Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Most Liberal MPs are 'too chicken' to demand fair treatment on the carbon tax

00:00:00.000 The Alberta government passes Bill 1 and nobody trusts the media.

00:00:05.300 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:24.660 This legislative session in Alberta, the first order of business was

00:00:29.080 for the Alberta government to pass a restraining order against itself,

00:00:33.820 limiting the provincial government's ability to raise taxes on its citizens.

00:00:39.860 And Justin Trudeau, though he has given the mainstream media $600 million in bailouts,

00:00:47.540 people continue to distrust the mainstream media and distrust Justin Trudeau.

00:00:54.460 And then the gun buyback keeps getting more and more expensive.

00:01:00.420 What's with that?

00:01:01.680 We'll talk about it with Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:01:05.960 Take a listen.

00:01:06.440 So joining me now is my good friend, Chris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

00:01:18.180 Chris, one of my favourite things on the internet over the past seven days

00:01:23.820 has been the CTF and the chicken suit.

00:01:27.780 Tell us about the chicken suit, please.

00:01:29.540 So this was all inspired out of fury after the members of parliament and the liberal side

00:01:38.840 of things refused to give their constituents the same break that they're giving on fuel oil

00:01:45.680 in Atlantic Canada.

00:01:46.660 So there was this big thing, of course, where Prime Minister Justin Trudeau gave a carve-out

00:01:51.280 exemption for home heating fuel, but it was just for furnace oil.

00:01:55.120 And it was just for three years until after the next election, right?

00:02:00.340 So understandably so, people were super ticked off because the vast majority of us don't use

00:02:06.240 furnace oil.

00:02:07.220 Most of us use natural gas, and some folks out in more rural areas and in trailer parks,

00:02:11.580 they use propane.

00:02:13.020 Those of us who use natural gas and propane, we're getting screwed.

00:02:16.300 So we're going to pay around $300 extra, thereabouts, just in the carbon tax, just in home heating

00:02:24.120 this winter.

00:02:25.660 So there was a big vote happening in the House of Commons, and it was put forward by the

00:02:30.360 Conservatives and actually supported by the NDP, hell has frozen over, where they said

00:02:36.200 basically, hey, give the same carbon tax exemption regardless of heating fuel.

00:02:41.720 Everybody gets it.

00:02:42.960 Let's play fairsies.

00:02:44.000 Because the Liberals, who voted to give their own constituents in Atlantic Canada a break,

00:02:51.020 were too chicken to give their constituents elsewhere a break.

00:02:56.180 So in this case in Alberta, it's George Chahal for Calgary Skyview, and it's Randy Bosano.

00:03:01.920 Those are our two Liberal members of Parliament here in Alberta.

00:03:05.140 Randy's up in Edmonton Centre.

00:03:06.720 So we have a whole bunch now of these chicken costumes.

00:03:12.800 Got a great sale, good Canadian distributor.

00:03:16.000 And we've deployed them across Canada.

00:03:18.800 And now we're protesting these members of Parliament.

00:03:22.360 So far, we've just done their offices, but it could escalate at any moment.

00:03:26.880 You know, that's what I love about the CTF, is the costumes, really.

00:03:31.660 I mean, who could forget the mariachi band in the 90s?

00:03:36.180 It's one of our favourite things to do.

00:03:38.880 So I've always loved dressing up, and the idea that I could actually put this on my CV when I was

00:03:44.540 applying for this job was just magnificent.

00:03:47.120 And we do it for, so it's fun, but we do it for a reason, and it's because it really makes politicians mad.

00:03:56.000 Like, you mock them, and especially if they're just self-important, overpaid, stuffed shirts,

00:04:03.220 they get really uppity and really miffed really fast when the smelly peasants start criticising them 0.64

00:04:10.640 and start teasing them.

00:04:12.420 So that is why we have Fibber, who looks a lot like the Italian folklore puppet Pinocchio.

00:04:18.420 So whenever a politician lies, which is like every day, we could deploy Fibber. 0.86

00:04:23.840 We also have a big honking pink pig in a tuxedo, and he's Porky the Waste Hater.

00:04:29.460 So now this flock of chickens has joined our ranks, and we're just showing up now.

00:04:36.740 And they deserve it.

00:04:37.640 Here, this is the sign.

00:04:38.580 I don't know if you can see it.

00:04:39.420 But it's like, I'm too chicken to cancel the carbon tax on home heating, right?

00:04:45.760 So I went to the dollar store, and I made that sign.

00:04:48.660 And yeah, we've just been mocking them since.

00:04:50.940 And we're going to keep it up, too, because they had a chance.

00:04:53.940 They could, if they had voted, if we'd gotten enough liberals to vote with the NDP and the conservatives,

00:04:59.200 that motion would have passed, and we'd have a lot better chance of saving everybody 300 bucks this winter.

00:05:03.560 You know, and to the point of this, this is purely a political move because the liberals were getting into some trouble in Atlantic Canada.

00:05:12.700 They had their own MPs breaking ranks with them on this.

00:05:15.360 So they had to throw a bone out to Western or to Eastern Canada, and they really stand to lose nothing by punishing Western Canada.

00:05:26.040 And, you know, if you care about emissions, I don't necessarily.

00:05:29.920 But if you do, why are you giving a break to the dirtier form of heating?

00:05:35.120 Like this bunker fuel adjacent heating instead of clean burning natural gas, you know, like they want to incentivize us to be cleaner.

00:05:43.760 You could do that by giving people who heat with natural gas a break.

00:05:48.980 But the most compelling argument is one that you made on your Twitter account, which you broke the numbers down and actually showed that people who heat with natural gas are still paying more than those who heat with the bunker fuel adjacent home heating oil.

00:06:04.260 Yeah, you do.

00:06:05.800 So when people think about home heating, and I know most of your audience will have a full understanding of this, but pretend that we're speaking to our more urban brothers and sisters who it's push button or they don't need to think about it.

00:06:17.880 You can get your home heating fuel in different ways.

00:06:20.440 It can be piped directly to you in your house, like we do for natural gas.

00:06:25.100 Or if you somehow manage to afford heating with electric, that's a form of piped energy because it comes through the wire.

00:06:31.780 Or you need portable fuel.

