Western Standard - CMS： The convoy and the constitution

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Welcome back to The Corey Morgan Show.

00:00:36.680 I'm your backup host, James Finkbeiner.

00:00:38.600 Today is January 24th.

00:00:41.500 Well, I survived last week, so they let me take control of the show again.

00:00:45.380 We have an exciting show for you today.

00:00:47.020 John Rustad, the leader of the B.C. Conservative Party, is here to talk about his vision for B.C. and the upcoming provincial election this October.

00:00:55.880 Today is also Tucker Day.

00:00:57.960 The rest of the Western Standard team will be covering the events live in Calgary and in Edmonton.

00:01:03.320 But I'm lucky I'm here with you guys.

00:01:06.800 But before we get to that, we're going to do a check-in on the news.

00:01:10.880 Unfortunately, Dave has lost his voice, so Dave won't be able to join us today.

00:01:15.980 But we have a bunch of exciting content up on the site.

00:01:18.860 It's been a busy day already today, starting with just breaking.

00:01:23.180 This just came out recently.

00:01:24.900 Liberal MP Ken McDonald from Newfoundland has called for a leadership review of Justin Trudeau.

00:01:31.520 Sure, there's going to be a ton of other Liberal MPs that are going to join in on that here soon.

00:01:36.160 Also up on the site, five hockey stars implicated in the Canadian junior hockey sex scandal.

00:01:43.520 They have been told to surrender themselves in an Ontario police station.

00:01:48.860 So we're going to keep an eye on that, see what updates we have as that unfolds.

00:01:54.440 And then an Edmonton fire captain has been charged with child porn offences.

00:01:58.360 I know the team's keeping an eye on that, and hopefully we'll have some updates there.

00:02:02.960 That's just awful, awful to hear.

00:02:05.640 And then the Edmonton shooter, yesterday there was a shooting at Edmonton City Hall.

00:02:10.100 Details have been slow to come out, and we're keeping a close eye on that.

00:02:15.620 The shooter was wearing a security outfit, and City Hall remains closed right now.

00:02:21.160 And then the big news of the day right now, and we've got lots of coverage on this,

00:02:26.500 is yesterday, a federal judge ruled that the invocation of the Emergencies Act was unconstitutional.

00:02:34.200 We've got tons of stories up on that.

00:02:36.320 We've got tons of commentary up on that.

00:02:38.300 There's going to be a ton more coming.

00:02:40.400 And like I said earlier, today is Tucker Day.

00:02:42.960 Tucker Carlson is live with Alberta Premier Daniel Smith and Brett Wilson today in Calgary.

00:02:49.280 I'm hearing rumours, and I've seen pictures, that Jordan Peterson is also in attendance in Calgary.

00:02:55.100 And I understand that he may also be in Edmonton later this evening.

00:03:00.360 Edmonton, of course, Tucker Carlson will be joined by Rex Murphy and Conrad Black.

00:03:05.140 That's tonight at 7 o'clock.

00:03:06.780 I think there might even still be a couple of tickets available.

00:03:09.260 So if you check that out on Ticketmaster, I'm sure you might be able to snag a seat still.

00:03:14.220 Those are going to be a couple of very exciting shows.

00:03:16.800 Just taking a look at the comments here quickly.

00:03:19.320 Hi to everyone.

00:03:20.400 Thank you for joining.

00:03:21.420 Good afternoon, Alberta.

00:03:22.580 I'm glad to see you guys are all here.

00:03:25.800 It's great.

00:03:27.160 So with that, let's get started.

00:03:30.480 Yesterday, a bombshell was dropped on the Trudeau government.

00:03:34.020 A federal court ruled that the invocation of the Emergencies or War Measures Act was unconstitutional.

00:03:40.420 The Liberals, in the middle of a cabinet retreat in Montreal, were seemingly caught off guard.

00:03:45.620 Suddenly, ministers were nowhere to be found.

00:03:48.400 Fitting.

00:03:49.020 That's the same reaction they had to the protests in the first place.

00:03:51.700 But let's talk about that protest.

00:03:54.540 It started with rumblings online.

00:03:56.600 Chatter about showing up on Trudeau's door to protest some of the strictest COVID measures in the world.

00:04:02.860 Those rumblings turned to action.

00:04:04.720 And starting in BC, about two years ago, truckers began a convoy for freedom.

00:04:09.920 Like a Chinook wind, the convoy picked up momentum across the prairies.

00:04:13.840 And by the time they hit the Manitoba border, they numbered in the hundreds.

00:04:17.640 Highways were lined with Canadians cheering them on.

00:04:19.880 Finally, they converged on Ottawa, and they made one simple statement.

00:04:24.880 The honking will continue until freedom improves.

00:04:27.980 These Canadians, these truckers, these families, begged to meet with their elected leaders to make their case that the Liberals had gone too far for too long.

00:04:36.220 Instead, they were met with tear gas and trampled by horses.

00:04:40.360 The War Measures Act was a law adopted by the Canadian government in 1914 at the start of the First World War.

00:04:46.120 Under it, the Canadian government could censor and suppress communications, arrest, detain, or deport people without charges or trials, control transportation, trade, and manufacturing, and seize private property.

00:04:59.740 The act was used again in the Second World War, and once more by Trudeau Sr. during the FLQ crisis in Quebec.

00:05:07.580 In 1988, former Prime Minister Brian Mulroney replaced the War Measures Act with the Emergencies Act, an updated law for an updated time.

00:05:16.380 It contains a clear definition of national emergency and outlines how serious the circumstances must be for its use.

