Western Standard - THE PIPELINE： Poilievre’s leadership on the line this week

00:00:00.000 Good day and welcome. I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're

00:00:28.880 watching The Pipeline. Today is January 28th, 2026. I've got the usual lineup, but not entirely.

00:00:39.140 We've got one additional one from us and Corey Morgan coming from elsewhere. We've got, as usual,

00:00:45.460 Nigel Hannaford, former opinion editor. Hi, folks. Dave Naylor, senior news editor. Good evening.

00:00:51.580 And joining us for the first time at The Pipeline, David Veitschnik, Western Standard business

00:00:56.580 reporter. Thanks for having me. And coming to us from an undisclosed location on a luxurious warm

00:01:04.640 compound somewhere in the empire of America is Corey Morgan. Hey, I'm a little overdressed today.

00:01:13.100 You're, you are rubbing it in. You are sitting by a pool with a tan already. You son of a bitch.

00:01:19.920 That is, you are rubbing it in. Okay. Well, it was just yesterday we had, there was a huge rally and 1.00

00:01:32.340 petition signing event held at the Big Four on the Stampede Grounds in Calgary for Alberta independence.

00:01:41.080 This is almost certainly the biggest independence rally in Alberta history. We'll be talking about

00:01:47.300 that event, the media's coverage of that event, and where things are going in the effort to get a

00:01:52.900 referendum launched in Alberta on independence. Oh, and the loyalty pledges. Don't let me forget.

00:01:58.940 We're going to talk about the Nenshi's loyalty oaths that he demands of the UCP. But first, we're going to start

00:02:04.960 with what's coming up. Beginning tomorrow here in Calgary, going all the way to Saturday, the Conservative

00:02:14.280 Party of Canada's National Convention is in town, held every two years. Members get together to vote on

00:02:22.900 important things like constitutional resolutions and policy resolutions. Mostly they get together just to

00:02:30.540 drink. And this time also, though, to vote on the leadership status of Pierre Polyev. I'm not sure

00:02:39.360 how the rules are set right now, if they have to face it, no matter if they win or lose an election.

00:02:43.540 I know in Alberta, win or lose an election, incumbent premiers still have to face a leadership review.

00:02:47.980 I don't think that, I know it wasn't the case for the federal conservatives. I'm not sure if that's

00:02:51.580 changed or not. But obviously, Pierre Polyev did not form a majority government. It has to face

00:02:56.440 a leadership review. And that's, that'll be come out. Dave, which day of the convention is the leadership

00:03:04.180 review?

00:03:05.160 I think the voting starts on, is it Friday?

00:03:08.080 Yeah, I think it was Friday.

00:03:09.260 Yeah.

00:03:09.740 Yeah. So yeah, Dave, Pierre Polyev facing a review to see if he gets to keep his job this week.

00:03:16.080 Yeah, it's important to note that all members of the Conservative Party do not get a vote. It's only those who

00:03:22.900 who show up in Calgary. So expect several thousand of them at the, at the BMO Centre. As you said,

00:03:29.220 Derek, arriving Thursday night, hospitality suites open, policy discussions throughout the day,

00:03:37.640 throughout the day on Friday, keynote speech by Pierre Polyev, voting opens on Friday, and I assume

00:03:45.220 they'll put out the release on or the number that he got on on Saturday at some point. There's no specific

00:03:51.520 time set for that.

00:03:54.720 Nigel, you know, despite, I was chatting with a guest we have in the office today, you know,

00:04:02.740 about two hours ago, you know, saying, well, what's all the media saying? Oh, I don't know

00:04:08.220 how Polyev's going to do. I mean, that's, not that we haven't done stories like this, like,

00:04:14.600 but there is, there are, those are a dime a dozen speculation stories, like, is there going to be

00:04:18.580 an election? And sometimes it's a legit, like we had a column the other day, hey, there might be

00:04:23.200 an early election. It's sometimes just legitimate speculation. Still on the day, by the way. Okay,

00:04:27.580 there we go. Yeah. And then sometimes it's just a slow news day. And, you know, if a column has,

00:04:34.340 if columnist has nothing to write about, what's the go to you can always do? Should there be an

