Western Standard - THE PIPELINE： Polls show Alberta independence & UCP gaining

00:00:00.000 Good day and welcome.

00:00:25.360 Today is February 26, 2026.

00:00:28.520 I am Derek Fildebrandt, the publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:33.580 I've got almost the identical normal lineup here.

00:00:37.580 We've got former Western Standard opinion editor Nigel Hannaford.

00:00:40.980 We've got senior Alberta columnist Corey Morgan.

00:00:45.100 Filling in for Dave Naylor is David Veitschnek.

00:00:48.440 Thanks for having me.

00:00:50.000 It's confusing you're in the office.

00:00:51.280 We've got two Daves, double D, and we've also got two Johns.

00:00:56.020 We do this too much here.

00:00:58.520 All right, we're going to be talking about two cases from Human Rights Commissions.

00:01:04.640 One in Quebec, the other in British Columbia.

00:01:07.880 In Quebec, where some poor little hair salon was fined $500 for having a male and female option when booking appointments on the website.

00:01:18.700 And I guess a non-binary person with no hair was not able to select another category.

00:01:28.060 And then in British Columbia, slightly more expensive, three quarters of a million dollars awarded, taken from some guy who opposes radical gender ideology and given to weird BC teachers' organizations because he disagrees and expressed himself on social media.

00:01:54.300 And that is so damaging.

00:01:57.820 We're going to talk about the nine, very likely ten, referendum questions that are going to be coming up in Alberta in October.

00:02:07.600 Question five of them on immigration, four of them on constitutional reforms, and then the final one, very likely, on independence.

00:02:16.080 It's quite strange.

00:02:18.600 We've had referendums before, not a lot.

00:02:21.060 I don't think any place in Canada has ever had ten at the same time.

00:02:25.760 I doubt any has even had more than two or three at a time.

00:02:29.120 It's new ground.

00:02:30.640 But first, we're going to talk about a series of polls the Western Standard commissioned.

00:02:35.680 Western Standard hired Main Street Research to poll Albertans.

00:02:40.120 We did a pretty big sample size for this, asking a variety of questions.

00:02:45.300 David Veitschek, we've got in today because he led most of those stories.

00:02:50.780 We'll talk first maybe about the poll we asked on independence, how Albertans would vote.

00:02:57.940 Well, right off the bat, Derek, I mean, the poll, I'm just bringing it up here.

00:03:03.740 If a referendum were held today in Alberta, basically 34% said that they would be for independence,

00:03:09.040 and 66% said that they'd remain part of Canada, which seems to be kind of similar to a bunch of other polls that we've seen recently.

00:03:14.940 I think there was one that just came out today I saw that said, I can't remember who did it,

00:03:17.960 but they said that 80% of all Canadians that they polled wanted to see Alberta and Quebec still stay within Canada.

00:03:23.440 So the numbers are kind of just varying.

00:03:24.880 But I mean, for the most part, I've seen that, I think 34% are roughly around a 34% number supporting independence in numerous places.

00:03:30.860 But this poll just kind of proves that point.

00:03:33.640 I'm just looking here to see what the gender divide is. 0.99

00:03:37.320 73% of women actually were for a remaining part of Canada, 0.81

00:03:40.200 and that seemed to be a number that popped up a lot with the questions pertaining to independence.

00:03:44.640 I don't know what the point is or the deal is with that exactly.

00:03:47.520 I don't know, maybe if you have any thoughts on that?

00:03:49.580 Well, men, on most issues, you know, it's not going to be clear cut, but men will skew to the right on issues,

00:03:56.060 and women will skew to the left on issues. 1.00

00:03:59.300 And that's not just Alberta or even Canada, that's just most places in the world where people vote on things.

00:04:06.560 And, you know, the Alberta independence movement's dominantly a political project,

00:04:10.480 so you're going to, you know, it's going to lean right.

00:04:14.700 One of the things, I mean, Corey, this poll was, I mean, it's not out of line with what we've seen before.

00:04:20.800 Other polls will show it lower, though, where they just change one word.

00:04:25.340 Independence or separation?

00:04:27.720 I've always said that, you know, it's like, you know, your marriage has ended and you go to the singles bar,

00:04:35.600 and you can introduce yourself as single, or you can introduce yourself as divorced.

00:04:38.780 They mean kind of the same thing in this context, but they have a very different connotation to it.

00:04:43.660 So I think that's one thing that fuels it.

00:04:46.040 Absolutely.

00:04:46.760 I mean, there's lots of ways we know that you can massage polls sometimes to get results that you want,

00:04:51.660 and that wasn't the case in this.

00:04:52.760 It was straightforward questions, but that's where you can see some disparity between different people who have polled

00:04:57.700 and some of the outcomes, something as minor as the question.

00:05:01.540 I mean, separation sounds harsh and negative and, you know, is an end.

00:05:07.260 And yeah, but it's just like, it can also tell you where somebody stands as soon as you're talking to them,

00:05:12.140 particularly in media.

00:05:13.040 If they use the word separatist, chances are they're not terribly thrilled with the concept altogether.

00:05:17.140 They use independence, maybe they're a little more receptive.

00:05:19.780 But it's like tar sands and oil sands.

00:05:21.440 You know, if they're anti-energy, you know, conventional energy, they're going to call it tar sands.

00:05:27.100 If you're not, it's oil sands.

00:05:29.860 And words count, though.

00:05:30.800 These campaigns, you know, are made to convince people to go one way or another, and we'll see these sorts of things happening.

00:05:38.180 What's interesting, though, the numbers you had, too, though, were on the undecideds have been removed.

00:05:43.380 Yeah, the undecideds have been removed.

00:05:45.000 So that's still a large chunk that we can see a lot of momentum might happen in this next eight months.

00:05:50.460 We've never really had a discussion like this this long.

00:05:53.260 Yeah.

00:05:53.880 Nigel, it wasn't our poll.

00:05:56.020 It was someone else's poll, and they pulled across Canada on if Alberta should be allowed to leave,

00:06:01.900 and if Quebec should be allowed to leave.

00:06:03.960 I guess implying that if they try to, Canada would send the army or something.

00:06:09.080 I guess that's implied in that at the end of the day.

00:06:13.440 Super majorities of people outside of Alberta and Quebec, super majorities across Canada say, no, they should not.

00:06:20.640 But notably, it was six to eight points higher for refusing to allow Alberta to leave.

00:06:28.220 I think there is a significant number of people probably in Alberta who would be happy for Quebec to leave.

00:06:33.180 So maybe I didn't look around the cross tabs for enough detail, but it was funny to me that a huge number of Canadians are like, no, they should not be allowed to,

00:06:44.180 which then raises the next logical question, which is, what are you prepared to do to not let someone leave?

00:06:52.580 Well, that's precisely what I thought when I read the story this morning.

00:06:57.000 It makes perfect sense that the rest of Canada would be very against allowing the province that pays the freight to leave Confederation.

