Rebel News Podcast - SAVE CALGARY! City with 13.4% unemployment threatens taxing Uber, home offices

00:00:00.000 Hello Rebels, you're listening to a free audio-only recording of my weekly Wednesday night show, The Gun Show.

00:00:05.200 Tonight my guest is my friend, William Macbeth, from the little municipal taxpayer organization that could save Calgary.

00:00:14.620 Tonight we're talking about, well, everything.

00:00:17.560 The We Scandal, the Conservative Party leadership,

00:00:20.100 and how Mayor Nenshi is finding new ways to raise taxes on an already seriously unemployed Calgary populace.

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00:01:38.600 You're listening to our podcast.

00:01:44.040 Justin Trudeau isn't the only politician in the country looking to pick your pockets in a pandemic.

00:01:55.240 Calgary's mayor is doing it, too.

00:01:57.940 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:02:00.240 Up to 30% of downtown Calgary's commercial real estate sits vacant.

00:02:23.460 The entire country is struggling with the coronavirus shutdown-inspired unemployment,

00:02:29.900 and Calgary is no different, and things were already bad before the coronavirus came along and made it worse.

00:02:36.560 Alberta still doesn't have access to Tidewater for our greatest and best resources, our oil and gas.

00:02:42.440 But Justin Trudeau is not the only politician in the country deciding to raise taxes in the middle of the worst economic downturn in about 100 or so years.

00:02:54.260 Calgary's mayor, Nahid Nenshi, is considering several new tax and fee grabs on the long-suffering residents of Calgary, Alberta.

00:03:04.460 Joining me tonight in an interview we recorded earlier in the week is my dear friend William Macbeth from Save Calgary

00:03:13.000 to discuss first the Conservative Party leadership race, and then the ever-unfolding We Charity scandal,

00:03:21.640 and also why Calgary City Council can't seem to realize it has a spending problem and not a revenue problem.

00:03:34.460 Joining me now from Calgary is my friend Willie Macbeth from Save Calgary.

00:03:49.740 William, thanks for coming on the show.

00:03:52.040 Before we get to anything else, I want to talk to you about the We scandal, 0.98

00:03:59.920 because that's all anybody can talk about, including me.

00:04:02.000 You've been a conservative activist for a long time, longer than me even.

00:04:08.180 I think you've been politically engaged in the machinery and outside.

00:04:12.440 Is this scandal going to harm Justin Trudeau, or is this just going to go by the wayside?

00:04:21.120 The likes of Blackface, the Kokanee Grope, the Aga Khan, and the whole trip to India, Bollywood fiasco. 0.84

00:04:30.560 Is this actually something that's going to hurt him with his base, or just with Conservatives who don't like him anyway?

00:04:36.740 You know, it's interesting.

00:04:38.300 It's always hard to tell exactly how a scandal is going to unfold and what the long-term impact would be.

00:04:46.620 You know, had you asked me in the last federal election about the photos of the Prime Minister wearing blackface,

00:04:52.880 I would have said that that would have been terminal to a politician, but here he is, still Prime Minister, still breaking ethics laws, it seems.

00:05:02.840 So I think what's different, though, in this case is how many Liberal MPs appear to be unhappy with the actions of the Prime Minister.

00:05:13.380 You know, normally, when there's a failure on the part of the Prime Minister or his team,

00:05:19.640 you can count on a legion of Liberal MPs to leap to the Prime Minister's defence.

00:05:25.840 My favourite one was, after Canada lost its Security Council bin, we had an Ontario Liberal MP,

00:05:32.520 I believe it was MP Rodriguez, saying, well, he can't believe that people are trying to make this a partisan issue against the Prime Minister,

00:05:41.600 when everybody knows that's exactly what the Liberals did when Stephen Harper lost a Security Council seat.

00:05:47.520 So normally, they all leap to defend the Prime Minister, but you're not seeing that so much this time.

00:05:52.860 I think you're seeing a bunch of Liberal MPs start to wonder if Justin Trudeau might not harm their ability to get re-elected.

00:06:00.520 And we're in a minority government, we could be entering an election cycle this fall,

00:06:05.840 and a lot of those Liberal MPs in Southern Ontario are starting to look at poll numbers

00:06:10.120 and wonder if Prime Minister Trudeau or Justin Trudeau is the right man to lead them into the next election.

