00:13:41.840Malay's been in office now for just about a year.
00:13:44.480I think he became the president in December 2023.
00:13:47.820So I was curious what has slashing these public services done.
00:13:52.060And I just looked quickly online, you know, and I seen AP came out yesterday saying Argentina has seen the lowest inflation that it's had in the last three years.
00:14:30.300I think it's unclear to me how much power this new group task force agency department will have.
00:14:38.200It doesn't look like, at least at first, they're setting it up as a fully fledged department that would have a secretary and cabinet power.
00:14:45.900But I think one of the things it will have is an ability to expose examples of government waste and mismanagement.
00:14:54.040And I think that public opinion pressure will be very valuable to President Trump when he starts a campaign to try and cut wasteful spending.
00:15:02.880And I mean, you know, we have wasteful spending up in Canada.
00:15:05.760There's a there's a ton of it, including just a massive bloated bureaucracy that has, you know, tens of thousands of more people, maybe even hundreds of thousands more than we need.
00:15:15.940Down in the States, in some ways, it can be even worse because when they're trying to get a bill through Congress, every congressman or congresswoman will have a demand that they want to put on.
00:15:28.200And in order to get their vote, you sometimes have to buy them.
00:15:31.740And it means, you know, a bill for child's health care includes funding for erectile dysfunction medication or, you know, a bill to study farm products in the Midwest includes salmon fishing out in the Pacific Northwest.
00:15:49.920There's there's all sorts of these things are called Christmas trees.
00:15:52.280Everybody likes to hang little spending ornaments on them.
00:15:55.280But I'm personally very excited about what the Department of Government Efficiency is going to find.
00:16:00.700And it really takes the air out of the sails of people who talk about how government is this force for good in the lives of everyday people, how we need government and how government spending is efficient.
00:16:12.420And when the government tackles problems, that's the best way to solve it.
00:16:16.680You know, the late great Margaret Thatcher, my personal political hero, some minister came to her and said, you know, we've identified this problem.
00:16:25.320And his solution was to create a new ministry that would be responsible for this problem.
00:16:30.920And she looked him in the eye and said, if the existence of the ministry and the minister depends on this problem continuing to exist, then it will never be solved.
00:16:40.360We will never rid ourselves of it once jobs depend on having this problem be around.
00:16:45.900So I say Godspeed to the new Department of Government Efficiency and please find some places to cut wasteful spending.
00:16:58.720I think this will change the momentum and the tone.
00:17:01.540The very idea that they're now openly saying we need Ron Paul in here to come help.
00:17:07.560Like for the longest time, Dr. Ron Paul, bless his heart, has been trying to reduce government spending, reduce government waste, expose government corruption, hold government to account.
00:17:17.420And for the longest time also, it's, you know, advocacy organizations similar to ours in the United States, like the Americans for Tax Reform with Grover Norquist, trying to restrain spending.
00:17:27.180And there's always been, you know, a healthy push behind that, but it hasn't gone mainstream or viral in an awful long time.
00:17:36.300And to be able to see something like small government, like dramatically reducing the size and scope and power and spending of government to make that shiny and attractive again is huge.
00:18:50.000And for the handful of folks who are watching who like big government and they think that we need big government to take care of us and do everything,
00:18:57.380I just heartily encourage you to really think again.
00:19:00.900Ask yourself if whatever it is that needs to be done could be done better by honest, earnest private citizens or a charity group or an advocacy organization.
00:19:10.960I'll give you a quick example, and I won't get too graphic because otherwise I might start crying.
00:19:14.940You guys might remember that there was a case in British Columbia off one of the Gulf Islands where they had deer that Parks Canada wanted to get rid of, right?
00:19:25.380OK, so this became kind of a, you know, it was a thing, right?
00:19:28.980And kudos to the reporters in Vancouver who dug up this story.
00:19:32.580They did a great job and they phoned us about a year ago.
00:19:36.240So what was happening is taxpayers were paying like it was like a million dollars, something crazy.
00:19:41.880It was a crazy amount of money for foreigners, New Zealanders, if I recall correctly, sharpshooters to shoot deer out of a circling helicopter.
00:20:59.500And the more you dig into things, the more the government screws up.
00:21:02.420So, yes, I, for one, I keep that little doge thing on my phone because I wanted to inspire people to reduce government waste and to cut taxes.
