Western Standard - Canada Cannot Be Fixed

00:00:00.000 Thanks for coming on to join me today, Michael.

00:00:02.480 Thanks for having me, Corey. Can you hear me?

00:00:04.260 I do, yes. You're coming in nice and clear.

00:00:06.680 Okay, great, because I didn't know if I needed a headset.

00:00:09.560 No, no, you're coming in good.

00:00:11.260 So yeah, I'll just start with that.

00:00:12.600 You know, I've got your books in here as well.

00:00:14.780 This is time to leave. Canada cannot be fixed.

00:00:17.680 And as I was saying, with the gridlock going on in Parliament right now,

00:00:20.800 kind of shows a little bit of that with the system being broken,

00:00:23.340 you know, not just the policies necessarily.

00:00:27.240 And your other book, I mean, this is a really nice look,

00:00:29.160 and I got to give them back to Nigel now.

00:00:30.420 He lent them to me so I could read them.

00:00:31.740 But Canada, Standing on Guard for the, a really nice looking book.

00:00:35.680 And it's your 18th anniversary of this one.

00:00:38.380 So both interesting reads.

00:00:41.540 So with the time to leave, I mean, you've written, I'll let you explain it.

00:00:45.340 You've written on independence and sort of implied that it's time to leave for a while anyways.

00:00:49.620 What's new in this one to make the case a little better to people?

00:00:54.800 Yeah, well, I wrote my book, No Other Option in 2021,

00:00:58.020 as to present my case for independence.

00:01:00.480 I got written a history of the Alberta independence movement in 2009 called Alberta Separatism Then and Now.

00:01:05.400 But that wasn't an advocacy book so much, at least not explicitly, more subtly.

00:01:09.260 So in 2021, I wrote No Other Option to make the explicit case for Alberta independence.

00:01:13.780 And I found a lot of people were sympathetic.

00:01:15.780 But so many people would say to me, you know, Alberta should become independent.

00:01:18.900 But first, we need to try to reform Canada.

00:01:21.540 And after we've tried to reform Canada, if that doesn't work, then we'll try to become independent.

00:01:27.080 But for me, that was a frustrating argument because so much of our history for the last 40 or 50 years

00:01:32.860 has showed how we have tried to reform Canada.

00:01:35.920 And it didn't work.

00:01:36.900 And we've tried everything reasonable so far.

00:01:39.360 And so, you know, I wasn't expecting to write another book advocating Alberta independence.

00:01:43.500 But I really had to counter the argument that we still need to try to reform Canada

00:01:48.320 because there are many things I talk about in Time to Leave in more detail than in No Other Option

00:01:52.900 that show we've tried to reform Canada.

00:01:55.280 And like the two biggest ways in which we tried to do that was, you know, number one, the Reform Party

00:02:01.540 and number two, Senate reform.

00:02:03.440 And we started on Senate reform, you know, in the late by late 1970s.

00:02:06.460 So there are things we worked on for that many good Albertans worked on for many, many years.

00:02:11.200 And they didn't, they were not successful.

00:02:13.240 And so I'm saying, you know, we have tried to reform Canada.

00:02:15.700 And since none of these efforts we've tried over the decades have worked,

00:02:19.760 we really have to go now for the independence referendum.

00:02:22.620 That's the only thing we have left that we haven't tried.

00:02:24.380 And, you know, when I talk about Senate reform and the Reform Party,

00:02:27.620 these people did the best.

00:02:28.920 Like, it's not a matter of we can do these again and do better.

00:02:31.620 We can't.

00:02:32.200 We had the very best people, you know, in the Reform Party and advocating Senate reform.

00:02:36.340 And if our very best people cannot achieve it, you know, doing their very best,

00:02:40.580 then, you know, those are not viable options for us.

00:02:43.040 And as you mentioned earlier, you know, it's a system that's broken.

00:02:46.340 And Central Canada benefits from the system, so they do not want it reformed.

00:02:50.060 And so our only, the only thing we have left now is the independence referendum.

00:02:53.240 And so Time to Leave is different from No Other Option in the sense that it really focuses

00:02:58.160 specifically on, you know, showing how we've tried so many things that haven't worked.

00:03:02.920 That's kind of the main theme of the book.

00:03:04.540 And so, you know, all these books cover the same time period in a sense,

00:03:08.240 because, you know, from the 1970s up until now.

