Off the Record - October 25, 2024


How “strong and united” are the Liberals？


Episode Stats

Length

38 minutes

Words per Minute

167.57831

Word Count

6,495

Sentence Count

407

Misogynist Sentences

13

Hate Speech Sentences

4


Summary


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You said you have something planned for Halloween there, Chris.
00:00:02.860 What's happening with the CTF and Halloween?
00:00:05.220 So the debt, the national debt is super scary because it's something crazy now.
00:00:09.440 It's like $1.2 trillion.
00:00:11.180 It would take you like 30,000 years to count a trillion.
00:00:13.760 So we're bringing the debt clock, which is super scary to Calgary.
00:00:17.500 And then a friend of mine, the Prairie Director, Gage Habrick, he's coming with me.
00:00:21.820 And we're going to dress up in our best Halloween gear.
00:00:24.480 And we're going to put on like a big press conference about how scary the debt is.
00:00:28.380 So I've got my best witch hat.
00:00:30.720 It has like gold and green undertones.
00:00:32.900 It really brings out my natural witchiness.
00:00:34.660 So I'm really looking forward to that.
00:00:36.600 Are you guys doing Halloween-y things?
00:00:38.320 What are you doing?
00:00:39.460 Well, I was going to add, I think that the debt keeps Canadians up at night, but I doubt it keeps Trudeau up much.
00:00:46.460 No, he, I would say Canadians have had a lot of tricks from this liberal government and precious few treats in terms of at least cost of living and keeping life affordable.
00:00:56.940 Certainly my, my life doesn't seem any more affordable.
00:01:00.140 I haven't gotten a lot of treats from this liberal government.
00:01:02.780 Well, in no time flat, people who aren't trick-or-treaters are going to be doing a lot of door knocking.
00:01:08.380 So he should keep all of that in mind.
00:01:10.100 All right, let's get this thing started.
00:01:11.780 Welcome to Off the Record here at True North.
00:01:22.180 My name is Chris Sims.
00:01:23.180 I'm the Alberta Director for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
00:01:25.820 Our friends at True North have been very nice to let me host a few of these shows.
00:01:29.960 I'm here with my good friends, Cosman and William.
00:01:32.320 Thank you both for joining us.
00:01:34.340 It's great to be here, Chris.
00:01:35.420 Thanks for having us.
00:01:36.100 It's been quite the week for anyone who is a political nerd.
00:01:40.640 It was a big showdown leading up to the caucus meeting on Wednesday.
00:01:45.240 And quite often I find fans of True North will come up to me at events and they'll say something like,
00:01:50.660 we really want the inside scoop, like explain how these things work.
00:01:54.000 So just give me one little second here.
00:01:56.640 So I worked on Parliament Hill for way too long.
00:01:59.140 And one of the main things they do each week when the House is in session,
00:02:02.920 so when all the members of Parliament, 300 something of them, are all in Ottawa,
00:02:07.080 every Wednesday morning from around 8.30ish till around 11.30ish, sometimes later,
00:02:14.000 Wednesday morning, each party goes into these rooms by themselves,
00:02:18.100 usually with no phones even allowed, and they lock themselves in.
00:02:22.100 And that's usually where they can hash things out.
00:02:24.500 Like if you think your leader's being stupid,
00:02:26.280 if you're hearing from your constituents about something crazy that you don't want to get out,
00:02:30.200 but you want people to know, that's called caucus meeting.
00:02:33.880 And so, by the way, as a little aside,
00:02:36.200 which was a very sad anniversary for the passing of Corporal Nathan Cirillo,
00:02:39.860 that is why that terrorist, that attacker, picked Wednesday morning,
00:02:45.360 because he knew where they were all going to be.
00:02:49.000 And so that is why you had that stark image of back then,
00:02:51.940 Prime Minister Stephen Harper's caucus on one side of the hallway.
00:02:54.640 And then at the time, the opposition's NDP across the hall,
00:03:00.300 they were all in caucus, so they were all in one place in one time.
00:03:03.760 So fast forward to this past Wednesday,
00:03:06.440 this is a really critical meeting for Prime Minister Justin Trudeau,
00:03:10.000 because we were hearing all sorts of things.
00:03:12.020 Things like there was going to be a rebellion within caucus,
00:03:14.640 that enough Liberal members of Parliament were going to take the microphone
00:03:17.380 and stand up and be heard and speak back to Trudeau on things like affordability
00:03:22.700 and on things like the carbon tax.
00:03:24.780 At least that's what we were hoping.
00:03:26.380 So there was an awful lot of fireworks going in and out of the building.
00:03:30.740 And so I just wanted very briefly to get your impression first,
00:03:34.120 and then we'll go to the clips.
00:03:35.080 William, what was your take on this?
00:03:37.220 Did you think this turned into a nothing burger?
00:03:39.300 Do you think there's still some fire there?
00:03:41.960 Yeah, I mean, politically, I think the Prime Minister came out of it
00:03:45.480 about as well as he could have hoped for.
00:03:48.100 He seems more or less to be in the same position he was going in,
00:03:52.420 except maybe even a little bit better,
00:03:54.380 maybe some of the deflate in the sales of the Dump Trudeau movement,
