William MacBeth from Save Calgary joins me to talk about the SNC-Lavalin scandal and whether or not the average voter really cares about the hard issues, about taxes, about debt, about unending corruption.
00:22:02.840You know, that is a great point. I saw it with my own eyes in Edmonton after I was removed from the liberal event for being nothing other than a
00:22:10.600conservative. He walked onto the media bus or the liberal bus, but I repeat myself, sat down, surrounded by
00:22:19.160reporters. Since when do reporters need a politician's permission to ask them questions? It's our duty to ask them
00:22:27.940questions, especially questions they don't want asked and questions they don't want to answer. I've seen, I don't know how
00:22:37.080many hours of footage of Justin Trudeau walking around, followed by reporters, and then the reporters
00:22:44.460complaining, well, he's not allowing us to ask questions. Give me a break. You're three feet from the
00:22:51.460man. Ask him a question. If he ignores you, he ignores you, but at least you tried. And then to see reporters
00:22:58.860complaining, I mean, it's just really quite appalling, especially when you, like you point out, contrast that
00:23:05.080with Andrew Scheer, what Andrew Scheer is doing, but also how the media is treating Andrew Scheer. I watched
00:23:11.140a CBC reporter chase Andrew Scheer through a parking lot and chase his car down as the car drove away
00:23:16.980because she wanted her questions answered. Why isn't anybody doing that to Justin Trudeau while he's
00:23:21.940buying fries for CBC reporters? Absolutely. You know, media outlets spend a ton of money to embed a
00:23:31.980reporter onto one of those campaigns. It's, you know, something in the order of $10,000 a week
00:23:38.200for a reporter for a major media outlet to be on the liberal plane or to be on the, on the conservative
00:23:43.720plane. So you would think with that kind of investment, reporters would be using every single
00:23:50.020opportunity they have to get questions answered. And I don't understand why we seem to be seeing one
00:23:58.080set of rules for Andrew Scheer and the conservative party and another set of rules for Justin Trudeau,
00:24:03.280you know, as prime minister, certainly during an election, they're both political party leaders,
00:24:07.860both wanting to lead our country. What is this clubby, oh, well, we can't ask questions because
00:24:13.640what? He won't give you your free poutine if, if you yell a question at him or, you know, he'll give
00:24:19.840you a worse seat on the plane that you've paid for to be there. Like what's the, what's the downside
00:24:25.280of asking him questions? You know, the prime minister will get mad at you. Okay. You'll live.
00:24:30.920It's time to be brave reporters of Canada and don't just put up with, well, we're not taking
00:24:35.580questions today. And certainly then don't cover the liberal photo ops. If they're not prepared to
00:24:41.660also take questions, because then that's just free media, free criticism, free media for the liberal
00:24:47.800party. Yeah. And last time I checked, Justin Trudeau already has a private photographer.
00:24:51.740Somebody whose sole job is devoted to taking glamour photos of Justin Trudeau. We don't need
00:24:58.240the entire media pool taking pictures of Justin Trudeau. I mean, and especially when the parliamentary
00:25:05.280press gallery will not accredit our journalists. And I suspect our journalists are probably the only
00:25:12.980one who would shout questions at Justin Trudeau over a plate of poutine. But they're controlling this
00:25:21.180exclusive access to Justin Trudeau and then refusing to do their job. It's very bizarre. And it's really
00:25:27.660quite shameless. You can see, you can see how they're treating Andrew Scheer versus how they're
00:25:33.960treating Justin Trudeau. And Justin Trudeau, he knows he's going to receive that sort of passive
00:25:40.320glowing treatment. I mean, he bought fries for a CBC reporter on camera and then said,
00:25:49.840we know the Liberal Party of Canada always takes care of CBC. I mean, the gall of saying that
00:25:55.920right in front of all those reporters knowing he really wouldn't get any criticism out of those
00:26:01.080reporters for saying something so, you know, inappropriate, but honest for once. It's really
00:26:08.860quite bizarre. And then we also saw Global News copyright struck that video of Justin Trudeau
00:26:17.660giving fries to a CBC reporter. Then they took it down. Then they re-put up a version of it,
00:26:26.640despite owning two versions of it. They re-put up another version of it that's less clear. And I
00:26:33.860think it's to obscure sort of the reactions of the reporters because the original version of that,
00:26:39.400you could see the reporters all there. You could see the reporter that Justin Trudeau gave the gift to,
00:26:45.900and you could see their like happy, jokey reaction. The new version doesn't show that. And I think
00:26:52.460it's really strange being someone who works for a media organization. If we owned two versions of
00:26:58.320the same video, we would absolutely put up the more clear one. And boy, it sure looks like there's a
00:27:04.280cabal at work here around Justin Trudeau. Reporters protecting journalists and reporters
00:27:11.320protecting Justin Trudeau's bad behavior. Yeah. And you know, this incident has been so
00:27:17.860interesting for, I mean, a few reasons. Well, first of all, we said, if you create a media fund,
00:27:24.840a $595 million media fund to give taxpayer dollars to media, you will influence the coverage of politics
00:27:33.600in this country. And in this case, I think you're absolutely right. And, you know, even if that
00:27:40.620wasn't their intent, that is certainly what has come to pass. And the second thing is, of course,
00:27:45.940is that it really hurts media's ability to say, look, we're doing our tough job, and we're trying
00:27:53.600to hold politicians to account when you see this. And this incident in particular has had several
00:27:59.260reporters. I saw one, I think, from the Globe and Mail today, retweet the CBC reporter in questions,
00:28:05.820tweets about the not asking questions. He was the one who got the routine handed to him by saying,
00:28:10.620well, how can you say this when Andrew Scheer is taking questions each and every day of this campaign
00:28:15.940and Justin Trudeau isn't? And I thought, well, that's interesting. You don't always see division
00:28:21.080in the ranks of media coverage. But I think it's because some media are starting to come to the
00:28:25.120conclusion that they're about to suffer irreparable and irreversible damage to their credibility
00:28:31.280because of how they cover an election in the face of all of this taxpayer money that is now going to
00:28:37.220their corporate owners. So maybe you'll start to see more media pushing back against the clubby
00:28:43.500Ottawa-based journalists who day-to-day cover the prime minister and national politics. But yeah,
00:28:51.060it was a very telling, telling incident, the poutine to the reporter from the prime minister and the
00:28:56.300comment that he made. Oh, it was so strange. Now, you did mention that there has been very little
00:29:01.780policy being announced from the Liberals. I can't really, there's really not much of anything except
00:29:08.520we're going to increase this amount of money that we're giving you. But Andrew Scheer has actually
00:29:13.420made some pretty tangible policy announcements that will put more money back in Canadians' pockets.
00:29:22.040The two children's tax credits that were cut by Trudeau, I embrace these tax credits coming back into
00:29:30.780my life. I've got some very active kids. They're always in something. And when Trudeau took those tax
00:29:38.340credits away, it really made a difference in my life and a lot of other middle-class families' lives.
00:29:43.480You know, it's interesting. The Conservative policy, you know, if you look what's been announced by the
00:29:50.700Liberals and you look what has been announced by the Conservatives, it's two very different ideas of
00:29:55.820what government can and should be in our lives. In the case of the Liberals, for example, the new
00:30:00.640250,000 daycare before and after school care spaces, well, only even their own math suggests that only about
00:30:09.440one out of every $3 of that program is going to go into the pockets of parents. The others are going
00:30:15.380to be consumed by the bureaucracy, by government, by unions, and by the government-approved
00:30:21.680childcare options that receive taxpayer funding. Where the Conservative approach has always been,
00:30:26.940look, we will give you back more of your own tax dollars so that you can spend them in ways that
00:30:34.280you see fit and best for your family. So in the case of the Child Fitness Tax Credit and the Child
00:30:39.500Arts Tax Credit, it's saying, look, we're not going to tell you what sports, you know, or what artistic
00:30:45.280pursuits are going to qualify. We're going to say it's a tax credit. You can enroll your kids and then get
00:30:51.080some money back from that cost on your taxes. And it doesn't require an army of government
00:30:56.040bureaucrats to administer a program like that. It's done automatically when you file your taxes
00:31:01.980by computers. So to me, I think it's a much better way of addressing the required, the flexibility
00:31:08.560that's needed for national programs. That's always been the biggest challenge of creating a national
00:31:12.880program is a voter living in rural Newfoundland is very different than a voter living in downtown
00:31:18.680Vancouver. And so how can you build a program that will possibly meet both of those needs if you're
00:31:23.740trying to do it from a central big government standpoint? And the other big program that I
00:31:28.220think is really great is the universal tax cuts that Andrew Scheer announced that would see the
00:31:34.800lowest income tax bracket reduced from 15 percent to 13.75 percent, a one and a quarter percent cut
00:31:42.100on that tax bracket. It is a real benefit to those earning the lowest amounts of money and to those
00:31:49.960families who are getting by, you know, paying their bills but are struggling to make ends meet. It will
00:31:55.900make a real difference. And it's a sharp contrast to the tax plan that the liberals introduced where
00:32:00.320the benefits disproportionately went to people earning more than $250,000 a year. So I think that's a great
00:32:07.620policy from Andrew Scheer. A couple of great policies have come out and it tells me they've really done
00:32:12.700their homework on this whole fight for the middle class, which I think is coming to define this
00:32:19.520election. You know, Andrew Scheer and the Conservatives with their slogan, it's time for you to get ahead.
00:32:23.480And the you in this case is hardworking everyday families who aren't politically well connected like
00:32:28.700the Irvings and like SNC-Lavalin and like Bombardier, who clearly are the first priority of the liberal
00:32:34.760government. Yeah, it's been really great to see a tax credit that provides you choice. And like you
00:32:42.740say, does recognize. It's so funny because the liberals talk about diversity, diversity, diversity
00:32:48.420is our strength. And yet they design these cookie cutter programs that are, you know, they don't address
00:32:55.300the fact that, you know, sometimes hockey is the only game in town out in the middle of nowhere. And,
00:33:02.320you know, hockey is very expensive. And if you want kids in rural Canada to have the same access and
00:33:10.460opportunities as kids, like you say, in downtown Vancouver, these sort of tax credits help, as
00:33:16.220opposed to these behemoth cookie cutter programs that the liberals have designed that, you know,
00:33:21.800everybody lives in a condo in downtown Montreal, and everybody goes to the daycare that's directly
00:33:26.760underneath their suite. It's, we live in a far different world. And the conservatives,
00:33:34.020they have tailored programs that are, have something for everybody, I guess.
00:33:40.400Yeah, no, it, you know, for people who do claim to celebrate diversity, their view of Canada is
00:33:45.920very monolithic. It's very urban. It's, it's very affluent. It's very much people who depend
00:33:54.440from when they wake up in the morning to when they go to bed at night on government and on government
00:33:59.260programs. And it doesn't recognize the fact that we are a big, diverse country, lots of different
00:34:04.700Canadians, lots of different circumstances, and lots of people who are struggling for one reason or
00:34:11.740another to make ends meet. And certainly, the tax credits and the tax cut proposed by the sheer
00:34:17.060campaign so far appear to be really hitting on that, let's make life more affordable for you and
00:34:22.560your family themes. Now, William, you've been super generous with your time today. You're here talking
00:34:29.360about the federal campaign, but your day job is in municipal politics as a municipal politics watchdog.
00:34:37.580I want to give you a chance to plug the work that you do at Save Calgary and let people know how they
00:34:42.880can support you. Well, thanks, Sheila. I did have to laugh. The mayor has made his demands of federal
00:34:49.060political party leaders, and this becomes a big surprise. He wants more money from other political
00:34:55.280parties. No, no. I know. What a shocking decision. What a surprise. So out of character.
00:35:00.960And, you know, frankly, anybody who's paid any attention to Canada's fiscal situation will know
00:35:06.200there just isn't money available to give to cities to fund whatever pet projects those cities
00:35:13.060are demanding for this week. Certainly, you know, with a deficit that's still in the double digits,
00:35:19.280and even under Andrew Scheer's, you know, the liberals describe it as austerity. Andrew Scheer's
00:35:25.860plan still takes five years to balance Canada's budget from all of this liberal misspending. So
00:35:31.480I did enjoy the optimism, though, or at least maybe the I don't care about the facts and reality
00:35:36.880attitude of the mayor. I'm just going to ask for more money. So Save Calgary, we've said,
00:35:40.740and we've made this pretty clear. We think Calgary has enough money. We think Calgary takes in from
00:35:45.640businesses, from homeowners, through all of the fees, taxes, surcharges, and levies that they put
00:35:51.100on to people. They have enough money to run the city. What they need to do is cut their spending,
00:35:56.000which I know is sacrilege in the world, in the world of municipal politics. But it's time to take
00:36:01.160a good hard look at how the city spends our money. So our website, savecalgary.com. You can follow
00:36:06.700us through our social media channels. We put out a nearly weekly newsletter, which talks about some
00:36:12.520of the issues happening in Calgary going on. And if you would like to come and check us out,
00:36:17.300we'd really love it. We'd love it if you followed our social media, sign up for our newsletter. And
00:36:20.720if you could, maybe after Andrew Scheer's universal tax cut, you could even afford to make a donation
00:36:25.360to save Calgary. Fantastic, William. Thanks for your expert analysis today. And thanks for all
00:36:32.600the work that you do for Calgary taxpayers. We'll check back in, I bet you, before the campaign is
00:36:38.140over, if you're willing. Absolutely. It's great to see you again, Sheila.
00:36:41.420Social media has really given humanity the ability to spread lies like never before. But it's also
00:37:00.120removed the mainstream media as the wall citizens have to climb over to get the honest truth. At the
00:37:07.200end of the day, no matter what the journalists who would allow themselves to be bought off for a plate
00:37:13.120of poutine would have you believe, or what the pro-censorship Liberal Party says, the job of
00:37:19.800deciphering what's BS and what's truth lies solely on the individual and never the state. Well, everybody,
00:37:28.280that's the show for tonight. Thank you so much for tuning in. I'll see everybody back here at the same
00:37:33.160time in the same place next week. And remember, don't take fries and gravy from charismatic gropers,
00:37:41.320and don't let the government tell you that you've had too much to think.