Western Standard - The Pipeline - The Top Stories from 2022

00:00:00.000 Good evening, I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard.

00:00:22.580 Today is December 20, 21st 2022. Our last episode of the pipeline for the year. So thank you all

00:00:31.620 very much for joining us. As usual, I've got with us Western Standard opinion editor,

00:00:37.060 Nigel Hannaford. All ready for Christmas, Nigel? You bet. Shortest day of the year too.

00:00:41.780 Just gets better from here. Yeah, 21st. Oh, it's all better from here. Perfect.

00:00:47.060 Also gone with us, everyone's second favorite, Western Standard Senior Columnist and host of Untied with Corey Morgan.

00:00:55.980 Corey Morgan, I love a number two.

00:00:58.500 Always thrilled to be here, even if I'm a number two.

00:01:02.020 Remember, you're demoted.

00:01:05.120 I'm going to call you number two like a Picard except.

00:01:08.060 It's better than the number two reference in South Park I thought you were going for.

00:01:10.880 No, no, no, I was going for the old naval term, second officer.

00:01:14.280 Number two. Or Dr. Evil. Number two. Yeah. Okay. For those of you who got it. It was mildly amusing.

00:01:23.560 Okay. Today is going to be a bit of a change. We're going to be talking about the top stories of 2022, or the biggest stories.

00:01:32.640 A mixture of the two. Some of the ones that were the biggest and most important, which are obvious, like the Freedom Convoy,

00:01:39.760 and others that maybe didn't get as much media attention as they should have,

00:01:43.680 but were very significant and important for 2022,

00:01:46.420 like a huge new federal regulation over the media and the internet in Canada

00:01:51.440 that just really didn't get the attention they should have.

00:01:53.880 But we'll be talking about things like the fall of Jason Kenney,

00:01:56.660 the comeback of Danielle Smith, the great gun grab of this year,

00:02:00.580 and, of course, new federal controls over the media and internet in Canada.

00:02:03.820 Before we get going, though, Corey's going to tell you all about my favorite sponsor,

00:02:07.100 the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:02:08.480 Ah, yes. Well, the name says it all. They're an association for people who enjoy shooting sports, whether you're a hunter, target shooter, or gun collector. It doesn't matter. It's nobody's business what you do with them anyways if you're law-abiding. But you need an association to stand up for your rights, plus to share resources. They've got stuff like links to sporting events and upcoming gun shows. And most importantly of all, they're standing up for your right to own, possess, transfer firearms.

00:02:32.220 So if you own firearms, you are doing yourself a disservice if you are not a member of the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:02:38.340 Their website is cssa-cila.org, or just Google them out, Canadian Shooting Sports Association, easiest way.

00:02:46.060 Beauty. All right, thanks a lot, Corey.

00:02:48.460 Also, you've got to get your Western Standard membership if you don't have it yet.

00:02:51.600 If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, shame on you.

00:02:54.080 In fact, you can actually now buy the Western Standard as a gift. 0.99

00:02:58.240 You got your dipshit niece, nephew, son, daughter going to university, getting all sorts of silly ideas about Marxism and being woke in their heads. 0.99

00:03:08.440 Maybe expose them to some hard news and straight opinion. 0.99

00:03:12.440 Get your kid, get your nephew, anyone who really needs a slap upside the head, a Western Standards membership for one year.

00:03:19.540 You get it at westernstandard.news, and I believe, just click on membership and you'll find an option in there.

00:03:25.860 All right, so we're going to start off with what was probably the biggest story of the year, quite possibly the most important story of the year, and frankly, the first really big news story of the year.

00:03:38.220 So we're just going to have to start with it, the Freedom Convoy.

00:03:43.260 You know, we all know where this came from.

00:03:45.100 We had on and off again lockdowns in every province in the country.

00:03:49.440 We had vaccine mandates discriminating against people in ways none of us had seen in our lifetimes.

00:03:56.440 And then I guess the spark that really set it off was make the federal government making it illegal for Canadian truckers to reasonably reenter Canada when doing long hauls to the states and back.

00:04:11.440 essentially putting a lot of these truckers out of work because they were so dangerously spreading COVID driving around trucks by themselves for weeks on end. And that that finally set it off and it came as one would hope from Alberta. This was this was an Alberta grown movement comes out of here, goes to Ottawa and and the rest is history. Nigel, why do you think what was the big impact?

00:04:41.440 of this? Why do you think this deserves to be one of the biggest stories of 2022?

00:04:46.880 First, it is the big story because it tied up the downtown of the Capitol for several weeks.

00:04:54.240 That in itself makes it the big story. The other part of it though, is that it was a genuine,

00:05:00.240 decent, relatively well organized and peaceful demonstration where citizens came together to

00:05:08.960 tell the government what was on their minds that the government was wrong and then first the

00:05:15.040 government wouldn't meet them to be more specific the prime minister would not receive any

00:05:21.600 communications from them have them over to the have the representatives over there to

00:05:27.600 to the good lord they were parked right outside the laundry block i think they heard far to walk

00:05:31.920 i think they heard them and uh you know he wouldn't talk to them and then they brought in

00:05:36.000 And then, as it is pretty clear from the inquiry,

00:05:40.000 they brought in the Emergencies Act, which, of course,

00:05:42.900 is the old War Measures Act by another name.

00:05:45.800 And so it was a massive government overreach that sparked it

00:05:51.600 in the first place, and a tone-deaf government wouldn't hear

00:05:55.500 them when they got there, and finally,

00:05:57.800 a massive government overreaction that brought it to a close.

00:06:02.200 Of course, it's the top story.

00:06:04.100 and you know this has been brewing for a long time we've had we've had mr trudeau in office

00:06:12.500 now since 2015 and although he puts a sunny face on it you keep seeing legislation walking along

00:06:22.500 that is intended to limit people in so many ways i know we're going to get to some of those other

00:06:27.540 ways later but you know there has been a feeling brewing in this country and you could really

00:06:33.860 feel it here in Alberta. I'm saying, okay, it's time to take a stand, it's time to fight back,

00:06:40.080 it's time to say no to all this. I think that was the feeling that put Pierre Polyave into the OLO.

00:06:46.880 So that's where I want to pick up a curry here. Okay.

00:06:49.240 Let's talk about the political fallout of this. The most tangible political fallout was the end

00:06:55.640 of Aaron O'Toole as leader of the Conservative Party of Canada. That was a very direct result.

