Rebel News Podcast - SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ The Speech from the Throne： What's next for Alberta？

00:00:00.000 What does Alberta's conservative government have in store for us Albertans in the upcoming

00:00:04.640 legislative session? I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed, and you're watching The Gunn Show.

00:00:08.700 The Gunn Show.

00:00:38.700 We're delivering on that promise today.

00:00:43.240 If passed, the Alberta Taxpayer Protection Amendment Act will shield families and businesses from future tax hikes.

00:00:49.740 The Act already bans the introduction of a provincial sales tax without a referendum.

00:00:54.780 What we'll do with this Act is strengthen that.

00:00:59.000 With our amendments, increases to corporate and personal taxes will not happen without Albertans' permission.

00:01:04.420 This includes increases through the reduction of personal income tax brackets or through decreases in the basic personal spousal and equivalent to spouse credit amounts.

00:01:15.700 Thanks to this legislation, everyone from single parents to entrepreneurs will have an extra dose of certainty so that they can budget and save for what truly matters to them.

00:01:24.120 Monday here in Alberta, we heard the speech from the throne.

00:01:27.480 That's where the government of the day sets their agenda for the next legislative session.

00:01:33.260 And it sounds like Alberta's Premier Daniel Smith has a lot of fighting with the federal government planned for Justin Trudeau.

00:01:40.180 And I just can't wait.

00:01:42.140 Now, joining me to break down what we saw from the speech from the throne and what we can expect in the next few months from the Alberta government is my friend, Corey Morgan.

00:01:52.760 He's a columnist with the Western Standard.

00:01:55.300 Check it out.

00:01:55.820 So joining me now is Corey Morgan of the Western Standard.

00:02:06.440 And when Daniel Smith announced her plan for the next legislative session, I knew he was the guy I wanted to talk to.

00:02:16.220 Corey, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:02:18.180 So talk to me about like, let's zoom out a little bit about some of the things that you saw in Daniel Smith's throne speech.

00:02:28.560 Sure.

00:02:29.160 A lot of it was, I guess, kind of predictable, very much focused on making Alberta a destination for business.

00:02:35.540 That's the messaging she wants to get out, you know, reducing regulatory regime and also for people with the affordability front, reducing the tax bracket. 0.94

00:02:43.600 Keeping that theme of pointing at Ottawa as the enemy to defend against.

00:02:49.160 Again, politically, it's always a good approach in Alberta and they always give us lots to work with on that front.

00:02:55.760 The thing that kind of came out of left field there was the high speed train proposal, though, which I don't remember anybody campaigning on or anybody even asking for.

00:03:05.180 And to have it actually inserted into a throne speech gets me actually kind of uncomfortable.

00:03:08.960 Yeah, that was sort of a thing I didn't expect to see.

00:03:15.440 I knew it was something that Jason Kenney was sort of poking around examining.

00:03:19.560 I hadn't seen the business plan for that.

00:03:21.900 But it seems like every five or six years, someone's like, you know, we definitely need is a monorail from Edmonton to Calgary stopping, I don't know, in Innisfail and Red Deer along the way.

00:03:35.100 I mean, I don't know what the usership would have to be to make that affordable.

00:03:39.900 If it's a government run project, I mean, we'll have we will just be able to teleport through a private company by the time the government gets a monorail finish.

00:03:50.560 So, again, I'd like to see the business model on that.

00:03:53.680 But you touched a little bit on the tax relief issue.

00:03:57.040 There's Bill one, which I think we should definitely talk about, and also suspending the gas tax until the end of the year.

00:04:05.960 We keep doing this, suspend the gas tax until a certain date.

00:04:10.360 I don't understand why we just don't get rid of it altogether.

00:04:12.780 If we realize that it is driving up inflation and hurting Albertans in their pocketbooks, why wouldn't we just get rid of it altogether?

00:04:21.700 Because they like hedging their bets.

00:04:23.320 So if revenue starts dropping, it doesn't look like they're bringing back an old tax or adding a new tax.

00:04:30.060 If they got rid of it altogether, they can always just say, well, the term of the suspension expired.

00:04:35.340 So this way they'll just keep kicking that can down the road.

00:04:37.600 And at least they are suspending it for a time, but I would be more comfortable if they did just get rid of it altogether.

