John Bolton - May 19, 2025


Canada - Land of MEDIOCRITY - Let me count the ways!


Episode Stats


Length

8 minutes

Words per minute

199.23155

Word count

1,642

Sentence count

167

Harmful content

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Canadians are better than the United States at mediocrity, but do we need to stop accepting it? Or are we better than they are? Happy Victoria Day, everyone! - John

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.040 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel 545 a.m. It is Victoria Day. Happy Victoria Day,
00:00:06.720 the 19th of May. Hope you have the day off today. I've got my big blue mug of coffee
00:00:10.420 and you clicked on this video because the title or the thumbnail for the video says something like
00:00:15.640 Canada is mediocre or stop accepting mediocrity, Canadians, something like that. 1.00
00:00:20.860 Haven't decided yet. That comes after I finish the video.
00:00:25.600 It's weird where I get inspiration for these videos in the morning.
00:00:28.920 I actually thought about getting up and talking about the liberal budget,
00:00:32.400 which isn't going to happen until later in the year.
00:00:34.220 And I thought that's going to be a pretty short video today.
00:00:36.860 And then while I was making coffee for the big blue mug,
00:00:39.400 I clicked on a video from the unacceptable fringe who just passed 100,000 subscribers.
00:00:45.060 So congratulations. And I agree with the guy in pretty much everything,
00:00:47.740 but he said something today I vehemently disagree with because Canada is mediocre.
00:00:53.800 You see, I'm an Albertan. I identify as an Albertan, not as a Canadian.
00:00:58.800 As an Albertan, I do not want to be mediocre anymore, but Canadians accept mediocrity. 0.93
00:01:05.520 And I'm going to prove it to you in just a moment,
00:01:07.140 but this is what the fringe said on his video that I watched this morning.
00:01:10.860 Keep in mind that we're talking about a budgetary deficit that Mark Carney predicted
00:01:16.260 before running for prime minister. It was on his election platform,
00:01:20.860 that there plans to be another $300 billion deficit in the next four years.
00:01:28.080 All of this comes on the surprising loom that, surprise, surprise,
00:01:31.420 Mark Carney doesn't want to have a budget this year.
00:01:34.100 It's no, just let me spend. It's okay. We don't need a budget, right?
00:01:37.120 Because if they were actually to disclose what the budget would be,
00:01:41.240 Canadians, as that article warns, would revolt.
00:01:44.460 Just before I move on, I just wanted to state I normally don't have glitter all over my face.
00:01:49.620 You probably saw it. I watched the first clip back.
00:01:52.060 It was my wife's birthday yesterday, and I had to wrap up a present for her with that paper.
00:01:56.500 And I've got it all over me. I can't get rid of the stuff.
00:01:59.160 So I don't normally put glitter on first thing in the morning.
00:02:02.300 So question, do you accept what the fringe said there regarding Canadians
00:02:08.260 revolting if they saw the budget?
00:02:10.400 I vehemently disagree with that.
00:02:13.620 Here's the article that he's referring to.
00:02:15.620 This is written by Tristan Hopper.
00:02:17.360 You may have seen this. This is written back on March 20th.
00:02:19.960 Prior to the election, over a month before the election,
00:02:22.980 secret RCMP report warns Canadians may revolt once they realize how broke they are.
00:02:27.500 I think a lot of you realize how broke you are, how broke the country is.
00:02:31.440 And you didn't accept the mediocrity when you voted on April the 28th.
00:02:35.680 You voted for the other guy.
00:02:37.380 You didn't accept the mediocrity.
00:02:39.040 You didn't want to perpetuate the mediocrity.
00:02:41.260 You didn't want to normalize the mediocrity.
00:02:43.440 But more Canadians did, and you got more mediocrity from the Liberal Party
00:02:47.000 after 10 years of mediocrity.
00:02:49.520 And I started thinking about other things where Canadians are mediocre, and we accept it. 1.00
00:02:54.940 And I've always said this, since the day I started in the radio business,
00:02:58.740 the first day I ever put a record on a turntable,
00:03:01.440 back in 1986-87, I had to play CanCon.
00:03:04.500 Canadian content, mandated by the government.
00:03:08.220 At the time it was 30%.
00:03:09.460 I don't know if that's changed.
00:03:10.880 It's been a long time since I've been a radio disc jockey.
00:03:14.440 But it was 30% at the time.
00:03:16.420 And CanCon always said this, perpetuates mediocrity.
00:03:20.140 Because you didn't have to be good to be on the radio.
00:03:22.520 You only had to be Canadian. 0.97
00:03:24.440 The cream rose to the top.
00:03:26.060 Shania Twain, Bryan Adams, Tragically Hip, Rush, lots of, guess who, lots of different bands.
00:03:32.360 Were great, they got played all over the world.
00:03:34.420 But a lot of bands could just be mediocre to get on the radio.
00:03:37.820 So they never had to raise the game.
00:03:39.140 It's the same thing with television.
00:03:41.400 Mandated to have certain amount of Canadian content on stations in Canada.
00:03:45.340 You're going to get more of it.
00:03:46.500 I think this was just in yesterday's video.
00:03:48.600 Stephen Gilbo is now in charge of the internet.
00:03:53.240 More Canadian content.
00:03:55.320 Forced down your throat.
00:03:56.780 Not only that, you're probably going to pay more for it.
00:03:59.280 And it's mediocre.
00:04:00.040 There's a reason why you watch American television programs more than Canadian.
00:04:04.180 Because it's better.
00:04:05.460 The United States doesn't accept mediocrity.
00:04:07.440 And Canadians are self-righteous. 1.00
00:04:08.740 We think we're better than the United States.
00:04:10.380 But we're not.
00:04:11.820 Wages?
00:04:12.940 Higher, generally, in the United States.
00:04:14.760 Taxes are lower.
00:04:15.920 Housing prices are lower in the United States.
00:04:17.900 Weather is better in a lot of the United States.
00:04:20.460 You can defend yourself in the United States.
00:04:23.420 You have a right to private property in the United States.
00:04:26.520 But Canadians think we're better.
00:04:27.960 We're like Americans, but we're better.
00:04:29.240 No, I don't believe that.
00:04:30.280 We accept the mediocre.
00:04:32.220 Other places.
00:04:33.260 Gas prices.
00:04:34.060 You accept the fact that gas prices are high here now.
00:04:36.940 I remember when gas prices dropped in Calgary a few years ago, below a dollar a liter.
00:04:41.600 And people said, isn't this great?
00:04:42.920 I said, yeah, don't accept it going back up to $1.20, $1.30.
00:04:45.720 Because this is where it should be.
00:04:47.840 But we accept the mediocrity and normalize it.
00:04:52.040 Immigration is another one. 1.00
00:04:53.060 You're told that we need immigrants in this country.
00:04:55.320 I agree we should have a certain amount of immigrants.
00:04:57.140 But the right ones to come here and help the country don't flood the country.
00:05:00.900 So it drives up prices, drives up housing prices, eliminates your choice for housing prices, rent prices go up.
00:05:07.000 It makes things worse.
00:05:08.020 But you accept it.
00:05:10.060 It's a mediocre way of doing things.
00:05:12.160 And that's what the liberals have done to you.
00:05:13.940 Healthcare is a big one.
00:05:15.840 Our healthcare is so much better than the United States.
00:05:17.980 Well, is it?
00:05:19.500 We don't have to pay for it.
00:05:20.700 No, you pay dearly for your healthcare.
00:05:23.180 If you were able to buy your own healthcare plan, you could get something that was tailor-made for you.
00:05:27.620 Best healthcare I ever had in Canada was in Ottawa.
00:05:30.440 It was a private clinic.
00:05:31.720 Far superior to the care I got when I went to the hospital.
00:05:36.140 I mentioned just a week ago, had to go to the emergency room with my wife.
00:05:39.940 My wife has had cancer.
00:05:41.060 We were concerned.
00:05:42.440 After two hours of waiting in an emergency room, they came out and told us there was a 10-hour wait.
00:05:46.480 There were people sitting there that looked like they were having heart attacks.
00:05:49.220 They couldn't get in to see a doctor because there were so many people stacked up in the emergency room.
00:05:55.080 Your healthcare is not free.
00:05:56.400 It's very expensive.
00:05:58.060 We should be given some choice here.
00:06:00.040 Food prices.
00:06:01.380 Food prices are going up, folks.
00:06:03.280 I think the liberals are going to actually enjoy the food prices going up.
00:06:06.360 They don't seem to be thinking too much about doing anything about it.
00:06:09.680 Mark Carney is in Rome hanging out with the Pope with a whole bunch of people on your tax dollars.
00:06:15.160 You can't afford to buy food and they're going up again.
00:06:17.660 But they're going to be happy when the prices go up because they'll probably start coming down again
00:06:21.340 and you're going to have to be grateful to Mark Carney and the liberals for bringing the food prices down
00:06:25.900 to where they are right now, which is unacceptable, which is mediocre.
00:06:30.040 But that's what you do as a Canadian.
00:06:32.560 Carbon pricing.
00:06:33.900 Carbon taxes.
00:06:35.600 Mark Carney.
00:06:36.700 Oh, look what I did.
00:06:37.900 I got rid of the carbon tax.
00:06:39.300 After years of accepting the carbon tax, of accepting mediocrity, of accepting the word of the Liberal Party
00:06:46.920 that you were doing something for the environment, they killed the tax.
00:06:50.140 And you're supposed to be grateful to the Liberal Party and Mark Carney for getting rid of it
00:06:55.340 after causing so much strife and costing you so much money over the years.
00:06:59.540 Paulie have never took credit for that.
00:07:01.120 He should have axed the tax.
00:07:03.980 Budget.
00:07:05.100 A couple of years ago, didn't have a budget for, I don't know, was it a year and a half during COVID?
00:07:09.200 They just used that as an excuse.
00:07:11.460 You're now accepting the mediocre.
00:07:12.900 You should have had a budget right now.
00:07:15.020 Haven't had one since last April.
00:07:16.800 You're going to wait until the end of the year.
00:07:18.400 But you're accepting the mediocre from the Liberal Party.
00:07:21.320 The Liberal Party, as well, is on my list.
00:07:23.640 This is a mediocre party.
00:07:25.680 Ten years of mediocrity.
00:07:27.760 You, if you voted for them, accepted this.
00:07:30.100 Canada is a mediocre country.
00:07:34.360 Accepting it.
00:07:35.640 Perpetuating it.
00:07:37.040 Normalizing it.
00:07:38.420 And the budget is just the latest thing that makes me feel that way.
00:07:42.540 And there's probably a lot more.
00:07:44.340 Let me know what you think.
00:07:46.460 I'd love to hear in the comments.
00:07:48.420 I don't always check all the comments.
00:07:50.280 I apologize for that.
00:07:52.280 And I also, before I move on, I'd like to thank you if you gave me a super chat or whatever.
00:07:58.820 Some people have sent me a few bucks here and there.
00:08:00.960 I appreciate that.
00:08:01.740 It's not something you have to do, but I do appreciate it.
00:08:05.000 So thank you very much for that.
00:08:06.620 Let me know what you think in the comments.
00:08:08.460 If you like the video, please give me a thumbs up.
00:08:10.320 Subscribe to the channel.
00:08:11.340 Ring the bell for notifications.
00:08:12.540 And I'll see you in the next one.