Western Standard - Triggered： Prepare for a Trudeau led grab on the West’s oil & gas

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's June 2nd, 2022, and welcome to Triggered. I'm Corey Morgan. This is the

00:00:39.120 Western Standards daily live show where we cover the latest news events, talk to most often at 1.00

00:00:46.240 least interesting guests, and I rant and rave and get things off my chest so my long-suffering wife

00:00:50.940 doesn't have to listen to it later. So thank you all for joining, and as I like to remind everybody

00:00:56.000 as well. It is live and it comes with challenges. It comes with hiccups, but it also comes with

00:01:00.780 interaction. And that's what I really like on here. Use that comment scroll. I see you guys

00:01:05.100 out there, Claudette, Gary, Ashley, Mock. Hey, all you guys. Thanks for joining. Get on there,

00:01:11.640 interact with each other, interact with me. I won't necessarily address every comment or be

00:01:16.020 able to, or send every question to the guests, but quite often I can. And that's what keeps this

00:01:20.860 going. Just again, keep everything fairly civil though, if we can. We can get worked up and heated

00:01:26.320 up, but let's not get too nasty with each other. See folks here, Jackie from Morinville and Joanne

00:01:32.120 in Saskatchewan and Amanda in Calgary. We've got people all over. We get people coast to coast.

00:01:36.440 So these are things to remember and your hours are different. I'll talk about the daily

00:01:40.200 observances. We get things happening every day. We got to observe something. We got to make sure

00:01:46.080 we pay our respects or do what's appropriate for it. So today is National Leave the Office Early

00:01:51.600 Day. And I won't be held liable if your boss doesn't agree with it, but that is what it is

00:01:55.940 categorized for today. So if your boss heads to the washroom, turns his or her back for a second,

00:02:01.660 this is a good time to just pack up and bolt, run for it. It's the Leave the Office Early Day.

00:02:06.700 I doubt I'll get away with it. Derek's always got a sharp eye on that. But for you, if you could do

00:02:10.520 it, go for it. It's also, and I've been looking forward to this one, National Rotisserie Chicken

00:02:16.160 Day. I mean, again, I don't know how we've gotten by without, you know, getting Hallmark cards and

00:02:21.360 exchanging and celebrating that Rotisserie Chicken Day. I like those little suckers, though. I mean, 0.65

00:02:25.620 they come in cheaper than a raw chicken does, and when you're too lazy to make supper, just cut off

00:02:30.780 of that thing, have some sort of side, and you're off to the races. So be sure to celebrate your

00:02:34.860 National Rotisserie Chickens today. Okay, enough of that stuff. We'll get on, I've got a couple of

00:02:38.740 good guests, a few good guests today, lots of politics as usual. One of the founding chairs

00:02:43.680 of the United Conservative Party, Ed Amar, he's been involved again in the organization from the

00:02:49.140 Wildrose days and out of the UCP. I believe he ran for them up in Edmonton in the last general

00:02:53.280 election. And he just has a lot of words of caution and things he wants to discuss about

00:02:58.720 the process as we're going into a leadership race with a new leader and hoping to repair and regain

00:03:03.400 trust in that party. So that should be a good conversation. After that, we're going to have

00:03:08.080 a couple of the Western Standards Ontario reporters on.

00:03:11.020 For those of us in the West,

00:03:11.960 you know, we haven't really heard a lot about this,

00:03:13.820 but there is a general election in Ontario

00:03:16.040 and it's today.

00:03:17.280 Tonight they are voting

00:03:18.160 and tomorrow they'll know the results.

00:03:20.260 I think part of it is

00:03:21.060 it sounds like it was kind of a done deal

00:03:23.760 for Doug Ford

00:03:27.360 and, you know, people don't pay much attention

00:03:29.280 on what they think is going to be a blowout,

00:03:30.680 but it's hard to say.

00:03:31.360 So I'll be able to talk to them

00:03:32.360 and get more details

00:03:33.700 and see what is up out there.

00:03:38.080 So that's Jonathan Bradley. He's one of our reporters out there. Matthew Horwood, who's been on the show a number of times, and he writes a lot from Ottawa with his things there.

00:03:48.100 I see Mike saying he just got his RPAL yesterday, and he's heading to the local gun shop this weekend. I've heard they're pretty lined up and backed up if you're looking for a handgun.

00:03:55.500 I was wrong. I thought, actually, that they'd done an order in council and shut it right down, but I guess they are allowing, for the time being, you can still pick up handguns.

00:04:03.220 how long they will let you keep them. It's hard to say. So yeah, I see Judy Miller-Keon coming

00:04:10.140 from Salmon Arm. And that's really timely, actually, because as I get into my rant and

00:04:14.340 what I'm going on about, Salmon Arm is going to come up. It's one of the subjects in my

00:04:19.780 monologue, we could call it, rant, we could call it, what my thoughts are politically for today.

00:04:24.740 So as I saw protesters, you know, images of a group of protesters gathered outside the

00:04:30.020 Palliser Hotel in Calgary last night and railing against Prime Minister Trudeau. I noted the

00:04:35.320 parallels between the political scene right now and that of the early 1980s, and they were both

00:04:40.260 striking and chilling. I mean, during the 1970s and 80s, Pierre Trudeau was greeted by protests

00:04:46.300 wherever he went in Western Canada, and his favorite haunt during his rare Western visits

00:04:50.580 was at Calgary's Palliser Hotel as well. Well, it's a luxurious spot, so you can see why the

00:04:54.300 Trudeaus like it. And protesters would gather outside of there when Pierre Trudeau was there

00:04:58.960 every time, as you can see in that picture. Now, while legacy media and defenders of the

00:05:03.600 Canadian establishment like to pretend that vitriolic heated protests are some sort of

00:05:07.640 new development, they've happened many times in Canada, and they were clearly happening

00:05:12.480 40, 50 years ago during Pierre Trudeau's tenure as prime minister as well.

00:05:18.140 Pierre Trudeau never lost an opportunity to display his contempt for Western Canada.

00:05:21.940 In 1982, protesters were waiting for Trudeau at Salmon Arm BC, and Pierre responded to them

00:05:28.620 as they protested by smiling, giving them the middle finger, and then pulling down the shade

00:05:33.560 on his luxury train car. It's henceforth been known as the Trudeau salute. More protesters

00:05:39.100 waited down the line and they hurled tomatoes at Trudeau's train as it passed into a tunnel

00:05:43.260 under Rogers Pass BC. So again, let's not pretend that this sort of kind of protest is new or

00:05:48.680 anything. It just seems that it always only comes about really when we got a Trudeau in power and

00:05:52.920 we've had them in too, too many times already. In the late early 80s, Canada was an economic

00:05:57.780 basket case. Inflation was running rampant, interest rates were constantly being raised

00:06:02.760 by the Bank of Canada, and energy prices were going through the roof. Sound familiar? Here,

00:06:07.340 Trudeau was coming off of the dismal failure of his wage and price control policies in the late

00:06:11.780 1970s, and he was desperate to find a way to ease the economic suffering in central Canada.

00:06:17.480 So Trudeau turned his eyes towards the West's oil and gas. And while the Trudeau government

00:06:21.380 prior had traditionally been indifferent to Canadian oil and basically said, hey,

00:06:25.460 it's Alberta's oil, sell your own stuff. They preferred to import it from Saudi Arabia to

00:06:29.700 serve central Canada. Sound familiar? With world oil prices skyrocketing, Trudeau suddenly declared

00:06:35.580 Alberta's oil to be Canada's oil, and he imposed the National Energy Program. Now that NEP imposed

00:06:41.460 a massive tax on Western oil, and it applied the funds from those purchases to Eastern Canada so

00:06:47.060 they could keep buying foreign oil at a discount that way. And it also forced Western producers to

00:06:52.080 sell at a grossly discounted, made-in-Canada price to the rest of the country.

00:06:56.620 The effect was immediate and devastating for Western Canadians,

00:06:59.440 and so despite high world prices, the industry ground to a halt

00:07:02.200 as producers fled Canada's intrusive regime.

00:07:05.460 The government-owned PetroCanada was inept and incapable of filling the void.

00:07:09.020 Unemployment spiked, and many bankrupted Westerners literally had to abandon their homes

00:07:13.660 as they couldn't keep up with the high interest rates of the time.

00:07:16.900 When all prices did later drop, the NEP was actually supposed to provide a floor for Western producers,

00:07:22.080 A minimum price was supposed to be paid by Canadians when the costs got low.

00:07:26.420 That, of course, never happened.

00:07:27.960 Prime Minister Mo Rooney did scrap the NEP,

00:07:30.820 but only when it was clear that it was now going to cost Central Canadians rather than benefit them.

00:07:34.760 He kept it in place for a couple of years after he got elected.

00:07:36.940 People forget that sometimes.

00:07:38.880 Alberta had been drained of somewhere between $50 and $100 billion in that short period of time,

00:07:43.900 and that's a lot of money in those days.

00:07:45.440 Well, it's a lot of money now.

00:07:47.140 We'd been ridden hard and put away wet by the Central Canadian leadership.

00:07:51.120 We were left with a broken economy, half-built buildings in downtown Calgary, and a loathing for the Liberal Party that remains even now.

00:07:58.480 Fast forward to today, and we see rising interest rates, unchecked inflation, and high energy prices while a Trudeau is prime minister.

00:08:06.200 Guess what's going to happen soon?

00:08:07.940 Justin Trudeau is a pale shadow of his father in gumption and intellect.

00:08:12.180 His insecurity considering this, though, has led to an increasingly authoritarian approach to governing.

00:08:17.680 He wants to be respected, but he doesn't know how to be.

00:08:20.180 He desperately wants a legacy that would make his dear departed dad proud.

00:08:24.600 And encringing a new national energy program would give him that.

00:08:28.360 Justin's invocation to the Emergencies Act is proving to be an embarrassment,

00:08:31.880 as opposed to his father's invocation to the War Measures Act, which was applauded by many people.

00:08:36.420 He needs something else. 0.99

00:08:37.900 Justin, I think, could try to succeed where his father failed in pinning down those uppity Western Canadians and their oil. 1.00

00:08:44.460 And Jagmeet Singh, of course, would happily support him in such a move. 1.00

00:08:46.880 Never mind that the last NEP was a complete catastrophe and failure, and nationalizing oil is always economically disastrous.

00:08:53.740 Justin Trudeau is the prime minister who said budgets will balance themselves.

00:08:56.600 He won't understand nuances of economic policies anytime soon.

00:09:00.480 He's driven by spite and desperation for a legacy, and is painting a big red target on the back of Westerners right now.

00:09:07.040 Rest assured, he won't sit by and let the West continue to generate budget surpluses through oil and gas,

00:09:12.340 while central Canada slides deeper into the hole.

00:09:14.480 Hold on to your hats, folks.

00:09:16.320 The West's oil is soon going to become Canada's oil again under another Trudeau.

00:09:19.580 History is repeating.

00:09:20.960 This time, though, when it happens, we'd best be ready to use the only tool that can defend us.

00:09:24.880 And that will be an eventual referendum on independence.

00:09:28.460 That's what's got me going today.

00:09:29.920 And yeah, like I said, the memories just flooded back in when I looked at the head news

00:09:33.100 and I see people protesting outside of the Palacer and there is a Trudeau in there.

00:09:37.200 I mean, it really is creepy almost how much these parallels are going.

00:09:40.700 everything from the interest rates to inflation, to the high energy costs, to a Trudeau, again,

00:09:46.780 who likes stepping on civil liberties through the invocation of, in his case, the Emergencies Act.

00:09:53.220 So I don't see why he won't come for it. You know, as they keep suffering in Quebec and Ontario,

00:09:59.340 as they keep realizing the delusion of, you know, alternative energies,

00:10:05.000 they're going to look at us. They're going to say, look at all the money those greedy

00:10:09.180 Westerners are sitting on.

00:10:10.120 That's unfair. 1.00

00:10:10.940 We've got to take our chunk of that.

00:10:12.120 We've got to level the playing field.

00:10:14.120 All right, well, let's get on to other news

00:10:16.660 and check in with Dave Naylor,

00:10:19.220 who's showing off his over-the-pond pride

00:10:22.120 over there for the Queen's Jubilee.

00:10:24.040 God save our gracious Queen, la, la.

00:10:27.060 No, I won't force viewers to listen to too much singing,

00:10:32.400 but it is the big day, the big kickoff

00:10:34.600 of the Queen's 70th Platinum Jubilee today.

00:10:37.620 and what scenes of pageantry we had in London this morning.

00:10:40.920 And unbelievable, nobody does pageantry like the Brits,

00:10:44.680 or even old commercially Canadian like you can admit that.

00:10:49.160 So our Amanda Brown has got a wrap-up on the website already

00:10:52.740 on what's happening across Alberta.

00:10:54.720 There's things happening all over the province in celebration this weekend

00:10:58.500 of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

00:11:02.000 So check it out and maybe indulge in a celebration or two.

00:11:06.420 Other stuff we've got on the website right now is those wacky guys from PETA.

00:11:11.580 They've written a letter to Kevin Costner saying, hey, please don't come to the Stampede as Parade Marshal

00:11:17.040 because Stampede does nasty things to animals. 0.99

00:11:19.620 Well, it's utterly ridiculous. 0.64

00:11:22.500 Nobody looks after their livestock better than the Stampede.

00:11:26.800 We've got a really good column from Dave Makachuk on the site right now.

00:11:30.020 There was reports yesterday that Chinese fighter pilots were buzzing our one lone Canadian aircraft out patrolling around North Korean waters.

00:11:42.960 And Mac and Chuck's column basically talks about the sad demise of Canada's standing in the in the international world.

00:11:50.520 We're no longer sort of considered a, you know, to be invited to the table.

00:11:55.500 It's the Brits, it's the Australians, and it's the Americans, and nobody wants Canada on their team.

00:12:03.020 So it's a very good and very sad read.

00:12:06.680 Our Matthew Horwood in Ottawa has done a story on Bill Garneau.

00:12:10.980 You'll remember him as the, I guess, disgraced former federal finance minister after the WE scandal.

00:12:17.640 He had a speech last night saying he's kind of worried about the direction that Canada is going financially.

00:12:23.360 So that's very interesting.

00:12:25.500 And Pierre Polyev tabled a private member's bill, sort of asking for all the vaccine mandates on travellers to be withdrawn.

00:12:34.660 Sadly, Corey, you know what happens to most private member's bills.

00:12:38.540 They get absolutely nowhere.

00:12:41.560 And our Mike Thomas has got the May MLS report on Calgary home sales cooling a little bit, but still throbbing along nicely.

00:12:51.100 So that's what we've got up at the moment.

00:12:53.740 Our glorious leader, Prime Minister Trudeau, is at this moment out in the Siksika lands handing out a billion dollars or more to settle a land claim there.

00:13:04.340 So our Amanda Brown is covering that.

00:13:06.760 And we'll have that up on the website shortly too, Corey.

00:13:10.000 Yeah, you know, it's funny you bring that up.

00:13:11.800 I have a poster I've had since I was a kid in Banff that was from Banff Indian days, which used to be held, some people might remember, way back.

00:13:18.720 It was a tradition for decades and decades.

00:13:20.520 and 1977 was the very last one that was ever held

00:13:23.940 and this protest, or protest poster

00:13:26.600 depicted an image of Queen Victoria

00:13:29.120 and Chief Crowfoot, you know, the original signing

00:13:32.140 of Treaty 7 and the whole works

00:13:34.420 and either way, it was a celebration of the monarchy

00:13:36.820 and the agreement at that time

00:13:37.960 now, you know, we've got Trudeau just on his chronic apology tour

00:13:42.100 but getting on to that

00:13:44.540 I'm just wondering, has there been any acknowledgement of the Queen's Ghibli

00:13:46.840 by Justin Trudeau? Has he even taken notice of this?

00:13:50.520 No, not really. In fact, his government has turned down the opportunity to hand out

00:13:55.880 Platinum Jubilee medals to deserving people. A few provinces have gone ahead and done their own,

00:14:01.980 but Trudeau nationally turned it down. So I guess you can tell where his mind is.

00:14:08.280 Yeah, well, unity, pride, and outside authorities aren't things that he likes much in this nation,

00:14:13.040 I'm afraid.

00:14:13.840 No. And if you don't mind, I'm going to be sneaking out early. Go get some Swiss chalet.

00:14:19.020 Okay, perfect.

00:14:19.960 Well, that's covering two observances with one stone.

00:14:22.780 Now that's efficiency if I've ever seen it.

00:14:24.680 There you go.

00:14:25.240 That's why you get the big bucks.

00:14:26.560 Right on.

00:14:27.060 Thanks, Dave.

00:14:27.540 I'll talk to you later.

00:14:28.580 Thanks, Corey.

00:14:30.500 So yeah, a lot's going on.

00:14:31.700 As I said, yeah, I was watching that coverage of it a little bit on one of the newsroom

00:14:36.000 TVs there with the CBC with Justin Trudeau.

00:14:39.340 I think it's $1.3 billion he's given to the Sixth Echo Reserve.

00:14:45.040 That one's the one just east of Calgary.

00:14:47.020 used to be called the Blackfoot Reserve. That's the one I'm speaking of that had that depiction

00:14:50.840 on that poster I have at home. I had it hanging in my bar for a long time. It's one of the few

00:14:54.340 things I took from the bar and kept home. But it's over some land apparently that was taken

00:15:00.360 that was outside of the treaty. And I won't comment exactly on it because, hey, there was

00:15:06.400 some screwing of some of the native bands and reserves with the treaties. And that might have

00:15:13.340 been one of the legitimate cases where it happened. So to be honest, I won't really say

00:15:17.960 whether the compensation is correct or bad or not, or offer an opinion until I know a little bit more

00:15:22.560 on that one. But it is a heck of a big chunk of money. I've been noticing how strange it is with

00:15:27.760 with how prolific Trudeau has been. I was speaking of such on Twitter, just that he seems like he's

00:15:33.880 in campaign mode. Like this is a guy that typically doesn't like doing Western Canadian

00:15:37.220 appearances. I mean, he's not welcome out here. That's pretty clear. Protests follow him everywhere

00:15:41.500 where he goes. I mean, usually a leader, a prime minister shows up somewhere and it's with a bunch

00:15:46.200 of attention and flash and so on. Well, in this case in Calgary, they tried to sneak him in.

00:15:50.960 I remember seeing the rumblings of people saying, why are there RCMP officers and police motorcycles

00:15:56.500 all over Ninth Avenue in Calgary? Well, it's because they're trying to sneak Trudeau into

00:15:59.740 the palace or quickly and get him out without anybody noticing. But somebody figured it out

00:16:03.300 or it leaked and then the protesters arrived anyways. But he was out in Saskatoon. He's been

00:16:08.620 out in BC. He's been writing checks all over the place. And it's just, it smells like he's

00:16:15.300 in campaign mode. I don't know. I guess when you have a minority government, you're kind

00:16:20.880 of always in campaign mode. You never know when it's going to go. But for the people

00:16:24.320 who think that his union with Singh is going to last all the way until 2025, I got a bridge

00:16:31.220 to sell you. I don't think that's going to happen. There's no way they're going to hold

00:16:34.240 it together that long. All they're doing is waiting for the right opportunity, either

00:16:37.200 for the conservatives to fall flat on their face and drop in the polls, or for the liberals to

00:16:41.740 surge for one reason or another. And then they will pull that pin in a heartbeat and send us

00:16:46.860 back there. Steve Rutherford saying, Gondek wants a climate change tax for Calgary. Yeah. Well,

00:16:53.380 she wants to spend, I mean, as I was covering that yesterday, a crazy, what was it? $87 billion

00:17:02.620 dollars on a climate change plan in calgary 87 billion dollars in one city a city where again

00:17:09.460 as i said you know probably less than a million of them are qualified as taxpayers we've got a lot

00:17:13.780 of seniors we've got uh people who just don't work don't have incomes and of course we have a lot of

00:17:17.920 children and and uh i was talking uh with rob there in the newsroom and uh saying you know

00:17:23.380 the numbers roughly just to try and throw it out ballpark to cover this would amount to having to

00:17:29.600 basically immediately raise everybody's property tax in the entire city by $6,000 a year. So $500

00:17:34.500 a month for every house in the city. And don't forget, you see, that trickles down. That'll go

00:17:39.120 down to rental properties everywhere else. It'll go on to businesses. It's madness. It's total

00:17:43.480 madness. And meanwhile, we're seeing an online campaign pushing it, thinking, this is brilliant,

00:17:48.480 Ogondek's a visionary. I mean, she's lagging in the polls. She looks like crap in there.

00:17:53.260 But still, it's a crazed move on her part. 1.00

00:17:58.880 Something I forgot to mention, I guess, or I will get to mentioning anyways,

00:18:01.920 is just that reminder as we see all these stories coming up,

00:18:05.480 as Dave, you know, writing when he's not waving his flag 0.98

00:18:08.200 and eating spotted dick and whatever other strange English traditions 0.85

00:18:11.880 they have over there, he's writing stories or he's editing stories 0.97

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00:20:36.540 money. Okay, let's bring in Ed Amar. I've been looking forward to talking to him and we're

00:20:41.480 going to talk about some UCP things, not much crazy politics going on there. So let's pop them

00:20:47.700 into the show here and see what we've got to say. Hey, Ed, how's it going? Hi, Corey. Thanks for

00:20:53.320 having me. Very good. Good, good. I appreciate it. So as I kind of said earlier, you're one of the

00:20:58.420 founding chair of the UCP when it was kind of formed with the merger, and you were very involved

00:21:02.800 in the political parties prior to that. And you recently wrote a column that submitted one with

00:21:09.040 So basically, with concern, just making sure you want this leadership race to be a productive one.

00:21:16.520 Absolutely.

00:21:17.280 I think the message that I'm trying to put out is that we need to move forward.

00:21:23.760 And there's no way we can move forward.

00:21:26.020 We still have the shadow of Premier Kenney hanging on on top of this leadership race.

00:21:33.960 I have nothing but respect for Premier Kenney, but we need to move forward.

00:21:37.720 We need to focus on the leadership candidates on the campaign and try to get as many Albertans as we can engage from all corners of the province.

00:21:51.680 Yeah, so part of the concerns, I guess, a lot of it is we want to make sure, or I shouldn't say we, I don't even have a membership anymore.

00:21:57.800 But either way, the party's got one.

00:22:01.680 It's best for me to stay clear of things nowadays.

00:22:05.160 Because I've got to be able to rip into you guys when you need it.

00:22:07.600 you do at times. So, uh, but, uh, this is part of it avoiding being ripped into like right now

00:22:13.560 is kind of a critical time. Like a lot of, uh, whether it was fair or not, a lot of mistrust

00:22:18.360 was kind of built right off the beginning from the last leadership race that brought Premier

00:22:22.860 Kenny into, uh, power. And we just want to make sure, I would imagine the party really wants to

00:22:28.480 make sure there's a lot of clarity and transparency so that people aren't questioning the process

00:22:33.360 itself when this leadership race happens. So whoever wins can come in with a clean mandate.

00:22:37.600 absolutely you're bang on so uh what happened in the past we all know we don't want to go over it

00:22:45.640 i think what i was trying to say is let's move forward i was encouraged by the parties appointing

00:22:52.180 dave price as uh lecb uh chairperson uh i know dave he's a great guy we were we go back to the

00:23:00.580 why those days and uh he's an honest man i think he'll run a clear uh campaign and this is for me

00:23:07.460 and that's what i said in the editorial we want to make sure there's no stains on this campaign

00:23:13.700 to be able to unite moving forward if there's any issues with this just like the previous campaign

00:23:20.660 then we're just dividing the party without knowing that we're dividing the party so moving forward

00:23:25.540 we need clear rules we need uh low fees for candidates we need to make sure the message

00:23:33.060 is unity uh how we can improve the lives of albertus rather than focusing on what happened

00:23:39.540 during the process of electing a new leader so i think uh having as many candidates as possible

00:23:47.860 with clear rules low entry fees will be fantastic because corey if we have two or three candidates

00:23:57.060 the campaign will be vicious then it'll be personal but if we have six or seven it'll be

00:24:02.660 more about ideas or will be more about uh how we can uh cooperate between each other uh how

00:24:11.540 candidates need to cooperate between each other to uh be able to win so i think the focus on this

00:24:20.580 more than anything else to be able to move forward united so we won't allow an ndp government 2023

00:24:29.460 yeah that's an interesting way to look at it because uh you know i mean a number of candidates

00:24:33.860 i agree i i think it'd be better for it might make it a little messy or difficult with debates

00:24:37.460 when you got seven of them lined up and things like that but those challenges can be overcome

00:24:41.540 uh and when you set the the bar i mean there's a reason to set a fiscal bar as well i mean

00:24:47.700 there's some let's be blunt there's some crazy people out there they're going to distract from

00:24:50.580 the race if it's too easy to get in and they get in with just a personal uh agenda or vendetta

00:24:55.860 but at the same time you don't want it set so high that it only looks like elites are even able to

00:25:00.900 participate in it so absolutely no no absolutely you're right and there should be a ground but so

00:25:07.700 far we have four or five fine candidates they'll all make excellent premiers excellent leaders and

00:25:15.140 uh the more the better i think for the party so we don't have a vicious campaign because we're

00:25:21.140 focusing more on ideas uh if you look through uh the list from daniel smith to brian gene to

00:25:28.180 travis to uh leila to the todd lowen um they're all excellent candidates they'll make great leaders so

00:25:35.780 we shouldn't set them like when he started the leader uh the the first founding convention we

00:25:42.020 set them too high because we didn't have any money in the bank account it was i think like 95 000

00:25:47.940 with 20 000 to be returned and that's impossible to do and it's it's wrong and i think we did it

00:25:54.180 because money at the time but instead of having three candidates of 75 000 you can have seven

00:26:00.580 candidates 30 000 you have the same amount of money and not everybody can come up with 30 000

00:26:05.860 dollars. Anybody of the five or six that are already planning on running, we shouldn't ask

00:26:12.920 them to cough up $75,000 because that's not right to do. Well, that's it. And the party will get a

00:26:20.700 return on it, assuming that the candidates are serious. I mean, hey, it's still not casual. I

00:26:25.100 know for, I don't know about you or yourself, but I mean, I wouldn't cough up $30,000 on something

00:26:28.660 casually. It's still, I'm going to be pretty dedicated if I'm investing that much in something

00:26:33.060 or supporters are as well.

00:26:35.420 There's usually a bar calling for a certain number of signatures

00:26:37.840 from members or things such as that.

00:26:39.340 So it'll show you have to have some ability to ground organize.

00:26:42.100 You're not just going to cut a check and jump right in.

00:26:44.820 And if you have that number of candidates,

00:26:46.980 even with a lower entry fee,

00:26:48.660 presuming they campaign like crazy for a few months

00:26:50.640 and sell memberships like mad,

00:26:52.300 the party should get a lot of return back on that anyways

00:26:54.580 because they're selling those.

00:26:56.580 Right.

00:26:58.420 So that's one way. 0.69

00:27:00.400 And then when it gets on to the management of the race itself,

00:27:02.840 I think kind of it was hard to do.

00:27:06.640 We saw in the federal races, you said they've been very vitriolic.

00:27:09.980 One of the challenges, though, was it was the very first debate.

00:27:12.840 Now, that wasn't held by the party itself.

00:27:14.420 That was held by the Canada Strong and Free.

00:27:17.140 But it kind of really set things off on a bad tone.

00:27:19.720 I mean, it was very vitriolic between Chiray and Polyev.

00:27:24.120 And it sort of set the tone, I think, for the following month and some we've seen since then. 0.60

00:27:28.600 Like, how can the centralized party manage to try and keep this reasonably civil while still not, you know, cracking down too hard on an open race?

00:27:39.040 Well, honestly, I think sometimes we put on debates, whether it's on a leadership contest or on a provincial campaign.

00:27:51.900 I'm not diminishing the value of what I'm saying is the debate is a part of it but it's not all of it and it should be managed. It's fine. I think it helps. The advantages of having six or seven have a hard time managing it is far exceeds than having two or three and just start to have personal attacks rather than ideas.

00:28:18.900 And you know what? All of the candidates running are good friends of mine, and I value all of them, and I think we'll have a great campaign moving forward. I'm very optimistic about the future of the party and the future of the province, and we just have an uptick of eight points two weeks ago, and we have a lot of work to do, but I think we'll move forward united.

00:28:42.500 And I call on the next leader, no matter who that leader is, to invite every other candidate

00:28:50.520 to the first cabinet coming September, October, and just gear up to 2023.

00:28:57.200 Because the last thing you want to do, Corey, is hand the province back to the NEP.

00:29:02.580 And we all know with the oil revenues, we're going to have about 23-day surplus coming

00:29:07.800 next budget and we need to make sure we're fiscally conservative and just

00:29:12.660 doing the things and we can't afford to go back what we have accomplished the

00:29:19.020 party is great people diminish the fact that we were divided and the end of

00:29:25.020 people in power we're in a great position we need to build on the success

00:29:29.400 and just whatever missteps we had along the way just learn from and move

00:29:34.740 forward yeah well and i mean a leadership race is a real critical sort of thing i mean it can either

00:29:41.300 turn into one of the best party building exercises you've had or one of the most divisive like on the

00:29:46.980 day after whenever this is uh it's hoped that there haven't been any irreparable rifts and

00:29:52.660 splits from within the party because that's when things can really shatter uh if if things go the

00:29:57.060 right way the right leader should theoretically and hopefully pull the other candidates together

00:30:00.740 and come from a unified front.

00:30:03.160 Some of the challenges as well, though, is the timeline.

00:30:05.960 An election's only a year away, we're looking at provincially,

00:30:08.840 so we can't have a long, protracted leadership race going on.

00:30:13.920 It's going to have to be somewhat condensed.

00:30:15.960 What kind of timeline, though, do you think the party can get away with on this?

00:30:19.780 I think by September should be fine.

00:30:25.240 Three, four months will be good.

00:30:27.100 I honestly think within three, four months we should be fine.

00:30:30.740 uh we can we can move forward if the the bottom line corey is i don't think timeline is as

00:30:38.100 important as uh unity we need to move forward to the timeline we need to have clear rules in place

00:30:47.140 to make sure that the contest is is not stained in any way we need to have the membership behind

00:30:55.380 the leader and then timeline will be secondary i think but but i i would think september is fine

00:31:01.780 i know it comes sides with uh uh conservative party of canada leader but uh i don't think it's

00:31:08.660 an issue so you're based up in edmonton and that's an area that's you know traditionally

00:31:13.300 very challenging for for conservative parties particularly the ucp again a leadership race

00:31:18.580 might prevent provide an opportunity for some organizing up there actually and uh if you get

00:31:22.580 a local candidate or even ones from outside of edmonton working the ground up there but what what

00:31:26.900 do you think the ucp needs to do to endear itself to people in edmonton like it's a challenge and

00:31:32.580 and it you know would certainly make the next election look a lot brighter if they had some

00:31:36.180 good strength in edmonton going into it yeah and in uh the the challenge in edmonton it it's

00:31:42.980 it's a tough one and i think then the new leader needs to put a strategy in place uh

00:31:48.260 We lost Edmonton as Conservative back in 2012 with the Progressive Conservative Party.

00:31:58.180 And then the Wild Girls came in and we had that Lake of Fire comment.

00:32:03.380 And then after that, we have Lake of Fire.

00:32:10.880 Looks like Ed might have frozen up for a moment there.

00:32:14.500 We're getting some Edmonton internet service on the go.

00:32:17.340 So, but yeah, he was talking about some of the challenges that have happened in past Edmonton campaigns up there.

00:32:22.820 Yeah, no, what I was trying to say is we lost Edmonton back in 2012.

00:32:28.500 We didn't lose Edmonton for three years, and it needs a lot of work.

00:32:33.080 So the challenge is to engage Edmonton again.

00:32:37.180 We didn't win Edmonton.

00:32:38.520 2006, we had more conservative members in Edmonton than we had in Calgary.

00:32:44.500 and I personally not running next election but the last month I've been

00:32:51.280 working hard contacting a lot of people hoping that they will run and no matter

00:32:58.240 who's the next leader want to make sure that Edmonton has four or five six maybe

00:33:03.580 more MLA's at the table that can be in cabinet the other thing that we can do

00:33:08.260 want to make sure that the NDP don't take Edmonton for granted and take their

00:33:12.400 battleground to calgary because if they need to contest their nominee if they feel that we're

00:33:18.160 strong it's going to ease off some of the pressure on our calgary mlas where we can

00:33:23.360 at least comfortably form government so we want to make sure not to take admin the ndp take

00:33:29.640 advantage for granted next leader has quite a bit of work to do here well it's it's going to be an

00:33:35.520 interesting run i mean the names are really starting to pop forward some interesting ones

00:33:39.160 and some of the expected ones, and we'll see how it all irons out.

00:33:43.240 Well, it'll give lots of fodder for us to cover at the Standard for the summer

00:33:46.180 and for yourself as an activist to watch and take part in.

00:33:49.640 So thank you very much for writing that guest column.

00:33:52.560 It's on the westernstandard.news there from Adamar

00:33:55.200 and for coming on to talk to us a bit today about what you feel they need

00:33:59.160 as the race progresses.

00:34:02.260 Thank you so much.

00:34:03.320 Thanks for having me.

00:34:04.700 All right, then.

00:34:05.220 Thank you.

00:34:06.000 So that was Adamar.

00:34:06.740 He was one of the founding members of the UCP when it was merged and put together initially.

00:34:12.120 And he's still, as you can see, you know, he likes Premier Kenney.

00:34:15.480 He understands the time has passed for him and just wants to see as productive a race coming out of this as possible.

00:34:24.320 You know, so, you know, some of the comments. 0.57

00:34:26.620 And yeah, it's difficult.

00:34:27.480 There's a lot of mistrust with the UCP.

00:34:29.020 There's a lot of people unhappy with them.

00:34:31.020 They got their work cut out for them.

00:34:33.940 Actually, Shirley was saying, when will Kenny be permanently gone and interim leader be selected?

00:34:40.760 Kenny is determined to stay on until there's a new leader.

00:34:43.580 Maybe that'll change before then.

00:34:45.380 I should have hit that with Ed as well.

00:34:46.960 That was kind of said in his column.

00:34:48.160 He felt that for the sake of unity, it'd probably be better if Kenny just stepped back and moved aside and let an interim leader come in.

00:34:53.780 Maybe that'll happen.

00:34:55.340 I'm just throwing a guess.

00:34:56.580 is totally unfounded.

00:35:00.520 But maybe that'll happen

00:35:01.760 once the closure for entries is done

00:35:03.740 because then you're not dealing

00:35:05.020 with shuffling cabinet anymore.

00:35:06.320 You know exactly who's running,

00:35:07.800 who's not running.

