Western Standard - October 20, 2022


Cory celebrates BC's electoral move to the right

Mentioned
Alex Epstein Fossil Future Jody Gondek Homelessness
'Who got rich๏ผŸ' Poilievre grills Trudeau about ArriveCan app Former Hedley frontman jailed five years for sexual assault

Episode Stats


Length

4 minutes

Words per minute

199.95

Word count

835

Sentence count

53


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Voters in Vancouver fired their mayor for the first time in 42 years and replaced him with a new mayor, Greg Selinger, who has a reputation for being soft on crime and soft on drugs. Mayor Selinger has been accused of being "soft on crime" and "anti-drugs" in Vancouver and other cities across the province.

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Hosts, guests, and mentioned names generated with spaCy (en_core_web_sm), reconciled against Wikidata.
00:00:00.000 Municipal elections in BC, they don't usually grab much of my attention, but this year's elections were an exception.
00:00:05.780 The cities, both large and small, turfed their mayors and many council members throughout the province.
00:00:11.200 Vancouver voters were incensed enough to rise up and fire an incumbent mayor for the first time in 42 years.
00:00:17.440 They don't get up and fire their politicians often.
00:00:20.180 And it's not just the mass turnover of politicians I'm celebrating, though that's always great to see.
00:00:25.140 I mean, we'd be all well served if the voters fired their politicians more often.
00:00:28.660 But what I'm thrilled with today is the reason the BC voters fired their municipal masters.
00:00:33.420 They're sick and tired of soft on crime, progressive politicians.
00:00:38.040 This story still has dark underpinnings, you know, I'm trying to be positive, but there's a dark base.
00:00:42.300 The crime and general disorder of BC cities has gone completely out of control.
00:00:45.700 I mean, Vancouver's tent cities, they're the stuff of dystopian nightmares,
00:00:49.060 while citizens in cities as small as Penticton have formed vigilante groups to try and recover stolen property.
00:00:53.600 Progressive policies of enablement and denial when it comes to dealing with addiction and mental health issues have led to a catastrophe.
00:01:01.220 Homelessness has skyrocketed.
00:01:02.960 Overdose deaths have become almost commonplace.
00:01:05.820 The crime associated with the explosive growth and addiction is spilled into every community in the province.
00:01:11.140 So citizens had tired out of being told they were insensitive when they claimed about increasing crime.
00:01:16.500 I mean, people were shamed, you were called poor bashers if you dared to say you might feel unsafe on the streets.
00:01:22.640 Defunding and shaming of police forces, I mean, that's been the order of the day in progressive-led cities.
00:01:26.880 Police forces are underfunded, understaffed, and demoralized.
00:01:30.320 It's a little wonder they act out.
00:01:32.020 They're trying to keep people safe in a catch-and-release justice system while constantly being crapped on by municipal leaders.
00:01:38.280 It's a wonder they even get out of their cars these days.
00:01:40.480 People know what civic politicians won't admit.
00:01:44.440 Untreated addicts and people with mental health issues are out of control and they're often dangerous.
00:01:49.320 We saw the worst sort of example of this just the other day as a female RCMP officer was stabbed to death in a Burnaby tent encampment.
00:01:56.800 Even armed and trained police officers aren't safe among these enclaves of addicts.
00:02:01.060 They were being asked to refer to these addicts as vulnerable people.
00:02:04.520 Well, those vulnerable people just killed a 31-year-old police officer.
00:02:07.500 No matter who is elected to office, there's not going to be an easy or quick solution to the addiction epidemic and the crime that comes with it.
00:02:13.580 The issue is multifaceted and every level of government needs to tackle it.
00:02:17.300 We need to quit releasing violent offenders.
00:02:19.300 We need to quit pretending that addicts are rendered harmless if we could just give them pure drugs to consume at a supervised site.
00:02:25.900 We need to shut down the foolish notion that high housing costs are at the root of the issue.
00:02:30.260 If homes were 100,000 each in Vancouver, how many of the junkies in the tents in the East Hastings would suddenly say,
00:02:34.880 Oh, okay, I'll go out and buy one.
00:02:36.300 These addicts aren't fit for housing anywhere, and they likely won't be until they're treated.
00:02:40.980 Likewise, people with serious mental health issues can't remain untreated on the streets.
00:02:44.700 We need more secured, long-term mental health treatment facilities,
00:02:48.200 and we need to accept that some people are going to be better off, possibly for life, in an institution rather than on the streets.
00:02:54.220 If even Vancouver voters have figured this out,
00:02:56.380 I'm confident that cities outside of Lotus Land are ready to send their local politicians the same message.
00:03:01.020 In Calgary, addicts have taken over the transit system, while Mayor Jody Gondek is fixated on an insane $87 billion climate change program.
00:03:10.160 Stabbings and overdoses are commonplace downtown, while satellite communities outside of the city are experiencing growth from both businesses and citizens as they flee the city.
00:03:17.320 The politicians and entrenched bureaucrats will never figure it out, but voters can, and they have.
00:03:22.900 We have quite a while before we get a chance to fire the progressive failures in our local governments.
00:03:27.300 They're going to continue to do us more damage in the meantime.
00:03:30.080 In light of the B.C. election results, though, I have some hope that things are going to get better.
00:03:34.100 You can become a Western Standard member for just $10 a month or $99 a year for unlimited access.
00:03:43.140 Alberta Prosperity Project is dedicated to protecting Alberta's world-class energy sector
00:03:47.440 and has invited Alex Epstein, American author of the best-selling new book, Fossil Future,
00:03:52.960 to speak on the importance of fossil fuels and the vital role they play in our economy.
00:03:57.980 Join us on Friday, October 28th at the Weston Calgary Airport for beef and beer with Alex Epstein.
00:04:04.100 You will not want to miss this.
00:04:06.260 Buy your tickets at www.albertaprosperityevents.com today.