Juno News - September 29, 2021


Pastor Artur Pawlowski has been arrested... again


Episode Stats


Length

33 minutes

Words per minute

181.72577

Word count

6,078

Sentence count

320

Harmful content

Misogyny

7

sentences flagged

Hate speech

4

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Coming up, the divisive nature of vaccine passports and the government's COVID enforcement culture, plus what does the federal election mean for Western alienation? The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now on Canada's Most Reverent Talk Show.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
00:00:06.660 This is the Andrew Lawton Show, brought to you by True North.
00:00:12.720 Coming up, the divisive nature of vaccine passports and the government's COVID enforcement culture.
00:00:18.540 Plus, what does the federal election mean for Western alienation?
00:00:23.280 The Andrew Lawton Show starts right now.
00:00:26.880 Welcome to Canada's Most Irreverent Talk Show.
00:00:32.740 This is the Andrew Lawton Show here on True North.
00:00:35.460 Tuesday, September 28th, 2021.
00:00:39.000 Great to have you aboard the program here as we drift further and further into a culture of enforcement and coercion
00:00:46.960 as opposed to the education-first mindset that we're all in this together mindset
00:00:52.120 back when it was just two weeks and not two years to flatten the curve.
00:00:56.080 Most notably, we have Pastor Artur Pawlowski from Calgary landing in Calgary on a private plane
00:01:04.540 and the first thing that happens to greet him on Canadian soil is he's arrested, met on the tarmac, taken into custody
00:01:11.880 and, according to his lawyer, charged with an outstanding contempt charge or something like that.
00:01:18.160 I mean, it doesn't matter at this point.
00:01:19.580 I mean, the whole thing that they used to say about Al Capone is that they couldn't get him on the big crimes
00:01:24.520 so they got him on tax evasion.
00:01:26.780 That's basically what's happening to all of these so-called COVID criminals.
00:01:30.480 They're going to get you no matter what and they're going to keep going after you
00:01:33.560 and keep going after you and keep going after you
00:01:36.080 and it doesn't really matter at a certain point what the underlying charge that sparked it all was about.
00:01:42.860 I saw this in Ontario when the Ontario government was going after churches
00:01:47.160 such as the Church of God in Elmer or other ones in the Waterloo region in eastern Ontario.
00:01:53.440 Pastors that were arrested in Alberta, not just Pawlowski but also others.
00:01:58.420 And the thing about it that was most notable is that at a certain point it's almost cartoonish.
00:02:04.700 Like, I believe that Pastor Jacob Rayom of Trinity Bible Chapel told me at one point
00:02:09.940 that his church had something like $20 million in fines against it
00:02:14.180 and the government just keeps adding more and more
00:02:16.620 and it's not even a real number at that point
00:02:19.380 because there's no way that the church or its leadership can pay it
00:02:23.240 but the government is just going to keep heaping that on them.
00:02:26.560 And that's the problem is that the government isn't interested in the revenue.
00:02:29.720 They want to shut people down.
00:02:31.560 We've, in Ontario now, had a vaccine passport system in place
00:02:36.080 for indoor dining at restaurants and other things for about a week
00:02:40.200 and now there are some businesses that are saying we're not going to do it
00:02:43.980 and they're facing fines upwards of $10 million.
00:02:48.580 And a small business cannot afford a $10 million fine.
00:02:51.840 A small business cannot afford, even in a lot of cases, a $50,000 or $100,000 fine.
00:02:56.700 So what the government is hoping that anyone non-compliant
00:03:00.000 will just cease to operate.
00:03:02.360 And anyone who decides to do their conscientious objection to this
00:03:05.540 at a certain point will, like those churches in Ontario and Alberta,
00:03:10.020 just have the building locked on them.
00:03:13.660 So if you're trying to protest, you might get a few weeks out of it
00:03:16.680 but you're not going to be able to keep it going for all that much longer
00:03:19.940 just knowing how this is happening,
00:03:22.140 knowing that the government is making enforcement the first priority.
00:03:26.400 Now, I will say there have been a couple of examples where it's just been a warning.
00:03:31.360 Chris Skye, who's like a notable anti-masker, anti-vaccine, anti-lockdown, whatever.
00:03:36.740 He seems to be anti-everything.
00:03:38.840 But he had a group of people at a restaurant in my neck of the woods, in London, Ontario.
00:03:43.480 And they were all there with apparently not having shown their vaccine passport,
00:03:47.840 not wearing a mask on the way in.
00:03:49.660 And the restaurant has, believe it or not,
00:03:52.020 they've been chastised by the London, Ontario mayor.
00:03:55.560 The mayor called them all stupid or something like that.
00:03:58.140 But they haven't been fined.
00:03:59.980 They just had to tell the owner of their parent company,
00:04:03.160 because they're a franchise, as well as the city,
00:04:05.340 that, okay, fine, we'll enforce the law moving forward.
00:04:07.880 So they had their fun.
00:04:09.580 I'm looking at an article about Hamilton that says,
00:04:11.760 11 businesses are under active city investigation.
00:04:16.360 The city is supposedly starting with education, but then ramping up to punishment.
00:04:22.580 So one of the women here quoted in this CBC story, 0.97
00:04:25.660 Jenna Graham, who owns a restaurant called the Harbor Diner,
00:04:28.880 says that this is segregation.
00:04:30.780 It's no different than pre-civil rights racism.
00:04:33.700 And she's not going to go down this road.
00:04:35.800 Now she can take that principled stand all she wants. 0.90
00:04:38.580 Eventually she's going to be forced to make the choice between shutting the doors 1.00
00:04:41.900 or going along with it or paying some exorbitant fine that,
00:04:46.080 I mean, I've never been to the Harbor Diner,
00:04:47.480 but I'm guessing the Harbor Diner can't afford to pay.
00:04:49.700 No one can.
00:04:50.600 When you start talking about fines with how many digits is 10,
00:04:53.560 it's 10 digit fines at a certain point.
00:04:56.100 No one can afford that.
00:04:58.620 So this is where we're moving.
00:05:00.540 There's no way to challenge it.
00:05:02.520 There's no way to challenge this.
00:05:04.280 Remember that the Ontario government right now is in this interim phase,
00:05:08.120 where you don't have to use the official Ontario government vaccine passport,
00:05:12.020 which doesn't yet exist,
00:05:13.060 but you just have to show your proof of vaccination.
00:05:15.440 Starting near the end of October, this shifts.
00:05:18.920 And all of a sudden,
00:05:19.900 what you'll have to do is use the government's QR code.
00:05:23.280 And the federal government as well has talked about in December,
00:05:26.580 a temporary vaccine passport coming for international travel.
00:05:30.720 And then in about a year's time,
00:05:33.500 maybe they'll have a permanent one.
00:05:35.000 So we're talking about a mechanism here that goes to almost the beginning of 2023.
00:05:43.060 Government is not interested in making this a temporary way of life.
00:05:48.940 And for all the governments and big tech have talked about needing to curb conspiracy theories,
00:05:54.440 government has done more to foster conspiracy theories than it has done to stop them.
00:06:01.040 Because a lot of these conspiracies that the government has been warning us about,
00:06:04.720 like the permanence of these restrictions,
00:06:06.920 the permanence of vaccine passports,
00:06:08.540 these have materialized.
00:06:10.740 These things are not going to go away.
00:06:14.380 So I'm struggling with this.
00:06:17.200 Because I do not believe that it's fair to take this out on businesses.
00:06:21.640 I really don't.
00:06:22.420 I think it's unfair for the government to force the 14 or 16 year old restaurant host
00:06:26.740 to start checking your vaccine paperwork.
00:06:29.060 But similarly, I think it's unfair for people who object to this
00:06:32.760 to take out their ire on these restaurants and other businesses like gyms
00:06:37.040 who are just trying to get by.
00:06:39.020 So if you're getting angry with the restaurant,
00:06:42.180 don't.
00:06:42.880 Just absolutely don't.
00:06:44.020 It is not their problem.
00:06:45.480 They're trying to get by.
00:06:46.500 We should not allow the government to do what it's trying to do,
00:06:50.460 which is divide people and somehow immunize,
00:06:53.380 no pun intended, itself from the criticism
00:06:55.840 and immunize itself from the anger.
00:06:58.720 And you may say, well, you know,
00:07:00.220 why are more restaurants not protesting?
00:07:02.860 It takes a lot of courage.
00:07:05.520 And more importantly, it takes a lot of self-assurance
00:07:08.040 to do what some of these restaurants are doing right now
00:07:10.460 to say, we're not going to check it.
00:07:11.800 We're not going to enforce that.
00:07:13.140 And I don't blame businesses for not wanting to partake in that fight.
00:07:19.080 Because most of the people that are taking up this fight
00:07:21.380 are going to lose it.
00:07:23.480 And it's a sad reality, but that's going to be the reality of it.
00:07:27.560 So the problem is not the businesses.
00:07:29.340 The problem is the government.
00:07:30.940 And unfortunately, Canadians have, in the last election,
00:07:34.760 endorsed a government that is completely fine with this.
00:07:37.780 And they try to say, yeah, it's up to provinces.
00:07:39.740 But what the Liberals have really done
00:07:41.540 is committed to this idea of stratified society.
00:07:44.940 This is why Justin Trudeau is going down the road
00:07:47.260 of trying to make it mandatory to be vaccinated
00:07:49.280 if you want to fly out to see your grandma in British Columbia,
00:07:52.660 or if you want to hop on a train to go back and forth to school or work,
00:07:56.740 or if you want to work in the government.
00:07:59.580 And it's interesting that this is happening
00:08:01.840 when Justin Trudeau has, and the Liberals in general,
00:08:04.960 have done more to nationalize, I'd say, the economy in the past.
00:08:09.180 So it's not just if you're a federal public servant,
00:08:12.000 but also if you work in a federal sector.
00:08:14.800 So theoretically, when I used to host my daily radio show
00:08:17.500 on a CRTC-regulated radio station,
00:08:20.360 I would have been, or my job would have been,
00:08:21.900 consumed up in this idea, this mandate
00:08:24.840 that the federal government is putting forward,
00:08:27.160 which at this point, interestingly enough, hasn't materialized.
00:08:30.700 It's almost as though Justin Trudeau was trying to use it
00:08:32.700 as a wedge for the conservatives
00:08:34.680 and wasn't actually prepared to go the distance on that.
00:08:37.340 So that's going to be the problem here
00:08:39.580 that we're going to see more and more of,
00:08:41.780 which is people finding that, yeah, vaccines aren't mandatory,
00:08:45.640 but society is closed off, employment is closed off,
00:08:49.440 travel is closed off.
00:08:50.880 All of these things that they would do
00:08:52.760 are no longer able to happen.
00:08:56.500 And the people like Artur Pulaski,
00:08:58.560 and interestingly enough,
00:08:59.640 I spoke about Artur Pulaski a little while ago
00:09:01.920 when that one famous video of him being arrested
00:09:04.140 on the highway took place,
00:09:06.620 and police literally had to carry him,
00:09:09.020 like almost, not hogtied,
00:09:10.380 but it looked like he was hogtied.
00:09:11.900 They had to like carry him to their car
00:09:13.760 because he wasn't going along.
00:09:15.120 And I defended him.
00:09:16.480 I defended him because this is not,
00:09:18.200 in a society that protects freedom of religion,
00:09:20.540 the way members of the clergy should be treated
00:09:23.300 for the sole purpose of deciding to open their churches.
00:09:26.960 And I had people reach out to say,
00:09:28.700 oh, well, you know, yeah, you know, maybe,
00:09:30.340 but have you heard what he said about X?
00:09:32.380 And have you heard his messages?
00:09:33.780 And he's not a guy you should be defending.
00:09:35.600 And I say that's a load of nonsense.
00:09:38.540 If we start saying, well, you know,
00:09:40.680 I don't support his right to have his church open
00:09:44.040 because he might've said something that I disagree.
00:09:45.660 And to be honest, I don't know much about him.
00:09:47.620 I've never met him.
00:09:48.400 I've never interviewed him.
00:09:49.400 I don't care about that game that people like to play
00:09:52.660 of saying, well, you know, yeah,
00:09:54.140 you can't support the right of free speech, for example,
00:09:56.620 of people who use their right to say mean things.
00:09:58.760 I am an absolutist on these things.
00:10:01.640 I support the right of churches and mosques and synagogues
00:10:04.780 and gujaras and temples and any other religious venue
00:10:08.400 to be open.
00:10:09.080 I support the right of businesses to find a way to be open.
00:10:11.960 I support the right of people to speak their mind,
00:10:14.220 even if I deplore what they use their right
00:10:16.860 to free speech to express.
00:10:19.420 So I'm not going to say, well,
00:10:20.820 Artur Pulaski may not be my cup of tea,
00:10:22.640 so I don't care about his rights.
00:10:24.100 It makes me care about it even more
00:10:25.900 because I want the people that don't like the cut of my jib
00:10:29.100 to stand up for my right to free speech
00:10:30.840 when the liberals decide to go after independent media
00:10:34.200 under Bill C-10 or C-36
00:10:36.580 when those things inevitably make a comeback
00:10:38.740 in the upcoming parliament.
00:10:40.400 So when I look at the arrest of Pastor Artur Pulaski,
00:10:45.860 I absolutely think it is egregious.
00:10:48.580 And here's a guy.
00:10:49.160 Now, I may say I'm a little uneasy
00:10:51.780 about a pastor flying private,
00:10:53.360 but these days that's the only way you can get away
00:10:55.700 with apparently not having to worry
00:10:58.080 about being masked in flight or something like that.
00:11:02.040 I was on a flight not that long ago,
00:11:04.340 and I had the flight attendant that wanted you 0.99
00:11:06.080 to put your mask on between sips.
00:11:07.620 So, you know what, if I could afford to fly private,
00:11:10.040 I would do it.
00:11:11.100 I can't fault anyone else for doing that.
00:11:13.540 But what Artur Pulaski's lawyer says,
00:11:16.620 Sarah Miller, who's a great advocate for free speech,
00:11:19.360 is that this was a contempt charge,
00:11:21.900 like I mentioned earlier,
00:11:22.880 an outstanding contempt charge
00:11:24.460 of which there are likely many against him.
00:11:27.240 He was released on bail late last night,
00:11:30.660 and he has to keep the peace and be on good behavior.
00:11:33.740 Now, I don't know how the state in this day and age
00:11:35.980 is defining good behavior,
00:11:38.340 but these are the stipulations
00:11:40.000 that have been heaped upon Artur Pulaski.
00:11:42.820 And he scheduled him and his brother
00:11:45.260 to be sentenced on October 13th
00:11:48.440 for the supposed crime of violating COVID-19 health orders
00:11:52.760 and having illegal gatherings and conducting services
00:11:56.320 without mandating physical distancing
00:11:58.520 and mask mandates and all of these things.
00:12:00.540 So here's a guy who's going to be sentenced.
00:12:02.420 Now, I don't know if they're going to put him in jail.
00:12:04.260 I don't know if they're going to give him a steep fine.
00:12:06.380 I don't know if they're going to sentence him
00:12:07.700 to community service or whatever,
00:12:09.560 but that's coming in two weeks.
00:12:12.100 And we as a country still have to reckon with the idea
00:12:15.860 that we have put pastors behind bars
00:12:19.460 under the auspices of preserving
00:12:22.660 and protecting public health.
00:12:25.780 And a lot of people will point to these stories
00:12:27.960 and say, well, these are the reasons
00:12:29.120 we can't get back to normal.
00:12:30.340 No, people protesting Orwellian orders are not the problem.
00:12:36.200 They're not the barriers to reopening,
00:12:38.560 the reasons that we're not reopening.
00:12:40.020 The reasons we're not reopening,
00:12:41.900 the reasons that normal seems like a distant pipe dream
00:12:44.940 at this point is because of governments
00:12:48.020 that are doing everything they can
00:12:50.840 to prevent and delay normal,
00:12:53.560 to make us forget what normal even is,
00:12:56.220 let alone the idea that it's possible.
00:12:58.160 And that's why there is going to be a permanence to this.
00:13:03.140 Look at it.
00:13:03.820 Israel is a great example.
00:13:05.160 Israel was held up as being the successful story 0.73
00:13:07.580 for how you roll out vaccination.
00:13:09.400 They had its population vaccinated
00:13:10.940 before Canada was even putting its pants on in the morning.
00:13:13.880 And now in Israel, you are not fully vaccinated
00:13:16.520 unless you've gotten your third booster shot.
00:13:18.960 Some people are going to be looking at fourth booster shots.
00:13:22.300 In parts of Canada, third boosters are already becoming the norm,
00:13:26.520 including in Ontario and Alberta.
00:13:29.380 Now, so far, you don't need a booster
00:13:30.820 to be considered fully vaccinated,
00:13:32.260 but there's going to be a point at which that flips
00:13:34.520 because these have gone on so long,
00:13:37.480 because these restrictions will have gone on so long
00:13:39.800 that the supposed immunity you have from dose one and two
00:13:42.680 no longer applies.
00:13:43.840 And it's the opposite of endemic.
00:13:47.420 When they talk about living with COVID
00:13:48.960 and just treating it as though it's endemic,
00:13:51.080 which Dina Hinshaw in Alberta was pilloried for saying, 0.98
00:13:54.480 now it's going to become the permanent pandemic
00:13:56.940 where you need to get your booster shot
00:13:58.940 every three months, every six months,
00:14:00.640 maybe you can get by a year
00:14:01.940 in order to be seen as fully vaccinated.
00:14:05.120 Now, this is something that people should have the right to do
00:14:07.680 if you want that protection.
00:14:08.920 But there are a lot of people that were vaccine hesitant,
00:14:13.840 but ultimately went along with the two shots
00:14:15.800 because of whatever reason,
00:14:17.560 maybe they wanted to be able to dine out,
00:14:19.220 maybe they wanted to travel, who cares?
00:14:21.440 People made their call
00:14:22.460 that are not going to go along with that,
00:14:24.240 then all of a sudden the goalposts have moved yet again
00:14:26.160 and you need a third shot.
00:14:27.820 Or it goes to children even younger than 12.
00:14:31.340 Toronto is, Health Canada has not approved the vaccines
00:14:34.680 for use on children under 12.
00:14:36.700 Toronto is already raring to go.
00:14:39.040 They're itching to start vaccinating kids
00:14:40.780 as young as five years old.
00:14:43.040 So Toronto is saying, yeah, we're ready.
00:14:45.160 Just give us the kids. 0.99
00:14:45.980 We're going to vaccinate these five-year-olds. 1.00
00:14:47.400 A lot of parents that are very pro-vaccine
00:14:49.660 got vaccinated themselves.
00:14:51.300 I've heard from them.
00:14:52.360 They've emailed me.
00:14:53.180 You've emailed me about this saying,
00:14:55.040 yeah, I was fine getting it,
00:14:56.180 but I am not at all subjecting my child to this.
00:14:59.760 And people are going to have to reckon with that.
00:15:02.080 People are going to make their decisions,
00:15:03.280 but this is not going to happen
00:15:05.180 without schools eventually making vaccination mandatory
00:15:08.840 if you want your kid to go to a public
00:15:11.300 or heck, even a private school.
00:15:13.040 They've already done it with post-secondary institutions.
00:15:15.880 It's going to happen as well
00:15:17.540 to public and perhaps non-public schools.
00:15:21.840 So this is where we are headed.
00:15:24.520 And I'm very supportive of the idea
00:15:27.940 that if you don't start standing firm now,
00:15:31.080 you're not going to get a chance later.
00:15:34.740 And this is why I've said,
00:15:36.200 I'm not at all an anti-vaxxer,
00:15:38.900 but I am a civil libertarian.
00:15:41.460 And we need more people who are fully vaccinated,
00:15:44.100 who are completely okay with vaccination
00:15:46.200 to stand up and say,
00:15:47.160 yeah, but what about choice?
00:15:48.900 And not just this mythical idea of choice,
00:15:51.720 but specifically this idea of choice
00:15:54.020 that's been shared with us
00:15:56.060 for the last year and a half by politicians
00:15:58.000 who say, yeah, yeah, it's never going to be mandatory.
00:16:00.100 We encourage it.
00:16:01.100 We're never going to require it.
00:16:03.380 Well, whatever happened to that?
00:16:05.380 We're all in this together
00:16:06.400 becomes we're arresting you on the tarmac
00:16:08.200 because you want to have church services,
00:16:09.820 which becomes we're fining you $10 million
00:16:11.660 if you don't want to check the vaccine paperwork
00:16:13.900 of people dining at your restaurant.
00:16:15.940 So that we're all in this together
00:16:17.100 has never been a bigger lie than it is right now.
00:16:20.460 We've got to take a quick break.
00:16:22.000 When we come back,
00:16:22.660 more of The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:16:24.140 Stay tuned.
00:16:24.600 You're tuned in to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:16:30.100 Welcome back to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:16:32.420 Now that we have the federal election behind us,
00:16:35.340 and I think all the ballots
00:16:36.360 or at least almost all of the ballots
00:16:38.280 have been counted,
00:16:39.320 I wanted to turn to some provincial politics
00:16:42.500 that may have some national implications,
00:16:45.200 specifically in Alberta.
00:16:47.140 In October, Albertans will on October 18th,
00:16:50.140 specifically alongside their municipal elections,
00:16:53.160 vote for Senate candidates,
00:16:54.600 and they'll also vote in a referendum
00:16:56.600 on whether equalization should be abolished.
00:17:00.300 Now, equalization is, of course,
00:17:01.840 the constitutional mechanism
00:17:03.560 that has money taken from the wealthy provinces 0.93
00:17:06.680 and redistributed to the poorer provinces.
00:17:09.800 Alberta has always been on the losing end
00:17:11.940 of this transaction,
00:17:12.920 whereas Quebec has always been 0.81
00:17:14.180 on the winning end of it.
00:17:15.540 Now, the problem is,
00:17:16.920 even if 100% of Albertans
00:17:18.640 were to vote yes on this,
00:17:21.120 it isn't binding.
00:17:22.120 The constitution cannot be unilaterally changed
00:17:24.920 by provinces,
00:17:25.660 although what the Alberta government
00:17:27.440 has long held
00:17:28.420 and what Premier Jason Kenney has long held
00:17:30.540 is that such a move
00:17:32.280 would at least give a mandate,
00:17:34.220 and there is precedent that says
00:17:36.080 the federal government
00:17:37.180 would have to negotiate in good faith.
00:17:39.760 So if that many people are saying
00:17:41.080 something's got to change here,
00:17:42.600 the federal government
00:17:43.380 would have a legal obligation
00:17:45.220 to at the very least engage with them.
00:17:47.700 So that's where this would be,
00:17:49.040 and Jason Kenney has said
00:17:50.180 the referendum would give
00:17:51.480 a bargaining chip for this.
00:17:53.360 The problem here is that
00:17:54.580 Western alienation
00:17:55.680 in the last federal election
00:17:57.320 didn't really seem to be
00:17:59.280 all that big a thing.
00:18:00.500 And I'm not saying it's not a thing.
00:18:01.660 I'm just saying it didn't manifest as such.
00:18:03.740 The Maverick Party
00:18:04.740 did not do particularly well.
00:18:06.860 Part of that was because
00:18:07.720 they had a small group of candidates,
00:18:09.600 but more importantly,
00:18:10.860 a lot of the narratives
00:18:11.780 that are around the West
00:18:13.320 were not discussed.
00:18:14.420 No one in the federal election
00:18:15.920 was really talking about them.
00:18:17.280 So if you were a Westerner,
00:18:18.440 you didn't really have a reason
00:18:19.640 to get up and start talking about,
00:18:21.980 oh, well, we need to support
00:18:22.860 this candidate or that candidate.
00:18:25.080 Perhaps the absence of this discussion
00:18:26.960 would have moved people.
00:18:28.280 But I know from covering this issue
00:18:30.260 and spending time out West
00:18:31.700 that a lot of people have said,
00:18:33.380 you know what,
00:18:33.780 if Justin Trudeau gets in again,
00:18:35.160 it's done.
00:18:35.820 We're just over.
00:18:36.820 We want to separate.
00:18:37.980 And nothing short of that will work.
00:18:41.320 Jason Kenney, the Alberta Premier,
00:18:42.920 had a press conference last week.
00:18:44.580 And I wanted to put that question to him.
00:18:46.180 Listen, what does the federal election mean,
00:18:48.260 not just for Alberta
00:18:49.160 in the context of the Alberta economy,
00:18:51.700 but specifically,
00:18:52.540 what does it mean
00:18:53.620 when we're looking at
00:18:54.660 how Western alienation will manifest
00:18:56.960 and that upcoming referendum?
00:18:58.620 This is that exchange
00:18:59.620 with Premier Kenney.
00:19:00.920 Good evening, Premier.
00:19:02.480 Curious about what the federal election
00:19:05.240 means for Albertans.
00:19:07.400 We have a growing problem
00:19:08.920 of Western alienation.
00:19:10.340 A lot of people that were on the fence
00:19:11.780 between simply voting yes
00:19:13.760 on the referendum
00:19:14.520 and pushing for a more aggressive
00:19:16.440 independence or separation measure
00:19:18.420 have often said
00:19:20.060 that if Justin Trudeau gets re-elected,
00:19:22.080 that's it.
00:19:22.800 Curious what this means
00:19:23.820 for your plans moving forward
00:19:25.260 with the referendum
00:19:26.100 and trying to keep the peace.
00:19:27.640 Well, I would note, Andrew,
00:19:30.140 that the de facto Western separatist party,
00:19:34.260 the Maverick party,
00:19:35.140 got only about 1% of the vote
00:19:36.960 in Alberta last night
00:19:38.440 and they couldn't even field
00:19:39.660 a full slate of candidates.
00:19:40.820 I think that's probably understates
00:19:45.760 support for separation
00:19:47.100 in this province significantly,
00:19:48.720 but it is a signal
00:19:50.800 that I believe the vast majority
00:19:53.960 of Albertans are frustrated
00:19:55.800 with how the country works.
00:19:59.000 What frustrates them most
00:20:00.700 is the expectation from Ottawa
00:20:04.620 that we generate so much wealth,
00:20:08.060 so much tax revenue,
00:20:09.300 so many jobs,
00:20:10.840 and yet are hampered
00:20:12.200 by policy after policy
00:20:14.240 clobbering our biggest industry.
00:20:16.860 And so that's the heart
00:20:18.500 of the frustration.
00:20:19.280 As you know,
00:20:19.880 it has a long history.
00:20:23.320 And yet, despite that frustration,
00:20:26.820 I believe that the vast majority
00:20:28.800 of Albertans are also proud Canadians.
00:20:32.240 The majority of Albertans went out
00:20:33.680 and voted in a federal election yesterday.
00:20:35.980 And as I say,
00:20:36.880 1% voted for a separatist party.
00:20:39.300 So what Jason Kenney takes
00:20:40.680 from that poor maverick showing,
00:20:42.120 which he concedes likely understates
00:20:43.900 the effect of independence
00:20:45.460 and separation,
00:20:46.660 is that most Albertans
00:20:48.060 are happy to be in Canada
00:20:49.160 and that if they were unhappy,
00:20:51.060 they would have voted
00:20:51.540 for the maverick party.
00:20:52.540 Now, one of the dynamics
00:20:53.720 that I've talked about in the past
00:20:55.200 is that a lot of the independence-minded people
00:20:57.460 are more interested
00:20:58.740 in provincial change.
00:21:00.040 They're more interested
00:21:00.780 in voting for
00:21:01.540 the Wild Rose Independence Party,
00:21:03.820 led by Paul Hinman,
00:21:05.000 who's been on the show
00:21:05.620 a couple of times
00:21:06.400 than they are in seeking
00:21:08.000 a federal alternative
00:21:09.300 in a party that didn't really manage
00:21:11.420 to get off the ground.
00:21:12.940 Now, I mean,
00:21:13.360 we'll see on October 18th,
00:21:14.940 and we'll talk in a moment
00:21:16.100 with someone who's running the campaign
00:21:18.060 or a campaign
00:21:19.200 to get people to vote yes
00:21:20.900 on that referendum,
00:21:22.660 to get yes on that idea
00:21:25.200 of ending equalization,
00:21:26.960 of stripping it from the Constitution.
00:21:28.940 So I would actually be very nervous
00:21:31.360 about doing what Premier Kenney
00:21:33.360 is doing here
00:21:34.300 in downplaying the anger
00:21:36.700 and frustration,
00:21:37.640 especially with the Liberals
00:21:39.520 having been re-elected.
00:21:40.880 Remember, it was a great shame,
00:21:42.860 I think,
00:21:43.180 that Western integrity,
00:21:45.200 Western alienation,
00:21:46.460 keeping the country together
00:21:47.600 was not really discussed.
00:21:49.380 No one cared about it.
00:21:50.580 There was so much oxygen
00:21:51.680 being given to Quebec
00:21:52.620 from the Liberals
00:21:53.480 and the Conservatives
00:21:54.340 and none given to the West,
00:21:56.160 except for some passing references
00:21:57.620 to pipelines
00:21:58.540 which certainly are important
00:22:00.260 to Alberta
00:22:00.960 but are not the be-all and end-all.
00:22:03.600 They're not the exclusive area of focus.
00:22:05.760 Even within the energy sector,
00:22:07.500 pipelines are not the sole area of concern.
00:22:10.760 So we have a Liberal government
00:22:12.380 that doesn't need Western votes,
00:22:14.600 a Liberal government
00:22:15.440 that doesn't particularly care
00:22:16.800 about Western lives
00:22:17.740 and Western jobs,
00:22:18.920 a Liberal government
00:22:19.740 that wants to subject everyone
00:22:21.200 to a carbon tax
00:22:22.540 to vilify the type of energy
00:22:24.680 on which the West relies,
00:22:26.540 and more importantly,
00:22:27.520 a government
00:22:28.020 that is capitulating to Quebec
00:22:29.540 which basically wants
00:22:31.160 to just claim a veto
00:22:32.400 over any energy projects
00:22:34.160 which thinks that
00:22:34.800 it's all dirty energy.
00:22:36.440 And like I said,
00:22:37.220 we'll talk about this
00:22:37.800 in a moment with Kevin Lacey,
00:22:39.140 but the whole point is
00:22:40.280 the West has nothing
00:22:41.900 going for it right now
00:22:43.240 in the federal government.
00:22:44.980 Oh, no, no, no.
00:22:45.580 The Liberals elected
00:22:46.340 a couple of MPs
00:22:47.320 in Alberta.
00:22:48.220 Great.
00:22:48.580 That is not going to do anything.
00:22:50.060 If like Randy Boissoneau
00:22:51.220 is all of a sudden
00:22:51.880 like the Minister
00:22:52.500 of Western Economic Diversification,
00:22:54.940 I don't think anyone
00:22:55.900 in the West
00:22:56.480 will be further ahead
00:22:57.780 than they are
00:22:58.940 prior to that re-election
00:23:00.700 or even had Conservatives
00:23:02.380 managed to win.
00:23:04.000 So all of this
00:23:04.740 just to say
00:23:05.220 it's bad news for the West
00:23:06.620 and right now
00:23:07.320 the only outlet
00:23:08.520 they really have
00:23:09.700 is that referendum vote.
00:23:11.780 But again,
00:23:12.260 it's not binding.
00:23:13.160 It's not compelling.
00:23:14.080 What's going to happen
00:23:15.100 if Justin Trudeau
00:23:16.120 looks at a referendum
00:23:17.440 that was successful
00:23:18.460 and only has to just say,
00:23:20.800 yeah, yeah,
00:23:21.160 I'll hear you out.
00:23:22.360 I mean,
00:23:22.640 bargaining in good faith.
00:23:23.540 He has to sit down with them.
00:23:24.920 It's not compelling any action.
00:23:26.820 So nevertheless,
00:23:27.820 that's not to say
00:23:28.540 it isn't important
00:23:29.320 which is why
00:23:29.900 there has been this campaign
00:23:31.100 launched by Kevin Lacey
00:23:33.220 who is the Alberta Director
00:23:34.420 of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation
00:23:36.200 called Fight Equalization
00:23:38.760 telling Albertans
00:23:40.120 why they should vote
00:23:41.320 against equalization.
00:23:43.000 Kevin Lacey joins me now.
00:23:44.780 Kevin,
00:23:45.080 it's good to talk to you.
00:23:45.860 Thanks for coming on today.
00:23:47.380 Andrew,
00:23:47.720 thanks for having me.
00:23:48.740 So we've got a few weeks left
00:23:50.620 until the referendum.
00:23:51.540 For those who haven't
00:23:52.360 been following it here,
00:23:53.540 I know the question
00:23:54.360 is about removing it
00:23:55.860 from the Constitution
00:23:56.700 but fundamentally,
00:23:58.560 what is really at play
00:23:59.680 here for people?
00:24:00.780 Fundamentally,
00:24:01.300 it's about the unfairness
00:24:02.400 of the equalization formula
00:24:03.800 to the province of Alberta
00:24:05.220 and what the problem is
00:24:07.600 is that Alberta for years
00:24:09.540 has been contributing
00:24:10.640 far more
00:24:11.720 than we've been getting back
00:24:13.320 and you would think
00:24:14.020 that that good,
00:24:15.060 that contributing
00:24:16.360 that amount of money
00:24:17.260 would buy you
00:24:17.980 some goodwill,
00:24:19.100 that it would get you
00:24:19.840 something in return
00:24:20.760 and instead,
00:24:21.540 all we've gotten
00:24:22.240 as a result
00:24:23.280 of all those contributions
00:24:24.380 is we've seen
00:24:25.460 our energy blocked
00:24:26.620 in respect to pipelines.
00:24:28.500 We've battled
00:24:29.380 with British Columbia
00:24:31.140 and Quebec
00:24:31.600 both with regards
00:24:32.720 to getting those pipelines built.
00:24:34.700 We've seen a carbon tax
00:24:36.080 from Ottawa.
00:24:37.080 So we keep contributing
00:24:38.540 and contributing
00:24:39.440 and contributing
00:24:40.260 and being generous.
00:24:42.260 Yet at the same time,
00:24:43.900 provinces
00:24:44.640 and the federal government
00:24:45.660 are basically sticking it to us
00:24:47.780 and not giving us
00:24:50.020 the things
00:24:50.400 that we need to succeed.
00:24:52.220 Yeah,
00:24:52.720 and I think Quebec
00:24:53.340 is a particularly notable
00:24:54.760 example of this.
00:24:55.880 The Quebec government,
00:24:56.840 even an ostensibly
00:24:57.680 conservative government
00:24:58.700 in Quebec,
00:24:59.380 has come in
00:25:00.160 with a very anti-Canadian
00:25:01.680 energy agenda and plan.
00:25:03.580 We have the Premier,
00:25:04.860 Francois Legault,
00:25:05.640 calling Alberta oil
00:25:06.700 dirty energy.
00:25:08.040 Yet Quebec still insists
00:25:09.660 on the money from Alberta
00:25:11.300 that only comes,
00:25:12.360 generally speaking,
00:25:12.980 because of the success
00:25:14.100 of this sector.
00:25:15.760 Well, that's exactly right.
00:25:17.100 And, you know,
00:25:17.540 so the entire equalization envelope
00:25:20.320 is about $20 billion.
00:25:22.020 Quebec gets about $13 billion
00:25:23.820 of that,
00:25:24.220 which means they get 65%
00:25:26.640 of all the equalization dollars.
00:25:28.980 And to put that in perspective,
00:25:30.780 each Quebec resident,
00:25:32.100 that equals about $1,500 per person.
00:25:35.700 That's a lot of money
00:25:36.880 that Quebec is getting 0.90
00:25:38.380 from the rest of Canada.
00:25:40.040 At the same time then,
00:25:41.500 Quebec,
00:25:41.920 while it takes this amount
00:25:42.900 of money from Canada,
00:25:44.820 rejects Canada's resources
00:25:46.600 and rejects particularly
00:25:48.640 Alberta's resources,
00:25:49.900 the one that's contributing
00:25:50.960 a large portion
00:25:52.160 of that money to it.
00:25:53.260 Imagine if it was,
00:25:54.420 if, Andrew,
00:25:55.940 you were meeting your friends
00:25:57.500 and you were generous enough
00:25:59.440 to provide them
00:26:01.240 some extra,
00:26:02.560 a little extra cash
00:26:03.420 and then you asked them
00:26:04.100 for a little favor
00:26:04.840 and they told you
00:26:05.440 to go pound sand.
00:26:07.200 That's essentially
00:26:08.140 what Quebec is doing
00:26:09.340 to Alberta.
00:26:09.920 And for years,
00:26:11.400 Alberta's just kind of
00:26:12.700 put up with it
00:26:13.420 and sure,
00:26:14.100 they've made a few statements
00:26:15.240 here and there.
00:26:16.080 This goes way back
00:26:16.860 to Peter Lougheed
00:26:17.700 in the 1980s
00:26:18.800 when Lougheed,
00:26:20.280 during both the Charlottetown Accord
00:26:22.040 and the Meech Lake Accord,
00:26:23.440 put his foot down
00:26:24.280 and said that Alberta
00:26:25.120 wasn't going to contribute
00:26:26.100 more than their fair share,
00:26:28.120 but yet it continued.
00:26:29.880 Then Ralph Klein came in,
00:26:31.900 he stood up to Ottawa,
00:26:33.600 but then the payments
00:26:34.420 kept continued
00:26:35.400 after Klein.
00:26:36.840 Then the government changed
00:26:38.340 and even Premier Notley,
00:26:39.720 who was an NDP Premier,
00:26:41.980 she put her foot down
00:26:43.060 and said this equalization
00:26:44.080 formula is not fair
00:26:44.960 to Alberta
00:26:45.460 and nothing ever changed.
00:26:47.860 So to Jason Kenney's credit,
00:26:49.900 the current Premier of Alberta,
00:26:51.760 he's decided that,
00:26:53.280 look,
00:26:53.600 enough is enough.
00:26:55.480 We can keep going to Canada
00:26:57.180 and complaining
00:26:58.000 about the equalization formula
00:26:59.300 and complaining
00:26:59.840 about what Quebec's saying,
00:27:01.260 but we're not getting anywhere.
00:27:02.900 So we need to go out
00:27:03.980 and have this referendum,
00:27:05.020 which is happening
00:27:05.780 on October 18th,
00:27:07.220 and show Canada
00:27:08.580 that Albertans are mad
00:27:10.420 that their money
00:27:11.080 is being mistreated
00:27:12.140 and they want to see real change.
00:27:14.480 And to be honest,
00:27:15.260 at this point,
00:27:16.040 I'm not sure
00:27:16.560 what is really left
00:27:17.740 for the government
00:27:18.340 of Alberta to do.
00:27:19.620 They're really at a last straw
00:27:21.040 and this is a last ditch effort
00:27:23.160 to try to make
00:27:23.840 some real changes.
00:27:25.160 Is the issue
00:27:26.120 the formula for equalization
00:27:28.140 or the existence
00:27:29.020 of equalization itself
00:27:30.540 with the caveat
00:27:31.260 for those not familiar
00:27:32.320 that actually getting rid of it
00:27:34.320 would require
00:27:34.900 a constitutional amendment,
00:27:36.080 but amending the formula
00:27:37.200 is actually relatively simple.
00:27:39.780 Yeah, I think for us
00:27:41.320 in particular,
00:27:42.040 what we want to see
00:27:42.740 is reform of the system.
00:27:45.180 And we also,
00:27:45.980 I think a lot of this,
00:27:47.000 Andrew,
00:27:47.280 is actually political,
00:27:48.860 which is we want to assert
00:27:50.220 what the grievance
00:27:52.360 of Alberta is
00:27:53.400 in the hope
00:27:54.300 that recipient provinces
00:27:56.020 will understand
00:27:56.920 the position
00:27:57.540 of the province
00:27:58.260 and start to embrace
00:28:00.060 some of the things
00:28:01.100 that is allowing this money
00:28:03.000 to come into their province.
00:28:04.060 So really what I think
00:28:05.520 we're looking for
00:28:06.220 is some goodwill
00:28:07.140 on behalf of many
00:28:08.260 of these premiers
00:28:09.000 who are sticking it
00:28:10.580 to Alberta.
00:28:12.320 So reform is part of it.
00:28:14.300 The equalization question
00:28:15.540 actually asks,
00:28:16.560 do we support
00:28:17.160 removing the constitution,
00:28:19.420 removing equalization
00:28:20.520 from the constitution?
00:28:22.740 And I think that's really
00:28:24.380 the whole point of that
00:28:25.720 is to just kind of
00:28:26.580 lay the marker
00:28:27.440 for what Alberta expects
00:28:29.260 in the upcoming years
00:28:30.240 with regards to
00:28:30.900 continued negotiations
00:28:32.200 on equalization.
00:28:34.440 Yeah, and one thing
00:28:35.640 that I think is important
00:28:36.440 to point out here
00:28:37.240 is that Alberta's obviously
00:28:38.320 had some great times
00:28:39.400 over the years,
00:28:40.220 but in the last few years
00:28:41.700 with the downturn
00:28:42.500 in the sector,
00:28:43.740 the oil and gas sector,
00:28:44.960 which is the predominant
00:28:46.160 source of wealth
00:28:46.780 in Alberta,
00:28:47.420 things have been a bit tough.
00:28:48.660 But the province
00:28:49.260 has still been on the hook
00:28:50.300 for equalization
00:28:51.160 in those more difficult years.
00:28:53.700 Yeah, and that's been
00:28:54.300 a really tough pill
00:28:55.400 to swallow
00:28:56.120 because you haven't,
00:28:57.300 like over the last
00:28:58.020 six and a half year,
00:28:59.320 Alberta's really had
00:29:00.420 a rough go.
00:29:01.380 And many, you know,
00:29:02.440 at one point
00:29:03.040 we were in double digits
00:29:04.080 in unemployment,
00:29:05.380 one of the highest
00:29:06.340 unemployment rates
00:29:07.040 in all of Canada.
00:29:10.480 So we've had
00:29:11.180 a really rough time.
00:29:12.720 Some of that is
00:29:13.580 as a result of
00:29:14.680 poor policies
00:29:16.740 out of Ottawa.
00:29:18.080 Some of that
00:29:18.580 is also related
00:29:20.160 outside the border,
00:29:21.380 which is just
00:29:21.860 the cost of energy
00:29:23.360 and the price of oil.
00:29:26.160 But families
00:29:27.340 Sevilla had
00:29:27.860 a really hard time.
00:29:29.060 The province
00:29:29.860 has not had the money
00:29:30.720 to fund, say,
00:29:31.460 schools and hospitals
00:29:32.780 and building new roads.
00:29:35.280 Yet they see
00:29:36.240 down a few,
00:29:38.180 you know,
00:29:38.460 down a few flights
00:29:39.660 away in Quebec,
00:29:41.120 things are going
00:29:41.800 really, really well.
00:29:42.920 And meanwhile,
00:29:43.820 our money,
00:29:44.400 when it's needed
00:29:44.880 here at home,
00:29:45.560 is going to
00:29:46.340 a province like Quebec,
00:29:47.780 which doesn't need it.
00:29:49.340 So that's the type
00:29:50.780 of reform
00:29:51.380 that I think
00:29:52.040 we need to see.
00:29:53.720 And I think
00:29:54.080 if you're one
00:29:54.620 of those families
00:29:55.240 that's struggling
00:29:55.860 to make ends meet
00:29:56.760 and watching
00:29:57.560 your tax dollars
00:29:58.280 go to other parts
00:29:59.080 of the country
00:29:59.540 while at the same time
00:30:00.460 your schools
00:30:01.100 are suffering,
00:30:02.320 you've got a big
00:30:03.260 problem with that.
00:30:04.840 Yeah, and I know
00:30:05.880 that just looking
00:30:06.580 at the numbers here,
00:30:07.360 you mentioned
00:30:07.780 how much
00:30:08.320 the average Quebecer,
00:30:09.820 how much it works
00:30:10.480 out to be on average
00:30:11.440 that a Quebecer
00:30:12.540 is receiving from this.
00:30:13.640 On the flip side
00:30:14.420 of it,
00:30:14.740 you have the average
00:30:15.540 Albertan
00:30:16.100 having to pay
00:30:18.840 $600,
00:30:19.780 I believe it is,
00:30:20.640 on this.
00:30:20.920 $3 billion a year
00:30:22.040 that the province
00:30:22.640 is spending.
00:30:23.180 And if you're
00:30:23.420 an Alberta taxpayer,
00:30:24.640 that's $3 billion
00:30:25.700 that's not going
00:30:26.420 to fix the roads,
00:30:27.360 that's not going
00:30:27.880 into the healthcare system,
00:30:28.980 which we've been hearing
00:30:29.620 a lot about in Alberta,
00:30:31.040 that's not going
00:30:31.640 into schools.
00:30:32.260 That's a lot of money.
00:30:33.720 Yeah, and then
00:30:34.320 the fiscal situation
00:30:35.400 here isn't that hot either.
00:30:37.600 And, you know,
00:30:38.340 that's maybe a debate
00:30:39.220 for another show
00:30:39.920 of how we ended up there.
00:30:42.240 But given that
00:30:43.440 Alberta families
00:30:44.520 are struggling themselves,
00:30:46.540 and I think
00:30:46.980 if most families
00:30:48.700 and most Albertans
00:30:49.560 are willing to be generous
00:30:50.600 with the rest of the country,
00:30:51.740 they have been
00:30:52.220 for many, many years.
00:30:54.200 But given these tough times
00:30:56.080 when everyone else
00:30:57.680 is cutting back,
00:30:58.980 the equalization formula
00:31:00.080 actually with the way
00:31:00.980 it's set up
00:31:01.460 is going to increase
00:31:02.540 over the next few years.
00:31:03.740 So this commitment
00:31:04.620 that Albertans are under
00:31:06.700 at a time
00:31:07.340 when they don't have
00:31:08.020 any money
00:31:08.380 is actually just increasing.
00:31:10.240 And that puts a strain
00:31:11.960 on the public services
00:31:13.060 even higher
00:31:13.860 and makes it more difficult
00:31:15.520 to take that this money
00:31:17.020 is being sent to Ottawa.
00:31:18.600 So let's talk about
00:31:19.660 the campaign itself.
00:31:20.820 I'm assuming you're doing
00:31:21.440 more than just chatting
00:31:22.280 with me,
00:31:22.740 although I love
00:31:23.520 having you on the show.
00:31:24.660 What are you going
00:31:25.220 to be doing
00:31:25.560 between now
00:31:26.220 and October 18th?
00:31:27.680 So we've launched
00:31:28.580 a separate society
00:31:31.420 called Society
00:31:32.160 for Albertans
00:31:33.620 Against Equalization.
00:31:35.180 We're going to be
00:31:35.920 heading out
00:31:36.500 and campaigning
00:31:37.300 on the road
00:31:37.960 trying to convince
00:31:39.120 Albertans to vote yes
00:31:40.520 in this referendum
00:31:41.420 to remove equalization
00:31:43.880 from the Constitution.
00:31:45.860 We've just launched
00:31:46.740 new radio ads
00:31:47.640 that are on our website.
00:31:48.820 Feel free to check them out
00:31:50.380 that are talking
00:31:52.700 about this issue.
00:31:53.720 Our new billboards
00:31:54.440 will be going up
00:31:54.980 later on in the week
00:31:55.840 and we'll be continuing
00:31:57.340 to do things like
00:31:58.280 you and I are doing today,
00:31:59.600 Andrew,
00:31:59.780 just to try to talk
00:32:00.580 to more and more Canadians
00:32:02.080 and more and more,
00:32:02.840 particularly Albertans,
00:32:04.040 about getting out to vote
00:32:05.240 on October 18th,
00:32:06.480 voting yes
00:32:07.200 in the referendum
00:32:08.800 and finally
00:32:10.260 standing up for Alberta
00:32:12.060 so that Alberta
00:32:13.100 can make a stand
00:32:14.080 and don't continually
00:32:15.420 see our money go
00:32:16.480 to when our money
00:32:18.420 is not respected.
00:32:20.000 And what constitutes
00:32:20.740 a win for you on this?
00:32:22.820 I think, look,
00:32:23.680 I think we're going
00:32:24.760 to have to see
00:32:25.240 election night
00:32:25.920 what the win is.
00:32:27.840 These, let's be honest,
00:32:30.120 referendums in Canada
00:32:31.180 are always unpredictable
00:32:32.240 and there's a lot
00:32:34.040 of politics going on
00:32:35.960 in Alberta
00:32:36.400 that's far outside
00:32:38.180 of the referendum
00:32:39.000 but really anything
00:32:40.500 over 50%
00:32:41.360 is a victory for us.
00:32:42.840 Yeah, that's the majority
00:32:43.660 of Albertan saying
00:32:44.520 that they can't really
00:32:45.300 abide by the status quo.
00:32:47.000 So, very well said.
00:32:48.200 You can find out more
00:32:48.960 about the campaign
00:32:49.680 at fightequalization.ca.
00:32:51.740 Kevin Lacey
00:32:52.240 is the campaign director
00:32:53.820 and Alberta director
00:32:54.800 for the Canadian
00:32:55.620 Taxpayers Federation.
00:32:57.000 Kevin, thanks for coming on today.
00:32:58.180 Good to talk to you as always.
00:32:59.280 Thanks for having me.
00:33:00.500 We will certainly be covering that
00:33:02.300 in the weeks to come.
00:33:03.460 My thanks to all of you
00:33:04.420 for tuning into the show
00:33:05.660 and to Kevin Lacey
00:33:06.960 for coming on.
00:33:07.800 We will talk to you later this week
00:33:09.300 with more of Canada's
00:33:10.540 most irreverent talk show.
00:33:12.020 Thank you, God bless
00:33:12.860 and good day to you all.
00:33:14.520 Thanks for listening
00:33:15.200 to The Andrew Lawton Show.
00:33:16.720 Support the program
00:33:17.440 by donating to True North
00:33:18.680 at www.tnc.news.
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