out some of the,
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some of the hokum in that speech, uh, talks about the trade agreements, what stops us from growing our
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trade. It's not the trade barriers they impose on us, the, the Americans, but the trade barriers we
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impose on ourselves. They're all laws like C 69 and C 48. Uh, you mentioned supply management in there,
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right? Yeah. Yeah. I'm not going to, no, I'm joking. He did not. No, he didn't. I know you do let you wear
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it. Um, so, uh, yeah, we're going to, we're going to hear some, how we're going to do things
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differently. And that's, what's going to be the story out of this story they want. So do you think
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he's going to say Canadians on a nice house on a safe street under a proud flag guarded by a good
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military, uh, you know, a line that it was ad nauseum. That seems familiar. Yeah. And hopefully it comes up
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with something new. Uh, Corey, I, I, his, what it's, what's going to be a speech is interesting.
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I was kind of, I was discussing this, uh, and the individual was visiting us here today and, you
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know, I know his, his go-to line was, you know, they'd always got the biggest applause from the
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moment he launched his leadership race. I remember, you know, his, when his leadership race came to
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Cal, uh, Calgary at an event that, uh, Spruce Meadows just packed the place. And when he said,
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and we're going to defund the CBC, the place would go crazy. Now I, I thought he would stop
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saying that once he had the leadership and to his credit, he did not. He kept on saying that
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all the way through until about halfway through the election campaign. And he says, uh, he stopped
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saying it. It was no longer at his rallies when asked from the media about it. Cause he was like
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the first time he would never talk about it. Uh, he said, you know, we'll, we'll get to it
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eventually. It was always gonna be like, this is the first day kind of thing. We're going to shut
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them down. We're going to sell the buildings and, you know, make it affordable housing for
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Canadian families. Um, I don't know. Is he going to start talking about, you know, and
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then he backed down on getting rid of the media subsidies, uh, more or less saying, I'm not
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going to get rid of them anymore. I'm just going to make it available to everybody instead.
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I don't know. How well would that kind of stuff sit where he had backtracked on some of
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his positions? Um, it, it seems to me that, you know, once done, this is nothing original
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I'm saying, but Justin Trudeau's resignation, he kind of lost his mojo. You know, Carney
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stole, you know, a fair number of chunks of his platform, obviously not everything, but
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he stole some of the big things like getting rid of at least the consumer carbon tax. Uh,
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how is Polyev going to, uh, get his mojo back in an important speech like this?
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Yeah, I'm not sure how he's going to do it, but he's going to have to change some things.
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As you put it out, all those things he said were excellently received when he was running
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for the leadership, as well as going into the last election. He knows how to speak to
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conservatives. And, and I suspect as, as Nigel saying, he's very comfortably going to win
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the, the, the leadership review. I mean, most of the people who think that he's at risk,
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those are pundits we're hearing who are from outside of the party. They're hoping for some
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intrigue. They're hoping for some upset, but he's also obviously realized that he's not been able
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to reach that mushy middle of Canadians. And, and, you know, us, uh, we certainly would love to see
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the demise of the CBC, but even if we might not like to admit it, that's not a top of mind issue for
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most Canadians. I wish it was, it really should be. It's a billion a year down the toilet,
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but that's not what's got to grab them. So I'm guessing he's going to have a, a measured,
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you know, that the leadership race will be, or the review will be behind him.
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The campaign kind of to try for a few years from now to win the next election starts,
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and it's going to be modeled. He's in Calgary. He's strong here. He doesn't have to worry about
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reaching out to those conservatives. He's already got them. He's got to figure out how
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to reach that mushy middle, particularly in central Canada. And we'll, we'll see how he,
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he models his approach and which issues he wants to take on. Uh, he can't try to carve
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out of Carney's thing going on the offensive with the Americans or the trade deals, but
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at the same time, that's that vulnerability that won the last election. So where can he
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say he's standing up for Canada yet not, uh, throwing rocks at the United States? It's
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going to be a very carefully crafted speech. I think he's going to be reaching for people
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outside of the conservative party now, rather than, than the, the burden hand he has right
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I think actually to your point there, Corey, when it comes to, he points out that it doesn't
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matter what Mr. Carney says, we live right next door to the United States. We do 90%
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of our business with them about eight times what we do with China. You can't just turn
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that around on a dime and start doing something different. He made that point in his response
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to the Davos speech. So I wouldn't be looking for anything other than we've got to fix it
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up with the Americans somehow. And Trump's only got three more years.
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Uh, David, um, I, I was just, you know, kind of making fun of early election speculation
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columns, but I, I think it is reasonable speculation right now. Uh, one, one poll has
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got the liberals at 47%, which is damn, damn high. I mean, uh, I don't, I don't really see
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the need for an election. I think Carney is going to get his majority without an election. I don't
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think he needs an election to get a majority. You got, you know, he's very demoralized new
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Democrats sitting there. Uh, you know, you could look to a conservative, a conservative
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MPs who are, you know, at the end of their political career or something, and they can
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say, whatever, I'll take a cabinet spot and maybe I don't get reelected because I'm in
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a hard conservative writing, but you know, that's a good way to finish my political career.
