Western Standard - The Pipeline： Westjet employees sing goodbye

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00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 Thank you.

00:02:30.000 Good day. I'm Derek Fildebrand, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:02:41.740 Today is December 15th. We've got a great show. We're going to be talking about Brian Jean winning the United Conservative Party nomination in Fort McMurray.

00:02:50.960 omicron hysteria and a viral video uh out right now and up on the western standard western uh

00:02:59.800 west jet employees um doing a christmas message message of their own uh that uh might touch the

00:03:06.840 heart of a few frequent flyers at that airline uh i'm joined as usual by western standard assistant

00:03:13.960 opinion and broadcast editor cory morgan good afternoon i'm nice and cynical and embittered

00:03:20.300 today, so it's a typical day. Oh, I was going to say, how's that different? I'm in a good mood.

00:03:26.480 And also Dave Naylor, news editor of the Western Standard. How are you doing, Dave?

00:03:31.080 I'm doing great, Derek. I've got my Christmas shopping done. I'm wearing a brand new Christmas

00:03:35.280 tie that I got at our staff Christmas party and a controversial staff party, Derek.

00:03:40.620 Very controversial. Scandalous, some would say. This year we had, and not all of you might know,

00:03:49.420 in fact, I'm quite sure many of you do not know, but we had a visit paid to our Christmas party

00:03:57.060 this year. You guys were expecting Santa Claus, I think, but instead Krampus crashed the party.

00:04:05.080 Those of you who don't know who Krampus is, Krampus is the Christmas monster in southern

00:04:12.680 Germany and Austria. In that part of the world, he comes around in the lead up to Christmas with

00:04:20.920 St. Nicholas. They kind of do a good cop, bad cop routine. Children plead their case about why they

00:04:26.160 were good to St. Nicholas. But if they're bad, Krampus is there and he beats the children with

00:04:30.680 a bundle of sticks. And if they're really bad, they go into his bag and that bag takes them to

00:04:36.500 hell. No wonder they're the best behaved kids in the world. Yeah, they don't talk back to mom and

00:04:45.540 dad. I did not grow up with Krampus beating me with sticks or taking me to hell. But much of

00:04:54.580 our amusement, we had a few emails come in wondering why we had a demon at our Christmas

00:05:00.000 party. Krampus is not a demon. He's just a jerk. And he's a part of certain Christmas traditions.

00:05:07.740 And we thought we'd mix it up this year instead of Santa Claus come in. We thought Corey in

00:05:13.600 particular needed to be beaten by Krampus. Unfortunately, I enjoyed it. So the detrimental

00:05:18.320 effect of it was of no value whatsoever. We cannot win with Corey. So yeah, just for those of you

00:05:25.180 You know, yeah, no, we're not a bunch of Satan worshippers at our Christmas party.

00:05:29.480 It was just a disciplinary measure for Corey.

00:05:33.260 And the meal afterwards was fantastic.

00:05:35.660 You guys, if you haven't been to Bolero's in Calgary on McLeod Trail, good food.

00:05:40.100 Oh, if you're into meat, that is the place.

00:05:42.320 I had the meat sweats until about yesterday.

00:05:45.420 Yeah, it was pretty solid stuff.

00:05:48.620 We want to thank all of our Western Standard members for your continued support.

00:05:51.920 Without you, we can't do any of this.

00:05:53.820 If you're not yet a member of the Western Standard, go to westernstandardonline.com right now.

00:05:57.900 Click on membership. It's only $10 a month or $99 a year.

00:06:02.160 I think it's good value for independent Western bailout free media.

00:06:07.660 Let's get started. Dave, Brian Jean won the United Conservative Party nomination in Fort McMurray.

00:06:15.760 I don't know if it's a surprise or not, but I think it's a surprise he was even allowed to be on the ballot to begin with.

00:06:22.440 uh because all things considered why don't you tell us what happened i think the surprise derek

00:06:26.040 was how much he he won by he collected 68 percent of the votes against his uh premier kenny backed

00:06:33.080 opponent joshua gogo so it uh kenny kind of threw a lot of resources into it he had the justice

00:06:40.920 minister uh casey maddow up there campaigning but it just wasn't enough and brian jean campaigned

00:06:48.760 on an open promise to start to work to get premier kenny out of office so the constituencies certainly

00:06:56.840 know the members certainly knew what they were getting in in his candidacy so he is now will be

00:07:03.000 an official ucp candidate for the fort mcmurray laklabish riding in the 2023 election uh holy

00:07:13.080 Holy cow, the cat is among the pigeons now, guys.

00:07:16.520 Corey, well, Dave said he will be the candidate now for the UCP in the election.

00:07:20.900 I'm still not sure he will be.

00:07:23.900 I mean, I don't know.

00:07:26.580 I was shocked that they even allowed him to run for the nomination.

00:07:30.240 And I thought, well, if they allow him to run, they're surely, surely they're just going to cheat.

00:07:35.120 Stuff the ballot boxes, do whatever they have to do.

00:07:37.480 I talked to some people who were inside that campaign.

00:07:42.400 The Gene campaign had extraordinary, extraordinary levels of scrutineers and whatnot around,

00:07:49.180 making sure it could not be tampered with.

00:07:50.800 People on both sides of the campaign had actually trust in the returning officer of the nomination.

00:07:56.520 So there was no cheating.

00:07:57.700 I expected, okay, fine.

00:07:58.700 If they let him on the ballot, they're surely going to cheat.

00:08:01.640 Turns out, as far as we know, there was no cheating.

00:08:05.140 So he won 68%.

00:08:06.640 I think that's number.

00:08:07.600 Actually, Jason Kenney won the leadership of the UCP by 4-2.

00:08:10.160 There's a couple of common numbers that keep on coming up.

00:08:12.780 78% in leadership reviews, where you will be gone still a year later.

00:08:17.700 68% seems to be the number of the cosmos that Kenny and Gene, when they meet, seems to fix around.

00:08:28.500 Brian Gene has won the nomination.

00:08:30.940 Do you think he will be the UCP candidate on the ballot on by-election day?

00:08:38.340 I do.

00:08:38.680 Yeah? 1.00

00:08:39.240 Yeah, I think he's kicking himself in the butt. I think perhaps he, I mean, everybody's always said he's a gifted organizer. He's as skilled a political operative as you can ever find. I don't believe they had an intention to cheat, but they really had so much confidence that we'll just be able to get enough people on the ground and sell those memberships that we'll just knock this off. 0.99

00:09:00.160 And I don't think they had a plan B. They thought they were going to pull it off. They didn't. And I mean, just the amount of face loss to try and pull him out of it now, I mean, unless he can, I'm certain they're scrutinizing it. If they could find a scandal or something as an excuse to pull him, I just don't see how they can stop him.

00:09:16.660 I mean, the reality is no matter how good an organizer you are, if your support on the ground is minuscule, you just can't gather enough to win a race like that.

00:09:25.020 And they just didn't have the base.

00:09:26.380 I mean, to find those few dedicated supporters that will buy a membership, show up and vote, they weren't there.

00:09:34.500 So unless Mr. Gogo, the guy who lost the nomination to Gene Runs or something like that, there's not going to be a single candidate on the ballot in this by-election that supports the current premier of the province.

00:09:49.640 I've never heard of a by-election like that, where there's literally no candidate who says, I support this government, I support this premier, I support the current state of the party I'm running for.

00:09:59.860 There's not going to be one.

00:10:01.200 Paul Hinman, the leader of the Wild Rose, also announced on the weekend that he's going to run there.

00:10:06.460 So he'll split whatever vote, you know, he may lose some UCP votes to him.

00:10:12.520 But, you know, Brian Jean's been a name up there for years and years as an MP and an MLA and seems to be well respected.

00:10:20.680 So I'm with Corey.

00:10:22.420 I can't.

00:10:22.880 Jason Kenney has publicly said he will sign the nomination papers if if.

00:10:27.560 he says a lot of things that he doesn't quite do if he turns around on this i mean something

00:10:33.440 i wrote on with this as well and i mean even if he pulls off as we said when you get 78 percent

00:10:38.900 in the leadership somehow they still don't survive afterwards i mean if your caucus has

00:10:42.860 got a hold of your legs you're done and if he punts gene without finding a really good reason

00:10:50.840 to do it somehow before now and then i think his caucus will turn on so i'm gonna i'm gonna

00:10:55.120 We'll circle back to Paul Heyman and Wildrose in a second, but okay, if Brian Jean is the candidate on the ballot on election day and they don't spike him some point before then, Kenny cannot allow him in.

00:11:11.680 I mean, it's just, Kenny kicked Todd Lowen out because he said Kenny should be gone.

00:11:16.660 Is he going to allow Brian Jean, a much more prominent person in the United Conservative Party and across Alberta, than Todd Lowen and Brian Jean?

00:11:26.000 Is he going to, can he allow this?

00:11:27.580 This would be seen as a mandate from the voters of Fort McMurray to get rid of Jason Kenney.

00:11:33.420 It's a referendum on him.

00:11:36.400 So there's a couple of scenarios that come out here.

00:11:38.960 The NDP has never had great strength in Fort McMurray, but, I mean, they do get some votes.

00:11:44.120 It's not really conceivable they could win in many universes.

00:11:47.340 But Jason Kenney, I think, is going to be sitting down right now saying, well, what are the options besides Brian Jean in?

00:11:54.660 Do you think Jason Kenney would prefer an NDP win if he could somehow manufacture an NDP win in Fort McMurray rather than have Jean in?

00:12:03.400 I'm sure he would.

00:12:05.920 What he wants, he may not get.

00:12:07.560 Well, that would be winning a battle in a sense of keeping Jean out of this caucus but losing a war.

00:12:11.920 Again, when you've got a nervous caucus thinking, we're not going to win our seats back, and you just lost one of the safest conservative ridings in Alberta, the disaster on the other side of it will be just as bad as having Gene in there.

00:12:23.580 He's got no good out right now.

00:12:25.640 I think Gene winning is a bigger loss for Kenny than the NDP.

00:12:29.560 It's one seat.

00:12:30.780 It's one seat.

00:12:31.780 You chalk at him and say, hey, you know why the UCP didn't win?

00:12:35.740 Because Brian Gene wasn't on Team Kenny.

00:12:37.580 Brian Jean wasn't backing my leadership and supporting the great direction we're taking Alberta in, because then he could put that defeat, lay that defeat at the hands of Brian Jean.

00:12:48.320 He could try.

00:12:49.380 He could try. 0.64

00:12:50.540 I mean, but Jean in the caucus, that's the cat among the pigeons.

00:12:53.740 It's madness.

00:12:54.480 I don't know how he'd deal with it.

00:12:55.800 I mean, because, yeah, Jean's made no bones about it.

00:12:57.600 He's right out in the open.

00:12:58.480 I mean, he's going to be in there organizing caucus members saying, get behind me for my leadership.

00:13:03.140 I mean, he's not going to shut up.

00:13:04.340 He's not going to be.

00:13:05.360 It's a hopeless situation.

00:13:07.640 Sadly, Kenny gave a press conference today on Omicron, which we'll get to later, but not a single reporter asked him about Brian Jean.

00:13:14.900 We're not allowed into their conferences to ask questions, so that's why I certainly would have asked him.

00:13:23.900 He's got no way out on this one, no way out that makes him look good.

00:13:27.320 Well, speaking of Wild Rose leaders trying to make a comeback, this is a bizarre by-election because there's two former leaders of the Wild Rose in there.

00:13:34.800 Paul Hinman was the leader of the Wild Rose Party before Danielle Smith.

00:13:38.480 He is now the leader of the Wild Rose Independence Party.

00:13:41.540 As you said, Dave, he's running in this by-election.

00:13:44.740 Paul pulled off probably the most famous by-election win in Alberta history

00:13:48.840 when he won Calgary Glenmore for the Wild Rose,

00:13:51.580 just as he was stepping down as leader and Danielle Smith was taking over.

00:13:56.660 I don't think his chances are so hot here.

00:13:58.980 I mean, he's from the very south.

00:14:01.260 He's from the Tabor area.

00:14:02.420 It's about as far in Alberta as you can get from for McMurray.

00:14:07.160 And it's also, it's going to be different.

00:14:09.020 Do you think it's going to be difficult for him,

00:14:10.320 for Paul Hinman to make the case that he's the anti-Kenny candidate?

00:14:13.960 Yes, he is the anti-Kenny and anti-UCP candidate.

00:14:16.800 But I mean, as we've been saying here,

00:14:19.100 if you wanted to throw something in the gears of Jason Kenney right now,

00:14:25.840 you'd put Brian Jean in that caucus.

00:14:28.640 It's difficult when you've got every single candidate on the ballot

00:14:31.900 this by-election is running against Jason Kenney. The NDP is running against him. Wildrose is

00:14:36.800 running against him. The UCP is running against the UCP leader in this bizarre by-election.

00:14:44.060 How do you think it's going to work out for Paul Henman? I've known Paul a long time. And I mean,

00:14:48.860 I love the guy. He's a great principled politician, actually. He's one of the rare ones when it comes

00:14:53.560 to that. I mean, people might not agree with him, but he's always been upfront and honest. But I

00:14:57.420 you can't compare this to glenmore uh i worked on that whole campaign we had a tenuous connection

00:15:02.540 to it because paul grew up in glenmore calgary glenmore during his youth so at least it wasn't

00:15:05.980 a complete parachute plus you were in the middle of a large urban center so we could take everything

00:15:11.100 with the kitchen sink and throw it into that constituency and we did as a party every volunteer

00:15:16.060 everything we could tap we stuffed into there way up in the hinterland of uh fort mac i don't know

00:15:22.300 how much base they have up there to help him out uh how much resources he's going to have to contest

00:15:27.180 that one i mean he's a tireless campaigner and he will have an interesting message in a niche i think

00:15:31.180 he can grab but i i think his chances of pulling an upset off on this one are going to be very very

00:15:35.260 slim but another name he can drop while campaigning justin trudeau right he sort of made his climate

00:15:41.500 plans fort mcmurray is the is net zero or ground zero so he can he can make a strong message that

00:15:49.980 jason kenny has not stood up to alberta and look at what justin trudeau is is doing uh to this city

00:15:56.780 And I don't think he'll win, but I think he can carve a good chunk.

00:16:01.680 The thing is, Brian Jean can also campaign against Justin Trudeau and Jason Kenney.

00:16:08.700 Everyone can campaign against Jason Kenney.

00:16:11.380 The NDP would have a difficult time campaigning against Trudeau.

00:16:15.600 But, I mean, it's a bad spot.

00:16:19.680 It's such a bizarre by-election.

00:16:21.100 Normally, if you're a challenger party, you're able to run against the premier.

00:16:24.520 But in this case, the biggest threat to the premier is the premier's old candidate.

00:16:32.240 The math on this one is really hard to work out.

00:16:34.800 Maybe the Alberta party will come out of nowhere.

00:16:37.240 The Alberta party doesn't run in by elections because then it shows the media that they're not a real party.

00:16:41.680 Yeah.

00:16:42.200 Do they even have a leader yet?

00:16:43.420 They do. 0.98

00:16:43.940 They twisted the mayor Brooks in there.

00:16:46.940 Yeah, Barry Morshida, he's the former mayor Brooks.

00:16:49.940 Okay, well, let's move it on.

00:16:51.800 Speaking of confusing things, Omicron.

00:16:54.880 Omicron hysteria.

00:16:57.820 We're all going to die.

00:16:59.640 Actually, I think, what is it, the latest count?

00:17:01.580 One person globally has died.

00:17:03.480 One person on the planet.

00:17:05.400 One person since I've been speaking in this segment has died from a car accident in Canada.

00:17:12.920 But we're losing our minds over this stuff.

00:17:15.980 New variant.

00:17:16.940 Media love new variants.

00:17:18.360 Politicians love new variants.

00:17:19.780 We're going to ramp it up.

00:17:21.800 So what's happening in response to Omicron right now?

00:17:25.720 Big things happening to take care of this very big real threat.

00:17:29.320 I think Canadian politicians, Derek, they're looking at what's happening in Europe.

00:17:33.640 And Omicron is like a wave across Europe.

00:17:37.460 Britain's up to 200,000 cases a day.

00:17:41.300 You know, it's going crazy over there.

00:17:43.260 But everything points to it being just mild.

00:17:46.800 Only one single person has died in England because of it.

00:17:50.140 Corey, you can talk about a South African research project that came out today that shows how less dangerous it is.

00:17:57.520 But I think Canadian politicians got caught with their hands down on the fourth wave, and they don't want it to happen again.

00:18:06.100 Yesterday on Tuesday, the Liberals cleared the House of Commons.

00:18:10.540 Nobody, you know, the parties weren't allowed to sit there.

00:18:13.120 finance minister freeland gave her important fiscal update from an isolation center because

00:18:19.800 a couple of her staff had tested positive for covid trudeau and the premiers had a lengthy

00:18:26.300 teleconference tuesday night discussing everything from closing the border to limiting travel to

00:18:34.860 only essential travel within canada that was pushed back by the most of the premiers apparently

00:18:39.900 But, you know, Otto was still talking about it and what they're going to do to try and stop this wave.

00:18:47.060 That's already here. There's already 50 cases in Alberta.

00:18:50.160 There's a lot more in Ontario and they're doubling every day in Ontario.

00:18:55.100 Quebec and Ontario today announced, you know, record highs for COVID infections this year.

00:19:02.840 So it's already here in Alberta.

00:19:05.200 jason kenney announced this morning that rapid test kits will be available to anyone in the

00:19:10.480 province on friday from 740 different drug stores and ahs sites you can go and you can pick one of

00:19:18.640 these up and it's got five rapid tests in and so in theory you can you know if you're not feeling

00:19:24.240 well take it at home and and and isolate uh he also did drop some of the christmas uh gathering

00:19:33.920 restrictions. It used to be that 10 people could gather from two vaccinated households. He has now

00:19:40.580 changed that. And no people at all if you're unvaccinated. You're not allowed to have anyone

00:19:45.020 in your house. No. So he's lifted that household thing from two to any number you want as long as

00:19:52.840 it equals only 10. And you're vaccinated. Nope. What about if you're unvaccinated? They can do the

00:19:58.580 same thing limited to 10 people children don't count dogs don't count uh he is basically saying

00:20:05.860 so many people in alberta now have been vaccinated uh you know we're closing in on i think 87

00:20:11.120 fully vaccinated uh that he's able to loosen those restrictions um so yeah the vaccinator can go to

00:20:20.500 house parties the unvaccinated can go to house parties now which is the first time in a long time

00:20:24.660 that they've been allowed to do it. 0.99

00:20:27.080 But yeah, it is hysteria is certainly the word

00:20:30.820 that comes to mind when you're talking about Omicron.

00:20:34.680 Corey, Jason Kenney says you're allowed

00:20:36.580 to have people over for Christmas now.

00:20:38.020 Does this mean you're going to change your plans

00:20:39.500 and have people at your house?

00:20:41.720 Well, I'm too antisocial to have people

00:20:43.320 over at my house anyways,

00:20:44.540 but I do have some obligations to some other gatherings.

00:20:46.620 And yes, we are changing our plans a bit.

00:20:48.660 We weren't going to, he could have said,

00:20:50.180 zero people in households.

00:20:51.140 We were going to that gathering anyways.

00:20:53.020 And do your worst.

00:20:53.920 It's not happening. 1.00

00:20:54.400 I don't know a single person that has cared about any of this shit. 0.99

00:21:01.320 Pardon my French, sorry. 0.99

00:21:04.260 We're still working on our bleeper, five-second delay.

00:21:06.720 Put me on the Don Cherry rule.

00:21:08.580 I don't know a single person who has lived up to all of these restrictions

00:21:13.820 that were brought in when Kenny brought in the vaccine passport,

00:21:16.640 sorry, restrictions exemption program, and these things.

00:21:20.200 no one, not a single person I know

00:21:22.980 has been living up to them

00:21:24.640 so this is a fait accompli

00:21:26.180 Jason Kenney said I think

00:21:27.960 well he has to change the rules because

00:21:30.680 he'd be in violation with his own plans

00:21:32.860 good to know that when your

00:21:34.820 own plans get in the way that'll change government policy

00:21:36.940 I suppose it's better

00:21:38.540 I mean like remember

00:21:40.820 the Sky Palace, famous Sky Palace

00:21:42.860 dinner and drinks

00:21:43.580 I would have been happy if they changed

00:21:46.780 the rules to make that legal before they

00:21:48.780 did it. I suppose this is an improvement where they would leave the restrictions in place on

00:21:52.560 people and then disregard it themselves. Now, if they want to do something themselves,

00:21:56.880 they're going to change the rules for the rest of us as well. So this is an improvement.

00:22:00.640 Yeah, from Kenny's end. But I mean, this whole Omicron hysteria as we framed it, it's just,

00:22:06.300 I'm getting very concerned about it. Not even in the slightest concerned about the virus,

00:22:09.780 because I've been looking into it and this is nothing to be afraid of. I mean, the numbers

00:22:14.400 are coming out. They can't pretend it. Going to that South African study.

00:22:17.540 Yeah. So I was digging, I did a column this morning on this South Africa where it's began,

00:22:22.160 or at least they first started seeing it. 78,000 cases they looked through. It is

00:22:26.940 asymptomatic to mild symptoms. It is confirmed. And then the European numbers that I got the

00:22:32.920 December 15th numbers of about 3,000 confirmed cases, again, mild to asymptomatic. They have

00:22:40.280 found that it is definitely much more virulent. It's spreading a heck of a lot more easily and

00:22:44.580 and faster. So that that's what got people concerned. But I don't care. If it's not hurting

00:22:49.240 me, I don't care how fast it spreads. In fact, spread faster. Let's get it out of the bloody

00:22:53.600 way. Because the other thing they discovered is... This is not medical advice on YouTube.

00:22:56.220 No, absolutely not. YouTube, this was... Corey was joking. He didn't mean anything. He said there,

00:23:00.920 we swear to God, YouTube, we have not violated your community standards.

00:23:04.720 I am not saying people should catch any sort of ailment. Absolutely. I'm just saying that once

00:23:10.520 uh a communicable disease moves through a population they are left with a natural immunity

00:23:15.400 afterwards youtube we did not say anything about natural immunity natural immunity does not exist

00:23:20.840 uh vaccines are the only absolute way to go uh trust the world health organization and

00:23:26.520 your local health authorities we would never dream of contradicting them except when they

00:23:31.160 contradict themselves have you not heard the old story about never poke a bear i know no no we are

00:23:36.440 just complying with YouTube's community standards terms of services. Corey was actually joking.

00:23:45.240 There is no such thing as natural immunity. There's no such thing as herd immunity.

00:23:49.960 Only vaccines. That is our clear position. Either way, getting on to what I am concerned

00:23:54.200 about when we do have a government that's talking about shutting down travel again,

00:23:57.800 that's making people quarantine again. These are things that are going to

00:24:01.480 devastate the hospitality industry again. They're going to ruin those towns that are on the border

00:24:07.160 that we're reliant on cross border traffic over something that to date from everything studied

00:24:13.080 is not harming people. It's I don't know if we panic over this. The other thing as I wrote

00:24:20.120 with the boy crying wolf comparison. So if you've really pulled the alarm bells and the panic

00:24:25.080 button and gone crazy over this, and it doesn't turn out to have been terribly devastating,

00:24:30.360 If and when, because there may be a variant that comes out that'll be very dangerous and bad.

00:24:35.940 Who's going to believe it now?

00:24:36.720 Take it seriously.

00:24:37.740 Yeah, because we went and went off our handles over this particular one.

00:24:41.920 This is just bad policy and going into the Christmas break.

00:24:44.900 And it's just bad for people's spirit.

00:24:46.080 That's been a long-term concern of mine is where the governments and some health authorities have cried wolf so many times that eventually there's going to be a bad one.

00:24:55.340 Maybe it's not in COVID-19.

00:24:56.840 Maybe it's something completely different.

00:24:58.220 Maybe it's a variant of COVID-19 at some point.

00:25:00.360 and it's going to be the real killer. Eventually, there is going to be a really, truly devastating

00:25:06.680 pandemic, and I'm going to have a hard time believing it until I know someone dead. I mean,

00:25:12.580 and that is what happens when you cry wolf. Not that we are, YouTube, not that we are telling,

00:25:18.420 saying that anyone is crying wolf, that we're casting any aspersions on the World Health

00:25:21.880 Organization or the World Health Services. We're just speaking very hypothetically here,

00:25:26.360 nothing to do with COVID. Well, let's talk about something that is hurting people.

00:25:34.100 Mandatory vaccines are largely imposed by the federal government. Federal government saying

00:25:39.440 it's illegal to fly unless you're vaccinated. No exceptions. Airlines have responded to that

00:25:45.460 and are firing their employees. Some of them very longstanding loyal employees who are not

00:25:52.260 vaccinated. There was a very, you know, WestJet does these great Christmas commercials every

00:26:00.580 year. I find it very touching. I've always been a big lover of WestJet, a Western company. They

00:26:05.600 had a really, they had a small business feel to them, especially before they were unionized.

00:26:10.620 People, you get on the plane, every employee there, stewards, stewardesses, and pilots and

00:26:17.940 everybody, they acted like they owned it because they did. They cared about it. That's changing as

00:26:23.620 this company gets a bit bigger, unfortunately. But they do these heartfelt Christmas commercials

00:26:28.200 every year. Now quite a few WestJet employees let go and they put together a Christmas commercial

00:26:37.140 of their own. Why don't we play it now?

00:26:47.940 Okay, well that was just a very short bit of the video.

00:27:17.820 I think it's about a minute and a half, pushing two minutes long.

00:27:21.820 This thing has gone viral.

00:27:23.880 We got a hold of it.

00:27:26.560 One of our reporters, Melanie Rizden, spoke with a pilot who lost his job,

00:27:31.140 who was a figure in putting this video together.

00:27:33.780 We have not named him.

00:27:35.780 Maybe he's hoping to get a job back at some point someday.

00:27:38.060 And maybe another airline.

00:27:39.360 Maybe another airline.

00:27:40.620 But we wanted to respect his privacy.

00:27:43.480 But this video, Dave, this video has gone nuts.

00:27:48.180 It's touching a nerve, isn't it?

00:27:49.500 It's gone nuts.

00:27:50.520 And I think it has, as you said, I'm sorry, the WestJet ads every Christmas, they become

00:27:56.180 world famous, really.

00:27:57.880 And this one also touches the heartstrings, but for all the wrong reasons for the company,

00:28:04.240 their vaccine mandate was effective this week.

00:28:08.020 All these poor people got fired on Monday.

00:28:10.320 So the video shows them arriving in a bus at WestJet headquarters and slowly marching to the front door and dumping off their WestJet gear and joining the line of unemployed in Canada.

00:28:23.740 So exceptional video.

00:28:25.740 I urge you to go to our site and watch it.

00:28:29.500 It could not be any worse for the company, can't it, Corey?

00:28:32.860 No, I mean, WestJet built quite a brand based on a couple of things.

00:28:37.380 I mean, one was, yes, they were supposed to be the best place in the world to work for it.

00:28:40.900 They valued their employees.

00:28:42.600 They bid over back routes for their employees.

00:28:44.140 They recognized them.

00:28:45.220 And one of the areas where they would do it were those annual Christmas promotions and commercials and gimmicks that they would do.

00:28:51.280 And these employees definitely knew where to, I guess, put the knife to the heart of WestJet back to say, you know, turning their own emotional pleas back at them to say, well, this is how WestJet treats their employees at Christmas now.

00:29:03.240 and obviously people recognize the irony of that and how deeply it cuts because we've never seen

00:29:09.940 a video take off so quickly, so heavily, so viral. I mean, it's into the six figures of views.

00:29:15.540 What a disaster for the PR department of WestJet when you have over 100,000 Canadians watching 0.98

00:29:20.020 something that cuts India like that. And a lot of the comments on our website are, 1.00

00:29:23.500 they're angry. They say, they vowed they'll never fly WestJet again.

00:29:27.780 There's a new low-cost carrier setting up in Calgary.

00:29:32.200 Maybe it might turn into an opportunity for them.

00:29:35.100 Well, breaking news here. 1.00

00:29:36.560 I've decided I'm firing all employees from the Western Centre who are vaccinated. 1.00

00:29:42.040 Except myself. 1.00

00:29:42.840 I've got to go, yeah.

00:29:43.420 Except myself.

00:29:45.140 Because I get to do that.

00:29:47.220 Yeah, it's a tear-jerker, that video.

00:29:52.520 And their only sin was making their own decision.

00:29:55.180 As I've always said, I'm vaccinated. I personally think it's the right choice for me, but everyone should have the right to make up their own mind. I just can't conceive of firing loyal, dedicated employees who just decided to make a different health choice than me.

00:30:16.500 But at the same time here, let's remember, WestJet's not the only one to blame.

00:30:19.360 The federal government is also to blame for making it mandatory that everyone who even flies on a plane, not just employees, everyone on a plane has to be vaccinated.

00:30:33.120 Yeah, and the same thing's happening at Air Canada.

00:30:34.920 They're firing their staff who are unvaccinated. 1.00

00:30:37.580 But they sucked already. 1.00

00:30:39.920 Like, I already hated Air Canada for a long time. 0.94

00:30:42.000 And I'd love to see WestJet come back, but it's getting tough to like WestJet anymore.

00:30:50.280 You know, I was flying WestJet this summer, and I was flying out east, like three and a half, four hour flight, and I fell asleep.

00:31:00.240 And my mask fell off of one year when I was asleep.

00:31:02.840 and this, like, 350-pound male flight attendant

00:31:07.780 who looked and sounded like Cartman from South Park

00:31:11.460 came up to me and says, like,

00:31:13.300 sir, and he had to be a yellow card

00:31:14.800 like I had tripped someone on a soccer field.

00:31:16.820 Had to be a yellow card, says,

00:31:18.320 your mask is off.

00:31:19.980 Why are you putting everyone at risk?

00:31:21.760 And I was just, like, waking up.

00:31:22.920 I was like, what?

00:31:25.560 What do you want, Cartman?

00:31:26.720 And I didn't call him Cartman.

00:31:28.600 I don't want to get, like, tased on the plane or something. 0.99

00:31:32.840 I got a Sky Marshal tase in my ass, but he was just, he was like yelling at me because I fell asleep and a mask came off of one ear. 0.99

00:31:41.540 And that is what WestJet has become. 1.00

00:31:43.660 Power tripping little shits who just treat it as a regular job. 0.98

00:31:49.700 It's not the WestJet I remember growing up with where every one of them acted like an owner and it really came through. 0.99

00:31:58.860 Sad.

00:31:59.660 Very sad.

00:32:00.180 Well, speaking of people who actually care about their jobs still, we do. We want to thank all of our Western Standard members for your support. Without you, we could not do what we do. If you want to support independent, bailout-free Western media, go to westernstandardonline.com, click on membership, sign up. I think it's going to be worth it to yourself and worth it to our ability to continue to produce content.

00:32:26.060 we're growing in leaps and bounds here, hiring new staff, new reporters, new columnists, new

00:32:30.940 support staff in the background to give you a better product. So please sign up if you haven't

00:32:36.220 already. But we'll wrap it up there. Corey, Dave, thank you very much for joining us today. And

00:32:42.780 thank all of you for joining us. God bless.

00:32:56.060 You

Western Standard - December 16, 2021

The Pipeline： Westjet employees sing goodbye

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