Rebel News Podcast - July 25, 2024


SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Alberta’s credit rating is headed in the right direction, while the feds are threatened with a downgrade


Episode Stats

Length

32 minutes

Words per Minute

165.63562

Word Count

5,462

Sentence Count

508

Misogynist Sentences

10

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary

In this episode of the Gun Show, we talk about Alberta's credit rating upgrade from Fitch, and why we're better off than the rest of the country. We're joined by Chris Sims, the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, to break it all down.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 One in two Albertans cannot make ends meet.
00:00:03.480 What does government spending have to do with all of this?
00:00:06.240 I'm sure you've agreed when you're watching The Gun Show.
00:00:25.520 I want to show you this article from the Calgary Herald the other day.
00:00:29.680 Now, the data has been widely reported in other places, but this is just the source that I chose.
00:00:36.620 It reads, tipping point, nearly half of Albertans are $200 or less away from insolvency, MNP survey says.
00:00:44.840 The accounting firm's latest consumer debt index, or CDI, was released Monday, highlighting that 47% of Alberta respondents were $200 or less away from failing to meet all their financial needs.
00:00:58.560 13 percentage points higher than last quarter.
00:01:02.260 Now, this is only going to get worse if Justin Trudeau does not rein in his spending.
00:01:07.620 The more the federal government borrows, the greater at risk the federal government is for a credit downgrade, which means the cost of borrowing in this country for the federal government, but also for you, will go up.
00:01:24.040 And on the flip side, in Alberta, while it indicates that things are bad here, I think we're better off than the rest of the country.
00:01:31.940 Our government is seeing credit upgrades here as they work hard to undo the damage done by four years of Rachel Notley's NDP government from 2015 to 2019.
00:01:43.980 It's nearly 10 years since the NDP formed government here, and we're just starting now to undo some of the damage.
00:01:50.740 Now, this needs an expert's breakdown.
00:01:54.560 So joining me now is my friend, Chris Sims, the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, to make sense of all of this and to tie it all together.
00:02:04.700 Take a listen.
00:02:05.200 So joining me now is my good friend and good friend of the show, Chris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
00:02:17.900 I want to have Chris on, well, all the time, but, you know, I think you guys need some variety in the guests that I have on the show.
00:02:26.360 But this time to talk about the credit upgrade happening in Alberta.
00:02:32.300 We've had a series of them now, thanks to our government being more responsible than it has been with our taxpayer dollars,
00:02:40.780 while simultaneously a threatened credit downgrade at the federal level.
00:02:45.480 Chris, tell us what's going on here in Alberta.
00:02:47.900 Yeah, so this is good news, and we're usually the big storm cloud, so we always want to highlight good news when we can.
00:02:54.040 So the good news is, is here in Alberta, we just got, it's not a credit upgrade per se, but our outlook has improved from Moody's.
00:03:03.140 So Moody's is basically this huge, ginormous international credit rating agency.
00:03:09.480 What they say matters to the financial bros, and it depends, it determines how much we pay on interest.
00:03:16.100 So this is important.
00:03:17.220 And so they have changed our outlook as a province in Alberta from stable to positive, meaning, hey, everybody, you can lend these people money,
00:03:29.260 you can invest in this province because it's a good bet, it's a good investment.
00:03:33.540 And that also allows us then to borrow money at a lower interest rate.
00:03:38.180 Who pays the interest on our provincial debt?
00:03:40.840 You and me, Sheila, all of your listeners, all of your viewers here in the province of Alberta.
00:03:45.200 Right now, last time I checked with their year-end update, we're paying around $3.1 billion per year just in the interest payment on our debt.
00:03:56.840 So that's almost three hospitals.
00:03:59.780 So that's important.
00:04:01.160 So we really wanted to give the government a pat on the back when it's due.
00:04:06.500 And this also falls hard on the heels of Fitch, which is another big international credit rating agency that did give us a credit upgrade, like an actual boost.
00:04:15.980 So this is important.
00:04:17.300 So according to Moody's, we are now at 2AA, which is good, apparently, for our interest rate.
00:04:25.220 And at the same time, like you point out, we've seen downgrades in other provinces, and we're hearing about a threat to downgrade federally.
00:04:35.380 So I really wanted to highlight this as to why, though, okay?
00:04:39.400 Because a lot of people might assume it's, oh, just because the energy sector is doing a bit better than it was a few years ago.
00:04:45.160 So, no, that matters, and that's always good.
00:04:48.420 We want to see the energy sector doing well.
00:04:50.620 But this is important.