00:03:11.200 But they're not covering, they're using, there's different information.

00:03:15.580 So you're not, if you buy one of the, two of the books, you're not getting the duplicated

00:03:18.940 information that way.

00:03:20.560 No, and I understood that, you know, in reading it, but I figured it best for you to explain

00:03:24.580 that so people don't realize you didn't just slap a new cover on an old book and sell it

00:03:28.460 again.

00:03:28.920 There's something different and a different approach to things in the new ones.

00:03:32.280 So I appreciate that.

00:03:34.380 And then I saw you recently at the Ted Byfield event in Edmonton.

00:03:39.100 And of course, you know, he was an amazing Albertan and, you know, he came from elsewhere

00:03:43.760 in Alberta, but he established himself here.

00:03:46.440 And a little while ago, I read actually Ted Byfield, one of his books.

00:03:50.800 And it reminded me once I read your, you know, standing on guard for V on the unapologetic

00:03:57.800 social, conservative, and Christian stance, which is fine.

00:04:01.220 And I was really fascinated with it.

00:04:03.440 And I wanted to talk to you a little bit about that.

00:04:05.100 Not so much on the, I mean, we will talk a bit about the content of your book, but you

00:04:08.280 see where somebody like myself, I'm very much not on the socially conservative side

00:04:12.060 or, or, or a person of faith, but we have a big commonality in supporting individual

00:04:17.820 freedom.

00:04:18.280 And that's how we can sit in the same room and, and respect each other.

00:04:22.300 And, and if we could fix the system, that's how we could all be satisfied.

00:04:26.200 Like there is a way.

00:04:29.520 Yeah, for sure.

00:04:30.380 And, you know, for me, you know, I write about, um, as you mentioned that, that book

00:04:34.620 that's being redone, that's about, um, Christian political activism.

00:04:38.280 And one of the main people in that, like, there's three key people I identify in that.

00:04:43.620 And one of them is Ted Byfield.

00:04:45.420 And then when I write about Alberta independence topics, very often the key person again is

00:04:50.100 Ted Byfield.

00:04:50.700 Like he, he really, um, brings together both of those elements, but yeah, I mean, uh, like,

00:04:56.040 well, there's a, there's a term I've used in, in one of my other books that I call

00:04:58.740 by field conservatism and by field conservatism is, you know, there's three principles to it.

00:05:03.420 One is free enterprise economics, you kind of libertarian side of things.

00:05:06.720 Uh, one is, um, you know, defense of Western regional interests.

00:05:10.560 And one is, uh, defense of, you know, social conservative ideas like traditional morality.

00:05:14.840 But, you know, so those are kind of the bedrock ideas of what I call by field conservatism,

00:05:18.540 which is in a sense, Alberta conservatism.

00:05:20.560 But yeah, there, there is so much in common in terms of the individual freedom thing,

00:05:23.740 as you mentioned.

00:05:24.280 And, and, you know, that's why, you know, say a party like the UCP has elements of both

00:05:29.100 and they can work together, you know, um, in terms of, uh, like opposing the NDP.

00:05:33.500 Right.

00:05:34.000 So yeah.

00:05:35.380 And I mean, I think that the common enemy we always have is authoritarianism, whether it's

00:05:39.700 right or left, if it's too far, then, then we can't stay in the room.

00:05:43.820 Then we start fighting with each other.

00:05:45.280 And that's how we start spinning our wheels.

00:05:46.880 I saw just today, yet another one of those common type of court challenges there's down

00:05:51.420 in the States has been going for years.

00:05:52.720 I guess somebody had demanded, uh, I think it was in Colorado, a trans cake, a cake, you 0.99

00:05:57.920 know, uh, to celebrate, uh, his transition to a new gender.

00:06:03.820 You know, the court threw it out finally.

00:06:07.560 Can't we have both sides?

00:06:08.780 Can you not just say this is a grown adult and, and he or she can transition to whatever

00:06:12.120 the heck they please and go with what they will.

00:06:14.280 But this is also a private business owner.

00:06:15.880 And if they don't want to provide this, go to another bakery.

00:06:19.720 Like it should be that simple, but the far end on both sides are saying, well, you shouldn't

00:06:24.880 be allowed to do that as a grown adult.

