Western Standard - Triggered： Danielle Smith owned the first UCP leadership debate

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's Thursday, July 28th, 2022. Welcome to Triggered. I'm Corey Morgan. This

00:00:38.980 is the Western Standards Daily Live News Opinion. Remember that, people? Opinion and guest

00:00:47.340 show. We cover events, talk about things, have inter... Oh, I said the wrong word there.

00:00:54.780 we exchange ideas with each other and uh being live it's great that way use that comment scroll

00:01:00.740 guys that's what it's about you know this is what makes the difference between live and recorded

00:01:04.660 stuff we can uh just kind of go with things as they go and take the conversations where they

00:01:09.640 will i really enjoy that when it gets going so don't hesitate to send things out i don't

00:01:13.100 necessarily respond to every comment that's out there the guests can't necessarily respond to

00:01:18.260 them all either but i do see them all when they're up there and uh it's just good to see that

00:01:21.920 engagement. Engage with each other as well. Again, just keep it civil. I know we take things pretty

00:01:26.360 seriously with politics. Just don't take them personally, and we can have a good time and get

00:01:30.060 through the show and have a productive day. Starting, I see somebody came in early asking

00:01:33.560 about, because I got Paul Hidman coming on, and I'll explain that. If anybody from the hosted

00:01:38.000 board is going to be on today, that's SRT Bull who said that. And no, I don't have anybody from

00:01:43.720 that board yet. I did reach out to G. Van Manget, who's listed as the interim leader of the party

00:01:49.820 by some. And he said he's not really in a position to comment. He's sick with COVID right now. And

00:01:56.480 to reach out to Rick Northey, who was the Navy president, I'm not sure where things are with the

00:02:01.400 party, but Mr. Northey isn't really talking to anybody these days either. So either way, I will

00:02:05.260 talk to, I should get onto that with some guests, Paul Hinman and Angela Tabak, who are, according

00:02:11.060 to one faction in the party, the leader and president of the Wildrose Independence Party

00:02:14.820 right now. So we'll talk to both of them and try and sort out a little bit of what's going on.

00:02:18.140 I'm also going to have Western Standard columnist Trevor Tucker on.

00:02:21.740 He basically puts a weekly column out for us.

00:02:24.060 He's a professor out in Ontario.

00:02:26.120 Good, thoughtful, almost philosophical sort of things he puts out.

00:02:29.340 I really like his stuff.

00:02:30.260 We're going to talk about his last column and some other things.

00:02:33.840 I see Debbie Motley coming from the Atlantic coast.

00:02:36.380 I always like seeing, again, folks coming from across the country.

00:02:40.480 Hey, I like seeing you guys checking in local as well.

00:02:42.680 But it just lets me know we're reaching a whole lot of people

00:02:44.940 and having a good discussion on a lot of things.

00:02:46.820 let's talk about the observances while other folks are joining the show and getting signed in

00:02:51.000 we got it's national chili dog day you know that's an underrated dish you don't see them

00:02:56.160 much anymore they're kind of a an older fad or trend or whatever else but i tell you that

00:03:00.600 combination it's messy it can be a little hard to eat especially if you don't have a big bun or

00:03:04.540 whatever but i mean chili on a hot dog oh i mean talk about good drunk food to fire down outside

00:03:09.660 of a bar or if you're out in a beach or something somebody's selling chili dogs oh it's great stuff

00:03:15.720 So today's the day to indulge in a chili dog.

00:03:18.940 And well, then tomorrow you'll pay the price for it or your coworkers will.

00:03:22.460 But all the same, it's a good dish.

00:03:24.700 It's also National Intern Day.

00:03:27.300 This is a day I imagine to recognize and respect and, you know,

00:03:31.780 just to look at the contributions that interns give us, low-paid labor.

00:03:36.440 And of course, we're offering experience in places that use interns,

00:03:40.360 but they're there for abuse.

00:03:42.800 we call their office here, the intern dungeon. It's not as bad as all that, but that is the

00:03:47.640 corner we put them in. And a word of warning to any business or service that utilizes interns,

00:03:52.920 though, if your intern's wearing a blue dress and has a box full of cigars, it's a trap. Be careful,

00:04:00.300 back off, maybe find a new intern. Either way, interns do make a mark on society or society

00:04:06.420 made a mark on the dress the one time. So let's see, we got folks coming from Peace River,

00:04:10.980 next up all over. Lots of folks in there. Let me get on to what I'm going on about today.

00:04:16.500 Last night was the first United Conservative Party debate. It was a good one. It was held

00:04:22.460 in Madison Hat. Unfortunately, they had all sorts of technical issues. I'm just going to give my

00:04:27.740 interpretation of what happened with it. So starting, the best line from the first UCP

00:04:32.960 leaders debate actually came after the event was over. It was from Todd Lowen, and he said,

00:04:37.860 the UCP asked for $1,050,000 in leadership fees, of which apparently very little was spent on a

00:04:44.180 stable internet connection. I mean, the debate was live stream, but it was constantly cutting

00:04:48.460 out for extended periods. The terrible broadcast was the first newsmaking part of the event,

00:04:53.240 and it didn't reflect very well on party management. Leadership contenders, I mean,

00:04:56.880 they were forced to pony up $175,000 each to take part in the race. The least they could have hoped

00:05:02.640 for is a solid streaming broadcast for an official leadership event. Unfortunately,

00:05:07.240 they were to be disappointed. Now let's get to it. Every candidate got a short opening statement.

00:05:13.500 Almost all of them used those moments to take shots at Daniel Smith. This isn't unexpected. I

00:05:18.180 mean, a perceived front runner is always going to take the most flack in these events. And Danielle

00:05:22.600 used her opening to clarify her stance on cancer prevention, as she knew it was going to be coming

00:05:27.000 up, and it certainly did. It is during the body of the debate, though, where the candidates trying

00:05:31.940 to pull down Smith really blew it. With seven candidates in the race, it's tough for contenders

00:05:36.240 to stand out in the crowd in a debate. Organizers tried to model a format where each candidate got

00:05:41.440 to respond to one issue in question. Then they could choose another candidate to debate with

00:05:45.340 them on that issue and they get four more minutes. It was a way to encourage one-on-one debates

00:05:49.620 rather than having seven voices shouting over each other or taking half an hour per subject

00:05:54.020 because, you know, if you go through seven people, it's just not going to work. So, I mean, Rajin

00:05:57.620 Sani was asked about the environment. She used a moment to attack Daniel Smith on her proposed

00:06:02.120 Sovereignty Act. And then Sonny, then, this is the interesting part, chose Smith as the one to

00:06:06.900 debate for the next four minutes. Later on, Rebecca Schull's got her moment, and she got a question

00:06:12.440 on how Alberta could stand up to Ottawa. Schull spoke on how she was able to work collaboratively

00:06:17.960 with Justin Trudeau's government on the daycare policy that was implemented within Alberta. And

00:06:22.900 then she as well chose Smith as the one to debate for the next four minutes. Now, Daniel Smith is

00:06:29.000 arguably the most skilled orator in the entire field of candidates. She has decades of media

00:06:33.180 and political experience. She relished every moment she could take the microphone, and for

00:06:37.720 the first half of the debate, she was on deck for 80% of the show because the candidates kept

00:06:42.000 pulling her into the mix. Sonny came across as rather weak and spent most of the entirety of

00:06:47.080 the debate trying to find ways to take shots at Smith. Smith was unruffled and just kept taking

00:06:51.780 advantage of the opportunities Sonny gave her to expand further on points of her platform that

00:06:56.520 were considered contentious. Shells, though, she made the worst strategic mistake of all when she

00:07:01.820 gave Smith four minutes to debate on provincial-federal relations. I mean, Shells was a

00:07:06.180 cabinet minister in a party establishment that lost the support of its members, much of it due

00:07:11.320 to their inaction in dealing with Ottawa. The issue is the weakest spot for Shells and the

00:07:17.000 strongest spot for Smith. It was the worst choice to debate Smith on this. Smith mopped the floor

00:07:21.360 with Shells, and she took advantage of the chance to expand further on her Sovereignty Act while

00:07:25.600 Schultz was on the defensive for her own government's inaction. Smith was tossed a soft

00:07:30.820 buy by Schultz, softball, and she must have been thrilled with a gift. Subsequent candidates, I

00:07:35.900 think, realized the error in putting questions to Smith, and they finally started choosing others,

00:07:39.720 such as Sonny, as their debated opponents, but it was too late. Smith owned the first half of the

00:07:43.880 debate, and due to the crappy feed, the debate had probably lost half its viewers by the second

00:07:48.340 half anyways. Brian Jean took a strong stance in saying we need constitutional change and that

00:07:53.380 Canada's broken, but of course that requires a crisis as a catalyst, and it plays right into

00:07:58.020 Smith's proposed Sovereignty Act. In her closing statement, Smith addressed every other candidate

00:08:03.380 and complimented them on their stances rather than speaking about herself. She finished the

00:08:08.100 night appearing to be on the high road while a flustered pack of competing candidates made a

00:08:11.880 little impression upon the viewers. Smith didn't run away with the debate. The candidates challenging

00:08:17.020 Smith gave it to her. There are still months left in the campaign, and there's going to be other

00:08:21.040 debates, including the one held by the Western Standard on August 9th. The candidates playing

00:08:25.960 catch-up with Smith still have time to change tactics and try to draw the interest of the

00:08:30.260 members. So far, though, they've been nothing but reactive, and Smith is taking off with things.

00:08:35.680 While all of them say Smith's proposed Sovereignty Act isn't feasible, none of them are presenting

00:08:39.060 feasible alternatives to dealing with Ottawa, aside from doing more of the same. That already

00:08:43.140 failed. Members are sick and tired of strongly worded letters and panels that do nothing but

00:08:47.840 talk about issues. A Sovereignty Act might fail for Albertans, but the current course of action

00:08:52.560 for the UCP is guaranteed to fail. We know that. Establishment politicians and media members are

00:08:57.280 aghast at Smith's momentum, and they're shooting at her from all sides, but it's not working.

00:09:01.620 She's found a populist niche, and she's effectively filling it. If the contenders for the UCP race

00:09:06.480 can't propose effective alternatives to Smith's plan, she's going to walk away with this race this

00:09:11.800 Well, that was my interpretation of last night's debate.

00:09:15.760 So let's get to Mr. Dave Naylor, our news editor, and see what else is going on out there.

00:09:21.960 Corey, you old dog, you.

00:09:25.100 I'm coming out to your place right after work.

00:09:27.900 We're going to make us some honey.

00:09:29.940 Oh, yeah.

00:09:30.980 Yeah, Jane sent me a picture of what it's like to be a beekeeper around your place.

00:09:38.340 Oh, did she now?

00:09:39.860 Yeah, she did.

00:09:40.460 hopefully Nico can bring up the photo. It was basically three bikini clad women all around,

00:09:52.820 you know, with the honeybees and making honey and all that sort of stuff. I didn't realize

00:09:56.880 that was what was going on out there. Well, I think that was actually my proposed beekeeping

00:10:01.860 plan. Oh, there we go. And that was the course I wanted to take. And actually, that's the one

00:10:05.620 that jane rejected i'm not allowed to learn how to be keep from those those uh those uh you know

00:10:10.620 apiary managing uh young ladies and i'm afraid i have to stay with suited old men like myself but

00:10:16.020 uh it is a fine picture showing just how how passive those bees can be yeah and for those of

00:10:21.840 us who are just listening on the podcast it's uh it's a picture of uh three uh very lovely young

00:10:26.940 ladies in bikinis holding up uh honeycomb uh yeah there's beekeeping stuff looks like uh looks like

00:10:32.220 a good time, Corey. But you've got to be careful, right? I mean, if you're wearing a Speedo, they 1.00

00:10:36.100 could bite something important. Well, thankfully, you know, when I do that, I mean, the important

00:10:40.420 stuff is still a small target. So, you know, I'm not at too much risk that way, but there's still

00:10:44.800 parts of me I'd rather not be stung. Oh, but if you get stung, it could enlarge itself.

