Canada’s Affordability Crisis
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Summary
On this episode of The Blueprints, Conservative MP Brad Redekop joins us to talk about the ongoing affordability crisis in Canada, and why we need to elect a Prime Minister who can fix it. We also discuss the impact of the carbon tax and the proposed carbon tax on small businesses.
Transcript
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Hello and welcome once again to The Blueprints. This is Canada's Conservative Podcast. I'm your
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host, Jamie Schmael, Member of Parliament for Halliburton, Cawortha-Legues Brock, with new
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content for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. We ask that you like, comment,
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subscribe, and share this program. There are ears that need to hear this message, probably not
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being heard in the mainstream media, to ensure that Pierre Paulyov is the next Prime Minister
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of Canada. On today's show, we are going to talk about the affordability crisis that is being made
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worse by this Liberal government, and to talk about that, we bring on Brad Redekop, the Member of
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Parliament for Saskatoon West. Thanks for joining us. Great to be here, Jamie. Happy Vimy Day, by the
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way. I guess when we say happy Vimy Day, as we recognize Canada coming together, the 107th
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anniversary of that very famous battle, where Canada came together as one and overtook that
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German trenches that were immovable by other Allied forces. Yeah, we don't have many of those veterans
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left with us anymore, and it's getting, the ranks are getting smaller at Remembrance Day ceremonies,
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but it's still, it was an amazing time for Canada, a great time to come together, you know, in what was
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a very horrific situation. Absolutely, absolutely. So we say thank you for those who have served in our
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armed forces, in present, in past, in combat or in peacetime, home or abroad, we thank you all for
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your service. The affordability crisis, gone off the charts. Canadians everywhere, struggling food
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bank usage is up to record levels we've never seen before. The Prime Minister doesn't seem to care,
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but I think he's more in crisis mode right now, right? Like you see a bunch of announcements,
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and it's been a long time since I've seen so many pre-budget announcements on the budget,
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which is usually top secret, right? Like, you were always threatened, like, you will lose your
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post or you will be in trouble if you let anything slide. Right now, they are throwing it all on the
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table. Hopefully something sticks. Exactly. You used to get in big, big trouble if you leaked any
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little smidgen of information about the budget, but this time, it's a free-for-all. Everything's
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out there. I'm not sure we're going to see anything new on Budget Day except for the total bill for all
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this, because this has been billions of dollars that they've announced over the last week,
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week and a half, and I can't imagine where the money's coming from for this.
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Well, I think they're just indebting future generations now at this point. We're pretty
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much at the point, very close, that we're going to be spending more on interest to servicing the
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debt than we are in transfers to the provinces for health care. Exactly. And, I mean, Trudeau has
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doubled the accumulated deficit of our country to $1.2 trillion, which, as you say, has driven up
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the cost of interest to an incredibly high amount. And interest is a thing we can't change. I mean,
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we have to pay that interest. It's not something that we can say, well, we'll pay less. It doesn't work
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that way. We have to pay that. And it's not just us, but it's going to be our children and our
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grandchildren who are going to be obligated to continue paying interest on this debt that's
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been accumulated. And when we talk about in the business atmosphere, we had the carbon tax go
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up on April 1st. Not an April Fool's joke, unfortunately. You're a business guy. Small
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businesses are getting hammered every which way from this Liberal government. Big ones, big corporations
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can sometimes adjust through automation or other means, other measures that they have at their
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disposal. It's the small businesses that are just getting hammered. And in small towns like mine,
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it runs on small businesses, and they're having a harder time getting going, which means less
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employment, less opportunity. Yeah, that's very true. And, you know, it can be thousands of dollars
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to a small business. Now, that may not seem like much. You know, everybody says businesses are,
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you know, business owners are rich. At least that's what Trudeau seems to think,
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that they have lots of money to kick around. That's not true. And it is the small businesses
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that really drive employment and jobs in our country. And so you tack on, you know, $1,000,
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$5,000, $10,000 or more in carbon taxes, it hurts those businesses, and it causes them to make
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different decisions on hiring. They can't pay the wages that they'd like to. And guess who pays it
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in the end? All consumers, right? It doesn't matter. At the end of the day, all of those expenses are paid
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by the consumers who buy those products, whatever they are, whether they're, you know, a car wash,
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or whether you're buying food in a grocery store, whatever it is, the consumers end up paying more.
