Canada’s state broadcaster is obsessed with Kamala Harris
Episode Stats
Words per minute
192.28929
Harmful content
Misogyny
5
sentences flagged
Hate speech
8
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode of Off The Record, we chat about the weather in Alberta, why the CBC should be defunded, and why Kamala Harris should be the next Democratic presidential candidate. Plus, we talk about the fact that the CBC has spent 68 stories in one month on Kamala's campaign.
Transcript
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I was going to chat about the weather here in Alberta and that it's rodeo season,
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and I'm taking my kids to watch some bull riding tomorrow night.
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Well, you know, Chris, it's actually recording right now,
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So I told no one in advance that we'd go easy on you
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as it's the first time you're hosting the show.
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I'm Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
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We're here on True North, and I'm going to, I think I just mentioned it,
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I'm going to be taking my kids to the rodeo tomorrow
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to watch some bull riding here in the beautiful city of Lethbridge.
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So we're gearing up into this moment of the end of summer.
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Sorry, I felt a little cool breeze this morning.
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So yeah, that's what we're heading into this weekend.
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What are you guys up to in your neck of the woods?
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Definitely nothing as exciting as bull riding, that's for sure.
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You know, basement living, you know, it's great.
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Well, I was going to say, maybe Noah this weekend can do some patchwork
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on his basement there and repair what appears to be some holes in the ceiling.
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I'm glad it's not in frame right now, but yeah, there's definitely a couple holes.
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I can see a hole in frame, actually, now that I'm putting my glasses on.
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Well, the ventilation in the basement here sucks.
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Like the, I don't know, the vents don't really work all that well.
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So my dad one day just came downstairs and cut a giant hole in my roof.
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I may be going to Ottawa, actually, tomorrow to do some work, a video project in the works.
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And then I'm going to a friend's wedding on the weekend.
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Are you popping by the CBC by any chance when you head to the Capitol?
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No, I was going to actually try to avoid them as much as I can.
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If something good comes up, I might pop my head in and see what's going on.
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Well, if you go to buy some poutine on Spark Street or something,
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maybe they could come out and cover it breathlessly.
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Because at least that would be Canadian content.
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I wanted to bring this up because it was one of those things where
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I have a lot of Canadian friends and family who are now suddenly talking about
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the current U.S. vice president and what we're all assuming to be the presumptive nominee for
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They're all suddenly talking about Kamala Harris.
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Like way more than I was expecting for like a VP, right?
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Even as far as her interest in American politics goes.
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And then I was seeing on True North that apparently more than 60 stories on Kamala Harris have been
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The CBC's Kamala Mania, as it is headlined, 68 stories on Harris' campaign in just one month.
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The reason why I've got an issue with this, of course, is because we want to defund the CBC
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because the CBC costs taxpayers $1.4 billion per year.
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And every time we tell them, you know what, you guys should really be defunded.
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They clutch their pearls and say, oh, my goodness, who would give out the maple syrup recipes?
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Like, Noah, what went through your mind when you saw that headline?
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Well, I just thought, like, the people who try to justify the CBC's existence don't really have an argument
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that the CBC should be, you know, promoting American content, especially, you know, skewing their coverage
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in order to coverage one presidential candidate over the other.
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I just went on, I just popped on the CBC's website before recording, and I saw that, you know,
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You know, they're talking about Kamala Harris and how to pronounce her name correctly.
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And, you know, they're talking about Michelle Obama's, you know, fantastic speech.
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And then the one story about Trump is a negative story.
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It's basically bashing his campaign for, you know, a mess up or whatever, which is fine.
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You know, if President Trump is making a mistake and Kamala Harris is making a mistake, then go ahead, cover it.
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But if you're only covering Donald Trump's mistakes and not his triumphs,
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and you're only covering Kamala Harris's triumphs and not her, you know, mistakes,
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then you're really, you know, showing that you have a bias.
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And even though the CBC has an American bias, they shouldn't even be covering American politics to begin with.
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You have a lot of other Canadian news outlets who do just as good of a job,
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if not a better job, at covering American politics.
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And you have thousands upon thousands of media organizations in the United States
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that does a good enough job at covering their own country.
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So I think that, in my mind, when the CBC, they're publishing stories about Kamala Harris incessantly,
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I'm like, where's the stories about Justin Trudeau?
