Western Standard - The Pipeline： Trying to find the truth in the Israel⧸Gaza conflict

00:00:00.000 good evening i'm cory morgan and this is the pipeline this is the western standards weekly

00:00:17.280 panel show where we'll take a few issues with a number of our staff members and dissect and

00:00:23.040 discuss them and tell you what we think about them and maybe try to imply what we think you

00:00:27.780 should think about them, but it's up to you. You come to your conclusions. We've got lots to talk

00:00:32.020 about today. I'm going to start though actually with something else, a little bit of housekeeping.

00:00:36.380 Some of our regular members with the Western Standard might have noticed there's some problems

00:00:39.880 getting into the website. We've migrated to a whole new platform and it will be an improvement.

00:00:45.640 It's going to be really good when it's all done. Unfortunately, we ran into some hiccups and

00:00:49.740 there's been some difficulties for folks logging in. So what's happened is we're giving actually

00:00:54.580 free access until we fix it. So if you're already subscribers, get on in there, guys. Have a look.

00:00:58.680 Sorry for the delays, and I appreciate the patience. If you haven't subscribed yet, hey, here's a good

00:01:02.060 chance to get a sneak peek and realize why it's so important and so worth it for you to spend $9.99

00:01:06.480 a month or $100 a year to subscribe and get back there and see all those columns and stories without

00:01:11.340 that nasty paywall in the way. So kind of we're going to turn this into a treat for you. And again,

00:01:15.840 thank you guys for the patience. We'll get it all ironed out. Always those tech things, you know,

00:01:19.640 they can be maddening. The other way we pay our bills, I guess, you know, I should get to that,

00:01:23.540 and I'll get that out of the way, is our sponsors, of course, and it's important. I shouldn't say

00:01:26.780 it's getting it out of the way. I like talking about these guys, the Canadian Shooting Sports

00:01:30.360 Association. They've been a fantastic sponsor for us, and they've been a fantastic advocate

00:01:34.960 for anybody who owns firearms. If you own them, collect them. Whether you want to target shooting,

00:01:40.220 hunting, whatever you want, it's your business. But we've got a government that doesn't want

00:01:44.240 you to have the ability to do those things. They think it's their business, and you need to push

00:01:48.760 back. The Canadian Shooting Sports Association stands up for you. They advocate for you,

00:01:52.320 but you've got to be a member. They can't help you unless you help them. So check them out.

00:01:56.700 Canadian Shooting Sports Association, their website's cssa-cila.org or just Google them,

00:02:02.580 take out a membership. It's a worthwhile investment in your own rights. Okay, we got a bit of a

00:02:07.740 different panel shakeup today, but with some standard names you would have seen in your

00:02:11.720 stories and articles through the months and even now getting past a year and some with Jonathan

00:02:16.880 here. So I'll start on the end there. We got our reporter, Jonathan Bradley. Welcome to the show

00:02:22.120 today. Thank you, Corey. It's been a while since I've been on here. Yeah, it's been a bit. So

00:02:25.120 you're overdue. And we got it totally, yeah, messed up. Eventually, I'm going to get back

00:02:28.860 in my chair over in the end. It's been a while now. And we've got Sean Polzer here in the middle.

00:02:34.900 Thank you very much. Filling in for, well, we got Dave, Nigel, Derek, all in different forms of

00:02:40.780 inability to come in right now. So they're all getting better. We'll have a normal lineup coming

00:02:47.300 again. But it's fine. You know, people don't see the same faces all the time. I know they get tired

00:02:50.520 of mine. I've been the consistent one all the way through here, but glad you guys could pretty it up

00:02:55.080 a little on the end there. All right, enough of that. Well, let's start. I mean, again, the top

00:03:00.720 story of the week, and it's probably going to be the top story of the year, is the Israel-Gaza

00:03:05.400 conflict. And I mean, it's horrific. It's just in its early stages, unfortunately, I hate to say it.

00:03:12.460 We're seeing a lot of awful imagery. And what I want to talk about, though, is also the, I guess,

00:03:17.440 the miscommunication, the accuracy in reporting. Jonathan, as a reporter watching this, you know,

00:03:25.220 I'll get your views on what you're seeing in the reporting and coverage of this event as it's

00:03:29.940 coming out. Well, one thing that I've noticed in particular is how many people are justifying

00:03:35.400 Hamas's actions as acceptable. Like I did a story, I think it was last Thursday, about the York 0.89

00:03:42.800 university student unions coming together and putting out a statement saying that they

00:03:48.000 hamas terrorism is justified and that they said that hamas terrorist attack is all about

00:03:53.200 colonialism and what i found particularly funny about these comments was the the president of the 0.82

00:04:00.640 graduate students union who signed on to the statement is non-binary i'm not too sure if she

00:04:05.440 if they know what happens to non-binary people in palestine but i mean it was you know i had a

00:04:10.560 chuckle about that but even some public figures like the QP Ontario president has spoken out in

00:04:16.560 support of Palestine and justified Hamas's actions so it is it has been a bit troubling 0.63

00:04:22.960 to say the least yeah well getting on to the the media and Sean like we see some of the race I mean 0.92

00:04:28.720 we could be guilty of it too I mean it's a bit of the digital world too everybody wants to be on 0.78

00:04:32.800 the story first they want to be the ones who hit that story out there they might not have a reporter

00:04:37.840 on the ground over there. So they're relying on Twitter and X as much as anybody or following

00:04:42.280 accounts or press releases. But I mean, we've seen some recent really, I think, jumping the gun on

00:04:46.900 some big incidents that have happened. And it causes damage when that happens.

00:04:52.740 Yeah, absolutely. You know, they say that truth is the first casualty of war. And we had an example

00:04:58.380 of that yesterday with the so-called hospital bombing, which in itself is an awful, horrible

00:05:06.100 thing, you know, 500 people getting killed in Oswald, where they're supposed to be safe.

00:05:10.140 And exactly like you said, Corey, so it flashed out on Twitter, and there's a lot of pressure

00:05:15.580 to get out there with the story and be first with it, maybe before all the facts are even

00:05:20.160 known, you know, and then it come out maybe half an hour later that, you know, chances

00:05:26.020 are this could have been a friendly fire incident, and, you know, and then there again,

00:05:31.140 those videos were put out on Twitter, released by the IDF.

00:05:33.380 I would imagine that they would have had to have been vetted on the other end before they would take such a step to actually do that and maybe kind of cross-verify it.

00:05:41.760 But, yeah, you know, the narrative kind of gets a little hazy in the fog of war, as they say.

00:05:50.460 Yeah, well, the media world should know better, I would think.

00:05:53.180 Well, who knows?

00:05:54.020 We should know better.

00:05:55.420 But, I mean, you know, an IDF for people unfamiliar with the Israel Defense Forces.

00:05:59.300 And I mean, I wouldn't put it beyond the IDF to put out, yes, it's a war. They're going to do propaganda on their end as well. I mean, what I found kind of striking when this happened, though, and when it was breaking out was Hamas. I mean, that was, they said, the Hamas Health Authority. Well, yeah, or the Gaza Health Authority. Yeah, that's Hamas. Hamas governs that area. Put it out, and they had numbers that were just, wow, this happened half an hour ago, and they know there's 562 people dead, and it was this and this. I mean, there are already some alarm bells.

