Western Standard - The Pipeline： Trudeau slags Smith in speech to Alberta business leaders

00:00:00.000 good evening welcome to the pipeline i'm senior columnist of the western standard

00:00:29.840 cory morgan this is our weekly news and affairs show and panel where we'll have a few of us

00:00:35.840 breaking down and giving our thoughts on the top stories of the day so i am joined uh on my right

00:00:43.600 i'll start actually with our opinion editor nigel hannaford how's it going nigel it's going good 0.72

00:00:48.560 we've got a lot of good stuff today correct there it is we this last few weeks has been so easy to

00:00:53.280 to find stuff to talk about it's just tearing it down to what we're going to focus on the hard part

00:00:58.320 and next to nigel is our news editor dave naylor hey dave how's it going it's going well i'd like

00:01:02.960 to first thank uh my makeup artist michelle today yes who did a fine job covering a uh

00:01:10.000 a small blemish that erupted on my forehead overnight i thought you looked particularly

00:01:14.080 pretty today i kind of looked like the prime minister the other week and everybody thought

00:01:18.480 he may have got a high heel to the head we're still speculating i'm saying that subject has

00:01:23.920 never really got cold. It's a water cooler situation. Well, you know, until there's an

00:01:29.740 answer, we are free to speculate. He won't tell us exactly. Well, he said it was roughhousing

00:01:33.900 for the kids, I think. Yes. All right. Well, on to more serious matter. Actually, I will start

00:01:39.820 before we get into all the issues we have. As I said, we're lined up today to talk about our

00:01:45.180 sponsor, one of them, and it's the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. You hear me talk

00:01:50.160 every week on the pipeline here or Derek when he's on it. They have been a fantastic sponsor

00:01:54.920 and they are a fantastic group. As it sounds, it's a shooting sports association. If you take

00:01:59.880 part in shooting sports, whether it's hunting, collecting, target shooting, it doesn't matter,

00:02:02.720 it's your business, you got to stand up for your right to keep doing that. And that's what these

00:02:06.960 guys are about. You join that, there's safety in numbers, it helps protect your rights, but they

00:02:12.020 need you to become a member. Check them out. Canadian Shooting Sports Association, their

00:02:16.240 website is cssa-cila.org or just google them canadian shooting sports association take out a

00:02:23.460 membership invest in your freedoms guys it's important all right speaking of freedoms free

00:02:29.180 podcasting is under threat uh ottawa is coming after us steve what's going on as nigel so 0.96

00:02:36.280 eloquently put it in one of his columns this week it's the the anaconda of censorship of strangling

00:02:41.820 the uh strangling the country this time they're after uh podcasts streaming services uh and uh

00:02:48.540 i think we should go to our business reporter sean polzer to fill us in all right sean bring us up to

00:02:54.220 speed guys how's it going um gee what is there to say so um they put out the first uh draft uh

00:03:03.660 rules, I guess, on C-11, which was ostensibly to regulate big streamers like Netflix and

00:03:14.160 Apple TV and all the people that are distributing what they consider to be equivalent of broadcast,

00:03:24.120 things like movies and programming. And the bill was ostensibly to set Canadian content

00:03:30.860 limits similar to what regular and a code of conduct similar to what regular

00:03:36.920 broadcasts have to go through but there was this kind of sneaker in there that

00:03:40.880 podcasters anybody who makes over about ten million dollars is gonna have to

00:03:45.320 register with the government and potentially be regulated for the

00:03:49.620 content that they stream on their services yes Nigel I mean you know the

00:03:55.940 term registry that always gets a chill and down my back immediately I mean

00:03:59.240 always the first step to more control isn't it can you imagine having this discussion five years

00:04:05.240 ten years ago and said everybody who aspires to be a newspaper has to be registered

00:04:10.600 people have said what if i want to start a newspaper why do i have to tell the government

00:04:15.080 i'm just going to go and do it that's we have free press well this is not this is uh unfortunately

00:04:22.120 the newspapers blew that when they started taking government money because in order to get the money

00:04:27.400 they had to give them the address, you know, send it here.

00:04:32.640 So that isn't quite the comparison it used to be.

00:04:35.900 But really, why should anybody who has got something to say

00:04:39.980 have to register as a certain type of sayer 0.71

00:04:46.020 in order to go and have their free speech?

00:04:50.220 Now, one of the things that Sean mentioned

00:04:51.880 was that there was a $10 million annual revenues threshold.

00:04:57.720 If you don't meet that, you don't have to register.

00:05:00.680 So that sounds okay.

00:05:03.440 But I'm wondering, and maybe Sean will enlighten us on this,

00:05:08.000 maybe you don't generate $10 million a year as a podcaster,

00:05:12.180 but you probably don't have your own carrier either.

00:05:16.580 So are you going to be captured by the fact that you have to, that whoever is carrying your podcast is going to have to be responsible for what you say, and therefore you will have to be careful what you say?

00:05:33.760 Is that how they get the little guys?

00:05:37.220 I think so, Nigel.

00:05:38.420 I think that's ultimately where it's leading to.

00:05:40.760 You know, even the example of the Western Standard, we're far below that $10 million

00:05:46.820 threshold.

00:05:47.820 But at the same time, even the pipeline, as I understand it, is going up on services

00:05:52.160 like Spotify and Apple, iTunes, you know, so those people that were ostensibly the targets

00:06:00.860 of the legislation are indeed going to have to probably start watching what kind of content

00:06:07.200 that they put on.

00:06:08.200 I'd also like to say that this is also wrapped up a lot with C-18, which is the online news act to force companies like Meta and Google to pay for linking to Canadian content.

00:06:24.460 and google in their blog yesterday said and it was more with respect to c11 that

00:06:30.940 what is considered to be a news agency should follow the criteria of the companies that have

00:06:37.660 accepted the government bailout money to to be considered a journalistic outlet well i think

00:06:45.100 one of the things sean not to take away from you here corey but i think one of the things that's

00:06:50.220 fairly important is that this legislation that we're talking about and these CRTC regulations

00:06:57.580 announced last Friday have their genesis in Bill C-11 and what has really happened here

00:07:06.860 is that the government wants to make everybody who puts anything out into a broadcaster so that

00:07:13.420 they can then apply the standards to that person now cbc ctv global they've been broadcasting for

00:07:23.820 years but there's always been under the crtc a stipulation that they they have to do things in a

00:07:30.300 you know in a certain type of way they can't be extreme they can't be they can't do what some

00:07:36.780 people do on their podcasts otherwise they get censured and you know there are penalties

00:07:44.220 well the great thing about podcasting and just being able to upload your your youtube videos

00:07:51.660 and so forth is that you never had to worry about whether it was all in good form and good taste

00:07:58.540 and according to the the spirit of the regulations i guess now if you do something a little crazy

00:08:08.140 they're going to cut you off and not everybody who is speaking truth that needs to be heard

00:08:15.580 is doing something crazy so when dave used that expression which by the way was not original to

00:08:21.980 me but but i'll i'll take the credit the anaconda of regulation i was just watching a

00:08:27.180 a video of an anaconda the other day that came up when I tried to find the origin of the phrase.

00:08:33.440 And, you know, the coils sort of go around and they get a little tighter and a little tighter.

00:08:38.360 And pretty soon you don't even hear the pig anymore.

00:08:41.020 So it's going to be kind of like that, Sean, I think, that free speech in this country.

00:08:48.540 They're just going to tighten it and tighten it.

00:08:51.580 And it's not going to be like you had in authoritarian regimes where somebody comes in

00:08:56.100 and walks into the newsroom and arrests everybody and sends them off to the gulag you just will find

00:09:03.220 the administrative effort of trying to say what you want to say isn't worth it anymore that's the

00:09:08.500 danger sorry sean go ahead i was going to say that's true because um in the legislation they

00:09:16.660 are aware of uh some charter conflicts and uh even though they are greatly expanding the role

00:09:23.380 the CRTC to do things like collect personal information from these companies on their

00:09:28.500 subscribers. The government went at pains to suggest that any of these infractions,

00:09:35.220 this enhanced regulatory role for the CRTC will not result in the creation of criminal

00:09:44.020 offenses or criminal prosecution under the Act. But at the same time, they have noted that

00:09:51.380 there's going to be some potential infringements on the role of the crtc under the charter of

00:09:57.380 rights and freedoms so that's another whole can of worms that nobody's really open yet

00:10:03.540 i think one of the things that's warming the cockles of my old curmudgeonly heart

00:10:08.020 is seeing all the podcasters many of whom we know say no we're not going to do it and i think our

00:10:15.060 operations manager james has tweeted that we're not going to do it it kind of reminds me of the

00:10:20.180 firearms registry and people just said well i'm not going to do it you know so i think there'll

00:10:25.540 be a backlash amongst podcasters they just won't do it because there's not many that are earning

00:10:30.500 10 million even though we're pretty close actually no we're not we need more advertising uh but uh

00:10:37.380 yeah i don't think uh i don't think many podcasters will uh will play along with this one

00:10:42.180 but it's insidious right like before i came to the standard i have my own little podcast i set

00:10:46.420 up an audio and I do interview people and I would also stream that to Facebook and YouTube and I

00:10:51.940 use a service called Podbean which probably is over 10 million dollars the problem is I registered

00:10:58.100 with them not the CRTC but Podbean has my information and then it shares it out to

00:11:04.340 Spotify and and the other heavyweights iTunes they all now have my information I'm registered with

00:11:10.420 them I think the CRT has been smart CRTC why go after all the little guys like me when they can

00:11:15.060 can just go to the hosts and when they say the hosts this podcast has been appropriate it's been

00:11:21.560 inappropriate you wipe them off in the air or we're going to come after you it's turned them

00:11:26.280 into the police and it will be effective gosh it's like the waitress asking to see your qr code

00:11:32.180 before she sits you down made the restaurants the same same basic playbook uh you know there

00:11:39.500 There is one other thing that we need to put out here on this matter, Corey.

00:11:44.480 I know you've got three other fascinating subjects to go to,

00:11:47.500 but you can see why the CRTC exists in this sense that you have an electromagnetic spectrum

00:11:57.440 and somebody has got to be the policeman so you can actually use it

00:12:02.140 so you don't get two people trying to broadcast on the same frequency.

00:12:07.020 So I inadvertently, in a column on this, used the phrase, the government owns the airwaves.

00:12:13.820 No, they don't.

00:12:14.940 But they are the most logical entity to police the airwaves.

00:12:19.740 But the thing is, they don't own the Internet.

00:12:22.540 They have no actual business in this, in trying to police the Internet.

00:12:29.120 this is a straight intrusion of government force into something that was previously free and

00:12:36.320 unregulated. That is an iniquity in itself. Absolutely. And I mean, it's hard to resist

00:12:44.400 this, though, the way they've structured it. So before I let you go, Sean, I mean, I know you're

00:12:48.000 following this and you're going to be writing further, but you see any signs of how groups

00:12:52.720 or individuals or anything are resisting this or can resist this? Well, it was kind of ironic

00:12:58.980 because i had to put a briefing paper together for our publisher derek phildebrandt on c18

00:13:04.820 and going on the websites and looking through uh supposedly some of the public comments and

00:13:09.060 there were none and i and i also have to laugh about nigel's reference to owning the airwaves 0.86

00:13:14.900 because it's actually a remote song i don't know if you're familiar with it or not nigel but it's

00:13:19.860 we own the airwaves i don't think nigel listens to that type of music 1.00

00:13:25.780 Well, we'll see as this unfolds. I mean, it's far from over. So thanks for the update, Sean,

00:13:33.120 and then we'll let you get back on there. Thank you. See you, Sean.

