00:00:45.660And if you read it, it's a Pride Season is a term that refers to the wide range of Pride events that take place over the summer, June to September.
00:00:55.340when 2SLG, I don't know all the letters here,
00:10:56.700you know what Christians it's biblical to not want anything to do with Target and here's why
00:11:01.200it's an inoffensive video people may disagree with it he then has the mob descend on him to
00:11:07.500such a point where he has to give this horrible apology that the Toronto Blue Jays trots out in
00:11:13.500which he apologized commits himself to re-education whatever that means and then he comes out and
00:11:20.120yesterday his first appearance since this whole controversy he is booed now all the media that
00:11:25.780reported on that, said Anthony Bass was booed because he was a big, dirty, homophobe transphobe.
00:11:31.220I think, you know, knowing sports fans, and I've met a few of them, he may have been booed because
00:11:35.820of his apology, which seems to have angered far more people than the initial so-called infraction
00:11:42.140did. But all of the people that get outraged about the Blue Jays and Anthony Bass, the people
00:11:46.900that get outraged about a Twitter account not having a rainbow flag, these are the people who
00:11:52.000oftentimes are turning a blind eye to real injustice around the world and neglect as one
00:11:57.520gay friend and colleague of mine said to me earlier today that Canada is one of the best
00:12:02.400places in the world to be a member of the LGBT community which is why people from around the
00:12:08.620world who face real bona fide oppression for their sexual identity like places in Iran in Chechnya
00:12:15.880Russia in African countries why they all risk life and limb to come to Canada so anyone who
00:12:22.680says Canada is the problem here needs to look in the mirror and look around and see are you taking
00:12:29.080the easy stand or are you going after the real injustice here Sue Ann Levy my colleague who has
00:12:34.680been a very outspoken member of the gay community herself a lesbian woman joins me and I normally
00:12:40.140don't introduce anyone by their sexual identity except in this case I think it is relevant
00:12:44.760because suanne you see companies all the time uh in your name and in the name of of other people
00:12:50.500in who are lesbian gay bisexual transgender say we're with you but only when it's easy to do so
00:12:56.640i'm wearing my rainbow watch so in honor i mind i see i'm doing like the saudi arabia thing i
00:13:06.060just have the black you're blacked out yes well you know it's interesting because you're you're
00:13:13.140absolutely right. I was listening to your narrative and you're absolutely right. And this is exactly
00:13:19.520what I wanted to talk about is that, you know, particularly radical queer people who are trying
00:13:27.700to foist either gender ideology or any other, you know, the numerous letters in the acronym LGBTQIAST,
00:13:40.280You know, they are just willfully blind, I think, to the human rights abuses in many countries where gays and lesbians are thrown off roofs.
00:13:53.580They could suffer the death penalty. You named some. Uganda is a most recent example.
00:13:59.980Yemen, Nigeria, many Muslim countries in the Middle East.
00:14:03.420And this is the thing that always got me, is that Israel is always picked on for its human rights abuses.
00:14:10.880Meanwhile, all the Arab countries around it do not tolerate homosexuality in the slightest, including Saudi Arabia.
00:14:21.460And many of the gays and lesbians from those countries will find safe refuge in Israel or in Canada or wherever.
00:14:31.300But, you know, these, these companies, I mean, I think I'm rather sick of all the, you know, the virtual signaling that they've, you know, the comments on Twitter, the comments on social media. You know what it's all about, Andrew? It's about appealing to the pocketbooks of gays and lesbians.
00:14:51.580because you know you've heard of dinks double income no kids although that's changing because
00:14:56.140many gay and lesbians have children now but they see a huge resource there i saw it in the pride
00:15:02.380parade many many years ago in toronto pride parade where all the corporate sponsors would be marching
00:15:07.740handing out freebies uh beer companies banks whatever one of the banks that actually i find
00:15:15.820most obnoxious about oh this is the one i bank at td bank okay i know you are accepting but
00:15:23.740everybody forgets about all the abuses around the world and that's what we should that's the fight
00:15:29.580we should be having right now because when 70 countries don't allow homosexuality in some form
00:15:36.060we've got a problem yeah i agree and and the problem with that argument i i realize is that
00:15:43.260you know, there are gradations in injustice.
00:15:47.400You know, you can have a smaller injustice in Canada
00:16:40.120I think there's a big divide because the big divide in the community now, certainly in Canada,
00:16:45.320and I live a charmed existence here in Canada. I married my wife in 2009. We have no issues.
00:16:52.440We're accepted as a couple at our synagogue, wherever. In fact, my synagogue just invited
00:16:58.000me to a pride service on June 17th to mark Pride Month. I mean, that's how far we've come. But
00:17:04.600But there are, I mean, I'm in my 60s, and there are people in my age group and older who had to fight for incredible rights way back in the 80s and 70s and 80s.
00:17:18.480And I lived in the closet for 20 years, so I know, I mean, I wasn't fighting, I was hiding.
00:17:24.360But the ones who are now gay and living in a very accepting environment, they are the ones who get their noses out of joint with all this stuff.
00:17:33.920they're the ones who engage in mob rule about flags and about you know flags not being flown
00:17:41.480at a catholic high school i think people of my generation who had to fight the good fight or
00:17:46.440lived in the closet or were afraid to come out they understand the difference they understand
00:17:52.040they're more understanding of the it's a complicated you know that complicated decision
00:17:58.240sometimes about the intricacies and i absolutely hate the mob rule when it comes to you know
00:18:05.080foisting this down people's throats you and i have talked about this in other contexts than just
00:18:10.640you know issues to do with sexual orientation and identity but the one thing that strikes me here is
00:18:16.340that there is a subset an activist subset whose goal is not just breaking down barriers to civil
00:18:23.400rights and general discrimination and even systemic discrimination. But there's a group who
00:18:28.620seems they will never be satisfied until every single person doesn't just tolerate, but embraces
00:18:35.260every single aspect of this. And by that, I mean, you know, there are people that will never be
00:18:40.640comfortable with the fact that, you know, some Christian denominations, Jewish denominations,
00:18:45.300Muslim denominations don't respect gay marriage, may view same-sex relationships as sinful. And
00:18:50.700And I'm curious what you think about that, because my view, and I say this as someone who's not a member of this community, is that, you know, if you have all of the legal rights available, and generally speaking, I've seen people walking around, even in Calgary last week, you know, gay couples holding hands that didn't seem, to my view, they were being harassed, that if there are individual people in society that are intolerant, that is never really going to go away.
00:19:17.120Like, there are still some people, I believe, that are probably uncomfortable with interracial relationships, even though those, I think, have been legal and widely accepted.
00:19:25.800And am I being too accepting of intolerance, or do you agree that there's always going to be that, and our goal can't be 100% complete tolerance in society?
00:19:35.480Well, there are people who, there are religions, for example, the Orthodox sect of the Jewish religion still doesn't accept really gay marriage.
00:19:46.120I couldn't get married in an orthodox synagogue. Islamic religion, most Muslim people do not accept gay marriage. And, you know, this particular Catholic high school you're talking about, our Catholic education center, the York Region Catholic Board, they, you know, they have children who've come to their schools to get a religious education.
00:20:11.000it's not that they're not accepting they just don't have to beat the drum about it and I think
00:20:16.160the activists expect everybody to beat the drum about it well I the way I feel is I walk with my
00:20:24.620wife we do our we live our lives like very normal people like we fight like you know heterosexual
00:20:32.340couples we have you know make up like uh heterosexual couples and the fact that no one
00:20:38.600bothers us and no one says anything and no one cares no that's the operative word no one cares
00:20:45.860like i don't understand these activists why they have to make a big deal about it they want to yeah
00:20:51.240yeah because that to me is the very definition of tolerance if people go around and they don't
00:20:58.320care people who say well you know i you know maybe i don't like uh you know this or that but i don't
00:21:02.700really care live your life be who you are i mean that because that ideally should be the goal but
00:21:07.060but you are right i mean the mob has basically made it where unless you're out there waving the
00:21:12.140progress flag you're a bigot well i thought we had reached that you know i thought we had gotten
00:21:18.440over all of that the big fight see what's happened and you know i alluded to it is that i think
00:21:24.180there is a real divide between mainstream members of the gay community like myself and my friends
00:21:30.760and the radical activists who now are espousing queer theory and much of that relates to gender
00:21:39.880ideology and the trans ideology and the organization for example a gal which is right
00:21:47.660across canada and fought for my rights and i'm very appreciative appreciative of what they've
00:21:53.200done have now they they have no more fight for lgbt lgb rights now they have to find another
00:22:01.220cause and that's what's happened is that all these queer activists they don't have a fight because
00:22:06.700you know most of these gays and lesbians uh have rights so it's people of color are more oppressed
00:22:14.060trans people are more oppressed i mean you know screaming and shouting uh to me is just
00:22:22.600unpleasant it really is unpleasant yeah when you're and the intersectionality you're right
00:22:28.540about here i mean now the idea of you know an upper middle class white gay male couple like
00:22:34.900they they're barely they're barely less oppressed than me to some of the activists that say no we
00:22:39.920need to prioritize black trans lives indigenous two-spirit lives and all of that and i do think
00:22:45.820and you and i have talked about this before adding the t to the lgb has has really muddled this for
00:22:51.760a lot of people because it is a very distinct issue with different political consequences
00:22:56.580certainly when you're talking about you know gender affirming care for children about women's
00:23:00.440only spaces definitely definitely and i think that's the pendulum has swung so far on that
00:23:07.240um i mean we could talk for an hour about our feelings about that and i certainly think that
00:23:12.700you know what's happening with ramming gender ideology and pronouns out kids throats at the
00:23:19.440age of five, six, seven, I've written a number of stories about that, which is happening in the
00:23:24.100school system, is just so inappropriate. It borders on obscene, I think. And, you know, so that,
00:23:31.500and many of the mainstream gay people would agree with me, would feel the same way. So
00:23:37.140you've got this bunch of activists who are very loud and are making noise and holding everybody
00:23:47.500up to these ridiculous and impossible standards.
00:23:51.760And, you know, it's a bad time, I think,
00:23:55.740because of the division in the gay community.
00:23:59.240Sue Ann Levy, my colleague at True North,
00:24:01.220thanks so much for coming on and enjoy.
00:32:48.780So like you, yes, of course, we've interacted with Danielle personally over the many, many years.
00:32:53.260I think actually you were there when Danielle and I were like concocting plans for world domination at Red Lobster or something.
00:32:58.360I was sitting right there at the table.
00:33:00.520I happen to remember that conversation. And here she is. Premier, can I just take my CTF hat off for just a second? And just as like a human being, it's pretty remarkable. Like this political comeback. She was, you know, all that stuff that happened with Wild Rose, the floor crossing. She lost her seat during that time. And now here we are one year from when I think you and I were talking about this.
00:33:27.140And she's elected to a majority as premier. It's a pretty remarkable comeback. And I would say the same thing if she were wearing like a red or orange jersey, just objectively speaking. It's a pretty remarkable comeback politically here in Canada. And so to put the CTF hat back on, yes, she has been very receptive.
00:33:44.760Interestingly, one of the first things we did is we asked all of the UCP leadership candidates to sign our pledge, promising, if I'm premier, never, ever a PST.
00:33:58.480And what's interesting is during the signing, and I hadn't mentioned this to her at all.
00:34:02.500It was just her kind of nerding out, as she would put it.
00:34:05.380she's signing it and she says hey I really liked the paper you guys did like 15 years ago where
00:34:11.700you said if you put enough money into the heritage savings fund we could get rid of an income tax
00:34:16.440like wouldn't that be neat in the future I'm just like yeah that would be neat did she write that
00:34:22.720on the pledge as well because that might have been a good appendix to uh to try to bring up with
00:34:26.760I should have called her on it and said put a writer on that you know yeah yeah exactly but
00:34:30.940yeah to you know yes the short answer is yes and even during the election campaign they agreed to
00:34:37.540a lot of things like opening up the taxpayer protection act and before that they agreed to
00:34:42.560balance budget legislation debt repayment saving money in the heritage fund a lot of the meat and
00:34:47.640potato things that the ctf has been asking for there's one little thing if we could push it for
00:34:52.720one more thing we would really like to see put in the taxpayer protection act and that's the carbon
00:34:57.360tax. So it's going to sound weird, but of course, right now, there's just a federal carbon tax.
00:35:04.140What happens if that gets scrapped? What prevents whatever provincial politician is here in Alberta
00:35:10.560from creating a provincial one here again? It was awful when Premier Rachel Notley had sprung one
00:35:16.580on Albertans, but they got their say-so on that. Now we're forced to pay Justin Trudeau's
00:35:23.020mandatory minimum carbon tax. And people here really don't like it. And so we would like one
00:35:28.220more change to the Taxpayer Protection Act. And that is to put a provincial carbon tax shield
00:35:34.300in there. Yeah, that would be, I think, a very, very good one. And if I have the chance to sit
00:35:39.720down with the Premier in the coming months, I'd like to ask that. So do remind me if you get wind
00:35:43.660that she's coming on the show. I will. Before I let you go, Chris, I want to ask you about that
00:35:47.620Ralph Klein paid in full? Because I think that it's very difficult to unwind government, which
00:35:54.200is why putting a PST in place, for example, would become permanent. I just know it. I know that it's
00:35:59.940going to become very easy for a government to look at the numbers when something like that was in,
00:36:04.220if it were ever in and say, you know, to roll this back would just be too costly. Is it possible to
00:36:10.060get back to that paid in full? Or has debt just become such an accepted part of doing business
00:36:16.460now as government that there's no real appetite to make those tough calls anymore that's a great
00:36:21.180question and again i would say the same thing if the numbers were there for an ndp or liberal
00:36:26.940government but here in alberta the debt clock is going backwards like i've never seen it happen
00:36:34.160before so rewind about six or eight months or so ago uh the government at the time before the
00:36:40.700election, put down the biggest one-time payment on the debt. So they got a surplus, they had some
00:36:46.780savings, they had some money to actually use. And instead of just blowing it, now I'm sure they
00:36:52.240wasted money on the margins here and there that we haven't found yet, but they put a big chunk
00:36:57.100down on the debt. And so now the debt, again, it's an astronomical number, it's around 73 billion
00:37:03.480dollars, but it's going down. They're reducing the debt. And they already passed legislation saying
00:37:09.22050% of the cash surplus must now go down on the debt, or they'll penalize themselves, or, you know, we're allowed to chase them around in a fibra costume, or I can bicycle lock my neck to their leg. Like, you know, we will make them keep their promises. And so here, debt is on the radar. I don't think that's quite broken through at the federal level yet.
00:37:34.320like the the folks in the parliamentary press gallery aren't really paying attention to that
00:37:38.980yet but i'll tell you when that debt servicing cost also known as your interest payment on the
00:37:45.400federal debt eclipses line items like national defense or health care or something like that
00:37:53.060they'll start paying attention then do you guys have i you lived in ontario previously i know so
00:37:58.760you may know this do you guys have the uh an alberta equivalent of the ontario opportunities fund
00:38:03.620which is this stupid thing in ontario where you can like voluntarily donate your tax refund to
00:38:08.540pay down the provincial debt oh which is like mike harris did it and apparently it gets like
00:38:14.240i don't know forty thousand dollars a year or something but i'm like but in alberta i might
00:38:18.340actually trust that the government would be responsible with that in ontario i don't i was
00:38:22.480never going to give kathleen winn my tax refund or anything here's a bag with no no hole on the
00:38:28.400end of it right yeah um but yeah yeah promise but probably um but in all seriousness anyone can make
00:38:36.600a donation they would just have to contact the treasury board yeah it's for real find out their
00:38:42.440direct deposit or their mailing address and give money to them in fact i don't recommend that ever
00:38:48.600no no i'm not but it's like i really believe in alberta and i want alberta to be able to do that
00:38:53.080again because it sets the standard for every other province in the country that you don't get to just
00:38:57.360run your government and run your affairs on debt and pretend that that's the only way of doing
00:39:01.860things. Yeah, exactly. And it's an example I actually give to a lot of folks when I'll be
00:39:06.260online or whatever and post something like, hey, we've got tax cuts or reductions here. And they're
00:39:10.660like, I'm happy paying more taxes. And I'm like, well, here's the address of Revenue Canada.
00:39:14.760Feel free. You know, take my portion. And so we're very hopeful, but we're also practical.
00:39:22.340They made a lot of big promises during this campaign. So we're going to have to work really
00:39:27.000hard on the ctf side of things to hold them accountable for those promises and we will
00:39:32.400all right chris sims from the canadian taxpayers federation good seeing you monday thanks for
00:39:37.380popping in today really appreciate it thank you all right that does it for us for today we've got
00:39:43.020to wrap things up there tomorrow we will have a special interview with aaron gunn that you won't
00:39:48.420want to miss that's going to be in depth about his new documentary canada is dying which again