00:06:27.640 I mean, these guys can barely count, you know, what's going on on a street.

00:06:32.140 How do they have these precise numbers?

00:06:33.780 Meanwhile, Israel and IDF were saying, well, we aren't going to respond to this.

00:06:36.800 We've got to research and check into some things first because we're not quite sure what happened.

00:06:41.160 It just gives me more of a sense of trust with the one who's willing to admit we don't know what happened yet than the ones who came up with such a...

00:06:48.160 Yeah, that's true.

00:06:49.260 But, you know, our news editor, Dave Naylor, called us over, you know, to around his desk and asked, you know, should we be posting, you know, reposting these videos that have been coming up on Twitter?

00:07:01.540 And, you know, I'm not a war correspondent.

00:07:04.280 I've never covered war, you know, but I've been to a couple of riots, Stanley Cup riots here in this country.

00:07:11.200 And when you saw the pictures of all the bodies laying around, like, my first thought was like, oh, my God.

00:07:16.060 Like, because I was thinking that, too, you know, how can you come up with 500?

00:07:18.840 But, I mean, there was definitely, you know, dozens, hundreds of, you know, whatever you want to call them, casualties.

00:07:28.020 I don't even know if they were dead bodies or not.

00:07:29.000 It was tragic no matter who did it.

00:07:30.800 I don't even know if they were actually laying down there on the ground.

00:07:33.200 You know, maybe it could have been states, but, you know, it didn't kind of seem like that.

00:07:38.020 You know, you have to think that there definitely was an incident, and it was definitely tragic in any event, whoever was responsible for it.

00:07:45.640 Yeah. 0.85

00:07:45.920 But, you know, and it's kind of like you make the point, too, you know, Hamas is the civic government there.

00:07:51.460 So they would be running the health authority and they would be running the hospital. 0.53

00:07:54.740 And it seems a little disingenuous that, you know, that they would want to fire on their own people.

00:07:59.660 Right. So, you know, now they're saying it was some kind of a splinter group.

00:08:04.380 Well, and the report also is that it sounds like maybe they were launching a missile that was intended to go to Israel and hit innocent people there instead.

00:08:11.880 But it broke up and then crashed on the hospital accidentally.

00:08:15.280 get into this moral equivalent argument you know is it better or worse to kill other people or you

00:08:20.400 know yeah and uh but i mean we're we're in this age of instant news you know and jonathan you're

00:08:25.520 kind of younger among us and you're more used to it like it's the age of the iphone um as you

00:08:30.240 mentioned you know we used to see things in the past where perhaps there were staging of incidents

00:08:33.520 and things going on but i don't think they could get away with that now because there'd be a hundred

00:08:37.200 other people who would have other pictures they've been taking with their cameras saying quite to the

00:08:39.920 the contrary and showing that so I suspect unfortunately those images of

00:08:44.180 bodies were real and it's awful no matter who did it yes but I mean how do

00:08:48.860 you respond to me well what would Dave say though if you wrote a story just

00:08:51.500 based on a few Twitter videos and things you shot and you put it up there on the

00:08:55.980 website well Dave wouldn't be too happy about that but I mean we saw yesterday

00:08:59.600 with the story about the Gaza Hospital where all the media were jumping on it

00:09:05.900 saying that, oh, this was an Israel Defense Force missile that struck the hospital, but it took,

00:09:12.400 it was a few hours later when it came out that, no, it was a Hamas missile that didn't have enough

00:09:17.800 range that ended up striking the hospital. What was interesting to see was Prime Minister Justin

00:09:23.320 Trudeau and Deputy Jagmeet Singh justified their comments, saying, like, put out tweets saying,

00:09:29.660 oh, this is, like, a war crime and all that, but one of the information came up, they didn't back 0.55

00:09:35.320 up and say you know i was wrong sorry about that you know this is like hamas who did it so it's

00:09:39.720 been the last few weeks have been interesting when it comes to the story yeah well and from from

00:09:44.680 media you know i guess zeal and then going out there trying to be first and sometimes

00:09:49.160 misreporting things or not getting all the facts out when they should have hung on the other worry

00:09:53.960 we have is media bias which is there there's opinion guys like me i mean my calls would be

00:09:57.880 pretty boring if i don't put my opinion into them but news copy a lot of people get mixed up with

00:10:01.240 that online fair enough you know you realize there's a big difference between a reporter and

00:10:04.760 a columnist and and uh you really don't want to see that opinion flowing through from a reporter

00:10:09.960 you don't want to see a columnist trying to write news copy i mean if there was a news story written

00:10:13.400 by cory martin it was like that guy's got a view on everything his news he can't believe his stuff

00:10:17.800 like there's differences cbc now you know i mean i say ostensibly can his biggest news organization

00:10:23.160 thanks to the the billion and some a year they get but that's one thing that gets me is so that

00:10:28.520 that order has come down and they won't explain themselves on it, but they refuse to call Hamas

00:10:32.860 terrorists. They're not allowed to call it. I mean, CBC reporters and staff are not allowed to use

00:10:36.480 the word terrorist for Hamas. And this isn't an opinion. This is a group that's been registered

00:10:41.820 as a terrorist group within Canada for years. What do we make of that? What rationale would

00:10:49.240 you think the CBC would have in telling them not to refer to it in that case? I thought it was a

00:10:54.200 little bit confusing because you have the Prime Minister in question period

00:10:58.760 explicitly referring to Hamas as a terrorist organization as you said they

00:11:03.980 are legally designated terrorist organization in this country and a lot of

00:11:07.640 other countries less than even all through Europe but yeah you've definitely

00:11:13.040 got this it almost seems to be kind of an abundance of caution you know I was

00:11:19.720 saying back, you know, because these wars seem to pop up fairly regularly and they seem to run a fairly kind of common script.

00:11:28.020 You know, when we were back at Post Media at the Calgary Herald, we had a company-wide memo came up from Izzy Asper himself

00:11:34.800 that said that we were absolutely not to refer to Palestinians.

00:11:40.040 Mind you, he had a broader, slightly broader brush because they were in the West Bank as well.

00:11:45.040 Palestinians are the Palestinian Authority as freedom fighters, because Reuters had been putting that in their copy, right?

00:11:52.040 So, you know, this isn't a new thing, and it comes up fairly regularly, fairly periodically, and too regularly, in fact.

00:12:01.620 I, I, you know, you can, everybody has sides, but I mean, you know, war is just, is a tragedy.

00:12:11.680 It's a breakdown in communication, the ultimate breakdown in communication.

00:12:15.680 And at the end of the day, I think you have to take steps to stop it.

00:12:21.560 Yeah, well, and there are, it's, it's a confusing, nuanced mess over there too.

00:12:26.840 Like, in fairness, you don't want to call every Palestinian a terrorist. Hamas are the terrorists. 0.91

00:12:33.360 Hamas came from Gaza, and as with Hezbollah, up in Lebanon and the West Bank. 0.94

00:12:39.740 But it doesn't mean all of the Palestinians necessarily are members of such, and thus are terrorists. 0.78

00:12:44.800 So you can over-apply the term terrorist, but in some areas, they pretty well-earned the title,

00:12:51.480 and we should be able to apply it to them. 0.50

00:12:53.660 I would think so in this case, for sure.