00:04:51.900 It's because we have a balanced budget law.
00:04:54.940 It's because we're paying down the debt.
00:04:57.840 It's because we're saving money.
00:05:00.180 They listed all of these reasons right on their website.
00:05:03.280 And this is key.
00:05:04.840 Because we are keeping our spending increases below the rate of inflation plus population growth.
00:05:11.620 That sounds super nerdy, and it is, but I wanted to explain it.
00:05:17.140 Because at the Taxpayers' Federation, we've been around since before the internet was a thing,
00:05:23.000 we have been begging the Alberta government, out loud with our faces and in writing, since the mid-90s,
00:05:30.060 please keep your spending increases reined in below the rate of inflation and population growth.
00:05:36.780 If they had done that, Sheila, back then, when, like, the Spice Girls were topping the charts,
00:05:43.060 we would have about $300 billion saved.
00:05:48.880 That's just money.
00:05:49.900 That's not even invested money.
00:05:51.840 That's just cash sitting under your mattress.
00:05:54.260 So, for this international credit rating agency to say, you know what, good job, that's important.
00:06:01.740 Because then it's not just us telling them to do something.
00:06:04.600 They're getting recognition from outsiders and international groups,
00:06:07.620 and they're more likely to stick with this fiscal discipline.
00:06:11.020 So, this is really nice news.
00:06:13.100 It is really good news, and it has been a long time coming.
00:06:17.740 For example, a lot of this happened, this out-of-control spending.
00:06:23.060 I mean, it did happen in the dying days of the old PC government.
00:06:26.880 But the credit downgrades and the out-of-control deficit spending happened really in the first year of Rachel Notley's government.
00:06:35.840 So, that's way back in 2015.
00:06:37.960 Here we are, nine years out.
00:06:40.740 I think we saw six.
00:06:41.860 I think it was six credit downgrades that happened during the first initial little bit of Rachel Notley's time in government.
00:06:49.680 We are nine years out of that, and we are only now starting to undo the damage.
00:06:56.740 And as you say, it's not just debt.
00:07:00.160 It's not just deficit spending.
00:07:01.880 It is debt servicing charges that we are going broke on.
00:07:05.060 And I think we could all do with three extra hospitals a year, you know, for people who care about social services and the public safety infrastructure net.
00:07:17.400 That's a lot that can be done, and it's going straight to international banksters right now.
00:07:24.460 Yep, exactly.
00:07:25.200 Or it could go to reducing our income taxes, or it could eliminate the provincial fuel tax, like, forever.
00:07:31.880 Like, they could afford so much if we had that extra $3 billion in our jeans pocket.
00:07:38.360 I will stress, so, um, back, so I did a report.
00:07:41.760 If people really want to nerd out, I have a whole bunch of charts.
00:07:44.800 It's on our website, taxpayer.com.
00:07:47.120 Go under the Alberta section, please, because it took me months to do this.
00:07:51.240 I went back through every single budget till, like, 1994, 1995.
00:07:56.580 Did you know they used to put them out in, like, teal colors?
00:07:59.980 Like, purple?
00:08:00.620 Oh, that's really cool.
00:08:01.980 That's fun.
00:08:02.500 It was, like, old school A&W.
00:08:05.020 And so you're going through it, and if you go all the way back there, you can see where the spending increased.
00:08:12.540 And it was largely under Stelmac.
00:08:15.960 Yep.
00:08:16.100 Okay?
00:08:16.660 Spending just went banana pants.
00:08:18.980 Yep.
00:08:19.300 Way up there.
00:08:19.960 I was kind of surprised, because I'm kind of a newbie to Alberta.
00:08:22.820 Spiritually, I've always loved Alberta, but I'm a newbie to Alberta.
00:08:25.520 And then, of course, NDP Premier Rachel Notley, she didn't balance the budget even one time.
00:08:32.120 Didn't even think of it.
00:08:32.940 Not even one time.
00:08:35.180 And so I know balancing the budget can be hard.
00:08:37.880 You have to learn to say no, okay, especially to special interest groups, because it's everybody's money.
00:08:44.340 And this is, again, highlighting why it's super important to keep your budget balanced and keep your spending in check, pay down the debt.
00:08:50.400 And as an extra bonus, they're saving for a rainy day.
00:08:53.900 It sounds like they're going to be taking the Heritage Fund seriously this time around.
00:08:58.500 Because if we had done so, again, back in the day when we first started this thing, we'd be looking a lot more like Alaska.
00:09:05.620 Not quite Norway, because they've just got a crazy amount of money in that thing.
00:09:09.180 And they don't have to share it through equalization.