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Where's the stories about Jagmeet Singh and Premier Ford and the people who are actually in power in Canada
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and the people that actually matter to Canadians,
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not just the, you know, the Americans who are, you know, doing their own thing, you know, good on them,
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It kind of reminds me of what their, I don't know what their primetime stuff is like lately.
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I know that very few Canadians are watching it,
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but it reminds me back when I was a kid where they used to import American primetime shows
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in a desperate attempt to get people to watch Canadian, the Canadian channel,
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I kind of have some sympathy for that, trying to get some eyeballs.
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But when it comes to actual news coverage, they always say, but who will defend Canada?
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They always bring it up as their founding mandate, which it was in language.
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In fact, CBC Radio was created back in the 30s and 40s in order, ostensibly,
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to thwart the big powerhouse radio stations coming out of places like CBS New York and Chicago.
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And so all of a sudden, Canada was like, oh, we need our own soap operas.
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Then they started covering the war and then we were off to the races.
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Harrison, what did you think about that headline when you saw that Kamala Harris
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is getting more than 60 stories covered in one month on the Canadian broadcaster?
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Well, in contrast, Justin Trudeau was only mentioned 18 times in that same amount of time,
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So Harris gets 68 mentions and Trudeau gets 18.
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And it's pretty obvious what they're trying to do here.
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But I want to show you some of the headlines for the coverage that the CBC is pumping out
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Are Kamala Harris memes of coconut trees and brats summer part of her official campaign?
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Okay, I need to explain that to me like I'm six, Harrison.
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Well, when she famously said that you just fall out of a coconut tree.
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They're trying to make that seem as though that is, you know, that is one of Kamala Harris's
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great examples of her legendary oratory skills.
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We all know Kamala Harris is going to be in the pantheon of great public speakers.
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Falling out of the coconut tree is one of her greatest hits.
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But again, going back to something Noah mentioned, which is the argument that we hear from the
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most loyal defenders of the CBC is that if there is no CBC, well, then there's going
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to be no local news coverage of rural areas in Canada.
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There's going to be no important coverage in French language.
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Who's going to be reporting on the stories, on indigenous stories and stories in the far
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Well, this is a clear example that even that argument carries no weight because, like I
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said at the very beginning, if Justin Trudeau, the prime minister, only gets 18 mentions in
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a month and Harris gets 68, imagine when they imagine how many times they mention the Manitoba
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premier or Danielle Smith or local political leaders that actually matter to Canadians.
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So they're just basically in this in this game of trying to make Kamala Harris out to
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be this this this figure that she is clearly not.
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That's interesting because the numbers back that up, what you were just talking about
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there, like covering indigenous stories, covering local stories.
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So, number one, the ratings, the rating share for CBC primetime is tiny.
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So that means around 97 percent of Canadians are choosing to not watch CBC news for primetime.
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Further, if you want to drill down, like you were mentioning local news, about one percent,
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the last numbers we were able to find because they've started kind of making it a bit murky
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in their annual reports, about one percent of Canadians are tuning in to the CBC supper hour
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Back when I was a kid, the six o'clock news was a big deal.
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Like people sat around and they watched their TV, they watched their six o'clock news.
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As far as the indigenous stuff goes, that's really interesting, too, because, again, always
1.00
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As far as we can tell, CBC is spending more on their executive brass pay than they are on
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I had to go check that three times because I couldn't really believe it, like to use
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a comparison, like I watch APTN reasonably regularly.
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I think they've got 11 indigenous languages that they report in and they get a tiny fraction
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It's really just a one time thing where they have to have like their summer festival day
00:10:06.580
that taxpayers contribute to all the rest of the operations are paid for through their
00:10:12.580
So the CBC trying to use this argument of, oh, well, who will cover indigenous culture?
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It doesn't stand up to scrutiny when you look at the actual numbers.
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With this kind of coverage given to Kamala Harris, we're entering the territory of Harris
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having to give away some poutines to some of these CBC journalists.
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If you recall, that was the gift that Trudeau gave to David Cochran for near sycophantic
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Maybe it'll be a coconut, coconut poutine concoction will be given to the CBC journalists
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for all of their very, very helpful coverage for the Harris campaign.
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They could sprinkle coconut on there, on a beaver tail, along with their, or along with
00:11:05.080
Speaking of numbers, did we want to move on to Mr. Charles Adler being nominated for
00:11:16.540
It's quiet in Canada, unlike the United States.