00:12:55.700 that when you have when you have people you know bombing music festivals killing people beheading

00:13:03.380 beheading and maiming children what else can you call them they're terrorists well that's it and

00:13:08.420 again you know picking on you in the youth it's nice having somebody younger in here because you 0.99

00:13:11.700 got a new perspective uh uh you know we've sat through the past infatadas and and seen this this

00:13:19.540 is just a a record that just seems to be on skip you know this is the first middle eastern bowl

00:13:24.420 that you're seeing, Jonathan.

00:13:27.460 One in 2021.

00:13:29.160 There was one two years ago.

00:13:31.040 Not quite like this, though.

00:13:33.100 To the scale of it,

00:13:34.380 I mean, we're getting to the Gulf Wars

00:13:35.680 or the 2006, was it, 0.98

00:13:38.740 when Lebanon and Israel

00:13:41.660 really went at it heavily with Hezbollah.

00:13:45.000 But it's new eyes on,

00:13:48.760 as people keep saying,

00:13:49.940 some of them, too.

00:13:50.420 It's just going to go on forever.

00:13:51.320 I mean, people get cynical about it.

00:13:53.280 And then it's, when you can't see a solution,

00:13:57.000 maybe younger eyes on their own,

00:13:58.940 you can see a way out because nobody else

00:14:00.980 has been able to manage this since, you know, 67.

00:14:05.480 Well, and I think also what's changed too

00:14:07.340 is what you said about the immediacy of it.

00:14:09.760 You've got all these citizen journalists

00:14:12.400 running around with their iPhones, 0.52

00:14:13.960 assuming that they can get them charged

00:14:15.800 without any electricity and, you know,

00:14:18.220 running around and uploading cell count videos.

00:14:20.500 So, yeah, you'd think that, you know, on the one hand,

00:14:25.640 it's very unfiltered, it's happening almost in real time.

00:14:29.420 But then on the other hand, it would be pretty tough

00:14:31.840 to try to stage something or try to, you know what I mean?

00:14:36.820 Like, something that-

00:14:38.040 It would get exposed as being fake.

00:14:39.500 You'd get a lot more corroboration,

00:14:40.880 kind of indirect corroboration, maybe not officially,

00:14:43.240 but definitely indirectly, for sure.

00:14:45.620 Well, we're gonna see the conspiracy theorists coming out,

00:14:47.500 no matter what comes up.

00:14:48.420 People are gonna say that video was a deep thing.

00:14:50.580 That was, you know, that didn't really happen that.

00:14:54.540 And you know what?

00:14:55.380 Maybe it could have been.

00:14:56.300 I mean, it's, we had this seminar recently on AI and things.

00:14:59.640 I mean, the stuff that can be created now.

00:15:03.000 Of course.

00:15:03.840 I'm leaving it on you, Jonathan.

00:15:04.680 You young guys, you gotta be able to cut through the BS.

00:15:07.780 We didn't have this sort of thing to deal with.

00:15:09.860 I mean, I haven't heard Alex Jones

00:15:11.060 spouse any crazy conspiracy theories yet.

00:15:12.940 So we'll see.

00:15:15.300 Sell some vitamins.

00:15:18.420 Oh, he'll be on it, I'm sure.

00:15:20.860 So, I mean, since we've got our energy and business experts in here, Sean, so with the

00:15:26.920 world energy markets, I mean, we've got another Middle East war going on.

00:15:30.180 It's going to go for a while.

00:15:31.340 We're already seeing a little bit of pressure on the markets, but what do you anticipate?

00:15:37.080 What are we looking at here?

00:15:38.940 Well, you know, OPEC is a lot less unified than, say, it was in 1973 or in 1967 when

00:15:46.440 they had the big previous oil shocks. Saudi Arabia is extremely conscious of it.

00:15:55.500 From my reading of it, the geopolitical factors that are at play are probably more of a reason

00:16:01.720 for this kind of outbreak than anything. You know, Israel was supposed to announce a deal

00:16:07.420 with the Saudis, which was going to include an oil component along with an arms pact with

00:16:14.820 the United States, and I'm sure that there's parties in both Hamas and probably within

00:16:20.120 Israel itself that were against that specifically. But you've also seen kind of a split between

00:16:27.020 OPEC members that have condemned, you know, the attacks and other ones like Qatar, Qatar,

00:16:34.020 Qatar, I'm not exactly sure how to say it.

00:16:36.420 It was the UN, it just a mess. 0.70

00:16:37.820 Major natural gas suppliers. So instead of an oil embargo this time, they threatened

00:16:41.820 to cut off LNG to Europe, because they are staunchly in favor of the Palestinians. 0.77

00:16:48.980 The Saudis have kind of tried to stay out of it. 0.99

00:16:51.740 Iran, world's fourth largest oil producer, they're calling for an oil embargo.

00:16:56.760 And they're also inextricably wrapped up in this, because nobody knows their exact role.

00:17:00.940 And you have to think that Biden's parked two aircraft carriers out in the Mediterranean

00:17:05.820 and the third one in the Persian Gulf, basically just to see what they are going to do.

00:17:10.000 i believe the uk moved one out that way too so you know you've got a lot of firepower

00:17:14.800 sitting in there and everybody's just kind of got trigger figures and we're not really

00:17:19.120 sure what's going to happen the stuff that's happening on the grounds is you know it's

00:17:22.480 actually restricted to a fairly smaller area well i like to think most people that's what

00:17:26.400 their intent is to keep it contained then they don't want to you know those ships are out there

00:17:29.600 as a warning hopefully more than a preparation to start getting active at home but that's kind

00:17:34.560 of a new wrinkle that we haven't seen in these past conflicts you you wouldn't see major powers

00:17:38.640 all of a sudden start mobilizing, you know,

00:17:41.120 some pretty serious, you know, firepower into it.

00:17:44.540 This fast.

00:17:45.540 This fast.

00:17:47.120 Yeah, I mean, if it breaks out out there,

00:17:49.500 I mean, people forget how much,

00:17:51.000 the complexity, how much oil Iran really supplies.

00:17:54.740 Well, and it all comes to the Straits of Hormuz too.

00:17:57.060 So, you know, there's an argument to be made

00:17:58.820 that maybe the reason that they're there

00:18:01.260 is to try to keep those shipping lanes open

00:18:03.260 and maybe try to calm the markets

00:18:04.860 so that you don't have a big price spike.

00:18:07.640 You know, that said, on the hospital bombings,

00:18:10.520 oil was up again, almost $2 before it's pulling back.

00:18:14.660 But, you know, we're getting in closer and closer

00:18:17.520 to that $100 mark.

00:18:18.940 And I think that's gonna be kind of the tipping point.

00:18:23.100 Kind of a psychological price.

00:18:24.520 Psychological, now we're at three figure per barrel price.

00:18:27.760 Like maybe now this is getting serious.

00:18:30.540 Yeah, and I mean, I know it sounds crass,

00:18:32.040 but there's so much human loss, you know,

00:18:34.240 going on and everything.

00:18:35.320 to look at how it impacts the economic markets, but it's a part of it.

00:18:38.380 It's a determining factor in a lot of the actions of countries, whether we like it or not.