00:03:58.660 because they don't appear to have made much damage in ousting the Prime Minister.
00:04:03.900 And I think we'll see a clip in just a bit where you can even see
00:04:07.920 a pretty cocky walking Prime Minister as he leaves that caucus meeting.
00:04:13.540 And, you know, it's quite telling when you get to see our Prime Minister
00:04:17.340 on full peacock display.
00:04:20.080 We have to watch that now.
00:04:21.220 You've teased it so well.
00:04:22.480 Let's roll that clip.
00:04:23.720 This is Prime Minister Justin Trudeau emerging from the caucus meeting.
00:04:26.920 I will point out an hour later than people were expecting.
00:04:30.580 So that was a long grind of a caucus meeting.
00:04:32.760 Watch this.
00:04:38.580 So that's quite the clip.
00:04:48.420 He is a theatre kid.
00:04:50.160 So fellow theatre kid here, you know your body language
00:04:53.760 and you know blocking and you know what you want to portray.
00:04:56.920 And so there, I think he was trying to show his sleeves rolled up.
00:05:00.640 He was cool, calm and collected and confident.
00:05:03.340 Cosmin, what was your take on this meeting?
00:05:06.260 Yeah, definitely.
00:05:06.900 He's definitely trying to portray a sense of confidence and assurance
00:05:11.440 to other members in his party that he's got things under control.
00:05:15.760 But it doesn't address the fact that most Canadians are looking at this government
00:05:21.660 as if they're not serving their interests and they're not able to pull together.
00:05:28.260 Because you still see these signs of rebellion within at least a significant,
00:05:34.040 I think I've heard numbers up to 40 Liberal MPs who don't have confidence in Trudeau.
00:05:40.000 So he must have some key supporters who are able to keep him there in place.
00:05:45.920 But whether that's actually going to translate to things working out for Canadians,
00:05:50.740 I don't think so.
00:05:52.200 One of the key issues that we were trying to push them to speak up about,
00:05:56.400 and we know for a fact that these members of Parliament,
00:05:59.360 particularly in the Liberal caucus, were getting flooded with emails.
00:06:03.720 Hundreds, if not thousands, per email saying,
00:06:07.680 get rid of this carbon tax, for example.
00:06:10.120 And quite often when you get enough constituents pushing an MP,
00:06:14.120 saying, hey buddy, your job's on the line because I'm not going to vote for you next time
00:06:17.520 unless you wake up on this stuff.
00:06:19.140 That's when you get them nervous.
00:06:21.100 And that's when you get them speaking up in caucus.
00:06:23.040 So as of right now for tape time, we're about 24 hours out of the caucus meeting.
00:06:29.500 In my experience being a journalist on Parliament Hill, now is kind of the time.
00:06:34.800 So the members of Parliament who had their say or didn't have slept on it,
00:06:39.480 they've thought about it a little bit more,
00:06:41.160 they might be gathering together in like secret meetings at the pub over on Spark Street or something,
00:06:46.200 and they might be gathering courage to speak up.
00:06:49.280 William, do you think that there's still some legs to this?
00:06:52.440 Do you think that they still might find a way of pushing?
00:06:55.300 Because there was this document apparently that was going around,
00:06:57.760 I haven't seen it, of getting them to sign basically a pledge of,
00:07:02.260 I will stand up to Trudeau, something like that.
00:07:05.540 Yeah, I mean, it's one thing to say to a journalist off the record
00:07:10.840 that you want to see the Prime Minister gone and you think he's doing a terrible job.
00:07:15.920 It's another thing to actually stand up in a caucus room
00:07:18.680 and become publicly identified as an enemy of the Prime Minister,
00:07:22.880 who continues to wield an awful lot of power in our system.
00:07:27.600 You know, one of the things I think Canadians and other political watchers are going to be curious about is,
00:07:33.420 what promises did the Prime Minister make when he was in caucus to his MPs
00:07:38.320 in order to try and keep them on board?
00:07:40.580 Did he promise staff changes?
00:07:42.260 Did he promise changes on some policies?
00:07:45.680 You know, are we going to see the end of the carbon tax before the next election?
00:07:50.380 I mean, I know all of us here would be thrilled if we saw that carbon tax go.
00:07:55.940 But of course, you know, that was sort of his signature policy.
00:07:59.240 So, you know, that would be a real defeat for this Prime Minister.
00:08:03.520 You know, and the other one is, you know, the last time he encountered some real trouble,
00:08:09.080 he dropped Gerald Butts, at least formally, from his office staff.
00:08:13.880 I still suspect they stay in pretty close communication since they were best friends for decades.
00:08:21.120 You know, I know there's a lot of growing resentment about Katie Telford,
00:08:25.180 the current chief of staff to the Prime Minister.
00:08:27.800 And, you know, one of the reasons you have staff is so you can fire them when things get rough.
00:08:32.340 And I'm curious to see if we're going to see any policy or personnel changes
00:08:37.200 coming out of the wake of this caucus meeting.
00:08:40.180 Maybe cabinet.
00:08:41.200 Maybe he'll do a cabinet shuffle or add a few more cabinet appointments,