00:06:16.320 You know, and I think there could be a secondary motive for not speaking up to defend the Prime Minister,

00:06:22.000 and I think that might be because it might focus attention on that specific MP.

00:06:25.660 For example, we know Bill Morneau is ensnared in all of this, and I don't know how deep the layers of that onion go.

00:06:33.580 So I would be immediately sceptical of an MP who moved to defend Trudeau.

00:06:39.900 I would say, OK, I'm going through your portfolio now.

00:06:43.240 I'm going to go through, you know, if you're the Heritage Minister or whatever,

00:06:47.300 I'm going to start tearing through that to see if there's any contracts or dealings there or dealings with their own family.

00:06:54.640 So I think a lot, maybe some of them are just keeping their mouths shut just to make sure that they don't end up

00:07:00.120 with a little bit more scrutiny than they normally would get.

00:07:03.900 And I think you're absolutely right, Sheila, that in this case, since the scandal is still unfolding,

00:07:10.780 we don't entirely know the full scope of the issues that are being looked at now by the Ethics Commissioner

00:07:18.020 and by other independent groups.

00:07:20.160 In the case, though, of the Liberal MPs, it might also be the calculus that if you come out too strongly

00:07:25.460 in support of the Prime Minister in a scandal that ends up being fatal to his leadership,

00:07:31.500 you get tarred with that going into the next administration.

00:07:36.700 And maybe you end up as a casualty if the new leader decides that the only way around a scandal is to clean house.

00:07:43.880 So I think there's a lot of political calculus being done on the part of Liberal MPs right now.

00:07:49.960 But one thing is clear, which is, you know, it's yet another Liberal scandal involving ethics,

00:07:55.660 involving inappropriate actions, not on the part of a back-banked Liberal MP or even a junior Tabata minister,

00:08:03.960 but the very top echelons of the Liberal government.

00:08:07.480 The Prime Minister, the Finance Minister, the Chief of Staff,

00:08:11.640 all of these people are intimately linked to the WE charity

00:08:15.220 and are therefore being caught by the same brush of inappropriate behaviour

00:08:19.980 that people are now uncovering with this charity.

00:08:23.220 Now, let's move to something else that's sort of happening while the WE scandal is unfolding.

00:08:32.100 And it's unfortunate, I think, that it's happening at the same time

00:08:35.820 because I feel that the Conservative Party is not able to fully capitalise

00:08:40.400 and damage the Liberal brand because they don't have a leader right now.

00:08:44.720 So I wanted to ask you about the leadership race, how you think it's going.

00:08:49.700 It's a very different leadership race than we've seen.

00:08:52.980 We've got, you know, two outsiders, one sort of reminiscent of Harper,

00:09:00.420 and then one sort of reminiscent of the PCs of old.

00:09:04.100 And so I think it's sort of a real turning point for the future of the party.

00:09:11.240 I know a lot of people are reminiscing about Harper, where's Harper, can he come back?

00:09:15.660 So I think O'Toole might capitalise on that.

00:09:18.340 A lot of people are looking for someone from the outside

00:09:20.520 who might shake things up a little.

00:09:23.460 I know those people would likely lean more towards Lewis and Sloan.

00:09:27.660 And then there's, I don't know, Peter McKay.

00:09:30.680 I'm just, I'm having a tough time getting excited by Peter McKay.

00:09:37.140 I think he maybe feels like this is his turn, and maybe that's why he's doing it.

00:09:43.780 I don't know.

00:09:44.580 I'd love to ask him, but he doesn't like to talk to us.

00:09:49.680 You know, which maybe is telling in how he sees himself

00:09:54.400 within the broader Conservative movement.

00:09:56.820 I'll be honest.

00:09:57.760 I was very disappointed when the Conservative Party decided to soldier on

00:10:02.740 with this leadership race while COVID was locking us all down.

00:10:07.040 I know that there's this concern that there could be a snap election any day,

00:10:12.060 and therefore we have to go ahead with the leadership race.

00:10:14.860 And they're all still feeling, I think, a little burnt from the very lengthy race 1.00

00:10:18.720 that happened last time, and they wanted to avoid that.

00:10:21.580 But it's meant that some of the candidates, and I think probably Dr. Leslie Lewis in particular,

00:10:28.560 didn't get as much time to meet with members, to sell new memberships.

00:10:34.120 And it also meant that we had fewer people in this leadership race than we might otherwise have,

00:10:39.060 because they kept the deadlines so aggressive while COVID was happening.

