Western Standard - CMS： Legacy media refuses to report conservative successes

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.460 Good day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan Show. As again, I am Corey Morgan and this is my

00:00:37.020 weekly production here with the Western Standard. We cover political issues, social issues,

00:00:42.260 just whatever's kind of hitting the news or whatever's getting under a burn in my saddle

00:00:47.680 at any given time and I get it out of my system. We also have interesting guests, news updates,

00:00:52.260 and all that good stuff. This show is running live when we record it anyways and I know some

00:00:57.500 of you are picking up in a recorded setting as well. So by all means, if you're watching the

00:01:02.400 live version, guys, throw those comments in there. I appreciate them. I see them all. I won't

00:01:06.500 necessarily read them all out, but I do like seeing them. And hey, feel free to chat with

00:01:12.680 each other on things as well. Just, I know it's easier said than done sometimes, guys,

00:01:17.020 but let's keep it civil there. So good to see you checking in there, Paradoxy Night Shift. And

00:01:21.020 somebody talking about my haircut and no tie. Yes, I got out of wearing a tie around here.

00:01:25.740 The haircut, I don't know, I'm a little mixed on it, but you know, I've never been much of a fashion

00:01:29.880 maven. I'm too hung up on the issues. So in a little while, I'm going to have my guest for

00:01:34.700 today is Dr. Dean Voss of the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Centre. I've really been looking forward

00:01:39.900 to this. I've covered addiction issues, treatment issues a lot over the last few years. You know,

00:01:45.640 I've had a direct experience in some ways. I am a recovering alcoholic. I've always been open about

00:01:49.840 that. It doesn't make me an expert in these issues, but it does make me understand and

00:01:54.200 certainly empathize when you've got something that's taking you in a direction you don't really

00:01:58.420 want to go a self-destructive sort of path and how I understand how important it is to have support

00:02:05.100 and help to get yourself out of that. So talking to somebody who works and specializes in helping

00:02:10.640 people get out of that awful cycle of addiction is going to be something very good to look forward

00:02:15.840 to because we've had that discussion hitting the Alberta election lately. Premier Daniel Smith has

00:02:20.740 announced, which she's kind of called a compassionate intervention and possibly examining

00:02:25.540 having compelled treatment or bringing people in to treatment versus I think some of the other

00:02:30.680 options such as jail or other areas. Just we've really got to try and get this under grips. So

00:02:34.700 it'll be a really good conversation. So I'm going to stay on that theme a little bit in some of the

00:02:39.840 politics and the Alberta election with one of the things that's got me wound up today. So again,

00:02:45.040 it's regarding Daniel Smith. So last weekend, we had some healthcare statistics quietly released

00:02:51.640 with a little fanfare. You know, when they drop it on the weekend, they're not really looking for

00:02:54.780 people to pay much attention to it. And today, Legacy Media, of course, has already forgotten

00:02:59.120 those statistics. And it's a pity because the dramatic improvement in waiting times for ambulances

00:03:03.960 due to new policies implemented by the UCP should be making headlines right now. As recently as last

00:03:10.060 fall, Albertans were dying, literally dying while waiting for ambulance services. One of the worst

00:03:14.980 cases was an elderly woman who bled out after a dog attack just minutes away from Calgary's

00:03:20.500 largest hospital. She had to wait 40 minutes for an ambulance to arrive. We had red alert periods

00:03:25.720 in Calgary and Edmonton where there were no ambulances available at all. It was commonplace.

00:03:30.620 Meanwhile, rural ambulances would get pulled into urban centers, and then rural firefighters and

00:03:35.460 police officers had to take on paramedic roles as they desperately tried to transport injured

00:03:39.680 people to hospitals. Paramedics and citizens have been raising concerns about this issue for years.

00:03:44.980 We've had multiple governments paying lip service to the problem, but none have done really anything aside from tossing more money at the issue, and it didn't have much effect.

00:03:53.340 Until now.

00:03:54.980 Daniel Smith raised the EMS crisis as an issue while running for the UCP leadership, and she promised to act upon it when she became premier.

00:04:02.320 Well, last December, the Smith government announced changes that were going to be made to improve EMS response times.

00:04:08.140 To begin with, vans were going to be equipped and contracted for use in non-emergency transfers of

00:04:12.840 patients. Ambulances and trained paramedic teams have been doing that for up to 75 trips a day

00:04:17.400 when they weren't really in need of emergency services, these transports. Meanwhile, of course,

00:04:21.580 emergencies are happening. The NDP predictably responded with hysterics and accused Smith of

00:04:26.620 wanting to harm patients by using Ubers instead of ambulances. In those cases, despite the hyperbole

00:04:32.160 from the NDP, Uber actually is often a more appropriate option than a fully equipped

00:04:36.040 ambulance for a non-emergency patient transfer. Smith also vowed to increase physicians, nurses,

00:04:41.440 and other resources for triage in emergency rooms to reduce the time paramedics are stuck doing

00:04:46.260 hallway care because the hospitals weren't admitting the patients being dropped off.

00:04:50.800 And we've had at times as many as 20 ambulances piled up outside of hospitals as paramedics can't

00:04:55.300 find hospital staff willing to take the patients. NDP health critic David Shepard panned the plan

00:05:00.960 saying, I can't see this announcement being anything but an incredible disappointment to

00:05:05.480 Alberta's paramedics and frontline healthcare workers. And the UCP government also started to

00:05:10.100 set timelines for emergency rooms to take patients. Then again, the NDP accused the government of

00:05:14.500 forcing paramedics to dump and run with patients, which was utterly untrue. Hospitals were expected

00:05:19.620 to admit patients from ambulances in less than 40 minutes. That's not an unreasonable request.

00:05:25.280 So now it's been a few months and the numbers are in and they look fantastic. In November of 2022,

00:05:31.340 so just last November, Alberta, well, Calgary was in a state of EMS red alert for 4.2 hours. In one

00:05:37.840 month, 4.2 hours, the city of Calgary, 1.4 million people had no ambulances. Last April, that number

00:05:44.280 was down to four minutes. Four minutes, that was it. That's quite a reduction. Ambulance response

00:05:50.000 times last November, they averaged 22 minutes in urban areas and 64 minutes in rural zones. That's

00:05:55.500 a pretty long time if you're in serious, serious condition. Well, last April, those response times

00:06:00.900 have dropped to 12 minutes in urban areas and 40 in rural areas. This is life-saving, folks.

00:06:06.140 And the silence on this success is deafening. There's no doubt about this. Lives are going

00:06:10.560 to be saved thanks to the changes made by the UCP to EMS policies. We should be shouting this

00:06:15.420 from the rooftops and examining more common-sense approaches to health care bottlenecks in the

00:06:19.880 system. Unfortunately, partisan loathing of Danielle Smith has rendered the establishment

00:06:24.960 and legacy media outlets incapable of crediting Smith with doing something right. The bloated

00:06:30.160 Alberta Health Services bureaucracy has created an inefficient healthcare system incapable of

00:06:35.360 embracing change or innovation in care. And in firing the inept board of the health services

00:06:40.880 and forcing common sense solutions to the problems, Smith's actually managed to bring

00:06:44.480 about quick success with a crisis that hadn't seen improvement in over a decade. Now Smith is taking

00:06:50.160 a strong no-nonsense approach with taking on the addiction epidemic as well. She's surrounding

00:06:55.100 herself with treatment specialists and recovered addicts rather than listening to the usual suspects

00:06:59.320 in the establishment who insist on further enablement policies. Enablement policies for

00:07:03.980 addicts have failed and they're failing throughout North America. Overdoses are continuing to climb

00:07:08.140 while the number of addicted people keeps growing. We need results-based policy rather than aspirational

00:07:13.260 ideological PAP. Smith seems to be willing to cut through the BS and impose policies that work

00:07:18.540 rather than pursuing policies that feel good. If Smith loses the election due to an establishment

00:07:24.120 that refuses to accept positive changes, the healthcare system and the addicts in need of

00:07:28.160 treatment, we'll all suffer for it. If we can't credit a success, we're never going to see more

00:07:33.000 of it. And that's what's kind of got me wound up, guys. I mean, really, you know, what I'd like to

00:07:37.680 almost see even is have some NDP supporters or just former conservatives who can't stand

00:07:43.940 Premier Smith saying, I can't stand her, I still won't vote for her. But hey, she did something 0.53

00:07:49.300 right. And we need more of that. So we'll embrace that policy. I mean, you can give a backhanded

00:07:54.220 compliment at least. But don't just suppress this. Don't ignore this. It's so rare when we see policy

00:08:00.640 successes in anything, it seems, you know, with government. And this was really not a long,

00:08:06.580 and that was the difference this time. She didn't go into saying, we're going to strike a committee

00:08:10.040 and listen to some results and talk and discuss it for the next two years, you know. She didn't say

00:08:14.220 we're going to have another commission or have another study. She said, here's the problem,

00:08:18.540 here's a few solutions, and here's what we're going to do. She didn't dither and mess around.

00:08:23.520 and now we're seeing a quick positive outcome from it.

00:08:27.680 Hey, if it'd been a failure, you know, you know,

00:08:30.620 we would certainly be hearing a lot about it.

00:08:33.020 All I want to see is results-based policies.

00:08:37.140 I honestly will vote for who will get me results.

00:08:41.020 If Smith's policies fail, I wouldn't vote for Smith.

00:08:43.920 If Rachel Notley, I'm not an NDP fan,

00:08:46.220 but if she's putting forth policies that work

00:08:48.180 on things like that, healthcare or addiction 0.92

00:08:50.360 and saving lives, that's the sort of thing

00:08:52.520 that's gonna win my vote.

00:08:53.520 we just don't seem to allow ourselves to give credit to somebody else when they get something

00:08:58.580 right. And that's not good for any of us. We're not going to get more positive solutions. We

00:09:03.420 don't encourage our politicians to get positive things done. And it's also an indication of just

00:09:09.140 how slanted, unfortunately, our establishment and legacy media have gotten. I mean, they did report

00:09:13.780 that initial story, and it was a very good article. It was in the Herald. I'll give credit

00:09:18.260 where that's due. But then that's all you heard about it. Like, this should be a big deal, and

00:09:22.220 it's already being forgotten. Not good. Not good for any of us. Let's see where we're going to go

00:09:30.620 here. I'm going to talk about another thing. This is something that disturbed me a little bit. I saw

00:09:33.760 some poll numbers that came out in Canada, across Canada. I had a guest on. He was one of the first

00:09:38.540 proponents. He was a lawyer from way back in the days with Sue Rodriguez for folks who remember

00:09:42.620 that. That was assisted suicide. It was a big issue. Now we've got this medical assistance in

00:09:47.720 dying, and is what we call it made. And you know, it's where you're gonna have medical intervention

00:09:52.720 that helps somebody pass away if they've, you know, chosen to. And I think a lot of people

00:09:57.960 don't have a problem with that as long as the person is, I guess, terminal in their right mind

00:10:03.220 and makes that decision, you know, personal decision that that may be that possibly that's

00:10:09.660 something they can offer, but it's already getting far and beyond, I think what anybody reasonable

00:10:13.800 people would expect of it. I mean, we were talking about using medical assistance of death for people

00:10:19.840 with nothing aside from a mental health issue. Well, hang on a minute. That's not somebody who's

00:10:25.820 in their right mind. This is not somebody necessarily making a rational decision.

00:10:29.780 And this is problematic. And when I spoke with that lawyer who talked to us, he says, yes,

00:10:33.200 you know, when he was out there with Sven Robinson and talking about Sue Rodriguez,

00:10:35.500 who had a terminal physiological problem going on, a painful one, a debilitating one,

00:10:40.780 That's what they were looking at. Not somebody who's suffering from chronic depression or some

00:10:45.560 of those, again, very debilitating conditions, absolutely. But these are not people who are

00:10:49.360 in a good position to choose whether they want to live or die. I listened to one bizarre statement

00:10:55.640 from a federal cabinet minister when he said, don't worry, we will never apply this. We'll

00:11:00.820 never allow medical assistance in dying to somebody who's suicidal. Wait a minute. Think

00:11:06.620 about that for a second. We won't give somebody the choice to choose to end their life if they

00:11:11.740 plan to choose to end their life. Talk about pure liberal baffle gab. So I'm not talking about

00:11:17.120 throwing out the whole medical assistance. I'm just saying we've got to be careful with it. Now

00:11:20.920 this poll, getting back to it, this is from a research company poll. One third of Canadians

00:11:24.980 apparently are fine with prescribing assisted suicide for no other reason than the fact that

00:11:31.780 the patient is poor or homeless. Folks, really? Really? I mean, so is that where we've come to

00:11:40.460 when you see it's so hopeless because somebody's poor or homeless that we're just better off just

00:11:45.080 to let them end it all rather than try to pursue recovery and bring them back up on their feet and

00:11:49.440 get them rolling? One third of Canadians thought that was an acceptable path for people in that

00:11:56.120 condition. I hope this poll is an outlier. I hope this poll is wrong. I hope it was phrased poorly

00:12:03.680 to the people who answered it. Because that's horrible, guys. One third of us thinking, hey,

00:12:10.360 well, gee, that guy's homeless. He's in such terrible condition and everything. And he looks

00:12:14.700 so miserable. Yeah, you know what? We'll offer you a way out. Here you go. We're not going to

00:12:19.940 help you get on your feet, get a job, get a home, get your mental health issues in order. But hey,

00:12:24.640 we can take you to your grave. That's really one third of people think that's all right.

00:12:30.440 I sometimes weep for society. You know, I'm crabby. I'm negative on here a lot, but I try to

00:12:36.660 maintain some degree of positivity. I mean, I guess two thirds of Canadians realize that no,

00:12:42.820 this is not a good idea, but I just would have thought that'd be the kind of poll question

00:12:46.940 where, you know, you're talking 5%, 10% maybe, and you're always going to get some people

00:12:51.520 calling for ridiculous things. But a third, again, where have we come to where we just rather let

00:12:59.600 people die than try to, things get better? You know, so I'm looking at some of the comments

00:13:05.500 here and it'll help bring things up. What we're talking about when people think things are beyond

00:13:09.040 hope, they aren't. And there's fantastic success stories all over the place. There are. So, I mean,

00:13:14.840 medically assisted death for anything other than a physiological terminal condition

00:13:19.240 is not a success. That's a failure. That's an avoidance. That's a horrific approach to

00:13:26.340 something. I see a commenter, Kiera Brady. I could be mispronouncing that. I'm brutalized 0.96

00:13:31.720 people's names on this show on a regular basis. Saying compassionate intervention without question

00:13:35.340 saved my son at 17 when we almost lost him. I'm so grateful that at last someone has finally had

00:13:40.340 the courage to address this issue. Kids are dying and they are dying. They're dying a lot

00:13:45.280 and they're everybody's kids. Don't just think just because you're doing all right that it can't

00:13:50.400 happen to you or it can't happen to your nieces or nephews or your father or uncles. This addiction

00:13:55.720 epidemic is getting everybody. And I've said it before in this show and I've been shocked. Maybe

00:13:59.820 it's part of the age I'm at. Most of my contemporaries have kids that are either into

00:14:05.060 their teens or early 20s. Now I know three different people who have lost sons to overdoses.

00:14:12.480 Three. One was methadone. One was, yeah, methadone isn't necessarily safe, guys. It can be very dangerous if misapplied. And two more with drug, you know, they call them poisonings. It's overdoses. And these were fine kids from stable families. They just, whatever, for whatever reason, got into the crap and it led to the worst possible outcome.

00:14:32.380 and we need to intervene. This is growing. This is getting bad. I shouldn't have to know

00:14:37.280 three people who've had to suffer that. I wish I never knew anybody who had to suffer that

00:14:41.900 and it's growing. So with all that buildup, I'm going to bring in my guest. He knows a heck of a

00:14:46.380 lot more on this subject than I do. And he's dedicated decades to helping people get out

00:14:51.360 of that cycle addiction. That is, I'll just bring my scroll up here to make sure I don't

00:14:57.200 mess it up, Dr. Dean Voss of the Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center. So, Dr. Voss,

00:15:02.100 thank you very much for joining us today. My pleasure. So, I guess, you know, we've seen

00:15:09.360 something of a turning point with this coming into the election. I mean, Premier Smith has

00:15:14.400 talked about this issue a lot, and I've been happy to see that. But with her recent press conference,

00:15:20.740 she's broached the issue, I guess, of imposing treatment upon people. Maybe I'll back up

00:15:27.160 but before we get to that you've worked of course for decades in treating youth and treating people

00:15:31.960 with addiction uh and you've had a great deal of success stories like the fact that somebody who

00:15:37.200 has received treatment is certainly much more likely to break free of addiction than somebody

00:15:42.220 without we'll start from there yeah thanks for having me and carrying this message i

00:15:49.260 came to calgary 33 years ago and i started on the reserves of saskatchewan and

00:15:56.680 CAMSAC and the Code A Reserve and had the highest suicide rate in Canada. I went and worked in the

00:16:03.740 States and I started my doctoral work out of Cincinnati. I was living in Vancouver and I came

00:16:10.200 here 33 years ago and the research was not good about reaching youth and that's what I speak to.

00:16:16.940 I don't speak to adults although we treat families but I'll speak to the youth issue that

00:16:22.520 youth were dying uh it was a pandemic and i didn't know if we could really help these kids because

00:16:30.840 from the academic research and programs to reach these kids they just weren't available so i spent

00:16:37.320 five years with an incredible doctoral team before we even got out of the shoots developing our model

00:16:44.840 so 33 years later um came to believe came to know that there's a solution

00:16:50.840 and we can reach these kids it's just like you said the most agonizing thing i've ever faced

00:16:58.300 is a parent losing their child that includes like from the code a reserve today code a reserve has

00:17:06.140 the highest hiv rate in canada what's changed well what's changed for us in calgary and and

00:17:12.740 the kids we treat we came to believe came to know that we can help these kids but it's tough it's

00:17:19.340 complex. It's the toughest thing I've ever done. But I want to tell you, it's also the best thing

00:17:26.340 I've ever done. But it's labor intensive, it's high risk. And who wants to wade into these kids

00:17:32.460 that don't want to stop and they're dying? And so that's where I've spent 33 years

00:17:41.060 seeking a solution to help those kids 365 24 7 it's a tough business but majority of our kids

00:17:50.100 and i've sent this to you and i can show you this is the research like when you talk about i can

00:17:56.040 have the anecdotal stuff which is very powerful i keep saying to my kids and parents you not only

00:18:03.380 have a message you are the message but to validate what we're doing i've had to look at the legal

00:18:08.400 legal aspects of it. I had to look at the clinical aspects. How do you deliver a program? How do you

00:18:14.500 raise the money to keep it going? How do you access government support? It's very complex,

00:18:20.020 but we've never varied, Corey, from our primary purpose of reaching that kid every day.

00:18:27.840 And we believe, came to believe, came to know. We know how tough it is. We know it's high risk,

00:18:33.900 But we know that we have a solution.

00:18:36.620 So I can get going on this.

00:18:39.720 But I think what Danielle Smith and Marshall Smith and these guys have done is given us a voice to share our message that there is a solution for these kids.

00:18:51.980 But you've got to raise the bottom.

00:18:53.480 They are so sick.

00:18:55.300 They are so mentally ill that they cannot stop.

00:18:59.380 and there's nothing more painful than a parent watching their kid deteriorate in front of them

00:19:04.580 and it's hopeless but to help them that's what we work on every day Corey yeah and it's a big

00:19:13.180 long-term thing and it's not simple I mean treatment for somebody when they're heavily

00:19:17.220 addicted can take I believe it was three to eight months typically with with what you guys offer and

00:19:23.320 and sometimes the results you're looking at over 50 percent will stay clean but some people say

00:19:27.900 Well, boy, then half aren't making it.

00:19:30.300 But I mean, it's far, far better than people who don't get treatment at all.

00:19:33.520 And that's what people have to understand, that if left alone, the outlook for a person who's heavily into addiction is not good.

00:19:41.960 Well, I think what's the success rate of these kids in 1989-90 was very, very low.

00:19:49.860 It wasn't 50%.

00:19:50.900 In fact, we know from our research, I had to go outside of the province to go to the Treatment Resorts Institute, for instance, with Dr. Winters and Dr. Area to validate academically our program.

00:20:05.260 Like you talked earlier about results.

00:20:07.360 I'm into results.

00:20:09.120 Otherwise, 33 years, I'm looking.

00:20:12.800 I want success.

00:20:13.640 my job is for that kid in the first chair who doesn't want help that's really sick that's

00:20:18.680 addicted to drugs i want to see results so with our research i've had to validate arc fight this

00:20:27.480 in our own community and province to show academically that the majority of our kids

00:20:32.920 stay clean and sober that's ridiculous number but i've had to go outside i can provide that research

00:20:41.080 the other research there's our research dr renters dr area which is published

00:20:47.960 that our average length of stay in treatment is 277 days it's not rehab it's habilitation

00:20:55.640 of taking a kid and setting them up to win treat the addiction we have a psychiatrist we have

00:21:02.680 multiple people that will help this kid it's labor intensive so we know that

00:21:07.400 it's the average day is it's going to take time so why do those kids stick around arc why do those

00:21:14.200 kids stick around for 277 days because they know they can win now some don't but the majority do

00:21:21.420 the other part our research from patent in 2004 and winters in area three three studies

00:21:27.980 say that eight out of ten kids that start the program finish now that's 207 days these kids

00:21:36.980 are in treatment level three and four they go out to school they go out to their community we

00:21:41.720 habilitate them the number one predictor of success in the research of kids that are sober

00:21:49.300 after treatment doing good in their life is it's called retention so 80 we've got two major studies

00:21:57.060 that say 80 of our kids complete treatment and have a better chance of making it out in life

00:22:03.360 and we're treating kids that nobody wants to treat

00:22:06.040 because we got to raise the bottom

00:22:08.080 because they can't see they're so sick

00:22:11.480 that they are killing themselves.

00:22:13.420 So what's the option?

00:22:15.040 Let them die?

00:22:16.860 And so I have a parent that says, yeah.

00:22:19.860 I'm sorry to interrupt, but yeah.

00:22:21.040 And I see a couple of the commenters,

00:22:22.460 it sounds like they're children

00:22:23.240 and have gone through your program

00:22:24.920 and they've really appreciated

00:22:26.060 and they're using that term compassionate intervention

00:22:28.620 because that seems to be the part

00:22:29.840 that some people are hung up on

00:22:31.360 is you have to intervene.

00:22:32.400 Even if the person initially perhaps isn't necessarily willing to go into treatment, they've had the parents intervening on their behalf or other loved ones.

00:22:40.280 And then you aid with that.

00:22:43.000 And as you pointed out as well, it's a mental health issue.

00:22:45.540 So, I mean, they're not necessarily making good choices initially.

00:22:47.640 You need to stabilize their thinking.

00:22:50.680 So where do you begin intervention?

00:22:53.620 Well, I think going back to this, parents have rights.

00:22:57.920 And I'm talking about youth.

00:22:59.780 And the issue is capacity.

00:23:01.340 when they're mentally ill the parent has a responsibility and the right to help them and

00:23:07.240 protect them and so legally it comes down to capacity and a parent having rights here to

00:23:14.100 save their kid they've been everywhere by the time they get to me they've been through the system so

00:23:19.640 where do you start you start by talking to other people i guess that's the best referral to me is

00:23:25.600 other parents that have gone through this that have been shattered that found hope put their

00:23:30.420 families back together. It's the same thing with my staff. I work with a team of miracles. They've

00:23:36.140 all been through it. Now they're getting masters and getting educated. They know there's a solution.

00:23:43.580 And so where do you start? Well, I've been there 33 years, Corey. There's nothing I haven't seen.

00:23:48.940 There's nothing, the attacks, trying to access government support. What Daniel Smith is doing,

00:23:56.100 I am astonished at her stepping in and having the courage to step in.

00:24:02.880 And it is compassionate.

00:24:04.400 These parents love their kids.

00:24:07.260 That's compassion.

00:24:08.120 It's compassion for us.

00:24:10.080 We care about those kids.

00:24:11.680 They will ultimately get better because they'll tell you they know we care.

00:24:17.540 And it's in our simple actions of stepping into that disease with a solution.

00:24:22.460 Hope is in human form at ARC.

00:24:24.460 that's my whole staff of carrying that message not only the staff but the parents they get their

00:24:31.300 its results and that's what's kept us alive over all these years now the government stepped up

00:24:37.840 which i think is incredible to support us in helping intervening with kids and raising the

00:24:44.240 bottom and helping them get help when they don't want help because they can't see it they're too

00:24:50.260 sick yeah so something that unfortunately has gotten very politicized and and you know we've

00:24:55.920 really kind of polarized this unfortunately rather than just looking at results is uh issues of safe

00:25:01.240 supply or harm reduction like i'm kind of on the fence with some of that if i mean if an addict is

00:25:06.140 dead well we can't help them so if we could you know keep them from dying on the street and

00:25:11.300 hopefully get them into treatment soon there's a role for harm reduction but some people seem to

00:25:15.300 see harm reduction as if it's an end or that you can facilitate an ongoing addiction and it can be

00:25:19.540 functional and i think that's where the trouble starts beginning well i'm not against harm reduction

00:25:23.860 and you're looking at the continuum of care and the continuum of recovery so certain people if

00:25:30.660 if they don't have to come to arc and they can cut down and not destroy their lives i'm all for

00:25:36.420 harmful reduction but when you reach a point and there's many many kids our research is showing

00:25:41.780 these kids have passed the stage of harmful reduction they will use till they die you step

00:25:49.900 in front of their disease it's going to be nasty because they're addicts so ours is abstinence i

00:25:57.640 don't you know i've been at this 35 years i don't see any other solution for my kids i've seen kids

00:26:03.240 go back some majority of our kids make it some go back out they die because they start using again

00:26:10.960 and they progress right back into the disease.

00:26:13.820 So it's very difficult to treat them.

00:26:16.720 But when you have the majority of the kids getting better,

00:26:20.000 like I just had my gala, 31 years.

00:26:23.480 How many of those kids are contributing to society?

00:26:27.620 The best part of my job, Corey, to me,

00:26:29.980 because I'm a senior citizen now,

00:26:31.840 is watching my graduates be parents of their kids

00:26:36.440 and they're good parents and they're good people

00:26:39.580 and they know that they have a solution.

00:26:45.180 So they're the best message I have.

00:26:47.180 On the other part, I have had to look at the academic stuff.

00:26:51.360 Our results speak for themselves.

00:26:53.060 It's high-end, solid research from outside people.

00:26:56.140 The other part is looking at the legal part.

00:26:59.320 Parents have rights.

00:27:01.340 Kids are sick.

00:27:02.520 So that's the stuff that gets all thrown into the part of a kid that's so sick.

00:27:09.580 they don't have the capacity, and a parent has, I believe, the right to step in and do what's

00:27:15.980 going to help that kid or give him a chance anyway. That's what we're doing. We're giving

00:27:20.120 them more chance. We're giving them hope, but it's hope in human form because the kids that

00:27:24.860 you may have seen or talked to, they'll tell you, without an intervention, they're dead.

00:27:30.880 So what do we got to lose, Corey? It's well thought out. It's not just we're throwing this

00:27:38.560 at you it's 33 years of research and experience and we have a message now we have a government

00:27:43.620 and i hope whether it's danielle or notley come and support us man we're saving kids it's not even

00:27:49.860 a political issue it's an addiction issue that's right it shouldn't be and as you pointed out i

00:27:55.140 mean still it's a very resource intensive you guys have been fantastic with your gala and

00:27:59.320 fundraising and and things but it's still never quite enough i mean with the government hopefully

00:28:04.080 that seems no matter which government more inclined to help fund these spaces because

00:28:07.660 that's what you need and the resources and the professionals to help. It's so important. I mean,

00:28:12.980 we shouldn't look at it as an expense. I think you'll look at it as an investment because

00:28:15.960 of sober grown children, we have a much better world for it all around. So I knew 15 minutes

00:28:24.360 wouldn't be long enough. I know I'm going to have to talk to you again sometime down the road.

00:28:27.480 Anytime. Anytime. But you sent me some fantastic studies and statistics and documents. Where can

00:28:34.880 they find those online and where can they find your organization if they want to donate or if

00:28:38.260 perhaps they need help or anything like that? Just look up Alberta Adolescent Recovery Center.

00:28:42.360 We have a website. Same thing with the research. I think that's very important, Corey, is the

00:28:48.380 research of validating that this program after 30 years is showing pragmatic, real results.

00:28:57.700 But that just allows me to go in there today, which we're doing, to carry the message and save

00:29:03.120 kids when we get people behind us and i've never seen this in 30 years the the what what danielle

00:29:10.160 and the ucp are doing and and hopefully ndp notley that can see that we have valid results

00:29:18.080 academically but most important is the families if we did an economic study of all those kids

00:29:23.440 that are out in the community working going to school 30 years it's a huge investment in our

00:29:29.200 our youth. But I want to just clarify, and I get going on this, but saving a life, there's

00:29:36.740 nothing better, but this is tough, hard business. Those parents love their kids. They're committed

00:29:43.080 to come walking in the door of ARC, and that's the model. We've created a unique model that's

00:29:49.320 working. So now let's get out and carry to other communities. Best thing we do is do what we're

00:29:56.220 doing here today carry the message so thanks for having me i appreciate it all right thank you very

00:30:00.800 much dr voss and for the work you do and for sharing that with us and i really do hope we

00:30:04.640 get to talk again soon thank you great so again guys that was yes dr uh dean voss of the alberta

00:30:12.860 adolescent recovery uh center and you know it's powerful right and as you can see it's so much

00:30:19.100 work and i see a lot of the commenters people have been looking forward to hearing from it i

00:30:22.380 mean, it's just such a good sign right there. You can see there's people who that center has helped

00:30:27.040 their, it's helped their children. It's helped them night shift, uh, saying, uh, uh, Dr. Voss

00:30:31.680 saved his family. Tony Brady saying, uh, AARC saved my, my son and family. Uh, what a team.

00:30:38.880 And that's the other thing, you know, to be mentioned, there's a whole bunch of people

00:30:41.380 involved in that a whole, and what a tough job. I mean, it's like nurses in any other medical ward

00:30:46.920 or doctors or health professionals. I mean, you have to be so strong to deal with when things

00:30:51.400 don't go the way you want and still get up in the morning and get in there and keep working on it

00:30:55.960 and uh this is so so worthwhile uh jamie johnson after 12 overdoses and multiple suicide attempts

00:31:02.400 my son's not talking about a future including university thank you to the doc and his staff

00:31:06.500 melody james compassionate intervention saved my son's life dr voss and his team taught my him and

00:31:12.520 my family the way out like the comments are just coming and coming and uh you know desiree pressey

00:31:17.600 most of his staff have been through treatment they're living examples of where recovery looks

00:31:21.040 like. And that's another thing. And that's what, with a lot of recovery groups and organizations,

00:31:27.960 you know, it starts to become anecdotal. And sometimes you see the academics poo-pooing that

00:31:32.520 or pushing it aside, but no, there's a reason you see things like, again, yes, I, I, I'm a member of

00:31:38.760 Bill W's group. We're talking about groups where you can get together with other people who have

00:31:42.780 suffered through the addiction you have, because that's how you can lend support to each other.

00:31:46.780 Because somebody who hasn't endured that, while they might mean the absolute best and might have

00:31:51.020 all sorts of things they can help. You can't beat having somebody who's directly known how to deal

00:31:56.680 with that. It's very important. And every situation is a little different too. Some people have harder

00:32:01.360 times. Some people have easier times. It's just such a, there's no cookie cutter approach and you

00:32:07.060 need as many all hands on deck. And Karen Mitchell saying rehabilitation is better than jail or the

00:32:12.420 grave. And that's some of the stuff I wrote about before because people talk about when they're

00:32:15.800 talking about intervention, whether it's adults or whether it's children, see, we've got to maintain

00:32:20.000 the dignity of folks in addiction and we can't infringe on their liberty well when they've hit

00:32:26.060 the streets when it's gotten that bad that that bad that far along are they really at liberty

00:32:32.500 anymore no they're a slave to their addiction they don't have liberty they can't think for

00:32:37.040 themselves any longer and you know they're that's the path unfortunately as karen pointed out if

00:32:44.740 there's not an intervention or treatment or something once it's at that point chances are

00:32:48.380 they probably will end up either dead or in jail or in hospital. You know, it's just bad all around.

00:32:55.500 We've got to try and seeing successes. That's what we need to hear. And that's what we need to talk

00:33:00.860 about. And this is results-based policy. This ties into what I was talking about with the ambulances

00:33:05.880 and things like that. I just want to see what works. And Dr. Voss has shown a 30-year plan that

00:33:12.040 works, not for everybody, but for the majority. We know what doesn't work. And that's facilitating,

00:33:17.740 enabling, or sitting back and just letting it happen, because that's kind of what some people

00:33:21.780 think is going to work. Kathy Terpstra, my 15-year-old daughter was in the depths of heavy

00:33:26.260 drug use. I reached my bottom and found AARC. They taught my daughter how to live a sober life

00:33:31.540 and how to live as well. I mean, that's part of it too. Again, I'm more familiar with the alcohol

00:33:36.860 end of things, but you got to help the family. You got to help the loved ones. It's bigger than

00:33:41.060 just the addict. There's Al-Anon you've probably heard of. Well, the reason for that is because

00:33:45.720 it's not just the alcoholic who needs help. It's now the people who've been impacted by that

00:33:50.760 alcoholism. It's a huge, overwhelming thing. And it does, though, lead to a payoff. Jolene

00:33:57.260 Steenson, my mom put me into ARC at 17. I wanted to use drugs until I died. I'm grateful they

00:34:02.260 stepped in front of me. Even when I didn't want the help, now I've been sober for 10 years and

00:34:05.440 I'm in university. See, we all win. If you want to be a cold, calculating, true conservative like

00:34:11.440 they talk about. Oh, you're just the, you know, heartless. You're just looking at the dollars and

00:34:15.600 bottom line. Fine. Fine. Look at it that way. Let us be that way. We are already spending a whole

00:34:21.760 pile of money on untreated addicts because they're in the health system. They are in the social

00:34:25.940 services system. They're in the prison system. They're in our mental health facilities. So you're

00:34:31.020 already paying. So let's pay to have people recover. Let's pay to have them out and feeling

00:34:36.800 better and living and being happy and having a job and paying taxes and putting back in.

00:34:41.440 but they've got to have help and you've got to have intervention. So it's been so good. I mean,

00:34:48.640 again, I know, I mean, I run an opinion show, so I'm biased, but I mean, I don't care who does it.

00:34:54.880 I want to see recovery in this. And if Premier Smith brings that in successfully, really brings

00:35:01.780 it along, we're all going to win with that because we haven't seen a Premier, you know,

00:35:05.820 I'll credit Jason Kenney with some of it. He started talking about expanding treatment spaces

00:35:10.800 and nobody really had been talking about that that much.

00:35:13.340 And when he was finished,

00:35:14.480 they'd been up to 8,000 spaces available.

00:35:16.760 BC only had, I believe, 3,600.

00:35:19.300 And that's a province with more people

00:35:21.260 and definitely a much more acute addiction problem

00:35:24.100 going on than ours.

00:35:25.900 And we've got more treatment ability.

00:35:29.820 Last January, Alberta actually saw a reduction in overdoses.

00:35:33.660 No other province could say that.

00:35:34.940 Everywhere else, this is a problem.

00:35:36.260 It's growing.

00:35:37.260 And that's because we've had more treatment ability,

00:35:39.520 but we still need more.

00:35:40.480 I mean, you only have to go out in the streets, ride a train, or talk to friends, family, and loved ones, because everybody seems to know somebody who's in this condition who needs to be helped, who needs to be fixed up.

00:35:50.920 So, Dora, I'll finish the comments and get on to more subjects here.

00:35:56.260 Dora, well, I'm so sorry.

00:35:58.860 I'm so awful with names.

00:36:00.260 There's where I need an intervention.

00:36:01.400 I get people that teach me how to pronounce names.

00:36:03.660 I said, AARC saved two of my kids, saved our family and my marriage.

00:36:07.000 If not for AARC, my kids would be dead.

00:36:08.740 And there, as Dora said as well, not just the kids, but the marriage and the family. 0.99

00:36:15.000 This is big.

00:36:15.900 This is big.

00:36:16.580 This tears families apart.

00:36:18.060 This can be terrible.

00:36:19.700 So I'm just glad to see the message of positivity and hear so many success stories.

00:36:23.980 I know there's a lot of stories that unfortunately didn't lead to a success.

00:36:29.320 Something I've talked about on the show as well.

00:36:31.020 I mean, I went through recently because, of course, we're getting a lot of the experts.

00:36:34.760 You know, experts, right?

00:36:36.180 You put that in quotes whenever you talk about it.

00:36:38.740 talking about intervention and saying you can't force somebody against their will.

00:36:45.240 Well, under the Alberta Mental Health Act and every other province,

00:36:48.100 so we're getting on to the adult stage of it, perhaps.

00:36:50.160 I mean, it's different with a minor because the parents, as Dr. Voss pointed out,

00:36:53.020 have some rights and they can intervene.

00:36:54.380 With an adult, you don't quite have those rights.

00:36:56.240 But under the Mental Health Act, I had to have a family member committed about a month ago.

00:37:00.340 I've talked about that on the show.

00:37:01.700 And it's a process and it's not easy, nor should it be.

00:37:03.880 You don't want somebody frivolously committed, not by any means.

00:37:06.480 if they haven't committed a crime, you don't want them restrained. But if it's evident they're

00:37:11.960 going to harm themselves or others, that's where the bar is. Then for their sake and everybody's

00:37:16.560 sake, we have to take them in and try and help and help and deal with this. That applies with

00:37:21.620 addicts in the late stages. If we can do this with somebody who's, you know, schizophrenia has

00:37:27.200 gone out of control or a bipolar disorder, well, if they're heavily addicted to fentanyl or

00:37:31.040 methamphetamines or something like that, I don't see why it's unreasonable to say this person's

00:37:35.380 going to harm themselves or others. And we have to take them in to try and deal with it. That's

00:37:39.420 not an unreasonable ask. I understand some people, I mean, I have a large libertarian audience who

00:37:45.140 very much don't like to see people's liberties infringed upon. Of course not. I don't want to

00:37:49.540 see it either. It's a last resort. It's a last resort. But we have to have that last resort.

00:37:55.620 And, you know, because otherwise the path is bad. All right. So I'm going to turn pages on this.

00:38:02.620 we're going to talk about this more, of course, you know, it's always been a subject that's been

00:38:05.720 big with me and we'll certainly follow up more. And I really hope to see more success and more

00:38:09.660 discussion of it. I really hope to see the NDP just starting to look at things such as the numbers

00:38:14.140 from Dr. Vasta, the press conference that Premier Notley did with chiefs from First Nations for

00:38:19.020 with recovered addicts, people like that to show this can be a success and have Notley say, yes,

00:38:24.360 we can do the same thing. And they, hey, they're campaigning, they can say we can do it better.

00:38:28.060 Okay, good. Just as long as somebody's doing it. I don't care who does it. I really don't.

00:38:33.480 So let's just keep pushing on that, guys, even if you don't like the current government. Fine,

00:38:37.220 then push the other party to push more onto a treatment-based thing. All right. Let's see.

00:38:44.060 I got to cool things down, maybe or at least in a different way. It still gets the blood pressure

00:38:48.920 up. Let's go through some news items before we get on to the agricultural check-in and stuff like

00:38:54.400 that because, as we can see, I can go on about this and there's lots to go on about for a while. 0.97

00:38:58.060 So Governor General Mary Simon, yes, you know, boy, speaking of ways, speaking of money that can be better invested elsewhere, she billed $38,000 for her wardrobe in the last 16 months.

00:39:10.540 Yes, clothing, clothing.

00:39:12.740 You know, again, we got addiction centers that need money, but we're giving our Governor General $38,000 for silk jackets, cocktail dresses, accessories.

00:39:21.340 Greece. Her salary is $342,000 to be Canada's chief ribbon cutter. She's just a ceremonial

00:39:30.500 position. That's it. And she can't buy her own bloody clothes. She gets a free house. She gets 0.76

00:39:36.020 free travel. And while she travels, she spends $90,000 for food catering for her and her entourage

00:39:41.540 on a one-week trip. I wish I was making those numbers up. And she's also dinging us $38,000

00:39:49.800 for clothing. Yes, we should be upset. There are better things to spend our money on.

00:39:57.020 This country is a mess. Speaking of people's wasting money, then let's look at our finance

00:40:01.860 minister, Chrystia Freeland. People watching the federal scene have seen there's been the budgets 0.77

00:40:05.580 being pushed through the filibustering that's going on. There's people, you know, the conservatives

00:40:11.740 are trying to hold it up because it's a massive spending budget yet again. Freeland testified for

00:40:16.700 90 minutes of the finance committee to try and break the filibuster. But she says the debt charges

00:40:21.260 are absolutely handleable. We've got over a trillion dollars in debt now. So we're talking

00:40:29.300 50, I believe, getting close to 50 billion a year we're going to spend just on interest.

00:40:34.800 You know, we're running out of money for very important things. I'll throw another

00:40:38.040 commenter in there, Tom Muskea. I'm probably ruining your name again. Sorry, Tom. But thank

00:40:42.480 you for commenting, saying, yay, RC, save my kids' lives. It's a huge commitment, but a small price

00:40:46.420 to save my kids' lives. We have money in this country. We have resources, but we're letting

00:40:52.100 our inept or indifferent wasteful politicians piss that money away on things like outfits for

00:40:59.960 the governor general, or just borrowing and throwing money blindly at programs or subsidizing

00:41:05.040 things while we spend, again, we're going to get up to 50 billion a year on interest payments.

00:41:09.360 Imagine what we could do for our country with that $50 billion then. Let's look at it. We're

00:41:15.060 we're gonna talk about, again, addiction and mental health.

00:41:18.120 That would be 5 billion a year you could give

00:41:21.200 to every province in the country

00:41:23.600 just to spend on addiction and mental health.

00:41:25.780 Could you imagine how positively

00:41:27.680 that would impact crime rates, healthcare rates,

00:41:32.120 you know, tourism even, seriously.

00:41:34.680 I mean, downtowns and cities across Canada right now,

00:41:37.140 you can't go into them.

00:41:38.220 In Toronto, you know, the stab-a-thon

00:41:40.160 on public transit is unbelievable.

00:41:42.360 Likewise in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver.

00:41:45.060 50 billion a year, though, we're flushing on interest. There's one of those cognitive dissonance

00:41:50.860 things I see with socialists that don't seem to understand. They hate big business. Oh, they

00:41:54.240 can't stand seeing corporate institutions making money out of the taxpayers, but they don't have

00:41:59.680 a problem spending 50 billion in interest. Well, who do you think that interest is going to, guys?

00:42:05.820 Small business? You think it's the mom and pop government lender down the road? No. That 50

00:42:12.540 billion is going into the pockets of big money folks, guys. So quit borrowing, quit spending on

00:42:19.880 stupid things, such as the governor general's little trips and wardrobe. Easier said than done.

00:42:28.560 I don't know. I mean, we let politicians buy our love. We're seeing that in Alberta. And to be fair,

00:42:34.060 one of the areas that, you know, Premier Smith has been getting a lot of critique from, and I'm

00:42:38.700 critical of it as well, of course, is they're doing the usual thing of campaigning and just

00:42:43.060 promising, spending, spending, spending, spending, spending, buying our love. It's our fault. We

00:42:47.540 respond to it. The reason they do that is we vote for whoever's going to blow the most sunshine up

00:42:51.160 our keisters and whoever's going to spend the most on it. So of course, you know, our budgets

00:42:57.620 get unsustainable and Premier Smith's budget hasn't been looking terribly conservative by a

00:43:08.700 If we want to see more conservatism, I think we're going to have to get better at it, aren't we?

00:43:14.200 Here's another beauty with our programs.

00:43:15.740 It shows the inefficiency of them.

00:43:17.360 The Canada Greener Homes Grant.

00:43:19.140 We're going to make everybody green.

00:43:21.320 And let's see, this one's supposed to support 700,000 homeowners with grants for retrofits.

00:43:28.960 Make your place a little greener.

00:43:31.400 Save a little on energy.

00:43:33.160 Well, if it's free money, if it's five grand each, whether you like it or not,

00:43:37.300 Most people say, yeah, I'll go in for that. But somehow, even though they launched this thing two years ago, only 40%, 41% of the target ever actually applied for it. And, you know, of those, yeah, so it's 287,000 applied and only 60,000 qualified. But I mean, we're talking about these numbers. They were looking to support over to 700,000 people with $5,000 each. This is a lot of money for a program that doesn't appear to be doing a damn thing, except for employing thousands and thousands of pointy headed bureaucrats who get a

00:44:07.280 heck of a lot of money to keep talking about this and moving paper from here to there and there to

00:44:11.620 here whilst not actually getting any decent outcomes or results from it. So, yeah, we've

00:44:19.500 got money to spare, guys. We just need to spend it better. But again, you know, if my aunt had

00:44:26.060 testicles, she'd be my uncle, right? I mean, you can wish for things, but it doesn't necessarily

00:44:30.420 mean they come about. But we'll keep pushing and keep hoping for some responsible things. Okay,

00:44:34.740 hey, let's pivot a little. I've been ranting quite a bit for a while. Let my blood pressure

00:44:38.580 come down a little bit and check in with Jim Bousicum and see what's happening out on the

00:44:45.660 agricultural front. Hey, Jim, how are you doing? Hey, doing great. How are you doing today, Corey?

00:44:50.140 Oh, pretty good, actually. I had a fantastic interview just earlier,

00:44:53.160 you know, kind of hard subjects, but very worthwhile. Good, good. There's always lots

00:44:58.540 to cover, isn't there? That there is, that there is. So your area of coverage is the agricultural

00:45:03.740 world and trying to track those those geopolitical issues and impact prices yeah so we'll start there

00:45:10.420 today so on the egg side especially with the wheat trade the news is that russia has renewed their

00:45:18.200 grain corridor that will continue to allow ukraine to export through the black sea region so the

00:45:24.820 result of that this morning is markets have definitely moved lower we had a move of 15 20

00:45:30.140 cents per bus show us lower on the wheat market um you know this follows days of uncertainty

00:45:36.300 where there was actually a lot of chop in the markets um some fairly good increases uh as well

00:45:42.380 because uh there was again that uh and really still is there's still that an easiness of what's

00:45:49.340 actually going to be able to ship out of those regions so you know so there's some speculation

00:45:54.300 about whether you know why russia does this but um you know i mean really the wheat's probably

00:46:03.180 going to come out of that region one way or another there's plenty of buyers looking for

00:46:07.500 uh wheat across the world and they're buying it from ukraine they're buying it from russia

00:46:12.220 they're buying it from canada it's really a price sensitive market now furthermore if we take a look

00:46:18.700 at the weather markets that have shaped up here we're at the start of a growing season farmers

00:46:23.900 have finished planting their crops or just busy finishing right now and as you notice looking out

00:46:32.060 the window it's a little hot and dry and a little bit smoky in the air so certainly with it farmers

00:46:38.060 are worried about moisture conditions the ability to grow a crop if it stays dry right now it's still

00:46:45.340 early enough on the calendar it's only may 17th two weeks from now three weeks from now if it's

00:46:51.340 still dry. I hope it's not smoky in two, three weeks from now, but it'll certainly look a lot

00:46:56.320 different on grain production if we move into June, especially middle of June, without any

00:47:02.400 significant moisture. Then we would be certainly talking drought. Well, I guess, you know, weather

00:47:09.480 is one of the things you watch for, but as you're kind of saying, don't quite sweat it yet. It's

00:47:12.980 still pretty early and that might turn around yet in the next few weeks. Absolutely. Yeah,

00:47:17.400 that's it we tend to especially on the farm side we tend to forecast what will happen if

00:47:26.600 weather stays dry rather than what it's doing today right now it's actually still fine everything's

00:47:30.760 looking pretty good as far as western canada goes great well thank you very much for for the update

00:47:37.080 this week and uh we look forward to talking to you again to see what's happening on the markets

00:47:41.000 next week. 100%. Thanks, Corey. Take care. Great. Thanks. Yeah. Bye-bye. Jim Buzicum of Marketplace

00:47:47.040 Commodities, guys. Check them out, marketplacecommodities.com and get more detail on

00:47:51.160 all those important issues with your ag business. So yeah, let's get on to a few more news items

00:47:58.300 before I wrap things up quickly. I want to talk a little more on the provincial stuff. Some we've

00:48:02.020 been seeing, we're going to talk a little bit about, by the way, the pipeline is our show that

00:48:05.220 comes on a little later on Wednesday nights as well and gets done. The polls, the Alberta election,

00:48:11.700 boy, the polls, you know, they're all over the map. They are, including even when the Western

00:48:16.460 Standard was involved in. But I mean, we've got some polls saying it's NDP leading by eight points.

00:48:22.420 We've got some polls saying the UCP is leading by seven or eight points. I honestly don't know

00:48:26.860 what to believe. Polls, we always love to wrap ourselves around the ones we like and then dismiss

00:48:31.940 the ones we don't. I'm trying to dismiss the whole works because, you know, when you see

00:48:35.340 basically, if you take the outliers on each edge of what's gone on with these polls, you're seeing

00:48:40.020 as much as a 14, 15 point spread. Well, somebody is pretty bloody wrong, aren't they? But we make

00:48:46.420 so many news stories about these polls and try and read into it. I mean, we want to. The polls

00:48:49.900 are important. You want to speculate. You want to see what's working, what's not working, I guess,

00:48:53.560 for campaigns and what's moving along. But man, they are something else. And I worked on two

00:48:58.800 different campaigns in the old days of the Wildrose party. When I was managing a couple of

00:49:02.620 campaigns in 2012 and 2015, both times the polls showed in the ones I was working on leading by a

00:49:11.400 whole pile for the Wildrose. We're doing great. We're doing great. Election day came, we got

00:49:15.280 slaughtered. The municipal polls, I believe those years were terrible too. They weren't worth a

00:49:20.800 crap. So we'll still keep talking about them. We report on them, but boy, we just can't rely on

00:49:29.100 them. I mean, still, you see them bouncing around, you see them wrong, but often they're all kind of

00:49:33.300 wrong the same way consistently, you know, so they'll all be saying, oh, such and such party

00:49:37.520 is going to win by this amount. And then the election comes on, it turns out almost all of

00:49:40.760 them were totally wrong. In this case, though, they're bouncing around like ping pong balls,

00:49:44.620 and they're giving different numbers all over the place. So I don't know who might

00:49:49.140 be doing, you know, winning, it would not. Charlie Bowers saying polls mean nothing,

00:49:55.660 those Dominion voting machines are going to mean everything. Yeah, they're not using those in

00:49:59.820 Alberta. But as he said, please vote in person. It's a good idea. Get in there, get in and vote,

00:50:06.600 put your ballot in. Speaking of that, you know, I was listening to, there's an NDP,

00:50:12.000 I won't even name them, just basically a blog. It gets a lot of money from the NDP and the

00:50:16.520 Broadband Institute, and they call themselves a media outlet. They've been going on about,

00:50:20.380 I mean, the conspiracy theories, the conspiracies are now really coming from the left these days.

00:50:25.240 And there's a group that was out there pushing for using scrutineers. They're holding webinars

00:50:30.320 talking about how to scrutineer during elections. For people not familiar with it, volunteers go in,

00:50:35.840 you can go in. I've talked about it, I believe, on this show before. If you're with a party,

00:50:39.560 you can register. You can go in in the morning when they open up the ballot box, show you it's

00:50:44.380 empty, tape it shut. You can be there to watch every vote all day. You can put people in on

00:50:48.980 shifts, and then you can be there the whole time when the boxes are reopened and those votes are

00:50:53.340 counted. It's actually a very good system, and it allows you to go in and see with your own eyes

00:50:59.340 whether things have looked questionable, aren't questionable. You can ask things. You can, you

00:51:03.780 know, you can't get in people's ways. You can't intimidate or anything like that, but you can be

00:51:08.240 there to supervise, and it's a very important part of the democracy. None of that counting should

00:51:12.180 happen behind closed doors or without you being able to, uh, uh, you know, supervise that, but

00:51:17.840 we don't necessarily get out and do it. So perhaps if there is misgiving, misdoing or misdeeds in

00:51:23.320 the elections, well, it's happening because we have to, uh, uh, take part. And Charlie's saying

00:51:31.100 those need to be reinstated every polling station. Yeah. The, the, the, uh, scrutineers are still

00:51:35.140 there that it can be, it's just up to you, but this is reported on by press progress. Like this

00:51:39.240 is a conspiracy. This is bad. These guys are tied in with election conspiracy theories. Not good.

00:51:43.560 No, they aren't. They're just telling people to go out there and take part in the process. And

00:51:47.200 it reminds me again of the conspiracies being spread about Take Back Alberta in Alberta. They've

00:51:52.240 been doing their thing, getting on the ground, holding their meetings. And David Parker runs

00:51:56.740 that. He's more socially conservative than my tastes land. But what I'm impressed with is his

00:52:02.300 message isn't about his views and social conservatism. It's just saying, get off your

00:52:07.100 but use the process, get out there and do it.

00:52:09.600 He's not asking about anything secretive or untoward.

00:52:13.660 And that's what's got them scared, though.

00:52:15.820 You see, the establishment thrives on our apathy.

00:52:19.200 It makes it by us, due to us sitting on our butts,

00:52:22.360 due to us being indifferent,

00:52:23.600 due to us not getting out there and taking part in the parties

00:52:26.280 or taking part in things like scrutineering during an election.

00:52:30.820 So, I mean, when Parker says,

00:52:32.360 hey, get out there and take part in the nominations,

00:52:34.040 get out there and take part in the electing the board of your party or your school board or things

00:52:40.280 like that. Why is that controversial? I'd be scared of the person who says that's controversial.

00:52:45.900 Why do you thrive on people not using the democratic tools at their disposal? That,

00:52:51.900 that scares me. So either way, that's the latest conspiracy. Oh, my Lord, scrutineers are somehow

00:52:57.760 going to screw up the process. Sorry, guys. No, scrutineers are an integral part of the democratic

00:53:03.000 process. Okay, well, there'll be lots more coming, guys, and lots more coverage. By the way,

00:53:08.840 there's going to be coverage of the debate starting tomorrow at the Western Standard at 540

00:53:13.320 for those of you guys watching live. It's going to be special coverage covering all of that. Don't

00:53:17.320 forget election night, too. We've got a huge thing going on. I got another show before that happens,

00:53:21.540 but tune in here. Don't waste your time on CBC and all those other outlets. We'll have it here

00:53:26.400 in full and give you a good coverage of the whole thing. Don Sharp saying, is the NDP going to force

00:53:33.800 paramedics back into the hallway because the United Nurses Association is complaining about

00:53:37.400 having to work? Yeah, probably if they get the chance. So let's not give them the chance. 1.00

00:53:41.260 Okay, everybody, that was a really packed show. Thank you. And thank you for all that feedback.

00:53:45.600 It was really good, guys. I like those questions. Keep them coming every show. I will be back again

00:53:51.700 next week at this time with a whole pile of new stories, another guest, and of course,

00:53:55.460 lots more issues to discuss so thanks for tuning in guys and i'll see you in a week here's an update

00:54:00.820 on commodity prices in lethbridge for today cash barley is steady at 407 feed wheat remains at 408

00:54:07.540 and corn is down two dollars at 388 per metric ton in the milling wheat markets july minneapolis

00:54:13.220 futures are lower 10 and three quarter cents at 868 per bushel with local hardware at spring bid

00:54:19.060 for May movement at $10.30 per bushel. Looking at canola, nearby futures slip $10.20 at $7.19

00:54:25.960 per tonne, with delivered buys for May movement at $16.08 per bushel. In the pulse markets,

00:54:32.240 nearby red lentil prices are trading at $0.34 per pound, and yellow peas are lowered $0.25

00:54:36.960 at $11.25 per bushel. And in the cattle markets, June live cattle are up $0.85 at $1.64.73 per

00:54:44.840 hundredweight. For more information on pricing or picked up options, give me a call at 403-394-1711.

00:54:53.140 I'm Matt Busiekum at Marketplace Commodities, accurate real-time marketing information and

00:54:57.860 pricing options. Canadian Shooting Sports Association, without the CSSA, our gun rights

00:55:03.800 would have been taken long, long ago. These guys are on the front lines, helping to draft

00:55:09.120 smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in canada and more importantly

00:55:15.140 educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people to become a member

00:55:20.240 it's absolutely worth every penny

00:55:39.120 Thank you.

Western Standard - May 18, 2023

CMS： Legacy media refuses to report conservative successes

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