Western Standard Opinion Editor Nigel Hannaford and Senior Alberta Columnist Corey Morgan join host Derek Fildebrandt and Senior Editor-in-Chief Editor-In-Chief, Corey Morgan, to discuss Alberta's new policy on gender reassignment and parental rights for minors.
00:00:29.0802024. I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.
00:00:35.000I'm joined as usual by Western Standard opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford. Good to be here. And
00:00:41.000Western Standard senior Alberta columnist, Corey Morgan, back from Texas and living in the desert
00:00:46.600and all sorts of weird stuff you did, eh? Yeah, I'm refreshed now and full of spite and energy
00:00:51.320and all that miserableness that I was running low on before I left. Yeah, you're back to your
00:00:55.960usual curmudgeonly self. That's right. Yeah. Following your exploits of your adventure on
00:01:01.400Twitter. It's fun. It's fun. We had very little trouble coming up with the main topics of today's
00:01:09.760show. The left losing its mind, going absolutely apoplectic over Alberta's new trans and parental
00:01:16.900rights policies, triggering a meltdown from the left, from coast to coast to coast in Canada.
00:01:23.160So we'll be talking about the policy itself, the political reaction to it, and what the left thinks it might be able to accomplish here.
00:01:31.840A guy I don't think any of us have really heard of before has started a campaign to recall Calgary Mayor Jody Gondek under Alberta's relatively new recall legislation.
00:01:43.200Obviously catching a lot of attention, kind of coming out of nowhere.
00:01:47.700And speaking of Calgary mayors, former Calgary Mayor Nahid Nenshi.
00:01:53.160Pleading that if forced to at gunpoint, he might consider running for leader of Alberta's NDP because he doesn't believe in political parties.
00:02:03.720He's not a political party kind of guy, but he might, you know, if absolutely forced to at gunpoint, he might be persuaded to run for the leadership of the Alberta NDP.
00:02:15.080Before we get into that, though, Corey, why don't you thank my favorite sponsor?
00:02:46.540And they've got all sorts of other resources, as any association would.
00:02:49.860check them out cssa-cila.org or of course just google them up
00:02:54.500canadian shooting sports association it's well worth it and an investment in your rights
00:03:00.660all right well um just last week alberta premier danielle smith announced a whole suite of policies
00:03:09.620surrounding trans, transsexual issues in Alberta, restrictions on puberty blockers and hormone
00:03:22.180treatments for younger kids, I think under age 15, saying there'll be no more top and bottom sex
00:03:32.180change surgeries, although I think you're supposed to use a different term for it now. Gender
00:03:36.100affirming. Gender reassignment. No gender affirming. Well the gender affirming I think is the treatment1.00
00:03:40.980with the drugs and so on and when you do a full surgical intervention then it's gender reassignment
00:03:46.820I believe but I could be wrong this is my area of expertise. Okay sex change. Yeah there we go we0.88
00:03:50.660all know what it means. Sex change. Don't go woke on me now. Restrictions on that for people under1.00
00:03:58.340the age of 18 requirement that I think it's I'm getting the number the ages right here
00:04:06.100people under 16 have to have parental consent to have their name and pronouns changed for use at
00:04:11.620school and above that age they could you know the kid can change the name pronouns on their own but
00:04:16.820the parent has to be informed. This all sounds pretty reasonable stuff but to hear the reaction
00:04:27.780from the left both in Alberta and outside of Alberta in Ottawa you'd think that they've just
00:04:34.900begun construction of Auschwitz that they're using the left has used the language of genocide
00:04:42.120that this is now a genocidal policy to kill trans people in Alberta that people will die in
00:04:50.340significant numbers because of this. And they've just declared a holy jihad against Alberta's
00:04:57.940trans policy and government here. So maybe before we get into the reaction from the left here,
00:05:05.380just talk about the policy itself now.
00:05:10.020The sex change operation is one of those things that you only get one chance to get right. And0.68
00:05:16.100And to suggest that a child, 13, 14, 15, could make that decision when we don't trust them to drive a car is probably just plain ridiculous.
00:05:39.240You shouldn't be doing this, and you shouldn't be facilitated by other adults in doing it.
00:05:44.320Who knows what their motives are, but the person involved needs to wait until they are somewhat mature before they even embrace this.
00:05:54.260They can start taking the puberty blockers at the age of 16.