00:04:39.200 early election? Number two is, are they going to keep their leadership? In Canadian federal history,

00:04:45.580 I think only two people have ever lost a leadership review in Canadian history. That's

00:04:49.220 John Diefenbaker, for who the process was created. And then Thomas Mulcair. Normally a leader knows

00:04:56.100 going into a convention, if they're going to make it through. And they, and they save themselves

00:05:00.460 the indignity of, of losing outright. Yeah, we had the funny situation in Alberta with Jason

00:05:06.920 Kenney. Yeah, it's complicated, but no one, I don't think is actually predicting Polyev lose.

00:05:13.860 I think the question is, you know, how strong a level of support is it? You know, Joe Clark's

00:05:20.700 at the unofficial bar, 68, 69%. If you're below that, will you probably, if you can't get more

00:05:26.640 than that with your own party members, you probably are not going to earn the trust of the broader

00:05:30.620 public. How do you think it's going to play out? Well, I have no doubts that Mr. Polyev is going

00:05:37.500 to get such a strong vote that all of this will seem very academic next week. I have no problem

00:05:47.460 predicting that he'll pull in over 80%. There is nobody else. Nobody else is organizing. And so if

00:05:54.820 they were to turn him down, then there'd be this big question, well, what's this about? What are we

00:05:59.240 going to do now? You know, we suddenly go into a, into a leadership race for which the party's

00:06:05.660 totally unprepared, either in organizational terms or even intellectually. So the question

00:06:12.800 really is, what is he going to say in his speech, which by the way, I see is on the schedule here for

00:06:21.180 six 30 on Friday night. And, uh, what is he going to say? Cause I mean, he can either just give the

00:06:27.800 usual thing, or he can be, he can condemn the Mr. Carney, which he's already done in the, his response

00:06:33.780 to the carnage devil speech, or he can be forward-looking and, uh, a vision that, um, people haven't, haven't

00:06:44.600 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

00:06:51.100 saying in the, in his response to Carney's, uh, Davos speech, uh, just pointing out some of the,

00:06:58.320 some of the hokum in that speech, uh, talks about the trade agreements, what stops us from growing our

00:07:04.780 trade. It's not the trade barriers they impose on us, the, the Americans, but the trade barriers we

00:07:10.380 impose on ourselves. They're all laws like C 69 and C 48. Uh, you mentioned supply management in there,

00:07:17.220 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

00:07:24.340 it. Um, so, uh, yeah, we're going to, we're going to hear some, how we're going to do things

00:07:30.060 differently. And that's, what's going to be the story out of this story they want. So do you think

00:07:35.020 he's going to say Canadians on a nice house on a safe street under a proud flag guarded by a good

00:07:40.820 military, uh, you know, a line that it was ad nauseum. That seems familiar. Yeah. And hopefully it comes up

00:07:47.620 with something new. Uh, Corey, I, I, his, what it's, what's going to be a speech is interesting.

00:07:54.500 I was kind of, I was discussing this, uh, and the individual was visiting us here today and, you

00:08:00.060 know, I know his, his go-to line was, you know, they'd always got the biggest applause from the

00:08:04.580 moment he launched his leadership race. I remember, you know, his, when his leadership race came to

00:08:08.160 Cal, uh, Calgary at an event that, uh, Spruce Meadows just packed the place. And when he said,

00:08:14.820 and we're going to defund the CBC, the place would go crazy. Now I, I thought he would stop

00:08:20.820 saying that once he had the leadership and to his credit, he did not. He kept on saying that

00:08:24.820 all the way through until about halfway through the election campaign. And he says, uh, he stopped

00:08:30.920 saying it. It was no longer at his rallies when asked from the media about it. Cause he was like

00:08:35.780 the first time he would never talk about it. Uh, he said, you know, we'll, we'll get to it

00:08:40.720 eventually. It was always gonna be like, this is the first day kind of thing. We're going to shut

00:08:43.840 them down. We're going to sell the buildings and, you know, make it affordable housing for

00:08:48.180 Canadian families. Um, I don't know. Is he going to start talking about, you know, and

00:08:53.660 then he backed down on getting rid of the media subsidies, uh, more or less saying, I'm not

00:08:57.900 going to get rid of them anymore. I'm just going to make it available to everybody instead.

00:09:01.800 I don't know. How well would that kind of stuff sit where he had backtracked on some of

00:09:06.560 his positions? Um, it, it seems to me that, you know, once done, this is nothing original

00:09:13.600 I'm saying, but Justin Trudeau's resignation, he kind of lost his mojo. You know, Carney

00:09:19.000 stole, you know, a fair number of chunks of his platform, obviously not everything, but

00:09:24.080 he stole some of the big things like getting rid of at least the consumer carbon tax. Uh,

00:09:28.560 how is Polyev going to, uh, get his mojo back in an important speech like this?

00:09:38.020 Yeah, I'm not sure how he's going to do it, but he's going to have to change some things.

00:09:41.300 As you put it out, all those things he said were excellently received when he was running

00:09:45.600 for the leadership, as well as going into the last election. He knows how to speak to

00:09:50.020 conservatives. And, and I suspect as, as Nigel saying, he's very comfortably going to win

00:09:54.020 the, the, the leadership review. I mean, most of the people who think that he's at risk,

00:09:58.380 those are pundits we're hearing who are from outside of the party. They're hoping for some

00:10:02.100 intrigue. They're hoping for some upset, but he's also obviously realized that he's not been able

00:10:07.780 to reach that mushy middle of Canadians. And, and, you know, us, uh, we certainly would love to see

00:10:13.800 the demise of the CBC, but even if we might not like to admit it, that's not a top of mind issue for

00:10:19.720 most Canadians. I wish it was, it really should be. It's a billion a year down the toilet,

00:10:24.020 but that's not what's got to grab them. So I'm guessing he's going to have a, a measured,

00:10:30.080 you know, that the leadership race will be, or the review will be behind him.

00:10:34.160 The campaign kind of to try for a few years from now to win the next election starts,

00:10:38.800 and it's going to be modeled. He's in Calgary. He's strong here. He doesn't have to worry about

00:10:43.720 reaching out to those conservatives. He's already got them. He's got to figure out how

00:10:47.680 to reach that mushy middle, particularly in central Canada. And we'll, we'll see how he,

00:10:53.100 he models his approach and which issues he wants to take on. Uh, he can't try to carve

00:10:59.660 out of Carney's thing going on the offensive with the Americans or the trade deals, but

00:11:03.880 at the same time, that's that vulnerability that won the last election. So where can he

00:11:08.280 say he's standing up for Canada yet not, uh, throwing rocks at the United States? It's

00:11:13.380 going to be a very carefully crafted speech. I think he's going to be reaching for people

00:11:17.160 outside of the conservative party now, rather than, than the, the burden hand he has right

00:11:21.660 now in Calgary.

00:11:22.720 I think actually to your point there, Corey, when it comes to, he points out that it doesn't

00:11:29.220 matter what Mr. Carney says, we live right next door to the United States. We do 90%

00:11:34.980 of our business with them about eight times what we do with China. You can't just turn 0.86

00:11:39.040 that around on a dime and start doing something different. He made that point in his response

00:11:43.800 to the Davos speech. So I wouldn't be looking for anything other than we've got to fix it

00:11:49.240 up with the Americans somehow. And Trump's only got three more years.

00:11:53.040 Uh, David, um, I, I was just, you know, kind of making fun of early election speculation

00:11:59.800 columns, but I, I think it is reasonable speculation right now. Uh, one, one poll has

00:12:04.780 got the liberals at 47%, which is damn, damn high. I mean, uh, I don't, I don't really see 0.92

00:12:13.040 the need for an election. I think Carney is going to get his majority without an election. I don't

00:12:17.040 think he needs an election to get a majority. You got, you know, he's very demoralized new

00:12:20.860 Democrats sitting there. Uh, you know, you could look to a conservative, a conservative

00:12:25.140 MPs who are, you know, at the end of their political career or something, and they can

00:12:29.320 say, whatever, I'll take a cabinet spot and maybe I don't get reelected because I'm in

00:12:32.920 a hard conservative writing, but you know, that's a good way to finish my political career.

00:12:36.400 Then I can go lobby, uh, or conservatives in marginal seats who are fearful of losing

00:12:41.960 their seat as a conservative. Maybe they'll actually have a better chance as a liberal

00:12:44.460 because the liberals are higher in the polls right now. I can be with that. He might get his

00:12:48.160 majority one way or another, but there is some serious speculation and I don't think

00:12:52.640 it's unfounded that, uh, he pulls the trigger and the spring he's doing pretty high in the

00:12:57.320 polls. Um, a lot of normal people I talk to who just couldn't stand Justin Trudeau's face

00:13:04.420 and his voice. Uh, the bar was set so low that they're looking at Carney and saying, well,

00:13:10.940 he's a grownup. Yeah. Yeah. He shows up to work with his pants on and he should comes on

00:13:15.120 time to the office. Uh, and you know, he, he, he has a chance of getting a majority here.

00:13:21.660 Um, but if that happens and Pauliev was to lose, I think, I mean, it's been a while since

00:13:28.180 a conservative leader, uh, I think the conservative, Monoconservative Party of Canada has only

00:13:32.200 actually had one leader be allowed to lose an election and contested another. That was

00:13:35.840 Steven Harper 2004. Um, but that was a brand new party and they brought them from majority

00:13:40.220 minority. There was progress. Um, but no one else has even gotten two kicks at the can.

00:13:44.740 Pauliev is almost certainly going to get two, but if he does, if he doesn't make it at the

00:13:48.180 next one, which could be as soon as the spring, he's probably toast at that point. Right.

00:13:52.260 Oh, I would assume so. Yeah. What are the conservatives pulling it right now? Because

00:13:54.940 I saw something that was what, 36% or 38%?

00:13:58.560 36 to 38 is what I'd seen.

00:13:59.960 Yeah. That's what I was thinking as well. So yeah, early election, I think I, well, I think

00:14:03.820 maybe the liberals could possibly get another point or two and definitely get a majority

00:14:06.880 of the government because I mean, there's a lot of people that talk about the conservative

00:14:09.440 leadership and Pauliev and they don't like Pauliev and they wouldn't vote conservative

00:14:12.980 just based on him from some of the people I've talked to. So I don't really know leadership

00:14:16.980 wise. I mean, obviously like you guys said that he's going to obviously get his leadership

00:14:20.160 review. He's going to get probably over 80%, but on the offhand chance of the 20% that

00:14:24.420 he doesn't get the leadership bid and they hold an early election. What do you think

00:14:28.740 would happen then?

00:14:29.880 Well, I think there's no way he's going to lose this leadership review. Uh, like I take the

00:14:34.540 bare minimum he gets is 75. The bare minimum he gets in here is 75. Yeah. I, I, I'd be

00:14:40.920 shocked if it was lower than that. But is that good enough? Yeah, exactly. So when you've

00:14:44.840 got 25% of delegates voting against you, can you honestly go forward as the leader and

00:14:50.260 say, I'm the best part, I'm the best choice for this verdict? I think he does better in

00:14:54.540 75, 75, 77, 78 is kind of a kiss of death number, at least in Alberta. Uh, that was the

00:15:00.920 number Stelman got. He survived the leadership review, but he was ousted within a year. It

00:15:06.120 was the number that Alison Redford got. She was ousted within a year. So you, you get to

00:15:11.020 fight on, but not necessarily for that long. If you get those kinds of numbers, I, I think

00:15:15.260 he's probably going to get higher than that. So I think he gets, he gets through this weekend,

00:15:19.060 uh, unscathed, probably not with the numbers he would otherwise expect into the nineties.

00:15:25.020 Like what was it? Daniel Smith got like 90, uh, 94, 94 something. And there was, there was

00:15:32.300 apparently an organized effort against her that obviously. So one of the things here, Derek,

00:15:36.640 is that if you're really against, uh, uh, uh, Peter Poirier, when you live in central Canada,

00:15:42.960 it's gonna cost you a lot of money, $1,000 for the conference alone, plus hotels, plus air

00:15:49.120 fairs, plus your wife, double times everything by two. To get here, to do what? To say, I don't,

00:15:54.120 to say I don't like the guy. You know, I think a lot of people who don't like him will probably

00:15:58.120 just watch from afar. Important in that in particular is the interesting choice of timing

00:16:04.920 for Doug Ford's Ontario PC party convention this weekend. Uh, it's being held at the same time.