00:13:38.540 So yeah, I mean, just a little further on that one, because I don't think enough people,

00:13:43.460 the common public will realize just how insidious and problematic this is. And that's the scary

00:13:47.920 thing. And I was in an anaconda or like the frog in water analogy. People already plugged in might

00:13:53.640 realize it but they're a minority and when they've lost this this source of information they might

00:13:57.560 not even realize it was there in the first place and that's really scary canadians are generally

00:14:01.800 apathetic i think anyways um i mean look we've had trudeau for 10 years not just sure how that is

00:14:07.800 but yeah it's it's a very very important issue you know it's this isn't central but just i was

00:14:15.400 watching i think it was a podcast from from tucker carlson and he was recommending that

00:14:22.040 if you care about facts if you care about truth you might want to start getting a collection of

00:14:28.200 the books and the encyclopedias that you respect and that you want to make sure are still available

00:14:34.120 to yourself and maybe to your children because they can change anything on the internet

00:14:40.120 but they we're still i think a fair way off before they can break into your house and

00:14:45.880 and seize your library and send it to the dump. 0.70

00:14:49.660 Send the firemen in to burn the inappropriate literature.

00:14:54.660 I think somebody predicted that once.

00:14:58.080 Something to think about, get it on paper, keep it.

00:15:04.020 Hard copies.

00:15:04.860 If it matters.

00:15:05.740 Information has always been a struggle

00:15:07.740 and then this is just the latest chapter,

00:15:09.600 but boy, they're getting bold.

00:15:11.480 All right, well, let's move on

00:15:13.580 where there was a democratic exercise last night manitoba went to a general election and uh i guess

00:15:20.060 the pollsters it sounds like they were kind of right in this one they were right uh history was

00:15:24.060 made last night in uh in manitoba with the election of uh our first first nation pri uh premier uh

00:15:30.700 wob canoe uh won i believe uh they're still counting uh at the recording time but uh looks

00:15:35.740 like it's around 31 to 25 seats uh defeating uh premier heather stevenson stevenson excuse me

00:15:42.620 and she immediately resigned last night.

00:15:46.400 The big issue seemed to be health care,

00:15:50.540 the NDP promising hundreds of more doctors

00:15:53.640 and reopening closed hospitals

00:15:56.320 and that seems to have resonated with Manitobans

00:16:00.980 and they may wake up one day and say,

00:16:04.600 oh my God, what have we done?

00:16:06.200 Because the last few NDP governments there

00:16:08.280 have ended in overspending disasters

00:16:10.760 But the good people of Manitoba have decided two terms of Conservatives is enough.

00:16:16.400 And the NDP orange flag is now risen.

00:16:21.440 Well, I mean, some of it, Heather Stephenson, she's becoming, since becoming the leader of the Progressive Conservative,

00:16:28.280 she's never really been able to capture support.

00:16:31.420 She's been the least popular premier in Canada in a number of polls for quite some time now.

00:16:37.860 And she just wasn't able to bring it together.

00:16:40.240 the NDP presented an alternative. Well, you know, I think, I'm channeling our columnist on the spot

00:16:47.660 in Manitoba, Linda Slobodian here, but I think that there's a tremendous hostile memory to the

00:16:56.260 way that the government of Manitoba handled the whole COVID business. They were more restrictive

00:17:03.580 than we were here in Alberta.

00:17:07.440 They were more like the government of Quebec.

00:17:11.440 And so much of it, as we've learned,

00:17:14.640 was not necessary.

00:17:18.000 So Manitobans apparently being another, 0.99

00:17:21.220 again, I'm channeling Linda here,

00:17:23.360 but Manitobans being as unforgiving as they are, 1.00

00:17:27.380 they're making her aware of that,

00:17:29.800 even though it was actually Brian Pallister

00:17:32.360 who was premier at the time, and she's never been able to get past that.

00:17:38.060 But I agree with Dave.

00:17:39.320 The track record of NDP governments coming in and taking over something

00:17:45.080 that is functioning reasonably well and then turning it into a nightmare

00:17:50.140 for the taxpayers is a well-attested one.

00:17:53.980 We have our own Rachel Motley to turn to for proof points. 1.00

00:17:57.540 She has them by the bundle.

00:18:00.180 But, you know, when I first came to this country a long time ago,

00:18:04.360 social credit had been governing for 30 or 40 years.

00:18:07.920 In came that the NDP and Dave Barrett lasted two and a half years,

00:18:11.940 and then the social credit party was back for another 20

00:18:15.140 because they were not going to do that again, you know.

00:18:18.580 And then they did, of course.

00:18:21.200 Manitoba actually had a balanced budget last year.

00:18:23.380 And I'll bet you dollars to donuts is not balanced at this point next year

00:18:27.460 because of increased NDP spending.

00:18:30.400 But getting back to your comments on COVID,

00:18:32.200 there were a couple of Tory cabinet ministers

00:18:35.080 who were pictured during the lockdowns,

00:18:38.180 flaunting, you know, at parties and not wearing masks

00:18:41.720 and not, you know, social distancing enough.

00:18:45.920 And, you know, Manitobans didn't forget all that

00:18:48.440 because it was a case of politicians

00:18:50.340 doing what's good for thee is not good enough for me.

00:18:54.060 So they, you know, they wore it.

00:18:56.740 I think you're right.

00:18:57.240 was a coven fallout comparisons were indeed drawn to behavior at the sky palace yes in our very own

00:19:04.040 alberta government it's um it's most unfortunate but you know you when you when you sort of lash

00:19:09.240 out in anger whether it's in a domestic dispute or in a in an election you usually end up wishing

00:19:16.520 you hadn't done that oh hypocrisy infuriates people i mean whether it's the sky palace or

00:19:21.800 the manitoba issues or area that was happening in the uk as well i mean it was devastating

00:19:26.360 people were seeing on both sides of people thinking that the government was too restrictive.

00:19:30.200 Well, then when you're suffering under those restrictions and you see them not following

00:19:34.120 through or the people who feel that the restrictions are appropriate, they say, well,

00:19:37.400 they hear these guys are putting everybody at risk by not masking and gathering. So

00:19:40.920 you lose support on both sides. You really don't have a constituency left.