00:18:42.120 Absolutely. 0.59

00:18:42.940 I mean, the reason Iran still exists, I think, is also the fact that they have so much control of resources over there. 0.92

00:18:49.200 If it was another rogue Islamic state performing, they probably would have been invaded like Afghanistan long ago. 0.94

00:18:55.120 Oh, absolutely. 1.00

00:18:57.560 Well, we'll just keep watching. 0.82

00:18:59.480 I mean, as of this recording, we're looking at Israel's potentially getting ready, it looks like, to go in on the ground

00:19:04.800 and start trying to root out Hamas members.

00:19:09.440 You know, as I said online,

00:19:10.640 it's talking about sorting out fly poop from the pepper.

00:19:12.620 You've got a couple million people there

00:19:13.900 and maybe 10,000, 20,000 Hamas members.

00:19:17.500 It's going to be bloody and it's going to be ugly.

00:19:19.300 Well, and they're underground.

00:19:20.420 I mean, we knew that from the last one.

00:19:22.060 They kept on popping up out of the tunnels and stuff.

00:19:24.520 So, I mean, really, they're going to have to clear 0.99

00:19:26.920 all of, you know, Gaza City first, 0.99

00:19:30.220 and then they're going to have to go underground 0.67

00:19:31.660 and basically root them out one by one.

00:19:33.500 and it's going to be a messy operation. I'm sure that there's going to be very high casualties on

00:19:38.060 both sides. Yeah, and it's going to take a while. Well, we'll keep watching and reporting on it and

00:19:42.900 sharing our views how we can. Let's move a little closer to home, I guess. The United Conservative

00:19:47.400 Party, they're going to have their first AGM since Premier Smith got elected. So this will

00:19:51.720 be kind of one that's establishing the flavor of the party under her leadership, though it's

00:19:56.780 supposed to be member-driven, not leader-driven. I understand the difference, but you know, those

00:20:00.580 overlap a lot. And there's going to be a lot of policy motions. So Jonathan, you're going to be

00:20:06.080 covering this and watching this, and you've been looking through the list of things that

00:20:10.300 they're looking to examine in a couple of weeks. What do you got?

00:20:14.440 Well, I'd say with these policy motions, many of them are more so culture warrior type policies,

00:20:21.100 whereas when you saw with the Conservative Convention last month, it was mainly, well,

00:20:26.340 there was a good portion that were like, you know, economic policies related to that type of stuff.

00:20:29.600 this one is really culture warrior type issues the three big ones that I think

00:20:35.780 will be people should watch is there's one about the just transition and using

00:20:40.940 the Alberta Sovereignty Act to respond to it the second one that I think is

00:20:45.080 going to be contentious is the pronoun policy so it would be similar to New

00:20:51.620 Brunswick and Saskatchewan and what they've been doing where they require

00:20:54.320 parental consent for students under 16 years old to change pronouns and the

00:20:58.220 The third one is about 15 minute cities

00:21:00.880 and restricting land use developments

00:21:02.840 to try to mitigate them.

00:21:06.040 Yeah, so, I mean, I'll start just kind of,

00:21:08.720 you know, it's been a political weenie for a long time.

00:21:11.320 I was in VP policy for the Wildrose stuff on the newsroom.

00:21:14.740 I got to deal with some really colorful

00:21:17.240 and interesting policy proposals, as I was mentioning,

00:21:20.840 one was put in it.

00:21:21.680 Yeah, we're gonna illegalize the Illuminati

00:21:23.540 because they're controlling everybody's minds.

00:21:25.400 here in Alberta. I didn't let that one get to the floor. You know, but there's the hard thing

00:21:29.360 with a grassroots organization. You shouldn't have an executive member stopping any policies

00:21:35.900 getting through, but you've got to try and limit the insanity at the same time. But people should

00:21:40.840 also understand that just because a policy has hit the floor at an AGM, or even if it's accepted

00:21:46.040 by the members of AGM, it doesn't mean it's going to be actually brought into force by

00:21:50.360 the elected members later, though it's an indicator. I mean, it's fun media fodder.

00:21:55.360 Like, you know, I know you've probably played with this. When the NDP comes out and they get

00:21:59.180 their socialist wing, puts in some crackpot stuff in their conventions, you know what? I twist the

00:22:03.220 knife on it and I bug them. But I know realistically the leadership of the NDP, Rachel Notley, isn't

00:22:08.960 going to bring those extreme policies forward. We're going to see some serious, I think,

00:22:15.680 games played with some of these, you know, like the 15-minute cities things. I imagine we're going

00:22:19.800 to be seeing people paving the UCP as conspiracy theorists.

00:22:22.860 Yeah, I would agree, but at the same time,

00:22:26.560 I think, I'm not a party leader,

00:22:29.120 but it would seem to be important to give voice

00:22:31.820 to the grassroots and the membership.

00:22:35.300 Somebody who struggled with this a lot

00:22:37.240 while he was premier was actually Ralph Klein,

00:22:39.200 because Ralph Klein, he's fairly socially liberal,

00:22:43.360 so he had the fiscal hawks all on board,

00:22:46.280 but every time they went to a policy convention,

00:22:48.040 There was always some kind of a resolution about, you know, gay marriage or something

00:22:53.040 that would come up, you know, that he obviously was not interested in, but, you know, at the

00:22:58.220 same time had to kind of pay lip service, you know, to bring them out.

00:23:02.140 And I think Smith, since, Premier Smith, since she's been elected, you know, most of the

00:23:07.580 focus has been on these economic issues, you know, electricity, energy, constitutional

00:23:14.400 know, turf wars with Ottawa and, you know, what's been sitting in the back is, like you

00:23:20.600 said, the, you know, the grassroots of the party that, well, put her in there because

00:23:25.720 they're the ones that, you know, got rid of former Premier Kenny and you have experience

00:23:30.600 with Wildrose and, you know, Danielle was the leader of them, you know, for quite a

00:23:35.500 while and she had her own issues with the, you know, with the membership and trying to

00:23:39.600 balance, you know, like you said, some of the...

00:23:41.780 You can't ignore them.

00:23:42.800 I mean, you know, and I don't want to dismiss that.

00:23:44.700 I was just saying they don't have to follow what comes out of these conventions, but they should feel guided somewhat.

00:23:49.600 I mean, this is where you get a measure of your membership, the ones who are paying your donations, knocking on your doors for you, and presumably keeping you in.

00:23:58.140 So it's a balancing act.

00:24:01.780 When you went through them, Jonathan, did you see, because there's always the turd in the punch bowl that hits every time, was the abortion thrown in there anywhere?

00:24:09.820 i didn't see anything about that but i saw one about medical assistance in dying and wanting to

00:24:15.580 add in safeguards to that um but shifting back to the crackpot ones like there were a few where i

00:24:20.220 was just like why is this being debated at a convention like there was one about uh electronic

00:24:25.340 voting machines something like that we haven't really seen an issue with that in canada but it's

00:24:29.180 mainly uh an american one and then there was another one about wanting to add like a second

00:24:33.820 part to the charter where they want to include things like gun rights and rights against excess

00:24:38.060 taxation rights to health care and all that it was i've kind of found that odd i'm like

00:24:43.580 like usually when it comes to like these constitutional type issues you usually don't

00:24:47.340 talk about them at a convention um but shifting to uh people paying the ucp as conspiracy theorists

00:24:53.100 i saw gill mcgowan having one of his typical meltdowns saying that the crazy train has arrived

00:24:58.300 and that there's he's one of the talk yeah well and they are going to do fodder with it the other

00:25:06.540 part it comes at these AGMs is when the policy debates come and people come up

00:25:11.820 and get that microphone as proponents or all opponents and speaking again most

00:25:16.980 people are rational and they're fine but once in a while you'll get somebody pop

00:25:21.120 out and you know there there's again the age of the iPhone no statement is gonna

00:25:25.680 go unrecorded of course and even with like at the conservative convention there

00:25:31.300 were a few motions that when they after they came out you know liberal MPs and

00:25:35.340 DPMPs and even like you know social justice type people were coming out of

00:25:39.960 a woodwork and jumping out the Conservatives being like how dare they

00:25:42.840 pass this policy. So I'm sure we're definitely gonna see some fallout from

00:25:45.780 whether or not certain policies are adopted in the following days after that.

