Rebel News Podcast - February 26, 2026


SHEILA GUNN REID | Tight budgets, real choices — and one MP who said 'no' to a raise


Episode Stats


Length

38 minutes

Words per minute

168.66666

Word count

6,564

Sentence count

565

Harmful content

Misogyny

19

sentences flagged

Hate speech

6

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

An MP that refused his salary hike receives great praise from the Canadian public. And Alberta s budget is out tomorrow and the premier is already warning that it s not going to be all that great. So join me to break it down with my good friend Chris Sims of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 An MP that refused his salary hike receives great praise from the Canadian public and
00:00:06.980 Alberta's budget is out tomorrow. What are your wish lists? Mine, lower spending.
00:00:13.940 I'm Sheila Gunn-Reed and you're watching The Gunn Show.
00:00:30.000 Here's the thing when you stand up and do the right thing. The people unwilling to do that right
00:00:38.660 thing become embarrassed because your act of selfless bravery or ethics, it shines a light
00:00:50.240 on their own lack thereof. And I think some of that is happening to Matt Dawson, a conservative MP that
00:00:57.020 describes himself as a drywaller and who refused his automatic salary hike. And then it's budget day
00:01:06.560 in Alberta tomorrow and the premier is already warning that it's not going to be all that great.
00:01:13.420 So join me today to break all this down and a lot more is my friend Chris Sims
00:01:17.860 from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Take a listen.
00:01:27.020 Joining me now is my good friend and good friend of Taxpayers Everywhere, Chris Sims. She's the
00:01:33.400 Alberta Director of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. And we're going to talk about a few things,
00:01:37.700 including how you, the beloved public, feel about MP pay hikes and Chris's wish list for the Alberta
00:01:47.760 budget. And I know some of you are from outside of Alberta, but we really believe that Alberta is
00:01:53.960 leading the way on a lot of issues. I think Daniel Smith on many issues is the de facto leader of the
00:02:01.320 conservative movement writ large and her bravery allows other people to follow behind her. So we're
00:02:08.600 going to talk about the Alberta budget, which comes out tomorrow, Thursday. Chris, thanks for joining the
00:02:14.420 show. Let's first talk about MP Mike Dawson, just an all around good dude, former construction worker,
00:02:22.800 rejecting his pay hike, and then getting a lot of flack for it from, from, from some interesting
00:02:29.880 places. Yeah, that's a nice way of putting it. So for folks who don't know, Member of Parliament,
00:02:36.200 Mike Dawson, he's a brand new MP. He's from Miramichi Grand Lake in New Brunswick. As he puts it,
00:02:43.620 he's a, as he puts it, just a drywaller from New Brunswick. I will point out, my brother's a drywaller.
00:02:50.000 Um, all my brothers are tradesmen. Uh, we don't use the term just, he was doing that because he's
00:02:54.500 super humble. Um, so backbench members of parliament are already paid more than $200,000
00:03:02.280 per year. That's salary. On top of that, they get a ton of their expenses covered. Okay. Like food and
00:03:08.360 transportation and housing and all that jazz. And again, this is a backbench bare minimum. Like you
00:03:13.460 show up with two feet in a heartbeat, you're an MP. So you don't have any committee responsibilities,
00:03:18.360 no critic roles, nothing. Um, what's frustrating is that Mike, Mike is the only one who has said,
00:03:26.500 you know what? No, I'm not taking a pay raise. It's wrong. Especially when men and women who are 1.00
00:03:31.640 working in my riding are really hurting. Okay. They can barely afford groceries and anybody that
00:03:36.620 goes to the store can see that right now. Um, I'm not doing it. And so he wrote an official letter
00:03:41.920 on letterhead from his office to the clerk of the house of commons and said, don't give me this pay
00:03:46.680 raise. And now a bunch of, uh, people are being willfully ignorant, uh, in the house of commons
00:03:51.820 and saying, Oh, well, you can't do that. It's impossible to stop a pay raise, which is stupid.
00:03:57.140 Um, of course they can stop a pay raise. Um, a they're legislators. They literally write law.
00:04:04.280 They can, they can, you know, declare the house of commons to be a circus tent if they want to.
00:04:09.920 Okay. Um, they often act like it is. So he, they can do this. And as, as Mike put it,
00:04:16.340 um, when we talked to him, he said, man, you can put a man on the moon. Like, let's not reinvent
00:04:22.120 the wheel here. I'm sure you can say no pay raises. Um, so we put out a poll and we were so
00:04:28.860 proud to see the numbers as the kids say, this is an 80, 20 issue. Yeah. About 80% of Canadians
00:04:36.640 agree with Mike Dawson and oppose member of parliament pay increases. Why he's the only one
00:04:45.200 that is a mystery for X-Files. I don't get it. I do get it because I think a lot of people get
00:04:56.160 into politics for the money and the power. And as we've seen with Matt Jennero in Edmonton
00:05:03.380 Riverbend, uh, it doesn't matter what party you are with sometimes. And, uh, you know, it's,
00:05:11.760 it's self-preservation, it's, uh, lining one's own pockets and they forget about the people who sent
00:05:18.680 them there, but I'm happy to see that Mike Dawson didn't. And I'm happy to see the amount of people
00:05:25.320 who emailed them, took time out of their own day and wrote a sincere email, not form letter,
00:05:34.460 sincere email to him to thank him. I think it was 10,000. Yeah. Um, I might choke up because I'm such
00:05:42.080 a nerd, but I'm so proud for doing this. Um, so the Taxpayers Federation, uh, we did put out,
00:05:47.660 you know, a, Hey, everybody thank Mike Dawson. But for those folks who are watching, who do get our
00:05:52.660 emails, you notice we don't do forms. It's not click this form to automatically send because that
00:05:57.900 gets filtered out and the people on the Hill don't see it. Um, no, this is, and it wasn't just
00:06:02.940 Taxpayers Federation. There were people who've never heard of us before who saw Mike Dawson's story
00:06:07.860 somehow on either, you know, independent real journalism or, you know, mainstream media.
00:06:13.600 However, they found out more than 10,000 people sent an original email to that guy saying, good job,
00:06:22.280 buddy. Thank you so much. And, um, it must be overwhelming because I know a lot of people with
00:06:28.980 our inbox, they won't just say good job. They'll say why they'll say like how they can't afford
00:06:34.900 something or how their wife just got sick. Or so I just want to give a shout out to Mike because
00:06:39.660 I know sometimes reading thousands and thousands like that can start to weigh on you. Um, keep your
00:06:45.760 chin up, man. We're super proud of you. I will point out it's Wednesday and for nerds on the Hill,
00:06:52.260 that's a caucus day. And that's where all the parties get together within their own groups
00:06:56.580 behind closed doors. And you're supposed to not talk about what happens in caucus, um, every Wednesday
00:07:01.720 morning on the Hill. And so I'm, I'm really, really hoping that he's not getting any grief
00:07:07.500 from any conservative MPs. They better not try to pull this crap again, Sheila, because when I heard
00:07:13.920 about that, ironically through the CBC, um, that he was getting the gears, um, tax fighters were super
00:07:21.500 mad about that. So we need to see some leadership here, frankly, in the house of commons, everybody
00:07:26.980 should be standing with Mike Dawson. Um, I will just put on my political strategist hat real quick.
00:07:32.100 If you don't mind indulging me, please imagine if prime minister Mark Carney's the one that comes
00:07:37.240 out and says, you know what? People are hurting right now and I am going to freeze the pay increases.
00:07:43.960 Talk about getting outflanked, man. Yeah. Yeah. Could happen. I would, if I were Carney.
00:07:51.780 Yeah. He's rich enough.
00:07:53.520 It doesn't matter.
00:07:56.100 That burn hidden him. He's got tons of money and prime ministers are paid like $400,000 per year,
00:08:01.580 plus a fancy place to live, et cetera, et cetera. What's he, what are they going to do? What's
00:08:05.620 his cabinet going to do? Revolt? Leave? He was their, he was their meal ticket during the last
00:08:12.360 election. They're not going anywhere. Yeah. So I wouldn't be surprised if it's Mark Carney that
00:08:17.020 steps forward. You know, it would be a, a, a shrewd political move. Yeah. He pulled the same
00:08:22.120 stunt with the carbon tax. Sure did. Yeah. Sure did. So we'll see. We'll see. Sorry for being so
00:08:27.060 frustrated. Um, it's, it's just that, how do I put this? I feel like there used to be more Mike
00:08:33.800 Dawson's. Yes. Like who were MPs, you know, like back in the early reform days and stuff. And to be
00:08:40.340 fair, even some of the folks who used to work, um, within the NDP, like I remember Bill Blakey being a
00:08:46.280 boiler maker, like talking about the working man and woman all the time, Jack Layton, the late Jack
00:08:51.580 Layton, even he folks might forget. He opposed the carbon tax all the time. We used to book them
00:08:59.140 on CTV all the time and he hated the carbon tax. Why? Because it punished people for heating their
00:09:06.260 homes in winter and driving to work. And he thought that it was especially cruel to poor people.
00:09:11.180 It is. Where are those MPs? Where are those NDP folks who are supposed to be supporting the
00:09:17.160 working man? Like seriously, sorry, I'm getting ticked off. I know. I know. Um, and, and just a
00:09:23.140 message to the conservative MPs who gave, uh, Mike Dawson a hard time. We know who you are,
00:09:29.040 or at least I'm pretty sure I know who you are. Just so you know, just putting you on notice.
00:09:36.060 I'm pretty sure I know who you are and okay. You wouldn't want yourself subjected to extra scrutiny.
00:09:42.220 Would you? Sure wouldn't. Sure wouldn't. Because entitlement, if you're entitled to your
00:09:47.760 entitlements, that's kryptonite politics, man. Yeah. Still is. People do not like seeing their
00:09:54.760 dollars being wasted and they despise entitlement. So folks are going to be getting a really hard look.
00:10:02.800 Yeah, they sure are. Especially in this time of, you know, outrageous, out of control,
00:10:08.780 food inflation, uh, 6% food inflation. People are, are having a tough time just getting by,
00:10:15.380 just putting food in their kids bellies and, you know, being crushed by taxes. And then the people
00:10:24.980 who stand up in the house of commons and make speeches on your behalf about food inflation
00:10:29.400 are taking a pay raise that stings, man. Can I tell you like God's truth story that happened last
00:10:36.900 night? Um, so I was at a grocery store, uh, because I have to head out to Edmonton after
00:10:41.740 we're finished chatting. So, you know, I have to make sure my fridge has got food in it for
00:10:45.860 my people. Um, mom's going to be away. Um, and so there was a lady that was behind me and I could 0.93
00:10:55.260 tell she did not want to talk. You know what I mean? Where don't talk to her or offer her stuff.
00:11:01.000 I could just, you can sense it. Um, anyway, I'm bagging my stuff. Um, and she comes in behind 0.99
00:11:07.180 me. And again, I don't know her circumstances. Um, and I don't know why this is what she was
00:11:11.660 buying, but this is what I saw. She was buying a huge bag of no name brand potatoes. Um, a couple
00:11:20.080 of trays of liver, which were reduced and on sale and a bottle of ketchup. She was digging around in her
00:11:30.000 purse to get the, I forget how much it was costing like $20 that she needed to buy cell phone minutes 1.00
00:11:36.880 for her phone. Okay. So like the cheapest possible way she could do. And I, it was hard listening to
00:11:44.840 her because the, the, the checkout guy, nice kid, um, brand new, they automatically ask if you want
00:11:51.900 to round up to feed kids or whatever it is like round up for the food bank. Um, et cetera. And she said,
00:11:57.800 uh, I'm fighting to feed myself right now. Yeah. But I, I saw this last night and I kind of looked
00:12:06.500 at her and she looked at me like, don't I'm like, cause I was going to say like, do you want my extra
00:12:12.160 bag of pepperoni? Like something, but you could just get the feeling off of her. Right. Where she was,
00:12:16.940 you could tell she was working. She had some sort of like paint work pants on, um, super proud. Um, 0.62
00:12:23.840 and it was fighting tooth and nail to afford stuff. And this is in Alberta. Right. I can't imagine
00:12:31.140 someone in downtown Toronto or a single mom or somebody, God love them in Vancouver or anywhere
00:12:38.620 in BC. Anyway, all this is to say shame on those members of parliament. Right. For wanting those pay
00:12:45.400 hikes. How dare you? How dare you? Yeah. How dare you take the pay hike from that lady struggling to feed 1.00
00:12:52.120 herself from her taxes? How dare you? Poor lady just trying to hang on to her dignity in this horrible 1.00
00:12:59.540 country. I just said, my student's calling and I didn't know I was going to share this story,
00:13:03.700 but the way you, the way you put it, it, I couldn't not tell her story. Yeah. Yeah. She she's the people
00:13:09.680 these conservatives are supposed to be fighting for not themselves in their own pocketbooks. Yep.
00:13:14.480 Skip your pay hike guys. Yeah. For some leadership. Yeah. Um, just, I want to touch on this
00:13:20.940 thing real quick before we go into your wishlist for the, uh, Alberta government for our budget
00:13:26.300 coming out tomorrow. Uh, Carson Binda has done some excellent work, um, exposing British Columbia's
00:13:34.680 waste. Uh, bureaucrats making six figure salaries have blown thousands of dollars on gift cards
00:13:42.320 to sports stores, Starbucks, and Amazon over the past year. All this while the government is hiking
00:13:48.840 taxes on families and rolling back core programs, uh, NDPers being NDPers, I guess, but like, what are
00:13:56.720 they doing there? Um, wasting money as hard and fast as possible. Um, I gotta say, uh, Carson is young
00:14:05.660 enough to be my son and I think of him that way. I am so proud of him. Uh, he has been going after
00:14:14.840 expenses and FOI. So freedom of information, et cetera, with a hammer and tong. Like he's so
00:14:22.840 good at it. And like, I'm not super good at it because I'll put out a bunch of requests and I'll
00:14:28.040 get some stupid delay back and then I get distracted by some other dumpster fire. But Carson is literally
00:14:33.780 going to help me do this because he's so good at it. So at the provincial level, they're doing this,
00:14:41.220 the, both the government and the bureaucrats are doing this and at the city level. Oh yeah. So
00:14:46.740 he's on this like a duck on a June bug. Uh, Carson, uh, somehow manages to make rent in some cracker
00:14:52.740 box apartment in Vancouver. Um, and he has dug into the expenses in places like Richmond. Okay. Metro
00:15:00.700 Vancouver, which is basically, um, a slush fund board for all the mayors of Metro Vancouver to get
00:15:06.780 together and spend money. If you can believe it, Sheila mayors. Okay. So for folks who are watching
00:15:12.980 in British Columbia in the down, in, in the downtown, the greater Vancouver regional district,
00:15:17.780 it used to be called now it's Metro Vancouver. It basically runs from half of Langley all the way
00:15:23.020 through, you know, Surrey, Burnaby, Coquitlam, all the way up to North, North Van that area, your mayors
00:15:29.900 get together a couple of times a month at the Metro Vancouver board meeting. They are paid meeting fees.
00:15:40.300 Like these mayors, I know, I know. So it's so gross. I know it's what I said. So they're already paid
00:15:48.700 salary. Okay. Right. Like 200, 300 grand, whatever the rake off is. Okay. They're overpaid. All of them.
00:15:54.380 Um, if you, these people, choosing my words lightly, um, they show up to a meeting, they get paid like
00:16:05.260 300 bucks per pop. This is like the at issue panel on CBC. Right. But it's just like, you know,
00:16:13.020 I don't get paid unless I roll out of bed. You know, it's just gross. So Carson has done a huge deep
00:16:18.300 dive. Suffice to say tons of taxpayers money going out the door. He once described, um, apparently
00:16:25.980 one, I think it was, I can't remember if it was Richmond or if it was a provincial bureaucratic
00:16:31.580 department, they literally had a bucket of gift cards. Oh my God. Like to sports stores and the keg
00:16:40.620 and all these fancy places. And it's not these stores' fault. They've got nothing to do with them.
00:16:45.660 It's the government and the bureaucrats. They just handed out like candy. This is why you can't
00:16:51.500 afford things. So kudos to Carson. And if I might, I usually don't do this. Um,
00:16:58.860 Global BC has been listening very carefully. There's still a couple of real journalists in there
00:17:04.700 who are doing the who, what, where, when, why, how work. Um, so kudos to them too. They've been
00:17:11.580 picking up on all of Carson's work. They've been handing stuff back and forth, which is how
00:17:15.180 advocacy organizations do their best work. Um, anyway, kudos to Carson. Anybody go check out
00:17:20.860 that spending scandal. It, it'll shock you. And I'm literally going to just copy that kid's homework
00:17:26.540 because I heard, I heard that Calgary. Yeah. There's all sorts of funny business happening
00:17:33.340 right now. Like somebody just emailed me about it this morning. So I'm yeah. Edmonton has funny
00:17:39.980 business happening too. I've got a big story coming out. That's going to make everybody
00:17:43.980 very angry. Next time you're stranded in your neighborhood for three weeks because the city
00:17:50.060 can't clear the snow. Um, I'll tell you what they've been doing in the winter with your money.
00:17:55.260 She already told me, but I can't tell you what I'm super excited.
00:18:01.340 Yeah. Good stuff. Well, bad time you're tripping over a drug addict downtown. Remember what the
00:18:07.900 city's doing with your valuable money. Um, no, Chris, uh, budget day tomorrow in Alberta.
00:18:14.940 And I'm hoping for the best, but as always, as I am in politics, bracing for the worst,
00:18:20.620 what do you want to see? Okay. So I always try to say the nice things first. First off,
00:18:26.300 we are really happy with what premier Daniel Smith is doing. Okay. Like by country mile,
00:18:31.580 she's outshining the other provinces. That's really good. She delivered on a huge tax cut
00:18:36.620 last budget season. Okay. So a year ago, that's a really big deal. They have things like the taxpayer
00:18:42.940 protection act that's been changed now so that they cannot increase spending beyond the rate of
00:18:48.140 inflation plus population growth, like super important stuff. That's good. However,
00:18:55.820 they're still spending too much money. Yes. Like they're adding to the debt, like big time.
00:19:03.740 Right now. I know what people are saying of like, oh, well, the price of a barrel of oil isn't what we
00:19:08.380 need for our benchmark. And yeah, Ottawa sending way too many people here too fast. Like, yes, yes,
00:19:14.140 yes. Ottawa will always do stupid things. Right. We can control the other side of that though with
00:19:19.660 the spending. Yeah, that's right. So we have got to get this under control. I know premier Daniel
00:19:27.180 Smith loves the late former premier Ralph Klein with him holding that sign of paid in full above his head.
00:19:32.940 I know she wants to reach that promised land again. This is how it has to happen though. She has got to be
00:19:39.900 Dr. No. Yeah. She has got to grab the chainsaw or the big pieces, pairs of scissors and cut, 1.00
00:19:47.020 cut, cut. Fraser Institute did a good, really good job. They put out a piece in the fall and they said,
00:19:52.860 Sheila, if we reduce the size of our Alberta, Alberta government back down to pre 2020 levels.
00:20:00.300 So pre lockdown. Okay. Yeah, we would save billions of dollars per year. So she needs to do that. 1.00
00:20:08.860 Start up the chainsaw, cut it back down to like 2018, 2019 levels, because you don't need this much
00:20:13.500 government to, I say 2014 levels, because in 2015, the NDP ballooned the size of the public sector to
00:20:22.380 hide job losses. They added like 50,000 people to the government payroll to offset all the jobs that
00:20:31.420 were being lost in the oil and gas sector to skew their numbers. We need to go to 2014 because we've
00:20:40.060 been artificially inflated since at least then. Amazing. Okay. Well, let's go back there because
00:20:45.660 it would save so much money. So much money, premier. I know what you want to. Okay. Yes.
00:20:51.340 Like, here's your backup. Okay. We got the tanks rolling in. We got your backup. Um,
00:20:56.060 also stop all corporate welfare. Okay. Which costs us billions of dollars. Also stop handing out money
00:21:02.860 to NHL teams. Yeah. Like that's, that's millions of taxpayers dollars. Um, Edmonton Oilers and Calgary
00:21:09.020 Flames, they can pay for their own stuff. Like stop handing out that money. Now, the other, 0.62
00:21:14.060 do you have time to get into the art? Cause it's so dumb. Uh, I would love to, I just want to point
00:21:19.580 out that the more Danielle Smith does the hard things, the higher she gets up in the polls. 1.00
00:21:23.660 I know. Like, you know, if you got all your news from the mainstream media, you would think her
00:21:30.300 banning of explicit materials from elementary school libraries was wildly unpopular or the teacher's
00:21:36.860 strike dealing with the teacher's strike the way she did was wildly unpopular. But as it turns out,
00:21:42.460 she's up 13 points on the NDP, um, in recent polling and she like, that's headed upward. So do
00:21:49.660 the hard things and people will, uh, support you for doing them, but they want the hard things done.
00:21:54.940 We were so glad to see her stand up to the teacher's union. Um, it would have been the easiest
00:22:00.300 thing she could have done in the world is just, okay, that's fine. I'll be the nice person. Here's
00:22:06.380 2 billion more dollars handed to the teacher's union. Okay. I will point out real quick a,
00:22:14.140 the offer that they were offered, which they now have as their contract make Alberta teachers,
00:22:18.780 the highest paid teachers in all of Western Canada. Okay. On average, the classroom number
00:22:24.860 of days that are actually physically worked in classrooms for teachers, about 180, 185 days ish per
00:22:32.460 year. In case you're wondering the average working stiff, uh, about 240 days. Yeah. I wish not even
00:22:41.340 close. Um, and I know, right. And then, and I, sorry if you rewind to October, but it was so important
00:22:48.220 that she stood up like this. Yeah. I will also point out the Alberta teachers union didn't have
00:22:53.580 any strike funds to pay their teachers while they were on the ticket line. Right. That's super weird.
00:22:59.020 If I were a teacher and I've been paying my union dues for the last 10, 15 years, and I got nothing
00:23:04.460 during a strike that they wanted, I'd be super angry and I'd be asking some tough questions.
00:23:09.980 So it was really good for Daniel Smith to say, no, you're not getting an extra 2 billion on top of
00:23:16.700 all of this. This is more than fair. Take your contract. Um, so that was really important. She was
00:23:23.020 a very iron lady there. That was good. And it saved taxpayers $2 billion. Um, so, and yeah,
00:23:29.020 it turns these things turn into 80, 20 issues. They sure do. They sure do. It's amazing. Um,
00:23:35.580 and if I were, if I were a teacher right now, I'd be wondering why I was angry at the province,
00:23:41.020 um, for their, uh, you know, if you listen to the ATA, the province is mismanaging the budget when it comes
00:23:49.020 to education, but it's like, okay, but you guys kind of mismanaged the budget when it came to those
00:23:53.900 union dues, didn't you? Sure did. Maybe you guys aren't the experts on this. You think you are?
00:23:58.940 Sure did. And anyone, um, the budget is actually pretty readable. Like anybody, it's right there.
00:24:05.340 It's on open data. It's right there on all of the government websites. You can go back. Gosh,
00:24:10.140 I think I went back to like 1994 in one of my budget reports before every year. And you can see as a line
00:24:16.860 item, what we're paying for K to 12 education. It goes up like this. Yes. This whole, oh,
00:24:22.380 you've cut education spending. That is not true. Like it's just mathematically wrong. You can,
00:24:28.060 you can hate Daniel Smith. You can love Daniel Smith. You can love Naheed Nenshi. I don't care.
00:24:32.140 Okay. Like math is there and it is not being cut. So let's talk about real things here. Um,
00:24:39.500 this art thing, do you want me to mention this part? Please do. Okay. So people are going to say,
00:24:44.700 oh, well, this is little stuff. Um, I don't know. The way I was raised $5 million is not little stuff.
00:24:52.380 Okay. Yeah. This will surprise some people. The province of Alberta, you, the provincial taxpayer
00:24:59.900 spent more than $5 million in the last fiscal year on individuals, art projects, like people,
00:25:09.500 not a school, not an art gallery or some, you know, show choir. No, no. Like Jane Smith,
00:25:17.020 artist, artist, um, asks for money. I'm using that term really loosely. Um, and they get money.
00:25:26.140 Like, I'll give you an example. Um, there's a lady here in Lethbridge actually. Um, and it's just, 0.88
00:25:31.820 there's one example. There's tons of stupid examples. Uh, lady here in Lethbridge, 1.00
00:25:35.180 she got $15,000. She routinely gets $15,000 in these, in these provincial government grants.
00:25:42.620 Um, one time she flew overseas and videotaped herself flopping around on a lawn chair
00:25:49.820 for like eight minutes. Yeah. She was like, you know, took her Crocs off and like flopped around
00:25:56.380 and videotaped it. Um, if you want to call that art, like fill your boots.
00:26:01.020 I don't want to pay for it. Exactly. Don't make taxpayers pay for it. Start a GoFundMe,
00:26:06.140 get willing donations. Another time, same, same artist. Um, she flew overseas and she taped a big
00:26:13.500 piece of paper to a wall and then she hid behind it. Again, that was like 15 grand. So that's just,
00:26:21.180 so, and there's tons of examples like that. Tons and tons and tons. There's a lady that like 1.00
00:26:24.860 doodled on her hand with pen and thought, oh, that kind of looks like a map of Iraq.
00:26:30.140 And then she took a picture of it. I think that was $10,000. Are you, this is mental.
00:26:37.420 I know. So again, anyone can go look this stuff up, go to Alberta arts foundation,
00:26:44.700 grant recipients, click on it, download the data set, and then cross-reference, find something
00:26:49.900 like find a name, find a location, and then Google that person and see what art they produce. Okay.
00:26:55.660 The point here is, is that of course art is in the eye of the beholder, but taxpayers shouldn't be
00:27:01.100 paying for this. Right. Like go find willing donors, go find willing sponsors. And lastly,
00:27:09.500 even the group stuff. Okay. We're not just paying for, you know, Chinook high school to go do a
00:27:15.420 clarinet lesson. Like I think a lot of people understand to pay for that. Sure. I get it.
00:27:20.300 There's some art galleries, Sheila. It blew my mind. I found this one, um, that actually has a,
00:27:27.500 a window in the downtown Calgary transit way. That's right downtown there by the train.
00:27:32.860 And, uh, the gallery was putting up art in the window. Some of this art, it was takeout food
00:27:41.260 container garbage that was taped to old Christmas tinsel. And then they hanged it in the window.
00:27:48.300 I know I have pictures of it. What am I doing working for a living? I know.
00:27:53.420 What am I doing putting in an honest day's work when I could just go lay in a lawn chair overseas
00:28:02.540 and flop around? I know. Like not just that folks. I don't know if I'm allowed to say like,
00:28:08.060 you know, Sheila, like has her own like trailer. She brings to like Canadian war zones. Like she does 1.00
00:28:14.140 all the things like she, she eats beef jerky out of a cooler for like a week. 1.00
00:28:18.860 Like I want everybody to know when I go on missions and they're local, I bring my own trailer to make
00:28:25.260 sure that I keep the costs low because we're crowdfunded. That's out of my own pocket. I'm
00:28:30.060 cooking steaks out of my freezer that I bought from the boy who lives next door. She's bringing
00:28:35.500 her jar of pickles. I bring my own pickles that I made. I know I had, I still have it. I kept it.
00:28:41.580 I couldn't. And I am working for a living so that some lady can go overseas and lay out in a lawn 1.00
00:28:47.740 chair. And she's like, I'm art. I just can't believe it. Or hide behind a big piece of paper.
00:28:53.820 And again, um, I'm sorry for laughing. If you don't laugh, you'll cry. Plus we need to laugh at
00:28:59.020 them because we have to mock all these people because they think that they're landed dukes.
00:29:02.460 Um, so the one in the transit window, um, again, I'm not kidding. It was food containers.
00:29:08.860 So I've been saving all of the plastic trays and stuff from all of my grocery shops and everything.
00:29:14.540 And I've been washing them and I'm going to make art and, um, I'm going to tape tinsel to it.
00:29:19.980 We should have an art show and one of them will be a video of me doing my art. And that is hiding
00:29:27.180 in haunted houses and corn mazes during the spooky season to make them more exciting for the people
00:29:34.060 who come. It's a public service that I do for free. Um, but it's also my art form. And you know,
00:29:40.860 if a lady can hide behind a piece of paper, I can hide behind a fake coffin and jump out and we'll do 1.00
00:29:46.700 an art show. She sent me a video once guys, it actually terrified me because I didn't know what
00:29:53.740 I was looking at at first. Like it was just no movement. And all of a sudden this thing jumps out.
00:29:58.540 It was great. That was art. Good job, Sheila. It is art. You know what? Taxpayers didn't pay for it.
00:30:02.860 No, no, I actually paid to get in the corn maze and then I did the public service and
00:30:07.260 making it better for everybody. But it is my art. It is my art. Anywho, um, I was shocked to see
00:30:14.700 that Alberta, Alberta, we have to stop this madness. We have to, that was $5 million just for the
00:30:21.500 individuals. There was way more money spent when you add in the groups and stuff. So I know Premier
00:30:28.300 Smith, if she's watching this, she's probably pulling her hair out because she does not like
00:30:32.220 this nonsense. She doesn't like this kind of waste. She thinks it's silly. Um, a stop all the individual 0.82
00:30:38.220 funding. B go through that group funding with a fine tooth comb. For sure. Unless you are a bunch
00:30:43.980 of kids who are trying to go to the Calgary, you know, clarinet center. Yep. Don't pay for that stuff.
00:30:50.220 Yeah. Yeah. Just, I don't want to, I don't want to pay for somebody else's weird hobbies.
00:30:55.100 I'm already paying for my own weird hobbies. Chris, how do people find the good work that you
00:31:01.180 do over at the CTF? And it's not just you, it's Franco, it's Carson, it's, uh, Devin. You guys are
00:31:07.580 all just doing your best to hold the government to account on behalf of the little guy. Oh, thank you.
00:31:12.380 And, uh, Gage Halbrick, I have to, yes, for sure. Yeah. He's our prairie director and he has been
00:31:17.420 going after the gun grab, just tooth and nail crazy folks can go to taxpayer.com. Okay. Click
00:31:24.380 on the petition link. And then there's something there for everyone. Like if you want to defund the
00:31:29.820 CBC, if you want to defund the media, um, if you want to scrap all carbon taxes, if you want to get
00:31:36.540 rid of, uh, the ban on the sale of gas and diesel vehicles, cause it's still happening. It's just the
00:31:41.180 regulation. There's something there for everyone. Okay. Yeah. Stop government waste, stop governor,
00:31:45.740 general waste, something like that. Click on the petition, sign it. And then you're part of our
00:31:50.460 email group. Okay. And what's wonderful about it is a, it's a form of fellowship. So you don't feel
00:31:55.820 like you're alone anymore in this crazy world. And B when it's time to all gang tackle an issue at one
00:32:02.540 time, you'll be part of the taxpayer army. And so just go to taxpayer.com and sign up. It's free.
00:32:07.740 Yep. And if you want to thank a politician who's done the right thing, you'll find out about it there
00:32:14.300 too. You sure will. Yeah. Chris, thanks so much for coming on the show and making the time this
00:32:18.780 morning. And, uh, I know you got to get on the road up to Edmonton. It looks like the roads will
00:32:22.620 be nice today. It's nice weather for once, uh, drive carefully and hold that government to account for
00:32:28.700 us. Thanks, Sheila. Well, as always, the last portion of the show belongs to you,
00:32:40.300 our viewer, because without you, there's no rebel news. So I got to let you have your say. So you
00:32:44.620 can send me a letter to Sheila at rebel news.com, put gun show letters in the subject line. So I know
00:32:50.620 why you're emailing me, but also if you would be so kind as to do a thing that helps us out here at
00:32:56.220 rebel news interact with the clips of the show, you know, the free ones that you might find on
00:33:00.540 YouTube or rumble. If you leave a comment or if you share or like those, it helps the algorithm
00:33:07.020 serve us up in front of more people. And if more people see the clips of the show, then they join
00:33:11.660 our little gang here behind the paywall where you and I get to talk about things. So today's letter
00:33:18.380 comes to me by way of Terrence. He is a regular viewer of the show and frequently writes viewer feedback
00:33:24.860 to me, which I appreciate. And Terrence writes, Hi, Sheila. To begin with, let me say what a pleasure
00:33:30.780 it was to meet you at the independence tour in Red Deer and have you sign your latest book for me.
00:33:36.300 You've always been my favorite rebel reporter and your book is a first class publication. Well,
00:33:41.340 thank you so much. You can get my book at independenceblueprint.ca. And you can find out
00:33:49.980 about the next bit of our independence tour where I'm on the road with Tamara Leach and Corey Morgan
00:33:57.260 over at the Western Standard. And we're talking about Western independence. And for me, I'm talking
00:34:03.340 about the questions we need to have answered for the public based on the Quebec experience. Because,
00:34:12.140 you know, a lot of times Quebec and Alberta were seen as mortal enemies a little bit. We,
00:34:18.700 we pay, they take, but they came as close as anybody to ever leaving this country. And they stress tested
00:34:26.780 in a series of commissions what the people's concerns were and what would get them over to the yes side
00:34:36.540 from the no side. And so I got my hands on those commission documents, read them, wrote a book,
00:34:43.100 book, basically serving up the independence movement, the series of questions and concerns
00:34:48.860 that they really need to alleviate for the public to move from no to yes, in the referendum vote,
00:34:56.220 because I'm sure we will be going to referendum. And once the referendum question is approved,
00:35:04.460 after the petition signatures are counted, it sounds like we will be going to referendum in October.
00:35:11.820 So it's going to be a summer campaign of information. So that's what's coming next. So anyways, I was on a
00:35:20.380 tour stop, I met Terrence, which was a delight. Terrence says, why am I writing? I'm a 77 year old male Alberta
00:35:28.700 boomer who should be basking in my retirement years while contemplating my life well lived. Instead I wake up
00:35:34.220 most mornings with feelings of dread for my grandchildren's future in this country. Man,
00:35:39.980 our Alberta boomers are just better than those liberal voting Toronto ones. For sure. This results
00:35:47.100 from 11 years of dreadful liberal governments. For this, I blame my own generation, mainly my
00:35:53.100 counterparts in Eastern Canada. Me too, Terrence. How can they be so blind as to keep voting these
00:35:58.860 corrupt people into power? Could it be because they have watched the mainstream media all their lives and
00:36:03.660 didn't notice when they're unbiased and professional news correspondents degenerated into pathological
00:36:08.700 liars to please the governing liberals? For that oversight, they should be ashamed. And why did they
00:36:14.460 fall for this elbows up nonsense? It makes them look like idiots. When I was a kid, we had our own 0.93
00:36:19.020 version of elbows up. We would take the palm of one hand and fit it under the opposite armpit and then
00:36:24.700 flap that arm to make obnoxious noises. When I see those elbows up flapping their arms like chickens 0.98
00:36:31.180 with their heads off, it seems to me they're simply being doubly obnoxious just to be annoying.
00:36:38.140 What happened to their sense of dignity? And when they see Pierre Pauly of an honest and honorable
00:36:42.940 man with a beautiful wife and children and then compare him to devious Mark Carney,
00:36:49.500 then how can they possibly choose Carney to represent their country? I no longer feel any
00:36:55.180 allegiance to Canada or its flag with the maple leaf that grows poorly in Western Canada and with
00:37:02.300 those stark red colors symbolic of the Liberal Party. I do however feel proud of being an Albertan
00:37:07.900 along with our beautiful blue conservative flag. Alberta independence does give me hope though
00:37:15.580 and eases my mind considerably. I think my grandchildren have a hope for a decent and prosperous future
00:37:22.060 as long as they stay in a strong and free independent Alberta. Screw the rest, we'll keep the best.
00:37:28.540 Cheers, Sheila, Terence, and Lacombe.
00:37:33.420 A lot of people feel that way. I know a lot of people, young people, they don't see
00:37:41.980 that they will be able to rise to meet their potential in Confederation and I know a lot of
00:37:50.700 older people like yourself, Terence, in Alberta, they don't recognize Canada anymore and they don't
00:37:59.100 feel like bad Canadians when they say they want an independent Alberta because they feel like they are
00:38:04.140 preserving those values that they saw in Canada by voting for an independent Alberta. It's like the only way
00:38:15.500 to preserve what's left of Canada is to keep it inside of a free and independent Alberta.
00:38:22.540 All right. That's a great letter. On that wonderful note, let's close the show. Thanks everybody for
00:38:31.420 tuning in. I'll see you back here in the same time in the same place next week. And as always,
00:38:35.980 don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.
00:38:46.940 I'll see you back here in the same time.