Western Standard - Wacko： Ottawa loses its mind

00:00:00.000 G'day! Today is May 1st, 2024.

00:00:27.940 I'm Derek Fildebrandt, publisher of the Western Standard, and you're watching The Pipeline.

00:00:32.900 Joining me as usual is Western Standard opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford.

00:00:37.800 Full of opinions today, Derek. Let's roll.

00:00:40.260 Always. And never short of opinions, Western Standard senior Alberta columnist, Corey Morgan.

00:00:44.400 Lots of rants left in me today.

00:00:46.940 Well, you know, we had a hard time coming to our list of topics today, Nigel, didn't we?

00:00:52.580 We certainly did. By the time we'd worked through 10 wacko things about Justin Trudeau,

00:00:57.940 You know, then we got the serious stuff.

00:01:00.980 There was a lot of stuff, and so we've had to cut it down to four.

00:01:04.960 But, you know, of course, we have to talk about the wacko thing in Parliament.

00:01:10.000 Justin Trudeau says, you know, sorry, no, Pierre Polyev says Justin Trudeau has wacko policies,

00:01:17.220 and he is a wacko for his legalization of hard drugs in British Columbia.

00:01:22.840 And the huge kerfuffle that created included, you know, especially from some members of the press gallery who thought that this was a historic day on par with Pearl Harbor and September 11th, a day that shall live in infamy. 0.52

00:01:36.480 Oh, everybody will talk about where were you the day that Pierre called Trudeau a wacko.

00:01:42.120 Do you remember?

00:01:43.520 Yeah.

00:01:44.720 Wild stuff.

00:01:45.780 We're going to have to get into it because the headline of what we just said there doesn't do it anywhere near justice.

00:01:49.900 The Western Standards senior columnist, Linda Slobodian, breaking a very, very disturbing story out of Vancouver where a mother, I use that term loosely here, is having her 14-year-old biological daughter who is autistic and trans do drag queen stripteasing.

00:02:19.900 for perverts in bars in front of adults who throw money at her as if she is an over 18 consenting

00:02:30.520 adult. I believe that Linda's expression was not that they threw money at her, but they tucked

00:02:36.780 money into places they shouldn't be. I mean, odd enough with an adult, but to do it to a 14 year

00:02:45.940 old autistic trans kid in drag. I mean, we're into dystopian territory here. Stuff that you'd think 0.99

00:02:55.820 was a hoax, it was so extreme that you have to check it twice, check it three times. A great day

00:03:03.320 for Alberta, a great day for oil. The Trans Mountain Pipeline is flowing. Let my people flow.

00:03:11.620 So it's been a long time coming and grossly expensive to the taxpayer as things are once the government takes over a business.

00:03:19.480 But at long last, Trans Mountain Pipeline pumping beautiful black gold to the West Coast.

00:03:26.900 We're going to get into that.

00:03:28.080 And train dead. Alberta's crazy plan for building rail everywhere. High speed rail, monorail, monorail, monorail. I don't know. A crazy plan that will cost tens of billions of dollars and never pay for itself. Designed as if we had the population density of the Netherlands or somewhere like that. Crazy, crazy stuff.

00:03:58.080 okay so let's start with kind of the big story going on right now will we put an end to this

00:04:03.200 wacko policy by this wacko crime industry no no no 0.63

00:04:14.160 that is not there are a couple of things which are going on here today

00:04:19.920 which is not acceptable and i ask all members please to keep themselves to control themselves

00:04:27.200 I'm going to ask two things.

00:04:29.560 One, I'm going to ask the Honourable Leader of the Opposition to withdraw that term, which is not considered parliamentary.

00:04:41.980 Mr. Speaker, I replace Wacko with extremist.

00:04:44.820 I'm going to ask the Honourable Member to please...

00:04:47.820 I'm going to ask the Leader of the Opposition once again to just withdraw that comment, please.

00:04:57.200 And I'll invite the Honourable Member, I'm going to ask the Honourable Leader of the Opposition to please withdraw that comment, and simply withdraw that comment.

00:05:18.940 I'll replace it with radical justice policy. 0.91

00:05:21.720 I am not asking to replace, I'm asking the Honourable Member to just simply withdraw.

00:05:27.200 Mr. Speaker, I replace the word wacko with extremist.

00:05:33.940 I ask the Honourable Leader of the Opposition, one last time, to please withdraw that comment

00:05:42.300 and simply withdraw that comment.

00:05:45.160 I simply withdraw and replace with the aforementioned adjective.

00:05:48.600 Mr. Poliev, I have to name you for disregarding the authority of the chair.

00:06:03.040 Pursue it to the authority granted to me by Standing Order 11.

00:06:06.980 I order you to withdraw from the House from the many participation by video conference for the remainder of this day's city.

00:06:14.480 Okay, and you know, I've been a member of the Alberta legislature. I know the rules around these things. It's iffy if you call someone wacko or not. I've seen much worse things said and people not be thrown out.

00:06:28.500 But if it was, Pierre Polyev did what you do when you're in that spot in Parliament, because I withdraw that comment and replace it with, in this case, he said extremist.

00:06:39.380 And those who wish to punish themselves by watching Question Period will know that Justin Trudeau calls Pierre Polyev extremist every single day of the week.

00:06:47.480 So that's clearly considered parliamentary language, at least if a liberal says it to a conservative.

00:06:51.240 That wasn't enough, and he throws Pierre Polyev out of Parliament, causing the walkout of the whole conservative caucus.

00:06:58.500 Okay, whatever. A lot of drama. The speaker should be fired for this or forced to resign, proving, again, he's letting his partisanship bleed into what is supposed to theoretically be a nonpartisan job.

00:07:10.820 But what I'm really interested in was the reaction to it, particularly of the media.

00:07:16.640 The most notable one for me was Althea Raj. She's on the CBC's at-issue panel, and she's, I think, a senior columnist or reporter for the Trauma Star.

00:07:28.020 She's lefty, frontal star type, but I've always considered her fairly rational.

00:07:32.720 You know, an interesting person to read.

00:07:35.440 Don't agree with on many things, but at least a level-headed person who doesn't just fly off the handle.

00:07:41.520 But boy, she did here.

00:07:43.400 Let's pull up the tweet from Althea Raj.

00:07:47.140 You know, as you said, Corey, do you remember where you were when Pierre Polyev called Justin Trudeau a wacko,

00:07:54.300 So acting as if this was like 9-11 or September 11th, the most shocking thing to ever happen in Canadian history since bouncy castles and hot tubs invaded Parliament Hill.

00:08:07.180 Start with you, Corey.

00:08:08.480 Well, I'm not as surprised with her as you are, apparently.

00:08:11.760 I mean, she's been acting more like a copywriter for the Liberals than a columnist for quite some time now.

00:08:16.880 So letting it get a little more candid with people and outright on X wasn't, I find that shocking.

00:08:23.220 But again, no matter where you stand on the spectrum, it's just a gross exaggeration.

00:08:28.320 I mean, I can see the usual, you know, coin up there, poo-pooing it as non-parliamentary and unprofessional.

00:08:33.880 I can see that and whatnot, but this hysteria as if this was something of note.

00:08:40.300 I mean, it was parliamentarians acting childish.

00:08:43.680 I think the first time that happened in Canada was during John A. MacDonald's government, and it's been happening ever since.

00:08:49.240 It's just another robot, but it's what's being made of it.

00:08:51.420 That this should have been just already fading, but it's still burning, and they're going wild.

00:08:56.920 Nigel, I would expect this from some, but even some more less insane, moderate lefty ones, like Althea Raj, 1.00

00:09:11.100 my theory is that they're panicking as it becomes clear that this government is doomed.

00:09:18.140 It is, I mean, nothing is certain.

00:09:20.080 The votes have not been cast and counted yet, but, I mean, it's getting real hard to see a mathematical possibility for Justin Trudeau and Jagmeet Singh to stay in power.

00:09:30.080 And Pierre Polyev is not an Aaron O'Toole.

00:09:34.340 He is a conservative, and, I mean, it's not going to be as great as people are probably dreaming about at night, but it's going to be a very significant change.

00:09:44.840 He's promising to end the media subsidies.

00:09:46.940 It's promising to defund the English side of the CBC.

00:09:51.780 So that will very directly hurt grifter journalism organizations.

00:09:55.760 I think it's just they're panicking and it's starting to seep out now and they're letting their mass down.

00:10:01.360 Well, you're right about that, Derek.

00:10:03.600 And there's another layer of this, and that is the groupthink that pervades the Ottawa Press Gallery.

00:10:11.880 It's not a place where you're going to find a great diversity of opinion.

00:10:15.460 it is a place where they get together and they first of all they decide what the story is going

00:10:21.600 to be and then they all write the same thing and if they don't you know there's usually a problem

00:10:27.360 back at the office or where's the story on well i didn't think it was important i got you this

00:10:31.240 instead no no everybody else has got it so we've got to have it so there's that group thing mentality

00:10:36.140 that goes on in the on the press gallery that carries over to the reaction to something like

00:10:42.780 this, where, you know, Mr. Polyev calls the Prime Minister a wacko. He is thrown out of

00:10:52.420 the House of Commons. And then, this is remarkable. This is amazing. Nothing like this ever happened

00:11:00.500 before. Well, actually, it did. It was newsworthy. It was newsworthy. But it's not a day in which

00:11:05.880 we'll live in infamy. No, it is not. But if you get yourself all worked up in the James Joyce,

00:11:11.960 just on the backside of the Langevin block where Elgin Street meets Sparks, then yeah,

00:11:18.760 you can make a story out of it. So your theory is that they're just drunk,

00:11:24.120 which is not the worst theory I've heard coming out of the press gallery from time to time,

00:11:27.800 as we know. Eric, I was not so specific. You're much more eloquent and you have a way of saying

00:11:36.680 parliamentary language is a funny thing. You can say things, you just can't say them in certain

00:11:40.360 ways. So, you know, if you're in Parliament or the upper legislature, Saskatchewan, et cetera,

00:11:45.160 you can't say the minister is a liar or the minister is lying, but you can say the minister,

00:11:52.440 what the minister is saying is just not rooted in what he knows to be the facts or something like

00:11:58.920 that. Yeah, you have to find roundabout polite parliamentary ways of saying lying.

00:12:05.880 That was your parliamentary way of saying these guys are boozing.

00:12:12.600 I don't know. Maybe let's maybe talk about the issue itself.

00:12:18.760 Was it unparliamentary? Debatable.

00:12:23.400 Certainly among the least offensive things considered banned in Parliament.

00:12:28.680 I remember Justin Trudeau called when Justin Trudeau was before he was Prime Minister,

00:12:33.240 but he was a member of the opposition he called a member of the conservative cabinet a piece of

00:12:38.440 scheisse uh put it as parliamentary as i can put it so keep close to the original english uh

00:12:45.720 i mean it's very far from the least parliamentary thing but even if it was on parliamentary

00:12:50.840 he offered till the spear fine i withdraw the comment replace it with extremist

00:12:56.360 which does that same speaker allows justin trudeau to say every single day justin trudeau

00:13:02.280 He gets asked about taxes, he gets asked about capital gains taxes, inflation, immigration, whatever it is. 0.95

00:13:07.680 And Justin Trudeau stands up and says, leader of the opposition is a white supremacist and extremist. 0.92

00:13:12.380 Well, actually, let's just segue briefly onto the white supremacist thing. 0.64

00:13:16.580 And apparently the background to this debate, for those who don't punish themselves by watching

00:13:22.680 the question period every day, is that the prime minister had just goaded Polyev about

00:13:33.300 his meeting, an encounter would be a better word, it was just, hi guys, how are you doing,

00:13:39.480 with a group of people who were protesting the carbon tax.

00:13:43.580 Now, I realize that the evidence is that in Mr. Trudeau's mind,

00:13:48.840 there is a suite of subjects which, if you adhere to them,

00:13:52.760 even if they've got nothing to do with race,

00:13:55.080 nevertheless identify you as a white nationalist or a racist of some kind.

00:14:00.080 So, you know, you can be against COVID restrictions

00:14:03.060 and you are a white nationalist.

00:14:04.720 You can be, apparently, against the carbon tax,

00:14:08.700 and that, too, makes you the holder of unacceptable opinions,

00:14:12.380 He's probably a misogynist and almost certainly a racist, and that is what he said. 0.88

00:14:17.040 But what was he doing consorting with white nationalists? 0.98

00:14:21.400 Well, that's the background to it. 0.95

00:14:22.780 And after that, you know, things got fizzy, and Mr. Polioff called him a wacko.

00:14:30.620 Before he did that, though, he had an interesting response, you know, stating the prime minister has got no business calling anyone a white supremacist,

00:14:39.180 considering that he spent the first half of his adult life in blackface.

00:14:42.380 Yes, well, and that hits a little close to home for liberals. 0.58

00:14:46.120 They really don't like being reminded that the most famous racist cosplayer on the planet is Justin Trudeau.

00:14:56.340 He took Al Jolson's spot.

00:14:58.140 Yeah.

00:14:59.240 No, actually, our columnist, Paul Forsyth, also referenced the fact that we have a very spotty record on racism,

00:15:05.840 they the liberals when they were giving money through heritage canada to this notable anti-semite

00:15:12.080 for a couple of years and i think what the guy was saying was outrageous uh not equaled until

00:15:17.280 the recent round of protests so uh you know they have no leg to stand on calling anybody anything

00:15:23.840 but to do with race so that brought the irony of the situation probably just got everybody worked

00:15:31.200 up. We'll save this episode at home, folks. We're going to remember this day for all time. You'll

00:15:36.560 be telling your grandkids about where you were when Justin Trudeau was called a wacko. All right. 0.87

00:15:45.180 Now, this one is at least whacked. So senior columnist for the Western Standard, Linda 1.00

00:15:52.860 Slobodian, first to break this in Canada. The video first, a video first emerged in the United

00:15:59.020 States we're not going to show the videos they're just far too disturbing and I think even sharing

00:16:05.420 the videos is abusing the child further because one day this child might be freed from the madness

00:16:13.580 being pushed by the mother here and much of society at large even governments we've got in

00:16:21.340 Vancouver a mother with a 14 year old biological girl with autism and the mother seems to believe that her daughter is actually her son.

00:16:36.340 I mean there are trans kids but in this case certainly seems like the mother is enthusiastic to push it and the child has mental health issues.

00:16:44.340 I'm highly skeptical in this case to say the least, but it's not just the mental abuse of potentially falsely pushing that the child is trans here. It's that this child is now.

00:16:56.340 Now, you have to follow along here at home. 0.73

00:17:01.420 Biological female identifies as male, but dresses as a drag queen, so dressing as female again, to more or less strip for perverts, if I'm following that around right. 1.00

00:17:23.280 There's a lot of twists and turns as there are these things.

00:17:26.340 but not a word so far from the police and child protective services and not a word from legacy

00:17:33.780 media in any of this, Nigel. Well, the word from the police, Linda did contact them, and she sent

00:17:41.340 them all the information that's in this column, and they said that was not enough information

00:17:47.240 for them to do anything with. Now, I don't know what more you need, the names of the bars,

00:17:55.060 the names of the people and so forth photographic and video evidence the video which by the way

00:18:03.060 was up there for about 45 minutes and then somebody somebody took it down it took linda

00:18:09.780 slobodian's article to get that filthy video i i watched about five seconds and i just didn't

00:18:16.180 want it in my mind this was put up not as exposing them but as we're proud of this we're proud of

00:18:22.260 this. This was not someone exposing child abuse. This was them breaking about it. This is little

00:18:26.900 Nova Tropica, but that's her stage name. This is what she does. Anyway, that lasted about 45 minutes 1.00

00:18:32.260 once Linda Subodian put it out there. Get that down right away. You know, the bars don't want 1.00

00:18:39.460 to talk. I'm not surprised, but I am surprised that the police would dismiss this so out of hand.

00:18:47.220 And what the larger agenda behind their instructions might be, I don't know.

00:18:53.420 If you keep your kid out of school, they'll arrest you.

00:18:56.220 If they think if the kid's got a welt or something, they'll ask questions

00:19:01.480 and the protective custody people will be around to see you.

00:19:04.980 Well, here they are.

00:19:05.700 They're taking bookings.

00:19:06.800 They're charging money.

00:19:07.760 People are stuffing dollar bills or $10 bills into her clothing.

00:19:12.800 And I said, oh, yeah, well, we need more information than that before we can proceed.

00:19:18.520 What's going on in BC?

00:19:20.480 I actually asked the question rhetorically.

00:19:23.040 I don't know.

00:19:23.900 This is crazy stuff.

00:19:27.640 Corey, let's talk about the police maybe in particular here.

00:19:31.820 Maybe it's not enough for tractors on its own here, but, like, there's video evidence,

00:19:37.060 statements from the mother about her proud involvement in this.

00:19:42.800 It seems to be ample evidence to, at a bare minimum, put in an investigation here.

00:19:47.600 Thoughts from you about why the Vancouver police would be just totally silent?

00:19:51.340 Terrified of anything trans. 1.00

00:19:53.420 They're absolutely terrified.

00:19:55.200 They're transphobic in a sense. 1.00

00:19:56.860 They don't want the protesters out front, the trans lunatics, and they're lunatics. 1.00

00:20:00.500 I'm getting sick and tired of it. 1.00

00:20:01.800 I'm getting sick of it.

00:20:03.200 The activists.

00:20:04.020 Yeah, the activists.

00:20:05.400 And that's what I mean.

00:20:05.900 There's that difference.

00:20:06.840 And they are pushing and pushing and pushing.

00:20:10.100 Eventually, we've got to push back.

00:20:11.680 If this had been a straight 14-year-old girl put on stage in a strip bar, the liquor board would have shut the place down, child services would have taken the child, the police would have charged the parents if the parents were involved, and any of the men, the grotesque monster sitting around the edge encouraging this and putting dollars could be at risk of being charged with sexual assault on a minor as well.

00:20:31.060 It is absurd that this isn't being treated like that, and this isn't the first time.

00:20:36.360 That's the other thing.

00:20:37.360 And I don't remember where that video came from, but it was maybe two years ago.

00:20:41.160 It was a boy dressed as a girl, same sort of thing, on a stage doing a sexualized show.

00:20:46.140 Gaze Against Grooming is the group that I – and this is another thing, guys.

00:20:50.340 You know, this – we're only onto this because somebody in the States had the moxie to follow up on this. 0.84

00:20:57.180 They heard about it.

00:20:58.000 They got the video.

00:20:58.940 And it's beyond the pale. 0.91

00:20:59.960 I mean this is this is sexualized behavior this isn't even a clownish drag queen sitting reading 0.94

00:21:06.120 a story in a library this is stripping this is sexualized work this is pedophilia I'll say it 0.98

00:21:12.520 outright and and it's being encouraged and I'm thankful that Linda got on clear like the child's 0.90

00:21:18.600 genitals as far as we know were not exposed and his breasts were not exposed apparently there was 0.96

00:21:25.560 tape uh as if this is making it better for a 14 year old in front of fully grown old perverts

00:21:33.880 yeah like what kind of man would sit through that it just i mean you know people go to dirty bars

00:21:39.880 that's fine but like but then this happens i mean did no one kind of look to their buddy and be like

00:21:46.760 what's going on here it's a little young like someone yeah something's like no one do that

00:21:54.640 and perhaps there was because I hope this is just walked out before it I hope so and you know if

00:22:00.560 anyone's watching who was involved yeah you can you know we don't even have to use your name if

00:22:04.940 you don't want your name associated with it I can understand that but like I want to know what the

00:22:09.520 happened? Did anyone just take like any moral issue with a 14 year old little girl being exploited

00:22:17.680 like this on stage with the patrons, though, it's the fear of the woke, we're supposed to suspend

00:22:22.880 common sense in the same sense that, you know, it's still because they haven't reversed it yet,

00:22:27.200 I could go shoot up heroin in a child's playground on a slide, and nobody's gonna say a thing.

00:22:31.520 But if I lit a cigarette on it, yeah, I'd be busted and taken out of that park,

00:22:36.000 like nobody's business when it comes to these bizarre woke things where you're not supposed to

00:22:39.680 let your eyes tell you what's happening the authorities are scared they just don't want

00:22:43.840 to get in the middle of it but kids yeah like this is not a one-off there are three separate bars

00:22:48.320 which implies three separate performances uh and this is just the ones we know about the ones that

00:22:54.480 were on uh on the youtube video that has now been um now been removed anyway gays against groomers

00:23:03.280 called attention to and shared photos. That's Nova, the child or the child's mother, presumably posted

00:23:11.260 on social media. So like, they're part of what they're doing.

00:23:16.900 It's, it's almost, it's just dystopian. This is the kind of thing I would have thought someone

00:23:22.500 who's maybe a little too someone who's actually maybe genuinely transphobic doesn't like trans

00:23:28.240 people like actual trans people would make up to discredit them at some point. But no, we've got it.

00:23:37.120 Okay. Let's turn to some happier news here on our side of the mountains actually going

00:23:45.200 I guess back towards that area. The trans mountain pipeline at long last is flowing gushing sweet

00:23:55.200 black gold from the oil fields of Alberta to the Pacific coast of the Pacific Ocean,

00:24:02.000 or we get out to world markets. This is

00:24:08.640 it's not maybe the sexiest thing. You know, Justin Trudeau would show up to cut the ribbon

00:24:13.360 on a $1 million, you know, tampon dispenser for men, but he won't show up for the opening

00:24:22.160 of a 35 billion dollar piece of economic infrastructure that happens to carry evil oil

00:24:29.280 in it well you think that might be because that 35 billion dollar piece of infrastructure was

00:24:34.000 only supposed to be six billion and that is five five it's the government interference and this

00:24:38.960 that has not only lofted the cost into the stratosphere but delayed the thing by about

00:24:45.840 eight years i mean this is absolutely absurd what has happened in this thing a really insightful

00:24:50.800 column on this this morning there you probably read it by now the uh but from murray lightwell

00:24:55.120 now murray lightwell was uh it was on the national energy board but before he was on the national

00:24:59.200 energy board as a commissioner he actually worked on this project so he he knows some of the people

00:25:04.480 who were who were involved and his um his his uh short take on it is that the the team the

00:25:13.440 construction team did yeoman work and the problems of the project should not be laid at their feet

00:25:19.440 And so then he goes into a lengthy discussion of the kinds of things that would hold up construction once the government got in.

00:25:31.860 So, for example, he talks about the, well, first of all, the removal of the National Energy Board from Calgary to Ottawa.

00:25:42.300 right there, put a layer of political complexity into it that could never be, never, never be

00:25:50.500 helpful. But so much of it was dealing with First Nations, obtaining social license. But,

00:25:59.940 you know, you can take that too far. There are millions of reasons for delays, he says,

00:26:06.280 and when the owner is not cost conscious, which the government isn't, but the private company was,

00:26:12.300 there's only much screaming that the project team can do so you know shaming the

00:26:20.300 individual uh it goes on and on read the article log in read the article murray lytle

00:26:27.100 corey when you've like this this was on track until combination of militant activists and the

00:26:34.060 bc government remember john horgan's ndp governor at that time was in a coalition power sharing

00:26:39.260 arrangement with the Greens. Well, the Liberal government in BC was no better. She was putting

00:26:44.220 conditions on that. Marginally less terrible. You know, Christy Clark was not good about it,

00:26:49.340 trying to put conditions on, but not overtly hostile to his existence. She just wanted to

00:26:53.820 milk something out of it that she had no jurisdictional right to. Degrees of terrible.

00:26:58.620 But then John Horgan and with the with the Greens and his effective coalition was dead set on

00:27:04.620 stopping it and it just made the project totally unviable. You had Rachel Notley here who

00:27:11.340 supported it once she at least became premier but you know didn't do a lot for it until the ground

00:27:16.460 fell out then this became a crown corporation and as soon as you have an unlimited checkbook

00:27:24.140 at your disposal all all financial discipline is just completely melted. The degree to which

00:27:32.380 which had melted from five to 35 billion.

00:27:37.400 That surprises even me.

00:27:39.220 And it's hard to surprise me with how wasteful government

00:27:41.860 can be when it intervenes in business.

00:27:44.220 I mean, every time you stop something that large,

00:27:46.800 I mean, this is a project with hundreds of trained people

00:27:50.040 in camps with heavy equipment that are in there

00:27:53.000 and they were chronically being stopped

00:27:55.440 over the most absurd of things.

00:27:57.000 I mean, this was just a month and some ago,

00:27:59.020 I think they stopped it because they found a red-tailed hawk's nest.

00:28:03.100 Now, listen, if you want to look it up, it is the most common hawk on the planet.

00:28:08.320 It is not endangered in the slightest way.

00:28:10.580 There weren't even chicks in the nest or anything.

00:28:13.360 And they stopped that one incident alone probably cost $10 million

00:28:17.700 because you went and shut down people for no good reason.

00:28:21.400 Well, the reason that it costs so much is that you can't send these guys home

00:28:25.040 and lay them off for a week while they get sorted out because they won't come back.

00:28:27.940 Well, once you get your team together, they've got options.

00:28:32.700 The other things, and I've had a hard time because I've been trying to push into that.

00:28:35.380 I was in the oil field for a long time.

00:28:37.020 I've never seen a project with guys signed so heavily to NDAs on everything and anything that happens in there.

00:28:42.540 Even post-project, these guys cannot say openly a peep, but they will candidly say some of the stuff that's going on.

00:28:51.400 And you work in there in the ways that they try to pacify First Nations. 0.97

00:28:54.500 So it's a delicate area, but you bring in a bunch of monitors, they call them.

00:28:59.500 They're people you hire to pay $500 to $1,000 a day to sit in the pickup truck.

00:29:03.320 But they're supposed to be able to see wildlife and artifacts and things like that.

00:29:06.920 Others won't.

00:29:08.440 But they love to delay the job because it keeps their job going longer.

00:29:12.080 And not every one of them, but I've worked on enough jobs, most of them.

00:29:16.220 It's a good gig.

00:29:17.200 You don't want it to come to an end.

00:29:18.580 And you've got a real strong motivation to find every little bird shell, alleged arrowhead,

00:29:24.060 And everything else, again, these delays and delays and delays and delays.

00:29:28.320 It's just, again, a private company at least would have shouted for mercy, like, please, we've got to do something.

00:29:33.360 By the way, I think in a little light on the $500, three or four years ago, I was working for an energy company, and they were paying $1,700.

00:29:40.020 Yeah, I'm thinking, it's been a long time since I've been in the field.

00:29:43.980 Yeah, no, no, it's a racket.

00:29:47.540 Now, let's talk about the announcement itself, kind of as I began with this.

00:29:53.040 Justin Trudeau was nowhere to be seen.

00:29:55.460 Now, I know lefties in Alberta say, like, how come no one gives Rachel Notley and Justin Trudeau any credit?

00:30:02.760 Well, Notley, I don't think, was really too heavily to blame for its original collapse.

00:30:09.120 She didn't advocate very hard for it.

00:30:10.680 She did pivot from being against pretty much all pipelines when she was running to become premier. 0.67

00:30:16.560 Then she became premier and realized, oh, crap, we're going to need some pipelines. 1.00

00:30:20.940 I think she did have a road to Damascus moment where she realized, well, to fund all these things, we're going to need some pipelines. 0.93

00:30:27.940 We're going to need to sell some oil.

00:30:29.860 But it was a little too late.

00:30:31.640 I don't think she was too heavily to blame for it.

00:30:33.820 Justin Trudeau, however, was not doing much in the way of B.C.'s obstructionism, not upholding the rightful constitutional jurisdiction of the federal government for provincial jurisdiction,

00:30:45.020 putting all sorts of smoke signals up like the No More Pipelines Act and things like this.

00:30:50.940 So, yeah, of course, we don't give him much credit here, but neither does he claim much credit.

00:30:57.940 He comes to Alberta once in a while, and you'll look around the room, and if he sees it's all, okay, it's mostly oil guys.

00:31:03.940 Yeah, I remember I bought you that pipeline.

00:31:06.940 But he never says it back east.

00:31:08.940 He doesn't like to see it on national television because his base hates that he did it.

00:31:13.940 Those not voting for him aren't going to vote for him anyway because he did it.

00:31:18.940 So he was nowhere to be seen for the opening of the biggest piece of infrastructure since the Canadian Pacific Rail was completed 120-odd, roughly, years ago.

00:31:36.980 A national moment at gargantuan cost of the taxpayer, and he's nowhere to be seen.

00:31:44.340 Nigel, do you think that was a smart move to not be seen?

00:31:48.940 Well, probably for him, yes. For all the reasons you've just articulated. Back in the eastern, look, the only part of the country where he's going to get any traction at all when the election comes, and probably not enough even there, but it would be in eastern Canada and central Canada.

00:32:04.920 and back there they don't think like we do and they still think even as they're gassing up their

00:32:10.440 cars they make no connection between their ability to fill up their car and drive to the grocery

00:32:16.360 store and get their things in plastic bags to then come they make no connection between that

00:32:24.280 and the oil rig in alberta which actually produces the oil so pipelines oh they're bad

00:32:32.920 well you're just selling this for export you should leave the oil in the ground well

00:32:36.280 you know it doesn't work like that madam but i guess that's what you think so mr trudeau aware

00:32:43.080 that the green people are not going to forgive him on that doesn't want to remind them of it and make 0.82

00:32:48.760 it sound like he's proud of it because there isn't actually within the liberal cheering section

00:32:54.280 anybody cheering for energy remember when he uh put down his five which turned into 35 billion

00:33:01.720 dollars to buy this thing on taxpayers behalf. The Liberals have four seats in Alberta. This was

00:33:07.240 after 2015 and a few naive little pockets to Calgary to Edmonton sent Liberal MLA's to Ottawa

00:33:16.280 was the first time Liberal MPs to Ottawa. It's the first time Calgary had elected a Liberal

00:33:21.960 federally since early Pierre Trudeau. Early, early Pierre Trudeau had been a long, long, long time.

00:33:29.960 And perhaps he thought, you know, if he showers us in corporate welfare as heavily as he likes to shower Ontario and Quebec, well, maybe we'll reciprocate and elect even more Liberals.

00:33:42.960 That obviously didn't happen. The Liberals have been cut back down to size. They're also now facing probably zero Liberal MPs in Alberta after the next election.

00:33:50.960 But perhaps he had some political hope at the time. That's clearly completely evaporated, Corey.

00:33:57.960 Do you think it would have been good politics for him to come to it?

00:34:02.960 Or politically, do you think he made the right move by just made the right move?

00:34:06.960 Just keep it quiet slide under the radar.

00:34:08.960 It's an issue they want just to be forgotten, really, at this point.

00:34:11.960 I mean, anybody crunching the numbers can see that if this thing ever generates a return, it's going to be we're going to be dead of old age by then.

00:34:20.960 So politically, he's best just to carry on with his antics in Parliament and do what he can to try and turn about his sagging fortunes.

00:34:30.980 Coming out here, as you said, to pay lip service in a province that isn't going to give him a seat anyways, there's just nothing for him in it.

00:34:38.160 He was a principled man, might come out, you know, but he's not.

00:34:41.660 Just to say that this is something that got done, but he doesn't care. It's about politics.

00:34:45.180 Well, the interesting thing is it didn't even send a minister.

00:34:49.760 He didn't send anyone.

00:34:50.500 I mean, you could send the, you know, you could send Wilkinson, who's an account.

00:34:55.300 They say, well, you know, I'm too busy insulting the leader of the opposition,

00:34:59.460 but I'm going to send a minister out to just sort of be there and smile.

00:35:03.380 Didn't even want to do that. So clearly this is, for them, this is not an item they're proud of,

00:35:08.340 not an item they're going to put on their resume when they present for the next election.

00:35:12.340 All right. All right. Let's speaking of giant government spending boondoggles, let's talk about Alberta's next coming giant spending boondoggle.

00:35:29.300 You know, every 15 years or so, Alberta politicians get it in their head, you know, be really nice, high speed rail from Calgary to Edmonton.

00:35:41.520 And as someone who was in the Alberta legislature for four years and drove the QE2 one or more times a week, I can tell you, the thought at least popped into my head.

00:35:53.820 Wouldn't it be nice if I could just take a, you know, look at this, look at the grass in between the two sides of this highway.

00:36:00.540 Rail would look real nice right there.

00:36:02.140 I could sit down and zip up to Edmonton, do some work or have a nap or whatever.

00:36:07.440 That seemed nice.

00:36:09.020 And I'm positive. 0.99

00:36:10.380 That is the only reason this always comes back up is because politicians making that damn drive get sick of it. 0.99

00:36:18.660 And it just can't help but pop in your head. 0.96

00:36:20.420 I just had a good sense to think, no, every time we've studied that, we've always known it's going to be a financial disaster.

00:36:27.140 Well, the Alberta government is at it again.

00:36:30.360 And I really hope to see better from these guys.

00:36:32.880 These guys, they're making smart, good moves in a lot of areas.

00:36:36.980 But, you know, big ticket spending on infrastructure items, they seem to have a weakness for you.

00:36:43.700 Got the corporate welfare for the Calgary Flames Arena.

00:36:47.500 Pretty skeptical on that one.

00:36:49.260 But this one, this one you could pay for until your great grandkids are paying into the tax pool.

00:36:57.920 Every time we've studied this, it's always said it's not even close to being able to ever break even.

00:37:04.940 And, you know, we go to Europe, and you ride the Eurorail, you ride, you know, Frankfurt to Amsterdam or something.

00:37:12.960 It's great.

00:37:14.080 It's a great system.

00:37:14.920 It's so nice.

00:37:15.680 Don't even need a car unless you live really in the country.

00:37:18.560 But they have population density that is just on another planet than us.

00:37:22.980 Alberta's bigger than France.

00:37:25.640 And we have the population of, what, maybe Paris?

00:37:30.420 Like the whole of Alberta?

00:37:31.400 Probably not.

00:37:32.380 I don't know.

00:37:33.120 whatever the population of paris is but probably comparable to the population of paris

00:37:36.760 in something the whole the size of all of france actually bigger it's just crazy it doesn't work

00:37:42.320 out um and it always reminds me of that uh that scene from the simpsons where they get sold on

00:37:48.800 the monorail let's pull a clip from that up quick and i swear it's springfield's only choice throw

00:37:53.800 up your hands and raise your voice what's it called once again

00:37:59.660 It's catchy, Corey.

00:38:05.160 Corey, why do we just keep doing this every 15 years?

00:38:08.660 And it seems to be conservative governments.

00:38:12.640 I hate to say it, but to a little bit of a degree,

00:38:14.680 I think it's somebody looking for their legacy already.

00:38:16.660 Got to start this.

00:38:17.560 I'm the one who brought the train to Alberta.

00:38:21.420 And again, I speak nothing but positively quite often about Premier Smith,

00:38:24.940 But I think there's some personal bias towards trains and some vanity that's pushing this rather than any.

00:38:31.740 Is that a reference to the restaurant she and her husband had?

00:38:33.940 Well, you know, you really got to like trains if you're going to build a restaurant in one.

00:38:37.500 But I mean, it's just so absurd from a, you know, a purportedly small government out of the way person.

00:38:43.880 I mean, we have a living, breathing example in California right now.

00:38:47.300 I suggest anybody have a look at it.

00:38:49.460 They've been at it for 15 years.

00:38:51.200 They've sunk 36 billion American dollars, real dollars, not the Canadian peso.

00:38:54.940 yeah into this thing and they haven't even got a mile of it built yet they got some of it started

00:39:01.500 and they think they might have a stretch to bakersfield from los angeles which is not very

00:39:06.700 far if people look on a map and bakersfield's a dump so it's not many people like airbase or

00:39:10.700 something it's an oil town and it's it's gross either way they figure it may come in when it's

00:39:16.540 finished at 136 billion dollars by 2070 or something is where the timeline has gone to

00:39:22.940 That's how insane this is. And this is an area, again, which has big cities and population density where they have the population of Canada might possibly be viable.

00:39:31.760 And that's the disaster they've got going. And we have a premier in Alberta saying, you know, we might want to go down that road.

00:39:37.720 No, just no. You've got way more things to do. Premier Smith, please get on those.

00:39:43.260 I think there's somebody who's got Premier Smith's here who in his basement has got a massive model railway outlet and they they have their own little schedule and they just see these things.

00:39:52.940 between Calgary and Edmonton and it's fun it's it's it's kind of getting ideas for the boardroom

00:40:00.260 now no no don't even go there and by the way you can mock restaurants in rail cars if you like but

00:40:09.480 that's a good place to get us oh I had a fantastic breakfast there I'm just saying it's a good

00:40:14.000 restaurant that somebody might have a bit more of a thing for trains than the average individual

00:40:17.740 well I and I and I think that's where look if you really want to know whether there's any market for

00:40:21.980 this. Have a look at the Red Arrow. Now, I'm surprised when you were going backwards and

00:40:25.540 forwards, did you ever consider taking the... When I was at the Canadian Taxpayers Federation,

00:40:28.960 I did all the time. I did sometimes in politics. The Red Arrow, it's pretty damn good. And it's

00:40:34.380 got Wi-Fi, you can work on it. For those who don't know, that's a bus service. Yeah, it's an

00:40:40.280 express bus, just for those who don't know. But it's like high-speed rail, but I don't know,

00:40:46.400 one billionth the cost and it's run by the private sector and they make money at it but you know

00:40:53.300 if if there was a larger market you would see more of them wouldn't you probably would you don't

00:41:00.060 actually see so many that you think well why are we even on the road this should be on the rail

00:41:05.580 so i'm i'm a big booster i never take it i have no reason to but i mean i'm big booster of red

00:41:11.280 Arrow just as a concept, they make money taking people between Calgary and Edmonton as many as

00:41:16.740 want to go. I went for the Red Arrow's watch and I want you as an advertiser. I love Red Arrow.

00:41:21.380 Everything's an opportunity. Yeah, I'm always thinking of Red Arrow. Actually, I was in, I think,

00:41:26.020 the biggest pileup in Alberta history. I was on my way to Edmonton to cover a budget with the

00:41:30.460 Canadian Taxpayers Federation. It was just massive, multi-hundred car pileup and I was in the Red

00:41:37.140 And he somehow didn't crash.

00:41:40.140 Then we come to a stop, and I could just hear smashes behind him.

00:41:43.140 We were just waiting for a tractor trailer to whack us. 0.99

00:41:46.140 It never came.

00:41:47.140 Anyway, I helped the lady's car out of the ditch,

00:41:49.140 and we drove almost damn near to Saskatchewan to get around

00:41:52.140 and made it to the budget with, like, 30 seconds to spare.

00:41:56.140 Love Red Arrow.

00:41:58.140 We need those guys to add.

00:41:59.140 Well, there you try that with your train.

00:42:02.140 I'll just reroute it up to Estevan and back.

00:42:07.080 Look, to be as fair as it's possible to be, there are some routes that would be amenable to some improvement.

00:42:15.400 I mean, starting right here in Calgary, just extending the sea train out to the airport would be a good use of taxpayer money.

00:42:22.680 Some people want to make a direct link between the airport and Banff.

00:42:29.000 Now, the Chamber of Commerce may have other ideas about cutting Calgary out of the loop.

00:42:34.600 And Banff may think they've got enough people already.

00:42:37.160 But, you know, I could see where there's a case to investigate.

00:42:40.640 I think going to Banff is crazy.

00:42:42.200 But going to the airport, that makes sense.

00:42:44.580 Except for you poor guys in Edmonton, you decided to put your airport halfway to Red Deer.

00:42:49.740 It's not in Edmonton.

00:42:50.500 That's why I never flew from Calgary to Edmonton, because you're flying from Calgary to...

00:42:54.600 Yeah, you're still going to another hour ahead of you.

00:42:56.280 You're flying a half an hour north of Red Deer.

00:42:58.000 Yeah, pipe dreams.

00:43:02.820 It's a good subject to come up just after the Trans Mountain Pipeline.

00:43:06.320 This shows what happens when a government takes hold of a large capital project.

00:43:10.960 Likewise, when we're talking the rail link Calgary to Banff.

00:43:14.380 Well, either they're going to have to lease the track space from CP, which means a stunted start and stop train going all the time because you're dealing with the freight that's going on there.

00:43:23.120 Or you build a second track.

00:43:24.640 And if people know geography, that goes right through the Stoney Reserve.

00:43:27.800 So you can start negotiations now, and maybe my grandchildren will see the deal they cut to double that track, but we've got to get realistic.

00:43:34.100 Yeah.

00:43:35.540 Negotiating with Sutsina was like... 0.92

00:43:37.740 40 years.

00:43:39.220 Yeah, 60 years.

00:43:41.220 It started roughly after the Second World War.

00:43:44.520 I mean, it opened a couple of months ago.

00:43:48.340 It's a great road.

00:43:49.520 I love it.

00:43:50.140 I'm glad we got it done, but those negotiations ain't quick or cheap.

00:43:54.520 Some reality applied to this.

00:43:56.240 You know, I do like that it's big picture, you know, the next, like, it's Alberta greatness thinking.

00:44:07.560 I like that, but it's just not realistic.

00:44:12.280 It's not going to work.

00:44:13.580 We're going to vow to get government out of the way and streamline the application process.

00:44:18.160 If there's a private interest that wants to come in and expand one of these, we'll be behind you with everything but dollars.

00:44:24.700 I'm even fine with some limited support.

00:44:26.760 Like if the private sector builder wanted to come in, I could see a role for government procuring land and right away.

00:44:33.540 Like land and right away.

00:44:35.160 You know, that was how I felt about the arena.

00:44:37.560 You know, the arena will provide some public good.

00:44:39.920 We're going to like to have the arena, but it's still a private business venture.

00:44:44.020 We shouldn't be in the business of building it.

00:44:45.480 But, you know, if we wanted to procure some dilapidated part of downtown and, you know, make some room for it, I can see the city and the province having a role there, not beyond that.

00:44:57.880 Same goes for the rail here.

00:44:59.180 If we want to procure some right away, I can see, you know, taxpayers chip it in for that.

00:45:05.280 But that's about it.

00:45:06.120 Well, there's a lot of grouchy landowners between Calgary and Edmonton.

00:45:09.080 And if we recall the power line deal, just to try and get a power line through,

00:45:13.200 imagine the length of the court battles and everything now to expand a railway right now.

00:45:18.200 Actually, you could probably do a lot of that just along the QE2.

00:45:21.960 Well, then you better build a lot of overpasses.

00:45:23.780 I mean, we're talking about a bullet train.

00:45:25.360 You can't just have level crossings with this thing.

00:45:27.480 This is going to have to...

00:45:29.320 Yeah, either way.

00:45:30.540 I don't know.

00:45:31.100 You know what?

00:45:31.640 The good news is, find some wood.

00:45:34.700 It's never going to happen.

00:45:35.840 our politicians talk about this every 15 to 20 years and eventually but somebody's going to make

00:45:43.920 nine million dollars to study what we already know and that still hurts me you know someone's

00:45:48.320 going to get rich just talking about that's cheap they paid five million dollars in calvary just to

00:45:53.200 change the slogan from new west to blue skies if they can get a whole study on putting a fast train

00:45:59.840 to edmonton done for nine million dollars i say the guy that actually is working cheap premier

00:46:05.200 Smith, if you're watching, I'll do the study for five.

00:46:09.940 4.9.

00:46:10.940 Oh, I see.

00:46:11.540 You got your beat.

00:46:12.340 All right.

00:46:13.020 All right, gentlemen, thank you.

00:46:14.620 Thank all of you for joining us today.

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Western Standard - May 02, 2024

Wacko： Ottawa loses its mind

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