00:00:00.000Welcome to the Candice Malcolm Show for July 28th. It is Monday here in Canada. My name is
00:00:09.440Chris Sims. I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. I am guest hosting
00:00:13.780for Candice today. Thank you so much for making us a part of your very busy day. We've got kind
00:00:19.600of a doozy happening this week in Canada. Something blew up over the weekend. I just
00:00:24.940wanted to touch on it briefly because it speaks to things like freedom of expression and freedom
00:00:29.980of assembly. And Juneau News and True North are going to be covering it very closely as the week
00:00:35.720rolls on. So before I get to my colleague Franco Terrazzano stationed in Ottawa talking about the
00:00:41.520electric vehicle forcification and the ban on gasoline and diesel powered vehicles, I wanted
00:00:48.740to touch on this briefly. So there is an American Christian singer person. His name is Sean. I believe
00:00:56.580the last name is Foyt. I can't pronounce it properly. So forgive me for wrecking it there.
00:01:03.240All that is to say, I think it's safe to say that the vast majority of Canadians had no idea who this
00:01:09.500person was before a huge fuss was kicked up. Largely over the weekend is when it blew up.
00:01:16.160What gets me from a taxpayer's angle is a couple of things. One, we've got the government funded media,
00:01:22.840the state broadcaster, apparently following this performer around Eastern Canada, kind of tailing
00:01:29.500him. I will remind people that the CBC is getting $1.4 billion from taxpayers this year. And also,
00:01:38.580no matter what political ideology you come from, journalists shouldn't be paid by the government,
00:01:44.580period. So there's an expense there. But from a freedom of assembly and free expression angle,
00:01:51.000which is essential. Like we couldn't do what we are doing here. Like we couldn't do the Juno News
00:01:56.920thing. We couldn't do the True North thing. We couldn't be taxpayers federation fighters that,
00:02:01.980you know, embarrass politicians and, you know, say that they're pigs at the trough. If we didn't have
00:02:06.740free expression in this country. If we don't have that, we can't fight for things like lower taxes
00:02:12.640and less waste and more accountable government. Like period. It stops there. So I would just try
00:02:19.600to, as former US President Ronald Reagan used to like to say, reach across the aisle and remind some
00:02:26.920folks who are up in arms and trying to ban this person from, you know, singing at churches and stuff
00:02:32.800and holding concerts. Imagine if the shoe were on the other foot. Like, would you want local city
00:02:39.800governments trying to ban Greta Thunberg from speaking? I believe Greta Thunberg had a huge
00:02:47.280rally where she spoke right on the Edmonton legislature grounds. And if people want to show
00:02:52.980up and listen to her speak and rail about anti-oil and gas all day, they have the right to do that.
00:03:00.560Like, that should just be an obvious thing for Canadians to go to be able to listen to.
00:03:04.840You don't have to agree with it, which is the entire purpose of freedom of expression.
00:03:08.720You wouldn't need it written down in a big old charter if people just agreed with what everybody
00:03:13.960else was saying all the time. And so I did want to touch on this basically as a programming note
00:03:18.440for Juneau and True North going forward this week. Also, I will mention, we spoke with Christine
00:03:23.880Van Gein last week, the Canadian Constitution Foundation. And I think that they are kicking the
00:03:29.920tires on this one pretty hard too. They're the constitutional lawyers, smarty pants people.
00:03:34.500So definitely go follow their work on this as well. So stay tuned for that when it comes to
00:03:39.740things, basic things like freedom of expression and freedom of assembly. Speaking of freedom,
00:03:44.880there's something that is coming down the rail here really fast and hard on Canadians. And we really
00:03:50.120wanted to highlight it. Okay. And that is the looming ban on the sale of normal gasoline and diesel
00:03:58.580powered vehicles. A lot of folks think this is happening, you know, in a galaxy far, far away.
00:04:04.120In a future time. That's not true. Okay. This doesn't just start happening in 10 years. It starts
00:04:10.300happening in five months. Okay. The restrictions start kicking in in five months, meaning that if
00:04:17.180you are a car dealership, okay, imagine them in your hometown and your cities, how important they
00:04:22.640are, especially for the local economy. If you're a car dealership, 20% of your new vehicle sales,
00:04:30.000according to the government will have to be battery powered vehicles. Hybrids don't count for folks
00:04:37.560who are like, Oh, I love my, my gas and, you know, battery powered hybrid. They don't get credit for
00:04:43.640those. So 20% of their new vehicle sales going off the lot, starting in five months are going to have
00:04:51.040to be wholly electric. This is going to really throw a spanner in the works when it comes to our auto
00:04:57.220industry, meaning it's going to screw up how much supply we actually have of gas and diesel powered
00:05:03.440vehicles. And it's going to make all of these battery powered vehicles. If nobody's buying them
00:05:08.460pile up at these car dealerships, then these car sellers have to get entangled with this crazy
00:05:16.140complicated federal credit program with the government where they can like earn points for
00:05:22.800however many vehicles they sell and then get back credit if they don't sell them. Like it just
00:05:27.740reeks of a boondoggle. Okay. Like the federal government blew billions of dollars, billions with
00:05:35.240a B setting up their own payroll software program, you know, to issue checks, to pay for their own
00:05:42.900employees. They couldn't figure that out properly without blowing billions of dollars. Can you imagine
00:05:49.400how they're going to spend your money trying to set up this complicated crazy credit system while
00:05:55.480telling you what kind of vehicle you can and cannot drive here in this country? Think about if you own
00:06:01.620a vehicle, how much you depend on it, what it provides for you. As somebody who, you know, worked in the
00:06:08.080industry in radio for a long time, right? Going super, you're up from, you're up in the dark, right? You're
00:06:14.140leaving work at the dark, you're working strange hours, you're going out into the boonies to cover
00:06:18.980things. Like the idea of not having my own personal, safe, warm, walking vehicle that can get
00:06:25.980me out of places and into places. I can't even imagine trying to live my life and actually do my
00:06:31.260work without my vehicle. So your vehicle might be that important to you too. Imagine now the government
00:06:37.360deciding to say, you know what, we've decided what kind of vehicle that can be. That's nuts. Number one.
00:06:43.220Number two, we don't have the money for this. Like we do not have the cash for this as a, as a
00:06:49.020government, both federally and provincially. So very quick math. If we, if Santa Claus came along
00:06:56.520and magically changed everybody's personal vehicles that they already own, like our private fleet,
00:07:01.940as they call it here in Canada, poof, they're all electric cars. We would need 14 huge new can-do
00:07:10.180type reactors. Like those big ones that you see in like, you know, Darlington and Pickering and stuff
00:07:15.860in Ontario. We'd need 14 of them. Those things cost around $13 billion each. And they take more than
00:07:25.660a decade to build. Each. So like the scale of this is off the charts. The federal government itself
00:07:33.980commissioned a report and shows that this could cost close to $300 billion. So this is crazy from a
00:07:44.040small government freedom to choose what kind of vehicle you want to drive and buy angle. And also
00:07:50.000we do not have the energy or the money for this. So how are they actually going to make this work?
00:07:57.580Let's find out. Joining me now is Franco Terrazzano. He is the federal director for the Canadian Taxpayers
00:08:04.440Federation. Also a very good friend of mine. He is stationed in Mordor, also known as Ottawa. Franco,
00:08:10.620we were just talking about, you know, government getting huge and bossy and up in your grill about
00:08:16.320pretty much everything here in this country lately. And one of the big ones that really stuck out to,
00:08:21.260I think all of us over the last couple of years was this looming ban on the sale of what I would call
00:08:27.140normal gasoline and diesel powered vehicles, new ones off the lot. Now for some folks are like,
00:08:32.660oh, that's only happening in 10 years or so. Or that was a Trudeau thing. Like, no, no, no, no,
00:08:37.800no. You know, these restrictions are kicking in very soon. They're going to start tightening the
00:08:41.960belt on everybody. Also, as far as we can tell, Carney's still going full steam ahead with Trudeau's
00:08:47.940crazy plan to ban the sale of gas and diesel powered vehicles and force people to purchase battery
00:08:53.680powered vehicles instead. Where do we stand on this? Like what kind of money are we spending
00:08:59.320federally? I wanted to take on Ontario Premier Doug Ford in a minute here, but just give us a bit of
00:09:04.680a national overview as far as this is concerned so far. Well, no, it looks like the government is
00:09:09.700still going forward with its plans to ban new gas and diesel vehicles by 2035. Right. But like
00:09:15.520actually the mandate, these bands is really starting next year where, what is it? 20% of the new
00:09:20.900vehicles sold have to be electric. And then you'll see tightening restrictions over the years until
00:09:25.9202035, where it's just a ban on new gas and diesel vehicles. Right. And like, look, the federal
00:09:31.300government in Ottawa does a whole bunch of crazy things. This might be the most ridiculous thing
00:09:36.480that they've hatched up. I mean, this is absolutely bonkers. Okay. Like the costs of this are going to
00:09:42.340be outrageous. Like number one, where does the government, where do these politicians get off
00:09:46.780telling you what type of car that you can drive? Okay. Number one, number two, if you're looking
00:09:51.480at the dollars and cents, beep, boop, beep, boop, this is nuts. Okay. Like one report showed that
00:09:56.860Canada's electric vehicle transition could cost up to $300 billion. So you're looking at tens of
00:10:04.340billions, if not hundreds of billions of dollars cost. And like, where are we going to get the,
00:10:08.880the electricity, the power requirements for this? Well, look, I think every Canadian right now,
00:10:13.880if you set aside the personal freedom issue, which is just an absolutely huge issue,
00:10:17.620you have to be asking yourself, like how much is your tax and power bill going to go up to pay for
00:10:23.500all the subsidies, infrastructure, transmission lines, charging stations for this absolute boondoggle?
00:10:30.120Yeah, it's a huge thing. And that report that Franco just mentioned, guys, this was not from some
00:10:34.780kind of far flung out there group. It was commissioned by the federal government. Like it is on the federal
00:10:41.560government's website. I think it's natural resources. I think they've also mirrored it
00:10:45.740over a transport Canada where they're estimating it's in the hundreds of billions of dollars with
00:10:50.680the B. And the reason for that is largely what Franco just pointed out. It's where are we getting
00:10:56.020the juice from? Where are we going to build all these transmission stations? Like picture all the
00:11:01.180different gas stations you see, like in your own hometown. Imagine all of those having to become
00:11:07.000like plug-in stations. Like we do not have the cash for this. And I need to keep pointing this out.
00:11:13.760We have un-money. It's not as if we're, you know, it's not as if we're Norway and we're rolling in
00:11:18.960it. We've got this huge heritage fund backing us up where we can choose to do what kind of vision
00:11:23.860quest we want to do with electric vehicles. We don't have the cash for this at the federal level,
00:11:28.840do we? No, the government is broke, right? I mean, look, interest charges on the federal debt alone
00:11:35.580are costing taxpayers more than a billion dollars every week. Well, what's a billion dollars, right?
00:11:41.340That's a brand new hospital that is not getting built every single week because the government is
00:11:46.320so broke and so in debt and all that money is going to interest charges, right? Think about it this
00:11:50.560way. All right. Think about this every time you're at the cashier, right? Waiting to check out.
00:11:55.420Well, every dollar you paid in federal sales tax last year went to pay interest charges on the debt.
00:12:01.060So the government is absolutely broke. I mean, think about the billions of dollars that the
00:12:05.540government is going to put taxpayers on the hook for, for the subsidies, for all the new
00:12:09.540infrastructure, for all the new transmission lines, right? I mean, look, the government has
00:12:13.940already put taxpayers on the hook for about $30 billion in corporate welfare to multinational
00:12:19.940corporations like Honda, Volkswagen, Salantis, and Northvolt so they can build EV battery factories.
00:12:25.860And that's just the federal government, right? Let alone the Ontario government, some of the other
00:12:29.340provincial governments who are getting in to the corporate welfare game. And, you know,
00:12:33.440we mentioned that natural resource Canada report, where the total cost of this could be up to $300
00:12:38.880billion. Like, look at, think about the electricity or the power requirements for this, Chris.
00:12:44.800We had an op-ed in the Toronto sun about this a little while ago, where we talk about,
00:12:48.940you know, Canada would need what? 14 large nuclear reactors to power all those electric vehicles.
00:12:54.500Like, the only silver lining from this absolutely crazy idea, this ban, the only silver lining
00:13:01.220is that it's so crazy, it might not even be possible, right? It's just so out there.
00:13:06.300Yeah, it's kind of like, let's go live on Mars in a year. It's like, okay, that sounds fun. Maybe just
00:13:11.880don't, maybe sit down, as my kids like to say, maybe sit down. Speaking of nuclear reactors,
00:13:17.920the big can-do nuclear reactors, which is what we would need 14 of, just for the private vehicle
00:13:24.860fleet that is owned in Canada right now. That's not touching trucking. That's not touching commercial
00:13:29.900transportation needs, okay? 14 big can-do reactors. Where are those located? Right where you're sitting
00:13:35.880right now, or a little south of you, in Ontario. So, I wanted to flag this from a provincial perspective,
00:13:41.900because, man, Ontario Premier Doug Ford does not know which way he's going half the time. Like, he's,
00:13:48.960I wanted to play this clip, because I don't understand it. He's talking about getting rid of the mandate now,
00:13:55.000I guess, but still spending taxpayers' money on corporate welfare, even though there isn't a demand for it,
00:14:00.980or something. He reminds me of the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz, where he's pointing both directions.
00:14:05.940Let's listen to this most recent clip from Ford.
00:14:07.940The regulations being pointed out is the EV mandate. What does today's announcement,
00:14:14.560how does that affect your past enthusiasm to develop battery plants in Ontario, as well
00:14:20.120as have EVs manufactured in Ontario? Well, I always believe I'm a big proponent of the market dictates.
00:14:28.180The market will dictate, not governments will dictate. We have to get rid of these mandates.
00:14:33.760The companies won't be able to meet their targets. And let's continue investing. I'm confident
00:14:40.180that eventually, the EV sector, per se, will continue growing. But right now, the people are going to decide.
00:14:51.960But let's not slow down on building the battery plants and any other EV plants. But who knows us the best,
00:14:59.020but the auto sector? And they'll determine that. But we're going to continue investing in the market itself.
00:15:05.180Okay, so my brain hurts. Could you please explain what does he mean by investing? Like when government says invest, do they just mean spend?
00:15:16.340No, they mean, yeah, they mean take your money and give it out in corporate welfare, right?
00:15:21.120They mean, take your tax dollars that you work so hard for, right? And then give that money to multinational corporations.
00:15:27.600I mean, we saw that. I talked about, you know, the tens of billions of dollars that the federal government has put taxpayers on the hook for.
00:15:33.660Well, you know, Ford, Ontario Premier Ford, you know, was clapping along, all too happy to also give Ontario taxpayers money
00:15:40.660to some of these multinational corporations for battery factories. So, like, what is Ford talking about?
00:15:46.320You know, at one point, he also says, let the market decide. Well, I mean, his own government has been handing out corporate welfare
00:15:52.640to these multinational corporations. So, you know, why is Ford running around trying to play investment banker
00:15:58.600with taxpayers' money? Look, all this corporate welfare gets me so riled up because it's ordinary Canadians,
00:16:05.360ordinary Ontarians who work so hard and the government is taking their money, turning it around and giving it to handpicked corporations.
00:16:13.340And like, think of the small businesses, right, who are paying massive taxes that now they're funding with their own tax dollars,
00:16:19.600potentially their competitors in the marketplace. Like, look, these politicians at Queen's Park or at Parliament Hill,
00:16:27.580they couldn't balance the budget of a lemonade stand, okay? If these people were such good investment bankers,
00:16:33.820they wouldn't be politicians or bureaucrats. They would be spending their own money in the marketplace.
