Western Standard - Triggered： Released thug kills a mother of five

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's May 17th, 2022. And welcome to today's episode of Triggered. I'm Corey Morgan.

00:00:40.640 And I see Claudette's in there in the audience already. Good to see you. I'd like to start out,

00:00:45.480 remind everybody, yes, those comments are welcome. Get in there in the comment, scroll, say hi,

00:00:50.140 send questions, send critique. That's fine. I don't necessarily read them all out, but I see

00:00:54.560 them all there and I appreciate it. It keeps things active, makes this live format all the

00:00:59.580 better and all the more important, because otherwise we could just record this. But I

00:01:04.000 want that interaction. I want to see you guys talking with each other and know that this is

00:01:07.600 happening as we go. So it's great to see you in the comment scroll and see you viewers out there.

00:01:12.580 Let's start on some of the lighter things before we get into some heavy stuff today.

00:01:16.880 It's National Cherry Cobbler Day. You don't want to miss that. National Cherry Cobbler Day. I don't

00:01:22.300 know where they come up with all these things, but I got a great listing. And yes, as I start my

00:01:25.860 shows off I just want to remind you because every day is special right so that's one of the things

00:01:29.840 or for people not into the cherry cobblers it's also Pinot Grigio day so if you want some white

00:01:35.220 wine and the nice weather things such as that today is the day to get into your Pinot Grigio

00:01:40.820 and do something a little different our guests today we've got two western standard columnists

00:01:46.500 writers reporters and that's Lee Harding and Arthur Green and they've both written

00:01:51.900 dueling columns on who they think is going to win the battle of Alberta. Lee Harding

00:01:57.280 thinks it's going to be in the bag for the Oilers, and Arthur Green thinks it's going to be the

00:02:01.960 Flames. So we're going to bring them both on to duke it out on here and make their bold predictions.

00:02:07.360 And of course, when the series is over, one of them is going to have to eat some crow.

00:02:12.320 I will also play an interview I had with Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate

00:02:18.120 Scott Aitchison. He came into the studio. He was here in person, but it was a little bit ago.

00:02:23.040 We had to record it. That's the hard part with the live stuff, but still it was a good chat.

00:02:26.960 And he's been an interesting candidate. You know, he stood out during the debates. He was

00:02:30.760 more the voice of reason, a little more calm when they were all on each other's case.

00:02:35.180 And he has some good policy points that he's getting into. So I'm going to get on to a little

00:02:40.660 more serious subject matter though, and stuff that's got me worked up today. So yesterday,

00:02:47.380 Calgary's police service released information confirming what many of us already pretty much knew and assumed.

00:02:53.100 The incident leading to the death of Angela McKenzie was not a road rage incident, as initially reported.

00:02:59.460 The mother of five was killed due to being in the wrong place at the wrong time,

00:03:03.140 while a gangster was chasing another vehicle and firing upon it in Forest Lawn in Calgary.

00:03:08.580 The other development that is surprising nobody out of this as well is that the prime suspect in the killing of this woman

00:03:15.500 was a criminal well-known to police.

00:03:18.460 In fact, he'd been charged with no less than six attempted murders only a few years ago.

00:03:24.800 Talal Amr was charged with a number of crimes related to acting within a criminal organization,

00:03:30.120 along with his string of attempted murders.

00:03:32.200 He was sentenced to seven and a half years in May of 2019.

00:03:36.180 With his time served, he was supposed to serve three more years.

00:03:39.040 Clearly, he was released since then, though, and it's now cost the life of an innocent woman,

00:03:43.580 and he's on the run.

00:03:44.380 I didn't even want to show the picture of the scumbag, but since he is being sought, you know, if you recognize this guy, call the police.

00:03:52.960 The gang war of 2015 in Calgary led to over 200 shootings.

00:03:56.220 Talal and his brother Barakat and two cousins, Badar and Abdul, were all listed as high-level gang participants at the time.

00:04:03.740 We still couldn't keep them behind bars, though, apparently, and we had a pretty good idea at the time who these guys were and what they were about.

00:04:09.980 Now, this year, Calgary's had over 50 shooting incidents and 12 homicides.

00:04:14.380 I wonder how long it's going to be before the authorities publicly admit we're in the midst of another gang war.

00:04:19.320 The police can't be faulted here. They have no control over the sentencing.

00:04:23.220 Our system is broken when it comes to imposing harsh sentences upon violent criminals,

00:04:27.960 and the consequences are of the worst kind.

00:04:30.940 What sort of judge in their right mind would think a man capable of that many attempted murders

00:04:34.360 would be safe in society after a few years in jail?

00:04:37.700 It's not just gangland thugs killing innocent people.

00:04:40.280 We've been releasing violent sex offenders into the general public, and it's cost lives as well.

00:04:45.080 Last September in Hinton, Alberta, the bodies of Mikhail Bush and her 16-month-old son Noah were found.

00:04:52.700 They were murdered, and there were acts of sexual assault and things done to them that I just won't even go into here.

00:04:58.460 It was a crime of the most horrific sort.

00:05:01.160 Robert Keith Major has pled guilty to that crime.

00:05:04.560 Major is a known violent sex offender.

00:05:07.120 The last time he was released into the public, the Edmonton police released a warning saying Robert Keith Major is a convicted sex offender and that the Edmonton police service has reasonable grounds to believe he'll commit another sexual offense against a female, including children, while in the community.

00:05:23.320 Well, the police were correct, and now two lives have been lost as a result.

00:05:28.380 Major had been in custody. He had a record of doing these actions, and authorities were confident he

00:05:34.580 was going to re-offend, yet he was let loose into the community anyways, and a mother and child died

00:05:39.860 in the most horrible of ways. Clearly, Major's past crimes and his behavior while in prison

00:05:44.360 indicated he was a danger to the public. We do have a dangerous offender designation that can

00:05:48.620 be applied to some criminals in order to extend sentences, but what the hell does it take to

00:05:52.680 achieve such a status. Then last April, 23-year-old mother, Jamie Lynn Shibley, was murdered in

00:05:59.380 Calgary. 37-year-old Gerald Russell Frommel was charged in the murder. He's another one in and

00:06:05.880 out of prison his entire life for violent crimes. He's a scumbag. Does it have to be this hard to

00:06:12.040 determine the dangerous offenders from the non-violent ones? I understand that correction

00:06:16.380 services are overwhelmed at times anyways, but our courts are overwhelmed as well. But is it

00:06:21.880 impossible to prioritize? I don't care if we release some shoplifters and maybe some online

00:06:26.640 fraudsters. If that's what it takes, make sure we keep the known violent prisoners in jail longer.

00:06:34.180 Reforming criminals, it should be a goal. Second chances are important for criminals and offenders,

00:06:38.860 but it really depends on the offense. Some offenses are just too heinous and people

00:06:43.380 demonstrate themselves to be too dangerous to give the benefit of the doubt. What is it going to take

00:06:48.040 to get serious with sentences for dangerous offenders in Canada. I mean, if I had a dog

00:06:52.000 with a propensity for attacking people and I let it loose in a playground, I'd be charged for

00:06:56.220 putting the children at harm. Maybe it's time to hold the people who let these prisoners out

00:07:00.320 accountable. I mean, who's sitting on these parole boards and deciding to release these people into

00:07:04.360 the public? How often are judges called out for their light sentences with repeat violent offenders

00:07:08.800 anyways? Maybe when we release these guys on parole, they should bill it with the people

00:07:13.720 sitting on the parole board for their first week. If you think they're safe, have them for a roomie

00:07:17.360 for a little while. See if that works out for you. There's only so much society can do to prevent

00:07:21.440 crimes. I mean, sometimes people simply snap and it leads to terrible outcomes. There's no reason

00:07:26.320 though. We should keep hearing about violent re-offenders. We've caught them before. We know

00:07:31.900 their propensities. We should be locking them up and throwing away the key. The protection of the

00:07:36.220 innocent public has to take priority over the reformation of high-risk, known violent criminals.

00:07:41.880 We've failed.

00:07:43.000 And in Alberta alone, in less than a year, three mothers and a child have been murdered.

00:07:48.320 And there was no reason for any of it.

00:07:49.960 We already had those guys in jail, and we let them out.

00:07:53.800 That's what's got me going today.

00:07:55.400 And yeah, I'm pretty pissed off.

00:07:57.460 So let's get on to some other news and bring our news editor, Dave Naylor, in to bring us up to date on other stuff that's happening right now.

00:08:04.840 Well, it's really infuriating, isn't it, Corey?

00:08:06.780 And, you know, the guy wanted for the forest lawn things, only charged with manslaughter.

00:08:12.540 So assuming he gets convicted, manslaughter seven, eight years, out in two, you know, and he'll be back on the streets.

00:08:21.160 No questions asked. It's mind boggling, this system.

00:08:26.420 How do you think my playoff beard's coming in?

00:08:30.260 It's filling in nicely there.

00:08:32.020 You know, with a good long playoff run there, you might have something rivaling Derek's

00:08:37.120 by the time we get to the end of this.

00:08:38.820 Yeah, quite doubtful.

00:08:40.120 I'm fully incapable of growing a beard, but I am so lazy when it comes to shaving.

00:08:46.880 This has given me a good excuse not to have to go through that every morning.

00:08:50.940 I understand.

00:08:51.840 Our most popular story this morning, Corey, is by our columnist, Alex McCall.

00:08:58.440 He lives in the Beltline and was having some noise issues early this morning.

00:09:04.320 About 2 a.m., there was some loud music coming.

00:09:07.260 He thought it was from a nearby bar, but it turns out it was just a bit of a,

00:09:11.400 well, I'll call him a nutcase, with a loudspeaker in Tompkins Park.

00:09:16.920 So he went over and asked the guy, hey, it's 2 a.m., do you mind turning it down a bit?

00:09:22.400 The guy responded by saying he's fighting for freedom,

00:09:25.640 and he was also in Ottawa fighting for freedom then and then he turned around and punched Alex

00:09:31.000 in the face so he called 9-1-1 the cops dutifully arrived and he deals with the Calgary police

00:09:37.940 service officer a police woman who really didn't want to be there according to Alex and

00:09:44.140 basically he was disgusted with her attitude so you can read all about his his tale of a morning

00:09:52.380 morning problems in the Beltline. That's on our website right now. We've got a story from our

00:09:58.220 Melanie Risden about the WHO is having World Health Organization. They're having a big conference to

00:10:04.500 set up some pandemic treaties for countries around the world, and there's some great concern

00:10:11.000 over that. Our Amanda Brown has got a story from the Alberta Firearms Officer. She has written to

00:10:19.280 the federal government to delay or cancel their implementation of their new long gun registry,

00:10:25.200 which is coming, as you know. The story that's got me steamed this morning, Corey, is CBC looking

00:10:33.520 to spend my taxpayers' dollars for 24-7 trauma support for their workers, sorry, for their

00:10:41.920 reporters who may run into people who don't like what they do. 24-7 trauma support, Corey.

00:10:48.000 You know what, if you're in Mexico, a country where 11 journalists have been killed in three months, then, hey, maybe you could use some trauma support.

00:10:57.340 But I don't think that's the case in Canada, to be honest with you.

00:11:01.300 You've got a column from your man, Creighton, giving some advice to Pierre Polyev on where his campaign needs to go from here.

00:11:09.000 our man has done another story on a thing creating the buzz female vibrators are being

00:11:17.960 given the thumbs up by the medical community as a good municipal or medicinal thing to do

00:11:24.660 we've also got a column from our dave makachuk looking back at expo 67 and the canada that he

00:11:34.100 loved back then and road trips he used to take and oh the country's not quite the same and

00:11:39.760 he's sort of living in a bit of despair so that's what we've got up at the moment

00:11:45.400 we're just about to publish a story on Jordan Peterson a social media phenomenon who has

00:11:52.900 quit Twitter decided to quit last night after some comments he made on a

00:11:58.300 Sports Illustrated swimsuit model did not go down too well. So we'll have that

00:12:06.280 story up shortly. And I'm looking forward to your argument between that lunatic

00:12:11.180 Lee Harding, who's completely 100% wrong, and the great Arthur Green, who is completely 100% right.

00:12:18.520 Yeah, we'll see how that runs. I'm afraid I have seen some Edmonton fans polluting my

00:12:24.000 comment squirrel occasionally on the show here and i guess they do have to be given their due

00:12:28.340 give them a little hope so they can feel good before the flames come in and and sweep them

00:12:32.660 out of that series but uh well i'm on i'm on the record of saying flames in five so

00:12:37.820 we'll see we'll see if that's right or not thanks for the update dave we will uh talk

00:12:44.800 to you a little later have a good show cory yes the the battle of alberta you know what a

00:12:50.820 a fun thing. Actually, before I get on to the fun stuff, you know, I do want to follow up. I mean,

00:12:54.520 somebody pointed out, because yeah, yesterday I went on, I think it was Al, you know, went on a

00:12:59.240 rant about how I don't support capital punishment. And I still don't. I still don't. I do not trust

00:13:06.300 our government enough to execute these guys. I do want them to weld the doors shut, though,

00:13:13.020 on these offenders when they've got them. That's where we got to go. You got to keep them in for

00:13:17.720 life. And our copy editor, Mike, pointed out actually as well that I'd written a column on

00:13:25.580 this as well. One of the women who was murdered, it was related to me indirectly. It's my son's

00:13:30.680 cousin. And she was murdered by a man, again, who has a long, long history of violent offenses.

00:13:36.680 There was no reason that man should be loose. As Dave pointed out as well, this guy who killed

00:13:42.340 a mother of five, who's on the run right now, who's had six attempted murders under his belt

00:13:47.500 already he's young and they only charged him with manslaughter so yes he whenever they catch him

00:13:53.360 he'll probably be out in a few more years to go out and kill somebody else it does make it hard

00:13:58.240 to make a case against capital punishment sometimes i don't i don't sympathize with

00:14:03.480 these killers i don't sympathize with these murderers um and i wouldn't weep if you know

00:14:09.480 they find themselves dead you know i'm not terribly sad when you see these types and you

00:14:13.360 hear that they've blown their own brains out and done the world a favor. But again, I just don't

00:14:19.120 trust the system. Canada, as Devin's saying, needs the death penalty. No, it doesn't. Because Canada

00:14:24.560 can't even get the payroll right for its own government. Don't give them the power to kill. 0.98

00:14:29.420 We've got enough killers out there. But we do have to lock the violent ones up forever. You have to

00:14:36.800 well, the door shut. And as I said, just recently, David Milgaard, 23 years, an innocent man,

00:14:44.200 23 years, he was in prison for a murder he didn't commit. And people at that time said,

00:14:49.940 100%, we know 100% that he did it, because people say with a lot of others, oh, we'll only do it in

00:14:54.240 cases where it's 100%. Well, they thought in David Milgaard's case, it was 100%. And it was 100%

00:14:59.380 wrong. There's cases in the United States, because people say with DNA and things like that, that we

00:15:04.460 can find out for sure, but I'm afraid we can't. There are cases in the States where DNA evidence

00:15:08.660 has been corrupted, it's been tampered with, and that can happen here. As Wendy's saying,

00:15:13.440 the commenter, throw away the key, though. Throw away the key. That I agree with. And if, hey,

00:15:18.720 if we did something horrible, as we did in the case of David Milgaard, at least, at least you

00:15:26.180 can still cut the welding off of the cell and let them out and let an innocently convicted person

00:15:31.760 out after the fact, because once they're dead, there's nothing else we can do. But either way,

00:15:36.540 I'm certainly not coming off soft or sympathizing with violent criminals. And as I said, when we

00:15:41.500 look at this, with that news from Calgary too, and it wasn't that surprising, we saw it coming,

00:15:45.580 we got a gang war going on. And when these guys, when they kill people, it's almost never a first

00:15:51.280 defense. There's almost always a long string and line and history of violence from these guys.

00:15:56.480 And this one was no exception.

00:15:58.980 So yeah, a mother of five is killed. 1.00

00:16:00.720 This loser is on the run.

00:16:03.300 And if we catch him, we'll let him out again.

00:16:05.040 It's got to change.

00:16:06.040 It's got to change.

00:16:06.940 It's not acceptable.

00:16:08.340 It's an embarrassment as a nation.

00:16:10.340 That one, the details of that case in Hinton

00:16:14.300 with what that sick sexual offender did

00:16:16.820 to that mother and child for killing them

00:16:19.580 and even after killing them.

00:16:22.040 And this guy was released,

00:16:23.180 as I wrote from the press release

00:16:24.960 from the Edmonton police.

00:16:25.920 They said, this guy's going to do it again.

00:16:28.360 They said he's going to assault a woman, and they said he's going to assault a child,

00:16:31.540 and that's exactly what he did.

00:16:33.200 And they both died because of it.

00:16:35.780 It's just, man, our system's so broken.

00:16:38.220 So we obviously knew, and the worst possible price was paid.

00:16:43.900 But either way, yes, let's get on to something a little more light.

00:16:47.800 I've got lots of time for heavy rants and rambling.

00:16:50.400 Just to go further, actually, I'm going to be interviewing Jean Charest this afternoon.

00:16:54.360 and he's put out a release on getting tough on crime.

00:16:57.080 I know he's the reddest of the Tories in the race, 0.99

00:16:59.580 but credit where due, 0.94

00:17:01.240 he's the first one out of the gate to talk about,

00:17:03.080 let's fix this rotten justice system

00:17:05.100 because it's not serving us and it's failing us.

00:17:07.860 So before I get to our dueling hockey fans here,

00:17:12.200 I do have to speak well for one,

00:17:13.560 remind everybody, as we saw with all those stories

00:17:15.920 and as with these two writers,

00:17:17.380 Lee Harding and Arthur Green,

00:17:19.220 have been coming in with us.

00:17:21.140 We've got people all across the country,

00:17:22.680 we're expanding, and it's all due to you guys subscribing with us. I mean, that story Dave was

00:17:27.360 talking about, they get, what was it, trauma counseling for CBC reporters because somebody

00:17:32.700 might have honked at them at a protest? I mean, come on. That's what the mainstream media is,

00:17:37.660 guys, and that's where your tax dollars go. We don't take tax dollars. We're real media around

00:17:41.720 here. If I got traumatized out there and somebody yelled at me, you know that does happen fairly

00:17:45.640 often. Derek won't even give me a hug when I come into the office, but that's the extent of any

00:17:50.400 trauma counseling we would have around here anyways. We're a real news organization and

00:17:54.980 we rely on you guys for subscribing and it's what keeps us going. And thanks to all of you who have

00:18:00.500 already subscribed. And if you haven't already, get on there, westernstandard.news slash membership

00:18:06.640 and take one out. Use the coupon code TRIGGERED and hey, you save 10 bucks. It's an investment.

00:18:12.180 We're not asking for charity. We're asking for you to buy a product from us and we'll keep giving

00:18:16.800 you good stuff. It'll be worth your while. Best $10 a month you can spend, even less if you take

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00:19:13.000 out, bitcoinwell.com. All right, let's bring those hockey clowns in here and get on to something else

00:19:19.020 here. We've got Lee Harding and Arthur Green, both of our regular readers, I'm sure, have seen their

00:19:23.660 stories up there at the Western Standard. They are on different ends of the sports spectrum. We got

00:19:28.900 the Battle of Alberta for the first time in over 30 years. Like, boy, you know, you would think this

00:19:34.920 would have happened more often so i mean whatever happens this is going to be a a hell of a couple

00:19:39.860 of weeks here going on so thanks for coming in and uh showing your allegiances guys you're welcome

00:19:46.860 yeah you can uh like bob marley said cory it's uh it's time to stir the pot and uh you know you

00:19:55.800 see cbc offering trauma support i think uh oilers fans are uh are going to need some trauma support

00:20:02.980 after Calgary runs them over in this series.

00:20:07.560 You know, I predicted five games, such as Dave.

00:20:11.740 Dave also predicted it in five, but we even got Wayne Gretzky's support.

00:20:15.920 Gretzky took to Twitter and saying that Calgary is his pick.

00:20:20.040 Ryan, I know you'll bleed orange after the series.

00:20:24.660 What are your thoughts on Mike Smith, and do you think he can hold the crease?

00:20:31.000 So go ahead there, Lee.

00:20:32.240 I know he's jumped in on you there, and you're at a disadvantage already

00:20:35.620 with that Northern team there.

00:20:37.520 No, no, not at all.

00:20:39.380 No, we're on a permanent power play.

00:20:41.500 We're going to keep winning like we always did.

00:20:43.580 I don't even know if Arthur was alive the last time these two teams played.

00:20:47.380 But just a reminder, 1991, the Flames were up 3-0,

00:20:52.220 and then Mike Vernon pulled his best sieve ever.

00:20:56.140 I mean, Esa Tikanen took a shot from the blue line,

00:20:58.700 went right through his legs and then it just went all downhill from there so uh mike smith's going

00:21:05.560 to be awesome he's going to take all the shots that calgary can throw at him and uh and yawn

00:21:10.960 in between them it's going to be amazing it really is it's going to be a spectacle to behold

00:21:16.300 and i can't wait to see this it's fantastic all the fans are going to love it the enthusiasm

00:21:21.740 is going to be out of this world and uh it's really too bad that there's going to be a close

00:21:28.060 encounter of the oiler kind is just coming in yes they spotted it now so all right there i don't

00:21:37.020 know i don't know what the counseling's like over there on the rock but uh you might need some

00:21:41.080 well it sounds like you know we got somebody who's kind of living in the past though i mean

00:21:46.920 you're bringing up some really old names as you said arthur might not even be around so

00:21:50.880 we got some assets with that flames team this year uh why do you actually lee though you didn't get

00:21:56.840 your prediction how many games do you think this is going to take uh whichever way it may go i think

00:22:01.400 it's going to be a game seven and boy are calgary going to be disappointed when they lose at that

00:22:07.100 point it's going to be so devastating quite satisfying for uh me but devastating for them

00:22:13.460 it'll be 1991 all over again what's old will be new okay well let's bring arthur in to give the

00:22:21.920 thoughts so what what assets do you think the flames have in their arsenal to uh avoid uh having

00:22:27.000 1991 all over again uh for the record i was alive in 1991 i'm almost 40 years old but uh you know

00:22:34.140 i think the the biggest asset that they have is the the calgary fans and uh you know edmonton fans

00:22:41.600 are great fans but they don't have the red blood that the the calgary flames uh thrive on and you

00:22:48.200 know they got a great lineup they got johnny hockey uh keith kachuk you know we even see

00:22:52.800 brady kachuk uh in the uh in the in the stands uh cheering for his older brother and i got alf

00:22:59.780 here behind me he's uh he's going to challenge brady uh to be the biggest uh calgary flames uh

00:23:05.820 super fan but uh you know i think the series is going to be uh going to be a tough one we're

00:23:09.900 going to see marian lucic and uh you know i think he's going to drop the gloves with zach cassie

00:23:13.920 and if he doesn't do it, we'll catch up first, so we'll see what happens.

00:23:18.520 Oh, man, Zach Kassian will beat him.

00:23:20.780 There'll be a coffee in one hand and a naked fist in the other.

00:23:24.240 There'll be fists of fury.

00:23:25.940 Bruce Lee will be cheering from somewhere in the beyond.

00:23:28.860 Can't wait.

00:23:30.280 I imagine it is going to be a pretty physical series.

00:23:32.620 I mean, if we looked at the Dallas one as a history of it, at least, you know,

00:23:36.720 they seem to kind of get it together towards the end because they had to realize that, you know,

00:23:39.500 we have to score goals rather than beat on these guys to win this.

00:23:42.320 but there's probably going to be some fireworks before the end of this

00:23:46.500 Calgary Edmonton get together.

00:23:49.380 Oh, definitely. Definitely. I mean, the first game,

00:23:52.900 it's going to be there by the seventh game. I don't know. I mean,

00:23:55.720 I just saw an article where they're calling up like about six different

00:23:59.760 Oilers to be on the team that are, you know, the spare tires.

00:24:03.200 So I think they're, they're ready for if there's ejections or whatever,

00:24:07.180 we'll just call upon the endless depth that this team has because, you know,

00:24:11.120 that's what an oil rig has you can just keep digging deeper and deeper and deeper there's

00:24:14.900 always more there whereas uh you know as shown by the little mascot over there in newfoundland

00:24:19.620 um alfie uh you know he looks like a pirate so the flames have to steal a win they can't really

00:24:25.860 earn it uh elf is actually here in uh in alberta we're located in uh in northern alberta in

00:24:33.740 bonnieville but uh you know ryan i think calgary is going to win because markstrom is going to

00:24:39.300 steal the series uh you know he has the agility uh mike smith's washed up your oilers fans can

00:24:44.460 cry right now but uh we got the experience too of uh of daryl sutter and uh sutter has a plan

00:24:50.900 for edmonton he's going to roll the four lines and i don't think that edmonton has the patience

00:24:55.960 to beat calgary well so i mean both of you guys i'll start you know i mean i see lee was a little

00:25:03.080 presumptuous there with the uh uh perhaps guessing by uh arthur might have a bit of an accent but

00:25:09.480 all the same we're going to get that uh trauma counseling for the western standard staff soon

00:25:14.620 as i was saying before the show started but you're up at bonnieville that's kind of a divided area i

00:25:19.680 mean you're gonna have a lot of edmonton plans up there when you go to the bar to watch these games

00:25:23.140 uh but i imagine there'd be a number of flames fans going too i i've tipped back one or two in

00:25:28.620 bonnieville bars and in past times when i was in the oil field they can get pretty rowdy i imagine

00:25:33.340 there's going to be some lively uh sports nights going on up there yeah they got the uh i'll give

00:25:38.480 a shout out to the players lounge uh you want to go watch hockey players lounge is the place to do

00:25:42.800 it in in bonnieville uh there will also be a few newfoundlanders there i'm sure of it but uh you

00:25:49.920 know it's it's a great hockey town that we have here it is divided i mean alberta is already

00:25:56.260 divided enough, but it's just about to get

00:25:58.920 a little bit more separated

00:26:00.860 with the Flames and the Oilers

00:26:02.720 and the Battle of Alberta, which I can't wait for.

00:26:05.640 Well, then I'll toss

00:26:06.780 a bow to Lee because he's

00:26:08.760 out in Saskatchewan, but they do have

00:26:10.600 and I know some Calgarians are going to get mad at me for it,

00:26:12.900 but they've got the best football fans

00:26:14.440 in Canada out there, but

00:26:16.700 it's also a province that hasn't had

00:26:18.740 an NHL team, so if they're

00:26:20.780 going to pick their

00:26:21.660 winners and losers, they've got to look to

00:26:24.580 alberta or or elsewhere especially now this is the last of the canadian teams are there going to be

00:26:29.760 some uh divided sports bars and uh some lively nights out there where you're at lee i think

00:26:34.400 there will be you know uh out here in saskatchewan we pick our teams and the flames fans pick their

00:26:39.860 nose really sorry to be assuming over there where you were i forgot the old acronym for sim crude

00:26:45.840 so you newfoundlanders can receive unemployment down east but it's going to be really really

00:26:53.040 great uh i can't wait to relish this victory and brag for it for maybe another 30 years and uh 0.91

00:26:59.600 you know i mean there have to be some deluded people in this world we know them they vote for

00:27:03.520 the wrong political party they have all kinds of things that we just not quite sure what's going

00:27:07.760 on up here and uh well that's fine you know it gives you someone to gloat over when your team

00:27:12.640 wins jeez i guess we're gonna have to watch it if we get you guys into the newsroom at the same time

00:27:18.160 You know, never mind the bars and such.

00:27:21.180 I'm ready for the steel cage match.

00:27:25.440 You know, I got a thick skin like a, like a catfish, Corey.

00:27:30.020 And his, his down and into flames don't bother me because in,

00:27:35.140 in five games we're going to be celebrating on the red mile at the

00:27:39.600 Saddle Dome in Calgary.

00:27:41.400 And Ryan, you know, you can just go back to watching football.

00:27:45.360 Oh, he got the Gretzky dog.

00:27:46.640 Yeah, just go back and watch a football run because the Flames are going to be victorious, and I'm sure of it.

00:27:53.160 Well, we'll see.

00:27:54.480 There's quite some, you know, a good split going on here.

00:27:58.600 Once we have game one under the belt, we might have a better idea.

00:28:02.120 But before we close things out, boy, I mean, I see Lee is invested in a lot of talismans

00:28:07.200 and things he thinks will help him along from the coffee mugs to the dolls.

00:28:11.200 But, you know, it's going to take more than that, I think, to pull this off.

00:28:14.800 But in closing, give a couple minutes as to why, Lee,

00:28:18.040 you feel that the Oilers are going to manage to pull this off.

00:28:22.800 Well, you know, they usually do.

00:28:24.540 I mean, even in 86, we felt so bad for you.

00:28:27.040 We just had to score the goal on ourselves.

00:28:29.540 And then 14 years later, give you Steve Smith and Grant Fuhrer

00:28:33.240 as our very belated sloppy seconds.

00:28:35.860 We've always been the better team.

00:28:37.220 It's been very frustrating for Calgary.

00:28:38.940 They have a lot of envy over this.

00:28:41.080 It's really too bad.

00:28:42.180 You know, there's lots of wonderful things to love about Calgary,

00:28:45.600 just not their own team when it comes to a confrontation with Edmonton.

00:28:48.780 So, no, this isn't a talisman.

00:28:50.420 This is a nice little mug here that will be full of Flames tears.

00:28:54.760 And I don't know, maybe a Flames tear would kind of sizzle,

00:28:57.980 but it doesn't matter.

00:28:58.780 It's going to be real salty and nice,

00:29:00.900 kind of like the Newfoundland waters in just a couple of weeks.

00:29:04.600 Well, I don't know.

00:29:05.600 Flames often burn oil, but is that okay?

00:29:08.120 So we'll let Arthur close up there on his case for the Flames here.

00:29:13.140 My case for the Flames, Corey, is they got sheer determination and grit.

00:29:18.360 You know, they had the best record in 82 games this season,

00:29:22.100 and I think they're going to prevail versus the Oilers.

00:29:25.900 You know, he can have his cup and all his fancy memorabilia,

00:29:31.940 but, Brian, money doesn't buy happiness, and it's not going to buy an Oilers a win.

00:29:38.260 And so, you know, in five games, like I said, we'll have this conversation again.

00:29:43.400 And you can tell me I'm right.

00:29:46.100 That's great.

00:29:46.840 But, I mean, you know, all in all, it's going to be a hell of a series.

00:29:49.940 Everybody's looking forward to it.

00:29:51.580 It's going to be really fun to watch this go.

00:29:54.160 I kind of – I'm rooting for the Flames, I got to admit.

00:29:57.680 But all the same, I hope it goes to game seven, as the other prediction was,

00:30:01.220 just to make the most out of this battle and, you know,

00:30:05.380 such a great matchup going on.

00:30:08.440 So I thank you both for coming on to, well,

00:30:11.640 for writing to the standard to give your points of view.

00:30:13.940 I'm sure that one of you is going to be writing or probably just kind of

00:30:18.520 ducking and keeping a little profile after the series.

00:30:20.740 And one of you might chirp up a couple of times afterwards,

00:30:24.020 but time will tell, eh?

00:30:27.400 Well, we know what time's going to tell,

00:30:29.640 but it's just fun to watch it all play out and uh you know i'm not going to be a a sore winner

00:30:36.280 later i'm going to be gracious to you i'm just going to say you know what we've we've got some

00:30:40.940 great consolation prizes for you maybe a nice set of golf clubs and this sort of thing and uh you

00:30:47.220 know there's always next year right uh the the proof is in the pudding cory and uh like i said

00:30:54.140 And Mike Smith's not going to stop 60 shots a game.

00:30:57.260 So we'll see what happens.

00:30:59.420 Well, thanks again for coming on, guys.

00:31:01.560 It was fun.

00:31:02.240 It's appreciated.

00:31:03.280 And it's going to be a hell of a match.

00:31:05.460 So we will check in with you, I guess, after the series

00:31:08.500 and see how everything's going there.

00:31:10.880 So I'll let you get on with the day.

00:31:13.720 And thanks for joining the show today, guys.

00:31:15.780 Thanks, gentlemen.

00:31:18.240 And that reminder, that's Lee Harding and Arthur Green,

00:31:20.860 both prolific writers with the Western Standard.