00:10:49.740 I guess it would do that. Well, keep that in mind. I'll send you a picture if such a tragedy occurs.

00:10:57.560 There you go.

00:10:59.020 We've got lots of good news happening this morning, Corey.

00:11:02.580 The federal government, you remember, has put in a mandatory gun buyback program

00:11:09.540 for what they call the nasty-looking assault rifles.

00:11:13.060 A price list was kind of put out today for some of them,

00:11:16.620 where the government is going to pay just about a little bit over $1,300

00:11:20.920 dollars for the average ar type weapon and up to uh to six thousand dollars for for some of the

00:11:27.580 others uh we've talked to your friend tony bernardo with the uh uh ccsa is it uh ccsa

00:11:34.520 yeah you'll be talking about them later i'm sure and he's not very happy with this he said you know

00:11:40.240 how can you put a single price on a on a type of gun that has so many different uh varieties so

00:11:46.360 While the full list hasn't been published yet, Corey, we are sort of starting to get, you know, a little bit of a guideline on what the Liberals are going to do.

00:11:53.440 And there's no doubt it's going to end up being a billion dollar boondoggle.

00:11:58.620 Western Standard readers will remember Mel Rizdin's piece a couple of weeks ago where we reported that the highest cause of death in Alberta at the moment is unexplained causes.

00:12:10.260 And Mark Stein did a bit of a rant on that on British TV yesterday.

00:12:14.600 And it's very interesting, very fun. I encourage all the readers to take a look at that.

00:12:22.280 Tamara Leach came to mind this morning, Corey, when we heard of details of an Edmonton man charged with six counts of child luring and talking the kids into performing sex acts and basically getting their personal information and extorting them.

00:12:38.760 Well, despite all these serious charges, he was in jail less than a couple of hours, and he'd already gotten bail, and he's already back out there.

00:12:47.960 So, you know, you think of poor Tamara Leach sitting in an Ottawa hellhole for months, and it just shows you how politically driven that story is.

00:13:00.960 And Alberta government responding this morning to growing cases of monkeypox.

00:13:06.200 They've set up a vaccination program for men who are in the danger zone who could get it.

00:13:14.280 So those are just some of the stories we've got out this morning, Corey.

00:13:18.380 Our intern, we've got a young intern, Jonathan.

00:13:21.380 He's out from Ontario.

00:13:23.760 He'll be working on his story.

00:13:25.100 He's just busy at the moment getting my dry cleaning and detailing my car.

00:13:29.800 But when he is done with that, he'll have a story on Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones has got himself in hot water with the woke crowd because he dared to use the word midget.

00:13:43.020 And that caused a uproar in the United States and he's had to apologize.

00:13:47.520 So, yeah, as soon as Jonathan's finished grabbing my lunch and, you know, doing all that sort of good stuff, he'll have that for us.

00:13:55.340 Well, great. I'm looking forward to seeing the protests outside of the, you know, Cowboys Stadium with all those little people running around. I mean, you know, they can't help it, but they're always entertaining.

00:14:05.840 They are. There's nothing better than a good midget wrestling match. 1.00

00:14:09.360 Oh, I miss that. 1.00

00:14:10.640 And, you know, I'm sure in the heydays of when you were owning your bar, Corey, I'm sure it wasn't Thursday night's dwarf tossing night?

00:14:18.480 they banned it before i bought the bar but i did watch and attend a few of those way back in the 1.00

00:14:23.580 days of electric avenue where yes you would take a uh a little person or a midget as was allowed to 0.97

00:14:28.720 be said then yeah they put a little football helmet on them and throw that little devil as 1.00

00:14:31.940 far as they could drunks would uh it was quite an event and those guys would make quite a bit

00:14:36.620 of money out of that like i can agree maybe it might have been a bit humiliating yeah but you

00:14:41.880 know if they're willing to do it and they got paid and they probably had a few beers themselves

00:14:45.160 uh might have all been in good fun back then but so it's definitely definitely a no-no now

00:14:50.360 no well we'll look forward to that story from jonathan all right talk to you after the show

00:14:57.940 so that is our news editor dave naylor as we see we've got dave we've got reporters all across the

00:15:03.800 country we've got interns jonathan's working on things once he gets out from under that car and

00:15:08.780 detailing and fixing things up under there and he's hammering out those stories and the reason

00:15:12.680 we can do that we do pay the interns just uh not as much as other people do sometimes or i don't

00:15:17.600 know how that intern thing works out either way the reason we've got all these people on board

00:15:22.360 is because of subscribers that's how we stay independent that's how we are not like the

00:15:26.720 legacy media outlets that are beholden to the government that take tax dollars it's subscribers

00:15:32.560 and thousands of them come true it's been fantastic uh for a publication that's kind of

00:15:36.540 only been revitalized for a year and a half now it is two and a half years now it's really taking

00:15:41.260 off. So thank you to everybody who subscribed. And this is when I got to nag and remind you,

00:15:45.120 if you're watching this and you haven't subscribed yet, 99 bucks a year, $10 a month. It's a good 1.00

00:15:50.280 deal, guys. We're not asking for charity. We're asking you to buy a service. It's less than a

00:15:54.560 newspaper subscription used to cost, less than some people spend on World of Warcraft. And you

00:15:58.660 get good product right through the paywall and get lots of info. So get on there, westernstandard.news

00:16:04.520 slash membership and take one out. And yeah, we appreciate it. I'm going to answer some

00:16:09.940 questions. Cameron Freckleton, a commentator, says, Western Standard, what are your thoughts

00:16:13.400 on candidate Lowen? This has been interesting since this leadership race began. And I imagine

00:16:19.260 it's a perfectly good question there, Cameron. You say Western Standard. You see that the

00:16:24.200 standard itself does not have a stance. Once in a while, we do take editorial stances and we'll

00:16:29.920 have a meeting. And we would put out a piece where there'd be discussions between Derek and

00:16:34.440 Dave and myself and others on an editorial stance. But in general, on something, say,

00:16:38.080 as a specific candidate, we wouldn't. What you can get and will get is my view on candidate

00:16:44.600 Lowen or other issues or other races and things like that, because this is an opinion show. And

00:16:50.140 some people have been confused a bit by it lately, actually. I've been getting some of that,

00:16:54.940 some interesting stuff, as I've been commenting on the race. Things get heated and racist. People

00:16:59.320 are very attached to their candidates. They're passionate about it. And they get upset whenever

00:17:03.260 their candidate is criticized. I will celebrate or criticize any candidate when they do something

00:17:09.040 right or wrong. I think Danielle did really well in the debate last night, so I was complimentary

00:17:15.820 of it. If I thought she crapped the bed, I would have reported on it that way. I'll take it as I

00:17:20.580 see it and as it comes. Todd, I've known him actually for quite a long time. We were together

00:17:25.720 in the Wildrose party in the past. He's a fantastic person. He stands in a good spot in

00:17:30.900 that party at least. I know some folks got annoyed when I sort of, and fair enough, I kind of implied

00:17:35.920 he was part of the establishment because he holds a seat within the party. But he is sort of outside

00:17:40.560 the establishment in that, yeah, he spoke up and he got kicked out of caucus for his views and he

00:17:45.360 stands by his principles. Part of my issues with Todd is that he's not standing out with a strong

00:17:51.540 stance on Ottawa and he speaks up, absolutely. But when you look to his website, all I could find was

00:17:56.260 a little bit of a thing on carbon taxes and nothing really solid. And it's not to say he

00:18:01.200 doesn't have those views. They're just not being well delivered or encapsulated at this time. And

00:18:05.180 it's making it difficult for him to stand out in a pack of seven candidates. He's doing very well

00:18:09.380 as the campaign goes. So especially one without a party mechanism behind him. And we'll just keep

00:18:15.100 it watching as that develops. And as I started the show, I liked his comments, at least I'm kind

00:18:18.320 of taking a swipe at the party with their poor management of that debate. I mean, consider how

00:18:23.620 much money the party demanded out of all of them. And he can't even get a good solid stream when

00:18:28.000 when he is in a debate on it. So let's see what else we got in the comments there.

00:18:36.960 Judy and Jim Jarotowski saying, everyone's saying the sovereignty act won't work, but won't say why

00:18:41.600 other than that people are going to flee Alberta. You know, I'm not worried about that. Yeah,

00:18:48.460 we'll see. You know, the bottom line is, and that's something that Danielle kept pointing

00:18:52.080 out to them. You know, they're saying, oh, it's going to drive business out and it's going to

00:18:54.880 harm industry. Look, Ottawa has been doing that to us for decades. There really isn't much to lose

00:18:59.500 in pushing back harder. That case holds no water. So they've got to come up with something better

00:19:05.440 to push back. I mean, perhaps, as I said, perhaps what Smith is proposing isn't feasible.

00:19:10.880 Well, in that case, come up with what is, because right now they're getting thrown to the wayside.

00:19:17.100 The party establishment, I still think a lot of them don't even realize why their last leader

00:19:23.640 got thrown out. I mean, Kenny was a strong, well-established Albertan politician who came

00:19:31.040 in as a popular, arguably leader, only a few years ago. And after a few years of inaction

00:19:36.980 on things like the Fair Deal panel and stuff like that, his own membership turned and tossed him

00:19:42.120 out on his butt. And the establishment doesn't seem to understand that. You are not going to

00:19:46.340 win the members by saying, we're going to offer you four more years of the same thing that you

00:19:50.540 just got rid of. They got to stand out. They got to sound different. And then there's people who

00:19:55.680 might think, I'm going to segue that into my guests here. There's no fixing the UCP. There's

00:20:00.500 no getting around that. What we need is an entirely different party with a full-on different approach.

00:20:04.880 And that's the Wildrose Independence Party. And they've been a strong registered presence.

00:20:09.220 They were in that last by-election. They're out there. And well, right now, though, they are doing

00:20:13.540 what we always seem to do with conservative parties, and they're all fighting with each

00:20:16.920 other. So let's bring Paul Hinman in and Angela Tavac and try to sort out kind of what's going

00:20:22.880 on with the Wildrose Independence Party, because they had their AGM last weekend, and it looks

00:20:27.140 like it was quite an exciting time. Hey, guys, how are you doing?

00:20:30.320 Doing good, Corey. Good to see you.

00:20:32.560 Yeah. So, you know, I kind of framed that a bit at the start. I'm just going to start

00:20:36.480 with a bit of a ramble to give some people some background if they're not familiar with

00:20:39.340 what's kind of happening in the party, or at least my interpretation of it.

00:20:42.440 uh you you you kind of had a split between the the party executive members and uh well the

00:20:49.520 leadership yourself and I guess almost in a tertiary way in the members themselves uh the

00:20:55.420 the the small board of directors essentially uh considered you removed as the leader from the

00:21:02.460 party but it wasn't accepted by the members uh the the AGM was held last weekend and uh the members

00:21:09.300 sort of stood up the executive committee walked out and uh you've been reinstated as leader and

00:21:14.420 and yourself as as president is that kind of in a nutshell what's happened here yes that that's a

00:21:19.780 good summary of it and and you just need to realize is that what we're talking about is a rogue board

00:21:25.780 that wants to declare themselves leader forever um you know they they manipulated the elections that

00:21:32.660 we're going to have they eliminated people who sent in their nominations they didn't disqualify

00:21:39.700 them or let them know to the last minute it's just really been disheartening to see the way

00:21:45.140 this board of governors this past board of governors behaved but it was so exciting to

00:21:49.460 be amongst our members to have a great discussion to have a again a democratic process of electing

00:21:57.140 people and again i don't know if it was seven hours into the meeting we still had 83 of the

00:22:02.180 people that were there and voted in in favor for the new board and for myself as leadership and

00:22:08.740 and it was just it was great to to end on such a high note okay so going you know party management

00:22:16.020 and operations and things like that for people not familiar with it that's typically kind of the

00:22:20.020 domain of the the executive committee and and the party president so i'll bring angela in and kind

00:22:24.900 of ask now you guys are in an odd spot as i said i did contact jeevan mangit just to ask him trying

00:22:30.500 to find out what's going on from there uh he basically said go to the elections alberta

00:22:34.820 website and that tells you who runs the party well and that still lists g van and rick northy

00:22:40.820 now as the one who's been selected angela as party president how can you rectify or change

00:22:46.500 that with elections alberta what's the process and what's happening now well we've been talking

00:22:50.900 to them and we're looking at our different options obviously uh the fact of the matter is that the

00:22:55.860 the membership spoke. The old PBOG didn't like it. There are things that they could have done

00:23:02.760 to rectify the situation way before this that they chose not to. And so, I mean, they're basically

00:23:09.940 running a party without any support of the members. So, yeah, we're just moving forward.

00:23:15.980 The party spoke, they chose their new party board of governors, and we're moving forward with that.

00:23:22.740 And yeah, like I said, we have spoken to Elections Alberta.

00:23:25.520 We're looking at different options.

00:23:27.880 But we've got a message and we have a movement to bring forward to the people of Alberta.

00:23:35.020 And we're just getting busy with that.

00:23:38.220 Okay, but in the meantime, like who's controlling the email accounts, the fundraising, the bank?

00:23:44.340 I mean, until that's resolved, it's going to be very difficult for you guys to organize effectively anyways, isn't it?

00:23:49.900 I would actually say no, Corey, in that we have some awesome CAs.

00:23:57.800 Angela's got one that are up and running, 25 to 30, and they can carry on.

00:24:03.020 I mean, one of their complaints for the last year is that they write in or they call in

00:24:08.140 to get the membership from their CA so they can build their CA, and our past board wouldn't

00:24:12.980 send it to them.

00:24:13.980 Oh, no, what do you want to send?

00:24:15.480 Send it to us and we'll send it out.

00:24:17.480 were so i i want to say just obsessed with control that that our party hasn't been able to move

00:24:23.720 forward and so we're getting each ca independent they can donate money and raise money in their

00:24:29.080 cas they're looking for candidates there who want to run and it's actually quite exciting that since

00:24:34.520 the the agm now all of a sudden we're coming together we've had several zoom meetings and

00:24:40.040 talking to different ca presidents and people are ready to go forward and go out there and start

00:24:45.080 talking to Albertans. But yes, they currently have the website and they have NationBuilder

00:24:49.800 that we're going to work from one CA to the next and it's going to be great.

00:24:55.400 Well, I mean, it's an interesting way to work around because, I mean, the election is approaching.

00:24:59.640 We're less than a year from it. You're going to need candidates in place. You're going to need

00:25:02.760 funds. You're going to need campaign planning. I mean, still in the end, the party will have to

00:25:08.600 resolve that. I guess that's going to take a little time. I mean, you know, things can't

00:25:12.040 happened overnight do you think this might go to the courts well i i sure hope not i mean let let

00:25:17.640 let's sit back and and have you know have some reason here just watch the you know it's all up

00:25:23.160 on youtube uh wild rose agm 2022 it's very plain what happened the people spoke and you know one

00:25:29.880 of the hallmarks of a good democracy is that the the peaceful turnover to a new you know to the

00:25:36.520 new group and and these people are again just showing their their colors um full colors in that

00:25:43.480 they're they're authoritarians they want control and they refuse to let go and they very much for

00:25:49.160 the three months leading up to the agm went through all of this you know they didn't allow

00:25:53.480 us to have a policy and governance policy where the members had submitted it's just really been

00:25:59.480 disappointing their behavior but like i say time time is on our side truth on our side and i do

00:26:05.560 believe that they'll come to reason and realize you know um i guess we need to go join with the

00:26:10.600 other groups that they say that this is where we need to be that they're free to go and join there's

00:26:15.800 two or three other groups that that are claiming to be independent groups and they they they want

00:26:21.240 to be with them then please pull up your stakes and go over and join them well it's a tough field

00:26:29.080 out there i mean what was interesting i believe it was about 400 members showed up uh that's a

00:26:34.600 a sizable number for a smaller party to get rolling.

00:26:38.580 I mean, I know, I think Paul and I have attended AGMs

00:26:40.680 in past parties where we'd have like 80 or 90 people.

00:26:44.140 And we still, I mean, over time,

00:26:45.460 turned that into the official opposition in Alberta.

00:26:47.680 So 400 people is not something to sneeze at,

00:26:50.760 especially in summer when people have things

00:26:52.320 they feel might be better to do.

00:26:55.100 Of those, as you said, the majority,

00:26:56.860 and we can see that in the video online,

00:26:58.380 did say that they wanted to elect a new board.

00:27:00.440 So, Angela, you're the one that the group there chose as president.

00:27:05.380 There's others on this new executive committee, I imagine, as well.

00:27:09.280 Yeah, absolutely.

00:27:10.120 We've got a great team, tons of different experience and backgrounds that we're bringing different skills to the group.

00:27:20.440 And, yeah, very cohesive.

00:27:22.300 Like, it's a very different field than what we've been dealing with for the last year.

00:27:25.720 As a CA president for the last 14 months, I've had zero support from the old party board of governors. And basically, we've been running CAs on our own without that support. So yeah, we've got a long list of things that we know that we need to put in place to help the CAs be effective and successful in their bid to find candidates and to get things moving.

00:27:50.620 and we're super excited. Tons of energy, tons of energy and just a real commitment to the principles

00:27:57.420 of Wildrose. It's grassroots. We want to hear from the CEA presidents. We want to hear from

00:28:02.660 the membership. We've set up online things where just any member can go online and they can give

00:28:07.580 us all kinds of ideas and what their thoughts are. And it's bottom up, not top down, which is what

00:28:15.140 we have been experiencing yeah so you got lots to do in limited time do you think is there going

00:28:20.840 to be another event or anything going on like a larger part of gathering between now and election

00:28:25.420 time maybe a chance to resolve some more things or something like that yeah we're yeah we're going

00:28:32.180 to get pushing forward and and again we'll we'll hold probably a special general meeting so that

00:28:37.300 we can bring forward the policies and bylaws that the members already submitted and wanted to vote

00:28:41.940 on but bottom line we want to start doing town halls going around the province and and working

00:28:46.660 in the different cas to let people know that we actually do have a solution that's much better than

00:28:51.860 the sovereignty act which is again going going into their courts and asking for permission hey

00:28:57.700 will you make us supreme over you um we we have a better result or better plan than that than what

00:29:04.260 they're doing but um it's good to see people coming on board and following danielle the way

00:29:09.140 they are because that that's certainly a step in the great direct in the right direction we're

00:29:13.460 thrilled that they're imitating so many of our policies they just got two or three more to go

00:29:18.260 and um we're doing great yeah well you always have been something of a pragmatist you got in

00:29:24.340 trouble for that with your endorsement of ted morton i believe many years ago yeah the bottom

00:29:29.380 line is i mean it doesn't matter who gets the job done it's just got to get done so uh but you you're

00:29:33.940 basically i mean you're there saying if the ucp doesn't do it you're going to well i think there

00:29:38.980 actually following us and even danielle you know like she's by far in my opinion the best of the

00:29:43.940 pack the only one in the pack that's going to stand up or make an attempt to ottawa but

00:29:48.500 this idea to say that we're going to pass legislation then we're going to go out to

00:29:52.580 ottawa and say hey we want you to make our legislation supreme over your legislation

00:29:57.780 um that that's like asking for permission for something you know they're going to say no

00:30:02.420 and then you're in a lost position whereas with the wild rose and what we're proposing

00:30:06.660 is that we actually talk to the people next election they're going to be able to answer

00:30:11.140 do you want to have our own police force do you want to have our own tax system where we collect

00:30:15.620 all the taxes by albertans for albertans are we going to have our own environmental regulations

00:30:20.900 we're not going to listen ottawa and you actually need to present that to the people

00:30:24.580 when they elect us we actually have our mandate from the people on the things we campaigned about

00:30:30.020 and perhaps the two most important things where they're not there yet is is if we want better

00:30:34.580 government than the legacy parties we have to have accountability you have to be able to fire

00:30:38.980 your elected representatives any day 24 7 365 days of the year and this idea that once every four

00:30:45.460 years is good enough look what rachel did to us look what notley did to it i mean what um kenny

00:30:51.940 did to us and you can go back to redford and all of these other ones it doesn't work but most

00:30:57.220 important for alberta um the paris accord and carbon net zero um does not work for us doesn't

00:31:03.860 work for the world and for danielle to to say that oh we're going to meet carbon net zero and

00:31:08.820 we can do all these innovative things if we're taxed so heavily um that's a no-go we we need

00:31:14.100 zero carbon tax we need to have the ability to develop and sell our resources to the world

00:31:19.860 they need more alberta oil it's ethical it's clean and it's just the way to go and we need

00:31:25.060 to stand up and say no to ottawa and we need a mandate from the people to say no and we'll

00:31:29.460 exercise our full autonomy well great well i mean it's certainly a distinct stance and you're there

00:31:35.300 and putting that out so maybe just in closing i guess with with angela because there's just a

00:31:39.940 where can people find information on the party keep up with it i mean there's kind of multiple

00:31:44.660 sources going on right now uh where could you direct people if they're looking to find more

00:31:49.620 information to contact you guys so we are getting that up and running um yeah i mean we're five days

00:31:55.700 out from the AGM so we are scrambling and we will have that that out quickly and shortly here.

00:32:03.460 The CA presidents and the CA boards are reaching out to their current members right now to establish

00:32:09.140 contact and to let them know well they've had contact already before but to just let them know

00:32:12.740 hey we're still here and we're still moving forward with this movement and frankly the

00:32:18.580 sovereignty movement in Alberta is in a much better position today than it was last week at

00:32:22.340 at this time because of what happened at the AGM.

00:32:25.660 All right, well, thanks for coming on

00:32:27.600 to speak to us today about some of that

00:32:29.560 and try and un-muddy the waters a little bit anyways.

00:32:33.420 I know there's a lot of you.

00:32:34.300 I mean, you can just see it on the YouTube video.

00:32:36.260 And I do suggest other people go

00:32:37.840 and have a look for yourselves.

00:32:39.040 I mean, there's interpretations, there's views,

00:32:40.940 but I mean, it was all covered.

00:32:42.660 You can see what happened

00:32:43.860 and make up your own determination on what's going on.

00:32:46.500 I think it's important to have alternative parties

00:32:49.120 out there giving a good message out there.

00:32:52.340 when we come election time and it's unfortunate to see parties dedicating so much time to fight

00:32:56.360 within themselves rather than uh you know getting established for an election so i hope it's all

00:33:01.380 resolved fairly soon and uh look forward to talking to you guys then one last thing cory being the

00:33:06.780 person who i am and sticking my neck out when i'm not supposed to but we're we're going to be going

00:33:11.300 back to our old website wildrose.party www.wildrose.party if this rogue board doesn't turn

00:33:19.240 over and do the honorable thing. We'll start up that and people can start looking there,

00:33:25.360 www.wildrose.party. And that'll probably be where we end up because it looks like they're

00:33:32.120 going to dig in and not want to do the right thing. Okay. Well, thanks, wildrose.party. And

00:33:39.080 we'll keep an eye on it, Paul and Angela. So, well, good luck with your endeavors and we'll

00:33:43.660 talk to you again, I'm sure. Thanks for having us on. Really appreciate the work you're doing.

00:33:47.580 Hey, thanks, Paul. Okay, so that was the, well, I believe the leader and president of the Wildrose

00:33:54.160 Independence Party. It's unfortunately gotten messy, but a lot of clarity can be found in

00:34:00.000 watching that video of the AGM. I mean, a lot of stuff's sort of dry. I'll tell you, if you're just

00:34:04.020 somebody looking out of curiosity, as far as AGMs go, that was pretty lively, actually, though,

00:34:09.600 in an unfortunate way. And you can certainly see the rage. We did a story on that in the clip with

00:34:14.820 the, I guess, other or former president or whatever. It might be Rick Northey storming

00:34:19.820 out of the room and elbowing a gentleman on the way out the door. It certainly demonstrated how

00:34:24.020 heated things have got in that room. But most of what got to me, and I'm just going to give my

00:34:29.060 interpretation, is the members are paramount. That's always the chief and final authority.

00:34:35.360 And what really rose the alarm bells with me when this was building up a couple of months ago and

00:34:39.660 getting going was this board just did everything in their power to make sure that their questions,

00:34:45.280 whether perhaps Paul did do something wrong in the by-election. I don't know. I don't think so.

00:34:50.540 There's laws about that. But if he did, you're only a few weeks away from AGM. That's the time

00:34:55.960 to say, hey, this is our concern. The members are here today. Let's talk about it and resolve it.

00:35:01.100 But instead, they wanted to bypass that, kick out the leader, and just not even give him a chance

00:35:06.660 to address the membership and say, what the heck's going on? And that raises the alarm bells with me.

00:35:11.140 And they obviously, when they had the members there, 400 of them, they couldn't make their case

00:35:14.980 and the room turned on them. And I, you know, it's a messy way to do things, but it was the

00:35:21.140 closest I can see to where you can get as many members in one spot as possible. And they have

00:35:25.460 a raise of hands and say, which way do we want to go? And the majority of them said, we want to go

00:35:29.640 with our leader and elect a new board. Now that leads to a lot of complications. Like I know,

00:35:35.440 And they're working on that, I guess. And that's up to them. As Josh Andrus is saying, he says, so Elections Alberta hasn't recognized Paul's leader, nor has recognized the new board. Well, not necessarily, actually. You got to remember, as was stated, this was only five days ago. And the way it works is you've got to submit your meeting and your minutes and all sorts of stuff to Elections Alberta.

00:35:54.260 presumably, usually it's pretty easy because there's not much dispute. There's only going

00:35:58.740 to be one board saying that they're running it and Elections Alberta will update their site to

00:36:03.500 reflect those sorts of things. But if you've got a former board refusing to cooperate and you can

00:36:09.760 have some difficulties and unfortunately it might end up with legal action. I don't know. We'll see

00:36:14.080 how that goes. I'm outside of that realm, but I mean, it's going to be resolved. So it's not saying

00:36:19.380 that they haven't recognized. They're just saying, you know, basically I think that they've got to

00:36:22.840 get some clarity brought to them. I mean, Elections Alberta, of all the government

00:36:27.640 organizations I've ever dealt with, actually, I think they've always been fantastic. They

00:36:31.660 work very hard to remain as unbiased as possible. They don't want to get in the middle of a partisan

00:36:36.140 mess. They got their rules. They got their registration. They just want to put things

00:36:40.180 out there how they can. So we'll see how things come together, I guess, in the next while and

00:36:44.640 if there's resolution. But as I said, I would suggest people watch that video and perhaps

00:36:50.660 past interviews with Paul and Rick Northey. I had him on the show a couple of months ago and

00:36:55.400 it wasn't even a couple of months. I think it was a month maybe. And, you know, determine things

00:36:59.820 from there. But I always hate seeing parties. You know, again, it's time wasted. It's when

00:37:06.060 you're fighting with yourself, you're losing ground on the battle you wanted to have. And

00:37:11.540 sometimes it's unavoidable, I guess, but it's an unfortunate development. All right. I see some

00:37:17.520 questions again from uh freckleton and shirley and sylvia all again asking you got to run around

00:37:22.240 on the answer about whether or not todd soon be in the debate come on guys we've addressed this

00:37:25.760 10 times over but i'll address it again we did it uh actually at length last night during the

00:37:31.840 pipeline i know not everybody gets to watch every show we have a debate going uh in early august

00:37:39.440 there and it's going to be hosted by the western standard it's in a venue that really literally

00:37:44.560 physiologically only has room for three people on the stage.

00:37:47.960 Plus, a seven-person debate, as we saw last night, is very difficult to manage.

00:37:52.540 It's hard to get through that.

00:37:54.480 And realistically, we wanted to at least pick what appeared to be the top three

00:37:59.880 and give them that spot.

00:38:02.880 You know, the other four?

00:38:04.340 We certainly give all the time we can and everything, but that's...

00:38:06.600 And with polling out there, look, between Danielle Smith,

00:38:12.200 Brian Jean, and Travis Taves, we're talking, I'm just guessing here, it was like 23%, 24%,

00:38:19.780 and 15%. Once you got beyond that, the other candidates, I mean, everybody else was, and this

00:38:24.560 is broad polling. This is from a polling organization, not the Western Standard little

00:38:29.480 online poll on a website. That's not an accurate poll. I mean, it's a poll of our members, and we

00:38:33.500 do those to get a feel of things. But this broader polling, every other candidate we're talking was

00:38:38.900 like one or 2%. If we're going to look at three that are definitely at least as far as we can

00:38:43.340 tell the top three contenders, those three stand out. And that's why those three were selected.

00:38:49.540 It's nothing against the other four. It's saying we had to come up with a method to

00:38:55.000 make a smaller number of people participating in it. And that's the way we went. And

00:39:00.760 that's, that's where things go from there. And, and again, Josh, so Paul hasn't been

00:39:10.140 recognized as a legitimate signing authority. It's still in dispute is, is the way it is.

00:39:15.440 And I don't see, I don't see how Elections Alberta isn't going to recognize them eventually. It's

00:39:22.440 just, unfortunately, if the outgoing board is intransigent, it could take a couple of months

00:39:26.620 before it's resolved. But I don't know how 10 people in a room of 400 can think they have any

00:39:31.660 moral authority to run that party anymore. I mean, really, it was just beyond the pale. I mean,

00:39:39.340 at some point, you have to realize maybe you're on the wrong side. If you're going to claim to

00:39:43.680 be a member driven party, if you've got a valid case to be made, you should have nothing to fear

00:39:49.180 in having that case put out in front of a whole room. And they that seemed to be what they fought

00:39:54.440 the most. I mean, from what I heard, they even got to the point of trying to call security when Paul

00:40:00.300 came in to keep him out from the room. Really, they were that terrified of Paul. We're going to

00:40:04.760 call security rather than let him come into the room. And the members basically told security

00:40:09.200 he's staying. So in the end of all this mess, I'm pretty confident this is going to land back with

00:40:15.920 Paul and the new president, but they're going to waste a whole lot of time and resources and energy

00:40:19.680 having to get that resolved. That's unfortunate. So let's see, we will see what comes out of it.

00:40:29.500 But as I said, I mean, I just want to see more of those options out there. I like seeing that

00:40:34.760 ability, you know, for another option for members with the UCP. I mean, if, and it should temper

00:40:44.860 the views then of ones like Taves, establishment candidates such as him, Scholes. Hey, if you guys

00:40:52.180 keep that soft sell with Ottawa, there's another door for people. There's somewhere people are

00:40:57.080 going to go. So the UCP members are going to have to think carefully on that. The candidates are

00:41:01.060 going to have to think carefully on that. It's your competitors can sometimes drive the game.

00:41:05.820 It's the up and comers. If you're leaving a void to be filled, they're going to fill it.

00:41:10.380 So these other parties are important. If the Wildrose Independence Party wasn't there,

00:41:14.340 then the UCP might feel more comfortable in taking more soft sell stances with Ottawa,

00:41:19.400 which fail, chronically fail, failed for decades.

00:41:22.640 So I do not want to see the Wildrose Independence Party disappear.

00:41:27.500 And I don't think it's gonna, I don't think it's going to disappear.

00:41:30.580 I just think though that they're losing a lot of traction, unfortunately, over all of this

00:41:34.140 infighting and it'll get resolved eventually, but time's getting wasted and it's unfortunate.

00:41:43.000 it. So let's see what else we got in the comments here. Others for

00:41:48.840 Todd Lohan. Hey, Josh, I don't know what you're hung up with

00:41:54.520 here. Okay. If it isn't legally recognized, how can it be

00:41:57.660 legitimate? It isn't legally recognized yet. Yet. There was a

00:42:03.140 meeting with 400 members that voted. And we got 10 who had the

00:42:09.160 original prior authority trying to fight against the 400 basically, or 300 of them or whatever.

00:42:16.720 This will get ironed out and it will be recognized, but it's not today. It was only been five days.

00:42:23.300 So, and the meeting I think was in my view, I mean, we'll see that's up to others, you know,

00:42:28.660 legitimate that you've got the members gathered, they made up their mind, they run the party,

00:42:32.540 It's their party. And, and, uh, that's what happened. Uh, let's see, uh, referendum on

00:42:40.900 independence. Somebody wants to see, yes, I'm kind of mixed on that. Um, Josh, I keep getting

00:42:48.980 that comment over. So Josh, if you keep putting the same one up, I'm going to block your comments.

00:42:54.880 Like seriously, I've answered it. All right. So, uh, yes, we've got things going on. Let's see

00:43:00.900 what else is happening in the questions here. I understand. I don't want to get fighting over it

00:43:08.740 on there. And, and again, Josh, for the 10th time, it's five days since the AGM. That's why

00:43:16.500 Elections Alberta hasn't changed anything yet. So where else are we going here, guys? Let's,

00:43:23.380 let's talk about our sponsor. I've got to get to that. The Canadian Shooting Sports Association

00:43:30.680 It's not just members that help pay our bills, guys.

00:43:33.160 It is our sponsors.

00:43:35.260 And the CSSA, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association,

00:43:38.420 is a great sponsor for us, and they're a great organization.

00:43:42.580 Look, their name kind of says what it's about.

00:43:44.260 It's an association of people who own firearms, collect firearms,

00:43:48.640 use them for hunting, target shooting, whatever you want, law-abiding citizens.

00:43:53.280 And these are people that are under attack,

00:43:54.920 that are constantly having their property under threat.

00:43:57.700 and they got to stand up for themselves.

00:44:01.060 The only way you can do that,

00:44:01.920 you can send your letter as an individual.

00:44:03.600 You can call your MP, you can do what you want.

00:44:06.540 But unless you organize together,

00:44:08.100 as I said, that's one of the areas

00:44:09.100 I only give the left credit.

00:44:10.440 I don't tend to if I can help it,

00:44:11.760 but they organize.

00:44:12.920 They know their safety in numbers

00:44:14.080 when it comes to their causes.

00:44:15.780 And an association like the Canadian Shooting Sports Association

00:44:17.980 is the way that firearm owners can get together

00:44:20.620 and work as a group to protect their rights.

00:44:23.080 And these guys have been around for a long, long time.

00:44:25.800 They are effective.

00:44:26.420 Tony Bernardo has been running them. He's a fantastic spokesperson for people who want to

00:44:30.160 responsibly enjoy firearms. And if you want to keep the right to do that, guys, you've got to

00:44:36.160 get on board with these guys. The membership fees are modest, but this is the way you protect

00:44:40.860 yourself. Because if you don't stand up for your own rights, they will get taken away from you.

00:44:44.760 We have a government more than eager to take away your rights. So get on there, guys. It's

00:44:48.820 the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. That's the easiest way to find them. You know, just

00:44:51.720 Google it and they'll pop up. Or their website is cssa-cila.org. Take out a membership. Their

00:44:57.960 costs aren't that much. And it's an investment in yourself and your own rights. So, all right,

00:45:04.800 let's see what else we got going on in the comments. Scroll before I get on to some news

00:45:11.080 items, if there's more. But yeah, contentious issues get going when we get party things going

00:45:19.800 on. And we'll see. You know, some people are confident this is going to be the court. I doubt

00:45:24.080 it. Look, I interviewed Rick Norphy. You know, you can look back and check that out. This is the

00:45:32.920 former, and I'm going to call it that in my view, former president of that party. He wouldn't answer

00:45:37.840 questions. He was angry, he was belligerent, and he didn't make a good case. If he's going to,

00:45:43.900 he had the same opportunity in front of all of the members last weekend. And obviously,

00:45:48.280 they didn't have any use for his case either.

00:45:51.140 The interim leader, Jeevan Mangat,

00:45:53.320 and I've known Jeevan a long time, I like him,

00:45:54.920 but he's basically being incommunicado.

00:45:57.860 He just told me,

00:45:58.600 go look at the Elections Alberta site.

00:46:00.640 Okay.

00:46:02.240 Guys, I mean, unless your goal

00:46:04.220 is to run the party into the ground,

00:46:07.100 this won't win in court,

00:46:08.760 but they can really cost a lot of resources going there.

00:46:11.540 I don't know what they think they're achieving,

00:46:14.420 but we'll find out.

00:46:16.860 Steve Britton saying,

00:46:17.680 regarding referendum. We aren't trying to pull it back. We want to win it rather than try to push

00:46:20.860 for a different arrangement. Yeah. Like, well, that's one of the things I've talked about before

00:46:24.720 a number of times. And I think I differ a bit from Paul because he's talked about referendums

00:46:28.440 going to one right away. And so has Drew Barnes, you know, and I've had them on the show. And I

00:46:32.920 mean, hey, I'm an independent supporter. But one thing I've said over and over again, we aren't

00:46:37.100 ready for a referendum. We are not ready. There's two things. For one, we don't even have our own

00:46:44.660 provincial house in order. As we said, we're in the middle of a leadership race because we

00:46:47.740 chucked out our own premier. And that's not going to give people confidence to say we're going to

00:46:51.440 be better off on our own. The other thing is, if we hold a referendum and lose, you're not going

00:46:59.460 to get another chance for a decade. So if you really want to push for one, you really have to

00:47:04.600 feel confident that there is support for that sort of move at this time. It at least has to be a

00:47:10.420 strong, strong showing or an actual vote to go. But right now, I mean, even the strongest polling

00:47:17.000 for support for independence in Alberta shows about 33%, which is bloody strong. When you've

00:47:22.480 got a third of the province saying, you know what, we're better off out, you know, some people should

00:47:27.460 be sitting up and taking notice. I mean, and those are also motivated voters. But I also know from

00:47:31.840 working on past election campaigns, it's one thing for a person to make a checkmark on a poll

00:47:35.760 or, you know, when they got a phone call coming in to say, yes, I support independence. When they

00:47:39.400 actually go into a polling booth, they often change their mind. I mean, it's something they

00:47:45.080 say when they're ticked off. It's something they push for at the time. But when push comes to shove,

00:47:49.660 they really aren't quite ready for that leap yet. And I don't think anywhere close to 50% of

00:47:54.460 Albertans are ready for that leap yet. I think it's going to come. I think we're going to come

00:47:57.960 with so many standoffs with Ottawa and Trudeau with his insane green plans and his attacks on

00:48:02.820 fertilizer and energy and you name it. I mean, again, independence looks a lot nicer when suddenly

00:48:07.120 you can't make the mortgage and can't put food on your table. But for the time being, calling for

00:48:11.800 a referendum right now, I think is premature and could actually defeat the purpose of what you want

00:48:18.420 to go towards. A little patience. And I know that's not one of my stronger suits. I mean,

00:48:22.200 that's why I ran the Alberta Independence Party when I was 29 and thought we got to go out right

00:48:25.460 now. Well, look at that. It's 20 years later. We're no closer. So just got to hold the horses,

00:48:30.900 guys, and figure out how we're going to do it. Part of it is that we're always eager to go,

00:48:34.640 but we haven't built our framework and how to get into that position to get there.

00:48:40.680 All right, let's pivot a bit. I see our next guest is in the lobby already, and I'd like to talk to

00:48:44.640 him. I'm looking forward to that. And that is our, he's been a weekly columnist for the Western

00:48:49.940 Standard lately. His name is Trevor Tucker. He's from out there in the Eastland, and he's been

00:48:54.920 writing some great stuff and I want to expand on it. So, hey, Trevor, welcome back to the show. I

00:48:58.720 think we had you on once before a couple of months ago, but we're due to see you again.

00:49:02.000 Yeah, great. Good to see you, Corey. I wish I could have chimed in on that last discussion too, man.

00:49:11.940 Well, I mean, it's worthy of discussing and writing on as well, right? The perils of party

00:49:16.880 politics. And when you start letting personalities and individual agendas and things get rolling,

00:49:23.040 you know, you can destroy what you've been working on quite quickly if you're not careful. And we're

00:49:28.420 seeing quite a mess going on over there right now.

00:49:30.700 Yeah, yeah, yeah.

00:49:33.340 Yeah.

00:49:33.580 There's a, there's a great, uh, guy on YouTube.

00:49:36.460 He's a historian named JJ McCullough and, um, he's, have you

00:49:41.000 seen his, his stuff on the, I have, he does a lot of great short stuff.

00:49:45.320 I love it.

00:49:45.640 Very good putting comments.

00:49:47.060 Yes.

00:49:47.700 Yeah.

00:49:47.980 And he's really spoken up on a censorship bill and stuff too, but, but his, uh, 0.55

00:49:51.920 his take on, you know, how Canada has failed in keeping the French in keeping

00:49:57.340 americans out and i forget what the other one is uh and and then and then he sort of plots you know

00:50:03.180 that how how the country could possibly break up which is yeah um we seem we seem to you know every

00:50:10.780 couple decades right we seem to go through this again but yeah a lot of things are secular they

00:50:15.420 they really are i what i feel right now is we're actually sitting kind of on a part of a 40-year

00:50:20.060 cycle when we look we've got another trudeau in we got interest rates starting to shoot up we got

00:50:24.620 inflation running rampant we got high energy prices uh boy but the last time that cycle

00:50:30.860 happened we got hit with a national energy program i i hope this this trend doesn't continue or we

00:50:35.660 could have a lot of problems pretty soon yeah yeah for sure and you know i mean to to kind of come

00:50:41.820 back to why we're on you know it does seem that this this time around that you know that the sort

00:50:50.060 of lack of um i don't know public ownership i guess in in terms of taking responsibility for

00:51:00.780 i live in ontario you know it seems that kind of at an all-time uh low and and we're just we're

00:51:06.540 just fine with letting the the government control the food supply and and and on down so who knows

00:51:13.020 where where this could go well yeah and that's what the the last piece we put up where we're

00:51:18.060 basically uh you talked about you know how the government's kind of seated the care of our

00:51:22.220 neighbors to the government where the government has we have as citizens and and that's a trend

00:51:26.620 a broader trend we've seen i think throughout the developed world you know we just we take

00:51:31.260 everything for granted that the government can take care of it if there's ever a problem we call

00:51:34.780 on the government i mean it used to be if your neighbor had a problem you went and knocked on

00:51:38.380 his door and say had a look and see if you could help or if it was a broader problem you might join

00:51:43.500 a charity or or your church group might uh take part in that but now everything is getting handed

00:51:48.700 to government and and it's not working out well for us uh no no it's not it's not and and uh

00:51:59.340 yeah i mean i i mean obviously there's there's there's a lot of reasons for it but

00:52:05.260 you know um i i don't think it's a stretch to say that the government loves it um

00:52:10.860 You know, I'm a communications prof, and I do propaganda and this kind of stuff, and

00:52:20.060 you know, you break up the family, you break up the church, you break up communities, and

00:52:25.100 you've got them, and you know, those really, I think, should be where the, you know, the

00:52:31.920 sort of strong bonds need to be kind of, you know, held onto and sustained, and then, okay,

00:52:39.040 let the government do their thing but they should be kind of in the background not you know sort of

00:52:43.440 uh sort of out front unless of course relying on them for everything um i you know we we were uh

00:52:52.640 10 years ago from from ottawa from kanata actually and it's and it's been quite an education um

00:52:58.800 moving to a rural area um because you know you really do start to get a sense of

00:53:04.240 of that divide um you know where we're out here it's like do it yourself and and uh you know

00:53:11.840 people just you know back off government i i've written about this stuff before um in in in living

00:53:19.520 in canada but um yeah and i don't know about i don't know about you i'm curious about the alberta

00:53:26.400 thing but but um do you see that same kind of divide out there people in the city are fine to

00:53:32.880 just just kind of comply and and and stay safe um whereas people in rural areas are are are more

00:53:40.560 sort of um tighter and more self-sustaining as as a community well most definitely and i my wife and

00:53:48.000 i got to do a recent example ourselves we were in calgary for for 30 years uh you know each i guess

00:53:54.160 you could say respectively and uh we moved to uh uh prittis which is just a little community

00:54:01.120 rural just outside of the city though and into the foothills a little bit and we took part in

00:54:05.520 the the community association up in highland park in north calgary and i tell you to try and get 10

00:54:10.640 volunteers into a room was next to impossible even though you had such a large dense popular

00:54:15.600 i mean there were some fantastic people in the community who worked very hard but it's such a

00:54:19.040 small number and it was difficult to keep things rolling and then now down in printis uh just last

00:54:24.560 week i was uh it was two weeks ago we were at the annual pancake breakfast there and we had we're

00:54:29.440 almost had too many volunteers. The coordinator didn't know what to do with everybody showing up

00:54:33.040 to flip pancakes and pull out tables. And we've got other things like we've got a WhatsApp group

00:54:38.640 with all of our neighbors. If there's a crime or something in the area, we'll rush down the road

00:54:42.880 to help out. Or if we see smoke coming up, we'll head down there and see if there's a fire to be

00:54:47.500 put out. And we take it upon ourselves to take care of our neighbors and each other. And that

00:54:53.480 attitude was not in the city, very much less. It was always, well, call 311 or call 911, not do

00:54:59.260 anything yourself and i think that trends everywhere yeah absolutely absolutely i the the

00:55:06.080 anecdote i always use is my aunt she's she's 82 and if she hears that there's a funeral in town

00:55:12.500 she's there uh and she's there because she knows the cousin of the cousin of the you know and and

00:55:18.080 it's just it's what you always do it's it's so deeply ingrained in in her in her upbringing that

00:55:23.920 that it's just non-negotiable um she doesn't drive she'll get anyone she can to take her to

00:55:29.280 this funeral i've even been dragged along a few times um you know but but this yeah this this

00:55:35.280 kind of stuff um and i mean thankfully we we felt quite blessed to be out here in the middle of the

00:55:40.960 pandemic stuff too because you you almost forget it um that it's that it's going on until you go

00:55:46.400 into the city um and and uh you know whereas out here people are kind of like yeah well you know

00:55:52.080 know, you do what you need to do and we're all good. Yeah. Well, and I mean, I think if things

00:55:59.180 really sick, you know, go in a cycle and go very bad. I mean, we're moving into a recession. Pretty

00:56:03.760 much every economist is agreeing on that right now. We're going to see some harder economic times,

00:56:08.520 hopefully not catastrophically so, but if it goes very, very bad, I think a lot of people are going

00:56:14.620 to hopefully rediscover just how important a tight local community is in helping each other out

00:56:19.260 because the government can't save you when that happens and the rural communities are going to

00:56:23.580 have a much better time of things than the city ones where people have become so introverted

00:56:28.560 and dependent on the government and it doesn't have to be as I said that small hall we were at

00:56:33.620 in Calgary there were still some very dedicated community members and there is in every community

00:56:38.360 but not nearly as tightly so you couldn't walk down the street and know every second person you saw

00:56:43.120 and in hard times you won't have that network it's true and and that's kind of

00:56:47.980 you know I found in the last few times that I've been writing that you know yeah

00:56:54.220 I read the comment section sometimes and and I really connect with what a lot

00:57:00.120 you know just around this one guy you know he said I open my computer every

00:57:04.880 day for some sign of hope you know that that things are gonna become more saying

00:57:09.340 you know and and other people just what are we going to do and and you know um one thing that

00:57:15.820 that that i've found through this is is that with with our sort of local community um we have another

00:57:23.020 number of people around who are who are pretty non-compliant about a bunch of stuff um but i

00:57:28.780 found just just the challenge of of practicing some resiliency um just you know um we can do this

00:57:39.500 uh in place that that we need to have it in place i went in on a on a wood mill uh with a guy

00:57:47.500 because we have a bunch of forest on our property so we so we have our wood um a lot of the the 0.63

00:57:54.300 women uh you know i know that sounds sexist but uh you know they get together and they're canning

00:58:00.460 um you know we're trying to find lots of um you know lots of different ways that um to to just

00:58:09.340 kind of support each other but you know when you're i grew up in the suburbs and and when

00:58:15.500 you're raised with that kind of mindset you know you kind of look at things down the road and you're

00:58:20.940 like you know what i'm gonna have to buck up here um and i think i think we all are i think we're

00:58:27.260 gonna have to recognize that there's that there's actually a lot more value in in trusting each

00:58:33.660 other in in building relationships i mean learning to work with guys you know you're it's it's one

00:58:39.740 thing to be sort of coffee time friends but once you start together um you know that's a different

00:58:45.740 And you, you know, but, but I think, I don't know, I, I, I think we've got to be sort of ready to do that kind of stuff because government's not going to save us.

00:58:55.740 Um, so no, and it's a comforting, it's a comforting feeling, you know, I mean, I'd kind of reach out to some listeners.

00:59:01.740 If you've lost a bit of that, check it out.

00:59:03.740 You'll find your local community center or church or an organization.

00:59:07.740 You might not have taken part in it, but they're still there and it feels nice.

00:59:11.740 feels nice it really does to go into your neighborhood and oh there's such and such

00:59:15.500 is place or there's you know i go to the store and i know this person by name because we were

00:59:19.260 at this event or that it just makes you feel a lot better as part of a community and you have

00:59:24.380 that means to to do something if you need to do something in your network and we're losing it

00:59:29.980 but it's not gone yet and i appreciate your writing you know just to show that these are

00:59:34.780 just quit putting it to the government we can take care of ourselves actually almost always better

00:59:38.220 than the government can yeah yeah yeah no doubt so i'll kind of turn that to a a prior you know

00:59:45.340 tie that into a prior column you wrote as well and that was about how we uh basically have let fear

00:59:49.980 take us over you know this culture of fear and and kind of in the same sense it's a lot more

00:59:54.380 visible in the urban areas where you still see the plastic shields up and there's much more people

00:59:58.780 are face masking themselves and the arrows are still stuck on the floor we didn't allow ourselves

01:00:05.180 quite in the rural areas to get as terrified by the plague as as the urban centers did but uh you

01:00:11.660 know there's still i mean it's it's the media it's local governments it's even some neighbors and

01:00:16.220 others that just don't want to let go of this this as you said a culture of fear yeah absolutely and

01:00:22.700 and you know like you you know you don't use it you lose it and and and if we don't you know if

01:00:30.940 we aren't tenacious about that and kind of keep our eye on the ball and and and sort of you know

01:00:36.060 keep keep pushing back you know my wife was was in a in a library the other day and and uh you know

01:00:42.620 she's talking to the guy behind the desk like 10 feet away but she wasn't on the other side of the

01:00:48.620 plastic um and so we asked her to come around now three feet away you know behind the plexiglass and

01:00:56.300 And I don't know, I mean, it's just insane.

01:01:04.240 And, you know, in talking to people,

01:01:07.920 we're going back to classrooms in the fall and stuff.

01:01:12.120 And I think I actually said in that column, you know,

01:01:16.300 we don't need any sort of big solutions.

01:01:20.700 We just need to live reality.

01:01:22.720 you know we just need to actually reach out and shake someone's hand give someone a hug

01:01:28.900 you know not tiptoe around each other because kind of every time you do that you remind the

01:01:34.380 other person that you know it's okay like we don't have to give into this to this fear again

01:01:41.400 you know where fear is warranted we used to always say when there's a when there's a pneumonia

01:01:46.540 sweeping through a senior's residence, you don't go. So you use your sense. But yeah, I think 0.78

01:01:57.440 just being tenacious about being human and recognizing that in society that requires some

01:02:03.400 risk. Yeah, I mean, one of our commenters brought up another point that's been kind of interesting

01:02:09.160 just in observing this whole thing with the pandemic. Cliff Burkert said, is it fear or

01:02:13.980 ideology. And this is where it gets a little bit into the politics of things. And you wouldn't

01:02:18.620 have thought that an issue like a pandemic would be so distinctly divided on a right-left spectrum,

01:02:24.480 but it really has turned into that where people, I guess, who tend to hold progressive types of

01:02:29.400 views, you know, are very solid towards government restrictions on fear, on trying to, in my view,

01:02:36.740 exaggerate the fears of things. And of course, on the right, you've got the, well, I mean, to the

01:02:41.180 far end of it some people saying we shouldn't do anything whatsoever and there should be no

01:02:44.320 intervention but but it's still a very distinct line on this that's been drawn and it's kind of

01:02:49.540 unusual yeah yeah absolutely and and uh i again maybe that's maybe that's why i'm kind of you know

01:03:00.080 i i i don't know if if i sort of trust in government to kind of save our butts on this

01:03:06.520 uh on this stuff but you know i i think that there is a kind of common sense that we just need to

01:03:12.200 to kind of exercise with people and take little risks with people you know i have

01:03:16.520 i have loved ones who are man they're they're fully vaxxed and have had covid more than me and um

01:03:24.360 i and and they're all in the cnn culture and and and everything and for you know for for people to

01:03:31.000 to question that at this point to question that narrative that framework like it's it's just as

01:03:38.120 risky as it is for for any of us but particularly if you're if you're older and have been raised in

01:03:42.680 a generation where you trust institutions um you know and and so i'm kind of like like what do i

01:03:49.800 expect like this guy you know he's not going to come over to my side um and you know all i can do

01:03:56.280 is just you know keep visiting keep being natural you know maybe every now and then i'll you know

01:04:03.480 write a good study today about this but um to to to move out of that idea and and you watch it

01:04:10.520 happening as the pandemic goes on right it's it's like just more and more and more entrenched um and

01:04:17.400 and uh it's huge emotional risk i think to to to actually question if you know the cnn is telling

01:04:24.520 the truth or not um so well i mean as far as positive developments have sort of happened if

01:04:31.560 we look at the viewership ratings and some of the critical stories with the legacy media

01:04:35.320 they have not done themselves any favors this last two years in embracing those stances because

01:04:40.840 people are rejecting them outlets like ours have been explosively growing people are voting with

01:04:46.840 their eyes and their feet on that they the establishment media overplayed their hand i

01:04:51.160 think and and uh they still don't get it yet yeah i it's that's i mean that's another kind of

01:04:56.840 madness right like i don't i don't get that either yeah like do they think that we're not gonna

01:05:01.800 find the information somewhere else or like you know we know that woman was trampled outside the

01:05:08.040 shadow laurier in ottawa like i had friends that were there we nope misinformation like ha i don't

01:05:15.800 it's it's it's been disturbing and that's another institution people are losing trust in you know

01:05:22.120 not just we were talking about government institutions or even medical institutions

01:05:25.340 or academic uh that's a whole other ball of wax perhaps we could discuss another time

01:05:30.100 but the media itself uh you know it's not as monolithic as it used to be i mean it's sprung

01:05:37.200 leaks all over the place and not every alternative outlet is necessarily reliable either i mean we're

01:05:41.840 in a period of transition but people are rejecting the old the old dinosaurs is the best way i think

01:05:48.100 i could put it because they just can't turn to change with the times and i think we'll evolve

01:05:51.860 for the better but it's going to be a little bumpy on the way yeah it is for sure and and um

01:05:57.500 you know i don't know i i think i think we're gonna have to have to be sensible too like um

01:06:06.300 you know really reflect on what we think canada has been and and and should be and and try to be

01:06:14.060 dignified about it and try to recognize that that that guy over there is my neighbor too and um

01:06:21.180 because there is a temptation to to oh you know screw you all um but um you know if we have a hope

01:06:29.100 of building something better um i just wish they'd stop calling it populism i don't know if you

01:06:35.660 i saw that article in the in the post about uh you know harper's populist conservatism and

01:06:42.700 no that was cbc um man you know no it wouldn't have been popular populism 20 years ago it actually

01:06:50.860 just would have been normal conservatism yeah no everything's just uh again so polarized but i

01:06:57.500 mean appreciate you your columns still tend to take a more positive view and a thoughtful one

01:07:02.140 i mean i traffic in anger with my columns and that's just my specialty but uh it's it's good

01:07:09.180 and it's good that you don't have that variety so uh before i let you go are you uh got one uh

01:07:13.740 in the cooker for us here uh you know to be honest corey i have three on the go right now um this

01:07:19.740 this pope's visit has has really you know kind of thrown everything up in the air and and and

01:07:25.740 And, you know, you get the kind of secular leftist commentary on this.

01:07:33.060 You know, why didn't the pope include some indigenous spirituality in his Latin mass?

01:07:37.920 Well, he's the pope.

01:07:39.100 Yes.

01:07:40.360 You know, and all of this kind of stuff, you know, questions like, does the CBC really know what forgiveness is?

01:07:46.840 I don't know.

01:07:49.200 So we'll see what shows up tomorrow.

01:07:52.720 It might be a couple of weeks of the Pope, the Pope, but that's all right.

01:07:57.540 It all needs to be discussed and I certainly appreciate it.

01:08:00.200 Well, thanks for coming on to talk to us today, Trevor.

01:08:02.600 And I'm looking forward to seeing what more you've got coming our way.

01:08:06.040 It's great. Pleasure. Thanks a lot, Corey.

01:08:08.280 Thank you.

01:08:10.200 So yes, that is Trevor Tucker.

01:08:11.760 He's been, as I said, a regular columnist with us and they're really good columns, guys.

01:08:15.500 It's typically weekly when he gets them coming out.

01:08:18.140 I usually put them up for the weekend content.

01:08:20.160 And it's, as you can see from talking to them, you know, just some nice thoughtful stuff, looking at the broader end of the issues and everything, you know, with me, it's more of the sword to the guts thing. I hope you read both of our columns, but you know, it's a different style and it's a good one. And it's just always good to have those, those conversations, you know, in that community thing and that those broader trends, I mean, societal trends, it really is a bad trend.

01:08:45.120 We've let things go. And it's hard to get people involved in things anymore. And we're weaker for

01:08:49.820 it. I use an analogy I've used before. A good friend of mine, a very good friend of mine,

01:08:55.600 since I was in my teens, named Jamie. And he kind of got involved in politics just due to proximity

01:08:59.820 to me, the poor guy. I lent him a bad habit. And after an election, though, he thought he'd get

01:09:04.180 involved in his local community center in the city. And he attended a meeting, you know, where

01:09:08.240 they were all discussing things they're going to do with the community center. And this big issue,

01:09:13.620 I guess, is they had one of those sidewalks with all that decorative gravel next to it,

01:09:16.560 you know, all these white rocks and they kept getting kicked up onto the sidewalk and it makes

01:09:19.700 it hard for, you know, wheelchairs or walkers or people walking and they got issues. So they're

01:09:25.120 trying to figure out how are we going to deal with this? What are we going to do? And I guess

01:09:27.560 they spent like half an hour babbling about this. So Jamie went outside for a cigarette

01:09:30.700 and while he was out there, he swept all the gravel off the sidewalk. And then he came back

01:09:36.680 in and put the broom down and left and never showed up there again. You could die death by

01:09:41.800 committee. And it's unfortunate. Those are those frustrating things. But that's what happens when

01:09:47.420 you let, I guess you could say, bureaucratic-minded people or government-minded people in on simple

01:09:53.640 tasks. Even the simple task, unfortunately, can't get done. But we shouldn't give up. We should still

01:09:58.580 stay involved with those things and get to know them. It's good for us. I see, I'm just looking

01:10:03.640 at some of the commentary. Pamela Jones-Kenny saying the Methodists are rebuilding four homes

01:10:07.880 in Monte Lake that were burned down in the fire last year. Those people had no insurance. Yeah,

01:10:11.780 Like churches still provide a lot of charity and a lot of community value.

01:10:17.740 And I mean, hey, I'm not a religious man.

01:10:19.820 I got a flying spaghetti monster tattooed on one of my arms.

01:10:22.480 I got a few tattoos.

01:10:24.000 I mean, if you know what the flying spaghetti monster is, you can understand that it's not something somebody will get put on themselves if they're a person of strong faith.

01:10:31.420 But it doesn't mean I don't recognize the value of faith communities and churches and some of the things they do.

01:10:37.080 I've talked about that recently.

01:10:38.220 I got a, just down the road from me, a little church that hasn't been holding, um, their

01:10:43.160 congregation basically got wiped out by the pandemic.

01:10:45.340 It's a little church, one of those small ones.

01:10:47.060 And there were maybe 20 of them in there.

01:10:48.780 And I was just speaking with a gentleman who was maintaining the church the other day.

01:10:51.580 And he said they've just started trying to hold services again.

01:10:55.280 You know, they kind of hold one every couple of weeks.

01:10:57.340 Uh, and I guess their main minister had been on sabbatical, but, uh, due to just, you know,

01:11:03.860 congregants getting older and and some of them passing on and just a two-year break from it

01:11:08.620 they're having a real hard time getting enough people together to hold it together and he used

01:11:12.300 the analogy and it's not like a hockey team where young up-and-comers will keep you know replacing

01:11:16.500 the older ones moving off um younger people aren't going to the churches i'm not saying people should

01:11:21.800 all re-embrace religion that's your own personal choice but these community groups that pull us

01:11:26.740 together and get us in one room we're losing them and again it leads to us handing everything off

01:11:33.440 to the government again. And the government is not good for a lot. It's not going to do us a lot

01:11:39.960 of favors. And so those are the trends that Trevor was talking about in his piece. Yeah,

01:11:47.420 you know, it was a Marilyn Wall saying a recent post of 30% of the population is not going to

01:11:51.180 recover from this whole thing. But yeah, we've got, I'm just seeing, you know, people living

01:11:57.020 rural versus urban, and I don't want to turn this into a rural versus urban. The main thing,

01:12:01.680 I'm Pamela correcting that was Mennonite, not Methodist. Okay. But it was another church.

01:12:05.300 That's the main thing. So, you know, these religious communities add value, this sense

01:12:13.020 of community, and we don't have to let go. If you're not a person of faith, that's fine. That's

01:12:15.900 what I'm saying. Look to the community halls or organizations or social groups. It's really

01:12:21.500 important to get engaged with your neighbors. It's good for all of you. And you can do it in the city.

01:12:25.940 The rural areas are better for it, kind of because of for two reasons, I think. There's a lot of

01:12:29.600 people just were holding on to tradition a lot longer in rural areas. But the other thing is you

01:12:34.080 kind of have to. Like in my area, and I've, you know, there's been stories about it and, you know,

01:12:39.360 a lot in the news. And when I owned that bar, we got robbed repeatedly. I tell you, the community

01:12:43.280 really pitched in. There's a picture out there actually of my bar with the second time I got

01:12:47.420 robbed and the window was all smashed out and we got plywood over top of it. And some neighbors

01:12:52.300 got together with their kids and the kids drew a whole bunch of things with crayon and pinned

01:12:56.640 them onto the plywood board, you know, their drawings and everything, just to say they valued

01:13:00.160 the restaurant and the community and everything. You know, you're not going to get that in the city,

01:13:04.780 that kind of support, but you can, you still can. It shouldn't have to be just the domain of the

01:13:09.360 rural area. But the other thing is it was 40 minute response times. It still is in my area

01:13:12.940 for police, even though I'm 10 minutes from the city of Calgary, it's RCMP is my coverage. And

01:13:19.360 I'm not faulting them exactly. There's only so many at the local detachment. And if they're in

01:13:23.480 the wrong area when there's an emergency call, average is 40 minutes. So I'm not whining for

01:13:28.720 more RCMP officers, nor are most of my neighbors. We take care of each other. That's why I said,

01:13:31.780 we got a WhatsApp thing. If there's a problem, neighbors are going to come in. And we've got

01:13:36.100 our own plans. You know, that's why rural areas, you know, for people looking to be home breakers

01:13:40.660 are much, much more dangerous than urban ones, I tell you. Because of course, I'm not, I'm not a

01:13:45.220 big, strong strapping man. Thus, if somebody was putting my house at risk in my household and my

01:13:50.500 family, I would do what I have to. And that would mean probably using something more than a baseball

01:13:57.040 bat, but let's hope it never happens. Either way, just getting back to the, you know, a good

01:14:01.340 discussion. It was good to talk to you with Mr. Tucker about those sorts of things. Somebody was

01:14:08.280 asking about missing infrastructure money. I'm not sure about the specifics on that one, so I'm not

01:14:14.040 going to dip into it. Send me a note. I mean, so many stories always breaking. Boy, our government

01:14:19.580 can really waste our money so often in so many ways.

01:14:23.240 And that's what I'm talking about too.

01:14:25.100 People trusting governments for so many things.

01:14:27.280 And that's what I like arguing conservatives.

01:14:28.780 I've done that on the show a few times.

01:14:29.980 You know, you keep talking about,

01:14:30.760 I don't trust government.

01:14:31.440 I can't stand in government.

01:14:32.260 I want less government, but I want capital punishment.

01:14:34.740 Hang on a second, guys.

01:14:36.260 Hang on.

01:14:37.580 And again, this gets back to,

01:14:38.560 I'm not defending some of the sick, odious,

01:14:41.180 nasty child molesters or murderers and so on

01:14:44.380 and saying that the world's better off without them.

01:14:45.960 Dad, no, I know that the world would be better off

01:14:48.380 without them.

01:14:48.700 I just don't ever want to trust the government to be the one to figure that out.

01:14:52.320 Because the government's incompetent, the government's politically motivated, it's ideologically motivated.

01:14:57.100 People say, oh, but we'll just do it in cases where you know 100%.

01:14:59.660 Well, David Milgaard, he just passed away not too long ago, spent 20-some years in jail.

01:15:04.140 They thought 100% he did it.

01:15:05.860 People say, DNA changed everything.

01:15:07.120 No, it didn't.

01:15:07.600 There's been mistakes with DNA.

01:15:09.360 And there's been labs that have screwed things up with DNA.

01:15:12.360 So, hey, sentences for life?

01:15:14.840 Absolutely.

01:15:16.340 Capital punishment?

01:15:17.040 No.

01:15:17.560 no, we can't do that. This government is just too, too bad. Here's another one. Kira Anderson,

01:15:26.140 I imagine you're speaking about Danielle. Why are you promoting her so heavily? She's a complete

01:15:30.620 disaster. She's only qualified to host a radio talk show. We don't need Kenny 2.0, which is all

01:15:35.460 Smith and Gina are offering. Low on one debate. Okay, well, that's your interpretation. That's

01:15:39.140 fine. I'm not promoting Kira. I mean, that's some of the things that some people get mixed up with

01:15:44.880 this on an opinion thing. I'm not promoting. I'm giving my interpretation. And today it was

01:15:50.600 favorable of Daniel Smith. And it's funny, the other day I was critical of Daniel Smith and a

01:15:55.340 bunch of her supporters went haywire and lit their peckers on fire and threatened to cancel their

01:15:59.440 subscriptions and everything. Guys, I run an opinion show. Let me give you my opinion. And as

01:16:05.740 I said, if I think one of those candidates misstep, I'm going to call them on it. And if I

01:16:11.340 think they're doing well. Sometimes I'll say they're doing well. But I mean, you don't always

01:16:15.620 have to agree. By all means, say my opinion was wrong. Lots of people do and don't hesitate. And

01:16:20.300 hey, I hate to admit it, but sometimes I am wrong. Most often I'm right. Except when it comes to

01:16:24.660 dealing with Jane, then yeah, she's always right. All right. But yeah, let's see some of these

01:16:27.720 things. If you're familiar, speaking of government with the go, you know, the Phoenix pay system,

01:16:31.760 this has been ongoing for quite some time. This is their own payroll, their own payroll. And it's

01:16:37.100 been a debacle for decades. You know, this was under Harper's government. This was under, I think

01:16:42.540 it started with Gretchen. I'm not even sure, but they bunged up $2.8 billion on this Phoenix

01:16:48.080 software just to do their own government payroll. And they still haven't figured it out. And they're

01:16:54.400 saying they might need to wait until, what is this, 2034 to transition to a new system? Talk

01:16:59.340 about incompetent. Yeah, really? How on earth can it possibly take? This is government, guys.

01:17:08.080 This is government. This is who you're trusting. This is who you are handing off all of your

01:17:12.320 responsibilities in life to. And that's part of what leads to that. I should talk more to Trevor

01:17:17.640 about that trend. Because part of what happens with, in my view, and I'll give it to the left,

01:17:21.960 if you want government to be big and take care of everything, it's being lazy. It's being

01:17:26.180 irresponsible. That's what it is. I don't want to have to take care of it for myself so this could

01:17:30.000 take care of it. I don't want to have to do that so government can take care of it. And that way,

01:17:33.680 if anything goes wrong, it's never my fault. It's their fault. They didn't take care of it. No,

01:17:38.820 it's your frigging fault. It's always your fault. If we can't change the government, that's our

01:17:43.060 fault. And I know the government's not making it easy to change them. And I'm not saying every

01:17:48.140 individual hasn't been trying, but, uh, it's, uh, I, you know, this is the group that they can't

01:17:56.380 even pay themselves correctly. We really shouldn't be handing things over to them being a hard times.

01:18:00.500 Let's see, we got wages are up 6.1% says, uh, stats can. Yeah. Okay. But of course, you know,

01:18:07.360 cost of living has been shooting up depending on what you're talking about into the double

01:18:10.360 digit areas. So, uh, yeah, we're falling behind and this is the crisis we got coming up on us

01:18:15.120 right now. I mean, the cost of everything is going up and our wages aren't not fast enough,

01:18:21.820 at least to deal with it. But we've got some hard times coming. I'd say batting the hatches. And I

01:18:25.460 said it the other day too, when I was talking to Mike Thomas, you know, and we're talking about

01:18:29.540 mortgages, now is not the time to borrow. Clear off that debt. Those interest rates are going up

01:18:34.580 and cost of living is going to go with it. So if you can get your books in order, I would strongly

01:18:39.860 suggest you do it right now. Let's see. Speaking again of incompetent government,

01:18:44.720 this was a great announcement I saw. So Wheatland County, just outside of Calgary here, it's down

01:18:50.500 by Carsland, there's a little town. And it looks like they're going to have a $210 million wall

01:18:56.100 board manufacturing facility built there. And it's going to employ, you know, 100 people,

01:19:01.020 it's going to employ hundreds in the creation of it, you know. And this has been common going on.

01:19:06.500 City of Calgary has been run by socialist peckerheads for the last 11 years now, starting

01:19:10.800 with Ninchy all the way onto Gondek, who's proven herself to be even worse, along with a lot of city

01:19:15.260 councillors with an anti-business, high-density, obsessive attitude, and has driven citizens and

01:19:22.100 business out of the city alike. They gave Calgary Economic Development $100 million, tax dollars,

01:19:27.740 a slush fund to say, draw businesses here with it. That started a decade ago, completely incompetent,

01:19:32.760 completely incompetent. Downtown Calgary is still at record vacancy levels, 30-some percent vacant.

01:19:38.620 the industrial areas, drive around. You can see the for lease signs everywhere. But outside of

01:19:44.380 the city, county of Wheatland, Rocky View, Mountain View, new businesses are moving in all

01:19:50.300 the time. And this is what we've got to realize with these local municipal governments. It'll

01:19:55.480 leak out. You can bring in all your stupid anti-business, $87 billion climate change plans

01:20:00.900 and crap like that that you like. The money will go elsewhere. They will leave. And they're

01:20:05.180 creating a ghost town in Calgary. And it's tragic. It's tragic. This was a modern thriving city and

01:20:13.680 the downtown's now turning into a dystopian nightmare full of vacancies and junkies.

01:20:18.020 You know, the smell of piss permeates every underpass when you walk underneath it. It used

01:20:22.340 to be so noteworthy with anybody visiting Calgary from other cities that, wow, what a clean place.

01:20:27.400 You don't hear that anymore. Not at all. You go downtown, it's just syringes, broken down bikes,

01:20:32.560 garbage and urine. And this is what this fine progressive, I mean, there's the trend with it,

01:20:38.900 progressive cities, you always get that in a progressive run city. They're consistent with that

01:20:43.820 challenge. Let's see, World Economic Forum, everybody's favorite group. I talk about them a

01:20:51.680 lot. I don't think they've infiltrated the politicians nearly as much as a lot of people

01:20:56.580 give them credit for, but they certainly do influence a hell of a lot of them and they have

01:21:01.100 to be watched. And they certainly have to be called out with the insanity they propose. Any

01:21:05.140 politician should be embarrassed to be associated with that group whatsoever. They should not be

01:21:12.420 showing up for those functions over there. At least Pierre Polyev was calling them out and

01:21:16.740 others. And they've just published a paper calling for the end of private car ownership. Yep. You

01:21:23.120 shouldn't have your individual car. You know what? That doesn't come down to environment. They use

01:21:27.340 that. They use that emergency all the time, but it's a load of crap. It's not the environment

01:21:31.040 why they want to end car ownership. It's because car ownership empowers people. You can drive

01:21:35.860 wherever you like when you own your own car. You can take your employment wherever you like. You

01:21:39.440 can take your family wherever you like. If you've got communal transit, by the way, in Calgary,

01:21:44.280 you can't ride that gazolo with junkies and poo as well. You've got that, then the government 0.97

01:21:49.040 controls you. It controls your movement. It controls your ability to get around. So of course,

01:21:52.700 the World Economic Forum doesn't like that. It has nothing to do with the environment. It's always

01:21:56.000 about control. The World Economic Forum is all about control. And they're terrified of the

01:22:02.420 automobile. I've talked about that before. The auto was the most empowering item, the personal auto

01:22:09.120 for labor, more than unions even. And I know union hacks will get all upset about that. I don't care.

01:22:15.460 They're a bunch of hacks anyways. But I mean, unions did do their thing back in the Industrial

01:22:18.460 Revolution when things were bad. But working in the eastern states, I still remember this,

01:22:22.200 this little town. It was up from Salzburg, north of Pittsburgh. I can't remember the name of the

01:22:26.220 town itself, but it had one steel mill in the bottom of it, one rail line going to it. And you

01:22:30.620 could see by the downtown, every building was uniform. It was a company town. The steel mill

01:22:35.400 had built everything. And that town had been there, you know, 150 years or whatever. But if

01:22:39.580 you worked for that steel mill, that steel mill owned you. They owned the house you lived in.

01:22:43.100 They owned the businesses you bought your groceries at. They built the schools. They did the works.

01:22:47.760 And the only way in and out of that town back then was the train, which of course they had

01:22:51.340 the contract with. So you could be abused as an employee. I mean, how would you go up? It was in

01:22:56.880 the bottom of a river valley. It wasn't even an easy spot to get out of. Once the personal auto

01:23:01.320 came, things changed. Then all of a sudden you could drive 20 minutes and work somewhere else.

01:23:06.100 You could move your family somewhere else. You know, the power that this mill town had over its

01:23:12.300 citizens was lost once the individual automobile came about. That is why the World Economic Forum

01:23:18.960 and control freaks do not like the personal automobile

01:23:22.280 because it empowers you, gives you movement.

01:23:26.100 Same reason they don't like you having firearms.

01:23:30.480 Let's see.

01:23:31.560 Here's an interesting one.

01:23:33.820 Yeah, you know, Jane and I running a B&B

01:23:35.680 out of our place out there.

01:23:37.360 You know, it's been a great venture.

01:23:38.740 It's going really well.

01:23:39.400 We got a suite attached to our place.

01:23:40.840 And this is an interesting thing, though,

01:23:42.540 that something happened.

01:23:43.540 Welcome again to government.

01:23:44.460 I guess in Toronto, Toronto, Airbnbs are all tied to the government, to the city, and the Airbnb hosts have to register with the city, and it's all tied together, over-governed.

01:23:56.080 You know, they can't stand that as well, right?

01:23:57.560 How would you have people empowered daring to rent their own property?

01:24:00.980 We can't have that.

01:24:01.900 We've got to control it.

01:24:02.500 Well, they screwed something up royally and basically blew out all the reservations.

01:24:07.540 Suddenly, panicked people who were planning to travel found out that they didn't have a booking anymore with these Airbnbs.

01:24:13.260 And these Airbnb hosts didn't know it, but they're finding out that all their bookings have vanished.

01:24:18.560 And that was something to do with the bloody integration with the city of Toronto.

01:24:21.760 Thankfully, that's not happening to us with our place because we're not tied into a local government.

01:24:26.240 But what a mess. What a bloody mess.

01:24:28.240 I mean, as if Pearson International Airport's mess isn't bad enough and the rest of the crap going on, you know, the arrive can garbage.

01:24:39.320 We're just turning into a pariah for tourism.

01:24:41.280 Who the hell is going to want to come to this country?

01:24:44.220 Another thing we had in the story, Dave mentioned it with this pervert up in Edmonton, 0.99

01:24:48.480 or alleged pervert, like a rat night, rat neck yacky, whatever.

01:24:52.740 There's a gentleman who got charged.

01:24:54.000 This is somebody who got charged and released yesterday, one day, on bail.

01:24:59.680 Okay, here's the charges.

01:25:01.500 Sexual assault, sexual interference, luring a child, making child pornography,

01:25:04.980 transmitting child pornography, possessing child pornography,

01:25:07.760 obtaining sexual service for consideration for persons under 18,

01:25:10.840 invitation to sexual touching

01:25:12.780 distribution of intimate

01:25:14.940 images and extortion

01:25:16.700 and that's against six children that they

01:25:18.700 know of and they're confident there's more 0.51

01:25:20.980 and they let this piece of crap 0.56

01:25:22.900 out in hours

01:25:24.460 we locked Tamera

01:25:26.960 Leash up for 48 days

01:25:29.120 without bail

01:25:30.380 she's bailed and back over a petty

01:25:32.800 offense this is who this government's chasing

01:25:34.860 is people a grandmother with no

01:25:36.760 prior record and this 0.99

01:25:38.620 perverted piece of garbage, this child molesting piece of crap. Can't even be kept in for a few

01:25:44.700 hours before trial. They let him out. Look at that list of charges I gave you. With this list

01:25:50.740 of charges and trying to tell me this person is not potentially dangerous upon release. It does

01:25:54.760 say there were conditions. Well, yes, but there was also a condition prior to him being put in

01:25:59.940 there. It was a condition called the law saying don't screw children. That condition didn't stop

01:26:04.540 him. So I don't feel terribly comfortable and safe that his bail conditions are going to keep

01:26:08.900 him from chasing children around. Speed up the court system. Fine. If you're backed up and you

01:26:14.880 can't get to these guys fast enough, let's get more judges. Let's get more cells. Let's get more

01:26:18.940 courtrooms. Let's get more lawyers. Let's spend the money and get these people through the process.

01:26:22.820 But releasing dangerous perverts into the society is not the way to deal with this problem right now.

01:26:28.060 This is an embarrassment as a civilized society.

01:26:32.340 We allow guys like him, who allegedly victimize our most vulnerable, our children, and let them walk on the street within hours after all of a list of charges like that.

01:26:42.820 We're not talking about a guy who was doing something that was just disgusting, you know, like touching himself near a playground or something.

01:26:50.260 We're talking about a number of charges, a serial offender.

01:26:53.860 This is very, very problematic.

01:26:55.960 attic. All right, I'm going to end on one good note. I will. And it's funny, because the things

01:27:02.160 in City Hall and Calgary, two, one is Giancarlo Carras, they've decided not to. The council has

01:27:07.460 said that he won't face police investigation for his property dealings, which is unfortunate.

01:27:11.800 But whatever, apparently the council can decide who is or isn't going to be jailed.

01:27:15.760 But on the good side, Sonia Sharp is one of the councillors, and she took her kids for a swim

01:27:20.580 just a couple of weeks ago.

01:27:23.900 And she had worked as a lifeguard in the past.

01:27:26.360 And while she was watching her kids,

01:27:27.340 she saw actually a six-year-old boy

01:27:28.560 struggling in the water.

01:27:30.040 I guess the local lifeguard hadn't noticed it.

01:27:32.820 And she dove in and rescued

01:27:34.340 and saved a six-year-old child.

01:27:35.860 That's going above and beyond.

01:27:37.320 That's the attitude we need to see too.

01:27:39.040 She didn't stand there and say,

01:27:40.080 huh, that child's drowning,

01:27:41.580 but I got to wait for the official lifeguard

01:27:43.600 to save the child

01:27:44.340 or I'll call the government service.

01:27:45.780 No, she did what she was supposed to,

01:27:47.160 dove in there,

01:27:47.980 pulled the child out of the water

01:27:49.220 and saved the child from drowning.

01:27:50.880 That's a good citizen.

01:27:52.220 That's how we deal with things.

01:27:53.320 Don't look to government to deal with things.

01:27:54.900 Deal with it yourself and fix it.

01:27:57.060 And if that guy messes with anybody's kids,

01:28:00.520 maybe the parents should fix that too.

01:28:03.060 So, all right.

01:28:04.280 Again, just a reminder to watch Mel Risden's ongoing series,

01:28:08.140 COVID Freedom Heroes.

01:28:10.180 She's been putting out episodes of that

01:28:11.680 and they keep dropping.

01:28:12.500 They're fantastic.

01:28:13.520 Watch our channel for it.

01:28:14.520 It's been well viewed.

01:28:15.840 She had the Justice Center for Constitutional Freedoms

01:28:18.460 on the other day for it.

01:28:19.380 And Linda Slobodian's documentary is finally coming out on the Afghan debacle, and that's going to be released this Friday.

01:28:25.140 And this is huge. It's really good. It's worth a watch. It's 40 minutes, but she talks to retired generals.

01:28:30.340 She lays out what happened. This is a terrible embarrassment on the part of Canada, and a lot of people who trusted us got victimized out of what happened in Afghanistan.

01:28:40.180 Tomorrow, I'll be back with Brian Geisbrecht. We're going to talk some more on Indian residential schools. 0.90

01:28:45.040 I know I talk about it a lot, but it's a big issue, and we've got to keep talking about it.

01:28:49.120 And Barry Moore, this gentleman's trying to start a new polling company, a new kind of polling,

01:28:53.860 to try and get more engaged responses.

01:28:55.960 It sounds interesting, so we'll have a discussion with Mr. Moore and see how that's going.

01:29:00.280 First, I'll have my rant on whatever's got me going in the morning,

01:29:02.860 and we'll have lots of news items to cover as well.

01:29:04.780 So thanks for tuning in today, guys, and I will see you all again tomorrow at 11.30 a.m. sharp.

01:29:15.040 Thank you.

01:29:45.040 Thank you.

Western Standard - July 29, 2022

Triggered： Danielle Smith owned the first UCP leadership debate

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