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Yeah, and the small businesses are fighting against big corporations like the Costco's and
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otherwise that have tremendous buying power, and may be able to up their price here and there,
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but ultimately save somewhere else. Like we talked about now, we have, you know, self-service checkouts
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in pretty much every large business. But the small business doesn't have the infrastructure,
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doesn't have the capacity or the investment dollars to do that. And they can only put up their price
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so much before they're out of business and uncompetitive. Well, it's very true. And another
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way they do this, Jamie, is they'll actually squeeze their suppliers, who are often small
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businesses. So if you've got a big corporation that's squeezing its suppliers to keep their
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prices low, well, who pays for that? It's the small businesses that eventually they can't make it
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anymore and they go out of business. So we really, anything that we can do to help business in our
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country, particularly small business, is just good for the country. And the taxes and the carbon tax
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that Justin Trudeau's introduced is the opposite of good. And we've seen emissions go up under this
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Liberal government. But at the same time, we have, you know, tremendous forests, farmland that like
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to absorb, right? And we don't actually talk about them as much as we should. But I think,
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unfortunately, or fortunately, I'm not sure for Canadians, the Prime Minister said the quiet part
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out loud at a recent event in Calgary. So let's get super producer Nick to cue up cut one. Let's
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get your thoughts on this one. Let's play cut one. Sure.
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I think the federal government's role is in part to encourage people and incentivize people
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to think about the future. And yes, make it more expensive for people who don't want to think
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if you don't want to prepare for the future. So you need to think the way we think. And you
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might be rewarded for that, probably because you gave up your car or something otherwise.
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And if you don't, we'll just keep punishing you until you submit.
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Well, one thing he's very good at is making it more expensive for everybody. And he just
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just admitted that. And I think, yeah, he said the quiet part out loud there. I mean, how can
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you have as your goal to make it more expensive for your countrymen, for your constituents,
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for their lives? That seems like a ludicrous thing.
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Well, I think governments in general should, one of their first priorities should be to maximize
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your freedoms, the individual's freedoms, not try to control your constituents through the tax code.
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Exactly. And it's a problem this government, this liberal government has, which is they
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see a problem and then they like to identify a solution. And if you don't follow that solution,
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And so it's a way of picking winners and losers. And they've done this recently in housing,
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where they have said to, you know, clearly we need more housing in Canada. We have
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too many people trying to find housing and there's not enough supply. So what does that do? It drives
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up pricing. So clearly we need more supply in this country. So the government of the Trudeau
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government has decided we need to build more fourplexes. So they're trying to force Ontario
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to build fourplexes. This is typical. They want, they have their solution. They're trying to impose
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their solution rather than letting people figure it out. You know, Ontario can figure out how to build
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more houses. They don't have to be told how. And that's the problem with the government is they
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like to tell you exactly how to do it and what to do. And that takes away freedom.
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And we've said this many times, leadership is about avoiding the problem altogether,
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not trying to fix the problem that you created in the first place. Like why? Let's avoid all the
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pain and punishment that citizens have to go through. Let's avoid it.
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Yeah. And that's the crazy thing too, is, is, you know, they're coming out with solutions to
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problems that they created. That's right. And they don't, they don't even admit that they've created the
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problems, but you know, so how can you trust them to have a solution to a problem they created in
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the first place? Yeah, exactly. Yeah. Trust us. We'll get you through this problem, right? Like
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we'll figure it out because we're just super smart. Well, and of course, what's the solution? Yet
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another program. Another government, the answer to one failed government program is another government
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program. Exactly. Yeah. And I mean, we have very smart people in our country. We've got incredible
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entrepreneurs. We've got incredibly creative engineers, designers. We can figure things out if we let
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people do it rather than telling them how to do it. And we give them the tools, give them the
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environment, give them the opportunity, you know, good, low taxes, an environment where people can
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excel and use the creativity that they have. Canada can be a world leader in anything.
