Juno News - December 02, 2025Joe Warmington： Canada’s icons are DISAPPEARING
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Summary
Joe Warmington of the Toronto Sun joins us to talk about the death of the O Canada flag, the removal of our national anthem, and the growing threat of a carbon tax. Plus, more devastating economic news from Algoma Steel and more.
Transcript
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Well, Canada, since 1980, it's been our official national anthem played at hockey games, citizenship
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ceremonies, or Remembrance Day events. It is a proud symbol of our country, or at least it used
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to be. Not only has the song been butchered at major sporting events lately, like the World Series,
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these days, the mere act of playing a recording of the song on city property can land a patriot
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in trouble with the police, just ask 58-year-old Scott Yeomans. Let's listen.
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Anyway, Justin Trudeau once said he wanted Canada to be the first post-national state.
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Has the shabby treatment of old Canada become a symbol of our decline?
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The Toronto Sun's Joe Warmington has been writing about this story, and he'll be joining us shortly
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with his take. More devastating economic news. Algoma Steel announcing a layoff of 1,000 workers.
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That's about 40% of its staff. The company plans to close its blast furnace and coke-making operations
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in Sault Ste. Marie, Ontario. Conservative Pierre Polyev says Prime Minister Mark Carney broke his promise
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The Prime Minister looked them in the eye and promised he would protect their jobs,
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that he would negotiate a win, and I quote, have a deal by July 21st, but it was a bait-and-switch
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that is costing people their livelihoods. On top of that, liberals are hammering the steel mill
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with a higher industrial carbon tax. Isn't it bad enough that the Prime Minister broke his promise
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on trade? Why is he going ahead with an industrial carbon tax that will kill even more steel jobs?
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Obviously, our thoughts are with the workers affected by the unjustified and unjustifiable
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tariffs imposed by the White House, and we'll continue to work with them as Algoma Steel is going
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through a difficult situation, to say the least. The U.S. tariffs did hurt Algoma's steel exports.
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The federal and Ontario governments offered the company a low-interest $500 million loan in September
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as it transitions to electric steel-making. While Premier Daniel Smith says she doesn't blame
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Albertans for booing her during her party's convention on the weekend, he says Albertans have taken
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10 years of abuse from the federal government and want to see action on pipeline construction,
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not just hear more talk. Folks are worried about divisions within the party, and I think a lot
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of people probably heard the boos that were directed to you at one point, but just some reassurance for
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UCP members or all Albertans, and just your thoughts on how the AGM went? Well, I would say that
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people, when I asked, when I asked the crowd, I hope you agree that Canada works better today than a
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couple of days ago. That was the reaction that they gave. There's some proving ground that Canada needs to
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do. We've been pummeled for 10 years, and a single MOU 24 hours before our AGM may not have been enough
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to quell everybody's concerns immediately, but that's why we've got to work together on it. It's a process.
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Last week, Prime Minister Carney in Alberta signed an energy accord that Premier Smith says is a
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significant step forward for the energy industry in that province. While the leader of the Green Party is
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having buyer's remorse over her decision to vote in favor of the federal budget, Elizabeth May says
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she won't make that mistake again. She says the energy accord signed with Alberta and the federal
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government amounts to a significant betrayal. I'm now joined by my good friend Joe Warmington of the
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Toronto Sun. Joe's been a long-time journalist and columnist at that paper in the course of, what,
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three, four decades? Something like that? And I have to ask you, Joe, first of all,
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congratulations on that great coverage that you're doing on the fact that so many of our icons are
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disappearing. I start off the show asking about whether O Canada was in fact, in a sense, being
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canceled. First off, butchered during the World Series, and now we see people arrested because they
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are playing the song on city property. It's absolutely ridiculous, but is it a sign that
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the country is kind of disappearing, that our national identity is evaporating before our eyes?
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Well, you can call for the death of Jews over there on Nathan Phillips Square, but don't dare
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play the O Canada or even have a Canadian flag. This guy, Scott Yeomans, would make a great guest for
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Juneau News sometime. You know, that's all he does. He's a patriot. He's not a protester,
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ironically. They say they're treating him like a protester. He needs to have permits and this and
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that. And then, you know, this is what we do. I mean, we beat people up. We have the authority to do
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that. And yet you can have people walking around pro-Hamas all day long, all kinds of other things.
