In this episode of the Corey Morgan Show, Corey talks about the new year and what to look forward to in the coming year. He also talks about Alberta s new premier, Danielle Smith, who has a mandate to take on Alberta s bloated, intractable healthcare bureaucracy.
00:00:30.000Good day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan Show. First one of 2024. I'm sure we'll have a lot of things
00:00:44.600for me to moan and howl and rant and rave and go on about another year of news and insanity. I'll
00:00:51.460be here to cover it and looking forward to it. I'm sure there's going to be some good news and
00:00:54.480good things to look forward to. We're off to a fresh start. I'll be grumpy because that's my
00:00:58.160nature, but I still do want to maintain a degree of optimism. If you did catch my column in the
00:01:03.540standard this year, year-end one, I point out we've got a lot to look forward to,
00:01:08.100but it's kind of up to us to make sure we have a good year, guys, not necessarily up to everyone
00:01:13.600else to do it on your behalf. Good to see you guys checking in on the comment scroll over there.
00:01:17.620We got Doug and Mr. Sharp from Saskatchewan, Mr. Stanley. Yes, use that comment scroll. We are
00:01:23.340live, or at least for those of you who are watching it live, if you're on the Cowboy Network, this is a
00:01:27.220recorded version, I'm afraid, but send me questions, send me comments, send them to my
00:01:31.940guest, and I don't necessarily read them all out, but I do read them all. I see them there in the
00:01:36.880scroll. Later on, I'm going to have a guest coming up, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. People might know him
00:01:42.000as the food professor. He's been on a lot of radio shows, TV, does a lot of columns, and he writes
00:01:47.540on things like grocery prices, grocers, food in general. He's a specialist in it, and that was a
00:01:52.480big subjects in 2023. I suspect food security and prices is going to be a big one going into 2024.
00:01:58.240So it should be a really good conversation with Mr. Charlebois there as well. So yeah,
00:02:04.960let's get on to the news and things that have got me going today. And so I'm looking forward to,
00:02:10.800like I said, with some optimism, but with some ranting on my part as usual as well.
00:02:15.020So Alberta Premier, Danielle Smith, she's charging into 2024 with a mandate to take on0.98
00:02:21.140Alberta's bloated, intractable healthcare bureaucracy. And her success or failure in that0.99
00:02:27.160task is going to impact how healthcare has managed across all of Canada. Because you can rest assured
00:02:32.460every premier in Canada is watching Smith closely on this one. I mean, let's face it, Canada's
00:02:38.280healthcare system stinks and no province is an exception. Costs are going up every year while
00:02:43.480access is going down. People are dying on waiting lists and the lists are only getting longer.
00:02:49.300Citizens are finally realizing it, and I think that's what's encouraging and empowering some politicians.
00:02:53.800They're realizing the vaunted reputation of Canada's health care system is a myth.
00:02:57.900But still, we've got defenders of the status quo fighting tooth and nail
00:03:00.680whenever anybody speaks of reforming the system or even changing a few little things, much less acting on it.
00:03:07.080Unions, bureaucrats, assorted socialist activists, they refuse to accept that the system's broken
00:03:11.140and they're doing everything possible to prevent anybody from fixing it.
00:03:14.900Now, as more and more Canadians find themselves, their loved ones suffering under the broken system, the appetite for change is finally growing.
00:03:21.280And Daniel Smith is the first Premier to really stick her neck out on the issue.
00:03:25.040And her battle, though, is just beginning.
00:03:27.000I mean, she began by cutting from the top with Alberta's massive health care management bureaucracy.1.00
00:03:31.620Shortly after she became Premier a little over a year ago, her government fired Chief Medical Officer Dina Hinshaw.0.99
00:03:37.520Then she fired the entire Alberta Health Services Board.
00:03:40.540That's the bureaucracy that runs Alberta's health care.1.00
00:03:43.340And finally, she fired Dr. Verna Yu from a position of CEO at AHS.
00:03:48.840Not Premier Smith personally doing all this, but under her guidance, the government did.
00:03:52.880Now, the NDP and the unions and the rest of the usual suspects, of course, they were apoplectic.
00:03:57.660Lazy media members and activists alike, they rallied in 2023 in the spring election to ensure Smith didn't win.
00:04:05.860And now she does have a real mandate to reform that system.1.00
00:04:08.420And it looks like she's going to go for it since the election.
00:04:11.880Premier Smith has split Alberta Health Services into several different entities.