00:07:06.480 I mean, just the Canada pension plan would be the first hit, and coming right after that,

00:07:11.380 the whole reason why we have such a debate about equalization in Alberta is that it doesn't work for us.

00:07:19.920 We end up paying not a bit more, you know, not that little bit more, which just makes you a good citizen,

00:07:26.520 but basically paying the cost of Confederation.

00:07:29.480 So you bet people in eastern central Canada understand exactly what that game is.

00:07:35.720 Alberta is just about the only half province.

00:07:40.360 In other words, where the money comes from.

00:07:43.780 If you may indulge me in a personal anecdote, some years ago I was in Quebec,

00:07:47.960 in that part of Quebec on the north side of the river, which doesn't speak English.

00:07:52.580 Very hard to find somebody.

00:07:55.440 But we noticed that as we went around the houses, everything was fixed up.

00:07:59.180 It was just beautiful.

00:07:59.940 They'd had an ice storm just a year or two before.

00:08:02.920 Finally managed to find somebody with broken English, and they said,

00:08:05.680 great, where did you get the money from?

00:08:07.580 Oh, it's from the government.

00:08:09.300 Well, where does the Quebec government get money from?

00:08:11.720 It gets it from Alberta.

00:08:12.880 So we were happily there looking around to see what we paid for.

00:08:16.420 Yeah.

00:08:16.580 Yeah, of course they don't want us to go.

00:08:18.080 Well, as you say, what are they prepared to do to keep us?

00:08:22.660 Logically, you have to be prepared to send the army if you had an army.

00:08:26.160 Yeah.

00:08:26.400 Yeah.

00:08:26.940 Well, I guess Canada is planning on having an army now staffed with non-Canadians. 0.96

00:08:32.280 We're happy to use military force against Canadians. 1.00

00:08:35.620 That's almost a little chilling.

00:08:36.680 I had a Slovakian friend who had, you know, with his mandatory service in the 80s,

00:08:40.700 the way they worked it with them was you're all under the Soviet umbrella,

00:08:44.100 but you never got stationed in Slovakia.

00:08:45.920 You got, he got stationed in East Berlin.

00:08:48.400 And likewise, Polish soldiers would be in Ukraine.

00:08:51.060 They would always make sure that that way, in case they had to do something

00:08:54.180 against the local population, there wasn't a loyalty to it.

00:08:57.580 I don't think, I'm not going to read in so far thinking that's the motivation

00:09:00.880 to discover it.

00:09:01.380 I think it's one that just doesn't know how to draw people into the military

00:09:04.340 and is getting desperate, but there's some reasons to be concerned when you

00:09:08.740 have people who aren't domestic in your military forces.

00:09:11.920 You know, to that point, Corey, if they want to import people from that part 0.93

00:09:16.420 of the world into the Canadian armed forces, they're probably going to have a bit

00:09:20.640 of a tampon trouble in the washrooms.

00:09:23.340 These guys are not that kind of.

00:09:26.780 True enough.

00:09:27.660 You know, some Slovakian guy.

00:09:30.360 What does this machine here for?

00:09:32.220 But the thing is, if you have people with that mindset, yes, you probably could

00:09:38.220 deploy them against the Canadian population, and they wouldn't mind. 0.99

00:09:42.940 All right.

00:09:43.580 So we have a few poll questions.

00:09:46.400 There was one that was not that surprising.

00:09:48.540 We'll talk the federal and provincial vote.

00:09:50.620 The results on the, you know, how people would vote in an Alberta election.

00:09:58.640 Not, I mean, pretty good news for the UCP.

00:10:01.160 Pretty big lead over the NDP.

00:10:05.540 The liberals, it's funny, I guess just a residual brand recognition.

00:10:09.660 They pulled like 6% or something down, but they almost don't run candidates at this point.

00:10:14.340 They're effectively a dissolved party for all intents.

00:10:16.500 Yeah, it was 6%, yeah.

00:10:17.660 So I caution conservatives that that liberal vote is likely just to vote NDP in a provincial

00:10:22.440 election because they're going to go cast a ballot.

00:10:24.280 They're not going to be there.

00:10:25.460 But noticeably, the so-called progressive Tory party, you know, the two breakaway MLAs,

00:10:32.780 and the Republicans and Independence Party, both of them are like 1%.

00:10:36.960 They're just total no-shows.

00:10:38.240 Yeah, no, the Republicans are 1%.

00:10:40.100 The progressives are actually 3%.

00:10:41.600 But yeah, it's like, yeah, not much big of a difference, let's be honest, really.

00:10:44.260 And I think the other people that would vote for another party is also pulling at 1%.

00:10:47.500 So again, it's just minuscule, really.

00:10:49.320 Yeah.

00:10:51.240 Corey, the progressive Tories, it's not really, you know, new parties are always hard to start

00:10:58.280 and get traction on.

00:10:59.940 We've both been through that.

00:11:01.460 But if you're going to start a new party in Canada, almost any political system, you

00:11:07.640 have to come in from the edges.

00:11:09.240 You have to offer something no one else is offering.

00:11:12.260 And this is just like, actually, quite legally speaking, it is the Alberta party.

00:11:17.160 Yeah.

00:11:17.400 With the new name.

00:11:18.800 They're just trying to set up Switzerland in 1917 on the Western Front.

00:11:24.100 Like, there's already two big armies hacking at each other, fighting over no man's land.

00:11:29.100 And you're proposing to set up your lines in no man's land where everyone's already fighting

00:11:33.940 over.

00:11:34.160 Well, and it's just continuing that recipe for failure the Alberta party's had for 15

00:11:38.680 years, where they just keep saying, we're the middle, we're the middle.

00:11:42.220 Well, good for you.

00:11:43.040 But when people vote, they vote for this or they vote for that.

00:11:46.680 And as much as, you know, you listen to some polls, people say, oh, I get tired of hearing

00:11:50.200 from left and right and I'm in the middle.

00:11:52.280 Well, perhaps, but your votes don't actually reflect that.

00:11:55.620 So this, this progressive Tory party is going to have to stand for something if it wants

00:12:00.700 to carve out a spot for itself.

00:12:03.120 As it sits, it's just an area for disenchanted left-leaning, you know, conservatives to land.

00:12:09.060 And it's just not grabbing anybody's imagination.

00:12:11.140 I don't expect much of it.

00:12:12.680 The federal poll was, I think, the most interesting.

00:12:17.360 It, well, here, why don't you give us the results of the Alberta voters for federal election.

00:12:24.920 Yeah, and this is, again, with the undecideds removed, 48% said they'd vote for the Conservative

00:12:31.180 Party under Polyev and 45%, surprising, this was the big thing that people were talking

00:12:34.960 about, said they would vote for the Liberals under Mark Carney.

00:12:36.980 I have no idea where that number came from because I did not expect to see that originally

00:12:40.540 when we started looking at these numbers.

00:12:42.220 Yeah, that is, I didn't believe it.

00:12:45.580 I'm still highly skeptical of it.

00:12:47.500 I'm becoming a little less skeptical of it, but I saw that.

00:12:50.860 Not, I don't think there's a single person alive in Alberta who has been around with

00:12:57.440 the Liberals, came even anywhere close to tying the Conservatives or one of the Conservative

00:13:02.440 pre-assessor parties like Reform Alliance, etc.

00:13:05.220 This is unheard of, and I, so I didn't really believe it, except, you know, we asked rough

00:13:11.060 10, 12-ish questions.

00:13:12.480 We asked a bunch of questions, and the answers on those, for the most part, didn't really

00:13:17.140 surprise me.

00:13:17.800 Like the provincial vote attention, independence, how people thought about pensions, a number

00:13:22.080 of different questions.

00:13:22.920 It all lined up more or less with the conventional wisdom.

00:13:25.220 Let me think.

00:13:26.200 It's possible, Nigel, that this could be correct.

00:13:30.780 I know, you know, there were some other Conservative media and some people in, you know, the Conservative

00:13:37.840 sphere very upset with us for releasing this poll, to which I said, like, we paid to have

00:13:45.720 a good poll done.

00:13:47.440 And just because we didn't like the answer doesn't mean we don't release it.

00:13:50.500 We're, you know, we're not doing propaganda for you here.

00:13:53.060 We might be on the right, but we're not working for a Conservative party here.

00:13:55.960 That's not our job.

00:13:56.780 There are some people who'd rather not know from their doctor that they have cancer.

00:13:59.920 So you're going to get a certain amount of that.

00:14:02.160 But this says there's a big, big problem for the federal Conservatives in Alberta.

00:14:06.380 Yeah.

00:14:06.840 And I think where it comes from, just a theory, but there's a tendency when the world looks

00:14:13.280 like a dark place to gather around the flag, to gather around the government of the day

00:14:18.280 in an attempt to find certainty and comfort.

00:14:22.520 It's like people who build their houses beside a fort.

00:14:26.540 You know, they want to be, they're looking for protection.

00:14:29.520 It's not the Alberta way, which makes this very surprising.

00:14:32.920 But I still have to say that when people, first of all, the narrative around the Conservative

00:14:40.060 Party at the moment is unfortunately not as strong as the Conservatives would wish it

00:14:44.680 to be.

00:14:45.240 There are tensions within the party.

00:14:47.880 And although nobody talks about it, they're nevertheless, they're there.

00:14:52.280 And then the second, so can we trust the Conservatives to lead us out of this?

00:14:57.940 They asked themselves, what's going on with separation?

00:15:03.980 What's going on with independence?

00:15:05.800 Whichever way you want to look at it.

00:15:08.080 Is that going to affect my pension?

00:15:09.780 Answer, no, it shouldn't.

00:15:11.040 But at any rate, that's just my opinion.

00:15:13.180 Other people have theirs and they get scared.

00:15:15.300 And then they say, well, this carny chop seems steady.

00:15:20.780 Let's just part there for a while.

00:15:22.980 So I see this as a reaction to, this is searching for certain, searching for certainty.

00:15:28.800 Well, one thing I would say as well, Derek, if I may, that was very interesting is 38%

00:15:32.920 of people that were polled from the rest of Alberta, which is like rural Alberta, said

00:15:36.740 that they would vote for carny in the Liberals.

00:15:38.100 That's the weird one that I can understand.

00:15:40.020 That doesn't make sense to me.

00:15:41.660 No.

00:15:41.840 But we've had, there's a, I think it was Angus Reid came out yesterday or something.

00:15:46.820 And they, they didn't show the Liberals as strong in Alberta, but showed very unusual

00:15:52.400 levels of strength.

00:15:53.540 Yeah.

00:15:53.720 Kind of getting into this neighborhood.

00:15:55.260 Well, there's still some hangover, I think though.

00:15:57.420 And I mean, even among Albertans and we're seeing that attitude, there's a US versus Canada

00:16:02.280 state that's been fostered by the Liberals and fostered by Trump back and forth.

00:16:07.440 And it kind of plays into what Nigel is saying too.

00:16:09.340 People will rally the forces.

00:16:11.440 I mean, even if they're proud Albertans and they're ticked with Ottawa, when you see an

00:16:15.840 external threat and when you see, you know, some of the tensions and attitudes going on

00:16:21.080 with that, you'll sometimes go to, Polyev hasn't been able to frame himself as the person

00:16:26.780 who can defend against Trump.

00:16:28.080 That's been the thing hanging over his neck for a year now.

00:16:30.700 And it's hitting him, I think here as well.

00:16:33.060 I think it's not so much that Albertans have turned into Liberals, but when push comes to

00:16:37.780 shove, they're just not feeling confidence that Polyev is going to stand up for their 0.99

00:16:40.500 interests.

00:16:42.660 Yeah.

00:16:43.060 I mean, there's a rally around the flag effect whenever there's an external threat.

00:16:46.340 I mean, you remember after 9-11, George W. Bush's poll numbers, it got into the 80s,

00:16:51.800 pushing towards even 90 or something.

00:16:53.540 Like North Korean levels of, like we always make fun of North Koreans. 0.99

00:16:57.620 But, I mean, from their perspective, they're always facing an external threat.

00:17:01.840 Obviously, they're heavily propagandized, but so are we in a different, we have a much

00:17:05.580 more subtle, much more maniacal kind of propaganda here.

00:17:09.420 But, you know, an external threat can do that.

00:17:12.400 Perhaps it is.

00:17:13.080 Some I've seen speculate in the media that, you know, it's the Alberta independence threat.

00:17:19.740 The other numbers don't seem to bear that out because the UCP is doing better than the

00:17:24.840 federal conservatives in Alberta, which is not usual, actually.

00:17:27.520 Normally, the federal conservatives outperform provincial, you know, the United Conservative

00:17:31.060 Party.

00:17:31.420 So, this says that there is, you know, it's not a huge number, but a significant number

00:17:37.400 of people who would vote for the UCP and Danielle Smith, which is significantly more hardcore

00:17:42.240 and Alberta nationalistic.

00:17:44.360 And then they go and plan to vote for Mark Carney.

00:17:48.620 I don't understand those people.

00:17:50.940 There are switchers in all provinces.

00:17:53.140 You'll have to get them to email us if there's anybody listening.

00:17:55.460 Well, let us know.

00:17:56.240 If you are Danielle Smith, Mark Carney voters, we want to hear from you.

00:18:02.000 I want to open up your brain and examine it.

00:18:04.220 I don't understand it.

00:18:05.820 But, I mean, there's switchers in all provinces.

00:18:07.980 But in this case, you're going from a, you know, the Alberta UCP is, I mean, their fiscal

00:18:13.260 stuff is terrible.

00:18:14.140 You know, we've seen the budget and all that.

00:18:15.600 They're not doing great there.

00:18:16.880 But on a lot of these issues, especially around Alberta, national unity, independence,

00:18:22.280 Trump, all this stuff, I don't get how you vote Danielle Smith one day and then you'd

00:18:26.440 vote Mark Carney the next.

00:18:27.560 That's, that's a weird voter.