00:10:44.100 So I'm personally a little disappointed that the Conservative Party didn't delay the leadership race

00:10:49.700 to give members more opportunity to meet with candidates and to sell new memberships.

00:10:55.040 That being said, I guess we're going into a vote.

00:10:57.640 It's happening now.

00:10:58.540 People are getting their ballots.

00:10:59.820 I think Peter McKay is running because he never really got to be PC party leader when he won back in 2003.

00:11:12.220 That leadership lasted only for a few months before the new Conservative Party of Canada was formed.

00:11:20.480 You have Aaron O'Toole, who I think is running more closely to the Harper ticket.

00:11:26.920 He was a Harper cabinet minister and sort of espousing this fairly safe position for the Conservative Party.

00:11:41.780 I think the bigger problem, though, the Conservative Party has is looking at how many people say they're open to voting for the Conservative Party.

00:11:51.700 And right now that number is, in some cases, under 40%, which means that even if they got every single vote of people who might possibly vote Conservative,

00:12:03.940 it still isn't enough to get the Conservatives into majority government territory, particularly given how weak the New Democrats are under Leader Jagmeet Singh.

00:12:13.640 And so I think it's why people are starting to look at Leslie Lewis and others as an alternative, because they see it as a shake-up.

00:12:22.860 They see it as a way of changing perceptions about the Conservative Party.

00:12:27.320 And I think that's a great conversation to have.

00:12:29.320 I don't know if Leslie Lewis is the right person for that.

00:12:33.580 I'm a little bit nervous that the fact that she's never been an elected official before creates a real problem or challenge for her.

00:12:41.540 But I think, you know, if there's one word I would choose to describe this leadership race, it would be sort of uninspiring.

00:12:48.720 That's my personal opinion.

00:12:49.720 Yeah, and, you know, we could have, I think maybe the potential for a surprise is in all of this, because Leslie Lewis has the potential to be a lot of people's second choice, particularly with the Sloan people.

00:13:08.420 I think she could be a second choice with the O'Toole people. 0.93

00:13:12.740 And, of course, she's a first choice for her own people.

00:13:17.640 So, you know, she has the potential to do really well.

00:13:21.860 And I think that speaks to the false narrative about the Conservative Party that you hear from the Liberal camp, that, you know, it's not diverse, that they don't care about women in politics, that we, you know, we're racist by the nature of being Conservative.

00:13:41.100 But, you know, we have an accomplished woman of colour on our side of the aisle running to be the leader, and she's a serious contender. 0.99

00:13:53.380 And I think that the fact that the media and the Liberals still treat the Conservative movement as though it's behind the times, while defending the man who wore blackface at least three times, it's a sad state of affairs here in Canada.

00:14:08.120 And I think that's a great segue into why we need the Independent Press Gallery.

00:14:15.020 And Aaron O'Toole so far has said that he will recognise the Independent Press Gallery, a venture by Candice Malcolm and the folks at True North, this press gallery that basically all you have to do is not take government money.

00:14:31.980 And you can think for yourself and you can join.

00:14:35.860 I think that's also going to be a real game changer.

00:14:39.440 And I think it's going to put a lot of people on their toes in Ottawa.

00:14:43.700 I certainly hope so.

00:14:45.080 I think, you know, what's so interesting is I read a Globe and Mail article about the We Charity situation the other day.

00:14:54.040 And at the bottom of the Globe article was a disclaimer that said that the Globe and Mail was a media partner of the We Charity.

00:15:02.740 And they wanted people to know that.

00:15:04.300 And I thought to myself, but they're also getting hundreds of thousands, if not millions of dollars in taxpayer funding from the Liberal government, who is having a scandal with the We Charity, who they're a media partner for.

00:15:17.360 And my goodness, haven't we reached the point where our mainstream media has become so tied up in the people that they're supposed to be holding into account?

00:15:28.520 How on earth could we expect them to do that hard work and to be tough when they're taking money from a bunch of different groups and are involved with a bunch of different groups who are highly questionable?

00:15:40.520 So I'm looking, I think that the Independent Press Gallery has some really big things that it wants to accomplish.

00:15:47.760 The first is, right now, media have been able to sort of gang up.

00:15:51.600 Media and politicians have been able to gang up on independent media, deny them the right to attend certain press conferences and press events.

00:15:59.640 You would think that mainstream media will be champions for independent journalists coming to cover these things.

00:16:05.060 Well, the answer is no.

00:16:05.980 They look at independent media as the poor cousins that, frankly, don't play the game the way they're supposed to.

00:16:14.740 Certainly, the prime minister has gone out of his way and his government has gone out of their way to keep independent media from covering major events.

00:16:23.600 I know both the rebel and true north had to sue their way into covering, being able to cover the federal leaders' debates during the last federal election because the liberal government fought tooth and nail to prevent it.

00:16:36.980 So I'm hoping that the whole strength by numbers argument is one of the things that the Independent Press Gallery will have going for it.

00:16:42.880 It's no longer going to be a random series of independent media voices trying on their own.

00:16:49.440 There's going to be a group of people working together to advance the cause of better journalism in Canada.

00:16:55.500 And so, you know, the other thing I think is so funny is just how out of date the Parliamentary Press Gallery is when it comes to how they recognize media.

00:17:06.620 These are people who, first of all, didn't want to let television into the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

00:17:11.440 They don't want to, they don't recognize that, you know, journalism is now an online endeavor.

00:17:17.060 They thought, you know, prevent online journalists from getting the same kind of access as others.

00:17:22.860 But they've always been backwards. 1.00

00:17:24.280 In fact, I think at one point they even wouldn't let women into the Parliamentary Press Gallery.

00:17:29.660 So this is not a group who has a record of being at the forefront of advancing the cause of journalism in Canada.

00:17:36.720 They've been just the opposite.

00:17:37.880 So now we have a choice.

00:17:39.200 You can, you know, go with the status quo and the mainstream media,

00:17:43.440 or you can support a group who actually want to ask the hard questions.

00:17:46.920 And, you know, to your credit, Sheila, a group of journalists in the mainstream media who often take the work you've done

00:17:52.320 and then, you know, make it their own and claim that they wrote the story when we know that it was actually you who came up with that story first.

00:17:59.920 Yeah, and I'm not special.

00:18:01.660 They do that to all of us.

00:18:03.240 And then they claim that they need, for example, in the CBC's case, $1.5 billion to basically newsjack what I did.

00:18:09.860 Now let's, I want to move on to another area of your expertise, and that is the City of Calgary

00:18:19.140 and how out of control the City of Calgary City Council is.

00:18:24.140 Save Calgary, the little advocacy group that could.

00:18:28.120 You guys have found eight different tax hikes and revenue grabs, tax grabs, fees that the City of Calgary is imposing on the long-suffering taxpayers of Calgary,

00:18:42.820 homeowners of Calgary, facilities users in Calgary, in the midst of, and I say this all the time,

00:18:50.460 the worst economic downturn in probably 100 years, and yet the City still has their hands in people's pockets.

00:18:58.480 It's unbelievable.

00:19:02.200 You know, you would think during these incredibly tough times where unemployment is possibly as high as 25%,

00:19:10.740 it's hard to tell because so many people have just left the workforce at this moment because they were unable to find jobs,

00:19:16.560 so we don't really know, but government estimates have been as high as 25%,

00:19:19.960 that one in three office towers in downtown Calgary are completely vacant.

00:19:24.060 You think that City Council's focus would be trying to do whatever it could to kickstart economic growth right here in the city,

00:19:31.700 but you would be wrong.

00:19:33.220 Instead, they commissioned a financial task force, and they gave that task force two jobs.

00:19:39.340 One, to find places where they could save money, places where they could cut spending, places where they could achieve savings.

00:19:46.180 And two, they asked for revenue tools, which is how you say taxes, do taxes in government speak.

00:19:54.180 In order to provide a more predictable funding framework for the city.

00:19:59.460 Now, they kind of didn't do that first one very well.

00:20:02.620 There's a lot of words like synergy and collaborate to talk about how they're going to find savings.

00:20:08.360 They didn't really recommend a lot of places to cut, but they did come up with a whole bunch of new ways to tax Calgarians.

00:20:14.020 And we, you know, there's more than eight.

00:20:16.980 In fact, there's probably dozens if you go through the 60-some page report that they put out.

00:20:22.200 But we highlighted eight.

00:20:25.320 Increasingly crazy taxes that the city wants to put on the backs of hardworking Calgarians.

00:20:30.300 And our big worry is Calgarians just weren't going to know.

00:20:33.060 Because if you didn't read the 60-page report buried in the middle of a 300-page agenda package,

00:20:39.580 you might not know that the city of Calgary wants to hike your electricity bill or tax you every time you take an Uber or a taxi.

00:20:47.620 Or tax you for working from your own home.

00:20:51.320 That's one of the proposals being looked at by the city right now.

00:20:53.980 That is shocking.

00:20:57.460 So many people forced to work at home.

00:21:00.440 They don't have a choice.

00:21:01.300 If you want to keep working, you've got to work at home.

00:21:03.900 And the city's like, you know what?

00:21:05.780 Let's get those people while they're down. 1.00

00:21:07.620 It's horrible.

00:21:09.380 And then, you know, it's to go after people who are taking an Uber to work.

00:21:15.100 Or, you know, it's just, it's so gross. 0.74

00:21:19.420 I don't even have words to describe how revolting it is.

00:21:24.760 Especially when Calgary is, like, ground zero for Western economic destruction.

00:21:34.020 There's a couple of myths that city council and the mayor like to spend when they talk about fiscal issues.

00:21:41.340 The first is they like to say that they've cut spending.

00:21:44.520 Well, that's not true.

00:21:45.420 How the city cuts spending is different than how you or I cut spending.

00:21:49.440 When we cut spending, we look at our grocery bill.

00:21:51.800 Say, last month it was $200.

00:21:54.120 This month it's $150.

00:21:56.360 So, to us, that's a cut.

00:21:58.080 But the city looks at it and says, well, we spent $200 this month.

00:22:01.340 We planned to spend $300 next month.

00:22:04.260 But now we're only going to spend $250.

00:22:06.940 They call that a cut, even though spending is going up.

00:22:10.100 The second thing, and when I say spending is going up, over a 10-year period,

00:22:13.260 the city is now spending $1 billion more a year than it was in 2010.

00:22:19.000 In fact, that spending figure is now perilously close to $4 billion a year.

00:22:25.020 It's staggeringly high.

00:22:26.960 The second thing is, where are they spending the money?

00:22:29.660 A lot of it is going to salaries, wages, pensions, and benefits.

00:22:33.800 Those have increased.

00:22:35.000 The cost of that has increased by more than 40% over the last 10 years.

00:22:40.540 Some of it is because they've simply hired more people, about 2,000 more people to work

00:22:45.100 at the city of Calgary.

00:22:46.480 But they're also paying everybody more.

00:22:48.860 And as more and more people retire, their pension obligation is going up and up.

00:22:53.620 It used to be $200 million 10 years ago.

00:22:56.000 Now it's $500 million.

00:22:57.780 And it's only going to keep climbing.

00:22:59.680 The third thing they like to say is that Calgary pays some of the lowest property taxes.

00:23:04.940 Well, that's not true.

00:23:05.840 The city put out a chart showing where Calgary was, and it was smack dab in the middle.

00:23:11.160 And that's assuming that they've calculated all of the extra fees that Calgarians pay for

00:23:16.560 things like garbage collection, which are included in property taxes that people pay in other cities.

00:23:22.860 So these are all the little myths that the city of Calgary has spun, leading them to the

00:23:27.920 point where they've said, well, we just need more taxes.

00:23:30.080 We don't have enough money to run the city we want to run, to provide the services we want

00:23:34.760 to give.

00:23:35.540 And we laid out eight potential areas that they're looking at for tax cuts.

00:23:39.560 But there's even more than that.

00:23:41.540 This financial task force looked at all of the cities in North America, and they identified

00:23:47.280 things those cities are doing in order to raise taxes.

00:23:50.260 And two things they found were some cities put on a municipal income tax.

00:23:56.860 So you actually have to pay a percentage of your income to the city.

00:24:01.180 And other cities put on a municipal sales tax.

00:24:05.920 So those are two things that the city on the outside is also looking at.

00:24:09.520 You could pay 5% of your income to the city of Calgary or a 1% or 2% sales tax on every

00:24:15.980 single thing you buy.

00:24:17.300 But what they haven't done is look at ways where they can save money.

00:24:19.780 And they know that the place to save money is in workforce and labor costs, but they're

00:24:25.060 too afraid of the big public sector unions to tackle that.

00:24:28.200 So instead, they're just going to put taxes on the backs of Calgarians. 0.98

00:24:31.380 Yeah.

00:24:31.920 And what a boom to Okotoks and Airdrie if the city of Calgary brings in their own municipal

00:24:38.500 sales tax.

00:24:39.460 I mean, businesses will just relocate outside of city limits and people will be more inclined

00:24:45.240 to live in Airdrie and live in Okotoks, where it'll be a little bit more affordable and

00:24:50.200 you can sort of escape the clutches of Nenshi and his tax and spend ways.

00:24:54.980 Now, you guys have a petition, do you not, to fight this?

00:24:59.340 Well, you're right.

00:25:00.200 Now, the good news is the city doesn't have the power under the law to implement many of

00:25:05.840 these new taxes.

00:25:06.700 They can do some of them, but a lot of them require the provincial government's approval.

00:25:10.860 And so Save Calgary has started a petition urging Minister Casey Maddu, who we think is

00:25:16.660 doing a great job, and the government of Alberta, not to give Calgary the ability to raise one

00:25:22.380 additional new tax.

00:25:24.320 We think Calgarians are already overtaxed.

00:25:26.620 They're taxed to death.

00:25:28.080 They're already struggling to make ends meet, to pay their mortgages, to pay their monthly

00:25:32.120 bills.

00:25:32.940 We're asking Minister Maddu and the Alberta government not to give in the city hall tax

00:25:37.800 ground that this council is trying to foist onto the backs of Calgarians.

00:25:41.800 Certainly on our website, savecalgary.com, you can see our petition, you can sign it,

00:25:45.720 you can help be part of the campaign to stop this outrageous series of taxes that city council

00:25:51.200 and the mayor want to stick Calgarians with.

00:25:56.180 And, I mean, you guys at Save Calgary, you are the most effective municipal watchdog organization,

00:26:04.020 I would say in Canada, if not probably all of continental North America.

00:26:09.020 You guys, nearly single-handedly, you and maybe two or three other organizations stopped

00:26:14.340 an Olympic bid that was all but a done deal.

00:26:18.620 And so when you say that you are organizing to stop something or put pressure on the municipal

00:26:24.000 government, it is very effective.

00:26:26.540 And you help amplify the voices of the people, the people that politicians don't want to listen

00:26:31.760 to, how do people support Save Calgary and sign up for those incredibly well-written email

00:26:39.020 blasts?

00:26:40.660 Well, great for asking.

00:26:42.360 They can go to savecalgary.com, which is our website.

00:26:45.760 There you can sign up to our weekly newsletter.

00:26:48.740 We just put out a video featuring some young Calgarians who are helping to raise awareness

00:26:53.780 about these crazy new taxes that City Hall is trying to create.

00:26:57.740 Savecalgary.com is also where you can sign that petition.

00:27:02.100 And we hope that you take a read and just understand the crazy tax-type agenda that City

00:27:07.880 Hall is actively pursuing right now.

00:27:10.720 You can also follow us on all of our social media, on Facebook, on Twitter, Save Calgary.

00:27:15.440 If you search for that, you'll find both of them.

00:27:17.240 And if you have the ability, which is hard now to ask for money here of Calgary taxpayers

00:27:21.540 because they've already had their pocket picked so much on City Council.

00:27:25.580 But if you have a few dollars that they haven't taken, Save Calgary really appreciates the support

00:27:30.080 of everyday Albertans because we don't get government funding unlike media unions and other

00:27:34.920 left-wing groups.

00:27:36.500 Now, I'm going to ask you about something before you go that is near and dear to my heart and

00:27:41.820 to yours, Dolly Parton.

00:27:44.280 And you didn't know I was going to ask you about this, but you have a petition to rename

00:27:50.680 the Nashville airport in favor of Dolly Parton.

00:27:54.780 And I love her.

00:27:55.800 I think she has done more to combat poverty than most governments out there through her

00:28:02.960 childhood literacy efforts and her job creation efforts.

00:28:06.760 When you see her talk about Dollywood, she says, well, I built it to be the job creator

00:28:12.020 in the region.

00:28:12.800 My people needed jobs.

00:28:14.300 People will come here to see me.

00:28:15.960 So I built Dollywood.

00:28:17.840 And, you know, just she's just a wonderful lady. 0.84

00:28:21.920 And I would love to see her honored while she's still alive to be flattered by it.

00:28:26.900 And you have sort of started something on your own time that I would love to signal boost.

00:28:33.260 Well, I think I think you're right.

00:28:34.960 I'm a big admirer of Miss Harden. 0.98

00:28:36.800 And I think, you know, apart from being a very gifted performer, one of the most decorated,

00:28:41.760 award-winning and best-selling country music artists of all times, she's also trying to

00:28:47.280 do her best to help the community that she was born and raised in.

00:28:51.520 You know, she came from a very humble background.

00:28:53.400 She was one of a dozen children.

00:28:55.300 Her father was illiterate.

00:28:56.660 And so she created a literacy program to help poor kids be able to read.

00:29:01.520 And so I think to myself, gosh, we name things after politicians all the time.

00:29:06.900 A lot of those politicians weren't great.

00:29:08.940 They just got their name on things because they happened to be a mayor or they happened

00:29:13.640 to be a governor.

00:29:14.900 And I think, well, why don't we actually name something after someone who's really made

00:29:18.680 a great contribution, both through her music and through her philanthropy and through

00:29:23.760 her charitable work?

00:29:25.120 I'm hoping they name Nationals Airport the Dolly Parton International Airport.

00:29:28.640 I mean, how fun would it be to fly into National and hear the pilot out, you know, we've begun

00:29:33.180 our descent into Dolly Parton Airport.

00:29:36.000 Oh, and, you know, you're so right to put out that, you know, the politicians get their

00:29:42.280 names put on stuff just by virtue of they got elected to something.

00:29:47.720 What I love about Dolly is you don't know if she's on the left or the right and she doesn't 0.99

00:29:51.120 want to talk about it and she shuts down interviewers because she doesn't want to alienate 1.00

00:29:55.000 people from either side.

00:29:56.360 And she seems to be universally loved by people on the left and by people on the right

00:30:01.020 because she does that. 0.99

00:30:02.980 And I think it is your neat little petition.

00:30:07.020 I think it's on change.org.

00:30:08.440 We'll we'll put a link to it.

00:30:10.660 I think it's just kind of fun because who could be upset about Dolly Parton's name on the

00:30:17.080 Nashville airport?

00:30:17.940 That's what I think.

00:30:19.600 I just thought that I needed at least one cause that wasn't controversial or that descended

00:30:25.440 into partisan politics.

00:30:26.820 I think we can all agree that Dolly Parton is a fantastic woman and we'd all be better

00:30:31.360 off if we named Nashville airport after her. 0.99

00:30:34.180 Well, I wish you the best of luck.

00:30:36.100 And I was very proud to sign that petition and to share it.

00:30:39.240 And I hope everybody does the same.

00:30:40.940 William, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:30:43.360 I'll try to get down to Calgary and see you and the folks at Save Calgary over the course

00:30:49.800 of the summer.

00:30:50.880 And just enjoy the rest of your summer because winter comes very, very fast.

00:30:56.040 Well, thanks, Sheila.

00:30:56.700 Of course, you're always welcome here in Calgary.

00:30:58.840 We want more Conservatives coming to this city.

00:31:01.380 So please, if you can, come on down and see us.

00:31:03.980 You got it, William.

00:31:04.900 Thanks.

00:31:05.180 Thanks.

00:31:05.240 Thanks.

00:31:05.280 Thanks.

00:31:10.560 Friends, I say it all the time, but all politics are truly local and your municipal government

00:31:17.300 is the level of government that affects you the most and affects you first.

00:31:22.440 You notice right away if your garbage isn't picked up and you notice that big, huge property

00:31:28.500 tax bill, don't you?

00:31:30.280 But we really don't seem to pay attention to the ideological leanings of our municipal

00:31:36.140 politicians.

00:31:37.400 And I think it's time we do.

00:31:39.300 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:31:41.780 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:31:43.480 I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.

00:31:47.060 And please remember, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

00:32:09.300 We're

00:32:12.920 on Hill for now.

00:32:14.180 We'll see you.

00:32:14.900 We'll see you next week.

00:32:15.440 Bye.

00:32:15.940 We'll see you next week.

00:32:16.100 Bye.

00:32:17.620 Yeah.

00:32:18.260 Bye.

00:32:18.860 Bye.

00:32:19.660 Bye.

00:32:23.580 Bye.

00:32:37.380 Bye.

Rebel News Podcast - July 23, 2020

SAVE CALGARY! City with 13.4% unemployment threatens taxing Uber, home offices

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