00:19:46.120 They just don't get it. And that ire can last for years as it's hung over Stephenson later on.

00:19:52.520 But, I mean, the presumption that they'll fall into deficits is probably a safe one, but prairie socialists have often been a bit of a different bunch.

00:20:02.100 You know, the ones in Saskatchewan under Romano were quite pragmatic.

00:20:05.540 I mean, Romano balanced the budget.

00:20:07.260 It was forced to do by high interest rates and overspending.

00:20:10.060 But is it impossible to believe that Premier Kenyon could be fiscally restrained?

00:20:16.320 Well, it does go against the grain.

00:20:19.640 one expenditure that he is now is now his problem is the possible excavation of the landfill which

00:20:31.140 has a price tag of 180 million dollars which doesn't sound very much in the way politics is

00:20:37.560 these days but it's still you know is that the sort of thing you want to spend your money on

00:20:42.460 And the background to that is that a number of indigenous women were murdered.

00:20:49.260 There is a fellow who is accused of their murders in custody awaiting trial.

00:20:54.640 And the suspicion is that he disposed of the bodies in a landfill outside Winnipeg.

00:21:04.540 But he did so so long ago that the possibility of finding any...

00:21:11.340 This is a tragic case, by the way, I'm trying not to, you know, I don't want to sound like I'm being too clinical about this.

00:21:18.740 This is a heartbreaker.

00:21:22.620 But the chances of finding human remains, when you don't know where they were put, if they were put there at all, that's actually not proven.

00:21:33.640 If they were put there, how do you find them?

00:21:36.180 what's going to be left and is there in fact a danger, a greater danger, to the people who are

00:21:44.900 asked to sift through, you know, thousands of tons of what we have thrown away, which often

00:21:53.000 is contaminated by everything you can imagine. So there are dangers to this, but Canu, I believe,

00:22:00.780 in his

00:22:02.640 campaigning

00:22:05.640 promised to do this.

00:22:07.740 It was quite a spectacle

00:22:11.200 because the Tories

00:22:12.840 campaigned against it. They took out

00:22:14.720 newspaper ads saying we will not

00:22:16.600 search the dump.

00:22:19.260 And even I will add today,

00:22:20.560 the Feds said they were going to pony in

00:22:22.520 $750,000

00:22:23.680 out of $180 million

00:22:26.920 cost.

00:22:27.360 So, yeah, that's one campaign promise he's got to live up with.

00:22:31.020 That itself could cause a budget problem.

00:22:33.140 Or else he's off to a bad start.

00:22:33.480 But, I mean, that's a bad...

00:22:35.240 Well, to add a sympathetic ear, I mean, if it was your family member who disappeared, presumably murdered,

00:22:40.200 and you did truly believe their body had been disposed in a landfill, I mean, how awful and humiliating.

00:22:45.860 And you don't like to think of them not being properly interred, whatever your local cultures may call for.

00:22:51.380 But, you know, I can't subscribe to the no price is too high mentality on things.

00:22:56.880 Sometimes the price is too high. $180 million is way. And we know this is an estimate. It would be much more than that if they were to be thorough. And we think the bodies might not even be there. This ties into another issue that is just a, since we segwayed in, it's something I've been on about a lot.

00:23:14.540 why is it that we're willing to spend or some activists 180 million dollars to look for the

00:23:19.120 bodies of two people who may or may not be there and we still haven't excavated a single one in

00:23:23.740 Kamloops where supposedly as many as 200 murdered children may be buried yet we can't do that which

00:23:30.160 would you could probably do at a few thousand per grave to be blunt about it we've got a big

00:23:35.520 double standard going on here. Corey I would advise you if that is the way you think to say it out loud

00:23:41.760 And now, while you can, I don't think that that's going to fly when that's not going

00:23:49.620 to be considered fair comment when the CRTC is adjudicating your podcast.

00:23:54.600 In denialism.

00:23:55.680 It is frustrating, though.

00:23:57.520 You know, I mean, is it sacred indeed to reclaim the remains of murdered indigenous people

00:24:04.220 and, you know, reunite them with the family and properly inter them?

00:24:09.260 Or is it not?

00:24:10.120 Because among the activists set, I'm seeing a very clear-cut double standard going on here right now.

00:24:16.000 Yep, you're right.

00:24:16.960 Which led to an odd wedge issue that really did impact the Manitoba election.

00:24:21.780 What an untenable position for the PCs to be in.

00:24:25.000 I mean, you don't want to say yes to it because you're opening that up.

00:24:28.020 But it'll be interesting to see where Mr. Kinneau goes when the finances come in.

00:24:31.060 There's one other place where it'll be interesting to see where Mr. Kinneau goes.

00:24:34.720 As we've been covering in the Western Standard for more than a year,

00:24:38.440 There's considerable interest in an energy corridor from Alberta through Saskatchewan, along Indigenous-owned lands, out to Churchill for the purpose of exporting energy.

00:24:50.120 Now then, will Mr. Canoe, as a committed NDPEER, back that plan, which is basically an end run around federal legislation that makes it very hard to build pipelines across provincial borders?

00:25:08.440 But if it's not in indigenous land, it's a little different.

00:25:12.540 So will he, does he have a bit, will,

00:25:15.760 to coin a political phrase,

00:25:17.260 will he see the business case for doing that?

00:25:20.100 Maybe advance that.

00:25:22.640 Because Mrs. Stephenson, I'm afraid,

00:25:24.520 was not very helpful on that file.

00:25:26.440 She was lukewarm at best on that, actually.

00:25:28.400 At best, yes.

00:25:29.320 Mr. Trudeau welcomed Mr. Canoe today

00:25:31.700 by saying it's nice to have a premier he can work with again.

00:25:34.740 Another shot at Ms. Smith. 1.00

00:25:37.360 Yes, well, but I mean, again, maybe.

00:25:40.140 I'd like at this point to give the benefit of the doubt.

00:25:42.620 Mr. Kinnear is an unknown.