00:35:09.200 And then you can step aside

00:35:11.480 and let somebody else take over the show

00:35:17.260 because you know who's there.

00:35:18.400 Something Dave brought up,

00:35:19.300 I think it was,

00:35:19.880 but he also pointed out

00:35:20.740 that Jason Kinney is a very observant Catholic

00:35:23.340 and the Pope is coming later

00:35:24.540 and he just wants to hang on

00:35:26.040 for that one opportunity to meet with the Pope,

00:35:28.900 a bit of a personal interest rather than political, I guess.

00:35:31.820 I don't know.

00:35:32.300 It's speculation.

00:35:32.980 It could be for people that dedicated.

00:35:34.600 It's a rare opportunity to actually get one-on-one time

00:35:37.440 with the Pope himself, I guess,

00:35:38.880 so that could be a motivator too.

00:35:40.420 There's a lot of things to be read in,

00:35:43.720 but it's going to be, you know,

00:35:46.620 we're going to see what happens over this next few months,

00:35:48.700 see who enters.

00:35:49.520 Some of those names popping up, interesting, you know, 1.00

00:35:52.680 Michelle Rimmel's kicking tires on it now, 0.96

00:35:54.800 some cabinet ministers are.

00:35:57.800 Taze looks to be, you know,

00:35:59.120 kind of a steady candidate,

00:36:00.800 though an establishment one.

00:36:02.420 So we'll see what they make of it

00:36:03.960 over this next few months.

00:36:05.660 I don't know.

00:36:06.360 I'm not on a side.

00:36:07.320 You know, I don't have a membership anymore

00:36:09.100 and I won't.

00:36:10.680 But I think I share a fear

00:36:11.640 with a lot of conservatives

00:36:12.500 that if we get four more years 0.61

00:36:14.220 of Premier Rachel Notley,

00:36:16.660 we are in extreme trouble.

00:36:18.680 It's bad enough that we've got

00:36:20.860 what we've got going on in Ottawa 0.99

00:36:22.420 with Prime Minister Ding Dong there

00:36:24.920 and constantly fending it off.

00:36:26.700 That's one of the areas that Jason Kenney fell short,

00:36:28.880 very much so.

00:36:30.420 I mean, he was talk big with Ottawa,

00:36:33.140 but acted weak.

00:36:34.520 He just, it was always talk and no action.

00:36:37.460 The, you know, and there's something that was,

00:36:40.020 you know, a point to another publication was fine.

00:36:43.500 You know, Don Braid, he's written forever.

00:36:45.300 He's a well-established, respected political writer

00:36:49.000 in Alberta, in that Kenny infuriated the base again, because he still keeps talking, saying

00:36:55.660 it's just crazed anti-vaxxers are the only reason his leadership was lost. That's not the case.

00:37:01.500 There was a whole lot of people got tired and upset with his leadership for a number of reasons.

00:37:07.380 And his being in and out through the pandemic didn't do him any favors. That's for sure. He

00:37:11.820 tried to play to both sides, and he lost both sides is what happened. I mean, he tried to be

00:37:17.020 the most reticent premier of them all in imposing mandates. But in doing so, he made a lot of big

00:37:22.320 provinces, you know, saying that there's never going to be a vaccine passport and then bringing

00:37:25.760 in a vaccine passport and things like that. And he just lost strength on all those fronts. But then

00:37:31.300 outside of the pandemic, as I said, Albertans want somebody to stand up to Ottawa. They want

00:37:36.440 somebody to protect our rights out here. And he hasn't done so. The Fair Deal panel, a lot of time

00:37:45.660 was invested in it. A lot of people were optimistic about it. And virtually none of the

00:37:52.140 recommendations of the panel were really taken terribly seriously. We're nowhere closer to a

00:37:56.040 provincial police force, even though the people attending those wanted to see one. We're nowhere

00:37:59.440 closer to a provincial pension plan. None of it's getting done. We held a referendum on equalization.

00:38:04.700 Okay. And what's been done with it since though? Nothing. It's just another action. It's another

00:38:10.960 letter to Trudeau. And he didn't even write that, I don't think. So, you know, all bluster,

00:38:17.020 no action there. And I think a whole other big part of it with Premier Kenney was just internal

00:38:21.980 leadership, leading his own party, keeping his own supporters with him, confident in him, and even

00:38:27.660 within his own caucus. And that's something I don't think, again, I've talked about that before.

00:38:31.540 Some people have that and some don't. And I don't think Jason Kenney has it. But to keep shooting

00:38:36.740 out at the members who said they want him out. I mean, come on, Kenny, you barely, barely got over

00:38:43.680 50% support. You're saying half of that party is praised anti-vaxxers. That doesn't help. As some

00:38:48.300 other people are pointing out, you know, if you want to, you know, unify that party, it's not

00:38:53.620 going to help when he's in there still shooting at a big segment to the members right now as the

00:38:57.500 interim leader. Maybe if he was a former leader, that wouldn't be so bad, but that seems to be out

00:39:02.580 of our ability. It was a six-hour caucus meeting when they tried to decide if Kenny was going to

00:39:06.540 day or go. It was obviously very emotional. Brian Jean apparently had quite the blow up there,

00:39:10.820 as we wrote about. He was even threatening to take Shane Getson outside and get into a fight.

00:39:18.120 It really, really, you know, instills confidence on that caucus and the people running to lead it.

00:39:25.740 Steve Rutherford saying the fair deal panel was a good deal for Albertans and killed by a staunch

00:39:29.620 Federalist, Jason Kenney. I don't know, these bait and switches and the Federalists, they really

00:39:35.020 know how to undercut. As I said at the start of this thing, as we watch, Trudeau Jr. is going to

00:39:39.400 come after our energy. You know it. He's going to come after our money. There's a big pool sitting

00:39:43.340 there. He wants it. He wants it. He wants it for Central Canada. And when he does, I don't see

00:39:49.280 anything shy of an independence movement, a real one, a strong one, a solid one, stopping this,

00:39:54.500 or at least responding appropriately to it. Now, I led the Alberta Independence Party back when I

00:39:59.580 was 29 years old. And we got slaughtered at the general election by Klein. One of the things

00:40:04.900 that really castrated us

00:40:06.520 because we were gaining a lot of steam

00:40:08.640 for those of us who remember back then

00:40:10.120 going into the 2000 election

00:40:11.820 was, you know, of course,

00:40:14.600 the rotten behavior of Chrétien

00:40:16.220 with the liberals and so on.

00:40:17.540 We were doing great.

00:40:18.640 We were getting some momentum.

00:40:20.200 We were establishing.

00:40:21.320 And suddenly, Stephen Harper,

00:40:23.880 Barry Cooper, and Andy Crooks

00:40:25.900 and a whole number of other

00:40:27.460 kind of conservative intellectuals,

00:40:30.640 I think Ted Morton might have been one of them,

00:40:32.200 wrote what was called the firewall letter

00:40:34.100 or the Alberta agenda. And it called for RCMP and a pension plan and, you know, taking on our own

00:40:41.180 Medicare and collecting our own taxes, a whole number of items, the same things from the Fair

00:40:45.340 Deal panel. And our support just started to plummet. People said, Oh, look, look, look, we

00:40:49.380 don't need the Alberta Independence Party. Because we've got these guys, they'll fix it. They'll fix

00:40:55.660 it. They'll fix it with this Alberta agenda. We don't need to go that route. Well, Harper's had a

00:41:00.640 majority premiership since then. He didn't do anything about it. I mean, I don't want to fully

00:41:06.660 lay blame on him. The bottom line is you can't. If you're a prime minister and you try to bring in

00:41:11.000 something like that or help something like that from a province, you'll lose Central Canada and 0.99

00:41:14.660 you're out on your ass. Though he did end up losing and was out on his ass. Anyways, I think 1.00

00:41:18.400 they meant well when they released it, but it killed us. It sucked the support rate out of us.

00:41:23.040 Now, I still strongly support all of the things that they talked about with the Fair Deal panel

00:41:27.720 and with the Alberta agenda way back 20 years ago.

00:41:30.500 But don't look at them as ways to fend off independence.

00:41:34.180 Look at them as ways to move towards independence.

00:41:37.140 Because right now, if we held a referendum tomorrow

00:41:40.100 in, say, Alberta, where it's probably strongest,

00:41:42.620 who knows, Saskatchewan's getting pretty strong

00:41:44.700 independence-minded out there, too.

00:41:46.740 It would get slaughtered. It would get slaughtered. 0.78

00:41:48.760 We wouldn't be, it'd be 30% at best.

00:41:51.020 Take it from a guy who's run on that platform

00:41:52.740 a couple of times within this province.

00:41:54.440 Like, it takes a lot more.

00:41:57.060 So how do we get there?

00:41:58.420 And some of those steps getting there

00:41:59.480 are in the Fair Deal panel recommendations.

00:42:01.260 They're in the Alberta agenda from in the past,

00:42:04.800 or even the Buffalo Declaration,

00:42:06.860 which bizarrely came out of Michelle Rempel

00:42:08.280 and some others,

00:42:09.340 and then it's kind of fallen by the wayside.

00:42:11.160 But again, everything has to go step by step.

00:42:14.540 Either way, when it comes to standing up for ourselves,

00:42:16.600 the UCP has been terribly disappointing

00:42:18.260 when it comes to that.

00:42:20.280 And I hope the new leader, whoever it is,

00:42:22.980 is stronger with it.

00:42:24.280 So let's look at some of the beauties of our federal government. I got some news stories to go through here. Thefts and losses. This is a neat story. At federal departments and agencies, total more than 1.2 million bucks. This is records. Incidents detailed by cabinet range from stolen wine at the Department of Foreign Affairs to misuse of credit cards at Parks Canada.

00:42:45.760 I mean, this happens in the private market as well, but not nearly to the type of degree.

00:42:50.200 Private business owners, managers, even directors will chase down this sort of fraud, typically pretty quickly before it happens.

00:42:56.780 When it's in government, though, they get away with it and ridiculous things.

00:43:00.380 These are only the things they've found, you know.

00:43:02.720 So there's an inquiry of the ministry tabled in comms.

00:43:05.820 So detailed thefts and losses totaling $1.2 million.

00:43:09.100 Now, how many people have been charged?

00:43:11.180 None.

00:43:13.280 Some was okay.

00:43:14.160 20 cents missing from petty cash at the parole board. Okay. That's pretty, pretty sad. Not,

00:43:19.360 not, not a big concern, but then there was 153,000, almost 154,000 stolen and unauthorized

00:43:27.420 fraudulent use of acquisition and travel cards at Parks Canada. 15 thefts at Parks Canada from

00:43:37.720 three to $2,000. Either way, these are the guys we entrust with our money. These, well, entrust,

00:43:42.320 makes it sound like a choice, right? We'll willingly send you our tax dollars and hope

00:43:46.600 you spend them to our benefit. Well, they take them from us. We don't have any choice in that

00:43:49.960 bloody matter. And then they take it and they waste it. They steal it. They abuse it. So we

00:43:54.700 got a committee looking into it and exposing all of this stuff, this list. But again, we're not

00:44:02.060 going to get any of it back and nobody's going to be held accountable. This gets back to what I was

00:44:05.240 talking about though, why we need to, the system's broken. It's sick to the core. I mean, this

00:44:09.940 happens even in a healthy, I guess you could say democracy or bureaucracy, but not to this degree.

00:44:16.520 And it's only going to get worse. So, you know, let's see, 45 stolen, 45 bucks stolen from petty

00:44:23.280 cash in the Canada economic development. Okay. And it's not the crime of the century there.

00:44:29.160 A 1,270 vanished from a department of employment bank deposit bag in Moncton.

00:44:33.820 uh these things shouldn't be that hard to track down you know but that 23,635 and fraudulent use

00:44:39.780 of charge cards at the department of indigenous affairs uh oh here's a neat one uh 116,000

00:44:47.600 worth of exhibits stolen from the rcmp in the theft that they uncovered in 2019 yeah even the

00:44:56.260 rcmp can't manage to hang on to the items that taxpayers entrust them with and they lost them

00:45:01.760 I wonder if they got their man in the end. Probably not. Fisheries, again, another $126,000

00:45:07.360 in bad credit card use. So here's another one. Regional Relief and Recovery Fund

00:45:11.820 by Prairie Economic Development Canada. Now it starts getting bigger. $623,000, almost $624,000

00:45:18.180 in fraudulent claims. You know, when you get emergencies, that's when the scammers come out

00:45:22.280 of the woodworks, unfortunately, whether they're in government or outside of it. They can smell

00:45:26.200 an opportunity to get money and they do it. And they do it in a big way and we all get to pay

00:45:31.240 for it. So either way, yeah, it just keeps going and going. Diplomats reported $2,200 worth of

00:45:37.520 passports stolen by employees and $3,435 lost by a payroll clerk who was a victim of an email fraud

00:45:44.760 scheme. These are our foreign diplomats. These are the people representing us elsewhere. Good

00:45:50.140 job, guys. Nice work. You're really doing us proud out there. So yeah, so let's see, this is

00:45:57.360 an area that gets, you know, I'm a little mixed. I'm not always on side with all the commenters

00:46:01.540 with that. Mark Garneau, the transport minister, and some liberal MPs, they tried to put a bill

00:46:08.840 in to decriminalize heroin. And the bill failed on second reading. But I mean, it was interesting

00:46:15.160 in a few ways. For one, I do like to see open votes. They're rare, you know, that non-whipped

00:46:21.160 votes. So this went, there was some NDP, some liberal, but some liberals went against it, 0.97

00:46:26.020 some NDP and it failed. Okay. I'm not wholly against decriminalizing. So, I mean, that's where

00:46:30.760 I'm saying it's interesting in a couple of fronts. I mean, for one, like I said, it was just good to

00:46:33.680 see they were allowed to vote their conscience as individuals for a change, and they did so.

00:46:38.660 That's democracy. That's the way it goes. But decriminalization, I think people look at it

00:46:43.600 quite often, again, the wrong way. They say, oh, we want to just totally legalize, let people

00:46:49.060 consume drugs easily, openly. Well, a couple of things. For one, they already are. Get out in any

00:46:54.240 urban streets and get downtown. In Calgary, I offer you right across from the Western Standard

00:46:59.500 office, go out there and stand on the LRT platform and just observe for half an hour.

00:47:04.500 You will observe multiple incidents of drug consumption and not pot. We're talking guys

00:47:09.720 with smoking something on foils, crap through glass pipes. And if you look in the stairway 0.99

00:47:15.000 by the A&W behind there, that's usually where they shoot up. It's a shooting gallery with syringes.

00:47:18.960 It's right there. And they do the deals right on the platform. You will see exchanges.

00:47:23.960 So we can't pretend it already hasn't been decriminalized.

00:47:27.840 It's just been de facto decriminalized.

00:47:29.700 The police don't have the time or the resources to chase down the massive volume of these ground-level drug users and smaller dealers.

00:47:39.200 Decriminalizing the small amounts, the fact of just having it, it gets one more thing out of the way.

00:47:45.300 Because the users, you can arrest them, you can crack down on them, you can fine them.

00:47:48.260 It's not changing anything.

00:47:49.280 They need treatment's what they need. 0.99

00:47:50.620 Those junkies need to get off of the crap, and that's a big, long, complicated world there. 0.99

00:47:55.680 That's getting into mental health supports. 0.99

00:47:57.400 That's getting into addictions treatment, and some of them, again, will just never respond to it, but you've got to try.

00:48:03.060 Fining them, criminalizing them doesn't help.

00:48:05.820 Getting after the dealers, on the other hand, that actually saying decriminalizing will allow the dealers to run around with deliveries uncriminal.

00:48:14.800 No, it won't.

00:48:15.940 No, it won't.

00:48:16.860 That's the thing.

00:48:17.480 it's just the possession that gets decriminalized and only in certain amounts. If you're running

00:48:22.520 around with a large amount, you're a dealer and you will be busted and you will still be charged.

00:48:27.160 In fact, you could focus more on those dealers and less on the users like they do right now,

00:48:32.980 clogging up our system because some addicted nutcase had a half a gram of something in

00:48:38.680 their pocket or something. I mean, I'm just saying it's a mixed thing and there's no easy

00:48:44.060 solutions to the whole addiction problem. And maybe decriminalization isn't the solution. I'm 0.59

00:48:48.240 leaning more towards it, but I could be wrong. It wouldn't be the first time. And it's open for

00:48:52.040 debate. But I was happy to see that debate actually happen in the House of Commons. And,

00:48:58.220 you know, they're trying to work towards proactive solutions, because the current ones

00:49:02.220 aren't working. That's that's something we can see for sure right now. They aren't working.

00:49:08.500 The addiction levels are going up, the overdoses are going up. I mean, the numbers are staggering.

00:49:13.240 Anybody living in urban areas sees it, the tent cities, the theft, the local crime.

00:49:17.300 It's awful.

00:49:18.160 It's awful.

00:49:18.720 So we've got to start having some discussions going a little farther and just chasing down

00:49:22.920 and trying to bust people for possession of small amounts of drugs.

00:49:26.100 It hasn't worked so far, so I can't see how it's going to work further.

00:49:30.620 And Ashley keeps saying street sales are a small quantity.

00:49:32.400 Yes, but the dealer is carrying a large quantity.

00:49:34.880 They don't just walk around with one bag at a time.

00:49:37.800 Either way.

00:49:38.800 So I'm going to have my guests coming on pretty soon.

00:49:41.400 let's talk about one of our sponsors before I bring them in, and that's the Canadian Shooting

00:49:45.160 Sports Association. Speaking of going the wrong direction with things, we are criminalizing

00:49:50.320 firearms. We are trying to make it, you know, turn law-abiding citizens into criminals, and that is

00:49:55.820 through constantly changing the status of different long guns capacities within their magazines. I had

00:50:04.120 a talk with the head of this organization yesterday, Tony Bernardo, about how ridiculous

00:50:08.900 list these laws are, how costly they are, and how they are not keeping us any safer. Well, this is a

00:50:12.800 group that's standing up for you, pushing back. They are lobbying the government on your behalf

00:50:17.060 as a firearm owner. And they have a lot of other resources like any association would.

00:50:22.920 As you can see, links to different things on how to hunt safely together, or get out on the range,

00:50:27.420 or skeet shooting, target shooting, collecting. It's your business. I mean, as long as you're

00:50:31.580 not harming anybody, and law-abiding firearm owners don't, of course, you should be able

00:50:37.060 to enjoy these things. But again, these rights are under threat. They always are. The government

00:50:41.280 wants to take your firearms away. They want to steal them from you. They can't, CSSA can't help

00:50:46.480 you unless you get on board. So check them out, the Canadian Shooting Sports Association. Take

00:50:50.660 out a membership. They're not terribly expensive and let them help, continue to help you and stand

00:50:56.200 up to this government because these rights are going incrementally and faster as they're going

00:51:00.840 incrementally as well. So Canadian Shooting Sports Association, CSSA-CILA.org. It's a long,

00:51:08.240 unwieldy URL, but it does work. And also if you just Google Canadian Shooting Sports Association,

00:51:12.740 you will get there. They are a good group and worth joining. Okay. Just one more thing with

00:51:18.020 Jade saying, legal drugs, Vancouver will become a big ghetto. People won't want to visit. Jade, 1.00

00:51:23.160 that ship sailed a long time ago. I mean, I imagine you've been somewhere anywhere east of

00:51:27.380 the core. Come on. Again, it's been illegal for decades and it is a ghetto. It is a tent city

00:51:32.860 and it's loaded with people consuming heroin right out in the open. So again, let's just talk about

00:51:37.080 what's really happening, what you'd like to see. They're two different things sometimes. Okay,

00:51:40.480 let's bring in our Ontario crew here. We got Matthew Horwood and Jonathan Bradley out there

00:51:45.120 and they're going to bring us up to date on this Ontario election that's coming to a close tonight.

00:51:49.780 People are voting in Ontario as we speak and babble at each other. So I think I see them.

00:51:56.440 there we go. There's Jonathan on the left and Matthew on the right. Thanks for joining us today,

00:52:01.600 guys. Thanks for having me here. Great. So I'll just confirm, I think you guys are in two different

00:52:07.180 locations in Ontario too. You're in Ottawa, Matthew, and you're in Toronto, Jonathan?

00:52:13.460 Yeah, the suburbs of Toronto. Okay. Okay. I know it's, I just like to clarify, we're getting,

00:52:18.660 you know, some different perspectives on what's going on. Maybe I'll start with Matthew though,

00:52:23.400 just to ask so just to kind of lay it out like uh who are the perceived front runners and what's

00:52:29.460 going on i mean i we haven't heard very much about this thing out here uh you know so how's

00:52:34.000 that campaign been going which which parties are in contention yeah good question it's been a

00:52:38.760 relatively quiet campaign that's probably why you haven't heard much about it but just to sum it up

00:52:43.460 it looks like uh doug ford has got it in the bag he is uh the clear you're going to be the clear

00:52:47.900 winner you know it's it's difficult to make predictions uh especially after you know the

00:52:52.280 2016 presidential elections it's always not not always great to make those predictions but at this

00:52:56.780 point uh doug ford is at 38 in the polls uh liberals under stephen del duke is at 25 and

00:53:04.600 andrew horwath of the new democrats are at 23 so it's looking like it's going to be a very clear

00:53:10.580 doug ford win the question is whether he's going to get his majority once again um and also whether

00:53:16.620 or not the liberals are going to win more seats and get back their status as the official opposition

00:53:21.940 because they lost that under Kathleen Wynne back in the 2018 election.

00:53:27.360 Great. So Jonathan, with alternative parties, I guess,

00:53:32.260 that's something we've seen springing up.

00:53:33.420 It's usually an Alberta thing,

00:53:34.640 but there's some conservative alternative parties

00:53:37.340 that have kind of popped up discontent with Doug Ford.

00:53:40.780 There's the one that Derek Sloan's leading,

00:53:42.640 and there's the True Blue Party as well.

00:53:44.980 Do you think they're making any kind of mark

00:53:46.340 on the political landscape this time around?

00:53:48.640 So I'd expect New Blue and the Ontario Party to maybe get a few percentage points each,

00:53:54.560 but I doubt that they're going to pick up any seats.

00:53:57.120 I think that maybe Belinda Carihelios, who's a New Blue MPP, she stands a pretty good chance

00:54:02.560 at maybe getting in the double digits in the riding that she's running in, Cambridge, 0.98

00:54:07.060 but she likely won't win.

00:54:09.620 With the Ontario Party, we might see a few candidates get within the double digits,

00:54:13.460 in particular Derek Sloan, who's the Ontario Party leader,

00:54:16.180 and he's running in Hastings, Lennon, and Addington.

00:54:19.720 He'll probably get him double digits, but he won't win.

00:54:23.340 It'll likely just be the four parties that have been featured on all the debates

00:54:27.340 and that many of us all know well.

00:54:29.720 Okay, so with that, is there a risk?

00:54:32.200 I guess there's not much of that then.

00:54:33.760 I mean, something that happened in Alberta,

00:54:35.100 we thought we were building an alternative, we split the vote.

00:54:37.580 I mean, there's a number of reasons behind that,

00:54:38.900 but is there any chance that you could see vote splits

00:54:41.620 kind of knocking some conservatives out of some writings?

00:54:44.740 Maybe with a few seats. 0.99

00:54:46.180 Like I mentioned with Cambridge, because that's expecting to be a tight race, Belinda Carahelios could lead to the PC candidate not winning and the seat would go to the Liberals.

00:54:58.940 Where all the Ontario candidates are running, where it looks like it's a close race, many of them are conservative strongholds already.

00:55:04.460 So it doesn't really seem that much of a vote split risk.

00:55:07.520 But there might be a few seats where a few days after when we get the final results, we can be like, oh, that probably caused this candidate to lose.

00:55:14.520 okay so matthew uh you know even if it doesn't change the government uh itself or at least the

00:55:20.760 party in power it could change a whole lot of faces in a general election are there any

00:55:24.240 significant uh political players or cabinet ministers you might get turned over tonight

00:55:28.420 or you know are at risk right now um i can't give you many uh details on that um what i can say is

00:55:38.260 that it's looking like Stephen Del Duca might not stay on

00:55:42.840 as the party leader after this election.

00:55:45.540 I've heard a lot of people just from testimonials

00:55:48.140 that don't seem to trust Del Duca very much.

00:55:50.640 They don't like the way he looks, unfortunately.

00:55:52.440 They don't like the way he sounds.

00:55:53.840 I've even heard him be compared to Dr. Evil

00:55:56.940 just in the way that he looks.

00:55:59.520 And he's trying to go after the seat that he lost in 2018.

00:56:03.760 And it's close polling.

00:56:05.440 It's looking like he might not even be able to get that at this point.

00:56:09.160 So he's saying that if he wins that, regardless of whether or not he wins the election or loses,

00:56:15.860 he's going to try and stay on his leader, but he might be pushed out,

00:56:19.160 especially if he's not able to win that riding.

00:56:23.960 So kind of what's going on, it seems it's more of a race for,

00:56:28.120 you kind of implied that earlier, Matthew, a race for the official opposition,

00:56:31.940 kind of a race for second place.

00:56:34.860 Yeah, that's exactly right.

00:56:36.040 It seemed to have been more of a competition between Andrea Horwath and Steven Del Duca.

00:56:40.500 They've really been battling it out.

00:56:42.160 And both sides have said at various points, you know, we should be going after Doug Ford.

00:56:46.220 Stop going after me and attacking me.

00:56:47.980 But they both keep doing it because they want to get that opposition status.

00:56:52.420 So they've really been slugging it out.

00:56:54.500 And they have a lot of similar plans.

00:56:56.140 You know, they're both very concerned about the affordability issue.

00:56:59.460 They both have plans for big spending, especially compared to Doug Ford's plan, which is only $198 billion in new spending, mostly focused on infrastructure projects and a little bit for schools.

00:57:11.340 But, yeah, it's really been a race between Del Duca and Horwath at this point.

00:57:15.780 And we'll see who comes out on top.

00:57:17.900 So, Jonathan, kind of what have you been interpreting?

00:57:21.180 I mean, I know it varies region by region and things, but maybe that's part of why the race has kind of slid under the radar.

00:57:25.580 Are there any real prime issues that have been standing out in this race, though?

00:57:29.840 Like, what are Ontarians most concerned about right now?

00:57:32.680 I'd say the biggest issue in the Ontario election right now is Highway 413.

00:57:37.200 So Highway 413 is a proposed 52-kilometer highway in the west Greater Toronto area that Doug Ford proposed a few months prior to the election.

00:57:48.640 uh so ford and the ontario progressive conservatives have promised to build the

00:57:53.760 highway whereas the ontario liberals ndp and greens have vowed to cancel it um the reason

00:57:59.680 why ford wants to build this highway is because it would reduce travel times to toronto and make

00:58:04.560 the surrounding communities more accessible but the issues with building the highway are would

00:58:09.160 lead to more air pollution and it would pave over parts of the ontario green belt um all in all if

00:58:15.560 look at polling data, it shows that many people are supportive of Highway 413 because they want

00:58:20.280 more infrastructure to be built. And yeah. Great. Okay. And then, so Matthew, maybe I'll hit on that

00:58:27.320 with, you know, Canada was pretty divided. I mean, particularly on vaccine mandates, lockdowns,

00:58:33.080 restrictions. Doug Ford was more front and center, I think, than a lot of premiers. He was eager to

00:58:38.420 lock down and very reticent to open up. But none of the other opposition leaders are really pushing

00:58:44.460 for more individual liberties or anything like that either.

00:58:47.080 They're kind of unified, I think, on a restrictions basis, aren't they?

00:58:51.880 Yeah, when it comes to COVID restrictions,

00:58:54.240 they all seem to have been relatively on the same page.

00:58:58.220 I mean, Doug Ford talked about being kind of regretting having a lockdown 0.54

00:59:02.340 and not liking, you know, having to implement the vaccine passports,

00:59:05.360 but he did do them in the end.

00:59:07.300 And arguably that worked out well for him compared to,

00:59:10.260 and you might know more about this, Corey, in Alberta,

00:59:13.020 Premier Jason Kenney seemed to be very hesitant to close things down,

00:59:16.860 wanted to keep the province open, and then ended up having to apologize

00:59:19.720 and go back on it and implement those strict lockdowns.

00:59:22.700 So I think while it made a lot of people very unhappy

00:59:25.460 to have to have these restrictions constantly,

00:59:27.660 I think it worked out for Doug Ford,

00:59:29.860 and it made him look like he was being strong on COVID.

00:59:32.320 And that was one of the things that Stephen Del Duca criticized Ford

00:59:35.800 about very fervently during the last election debate

00:59:39.480 was his how he handled covid in particular uh when doug ford closed down playgrounds and authorized

00:59:45.440 police to ask people why you know why they're out what they're doing away from their home

00:59:49.640 and doug ford responded well look it was difficult we didn't get everything right but it's very easy

00:59:54.920 from your perspective to criticize us but when you're actually in the driver's seat trying to

00:59:58.900 get the province through a pandemic it's uh it's a whole different story so but but uh yeah they're

01:00:04.020 all seem to be on kind of the same page in that and del duke has talked about wanting to add the

01:00:08.340 COVID-19 vaccine for the schedule of regular vaccines for children in order to go to primary

01:00:14.660 school. So you would have to have a COVID vaccine if you wanted to go to a Ontario public school.

01:00:19.220 I haven't seen much polling on that, but I would imagine that a lot of parents might be a little

01:00:23.460 bit hesitant about that happening. Yeah, well, and another area that was kind of interesting,

01:00:29.440 though, I mean, mostly the Greens tend to come from the left. But there's also, I mean, I know

01:00:33.860 from the early times, there's a lot of hippies out there who aren't big on vaccination and

01:00:37.980 conventional medicine and things like that. They made up a lot of the anti-mandate protests. So

01:00:42.400 maybe Jonathan, is there any wedge where the Green Party is sitting in this election in Ontario? Any

01:00:47.400 spots you think they might be able to win a seat? So Mike Schreiner, who's the Green Party leader,

01:00:52.320 he already holds his seat in Guelph. Guelph is a very like earthy hippie kind of town. So hippie

01:00:59.880 kind of city. So it was kind of unsurprising when he did win in 2018. There is polling data that

01:01:06.400 shows that the Greens might be able to pick up the seat in Perrystown, Muskoka, which right now

01:01:12.080 is a conservative seat. Up until about a few years ago, it was widely considered a conservative safe

01:01:16.760 seat, but gradually it shifted more to the Green Party. For some reason, I'm not too sure why.

01:01:22.200 I don't think that seat will end up flipping a conservative just because there is some

01:01:29.560 conservative support in that area and it's usually pretty vocal. And yeah.

01:01:32.660 great well i'll just uh i'll let you guys leave uh finish off with the easy thing uh i'll start

01:01:38.920 with matthew to try and throw out your prediction what do you know we're bringing you back on

01:01:42.840 tomorrow again we'll we'll kind of digest the results and what happened and what it might mean

01:01:47.380 and where it's going but uh we're we're you know there's nothing to lose and throwing one out there

01:01:51.740 we do that around here too we're usually dead wrong where do you think uh things are going to

01:01:55.900 land tonight it's a good question i think we're going to see a doug ford majority once again

01:02:01.420 I think Del Duca, you know, I'm going to say I think he's going to lose the seat.

01:02:07.080 I really, I'm not sure about what we're going to see about that.

01:02:09.800 I think enough people seem to not trust the guy enough for him to win that seat.

01:02:14.640 And once again, he lost by 18 points in 2018.

01:02:18.240 So I think it's a real uphill battle for him.

01:02:20.780 And I think the Greens will retain their seats.

01:02:23.360 And I think the NDP will do pretty much as well as they did last time.

01:02:28.500 As for whether or not the Liberals are going to become the official opposition, they would

01:02:32.080 have to gain five more seats.

01:02:34.620 I'm going to say they're not going to be able to make it.

01:02:37.520 But again, these are not, I'm not like really holding myself to these predictions.

01:02:42.460 We'll see what happens.

01:02:43.360 Yeah, there's no money on these anyways.

01:02:44.860 What do you think might happen tonight, Jonathan?

01:02:47.540 So I think it's going to be a PC majority government with 78 seats.

01:02:51.660 The last election was 76 seats, so it'll be gain of two seats.

01:02:54.600 I think the NDP will stay the official opposition, but their seat count will drop from 40 seats to 25 seats.

01:03:01.820 The Liberals will get, I'm thinking, 20 seats, but Del Duca will lose his, and the Greens will maintain their one seat.

01:03:09.660 And New Blue and the Ontario Party will lose their seats.

01:03:13.220 Well, we'll find out in a few short hours, or well, it depends on how long it takes for those results to come in.

01:03:19.800 It's always painfully so at times.

01:03:21.540 So thanks for coming on and bringing us up to date and for writing those

01:03:25.020 stories in Ontario.

01:03:25.740 I just like to remind all our viewers and listeners,

01:03:27.620 we have people out there and then they've been writing a lot of great

01:03:30.420 coverage on stuff out that way.

01:03:31.780 So let's not forget about that with the Western standard.

01:03:34.000 So Matthew, Jonathan, thanks. 0.51

01:03:36.180 I'll let you get back to watching what's going on with tonight's race.

01:03:39.600 And I'll talk to you again tomorrow.

01:03:41.420 Thank you, Corey.

01:03:41.880 Talk soon.

01:03:42.260 Thanks, Corey.

01:03:42.720 See you tomorrow.

01:03:45.480 Yeah, that's Matthew Horwood and Jonathan Bradley.

01:03:47.740 They both write for the Western standard.

01:03:49.820 And, you know, again, I'd like to remind everybody, we are, you know, we do some coverage right across the country.

01:03:55.100 We are the Western standard, but we, you know, hit issues that are national in scope.

01:03:58.720 And I know it's frustrating as well.

01:04:00.260 Listen to Ontario coverage, but it's almost like watching American issues too.

01:04:03.880 With Canada's most populous province, you know, the largest province we've got going on in population,

01:04:11.160 their election is going to impact all of Canada to a degree no matter what.

01:04:15.140 So it's still worth watching.

01:04:16.480 It reflects an aspect of the country.

01:04:18.180 it reflects where they're leaning on some things. And likewise, just like with the United States,

01:04:23.100 you know, we don't always want to dwell on American issues, but we can't pretend that

01:04:26.300 American issues don't impact us up here as well, right? Like it's all tied together. So we'll

01:04:31.380 watch that with interest and see what comes out of it. I think a trend, and I'm not sure,

01:04:35.400 I'd have to get up to look, but Ontario's often seem to have a trend of keeping the opposite

01:04:41.540 party in provincially that is in federally. When they've got a federal conservative government,

01:04:47.500 Ontario likes to have a liberal government or an NDP government. And when there's a federal

01:04:51.980 liberal government, they like to have a conservative government provincially. They flip

01:04:55.920 that way. In Alberta, there's one of the areas where Alberta screwed ourselves, where we stayed 1.00

01:05:01.380 so solidly with one party for so long, became so predictable that we were taken for granted by

01:05:07.880 federal parties on both sides. I mean, they really had nothing to lose or nothing to gain in this

01:05:12.580 province at times. So I used to talk about that in campaign events in the past, you know, when the

01:05:17.040 PCs were still in. I mean, there I was going gray then, you know, in 40 or whatever, and say,

01:05:21.820 geez, I'm 40 years old, and I still, in this province, have never seen a different party in

01:05:26.220 power my whole life. That's how long those guys were in for. And I mean, again, that's stale.

01:05:31.280 It's not good for democracy, and it doesn't hang in there. To whatever credit I want to give to

01:05:35.480 Ontario, at least they do turn over their governments now and then. And to a degree,

01:05:40.540 I think it helps. I mean, it doesn't, it seems impossible to always really get good, good

01:05:44.560 government, but we have to keep trying. I saw a commenter earlier mentioning, talking about,

01:05:50.500 I'm sorry, I can't remember. I think it was Al Rourke perhaps, but saying that

01:05:53.580 independent candidates are the way to go as opposed to the partisan ones. I kind of agree

01:06:01.480 and I disagree, but part of the problem with independent candidates, you don't know where

01:06:09.620 they're coming from necessarily. Now we look in the city of Calgary, for example, in our city council.

01:06:14.440 No party involved there.

01:06:16.520 They're all independent. 0.99

01:06:17.840 And they're horrible. 0.99

01:06:18.760 They're terrible.

01:06:20.440 I mean, you know, we get ones like Gondek, who, as I noted in my rant the other day,

01:06:26.560 she came in with a good win as a mayor,

01:06:30.000 and then just went completely off the rails doing things that she never campaigned on. 1.00

01:06:34.200 She, you know, brought in this climate emergency and all this lunacy.

01:06:37.100 She's down to 38% support in Calgary, and only a few months after being elected.

01:06:42.100 Well, she was an independent.

01:06:43.120 it. So that way she could BS it. I mean, not to say party politicians don't BS us quite often as

01:06:48.460 well. At least you got a bit of a better idea of where they're leaning when they're coming in.

01:06:53.940 Because they would have had to have some presence within something or some sort of foundation of

01:06:57.440 policies. The bottom line is there's no perfect system. There isn't. You just got to keep beating

01:07:03.960 at it with what tools you have and hope to keep it as much on an even keel as you can.

01:07:10.320 And, you know, giving up is the worst thing you can do.

01:07:15.480 I mean, if you want them to win for sure, give up.

01:07:18.860 That's the way to do it.

01:07:20.100 We've got what processes we can.

01:07:21.540 We've got what means we can.

01:07:22.740 Let's use them.

01:07:23.740 One of those biggest processes, you know, kind of like Wildrose is implying, is the

01:07:27.620 Clarity Act.

01:07:28.480 It's a provincial one.

01:07:29.400 Again, we're not ready to utilize that yet.

01:07:33.700 But it's one that I think is going to serve not just Western provinces, but this whole

01:07:38.680 country well, because it could finally shake and allow us to break the system because the Canadian

01:07:43.340 system is broken. It's badly broken. Let me talk about sponsor before I talk about a bit more news

01:07:48.820 items going on. And that's Bitcoin Well again. And Bitcoin Well, as I pointed out, is a good

01:07:56.100 Canadian company. You see all those dots on that map all the way across the whole country. Those

01:07:59.900 are ATMs. You can deposit your money into an ATM and put it into your Bitcoin account. Like they

01:08:06.660 make Bitcoin practical is what they do. They make it like any other currency because that's what

01:08:12.020 seems foreign to us. Can I use it anywhere? Can I do things with it? Yes, you can. And they help

01:08:16.300 set you up for that. I mean, whether you're paying utility bills or having a hot wallet so you can

01:08:20.640 pay at places that accept Bitcoin and smaller purchases, or whether you're going to save and

01:08:24.620 sit on things. They help counsel you through that and help you set up those sorts of things

01:08:28.560 and then help you take control of your own money. As we said, we got inflation going wild. It's not

01:08:35.480 Like we can rely on the Canadian currency to be stable.

01:08:38.880 BitcoinWell helps educate you and see if it's for you, you know,

01:08:42.620 and they have savings plans for employees, savings plans for individuals.

01:08:46.260 Check them out.

01:08:46.740 They got all kinds of services, guys.

01:08:48.200 A good Canadian company, BitcoinWell.com.

01:08:53.420 Steve Ruffin saying, Word1 counselor is decent.

01:08:56.460 Yeah, that's Sonia Sharp, I believe.

01:08:58.980 She's been on the show once before. 0.99

01:09:00.080 She came in.

01:09:01.200 a lot of us were kind of worried about that because she was kind of on that union ticket

01:09:05.800 with the third party fundraising and everything. But she's been pretty common sense just since

01:09:09.960 she got in there. Rumor is she's one of the ones who got in quite a fight with that little weasel 0.99

01:09:13.960 Stephen Carter when he was in for his short period as Gondek's chief of staff. And then he slithered

01:09:19.400 away after being fired after a few months with a nice, what, hundred and some thousand dollar

01:09:25.200 severance package. Man, that man can really bleed taxpayers. Well, as I said, he was brought

01:09:31.020 in by a nonpartisan candidate, that being Jody Gondek. And we're stuck with those clowns for 0.98

01:09:37.420 another three and a half years. And there's this insane, I still I still can't wrap my head around 0.98

01:09:42.700 that insane. $87 billion climate plan in a city of just over a million people like this. It's

01:09:51.840 ludicrous. I can see the investment fleeing from this city already like people get mail out. And

01:09:59.180 like my place, I work in the city, you know, and I spend a lot of time in the city and I live close

01:10:03.940 to the city, but I'm outside of their reach, thank freaking God, in Prittis area. And I tell you,

01:10:10.140 every time these idiots do stuff like this, my property value goes up. Look, I, hey, it's in my 1.00

01:10:15.700 interest for Gondek and her gang of nutcases to be as horrible as possible, because that drives 0.68

01:10:20.960 more people out of the city and they want to buy a place like mine and my property value goes up

01:10:25.220 and my nest egg continues to grow.

01:10:28.000 But I don't want to profit on the suffering

01:10:30.200 of the million and some neighbors I have in Calgary

01:10:33.180 who are dealing with this horrific civic government

01:10:36.060 that seems bound and determined to bankrupt this city.

01:10:40.240 As I've said, we've got a downtown

01:10:41.740 that it looks like a war zone.

01:10:44.140 I mean, attics all over the place,

01:10:45.720 for lease signs all over the place,

01:10:47.820 you know, potholes, you get stuff going everywhere,

01:10:50.260 garbage all over the place,

01:10:51.520 people getting assaulted on LRT platforms. 0.94

01:10:54.000 And what are these guys doing?

01:10:55.220 Oh, a pie in the sky policy, $87 billion to fight climate change, which won't work, but it will sure make a lot of people poor.

01:11:08.140 But of course, you get back to the world economic forum, you know, that's one of the things they talk about.

01:11:11.540 I mean, they were celebrating, look how wonderful the emissions went down while everybody was locked in their houses and broke.

01:11:16.180 We should, we want more of that.

01:11:18.260 I guess maybe that's what the city of Calgary wants.

01:11:20.380 Hey, if we could just bankrupt everybody enough, they won't admit much.

01:11:22.560 It's an anti-human ideological lunacy.

01:11:26.640 And right now, most of Calgary City Hall is dominated by them.

01:11:30.260 You can't just forget, too, in City Hall or any bureaucracy, 0.99

01:11:32.620 it's not just the ass clowns in the front that you see, 0.98

01:11:36.180 such as Gondek and Giancarlo Carra, Drew Farrell, who used to be there, 0.99

01:11:41.760 the pair of the Courtney's.

01:11:43.380 I mean, there's a bunch of nuts in there right now.

01:11:45.420 But it's an entrenched bureaucracy of extremists as well.

01:11:49.460 You remember this report, this climate plan,

01:11:51.040 This was put together by city administration under the direction of these left-wing nuts.

01:11:56.340 They have to be flushed out of there, too.

01:11:58.140 And that happens in provincially and federally, too.

01:11:59.900 If you want to see who really is the power behind the throne in governments, it's the names you've never heard of.

01:12:05.480 It's the deputy ministers.

01:12:07.480 These are people that don't face elections.

01:12:09.100 You hear from the cabinet minister, but those deputy ministers, some of them stay in there forever.

01:12:13.240 They're constantly in there, and they make more money than the elected officials, and they come up with these horrible policies.

01:12:18.780 Calgary's city hall needs a shakeup.

01:12:20.440 it needs a flush like a toilet. And for the same reason, the stuff's been packed in there far too

01:12:26.320 long. And these parasitic bureaucrats are coming up with this crap, but they are guided by the 0.99

01:12:30.940 elected ones. I mean, this has been going on for a long time. Nahed Ninchy with his little fake 1.00

01:12:37.420 lobby group civic camp started the whole thing. And then they did this Imagine Calgary initiative.

01:12:41.900 This was nuts. This came up with all of these ridiculous goals and things. And if people, 0.82

01:12:46.740 I wrote a bunch on that in the past, this Imagine Calgary document. 1.00

01:12:49.960 I mean, it is surreal in how stupid it is and extreme. 0.99

01:12:53.760 And she was showing the signs of pushing all that crap 12 years ago. 1.00

01:12:57.580 But people weren't paying attention. 0.98

01:12:59.160 Again, I've talked about the nonpartisan thing.

01:13:00.680 He campaigned and pretended to be a conservative.

01:13:02.340 He pretended to be poor business.

01:13:04.160 He lied, lied through his teeth. 0.99

01:13:06.320 He's a socialist with a crazy plan. 0.95

01:13:08.920 And that plan was there, but nobody took the time to read it

01:13:11.260 and see what that Imagine Calgary nut loony stuff was. 0.90

01:13:14.220 He didn't make the whole plan himself,

01:13:15.320 but he said he's going to guide his mayorship on it. And that got folded into, I think,

01:13:19.540 sustainability in Calgary, which is another shadowy little group within the city hall 0.98

01:13:23.300 that puts out all this crap. And they just, they're ideologically driven. They're not 0.93

01:13:29.440 realistically driven. They've beaten the crap out of businesses in Calgary. They've turned

01:13:33.280 downtown into a wasteland. And what do they want? More public art, more bike lanes. But why? So

01:13:39.080 that the crackhead can ride faster from block to block to go pass out underneath another ugly piece 0.97

01:13:45.160 of public art somewhere. 1.00

01:13:47.060 They've got bigger priorities, you idiots. 1.00

01:13:49.480 But it's not going to win. 1.00

01:13:50.700 And I don't know how bad it's going to have to get now

01:13:53.320 because they've got three and a half years

01:13:55.520 and the majority of them are Froot Loops.

01:13:57.980 And yeah, they're going to blow $87 billion here.

01:14:00.940 And I know Calgary is not the only city

01:14:02.180 that's in this kind of condition.

01:14:03.280 Edmonton is, Toronto, Vancouver.

01:14:05.300 All of these progressives, you know.

01:14:07.060 You want to see every city that's a wasteland?

01:14:09.260 Look to progressive management.

01:14:10.820 It's a Democrat running Chicago, guys.

01:14:14.660 as they're in the midst of a massive gang war.

01:14:17.860 It's a Democrat running San Francisco

01:14:21.540 where on those hills and everything,

01:14:23.360 you can pretty much put on some skis

01:14:25.240 and ski down the human ship that's on the sidewalks

01:14:28.160 from the amount of homeless people

01:14:29.460 and again, open drug use and mess there

01:14:31.320 from their progressive years of policies.

01:14:34.080 And Calgary, well, we're gonna be well on our way there.

01:14:37.220 And boy, I'm glad that I am outside of the city

01:14:40.520 and have an acreage

01:14:42.700 and I participate in the law-abiding ownership of firearms

01:14:47.900 and I'll be safe when the zombie apocalypse comes out of these cities,

01:14:52.000 but I do feel for the people stuck in that right now.

01:14:55.700 Here's an interesting one too.

01:14:57.160 So yes, this is, again, the government using our money, right?

01:15:00.580 Panicky sale cost $3.7 million.

01:15:03.420 A hasty stock sale cost a federal agency more than $3.7 million.

01:15:07.820 Records show these records as they come up.

01:15:09.200 I've got to pay attention.

01:15:10.060 This is the Canadian Race Relations Foundation.

01:15:12.700 And the directors, I guess, had shares in something.

01:15:15.980 Why they did, I don't even know.

01:15:18.360 What are you doing?

01:15:19.400 What is this foundation?

01:15:21.340 But they went and panicked and sold a whole bunch of stock in their federal agency

01:15:27.140 and lost almost $4 million.

01:15:29.940 I mean, is this a race relations foundation or an investment group? 0.98

01:15:33.120 And obviously, they're a crappy investment group. 0.89

01:15:34.800 I hope they're better with race relations. 0.96

01:15:37.320 So why?

01:15:39.160 And yeah, so losses totaled $3,785,000.

01:15:43.680 They're sold 48 hours after the World Health Organization

01:15:45.760 declared a global pandemic.

01:15:47.440 But why are these government foundations

01:15:49.360 buying and trading stocks?

01:15:50.600 I don't get it.

01:15:52.660 That's not what they're there for. 0.98

01:15:53.740 They're obviously crappy at it.

01:15:55.720 But it represented 16% of their $24 million endowment.

01:16:01.040 Look, if you've got an endowment, 0.87

01:16:01.900 use it for your bloody job,

01:16:02.980 not trying to invest it and grow it. 0.96

01:16:04.540 That's not what you're there for.

01:16:05.500 I mean, this is why we need targeted spending.

01:16:07.600 Not just here, have this and do something with it.

01:16:09.920 Here's the title of your organization.

01:16:11.580 I wish you the best.

01:16:12.600 Come back for more money in a few years. 0.97

01:16:14.420 Oh, race relations. 1.00

01:16:15.320 Well, that sounds good. 1.00

01:16:16.440 We'll definitely have to throw some there.

01:16:18.920 This was part of a settlement, I guess,

01:16:20.840 drawn from the proceeds of a settlement

01:16:24.400 with the National Association of Japanese Canadians

01:16:26.300 or the 1942 internment of citizens.

01:16:29.720 Again, you know, I mean, yeah,

01:16:31.460 there's some horrible things were done

01:16:32.340 to Japanese citizens in Canada 0.99

01:16:33.580 and the reparations were good.

01:16:35.060 but how is, I just don't get this government.

01:16:38.280 These levels and levels of abuse of our money

01:16:41.460 and our abilities.

01:16:43.940 C7 or S7, yeah, that's another beauty.

01:16:47.540 And there's people vowing to fight this thing at least.

01:16:50.480 And that's the one where the government wants the ability

01:16:52.600 to go into your laptop, your cell phone,

01:16:54.300 and just search indiscriminately

01:16:55.800 through your personal files, data,

01:16:57.800 pictures of Aunt Martha, 0.98

01:16:59.020 whatever you might have on there, midget porn. 1.00

01:17:00.800 It's your business as long as it's legal. 0.99

01:17:02.240 and you shouldn't have customs agents just on a whim

01:17:06.020 able to demand that you open it up and read into it.

01:17:08.340 And this C7 gives them that power.

01:17:09.640 This authoritarian government is always pushing for more ways

01:17:13.300 to infringe on your individual rights.

01:17:15.180 But thankfully, some senators are standing up to this thing.

01:17:21.160 And the Civil Liberties Association, this is a bunch of lefties,

01:17:24.880 but at least in some areas they stand up for things

01:17:26.560 and they're pushing back on this.

01:17:27.940 I got a feeling this one might get amended at least, or maybe tossed in the trash.

01:17:35.000 They pushed too far and senators called it out. 0.89

01:17:37.840 You know, the Senate has usually been useless and sleepy, but lately they've been kind of 0.99

01:17:41.440 waking up, those appointed clowns in there. 0.99

01:17:43.840 And they've been pushing back on some of these things. 0.89

01:17:45.860 So credit where due, I hope they keep up the good work.

01:17:48.740 Because this was a Senate bill.

01:17:49.820 This was S7.

01:17:50.600 Now it's rare with a government bill where they start it in the Senate.

01:17:53.660 They usually start it in the House of Commons if they want it in.

01:17:56.060 But they start it in the Senate.

01:17:56.820 I think they were kind of hopefully, I mean, it has to go through both, but it's where you begin

01:17:59.920 it. Hopefully getting it mostly done quietly in the Senate, and then they were going to rush it

01:18:03.360 through Commons later. But in this case, the Senator said, I don't care much for this. Oh,

01:18:09.320 Mike, where would you find this? You know where. I've heard about this. Either way.

01:18:16.580 What do we got here as well? This one, see, here's another mixed one where policies go bad. 0.94

01:18:21.860 Bill C-19, an act to implement, and this is, let's talk about omnibus as well about something, right?

01:18:28.920 C-19 is an act to implement certain provisions of the budget

01:18:31.800 and would amend the criminal code to prohibit statements that willfully promote anti-Semitism

01:18:37.060 by condoning, denying, or downplaying the Holocaust under three or two years of jail.

01:18:41.100 This is a budget bill.

01:18:43.060 It's about implementing provisions of the budget, but while they're at it,

01:18:46.520 they're going to pack this little criminal code change for anti-Semitism,

01:18:51.480 And that leaves you stuck as a legislator.

01:18:53.320 Well, I oppose this part, but not that part.

01:18:54.980 Well, you've got to accept the whole bill.

01:18:56.560 And anybody who does oppose anything,

01:18:58.560 they're going to be accused of being an anti-Semite, right?

01:19:00.320 These are the games they play.

01:19:02.300 But I don't like this.

01:19:05.020 I tell you what, I've got no use for Holocaust deniers.

01:19:07.800 I think they're vile.

01:19:08.780 I think for people trying to downplay or deny

01:19:11.360 what was one of the worst slaughters,

01:19:14.380 purposeful slaughters of a group of identifiable people

01:19:17.060 in human history, we should never forget that.

01:19:19.920 We should always remember what happened. 0.96

01:19:21.260 And the conspiracy kookballs who say it didn't happen or say it was exaggerated are disgusting. 0.99

01:19:25.880 But you have the right to be disgusting. 1.00

01:19:28.260 And I'll just call you out as disgusting. 1.00

01:19:30.120 I'll call you out as a conspiracy nut and I'll call you out as a loser. 1.00

01:19:32.980 I don't want the law to come down on you. 1.00

01:19:35.160 You have the right to be an idiot. 1.00

01:19:37.220 And I know a lot of people exercise that right, very liberally. 1.00

01:19:39.780 That's fine.

01:19:40.320 I'm going to have to deal with that. 0.99

01:19:42.100 Freedom means you have to hear some crap you don't like hearing. 0.98

01:19:45.520 And this is a bad road. 0.99

01:19:47.220 This is a bad, bad road.

01:19:48.760 I mean, at what point, where do you stop with this different things that you're going to, you know, question in history?

01:19:55.440 I mean, right now, for example, you know, I had Professor Tom Flanagan on the other day.

01:20:00.300 There's a lot of questions now about the narrative of what really happened with residential schools.

01:20:06.200 Maybe in some aspects that this, I mean, as the terms that some people are using is genocide.

01:20:10.740 It wasn't genocide, guys.

01:20:11.820 It was not genocide in residential schools.

01:20:14.080 The cultural attempts at genocide.

01:20:15.760 Yeah, OK, you're playing with a word, but there might be some truth to it.

01:20:18.760 that those schools were there to try and wipe out a lot of cultural aspects of First Nations people.

01:20:24.080 And it was terribly wrong and it was bad.

01:20:25.500 But they were not wholesale slaughtering First Nations kids.

01:20:29.840 And we're finding out from these exposed possible grave sites,

01:20:34.800 and now we're finding out that most of them were known this wasn't really that exposed.

01:20:39.840 Well, how long before they put a bill in to say it's illegal to question the history of that?

01:20:44.100 We've declared it a genocide. And now you'll do two years if you deny that that was a genocide.

01:20:50.900 The difference is now with a goofy Holocaust denier, we've got a whole lot of world evidence

01:20:55.600 of what happened in Europe during World War II. With what happened in the Indian residential

01:21:03.380 schools, we're still trying to figure out. But the bottom line is we should be allowed to discuss

01:21:07.440 openly both, even if, again, the Holocaust deniers are repugnant. So again, every bill we got keeps

01:21:14.760 cracking down on more liberties, cracking down on more liberties. And Denise Martin saying,

01:21:20.540 not one body was found. Yeah, we'll see. I mean, I think not one unknown grave has been found and

01:21:27.140 confirmed yet. I suspect a lot of those spots where they dig, I've talked about that in the

01:21:30.640 show before. I worked with ground pressure creating radar in the Arctic, measuring ice

01:21:33.920 thicknesses. It's pretty good for these kind of things. You can see a disruption that would look

01:21:37.300 like a potential burial site, but again, an old outhouse pit would look the same. Like you change

01:21:42.400 the density of the ground when you've dug it out and filled it in again, and it stands out quite

01:21:46.280 well on GPR, actually, even many years later. But it doesn't prove what's down there. So you could

01:21:50.300 dig down and find a bunch of old toilet paper, or you could find a body. But a lot of these bodies,

01:21:55.060 most of the part was being found out is, well, yeah, but these weren't a surprise. These were

01:21:58.120 known cemeteries. They just had wooden crosses that degraded and went away, and people had

01:22:02.920 forgotten they were there. And, you know, so why is the body there? Well, it could have been

01:22:06.940 somebody who naturally died of anything. And it might not have had anything to do with the

01:22:10.460 residential schools. Some of these spots, and again, Flanagan and others have been pointing out

01:22:14.860 that the evidence is there. These were Catholic cemeteries for settlers that had nothing to do

01:22:18.860 with residential schools, just happened to be near them. So we've got to investigate and find out

01:22:23.760 more. We've got to learn. That's the bottom line. We've got to question them. Either way, we've got

01:22:27.900 a government that's just hell-bent on

01:22:30.300 constantly

01:22:32.320 infringing more

01:22:33.540 on our freedoms to discuss

01:22:35.700 and break away from their narrative.

01:22:38.540 Alright, well, that's enough out of me

01:22:40.360 today. Join me again tomorrow. We are

01:22:42.320 going to break down. I'm going to have another guest on, but I'm still

01:22:44.360 seeking one out at the moment. But

01:22:46.060 we will have the Western Standards, Jonathan Bradley

01:22:48.300 and Matthew Horwood on yet again

01:22:50.360 to talk about the Ontario election

01:22:52.340 because we'll know what actually happened on it. And of course

01:22:54.240 I'll have stuff to rant and rave

01:22:56.520 and go on about it as usual.

01:22:58.960 And we'll talk about what other news stories are happening.

01:23:01.160 So thanks for joining me today, guys.

01:23:02.360 I will see you tomorrow at 1130 a.m. Mountain Standard.

01:23:26.520 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - June 03, 2022

Triggered： Prepare for a Trudeau led grab on the West’s oil & gas

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