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So Senate appointments really seem to be breaking news in this country.
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And Charles Adler was appointed by Justin Trudeau to be the next independent senator, a liberal
00:11:31.740
And that surprised some of the, some of the people who knew Charles Adler before 2019, 2018,
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say when he, when he was a conservative, he's now, of course, far more progressive.
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You would even consider him to be, most people would consider him to be on the, pretty much
00:11:47.320
on the far left at this point with what he has been tweeting about, the things that he's
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He has, he's really kind of, well, he's a changed man.
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And he's going to change even more because he's just been appointed to sit in the Senate.
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And there have been some hilarious examples of Charles Adler, well, let's just say not
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Let's show a couple of these examples here for the audience who are watching on YouTube
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PM Trudeau is comfortable at pride events because he's comfortable in his own skin, a
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Why does Pierre Paulyev not attend these events?
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Well, he's worried that the homophobes he panders to will barbecue him.
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You know, maybe it was that tweet that actually gave him the appointment, or maybe it was
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Voted PC for most of my life, provincially and federally, but this is 10,000 miles from
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I would feel ridiculous supporting a Canadian freak show just because it was, it has the
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And for those of you that are not looking at this, there was a picture of Paulyev leaving
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a van with a tiny little Diagelon sticker there, Diagelon symbol.
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And of course that means Pierre Paulyev must be a Diagelon member.
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Well, it's a weird thing with Charles Adler, guys.
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He has this, well, let's just call it a crush on Sean Fraser.
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Canada watching new version of a star is born with Sean Fraser.
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Unlike Pierre Paulyev, he doesn't need image consultants training him to look and speak
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He's now going to be sitting as an independent senator.
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And he was once, believe it or not, a conservative.
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Like, I'd have to really think hard because I was doing hits on his show and booking him
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for my old radio shows back when he was in Winnipeg at CGOB before Sun News Network ever
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And then I worked with him from startup to shutdown at Sun News Network.
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He worked well with everybody as far as I know.
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And then after Sun News Network was shut down, I did his radio show, his national radio show,
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And so I know a lot of my colleagues at the CTV did his show once a week.
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And I think it's, I'm giving all of this context because I think it's important for
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And so that is the way that things were before.
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Needless to say, there's been a remarkable change.
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So much so that even in the way he would describe people like that, like, forget about the partisan,
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Just kind of describing a politician like that, like, that wasn't really his jam.
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Like, he might do that sort of thing maybe for Margaret Thatcher when really pressed and feeling,
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like, nostalgic, but not just your everyday minister.
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And so my takeaway from this as a Taxpayers Federation is that there's so many people who
00:15:05.580
are now upset about this on both I would describe as the left and the right for different reasons.
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I think it highlights the idea that perhaps it's time to go back to a triple E Senate.
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So Preston Manning, former founder of the Reform Party, he wanted a triple E Senate.
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He wanted it to be equal, elected, and effective.
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I'm going to defend the Senate a little tiny bit here, just a smidge when it comes to the
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idea of independent versus liberal versus PC and all that jazz.
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The Senate, in two separate occasions that I can remember in the last four years, did tap
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the brakes on a couple of pieces of legislation that would probably be important to True North
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The one that sticks out in my mind, and I'm going from memory, so please forgive me, is
00:15:59.120
So folks might remember, as far as I can recall, Emergencies Act was rushing through, went through
00:16:05.620
The folks that hit the brakes on that, if I recall correctly, one of them was a Kretchen
1.00
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appointed liberal senator that said, um, are we really sure about this?
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And now, of course, that we have the federal judge ruling, survey says you shouldn't have
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done that and you guys overstepped your bounds and blah, blah, blah.
00:16:22.460
So I can hear the argument for the idea of sober second thought, but man, when you've got
00:16:28.480
$175,000 per year after six years of service, a huge pension, no way to recall people, it
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starts getting really unaccountable really fast.
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And I can see why people want to go back to Triple E.
00:16:41.940
Yeah, I think my biggest problem with this story is the sort of deception of it all.
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I think that when Charles Adler declares himself as a conservative, to everyone who knows what
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he believes nowadays, he's clearly not a conservative.