00:07:00.580 He equivocated, opposed it, mildly supported it.

00:07:05.860 Most people don't know this, but there's a lot of background stuff where he was going to try and use this to oust Polyev from the conservatives.

00:07:12.720 That backfired on him.

00:07:14.600 O'Toole's gone.

00:07:15.980 And then you get Polyev as leader.

00:07:18.400 I think that's a pretty direct result that came from it.

00:07:21.020 More indirectly, but I still think related was I think it at least contributed to the end of Jason Kenney.

00:07:25.860 because it really just, it mobilized the anti-lockdown, anti-mandate, kind of pro-freedom movement to a whole new level.

00:07:33.720 And it elevated it to the center stage.

00:07:36.500 And you had Kenny kind of equivocating again.

00:07:39.380 You saw him kind of in a panic trying to get rid of some of the mandates he had so he didn't look like Trudeau.

00:07:45.360 But, you know, at the Coutts blockade and in Ottawa, people were coming at Kenny just as hard as they were coming at Trudeau.

00:07:52.860 So I think a bit more indirectly, but still related.

00:07:55.540 This probably also helped to take down Kenny and eventually, again, leads to Smith.

00:08:02.840 How fair do you think, the O'Toole one is obviously fair, 1.00

00:08:05.580 but how fair do you think it is kind of linking the Kenny and Smith part in,

00:08:08.360 and what do you think were the other big political ramifications that came from the Freedom Convoy?

00:08:13.120 Yeah, well, I mean, with Kenny, I think maybe it might have been the final thing,

00:08:16.680 but this was kind of already happening.

00:08:18.100 I mean, he just he tried to play both sides of the fence with the COVID restrictions and he burned and he just basically infuriated both sides.

00:08:26.680 He had no base of support left anymore when the time came.

00:08:29.660 And when things were brought to such a head, it was it certainly fed the finale.

00:08:35.820 I mean, it fed people in realizing they can oppose something.

00:08:38.700 I think a large part of what this story was, was a segment of people shed off the Canadian attitude of, well, I'm pretty upset with that, but I'll just let it go and shrug.

00:08:47.180 No, they got up and they did something and they pushed back and they sent the government into panic.

00:08:53.560 They were powerful, whether you agree with the convoy or not.

00:08:56.900 They made an impression and it changed the political atmosphere.

00:09:01.300 And the long run still has to be measured out in that.

00:09:04.820 I think that Daniel Smith and Pierre Polyev both rode into their leaderships by playing to that segment of the base to win that.

00:09:11.740 But that segment also is a minority within the electorate at large.

00:09:15.860 So they've got to watch that they don't corner themselves too far into that.

00:09:19.020 But the convoy changed the face of politics in Canada without doubt.

00:09:22.740 I mean, the Sovereignty Act, the Saskatchewan First Act, again, we're both responses to a federal government that's viewed as overreaching and getting too much into our face.

00:09:30.620 I don't think we would have seen those kind of acts three years ago, no matter who the premiers were.

00:09:35.120 So it's had an impact and we're still seeing what's going to come from this.

00:09:38.360 You know, Corey, you can just see the strength of feeling that was behind there when the truckers said, yes, by all means, send us money.

00:09:46.380 They raised more money in a week than the Liberal Party raised in three months.

00:09:50.580 I already read my column. I got the numbers down.

00:09:54.020 You left it on the screen.

00:09:55.680 You know, we should we should we should freeze the bank accounts of anyone who's ever donated to the Liberal Party.

00:10:01.040 Far more dangerous to Canada than a couple of truckers.

00:10:03.440 Okay, well, segues in nicely. The I think one of the definitely in Alberta, and it was a national story was the fall of Jason Kenney. A year ago, today, very few people I think would have predicted that Jason Kenney wouldn't even make it to the end of his first term.

00:10:24.440 You know, when he was driving around Alberta in the blue truck, trying to drum together the UCP and then his leadership race, he always would say about Rachel Notley, one and done.

00:10:34.420 We're going to make the NDP the first one-term government in Alberta history.

00:10:38.940 Well, Jason Kenney was also one and done.

00:10:41.200 In fact, Rachel Notley lasted almost a year longer than Jason Kenney did.

00:10:47.560 He's gone.

00:10:48.840 A lot of the country has a hard time wrapping their minds around it.

00:10:51.680 There's a lot of conservatives elsewhere. They remember the older Jason Kennedy, the one that was elected UCP leader, the cerebral smart guy, staunch conservative.

00:11:01.500 They didn't really see the Kenny that Albertan saw over the last two and three years that, you know, was locking down, was kind of dealing with Ottawa very technically.

00:11:10.820 Lots of furrowed brows and news releases, but not actually doing very much.

00:11:17.840 We'll kind of kick off with you, Corey.

00:11:19.680 What were the big reasons you think that fueled the fall of Jason Kenney that few outside of probably the Western Standard offices here would have predicted was even in the cards a year ago?

00:11:34.580 Well, I guess maybe two years ago wouldn't have been in the cards.

00:11:39.340 You could kind of see it coming a year ago now.

00:11:41.640 Most of the media a year ago, I don't think we're taking it.

00:11:44.540 Watch it.

00:11:44.980 A year ago, they were starting to recognize that at least a few people were upset.

00:11:48.800 starting to bubble up. I don't think anyone would have predicted he'd be gone. No, no, I think people

00:11:52.980 would have thought he'd weather this storm there. The discontent within the party was definitely

00:11:56.760 just too much for him to manage to turn around. I think that the slow burning part that was,

00:12:03.300 as you put it, his tepid approach with Ottawa. I mean, he talked very big getting in to voters in

00:12:08.300 Alberta and to his members on, we're going to do the fair deal panel. We're going to bring a pension

00:12:11.800 plan. We're going to bring Alberta police force. We're going to do all of these measures. And he

00:12:16.000 hadn't done a single thing and barely started the process towards

00:12:18.760 it after two and a half years, three years in office, people

00:12:20.980 when are you going to get on with this because Trudeau is

00:12:22.940 getting ever more intrusive with us and Jason Kenney still

00:12:27.220 spinning his wheel. So that frustrated a lot of people. And

00:12:30.460 again, the burning on the pandemic, I mean, he brought in

00:12:34.420 the restrictions, but he would talk out of both sides of his

00:12:36.340 mouths, you keep promising, I'm not going to do we will never

00:12:38.520 have a vaccine passport. That's a direct quote. And he brought 0.72

00:12:42.520 in a vaccine passport. About a week after he said, we're

00:12:44.920 going to have the best summer ever. We're never locking down again. He locked down again. He just

