John Bolton - February 12, 2026


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

Hosted by
Mentioned
We Were Told Not To Politicize This. So Let's Politicize This. The Liberals Will USE Tumbler Ridge - Never let a good CRISIS go to waste

Episode Stats


Length

11 minutes

Words per minute

188.88

Word count

2,251

Sentence count

214

Harmful content

Misogyny

2

sentences flagged

Toxicity

1

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 .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
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. 0.99
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.