00:16:11.560 Uh, they've known the timing of the federal consumer convention forever. And then the man,

00:16:16.280 the Ontario PCs intentionally booked a convention at the same time. I think that it's, it's well known.

00:16:21.800 Doug Ford wants Pierre Polyev gone, probably wants his job. Uh, it's been very obvious. He was all

00:16:27.000 but campaigning for the liberals in the last federal election. Um, but I think he, they knew that they

00:16:32.680 couldn't out-organize Polyev. They couldn't beat him. So this was a way of saying, well,

00:16:36.600 we're obviously not even trying. We're having our, we're doing our thing at the same time.

00:16:40.200 Um, but it does mean it probably strengthens Polyev, Polyev's hand a bit because, you know, Ontario

00:16:46.920 delegates make up one third of the, the delegates at the convention and the hardcore Doug Ford guys are

00:16:53.080 much more likely to save a few bucks and go to the Ontario PC convention this weekend rather than

00:16:59.160 spend a bunch of money, come out to Calgary, get yelled at by people just to register a vote against

00:17:04.280 Polyev. So I think it should be like for that. They wouldn't be held. Uh, but anyway, I, I think the, uh,

00:17:10.280 the choice of timing for the Ontario PC convention is going to strengthen Polyev's numbers a bit from Ontario.

00:17:18.520 Uh, okay. Uh, anything else for the convention you guys want to touch on?

00:17:24.440 No. Okay. Um, it's funny because it is going to be held not in the same building, but on the

00:17:31.880 stampede grounds, uh, the conservative convention, I think is at the BMO center on the stampede grounds,

00:17:36.360 right? Yes, it is. Uh, also on the stampede grounds is the big four. And yesterday at the big four,

00:17:42.760 Monday, Monday, Monday night. Was it Monday? Oh yeah. Yesterday was Tuesday. Sorry. Monday,

00:17:46.680 Monday evening. Uh, David, you, uh, you were on the ground for the Western standard there for a big

00:17:53.880 independence rally. There was, uh, people lining up long, long before to sign the location for the,

00:17:58.920 to get a referendum on independence. Uh, tell us about the event. Well, I mean, what can you say?

00:18:03.080 It was absolutely historic. I mean, the turnout, I think the official numbers came in, I think it was

00:18:06.920 4,900 and some people. They counted just under 5,000. And yeah, they had, I think at, uh, people

00:18:12.520 were lining up, I think at 10 o'clock in the morning, it opened at 11 to, uh, sign the petition.

00:18:16.440 I think one of the organizers told me there was 750 people already lined up at 10 AM to get in

00:18:21.480 waiting an hour. And then it just was kind of just progressive throughout the day. And they didn't,

00:18:25.720 I asked how many, um, signatures they got. They wanted to release the actual numbers,

00:18:29.800 but it had to have been in the thousands. Cause I went down to where the 150 campuses were and it

00:18:33.160 was packed. And this would have been probably at about five o'clock at night and it was absolutely

00:18:36.600 packed. So yeah, I wouldn't be surprised that they got several thousand signatures from that alone

00:18:40.200 in just this one event. And then it was, yeah, probably like you said earlier, it's probably the,

00:18:44.200 well, it is the largest indoor independence event that's ever been held in Alberta history.

00:18:48.680 The biggest one's actually the one that they had at the legislature, Armisen,

00:18:51.400 that I think got about 14,000 people. But yeah, this was unbelievable really. It was just great to be

00:18:55.560 there. It was a historic night and I can't believe that Corey didn't actually get there of all people.

00:19:02.120 Well, I, I, I know it ate me up. I mean, talk about a part of history, but, uh, you know,

00:19:07.720 I've got to keep this, uh, the stability of my marriage in mind versus, uh, my political loyalties.

