Bubble Pop with Rachel Gilmore - November 29, 2025


Trample the charter and you get...a path to a pipeline？ (with Emily Lowan and Karla Marx)


Episode Stats


Length

54 minutes

Words per minute

162.65

Word count

8,910

Sentence count

160


Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
00:00:00.000 Hello, I'm Rachel Gilmore, your least favorite person's least favorite journalist. Welcome to
00:00:12.180 Bubble Pop. This is the weekly show where we talk about some of the biggest headlines and
00:00:16.680 juiciest news tidbits so you don't have to doomscroll. And you guys know the drill by now,
00:00:22.540 we're doing it live for season two. So if you guys want to support the show, as usual, you can
00:00:28.620 subscribe on Patreon, Substack, YouTube, and anywhere you like to listen. And just a reminder
00:00:33.140 that I'm going to try to leave about 10 minutes at the end of the episode for live chat questions.
00:00:38.600 You can leave those in the chat using the super chat function on YouTube. But also I'll just try
00:00:44.320 to take some general questions. So don't be shy if you still want to ask one and don't feel like
00:00:48.920 using the super chat. Today, there is a lot to talk about. The Alberta government just signed
00:00:56.120 a memorandum of understanding with the federal government that lays out the conditions for a new
00:01:01.640 oil pipeline. Awesome. Well, it's very unlikely that this pipeline will come to be given coastal
00:01:08.260 First Nations and BC aren't too keen on it to put things lightly. And it also needs a private
00:01:13.620 proponent. Carney does seem to be trying to de-risk the idea of a pipeline for a potential
00:01:19.360 private investor, including telling them that he'd be willing to, quote, adjust the tanker ban
00:01:25.080 off the coast of BC, which protects those waters from oil spills. Overall, he's managed to piss off
00:01:32.120 coastal First Nations, BC, the Bloc Québécois, the Green Party, and one of his own cabinet ministers
00:01:38.480 who just resigned from cabinet, all to placate Alberta, the same province that is addicted to
00:01:45.580 invoking the notwithstanding clause, primarily using it to trample on the rights of trans kids.
00:01:49.400 yeah I said we got a lot to talk about didn't I luckily we've got some great guests on the show
00:01:55.940 today to help me do it in just a few seconds we'll be joined by Dr. Victoria Buchholz I practiced
00:02:02.960 that aka Carla Marks uh she is the Alberta organizer for the 2SLGBTQ plus rights group
00:02:10.400 queer momentum we're also getting ready to see a recent guest all over again which is super nice
00:02:17.160 her to be so generous with her time uh bc green party leader emily lowen is a climate activist
00:02:22.920 and organizer and the first gen z-er to lead an official party in canada emily victoria welcome
00:02:34.040 it's great to be back so soon i so appreciate it um okay the first thing i have to ask you emily
00:02:42.680 who did you think you were saying fuck online like that was just unbelievable
00:02:49.860 how dare I frankly yeah really I mean it's not like the situation merits it right
00:02:57.620 no you know all these old men in their armchairs are you know getting up with uh
00:03:03.780 banging fists I I think you know it was was was well worth it but you know Andrew Weaver he's
00:03:10.600 he's just mad that everyone he is politically backed since he left left office has has lost
00:03:16.440 like i don't know there there seems to be some some grudge happening there um and yeah he he he
00:03:24.440 was you know also openly angry uh that that i won this this leadership race and said that he he felt
00:03:33.240 politically homeless now despite having backed you know uh the conservative leader john rustad
00:03:39.400 and other political parties since so you know let's let's not pay attention to that guy we
00:03:44.840 we can we can get him back to bed oh my god that's funny okay so uh putting him to bed let's
00:03:52.120 focus on what actually made you say what the hell is going on with this pipeline deal i want both of
00:03:58.280 your reaction uh emily since i'm already talking to you i'll let you go first and then carla i'm
00:04:02.600 bringing you in here this is just it is such a spit in the face to british columbians and coastal
00:04:11.880 first nations we've made it abundantly clear over the past weeks and months that there will be no
00:04:18.280 oil pipeline to bc's coasts and you know going behind our back carney and and smith signing this
00:04:27.480 mou pouring their support behind this project is an abuse of power you know it's it's it's
00:04:34.680 completely unacceptable and uh you know i'm just i'm i'm really just reeling with the proposal it
00:04:43.160 said you know itself we're we're looking at a massive uh affordability crisis people are
00:04:49.960 struggling to make ends meet where our grocery costs are sky high we're spending half our income
00:04:55.880 on rent and you know the government can't afford to pay for libraries and shelters but they somehow
00:05:02.200 have billions of dollars for a new oil pipeline that has no global market attached to it you know
00:05:08.920 we we've tried this with northern gateway a decade ago and that project was cancelled uh or was it
00:05:17.000 enbridge pulled its support from that project a decade ago because of coastal first nations
00:05:22.200 opposition and and their their opposition hasn't moved a single inch and so i don't think what uh
00:05:30.920 what uh yeah tricks smith has her upper sleeve to to think that that position will be reversed
00:05:38.280 and that suddenly there'll be a private proponent um wanting to take on an economic loser of a
00:05:44.040 project that'll take at least 50 billion dollars uh to to ram through indigenous territory but
00:05:50.920 yeah it's it's completely ludicrous and so in a time where i you know some somehow it's easier to
00:06:01.080 to socialize a a project of that scale than than to support communities across bc and across this
00:06:09.560 country with truly sustainable economies that would um support the cost of living crisis you
00:06:15.000 You know, I'm, it's safe to say I'm banging my head against the wall.
00:06:20.360 Yeah, we're, we're, we're ready to escalate, whatever comes our way.
00:06:25.980 Interesting.
00:06:27.200 Carla, what about you?
00:06:28.360 Like how, what's the vibe in Alberta like right now?
00:06:31.040 I imagine maybe mixed depending on which social circles you're in, but what are your thoughts
00:06:36.520 on all of this?