00:06:26.460 And the other side is saying you shouldn't be allowed to do that as an independent business

00:06:29.460 owner.

00:06:29.760 And I think both are wrong.

00:06:33.000 Yeah.

00:06:33.360 Like, I think that's an important point you make there because, you know, a lot of the,

00:06:37.620 um, elements of, I would turn broadly the sexual revolution in this particular, you know,

00:06:42.160 say the gay rights element, a lot of it was originally proposed as a libertarian idea.

00:06:46.580 Let people live their lives as they want and do what they want.

00:06:49.300 And there's, and that gets support because that makes so much sense to so many people.

00:06:53.120 You live the way you want.

00:06:54.480 Let me live the way I want.

00:06:55.900 And we can get along together that way.

00:06:57.620 Right.

00:06:57.820 In society.

00:06:58.420 But you have the examples, like you brought up, here's a Christian businessman who does

00:07:02.320 not want to participate in certain, uh, you know, baking a cake for certain activities

00:07:06.760 or, or certain identities.

00:07:08.360 And yet, um, they go after him.

00:07:10.460 Like once they realize that he won't, you know, a number of, he's got a number of these

00:07:14.240 cases that have happened because people go directly to him deliberately to cause him

00:07:17.480 trouble because they want to force him to embrace their, their way of, of doing things.

00:07:21.820 Now, if they would like back off from that and say, well, he's, he's got his views.

00:07:25.700 We'll let him live according to his views.

00:07:27.780 He can do that.

00:07:28.600 And we'll do our thing.

00:07:29.780 You know, uh, we'd have a lot more peace in society.

00:07:31.760 If, if people were that way, you know, that that's the original libertarian thing.

00:07:35.300 You live your way and I'll live mine.

00:07:36.860 You know, that does provide a good basis, but, um, but it's so hard for many people to

00:07:41.060 accept that, you know, when they see someone who doesn't agree with them, they want to,

00:07:44.280 for some reason or other take action to, to shut that down or to force some kind of conformity.

00:07:48.680 And, you know, we see a lot of the right now because the progressives are, are, are in power

00:07:53.280 to one degree or another.

00:07:54.160 They want to enforce conformity.

00:07:55.900 Like we saw that with the NDP and the Christian schools, you know, if, uh, uh, uh, Rachel

00:07:59.980 Notley's government was going to shut down some Christian schools because they were unwilling

00:08:03.180 to adopt certain, uh, pro LGBTQ policies.

00:08:06.760 And if it wasn't for Jason Kenney being elected in 2019, you know, that would have gone ahead.

00:08:10.400 And it's, it's because, you know, the progressives and probably people on the right too, to some

00:08:14.280 degree have this thing that you must live according to what I believe.

00:08:18.020 And if you don't, then the government's going to make you do it.

00:08:20.360 You know what I mean? So, so that libertarian idealist is so much better in the sense of

00:08:24.800 allowing people just to live their own lives and not interfere with what other people are

00:08:29.700 doing in their own business.

00:08:30.760 Well, yeah. And school choice. I mean, it's such an integral part of the whole thing, because

00:08:34.840 I think that's where a lot of people, they have their different views. They want their

00:08:38.500 children educated with values that they share. And, and right now they're not leaving the

00:08:44.620 public system to be a generic, then reading, writing, and arithmetic institution. They're

00:08:49.440 putting in woke values into these institutions that a lot of parents differ with. People should

00:08:55.200 have the choice then to put their children into a different place. And that shouldn't

00:08:58.300 be controversial. Uh, but it is unfortunately. I mean, you know, what's wrong with a Christian 1.00

00:09:03.500 school? If you don't like it, don't go there. But, uh, do, do you talk? I don't believe so.

00:09:08.600 But I mean, you know, a voucher system, these are the things we could explore with a new system.

00:09:12.520 Like we could really bring about some things where we can allow those freedoms and choice.

00:09:17.080 Yeah. Well, actually, uh, this is one of the areas of lots of interest to me, even though

00:09:23.140 it's not in the standing on guard for the book, um, the idea of education, because my wife

00:09:26.580 and I, we've home educated right from the very beginning. Like we we've been firmly in that.

00:09:30.900 And so in graduate school, actually my kind of my area of expertise was on, on school choice

00:09:34.800 in Alberta to some degree. So this is a very important issue. You know, the progressives

00:09:39.660 like to talk about diversity, but then when it comes to school, it's one size fits all.

00:09:44.660 And the, the ideas that you're talking about educational choice, that is genuine diversity.

00:09:49.680 You know, you've got your public schools, charter schools, which are kind of public schools, different

00:09:53.600 kinds of independent schools, home education. The more options people have is the more genuine

00:09:58.760 diversity you have. And the more you actually, um, serve the needs of the people. Like there's

00:10:03.220 different kinds of families with different views. And, um, when you have this kind of educational

00:10:07.780 choice, like a vast amount of educational choice that serves the families where they're at. If they

00:10:11.940 want to go to public school, there's probably one right down the road. If they want a more

00:10:15.220 specialized charter school, maybe they can find one, especially if they're in a big city, you know,

00:10:18.740 if there, if there's a kind of private school that they want, there's, there's lots of different

00:10:22.500 kinds of ones, uh, you know, in Alberta, you know, partially depends on where you live and things

00:10:26.580 like that. And then home education, you can do that in any part of the province. And then even within

00:10:30.180 home education, um, there's like, there's different degrees to which you can, you can follow the

00:10:34.100 government curriculum, or you can follow a different curriculum, or you can do what some

00:10:37.220 people call unschooling, where you just kind of let the children, you know, follow their own

00:10:41.300 interests into whichever degree, but, but there's so much like, this is a real libertarian, uh, success

00:10:47.060 story, educational choice, that people can choose what's best for their family, for their children.

00:10:52.420 And they don't even have to choose one and stick with it. You know, if they can try something,

00:10:55.140 it's not working for their kids. Like a lot of people in home education, you know, first sent their

00:10:58.900 kids to school and the school didn't work for them. And so they can bring this child home and work with

00:11:03.940 the child home. Like there's just so much opportunity there. And so, and the more freedom

00:11:07.140 there is, the more genuine diversity there is, and the better the needs of the families and children

00:11:12.100 are served. Well, absolutely. I mean, one of the areas getting outside of the social conflict and

00:11:17.540 things like that is different children's do respond differently to different types of education.

00:11:22.340 Some kids are really well geared for a hands-on. They could be a fantastic mechanic or, uh, you know,

00:11:28.180 or a trades person or something like that. But in the public school, they treat that as if it's

00:11:33.060 not a decent trade or they say, that's where we stick the troublesome kids. Well, no, actually.

00:11:38.500 And, and perhaps if those children were put into the schools that they're better, uh, accustomed to,

00:11:43.380 they could be even better mechanics, even better, uh, electricians and such, and they'll do very well

00:11:48.340 for themselves. But you need to give that choice to apply to the different kids. As you said, we're,

00:11:51.780 we're trying to stuff everybody into the same bowl and it's harming all of them.

00:11:57.060 Yeah. And, you know, just as an example of that, and this is something I think I've experienced in my own

00:12:01.220 life is like boys in particular develop a little bit slower than girls do, uh, you know, academically.

00:12:07.380 And some boys at certain ages, you know, are not ready to read. Like in, we think in education,

00:12:12.500 well, at a certain age, every child should be reading at a certain level. You know what I mean?

00:12:15.860 But some boys develop slower. And, and like, I think I was that way. Cause I remember in grade two,

00:12:20.820 I was taken out of class to read with some new Canadian children. I was probably wasn't very good.

00:12:24.820 So when I was, I was forced to learn to read too early. And so boys that are forced to read too

00:12:30.980 early, learn that reading is hard. That's one of the messages they get. And they learn that they

00:12:35.380 don't like reading. You know what I mean? And later on reading became one of my favorite things,

00:12:39.380 but, but for many years I didn't like reading. And I think it was because it was pushed on me too early.

00:12:44.100 You know what I mean? I wasn't quite ready for it. And I think that's true for many boys. You know,

00:12:47.060 I've heard that before, well, this boy, he's, he's not reading up to his level and you want to shove it down his

00:12:51.700 throat and he's not going to like reading if you do that. You know what I mean? Or if you let them

00:12:55.540 develop at their own level, when they're ready, uh, then they, then they will like it because

00:12:59.780 they're ready for it. And there's few gifts better than literacy. Um, I'll kind of start closing to a

00:13:06.020 good question from one of the commenters. It kind of puts you on the spot. Maybe you don't have to come

00:13:09.540 up with all five, but it's a good question. Peter LaFontaine, you know, taking it back towards the

00:13:13.140 independence front, uh, saying, can, can your guests list five key policies that most Albertans would want and

00:13:17.860 agree on? And, uh, you know, kind of then what we don't have though, without the separation,

00:13:23.060 like what are we being held up from then in the current system?

00:13:28.660 Well, I think that like the number one thing would be economic development that we could do on our own.

00:13:32.980 Um, you know, the climate change policies, sorry, climate change policies of the Trudeau government,

00:13:39.460 you know, hamper our economic development. So, um, I think Albertans would, uh, agree for the most

00:13:44.980 part on the need for, um, having a robust development of our natural resources, especially

00:13:50.740 our energy resources. And I think we could do much better independently than under Justin Trudeau

00:13:56.260 and the Canadian government. Um, I don't know if I can do five. Uh, I mean, I just, I present,

00:14:01.940 I just present independence as an independent Alberta Albertans get to decide our future.

00:14:07.140 You know what I mean? Like right now, the way system, the system is, um, people essentially,

00:14:12.100 you know, generally speaking in Ontario and Quebec, they elect the government and they decide what,

00:14:16.740 what is best for Alberta, you know, in terms of the federal responsibilities. And so they make

00:14:21.060 these kinds of policies like climate change or, you know, uh, trying to restrict, uh, freedom of

00:14:25.780 expression on the internet. And I could, you know, if I had time, I could probably think of others.

00:14:29.620 And these are not policies favored by Albertans. These are favored by people I say in Toronto and

00:14:34.260 Montreal where, you know, so many of the votes come from that, uh, elect the government there.

00:14:38.660 So if we had our own government here in Alberta, the people who run the province, uh, would govern

00:14:45.540 the province in accordance with the desires of Albertans and not in accordance with the desires

00:14:49.300 of people in Toronto and Montreal. Like they'd have to, we would be electing our own leaders and

00:14:53.700 our own leaders would do what we want or else we'd get rid of them right now as it is. Um, we hope that

00:14:58.660 Justin Trudeau will lose the election, uh, next year, but it's not up to us. Like we were always voting

00:15:03.860 against them anyway. It's up to people in Ontario and Quebec to put them up. But so our destiny is

00:15:08.100 outside of our own control. Like this is a democracy. We're supposed to be able to elect the people

00:15:12.100 that, you know, make these decisions for us and our own destinies in our own control. That is only

00:15:16.100 possible for an independent country because right now our destiny is controlled by people who are 1.00

00:15:20.500 elected in, you know, Toronto and Montreal, Ottawa, that kind of area for the most part.

00:15:25.780 Yeah. And I mean, just, it's just that localized decision making it alone. I mean, then we could,

00:15:29.700 we could spend a lot of time talking about the different individual policies. The main thing is that using

00:15:33.700 independence as a catalyst to be able to rebuild that system. Um, so yeah, the time went quickly

00:15:38.820 and before I let you go, you know, these are the books, where can folks get out and get their copies

00:15:42.260 and guys, it's worth it. Michael's writing is great. Okay. Well, they're, they're going to be

00:15:46.820 available on Amazon. There's actually pages for them on Amazon. They standing on guard for the,

00:15:50.500 you can pre-order it already. It's being released in January 1st, uh, time to leave. Um, if there's a page

00:15:56.580 for it on Amazon, like Kindle's available, but for some reason, Amazon is dragging its feet on getting the paper

00:16:01.540 copies available, but at some point, Amazon should have them there hopefully soon. Also,

00:16:05.780 there's a local Alberta business. It's called merchant ship, but their website is merchant ship.ca.

00:16:11.220 They will be carrying both books. Uh, hopefully they'll soon have time to leave available there.

00:16:15.460 Cause I know they have copies. They just haven't had time to put it up on their website yet.

00:16:18.580 Excellent. Well, I, I appreciate you coming in to talk again. It's been a while and, uh, I, yeah,

00:16:24.820 I appreciate the writing and I hope folks rush out and get those. So, uh, thanks again, Michael,

00:16:28.900 Michael and I I'm sure we'll talk again soon. Thanks for having me. It's been great to talk to you.

Western Standard - October 15, 2024

Canada Cannot Be Fixed

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript