John Bolton - February 12, 2026


I Tried Focusing on the Good Today. The Bad Had Other Plans


Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

188.87926

Word count

2,251

Sentence count

197

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Hate speech

3

sentences flagged


Summary

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

Good News: The death toll in the B.C. shooting has dropped by one. Bad News: University of Alberta abandons race-centric hiring and could be challenged in court by the federal government. Good News: A 12-year-old girl is clinging to life in the ICU.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Hi, it's John and welcome to the channel 359 a.m. Thursday, February the 12th. I hope you're
00:00:08.580 having a great start to your Thursday morning and I do have my big blue mug of coffee with
00:00:13.280 me today. Thanks so much for clicking on this video. I woke up this morning thinking, do
00:00:19.020 I want to do another video on the story that has been at the top of the news over the last
00:00:25.640 24 to 36 hours in Canada and really around the world. And that would be the story and
00:00:31.980 that tragic story out of British Columbia. And I don't want to do that. I will touch on
00:00:36.260 that today, but I don't want to focus on it today. So what did I want to talk about this
00:00:42.320 morning? I thought, you know, I want to focus in on some good news stories. Now before you
00:00:46.820 click away, people will, oh my God, he's going to talk about good things. Let's find the bad
00:00:52.460 stuff. That's true. That's what people want to do. The old saying, if it bleeds, it leads
00:00:57.520 is still true today. We tend to go towards the stuff that kind of depresses us, but I
00:01:02.900 want to do good news, bad news today. So what's the good news? Well, first off, talking about
00:01:08.800 the story out of British Columbia, the good news is the death toll has dropped by one.
00:01:13.100 It's now nine instead of 10. So that's good news. The bad news is that there's a young girl,
00:01:17.860 I think she's about 12 years old, who is in the hospital, still clinging to life. All right. She
00:01:23.060 could still pass away. We hope that turns into a good news story. So let's pray for that young
00:01:28.600 girl in British Columbia. Let's move on to something else. We've got this one here. Now this
00:01:33.900 actual story I'm going to use twice today because there's good news and bad news about this story
00:01:38.300 in a couple of different ways. This is good news. University of Alberta to become the first to
00:01:44.020 abandon race centric hiring. School set to return to prior system of hiring based on qualifications.
00:01:52.420 Good news here. Good for the University of Alberta. You see, my side that doesn't agree with diversity,
00:02:01.540 equity and inclusion, DEI, which I like to call division, exclusion and indoctrination. My side is
00:02:08.000 often called racist because we don't want to hire based on race. But in my world, if you exclude
00:02:14.440 somebody from a job based on their race, that's racism. I think you would agree with that. But also 0.75
00:02:20.160 in my world, if you choose somebody for a job based simply on race, that is racism as well. Why? Because
00:02:27.760 in the choosing of that person, you are excluding somebody based on race. That's racism. So the good
00:02:35.580 news is that the University of Alberta to become the first to abandon race centric hiring. The bad
00:02:40.040 news is this. And it says it right here. It's a move that could expose it to federal litigation.
00:02:48.380 So this could be challenged by the federal government because the government of Canada
00:02:51.760 is racist. Let's go all the way down here just to a short line in this story. In Canada,
00:02:57.620 universities risk losing their government funding if they do not observe racial quotas. So the
00:03:03.320 government of Canada thinks you should choose somebody based on the color of their skin. And
00:03:07.220 that is racism. If we go back up here, there's a great paragraph I want to read. And this is Bill
00:03:14.140 Flanagan, president of the University of Alberta in an op-ed in the Edmonton Journal, January, 2025.
00:03:20.960 Quote, for some, the language of EDI, we call it DEI, has become polarizing. Yes, it has. Focusing more on
00:03:28.560 what divides us rather than our shared humanity. Some perceive an ideological bias at odds with
00:03:34.620 merit. And I believe in merit-based hiring. I believe the best person for the job. And that
00:03:41.020 doesn't matter. It doesn't matter who you are or where you come from or the color of your skin or
00:03:45.620 whether you're a man or a woman. Merit-based hiring is the best way to go. So good news with bad news.