00:25:50.580 Yeah well it'll be something to be watching you know again as I said this

00:25:55.860 is gonna be this is more about you know it's not a midterm AGM or something like

00:25:59.820 that like this is the one that yeah this is her first is the leader really and

00:26:04.920 and you know it's I mean speaking from a business perspective I think businesses

00:26:09.420 companies they want to see some feelings of stability really some some

00:26:12.900 that's what businesses always like to see is it's just well she's been out

00:26:17.040 front center like you know they were talking about the first hundred days you

00:26:21.420 know she was elected on the policy of you know the corporate taxes and a lot

00:26:27.420 these social kind of issues have seemed to be taking a backseat. At the press

00:26:32.700 conference last week somebody asked her about the pronouns and Premier Smith

00:26:39.060 gave an answer about you know being a grassroots party and being in tune with

00:26:42.720 the views of the grassroots but she's also been pretty plain in the past on

00:26:47.280 her own personal views with you know she's libertarian she's pro rights or

00:26:57.000 whatever, you know, she's pro-grade marriage, I mean, that's, she always has been, like, that's

00:27:02.180 never been a secret, so, and, uh, I think she's probably personally a little bit reluctant to

00:27:07.340 bring up some of these issues at, uh, AGM. We haven't talked about it yet, but I, I think that's

00:27:12.440 the reason why, um, they're pushing the, you know, referendum, and, you know, reopening the idea of

00:27:20.060 a provincial police force, because, uh, these were kind of, like, the signature issues that were

00:27:24.280 brought up in the leadership campaign.

00:27:26.660 Well, that's a good point.

00:27:27.660 I mean, if you can constantly just keep on top of the agenda

00:27:30.500 and keep the conversation points,

00:27:31.760 as much as people are trying to pull it over

00:27:33.180 to the other issues, it's a little harder when,

00:27:35.480 hey, we're busy, we're now the pension plan or...

00:27:40.020 You know, we're doing what we said we would do.

00:27:42.780 But I mean, so I mean,

00:27:44.300 they also still do have to

00:27:47.640 take the social conservative seriously.

00:27:49.340 I mean, we saw with Take Back Alberta.

00:27:53.460 I mean, they've been very active, they've, you know,

00:27:55.640 David Parker's outspoken, unapologetically

00:27:58.700 socially conservative, makes no bones about it,

00:28:01.600 we will rip leaders out if you don't, you know,

00:28:04.400 till the line, and he knows how to use the tools for it,

00:28:06.280 you know, you get into the constituency associations,

00:28:08.440 get in on the provincial executive,

00:28:09.920 that's another battle that's coming up,

00:28:11.700 is the provincial executive,

00:28:13.360 have you looked at many of the people running for that, Jonathan?

00:28:15.200 I know that Take Back Alberta controls

00:28:17.220 half of the board right now,

00:28:18.580 and they're looking to take over the other half,

00:28:20.520 whether or not that's the case, I'm not too sure.

00:28:23.360 I haven't really seen too much action online about that, but I think the main issue with this AGM is some of the policy motions that are put forward.

00:28:33.160 And I would just like to add, I would agree with that because, you know, it's easy to have a unified party when everything is going well, you know, like they have been, you know, Premier Smith's been in a bit of a honeymoon period with voters.

00:28:47.680 And, you know, Sue's getting a lot of support from people who, you know, are pleasantly surprised.

00:28:51.880 Even people that were her detractors originally are saying that she's doing a good job.

00:28:56.700 So it's easy to have a unified party when everybody's all on the same page.

00:29:00.980 But you don't have to look very far back, you know, to Jason Kenney and what happens when, you know, that facade starts to crack and it comes out from underneath your feet.

00:29:13.300 And a lot of people did say before the election that keeping that party together was going to be probably the toughest challenge that Premier Smith has in her mandate, in her term.

00:29:25.320 Well, she certainly learned hard lessons about that in her Wildrose time and then with caucus splitting on her and a number of things.

00:29:31.900 I mean, I was on the provincial executive with the Wildrose while she was the leader of the party.

00:29:36.400 And for people who don't directly get involved in politics, may not understand that separation.

00:29:40.660 The provincial executive runs the mechanics of the party.

00:29:43.300 They run the policy formulation,

00:29:46.020 they run the constituency associations.

00:29:47.920 They're there to prepare for the election,

00:29:50.340 but they're a separate authority from caucus and leader.

00:29:52.860 And sometimes people don't understand.

00:29:54.800 And the leader's gotta juggle between the two.

00:29:56.940 Well, and it's vital too, right?

00:29:58.340 Like the ground game is what wins elections

00:30:03.880 as much as policy. 0.99

00:30:05.020 And we'll see, I mean, Danielle Smith, 0.67

00:30:08.040 I think she's really reinvented herself

00:30:09.920 from somebody who hit the political bottom so hard.

00:30:13.300 i imagine she's learned a lot of things and thought on a lot of things i know why we had

00:30:16.660 some horrific battles when i was in the executive with the leader of the party i won't detail those

00:30:22.260 maybe until i'll write a book when their political career is done when the names of the innocents

00:30:28.660 nothing terribly scandalous but there was a lot of heads butting i mean they're they're

00:30:32.900 in the same team but at the same time they each tries you know the leader sometimes tries to

00:30:37.300 use super little onto the provincial executive or the executive tries to push in and direct

00:30:42.420 caucus and neither should be doing so but it happens and that's what can really lead to some

00:30:47.140 rifts and stress and problems. Well you know I would say I don't mean to preempt or interrupt

00:30:53.700 but I've thought Premier Smith has done a really good job of bringing in her political leadership

00:30:58.580 rivals into the cabinet. You know I was kind of out of it for a little while so I wasn't

00:31:03.540 too attuned but you know having to deal with some of these people on a daily basis you know

00:31:07.620 So Rebecca Schultz, Brian Jean, who's the-

00:31:12.020 Rajat Sani.

00:31:12.940 Rajat Sani, she's taken all those people.

00:31:16.200 I mean, they had some pretty harsh things to say

00:31:18.180 during the leadership campaign,

00:31:20.500 and she's kind of seemed to have managed

00:31:23.120 to pull them together as a team, so.

00:31:25.900 And that's the caucus level, and cabinet,

00:31:28.620 which is important, very important, 0.99

00:31:29.940 and that's where I think she had her biggest problems

00:31:32.140 prior, even when in opposition.