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Then I can go lobby, uh, or conservatives in marginal seats who are fearful of losing
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their seat as a conservative. Maybe they'll actually have a better chance as a liberal
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because the liberals are higher in the polls right now. I can be with that. He might get his
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majority one way or another, but there is some serious speculation and I don't think
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it's unfounded that, uh, he pulls the trigger and the spring he's doing pretty high in the
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polls. Um, a lot of normal people I talk to who just couldn't stand Justin Trudeau's face
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and his voice. Uh, the bar was set so low that they're looking at Carney and saying, well,
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he's a grownup. Yeah. Yeah. He shows up to work with his pants on and he should comes on
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time to the office. Uh, and you know, he, he, he has a chance of getting a majority here.
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Um, but if that happens and Pauliev was to lose, I think, I mean, it's been a while since
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a conservative leader, uh, I think the conservative, Monoconservative Party of Canada has only
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actually had one leader be allowed to lose an election and contested another. That was
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Steven Harper 2004. Um, but that was a brand new party and they brought them from majority
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minority. There was progress. Um, but no one else has even gotten two kicks at the can.
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Pauliev is almost certainly going to get two, but if he does, if he doesn't make it at the
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next one, which could be as soon as the spring, he's probably toast at that point. Right.
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Oh, I would assume so. Yeah. What are the conservatives pulling it right now? Because
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Yeah. That's what I was thinking as well. So yeah, early election, I think I, well, I think
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maybe the liberals could possibly get another point or two and definitely get a majority
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of the government because I mean, there's a lot of people that talk about the conservative
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leadership and Pauliev and they don't like Pauliev and they wouldn't vote conservative
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just based on him from some of the people I've talked to. So I don't really know leadership
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wise. I mean, obviously like you guys said that he's going to obviously get his leadership
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review. He's going to get probably over 80%, but on the offhand chance of the 20% that
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he doesn't get the leadership bid and they hold an early election. What do you think
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Well, I think there's no way he's going to lose this leadership review. Uh, like I take the
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bare minimum he gets is 75. The bare minimum he gets in here is 75. Yeah. I, I, I'd be
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shocked if it was lower than that. But is that good enough? Yeah, exactly. So when you've
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got 25% of delegates voting against you, can you honestly go forward as the leader and
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say, I'm the best part, I'm the best choice for this verdict? I think he does better in
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75, 75, 77, 78 is kind of a kiss of death number, at least in Alberta. Uh, that was the
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number Stelman got. He survived the leadership review, but he was ousted within a year. It
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was the number that Alison Redford got. She was ousted within a year. So you, you get to
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fight on, but not necessarily for that long. If you get those kinds of numbers, I, I think
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he's probably going to get higher than that. So I think he gets, he gets through this weekend,
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uh, unscathed, probably not with the numbers he would otherwise expect into the nineties.
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Like what was it? Daniel Smith got like 90, uh, 94, 94 something. And there was, there was
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apparently an organized effort against her that obviously. So one of the things here, Derek,
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is that if you're really against, uh, uh, uh, Peter Poirier, when you live in central Canada,
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it's gonna cost you a lot of money, $1,000 for the conference alone, plus hotels, plus air
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fairs, plus your wife, double times everything by two. To get here, to do what? To say, I don't,
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to say I don't like the guy. You know, I think a lot of people who don't like him will probably
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just watch from afar. Important in that in particular is the interesting choice of timing
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for Doug Ford's Ontario PC party convention this weekend. Uh, it's being held at the same time.
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Uh, they've known the timing of the federal consumer convention forever. And then the man,
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the Ontario PCs intentionally booked a convention at the same time. I think that it's, it's well known.
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Doug Ford wants Pierre Polyev gone, probably wants his job. Uh, it's been very obvious. He was all
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but campaigning for the liberals in the last federal election. Um, but I think he, they knew that they
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couldn't out-organize Polyev. They couldn't beat him. So this was a way of saying, well,
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we're obviously not even trying. We're having our, we're doing our thing at the same time.
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Um, but it does mean it probably strengthens Polyev, Polyev's hand a bit because, you know, Ontario
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delegates make up one third of the, the delegates at the convention and the hardcore Doug Ford guys are
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much more likely to save a few bucks and go to the Ontario PC convention this weekend rather than
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spend a bunch of money, come out to Calgary, get yelled at by people just to register a vote against
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Polyev. So I think it should be like for that. They wouldn't be held. Uh, but anyway, I, I think the, uh,
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the choice of timing for the Ontario PC convention is going to strengthen Polyev's numbers a bit from Ontario.
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Uh, okay. Uh, anything else for the convention you guys want to touch on?
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No. Okay. Um, it's funny because it is going to be held not in the same building, but on the
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stampede grounds, uh, the conservative convention, I think is at the BMO center on the stampede grounds,
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right? Yes, it is. Uh, also on the stampede grounds is the big four. And yesterday at the big four,
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Monday, Monday, Monday night. Was it Monday? Oh yeah. Yesterday was Tuesday. Sorry. Monday,
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Monday evening. Uh, David, you, uh, you were on the ground for the Western standard there for a big
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independence rally. There was, uh, people lining up long, long before to sign the location for the,
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to get a referendum on independence. Uh, tell us about the event. Well, I mean, what can you say?
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It was absolutely historic. I mean, the turnout, I think the official numbers came in, I think it was
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4,900 and some people. They counted just under 5,000. And yeah, they had, I think at, uh, people
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were lining up, I think at 10 o'clock in the morning, it opened at 11 to, uh, sign the petition.
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I think one of the organizers told me there was 750 people already lined up at 10 AM to get in
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waiting an hour. And then it just was kind of just progressive throughout the day. And they didn't,
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I asked how many, um, signatures they got. They wanted to release the actual numbers,
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but it had to have been in the thousands. Cause I went down to where the 150 campuses were and it
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was packed. And this would have been probably at about five o'clock at night and it was absolutely
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packed. So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that they got several thousand signatures from that alone
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in just this one event. And then it was, yeah, probably like you said earlier, it's probably the,
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well, it is the largest indoor independence event that's ever been held in Alberta history.
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The biggest one's actually the one that they had at the legislature, Armisen,
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that I think got about 14,000 people. But yeah, this was unbelievable really. It was just great to be
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there. It was a historic night and I can't believe that Corey didn't actually get there of all people.
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Well, I, I, I know it ate me up. I mean, talk about a part of history, but, uh, you know,
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I've got to keep this, uh, the stability of my marriage in mind versus, uh, my political loyalties.
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And if we passed up on our trip to the South in January for me to go to a rally,
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Jane probably would have gone without me, but, uh, I'm certain there's going to be more rallies. I mean,
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the, the, the, the strength of this is just striking. That's the first of, you know,
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we've got months of campaigning that's going to happen. There's going to be a referendum coming
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up. I mean, the signatures are just going wild. There's no doubt. They're going to pass that bar.
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I would suspect the organizers are going to be planning some huge rallies because then you can
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start using outdoor venues again in May and June and getting into fall and kicking it off like this is
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something else. I mean, yeah, as a long time independence advocate and, and, you know,
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person who worked on this for longer than I like to think, I mean, the, the largest,
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really famous one, if people remember, there's a picture of Doug Christie with the Western Canada
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concept. I think it was 1981 at Jubilee auditorium and he had his hands up and, and it was a photo
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that went across the entire nation that something was building in Alberta. And this rally blew that
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out of the water with the turnout and only because the room was full. I mean, if they could have booked
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a saddle dome, it would have been interesting to see just how many people would have gotten up and
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come out to this rally. We're, we're seeing something really unique building up right now.
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And, uh, assuming the organizers don't blow up or something, uh, it's only going to get stronger.
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Uh, yeah. I mean, it was an incredible event, uh, to see that the, the room looked totally packed.
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Um, Dave, did you watch the video from there? I've seen Dave's videos. They were excellent. Yes.
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Uh, what stood out as the main, uh, just the overwhelming number. Um, you know, I, I, I don't
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think there's, there's no doubt they're going to get enough signatures, right? There's, there's
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absolutely no doubt about that. So behind the scenes, if they want to succeed, then they need
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to be making their, their, their plans on the day that the government announces the, the, uh, the,
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the petition has passed that somebody comes out and becomes the leader of this independence. Yeah.
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Uh, because right now you've got petty squabbling between, uh, various people, uh, who are, are all
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claiming to be leaders to be, none of them right now are going to win the, win the day. Uh, so you need,
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they need to, you know, I've said this before they need to, when the petition is, is ratified,
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uh, by elections, Alberta, they need to have a press conference and say, this is our leader.
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And, uh, I would hope they're smart enough that those discussions are going on behind the scenes.
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Yeah. Now this seems to be the big question hanging out over it right now is leadership.