00:12:49.720 expended his political capital on when he would take firm stands. They were stands he had to back

00:12:55.780 off on or felt he had to back off on in short order. He just lost the trust and support of

00:13:02.020 people on all sides of the issue. Nigel, I want to talk about the media on this because I it's one

00:13:07.060 of the biggest stories of 2022, but I think it wasn't until February that the media realized

00:13:17.120 that he was in trouble. Jason Kenney didn't seem to realize he was in trouble until they were a

00:13:21.740 couple days out from what was supposed to be the big in-person vote in Red Deer, and they realized

00:13:25.520 people registered to vote were three to one against him, and that's when they changed the

00:13:30.580 rules to try and even the playing field a bit. But it wasn't until I think early February,

00:13:38.120 maybe January that the media said, the media kind of collectively said, okay, it seems his

00:13:45.160 leadership is in trouble. But here we had been, we had seen this for a long, long time coming.

00:13:54.320 Why do you think the kind of the big legacy media just totally missed the boat on this story until it was, like, happening?

00:14:03.300 Because the signs were all there.

00:14:05.840 Well, there are quite a few reasons why that could be so.

00:14:09.100 One of them is that the legacy media gets its idea, gets a narrative in its head.

00:14:16.280 Not just about this, but about anything.

00:14:18.660 and it makes it once once the idea is firmly there it takes quite a lot to dislodge that idea

00:14:25.620 so all right the narrative was that uh premier kenny had been a very successful federal cabinet

00:14:31.700 minister he'd come back to alberta he bought the blue truck he'd driven all over the problems he'd

00:14:36.340 organized the party put the two together now we have the united conservative party and he'd gone

00:14:41.860 out in one very very convincing electoral victory over over um rachel notley what sort of trouble

00:14:49.300 could he possibly be in and it wasn't until you kept getting these stories about uh nomination

00:14:56.500 meetings that where a kenny candidate had been not only chosen but others have been disqualified

00:15:04.980 disqualified for one reason or another and often the reasons weren't particularly good now the

00:15:09.380 first time you first time a reporter gets a story like that well it's an outlier when you get enough

00:15:15.220 of them they start to think oh what is going on there so it took a while to change the narrative

00:15:21.060 that's that i think is the first one the other thing and this sort of leads directly back to the

00:15:28.260 government's response to covet is that somewhere along the line the media forgot that their job

00:15:35.940 was to question and to challenge what the government was saying not to necessarily come

00:15:41.780 out in gross opposition to it but say if you're doing this why are you doing that they forgot that

00:15:47.540 and instead they lined up got the press release if it comes from the government if it comes from

00:15:52.580 alberta health then this must be the right thing to do we're doing a public service by making sure

00:15:57.380 you have accurate information except half the time it wasn't accurate information it was the

00:16:02.100 the very opposite. It was deceptive, and I would go so far as to say manipulative, but anyway,

00:16:07.740 that's a different argument. So it wasn't a long stretch from not getting the narrative about

00:16:17.680 Kenny, but then seeing him as the official spokesman for the authorized point of view.

00:16:25.560 And so he doesn't think the media gave him a break, but in a lot of ways they did.

00:16:34.500 I think the biggest one has still been missed here.

00:16:37.480 I think it's that most people who work in journalism simply didn't know who any of these people were who were so angry.

00:16:44.580 Those people, they tend to live not where journalists live.

00:16:47.280 journalists tend to live in the downtown major urban centers of the country, mostly in the Ottawa,

00:16:53.520 Montreal, Toronto, triangle, but, you know, even media here, they live in downtown Calgary,

00:16:59.920 downtown Edmonton. These people came from rural or they came from suburbs, not all but

00:17:05.840 disproportionately. And they had very different worldviews, different political views. And,

00:17:12.560 you know, just as we might say, well, I can't, it's impossible that the NDP could ever win

00:17:16.560 in Alberta because I don't know anyone who votes any people maybe because we don't roll in those

00:17:19.840 circles because we have our bubbles and the media live in their own social bubbles they just simply

00:17:24.560 didn't know these people the media people who work in the media for the most part didn't know anyone

00:17:30.320 who was really angry about mandatory vaccination mandatory masking lockdowns and and so this

00:17:36.720 their worldview was unable to to touch it that these people don't really exist they are a small

00:17:41.840 fringe minority you know you're on to something there derek and it reminds me if i can tell you

00:17:46.640 a 20 second little little anecdote to that point it was 2006 stephen harper's election victory had

00:17:53.440 just been announced and there were some of us in the editorial board who were still there waiting

00:17:59.040 to comment on this you're talking about the calgary yeah this is the calgary herald in 2006

00:18:03.760 and somebody from the newsroom comes down this is not a not a result they were expecting now they've

00:18:09.600 got to get comments from conservatives and i won't name this individual because he's still active in

00:18:14.400 the in the business but he said any of you guys listen we need some contacts anybody we need a

00:18:20.320 conservative you know all they knew were liberals so there is a certain amount of what you're saying

00:18:26.560 there that they probably didn't know who to ask or who to go and see they didn't know about corey

00:18:32.320 Yeah. Yeah, I think it's kind of a, it's the symptom of just a broader issue that helps. It's not always that the media have an agenda. It's just, they just might not know people outside of these circles who don't live where they do and think like they do.

00:18:51.200 That's right. Biggest source of media bias is just, I don't see the point of this, and choosing to report something else when actually it's quite an important story.

00:18:59.060 Well, our tangents are working great today, because I think this rolls over nicely into the comeback of Danielle Smith.

00:19:07.920 I don't think a lot of people a year ago would have said, I think Danielle Smith is going to be premier.

00:19:13.320 Now, I remember it was just over a year ago, November 2021, me and Corey, before you joined us,

00:19:21.740 we were at the UCP convention at the Gray Eagle Casino just outside Calgary here at the Suitsino Reserve.

