Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canuck fans out there! In this episode of the Crusty Canuck Podcast, I talk about what I am thankful for, and why we should all be thankful that we live in a democracy.
00:00:33.900This is the Crusty Canuck Podcast. A Canadian veteran's point of view. On politics, social, economic issues, and life. Here's Crusty.
00:00:49.220Yes, good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Crusty Canuck here. Yes, this is brought to you by the fine people at Rampage Coffee Company,
00:00:59.000Canungold.com, and the fine producers at Produce for Heroes. Stick around for their messages later on in the show.
00:01:05.400Yes, as I said earlier, happy Thanksgiving out there. Happy Turkey Day. Gobble, gobble, gobble, whatever you like. Happy Canadian Thanksgiving.
00:01:14.140Now, to my American listeners out there, I know your Thanksgiving doesn't come until about 24th November, but nonetheless, have a beer, have a piece of poultry, and enjoy the show.
00:01:23.480So, anyhow, yes, what are we thankful for? Well, that's my topic today.
00:01:27.440I'm thankful for the fact that I was brought up in a democracy, that I was given options and opportunities well beyond my comprehension when I was a young boy, and more so now.
00:01:38.160So, regardless of what's going on with this whole pandemic thing, this environmental issue bullshit they keep talking about, and every day, you know, I'm watching the news.
00:01:48.800And regardless of how angry I get, regardless of how mad I get, and realize what we fought for is being compromised, I am still thankful that I live in a democracy.
00:01:58.600You know, knock on wood. Who knows? The way things are going now with restrictions and movements and everything thereof.
00:02:05.680Who knows what's in store for us? But, uh, let's take time and reflect on how thankful we are that some of us still have our health, we have our sanity, we have a place to call home, we have family and loved ones that love us, who guide us and help us out, and all the more reasons for us to help and guide others to the best of our fucking abilities.
00:02:28.120So, pardon my F-bomb there. I'm going to try to cut back the swearing as best I can, but then again, it's part of my fucking brand.
00:02:34.300So, that being said, this is what I'm thankful for. I'm thankful for being Canadian. I'm thankful for the fact that I served 20 years, that I've met some wonderful people.
00:02:44.520I'm thankful that I'm married to a wonderful lady. I'm thankful for the fact that I've had some great jobs, met some good people, that I still have a work ethic, that I've still got my head on straight as best as I can.
00:02:55.540I've had some issues to deal with over the past, uh, well, let's say 10 years, to say the least, but, uh, I was at, uh, dinner with friends of ours there last night, had a good talk, drank some wine, I know I said I cut back into drinking, but it was festive, so I had a few glasses of wine, shot the shit about life, politics, policies,
00:03:25.540time is tough for a lot of Canadians out there, and Americans, and, and some Brits, and French, and Germans, and, uh, a shout out to some of my Eastern European, and new Russian subscribers. Welcome!
00:03:36.680Welcome! Please feel free to comment, and all that good stuff, and if you all get a chance, please take a look at my new store. I'm with Customized Girl now, they seem to give me a better, uh, idea, and some more alternatives.
00:03:50.860Feedback from them was phenomenal, so I'll give it a shout out. I'll leave a link in my description.
00:03:56.100But, uh, I want to discuss the environment, too. Now, Mr. John Wilkinson, the new environment minister, came on the television there last week discussing the whole ban of single-use plastics.
00:04:07.200You know, little forks, little spoons, little stir sticks, you know, little plastic bags we get from the shops and grocery stores alike, and how they want to phase them out by the end of 2021.
00:04:18.800Now, I remember as a teenager, back in the day, late 80s, early 90s, when everybody was discussing the whole environmental issue when it came to plastics and plastic-based materials,
00:04:30.960and yet, when this pandemic came into effect, you would see the market for single-use plastics just kind of skyrocket, because it goes into the masks, it goes into tubing, it goes into gloves,
00:04:44.240it goes into everything that we take for granted when it comes to our medicine, and when it comes to getting checked out.
00:04:51.360Now, when I was working as a security guard, I had to have a pair of latex gloves on me, just in case, along with my cuffs and my other tools and all that good stuff.
00:05:00.580And plastic, especially single-use plastic, is all around us every fucking day.
00:05:06.180Now, I'll leave a link to the little speech that Mr. Wilkinson said in regards to banning the single-use plastic,
00:05:15.240and it was like watching one of my old English teachers trying to explain Shakespeare to me in a total monotone voice like this.
00:06:53.520Is he basing it on actual scientific data?
00:06:56.020Yeah, there's a lot of plastic in our riverways and our oceans.
00:06:59.880But Canada does not sit high on the level of big polluters.
00:07:04.080We don't do it for the whole carbon emission.
00:07:06.760And we sure as hell don't do it when it comes to our oceans and our rivers.
00:07:10.060Now, we are bad for the fact that there are people out there that insist on dumping raw sewage in our waterways.
00:07:16.020And you've heard me ramble on about that enough times.
00:07:18.020But in the same sense, which is more lethal?
00:07:24.360Dumping a biohazard into a waterway or coming across a handful of forks and a few plastic bags?
00:07:30.880Now, when I was overseas, okay, back in the day when I was overseas, when I was on tour, there's a lot of places I saw in Afghanistan that were just filthy.
00:07:41.800Now, I'm not disenfranchising the Afghan people, but the infrastructure needs works and all that.
00:07:47.380And, you know, that's what happens when you're in a country that's seen nothing but war for the past 45 years.
00:07:54.320But every river we saw, every waterway, you would see a couple of kids playing in the water.
00:07:59.940You'd see somebody doing the laundry and then someone taking a dump.
00:08:02.420And then you'd see a pile of plastic everywhere.
00:08:04.320Water bottles, freaking plastic bags, toys, items of no particular importance, but just pile upon pile upon pile.
00:08:13.240And yet, when I hear these ministers talk about, oh, we're so terrible when it comes to polluting, so terrible when it comes to the environment.
00:08:21.180And yet, what viable solution, I say again, what viable solution have they brought to the table other than incorporating another tax and banning something?
00:08:31.400Now, there's a young man from Holland called Boyan Slat, who basically invented a system that would assist in cleaning up the oceans without costing people or nickel and diming people left and right in regards to saving the world.
00:08:46.300And I'll leave a link to his work there, too.
00:08:48.740And what I read about him, innovation, simple innovation.
00:08:54.320And he took it upon himself to innovate and create something that will assist without screwing people over or taking more of their money.
00:09:09.580To everybody that's out of work on the East Coast and West Coast, especially in the waterways when it comes to fishing and other resources,
00:09:15.680is there not a way you can formulate a plan to put these people back to work in regards to cleaning up the ocean?
00:09:20.360Is there not a plan that can be done saying, okay, well, we can't fish anymore, but here, let's innovate something.
00:09:28.240Let's create something that's going to help you go back to sea again, run a crew, run a few people, and haul in some tonnage, haul in some plastic.
00:09:37.700If that's the model that we're being presented.
00:09:41.260Because the last time I was on the East Coast, I didn't see abundance of plastic all over the beaches.
00:09:46.000I did not see waste upon waste littered on the beaches.
00:09:53.000I saw a lot of rocks, a lot of sand, smell of the salt air, you know, the odd emission smell from other plants,
00:10:01.100but not to a point where I wanted to puke or I was devastated.
00:10:06.100Things are pretty serene and beautiful and honorable and nature's finest.
00:10:10.120And yet, we are constantly being handed this narrative.
00:10:14.940Oh, we have to hurry up and clean this up.
00:10:29.340There's a tweet I'm going to add to this, too, where she was bragging about having a solar panel and none of it to help a community freeze her out.
00:10:36.360Now, I don't know about you, but I'm pretty sure the sun only shines in none of it, what, five months out of the year?
00:11:16.760And I'll leave links in the description there, too.
00:11:18.300And if you, ladies and gentlemen, if you do feel like donating, please consider donating a $5 to $10 a month donation to any of my pay sites.
00:11:26.360And if you do donate a consisted or a committed $5 to $10 donation a month, you can get yourself a free t-shirt for my new Teespring line and my new customized grill line of your choice.
00:11:37.780So just let me know via email or through comments here on Tube, on YouTube, and on Podbean, respectively.
00:11:44.240But still, folks, regardless of how many people celebrated Thanksgiving this past weekend, let's be thankful that there's still some sanity out there in the works where we have people, independent media folk, other people online, and myself, trying to find viable solutions and to encourage and incorporate some sanity in this mess.
00:12:11.120Anyhow, here's a word from my sponsors.
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00:13:28.140In October of 2015, Lindsay Robbins, like many of her fellow Canadians, was struggling with the turmoil of mental illness.
00:13:38.280The ups and downs of what she was going through was shaping her realities, and she longed for structure.
00:13:43.820As luck would have it, that structure presented itself to her in the form of gardening.
00:13:48.300And through gardening, Lindsay had an awakening that led her to create Produce for Heroes.
00:13:54.920Lindsay realized that our veterans were going through their own mental struggles, and through her own experience, she realized the power of community.
00:14:03.240By desiring to help the way that she had been helped, she has created a program that provides relief to veterans.
00:14:08.440Her food program, which aims to provide veterans and their families relief from the stresses of food insecurity,
00:14:14.540and help alleviate the cost of living for those that have sacrificed so much for their country.
00:14:19.980Whether it's through directly contacting Produce for Heroes, or through a friend's referral,
00:14:24.780all veterans and their families living in Canada are welcome.
00:14:28.800By shining a light on the struggle of veterans and their families, Lindsay is hoping to get her fellow Canadians to hop on board
00:14:34.360and support Produce for Heroes and our great veterans.
00:14:37.360If you or a veteran you know needs help, ProduceforHeroes.com is a great place to start.
00:20:42.460But every one of these clowns, especially in the Liberal Party, have turned around and presented monotone ethics, condescending remarks, and just...
00:21:16.140They talk about defending community democracy.
00:21:18.280And yet they're the first ones to shun anyone who disagrees with them.
00:21:21.360And some of these premieres out there with these ridiculous lockdowns and some of these mayors with their fucking overnight sensation ideas are full of it.
00:27:32.880And I know it insulted a lot of intelligence out there.
00:27:35.840Especially with my American friends when it came to watching it.
00:27:38.280A few of them weighed in recently and they told me how it was much of a waste of time to sit and watch this garble-farb and this garble-garble over this and gender and identity when there's more things to worry about out there.