00:04:15.580Now, ostensibly, this is to allow for more specialized policies in different aspects of health care,
00:04:19.880but there's likely, and there likely is some merit to that.
00:04:22.040But more importantly, and more likely, that organization is split up because it makes it harder for the bureaucrats
00:04:27.700to put up an organized front in hindering reforms.
00:04:30.840Premier Smith warned when she won the last election in one of her speeches.
00:04:34.300She said she won't let herself be slow-rolled by the bureaucracy.
00:04:37.060But it appears that Alberta Health Services managers didn't get the message as they've been dragging their heels on mandates to improve service.
00:04:44.320I mean, one simple mandate, for example, was with ambulance services.
00:04:47.260Tens of thousands of trips are made every year using fully equipped ambulances crewed by paramedics to transport non-emergency patients.
00:04:54.800It's a terrible waste of resources, and it ties up highly trained workers and highly specialized equipment when we don't need to.
00:05:01.700The mandate was handed down for AHS to seek some private contractors to take over some of the role of the non-emergency patient transports.
00:05:08.400It's simple, common sense, and it's a big problem, and it frees up ambulances.
00:05:12.520Instead of taking the mandate seriously, though, AHS bureaucrats devised a ridiculous set of conditions0.87
00:05:16.700and created a number of barriers for any private contractors trying to seek the contracts.
00:05:21.020They're moving as slowly as possible, and they're continuing to find excuses not to approve applications.
00:05:26.460Meanwhile, Alberta's literally hitting situations where regions have run out of ambulance service.
00:05:30.400including just on New Year's Eve this year in major cities. Premier Smith has had enough of it
00:05:35.400and she's laying down the law. In a recent interview, she made no bones about it and she said
00:05:38.920that's what our focus is. This is a quote from her. It's firing the managers who we have paid0.57
00:05:43.140to solve these problems and they've allowed the problems to perpetuate and they've done nothing
00:05:47.380about them. Yeah, the Premier is bold to the point and unequivocable. Managers have better
00:05:52.600prove they're getting things done and they're going to be fired. It only makes sense. It's not
00:05:57.080an unreasonable expectation in the private sector, and it shouldn't be with healthcare bureaucrats
00:06:01.000either. Of course, again, the usual suspects have gone wild. They're claiming Smith has overstepped
00:06:04.620her role or mandate and that she hasn't had the right to make those decisions. Well, I call BS
00:06:09.400on that. Daniel Smith was elected as Alberta's premier to do exactly this sort of thing. If an
00:06:14.720elected premier can't call the shots with the largest public bureaucracy in the province, who
00:06:17.960can and who should? Union heads? Activists? The leader of the opposition? No, you guys didn't win
00:06:24.300the bloody election, so too damn bad. The tail's been wagging the dog for too long at all levels
00:06:28.600of government. I mean, we watched that in Calgary City Hall. It was almost nauseating watching
00:06:32.160elected councillors being called under the carpet for questioning senior bureaucrats and city
00:06:37.080managers. If elected officials don't hold the bureaucrats to account, who will? Nobody. In fact,
00:06:42.180nobody has for years, and look where it got us. Shaking up the Canadian healthcare system has
00:06:46.380been considered political blasphemy for way too long. The system's failing, and thankfully,
00:06:50.820Premier Smith is willing to break away from Canadian dogma, become an apostate and get the
00:06:55.420job done. The battle of wills is just beginning though, but I'm betting on Smith winning it.
00:07:00.140And when Smith wins and healthcare begins to improve in Alberta, rest assured other premiers
00:07:04.720who are too cowardly to put their necks on the line will follow. Alberta is lucky to be in a
00:07:10.980province with a premier willing to lead. Her actions and tenacity are going to benefit us all
00:07:15.240within and outside of Alberta, and it's about time. All right, that's what I've got to say on
00:07:21.160those things today. Let's see what else is going on out there outside of my control, though we're
00:07:24.600gonna have a news check-in from the intrepid Jonathan Bradley and see what's going on out
00:07:29.780there. Hey Jonathan, how's it going? Good, Corey, how about you? All right, all right, finished with
00:07:33.900the holidays, ready to get on, like I said, with cursing and ranting and raving for a whole new
00:07:38.180year. So what are you breaking on now, Jonathan? Well, it's been a busy morning in the newsroom
00:16:19.240But then there was a lot of, well, as is normal, a lot of politics started getting played and a lot of fingers were getting pointed.
00:16:27.520And I found your voice to be good for correcting the record a lot and just kind of putting an unvarnished view on that.
00:16:32.980Like, I guess I'll start with a simple question.
00:16:35.340Have Canadians been getting gouged by food retailers in the last year?
00:16:40.500I mean, it depends how you define gouging.
00:16:44.560I mean, for some economists, allowing companies to make one dollar is too much.
00:16:51.160And so I've always asked some of the experts out there and politicians, well, if right now companies are making too much money, how much is too much?
00:17:01.580And we've never gotten a clear answer to that.
00:17:04.720But my answer to you, clearly, Corey, when you look at the evidence, when you actually look at verified, audited financial reports coming from companies, there is no evidence of gouging.
00:17:17.120If you look at gross margins, which to me is probably the most important metric, you look at revenues, you look at the cost of goods, if that changes due to inflation, you'll notice.
00:17:29.920I mean, you'll notice. And for the big three, Empire, Sobeys, Loblaws and Metro, all three gross margins have not changed in five years.
00:17:40.320And so that's why it's difficult to say, well, there's gouging going on.
00:17:44.700However, and this is a big however, margins are actually quite high compared to the U.S.
00:17:50.920They're double what they are in the U.S.0.86
00:17:52.860And we've seen some shortfalls in Ottawa with the bread price-fixing scandal, for example, the investigation going on for eight years.
00:18:03.840So I can't blame Canadians for being upset about what's going on.
00:18:11.720I actually totally understand why they're upset, because they feel unprotected.
00:18:16.960But as far as gouging goes, the evidence is just not there.
00:18:21.500Yeah, well, and that's what I appreciate is you don't give a full pass to the heads of these grocers as well and such.
00:18:26.800There's been some sort of controversy over the proposed code of conduct and Galen Weston and some of you corrected him on some of the things that he's been claiming as he's sort of trying to squirm to avoid that code of conduct.
00:18:38.360I mean, he's not a monster, but he's not an altruist or, you know, a charitable person either.
00:18:45.940Of course, he runs a very well-managed company, by the way.
00:18:50.640In fact, I would say that all three main grocers are well managed, and that's why they've been successful in pushing away competition like Target, which came in and left in 2014 as quickly.
00:19:16.180They've been looking at Canada for quite some time, but it's difficult to get in to the Canadian market for two reasons.
00:19:22.660One, it's not an attractive market, especially when you see a federal government constantly inviting CEOs back to Ottawa and question them about profiteering.
00:19:35.880I don't think that's an appealing strategy for any company looking into Canada.
00:19:43.020The other issue, of course, is the fact that really the Canadian market is dominated by two players.
00:19:52.240If you understand how food distribution works in Canada, you quickly understand that both Walmart and Loblaws will make and break companies.
00:23:19.760Number two, Metro bought AMP in Ontario.
00:23:22.800That created the other grocer. And lastly, in 2013, Empire Sobe's bought Safeway Out West. That created those three big players. And of course, along the way, we saw non-traditionals like Costco, Walmart become quite successful in selling food to Canadians.
00:23:41.740And that's why we're in the situation we are in. In the U.S., they don't really need a code. Why? Because Washington is all over some of these mergers. For example, right now, Kroger is trying to buy Albertsons, so number two is trying to buy number four in the U.S., and they're blocking the deal because they don't feel that the deal would be in the best interest of Americans right now.
00:24:09.700So those two companies are under tremendous pressure. When Loblaw bought Provigo or Metro bought A&P or even Sobeys, when it acquired Safeway, we barely heard anything in the news. Nobody cared. And that's why we're in trouble right now.
00:24:27.780so part of the problem i mean there's advantages though it's bad for competition there's advantages
00:24:34.120of having a few large players because those large economies of scale can allow them to
00:24:38.500keep the consumer prices somewhat low as well in a relative way like if you break it up into too
00:24:43.220many small players we could end up paying more as well exactly and here's the thing about canada
00:24:49.000so we're only 40 million people in one of the largest countries and well the second largest
00:24:53.940country in the world, distribution costs are really, really high.
00:24:58.940So you have a lot of small towns where you are in Alberta and elsewhere where you only
00:25:05.840have one option left to buy food because of the consolidation that we've seen over the
00:25:22.020And so Washington right now is very careful. They'll be looking at transactions in a very granular way. So they'll look at New Haven, Connecticut, how many stores will they lose compared to before and things like that.
00:25:37.920In Canada, we only look at the national landscape and see whether or not Canadians win.
00:25:44.620But I've always argued to Minister Champagne himself, whenever there's a transaction coming in, we need to actually look at all aspects of the deal.
00:25:55.500And we've actually had the privilege to work with the Accomplishing Bureau in three occasions of the last five years.
00:26:01.440And you can tell that they're not well-tooled to assess longitudinal risks, understanding how a transaction could impact our food distribution landscape over time.
00:26:18.920So something that really broke a lot of trust, even if it was, you know, I mean, your average consumer didn't feel it a lot, but it's the principle of the matter.
00:26:25.540You mentioned it earlier, was the bread price fixing issue.
00:29:02.560It's just unlike the Europe where I was in 2015 when they ended supply management, a lot of farmers wanted out because they were levies.
00:29:13.640And the system actually did cost a lot of money to farmers.
00:29:17.240In Canada, good luck finding one farmer who was against the system.
00:29:21.100All of them really support the system.
00:29:23.120So I've always argued instead of abolishing quotas, let's make sure that we actually make supply management more efficient and more competitive.
00:29:31.860because right now it is not competitive uh in fact marketing boards are doing everything they
00:29:39.700can to suppress competition without consumers knowing yeah and i don't expect it to change
00:29:46.620soon that's part of why i asked i cornered uh mr uh pierpoliev on the show one time and asked him
00:29:51.740with that one as well i don't think he likes going there but he at least was honest and said no it's
00:29:56.500not an area that they're looking to to change or get rid of it they can't afford it yeah politicians
00:30:01.380just can't afford it because they're so powerful.
00:30:05.680I've always argued instead of sending out checks in compensation for trade deals we're
00:30:11.120signing all over the world, we should take that money and buy some farmers out as soon
00:30:16.080as possible because some farmers actually do want to compete, but some of them don't.
00:30:43.720And all you need to do is basically eliminate farmers who don't want to compete and build
00:30:50.200a system which allows the sector to grow even more.
00:30:55.360Because right now we're on the path of seeing more farms disappear.
00:30:59.420We're going to get down to 5,000 dairy farms by 2030, and the Cain Dairy Commission will continue to rubber stamp decisions that are supported by dairy farmers instead of looking at competitiveness overall.
00:31:16.520I appreciate you've done a lot of work on it.
00:31:19.120Before I let you go, then, perhaps if you could just give a bit of a prediction on what consumers can look forward to in 2024 with grocery prices, and where can we find information on where your work is?
00:31:28.440Yeah, absolutely. So yes, they should be looking forward to 2024 compared to 2023. I mean, 2023 was tough. We were asked to spend more money on shelter, the other necessity of life. And so when we showed up at the grocery store, we were spending less despite inflation.
00:32:33.140Well, I appreciate, again, the work you do and your being able to come on to talk to us today.
00:32:38.220Again, it sounds at least a bit optimistic that things have stabilized a little into the next year.
00:32:43.380We've had some crazy years and there's no getting around it.
00:32:48.180The one thing that really concerns us right now is what's happening in Israel.
00:32:53.540If the conflict broadens and it may happen, that could actually affect food prices worldwide, not just in Canada, but worldwide due to the region's link to oil specifically.
00:33:10.180And so that's something that we're watching very closely.
00:33:13.380Because in 2008, that's exactly what happened.
00:33:16.060Oil went up and everything else went up as well.
00:35:31.680a love affair with these cartels, these monopolies at times, even though we're kind of getting
00:35:37.520hooped by them. But getting rid of it, as I said as well, I did ask Pauliev, Trudeau is certainly
00:35:43.340not going to get rid of it. And Pauliev at least was honest and said, no, he's not going to either.
00:35:47.280But I'm going to look more into that because I haven't read that whole thing without that 2.0
00:35:50.800plan. It sounds like Dalhousie University with Professor Charlebois have been talking about
00:35:55.940ways we can maybe ease out of it. Because as you said, there are dairy producers who want to get
00:35:59.740creative. They want to open their markets. They want to do more, but they're constrained. So maybe
00:36:05.620ways that we can break out some of the producers and yes, incrementally work ourselves out of the
00:36:12.420system because just trying to flick a switch and end it would cause more disruption in the longer
00:36:17.300term. Uh, and we would all have a lot of trouble. Uh, another thing, yeah, you know that, so it
00:36:22.480sounds kind of good. Uh, but yeah, Wildrose is bringing up another good one at one of our
00:36:27.140commenters ground beef 10 bucks for a 550 ground package and in province full of cows this is in
00:36:32.040alberta and yet we are really taking it as consumers when it comes to beef that's been an
00:36:38.200ongoing thing too and they're all fighting with each other because ranchers are saying they're
00:36:42.080not making any more money than they used to and and grocers margins as we've seen it's been studied
00:36:47.280and studied and checked and looked at uh they're narrow they're five six percent i mean they might
00:36:52.760be able to come down a little more in the States, you know, they're more like 4%, 3%, but you can't
00:36:57.960come much lower. They've got to make money. So where is that all that extra cost coming in with
00:37:03.420beef? Why is it costing so much bloody money? And, you know, processing is one of them. I know
00:37:10.380in Alberta, we've got what, like, I think in Canada, we've really only got two really large
00:37:14.780meat processors. So again, getting back to monopolies and oligopolies and the lack of
00:37:19.600competition, I got a feeling we're getting, we're taking it a bit there without doubt. But we should
00:37:25.600be questioning it. Marie Perrin said we should, we need to buy direct from the farmer. You know,
00:37:29.560I've had that discussion before. I had a lot of it on X. I live in Prittis. It's an acreage just
00:37:35.060south of Calgary. And most of my neighbors are ranchers actually in that area. It's ranch country
00:37:40.040and we know people. And Jane and I have bought quarters and halves of beef and filled the freezer
00:37:45.120with it for one you know what it may be when you add it all together with some of the prime cuts
00:37:50.760versus the ground and everything you save a little bit of money but to be honest after getting the
00:37:54.620beef cut and packaged and all of that the price was pretty similar to what i would get in buying
00:38:01.260it say at costco or somewhere like that uh the producer got a little bit better money because
00:38:06.020we were dealing directly with her rather than than um you know going through the rest of the
00:38:11.020process. So it's good that way. But the other thing is not everybody has that ability. The
00:38:15.240only way to make that cost worthwhile, you have to have the connection with the producer. You have
00:38:20.060to have a deep freeze to keep all of that meat. You've got to have the capital on hand. I mean,
00:38:23.640let's say your parents with a tight budget and a bunch of kids, you can't afford to tie up $1,200
00:38:28.480worth of meat in your freezer. You just don't have that laying around. But if you don't buy it in a
00:38:32.700volume that big, you're not going to save any money. So I mean, it's an option for some people.
00:38:36.420absolutely it's good for the producers and it's good for individuals but for most people people
00:38:41.660in the city and that too it's it's not quite um uh as viable a way to get out of the the challenge
00:38:49.400as others but you know we we food is i mean everything gets called right everything gets
00:38:54.660called this and that but food is a need i mean there's no getting around that one nobody can
00:38:58.180debate that we we don't have food we die simple as that so we're of course very concerned about
00:39:03.560the price of food, the affordability of food. We can't avoid it. It's not one of those things
00:39:07.340saying, well, it's overpriced. I'll just not buy it this year. So we've got to try and keep those
00:39:12.080costs in line. And it's ongoing. So I mean, having those discussions, though, watching this,
00:39:19.840seeing what's really going on out there, to some degree, you know, our demographics are the size
00:39:25.320of our country. Professor Charlebaugh brought that up. You know, Canada's huge. You got to move
00:39:30.040those products across large distances to get them to people in small towns, you're just not going to
00:39:35.040have the volume, you're going to pay a little bit more. I worked years up in Inuvik, you know,
00:39:40.600I mean, up there, the prices are through the roof for food, because everything either gets the dry
00:39:45.860goods all get brought up by barge in summertime. And some stuff comes in winter by truck on the
00:39:53.300Dempster Highway. And sometimes when the ice bridge isn't in yet, and the ferry's been shut
00:39:57.360down. There's nothing coming by truck for a long period of time. You just can't avoid high costs.
00:40:02.620Everything else has to be flown in. But I mean, that's not gouging. That's just market realities
00:40:07.360with where you are. And it just kind of gets smaller and smaller as you get to larger population
00:40:11.580centers. As somebody was pointing out, a lot of the processing and everything's happening in
00:40:15.380Mississauga and Toronto area. But that's, of course, again, because you've got a dense population
00:40:20.280of people you can serve in a nearby area for trucking, for processing, for sourcing, for
00:40:24.440warehousing, it's an advantage. So we're always going to pay a little more than our American
00:40:29.300neighbors, I think, to a degree, because we just don't have that large population density. But we
00:40:33.540want to keep it as reasonable as we can. That's the thing. Something else he mentioned at the
00:40:41.920end, which was kind of scary. If people want to look at a lot of history, the price shocks that
00:40:45.880really hit the 70s, and it was during the Yom Kippur War in Israel, which we're in a very similar
00:40:51.720situation now, except back then it was Egypt and Syria being a pain in the butt rather than0.77
00:40:58.200Gaza. But the war went on, it shot the price though, because other countries were involved,
00:41:04.740it shot the price of oil through the roof. That was the catalyst that actually led to the National
00:41:08.520Energy Program, gave Trudeau Sr. the excuse to try and screw Alberta with that. So we get
00:41:14.360circumstances beyond our control that affect our prices here, whether we like it or not.
00:41:21.720And we always want to prepare for those.
00:41:23.420I guess you still want to keep your base costs as low as you can so that if something like that happens, it's still not going to hit you any harder than it has to.
00:41:31.920And food, I guess the two words, you know, there's a few words.
00:42:44.260Even if it's kind of hidden and indirect, it costs us.
00:42:47.400And Trudeau had to admit it. He wouldn't say it outright. He's a mealy-mouthed, disingenuous man with no understanding of economics. But his policies admitted it when we see now from Blacklock's reporter, they came out with some records from the Privy Council showing that the federal researchers were researching and polling using our tax dollars.
00:43:08.540And they realized in Atlantic Canada, which had been sort of exempt from carbon tax pressures and expense for most of the time it was there, once they started having to pay the bill, oh, bye, I'm nuts into that, suddenly they switched their allegiance from the Liberals to the Conservatives.
00:43:24.580Up to 24 Liberal seats were going to be lost.
00:43:30.820And it just completely undercut what that tax is.
00:43:34.160Because if you really believe the tax is saving the world, then you shouldn't be able to say, well, yeah, it's saving the world, but we can make an exception over here or over here.
00:43:41.820And if it's supposedly revenue neutral, then it shouldn't be hurting you having it hitting people in the maritimes.
00:43:55.360And Trudeau just made himself look, yeah, and he's still got room to go down, obviously, made himself look dumber.
00:43:59.400And he already looked pretty darn dumb by backtracking is trying his carve out.
00:44:03.980And then, of course, infuriating the rest of the nation when he, you know, of course, gives exemptions to one part, but not to the other.
00:44:10.980Because we know it just means we have to pay all the more.
00:44:14.540Here's another beauty that's certain to resonate with Canadians and be popular.
00:44:18.500I see that cabinet yesterday, yeah, they said they're going to waive immigration rules for up to, and I don't believe them with much of anything, up to 1,000 Gazans to come into Canada and immigrate.
00:44:31.500Because the 1.4 million that we can't sustain right now isn't enough.
00:44:35.060Let's bring in 1,000 people from one of the most volatile places on the planet, and let's not pretend that a lot of those Gazans weren't supporting Hamas.0.98
00:44:43.980OK, Hamas didn't come out of a vacuum. People housed them. People fed them. People turned their heads when the missiles were being launched. People turned their heads when the hostages were being taken into the tunnels. These people are the people that Justin wants to bring here, as if we don't have enough of those lunatics blocking our roads, intimidating people in malls and calling out for the death of all Jews. And that's what they call. They aren't pro-Palestine protests. They aren't. They're pro-Hamas and they're anti-Jew. Let's quit talking around circles.0.61
00:45:11.300but hey, let's have a thousand more in Canada
00:45:13.280because that can only make it better, right?
00:45:16.360You know, no other country wants them.
00:45:19.400You know, there's more than one border with Gaza.
00:45:54.680Well, there's lots to cover, and there's going to be lots more, guys.
00:45:57.680You know, we're going to be on the pipeline a little later.
00:45:59.640We're going to cover a few more things and dissect them with our opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford, and other special guests going on as well.
00:46:07.740And we've got lots of other special things happening at the Western Standard.
00:46:10.660I'm going to bring somebody in to cap off the show with an announcement
00:46:14.560and covering some things on a special that's coming up here in Calgary.
00:46:18.740And that's Mr. Finkbeiner with The Draw.