00:19:26.120 and uh danielle smith was she was doing some freelance work with us and so she was on the show

00:19:32.520 and uh jason kenny's behind her on the stage and she just kind of says uh you know if jason kenny

00:19:39.320 wasn't the leader anymore i'd run to replace him and we all just kind of fell out of our chairs

00:19:43.400 danielle smith announced on the western standard in the same room with jason kenny that she wanted 0.58

00:19:49.320 his job i hope we've got a clip of that oh we do you know what we should make a note of that because

00:19:53.960 that's a highlight. That was a real highlight. That was the first solid hint that, holy crap,

00:19:59.820 she's making another go of it. But most, well, it wasn't a hint. She said she would if he's gone. 0.95

00:20:05.820 It was a pretty frontal shot. But still, at that time, it was like, eh, could she really win?

00:20:12.760 Because she had just so much baggage from kind of the disastrous end of her time as Wild Rose

00:20:19.160 leader. She had a tremendous start to it, but then totally melted down the most spectacular fashion 1.00

00:20:23.880 in December of 2014. Oh, geez, actually, we're on the anniversary date. I think it was the 21st.

00:20:31.520 I'll never forget. It was like Pearl Harbor for me when that went down. But again, I don't think,

00:20:38.380 I was skeptical at first that she could do it, but I thought she had a real chance. Most of the

00:20:43.820 legacy media think didn't really give her chance though it's they had just seen Kenny defeated by

00:20:50.220 what they saw is a redneck rabble but of course it's going to be Kenny's chosen success or or 1.00

00:20:55.660 if not hit Travis Taves it was going to be Brian G because he's the big name

00:21:01.420 Daniel Smith was just too radical too out there and but then she just dominated um

00:21:06.940 We'll start with you, Nigel. Why do you think the comeback of Danielle Smith deserves to be one of the big stories of the year? And why would it be different than most ordinary leadership campaigns to stand out this way?

00:21:22.940 You know, because BC had a leadership campaign.

00:21:25.360 Sorry, I just asked you a question, then go right back to myself.

00:21:27.900 I threw it back to myself.

00:21:29.400 I didn't mean to do that.

00:21:30.560 But BC had a leadership race to replace an incumbent premier, John Horgan.

00:21:36.300 I can't even remember the new guy's name.

00:21:37.780 Davey.

00:21:38.940 Davey.

00:21:39.420 Mm-hmm.

00:21:40.560 Davey.

00:21:40.880 We can make one name.

00:21:45.280 Almost no press.

00:21:46.680 Like, it was just quiet and was boring.

00:21:48.200 And then in Alberta, it was just this raucous Royal Rumble affair from start to finish, wall-to-wall coverage.

00:21:56.420 The country was talking about it, and we're a smaller province than B.C.

00:21:59.920 So why do you think that this story should be in the top stories of 2022 and not Dave Eby or whoever his name is in B.C.?

00:22:10.000 So you're talking about the October Revolution here.

00:22:12.820 The October Revolution.

00:22:13.440 Okay.

00:22:14.420 In 1916, they didn't see that coming the next year either.

00:22:17.580 1917. Well, 1917 was the revolution, but before it happened, they didn't see it coming. And just the same, a lot of people last year didn't see this coming.

00:22:26.480 But like 1917, everyone should have seen it coming in 16.

00:22:30.960 It's hindsight, eh? 2020. Well, I think there's a number of reasons why that, again, there's a number of reasons why this one dominated.

00:22:39.540 for the first thing in the bc if you want to compare it to the bc leadership succession

00:22:44.100 uh i mean mr horgan was diagnosed with cancer otherwise he'd still be there yeah so you know

00:22:52.020 it was very sad it wasn't the worst ndp premier that you could possibly imagine and i think a lot

00:22:58.740 of people felt genuinely sorry about it when he announced his intention to uh to retire but you

00:23:03.940 know it had to be done and somebody had to take the job and they went through the motions there

00:23:08.180 There was no palace coup to take them down.

00:23:10.600 No, there was no, you know, nothing personal about anybody.

00:23:14.320 It was just business.

00:23:15.900 So that explains a relatively low key of the B.C. leadership race, whereas, of course, I mean, just a few moments ago, you outlined the different factions that were operating within Alberta.

00:23:32.360 You know, that mad as hell not going to take it anymore crowd out in the country.

00:23:37.860 who we love, by the way.

00:23:38.880 When I say they're a crowd, I'm not saying that they're rabble.

00:23:41.640 We mean them the best possible.

00:23:43.540 Absolutely.

00:23:44.280 These people have got the right idea.

00:23:47.220 So, but on the other hand, there were people who would lead the mainstream media,

00:23:52.960 get the information from Alberta Health Services,

00:23:55.520 instinctively trusted that source, even when they didn't understand.

00:24:00.040 They said, well, it must be right because it comes from Alberta Health Services,

00:24:03.000 very compliant. And you know the biggest thing about Danielle Smith? This is why she attracts 0.96

00:24:13.820 the bad press that she gets. She actually wants to change something. She has ideas. 0.97

00:24:22.620 And she's already put into the practice a rather large number of them. But the thing is,

00:24:28.480 people say they want change, but they actually don't. They just want a change of caretaker.

00:24:33.000 And this would have been, if Travis Taves had won the leadership,

00:24:40.500 well, things would probably just go on the way they've been going on.

00:24:44.260 No disrespects to Mr. Taves, he's an actual finance minister,

00:24:47.640 but he wasn't out to change the world.

00:24:50.160 Daniel Smith is out to change Alberta, but anyway.

00:24:53.500 And much of the opposition he runs into is that people either don't understand

00:25:00.500 what it is that she's trying to do, or alternatively would react badly to any kind of change.

00:25:08.800 So that makes this whole process extremely, is vitally important for Alberta. It's also

00:25:16.100 fascinating to watch as a political story unfolding. I did not ever think that we would

00:25:21.000 see, for example, an Alberta Sovereignty Act. I didn't think we would see a provincial government

00:25:25.680 and say, you know what, we're not going to collect firearms

00:25:29.840 just because Mr. Trudeau says so.

00:25:33.180 Now we've got Saskatchewan doing the same thing. 0.95

00:25:36.200 So many things that are just complete disconnects

00:25:40.420 from anything that's gone before.

00:25:42.100 So we'll see what kind of appetite Alberta has 1.00

00:25:45.700 to get behind the strong leader.

00:25:48.720 Gary, actually I should not be phrasing it as,

00:25:51.440 why do you think it's the biggest story of the year?

00:25:54.280 You weren't in the room because you were doing something else.

00:25:57.580 But why do you think this is one of the biggest stories of the year?

00:26:00.240 If not, or you could say, well, you don't think it should be.

00:26:02.680 That's fine.

