America's energy industry fights back against the same environmentalists keeping Canadian oil landlocked
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Summary
Craig Rucker from CFACT joins me to talk about his views on the environmentalist agenda in Canada and the fight against U.S. interests in the oil and gas industry. We talk about the need to protect our environment, the need for a strong economy, and why we should be concerned about climate change.
Transcript
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Hello Rebels, I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my
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Wednesday night show, The Gunn Show. Tonight my guest is Craig Rucker from CFACT. If you like
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podcast. Those reviews are a great way to support us here at Rebel News without ever having to spend
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a dime. And now please enjoy this free audio-only version of my show. Canadians rightly blame
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American environmental foundations for landlocking our oil and gas, but we have not been their only
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target. I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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Like so many Canadians, I pay close attention to American politics. I care deeply about pipelines
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and so it matters deeply to me that America has a president in the White House who will resist any
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and all calls to block Canadian pipelines. And because of this, I pay close attention to something
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called the Congressional Western Caucus. They're a group, they say, of bipartisan legislators who
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work together to advance six main objectives. It's agriculture and forestry, local control
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of Americans' lives and American resources, ensuring that Americans still have access to public lands for
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hunting and fishing. The group of legislatures also care about private property rights, water rights,
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and one of my favorite things, energy security. They're the American legislators fighting big
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government overreach and environmental activism in small communities. And they've got a real problem
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with foreign meddling in their energy sector too. The same names even come up. Just recently,
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the Western Caucus accused the Wilderness Committee of attempting to block America's access to its own
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uranium, which would only help Russia. The Wilderness Committee has been a part of the campaign to
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landlock Canada's oil and gas for a very long time, thus giving our far less ethical market competitors
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like OPEX, Venezuela, and Saudi Arabia a leg up. These people are environmental mercenaries and they
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don't care who they help as long as they block development. Now, last weekend, I was at Danny
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Hozak's incredible Freedom Talk Conference in Red Deer. And the guys from the Committee for a
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Constructive Tomorrow were there too to give an American perspective on the tentacles of the green
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movement reaching into your life. So this is the interview I recorded last Saturday with my friend
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Craig Rucker from CFACT after the Freedom Talk Conference all wrapped up.
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So joining me now is Craig Rucker from CFACT. You're a new face to, I think, at least the gun show viewers.
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Why don't you tell us a little bit about CFACT, what your focus is? I understand from some of the media
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coverage about CFACT that you guys are evil climate deniers.
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Oh, we don't like to look at, we call ourselves climate realists. But yes, we are an organization
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that's been around since 1985. We work on issues of environment and development. We have several
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programs that have made us, given us some notoriety. One of them is we run Mark Morano's Climate Depot
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Ah, yeah. On an individual level at times. No, he's actually a very likable guy.
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And anyway, so we do call out the truth when the UN shouts climate alarm. We try to set them
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straight. We also work in colleges and universities, have a collegians program. Our ultimate aim is to
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try to win back the environmental movement for those who are libertarian, free market, conservatives.
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We think it's been hijacked by those on the left. And we would like to see it return properly
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Now, you are here in Red Deer. So you're in the heart of, I guess, Canada's Texas. Are we as
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gross and disgusting here as the environmentalist movement would have you believe? Like, is it
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as dirty and gross here as the Greta Thunbergs of the world would have you believe Alberta is?
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No, je pense Alberta est très belle Provence. Oh, I'm sorry. I'm not.
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I know that. I know Canada enough to know you don't speak French, but I couldn't resist.
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Anyway, no, I think Alberta is our superhero province. In fact, if you ever did wind up wanting
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to secede from Canada, welcome to the United States. I mean, I'd love to have you. But yes,
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it's like the Texas of the United States. The people I meet here and I've gotten to know here
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really could fit in anywhere in the Midwest in the United States in terms of their political
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philosophy, just the way they live. It's great. Well, and it's funny because we are at a conference
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where people are discussing what going forward in Canada looks like for Alberta. And that's my
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number one argument is that our economic troubles stem from our cultural divide from the rest of the
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country. I think we're more culturally aligned with our friends to the south of us with
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regard to issues of climate change, gun rights, how our economy is built. So Alberta, largely
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agricultural, petrochemical, and the rest of the country looks down on those things. There's a huge
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cultural divide. And, you know, it's great to hear an American say, you know, we're very much like you
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because as a Canadian, I feel like I'm very much like you and not at all like a Torontonian.
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With a few things, eh? I do think that you, yeah, there you go. There are a couple of things that
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maybe language-wise are a little different, but no, on balance, I think you are correct. I think
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that really you culturally are very similar. I don't feel a whole lot different when I visit
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Alberta than I do in visiting many of the American states that are conservative. I would say that the
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one personality quirk that I was talking about was the, well, of course you like hockey as opposed
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to baseball and football and that sort of things. We like hockey too, more regionally. But I would
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say the other thing is, is a temperament. When I first came here a few years ago, and I've been
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invited to about four or five conferences since, I was saying, you know, you guys got to fight. You
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guys got to be a little bit more like Trump, I guess you could say, in your face, get it, get down,
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you know, the way you are, Sheila, when you want to, exactly. But now when I come back and I was just
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invited to this, now they're talking about quitting Canada entirely and going, becoming their own
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sovereign state. It's almost like they took my advice and went, wow, I was impressed. You guys
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really took this very far. Now you want to succeed. But I do like the attitude, the sass. I think that
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this is good. You're feeling your oats here and whether or not they succeed in that, you know, to me is
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less important than the fact that you are not putting up with it anymore. Yeah. We've
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had enough of this and things are going to change. Now, you talked about it in your speech
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here tonight, which is very well received by the crowd, by the way. I think you are experiencing,
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you talked about the green meddling in the Alberta economy. And I think, you know, for us,
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the foreign meddling is coming from these large American environmental groups who are trying
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to landlock Alberta's oil and gas. And I think you're experiencing a lot of the same things
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here in the United States with the opposition to fracking. And I was on the CFACT website
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actually earlier today. And, you know, with Bernie Sanders, who's come out against fracking,
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and Elizabeth Warren, who's come out against fracking. For me, it looks like they're doing
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the work of Putin and Gazprom. And it is funny how that is never identified in the American
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mainstream media, just how utilitarian a fracking ban would be for Russia's stranglehold on Eastern
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Europe. Oh, yeah. There's been some work done by my organization and others on the following of
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Russian money through the Sea Change Foundation a few years ago. And it was clear, not just actually
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Russia, but also China. Both those countries have a vested interest in America not becoming energy
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independent and Canada not being energy independent. I would say that the my friends in Canada, I say
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you make a mistake because I know that Vivian Krauss, I think her name is, made the comment that it was all
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a result of American NGOs, you know, getting into Canada. That's probably true. But we're not a unified
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country in this. A lot of these NGOs that are doing this are more globalist in their perspective. And
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they're the same enemies we're fighting in the United States on the fracking front and on all sorts
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of things. So I think their perspective is less some loyalty to the United States than liberals find
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the United States a good place to charter and not be taxed. And all the things they like about
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conservatism, they plant themselves in the United States, but then do their mischief in Canada and
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other places. So my hope is I can tell my Canadian friends, don't take it personally. It's not us.
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It's just some globalist NGOs that are using us as a staging ground to attack you and us.
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Yeah, that's another thing I wanted to talk about is actually on my list of things. And I'm glad you
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brought that up. These American NGOs are using America as a staging ground to attack Canada,
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but they are not attacking Canada just unilaterally. You look at what's unfolding in California right
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now with rolling blackouts and then the lack of forestry management that's leading to wildfires.
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And then you have environmentalist Governor Newsom blaming it on climate change when it is literally
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the outcome of environmentalist forestry practices. This is the end result of putting hippies in charge
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of forestry. Amen. And I was going to say that you find this is a reoccurring theme with the liberal
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left and with the greens in general. We had a hurricane Sandy. It wasn't even really a hurricane
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tropical storm. These are frequently hit New York City in the past and they should have prepared and
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they didn't prepare. So I guess as a liberal politician in New York, you're faced with one
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of two things. Either I can take the blame and say we didn't prepare and we experienced, you know,
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a catastrophe or better yet, I could blame the Republicans for not signing on to Paris and not
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signing on to Kyoto beforehand and not stopping global. And we can blame the citizens. So same
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with California wildfires. This is a trend that's going on in our country. And I think in Canada too,
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it's much easier to blame the populace, blame their political opponents than take responsibility
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that their own policies are what are causing these catastrophes. Yeah. I mean, we saw that unfolding
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in British Columbia earlier this year. We had our environment and climate change minister. It must
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sound weird in your ear to even have, to hear me say though, as a grown-up country, we have a minister
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of climate change, but she was blaming the forest fires on climate change when they were arson. The RCMP
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came out and said it was arson and it must be great to be an arsonist to have the government running
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cover for you. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Well, they blame climate change on everything. They, you know,
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brawl room brawl. Anxiety. Prostitution. They got all sorts of things. And in fact, if you're not in the mood,
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that's also climate change to blame. So really it's become this kind of, um, it's a catch-all and
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you can blame it. And, uh, you know, to me, it's kind of, it's, it would be humorous, except it's
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not humorous. Yeah. Cause it's so damn expensive. Well, and I think sadly, a lot of people are
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believing it. You know, I used to speak before a lot of colleges. I still do. I was just in the
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university of Minnesota a few weeks ago, speaking about five, six, seven, eight years ago, when you
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talked to campus conservatives, they understood Al Gore was a moron more or less. He lied. My flowers
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died. Right. Sadly, the product that I'm seeing now in both libertarian and conservative students
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is more, it's, it's becoming a little bit more tricky in terms of how you approach this issue
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because they've been well misinformed and they think water freezes at 32, um, water boils at 212
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degrees. Like we have a different system than you do in Canada, but, uh, and of course our SUVs and
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our smokestacks are killing polar bears and, um, causing the ice to melt and all sorts of cataclysmic
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things in the environment. So, uh, we got to almost deprogram them to a degree. They are not totally
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hopeless, but it's discouraging in that regard. Now you mentioned earlier in our conversation, um,
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about president Trump leaving the Paris accord. This has been, uh, a long ordeal. He said he was
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going to, I think he campaigned on leaving to be quite frank. And then, um, we were actually in
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Morocco together and you guys shredded the Paris accord there kicked out. Yes. Yeah. You guys took
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my lav mic. I still have that. Yeah. You still have my lav mic. Um, but I guess the official withdrawal
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is supposed to be the day after the 2020 election, uh, is Trump going to win? Cause that's pretty
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confident. I, I, you know, and that's what everyone is asking me here in Alberta. And we
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need him to win. And I'll tell you why, because he's our only hope in hell for a pipeline with
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Keystone XL to cross the border. We will never get one built without him. Well, and you hear a lot of,
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uh, pundits talking about this. I, I have a system where I've guessed every presidential election
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since Reagan correctly. And it has nothing to do with Americans picking based on ideology,
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pro-life, pro-choice, gun rights, gun, you know, high taxes, really what it comes down to. And it's
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a sad commentary, but it's, it's kind of true. Just think back. It's who would you rather have a
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beer with? If you can answer that question. It's not Elizabeth Warren. She's so weird and awkward.
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That's I agree. So to me, it depends on who the Democrats pick. If they pick Elizabeth Warren,
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we're shooing. I even think honestly, Bernie Sanders kind of Bob Dole on their side. He's kind of
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angry and grumpy. I don't think he's a threat. I do think, um, Tulsi, well, Biden, who's the
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front runner is he's known affectionately as uncle Joe. And people say, but he's so stupid.
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I said, you know, Americans are pretty forgiving. If we can elect a groper, so can you? Yeah,
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there you go. And, uh, and I think his disarming policy will make him a very formidable opponent.
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Do I think Trump can beat him? Absolutely. But I, um, would prefer if the Democrats pick somebody else,
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anybody, but, uh, but uncle Joe, but if it's anybody, but him, yeah, I think his, his chances
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are 70, 80%. And if we see uncle Joe, what are the environmental policy? What are your predictions
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for his environmental policy? Well, you know, he took a lot of flack kind of ironically,
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he was treated like a Republican in many ways at some of these town hall meetings. And, uh, and to me,
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I couldn't feel too sorry for him because he was, he was doing that to Republicans for a long time,
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but they treated him pretty brutally because he said he was not going to ban fracking.
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And, uh, he, so he, his policies are such that they may play okay in places like Pennsylvania
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and Ohio. And he took criticism for it, but he held the course. So I honestly look at him. He'll
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probably be a lot like Bill Clinton, not as extreme or disastrous as the others. I not saying
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that's a good thing. I will not vote for him for sure. Uh, but, um, I think it would be not quite
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as disastrous as if they pick somebody else. Hillary's threatening to come back. Oh, please.
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Yeah. I want to sign the petition. If they can, we could send it around here and she would be a
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dream come true. If she really wants to run, uh, again, using my, um, you know, paradigm as to who
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we select, uh, who would you rather have a beer with? You know, I can honestly say she is so grating
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on the nerves of, well, especially males. She's just a nightmare, you know, you guys at CFAC,
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do you focus a lot on, um, how the UN tends to try to control our lives through climate policy,
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which I really think that that's really what it's about. It's not so much about climate policy.
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It's more about wealth transfer and control over my life. Um, more recently, there's been this trend
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by municipalities, like it's coming from the bottom up now to make climate emergencies. Where is that
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coming from? These climate emergency declarations that we see from municipalities all over the place.
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It really, and I, I pointed this out in my presentation stems back to 1992. The UN took a
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high road, which was through the convention on climate change, which Trump is going to pull us
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out of, uh, that grew into the Kyoto protocol, which grew into the, um, Paris accord. And this
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is an effort to try to force nations upfront to do it on a high top down level underneath that's the
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agenda 21 stuff, which was also signed in 92 by president George H. Bush. And that is in, uh,
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a local initiative, uh, funded by a lot of localities here in, um, Alberta. It's funded
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by the government, civic governments of Edmonton, Calgary, and red deer are paying for ICLI councils.
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And that's where it's bubbling up from. It's a, it's a one, two punch on the part of the left
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top down is the Paris accord. Bottom up is the agenda 21 stuff.
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Brightening. Um, now you've come all the way to red deer to bring us good tidings, but where can
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people find you? And I actually was talking to, um, one of your friends here in red deer,
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and she said that you guys at CFACT are working on a big project. Tell us about it.
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Yes. We have, um, another movie coming out. It's called climate hustle to rise of the monarchy. Um,
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our first film, which went out in 2016, uh, you did. And we want to do the same thing in, uh, Calgary
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and Edmonton. It was sold out crowd. Um, we were number one in America for one night, uh, was attacked
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for seven minutes by Jimmy Kimmel on, uh, what is that? Not the tonight show, but whatever his program
00:18:44.880
is in late night. And, uh, we are going to do it again this year. Our, our, our spokesman this time
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is partially Mark, but we also have Kevin Sorbo. Oh, great. He's the, Hercules. You got it. He'll
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be narrating this. It'll be a fun film. Uh, first one looked a lot at the science. This one's going
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to take on the politics as well as the science. So we're going to look into some of the stuff you
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and I've just been discussing, uh, how they're trying to create a monarchy of people who live
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high on the hog, how a lot of these Hollywood actors and celebrities are living high on the hog while
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telling little people to, you know, take public transportation and forego jet travel and all
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that type of stuff. And they live, they're the worst spokesman for this type of movement. So
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we'll show some of the hypocrisy. We'll show some of the science and we'll show what the true agenda
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is, that this is, is about control. And it's a nanny state, uh, enviro, eco state that they want to
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set up for us all. And, um, I think, uh, at the same time, it's highly entertaining. So, uh,
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I think, uh, people will be excited by it. Well, I'm excited by it already. Now,
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where can people, um, find out more about CFAC, the work you're doing? And I know, um, you've got
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some books available too on your website that are quick, easy to read books that arm people with the
00:19:56.940
information they need to like take the argument out into the world. Absolutely. Well, we encourage
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people to sign up at cfact.org, that's C-F-A-C-T dot O-R-G. And they'll get a free email update. Uh,
00:20:10.480
we drive almost all of our support, not from companies. It's all grassroots pretty much. We
00:20:16.080
don't have any major oil companies or any major, um, you know, Exxon mobiles or not as generous as
00:20:21.500
the left would have us believe. Oh, we're not opposed to take their money, but they have all
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gone totally green. So, uh, we rely on our, our donor support almost exclusively and, um, they can
00:20:34.480
get a free newsletter updates. They can go to our cfact.org website and find that out. And also climate
00:20:39.440
depot.com. That's climate depot.com. Great. Thanks, Craig. Thanks for taking the time. And
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thanks for coming up all the way to the great white North to bring us tidings from the United
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States. Hey, it's been a pleasure, eh? Great. Thanks, Craig.
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The guys from CFACT, Craig Rucker and Mark Morano, really are fellow travelers in the
00:21:08.600
movement to tell the truth about the United Nations and about environmentalism. But they
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do it in a way that appeals to people. And I think they do it in a way that's fun. It's
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much more fun to be a happy warrior than an angry one. Well, everybody, that's the show
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for tonight. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'll see everybody back here in the same time
00:21:27.920
in the same place next week. And remember, don't let the government tell you that you've