00:19:14.360 And if we passed up on our trip to the South in January for me to go to a rally,

00:19:18.360 Jane probably would have gone without me, but, uh, I'm certain there's going to be more rallies. I mean,

00:19:23.480 the, the, the, the strength of this is just striking. That's the first of, you know,

00:19:27.400 we've got months of campaigning that's going to happen. There's going to be a referendum coming

00:19:31.560 up. I mean, the signatures are just going wild. There's no doubt. They're going to pass that bar.

00:19:36.040 I would suspect the organizers are going to be planning some huge rallies because then you can

00:19:40.760 start using outdoor venues again in May and June and getting into fall and kicking it off like this is

00:19:47.480 something else. I mean, yeah, as a long time independence advocate and, and, you know,

00:19:51.400 person who worked on this for longer than I like to think, I mean, the, the largest,

00:19:56.120 really famous one, if people remember, there's a picture of Doug Christie with the Western Canada

00:19:59.800 concept. I think it was 1981 at Jubilee auditorium and he had his hands up and, and it was a photo

00:20:06.120 that went across the entire nation that something was building in Alberta. And this rally blew that

00:20:12.440 out of the water with the turnout and only because the room was full. I mean, if they could have booked

00:20:17.000 a saddle dome, it would have been interesting to see just how many people would have gotten up and

00:20:21.320 come out to this rally. We're, we're seeing something really unique building up right now.

00:20:25.960 And, uh, assuming the organizers don't blow up or something, uh, it's only going to get stronger.

00:20:32.840 Uh, yeah. I mean, it was an incredible event, uh, to see that the, the room looked totally packed.

00:20:38.520 Um, Dave, did you watch the video from there? I've seen Dave's videos. They were excellent. Yes.

00:20:44.520 Uh, what stood out as the main, uh, just the overwhelming number. Um, you know, I, I, I don't

00:20:53.160 think there's, there's no doubt they're going to get enough signatures, right? There's, there's

00:20:56.600 absolutely no doubt about that. So behind the scenes, if they want to succeed, then they need

00:21:02.360 to be making their, their, their plans on the day that the government announces the, the, uh, the,

00:21:09.080 the petition has passed that somebody comes out and becomes the leader of this independence. Yeah.

00:21:15.480 Uh, because right now you've got petty squabbling between, uh, various people, uh, who are, are all

00:21:23.400 claiming to be leaders to be, none of them right now are going to win the, win the day. Uh, so you need,

00:21:30.600 they need to, you know, I've said this before they need to, when the petition is, is ratified,

00:21:35.640 uh, by elections, Alberta, they need to have a press conference and say, this is our leader.

00:21:41.800 And, uh, I would hope they're smart enough that those discussions are going on behind the scenes.

00:21:46.920 Yeah. Now this seems to be the big question hanging out over it right now is leadership.

00:21:54.680 Um, uh, I'm, I'm not sure it could just be anointed. Maybe it could be, uh,

00:21:59.480 uh, hard to say. Normally, you know, when we have had Quebec referendums in the past,

00:22:06.120 the natural, the natural leader is the Quebec premier. You had René Levesque and then you had,

00:22:11.240 um, uh, uh, uh, Lucien Bouchard took over after because, uh, the premier Jacques Perizeau was kind

00:22:21.000 of a, he was kind of a, he was not going over very well. And so, uh, actually on paper, he remained the

00:22:27.160 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 0.91

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 0.55

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, 0.65

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. 0.71

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

00:35:05.880 independence vote. Possibly.

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.

00:35:59.240 Yes. Well, I don't think they're getting many

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, 0.99

00:39:26.360 get them on the dinner plate for heaven's sake. Yeah, exactly. Feed the homeless. Yeah. Uh, Nigel. 0.99

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, 0.90

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 1.00

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 1.00

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 dollars a year for unlimited access to all Western standard content, get you past the pesky paywall.

00:45:28.120 So you can read us with your morning constitutional. Uh, thank you very much for joining us today and God

00:45:34.200 bless you.

00:45:38.040 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - February 02, 2026

THE PIPELINE： Poilievre’s leadership on the line this week

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