00:18:29.460 And I don't, I want to understand who that is.

00:18:32.280 We're at some volatile times.

00:18:33.700 I mean, you know, that's, it's, it's a weird mix going on.

00:18:37.580 I think this year before it's up, we're going to see some changes.

00:18:40.700 I don't know exactly where the heck they're going to go, but we've never seen a period

00:18:44.560 like now.

00:18:44.980 That's part of why we're seeing, I think just these strange things in the tea leaves.

00:18:47.460 A year ago from now too, though, look, when those polls first started coming out, we were

00:18:52.280 dismissing like, holy cow, look at this liberal resurgence.

00:18:54.600 And, and it went from down in the toilet to just shy of a majority and little has changed

00:19:02.000 in that in a year.

00:19:03.120 Yeah.

00:19:03.440 Okay.

00:19:04.140 Well, uh, speaking of independence, let's talk about the big rash of, uh, referendums coming

00:19:10.420 up, uh, yesterday I interviewed, uh, premier Daniel Smith, um, she was generous with her

00:19:16.720 time.

00:19:16.980 I know, uh, some of her staff wanted to keep it shorter, but, uh, she wanted to go through,

00:19:21.360 uh, a lot of the individual questions to, to her credit.

00:19:24.500 Um, so, uh, there's five policy questions, uh, mostly essentially centered around immigration

00:19:33.540 issues and, you know, Alberta taking more control of immigration, limiting migration,

00:19:39.680 uh, removing benefits from those who were not supposed to be here and requiring people 0.99

00:19:45.020 to promote citizenship when they vote.

00:19:48.320 So there's going to be a referendum on those five questions.

00:19:50.240 And then four questions of a constitutional nature, uh, abolishing the Senate, clarifying

00:19:57.360 powers between provinces and the feds, appointments of judges, things like that.

00:20:01.220 And then very, very probably there'll be a vote on independence triggered by the citizens

00:20:06.800 initiative at the same time.

00:20:07.800 Um, so we'll get to the timing of all of it to begin with, but I'm, I, I was a bit

00:20:12.040 critical of the five immigration questions, not because I don't think they're good policies.

00:20:16.960 I think they're, they're so obviously good policies that they should do it immediately.

00:20:23.360 Polls show that there's a big, uh, big appetite for this in the public, not just in Alberta, but

00:20:28.460 across Canada for, for actions on getting migration, mass migration under control here.

00:20:33.540 Um, you know, I'm fine with some direct democracy, particularly for constitutional questions.

00:20:40.500 Constitutional questions should always go directly to the people, but this is a legislative issue.

00:20:44.720 And I feel like they've got a majority, the legislature sitting right now, they should just do it.

00:20:51.680 And if the people broadly don't support it, they can start a citizen's initiative to overturn it.

00:20:57.980 That's what we hire them for.

00:20:59.780 Uh, so I don't know, uh, which he wants to pick it up first, but, uh, I'm against having referendums on this.

00:21:06.400 Just do it, do it now.

00:21:07.600 These are urgent problems.

00:21:08.560 We can't wait.

00:21:09.200 So what she actually said to you, Derek, was that she wanted to hang off on this.

00:21:14.560 Basically, she wanted to get the people behind her.

00:21:16.400 She didn't disagree with you that the, that, uh, she had the legislative power to do it now. 0.75

00:21:22.800 Uh, she 100% agreed, but she pointed out things have changed a bit in the last five years.

00:21:29.200 We've got a whole bunch of people who weren't here five years ago as part of the problem, of course.

00:21:35.040 Um, but to just go out there and do this without putting it in front of the people and making a

00:21:42.400 referendum out of it would just give the NDP and any other opposition, well, she, this, she's just,

00:21:50.960 she's just like Trump.

00:21:52.000 Are we going to get a Nazi for it? 0.82

00:21:56.640 It's not going to mute any of the opposition.

00:21:58.240 They called her a Nazi for putting forward a referendum on measures that are supported,

00:22:02.640 I think, by even most legal and productive migrants that are here.

00:22:06.080 So the, so they're not, she's not getting anyone on site.

00:22:08.560 She doesn't already have.

00:22:09.520 So the subtlety here is that now that she's put it through a referendum,

00:22:13.840 she doesn't have to do anything for six months. 0.64

00:22:16.880 So that's true.

00:22:17.840 But she should be doing something.

00:22:19.280 It's an urgent problem.

00:22:20.160 We're talking about the political approach.

00:22:21.920 So yeah, somebody, I mean, yes.

00:22:24.400 She's got to get into 2027.

00:22:26.320 This is not, this is a, um, I'm not saying I agree with that, but I can see

00:22:30.720 a reason to advise her that way.

00:22:33.040 I get it.

00:22:33.520 But Corey, you know, uh, yes, they were not elected.

00:22:37.120 This was not in their platform, but we don't elect parties just to enact what's in their platform.

00:22:42.080 They expect them to react to issues as they come along.

00:22:44.720 So if a problem was already there and acute before, uh, like, I don't know, the NDP just

00:22:50.720 bringing in a carbon tax or the federal liberals bringing in a carbon tax that they did not run

00:22:54.720 on in their platforms.

00:22:55.840 That's highly questionable.

00:22:56.960 And we should have the right to have a, an initiative petition referendum to, to repeal

00:23:01.600 that if we want.

00:23:02.320 Uh, we did not when the NDP was in, we did not with Trudeau when he did it.

00:23:06.000 Um, but we elect these people, not just to rubber stamp, but to govern and to think and

00:23:12.000 to react to issues as they come.

00:23:14.400 Uh, the public is, I think, already on side for this stuff.

00:23:17.600 These are urgently needed policies.

00:23:19.600 Or at least one.

00:23:20.480 I can see, I mean, just reading at the bottom when it comes to, uh, uh, bringing in a law

00:23:24.960 requiring individuals to provide proof of citizenship in elections.

00:23:27.600 Well, if you want to have something that modifies the amount of way we can vote,

00:23:31.040 why are you putting that to a vote?

00:23:32.480 If this is an acute issue, we want that before you vote on this, uh, as opposed to,

00:23:38.240 you know, that's one that you really could do tomorrow.

00:23:41.040 Uh, I think realistically, we know that we know the political game, we know communications.

00:23:46.320 Uh, this allows, well, cause she's got a lot going on on the plate.

00:23:50.400 She's got a budget that really, I mean, like let's face it doesn't look terribly conservative,

00:23:54.160 uh, fiscally.

00:23:55.520 She's just made some very large spending announcements.

00:23:58.560 Uh, this is something to keep the discussion for the populists going and, and things like

00:24:05.040 that, but still on the sideline and not trying to eat all that soup all at the same time.

00:24:09.040 So they can use the legislative session, kind of as Nigel said, you know, to chew on all the rest

00:24:13.280 of this stuff.

00:24:14.400 And this gets kicked down the road to deal with, uh, by referenda at the end of the year, not saying

00:24:19.600 it's necessarily the best way or most principled way, but I can understand the rationale of it.