00:25:44.400 He seems to be a smart gentleman.

00:25:46.040 No, it is the benefit of the doubt.

00:25:47.840 It's an open question.

00:25:48.940 Sometimes NDP premiers have a,

00:25:51.460 they know they've got to get the money from somewhere

00:25:52.880 and they do what they have to do.

00:25:53.900 And if it's partnerships has been proposed

00:25:56.040 for some of these corridors with other Indigenous groups,

00:25:58.560 it might be something that actually Mr. Kinnear

00:26:00.180 could facilitate more effectively than Stephenson was.

00:26:03.680 Well, she just never seemed to be into it.

00:26:05.040 I never could understand that out of her.

00:26:06.600 She wouldn't say no, but she wouldn't say yes either.

00:26:09.800 I think that's part of the problems with her leadership in general.

00:26:12.140 That's why she was Canada's worst premier. 1.00

00:26:14.560 She didn't do anything.

00:26:16.500 And, yeah, if you stand for nothing, eventually it catches up.

00:26:19.100 Well, some, except for our federal leader in Ottawa.

00:26:21.920 We may as well segue into that in federal, provincial.

00:26:25.360 Actually, I guess he does stand for a large number of things.

00:26:28.080 Just clearly gets them done properly.

00:26:31.240 So Prime Minister Trudeau was speaking to Alberta business leaders in Ottawa.

00:26:36.040 He was. It's sort of a trade Alberta mission down to Ottawa. We sometimes take part in these in other countries, going to other countries, but it's very rare to sound en masse onto Ottawa.

00:26:50.240 50 CEOs of, you know, some of the top 50 Alberta companies went down to Ottawa, you know, to try and hold talks and talk some sense into them down there.

00:27:01.120 Prime Minister spoke to them, addressed them on Tuesday night and took a few shots at Premier Smith saying she was basically trying to stoke the fires of fear. 0.92

00:27:12.560 and accused Premier Smith of being a fearmonger with all these, you know,

00:27:19.540 as we know, the UCP has now started advertising campaigns in I think four other provinces

00:27:26.000 telling people that enough's enough, we can't afford it, can't afford the net zero electricity,

00:27:33.100 we can't afford the carbon tax, and in fact there was a big van with that message parked outside the House of Commons yesterday.

00:27:39.860 yesterday. So MPs got to see that as they left question period for the day. But yeah, last night,

00:27:46.760 it doesn't appear that there's any warming at all between Trudeau and Smith.

00:27:53.460 But I mean, Trudeau was speaking to a business crowd, not his own vanity might make him think

00:28:00.280 that they like him. But in reality, I think most particularly, Albertan business leaders

00:28:05.400 don't think highly of a lot of the policies coming out of there. I don't know if taking

00:28:09.340 shots at smith to that crowd is endearing mr trudeau to them in that environment yeah you know

00:28:15.660 it's a think about it cory what a situation it has come to where one part of the country has to get

00:28:23.960 together 50 of its best and brightest to go and market itself to a federal government which

00:28:29.800 they've got they've got a ministry of western economic diversification they got a similar

00:28:34.800 entity for eastern canada they say they're interested they say they want to do good things

00:28:41.400 but obviously the perception here is that no they don't and we have to go there in order to get

00:28:49.980 something done and try and change minds but what a commentary on the state of relations between

00:28:56.600 the central canadian region which we call the laurentian region and other parts of the country

00:29:03.420 He spent a lot of time criticizing Mr. Trudeau for a lot of things,

00:29:09.380 but boy, this kind of division is a product of his leadership, totally.

00:29:16.960 Well, the leadership that he's given, which is deficient in so many ways.

00:29:23.240 It doesn't surprise me that he would take the opportunity to take shots at Smith,

00:29:29.400 and business people being what they are, I wouldn't count on their loyalty,

00:29:34.140 Some of them, no doubt, laughed politely, and some actually thought, yeah, you know,

00:29:38.680 it would be better if we had somebody else.

00:29:41.720 That's, unfortunately, the way big money thinks.

00:29:44.980 They'll work with who they have to.

00:29:46.480 I mean, they're in business, not politics, though the two overlap quite often in the old Venn diagram.

00:29:52.820 But, I mean, we've got, I'm waiting for that shoe to drop.

00:29:56.820 They're hinting at it all the time.

00:29:58.240 Gilboa's talking about it.

00:29:59.700 Wilkinson's talked about it in Paris.

00:30:00.980 He's afraid to talk about it here.

00:30:02.080 they're going to bring in an emissions cap.

00:30:04.260 I mean, it's almost a done deal

00:30:05.700 and it is going to adversely impact businesses out here.

00:30:10.260 And, you know, this sort of meeting

00:30:12.480 would have been the opportunity for Trudeau

00:30:13.880 to at least try to, I guess,

00:30:15.540 make the case for why that won't harm them that badly.

00:30:18.180 But they've said, Gilbo has said

00:30:20.320 the cap is coming in before the end of the year.

00:30:22.920 And we're already, you know, into October, you know,

00:30:25.560 the end of the year is getting pretty close.

00:30:26.980 So it's coming, it's going to be quick.

00:30:28.920 And I think that's going to be the day

00:30:30.700 when the shoe drops, so to speak, that, okay, full-on war from Alberta to Ottawa.

00:30:37.180 Because it's not going to be anything that Alberta can live with, I don't think.

00:30:40.520 You know, sometimes, Dave, I get the suspicion that these guys know their time is up.

00:30:48.900 Whenever the next election comes, they're going to be to the sidelines for at least four years. 0.98

00:30:54.400 So they're doing all the dumb stuff that they believe in and to hell with the consequences. 0.97

00:31:00.700 The trouble is, some of the dumbest stuff that they do is going to take much longer to undo whoever forms the next government. 0.99

00:31:10.260 It's kind of ironic. That's one of the few downsides I see with term limits that we see in other jurisdictions with a leader. 0.97

00:31:17.280 When they hit a point where they know, this is my last gasp, that's when you see the worst of the patronage appointments,

00:31:22.920 the ideologically bent policies, then, okay, well, I'm going to fire this in because I won't be here to face the consequences if it fails.