00:09:11.940 They don't have to send it to places who aren't fiscally responsible.
00:09:15.360 Nope.
00:09:16.020 Nope.
00:09:16.240 They've got it really set up well.
00:09:17.960 If you want to cry, look up the, I forget what it's called, the Norwegian Solidarity Fund or something like that, Security Fund, something like that.
00:09:25.400 But we could be closer to Alaska if we had played our cards right and not, you know, emptied out to the Heritage Fund.
00:09:31.840 And so now, knock wood, it sounds like these guys are pretty serious about this stuff.
00:09:36.800 And they've put it into law.
00:09:38.180 So I really wanted to give kudos where it is due, because I do yell at them a lot.
00:09:43.380 So if they are doing the right thing, I do want to tell them they're doing so.
00:09:46.920 And so this is really good.
00:09:48.100 We got this credit rating upgrade.
00:09:50.540 And on the flip side, and we just sort of mentioned it in passing, Justin Trudeau's Liberal government, they doubled the size of the national debt in less than a decade.
00:09:59.940 This is from Michelle Rempel-Garner's Substack.
00:10:02.660 And now multiple senior economists and major financial institutions have issued warnings that unless the Liberals, not eventually, but immediately lessen the size of the federal deficit, Canada is going to be faced with a credit downgrade.
00:10:17.220 And if that downgrade happens, it just wouldn't increase the cost of borrowing from the federal government.
00:10:21.780 And as she puts it, if this happens in the middle of Canada's current affordability crisis, while Canadians are already shouldering some of the highest household debt loads in the world, it could have explosively bad implications for the entire Canadian economy.
00:10:42.980 Absolutely.
00:10:43.980 Absolutely.
00:10:44.980 So this is going to get heavy, and I'm sorry, we'll probably try to end on a lighter note, but it's a serious major problem, like super duper.
00:10:54.920 So right now the deficit is just over $40 billion, and there's a difference between obviously deficit and debt.
00:11:03.700 Deficit is yearly holes in your budget.
00:11:08.120 That's your yearly shortfall for your annual budget.
00:11:11.740 So say you made $100, okay, that was your revenue, but you spent $140, obviously your deficit for that year would be $40.
00:11:22.400 Now add a whole bunch of zeros to that for the federal government.
00:11:27.400 So our deficit is $40 billion this year.
00:11:31.680 To your point, Sheila, and I can't stress this enough, the Trudeau government since 2015 has now, this year, doubled our national debt.
00:11:43.320 So picture, like imagine it's like the matrix and you're looking backwards in time, okay, all the NEOs and the Trinities are lined up.
00:11:49.780 Picture all of the Prime Ministers lined up back to Confederation.
00:11:54.240 Add all of their debts up.
00:11:57.860 Trudeau has doubled them.
00:12:00.120 Just one guy's government.
00:12:02.080 So this is really critically important because it's now over $1.2 trillion.
00:12:08.220 What that means in normal people talk, if you were trying to count to a trillion, it would take you 30,000 years.
00:12:18.560 If you started today, it would take you 30,000 years to count to a trillion.
00:12:24.680 Okay.
00:12:25.480 The interest we pay just on the debt is now the same as what we all pay in GST.
00:12:31.320 I know, it's gross, and I'm sorry, but we really do need to look at it.
00:12:37.940 And to exactly Michelle Rumpelgarner's point, the Member of Parliament's point, a lot of people are in personal debt.
00:12:47.200 And I know why, because life is bloody well unaffordable.
00:12:50.200 Like, zero judgment, I understand.
00:12:51.900 The problem here, though, is that a lot of people's mortgages are coming back up for renewal at a much higher interest rate, thanks again to the government.
00:13:00.220 And also they have lines of credit.
00:13:02.260 They've got credit cards, car payments, all of the stuff they owe on.
00:13:06.360 So when you see the government spending like this, it affects your ability to borrow as well because it screws up our lending rate in Canada.
00:13:15.940 And so this is why it's super important for people to keep the pressure on politicians, to balance the budget, take spending seriously.
00:13:25.540 A little bit of light.
00:13:27.640 Two things.
00:13:28.860 One, Pierre Polyev, opposition leader, Conservative Party leader, is saying the right things.
00:13:34.740 He's saying he wants to balance the budget.
00:13:36.820 He can't commit to an exact timeline yet because he doesn't know how big the dumpster fire actually is.
00:13:41.920 It's fair.
00:13:42.560 Fair.
00:13:42.800 We want him to do it as fast as possible.
00:13:45.400 But fair.
00:13:46.440 Let's be reasonable.
00:13:47.720 And two, what I find interesting here is that we just did a poll, not just of Taxpayers Federation supporters, a federal poll.
00:13:56.820 Like every Joe and Sally six-pack in Canada could have done this survey.
00:14:01.160 And it's over 50% of people now, Sheila, want spending cuts.
00:14:07.080 Yeah.
00:14:07.800 That's important because that almost never breaches the 30%.
00:14:11.820 It's usually everybody wants more stuff.
00:14:13.780 Right.
00:14:14.200 It usually goes straight along party lines.
00:14:17.240 And this is bigger.
00:14:19.140 Exactly.
00:14:19.820 Thank you.
00:14:20.840 And now if it's over 50% of people saying, whoa, how about you tap the brakes on your spending?
00:14:27.160 That's important because it almost never gets to that point.
00:14:30.920 People often assume the government has endless money and they don't.
00:14:36.620 It's all our money.
00:14:37.840 And so I think the message is getting through.
00:14:41.020 And Polyev says that he wants to hear people from the doorstep.
00:14:44.760 He doesn't care about, he says he doesn't care about lobbyists.
00:14:47.140 He doesn't want to hear from special interest groups that want to have a lunch meeting with him again.
00:14:50.580 So this is important.
00:14:52.620 When you email him, when you email his MPs, he says it matters and we take people at their work.
00:14:58.540 So email them, email your MP and say, I want spending cuts.
00:15:02.420 I want tax cuts.
00:15:03.720 Balance the damn budget.
00:15:04.960 This is important to me.
00:15:06.160 And they will take that message along.
00:15:08.420 And I think we'll see the light at the end of the tunnel.
00:15:10.280 Because even, remember back in 2021 when the Trudeau government again was spending money as fast as they could print it?
00:15:17.440 Yeah.
00:15:17.720 Okay.
00:15:18.320 Crazy budget.
00:15:20.200 Just if we reduced spending to that level, we'd balance the budget.
00:15:25.680 Yeah.
00:15:26.200 We wouldn't pay off the debt because it's crazy right now.
00:15:28.400 But at least we'd have a balanced budget.
00:15:30.000 We wouldn't have international credit rating agencies breathing down our neck.
00:15:33.200 Like the repo man would stop knocking.
00:15:34.680 So this is totally doable, folks.
00:15:39.020 And it must be done.
00:15:40.880 I was reading this Calgary Herald article the other day, two days ago.
00:15:45.960 The Consumer Debt Index, that's a CDI, released Monday, noted that 47%, nearly 50, like one in two Albertans who responded to the survey were $200 or less away from insolvency.
00:16:03.140 From failing to meet their financial needs.
00:16:05.600 And that's 13 points higher than it was just last quarter.
00:16:10.540 And this is Alberta.
00:16:11.800 We're doing better than everywhere else.
00:16:13.680 So just think about how bad it is in other parts of this country.
00:16:16.960 That I didn't realize it had gotten that high in Alberta because I hadn't checked it from Monday.
00:16:21.020 I usually do try to check that one.
00:16:22.820 I check for poverty checks.
00:16:24.820 I check that one.
00:16:25.800 I check the food bank numbers.
00:16:27.700 And I check Dollarama's financial reports.
00:16:31.300 Yeah.
00:16:31.420 Because they will indicate when their food sales go up, which to me is, I know it's hard to say, but to me is an indicator of, you know, need.
00:16:41.880 Real need.
00:16:43.140 And so that's worse than I thought.
00:16:45.760 Sorry, that bothers me.
00:16:47.700 Yeah, that's it.
00:16:48.760 So what MNP does is they phone around and they ask people, you know, how close are you to not meeting your bill payments?
00:16:55.060 And I got to stress, this isn't paying off their car or paying off their credit card.
00:17:00.020 It's making the minimum payments.
00:17:01.980 Right.
00:17:02.800 It's making the minimum payments.
00:17:04.100 This is just keeping, like, your nose above water, not even your head or your chin.
00:17:08.660 That's right.
00:17:09.520 So that means you're covering rent.
00:17:13.300 You've got the lights on.
00:17:16.120 You can afford gas or your transit pass, whatever transportation.
00:17:19.720 And you're making the minimum payments on your bills.
00:17:23.320 People are within 200 bucks in Alberta.
00:17:26.600 So almost half of us within two.
00:17:28.880 That's brutal.
00:17:29.760 And again, this stresses the need to stop blowing money.
00:17:35.400 And the government blows money all the time.
00:17:37.380 The provincial government isn't perfect yet.
00:17:39.320 My next big report for their budget is going to be finding them savings to cut out waste.
00:17:44.620 So I'm going to be digging like a weasel through all these different little departments and finding out how much they're spending on stuff.
00:17:49.740 Because government gets big and gangly and people lose track of where money is going all the time.
00:17:56.220 Same thing happens here in Alberta, just not to the same grotesque degree.
00:18:00.180 That it happens in Ottawa.
00:18:01.860 So again, this is why we really need to keep the pressure on.
00:18:04.820 Because it's affecting us.
00:18:06.280 It's affecting our families.
00:18:07.300 It's affecting our neighbours.
00:18:08.720 Even here in Alberta.
00:18:11.580 Yeah, it's just, when I saw those numbers, I mean, it's bad here.
00:18:16.160 It's bad.
00:18:16.680 But we, I think we generally do better than everybody else in this country.
00:18:22.180 Because, you know, we don't have provincial sales tax.
00:18:25.700 We have a province that is fighting back against the feds.
00:18:28.680 You know, we're a resource-based economy.
00:18:32.160 And generally, those jobs are higher paying.
00:18:34.060 And we seem to be in a bit of a boom time.
00:18:36.660 If Donald Trump wins the election and he proceeds with drill baby drill, we'll likely see the final completion of Keystone XL, which will, you know, give a bump to our economy, much the same way that the opening of the Trans Mountain Pipeline did for the national GDP.
00:18:55.680 So I'm hopeful.
00:18:57.220 But if things are that bad here, imagine what they're like in some of the more depressed regions of this country.
00:19:03.900 It just makes me sad for my fellow Canadians.
00:19:07.820 I think that's why, speaking personally a little bit selfishly, but it's actually where I have the most experience, is BC.
00:19:14.500 I think that's why we're seeing the numbers that we're seeing in the polls in their upcoming election.
00:19:21.160 I think folks are tacked over tax.
00:19:23.840 They're tapped out.
00:19:25.560 Unfortunately, some of them have lost hope.
00:19:27.800 So we're a bit different in that we respond personally.
00:19:33.560 Me, Franco, everybody.
00:19:35.320 We respond personally to our emails.
00:19:37.060 We try.
00:19:37.740 Not all of them, because we get a lot.
00:19:39.960 But we try.
00:19:41.480 And almost always, Sheila, the ones who sound the most desperate and who are getting in really tough are almost always from British Columbia.
00:19:50.980 Yeah.
00:19:51.400 And that's, of course, because it's unaffordable.
00:19:53.900 Like normal working people can't afford to live there.
00:19:56.380 And that's so brutally unfair and wrong.
00:19:59.280 And so I think that is why you are seeing the polls that we're seeing out there right now.
00:20:04.960 People want to change.
00:20:06.340 Any change.
00:20:07.340 New change.
00:20:08.340 Lower taxes.
00:20:09.220 Stop robbing me.
00:20:10.760 And for people who've never lived out in BC and they've just visited and they think, oh, it's beautiful.
00:20:14.640 It is beautiful.
00:20:15.680 Geographically, it is like spectacular.
00:20:17.540 God's creation.
00:20:18.200 It's amazing.
00:20:19.280 But it is really viciously mean to low-income people.
00:20:23.440 And it's not just things like rent.
00:20:25.140 I mean, housing is ridiculous.
00:20:26.620 But things the government could change right now in British Columbia, two things.
00:20:30.900 They could cancel their second carbon tax.
00:20:33.360 Okay.
00:20:33.660 Their first carbon tax is disgusting, too.
00:20:35.460 But we could argue that Trudeau would just impose a new one, whatever.
00:20:38.600 Cancel the second carbon tax then.
00:20:40.080 That is wholly provincial.
00:20:41.440 That would save you around 17 or 18 cents a litre immediately.
00:20:46.080 And stop taxing used items.
00:20:50.320 In British Columbia, hold on to your seats, Albertans.
00:20:54.740 They charge you a PST on thrift shop items.
00:20:58.420 So the poorest people.
00:21:00.200 It's disgusting.
00:21:01.340 Get a PST tacked onto it.
00:21:03.660 And this is really key now.
00:21:05.440 For a used car.
00:21:06.740 If you're buying a used car from a private seller, say you've saved up your money and you're trying to afford that used Honda Civic to get to work, right?
00:21:16.360 Or a Corolla or something affordable.
00:21:18.480 And you've saved up all your money and you pay cash to a person, not a dealer.
00:21:23.480 You are charged 12%.
00:21:26.040 It's disgusting.
00:21:29.080 I know.
00:21:29.420 So they're all of a sudden sitting down at ICBC, changing the plates, putting it in their name.
00:21:34.980 By the way, you owe us another $700.
00:21:39.700 It's so awful and wrong.
00:21:42.000 And what's even worse now is when you're registering with the government, because the state controls your insurance there,
00:21:49.540 they no longer will just take what you say you paid for the thing because they assume you're lying.
00:21:55.060 They have a special black book that they have decided that this vehicle is worth.
00:22:00.600 And you will be charged the PST based on what the government thinks that you paid for the thing.
00:22:05.840 Like it's so whenever you hear that government open its mouth and say, oh, we care about the working class and the poor.
00:22:13.280 No, you don't.
00:22:14.340 You absolutely do not.
00:22:15.780 And we have the receipts to show it.
00:22:17.480 So they could do those two things and they would improve life.
00:22:21.400 Now on that dark note, are you working on any notes?
00:22:24.600 Okay.
00:22:25.580 We need to know how bad it is.
00:22:27.240 We can do something about it.
00:22:28.440 But any fun stuff happening around the CTF?
00:22:32.580 Yes.
00:22:33.180 Can I give my announcement?
00:22:34.880 Yes, sure.
00:22:35.800 For a soiree?
00:22:36.640 Yeah.
00:22:37.120 Okay.
00:22:37.640 So just between us girls and your viewers, I'm bringing the debt clock up to Edmonton.
00:22:46.220 So we're going to be doing a pub night in Red Deer first.
00:22:50.080 So that'll be Thursday night.
00:22:51.960 We're going to the Toad and Turtle.
00:22:53.740 So again, this Thursday night, we're going to the Toad and Turtle.
00:22:58.220 I will have the debt clock parked there at the pub.
00:23:01.120 Please feel free to come out and hang out and say hi.
00:23:03.340 Get a picture with the debt clock.
00:23:04.680 And then I'm heading up to Sheila's Neck of the Woods near Edmonton.
00:23:10.060 I'm going to be, forgive me, looking at my phone.
00:23:13.060 It's, I've got it.
00:23:14.160 It's the brew house at Lewis Estates.
00:23:16.660 Nice.
00:23:17.100 I love you.
00:23:17.700 This is great.
00:23:18.360 Yes.
00:23:18.580 Weber Greens Drive.
00:23:20.100 Thank you.
00:23:20.940 So Westside, brew house.
00:23:23.420 Canadian, the Canadian brew house.
00:23:25.300 Yeah.
00:23:25.480 I'm phoning them soon.
00:23:26.660 So hopefully they're fine with it.
00:23:30.980 It'll be fine.
00:23:31.840 They've got a nice big parking lot and stuff.
00:23:33.500 Now, the reason why we're doing the debt clock, for people who don't know what the debt clock
00:23:36.240 is, let me tell you, it is this ginormous U-Haul moving truck, like a big honking thing.
00:23:42.940 And it has a huge jumbotron screen on either side of it.
00:23:47.140 I think you guys use these things sometimes too.
00:23:49.340 We do.
00:23:50.080 Yeah.
00:23:50.400 It's super fun.
00:23:51.660 But this one is ours and it's all decked out with CTF, you know, logos and stuff.
00:23:56.340 And we display the federal debt on it in real time.
00:24:01.360 Yeah.
00:24:01.640 It's hypnotic to watch.
00:24:04.160 It's like watching a train go by where your eyes don't know where to look and then you
00:24:08.740 end up in a trance.
00:24:09.900 That's what it's like.
00:24:11.220 Yeah.
00:24:11.820 So this is one of the, you know, educational tools that we like to use for people and to
00:24:18.480 show them what they're owing and what the debt is doing in real time.
00:24:22.760 And it's fun.
00:24:23.480 We're going to have nachos.
00:24:24.820 You can come take a selfie with the debt clock.
00:24:26.660 Come say hi.
00:24:27.580 I would love to meet you.
00:24:28.700 I love putting faces to names of taxpayers, supporters and tax fighters.
00:24:33.360 So please feel free to come on out and hang out with us.
00:24:36.820 So again, we're going to be a Red Deer Thursday night at the Toad and Turtle on the south side
00:24:40.480 of town and at the Canadian Brewhouse just west of the mall in Edmonton on Friday night.
00:24:46.700 Times?
00:24:48.840 I'm old.
00:24:49.880 So I'm like six to eight ish.
00:24:51.680 Six to nine ish.
00:24:52.340 Yeah, me too.
00:24:53.020 Me too.
00:24:53.600 I like to be at home in my stretchy pants by nine.
00:24:58.380 Thank you.
00:24:59.140 This is it.
00:25:01.140 I'm not partying till two o'clock with the debt.
00:25:03.880 That's for the kids to do.
00:25:05.180 So yeah.
00:25:05.560 So between six to nine ish, if that's cool with you guys.
00:25:09.060 Sounds great.
00:25:10.220 How do people find the work that you do at the CTF and importantly support the important
00:25:15.940 work that you do there?
00:25:17.040 Wonderful.
00:25:17.440 And again, I know things can get dark and I've been reading quite a few of those emails
00:25:21.760 this week.
00:25:22.320 And so I really, you know, I think everybody needs a bit of a boost and we do that for two
00:25:25.780 reasons because exactly this.
00:25:27.520 One, you'll either cry or laugh.
00:25:29.420 So you have to pick laugh because being a happy warrior gets things done.
00:25:33.820 And two, if you're a little bit more salty, politicians and bureaucrats hate it when you
00:25:39.460 laugh at them.
00:25:40.640 They hate it when you make fun of them.
00:25:42.820 They think that they're some landed duke and that you peasants shouldn't be laughing at
00:25:47.180 them.
00:25:47.560 So let's laugh as loud as we possibly can because it bothers them.
00:25:51.720 So it works.
00:25:53.120 So folks can go to taxpayer.com.
00:25:56.340 That's our website.
00:25:58.220 You can, the best way to join our fight is to find a petition that really suits you.
00:26:03.760 I even have one against the PST unused items in British Columbia.
00:26:07.580 So sign up for whatever petitions you like, like stop the gun grab, cancel the carbon tax,
00:26:12.340 defund the CBC.
00:26:13.700 There's something there for everybody.
00:26:14.820 And then you'll be on our mailing list and you're part of the army.
00:26:18.440 And the next time it's time to do critical mass of emailing a politician or inviting
00:26:23.780 you to a pub night, you will then get that update.
00:26:26.700 So head on over to taxpayer.com.
00:26:28.620 You can also read our super wonky reports on balanced budgets and why they matter.
00:26:32.760 So you get a little bit of sweet and a little bit of salt right on our website.
00:26:36.460 That you just described yourself.
00:26:39.240 Oh, thanks.
00:26:40.080 A little bit of salt.
00:26:41.280 Chris, thanks so much for coming on the show today.
00:26:43.900 And I guess I'll see you Friday.
00:26:45.800 See you Friday.
00:26:46.320 See you Friday.
00:26:46.380 All right, friends, we get your letters and your viewer feedback.
00:26:57.340 Seems like every hour of every single day, 365 days of the year, you guys don't take a
00:27:02.460 day off.
00:27:02.840 So why should I?
00:27:04.760 Because without you, there's no rebel news.
00:27:06.380 We care about what you think about the work that we do here.
00:27:08.680 We'll never take a penny from Justin Trudeau.
00:27:11.080 So I really don't care if he doesn't like me or if he doesn't consider the stories that
00:27:17.020 I do grant applications to the media bailout fund.
00:27:21.980 That's the reason I give you my email address right now.
00:27:24.020 It's Sheila at rebelnews.com.
00:27:25.580 If you've got something to say about the show that I just filmed with my friend Chris Sims
00:27:29.580 of the CTF, send it to me there.
00:27:32.040 Put gun show letters in the subject line so I know why you're emailing me because I do get
00:27:36.340 many, many emails every single day.
00:27:39.520 So it's easier for me to find so that I can include your viewer feedback in the show.
00:27:44.120 But don't let that be the bar for entry.
00:27:46.760 Leave a comment, question over on any of the clips that you might find of the show on YouTube
00:27:53.000 or Rumble as well.
00:27:54.180 And today, my comments come from the YouTube clip we published of my on the street interview
00:28:04.100 with my friend Yankee Pollack, who was down at the Republican National Convention.
00:28:09.840 He was outside of the convention.
00:28:11.980 And as I was interviewing him about what he had seen at the first gathering of Republicans
00:28:18.440 since the attempted assassination of their candidate, Donald Trump, from my lips to God's ears,
00:28:25.360 the next president of the United States.
00:28:28.080 Well, he came across some Democrat protesters.
00:28:31.960 Take a look at this.
00:28:34.520 Okay, Yankee.
00:28:35.420 Do you want to go over?
00:28:36.380 Let's go over.
00:28:37.200 Let's go.
00:28:37.700 Let's go over.
00:28:38.280 Let's go over.
00:28:38.700 Let's go.
00:28:39.880 Let's go over to them.
00:28:42.040 Again, there's only two right now.
00:28:43.880 And yesterday, they were in different spots.
00:28:46.060 They were different ones.
00:28:47.460 But let's see.
00:28:48.640 Let's see if they want to speak.
00:28:52.520 Thank you.
00:28:52.940 Don't make me car sick.
00:28:54.840 Okay.
00:28:55.180 I'm going to Alex Jones your asses.
00:29:01.140 I'm going to Alex Jones your asses.
00:29:03.720 What does that mean?
00:29:05.280 You know where Alex Jones is?
00:29:07.000 Yes.
00:29:07.840 I'm going to Alex Jones your asses.
00:29:11.020 But what does it mean?
00:29:12.020 Can you explain?
00:29:13.100 Okay, I think your audience is smart enough to do that.
00:29:16.860 Okay.
00:29:17.380 I'm going to Alex Jones your asses.
00:29:20.800 And what is...
00:29:21.700 I'm going to Alex Jones your asses.
00:29:24.360 I'm going to Alex Jones your asses.
00:29:27.800 And what is your...
00:29:28.820 I'm going to Alex Jones your asses.
00:29:32.100 I'm going to Alex Jones your asses.
00:29:33.980 Okay.
00:29:35.080 That's all I got.
00:29:36.960 Progressivism is a mental illness.
00:29:38.960 Is she saying that the assassination attempt was a false flag?
00:29:43.840 She said she didn't care.
00:29:45.600 She didn't give a shit about it.
00:29:49.020 I don't remember if she said it was a false flag.
00:29:52.320 Your shirt says false flag.
00:29:54.320 No, no.
00:29:54.960 Yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:29:55.660 She did.
00:29:56.780 Yeah.
00:29:57.140 It does say in her shirt.
00:29:58.660 I forgot.
00:29:59.280 June 13th is a false flag.
00:30:01.420 Yeah, she is saying that.
00:30:03.120 What do you think about the Trump assassination?
00:30:05.420 I'm going to Alex Jones your asses.
00:30:08.960 Okay.
00:30:11.120 This person, no gender, does not want to tell us.
00:30:17.860 Oh, wow.
00:30:20.260 You know, like these people go and do a protest.
00:30:22.980 And a protest is a public expression of your views.
00:30:25.460 And then you ask them to publicly express their views.
00:30:27.520 And they're like, sorry, I can't talk to you right now.
00:30:29.980 Yeah, you know, it's their right to be here.
00:30:32.440 Yeah.
00:30:32.620 I don't want them to leave, but yeah, if you're out here and, you know, like we have thousands of viewers, like tell us what you think, right?
00:30:40.960 You know what, I hope those crazy people never stop because that is a perfect synopsis of who and what they are.
00:30:46.420 That's right.
00:30:46.900 She says she's going to Alex Jones these people.
00:30:50.220 I'm not sure what that means.
00:30:51.660 Is she referring to a multi-gazillion, jillion dollar lawsuit for saying that a shooting was staged?
00:31:05.040 Because I hear a lot of Democrats doing that.
00:31:07.920 But anyway, let's go and see what you people have to say about what she said.
00:31:14.540 Flux Pistol 3608 says they've clearly lost the plot, yet at some point in their brain something says,
00:31:20.780 Oh, I don't want to be held accountable on the internet for my words and actions actually saddens me.
00:31:26.300 Clearly they're finding reality too difficult to handle.
00:31:30.240 Perry Fefchuk 637 says right to free speech, right to free thought, not taking the time to think before speaking, priceless.
00:31:39.920 You know, these people never actually think they're going to be pressed on why they think the way they think or how they come to their worldview.
00:31:52.440 I can clearly articulate why I believe that government should fit in a teacup and why I believe in personal responsibility and I don't believe in the welfare state.
00:32:04.960 Like I can tell you all of those things.
00:32:06.560 I can tell you why I believe in gun rights, why I don't believe in a carbon tax.
00:32:11.240 But if you talk to people on the left, they are just saying slogans, chanting mindlessly.
00:32:17.860 They don't even know why they're saying those things.
00:32:21.980 It's fascinating.
00:32:24.700 Brian Bidiak, 3125, start building or rebuilding insane asylums.
00:32:30.000 Tell them it's free government housing projects.
00:32:33.260 And Joanne Harnack, 195 says, must be something in the water.
00:32:42.840 I believe Alex Jones has a theory about that and making the frogs gay.
00:32:47.300 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.
00:32:49.140 Thank you so much, as always, for tuning in.
00:32:51.260 I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.
00:32:53.900 And as always, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.