00:24:23.680 Okay.

00:24:24.240 Well, let's talk about some of the rationale, particularly around the constitutional questions

00:24:28.320 and the likely coming independence ref, uh, question.

00:24:31.760 Uh, so for, for constitutional questions, uh, David, uh, and, and independence.

00:24:38.880 Um, I, I, I, I put it to Smith when I was interviewing her yesterday that, I mean, look, we had the

00:24:46.960 equalization referendum a few years ago.

00:24:49.680 Nothing happened.

00:24:51.360 Absolutely nothing.

00:24:52.240 They just ignored it.

00:24:53.600 That was the end of it.

00:24:54.560 Um, even if they didn't ignore it, uh, Quebec has a de facto veto on any change to the constitution.

00:25:01.440 Parliament will never, Parliament also has to sign off, not just the provinces.

00:25:04.800 Parliament will never sign off on a constitutional change that does not have Quebec's blessing.

00:25:09.360 Um, so I think this is a dead end because for Quebec to even consider it, they have it as

00:25:16.080 well-established policy that they, uh, they have their whole grab bag of constitutional issues

00:25:22.640 that they want.

00:25:23.120 And they're all very francophone nationalist stuff and asymmetrical, uh, federalism that

00:25:28.320 does not treat all provinces the same.

00:25:30.160 You know, we're going back to Meech Lake and Charlottetown for, for the young kids.

00:25:33.600 If you can remember from your history books, I, I was, uh, I was a tyke, I guess, when this

00:25:38.080 stuff happened too, but, um, it's never going to happen.

00:25:43.440 Um, so, but I get putting forward the idea of constitutional reform, but why would we vote

00:25:50.960 on constitutional reform on the same piece of paper in which we're also voting on independence?

00:25:56.720 We, I mean, this is like going to the courthouse to the divorce counter and asking for marriage

00:26:04.480 counseling.

00:26:05.600 No, like we, I, I put it to her that like, we should vote on these reforms and see what

00:26:12.400 the rest of Canada, see what Ottawa does, give them three months, six months, whatever,

00:26:17.840 you know, something reasonable.

00:26:19.200 And then we have the vote on independence.

00:26:21.520 Uh, she seemed to reject that.

00:26:24.400 And then it just seems to be, you're doing two very different things at the same time

00:26:27.920 that are self mutually exclusive.

00:26:30.720 Yeah.

00:26:31.280 Well, I was just going to ask you if you thought maybe she was doing that so that they could 0.62

00:26:34.400 put sort of a damper on the independence talk, kind of put that on the back burner,

00:26:38.160 maybe, and kind of just hide it within all the other stuff.

00:26:40.240 That's why they're having it at the exact same time.

00:26:42.080 That was my thoughts.

00:26:43.520 I just don't know.

00:26:44.240 That's what I'm thinking.

00:26:44.800 He's like, you said, it's like, is anything really going to change?

00:26:46.800 Like, I don't want to change.

00:26:48.000 Well, you see, uh, uh, Nigel, a lot of the, you know, lefty commentators are out there saying

00:26:52.800 that she's holding all of these referendums to boost the independence vote.

00:26:58.080 As they've said it, I'm inclined to agree with David that I see that this is, I don't

00:27:02.720 think she's trying to suppress the independence vote, but I think if I'm being cynical, she

00:27:07.200 is perhaps trying to mix it with a bunch of things.

00:27:10.000 So we're not just talking, guess what?

00:27:11.840 No, one's going to be talking about the immigration reform.

00:27:13.600 No, one's going to be talking about constitutional reform.

00:27:15.520 Everyone's going to talk about independence because it's so much bigger.

00:27:19.680 We don't have to ask Ottawa for more permission over immigration if we're our own country.

00:27:23.840 We don't have to talk to them about getting rid of the Senate if we're our own country.

00:27:27.440 So all these other issues become completely moot.

00:27:29.920 So yeah, the left is arguing she's trying to do this to bolster independence. 0.74

00:27:33.600 I don't think she's necessarily trying to stop independence, but trying to mix it up.

00:27:37.440 And I don't think it'll work.

00:27:38.640 And I think she actually risks the success on her nine questions she's putting forward

00:27:44.160 because everybody who's going to come out to vote against independence, the Federalist vote,

00:27:50.880 I think their inclination will be to also vote pro Ottawa down the ballot on all of the questions.

00:27:56.800 I'm voting against independence and I'm voting against taking more control of immigration.

00:28:02.080 I'm voting against limiting migration.

00:28:05.760 I'm voting against abolition, those kinds of things.

00:28:08.800 I don't know whether I agree with you on that, Derek.

00:28:12.720 See, one of the things that she has to contend with, which you didn't mention in your summary,

00:28:19.120 there is her own caucus who are not of one mind on many of these things.

00:28:25.040 There are some members of her caucus who are very much in favor of independence,

00:28:29.920 and there are others who won't have it at any price.

00:28:32.400 Some just really want to know what their constituents think, and they can modify their position then.

00:28:38.960 So how do you actually stop all this boiling over in 2026,

00:28:47.200 when it would be highly inconvenient to have a split in the caucus out in the open,

00:28:52.960 which other parties would take advantage of.

00:28:55.120 And other parties would include, by the way, the federal liberals,

00:28:59.440 to whom it would be a tremendous advantage to have a disunited Alberta government.

00:29:04.800 I agree.

00:29:05.200 But why would we be voting on tinkering with, or getting rid of the Senate,

00:29:10.080 and tinkering with divisions of federal powers?

00:29:12.240 And it's not going to work.

00:29:15.840 Everyone's only going to talk about independence.

00:29:17.920 Derek, you are a deep thinker on these things.

00:29:23.760 Corey is a deep thinker.

00:29:25.520 Fever is a deep writer, as well as a thinker on these things.

00:29:29.120 So we go into this stuff with a passionate intensity and work out little angles and so forth.

00:29:35.920 With all due respect to Albertan voters, most of them don't pay any attention to this,

00:29:41.760 except when they're told to.

00:29:43.040 And even then, it's a superficial thing.

00:29:45.200 So I have to just, you know, so on this, um, in, uh, you know, when, when we get into an actual

00:29:54.720 campaign period for these referendums, if you stopped an average person on the street and said,

00:29:59.680 how are you voting in the referendum?

00:30:01.920 Which question are they going to assume you're asking about?

00:30:04.720 Oh yeah.

00:30:05.200 And, and, but I mean, getting to it.

00:30:07.040 So it's going to be essentially the campaign starts now.

00:30:09.040 It's an eight month campaign.

00:30:10.640 One of the things I didn't like looking at this too.

00:30:12.880 I just did it while we were doing your intro, but I just did a quick check.

00:30:16.080 When you add the questions together, there's about 400 words among them.

00:30:18.960 You know, sorry about word salad questions.

00:30:20.960 This is why the clarity act was created in the first place.

00:30:24.640 I mean, at least the independence question actually is bang it's yes or no.

