Western Standard - Unemployed Eastern politician heads West for a job

00:00:00.000 Good day, today is May 14th, 2024.

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

00:00:35.380 I'm joined by the usual casting crew of The Pipeline, Western Standard opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford.

00:00:43.320 That would be me.

00:00:44.640 And Western Standard senior Alberta columnist, Corey Morgan.

00:00:48.020 Good day.

00:00:49.460 And there we go.

00:00:54.340 erica barutz department head of applied politics and public affairs at mackamy college i refuse

00:01:01.380 to learn your job title just like french because it's just like french i refuse to learn it because

00:01:09.180 it's too hard so uh okay uh we've got a good show today we're going to talk about the mark carney's

00:01:17.920 new old liberal cabinet. We're going to talk about an unemployed Easterner who's coming out 1.00

00:01:25.700 West here to get a job. Sorry, that's a little mean. That's Pierre Polyev, who's going to be

00:01:31.240 running in a by-election in Battle River, Crowfoot, Alberta, the most conservative and most Alberta

00:01:38.220 of conservative Albertan writings. And our first topic, who actually leads Alberta's independence

00:01:46.400 movement a lot of people would like to a lot of people have stepped forward but there's no real

00:01:52.420 clear voice name and face uh put to it right now uh it's a constellation of movements parties

00:02:02.040 individuals uh advocacy groups legal groups there's a whole nebula a whole new constellation

00:02:09.180 take your metaphor on it um we've got the alberta prosperity project which has been

00:02:15.700 around for a number of years now, which just the other day unveiled its question on what they want

00:02:21.640 the referendum question to be from the Citizens Initiative ballot. We've got the Independence

00:02:27.660 Party of Alberta. We've got the Wild Rose Independence Party of Alberta. We've got the

00:02:32.080 Wild Rose Loyalty Coalition. No, that's not a gift coupon. That is a political party in Alberta.

00:02:38.020 We've got the Republican Party of Alberta, formerly known as the Buffalo Party of Alberta,

00:02:42.360 the alberta advantage party and fitting in there is also the united conservative party which has

00:02:51.320 both federalist and nationalist components to it um it's a bit of a hot mess cory um

00:02:59.480 without getting into when i'm plugging your book too much too much you're gonna do you can a little

00:03:04.680 bit um but without also getting into the whole history of this thing which goes back forever

00:03:10.120 uh you know kind of set the lay of the line like it has there been a kind of clear leader or

00:03:18.680 organization or party that's kind of emerged in the movement today not today no i historically

00:03:24.220 there hasn't really been one since the western canada concept west fed back in the 80s that's

00:03:28.760 kind of held it all in one spot with these these five parties plus i'm sure the new judean people's

00:03:34.240 front will be coming out as well. They're not going anywhere. The last election, all five of

00:03:41.160 them added together, even with 18% support for independence, came up with 0.8% support of the

00:03:48.260 vote. But, I mean, as we know, it's white hot for the appetite for independence. People are looking

00:03:54.640 for somebody to lead this and stand out. The Alberta Prosperity Project is the closest thing

00:03:59.020 to it. They've been well-established, organized. They've held meetings for years around the

00:04:02.160 province. They have an impressive member base, but they're not setting the world on fire right

00:04:08.700 now. I think for a lot of people looking for somebody to lead this, somebody to stand out

00:04:14.260 and speak for all of it. I mean, it's the advantage and disadvantage of being a decentralized movement

00:04:20.140 in that it is organic, but you kind of need people to keep people on an even keel. And yeah,

00:04:25.400 speaking of my own book, I wrote that a couple of years ago, but I was critical of taking the

00:04:29.620 partisan approach to this and i i think with the fact that it's a referendum that we're looking at

00:04:33.720 this should help people get focused focus on the referendum uh but you still need i guess some sort

00:04:40.560 of driving force and while a few people are raising their hands i i don't think uh supports

00:04:46.360 kind of consolidating around them at this point uh erica um i mean as we've said you know there's

00:04:54.360 It's a constellation of these parties.

00:04:56.120 They traditionally, with a small exception of the Western Canada concept party in a by-election in Olds-Disbury-Three Hills in 1982, have failed to break through electorally.

00:05:09.180 I think there's always been, if the independents are going to move, a partisan imperative to it to get the referendum.

00:05:15.880 Daniel Smith has taken that tip of that card away from those parties and saying, well, you can have your referendum without the need for a new party.

00:05:23.820 you can have your referendum and stay within the big blue tent all at the same time uh kind of

00:05:30.060 completely short-circuiting those guys i think to an extent but speaking of old disbury three hills

00:05:35.260 and by-elections and the independence movement one is about to happen right now uh the western

00:05:42.320 standard got the scoop on this tara sawyer is uh going to be appointed as the united conservative 0.98

00:05:49.640 party candidate in that riding uh the leader has a certain number of appointments they can make and

00:05:53.800 that's often used in by-elections.

00:05:55.540 Four and four.

00:05:56.040 Oh, you would know this.

00:05:57.260 Yeah, I was like, there's four.

00:05:58.780 Yeah, you would know that.

00:06:01.200 So she's going to be the UCP candidate there. 1.00

00:06:03.480 Best I can tell, she's not explicitly pro-independence.

00:06:07.920 But I think it's a wildly conservative riding.

00:06:10.840 It's one of the most conservative ridings in Alberta.

00:06:15.700 And there's going to be a by-election there.

00:06:17.840 I think it's highly likely that one or more

00:06:20.780 of these independence parties are going to run.

00:06:22.760 I know the Wildrose Independence Party, which had been probably the most prominent one,

00:06:27.280 well, Kenny was premier, stood down in the last election, pretty much did not run candidates

00:06:32.080 saying, eh, this might be the best we can get, let's give Smith a chance.

00:06:35.680 I don't know if they're going to stand down now or if they're going to continue with that

00:06:38.520 and give her a chance, but the Republican Party seems highly unlikely to do so.

00:06:41.660 They're very hostile towards Smith and the UCP.

00:06:45.940 What opportunities are there for both the parties and the movement in this old,

00:06:50.400 this three three hills by-election because there's oh there's some history doesn't rhyme

00:06:55.280 sorry it doesn't repeat itself as they say but oh it can sure rhyme sometimes well i feel like

00:07:00.540 you just asked me six questions so i'm gonna try and get there well i do i do think cory's right

00:07:07.920 that it's like very good to remove the politics from it i don't think we're gonna see that uh

00:07:13.300 realistically i do think from the separatist or independent movement it should be taken away

00:07:20.320 from maybe some of these guys putting their hand up being like, I'm going to be the knight in

00:07:25.940 shining armor. I actually, I don't have someone in the back of my mind who could carry this

00:07:31.000 without putting their own personal ego or brand forward, which I think is actually my concern

00:07:37.500 with some of the people that have put their names forward or want to be the champion for this

00:07:41.540 is that it might actually discourage the movement more than it helps because of the longevity of

00:07:48.940 them screaming and shouting about this. So I do think it needs to be more coordinated. There does

00:07:55.520 need to be kind of an official spokesperson or an official grassroots organization that's leading

00:08:01.940 this to be able to have that clear, concise message, because even looking at the websites,

00:08:06.260 they're all kind of all over the map, and it's not really sure what that exact question, with

00:08:11.000 the exception of the Alberta Prosperity Project, will look like for these groups. Now, coming

00:08:16.780 hyperlocal to Old Stidsbury Three Hills, you're absolutely going to see some more fringe candidates

00:08:23.680 on this. I think that knowing these ridings, that it's risky for the Premier to appoint someone

00:08:30.420 there. I think it came down to timing with the other two by-elections that I suspect they want

00:08:35.720 to call all at the same time. I do think Tara is a great candidate, long-time farmer and long-time 0.99

00:08:44.840 standing in that riding. So I think it was a good candidate. However, I still think from that

00:08:49.560 riding, there will be pushback against the UCP of using an appointment because the leader only

00:08:53.800 gets four. And I can say that when I was president, I would say, don't use them unless you have to.

00:09:00.680 Maybe they'd argue that they had to, but we will see the Republican Party putting a candidate

00:09:05.960 forward and maybe some others. What does that translate into in votes? We'll see. But I think

00:09:13.180 that uh there's some funny equations that could happen with all of these uh individuals putting

00:09:19.740 their names forward and probably not doing as much vetting as the ucp does uh no i'm gonna ask

00:09:26.120 you a two-part question who would be the your dream leader who like who would be uh you know

00:09:36.200 realistic that this person emerges or not uh and i want names who do you think would be the best

00:09:41.700 leader of this movement one or two people uh and then more realistic who do you think is most

00:09:47.360 realistic likely leader to emerge well the best possible leader would be george washington but

00:09:52.140 he's not available so uh that's uh well hopefully it's a little less fighting than what washington

00:09:57.800 who can tell where that where that path will lead but uh that i think really is what erica

00:10:05.600 has just been saying is that there is not a an obvious leader for this movement at the moment

00:10:13.360 and i think the time will come when there is it's going to have to mature for a bit

00:10:19.520 right now everybody is everybody there are some people who are prepared to give mr carney a chance

00:10:25.600 to get this right i'm not one of them but uh he is uh there is a certain amount of post-election

00:10:32.640 goodwill if he actually were to meet the demands that premier smith has made and you started to

00:10:43.840 see decisions made that led to pipelines to coasts and the drilling rig count climbing

00:10:51.760 i have i suspect that much of the wind would go out of the independence movement at this precise

00:11:00.380 moment you're right erica there are far too many um i don't want to be demeaning to to them but

00:11:08.060 people who quite frankly aren't going to be able to take it forward and nobody in my knowledge has

00:11:15.260 come forward and said i'm the guy i'll do it i'm the girl i'll do it who i actually believe could

00:11:23.260 take this forward this movement is going to take time to mature what's the second part of the

00:11:27.740 question well is there someone out there right now who you realistically think could well i guess not

00:11:33.180 at this moment no no no it's just a side note on that there is a meeting that's been scheduled

00:11:39.020 that's going to be held in about a little less than two weeks uh it's been invited by a i can

00:11:44.060 just say a central organizer who's pulling some of the voices and and uh presumed leaders of the

00:11:49.820 movement together into one room to try and see if something can be hammered out or hashed out

00:11:54.780 or moving in the same direction.

00:11:56.560 So I'll be attending that.

00:11:58.740 We'll see if anything productive comes out of that.

00:12:01.400 Some of these questions might be answered there

00:12:03.020 or maybe we'll all just beat on each other for a while.

00:12:05.500 Well, you know, that's the thing about Conservatives.