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But we're not, we're not actually incentivizing those to create the next best thing or go into
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business or start a business for crying out loud. We're doing the opposite. We're making it difficult
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to do that. We're making it difficult for country companies to invest in our country. We're making it
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difficult for small entrepreneurs to be willing to take risks. I mean, if you're going to take a
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risk as an entrepreneur, there has to be some sort of a payback, an opportunity for a payback.
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Risk reward. And, you know, sometimes you make money on a risk and sometimes you lose money. But as long
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as you have the ability to make money or to be successful, that people will take those risks. But
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this government has taken away a lot of the opportunities to be successful. And so large companies,
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large and small, are choosing to invest elsewhere. That's right. Investing elsewhere. And when you look at the
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traditional staples, the anchors of our economy, oil and gas, mining, forestry, those type of
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industries that have been tried, tested and true up until eight years ago, people had a wide variety
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of places to put their money. Now there's very few. And one of the places that seems to be having this
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major turnaround because of the conditions created by this government is real estate. So we have a housing
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shortage. We have people that can't get into the housing market. We have housing being built,
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but people can't get into it. This is a compounding problem that this government has no clue how to fix.
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Well, and the ironic part of this is that we are building fewer houses today than we were in the
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early 70s. And our population is twice what it was back then. So clearly the policies and the
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situation that the Liberals have created here is not helping. And it's actually making it way worse
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for people right now in terms of housing. Well, according to the Prime Minister, we'll queue up cut
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two here. The Prime Minister says if you have a big house, you deserve to pay more. And otherwise,
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let's see. Let's play cut two. Yes, if you have a giant mansion and an indoor swimming pool
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and three big personal cars, it might not cover all of that. But for regular families that are
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hardworking, it puts more money in their pockets. The Parliamentary Budget Officer says that's
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completely false. That's not true at all. We know that for sure because of his report. And you hear
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that anecdotally as you talk to people as well. And we're not talking about people with swimming
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pools. We're talking about average, everyday working people who have two cars. I mean, Saskatchewan,
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you have to drive. There's no option. And so we have to heat our homes in the wintertime. It gets
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cold in Saskatchewan. We have to drive long distances. We have no option. There is no option other than
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what we are doing now with fuels. And so we pay a lot of carbon tax and we definitely do not get back
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what we pay. Oh, I think that's clear anywhere you go in this country. If that were true, let's raise
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the carbon tax. Let's keep going. The way to wealth is more tax. Yeah, exactly. $100 a ton if you get more
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in rebates, which I don't know how any government program works like that. It doesn't. But if that's
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true, let's raise it. Let's keep... In liberal fairyland, money grows on liberal trees, I guess. I don't know.
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I don't understand their logic. But other than the ultimate goal of this elite class in our
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government that believes that if the government isn't, and he said it in his first clip, telling
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the masses how to live, then they must be doing it wrong. And if you don't agree with us,
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you're definitely doing it wrong. Well, I think that's one of the foundations of this liberal
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government is control and lack of freedom. They want to control how we live as Canadians.
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They want to control what we do, how we heat our homes, how we drive the choices that we
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make. And that's their goal. And we need to get... We need to move back to freedom. We
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need less government. We need less government intrusions in our lives. We need... We all
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know government is not efficient. And that's no knock against the people that work in government.
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But it's just a... It's a large organization that's difficult to get things done in an efficient
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way. And we need less of that. You know, only where it's absolutely necessary. And let our markets
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take care of things. Canadians are smart. As I said before, Canadians are smart. They're
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very creative and can solve the most complex problems. The freer the market, the freer the
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people, the more money people have in their pockets to choose whatever they want to chart
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their own course, the better we are. We have better products, better service, better price.
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And the more the government comes into industries and starts to subsidize it or monopolize it, the
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worse things get. You can name pretty much everything the government has tried to do that with.
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Well, when the government stays out and lets markets take care of things, it is a win-win.
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Because it's a win for the country. You get solutions and products people want. And the
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people that design and make those products, they create jobs, they create wealth for themselves
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and they create wealth for our country. They create taxes that go back to the government.
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So it's a win-win when you allow freedom to do it.
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Exactly. But if you're doing all that, exactly what you just said, you don't need the government
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Right? I think this is why people who are able to experience freedom, wherever that
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might be, and yes, it's getting harder and harder in this country, but once you're able
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to realize that the government, you don't need the government to control your life to be able
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to live your life. And once you realize that, the less you need government. And that, I think,
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scares some of those in the big government thought.
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Exactly. Because who does that threaten? Well, that threatens those in government.
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And so, I mean, our principle, and I know our leader, Pierre Polia's principle, is less
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government. You know, government needs to do the bare minimum that it needs to do. It
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needs to do the things that only the federal government can do. And the rest of it, stay
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out. Let other levels of government do it, if that's their responsibility, or let business
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do it. Let individuals do it. Let NGOs do it. Let churches do it. Let charities do it.
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All of these organizations exist. They want to help. They want to do things. Free them up
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And when the government starts taking over those sectors, because either squeezing them
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out through tax means or regulation, government has to pick it up because there's no one else
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to do it. And they will always do a worse job than the other sectors. Because it's more flexible
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And they also then, by doing that, discourage the next one from doing it. So if the government
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takes over this responsibility, well, then anyone who is thinking about doing that will say,
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well, I guess it's not my job, it's the government's job.
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Well, you can't compete against the government.
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No. And then pretty soon, the government's doing everything and nobody's doing anything
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because, you know, and that's no good for anybody.
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I don't think so because you're not innovating. You're not living a free and, I think, a very
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productive life when you're being told what song you're going to listen to, what you're
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going to see on the internet. Exactly. Where are you going to drive? Where are you going
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Well, and that's socialism, right? And we know that socialism hasn't worked anywhere in the world
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It's not the right, you're always told it's not the right kind of socialism, apparently.
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Yeah. But overall, I think this government's, I think we will have a carbon tax election
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as much as Justin Trudeau tries to dodge question period. You know, first day back after a two-week
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constituency break and he's nowhere to be found, but he's up on the roof watching the eclipse.
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He had time to show up for that, but not question period.
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Yeah. And, you know, everywhere I go, everybody I talk to, they're talking about affordability,
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can't afford rent, can't afford groceries, can't afford to live. They're talking about
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trying to find accommodations for themselves. You know, housing costs are up, rental costs
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are up, and there's just no availability. And they're talking about crime. Crime is the
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other thing that everybody's talking about. These are problems that are prevalent. They are
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problems that are in many ways caused by the current Liberal government and problems that
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Absolutely. And if we keep the revolving door justice system going, we're going to have
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an increased number of victims to these crimes, and we're going to have more problems within
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Yeah. Brad, as you know, the guests always get the last word, so the floor is yours.
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Well, you know, as you said, we are going to have a carbon tax election. It's coming whether
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Prime Minister Trudeau wants it or not, and hopefully sooner rather than later, according to many
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constituents that I talk to. So we're looking forward to that. We're looking for our chance to
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do that, and we're looking for a chance for Canadians to have their say in whether we should
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have a carbon tax or not. So it'll be exciting.
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I think it definitely will. And I think judging by the reaction that we had on the weekend,
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we had a national day of knocking, there was pretty significant pushback against the carbon
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Yeah, I think I know which way this is going to go.
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Yeah, I think so too. Thank you, Brad. Brad Redekop, Member of Parliament for Saskatoon
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West. We appreciate his time. We appreciate yours as well. Don't forget to like, comment,
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subscribe, and share this program. Tell your friends they can download it on platforms like iTunes,
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Google Play, Spotify, and CastBox. You name it, it is out there. Remembering Vimy Ridge today,
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the battle of that infamous battle where we all came together as Canadians and fought as
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one the 107th anniversary of that battle. Until next week, remember, low taxes, less government,