00:30:28.640 And that's where 90% of the discussion is, but we're going to have eight months talking

00:30:32.400 about some of these things, which yes, we know they are asking if the other provinces

00:30:36.880 will be willing to abolish the Senate.

00:30:38.560 We know that's not going to happen in a million years.

00:30:40.560 The Atlantic provinces and Quebec are never going to go for that.

00:30:42.720 Well, it's actually a Supreme Court of Canada reference made that can't be done.

00:30:46.000 Yeah.

00:30:46.240 So let's remind Albertans all of that, as we're approaching an independence vote,

00:30:50.480 the futility of trying to change these things, the futility, plus having the,

00:30:54.960 the Andrew coins and the others up there,

00:30:56.880 poo-pooing it and saying, you guys can't choose your judges.

00:30:59.440 You guys can't have these things.

00:31:02.080 And after eight months of that discussion, and as Derek said,

00:31:04.400 there's really only one question that's going to be on people's minds when they go into that booth.

00:31:08.480 I think in the long run, this will help because they either,

00:31:11.120 we got to accept the complete intractability of the rest of the country,

00:31:14.880 or you vote for independence.

00:31:15.920 That's the two questions you're going to have.

00:31:17.120 Yeah, but you should vote for one first, give them three months, six months, whatever,

00:31:21.280 to at least signal their willingness to talk.

00:31:23.840 Guess what?

00:31:24.240 They're not going to, but let Albertans see that first.

00:31:28.320 Ideally, it'd be great.

00:31:29.200 I mean, I'd slap these out in June and then we could have three months to chew on it before we go to it.

00:31:33.760 I'm fine with that.

00:31:34.960 That'd be fine.

00:31:35.360 Let's do it in June, whatever it is.

00:31:37.280 We're going to work with what we got.

00:31:38.480 But due respect, Nigel, this is not,

00:31:41.520 camouflage is not going to work here.

00:31:42.800 When you ask someone on the street, how are you voting in the referendum?

00:31:46.560 Everybody, everybody's going to assume you're asking about independence,

00:31:50.160 not about one of the other nine questions on immigration or the Senate or judge appointments.

00:31:56.160 Every single person is going to go to that last question, independence.

00:32:00.720 That's what I was going to talk about.

00:32:01.600 So if the strategy here is to camouflage it, I don't think it's going to work.

00:32:08.480 Well, we'll see, I guess.

00:32:09.520 But my, I do think if you go and you stop a stranger on the street and said,

00:32:13.040 how are you going to vote on the, on the referendums?

00:32:16.080 He's probably going to say at this stage, well, I don't understand a lot of them.

00:32:19.520 And I thought we couldn't vote on the Senate anyway, but yeah, you know,

00:32:23.520 well, I'm still making my mind up about independence.

00:32:26.880 The average voter's not even going to know there's a vote on this.

00:32:28.640 I was going to say what, what referendum they're not even going to say.

00:32:31.440 Well, that's the worst ones.

00:32:33.600 There's something interesting to keep in mind too, though.

00:32:35.520 So the Quebec referendum in 93, 95 had a 93% turnout. 0.97

00:32:40.240 When a question is that important, people will get off their butts.

00:32:43.680 So they're going to be in that booth and they're going to look at these as well.

00:32:46.720 When, if it was just these, I think you'd have a 40% turnout because people are already bored and

00:32:51.200 their eyes have glazed over.

00:32:52.160 Yeah.

00:32:52.560 But when you got that nuclear option at the back of all those questions,

00:32:56.240 this is going to spawn a discussion of these issues we've never had before, really,

00:32:59.520 in a way we haven't had before anyways, and it might, might make a difference.

00:33:04.240 All right.

00:33:05.040 All right.

00:33:05.920 Let's switch to something funnier.

00:33:08.400 People having to give up their houses to pay out offended teachers for not agreeing with trans ideology.

00:33:15.920 Nigel, yeah, there's, I mentioned at the top of the show, two cases, one a lot pricier than the other,

00:33:22.160 but both absolutely absurd where people are, I mean, to pay for not complying with gender ideology.

00:33:28.560 So what we've got going on here is two cases of compelled speech.

00:33:32.960 We all like to talk about freedom of speech so we can say what we think without fear of our penalty.

00:33:40.480 What we've got now is government agencies telling us what we must say.

00:33:45.440 This is no longer about what we, whether we dare say what we think.

00:33:50.240 This is about do we dare not say what the government is telling us to think.

00:33:55.680 So what we've got here, you mentioned two cases.

00:33:57.440 One was in Quebec.

00:33:58.720 So as a little hairdresser's shop, you go online and making your booking.

00:34:03.920 Are you a male or are you a female?

00:34:05.440 Because you'll make a difference.

00:34:06.640 Not about hair.

00:34:07.360 Yeah.

00:34:08.160 You know, so somebody, and I think when you told the anecdote,

00:34:13.200 you said that this person was without hair.

00:34:16.240 Let's put a picture up.

00:34:17.440 Yeah.

00:34:18.000 Let's see.

00:34:18.560 Let's see.

00:34:18.960 This guy or girl or whatever.

00:34:22.160 Whatever he says he is.

00:34:23.120 Wanted a haircut.

00:34:25.120 What's he going to a barber at all for?

00:34:27.040 Well, it's just another level almost of the, the, the ball waxer there.

00:34:30.880 Uh, you know, you're just going beyond the pale with your requests.

00:34:36.160 Another British club.

00:34:37.440 I can go back.

00:34:38.240 They do this.

00:34:39.520 You know, they're a little, a little crazy anyway, I think.

00:34:42.080 But, uh, so the thing goes to court and the little hairdresser's shop.

00:34:46.960 Yeah.

00:34:47.120 It's fine.

00:34:47.440 $500 because they didn't have an option and said pick a, and they

00:34:52.240 apologized and they, and they, and they had fixed, they had fixed the website and added his,

00:34:57.680 uh, you know, none of the above kind of option or whatever it is.

00:35:00.960 And they still find them $500.

00:35:03.920 You know, they probably went to the trouble of fixing the website because they saw what

00:35:07.520 was going on in BC, which is the really outrageous one.

00:35:10.160 Like, you don't screw with this stuff.

00:35:11.600 If you're a passionate one, tell us about BC.

00:35:15.360 Well, BC, there's a, there's a school district, um, uh,

00:35:20.400 Chilliwack school trustee.

00:35:22.160 His name is Barry Neufeld and, uh, is ordered by the BC human rights.

00:35:28.480 Tribunal to pay not $500, not even $5,000, but $750,000 to LGBTQ.

00:35:40.080 If I've got that in the right order.

00:35:41.440 Educators for.

00:35:42.400 You forgot the plus.

00:35:43.520 You dig it.

00:35:43.920 Oh, there's a two in on S in there as well.

00:35:47.600 Sorry.

00:35:47.840 Yeah.

00:35:48.400 Poor research.

00:35:50.240 Anyway, what, why does he have to pay them?

00:35:53.200 Well, for injury to dignity, feelings, and self-respect.

00:35:56.400 And what had he been doing for some time?