00:05:25.220 It defines a national emergency as an urgent, temporary, and critical situation endangering the health and safety of Canadians or threatening the ability of the federal government to preserve Canada's sovereignty, security, and territorial integrity.

00:05:40.720 A national emergency is a situation that cannot be dealt with by the provinces and territories or any other law in Canada.

00:05:49.060 And now if federal judges confirmed what we already knew, no national emergency existed.

00:05:54.680 Protests at Coutts and the Ambassador Bridge in Ontario had already ended, and the truckers in Ottawa had begun moving at the request of police.

00:06:02.700 And still the Liberals pushed ahead, seizing bank accounts of convoy participants and supporters alike.

00:06:09.840 Canadians from coast to coast were subject to unlawful search and seizure and treated like the very worst terrorists.

00:06:17.920 Yesterday's decision is a start.

00:06:20.080 A glimmer of hope that our judicial system exists to protect the right of individual Canadians.

00:06:25.660 Deputy Prime Minister Freeland says she respects the independent judiciary.

00:06:30.440 Well, I think Jody Wilson-Raybould would have something to say about that.

00:06:34.260 But respect or not, her government will appeal.

00:06:36.640 Well, the quote, the court decision finds in certain respects that the decisions of the government were valid and within constitutional parameters, and in other respects, it finds it was not.

00:06:48.340 That's like saying it's okay to drink and drive because you were wearing your seatbelt and didn't speed. 0.98

00:06:53.840 The family you ran over in the crosswalk be damned. 0.82

00:06:56.920 What happens next remains to be seen. 0.95

00:06:58.840 I imagine a flood of lawsuits from all those accounts, from all whose accounts were frozen or whose trucks were seized.

00:07:05.660 But one thing's for sure, at least for today, there's a very small win, a small win for a small fringe majority.

00:07:13.100 And now, joined by the BC Conservative leader, John Rustad.

00:07:18.880 He joined me earlier this morning in the studio, and here's what we talked about.

00:07:26.800 I'm joined by John Rustad, the leader of the BC Conservative Party.

00:07:31.500 As some of you guys might know, the BC provincial government is going to be headed into an election, October 19th.

00:07:38.500 And we're really excited to have John here in Calgary.

00:07:41.740 So, my first question, big news of the day.

00:07:44.280 Yesterday, the courts ruled that the Emergencies or the War Measures Act was invoked unconstitutionally.

00:07:50.000 So, yesterday, you put out a tweet, and you thanked the trucker protesters and the freedom people.

00:07:56.180 Why do you think what they did was important?

00:07:57.700 You know, when you think about our democracy, and first of all, thanks for having me on the show.

00:08:01.500 When you think about our democracy, there is no democracy without freedom.

00:08:06.500 There is no democracy without freedom of speech.

00:08:09.180 And so, what the truckers and the freedom movement was really about was fighting for our democracy,

00:08:14.640 fighting for the very values that we have as a society.

00:08:17.720 And without democracy, those values are gone.

00:08:20.580 And so, I just, you know, I thought they did something great.

00:08:24.500 And you look at what's going on around the world today.

00:08:26.440 Look at the protests in Germany, what went on in the Netherlands, what's going on in France,

00:08:31.220 and in Scotland, and Ireland, and so many other places.

00:08:34.260 It was all founded based on what happened here in Canada, with the truckers standing up for democracy 0.98

00:08:39.540 and saying, we think this is wrong.

00:08:43.000 We think measures are on.

00:08:44.240 It's an overstep of government, and it needs to change.

00:08:47.060 So, I thought that was actually, it was very brave of them.

00:08:50.080 And, you know, I wanted to thank them.

00:08:51.260 Yeah, and so, the protest, as, well, definitely all of our viewers will know, it started in BC.

00:08:58.100 And it's kind of funny, because the Western Standard broke one story.

00:09:02.160 And there was actually two trucker protests going on in the Vancouver area at the time.

00:09:06.160 One was about working hours, wages, and the other was about freedom.

00:09:10.140 And we kind of watched as that protest started, as a few trucks from the West Coast.

00:09:15.880 And it really started to hit steam by the time it hit Calgary.

00:09:18.980 And by about that time, you could see across the country that there was momentum building.

00:09:24.100 But BC actually had a vote to condemn the actions of the truckers.

00:09:29.900 And you were, were you the only MLA or one of the only MLA?

00:09:34.480 The only MLA.

00:09:35.180 Yeah, to vote that you supported the truckers, and every other MLA in BC voted to condemn the truckers.

00:09:41.700 So, yesterday, you called out the leader of the BC United Party and the leader of the NDP.

00:09:45.960 And tell me about that.

00:09:47.780 What do you, what would you like to see them do?

00:09:49.980 So, I, when that motion came forward, I mean, it was pretty political.

00:09:53.100 And I just thought it's completely wrong.

00:09:54.740 I mean, they're basically voting against our freedoms and democracy.

00:09:58.320 And I thought, this is so wrong.

00:10:00.000 So, when the court ruling came out, which vindicated the trucking movement, which vindicated and showed that what government did was a huge overreach and shouldn't have happened, I thought, you know what?

00:10:10.620 It's time for politicians that made a mistake to be able to stand up and own it and just say, look, we're sorry, you know, we apologize for condemning the freedom movement.

00:10:20.440 And so, that's what I've asked David Eby, the Premier of British Columbia, as well as Kevin Falken, the leader of the United Party, and all of their members to do.

00:10:29.020 Just put out a statement, apologize for it, and let's move on.

00:10:32.160 Because, you know, I thought it was wrong.