00:04:44.960 I mean, just admit it.

00:04:45.600 It's not a good tax.

00:04:46.560 It's hurting businesses.

00:04:47.840 It's hurting citizens.

00:04:48.760 And we should get rid of it.

00:04:50.000 But they won't quite make that step.

00:04:53.300 Yeah, it's true.

00:04:55.840 Now, let's talk about Bill one.

00:04:57.600 So I think for people outside of the province, they really don't understand what Bill one.

00:05:03.580 But Bill one acts as a restraining order against the government for introduction of new taxes or hiking taxes.

00:05:12.340 If they plan to hike the tax, it has to go to referendum.

00:05:15.820 This is something that has been like a bread and butter conservative issue for a very long time.

00:05:21.380 This harkens back to the Ralph Klein days.

00:05:25.000 But, of course, the NDP don't like this idea.

00:05:27.580 Well, the NDP, I mean, it's fine for Premier Smith.

00:05:31.580 They seem to just have the pure chronic oppositional disorder going on.

00:05:35.380 That's the nature of opposition.

00:05:37.180 But they're getting to a point of really just immediate opposition to everything.

00:05:41.420 And I don't think it's serving them at all.

00:05:44.140 This sort of thing does remind us of Ralph Klein.

00:05:46.480 He brought in the Balanced Budget Act to say that, you know, the government could not go into deficit.

00:05:51.000 The very first time I ever attended a live legislative session in person was to watch the Stalemac government put a quick motion in, repeal the act, and then go into deficit.

00:06:01.460 So these acts, they're good because it makes the government at least have to go pretty public and eat some crow and make a motion to get out of their own legislation if they do want to raise taxes.

00:06:16.220 This is different that it calls for a referendum if they wanted to do it, which I can't see any referendum winning when somebody's saying, we want to raise your taxes.

00:06:23.800 So it does, it's a good thing to see.

00:06:26.700 But, I mean, people also should realize that it's not set in stone.

00:06:29.740 Any majority government can always repeal these things.

00:06:32.600 But it makes it more difficult for them down the road to try and raise taxes.

00:06:36.180 And anything that hinders the government's temptation to raise our taxes further is a good thing as far as I'm concerned.

00:06:41.640 Yeah, it's just so odd to see the NDP campaign against giving people the option, giving people a voice in the legislative process.

00:06:54.220 I think they're decrying it as undemocratic when it's probably the most democratic thing that I think the government could do.

00:07:02.360 And, you know, you point out that Stelmac repealing that law gave way to the NDP to bring in the largest deficits this province had ever seen.

00:07:14.040 We're still crawling our way out of this hole.

00:07:16.900 Yeah, and then the NDP just can't even remain silent, perhaps, on a policy.

00:07:21.280 I'd rather come out and oppose it.

00:07:22.440 I don't think they're doing themselves any favors on that one to say it's undemocratic.

00:07:26.960 Well, you're asking, we're talking about a policy to give citizens the right to vote on a policy.

00:07:32.540 It doesn't get any more democratic than that.

00:07:35.380 But I swear they can't hear themselves speak sometimes.

00:07:38.880 Now, there was something that wasn't in the throne speech, and I was hoping to see it.

00:07:44.240 But I think maybe the government was caught a little bit flat-footed, although I think the writing was on the wall.

00:07:49.280 I thought there might be something in there for firearms owners, given that the federal court has just upheld Justin Trudeau's, again, there's that word, undemocratic, order in council banning.

00:08:01.280 It started at 1,500 long guns, and now it's closer to 2,000 long guns.

00:08:06.720 The federal court said that doing that is completely within the government's power and that the government didn't act unfairly by arbitrarily making people criminals overnight through the stroke of a pen.

00:08:22.300 I thought, given Daniel Smith's strong stance on property rights and firearms rights and public safety, that I would see something like that in the throne speech.

00:08:32.860 I think they weren't prepared for that.

00:08:37.140 Yeah, it's the timing of things.

00:08:39.600 There's so many balls in the air right now, it's hard to cover every possible issue in a throne speech and then to realize there was going to be a ruling come out at this point so close to it or during that they couldn't hit on it.

00:08:53.280 But, I mean, Premier Smith has never shown any support for the federal firearms plans or track.

00:09:00.540 Ironically, Premier Kenney was actually always well outspoken for that.