00:21:13.940Who wants to lead off the Remembrance Day stuff?
00:21:17.980Yeah, so hopping from the federal government's failures to the municipals, also on a broad scale,
00:21:26.000we saw a lot of backlash across the country from woke initiatives that were implemented at Remembrance Day,
00:21:34.300like lengthy land acknowledgements, even pro-Hamas activism, and all of really these initiatives that overlooked the importance of Remembrance Day,
00:21:44.800which is, of course, honoring fallen soldiers.
00:21:48.360I think we have a picture of Harrison Faulkner.
00:21:51.860He kind of went through the list here, if we could show that.
00:21:54.360Yeah, this isn't by no means all-encompassing, but it really did list a lot of the good ones here.
00:23:22.400So the two that popped into my mind were telling living veterans, don't show up in your uniform.
00:23:27.000And then also that there was a different song that was shoved into the ceremony, I think, at the last minute at a school in Ottawa.
00:23:35.080Yeah, I mean, there were just some, you know, again, they would be laughable if they weren't so deeply insulting and painful to people who, you know, have friends, family members and loved ones serving or who have served in the Canadian Armed Forces.
00:23:52.140I did enjoy, or rather shake my head at the example of Langley, British Columbia, where they only had one reading from a religious text during their ceremony, and it was a reading from the Quran, which I think a lot of people would find surprising.
00:24:09.540You know, if you look at the people who generally have served in our armed forces, they do represent a whole range of different religions.
00:24:18.520But the major one, I think, would be Christianity, particularly for people who fought in, say, World War I or World War II on behalf of our country.
00:24:26.360So the fact that they went out of their way to pick one that doesn't represent the majority of people, and then said, but we shall have no others, no other readings of this apart from this reading from the Quran.
00:24:36.920And, you know, you have to wonder what goes through the minds of some of these woke politicians when they decide to use these events in order to try and further one of their pet causes.
00:24:50.460You know, Mayor Gondek in my beloved city of Calgary, less beloved mayor herself, she decided to do quite a lengthy land acknowledgement at the beginning of her Remembrance Day ceremony,
00:25:02.960and did indeed refer to the people there and the veterans themselves as settlers on colonized land.
00:25:10.220And I think, you know, Canada has a day to, you know, reflect on Indigenous issues.
00:25:16.700We have a National Day of Truth and Reconciliation.
00:25:18.580Why are we now trying to co-opt the one day that we have, especially for veterans, who in many cases gave, you know, the ultimate sacrifice, paid the ultimate price for our freedom and for our liberty?
00:25:33.140Why are we now trying to co-opt this day into serving some other purpose, some other special interest, some other woke agenda item?
00:25:41.280And I think it is, you know, not just sad, but I think, you know, deeply offensive to people who do have family members who are serving and have served in our armed forces.
00:25:53.540The other, I think this also speaks to a lack of understanding and knowledge of our history.
00:26:01.120I think it's easier for people to do things like this if they haven't really thought about it and they haven't really learned about it.
00:26:13.340Just to put it glibly, it's easy to beak off and make something your own when you truly haven't empathized with what you're talking about.
00:26:22.480And to put a pin on it, November 11th was for Armistice Day.
00:26:28.140It was for the end of what they hoped would be the war to end all wars.
00:27:01.920And it, of course, also led into the Second World War.
00:27:05.720A lot of historians are now simply referring to it as the 20th Century War.
00:27:10.240Because there was a big lull in the middle, but the two are inextricably connected.
00:27:15.120So I would just urge people who want to make it their day or change it or whatever, whatever your thing is, it doesn't matter, really read about it.
00:27:27.360Imagine being someone in one of those countries or being a soldier shipped off or being a soldier shipped off or being their mother or being their wife or their sister.
00:27:38.420And then ask yourself if you really need to do that for a few hours in the morning on one day.
00:27:43.520Or maybe you could wait till the next day or even in the afternoon once people have gone home.
00:27:49.080Did we want to go to the school board?
00:27:51.060Because this one was a little bit funny and I think I need something to cheer me up.
00:27:54.420I do have to say that coming off a very somber topic, we, you know, now have an example of, you know, maybe we'll just revisit that first one about there's no wasteful spending in government.
00:29:17.360Well, one of the things I have to laugh is their trip to Italy included two nights in Germany, which is a country famous for not being Italy.
00:29:25.060So a lot of people wonder why that was.
00:29:29.100Well, apparently, according to the board chair, who has recognized the air of his ways, it's quite a long flight from Italy, Canada to Italy.
00:30:13.980And so the real question is, though, would they have really been so tired, given that their average flight cost was $7,000 apiece, which, you know, for those of us who have occasionally studied flights, know that they flew business class in the nice lie flat pods that they have at the front of the plane.
00:30:32.680So why did they have jet lag when they spent $28,000 on their flights for these four people so that they could get a good night's sleep over the Atlantic Ocean?
00:30:45.840They also stayed in what have been described as luxury or deluxe hotel rooms and suites during their course there.
00:30:52.780They enjoyed a limousine ride at one point.
00:30:56.420Maybe there was a lack of parking at the religious art factory that they were visiting.
00:31:12.580So for anybody out there who doesn't think there's wasteful spending in government, I would just urge you to look at this example.
00:31:20.100When places are crying out for funding for education to hire more teachers, to hire more teaching assistants, to have more resources in classrooms.
00:31:27.680Well, this Brandt-Haldeman Catholic School District group, they decided four people, $50,000.
00:31:34.880I tell you, if I ever am planning a luxury trip to Italy, I want to get that school board to do my trip planning.
00:31:41.140They know how to put on a luxury vacation.
00:31:55.500This is just the one that we've heard about.
00:31:58.040There's tons of stuff that we've never heard about.
00:32:00.640At the Taxpayers Federation, we do the annual Teddy Waste Awards where we hand out golden pig statues to levels of government that waste your money in spectacular fashion.
00:32:09.580We do it to make fun of it because otherwise you'd cry.
00:32:13.160Like, it's such a huge waste of money.
00:32:15.300And, yeah, this sounds like, I don't know, the $100,000 or $200,000 that our federal politicians blow on airplane food.
00:32:22.300And they say, oh, it was normal airplane food.
00:32:24.440Meanwhile, it's stuff you can't pronounce.
00:32:26.060It's like beef carpaccio and super fancy stuff.
00:32:29.140And it has to be served on China plate.
00:32:30.980Like, this is just a gross waste of taxpayers' money.
00:32:34.020And I have to stress, it wasn't always like this.
00:32:36.800Okay, the reason the term public servant exists is because it used to be people like retired teachers, former police officers, local small business owners who donate their time for a tiny stipend.
00:33:23.040I was going to say everyone, every good Catholic, practicing Catholic knows the only place to get religious art is in the Vatican City, actually, in Italy.
00:33:31.740I'm pretty sure if this school board walked down the street to a church and just said, hey, do you guys know any art we could get?
00:34:10.420But you don't need to pay $50,000 to local bureaucrats from the school board to fly there, stuff themselves full of gourmet food to bring it back to you.
00:34:22.920But I really think it's important that we highlight this sort of stuff, especially in light of what we were talking about with the movement for the Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE, in the United States.
00:34:33.860If we can make cutting spending and reducing the size and power of government cool again, then we'll definitely be winning as taxpayers.
00:34:44.020Isaac, William, thank you both so much for joining us today.
00:34:48.040And, folks, thank you so much for watching and listening.
00:34:50.020Be sure to share this show with someone you know needs to hear it.
00:34:54.920But remember, everything is off the record.
00:35:05.040Chris, I just thought of a real good question for you.
00:35:08.100Every report and every data I've ever seen on essentially comparing public to private spending in various sectors has shown that private can do it better.
00:35:17.300I'm wondering if you know of any examples where the public sector can actually outperform the private sector.
00:35:25.940The only one I know on the top of my head, because I've given this a lot of thought, is we fought a lot against ICBC.
00:35:34.700So that's the government monopoly on auto insurance in British Columbia.
00:35:37.780And their rates are disgusting and they're through the roof, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
00:35:42.240The vast majority of the time, having private competition reduces the cost.
00:35:47.500I don't know why, but in Saskatchewan, they have a government-controlled auto insurance monopoly, and it's cheap.
00:35:58.640So I've basically, like, not made eye contact with it because it's, like, accidentally running on time.