The Blueprint： NO to Liberal Tax Hikes
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Summary
Inflation is out of control, food prices are skyrocketing, and the cost of living is going up faster than ever before. In this episode, Tory MP Rosemary Falk and Tory MP Michael Barrett discuss what's going on and why we should be worried.
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 Caworthalikes Brock with new content
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for you every single Tuesday, 1.30 p.m. Eastern Time. We do appreciate you joining us here today
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and as always, if you can't listen to the program in its entirety, please download it,
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listen to it on platforms like CastBox, iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it, it is out there.
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And again, as the show progresses, please remember to like, comment, subscribe and share this program.
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We have two amazing guests here to talk about just inflation. The cost of everything is out of
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control. So we have a newcomer. We have Rosemary Falk from the beautiful riding of Battleford's
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Lloyd Minster in Saskatchewan and beside her, a friend of the show returning. We have Michael
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Barrett from Leeds, Grenville, Thousand Islands and Rideau Lakes. Thank you very much for coming
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on the show. Pleasure. Well, let's start with a topic I think everyone across the country is
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talking about. We have talked about it in previous shows. The cost of living is out of control. I got
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a list here. Fish up 10.4 percent. Butter, almost 17 percent. Eggs, 11 percent. This is unreal and it's
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not getting any better. No. And I've really tried to contextualize what it's looked like over the
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course of my life because I'm hearing from constituents that they've never experienced
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anything like this before. And when you look at the numbers with food inflation, so the price of
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food being up when you put together all those numbers, it's more than 10 percent, nearly 11 percent
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year over year food inflation. It hasn't been that high in my entire life. So over 40 years, Canadians
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haven't seen anything like this. And another shocking number is that 40 percent of Canadians,
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four in 10 Canadians, have had to make serious cutbacks on what they're able to afford. So
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when we have a situation where food banks can't keep up with the demand, when we have people who
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have to make tough choices about what they're able to put in their grocery cart, we haven't even got
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to the season where everyone's clicked on their furnace yet. I've got big concerns about the choices
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people are going to have to make about heating their homes or feeding their families. And a government
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that's, you know, frankly, preparing to raise taxes on Canadians instead of being laser focused on
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making life more affordable. Yeah, the carbon tax goes up. But again, look at the policies of this
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government, right? Let's short the energy supply in this country. Let's not help out the world that is
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in desperate need of Canadian energy. We have basically shut down any future development in this.
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Then they start musing about cutting back fertilizer use by farmers. So the price of groceries, as we just
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talked about, it's already going up. They're just going to skyrocket even more. It's like I keep
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saying they're doing it to you, not for you. Absolutely. But even food insecurity, that's a real
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issue, right? When we look at the cap on fertilizer use, I mean, we can talk about global food insecurity,
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but how about Canadian food insecurity? Because it's a shame that we really, we have everything in
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Canada. We are the breadbasket of the world. And it'll be a shame if we can't feed the people in
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our own country. Oh, absolutely. I think it's something that we should be proud of and ready
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to export. But yet we have a government that is continuing to put more red tape, more blockages
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in terms of productivity in place. But what I do like to see is the Jagmeet Singh in Parliament is
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really funny watching somebody who claims he's a socialist with the best suits on the best watches,
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he drives the best cars, right? Like socialism is for the people, not the socialist, right? He can
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have the best vacation homes, the best whatever. But it's the people who suffer with the effects of
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socialism. So when he supports things like more government spending, something that caused inflation
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in the first place with all this extra cash flying in the atmosphere, he's really not putting
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a damper on inflation. He's just trying to fight cancer with more cancer, right? Let's expand the
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tumor. Well, exactly. And well, in Rosemary's part of the country, people are being put out of work
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by the policies that the NDP is advocating for. So he, you know, he's quite comfortable with his
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job and, you know, with his bespoke suits and his Rolex watch. Meanwhile, he wants to shut down our oil
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and gas sector, which is, you know, I don't need to tell you, Rosemary, it's the, you know, the clean,
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it's the, it's the, it's the cleanest, most ethical energy in the world. And they're trying to scare
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that investment overseas so that we can prop up dictators instead of supporting, you know, Canadians
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who are, who are extracting that natural resource for us. And something I really get frustrated with
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is this do it, do as I say, not as I do. Right. And we see that all the time here. And it's so
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frustrating for me because the people that I represent in rural Canada, uh, they just want to
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work. They just want to work. They want to raise their family. Yeah. Just let them contribute to
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society. You know, it's, and it's funny, I talk about this a lot too, um, in regards to energy
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companies in my small communities, it's the energy companies that put money into the hockey rinks,
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put money into the local, local hospitals, whether it's, um, in Lloydminster, we had a
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helipad. Um, so now stars air ambulance can come to our community donated by community members and
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the local energy company. Like this is the things that they do for our communities. Um, it's not
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government and the people that I represent want government out of the way and less of it. I mean,
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what's super frustrating for me is, um, you know, this dental care plan that the NDP has forced
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the liberals to do, right. Um, they're in favor of big fat government, increased bureaucracy,
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increased red tape, making it more difficult for the people that don't have the resources or maybe
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the advocates to be able to sit on the phone line for hours. I mean, they can't even run a passport
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office. How are they going to run another program? It's not going to be efficiently or effectively.
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That's for sure. Well, that's another thing, right? Like they, they want to add more to the pile
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already. They're doing the things they have under their jurisdiction very poorly. You shouldn't
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have to wait and camp outside a passport office for days at a time just to get your passport or,
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or continually wait for your immigration file to be, to be processed. It is absolutely out of
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control. You need to focus on the core, core job of government. Yeah. And, and just get it done.
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I, I have, um, constituents who after, and this is, I mean, expected after restrictions, um, were being
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lifted, uh, almost everywhere. They are looking at booking a trip. They don't have passports and this
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would be their first time going on a trip. They applied in April. You know, want to know what they,
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my, my office was told? Well, tell them to book a trip so that they can get in the queue.
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That's not what your website says. Don't book a trip without a passport. Like it's so ineffective.
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It's just laughable. Yeah. For the longest time they said, get your passport first, then book.
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Says that on the website. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It shouldn't be a triage, uh, a triage passport
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system, a, you know, a government service by triage. And, you know, the, the dental checks that
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they're going to send out, um, are not a dental care program. Um, this is because it's provincial
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jurisdiction because 70% of Canadians already have, uh, dental care and, and because, um, you know,
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11 of 13 provinces and territories already have dental supports for low income children. So this
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is duplicating, um, what already exists, but it's also, uh, you know, inflationary in, in what they're
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putting, what they're putting on offer. So we have, we have the provinces and territories who've asked
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to meet with the prime minister for two years to talk about healthcare and, and the prime minister
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has refused, but the premiers have told him publicly that they don't want a dental care
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program. They need to sort out, uh, emergency rooms and physicians and, uh, you know, all kinds
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of care, access to care issues that, that they're dealing with. And he has ignored them and is
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instead, you know, uh, cutting checks to, you know, frankly, to, to prop up his, uh, his government
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and this coalition deal with the NDP, that's not putting Canadians first and it's driving
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inflation, driving up the cost of everything. Oh, I was just going to add. So even coming
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from rural Canada, I mean, we have our own issues with doctor shortages. I mean, when we look at the
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burnout, um, coming in this post COVID era on our healthcare system, I mean, the frontline workers,
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whether it's, um, therapists, nurses, doctors, I mean, they're just burnt out. And so it isn't,
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I believe, you know, and maybe not the most effective way that, um, the NDP could be bragging
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of, you know, the work that they're doing for Canadians. Well, if you look back one third of all
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spending, so about 150 billion was, was projects that had nothing to do with COVID, but couched in
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the language of COVID. This is something that they, they could have stopped spending or reduced
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spending on, but instead they had to give out all this extra money causing inflation, expanding
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the money supply, et cetera, et cetera. And now we're feeling these effects and now everyday
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Canadians just trying to get by is like you said, off the top are making serious and drastic choices
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to their budget in order to keep the lights on and keep food on the table. Right. And the paycheck
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tax that we're expecting on, on January 1st, where Canadians are going to take less home at a time
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when their paycheck already wasn't going as far because of inflation. Um, you know, they're going to
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get hit again with the carbon tax being tripled by this government. And so, uh, anyone who is not,
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uh, able to, uh, you know, take public transit or walk to do all of their, you know, daily activities,
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um, they're going to feel this in, in a big way. You know, people who live in rural Canada who don't
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have access to public transit, who need their vehicles to, to get to work, get to medical appointments,
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get to school, they're going to feel it, but it's also going to drive up the cost of, of everything
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from, you know, from farm to table, all prices are going to go up and it's going to
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punish people, frankly, for, um, you know, just living their lives in, in one of the world's
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coldest climates. Heating your home is not a behavior that needs to be discouraged. Canadians
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deserve better from, from government than what they're seeing from these liberals.
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Oh, absolutely. So the government has decided to come up with some, some temporary measures,
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some one-time payments with GST rebates, rent subsidies, just trying to help people. And there's,
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I don't think there's any disagreement that people need help. People need help. It's out of
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control. The issue I think we have with it as conservatives, we're, uh, you know, we're going
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to, to support it. But I think what we are trying to point out, yes, they need help. But at the end
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of the day, when the checks are gone, inflation is still there. You need the long term, you need to
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think the long game here. And what they should have been doing is listening about two years ago,
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when, when our leader was pointing out that inflation is not going to be temporary.
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Right. And, and so to be clear, we're going to, you know, we're going to support the, um, the Bill C-30,
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which is going to offer, um, a GST, increase to the GST rebate for, um, some, some low income earners. And,
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uh, that's not what we asked for, but, um, it's, uh, it's in the right vein of what the government could do. Uh, but,
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they need to address the root cause of the problem. And that's, um, their, their uncontrolled
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spending. Um, and, you know, they need to seriously entertain some, uh, practical solutions,
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you know, from the voice, uh, in Pierre Polyev, who said two years ago that there was going to be
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inflation. And the finance minister said, nope, there's going to be deflation. The Bank of Canada
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governor said, nope, we're expecting a period of deflation. Well, that didn't happen. So, um, a good
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indication, um, of, of sound financial advice has come from Pierre Polyev, and that's that,
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um, this government should, uh, not introduce any new spending unless they're prepared to find a
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dollar of savings. So, um, for every dollar they want to spend, find a dollar they're prepared to
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save. That is going to send the right message to Canadians that, that they're feeling their pain.
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They're prepared to make sacrifices too for their pet projects to, to prop up their coalition or their,
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their, you know, pork barrel politics for their, their own ridings. Um, but it's also going to help us
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address the root cause and mean that we need to send less stimulus checks because, uh, inflation
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will, will start to correct. One dollar in, one dollar out, I think is how most Canadian families
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run their budgets, run their households. And even small businesses. Yep. I think that's something too
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that's, um, being forgotten in the government rhetoric because even with those payroll taxes
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going up, we can't forget that small businesses will also have an increase. Absolutely. Right.
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They're going to be paying those EI premiums as well. And so if, if the government, uh, keeps
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increasing taxes as such, eventually these small businesses are going to have to let go
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of employees or close their doors. Right. Potentially stop any planned hirings. Exactly. And which is
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going to, I mean, affect the family, right? Yeah. Yeah. And the cascading effect on that. Yeah. Yeah.
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The good news. Arrive Can is going. My goodness. It's finally. Yeah. It's, it's great news. The
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government's policy has lagged the science for several months. They have kept up with the
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political science. They lagged the science, kept up with political science. And that's what they've
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been doing. And so canceling these measures at our borders, the, um, the mandatory use of
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Arrive Can, the proof of vaccination, quarantine, isolation requirements, as well as masking on
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planes and trains. This has been a long time coming and, um, they've, they've been unable to
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explain their rationale for keeping it in place, except that it's consistent with one thing. And
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that's that this government is intent on trying to divide and stigmatize Canadians instead of doing,
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um, what they should be focused on doing. And that's, um, helping Canadians, uh, you know,
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uh, frankly, put food on the table for their families and, uh, and to be able to heat their homes,
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get out of the way, let Canadians do what they do best. Um, and that, you know, Canadians are,
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are creators. We, we, we create jobs. We, uh, we innovate, but my goodness, this government has,
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uh, has an unbelievable ability to just, uh, gum up the works and get in the way. So,
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so it's, it's good news. The next step though, is that they frankly should, should refund anyone
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that they hit with their $6,200 fine for using this, this failed experiment of a, of a mandatory app
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and, um, you know, and, and make right for anyone that they've sent to collections and,
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and certainly cancel any that are, that are outstanding. So, um, still some more work to do there,
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but you know, it's, it's good news. It's on the right track, but so long and, and almost,
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I think many people realize that they weren't, again, doing it for you, for your protection.
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They were doing it to you, basically punishing those that did not vote for Justin Trudeau.
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That's right. That's basically what it was. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And, uh, and it seems to
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correspond with a very interesting milestone. Yes. When did the science change? The science seemed to
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change right around the time that, uh, that we elected our, our, our leader, uh, Pierre Polyev and,
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uh, and, and my goodness, they, they started to pay attention to the cost of living crisis that
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Canadians are facing and to their unscientific and unjustified border measures. So what,
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what a coincidence. So I think that's really great news and a good sign of things to come for,
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for Canada. So I'm, I'm, I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful too. We got to get out of here. We're out of time.
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As always, we give the guests the last word. Uh, you're new to the show, Rosemary, so we'll let
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Michael go first. How's that Michael or the floor is yours for closing comments? Well, I, it's,
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it's, um, like I said, I'm hopeful. I think that, you know, Canada's best days are ahead. And,
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and I believe that because, um, we have in his majesty's official opposition, Canada's conservatives
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are, uh, united in making life affordable for Canadians, holding this government to account
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and demonstrating to, to Canada that, uh, that we're ready, uh, to, to form government. And,
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you know, they'll, in, in, in conservatives, um, they're going to have a government that puts
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them first. So, so I'm hopeful. Rosemary is very well said, Michael. Uh, yes, it's almost like
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there's a new, um, and maybe it's with the new session also. Um, it's just so great to hear
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across the, across the aisle, um, from some of these liberals and NDP acknowledging, you know,
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some of the things that we've been saying, um, and that they're, they're hearing that. Yeah. It,
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the, the cost of living doesn't just stop around, you know, the rise of cost of living isn't just
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around my riding it's throughout Canada. Right. So, um, I'm excited to see what's to come here in the,
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in the next few, the next few months really. And, uh, I'm really excited to see the NDP become more
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and more irrelevant. Yeah. That might be the right word, you know, on that note, as I can say,
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um, in Saskatchewan, um, the NDP, the provincial NDP actually have, are talking about retracting
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their invite to the leader of the federal NDP because they think that they are hindering
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their electoral success in Saskatchewan. So it's quite interesting. Yep. Up and up.
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Absolutely. Rosemary Falk, member of parliament for Battleford's Lord Minster. Hope you enjoyed
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yourself on the show. Hope you'll be back again soon. Michael Barrett, of course,
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always welcome. Just like Rosemary is a good to have you back on from, uh, I gotta get this right.
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Leeds, Grenville, Thousand Island, and Rideau Lake. I had it right the first time. I appreciate you
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both being on the show and I appreciate your time. We do. Please like, comment, subscribe,
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share this program together. We can push back against that ever moving liberal agenda. And of
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course, if you have friends, tell them that they can download it on platforms like CastBox,
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iTunes, Google Play, Spotify, you name it. It is out there. We'll see you again next Tuesday,
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1.30 PM Eastern time with new content for you. Until then, remember,
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lower, low taxes, less government, more freedom. That's the blueprint.