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Um, uh, I'm, I'm not sure it could just be anointed. Maybe it could be, uh,
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uh, hard to say. Normally, you know, when we have had Quebec referendums in the past,
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the natural, the natural leader is the Quebec premier. You had René Levesque and then you had,
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um, uh, uh, uh, Lucien Bouchard took over after because, uh, the premier Jacques Perizeau was kind
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of a, he was kind of a, he was not going over very well. And so, uh, actually on paper, he remained the
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leader of the S side, but they made Lucien Bouchard chief negotiator or something. And he became the
00:22:32.680
de facto leader, the de facto spokesman. Uh, but you had a clear political, you had political parties
00:22:39.320
from which to draw on. Uh, the UCP's membership is dominantly pro-independence, not uniformly so,
00:22:45.160
but dominantly. Um, there are UCP MLAs who support independence, but it's very quiet. There are UCP
00:22:52.200
cabinet ministers, very quiet. It's not really, they're not really out there publicly. So some are,
00:22:58.360
some have wink, wink, nudge, nudge more than others, but you know, they're, we're not really
00:23:02.200
able at this time yet to draw on the political class. Danielle Smith has said, it's for the
00:23:06.440
Alberta people. I'm staying out of it. I'm staying neutral. The other side is going to be very, have
00:23:11.800
at least the pantheon of leadership. Uh, it'll be very entertaining seeing, um, Nahid Nenshi,
00:23:18.280
Thomas Lukasik and Jason Kenney have to share a stage, uh, on the federalist side, um, with Antifa
00:23:24.920
supporters. Uh, we got a story coming out on that. Um, uh, that, that'll be fun. Uh, but on the pro-independence
00:23:32.600
side, you know, the, the politicians, you know, politicians are naturally risk adverse, and this
00:23:38.920
is a risky political position to take, to come out and say, yes, I'm pro-independence. Uh, you're not
00:23:45.400
going to see federal conservative MPs do it because they're in the conservative party of Canada.
00:23:49.160
There are certainly some who sympathize, but they can't. They're sitting in a federalist
00:23:53.560
party. Uh, so it'd have to come from the UCP. So we don't have the natural reservoirs of political
00:23:58.680
talent to draw on that the federalist side does. We don't have the natural reservoirs of political
00:24:04.280
talent that they do in Quebec, where you have the PQ, you have the bloc. Uh, I'm not sure where
00:24:09.320
this is coming from, but if we don't figure this out soon, it's all for nothing. And there's some
00:24:16.520
good folks involved right now. And you know, some of them I like more than others, but I mean,
00:24:21.720
they're all generally trying to pull in the same direction. Some, some of them tend to let their
00:24:25.480
own personalities, I think, dominate, uh, things more than they should, but they're trying to pull
00:24:31.560
in the same direction, but there's no clear recognized leader at this time.
00:24:35.080
We don't, we don't, if, if the movement does not figure that out, it's, it's got no chance of success.
00:24:41.160
Right. So, so really what, what tends to happen in other successful examples of the genre is that you
00:24:46.840
have a political conference, you get all the people together and you have a, you try to decide exactly
00:24:54.680
what you're going to do. Uh, it happened in the early days of the United States. It happened during
00:24:59.800
the French revolution. Uh, there's a number of precedents for this, but you get
00:25:04.520
all sides out there. Uh, they actually have a, if they want it, they have a constitution courtesy
00:25:10.600
of, uh, Bruce party who wrote up, uh, an Alberta independence constitution probably wouldn't satisfy
00:25:17.000
everybody, but at least as a starting point. Well, that's for a state, like for the movement,
00:25:21.400
for a yes side of, of, of a referendum. And you need all the groups.
00:25:24.600
This is the point you're making, uh, that unless we know what we're going to do with this, when we get
00:25:28.360
there, then it could be all for nothing. Sure. A bad idea to have an idea of whether at least
00:25:33.240
we're going to be a monarchy or monarchy or a republic, you know, some things like that could
00:25:37.720
be settled fairly, fairly easy. Monarchy. And I'm the Ken, uh, that's simple.
00:25:41.800
Well, there we go. But that stuff I actually think is best done after you do that at a
00:25:47.320
constitutional convention, you get people to agree on the independence or not. I mean, if,
00:25:52.120
if we started arguing now about, are we a constitutional monarchy? Are we a republic?
00:25:57.800
These things, uh, you lose. I gotta, I gotta disagree with you. I gotta disagree with you.
00:26:03.320
Sorry, Nigel. But if, if, if, if I'm being offered, uh, independence, yes or no, I want to know what
00:26:09.320
independence looks like. I want to know whether you're going to support the monarchy or not.
00:26:13.400
I want to know what you're, I know. Of course they don't have the authority.
00:26:18.120
It's not even a government led initiative. This is a citizenship petition. Uh, so unless it's like
00:26:24.200
the referendum would have to be then adopt this constitution or the status quo, not independence.
00:26:30.680
Because the premier is not even openly campaigning. So there's absolutely no way to,
00:26:35.320
we can have discussions about, you know, monarchy versus republic and, and these kinds of things.
00:26:41.400
But there's absolutely no way you could do that. You have to decide first, well, do we want to be
00:26:46.040
independent? Uh, when the United States, when the Continental Congress declared independence,
00:26:50.760
there was still every possibility that they would become a monarchy. Uh, that was not decided until
00:26:57.320
the constitutional convention. They were, it was the, it was the Continental Congress with a variety
00:27:01.960
of different states. And then they figured it out. Well, then you'd have to do another referendum.
00:27:05.880
Yes. Yeah. Right. Okay. I think you would. Okay. So yes or no. Yeah.
00:27:09.560
Well, then you have a referendum with specific plans. This is what we're going to do here, here,
00:27:15.240
you know, involving everything because it's quite complicated to become your own country. I imagine.
00:27:20.040
Sure. And I don't want a bunch of, uh, people that have no idea what they're doing in charge of it,
00:27:24.520
if I'm going to vote, uh, for independence. So I, I w I, I would think that there would be some,
00:27:32.040
some platforms put forward during the, during the campaign saying, okay, this is what we would
00:27:37.720
do if we were in charge in terms of, you know, agriculture or something like that, or, or even just
00:27:43.480
board, cross border business with BC, what's going to happen to BC wines. If an independent power comes
00:27:50.440
into Alberta. But it's all, it's all speculative. I think you'd first vote on independence. So then
00:27:54.680
you'd have to have a constitutional convention. They write a constitution and then that constitution
00:27:59.720
is put to the people for ratification. You know, that's what the United States did after,
00:28:03.160
after independence. I think that's a generally responsible way to do it. Uh, you know, the founding
00:28:07.880
father, you know, the continental Congress didn't sit around and devise three orders of government and,
00:28:12.920
you know, but you know, they have the Senate, they have the house, they have the judiciary and the
00:28:16.760
president. They didn't figure that out, uh, until after independence was achieved. I, I think it would
00:28:24.120
be similar if, if it goes down this way. Well, you may be right, but the point when, you know,
00:28:32.200
people who aren't into this stuff, the way we are come to be asked, they would say, well,
00:28:38.280
I don't know what I'm voting for. Yes. I don't like Ottawa. And I think equalization is a terrible
00:28:44.440
thing, but I don't like the attitude from some of the people of down East, but like, what's this
00:28:50.200
going to look like? Well, I still have my count of the pension trial. The answer is yes, you should.
00:28:54.600
But you know, they don't know that they want certainty on all of those.
00:28:59.000
Those things have easy answers. Those are, those are policy questions. They're not fundamental
00:29:02.760
constitutional questions. Fundamental constitutional questions. Uh, that's a whole other problem.
00:29:08.440
Who is actually, who am I voting for here? You know, technically you'd still have the same
00:29:14.600
game. I was saying, getting back to kind of where we began with this, they, they, they can get away
00:29:20.120
with it for a while with having a number of voices because the goal is just getting the signatures on a
00:29:24.680
petition to get a referendum going, but they need, when they move past the petitioning portion,
00:29:30.120
that's into the real campaign. And they're going to have to have a centralized figure of face
00:29:36.120
speaking for the movement, because you can't have mixed messaging starting to come out or people won't
00:29:40.920
vote as Dave said, well, is it this, is it this you need sort of one voice is going to say, this is
00:29:46.520
where we're coming from with it. And we've seen, uh, as was kind of referred to, and I'll mention names,
00:29:51.320
you know, we had, uh, Jeff Rath said something that stirred a bunch of people up. And then a
00:29:56.040
statement came out back by Mitch Sylvester saying, well, Jeff, when he tweets is speaking for Jeff,
00:30:01.240
he's not speaking for the movement. And then Jeff recently says, I'm down in the United States and
00:30:06.040
I'm negotiating a $500 billion line of credit with the USA. Where on earth did that come from?
00:30:11.560
And that's just kind of fallen by the wayside. They're not going to win a campaign if they got
00:30:15.240
to keep correcting and going back and forth. As was said, I think once the petitioning phase is over,
00:30:21.480
some sort of convention has to be held. It's uncharted territory. So that's what makes it
00:30:26.360
difficult. As Derek said, when you have a premier doing it, it's not a natural position in Quebec,
00:30:30.680
but we don't have that. They're going to have to select somebody who's at least the official
00:30:34.680
spokesperson, the, the one who's going to speak for the movement when it comes to these things.
00:30:39.400
And that you still have other voices contributing, but right now you've got a number of names and nobody
00:30:43.720
really kind of taking that authority and responsibility. And I think human nature still says,
00:30:48.280
even though they're voting on a concept rather than a party or a person, they want to see one
00:30:53.800
figure, one person as the voice speaking to this. And they just don't have that yet. I think they can
00:30:59.640
get away with it a little longer, but once it moves into the referendum campaign stage versus the
00:31:04.360
petitioning stage, it's going to have to change. And it's up to the leadership, I guess, of those guys
00:31:09.080
to figure out how they're going to do that. So, well, let's bring it back then to what kind of
00:31:14.680
what I was getting at a little bit earlier. Who is a spokesman for the Federalists? The no side of
00:31:20.840
the referendum. Thomas Lukasik wants the job. I don't think many on that side want him to be
00:31:27.800
their spokesman, but for sure. Yeah. Well, Nick Nenshi will want the job.
00:31:33.480
In Quebec, you know, they would have a PQ Premier, which is the official yes guy. Then the
00:31:41.000
the no side would be a combination of Federal Liberals, Federal Conservatives, but generally
00:31:45.480
led by the provincial Liberals, the leader of the opposition. That's traditionally it, but this is not
00:31:49.960
a Premier versus opposition leader thing anymore. Nenshi would probably want the job. It would appear to
00:31:57.960
me, Jason, Kenny wants the job. It's kind of a way to get himself back out into the public. I'll
00:32:04.600
butt it to any of you. Who do you think are the leading contenders to lead the no campaign, the Federalist
00:32:12.520
side? I'm not sure there's the same necessity for somebody to personally represent that side of the
00:32:19.720
campaign. All I got to say is I just don't want any change. Nobody needs to articulate that for me. The
00:32:25.720
people who do need to have a leader, we've just spent 20 minutes on it, is the independent side.
00:32:31.320
Yeah, they've got to have a focal point. If anybody can go out there and you've mentioned three
00:32:38.440
people who are all keen to do so and say, yeah, we just shouldn't change anything. We should stay part
00:32:42.920
of Canada. It doesn't need to come together as one credible point. So you've got these two opposites
00:32:49.720
going head to head. You have somebody who's very driven on the independent side, or you would like
00:32:54.520
somebody who's very driven on the independent side, just pushing against the storge of everything
00:32:59.720
going on just as it's ever, as it has ever been. I agree that it's not as critical. The status quo
00:33:06.200
side is stronger. They've got much more institutional support, and they've got several obvious potential.
00:33:14.520
Like nothing's going to change, so... Yeah, but I don't know. They're still going to have to pick
00:33:21.080
someone. That's the way the rules work. There's going to be a yes committee, there's a no committee.
00:33:24.360
There's going to be a leader on the other side. Who do you guys think are the obvious guys? Any names
00:33:30.120
beyond what I've said? I don't think so really, to be completely honest. I've been just thinking like
00:33:34.280
you guys have more about the independence movement. They need a charismatic leader that people can
00:33:37.800
actually look to to see what they have to say. So maybe Cory should get out of the desert and step up
00:33:41.400
then maybe. Oh, he's already ruled that out. Not a chance. Another name to bring up though, who we
00:33:48.520
have and who's been kind of quiet on this so far is Mark Carney. You're the prime minister of this
00:33:53.000
country with a budding independence movement within it. And I don't know about so much coming in
00:33:57.160
opposition to the independence movement, because that would probably just inflame it further,
00:34:01.480
but something of an approach trying to reach out to Albertans and say, guys, I think this isn't the
00:34:07.160
route you should go. This is why the future is bright with not going that path. The thing that
00:34:11.800
we've seen a lot in this so far was the difference in attitude. In 1995, when again, everybody was
00:34:16.520
saying, please come back, please don't go. Right now, the federalist forces are saying you aren't
00:34:20.680
allowed to go, or you're rednecks if you want to go, or you're selfish if you want to go.
00:34:24.440
That attitude is pretty different, which is fine as an independence supporter, because I think that
00:34:27.640
only helps build the base. But as a national leader, Mark Carney has got a bit of a responsibility
00:34:33.240
then to quell this movement, to convince Albertans why this isn't a path
00:34:37.000
they want to go. And so far he's held his tongue on this. So we'll see if he comes out
00:34:41.560
more vocally and trying to make that case for why the status quo should be maintained,
00:34:45.880
because he hasn't done anything yet. Ironically, he's in a meeting this afternoon with
00:34:53.240
David Eby and Daniel Smith. And I think the topic of discussions will be pipelines.
00:34:57.960
I assume so. If we get a pipeline going before the end of the year, I think that would kill off any
00:35:09.880
Because I mean, that would end the Ottawa's against us, Ottawa hates us. You know, it would have to
00:35:16.600
come along with the lifting of the tanker ban and stuff like that. But
00:35:23.160
Danielle Smith seems to be happier with Carney than she was with Trudeau. And she's sort of saying,
00:35:30.520
you know, I know what's going on behind the scenes. Let's let this process play out. So I'm,
00:35:36.680
I think she's very optimistic that she's going to get pipeline approval by the fall. And if that is
00:35:44.040
the case, I think that's going to take a good chunk of wind out of the sails of the independence
00:35:48.680
movement. Just to make sure Mr. Carney is pushing ahead with the gun grab, so that if Alberta does vote
00:35:54.840
for independence, it will be a disarmed Alberta, he would hope.
00:36:02.200
calls from Alberta to say there is my gun. Yeah. During the 1995 Quebec referendum,
00:36:10.360
you know, there was a, there was a Quebecer as prime minister, Jean Chrétien. And the yes side
00:36:17.240
generally tried to keep him at arm's length because they didn't like the perception of federal
00:36:22.200
politicians intervening. He did intervene somewhat, but it was, it was gentle. I know he'll try to
00:36:29.480
portray himself as an Albertan. If you haven't lived here in a better part of half a century,
00:36:35.720
I don't think, I think you lose your Alberta card at some, at some point. But one to watch,
00:36:41.400
and I would not be surprised at all to see some nod to it at the convention this weekend,
00:36:47.240
is Pierre Polyev. Pierre Polyev is born and raised in Alberta. He spent the majority of his life and
00:36:51.560
his entire adult life in Ontario, in Ottawa. But he's still born and raised out here, has a lot of
00:36:58.680
support out here. And since he lost his seat in Ottawa and ran a bi-election in Battle River Crofit,
00:37:03.880
he now represents an Alberta constituency. That is someone who is not going to be able
00:37:09.960
politically to stay silent. I'm not sure he'll, how aggressively he'd be here campaigning or not.
00:37:15.080
He'd be a powerful weapon on the Federalist side. Because the independence movement in Alberta is
00:37:27.640
almost uniformly a phenomenon of the right. It's a right wing and it's a center right thing. There's
00:37:33.480
not really any notable lefties of any number who support independence. So I would keep my ears open
00:37:41.640
this weekend for him to, you know, mention in his speech like, you know, I understand the frustrations.
00:37:48.440
Uh, he'll say something like that. Uh, but you know, leaving is not the way to go. The way to go
00:37:52.920
is to vote for me and I'll, I'll fix everything. It'll be great. Uh, you'll probably see, I'd be
00:37:57.960
surprised actually, if we didn't see something along those lines come from him.
00:38:02.440
Interestingly though, he said he's not going to run again in Alberta already. You know, he just got into
00:38:08.040
power and then the conservative party has already said, nope, he's running somewhere else. Well, he's
00:38:11.800
had to give his seat back to, uh, Damien Couric. Yeah, exactly. So he won't be a, he won't be a
00:38:17.000
sitting, uh, he won't be a future Alberta MP after the nation. But during the ref, the likely coming
00:38:23.000
referendum, he will be. And there's no way that the leader of the opposition with an Alberta seat
00:38:28.120
is going to be quiet on that. He's going to be campaigning on the other side.
00:38:30.680
Okay. Well, uh, let's, uh, we'll then go to our parting shots. Let's, uh, start with Dave.
00:38:39.800
Well, the final bill is in for the, uh, great, uh, ostrich massacre of, uh, 2024, uh, in British
00:38:47.880
Columbia, a total of, uh, 6.1 million dollars, Nigel, uh, to, uh, to, uh, have 6.1 million.
00:38:56.360
How much per bird is that? Uh, well, yeah, it's so, it's a lot, but, uh, they apparently
00:39:02.120
ate a lot of hay in the time that they were under, uh, yeah, they, they, they, they wanted,
00:39:08.440
they wanted to be well-fed when they were slaughtered. Oh, it's like a lost meal on death row.
00:39:11.000
Yeah. So they all wanted steak. Yeah. So yeah. So 6.1 million, that could have,
00:39:16.520
could have helped a lot of the poor families in the country.
00:39:18.760
Yeah. I mean, it would have helped more poor families if they have, I mean,
00:39:22.760
I'm just totally against this anyway, but if you're going to kill them at least,
00:39:26.360
get them on the dinner plate for heaven's sake. Yeah, exactly. Feed the homeless. Yeah. Uh, Nigel.
00:39:31.320
So I'm just delighted to learn that, uh, we're now getting into the, you know, into the days before
00:39:37.720
our return to the moon. NASA's Artemis II expedition, supposed to take off between now and February the
00:39:45.640
six. The astronauts have entered the, entered the, um, the room that is quite quarantined.
00:39:52.440
So somebody gets a cold before they leave. We've got one Canadian aboard. Um, this is, uh,
00:39:58.840
speaking to somebody who kind of said, you know, late watching the, the moon landings in 1973,
00:40:04.280
first shot around the moon in 68 and all that sort of thing. Uh, sorry, the moon landings in 69 and the
00:40:11.160
subsequent, uh, skyline up and all of them with it. And then they stopped doing it. You know,
00:40:16.600
the great adventure became sending remote control. We never went around to the soldier.
00:40:23.240
That's because it was, it was recorded in the desert until now you had, but anyway, the, uh,
00:40:28.760
this is the, this is by the Western standards, but you know,
00:40:34.920
anyway, you're great. Go guys, go fold. We were going for the first time. Now, if you're,
00:40:39.720
if you're interested, David did an in-depth story on it yesterday. It's on our website,
00:40:44.520
going to give you all the details this morning. Yeah. Uh, David, your first parted shot.
00:40:51.960
Oh, well, I don't really have one, but the gun grabs annoying me again, the whole program,
00:40:55.320
because yet again, I saw that there is another police department in Ontario that's saying that
00:40:59.960
they're not going to have anything to do with this. So when are the liberals going to wake up
00:41:02.840
that even people in Ontario, liberal powerhouse Ontario want nothing to do with the gun grab
00:41:06.920
program and how much more money are they going to spend on this? Lots, lots and lots and lots.
00:41:11.160
Spend money until we are half a billion dollars. I think if I remember correctly, what the numbers are.
00:41:17.160
This is funny. It's like a stick hub, except we have the guns. Basically. Yeah. Give us your guns.
00:41:24.200
No. Yeah. This is an odd stick up, isn't it? Okay. Uh, Corey, your parting shot.
00:41:30.120
Well, just desperately seeking political and moral courage on, on, uh, medical assistance and dying.
00:41:36.760
It seems the stories are really coming out now. You know, uh, uh, a woman, it sounds like possibly
00:41:42.120
put to death against her will because of caregiver fatigue. Another one. Now we hear of obesity.
00:41:48.360
You know, I, I do believe perhaps people in a, in a case with extreme circumstances and pain can make
00:41:54.760
a decision to go with dignity at the time of their choosing. But it's clear that Maid's gone
00:41:58.920
totally off the rails and out of control with whatever the original intents were.
00:42:02.600
And nobody's got the courage to hit the brakes on this thing and say, let's get this back in order
00:42:06.920
for what it was supposed to be meant for. So I don't want to read about any more of these stories.
00:42:11.720
Let's get on our politician's case to say, Hey, speak up on this. Cause this is, this is really
00:42:17.080
reprehensible. That's disappointing. Do you have anything else to add to your parting shot?
00:42:23.960
I know you want me to jump in that pool and I'm just not going to do it for the sake of my gracious
00:42:31.960
hosts, uh, who have to pay to have it clean. You know, I mean, I'm just not dressed for the event.
00:42:36.440
Just, just so all our viewers know, Corey Morgan, uh, is above bribery. I offered him money
00:42:42.120
before that. We started the show when we were off air. I offered him money.
00:42:45.720
Not enough. Okay. Yeah. So maybe he still has a price. I just, maybe he has a price and I'm just
00:42:52.600
too cheap. So name your price, Corey. Oh, I, I just don't have one at this point. I, I wish everyone has a
00:43:00.440
price. Everyone's got a price. If I said a thousand dollars, I bet you would have. Yeah.
00:43:06.760
A thousand dollars I would, but I know you're not going to do that. So, uh, we'll, we'll get an AI
00:43:11.160
image, uh, of me for the next show or something, or, uh, there we go in a spot where I'm not imposing
00:43:16.200
as much. Well, but yeah, but now it's going to be AI of you and a speedo. Yeah. There's something
00:43:21.960
to look forward to. There we go. Uh, okay. Ladies, uh, make sure you get the 2026 Western standard
00:43:27.320
calendar, swimsuit calendar, uh, my parting shot. Uh, I mentioned the Ontario PC convention
00:43:33.400
that, and the timing of that has some impact, I think on how the vote will go with the national
00:43:37.880
conservative pension taking place in Calgary. Uh, but very interestingly, our new, uh, Ontario
00:43:45.000
legislative reporter, uh, uh, we've got, uh, Jeremy, uh, he, he tells us that the Ontario PCs have
00:43:53.480
banned the media from covering their convention. Now it's not the first political party to ever
00:43:59.400
do it. I know it's, it's happened in Alberta before. And, uh, I think it was, uh, it was a
00:44:04.040
Tom Korski who, uh, a black locks who snuck in. Yes. We smoked into the kitchen and listened to
00:44:09.800
literally a glass on the door. Yeah. So, uh, guys you could like, it says Ralph Klein tried it and
00:44:16.920
failed in the nineties because an intrepid reporter put a glass against the door and listened in on the whole
00:44:21.720
thing. Uh, you've got thousands of people at this thing, all with recording devices in their
00:44:28.600
pockets. You're not going to keep anything secret. Uh, I don't know what Doug Ford's trying to do.
00:44:35.400
The Ontario PC party is the shittiest political party in the country. It is the most vanilla of
00:44:42.360
vanilla parties. Whenever you want to know, forget whatever they vote on at policy resolutions,
00:44:46.520
whatever they're going to do is whatever the polls say they should do. Whatever is going to
00:44:50.360
make Doug, you know, give Doug Ford a 1% up in the polls that day. That's what they're going to do.
00:44:55.240
I don't know what the hell they're trying to hide. Um, anyway, uh, we wouldn't be the
00:45:02.040
Western standard if we took no for an answer. So stay tuned. All right, gentlemen, uh, Nigel,
00:45:09.240
David, Dave, and Mr. Sunshine. Thank you very much. And, uh, John on the studio. Thank you very much.
00:45:18.760
Thank all of you for joining us today. Remember the Western standard is only $10 a month or a hundred
00:45:22.840
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00:45:28.120
So you can read us with your morning constitutional. Uh, thank you very much for joining us today and God