Juno News - October 16, 2019


The existential issues voters need to think about


Episode Stats

Length

6 minutes

Words per Minute

195.67224

Word Count

1,272

Sentence Count

1

Hate Speech Sentences

3


Summary

In this episode, I talk about the existential issues that threaten Canada's economic and natural resources wealth, and how we need to address them in order to keep our economy and energy sector from eroding. I also talk about some of the major existential threats to Canada's energy sector, our natural resources sector, and our national identity.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 one thing that's been sorely neglected during the conversation around this
00:00:12.720 federal election campaign in Canada is the big picture issues the existential
00:00:17.760 issues even and I don't use that word lightly I mean the issues that put at
00:00:22.140 risk the future existence really of the nation of Canada we've been talking
00:00:27.160 about a whole lot of candidate shaming stories gotcha moment stories and a lot
00:00:31.180 of the campaign promises are boutique promises what I'm gonna do for this group
00:00:35.080 and that group to increase or decrease the money in their wallets by a few
00:00:39.100 hundred dollars so on and so forth and all the parties they're all guilty doing
00:00:42.880 the same thing none of them talking about these big picture issues I've got
00:00:46.780 a few I want to present to you here one of them is the broader economy vis-a-vis our
00:00:52.720 natural resources sector our oil and gas sector now there are a whole lot of
00:00:56.840 voices out there that just want to shut the whole thing down and it's really
00:01:00.980 something when you step back and go we're really we're really blessed to have
00:01:05.420 this wealth here we are blessed to have these natural resources that many other
00:01:09.140 countries would absolutely love to have and what we instead do is we hold it
00:01:13.880 back we put up roadblocks barriers sometimes literally other times
00:01:17.720 figuratively bill c69 liberal legislation has been criticized by many people across
00:01:23.240 the political spectrum and particularly people in the oil and gas sector they
00:01:26.960 say this this basically just eliminates our industry means we can't move forward
00:01:30.980 on new projects I mean imagine a family doing things to actively undermine the
00:01:36.440 breadwinner's ability to get things done and whenever I think about these big
00:01:40.280 picture issues it makes me think of what Don Walker the CEO of Magna
00:01:44.120 International had to say the other year when he said he's really worried about
00:01:47.240 about the broad competitiveness of Canada eroding you know you can stand back and
00:01:51.960 say well I'm not one of those Bay Street guys or I'm not a big business person so
00:01:55.940 I don't care about these issues you go hold on a second really what you're
00:01:58.520 talking about is the atrophying of our economy at a time when there are other
00:02:03.140 countries that are actually seeing their economies doing well growing becoming
00:02:07.760 more dynamic it is incredibly dangerous thing to see us head in this
00:02:11.720 direction on this file now speaking of other countries one other major
00:02:15.740 existential threat to Canada on the foreign policy file is the current things
00:02:20.740 that China is doing to undermine well not just Canada but many other countries in
00:02:25.540 the world the Belt and Road Initiative the Asian Investment Infrastructure Bank
00:02:29.360 that last one we are a member of we joined it quietly much to the chagrin of some
00:02:34.180 people Andrew Scheer rightfully says he's gonna pull us out of it these are all
00:02:37.600 these apparatuses that the United that that China pardon me under President Xi
00:02:41.900 Jinping are creating to replace the United States as the leading global
00:02:46.880 superpower in the world they want to bring a whole bunch of countries under
00:02:49.940 their wing to push us more in their direction we're seeing day by day there
00:02:53.580 are stories in Canada whether it's about the Huawei file things going on at
00:02:58.400 Canadian universities questions about pro-Beijing elements in Canadian society
00:03:04.520 actively trying to shout down and suppress pro-Hong Kong pro-democracy
00:03:08.900 activists trying to praise authoritarian communism in the streets of Canada or
00:03:14.000 stuff you're seeing in the United States with the NBA basically siding with the
00:03:18.620 authoritarian approach of communist China incredibly troubling stuff and this is
00:03:22.520 not just a day-to-day file this is not something you say oh Trudeau is weak on
00:03:26.260 this specific moment this is this is an incredibly big picture issue this is about
00:03:31.640 really the future of our country not just in terms of one specific policy file but
00:03:35.880 whether or not our country has a future when you have a country like China that
00:03:41.580 wants our intellectual property they want some of our powerhouse corporations
00:03:45.780 there have been bids to do things like buy ACON previously a Chinese state-owned
00:03:49.800 enterprise was able under the Stephen Harper government to buy up a company in
00:03:54.420 our natural resources sector thankfully we've put the lid on that that's not
00:03:57.940 going to happen again many other questions about these issues wanting to buy up our
00:04:02.880 land and more espionage in Canada you know the other year we had Canada 150 and
00:04:09.420 it was a it was a beautiful celebration it was great for everybody to come
00:04:12.360 together nonpartisan and celebrate our great country but there wasn't a lot of
00:04:16.740 talk about how to get to the next 150 it seems like a wild thing to say you know
00:04:21.680 Canada 300 we're so far away from that but if you want there to be a Canada 300 if
00:04:26.760 you want Canada to be the country it is somewhat resembling what it is today the
00:04:30.400 things that make this country great you have to talk about it and plan for it
00:04:32.800 now and on these files embracing our oil and gas sector not letting Chinese
00:04:38.640 communist authoritarian values hold sway over us and our business sector and our
00:04:43.260 academic circles you've got to plant those seeds today there's another big big
00:04:47.920 picture issue that I think we're heading in the wrong direction on right now
00:04:51.160 that is questions of national identity before there can be national unity there has to
00:04:57.180 be a national identity but the problem is anytime someone talks about all of that
00:05:01.460 they bring it down to the lowest common denominator they vilify people about it
00:05:04.940 and they want to bring in phrases like racism and so forth as if a national
00:05:08.320 identity has to involve race it doesn't I don't think it does at all I think the
00:05:13.000 Canadian national identity can bring everybody in and there can be a place at
00:05:16.800 the table for everybody and we all we all are unified behind some sort of
00:05:20.820 Canadian values there are a reason why there are people all across the world who say
00:05:23.960 I'm not so hot on what's going on in my own country but I've heard what's going
00:05:27.000 on in Canada and I want to be a part of it I want to join in on it and I want to
00:05:30.500 contribute to it I want to strengthen it and I always think it's shameful of us
00:05:33.900 that we're letting those people down by not talking more about a Canadian
00:05:37.840 national identity and it's going to be hard to have national unity if we don't
00:05:42.560 have something to rally behind but Prime Minister Justin Shirley famously told the
00:05:45.560 New York Times back in 2015 just shortly before he became Prime Minister he says no
00:05:50.380 core identity in Canada there is no mainstream we are the first post national
00:05:54.780 state wow but there are other countries out there China as I mentioned Russia a
00:06:01.320 number of other countries who actually do feel that they are strong national
00:06:04.760 states so if we're a post national state if we don't do any of that but there
00:06:08.640 are these other strong identities well can't they kind of can't they crowd us out
00:06:12.480 can't they swallow us up in cultural ways or in other ways I mean these are
00:06:16.720 really important issues that we have to address right now the politicians aren't
00:06:21.160 talking about them and that's a shame because this is really about the future
00:06:25.720 of the country that we know and love