True Patriot Love - The 4-Day Work Week Debate： Economic Reality or Dangerous Illusion？

00:00:00.000 hi and thanks for joining us this is tpl media by the way you can go to tplmedia.ca where there's

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00:00:25.280 app for iphone or for android and we hope that you do that today we are talking about taking one

00:00:31.920 of the work days away all right we could use one more day off in a week and to talk to me about

00:00:38.480 that is uh our very own paul micucci are we really headed toward a four-day work week here paul

00:00:43.600 well you know mike it's it's it's kind of interesting because it's come back on the table

00:00:47.840 it was a those of you who are old enough to remember uh in canada it was uh not a four-day

00:00:53.920 Workweek, but it was 12 unpaid days that the Bob Ray NDP government decided to put into play under

00:01:03.200 Bill 48. So when this started coming up globally, it hit our radar because quite frankly, there's a

00:01:10.480 lot of online chatter about four-day workweeks, especially with the price of gas going up so

00:01:16.240 substantially. I was driving in today and gas went up overnight 10 cents. It went from 163 to 173,

00:01:23.440 which we did a show remember with dan mctagg and he said he said 170 he called it right on the nose

00:01:30.000 man then he went to 173 it's going to two dollars yeah so i'm going to talk about that in a minute

00:01:35.840 but it's going to two dollars and and the interesting thing that we took a look at what

00:01:40.320 i'll do the math i'm not going to bore you right now but before the show's over i'm going to

00:01:44.160 actually talk to you about how not only four-day work weeks are going to be talked about economic

00:01:51.760 migration is going to be a key issue coming up in the next few months if this if this uh war

00:01:59.080 keeps going if it doesn't get ended in some fashion or form we're going to see it and so

00:02:05.820 this came up in and we call it undeveloped countries third world countries yeah um it

00:02:10.880 came up right away in sri lanka yeah sri lanka india japan korea now in all fairness they did

00:02:21.280 call it for us almost at the beginning of the war if the Strait of Hormuz closes and by the way we

00:02:25.700 don't have any we don't have reserves already so they told us they were a few minutes away from

00:02:30.060 running out almost right away yeah well so Sri Lanka uh came up and the government stepped forward

00:02:38.180 and said everyone take Wednesday off so that's done they're already doing it so their their four

00:02:43.520 day work week is already happening so everyone there Thailand told people to stay at home and

00:02:50.660 work from home as much as possible. They shut down their elevators and they're making everyone

00:02:57.600 take the stairs. Now, I don't know if you've been to Thailand. I've never been to Thailand.

00:03:01.740 Okay. Thailand this time of year I have been is actually 40 degrees Celsius. Oh my God. So

00:03:07.620 everyone in Thailand who's working in an office building that's 10 stories or more tall is

00:03:12.940 actually taking the stairs to get to their office. Oh my God. India in 40 degree temperatures. Yeah.

00:03:19.880 yeah india has rationed their liquefied petro yeah so they're already said listen you see the

00:03:27.560 pictures on tv and you see the pictures on the internet with the big lineups now and and remember

00:03:31.940 this is not something that's outrageous we we did a show about oil a few days ago and we were

00:03:38.760 reminding people in 1973 when the embargo happened um in the u.s used to drive through and you used

00:03:45.900 look at the gas stations and they'd have uh red yellow green uh flags on them and if it was red

00:03:53.660 there was no gas it was yellow it meant you could be pumping and you would run out of gas so it made

00:03:59.500 you make your decision which gas station you were going to so these are all things that are popping

00:04:03.900 up as we go through this and we're starting to see it go across so the four day work week is starting

00:04:11.580 to become a topic again yeah now it's interesting because uh it was brought up here in canada right

00:04:18.460 recently oh yeah as an economic measure yep who brought that up by the way

00:04:22.080 who brought it up i think it was the ndp was it not oh yeah so so bob ray well no we we actually

00:04:30.940 recently i mean it was oh yeah brought to the board sure yeah bob ray and that's that's what

00:04:35.540 just came to my mind and i thought to myself okay i can understand in oil strapped nations right

00:04:42.660 that are massive populations sri lanka india japan korea that are going to have to make moves

00:04:50.820 quickly yeah we don't have that kind of population and and and quite frankly i don't think that the

00:04:56.520 war was a consideration when we first heard this uh in recent days it seemed to be more of an

00:05:01.500 economic measure, not a petroleum based measure. No, it wasn't your bang on. And thank you for

00:05:07.940 that. Cause you're, you're kind of, uh, getting me to remind some things I don't want to think

00:05:14.040 about. I was alive. I was alive in, in 1990 and kicking and working. Um, me too. And by the way,

00:05:21.880 I was trying to pay off student loans at the time. And it was a little difficult to do it

00:05:26.060 the numbers at that time well remember like 1990 was a terrible recession that hit canada but we

00:05:33.100 were really hard hit um peterson had just lost the election to bob ray the ndp had taken over

00:05:39.900 they had won uh 74 seats um you know and they had 37 of the vote so they actually won by a fairly

00:05:49.260 stunning majority so they took over and they were union backed remember they were ndp was a labor

00:05:54.860 Party. But they had taken over in a time when the economy was so bad. And I had to laugh when I took

00:06:02.140 a look at this prepping for the show last night. They assumed a really, really bad situation in

00:06:12.980 the economy. The Liberal government had hired all these public service workers, had grown the public

00:06:19.460 sector to this immense crazy number so they were stuck with a huge union both on the public side

00:06:27.180 and on the private side auto workers you name it there was a ton of unions they take control

00:06:32.720 and next thing you know they're handed this deficit of 10 billion dollars people went

00:06:36.960 i laugh because today 10 billion dollars is like it's oh no it's a rounding error if you showed up

00:06:42.440 and said you had a deficit for a province of 10 billion dollars standing ovation aside from

00:06:46.860 alberta no one would even say anything right but nowadays so you know it went crazy and so he had

00:06:53.440 to make some strategic choices because people were going bananas like 10 billion dollars how did we

00:06:58.180 rack up 10 billion well you raise a good point because he had the unions that he had built

00:07:02.980 industries out of now moving against that government quickly exactly and the interesting

00:07:08.700 part of it was he had promised also on top of it that he was going to do uh public auto insurance

00:07:15.400 I don't know if you remember this, but some of the provinces, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Quebec, and BC had already went out, and they had actually done no-fault public auto insurance.

00:07:25.960 I remember no-fault insurance.

00:07:27.500 Bob Ray promised it in the election to everyone.

00:07:30.540 He got in power, and then he's like, oh, my goodness, look at the mess I'm in.

00:07:34.180 I can't meet that promise.

00:07:36.100 So everyone's like, well, where's my free auto insurance?

00:07:38.660 Well, that wasn't coming, right?

00:07:40.240 So now he had to go back, and he had to open up all these union agreements.

00:07:43.740 so now he's he's in this huge deficit he starts opening up uh all these agreements the deficit's

00:07:50.620 growing right and so it's growing to a crazy point like uh you know 10 million it grew to 15

00:07:58.620 10 billion it grows to 15 billion and he's saying what do i do now so he starts opening up the

00:08:04.060 public service agreements the government agreements with the unions and he's saying

00:08:07.340 and he's had to do it they didn't agree to open them up i was going to say i think it was it was

00:08:11.980 forced move right he's canceling their agreements he's and he's asking them to make concessions

00:08:18.860 and one of the concessions he comes to him and says i need you to take 12 unpaid work days

00:08:25.900 they went bananas it splintered government government literally government fell apart

00:08:31.020 uh the unions uh went against him the the public of course middle uh middle income earners in

00:08:39.260 canada were affected the most yeah this wasn't you know the guy who was the high income uh wage

00:08:45.260 earner didn't really care and and for the most part it was public sector employees who were hit

00:08:51.020 with the 12 days well i remember people comparing it to uh he literally took a mortgage payment

00:08:57.100 away from everybody who had to take the 12-day deal he did yeah and and you know it's interesting

00:09:02.940 because i where i was working at the time i was asked and this was crazy at the time i was asked

00:09:08.780 to go to a four-day workweek so i was in the private sector and i was asked to do four-day

00:09:15.020 work weeks so and to go to 32 i had to think through it last night because i thought i was

00:09:20.780 getting paid for 40 but then when i actually went back and thought about it they asked us to go to

00:09:26.460 uh 32 hour work weeks so we took eight hour cuts and it was all this whole movement across canada

00:09:33.100 wherever a lot of businesses because of the slowdown because of the recession were asking

00:09:38.460 people to keep their job but to work fewer days it was terrible it gave me a lot of time and uh

00:09:45.020 i was kind of smart enough that i had already secured a second job so it didn't really matter

00:09:50.780 to me because that that it was kind of the birth of the gig economy i remember uh yeah the beer

00:09:56.620 store cut our hours yeah i took hours waiting tables yeah exactly so i i picked up other work

00:10:03.500 and extended the second job i had so bob ray it's over like you know by 1995 uh you know

00:10:14.700 he's gone you know whatever happened to bob ray well bob ray did a high profile and then

00:10:21.420 for several years he just vaporized from public view so i took a look from 1995 to 2006 he

00:10:30.780 basically disappeared off the radar yeah i i was gonna say i don't recall anything any news with

00:10:36.220 him and he and you know i i you know he came back as a uh liberal right and he did very well he got

00:10:44.300 in yeah yeah he had a very good political career in the end and uh foreign affairs and he did some

00:10:49.340 amazing i think recently they took his post away uh again um but but he did have a great career

00:10:55.980 with the liberal government and he did a lot of great things so i think bob ray was uh uh

00:11:02.700 really the it was impacted by a really poor economy that then uh and uh just a groundswell

00:11:09.580 of decisions that almost he was forced to make to try to curb crazy deficits so now deja vu we're

00:11:18.300 talking a lot about deja vu and then it does kind of feel like trudeau handing it off to

00:11:23.180 Kearney, doesn't it? Well, even on the provincial level, you're starting to see a lot of

00:11:28.100 premiers coming out and saying, hey, I can't do these programs anymore. Yeah. Right. Whether it's,

00:11:35.060 you know, Doug Ford in Ontario and his crew, whether it's Daniel Smith in B.C., you're starting

00:11:41.980 to see a lot of this kind of come on the radar. And they're saying, well, time out. I'm tapped out.

00:11:47.540 i'm i'm incurring these huge deficits and you know from a federal perspective uh we're gonna

00:11:54.660 we're gonna eclipse our 78 billion dollar projected deficit that we're we're getting

00:11:59.620 conditioned a little to be told that right now so as we do this it's wild that you point out yeah

00:12:05.220 daniel smith alberta coming out and saying look we can't we can't support this anymore was pretty

00:12:12.020 shocking i think to canadians not to albertans but to canadians yes it gave us a it gave us the

00:12:18.020 temperature pretty quickly on the rest of the nation yeah so now are we you know are we in the

00:12:24.120 same situation as 1990 right or worse i think it feels worse to be honest with you i mean sure it

00:12:31.880 does we have a much larger population we're supporting at the moment than we ever have before

00:12:36.920 Unemployment has reached record highs.

00:12:39.540 So, yeah, it is worse because we've reached new record highs of unemployment.

00:12:44.360 Therefore, and inflation is on the rise.

00:12:47.020 Gas is out of control thanks to the war.

00:12:48.780 We're in a worse situation now.

00:12:50.320 We have budgeted for a 10% unemployment rate.

00:12:53.840 We haven't seen a 10% unemployment rate since the Great Depression.

00:12:58.840 So that kind of gives you a feel of kind of where we're at and where we're projecting.

00:13:02.880 And that's actually in this year's budget.

00:13:05.180 so you know i the reason i bring it up because when i say is it worse it is worse because we

00:13:12.860 were a productive country i think and we were having this discussion i think roger and i were

00:13:17.440 talking before the show in 1995 right uh up to 2002 we were on pace or average with respect to

00:13:32.060 productivity compared to developed nations so there's 32 developed nations as they categorize

00:13:37.580 them in the world we are in that category right now right now we are one of 32 developed nations

00:13:42.740 right we were uh we were right in the middle so we were at one point we were number five in the

00:13:49.140 world right we were the fifth yeah and we always were kind of between five and 16 we kind of

00:13:55.420 went back and forth only up until 2014 so then we get to 2014 and we start to see this

00:14:04.680 productivity slide so we slid um up until today now uh we're the last place well we were 26 then

00:14:15.000 before the show you said no actually we're last place we are and this is the scary part that i

00:14:19.800 know you know in our own government you know i i do the liberal government um has said and i

00:14:25.000 mentioned it on lots of shows this is a big concern this isn't something that uh minister

00:14:31.240 freeland we haven't we've heard it before uh in budget speeches we got to get our productivity up

00:14:37.240 we got to get and and the big reason you know you've you know i've talked about this before

00:14:43.160 we could slip potentially out of the category of developed nations so we could slip out of the 32

00:14:50.320 and then we wouldn't be classified as a developed nation if your productivity is so low per capita

00:14:56.100 how okay so you cannot maintain not producing something and stay on this list in the top 30

00:15:06.240 there's no way yeah there's just no way and then so one of the calculations that i went out there

00:15:10.860 to try and find. And an economist in Norway, funny enough, put out the data that Canada

00:15:17.660 specifically, to get into the top 10 again in the leading world nations, we would not have to take

00:15:25.160 one workday away, but we would have to add seven workdays per person, per working person in Canada.

00:15:30.440 We would have to add productivity days of an entire other week, not strip us down one more

00:15:37.580 day and that was my concern hearing a four-day work week wow okay i understand the fuel situations

00:15:42.560 but come on we've all worked from home apparently that's what canada does now take a look at any

00:15:47.740 city every office tower is basically empty i don't care what they're saying out there in the real

00:15:52.920 estate markets you can take a look at commercial real estate everywhere people are still working

00:15:56.960 from home it's true it's a gig economy more than it's ever been here in canada the unemployment

00:16:02.500 is up. We need productivity. We don't need to reduce a workday. We need to find our way through

00:16:08.320 and find things that we can participate in, manufacturing, distributing, becoming a hub of

00:16:15.460 something right now, not taking away from that, not diminishing that. I mean, there has to be a

00:16:23.020 better way. Raid days was a disaster, as you pointed out. I don't, and there must be a better

00:16:29.160 way look fuel economy we've all been told to use better fuel economy in our lives so if we have to

00:16:34.040 work from home for a period of time that the war is on or whatever the case is i'm sure we'll figure

00:16:38.180 it out yeah but you know what happens with a four-day work week paul we jam six days into

00:16:44.080 four days because we're currently jamming six days into five days yeah we are but mike can i

00:16:51.020 throw something this is we did some quick math before the show and this is what i mentioned to

00:16:56.040 earlier and i wanted to walk through with you so we this is where i end up upside down on these

00:17:01.160 shows every time no no i have a very strong opinion it's about to change watch this no no

00:17:06.060 no and i'm not i'm not it's okay i'm good for it no so if you're driving so the guys drove in this

00:17:13.380 morning that work here with us and i said to them i said okay what are you driving and they're all

00:17:17.660 driving small suvs yep and i said okay let's take your gas mileage let's take what was gas what was

00:17:24.820 gas when we started this so they said gas was a dollar 30 per liter i said okay gas goes let's

00:17:30.980 take the assumption that gas goes to two dollars it's okay gas goes up 70 cents i goes so what does

00:17:37.700 that mean to you and they're like so they all started doodling and they're yelling out numbers

00:17:43.060 and half of them are wrong because quite frankly no offense guys but you're from a generation and

00:17:47.620 none of you can multiply or divide right just get your iphones out we'll wait exactly so so i i'm

00:17:53.700 like no wrong wrong so finally uh sandip yells out he says it's a it's a dollar it's a it's an hour

00:18:02.260 right and i go yep you're you're right so i go okay so is it exactly an hour a week that you're

00:18:09.380 going to spend more on gas to get here right so you know assuming and and we used uh we used in

00:18:17.300 just to be fair because not everyone's you know making 40 an hour and not everyone's making minimum

00:18:22.500 wage we use 20 an hour right as the kind of benchmark so for those who are on the lower

00:18:29.060 spectrum and we said okay 20 an hour let's do the math it's a hundred dollars a month

00:18:37.220 at 70 cents that they're going to pay more to get here and get home to work every day

00:18:44.740 right so now that's the direct cost of their gas right that's not repairs on the vehicle that's not

00:18:51.380 the increased maintenance the cost that because all these other indirect costs and i said okay

00:18:56.580 now let's put a food factor in there fifty dollars more a month yeah because food costs are going to

00:19:02.180 go up so we were doing all this and they're like and so they're doing their budgets and they're

00:19:06.180 like oh i go so now you got to find another 150 bucks a month just to get here for five days right

00:19:14.820 and like oh so they kind of they're like oh that so that's what this is going to mean to me i said

00:19:18.820 yeah that's going to mean and they so and then they said well i know but but you know we're gonna

00:19:24.660 we're gonna have to get paid more i said i know but but businesses quite frankly are then going

00:19:31.540 to make the decision if they want to move somewhere with a lower cost base so that's going to start to

00:19:37.460 cause economic migration oh my god i hadn't even considered that but that is a good point so so now

00:19:44.100 you're gonna have a bunch of companies saying well i don't blame the people but i can't have

00:19:49.140 unhappy and unsustainable employment because they can't live yeah you know think about it all the

00:19:55.300 guys drove here this morning all walked in with a tim hortons coffee the first thing they said to me

00:20:00.580 is i'm gonna have to cut out my tim hortons coffee because i'm gonna have to find that 150 bucks

00:20:06.820 right right because i gotta pay rent i gotta pay my mortgage i gotta pay all those fixed costs

00:20:10.580 so they're all kind of so it was interesting we did the we did the math this morning we're trying

00:20:14.740 to figure out what what happens so this is going to cause a domino effect that's going to roll down

00:20:20.420 but to your point and this is you know it's not just exacerbated by the war it's not caused by the

00:20:28.660 war it's not the imp it is part of it the gas prices are yeah but we've put ourselves in this

00:20:34.900 situation regardless of whether it was a war or just a bad economy we've left ourselves vulnerable

00:20:42.260 to this and that's where we kind of have to dig ourselves out well that's that's the thing there's

00:20:47.300 so many i just can't understand how we ended up in a position where reserve gas would have an

00:20:55.140 effect on our economy on our food on our living this is the moment where a nation like canada

00:21:01.060 rises above because we have our resources we have a national treasure that is being untapped

00:21:09.780 unused it's not being processed we could have an entire oil to gas system for diesel in this

00:21:16.820 country now but we don't instead we're thinking okay how can we reduce one day of work per week

00:21:23.460 when we need to be highly productive exactly well we can't we can't you know and it's interesting

00:21:30.740 Some, you know, when we were doing the calculations before the show, someone yelled out, this is why we need universal income.

00:21:42.920 And I said, what?

00:21:45.480 I said, okay.

00:21:47.060 I said, let's investigate that for a minute.

00:21:49.360 Because I hear that on a lot of, you know, younger podcasters, you know, talk about universal income.

00:21:56.740 it's been talked about you know all these crazy uh 15-minute cities universal income

00:22:03.620 i have to explain something to you guys you have to be productive to do that so we're not we don't

00:22:12.020 have the we're not a potentially a developed country we are not productive enough to pull

00:22:17.460 that off because that can only work if the government takes control of your industries

00:22:22.740 and makes money to pay you, it doesn't work the way you think it works.

00:22:28.180 So that works in countries like Russia or Korea.

00:22:33.360 That could work there.

00:22:34.620 It could never work in Canada.

00:22:36.880 I'm sorry, guys.

00:22:37.660 For those of you who think that is a shot, you are so out in left field, it is insane.

00:22:44.340 You're not even close, guys.

00:22:45.760 Okay, don't get mad at me now.

00:22:47.220 I've got to ask.

00:22:47.980 So what you're saying is for a universal income, right,

00:22:52.740 yeah industries produce the industries take the product to the market yes the industries are owned

00:23:00.820 and managed mainly by the government like like china oh so is this communism kind of it is a

00:23:08.420 form now it can be listen i'm not gonna i don't want to get that's a whole other show it can be

00:23:13.620 democratically it can be democratically monitored right so it can be a democracy but quite frankly

00:23:20.820 you can't do it with low productivity you can't be an undeveloped nation which where we're slipping

00:23:25.780 into by our productivity levels we can't be there and do that it wouldn't work because the same

00:23:33.060 companies that are going to economically migrate because they can't make it here in a private

00:23:37.780 scenario will not be better run by the government so they're the therefore the government uh deficits

00:23:44.420 will be massive which is unsustainable for a country so it it is not sorry guys you know any

00:23:51.860 economist who says differently i'd love to get on debate so if you're out there let's let's get

00:23:56.900 together and talk about it because quite frankly that could never happen i do love the challenge

00:24:02.740 so please in the comments if that's you let us know we'll reach out to you and we'll pair you

00:24:07.540 up with paul for a good old debate uh i made a list of reality checks paul just this four-day

00:24:13.300 work week made me i told you i was this morning this morning over breakfast i was talking about

00:24:20.340 four-day work weeks with my lovely wife who thought it you know might be uh an applicable

00:24:25.620 idea okay i was told then to save my comments for my show with paul later today uh i think we need

00:24:32.180 a little bit of a economic reality check it's a it's a paycheck illusion a four-day work week

00:24:36.820 promises the same pay for fewer hours but that money doesn't come from nowhere as you point out

00:24:41.140 we need to be productive the cost of everything will go up well of course it will you know you're

00:24:48.260 in a recession when it occurs four day work weeks are the result of an economic downfall so it's not

00:24:54.180 that one gives the other it's just that you're in the same place at the same time for the same reason

00:24:58.740 uh fewer jobs means more competition oh yeah i guess we better take this to another country

00:25:04.420 where we can get more productivity in a week exactly you're gonna you're gonna find a lower

00:25:10.340 wage rate more productive place to run your business so you can increase your profitability

00:25:16.820 uh services get worse remember ray days go and get your license renewed good luck yeah well there

00:25:22.340 was a you know think about the morale remember and you remember that it was awful you know for

00:25:27.140 those of you i'm glad if you didn't live through it you know you trust me you didn't don't let it

00:25:31.460 happen again you didn't miss a lot because we frankly going to any uh government-run uh private

00:25:37.780 or government run agency and trying to get anything done was a nightmare they were very

00:25:43.540 unhappy the unions were massively pissed off because not only did their union dues go down

00:25:49.620 because fewer people were still employed within their groups and quite frankly they had to go

00:25:56.420 back to their constituency and tell them that they were being represented by unions but losing it a

00:26:02.180 day right so they were like what do you mean i i get completely agitated with the union the

00:26:06.660 the government i have to pay union dues they're taking and you supported the ndp who put that

00:26:13.080 government in place and now they're taking a day off me and i still have to pay union dues no there

00:26:18.920 was an awful situation yeah no there was outrage oh you're right i remember uh many of the unions

00:26:24.120 were just uh inside out about it you know and it raises a good point because it creates and we

00:26:29.680 didn't talk about this a lot at the time but we can look back on it now and i can assure you this

00:26:34.380 is true it created a two-tier society you know oh yeah like laborers workers uh health care workers

00:26:42.660 uh cops and ambulance and all the services out there lost 12 days meanwhile the same group of

00:26:50.480 people in the same industries at an executive level well they got a long weekend it didn't

00:26:55.240 really affect them too much oh yeah it was created terrible animosity yeah it was known it was known

00:27:00.720 as a middle income tax so that's how it got defined people looked at it totally like it was

00:27:07.200 and we don't talk about it a lot but the erosion of the the middle income you know the our middle

00:27:14.660 canadians our middle income earner canadians uh the middle class is basically something that is

00:27:20.480 eroding already as we as we look at sort of the well the wealth distribution every province is

00:27:25.720 starting to report back that the middle class is disappearing entirely winnipeg we just did that

00:27:30.460 remember that story on winnipeg and and what's happening there yeah it's uh okay the other things

00:27:35.660 that i'll point out uh yeah more more work gets piled into less days that's how society works

00:27:41.020 small business gets crushed in this some of the large corporations are okay small business cannot

00:27:46.620 afford to do this as you point out if you have four people that you've got to pay uh whether

00:27:52.780 they're there or not or you're going to lose productivity in those days whatever arrangement

00:27:57.820 you have to make in a four-day work week in a small business is different than that in the

00:28:02.080 government or in large corporations. The small guys are going to feel it the most, I think.

00:28:08.580 And then just overall, and maybe this is the purpose, I don't know, maybe as an economist,

00:28:13.800 as an accountant, you can answer this, the economy slows down. Is that the purpose of a

00:28:19.360 four-day work week? Oh, I don't know. That's a good question, Mike. I'd have to think through

00:28:25.540 then is that the purpose of the economy slowing down yeah is that is that the reason we want to

00:28:29.980 slow the economy down for a period of time so that it operates you know a straighter uh more even

00:28:38.140 keel uh float rather than spikes and dips throughout that recession well listen you know

00:28:45.760 we're talking only about canada today right now so we we have a number of things colliding right

00:28:51.740 We had an overstimulated real estate market that was growing too fast.

00:28:57.840 We started using residential real estate as a trading chip.

00:29:02.920 It became not only about shelter and security.

00:29:06.900 It then now became part of an industry that people were using it to swap, buy, sell.

00:29:14.340 That's crashed out.

00:29:16.000 It's disappeared.

00:29:16.980 Even those margins became finer and finer and finer up against that moment at which it just didn't make sense to be a developer.

00:29:25.460 Exactly. And manufacturing, quite frankly, is slowed. That's the productivity crunch.

00:29:30.520 So, you know, we've seen a bunch of these things collide together and we're seeing a slowing of the economy.

00:29:35.060 So, yeah, I guess, you know, did we want it to happen? Was it self-fulfilling?

00:29:39.640 yeah i guess it was in a way we you know we stimulated things that we knew were going to end

00:29:45.160 that couldn't sustain population growth is declining now we've cut back on immigration

00:29:50.360 so that's kind of slowing down more and more so yeah i think there's a bunch of um

00:29:56.360 economic and and social decisions that we made as a country that are starting to collide and you know

00:30:03.000 we did that show this week on oil which we went back to 1973 and we've showed sort of the impacts

00:30:10.920 of policy decisions by the different governments conservative and liberal that have now are

00:30:15.160 impacting us today so you know we started the show talking about the impacts of oil

00:30:21.160 on people and how that kind of instigated the discussion on the four-day workweek

00:30:25.000 well we never we haven't once since the war in iran started gone back and talked about

00:30:34.480 why we're paying what we are for gas we're just assuming we pay for gas what we've put a great

00:30:41.700 point yeah we haven't talked about we're not part of opec we're not part of opec we're you know we

00:30:47.000 basically x we're a net exporter of gas we price against texas crude we we price against texas

00:30:53.360 crude we take a significant discount for the type of uh heavy oil that we actually do we have

00:30:58.520 export yeah so we and you know we've seen the faults of that we haven't got to electrical and

00:31:07.300 evs fast enough so we're in the middle so we need now to have that discussion on what to do next

00:31:14.080 that strategy right to avoid the four-day work week to increase our productivity those are the

00:31:20.820 discussions that have to be on the table now and canada still want to hear a four-day work week

00:31:25.140 they want to hear there's overtime yeah yeah unfortunately with you know uh the recession

00:31:32.340 and everything happening in our our economy today we can't talk about overtime anymore we have to

00:31:39.700 start talking about other factors and that's why it's so important right now to start to make those

00:31:46.900 policy decisions that increase our productivity what do you think we've taken tomorrow off no

00:31:53.220 okay back to work tomorrow we'll be here and i hope you will be too thanks for joining us

00:31:57.140 uh tplmedia.ca uh we we love that you're there comment share it with a friend we'll see you next

00:32:02.980 time patriotic means looking out for each other and fixing things together true patriotism is

00:32:16.740 Being in a country you love, surrounded by people you love, and great weather.

00:32:20.660 Being a patriot is being a part of your community and caring for it.

00:32:23.620 It doesn't matter who you are or where you're from.

00:32:26.180 Patriotism is the one thing we all share.

00:32:28.900 It's okay to be critical of government and still be a patriot.

00:32:33.060 It's gratitude to your country.

00:32:34.740 Of course I'm a patriot. I'm Canadian. It's my home.

00:32:37.940 Well, actually, true patriot love is the mission.

True Patriot Love - March 25, 2026

The 4-Day Work Week Debate： Economic Reality or Dangerous Illusion？

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