00:05:59.940I am not well informed on the medicine of that, whether you can sort of start doing it at 16 and drop it later and everything just kind of works itself back to normal.
00:06:08.940but to actually have the surgery in the in the early teen years is just ridiculous
00:06:18.700i can't believe we're even having this discussion you know like it it goes totally against the
00:06:27.180green but anyway there's the reaction of the left to that policy just kind of shows you the
00:06:33.180you really want a government made up of people who think that that's okay
00:06:37.620Corey, I've got a tattoo on my right arm.
00:06:42.120I, you know, when I was a teenager, my parents were split.
00:06:46.100And I kind of learned some early politics of playing them off against each other.
00:06:50.740And in exchange for my love, I got one of my parents to agree to sign off on letting me get my tattoo.
00:07:01.060Normally, you have to be 18 to make that decision on your own.
00:07:06.780It's ugly, it's stupid, I regret it, as most tattoos, in hindsight, turn out to be.
00:07:14.660I now have paid a bunch of money to have it removed.
00:07:17.560It takes a year, and it's a pain, it's unpleasant.
00:07:20.360But I was clearly at age, I don't know, 16 or 17 when I got it, not mature enough to make that decision.
00:07:26.700I could have made the wrong decision when I was older, but I would have been less likely to make that bad decision.
00:07:32.360So it doesn't seem to be all that radical an idea that there are certain decisions that every society, every civilization on Earth today, or in the history of civilization ever, in human history, that there are certain decisions that you cannot make until you've reached a certain age.
00:07:58.020Now, where we draw that line is always up for debate. You know, we've decided that a 17 year old can be conscripted and go sent to die for his country, but he can't have a cigarette or beer.
00:08:11.020So there's been incongruities from time to time, but the left seems to be totally confident in its belief that they can't smoke until they're 18, they can't drink until they're 18, they can't drive until they're 16, they can't drive on their own until they're 18, they can't become a part of the military until they're 18.
00:08:36.520but they can alter their genitalia as young as 12 in some cases here.
00:08:57.740Having a radical or double mastectomy, you can get implants later,
00:09:02.120but you will not be able to breastfeed or function again.
00:09:05.360These are permanent alterations. There's no turning back. So even a tattoo error at a young
00:09:11.720age is still pretty relatively minor compared to what we're talking about with this. We've let
00:09:18.780the trans activists get completely out of control. We really have. They've pushed the boundary line1.00
00:09:24.480so far to the point where any intervention on any whim, and I tell you with a lot of kids,
00:09:28.580it's a whim, it's a trend, it's a fad, it's attention seeking. There are any number of
00:09:34.360things that kids going through puberty will do. There are some
00:09:38.680real trans children who are dealing with there's such a1.00
00:09:41.260minority of a minority that we can't have said that set aside
00:09:45.220the parental rights or allow irreversible procedures to start
00:09:49.420happening when when their judgment isn't ready. The age of
00:09:51.60018 is almost universal around the world with a lot of societal,
00:09:55.000you know, evolution, we've kind of realized that's typically a
00:09:57.580turning point. You're done. You're done puberty. Yeah, some
00:10:00.280kids are very advanced to some 16. Some are 30 and still going
00:10:04.200on 17. But we tend to draw that line there. You can't bind a minor into a contract in Canada,
00:10:11.260unless it's an exceptional circumstance. Premier Smith's position is not unreasonable whatsoever,
00:10:18.280but she's been one of the only politicians bold enough to finally call it out and just draw the1.00
00:10:22.860line and say that's it. Again, I mean, and puberty blockers, you know, I certainly that's where they
00:10:29.560try to go into, we should talk to the medical experts. Well, there's very few things medical
00:10:32.840experts would say, when you can take something as serious as your growth and that transition point of puberty and suddenly just put it on hold for a couple years and not to think there won't be some long lasting consequences of that. It's very serious. And then to have kids under 16 going on that again, it's just not reasonable.
00:10:51.100Puberty is not purely physical. I mean, I've been trying to explain to my six-year-old daughter why she says, Daddy, why are teenagers stupid?
00:11:00.100There's a question for the ages there.
00:11:02.040Well, you know, she's overheard me say this before.
00:11:06.400I imagine she's probably heard it from me, but I think it's well acknowledged that teenagers are pretty stupid.
00:11:13.220I was chief among them. I did all sorts of very stupid things. Still do from time to time, but less frequently, I think.
00:11:19.400But, you know, I try to explain, well, there's puberty, there's changes. And it's not just physical. There is all sorts of psychological, physiological changes taking place that you're dealing with.
00:11:33.620And so it's not just that, you know, you're getting hair under your pits and you smell more.
00:11:38.820You change as a person in how you think and how you act.
00:11:45.280And so you're denying someone a fundamental part of maturing, of maturation in their life.
00:12:58.200I think it's, I could be mistaken, but I think it was the Toronto Star, I had a column in it just the other day saying that the whole concept of trans rights is a part of the QAnon conspiracy.
00:13:09.100So, yeah, no one's ever really thought of parental rights until QAnon, and if you believe that parents have any right to determine how you're raising your kids, then you believe that Hillary Clinton was running a child rape operation in a pizza parlor.
00:13:24.980Toronto stars should be careful what they say. They may make QAnon sound attractive.
00:13:30.020I mean, yeah, it's never made QAnon seem reasonable to me until they said that.
00:13:35.940So let's talk about the reaction to it. It has been furious. Now, this is curious to me because
00:13:44.420the left is so convinced of its moral rightness here. They're on the right side of history.
00:13:51.540I don't think when this all settles, they're going to be on the right side of history.
00:13:57.280This is one of the culture wars that the left, I don't think, is destined to win.
00:14:02.440They're on the wrong side of every poll so far on this.
00:14:09.740You know, opinions on same-sex marriage.
00:14:12.320If you look at the early 90s, it was nearly unanimous.
00:14:16.500Virtually, you know, you would have had a very, very small minority in support of it,
00:14:19.520which are probably just gay people you know and so you know opinions can change over time but i
00:14:26.960don't see any fundamental justice in this here where you know there was a justice case to be
00:14:33.120made on some of these emails and so public opinion would change over time they are outnumbered three
00:14:38.960or four to one in national polls and uh and and just as much so in alberta if not more than in
00:14:45.200in some cases. They seem to be boxing themselves into a corner here. And it's not, and I haven't
00:14:54.360heard a single specific critique of any of these policies. It's not, you know, because none of them
00:15:01.660wants to say, no, the 16-year-old should be allowed to have a sex change operation paid for by the
00:15:07.940taxpayer. They're not saying that. They're not saying, no, children should be allowed to change
00:15:14.120their name and pronouns in the second grade, and parents shouldn't even be informed of it.
00:15:19.400They're not saying that. They're just kind of vaguely condemning the package, never the specific
00:15:25.140policy, Corey. Well, some of it, too, is that the legislation hasn't been drafted, to be fair,
00:15:29.840on their part. Yeah, but there is specific policy. But she's sort of said where it's going to go.
00:15:33.820And yes, it is because I think they realize when they hit for that, it's unreasonable. And they're
00:15:39.040going to, they're not going to gain general support. They have, as you said, boxed themselves
00:15:42.780into a corner. They don't quite know what to do, but they still do have their righteous fury going
00:15:46.740on. It's the usual suspects, though. They can't back down. They've picked their hill to politically
00:15:53.560die upon, and this battle is going to go right on until Premier Smith gets re-elected with a
00:15:58.180larger majority. You know where this is going to end up is when people who have had the operation
00:16:03.120get to the stage where they really regret it and start to sue the people who permitted it
00:16:10.580and facilitated it and this is not a prediction this is an observation on what is already happening
00:16:16.080we've only just begun to see the start of it of young men and women who made the switch in
00:16:24.300in a vulnerable age now realize what a horrible mistake they've made trying to go back to the
00:16:30.700way they were they can only go so far and they are starting to sue this is going to be a huge
00:16:36.440liability to governments across the country, wherever this has been facilitated. And actually,
00:16:43.300Premier Smith may look like a hero in 20 years time for just making sure that this didn't get
00:16:49.140started here in Alberta. Well, I think she's already on, at least, you know, if we're going
00:16:53.640to be crass about the politics of this, she's on the right side of the politics. But the public is,
00:17:00.260It's pretty rare I share an opinion, the super majority of people. I normally hold a lot of unpopular views that are held by a relatively small minority or hopefully a big minority of people.
00:17:13.500But I'm often on the minority side. In this case, she's on the side with the super majority of Albertans, the super majority even of Canadians in every single province and region in Canada.
00:17:23.520Even in Quebec, these policies are very high.
00:17:27.720Left or right, no parent wants somebody to be getting between them and their children.
00:17:33.520And it's if people find it offensive when people think that they shouldn't have that ability.
00:17:37.360So let's just kind of talk the crass politics of this.
00:17:39.560Why do you think the left, you see, you know, Notley, Nenshi, Trudeau, Randy Bozzano, these guys, they're all 100% pedal to the metal against the wall on this.
00:17:54.020Again, never specifically saying, responding to any single specific policy saying, no, I believe that a 14-year-old should be allowed to have a sex change operation.
00:18:04.020No, I believe that the 8-year-old should be allowed to change their name and pronouns and parents not even be informed.
00:18:07.880They're never saying those things. They're never pointing to a single policy, but they're condemning it as a package, and they're condemning it in the most uncategorical terms.
00:18:21.540Why, Nigel, do you think they're going so hard on this? Because, you know, they're so offside with majority public opinion.
00:18:30.360Well, there's two different groups that you've identified there. There's the provincial left wing and the federal left wing.
00:18:36.760I think they have their own reasons in each case for saying the same thing.
00:18:42.740Federally, I'm sure that the Trudeau liberals mean to construct over the next 18 months an Alberta straw man that they can knock.
00:18:54.420So the Alberta straw man is the energy producing province, the global climate change deniers and the killers of the planet.
00:19:06.760The fellow driving the big truck is a redneck with unacceptable views.1.00
00:20:03.500If you are advising a candidate for the NDP leadership in Alberta right now, so you're advising Sarah Hoffman, Kathleen Gamley, Nenshi, one of these characters, how would you advise them to track on this?
00:20:21.940Because the NDP base feels hard on this.
00:20:33.500But you also have to keep an eye to the general election you have in, you know, over three years from now, you've got to face everyday voters and everyday voters are, as it turns out, not a big fan of sex changes for minors.
00:20:49.660Yeah. So I would advise similar to what you're saying that they've already been doing, speak to it in broad, fluffy terms. I want to, the safety of children is paramount. We've got to protect our children, things like that, but always staying away from those specific policies that will bite you in the butt later on when you are campaigning.
00:21:08.160When you say, well, wait a minute, at that conference, you did say that we should perform surgery irreversibly upon a 16 year old, or you did say, so this way that I would advise, again, you've already kind of committed, you're on that lane, but just give broad terms, give, try to paint Smith as hateful, as intolerant, as wanting to heartlessly harm children for the sake of, or as they're trying to point out as well, it's a conspiracy.
00:21:32.920she's being led by a crazy social conservative cadre of people who are directing her moves,0.99
00:21:38.480which they're doing as well. Yeah, this is all a conspiracy of take back Alberta. Yes, exactly. So
00:21:43.960that I would advise once that now that they've already opened up this hornet's nest, that's the
00:21:48.040track to ride upon. But stay away from those specifics because they are going to bite you
00:21:51.400later. Okay. Well, we'll switch gears a little bit here. So a couple of years ago, so in 2019,
00:22:01.420the UCP under JC Kenney ran on a campaign pledge that included recall legislation,
00:22:08.080the ability to recall your elected officials. Now, he waited quite a while for that,
00:22:13.240eventually brought it in, but put it in with a very high threshold. Generally,
00:22:17.860you needed 40% of registered voters to sign the recall petition within a two-month period.
00:22:23.360Now, that might not sound crazy, but 40% of registered voters isn't 40% of voters.
00:22:31.240You know, because in a municipal election, 40% of eligible voters are generally about as much as you're going to get actually voting.
00:22:39.320Sometimes, if you're lucky, it's often quite below that.
00:22:41.480So 40% of eligible voters is normally 80% of actual voters, if you're talking in the municipal context, and you have only two months to do it.
00:22:52.480And Kenny made sure that the legislation didn't come into effect until after that election, so he couldn't be recalled.
00:23:54.460Anybody, I mean, we know just even having run for office, just to get your nomination signatures going door to door, to get 100 real signatures.
00:24:02.280people got to remember we're talking on paper with name, address, phone number, witnessed.
00:24:07.560A hardcore petitioner might get 100 signatures a day. They need in the realm of 514,000. And
00:24:15.720that's assuming all of them check off, that they're all legible, that they're all eligible
00:24:21.080to actually vote, that there weren't duplicates. So realistically, you need more like 530, 540,000.
00:24:27.320Oh, I'd say after duplicates and bad names, alleged ability, you're probably talking 600,000.
00:24:33.500Perhaps, and only 414 or something like that, or 460,000 people even voted in the last election.
00:24:39.960It's just, he has exposed how ridiculously high the bar was set.
00:24:45.080But from this point forward, I think in my view, he's done his job.
00:24:48.360You've exposed how ridiculous it is, but otherwise you're just going to be wearing out your shoe leather, going out and trying.
00:24:53.160If you really want to get Gondek out, there's a lot of things you can work on and you can do.
00:24:56.220But this legislation is useless. It's completely useless. And you're just kind of wasting your time pursuing it. But it's his business, I guess.
00:25:02.940I know some people have been upset with me for pointing that out on Twitter. Oh, why are you being so negative? I'm not being negative. I'm just speaking from the plain clear facts.
00:25:15.600I mean, it is theoretically possible to succeed, but it is, for all intents and purposes, mathematically improbable.
00:25:25.600It is effectively impossible. It's just not happening.
00:25:27.600If it happens, I will commit now to eating twice as many balls as Jonathan ate at stampede time on the air in one shot.
00:25:35.600I'll eat a dozen prairie oysters this stampede if I'm wrong, and I'll be very happy to be wrong about this.
00:25:42.600I very much hope I'm wrong, but I'm very confident I'm not.
00:25:46.840Nigel, what good could come out of this, other than exposing that, yeah, it's practically impossible.
00:25:52.34040% of potential voters in the village of, you know, Rosemary, Alberta, where, you know, almost no one's heard of,
00:26:04.960outside of people who are within 50 kilometers of Rosemary, you know, where, okay, so there's like 100 houses.
00:26:11.140okay in two months that's doable you can do that forty percent doable there but
00:26:16.820on the scale of Calgary it is virtually impossible is there any good that can
00:26:22.880come out of this really because it seems to me that when this is done and it
00:26:29.580inevitably fails Gondek and her supporters will say aha they tried they
00:26:36.680failed to recall me i therefore must be popular and the people want me she'll be able to claim
00:26:42.040that yes will anybody believe her uh well the government media will the government media will
00:26:50.520sure but the uh you know the election comes around soon enough and they found out no actually people
00:26:56.920really didn't like him madam uh not as mayor anyway so goodbye i would love to see this guy
00:27:04.280just have a booth set up in every shopping mall and precinct and people showing up with their
00:27:09.720driver's licenses and saying give me the place to sign this could be all be done very quickly
00:27:15.880on they move and the next one steps up probably it's not going to happen that way
00:27:21.640and so therefore i think the point that you were making this this morning on your rant
00:27:27.960it's all that's going to happen is, yeah, they'll take a defeat and clean victory.
00:27:34.120But it's not going to be a lasting thing for them. It's not going to change anybody's opinion
00:27:41.400of the mayor. But if you give her political capital, she'll be able to turn to the rest
00:27:45.560of council and say, ha, you opponents, your people tried, they failed, you didn't win,
00:27:52.280you didn't recall yeah you know derek i mean there you go again um reinforcing the idea that
00:27:59.560we are led by wise people i like to think that they are but i haven't ever implied i don't know
00:28:09.240that so they're gonna buy it from her they're gonna say okay madam you were lucky that time
00:28:14.200and in 12 months time you're gonna have to get lucky again because otherwise you're going down
00:28:19.640and you're going to take a lot of us with you.
00:28:22.240But remember, no Calgary mayor has actually lost an election
00:28:25.500since the early 1980s when Ralph Klein beat whatever his name was.
00:29:04.500Now, some of that is that Calgary mayors are generally politically savvy enough to know when they will lose and then not run for re-election.
00:29:11.640Yeah, that might be more likely, perhaps.
00:29:13.400Nenshi had a very good chance of losing this time, so he was like, yeah, maybe it's time to go.
00:29:18.500We haven't had a stinker like Gondek since the 80s, though.1.00
00:29:38.260Although, I have to look into a bit more, but I think there might be limits on how many recall,
00:29:42.220like how many recall campaigns there can be I'm not sure I think it might be only
00:29:48.400one successful one per term which which is reasonable but I'm not sure if
00:29:51.700there's a limit on how many times you can attempt to get the signatures if
00:29:55.000there's no limit on it then fine you can collect signatures for the next two
00:29:58.900years that's fine it's gonna annoy people eventually but yeah yeah okay well
00:30:04.000let's kind of stay with bad Calgary mayors on topic here former mayor Nahi
00:30:11.020He's always trying to make a point that he's above partisanship. He's above parties. He's not a part of that rabble. I mean, notwithstanding, you know, his heavy involvement of him and his people in the Alberta Party, the federal liberals, and then the Alberta NDP.
00:30:31.820He's now saying, I don't want to run for NDP leader, but the people are asking me.
00:30:38.580There's people making the case for me, and I'll consider it if I think it's for the good of Alberta.
00:30:44.900I mean, so it's hard to see how he does not run then, because then I suppose he would have to then say, me running for premier would be bad for Alberta.
00:30:54.180Something, if anyone knows anything about Mr. Nenshi, highly unlikely that he would come to the conclusion that it would be bad if he was anything short of president of Earth.
00:31:07.440Yeah, modesty is not one of his traits.
00:31:09.380No, no. I mean, as Calgary mayor, he felt the need to give lectures on grand international issues in politics.
00:31:18.120But I think the prospect of him as NDP leader is interesting.
00:31:21.620We've talked about him since the very, really since we started talking about replacements for Rachel Notley immediately after the last election.
00:31:29.520I think he, if I'm an NDP strategist, I actually think he's a good candidate.
00:31:34.400He's Calgary, which the NDP have not a lot of profile in.
00:31:45.860Might not be one we like, but it is one that people on the left tend to like.
00:31:51.280And while he is on the left, he isn't, I think, insane left.
00:31:59.280At least, I mean, yeah, he's insane left in that he seems to think it's fine for minors to have sex change operations without parental consent.
00:32:07.920But, I mean, within the context of the left itself, he's not on the furthest left of it.
00:32:16.880He is a pragmatic, moderate socialist Democrat.
00:32:21.280You know, there's a spectrum to these things. So I don't know. If you're an NDPer, you think you think he might be the right guy to lead your party.
00:32:32.240If I were an NDPer, I would say, has he paid his dues? Has he sold socialist worker on the street corner? Has he been to every union meeting? Is it his turn?
00:32:46.200I've actually seen quite a bit of that.
00:32:48.360You bet. I would be, if I were a hardcore NDP member.
00:32:53.760Well, it depends, okay, it depends who you are. Like, I, you know, the left always like to give
00:32:57.780recommendations about who should leave the conservative party. Oh, well, we think you
00:33:01.800conservatives would be crazy not to have Aaron O'Toole. We think you'd be crazy not to have
00:33:07.140Jean Charest. The left always recommends.
00:33:10.320Interesting you should mention Jean Charest, because in a lot of ways, there's, there are
00:33:14.560some similarities between the way that Mr. Sherey has presented himself in different robes over the
00:33:21.380years and the number of, well, what is it? Menchie said, I've voted for at least four different
00:33:27.600parties, provincially and federally. So he is not a doctrinaire socialist. And I think that the NDP
00:33:35.100still likes doctrinaire socialists who have paid their dues. Well, so we've got to be careful in
00:33:41.580in terms of recommending who the other guys should have
00:33:45.260because they recommend their guys to us all the time
00:34:06.700Nancy should run and be number two1.00
00:34:08.680and learn from a more seasoned new Democrat
00:34:11.160then can be premier. Okay, well, no, then she is not going to settle for being two to anyone short
00:34:17.000of God. So no, I don't think that's going to happen. And I thought, you know, union seniority
00:34:24.440on the left applies beyond just the union within the NDP. There's an expectation that this is a
00:34:31.480lifelong organization, you pay your dues. Rachel Notley grew up as the daughter of the NDP leader,
00:34:38.200her whole life was paying the dues so you know it was certainly her turn when it came
00:34:45.000nenshi god knows when he got his membership he's he's on the left i think he's always been on the
00:34:52.680lap he's presented himself as other things in the past even though he wasn't but within the ndp
00:34:57.880itself he he's a late comer so i don't know uh cory how much resistance do you think there'll
00:35:03.880be because the NDP today is not the NDP of Brian Mason. It is not just a small union of government bus drivers anymore. It is now a major political party and it has some base in Calgary. It's got a lot of people in it who are not lifers. So I don't know. What do you think?
00:35:24.880It's really interesting with what might happen.
00:35:27.900I mean, a pragmatic leftist would support Ninchy.
00:35:31.460He's as good as they're going to get it, perhaps, as a populist type to grasp a wider share of the votes rather than the ideologues.
00:35:39.600And now you've got to remember, Rachel Notley was the very first NDP leader elected by one member, one vote.
00:35:44.480If they were back in the delegate system, I would say that Ninchy wouldn't have a chance
00:35:48.100because the union blocks and everything else would line up behind other candidates and the hardcore loyal would knock him off.
00:35:54.020But Nenshi can galvanize people on the ground to buy memberships and possibly take the leadership.
00:35:59.600But then the complexity comes, can he keep a well-organized, unified party?
00:36:04.640Because Nenshi has never been known as a team player.
00:36:06.800We saw that when he tried to manage even 14 council members.
00:36:11.300You've got to learn a degree of compromise.
00:36:19.580he's no fool, but it would take a big shift in his character to suddenly start playing the party
00:36:24.760game, because that's a totally different game than being the mayor. And would he be able to
00:36:29.800accomplish that? Or would the party, perhaps, that could be the catalyst that makes them at least,
00:36:35.400you know, they don't tend to cut their own out in the left wing parties, but they can stay home,
00:36:38.560and they can stop donating, and they can stop supporting. So it's going to be very interesting
00:36:42.160to watch. He's really added, if nothing else, for a political watcher, an interesting element in it,
00:36:46.080Because if he does win it and does hold it together and does pull in a few cover seats, it could be the comeback they're looking for.
00:36:52.860The ideology and party paying your dues in the NDP side, I think he fits the formula of what I've thought for some time the NDP should be looking for,
00:37:02.780which is a non-extreme doctrinaire leader who is from Calgary because they are so much an Edmonton party.
00:37:12.880Now the NDP has got a lot of seats in Calgary, they've won half the seats in Calgary, I don't think they, now their vote was extraordinarily efficient, they won more seats than they would normally get, because their voter efficiency was so good, but one way or another they still won half the seats in Calgary, but Calgary is their only path to power.
00:37:31.880They've got no realistic route to seats outside the two big cities, other than Banff, you people in Banff, Kansas.
00:37:39.500Oh, I'm right on the edge of it, it hurts me to have an NDP ML.
00:37:42.120Yeah. But they just have no realistic route through rural areas. They've got to win a significant majority of seats in Calgary to have any hope of government. So I think he fits the formula. The question is, will he fit enough ideologically? Is he extreme enough?
00:37:59.980Well, you know, this is the other thing, is that there's a lot of people moving in from
00:38:20.120and just having a population that is not schooled in the Alberta NDP ladder of paying your dues and taking your turn
00:38:33.740could give him an advantage, but would it still be the NDP?
00:38:39.580By name, yes, but would it still be the NDP?
00:38:43.100And when you look at Mr. Singh's, Jagmeet Singh's tenure, you have to wonder if you can work with Mr. Trudeau as a liberal, are you really still NDP?
00:38:56.700And I think the whole party might be morphing out of that old pattern that we have been talking about, partly fueled by newcomers to the province.
00:39:07.180Also just unions are no longer the backbone of the left. It is very old school conception of the left as the workers party blue collar people are more likely to vote for center right and right parties than they are for the left now.
00:39:23.240I mean, it's the old model where the right represented the bourgeois upper middle and upper classes, and, you know, you'd move along the spectrum, and then you'd have the unions would be represented by workers' party and labor parties in Britain.
00:39:38.620You know, that's a really interesting point, because in the last election, I was speaking to some of the people working Calgary Buffalo here.
00:39:46.640It's not a working class neighborhood.
00:39:48.020It's not a working class neighborhood, and they were facing a tough fight.
00:39:51.860And they said, well, the typical person, when we knock on the door, first of all, it's in an apartment block, and it's a single woman with a cat and a degree, and they have a job in the civil service or in some kind of, what can I call it, a soft industry.
00:40:10.140They're not Rosie the Riveter, and they're certainly not married to a welder.
00:40:17.360So it is a different demographic, and it's possible that Mr. Nanshee would appeal to those.
00:40:24.100Heaven knows, perhaps it was them who kept him in as mayor for a couple of terms.
00:40:28.100Well, overwhelmingly, across Canada, and particularly in Alberta.