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I mean, uh, the conservative party's leader, Pierre Polyev, you know, say what you will
00:17:00.840
I have some criticism about him, but he's clearly a conservative.
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If you read, you know, his old essay or whatever.
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Uh, but Charles Adler clearly isn't interested in conservatism, at least not anymore.
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And it's completely fine for your political beliefs to evolve over time.
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You know, my political, if your political beliefs don't evolve over time, you're probably
00:17:20.600
But the problem is, is that if your political beliefs evolve, you should change your label
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For example, Charles Adler is not a conservative.
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He should probably call himself a liberal, uh, or, you know, a centrist or something like
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Not a conservative, clearly not a conservative.
00:17:38.260
So I think not only does that, that bothered me a little bit, but also the fact that he's
00:17:43.260
being appointed to a Senate group, uh, the independents, uh, that are mostly comprised of liberals
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or whether they're appointed by just a Trudeau or appointed by, uh, past liberal, uh, liberal, uh,
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prime ministers, which, uh, which for me, I think is deceptive because, uh, as was mentioned
00:17:59.960
before, uh, these independent senators more, more times than not vote with the government.
00:18:04.860
There are exceptions, uh, and usually there are, these exceptions are come from, uh, liberals,
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uh, in, um, from, you know, the Jean Cartier era, for example, where the liberals were a
00:18:14.880
bit more liberal, not illiberal, uh, like they are now.
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So it just seems like, uh, Justin Trudeau is trying to deceive the Canadian public when
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he calls, uh, these senators independent, uh, they're clearly liberals, even though they
00:18:26.260
don't caucus with the liberals, uh, they clearly have, uh, liberal values.
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I didn't want to say they have a liberal values.
00:18:33.880
Um, so it's, it's a bit deceptive, uh, to call yourself an independent, uh, senator when
00:18:39.780
you vote along with the liberal party all the time.
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It's, it's deceptive to call yourself a conservative, uh, when you're bashing conservatives all the time
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and praising, you know, liberal minister, Sean Frazer.
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Uh, and it's really does a disservice, uh, to trust in Canadian institutions because when,
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you know, uh, Canadians see that these independent centers are not acting independently, but Canadians
00:18:59.760
see that the Senator Charles Adler, who self declares a conservative, isn't, you know, voting
00:19:06.480
It undermines credibility in our institutions and the people that run them.
00:19:10.960
I just wanted to note, I think, I think the jury's still out.
00:19:13.840
Aren't we still out on whether or not this will be confirmed?
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I thought I saw something about this is not yet confirmed, whether or not Mr. Adler will
00:19:21.200
Well, I know that, uh, yeah, the prime minister's office, they sent out a press release saying
00:19:25.940
that Adler and the other Senator, which we should probably get to, um, uh, they, they were,
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uh, basically, uh, confirmed by the Senate committee, uh, that basically deals with appointments
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First nation, the Manitoba first nations leaders actually have criticized the appointment and
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have called on, uh, on the government to rescind Charles Adler's appointment.
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So even, even praising the liberals and praising the left like this has not managed to get him
00:19:55.800
on the side of some of these, uh, first nations chiefs.
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But I do think we're being a little harsh on Charles Adler.
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After all, it's important to recognize that he is a self-proclaimed talk radio legend.
00:20:07.560
This is a famous, uh, famous Charles Adler tweet calling himself a legend, a talk radio
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So, you know, it's important to, to, to make sure we give him, we give him his, his due
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He is a legend amongst us and maybe he will elevate the quality in the Senate and bring
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in more talk radio legend, uh, legendary moments.
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I wish I have that much self-confidence on myself.
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You know, I don't know if you want to call that hubris or, you know, just some other
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devious word in the thesaurus, but, uh, I'm definitely not going to, you're never going
00:20:39.260
That's what that one kind of surprised me actually.
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So did we, I wanted to stress that I think a lot of the pushback apart from people who
00:20:49.360
are political nerds or news nerds, all of us included.
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Um, I think the average public is probably annoyed most about this because of the lack
00:20:58.200
of accountability and the lack, like the lack of, uh, cost effectiveness.
00:21:02.020
I think a lot of people are still struggling right now.
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I always check the MNP, uh, bankruptcy numbers and where they ask people, how close are you
00:21:15.900
50% half of Canadians are within 200 bucks of not being able to make their minimum payments.
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I'm not talking paying off your credit card or your line of credit.
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I mean, making your minimum payments and making rent and just enough to have food half.
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And so then when they see senators willy nilly making 175 grand plus expenses, like they
00:21:38.000
get catered lunches, they get all these really fancy things on parliament Hill.
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And so I think that's also why this is making news apart from him being, uh, I think 30 something
00:21:50.940
So there's so much data, so many records on there.
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When Canadians see like, you know, these senators making, uh, these lavish paychecks, uh, it's
00:22:02.220
not really something that, you know, people can relate to, uh, especially when you're appointing
00:22:06.440
senators that, you know, uh, over their lifetimes, uh, donated to the liberal party, uh, thousands
00:22:12.740
And that's, uh, the case with the, uh, Senate appointee Tracy Mugley, who donated to the
00:22:17.940
liberals over 220 times in her lifetime, 221 times, uh, to be specific between 2006 and
00:22:25.400
2020, uh, she donated about $18,000 over almost $19,000 to the liberal party, whether that's
00:22:34.020
to her, uh, local EDA, whether that's to the liberal party proper or in, uh, various liberal
00:22:40.960
Uh, some of the highest, uh, donations that she gave was, uh, I think over a thousand dollars.
00:22:46.160
She also gave, uh, almost a thousand dollars in non-monetary donations.
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So I guess like she's buying a lot of coffees for her liberal MPs or something like that.
0.76
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Uh, but these are the type of people that are being appointed to the Senate are, and are
00:23:01.080
going to sit as independents, you know, people who are lifelong liberals.
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This, uh, woman actually ran as a liberal candidate in 2015 and 2019, not once, but twice,
00:23:14.160
So I guess, you know, Trudeau had to like, you know, get one of his own in there.
00:23:17.840
Cause, uh, you know, she clearly couldn't do it, uh, on the, with the backing of the
00:23:22.600
Uh, but yeah, I mean, this is the type of, these are the type of people that are being
00:23:26.400
appointed to the Senate, people who have, uh, loads of money to just donate to political
00:23:30.240
parties, uh, and, you know, sitting as independents, even though they're clearly liberal partisans.
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I think that really erodes trust in our institutions, especially the, uh, unelected Senate.
00:23:40.000
And it's been going, this has been the standard operating procedure at the Senate now forever.
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Like it has been full of political party hacks, both blue and red.
00:23:50.320
No, I was just going to say that actually, that when, uh, when, when Justin Trudeau is
00:23:54.320
eventually, uh, ousted as prime minister and the government switches over to the conservative
00:24:00.880
It's going to go to people who have donated the conservative party, who have been party loyalists
00:24:08.960
And you know, it's, uh, it's fun to criticize it now, but it will be topic of conversation
00:24:14.400
for a show on the other side of the debate in a couple of years time when Pierre Pauliev
00:24:18.960
makes an appointment like this, but on the conservative side.
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So it's just going to be what it's going to be.
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And, uh, I think it's fitting to end the, end the show with, uh, with this subject.
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We have our taxpayer, uh, our taxpayer specialist hosting us.
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So this is like the taxpayer story right now in Canada.
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So hopefully the next show will not involve any of my former colleagues or TV hosts, but
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for some reason it's like a blue light special on these folks.
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Um, he then I think went to global for quite a while.
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I kind of tuned out of mainstream media for quite a bit the last few years.
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He is now the Canadian consul general in New York city.
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And so for folks who are listening or like, what is that exactly?
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And we have some of these folks in key positions to be fair around the world and
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New York city, definitely a key city still around the world.
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The problem here is that there's this residence slash office slash like it's a map dot.
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Imagine you're dropping your Google map dot right next to central park.
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Apparently it's been dubbed like billionaires row or something like that in New York city.
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Last I checked is around $9 million for this pad.
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And this is what's really got people's eyebrows raising saying,
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Why are we shelling out $9 million for the residence slash building crash pad for the New York consul
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New York city condo purchase says consul general Tom Clark didn't influence.
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This could all be bureaucrats deciding this sort of thing.
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Um, I would love to be able to privately pick Tom Clark's brain on this, on what he thinks
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And if he said anything, uh, a fun story, which wouldn't embarrass him at all.
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Uh, back when I was at CTV at the bureau, uh, I used to say this dorky thing of everybody should
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I figured let's stop these boring office parties that everybody hates at Christmas time.
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And so we actually, the team of us, Bob Fyfe and Craig Oliver, and everybody went bowling.
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And so I would just love to actually have a beer with him and say, listen,
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Because at the end of the day, $9 million, that is a ton of cash, especially again,
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This is not coming out of some magic bank account that prime minister Trudeau runs.
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And I think that there was a big sticker shock for a lot of Canadians when the news broke,
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of course, $9 million is outrageous, uh, especially for residents.
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Now, the part of this story that doesn't really get told, and I think in order to be fair,
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it should be mentioned is the fact that Canada just listed last week, the old New York City
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residents for the consul general, and they listed it for $13 million.
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So you're thinking that the global affairs will likely be able to pocket the difference.
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Obviously it'll be wasted again, but that is an important part of the story.
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So, so they're, they're, they're selling the $13 million old residents and they, they're
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actually downsizing to a $9 million condominium, believe it or not.
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And the, the story was that there was going to be a two million, it was going to cost $2
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million to renovate the old condo, or they could buy a $9 million condo, sell the old one
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In my opinion, it's actually very important for Canada to be able to project diplomatic strength
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in the most important city, likely in the world, which is New York city, besides maybe
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You actually want the Canadian government to be able to use a residence like this to advance
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And what the conservatives are arguing is that the whole thing is absurd.
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You don't want them to be in an apartment that is falling apart, that is in need of repairs,
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or that you end up or you're in a hotel conducting events.
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The same thing goes with Sussex drive, 24 Sussex drive.
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The way I look at it is the Canadian government for whatever reason has decided that no, they
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don't want to be the ones to put up the fight to try to save 24 Sussex drive because taxpayers,
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it's going to cost the taxpayer too much money.
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But the symbolism of having 24 Sussex drive, the residents of the prime minister being infested
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with mice and rats while the prime minister lives in the back lawn of Rideau Hall at a nice
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home, but it's not really fitting of the office of prime minister is something that I think
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There is a value for projecting influence and strength on the world stage in New York City.
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And I think many of the people arguing against this are those that would say, actually,
00:29:29.200
we shouldn't be spending any money as well on 24 Sussex, because who cares where the prime
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You know, if the government didn't spend $17 million, for example, on Indonesian foreign aid,
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Or maybe we spent a few less billion dollars on Ukraine into the meat grinder.
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We could actually save some more taxpayer money and that would have far more influence
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But I guess the argument will be that we need to be up in arms over the condo.
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Um, although I can see you actually, because I will say like, I loved Tom Clark as anchor.
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I thought he did a great job as an anchor and I can picture you.
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So me, so maybe you want this gig is what you're saying in 20 years time.
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Maybe the only way a journalist can get into a $9 million apartment is to be the consul
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Listen, I don't want Tom Clark living at the YMCA in Manhattan in his track pants.
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But I think there's a happy medium, you know, can't he be living in a nice residence
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upstate to take the train downtown for a lot cheaper and have like a really beautiful office
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Although I will say selling for 13 and buying for nine.
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If that's the actual case, that, that thickens the plot.
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Yeah, I think it's very fitting that I'm in between you guys in the frame.
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Cause I, my opinions probably in between you guys too.
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Like I agree with Harrison on the 24 Sussex point.
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I just think like $9 million for a condo, it's absurd.
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I think like, you know, if you hold meetings in a hotel, that's nice and posh and you know,
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You can rent out a condo for maybe $2.5 million.
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You know, I don't think I'm going to be able to get anywhere close to that in my lifetime.
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Although maybe I, you know, win the lottery or become rich in my career.
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Maybe you become the council general to New York.
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Me and you will compete for that role, Harrison.
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But, you know, when you're renting out a condo with Maccoba stone floors, you know, a powder
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room with jewel onyx finishes, a wet bar with Cristallo gold quartzite, countertops and backsplash,
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a bathroom clad in Italian white Venato marble.
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I mean, you saw my roof like, you know, I don't got no Italian Venato marble up in here, you know?
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So, like, I don't think that I don't think that you need to have like, you know, like to live like me if you're the consul general.
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But I also don't think that you need to be living in the lap of luxury either.
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Did you have to practice pronouncing those things?
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Because I didn't understand half of what you just said.
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24 Sussex actually isn't really a historical building.
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Like it was, and I forget who it was built by, it was like a millwright.
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So it was some fancy, you know, rich dude had the house built.
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My point is, is that it was always kind of slapdash added onto over the years.
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In fact, I remember when Laureen Harper was in there, when Prime Minister Harper was living in 24 Sussex.
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She said that she couldn't get a lot of the windows open because they were painted shut.
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Like it was all sorts of strangeness happening there.
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There's been an aversion to upgrading the thing because the National Capital Commission wastes
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so much money that if you give those guys an inch, they will take 10 kilometers and they will waste money doing it.
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So this is now why we're in this bit of a weird situation where he's on the Rideau grounds.
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Now, I will say, Harrison, Rideau cottage is a pretty fancy building.
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Like, I think it's got 12 bedrooms or something like that. Like he's not living in a shack.
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So I think a better spending of taxpayers money would be to sell the property at 24 Sussex.
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And the area across the street where the Prime Minister is right now, it's pretty secure.
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They've already got fences and gates and everything there.
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Just upgrade that a little bit so that he can have international diplomatic meetings and call it a day.
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I think that might be the smarter way to go for taxpayers.
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Part of my playful side wants to do something fun with like, you know, a Canadian reno show and raise money that way and like turn it into a bingo hall, the way Preston Manning had said.
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I think we should split the difference, sell 24 Sussex, build up Rideau cottage a little bit and just call it an end of the day.
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Yeah, I generally believe that just my perspective is the Canadian government, Global Affairs Canada wastes outrageous amounts of money on foreign aid projects.
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And these often never get criticized for whatever reason.
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Maybe it's politically a sensitive topic to address, but it's a complete waste for us to be spending money.
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Now, I don't believe it's a waste for certain projects in Africa, for example, where I believe it's really needed.
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But Indonesia, 17 million dollars, the amount of money we give to Honduras, for example, it doesn't matter at all to Canada's diplomatic efforts.
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Having a having an important place in the world where all the world leaders meet and they can feel like Canada is a serious player, I think is important.
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And generally, I believe that the residents of the prime minister should be a fitting of the office of the prime minister and the leader of the country.
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So if it is renovating Rideau cottage and saying goodbye to 24 Sussex, fair enough.
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The symbols of the strength of our country and the importance of the government matter far more than the amount of money that we just splash around the world for useless projects, which ends up going into the pockets of leaders, which we believe are enemies of Canada, right?
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I was going to say, you don't even need to do, yeah.
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So let's be concerned about the plight of Canadians and the fact that we can actually spend money on our own people while also making sure that these symbols of the state and the importance of the government are met and not actually be giving it away to people who don't care about our country and are genuinely enemies.
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We still give a million dollars or a bit more than a million dollars to China, for example.
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I mean, it is ridiculous and people want to talk about saving taxpayers money.
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They should be talking about foreign aid far more than they do about nine million dollar condos or traveling expenses.
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I really think that the argument is lost if you're not talking about foreign aid.
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You don't even, like Noah mentioned, even moving past foreign aid, just the absolute waste internationally, like sex toy shows in Germany.
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Did you know we actually spent taxpayers' money in Canada on getting old people to tell their sex stories overseas?
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Like we were contracting out old people sex stories with our money.
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It's just absolutely bizarre, the amount of money.
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Old people sex stories in Canada are like just unique and, you know, just needs to be told to the entire world.
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But now I'm really concerned about where the difference is on this, where the difference is going to go on the sale of the old condominium and those few extra million dollars.
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Folks, if you have any comments, be sure to hit us up in the comment section there.
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You can head on over to True North's website and let us know what you think of the show.
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If you have show ideas, please send them along as well.
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If you want to argue with any of us about spending $9 million on a condo or what color of track pants Tom Clark should wear at the YMCA, please let us know.
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Catch us back here next week for more Off the Record.
00:37:41.220
I'm thinking we should have a segment every time you're on about, you know, dunking on former colleagues, Chris.
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Good. If I were either of those gentlemen, I wouldn't be super mad at me.
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Yeah. So maybe you should text Tom Clark and tell him that you should text Tom Clark and tell him his job's in peril.
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I think Polioff said that he would fire him if he gets in office.
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So you should, like, let him know in advance that, you know, he's not going to be living in that condo for much longer.