Robbie Picard warns Canada’s oil and gas sector—especially Fort McMurray—faces collapse if Biden wins, citing plans to end fracking and cancel Keystone XL while scapegoating Alberta for U.S. environmental failures; he predicts Biden may also lift Iran sanctions, boosting its market share over Canadian "ethical oil." Criticizing anti-oil figures like Jane Fonda and Naomi Klein’s Leap Manifesto ties to the Green New Deal, Picard calls for Albertans to resist foreign-funded attacks, like the delayed report from Jason Kenney’s government, and support local economies through Olsan Strong. With 238-213 Electoral College votes and Trump’s fraud claims unresolved, Picard urges unity over divisive rhetoric, but the industry’s fate remains precariously tied to the election’s outcome. [Automatically generated summary]
Hey Rebels, you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my weekly Wednesday night show, The Gun Show.
My guest tonight is Robbie Picard in an interview we recorded Wednesday morning Alberta time.
And depending on when you listen to this, who even knows what will have been sorted out in the American election.
But we are talking about the American election and the effect that that will have on the Canadian oil patch.
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Last night, there was an election in the United States.
What does that mean for the Canadian oil patch?
I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
Friends, there's a lot of uncertainty in the world.
Just to be completely transparent with you, I am recording this at 10.35 in the morning Alberta time.
And as it sits right now, as I glance out of the corner of my eye over at foxnews.com, nothing has been decided in the American election.
The swing states that Trump was leading in when we went to bed last night, or in my case, early this morning, those are all shifting towards Biden.
And Foxnews.com has Biden sitting right now at 238 Electoral College votes and Trump at 213.
They need to make it to 270 to decide the president.
We don't know anything yet.
But that hasn't stopped me from bringing you what we know so far and a little bit of analysis about what this all means for Alberta and the Canadian oil patch.
Biden and his running mate, Kamala Harris, are both anti-oil and gas.
Kamala is more upfront about it, but Biden has said that he will put an end to fracking and the Keystone XL pipeline.
Joining me now in an interview we recorded just moments ago is my friend Robbie Picard from Oil Sands Strong to bring us some of his analysis about what is unfolding in the United States in the election.
Joining me now from his home in Fort McMurray is my good friend, good friend of the show and good friend to the energy sector worker is Robbie Picard.
Now, Robbie, you and I were talking earlier this week about the election.
It seems to be all that anybody can talk about.
When we went to bed last night or early this morning, it looked like Trump kind of had those swing states in the bag.
It looked like there were to be no more votes counted, at least at night.
And yet something shifted overnight in favor of Biden.
I was apprehensive in the lead up to the election.
I wasn't confident.
I remain unconfident.
What do you think is happening right now?
Honestly, I don't know.
I'm surprised and how shocked that I'm personally so invested in this.
I'd be nonpartisan, but this is a tough one because if Biden becomes president, I give Biden three years tops as president, and then we're going to be dealing with Kamala.
And what that means for Fort McMurray is devastating.
And I think that, I mean, the main reason I'm concerned is because, you know, I opened the energy center, the war room, whatever, for Jason Kenney, and I held up a nice poster with support of Berman on it.
And then Berman kind of disappeared after she got the $2 million and started working behind the scenes quite effectively, hitting municipalities with this whole anti-oil sands rhetoric.
That's scary enough.
But what's scarier is that Naomi Klein wrote this thing called the Leap Manifesto.
And the Leap Manifesto is actually the Green New Deal, which she got in with AOC and AOC and Kamala and all that.
I've been working kind of on this.
So never mind Keystone, that which will be instantaneously canceled under Biden.
And you can kiss the train to Alaska goodbye.
You will, I think, have a far more aggressive approach.
And I don't believe that Biden will kill fracking in the States.
What I think will happen is that he will give Canada back and put us what they did for years, made us the scapegoat for all of their environmental failures.
The oil sounds were the best diversion tactic for all of the stuff they did in California, all of their lower environmental standards than us for a long time.
Under Obama, that's when the United States became the largest producer of oil and gas in the world.
That was under Obama.
Trump carried it over.
So I don't know what's going to happen.
I'm blown away, though, because you said I went to bed and I'm thinking, okay, Trump's got this.
And it is very odd how all of a sudden, like magically, these other votes are completely opposite of the votes coming in.
But I don't, I criticize Greta Thunberg.
I don't tell people how to vote, particularly in other countries.
I can't believe that little Pip Squeek gets so much attention for her absolute ludicrous nonsense that she spews.
And I mean, I've had enough of that.
It's not my place to tell Americans how to vote.
What I did learn when you watch Florida, I'm hoping one good thing comes out of this.
Enough with identity politics.
Yes, a black guy can be a Republican.
He can also be a Democrat.
A black guy can believe in climate change, or he might not.
Enough painting all this the way the Democrats constantly do.
It's like people are so different.
I would like to see something similar to the Electric College in Canada.
We have no say in Alberta.
Trudeau and whatever he's up to, he can make our determine our fate.
At least down there, there's a little bit of like, it doesn't necessarily mean population.
Texas has a say.
Michigan, those little places can actually make a difference.
Once, you know, Quebec and Ontario are done.
You know what?
We don't, it doesn't matter what we do.
They determine our future constantly.
That's a broken system.
I'm very fearful of, I mean, I'm very fearful of what's going to happen with Keystone.
That's a lifeline for us.
And honestly, when it comes to defending oil and gas, I mean, President Trump has done a far better job for Canada than our Prime Minister Trudeau.
So we'll see how it plays out in the next couple hours.
But Michigan's still very close.
I mean, it's boiling up to Michigan who's going to win.
Yes, I should remind everybody who's watching this later on after it goes to air that we are recording this at 10 a.m. Alberta time.
And my show goes to air later on in the evening.
So some of the things we say might be outdated, stale by the time this goes to air.
But this is the conversation we're having at this moment in time right now.
And things are changing so fast now when they weren't changing at all for hours last night.
I want to ask you one more thing.
And it's, I guess, it touches on the ethical nature of Canadian oil and gas.
You said that you suspect that under a Biden administration, God help us, that there would be further demonization of the Canadian industry.
But Biden will do something else that I think will also harm the Canadian industry.
And that is he will likely lift sanctions on Iran, which will free up their energy industry to export again.
And again, that will gobble up a market share that should belong to Canadian ethical oil and gas.
You know, I really wish the if I was to criticize Donald Trump on one thing, I know I know a lot of people that really want Trump to win.
I also am shocked with people that work in the oil and gas industry that did not want Trump to win at all.
And these are people who their entire lives have made money off of oil and gas.
If I was to criticize Trump for one thing, humility is something that I think if you got to know him, you'd realize he's a really nice guy who's quite simple, but he didn't come across as overly humble.
So now you're in a situation where the mass says, if Iran opens their taps, we're in trouble.
North America's in trouble.
And our biggest trading partner with the largest unprotected border in the world and all that, we should have each other's backs.
I mean, realistically, you know, we should really consider having a stronger relationship with the states than we do the UK because that's more prevalent to our existence.
If the United States sneezes, we catch a cold.
I mean, it's very connected, right?
So through all these years, like what Trump did very good on the economy.
He did grow on world peace.
And you know what?
He put Iran in line.
There hasn't been ISIS.
What happened to ISIS before?
ISIS, ISIS, ISIS, ISIS.
They were burning people alive.
I think people that were against Trump don't really understand how he held the world together.
China was devastating the American economy.
And all of a sudden, anyone that I know that has investments are all invested in the United States under Trump.
So yes, it'll go back to Obama.
But honestly, Biden's nothing.
It's more Kamala and the squad and what's going to happen when AOC takes the house.
And it's very scary.
I'm not worried about Biden, actually.
I'm worried about, but I mean, Biden, respectfully, and I'm not a person, you know, me, I don't make fun of age or, you know, if someone's a woman or a man or whatever.
But Biden reminds me of some seniors I know that, you know, we're at the dinner table and they were sharp and they would catch something.
And then all of a sudden they kind of slipped.
He's kind of on the cusp of going and we all know it.
And so it won't be when Nancy Pelosi was talking about that thing about Trump, you know, when he had COVID, I think that'll come more to Biden.
And you'll see, Kamala, she might be president.
And that's a terrifying, that's a terrifying thing for the world right now.
Yeah, she's very radical.
Well, and the other thing, too, I think that, I mean, all, okay, so if I was to, if I was like to Trump needs, the Republicans need to kind of get in the cities a little bit more.
And the Democrats, they need to realize that like Trump is loved as much as people like for his groffness or whatever.
He's very loved.
And his supporters, like, I mean, there's something to that.
There's something to those people that go out for hours and hours and wait.
And they didn't quite say uneducated white voter this time, like they did four years ago where they constantly insulted a good portion of the electric, the people being voted, the voters.
But overall, I think there's just this disconnect between what people think, what they think the reality of what people are dealing with is and what it truly is.
And I think we all have different realities.
And I think if one thing we need to stop accepting the fact that just because you know I I'm a different skin color, I'm a different, you know if I'm Latino or black or gay or straight, it means that I automatically line up with the Democrats or the Republicans.
Political Shifts and Personal Lives00:03:59
Yeah, I think it boils down to what, how this, the political people being voted for, affect my personal life.
Uh, that's a great point to make, because we saw in Florida, it was the Cuban community there that helped deliver the state for Donald Trump and Texas.
Texas went Republican.
I think that was always a safe Republican state.
But there are some border counties that were largely Democrat last time, that made massive shifts towards Republican and I think the general consensus was in the past.
Well, you can't build a border wall right there because you're going to make the Hispanic community angry.
Well, as it turns out, the legal Hispanic community doesn't mind a border wall and and cares about the same things as everybody else, that the immigration rules are followed in their state and that their counties aren't turned into just an illegal walkthrough for people to try to enter into the United States.
I think that If you look at socialism, okay, and there's this notion that, like, with, you know, universal income and all that, it's somehow equals, it's an equalizer.
It kind of starts off like that at first.
But for all this talk about during COVID-19, the people that were the most hurt were small businesses, small restaurants, lip hop shops, the little piece of the Canadian or American dream.
That is like, you know what, I could open a little gas station, I could become a mini millionaire, and I could, you know, take a few trips and provide college for my kids.
That's all slowly dying.
I'm actually doing a campaign here in Fort McMurray, trying to get people to support local.
And I counted over 30 restaurants have closed in the last three years.
Various reasons.
I can't say, like, you know, like whatever.
And what has benefited under this is Walmart and Amazon.
So socialism, in my opinion, makes it so the very, very rich stay at the top.
And then you'll have this sort of level, like if the Green New Deal comes in, you'll have these political people and then they get paid and they're all making, you know, it'll protect their little bubble.
So I think the Cuban Americans understand that I'm not saying there's some benefits, like there's always pros and cons to everything, but the ones that have gone over to Florida, who've escaped, you know, Castro, you know, they don't feel good about socialism.
They want their opportunity to work hard and get ahead and not have to feel constantly like they're owned by the state.
One of the critiques I have is like, I mean, our bureaucracy is endless.
I mean, it's endless, endless, endless.
I'm leaning more towards a libertarian stance because like, why should I have, like, I work hard, I want to choose my own destiny, and you have to pay for everyone else.
So I think that this fantasy of socialism is misguided.
I also think that, you know, with like Black Lives Matters, the most people that actually supported it were white people that had, you know, found this sense of guilt.
But if you talk to a lot of black people, they didn't support Black Lives Matters because, and this is what I'm saying, it's like, it's deeper than we realize.
And the color of your skin is, I would argue the world slowly but surely is getting more equal and more equal all the time.
It's a long process.
And I'm not saying racism doesn't exist or microaggressions, but at the end of the day, I think people want what's best for them and themselves and their families and significant others, their pets or whatever.
And it's pretty, it's pretty scary how fragile it is.
Fragile Progress00:11:22
Now, I'm not sure like what will happen.
I mean, I'm sure Michigan will like, I mean, I imagine this will end up in the Supreme Court, but at the end of the day, I mean, it was, I mean, the pollsters were wrong.
You know, here's the other thing, too.
It's like these, these, I don't know, these sort of like what I've learned in the past couple years, because someone has a university degree, it doesn't necessarily make them overly intelligent.
And I think there's a level of street smarts and life experience that kind of balances it out.
And if the media is supposed to be fair and balanced and tell a story, well, they sure miss that story of what's going on in America with the people.
At no point, they just hate Trump so much.
Why does Trump have these supporters?
Why do people believe in Trump?
I also think that this early voting, I mean, I don't know if I agree with it because I think that it does a bit of a disservice to people because I don't think you know the whole story.
You could vote six months before, your opinion might change five or six times.
Like, I mean, personally, I always vote the day of because I, you know, and I'm, I, I, I, I voted on all sides, if you know what I mean.
Like I'm not, I'm not, I've never once, sometimes it depends on the situation.
I might like the candidate better or whatever.
But I've, for me personally, I think you should vote closer to, like, it's just a little bit, it's a bit up in the air.
I thought for sure Trump was going to win Michigan last night, and now I'm not sure.
Yeah.
I mean, it is a lot of those early voters missed all the Hunter Biden laptop stuff and how many of those votes would be changed right now due to buyers' remorse because they cast a vote for another Democrat who is apparently just as crooked as Hillary Clinton was.
Now, I wanted to ask you, now that we've, you know, spent well, almost 20 minutes talking about the American election, I wanted to ask you a little about something closer to home.
And I know that you were a little bit personally involved in this.
The inquiry into the enemies of oil and gas, that's Jason Kenney's investigation, his government's investigation into the foreign-funded meddling into the landlocking of Canadian oil and gas.
That report is once again delayed until next year.
So a couple months now, again, at least until 2020.
I'm pro this investigation.
I'm anti-how long it's taking because the information is there.
I could have done this with you, me, and our in-house researcher here at Rebel News a lot faster.
We could have lawyered it a lot faster and we could have been to the bottom of this.
I don't understand why it's taking so long and taking so much money to do this.
I don't know either.
And it's disappointing that it's taking as long as it is.
We all know what has been happening for quite a while.
My fear is, I mean, we knew about this five years ago.
And it's still like, I don't know, I don't know why we can't seem to get on the offensive.
I mean, what's at stake is huge.
It's our entire way of life.
It's sad that we're not moving along.
I am hopeful, though, maybe, maybe they're finding some good stuff.
But I do hope that we progress a lot faster than this because it's taking way too long.
And we need to be assertive.
We need to really start.
We have to change.
I mean, like, we've, I mean, I don't know.
Like, I mean, I can only do so much as a lonely advocate in Fort McMurray.
It's, you know, like, and I'm proud of the few accomplishments I've had, like with Jane Fonda and, you know, and even when I started the entire Isle of Oil Sense campaign, those things, I think, are wins.
But as Albertans, like, you know, we need to have some patriotism and we need to really be like, this is unacceptable, this attack on our industry.
And I mean, I don't know why it's taking so long, but I hope it speeds up.
Well, yeah.
And again, I appreciate the investigation.
I'm glad that someone is finally looking into this in a really official capacity instead of independent researchers looking into it.
That's great.
But at the end of the day, if Justin Trudeau refuses to decertify these fake environmental charities, it's really all for nothing, isn't it?
Yes, except at least then we have an at least we're more aware of what we're up against.
And once it's official, it does enable us to fight back a little harder and call them out on their nonsense.
We know that it was a foreign-funded attack against us to suppress our resources.
Known that for years, right from the Rockefeller report, the fact that that was even done.
The question is now: you know, what are we willing to do about it?
And I think we're, I think we're very complacent.
Even in Fort McMurray, we just think that it's never gonna people want to live their lives.
Like, I mean, even myself, I just want to go look for weird antiques on the weekends.
You know what I mean?
I don't want to, I don't want to stress all the time.
But I think we need to start stressing.
We need to start showing a little bit more teeth.
And we need to say, you know, like there is no such thing as green energy.
They're talking about solar panels failing now and they're going to be at the dump.
The toxic tailings ponds that they have for rare earth minerals, those poor little kids in China and all these mines in Africa that have horrible working conditions.
And we sat back here where we have the greatest energy resource in the world and we can barely get a pipeline built.
We spend all this time with this weird guilt.
We should be world leaders.
I mean, it's embarrassing.
We should, and I don't know, I don't have the solution, but I just think that it's pretty sad that when an American election could determine so much, like, I don't think people realize this.
Like, this little pack is exactly the city I'm sitting in right now.
It's huge.
It affects us.
Like, I mean, the second we heard there might be a train coming from Fort McMurray to Alaska.
Oh, yes, we're excited.
Maybe that, maybe that can happen, but I'm pretty confident that Biden or Colin, how do I say her name?
Kamala?
Kamala?
Kamala.
You know, I'm pretty confident they could put a stop to that fairly quick, you know.
And we're in a position, like, what are we doing differently?
We need to do a like, we need to do a few things.
So, for me personally, you know, I'm helping the tourism industry in Fort McMurray.
I'm trying to get a secondary economy going here.
I do a lot of videos promoting tourism.
I'm trying to get my advocacy up a level.
I'm trying to get Olsen Strong on the next level.
But I'm one dude.
You know what I mean?
Like, it's hard.
And I think Albertans, like, we have to, we have to put our feet to the fire and we have to fight for our survival.
We can't be complacent anymore.
So, I mean, and I know a lot of people that did not, like, this was not like, I mean, I know a lot.
Well, secretly, people say, yeah, I want Trump to win, but publicly, people are terrible.
Like, that's the other thing, too.
If you like Trump, you should be able to say, I like Trump.
If you like Trudeau, you should be able to say, I like Trudeau.
Or, you know what I mean?
You shouldn't have to be forced to be silent.
I think that also is a thing we have to talk about.
Like, I mean, I don't know, but they need to speed it up and they need to act very quickly to understand the threat against our industry is real and it's not pretend.
Robbie, I want to give you a chance to tell people where they can find the work that you do.
And more importantly, support the work that you do because you're pretty much most of the time a one-man show.
I know you have a couple helpers, but you don't have any deep-pocketed sponsors for the advocacy work that you do.
You do it mostly on your own for families.
And Albertans just like me and my family.
So I think it would be important and helpful if our viewers at home could spread your message and support your work.
Thank you.
So please like my Facebook page or our Facebook page at Olsan Strong and go to oldsandstrong.com and buy a t-shirt.
And yeah, for a rich multi-millionaire donor, I am by far the best advocate that there's ever been in the history.
And a lot of the groups that do very well, I had a big hand in setting up.
So yeah, cut me a massive check.
That would be great so I could take Will Sandstrong to the next level.
Oh, that's exactly.
Quite serious.
I know you are.
That's a great sales pitch, Robbie.
I want to thank you so much for coming on the show.
Hopefully by the time this goes to air, Donald Trump has overcome what looks to be very obvious voter fraud in some of those states and the oil patch stocks can sort of creep back up because I saw this morning that things were a little shaky in that area.
Robbie, go ahead.
I hope so.
And I pray for stabilization.
And no matter what happens, here's one thing.
I really wish people would just calm down a little bit and we got to try to get along.
Like, I mean, like, that's something that I really hope because the mental unstability of the world right now.
You know what?
It's not that bad.
We live in a great country.
Americans live in a great country.
We have a great, North America is great.
We're not in war.
A lot of good things to be happy for.
So I do think that I do think we should be happier than we have been.
So hopefully things go a little bit better today, but we'll see how it plays out.
Robbie, what a great message to leave the show on.
Thanks so much for coming on the show.
And you know, you and I will talk very, very soon.
Thank you for having me.
You know, that is a great message from Robbie.
Republicans, if you do lose, and maybe you'll know that by the time this goes to air, but who only knows?
It's my prediction that this will be probably tied up in the courts for quite some time.
But Robbie indeed has a great message.
Republicans, regroup, learn from your mistakes, and move forward.
And Democrats, you know what?
Just behave yourselves.
Burning down your own cities and your communities, it's not going to solve any problems.
And it's definitely not going to change any hearts and minds.
Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
Thank you so much for tuning in.
Thank you so much for bearing with me on this very uncertain American election version of the gun show.
I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.