00:10:34.880 But it was actually quite amazing to see the United Party and the NDP actually voting against freedom and against the freedom movement.

00:10:43.680 But then again, you know, in British Columbia, we're always known for left-wing politics.

00:10:48.460 And, you know, that's why I often say three lefts doesn't make it right.

00:10:52.520 No, exactly.

00:10:53.620 It's fascinating to see how many politicians, especially to the left on the spectrum, still, even after the ruling came out, they said, you know, that Canada's national security and our economic security was a threat.

00:11:08.380 And that's why they needed to invoke the Emergencies Act.

00:11:10.980 Do you think that our national security was ever a threat?

00:11:14.740 Absolutely not.

00:11:15.860 Absolutely not.

00:11:16.540 This was a freedom.

00:11:17.600 This was peaceful.

00:11:18.960 This was a statement that people were making about an overreach by government.

00:11:23.520 And, you know, the positions I'm taking, which is, I think we need more direct democracy.

00:11:27.580 We need to strengthen our democracy.

00:11:30.540 You know, I think there needs to be freedoms and freedoms of choice, particularly when it comes to things like our health care and over, you know, our own bodies.

00:11:37.320 I'm called a danger to democracy by the leader of the NDP.

00:11:43.240 I'm called, you know, radical and a danger to democracy.

00:11:46.620 And I understand why, because it's a danger to their form of democracy.

00:11:50.440 They have a very authoritarian approach in terms of how they want to do things.

00:11:55.000 Their policies have failed.

00:11:56.360 So they're coming in and trying to force things upon people.

00:11:59.400 And they have no respect for democracy.

00:12:01.720 In British Columbia, we actually have a situation where a sitting municipal government wants to keep the RCMP as their police force.

00:12:11.380 And government is coming in and overruling them and saying, no, you will move to a local police force.

00:12:18.560 What happened to democracy here?

00:12:20.840 Yeah.

00:12:21.260 It's got the same government that's coming in and saying, we are going to overrule the official community plans.

00:12:27.520 We're going to say that there's, you know, say that you can have densification in here.

00:12:31.300 There's nothing you can do about it.

00:12:32.720 And, oh, by the way, you're not even allowed to have public consultation.

00:12:36.000 It's not even required.

00:12:37.600 What kind of democracy is that? 0.83

00:12:39.120 And I'm called a threat to democracy.

00:12:41.700 It's really quite funny, actually, to see how the left will really stretch just to try to force their agenda on people.

00:12:48.260 It's impressive gaslighting.

00:12:50.360 In Alberta, in Saskatchewan, there's been a push from certain people that they would like to see the RCMP replaced with a provincial police force or more municipal police force.

00:13:00.220 But if Daniel Smith or Scott Moe did what the B.C. government is doing, there would be outrage.

00:13:06.620 It would be, they're just disrespecting the municipalities.

00:13:10.820 They're, you know, they're the problem with democracy.

00:13:13.100 And here we have, you know, an actual leader that is pushing through something that the people don't want.

00:13:19.060 But you're the threat to democracy for supporting freedom.

00:13:22.480 I know.

00:13:22.680 It's crazy.

00:13:23.220 And this is why I support direct democracy.

00:13:24.860 If we're going to do this, like, for example, British Columbia, if we were to consider going to a provincial police force, and there's some that think that we should go in that direction, let's get all the information out to the people.

00:13:35.100 Let's show them what the costs are, what it looks like, what the benefits are, what the pros and cons for each option, and then have a referendum.

00:13:43.020 Let the people vote.

00:13:44.840 Why don't we support people in the decision-making?

00:13:47.300 People are smart.

00:13:48.060 They're capable.

00:13:48.800 They're capable of being engaged.

00:13:50.500 And they want to be engaged.

00:13:52.100 This is what we should be doing with, you know, big decisions like that.

00:13:56.780 Well, exactly.

00:13:57.500 You can see in Alberta how the United Conservative Party has pushed more direct democracy.

00:14:03.480 So, with exiting the Canada pension plan, they've committed that they're actually not going to do anything until there's a referendum on the subject.

00:14:11.120 So, under you, as you, as the Premier of BC, would there be more referendum?

00:14:16.000 Would there be more questions put on municipal ballots and stuff like that in the future?

00:14:20.400 I'd like to look at doing that.

00:14:21.520 Now, you don't want to do it for everything, right?

00:14:23.520 I mean, you're elected as a representative.

00:14:26.020 Your representative is to represent the people on the decisions that need to be made.

00:14:29.880 However, when there are big decisions, I think it's important to be able to go to people and have a referendum.

00:14:34.560 So, for example, last spring, I think it was February or in that area, I actually moved forward a motion in the legislature to say that there should be no new taxes or no increased taxes unless it's done by referendum.

00:14:48.900 Why wouldn't we go to people and say, look, make the case if we need more money, we'll make the case and say, you know, are you willing to give more money because this is the benefit?

00:14:56.280 And if people say no, then government's got to live within its means and figure out, you know, how to balance those books and how to deal with the issues that need to be done.

00:15:04.160 This is the kind of thing that I think people need to be involved in to renew our democracy because, quite frankly, you know, as you see with these more authoritarian approaches, both, you know, federally and provincially, certainly in British Columbia, it's an erosion of our democracy and it's erosion of our freedoms.

00:15:19.500 So, that actually comes to another thing, speaking of taxes and a referendum on taxes, BC has, I believe, the first and oldest carbon tax in the country and the cost of living is out of control.

00:15:31.900 Vancouver and the Lower Mainland is one of the most expensive areas on this planet to live.

00:15:38.560 Real estate, especially for millennials, is completely out of reach and if you're living or if you're working in Vancouver, in Vancouver Metro, you're living out in the suburbs and you're commuting, if you're lucky.

00:15:49.220 Yeah, so, and that also comes to pipelines and home heating.

00:15:55.000 So, would you have a referendum then on scrapping the carbon tax?

00:15:59.200 Would you follow Pierre Polyev's lead and if the national tax was scrapped, would you scrap the BC tax or would you take that question to voters?

00:16:08.340 Actually, I wouldn't take that question to voters because, quite frankly, that's going to be a piece of the next upcoming election.

00:16:14.420 If people want to remove the carbon tax in British Columbia, vote for the Conservative Party of BC, we will get rid of it.

00:16:21.000 And so, obviously, with a federal government in place, if we get rid of it before there's a federal election, they could implement their own federal tax.

00:16:27.860 And I wouldn't want to see that happen because getting rid of a federal tax is far harder than getting rid of a provincial tax.

00:16:32.940 But, yes, we're committed to getting rid of the carbon tax.

00:16:36.320 It makes no sense.

00:16:37.520 Half the people in British Columbia today are struggling to put food on the table.

00:16:41.360 And taxing people into poverty is not going to change the weather.

00:16:44.700 It makes zero sense whatsoever to be doing this.

00:16:47.140 It's just a tax grab for governments to be spent on their pet projects.

00:16:51.200 So, we want to get rid of it.

00:16:52.620 It's going to put $2.8 billion back in the pockets of British Columbians from last year.

00:16:56.840 And the thing is, when you look at the cumulative, by 2030, 2031, the carbon tax and associated taxes will be the equivalent to taking $27,000 out of a family of forest pockets.

00:17:10.680 $27,000.

00:17:11.900 I mean, people are struggling, like you said, to buy houses, to pay the rent for food.

00:17:16.460 They can't afford that kind of taxation.

00:17:18.500 That needs to go.

00:17:19.220 So, reducing taxes would certainly help.

00:17:23.120 I know the carbon tax, it's compounded.

00:17:25.480 It's tax on tax on tax.

00:17:27.340 But that doesn't necessarily fix the housing crisis.

00:17:31.300 And BC's housing crisis is like no other.

00:17:35.080 I don't even know where to start.

00:17:36.860 Where would you start?

00:17:38.440 Well, you know, since 1991, it's been 32 years, 16 years of NDP and 16 years of BC levels.

00:17:44.700 And just about everything you can look at in British Columbia is worse off, including housing.

00:17:48.940 Since 1991, housing has gone up by five or six-fold, while wages have doubled.

00:17:54.360 So, wages have fallen way behind the ability for people to be able to pay for housing.

00:17:59.560 So, there needs to be some dramatic shifts in terms of how we deal with housing.

00:18:04.020 We haven't quarreled out our housing policy quite yet, but there's sort of three prongs that we're looking at on dealing with housing.

00:18:10.040 The first is, we've got to figure out how we bring down the development charges by municipalities.

00:18:14.840 Municipalities need to be able to put in new water and sewer and the services they need for housing.

00:18:19.900 So, let's figure out how we support municipalities to be able to do that so that it makes it easier for them to be able to move forward with housing projects.

00:18:27.600 The second thing we need to do is, of course, we need more supply.

00:18:30.160 We need to have that come in.

00:18:31.280 And there were solutions that were done back in the 60s and 70s, which drove a significant amount of rental units to be built.

00:18:38.440 We should be looking at the same type of solutions, right, in terms of creating that environment so that investors can come in and actually build the units that we need.

00:18:46.880 And the third piece, of course, is on affordability, people's ability to be able to buy the houses.

00:18:50.600 And so, we're going to have some very interesting policies that are going to come forward to be able to help people to be able to afford their housing in British Columbia.

00:18:58.780 Yeah, I hear that so many times that so many good projects die at city council.

00:19:05.060 And, you know, every council across the country, especially in the major cities, is struggling with housing right now, but they're still raising taxes.

00:19:11.840 I'll give you an example.

00:19:13.440 So, in Victoria, there was a major project which was going to have, you know, commercial on the ground floor and housing in the other floors.

00:19:21.940 And they proposed a five-story building.

00:19:24.780 Well, the local residents complained, saying, no, no, that's too tall.

00:19:28.320 And so, they cut it back and forced the developers to go to a four-story building.

00:19:32.300 And the developer said, well, if we're going to do that, we can't afford to put in social housing, this affordable housing for people as part of it.

00:19:38.120 And the council said, oh, that's okay, you can remove those.

00:19:40.780 Like, it's crazy.

00:19:42.340 So, we've got a housing shortage.

00:19:44.080 And the problem is because the building is going to be five stories instead of four.

00:19:47.740 And then you've got projects in Vancouver, for example, that take five, six, seven years to actually get approved for redevelopment and done.

00:19:54.340 Like, this can't happen.

00:19:55.800 These things need to be able to go through in a very timely way to be able to drive the investment and get these projects going.

00:20:01.740 And so, there's big shifts that are needed.

00:20:04.400 Government in British Columbia has come in and said, well, we're just going to force councils to do things a certain way.

00:20:09.240 I'd much rather work with councils and find ways to be able to set the stage so that these decisions become easier and they can get done.

00:20:16.880 Absolutely.

00:20:17.740 Just eliminating red tape in the process would speed things up.

00:20:22.420 But eight years is out of control.

00:20:24.580 We don't need housing eight years from now.

00:20:26.600 We need housing two years in the past.

00:20:29.300 That's right.

00:20:29.660 We need to catch up.

00:20:30.520 Or even 10 years in the past when you look at the demand.

00:20:32.460 I mean, especially with our population growth with immigration, it's crazy that we're bringing people in with no place for them to live. 1.00

00:20:39.340 Well, we have no place for them to live, but now we're also bringing in an aggressive amount of foreign students. 1.00

00:20:44.640 And I've seen something on your Twitter about this.

00:20:48.160 So, you're talking about capping the amount of foreign students that would be admitted into BC schools then?

00:20:55.020 Well, what I'm actually looking at is, you know, Quebec has taken control of its own immigration.

00:20:59.120 I think British Columbia should be doing the same thing.

00:21:02.460 We should be looking at how we control the immigration that comes in to make sure that we're getting the skill sets we need. 0.99

00:21:08.080 We have shortages, of course, in health care, in education.

00:21:11.400 We've got shortages even with truck drivers, right?

00:21:13.700 Let's make sure we're bringing in people with the skill sets that match what we need in our economy.

00:21:18.700 Plus, obviously, room for others to come in.

00:21:20.500 You want to be able to be the land of opportunity, of course.

00:21:23.140 But why don't we take control of that?

00:21:25.220 And if we can't get the same sort of rules as Quebec, maybe we can just do it as 100% through what we call the Provincial Nominee Program.

00:21:31.540 But that also includes students.

00:21:33.260 Many students come into the country to get an education, but also as an opportunity to be able to get a job and maybe have an opportunity to immigrate into Canada.

00:21:43.980 And that's good.

00:21:44.760 I mean, like I say, I'd like us to have that opportunity.

00:21:46.800 But we actually have some facilities that are one-room colleges where students come in, register, and then they go directly into the workforce.

00:21:56.160 And so that's not only abusing the student in terms of coming in, but it's abusing the process and opening up for immigration sort of through a back door without the kind of filter and process that should be done.

00:22:07.860 And so I look at that and think we need to have better control of what's going on with that.

00:22:11.620 Absolutely.

00:22:13.060 So, yeah, speaking of healthcare, I find this, it's not amusing.

00:22:18.260 It's actually, it's terrifying.

00:22:19.780 But the BC NDP has gone one direction, and the Alberta UCP has gone an opposite direction.

00:22:27.080 But they are tackling nearly identical issues, especially in rural areas with rotating hospital closures, ERs being shut down, shortage of family physicians pretty much everywhere.

00:22:36.600 You can take the headlines, and you can cross out Alberta and write in BC.

00:22:42.120 But the NDP in BC has decided to double down, spend more money, change nothing, and Alberta's gone a different direction.

00:22:49.940 AHS has basically been split up into four different areas.

00:22:53.700 They've picked four different areas of focus, and they're expanding access to family physicians by allowing nurse practitioners to treat in family general practice settings.

00:23:04.080 And they've put an aggressive amount of money into healthcare and addictions.

00:23:08.780 BC, on the other hand, has gone the safe supply and free crack pipe route.

00:23:15.460 So where would you change that?

00:23:18.880 What exactly, what direction would you go?

00:23:21.580 Well, have we got an hour to cover this?

00:23:23.280 Because it's a big topic.

00:23:25.120 So I'll just touch on a couple things.

00:23:27.360 First of all, safe supply and decriminalization has been a complete failure.

00:23:30.400 British Columbia now, according to some experts, has the highest level of, highest number of addicts per capita in North America.

00:23:39.700 So clearly what we are doing is not working.

00:23:42.120 It is failing.

00:23:42.900 We need to take a different approach.

00:23:44.360 And I like many of the things that Alberta's doing around that.

00:23:47.020 So we need to be looking at this different approach in terms of how we deal with addictions.

00:23:50.580 But when it comes to healthcare, there was a court case that went through about a year ago, year and a half ago, where the government essentially was arguing that the system was more important than patient suffering.

00:24:03.620 And the worst part is the judge agreed.

00:24:06.280 Like, patient suffering and patient should be the focus of healthcare.

00:24:10.440 So what we need to do is actually we need to look at our system and think, how do we improve this?

00:24:15.100 How can we change this?

00:24:16.620 And throwing more money is not the answer.

00:24:18.800 There's only one other country in the world, as far as I know, that even comes close to following the healthcare system we have, and that's North Korea. 0.69

00:24:24.740 And I'm sorry, that's not a model I want to follow.

00:24:27.160 We need to be looking at what Europe's doing and what places like Australia are doing.

00:24:30.820 We need to have a universal healthcare system that is delivered by both public and private sources.

00:24:35.700 It's the only way that we're going to see the kind of improvements and actually create a better morale in our healthcare system so that we can attract professionals.

00:24:43.200 So especially the Scandinavian countries, they have a very interesting mix of public-private delivery.

00:24:51.040 And essentially, if the public system is unable to help you within a reasonable amount of time, your public dollars, you then take them to a private clinic and you can get the treatment.

00:25:00.640 So Alberta and BC have this weird relationship where all the Albertans have to go to the Canby Clinic to get treatment, and all the BC folks, they got to come to Calgary to the different clinics to get surgery.

00:25:12.680 So would you be working with Saskatchewan, Alberta, probably Manitoba at coming up with a plan that if somebody in BC needs a hip surgery and they can get it done in BC in a private clinic faster, those public dollars, are they going to follow that patient to that clinic?

00:25:28.220 So that's what we're looking at.

00:25:30.320 We're going to actually put together a proposal as part of our platform going into the 2024 election here that's going to be talking about how we can change and how we can create that kind of a model.

00:25:41.980 Now, we may run afoul with the Canadian Health Act, and so that's something that we're going to have to deal with.

00:25:46.900 And certainly, we're going to be looking at partners, people like Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, New Brunswick, any of those provinces that have these same problems that would like to have this change.

00:25:57.660 But the key in doing this is it has to be universal.

00:26:01.040 So it has to be available regardless of where that source is.

00:26:04.320 And we should be using whatever source is available to be able to reduce the wait times for patients.

00:26:10.060 Last year, I think it was the last number I saw, about 17,000 people in Canada died waiting for diagnostic services and surgeries.

00:26:17.940 I'm sorry.

00:26:18.760 That's completely unacceptable.

00:26:21.060 At that rate, just on a population base, and we can't get the numbers in BC because they won't publish them,

00:26:25.600 we're seeing about the same number of people die, if not even more, waiting for diagnostic services and surgeries as are dying from the opioid crisis.

00:26:33.800 And nobody is even talking about it.

00:26:35.860 It's completely unacceptable.

00:26:37.300 Our system's broken.

00:26:38.540 It's in a crisis.

00:26:39.480 We need to be able to be brave enough to have a conversation to say, let's do it differently.

00:26:43.460 Let's improve it.

00:26:44.520 Absolutely.

00:26:45.140 AHS Alberta actually doesn't publish those numbers either.

00:26:47.540 We don't know how many people are actually dying on the waiting list, waiting for treatment.

00:26:52.520 We are just about out of time, but I have one last question.

00:26:56.160 We've actually seen a party come from third place and win before.

00:27:00.840 Alberta, the NDP did it.

00:27:02.700 Nenshi, when he won as mayor here in Calgary.

00:27:06.200 Right now, I think the last poll I've seen, you guys are sitting in second place.

00:27:10.800 And, you know, how do you carry that momentum into October?

00:27:15.900 Well, obviously, there's a lot of strategy that has to go in around carrying that forward.

00:27:19.940 But people in British Columbia are hungry for change.

00:27:22.320 And what we say is it's not about being conservative or liberal or NDP or green.

00:27:26.020 It's just standing for what's right.

00:27:27.580 Fighting for the average everyday person and just being straight up with people.

00:27:30.840 People from across the political spectrum are interested in what we're doing.

00:27:34.720 And we saw a poll before Christmas that showed the Conservative Party in BC is actually there's 56% of the people in BC are considering voting for us.

00:27:42.780 Which is a stretch because the last time the Conservative Party in British Columbia formed government was 1927.

00:27:49.140 We're the oldest party in BC's history.

00:27:51.340 The last time we even elected anybody was the 1970s.

00:27:53.820 And so we're coming really completely out of the wilderness on taking the stage here in British Columbia.

00:27:59.420 But we're putting forward a great team.

00:28:01.700 We're going to have a very good strategy and lots of very interesting platform pieces to try to attract that vote in British Columbia.

00:28:08.320 And I think, quite frankly, we have a path to be able to win government in 2024.

00:28:12.360 It's going to be a very interesting year.

00:28:14.100 Yeah, I'm excited for sure.

00:28:15.500 We're definitely going to be paying attention to it at the Western Standard.

00:28:18.100 I know our members are going to be paying attention to it.

00:28:19.960 So where can they find some more information on you, the party, and get your platform before the election?

00:28:25.960 So the best place to go right now is to conservativebc.ca.

00:28:30.440 That is where our candidates are being placed and we're fleshing things out.

00:28:34.560 We've got a lot of ideas on there, but we are obviously holding back exactly what's going to be in the platform.

00:28:39.620 So we can use that for the tools we need to do to attract the attention that we're hoping to be able to have in British Columbia.

00:28:45.680 But it's a good place to come as a starting point to follow and get engaged.

00:28:49.960 For anybody that's in British Columbia that would like to be part of it, please sign up and become a member.

00:28:54.060 Obviously, we're looking for donations, building up the party and that side of things.

00:28:58.040 But I really encourage people to get involved and volunteer.

00:29:00.920 Democracy is made by those who show up.

00:29:03.420 So if people want change, get engaged, get involved, help us bring the kind of change that you want to see in British Columbia.

00:29:10.240 Absolutely.

00:29:10.840 Well, thank you very much for joining us today.

00:29:12.700 I appreciate it.

00:29:13.660 Thank you very much for having me on.

00:29:14.920 Thanks.

00:29:19.960 A big thanks to John for joining us live this morning in studio.

00:29:23.800 We wish him luck in his upcoming election.

00:29:26.560 And with that upcoming election, I just wanted to touch on a couple of things.

00:29:30.460 December 12th, Preston Manning wrote an opinion piece.

00:29:33.660 And I just want to bring everybody's attention to something that he said in here.

00:29:37.060 Far too many Calgarians completely ignored the last municipal election.

00:29:41.160 That resulted in the election to the office of the current mayor.

00:29:44.400 The 46% voter turnout in 2021 Calgary municipal election was even lower than the 58% turnout in 2017.

00:29:53.080 With less than half the eligible voters participating in 2021 and the mayor receiving 45% of the vote,

00:29:59.600 this means she occupies the office with the support of only 21% of the electorate.

00:30:04.520 Now, we just talked about the BC election there and the platform of the BC Conservative leader.

00:30:10.860 And I see a lot of people in the comments saying that, you know, things never change.

00:30:15.180 And a lot of the reason why things never change is because people don't show up to vote.

00:30:20.120 If you take a look at some of the polls, especially the federal polls in BC, a lot of people have changed their mind.

00:30:28.080 They've changed and moved away from the Liberals and they're heavily supporting Pierre Polyev.

00:30:35.060 And if you look at the polls, the BC Conservative Party is on an upwards trajectory.

00:30:39.480 We haven't seen a BC Conservative Party have that much momentum in years and decades.

00:30:45.940 I think this is a really good and exciting opportunity for the province.

00:30:49.840 Even just to have a Conservative government as the official opposition in such a key area.

00:30:56.520 You know, if people show up and vote and they vote what they want, you're going to get, you're going to see change.

00:31:03.840 And even the NDP losing 10 or 15 seats in BC, you know, that's going to put them on notice that folks are done with the NDP's, you know, just lack of results.

00:31:16.860 Like we talked about the Vancouver Lower Mainland real estate is some of the most expensive real estate on earth.

00:31:22.220 When you look at health care, they have the exact same problems that Alberta and Saskatchewan are having with rotating ER closures and just a shortage of family physicians and rural hospitals being shut down.

00:31:33.360 And I also see a lot of people saying that the interior, it's kind of like Canada.

00:31:39.860 When the voting is done on the East Coast and once you've crossed Ontario, the rest of the voting doesn't matter.

00:31:45.100 And a lot of people feel that way with BC that the Lower Mainland is going to decide who the government is and the interior, you know, they don't matter.

00:31:53.940 Yes, but the more people that show up to vote, the more you can gather volunteers, the more effort you can put behind it, the greater momentum you can have.

00:32:03.800 Look at what happened even with the liberal government dropping the carbon tax on home heating oil.

00:32:10.280 That was just the East Coast.

00:32:12.000 They picked up the phone, they called their MPs, they put them to task.

00:32:15.400 They said, we won't vote for you if you don't make this change.

00:32:18.620 And the change came.

00:32:19.760 Now, obviously, not much has changed for the West.

00:32:23.080 Alberta doesn't have enough liberal MPs to make a difference, but we've only got two of them. 0.97

00:32:28.420 But it's important to reach out to those MPs and say, like, look, look at what's happening.

00:32:34.980 And that actually brings me to the next story that I want to talk about here.

00:32:38.300 Linda Slobodian, she's got a column up on the site right now.

00:32:41.440 And this story is just, it's crazy.

00:32:44.320 A 17-year-old man's accused of assaulting a 62-year-old woman, and he was already out on bail.

00:32:50.140 He was out on bail on three different assault charges with a weapon, common assault, and several breach of conditions.

00:32:57.200 This is another liberal problem.

00:32:59.020 This has come directly from policy from the Trudeau government.

00:33:02.660 And we have two liberal MPs in Alberta.

00:33:05.380 We could pick up the phone and we can say, we need to make change.

00:33:10.100 And we're seeing that this is affecting every aspect of society right now.

00:33:14.260 More and more people are being assaulted by people out on bail.

00:33:17.700 I think there was a study that came out in BC that almost all of the crime was being committed by just a handful of people.

00:33:26.220 And we arrest them, we hold them, and we let them go.

00:33:29.920 And many times they're committing another crime the same day.

00:33:33.560 We need to make that change.

00:33:35.960 We need to see people held responsible for their actions.

00:33:41.140 And this story, it's devastating.

00:33:44.340 I really encourage you guys all to go read it.

00:33:46.580 It's a great piece by Linda.

00:33:48.620 She's got the exclusive interview with this victim in the first place.

00:33:52.760 It's important.

00:33:54.140 It's really important that Canadians start getting active in our democracy.

00:33:59.280 Call your MPs, join a party, donate, buy a membership, get involved.

00:34:06.320 It's like the coaches say, get off the bench and get in the game.

00:34:11.160 And I was looking at the comments here as well.

00:34:13.900 I'm glad that so many of you joined me today.

00:34:16.180 Without Corey here, it's 50-50 that anybody's going to show up.

00:34:19.880 So thank you very much to Bill.

00:34:22.140 I seen your comment earlier.

00:34:23.420 Let me just find it here.

00:34:24.420 Bruce, sorry.

00:34:25.560 I enjoy the Western Standard news at noon.

00:34:27.480 Very good to hear news that is actual news and not propaganda spewed by the mainstream media.

00:34:32.340 Well, we appreciate it too.

00:34:33.940 We appreciate all of our members.

00:34:35.400 We were really excited to give out a bunch of tickets for Tucker Carlson in Calgary and Edmonton.

00:34:40.460 And the more support we have from our members like you, the more events like that we're going to be able to do in the future.

00:34:46.060 So if you know anybody who wants a membership, encourage them to sign up on the site.

00:34:51.260 It's $10 a month or $100 a year.

00:34:54.080 And we hope that as we continue to grow, we can do more and more for you.

00:34:58.780 Now, one of the other things that I've just seen here in the comments is about recall legislation.

00:35:04.640 And I agree, but there's a couple of different things that we need to take into account.

00:35:09.460 So Medicine Hat, there was an attempt to recall their mayor there.

00:35:13.420 And the bar has been set so high that it's nearly impossible.

00:35:17.880 And, you know, I'd like to see change to that in Alberta.

00:35:20.320 But at the same time, we can't just constantly elect, recall, elect, recall, elect, and recall.

00:35:26.460 So there needs to be a bar there. 0.98

00:35:28.100 But perhaps the bar should be a little bit lower.

00:35:33.700 And then I'm just seeing here, it looks like friend of the show has said, can you imagine if James and Corey were on the show at the same time?

00:35:41.460 Mind-blowing. 0.92

00:35:43.100 Or just a lot of old, miserable guys. 0.96

00:35:46.900 Corey will be back after next week.

00:35:49.220 He's luckily getting to enjoy a vacation.

00:35:51.760 I'm jealous.

00:35:52.320 I don't know how you get vacations around here.

00:35:54.680 Every time I put my days off in, I get told that I have to stay at work.

00:35:59.620 And finally, this story out of Edmonton.

00:36:03.060 And this story is bizarre.

00:36:05.760 Yesterday, a man wearing a security vest entered into Edmonton City Hall and started firing shots off and threw a Molotov cocktail.

00:36:16.720 In the end, he seemed to put his weapon down and an unarmed commissioner, City Hall security guard, was able to take that man into custody.

00:36:26.220 Obviously, the investigation is still ongoing.

00:36:28.760 But, you know, that's really terrifying.

00:36:31.060 And I think it's actually really sad for not just for Alberta, but for Canada.

00:36:36.060 You know, it's been a very interesting last three to four years in this country.

00:36:42.420 You know, we've had the trucker protests.

00:36:44.940 We've had Canadian citizens treated like terrorists.

00:36:48.100 We've had terrorists shout death threats at police and seen no arrests.

00:36:52.140 And then we have this.

00:36:53.420 And, you know, there is something that needs to be said is that if you don't show up and vote, the same people are going to continue to be elected.

00:37:04.320 And they're going to continue to make these bad, poor decisions that are at odds with the electorate.

00:37:09.420 But violence is just not going to solve anything.

00:37:14.220 If anything, violence is going to make them buckle down and stick with really bad decisions.

00:37:20.400 Not only that, but, you know, city halls are a place of public gathering.

00:37:23.980 There has been protests outside the Calgary City Hall, in the Calgary City Hall.

00:37:28.480 It's a place for community events.

00:37:30.400 I would imagine the Edmonton City Hall is the exact same way or the legislature or the House of Commons.

00:37:34.700 And, you know, entering those places with a weapon, it's not about the politicians.

00:37:40.640 It's not about the people working in those buildings.

00:37:42.780 It's about our democracy.

00:37:44.400 And it's about our society in general.

00:37:47.220 So, you know, I'm glad that this guy arrested, was arrested.

00:37:50.540 I'm interested to see what his reasonings are.

00:37:54.440 And there's no reason.

00:37:55.780 There's absolutely no excuse for what he's done.

00:37:58.900 But, you know, this is, it's going to be sad.

00:38:02.380 And now we're going to see these buildings have, you know, probably increased security.

00:38:06.440 There's going to be more scrutiny on the public, which is unfortunate, because that's where the people need to go to be able to address their politicians.

00:38:17.220 Oh, I just seen another comment here about PayPal.

00:38:19.980 So this is actually one of the things that I can address.

00:38:22.500 So to close up the show, I'll talk about some of the changes we've made here at the Western Standard.

00:38:26.420 Back in October, we released a new website on a new platform.

00:38:30.760 The system that we use, it's called Quintype.

00:38:34.060 It's a great program.

00:38:35.780 We've got way more flexibility on it.

00:38:37.920 But the default payment provider on it is PayPal.

00:38:41.120 So I just want to let all of you guys know that in the next week or so, we will be switching to a different payment handler.

00:38:47.920 We've actually just had tons of issues with PayPal, with credit cards not working properly, with people just having issues with the system in general.

00:38:56.180 So we're making some pretty big changes there.

00:38:58.800 Another thing that popped up is our comment section.

00:39:02.040 And I sent out an email to everybody, and I said, our comment section is moderated by AI.

00:39:07.480 Well, let me explain.

00:39:09.720 The AI that we use is akin to spellcheck.

00:39:13.960 All the system is supposed to do is look for foul language and inappropriate words, and then they're supposed to flag it to our staff.

00:39:23.460 And then our staff manually reviews that and removes it.

00:39:26.600 Unfortunately, the list of words that we've provided into the system aren't working properly, and it's blocking words like mother.

00:39:34.640 It's blocking words like job.

00:39:36.520 So we're actually switching to a new comment moderation system.

00:39:40.100 There will still be words that are not allowed on the site.

00:39:43.000 Obviously, there's inappropriate language, and we have a responsibility to make sure that that doesn't make it onto the site.

00:39:49.140 But the system will be mostly moderated by other users.

00:39:54.000 So if there's something on there that isn't appropriate, you'll be able to flag that.

00:39:58.680 It'll notify us right away, and we'll be able to take that down.

00:40:01.480 So that's just about all we have time for this week.

00:40:07.020 And then just a reminder, westernstandard.newslashsubscription, like I said earlier, it's $100 a month, or $100 a year, or $10 a month.

00:40:16.820 And we would love for you to sign up.

00:40:19.780 We should have a bunch more giveaways coming up in the next year.

00:40:22.820 And, you know, we're looking at some more expansions here.

00:40:25.900 We are pretty excited about the future, and we're pretty excited what we have in store for you this year.

00:40:31.680 So that's it for the Corey Morgan Show this week.

00:40:34.740 I'm James Finkbeiner, and we'll see you again next week.

00:40:38.400 Canadian Shooting Sports Association.

00:40:40.620 Without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago.

00:40:45.180 These guys are on the front lines helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in Canada.

00:40:52.400 And more importantly, educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.

00:40:58.180 We've become a member.

00:40:59.080 It's absolutely worth every penny.

00:41:00.960 We'll see you next week.

00:41:30.960 We'll see you next week.

00:41:37.640 We'll see you next week.

Western Standard - January 25, 2024

CMS： The convoy and the constitution

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