00:26:04.520 And when do you think the media realized this was a big deal with her, that she can win? 0.50

00:26:10.820 She dominated most of the race. 0.98

00:26:12.860 She came to dominate fairly early, but, you know, when she launched, I don't think it was taken that seriously.

00:26:18.420 It was definitely not taken very seriously when, you know, she was on a Western Standard program November last year at the UCP convention.

00:26:25.740 It says, Kenny's gone. I think I'm going to run.

00:26:29.280 People chuckled at it, but I don't think most people took it that seriously.

00:26:32.840 So, you know, why do you think this is one of the biggest stories of the year, if you do think it is?

00:26:38.100 And when do you think the media started to realize she could actually do this?

00:26:43.320 She might win.

00:26:44.660 Yeah, well, and it is the biggest story of the year

00:26:46.980 because basically a lot of people just didn't see it coming.

00:26:50.860 She said that Phoenix rose from the ashes.

00:26:52.880 Last November, I was among those who laughed it off.

00:26:55.140 Okay, I mean, I still respect Danielle and, you know, a powerful person,

00:26:58.200 but to be able to take the leadership and become the premier of this province

00:27:01.220 after your history, I mean, I've gotten over it, but I just can't see it.

00:27:04.300 I would never have believed it at that point.

00:27:06.120 By the time the leadership campaign was going full bore,

00:27:08.780 I was along the lines of she's going to win this thing.

00:27:11.920 I mean, just remember from our bets from it,

00:27:13.460 But it took till then before I could see it.

00:27:15.480 So the media was just as gobsmacked.

00:27:17.180 I mean, they had dismissed her initially.

00:27:19.780 And again, kind of just to reiterate what Nigel has been saying, she represents change.

00:27:24.300 And it's not just here.

00:27:25.960 Other premiers are watching her.

00:27:27.900 And that's what's really got the establishment afraid.

00:27:30.240 I mean, you notice it's not just the domestic legacy media local that's been lined up against her.

00:27:35.800 When have we ever seen a premier so consistently attacked from central Canadian press?

00:27:41.020 I mean, their focus is on this little province of Alberta, almost four times as much as you would

00:27:46.000 see, their focus on Ontario with Doug Ford, which is their own turf. Because if she succeeds in

00:27:51.340 these changes, she's going to inspire others. And Mo is definitely already following along those

00:27:59.100 lines. Even Manitoba has been showing things. And it undercuts the establishment in general.

00:28:04.540 People who are afraid of change realize she will bring it. She's actually,

00:28:08.660 She's quite different from Kenny, who talked big and did little.

00:28:12.260 Smith is going to follow through what she says she's doing, for better or for worse.

00:28:16.180 And that's really got some people terrified.

00:28:18.180 And it's really got me excited.

00:28:19.100 So I think it's a great, yeah, it's a top story,

00:28:21.980 because we haven't seen a revolutionary-type premier like that in a long, long time.

00:28:26.560 But you'll notice what they're doing.

00:28:27.820 They're treating it as a process story.

00:28:30.440 In eastern Canada, there's not a lot of analysis of what this really represents, 0.94

00:28:34.820 the Sovereignty Act, other than, oh, well, it must be rubbish, 0.88

00:28:37.340 because it comes from Alberta. 0.76

00:28:39.540 But the personalities involved, that's what media likes.

00:28:43.940 Always has, like, look for the fight between people.

00:28:46.960 That's part of why it's getting so much attention back there

00:28:50.300 and being treated the way that it is.

00:28:53.820 Maybe it makes for good copy.

00:28:55.160 Well, it makes good copy.

00:28:56.260 I don't think I'm speaking out of turn,

00:28:57.920 but, you know, when we were over at the Premier Southern office,

00:29:02.520 just around the corner from our office here last Friday for the year-end interview,

00:29:06.580 She said before the interview started, and I think this is probably not out of turn to repeat.

00:29:14.700 You know, she was talking about incrementalism versus big, bold change.

00:29:19.320 And she says, I'm along the lines of, I don't want to be an incrementalist of managing Rachel Notley's socialism.

00:29:26.600 I want to destroy Rachel Notley's socialism and then incrementally bring in conservative policy.

00:29:33.380 And to get it back to where it should be and then run that.

00:29:36.580 get us back to kind of a get to a year zero of some kind here get to get to a point and then

00:29:42.020 make some incremental changes but that we've got to have a much more revolutionary wiping of the

00:29:47.380 slate of uh and i think she would probably mean more than just not like we're going back through

00:29:52.820 pretty badly managed years of jim prentice allison redford ed stomach and unfortunately probably the

00:29:58.580 last term of ralph klein you know the guy quit drinking and just went to hell so like we we've 0.75

00:30:04.020 had a combination of bad or mediocre government for a long time in this province. And she does

00:30:11.060 not appear to be said to be an incrementalist premier. And it's a roll of the dice. But I think

00:30:16.820 it's fair to say she will be at the very least, I think she's probably more revolutionary than

00:30:20.900 Klein was. I think you're right there. I mean, one of the reasons why we had such a lot of bad

00:30:26.420 government for so long is that we had such a lot of money. And it was always easier to just buy

00:30:31.460 off the problem you know give this group more money give that group more money when the when the

00:30:37.940 negotiations came up and so we ended up with a very high cost government and then of course when

00:30:42.500 the money stopped all these problems suddenly became very sharpie and focused and you find

00:30:49.060 can't afford socialism which is how we ended up with what is it 100 billion dollars in debt

00:30:53.140 But when she says things like, I want to build up the heritage fund, I believe her.

00:31:02.860 That is the kind of conservative policy that she would do. 0.92

00:31:06.400 But let's remember, every single premier since, what was this, Nuts, after Lougheed?

00:31:12.720 Getty.

00:31:13.720 Getty.

00:31:14.720 Everyone since Getty has said that and hasn't really, now, Klein did put away savings.

00:31:19.700 It wasn't into the heritage fund, but it was into other savings pots.

00:31:22.660 I think it was called the Rainy Day Fund.

00:31:26.580 Or certainly it was referred to as that.

00:31:28.320 It was referred to as the Rainy Day Fund.

00:31:30.360 So Klein did save, but everyone's talked about saving, and it hasn't really happened.

00:31:36.400 I'll believe it when I see it, but I think she's genuine in her desire to do it,

00:31:40.600 but actually doing it's going to be a lot tougher.

00:31:42.500 You know what I reckon that she may do on the Heritage Fund?

