In this episode of The Cory Mendoza Show, Cory talks about Alberta's Recall Act and why it's a bad idea. He also talks about Jason Kenney's leadership challenge and why he should have been re-elected.
00:03:53.380To initiate a municipal recall in Alberta, a person or group has to garner witness signatures
00:03:57.860from 40% of the population of the ward within 60 days.
00:04:02.240And that number is often actually higher than the total number of people actually voted in the election.
00:04:07.560These are real petition signatures, by the way, not some online thing.
00:04:11.120You need to have the person sign the petition in person on a physical copy
00:04:15.280with a witness, and they have to provide their address and phone number so the signatures can
00:04:18.780be confirmed if need be, and they have to be on the electoral lists. How many people are willing
00:04:22.880and trusting enough to provide that to a petitioner? I tell you what, going door to door, a person would
00:04:27.480have to work their ass off just to get 100 signatures a day, and they would somehow need
00:04:31.680to get tens of thousands of those signatures in 60 days. Yeah, right. Likewise, to initiate a
00:04:37.680referendum, the bar is ridiculous. A person has a 90-day window to collect signatures from 10%
00:04:41.980of the province's eligible voters. And that goes to 20% if it's a constitutional issue.
00:04:50.740Like this is just beyond the pale. It's insulting. And it's a slap in the face to the people who
00:04:57.960elected them based on that. Now, you would have been better off just not tabling it at all.
00:05:03.460You know, to put out something, it's like giving somebody a gun and saying, but I'm not going to
00:05:07.620allow you to have the bullets. It can still be fixed. Daniel Smith has always shown a lot of
00:05:12.900support for things like direct democracy and items like that. Perhaps with some encouragement,
00:05:17.940she could be pushed into amending this bill. These bills don't have to be tossed out,0.98
00:05:21.060but they need to be fixed. That bar needs to be set and it needs to be realistic.
00:05:24.800Of course, no politicians ever like to put accountability legislation in that might
00:05:29.620actually impact them down the road. And I'm afraid Premier Smith might not even be an exception. So
00:05:33.520it's up to you guys, get on her case, push for that one, push your MLAs, get that moving, because
00:05:38.660it's good legislation, but it needs to be, the teeth need to be put back into it that Premier
00:05:44.000Kenney took out of it when he first modeled it. That's what's kind of got me ranting and raving.
00:05:48.240Either way, like I said, this is something I think the left and right can get on board with. I mean,
00:05:52.500the people most furious, the ones that they really want to get, is Councillor Sean Chu.
00:05:57.800They're furious with him, and they want to recall him. I don't know if he needs to be recalled or
00:06:00.980not that's a separate discussion, but they're discovering again, it just can't be done. Those
00:06:05.920numbers are not realistic. And it was insulting. And there's other countries and states that have
00:06:11.380done this before. It's not like Kenny could pretend we didn't have precedent to see what
00:06:15.580a workable recall or referendum legislation looks like. It's already out there. They could have set
00:06:20.780the bars based on that. They purposely made it impossible. And that was a political bait and
00:06:27.160switch. And to be honest, like so many things, unfortunately, with Premier Kenny, it was
00:06:30.440unforgivable. One of the many that led to his downfall. All right. Well, let's get on to some
00:06:35.000other news here and check in with our news editor, Dave Naylor. I abandoned him last week and didn't
00:06:39.780let him check in. And it was tragic. But this time, we're certainly seeing what's happening
00:06:43.720in the newsroom today. How's it going, Dave? Okay. Sorry, I didn't quite catch what you said
00:06:56.700there dave a little bit of feedback oh sorry about that uh just how are you doing thanks for having
00:07:02.780me on the show after the sub last week well yeah thanks i'm i'm happy you you've forgiven me this
00:07:07.620time there you go hey i hear you're getting back into bee business i am i've got more bees they're
00:07:13.600going to be coming uh this spring i'm getting them and uh i'm gonna set up i'm gonna defeat
00:07:18.560that bear this year all right we'll have weekly updates cory versus the bear it'll be yeah you
00:07:25.920get those updates when i'm all stung from head to toe and i screw up out there with the hive and
00:07:29.280everything too exactly uh lots of stuff going on on the website uh this morning corey uh our
00:07:35.520vancouver correspondent reed smalls got a story on a bc man who tried to get some of his stolen
00:07:41.360property out from a local hobo encampment and got shot for his troubles so there is0.97
00:07:48.240We've got our real estate expert, Mike Thomas, talking about what's happening in the Canadian home buying market.
00:08:03.160And it looks like things are getting back to normal after the pandemic.
00:08:07.320And speaking of experts, we've got our energy expert, Sean Pulser, talking about a multi-billion dollar floating liquid natural gas facility that the B.C. government has given approval for.
00:08:20.540And we've got a funny video up from Ontario politician Randy Hillieri talking about 15-minute cities, and he describes a 15-minute city just like walking around his chicken coop, and it's good for a chuckle if you haven't looked at it yet.
00:08:38.820We've also got a sad story up early on 17 wild horses being shot and killed out on a First Nation reserve near Kamloops in the B.C. interior.
00:08:51.920And we've got a story on a drag show down in Florida that had a drag show at the Hyatt Regency.
00:08:59.020And that hotel has had its liquor license pulled because there were children at the drag show.0.66
00:09:04.620And it was a very sexual show, apparently.
00:09:07.960And that's the stuff, a lot more stuff.
00:09:11.160And keep in mind for Linda Slea column coming up this afternoon.
00:09:17.140She's writing on the New City Council bylaw that protects drag shows and the like.
00:09:25.740No protests within 100 meters of city facilities.
00:09:30.500and also coming in that column is a link to the Soviet national anthem back in the old days.
00:09:37.220So you'll get a sense of what Linda's writing about or what angle she's taking right there, Corey.
00:09:44.720Right on. Well, yeah, Linda doesn't pull any punches, that's for sure.1.00
00:09:47.640Looking forward to that one. I heard you playing that in the newsroom earlier.
00:09:50.580I was wondering what the hell you were playing that anthem for.
00:24:09.820Yeah. Especially during that protest in particular, the prime minister kept talking about the
00:24:16.100importance of dialogue and the importance of keeping dialogue open and hearing the other
00:24:20.800side of the story. And he never once wanted to hear our side of the story.
00:24:24.860No. And as I said, he didn't even try. I said, I know politics. You can go through the motions.
00:24:30.740You can even send a representative from the Privy Office down to say, okay, we're going to talk to
00:24:35.020them. And then they can sit and go through the motions. Then they come back and say, ah, these
00:24:38.160guys are they're intractable we couldn't get anywhere but at least you showed you tried yes
00:24:42.880they didn't even offer that much which still surprises me to this day because i mean you know
00:24:49.140one of the things i said about the donations i mean we raised over 10 million dollars twice
00:24:53.860and but it was never about the money it was the statement behind the money you know and i think
00:25:00.940that really the support uh the the monetary support through donations the donations that
00:25:06.860we received food and clothing from Canadians and just the people that showed up on the overpasses
00:25:12.020and the side of the highways. I think that really scared them. Well, it should. I mean,
00:25:16.700that raised more money in a few weeks than the entire governing party does in six months. So,
00:25:21.860I mean, it shows an outside lot more support. It's hard to pretend that this is only three,
00:25:28.7005,000, whatever amount of people in Ottawa, when clearly you've got donor numbers in the tens of
00:25:33.320thousands of people supporting it from from outside of their possibly hundreds of thousands
00:25:36.920yeah uh likewise you didn't uh get any calls from putin in large donations or anything like that
00:25:42.600that was the one yeah that was hilarious actually i mean maybe we talked a bit about just when you
00:25:50.840started if you kind of run because i mean again you weren't a professional activist isn't your
00:25:55.400thing you were politically active before that's how i first ran across you you were on the board
00:25:58.840with the Maverick Party. So you're active and you started the fundraiser for people going out when
00:26:07.020the convoy was going. But I mean, at that point, you didn't imagine anything that was going to
00:26:11.320turn out. No. And I laugh about this because we did not see that coming really literally. Like
00:26:16.600when I when I first talked to Chris Barber, I just offered I said, this is my skill set. I'm good at
00:26:21.960logistics and administration and organization how can I help you and and I just had when I started
00:26:29.020the fundraiser I just assumed you know we'd make maybe twenty thousand dollars in donations which
00:26:33.980would pay say for Chris and Bridget and some truckers to drive across the country and stand
00:26:38.940up with their signs on Parliament Hill and then hop in their trucks and come back home and you
00:26:43.300know we blew past that in 24 hours I think we were over a hundred thousand dollars in donations within
00:26:48.040the first 24 hours well i think part of it was just you're the first one out with it yeah and
00:26:52.280yeah you tapped into something that was much bigger people didn't even know was there until
00:26:55.960they had the ability to contribute yeah well like i said it was the it was a perfect storm of events
00:27:01.160i think well and a lot more people again i think that's part of why i got it because people could
00:27:05.560see there's a lot more behind this than the others like most people just they don't have the ability
00:27:10.040you got the kids at home you got the job or whatever i can't pick up and drive across the
00:27:13.720country to take part in that protest but boy i really like what they're doing so here's ten
00:27:17.240dollars here's fifty dollars here's a hundred dollars or whatever yeah well and again people
00:27:21.720i think just so many people were able to come and every canadian just wanted to feel like they were
00:27:27.400a part of it so if they couldn't come or they couldn't go to the road i mean you know they
00:27:31.080wanted to be a part of it so even donating ten dollars made them feel you know that they were
00:27:35.640part of the gang kind of yeah it's it so i i know it's hard it's working with with a hindsight like
00:27:43.000Are you, are things you, I know this could be dangerous, are things you wish you'd done
00:27:47.920differently yourself? Not really. You know, I mean, I look back at that. Obviously, I spent a
00:27:55.540lot of time thinking about everything and what I could do differently. And, you know, I'm a believer
00:28:00.720that everything happens for a reason. And so I don't know what we could change. I mean, other
00:28:06.220than say the exit strategy to get out a little bit sooner. But, you know, that was one of the
00:28:11.000things with the deal with the city that we were so excited about at least from my perspective
00:28:14.960like I thought that was going to give us an out or going to allow us to start you know so we start
00:28:20.860with the city and then maybe we can talk to the province next and then maybe the feds will come
00:28:24.820in you know like I thought I really saw that as a first step in an exit strategy yeah because there
00:28:30.040does have to be an end game we were kind of talking about outside you can't camp indefinitely
00:28:34.840for months I think some people might have been prepared to but realistically things had to come
00:28:39.020But there was just never a chance for that plan to form or go into action because everything, well, finally, the emergency sacks said, OK, everything's going to blow up now.
00:28:47.600Well, and I don't think any of us really thought that the federal government would not come out and talk to us.
00:28:55.020Like, you know, I thought for sure within a week, somebody would be sent to just hear us out or ask what we wanted or ask what the problem is.
00:29:02.960And, you know, that just never happened.
00:29:05.820Any conflict. I mean, negotiation is the first step.
00:29:08.340If it's, and I don't, I'm not comparing this to a bank robbery, but let's say there was a bank
00:29:12.140ICE and there's a bunch of hostages. You don't come in guns blazing. You start by negotiating.
00:29:16.740That's right. Yeah. And they didn't even start there. They went straight to the enforcement
00:29:21.060aspect of it. So, I mean, you had a lot of time to think, a lot of time while you were in remand.
00:29:25.700Just to review, how long were you in custody? 48 days in jail, all told, between the summer and
00:29:33.100last winter. Yeah. I mean, aside from one weird night in the 90s, you know, in a drunk tank,
00:29:37.820I haven't had experience in the jails, but for what I've heard, remand is kind of one of the worst spots to be in, too,
00:29:44.640because it's just, it's a temporary, theoretically custodial spot, you know, whereas a long-term facility, at least you'll have some services.
00:33:55.780I mean, a protest with that many people and no matter where on the spectrum you are, sometimes you're going to attract some.
00:34:01.800Yeah, some people get a little too excited or some people are just crazy and they're going to do some damage or hurt people.
00:34:06.980And as much as the warnings constantly came out, it wasn't happening.
00:34:11.140This was a very, I mean, annoying for people.
00:34:13.420I understand if I lived down there and the horns were going for days, I'd be getting grumpy as well or trying to get to work in the traffic.
00:34:19.060I mean, but that's what happens with protests.
00:34:36.980I guess also to clarify, too, though, I mean, part of the problem with a non-centrally sort of led thing, I mean, there were a few of you who were certainly the representatives and organizers, but at the same time, it was diverse.
00:34:48.000The border issues, I mean, there was Windsor and Coutts in Alberta, but those had no, I mean, you have to say they're related.
00:34:55.580I mean, it all blew up at the same time.
00:34:56.960It's the same grievances and concerns, but these were separate protests.
00:35:00.440they were all a separate their own grassroots movement and and when we were i think emerson
00:35:06.680was the first one that we heard of and we were on our way to ottawa still so and and we were so busy
00:35:13.560when we got on the ground like we knew that they were happening at these different locations um
00:35:18.360border crossings but i couldn't follow it i was too busy you know like i i knew that they were
00:35:23.000happening i tried to just get kind of the cole's notes versions throughout the day to find out
00:35:27.640you know how things were progressing down there um but yeah like we we had enough of our own
00:35:34.600things to worry about in ottawa let alone those right but yeah well it's just that there's separate
00:35:40.440issues still yes dealt with in the law that there's the coots bunch you know and you can't1.00
00:35:45.880speak to it because you had absolutely nothing to do that's right yeah but that gets thrown onto
00:35:50.120the ottawa protests at the same time people saying this was an active sedition and there
00:35:53.640there were firearms and there was none of that well nobody's been charged with sedition no and
00:35:58.540that's another one which is funny yeah if it was treason if it's sedition we have it on the books
00:36:03.160yeah and they certainly weren't afraid to charge you with everything they possibly could so you
00:36:06.480think they probably would have thrown that into the bunch if they if that's if they thought that
00:36:10.800that's what we were going to do which was never I mean that was never the case you know can you
00:36:15.800address a little bit that most of that came from that ridiculous uh memorandum of understanding
00:36:20.480it was kind of posted on Facebook but that was just kind of something hatched up by a little
00:36:24.860group on a different organization right a totally different organization I've never even read it I
00:36:29.580don't even know what it says I mean you know that was never our intention you know we just wanted
00:36:34.900to be heard and wanted the federal government to take a look at how these these mandates and stuff
00:36:40.680are affecting people you know and again like every single day driving across this country people were
00:36:46.520crying on my shoulder because they were about to kill themselves or they just lost their business
00:36:52.960or they just lost their job or you know like that was that was our the the core group I guess that
00:37:01.240was our main concern was you know there has to be a better way well and again that's something I
00:37:06.400appreciate at least and I'm sure a lot of Canadians do that you show that there's a line and there's
00:37:11.260a point where Canadians have had enough and even if it's a minority of Canadians if you're talking
00:37:15.100about 10% or 20%. That's a significant minority of Canadians are saying, we've had enough. We're
00:37:21.280not putting up with this any longer. That's right. We just kind of hope that lesson got driven home
00:37:25.400to, I don't know, that's not a government that's easy at taking lessons, but there is a line
00:37:30.980eventually. Yeah, that's right. And I mean, had there been, say, after the protest, he's just
00:37:34.600guessing, and I mean, you wouldn't have taken part of it, but if they increased more restrictions
00:37:39.700and brought more stuff down, I got a feeling a very tired population would have pushed back
00:37:43.600again they said that's enough this is where it's well the Ontario government during the during the
00:37:49.200POEC were talking about bringing masks back in and recommending them and they all but stopped
00:37:54.400short of mandating them you know and we're obviously kind of watching that very closely
00:37:58.880because I was curious too how far they were willing to go again but uh yeah they just stopped
00:38:03.020short of of mandating it yeah and I mean there's a lot that just seem eager to bring in as many
00:38:07.720mandates and controls as they can and uh there were people fighting against the removal of the
00:38:12.940ridiculous vaccine passports in Calgary.
00:39:26.360But worrisome on where we've had this precedent set on crushing protests.
00:39:30.300We're seeing that big debate in Calgary right now with, again, where the person agrees or disagrees with the readings and libraries and things like that,
00:39:38.620where the city has banned protesting within 100 yards of the facility.
00:39:43.960You've got to be really careful when you start limiting the ability to protest,
00:39:58.640And that's kind of what I say when people talk about how,
00:40:02.200like, lock her up and throw away the key and I hope she goes to jail for life.1.00
00:40:05.560Well, that's fine if that's what you want.
00:40:07.560I mean, but you have to realize that this government isn't going to be in power forever.
00:40:12.400And maybe the next one is going to find fault with something that you've done.
00:40:16.180You know, I mean, they had a Greenpeace next time.
00:40:18.560It might be an indigenous leader because it's a government that doesn't particularly feel as fond of their protests.
00:40:24.200Yeah, I find it ironic and a little bit funny that you can ban protests because that's actually what a protest is.
00:40:33.680I mean, I mean, wasn't it Trudeau that said at the POEC in his testimony?
00:40:37.560that he doesn't think it's right that people protest in order to change policy like that's
00:40:42.140the whole point of having a protest yeah I know and it is a fuzzy area when you get between civil
00:40:50.220disobedience and the right of protest it's a fine line and you know the lines get crossed so just
00:40:55.300the state has to intervene and I know my libertarian followers cringe when I say that
00:40:58.800sometimes there's a line crossed but yeah I think it all has to be respectful and that's that's kind
00:41:06.040of my biggest my biggest thing is to always be respectful you know like we didn't want to go to
00:41:12.700Ottawa and call people a bunch of names and and be rude and terrible you know you know you know
00:41:17.680then when the mask mandates were in I put a mask on to walk into a store you know I put it on at
00:41:22.780the last minute and take it off as soon as I could but I mean I could still respect their rules and
00:41:27.280I didn't go in there and call them names or tell them how stupid I thought it was you know like I
00:41:32.060think you're not, you're going to lose people when you start being disrespectful and rude.
00:41:37.600Yeah. There was a circumstance in that same Calgary. There was a bunch of protesters went
00:41:41.420into a mall and really made a racket and yelling. I mean, these are innocent mall security people
00:41:45.660and retail clerks. Look, they probably don't like the masks any more than you do. You're not doing
00:41:50.360your cause any favors when you get on their case. Maybe kind of asking about that as trying to lead
00:41:55.240or be one of the leaders of this group in a sense, how many fires did you have to put out?
00:41:59.680because we as we said there are some kind of offbeat people i mean one of the best things i
00:42:04.000saw was that that one clown walking around with that that uh confederate flag and he was masked
00:42:10.080and i still i wonder how much he really and he happened to be masked as well but they didn't put
00:42:15.040up with that and that was the best thing i could see the other protesters chased him off not the
00:42:18.320police not anything else they said hey you weren't with us get stuff go away and they didn't do it
00:42:24.640rudely or call them any names they just said you're not welcome here so please leave did you
00:42:30.720guys make some of those efforts occasionally oh yeah there was a lot i mean we were putting out
00:42:37.040lots of fires honestly but you know for the most part people were really good um of course any any
00:42:42.960type of protest or large gathering like that is gonna attract a few bad eggs and again we just
00:42:49.520kept our message um about peace and love and unity and um you know if something came up we just we
00:42:56.160fixed it you know um there was the shepherds of good hope that was like i think the first
00:43:01.920the first incident that i heard of and i still don't even know the story there what happened but
00:43:06.960you know we heard that some truckers went in and stole a bunch of food and they were rude which i
00:43:12.080can't i can't see period happening but you know what did we do well we took a bunch of donations
00:43:18.080And we had, we had food banks and shelters turning food away because we were giving so much away, you know, but that was because of the generosity of Canadians, you know, like it was incredible.
00:43:30.260Well, I mean, it was quite something to run the time out.
00:43:35.420But I mean, it's good just to be able to look back and review because I think with most of the tempers when they calm down, I think a lot of people will look back on this and realize that there was a lot of mistakes made on a lot of parts.
00:43:46.000But, I mean, I think it'll look kindly mostly on a lot of the organizers' parts as compared to what you've taken.
00:43:57.220I mean, something I'm hopeful for, a lot of judges, they still, liberal appointed or not, they take the role very seriously, and they follow the law seriously.
00:44:03.820And I'm hoping it's a rational one when the time comes when they realize, you know, we're not serving the world any better by putting you back behind bars or any kind of crazy odious sins.
00:44:14.540I'm not sure what the outcome will be, but after 48 days in jail over mischief, I'm not,
00:44:19.960I just can't see them putting me back in, but you know, who knows? Nothing, really nothing would
00:44:24.360surprise me anymore. I was, I allowed myself to be surprised when that happened, when they sent
00:44:28.740homicide detectives all the way from Ottawa, two of them flew them to Madison Hat to pick you up
00:44:33.520and fly you back. Yeah. Again, surprised and outraged me, not just because it's cracking
00:44:39.520down on you, but okay. Look at the resources. These are homicide detectives. There's some dead
00:44:43.340people you should be finding the killers of i mean you have better things to do and right at that
00:44:47.960time there had been like a mass stabbing in ottawa i think a city councillor and her daughter were
00:44:54.580stabbed so yeah like the i i thought that was a little a bit of an overreach too i mean two
00:45:00.940arms i did i'm literally five feet tall yeah i noticed you're a small person when you came in
00:45:07.220i mean you only need so much restraint you know masking tape on the airplane seat you're not going
00:45:11.160Yeah. And, you know, the irony is literally all they would have had to do was call me and say, Miss Leach, we're concerned you've breached your conditions. Please go to the police station. They had me surveilled and followed and then taken down the street on my way home from work. Actually, I was on my way home from my sureties. I just stopped at my sureties so that she could go through all my devices and make sure I wasn't on social media or communicating with people I'm not supposed to be communicating with.
00:45:38.400So, you know what I mean? Like, yeah, it was, it was a bit of a surprise.
00:54:44.680Museums are too colonial and must educate Canadians on climate change, equity, diversity, inclusion.
00:54:50.200You know what? I won't go to your museums. I won't. It's garbage. It's crap. That's not what they're for. They're there to give us displays of history and things, whether it's the good history, the bad history. Take your colonial crap and stuff it somewhere deep and dark, you guys. This is garbage. But this is the whole report renewal of the Canadian museum policy. Museums are a part of the colonial legacy. What the hell are you talking about? What are you talking about? Why? Because they document the time when Canada actually was being colonial?
00:55:20.200colonized, colonialized. There's something else. Yeah, that note, I threw it on Twitter. I see
00:55:25.860it's in my head. I'm getting a colonoscopy next week. Something to look forward to. They won't
00:55:29.400let me live stream it. So you guys are all lucky enough, but maybe I'll give you some graphic
00:55:32.900descriptions of it later. But maybe that's part of those mispronunciations going on with things.
00:55:36.800Anyway, this is bad. And, and, uh, so cabinets ordered revisions to the 1990 Museum policy,
00:55:41.780and, uh, they're going to be, uh, I guess decolonializing them. I I'm not going to bother,
00:55:49.340and I'm sure a lot more people. It's the same as the mainstream media when they expose themselves
00:55:52.640as woke or biased or unreliable. People stop listening to them. And I tell you what, when you
00:55:57.580take all these museums and you turn them into this vanilla woke crap, people just won't go.
00:56:02.620And they all fall to the wayside. And it's a joke. But I mean, we're in a joke in a lot of ways.
00:56:08.820Speaking again, the corruption, I'm going through my new scroll here. Trade Minister Mary Ng,
00:56:12.800you got to remember, she was already gotten trouble. And Vashi Capello really held her to
00:56:18.120task in a fantastic interview. Give a credit
00:56:20.060mainstream when they do, because they have been
00:56:22.140doing great, you know, with global and global
00:56:24.040mail, at least on this Chinese communist thing. They've