00:09:04.060 He brought in Terry Bryant, I believe it is, the firearms officer.

00:09:07.900 She's been very common sense in that issue.

00:09:12.560 So, I think they will, as you said, it was notably absent in the throne speech.

00:09:16.780 Maybe they're trying to appeal more to the urban crowd too, though.

00:09:19.880 I mean, everything's tactical when it comes to this.

00:09:22.360 And they realize that's a strong rural issue, but they've already got strong rural support.

00:09:26.900 They want to make sure that Calgary stays solid because they came so close to potentially losing the election over some of the Calgary seats that, while I don't think they would lose support over bringing the firearms issue into the middle of the throne speech, it wouldn't have necessarily gained them anything as well.

00:09:42.680 So, that might be part of why they didn't touch upon it as well.

00:09:45.340 I suspect they're going to stand up for our property rights, at least as much as they're capable of within the federation.

00:09:52.980 Now, and on the flip side, I don't know how much more they could say or do, given that they've already said,

00:09:59.940 we're not going to allocate RCMP resources to kicking in our friends and neighbors' doors all across the province to get a bunch of firearms that really, frankly, nobody knows where they are.

00:10:12.540 So, on the flip side, while it was notably absent from the throne speech, I don't know what else Daniel Smith could say, except if Justin Trudeau demands the RCMP go around and kick in doors.

00:10:23.460 And I think that's the only way to go get them, frankly, that our cops are not going to do it.

00:10:30.500 No, and Premier Smith's been working almost incrementally towards bringing in a provincial police force, at least encouraging areas like Grand Prairie to say, you know what, we're going to go with a municipal force rather than RCMP.

00:10:41.780 And expanding the reach and the scope of the sheriffs, she won't come right out and say we're going to form an Alberta provincial police force, but she's on that direction.

00:10:49.160 Another thing absent from this speech as well was the pension plan, not a peep on it.

00:10:55.600 And that's sort of been the top issue of this government since the last couple of months when they brought up that study on it.

00:11:02.940 I suspect they seem to have hit this poorly prepared.

00:11:07.980 We've talked about an Alberta pension plan for a long, long time, but now that they've sort of really made a solid move towards examining it,

00:11:15.580 the blowback was anticipated, of course, but they didn't seem to respond strongly to it.

00:11:20.980 They can't give good, strong numbers on it.

00:11:23.300 And they're sort of, I'm just thinking, circling the wagons a little bit and trying to think of how they're going to approach it from here on in.

00:11:28.300 Because if they wanted to hit it hard, you'd think that would have been right in the middle of that throne speech.

00:11:32.200 And they made a point of not having it in there at all.

00:11:34.300 So I think their support on it is softer than they hoped for.

00:11:36.860 And I think maybe the fact that Polyev came out and said, hey, Alberta, please don't.

00:11:44.800 I think that might have rattled the UCP a little bit.

00:11:48.680 I don't know if they expected that from him.

00:11:52.340 But, you know, you very rarely see Alberta break with the federal party on these issues.

00:12:00.680 And, you know, it looks like there's a bit of a fracture there on this one.

00:12:04.320 Well, it puts Polyev in a rock and a hard place.

00:12:07.620 I mean, if Alberta exits the plan, despite whatever people might claim, it will certainly cost every other Canadian a lot more money.

00:12:15.560 The only thing that's disputable is the amount of the principle that Alberta may be entitled to on the way out.

00:12:20.860 But if Alberta left even, you know, with a small percentage of the plan, that plan is suddenly going to be underfunded by a few billion dollars a year. 0.89

00:12:29.340 And any liberal would be able to, if Polyev supported that, would be able to beat pretty hard on them and say, hey, all your pension plan contributions are going up because of that plan you supported or that exit you supported in Alberta.

00:12:41.900 So he's in a difficult position.

00:12:44.780 And while there's, you know, the UCP and the federal conservatives aren't formally linked, they aren't like the NDP, there's certainly a great deal of overlap between the members and the players and the political people in there.

00:12:54.360 So I suspect perhaps there was at least a polite request saying, can you can you take your foot off the pension plan gas a little bit because we were having trouble here responding to it on the federal front?

00:13:04.800 Yeah. And it is a good point to make that whether it is 50 percent of the federal pension plan or 30 percent, it's going to leave a big hole right in the middle that doesn't matter what party is in power.

00:13:17.840 They absolutely cannot deal with it without major tax hikes across the board in other areas.

00:13:24.360 Yes. And so, again, as a federal thing, I think perhaps, well, the better front might have been on Polyev's end just to stay silent about it.

00:13:32.880 I mean, he wasn't getting pressure or attacked from what I've seen as being supportive of it.

00:13:37.540 He preemptively kind of came out and opposed it, which upset a fair amount of Albertans.

00:13:41.440 It's not like, well, we've got to remember the politics of Canada, right?

00:13:44.320 Mr. Polyev has nothing to lose in Alberta, just as the liberals have nothing to lose in Alberta.

00:13:48.500 That's our biggest fault as a province. We're pretty predictable with our votes.

00:13:51.360 So that's why they always cater to central Canada.

00:13:54.640 And an Alberta pension plan is never going to be a popular item in central Canada or pretty much anywhere outside of Alberta, I'm afraid.

00:14:01.340 Now, let's talk about Bill 3.

00:14:04.000 Now, Bill 3 expands Alberta's ability to become engaged in class action lawsuits against the opioid manufacturers.

00:14:12.320 For some reason, BC is engaged in lawsuits against the opioid manufacturers while simultaneously allowing people to use hard drugs anywhere and everywhere, and the police turn a blind eye to it.

00:14:24.560 But Alberta is going to expand its ability to recoup some of the costs from the opioid manufacturers for, I guess, the overprescription of opioids leading to deaths.

00:14:40.180 I mean, primarily the deaths.

00:14:41.380 One third of the opioid deaths are in Edmonton.

00:14:43.540 And if you've been to downtown Edmonton, that's no surprise.

00:14:46.700 What do you think about this?

00:14:49.340 I think it's a step in the right direction to hold people to account for how these things were first described to people looking for pain relief.

00:15:00.060 Well, I mean, there's certainly a lot of evidence when it came to OxyContin and things like that, that it was clearly they were understating the addictive nature of it.

00:15:08.840 They were giving a lot of incentives to physicians to prescribe it for pretty much anything.

00:15:13.360 So if you could find a definite intent to get people addicted to this, then those people should be held accountable.

00:15:22.200 I do worry about some of these sorts of things, though.

00:15:25.140 I mean, this is like going after the tobacco companies for the damage of cigarette smoking.

00:15:30.220 And, of course, by extension, we also see these lawsuits coming out going after energy companies because of climate change.

00:15:36.340 And I'm not big on the government doing that.

00:15:38.320 But they should be looking at the illegal use of opioids, which is a bigger issue than some of the legitimate use.

00:15:44.920 I mean, I horrified the world when I posted pictures of my colonoscopy on my show a while back.

00:15:51.020 But you're just trying to show, you know, these procedures.

00:15:52.880 Hey, get out there, get it done.

00:15:54.000 These things are important.

00:15:54.940 They gave me fentanyl, though, for that procedure.

00:15:58.200 And it was quite effective.

00:15:59.680 So I, you know, aside from the pictures, I had no memory of it, which was fine by me.

00:16:03.260 But, I mean, there are legitimate uses for these opioids.

00:16:07.220 And if you keep hitting the manufacturers on them, you could actually knock research down on things, you know, these sorts of drugs and breakthroughs.

00:16:16.360 So it's a dangerous area to go into.

00:16:19.280 We'll see what becomes of it, I guess, if it's a reasonable class action against true, you know, misguided or even corrupted practices with drug manufacturing or pushing or use.

00:16:30.760 But they could also cause more damage than they're solving.

00:16:34.620 Yeah.

00:16:34.900 And I think it also eliminates the personal responsibility of the user.

00:16:40.080 So you didn't go home and you were like, I kind of like how that fentanyl made me feel.

00:16:45.000 Let's go to the local drug pusher and just get a bunch of it.

00:16:50.660 I'm with you.

00:16:51.540 I think if there is evidence of corruption, that the opioid manufacturers knew that their drugs were more addictive than they were telling doctors.

00:17:01.740 And if the opioid manufacturers were incentivizing doctors to overprescribe, which I'm not necessarily sure happens in our system.

00:17:12.840 But if that were the case, yes, let's hold them to account for that.

00:17:15.980 But also, as somebody who believes in personal accountability, I want to make sure that people are responsible for their choices in the mix here.

00:17:26.700 Well, that's it, with the attacks on tobacco companies, which, yeah, they were selling a dangerous, nasty product.

00:17:33.080 But, I mean, I remember people claiming we didn't know that it was dangerous.

00:17:36.120 Oh, spare me.

00:17:37.300 I remember an old Three Stooges episode where they referred to cigarettes as coffin nails.

00:17:41.840 So they knew in the 30s and 40s that these were not good for you.

00:17:45.780 Let's not pretend that people in the 70s, 80s, 90s didn't know that tobacco was a dangerous product.

00:17:52.100 Yet, at the same time, it's a grab.

00:17:54.460 It's a money grab.

00:17:55.360 It's to, as you said, try to put the responsibility on somebody else besides the user or, of course, besides the government itself that taxes and makes off quite well off of tobacco product sales.

00:18:04.480 So, again, I'm not terribly enthused with them jumping on the potential class action thing.

00:18:10.100 But they are taking at least the opioid crisis seriously.

00:18:12.600 And that's something that the Smith government's been very good about.

00:18:15.200 They talk a bit around and they're being careful with it.

00:18:17.920 But possibly having, you know, compassionate intervention is the way to put it.

00:18:21.140 But basically, possibly trying to enforce treatment on people when they're very far along with addiction.

00:18:26.520 So, I'm still very enthusiastic and optimistic about where the Smith government may go with dealing with this addiction crisis.

00:18:33.560 But I'm not sure if this class action was one of their best moves with it.

00:18:36.580 Yeah, I think it is the Smith government attacking the opioid crisis from all fronts.

00:18:45.100 You know, through opening up voluntary drug treatment beds so that that is not a hindrance to people seeking treatment to possibly introducing the grabbing, I guess, and forcibly taking off to treatment violent drug addicts, people who are threatening their families and threatening violence upon themselves in the community.

00:19:08.400 Great, great.

00:19:09.400 Great, I'm all for that.

00:19:10.100 Those people aren't in the right frame of mind.

00:19:12.160 Snatch them up and take them away.

00:19:14.660 Because sometimes that's the only way.

00:19:18.540 Also, to continue to enforce our drug laws, unlike what's happening in other provinces.

00:19:22.860 Sometimes police intervention is the leverage you need to get some of these people off to treatment.

00:19:28.360 And you can say to them, look, you're going to go to jail for like two years less a day, or you can go to treatment and serve 90 days.

00:19:36.680 The choice is yours.

00:19:38.420 And then, I guess, the lawsuits against the opioid manufacturer.

00:19:42.220 So, I think she's trying to tackle this problem from all fronts.

00:19:47.860 And it really isn't just a drug problem.

00:19:49.900 It is a drug problem.

00:19:52.280 But it's got this like, it's like a pebble in a puddle, right?

00:19:57.180 It just ripples out.

00:19:58.160 So, now we've got gangs.

00:19:59.480 We've got human trafficking, sex trafficking, drug trafficking, gun crime, property crime.

00:20:06.640 It all sort of spills out from the drug crisis.

00:20:10.900 Yeah, it's, you know, it's all the peripheral damage that it causes.

00:20:14.200 As long as you've got consumers, particularly addicted consumers, you know, gangs are going to come in.

00:20:19.640 They're going to try and fill that demand.

00:20:20.900 That says it's been known since the first addictive substances ever hit the world markets hundreds of years ago.

00:20:27.360 And, yeah, she's really taking it as a big issue to try and take on and realizes it's multifaceted, ideally for treatment.

00:20:35.860 I said, is somebody voluntarily saying, okay, I've had enough.

00:20:38.800 I've hit bottom.

00:20:39.640 I'm going to check myself in.

00:20:40.920 And having the availability, you know, they don't want to make a phone call and say, yeah, we can get you in in a month.

00:20:45.780 I mean, we've got to get you in right now.

00:20:47.440 And, again, credit to Premier Kenney when he was in.

00:20:50.580 He expanded the beds a lot.

00:20:52.320 He did a great deal of work in that front.

00:20:55.760 And then Premier Smith is continuing with it.

00:20:57.740 The area that will get controversial is with the intervention with people.

00:21:01.820 But when they've hit the point, when they've hit the point when they're in the alleys, when they're on the streets, when you see them down there, their teeth are falling out of their head.

00:21:10.680 They're covered in sores.

00:21:11.560 They're begging.

00:21:12.420 They're doing some terrible things with themselves to try and get a fix.

00:21:16.160 How much is being lost now by trying to directly intervene?

00:21:19.680 I know some people say, oh, the treatment rate once, you know, when you intervene like that is very, very low.

00:21:24.240 Well, that's fine.

00:21:24.820 But the survival rate once they're on the street at that point is also very, very low.

00:21:28.180 There's little to lose at this point.

00:21:30.300 I'm sure parents, family members, friends would say, please step in, do whatever you can, even if it's a long shot because it's better than the path they're on right now.

00:21:38.940 And I really appreciate the Smith government's courage to look at that as an alternative to deal with this, as opposed to enabling, as we see in pretty much every West Coast city in North America.

00:21:48.660 Yeah, it's, I believe it's called the Alberta model.

00:21:51.960 And some of the more atrocious cities of the world, Portland, Seattle, they're studying the Alberta model. 0.89

00:21:57.560 And luckily enough for us here in Alberta, but tragically for the people in BC, we have two different models that we can study for effectiveness.

00:22:05.220 We have the Alberta model, which has more beds, enforcing the drug laws, considering rounding up drug addicts when they become violent towards their friends and families and start to become a plague upon the neighborhood versus the complete and total enabling of people into the grave in British Columbia.

00:22:24.940 So I guess time will tell which system works.

00:22:31.740 But of course, the NDP are like, actually, let's not give them drug treatment.

00:22:35.840 Let's just give them drugs and see how that goes. 1.00

00:22:38.720 Yeah.

00:22:38.960 And I've never made a secret of my being a recovering alcoholic.

00:22:42.640 And I know that if they were handing out shooters at my AA meetings, I would still be drinking today, if indeed I'd still be alive after drinking that much.

00:22:51.060 So the absurdity of the NDP approach is, I think most people realize it.

00:22:56.260 I sure hope they do.

00:22:57.580 Enabling just doesn't work.

00:22:59.720 Yeah.

00:22:59.960 Now, I wanted to talk to you before I let you go about something I think isn't really being talked about all that much in the mainstream media.

00:23:09.980 And I think it's because they were really, frankly, a member of the NDP street team.

00:23:14.540 There was a one man insurrection, to use the language of the left, at the throne speech where an environmental activist tried to disrupt the thing.

00:23:23.580 And let me tell you, if that were, let's say, Bernard Hancock during the NDP days, generations of Bernard's people would be canceled from existence on social media.

00:23:39.800 But the NDP activist, member of the NDP street team acting up during the throne speech, no big deal.

00:23:48.440 By the way, how did that person get invited to the throne speech?

00:23:50.860 You have to be invited, right?

00:23:52.120 Typically, the room is pretty full.

00:23:54.460 So you need an MLA to kind of say, yeah, we can get you in to pop up there and be in the gallery and do your thing.

00:24:00.220 So I don't know if they're going to expose who invited this person or why.

00:24:05.460 But it's the nature of the NDP and the lack of accountability when it comes to these protesters, as you said, versus others.

00:24:12.600 We'll never hear further on this.

00:24:14.800 I'm sure they're just ejected and no further things.

00:24:17.520 But when it comes to a convoy protester or if Bernard had done it or even the, you know, they would have had heavy charges.

00:24:23.320 I saw recently some pro-Hamas protesters had taken over Chrystia Freeland's office.

00:24:27.640 I doubt there was a single charge laid there as well.

00:24:29.960 I look forward to being proven wrong on that.

00:24:31.800 But I really doubt it.

00:24:32.660 There's definitely a different standard with the NDP protest gang versus any conservative protests.

00:24:38.240 And we're seeing just another example of it.

00:24:41.180 Yeah.

00:24:41.420 No bank accounts frozen there.

00:24:43.160 Not for the pro-Hamas protesters either who staged also a January 6th-style insurrection at Chrystia Freeland's office.

00:24:51.620 Corey, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:24:53.420 Let people know where they can find your work, your show.

00:24:57.100 This is your chance to shamelessly self-promote.

00:25:01.060 Well, much appreciated.

00:25:02.300 I'm always shameless.

00:25:03.420 And yeah, westernstandard.news, of course.

00:25:05.980 I mean, independent media like you guys, and we need folks to come out.

00:25:09.020 We need subscribers.

00:25:09.960 This is how we can keep breaking through things.

00:25:12.680 I also write for the Epoch Times, and I'm very prolific on X, formerly Twitter, at Corey B. Morgan,

00:25:19.720 if you really want to get engaged with me online, but you might not appreciate my views.

00:25:25.160 I think people will appreciate your views, at least my viewers will.

00:25:28.720 But boy, if you want to see a guy anger up the left, angry up the blood of the left, follow Corey on X.

00:25:35.400 Corey, thanks so much for coming on the show.

00:25:36.980 We'll have you back on again very soon.

00:25:38.440 It's always a pleasure.

00:25:39.320 Thanks, Sheila.

00:25:46.780 Well, friends, we've come to the portion of the show where we invite your viewer feedback.

00:25:50.160 I know I say this every single week.

00:25:51.740 So regular viewers, I'm sorry that this seems redundant, but we get new people all the time.

00:25:56.900 We've got to be nice to them.

00:25:58.120 We've got to show them how this works.

00:25:59.460 So I invite your viewer feedback, because without you, there really is no Rebel News,

00:26:05.580 because we will never take a penny from Justin Trudeau, and how could we hold him to account

00:26:09.880 if we did?

00:26:11.500 And so I want to hear from you.

00:26:13.840 This is why I give out my email address right now.

00:26:16.060 It's Sheila at RebelNews.com.

00:26:17.600 Put gun show letters in the subject line so I know why you are contacting me, because I do get

00:26:23.260 sometimes hundreds of emails per day, especially if I've said something controversial or shared

00:26:32.320 an opinion that the left doesn't like, then, you know, it's a lot.

00:26:37.840 It's a lot to open up the old email inbox some days.

00:26:41.980 But also don't hesitate to leave a comment wherever you might be watching the show.

00:26:46.360 For example, if you're watching the free version of the show on YouTube or on Rumble,

00:26:50.620 first off, let me thank you for sitting through those ads, but leave a comment there.

00:26:55.180 Sometimes I go looking over there to see what you have to say, because there is no bar to

00:27:01.220 entry, I should say, to leave a comment on the work that we do and for me to care about

00:27:06.860 your opinion.

00:27:08.360 So paid subscribers, not paid subscribers, doesn't matter.

00:27:11.820 Your opinion's all the same to me.

00:27:14.020 So today's letter comes from a regular viewer of the show, Bruce.

00:27:20.240 If you're a regular viewer like Bruce, you know that Bruce and I have a bit of a back

00:27:26.660 and forth.

00:27:27.240 He emails me and then I read his letter on air and comment.

00:27:30.660 And then the next week he does it.

00:27:32.260 And the next week he does it.

00:27:33.420 The next week he does it.

00:27:34.360 And Bruce's email comes to me by way of the show last week with Rick Igersich from the

00:27:45.440 National Firearms Association.

00:27:46.620 And we were talking about how Justin Trudeau says that, you know, 1500 models of Canadian

00:27:53.780 long guns and then it's been expanded now to include nearly 2000 Canadian long guns were

00:28:00.020 banned through an order in council by Justin Trudeau in May 2020 because they were assault

00:28:05.440 style weapons and they were so deadly that they had to get off the streets immediately.

00:28:10.600 Immediately.

00:28:12.020 Well, that was three years ago.

00:28:13.720 And the people who own these guns still have them and still aren't committing any crimes

00:28:19.720 with them.

00:28:21.140 And the reason for that is Justin Trudeau can't figure out how to compensate these people for

00:28:26.720 the firearms he plans to confiscate from them.

00:28:29.320 And so that was three years ago.

00:28:30.940 Still, these people are still not committing crimes, although Justin Trudeau is treating them

00:28:34.860 as though they were. 0.97

00:28:35.540 And because Justin Trudeau is incredibly inept and can't figure out how to snatch people's 0.91

00:28:42.060 lawfully acquired property from them, the amnesty for those owners to turn over those guns has 0.94

00:28:48.280 been extended another two full years.

00:28:51.960 So five years, these guns were left in the hands of their lawful owners and still, still

00:29:01.580 no, no plague of violence coming from these people.

00:29:04.680 You see, yes, these guns are so deadly that they could stay in the hands of their owners

00:29:08.740 for five years and nobody would notice or care.

00:29:11.940 So anyways, we talked about that.

00:29:15.340 And so Bruce sent me a letter.

00:29:18.280 Bruce is in Radway, by the way, just just north of me.

00:29:21.960 They have a great military surplus store there in case you're interested in case you're traveling

00:29:26.840 through Radway.

00:29:27.640 Anyway, Bruce writes, hi, Sheila.

00:29:29.640 I'm proud to be an NFA member.

00:29:31.840 Remember, we must defend this kind of property so that the government can't confiscate other

00:29:36.360 kinds of property.

00:29:37.760 The property issue is what we must always bring up when we speak to gun and non-gun owners 0.95

00:29:44.000 alike.

00:29:44.560 If I recall correctly, Bruce doesn't even have firearms.

00:29:47.020 He just cares deeply about the rights of people to own things and acquire things legally.

00:29:53.720 And he's against the government just deciding one day that you shouldn't have that because

00:29:58.740 somebody else did something bad somewhere in the country.

00:30:02.220 Instead of dealing with the person who did the thing bad, they just deal with you because

00:30:05.960 they know you're going to follow the rules.

00:30:08.280 Suppose diesel and gas-powered cars and trucks made before 2023 are suddenly banned.

00:30:14.080 That would upset almost everybody.

00:30:16.500 And if people object, the government will say that's justified by the gun grab.

00:30:20.040 Both firearms and cars have killed people, they'll say, so they can't be left in the

00:30:24.000 hands of mere mortals.

00:30:26.480 This is true.

00:30:28.900 The Libranos use the courts to get their way and they have their hard-left judges in place

00:30:34.280 for these incremental laws to be enforced.

00:30:36.440 Bit by bit, our freedoms are being confiscated.

00:30:39.040 They know that people would freak out if they went full tyranny.

00:30:43.000 So they sneak little bits of restriction into the court system to make it extremely complex

00:30:48.480 to fight.

00:30:49.260 Sincerely, Bruce Atchison.

00:30:51.800 And then he included his NFA membership, which I think is lovely.

00:30:56.600 It's true.

00:30:57.600 You know, you think about what happened during the pandemic.

00:31:02.660 It wasn't overnight, especially with the demonization of Christian pastors.

00:31:09.260 So Justin Trudeau has had a bit of a war on Christianity since he took office.

00:31:15.940 And you can see the historical context of that in our documentary, Church Under Fire, Canada's

00:31:22.540 War on Christianity. 0.81

00:31:23.380 It wasn't just zero to 60.

00:31:27.560 All of a sudden, they're arresting pastors in the street El Chapo style because they opened

00:31:31.660 their churches during COVID.

00:31:33.160 It was little bit by little bit by little bit in how the government talked about Christians,

00:31:39.540 how they took away rights of certain Christian groups.

00:31:45.280 For example, with the summer jobs program.

00:31:47.220 If you were against abortion, you couldn't have a summer camp for some reason and qualify 0.95

00:31:53.300 for a summer jobs program that would employ summer students.

00:31:56.260 It was a little bit by little bit until all of a sudden, you know, SWAT style takedowns of

00:32:04.540 pastors on Calgary streets and locking them up for 30 plus days or seven days in solitary

00:32:11.120 confinement, as was the case with Pastor Phil Hutchins, my friend from out east.

00:32:16.940 So you're right.

00:32:18.680 People don't notice tyranny until it's here.

00:32:23.860 And that's why we must be on guard for any sort of incremental restrictions of our rights,

00:32:31.280 because pretty soon the little increments are a really big thing.

00:32:37.180 And we've seen it time and time again.

00:32:41.080 Well, everybody, that's the show for tonight.

00:32:42.740 Thank you so much for tuning in.

00:32:43.860 I'll see everybody back here in the same time, in the same place next week.

00:32:47.300 And as always, don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.

00:32:53.860 I'll see you next week.

Rebel News Podcast - November 01, 2023

SHEILA GUNN REID ｜ The Speech from the Throne： What's next for Alberta？

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