00:12:07.860 We're all so highly principled

00:12:08.940 that we can't possibly yield on a point, can we?

00:12:12.120 Well, we'll see, I guess.

00:12:13.880 Well, Corey, I want to come back to you

00:12:15.340 on the aisle action here.

00:12:19.480 You know, Smith has been trying

00:12:20.660 to keep the independence question.

00:12:21.980 uh it's impossible for it to not be political it's inherently political it is mega political

00:12:28.480 but she's been trying to make it not partisan and there's a difference sometimes in those things

00:12:35.540 um what opportunity do you see for the independence uh the explicitly independence

00:12:43.440 parties that are gonna want to contest in that writing is there any opportunity for them here

00:12:48.260 Because, I mean, they've got to be looking at this, praying for a repeat of the 1982 by-election in that very constituency.

00:12:54.800 Yeah, there's more opportunity than anything else that could present itself for them with any other riding.

00:13:00.880 This is a gift of all places, Old Stisbury Tree Hills.

00:13:03.820 The difference, though, now is there is a vent for the independence-minded people.

00:13:08.860 In the 80s, there was nowhere else to go.

00:13:10.580 You either voted with the PCs, who were staunchly federalist, and there was no referendum on the horizon.

00:13:16.520 And now independence minded people have been provided with the ability to call or have a referendum called and put it to the question, which I think is going to make it a little harder for an independence party to get steam.

00:13:29.200 I mean, the others are all small and then they really don't have much for their organization.

00:13:33.840 Republican Party has been jumping out, but I don't know if they've exactly been endearing themselves to people.

00:13:39.040 And their messaging is very much on the 51st state thing, which sort of at least has that feel with it with a Republican name that they've adopted.

00:13:46.120 So if anything, they've got a chance of high expectations and falling on their face potentially, which would set them back because this is a if they can't do well in this constituency, they can't anywhere.

00:13:58.740 So if they're going to perform, this is their one and only shot.

00:14:02.100 I suppose it's a risk, too.

00:14:04.200 You know, when you stand in a by-election, if you fail at it, it takes any maybe perceived wind out of your sails.

00:14:12.920 Which is why, you know, when I served in the legislature 2015 to 2019, the Alberta Party never contested a single by-election because it would make clear to the media that they were not a real political party.

00:14:22.060 It was a couple of...

00:14:25.060 Ninchy spells.

00:14:26.260 Yeah, essentially a couple of ninchy guys of Redfordites.

00:14:29.320 uh they intentionally did not run in any by election even in ridings where they on paper

00:14:36.060 should have been competitive like in northeast calgary because it would expose them as a paper 0.95

00:14:40.920 tiger so i i i think there's some some risk for them uh in that so uh speaking of by elections

00:14:48.180 in alberta uh as i i think rather rudely put it but i just couldn't help myself uh there's an

00:14:55.360 unemployed man out east looking

00:14:57.300 for a job coming to Alberta, all hell 0.64

00:14:59.240 for a basement.

00:15:01.680 Pierre Polyev is going to be

00:15:03.320 running in Battle River

00:15:05.400 Crowfoot. I could be wrong,

00:15:07.540 but I think it might have been the biggest

00:15:09.220 conservative margin of victory in the country.

00:15:11.960 82%.

00:15:12.480 I want to know who the other

00:15:15.400 18%

00:15:19.280 of degenerates are. The RCMP are already

00:15:21.380 looking for them.

00:15:23.160 Rat Patrol is on the look at.

00:15:25.360 but I mean

00:15:27.020 these rural conservative ridings

00:15:29.300 conservatives just kind of run up the score

00:15:31.240 and it's kind of an internal bragging rights within caucus 0.98

00:15:33.340 about who's got the most ridiculous 0.93

00:15:35.700 North Korean style margin of error 0.97

00:15:37.780 sorry margin of victory

00:15:39.200 Nigel

00:15:41.620 is there any

00:15:42.260 I don't see any conceivable situation where

00:15:45.360 Poliev actually loses that by election

00:15:47.440 it's just not in the cards

00:15:48.640 but is there any risk for him running

00:15:50.620 there right now while the

00:15:53.300 independence question starts to burn well he's going to get asked about it for sure but then

00:15:58.420 he's been asked about it already and he's given a very you know political answer to it but he has

00:16:04.380 firmly placed him side on the himself on the side of federalism uh he's not running to be a renegade

00:16:11.440 he wants to be prime minister of the country and he'll get his chance to run again i'm assuming

00:16:16.080 after the the leadership review so i'm not expecting any any interesting headlines coming out

00:16:22.780 that that whole thing um what i am going to be interested in is where he decides to set up shop

00:16:30.540 you know you you need a kind of a visible presence in the writing that you're representing

00:16:36.460 does he mean to rent a house there and visit occasionally do you know constituency office

00:16:43.340 surgeries on saturday mornings how exactly is that all going to look and how is that going to play

00:16:49.580 with Anna, who appears to be a big city girl with big city tastes. 0.87

00:16:57.600 I mean, she looks good in a cowboy hat at the Stampede. 0.95

00:17:00.460 Is she going to adjust to life in coming to small towns a lot?

00:17:05.320 We'll see.

00:17:06.060 I wish them well anyway.

00:17:07.340 I don't think there's any expectation they're going to live there.

00:17:09.980 I don't even know if they're going to rent a place.

00:17:11.380 But I guess it's very strongly implied Paliop will not actually run there

00:17:17.560 in the next federal election that the incumbent MP, is it Couric?

00:17:21.760 How do you pronounce his name?

00:17:22.860 Damien Couric.

00:17:24.120 Yeah, that he will probably want to come back.

00:17:28.700 But that's potentially four years away.

00:17:30.320 Carney has won, arguably, depending if Elizabeth May is Speaker of the House of Commons, 0.99

00:17:35.320 two or one seat away from an effective majority government.

00:17:39.120 This could run out a full four years very easily.

00:17:43.740 So I don't think he's actually intending to stand there in the next election.

00:17:47.140 I think he's going to want to probably go back maybe to Carlton.

00:17:51.520 We'll see.

00:17:54.740 I guess I'll put the same question to you almost as I asked in the last part, Corey, is, you know, is there any opportunity for independence candidates here?

00:18:05.780 The Wexit party, which was already poorly named, doubled down on bad names, changed its name to Maverick Party because there was a movie coming out.

00:18:14.300 uh the party was a total flop uh and has actually been deregistered now i would have thought they

00:18:20.920 would have held on to the registration for a future day when they might resurrect the fight 0.59

00:18:24.460 um i they probably thought all he was going to win and it wouldn't go anywhere uh so jokes on

00:18:29.300 them but uh an independent candidate not independence independent candidate it's not

00:18:34.700 going to stand out there uh the longest ballot committee is already promising they're going to

00:18:38.260 try and uh flood the ballot with candidates as they did in carlton they'll probably have less

00:18:42.200 success in a riding out there because you actually have to get out there and get signatures it's a

00:18:45.960 lot harder to do um but there is no registered independence party on the federal level you know

00:18:52.400 the way we have with the block indiquas things like that is there any opportunity for an 1.00

00:18:57.660 independence supporting candidate there in that by-election no you know there's no registered

00:19:03.340 entity as you said it's unfortunate if there was ever a break that maverick you know as they hung

00:19:07.940 around kind of waiting for the right circumstances was about to come it was when alienation was high

00:19:13.220 and they could make the case saying look we need to go back to like the reform party roots and just

00:19:18.020 have regional representation because we're throwing ourselves against the wall in the east

00:19:21.940 and in that riding you know i think i don't think they could have taken it in their you know greatest

00:19:27.060 dreams but they could have had a respectable showing of that segment to the population they

00:19:31.480 could probably twist the knife a little bit too on saying hey this is going against the principles

00:19:34.840 of local representation you know find a local candidate say this person will be there to

00:19:39.200 represent you for the next four years not just dropping by now and then to cut a ribbon or ride

00:19:42.960 in a parade but there's just nobody there there's no apparatus there's and and as we were kind of

00:19:48.060 talking about before too there's no person of profile who could say represent independence

00:19:52.840 and just run as an independent and stand out so aside from maybe Maxime Bernier is going to try

00:20:00.160 and throw everything he can at it but i don't know if it's that fertile for him there uh it's

00:20:04.720 just going to be a non-remarkable cakewalk for polyev to get into the cost commons uh erica is

00:20:11.300 there anything remarkable about this by-election that could stand out and as i asked nigel uh

00:20:18.220 what are the risks for polyev of course he's going to get asked about independence he was

00:20:21.760 asked about it i think just the other day and he says well i get the frustrations and i'm gonna

00:20:26.440 remove the appetite for independence by you know fighting for things that are good for the west

00:20:31.820 and i mean he said what you would very much expect him to say like that you can't run for

00:20:37.320 crime minister it also support the independence of a different part of the country that's

00:20:41.600 contradiction in terms but uh are there any risks for polyev in a writing like this and

00:20:47.020 are there any potential opportunities for these candidates or for movements yeah no to the other

00:20:53.820 individuals like this is, as Nigel said, the God's country of conservative politics with 82%.

00:21:01.860 He was almost actually acclaimed until the day of official filing. Damien had no contenders. So he

00:21:08.280 would have been the first guy. I was out door knocking with him at Edmonton Centre and he's

00:21:11.520 like, I might be the first person since like 1985 or something to be acclaimed in a federal

00:21:16.060 general election. So I don't think it's worth anyone's organizing for, you know, 5% of the

00:21:23.300 vote to knock him down under 80. Like, I just can't see anything. And for the people that,

00:21:29.100 you know, see him maybe as a parachute candidate, who doesn't want the leader of the opposition

00:21:32.640 or potentially future prime minister, at least being in your riding for a period of time?

00:21:39.200 Well, the people at Carleton are all bureaucrats now. And that's why,

00:21:43.200 you know, they know that they're getting fired with Pierre Polyev. The only thing I mean, again,

00:21:49.660 I don't know what, if someone was running for prime minister of Canada, why they would ever say that they want to separate. Like, I think it's a non-starter. However, the interesting dynamic will be how he and the premier navigate a lot of these situations.

00:22:04.640 I mean, he was very aligned with her, but on items, if separation does come to fruition, CPP versus Alberta pension plan will be on the table and all of those types of other questions that are trickled down that Pierre has already said, I don't support Alberta getting their own.

00:22:23.200 And so that would be a little bit more difficult for him to navigate that when he's in the province as his seat.

00:22:30.320 But I mean, those are all hypotheticals down the road too.

00:22:33.280 No, I think those are good points where he was maybe able to brush them off a little more easily than he could as an Alberta representative.

00:22:41.860 All right, well, let's, speaking of all of that mishmash, let's talk about the new carny, I say new in parentheses, carny liberal cabinet here.

00:22:55.440 Some of it's old, some of it's new.

00:22:58.120 One of the major news networks was reporting that Chrystia Freeland was going to be left out. 0.99

00:23:03.280 I found that hard to believe because that would be seen as a declaration of war. 0.95

00:23:08.400 And I guess by the standards of the Trudeau cabinet, she was not the dumbest of the ministers. 0.64

00:23:16.360 Can I ask why you think that's a declaration of war?

00:23:20.000 Well, when you exclude someone of that high profile, you're saying, I don't actually really want you here.

00:23:24.100 Please just find a gig in the corporate sector and trigger a by-election.

00:23:28.060 That way we would have been sending that message.

00:23:29.480 i mean when she was minister she's been minister of finance and deputy prime minister for a long

00:23:33.480 period of time here uh i i think that would have been a bit too fighty as it turns out she was in

00:23:38.680 so is stephen gilbeau as minister of canadian identity and things like that so he's in charge

00:23:43.000 of continuing media regulation it's a job he's had before uh it was a bit of a too hot a potato

00:23:48.280 i think to keep them in environment but the the new environment minister uh was actually his

00:23:53.640 parliamentary private secretary for a number of years and also did the same job for wilkinson

00:23:59.720 in empr now she's the environment minister the environment minister so julie de bruisen that's

00:24:06.360 the one so she knows the staff which is important she knows the different regulations they've been

00:24:11.960 trying to work on this that's a very dangerous uh appointment in my view from our point of view

00:24:19.640 Go ahead, Derek. No, no. You're the host.

00:24:24.440 Let's tease it out a bit, Nigel. I think, I mean, speaking of declarations of war, if Carney had kept Gilbo in an environment, he would just be, he's opening the door for Alberta.

00:24:37.600 he'd be such to say please go uh so i i think he he had a bit more tact than that but he did put

00:24:44.580 um someone who does appear to also be an eco radical in there just not named gilbo kept gilbo

00:24:53.140 in cabinet uh but potentially uh balanced it off with the environment uh the new energy minister

00:25:02.800 tim hodgson uh some people have said nice things that this person is not crazy that this is a

00:25:10.120 person who's not ideologically opposed to pipelines in liberal governments uh the previous

00:25:16.520 three terms of the liberals the environment minister has unofficially outranked the energy

00:25:21.080 minister however they both sit around the cabinet table but one a lot more heft than the other uh

00:25:26.980 how hopeful are you that maybe that relationship's changed,

00:25:32.320 that the energy minister is going to take a bit more prominence now

00:25:34.680 and now that everyone's worried about the bad orange man of the South?

00:25:38.300 I'm not that optimistic at all.

00:25:39.820 I'm sorry.

00:25:40.960 There's a part of me that wants to be just because I want it all your way.

00:25:44.620 But a lot of the mainstream media have been doing this narrative

00:25:50.000 about the old and the new and, oh, this is a new administration

00:25:53.840 and things are going to be different.

00:25:55.280 No, they're not.

00:25:56.880 this is the old script and what they have got is some new people some indeed have never even been

00:26:03.920 in parliament before and now they're now they're in in the cabinet but when you look at the four

00:26:10.960 main uh okay this is an arbitrary hammer for definition of what's important and what isn't

00:26:16.880 but when you look at the four main ministries that we're concerned about at the moment that

00:26:20.720 going to drive the agenda for the next four years you're looking at energy environment finance

00:26:29.280 and the treasury board now most people don't think of the treasury board but it's actually the most

00:26:33.280 important one of them all because they sign the checks they tell you what you can afford to do

00:26:36.960 and what you can't afford to do well you know mr carney has got his people in those ministries

00:26:45.360 That is going to be the inner cabinet, and it is the old script that they are playing.

00:26:52.100 I don't know where Tim Hodgson stands on the important pipeline issues.

00:26:56.520 I know he's had corporate relationships with pipelines and doing his job with IDRO One.

00:27:02.320 He's certainly a smart guy.

00:27:04.000 He'll be a quick study on all the issues.

00:27:06.640 But what's he doing there?

00:27:08.500 He is an old friend of Mr. Carney's from the days when Mr. Carney was governor of the Bank of Canada, and Mr. Hudson was an advisor to him.

00:27:19.460 So there's a relationship there.

00:27:21.160 They obviously think in sync, and now you have an activist environment minister, and you've got a—I find this a really—Philip Champagne is kind of a—he's sort of the fixer for a number of ministries.

00:27:37.320 He'll do what he's asked to do and enjoy doing it.

00:27:39.980 He's liberal.

00:27:40.460 He's liberal.

00:27:41.220 And then you have this absolutely unknown person, Shaftar Ali, who has had one term in Parliament, held no parliamentary posts, no committees recorded.

00:27:55.380 And there he is as president of the Treasury Board.

00:28:00.220 Now, I don't know.

00:28:01.180 Maybe he's a former realtor.

00:28:03.400 Maybe he has a grip on what the Treasury Board does,

00:28:06.700 or maybe he's prepared to be advised by the people who are already there.

00:28:10.860 But I don't know how strong a voice he's going to be

00:28:13.220 within that little group of five, being Carney and the four ministers.

00:28:20.140 So I actually have got a feeling, to answer your question,

00:28:24.140 that this is not going to be good.

00:28:26.300 In six months' time, we're going to have a clear sense of direction,

00:28:29.980 And I would like to know which of the five people I've just talked about, the prime minister and the other four, are going to be the ones who say, let's build a pipeline and let's put it here.

00:28:42.720 That doesn't sound like any of them.

00:28:46.660 I would add one list to the inner cabinet there.

00:28:49.320 That's the foreign affairs minister.

00:28:51.340 Is that called foreign affairs again?

00:28:52.760 Yeah.

00:28:53.880 Global affairs.

00:28:54.740 It's still global.

00:28:55.680 Okay, still global.

00:28:56.760 Whatever.

00:28:57.560 It's the foreign affairs minister.

00:28:58.600 that's normally a pretty important one but it's particularly now with the raucous relationship

00:29:04.900 with the trump administration so i i put that i'd add that to the list as well as as the end

00:29:09.680 but i would i would add derek that even the prime minister himself has come out and said like yeah

00:29:15.560 that's their role but the president is going to deal with the prime minister and that's my job

00:29:20.600 and he said it quite snarkily that he almost dismissed i think his foreign affairs slash

00:29:25.100 global affairs uh minister so he already cut them down a notch yeah i i i noticed that uh

00:29:33.340 now he's not wrong that you know executive to executive that that's a direct relationship

00:29:38.100 but a lot of the groundwork is normally laid by the foreign affairs or global affairs minister

00:29:41.920 and uh yeah seem to be like don't worry yeah okay i know she's silly but i'm in charge i'm

00:29:49.280 charge that seemed to be what he was saying um he uh let's talk about a new cabinet portfolio here

00:29:56.320 uh evan solomon is uh who knows the exact title of this is a new one yeah it's got to do with

00:30:02.880 artificial intelligence it's like ai and digital future or something uh uh we'll put the formal

00:30:09.360 title on the on the on the on the on the screen here but uh it's a bit noticeable and it's a

00:30:15.840 a funny thing i don't think this actually disqualifies the guy for the job that i

00:30:19.040 particularly know what the job is because it's a brand new job but uh during the campaign he

00:30:25.120 retweeted a fake ai image of uh mark carney uh with a bus and instead of saying liberal

00:30:33.280 said retard i'm sorry uh for those watching on cable i'm just this is just the news i'm 0.62

00:30:38.960 reporting what happened it was the retard um i mean it was a silly mistake and i don't 0.78

00:30:45.680 think it disqualifies the guy from anything but it was pretty funny that he was that he shared that

00:30:50.480 out uh obviously accidentally he needs media training he needs to be able to recognize what's

00:30:56.080 clearly a fake ai image and he's now the minister in charge of ai uh erica i'd like to get your

00:31:03.280 thoughts on on this uh there's been a contracting of cabinet portfolios which i think is a good thing

00:31:09.520 Uh, and he, Carney's now got more ministers of state on these little DEI and particularly

00:31:16.840 political gimmicky portfolios in many cases and concentrated down the cabinet to 28th.

00:31:22.240 I think that's actually, you know, a little credit where it's due.

00:31:24.460 That's a good thing.

00:31:25.180 It's still a big cabinet by Canadians, but by Canadian standards, it's, it's, it's compact.

00:31:30.280 Um, but, uh, anyway, this, this position here, um, is it, is this a real thing?

00:31:37.800 uh i don't know what is it or am i on the retard bus okay i think they do call it the minister of 0.74

00:31:45.720 ai either way that's what media is reporting it as across the board um if you had innovation tech

00:31:52.680 uh all of those other buzzwords it honestly just seems like they needed a job for him and they

00:32:00.600 didn't want to give him anything really at the he's at the big kids table but not at the big kids

00:32:04.600 stable. So I don't know. I think it was, I don't actually have as much criticism as maybe everyone

00:32:12.400 else on this. I do like the smaller government. I do like that they've put the economic portfolios

00:32:18.580 at the top of the list and kind of, like you said, downplayed the DEI culture, all that stuff.

00:32:26.760 The one thing I did want to point out though, is the under-representation in Western Canada.

00:32:31.500 And I get that you had like low numbers, but there is significant reduction in representation.

00:32:41.400 You've got the Saskatchewan MP who has that, as we learned on election night, a very large

00:32:46.200 riding Buckley Boulanger will be a secretary of state and MP in Edmonton Centre Eleanor

00:32:52.760 Alzweski being at the cabinet table as the Western kind of lead.

00:32:58.920 But yeah, I think that one's kind of a joke.

00:33:00.960 I don't know what deal he made at Evan Solomon in advance, but it's almost like they were he was kind of like, ha ha, F you as a joke to give him this portfolio.

00:33:12.540 So you really anticipated where I wanted to go with this was kind of cabinet representation for the West.

00:33:18.400 Canada, I think, arguably more than any other country in the Western world, has the most Byzantine cabinet appointment system.

00:33:28.040 and this goes back to confederation this is not something you can blame carney or trudeau or

00:33:33.420 harper or even mulrooney or the first trudeau if this goes back to confederation because canada was

00:33:38.920 such a polyglot to put together um you know you had french you had english you had uh protestant

00:33:47.920 and catholic that used to be a big thing um and then you had regional representation and then

00:33:53.820 You had ideological representation.

00:33:56.440 And so the cabinet in Canada is really always ranked the best man, the best woman for the job. 0.63

00:34:02.820 It's always been a factor in there, but far from the decisive factor.

00:34:10.080 Over the last 50 years, it's gotten wildly out of control.

00:34:14.400 But Carney seems to have largely kept that cabinet-making convention intact, except as it involves the West.

00:34:23.820 um i think uh i'm not gonna spoil your party shot on this but um you know there is one minister

00:34:31.500 you know the liberals elected only two people in alberta one calgary one edmonton uh the edmonton

00:34:36.360 one is a very junior portfolios western economic development it's essentially uh it's the pork

00:34:41.980 barreling uh it's essentially a pork barreling ministry where they like to hand out some money

00:34:47.420 and so that liberals get to stand there and cut ribbons once in a while uh it does nothing it's

00:34:52.460 just a waste of money uh and it's extremely junior as a portfolio that's representing all

00:34:58.700 of alberta uh and i thought in awe nodule that they left out cory hogan um cory hogan was elected

00:35:06.040 as the sole liberal in calgary calgary confederation uh when that seat vacated from

00:35:10.620 len weber um i don't really know the guy but he's always struck me as a reasonably intelligent

00:35:16.780 not totally crazy

00:35:19.180 liberal

00:35:21.240 new democrat he's been in both

00:35:23.080 I was surprised to see him excluded

00:35:25.320 the minister

00:35:26.740 I forget the guy's name from northern Saskatchewan

00:35:29.140 it's about almost a third to half of Saskatchewan

00:35:31.460 it's a gargantuan constituency

00:35:32.940 Buckley

00:35:33.460 I think also a fairly low

00:35:37.340 level portfolio

00:35:38.520 and it's the first liberal elected there

00:35:40.920 in a couple of election cycles

00:35:42.560 it does not

00:35:46.780 appear that carne is has made western outreach in his cabinet building a priority both by excluded

00:35:54.460 corey hogan the liberal elected in calgary uh and by the the two in uh calgary sorry in alberta

00:36:00.460 and saskatchewan giving them extremely junior kitty cabinet table positions sandbox yes you know uh

00:36:09.340 it's it this business of putting together a cabinet when you have to recognize this interest

00:36:16.060 in that area and this persuasion and this it it they're always going to say they picked the best

00:36:22.540 people for the job but whenever they came out when they come out as mr carney did and claimed to have

00:36:31.660 actually met a certain demographic target which he said we have achieved gender balance you then

00:36:39.100 have to think and i i mean this in no sense to be a personal reflection on uh eleanor

00:36:48.300 because i never met her i don't know that i hadn't heard of her before this

00:36:51.820 um or on cory hogan but you've got to look and say when the prime minister says we achieved

00:36:58.620 that target was it a question that well we've got two in alberta one man one woman we need

00:37:05.580 another woman okay maybe maybe it was that simple yeah hogan's got the wrong plumbing 1.00

00:37:11.420 he had a quarter to fit so well you could just identify against the cabinet

00:37:20.460 it's kind of sad that it comes down to that the idea that you're picking the best people

00:37:24.300 for the job and then claiming to have met a certain quota you need to go through the cabinet

00:37:29.340 actually and just see whether the various ways that they can be divided up fit into some kind

00:37:35.180 of template of the demographic breakup of canada i haven't done that yet so i'm not accusing

00:37:40.540 the government of doing it but the very fact that those questions can be raised

00:37:48.460 is a weakness in the system uh it's erica you know i almost feel like there's a

00:37:55.980 uh a dei and not just dei but like kind of an identity bingo card and you get points you know

00:38:02.940 i got this race i got this uh religion i got that gender and i got that region i got that language

00:38:13.340 and and you know you get you get points so you know like the three white guys sitting here we're

00:38:18.060 worth nothing uh you're i got one you're marginally above nothing you got one point

00:38:23.900 you know what this is comes back to the minority of gingers that are very 1.00

00:38:27.980 underrepresented in the house uh i should have two points just saying but uh two points yeah

00:38:34.500 all right okay you think you're a two-pointer um i mean like look if if it wasn't clearly that

00:38:41.920 they're still playing the the points bingo card here i'd say i actually i do think the regional

00:38:49.560 representation of the cabinet table probably out of the point system probably makes the most sense

00:38:55.380 uh religion uh you know protestant versus catholic going back to confederation makes a lot less sense

00:39:00.900 language uh okay i'll give a little bit for language but region really does matter here and

00:39:07.140 and on it seems that out of that the the bingo scorecard for the points you get before you're

00:39:13.780 a cabinet minister uh region at least as regards the west must rank very very low on that scorecard

00:39:22.440 uh in this cabinet making oh for sure if you look at atlantic canada they have five ministers and

00:39:27.720 one um secretary of state like for how many seats they're they're really winning the day

00:39:34.980 compared to western canada um i will argue though on the regional representation i mean

00:39:41.360 we had randy boissoneau and tell me one thing that he voted for that represented western views

00:39:47.280 this comes to say we got two representatives for one there so yeah yes double randy r squared um

00:39:54.040 but this is the problem is like you check a box of regionalism same argument with the senate

00:39:59.460 they appointed people that are never going to vote in the interest of true well to reflect

00:40:04.720 albertans and so you know i do agree there should be regional representation um nigel totally took 0.62

00:40:12.160 my parting shot on the quality. But I'll come up with another one. I'm quick on my toes. But

00:40:18.500 I was going to say, as a female, I hate that idea that I would only get a cabinet position if I was 0.99

00:40:23.140 Eleanor versus Corey. You've got to sit there and say, oh, did I only get it because of,

00:40:28.580 to Corey's example, my parts are a certain way that gives me the advantage. That sucks. That to 0.97

00:40:36.560 me is not a quality. That's that's a hand out. And so regardless of if you deserve it or not,

00:40:43.220 there's always that would always be lingering in the back of my mind. So that's unfortunate. But

00:40:47.280 you know, again, like you just because you're a woman doesn't mean that that's the perspective

00:40:50.820 you're always leading with. So I kind of disregard the regional thing, although you want to have a

00:40:57.260 voice at that table, but it doesn't mean that they're a true voice for the region in which

00:41:00.140 they represent. They're just geographically there. All right. Well, see, that's what happens when you

00:41:06.020 don't tell me what your parting shot is before i did tell you guys i announced it before

00:41:09.640 uh did you oh yeah i did no none of you listen to me you don't listen to me no no no we didn't

00:41:15.920 you're only two points you're gonna need more more points before uh before you pay attention

00:41:22.580 get ready for my parting shot oh uh and you know that's it for the show we're uh out of time

00:41:29.600 okay well we'll move you to uh near the back of the list uh parting shots uh cory

00:41:35.480 Well, I mean, as we watched, Honda basically saying, thanks for all the subsidies, but we're not going to build any electric vehicles in Canada.

00:41:44.660 Something that kind of got overshadowed, though, on the failure of trying to subsidize your way into prosperity is Trudeau's brilliant London, Ontario cricket factory, which was going to make tons and tons of bugs for us to eat.

00:41:58.600 $35 million went into that.

00:42:00.740 By the time they pulled the plug on it, it looks like they're $41 million in debt at that. 0.96

00:42:06.460 So just as another stark example of the stupidity of federal government spending, federal government investment, or any government investment typically in business. 0.97

00:42:16.540 I mean, really, go out on the street. 0.99

00:42:17.980 If you're trying to make a business model, ask how many people, do you want to eat bugs, and see what you get out of that.

00:42:22.660 And somehow they said, you know, this is a brilliant business model.

00:42:25.180 Let's put some money into it.

00:42:26.260 So that one's done. 1.00

00:42:27.280 I can't wait to see what stupid thing Carney puts our money into. 0.99

00:42:29.840 And what do the Liberals have to say for themselves? 1.00

00:42:33.560 Crickets.

00:42:34.540 Oh, come on, guys.

00:42:36.320 That one wrote itself.

00:42:37.720 All right.

00:42:38.820 Nigel, your shot.

00:42:40.200 Yeah, just let the crickets loose in London, Ontario.

00:42:43.860 Yeah, set them free.

00:42:45.920 You know, so we're coming back to regional representation here.

00:42:53.200 I was cruising the internet this morning, and somebody pointed out something I thought was worth passing on.

00:42:57.300 The little town of Brampton, Ontario, which has a population of 750,000, has six MPs, and three of them are in cabinet.

00:43:08.140 The two provinces, Saskatchewan and Alberta, population 5.2 million, have, as we've just discussed, two.

00:43:16.780 Two very junior.

00:43:17.860 In very junior positions.

00:43:19.120 So, I mean, when we're talking about how to build a cabinet and what you're looking for, I'm actually not sure.

00:43:27.300 what they were looking for why brampton had to be so over served maybe they're just really

00:43:31.780 brilliant people anyway there you go i'm not waiting to hear what erica's got to say uh erica

00:43:38.500 i'm i'm gonna are you ready yeah are you ready oh yeah am i gonna like it i don't know no my parting

00:43:47.300 shot today is to derek and nigel is to be smarter if you're going to pick selective hearing don't

00:43:54.420 Don't pick a fiery redhead. 1.00

00:43:58.360 All right.

00:43:59.680 All right.

00:44:01.100 My parting shot is to WestJet.

00:44:03.980 WestJet, I used to love you.

00:44:06.560 You used to be my main...

00:44:08.260 I used to hate, love, publicly hating on Air Canada.

00:44:11.880 And God, you just kind of became so much like them.

00:44:15.820 I want you to get back to your roots.

00:44:17.540 uh west jet uh has had to pay 65 000 in damages to an employee that they fired for being unvaccinated

00:44:28.040 even though that employee was working from home couldn't possibly infect anyone uh if you believe

00:44:35.320 it was even effective in that um they were working from home during covid and that was not enough

00:44:40.820 They did not get vaccinated, uh, and fired them 65, uh, they've now been, uh, she, this person's been awarded $65,000, uh, it's justice long delayed.

00:44:56.680 Uh, but I think this person has been given 11 months of their salary or something here.

00:45:01.320 um i mean covid's behind us now uh but uh you know some of these legal cases are finally

00:45:09.740 making their way through the system so big businesses uh the next time everybody loses

00:45:15.640 their mind with the latest witch hunt remember that some people are not going to take it laying

00:45:20.720 down all right well that's it for today's pipeline uh nigel cory erica thank you very much for

00:45:29.560 And thank all of you for joining us on the Western Standard Pipeline today.

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00:46:26.880 You

Western Standard - May 15, 2025

Unemployed Eastern politician heads West for a job

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