Western Standard - Working without woke

00:00:00.000 good evening welcome to the pipeline i'm western standard columnist cory morgan

00:00:29.200 here hosting since uh derek phildebrand who usually is in this seat is indisposed today

00:00:35.120 we got a good lineup of other folks i mean when we get the opportunity to not have derek here we

00:00:39.920 have the opportunity to have our news editor dave naylor here on the end join us and i'm thrilled

00:00:45.040 to be here but don't take this personally but it looks like you're gaining some weight around your

00:00:48.720 net this thing is bloating it's killing me with this tie on hey i i'm gonna get clip-ons pretty

00:00:56.480 soon. We're paying you too much, Corey. Yeah, the big bucks. All right. Either that or we'll

00:01:01.980 sell the honey. That's it. It's those honey sales are tipping us over the edge there and

00:01:06.240 it's causing me to overeat. So, and as well, commenting on my neck weight, we've got our

00:01:13.860 opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford. Never short of an opinion. No, that's, and you're never

00:01:19.680 immune from one. So we've got a number of stories to talk about and break down and analyze today.

00:01:28.300 I mean, one that we're going to talk to shortly after we check in with Sean Polzer. It came up

00:01:33.620 on us recently. It looks like the political outlook in BC has changed dramatically as the

00:01:38.940 two conservative parties who had been tooth and nail at each other seem to have set aside their

00:01:44.320 differences and others just one but we'll expand more on that shortly and get on with the rest of

00:01:49.940 the subjects of what we got going on for now and that's our Sean Polzer. He's in the studio or near

00:01:58.760 the studio and dialing in and he's been going after working without woke. What are we talking

00:02:04.800 about Sean? The woke institutions are falling apart. Yeah they seem to be falling one by one

00:02:11.400 so the latest today is Ford so as we all know over the last several weeks

00:02:19.560 there's this fella from Tennessee I guess you know he's kind of the modern

00:02:23.280 day Davy Crockett called Robbie Starbuck and he's been going after these long

00:02:28.740 established companies they all have a few things in common they're usually

00:02:32.580 more than a hundred years old they usually have some kind of a symbolic

00:02:37.780 value in the american culture that goes beyond just the line of business that they're in you

00:02:43.460 know harley davidson freedom um john deere working on the farm and uh jack daniels everybody knows jd

00:02:51.780 so um earlier this week it was lowe's and lowe's is another one that's been around for 100 years

00:02:57.780 was kind of started off as uh farming building supplies for barns and outbuildings and things

00:03:03.220 like that. Earlier this morning Home Depot put out some kind of thing that had nothing to do with

00:03:10.340 Robbie Starbuck, but then just right around lunchtime, Ford came out and preemptively announced

00:03:16.820 that it was dropping its DI programs. It was refocusing employee resource groups on business

00:03:23.300 only, that it was going to be refocusing its philanthropic donation things to

00:03:29.780 causes that more align with its customer base and business which you know reads you know everyday

00:03:38.060 people and just generally get out of business being woke which seems to be good business these

00:03:45.340 days yeah well Dave I mean Sean's just pumping those news stories it's gonna be hard to keep up

00:03:50.380 I mean they're falling like dominoes every single day there's a major U.S. corporation that's

00:03:55.120 that's, you know, getting out of it.

00:03:59.160 Finally, Corey, the pendulum has started to swing the other way.

00:04:04.080 I know Sean's going to have an exclusive interview with Robbie Starbuck himself

00:04:07.740 in a week or so, so that'll be good.

00:04:11.200 Be nice to see who he's got on his radar next.

00:04:14.080 Be nice to see if he's got any Canadian corporations on his hit list.

00:04:21.220 But it's nice to see.

00:04:22.900 I mean, we've been putting up a good fight against this for a couple of years now, but the pendulum has started to swing back, I think.

00:04:29.680 Well, Nigel, I mean, you think some of these companies are going to start becoming proactive, right?

00:04:34.000 I mean, they don't have to wait for Starbucks to get on their case and expose them.

00:04:37.040 You think some of them are quietly going to back off and some of the crazy DEI stuff and constant virtue signaling and maybe get back to profits.

00:04:43.640 I'm sure a lot of people working within these corporations are probably pretty eager to get back to work.

00:04:48.680 I wonder how long it's going to take to get to the civil service.

00:04:51.960 that's the that's going to be the last bastion but you know this really does show the basic

00:04:58.560 strength in our society common sense finally punches through there was a survey done in

00:05:05.580 great britain not that long ago like two months ago which revealed that 66 percent of the people

00:05:12.120 surveyed were anti-woke not just not woke they were anti-woke unfortunately the one third who

00:05:21.720 were woke occupied positions in government and the media and some of the other institutions so

00:05:29.720 but obviously when enough people say i am not going to drink bud light and when you were at

00:05:36.600 the time i was traveling through the united states and you could see it marked down in the liquor

00:05:41.880 stores there was even one that had a big pile of it outside and said look you know dollar a can or

00:05:47.560 something um when people decide they're not going to do that that they're going to burn their harley

00:05:53.320 davidson they're going to give up jack daniels and find something else that runs like a deer

00:06:01.080 you know the companies take note and i'm hoping that taking note also is the democratic party

00:06:11.640 which is the ultimate author of this nonsense the democrats get to the big financiers the big

00:06:16.840 financiers say the interim financing for these smaller companies depends on following the line

00:06:22.920 the smaller companies are finding it's not working for them it goes back up the line we hope i'm very

00:06:29.320 encouraged i think an awful lot of people are encouraged with us i've got to disagree 100

00:06:33.800 with nigel i don't think academia will be the last bastion i think sorry i don't think the

00:06:39.800 civil service will be the last bastion i think it'll be academia and there are there are some

00:06:43.960 in schools in the united states that have fired their entire dei departments but i think they'll

00:06:49.320 be holding on in canada for a long time well it certainly will be a tougher not to i tend to wrap

00:06:54.440 academia into sort of the whole government blob you know but you if you want to split on a point