00:31:22.900 they were usually right on things other than hockey. But yeah, let's get in and talk about

00:31:27.220 something fun, talk about something different, have a good time. And you know, you got to have

00:31:31.580 that rivalry. That's part of the fun of the sports, the tribalism. And it's one of those rare

00:31:37.360 matchups, that purely Alberta event that's going on right now. So a lot of people are going to be

00:31:43.140 watching with interest. And you know, I mixed on it. I mean, now some people are saying it's a

00:31:47.060 distraction from important things. It is, but that's what we need distractions from important

00:31:50.440 things. I mean, those who were here for my opening monologue know how, you know, upsetting a lot of

00:31:54.480 the news is and how rough a lot of news is. It's good to get out there and lighten up. We're at

00:31:59.420 the end of two years of lockdowns, pandemic, you know, restrictions, tension, all sorts of things,

00:32:06.500 protests. Let's have some nights where we can get together at home or on the, at a bar, or if you're

00:32:13.180 lucky enough to get to one of the games and just take a break, enjoy yourself, watch something,

00:32:18.540 look at these guys, you know, play out there. I mean, they're both actually very strong teams.

00:32:22.900 It's going to be interesting to watch how this plays out. And I believe, I could be wrong,

00:32:28.100 but I'm surprised Lee didn't bring it up. But I think overall, the Flames had a harder time

00:32:31.940 with the Oilers this year during the regular season than they typically do. They had a tough

00:32:35.140 time. So playoff hockey is different hockey. So we'll see. But again, Brad asking if I'm a hockey

00:32:41.960 fan. I'm not a super fan. I won't pretend to be one of those, you know, a very skilled one.

00:32:47.200 I'm a fair weather hockey fan.

00:32:49.500 I peripherally keep charge or keep track of things until we get around playoff time.

00:32:54.800 And then I kind of jump in and pay closer attention.

00:32:57.040 My loyalty to Calgary, I'm not some hardcore fan who's going to pretend that I've always

00:33:00.520 been supportive for decades.

00:33:01.820 It's just that I lived in Calgary for 30 years and now live right next to Calgary.

00:33:06.120 And that's just where my loyalties are going to lie.

00:33:08.360 I mean, when it comes to football, I'm a Steelers fan, so it's not necessarily being close.

00:33:12.520 that, I will take a little more confidence in speaking on things like that in that issue.

00:33:18.380 But it looks like it's going to... Oh, is Lee still commenting from the background saying,

00:33:24.080 smart to distance yourself from the defeat already. Yeah, okay, here we go. So the shots

00:33:28.720 are going out. But lots of people, yeah, Flames fans, Oilers fans, we got both in my scroll. And

00:33:34.860 it's just going to be a good exercise for the province. And it's a good break for

00:33:38.660 the restaurants and bars and things out there as well. I own a bar for five years. And I tell you,

00:33:46.360 that's a tough, tough business at the best of times. And this playoff thing really helps them

00:33:55.580 kickstart into spring. I mean, it pulls the people out. I'm not one of those who believes,

00:33:59.540 by the way, that's a separate discussion with arenas and everything, you know, that sporting

00:34:03.140 events bring money into the city and so on and things like that. This is justification for

00:34:07.780 building arenas that they use. That's not the case. It's people's disposable income. Those who

00:34:12.860 can afford it use it and we'll go out and do it. It redistributes money. It doesn't create anything.

00:34:16.880 So let's not make any myths, but it, you know, a product of enjoyment, entertainment, and fun for

00:34:22.380 people. It's a, it is a product and it does help redistribute that, you know, rather than ordering

00:34:28.640 a pizza and maybe people will be more inclined to go out to the bar and have a pint and support

00:34:32.980 their local. And again, have some fun with your neighbors. Just, just have a good time. All those

00:34:37.380 people out in the Red Mile, the people outside the Saddle Dome during those games, it's just

00:34:42.580 going to break things up after a couple of miserable, miserable years we've had, you

00:34:48.660 know, throughout a lot of things. So enjoy it, or don't if you want, but I mean, you

00:34:52.860 know, we've got a lot to cover. Just that reminder, tomorrow, what's this? Wait a minute,

00:34:56.720 Brad, all I can say, the bar is for sale in Hannah. Okay, I'll tell you about my experience

00:35:01.000 with bar owners. Well, I won't tell you the whole thing. All I'm going to tell you is

00:35:02.980 this. I wouldn't take another bar if it was free. I mean, Hey, we made money with the last one,

00:35:08.040 but oh my God, that was the most work for the least amount of money I ever did. And I've spent

00:35:12.100 a fair amount of time in Hannah when I used to work in the oil field too. Uh, no, no way,

00:35:16.500 not a chance. I would not take that place. So, uh, either way we get ready for that battle of

00:35:23.960 Alberta. Okay. So let's see some of the other things and getting back to the real world again.

00:35:28.880 So we've got a forecast that, you know, here's some of the stuff, what we keep pretending we

00:35:34.460 didn't see it coming. You know, we act as if this is surprising. So there's a forecast of a food

00:35:39.680 price calamity and consumers are facing a long run-up of rising food prices higher than those

00:35:45.660 estimated by Statistics Canada. This is a finance committee was told the other day. And when an

00:35:52.580 economist last December predicted five to 7% food inflation, and then now they're saying,

00:35:56.860 now that's already out of date. Like, this is bad, guys. We've been warning about inflation for

00:36:05.080 quite some time already. You know, all of us weenies, I remember right when my show was

00:36:10.140 starting, I was kind of talking, the inflation took a while to catch up, you know, with all the

00:36:13.280 borrowing, all of the printing of money by the governments, things like that, supply chain

00:36:18.280 issues throughout the pandemic. And I have the Taxpayers Federation, you know, members on quite

00:36:22.660 often. And I was asking Franco about that, like, why haven't we gotten the inflation during this

00:36:28.200 pandemic? And the reason was, because we thought it would come a lot faster with all that borrowing

00:36:33.160 economic, you know, logic says so. But everybody turtled, right? Everybody stayed home. So they

00:36:37.960 weren't spending, they weren't putting their money back into the markets. So the inflation got

00:36:41.660 deferred. That's really what happened. I mean, more money still fly into the market. But people

00:36:46.580 weren't spending it for that first couple of years. They weren't vacationing, they weren't going out.

00:36:50.440 now it's come home to roost. As Pamela Jones-Kenney saying gas is $2.33 in Victoria today.

00:37:00.420 A liter. It's nuts. It's cheaper to buy milk, I think. So either way, now we're getting all of

00:37:08.380 these guys talking, holy cow, food and fuel and things like that. This is a shock. We're in

00:37:13.140 trouble. We didn't know this was coming. You should have known it was coming. Any economist

00:37:17.260 could have told you this is coming. When you do these sorts of things to the environment,

00:37:20.880 you get inflation. It's just supply or cause and effect. So I don't know, folks, keep tightening

00:37:29.500 those belts. We deferred the damage that the pandemic lockdowns and restrictions are going

00:37:34.240 to do to ourselves. That's all we did. We kicked the can down the road, denied a lot of things,

00:37:39.380 but the price still has to be paid and we're going to pay it now. So just be careful with

00:37:45.840 your money. I'm not a financial advisor, but we have Andrew Ruland. He'll be coming on down the

00:37:52.080 road. He is one. He can have some good advice to give in these times. But one thing I can say for

00:37:55.760 sure, when we're looking at inflation rates getting to the 10% rate, and it looks like we

00:37:59.480 might have that coming, we better be very, very careful with our finances right now. It's just

00:38:05.780 a commenter there. Yeah, Tiggy is saying it's $2.23 in Chilliwack, $1.74 in Hanna. And he said,

00:38:11.780 we're getting that tax break from the Kennedy government, at least, you know, due to the

00:38:15.000 royalties. But I mean, ours would be over $2 otherwise, too. And AB Free saying hyperinflation

00:38:19.560 is real. So yeah, the commons is starting to recognize it. Will the commons actually do

00:38:25.440 what they have to? Like, there's no quick fix. There's no quick fix at all for this.

00:38:31.520 But they still got to look farther down the road and figure out how to stop this over the longer

00:38:37.660 run. And part of that is, of course, the government's got to stop levy spending. They

00:38:40.900 got to stop borrowing, stop printing money. Easier said than done, especially with this liberal

00:38:44.640 government. But we got to start, guys. We got a great train of inflation coming towards us.

00:38:50.520 And another thing was pointed out was the fertilizer costs have gone up fivefold. I mean,

00:38:55.460 that's huge. It's integral. And we've had longer discussions. You know, why is the world population

00:39:00.180 going up so much and we haven't had starvation issues like we used to in the past? Well, part of

00:39:03.900 it's modern farming techniques with modern fertilizer and crop rotations and practices.

00:39:09.920 is we can get so much more product out of an acre

00:39:12.500 than we used to.

00:39:13.820 But the fertilizer is critical to that.

00:39:16.600 And now with the cost of fertilizer

00:39:18.120 shooting through the roof,

00:39:20.460 again, something very, very essential to us, of course,

00:39:24.180 which being food is going to cost a fortune.

00:39:28.620 And we've got the Trudeau government.

00:39:29.920 We reported on that before.

00:39:30.880 I talked about that.

00:39:31.820 They want to start taxing fertilizer.

00:39:33.940 They want to go after that

00:39:34.760 as part of their climate plan too.

00:39:36.040 That's how insane these ideologues in Ottawa are.

00:39:38.820 trust fund babies like Justin Trudeau, who's never really had to work for a living,

00:39:42.940 never had to sweat making a rent payment, you know, buying an old beater car and trying to

00:39:47.780 make it to work with it, buying the cheap generic foods to get by, because he had chefs and nannies

00:39:52.540 and chauffeurs. He was okay with that. He doesn't understand what his stupid, ideologically driven

00:39:58.840 environmental policies do. But we do. We know what happens. We're feeling it. And then he's got his

00:40:05.380 right-hand henchman there, Gil Bull. Well, he's an environmental lunatic. He's an activist. We've

00:40:09.940 seen all those pictures of him grinning like a lunatic as he's being arrested in his orange

00:40:14.560 jumpsuit for his environmental actions. That's the senior cabinet minister Trudeau listens to.

00:40:20.240 So now, as we're seeing, this is being presented to cabinet committees and presented in the House

00:40:26.440 of Commons saying, hey, this fertilizer prices are hurting us and our food prices and our inflation.

00:40:31.720 You think Trudeau is going to listen to that?

00:40:33.200 No, he's busy moving ahead because he wants to have as his legacy being the man who saved

00:40:38.500 the world from global warming somehow.

00:40:39.960 And he thinks if we can just tax this the heck out of fertilizer enough, that'll be

00:40:45.080 one or more of those steps on how Justin saved the world.

00:40:48.540 Unfortunately, Justin has a 50-50 chance putting his feet, his shoes on the wrong feet

00:40:52.860 any given morning, explaining something as complicated as finances, inflation, and having

00:40:57.760 to actually work for a living and pay bills is well beyond his comprehension. So yeah, we got

00:41:02.980 some hard times coming. All I'm saying, guys, is stock up on any cheap foods while you can that

00:41:08.640 keep and maybe plant a good garden. I'm a terrible gardener, but keep trying because nothing's going

00:41:14.900 to be getting cheaper for a while. Let's see, we got censorship complaints. Let's see, a thousand

00:41:20.620 censorship complaints. Federal concealment of public records are running at the rate of a

00:41:25.920 thousand a month. So the feds, again, not letting us know what they're doing. This is indicative

00:41:32.380 of so much of the bigger problem, right? The government has long lost any possible concept

00:41:38.680 that they're actually supposed to serve us, that we're supposed to tell them what to do,

00:41:43.440 not them telling us what to do. And that information, you see, when the government

00:41:46.340 hides information, refuses to let us see what they're doing with our money and their laws

00:41:50.760 that are controlling our lives.

00:41:53.660 They've lost it, and we have got a big problem.

00:41:56.540 That's our information.

00:41:57.680 That information should all be open to us all the time

00:42:00.740 unless they can prove otherwise.

00:42:02.720 Right now, as it is, the government hides everything they're doing with your life,

00:42:06.980 and you have to come begging and groveling to try and get at it.

00:42:09.960 So public records, 1,000 a month are being complaints

00:42:13.600 about the federal government concealing them.

00:42:16.280 It's from the information commissioner, Carolyn Maynard.

00:42:19.080 So the third of cases of federal departments and agencies

00:42:21.440 didn't even bother to acknowledge requests for records.

00:42:24.480 From Canadians, from us, it's our records.

00:42:27.840 It says they have an obligation to respond under the law in 30 days,

00:42:31.460 but 62% are meeting those.

00:42:34.400 So 38% aren't.

00:42:36.380 And well, what's the law then?

00:42:37.840 Where do you apply it?

00:42:39.000 When are you going to get on their case

00:42:40.280 rather than just bringing it up in committee?

00:42:44.900 Just open these up.

00:42:46.100 It's our information, but they won't do it.

00:42:47.740 And this has been going on for a long time. In 2018, there was a backlog of almost 3,500 unresolved complaints. Right now, it's about 7,000. This is killer, guys. This is where we are. So she's saying it's going to be up to 12,000 unresolved cases for 2022 by the time it's done.

00:43:07.100 and she said the pandemic's no excuse for concealing records. I got a feeling she might

00:43:11.060 be fired soon. She's saying government institutions, and this is the information's

00:43:15.520 commissioner, so not a cabinet minister or an elected politician. This is a senior bureaucrat

00:43:19.960 assigned for actually standing up for us. It's kind of unusual. That's why I say she'll probably

00:43:24.840 be fired pretty soon. She's saying the government's had more than two years to adapt to this. The

00:43:28.740 excuse is gone. Boy, it's nice to see these words out of her. Hopefully she finds a good job in the

00:43:33.240 private sector once she gets fired. She says this is not acceptable. When she was asked what's the

00:43:39.300 longest we've had someone waiting for a case to be resolved, she said some cases are dating back

00:43:43.500 to 2010. 12 years. They won't give you your own information about what they're doing with your

00:43:48.940 money, with your life. And you see, that's going all the way back to, it's not even just the

00:43:52.560 liberals. It's government in general. And that's a sickness. And we're in trouble. They don't know

00:43:57.500 who they work for. So yeah, in 2019, the Federal Court of Appeal offered censure for the Office

00:44:06.100 of Information because of a 10-day delay, but it just won't stop. Let's see, where else are we

00:44:14.700 going to be getting broke before I bring my next guest on for that interview? Oh yes, higher airport

00:44:19.220 fees, so just a little more bad news to throw on. See, this is why I need distractions with talking

00:44:23.120 about hockey games and playoff series, guys. I mean, well, we can only consume so much of this,

00:44:27.840 this negativity in one day. So we got higher airport fees. If you're looking to travel,

00:44:33.780 there's gonna be higher user fees. And you see this mandatory airport improvement fees range

00:44:39.180 as high as $42 a traveler. You were looking at it with those new airlines. I think WestJet did

00:44:44.200 that years ago. Maybe it was another one. They said, we're giving away like $10 flights to

00:44:48.360 Vancouver just to prove the point of how high the taxes and fees and everything were though,

00:44:51.880 because it was like a $10 flight to WestJet,

00:44:54.640 but then it still came in at like 150 bucks

00:44:56.880 by the time all of the other fees and taxes

00:44:59.560 and things were all tacked on top of it.

00:45:01.680 Just to remind everybody where that price is.

00:45:03.440 It's kind of like when you pump your gas too, you know,

00:45:05.240 some of it's paying for the gas,

00:45:06.340 but a whole pile of it is all these taxes and fees

00:45:09.580 and items that the government puts onto there.

00:45:12.420 Airport and improvement fees are another one

00:45:14.640 they keep throwing on there every time you fly around.

00:45:18.220 But it says apparently they've taken on

00:45:19.660 a bunch of debt, not investing in infrastructure. So we might have to re-examine our flying systems

00:45:27.400 because I mean, I don't get it. Canada's got, I mean, I traveled a lot. It's one of the most

00:45:33.420 expensive domestic flights on earth. If you want to bounce around the country in the United States,

00:45:37.760 it's quite cheap. If you want to fly from Calgary to Toronto, you're going to pay through the nose.

00:45:43.240 And yet, despite all of that, apparently all our airports are going broke and have to keep

00:45:47.580 raising their fees in order to make their bills. So I'm not sure what's happening there,

00:45:51.200 especially when they lease out spaces and can manage to charge you $6 for a crappy cup of

00:45:55.600 coffee while you're waiting for a flight. But that's where it's going. It's another area where

00:46:00.460 you better tighten your belt, guys, because the price of everything is going up. All right,

00:46:08.060 I'm going to speak about one more of our sponsors, then I'm going to play that interview with

00:46:12.400 Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate

00:46:14.860 Scott Aitchison.

00:46:16.800 And that sponsor is the Canadian

00:46:18.760 Shooting Sports Association.

00:46:21.560 Their name says it all. They're an

00:46:22.780 association for people into shooting sports.

00:46:24.980 Whether, again, target shooter

00:46:26.560 or the collector. I mean, you know, shooting sports is

00:46:28.660 really broad. The bottom line

00:46:30.760 is we've got the Liberal government. They're bringing them in the

00:46:32.500 backdoor gun registry. They're trying to take away

00:46:34.540 every kind of shooting enjoyment,

00:46:36.780 whether, again, whether you're collecting, you're a target

00:46:38.800 shooter, a duck hunter, deer hunter,

00:46:40.860 or whatever. It's your business. If you're following the law, you're hurting people.

00:46:43.420 It shouldn't be a problem. You know, we've got idiotic politicians like Gondek and others who

00:46:47.800 talk about having municipalities banning handguns, or Trudeau's talking about banning handguns across

00:46:51.800 the country. They're talking about repeat firearm offenders. None of those guys are with the

00:46:56.160 Canadian Shooting Sports Association because that's where law-abiding firearm owners go.

00:47:00.880 And if you want to keep enjoying your firearms responsibly, as you already have,

00:47:05.640 and you've got to join these guys. You've got to get on with the Canadian Shooting Sports

00:47:09.820 Association. They got all kinds of resources there for you. Plus they help, uh, stand up for

00:47:15.420 your rights against the government that's trying to take those rights away from you. So check them

00:47:19.820 out. Canadian shooting sports association is the easiest way to find them. You just Google it

00:47:23.180 or cssa-cila.org. Take out a membership with them guys. It's, it's for your own good. It's for your

00:47:30.260 own sake. And they got a lot of resources. Again, it's not like a charity. You get a lot back for

00:47:33.660 what you put in, but okay. I had to, like I said, the chance to speak with Scott Aitchison, one of

00:47:37.760 Conservative Party of Canada leadership contenders and we're going to run that now and then we'll be

00:47:42.640 I'll be back and chatting to you after. All right well thank you very much for coming to the Western

00:47:50.960 Standard Studios Mr. Aitchison I've been looking forward to it we've been watching the conservative

00:47:55.840 leadership race with a a lot of interest it's been an interesting one already lively I guess

00:48:01.680 you could see and different a lot of contenders there's six of you going for it and the campaign

00:48:06.480 going to be a long one going all the way until September 10th. So I'm glad we got a chance to

00:48:09.920 speak early because there's certainly a lot of developments as the campaign unfolds.

00:48:15.120 Well, thank you for having me. It's a great honor to be here. I've

00:48:18.400 my first time at the Western Standard, so it's great to be here.

00:48:21.120 Yeah. And so you're out west and you're a member of parliament from out in Ontario. You've been

00:48:26.240 active in politics for quite some time. So maybe I'll start, I guess, with a bit of your campaign

00:48:30.320 challenges that will come out when getting across the country. It's a weighted system for the

00:48:34.560 leadership you know so many votes providing so you certainly have to reach out to every region

00:48:39.360 and develop support and bring that in how's that been going for you as you travel in your campaign

00:48:44.800 so far well it's been going well i uh you know as you mentioned i'm i'm a newer member of parliament

00:48:50.240 and uh probably as famous as a former mayor of small town ontario community would be but uh you

00:48:57.200 know the message is resonating we're uh we're really pleased with it and we've been doing an

00:49:00.960 an awful lot of social media and digital outreach as well.

00:49:04.180 So touring across the country has been a lot of fun.

00:49:07.340 It's been great to meet conservatives from coast to coast.

00:49:10.840 Right, and I mean, as I kind of said earlier

00:49:12.740 with six candidates in the field, I mean,

00:49:14.280 it's hard to stand out, but one of the things

00:49:16.520 and I want to talk a bit about the debates,

00:49:18.040 but the first debate, and I watched it,

00:49:19.600 it was the unofficial one, I guess,

00:49:20.980 with a Canada strong and free network.

00:49:23.820 The way you stood out, actually,

00:49:24.900 I found to be a calm voice of reason

00:49:26.500 whilst the others were quite frisky with each other,

00:49:30.640 I guess, to say it politely, but you stuck to your message and you were quiet.

00:49:34.380 But at the same time, it's hard.

00:49:36.440 And I appreciated that.

00:49:37.540 I think a lot of viewers appreciated that.

00:49:39.080 And that's when they discovered you that night, I think.

00:49:41.200 But at the same time, it must be difficult for you because you can, it's hard to stand

00:49:44.300 out in that crowd when the other two are stealing the spotlight.

00:49:48.000 Well, I think the tone is really, really important.

00:49:50.600 It's going to be very important in the next election.