00:08:45.240 dangle some of those goodies.
00:08:46.680 Because cabinet ministers, so your average backbencher,
00:08:49.980 Member of Parliament makes just over $200,000.
00:08:52.740 You're a cabinet minister, you're adding like another $100,000 onto that, typically.
00:08:57.320 So those folks are not hurting.
00:08:59.340 So I'm keeping a very close eye on all this stuff.
00:09:02.360 It was really interesting.
00:09:03.740 So I was there when there was a press conference,
00:09:07.680 and then Finance Minister Paul Martin kind of sort of indicated that he didn't have full confidence,
00:09:13.320 and then Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
00:09:15.220 Then all hell broke loose.
00:09:17.100 Like we've said before, things happen gradually, and then all of a sudden.
00:09:20.740 So it really kind of felt rolling into this caucus meeting like that all of a sudden could be happening,
00:09:25.840 because we saw some signals coming from Mark Carney, for example, musing about his future in politics,
00:09:32.920 and then a really strong one coming from former BC Liberal British Columbia Premier Christy Clark.
00:09:39.280 And it was the weirdest announcement.
00:09:42.240 It was just like, I'm not running for leader of the Liberal Party.
00:09:47.060 It's the strangest thing.
00:09:48.680 And so that would be really interesting if she wanted to make that move.
00:09:51.760 Because again, if one of the albatrosses around Trudeau's neck is the carbon tax,
00:09:58.160 it was the BC Liberals that invented the darn thing in all of North America.
00:10:01.980 And that was under, including then Christy Clark's watch.
00:10:05.400 It was Gordon Campbell before her, but she kept it going.
00:10:08.340 So that would be really interesting to see if they could fit that into that narrative box.
00:10:13.040 We had a clip.
00:10:14.380 And so we have a clip here of a Member of Parliament, Liberal Member of Parliament, from Atlantic Canada.
00:10:20.660 And this is where reporters kind of stake out the entrances of the building
00:10:25.000 as they're going into the caucus meeting and coming out of the caucus meeting.
00:10:28.580 So it was a field day for the press gallery.
00:10:31.100 I saw a lot of them getting their work out in yesterday.
00:10:33.140 Sorry, my apologies to our dear True North watchers.
00:10:36.440 So this is a screen grab of the actual story.
00:10:39.940 I mistook that it was a clip.
00:10:41.880 But here we have a question of whether or not they could vote to topple the government
00:10:46.840 and saying that it's actually not out of the question.
00:10:49.760 And this is coming from Liberal Member of Parliament, Ken McDonald.
00:10:52.760 And the reason why that's significant is that he's apparently not seeking re-election.
00:10:57.480 So he feels more entitled or maybe liberated to be able to speak about that.
00:11:03.860 Cosman, did you want to jump in here again to figure out, to let people know where your stance is on this?
00:11:09.360 Do you think this still has legs?
00:11:11.000 Or do you think this is going to be put to bed?
00:11:12.660 They're going to have a long break over Christmas?
00:11:15.280 For sure.
00:11:15.900 I'm glad that you mentioned that Ken McDonald is not seeking re-election because we have so many Liberal MPs
00:11:22.040 who are refusing to run again under the Liberal Party banner.
00:11:27.040 And you also mentioned the prospects of a cabinet shuffle.
00:11:31.540 We actually have a cabinet shuffle coming because another minister also said she won't be seeking re-election.
00:11:38.720 And that was a former agriculture minister.
00:11:41.520 I forgot what her latest role was, but it was Marie-Claude Bebeau who said she won't be running for the Liberals again.
00:11:48.280 We've also seen Seamus O'Regan not want to run for the Liberals again.
00:11:52.540 So I think there needs to be more attention paid to that because it is a sort of unspoken way of signaling to voters
00:12:01.620 that you don't want to participate in this party, or at least you don't have any hopes that there are future prospects for you to be re-elected.
00:12:10.860 Great point there.
00:12:11.940 Did we want to move on to the CBC, speaking of broadcasters and Seamus O'Regan?
00:12:17.220 So Seamus was a backstory.
00:12:19.560 Again, Seamus was at CTV for a long time, particularly at Canada AM, and I was the parliamentary producer for Canada AM.
00:12:25.960 So I worked quite closely with Mr. O'Regan before he jumped into politics.
00:12:29.220 And I didn't know that he was part of Justin Trudeau's wedding party at the time.
00:12:33.500 So let's shift over to our other favorite broadcaster that takes government money, the CBC.
00:12:39.540 So Catherine Tate, she's the president and CEO of the CBC.
00:12:44.720 People might remember her from past performances at the committee.
00:12:49.520 So again, on Parliament Hill, there's various committees in each separate room.
00:12:54.420 And on different days, they'll have different meetings.
00:12:56.500 And one of these committees is the Heritage Committee.
00:12:59.680 The Heritage Committee is the one that grills Catherine Tate whenever enough members of Parliament on that committee are mad about things like pay and bonuses.
00:13:09.780 So this time around, she was called to the committee carpet again to answer for the fact that last year, they handed out about $18 million in bonus money.
00:13:19.940 This is not just pay.
00:13:21.420 This is bonus money.
00:13:22.600 And so she had to face down quite a few questions, things like, are we getting good value for money?
00:13:28.440 I just wanted to go around the horn on this first, just to get you with your impressions of her appearance at committee.
00:13:35.040 William, you and I are both old enough to remember that it was pretty rare to see somebody from the CBC up that high being asked such impertinent questions.
00:13:44.120 And now we're kind of getting the front row seat lately.
00:13:47.300 Yeah, you know, every time I watch Ms. Tate come before the committee and answer questions, I secretly think, is she really on the side of the defunders?
00:13:58.400 Because you couldn't have asked for a better CEO to be the poster child for why we need to cut funding to CBC.
00:14:06.820 The level of arrogance and of being out of touch with everyday Canadians is so breathtaking that it borders on almost implausible.
00:14:17.620 You do have to think, you know, is she secretly got money from, I don't know, True North to appear before a committee just to tank the CBC.
00:14:27.480 I can say as our chief operating officer, we are not paying Catherine Tate.
00:14:31.980 But it would be money well spent, just saying, because she's doing a great job.
00:14:35.220 Honestly, it is just so hard to believe when you watch her, the sheer tone deafness of her responses.
00:14:40.960 Cosman, what was your take on it after watching some of this?
00:14:43.920 Well, it was a sense of almost a lack of self-awareness that I got from everything she says.
00:14:51.880 Anytime she's at committee, she blames everybody else except for CBC's own performance, their obvious bias.
00:15:00.140 I mean, this is a network that sued the Conservative Party unsuccessfully.
00:15:05.800 They are constantly demeaning Canadians, demeaning the values of working class people,
00:15:13.060 and looking down their noses in their reporting.
00:15:16.840 And so it just strikes me like she's on her way out.
00:15:21.140 She's already, a replacement has already been named.
00:15:24.320 And there might be some truth to that.
00:15:26.620 Maybe she's just burning bridges.
00:15:28.640 Maybe she's just burning everything on her way out.
00:15:31.900 It was quite the performance.
00:15:33.460 And so to give folks some numbers, because full disclosure, I did work at the CBC for a very brief time, around six weeks or so.
00:15:42.120 I have no personal axe to grind.
00:15:43.780 People, they were nice to me.
00:15:45.500 It was in the Ottawa Bureau.
00:15:47.280 This is about, for the Taxpayers Federation, money and conflict of interest.
00:15:53.140 Because number one, this is a huge waste of money for a network that next to nobody watches.
00:15:58.700 And two, it is a conflict of interest for journalists to be paid by the government.
00:16:05.500 Like, to have to say that out loud is kind of weird.
00:16:08.320 So for those two huge reasons of waste of money and major accountability issues, the CTF is one of the ones right in the ring fighting this.
00:16:16.680 So to go by the numbers really briefly before we get to Catherine Tate's clip, because they are spellbinding.
00:16:22.020 The CBC this year is costing taxpayers $1.4 billion.
00:16:27.960 To put that into perspective, that kind of money could instead pay the full-time salaries of 7,000 paramedics and 7,000 cops this year.
00:16:38.560 That kind of money is the equivalent of more than 80,000 households' income taxes.
00:16:46.000 So the next time she tries to say, oh, it's only costing a few dollars per Canadian.
00:16:51.460 No, no, no, no.
00:16:52.760 80,000 homes.
00:16:54.240 Not people.
00:16:55.180 Homes.
00:16:56.080 Picture that.
00:16:57.080 That is the federal income tax bill every year going to this organization.
00:17:02.100 It is an astonishing amount of money.
00:17:04.780 And for the lady you are about to watch, this is CBC CEO and President Catherine Tate,
00:17:10.340 her salary would choke a horse.
00:17:13.280 She is paid more than the Prime Minister of Canada.
00:17:16.980 For anybody who's picking up on this as a journalist, if you're looking it up,
00:17:20.880 she is under the Crown Corporation drop-down tab.
00:17:23.840 She is CEO level 7.
00:17:25.960 That means she's paid between $468,000 and $551,000 per year.
00:17:33.940 She's entitled to a bonus of 28%.
00:17:37.220 That bonus alone, guys, is up to $154,000.
00:17:44.920 Her bonus is more than what the average two-person family makes in a year.
00:17:51.080 So listen to this first clip here.
00:17:53.780 Ms. Tate, you said that it's confidential, that information, but that just doesn't work for Canadians.
00:18:00.160 Canadians look at $18 million awarded in bonuses, the fact that you just spent $1,000 a night
00:18:07.800 for a hotel room in Paris during the Olympics, and we are in a situation where you are coming
00:18:15.800 to the conclusion of your term being paid more than the Prime Minister of this country makes.
00:18:20.280 And you refuse today to rule out that you will receive either bonuses or so-called performance pay
00:18:30.240 or a severance package at the conclusion of your term.
00:18:34.480 It's confidential, doesn't cut it for Canadians.
00:18:37.360 It doesn't cut it for parliamentary oversight.
00:18:39.620 So again, I ask, will you specifically today share with this committee whether or not you will
00:18:45.920 refuse a severance package or bonus at the conclusion of your term as President and CEO of CBC?
00:18:52.800 As I've said, I consider that to be a personal matter.
00:18:56.420 And I believe I'm protected by the Privacy Act in that regard.
00:19:02.460 So again, gentlemen, to both of your points, that sounds an awful lot like I'm entitled to my entitlements.
00:19:09.640 Very much so.
00:19:10.660 You know, a small petty part of me did wonder for someone who's so highly paid,
00:19:14.320 you think she could have afforded a better dye job on that sparkly red hair of hers.
00:19:19.120 Look at you, Stassi, today.
00:19:21.120 I'm sorry.
00:19:22.060 I just...
00:19:22.700 I felt it's okay.
00:19:24.080 You see her hair and you wonder every single time she chose that color.
00:19:28.120 No, I mean, $1,000 a night for her to go to the Paris Olympics, to the best of my knowledge,
00:19:34.260 she wasn't competing on behalf of Team Canada.
00:19:36.920 And so why was she there?
00:19:39.720 You know, why are we paying a bonus to someone who has overseen a massive decline in the viewership
00:19:47.800 of CBC, in the audience, the revenue, the reach, and the influence of CBC?
00:19:54.720 More Canadians than ever have said they do not watch CBC.
00:19:58.480 They do not trust its news reporting.
00:20:00.300 They do not believe CBC journalists are fair and impartial.
00:20:03.640 And so bonuses generally are given out to people who exceed expectations.
00:20:08.780 It is to be given on top of a salary in recognition of a job well done.
00:20:13.180 Rarely is it given to celebrate failure, but that seems to be the CBC's approach to bonuses.
00:20:20.300 I have some fresh, hard data on their viewership, which was astonishing to me.
00:20:25.960 I can get to that in a second, but I wanted to get Cosmo's thoughts in on that clip.
00:20:29.540 You know, for an organization that you would think values things like transparency and being
00:20:38.000 forthcoming with Canadians, they're not transparent at all.
00:20:41.400 They're not transparent about who gets bonuses, how much bonuses are divvied out.
00:20:45.900 They're also not transparent about what targets they're actually meeting to achieve these bonuses.
00:20:52.360 We're talking about an organization that's on the decline.
00:20:55.980 You're going to bring up some stats.
00:20:58.160 They're losing viewers.
00:20:59.360 They're losing advertisers.
00:21:01.080 Yet they're awarding themselves for what?
00:21:04.620 Yeah, big time.
00:21:05.740 So I've got some stats here.
00:21:07.040 Forgive me while I read them off my phone, but it's coming out in an op-ed very soon in
00:21:11.220 the newspaper.
00:21:11.740 But the numbers are astonishing.
00:21:14.620 So very quickly, Tate says that Canadians are seeing good value for money, but how can we
00:21:20.080 know if nobody's actually watching it?
00:21:21.900 So CBC News Network's share of primetime is 1.7%.
00:21:28.400 That's lower than it was last time we checked.
00:21:32.140 So put another way, 98.3% of TV viewing Canadians are choosing to not watch it.
00:21:39.540 So that is the news side.
00:21:41.560 And if you want to say, okay, well, what about, you know, the comedy drama, right?
00:21:45.140 What about the art side of things, the fiction side of things, right?
00:21:48.620 That's even, that's terrible too.
00:21:50.480 So on the entertainment side, they're not ranking highly either.
00:21:53.980 Their top rated show is a show called the Murdoch Mysteries, which is not produced by
00:21:59.420 the CBC.
00:22:00.240 That is produced by a private company in Toronto.
00:22:02.800 They just air it.
00:22:04.200 They have the biggest audience for that one.
00:22:06.760 It's about 800,000 people.
00:22:09.320 It's 1.9% of the population.
00:22:11.980 And what was astonishing to me is that Tate during the committee actually said, well,
00:22:19.080 if we didn't have programming, like the wonderful show, Son of a Critch, it would be, you know,
00:22:25.260 bad, like basically for the world is what she was implying.
00:22:29.160 So I got curious and I looked up the ratings for Son of a Critch, which is based off of the
00:22:36.620 government paid comedian Mark Critch's life.
00:22:39.380 And it's in its third season, who knew, but you paid for it.
00:22:44.160 So I looked up how much that total is.
00:22:47.060 Where are we here?
00:22:48.100 So last year that, that audience was around 590,000 people.
00:22:53.940 About 1.4% of Canadians are watching that show that the CEO just mentioned out loud with
00:23:01.080 her face in committee as being essential.
00:23:03.420 And one of her other things that she said under questioning about why she went to the
00:23:08.200 Paris Olympics is that, get this, she was already there, guys.
00:23:12.500 She was already there vacationing in France, of course, as one does.
00:23:16.420 And so she just popped into Paris because she thought that Canadians would be really concerned
00:23:21.560 if she wasn't there.
00:23:23.060 Yeah, well, absolutely.
00:23:25.840 I'm up nights wondering where president and CEO of CBC, Catherine Tate is.
00:23:31.780 Also, I've never seen Son of a Critch.
00:23:35.340 I'm now thinking how much enriched my life would be if I had watched three seasons about
00:23:42.000 a mediocre comedian who few Canadians could pick out of a police lineup.
00:23:47.380 My favorite CBC programming story is, I would say CBC legitimately deserves credit for Schitt's
00:23:55.880 Creek, mostly because they did it in partnership with the private sector.
00:24:00.000 And the private sector had this impossible or crazy idea that they should produce a television
00:24:05.560 show that people actually want to watch in the world.
00:24:09.880 And so after it was done, you would have thought CBC would have looked at that and said, wow,
00:24:15.020 we produced a popular piece of entertainment, or at least we were marginally part of it,
00:24:20.900 in partnership with Netflix.
00:24:22.680 That was great.
00:24:23.720 Well, no, actually, what they said was, well, we'll never do that again.
00:24:26.640 They lamented the commercial nature of that partnership.
00:24:30.820 The fact that it appealed broadly outside of Canada to an American audience, you know, where
00:24:37.600 there's 330 million people who like to watch TV.
00:24:41.340 And so I just love it.
00:24:42.540 A one tiny example of CBC success.
00:24:46.100 And they said, well, let's never do that again.
00:24:48.500 Isn't it sad?
00:24:49.260 And so, you know, I'm not an art critic, at least while I am privately, but I'm not, I'm
00:24:54.060 not paid to be an art critic.
00:24:55.800 I like pictures of horses, right?
00:24:57.740 That's not my thing.
00:24:59.060 But if people want to produce obscure, weird art for whatever reason, and however they want
00:25:05.700 to do it, however many people they want to see it or not, that's great.
00:25:09.880 Pay for it yourself.
00:25:11.600 Like, pay for it yourself, or do a GoFundMe, or get a sponsor.
00:25:15.500 Get people to willingly pay for the art that you want to produce.
00:25:19.660 But you cannot produce weird stuff that people aren't actually watching if you're using taxpayers'
00:25:25.480 money.
00:25:25.680 And I have to read you her actual quote, because it's almost too hard to believe.
00:25:29.460 She said, without a show like Son of a Critch, it would, quote, be a huge impoverishment of
00:25:36.380 our status and our place on the world stage.
00:25:39.980 Like, wow.
00:25:41.560 So again, this lady makes probably over half a million dollars, and her bonus that she's
00:25:46.960 entitled to is likely more than what a two-person working family pays.
00:25:51.700 So I wanted to take this moment to make a fun announcement.
00:25:54.780 So we finally have these bumper stickers printed.
00:25:58.060 It says, for folks just listening, it's defunded the CBC.
00:26:01.900 It's a bumper sticker.
00:26:03.100 It's black, red, and white.
00:26:04.860 We have these done.
00:26:06.820 I have the box upstairs.
00:26:08.940 I'm going to be giving them out at True North Nation coming up this Saturday.
00:26:14.960 So I imagine that they're going to be pretty popular.
00:26:17.800 And you're both right.
00:26:20.280 She is really making a solid argument as to why we need to defund the CBC.
00:26:25.280 Did we want to get to our other story here about, this was a Parks Canada story, Cosman,
00:26:31.000 that you had?
00:26:31.620 Do you want to move on to there?
00:26:33.900 Yeah, that's right.
00:26:35.140 Parks Canada is about to undergo an apology tour.
00:26:39.000 They've flagged 27 different national parks across the country, including Banff, including
00:26:44.700 Pacific Rim, Jasper as well, to apologize for the department's role, supposed role, in colonialism
00:26:53.680 and all of this damage that that has caused, supposedly.
00:26:58.120 And it's astounding to me because Parks Canada preserves natural sites.
00:27:03.780 Why is the Canadian government, why do they think that we need to apologize for preserving
00:27:08.840 the environment, creating spaces that everybody can enjoy, First Nations, everybody can enjoy
00:27:15.820 these spaces.
00:27:16.960 So we came across this story because we filed an ATIP.
00:27:20.540 And it was actually at the tail end of this 800-page document.
00:27:24.620 They had this map laid out with all of the locations that they plan on having place-based
00:27:30.040 apologies.
00:27:30.620 Now, I'm not 100% sure exactly what that means because Parks Canada wasn't very forthcoming
00:27:36.580 when I asked them for comment and clarification.
00:27:39.520 But the first location flagged for this apology tour was Jasper.
00:27:44.220 And this was supposed to happen before, it was determined before the wildfires actually
00:27:50.440 broke out, those devastating wildfires that destroyed a huge part of this town and the
00:27:55.800 surrounding area and impacted the national park itself.
00:27:58.580 But there was supposed to be an exhibit opening this September, which was delayed.
00:28:06.120 So it still remains to be the first place that they want to initiate this apology tour.
00:28:11.220 But Chris, I want to turn it to you specifically with regards to the potential costs of starting
00:28:19.500 exhibits, sending government officials, all of the consulting that goes behind these procedures
00:28:24.640 and something so grandiose as touching the entire country.
00:28:28.620 You know, 27 parks is a huge number.
00:28:31.700 Yeah, that'll be interesting to see how much that costs because Parks Canada has been amazing
00:28:37.560 at wasting money.
00:28:39.100 Like folks might remember very recently where I forget how much money we wasted.
00:28:42.680 I think there's tons and tons of money.
00:28:44.920 Hiring sharpshooters from overseas to shoot deer out of a helicopter on some tiny little Gulf
00:28:50.500 Island off British Columbia, I'm already getting all these alarm bells from so many people who
00:28:55.040 live in that area going, what?
00:28:56.540 Why?
00:28:56.940 Wait.
00:28:57.760 So we will, I will definitely look into how much of that is costing because I bet you it's
00:29:02.400 a spectacular amount of money.
00:29:04.360 And just to say the Taxpayers Federation, we try to help everybody out.
00:29:08.940 And we hear from First Nations people all the time.
00:29:12.840 They want the same thing that everybody else does, living in smaller towns included, like
00:29:16.620 really good, accountable government, nice, safe, clean drinking water, good schools for
00:29:20.620 their kids.
00:29:21.200 I have not had one email saying, you know what keeps me up at night is making sure that I
00:29:27.720 get this paid for and all done by the government and bureaucrats involved.
00:29:31.280 Like this just seems like such a personal, strange thing.
00:29:34.460 William, what was your take on this?
00:29:35.960 Well, look, Parks Canada should show up in Jasper and apologize, but they should apologize
00:29:43.080 for allowing a huge chunk of the town to burn down because of their terrible policies in
00:29:49.440 that regard.
00:29:50.260 They dropped the ball on maintaining anti-fire provisions.
00:29:55.060 They weren't clearing away the dead brush that had been recommended.
00:29:58.200 They were silencing internal criticism of their policy.
00:30:01.240 They did not work as full partners in the fighting of the fire, turning down resources
00:30:06.240 that were available to them because they were playing fiefdom over that particular area.
00:30:11.680 So the people of Jasper, the people of Alberta and the people of Canada all deserve apologies
00:30:17.120 from Parks Canada.
00:30:18.420 But it's because of their sheer incompetence that allowed a jewel like Jasper to be consumed
00:30:24.060 by flame rather than a anti-colonial feel-good park nonsense tour that they seem to be planning
00:30:32.620 instead.
00:30:33.400 That I just don't see people rallying in the streets asking for.
00:30:37.540 Like, really, people are worried about being able to afford groceries and their heat bill.
00:30:41.420 Like, it's just mind boggling.
00:30:43.560 You had another real head scratcher there, William.
00:30:46.440 What was the story coming out of a med school in Toronto?
00:30:48.900 I just saw the headline of it.
00:30:50.700 Yeah, I, you know, every once in a while you run into a new story that you have to read
00:30:55.160 at least twice in order to make sure that either it isn't a parody or that what you're
00:31:01.600 reading is actually true.
00:31:03.880 And in the case of Toronto Metropolitan University, which I think most people still remember as
00:31:09.880 Ryersing University.
00:31:11.240 Oh, okay.
00:31:12.500 I didn't understand where it was.
00:31:14.440 Until Toronto Metropolitan University decided that it wanted to be Canada's wokest university.
00:31:21.040 And as part of that, they are opening a new medical school.
00:31:25.360 But this new medical school is going to be for racialized, indigenous, and quote unquote,
00:31:33.800 equity deserving applicants.
00:31:36.600 And in case you're wondering what an equity deserving applicant is, I have a list.
00:31:43.020 It is racialized people, racialized immigrants, and children of racialized immigrants, people
00:31:50.120 with disabilities, neurodivergence, or those living with chronic health conditions, people
00:31:56.020 who identify as part of the 2SLGBTQ plus community, or gender or sexual minority.
00:32:04.300 So that's their target for their new medical school.
00:32:08.600 That means out of the 94 positions they're opening, 75% of them are being held for those
00:32:15.580 specific groups.
00:32:17.000 Only 25% are going to be made available to the student population at large.
00:32:25.620 They're also doing a couple other things that I think people will find interesting.
00:32:28.540 The normal GPA needed to get into a medical school is 3.9 out of 4.
00:32:34.120 I mean, you know, medical school is a tough gig.
00:32:36.780 There's a joke why so many parents want their children to go become doctors.
00:32:41.580 It's a hard gig to get.
00:32:43.480 But for these equity deserving applicants, they'll only need a GPA of 3.3.
00:32:49.280 So far below what non-equity group applicants are going to need.
00:32:55.980 But they also will have to write here, it says, a 500 to 1,000-word essay about their
00:33:03.540 identity as members of those groups in order to be considered for application.
00:33:09.480 So the concern, of course, being when you go to a doctor, it's usually under some pretty
00:33:16.060 difficult circumstance.
00:33:17.200 You're either injured, sick, could be facing a life-threatening condition.
00:33:22.980 You expect your doctor to know everything there is to know about your body, about your
00:33:29.980 medical treatment, and about medicine in general.
00:33:34.280 You don't expect them to kind of know it, and you don't expect them to have gotten into
00:33:38.040 the program and become a doctor because of some personal characteristic that represents
00:33:43.040 on them.
00:33:43.540 I mean, you know, my question for, I think, both of you is, if you found out that your
00:33:48.720 doctor went to medical school as a diversity candidate rather than one based on merit, would
00:33:55.380 you have concerns about that particular doctor?
00:33:58.820 Well, so I'm a huge Star Trek fan.
00:34:05.700 Like, I don't care if you're a purple Klingon.
00:34:08.560 I want you to be really, really good at your job.
00:34:11.160 Like, no, straight up.
00:34:12.340 Like, I do not care.
00:34:14.860 What I desperately care about is merit because that has results.
00:34:20.180 Because that is what determines a good outcome or a bad outcome in most things, not just medicine.
00:34:26.420 But in this case, you'd be directly affecting patients and their families.
00:34:30.980 And again, there is an accountability level here of we all pay for health care in Canada.
00:34:36.360 Taxpayers do.
00:34:37.660 We all do.
00:34:38.940 So again, I always go back to this.
00:34:41.360 Folks, if you don't like this, contact your member of parliament and let them know that
00:34:45.820 you're opposed to something like this.
00:34:47.740 Cosmin, go ahead there.
00:34:48.500 The other consequences of this is that it actually harms the credibility of the entire
00:34:54.900 industry itself, the entire medical profession.
00:34:57.860 When you are causing doubt within patients about the competence of their doctors because
00:35:06.400 of programs like this introduced by universities, probably encouraged by diversity, equity, inclusion
00:35:13.500 departments.
00:35:13.900 And it doesn't really sense that it doesn't give the sense that this is rooted in actual
00:35:21.820 problems.
00:35:22.900 And these initiatives don't address the endemic issues that Canadian health care has with
00:35:30.440 retaining doctors, hiring doctors.
00:35:33.340 We shouldn't lower our standards.
00:35:35.360 We should make it more desirable to become a doctor in Canada.
00:35:39.680 You know, I just have to think if I was a student, I had worked so hard in my undergraduate.
00:35:46.320 I put in all of that extra time and effort.
00:35:48.840 I have a 4.0 GPA.
00:35:50.320 I have a lifelong dream of going to medical school.
00:35:53.320 But then I find out that actually the position that I would have earned under the merit approach
00:35:59.440 to choosing doctors was given away to someone less qualified with less skills, less knowledge,
00:36:06.960 and less ability for an entirely superficial personal characteristic beyond their control.
00:36:13.840 It would be maddening to do that.
00:36:16.600 And what message are you sending to university students where it says how you were born is
00:36:22.760 more important than your ability and work ethic when it comes to your career?
00:36:28.700 I just think what an awful message we're sending to young people and potentially now a very
00:36:34.680 dangerous one, too, if we're going to end up with a bunch of medical professionals who
00:36:38.680 really aren't as qualified as they could or should be.
00:36:41.300 I am an eternal optimist, again, why I'm a Star Trek fan.
00:36:45.880 And I think if enough people speak up calmly and firmly and genuinely from a position of
00:36:52.460 concern and love, really, and they contact their member of parliament and they say, listen,
00:36:56.160 folks, this is why I oppose this for A, B and C reasons.
00:37:00.120 I do think that people will change.
00:37:02.380 And I do think that if they want to, they can change an enrollment policy like this.
00:37:06.080 So I just want to encourage people, don't give up.
00:37:08.700 If you feel like everything is closing in around you, don't, because there's so many
00:37:14.340 people who feel the same way you do.
00:37:16.220 You just need to get off the bench and get into the arena and you can actually make an
00:37:20.740 amazing amount of change happen.
00:37:22.580 It's one of the reasons we're having our gathering this coming Saturday.
00:37:26.140 So do check out True North Nation.
00:37:28.800 Basically, you get this, but on very good and healthy steroids, if that's a term.
00:37:35.760 And we're all on stage and we're all there together and there'll be a booth set up.
00:37:40.760 The Taxpayers Federation will have a booth.
00:37:42.320 I'm not sure who else will be there.
00:37:44.200 There's going to be things like T-shirts and bumper stickers and bracelets and all that
00:37:47.400 fun stuff.
00:37:48.120 And you can meet all your favorite True North personalities and listen to some of us try
00:37:52.140 to make some sense on air.
00:37:53.580 So click the link.
00:37:55.200 There are still apparently a few tickets left and it's coming up this Saturday in Calgary.
00:38:01.220 William and Cosman, thank you so much for your time today.
00:38:04.660 Oh, well, thanks for having us.
00:38:05.660 It's always fun.
00:38:06.820 You bet.
00:38:07.220 And remember, everything is off the record.
00:38:09.160 You just have to scratch your head over the doctor one, you know, as we were joking a
00:38:23.640 little bit before, there are some jobs where you don't really have to know everything about
00:38:28.700 everything in order to be good at it.
00:38:29.860 You can make it till you make it.
00:38:30.760 I would suggest respectfully that in my job, you know, if I don't fully know something,
00:38:36.740 you know, maybe something doesn't perform as well as it's short or maybe, you know, it
00:38:41.420 doesn't execute as brilliantly as we would have hoped.
00:38:44.320 But very few people die.