00:31:30.700 or goes and the entire world has sort of taken a look at the the environment stuff and say okay

00:31:36.780 you know it's it's it's a good idea but we can't do it at the pace everybody wants to do we need

00:31:42.300 to slow down because it's going to be very expensive except canada you know everybody in

00:31:46.940 the world is is drilling for more oil and doing natural gas and they seem to find a business case

00:31:52.300 for it uh but in canada and we're the only major country in the world we still are plowing ahead

00:31:58.300 you know, guns are blazing. And I think, you know, you may be right. The Liberals realize that at

00:32:03.500 most they've got two years left and they're going to try and do as much damage as they can.

00:32:08.460 We certainly can. I mean, even in Ontario, a provincial report came out from a, you know,

00:32:15.340 group out there and it said that if they phased out natural gas, as it had been talked about for

00:32:21.100 Ontario to meet the targets that have been set for it for their generation, it's only 10% of

00:32:25.180 of Ontario's capacity, but it would actually lead to an increase in bills for average Ontarians

00:32:31.400 of as much as $3,200 a year. Like this is what's catching up with the Trudeau government. I think

00:32:35.640 in public support, like people are just can't take more wallops to their pocketbook

00:32:39.660 for his ideals, but he won't back down. But even the provinces are starting to say, look,

00:32:46.320 we can't do this. There's a commentator by the name of Warren Kinsella last night tweeted,

00:32:51.260 I just found out my mortgage payments are doubling next month, dot, dot, dot.

00:32:56.260 And the Liberals wonder why they're losing in the popularity rose.

00:33:00.460 Yeah, it's the economy is starting to hit, starting to hit Canadians hard.

00:33:05.340 Well, I mean, with two more years to go, though, I mean, I was thinking earlier today, I've been predicting.

00:33:12.760 I thought Trudeau is going to take his favorite of walk in the snow soon because, I mean, it's just nothing's gone right for him in six months.

00:33:19.080 Everything he touched has turned to a disaster and his personal life is serious about some challenges going on.

00:33:25.400 Which, you know, is not really our business, but it obviously must impact his decisions and where he's looking going forward.

00:33:31.500 But looking at his attitude going in, he's reminding me almost of that Iraqi minister from the past war.

00:33:38.060 Everything's blowing up in the background.

00:33:39.620 The guns are on their doorstep and he's still saying, no, don't worry.

00:33:43.600 Everything's good.

00:33:44.380 It's just doing all right.

00:33:45.480 He just won't.

00:33:46.540 Just look at this week with the election of the speaker, Canada's first black speaker.

00:33:52.220 He was a former parliamentary secretary to Trudeau and had an ethics violation seven months ago.

00:33:58.920 Yet it didn't stop the liberals from getting their own speaker again.

00:34:04.620 And Trudeau is pictured today in the House sticking his tongue at him and winking at him.

00:34:09.540 I mean, the disdain that Trudeau has is unbelievable.

00:34:13.760 Now, nothing will change, I'm afraid, with this fellow, but I honestly believe he means to stick it out, which means electoral death for his party.

00:34:26.340 To be honest with you, I'm almost glad that that's the plan.

00:34:29.620 It's a painful way to do it. It's like a chemotherapy. You're going to cause a lot of damage to healthy tissue on the way of getting rid of this.

00:34:35.540 So, okay, but let's say he stepped down tomorrow. Who's going to come in and replace him? Would we like Christia Freeland any better?

00:34:43.760 she just commented that she i beg your pardon it was her department who which commented that

00:34:50.240 they didn't even know how much we were spending for interest that's the kind of stuff you should

00:34:54.320 know would you be better off with mark carney and he probably would know governor of the bank of

00:35:00.560 canada governor of the bank of england i imagine he's well carney's frightening because he's

00:35:04.160 actually quite bright he's actually quite bright so if you think it's tough i i say let mr truder

00:35:09.600 do what he can for the next two years, lose the election, and start putting things back together

00:35:17.760 again. You know when they say build it back better? Maybe just put it back the way you found it,

00:35:24.720 you know? What an election slogan. But I mean and I could see that with some of them who've already

00:35:29.680 feathered their nests well enough saying fine we'll ride this two years out and go out in the

00:35:33.840 the sun set, you know, in our blaze of glory. But then is that that loyalty of liberal members of

00:35:41.760 caucus is going to fray for some of them, some of those backbenchers realizing, like,

00:35:46.060 I'm going to be done. I mean, they must have had some aspirations in getting into politics and

00:35:49.840 some goals. Are they going to sync with that ship? They're just insistent no matter what,

00:35:54.600 when they realize. Yeah, at some point, you would think the long knives would come out, but

00:35:59.220 no sign of them yet. They're all being

00:36:01.500 kept sheathed.

00:36:02.780 They can use bats. I'll mail them stuff.

00:36:05.560 You know the magic number? Six years.

00:36:08.600 That's when the pension

00:36:09.720 kicks in for members of parliament.

00:36:11.980 So you've got to win your seat

00:36:13.580 and then you've got to hold it for at least two years.

00:36:16.280 Then you get six years,

00:36:17.540 now you're on pension. So whatever they're feeling

00:36:19.680 about their chances in 2025,

00:36:22.360 you can bet that that's a factor

00:36:23.580 in the back of the mind. Wow.

00:36:25.460 I'll be just over

00:36:27.620 the six years if i got it uh you know a lot of them will be who under the six years yeah

00:36:34.900 so they're they would have more to worry about that'll be a consideration they won't tell you

00:36:40.340 that no they think they'll never admit all right well let's get on to our federal government and

00:36:45.460 their fiscal uh ineptitude they always offer lots of it apparently they're cutting but not cutting

00:36:51.300 a billion dollars from the military yeah late last week our top generals were at a

00:36:56.580 at a committee hearing where it was revealed that the liberals have asked them to cut a billion

00:37:01.540 dollars out uh i mean if there's in my opinion if there's one phase of canada's uh you know

00:37:09.540 productivity that shouldn't be cut it should be the military our military is already in a bad

00:37:13.780 in a bad place uh you know we had the big joint exercise biggest joint exercises ever in nato

00:37:20.660 over europe with the air force a few months ago and canada couldn't go because i don't think we

00:37:24.580 we had any planes that could get there. It's embarrassing. Our Navy's embarrassing, just

00:37:31.160 in terms of the number of ships they can put out. Certainly our submarines are a laughing

00:37:37.340 stock. So to then say, okay, we want another billion dollars out, to me, it's just, it's

00:37:46.380 not farsightedness. It's just, but then on the other hand, they're taking a billion dollars

00:37:51.340 from the Canadian military, but they've given $9 billion to the Ukraine's military.

00:37:59.020 So that's leading to a lot of questions being asked, Nigel.

00:38:03.420 It certainly is.

00:38:04.760 The thing about trying to cut a billion dollars out of the military,

00:38:08.700 they face the same problem that you or I would face

00:38:11.160 if we were trying to take money out of our budget.

00:38:14.320 What can you cut?

00:38:15.240 Well, you can't cut the rent.

00:38:18.000 You can't cut the mortgage payment.

00:38:19.580 The bank tells you what it's going to take.

00:38:21.340 Mr. Kinsella. It's sort of tough to cut the power bills. If you need it, you need it. If you don't

00:38:32.320 need it, switch it off. But if you do need it, you're going to have to pay the bill. And you

00:38:36.200 can go through your family budget, line by line by line, and say, well, there's so much of this

00:38:41.540 that we can't actually touch. Alimony payments, try and cut that, you know, good luck.

00:38:48.680 So, what do you cut?

00:38:52.520 Well, you cut how much you spend on eating and on gasoline and things like that.

00:39:00.200 And what the military is now facing is that all the stuff that they actually do,

00:39:06.200 the training, the preparation, is where they're going to have to find that money from.

00:39:11.960 Now, there will be no less people occupied at D&D headquarters.

00:39:18.780 The ships will still be tied up alongside.

00:39:21.740 They just won't be able to afford the fuel to take them to sea.

00:39:26.320 If you are a squatty and you want to go and you're hoping to get trained up on some machine gun,

00:39:33.960 you're going to find that they don't have the money for the ammo anymore.

00:39:38.060 What they had, they gave away, and with a budget cut, it's ammunition that is...

00:39:44.860 But they have so many fixed costs.

00:39:48.160 However many people they really have, they've got to pay them.

00:39:51.320 So that you can't cut unless you find that the predictions really are true.

00:39:56.780 There's a hell of a lot less people on strength than what they claim.

00:40:00.660 And so it just renders the whole operation, I won't say useless,

00:40:08.340 because that would be an insult to the people who are still trying,

00:40:11.700 but I remember Harper used to say that our line was that we need to give the troops the equipment they need

00:40:20.600 and the respect they deserve.

00:40:23.000 Under Mr. Trudeau, they have had no equipment and they've had no respect,

00:40:28.000 And it's the latter that is the killer, and this cut is just one more kick.

00:40:35.280 Well, it's surprising in a sense of, not that Trudeau cares about our military, I think it's pretty clear he doesn't,

00:40:41.960 but he cares about himself a lot, he always has.

00:40:44.440 And he fancies himself as an international player, that's why he loves those overseas gatherings.

00:40:48.800 He likes to pretend, and I think most of the world has seen through that, they don't take the buffoon seriously, but he still goes.

00:40:54.440 One of the areas, though, is with NATO, which has become so important of late with the affairs going on in Eastern Europe right now.

00:41:02.180 And they've always been critical of Canada. We haven't pulled our weight.

00:41:05.360 I mean, they won't kick us out of NATO, but they say, you know, the amount you're supposed to be obligated for domestic military spending to be a NATO member.

00:41:12.480 We're well under that. We have been for a long time. And to cut further puts us even worse and taken even less seriously.

00:41:19.260 And we get sidelined from more NATO events, talks, and actions.

00:41:25.300 I mean, can Trudeau not see that?

00:41:26.920 I mean, if he wanted to buy his way into being taken seriously on the federal or the international front, that could have been one of the means.

00:41:33.340 And he's just sidelined himself further as well.

00:41:35.900 Just take a look at the billions and billions he's given in subsidies to electric vehicle, the battery places and manufacturing places.

00:41:45.500 I mean, the military could have used that as a world of good.

00:41:49.260 you know, food banks across the country could have used that to feed hungry Canadians.

00:41:55.520 But, you know, he's continuing on with these vanity climate projects

00:41:59.160 that are costing taxpayers billions and billions of dollars.

00:42:03.420 So it's just, you know, we can agree that he doesn't care about the military,

00:42:08.440 and this is just yet another priority he's got wrong and cannot see it.

00:42:13.220 You have to wonder what will happen when they actually have an emergency in this country

00:42:19.160 for which the military is the only solution.

00:42:23.540 Well, and that's something that, you know, Canadians don't like talking about.

00:42:27.360 But the reality is our security as a nation has always been fully dependent on our southern neighbors.

00:42:33.340 I mean, there are some of the smallest nations on Earth could successfully invade and take Canada over quite quickly.

00:42:41.040 But they know that that juggernaut down south of us would not tolerate that for a minute.

00:42:45.520 But talk about taking your friends for granted.

00:42:47.120 You know, they get a little tired of pulling the weight on our behalf.

00:42:51.180 I mean, not just NATO, then we're getting on to even Joe Biden, who doesn't seem to be all that endeared with Trudeau either.

00:42:58.360 It's just their relationship is certainly sour from the halcyon days.

00:43:03.560 But yeah, I mean, certainly, you know, the Chinese invasion plans when they're coming across the Pacific, they're not worried about Canada. 0.80

00:43:09.900 You know, because we can maybe wrestle one warship and we're lucky maybe a leaky submarine to stop them.

00:43:16.900 But thank goodness the states are there to protect us.

00:43:20.780 Since when I was working on seismic projects in the Arctic up on the Beaufort, we would joke about it, but it was the truth.

00:43:27.560 We know under this, we're on a camp frozen in a barge out on the ocean.

00:43:32.220 They're playing games under us in the ice.

00:43:34.260 The Russians are down there, the Chinese are down there, the Americans are down there.

00:43:38.520 They know about the resources of the high Arctic.

00:43:40.760 We actually housed government of Canada scientists in our camp

00:43:44.160 Because the oil companies could get to the higher Arctic reaches where our own scientists couldn't afford to get up there.

00:43:49.520 But you know who wasn't down there?

00:43:51.520 No Canadian subs because we don't have them. 1.00

00:43:53.340 We had diesel ones that we cooked a couple of our sailors just trying to bring them over from England when we bought them.

00:43:58.820 You need nuclear capability to get up there.

00:44:01.440 And so how do we claim our sovereignty up there when we can't even reach it?

00:44:06.340 And war discussion aside, I think Nigel was hinting at it earlier.

00:44:09.580 What happens if the big one hits Vancouver?

00:44:12.260 And, you know, it's a natural disaster, and the military wouldn't be able to overly help much, you know, because they just don't have the manpower or, you know, training anymore to do it.

00:44:24.400 That's the way it goes.

00:44:26.820 And, you know, you can play with the science fiction

00:44:28.720 of this as well and, you know, imagine a situation which is easier

00:44:34.720 to imagine these days than it has been when the United States is

00:44:38.220 so preoccupied with its own internal politics

00:44:41.020 that that land assumption we have that they'll always be there

00:44:45.440 for us may not be so.

00:44:47.720 I mean, actually, it would have been just,

00:44:51.360 it would have just been science fiction to talk like this 20 years ago,

00:44:56.000 but so much has changed down there recently that it's kind of getting a little bit end

00:45:01.200 of empire about it.

00:45:03.740 So say that another country, let's not name names, but say somebody said,

00:45:09.060 well, we're putting a research station on an island in the high Arctic.

00:45:16.140 Yes, we know you think it's yours, but actually not everybody agrees,

00:45:20.220 and we're going to be there.

00:45:21.360 Now what are you going to do?

00:45:23.360 We don't have the capability to meet that sort of a threat.

00:45:27.360 No, and we had that ongoing battle with Denmark over Hans Island, I think it was.

00:45:31.360 It was symbolic, but it's real.

00:45:34.360 And there are people questioning who has sovereignty over those areas.

00:45:38.360 I mean, I know Canada will never have a giant standing army.

00:45:41.360 We can't, it's sheer numbers.

00:45:43.360 But I think we should have one that has at least a limited technological high standard,

00:45:49.360 so we can reach every corner of what we claim as our territory.

00:45:52.680 To be honest, any country going before a world tribunal saying they don't have a claim to that area

00:45:57.060 because they can't even get to it is a pretty valid case.

00:45:59.740 Wouldn't it be funny if Prime Minister Modi, you know, he's so pissed off at Trudeau right now,

00:46:05.860 he may say, okay, you know, let's take over this little island here and just as a poke to the chest of Trudeau.

00:46:12.420 We shouldn't even poke like this on the air. They're listening.

00:46:15.720 We do know that the Indian news networks have...

00:46:19.080 I have more of an audience in India than I do in Alberta these days, but I wouldn't drop that

00:46:27.320 bug in there. You may have more of an audience there than here, Corey, but I don't see you

00:46:32.380 coming in in one of those caftans with a little hat. I respect the Indian population. Don't do 1.00

00:46:39.020 what the Prime Minister does. No, and I certainly value the Albertan audience more so than those

00:46:45.620 in India. Well, okay. We'll cap that off with where that's standing. That's enough for that.

00:46:51.200 Those of you in India or Alberta though, we appreciate your subscriptions. So if you haven't

00:46:56.500 subscribed already, that's how we stay independent. That's how we're going to beat the podcast bands.

00:47:00.760 We'll just go around them. We need you guys. Westernstandard.news slash membership, $9.99 a

00:47:06.320 month, $100 a year, gets you past the paywall and you can see all of our content. So again,

00:47:13.360 thank you Nigel and Dave and well we've solved a few of the world's problems

00:47:18.900 we'll get the rest of them next week at this time but great thanks guys the

00:47:24.540 current Lethbridge feed grain prices for October 4th are as follows cash

00:47:28.520 Barley's at 340 feed wheat's at 355 and corns unchanged at 352 per metric ton

00:47:34.300 in the milling wheat markets December Minneapolis futures lost 11 cents at

00:47:39.160 at $7.14 with local hardwood spring bids for October movement at $9.40 per bushel.

00:47:45.320 In the oilseeds, nearby canola futures are down $2.70 at $7.1470 per ton with delivered

00:47:52.120 values for October movement at $15.88 per bushel.

00:47:55.880 In the pulse markets, nearby red lentils are trading at $0.365 a pound and yellow peas

00:48:01.820 remain at $10.75 per bushel.

00:48:04.340 In the cattle markets, December live cattle gained $0.55 at $1.8620 per 100 weight.

00:48:10.780 For more information on grain marketing, call me at 403-394-1711.

00:48:16.020 I'm Sean Smith at Marketplace Commodities, accurate real-time marketing information and

00:48:19.880 pricing options.

00:48:20.880 Canadian Shooting Sports Association, without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken

00:48:26.300 long, long ago, these guys are on the front lines, helping to draft smart and intelligent

00:48:32.300 firearms, regulations, and legislation in Canada, and more importantly, educating the public about

00:48:38.100 how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people. To become a member, it's absolutely worth

00:48:42.980 every penny.

Western Standard - October 05, 2023

The Pipeline： Trudeau slags Smith in speech to Alberta business leaders

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