00:49:52.580 And I think that when we talk about, you know, what's going on in Ottawa or what's not going

00:49:58.840 on in Ottawa as it might be. I spoke about this most recently in my speech in response

00:50:03.660 to the government's use of the Emergency Measures Act related to the convoy in Ottawa. You know,

00:50:11.800 the way we talk about, you know, dividing Canadians and pitting each other against each

00:50:16.060 other to win votes, that kind of divisive rhetoric and that kind of, you know, zero-sum

00:50:20.780 game approach to politics, winning is everything, it might serve your short-term purposes, but

00:50:26.460 actually divides the country and i i just think that we need to be as conservatives particularly

00:50:30.780 have an opportunity as a truly national party with representation across the country to talk

00:50:37.500 about the things that unites us and brings us together and i don't i don't think it's easy to

00:50:41.420 do that if we're fighting amongst ourselves and i think we need to build trust amongst

00:50:45.500 you know canadians that live in areas where we haven't been winning and so the best way to do

00:50:49.420 that is i think is with a principled conservative message but also delivering that message with a

00:50:54.380 with a tone of respect we need to be listening to each other and build that trust and show some

00:51:00.380 unity doesn't have to be uniform but we have to be unified and i appreciate that i mean the

00:51:04.620 infighting can be devastating to a party and i expect you to speak to our our provincial issues

00:51:09.340 but we are experiencing quite something here you know with the united conservative party that came

00:51:12.700 in with such a strong majority and right now in public polling they're in abysmal shape within

00:51:18.540 alberta and much of it's due to the fact that they've all been at each other's throats for

00:51:21.900 the last couple of years rather than the managing the province and as we see as you said some of

00:51:27.100 the tone coming out in this race there's a risk of that i mean if you divide the party too much

00:51:30.860 it could damage the whole well i think there's no shortage of uh i think frustration uh across

00:51:38.460 the country really especially related to you know covid and lockdowns and uh and and uh you know

00:51:44.780 the uncertainty of it and the length of lockdowns there's no question there's frustration and anger

00:51:49.660 I get that. But just fanning the flames of that anger doesn't actually solve any problems.

00:51:55.020 I think it's important for us to be talking about policy ideas. I think elections are perfect,

00:51:59.980 perfect opportunities for us to talk policy. And so instead of attacking each other, we should be

00:52:05.100 talking about ideas that conservatives want to talk about, and that we can then talk to the rest

00:52:10.300 of Canadians about and sell our message and form a majority government.

00:52:15.660 And getting into some of those mechanisms, as I warned you, I did want to talk a little bit

00:52:19.100 bit about those two debates. They were radically different from each other. One, the first one,

00:52:24.100 as I said, was very adversarial, very heated, kind of allowed for a free-for-all. The second

00:52:29.320 one was exceedingly moderated, very unusually. So paddles and the horn interrupting people and

00:52:36.580 things such as that. I'll just speak my own point of view. I don't think either worked well to

00:52:41.200 communicate the message of the candidates out to people or terribly effectively. What are ways that

00:52:46.780 events perhaps could be improved because we do want to see all the candidates we want to see

00:52:49.740 that interchange and and and such but um where can we hit the mark with these sorts of events

00:52:55.260 well i i'm not exactly sure how we can improve them but this much i do know is that the second

00:52:59.420 debate well i mean it's a little bit goofy in in certain parts i at least there was a little more

00:53:06.300 you know meat on the bone there's a little more policy discussion i think that's important we

00:53:10.700 didn't get into i think enough policy issues didn't really talk enough about foreign policy

00:53:15.580 we didn't talk enough about housing i feel like i missed an opportunity to talk more about housing

00:53:20.060 so it's a bit better for sure um but i guess it speaks to the you know the importance of

00:53:25.340 all the candidates making sure they get their message out and and crisscrossing the country

00:53:29.580 and talking to conservatives about about ideas to bring the country move the country forward and and

00:53:34.540 and to present a platform to canadians that will resonate uh not just in the areas we consistently

00:53:39.660 win but where we need to win as well right now housing i mean that's a big issue it's an acute 0.98

00:53:44.300 one and you've made it a large part of your platform young people I can't

00:53:48.540 imagine how they can get into the housing market right now I mean

00:53:50.900 inflation is hitting us all around but we've got a massive housing shortage you

00:53:56.120 know the supply is the issue people wanting to get into the market labor

00:54:00.180 shortage I mean it's a very complicated issue but it's pressing and I guess

00:54:04.340 that's part of the largest part where you're standing up do you expand a bit

00:54:06.780 on your housing policy well I mean I speak to this issue of housing it's in

00:54:11.900 part one of the reasons why I left my job as mayor of my community to run federally because of course

00:54:16.940 at the local level in Huntsville we were doing all kinds of things we were partnering with developers

00:54:21.160 we were giving land away to Habitat for Humanity we were waiving fees and doing all kinds of stuff

00:54:26.520 but what was missing always was a reliable federal partner to help with funding more than anything

00:54:31.700 else to just bridge the gap on maybe affordable rental units for example to make those numbers

00:54:36.800 add up makes sense and so it's the biggest reason why i decided to run ultimately and of course i

00:54:42.240 get to ottawa and find a liberal government that is long on promises they've lots of funding

00:54:47.760 announcements and photo ops with funding announcements but you haven't seen many ribbon

00:54:52.320 cuttings and that's because they just not get the job done and so the government of course of canada

00:54:58.320 can't just wave a magic wand and just you know tell cities how to run their show but i believe

00:55:03.680 strongly that the federal government can take leadership working collaboratively with

00:55:08.640 provinces and cities to help you know reduce the backlog you know in larger centers it can take up

00:55:14.880 to two or three years to get zoning approval and site plan approval and all the approvals required

00:55:20.160 to just get shovels in the ground when when when you're in a housing crisis when supply is the

00:55:26.240 issue that's not acceptable canadians are suffering and we need to do better and so

00:55:30.720 the federal government can take leadership by tying the billions of dollars that the federal

00:55:35.440 government assists municipalities and provinces with on infrastructure to real results on the

00:55:40.240 ground and so i say we can work together to eliminate things like exclusionary zoning

00:55:46.240 we can increase densities without affecting character in all kinds of neighborhoods all

00:55:50.240 across canada and that's something that we absolutely have to get done just talking about

00:55:54.960 it and promising money isn't getting the job done that's where your municipal experience can apply

00:56:00.000 towards this sort of negotiation and actually it's a subject i've been on a lot here in calgary

00:56:03.920 we're actually at eight years right now from plan to development at this point and of course your

00:56:09.280 your development could be shut down at any point throughout that process too and that's left us

00:56:12.880 with a terrible backlog well i and this is the thing i i guess it's where i probably you know

00:56:18.080 i i bring a lot of experience in this regard i mean you know huntsville is a lot smaller

00:56:22.320 community but the principles are the same and the process is generally similar

00:56:25.680 you know development and investment requires they really like certainty they you know they don't

00:56:31.820 like instability they don't like uncertainty these timelines these processes there's no reason why

00:56:38.360 there can't be you know specific timelines related to getting things done as you know getting through

00:56:44.500 this process I used to do that as as the chair of planning in my community and then as the mayor

00:56:51.080 we guaranteed timelines to get you know reports and and and approvals done we didn't skip any

00:56:57.800 any steps we didn't skirt any corners we didn't loosen the rules we made it very clear that these

00:57:03.640 are the rules you follow these rules we can proceed and developers worked really well with

00:57:09.640 that because it was certainty just tell us the rules part of the problem you have right now in

00:57:13.480 municipalities in a lot of cases especially larger centers you have you know ward counselors that

00:57:19.160 try to teach they kind of treat their wards like their own fiefdom and of course the loudest voices

00:57:23.720 in the room tend to get the most uh the most attention and you have yimby's so i've got a

00:57:28.840 yimby plan yes in my backyard we need to increase those densities we need to improve these processes

00:57:34.520 we need to speed up the timelines and the federal government can play a leadership role in working

00:57:39.320 with the provinces and cities to get that done i speak that language i've been doing it for years

00:57:43.640 creating collaboration partnerships and moving things forward great uh another area and it's it

00:57:49.720 speaks to inflationary values and it's a spot where you've stood out from other candidates as

00:57:53.400 well and it's not an issue that you hear a lot coast to coast but it's supply management it's

00:57:57.640 canada's dairy poultry management system it's been around since i believe the early 70s

00:58:02.920 you're the uh well i believe mr baber's now come out against but initially you were the only

00:58:07.320 candidate who's spoken out against that policy uh why have you decided to take that stance when

00:58:12.200 the other one well for me this is all about affordability but it's also about opportunity

00:58:17.480 so supply management costs the average canadian family about 600 a year in the grocery bill so

00:58:23.160 it's making milk and cheese and dairy products more expensive and that's particularly difficult

00:58:28.120 in a time when carbon taxes are making life more expensive and inflation is making life

00:58:32.440 more expensive i represent people in my community and i know there are people across this country

00:58:37.080 that are struggling to heat their homes and put real food on the table the other side of this

00:58:41.800 issue of course is that farmers are trapped in a system uh that that limits their potential

00:58:47.080 limits their opportunity new zealand a country of 5 million people exported 17 billion dollars

00:58:52.520 worth of dairy products around the world last year canada a country of almost 40 million people

00:58:57.800 exported 378 million there's there's huge opportunity to be unleashed for canadian farmers

00:59:04.040 that produce world-class dairy products that can market it to the world and so i i i don't think

00:59:10.280 this is a question of pitting farmers against consumers i think it's i think it's a question

00:59:14.680 of making life more affordable for for canadian families but i also see it as an opportunity for

00:59:19.400 the government to assist in a transition away from a system that maintains a status quo and

00:59:25.560 it might be stable but transitions away from that system and in collaboration and cooperation with

00:59:31.880 farmers helps them create new markets around the world that farmers can then you know realize a

00:59:38.360 a lot more potential.

00:59:39.700 Yeah, and it's understandable.

00:59:40.980 You can't just flick a switch and stop the system.

00:59:42.820 It would disrupt the entire markets

00:59:44.120 and put people bankrupt.

00:59:45.120 I mean, you know, they're heavily invested in those quotas,

00:59:47.500 but just seeing somebody start to say,

00:59:49.320 well, we've got to set an end to this

00:59:50.600 is finally a good start, so it's-

00:59:52.980 Well, and it, you know, there are vested interests.

00:59:55.240 I mean, I think the dairy lobby is pretty powerful

00:59:57.120 on Parliament Hill, and I just think

01:00:00.520 that they're missing out on an opportunity.

01:00:02.480 And if we work together, we can make Canadian dairy,

01:00:06.560 you know, coveted, coveted products across the world.

01:00:10.320 So speaking across the country, then getting on to unity,

01:00:12.980 it's a big, broad issue.

01:00:14.400 And it's one in Canada we've always got.

01:00:16.820 Quebec used to be the more acute one.

01:00:18.860 You'd hear more through the 80s and 90s.

01:00:20.720 But now in the West, we're getting pretty upset

01:00:22.300 with a lot of policies out here.

01:00:24.460 One that recently came up was the court ruling on C-69.

01:00:27.780 It's now heading to the Supreme Court of Canada,

01:00:30.820 where we'll see.