00:06:36.220 A truck needs to bring the stuff in the form of energy to then combust or heat or whatever your house in order to provide winter heat.

00:06:44.780 So that can come in the form of wood, if you have a wood stove, or wood pellets, same deal.

00:06:51.580 Bunker oil, as you call it, furnace oil.

00:06:54.380 So way back in the day across the prairies, it was quite common as well to heat with this oil.

00:06:59.000 And if you remember the older kind of round, oval, tall, elongated tanks, apparently across the prairies, I didn't realize this, they would have them inside.

00:07:09.040 Whereas on the east coast and out on the west coast, how I grew up, they were outside and they would often supplement wood furnaces.

00:07:17.200 So you can port that fuel.

00:07:18.980 You can also, like I said, fill big propane tanks and use them for your propane fuel.

00:07:24.080 So they're singling out this one tiny little group of people, around 3% or 4% of Canadians, who still use portable furnace oil.

00:07:36.860 The rest of us are up the creek.

00:07:40.120 And you're right, the rest of us, on average, are going to be paying more for our carbon tax, for our home heat, because it's a constant piped thing.

00:07:49.060 It's different from having it in your tank.

00:07:51.940 And if I can just take the tax hat off for a second and look at this from just an analysis point of view.

00:07:58.500 What's interesting about the Atlantic thing, because I've got family out there, the Atlantic caucus of any political party, the major ones, liberal and conservative, the Atlantic caucus has its own culture.

00:08:12.880 Okay, it's older, quite often the older set, so my late Nana was like this, the older set, you would be born a Tory, or you were born a liberal, because your father and your grandfather were a Tory or a liberal.

00:08:29.320 So it creates this cultural confidence, I would describe it, within the party, and therefore has this special confident caucus within any said party.

00:08:42.680 These folks turned around to the prime minister, I don't know how they got him to do it, and said, hey boy, you know, we're losing votes here.

00:08:50.380 I'm plummeting in the polls, you know, we've got to have some action here, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

00:08:53.660 And they're older, by and large. If you take a look at Lawrence McCauley, for example, who's an ag minister, he's been around forever.

00:09:02.240 So that sort of cultural mentality, I think, got to the PMO, and they were able to band together and urge him to do this and give them a carve-out.

00:09:12.660 Around 40% of Prince Edward Islanders, 40, still use furnace oil.

00:09:17.520 Around 35% of Nova Scotians, including in Halifax, still use furnace oil.

00:09:24.700 So this is a critically, politically important issue for them, and that is why he blinked.

00:09:29.960 But the rest of the MPs, they clearly don't have that pull, and they clearly don't have that confidence, and they're clearly too chicken to stand up in the same way.

00:09:40.040 Yeah, I think also, you know, the people around Justin Trudeau, I think, are much brighter than Justin Trudeau.

00:09:46.960 And I think they could see the writing on the wall when you see the rise of premiers like Blaine Higgs, conservative premiers, who are popular, they're doing well.

00:09:56.740 The liberals could stand to lose some seats in Atlantic Canada just over this issue.

00:10:03.720 So, again, it never comes down to emissions. It never comes down to affordability.

00:10:07.900 It's just using the taxism as a cudgel to punish your enemies and reward your friends.

00:10:14.320 The science quickly became political science.

00:10:18.200 Yes.

00:10:18.600 Real fast.

00:10:19.700 And for folks who don't know, Atlantic Canada, like yesterday, like just started paying the carbon tax.

00:10:26.660 So on July 1st this year, they started paying the full freight of the carbon tax.

00:10:32.200 The rest of us were.

00:10:33.460 So 14 cents a litre for gasoline, 17 cents a litre for diesel, 12 cents per cubic metre of natural gas.

00:10:40.520 All that jazz.

00:10:41.420 We were always doing this.

00:10:42.620 We were part of the mandatory minimum that Trudeau had imposed on us.

00:10:46.060 Not Atlantic Canada.

00:10:47.680 They had a special deal.

00:10:49.300 They had an exemption up until July 1st this year.

00:10:53.280 So if you want to know why the polls suddenly went like this there, because they started, they had a sticker shock overnight at the gas pumps.

00:11:00.840 Overnight, their gasoline price went up like 14 cents a litre.

00:11:04.660 That's like 10 bucks extra every time you're filling up a minivan.

00:11:09.000 Boom.

00:11:09.660 And so that is why that hornet's nest was kicked.

00:11:12.280 You know, some part of me is kind of cheekily pleased that Trudeau voters are getting mugged by reality.

00:11:20.600 But then I remembered that these are individual families and their pockets are being picked.

00:11:25.400 And those are jugs of milk disappearing out of their fridge.

00:11:28.120 And that's, you know, new skates that kids won't get because Justin Trudeau thinks he can spend your money better than you.

00:11:36.440 Speaking of people being allowed to spend their money better than the government.

00:11:43.360 I said this off air, but I think this is like we may as well call this the CTF bill, bill one in Alberta.

00:11:51.260 The government of Alberta has, I guess, sought a restraining order against itself from tax hikes.

00:11:57.860 And I think it's wonderful.

00:11:58.940 Tell us about it.

00:11:59.900 OK, I might have to use that line.

00:12:01.400 That's really good.

00:12:02.280 So here in the beautiful land of Alberta, which I have moved to over the past year and a half.

00:12:06.740 Thank you for taking me in, Sheila.

00:12:08.660 We're monitoring both sides of the province here.

00:12:10.660 I'm down south.

00:12:11.220 She's up north.

00:12:11.740 So here in the beautiful province of Alberta, we have something called the Taxpayer Protection Act.

00:12:17.460 OK, the late former Premier Ralph Klein put it in place back in 1995.

00:12:22.560 And so up until just recently, the Taxpayer Protection Act only excluded a provincial sales tax from happening without a referendum.

00:12:33.980 Put bluntly, if the government ever wanted to push a PST on us here in Alberta,

00:12:39.360 they'd have to win a referendum from the people first.

00:12:44.740 That is why we don't have a PST.

00:12:46.600 So it saves people billions of dollars if you take a look at the entire province.

00:12:50.820 And anybody who's done any shopping in Alberta and waits at the till and it doesn't sting as bad remembers what that feels like.

00:12:57.940 So we don't have a PST.

00:12:59.660 That's baked into the Taxpayer Protection Act.

