Western Standard - Will Harper handle Alberta’s money as head of AIMco？

00:00:00.000 Good evening. Welcome to the pipeline. My name is Corey Morgan. I'm a columnist with

00:00:27.720 the western standard i'm usually in the one of the panel spots on the end but derek fildebrand's

00:00:33.120 indisposed today so you got me hosting this thing it should be quite fine we got a lot to cover

00:00:38.140 great stuff to break down and dissect so i'll start though with who's joining me today to my

00:00:43.340 right uh we do have our opinion editor nigel hannaford as always so full of opinions again

00:00:49.020 today cory well good it would be a slow show if you were bereft of them well it's been known to

00:00:54.720 happen, then I have to fake it. But today's a good one. Okay, well, and joining us remotely,

00:00:59.340 we have Erica Barutis. Thank you very much for coming on to talk to us today and add

00:01:04.540 a much nicer perspective for our show than we typically offer.

00:01:09.420 Yeah, I think it's an upgrade from Derek, I'm pretty sure.

00:01:13.660 Well, this is our way to find out if he's actually going to watch this or not.

00:01:16.820 There we go. All right. Well, thanks for joining today, guys, and lots to dive into. So I'll kind

00:01:21.820 to start giving a little background on a story that's Albertan. We got the Alberta Investment

00:01:26.940 Management Corporation. So it's known as AIMCO. It's been kind of a political football for a long

00:01:32.660 time. It's the group that manages things like public pension funds. I believe it manages the

00:01:38.400 Heritage Fund. Perhaps Erica confirmed that for me. It's a whole whack of money that they are in

00:01:43.540 charge of managing. And there's always been a lot of discussion whether it's managed correctly or

00:01:48.360 properly. And Premier Smith has just dismissed the entire board of AIMCO, and she's going to

00:01:56.880 be replacing them. And well, we're going to discuss whether that's a good thing or whether

00:02:01.420 some of her choices are going to come about or not, some of the rumors and what we should be

00:02:05.220 looking for. So I'll start with Erica to kind of break down. Erica, there's been a, I'll get the

00:02:12.180 background on you as well. Of course, this Erica Baruti is a head of applied politics at

00:02:16.200 Macamie College and Senator-elect as well. So Erica, what's going on with AIMCO?

00:02:25.000 Yeah, well, I think we use, because it's called Alberta Investment Management Company or Corp,

00:02:32.040 and it's been very mismanaged. So I'm glad to see that the government stepped in. One of the

00:02:37.360 biggest things that they addressed is this huge increase in salaries. I think that was about 29%.

00:02:42.920 you saw about 71 in benefits, a lot of like third party management. So long story short,

00:02:50.460 if this was my financial planner, I'd grab my money and run. And I think that that's the

00:02:54.580 intention this government is trying to make. It was maybe a little less finesse than they wanted

00:03:00.840 it to be with announcing the appointment of interim CEO and the minister of finance taking

00:03:06.060 over as the board chair. But I think it's going to go in the right direction. This dates back for

00:03:10.180 mismanagement of this fund for, and it does include the Heritage Savings Trust Fund, as you

00:03:15.780 mentioned, Corey, for decades. So I think this is a good correction, maybe didn't land as soft,

00:03:22.780 but there's a lot of support for this, I think, because at the end of the day, Albertans want

00:03:26.560 their management company and the funds to be working for them. The speculations have been,

00:03:34.300 And I believe I actually read a Western Standard article about this with the potential of Stephen Harper being named the chair.

00:03:42.860 We'll find out in two to three weeks time, as the Minister of Finance said, that it's about 30 days for him to be this interim Treadwater board chair.

00:03:52.340 So I don't know. I think Mr. Harper's got a lot of good things going for him right now.

00:03:57.140 he would be managing $170 billion, but I'm sure there's lots of things knocking down

00:04:02.500 his door for opportunities. So I would actually probably be a little bit surprised just based on

00:04:08.180 some recent conversations I've had with him and his team that he takes it, but it's Alberta,

00:04:13.080 so we can never be too surprised. Well, Nigel, you're of course quite very familiar with

00:04:18.560 Foreign Prime Minister Stephen Harper. I mean, he's certainly well qualified as an economist and

00:04:24.600 and knows his stuff when it comes to the finances and numbers but what would he bring to the table

00:04:29.560 i mean if he just as an act of masochism and uh interfering on a semi-retirement uh took on the

00:04:35.000 head of aimco it would be hard to imagine it uh for all the reasons that erica just offered there

00:04:43.160 that um frankly he's uh it seems to me that he's having the time of his life at the moment with

00:04:48.920 with the travel and and his uh his consultancy some other business interests that he has

00:04:57.240 there is one thing and i'm going back a long way here there is one thing that i recall him saying

00:05:05.720 gosh it was over lunch about 20 years ago it was before he uh before he even ran for

00:05:11.080 the leadership of the canadian alliance he just in fact announced that he would do so and i

00:05:16.200 asked him well why would you do that and he said i just want to see good government and you know

00:05:22.440 he is an alberton and by adoption and i know that he and danielle smith know each other

00:05:32.440 and it wouldn't be so far out of reality to say you know for the sake of good government i'll put

00:05:39.880 this thing on its feet and then we'll see where we go from there so whereas i think erica is

00:05:46.920 probably right those who want to uh want to believe it uh that would include every journalist

00:05:55.560 who's had his hands on the story uh yeah those who want to believe it could they take some hope from

00:06:01.880 that he is a he's a project man he likes to get things done and done right yeah well i mean again

00:06:07.640 at least for political intrigue and journalism. I mean, it's a known quantity and it would bring

00:06:12.280 about a lot of discussion as opposed to, you know, just another economist whose names aren't

00:06:16.400 necessarily household names who would be very, perhaps very competent, but not as known.

00:06:23.120 Setting aside then who might be running this, Erica, like what are the risks I see with this

00:06:27.900 when you do potentially politicize a fund? And I'm not saying that Prime Minister Harper,

00:06:32.760 former Prime Minister Harper would do so, but there's been discussion of, you know,

00:06:36.120 we should use those funds for investing within Alberta, or we should use them to shore up this

00:06:40.100 project or that. And that's where I start getting concerned. You know, what protections are there

00:06:46.780 to ensure that the new board and head are not going to be, you know, using partisan interests

00:06:52.560 rather than the Albertan interests when they manage this fund? Yeah, and I think that that,

00:06:56.360 you know, should there be a political appointment, that's something that the government's going to

00:06:59.600 have to be ready to defend in their resumes. So for example, I mean, you could say that Stephen

00:07:05.560 Harper would come in, but I think I would categorize him as an economist first and someone

00:07:10.260 that is very understanding of the Canadian international and Alberta market, finding

00:07:16.160 the best opportunities. We saw Ray Gilmore, who was the former deputy minister of exec

00:07:22.480 council, meaning the premier, and he's kind of the boss of all the deputy ministers move

00:07:26.000 over to be interim CEO. I would suspect he'll probably stay. I mean, it would be weird to

00:07:30.860 leave and to go to a crown corp for a short period and then come back. The political

00:07:35.420 risks, you know, getting the not not the right people in there are something the government's

00:07:41.160 going to have to consider because as a crown corp, it is an independent body. But you know

00:07:45.520 what? There's a lot of conservatives out there that know how to manage money. They know how to 0.93

00:07:50.480 look at the market, read what is in the best interest of Albertans while protecting their

00:07:55.400 pensions. And so I think, you know, we'll see the left try to politicize whomever, frankly.

00:08:01.700 But, you know, when it comes to who can best manage money, I would probably bet on a conservative than I would on a liberal or a dipper.

00:08:11.380 So there's going to be criticism.

00:08:14.180 I think we'll just see who the government appoints.

00:08:16.920 And again, there's a clear mandate of what they're supposed to do.

00:08:19.880 And it's act in the best interest and give value add for Albertans money.

00:08:23.560 So, you know, there's there's not really, I think, necessarily a strong political lens that you could put on this because math is math and economics is economics.

00:08:34.900 I think the danger in the past when Alberta has got into investments, it's usually been to further some political objective.

00:08:43.580 And that, of course, is not a good reason to put your money behind any project in particular.

00:08:51.000 I think that's just to me, being political is too risky to not put above strong economic, an argument for strong economics.

00:09:01.900 So, Nigel, I want to throw you a curveball.

00:09:03.860 It just kind of occurred to me, too, though, that the concept of an Alberta pension plan kind of got put onto the back burner for the time being, but I don't think it's disappeared.

00:09:13.100 One of the concerns people would have is whether or not Alberta would manage their own pension plan better than the federal entity would.

00:09:20.080 But I wonder if this could be laying a little of the groundwork, too, of saying, look, we've got the mechanism, we've got the ability to manage such a plan.

00:09:26.800 And restructuring IMCO could be a way of also bringing people in who are more receptive to taking on that as another investment to manage.

00:09:32.840 Well, that is not actually a curveball, Corey.

00:09:37.140 That has already been run past my ear once before that this is, as you say, laying the groundwork.

00:09:43.860 And if that is, in fact, the plan, it would probably require somebody with the moral authority,

00:09:50.640 never mind the financial expertise of Stephen Harper, to even get that rolling.

00:09:56.820 So that could be where this tantalizing rumor is coming from.

00:10:02.980 The problem, and I'd be interested to know what you think about this,

00:10:07.100 and how they could stick handle this, Erica, is if the Alberta pension plan

00:10:13.580 were ever to be approved by Albertans, the next step would be to go

00:10:20.860 to the federal government and say, give us our share of the money.

00:10:27.760 And if Alberta actually had the share of the pension fund

00:10:34.060 that has been already discussed, it would seriously impair the fund

00:10:39.440 for the rest of the country.

00:10:40.560 It would be a very hard thing for a prime minister to agree to.

00:10:45.800 It would be very easy for present prime ministers to say, no, go away.

00:10:51.840 But when you have a conservative prime minister,

00:10:55.140 the issues are going to remain the same.

00:10:57.560 Notice I'm making certain assumptions about the political future of this country.

00:11:02.080 um that has always seemed to me the the biggest stumbling block to going ahead with the Alberta

00:11:10.760 pension plan how do you think that the government of Alberta would find its way around that problem

00:11:17.840 it's interesting this hypothetical that may become reality in a year from now that we do have a

00:11:24.880 conservative prime minister uh led under Pierre Polyev and he's actually come out and said you

00:11:31.260 You know, this because of how much revenue Alberta generates and if we were to pull out our funds, you know, it's left with very little.

00:11:40.440 It would be very hard for a prime minister to side with this.

00:11:45.280 Right. I mean, that becomes not in the best interest of entire confederation while still recognizing that the current system doesn't benefit Albertans.

00:11:55.060 I think how I would position this, if I was still advising Premier Smith, is I think she's got to build up the education to other provinces.

00:12:04.060 We've seen Quebec and Saskatchewan try before, or Quebec was successful.

00:12:09.440 Ontario, I think, reviewed it.

00:12:11.160 And I think she's got to start familiarizing the other province that are actually at a loss with the CPP structure in order to actually get that support from the rest of Confederation, which that's a lot of explaining and a lot of time.

00:12:29.520 But I can't see from a political standpoint for Pierre to give a thumbs up and take away that revenue.

00:12:35.180 So it's going to be a tricky one, a very hard stick to handle.

00:12:40.520 And I do think that, you know, one of the other pieces is it does have to jump through a lot of hoops to get there.

00:12:49.260 Like you said, a referendum is what the premier or the government has committed to on pensions or at least, you know, further consultation and education.

00:12:59.280 And that we're also looking at if this is how AIMCO is currently managed, we're going to need an entity, either a new version of AIMCO or an entity that could manage it.

00:13:08.640 because I don't think the faith of Albertans lies currently in the management system that we see.

00:13:14.180 So I think it's a long stick to wrangle, and we're going to see a lot of probably hesitation by our federal counterparts, regardless who's there.

00:13:22.840 For all of those reasons, plus the ones we discussed earlier, I'd more or less close the book on this until after the next federal election.

00:13:30.200 And that would be to to press hard on this at the moment would be to hand the liberals a very strong hand in combating.

00:13:41.040 Yeah, and I think I think Premier Smith's battles with the federal government right now are kind of on point.

00:13:46.220 She's talking about an admissions cap and and, you know, the unrealistic 2030 plan by the federal government.

00:13:54.560 So I think she's going to win with those fights. 0.80

00:13:57.100 this might be one that hits a David and Goliath on the pension side of things.

00:14:01.920 This could be part of the incentive to put a person with more of a statesman background

00:14:06.020 running the fund as opposed to economists, whereas a lot of them, I mean, ideally, if I could dig up

00:14:10.080 Hayek and reanimate him and put him in charge of this thing, I would, but he might not be the best

00:14:13.880 person to sell it to the other provinces or make Albertans feel confident in the management. So

00:14:18.600 it just kind of adds another element to the choice on who you're going to have representing

00:14:22.240 the head of this thing yeah the road to surf is not it's not a selling proposition is it

00:14:29.920 i do have a question though i know i'm not the the host but do you guys see a challenge for

00:14:36.800 the government in if they do go about this new structure that they've announced as part of the

00:14:42.160 reforms being the pension because they've kind of tabled it do you see albertans supporting that

00:14:48.560 um especially from your listenership or do you think that it would be difficult to kind of pivot

00:14:53.040 back to something they haven't even been talking about for months you know erica it's a very strange

00:14:58.880 split personality that we display in alberta when it comes to the things you were talking about a

00:15:05.520 moment ago about the emissions cap about the general attack on the alberta sovereignty and

00:15:11.760 about the destruction of our energy industry.

00:15:16.700 It's amazing how quickly you can get people to put up a flagpole

00:15:20.060 and put a bonnie blue flag there.

00:15:22.000 And they're all Burton all the way right up until the moment

00:15:25.520 when it comes to, well, where is my pension coming from?

00:15:30.740 I don't know about this.

00:15:32.480 I know the Canada pension plan is there for what it's worth,

00:15:36.080 but at least it's something and it's a demonstrated entity.

00:15:40.680 And then all of a sudden, they're not such bold Albertans anymore.

00:15:47.040 So I think it's a fair question.

00:15:48.700 I don't know whether I've given you a good answer, but, boy, oh, boy, we do have a split personality when it comes to Ottawa.

00:15:53.580 Yeah, and I agree with Nigel.

00:15:54.860 I actually toured a bit on some speaking events promoting an Alberta pension plan.

00:16:00.240 And, you know, the misgivings people have, there's a couple of big question marks still.

00:16:03.880 We're waiting still.

00:16:04.860 It's late now, of course.

00:16:05.960 the Parliamentary Budget Office report on what they say the Alberta entitlement would be to a

00:16:10.620 pension capital if they left the plan. Because I think most people kind of agree that the initial

00:16:17.020 report was perhaps a little too generous in its assumptions on what people would get. So

00:16:20.760 people won't grab onto it. If you don't know the number, you've got to have a hard number to start

00:16:24.740 with. And we don't have one yet. And the other part of this confidence is, as you said, people,

00:16:28.720 when it comes to, well, wait a minute, I'm risking my pension, they want to know it's going to be

00:16:32.480 at least as good as what they're leaving, preferably better.

00:16:37.340 And that, again, comes down to showing the province has to show

00:16:39.600 that they're good at managing money.

00:16:41.200 And AIMCO is the first step in showing that, I think.

00:16:43.500 Yes.

00:16:44.900 I think the underlying assumption, and maybe you might challenge us, Erica,

00:16:53.560 please do, but I think the underlying assumption is

00:16:56.760 that the federal government will never run out of money.

00:16:59.760 It will just print some more if it has to.

00:17:02.480 Whereas Alberta does not have that sovereign privilege.

00:17:07.340 Therefore, if it's a matter of receiving an entitlement, or even something that is not an entitlement but you still expect to get, like OAS, there is that confidence that whatever it's worth, it will come from the federal government.

00:17:24.580 I think that's true if we're looking at the government of today, if we look at the government potentially under Pierre Polyev, he's not really likely to necessarily print money in the same fashion in which we've seen.

00:17:37.160 He wants to balance a budget, not send our great-great-grandchildren into debt like this current administration.

00:17:44.960 Okay, well, a lot of it comes down to waiting and seeing anyways, but lots to watch for at least economically inclined political geeks like ourselves.

00:17:53.600 Before I turn the page on to the next issue,

00:17:55.340 maybe I'll bring up and just remind folks

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00:18:38.080 it out westernstandard.news slash subscription uh so yes you know kind of pointing out the season

00:18:42.640 we're in we just went past remembrance day uh you know a huge holiday particularly in commonwealth

00:18:48.400 countries, you know, basically in memory of starting in World War One and still honoring

00:18:55.900 our veterans ever since that point. We do that every November 11th. Unfortunately, this year,

00:19:01.540 I mean, we always see a little bit of problems, but it appears this year we had more distractions

00:19:06.580 and attempts to hijack this very important ceremony than we've ever seen before. I don't

00:19:11.660 know where to begin with this night. Well, it's, I mean, let's begin with a bit of a catalog of

00:19:16.500 some of the things that we've witnessed that we're not accustomed to seeing on Remembrance Day.

00:19:22.260 So there was a Muslim lecturer in Toronto who hurled an obscenity, the F word, at Canadian veterans during a march pass.

00:19:36.180 You know, this is a university lecturer.

00:19:38.500 they're educating young people one hopes that they don't keep their job but that's the mentality

00:19:45.300 that is obviously abroad in that department you have hamas supporters trying to memorialize their

00:19:53.940 terrorist leader who was killed in in gaza recently but using the motif of the poppy and

00:20:03.700 and memory lest we forget to do so highly offensive to people who for whom the remembrance day

00:20:13.840 tradition has been an important part of the latter part of the year since it was established

00:20:20.260 back in the 1920s you know it's our celebration and it's for men who were faithful and true to

00:20:28.200 their country not for terrorists you have then the there's a plan apparently to to hoist the

00:20:36.840 palestinian flag at an official reception in regina next week it's not part of remembrance but

00:20:43.680 why you ask you have an ottawa school here offering an arab arabic hymn on reme as a part of

00:20:52.480 its remembrance uh observation saying they were just trying to be more inclusive obviously they

00:20:57.620 don't understand then there's another school that didn't understand and it said if any veterans come

00:21:03.060 to the school for remembrance date would they please not wear their uniforms and that got

00:21:08.020 scorched very quickly and very hard but um the you know somehow or other we failed to

00:21:16.340 to pass on this very important sentiment to people now in a position to to uh to wonder

00:21:25.380 And none more so than the chaplains in the Canadian Armed Forces who've been told they can't pray.

00:21:31.080 You're on a parade, it's Remembrance Day, you're thanking God for your deliverance from very, very dangerous, exceptional events

00:21:39.160 that had whole countries in a state of heightened anxiety from 1914 to 18, from 1939 to 45,

00:21:47.100 and then hundreds of thousands of men who served in other areas where there was risk of getting killed.

00:21:54.360 korea you know just just ahead one but all the peacekeeping missions and

00:21:59.320 latterly in afghanistan but please don't wear your uniform so you know i don't know what it

00:22:06.680 is that we've lost other than a common collective sense of what these things are but i do believe

00:22:14.120 it starts at the top and personally of the view that this present federal government does not

00:22:20.840 value military honor um it's a little embarrassed by it and they want something different out of

00:22:29.400 their military and i would hope that a future government of the kind that we were speculating

00:22:34.440 upon would message from the top that this is a big deal it belongs to the people it belongs to

00:22:41.400 and that um there would be some kind of discouragement for people who want to

00:22:47.800 to insult the troops as they march past.

00:22:53.460 Well, that kind of lines it all up.

00:22:56.120 You know, I'll leave it to you, Erica, maybe just a little bit.

00:22:58.640 What do you think with the, what's the motivation of the people distracting from this,

00:23:03.860 this disrespect for something that's been so long held?

00:23:07.960 I mean, you know, they're not, they have their own political chips on their shoulders

00:23:12.420 and things they're trying to push, but they must know they certainly aren't gaining any

00:23:16.060 popular support in this country by pulling these stunts? Well, frankly, I don't care what their

00:23:19.860 motivation is. If you don't want to acknowledge the veterans that fought for us, gave their lives

00:23:26.680 for us to ensure we have our freedoms, sit down, shut up, and stay home. That's how I feel about

00:23:32.860 it. I fortunately, the Legion I'm a member of, and I won't name it just so that if it gets

00:23:38.100 caught wind by the left, that they'll go rad on them. But our chaplain actually, and in our

00:23:44.600 program we did have a prayer and i was very thrilled to see that uh we had a very traditional

00:23:49.720 remembrance day ceremony exactly what it should be uh again i don't understand why you think that

00:23:55.560 this is an opportunity for you to make it about you uh there's very clear individuals in which we

00:24:00.600 should be taking the time to thank appreciate remember um on november 11th and if that doesn't

00:24:08.600 includes you either shut up or stay home amen to that you know there's one other thing erica that 0.85

00:24:17.080 perhaps is a little more hopeful and it's this we still have the capacity to be scandalized by

00:24:25.880 people who try to adopt the memory and the motif that goes with remembrance day

00:24:31.640 uh it obviously still matters that is why groups such as those that support arab terrorism hamas

00:24:40.600 terrorism uh jews to do it like nobody tries to hijack st george's day or mayday you know it 0.59

00:24:51.720 it is they understand that the public sentiment for remembrance day is actually still pretty strong

00:24:58.680 and that they this is the one to go after not the not the um the the holidays that nobody

00:25:06.200 really cares about or try and invent one of their own which nobody would listen to

00:25:11.320 yeah i mean i mean i get what you're saying that it is something that it will get attention again

00:25:18.200 i think you're right um under the current administration we don't have harsh penalties

00:25:23.080 for individuals not doing peaceful protesting. We don't have harsh penalties on making sure that

00:25:31.480 they can say whatever they want, but you don't need to come in and ruin a remember and stay

00:25:35.800 ceremony. We don't send a message that terrorism is wrong. We don't support our military to the

00:25:41.080 level that we should. And I really hope that that changes under a conservative government.

00:25:47.080 Unfortunately, I think you're right. That tone is set from the top and we have a prime minister

00:25:52.120 that cowardly won't stand up and say exactly what I said. If you don't like it, sit down, shut up,

00:25:56.980 wait till tomorrow and go do your little protest. So going beyond Remembrance Day too though, I mean

00:26:03.100 and going beyond the federal government, our municipal leaders just keep dipping into this

00:26:07.420 divisive mire. I mean I'm just shocked Regina is going to host the hoist the Palestinian flag on

00:26:13.340 November 16th. I mean then we're going to try and hoist it on a Remembrance Day. Okay, that cognizant

00:26:18.020 at least but why why are these why is a city in the middle of the prairies dipping into

00:26:23.460 a middle eastern conflict with something they know is going to be inflammatory i mean i'm

00:26:28.180 pretty partial to the star of david but i don't want to see it raised at city halls it has nothing

00:26:33.300 to do with what's going on here we can have our concerns but this is happening across the country

00:26:38.100 civic leaders are really pulling us into these conflicts and i think some of that is what's also

00:26:44.180 led to the last loss of respect and the things that are overriding into things like

00:26:48.100 Remembrance Day. Do you think it's cowardice or do they just not understand?

00:26:55.000 I'm mixed with the whole thing. I think some of it's a sissy. Why would you want to hoist that 0.68

00:26:59.920 unless you asked for it? I'm going to say I think it's intentional. We just saw a Saskatchewan

00:27:05.980 election and in Saskatchewan they also do their municipal elections. This is a time where Scott

00:27:12.200 Mo just lost a significant amount of seats, especially in urban centers. I think that this

00:27:17.000 is that new administration sending a message in the city of Virginia. That's my home city. I'm

00:27:22.120 sorry. I cannot believe that that's something that they're doing. And if you're going to put one flag

00:27:28.200 up, you better be damn well putting the other up because there are individuals. But to your point,

00:27:33.080 Corey, that's not a place of municipal politics. They're not supposed to be partisan even in how

00:27:37.320 they are elected, let alone the messaging that they're talking about international terrorism.

00:27:43.380 So I think that this is where, and I'm all for small government. I hate nanny stating,

00:27:48.520 you know, sometimes I criticize this government of getting involved in municipal politics.

00:27:52.620 But I, this is where the provincial government, I know he's not in the most powerful position,

00:27:57.800 Scott Moe, but he needs, because they oversee the municipal government, slap their hands,

00:28:01.600 do not let this go forward. And I bet you there's a lot of people, whether quiet or loud,

00:28:06.900 that would really appreciate not having their municipal government fly that flag next week.

00:28:14.060 Well, since we're leaving off on Saskatchewan, maybe we'll kind of move on to the next subject.

00:28:18.260 I mean, it's one of the things, as we said, that we can take some confidence into,

00:28:21.100 though most Canadians were appalled by seeing any, you know,

00:28:24.220 distraction from a ceremony that is so important to them.

00:28:26.920 And hopefully it puts them on guard and maybe brings up some of the things

00:28:30.260 to stop these things happening down the road,

00:28:32.020 because it's just an embarrassment and a distraction from something that's so important.

00:28:35.280 You know, one of the problems is the kind of people who tend to run for municipal government are often what we call woke.

00:28:43.300 I mean, we have our own Mayor Gondek who chose her Remembrance Day remarks to remind us that we were settlers and, you know, just have this kind of anti-mainstream of history approach to things.

00:28:57.500 And obviously, self-evidently, we have people who think that way in Regina.

00:29:02.200 But they also need to be stopped.

00:29:04.680 And your point, it's time for the provincial government to just say no.

00:29:09.920 Well, it is.

00:29:10.740 And so we'll get into, you know, the Saskatchewan election, as Erica brought up.

00:29:15.540 You know, it was certainly a loss of support for Premier Mo.

00:29:19.640 A big issue in it was the ongoing tiresome and never-ending bloody trans issue. 1.00

00:29:25.240 But it's a woke issue.

00:29:27.180 And apparently it looks like the urban centers want mixed genders in children's changing rooms. 1.00

00:29:32.440 I don't know.

00:29:32.960 But so the response we've seen from Premier Moe is one of the first promises he's backtracked on now is the changing room policy he promised for children in schools.

00:29:45.080 Is this, I'll start with you, Eric, since that's your, Erica, this is your original turf.

00:29:50.560 Is Moe in retreat?

00:29:52.740 You know what?

00:29:53.580 I was trying to think of this strategy of why he would do this, because I do know folks that were on the ground.

00:29:59.440 Unfortunately, I couldn't make it back.

00:30:00.900 And that issue did come up at the doors. However, like you campaigned on it. It's a lot of it has

00:30:09.260 already gone through on the pronouns and things that the bill had, you know, some of the previous

00:30:14.300 bills and that the Mo government brought forward. I just think it's a really weird thing coming off

00:30:20.280 an election to walk that back because what we've seen here in Alberta is maybe not allowed a

00:30:27.100 majority, but a lot of support for the stuff that Premier Danielle Smith is bringing forward

00:30:31.440 on parental rights, on trans policies. And I think we're a little bit more robust in our policy than

00:30:39.880 what you're seeing in Saskatchewan. So I think it's a weird thing for him to pick as his first

00:30:45.300 pivot. Now I can understand if you're like, I'm going to start with the economy, but he won where

00:30:50.920 he won. The people that represent that caucus agreed with that. A lot of people quietly agree

00:30:57.700 with, I think, his policy he was bringing forward. It just, it doesn't make him look like a strong

00:31:03.300 leader. And that's unfortunate because I think he really needed to put his heels into the ground on

00:31:10.060 some of the campaign promises right out of the gate. And if you got to win back those urban

00:31:14.720 centers he has four years to do so yeah it's uh i mean it was a pretty shameful retreat

00:31:22.400 it was so soon after the the election that he walked it back and he he said he misspoke now

00:31:28.720 that's not the kind of thing you misspeak about and so he's uh basically broken an important

00:31:36.880 campaign promise certainly it's a view of our own people in saskatchewan that that was the promise

00:31:43.040 that took him over the edge and put him back into a majority position he was in serious trouble

00:31:49.920 a lot of people who might not have bothered to turn i said well all right if you're gonna if

00:31:57.840 you're gonna deal with that that's important to me it matters to me we don't have little boys and

00:32:03.440 little girls changing rooms so we're with you mr mo and you know hardly any time went back and you

00:32:10.560 found that Mr. Moe was not with them. A lot of people would probably change their vote right now

00:32:16.480 if there was a mechanism to do that and frankly would serve him right. What I suspect has happened

00:32:23.680 and in explaining it I'm not excusing it but somebody has said look sir we need to focus we

00:32:30.080 need to put our priorities where they where they need to be and right now the priority in Saskatchewan

00:32:36.800 his health and education and so just get rid of this issue just brush it off to the side

00:32:42.240 you don't want to spend the next six months litigating it with uh with a with a militant

00:32:47.120 activist group uh making headlines for all the wrong reasons well you think so yeah we're

00:32:52.880 absolutely sure sir and with that he went out and said that he misspoke now that's may or may not

00:32:59.920 have been what happened but that's what it looks like to me the problem with that inter if that is

00:33:07.120 actually what motivated him is that the issue does not go away because there is no satisfying

00:33:15.360 activists you give them this today they want that tomorrow it's the old slippery slope argument

00:33:22.320 that nobody believes you've only got to look back 50 years and see where the slippery slope has

00:33:27.440 taken you if you if you look where you were in 1974. Well that's with this trans issue I mean 1.00

00:33:37.760 I think a lot of people are of the mind I have no problem with trans adults living how they will 0.77

00:33:42.880 and I hope they're happy and I hope it goes great for them and they shouldn't be living fearfully

00:33:46.640 or having prejudice applied to them but as you said the activists keep pushing the envelope and

00:33:50.800 And this is where they finally, I think, hit the line of no return.

00:33:55.300 I mean, junior high, well, yeah, I don't know where it is.

00:34:00.780 But I mean, for most people of common sense, left to right, I think,

00:34:04.440 remember enough, pubescent children, when you're overloaded with hormones in junior high and so on and so on,

00:34:10.880 I would have probably chiseled bricks out of a change room to try and look at the girls next door when I was 14 if I could. 1.00

00:34:16.440 But it's not a healthy practice for kids.

00:34:18.540 there's a reason we kind of separate and let them grow and mature before exposing them to each

00:34:23.060 other. It's not unreasonable to have gender separated change rooms. And I think most parents

00:34:29.220 would agree and understand this isn't an extreme stance. Yet this was one that Premier Mo felt was

00:34:34.880 it was apparently too far. Yeah, it seems kind of like a miss by him that if he misspoke or was

00:34:41.780 advised on this, that like, you know, this is now kind of the hill he's going to die on with maybe

00:34:47.920 some people that like you said Nigel supported him in the election because of those just fundamental

00:34:53.600 things um or or the protection that you think those bathrooms hold and if you're going to argue

00:34:59.120 about health care I mean there's also a lot of things that children can be exposed to in that

00:35:04.640 we have a teenager in our house and explaining those um the individual bathrooms well she she's 1.00

00:35:12.640 shared what some of the kids do in there and it is definitely not something that parents want their

00:35:17.760 children doing so you know what are we protecting them from um i think is the important question

00:35:23.760 that the maybe the sask government is overlooking is to protect our children and put them in the

00:35:28.960 safest environment possible where that opens i think up a door and i again i think there's a

00:35:34.320 lot of people that supported that initiative but this like loud and proud activist group won the

00:35:41.680 day and when you you pour fuel on that fire it's just a matter of time before they find something

00:35:46.880 else that they want to challenge. All right. Well, we'll see how that goes. So let's move on

00:35:53.080 to another recently elected and reelected as a matter of fact leader in a way that the president

00:35:57.780 of the United States, he's made no bones about one of his top priorities is going to be getting

00:36:02.620 rid of illegal or, you know, every other term you want to use undocumented immigrants or whatever

00:36:07.020 you please, but they're going to go somewhere. And some of the concern is that the deportations

00:36:14.000 are going to impact Canada. They're going to head north. Nigel, is this a real fear? What do we got

00:36:19.040 going on? Well, I mean, I think it is a real fear. It's one that the federal government admits that

00:36:25.360 it has. And we have seen in the past how easy it is for people to just walk across the famous

00:36:33.760 the Roxham Road. I mean, they close the gate there. Guess what? People walk around it and

00:36:41.040 they end up in that same area anyway because it's easy and convenient then they get picked up by the

00:36:46.240 rcmp and then they get taken somewhere and generally speaking improve their situation

00:36:51.600 considerably with accommodation and um and food supplied but my my the people doing that usually

00:37:01.360 present a fairly pathetic site their families they got all this everything they own in a couple of

00:37:06.720 suitcases much as a many of us deplore the fact that we have so little control over our border

00:37:15.920 that that can happen they're not actually the people we really want to worry about the folks

00:37:20.940 that i would be more concerned about and i have friends who live close to the border and they're

00:37:26.160 concerned about it too as somebody sneaking through the woods and not getting picked up

00:37:34.600 the americans have got pretty good surveillance if you're going from the north to the south

00:37:40.180 but i don't think that canada has any surveillance for people trying to slip across

00:37:45.980 from the south to the north and the people who have the most to fear are probably the worst of

00:37:51.920 the lot they're the ones who are going to be slipping across into into canada and becoming a

00:37:58.800 significant security risk i i know that the federal government is aware of the possibility

00:38:07.040 whether they there's nothing that they have done in their nine years that makes me think

00:38:14.620 that they know what to do or have the gumption to do it

00:38:18.420 well i mean some of it just comes to logistics as well though like like we have a massive long

00:38:28.380 virtually unprotected border with lots of vast areas that aren't very heavily populated. I

00:38:33.240 surveyed south of Milk River along the Montana-Alberta border. It's just a broken down old barbed wire

00:38:37.920 fence. If it wasn't for the concrete survey marker every mile, you wouldn't know you were at the

00:38:41.420 border. So even if the Trudeau government took it seriously and directed resources at it, we just

00:38:47.660 don't have it. We couldn't stop the flood if there really is a flood coming. Yeah, I mean, I think

00:38:53.500 that's the scary part. It's not, one, I don't think the mass exodus under a Trump administration,

00:39:00.320 I think it's a lot of like screaming and shouting and virtue signaling from other individuals going

00:39:04.840 to leave the country. And we've seen the like move to Canada type narrative. I don't think we'll see

00:39:10.780 that. But on the deportation side, I think that we are not the border they're concerned with.

00:39:16.360 But we might be innocent byproduct that again, we should have learned from what was happening in the

00:39:23.040 south and created immigration policies uh but it's almost like a little too late and we don't

00:39:28.820 have an administration that's going to be implementing that or able to manage it so

00:39:32.760 it is an unfortunate um potential situation i just hope that the government to the new trump

00:39:40.940 administration is really focused on what they're trying to do by removing uh illegal um individuals

00:39:49.500 and focuses on let's get those bad actors, 0.59

00:39:54.800 which probably aren't Canadians, out

00:39:56.700 and get them back to where they need to go.

00:39:59.920 And I think we can all understand why that's something

00:40:01.840 that was so successfully run upon by him

00:40:04.280 because we're seeing challenges in our own

00:40:07.360 when we don't have the right immigration policies.

00:40:10.620 I mean, what the Americans say that they're concerned about

00:40:13.460 is not what I was just talking about.

00:40:15.720 But they are concerned that terrorists are going to try to enter the United States from Canada.

00:40:23.080 I'm quoting Tom Holman here, who's just an impressive man, actually,

00:40:30.520 but recently appointed by President-elect Trump to be the real border czar.

00:40:39.980 i don't know what it is about the border that means you have to be a czar to uh to deal with

00:40:46.160 it but at any rate sounds tough it sounds tough he's he's the man but what he is saying is that

00:40:53.860 the problem with the northern border is a huge security issue national security issue

00:40:59.320 special interest aliens terrorists by another name from countries the u.s says sponsor terror

00:41:08.320 use Canada as a gateway into the United States.

00:41:13.260 So it's not the South coming North issue.

00:41:17.020 It's the North going South by way of Canada,

00:41:20.220 as opposed to, example, China using Canada as a way over.

00:41:27.260 Well, so there are two streams of people moving here.

00:41:30.340 One are the ones that Holman is talking about.

00:41:34.220 And by the way, if you think there are going to be a problem

00:41:37.420 coming from canada they're already a problem coming across the rio grande not everybody who

00:41:42.620 crosses the border down there is from central america many they're picking up people from the

00:41:50.860 middle east from afghanistan and i believe about 30 people who are ethnically chinese wherever they

00:41:57.500 came from so so they know all about people trying to sneak in but canada's another place where they

00:42:02.780 can but my my concern is is for a different demographic and those are the career criminals

00:42:08.140 who are from south america who if they think that they're going to be apprehended by by the

00:42:13.820 u.s authorities ice uh get out of here i don't want to come back where i came from but maybe

00:42:20.140 canada will be a an easier place to survive are you saying we're damned either way is that what

00:42:27.580 you're saying nigel i think we need you know we talk about the world's longest undefended border 0.99

00:42:32.380 But I think the Canada and the United States need to get together and just have a much better grip on who gets.

00:42:40.460 We need an election first, because I thought that Trump was going to send Justin Trudeau back.

00:42:47.320 I mean, it's just going to be a huge task.

00:42:50.240 I mean, in my travels and serving, I did a lot of work in South Texas near the Mexican border there, too.

00:42:55.200 And I tell you what, even with all the resources the Americans put to trying to protect that border, it's porous.

00:43:00.320 they're coming across. The best analogy I can think of is if you stirred up an anthill and you

00:43:04.540 draw a line in the sand. And every time an ant crosses, you can pick it up, put it back on the

00:43:07.580 hill. And they've got all these people doing that all the time. But most of them are just running

00:43:10.760 right by you. And the things we were warned about at our safety meetings is watch it. 90% of the

00:43:15.860 ones coming were harmless people. They're economic migrants. They just want to get across and try and 1.00

00:43:20.780 find a job or go to Home Depot parking lot and make some money, do what they can. But that other

00:43:24.920 10%, as you said, these are cartel members. These are drug mules. They could be running away from

00:43:30.320 From rape charges, murder charges, there's no end to the reasons why they're trying to escape.

00:43:36.500 And if they see Canada as the softer touch farther north, if we can't stop them with all the resources at the Rio Grande,

00:43:44.280 how on earth are we going to stop them up here?

00:43:45.980 So we've got a whole lot on our plate now.

00:43:48.380 Yeah, I don't want to trivialize the issue, but when I was younger, I used to read Westerns.

00:43:52.440 And it seemed like our bad guys, when they finally ran out of options, always went south over the Rio Grande.

00:43:58.920 And now we're, I don't know, history has a horrible way of paying you back for your trouble.

00:44:05.100 Well, we'll see if they get scared north or not in the next six months or so.

00:44:09.640 I think we'll have a much better idea anyways.

00:44:11.280 A whole lot of holding pattern we got going on.

00:44:13.460 So I guess we're just going to wrap things up with the parting shots.

00:44:16.880 Yeah, well, I guess really I've given away my parting shot.

00:44:19.840 You gave away mine too.

00:44:21.000 Oh, did I?

00:44:21.420 What did I say?

00:44:22.400 I'll get to that.

00:44:23.380 Yeah, no, like I've just been saying, it's all very well for Homan to say to the Canadian 0.81

00:44:30.940 border, border is an extreme national security vulnerability to the U.S., but frankly, given

00:44:36.740 the way our own government handles things, it's more a case with unsavory people scrambling

00:44:43.840 to avoid deportation from the U.S., the American border is an extreme national security vulnerability

00:44:50.040 to us.

00:44:51.740 So let's take that, Mr. Holman.

00:44:55.620 Okay, and Erica, have you one in the can there?

00:44:58.420 I do.

00:44:59.460 I think I got real riled up on the Remembrance Day.

00:45:01.900 So mine's just about like being so excited

00:45:03.840 for that woke pendulum to swing the other way

00:45:07.620 so that we have more common sense.

00:45:09.600 We have people that are going to respect history,

00:45:14.000 respect where we came from.

00:45:15.660 And if you don't like it,

00:45:18.540 you don't need to go scream and shout, just shut up. 0.92

00:45:21.460 Okay, before I let you go fully, where can people find your podcast?

00:45:25.660 Yeah, so we're on YouTube or wherever you get your podcast.

00:45:29.580 So Apple, Spotify, the whole list.

00:45:32.000 And it's called The Discourse.

00:45:33.340 So it's myself.

00:45:34.340 We just finished filming.

00:45:35.560 And let me tell you, when I talk to an NDP or my conversation topics are a little bit different.

00:45:40.580 But we drop them every Thursday morning at 5 a.m.

00:45:43.800 Great.

00:45:44.240 Well, thank you very much for joining us today, Erica.

00:45:46.520 It was a welcome breath of fresh air from the other hosts we typically have, I think.

00:45:50.840 I don't get out of it that easy and thank you Nigel for another Gordon I'll let off with my

00:46:00.600 quick parting shot it's the usual person I shoot at all the time anyways it ties into the others

00:46:04.800 it's Mayor Gondek going into the land acknowledgements and all that again we can

00:46:09.640 debate that the other 364 days of the year whether we need a land acknowledgements at all at events

00:46:14.080 or anything but they had nothing to do with Remembrance Day they distracted from it and it

00:46:18.700 was just, again, her failing in the role that she's supposed to be as a representative as a 0.98

00:46:22.440 mayor. So, okay. Well, thank you again, guys. And thank you all for tuning in this week to the

00:46:29.660 pipeline. Keep an eye on all the Western Standard channels. We're out there with a number of shows,

00:46:34.520 including my own and Nigel's show. And be sure to take out a subscription. It's really important.

00:46:39.880 So thank you for tuning in this week, guys. We will see you all again on the next one.

Western Standard - November 14, 2024

Will Harper handle Alberta’s money as head of AIMco？

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