00:06:37.600 Especially in the broader context, I mean, of all the stuff that Alberta has recently
00:06:42.320 been doing to its most vulnerable citizens.
00:06:45.000 uh well first and foremost i think as an albertan on a national podcast i have to apologize
00:06:49.960 um so sorry uh i think we have to reset the counter again it's still zero days since
00:06:57.660 alberta has been a national embarrassment um so yeah just really want to uh say we're sorry
00:07:04.380 oh geez um yeah it it i i kind of look at this through the lens of like
00:07:10.320 what are the what is everybody trying to get here it's obvious for daniel smith that she
00:07:15.560 doesn't really care about what albertans actually want she is the premier of oil companies like she
00:07:21.640 goes around the world to advocate specifically for the oil industry she's shut down anything
00:07:26.540 that would look at renewables or green energy she's put a moratorium on that saying it's a
00:07:31.440 blight on the environment but open coal mines that's okay on sacred indigenous territory uh
00:07:37.480 that's going to poison most of Southern Alberta, that's fine because that helps what she likes.
00:07:42.120 So she's not even a politician for Albertans. She looks for very specific industries that she
00:07:47.960 backs. So that's very clear. You know, she's kind of gone back to like the original Albertans of
00:07:52.880 just being a boondoggle in a trench coat. I also don't really think Daniel Smith has principles
00:07:58.620 per se. You know, we're kind of all sick of playing the game of like, you take a clip of
00:08:03.360 2015 daniel smith and compare it to 2025 and says the exact opposite and then she's got her tinfoil
00:08:08.680 hat era when she was on like these podcasts and like covet era so i mean she's really willing to
00:08:15.560 say whatever helps her stay in power and she thinks that these big corporations are going to
00:08:21.040 do that um but you know we're projected at a 6.4 billion dollar deficit in our budget because it's
00:08:28.760 so reliant on oil and it shows just how bad the math is and unimaginative this is to really serve
00:08:36.720 people um and that's where i think carney's biggest issue is because i've tried to put
00:08:41.020 myself in the mindset of like mark carney so i swore at a woman and then i tried to like figure
00:08:46.440 out like why would he make this deal is he playing 3d chess and he's trying to placate alberta to
00:08:51.380 defang the conservatives to say look i stood up for you on pipelines knowing that it won't work
00:08:56.220 But then, like, is he passing the buck on to British Columbians and Indigenous groups who are actually going to have to stand up and say, no, this isn't?
00:09:04.300 So is he, like, ducking this to be a coward?
00:09:07.260 And he's trying to play political chess with Daniel Smith so she just stops railing against him all the time?
00:09:12.500 Or I think he's just, he spent too long in the boardroom.
00:09:16.700 Like, he thinks too much in the terms of corporations.
00:09:18.960 he thinks too much in the terms of this all masculine community of straight cis old white
00:09:24.900 guys who go and drink their scotch back at the club go to their house have people clean their
00:09:30.280 thing like this is not a man of the people this is not somebody who's out there on the streets
00:09:34.960 who understands that a lot of people would like a livable planet in 20 years 30 years 40 years
00:09:41.040 you know that this is really not serving people and i think what we're seeing is emily represents
00:09:47.760 a massive shift in the political landscape that these old dinosaurs are missing that the politics
00:09:55.240 of usual are over people are waking up to the radical extremists that are being platformed by
00:10:01.240 conservative parties and that increasingly people are saying i'm sick of this centrist
00:10:06.240 bs and i want a progressive future and that there's so many of us these the ndp like especially
00:10:14.540 in alberta with nenshi is chasing boats to the right thinking well no one's gonna out left us
00:10:20.140 and i i saw nenshi's tweet today saying yay a pipeline and then a sub tweet underneath saying
00:10:27.020 like well and we should do other things too and i i really am at odds because going back to kind
00:10:32.460 of your introduction to me i love what the ndp is saying about human rights i love what they're
00:10:38.060 saying about trans rights and about standing up for the rights of workers but then they go and do
00:10:42.380 these centrist moves like this and it really makes it kind of like i really wish we could
00:10:49.420 have a party that was like wholly progressive and not this well we're going to be progressive here
00:10:54.860 but then yeah drill baby drill let's get oil pipelines like i just think that politicians
00:11:00.300 that are taking a principal stance like emily like zoran mandami like zach polanski like they're
00:11:05.900 showing hey if you chase these votes to the right and become a center center right party at your
00:11:11.660 your home peril. Emily, I'm curious if you want to dig in a little bit more to that idea. I mean,
00:11:17.960 the one thing that we always hear about these, these pipeline investments is that, oh, well,
00:11:23.500 you know, this is balancing the economy and like considering the economy. And it's always an
00:11:28.700 economic argument or more extraction. But I don't really see how that entirely makes sense when like
00:11:34.360 a pipeline would cost a ton of money, wouldn't actually be constructed. Generally, they take
00:11:39.360 about a decade, I believe. And so it's like you're talking about extracting oil and getting oil to
00:11:44.380 market in 10 years. So it's not like, you know, Trump will probably not be with us anymore by
00:11:49.080 that. So, you know, I just there's there's all these discussions about the strategicness of
00:11:53.480 this. But can you drill down a little bit? Sorry. On, you know, that sort of economic argument and
00:12:01.680 whether you buy it? Yeah. Shocking news. I don't buy it at all. Really? I thought you would.
00:12:10.940 Just kidding. I'm sorry. I will say it does feel like a shock doctrine that we're living through
00:12:18.520 right now because this kind of goes back to our experience in the spring around the federal
00:12:25.000 election, Mark Carney won on an elbows-up election against Donald Trump. And through that period,
00:12:33.800 Trump was unleashing a new wave of fossil fever across Canada where, you know, because I think
00:12:41.200 there is that sort of guttural fear that Canadians felt about, you know, our sovereignty and some
00:12:49.720 some deep historical us versus them dynamics with with the US. And I think that that unleashes like
00:12:57.680 monkey brain, where we say that, you know, we need, we need this economic security, and we need
00:13:04.580 to do what we've always done. And we've always been a rip it and ship it resource economy that
00:13:10.480 has just, you know, relied so heavily on oil and gas. And though, you know, it is a shrinking
00:13:18.300 share of our GDP as a country. And it is, you know, across the board, not an enormous number
00:13:24.800 of jobs. I can speak to BC, our oil and gas revenue is lower than the money we make off of
00:13:33.820 lottery and casinos. And so, you know, that just goes to show sort of our, you know, our
00:13:41.440 need to to really transition relative to so many other countries and our relative ability to do so
00:13:49.500 as a rich global north country who's got us into this mess in the first place um and so yeah i think
00:13:56.500 when we talk about the the economics of it you know i just want to talk about northern gateway
00:14:01.980 again like northern gateway uh the the enbridge project was was pulled out yes because of
00:14:08.700 uh a lack of support from coastal first nations but they they saw the writing on the wall for uh
00:14:15.500 the the economic markets for this project as well you know it was a combination of factors
00:14:20.380 and that's been true across so many of these cancelled projects across the country that
00:14:25.660 we've seen over the last decade um you know and with energy east as well with so many of these
00:14:32.060 these these projects that are now um seeing a revival and i just i want to shake this political
00:14:39.660 amnesia because the markets have only gotten worse um and we we saw this this conclusion start to
00:14:46.940 finish with the trans mountain pipeline taxpayers have now paid in about 50 billion dollars into
00:14:53.740 this project that does not operate at full capacity because there's not demand for it you
00:14:59.180 know and we're yeah oil demand is is in a slump and it's not going to recover um and then it's
00:15:06.300 a similar case with uh liquefied natural gas which eb is massively propping up um and it's
00:15:14.620 a very similar story we're seeing a global supply glut for 2030 and bc is going to be the highest
00:15:20.620 cost late market entrant um for for this market and so obviously across the board these are climate
00:15:27.420 disasters um we cannot continue expanding oil and gas lng it's it's just it's a hard no from a
00:15:35.680 climate standpoint um and it's economically stupid um i'll leave it there yeah yeah emily um stay in
00:15:45.200 your lane how dare you talk about transitions that's
00:15:48.140 yeah really inconsiderate emily
00:15:54.780 this is this is her first big scandal she's actually canceled now
00:15:59.420 so yeah you heard it here first folks on bubble pop
00:16:03.620 yeah um i yeah no go ahead carla yeah i think this is bad math and we're always told that
00:16:13.040 these are the guys who understand stonks and math and oh you know us silly girls we just don't get
00:16:18.680 it we're just out here like trying to what no like i mean these guys are naked corrupt they are just
00:16:25.660 trying to help out their corporation buddies uh and we need politicians that work for us that work
00:16:30.520 for the people and we have to stop measuring is the economy good by what are the stock portfolios
00:16:35.520 of the richest 10 guys look like like this is not what we want to be measuring on i want to measure
00:16:40.780 it by what's our houseless rate i want to measure it by can people afford their own homes are
00:16:45.980 groceries affordable are we live are we how many what is the percentage of our workers who are
00:16:50.700 being paid a minimum way a living wage you know that's what i want to be looking at those are the
00:16:55.020 economic indicators that matter to me and i think to matter people who vote because like oil companies
00:17:01.260 don't vote people do and we need to educate them on that there is a better way out there
00:17:05.660 Yeah, no, exactly. And I will, on the note of corruption, I mean, we should have seen this
00:17:11.600 coming, right? Carney nominated the former executive CEO of Trans Mountain Pipeline
00:17:19.340 to lead his major projects office. Why do we need another pipeline? We're already shipping oil at
00:17:25.900 record paces through Trans Mountain to the coast. Like they're acting like there is no pipeline in
00:17:31.400 place and there already is like ask the town of jasper that already rolled through like there
00:17:36.360 already are pipelines that aren't at full capacity it just seems like they're chate they're tilting
00:17:41.420 at windmills they're chasing this like oil job oil equals job equals good and what imperial just
00:17:48.680 announced yesterday they're cutting 20 of their labor force and that's going to massively cut
00:17:53.260 calgary again like the jobs aren't there i absolutely think we need to create a national
00:17:59.480 energy company that is focused on green solutions like why can't we do this if we are taking our
00:18:05.540 public dollars and we are investing them in privately run and partnered pipelines why can't
00:18:11.420 we take those same dollars and create a publicly funded publicly profitable energy company that
00:18:17.340 focuses on wind and solar because we know that those are profitable let's do that why don't we
00:18:21.580 invest in ourselves and we own it we have assets yeah i think public options just those words
00:18:29.380 like terrify people and the next thing you know Pierre Polyev's posting about how the Nazis were
00:18:34.400 socialists or whatever again which to be clear is incorrect but anyway um yeah
00:18:41.680 you're gonna be surprised how left-wing I'm willing to go on this
00:18:50.260 oh hell yeah um you know and I did want to dive into the politics a little bit too because
00:18:59.360 the the thing that i keep hearing uh particularly from sort of liberal partisans is that oh carny's
00:19:05.400 playing 40 chess here okay like he is you know uh placating alberta with a toy that's never
00:19:13.380 actually going to be real and getting concessions in the form of i guess stripping back several
00:19:18.220 environmental regulations but anyway for like a potential increase to the industrial carbon price
00:19:24.580 But, you know, the calculation doesn't make great sense there. But even beyond that, what's blowing my mind is, you know, there's talk of this being cooperative federalism, for example. Carney said that this is an example of cooperative federalism. And BC wasn't at the table for this. And the pipeline goes through BC.
00:19:42.000 And meanwhile, obviously, that's got Quebec freaked out because Quebec is not a fan of the federal government doing stuff that impacts a province without provincial involvement.
00:19:57.540 And Indigenous communities are pissed.
00:20:00.640 The Green Party federally is pissed.
00:20:02.780 I'm assuming the Green Party of BC is pissed based on Emily's use of the word, God forbid, fuck.
00:20:08.320 and you know and his own cabinet I mean we're hearing murmurs of BCMPs the discontent in the
00:20:17.800 meeting leading up to this announcement we've got Stephen Gilbeau resigning which is actually a very
00:20:23.380 big deal in Quebec and you know he's still staying in the Liberal caucus but broadly I'm just kind of
00:20:28.840 wondering what makes this 4D chess when he's pissed off so many groups and two provinces
00:20:35.960 in exchange for placating Alberta,
00:20:39.100 which will probably turn on him
00:20:40.780 the next opportunity it's politically expedient.
00:20:43.140 So I'm curious like what you guys make
00:20:45.580 of those 4D chess claims
00:20:48.680 and the politics of this in general.
00:20:50.940 Do you think that there was any smart politicking here?
00:20:53.800 I think it is 4D chess
00:20:56.300 in the sense that 4D chess doesn't exist.
00:20:59.140 I knew you were gonna pull some.
00:21:01.260 it doesn't exist it's the invention of bored bros to justify playing the same games and that's what
00:21:12.680 we're seeing it's it's not 40 chess it goes back to like mcdonald of like exactly what emily was
00:21:19.540 saying we're gonna extract we're gonna pull things out of the earth we're gonna sell them on market
00:21:24.140 that's what they're saying and i think everybody is saying like we've been doing this 150 years
00:21:29.780 can we start investing in this country can we start making solutions that profit us instead of
00:21:35.300 corporate interests and it's just it's so frustrating that we're still in the same place
00:21:40.220 i do not think this is 40 jess i think this is same old corporate canada uh you know just
00:21:46.280 extracting wealth and pumping it around as much as they can i do think there's an argument that
00:21:51.380 maybe he's trying he knows it won't work and he's trying to placate daniel smith so she just
00:21:56.200 shuts up which good luck she doesn't ever she will come up with some new bullshit tomorrow um yeah
00:22:04.280 yeah no placating alberta is a losing game and i
00:22:12.100 yeah no it's um you on audio only carla just did a very exaggerated offended face so
00:22:22.940 yeah um yeah you know we we've seen it's a losing game on just about every single issue so
00:22:33.940 you know there there was there was a moment where i bought into the 4d chess argument
00:22:40.480 in april and i was like oh maybe he's just like you know swatting alberta away sort of trying to
00:22:48.640 kick the can down the line because things are tense with the election and you know things are
00:22:53.840 you know were i i i was still i was still struggling to find the rationale then but now
00:23:02.100 you know after his cabinet um appointments after you know his his staffing of the major projects
00:23:08.900 office seeing you know who who is who he's meeting how he's dealing with trump i think we saw a very
00:23:16.080 similar playbook in his recent meetings with with trump and you saw this those same people saying
00:23:22.560 oh he's playing 40 chess he's just you know trying to be chummy and and um placate him in in these
00:23:29.600 ways and yeah i think i think it's a very similar dynamic here and he's he's yeah i'm i'm not sure
00:23:37.120 what the calculus is but from a bc perspective he's cowing to pressure and he is steamrolling
00:23:45.120 the rights of coastal First Nations and British Columbians. And so I don't really care what the
00:23:50.840 calculus is. I care what the outcome is. Yeah. Yeah. And you know, the other thing that's struck
00:23:58.020 me, and I don't see anyone else like saying this, so you guys can let me know if I'm tying together
00:24:05.100 two things that don't belong together. But I really find it to be a bad signal that he's sending
00:24:11.540 in giving Alberta this at least optical win, and I think in many ways it very much is being
00:24:18.460 framed as that by Danielle Smith as a huge win for Alberta, just barely over a week after
00:24:27.600 Danielle Smith invoked the notwithstanding clause for three anti-trans laws to protect them from
00:24:36.540 court challenges and that comes after that's the fourth time in a month that she's used it and
00:24:41.900 before then she used the notwithstanding clause which is the uh clause in the charter that allows
00:24:46.540 you to override other charter rights for up to five years to pass legislation um used it to violate
00:24:53.420 workers rights and force striking teachers back to work so i i just think it's a very interesting
00:24:58.540 signal particularly when it comes to trans kids and the way they're under attack in alberta to
00:25:05.260 one week later, give that effectively reward to Alberta and signal that it doesn't matter what
00:25:13.960 she does to trans kids in the province. She'll still get her pipeline. There won't be pushback.
00:25:19.020 There's no mention of it in any negotiations here. When you've got leverage, you're not going
00:25:23.560 to use it to protect the most vulnerable. I find that really galling. And I'm shocked that more
00:25:30.160 people aren't mentioning those two things together. But maybe I'm off base there. Carla,
00:25:34.100 i'm curious what you make of this and what signal you think it sends uh well i i i think that they
00:25:40.420 go ahead and glove in the sense that i mean a place with uh human rights abuses and a bunch of
00:25:48.500 oil uh sounds like an attractive place to mark carney um if we look at his track record everywhere
00:25:53.860 he's like oh i feel at home here uh we've got a wannabe dictator a bunch of oil on the ground
00:25:58.660 and human rights abuses let's make a let's make a deal um no i i think it's really quite
00:26:04.340 reprehensible and i think we've seen this from the federal government recently like with their
00:26:08.260 proposed cuts to wage that i think only really uh you know through a lot of the work done by
00:26:13.860 momentum and fey and a huge campaign of organizations that rallied together to push back and
00:26:19.060 secure wage funding uh in october you know that only happened because there was huge outcry against
00:26:24.740 it but he didn't think twice about slashing budgets that do a lot of amazing things and
00:26:30.340 what we're seeing is i know people are calling him uh you know a blue liberal i have red tory
00:26:38.100 yeah yeah or at least like i just think he's probably one of the most effective progressive
00:26:43.540 conservative uh prime ministers in their the history of that party and this is not a man who
00:26:48.900 has liberal values this is not a man who has left-wing values by any any standpoint um and so
00:26:55.060 i just i think that it gets back to kind of a settler colonial mentality that you see that uh
00:27:03.300 you're just resources to wealth uh you know when you think of the earth as just something to be
00:27:10.980 bought sold traded and exploited you tend to apply that to people as well and it's really
00:27:18.660 quite terrifying that there is a dangerous pattern happening here for trans folks and that is um
00:27:25.220 that our the attacks on us are getting already forgotten by news cycles that we
00:27:30.260 unless there's new attacks in 2027 rp she leveled that against us
00:27:36.260 it's in the throne god it's in the old speech yeah i'm so sorry that's
00:27:41.060 it's wow for sure yeah for a long time to feel for a long time to feel represented and to feel like
00:27:50.580 you know their their voice and concerns really matter and that we're we're actually you know
00:27:56.260 building up a movement with the fire to take on the governing party and to to channel the power
00:28:03.300 of people across BC into government. And, you know, I, I, and I think you tapped into something
00:28:11.720 so, so accurate that we, we are so subsumed, consumed by, you know, crazy right-wing culture
00:28:20.380 war debates that distract us from the emergency of the cost of living crisis, and the need to,
00:28:27.400 you know have real public options to offer you know good union jobs across across this province
00:28:35.240 and and country um and you know really step up for working people lower the cost of living
00:28:42.000 control the rent and uh yeah ensure that that you know we have a sustainable future to to be
00:28:51.000 building towards and that we're not getting so caught up in these ridiculous distractions
00:28:55.140 of a taxpayer-funded pipeline.
00:28:58.080 And I think that what they're missing
00:28:59.980 is like the broader arc of history
00:29:01.720 when you look at where does political activity
00:29:06.780 really happen in a society?
00:29:09.240 And a lot of times it happens
00:29:10.700 because people are,
00:29:11.840 they have their material goods needs met, right?
00:29:14.180 They've got a stable home,
00:29:14.980 they got a stable job,
00:29:15.860 their family's taken care of.
00:29:16.840 So they have a little bit of extra capacity
00:29:18.920 to take on political work and activism and action.
00:29:22.260 But that's this zone here,
00:29:23.660 but we've moved people down further and further and further where they're more destitute they're
00:29:28.460 more precarious and eventually people are going to get so precarious they're not going to have
00:29:32.940 any investment in the established system they're going to be so destitute that they're going to say
00:29:37.660 well what do i have to risk and that's when things get really scary that's when like major
00:29:42.700 revolutions happen because people are so disenfranchised by a system that they don't
00:29:47.100 see any way to fix it and reform it and they say let's tear it down and there's not always a
00:29:52.300 a prediction of that that's going to be a good thing or a bad thing and that's really scary to
00:29:56.160 me the idea that you know there's just this downward pressure on folks right now especially
00:30:02.040 like affordability uh that i mean it's lovely that we call it affordability it's corporate greed
00:30:07.080 it's corporate exactly like profits on one hand and then everyone's so broke on the other hand
00:30:13.720 put it together the corporations are gouging us and there's no laws stopping them from doing this
00:30:19.200 monopoly laws are a joke and our government is in bed with corporations instead of instead of
00:30:25.400 working for our votes they're working to make corporations happy and make stocks go up instead
00:30:31.080 of making people happy and healthy in their country it's ridiculous yeah and i liked earlier
00:30:38.220 that you mentioned the you know we're kind of looking at the wrong things right like we have
00:30:43.620 so many people in our country looking at these macroeconomic indicators that actually kind of
00:30:49.380 obfuscate the inequality that underlies it right and so i i do totally agree like we're just we're
00:30:56.340 not dealing with the core issues here and i wanted to ask you guys about um you know those solutions
00:31:02.820 and how people are fighting back i mean um carla there's the recall petitions going on in alberta
00:31:09.540 i don't know how much luck they'll have with actually getting enough signatures but it's
00:31:12.900 at least sending a signal and um you know emily i mean i think that you're you're going around
00:31:18.260 speaking about the oligarchs and and you know calling this calling this out and naming it and
00:31:23.860 i just wanted to ask both of you about um how you hold on to hope and how we build resilience
00:31:30.580 in the face of just like this downward spiral that carla was just describing i mean you guys
00:31:36.500 can have at her i don't know who wants to go first maybe i'll uh all right carla you want to dive in
00:31:40.740 this is the most amazing time alive to be someone on the left wing in canada like i i was i was
00:31:48.400 hosting a rally a couple weeks ago and there were spontaneous shouts of general strike
00:31:53.100 by hundreds of people not just like six of us in a pub like it like you could openly talk about
00:32:00.880 class consciousness you could openly talk about corporate greed you could openly talk about these
00:32:05.180 things. There is an absolute huge explosion of political activity from groups and people
00:32:13.180 and demographics that have for decades been silent. The Zoomers are here and jumping into
00:32:19.860 the fight. That old people are rallying in the streets and saying, wait, what is going on here?
00:32:25.320 You know, you have people from every walk of life looking at things, talking about political life,
00:32:30.880 economic life, human rights, in very interesting and exciting ways. And that is larger than ever.
00:32:36.420 I tell people in Alberta all the time, if 1,809 people voted differently, we had an NDP majority.
00:32:43.080 It was that close in a few key ridings. So when we look at the recall petitions, oh yeah,
00:32:48.840 oh, there, I think at least one will win. I don't know if they're all going to,
00:32:53.460 but right now we're up to 14. And I know that there's a couple more coming. There are people
00:32:58.400 who are they're coming after mickey next which um as the justice minister who said that trans
00:33:03.620 rights will be decided with the last voice in the legislature get them go get them uh mickey
00:33:08.780 you are not so fine um yeah a little drag you know um yeah no i think it's really exciting i
00:33:16.780 think at least one of these recall petitions will hit home uh because so many ridings in calgary
00:33:22.640 were like really close calgary went 16 of 30 seats in calgary went ndp it's not the conservative
00:33:31.360 home bastion that it used to be i do think that there's some people out there that are pretty
00:33:36.160 upset uh and that we might see one or two flip because i think there's a lot of people waking
00:33:41.760 up and realizing hey we can do we can do better there's examples out there yeah emily how about
00:33:48.320 you what are your thoughts on sort of maintaining that resiliency and fighting back yeah i i can't
00:33:55.760 help but feel like the horrors we are witnessing now are the death rattle of of the old world and
00:34:04.320 i'm seeing just i'm seeing cracks um i think here in bc our campaign and and this this new leadership
00:34:12.800 feels like you know a little spear in in the hopelessness um and i i think yeah it's it's
00:34:20.320 really it's up to us to force this new world through and um i think with daniel smith with
00:34:28.320 trump and yeah these these fascist actors that are controlling our future you know they i think
00:34:36.720 we're seeing this flare because they're they can feel that their grip is is loosening and and so
00:34:44.480 it's i i do see it as a death rattle and um i think more and more you know we're gonna see
00:34:52.240 people like myself especially in the next provincial election in bc step forward and you know
00:34:59.360 know like call it like it is and and really breathe life into this moment and um yeah i i think
00:35:08.300 for so long we've seen centrist governments make living conditions worse for everyday people
00:35:16.260 because they're listening to the consultant class and lobbyists around them the same old status quo
00:35:21.840 playbook fossil canada and surprise surprise you know working conditions affordability have
00:35:29.080 suffered. And so we're seeing massive amounts of working people who are looking desperately for
00:35:37.500 solutions. And unfortunately, in the last election in BC, the conservatives spoke into that desperation
00:35:43.480 of working people, but they paired it with false solutions and they pitted marginalized groups
00:35:50.180 against each other. And that's their playbook, right? And so as the left, we need to talk about
00:35:57.500 wealth inequality. We need to talk about taxing the rich and creating the real public agenda
00:36:04.500 that would make life better for working people and to stop selling our province out to these
00:36:10.640 corporations. So I think more and more people are realizing, you know, how we got here and who's to
00:36:18.740 blame. And that makes me hopeful. Yeah. Well, Carla has a hard out in about five minutes. So
00:36:27.340 I did want to give the chat the opportunity if I had any questions before Carla has to run
00:36:32.760 for her. So I'll give you guys a few seconds to drop those in before she jets. But while they do
00:36:37.960 that, Carla, can you tell people where they can find you online so they can keep up with you if
00:36:41.920 they uh loved your interventions and your jokes and your radical policies here today yeah i'm out
00:36:50.160 there radicalizing the people being like what if this helped people um yeah so uh you can find me
00:36:57.700 at carla.marks 1917 on instagram that's where i'm the most active uh it's just like it says here
00:37:04.000 carla with a k marks with an x i can't believe that i have to spell that i do like when i was
00:37:10.540 like everyone will know and then i'm at like a show and some drunk girl comes up to me she's
00:37:15.320 like you're amazing what's your instagram i'm like carla dot marks 1917 and she starts spelling
00:37:21.000 it like carla with a with a c and then marks with a cks and i'm like oh oh maybe class consciousness
00:37:27.620 is dead um but no that's where you can find me the most i'm also on uh x the hellscape that it
00:37:34.020 has become uh at Carla Marks 1917 um yeah so if you want to find me there on those places that's
00:37:41.580 where I'm most active I'm on TikTok but I pretty much exclusively um take pictures and videos of
00:37:47.640 trucks uh that I see around uh my like when I'm like touring and I like take showgirl pictures
00:37:54.040 of like here's what it's like on the road um and those truck the truck one that's what people want
00:37:58.900 to see for me like i'll put this like beautiful showgirl video up no one cares trucks we want to
00:38:04.440 see truck bumper stickers so i'm going for the people i'll do it i love the idea of you like
00:38:09.920 having this super right-wing truck driving audience not knowing like not realizing who's
00:38:15.820 running the account and then you just like secretly you know get them to be super progressive
00:38:20.840 with your uh and super pro trans rights yeah i love that idea that is not the vibe it is like
00:38:26.680 i like it better that that's not the vibe not the vibe i like post these pictures of trucks and
00:38:32.640 people like some people are like oh my gosh this truck's so stupid that bumper sticker's terrible
00:38:37.140 and then and then all the truck men are like actually that's not a big truck it's a regular
00:38:42.240 f-150 i'm like that's still a giant truck like look at it up also that's so funny somebody in
00:38:48.340 there just put like congratulations to alberta on the mou um and i love that we just all pretended
00:38:53.880 that we have just been using this acronym mou all the time like i've seen it this time over
00:38:59.520 the pipeline that everyone's using memorandum of like this mou acronym but i'm like this is new
00:39:04.560 we don't use this i've never seen this before now we're all like all the cute cool kids what i'm
00:39:09.520 saying is i'm annoyed that i am old enough that i have to google things now like that like you know
00:39:14.880 i i like what the hell does i see why am i i google that i don't know yeah there's there's
00:39:21.140 too many there's too many um i uh there is one question in the chat um someone asked best
00:39:29.540 canadian socialist orgs to keep up with especially being in alberta i don't know if you have any
00:39:33.780 recommendations for them there's a really great group called the alberta advantage they are a
00:39:41.220 merry band of shitheads um i love them so much they're based out of calgary alberta advantage
00:39:46.660 is so so cool uh they do like a pod uh they actually have a meetup group there's like a
00:39:52.260 jacobin meetup group that they're associated with uh that meets here in town that talks about
00:39:56.500 socialist things i love them uh those are socialist ones specifically ninja ninja cupcake 13 13 13
00:40:03.700 um love the name uh yes if you want broader organizations to keep in touch with
00:40:08.820 transaction alberta is really great uh that's the provincial wide group that's working to defend
00:40:13.860 trans rights um also uh in my town i'm involved with a group called queer citizens united
00:40:19.300 um and we focus on defending queer rights but we're also uh very you know socialists and all
00:40:24.740 that kind of stuff so yeah great well carla thank you so much for your time today um emily's gonna
00:40:30.660 stick around for another 10 minutes but uh uh we have to say goodbye to our lovely alberta voice
00:40:36.500 so thank you so much for joining us i really appreciate it see ya all right emily so i did
00:40:45.380 want to ask you a little bit uh about the drama that we're seeing within the liberal sort of camp
00:40:53.620 as a result of this i mean there are a lot of partisans supporting this but then we're also
00:40:58.500 seeing people like jody wilson raybold has come out i mean obviously she's had her own uh spats
00:41:04.740 with the Liberal Party as well, but Jody Wilson-Raybould came out and called out her former
00:41:12.440 cabinet colleagues for doing, quote, the exact opposite of what they claimed to be committed to
00:41:17.440 when I was there, total lack of principles and backbone. And Catherine McKenna shared a clip
00:41:22.520 from CTV News, wherein Minister Hodgson said that, well, she quoted him saying that people who care
00:41:31.120 about climate change and that was a paraphrase are quote dreaming nostalgically about the past
00:41:37.320 and Catherine McKenna said gotcha that explains a lot I'm curious what you make of these sorts of
00:41:43.940 cracks emerging and maybe they've always been there within this liberal party and what it tells
00:41:49.320 us about where our politics are sort of heading and the popularity of this decision from the
00:41:55.700 liberal party like is this still the liberal party or maybe it's always been this way and people are
00:42:00.680 just realizing it? What are your thoughts on all this? Yeah, it feels like Carney has used this
00:42:10.300 moment with Trump as a Trojan horse to just double down on the same old business of Canada
00:42:17.820 being a fossil fuel company, effectively, and owning more and more of these public resource
00:42:23.420 projects um yeah and so i i find it kind of fascinating to see sort of
00:42:33.500 liberalism crack under its contradictions with with this um recent pipeline because i think
00:42:42.300 many of these ministers um yeah some some current and and former you know really struggle with with
00:42:51.020 this uh oil pipeline proposal and i think like the liberal party has tried to sort of create
00:42:58.060 keep this guise of of like green progressivism you know like they entertained the oil and gas
00:43:06.300 emissions cap but then diluted it to the point of you know irrelevance and then you know cow to
00:43:14.060 smith's pressure to get rid of the cap you know and so there's so many examples where
00:43:19.260 they are unwilling to actually challenge production to challenge these projects to
00:43:27.420 challenge expansion and I think that's that's because you know we we have a liberal liberal
00:43:35.100 party that is liberal they're unwilling to get below the surface and challenge our economic
00:43:42.860 system you know and and stand up to the large corporations that are that are really running
00:43:48.620 the show, behind the scenes. And so, you know, the public is always surprised when there's like,
00:43:54.360 you know, yeah, these contradictions come to light. And, you know, I think that's why the
00:44:01.640 Liberal Party always comes across as like performative or greenwashing, or, you know,
00:44:07.060 having these sort of like cultural proclamations that aren't actually backed up by substance.
00:44:12.080 And I think that's what people are so sick of, because we don't see that, yeah, that's about
00:44:18.280 the least effective strategy for an energy and a worker's transition, right? And so, yeah, it, I,
00:44:25.560 I, but I also, I find it, it's notable that the, we're seeing a lot more sort of publicly
00:44:34.700 disgruntled former ministers and, and, and former MPs. You know, it's, it's a lot of women who are
00:44:42.760 like coming out and challenging this old boys club and this like fossil fuel run show that
00:44:50.260 that is really only serving the big corporations in Canada. So I do find it it's quite interesting
00:44:56.500 to see that that fracture fracture across feminist lines. Yeah, yeah, it's really interesting,
00:45:02.800 particularly when coupled with, you know, other critiques that have come out about Carney's PMO.
00:45:07.540 I mean, we heard from I had liberal sources telling me that there was a vibe that it was a real boys club.
00:45:14.540 And it's just it's fascinating watching the sort of broader implications of that culture on the broader liberal party and conversations.
00:45:27.540 Emily, I know you also have a hard out in about just over five minutes.
00:45:31.540 So I'm going to give the chat an opportunity once again to drop in some questions for you.
00:45:36.540 And while they do that, can you tell people where they can keep up with you?
00:45:40.660 Yeah, you can keep up with me on most platforms at Emily Lohan.
00:45:45.840 So it's just my name.
00:45:47.980 And yeah, I'm on Instagram most.
00:45:51.780 I'm on Blue Sky and I'm on Mastodon as well, if you keep up there.
00:45:58.260 And it's a niche following.
00:46:00.680 I hope the platform grows.
00:46:02.080 We need more anti-oligarch digital platforms.
00:46:06.540 But yeah, and I also, if you want to join me on tour, if you're on BC, I'm about halfway through my tour. I'm headed to the mainland later today. So check out my upcoming events at fighttheoligarchs.ca.
00:46:21.140 yeah nice um all right so this i mean this is a fun one uh uh olefin the husky we've got a husky
00:46:30.080 asking a question which is adorable um says what do you think about rephrasing oil and gas as liquid
00:46:36.140 exploding dinosaurs just like paper format is dead tree format just reframing it like that
00:46:41.760 make make people reconsider their ways what do you think should we start calling oil and gas
00:46:45.860 liquid exploding dinosaurs i'm obsessed um don't be surprised if you see that in an upcoming video
00:46:53.660 thank you the husky for this brilliant suggestion yeah i think we you know there's just a
00:47:03.280 i don't know yeah we we get caught up in like technocratic terms and and and jargon and it's
00:47:10.360 refreshing when people you know tell it tell it like it is and uh yeah no i i think we need much
00:47:17.480 more straightforward communication when this old boys club is constantly trying to make a death
00:47:25.000 economy seem reasonable uh another question here from kairos rev they want to know are your anti
00:47:33.800 oligarchal positions in practice anti-capitalist and how do you feel about anti-capitalism as a
00:47:39.640 a revolutionary stance? Yeah, absolutely. I see my fight against the oligarchs as an entry point
00:47:50.740 to challenging capitalism as a whole. And I think it's important to name names and to look at the
00:48:05.240 individuals that are hoarding so much of the wealth so much of the resources um in in our
00:48:11.560 province um and so that's what what my fight the oligarchs tours is really about i've been going
00:48:16.680 around to communities and speaking to folks on on the front lines of corporate resource theft who
00:48:22.920 you know have these foreign multinationals come into their communities strip the forests um lay
00:48:29.560 down uh oil and gas pipes tailing ponds you name it um and many of these companies just skip town
00:48:37.880 when profits change they go to the us and they leave hundreds sometimes thousands of workers in
00:48:43.960 the lurch and so you know as as i traveled the province this is the story that i wanted to share
00:48:50.520 and it's repeated across industries it's always communities nations and municipalities that are
00:48:57.320 left footing the bill for these, for these multinationals. And there, there's some really
00:49:03.420 inspiring ways that people are fighting back and reclaiming their economy. And those are the
00:49:09.180 solutions that, that I, I want to fight for, you know, good union jobs, free transit, community
00:49:15.640 healthcare centers, sustainable, self-reliant communities. And so, yeah, I think the more we can
00:49:25.180 get out of book club world in our anti-capitalism the better um with and i say that with all the
00:49:32.080 love in my heart i think we need to we need to get down on the ground we need to build power
00:49:36.480 with people who don't look or think like like leftists right and there's so many of of them
00:49:42.940 out there who who have you know really faced the oligarchs in in live time and uh yeah are fighting
00:49:49.580 back in some inspiring ways um and i know we're almost at time here but i'm gonna just group
00:49:55.980 together two questions quickly and you kind of already answered part of it um but uh discordant
00:50:02.140 muse wants to know we need some strategies to win over northern bc any suggestions and knocks the
00:50:06.780 goat says hoping you come to central vancouver uh island for your tour emily how would you sell
00:50:12.380 voting green in the next election to older boomer bc ndp voters so i guess sort of the broader
00:50:17.500 question to couple all that together is how do you win over this you know northern bc and older
00:50:23.580 boomer voters yeah absolutely um so in in northern bc the what i heard so much of was like
00:50:35.260 i was just like leave us alone give us you know the the resources to do what we're already doing
00:50:43.020 and uh to to reclaim their their communities because so often it's people down in victoria
00:50:50.060 that are sending these foreign multinationals up to these territories uh without this the consent
00:50:55.740 of of nations and they they have so so many of those communities have um are have food security
00:51:05.340 and are like building real alternatives uh to be uh to to live on the land and uh yeah with
00:51:13.020 with real community and so yeah i think it's we we need to to talk about the ways that you know
00:51:20.140 we're we're there in solidarity to to support um the the real alternatives that that those
00:51:27.660 communities want that aren't just going to you know extract more um from from their communities
00:51:34.780 and yeah i i found it funny how so many of them actually really understood the term oligarchy in
00:51:42.860 like such a lived visceral way of course right and and uh yeah it's it's not just something
00:51:49.980 that that down southers um use and it's yeah it's it really speaks to the the lived experience and
00:51:57.500 yeah there's a real appetite to to tax the richest corporations and the one percent to to fund those
00:52:03.420 alternatives across the province and speaking to the older boomer bcndp voters i i think there's
00:52:12.700 there's multiple demographics here but uh the people that i want to be building power with
00:52:19.180 the most are young people and non-voters and i think by by doing that by by inspiring the
00:52:27.740 disillusioned and the disaffected by building power with workers renters indigenous communities
00:52:34.220 young people across the province um you know well i i think that that will build the formidable
00:52:42.300 political movement that we need to gain ground in the next election and we shouldn't be pandering
00:52:48.620 necessarily to to older boomer voters but i think i think some of them are down for sure
00:52:54.140 um and i i think there's also a huge segment of older bc ndp voters that have been with the party
00:53:03.520 since it got started when the party was was in opposition and has frankly transformed and morphed
00:53:10.560 into something that doesn't resemble itself whatsoever and so i think what i'm hearing from
00:53:16.840 a lot of older ndp voters is they're coming over to the bc greens because they they no longer feel
00:53:22.640 represented by the party. It's no longer the party for workers and for the people. It's for
00:53:28.080 corporations. Great. Well, Emily, thank you for being so generous with your time. I kept you a
00:53:33.840 little bit over your heart out, so I'll let you get out of here. But thank you so much for everything
00:53:38.480 today. And I'll see you again in like two weeks, I guess, with the schedule we're keeping up here.
00:53:43.920 Yeah, no, please. Let's keep it rolling. Yeah. All right. Take care. Thanks again. Bye.
00:53:50.620 Bye.
00:53:52.640 Thank you for listening to this week's episode of Bubble Pop.
00:53:59.500 I'm Rachel Gilmore, your least favorite person's least favorite journalist.
00:54:02.960 If you enjoyed this episode, consider subscribing on YouTube, Patreon, Substack, or wherever you like to listen.
00:54:08.980 You can also find me on TikTok, Instagram, Twitch, and Blue Sky.
00:54:12.980 I'd like to give a special thank you to Hans-Vivien Wenzel for making the incredibly groovy music for Bubble Pop.
00:54:18.400 You can find more of his stuff on Spotify under the artist named Hans.
00:54:22.040 that's a lowercase h with an exclamation mark thank you again for spending this time with me
00:54:27.160 this is my dream job i know i say that every week but that's because it's true every week and
00:54:32.440 i couldn't do it for one second without your support so thank you and i'll see you next time