00:13:02.560 Fast forward.

00:13:03.360 We now have Premier Daniel Smith, who had already mentioned something like this back when we were getting her to sign our No PST pledge when she was first running for leadership.

00:13:13.500 She kind of alluded to it.

00:13:15.260 And I got this weird impression that she was like reading back issues of our magazines and like our white papers and stuff.

00:13:21.500 And I was like, oh, wow, I better get up to speed because, you know, she's just nerdy enough to do that. 1.00

00:13:25.960 Yeah, so nerdy.

00:13:27.640 And like I hadn't even read some of this stuff.

00:13:29.380 So I was like, holy smokes, I've got to get up to speed.

00:13:31.240 So what they did is they have now altered the Taxpayer Protection Act, which is usually a bit freaky because you don't want that changed.

00:13:39.180 But if they ever want to increase income taxes or business taxes, they need to win a referendum first.

00:13:48.240 So if they ever try to hike taxes in Alberta again, we need to say yes.

00:13:54.740 It's huge.

00:13:56.600 Yeah, they need we need to say yes.

00:13:58.780 And they have to make the case to Albertans why they can't find efficiencies, why they can't claw back on the bureaucracy or, you know, like if they try to make that case to Albertans, Albertans are going to be making the case right back to them.

00:14:10.620 Actually, you have X number of middle managers at Alberta Health Services.

00:14:14.820 Do you think we could do with maybe 10 instead of 12 supervising the one guy who uses the mop?

00:14:22.900 Yes, which is exactly the situation of government.

00:14:25.860 I'll give you a quick sneak peek.

00:14:28.340 I don't have all the numbers solid yet.

00:14:31.400 But every year, especially here in Alberta, we do what's called a pre-budget report.

00:14:35.820 And so that's where we go through all the past budgets and we find efficiencies and we just nerd out.

00:14:40.700 And then we give it to the government and it's like, here, please steal our ideas, have at it, put your name on it, give her because it just saves people money.

00:14:50.180 So the next time somebody says something like, oh, well, we're cut to the bone.

00:14:54.260 This is austerity.

00:14:55.260 There's nothing we can do.

00:14:56.220 Folks might also remember that in the last spring, the government here in Alberta committed to keeping spending increases to the rate of inflation and population growth.

00:15:10.860 Perfect.

00:15:11.860 Nice standard rule.

00:15:13.440 You're not cutting.

00:15:14.560 You're not.

00:15:14.780 You're still increasing.

00:15:16.000 But it's just by the rate of inflation and population growth.

00:15:18.460 So we at the Taxpayers Federation have been asking for that simple little economics rule, that little guardrail to be in place since the mid-90s.

00:15:27.420 So I went back through all of the budgets to the mid-90s and I did a what-if experiment.

00:15:33.840 What if they had put this rule in, which they've agreed to now?

00:15:37.580 What if we had done this in the mid-90s?

00:15:39.560 How much money would we have?

00:15:42.540 Hundreds of billions of dollars, Sheila.

00:15:46.660 And I have to be clear, this is not windfalls.

00:15:50.500 Got nothing to do with natural resource windfalls.

00:15:52.960 No roller coaster involved.

00:15:54.580 This is simply if they had kept spending at that level of check.

00:15:59.340 We would have hundreds of billions of dollars.

00:16:02.720 So the next time somebody says there's nothing to cut, there's nothing we can do.

00:16:06.520 No, no, no.

00:16:07.360 That's not true.

00:16:08.260 Even simple little discipline rules like that would have had us head and shoulders miles above people right now.

00:16:14.740 It's very sad.

00:16:15.780 That's very sad.

00:16:16.840 I'm sorry.

00:16:17.700 But hey, we started now.

00:16:19.400 So picture 20 years from now.

00:16:20.720 Better late than never, I guess.

00:16:23.100 I'm very pleased to see this because basically this means that it is going to be almost impossible

00:16:29.840 for the government to raise taxes in Alberta unless they repeal this law or completely ignore it altogether

00:16:36.140 like the Redford PCs did.

00:16:38.660 Yes.

00:16:39.100 So good luck with that.

00:16:40.580 So I've noticed something about Albertans is that they take action.

00:16:45.520 They don't take stuff lying down and they get really involved.

00:16:48.960 It's really quite inspiring from a grassroots perspective.

00:16:52.020 And so nobody has dared touch, knock wood, since 1995, since Klein put it in.

00:16:57.140 Nobody has dared touch the Taxpayer Protection Act.

00:17:00.220 Nobody has put in a PST here in Alberta.

00:17:02.240 They're now enshrining that same protection inside of that little vault.

00:17:07.580 So I pity the premier someday in the future who tries to open up that vault.

00:17:13.800 It's not going to be good because it's not just the Taxpayers Federation.

00:17:18.140 And it is us.

00:17:18.960 I mean, we will, I will bicycle lock my neck to somebody's leg if they tried doing something

00:17:23.000 like that.

00:17:23.580 But it's the people.

00:17:25.540 Like you have tons of citizens groups and just regular moms and dads and workers here

00:17:29.540 that are really well aware of what's going on and they will hold government to account,

00:17:34.000 which is a good thing to see.

00:17:35.820 Yeah.

00:17:35.940 We frequently get rid of conservative politicians because they're not conservative enough.

00:17:39.880 Like that's one of our favorite things to do around here.

00:17:42.500 It's like the provincial sport.

00:17:43.820 I'm reading through these books, these like history books, these black history books that

00:17:49.080 were put together by the Biefelds.

00:17:51.080 And I have one right there.

00:17:52.280 It's wonderful.

00:17:53.300 I have them too.

00:17:54.520 Look at us.

00:17:55.220 Like it's just, it's a very distinctly cultural thing for Alberta.

00:17:59.160 Saskatchewan might be similar.

00:18:00.260 I don't know.

00:18:00.820 Yes.

00:18:01.160 But it is pretty impressive to see.

00:18:03.300 And so all of this is to say, this is really good news, folks.

00:18:06.680 Provincially here in Alberta, they cannot raise taxes on you unless you vote to say so.

00:18:12.820 It's a pretty big deal.

00:18:13.820 It's one of the best taxpayer protections in all of North America, like game changer stuff.