00:03:52.780 The federal government may challenge this in court. Let's move on to our second story.
00:03:58.320 For our second good news, bad news story today, I go back to the same article that I just showed you
00:04:03.820 about the University of Alberta. I don't have to explain it again. But this leads us into the next
00:04:08.920 thing. What's the good news here? The good news is I see this as the beginning of the end of woke.
00:04:14.760 Right? There's bad news coming up. This is good news. If it holds up in court because the feds are
00:04:21.060 likely to challenge this. Now, what is woke? I mean, it's hard to define. People say, I don't know
00:04:25.000 what woke is. My best way to define woke is it's the false belief in something. It's convincing
00:04:31.960 yourself of that false belief. It's repeating that false belief all while knowing the thing you believe
00:04:38.260 in is totally insane. Okay? That's the way I define woke. And you know, I look at hiring people
00:04:45.920 based on their race is totally insane. But this has become the norm. So what's the bad news story 0.99
00:04:51.560 here? Well, the bad news is that this continues and woke holds on like grim death. Right? And it's
00:04:57.940 perpetuated by the news media. Now, this is from Small Dead Animals, my favorite website, my homepage
00:05:02.960 on all my browsers for, God, I don't know, 20 years now. Go over and give Kate McMillan and her website
00:05:09.500 and this blog a little bit of love. But it's okay to hate the media is what they posted. I mean,
00:05:14.820 it's clearly a goal they've set for themselves, which links you to this story right here from
00:05:18.700 Juneau News, who did great work when it came to this tragedy in British Columbia yesterday.
00:05:23.200 Left-wing media in denial over trans terrorist mass shooting. Right? And let's just go down and read a
00:05:29.120 little bit out of this. CBC went out of its way not to misgender the mass shooter and check out
00:05:34.580 these headlines from legacy media outlets, pretending the shooter was female. And then
00:05:39.140 they've got this montage of all these different places where they called this person a female or
00:05:44.380 a woman. And that was simply not the case. This is the belief and the repeating of the insane. 1.00
00:05:49.760 And this is what you're going to find in the media. This, this message went out to them years ago,
00:05:54.360 and they all have to repeat it. You don't have a job in media these days, unless you push this
00:06:00.120 agenda. You know, I worked in radio. I've sold this story before. It's been a while,
00:06:03.920 but I worked in media for 35 years. And about the last 10 years, I worked in Calgary media.
00:06:10.460 We used to have to do yearly testing on best business practices for this huge company I worked
00:06:16.460 with. In fact, most of you probably use this company for your cell phone service if you live
00:06:21.240 in Canada. But we used to do this training every year, and we had to answer all these questions
00:06:26.180 regarding best business practices for the company. But that soon turned over about three years before I
00:06:31.760 left the company, maybe five or six years ago, to how to properly use pronouns. And most of it was
00:06:38.060 about this woke crap. So this is holding on, folks. It's going to be hard to completely shake it free.
00:06:44.140 But woke is slowly starting to die. The bad news is it's still hanging in there. Here's the thing,
00:06:48.980 and you might not know this. And this actually happened after I left. But the Canadian government,
00:06:53.380 they basically have said that any federally regulated business has to have feminine hygiene
00:07:02.080 products in men's bathrooms. Now, I don't know. I haven't been in a radio station since that legislation
00:07:08.960 was passed. But I'm assuming that's the case. Let me know if it's different. But I think if you went
00:07:13.640 into a radio station because it's federally regulated, and all federally regulated businesses
00:07:18.720 must do this, you would find tampons and other feminine hygiene products in men's bathrooms. 1.00
00:07:25.540 It's totally insane. Let's move on to number three. Up next, the elbows up people are going to love this.
00:07:33.400 You know, I think if you live in Canada, you probably should love this story. But the elbows up people
00:07:39.120 are going to love this story because this is sticking it to the person they hate most in the world. And that
00:07:45.340 would be Donald Trump. But remember, remember, this is good news and bad news. So what is the good
00:07:52.180 news story we're talking about here? Good news. U.S. House votes against Trump's tariffs on Canada.
00:07:59.800 Six Republicans joined Democrats in resolution to terminate president's fentanyl emergency tariffs.
00:08:06.040 Good news, right? Here's the bad news. Remember this?
00:08:10.580 You mean even if the whole Congress says you should be allowed, the president can still say no?
00:08:15.120 Yes, that's called a veto.
00:08:17.880 Do you remember those? If you're older, you remember Schoolhouse Rock. And I always remembered
00:08:23.720 that one on how a bill becomes law in the United States. And it's funny because I grew up in Sarnia,
00:08:30.560 Ontario, and it's right on the border with Port Huron, Michigan. So I always watched Detroit
00:08:35.480 television. And many of you may have, you know, living on the border, you always had American television
00:08:39.740 coming in. You'd wake up on Saturday morning, you'd tune into the cartoons, and you saw those on there.
00:08:44.320 I knew more about American politics than I knew about Canadian politics because of Schoolhouse
00:08:48.920 Rock. And I know how a bill becomes law and the fact that Trump can probably veto this. I will put
00:08:54.640 a bow on this story for you. U.S. House joins the Senate. So the House of Representatives and the
00:08:59.660 Senate have both done this to end tariffs against Canada. But Trump can veto. Let's move on to our next
00:09:05.820 story. Moving on to our next good news, bad news story. And this is kind of Alberta-centric,
00:09:10.960 but it's rather interesting. It's this story right here. And this is the good news.
00:09:16.660 You're going to say, John, how is this a good news story? Paul shows exodus from separate Alberta
00:09:21.120 would make Quebec flight look minor. Angus Reid poll shows many Albertans who are against separation
00:09:26.120 will leave the province if it happens. How is this good news? Well, here's what he's referring to.
00:09:32.220 This is the Angus Reid poll. This is the graph from the website. 74% would move to another province
00:09:37.840 territory if Alberta left Canada. Why is this good news? Because the way I look at it, it's this way.
00:09:43.720 Alberta would become a conservative utopia because most of the people leaving would be people who
00:09:49.920 would vote for the NDP here, the socialists. And we don't want them here. I'd be glad to see them
00:09:55.260 leave. You know, and I think we'd be beating people off with a stick who want to move to Alberta
00:09:59.820 because this would be the most prosperous place in the country. Unfortunately, there's some bad news.
00:10:04.140 There's this article here from the Calgary Sun. This is Rick Bell. Great article, by the way.
00:10:08.360 Very tongue-in-cheek. Millions fleeing Alberta hysteria over Alberta independence grows. Another
00:10:13.240 poll feeds the fear machine as Alberta separatists are driving some people around the bend. Just a
00:10:18.620 quick little bit of this story for you. Think of it. Half of Albertans leaving the province. Half.
00:10:23.780 That's around 2.5 million people fleeing in independent Alberta, many of them NDP voters. The cities would
00:10:29.840 no doubt be hardest hit since the stay-in-Canada crowd would be bigger in the cities. Imagine 750,000
00:10:36.800 or so souls leaving Calgary. Ballpark number, three-quarters of a million. Where are they going
00:10:41.420 to go? Where are they going to get all the U-Hauls? They're not going to go anywhere. These people can
00:10:46.380 say anything on a poll. Here's the truth of it. Evan Chipyuk, who has spoken at a number of town halls for
00:10:52.400 the Alberta independence movement, has laid this out quite quickly. The question was, what happens the day
00:10:57.340 after Alberta decides to leave? And the answer is nothing. Pretty much everything stays the same.
00:11:03.860 And I think everybody would stay where they are. They'd stay put. Let's move on to our next story.
00:11:08.520 And this time we have to start with the bad first. We'll get to the good in just a moment.
00:11:13.280 The bad thing is that there's not a lot of good. I went looking forward in the news today and most of
00:11:19.300 the stuff you read about is negative. There is some good news for those of us who live in the West.
00:11:24.840 There's this. There's a possibility of leaving and getting a better future for us,
00:11:30.860 our families, and our new country. I'll have this interview for you later on today as I talk
00:11:36.120 with Michael Henshaw, who is one of the leaders of the independence movement in British Columbia.
00:11:44.540 Thanks a lot for watching. If you liked the video, please give it a thumbs up. Subscribe to the channel.
00:11:49.060 Ring the bell for notifications. I'll see you in the next one. Have a real positive day.
00:11:53.060 Thank you.