True Patriot Love - Crime, taxes, housing and public safety are colliding with BC election

00:00:00.000 look at us it's election season you don't very often get to say that although more and more every

00:00:11.040 four years we find ourselves in a scenario where a lot of the country is headed out to take a look

00:00:16.580 municipally at what they're what they're doing uh with their politicians and this is the season for

00:00:22.320 it paul yeah it is you got uh five regions of canada going through elections and we got of

00:00:28.660 course vancouver and northwest territories coming up mike so vancouver is of course one of the uh

00:00:35.120 one of the most interesting markets right now in this country to live in one of the oh yeah

00:00:41.300 wildest cities to have an election and at the moment they've got the premier out there for a

00:00:45.560 snap election they've got the municipal elections underway what does it feel like out there do you

00:00:51.500 think to voters at the moment and who do we have in the race what do you think is going to happen

00:00:56.200 well ken sim so i i followed him he's the mayor he won in 2022 he won with 51 percent okay so he

00:01:04.820 did pretty good uh for his abc party i always love that the abc you know party but never makes

00:01:11.860 sense to me but that's fine four years later he has seven you're gonna hate my new party one two

00:01:16.820 three yeah yeah exactly you might lose to one two three he has seven challengers two are sitting

00:01:22.200 counselors pete fry of the greens and rebecca bligh who was removed from the abc so it's a

00:01:28.440 it's a little controversial um and a third kareem alam is sim's former chief of staff you know one

00:01:37.320 thing about vancouver it's never boring no that is true now no already i heard i heard two uh little

00:01:45.000 bits of tea if you will uh in that he's got somebody two people running against him that

00:01:50.920 worked with him yeah wow yeah that's a tough that's a tough election to run in i know it is and

00:01:58.360 you know uh so the the ballot also carries 790 million in capital boring questions and two

00:02:06.440 non-binding public safety questions that abc put forward so again west coast ballots always have

00:02:14.120 questions on um you know spending they have questions on service and all that stuff so

00:02:21.800 you know there's a big of course you know security safety uh care beds all issues that

00:02:30.760 have come to light um and you know zero tax percent increase promises those are all things

00:02:37.480 being thrown on the table in vancouver but with all the challenges in on the west coast and you

00:02:43.720 you know not in not in vancouver but yesterday you know one of the ufc fighters i don't know if

00:02:49.360 you saw strickland yeah you know he was he's actually did a did a uh social media post of

00:02:56.360 him walking by a dead body on the way to the gym yeah i was like wow what's going on it's just like

00:03:01.580 whether it be vancouver or whether it be in edmonton i think there's it seems a lot there

00:03:05.920 are major major challenges vancouver has a really interesting scenario in the sense that

00:03:13.380 It has this liberal outreaching attitude historically at a provincial level.

00:03:20.700 It has it at an even more focused version of that at the city level.

00:03:26.280 Meanwhile, if I may be honest, parts of Vancouver are what are affectionately known as dumpster fires at the moment.

00:03:34.680 Yeah, because you're in this in between phase, Paul, of what to do legally now that, you know, the legalization of drugs on the streets probably going to change.

00:03:47.660 But Vancouver rights have a lot to think about in this election.

00:03:52.800 How are they going to make serious change in this city?

00:03:55.440 A very quick favor before we continue. A large percentage of you who watch or listen to TPL Media every week aren't subscribed yet. Our simple commitment to you is that if you find value there, if these discussions make you think, if you want our uncensored debates, deeper dives, and extended sit-downs, head over to tplmedia.ca and subscribe there directly. It takes just five seconds, costs nothing, keeps you informed.

00:04:23.960 so thank you now back to the show yeah uh you know just was looking on part of that is

00:04:31.180 in the capital boring is a question of open air uh hard drug use yeah which is an issue that they

00:04:38.980 they did away with you know that's an eb thing that's good they're not gonna let the mayor do

00:04:42.660 that anymore oh you mean just i got you okay all right and 100 plus involuntary beds for rehab so

00:04:48.820 yeah so these are all you know questions they're asking um you know it's very you know i'm gonna go

00:04:55.300 uh provincially for a minute so you know whether it be the debate with eb and dorkinson uh lowen

00:05:04.980 it's it's interesting because you know that was a very and i find it interesting the

00:05:10.500 the west coast is so on fire right now but yet their politicians are so uh

00:05:18.820 almost relaxed about it like it's interesting because you saw that debate and it was a very

00:05:23.800 kind of blah debate and I thought that should be a fiery debate right so I came back from the west

00:05:30.440 coast I had been I had people try to get in my vehicle as you saw the I had video footage of

00:05:37.360 that yeah there's violence on the streets pretty much ongoing all day long yeah open air drug use

00:05:44.800 that the police can't control they can't even control the the dealer's behavior on the street

00:05:50.360 how do you have mild debates yeah well you know they've got they've got the it's one of the import

00:05:58.120 centers for a huge problem that they're having right now with extortion suri is a problem at

00:06:08.100 the moment yeah there's real issues how come the debates aren't a hell of a lot more fiery

00:06:13.280 and why aren't there more candidates in that city you know what honestly i don't really understand

00:06:18.280 why there's not more parties in that city but but the the on the on the provincial level it's very

00:06:23.420 interesting so he holds a snap election you know he's got he's up by one seat for majority holds a

00:06:30.040 snap election thinking the conservative party's a mess he gets going and he tries to use trump

00:06:35.960 as the reason to do it you know he makes a number of just terrible mistakes you know admitting that

00:06:41.800 He takes $10 a day daycare, you know, and falls behind to Dorkinson, who's an unknown candidate and quite frankly, has been fairly cynical in his election policies coming into the election.

00:06:58.540 I don't understand.

00:07:00.060 And so then they do this debate.

00:07:01.380 It's not very fiery, not very, you know, they just get up and they're very cordial, do their thing.

00:07:06.460 And I'm thinking to myself, I'd be, number one, I'd be going back and I'd be trying to frame, you know, the incumbent premier as far as, you know, his use of the daycare money, his activism background, his inexperience.

00:07:26.040 You know, he's a lawyer by trade.

00:07:28.280 Yeah.

00:07:28.940 A guy who wasn't born on the West Coast.

00:07:32.980 He was born in Ontario, no?

00:07:33.720 Yeah.

00:07:34.460 He wasn't born on the West Coast.

00:07:35.980 you know his his parents uh teacher and uh uh a lawyer you know basically uh but you're right he

00:07:45.400 was sort of an activist class action i think yeah no his dad was i think um uh a slip and fall slip

00:07:51.520 and fall lawyer yeah yeah and you know basically went to work after school after getting out of

00:07:56.540 school um you know married a doctor you know they do pretty well they have a young family

00:08:02.340 you know but it's just uh it's interesting he's you know not very in touch with the people on the

00:08:09.400 street policies don't seem to be aimed at fixing the problems but no one's really feisty or mad or

00:08:16.320 you know and i i find that interesting and you know you roll into the then you roll into the

00:08:21.460 mayor's debate and the mayor's debate is like a hodgepodge of mess of all former associates and

00:08:27.720 people you know having running against them yeah it's a mess former friends uh yeah really throwing

00:08:36.300 some jabs at each other I mean yeah and then you some of the things that they're saying to each

00:08:41.280 other and the people that have been pulled out of the race in fact uh over the last uh few weeks

00:08:46.260 it is a little bit of a soap opera at that level yeah yeah it is a soap opera and then you move

00:08:52.380 and you move down to Surrey so now we go down to Surrey right you know and

00:08:56.760 another big second biggest city and we've talked about the other day you have

00:09:00.960 Brenda Locke and Brenda's up against McCallum right who is the former mayor

00:09:07.560 both right and you have this this big debate on and and amongst a number of

00:09:14.520 those people on what they should be doing no sorry they don't have a debate

00:09:18.840 on what they should be doing about crime it's no it was totally devoid of that well it was a little

00:09:23.880 discussion their policies address it but not in detail and not you know i think i think um they

00:09:30.600 nobody said okay we have an organized international crime problem in this city what they said was

00:09:36.120 we have to handle these extortion shootings right and i think well and more police and then

00:09:41.080 more police and a police center as i recall some uh massive 350 million dollar yeah police center

00:09:47.640 the former mayor doug mccallum he's the only one who really had i think he had probably the best

00:09:53.800 or the most detailed approach to how to deal with it as far as you know drones and cameras and

00:10:00.440 all that good stuff but but that was it you know it's been very so we're going to see what happens

00:10:05.400 there but you know as we talked about you know with extortions going up like almost double in

00:10:11.720 a year yeah and they straddled the border with the u.s they still they still struggle with uh

00:10:18.520 employment they struggle with it's mostly public services they don't really have an economic

00:10:23.560 development strategy on how to get the city moving it's true if you work there you probably work for

00:10:27.720 a public service a school or a hospital right yeah well health or health care yeah yeah health and

00:10:33.080 health and government offices is 50 of the economy and uh they need to they need to get the economy

00:10:39.080 moving with more manufacturing and production that's just no one's addressed no so with not

00:10:44.360 addressing that and not addressing the safety issue you know and you look at surrey you think

00:10:48.920 yourself what's next and then the constant debate between you know the local police force versus

00:10:56.440 the rcmp and and just a few months ago the police chief quit the local police chief quit the

00:11:04.040 transition period was not working no uh and uh the the extortion numbers were going up

00:11:10.840 but it's so weird you that you don't hear anybody saying okay we're going to go to the province

00:11:16.200 we're going to go to the feds we're going to do something because this is a serious problem that

00:11:21.800 is not just local crime right nobody addressed it in that fashion well the funny thing is and

00:11:27.480 a few months earlier they actually uh the mayor uh she wanted actually to do a state of emergency

00:11:34.040 yes yeah yeah she wanted because it was so bad so bad at one point and then now in this election

00:11:40.280 it's sort of been exactly flipped under so that's where i think paul i think that that's where i

00:11:45.640 get this feeling that it's just being kind of ignored because it wasn't that long ago she was

00:11:51.460 screaming for help well let's be so if you're an incumbent so if you're the former mayor the

00:11:57.980 existing mayor yeah the last thing you want to do is say how bad it is exactly because if you say

00:12:04.000 it's really bad they're more than likely going to pick someone who's never have been the mayor

00:12:08.040 again but nobody even said so mayor you called a state of emergency but now you're acting like

00:12:13.820 we're going to be okay with this but that's the lack of passion i don't understand when you get

00:12:17.980 to the west coast elections right now it's very uh humdrum you know again on the provincial side

00:12:24.400 i watched the debate uh premier eby looks pissed off yeah oh i don't know why i have to debate you

00:12:31.300 know you should just give this to me because i should have majority well you're not doing so

00:12:36.740 great so and quite frankly all these obstructionist issues you've dealt with on the federal side

00:12:43.620 it hasn't been great on that front either so and he's running against now paul i'll just put this

00:12:49.840 out there my last name's wickson yeah when i was in grade school in public school i was called

00:12:55.900 dorkinson he's running against a guy who is the bad name my friends called me uh growing up yeah

00:13:02.460 like it's how how tough it looks like yeah well he looks nice i'm sure he's a nice enough guy but he

00:13:08.780 looks like a dorkinson yeah so but yeah you know that's so charisma is not number one on the list

00:13:14.540 there and the name is not great no but i do believe it's a hodgepodge election ball it just feels like

00:13:22.780 a lot's going to happen in a short period of time and i wonder if people even know who they're

00:13:27.740 voting voting for at what level of government anymore right who's going to protect them who's

00:13:33.020 going to bring their taxes down who's going to make a difference on the streets and clean it up

00:13:37.260 is it the province is it and what am i voting for at this moment and by the way so the interesting

00:13:42.540 well a little bit of a crazy one uh dorkinson and his party also had some challenges with

00:13:48.700 nominees okay and the last one uh that went out actually uh unfortunately uh had a past with uh 0.85

00:13:59.420 nazi nazi views yeah he he used his anonymous death knight account to post anti-semitic and

00:14:06.300 pro-hitler comments death knight again yeah i guess that he's he he uses a an anonymous synonym

00:14:14.540 Like, okay, I guess it wasn't hidden very well because they found it.

00:14:19.080 So nobody's going to be voting for Death Knight in this round.

00:14:22.900 Okay.

00:14:23.500 Based on his opinions about Hitler.

00:14:25.500 Like I said, these just get stranger.

00:14:27.980 Now, you go down to Kamloops, actually.

00:14:30.400 How do you miss that in the process?

00:14:31.920 I don't know.

00:14:32.800 What background checks?

00:14:33.840 Great vetting.

00:14:34.540 Yeah, but don't forget the Conservative Party, right?

00:14:36.620 The leader resigns, quite frankly.

00:14:38.860 He gets put in as the acting leader.

00:14:40.500 I'm sure they don't have a lot of time to even vet anyone.

00:14:42.660 No, that is true.

00:14:43.320 That is true, yeah.

00:14:44.540 you go down to kamloops and uh reed hammer jackson is seeking a second turn and this is after his

00:14:51.340 council voted in 2000 2024 to ask for his resignation um and a sitting counselors among

00:14:59.020 one of his five opponents what did he do wrong they didn't want him around anymore i don't know

00:15:03.820 again the well this is a whole uh how can i say there's a whole bunch of issues here that

00:15:12.300 that always spiral but this is western canada politics can loops is a place on on fire i'm

00:15:19.420 sure it had something to do with his opinion on residential schooling uh and and all of that at

00:15:25.400 the in that moment yeah um but apparently it was burning the vote was non-binding oh hey before we

00:15:32.340 go any further please hit the subscribe button right now if you want the raw debates the full

00:15:37.760 uncut conversations you won't see here head straight to tplmedia.ca subscribe and lock in

00:15:43.160 your membership trust me you don't want to miss what happens behind the paywall all right back

00:15:47.940 to the show so i don't know how you they vote for the council votes for you to step down

00:15:53.300 to resign and the vote was non-binding so you don't resign but then you're running again as

00:15:58.220 the mayor it's just it's it's it you know that's just that's just uh facebook politicking it seems

00:16:05.600 yeah yeah so uh northwest uh northwest territories yellow knife they're going to the polls uh on the

00:16:12.400 19th 21 candidates yeah lots of candidates that's amazing actually yeah lots of interest in this so

00:16:18.640 there's so many candidates uh coming out what issue is so important right now at that level

00:16:24.880 do you think well two candidates for mayor uh melissa sire and garrett cochran are running um

00:16:31.680 Um, you know, he's basically, uh, Cochran is funding, uh, is running on the fact that

00:16:39.820 the city seems to be underfunded by 8 million bucks.

00:16:43.100 Okay.

00:16:43.700 So he's doing it on a financial basis.

00:16:46.320 Um, yeah, a lot of people go chase the problem or the territory down, I guess, and, and, uh,

00:16:53.080 uh, seek out some more money to run the city.

00:16:54.800 Yeah.

00:16:55.380 He says the territorial funding formula leaves the city 8 million short.

00:16:59.680 Ah.

00:17:00.200 So which is interesting. So and, you know, this is a tough one because Ben Hendrickson, which is the mayor since 2025, after Becca Altie became MP, is not running.

00:17:17.620 So three councillors are also leaving. So you have a big void here. So it seems like what's kind of gone on in this case is a lot of people have just decided to get out of politics in the Northwest Targets.

00:17:27.720 It could be an age-out thing or a desire thing.

00:17:32.220 Let me ask you, Paul, how are the polls tracking?

00:17:37.320 They have the North Pole and they have...

00:17:39.640 North Pole, yeah.

00:17:41.140 But yeah, it's tough to track what's going on up there

00:17:43.360 because they don't do a lot of official tracking of the...

00:17:45.780 No, we took a look before the show to see if there's any scuttlebutt

00:17:50.360 or disputes going on.

00:17:53.320 There's not much being written about as far as the election goes.

00:17:56.460 It's pretty cordial.

00:17:57.720 I would have small town. So I think, you know, that's what you're seeing.

00:18:00.460 But I would imagine we'll do an update post-election on these.

00:18:04.160 And then, of course, we're just one week away from us doing it again.

00:18:07.020 Yeah. In the rest of the country.

00:18:08.980 Now, wouldn't it be so interesting?

00:18:10.640 So this is interesting to think about.

00:18:12.600 You potentially. So let's BC.

00:18:15.820 You potentially could have a new premier.

00:18:19.920 And you could have mayors in each of the major cities new.

00:18:23.300 which is and you're going to have a new mayor in the northwest territories

00:18:28.340 or sorry new uh yeah new mayor up in yellow uh yellow knife so so that's pretty that when you

00:18:35.500 put it that way that's an impactful change to an entire province uh bc this is a transitional

00:18:42.060 election for them yeah absolutely i wonder what wow i'm wondering what the outcome of that will

00:18:48.300 be in how because sometimes if when you change governments there's a certain transitional period

00:18:53.400 that you know till you get your things happening it's almost like a slow roll over the first year

00:18:59.180 which gives them three years to really make a difference after that right but think about it

00:19:03.240 mike you know and and i i think this is what the people are feeling housing is the housing

00:19:08.620 sale prices are declining yeah crime is increasing uh and they're saying it's not but

00:19:15.400 property taxes are up drug addiction yeah property taxes you know you're going and you're saying

00:19:20.900 there's not a lot of positive things here other than we have beautiful scenery but beautiful

00:19:25.180 scenery has been there since you were there and they'll be there after you're there so that you

00:19:29.120 can't use that one as an excuse why you vote for someone you didn't create this it's not part of

00:19:33.900 their yeah right that's not there so quite frankly there's a lot to there's a lot of reasons why

00:19:39.560 change should happen here and so quite frankly you know as change does happen um i hate to say

00:19:45.780 this because you look at areas of canada that you love and you love to travel in and you love to

00:19:50.060 visit this this this region or these two areas quite frankly um surrey and vancouver need a

00:19:57.620 change they need change they need a change and they need it it honestly couldn't come at a better

00:20:01.580 time if they get it i'll be very surprised if we don't have a change of provincial government at

00:20:06.240 the moment um even some of his comments lately you know and you know my pension is good I'm

00:20:12.720 going to be okay we're going to be fine yeah well I'm sure he will you know that's not something

00:20:16.900 during an election really to talk about talk about other people's problems a snap election

00:20:21.220 yeah snap an election here yeah well I wish great voting luck to uh British Columbia and of course

00:20:29.560 to the Northwest Territories as they have quite a race going on up there in Yellowknife.

00:20:36.760 I guess we'll do the update again next week.

00:20:38.500 Yeah, let's see the outcome, you know, and let's see if those policies that they're telling

00:20:43.200 us come to fruition.

00:20:45.640 Oh, this is a good moment to say vote.

00:20:48.000 Vote.

00:20:48.420 It's a big deal that you vote because these are the elections that matter most to your

00:20:52.180 life.

00:20:52.760 You got it.

00:20:53.280 Thanks, Paul.

True Patriot Love - October 16, 2026

Crime, taxes, housing and public safety are colliding with BC election

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