00:18:20.160 I want to switch lanes a little bit to something that you and I have talked about previously,

00:18:25.200 and that is Justin Trudeau's gun buyback, which is not a buyback at all.

00:18:29.240 It's a compensation for confiscation program.

00:18:33.260 And that has just been kicked down the road until 2025.

00:18:37.320 So for people who are unaware, Justin Trudeau decided that 1,500, now it's closer to 2,000 models of Canadian long guns were too dangerous to be in the arms of Canadians.

00:18:50.120 And also subsequently grandfathered out handgun ownership.

00:18:55.280 But as I said, he decided these guns were too dangerous to be in the hands of Canadians.

00:19:00.220 And so they needed to be outlawed immediately.

00:19:04.640 However, he's letting us hang on to them until 2025.

00:19:08.720 Immediately years from now.

00:19:11.340 Years from now.

00:19:12.500 It was a deadly public safety issue.

00:19:15.220 So deadly and so in the interest of public safety that you can just hang on to them until 2025 because Justin Trudeau can't figure out how to compensate people for taking their property away and scapegoating, law-abiding Canadian firearms owners for the failings of progressive cities.

00:19:32.580 Yeah. So this would have been a huge mess.

00:19:36.500 It's already a huge mess.

00:19:37.740 It's a massive mess.

00:19:38.800 Yeah. I've already, I know a lady up in Prince George, this largely contributed to her gunshot being shut down. 1.00

00:19:45.780 It was her only small business because of this nonsense.

00:19:49.440 And so for the tiny handful of people who watch your show who don't have their firearms licenses, or if you're speaking to, you know, your cousin or whatever who doesn't own firearms.

00:19:59.000 So this is going after a law-abiding licensed firearms owners.

00:20:05.640 So in order to get a firearms license in Canada, you have to go through a big, long course.

00:20:10.580 And this is just for long guns.

00:20:11.920 We're not talking even handguns.

00:20:13.300 Just we're talking rifles and shotguns.

00:20:15.160 Okay.

00:20:15.960 That almost every ranch in Canada will have.

00:20:19.320 If you're living rurally, especially in the West, everybody, they're a tool. 0.88

00:20:22.600 It's like having a chainsaw.

00:20:23.880 Yeah.

00:20:24.860 And so the Trudeau government suddenly classified a whole bunch of these long guns as dangerous, almost exclusively based on looks.

00:20:35.580 Yes.

00:20:36.240 Like, it could have exactly the same function as, you know, the maple-encased long gun that has steel that you see Elmer Fudd using, okay, on a cartoon.

00:20:46.200 There's a 410.

00:20:47.220 There's a 410 on that list simply because it looks cool.

00:20:50.180 This is it.

00:20:50.900 This is it.

00:20:51.580 And so they went after the cosmetic element of it.

00:20:54.040 And fundamentally, it comes down to, for the Taxpayers Federation anyway, one, this would be a huge waste of money.

00:21:00.580 And we have evidence to show that it would be because they tried the long gun registry and it was a debacle.

00:21:06.400 So it was supposed to cost $200 million back in the day.

00:21:09.680 This is under the Kretchen Liberal government.

00:21:11.420 It wound up costing well over $1 billion.

00:21:14.520 And that's back in 90s money.

00:21:16.760 So huge waste of money.

00:21:18.260 And the police officers at the front lines of violence themselves have said repeatedly, this does not make people safer.

00:21:26.540 Like, going after duck hunters and people who are trying to keep coyotes away from their cattle, this does not improve safety.

00:21:34.920 It does nothing to stop gun violence that we see in our urban centers.

00:21:39.140 Go after those bad guys and bad girls who are doing that with illegal guns. 1.00

00:21:43.980 Don't go after the law-abiters. 1.00

00:21:45.620 So this is why the Taxpayers Federation takes a role in it because, one, it's a huge waste of money.

00:21:50.780 And, two, it's completely useless. 0.72

00:21:53.200 And we don't like useless wings of government.

00:21:56.740 Well, and, you know, they can't pin the number down on what this buyback.

00:22:01.280 Buyback.

00:22:01.860 I hate using that phrase.

00:22:02.700 As if you bought it from them in the first place.

00:22:05.000 Right.

00:22:06.800 They can't pin the number down.

00:22:08.760 And, of course, they can't.

00:22:10.000 So it started off at $800 million, then it went to $1 billion, now it's upwards of $2 billion, it's going to be $4 billion by next year.

00:22:19.500 And the reason why is a lot of these guns are moving from unregistered.

00:22:23.360 So you met the requirements to own them, perfect.

00:22:26.240 You went and bought it.

00:22:27.640 And then maybe you bought it at a gun show.

00:22:30.160 They checked your license.

00:22:33.780 They said, yep, you're cool.

00:22:35.320 You've been vetted daily by the RCMP.

00:22:37.740 You can have this shotgun.

00:22:41.560 And then, so there's no record of this gun between you and the government.

00:22:46.900 So now the government has no idea how many of these firearms they need to compensate you for.

00:22:52.280 So there's no possible way they can estimate the cost of the program, let alone the policing required to get these guns out of the hands of normal people.

00:23:01.580 We, at least in Alberta, know that our government is not going to mandate our RCMP to go door to door to confiscate the property of law-abiding people.

00:23:11.820 We've got bigger problems for our police to deal with, like the opioid crisis and violent crime and property crime.

00:23:20.320 We just don't have the resources to be harassing normal people like me.

00:23:23.620 We've had shootings in both Calgary and Edmonton in the last few days, like broad daylight ones.

00:23:30.300 So I'm going out on a limb here.

00:23:32.640 I doubt they're duck hunters.

00:23:34.580 I'm just saying.

00:23:35.580 I doubt it.

00:23:35.620 So this is, this is it, where it's one of those things where if I even try to empathize with somebody who doesn't understand guns, I, I get it.

00:23:45.960 I get that you're scared and you're believing the government when you're telling, when they're telling you this is going to make you safer.

00:23:51.960 But the police themselves say it won't.

00:23:55.380 Okay.

00:23:55.980 Yeah.

00:23:56.140 Quite often it's the police at the front lines who will, if I'm paraphrasing, say something like, we need to crack down on the gangbangers and the criminals who are running illegal guns quite often across the border.

00:24:08.320 So if you want to spend money on something, tighten up your border controls.

00:24:13.920 This is it.

00:24:14.620 This is it.

00:24:15.240 A little fence might help.

00:24:16.480 So don't, you know, no pun intended.

00:24:18.960 Don't send your Mounties out on some wild goose chase to go track down goose hunters in Brooks, Alberta.

00:24:26.440 Like there's, there's no point in doing that.

00:24:29.000 And so, and again, this isn't just the CTF saying this, this is the cops themselves.

00:24:33.140 And what was interesting is that these escalating estimations of cost of this confiscation slash buyback program, the numbers that I was seeing being put forward at committee, these were coming from criminologists.

00:24:46.480 Who teach at Simon Fraser University.

00:24:49.300 Okay.

00:24:49.860 This is not, you know, Dougie out in, you know, Red Deer.

00:24:53.440 This is somebody teaching at a university saying, yeah, this cost is going to balloon quickly.

00:24:59.060 And it is.

00:24:59.880 It is.

00:25:00.660 Every time I read an update about the buyback program, it's like, oh, they added another nine zeros to the end of the cost.

00:25:10.460 Yeah.

00:25:10.740 Every time.

00:25:11.720 For folks who don't own firearms and thinks this doesn't affect you.

00:25:14.500 Number one, it does, because this is a private property issue.

00:25:17.040 And number two, if you just look at the money, okay, pretend they're confiscating coffee makers for whatever reason.

00:25:23.600 Just look at the money.

00:25:24.440 Black ones that were cool.

00:25:25.220 Yeah, exactly.

00:25:26.040 The ones that look like tactical coffee makers.

00:25:28.620 They would.

00:25:29.100 Don't give them ideas.

00:25:30.300 I know.

00:25:31.060 So look at the money, okay, that they could spend.

00:25:34.240 Two billion, three billion dollars, whatever.

00:25:36.780 We don't have that money.

00:25:38.700 We have un-money.

00:25:40.500 We are more than a trillion dollars in debt.

00:25:42.680 If you started counting your loonies right now with King Charles III's new head on them and you stack them all up, it would take you 30,000 years to count to a trillion.

00:25:53.860 So why does that matter? 1.00

00:25:55.660 Because the government is borrowing money to do these stupid things. 0.99

00:26:01.580 By printing and borrowing that money, he's causing inflation. 0.99

00:26:06.120 By he, I mean the prime minister.

00:26:07.880 Okay?

00:26:08.260 You're paying for this inflation.

00:26:10.440 Okay?

00:26:10.920 When you're out there and everything is more expensive, it's part of this.

00:26:15.020 Okay?

00:26:15.320 It's these dumb decisions that waste money and don't help people that is helping to make inflation much worse because the Bank of Canada just prints it and then the government just borrows it. 0.62

00:26:24.420 Now, changing lanes, but still, of course, on the same topic of, I guess, the government spending money on things that they should never spend money on. 0.79

00:26:37.280 Let's talk about the media bailout for a second.

00:26:39.880 I saw an article in BlackLux this morning that Justin Trudeau's $600 million media bailout contaminated the media with government money, of course, and thus breached the trust that people have in their journalists to tell them the truth.

00:26:57.760 Because now you want to know, is this really what happened or is this what the government wants us to think happened?

00:27:05.680 Because if you tell the truth and you're not going to get any funding from Justin Trudeau, media trust is at an all-time low.

00:27:11.680 23% of people have confidence in the media right now.

00:27:17.660 And the numbers are at an all-time low, the lowest in Alberta, and then spreading out from there.

00:27:25.520 The prairies, they're around 20, 23% on the prairies going up in the more liberal places.

00:27:32.180 But I think the plummeting trust is directly correlated to that media buyout.

00:27:38.260 Yeah, it's in lockstep.

00:27:40.580 And this is what you and I and our friends on the left, like Jesse Brown, have been warning about for years.

00:27:48.940 Since the government first started thinking, hey, we're not wasting enough money by giving the CBC $1.2, $1.3 billion per year.

00:27:57.460 Let's waste more money.

00:27:58.940 Let's get more journalists on the government payroll.

00:28:03.480 That's just a disaster.

00:28:05.920 Yeah.

00:28:06.040 I think sometimes, because everything that has happened in the last, especially the last three or four years, has been so big and so confusing and so crazy in some cases, that we can lose track of even simple things.

00:28:19.540 And this is very simple.

00:28:21.920 It is a direct conflict of interest for journalists to be paid by the government.

00:28:28.300 Journalists, and I was one for many, many years, including in mainstream media, print, TV, radio, you name it.

00:28:34.680 Journalists, I don't care if you wake up left or right side of the bed.

00:28:39.520 You're supposed to hold the government to account.

00:28:42.580 You're supposed to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable.

00:28:47.000 That's your job.

00:28:48.160 As a journalist, you are given a privileged pass key, in many cases, into some of these high echelons of government.

00:28:56.180 You're able to speak truth to power, to shove microphones in faces, to ask tough questions, to not be reverent of your rulers.

00:29:04.620 And that's a pretty special job.

00:29:07.120 Okay.

00:29:07.600 You're being given a lot of trust there.

00:29:09.740 And if you are suddenly now on the payroll of that government, that's gone.

00:29:18.140 That's gone.

00:29:19.400 It doesn't matter if, you know, you are writing for, like, I don't care, the Sudbury workers' paper.

00:29:25.260 Okay.

00:29:25.880 Or, you know, working for the rebel.

00:29:27.960 You shouldn't be on government payroll because you should be paid by your supporters, by your readers, by your viewers, through free will donation.

00:29:36.140 You should have advertisements, whatever it is.

00:29:38.720 But if you're just in the pay of people in power, you cannot hold the powerful to account.

00:29:44.720 And here we are.

00:29:46.180 That is one of the lowest numbers I've ever heard, Sheila, for people trusting journalists.

00:29:51.040 And if, you know, people listening saying, yeah, they deserve it, I hear you, okay?

00:29:56.660 People are really mad.

00:29:58.120 They have every right to be mad.

00:29:59.860 They can barely afford food, okay?

00:30:01.920 Or home heat.

00:30:02.900 I get it.

00:30:05.180 But what I'm worried about is the alternative.

00:30:08.520 Right.

00:30:09.600 Where is our tool now?

00:30:12.040 Where is our tool now to hold government to account?

00:30:15.100 Like, journalists are supposed to be those noisy dogs, like, you know, reaching out in front of you

00:30:19.440 in order to protect you from government.

00:30:21.700 And they're supposed to be the ones barking those questions.

00:30:24.480 If they're not there anymore, that's pretty scary.

00:30:28.620 And this needs to be fixed like yesterday.

00:30:31.360 There should be zero money going from government to journalism.

00:30:34.940 Like, zero.

00:30:36.180 Like, the funding for CBC needs to stop tomorrow.

00:30:39.340 And the so-called media bailout needs to stop tomorrow.

00:30:42.920 And eventually, hopefully, there'll be enough independent news organizations that grow up from that

00:30:49.160 and they rekindle that trust and we can rebuild it.

00:30:52.520 I hope.

00:30:55.100 You know, I think it's twofold with the government giving money to the journalists.

00:31:01.560 But also, the journalists, while there is, in some instances, a perception of contamination,

00:31:07.840 there is a real, actual, tangible contamination.

00:31:11.560 And you can see it in their coverage.

00:31:14.340 No greater example of this than the coverage of the Freedom Convoy.

00:31:17.900 Anyway, Ottawa is a place teeming with journalists.

00:31:21.120 They either didn't go down and talk to the Freedom Convoy to see actually what their concerns

00:31:26.040 were, or they maligned the Freedom Convoy, or in some instances, lied about it directly

00:31:33.120 because it served their purposes of protecting Justin Trudeau.

00:31:37.180 They said there was an arson in an apartment building.

00:31:40.060 That was absolutely not true.

00:31:42.640 And with the advent of social media and everybody having these things in their hand all the time,

00:31:47.260 you can fact-check a journalist in real time.

00:31:50.380 And I think some journalists have completely forgotten that.

00:31:53.740 And instead of speaking truth to power and holding the powerful to account on behalf of the people,

00:31:58.900 they very frequently are holding the people to account on behalf of the powerful.

00:32:02.120 And this is where it gets down to the core of journalism.

00:32:06.660 And this is going to maybe bore some of your viewers who aren't journalists.

00:32:10.460 I don't think so.

00:32:11.020 Never wanted to be journalists.

00:32:12.360 But I have lost count of the number of times where, as a young journalist in my 20s or even

00:32:18.260 in my 30s, where I haven't been snotty about it, to use a rough term, but I've had a preconceived

00:32:24.880 notion, for example, when I'm going into something, okay, where I'm going to go cover an event or a

00:32:30.700 court case or a protest or whatever, okay?

00:32:34.180 And I talked myself into, make sure you get both sides, make sure you ask all the right questions,

00:32:39.900 be open, be thoughtful.

00:32:40.980 But you still have some estimation of something in your head because you're picturing it.

00:32:45.580 I've lost count, Sheila, of the number of times I have gone to go speak with someone

00:32:51.060 fulsomely and wholly and I've come away with a changed mind.

00:32:56.820 That's one of the amazing things about actually talking to other human beings and telling their

00:33:03.000 story.

00:33:04.560 So, so many times.

00:33:06.500 And that is one of like, that's the catch with journalism.

00:33:10.420 That's why people get hooked on being a journalist because you're meeting all these new people and

00:33:14.980 you're sharing their experiences and you're hopefully telling their story, their who, what,

00:33:20.660 where, and why, their W5.

00:33:22.340 You're sharing that with everyone.

00:33:24.280 And that could be anything.

00:33:25.620 It could be a victim of a crime.

00:33:27.260 It could be somebody who's a new immigrant.

00:33:28.880 It could be something even as seemingly dry as a small business that is going out of business

00:33:34.280 because of government regulation.

00:33:35.940 And then you go talk to the guy and he's crying because he can't get his kid into hockey

00:33:40.760 anymore.

00:33:41.240 Like, these are the human stories that journalists are supposed to tell.

00:33:45.580 And you're right.

00:33:47.120 These things are evaporating.

00:33:49.080 And in that instance, in that case, I remember the best piece of journalism that I read that

00:33:54.520 was printed.

00:33:55.360 Okay.

00:33:55.540 There was lots of really good kind of citizen journalism like this.

00:33:58.200 Um, the best printed piece was written by an academic who taught chemistry, who wrote

00:34:05.120 a blog.

00:34:06.120 Yes.

00:34:06.800 I remember.

00:34:07.740 You remember that one?

00:34:08.460 Just, he wandered the streets.

00:34:10.220 He wandered down Kent street and just talked to people.

00:34:12.400 With an open mind.

00:34:13.480 And he talked to people.

00:34:14.860 And that's journalism.

00:34:16.540 And so this is, that just breaks my heart to see that number that it's in the low twenties,

00:34:20.740 but this is what you're going to have happen if you put them on government payroll and it's

00:34:27.740 going to take a while, but it needs to be cut off now.

00:34:30.600 It's like one of those moments where you have an intervention and you realize that you're

00:34:33.660 doing something really bad for you and you have to stop now.

00:34:36.920 Like the minute hand has hit your watch and you need to stop.

00:34:40.260 I don't know how long it's going to take to rebuild that trust with independent news

00:34:45.080 organizations.

00:34:45.660 But if I can give people a little bit of hope, um, for a long time in the late 1800s,

00:34:51.300 early 1900s, newspapers were literally owned by a political party or an organization.

00:34:57.820 Okay.

00:34:58.200 So we've gone through this ebb and flow and flux of journalism before.

00:35:02.860 And then I would argue it kind of hit its heyday and nobody's perfectly objective.

00:35:07.680 Keep in mind, you are not a robot.

00:35:09.140 You're still going to have your.

00:35:10.420 And that's the thing.

00:35:11.720 I, everybody knows I'm conservative.

00:35:13.280 Sure.

00:35:13.800 But I don't lie about it.

00:35:15.660 Like my friends at the CBC who are like, we're completely objective.

00:35:20.020 How dare you imply that we have our own human biases?

00:35:23.940 Be honest about it.

00:35:25.160 That's all.

00:35:25.800 To be honest about it.

00:35:26.740 And I don't want to pay for it.

00:35:28.160 That's all.

00:35:29.200 And this is whenever I'm coaching somebody who's a new journalist or whatever, and I'm

00:35:32.440 speaking to them, they'll often have this idea that I'm like, because I have gone through

00:35:37.320 this conveyor belt of a journalism school, I am now objective.

00:35:41.240 It's like it has created you in a new image.

00:35:43.740 No, no, you can't be because you're human.

00:35:46.920 You can't be like this objective robot, but you can be balanced and you can work really

00:35:52.880 hard to be as balanced as you can be.

00:35:55.980 Keep your ideas in mind and balance them out accordingly.

00:35:58.980 That makes for really good journalism and be a really good listener.

00:36:02.040 And to your point, getting back to the direct money, I know there are people who are listening

00:36:09.140 right now where they have friends who are still in mainstream media who say, I work my

00:36:13.360 butt off. 0.93

00:36:13.700 We both do.

00:36:14.180 We do.

00:36:15.220 I hear you.

00:36:16.360 I know you're working really hard.

00:36:18.460 But like ethics, it's the perception of bias.

00:36:23.080 So if you're one of those folks who's working really hard and you take that like as an insult

00:36:28.600 that they're on government payroll, you should be the most angry because this is tarnishing 0.97

00:36:34.360 your work and people are perceiving you as biased, even though you're busting your butt, 0.94

00:36:39.760 making sure you're not. 0.75

00:36:40.940 Because the moment money changes hands, it's gone.

00:36:44.380 It's the same as ethics and corruption.

00:36:45.900 It's the perception of bias.

00:36:47.260 Speaking of ethics and corruption, Justin Trudeau's polling numbers seem to be right in line with

00:36:54.720 the trust in media.

00:36:55.760 I saw 25% of people think, have a favorable impression of Justin Trudeau.

00:37:01.780 That's the latest abacus polling data.

00:37:04.820 So despite the two thirds of a billion dollars in bailout money that he gave to the mainstream

00:37:12.120 media, it's not helping him either.

00:37:14.700 Yeah.

00:37:14.860 I think, I think in this case, there's two things.

00:37:18.320 One, just government, like eight years, it kind of starts.

00:37:23.540 Happened to Harper.

00:37:24.220 Yep.

00:37:24.460 Yep.

00:37:24.940 It gets long in the tooth, no matter what color your penny is.

00:37:28.200 That's one element.

00:37:29.420 And two, it's really rough out there.

00:37:33.360 Like it is unaffordable for so many people.

00:37:37.640 So we here in Alberta, there's still people struggling.

00:37:41.020 Like we've got a better affordability thing going on here than most of the rest of the

00:37:44.880 country.

00:37:45.960 But every time I phone and I try to call once a month, I try to call the different food

00:37:51.060 banks once a month to check in on them and see how they're doing because it's a good

00:37:54.840 indicator of how tough it is.

00:37:57.560 Every time I call, they say something like, I've never seen so many people with jobs coming

00:38:04.180 in here for food.

00:38:05.440 And that's even, it breaks my heart.

00:38:07.900 It's even in Alberta.

00:38:09.820 So just imagine what it's like to be a working family in like Langley or Surrey or Mississauga

00:38:15.680 or, you know, Dartmouth, right?

00:38:18.680 London, Ontario.

00:38:20.300 And I think now that the rubber has hit the road and people are fighting to afford groceries

00:38:26.360 and winter heat that people get really upset and really mad and they demand change no matter

00:38:33.540 who is in power.

00:38:34.880 So, and if they see it, actually, if they know a little bit more and they know that this

00:38:40.000 government has racked up the deficit, they know this government is causing inflation,

00:38:43.860 they know the government's printing money and hiking up their carbon taxes, they're even

00:38:47.780 more mad because that's culpability.

00:38:50.640 So I think that's why you're seeing those numbers do that.

00:38:53.240 Yeah, I think people are starting to understand like in, when you have a little bit of wiggle

00:38:59.160 room in your budget, sometimes it's, well, that's just what things cost.

00:39:02.860 Sure.

00:39:03.320 But once things get tight, you realize things cost this much because of all the other things

00:39:09.480 that are happening.

00:39:10.100 They start to put that together.

00:39:11.620 And they've also, just very quickly, they've run out of that cushion.

00:39:15.420 Yeah.

00:39:16.020 Right.

00:39:16.420 Of like being able to ignore politics because good people should be able to ignore politics.

00:39:21.380 You should be able to imagine the government is, oh, it still leaks and smokes oil a little

00:39:27.240 bit, but it is a machine and it's over there in the corner and it's generally sputtering

00:39:31.260 along.

00:39:31.980 Okay.

00:39:32.160 That's generally what government is and should be.

00:39:35.660 Now, the thing is just taken over the whole house.

00:39:38.180 It's full of smoke.

00:39:39.080 Like nobody can see straight.

00:39:41.020 It is a massive burning problem.

00:39:43.540 And I think now normal people who don't follow politics are suddenly realizing, why can't I

00:39:49.380 afford anything anymore?

00:39:50.500 It's the whole thing.

00:39:51.960 If you don't take an interest in politics, politics will take an interest in you.

00:39:55.480 We're at that moment now, I think, which is why you're seeing this crash in the polls.

00:40:01.460 I think the CTF plays such an important role in educating the public about why things cost

00:40:06.840 so much and why you feel like your life is completely being controlled from without instead

00:40:13.900 of within.

00:40:14.580 And that's why I think what you do is just so important.

00:40:20.160 So, Chris, tell us how people can get involved in the work that CTF does because really it's

00:40:25.700 as grassroots as it comes and how they can support the CTF because you won't take a penny

00:40:31.880 from Justin Trudeau.

00:40:33.160 But you won't even take a tax break from Justin Trudeau.

00:40:37.000 So I really like that part of the CTF.

00:40:39.520 It's like, yeah, and we mean it.

00:40:40.820 So we're not a charity.

00:40:42.700 So when you give us a donation, we're not writing you a tax credit receipt because we

00:40:48.080 don't want to incur any expense.

00:40:50.000 And so what I also like about the CTF is, one, we're nonpartisan.

00:40:54.900 We don't care what color your penny is.

00:40:56.340 If you are wasting money or not being accountable, we're going to come after you.

00:41:01.220 So we've been around since 1990, since before the internet was a thing.

00:41:05.580 Our main purpose is lower taxes, less waste, and accountable government.

00:41:09.760 We will do everything from my dear friend in Ottawa, Franco Terrazzano, writing a 70-page

00:41:16.300 pre-budget report, pointing out that we are going to have an inflation crisis before pretty

00:41:21.780 much anybody else in Canada was saying it.

00:41:24.040 I will point out, and doing committee work all the way down to us here in chicken suits

00:41:31.260 out in front of the members of parliament office, okay?

00:41:34.500 So if you go to our website, taxpayer.com, just skim through our petitions.

00:41:39.700 There's something there for everyone.

00:41:41.380 So if you don't like the gun confiscation, if you don't like the government giving money

00:41:44.920 to journalists, if you want lower income taxes, if you want to scrap the carbon tax,

00:41:49.700 whatever your thing is.

00:41:50.720 I even have one on there, Sheila, to take the PST off used items in British Columbia,

00:41:55.300 because it's wrong to nail people at thrift shops.

00:41:59.140 It is very wrong.

00:41:59.780 To nail you at thrift shops.

00:42:01.280 Right.

00:42:01.700 You know, not to sound modeling, but like I can pay the extra buck or whatever.

00:42:05.620 But what really gets me going is seeing people in there with families who are fighting to

00:42:09.780 report it, and it gets me so mad.

00:42:12.720 And so I wrote a petition.

00:42:14.260 So go sign up the petitions, okay, that you care about, and then you're part of our army.

00:42:19.580 And we'll email you whenever it's time to do a big email blast, whenever we're going

00:42:24.260 to be protesting in front of somebody's office in a chicken suit, anything like that.

00:42:28.320 Just go to the website, taxpayer.com, sign the petitions.

00:42:31.120 You don't even need to make a donation if you can't.

00:42:32.960 That's okay.

00:42:33.760 But then you're part of the army.

00:42:35.620 And what I love about it is it's fellowship, is you no longer feel like you're fighting

00:42:39.140 alone anymore.

00:42:39.940 You've got a whole bunch of people that feel the same way.

00:42:43.200 Awesome.

00:42:43.920 Chris, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:42:46.740 And thanks so much for just, you know, taking it to the politicians, but doing it in like

00:42:50.700 a fun and cheeky way.

00:42:53.460 It's tough out there to keep a happy warrior mindset, and you really do.

00:42:58.000 And we'll have you back on again very, very soon.

00:43:00.460 Thanks, Sheila.

00:43:03.360 Well, friends, we've come to the portion of the show where we invite your viewer feedback.

00:43:11.860 Unlike the mainstream media, I actually care about what you think about the work that we're

00:43:15.760 doing here at Rebel News.

00:43:16.720 It's the reason I give out my email address right now.

00:43:20.080 It's Sheila at RebelNews.com.

00:43:21.880 Put gun show letters in the subject line, and who knows?

00:43:24.380 I might just read your viewer feedback on air.

00:43:27.940 But if you don't want to send me an email, that's fine, too.

00:43:30.800 Maybe you want to sit through a couple of ads and watch a free version of the show, either

00:43:34.920 on YouTube or Rumble a couple of days after the show comes out.

00:43:38.980 Maybe leave a comment in the comment section of YouTube or Rumble.

00:43:45.320 And that's exactly where today's comments come from.

00:43:48.860 They are taken from last week's free version of the show.

00:43:52.580 And last week's show was with Rick Igersich from Canada's National Firearms Association.

00:44:00.020 We were talking about some of the stuff I talked about with Chris Sims today.

00:44:03.460 The ever-ballooning gun buyback program, compensation for confiscation program, because the liberals,

00:44:14.280 as you know, they just can't pin down our number.

00:44:17.160 And how could they?

00:44:17.900 Because they don't know what guns they plan to grab or how many of them there are.

00:44:22.060 So Blue Collar Scholar writes, 0.98

00:44:25.360 At least we can be thankful that Trudeau and company are so useless in general. 0.97

00:44:29.660 Can you imagine how much damage they'd have done by now if they were competent? 0.98

00:44:33.820 Right?

00:44:34.260 You know, I often am sort of grateful that they are as incompetent in implementing some

00:44:42.780 of the more horrific things the liberals would like to do to us.

00:44:47.040 Yeah, they can't figure out how to first get the guns from the people who are completely

00:44:54.040 law-abiding and then repay the people for the property that they took.

00:44:59.420 But they know for sure those guns are just so deadly and pose such an issue to public

00:45:03.980 safety that we can have them for at least five years.

00:45:08.240 Sure.

00:45:08.840 Anyway. 0.98

00:45:09.740 Yeah, I'm also, I'm kind of glad that they are as incompetent as they are. 0.96

00:45:13.860 Could you imagine? 0.77

00:45:15.160 Could you really imagine?

00:45:16.820 The next comment is from Three Cracked Cheeks.

00:45:21.320 It's an odd name.

00:45:23.620 Who writes,

00:45:24.620 Rick is very clear, concise, intelligent, and has a deep understanding of the subject.

00:45:30.320 The opposite of the Trudeau regime.

00:45:32.780 No wonder they want to ignore him.

00:45:34.800 The liberals always think they're just one more gun ban from eliminating crime.

00:45:40.220 I don't even think the liberals think that grabbing guns from law-abiding people will help

00:45:48.100 the crime problem in this country.

00:45:50.260 They just know they need to be perceived to be doing something, anything.

00:45:55.520 And instead of doing the hard thing, which is dealing with the problems in progressive cities

00:46:03.580 and addressing trafficking at Canada's porous border, they take the path of least resistance

00:46:11.060 and go after the most law-abiding people in the country, gun owners, because they know 0.86

00:46:16.300 we will follow the rules.

00:46:19.020 And so, they go after us.

00:46:23.040 Because criminals, as you know, they don't follow the rules.

00:46:26.040 That's why they're criminals.

00:46:27.680 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:46:29.400 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:46:31.560 I'll see everybody back here in the same time and in the same place next week.

00:46:35.380 And remember, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

00:46:39.060 We'll be right back.

00:47:09.060 We'll be right back.

Rebel News Podcast - November 16, 2023

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Most Liberal MPs are 'too chicken' to demand fair treatment on the carbon tax

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript