KINSELLACAST 394： Sa'd, Lilley, E. on a bad year - but with the best song and LP of the year!
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Summary
The year that went by and the year that is on its way. The year that was, and the one that will be, the year to come. And the one to come after. - Warren Kinsella
Transcript
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it's the Kinsella cast starring Warren Kinsella
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hey welcome to Kinsella cast didn't know didn't think I was gonna do this one a year-end one
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kind of miasma ray zone between Christmas and New Year's but here I am I'm doing it anyway I'm up at
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the lake with the dogs and the cat and E and you'll hear from me at the conclusion and decided to give
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you Kinsella cast so you're welcome I've got important music for me this year Ekka Vandal who
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I thought had the song of the year with Molly I've got another one by her bleed but never die
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and I got military gun God owes me money and bad idea both from their newest album which is the best
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album of the year and so I've got that and then of course Kareem Assad with her insights on the
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present and the future and Brian Lilly as well talking about the year that went by and the year
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that is on its way Milton Sanford mayor was an American journalist he's a Quaker I live on a
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Quaker farmhouse no less he had Jewish heritage but he didn't talk about that and but anyway it
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wasn't the important thing the important thing is what he wrote in one of his many books and it was
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titled they thought they were free the Germans from 1933 to 1945 after the war mayor interviewed 10 ordinary
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German men he wanted to ask them about their views on national socialism and Hitler and the Jews and
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none of the Germans the interviewed had criminal records although there was one who had set a synagogue
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on fire he didn't disclose to them that he had Jewish antecedents because none of the men would have
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spoken to him all of them spoke fondly of Hitler and all of them expressed disdain for Jews and he
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wrote this passage it's long passage but it's important about the beginnings of it all when
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Germany and quite a lot of the world lost its mind when it went mad he wrote about how a country of
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people can lose their humanity so here's the quote in between come all the hundreds of little steps
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some of them imperceptible each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next and one day too late
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your principles if you were ever sensible of them all rush in on you the burden of self-deception
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has grown too heavy and some minor incident in my case my little boy hardly more than a baby saying
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Jewish swine collapses it all at once and you see that everything everything has changed and changed
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completely under your nose the world you live in your nation your people is not the world you were born in
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at all end quote that's how it happens Milton Meyer wrote in his book all the shops and the holidays and
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the jobs and the meal times look the same but they aren't the same quote now you live in a world of hate
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and fear and the people who hate and fear do not even know it themselves when everyone is transformed
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no one is transformed now you live in a system which with rules without responsibility even to God and
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end quote when did it happen to us in 2025 was it when 15 Jews were gunned down on a beach in Australia
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when two Jewish kids were shot to death in Washington by a guy yelling free Palestine when an elderly Jew was
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burned to death in Boulder Colorado also by a man screaming free Palestine here in Canada was it
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when banner is proclaiming intifada which is a specific promise of murder are unfurled at Toronto's Eaton
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Center and the police stand by and watch was it when a Toronto school for Jewish children just four or five
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years old was shot up once twice three times or or was it when an alleged ISIS adherent was arrested for
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terrorism offenses and then swiftly released on bail Milton Myers point I think is that darkness
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doesn't announce its arrival with a herald of trumpets and a glossy tick-tock PR campaign happens quietly like a
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whisper one minute you were in Canada and the next minute you do not recognize the land beneath your
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feet because by then is Meyer notes it is already too late in the past year which has been a cruel and
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terrible one I have spoken to Jewish groups from Calgary to Halifax the people I meet tell me that they are what
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they're feeling anger terror anxiety defiance betrayal some talk of making alia which is moving to the Jewish
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homeland others talk of forming yet another group to oppose anti-semitism or petitions or boycotts or
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whatever but inevitably I get asked why I an Irish Catholic I'm so passionate about supporting them about being an
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ally of Jews the question always angers me simply because it shouldn't ever need to be asked so I
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mumble thanks and say it's how my parents raised me and my brothers or that I'm following my heart which
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makes it easy but I dislike the question intensely because it reminds me that I am indeed among the few has
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spoken up it reminds me that too many too many friends too many colleagues too many people I'd once admired have
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chosen silence that choice that indifference that shrug that cowardice is what has gotten us to where
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we are here and now which is a country that no longer is the country we knew like the one Milton Sanford Meyer
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wrote about Canada has changed perhaps for good me I don't know what else to do so I intend to keep speaking
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out even though I now believe 2026 will be far worse than what preceded it and after much thought I
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purchased a bulletproof vest over the holidays a few people suggested I needed it because that is the
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so who's got the molly cause the world's shopping through our dirty mines
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so who's putting money on the line that I'm waking up alive
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I'm waiting to learn to learn to learn to learn to learn to learn to fly
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I'm waiting to learn, to learn, to learn, to learn the reason why
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can we just get a break from all of this can can we just you know also it's also a social circle
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right um so it's a social circle based on we get to go out and be punk um and it's for the greater
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good so we're also heroes um right which is like that's a hard mindset that to shift um and and
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you know you saw it but no one was doing anything about it and what is anyone gonna do right because
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the first security guard grabs a megaphone is now brutalizing the protesters yeah yeah no really
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well listen my friend uh happy new year to both you and to all of you and um have a good one and
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i will be in touch for next week all right thank you take care bye
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and we're back and brian lilly has just reminded me that i am fred astaires and he is ginger rogers
00:28:50.520
it is that you know the host and you know this being a podcast very similar the host asks me questions i don't know what they're gonna ask and so i dance backwards that's that's why i say you're fred astaire i'm ginger rogers
00:29:03.520
all right in my my ongoing role is fred astaire the first question i ask you is situational because your personal situation at the moment is in you're in the united states of america on the far coast the left coast the democratic coast and doing what i know every good journalist does which is sit in coffee shops and listen to people eavesdrop on what they're saying or engage them in conversation when taking a cab or getting a haircut so what do you think about that you think about that you're going to be in a
00:29:18.520
and doing what I know every good journalist does,
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which is sit in coffee shops and listen to people eavesdrop
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on what they're saying or engage them in conversation
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So what are you hearing in the great not-so-United States these days?
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I just saw one of the weirdest vehicles out there turn the corner,
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that being the Tesla, what's the big one called?
00:30:00.260
It's a very Democrat area, Palm Springs, California.
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Everyone keeps thinking when they see me post online
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and that I'm hanging out at Mar-a-Lago with Donald Trump.
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No, I'm in the very liberal area of Palm Springs, California,
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California went about 58% for Harris, 38% for Trump.
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went just mildly for Trump, 49% to 48% sort of thing.
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So like many parts of the United States, this area is divided.
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is that you hear more about Donald Trump in Canada
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You know, I just constantly hear about people talking about Trump.
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I hear, you know, it's not that he is never raised here,
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but nobody sees themselves at war with Canada here.
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for vacationing down here over the Christmas break.
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And, you know, my wife's family has been coming here for years.
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It's not like they're going to stop coming for four years.
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And about 25% of the Canadians that normally come to the U.S.
00:32:10.120
because Florida is hitting record tourism here.
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because they're not hitting record tourism from other places.
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It's not as big a draw, and the castle's a lot smaller.
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Lots of places are feeling Canadians not being here
00:32:51.300
What do you think the future holds for them quickly
00:33:14.220
hey, well, things are going to get better for us
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and we need something to happen to fix things for us before then.
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But here's why I say you've got to be careful about that.
00:34:02.220
A couple of things are going to happen this year
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here's a couple of things that will happen this year
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And why I say that just being hopeful is a horrible idea.
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based off of all the money they're collecting from tariffs.
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The tariff money is approaching about $200 billion in revenue.
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Even if the Supreme Court does rule against Trump on tariffs,
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Because most of the tariff money being collected from us
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because they haven't been challenged at the Supreme Court.