00:35:59.440 He has publicly, publicly criticized the educational programs in BC schools as child abuse because they

00:36:07.680 encourage children to consider, you know, are you sure you're a boy?

00:36:12.080 Are you sure you're a girl?

00:36:13.280 You know, you can talk to us.

00:36:14.320 You don't have to talk to your parents.

00:36:15.920 He calls that child abuse.

00:36:17.200 You know, and he labeled gender fluidity a biologically absurd theory, and he posed medical

00:36:26.400 transitions for minors, which is what we, of course, oppose here in Alberta as well, thanks to the

00:36:32.000 Daniel Smith government.

00:36:33.120 So all of this that the tribunal deemed as an existential denial of trans identities,

00:36:40.240 terms like gender ideology seen as fostering discrimination.

00:36:44.800 Now, let's just remind ourselves that whether you're a short earther or a long earther,

00:36:51.680 nobody has questioned the idea of gender for about 500,000 years.

00:36:58.240 In the last 20, it has become fashionable to say, well, if a person thinks he's a woman,

00:37:05.280 then you must treat him as a woman.

00:37:08.320 And if a woman thinks she's a man, you must give her credit for her feelings on this matter. 0.95

00:37:14.000 It is somebody sticking a gun into your head and saying, you will either repeat after me

00:37:22.480 something that you know to be totally inaccurate, totally wrong, something that you don't even agree 0.96

00:37:28.960 with, or we're going to take your house.

00:37:32.080 And so, David, I mean, the great totalitarian regimes of the 20th century,

00:37:38.400 uh, often, uh, banned speech, uh, I mean, actually, I, I have to admit he was kind of funny in a way.

00:37:46.480 He says, I can guarantee freedom of speech.

00:37:48.560 I just can't guarantee freedom after speech.

00:37:52.400 So, you know, he has moments, I guess.

00:37:56.000 Um, but you know, the great totalitarian regimes would ban speech, but they wouldn't generally compel

00:38:03.360 speech. You know, you weren't allowed to criticize the regime or the dictator or their policies or

00:38:08.560 whatever, but you were, the average person was not required to go around and chant the slogan for

00:38:15.840 the most part. Um, that, that's where we're at. We've, we've skipped kind of hard totalitarianism

00:38:21.600 and gone into whatever they call us.

00:38:23.760 I keep hearing online. They call it gay race communism. It's quite a bit different than regular

00:38:27.760 communism. It would seem. And I was just going to say as well, like that first of case,

00:38:31.040 Nigel brought up about the guy apologizing and still like them getting fined. It's like,

00:38:34.480 that's why you never apologize to these people because you enabled them and you're still going 0.91

00:38:37.280 to get screwed over. Anyway, he probably would have gotten Nigel's point. He was probably looking

00:38:41.600 at the case in BC of three quarters of a million. And he was like, yeah, he got us with his slap

00:38:45.440 on the wrist of $500. I think now he might be kind of fighting it. Cause he's like, okay,

00:38:50.080 this is ridiculous. But, uh, well, it was like, remember that case of those bakers in the States 0.70

00:38:54.320 with the whole like Islamophobia thing. It's kind of the same thing. Did they apologize?

00:38:57.600 Because they want to bake the cake for the gay couples, gay marriage couple. 0.95

00:39:01.600 That's yeah, that was the slippery slope. I don't think the slippery slope was gay marriage. 1.00

00:39:06.160 Uh, people had their concerns. It happened and the sky didn't fall and that was okay.

00:39:11.920 But people did warn of the slippery slope and where the slope started to get slippy,

00:39:16.560 I think was the cake where the cake, because this was not about, you know, gay marriage,

00:39:22.320 you know, people arguing for it said, you're not, this is not going to affect your marriage.

00:39:26.560 You don't have to do anything. This is other people doing their own thing.

00:39:30.640 And as soon as someone else had to do something to affirm what they wanted to do in their private

00:39:35.840 lives for it, that opened the door. And that's where we are now with gay race communism, where 0.98

00:39:42.080 you get fined three quarters of a million dollars for wanting to keep gender weighing studies out of

00:39:48.080 the third grade class. Well, and it's what's distressing with this though, is the extreme

00:39:53.360 they went to. They aren't trying to just inconvenience or punish. They're trying to crush him.

00:39:58.080 Those are bankruptcy numbers. These are lose your home, lose your retirement, live in penury for the

00:40:03.760 rest of your life in, in some shack, unless you were somehow very independently wealthy when you've been

00:40:09.600 nailed by something like this. I would only hope that it's appealable just in the extreme of the

00:40:15.200 punishment. I think you can't take it to a court. I doubt a court's going to uphold it, but it shows

00:40:19.840 you how mad the BC human rights commission is. And these commissions shouldn't exist, period.

00:40:23.840 They shouldn't. That's the whole thing too. We shouldn't legitimize these judy, you know, 1.00

00:40:28.000 or quasi judicial kangaroo courts. I think you said Judge Judy. Yeah, I have more faith in her. 0.89

00:40:33.920 You would get a better, a more fair trial with Judge Judy. But you know, we should just have one

00:40:38.560 judicial system anyway. It's not this, this human rights crap. That's usually appointees who are extreme of 0.98

00:40:42.960 one ideology or another who sit on these things. And by the way, when a tribunal hears these cases,

00:40:48.880 they are not bound by the procedural techniques of a court. No. There's no business of, uh, you,

00:40:55.280 you may be able to demonstrate that what you're saying is true, but that doesn't matter. Truth is,

00:41:02.160 truth is not a defense if it exposes an identifiable group to hatred or contempt. Truth is not a defense.

00:41:09.520 You can prove that what I said is true, but if it exposes an identifiable group to hatred or contempt,

00:41:15.520 you're guilty. I hold the commissions in contempt. Yeah. Uh, and this is just a good reminder, uh,

00:41:21.360 back in the Western standards first version, when it was a print magazine, the human rights

00:41:24.640 commissions and tribunals came for the Western standard for being the only publication in Canada

00:41:29.280 to publish the Muhammad cartoons. And, uh, and, you know, those human, those commissions almost went 0.79

00:41:37.200 down over that because they, they finally crossed the bridge too far. They were just going after

00:41:41.040 some unsympathetic figure, uh, you know, printing anti-Semitic leaflets on, uh, you know, through a

00:41:46.800 fax machine or something. They went after a legitimate news outlet sharing a legitimate news story

00:41:53.280 and they went to bridge too far, but it just goes to show you have to defend those unsympathetic

00:41:58.720 figures who are maybe doing something you don't agree with. Uh, because, you know, to quote Rachel

00:42:05.040 Notley, first they came for the anti-Semites, you know, then they came for the capitalists, 0.88

00:42:12.800 you know? All right. All right. Our parting shots. We're going to get first. Okay. Well,

00:42:18.320 this is one that I think you guys can agree that I'm getting annoyed with hearing about is all these

00:42:21.840 people that are on the, uh, Alberta independence petition, their canvassers are getting harassed by

00:42:26.080 people. And now I miss Mitch Sylvester, the CEO of the Alberta prosperity project, had a guy come

00:42:30.400 into his store in Bonneville with a bullet and threatened him. Where was any of this for the,

00:42:34.800 uh, forever Canada petitioners? I never heard a single thing about that ever happening to them.

00:42:38.560 So now what's the difference? I pull over, I'd see them on the side of the road, uh,

00:42:42.880 kind of a country road in the way of my place. I pull over, say hi, how's it going?

00:42:46.480 I'm smiling away. Although I have seen, uh, we maybe need to follow up the story. I have seen

00:42:51.120 it alleged. It was not an actual bullet. It was a, it was, I talked to Mitch to clarify,

00:42:55.280 it was an actual bullet. That guy's an actual, that guy, that, and that actual video. That's

00:42:58.720 not the guy. It's not even the same guy now. Okay. Interesting. All right. Uh, Corey, uh,

00:43:04.480 well, just kind of ties into where you're going, I think in a bit, but if people aren't familiar

00:43:07.760 with John Cleese from, uh, Monty Python or Fawlty Towers, and I know he's never been a conservative

00:43:12.960 with his political views, but boy, this last week has he let loose, including on that $750,000

00:43:18.880 ruling saying he may not tour Canada because of that. Because again, as much as he might be a

00:43:22.960 lefty, he values free speech and he's ripping into Islam just brilliantly. So follow him on X because 1.00

00:43:29.200 he's pulling back all, uh, political correctness him and Rowan Atkinson as well. So the old English,

00:43:34.960 uh, comedians, at least you're standing up might be too late, but at least they're speaking out.

00:43:38.960 Mr. Bean, symbol of freedom. I, uh, his speeches might not be good. Oh, although I'll never forget.

00:43:45.680 Uh, I'm sure you've all seen that one clip. It was Rowan Atkins, not as Mr. Bean, but Rowan Atkins,

00:43:50.000 and he was speaking at a Tory convention in the eighties. I haven't seen one. Oh, it's such a

00:43:55.920 classic. It's such a classic. All right. Hey, brilliant defense. Yeah. So look,

00:44:01.600 what's the state of the union address last night, despite the, despite the intense difficulty,

00:44:06.960 watch the whole thing. Yeah. We, we, we were working. This is how we, we know you're retired.

00:44:12.240 Yep. This is, uh, I don't know whether it was tell us or whether it was the originating was a

00:44:17.680 horrible thing to have to watch, but what was, uh, what Trump said, appealed to me. What didn't

00:44:25.840 appeal to me was the response by some Democrats who couldn't even rise to say, well, at least that kid

00:44:35.840 is all right, or that kid has done well, or this fellow deserves his, his, uh, his medal.

00:44:42.960 And it took me back. I haven't thought about this for a very, very long time, but when General Grant

00:44:49.760 became president, Ulysses Grant, after this American civil war, finally he died. He was reckoned to have

00:44:57.120 been a good president. And two Confederate generals were among the poll bearers as he, as he left the

00:45:04.320 church. So it is possible for Republicans and Democrats to get together over things that are

00:45:12.800 possible. It was possible back in the 1870s. There's something about the Democrat response there.

00:45:20.400 They can't even applaud something that's good. It makes me think the problems of the United States

00:45:25.440 are a lot deeper than we think. Uh, and just on, on that, a tip of the hat to the cameraman at the,

00:45:31.680 uh, speech. I didn't watch the whole speeches. It was way too long, but, uh, Trump had these moments

00:45:37.920 where he talked about, I'm quoting Trump here. It's not me talking about Somali pirates ransacking

00:45:43.600 Minnesota. And he hands to Elian Omar. Who's, who's crashing out. And he talks about, uh, you know,

00:45:52.320 uh, the absurdity of transgendered ideology. And he pans to, I think a democratic member of Congress, 0.98

00:45:58.560 who is a biological man, but dresses as a woman. That cameraman better hope of JD Vance stays 0.91

00:46:08.160 president because he's not going to be filling many more of these things. It was, it was ballsy.

00:46:13.920 Uh, okay. Mine, uh, I want to draw note to those of you who have not been paying attention to,

00:46:19.520 uh, the United Kingdom's newest political party, restore Britain. Uh, you know, there was a lot

00:46:26.080 of hope and maybe there still is some, uh, for Nigel Farage's reform party or Nigel Farage led Brexit

00:46:31.680 for years, did God's work, uh, at least the reform party now, which has been, uh, uh, leading in kind

00:46:38.560 of minority government territory in the UK, um, completely eclipsing the Tories. The Tories look

00:46:43.760 headed for kind of liberal democratic, uh, Lib Dem, um, you know, third party, fourth party,

00:46:50.000 extinction status, um, was really going for it, but he just didn't seem to have a religion on things

00:46:56.640 like re-migration, the key issue, re-migration. And he kicked out, uh, a member of Farmland. Was it, uh,

00:47:03.760 Lowe? What's his name? The MP. Anyway, you kicked this guy out. This guy has now gone on to start

00:47:09.120 his own party. You kicked this guy out because this guy, uh, supported re-migration. This guy has

00:47:13.040 gone on to, uh, start, restore Britain. Brilliant social media campaign from me. Rupert Lowe. Rupert Lowe,

00:47:19.680 yeah. Um, brilliant social media campaign in the span of, I think the party's roughly a week,

00:47:25.600 maybe two weeks old. It's less than two weeks. It's only 7% in the polls. Three times with the polls,

00:47:32.240 what the, uh, Alberta's, uh, progressive Tories are. Um, you know, already, like, really hitting

00:47:38.480 the map. My fear is, of course, you've now got the Tories, you've got reform, and you've got restore,

00:47:44.560 and first pass the post system, that's not a recipe for success, but neither is doing what the UK has

00:47:49.920 been doing, which is leading it to civilizational, uh, uh, extinction. So they've got to do something

00:47:55.440 radical, uh, but I just want to bring note, uh, point out for Store UK, uh, just the absolute,

00:48:02.640 they've come down like a meteorite on the, on the UK-British scene, and, uh, I think we'll hear,

00:48:08.800 we're gonna hear a lot more about them in the next years. Okay, Cory, David, Nigel, thank you,

00:48:16.240 and thank you, John, running in the studio here. And all of you, uh, watching from home, or your

00:48:22.800 elliptical, whatever you're doing, thank you very much for joining us. Remember to go to

00:48:26.320 westernstandard.news, click on subscribe, it's only $10 a month, or $100 a year for unlimited access

00:48:32.000 to all Western Standard content, getting past that paywall, and to support the work we are doing.

00:48:36.880 We've now got, uh, we've got full-time staff, full-time reporters in Vancouver, Calgary, Edmonton,

00:48:43.440 Regina, Toronto, Ottawa, uh, we're spreading like the plague. All right, thank you very much for joining us

00:48:52.160 today, and God bless.

Western Standard - March 01, 2026

THE PIPELINE： Polls show Alberta independence & UCP gaining

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