Western Standard - Western independence just got real serious, real fast

00:00:00.000 and we're oh show title is western independence just got real serious real fast okay okay and

00:00:09.760 rolling good day today is april 30th 2025 i'm derek fullibrand publisher of the western standard

00:00:18.640 and you're watching the pipeline i'm joined as usual by my good friends here western standard

00:00:24.960 opinion editor Nigel Hannaford you'll notice the black tie of morning and uh western standards

00:00:31.840 uh senior alberta call miss cory morgan no i didn't dress morning appropriately but i i'm

00:00:36.960 up the same sentiment i don't know i'm a bit more i'm not mourning as much as i'm in full

00:00:41.360 of piss of vinegar it's gonna be good uh we are missing uh erica barute's today uh she's

00:00:47.120 got a class to teach at mackamy so uh hopefully she'll be with us next week um normally we

00:00:52.960 be trying to, we have kind of three big topics. It's just two today. The election and the fallout

00:00:58.780 from that election in the West. We're going to be talking, you already know what happened with

00:01:05.900 the election itself, so we're not going to talk about the numbers, but we're going to talk about

00:01:09.520 maybe how it happened and what comes next. And then we're going to be talking about the spark

00:01:14.160 that has been lit in the West, namely Alberta and Saskatchewan with the independence movement

00:01:19.960 breaking from the fringes, I think, very clearly into the mainstream. We'll be talking about those.

00:01:25.860 Let's start with the election. The Conservatives are up. The Liberals are up even more. And the

00:01:31.360 NDP is gone. And I guess the bloc's still around, and I'm still very jealous of Quebec for having

00:01:36.880 that. Nigel, we don't need to go through the numbers. Everybody knows about the election

00:01:43.440 itself so let's kind of give our analysis of how it went and uh what it means for the big parties

00:01:50.680 well i think the first thing is this is going to be one of those textbook examples of

00:01:54.640 how a lot can change very fast six weeks ago we were sitting here confidently expecting that

00:02:00.740 there would be a conservative government on this day obviously we don't have that uh i mean i think

00:02:07.500 that uh it's astonishing how much the conservatives gained anyway uh the the pier polia legacy has

00:02:16.860 taken them up to nearly eight million votes at all-time high but as derek said you know that

00:02:22.380 the conservative was vote was up but the liberal vote was up more um i know you don't want to talk

00:02:29.900 about the numbers but it says it is actually interesting to see that the liberal vote was

00:02:34.860 8.3 million they haven't been above um six million since uh 2015. the ndp moved over uh that's really

00:02:46.380 all you can all you can say and then and fair bit of the block vote too um yeah some yeah the block

00:02:55.020 was down a bit they were actually down maybe 60 000 votes which is you know equivalent to a couple

00:03:02.140 of seats but anyway that's uh that's the way it went so where does that leave us today uh it

00:03:10.300 leaves us in with a minority government once they needed 173 for a majority they got 169

00:03:19.100 uh that's actually a government that can govern because there's always ways to make up for

00:03:26.220 for people being out giving yourself the, you know, the edge.

00:03:31.100 People get sick.

00:03:32.120 You make arrangements.

00:03:33.060 I'll go if you go, you know, that sort of thing.

00:03:35.400 So it's going to be tense.

00:03:41.240 But actually, Canada has had a lot of experience of minority governments,

00:03:46.300 starting with Harper back in 2006 and 2008.

00:03:50.200 So that's the first time I think we've had four in a row.

00:03:52.440 I don't think this has ever happened.

00:03:53.580 three in a row

00:03:56.640 I don't think we've had three in a row before

00:03:58.840 we've had two in a row

00:04:01.680 well actually

00:04:02.460 not with the same party because

00:04:04.420 Martin I think was

00:04:06.320 in 2004

00:04:07.740 you're right

00:04:09.980 so it happens but obviously

00:04:12.480 there's a very deep

00:04:14.120 what it shows is the depth of the

00:04:16.300 division

00:04:18.040 among Canadians

00:04:19.660 and you want to come to this later but clearly

00:04:22.300 that the depth the division is geographical as well as being um as being political um

00:04:31.260 see this is you know in in percentage wise the the conservatives have their best score since

00:04:38.380 brian mulroney's second win in 1988. unfortunately for the conservatives the liberals have their best

00:04:44.060 score percentage wise since pierre trudeau the first in 1980 his final governor he won a very

00:04:50.860 big majority um it's just that the ndp have completely just fallen off the map uh in any

00:04:59.900 other election in our modern era if you hit 40 you were assured you had a majority government

00:05:06.060 stephen harper won with 39.8 or something just a hair below 40 but you could round it up to 40

00:05:13.740 the Conservatives had 41. That should have been a comfortable, not huge, but a comfortable

00:05:19.880 majority government. The big story from the night, I think, is the complete annihilation

00:05:27.540 of the NDP. Jake Mead Singh coming in third place in his own constituency,

00:05:32.760 not even come close to winning his own seat, losing the vast majority of their caucus,

00:05:37.560 losing official party status. Nigel, you said it's a minority government. And for the moment,

00:05:43.740 It is. But, Corey, I'm not 100% sure it stays a minority government. And not just because Carney could achieve a de facto coalition deal the way Justin Trudeau and Jaymeet Singh had together, but because he might actually formally be able to build a majority, what I'm going to, I'll coin the term, a tactical majority.

00:06:03.700 um you've got uh seven ndp mps left that's it uh a lot of them i mean there's going to be some

00:06:12.660 hardcore ones who want to go down like it's the battle of thermopoly but some of them are looking

00:06:16.860 around thinking the party's over it's very lonely with just seven friends around here um and then

00:06:23.440 mark carney is if i'm mark carney i'm making some phone calls saying hey i got a cabinet spot with

00:06:29.620 name on it you just got to change the color you're sitting with and i saw there was a cbc interview

00:06:34.820 with um what's the name of that uh mp the ndp mp in vancouver um oh no no no it's a notable one

00:06:43.140 though yeah uh anyway it was some lady uh ndp mp in vancouver and she was asked blank blank would 0.98

00:06:48.820 you consider joining cbc yes and uh she was asked would you uh consider crossing the floor and

00:06:55.220 sitting with the liberals and she says oh well that's an interesting idea uh well what really

00:06:59.640 matters for me is getting results for canadians something to that effect she did not only not say

00:07:04.780 no she didn't even hint it might be a no which was her just saying call me carney uh so there's

00:07:12.780 at least one who i think is very much um open to the idea uh if she gets the right offer uh

00:07:19.540 But, you know, Carney only needs, I think, three.

00:07:23.040 He needs three to get a bare, bare majority.

00:07:26.180 A bit more would be nice.

00:07:27.780 But that could be enough to give him a bare majority,

00:07:29.840 and then to give him a little bit of margin,

00:07:31.620 he can cut deals with the rest of the NDP.

00:07:33.820 Elizabeth May, her one seat,

00:07:35.460 all of a sudden gets a little bit of leverage for one seer,

00:07:38.440 or the block.

00:07:40.600 Corey, do you think election night was a minority?

00:07:43.260 But do you think election night plus the time between now

00:07:46.600 and cabinet swearing in could turn into a majority?

00:07:48.240 I think it's very, very possible.

00:07:50.640 Not only, I mean, is it a narrow bar he has to reach?

00:07:54.360 As you said, I think they would strive for four so they can get a bit of a buffer.

00:07:58.100 I don't think they'll reach to May.

00:07:59.400 They don't need that Herod in the cabinet room or something.

00:08:04.680 But, yeah, you can do something to take her out of the mix.

00:08:07.060 Well, she could take somebody else out of the mix, yeah. 0.97

00:08:09.480 And the NDP MPs right now, as they're sitting, have a pretty bleak term looking ahead of them if they stick with the NDP.

00:08:18.240 they don't have party status. They don't have a research budget. They don't have a leader.

00:08:22.380 They're down in the polls. Their party is broke. If you're, they're almost certainly in a huge debt

00:08:27.500 as a party. Oh yeah. If you're even not even just in a self-serving way, but a pragmatic one,

00:08:32.780 if you really believe in what you're doing, saying, well, I want to get into a position

00:08:35.540 where I can make change. Here's a man offering me a cabinet seat. I can make the case to my voters

00:08:41.340 that I'm doing this for Canadians and I'm going to go. I think Carney has got a very strong

00:08:46.200 position to negotiate them in i don't think he'll get too much uh pushback from the liberals as well

00:08:52.280 i mean there's always the cabinet jockeying but the liberals aren't afraid of creating more

00:08:55.740 positions to keep he also just saved all their jobs the liberals were the party that was supposed

00:08:59.380 to get wiped out here and him and a combination of trump and well they know they need that

00:09:05.620 they know they need that majority so they're going to get on like there was a mistake the

00:09:09.280 apprentice made when he tried to buy uh you know floor crossers from daniel smith with the wild 0.93

00:09:14.700 as we get there and then he had a cabinet revolt and caucus revolt within his own party turned into

00:09:18.860 you know a lot of history carney won't have that risk i mean his members realize as you said they

00:09:24.140 just got their butts pulled out of the fire uh this would put them in a minority position where

00:09:29.500 they could secure their jobs for at least four years yeah i got a very strong feeling he's gonna

00:09:34.780 pull it off he's gonna get those few over well yeah when prentice did it the pc's already had

00:09:39.260 a big majority yeah there was they didn't need the seats it was just assuring that they had no

00:09:43.420 opposition anymore it obviously blew up in their face in historically spectacular Hiroshima level 0.52

00:09:49.060 proportions yeah but they didn't need to consume the official opposition when they already had a

00:09:54.300 big majority government here they need these votes I think no strategist would say that Carney's

00:09:59.460 doing a bad thing no strategist would say it's a bad idea to try and court these members and bring

00:10:04.180 them in uh it's not unprincipled it's pragmatic and uh and who knows maybe there's there's the

00:10:09.800 God kind of read Tory in the Conservative

00:10:11.640 Caucus. He was like, four years

00:10:13.800 in opposition. Again, I

00:10:15.680 really don't want to do it. You know what?

00:10:17.600 I'll take a cabinet post. It's not impossible.

00:10:20.060 Yeah, I'm sure the door's open.

00:10:21.760 Harper brought across the floor crosser 1.00

00:10:22.940 when he first opened. What was his name? He was from Vancouver

00:10:25.740 Kingsway. That's right. Yeah, I knew you were

00:10:27.740 going to ask me that. I should have looked it up.

00:10:29.740 But, yeah,

00:10:31.200 I think he put somebody, put that guy in the

00:10:33.800 Senate. Well, he pulled a senator

00:10:35.740 out to act as Minister of

00:10:37.900 Finance, I think, briefly.

00:10:38.960 When Harper was first elected in early 2006, when his cabinet was being sworn in, the press all had to do a double take when they saw a liberal MP walking up, and he was from a very liberal riding Vancouver Kingsway, and he said, yeah, I'm going to be, I think he was like the forestry minister or something like that.

00:11:00.120 So they have that guy, but there's also somebody they brought over from the Senate to fill a position as well.

00:11:04.800 I think that was for Quebec.

00:11:06.200 so you can do this kind of thing you know it's after all the decision that the governor general

00:11:17.420 is looking for is can you form a government that will have the confidence of the house

00:11:22.620 well if the house is confident then a couple of ndp mps joining well i guess you've done what

00:11:29.180 you're supposed to do i think it must come from the ndp but i wouldn't be shocked just the

00:11:33.900 conservative. No, and

00:11:35.840 Carney won't have to sell his

00:11:38.040 soul to get these people to cross.

00:11:40.240 It's not like the deals Trudeau had to cut

00:11:42.080 with Singh. You know, we'll give you a daycare program,

00:11:44.060 a dental care program, all these huge, big

00:11:46.020 spending programs to keep buying Singh's

00:11:48.040 love. These NDP guys don't have

00:11:50.020 any leverage.

00:11:51.740 They're

00:11:52.140 Well, and they'll also be able to

00:11:55.280 the line they're all going to use is, this is an unprecedented

00:11:58.040 national crisis. We've got

00:12:00.060 to fight back against Donald Trump

00:12:01.640 and the Western Separatists and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:12:05.140 And, you know, that's going to be the cover they use.

00:12:08.480 Yeah, which again leaves the NDP way more decimated than they already were.

00:12:12.600 I mean, they're in trouble.

00:12:14.020 I don't think they've hit bottom yet.

00:12:15.200 If they lose four out of seven, you've got three.

00:12:17.360 The three remaining, then I would guess,

00:12:19.300 and I don't know them well enough to try and break down individuals,

00:12:21.480 but probably some hardcore, pretty socialist.

00:12:24.360 I mean, they'll be the beachhead for them to start their 10-year rebuild, I think.

00:12:29.000 But that's going to be at least 10 years.

00:12:31.020 It's going to leave them with, like, the socialist 300 of Sparta willing to fight to the bitter end.

00:12:39.180 Yeah.

00:12:39.700 Okay, well, that's enough for the NDP.

00:12:42.180 I think, well, let's talk about Pierre Polyev.

00:12:46.080 Pierre Polyev insanely lost his seat last night.

00:12:49.500 The Conservatives had their best showing by the numbers ever.

00:12:55.800 But, you know, the country grows.

00:12:56.680 That's not exactly a historical relevant comparison.

00:12:59.440 But they had their best showing by percentage since 1988.

00:13:03.260 Just the math went wacky because the NDP is gone.

00:13:06.840 But he lost his own seat in Carleton.

00:13:09.320 And, you know, his seat in redistricting actually got more conservative than it was before.

00:13:14.300 He's still got a bunch of Ottawa bureaucrat types in there in the southern Nepean section of his riding.

00:13:19.580 But it's a big L.

00:13:20.700 And it kind of wraps into a little bit into the Ottawa Valley.

00:13:24.140 That's a fairly conservative area.

00:13:25.800 And there were an insane number, a higher number, a higher turnout in his riding than next door in Nepean where Mark Carney was running.

00:13:38.180 I have no evidence that there was foul play beyond the longest ballot initiative where he had 91 candidates where they're trying to swamp the ballot and make it impossible, which is one reason it took forever to count in that bloody riding.

00:13:50.740 and those, I think, largely leftist activists

00:13:53.860 did not do the same thing literally next door

00:13:56.440 in Nepean where Mark Carney was running.

00:13:58.260 They didn't bother doing it for him.

00:14:00.040 They did it for your polyop.

00:14:01.800 But that was not cheating.

00:14:03.040 That was perhaps a dirty trick,

00:14:04.920 but it was not cheating.

00:14:06.160 It was legal.

00:14:07.780 But what could explain that I think

00:14:11.360 Mark Carney's writing had 60, 63% turnout,

00:14:14.980 relatively average for the nation.

00:14:16.520 but

00:14:17.740 Polly Epps riding has like 80%

00:14:21.100 there isn't a riding in the country

00:14:23.040 that comes close to 80% except for this one

00:14:25.280 I'm not saying

00:14:27.700 Stalin, I'm not saying it was wrong 0.61

00:14:29.760 but I'm saying what the hell could

00:14:31.500 account for that, it smells

00:14:33.400 it certainly

00:14:35.760 smells, however

00:14:37.560 chatting to somebody

00:14:39.660 in the riding who

00:14:41.360 would know

00:14:43.500 somewhat what was going on

00:14:45.640 And the criticism that they offered was that Mr. Poliai had spent a lot of time campaigning in other people's ridings, not enough in his own.

00:14:57.680 But that's every leader ever.

00:14:59.520 Well, every leader ever, but a leader in this case with the opposition right next door, with 90 people on the ballot, with all the things that you...

00:15:11.240 It's not just during the campaign, it's before as well.

00:15:14.600 so maybe there's some truth to that but the other side of it remember that when mr pollier

00:15:22.040 originally won that riding in 2004 against liberal defense minister david pratt i believe

00:15:30.280 he did it on the basis of superior organization that was where he he was the one who went out

00:15:37.000 and door knocked and door knocked and door knocked and sure he wasn't leading a party at the time so

00:15:41.720 he had plenty of time to do that uh but it was an astonishing result when it came out

00:15:49.640 what who's this guy uh clearly to get 80 turnout somebody has done a lot of door knocking a lot

00:15:57.720 of organization but no one in the country got 80 like 80 it was the highest turnout in the country

00:16:03.960 mm-hmm by far like all right it's got the vote that's the bottom line

00:16:10.840 cory you know this a strong local campaign can maybe boost five percent typically like a good

00:16:17.560 strong local candidate five percent if you run jesus christ and your opponent is satan ten percent

00:16:23.960 well that's pretty otherwise everyone's just voting the party your problem as an individual

00:16:27.160 candidate is you live or die by what your party leader has done but when you're the party leader

00:16:31.000 it actually has an inverse effect though he's wearing the party as a candidate uh you know

00:16:36.680 as well and nothing accounts for an 80 turnout well when you have opponents throwing everything

00:16:44.020 but the kitchen sink into that writing yeah traditionally gets you five maybe ten it doesn't

00:16:48.820 get turnout up to 80 nothing accounts for that so how smelly do you think it is i've got no evidence

00:16:54.200 That is a huge numerical anomaly.

00:16:58.340 It is a huge anomaly.

00:17:00.480 The only evidence I've seen to date of actual dirty tricks is the longest ballot thing with, you know, not putting 91 people on a ballot.

00:17:08.140 Some of them got zero votes.

00:17:10.180 And then they didn't do it next door.

00:17:11.560 But again, that's not illegal.

00:17:13.200 That's just plain dirty tricks within the rules.

00:17:15.820 So you can't call that electoral fraud.

00:17:18.140 You can just call that funny business.

00:17:20.960 What, I don't know.

00:17:22.840 But what's odd to me is that, you know, the average share in the country is 63 ish percent.

00:17:28.020 I have to look and see what the final is.

00:17:29.260 It came close to 70. It's almost a record breaker this time.

00:17:33.000 OK, but I want to see I I have not seen any other constituency even approach 80 percent.

00:17:40.380 It just doesn't make sense. But you got no evidence beyond that.

00:17:44.560 And that's not even evidence. That's that's simply an anomaly that's worth taking note of and then looking into why that happened.

00:17:52.020 Well, and whatever happened, the other thing is, though, I mean, what a crippling blow to the Conservatives, because, I mean, they could have painted this as a victory in a lot of ways.

00:18:00.100 Hey, they increased the vote count for themselves.

00:18:02.880 They increased the number of seats.

00:18:04.560 They could say, well, we're still a stronger opposition.

00:18:06.760 We're moving in the right direction.

00:18:08.620 We can carry on and darn it, we'll take them next time.

00:18:11.500 But now you've got this party crisis of a leader without a seat in the House of Commons.

00:18:16.480 You know, Lansman's going to do what she can.

00:18:19.420 They've got to try and find a safe seat

00:18:21.160 to make room for him or something.

00:18:23.180 And he's going to be absent for at least

00:18:25.480 six months during a critical period.

00:18:27.480 It just really sucked all possible

00:18:29.500 ways of spinning the other night

00:18:31.440 as a victory for the Conservatives into a...

00:18:33.700 Well, I mean, it's still an improvement

00:18:35.040 on a lot of the big metrics,

00:18:37.140 but it makes it a defeat for

00:18:39.300 Polly Ep personally.

00:18:40.540 Yeah, and challenging for the party itself, too.

00:18:43.120 Yeah.

00:18:44.100 There's a lot they can take away from it.

00:18:45.380 They've got 20-odd more seats.

00:18:47.000 the expectation was they're going to have like 100

00:18:49.600 hot more seats

00:18:50.500 it was still a strong showing

00:18:53.160 but now that he's seatless plus it makes

00:18:55.480 him vulnerable for the up and comers

00:18:57.440 and you got to worry about that too

00:18:58.740 I know some people have been saying Kerry Diot

00:19:00.540 a conservative MP

00:19:02.940 who has been an MP before was defeated and has now

00:19:05.320 been returned and it didn't grease back

00:19:06.740 that's not a safe seat

00:19:07.820 the rumour was him

00:19:09.140 I verified that rumour is not true

00:19:11.840 and for several reasons

00:19:14.300 the biggest one being that's not a safe seat

00:19:16.140 That is a close, hard-fought seat.

00:19:19.600 If you're going to parachute your leader in, you do it ideally in a safe seat.

00:19:24.420 And two, one, where they can have, if you can, have some kind of claim to history in the area.

00:19:29.340 Which means Calgary or southern Alberta rural MPs, you guys can expect a call.

00:19:36.740 The other big thing in there is generally you're going to find a veteran who's already done a bunch of time in Parliament.

00:19:42.020 It's not a new sparkling experience for them.

00:19:44.440 The shine is off of politics.

00:19:45.960 You already know how crappy it is being an MP.

00:19:49.180 So someone who's done at least two terms, maybe more, in a safe seat in Calgary or rural southern Alberta,

00:19:57.420 you guys are going to get a call and be asked to take one for the team.

00:20:00.660 And you'll probably get appointed to a job somewhere.

00:20:03.120 That's usually the deal.

00:20:04.800 That's the quiet part.

00:20:05.340 You've got to give them a soft landing somewhere.

00:20:07.140 It's asking a lot.

00:20:08.240 Hey, you just pulled a six-figure run for four years.

00:20:11.760 We're going to ask you to step aside.

00:20:13.100 There's got to be a plan.

00:20:14.780 You're going somewhere.

00:20:15.600 nice yeah yeah so anyway that's he's gonna get a seat um i i don't think he's gonna have trouble

00:20:23.280 getting a seat because he unlike o'toole unlike sheer has i think of quite a bit of support in

00:20:28.080 caucus i think he's still got the membership at this time um which is good because he will have

00:20:33.520 to face a mandatory review he will uh but remember o'toole and sheer never even got to the point

00:20:39.280 where they faced the review they were ousted beforehand uh sheer informally and o'toole formally

00:20:44.880 So let's talk about Polyev's security as the leader of the party.

00:20:52.060 Start with you, Nigel.

00:20:56.080 If he, I mean, it's a huge disappointment not winning, but if he had won a seat, I think he'd be in still a pretty locked position to lead the Conservatives into the next election, whenever that is.

00:21:07.080 Losing his seat, it's at least a big one in the negative column on that question.

00:21:12.800 How secure do you think his leadership is?

00:21:14.500 if he can secure a seat in short order.

00:21:16.640 Well, I think it's pretty secure.

00:21:18.780 I mean, who else is there?

00:21:20.300 You mentioned Melissa Lantzman.

00:21:21.880 Okay, but everybody literally always says that.

00:21:24.200 When people were taking out Jason Kenney, everybody said, well, you're asking me what I think,

00:21:27.820 and I'm saying, who else is there?

00:21:29.320 He is the face of the party.

00:21:30.780 He is the brand.

00:21:31.900 Well, we see who else is there.

00:21:33.060 I don't think that's ever the strongest argument.

00:21:35.880 That's literally said every time.

00:21:38.080 They said that, taking out Justin Trudeau.

00:21:41.200 They said that, taking out Kenney.

00:21:42.140 They said it, taking out O'Toole.

00:21:43.740 That's not the strongest one.

00:21:45.900 There is nobody else that I can think of who would have the heft to do to repeat what he has already done.

00:21:53.080 Just sort of look through the list of the front runners,

00:21:55.660 the people who have actually been authorized to make public statements on the part of the party,

00:22:02.440 and there is nobody who has been allowed to develop the profile.

00:22:06.280 Oh, no, but they're not the ones who would win.

00:22:08.140 The candidates would be Tim Houston in Nova Scotia.

00:22:11.600 Doug Ford. There's a faction going on with him, and that could be problematic.

00:22:15.980 And Jason Kenney. Jason Kenney has reinserted himself

00:22:19.580 kind of back into the public debate. He has been very careful to not appear

00:22:24.120 like Doug Ford, who at very least appearance

00:22:27.680 and very possibly in substance actively sabotaged the conservative campaign

00:22:32.040 because he wants Paul Yev's job, it would appear, at least.

00:22:35.820 Tim Houston did that to an extent, not as brashly, but did that to an extent.

00:22:39.940 Jason Kenney's been very careful not to appear

00:22:42.520 to want Polyev to fail to want his job

00:22:44.520 but I

00:22:45.760 the guy's a political animal, I don't think he stays

00:22:48.420 retired forever, if Polyev's job came

00:22:50.420 open, Kenny's on the bow

00:22:52.240 Well

00:22:54.000 Mr. Ford

00:22:55.940 I do

00:22:58.420 not believe we'll get close to

00:22:59.980 the reaction against Western

00:23:02.460 conservatives who already feel

00:23:04.440 that they've been

00:23:05.080 Oh yeah, you want to light the fires out here, we'll get into that

00:23:08.460 later, but you put Ford in charge of the conservatives.

00:23:10.900 But if it's a Western candidate, if the Western candidate is Jason Kenney, then maybe he does

00:23:15.800 because Alberta conservatives hate him too.

00:23:19.980 Who do they vote for?

00:23:21.680 After what the Western Standard has had to say about Jason Kenney as premier, I can't

00:23:28.740 imagine that you would make the case that Jason Kenney would go forward to...

00:23:33.940 No, but what I'm saying is, what option would the West have?

00:23:36.680 because you get the points even if not a lot of people like you if it's doug ford versus jason

00:23:41.720 kenny is the two big guys well one of them is going to get the votes here but neither of them

00:23:45.720 is particularly liked in alberta and saskatchel or maybe you stay with pierre well yeah and i'm

00:23:50.520 saying in the event i'm thinking i still hear that pierre is going to be solved but if we're

00:23:55.400 talking about the speculative if somehow he's pulled down or uh there's a thing i mean if

00:24:00.920 anybody seems to be organizing the type of faction to get into that review because that's what they're

00:24:06.200 going to have to do i don't think there's going to be a caucus revolt to pull them like you did with

00:24:09.320 o'toole or or uh uh brinford on the other one there oh i'm sure sure yes uh but i could see

00:24:18.760 corey and dougie trying to pull a coup at the uh uh has the location has the location for that

00:24:25.400 convention been set yet i don't know i just know it's not going to be held in ontario yeah if they

00:24:30.520 want to be held in ontario because you're not going to want uh you're going to want to minimize

00:24:34.280 the advantage of doug ford to swamp that yeah so i'm gonna put him down so we're going down a long

00:24:38.120 speculative road but if uh there is a leadership race invoked because he got pulled down that

00:24:44.600 review it will only be because an organized movement managed to pull him down and the only

00:24:48.040 one i could see pulling that sort of thing would be ford and he's already then going to be entrenched

00:24:53.720 to start a strong race after that ugly i mean because again the conservatives if they could

00:24:59.000 hold it together for four years i think it's still very achievable that they could be the next

00:25:03.160 government but if they rip themselves up in fighting as they like to do uh they're going

00:25:07.880 to be in some uh but i mean yeah ford's a multi-term premier he's come from civic politics

00:25:13.480 to provincial i mean he wants to win the the triple crown you know let's let's see if you

00:25:17.160 can pull it off for the first time and and uh be the prime minister i can see him so what do you

00:25:22.600 say when they say well who i mean that question's always asked and there's never very rarely unless

00:25:27.880 it's like paul martin there's very rarely a very obvious answer someone always comes up because

00:25:31.960 because these are pretty good jobs to have.

00:25:33.820 But I will tell you right now,

00:25:35.920 you've got two current premiers and a former premier

00:25:38.220 who all, I think, want that job.

00:25:41.060 And they'll all go for it if it's open.

00:25:42.680 But I am with you.

00:25:43.900 I think Polly, as long as he can secure a replacement seat 0.69

00:25:50.020 in his short order,

00:25:51.700 I think he's probably going to be okay in holding his leadership.

00:25:54.440 Well, Ken, it doesn't have a good history

00:25:55.960 of former premiers becoming prime minister.

00:25:58.280 I don't think he ever has happened, has he yet?

00:25:59.980 uh i think it may have happened may have happened once but they never actually won an election

00:26:04.140 yeah yeah they might become party leaders or oh i see uh came in as the leadership but not yeah

00:26:08.460 yeah i mean that doesn't mean it's impossible but it's just uh we haven't had a good history

00:26:14.700 we don't tend to oh it's always the first time but oh yeah it's uh with the

00:26:21.500 incredibly divisive nobody's heard of houston kenny they've heard of i'm not sure that that

00:26:26.700 would be uh kenny is actually liked by conservatives in the east because they actually remember

00:26:30.620 pre-premier kenny they remember immigration and defense who everybody liked as a conservative i

00:26:35.980 could see some westerners warming up to him again if he's in the federal role again i don't know

00:26:39.580 about prime minister but i mean he wasn't as loathed as some might think in some ways or at

00:26:43.500 least particularly during his federal time in office and federally he was loved he was he was

00:26:48.620 really liked uh broadly by all conservatives especially on the right of the party well even

00:26:53.100 on the left I mean they would grudgingly offer him you know the hardest working member in

00:26:57.100 parliament awards and things like that when I talked to I remember you know when he was being

00:27:03.340 ousted and then right after he was ousted I talked to you know Ontario Conservatives and said like

00:27:08.380 why the hell did Alberta do this like he's the best one well that's because you remember

00:27:13.740 Minister Kenny you don't remember Premier Kenny and the country did not really experience that so

00:27:20.300 So Jason is a very cosmopolitan figure.

00:27:24.280 The blue Dodge pickup was not really the real Jason Kenney,

00:27:30.460 although he drove the wheels off it, but bless his heart.

00:27:33.080 But they did like him back east more than the Alberta did.

00:27:40.780 Okay.

00:27:42.360 Well, let's talk about possibly the biggest consequence of this election,

00:27:47.780 And that is the re-ignition of the Western independence movement.

00:27:53.540 And it appears it's generally been a 95% Alberta, 5% Saskatchewan phenomenon.

00:28:00.680 Right now, it's looking nearly equal in strength between Alberta and Saskatchewan.

00:28:08.800 Corey, maybe set the table just about what's happened from election night to today

00:28:14.660 uh on the independence front on the western front if you will on uh and how's it different

00:28:22.080 than previous flare-ups like the wexit one in 2019 well going even farther back i mean i'll

00:28:28.880 start i mean the independence movement kind of has been around a long time and it flows

00:28:32.160 as you said saskatchewan wasn't always the strongest for bc in the 80s was actually

00:28:37.040 more of the hotbed of it uh very strong and then into alberta went from a west to east sort of

00:28:41.780 now it's a prairie province discontent and interior bc perhaps but it's the frustration

00:28:49.380 and a lot of people again coming to the conclusion i mean justin trudeau come on he was horrific he

00:28:53.300 was a terrible terrible prime minister particularly to the west that's typical western voters a lot 1.00

00:28:59.940 of them still they expect well at least we'll get a breather now and then this is the breather this

00:29:04.020 is the the breaking point we know that 80 of our time we're going to be under liberal governments

00:29:07.860 but that 20 we can stick some conservatives in there to fix some problems and this time even as

00:29:14.100 bad as trudeau was all they had to do was chop the head off glue carney's head on top and the east

00:29:19.380 oh cool bring him back in the feeling of futility is is really hit deep you know i mean how bad does

00:29:27.140 it have to get that's what people are saying and now they're looking then if we can't change it

00:29:31.220 there, we've got to look at changing it here. Wexit, it was an enraged, again, partisan flare

00:29:39.460 up, but it cooled down again, I think with the hope that it was going to change again. But I mean,

00:29:42.980 every time this happens, you know, I've used the analogy, it's like a wave, you know, it pushes

00:29:48.320 forward and goes back, but every time it's staying a little farther forward, and people, this is 10

00:29:55.060 years of this, this is, you're not seeing a light at the end of the tunnel. And then of course,

00:30:00.860 yes, to exacerbate it or light it up. You know, as we found out yesterday, Premier Smith,

00:30:07.840 I think, I mean, I'm biased, but tactically brilliant, because she's not taking an independent

00:30:13.380 stance. But she's saying, I'm a pro-Alberta stance, and I'm a pro-democracy stance, and

00:30:18.880 I'm going to fix the mechanism for referenda that we had, because it was an awful creation of

00:30:25.340 Kenny, that was fake because it set an unreasonable bar and lowered the requirements to hold a

00:30:31.160 referendum and brought them into the realm of reasonability if an organized group tried to

00:30:36.240 invoke a referendum. That's a great warning shot across the bow to central Canada, but it still

00:30:42.240 keeps her clean from the referenda. Even if it gets invoked, she'll say, well, it wasn't me.

00:30:45.820 It's the citizens. It's their choice. It's their democratic right. And the groups now have a

00:30:50.720 target. They have something to focus on, something to rally around. I don't think a referenda would

00:30:54.640 be successful today but support is very high and now you've given those groups because that's

00:31:00.800 something they've always been lacking they haven't had a solid leader or a solid goal or a lot of

00:31:05.100 things that fell apart here's something to laser focus on organize get a ground game and get a

00:31:10.800 referendum going and that will allow them to congeal and even if some leaders come and grow

00:31:16.460 or break things a little bit it doesn't matter because the rest of them are still focused on

00:31:19.060 the referendum and it's gonna be very interesting to watch yeah and of course for me to keep

00:31:23.600 lighting the fuse at the bottom.

00:31:25.520 So, Nigel,

00:31:27.460 I don't know how that

00:31:29.440 point about

00:31:30.920 Daniel Smith announcing that they're going to amend

00:31:33.240 the Citizens Initiative Act

00:31:34.580 to make it actually usable for issues

00:31:37.640 the day after the election,

00:31:40.000 how is that not

00:31:41.320 by far the biggest

00:31:43.180 story in the country?

00:31:46.320 Smith has

00:31:47.340 indirectly just

00:31:49.500 said, Alberta's going to have a vote 0.85

00:31:51.340 on independence.

00:31:52.140 This is going to be a real thing. If this legislation passes, which I have every expectation it will, the independence movement will get the signatures. It will trigger a referendum, which means sometime between a year, year and a half from now, Albertans will vote on independence. This is not an abstract hope or idea anymore. This is a real thing. How was that not the biggest story in the country yesterday?

00:32:17.000 They're asking me to explain how the mainstream media doesn't understand Western Canada aspirations.

00:32:23.760 Or care.

00:32:24.320 Or care.

00:32:25.260 You know, I mean, the Western independence questions occupied some space during the election here.

00:32:29.340 They've been paying some attention, more than usual.

00:32:31.640 There's been stories on it, yet this one did not, like, I think.

00:32:36.220 The mainstream media is always late to the game on this kind of thing.

00:32:40.740 if it doesn't fit their paradigm if it doesn't fit their idea of how things are this is just oh

00:32:46.580 well this is crazy western stuff you know i mean out in alberta you know that's what they do and

00:32:52.980 they drive their pickups and wear their hats and talk about independence and nothing ever happens

00:32:58.340 well actually this is different today and it's not just about the money it's about the difference in

00:33:04.660 values that I think you see coming through subliminally in the Carney message, and people

00:33:11.620 are like, well, I don't think he's our kind of guy. So they don't get that. I remember

00:33:21.860 when Harper won, finally, in 2006, we had people phoning in from Eastern Canada to the Calgary

00:33:31.140 Herald, where I was at the time, saying, what just happened here? How was Harper Prime Minister?

00:33:43.140 Because we're all part of the same chain, obviously, we try to be friendly and helpful

00:33:46.900 and so forth. But you hang up on the phone and you think, what have you guys been thinking? What

00:33:51.940 were you covering for the last six weeks? And it's the same thing now. They know that there is

00:33:59.940 resentment in western canada because of the policies of the recent trudeau ministry

00:34:07.860 if they would do their history they would know that this actually goes back all the way

00:34:12.820 to uh to the trudeau's father when the liberal party took a decision that they would exploit

00:34:21.700 regional differences in order to get a majority in eastern canada this is where that famous quote

00:34:27.220 come from, you know, screw the wets, we'll take the rest. 0.99

00:34:31.020 This was an actually written down campaign strategy.

00:34:37.000 Up until that time, you could say Canada, and by the way, we've got a really excellent

00:34:41.760 comment, I think we just published it an hour ago, Michael Wagner, I mean, he's a voice

00:34:47.300 for Western independence and has been for years, but he makes a very solid historical

00:34:52.440 point.

00:34:53.640 But people say Canada didn't work.

00:34:55.220 Well, actually, for about 100 years, it did.

00:34:57.220 This is his explanation.

00:34:59.220 And then they took the cynical policy decision, probably only with one election in mind,

00:35:06.220 that they would exploit reasonable differences to get a majority,

00:35:09.220 but then it was the gift that kept on giving.

00:35:12.220 And so here we are today, where they're still doing it.

00:35:16.220 It's not just the money, it's also the kind of people that they want us to be,

00:35:22.220 which we, I think, reject.

00:35:25.220 But to your question, how is it not the biggest story in the country?

00:35:30.020 Because media don't understand it.

00:35:33.020 I don't know.

00:35:33.800 I haven't found a good answer because media have been paying attention to the issue of it.

00:35:38.360 But, you know, being the day after, maybe they thought it kind of spoils the globe around Carney.

00:35:43.560 I mean, there's that old, and I'm going to paraphrase probably, you know, the way things work.

00:35:47.400 You know, at first they all ignore you, and then they all mock you, and then, you know, eventually they're going to attack you.

00:35:51.920 I think at this point, too, they're at the dismissive stage.

00:35:54.100 I mean, as you said, they don't want to take the shine off for their liberal victory in Ontario, and they just don't want to pay attention to this movement.

00:36:01.720 They don't believe it's real.

00:36:02.860 They do believe it's just a handful of vocal rednecks, and it'll be up to, I guess, Albertan and Saskatchewan citizens to change or not change what that perception is.

00:36:11.440 I want to talk about how the independence movement feels very different right now than any previous iteration.

00:36:18.340 Before 2019, I mean, there's only been two pro-openly-independent MLAs in Alberta history.

00:36:25.020 I was one of them, and that did not last.

00:36:28.120 That was not a platform that was resonating in 2019.

00:36:33.800 But after the 2019 federal election, there was the big flare-up of Wexit.

00:36:40.800 In large measure, it was a Facebook group in the right place at the wrong time.

00:36:45.540 I said the right place at the right time with the right name.

00:36:47.820 And then there were some rallies, the Wild Rose Independence Party and Wexit had merged, sorry, so the Freedom Conservative Party and Wexit merged to create the Wild Rose Independence Party.

00:36:58.860 And that did creep up into the fairly high in the polls, it got into the low 20s.

00:37:04.280 But some of that was also just dissatisfaction with Jason Kenney.

00:37:08.660 Support for that crashed down into the low single digits the instant Danielle Smith became the premier.

00:37:14.820 um but you know the movement's never had business the significant businesses behind it

00:37:20.660 there's something else that's huge this time too that's youth if anybody's hopeless and feeling

00:37:26.100 hopeless in canada right now it's the younger generation that's what we saw in the polling 1.00

00:37:29.300 for the conservatives as well they don't see a light at the end of the tunnel they can't see

00:37:33.220 the ability to purchase a home at the end of the tunnel i i was the oddity when i led the alberta

00:37:37.460 independence party back in 2000 i was the 29 year old guy but when i'd stand at a podium speaking

00:37:42.820 to a room of a few hundred people the average age in that room was probably in the high 60s

00:37:47.780 now it's different uh you know there's there's still certainly some some older members supporting

00:37:53.860 it but no you i'm going to say that you're going to see a youth movement and that's different

00:37:58.980 they've got staying power they've got energy and they need to see a future they need to see more

00:38:03.220 than just a policy shift they want to see a path to buying a house raising a family having that

00:38:08.900 dream that's supposed to be what's accomplishable and is out of reach now that's the motivator and

00:38:14.500 i tell you that just decided that door is shut with with that changing the demographic i think

00:38:19.380 some of the people dismissing the independent sentiment had better sit up and take notice

00:38:23.620 because it is different this time and you've got the gray hairs like us who do remember the national

00:38:28.100 energy program who are as adamant about it as ever but now we've got a whole new generation coming up

00:38:31.860 saying well i'm not going to win anything playing through that set of rules over there and i got my

00:38:37.060 you know young family i'm trying to get going i'm ready to try something different

00:38:41.860 it'll be interesting how that yeah i i'd like to see some pulling on that um because you know

00:38:48.260 younger people probably never thought of anything but canada but is that going to start to change

00:38:52.420 as the light at the end of the tunnel has just been snuck down if you're if you're canada involves

00:38:57.140 a future uh perpetually renting and uh having staycations and uh you know and paying the debt

00:39:04.020 for the uh that your grandparents voted to take on yeah and a pension plan that this inadequate

00:39:10.580 as it is and as there will be others pointing out uh is not serving you well because you're

00:39:15.220 subsidizing another portion of the country with it i think there's going to be again there's still

00:39:20.020 some missing factors there's going to be some organization and leadership to reach out and

00:39:24.020 point them to say this is your rid out but what's going to be necessary here it's there and i and i

00:39:28.820 I have a feeling we're going to get is credible names,

00:39:32.840 not just a couple of cranks down on the farm.

00:39:35.360 No offense to the cranks on the farm.

00:39:36.820 I love cranks on the farm.

00:39:37.940 I'm a crank on the farm.

00:39:40.120 But I mean, we're going to need credible people,

00:39:42.680 credible leadership.

00:39:43.860 It's going to require money, organization,

00:39:46.600 all ingredients that have generally been missing

00:39:48.880 in an endurable way in the past.

00:39:52.120 If, you know, as the tide comes in on this,

00:39:55.020 the tide's coming now

00:39:56.120 and it's going to require real leadership.

00:39:58.820 to push it all the way, because we are, Alberta is having, we may as well say it, Alberta is 0.67

00:40:05.240 having a referendum on independence, as I've been formally called yet, but it's happening.

00:40:08.240 And as I said, that simplifies a lot of things. One of the issues that have killed independence

00:40:11.940 movements and parties is that they keep doing parties, which never work. They've got a terrible

00:40:16.100 history. We've got some exceptions in Old Stidsbury with one secessionist with the WCC in for a very

00:40:21.400 short time. But that's because a party, you've got different interests, you've got competing

00:40:26.320 interest between multiple parties you've got policy disputes you got everything else

00:40:30.800 a referendum is just a focus on a yes so we can really unify people on that i'm going to go to

00:40:35.760 the last word uh on this tonight before we get to parting shots i do want to talk about the

00:40:40.240 implications for the united conservative party of alberta and the federal conservative party

00:40:45.280 um you know in our editorial that we published yesterday we said that the small existing parties

00:40:51.920 or new parties that might want to come onto the scene should keep their powder dry until

00:40:59.920 the UCP and Alberta and the Saskatchewan party have had a chance to pick up the flag

00:41:05.680 of independence. Alberta's got a cottage industry at these parties. I was a part of it.

00:41:12.320 some of them are not keeping the powder dry

00:41:16.120 that's fine

00:41:17.540 but I think the use

00:41:20.600 Daniel Smith by doing this is saying

00:41:22.680 I'm not going to call the referendum

00:41:23.860 but the people of Alberta can

00:41:25.440 she clearly wants us to I think 0.90

00:41:27.640 stay more or less neutral in this

00:41:30.280 she can for some time

00:41:32.960 but once a referendum is formally underway

00:41:35.060 I think it's impossible

00:41:36.920 the premier of a province

00:41:39.000 that's voting on independence

00:41:40.740 could stay totally neutral on this.

00:41:44.840 I'm going to put

00:41:45.680 20 bucks down right now and say

00:41:48.000 at its next convention, the UCP members

00:41:50.060 are going to vote for independence.

00:41:52.240 The UCP is going to become a formal

00:41:53.740 independence party at their next convention

00:41:55.880 in the fall. I think that is

00:41:57.900 a likely thing to happen.

00:42:00.440 The Saskatchewan party,

00:42:02.280 I'm not sure what the support is

00:42:03.980 among the caucus and the cabinet, but

00:42:05.600 there's a lot of support among their members

00:42:07.440 for independence.

00:42:08.440 um but then federally it's less of an imperative because it's a federal thing but there's going to

00:42:14.080 be pressure essentially for conservative MPs to sit as our equivalent of the Bloc Québécois

00:42:19.660 um you know how how disruptive is this going to be for the provincial governments uh governing

00:42:27.980 parties and maybe the Alberta UCP in particular because I think the members are majority of the

00:42:34.680 members support independence very clearly at this time, but there's going to be a minority that do

00:42:39.140 not. And there's going to be, I don't know how it breaks down in caucus. I can tell you a bunch of

00:42:45.000 them are on the independence wagon in caucus. Can't say the names, but a bunch of them are not

00:42:49.780 going to be. It's going to be extremely divisive. And this is not like arguing about the curriculum

00:42:54.680 or the marginal tax rate. This is an existential question where you generally don't stay in the

00:42:58.580 same party when you disagree yeah it's um there's going to be a lot of need for the western standard

00:43:05.820 over the next few years to adjudicate and sort out and explain now the the question had to come

00:43:14.480 it wouldn't have mattered whether the premier wants to stay away from it or whether she

00:43:22.300 not bothered to change the referendum rules of engagement she didn't do that she'd probably 1.00

00:43:27.940 get overthrown awesome well you you might know better than i but i it's certainly it's not going

00:43:36.100 to what she this is a movement that's going to happen and it is sponsored because of the election

00:43:43.460 results so her she values her job she's going to have to and i think she is trying to stay back 0.99

00:43:54.100 from it by saying as you have explained let the people make the choice to hold the referendum

00:44:01.300 uh she's made it easier it's a lot easier to get 300 000 signatures of registered voters than 600

00:44:07.860 000 and i think they've got actually it's 177 000 because it's 10 of those who voted now not 10 of

00:44:14.500 those eligible and they give them 120 days voted now they're going to get those signatures it's

00:44:22.020 It's going to get. They're going to get it. It's no problem.

00:44:25.320 You think she can stay neutral? I think she wants to stay neutral. 0.97

00:44:28.540 But once this vote starts, this is going to be an international story.

00:44:32.240 It's going to dominate everything in Canada.

00:44:35.140 Well, somebody is eventually going to come out and say, well, where do you stand, Premier?

00:44:38.120 Probably won't have to wait long.

00:44:40.280 We will every day.

00:44:42.240 Suddenly the NDP is going to be out there saying, well, they're the party of patriots.

00:44:49.320 If you believe in Canada, well, then you belong with us.

00:44:53.180 That will be their line.

00:44:54.780 But no, I think they'll use the term traitors for us.

00:44:57.780 No, but they will hold up the maple leaf flag and call people to it.

00:45:03.420 Yeah.

00:45:05.840 You know, I think Smith can go through a whole campaign actually staying neutral on this issue.

00:45:11.380 We're going to have a campaign.

00:45:13.180 I think she's going to, she'll be forced to take a side. 1.00

00:45:15.200 Well, she'll be asked every day.

00:45:19.320 until she says, and then she'll be asked to confirm every day her answer afterwards.

00:45:24.640 It's going to be a long period.

00:45:26.620 Yeah.

00:45:26.960 No, I wouldn't want to be Danielle right now.

00:45:29.960 Maybe live in interesting times.

00:45:32.680 Yeah.

00:45:33.660 Okay.

00:45:35.160 Let's wrap up with our parting shots.

00:45:37.600 Corey.

00:45:38.380 Yeah, I'll go quick.

00:45:39.600 Well, the bizarre co-leading Green Party has ended.

00:45:44.300 Her co-leader has said he's out the door.

00:45:47.540 Why doesn't she just embrace it? 0.59

00:45:49.320 Green Queen May. She's the queen of the Green Party in Canada and has her lone one-person caucus, which really is the only kind of caucus she can manage. 0.99

00:46:02.540 Poor old Elizabeth May. Yes. Yeah, it's kind of sad.

00:46:07.620 So, you know, I was listening to Mark Carney's acceptance speech on the night of the election, and I was struck by the language that he uses.

00:46:17.160 the words that he says

00:46:19.940 which sound good

00:46:21.720 and they mean one thing to him

00:46:23.360 and they mean something else to somebody else.

00:46:25.880 He talked about Canada

00:46:27.440 has got to be a country that takes care

00:46:29.860 of each other.

00:46:31.320 That one's particularly struck with me

00:46:33.660 because when I'm thinking about taking care

00:46:35.800 of my friends and neighbors

00:46:37.160 I am talking about it in a very practical

00:46:39.780 way. I give something

00:46:41.740 myself, my assistants

00:46:43.900 something that

00:46:45.940 Judy is whipped up in the kitchen, whatever the need is, you know, you put up fences together and I bring the wire. 0.99

00:46:54.300 That's neighborliness in a Western sense.

00:46:57.440 That's not what he's talking about.

00:46:58.880 He is talking about this collectivist state where all the money goes into the middle and the government doles it out again.

00:47:06.260 And that is what taking care of each other means.

00:47:10.020 And you have to go through the liberal rhetoric and pick out these phrases to find out what they really mean.

00:47:15.460 It's just one that jumped off the table at me, but they're not what they appear to be, which is the parting shot.

00:47:21.780 All right. Well, I want to talk about the chicken terrorist. 0.94

00:47:28.380 This is a great story broken by our Alberta legislative reporter based in Edmonton, James Snell.

00:47:34.680 There is a poor farmer, some old guy down in the Lothbridge area, and he's been selling illegal eggs.

00:47:43.280 Why are these eggs illegal?

00:47:45.460 because he's not a part of the government's chicken cartel it's not just the dairy cartel

00:47:50.280 there's also the chicken and the egg cartel your a your chicken's gonna be registered with the

00:47:56.280 government if you have over a thousand chickens over 300 or 400 actually he had a thousand oh

00:48:01.720 yeah oh yeah so he's like way over um uh this guy was they sent five rc's to go arrest this guy

00:48:11.780 Five for an old man. 0.98

00:48:15.680 I've seen so much crime within 100 meters of our building downtown here where the police do zip.

00:48:21.920 They do nothing.

00:48:22.980 Or at the very least, they go talk to them and kind of lead them away.

00:48:25.820 Don't charge them.

00:48:27.460 They never get a day in court, that kind of thing.

00:48:29.620 They sent five RCs to arrest this poor old man, detain him.

00:48:34.960 And now they're trying to send a bunch of government goons to his house to murder the chickens.

00:48:41.220 They want to murder up to 1,000 chickens.

00:48:43.320 I euthanize, call whatever you want.

00:48:45.340 I mean, if I'm eating the chickens and I decide I want to eat my chickens, well, that's nature.

00:48:51.720 But when the government comes to do it without your consent, it's murder.

00:48:55.980 Chicken murderers.

00:48:58.080 This is the country we're living in, and it's not one I want to be a part of anymore.

00:49:03.480 It's not my big reason for independence.

00:49:06.040 The NDP in Alberta say Daniel Smith wants independence because of plastic straws.

00:49:11.220 yes i would leave my i would create a new country on plastic straws alone but that's not the only

00:49:15.540 reason there's also chickens all right so there we go okay all right i was also wondering how

00:49:22.020 much a dozen he was charging uh i don't know but i'm getting that when we had our own chickens

00:49:28.100 because we were selling eggs as well on the side and uh five to seven dollars a dozen for home

00:49:33.140 organic that's good stuff that's what i'm paying i always i mean oh anyone's never tried hutterite

00:49:38.260 eggs you need those big dark hot to ride eggs yeah okay well that's it Nigel Corey thank you

00:49:45.800 very much joining production thank you and thank all of you for joining us at home uh remember

00:49:50.780 with the elections over the paywall in the western standard is back up we had it down for

00:49:55.020 the vast majority of the election because enough of you donated for us to take it down but now

00:49:59.180 it's back up we need you to support the western standard as the only major independent media

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Western Standard - May 01, 2025

Western independence just got real serious, real fast

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