A Year Like No Other： 2025 Year-Ender
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Summary
In our final episode of the year, we take a look back at the top stories of 2019 and look forward to 2020. We speak to some of our reporters and our news editor about the biggest stories of the past year, and look ahead to what's in store for 2020.
Transcript
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this will be our last one of 2025 we're doing a christmas special right now as you can see we're
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looking all festive like with the snowflakes on the glass wall and a christmas tree back behind me
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and we're just gonna wrap up the year going over some of the stuff with the year and boy it's been
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a hell of a year i mean think about it trudeau was still our prime minister only a year ago
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it seems like forever ago but look how much has happened we've got a general federal election
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that, well, was a catastrophe for the Conservative Party.
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We've had all sorts of events in between and going on,
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and we're heading into another year that looks like it's going to be
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So to wrap it up this year, we're going to speak to some of our reporters
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and through our news editor and just kind of do a recap of those top stories
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and the ones that stood out the most this year,
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just to look back one more time before we start looking forward.
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I'll start by turning to our trusty news editor, Dave Naylor, who's in studio.
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Hope the season goes well for you and your water doesn't shut off again.
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It'll be a stinky Christmas if we can't get consistent.
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So if I had to come to you in January of this year and I said,
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I'll bet you $10 Trudeau will be out of office and dating Katy Perry,
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The Katy Perry ending is just kind of a bizarre icing on the cake.
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You know, we just can't lose him from the new Skrull.
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And unfortunately, people seem to want to read about him.
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I'd rather him on the gossip pages in pop culture than sitting in any position of authority anymore.
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And Pierre Polyev, how close a battle for his political life do you think it's going to be?
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A lot of people talk about the upcoming review, but those things, I mean, we always hear people
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try to ramp it up. Well, we have seen reviews go badly for leaders before. I think he's going to
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do okay, a little lower than other times. His bigger risk is, as it usually is, it's in caucus.
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So if he loses too many crossing within there, it doesn't matter if the tens of thousands of
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members support, if you start losing dozens in your own caucus, well, let's ask John Rustad how
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that ends for you, or Alison Redford or Stockwell Day or the long list of
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conservative leaders who get torn down by their own.
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I would bet he garners 75% to 80% support, which I would think would be
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I mean, again, he'll make predictions for 2026.
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I'm pretty confident there's going to be at least a couple more go over
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and they're going to get that majority for Kearney.
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How damaging that knife to the party will be, I guess,
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is going to be where Paulie Hebb is going to have to hold together.
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How are you going to maintain confidence in people?
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I mean, I think, you know, the economy is not going to grow
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grow in leaps and bounds anymore. It's sputtering. The trade war is hurting. Plants are closing.
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Mills are closing. Jobs are being lost. So that may sway some things and get the support up for
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the Conservatives again. You'd think. I mean, some of the questions people get to ask is,
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you know, how bad is it going to get? I mean, it looks bleak for those of us who watch these
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sorts of things. As you said, the manufacturing, you know, the export market, Central Canada's
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industries are in terrible trouble and meanwhile we're neutering our western canadian industries
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because we've well we we just can't get anything done we talk and talk and talk and we won't
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develop our resources so no but uh we did get a memorandum of understanding oh yeah that's exciting
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between uh prime minister carney and premier smith uh they're going to take small steps towards
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building a pipeline i'm not sure it'll ever get built in my life no small steps indeed i mean the
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flux capacitor will be invented by then and we'll all be traveling to the future and you won't need
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oil by the time these guys get one in the ground. There's this posturing, you know, frustrates me.
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We know that with liberal governments, any government, if they really want to get something
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done, they get it done. If he wanted to see that pipe, he'd be saying, we're going to make that
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thing go. But he's just feeding us. Yeah. And Premier Smith this week saying,
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uh uh you know if we can't go west we'll go uh south yeah and uh you know get it out onto the
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pacific northwest coast and for export to asia so there are more than one way to skin a cap oh yeah
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and she's had quite a year too and has another one uh to look forward to uh the agm was pretty
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lively this year in edmonton for the ucp yeah well why don't we uh delve into independence that
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was a big issue in Alberta for the year. We were both at the UCP convention when Jeff
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Rath stood up and rallied his troops and got a very large standing ovation, probably 80
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to 90% of the people there. So you're the expert on this file. You're a published best
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selling author on this file. Momentum seems to be building and there's no doubt there's
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going to be a vote yes uh and you know if we're going to take one of those ten dollar bets or
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something like i i think it's showing that the premier smith's committed to having a referendum
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held i don't i don't get the feeling she's on the side of wanting to see yes vote necessarily
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understands that referendum has to be held it's just too much pressure there's got to be a choice
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given to albertans and it gives her a lot of political leverage to play with i think it's
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going to be in fall but it looks the way the scheduling is starting to go with this and
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petitioning and so on. If nothing changes dramatically, I can't see it winning. But
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that's a long campaign period of time and a lot of events that could happen to change that
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altogether. It's stronger than I've ever seen in my life and solid. It's not just, you know,
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I'm outraged this week, but I calm down next week. This has been holding steady and growing
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since the last federal election. I mean, there was already a base of it before the last federal
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election. That just really drove it home to some people. So it's striking. As you know,
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we're talking before, I've been doing public speaking, you know, meetings as a guest speaker
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for the Alberta Prosperity Project. And these meetings are getting bigger and bigger, even bad
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weather, nasty highways, dark nights. People are getting up and coming out to these meetings and
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they're new people. It's not just the same old faces. So something's building up here and it
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can't be ignored uh so yeah i would still make that bet that i don't think there's going to be
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a positive vote by the fall of uh 2026 i hope there is that's where i sit on things uh but i
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wouldn't rule it out either i just uh things are different than we've ever seen before yeah i think
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there's probably a solid 35 percent that would vote for independence and they're they're they're
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solid you know yeah but you know there's 10 percent there that may be leading one way and
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maybe leading the other way. But when you get in that ballot box and you're choosing, there's a
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lot of unknowns, a lot of things that have to be explained, how things are going to run in
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the independent Alberta. But yeah, I think it'll top out maximum at 40%.
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We'll see. I mean, it depends on how things go in this next nine months and what kind of
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campaign is there, filling those questions, filling that void. The Alberta Prosperity
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Project's done some great ground organization and everything, but I think they're almost maxing out
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to try and reach new people. They got to change a little of their messaging, perhaps coming from
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some of their older people in there. I won't mention any particular names, but if you want to
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appeal though to the urban voters that you must appeal to, to win a referendum and the younger
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voters, you've got to change a little more of that messaging now. Just rampaging around in an
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mill-filling suit and cowboy hat in small-town meetings isn't going to get them over the line.
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I think another one of the big issues this year from all parts of the country has been regarding Indigenous people
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and everything from the Kamloops grave hoax, as you call it, the Cowichan decision in B.C.,
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throwing land ownership, home ownership up in the air.
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You know, the closing of parks in British Columbia
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and saying, you know, only Aboriginal or Indigenous people can go in it.
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who are suing school boards over these endless land acknowledgement,
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uh uh you know whatever you want to call them tributes or but i think it's it's going to be a
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continuing indigenous affairs is going to be a continuing issue in 2026 yeah that's for sure
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it's really coming to a head i mean we're talking now about large tracts of populated private
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property david evey has taken a bad situation and made it so much worse uh i mean the way they're
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saying the mixed messaging they're throwing out to say, don't worry, there's nothing to worry
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about. This is just, you know, it'll be settled. Well, now banks won't finance houses or businesses
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out there anymore. So then the government says, don't worry, we'll bail you out. Well, wait a
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minute, if this isn't really happening, why are you dedicating $150 million to buy out these people?
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And we know when you give away just a little like that, that the claims that are already there are
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going to explode hot and heavy. And there's a claim over every inch of BC in one place or another.
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Uh, and it's going to get bad, you know, when you start taking an area and some idiot judge
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and I, I'm sick of idiot judges and there's a lot of them, uh, gives away a portion of
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There's going to be people are going to say, I'm not leaving my house.
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You know, it's going to be from those cold dead fingers, sort of, uh, approaches to things
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that they've, we've, this country has got to sort out that, that, you know, you, you
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talk about idiot judges, all it takes is one smart judge, you know, to set a precedent
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ruling or a one or a Supreme court, you know, but you're right, coming to a head
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and it's got to be dealt with sooner than later.
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And, uh, it's certain them, you know, our own Jared Yeager is great for getting out
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to those conferences and that with that renaming of a bridge to some weird,
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incomprehensible thing there with that, that it was really striking when that,
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uh, you know, somebody had asked a valid question about the Chinese steel used in
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the bridge and the, the indigenous leader for the area came up and shoved the
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minister aside and then lectured with a temper tantrum, the reporter and said,
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we're only here to talk about nice stuff and celebrate stuff about us.
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Really did highlight the infantilization of the people we've managed to, because
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she acted like a six year old child having a tantrum, the entitlement and just how
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these are the people we're supposed to negotiate and reason with.
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And instead with all this pandering, this is what's been created.
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So seeing a solution out of this, we're going to, we're in for a heck of a year,
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I think, cause even EB doesn't know what to do now.
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He's created this monster and he can't manage it.
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Talking about things that we would never have predicted at the beginning of the
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year, how about a nationwide effort to save a flock of ostriches?
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Is it a flock of ostriches or herd, a gathering?
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I don't know what the term for ostriches would be.
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You know, with that much, being in the news that long, we should have,
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You get a murder of crows and so on, but I never really thought of ostriches.
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I mean, that garnered international attention for about a month when the Canadian government, the Food Inspection Agency,
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discerned they would have to slaughter all these poor creatures because one of them had avian flu last year.
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And even though none of the frog, I guess they got a herd immunity.
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That was, you know, nobody was burying their head in the sand on that one.
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Yeah, well, it was a good example of the government being ham-fisted.
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Again, you know, with their regulatory agencies, their bureaucratic agencies, so clumsy.
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I mean, if there really was a virulent virus going through there that's going to harm poultry
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production or other neighboring areas, we do have to manage that.
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But they just came in guns blazing, it seemed to be fair to those owners
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seem that they were a little, they weren't your run of the mill ranchers.
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They were a little different as well, which makes it difficult to manage,
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but I just think they did very, made it much worse than they had to.
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And one of our highlights, I always speak for myself and I'm sure I'm speaking
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for you is uh we both got to travel to one of the world's hot spots israel this year yeah very
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eye-opening it was i mean yeah quite a year to go you know during the i guess not the worst of the
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conflict but still an active one and and really get to get an eyes on the ground see the people
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uh you know it's it's it's different to as you know when you get there yourself versus what
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we're reading or seeing on tv but it's the first thing that strikes you is everybody's walking
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around with a machine gun right even in civilian clothes it's okay if an army person's carrying one
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but it's very striking to see uh you know a man walking along the beachfront in tel aviv with his
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family and he's got a you know an m16 strapped to his back well it's it's a sad necessity but
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it's comforting in the sense too i mean the horrific situation we saw on the beach in australia
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if there'd have been uh you know 50 people around with their own firearms at that time
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those sick shooters probably would have only gotten three or four shots off before they were
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neutralized as opposed to managing to kill 15 people and wound 35 others.
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We both got to go to the site of the Nova music festival massacre where hundreds of
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hundreds of people died and it's really quite a moving thing. It just crosses with everybody's
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photo on it and yeah you know they're all young people to be there and see those pictures and it
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still struck me you know because you could see these were just kids they were just partying they
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were really truly in the wrong place at the wrong time they could have been anybody's daughters or
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sons or cousins not harming anybody and and to be mercilessly slaughtered and abused as they were
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by these these monsters and that's what they were they were monsters um i'm glad for the exigent
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Foundation for bringing media members out to have a look. They weren't telling us what to write or
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what to think, but here have a look for yourself because there's been so much misinformation or
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uh you know trying to uh let's say whitewash even or just under you know
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try and set aside how horrific the actions of October 7th were. We can't let people forget
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what those guys did to start this whole mess. Even if you're critical of what Israel's doing now,
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gotta understand how this began and uh we sure saw yeah i got to travel to uh the near oz kibbutz
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that's where the bill bass family was was kidnapped from and there was an old guy there
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called shlomo believe it or not and he was taking us around to all the burned out houses and and
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we're probably about two kilometers from gaza and you could see the smoke from the bombings
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uh, you know, still rising and, uh, uh, blood still on the walls of the houses and stuff like
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that. What happened that day is, is just beyond description beyond what, what, what one human can
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do to another is just, just gross. It drives home that, that hard reality. You know, we like to
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imagine maybe it's only in the movies, maybe it's only, you know, in history books, but to realize
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that we, people really are, you know, we've lived a nice shelter life in Canada.
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It was much of a complaint about the politics and everything else.
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Comparatively, the safety and the lack of seeing anything like that happen here
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has allowed us to be complacent, but to go firsthand and see,
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realize that this can still happen today in this modern world.
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I remember traveling in Germany and going to the Dachau concentration camp.
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And it was, I thought it was kind of similar, except that Dachau was 80 years ago.
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And it was just a really, really no strike home.
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Well, hopefully next year bodes a little better somehow for what's going on.
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I mean, that was kind of the final part of it too, is just learning how complicated that
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And there's no, there's no simple solution to what's happening.
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I was surprised at how cosmopolitan Tel Aviv was.
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And I left with a good impression of Israel, but yeah, there's no easy answers.
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You've got Tel Aviv and it's beautiful and the restaurants and the cafes
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and the strikingly beautiful people all over the place.
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I mean, you go 40 miles in one direction or another, and suddenly you're into Palestinian territory, and it's a war zone.
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Well, why don't we bring in Jeremy Borg and see what stories he wants to talk about this year.
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Editing magic, Jeremy Borg is here with us, a newer member of the Western Standard family here,
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very prolific with lots of stories covered, some big stuff in the relatively short time here already.
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And well, tell us, you know, what stood out for you in your year this year with the Western
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So starting chronologically, I think the first thing we're going to have to talk about is
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so uh it was a harassment case that was brought against yaniv by donald smith uh who was then
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later possibly arrested in bc i haven't checked up on that and uh i think that's probably my most
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viral story today getting like two million views on twitter for those who don't know
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jessica yanov is a very well-known troublemaker in british columbia yeah sort of the ball waxing
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Yeah, she sued, like, beauty pageants for not letting her in
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and sued spas for refusing to wax her in the halls.
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I remember one story I did was she kept laying in the bathtub
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and calling for the fire department to come and help her out.
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Yeah, it was poor fire, but, man, it's a tough job.
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grooming minors although that hasn't been substantiated there's there's a lot there
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in the end of it she whatever is a very troubled person i mean it's clearly somebody with some
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some mental health issues but i mean it's just so comical that you we can't help but report on that
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dumpster fire yeah what an introduction to the western standard family in my first month
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after uh being at each drive politics no no let's talk about yeah yeah no i was i was uh i walked
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said that the ring of fire development just wasn't going to happen until his community was
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thriving with perfect water, you know. And that kind of stood out to me because the mainstream
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media wasn't reporting on it like that. They were saying indigenous communities, complaining about
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lack of water, lack of resources, but just randomly claiming that a huge industrial project isn't
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going to happen is just wild to me. And I never saw that before. We see a lot of those, Dave and
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I were kind of talking about that, just this whole sense of whether they hold the power
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to veto projects or not, it's got to be resolved, or we're never going to get anything done
00:22:42.680
If you can just destroy huge infrastructure projects that are going to help people make
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money and help this struggling Canadian economy, I think then we have to have a real conversation
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about what the actual role is of Indigenous people in our infrastructure projects.
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they can't just claim to shut things down when they don't
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in Ontario, because we'll hear a lot more out in the
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prairies in BC and so on. We can't forget, there's
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a large indigenous population in northern Quebec,
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Going a little further, this is sort of a two-parter.
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didn't think there were a lot of floor crossers
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the fact that it happened twice in two months is a little bit crazy
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conservative movement which is borderline a liberal movement
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just hearing about that drama in federal politics
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was quite entertaining it made my days interesting
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Dave I know you did a little bit more on Don Tremont than Ma but
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Well, they're traitorous turncoats, aren't they?
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If their constituents really wanted a liberal, they would have elected the liberal guy.
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And these guys stabbed their voters in the back.
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I've been talking to some of the constituents, some of the people who worked for them.
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And the general consensus is that Ma just absolutely stabbed them in the back without any notice.
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Including the article I wrote today, I guess would have been a couple days ago when this airs, about Ma saying that he didn't even know he was going to become a liberal until the day of.
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Which also conflicts with a couple of his prior claims.
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Yeah, it's been in the works for a little while. He's clearly a self-serving individual. That's just how politics go.
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And we can clearly see that the Kearney government is engaging in some backroom dealings to manufacture a majority rather than actually getting the votes or calling an election.
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Don Tremont was the same story, although it seemed like the Conservative Party had a little bit more notice for that one.
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They were able to sort of fight back, whereas Matt was just a complete blindsiding, including that whole Christmas party.
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scandal in the secret santa where jamil javani got snubbed uh which was another funny one i think
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uh garnet jenis an alberta mp picked up on that story i wrote um that graphic was pretty fun to
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make yeah well right on well you've been off to a good start for the season as i was saying today
00:25:43.280
of 2026 looks like it's going to be even crazier so uh rest up over the holidays and get ready to
00:25:57.260
Western Standard career so long. I asked Michelle
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good. All right, now I got both Daves in the room
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at the same time. Usually I'm just swapping one Dave
00:26:22.080
I think this is perfect for the homorotic Christmas episode of Three's Company, so...
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I said I'd go with 70's Uncle with this. I like this.
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Well, when you asked us to do this, this was kind of a bit of an odd one.
00:26:40.580
I didn't really know what to do exactly, if I should go with the one that got the most views, the one I liked, etc.
00:26:46.940
I personally liked the one I did about Eva Chipyuk, who is everyone's favorite Freedom Convoy lawyer.
00:26:52.700
And her bank account is getting canceled by the Royal Bank of Canada for no reason, really.
00:26:57.220
And then after she asked them why, they said that they flagged it because she did a transaction with Bitcoin, which she didn't exactly believe that was the main reason.
00:27:11.760
Well, I was looking as well, actually, because it was, if I remember correctly, published on July 23rd, which was one month to the day that I started working here.
00:27:18.880
So I guess I peaked early and I've crashed and burned like the Hindenburg ever since.
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What have you done for me lately is the model of this business.
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Well, I was trying to find one that was a nice one.
00:27:37.940
And there was a story here a while back about a high school football coach known as Taylor Teej Johansson, or Johansson, I believe his name is pronounced, who was in Sylvan Lake.
00:27:48.380
He was coaching football at the local high school, and he got canceled off the football team by the school there because he posted some stuff online about the trans ideology that he didn't agree with.
00:27:59.560
And then our publisher, Derek Fildebrand, did a story on that and broke the story.
00:28:04.380
And then I ran into Tiege a couple months later at the, I think it was the Alberta Municipalities Convention.
00:28:12.500
And he gave credit to the Western Standard for basically giving him exposure.
00:28:16.440
And he ran as a Christian Conservative candidate.
00:28:26.220
Obviously, I have to because, you know, reasons why.
00:28:31.020
I knew he was running, actually, and I hadn't really followed up to see if he'd gotten the spot or not.
00:28:36.640
I just ran into him at the thing and whatnot and talked to him.
00:28:39.860
And he said, oh, yeah, it's like Western Standard.
00:28:42.180
And he obviously just went on and on and said he was town councillor.
00:28:45.480
He said, who knows, maybe he might run for mayor one day, he said.
00:28:57.140
Well, I figured I'll go with three because that's usually the top three thing.
00:29:01.020
this one's kind of well this was the amusing one everyone's favorite um public safety minister a
00:29:05.900
gun grab gary now how do we pronounce this manetta sanguri i think yeah this is the one where he um
00:29:13.740
got caught talking to i think one of his tenants in his building he owns in toronto about the whole
00:29:18.460
gun grab program and basically he admitted that it was a lot to do with political ideology not so
00:29:23.820
much actually getting illegal guns and criminals off the streets and he even told the tenant that
00:29:28.540
if he got arrested because he didn't want to turn in his legally
00:29:35.940
Cape Breton pilot program happened, which was an absolute
00:29:38.700
disaster. I think they eventually confiscated, what was it,
00:29:46.460
God knows how much money that cost at the end of the day.
00:29:56.440
confiscation. They just said, hey, come on, guys, turn them
00:29:58.480
all in right exactly they weren't kicking down doors to get those guys oh and i mean that that's
00:30:03.320
about as liberal and receptive an area as you're kind of well cape right next they're kind of
00:30:07.600
special that's a special part canada but beautiful though it is beautiful absolutely but uh you know
00:30:13.280
they're they're they're like the next newfies that bunch but uh uh that gets some hate mail
00:30:19.360
from both on that one but it's uh it's just if they can't make it succeed in an area there
00:30:24.840
You know, how on earth when they start hitting the true redneck lands out in the west, are they going to have a hope of getting people, oh, yeah, sure, I'll come right in and turn in my property, you know.
00:30:34.720
It's got billion-dollar boondogal written all over it.
00:30:37.640
Oh, they just wanted to outdo Alan Rock and his intents to bring up a name from the past.
00:30:44.360
No, I don't think, obviously, it's not going to work.
00:30:49.400
Maybe, you know, maybe Carney will get smart and just let it go away.
00:30:52.500
I don't know that that ideology and simple solution to complex problems won't go away though on the liberal end. I mean, we saw that in its worst way just recently with, again, the Australian horrible massacre. I mean, the same day, the politicians are coming out saying this means we need more laws against law abiding gun owners. You don't, you just don't get it. And they won't.
00:31:17.700
No, it's funny. They just, geez, I wonder if they were registered.
00:31:29.860
Oh, I usually don't try to do those, Dave, because I'm always wrong.
00:31:36.280
I don't do those either because I tend to fall through with those.
00:31:40.560
I was kind of hoping your resolution would be to get a new sport coat.
00:31:44.000
Hey, this is a new sport coat, Dave, I'll say for the record.
00:31:49.360
I know it looks a bit old, but that's the whole charm of it.
00:31:57.280
I wanted to send in the very much more fashionable Liam Musher.
00:32:10.420
You've got 364 more days to shop for your outfit for next year's.
00:32:17.780
Okay, maybe that's one thing I'll have planned.
00:32:26.780
You've been hard at it for some time in the Western Standard office.
00:32:30.060
I know you must have a number of stories under your belt that you want to expand on
00:32:35.580
and what's been happening in this crazy year and what you've been covering.
00:32:41.280
It was when I did a breakdown of basically the free speech laws in Europe
00:32:46.940
and relating it back to Bill C-9, which is obviously going through the process of being
00:32:52.760
legislated right now, which is the Combating Hate Act. Yeah, well, basically, I learned that,
00:32:59.080
for example, the UK has had free speech. What's the word for it?
00:33:06.840
Restrictions? Restrictions. Yes, restrictions for quite some time. Like there was two. There
00:33:13.400
was one in 1988 and there's one in 2003 that was legislated that basically says you're not allowed
00:33:19.940
to comment and any hateful things to people in general so i don't know i just found that very
00:33:27.000
interesting because i think it kind of shows the future of where canada is going and it's a very
00:33:32.960
slow kind of rule to get there we had a story this week on a guy in england who was sentenced
00:33:40.560
to a year and a half in jail for two tweets slamming immigration
00:33:50.800
Again, we were speaking earlier of idiot judges, right?
00:33:52.880
Like, I mean, how, especially when you look at 33 views,
00:33:56.560
even if whatever he said was horrific and hateful.
00:34:02.220
I mean, they've been emptying prisons out to put tweeters in.
00:34:09.360
You see it happening over there, and you see what the Liberals are doing, and it's a pretty good comparison as to what may come.
00:34:17.880
Well, and some of us who are a little more outspoken than others on X, I'm probably going to get charged because I won't shut the hell up.
00:34:24.920
Well, you're going to get charged with residential school denialism.
00:34:28.280
Yeah, well, that's another direction we're going.
00:34:29.820
That NDP private member's bill is going through.
00:34:31.860
to, uh, uh, and I mean, that's another story that hit too, with the ceiling of the, uh,
00:34:37.560
Kamloops residential school files now. So there's been no resolution. They gave them $12 million.
00:34:42.600
It looks like they did nothing but bought new trucks. And, uh, now that people kept asking
00:34:46.020
questions, what are you guys done with the money? The governments decide we're just going to seal
00:34:49.120
the records, no more questions. Okay. And we'll start charging people if you ask questions in the
00:34:54.320
future. That's crazy. So I better get myself a measure for an orange jumpsuit.
00:35:01.860
Okay, also, the next one I got that I found kind of interesting, because I actually had to go and, like, basically witness police, Calgary police cracking down on crime.
00:35:15.280
So I got to, like, walk along with Sergeant Christian Thorpe, that was his name, and they basically were claiming they were going to, I don't know, stop crime.
00:35:28.780
But what I basically saw was people just talking to the homeless people and telling them to leave, but then they would just go, you know, stand, sit somewhere else.
00:35:39.980
It didn't seem like they were doing that much, but yeah, that was my experience.
00:35:45.100
Yeah, the police, you know, all over the country kind of do these media opportunities where they look.
00:35:51.000
I think the police chief had 200 cops down there or something.
00:35:55.220
large number and it works for about three hours and then the meth heads are back on the corner.
00:36:02.440
As Leah said, I mean, you're only going to move from one spot to another. It's not like you can
00:36:05.560
go tell a homeless man, go home. I mean, all you can say is don't stand on this corner. Okay, well,
00:36:10.100
I guess I'll go stand on that corner or in that alley or that doorway. It's a big problem, but
00:36:17.300
it shows, unfortunately, I'm glad you went down in person to see that the impression of doing
00:36:22.420
something unfortunately is more often important to them than actually doing something but what
00:36:26.980
are they supposed to do arrest them fill the jails for i mean it's yeah especially because
00:36:32.000
we went to the drop-in center as well and i think the drop-in center can only uh the capacity is
00:36:37.880
like a thousand people and i think 2024 stats said homeless uh population in calgary was like
00:36:45.360
three thousand or so so it could be even more now for for all we know so even if everyone is going
00:36:51.680
into the dropping center. There's still not enough. Even with a Salvation Army, I'm pretty
00:36:55.740
sure it's only a few hundred. So yeah. On what we do need, I think, and as I imagine you saw evident,
00:37:01.960
we all, anybody who works downtown, the bulk of the people on the street, you know, they didn't
00:37:06.860
fall through the cracks. It's not for lack of jobs. It's not for lack of affordable housing.
00:37:10.100
They're either addicted to something or they have a mental issue, a mental health issue, or both.
00:37:14.560
I mean, I've gone on enough columns and so on about it, but we need facilities to house
00:37:19.380
addicts and mentally ill people, not homeless shelters, but our government's not ready to face
00:37:25.960
that yet. Well, they're slowly taking very small steps to that treatment, you know, forcing people
00:37:32.780
into treatment through a court order. And, you know, that's, that's one way we haven't tried
00:37:38.100
it before. So why not give it a go? Yeah. Well, there's something I put out on X that might have
00:37:42.080
been considered hateful by some, but that got a lot of attention the other week when I was driving
00:37:45.160
and there was a guy shuffling up between the vehicle's terrible cold weather.
00:37:49.060
His pants are hanging down, his butt's hanging out,
00:37:52.120
which you see with lots of it's because those addicts have lost weight so dramatically.
00:37:56.100
That's where their pants are always falling down.
00:37:57.820
And because his pants had fallen down, it became evident he'd lost body control,
00:38:05.620
And I treated her just to say, you know, and here we have advocates saying,
00:38:08.460
we can't pick a guy who's in a late-stage condition like this off the streets
00:38:11.920
and try to force treatment or at least clean them up, force feet, whatever.
00:38:15.040
you know, because they want to maintain their dignity. Like that ship sailed. This poor man,
00:38:20.560
there's no dignity left in him anymore. I think, you know, I'm glad you got out to see at least,
00:38:25.360
you know, in person and then see what the police, that's the point of media, I think,
00:38:28.000
get out there where not other people will and see on the ground, not just what the activists and
00:38:32.800
advocates are going to say, the hard reality, because then maybe the big people are receptive
00:38:38.000
to the hard solutions, which means, yeah, sometimes we got to force people in because
00:38:55.400
they can really do anything as well, because it's
00:39:09.320
It's a mess. It's in every city, but I mean, yeah, credit were due as you brought up. I mean,
00:39:14.420
Jason Kinney started that with expanding the treatment facilities and Premier Smith has
00:39:18.880
carried on with that. Talk about that legislation. It'll be interesting to see the numbers come in
00:39:22.820
because some of our overdose numbers were kind of starting to come down a little bit once the
00:39:26.000
treatments facilities expanded. Hopefully that trend has been continuing because Vancouver's,
00:39:32.340
you know, of course, been trying the other way and that hasn't worked.
00:39:35.140
I think we're still getting eight people a day dying from fentanyl.
00:39:42.560
Hopefully, Donald Trump, if he keeps blowing up the boats,
00:39:57.360
I hope for the orange man to accomplish something,
00:40:04.240
wayland just so he could push the first dib of panel i don't know i mean predicting anything
00:40:10.560
donald trump might do i mean boy you want to ask about pulling out a crystal ball the only thing i
00:40:15.960
would give a little bit of credit to him for and i know you know again a conservative is going to
00:40:19.780
i've never been a fan of his though he's not a hawk there's never even in his first administration
00:40:24.760
and in this one he's never been that eager to send american troops into war zones that's not
00:40:29.860
been his thing. Obama actually did a lot more actions when he was in than Donald Trump did.
00:40:34.180
So whatever Trump does, he doesn't like sending soldiers into foreign situations.
00:40:38.580
So I would guess it to be unlikely, he would directly go into Venezuela, pressure them,
00:40:42.420
do other things, you know, maybe blockading, but I don't know about putting people on the ground.
00:40:46.260
Yeah. Maduro seems in no hurry to go though, does he? I mean, he's completely surrounded by
00:40:51.540
aircraft carriers now with all their guns pointed at him. They could do it through siege,
00:40:56.980
kind of as they happen yeah yeah anything else that's all i got all right what about your
00:41:03.020
prediction for next year prediction something that's going to happen that's what a prediction
00:41:07.460
means yeah okay just clarifying okay what should i predict i don't know maybe trump will invade
00:41:16.220
no i don't yeah sorry i didn't mean to put you on the spotlight
00:41:50.260
nastiness like that. So I think that's going to be a big issue next year.
00:41:54.820
You'll have to stay on top of and follow stories.
00:41:57.340
Especially cause I'm pretty sure, didn't they just pause the legislation for
00:42:01.140
mental health to be included? I think it's for 2027.
00:42:05.620
It's 2027. So yeah, it's going to be an important story to keep an eye on and
00:42:10.700
Right on. Thanks for checking in and we'll see what you're on in the new year.
00:42:19.240
Well, and yeah, trying to get through all those reporters, all those stories.
00:42:22.620
We did overlook, and Jeremy was going to mention it.
00:42:24.540
And there was a massive story from last year that really changed the landscape,
00:42:33.780
Yeah, and it sort of came out of nowhere, you know,
00:42:36.780
and it started moving across the internets and whatnot.
00:42:41.380
And the thing that will always stay with me is that horrible video, right?
00:42:46.620
And if you haven't seen it, don't go look for it because it's very graphic.
00:42:52.380
But yeah, you know, I think it's all a product of the environment down there, though, isn't it?
00:43:00.100
You've got two sides that are completely polarized, you know, the Democrats and the Republicans.
00:43:07.300
And the visceral hatred was going to lead to something like this.
00:43:11.420
It's unfortunate. When you dehumanize your opponent, when you, you know, bring it beyond the politics and you start calling them evil, you start calling them Nazis, you start calling them, you know, communists, everything, when you get too far out and beyond the pale with somebody unhinged, you know, because it still takes somebody unhinged to ever pick up arms.
00:43:31.940
You know, your average person can get very angry and even extreme, but most won't do that.
00:43:37.860
They think they're doing the world a favor and it's tragic.
00:43:43.760
You know, I don't want to say it's going to happen in Canada, not forbid, but, you know, we're a polarized country now too.
00:43:51.320
We've got two sides completely opposite and, you know, both have nothing good to say about the other.
00:43:57.300
um so you know all the leaders when when that stuff happens all the leaders say we got to
00:44:04.960
ratchet it down we got to ratchet it down and then like yesterday trump went on an 18 minute
00:44:10.200
speech just blasting biden right and calling him every name in the book so it didn't uh it hasn't
00:44:18.180
ratcheted down at all um you know so it's it was a tragic uh tragic case and uh
00:44:27.300
You know, his wife and kids were there at the university,
00:44:32.380
and his wife has stepped forward to try and fill his shoes,
00:44:44.080
Well, if nothing else, you know, end off, you know,
00:44:47.780
where you talked earlier with learning something,
00:44:49.700
and Israel was never wanting to see where it comes to gunfire
00:44:53.180
because we see how awful and terrible it can really get.
00:44:56.020
So, you know, whatever you think, folks, however bad it gets, it gets, don't, don't go that path.
00:45:05.700
We'll get ready for the new year and a whole pack of new stories.
00:45:08.600
It's been an eventful year and you're, you're off to Arizona in the new year.
00:45:13.400
And I'm going to do a couple of shows from down there out in the desert.
00:45:22.480
I'll be a little less conspiratorial perhaps, but.
00:45:32.800
All right, and thank everybody else out there, guys.
00:45:35.800
If you haven't subscribed, I've got to throw that last plug in.
00:45:38.540
Check it out, westernstandard.news slash subscription.
00:45:44.760
And, you know, help support independent media so we can get that messaging to you for another year.
00:46:08.220
Just don't shoot at each other or hit each other.
00:46:10.700
By the way, Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy Holidays,