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I mean, they camp out on Nathan Phillips Square with tents for weeks and there's no answer. If I go down
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there as a reporter and I have, I get an umbrella, you know, hit into my eye or my ear or hit with it
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and threatened and they follow you out. And, you know, there's no security there. They're on an old
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guy who was on a pension, disability pension. It was a forklift driver. That's what our solution for
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it was. And, you know, they, on the night of Nuit Blanche, they actually had on city hall,
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it said love revolution and this kind of stuff right on city hall. So they had to talk about revolution
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and this kind of stuff. And this guy's not allowed to have a Canadian flag or play out Canada.
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It's really sick. And, you know, this stuff is permeating through, Mark, all of Toronto and
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other parts of Canada. I mean, Ryerson's not called Ryerson anymore. It's some other name.
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They changed the name of Dundas Street to reflect his MTU. Hudson's Bay is gone and there's no Christmas
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windows anymore. It goes on and on and on. Little by little, we're losing Canada, including in the
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Sioux where they lost a thousand jobs. So, you know, we're covering it. We're fighting back,
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but they've got a head of steam for sure. Yeah. I mean, it's, it's not just the anthem.
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I mean, it's so many of our iconic figures that seem to be targeted by whomever, whether it's
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globalists or leftists, people who for some reason have it in for our country. I mean, we had a prime
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minister elected in 2015 who seemed to do everything in his power to destroy national pride and instill
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national shame. And I'm talking about the whole issue around the mass graves that weren't actually
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graves, you know, at the residential school. So he heaped abuse on this country. And I'm wondering if we're
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reaping the fruits of that period of time when so much of so many of our politicians seem to be
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negative and down on our country. Is this the byproduct of essentially 10 years of attack on
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what Canada has been for well over a century? It absolutely is. It's orchestrated. It's coordinated.
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It's also funded. It's a breakdown of Canada. You replace what was here and you replace it with,
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you know, all kinds of other things that weren't here instead of sort of embracing it and bringing
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it in and it permeates inside of the culture, which we've talked about a lot on your radio show. I
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mean, Phil Esposito and names like that, Mahavlitch, those are Canadian names, but they're Slavic or
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Italian names, but they're Canadian names. But somehow it's changed. You know, you mentioned that
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under Prime Minister Trudeau, I mean, we had that phony thing where they got everyone stirred up about the
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graves and it was always not real. And we knew it wasn't real because the people that ran those
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schools were good people. There was mistakes as there are in any school. And there's obviously
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things that shouldn't have happened, but mostly it was, uh, many people were well-intentioned and
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they wouldn't cover up the murders of people. And we knew that as Canadians, we knew that the next
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thing they did was go after Sir Johnny McDonald. You know, they took him off the, you know, off the $10
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bill and replaced him with a racial kind of story, which is an important story, but it's not the same
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as the first prime minister. Then they took down all his statues and they ripped them down, ripped his
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hat off. They ripped down Queen Victoria as well. Anything that represents Canada, now they're going
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after Wayne Gretzky, Bobby Orr, people like that. Anything that's really Canadian, they make it sullied
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and dirty and it's wrong. And you know, some of us fight for it, but not very many do it. And of course,
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Don Cherry is the biggest example of that. It's all targeted. It's planned and the gutless media
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lets it happen. I remember when Don Cherry went down, I looked around and there was no one,
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no one that cared about that. They didn't fight for him. And now they're paying the price for that
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because when he went out, so did the guy that can speak freely. He's gone. And then everybody's
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afraid. You know, everywhere I go, I get recognized and people come up to me and they say, you know,
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how's Don? How's Don? They all want to know. We miss him on Coach's Corner. You tell me,
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as good a broadcaster as you are, Mark, has anybody ever gone in to every bar across the
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country and stopped the music and turned up the broadcast? I mean, I'm not, obviously they should,
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in your case and in our little thing here, but with Don, they did that, didn't they?
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I mean, there's no one that had the power that Don Cherry did and they listened to him. And it wasn't
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just about hockey. It was about Canada, about our troops, our soldiers, you know,
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our firefighters, all of that. And I'm proud to have stood up for him. I'm glad that Hazel McCallion,
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the late great mayor of Mississauga did as well. The rest of you, you let it happen,
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including you, Ron McLean. I hope you watch this because while you make a million dollars a year,
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you're making it, that's blood money because the guy that helped you make it, his name is Donald S.
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Cherry, your old partner, who stood up for you when you were fired twice. And I know that because
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I was in the middle of it also fighting for you, but you let him hang on the vine. And now we've got
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a guy like Scott Yeomans facing police all around him and humiliating him and to get off of our Nathan
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Phillips Square. Nathan Phillips wouldn't have stood for it. He was the first Jewish mayor of Toronto.
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And he's got to sit there and have all these people that are talking about Israel and Jews
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on the land that he is named after him. It's gross. And I'm glad that I have the opportunity here to
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say it with you today here on Gino News. This is the truth. I mean, I know that you back the blue
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and always have, but what are the police thinking here? I mean, they hate it. They hate it. They're
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embarrassed. They don't know what to do. It comes from Olivia Chow. Hamas runs Toronto. I can't say it
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runs all of Canada, but it runs Toronto. It's in charge here. And I saw that on October 8th when I went to the
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first protest at Bloor and Young, and I was taking a picture of people breaking the law,
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going up on this scaffolding on this building and lighting off torches. And they're doing all
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this death to Israel stuff. Israel hadn't even responded. They just were the victim of a heinous
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attack. 1200 dead at that time. We knew of 240 hostages. And these people were celebrating out there
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and the police were pushing us away. In fact, I was punched by a police officer in the middle of that,
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just taking some pictures. And so I knew right there, and I told you this on your radio show,
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that we're in for some treat coming ahead, because I knew right then that Hamas was in charge,
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and they are. Under Mayor Olivia Chow, she lets it all go. She didn't go to the one year anniversary
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of that heinous act, which was the most amount of Jews that were killed in one day since the Holocaust.
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We've had many Kristallnacht kind of events here. Now we're getting a little off topic, but it does fit back
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to what Canada should be. And Canada should be a place where everybody's accepted equal,
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not Hamas in charge. Canada's in charge. And again, the police officers, if they could,
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they would never do these things. I mean, there's very few that would do it. But they follow orders,
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and people say, well, you shouldn't do that. But I mean, we all have a boss. And if the boss says to do
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something, you do it. It's a little different for people like us that have opinions and we get paid for
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them. But even us, it's not easy all the time. So, you know, I'm not upset with the police overall.
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They only go so far with it. But I don't like it. I got to tell you something. When you've got
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reporters being arrested and, you know, I mean, obviously, Kian Bexty has been through a lot of
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that, he gets assaulted all the time. And people stand there and go, well, you get something hit
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over your head and the police are standing there and they don't care. That's not right. I mean,
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you've got to protect the media and it's got to be all voices allowed, including, you know,
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the people you may not agree with. And that includes people like us. We should be allowed
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to do this. And it shouldn't, you know, shouldn't be stopped. And I'm glad that we're doing it here
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today. I want to ask you about Dretzky, because you have been writing about that. Now, recently,
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he was photographed at a golfing event with President Trump. And again, he got attacked
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by people who think that he's a disgrace to the country, essentially having turned his back on
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Canada. It's entirely unfair. I know this has kind of wounded him a little bit. I mean,
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he's a tough guy, certainly, having played hockey all those years. But, you know, nobody wants to
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be attacked by your own countrymen who think that you're a turncoat just because you play golf with
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the president. Isn't that right? Well, I got this, you know, it's a scenario that's so simple. You get
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a phone call, do you want to go golfing with President Trump, Brooks Kopka, who's a five-time
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major golf champion, five times. And you go with Bret Baier from, you know, one of the top
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broadcasters for Fox News. You're going to say, no, I want to please Olivia Chow or some NDPer
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so that they don't say something mean about me. A person with 37 Twitter followers. I mean,
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you know, you go. And when he goes, he represents Canada all the time. I mean,
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President Trump said that in one of his tweets back there, the last time they attacked Wayne
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for the stuff that at the Four Nations Cup and all that, which was all manufactured,
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all designed to hurt Wayne, all part of what we've talked about here today. No, it's not right. I
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don't know if I think it does. He's in the Wayne Gretzky business. That's what he does. You know,
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he does Wayne Gretzky. So certainly, but they lie about him too. And I wrote this and I talked about it
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on your radio show back in the day. The New York Times said that he's an American citizen
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and he's a naturalized American and everybody reported that CNN and all that. And I asked Wayne
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about that. And he said, no, I never took an American citizenship. I travel on a Canadian passport.
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When I moved to Los Angeles in 1988, I promised my parents I would always stay Canadian. Now,
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his wife is American. His kids, some of them are American. I think all of them were born in the US,
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but he's Canadian and everybody knows that. When he walks into a room, there's a Canadian guy. And
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that's enough for me. He didn't have to kiss the butt of some, you know, hardcore leftists that
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hate him anyway and hate Don Cherry and hate President Trump. It'll be interesting to lead this
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test when, you know, when it happens, when Wayne is asked by Prime Minister Mark Carney to go to an event
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and see if they are upset about that. Because if they ask Wayne, he'll do it.
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Any time a prime minister or president call or anybody in a charity calls, he's there. And,
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you know, the charity work that he's done with the blind and with the Wayne Gretzky Foundation is
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more than any of the people that hate him combined. And I know that like us covering it because he
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wants it to be kind of private and give people their dignity, but he does a lot of charity as a lot of
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those celebrities do. You know, Sidney Crosby and Mary Lemieux, they all do a lot too, as they should.
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It'll be interesting to see where this all fix us. I mean, if we're heading in this direction,
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at what point do people push back? Like when I see this guy, Scott Yeomans, you know, pushing back
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saying, you know, I have every right to play the national anthem at Nathanfield Square. You know,
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I like that because it shows that not everybody likes what's going on in terms of the attack on
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the fabric of this country. And so maybe, you know, we need a lot more Scott Yeomans out there.
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You say, no, you know, I love my country. I support my country and I'm going to express my views about
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that regardless of whether you think, you know, I'm not woken up or not. Last word to you, my friend.
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Well, I think it's happening. I don't think that a few loud voices on social media
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will end Canada. I think a thousand jobs in the Sioux and other things like that could, you know,
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this phony MOU thing with the pipeline that we all know is never going to happen because it's going to
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get blocked, as opposed to someone saying, this is Canada, we're doing it. It's life or death for
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this country. So, you know, we do need some people that have the leadership, obviously, on your
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network here. There's lots of people with those ideas. And it's, you know, as long as they're
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illegal and they don't take away the right to be able to do this. And I see the government is messing
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around with different rules they want to bring in to make it hard. But at the core of it, you know,
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whether someone's new to Canada or whether there's someone that's been here for generations,
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they don't really want Canada to die. They don't really like the extremists. So I hope that that's my
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last word is that I do have faith that most people, you know, while some are afraid to lose
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their livelihoods, the pandemic really hurt, you know, Mark. I mean, that's the big one where
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they crushed those truckers and they made people stay inside and they forced vaccinations,
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even though they say they didn't, they did. And that broke a lot of people. It really did. It scared
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them and they fell into line and they did it for that reason. But there are a lot of people that
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eventually will say no. The other thing I want to say is the highway heroes, which is a big thing
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that showed Canada right there. That's the organic street, Canada. And that was people from all walks
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of life, all races and religions went to those bridges and lined up on those highways and went to
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CFB Trenton for the repatriation of our fine men and women that came back in caskets and bravely fought.
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And then what, 20 years later, they handed it back to the very people that killed them.
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That broke a lot of confidence too. So we've got to stick for something. Stay with it. Stay with
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Don Cherry, stay with Bobby Orr, stay with Wayne Gretzky, stay with Sir Johnny MacDonald and remember
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our traditions, our history and be proud of it. We should be proud of it because those were all
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great people, as are the people that are watching here today. Thank you. Joe Warmington. You can
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check out his fantastic reporting and writing in the pages of the Toronto Sun. Thank you so much,
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Joe. Great chatting with you once again. Thank you. And that is it for this edition of
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Straight Up. Appreciate you tuning in, my friends. Let's do it again real soon, shall we? Until then,