00:16:39.100Like, corporate welfare is such a bad deal for ordinary Canadians who are forced to pick up this tab.
00:16:44.400So, if we could be as charitable as possible, I guess it's good that Ford is, you know, speaking out
00:16:50.480against the government's ban on the sale of new gas and diesel vehicles. But like, come on,
00:16:55.700he's part of the problem when we're talking about all this massive and costly corporate welfare.
00:17:00.160Like, I don't have my master's in economics or anything, but isn't it kind of a contradiction in terms
00:17:06.240for him to say, let the market decide. And then in the next breath, let's keep piling in more corporate welfare.
00:17:12.040Isn't that the opposite of letting the market decide? Isn't that putting your big government thumb on the scale?
00:17:17.940Oh, of course it's the opposite. It's the exact opposite, right? Like, look, I know, Chris, me and you,
00:17:22.820like, we're all about capitalism, right? Where it's entrepreneurs who have their skin in the game
00:17:28.360and invest their own money to hopefully get a profit or suffer the losses, right? That's what the free market is.
00:17:35.520The free market is not a bunch of politicians and bureaucrats who rely or who live off the
00:17:40.800taxpayer, then take taxpayers' money and give it to a couple hand-picked corporations. Like, come on.
00:17:47.520Yeah, that is a total mess. It is so gross. I really hope that he's able to kind of formulate
00:17:52.980and focus his thoughts and have it follow that, yes, that's good that you're now against forcing
00:17:58.220people to buy a certain type of vehicle and that you're going to stand up to Ottawa and tell Carney,
00:18:02.420no. That's great. Mention that the next time you're at the cottage and you're having a fireside
00:18:06.740chat as he described it in the next breath. That's fine. But also you need to cancel the
00:18:11.300corporate welfare because at the end of the day, the fact that the Americans who are an enormous
00:18:17.240market, right, like we have an integrated auto market for anyone who's paid any attention
00:18:21.900to cross-border trade in the last 50 years, we have an integrated auto market. If their production
00:18:28.280and demand has now shifted away from a mandate for battery-powered vehicles, the Biden administration
00:18:34.360had a very similar sort of mandate that the Trudeau administration had. They gone. Trump is the
00:18:40.540president now and he cancelled that. The fact that we're still going to pretend that we can limp this
00:18:46.120along in the Canada's size of a population and market for our auto industry, like it just makes my
00:18:52.260taxpayer wallet like cringe. Speaking of taxes, I wanted to shift gears here. Sorry, I got full of
00:19:01.260mom puns this morning. I wanted to shift gears here to the biggest bite that's taken out of our wallet
00:19:06.520and every year the good folks over at the Fraser Institute do a big calculation where they figure out
00:19:12.720how much we're paying in taxes, fees, levies, and all the other euphemisms that politicians at the
00:19:17.580trophies for taxes. What's the bite this year? How much of our income is being sucked up in taxes?
00:19:25.200Oh, it's more than 42%. It's absolutely disgusting that the average family is paying almost half of
00:19:32.660their income to the tax man, all levels of government. Okay. So think about it this way,
00:19:37.200folks, right? Like take half your paycheck, rip it in half because that half is the tax man.
00:19:42.740And like, look, like the biggest cost for your family, it's not food, it's not clothing, it's not
00:19:48.380housing, it's taxes, right? So taxes are taken away about 42% of the average family's budget.
00:19:55.060Meanwhile, an average family is spending 30, what, 36% of their income on food, housing, and clothing.
00:20:01.940So think about it one more way. You're paying more of your money in taxes, or the government is taking
00:20:07.700more of your money in taxes than what you're spending on food, housing, and clothing combined.
00:20:15.500Combined. So Canadians are being taxed to death, right? You have federal income taxes,
00:20:20.360provincial income taxes, federal sales taxes, provincial sales taxes, federal gas taxes,
00:20:25.360provincial gas taxes, carbon taxes, payroll taxes, federal business taxes, provincial business taxes,
00:20:30.840capital gains taxes. And if all that drives you to drink, well, too bad because you're paying alcohol
00:20:36.280taxes to both levels of government as well. And a whole bunch of crazy hidden fees all amongst that,
00:20:41.340which is what the Fraser Institute calculates, and they do a great job. Pull up, Sean, pull that graphic
00:20:46.400back up, because that is just astonishing. Here we go. Average Canadian family pays 42% of its income
00:20:52.520to taxes, more than the necessities of life. And you see there on the green side there, 11% food,
00:20:59.0602% clothing, 22% housing. What blows my mind, and we've been looking at this calculation for a few years
00:21:06.200now, is that despite the insanely high cost of housing for many people, that the average is
00:21:13.080still falling onto the side of taxes, being more. And these same politicians are the ones who haven't
00:21:20.120gotten the message that, hey, taxpayers are tapped out. Like, I can't remember the last time that I saw
00:21:26.780a major urban mayor, for example, in Calgary or Edmonton or something here in Alberta saying,
00:21:31.200you know what, I don't want these pay raises, I'm going to cut my own pay in half, or I think that it should
00:21:37.260be, you know, small business owners and retired teachers and police officers who are doing a stipend in
00:21:42.640order to come here to city council. No, no, they just keep on adding more and more layers of government.
00:21:48.440They're fattening their comm staff layer so they don't have to actually ask, answer questions to the media
00:21:53.020and to citizens. And they're jacking up their own pay. That's just at the city level. And by the way,
00:21:58.620they're trying to save the world. I will point that out. They're getting up in everybody's business
00:22:02.260instead of fixing potholes and keeping the streets clean and safe. They're deciding, you know, who
00:22:07.460can't hold a concert, for example, in their city. Like they're deciding to get like big globalists.
00:22:13.160And we're all paying the tab for it. This is where it really gets me, is that if somebody wants to go
00:22:18.520on kind of what I said, an ideological vision quest, I don't care whatever they want to do, but they're
00:22:23.640making taxpayers pay for it all along the way. And I think it's part of the growing size of
00:22:29.140government and mission creep that is causing that number to still stay at 42% for various levels of
00:22:35.080government. Well, Hey, we were piling on a Ford there with his corporate welfare. So let's just
00:22:39.900continue. I mean, Ford and the provincial politicians in Ontario are taking a massive raise,
00:22:45.280right? And they just had an election. And guess what? I don't remember hearing a single time during
00:22:50.580that Ontario election for talking about giving himself a massive pay raise or those other
00:22:55.180provincial politicians, right? Like I live in Ontario. I don't remember knocks on the door
00:22:59.300saying, Hey, vote for me. I'm going to take more of your money and stuff it into my own pocket.
00:23:03.520I don't remember having that conversation even once during the Ontario election. Or how about the
00:23:08.040federal politicians, right? What April one, they give themselves a raise every single year. They just
00:23:13.080took six pay raises since the beginning of 2020, all members of parliament, right? Six pay raises since the
00:23:19.500beginning of 2020 gross. You know what else is gross? The massive tax burden paying for all this
00:23:24.940government waste, like the average tax bill. I mentioned 42% now. Well, that has grown more than
00:23:31.9802,700% since 1961. Okay. During that time, inflation went up by a little over 900%. So this massive tax bill
00:23:43.480is growing out of control. And like, what are you getting for this massive growth in government?
00:23:48.180Here's another stat I like to throw out. Okay. The federal bureaucracy, the cost of the federal
00:23:53.560bureaucracy has gone up more than 70% in the last decade. Are you getting anywhere close to 70%
00:24:01.740better services from the federal bureaucracy? Well, like if you're not on the taxpayer payroll,
00:24:07.700I bet the answer to that question is a big fat. No. Yeah. Sorry. I'm going to start getting upset
00:24:14.600about this. I just read about an, uh, an article about a young man who died waiting in an emergency
00:24:19.560room. He waited more than eight hours, perfectly fit, healthy young man. The family is suing the
00:24:25.880city. I believe they're suing the, rather they're suing the hospital. I think they're going to sue
00:24:31.100the province as well. Like it's one of those things where exactly to your point, the way you ask yourself,
00:24:36.480think about all the services and they use that term loosely that you get from government. So yeah,
00:24:41.980people should do that. Imagine for a second, do a thought process. Imagine you're on salary and you
00:24:47.660get paid like, you know, the average person does every two weeks and it arrives in your bank account.
00:24:52.120Poof. Imagine that amount of money being double, almost double. What kind of things could you do with
00:24:59.640that cash? Could you afford better food? Could you save up for a house? Could you pay off that credit
00:25:04.680card that's haunting you? Could you buy a vehicle? Like there's so many things you could do to better
00:25:09.620your life and your lives of those around you, if you had more of your own money, but the government
00:25:15.860takes almost half of it. Now, extra part of the thought process. Think of the last time you were
00:25:21.800waiting in the emergency room. Think of the last time that, you know, you were trying to find a decent
00:25:26.300place to park where you weren't worried about your card and getting smashed and grabbed. Think about
00:25:30.140having to stand in line at the passport office. Are you getting awesome, 70% better gold-plated
00:25:35.560services from various levels of government? Probably not. So this is why people need to stand
00:25:41.440up and be heard. Franco, anything that you think people should really zero in on when it comes to
00:25:46.820advocacy and standing up for themselves? Like this is what we specialize in is encouraging people to push
00:25:52.540back on their various levels of government to say, hey, I don't like spending half my paycheck to
00:25:57.580various levels of you guys. And I expect better services for this and quit wasting my money. And
00:26:02.680by the way, quit telling me what kind of car I need to buy and drive. What should they do?
00:26:07.320Well, I mean, always, you know, democracy is a participation sport, right? So, you know,
00:26:12.620you might say, oh, I don't care about politics, but guess what? Those politicians and bureaucrats sure
00:26:16.820do care about your wallet and your money. So you have to, you have to fight back. You have to stay in the
00:26:21.440game. Look, one thing that I would say to the audience here is like, there's going to be a real big
00:26:25.460fight with the federal government union bosses, right? You hear Carney talk about saving money.
00:26:30.780Who knows if that's actually going to happen, right? But you already have the government union
00:26:34.420bosses in Ottawa, lighting their hair on fire, pretending to be chicken little, yelling,
00:26:38.340the sky will fall if the government finally saves some money. But guess what, folks? Like they're
00:26:43.460supposed to be public servants, but like who is really serving who, right? Who's really serving who
00:26:48.460these days? Because, you know, the federal government added what? 99,000 extra government
00:26:53.220bureaucrats to the taxpayer payroll in the last decade. Hey, newsflash folks, the government is
00:26:59.880not supposed to be a white collar welfare scheme. Okay. So we need cuts and we need everyone to be
00:27:05.580pushing back against those greedy government union bosses and being like, no, ordinary Canadians are
00:27:11.280demanding the federal government to finally cut the fat. I might just start calling the Capitol where you
00:27:17.300live that white collar welfare scheme. That's really has a ring to it. Franco Terrazzano, federal
00:27:24.080director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, doing God's work there stationed in Ottawa. Thank you so
00:27:29.060much. Hey, thanks, Chris. So Franco is absolutely right there. Whether it comes to being able to assemble
00:27:37.100or the freedom of expression or telling the government to quit taking half of your paycheck,
00:27:43.040do that vision thing where you're imagining your pay being doubled in your account, it really fires you up.
00:27:49.820So the best thing to do is to spread the word. So take this show, take this message of pushing for more
00:27:57.940accountability, of speaking up for yourself, of speaking truth to power, the way our friends on the left
00:28:03.560used to be able to say, and spread it around to folks who are your friends and family who need to be woken up,
00:28:10.640who need to be shown that they are getting terrible value and big bossy government for all of their
00:28:18.860hard work. Thank you so much for watching The Candace Malcolm Show. Be sure to stay with The Candace
00:28:24.000Malcolm Show and Juno News and follow True North Newswire to find out the latest on fighting for freedom