Robbie Picard details Fort McMurray’s 2023 floods, where 50% of downtown—including wildfire-rebuilt homes—is underwater, displacing 20,000 residents amid hospital safety doubts. He blames environmentalists like Elizabeth May and Naomi Klein for demonizing oil sands, calling their green energy claims hypocritical while pipelines face cancellations and COVID-19 recovery hinges on energy. Picard’s Oil & Gas Strong fights back with grassroots support, warning shutdowns would cripple Canada’s economy, and accuses activists of prioritizing virtue over real-world consequences. [Automatically generated summary]
Hello Rebels, I'm Sheila Gunread and you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my fun Wednesday night show, The Gun Show.
My guest tonight is Robbie Picard from Oil and Gas Strong.
He's calling in from his home in Fort McMurray and as you may know, that community after surviving liberals, NDPers, fire, and low oil prices is now experiencing a flood.
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What's the news from flooded Fort McMurray and what the heck is going on with Michael Moore's new documentary?
I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
Fort McMurray, Alberta is flooding.
Fort McMurray Floods00:06:04
After surviving Notley, a fire, Trudeau, canceled pipelines, a carbon tax, and an oil price collapse.
Fort Mac is underwater.
In fact, the rebuilt home of former Wild Rose leader Brian Gene has been claimed by the Rising Water.
Gene first lost his home in the fire that swept into town in the spring of 2016.
And so did my guest tonight, my friend Robbie Picard, lost his home in that fire too.
And then watched the environmentalist movement use the wildfire to attack his town for the oil industry that drives it, claiming the fire was the will of an angry earth smiting the good people of Fort McMurray.
The ghouls will be out again in force, that's for sure.
And they're mad anyway.
They're mad that one of their own, Michael Moore, has spoken out against green energy in his new documentary, Planet of the Humans.
So joining me tonight to talk about that movie and what is happening on the ground in his community is my friend Robbie Picard from Oil and Gas Strong in an interview we recorded yesterday afternoon.
So joining me now from Fort McMurray is my friend Robbie Picard from Oil & Gas Strong.
Robbie, let's talk about what's happening in Fort McMurray right now.
You have survived the NDP, but just barely.
The liberals, but just barely.
Fire, but just barely.
Canceled pipelines, but just barely.
And now we've got a flood.
You, just before this interview, we're recording this Tuesday afternoon.
You were up in the air in a plane.
You rented a plane so that you could assess the damage in Fort McMurray.
Tell us what's going on.
Well, I was on a ship two days in a row.
I went up in a helicopter yesterday and then I went up in a plane today and it's far worse.
It's far worse today than it was yesterday.
I mean, I would say I'm not a flood expert.
I'm not pretending to be a flood expert, but I'd say at least 50% of downtown has now been compromised.
And a lot of like tons of my friends' houses, I mean, they're going to be complete write-offs.
And it's only going to get worse.
It's not going to, because it's, if you look in the video that I took, the ice is just jamming.
So when that ice gives way, the water's got to go somewhere.
So we'll have to see how that plays out.
I'm not entirely sure just yet, but it's not looking too good at this moment in time.
Now, I heard earlier today that the water is approaching the hospital.
What's going on there?
Because that hospital wasn't breached by fire, but the water is getting really, really close.
So the hospital is slightly higher and they seem to be pretty comfortable, but I don't know.
I mean, do they, does anyone really know how this is going to play out?
At this moment in time, they're saying that the hospital is fine, but I'm not entirely sure.
Now, this has got to be pretty traumatic for Fort McMurray because a lot of these homes that are now potentially going to be underwater, these are, in some cases, reconstructions of homes that were burned.
So we're talking to people, we're talking about a community that has lost entire neighborhoods twice in five or ten years.
Particularly in waterways.
Yeah, like waterways, there's a few houses that are a bit higher up that seem okay for now.
Draper's really, they were hit by the fire hard.
Waterways was hit extremely hard by the fire.
Most of those new homes are underwater now.
So yeah, it's going to be a whole lot of trauma.
And it's, yeah, it's, this is, this is hitting.
And sometimes I'm a bit emotional.
Sometimes I feel fine.
Like in this moment in time, my house is safe.
I'm in Thickwood.
I'm on high up on a hill.
So it's not like the last time where I was directly affected, like when my house burnt down in the fire.
But I mean, yeah, you question how much more can one community take?
And we have been hit and hit between low oil prices, crazy environmentalists, lack of market access, everything else.
And then now this, at a time when we're dealing with trying to do physical distancing, trying dealing with COVID-19 and trying to adapt to that, maintain your paying your bills and the craziness.
I mean, yeah, no, it's a lot.
But I don't know.
Like, I was a little down and then I'm up there.
I think if there's one community that can get through this, that's the key.
But it's also important that at some point we get to a place that, you know, where we can thrive again.
And, you know, it doesn't seem like we're going to be thriving for a little while.
Now, are parts of the, obviously, parts of the community are being evacuated.
Where are those people going to?
Every hotel in Fort McMurray is full.
And I think people are going to Edmonton as well.
They're staying with friends.
Downtown's, I think they're saying 20,000 people have been evacuated.
So, you know, it's not quite as much as the wildfire, but it's a chunk.
Wow.
So, yeah, no, it's a lot.
It's definitely a lot.
And I'm trying to be optimistic, but it's hard.
Yeah.
Robbie, please, if there is something that we can do for Fort McMurray, you're there.
We're not.
Do let me know if there's, you know, a charity that needs our help.
I'd love to be able to amplify that.
Fort McMurray has carried the load for a lot of this province, for a lot of this country.
And, you know, we need to help when we can.
I can't, the amount of trauma that your community has been through, and you in particular, you lost your house in the fire.
I mean, It's more than one community should have to handle, but like you point out, if there's a community that can handle it, it's Fort McMurray.
Elizabeth's Coming Out00:10:33
I appreciate that.
Yeah, and the one, I mean, on a side note, the one thing that I am thrilled about is I like Michael Moore's new documentary, Planet of Humans.
You don't have to agree with everything in it, but it was really nice to see him take some serious shots at those hypocritical, so-called environmentalists spewing their bullshit.
And for the first time in a long time prior to this flood, I kind of got my fight back because periodically you question, I mean, am I on the right side?
No, I feel like I am.
I know the facts and everything he said, I knew.
It was so nice to see someone from the far left articulate that so brilliantly and calling people like Super Berman a hypocrite and Mike Kadima hypocrites.
It's a lot easier.
It rolls off the tongue with a little bit more authority.
And that crazy young woman, Greta Thunberg.
I mean, I really hope she, you know, while she's isolated in her multi-million dollar house with her parents and their fancy sofas and all of that privilege and her apparently Swiss Norway, right?
I don't even know where she's from.
Sweden.
Sweden.
Sorry, I mixed her up.
Her Swedish royalty bodyguards that keep her safe.
You know, I hope she has time to check out Michael Moore's movie, basically pointing out that they're all full of it and there is no such thing as green energy.
So I do hope that that gets the message out there on a side note.
But yeah, I'm definitely, I mean, I'm going to reassess everything as usual, but I'm going to bunk her down and we're going to make Fort McMurray work.
And this is my home.
It's been my home for a while.
And yeah, we'll get through this.
But if I definitely, isolation materials watching that documentary.
Yeah, let's talk about that for a little bit because you and I were discussing that off camera when I called you and said, Robbie, please come on my show today and let's check in and let's talk about what's happening in Fort McMurray.
And you were very excited about Michael Moore's new documentary because it does talk about the hypocrisy of green energy, that it requires fossil fuel backups and that it is exceedingly toxic.
And it's toxic in ways that the left likes to say they care about.
Like the left likes to say that they care about children and poor people, but green energy is exceedingly toxic for children and poor people who have to live in its aftermath.
Let's talk about how the left is responding to one of their own coming out and pointing out their own hypocrisy because I saw Elizabeth May and her tweets about this.
She said the video is full of lies.
It seems as though the left is slightly losing their mind because one of their own is trying to show them the truth.
Well, it's nice to see Elizabeth May scared of her fellow American, Michael Moore, and calling them out on their nonsense.
Out of all the politicians in Canada, the biggest one who's full of bullshit is Elizabeth May.
She's all happy because she can hop on a private plane with Andrew Sheer, bragging about it like a little schoolgirl.
Oh my God, I got a private plane.
She's really not a party leader.
I mean, yes, they have three seats.
Now, the amount of credibility she gets for her one seat is pathetic.
But her attack on her new country, Canada, has been relentless.
Attack on the Indigenous people in Fort McMurray.
She attacks the pipelines and support.
And I would argue, I mean, I might not agree with everything Michael Moore has done, but if I was to say who possesses more intelligence, I would say Michael Moore.
And I don't think Elizabeth May has a clue.
And it's nice to see her squirm a little bit because you know what?
They hit a nerve.
They're full of it.
Solar power is not green.
Windmills are not green.
None of it's green.
And it has consequences.
Now, and here's the thing.
If you set up windmills and then or wind turbines and then you have to have a power plant as a backup and the backup has to run 70% of the time, it's not working.
And you're better off to just stick with what you know and improve on it.
Burn cleaner coal, burn natural gas, use oil size and constantly improve, try to get the emissions down, try to deal with plastic pollution, deal with it.
But this notion that we need to destroy our lives for this fairy tale of non-existent green energy blows my mind.
And then some of the other stuff, like, okay, so now we're going to burn alligators.
We're going to go after alligators and we're going to fuel cars with that.
And then seaweed.
Okay, no, they don't care.
Well, seaweed sounds renewable.
So rip all the seaweed out, destroy all of the oceans for green energy.
They're full of it.
They don't have a clue what they're doing.
They never have.
And they've attacked our community and our industry over and over again.
It's just, it's so, we've known this for a while.
It's sad that it took Michael Moore to bring it up even a little bit of our fight, but it felt it felt good.
And, you know, Michael Moore, like, I mean, I know he's completely on the left, but I would argue he helped get Donald Trump elected.
Michael Moore at least has enough sense to have some sort of authenticity and honesty in his documentaries.
And I really hope that, I mean, it's going to be fun because like the amount of stuff that that uncovered, and candidly, the people that support like, you know, all these so-called green movements, they're stupid.
I mean, when you hear them being interviewed and they're at a protest and they're like, okay, why are you here?
And well, we're here for the pipeline.
What's in this pipeline?
Well, oil sands or tar sands or whatever, but it's natural gas.
And they're too stupid to even know why they're there.
Then they need to be called stupid.
They're stupid.
That's that simple.
They don't understand what they're protesting.
If they have to go to their superior who paid them to be there, why are we here protesting?
They're not authentically there because they don't know the facts.
They don't know nothing.
And I would argue the manipulation from Berman and Elizabeth May is destroying our country.
And somehow they've infiltrated into the liberals too.
And hopefully we get our balls back and we start fighting back harder and saying, no, you're not going to destroy our entire economy.
And we are already doing the right things and we're going to continue to do the right things.
We're going to continue to be successful.
But enough and enough, this like apologizing.
We don't need some stupid, stuck up child coming here from a foreign country with her privilege.
And we also know she's a little girl.
You can't question her.
Even myself, I was scared to take her on.
She has enough power and enough reach to try to take us out.
And if we don't start defending ourselves or have some sense of self-preservation, we are done.
And I'm not going to sit back and be quiet anymore or politically correct.
Elizabeth May is an idiot.
She does not know what she's doing and she should not be destroying our energy industry.
Enough.
Michael Moore, like him or Hayden, hit a lot of nail or hit the nail on the head on a lot of facts.
And one thing I will say, as consumption in the world, we need to maybe think about how we look at that.
That's what I got from the documentary.
We don't need to consume, consume, consume.
But when it comes to our energy in Canada, we're ahead of all of them.
We're not talking about consuming things.
We don't have this notion of something we're going to like use animal fat and we're going to butcher more animals just to fuel our cars.
If we're going to have to cause that, it's bad enough we got to eat meat and go with factories and all that.
Now we're going to destroy them to fuel cars.
I mean, they don't have a clue what they're doing.
And the documentary exposed it.
Well, I, for one, would love the exhaust of my Jeep to smell like French fries, but that's just me.
I think it is, there's something to be said for the fact that this had to come from Michael Moore.
There are conservative filmmakers out there, but I think Michael Moore, like you say, he's on the left.
Conservatives are so desperate for someone to tell them the truth about green energy.
The truth that we already know, though we've been telling everybody for years, it's not green, except if you want to talk about the color of the green tailings ponds.
It's we're happily ready to listen to the likes of Michael Moore, who is anti-capitalist as they come.
We're happy to get our information from him because at least someone is telling the story.
And so I guess my question is: where the heck are the conservative filmmakers to make this exact movie?
Why did it have to come from Michael Moore?
One time you had a meme or something, and or no, it was a video.
It was up there.
And I remember when Donald Trump won the election.
I remember the little fits that they had in the street.
Like, right?
And then there was a video of a girl who she lost the election.
The conservatives lost.
And they asked her a question.
She says, well, I got to get back to work.
I think conservatives tend to just deal with facts a little bit more and are less dramatic.
And, you know, but now, like, unless it affects their bottom line, but like, even here, like, we tend to just want to problem solve.
Okay, we got a flood.
Instead of being angry about it, okay, how are we going to get through it?
Right.
Like, it's less about blame.
But I think on both sides, like, I know, like, okay, if Rachel Notley does something good on my page, I'll post it.
And then all of a sudden, oh my God, I get attacked.
And we don't have the, like, we don't have enough sense to say, okay, no, I don't like Rachel Notley.
I don't agree with everything, but this point I agree with.
We need to get back to reality because I think if we get back to reality and stop being so polarized on all fronts, we might actually make some progress and live better lives.
I mean, even a friend of mine, like I complimented Donald Trump on one thing, and she literally walked out of the room, wouldn't talk to me.
And I just said, well, he did good.
He did this good thing.
Like my friend's an investor, and he said this was a good move.
And no, no, no, heaven forbid, right?
I mean, people hate Donald Trump so much that they would rather just pretend he doesn't exist or go like let the entire world fall apart.
But yes, we need to try and put some interesting content out, some interesting documentaries, but we also got to remember that the audience is broad and it can't just be for one way or the other.
And I think, I mean, I mean, if Michael Moore did an anti-oil sands documentary, wouldn't have blinked an eye.
Yeah.
That would have been, oh, yeah, whatever.
It would have just kind of rolled off our backs, right?
But he did something that shocked us too.
It's like, whoa.
So we need to do the same thing.
Panic Over Green New Deal00:11:04
We need to find commonality with all sides and then less division and then hit back.
But like, the thing is that Greta Thunberg, Sappora Berman, Naomi Klein, Micodema, and that lovely guy from 350.org in the United States.
I mean, he's such a credible individual.
I was so impressed watching him squirm with simple questions.
I mean, he led everything.
Those guys, we need to seriously call out and like, no, you're not going to shut down our entire planet or our entire industry.
You're not going to ruin the lives of our children and our grandchildren.
And no, you don't have the solution because your so-called green energy is worse.
Worse tailings ponds, more mining, more dependence on fossil fuel.
How about why don't we find a real solution and make the world better gradually and stop the house as well?
Fort McMurray is flooding, but Greta, the house is not on fire.
And take it, here's the message to Greta.
I mean, I'm not sure her royalty will watch this, but what I would say is, coming from a person whose house actually was on fire, the worst thing to do is panic ever.
You never panic.
Panicking is stupid.
If you panic during a flood, you die.
If you panic during a fire, you die.
I want you to act like your house is on fire.
I want you to panic.
Like, I mean, my God.
Little girl, you're 17 now.
So it's almost old enough when people can really start telling you off.
And I have had enough of being told off by a girl who clearly has no clue about life.
The worst thing to do ever in any situation is panic.
The key is to be responsible, methodical, logical, know all the facts, and make decisions that make the world better.
Pretending she's like carbon-free when her yacht team fly across the world and fly over, she causes more carbon pollution than anybody.
She just pretends she doesn't.
You know, not every little girl, I'm going to stop calling her a little girl.
She's like, when my little foster sisters were like 17, I mean, they were like, they were horrible.
They tell you off in two seconds.
I mean, like one of them kicked me, like, they're tough at 17.
Like, give me a point.
She's not a little girl.
She just looks like one.
Bottom line is, is that when it comes to the reality, most kids don't have rich parents that they can take a train.
And if they ever get to take a flight, they have to take it.
Like, this is ridiculous.
And if they're successful and the Green New Deal happens, well, good, you got a taste of it right now.
This is the Green New Deal.
You know, social distancing, grocery stores running out of food, panic.
That's the Green New Deal.
That's the future.
And Michael Moore called them out on it.
And hopefully we can see what's really behind this and get some common sense back into our country.
Robbie, you brought up the Green New Deal.
Now, I don't know if you saw that question because this wasn't on our list of things to talk about, but you saw that question that somebody asked Jason Kenny.
And actually, it was a reporter from a Calgary-based outlet, 660 News, asked him if he had considered adopting a quote Green New Deal, AOC's Green New Deal, as opposed to doing something to spur the economic growth in the oil and gas sector.
I wanted to ask your opinion of that because Jason Kenny took a lot of heat for shutting down that reporter and calling them out for the absurdity of their question.
But what do you think about it?
I don't believe the Green New Deal has anything to do about the environment at all.
I think it's some sort of notion that you're going to have this sort of one income, glorified welfare and a form of socialism or slight communism.
And in that theory, you'll end up with a different class system.
You'll have the elites like the Al Gores and the Michael Bloombergs who want to ultimately hold on to their power.
And believe it or not, like Donald Trump or hate Donald Trump, he's like, he's not an elite.
He's a billionaire, rich guy, but he's not an elite.
And there's a difference because the celebrities and like all of them, they're all part of this sort of thing.
And the Green New Deal is really that.
And they don't care.
They're trying to use climate change and universal income and all this stuff to justify it.
Jason Kenney's under a lot of pressure right now.
I mean, he's dealing with low oil prices, COVID-19.
Now he's got to deal with the Fort McMurray flood.
And I think he handled that okay.
I mean, maybe he could have threw a little bit more pipe back, but you know, considering what he has to go through, I mean, I think he's doing a decent job leading us right now.
Candidly, I'm impressed with all the premiers.
Doug Ford, what's the guy's in BC?
I forgot his name now.
Horror.
Yes.
Horgan.
I'm not a huge lover of Horgan, but I think he's handling the crisis with some class and respect.
I mean, you got to give them some credit.
Not impressed with the prime minister.
He sits outside his perfect little posh little place and comes out every day.
And I think that, you know, it's, I'm not impressed with them at all.
Maybe people would disagree.
But, no, I understand our premier's, like, you know, he's under a lot of pressure.
And the Green New Deer, sort of the Green New Deer, the Green New Deal is BS.
They don't know what the there.
If I was to analyze them after kind of going them for a few years, there's a whole other level of narcissism that's in these environmentalists.
Some of them are kind of grit.
Like Kiwanis, you know, she kind of grit.
Like she like, you know, she like married a three-time murderer, you know, and she yells at RCMP and a megaphone and stuff, right?
Yeah.
But the rest of them, like, like, they're all perfect.
Their hair is perfect.
Their makeup is perfect.
They're all premiums.
Like they're Instagram stars, right?
And I think there's a degree of narcissism in them.
I truly do.
Like they're, they're, they're all about the pose and they're all like, we're warriors, but meanwhile, there's not a crease on their outfits and they're traditional.
And it's not my place to tell people how to dress, right?
But candidly, I don't think they have a clue, but they've got a bit of a following and they're beating us in a lot of ways.
I mean, Greta Tunber, when she says we're winning, she's not wrong.
I mean, like, she, like, we have to, like, the people that they're defending the industry, we've got to get off our asses and do something, and we have to fight back.
But they don't really have a solution.
And here's what the rest of normal Canadians need to understand.
If they succeed, sure, you might get some temporary universal income, but the long-term effects of what happens will never be able to recover.
But if we stick to what we know and we improve what we know and get better and better and better, and different forms of energy will happen over time, then we will have a better society.
I'm not saying that we're perfect, we're not, but my God, after watching that documentary, I realized that they have no clue.
And are we going to let clueless people that don't necessarily possess the knowledge or the intelligence to lead us, take us down this rabbit hole of disaster?
Because when the dust settles, you know, right now in Fort McMurray, you can see it.
Greenpeace is not here.
I mean, I'm sure Micadema might, you know, go to some food bank and huck some bags.
At the end of the day, they don't give a shit about Fort McMurray.
Jane Fonda never cared about us.
They don't care about our community.
They just want to use us as a symbol so they can do nice Instagram posts and have perfect hair and videos.
Yeah, isn't that the truth?
You know, they're going to use, much like they did with the fire, they're going to use the flood in your community as a reason why your community should be shuttered from oil and gas forever.
That's exactly what's going to happen.
I don't have to have a crystal ball.
I have a crystal mind and I can see it in the future.
Robbie, you're very clearly fired up, especially after watching Michael Moore's new documentary.
How do people support you in your fight for families like mine?
Because you don't receive a lot of funding from big oil.
You're mostly just a grassroots guy, just giving her out there because you believe in your community and you believe in what your community does.
It's real simple.
I have two websites now.
So the old website, we did a little bit of a shift.
We switched the name to Oil and Gas Strong from Oil Sandstrong.
We still have our Oil Sands strong brand and everything.
But because like, you know, this is broader than just the Oil Sands, I wanted to kind of change it up a little bit.
And so you can actually go to oilsandstrong.com or oilandgasstrong.com.
Doesn't quite roll off the tongue quite yet.
And buy seven shirts and six keychains and then we're good to go.
But yeah, no, I mean, for the most part, like I own a marketing company and I do videos and I sell sponsorship for videos and some of the organizations I do videos for.
But yeah, it can be a little bit tight sometimes, but I'm doing the best I can with what I have.
And candidly, I kind of fire it up because, you know, it's nice to, it was enough to motivate me, but it's hard because like, you know, you're battling this fight.
And contrary to popular belief, like the other side, they have money, serious money.
Yeah.
And like, you know, when like when Berman gets $2 million, I mean, that's just what we know about, right?
These people, they have money.
This is their job.
I mean, could you imagine making that kind of bank?
And your mission is to destroy the thing.
So it's hard.
Like, I mean, I'm Oil Sandstrong.
I'm an oil and gas strong.
I'm very proud of what we've done.
We're very small, and we sometimes have the highest engagement in the country.
And, you know, we don't buy our likes.
We don't have that ability.
We fight hard and keep going.
So three things.
Invite your friends to like Oil and Gas Strong on Facebook.
And then go on Twitter too to Oil Sandstrong.
But that'll be like, I mean, I know it's a bit confusing.
I'm one dude in an office.
So you gotta give me some slack here.
And also, real simple, just share our stuff and help our page grow.
Because it's hard to do this all the time, but I'm finding my voice again.
And I am going to be stepping up because we have to fight.
And I don't want to shut Fort McMurray down.
And I don't believe that getting rid of our energy is the answer.
We have the best energy in the world.
We should be developing it more sustainably and working together to make it work.
And we're doing that.
And I think that when the dust settles and oil prices go back up, we'll still be here standing.
Like, I mean, we just might have to wear rubber boots for a while.
Well, Robbie, I'm praying for the best for your community, that this is not as bad as it looks.
Step Up And Fight00:00:51
And thank you so much for fighting for families like mine.
And again, I don't have a crystal ball, but I know that you have some very exciting things to announce in your near future.
Thank you very much.
It was always a pleasure being on your show.
Thanks, Robbie.
It is so important to get the economy opened back up as the COVID-19 crisis winds down.
Why?
Because we need that economic growth to help Fort McMurray rebuild so that Fort McMurray can help the rest of the country rebuild.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.
Please stay healthy, stay in contact with your friends and family.