00:31:45.560 Instead of withdrawing the interest on it every year to pay for ongoing programs,

00:31:49.480 she'll start letting some of that build up. 0.99

00:31:51.520 At least not withdraw the interest.

00:31:55.200 That's what's been going on ever since the Heritage Fund was established.

00:31:58.440 Yeah.

00:31:59.380 Okay, well, God, our segues are perfect because we were talking about, you know,

00:32:03.900 Smith saying she's not going to comply, you know,

00:32:06.640 force the Alberta government, police and prosecutors to comply with federal gun grabs.

00:32:11.000 Well, we're going to talk now about the great gun grab of 2022.

00:32:15.460 It's maybe a bit of a misnomer because it's been happening for a long time,

00:32:18.760 But I think it's fair to say 2022, the gun grab coming from Ottawa reached a whole new level.

00:32:26.380 We had in the spring, the federal government announced that they will ban the sale, gifting, and transfer of handguns in Canada.

00:32:36.700 And they thought that, well, that means everyone's going to stop buying guns right now because they know that we're going to be banning it and they're going to be worthless.

00:32:43.180 Much to the shock and horror of Ottawa and the Toronto Star, handgun sales went absolutely freaking crazy.

00:32:56.940 Remember we announced it? I told everyone at the Western Standard, everyone's like, oh my god, we got to get our handguns.

00:33:01.880 So I said, the Western Standard will loan any employee up to $500 to buy handguns.

00:33:06.460 We called it the Western Standard, I think we called it something along the lines of the Western Standard Employee Armament Loan Program.

00:33:12.380 And I guess this got out the Toronto Star saw it. They ran a big story saying, my God, look at these absolute nuts out west. They haven't got the message. You're not supposed to have handguns anymore.

00:33:24.600 And then we had wholesalers contact us and say, we're going to sell any Western and standard employee handguns at wholesale prices.

00:33:36.180 And so I, it was a great deal.

00:33:39.480 It was great.

00:33:41.000 It was great.

00:33:41.640 I kind of liked it because I had all the excuse I needed at home to go out gun shopping.

00:33:46.060 Sorry, honey, we have to buy it now.

00:33:47.320 We'd be crazy not to.

00:33:48.160 I'll literally, it will be illegal very soon from now.

00:33:51.580 So handgun sales went through the frigging roof.

00:33:53.840 record handgun sales this summer. Eventually, then the federal government was panicking because they

00:33:58.480 didn't have a bill to ban it, so they had to find some weird, bizarre regulatory workarounds. I think

00:34:03.780 they did something involving like dairy import bans, some obscure powers the government had to

00:34:09.800 try and regulate the stop of it. So there's that on handguns. Now, I know handgun owners, we don't

00:34:15.460 get as much sympathy as regular hunting rifle and shotgun owners. People say, oh, what do you need a

00:34:21.500 handgun for? Well, this is still a free country, isn't it? I don't have to answer your stupid questions. I can have a handgun because I want a handgun. That's all the reason I need. But either way, handgun owners have less public sympathy than, say, hunting rifle and shotgun owners. So then fast forward to this fall and the liberals bring in a new bill. And it's to do put in legislation what they said they were going to do and that's ban the sale of handguns. And then just a few weeks ago, we get an amendment.

00:34:51.500 to the bill at the committee level. And it's more or less the liberals are just going to ban a shit ton of regular hunting rifles, all sorts of basic stuff.

00:35:00.500 If you've got a detachable, you've got a semi-automatic rifle with a detachable magazine. Well, surprise, surprise, that's now an assault style rifle.

00:35:08.500 Absolutely not stuff. And it seems to have blown up in their faces. We'll start with you, Nigel.

00:35:18.500 you think this deserves to be one of the big stories of 2022? And at what point do you think

00:35:24.480 the media started to catch on that this was not a story that's just going to anger the hardcore gun

00:35:31.400 enthusiasts? Well, they started to get that when they suddenly realized, well, if it's a hunting

00:35:36.660 rifle and it's used for hunting, that probably isn't what the crime problem is on the bad streets

00:35:42.760 of major cities in canada so you know not that we like guns they said but there seems to be a

00:35:51.000 logical disconnect in what the federal government is trying to do and even some of the you know the

00:35:56.760 people that we criticize here for the way they attack things well that actually doesn't make

00:36:02.600 any sense does it how is this going to help so that was the first that was the first thing um

00:36:08.440 The thing with the reason why a lot of people are exercised about this,

00:36:17.940 and tell me if this is another of these fortuitous segues,

00:36:21.840 but you can't take this in isolation from some of the other things that the federal government has done.

00:36:29.180 If it was just a firearms issue, maybe you could.

00:36:32.180 But this is also, and I know you want to talk about this later,

00:36:35.900 This is coming from a government that wants to restrict press freedom.

00:36:39.420 This is coming from a government that spent two and a half years

00:36:42.620 telling people what to do about a pandemic

00:36:45.880 without really knowing themselves what was the right answer.

00:36:49.760 You could go on.

00:36:50.720 There's a whole culture of control that this is just one part of.

00:36:58.120 People are starting to catch on that there is this culture of control.

00:37:01.300 They're not liking it.

00:37:01.980 and it starts to put issues like firearms ownership in a slightly different light.

00:37:07.720 Well, I should mention, this segment in particular is sponsored by the Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:37:13.260 Yes. All right.

00:37:14.720 Our favorite guys, you guys all know I've been a member of the CSSA for well over a decade. 0.98

00:37:20.480 These guys kick ass. 0.92

00:37:21.660 If you want to keep your guns, you better be a member of the CSSA now. 0.98

00:37:26.200 So we'll go to you, Corey.

00:37:27.460 I think this story has kind of taken on a new life. When it was just handgun owners, we're a fairly small part of the population. People seem to think that, you know, legally purchased handguns. People go, they purchase a handgun on Monday and they go knock off a 7-Eleven on Tuesday. That's not happening. Handguns used in the Commission of Crimes in Canada are more than 99%, 98, 99% are smuggled from the United States.

00:37:57.460 but the amendment to this bill when I started ensnaring regular bonafide

00:38:03.160 hunting rifles that people could not deny these are legitimate hunting rifles

00:38:07.340 I think there is sort of an agrarian romanticism in Canada still of the

00:38:12.280 hunter the hunter is you know there might not be a lot of sympathy for the

00:38:16.640 oilfield worker but there there is a romanticization of the farmer and if

00:38:21.280 most people aren't farmers we kind of idolize it kind of agrarian way same

00:38:24.760 And with the hunter, we, most people don't have much sympathy with someone who goes down to the gun club and fires off a nine mil for the afternoon.

00:38:32.120 But, you know, the guy who goes out, shoots deer, shoots a moose, it's a very Canadian thing to do.

00:38:39.040 Why do you think the media itself actually started to pay more attention to this and actually put at least some critical light on the new gun grab stuff?

00:38:50.640 Well, part of it is because of they threw their own fart catchers under the bus. 0.97

00:38:54.760 We've had this debate going on for months and months, say, on social media with the other blue checks and legacy media find.

00:39:02.120 And people like me say they're coming after legitimately on fire.

00:39:04.840 No, they aren't. No, they aren't. They're never going after hunting firearms.

00:39:08.420 They're never doing it. And they said it a dozen times, a dozen ways.

00:39:11.140 Yeah.

00:39:11.660 And now suddenly there's no denying they have just gone after a whole large amount of hunting firearms that were never a problem.

00:39:19.000 So these defenders of that act now have an egg on their faces, and not all of them are as shameless with their lies as Minister Mendicino, who would just lie and forget about it the day after.

00:39:27.280 They're embarrassed.

00:39:28.320 I know the same feeling back when I was still somewhat supportive of Premier Kenney when I was saying, look, he said he's never bringing a vaccine passport.

00:39:36.140 He's obviously never going to bring in a vaccine passport.

00:39:38.880 And then later on, people were rubbing my face.

00:39:41.620 And geez, Corey, I thought you said, I guess I was wrong.

00:39:44.960 I was not very supportive.

00:39:46.500 And even I didn't think he would go that far.

00:39:48.400 I was like oh so but the media feels that way I mean they were carrying water for this for quite a while and suddenly now they don't have a defense for this anymore either so I mean elements of the media anyways and the vocal people within it so I think that's part of it they're like okay that's enough I can't do this for you guys anymore if you're going to keep moving the goalposts this isn't worth it you're obviously not going after criminals you're going after guns well our it's funny the biggest stories of the year I've put in more or less as much as

00:40:18.380 could chronological order of when they took place. They all segue so perfectly to each other. And this segues us perfectly to our last one, federal control over the press and the internet segueing from what you said Nigel about

00:40:33.380 there seems to be all of these strange attempts by government, particularly the federal government to assert new levels of control scope and size and scope of control over people's lives, particularly from the federal government.

00:40:46.380 federal government. And they seem to be kind of siloed on their own. But when you kind of zoom out at the bigger picture, it's much more worrisome. And one of the most worrisome has got to be federal control over the press and the internet in Canada. Now, this is going back some time, but not that long before we return the Western Standard to publication, the federal government announced a $600 million bailout package for the media.

00:41:14.240 And people watch here, no, we don't take that. But then we've started to see other bills, the online harms bill, which would heavily censor social media for offensive content.

00:41:27.240 Sometimes stuff that's probably genuinely bad and should probably not be there. But also, we know the way this would go.

00:41:34.240 It would just be offensive stuff, stuff that challenges the federal government and the official narratives of things.

00:41:40.240 or then we saw, or you call it misinformation or disinformation, you just label it misinformation, disinformation, and you're gone.

00:41:47.240 They should ban that one, yes. Yeah. Of course. That kind of thing. 0.79

00:41:51.240 And then the most recent one, something called the Online News Act, which sounds fairly innocuous,

00:41:59.240 but I'd always be cautious when the government has news in an act.

00:42:04.240 That means you have some kind of regulation of the news and of the press.

00:42:08.240 And so we've got the Online News Act, which is the one that's really gone below the radar right now because the legacy media don't want to talk about it too much because they lobbied for it.

00:42:18.560 You've got something called Newspapers Canada, which is the lobby organization representing the big corporate press conglomerates in Canada, Post Media, Globe Media, Tor Star Corp, all these things.

00:42:28.120 And the idea is more or less put a gun to the head of Facebook and Google and say, you owe these guys money because you did them the favor of distributing their content.

00:42:40.980 Tons of you guys are watching this on Facebook right now.

00:42:44.120 And if you're watching this on Facebook right now and this bill passes as it is, we will be banned from Facebook at some point in the new year.

00:42:51.420 As Facebook has said, if this bill passes, we're not handing money off to companies that haven't earned it from us in a regular commercial agreement.

00:42:58.620 We're just going to kick the news off of Facebook.

00:43:01.720 And the legislators have put this bill together in such a way as it makes it illegal for the Western standard to say, we want no part of this.

00:43:09.600 We don't think Facebook owes us any money, and we don't owe Facebook any money, and we just want to put our content on Facebook.

00:43:16.080 And that's what's happening now.

00:43:17.220 So you've got now federal control over social media platforms and the media itself together, trying to really go after the distribution of media.

00:43:27.360 So with you, Nigel, why do you think it's come to this?

00:43:32.380 Why do you think the legacy media lobbies so strongly for it?

00:43:37.540 And do you think this is one of the it's definitely not gotten the top five, six press stories of the year by coverage.

00:43:44.080 But why do you think it deserves to be in here?

00:43:45.860 yeah why would the media report on them trying to fleece uh companies using the power of the

00:43:52.520 government i think you just the way you ask the question is to suggest the answer look i mean

00:43:58.560 what this is the long game here what this is going to do is going to put us back to the days when

00:44:04.160 you you the only place you got your news was from a newspaper you're not going to be able to just

00:44:10.860 login while you have your coffee at your kitchen table check the news before you

00:44:15.480 head off to work because it won't be there if Facebook does indeed say what

00:44:20.040 do what it says it's going to do let's face it well you'd be limited to going

00:44:23.820 to westernstandard.news that's the only place you'll be able to find or

00:44:27.540 nationalpost.com or whatever yeah but it won't show up in your feeds anymore

00:44:31.200 isn't going to show up in your feeds and so you know if you can sort of

00:44:35.160 picture picture the days when things got passed around by fax and the only way

00:44:39.900 could get a hold of somebody was by a landline you know the days before the internet that's the

00:44:46.780 that's kind of the the technology that you're going to be dealing with you'll hear things on

00:44:51.580 the radio you you want to see it on tv you can turn on but you're not going to be able to get

00:44:56.780 the the feeds on your phone that you can read while you're on the c train going to going to

00:45:02.540 the office and that's really going to hurt now that works for the um this works in two ways one

00:45:10.860 is that uh the the media the old media when they're the only game in town will of course

00:45:20.460 have some stay of execution i don't know whether it's possible to drive people back to newsprint by

00:45:25.820 taking away electronics but there'll be some upside to them but if they do it goes the other

00:45:31.580 way and they do get they do decide to and Facebook relents on this the old media gets paid

00:45:41.820 and they're also getting paid by the government how fair impartial and unbiased do you think

00:45:50.780 you could possibly be to ask the question is to imply the answer exactly um

00:45:56.700 So, Corey, I want to talk.

00:45:59.380 What's the problem now?

00:46:00.380 Yeah.

00:46:01.220 Let's talk in particular about why this wasn't one of the biggest stories in terms of how much coverage it got in the year.

00:46:07.420 When it's an absolutely earth-shattering bill, it will change the nature of media in Canada.

00:46:14.960 I mean, yeah, if Facebook just flips off the news, says no more news on Facebook in Canada, that'll mean everyone's readership goes down.

00:46:21.560 Now, it's already happened.

00:46:22.500 And Facebook has been throttling how much news shows up in your algorithms for some time.

00:46:27.360 Like we've seen our proportion on Facebook go down.

00:46:30.040 All the other publishers I've talked to all see the same thing.

00:46:32.560 So they've been kind of putting their thumbs on the scales of how much news shows in your feeds now.

00:46:37.820 But it's still a big portion of what we get.

00:46:40.680 But it's a relatively smaller portion of what the big guys, the old print media and the broadcast media rely on.

00:46:48.060 They can always go back to, you know, so if they lose Facebook, well, they can always just last for more subsidies to make up the difference.

00:46:57.060 Ah, geez, Facebook's so mean. Give us more cash, Papa Trudeau.

00:47:00.060 But I want your take on why do you think it hasn't been one of the biggest stories of the year in terms of coverage?

00:47:09.060 One, it is probably one of the most substantial federal bills in decades.

00:47:14.060 Well, I would bet there's probably been countless columns that have been spiked by perhaps some

00:47:18.460 guys who thought they could write up on this and they submitted it and somewhere in the editorial

00:47:22.860 level, they said, no, we're just not going to talk about that right now. I mean, the self-interest

00:47:26.640 is evident. They don't want to highlight something that is protecting a dinosaur. And that's what it

00:47:31.820 is. And they're going. And it's the story of the year. I guess it'll be more of the story I told

00:47:37.260 you so when this collapses, I think, though, because, yeah, I mean, it'd be nice to think

00:47:42.320 that perhaps people can go back to the days of paper and

00:47:44.360 print, but they won't. But things will change. And the

00:47:46.880 internet is it's living, they're going to be playing

00:47:50.040 whack a mole. I mean, if Facebook isn't covering it,

00:47:51.980 you gotta remember, Google is a big factor in this too. So

00:47:54.320 you got to get direct URLs, what you'll see is a boom in

00:47:57.000 secondary advertising, because now you're gonna have to

00:47:58.880 advertise elsewhere to reach people, let them know, come here

00:48:02.780 to read our content, and people aren't gonna like that. I think

00:48:06.380 it'll help with in the long run with Maverick publications like

00:48:09.800 hours, if you even want to call it that, an alternative and new media. And this is the last

00:48:16.800 gasp. So I mean, you can subsidize and keep that dying institution alive for a while, but their

00:48:21.480 business model is broken. And they'd rather chase subsidies and forcing people to take part in their

00:48:27.280 old model rather than adjust themselves. Like I'll just throw in a quick analogy from my past career

00:48:32.440 when I was a surveyor. It frustrated me. I spent my first three years out there getting abused by

00:48:36.600 surveyor as a rodman yelled at freezing cold and holding the rod and pounding laugh before they

00:48:41.720 would even let me touch a transit. And then I had to learn my formulas and I had to learn how to

00:48:45.640 calculate area and elevations. And then GPS came along and completely wiped out my trade.

00:48:51.560 You know, nowadays, a person could pull out a smartphone and learn doing seconds without any

00:48:56.040 training what took me years to get to. And some surveyors got lost with that they couldn't adapt

00:49:01.400 themselves to GPS, I learned how to do digital mapping and other things and adapted and got

00:49:05.880 another 15 years out of that career. But some of the older surveyors, they couldn't, and they got

00:49:10.840 left behind. And what we've got right now with a lot of the legacy media members are those older

00:49:15.080 surveyors, they're fighting it with all they've got. But unless they can change themselves,

00:49:20.360 they're going to get left behind, they're going to lose this in the long run.

00:49:24.200 I think you're right. And I mean, this bill passes, it's going to be very tough on us,

00:49:29.080 even though we want absolutely nothing to do with it. But we will endure. Actually, that's,

00:49:33.800 that's a really important reason why y'all need to be on our newsletter because if we get shut

00:49:38.200 off of facebook if this bill passes and facebook gets shut down for us you're going to need to get

00:49:42.600 your morning blast in the morning that's uh that's how you're gonna have to find us it's gonna it's

00:49:46.840 gonna be tough so make sure you remember make sure you're on our newsletter go to westernstandard.news

00:49:52.520 well gentlemen it's been a hell of a year it's been a very good year i think um

00:49:58.840 Catch our big. We are running, it's now over 20 long columns by people who know what they're

00:50:12.660 talking about. You're a fanatic editor, right? Fanaticism is in the DNA. Look, we've got a lot

00:50:20.240 of really smart people who are delivering their thoughts, not only about what has happened in

00:50:25.380 2022, but also in 2023. After this, after this program, you'll see the trailer for it. So watch

00:50:32.420 it and come to our website and take a look. These people know what they're talking about.

00:50:38.020 Yeah, it's a great series that Nigel set up from a lot of our best columnists across Canada,

00:50:44.580 retrospective on 2022 and looking forward into 2023. Nigel, Corey, it's been a great 2022 with

00:50:53.300 with you guys. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas to all our readers. And Merry Christmas and

00:50:59.600 New Year very soon to all of you, our loyal Western-centered readers, watchers,

00:51:06.140 and listeners. It's been such an honor to be with you this year in this

00:51:09.680 tremendous year of growth. Just, I had a great 2022. So thank all of you for that great year.

00:51:16.720 And Merry Christmas.

Western Standard - December 23, 2022

The Pipeline - The Top Stories from 2022

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