01:00:31.900 I don't hold a lot of confidence.

01:00:33.240 It's going to uphold the provincial ruling, but we'll see.

01:00:35.020 But we've felt a lot in the West that we've been either ignored or taken for granted or at times even outright abused by the government.

01:00:42.160 How can you end some of that national unity right now when people are feeling so divided?

01:00:46.320 Well, and this is one of the key issues that I think speaks to this divisive rhetoric that we've seen.

01:00:51.440 We've seen a liberal government for the last seven years that has been quite happy to demonize Western Canadians and particularly Albertans and Saskatchewan.

01:01:00.740 What's a Saskatchewanian, I guess?

01:01:03.220 Yeah, I don't know.

01:01:03.740 Saskatchewanian, I guess?

01:01:05.020 But happy to demonize the hardworking folks in these two provinces that are the energy superpower of our country to win votes in downtown Toronto.

01:01:14.900 What we need to talk to each other about is the fact that not only is Canadian energy the most ethically produced energy in the world,

01:01:24.660 but we're bringing in oil from places like Saudi Arabia and Venezuela that is not ethically produced.

01:01:32.040 And the other important factor, of course, is that, you know, the oil sands here in Fort McMurray has reduced their carbon output on their production by 30% over the last 15 years.

01:01:41.720 They're responsible. These are responsible producers that are doing their part to help reduce Canada's footprint overall.

01:01:48.480 So we need to listen to each other. This is part of the challenge.

01:01:53.180 We need to start listening to each other as Canadians and recognizing that Albertans care as much about the future of this planet as do people in downtown Toronto.

01:02:01.240 And I know there's people in downtown Toronto that think taxes are too high as well.

01:02:05.620 So we need leaders that actually start talking about things that unites us, brings us together,

01:02:11.080 instead of focusing on ways to win elections through division.

01:02:14.260 This is a key area.

01:02:15.700 This is an absolutely key area.

01:02:17.940 I've asked every other candidate on this too, and it's a tough one, is equalization.

01:02:21.900 I understand it's constitutionally entrenched, but there is room to work perhaps on the formula

01:02:26.200 or ways that it's administered and things like that without tearing open the nightmare

01:02:29.620 of the Constitution.

01:02:30.540 Would you look at addressing equalization as many out here feel that perhaps it's not been applied fairly or properly over the last few decades?

01:02:38.260 Yeah, I actually think that equalization is one piece of a much broader conversation that the federal government needs to have with the provinces.

01:02:44.660 I think that the relationship that exists now between the federal government and provincial governments is unhealthy.

01:02:50.840 And a big part of that is equalization.

01:02:52.880 But another big part of that is our health care system.

01:02:55.060 Canadians wear as a badge of honor, almost part of our identity, that we have this amazing

01:03:00.360 health care system.

01:03:01.360 It's the best in the world.

01:03:02.360 And the truth of the matter is, it's not the best in the world.

01:03:04.600 It's failing Canadians. 0.95

01:03:05.600 It's part of the reason.

01:03:06.600 It's one of the things that I hope we have learned through COVID-19 is that we don't

01:03:10.840 have the best health care system in the world.

01:03:12.980 And part of the reason for that is, of course, it was created on a promise from the federal

01:03:16.620 government, meddling in provincial affairs again, to pay 50% of the cost.

01:03:21.300 We've never lived up to that promise as a federal government, and as a result, you see provinces struggling to keep up with the growing burden of health care services, and they're not fiscally sustainable as a result.

01:03:35.300 I think it's time for a more respectful relationship between the federal government and the provinces on all of these issues, and create more fairness in the system that actually respects the role of the provinces and gets the federal government out of meddling in provincial affairs.

01:03:51.320 Provinces actually run this country.

01:03:53.720 They actually run the country.

01:03:54.920 A lot can be avoided if we just stick to the jurisdictional things we already have in the Constitution.

01:03:58.620 And honestly, the federal government was created.

01:04:00.220 You look at the Constitution.

01:04:01.640 The provinces came together and created this federal government for a lot of different reasons.

01:04:05.340 One of which, though, was to actually help create new markets in the world.

01:04:10.600 And if the federal government focused on the things that it was meant to do,

01:04:13.760 things like making sure we have a well-equipped armed services,

01:04:18.700 instead of playing games with provincial services,

01:04:21.520 we could focus on the things that we're supposed to.

01:04:23.520 We wouldn't have embarrassing situations like we have right now

01:04:26.240 where we've taken decades too long to replace fighter jets

01:04:30.340 that are almost 50 years old.

01:04:32.440 And we would be a reliable partner with our allies.

01:04:35.460 And our allies wouldn't be creating new alliances without us

01:04:38.400 because we just won't show up to the table.

01:04:40.900 We haven't been a reliable partner.

01:04:42.680 The federal government needs to get back to doing

01:04:44.300 what it was created to do in the first place

01:04:46.160 and start doing it well.

01:04:48.060 Great.

01:04:48.420 Well, before I let you go, are there some other policy points you want to hit

01:04:51.260 before I let you out of the studio and back onto the campaign trip?

01:04:54.520 Well, we could talk for hours about a policy.

01:04:57.360 Yes, look, a good one, perhaps.

01:04:58.540 But honestly, the biggest thing for me is about affordability.

01:05:03.180 This is a question about affordability for Canadians across this country. 0.52

01:05:08.160 I think that this race should be about policies that make life more affordable 0.73

01:05:12.620 for Canadians, and I think if that is our message as concerns going forward,

01:05:16.220 we will form the next government, get rid of a tired liberal government.

01:05:19.900 Great. So where can people find more information about your campaign and follow up or support?

01:05:24.620 It's very easy. Since nobody knows how to pronounce or spell my last name,

01:05:28.540 my website is votescott.ca. It's very easy.

01:05:32.620 Great. Well, I appreciate that. But I think Mr. Poliev has still had more of a name

01:05:36.540 mispronunciations going on than yourself in your second. Well, thank you very much

01:05:40.620 for coming in and joining us today. And I look forward to talking to you again down the road.

01:05:44.140 thanks again. All right. So yeah, that was a good chat with Scott Atchison. I noticed some of you

01:05:52.720 in the comments, you know, I don't know if he's a first choice for too, too many people. I think

01:05:57.320 that's kind of typical of what we see a lot of is that they see him as perhaps a second choice or

01:06:02.500 saying he'd be strong in the cabinet, but who knows it might change later. I've always, you

01:06:07.420 know, regular viewers know supply management's been a burr in my butt for a long time, always

01:06:13.400 ticks me off. And he was the first one to come out against that, at least among all the conservative

01:06:16.780 candidates. He's his own person. When he came to talking about housing, it's definitely an area

01:06:22.480 where he's strong because a lot of people forget that the biggest problem we have, I mean, housing

01:06:27.160 is an issue that's hitting people across the whole country and very strongly. And people are

01:06:31.080 demanding the federal government do something about it, but it's actually not really their

01:06:33.600 jurisdiction. It's municipal. And that's where a lot of the problems are, are in the municipalities.

01:06:38.120 That's where the holdups are backing up developers.

01:06:41.460 And with his years as a mayor, Mr. Aitchison's pretty familiar with a lot of the ins and outs and how that works.

01:06:47.780 And it takes multiple layers of government.

01:06:51.500 But he's been a good, solid candidate.

01:06:54.280 I think in that first debate, you know, he kind of stood out to some people because it was such a loud, raucous debate that was going on between Polyev and Sheree that Aitchison came across, like Diana is saying, you know, he sounds reasonable and we need reason.

01:07:07.820 And yeah, he's calm and he answers the questions and he's thoughtful about it.

01:07:11.280 So for somebody, I think a lot of us hadn't really heard of a lot, particularly out West,

01:07:16.960 he's coming across as a good, solid candidate.

01:07:19.620 You know, with this federal leadership race with six of the minute,

01:07:23.580 most of them seem to have fairly strong individuals.

01:07:27.580 Patrick Brown, well, I don't know.

01:07:28.880 We'll see what's going on with him.

01:07:30.400 He's running an unusual campaign and coming from an odd direction.

01:07:34.540 But Mr. Aitchison, they're certainly hitting the events and trying to find people's support.

01:07:38.900 And as I like reminding people, it's going to be a long, long race, that one.

01:07:42.400 It's going all the way until September 10th.

01:07:45.280 I'm going to bring things back around a little more provincial.

01:07:47.340 Maybe I'll talk about our sponsor one more time before I do that.

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01:08:39.760 Okay, so somebody else with a busy schedule going on. 0.98

01:08:43.460 Oh, actually, I wanted to address, I saw a commenter, Linda,

01:08:46.100 asking about getting Colin Krieger on as a guest.

01:08:48.660 I did put a note out to him.

01:08:49.960 I covered the leadership that night.

01:08:54.380 Just to remind people, it's the Maverick Party.

01:08:56.600 Colin Krieger is now the new permanent leader of them.

01:08:59.400 he got elected with 52%. It was a pretty tight one. I was at the release of that on Saturday night.

01:09:05.040 And I did reach out to see about getting Mr. Krieger on. I have interviewed him before. If

01:09:08.280 you search back in the videos, I've had Colin Krieger on before. And I haven't heard back from

01:09:13.320 him yet, but he might be pretty tired. They were campaigning pretty hard for that leadership.

01:09:16.880 And hopefully we'll get him on to chat with us soon down the road, because that's another federal

01:09:21.200 option that's on the go. And they're certainly having a hard time with this federal leadership

01:09:24.440 going on to try and catch any attention. But they've got a dedicated core of people involved

01:09:29.020 with them. So the party's not going anywhere. Some people say it's not going up. I don't know,

01:09:33.780 but it's not going away. And if they're still there, it means they can still grow.

01:09:38.320 Getting provincial to the hornet's nest we have here. Yes, Jason Kenney, our own Rachel

01:09:42.540 Emanuel has been out in Washington covering that. Kenney's been out in Washington trying to

01:09:48.260 push for stronger ties between Alberta and the USA. You know, we've had that frustration going

01:09:54.000 on with the energy sector in Alberta. Of course, you know, Joe Biden shut down the Keystone line

01:09:59.620 on us, left us hanging. We've had problems in with line five out in Michigan with Gretchen

01:10:05.100 Whitmer fighting against that. So, and of course we have an imbecile as a prime minister who 1.00

01:10:10.480 wouldn't stand up for Canadian oil if his life depended on it. So, I mean, I'll give Kenny

01:10:14.760 credit where it's due. If you've got all of those factors up there, at least he's getting out there

01:10:19.120 going out himself and stepping up for Alberta, you know, whereas the federal government won't.

01:10:25.720 How effective it'll be? I don't know. But I mean, we've got nothing to lose. And he's talking to

01:10:29.560 some pretty serious operators down there south of the border, senators and Senate committees.

01:10:36.240 He's speaking before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. So, well, I hope

01:10:41.380 it goes well for him. He should be, you know, flying back soon. As I said, Rachel Emanuel is

01:10:45.140 out there covering it. And I'm going to have Rachel on on Thursday. We're going to talk about

01:10:48.080 mostly about the results of the leadership review, but she'll talk about what she saw

01:10:53.080 out in Washington as well. I think she was going to perhaps chat with the premier as well.

01:10:57.700 And we'll see how long Mr. Kenny's premiered in. There's just that, there's the picture of it. Yes,

01:11:01.400 he's out there and doing the pitch for Alberta oil in Washington. You know, it should be a good

01:11:05.440 time to be selling it. I mean, the price is through the roof. Everybody's suffering under

01:11:08.980 this supply shortages right now and high prices of fuel. So maybe he's making some progress down

01:11:15.820 there. We're going to find out if these are his last Axis Premier or just his latest Axis Premier 0.83

01:11:20.960 tomorrow night. And I want to remind everybody, we've got that special going on. So, you know,

01:11:24.700 normally we did the pipeline on Wednesdays. We're going to be doing a special for the results of

01:11:32.440 the leadership review as they come in. Now, all we've gotten so far from the UCP is a release.

01:11:40.200 They're saying that the results are going to come out sometime between four and six tomorrow night.

01:11:45.000 I know the Battle of Alberta starts at 7.30, so they better get it out well before that.

01:11:49.460 We're only going to want to sit around so long.

01:11:51.000 But we've got a lot of people to talk about.

01:11:52.280 You know, we're going to start with a panel.

01:11:53.420 It's going to be Dave and Derek and I.

01:11:55.600 So the usual sort of pipeline thing. 0.99

01:11:56.820 Danielle Smith's going to pop in and join us.

01:11:59.640 Janet Brown, she's a pollster and commenter in Alberta.

01:12:03.180 We've got Andrew Lawton, Peter Guthrie, Paul Hinman, Drew Barnes.

01:12:07.740 Noel Risden, we might pop on here to talk a bit.

01:12:10.840 And Josh Andrus.

01:12:12.160 You know, these are the names I've got lined up so far.

01:12:13.800 because there's going to be a lot to talk about.

01:12:15.820 I mean, the hard part with these live broadcasts,

01:12:17.620 you know, we've been through this in the past

01:12:18.800 when we schedule these things.

01:12:20.140 The UCP gives us, they're as bad as the cable guy.

01:12:22.220 Yeah, I'm going to come between seven in the morning

01:12:23.580 and five at night, be handy.

01:12:26.600 We don't know exactly when the results are going to come in.

01:12:30.880 Maryland say, will there actually be any?

01:12:32.440 Not likely.

01:12:32.860 I think there will.

01:12:34.640 They will come out.

01:12:36.240 I just don't think that,

01:12:37.140 I'm never confident they're going to be on time.

01:12:39.600 Party things, particularly when it comes to Kenny,

01:12:41.660 he's late with everything that comes to those things.

01:12:44.500 So whenever they do get released, though, I mean, so we're going to discuss things, you know, the thoughts and things like that.

01:12:51.080 And whenever those results come out, we'll still have a good panel of people coming and going to discuss, well, what it is.

01:12:57.820 I mean, what if Kenny lost?

01:12:59.840 Well, we're into a leadership race, a year away from an election.

01:13:02.520 What if Kenny gets 55%?

01:13:05.600 That, I think, personally, with my own point of view, is, and as we can see, yes, Nico's put that up, by the way.

01:13:11.980 So the verification process is complete.

01:13:13.540 So all they got to do is count now. They verified all the ballots and that was done to their credit, even with live streaming on, you could go on and look at a live screen and see people working on it. So, I mean, if they were doing anything, sneaking or doing anything wrong, you could actually kind of look over their shoulder. And I guess tens of thousands of people tuned in just to kind of look. I probably out of curiosity. I had a look. I got bored after a minute, but it's been pretty transparent. So that's complete. Starting tomorrow at 11, they actually start ripping open the real ballots and counting them.

01:13:41.680 and theoretically we'll have something to report on at that time.

01:13:46.980 And we'll be talking, you know, so as the show goes, we'll break in.

01:13:50.880 And as I said, if he comes in with 55%, though, getting back to where I was,

01:13:54.600 that's scary because now he said 50% plus one is enough to stay in.

01:13:59.200 Well, technically maybe, but is that really enough support to hold that party together?

01:14:04.340 Like he's got a caucus that's just in disarray.

01:14:08.440 Constituency associations are all over the map.

01:14:11.060 they're furious. Side parties are rising. His own party numbers are in the support toilet across

01:14:16.360 the province. And if he stays in at 55, I think that turmoil is just going to keep dragging out

01:14:22.100 personally. At least I think the plan in my view that Rachel Notley would love to see the best

01:14:27.040 is Kenny coming in with like between 50 and 55% and then staying on as premier because 1.00

01:14:31.720 UCP will just continue to rip themselves to pieces while she'll be able to come in and be 0.79

01:14:38.960 a premier for another four months. If Kenny loses, we'll go into a leadership race. As a lot of 1.00

01:14:44.080 people have pointed out, though, there's not a lot of, well, we'll see. Danielle Smith said she 0.59

01:14:47.940 would run for it. Brian Jean said he'd run for it. There's a lot of people who don't feel they'd

01:14:53.820 like to see either of them as premier either. So maybe some other candidates would rise up.

01:14:58.340 It would be a race and get that done. I mean, with a general election a year away,

01:15:01.820 you've got to get that finished. And then there's also, if Kenny came in with 75%, well,

01:15:06.540 that would be a strong mandate. And that's where he'd be able to say, okay, we've done this. We've

01:15:10.200 checked it. Three quarters of the party supports me. Now let's get together, unify and move towards

01:15:15.280 the next provincial election. I don't know if it's going to be that high though. From all

01:15:19.520 indications I'm hearing, it's not going to be 75%, but we will see. I don't know. These are bizarre,

01:15:27.020 weird times, but I think for Kenny to hold it together, he needs a strong result, not 50% plus

01:15:32.240 one, even if that's what he's claiming. I guess if it came in at 55, that's where you would have

01:15:37.340 to do some soul searching and just, you know, figure out what he's going to actually do going

01:15:41.580 forward from that point. All right. So let's review a couple more stories as we move along

01:15:47.980 and wrap some things up here. Yeah. Here's a story. As interest in electrical vehicles soars,

01:15:53.180 and I don't know if it's soaring that much, experts say they haven't quite hit the mainstream.

01:15:57.380 You know, these stories, right? Like they just love to make it sound like everybody wants into

01:16:02.040 electric cars. They don't. They always act like they're shocked when they find out they don't.

01:16:06.660 We don't want them, guys. They might get there eventually, but we don't want them yet. These

01:16:11.780 things are expensive, they're limited, and they're not free. You know, people talk about how cheap it

01:16:16.540 is. Oh, you just charge it up. Electricity isn't free either, guys. It's going up. So, you know,

01:16:24.480 that is a cost. And of course, the cost of its car is huge. And then we're finding out the resale

01:16:29.240 isn't that great because when you want to replace all the batteries which they do wear out

01:16:32.440 can cost 10 or more thousands of dollars again the day might come maybe your electric cars will

01:16:37.780 become very affordable very efficient chargeable be able to go a long range uh as wendy was saying

01:16:43.800 no we don't need them in rural alberta no you don't need them in any rural area or no matter

01:16:47.820 of need they're not practical i don't want to go out in minus 40 in an electric car and see how far

01:16:53.300 i can go in a rural drive think about family trips you know there's one of those big things

01:16:57.420 these electric guys are almost like cultish with how they push these things. They're just

01:17:01.160 fixated on it. And think if you're doing one of those family road trips, many of us have endured

01:17:06.860 them. Many of us will do more. You're going to drive out to Aunt Martha, Winnipeg. You got two

01:17:12.020 days on the road to do. Well, guess what? Every four or five hours, you've got to stop and charge

01:17:18.060 that thing. Fast charging takes like 20 minutes, I think. And a full charge is like three hours.

01:17:22.980 So what do you do with the screaming kids and the dog and everything over that period of time? I

01:17:27.200 you gotta keep sitting in restaurants or sitting in the car staring at each other or go out and play

01:17:31.280 hopscotch or something and then you got to think we don't have the infrastructure think of the

01:17:35.520 thousands of cars on highways and think of a gas station where every vehicle is taking 20 minutes

01:17:40.320 to three hours to charge how many hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of new gas

01:17:44.000 stations are we going to need to keep up with that they're trying to put the cart before the horse

01:17:49.360 here the world might go electric but we aren't there yet and they keep expressing surprise and

01:17:54.720 shock when it turns out we don't want those bloody things yet, no matter how hard they

01:17:59.180 subsidize, no matter how much they punish us for daring to want good, efficient, cost-effective

01:18:05.500 combustion vehicles. News keeps going, though. They keep pushing, you know, CTV, the usual.

01:18:12.860 All right. Well, let me see. Let's see what we're going to get to tomorrow. It's an interesting,

01:18:17.380 I'm going to have an author on, Lydia Perovic, and she wrote a book recently. And as an immigrant

01:18:22.460 from Yugoslavia or the former Yugoslavia at that time into Canada. She's just got some unique

01:18:30.260 views and different ideas she put into her book as her thoughts as an immigrant. And Canada

01:18:33.680 isn't turning into what she'd hoped it would be. And as a person, a new Canadian, she's not finding

01:18:40.240 it to be what she wanted to be. So we'll see where she is. It was an interesting read. They sent the

01:18:44.960 book here and we'll talk to her about what motivated her to write it, what she thinks going

01:18:48.720 forward. Also, I'm going to have councillor Dan McLean on. We've talked with him before. He's the

01:18:55.640 one who stirred a lot of people up in the city of Calgary. He's a city of Calgary councillor

01:18:58.900 because he dared to go out on the LRT and take pictures of some of the crap he saw on there and

01:19:06.160 a fellow overdosing or passing out or something and falling on the floor. And he tweeted that out.

01:19:11.100 The bottom line is he's speaking up against the crime problem we have on our public transit

01:19:14.820 systems. It's not just Calgary, it's everywhere. And he dared to propose charging fares, you know,

01:19:20.880 putting in things like turnstiles to make sure people pay for their tickets before they ride

01:19:24.100 the train. So we'll have a discussion to see how that's been going and where he's gone with it.

01:19:29.420 It should be lively. So tomorrow is going to be a very busy, full-pack day. Danielle Smith's going

01:19:33.800 to be on in the morning at nine with her regular show. I'll be back at 1130 with those two guests.

01:19:38.820 And then starting at 345, we're starting our special on the United Conservative Party Leadership

01:19:44.200 review results and a whole number of guests will be coming on to talk and speculate and see what

01:19:50.140 happens. So thanks for tuning in with us today, guys. I will see you all tomorrow at 1130 AM.

01:20:14.200 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - May 18, 2022

Triggered： Released thug kills a mother of five

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