00:06:59.880 of detail actually i think you're right yeah good there is a first time for money talks you know

00:07:07.000 this thing with academia or civil service unfortunately they still get their money no

00:07:10.840 matter what consumers tend to think of them so it does make it harder to to get to them but getting

00:07:15.240 back to sean like are these companies then seeing we saw it with budweiser but have other companies

00:07:20.920 been seeing drops in sales drops in revenues that they feel they can point towards you know bad

00:07:26.040 marketing from being their work policies yeah i think so um home depot um has been losing money

00:07:32.600 hand over fist for quite a few of the last few years and it's in a pretty close partnership with

00:07:37.800 the i guess they call themselves the human rights council which is this lgbtq plus thing even though

00:07:44.200 its co-founder is um he's a notoriously pro-trump uh magra uh republican who calls all this woke

00:07:52.200 stuff uh basically lazy and uh he's been trying to get the company to get rid of it for years 0.71

00:07:58.200 so we'll see how that goes um but going back to a point that nigel made about the survey in the uk

00:08:03.720 where 60 percent of people said that they were anti-woke um i think there's been similar surveys

00:08:09.480 that say that um people generally support fairness you know and and treating other people with

00:08:15.560 respect and i think mr starbuck would probably tell you that this whole campaign isn't about

00:08:21.960 excluding people it's not the opposite of inclusion i think what he's trying to say is

00:08:26.200 that these dei policies are exclusive and that they are excluding people and that they aren't

00:08:32.760 doing what they purport to do. So, you know, so there is a backlash against this DEI stuff that's

00:08:40.280 being spoon fed down people's groats. You know, it's the same thing when they were talking about

00:08:44.520 the movie stars taking up political causes, you know, told them at the Academy Awards, you know,

00:08:49.080 just to shut their mouths. And so now it's happening with corporations and they're actually

00:08:54.120 seeing bounces from it. I think one of the reasons that companies like Ford are coming out preemptively

00:09:00.040 instead of waiting for their brand to be damaged is because, you know, people are quite forgiving

00:09:05.080 and they're seeing a pretty good positive response from coming out and making these statements and

00:09:13.320 doing this, you know, like we're going to be fair now, right? I mean, that's really usually the

00:09:18.400 message, right? It's not that we're going to kick these people out on their asses into the streets 0.99

00:09:23.200 and, you know, purge them from the ranks. It's just kind of more like, well, now we're going to 0.99

00:09:27.760 have fair and equitable policies. People are going to be promoted on merit. Executives aren't going

00:09:32.740 to get portions of their salary based on these DEI committees. You know, we're talking about a

00:09:38.520 Canadian company. Well, look at global. You know, we've been writing all this stuff about global and

00:09:42.360 some of the things that's been going on over there where they're promoting their DEI people even

00:09:47.120 while they're slashing their newsrooms, right? So I think it's something that's part of a longer

00:09:52.700 term trend and i i think we'll probably be seeing it coming to this side of the border and in fact

00:09:58.620 that's what i'm going to ask mr starbuck is you know how can we do that same kind of uh thing here

00:10:06.380 oh great maybe he can instruct you you'll be the next uh robbie starbuck and you'll take down

00:10:12.140 i don't i don't know if i can do what he's done but you know nice to nice to think i guess

00:10:18.380 we'll see i look forward to certainly looking forward to seeing that interview it'll be great

00:10:21.820 to watch. And then thanks for keeping up on these stories as they keep rattling down, Sean.

00:10:26.380 Excellent. Yep. Thanks, guys. All right. Thanks. So, yeah, I mean, you know, the saying goes,

00:10:31.900 go woke, go broke. I mean, when the dollars and cents catch up, reality has to kick in,

00:10:37.420 whether it doesn't matter how much you want to appeal to the alphabet mafia or any of these bizarre

00:10:43.260 Well, it's like Dave and I are saying, you know, the government, the academia,

00:10:46.060 they'll be the last ones to get the message. But even there, I do believe people are going to see

00:10:49.980 through it and just suggest their kids take a different course yeah well it's been interesting

00:10:55.100 in the states when it came to for example uh harvard with uh gay who was that the president

00:11:00.140 of it her name wasn't and you know she crossed the line in a number of areas uh and again was

00:11:06.140 extremely woke and it turns out extremely under qualified for her position uh but the reason that

00:11:12.060 really came out was because the donors came up and they said that's it we're not giving you guys 0.98

00:11:16.140 more money as long as you have this kook representing this institution. So I mean, 1.00

00:11:21.500 they're necessarily immune when in academia. Of course, Harvard's got a trust fund that's

00:11:25.820 more than the GDP of some third world countries, but I guess the message was there.

00:11:32.540 Well, so as we said earlier, money talks and BS walks that kind of segues into the next thing

00:11:36.700 that just broke today. Dave, we've had quite a development on the BC political scene as an

00:11:42.220 election loads yeah and it cannot be overstated how important this is that seismic in uh bc

00:11:48.620 political history the uh the united party formerly the liberal party has decided to

00:11:55.340 suspend their election campaign for the uh for the october vote and join forces with uh the bc

00:12:01.820 conservatives. Some United candidates will run in ridings as conservatives. I guess all the

00:12:14.600 backroom talk is still going on about who's going to run where. The leader of the Liberals,

00:12:23.500 United or United Liberals, I guess, Kevin Falcons is not going to run in the next election. So

00:12:29.920 You look at, you know, they're polling anywhere 10 to 13 percent.

00:12:34.140 If that goes with whatever conservatives are polling now, they're actually polling ahead of the NDP.

00:12:39.880 That means goodbye NDP government in B.C., utterly seismic.

00:12:44.900 Yep, it certainly is.

00:12:46.880 I mean, it's actually, you refer it back to the Liberal Party.

00:12:52.660 We can go even further back in terms of the seismic shift

00:12:56.100 because it was the social credit government that got started in the early 1950s

00:13:00.960 that became the liberals, that became B.C. United.

00:13:04.640 So that is what has come to an end,

00:13:07.140 is that long heritage of that particular stream of thought,

00:13:10.720 which many people described as just being a way to keep the NDP out of power.

00:13:16.760 It didn't really matter what you think.

00:13:18.180 It wasn't like there was a manifesto that you signed on.

00:13:21.960 You just, we want to make sure that the socialists don't screw this up.

00:13:25.060 Well, of course, what's happened is the socialists have screwed this up, and it's a surprising development.

00:13:33.100 You can't overestimate what it takes for somebody in the position of a party leader, like Kevin Falcon, to say, you know what, for the good of the people, for the good of the province, we're going to pull our people out of the race, and some of the, well, I guess some are going forward, but we need a united approach.

00:13:52.200 Because you're right, this is the end of this NDP government.

00:13:57.420 What is it, October the 17th?

00:13:58.980 They've got like less than two months to respond to this.

00:14:03.760 And it is a testament to how much the socialists have ruined the province,

00:14:15.320 destroyed the expectations of the people who live there,

00:14:18.180 that Kevin Falcon would be able to do this and walk away from his party.

00:14:24.980 He's actually, I mean, we don't know the full details yet,

00:14:27.580 but he may well prove to be the sort of the sacrificial hero in this whole story.

00:14:33.040 Well, I mean, there's some presumptions being made, too.

00:14:35.760 I mean, look at the polling numbers, okay.

00:14:37.160 The NDP and the BC Conservatives were essentially getting to the point of neck and neck,

00:14:41.940 and the BC United slash Liberals were holding 10%, 12%,

00:14:48.040 which could be the spoiler and make that difference.

00:14:50.860 But the presumption that all of those votes are going to move to the Conservative Party,

00:14:56.660 I mean, they probably predominantly will,

00:14:59.520 but some people could take offense saying,

00:15:01.140 well, you know, I never liked the Conservatives,

00:15:02.520 and I'm certainly not going to them just because these guys have left.

00:15:06.460 Well, maybe there's an opportunity for Max Bernier that he can react fast enough.

00:15:10.260 But I kind of hope he doesn't, you know, and I hope he doesn't do it in the federal election next year, because you're right, this is a time when you really don't want a spoiler in there.

00:15:20.880 But I don't think they'll go to the NDP. I think they'll probably just stay home and not vote at all. But yeah, I mean, that's what the NDP was hoping for was a vote split. The two right wing parties would take enough votes for the NDP to sneak up the middle.

00:15:37.640 And I'm sure they're having some high-level public panic, or not public, but private panic sessions now about what they're going to do next.

00:15:45.400 So the pressure must have been immense on Falcon and others.

00:15:48.880 I mean, I imagine from donors, from political players within the party.

00:15:53.100 I mean, there's a lot of pride you've got to set aside to step out.

00:15:56.620 I mean, Falcon, like him or dislike him, as a party leader, he's put everything into this.

00:16:01.640 He's worked his butt off for what it's worth and to finally throw your hands up and say, I'm going to back off.

00:16:06.840 I find it interesting that he's apparently not going to run in the election.

00:16:10.620 You would think that, okay, I'll step aside, we'll all run as conservatives,

00:16:15.320 but maybe, you know, I'll get a cabinet post.

00:16:17.140 Maybe he could be promised a cabinet post.

00:16:19.840 Because as Nigel says, he could be the hero in this drama.

00:16:22.720 But he's not running at all.

00:16:24.340 Well, he's actually more heroic by not running.

00:16:26.920 Because if he did run, and he did win, and yes, he would get a cabinet post,

00:16:30.720 but then he has to take his direction from a leader,

00:16:34.640 was the person of John Rustad who he has criticized heavily as being unready for the

00:16:41.340 position and I don't know he's got his pride I guess he just decides to walk out with his head

00:16:47.660 high did the right thing I mean we'll see we're reacting to a story that's half an hour old

00:16:54.120 so it's a few hours old anyway but much to be much to be learned yet but certainly if I were

00:17:03.760 an NDP politician, I would be thinking, oh, well, I guess we're going to have to think what we're

00:17:07.900 going to do next. Exactly. Well, there's still a lot they're going to have to sort out. As you

00:17:11.800 said, this has recently happened. One of the biggest sticking points, and it always is when

00:17:16.780 you've got two parties like this, some have won, people have won nominations in their constituency.

00:17:21.320 They've been campaigning, and some of them are going to be told, okay, you have to, I mean,

00:17:25.840 it's one thing all can step aside, but we're telling a whole lot of other candidates now,

00:17:29.440 Now, you have to step aside as well, because this writing is now for that person or that party.

00:17:35.980 Not all of them are necessarily going to take it with grace or as cleanly as Mr. Falcon has.

00:17:41.760 No, but then that's a sort of moral high ground they can point to.

00:17:45.120 Look, I'm sorry we have to let you go.

00:17:47.560 We'll find something else for you to do.

00:17:49.800 But, you know, this is what Falcon did, and we'd like you to do the same thing.

00:17:53.780 And by the way, Falcon will not go unrewarded in this.

00:17:57.020 Oh, I'm sure.

00:17:57.520 I mean, typically, if you've had your run at the leadership level, you end up as the consul general in London or something like that.

00:18:05.480 That's a good gig.

00:18:06.680 That's not a bad gig, and if the NDP lose, their guy is going to be coming out.

00:18:11.940 They'll need to replace him.

00:18:13.280 I don't know whether that's what the deal will be, but it's a little early to be predicting those things, but there will be a compensation.

00:18:20.640 Well, the political sausage making is happening.

00:18:23.320 I mean, nobody likes to see it, but that's the way it works.

00:18:25.580 If you want to keep somebody quiet, hey, guys, if you could step aside and we form government, there's going to be all sorts of positions and things that would, of course, if they don't win government, well, maybe next time.

00:18:36.960 But they're certainly looking a heck of a lot more likely.

00:18:39.360 Now, it's going to be uncertain.

00:18:40.680 The pollsters are already scrambling out there to see how this development is going to impact where the B.C. voters are sitting on things.

00:18:47.380 And you guys are right.

00:18:48.640 When you replace a government, there's so many boards to fill, positions to fill.

00:18:53.680 You know, everybody, any candidate that is being forced or has to step aside will be rewarded in some way, I'm sure.

00:19:01.900 Well, I mean, it'll be interesting to see, as I said, I saw something similar when I used to be on the board with the Alberta Alliance way back when we were trying to knock off the PCs.

00:19:14.380 We'd split amongst ourselves. Conservatives would love doing that to ourselves.

00:19:17.740 And the Wildrose Party went their way and the Alberta Alliance was their way.

00:19:21.100 And it wasn't pragmatism or pride, really, that brought us together.

00:19:25.820 It was donors.

00:19:26.740 They got together and smacked their heads together and said,

00:19:30.400 we're not giving to either of you guys until there's only one party.

00:19:34.680 And something I won't even go to the names of,

00:19:36.880 but there were two main players with our parties.

00:19:38.560 We couldn't get the merger done, couldn't get the merger done

00:19:40.300 until they were actually separated from the room.

00:19:43.140 And a meeting was held without those two, and we got it done in an hour.

00:19:46.680 I imagine there must have been something of that sort,

00:19:49.140 probably happened in BC. If they want to keep respected, they'll have to keep it themselves

00:19:55.940 for some time. You know, actually, Corey, that is the other thing that's exceptional about this

00:20:00.080 story, is generally speaking, conservatives don't like to be forced together. It is like herding

00:20:05.420 cats. Everybody is a principled man, principled woman, and we don't give up our principles just

00:20:12.360 for power. You know, that's

00:20:14.420 the sort of mentality that goes into the

00:20:16.360 room, as you say. This is

00:20:18.440 for the history

00:20:20.360 books. Yeah, well, and

00:20:22.380 I mean, parties get tired of losing.

00:20:25.060 The appetite's there

00:20:26.400 for change in B.C., so

00:20:28.040 if they can get that

00:20:29.340 proper front coming from the Conservatives, the NDP

00:20:32.140 have to be sweating today.

00:20:33.960 No, they do. And then think of the sort of

00:20:36.180 powerhouse of the West again with

00:20:38.100 Conservative governments, hopefully in

00:20:40.180 B.C. We've got one in Alberta.

00:20:42.360 Saskatchewan's in play also in October, but you can have, you know, every, every Western

00:20:48.960 province with a conservative government, you know, fighting against Trudeau.

00:20:53.320 Well, and then just to remind folks, before we move subjects here, we've got a dedicated

00:20:57.100 reporter in BC who's going to be covering this all the way through up to until a little

00:21:01.580 past election day.

00:21:02.480 Yeah.

00:21:02.800 Oh, he's, he's churning out the stories now.

00:21:05.300 Jared Jaeger.

00:21:07.160 Missing his lunch.

00:21:08.240 Missing his lunch here because of this one.

00:21:10.020 good reporter and also in Saskatchewan. We've got Chris Alcorn. He'll be on the

00:21:15.920 election beat there. So yeah, we've got it covered, Corey.

00:21:19.780 Great. So before we move into the next session subject, I'll remind all you

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00:21:46.760 thank you. We really, really do appreciate it. That's what keeps us rolling and keeps those

00:21:50.640 reporters on the ground and us blowhards in here once a week to break down all those news stories 0.98

00:21:55.020 for you. So let's start blowharding on an Alberta issue, and it's healthcare. It's a big one. It's

00:22:01.880 always a big one. Premier Smith spoke at a town hall, and apparently the world's going to end.

00:22:07.420 Apparently it is. I think I saw Naheed Nenshi crying in the street as I drove to work today.

00:22:13.960 Yeah, it didn't come as a surprise. I think Daniel Smith campaigned on she was going to shake up AHS.

00:22:20.840 She was going to change it. And she talked at a town hall this week about basically getting AHS out of the hospital business

00:22:29.320 and getting private operators or existing operators like Covenant Health to take it over.

00:22:36.360 And, of course, the left predictably lost their minds and, you know, the end of the world is nigh.

00:22:44.980 But, you know, you've talked about this ad nauseum.

00:22:49.720 Every health care system in Canada is provincially is broken.

00:22:55.640 It gets scads and scads of dough and the productivity is not improving at all.

00:23:01.420 It's getting worse.

00:23:03.420 Whereas you look around the world and other countries do things differently and things change.

00:23:09.660 But any mention of privatized health care in this country and people lose their mind?

00:23:14.520 Well, let's just back check on that quickly.

00:23:16.420 Before we get to it, I saw Nihed Nenshi's NDP leader's statement.

00:23:21.320 He said outright on his ex-posting, Daniel Smith is going to privatize hospitals.

00:23:26.020 Let's call it out right now.

00:23:27.020 That's absolute a lie and it's BS.

00:23:29.800 But it shows desperation on the part of Alberta's NDP.

00:23:32.620 I mean, whatever Smith may be doing, it may be a good idea, it may be a bad idea,

00:23:36.540 but she's not privatizing hospitals.

00:23:38.680 Is this where the discourse is going to go from here on in, though, Nigel?

00:23:41.000 Well, I probably will.

00:23:42.140 I mean, we've seen lots of political campaigns where one side tries to tar the other side unfairly and inaccurately. 0.66

00:23:52.200 I actually kind of wish she was trying to privatize the hospitals.

00:23:55.560 You know, that would suit me a lot better. 0.95

00:23:58.520 Well, what I think she's trying to do is change the incentives at every level.

00:24:01.980 I mean, this is what you would have, what you could have with a different way of administering hospitals.

00:24:08.880 Let's say that the money followed the patient.

00:24:12.280 Instead of a hospital saying, well, there's a million people, so you get a per capita grant times one million.

00:24:18.960 When it's like that, every patient is a cost.

00:24:22.680 They don't really want to see you.

00:24:23.620 on the other hand if if the money followed the patient and if you went to

00:24:29.260 this hospital this hospital is the one that got paid but if you went to that

00:24:33.760 hospital that would be the hospital which hospital do you think is going

00:24:38.980 they're both going to be good Lord they'd have the hospital administrator

00:24:43.000 out the back calling in cabs to get people into their own emergency room

00:24:47.740 You know, I'm being flippant, but the incentives matter.

00:24:52.420 And so the incentives in the existing Alberta health services have produced a large fat bureaucracy,

00:25:05.880 which gets fed no matter what happens on the ground floor.

00:25:11.080 And if you put this out to bid, a slimmer administration will probably have a good chance of producing a better result for less money.

00:25:26.600 Now, they will have their problems.

00:25:28.880 They will have the problems that you were talking about in your column with unions that are obviously going to try and protect their own turf.

00:25:39.560 It's great when you can get an hour's wages for taking a 15-minute phone call at home.

00:25:45.500 The kind of things that the contracts allow, they're going to have to fight with that.

00:25:49.660 Well, okay.

00:25:51.640 We'll see what they do with that.

00:25:53.540 But the idea of changing the incentives in order to save money, absolutely valid.

00:25:59.920 Absolutely.

00:26:00.540 I thought Corey raised a very good point in his show earlier today about the hypocrisy of the left

00:26:05.760 when you look at the facility the Enoch Nation is building near Edmonton.

00:26:11.840 3,000 operations a year, I think you said.

00:26:15.040 They're planning orthopedic surgeries.

00:26:16.160 Orthopedic surgeries a year. 0.98

00:26:19.760 It's basically a privatized hospital, but because it's on indigenous ground,

00:26:24.660 the left doesn't say a thing. 0.95

00:26:26.200 But if it was planned for downtown Calgary, there'd be masses of, you know,

00:26:29.760 they'd be protesting the building.

00:26:31.060 Well, this idea has been around for quite a long time.

00:26:33.360 It was actually putting hospitals on the reserves.

00:26:35.760 and it's interesting that it happened first in edmonton i always thought that it would be down

00:26:40.480 here satina reserve you know they've been very entrepreneurial anyway maybe there's one in the

00:26:46.240 works who knows but uh it's when when this province has got a number of of private hospitals

00:26:55.440 on reserves if necessary and you can say we have these procedures to to do let's have your bits

00:27:03.120 you will find that the competition will bring down the price.

00:27:06.600 And more important, more important to the people who need the operations is it'll be quicker.

00:27:13.920 They are going to build the capacity to meet the demand.

00:27:18.800 I dream, if I dream at all about health care, and, you know, praise God, I've never had to experience it.

00:27:25.360 But, you know, if I dreamt about health care, I would dream about having a constellation of hospitals in Alberta

00:27:32.160 to which people were coming from all over the country, even from overseas.

00:27:35.860 Medical tourism is a real thing in some countries. 0.99

00:27:38.920 It could be in Alberta, but we have that stupid Bill 11 that Ralph Klein, 0.98

00:27:42.660 the worst thing that Ralph Klein did back in 2002, 0.95

00:27:45.980 that makes it actually illegal to put a private hospital in Alberta.

00:27:50.460 The only workaround is what we're talking about,

00:27:52.620 which we go on the reserve and you put the building there.

00:27:55.900 Nobody can say a thing.

00:27:57.440 I mean, aside from changing the system of repealing Bill 11,

00:27:59.980 which i'd like to see both but in the meantime when we're talking about changing the administration

00:28:04.380 i mean ahs is a giant bloated old animal that doesn't want to move or change typically it's

00:28:09.020 been there too long it's too big bringing in fresh eyes whether it's covenant or even a private

00:28:14.940 i know that dirty word private uh administrator the efficiencies that can be found maybe working

00:28:21.340 with the unions like something that struck me i've had a rough year in some ways i've been healthy

00:28:25.580 But for some other reasons, I've spent more time in hospital hallways this last year than I have a whole life.

00:28:31.300 And, you know, I've given a lot of time to observe things.

00:28:34.100 And one that I observed was most wards in a central area where nurses and other practitioners are all gathered.

00:28:41.180 And I tell you what, 90% of them spend 90% of their time facing a computer typing something,

00:28:45.740 while one or two are running around actually dealing with the patients.

00:28:49.600 I'm not saying they're lazy.

00:28:50.800 I mean, when I've asked about it with others, they're saying it's charting, it's charting, it's charting.

00:28:54.260 we got paperwork, paperwork, paperwork. Well, that's a sign of a inefficient bureaucracy going

00:28:58.460 on then. I mean, they should be dealing with the patients. I imagine a lot of them are trained to

00:29:02.840 do that. They would like to do that. Maybe some new administrative eyes could cut some of that

00:29:08.220 BS out so these nurses can go out and be nurses again, rather than typists. 1.00

00:29:12.800 Yeah, well, how many vice presidents does the HR? It's ludicrous. You know, but we know the 1.00

00:29:18.640 system is flawed. You know, every hospital's got 10-12 hour waiting times in emergency rooms.

00:29:25.700 That's just not right. We know about the delays for surgeries. We know about the delays for

00:29:31.280 getting an appointment. And, you know, it has to change. Surely the NDP and the left don't want

00:29:40.360 it to stay the same. And again, let's just be clear. It's not just Alberta. It's every single

00:29:45.240 province. We did a big feature on the weekend about all the weekend ER closures happening in

00:29:51.540 rural BC. It's a huge problem in BC too. So let's not pretend it's just Alberta. Let's just try and

00:29:57.280 get something done. Yeah. And hopefully Daniel Smith maintains her courage in trying to take on

00:30:03.760 this sacred cow here that even, you know, the mighty Ralph Klein backed off on. I mean, he did

00:30:09.080 a lot of big changes, but when it came to the health file, he tucked tail and ran, to be honest.

00:30:13.740 Yeah, I mean, I don't have a pipeline into the brain of the Premier, but she has been talking about these kinds of reforms for more than 20 years, that I can speak to.

00:30:28.120 So I think that she probably takes the view that here we are, this is what I've been preparing for all my life, and now I'm going to do it.

00:30:37.000 And God bless her.

00:30:37.480 Yeah, and you can't say she didn't warn Albertans.

00:30:39.340 It certainly laid the program out.

00:30:44.820 It's different times.

00:30:46.400 Different times in Alberta, just like different times in B.C. all of a sudden.

00:30:49.840 Let's hope it leads to positive outcomes.

00:30:53.100 So hindsight, positive outcomes, negative outcomes.

00:30:56.260 We've got Facebook Zuckerberg being kind of humbled

00:30:59.760 and admitting that he probably shouldn't have done what he did.

00:31:05.500 Yeah, I've never seen a gazillionaire eat crow before.

00:31:09.340 but yeah he appeared before congress and and admitted that pressure from the biden white house

00:31:15.660 caused him to censor uh covet stories and uh and things like the hunter biden laptop story

00:31:23.660 uh which the new york post was blasted for his misinformation and uh zuckerberg said oh the

00:31:29.900 white house told him it was all part of russia russia misinformation and not to trust it but

00:31:35.500 You know, the COVID stuff that he did, we all remember that and the warnings and how we weren't allowed to post stuff in that pandemic.

00:31:46.160 And, yeah, he looked sheepish and he said he wished he hadn't done it.

00:31:50.600 But, you know, we'll see what happens next time.

00:31:52.420 I guess proof will be in the pudding.

00:31:53.680 Yeah, no, look, he said the right thing.

00:31:56.560 He's been getting a lot of flack from people who said, well, of course, you know, couldn't you see it, sir?

00:32:01.620 I'm actually prepared to cut him some slack

00:32:05.980 based on a full confession

00:32:10.420 frankly

00:32:11.340 we haven't seen the half of it

00:32:16.940 but what he's talking about in this letter

00:32:19.220 is the close relationship

00:32:22.060 that developed even between the Centers for Disease Control

00:32:25.880 and Facebook

00:32:27.000 so that only the approved party

00:32:31.520 line, only what the CDC said was okay could ever get out.

00:32:36.040 We had our own problems. I mean, you've been here longer than I have,

00:32:40.440 but how many times did Facebook cut us off because we put

00:32:43.740 a piece of information in? There was more than one. Facebook jail we were in all the time.

00:32:47.520 Yeah, so it was, and I'm not

00:32:51.420 here, I don't think either of us, any of us can sit here and say

00:32:55.500 where. All the people who, you know, who had a different view of things were

00:32:59.440 right and facebook was wrong and the cdc was wrong we don't actually know we're not medical experts

00:33:06.080 but what we are experts on if anything is the free flow of information from the provider to

00:33:12.560 the reader and the right of readers to make their own judgments on things and we're totally against

00:33:18.240 anything that smacks of censorship so that misinformation and disinformation are kept

00:33:25.120 from the innocent eyes of people who wouldn't know what to do with it you know it's uh this

00:33:31.760 was the the thing that that facebook did under zuckerberg he has admitted it repented of it

00:33:39.040 says he would do it differently uh but there is a lot in this about the how much control

00:33:47.360 the us government took and which in a similar way because we were taking our nod from the

00:33:54.160 centers for disease control it's not like it's not like health candidate knew at all

00:34:00.000 so that we were led by the nose as well by these people and those folks i may not be able to say

00:34:06.560 that ivermectin is good for you but i can say that those people who said that ivermectin was bad for

00:34:14.640 you were the ones who had the stage and nobody could even talk about it and there are very very

00:34:23.040 few things that we shouldn't be able to talk about are up for public debate and let people,

00:34:29.700 let free people, make their own decisions about things. Yeah, even doctors to this day are still

00:34:34.620 getting disciplinary hearings about what they said during COVID. I mean, it's... Which, by the way,

00:34:39.620 is another thing that Daniel Smith is intending to take on with legislation to limit the abilities

00:34:45.700 of professional bodies to regulate what their members think. Exactly. What happened to Jordan

00:34:50.300 Peterson. Exactly. Let's hope we learn from this. I mean, what we're seeing media is changing. The

00:34:55.980 landscape's changing. There's independent outlets like us, but let's face it, we're dependent on

00:34:59.780 those major platforms to get our message out. I mean, Facebook, thanks to Trudeau's meddling,

00:35:05.340 we pretty much can't put anything on there any longer, but YouTube, X, other areas, people get

00:35:11.260 most of their information through those, even if it's coming from outlets like us. And if they're

00:35:16.320 filtering it. That's a very dangerous trend. It's good to see exposed. The government took it upon

00:35:23.560 itself to decide what was true and what was not true and only allow their version of events.

00:35:29.440 Zuckerberg has shone the light on that. It even stopped us from even talking it out. I remember

00:35:34.360 on our show we'd have to be so careful. YouTube was actually worse than Facebook. And if you said

00:35:39.400 the word vaccine, you were done. You couldn't even discuss the issue. So whether there was an issue

00:35:46.800 or not, right or wrong, a reasonable concern or an unreasonable concern, we just purposely shied

00:35:53.060 away from the whole subject because we didn't want to lose the entire platform. You know, Corey,

00:35:56.540 what made me laugh during those years was the idea that this has been fact-checked. When you realize

00:36:02.240 that a fact-checker is a kid with blue hair and his first job out of university and a piece of

00:36:07.040 shrapnel in his ear this is the guy who was well dave you know this i know that's what i laugh

00:36:14.240 because it's true yeah and these guys said themselves oh no this is quite wrong we we've

00:36:20.560 had fact checkers look at the the western standard whatever yeah but we couldn't even have we couldn't

00:36:27.560 even host a debate on either side of invermectin good invermectin bad and let people make up their

00:36:32.600 own time couldn't be done well they built mistrust which is becoming costly in some ways now i mean

00:36:38.360 there were many valid legitimate concerns about the quickly rushed vaccines for covet 19 and things

00:36:44.600 like that we've had many well-established vaccines that have been very beneficial to people polio

00:36:50.760 whooping cough rubella but because of the government's actions because the government's

00:36:54.440 censorship the crackpot fringe that opposed every vaccine from day one has actually made some growth

00:37:01.640 there's some of the numbers of people choosing not to get any vaccinations now are distressingly high

00:37:07.640 yeah yeah and it's because trust was lost through this it's funny how many you know two

00:37:12.200 three years ago all the conspiracy theories and they were labeled conspiracy theories are now true

00:37:18.680 look just just on this matter of the vaccines i think that's a very important point that you have

00:37:23.240 raised there glory i think that we should probably affirm at this point that if you want to get your

00:37:29.640 child inoculated against the usual childhood diseases the vaccines are fine i mean there's

00:37:36.520 some people who don't think they are but my personal view is that they are fine what we

00:37:42.280 forget is that what they're calling an anti-covid vaccine is not actually a vaccine it's a substance

00:37:49.960 and it doesn't act the same way as a vaccine so you can make that you can be totally vaccinated

00:37:55.480 to the hilt if you're going on holiday to a place where it's a good thing to have a jab

00:38:00.520 for this or that or the other thing and you haven't compromised your principles it's the

00:38:06.200 it's the vaccine that was not a vaccine that was the issue all along if there hadn't been such an

00:38:13.000 effort to gag discourse when that was going on i think people would feel more confident about okay

00:38:18.360 well we got a problem here but the established ones the ones that have been there for 50 60 years

00:38:22.520 are still beneficial.

00:38:24.080 And now we're getting an unintended blowback that,

00:38:26.760 again, it's just due to censorship.

00:38:29.080 If people can't get the answer here,

00:38:31.020 they're gonna go look over there

00:38:32.140 and it might not be a good source.

00:38:33.360 And it's the kids that are gonna suffer

00:38:34.680 when they get whooping cough.

00:38:35.700 Yes, which is,

00:38:36.740 new outbreaks are coming up,

00:38:38.520 which is just a total shame.

00:38:40.760 All right, but yeah, I'm sure we'll get some feedback

00:38:42.600 from some of the vaccine folks.

00:38:43.980 I love it when they get scrapping with me on those things,

00:38:46.380 but it's all part of the fun.

00:38:48.680 Let's go into something more benign and non-controversial.

00:38:51.040 The Federal Liberal Party of Canada held their cabinet retreat this year.

00:38:57.400 They did.

00:38:59.280 In the lovely city of Halifax, I'm sure a lot of very expensive seafood was eaten.

00:39:06.680 This is a party that's trailing by up to 20 points in the polls, depending on who you believe.

00:39:12.520 So you would think they would come out, all get huddled in there and say,

00:39:15.980 Prime Minister would stand up and say, okay, well, look, we're in a bit of trouble here.

00:39:19.320 We need some fresh ideas.

00:39:20.480 what are we going to do and they would have a talk and announce all their new ideas nothing

00:39:26.000 nothing they announced uh some sort of leasing program for housing where they're going to lease

00:39:33.360 houses to be built on federal property of course they didn't mention who was going to build these

00:39:38.080 houses they introduced some minor changes to the temporary foreign workers program but then trudeau

00:39:45.280 came out at the end of it and said you know full steam ahead we're staying the course i'm running

00:39:49.120 for Prime Minister again. It's just their utter lack of seeing what the real world is going on

00:39:56.720 is, you know, it's been the same for years, you know, and they're just not, they're not willing

00:40:02.000 to change. No, that's it. I thought it was very telling that when he did get up and address the

00:40:09.040 media and talk to this very point about, well, where are your new ideas? He's saying, I think

00:40:15.260 the big lesson is in responding to the things that people are actually worried about. Well,

00:40:20.080 what are people worried about? We know that what people are worried about is energy, homelessness,

00:40:25.440 inflation. Mr. Trudeau concerned, listing things like child care and the National School Food

00:40:30.020 Program. Okay, there it is. Out of touch. Doesn't know what's going on. Doesn't know what people

00:40:37.320 are really anxious about. And doesn't know that this program is going to be ineffectual. That's

00:40:42.680 That's right.

00:40:43.520 Say the experts.

00:40:45.180 So anyway, whatever you think about them,

00:40:47.700 they made a big fist about US trade.

00:40:50.900 Well, the charm offensive.

00:40:54.180 It was like one of our guests said the other day,

00:40:59.700 dealing with the US is a very transactional.

00:41:02.460 What have you got to offer?

00:41:04.940 If you want something from us, what have you got to give us?

00:41:08.020 There is nothing of that.

00:41:09.600 It's basically more maple syrup.

00:41:13.080 And, you know, the tax on the Chinese EVs is good, but...

00:41:20.660 Polyev was asking for it months ago.

00:41:22.600 Yep.

00:41:23.240 So now it turns out that they're doing it,

00:41:26.740 not because it was a good idea that Polyev thought of first,

00:41:31.500 but because they have to match what the U.S. is doing.

00:41:35.580 So, I mean, it's good.

00:41:36.400 I'm glad they're doing it.

00:41:37.300 I don't want to see the auto manufacturers in eastern Canada go out of business.

00:41:42.440 But on the other hand, let's not try and make it sound like we're doing something terribly heroic here.

00:41:48.040 We're pushed into it by the Biden administration of all people, not even the Kamala Harris administration.

00:41:55.380 It's a shame. It's a really bad thing.

00:41:59.960 So assuming the liberals stick to the set election date,

00:42:04.380 And people got to remember, I like to keep reminding them, that's just legislation.

00:42:08.720 Technically, he can go another year beyond that.

00:42:10.400 Yes.

00:42:10.600 He can go to 2026.

00:42:11.940 Yes.

00:42:12.580 Assuming they stick to that, they're getting into the final year.

00:42:15.800 This is campaign year.

00:42:17.140 This is time to get out there.

00:42:18.540 And as you point out, they're on the ropes.

00:42:20.100 They're 20 points down.

00:42:22.140 This was the point where you're going to, or you would have thought, either make a big

00:42:25.920 radical change.

00:42:26.680 The big one that most would think would probably work best would be Trudeau stepping side.

00:42:30.640 That's not in the cards.

00:42:31.980 Okay.

00:42:32.260 They've run out of time to replace them, but they will pretty soon, even if he's done that.

00:42:36.400 Yeah.

00:42:37.140 But you would think then they have to show we're changing course.

00:42:40.620 This is why we won't be the same party that has gotten itself down 20 points in the polls.

00:42:45.740 You'd think there could at least be a cabinet shuffle or something major, something, a new coat of paint.

00:42:50.460 I mean, we know it wouldn't necessarily work, but they have to show we've done something different. 0.96

00:42:54.800 As you said, they just came out and blathered the same old garbage. 0.97

00:42:57.840 They don't get it. 0.98

00:42:58.700 No, and we're going to be hearing the same old, same old from Freeland and the health minister, Mark Holland.

00:43:07.220 To me, I mean, I don't imagine what a classroom of political science students would think.

00:43:13.360 Surely they would all think that this is the wrong way to do it, right?

00:43:18.200 Surely there's some smart people in the cabinet who might voice an opinion to say, hey, why don't we try something new?

00:43:26.040 And they don't.

00:43:26.500 Well, I don't think there are very many smart people in cabinet because it's not been put together with smartness in mind.

00:43:35.540 It's more about ticking boxes to represent different things and different points of view.

00:43:41.300 But, you know, my fear is that in the time between now and when the election campaign starts,

00:43:48.920 They're simply going to double down on every airy-fairy policy that doesn't actually work, but which they believe is a sort of a divine sign.

00:44:00.920 So look for more on net zero and more restrictions on the oil companies, new regulations, making it more difficult for people to go exploring for energy.

00:44:14.280 If anything, frankly, that's going to work, that's what you're going to do.

00:44:19.620 They're going to hand Pierre Poliev a mess.

00:44:22.320 That's the plan.

00:44:23.720 We know that the prime minister isn't exactly a luminary,

00:44:27.640 but there are some very, very smart people within that party.

00:44:31.480 There's strategists, there's organizers, there's operators.

00:44:36.040 But we can only assume that.

00:44:37.220 I mean, they can see the writing on the wall.

00:44:38.920 They can see the polling.

00:44:39.820 They could speak up and say, hey, we need to do something to move that needle.

00:44:44.280 Is he ignoring them? Has he kicked them out of the room?

00:44:47.260 Is the Prime Minister in such a cloistered place, perhaps, he's just not hearing this?

00:44:51.140 I think he's probably ignoring Canadians as a whole.

00:44:54.920 I mean, we are a nation of sheep, and I think you're right, Nigel.

00:44:59.660 I think he's going to double down and try and wreck the country the way he knows how.

00:45:06.960 And it's up to Canadians to stand up. It's up to Canadians to march in the street.

00:45:10.440 You know, the Freedom Convoy did it over vaccines.

00:45:14.040 Why don't regular Canadians get together and hold marches in every city across the country if Trudeau continues this path?

00:45:22.140 It won't happen, but he wouldn't care anyways.

00:45:25.700 One reason it won't happen is they've already made known to the pollsters that when the time comes, they're ready to do something else.

00:45:33.420 So if you think that you can change things legislatively,

00:45:36.600 you probably won't put your coat on and get your dustbin lid

00:45:40.260 and your motorcycle helmet and go and duke it out.

00:45:43.440 But I'll tell you what, if he actually somehow or other wins

00:45:47.360 and continues on this tack, I have no idea what might take place

00:45:51.920 in the years immediately after.

00:45:53.740 It'll be us moving to the United States, I think, won't it?

00:45:57.460 Or Alberta separation.

00:45:59.040 Well, you know, we might be moving on some things.

00:46:02.860 But it's fodder for another show.

00:46:06.320 We've run out of time on that one.

00:46:08.600 But yeah, well, we'll watch morbidly and then see how things unfold in this next year.

00:46:13.860 So it'll be a long year.

00:46:15.320 I think that, you know, what you see in B.C., that's going to be a big encouragement.

00:46:20.320 Certainly could be a turnover of something like that.

00:46:22.260 Absolutely could be.

00:46:23.580 All right.

00:46:24.100 Well, Nigel, Dave, thank you very much for joining today to break all this down for everybody.

00:46:29.560 You're welcome.

00:46:30.120 I hope Nigel enjoys your dream tonight about healthcare.

00:46:36.100 And thank you all for tuning in.

00:46:38.000 Guys, make sure to share those social media links.

00:46:40.360 This is how independent media stays independent, too.

00:46:42.120 Not just your subscriptions, but getting the word out,

00:46:44.400 telling people you don't have to listen to the old state broadcaster

00:46:47.620 or some of those legacy outlets.

00:46:49.200 There's better stuff out there.

00:46:50.460 We provide it.

00:46:51.540 So thanks for tuning in.

00:46:52.840 Get others to tune in.

00:46:54.640 Watch for my show out there, Nigel's show.

00:46:56.860 We got lots of stuff going on.

00:46:57.900 of course, westernstandard.news for all of the news stories as they come out. So thank you again

00:47:02.100 for tuning in. We will see you again next week. If the name Ted Byfield brings back fond memories,

00:47:07.600 well, we got a party coming up for you guys. On September 25th, Toasting Ted is what it's called.

00:47:12.640 It's going to honor a great conservative who published Alberta Report News Magazine. It's

00:47:17.120 going to be bagpipes, singing, live auction stakes, speeches by Premier Smith, Preston Manning,

00:47:21.840 Stephen Harper, quite a lineup. The Western Standard is the final incarnation or the latest

00:47:26.480 incarnation of alberta report that ted byfield uh founded and i mean he was a great albertan

00:47:32.080 he really made his mark on this province and this this evening of celebration for him is really

00:47:35.760 going to be outstanding you get there toasting ted.ca that's the website you can get your

00:47:40.480 tickets this one's going to sell out i mean again if you want to see smith manning harper all in

00:47:45.280 one spot one night be sure to get there you can become a western center member for just ten dollars

00:47:50.080 a month or not

Western Standard - August 29, 2024

Working without woke

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