SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ Teachers Strike, Tax Blunders, and a Political Earthquake in Newfoundland
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Summary
A teacher strike in Alberta, a tax blunder in Ottawa, and a political earthquake in Newfoundland and Labrador. Plus, a look at what's going on in the rest of Canada right now, including Canada's highest unemployment rate in decades at 9.9%.
Transcript
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Teacher strike, tax blunders, and a political earthquake in Newfoundland.
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I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.
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Well, it's another week in Canada where the people running things seem determined to prove
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Let's start right here in Alberta, where the teachers union has decided to walk out after
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They say it's about the kids, but if you believe that, well, I've got a carbon tax rebate to
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This strike isn't about underfunded classrooms or overworked teachers.
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It's about union bosses flexing their political muscle after their feelings were hurt by Premier
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Daniel Smith to force everyone into a broken cookie-cutter public system that parents are
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They can't stand that Alberta's education model actually lets parents make choices,
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real ones, based on what's best for their kids, not what's best for bureaucrats and union executives.
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Chris Sims from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation joins me to break down what this strike is
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really costing Alberta families, both in dollars and in lost classroom time.
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Then we'll move east to Ottawa, where the geniuses at the Canada Revenue Agency are rolling out
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The same department that can't answer your call, can't process your return properly and
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accidentally leaks your personal data, now wants to do your taxes for you.
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What could possibly go wrong when the fox runs the hen house and files all the paperwork?
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And then finally, we head to Newfoundland and Labrador, where the Liberals just got tossed
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Remember, the progressive Conservatives pulled off a political earthquake with Tony Wakeham
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The question now is, how much of that progressive label will stick?
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Because if Newfoundland just voted for change, they're going to find out soon whether they
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got it or just a blue-painted version of the same old red ink politics.
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I'll break it all down with Chris Sims from the CTF.
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No spin and definitely no automatic tax filing.
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So joining me now is my good friend and good friend of Rebel News and of Taxpayers Everywhere,
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She's the Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
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But before we do, last night, surprise upset if you were watching the pollsters.
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We did a live stream last night and I started off saying, you know, like the polls say the
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Liberals are going to win and, you know, no surprises, Newfoundland and Labrador.
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But then, like three hours into what was supposed to be a 19-minute live stream, things have switched
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and all of a sudden, Tony Wakeham is the new progressive Conservative Premier in Newfoundland
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and Labrador, I was surprised, but I am also delighted.
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Yeah, it was really nice to hear, especially because he was running on a pro oil and gas
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And the reason that we're happy to hear things like that is because that is what brings in
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And it lessens the burden on the backs of taxpayers.
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As we've pointed out before, we've lost out on billions with a B dollars by not having proper
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And that's just from the income taxes federally that we've lost out on by not having those
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pipelines up and running because of the jobs that are created from those things.
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And so, yeah, based on what I've seen of that platform, that was really nice to see.
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So I think, Sheila, the shine of the fancy words and the slogans and all of the glossy
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Because at the end of the day, working people like the families you and I both grew up in,
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We need solid industries that have our backs that we can always go work in.
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And we can't pay the mortgage on good intention and promises of battery plants someday.
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So maybe this is an indicator of people getting more real over this stuff.
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I mean, I read the PC platform sort of in the lead up to the election and it's pro oil and
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It's pro small business, pro private sector, lower taxes.
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And they really want to take a bite out of that highest unemployment rate in the entire
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And, you know, the solution to that really is offshore oil and gas development.
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I'll take an extra little bit of hope out of this, too, is that the previous, now the
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outgoing government, the Liberals, provincial Liberals who were there, credit where it's due.
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They had reduced gas taxes and they were one of the instrumental voices holding Prime Minister
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Justin Trudeau to account for his stupid carbon taxes.
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So when they suddenly all of a sudden had to start paying the full freight of carbon taxes
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So not just Newfoundland and Labrador, there is a distinction between Atlantic Canada includes
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The Maritimes are just the lower provinces, the further south provinces.
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They did take Trudeau to task more so than I thought any other provincial Liberal Party
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So I'm taking this as an indication that the people, the people of Newfoundland and
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Labrador, they reflected that in that current government then, and now they want more of
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More putting the boots to the federal government.
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We need private investment coming up here to Canada.
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You know, we noted that when we were talking about it last night, it feels as if the Liberals
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in the Atlantic provinces, like the provincial Liberals, and even the federal Liberals in the
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Atlantic provinces, they're a little bit removed from the hive mind of Ottawa, and they have
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And a lot of the opposition to the federal carbon tax actually came from those Liberals who
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And the Liberals had to capitulate because they actually stand to lose something there,
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whereas they don't actually stand to lose anything in Western Canada.
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And so there's a different culture in the Maritimes and in Atlantic Canada.
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So I don't have family in Newfoundland and Labrador.
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I have family all through that region and own a house there.
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When I go back and visit, they don't say I'm from away.
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So there, generally speaking, is a difference politically there.
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So not everybody, but generally speaking as the culture.
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However, in the Maritimes, you're often kind of born into a party.
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So I know my Nana, God rest her soul, she was definitely this way.
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In the same way that you're either born Catholic or Protestant, you're born a Liberal or a Tory.
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And you have the portrait of your favorite Prime Minister next to your bowl of teaspoons, right?
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And it's an ingrained part of their culture of red team, blue team, Liberal, Conservative.
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And they're more, I would say, more comfortable in their own skin within that party.
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Here in the West, which I am from, we can start a political party in like an afternoon.
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But in the Maritimes, this is what's interesting.
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And this is why I think this whole thing started in the Maritimes of the pushback against the
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Because those constituents from within those Liberal members of Parliament ridings had the
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confidence to say, hey, Mike, Mike, I have to fill up my oil tank this winter.
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I'm not going to be coming out to your box social or your strawberry picnic or anything
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Like it becomes that integrated into their culture.
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And so I would argue that gave those members of Parliament the confidence to stand up to
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the movie star thing that Trudeau had going on and look at him in the eye and say, I don't
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care what kind of socks you're wearing or how much these people from Toronto and Ottawa like
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I care about Margaret down the street in my riding and you better scrap this thing right
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And so to your point here, I guess I'd have to really give it some thought as to how they
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switched now from Liberal, which was still holding Trudeau to account, which is a very
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Atlantic Canadian thing, to Blue, too conservative.
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I like that because look, there's something to be said for small town social pressure.
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Like, it's a course correction in and of itself.
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And I should note that the pressure that came from the Liberals, but also the Conservatives
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in the East resulted in that carve out of home heating oil from the carbon tax.
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And that carve out and the hypocrisy of awarding that carve out to, if you care about these things
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and I actually don't, the dirtiest form of home heating from the carbon tax, it caused
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a knock on effect where Scott Moe was like, oh, yeah, well, then you're not getting any
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carbon tax from our Crown Corporation that provides the home heating and electricity around
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That hypocritical carve out that the Liberals pressured their own party to give out there
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caused a knock on effect that I think turned into a snowball that made it impossible for the
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And actually, shameless plug, Franco points all that out in his book.
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I actually saw this in the background of one of the plebs interviews the other day.
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But to your point, that was the, to use a different metaphor, that was the crack in the
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Remember that weird press conference where they announced the carve out for their home
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And that was exactly because of that scenario I just relayed.
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Come the fall, people are getting their, their furnace oil filled.
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And all of a sudden they're looking at an extra 250 bucks tax tacked onto that.
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So they rightly raised bloody hell with their MP and then the MPs turned around and filled
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Trudeau's ear and Trudeau panicked and did a carve out for the highest emission fuel
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Like compared to natural, you know, like it's, you're just burning oil in a furnace.
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If like you said, that's your concern, it's way higher emission than natural gas, but they
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And that was the crack in the dam that finally got rid of the consumer carbon tax.
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I know a lot of people ask me, is it just reduced to zero?
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The mechanism is currently gone, but we're in the middle of the lull.
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It's that phony war right now where they're cooking up the bigger, bad, or more hidden
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But right now, gas was $1.13 here a litre over the weekend.
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So good on everybody for yelling at the government loud and clear enough.
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And I'm going to take this as an indication that people are still yelling at the government
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in Newfoundland and Labrador, and they want more change that will result in more wealth
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Well, and, you know, Newfoundland being a resource rich place, what's good for Newfoundland
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is good for the rest of this country in much the same way that what's good for Alberta
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Before we move away from federal, like the intersection of provincial politics and the
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federal government, something that the CTF has been warning us about was coming is now,
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Like if you try to call the CRA, clear your schedule six to eight months from now when you'll
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hear back from them, but these people are going to take on the duty of filing your taxes for
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you without your permission and also claiming your deductions that they don't know about.
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We have been warning about this now for a few years and the actual, even the phrase
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government automated tax filing, like it actually sends a chill down my spine.
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And it should, because this is a huge government power grab.
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So for those of us who are keeping score with the conspiracy theorists, we're batting a thousand
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sister, because this is a huge government overreach.
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Now, of course, they're rolling out this Trojan horse under the guise of helping.
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Because sometimes these poor people and these disadvantaged people don't know legitimately
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what tax credits they're, they're capable of signing up for, meaning what sort of benefits
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or help they can get from us taxpayers via the government.
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And so enrolls the federal government through the CRA saying, I'm from the government and I'm here to help.
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Y'all should be running for the hills when you hear that.
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So this is easily defeated in a couple of points.
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One, there are already free services to help poor people and disadvantaged people do their taxes.
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There's free tax clinics and free tax help everywhere.
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So if you can't even afford to, you know, have a computer and an internet connection and do your
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own software thing, you can still get free people doing it for you online.
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Say that you're in that dire of a strait and you don't even have that access.
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There's tons of in-person free tax clinics that people can go to.
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So here comes the government with a solution to a problem that does not exist.
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Two, I wanted to ring this bell because this is really spooking me.
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I'm seeing a lot of sudden and frankly, unexpected corners of pushback coming at us at the Taxpayers
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Federation all at once saying, oh, don't you care about poor people?
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And it's from so many kind of prominent people all at the same time.
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My spidey sense here, Sheila, is the government was chumming that water for a long time through
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So just to get nerdy again, I think your listeners should get a warning when you're inviting me
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But with the government, this is typically how it goes.
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They've got some new stupid idea that they want to push through the House of Commons.
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So they get their comms team to work on all the advertisements and all the pop-up ad
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And then they get their strategy team to work it out on how to get it the proper amount of
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votes in the House of Commons, blah, blah, blah.
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And then there's something, there's an element called stakeholder relation.
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Now, it took me the longest time to understand what the hell people were talking about when
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But what that means is get non-government people to analyze what you're doing.
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So, for example, if they were trying to put through automatic tax filing, they would go
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to influencers and people who have a background in economics, who follow the government, and
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they would get them together in rooms and on conference calls, and they would present
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But in government, they call it stakeholder relations.
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My gut right now, Sheila, is that they were pushing that button hard leading up to this,
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because we're seeing an awful lot of pushback from people who should frankly know better,
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No, it's not, because this is a very easy gateway into the government saying to other people,
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you know what, dear, you filing your taxes, it's so simple for us and so hard for you.
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People should not give the government unfettered access to all of their data.
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This is not a smart thing to do, because it violates your privacy, and the government
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They're like some vampire who's like, hasn't had blood in a long time.
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They're looking under the couch cushions to find things, okay?
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Do not give this government the keys to your accounts.
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They're not good at doing the phones down there.
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Like, I'll give you a perfect example, and it won't even be a big sexy one like a Rive
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scam, which never worked, and it was a total joke.
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But even something boring, like software, payroll software for the federal government.
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This is like a little dumpster fire that nobody's paying attention to, and it's the Phoenix Pay
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And every now and then, I just pull the curtain back and look, and it is horrifying.
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We have spent, as taxpayers, three billion dollars trying to fix the government software
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So, if the federal government can't fix its own payroll software for its employees in-house
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without blowing three billion dollars, you're going to give them access to everyone's personal
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Like, all of your deductions, all of your dependents, all the things you may or may not own, year
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to year, change to change, like, this would be a nightmare.
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Do not let them trick you into saying, oh, it's for poor people.
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Poor people already have free access to tax help.
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Don't give these keys to the hands of the government.
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All the government contractors with the solutions for this stuff.
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They're just there waiting to line their pockets under the pretense of helping poor people.
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When, you know, like, if you want to help poor people, you don't need a government contract
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Just go help poor people file their taxes if that's what you want to do.
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Grab a little card table, set up a calculator, and your internet connection.
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Now I need to file an access to information request to find out the influencers who were
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on this because you can get those lists, right?
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There were vaccine influencers on a list and they were exactly who you thought they were.
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But no, do check it out because I noticed it was immediate and it was dozens of them
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Now it's fair, like, we often do say similar-ish things because these are fights that we're
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But I'm like, y'all were part of the same stakeholder relations conference call, weren't you?
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Your gut is generally right, especially when it's the sentence structure is remarkably similar
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Like, you guys, just run it through ChatGPT and ask them to rearrange the words for you.
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But that's too much like work, I guess, for some of these people.
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Drop it in the word blender and dump it back out.
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Now, before we get on to the teacher strike in Alberta, which you have really been pointing
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out a lot of facts, something just popped up on my email, like, just minutes ago.
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And it just came up out of the corner of my eye.
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New bridges on Highway 8 will be named the Stu Hart Memorial Bridge, honoring one of Alberta's
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most legendary figures and a true wrestling pioneer.
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So for people, should we explain who Stu Hart was for people who just landed in Alberta
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But I mean, if you know the Hart Foundation, if you've watched even like a snippet of wrestling
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over the last, I don't know, since 1948, you might have seen somebody either trained by
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the Hart family or influenced by the Hart family or a member of the Hart family themselves.
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But for over 30 years, Stampede Wrestling launched the careers of professional wrestlers and household
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names, including Bret the Hitman Hart, Owen Hart, Dynamite Kid, Davey Boy Smith, Jim
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And now we're on to like the second and third generation of the Hart family wrestlers.
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Hundreds of aspiring wrestlers learned the ropes in the legendary dungeon, the basement
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gym of the Hart Mansion on Calgary's west side, now a designated heritage site, which
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Devondration, Minister of Transport and Economic Corridors, says for many Albertans, stampede
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Naming this bridge and Stu's honor provides a lasting tribute to Stu and his legendary family,
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not only for promoting the sport of wrestling, but for the family's countless contributions
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The Hart family is noted to have been a supporter of more than 30 charitable and civic
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organizations, including Shriners, Hospitals for Children, and the Alberta Firefighters Toy
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Through the Owen Hart Foundation, Martha Hart has continued the legacy of philanthropy by contributing
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millions to causes across Alberta in support of educational scholarships, housing assistance,
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The Hart family's ongoing engagement ensures that Stu's legacy of caring, inclusivity, and
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And it was actually, the stampede wrestling was actually one of Canada's longest running
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TV shows, airing in more than 50 countries over its 30 years of broadcasting, bringing professional
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Um, and I can't wait to just go get a picture with that sign when it's up.
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I really hope that Bret Hart is there for that.
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Um, one of my favorite things I ever did is I worked in mainstream media for like 20 years
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One of the best moments of my life was when I got Bret Hart's cell phone number.
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Like, I've interviewed prime ministers and all these people.
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Um, and again, for people who don't know, uh, do go check it out.
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Like, it is a, it's a foundational cultural element of Alberta.
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And it, it now, if I may, as the little girl from the woods in BC, um, it carried over
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Um, and those of us sitting up late at night and early on Saturday morning, watching this
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Now they need to, if they ever do, uh, change the $5 bill again, they should get it.
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So remember, have you seen that one where it's, uh, Bret Hart standing there in his sunglasses
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and his white jeans in front of, in his acid wash jeans in front of, I think it's BAMF.
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I can't remember where it was, but they need to do that.
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I can't remember if I read this in Andrew Lawton's book about Pierre Polyev or if Andrew
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just told me one night at the bar, but he, but he said that Pierre Polyev, uh, he grew
00:25:56.640
up basically in the same neighborhood as the hearts.
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And that Owen Hart actually came to his birthday party.
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I think it was his, I don't know, 12th birthday party or something.
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And it was so big that they even set up a wrestling ring, like in the backyard or the
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And I remember hearing the story and thinking, why don't you tell this story more?
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Um, but could you talk a little bit more about professional wrestling and the Hart family?
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And, uh, uh, one of my favorite photos ever, I know that we've just gone off on a real,
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David Menzies, David Menzies would say a real tangerine.
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One of my favorite photos ever is one of my oldest friends who had the biggest crush on
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Diana Hart, actually meeting her a couple of years ago and his like googly eyes, like
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And I'm so glad that I was able to capture it like in photographic evidence.
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She's still just like a classy, beautiful lady.
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Thanks for taking on, coming on that big side quest with me.
00:27:19.440
Um, tell us about the teacher strike in Alberta.
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We're rolling into week three, I think we're two, three of the teacher strike.
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I, I, I abandoned my family and went to Ottawa for a few days last week.
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So I was in the ostrich universe where time does not exist.
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It's like an airport Chili's where time doesn't matter.
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So for folks who are watching this outside of Alberta that are like, ah, again with Alberta.
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So the Alberta teachers union is a huge government union.
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And if they go on strike like this, uh, other provincial government unions will get the idea
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So folks better watch what's happening in Alberta.
00:28:08.740
We've got around 700,000 kids who are out of school right now.
00:28:13.160
So an astonishing amount of young people here in Alberta, K to 12, who can't be in their
00:28:18.280
classroom because around 50,000 government school teachers are on strike.
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This is the first time the Alberta teachers have gone on strike in 23 years.
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Next, what we are hearing reported is that they're rejected deal.
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So it's fair game to talk about rejected deals here.
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So the rejected deal that came from the Alberta government and was offered to the teachers
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Teachers with no experience, fresh out of school, you would start at $71,000 a year, plus your
00:28:58.080
benefits, plus your pension, plus your vacation, plus it's a super secure job, crazy job security
00:29:05.200
Interesting note, the average Alberta salary is $71,000 per year, which includes brain surgeons.
00:29:13.400
And super risky, like, you know, energy work that guys have to risk themselves to do on
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this side and brand new fast food, fast food workers in the middle is 71,000 teachers would
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get to start there with a government job after seven years on the job.
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They'd already be making more than $100,000 a year.
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This, according to Alberta Premier Daniel Smith, would have made Alberta teachers the highest
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And I think for average working people in Alberta asking themselves, isn't $100,000 a year fair
00:29:50.920
for teaching, like, grade seven social studies?
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On top of that, the government apparently had offered to hire 3,000 new teachers, plus
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1,500 new education support workers, or those classroom helpers.
00:30:09.600
So highest paid in Western Canada, you're starting at $71,000 a year.
00:30:14.240
By seven years in, you're already making over $100,000, plus all the vacation time they get,
00:30:19.660
plus crazy job security, hiring 3,000 new teachers, hiring 1,500 new classroom support workers,
00:30:30.740
So, Sheila, there's something else going on here.
00:30:41.260
I think the timing is quite providential for this strike, considering they haven't gone
00:30:53.420
It's because they reject a deal that would have given 3,000 extra teachers.
00:31:01.560
If it's about money, just say it's about money.
00:31:03.000
Don't use my kid as a human shield, because I know you don't care, because you just rejected
00:31:06.680
3,000 extra teachers, and you've put my kid out of school for three weeks.
00:31:14.860
This is not the Taxpayers Federation saying this.
00:31:17.340
I think it has a heck of a lot to do with the fact that the Teachers Union didn't care
00:31:23.160
for the provincial government, making sure that there was no smut in school libraries,
00:31:29.880
and making sure they didn't show homoerotic graphic novels to elementary school kids.
00:31:39.140
Also, that they cannot socially transition your kid behind your back.
00:31:45.800
And there's, so I think there are reasons that they are pursuing this, and they're trying
00:31:55.880
to punish the government for reining them in with a strike and catching other people's
00:32:05.320
Now, I think they've been outflanked by the government on this, because the government
00:32:10.700
has taken the poison of an extended school strike away from parents.
00:32:16.720
So the government has said that, oh, okay, well, if you have a kid under the age of 12,
00:32:22.300
we're going, I think it's 150, is it $150 a week?
00:32:27.940
They're giving parents so that you can put your kid in daycare, mathnasium, Montessori,
00:32:34.580
whatever, so they're not necessarily falling behind.
00:32:36.900
So if we're hunkered down for an extended strike, parents are going to be okay.
00:32:43.060
They've actually given an increased amount to parents of kids with severe disabilities,
00:32:55.020
The ATA, the Alberta Teachers Association, seems to have no money.
00:32:58.320
So an extended strike does no longer go in the favor of the unions.
00:33:03.180
But I think, I think their timing is slightly opportune after all these years.
00:33:10.360
And again, that's me saying that, not that, me saying that as a kid who is currently on
00:33:14.680
strike and not the Canadian Taxpayers Federation saying that.
00:33:19.040
There's, there's something the Taxpayers Federation can say.
00:33:24.600
And that's what, again, I'm sitting there going, okay, what's the real reason you guys
00:33:31.880
And what got me really thinking about it was NDP leader Naheed Nenshi saying that Daniel
00:33:37.620
Smith, the premier, provoked this strike by teachers.
00:33:43.120
That's a very interesting word that he chose there.
00:33:46.400
And so I'm like, hmm, that's a very trigger-y sort of word.
00:33:52.680
What would have Daniel Smith ever done to provoke a teacher strike?
00:33:57.140
So I went back to the budget documents and I took a look at the line item of education.
00:34:08.420
Google Alberta Government Fiscal Plan Budget with the year that you want.
00:34:13.800
You can find the spending line item on just education.
00:34:25.340
So starting back in 2022, the Alberta government spent $8.3 billion.
00:34:39.680
This year, we're on track to spend $10.4 billion on K-12 education in Alberta.
00:34:50.000
I don't know about you, Sheila, but steadily increasing the funding for K-12 education is
00:34:56.920
a really weird way of provoking a fight with teachers.
00:35:03.960
It might be all those other things that I suggested.
00:35:06.300
Further, to bolster your theory, they've also announced that they're spending billions
00:35:13.520
and billions of dollars building more than 100 schools.
00:35:21.000
So the deal that was allegedly rejected, reportedly rejected, was we're going to make you the highest
00:35:28.700
We're going to start you at 71 grand a year with all the bells and whistles.
00:35:33.460
By seven years in, sister, you're already making over $100,000 a year to teach school.
00:35:42.680
We're going to hire 1,500 new classroom assistants.
00:35:45.820
Over and above that, which is already previously announced, we're in the process of building
00:35:55.520
And if you go back through the budget documents, their funding for education has been going like
00:36:05.780
This is where, and again, I wanted to highlight this because one of the disturbing elements
00:36:10.060
I've seen here is this sudden and coordinated attack on charter schools.
00:36:16.840
And it sure smells political to me because let's just take the argument at face value.
00:36:23.020
Let's say I'm speaking to an earnest 20-something-year-old teacher who does not have their house paid
00:36:29.700
off, who is staring down a mortgage payment real soon, and they're not getting paid by
00:36:35.480
The teachers aren't getting strike pay from their union, folks.
00:36:41.340
Even though they haven't gone on strike in 23 years, which is super weird.
00:36:45.600
Say at face value that they're having trouble in their classroom.
00:36:50.940
Say that there's too many kids with too many different needs, and it's overwhelming that
00:36:59.960
Maybe that's why they're hiding behind the phrase class sizes or something.
00:37:03.740
Use the buzzword complexity quickly at face value.
00:37:06.740
And I know I'm probably running into your next time.
00:37:15.560
The way to uncomplicate that is to have more access to charter schools.
00:37:21.420
So, for people who don't know, and I love it here in Alberta for this reason.
00:37:29.960
But it is the most diverse school system in the entire country because the funding follows
00:37:39.740
So, what that means is it no longer is a socioeconomic barrier for you to choose private
00:37:46.880
or charter schools which best suit your child's need.
00:37:49.940
If you want to send your kid to a military school, we got one.
00:37:52.940
You want to send your kid to a hockey academy, there's a few of those.
00:37:56.280
A classical academy where they will learn the classic arts, there's two of those.
00:38:01.260
If you want to get together with a group of parents and put together your own religious
00:38:06.660
charter school, as long as you teach the curriculum in an acceptable way and you can tweak that
00:38:12.860
to deal with the culture of your school, 100% definitely.
00:38:17.040
And it takes kids out of the cookie cutter schools and helps them learn in a way that
00:38:23.660
And statistics show that the people accessing private and charter schools in this province
00:38:30.420
are actually people who are below the socioeconomic average.
00:38:34.240
It's people who see a proper education for their kid as a way up the ladder.
00:38:40.900
And yet, and yet, there is a coordinated unionized attack on the charter system here where they
00:38:54.420
You're hitting all of the nails on all of the heads.
00:39:00.700
There are charter schools that focus on First Nations-led education.
00:39:05.100
Charter schools that focus on agricultural-based, rural education.
00:39:11.000
And there are charter schools, I am told, by parents who help kids who have complex needs.
00:39:18.740
Who need more time, who are overstimulated by a big classroom, who do need more focused
00:39:25.920
These are charter schools, meaning the taxpayer funding follows the kid through the doors
00:39:32.980
Interestingly, the teachers are certified, they're teaching the Alberta curriculum, and
00:39:45.540
But here's the thing with how interesting charter schools work.
00:39:53.640
So they have to go find an old library or an old decommissioned school or something.
00:39:58.300
And so it is very cost-effective, super cost-saving for taxpayers.
00:40:03.240
And parents who choose this option of charter schools for their kids for specialized education,
00:40:09.320
for either special education help, all the way, you know, over to agriculture, First Nations,
00:40:21.200
So this is, everybody's all about choice, right?
00:40:26.380
If these teachers in the regular public school system are getting overwhelmed with too complex
00:40:32.440
of classrooms, the way to make them less complex is to open up more charter schools so parents
00:40:39.520
can choose fashioned, fashioned schools after their own kids' needs.
00:40:47.720
So the attack on charter schools at this moment is crazy because that's one of the solutions
00:40:55.900
And the problem I worry about is that not enough people understand that the funding follows
00:41:05.080
And I explained the school system to my colleagues at Rebel News and they're like, wow, that's
00:41:09.580
Like the parents, you know, like Tamera Ugolini.
00:41:17.520
She's like, that is, I mean, it's the solution to all your problems.
00:41:20.760
And we have one of the best functioning school systems, despite the fact that we're on a
00:41:26.420
strike right now, but we have one of the best functioning, best performing school systems
00:41:37.340
So the teachers union bosses are very selectively cherry picking one stat from the Fraser Institute,
00:41:50.460
Because there's other stats at the Fraser Institute that they don't want you to know.
00:41:54.260
Like the idea of a teacher's union picking the Fraser Institute as their source for data,
00:41:59.160
like, you know, there's something going on here because usually they wouldn't pick them
00:42:05.120
So yes, the one stat that they pick on is the spending per capita.
00:42:11.700
So government spending per capita of students and or teachers.
00:42:16.520
And they say, oh, look, Alberta's got the shortest, you know, colored crayon there.
00:42:21.400
So therefore, our school system must be terrible.
00:42:25.140
How about you continue to read that same report to the next paragraph where Fraser Institute
00:42:35.240
All of the smarty pants, okay, who focus on education point out that Alberta is second
00:42:45.700
Student outcome, meaning good test scores, happy kids, happy parents successfully going
00:42:53.940
There's all sorts of metrics that they measure there.
00:42:58.900
You could try to cherry pick there and say, oh, spending per capita.
00:43:14.040
Because parents are not welded into a one-size-fits-all cookie-cutter big government school system.
00:43:21.380
This is where I think the fight is going in this current teacher strike.
00:43:25.620
And I'm imploring Alberta Premier Daniel Smith to do two things.
00:43:33.320
You don't let them attack the charter schools and try to dismantle it.
00:43:40.440
Because we know that there's three-year-long waiting lists from parents who are desperate
00:43:52.220
Because at the federal level, PSAC pulled this trick where they didn't get paid while
00:43:57.860
And then Trudeau gave them a big fat signing bonus that paid for their picket days.
00:44:08.620
I don't know why they don't have a big war chest.
00:44:13.100
And lastly, if it's a little bit of hope for Premier Smith to take inspiration of all
00:44:17.240
places from Ottawa, Mark Carney, in this current fight with Canada Post and Cup W, Canada Post
00:44:36.300
Dig in your heels, don't let them try to dismantle the charter system.
00:44:40.180
If anything, expand it to give parents more choice.
00:44:57.660
Please tell people how they can get involved in the good work that the Canadian Taxpayers
00:45:03.800
So you can head on over to our website quickly, taxpayer.com, click on the petitions, sign
00:45:11.240
That could be anything from cutting things like industrial carbon taxes to getting rid
00:45:15.940
of censorship laws or stopping the funding of the media through the government.
00:45:19.560
Once you're on there, you'll be part of our taxpayer army and you'll get all of our alerts.
00:45:22.980
Last segment of the show always goes to you at home because without you, there truly is
00:45:36.540
So I want to hear what you have to say about the work that we do.
00:45:40.480
It's why I give you my email address right now.
00:45:44.540
Put gun show letters in the subject line so I know why you're emailing me.
00:45:47.600
First things first, I need to check my own tone just a little bit.
00:45:55.500
Regular viewer of the show wrote to me and expressed his concerns about some loose use of language
00:46:06.240
that I and my co-host, Lise Merle, used when discussing DEI initiatives.
00:46:21.220
Now, I do get some bad faith hate mail, but I know this isn't it.
00:46:27.260
And I want to correct myself and I want to promise that I will be more precise in my language
00:46:34.140
I just don't think I was precise enough in my language.
00:46:37.280
And so rather than make enemies out of friends, I'm going to try to do better.
00:46:42.340
So Bruce wrote to me saying that, you know, we were making fun of DEI and saying that, you
00:46:46.900
know, the liberals are constantly shoehorning gender minorities and ethnic minorities, which
00:46:55.360
I don't think the liberals actually care about ethnicities.
00:46:57.740
They care about color, which is a strange way to judge people and disabled people into
00:47:07.940
And Bruce took umbrage with how we categorized disabled people.
00:47:16.640
I think disabled people should be in the workforce if they can be.
00:47:21.580
I did an entire documentary on medical assistance and dying.
00:47:25.160
And the conclusion we came to after we talked to all the experts was that people who pursue
00:47:33.340
euthanasia actually are people who feel a loss of usefulness.
00:47:38.320
And that could be anything, but people desire to be useful in whatever way that they can.
00:47:46.680
It may be volunteering in their community and may be playing cards with somebody so that
00:47:51.740
Could be gardening, could be taking care of a cat.
00:47:55.240
But that was the thing that really drove people to suicidal despair.
00:48:00.640
And so I don't discourage people with disabilities from being in the workforce.
00:48:10.300
When I talk with the liberals and their DEI shoehorning of people with disabilities into
00:48:17.260
the workforce, what I mean is not real disabilities.
00:48:20.600
People who are like, I'm disabled because I have anxiety about a certain food type or whatever.
00:48:27.980
Or I have, I'm disabled because I have PTSD because I've been misgendered.
00:48:41.440
And I should have been more precise in my language because I actually believe that it is necessary
00:48:58.940
It doesn't have to be, you know, lifting and moving heavy things.
00:49:06.580
And I don't want anybody to think that I think otherwise.
00:49:11.840
What I'm talking about when I say the liberals, you know, with their DEI quotas and their gender
00:49:17.320
And when they say people with disabilities, it's usually people who are, they love to get
00:49:27.760
And those people are, I mean, they'll co-opt somebody else's struggle for their own, for virtue signaling.
00:49:45.520
This came to me not from the email inbox, but I went over to YouTube because I wanted to know what you guys thought
00:49:55.740
about the surprise election win in Newfoundland and Labrador for new premier, Tony Wakeham.
00:50:07.660
I thought, you know, 500,000 people in Newfoundland, this thing's going to be over in 90 minutes.
00:50:13.020
I'm not going to have to find ways to kill time.
00:50:24.080
I was pleasantly surprised, like many of you, but my first mistake was reading the polls, I guess.
00:50:36.240
Victor Budzinski says, big win for Newfoundland for setting the stage, removing the liberals.
00:50:42.280
M-H-Y-Y-V-B says, congrats, Newfoundland and Labrador.
00:50:58.520
Listen, brother, I think it's going to happen in Yukon in about, well, what's today?
00:51:08.980
They go to general election and the Yukon party, which is their conservative party, is polling very high.
00:51:15.560
But, I mean, I guess the only poll that matters is on election day, but things are looking real good in the Yukon.
00:51:24.120
Newme77 says, I'm proud to be a conservative Newfoundlander today.
00:51:27.440
We knocked out the woke liberals and took a majority government.
00:51:30.540
My family and I have converted a lot of people to the conservative side.
00:51:48.820
I think we'll know if there's a trend for sure.
00:51:54.620
Because that's a minority liberal government up there.
00:52:01.060
God bless the conservative premier of Newfoundland.
00:52:16.100
It's good to see a conservative actually do that.
00:52:18.480
Newfoundlanders and Labradorians remember the last time the government sold us out on the Churchill Project.
00:52:26.360
Mark Rice, Q1H, can't understand why anyone would vote liberal or NDP.
00:52:44.600
Whoever do the polls are activists for the liberals.
00:52:47.580
But those inaccurate polls, I think, helped really get the vote out for the conservatives.
00:52:59.500
In one riding, it's like 18 votes that the conservatives won by.
00:53:07.360
Great to see Newfoundland and Labrador making real progress.
00:53:22.880
Finally put an end to the liberal NDP Green Party insanity.
00:53:31.840
From the outside looking in, maybe the sentiment on the ground was much different.
00:53:36.800
Maybe I didn't pay close enough attention to the election.
00:53:40.440
I tried to, but I was in the universe of the ostrich farm for a while.
00:53:52.380
I heard that it's hard to poll Newfoundlanders.
00:53:54.660
Maybe that's me just making excuses for bad polls.
00:53:57.360
But I'm really excited to see what happens next in Newfoundland.
00:54:01.300
And I think it's going to be really great as an Albertan to have another pro oil and gas premier on the East Coast.
00:54:12.720
I'm sure the results have rattled the liberals.
00:54:22.520
I was thinking about doing a Stu Hart themed sign off.
00:54:25.680
In the meantime, and in between time, that's it.