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I've talked more about Canada than the U.S. here, really.
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So let's talk about what 2026 holds for us politically and culturally and socially
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Are you pessimistic or optimistic about what the future holds for the country?
00:35:52.760
Well, based on this last year, I'm going to predict that both Mark Carney and Pierre Pauly have leave politics
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and are dating celebrities in California by the end of the year.
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I guess none of us predicted that by this time in 2025, Justin Trudeau would have left politics
00:36:15.380
I don't know whether to be optimistic or pessimistic for the whole year.
00:36:25.280
But as I just said, I don't know that we have a strategy.
00:36:29.280
And I know I keep hearing, well, you can't have a strategy with Trump.
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I think Canadians are far too emotional about Trump and they don't sit there and think rationally of what you can or can't do.
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I think we've got to figure something out here.
00:36:48.260
And in one of his year-enders, Mark Carney said, well, I was really close to a deal.
00:36:56.000
The deal he was close to, do you know what was in it?
00:37:06.000
Well, that was the original deal that he was getting close to signing.
00:37:10.960
What that means is that the United States would decide that there would be a certain amount of steel
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that we could export based on the last few years of, okay, you've exported as much steel as you can, go over that.
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And anything below that will be 10% to 15% tariffs.
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That was the deal that, according to Globe and Mail, according to several other sources, that the government has not refuted.
00:37:37.200
That was the deal that they were looking to sign in.
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That, you know, from my discussion with Americans here and, well, not here, but in Washington,
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and American officials up in Ottawa, that's what they're looking at for everything.
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So, you know, if they decide, okay, you exported, just for talking sake, I forget the number, it's early,
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I'm watching the sunrise while drinking coffee on a street corner.
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But the, you know, let's say they turn around and say, well, you exported 1 million cars to us on average over the last few years.
00:38:18.200
You get that, and anything above that, it's a 50% tariff, but you're paying 10% or 15% below that.
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The industries all tell me they can live with it.
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But that's the deal that Carney was about to sign, and then he said Doug Ford blew it all up.
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I'm trying to get you to cast your mind ahead to 2026.
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I guess I'm pessimistic is what I'm saying, because I don't see a great trade deal ahead for us.
00:38:57.920
And I don't see us moving forward on the big projects as fast as we should.
00:39:10.200
Yeah, I'm still sounding like Jim Belushi about last night.
00:39:20.780
He's delivered a couple of things that are decent, but on the big things that he promised he'd do, he hasn't delivered yet.
00:39:28.700
And it's, you know, what was his phrase in the election?
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Think big, act bigger, move speeds not seen in generations.
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We're moving at speeds that are regular in Ottawa.
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We, like, Ottawa speed is the worst speed for any economy.
00:39:49.200
It's where ideas go to die, as Alan Fotheringham once said.
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I was speaking with liberals the other day that said they're expecting as many as three new floor crossers.
00:40:08.960
So if they all come from the conservatives, then I think Polyev is toast.
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You know, it's one of these things where he's winning on a bunch of issues because the liberals are moving towards him on the issues.
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So he's winning on issues, but not with voters.
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So, you know, good chance that he survives the January leadership review and then doesn't survive past that.
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A lot of it will depend on whether there are or are not floor crossers or, you know, are the liberals just plain psychological warfare, which if I was them, I'd be trying to do as well.
00:40:49.080
And, and finally, the NDP, we don't have to spend a lot of time on them because voters, voters don't, but I am reminded, you know, far right lunatics like Trump, in my opinion, produce far, far left lunatics like Wandami is, you know, the, it looks like Canadian politics has moved to the center, depending on your point of view or to the right.
00:41:12.540
You know, you've got people, credible people calling Kearney a conservative.
00:41:16.980
Does that create an opportunity for the new Democrats?
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Will we see a resurgence of the left in this country?
00:41:24.560
Well, the new Democrats did their best under Jack Layton and Tom Mulcair, and they outright rejected them.
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And now they seem to be gravitating towards Avi Lewis, who says, stop funding the military.
00:41:40.760
So, okay, this is our great national strategy now, is pull out of NATO, which some new Democrats have long called for.
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Let's give everyone a heat pump and call it a day.
00:42:00.660
They've long served the role in our parliament, but I, I think they're headed towards, uh, was it Audrey McLaughlin?
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Was that the leader who got like eight, nine percent back in the nineties?
00:42:17.040
Um, whether it's Avi Lewis or Heather McPherson or any of them, do you, like, do you see any of them resonating with voters?
00:42:26.940
I don't, I don't, but I'm a big believer in politics being like physics.
00:42:33.660
Each reaction produces an equal and opposite reaction.
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That's why, you know, that's my Trump-Mondami theory or Harper-Trudeau.
00:42:42.420
If you go one way for a while, it inevitably leads to it going the other way for a while.
00:42:48.460
So it is a, it is really a pendulum and it feels like we're kind of oscillating off into a bad place.
00:42:56.320
You know, you see the Republicans, Republicans were resolutely opposed to anti-Semitism.
00:43:01.940
Now you got them kind of playing footsie with it at conventions that they're holding.
00:43:08.680
That's one of the, that's one of the weirdest things I'm watching is that they were absolutely resolute on, on Israel and against anti-Semitism.
00:43:18.380
And, you know, you've got guys like Ben Shapiro who are still holding out and others, you know, going the other way.
00:43:27.320
As far as the new Democrats, I just, Mondani, they keep looking to him and saying, oh, he's our future.
00:43:41.700
He's been around on the Canadian scene for decades and doesn't have a huge public profile with the wider audience.
00:43:51.460
He doesn't resonate with that median voter that everyone needs to, to, you know, you don't have to gravitate towards them, but you need to, you need to get the median voter.
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The, the, the Republicans are, you know, that, that's, that's probably the biggest threat headed towards the midterms is a Republican internal civil war.
00:44:27.140
So he's trying to insert himself in the ballot, but they could rip themselves apart before they even get to the midterms.
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Well, listen, my friend, uh, you enjoy the coast there and the weather it, we got a hell of a snowstorm here this week.
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So it's good old fashioned Canadian snow everywhere.
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I won't tell you that I'm in shorts and have been watching the sunrise.
00:44:55.280
But listen, uh, thank you so much for your contributions and your insights this past year.
00:45:06.560
Well, in the meantime, happy new year and I'll see you next year.
00:45:56.180
I feel bleeding for more than one of five days in a row.
00:46:07.020
Cause I yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:46:13.500
Theimee, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
00:46:24.500
Swing her back at the pit syosing game and show me who's a tough guy.
00:47:59.340
we're back and i've now gotten the dogs to be quiet and it occurred to me after speaking with
00:48:06.620
karima and brian that i may be leaving everybody super depressed and of course my monologue
00:48:13.820
probably didn't help much either and i have an obligation to achieve some balance so some
00:48:20.380
something positive some glimmer of hope for 2026 um and i thought well who better to provide a glimmer of
00:48:30.380
hope than a who is a thoughtful and reflective person and tries to be positive about the future
00:48:40.940
and the present the past and so he we're all counting on you to lift us up and lift our spirits
00:48:50.060
in a time that is profoundly and deeply shitty um how are you well right now i'm sitting in the
00:48:59.100
very quiet stillness of 15 acres of old growth forest uh there could not be a more happy and
00:49:10.300
forward-thinking place than silence with a book with the dogs and you puttering around out of my space
00:49:20.540
but i mean not everybody has got this here as i try to steer the wheel wheel back to gloom not
00:49:26.940
everybody is fortunate enough uh as we are uh to have such a place a lot of people are ending
00:49:34.060
the year uh decidedly pessimistic about the future what would you say to those people about what we can
00:49:42.140
look forward to in 2026 in the country in the province in the part of the country we live what
00:49:49.180
can you say to them to make them feel hopeful yes true um spherically not everyone has the ability
00:49:57.660
to find this type of quiet i mean the reality is is i have no idea what's going to happen in 2026 i could
00:50:06.380
align with the more pessimistic side of things and assume it's more of the worst however to your point
00:50:12.460
i do try to be as optimistic as i can and positive so i as i was reading this morning
00:50:20.380
and this sort of goes in line with if you can't if your space doesn't allow for this type of
00:50:26.140
quiet peace and thoughtful thinking there's a couple things that i do uh one is i try and uplift myself
00:50:35.980
by just remembering that the simplest thing is kindness i think people forget about it it's very
00:50:45.260
very very simple and from a sort of a pop culture point of view um i look to this one show and it's
00:50:53.420
called derek and i won't give much more information you either watched or you haven't and if you haven't
00:50:58.940
may not be for you but it reminds you about the simplest things about interacting with people
00:51:03.900
interacting throughout the world so that's one thing that i do it's a kind of trivial suggestion but
00:51:11.420
it might work for you and then speaking with this uh earlier i mentioned this quote and i've re-read it
00:51:18.780
about six times this morning and you and the quote itself is you see the more at peace you become
00:51:28.780
the less you tolerate chaos and i think that's a good lesson for most people is if you can find something
00:51:35.980
to cling to in your own life whether that's family or religion or community for me it's volunteer work
00:51:45.180
and giving more of myself in a different way and trying not to get caught up in the chaos which i
00:51:54.460
think is more what probably you and brian and uh kamira karima sorry spoke of earlier no we did well our job
00:52:04.060
you know is we're paid to document the chaos as much as we'd like to write about and film children
00:52:13.500
frolicking in fields of daisies uh regrettably that doesn't happen very much and secondly it's
00:52:19.340
not what people are looking for as much as they protest as much as they claim to be looking for that
00:52:24.860
they're not they'll slow down on the highway to look at a car crash um what do you believe
00:52:31.580
um separate and apart from that what do you believe 2026 holds there's a lot of equal economic
00:52:39.900
dislocation in the country there's not a conflict not just on the middle eastern issue um god knows
00:52:46.220
that keeps going um what do you think are things going to get better for people in 2026 you're a
00:52:53.660
business person you talk to tons of people every single day you hear from tons of people online
00:52:59.980
what do you think the new year is going to hold again that's a really tough question i mean
00:53:09.580
socio-economically no idea politically geopolitically i have no idea i'd be lying if i said i thought it
00:53:16.700
was all going to be positive because i don't necessarily think it is um i think it holds it might sound
00:53:25.180
cliche but opportunity we all have an opportunity to find something i think we live in a society of
00:53:34.380
almost a grotesque amount of more more more and very futile interactions actually and actually that
00:53:43.420
reminds me of another part of this quote which was stop explaining yourself to people committed to
00:53:48.780
misunderstanding you and unfortunately i think we live in this age of people don't want to listen
00:53:55.660
or have an understanding of things so my hope is that maybe people will try to listen more and
00:54:04.860
understand more and that could be something that might help ease some of the problems in the world
00:54:10.700
although if i'm being honest i'm not fully expecting that to be the case but it's something to hope for
00:54:17.020
it is indeed and i'm listening to you and so is everybody who's listening to this podcast
00:54:21.580
so thank you to you for your um i think hopeful perspective that was mostly hopeful not completely
00:54:29.660
but pretty hopeful and uh thank you to everybody who listens to this podcast over the past year and in
00:54:35.580
the years they've gone before and here's hoping 2026 is a good one so thank you thank you
00:55:25.900
I'm glad you didn't make it happen the wrong way
00:56:10.900
I'm glad you didn't make it happen the wrong way
00:56:22.900
God damn man, you've been heading the wrong way