Western Standard - Canada’s bureaucratic class contributes to the mass immigration mess

00:00:00.000 So

00:00:30.400 good day welcome to the cory morgan show as you can see by my background no more cactus no more

00:00:35.440 mountains it's not sitting in the comfortable sun i'm back and i see the weather of alberta

00:00:42.480 just made a point of reminding me of what i was hiding from all winter i guess it was quite nice

00:00:46.560 most of the time i was gone but my lord it's terrible out there right now now well i'll get

00:00:52.320 over it's just a couple of days a taste for it and of course nothing ever stopped while i was

00:00:55.920 gone i was doing my shows was gone as he as you saw and uh now i'll be back to do them it's going

00:01:00.640 to be a busy busy eight months boy this is the the year of independence and a lot going on so i'm

00:01:06.240 going to talk actually a little while with franco terrazzano you know on some federal issues he's

00:01:10.000 talking about the bailouts to uh canada post uh and we got a floor crosser matt jenneroo uh one

00:01:19.040 of the things the taxpayers federation has been talking about is the raises given to our members

00:01:22.720 of parliament they're very well compensated those guys and they're getting another raise right away

00:01:26.560 that sure earned it hasn't he i can't wait to find out exactly what positions he gets and what raises

00:01:31.120 he gets so yeah the people up in edmonton i'm sure a number of them aren't terribly thrilled with them

00:01:36.080 all right well let me get going on what i want to rant about today and it's mass immigration it's a

00:01:40.960 big subject david coletto actually put out some interesting numbers i mean canada is just beyond

00:01:45.680 the pale with the numbers that have been coming in thanks to trudeau's lunacy and it's threatening

00:01:51.440 the social and economic well-being of the entire western world one needs to only look at the

00:01:55.360 catastrophes in europe as decades of unchecked immigration has led to entire sections of cities

00:02:00.320 becoming uninhabitable to locally born citizens while race riots and demonstrations choke cities

00:02:05.360 on a regular basis integration has become nearly impossible as migrants cluster into introverted 1.00

00:02:10.800 communities of their own and refuse to adapt to the cultural norms of democracies that they entered

00:02:16.320 what we're observing in europe is a precursor of what canada can look forward to if there isn't a

00:02:20.480 radical shift in immigration policies. Trudeau's decade of mass immigration led to overwhelmed

00:02:25.840 healthcare and education services while a housing crisis emerged. Now, Prime Minister Mark Carney,

00:02:30.400 he's taken some tepid steps in fixing the problem, but it's only so far amounted to shuffling it

00:02:35.200 around. I mean, for example, the 1.2 billion program that was giving refugees hotel rooms

00:02:40.960 in Canada has been ended. That just means the refugees are packing into Canadian shelters.

00:02:45.280 nothing's going to improve until the actual flow of incoming refugees and many others is cut 1.00

00:02:50.400 and those who don't belong in Canada are deported. While cowardly politicians deserve much of the 0.92

00:02:55.680 blame for this growing crisis, the massive bloated bureaucracies that have mushroomed

00:03:00.000 in western democracies have made immigration reform close to impossible. Canada's system

00:03:05.040 of immigration processing and control is so hopelessly inefficient and rife with ineptitude

00:03:10.080 that the backlogs just continue to grow no matter how much more money is tossed at the issue. It's

00:03:15.600 unfair to both Canadian citizens and to those well-meaning immigrants who are trying to legally 1.00

00:03:20.080 enter the country. Last October, the total number of applications in immigration, refugees, and

00:03:25.120 citizenship in Canada inventories was 2,182,000. They got an accurate count of it. The backlog is

00:03:32.400 only continuing to grow and it's little wonder when one looks at the speed which they process

00:03:37.040 applications at. Privately sponsored refugees often wait nearly three years for their application

00:03:42.220 to be processed. Government-assisted refugees wait over two years. In the meantime, they sit 0.99

00:03:47.800 in limbo within Canada and collect either some form of social assistance or often disappear as

00:03:52.060 they head across the border to seek greener pastures in the United States, which doesn't

00:03:55.540 exactly help Canada endear itself more with the United States with our currently prickly relationship.

00:04:02.020 The current cost for health care alone, just for refugee claimants, is over a billion dollars a year.

00:04:08.420 Regular immigration processing isn't much better.

00:04:10.580 Family sponsorships take one or two years to process, and you can get what's called an express entry that takes seven to eight months.

00:04:17.220 The problem begins at the border with over 100,000 illegal immigrants and refugee applicants currently awaiting background checks.

00:04:25.480 100,000 waiting for that.

00:04:27.300 They have 13,000 employees in Immigration Department of Canada and 17,000 more in Canada Border Services.

00:04:33.360 With 30,000 well-compensated civil servants tasked to the issue, why can't they get a grasp on this?

00:04:38.860 The answer is simple.

00:04:39.660 Government bureaucracies are bloated, inefficient, and controlled by unions, making reform too difficult for politicians to find the courage to take it on.

00:04:47.120 I mean, come on, we're living in the digital age.

00:04:48.500 It's hard for somebody to be truly undocumented, even if they're coming from the most underdeveloped of nations.

00:04:52.840 It beggars belief they can be so difficult to perform simple background checks in less than a few weeks.

00:04:57.840 In fact, when it comes to developed nations, those can be done in minutes.

00:05:01.580 Bureaucrats drag their heels and shuffle outdated forms from one desk to another while these backlogs keep growing. 0.99

00:05:07.660 And when it's finally determined that an applicant will be denied, they're often misplaced.

00:05:12.780 At last count, Canada lost track of 34,000 foreign nationals who have been ordered to leave the country.

00:05:18.100 one way to reduce that backlog immediately is to turn undocumented people away when they arrive at 1.00

00:05:24.660 the border nobody has the guts to implement such a common sense and simple policy though for those

00:05:29.780 being processed in the system it's time to light a fire under the butts of these bureaucrats before 1.00

00:05:32.840 it came down the 20 of them are going to be laid off within a few months rest assured they're

00:05:37.060 suddenly going to find their way back to work because they're all working from home and fighting

00:05:39.600 that currently right now and uh if they want to avoid the axe they'll find some efficiencies the

00:05:44.220 ones of ambition and brains will cover their own butts and we'll see some improvement the federal

00:05:48.380 government's been you know in a pitched battle with them trying to get them back to work since

00:05:51.200 COVID it's time to lay down the bloody law return to work or be fired it doesn't need to be more 0.90

00:05:55.600 complicated than that it's ridiculous and unacceptable in a country the size of Canada 0.83

00:05:59.840 with rather easy borders to control and a staff of 30,000 dedicated to immigration can't figure

00:06:04.840 out how to process applications in less than a couple years politicians can rail and claim they

00:06:09.440 want to address the issue all they like unless they want to take on the incompetence of the

00:06:13.360 bureaucracy, though, things won't change, and Canadian cities can look forward to the no-go

00:06:18.340 zones that Paris is currently enjoying. Immigration can be a good thing. In fact, it is, and we need 1.00

00:06:23.280 it, but only if it's controlled and planned, and that's not going to happen until we take

00:06:28.360 Canada's civil service and bring it in line. All right, well, let's check in and see what else has

00:06:32.340 been happening in the news while I've been hiding out south of the border. They let me across the

00:06:36.060 border. They did. You must be miserable. I'm always miserable. It's my nature. Minus 37 with the

00:06:41.480 windchill this morning. Oh, I know. And you're used to plus 37. I mean, it must have shriveled

00:06:48.040 yourself. Some things were terribly shriveled when I came in, and there wasn't much to begin with.

00:06:52.860 No, it's not fun, but at least the snow has stopped, so. Yeah, it's just one blast, I guess.

00:06:57.840 We'll always get one every February. I just wish you could have gotten in a week earlier, maybe.

00:07:01.120 Exactly. So speaking of your rant, Premier Smith has an address to the province tomorrow night,

00:07:07.700 and her chief of staff

00:07:09.680 tweeted those immigration

00:07:11.680 statistics. I think you said Canada

00:07:14.000 has grown by 24%.

00:07:15.400 34%.

00:07:16.180 And by far

00:07:19.560 double, triple the rest of the world 0.80

00:07:21.940 and

00:07:22.240 her chief of staff Rob Anderson tweeted

00:07:25.960 make sure you tune in tomorrow

00:07:28.020 night. So it sounds like she's going to be

00:07:30.020 addressing it.

00:07:31.920 Probably looking for more control

00:07:33.360 same as Quebec has.

00:07:34.960 Yeah, well, we know those. I mean, this is the way it works. We can ask for what Quebec has, but when we do, we're jerks.

00:07:40.340 When Quebec does it, it's their right. So, carry on, I guess. We'll see what happens. 0.99

00:07:44.520 See what happens. Yeah, the news didn't stop while you were gone. Tumblr Ridge and all sorts of horrible, horrible stories.

00:07:53.540 In fact, that's our lead story at the moment.

00:07:55.680 You remember there were some news reports of a young girl, 12 or 14, called Maddie, who spent 45 minutes doing CPR on one of her classmates who was shot.

00:08:06.520 And she's written a Facebook post today, or late last night, and gut-wrenching thoughts on what happened to her friends.

00:08:17.420 Fly Angels Fly is the headline on it.

00:08:21.120 And you'll remember Adam Skelly, Toronto barbecue place.

00:08:26.780 I think it was actually Etobicoke.

00:08:28.180 He was the guy that kept opening up his restaurants during COVID,

00:08:31.440 and they finally sent in dozens of police and the mountain patrol unit to shut him down.

00:08:38.740 He was so thrilled he moved to Alberta.

00:08:41.820 You know, he lost everything, moved to Alberta.

00:08:44.300 But his case is finally going to be heard by the court system next week.

00:08:48.620 Oh, it's five years?

00:08:49.640 Yeah, five years.

00:08:51.660 You mentioned, you touched on it, Matt Jeanneau, Edmonton MP, crossing the floor.

00:08:57.480 This is the guy who said, he was close to crossing the floor last year.

00:09:01.240 And then he basically got caught out, so he just said he was going to resign from politics.

00:09:06.920 He's claiming today that Prime Minister Carney's speech in Davos really touched him,

00:09:14.220 and that's the reason he's crossing the floor.

00:09:17.040 I'm sure something touched him already, right in the wallet,

00:09:19.020 but when the cabinet minister's posted a few months,

00:09:21.000 his former colleague, Edmonton,

00:09:24.960 the conservative MP,

00:09:26.040 Kerry Deyotte this morning tweeted, 1.00

00:09:28.020 what a jerk. 1.00

00:09:29.720 Then he quickly deleted it. 1.00

00:09:31.160 But I think a lot of his constituents will share the same thing.

00:09:36.780 Interesting story.

00:09:37.820 84 year old Alberta guy has won the right to go to the Alberta human rights

00:09:42.280 commission and asking whether or not mandatory driving tests for elderly

00:09:48.940 people is constitutional you know he's had to pay a couple hundred bucks each time the thing is 80

00:09:54.880 and 75 and 80 and he has to go for driver's tests and he says that's not fair i've got nothing wrong

00:10:01.260 with me why should i have to go for a driver's test i've got to go for those actually every

00:10:04.360 three years for my class two or class no what the hell have i got i got a class four but yeah i got

00:10:08.840 to get tested every three years cause 140 bucks actually outrageous yeah it's a hard hit that's

00:10:12.820 outrageous uh speaking of 84 my dad turned 84 today so i just like to wish him a happy birthday

00:10:19.780 love you dad uh bad story out of lake tahoe uh big avalanche yesterday uh nine people currently

00:10:28.500 buried under the snow and missing and uh uh unlikely to be still alive and we got another

00:10:34.260 entry into the bc conservative leadership race somebody by the name of harman bangau

00:10:40.700 I must admit, I've never heard of the gentleman.

00:10:43.500 Well, I'm sure Jared's tracking it closely, though, for the BC viewers.

00:10:47.820 We've got a story on, and it's getting quite crowded.

00:10:51.740 I think that's at least half a dozen of them in there.

00:10:54.920 It's still time to go.

00:10:56.100 They need a competitive race, I think, that party. 0.84

00:10:58.420 Well, conservatives being conservatives are busy ripping themselves apart,

00:11:01.440 so hopefully some sort of leadership emerges.

00:11:03.540 And the fun and games will really begin when John Rustad enters the race.

00:11:07.920 Well, he's been back and forth on it. I think he confirmed that he's not going to as the last report.

00:11:12.160 Is he? I don't know. I'll bet you 50 cents that he enters.

00:11:17.840 Okay, I'll take you on that one.

00:11:19.520 All right.

00:11:19.840 All right. Well, thank you.

00:11:21.740 Welcome back.

00:11:22.440 Yeah, thanks. Thanks for the updates, and we'll see you on the pipeline later.

00:11:26.480 See you on the pipeline.

00:11:27.320 Right on.

00:11:28.580 All right, that is our news editor, Dave Naylor, and yes, lots going on, lots to cover, lots happening.

00:11:34.440 The reason we can do it, I swear I got to remind you folks and nag you, is because you guys have subscribed. 0.99

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00:11:53.820 Help us pay those bills.

00:11:55.100 We've got so much to report on.

00:11:56.960 And, you know, you can see the new reporter's always still over my shoulder there, populating that back room.

00:12:02.460 Yeah, you know, Matt Jenner, it's just what I don't like out of the whole thing, and I'm a crab, I'm a cynical sort of guy, and those sorts of self-serving moves just deepen that.

00:12:16.880 I'm also a political wonk. I want to see people engaged. I want to see people participating in politics. I want to see people thinking they can make a difference through their elected officials.

00:12:25.820 And when you look at the saga of General, you could see that he was planning on crossing for his own bloody sake.

00:12:32.080 Let's not beat around the bush. He just doesn't want to be in opposition. It's as simple as that.

00:12:36.260 And he got caught with it last fall. So he basically shut up, went to ground, lied, said he was going to leave this spring, said he wanted to spend more time with his family.

00:12:45.720 Can't they find a new trope? Come on. We've seen that with enough liberals. Most of them don't like their own families.

00:12:50.360 They did that in the last election. There were a couple. They said they were going to spend more time with their family.

00:12:54.120 And then the polls change. They say, I don't like my family. And they ran for office again.

00:12:57.920 Jenneru is doing the same thing. And that'll lead to people not voting because they're going to say, what's the difference?

00:13:03.720 What's the point? Why do we bother? And that doesn't serve us well. It really doesn't.

00:13:09.200 So, I mean, yeah, just the partisan self-serving crap out of them. 0.98

00:13:14.000 I mean, that's annoying enough on its own. But the damage it does to our system, to the faith of people in the hoping that anything can possibly change within this 0.98

00:13:22.800 is immeasurable. And, you know, I'm going to have my guest on soon. I'd like to hear some

00:13:27.740 of those numbers because I suspect that the spectrum that our former opposition member

00:13:32.740 of parliament of income he could get if he manages to climb the cabinet scrotum pole to a

00:13:39.560 higher position up there will be pretty generous. And of course, they'll say that wasn't the reason

00:13:45.280 he crossed. And the same old song and dance from people. Now, I know some people have been talking

00:13:49.660 about. And that's where I get some blowback saying we should make it, you know, so that they

00:13:54.160 must, absolutely must go into a by-election or resign if they want to cross the floor and all

00:13:59.000 that. And I still disagree with that. I don't think they should be forced to do that. I hate

00:14:04.360 seeing these crossings and I think it's, it's unprincipled and I think it was self-serving.

00:14:08.500 But if you think leaders are powerful now, take away the ability to floor cross. It will become 0.94

00:14:13.120 even worse. I hate to say it, but it will actually get worse. Actual functional recall legislation

00:14:18.480 though. If the local constituents really thought the crossing was that bad, if they had a mechanism

00:14:23.860 federally, maybe that's where they'd be thrown out. Rather than Alberta, you know, where you just had

00:14:28.480 a bunch of provincial ones which failed because it was just actually a union publicity tantrum

00:14:32.720 rather than an actual citizens initiative thing on the ground. Either way, I'm sure we'll be

00:14:36.860 talking about Mr. Jenner a lot more in the future. We can't hear from him because he put his ex-account

00:14:41.020 on lockdown because he doesn't want to actually hear from his constituents because I suspect

00:14:44.600 they're going to give him a bit of an earful if they get the chance. All right, let's bring in

00:14:47.760 franco terrizano from the canadian taxpayers federation to add some more uh good news to

00:14:52.540 seeing where our dollars spent how's it going franco hey cory i'm doing great man thanks for

00:14:57.480 having me on the show hey can i just weigh in because i heard you talking about the the floor

00:15:01.020 crossing and you know i think the i don't know if it's a solution but what i think needs to happen

00:15:06.180 is we definitely need federal recall legislation right and like i'm in ottawa i'm in this like

00:15:11.660 political bubble where you hear all these talking heads go on all the time and you know the one

00:15:16.760 thing that they're forgetting about is that this shouldn't be about what the political strategists

00:15:21.820 want. It shouldn't be about what the party whips want. Uh, the people whose voice really matters 0.58

00:15:27.600 is the voters in that riding. Right. And that's why we need this tool, this accountability measure

00:15:34.160 like recall legislation to give voters in that riding, um, an ability to either hold their MP

00:15:40.720 accountable, right. If they're opposed, what Jenner is doing, hold them accountable, or if

00:15:45.480 they support it then uh no need to to go forward with the recall but i agree with you cory that

00:15:50.280 it's recall legislation is what canadians desperately need yeah well i would get a

00:15:55.560 feeling you know like i said jenner locked down his ex account because he doesn't want to hear

00:15:58.800 from people i'd suspect if he was facing a risk of the constituents actually organizing and firing

00:16:03.840 him maybe he'd at least have the courage to face them and talk to them about why he crossed and so

00:16:08.840 on but he's just kind of hiding and hoping that the the fewer way you know dies down and then he

00:16:13.500 can take on i i guess i'll go right into that uh one of the generous raises going to our members

00:16:19.660 of parliament i saw that from you guys at the press release just recently uh it's pretty healthy

00:16:23.760 level of income there yeah so i mean a backbench member of parliament along with collecting dust

00:16:29.120 in the house of commons they're getting about a 210 000 annual paycheck already uh so look you

00:16:35.460 you asked what's the difference between an mp pay and a minister's pay well an mp you're getting

00:16:40.300 about $210,000. A minister's salary is about $310,000, right? And hey, don't forget, every

00:16:48.220 year, and this year looks no different, on April 1, MPs pad their pockets with higher pay. This

00:16:54.600 year, the pay raise will be around $8,800, all the way up to an extra $17,600. The news is you

00:17:01.320 actually have one MP, one courageous MP from New Brunswick. He's a conservative, Mike Dawson,

00:17:06.700 who has publicly rejected the pay raise, you know, just talking about how the struggles facing his

00:17:12.440 constituents in good conscience, he can't accept a raise. But, you know, you mentioned about MPs

00:17:17.900 sticking their head in the sand or whatever. You know, the reason that these members of Parliament

00:17:22.240 get away with these pay raises every single year is because they know if they all stay silent,

00:17:27.620 they'll weather the public storm and they'll be able to take more money. But, you know,

00:17:32.580 thankfully that has all changed because of this courageous mp who's finally publicly opposing

00:17:38.000 the politician pay raise yeah no and it's good to give a thumbs up now and then i mean we should

00:17:43.440 you know i'm always there ready to pounce on them when they do something wrong and they give me

00:17:47.100 plenty of opportunity to do it but we can't forget to thank them and give a thumbs up some of them do

00:17:51.640 have some principles and they put the well our money where his mouth was so that's appreciated

00:17:55.860 it'd be nice if if that started a trend yeah why why is it only mike dawson right why is it only

00:18:01.840 one MP who's publicly opposing this pay raise, right? Why? Where is the rest of the 300 of them?

00:18:07.900 You know, Corey, you know, we always hear these politicians say, we're all in this together.

00:18:12.020 I'm starting to think they're talking about the gang of 300 of them up here in Ottawa when they

00:18:16.580 say they're all in this together, right? Like where is the rest of the MPs here, right? Prime

00:18:21.380 Minister Mark Carney, he told Canadians a couple months ago to brace for sacrifices. What sacrifices

00:18:27.700 for me you and your audience Corey what about the sacrifices for Carney as MPs or what about

00:18:32.840 the conservatives right the conservatives always talk about you know cutting taxes reducing spending

00:18:37.320 finding savings and the right to talk about that but where's the official opposition forcefully

00:18:42.320 and publicly opposing the MP pay raise why aren't they standing with their own Mike Dawson or how

00:18:47.240 about the NDP right the NDP always talk about sticking up for the little guy well why isn't

00:18:51.920 the NDP publicly opposing this massive pay raise for members of parliament who all make over 200

00:18:57.220 grand a year yeah the silence is rather deafening i mean just to put things in perspective alberta's

00:19:02.420 premier makes about 190 000 a year which is sick that's some pretty healthy compensation

00:19:08.420 uh but you could actually be the premier of a province of 5 million people and still make less

00:19:12.340 than a back bench member of parliament who never actually does anything for four years uh in their

00:19:17.140 elected position that says a lot it's crazy it's crazy and look i hear some mp saying oh you know

00:19:23.860 we'll give it to charity here's what i say that's not good enough anymore right you all make more

00:19:28.580 than 200 grand a year you can give to charity without billing taxpayers for your pay raise

00:19:34.820 also you've had years to fix this right we've been talking about this since what the beginning of the

00:19:38.660 pandemic years ago right they've had years to fix this there is no uh there's no uh you know getting

00:19:44.820 by this issue anymore they have to do the right thing they have to fix this also i hear some

00:19:48.820 people chiming in on social media right saying well it's hard to stop a pay raise and i'm over

00:19:53.620 here like what do you mean okay this isn't rocket science we're talking about we're talking about

00:19:58.500 politicians not taking more money from canadians who are struggling like come on like if we can

00:20:03.300 get somebody on the moon pretty sure we can figure out a way to stop giving politicians

00:20:07.300 a pay raise every single year no absolutely well we'll just have to keep pressure and i guess keep

00:20:12.580 firing them when we can when we get those elections uh so what i i first contacted you about though

00:20:17.860 was something that a lot of people are perhaps already forgetting about but just that ongoing

00:20:21.620 canada post saga uh striking not striking settling uh and of course the bailouts i mean the bailouts

00:20:29.780 are coming they don't seem to be cutting the size of that corporation uh what are we going to do with

00:20:34.420 this franco well we gotta we should be selling the canada post right but i mean at the very i mean

00:20:40.660 look why do we need it's 2026 why do we need a state-owned postal service come on right a bunch

00:20:47.140 of our peer countries have privatized their government state you know their version of

00:20:51.380 canada post there's no reason canada can't do it either but look at the very least if canada post

00:20:56.740 is going to be a crown corporation then it needs to figure out a way to operate without you know

00:21:01.860 taking a billion dollar bailout from taxpayers every single year because remember folks in 2025

00:21:07.060 the government announced a billion dollar bailout right it was supposed to be repayable and then a

00:21:12.340 a year later, the government announces another billion dollar bailout for Canada Post. So a

00:21:17.700 couple of things come to mind, Corey. Number one, MPs should be demanding in the House of Commons

00:21:23.360 when that money is going to get paid back to taxpayers, right? Because the government told

00:21:27.320 Canadians there's supposed to be a repayable funding. Okay, so when are we going to get our

00:21:30.840 money back? And number two, if Canada Post doesn't pay back that money, then MPs should be asking

00:21:36.860 this simple question who's getting fired that's the question that we're demanding right but cory

00:21:42.860 i think this goes even deeper than just canada post right like look the government is completely

00:21:48.620 broke more than a trillion dollars in debt and taxpayers can't afford and we shouldn't expect

00:21:54.460 to have to bail out every crown corporation that goes to ottawa cap in hand begging for more cash

00:22:00.620 well yeah and that's one of them and and the numbers that you know i want to get further into

00:22:04.380 that that massive deficit that was given to us last fall continues to grow. I saw an updated

00:22:11.460 number just recently. Carney is still just pulling out that checkbook. He's making Trudeau

00:22:16.660 look like a spendthrift almost with the speed that he's increasing spending. When's the next

00:22:21.980 budget update going to come to tell us just how much more they're borrowing on our grandchildren?

00:22:26.120 I mean, look, now that the budgets are in the fall, I'm hoping we get some type of budget update

00:22:30.420 in the spring, right? I hope we get some basic transparency from the federal government. But

00:22:35.960 you'll remember right after the last election, you even had Finance Minister Francois-Philippe

00:22:40.780 Champagne. Remember he was musing about perhaps no budget in 2025? And it wasn't until like

00:22:46.220 massive pressure, massive backlash from the Canadian public, including the Canadian Tax

00:22:50.800 Federation, that the government backtracked and even provided us with a budget for 2025.

00:22:55.760 five. But look, I mean, it's bad news here in Ottawa. I mean, think about it this way, right?

00:23:00.800 Because I love Alberta, no provincial sales tax, but you still pay federal sales tax, right? And

00:23:06.460 every single dollar you pay in federal sales tax is going to pay interest on the debt, right? This

00:23:11.380 is bad. This is not good, right? They're wasting your money on debt interest. They're wasting your

00:23:16.380 money left, right, and center. And look, they're sticking your kids, your grandkids with a mighty

00:23:22.200 debt bill that they're going to be paying back for the rest of their lives. Yeah. Well, you guys,

00:23:26.840 I'm sorry, I'm trying to remember what that was. You put a sign out in front of parliament to help

00:23:30.300 remind them a little bit of what's going on with their dollars. Didn't you? Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I

00:23:35.300 mean, we have a sign up right now actually too. I mean, so we, we, we put up billboards, uh, you

00:23:39.880 know, quite frequently. Um, one of them, we talked about how the biggest waste of money is the

00:23:44.560 interest charges on the debt more than a billion dollars every week. Poof gone. Right. Because

00:23:49.060 that money's going to the bond fund managers on bay street cory you'll like the billboard we just

00:23:53.260 put up okay it shows that the cost of the federal bureaucracy has gone up 80 percent in 10 years

00:23:59.680 yet most canadians say um services have gotten worse shrink the federal bureaucracy right right

00:24:06.600 in downtown ottawa right in front of parliament hill uh right in front of the prime minister's

00:24:10.500 office where bureaucrats have to walk by that sign every single day and they'll know that canadians 0.96

00:24:14.860 are sick and tired of paying higher taxes to fund a bloated and underperforming federal bureaucracy

00:24:19.860 yeah well and reminding people of i mean because i mean most people i despise interest payments i

00:24:25.360 hate it on my own credit cards if i've you know put off paying too long it's just money burned i

00:24:30.120 mean you really are getting nothing of value out of that aside from somebody who extended and lent

00:24:35.820 you some money to begin with i mean just some of those analogies to make canadians realize you

00:24:40.840 could build a hospital a week in this country for what we're just throwing away on interest i mean

00:24:45.320 if healthcare is your number one concern they should get on the members you know in parliament's

00:24:50.000 case and say well let's get that down so we can start building hospitals instead of talking about

00:24:53.360 it yeah and look you know what i you know what i always say to corey is uh the biggest threat

00:24:58.400 to a government bureaucrat's paycheck it's not political ideology it's not even the canadian

00:25:04.160 taxpayers federation right there right the number one threat to a government bureaucrat's paycheck 0.96

00:25:09.080 is the interest charges on the debt. You don't believe me? Ask the Saskatchewan NDP of the 1990s

00:25:15.520 what happens when you keep kicking the deficit down the road forever, right? Things got so bad

00:25:20.900 in Saskatchewan that what the NDP government in Saskatchewan was forced to close down dozens

00:25:25.200 of hospitals across the Prairie Province, right? So look, times are bad. The unfortunate part is

00:25:32.500 that it doesn't seem like really any political leader in Ottawa, or I should say within the

00:25:37.280 government is taking it serious right you asked me about uh carney versus trudeau comparisons

00:25:43.040 i mean over the next handful of years carney is planning to add twice as much to the debt

00:25:49.140 as what even trudeau was planning right the banker was supposed to be better with the numbers

00:25:53.780 than the drama teacher but the banker is planning on adding up even more debt over the next handful

00:25:58.500 of years well then getting down i mean there's only one taxpayer but we get hit with all those

00:26:03.400 levels i see your provincial directors are busy enough alberta's got a budget coming out next week

00:26:08.140 that sounds like it's going to be pretty ugly we like to get on our high horse but we're not

00:26:11.780 balancing budgets here either and uh in bc uh i just saw that release come out from your british

00:26:17.640 director they got a crazy uh uh deficit coming ahead of them i mean this debt is just swamping

00:26:24.020 us on every level well let me just talk about the bc budget for a second we can get in alberta but

00:26:29.440 look, the BC budget is almost impressive in how bad it is. Okay. Like the government is increasing

00:26:35.600 the debt out there in BC by like $30 billion this year. That's how much the debt is going up

00:26:40.560 according to the BC budget. And like the government is massively increasing debt

00:26:45.240 while it hikes income taxes, while it puts through that sneaky backdoor income tax hike

00:26:50.900 known as bracket creep. Corey, you remember the bracket creep fight in Alberta not too long ago,

00:26:55.680 right um also uh the the bc government's essentially hiking pst on some types of services

00:27:02.080 so it's it's absolutely startling that the debt is going up so fast in british columbia

00:27:07.820 all while the government under eb is hiking taxes like what's going on here well not to mention eb

00:27:14.180 hasn't shown himself to be terribly friendly to resource development or some of the things that

00:27:17.820 would generate the economic activity to pay for some of this spending they they burn us on both 1.00

00:27:23.420 front oh that's right and look like um you know it was years ago when i was the alberta director

00:27:28.920 for the canadian taxpayers federation but you know one of the big reports i think it came out

00:27:33.120 in 2019 cory correct me if i'm wrong but was that blue ribbon panel right on spending and it showed

00:27:38.860 that like the alberta government back then was was spending per person like what 10 billion dollars

00:27:44.500 overcharging taxpayers compared to uh similar provinces so i mean alberta does have a long

00:27:49.920 history of spending way too much money you know i'd have to go through the books and see uh what

00:27:55.040 premier smith is doing but uh for years we were pushing the alberta government um to drastically

00:28:01.360 cut spending because it was just spending too much right after the pcs after klein held up that paid

00:28:06.240 in full sign then the ndp and then even the ucp under under kenny right spending uh spending way

00:28:13.360 too much absolutely and i mean klein you know as much as he is a saint essentially in alberta in

00:28:19.200 history but he loved that bracket creep you were talking about that was the nice sneaky tax tool

00:28:23.760 to keep raising taxes without appearing to be raising taxes on folks and i mean i i for the

00:28:29.040 most part like a lot of what premier smith's doing but boy i'm not seeing the fiscal conservatism

00:28:34.720 out of this government that that you would expect out of the ucp uh i'm kind of worried

00:28:39.120 about this upcoming budget yeah i'm worried too and like uh i know uh chris sims our our mutual

00:28:45.760 friend cory uh will be covering the alberta budget for the canadian taxpayers federation so uh you

00:28:51.160 know uh i'm not really looking forward to seeing what's in that budget maybe we'll be surprised

00:28:55.440 uh but i know chris is gonna is gonna really make a stink if there's anything bad in there

00:29:00.080 oh i know she'll she won't hold back uh well i'm looking forward to that budget hopefully there's

00:29:05.420 some nice surprises somewhere hiding in there or i mean premier smith's warning that the you know

00:29:10.460 signaling that it might be a little rough maybe there's actually going to be some spending cuts

00:29:13.560 coming uh not that people necessarily enjoy them but we need them uh before i let you go then uh

00:29:19.400 you know where can folks find uh the work you're doing work chris is doing the stuff in bc and all

00:29:23.800 that good stuff well the best to find a best place to find all our stuff is on taxpayer.com

00:29:28.920 that's our website taxpayer.com uh you can also follow us all over social media best way to do

00:29:33.880 that just type in canadian taxpayers federation right on well thanks for joining us again franco

00:29:39.560 and giving us an update on the fiscal scene.

00:29:41.280 It seems to be kind of the same story over and over again,

00:29:43.940 but we can't give up.

00:29:44.740 We've got to keep letting people know

00:29:46.380 what the hell's going on over there

00:29:47.700 and hopefully just make the victories where we can

00:29:49.800 and the opportunity to give a thumbs up

00:29:51.440 to one good member of parliament.

00:29:52.780 So thank you very much to him out in New Brunswick.

00:29:55.780 Hey, Corey, it's always a pleasure

00:29:57.020 to come on your show, man.

00:29:57.960 Can't wait to see you next time I'm in Calgary.

00:30:00.040 Yeah, keep missing you when you come in.

00:30:01.420 I'll get you on the next one.

00:30:02.380 Right on.

00:30:02.720 Thanks, Franco.

00:30:03.460 I'll talk to you again soon.

00:30:04.960 See ya.

00:30:06.860 Well, so yes, guys,

00:30:07.840 the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, Franco

00:30:09.900 Terrazano, and check them out. They do have somebody

00:30:11.720 in every province covering these things, and

00:30:13.840 we need to look at it. As well,

00:30:16.300 look at the municipal level. We didn't even have

00:30:17.820 time to go into that, but

00:30:19.260 citizens forget. I think we're just so 0.87

00:30:21.760 exhausted, but we're just getting hit

00:30:23.780 on level after level after level with

00:30:25.820 taxes and bad spending.

00:30:28.760 You know, our own Derek Fildebrandt

00:30:29.880 was with the Taxpayers Federation before, and the

00:30:31.740 battles he used to have with Nenshi when Nenshi was mayor

00:30:33.820 were legendary.

00:30:35.900 So, you know, check out the Taxpayers Federation.

00:30:37.880 They put it into good lay terms, not necessarily all that dull economist sort of thing,

00:30:43.880 and just really expose what's happening to the money you work so hard to earn that gets taken away by the government.

00:30:48.740 Okay, we're going to try something different.

00:30:50.340 We're going to bring in callers, okay?

00:30:52.020 This is new to us, new to me.

00:30:53.840 And we'll put the number up there on the screen.

00:30:55.880 Now, we don't have a system where we can keep a bunch of people in a queue on hold,

00:30:59.600 so it's kind of the first one gets through, and then it goes into a voicemail.

00:31:02.880 but I'd really like some, some interaction with folks on there. Uh, we'll just see what that phone

00:31:07.200 number is in a moment there. There we go. Uh, so it's 866-479-WEST. I don't know what West

00:31:16.240 translates into numbers. And then it's extension 711. You can see that in the bottom of the screen

00:31:20.540 there though. And, uh, call in, talk to me about anything, you know, aside from anything that would

00:31:25.020 get us in trouble with the CRTC or something for discussing on here, check out that number below

00:31:29.360 there. Give me a shout. Let's have a chat. Let's see what's going on. So it's not just me rambling

00:31:33.760 all the time into the wind. I can hear from some of you guys. So while hopefully somebody comes in

00:31:38.540 to give us a shout and chat with things, let's see what else is going on out there. Let's talk

00:31:43.080 legacy media, some of the beauty stuff. City news, you know, this was something else. So Demetrios

00:31:49.940 Nicolaitis is the education minister in Alberta. He was actually a target of a recall. The teachers

00:31:56.980 Union hates him passionately. And they tried to get to a recall that failed to take him out of

00:32:03.660 power. And then he went on a fundraising and awareness thing for about domestic violence

00:32:10.860 that he climbed with a group of people to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro. And it raised money

00:32:16.420 for domestic violence because his sister had been killed. So at the top, they did, you know,

00:32:21.920 photo opportunities at the top of the mountain. They had an Alberta flag, and they held it up

00:32:25.180 there, a flag of Alberta. Of course, you're an Alberta politician, cabinet minister, Albertan,

00:32:28.680 you do that. Well, City News puts the picture up and implies that it questions, you know,

00:32:35.880 his loyalty to Alberta as he's waving essentially this separatist flag, wondering if he's a

00:32:40.840 separatist or not because he held an Alberta flag while at this hike, this event, this thing for,

00:32:47.260 you know, trying to battle against domestic violence. This is how ridiculous and absurd 0.96

00:32:51.620 legacy media is getting. That was true journalistic incompetence. And what were they 0.96

00:32:59.380 thinking? But the slant that the media has in Alberta, the loathing they have of Premier

00:33:07.020 Smith is really something to behold. And it just really exposed itself on there. And these guys

00:33:15.700 are going broke. People are tired of it. People are tired of it. That's why I like to remind you,

00:33:20.080 you know, get on, subscribe to the Western Standard. We have our, particularly on my show,

00:33:23.920 I mean, our reporters report the news. Myself, I give opinions, but we're honest about what we're

00:33:29.760 doing. We're not hiding it. And legacy media is going down. They're beholden fully to the

00:33:35.480 government. Chorus Entertainment, I think their stock is down to like three cents a share now

00:33:39.800 or something like that. We'll see what happens with that. You know, the old heyday of talk radio

00:33:44.480 has really disappeared. The last good one kind of was Daniel Smith. You know, they're almost

00:33:49.900 unlistenable in Alberta in particular, because again, there's just this anti-provincial government

00:33:58.200 mindset among them that they just can't seem to get over and can't let go. So that's all you do

00:34:04.900 is listen to the show. When you hear a news report with some certain talk show hosts in Alberta,

00:34:09.340 first thing, they'll list the report and then explain why Daniel Smith's an idiot. 0.99

00:34:12.700 That's the formula for all of their shows as you listen. For those who remember it, 0.99

00:34:18.460 the old days of talk radio. And that's what we're trying to replicate a little bit by getting some

00:34:21.840 live interaction with some calls if somebody wants to give it a shout there on that number below.

00:34:26.680 I don't know if you remember the 90s, but that's some of the way I grew up with the politics. You

00:34:29.580 had Dave Rutherford. They had a number of Daves, you know, these different hosts. And Dave was

00:34:33.740 quite conservative and unapologetically shown. He kind of had the unapologetically shown a show,

00:34:38.680 and he held the anchor spot kind of. And you had Dave Taylor in the afternoon. And Taylor was a

00:34:44.340 liberal, a reasonable liberal, kind of the older liberals, more of the Chrétien style liberals,

00:34:49.100 not the Trudeau liberals. But you got a bit of balance. And they wore their bias on their sleeve

00:34:55.740 because they were opinion hosts. But the show would actually, you know, you'd have multiple

00:35:00.080 shows from people coming from different perspectives on it. And it was good. And you

00:35:05.440 could actually form some things. So you'd listen to different folks. Now, it's all left all the time.

00:35:11.520 One exception I'll give is Ben Mulroney, who has been syndicated across the country.

00:35:15.280 I think it might be a little too little too late.

00:35:17.580 But when you listen to the Alberta hosts, man, you'd think Alberta was an NDP province.

00:35:22.160 I mean, you can tell that they want us to be again.

00:35:25.780 So let's talk about demographics in Alberta.

00:35:27.800 Here's an interesting thing that popped up.

00:35:30.860 I'm going to write about this for next week's column, I think.

00:35:36.100 So the top name for Albertans, and this is happening all around the world, Muhammad. 0.98

00:35:44.000 And actually, at first we reported it that Muhammad was only eighth in Alberta.

00:35:48.040 Meanwhile, it was number one in Toronto, you know, and it's been number one in a lot of European cities for a long, long time.

00:35:53.400 But it turns out it's number one in Alberta, too.

00:35:55.140 It's just that there's a lot of different spellings for Muhammad.

00:35:58.000 So the, you know, and we've got to kind of walk carefully with this.

00:36:02.280 Look, it represents a religion.

00:36:05.220 It represents a culture.

00:36:08.180 And religions and cultures and the practices are choices, okay?

00:36:12.660 You can choose on how much you want to act upon religious dictates,

00:36:17.020 on how orthodox you want to be, on how, you know, true to the old ways.

00:36:22.680 I mean, if you look at any religious texts that are thousands of years old,

00:36:25.740 they're probably talking about some things we just don't do anymore, you know?

00:36:28.880 No more slavery, no more polygamy, you know? 0.97

00:36:33.220 and that's in the Christian Old Testaments, things like that.

00:36:35.560 You're not going to sacrifice your kids on rocks and things like that.

00:36:38.400 Just doesn't happen anymore, at least for most.

00:36:42.380 But there is a problem with Islam, and we've got to get frank about it, guys. 1.00

00:36:48.360 That particular religion is hanging on to the old Stone Age tenets through Sharia law, 1.00

00:36:53.220 and they really have a thing with trying to convert the world.

00:36:56.580 Not every one of them, and that's where it gets dicey.

00:36:58.660 I mean, there's loads of fantastic Muslim people.

00:37:01.940 There are. But there is a disproportionately high number of them that are difficult to deal with.

00:37:08.440 And they're a problem in every country in the world. Every one of them.

00:37:14.000 Name a single Islamic country that isn't a dictatorship. 0.79

00:37:17.260 Name one that isn't.

00:37:19.400 Name one that follows what we accept as common human rights now.

00:37:23.500 Name one that gives rights to gay people.

00:37:27.080 They don't exist. Yet we embrace this.

00:37:31.340 Name one large population of Islamic people into a new nation

00:37:35.320 where they're getting along with their new neighbors.

00:37:38.200 It's not happening.

00:37:39.240 We're seeing that throughout Europe.

00:37:40.360 We're seeing the riots.

00:37:41.660 We're seeing the abuse of citizens in the streets.

00:37:45.220 We're seeing some of the rape gangs because, again, and not all of them.

00:37:48.760 I always got to cover with that, but it's true. 0.99

00:37:51.040 I don't want to accuse everybody of such because most of them

00:37:53.120 certainly don't want to go out and molest people in general.

00:37:56.800 but there's a larger number within that cultural choice than we're seeing within others. So when

00:38:03.280 we see Muhammad topping the names, the names of new kids, we should just think a little bit, okay? 0.98

00:38:12.080 Is that where we want to go? We want to bring in immigrants. Some of the discussions I have with

00:38:16.780 people say, we're going to shut down immigration altogether. No, we don't. We can't. It's good for

00:38:20.840 us to bring in new Canadians, new Albertans. We just have to be bloody selective about it. That's 0.85

00:38:26.380 the thing. We want to make sure that they will economically contribute, that they'll settle in,

00:38:32.880 that they will be a benefit to us over here. But the other part that they're afraid to talk about

00:38:38.920 people in the political levels is cultural immigration. Are they a good cultural match

00:38:46.980 for who we are here? Are the people we're bringing in people who will value human rights,

00:38:51.780 that will value the rights of women, that will value the rights of other religions? 0.93

00:38:57.860 Not necessarily, particularly when most of them are coming from, unfortunately, Islam. So guys, 1.00

00:39:06.900 watch those trends as they keep going, because it should be a warning and a precursor to us right

00:39:14.660 now. You know, Jordan's pointing something out, saying we need more born and raised Albertans

00:39:19.200 having kids but we can't afford kids while wages remain repressed for private sector workers okay

00:39:23.280 that's an interesting larger discussion on things all around yes uh you know settled north americans

00:39:30.880 tend not to have large families anymore doesn't really happen unless you're again very religious 0.77

00:39:35.840 mormons things like that we're not necessarily i mean there's some large families of people of all

00:39:38.900 sorts of faiths catholics christians you name it but for the most part small families are sort of

00:39:44.120 what's in right now they're having you know one to two kids if people are having kids some water

00:39:48.240 or not having kids at all. Some of that has to do with prosperity and changes in culture with us

00:39:53.480 over here now too. You got to remember a few generations ago, child mortality was quite high.

00:40:01.180 You had to have a few kids actually, because you wanted to make sure you had a few make it to 1.00

00:40:04.420 adulthood. There was no such thing as pension plans, retirement plans, things like that.

00:40:08.760 So you had to make sure you had a large family so your kids could take care of you in your old age

00:40:15.320 later. It was an economic choice to have a lot of kids. The irony of it was the more poor a person

00:40:21.680 is, the more children they need for economic security, even though children are something

00:40:25.440 of an expense in some ways. It's an investment in their future. When you're in a country,

00:40:30.780 which still for the time being, and Western countries where we're wealthy, because I mean,

00:40:35.640 let's face it, raising 10 kids, say that's a lot of work. That's a difficult household. That's a

00:40:39.960 heck of a commitment in the task, you can afford to just have one or two. And that's what people

00:40:45.580 are choosing to do. And I don't know how that's going to change necessarily. Like, I don't think

00:40:52.700 we could tell people, well, just breed more. I don't think people want to have more than a couple 0.98

00:40:57.380 of kids for the most part. And I understand that varies person by person, couple by couple.

00:41:02.920 So we're not going to change the birthing trends over here. That's part of why we need immigration. 1.00

00:41:07.580 because having a declining population is not going to be good for us in our economy either.

00:41:13.440 But we have to be selective about who we're bringing in. And that's why, yes, in developing

00:41:18.900 countries, you still get the larger families. And a lot of the people coming from the Islamic

00:41:23.480 nations here are carrying that trend over from the less developed countries, and they're having

00:41:28.800 large families. We're just going to calculate those things in. And to be honest, the onus of

00:41:38.300 integration is, I got to be on the immigrant now. We got to stop with us having to accommodate. 0.99

00:41:43.240 If you're not willing to come here and integrate and accept the values of the nation you're moving

00:41:48.080 to, then don't come. Stay where you are. You want to chase Jews around. You want to beat women, 1.00

00:41:54.960 kill dogs and do all those beautiful things that the hardcore Islamists do and stay in one of the 1.00

00:42:01.460 many, many, many Islamist countries out there. Don't bring that crap here. Don't sit there and 1.00

00:42:05.780 we see that stuff where they're doing protests in the middle of streets, you know, and all slamming

00:42:11.900 face down in the middle of an intersection and a prayer. That, you know what that is? That's a dog

00:42:18.220 peeing on your leg marking, it's turf. No, I'm not calling all Islamic people dogs, by the way. 0.99

00:42:24.880 But when they're doing that on our streets, that is what they're doing. And that's a power play. 0.96

00:42:31.100 That's a dominance play. That's a culture war. And we shouldn't be taking it lightly or accepting

00:42:37.060 what's happening there. Everybody has the right to pray. Do it in your place of worship. Do it in

00:42:41.580 your household. Do it in a public park. But when you purposely block streets as a demonstration,

00:42:47.820 that's their way of giving you a collective middle finger and dominating you. That's what 0.59

00:42:52.460 that is. And no, we don't have to put up with it. Like I said, religion and its practices are a

00:42:57.980 choice. Race isn't. That's why racism is unacceptable. A person is born to whatever

00:43:02.860 race they are, that doesn't change. And it's wrong to hold any of that against a person, ever.

00:43:10.080 But cultural and religious practices are a choice. And we can criticize those. In fact,

00:43:15.220 we must criticize those. And we want to make sure that we're developing a modern civilized world

00:43:23.600 as well as we possibly can. One more note, you know, Frances Widowson, she's been outspoken. 0.95

00:43:31.720 The Kamloops band, you know, where the hoax with the buried children thing is still ongoing. Put

00:43:38.440 out a big weird press release uh documenting a bunch of stuff basically basically just telling

00:43:45.340 us what we all already knew they haven't found any bodies of course the bottom line is they never

00:43:49.900 looked they got 12 million dollars to look but they never actually looked and then the government

00:43:54.980 went and uh slam shut the books so we can't find out exactly what they did with all that money

00:44:00.460 but it also talks about all the complexity of being able to look for these children it must

00:44:05.620 be complicated when they don't exist. And hinting almost as if that maybe if you just gave us a

00:44:11.440 little more money, we'd start looking harder and we'd find them. Look, that issue can be resolved

00:44:16.100 quickly, one way or the other. Dig a bloody hole, get a shovel, go to Home Depot. I'll buy it. 0.97

00:44:24.520 I'll send it out by UPS. I'll buy you a shovel. You've got all of those marked spots, all those

00:44:31.200 little flags in the ground where these alleged burials were, dig a hole or shut up. And they

00:44:38.100 should be refunding that $12 million they got to look because obviously that was just fraud.

00:44:43.000 If you're not even actually going to look. But no, the government, instead of pursuing the money

00:44:48.600 they threw at these fraudsters, closed the books so we can't find it. You know, we can't find out

00:44:54.260 what they did with it. That's a real problem. But their press release, look it up online.

00:44:59.320 it's a sad joke uh one joke i guess out of eight six saying talk about shovel ready

00:45:04.640 shovel ready projects something of a light joke on a dark issue but i like that one thank you

00:45:09.940 very much for that all right guys well thank you very much for tuning in today hey write down that

00:45:14.940 phone number though and keep it in mind for next week we'll open it up again in that last 15 minutes

00:45:19.600 and see if folks want to chat one-on-one on some things tune into the pipeline marty up north has

00:45:24.560 a show up here going on on the standard as well now check that out just check out the youtube

00:45:29.420 channel and all the rest of those channels to see the productions john's been working his butt off

00:45:32.820 as we keep expanding our video content on here thank you all for tuning in today and we will

00:45:39.960 see you on the next one

00:45:54.560 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - February 19, 2026

Canada’s bureaucratic class contributes to the mass immigration mess

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