00:31:34.320 And now the next potential nest of hornets is the party structure, which, Jonathan, you'll

00:31:39.740 be going on the floor and sniffing around to see what members' views are.

00:31:43.240 Oh, of course.

00:31:44.240 Yeah.

00:31:45.240 And, you know, I'll definitely be looking to speak to the big players before, during,

00:31:48.400 and after.

00:31:49.400 Yeah.

00:31:50.400 And I mean, this is where it's at these AGMs to where the advocacy groups start coming

00:31:54.760 up.

00:31:55.760 Whether you like them or don't like them, some of the best areas, if you want to get

00:31:59.440 candid views, go to the hospitality suites when some of these advocates get a few beers

00:32:03.000 into them.

00:32:04.000 And I promise you, you'll find some interesting stuff.

00:32:10.620 But that's the risks of these AGMs as well.

00:32:14.860 I mean, you're gonna have,

00:32:16.020 whether it's the parents union or pro-life associations

00:32:19.860 or pro-business ones that are getting a little too bold

00:32:22.200 and thinking how much sway they have with the party as well.

00:32:26.080 I don't know, as you can see, 0.99

00:32:26.960 I like the intrigue of this sort of crap, 0.89

00:32:28.860 even though this is the stuff that puts people off politics. 0.98

00:32:31.060 This is how the sausage gets made, guys.

00:32:33.280 Well, I was at the Friends of Science.

00:32:36.380 Another advocate?

00:32:37.480 Yeah, Michelle.

00:32:38.380 Everybody knew you.

00:32:39.840 Hey, do you know Corey?

00:32:41.180 I was thinking, yeah, I know Corey.

00:32:43.500 You can only answer that.

00:32:44.500 It's not always a positive.

00:32:45.540 But it seemed like that's a prime demographic,

00:32:50.640 a UCP demographic.

00:32:52.120 Those people, and there were some politicians shaking hands

00:32:55.960 and kind of working the floor and doing that kind of thing.

00:32:59.580 Well, and Friends of Science, they're pretty,

00:33:01.000 for the most part, rational.

00:33:02.060 I mean, a hardcore climate activist would think otherwise.

00:33:03.920 But they're also quite conservative, I would say.

00:33:06.080 Yes, they're very much in line with this.

00:33:08.540 But yes, a little less on the social activist side.

00:33:11.760 Yeah.

00:33:12.200 A little more professional.

00:33:13.460 It's at this AGM where you're going to see more of that.

00:33:15.440 And it will be a little more subtle than, say, an old school delegated leadership race.

00:33:19.660 I used to love those when I was young and watching.

00:33:21.240 Everybody wearing the same t-shirts for their team.

00:33:23.400 See how the t-shirts actually move across the floor as one leadership candidate endorses the other.

00:33:27.960 And then they start wearing each other's hats.

00:33:29.960 yeah you know again for dorks like me it was very entertaining but for others now it's a little more

00:33:35.720 nuanced but that is what's going to be happening down there and uh stuff the stuff you don't see

00:33:41.400 at the front podium is is where you'll really see the meat and potatoes of what's going on

00:33:45.240 in a party at one of these things so uh we'll see if the standard's been on the ball i've got my

00:33:49.800 press pass for it and i'll go there too i don't think you need one corey i think you just show

00:33:55.640 not necessarily that welcome I assure you interesting times but yeah it'll be a lot

00:34:02.720 to watch and just remind everybody yes we'll be covering it in depth and well

00:34:06.440 I'm sure we'll have some pipeline and my episodes talking about what we thought

00:34:10.400 out of it yeah so as kind of you brought in Jonathan if you had to look at that

00:34:16.340 yeah Justin Trudeau he's come up with his open letter to Premier Smith on the

00:34:21.020 Canada Pension Plan and Alberta Pension Plan yes so with that one what Trudeau

00:34:25.460 is saying is uh if the Alberta government moves forward people shouldn't be worried because he's

00:34:31.700 going to defend CPP uh but what's interesting is that this open letter highlights that the point

00:34:37.780 that Daniel Smith was making which is that Alberta is paying in more than it's receiving

00:34:41.700 and when the parental pension was announced when I went to the press conference she talked about how

00:34:46.580 this is the biggest issue with that on how Alberta is sending more money than we're getting back

00:34:50.660 because we have a higher employment rate and younger population and yeah.

00:34:57.300 Jonathan's kind of more at that contribution age where we're kind of more at that withdrawal age

00:35:02.900 we're getting closer. Yeah well I talked about that oh actually it was a speaking event I was

00:35:07.620 at the other night but I said you know because I was I brushed it off back when I led the

00:35:12.900 Alberta Independence Party back in the 90s when I was in my 20s and I had people coming up saying

00:35:16.900 an independent Alberta but I'm worried about my pension is my pension if I had to worry about it's

00:35:19.860 it's not a big concern to worry about.

00:35:21.280 Actually, the grayer your hair gets,

00:35:23.520 the closer you get to the end,

00:35:24.420 it becomes a much bigger concern.

00:35:25.940 I mean, if it's not there,

00:35:28.300 you could be in serious trouble

00:35:29.720 if you don't have outside investments.

00:35:31.280 People who have contributed for decades and still,

00:35:34.040 I might have another 10 or 15 years of work

00:35:35.860 and I hope left in me,

00:35:36.700 but it starts to become pretty important

00:35:40.720 to make sure that that balance is safe.

00:35:43.100 Well, when I was Jonathan's age,

00:35:45.040 the concern was that there was gonna be no CDB.

00:35:46.800 Yeah, they said there wouldn't be one at that time.

00:35:48.880 So that's a complete transformation now

00:35:51.120 that the program is supposedly sustainable for 75 years.

00:35:54.080 Credit to Critchin, he did fix it up back,

00:35:56.000 because it was a Ponzi scheme

00:35:57.060 prior to what him and Martin did.

00:35:58.340 Sure, and going back to the Friends of Science

00:36:01.560 and conservative demographic,

00:36:03.800 well that also seems to be kind of a CPP

00:36:07.000 kind of demographic, I would say.

00:36:10.880 I didn't go around and ask people

00:36:12.300 what their thoughts were on the pension,

00:36:14.380 but I think there's a kind of a potential split

00:36:18.220 even within the UCP among UCP supporters

00:36:21.940 that tend to be maybe a little more aged

00:36:24.580 than younger folks, like Jonathan here,

00:36:29.020 and still want to support conservative government.

00:36:32.740 Well, I think a lot of older people

00:36:34.320 do want to support perhaps an Alberta pension plan, 0.64

00:36:36.840 but they just really want to be darn sure

00:36:39.500 that my nest egg is gonna be safe, I'm gonna get it later.

00:36:42.800 But what Premier Smith did mention

00:36:45.060 when the pension was announced

00:36:46.420 that it would be similar or lower contribution rates

00:36:50.260 and potentially higher amounts

00:36:52.820 that people would receive in the end.

00:36:54.300 So I think that's what's assuring people 0.59

00:36:55.580 because she had promised legislation 0.93

00:36:56.860 that it was guaranteed.

00:36:58.540 I do think that the provincial pension plan

00:37:01.720 might be the first bill coming forward.

00:37:03.480 I know that Premier Smith did promise

00:37:06.580 that the tax cuts thing would be,

00:37:08.260 but I think right now with just the whole climate,

00:37:10.360 I think that might change 0.93

00:37:11.200 and she'd probably bring forward the pension bill, 1.00

00:37:12.780 possibly as a first one.

00:37:13.620 I know about the legislature

00:37:15.080 doesn't resume for another two weeks. So, I mean, anything can happen, really.

00:37:19.380 Yeah, I think it'd be a little, personally, I think it'd be a bit of a gamble to throw a bill

00:37:22.640 out on it, necessarily, when she's just saying she's starting the consultation. Though, I mean,

00:37:26.060 I think some critics have been, fair enough, when they're going through the motions of the

00:37:30.280 consultation, but it sounds to me like they've pretty much got their heart set on going ahead

00:37:34.140 with this. It's just a matter of determining what it's going to look like. All it needs is referendum,

00:37:37.940 really, and whether or not Albertans vote for it, I'm not too sure at this point.

00:37:40.840 I mean polling numbers do look a little mixed and there's some uncertainty

00:37:45.460 yeah like when she's talking about lower contributions I mean that's yeah

00:37:53.260 that's a bone for you yeah that's for me you get to keep more of your check

00:37:56.560 while you're going through and then higher payouts well you have to be

00:38:02.020 contributing for a few decades before you're even gonna come close to those

00:38:07.240 higher payouts because the people that are gonna be collecting out of CPP are

00:38:10.300 are gonna be getting pretty close

00:38:11.440 to what they would've been getting now, right?

00:38:14.140 Well, a whole lot of this rides on the interpretation

00:38:16.340 of what Alberta's share in the existing fund is.

00:38:19.720 And there's a huge bone of contention going on there.

00:38:23.480 I mean, as Jonathan said, Trudeau's letter

00:38:26.480 wasn't admission saying, yeah,

00:38:27.400 we're dependent on Alberta for contributing. 0.98

00:38:29.140 That's the only way we're keeping this thing together.

00:38:31.380 And if they pull out in any form,

00:38:33.180 we're gonna be in some serious trouble.

00:38:35.240 Well, I think it kind of becomes a proxy for equalization.

00:38:40.520 And, you know, we had that referendum as well under Jason Kenney,

00:38:45.420 and, you know, they haven't done anything with that.

00:38:47.800 But it seems to me that the pension debate and the contributions of the Alberta pension

00:38:52.740 are almost parallel, if not intersecting at some point with the equalization debate

00:38:58.640 and how much money is actually flowing back to the federal government

00:39:01.920 and form in those kind of payments as well, right?

00:39:04.140 Well, beyond the overpayment, it's the amount of principle we would be entitled to.

00:39:09.060 I mean, their calculation of it, I know I got barked out heavily by a few folks as soon as I even said it on Twitter.

00:39:14.500 But I do feel that they're, okay, they're taking it on, it's in the legislation.

00:39:18.100 And if you interpret it that way, Alberta would be entitled to well over half of what's in the pot.

00:39:24.100 I just don't see Canada bending on that.

00:39:27.340 But I mean, before it goes to a referendum, I think they're going to have to have some sort of solid number,

00:39:31.200 or whether it's 20% of what's in there, or 30%,

00:39:34.400 like we're gonna say, we're gonna pull out,

00:39:36.020 we're gonna have this much to start with.

00:39:38.440 Well, absolutely, and there's an interesting column

00:39:40.920 by Jack Mance, I'm not sure if you're familiar with Jack.

00:39:44.560 He's a Jack, I haven't seen that particular column,

00:39:46.800 necessarily.

00:39:47.640 It was in the National Post this morning

00:39:48.500 where he was talking about $384 million,

00:39:53.740 basically just being a good starting point

00:39:55.960 to actually have this discussion

00:39:58.360 about all these other ancillary issues,

00:40:00.300 including equalization and taxation and balance payments

00:40:04.580 and energy security, you know what I mean?

00:40:08.920 Like they all kind of feed it,

00:40:10.500 because if you want pension security,

00:40:12.280 then you're going to have to have some kind

00:40:14.080 of an economic basis really to back it up, right?

00:40:17.540 So from a, again, I'll throw it kind of

00:40:20.080 in your business perspective though,

00:40:21.220 I mean that the money isn't just sitting

00:40:22.680 in a money bin in cash, it's all tied up

00:40:25.100 in investments of all sorts and all kinds. 0.98

00:40:27.180 If Alberta were to pull out and we're going to separate 0.93

00:40:29.480 that, you know, boy, they've got a heck of a task. 0.95

00:40:33.000 Yeah, well, you know,

00:40:33.840 are we gonna completely liquidate that fund there?

00:40:35.720 Or do we take 30% of that fund and move it?

00:40:37.680 It's gonna be quite a, well, I mean,

00:40:40.480 no matter how you do it, it's gonna be a lot of work,

00:40:41.820 but that could also disrupt business markets too.

00:40:43.540 And so you get shifting on the investment priorities.

00:40:46.280 And which assets would you want, you know,

00:40:48.260 like wouldn't over the government

00:40:49.340 maybe be more inclined towards some of the,

00:40:51.480 you know, energy assets, right?

00:40:53.880 You know, at a time when we're supposedly downplaying,

00:40:56.480 you know, the fossil fuel industry.

00:40:57.720 So maybe CPP unloads all its holdings in Suncor and Petro-Canada, you know, back to the Alberta government and say, here, you take it.

00:41:04.960 See, I would like CPP to keep all the energy assets because that gives the rest of Canada a heck of an interest for us to keep working out here and doing well with our energy companies.

00:41:14.300 Because if you sink those energy companies, you're sinking your own pension plan.

00:41:17.420 That's just my way of thinking.

00:41:18.900 I mean, I'm very thrilled and interested in this whole thing,

00:41:25.080 but it's gonna be a complicated,

00:41:26.640 difficult thing to get to the point,

00:41:28.920 I think, where Albertans will accept it in the referendum.

00:41:31.360 I agree, and I'm initially,

00:41:33.660 you know, my thoughts are I'm fairly supportive.

00:41:37.660 You know, I'm familiar with Case in Quebec.

00:41:41.420 They haven't done as well as CPP,

00:41:42.840 but you know, there's definitely a lot of autonomy

00:41:46.380 on how they invest, where they invest,

00:41:47.840 and how they do it.

00:41:50.080 But then at the same time, like you said,

00:41:52.200 this is gonna be a very complicated divorce 0.99

00:41:54.760 and division of assets.

00:41:55.820 It's like, you get the kid, I get the car.

00:41:58.340 Yeah, I don't like that kid. 0.98

00:41:59.600 She gets the house. 1.00

00:42:00.820 Yeah, that one. 0.99

00:42:02.600 Yeah, that kid who's licking the windows,

00:42:06.120 you can have that one.

00:42:10.460 And I mean, it depends on, again,

00:42:12.180 with support and demographics.

00:42:13.720 I mean, we don't want to absorb more risk

00:42:16.900 and kind of get where we're getting to the point of looking at drawing out.

00:42:19.100 But I mean, if I was in my 20s or whatever,

00:42:21.040 I'd say, well, what the heck, let's roll the dice a little on something, you know.

00:42:23.920 Can afford to take a little more risk there, Jonathan.

00:42:25.940 Your investment for fully health.

00:42:28.420 So I guess, you know, as a perhaps a campaign, you know, tactic,

00:42:33.880 when it comes to the point of a referendum,

00:42:35.540 they might want to really reach out to the younger voters and get them out.

00:42:39.380 Because they'd be less, I think, I don't know,

00:42:42.840 But they might be more inclined to support the concept of a newer pension.

00:42:48.400 I agree.

00:42:49.500 But anyway, another area of it, as you said, it's opening up a lot of discussions.

00:42:53.000 Somebody was talking about, you know, EI, we're kind of getting hooked in the same basis as we do with CPP.

00:42:58.300 It's not a building fund.

00:42:59.440 It's a program.

00:43:02.140 But with EI, Alberta pays far more in than it pulls out.

00:43:06.320 And I've heard talk occasionally of Alberta starting its own employment insurance program, too,

00:43:09.660 which would really, really throw a wrench

00:43:12.260 into the business of Eastern Canada if they did that.

00:43:15.100 Especially with Nova Scotia, I believe that it's,

00:43:18.220 I believe the amount of hours you have to have work

00:43:19.740 to claim EI in Alberta is I think three times that

00:43:22.820 of Nova Scotia or something like that.

00:43:23.980 I remember hearing that somewhere.

00:43:26.780 Yeah, I mean, whether or not that ends up

00:43:28.980 becoming a conversation, I know that Daniel Smith

00:43:30.680 hasn't talked about an Alberta employment insurance plan.

00:43:33.980 But I mean, politics changes every week, so who knows?

00:43:38.100 Well, when I was young and during the bust in the 80s,

00:43:41.900 the crash of 86, 87,

00:43:44.620 when I just happened to graduate from high school,

00:43:46.800 you know, the Alberta alphabet at the time

00:43:48.460 was UICALCBRCMP.

00:43:55.520 Like, it wasn't called employment insurance.

00:43:59.640 No, it was unemployment insurance at that time.

00:44:01.800 Unemployment enjoyment, you know.

00:44:03.660 Well, and it used to frustrate.

00:44:05.480 It was terribly bad back in the 90s

00:44:07.540 when I was starting in the oil field, it would drive me nuts because I've worked a lot at

00:44:11.060 surveying ahead of seismic projects. It's very seasonal and you have a whole pile of work.

00:44:15.380 You really got to wrap up usually before breakup hits in March, April, but something would happen

00:44:20.440 usually at the end of February, start of March, all our Maritimers that came out for the season

00:44:24.600 suddenly got enough hours in to collect DI for the rest of the year and they're gone. They won't

00:44:28.840 work a day longer than they had to, to collect. I'm not saying all of them, a lot of them stayed

00:44:33.680 to. I want to be fair, and there were fantastic workers, fantastic people, and worked out the

00:44:38.420 rest of the season, but we would have a huge labor crisis. We'd lose at least half of them

00:44:41.860 because the system was just being played. In Alberta, if you wanted to collect, you had to

00:44:46.620 work well beyond that to be eligible. But over there, you didn't have to work long at all. And

00:44:51.920 then suddenly, yep, you're good for the year. It's become almost an equalization program in

00:44:57.200 itself as well. Well, that's it. We should have been focusing on moving the people to the industries

00:45:02.480 rather than moving the money to the people over there but that's i mean like many new fees did

00:45:08.400 stay and oh yeah mcmurray and you know they've set up their own little community there even

00:45:12.080 arthur's still out here somewhere are you out there yeah well i'm sure arthur's enjoying his

00:45:18.400 job with the alberta government right now like i said i want to catch you there were a lot of

00:45:21.520 fantastic maritimers came out they were part of building alberta and they're still here or even

00:45:25.520 once it came and went but worked their butts off and worked full amounts but that program was abused

00:45:30.960 and it was used as a wealth redistribution scheme,

00:45:33.140 which it really shouldn't have been.

00:45:33.960 And it still is to a degree today.

00:45:37.240 Saying one more thing for maybe Danielle to think about. 1.00

00:45:39.300 Hey, if you can't get them on the pension.

00:45:42.480 Well, I'm kind of curious if Alberta did put it in its own EI program,

00:45:46.160 maybe the restrictions would be twice as high as they are now.

00:45:50.680 I've never actually collected.

00:45:52.160 I mean, I've been paying in for however many years.

00:45:54.240 I have no idea how much was it.

00:45:56.360 It's got to be fairly substantial, I would think.

00:45:58.360 Yeah, well, there's no, they must have some degree of a fund, but still, it's a little different, that one.

00:46:05.220 It's an insurance program.

00:46:06.460 It goes on your earnings, whatever earnings you are, not necessarily on how much you've earned over time, as opposed to a pension, right?

00:46:13.320 Yeah, so it's not a built-up cumulative thing.

00:46:15.100 If you're off work for two weeks, you get two weeks coverage.

00:46:16.660 If you're off for six months, so be it, but it wasn't based on, I don't know, lots to chew on.

00:46:22.560 Maybe it'll come out next year's AGM.

00:46:24.140 I think we've run out of time, though.

00:46:25.380 so we've solved a few world's problems

00:46:28.140 but not all of them

00:46:29.000 we'll save a few for next time

00:46:31.840 yes

00:46:32.360 thank you both for coming in today guys

00:46:35.340 and filling those roles that are typically

00:46:37.940 taken by the other stodgy

00:46:39.520 other western standard staff

00:46:40.960 Jonathan, Sean

00:46:42.860 thank you very much

00:46:44.600 and thank all you guys for tuning in

00:46:47.940 this week

00:46:48.500 be sure to watch the Cory Morgan Show

00:46:50.820 and take advantage of that

00:46:52.540 getting past the paywall while you can

00:46:54.540 And if you haven't subscribed yet, take a subscription.

00:46:57.560 I always use that wall back up.

00:46:58.640 It's important to us.

00:46:59.540 Thank you for tuning in.

00:47:00.460 We'll see you next time.

00:47:02.060 The current Lethbridge feed green prices are as follows.

00:47:05.180 Cash barbies at $3.42, feed wheat's at $3.52, and corn's trading at $3.39 per metric ton.

00:47:12.160 In the milling wheat markets, December Minneapolis futures increased 5.25 cents at $7.33,

00:47:18.180 with local hardwood spring bids for October movement at $9.66 per bushel.

00:47:22.640 In the oilseeds, nearby canola futures lost $6.30 at $7.12.90 per ton, with delivered

00:47:30.640 values for October movement at $16.05 per bushel.

00:47:34.960 In the pulse markets, nearby red lentils are holding at $0.365 a pound, and yellow peas

00:47:40.620 are trading at $10.75 per bushel.

00:47:43.240 In the cattle markets, December live cattle are up $0.15 at $1.8702 per 100 weight.

00:47:50.280 For more information on grain marketing, call me at 403-394-1711.

00:47:55.640 I'm Sean Smith at Marketplace Commodities, accurate real-time marketing information and pricing options.

00:48:01.240 Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:48:03.220 Without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago.

00:48:07.580 These guys are on the front lines, helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in Canada.

00:48:15.000 and more importantly educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong

00:48:20.160 people to become a member it's absolutely worth every penny you can become a western

00:48:26.840 center member for just $10 a month or $99 a year for unlimited

Western Standard - October 18, 2023

The Pipeline： Trying to find the truth in the Israel⧸Gaza conflict

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript