Western Standard - CORY： ’Danielle Smith could change healthcare across the country’

00:00:00.000 Good day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan Show. First one of 2024. I'm sure we'll have a lot of things

00:00:07.140 for me to moan and howl and rant and rave and go on about another year of news and insanity.

00:00:13.900 I'll be here to cover it and looking forward to it. I'm sure there's going to be some good news

00:00:16.880 and good things to look forward to. We're off to a fresh start. I'll be grumpy because that's my

00:00:20.700 nature, but I still do want to maintain a degree of optimism. If you did catch my column in the

00:00:26.080 standard this year, year-end, one I point out. We've got a lot to look forward to,

00:00:30.640 but it's kind of up to us to make sure we have a good year, guys. Not necessarily up to everyone

00:00:36.140 else to do it on your behalf. Good to see you guys checking in on the comment scroll over there.

00:00:40.160 We got Doug and Mr. Sharp from Saskatchewan, Mr. Stanley. Yes, use that comment scroll. We are

00:00:45.880 live, or at least for those of you who are watching it live. If you're on the Cowboy Network, this is a

00:00:49.700 recorded version, I'm afraid. But send me questions, send me comments, send them to my guest,

00:00:54.840 and I don't necessarily read them all out, but I do read them all. I see them there in the scroll.

00:01:00.380 Later on, I'm going to have a guest coming up, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois. People might know him as

00:01:04.640 the food professor. He's been on a lot of radio shows, TV, does a lot of columns, and he writes

00:01:10.080 on things like grocery prices, grocers, food in general. He's a specialist in it, and that was a

00:01:15.000 big subject in 2023. I suspect food security and prices are going to be a big one going into 2024,

00:01:20.780 so it should be a really good conversation with Mr. Charlebois there as well.

00:01:26.740 So yeah, let's get on to the news and things that got me going today. And so I'm looking forward to,

00:01:33.340 like I said, with some optimism, but with some ranting on my part as usual as well.

00:01:37.980 So Alberta Premier, Danielle Smith, she's charging into 2024 with a mandate to take on Alberta's bloated, 1.00

00:01:44.620 intractable healthcare bureaucracy. And her success or failure in that task is going to impact how 0.67

00:01:51.440 healthcare is managed across all of Canada. Because you can rest assured, every Premier in Canada

00:01:56.340 is watching Smith closely on this one. I mean, let's face it, Canada's healthcare system stinks,

00:02:02.240 and no province is an exception. Costs are going up every year while access is going down. People are

00:02:08.180 dying on waiting lists, and the lists are only getting longer. Citizens are finally realizing it,

00:02:13.600 and I think that's what's encouraging, you know, and empowering some politicians. They're realizing

00:02:16.840 the vaunted reputation of Canada's healthcare system is a myth. But still, we've got defenders

00:02:21.600 of the status quo fighting tooth and nail whenever anybody speaks of reforming the system or even

00:02:26.740 changing a few little things, much less acting on it. Unions, bureaucrats, assorted socialist activists,

00:02:31.800 they refuse to accept that the system's broken, and they're doing everything possible

00:02:34.940 to prevent anybody from fixing it. Now, as more and more Canadians find themselves or their loved ones

00:02:40.440 suffering under the broken system, the appetite for change is finally growing. And Daniel Smith is

00:02:44.520 the first Premier to really stick her neck out on the issue, and her battle low is just beginning.

00:02:49.540 I mean, she began by cutting from the top with Alberta's massive healthcare management bureaucracy. 1.00

00:02:54.160 Shortly after she became Premier a little over a year ago, her government fired Chief Medical

00:02:58.360 Officer Dina Hinshaw. Then she fired the entire Alberta Health Services Board. That's the bureaucracy 1.00

00:03:03.740 that runs Alberta's healthcare. And finally, she fired Dr. Verna Yu from a position of CEO at AHS. 0.98

00:03:11.380 Not Premier Smith personally doing all this, but under her guidance, the government did.

00:03:15.420 Now, the NDP and the unions and the rest of the usual suspects, of course, they were apoplectic.

00:03:20.200 Legacy media members and activists alike, they rallied in 2023 in the spring election to

00:03:24.600 ensure Smith didn't win. They failed. Smith won. And now she does have a real mandate to reform 0.99

00:03:30.440 that system. And it looks like she's going to go for it. Since the election, Premier Smith has split 0.99

00:03:35.360 Alberta Health Services into several different entities. Now, ostensibly, this is to allow for

00:03:39.960 more specialized policies in different aspects of healthcare, but there's likely, and there likely

00:03:43.760 is some merit to that. But more importantly, and more likely, that organization is split up because

00:03:48.560 it makes it harder for the bureaucrats to put up an organized front in hindering reforms. 1.00

00:03:53.720 Premier Smith warned when she won the last election in one of her speeches. She said she won't let

00:03:57.660 herself be slow rolled by the bureaucracy. But it appears that Alberta Health Services managers

00:04:02.180 didn't get the message as they've been dragging their heels on mandates to improve service.

00:04:06.860 I mean, one simple mandate, for example, was with ambulance services. Tens of thousands of trips

00:04:10.840 are made every year using fully equipped ambulances crewed by paramedics to transport non-emergency

00:04:16.360 patients. It's a terrible waste of resources, and it ties up highly trained workers and highly

00:04:21.540 specialized equipment when we don't need to. The mandate was handed down for AHS to seek some private

00:04:26.840 contractors to take over some of the role of the non-emergency patient transport. It's simple,

00:04:31.520 common sense, and it's a big problem, and it frees up ambulances. Instead of taking the mandate

00:04:35.960 seriously, though, AHS bureaucrats devised a ridiculous set of conditions and created a number

00:04:40.400 of barriers for any private contractors trying to seek the contracts. They're moving as slowly as

00:04:45.000 possible, and they're continuing to find excuses not to approve applications. Meanwhile, Alberta's

00:04:49.780 literally hitting situations where regions have run out of ambulance service, including just on New Year's

00:04:54.420 Eve this year in major cities. Premier Smith has had enough of it, and she's laying down the law. In a

00:04:59.560 recent interview, she made no bones about it, and she said, that's what our focus is. This is a quote

00:05:03.440 from her. It's firing the managers who we have paid to solve these problems, and they've allowed the 0.92

00:05:08.160 problems to perpetuate, and they've done nothing about them. Yeah, the premier is bold to the point

00:05:13.080 and unequivocable. Managers have better proved they're getting things done, or they're going to be

00:05:16.760 fired. It only makes sense. It's not an unreasonable expectation in the private sector, and it shouldn't be with

00:05:22.600 health care bureaucrats either. Of course, again, the usual suspects have gone wild. They're claiming

00:05:26.360 Smith has overstepped her role or mandate, and that she hasn't had the right to make those

00:05:30.660 decisions. Well, I call BS on that. Daniel Smith was elected as Alberta's premier to do exactly this

00:05:36.080 sort of thing. If an elected premier can't call the shots with the largest public bureaucracy in the

00:05:40.100 province, who can? And who should? Union heads? Activists? The leader of the opposition? No, you guys didn't

00:05:46.700 win the bloody election, so too damn bad. The tail's been wagging the dog for too long at all levels of 0.96

00:05:51.320 government. I mean, we watched that in Calgary City Hall. It was almost nauseating watching

00:05:54.720 elected councillors being called under the carpet for questioning senior bureaucrats and city managers.

00:06:00.720 If elected officials don't hold the bureaucrats to account, who will? Nobody. In fact, nobody has

00:06:05.100 for years, and look where it got us. Shaking up the Canadian health care system has been considered

00:06:09.460 political blasphemy for way too long. The system's failing, and thankfully, Premier Smith is willing to

00:06:14.380 break away from Canadian dogma, become an apostate, and get the job done. The battle of wills is just

00:06:20.000 beginning, though, but I'm betting on Smith winning it. And when Smith wins, and health care begins to

00:06:25.220 improve in Alberta, rest assured, other premiers who are too cowardly to put their necks on the line 0.65

00:06:30.480 will follow. Alberta's lucky to be in a province with a premier willing to lead. Her actions and

00:06:36.400 tenacity are going to benefit us all within and outside of Alberta, and it's about time.

00:06:41.180 All right, that's what I've got to say on those things today. Let's see what else is going on out

00:06:45.880 there outside of my control, though. We're going to have a news check-in from the intrepid Jonathan

00:06:50.240 Bradley and see what's going on out there. Hey, Jonathan, how's it going?

00:06:53.800 Good, Corey. How about you?

00:06:54.980 All right, all right. Finished at the holidays, ready to get on, like I said, with cursing and

00:06:59.580 ranting and ranting for a whole new year. So what are you breaking on now, Jonathan?

00:07:04.160 Well, it's been a busy morning in the newsroom, and we've still got plenty more to come. So right now

00:07:09.040 on the site on our front page, the main story is Chrystia Freeland built for limos and taxis in

00:07:16.180 Toronto. She spent a few thousand dollars on going around the greater Toronto area with limos and

00:07:24.000 taxis, despite her saying that she would only travel with climate-friendly options like walking

00:07:30.540 and taking public transit. We have a story about the Sask Energy Minister maintaining the carbon tax

00:07:37.700 slash won't affect rebates. This is because the Saskatchewan government has suspended the carbon tax

00:07:45.100 on home heating, and there are the climate action incentive payments that people get from a carbon tax.

00:07:52.000 We have a column from Michelle Sterling about the pension fund and it being used to fund climate change

00:08:01.420 initiatives. So that's on the opinion side. We have a piece that just went up earlier this morning

00:08:08.460 about Janice Irwin praising Edmonton for showing up for Palestine, which is kind of funny because I'm 0.96

00:08:14.900 not sure if she knows what happens to people like her in Palestine, and it's not good. And then we also

00:08:21.720 got a column that I wrote. I was in Toronto over Christmas, and I know many Hungarians have to insult 1.00

00:08:28.980 Toronto and say that it's a hellhole and garbage and all that. And my column challenge that premise 0.96

00:08:34.200 by offering five reasons why Toronto is not that terrible. That's a pretty controversial stance to

00:08:39.880 be taking with the Western standard, Jonathan. You can expect a lot of emails coming at you on that

00:08:45.520 one for daring to, you know, speaking of political blasphemy, and Alberta has blasphemy to say there's

00:08:50.120 anything nice about Toronto. Well, the column's been up for, I think, about almost a day now, and I haven't

00:08:55.980 got a single nasty email from it yet. So if any of your viewers want to send me a nasty email, the email is

00:09:00.940 jbradley at westernstandard.news. And I'm more than happy to read all the nasty insults that we'll send

00:09:07.100 my way.

00:09:07.640 Well, I'll start typing up my email for you right after this. That's great. Thanks for writing it up. It is good to

00:09:12.940 have a variety. I appreciate it. And thanks for bringing us up to date on what's going on in the news

00:09:16.780 today, Jonathan.

00:09:17.600 Thank you, Corey.

00:09:18.320 All right. Thank you. That is our Jonathan Bradley sitting in for Dave Naylor, our news editor, who usually comes in to

00:09:23.820 give us the update, but he's taking a well-deserved break over the holidays right now. This is what I

00:09:28.120 like to remind everybody. The reason we got guys like Jonathan and others out there writing all

00:09:33.200 these news stories and columns is because you guys have been subscribing. So I like to remind you,

00:09:38.140 thank you very much, those who have subscribed already. And if you haven't subscribed, start off

00:09:43.100 the new year the right way, guys. $9.99 a month, $100 for a year. You get full access, get past that

00:09:49.720 annoying paywall, and get all of those columns and news copy directly. And it supports us. It lets us keep

00:09:56.840 rolling like this. So we don't have to become dependent on the government or any other outside sources for our

00:10:02.420 news content. And we all win. And I can keep working. I can keep turning your ear and keep ranting at you. So I you

00:10:10.320 know, before I get to my guests, I'm looking forward to speaking of media, this is something that came up on

00:10:15.720 on the AP. It's a news wire and a lot of, you know, news organizations will take these stories and

00:10:25.220 they, you know, they pay a subscription service, they put them up, and they'll just take the headline

00:10:29.400 quite often and just plant that right in there. But this one was really something else. Associated

00:10:35.660 Press. And it said Harvard president's resignation highlights a new conservative weapon against

00:10:41.440 colleagues. And it says plagiarism. Okay. So I mean, if people haven't been keeping up, it's been

00:10:48.300 pretty controversial. The now former president of Harvard, I mean, one of the most, you know,

00:10:53.380 highly reputed post-secondary institutions in the world, Claudine Gay was in there. And most of it

00:10:59.540 really hit the fan during some testimony, when her and a couple of other university heads kept

00:11:05.000 twisting in circles and refusing to condemn some of the very blatant hate speech and intimidation and

00:11:12.560 activities being done on campuses by activists over the Israel and Gaza conflict going on. And it

00:11:19.620 really caused a lot of embarrassment. It certainly upset a whole lot of people. And you know, something

00:11:24.440 if you read between the lines, and some people were pretty blunt about it, there are some Jewish

00:11:29.320 business people and some people of a very heavy means who were very large donors to institutions like

00:11:35.720 Harvard. And they were quite upset. And they made it clear that they weren't going to be sending money to

00:11:39.940 that institution any longer, if the president was going to be permissive on those things. And she still 0.98

00:11:45.600 doubled down on that. But what it led to then was more people getting on her case and searching into her a

00:11:50.280 little more, who is this person? And they looked and found that among many of her things she's published as

00:11:58.440 an academic is at the head of a university that big, including her dissertation. She was a serial

00:12:04.580 plagiarist, she had been lifting her material from the work of others. I mean, you can be inspired by the

00:12:10.540 work of others, as long as you, of course, give credit to it, and you source it, but she didn't do

00:12:16.380 that. And it wasn't a case of somebody just doing it once. I mean, a one off an error, a student time

00:12:22.280 when you were too hung over, and you just had to get something in. No, this was kind of actually kind of

00:12:26.800 chronic, and so on. And finally, the pressure came up, and Ms. Gay resigned her position from being 0.99

00:12:32.680 the president. Fine, and there'll be a lot more discussion on that as time passes. But to see this

00:12:38.240 headline come up, and talk about now, plagiarism will be a weapon against colleges used by conservatives.

00:12:46.080 Where on earth did you guys get this? I mean, it's not like conservatives invented this as a new

00:12:52.840 offense to be committed by academics. It's been done before. That's why there's a word for it.

00:12:57.420 And it's frowned upon. It certainly is. These are the people we're expecting to lead. These are the

00:13:01.720 people we're expecting to think. We're expecting them to guide us, to offer original interpretation

00:13:07.460 and analysis and studies. And if they're just taking it from other people, cut and pasting it,

00:13:13.860 then it's a big problem. It's nothing conservatives invented. It's not a new bar or standard that's been

00:13:19.960 set that we expect academia to stand by. Likewise, in journalism, if I was just copying my columns and

00:13:28.260 just splattering them out there, guys, I would hear about it pretty darn fast. I would be fired

00:13:32.660 pretty darn quickly. And whoever originally wrote them would probably be sending me some legal notices

00:13:37.560 pretty quickly as well. I mean, I can quote from other columnists and news stories, of course, but you

00:13:42.260 source it, you reference it. But you've got to write your own stuff. This isn't new. And if I were called

00:13:48.860 out on, if I were doing that, and some people noticed it and found it, it's pretty easy now in

00:13:53.040 the social media world and the day and age where you could search things, and I got fired, would

00:13:58.180 headlines be saying that I was held to an unfair standard by left-wing activists because they

00:14:03.440 called me out for my plagiarism? No, they're just saying that guy's full of crap and he doesn't 1.00

00:14:08.620 deserve to be putting columns out if he can't write his own stuff. Either way, this is the sort of 0.99

00:14:13.400 headline that leads to more mistrust with media. I mean, this wasn't a column. At least it was

00:14:21.340 presented as news copy. This wasn't opinion. So where are you coming up with this conservative

00:14:27.840 weapon against colleges? It was just bizarre. And of course, CTV picked it up and just planted that

00:14:34.860 story in verbatim. Like I said, a lot of media does that. We use Blacklock's reporter law, but of

00:14:39.540 course, we always say where we got our stuff from. You use news wires. We have a lot of reporters. We

00:14:43.480 get a lot of original content, but we're careful with what we curate. And if we see a headline as

00:14:48.740 loaded and as bad as that, rest assured, we aren't going to print it. All right. Well, that's enough

00:14:53.760 of that. Let's get on to something else with our guest. I've been looking forward to chatting with him

00:14:56.600 for a while. I've really enjoyed watching him and reading his columns on social media on X, hear him on

00:15:03.300 the radio now and then. It's known as the food professor, as well as Dr. Sylvain Charlebois.

00:15:08.740 And you speak on, I guess, all things food. Thank you very much for joining us today, Mr. Charlebois.

00:15:14.000 Well, thank you for the invitation. Happy New Year to you.

00:15:16.660 Yes. And to yourself. You know, as far as I guess your specialty, your trade and talking about food,

00:15:23.800 food security, food prices, supply chains. I mean, you really cover it all. 2024 was really a year when

00:15:29.160 you're 2023, where your specialty really came into the news a lot. People got very concerned

00:15:34.780 about food inflation. You know, the wallets are getting thinner. Food is a necessity for people.

00:15:40.940 People were getting upset. But then there was a lot of, well, as is normal, a lot of politics started

00:15:46.000 getting played and a lot of fingers were getting pointed. And I found your voice to be good for

00:15:51.820 correcting the record a lot and just kind of putting an unvarnished view on that. Like, I guess I'll

00:15:56.480 start with a simple question. Have Canadians been getting gouged by by food retailers in the last

00:16:01.040 year? I mean, it's it's it depends how you differ. I mean, for some economists, allowing companies to

00:16:10.580 make one dollar is it's too much. And so I've always asked some of the experts out there and

00:16:17.420 politicians. Well, if right now companies are making too much money, how much is too much? And

00:16:24.400 we've never gotten a clear answer to that. My answer to you clearly, Corey, when you look at the

00:16:30.760 evidence, when you actually look at verified, audited financial reports coming from companies,

00:16:37.800 there is no evidence of gouging. If you look at gross margins, which to me is probably the most

00:16:44.480 important metric. It's you look at revenues, you look at the cost of goods. If that changes due to

00:16:51.180 inflation, you'll notice. I mean, you'll notice. And and for the big three, Empire, Sobeys,

00:16:57.700 Loblaws and Metro, all three gross margins have not changed in five years. And so that's why it's

00:17:04.040 difficult to say, well, there's gouging going on. However, and this is a big however, margins are

00:17:09.900 actually quite high compared to the U.S. They're double what they are in the U.S. And we've seen

00:17:16.820 some shortfalls in Ottawa with the bread price fixing scandal. For example, the investigation

00:17:24.080 began going on for eight years. So I can't blame Canadians for being upset about what's going on.

00:17:34.280 I actually totally understand why they're upset because they feel unprotected. But as far as gouging

00:17:40.540 goes, just the evidence is just not there. Yeah, well, and that's what I appreciate is you

00:17:46.000 don't give a full pass to the heads of these grocers as well and such. There's been some

00:17:49.980 sort of controversy over the proposed code of conduct and Galen Weston and some of you corrected

00:17:54.780 him on some of the things that he's been claiming as he's sort of trying to squirm to avoid that code

00:17:59.840 of conduct. I mean, he's not a monster, but he's not an altruist or, you know, a charitable person

00:18:06.520 either. Of course, he runs a very well managed company, by the way. In fact, I would say that

00:18:15.380 all three main grocers are well managed and that's why they've been successful in pushing away

00:18:21.580 competition like Target and which came in and left in 2014 as quickly. And we have seen Aldi and

00:18:32.540 Little. Both companies are now in the U.S. They've looked at Canada. It's just not recent. They've

00:18:39.100 been looking at Canada for quite some time, but it's difficult to get in to the Canadian market

00:18:43.980 for two reasons. One, it's not an attractive market, especially when you see a federal government

00:18:49.740 constantly inviting CEOs back to Ottawa and question them about profiteering. I don't think

00:18:59.440 that's an appealing strategy for any company looking into Canada. The other issue, of course,

00:19:06.800 is the fact that really the Canadian market is dominated by two players. They did take the rules.

00:19:14.840 If you understand how food distribution works in Canada, you quickly understand that both

00:19:18.960 Walmart and Loblaws will make and break companies. They have too much power. And that's kind of what

00:19:27.220 Australia had prior to adopting the code and the U.K. as well. And since then, we've seen food prices

00:19:36.220 become much more stable over time. You don't eliminate inflation. Of course, you want inflation.

00:19:42.040 You want food prices to increase over time. But in both Australia and the U.K., food prices have

00:19:50.220 actually been quite stable compared to Canada. And that's probably due to the code.

00:19:56.000 So that code of conduct, what we're talking about, that's an industry managed code and sort of thing,

00:20:01.280 more of an industry association, not a government invoked legislation.

00:20:05.540 That's a good question, Corey. It's a fair question because a lot of people, I noticed that a lot of people

00:20:09.740 are thinking, well, the code is really about the government's tweaking market conditions. That's not exactly it.

00:20:17.180 It has nothing to do with prices. As Galen Weston alluded in Ottawa, wrongly so. It is more about

00:20:25.240 contractual terms. You see, what's different in the food industry is that you have to pay your

00:20:32.000 customer in order to do business with that customer. So Loblaws will receive five, six million dollars

00:20:38.460 from PepsiCo to allow Pepsi to sell Lay's chips. Just one example. And every year, Loblaws will change

00:20:47.820 terms. We'll say this year will increase your fee by this much. No questions asked, no discussions

00:20:55.360 unilaterally. And that has bothered suppliers. And that's why it's not a coincidence that we saw

00:21:01.020 Nestle leave the K market. Kleenex just left the K market. We'll see more companies leave the K market

00:21:07.860 because again, Loblaws will set rules, Walmart as well, and others will follow along. So it's

00:21:16.260 unlike the US or other places, it's just tough. It's much tougher to offer consumers more choices.

00:21:24.580 And with more choices, you'll get more competition, which is why the code of conduct is so critical

00:21:30.500 to support independent grocers and suppliers as well.

00:21:34.580 Yeah. People forget that the competition aspect isn't just a benefit to the consumer. When you

00:21:39.300 get suppliers, when they can really push suppliers around like that with a limited options for the

00:21:43.220 suppliers to go to, it harms them. But I mean, we don't want to go down the road, say it almost

00:21:48.740 reminds me though of the old days of Microsoft, when it really dominated the market. And they used to push

00:21:53.060 every other software company into a corner and say, you know, if you're going to be carried by the

00:21:58.020 Microsoft platforms, we got to cut a deal or we just won't carry you. And of course, there really

00:22:02.740 were only three platforms to be had. So they held a lot of power. And I think it took antitrust

00:22:08.020 hearings to break that down. Now, the grocery market shouldn't be as complicated. But I guess

00:22:13.700 that's the sort of thing we can't just force competition to come into the country. But the code

00:22:18.100 of conduct might reduce the amount they're pushing around the suppliers a bit.

00:22:21.540 It would correct some of the mistakes that we made in the past. My reading of the situation right

00:22:29.300 now is that they were three major transactions that really allowed this oligopoly to emerge.

00:22:37.780 In 1998, Loblaws bought Provigo in Quebec. That's number one. Number two, Metro bought AMP in Ontario.

00:22:45.860 That created the other grocer. And lastly, in 2013, Empire Sobe's bought Safeway out West. That created

00:22:53.540 those three big players. And of course, along the way, we saw non-traditionals like Costco, Walmart,

00:23:00.980 become quite successful in selling food to Canadians. And that's why we were in the situation we are in.

00:23:07.300 In the US, they don't really need a code. Why? Because all Washington is all over some of these mergers

00:23:15.620 for example, right now, Kroger is trying to buy Albertsons. So number two is trying to buy number four in

00:23:22.980 the US and they they're blocking the deal because they don't feel that the deal would be in the best

00:23:29.140 interest of Americans right now. So those two companies are under tremendous pressure. When

00:23:36.740 Loblaw bought Provigo or Metro bought AMP or even Sobe's, when it acquired Safeway,

00:23:43.460 we barely heard anything in the news. Nobody cared. And that's why we're in trouble right now.

00:23:51.300 So part of the problem, I mean, there's advantages though. It's bad for competition. There's

00:23:56.180 advantages of having a few large players because those large economies of scale can allow them to

00:24:01.300 keep the consumer prices somewhat low as well in a relative way. Like if you break it up into too many

00:24:05.860 small players, we could end up paying more as well.

00:24:08.820 Exactly. And here's the thing about Canada. So we're only 40 million people in one of the largest

00:24:14.740 countries and well, the second largest country in the world. Distribution costs are really, really high.

00:24:21.300 So you have a lot of small towns where you are in Alberta and elsewhere where you only have one option

00:24:29.220 left to buy food because of the consolidation that we've seen over the years. So a lot of Canadians are

00:24:38.180 actually being held hostage as a result of these acquisitions without really having a say. And so

00:24:46.020 Washington right now is very careful. They'll be looking at transactions in a very granular way.

00:24:52.340 So they'll look at New Haven, Connecticut, how many stores will they lose compared to before and

00:24:59.700 things like that. In Canada, we only look at the national landscape and see whether or not Canadians win.

00:25:07.140 But I've always argued to Minister Champagne himself, whenever there's a transaction coming in, we need to

00:25:14.500 actually look at all aspects of the deal. And we've actually had the privilege to work with the

00:25:20.660 Accomplishing Bureau in three occasions over the last five years. And you can tell that they're not well

00:25:25.860 tooled to assess longitudinal risks, understanding how a transaction could impact our food distribution

00:25:36.340 landscape over time. And now we're paying for that. So something that really broke a lot of trust,

00:25:44.020 even if it was, you know, I mean, your average consumer didn't feel it a lot, but it's the principle

00:25:47.540 of the matter. You mentioned it earlier was the bread price fixing issue. We heard a lot about it.

00:25:53.860 But people don't like to think that they're being manipulated, I guess, with what they purchase,

00:25:58.580 even if it only adds up to a little bit. It costs a billion dollars to Canadians.

00:26:02.100 Like that's real money. That's a lot of money when it's added up.

00:26:05.060 It's a lot of money. And frankly, when you look at the US, for example, there's one executive that we

00:26:11.940 got caught fixing prices for canned tuna. That person is in jail right now and paid a fine,

00:26:19.060 I believe, of over $100,000, okay? In tuna, canned tuna. In Canada, we gave a pass to Galen Weston and

00:26:27.380 Loblaw. We gave immunity to Loblaw and Western bakeries. And so that really became a problem of

00:26:35.540 trust. And so really right now, what we need to do is focus more on, well, how Canadians feel and how we

00:26:44.260 can protect them. So I guess another issue we have that's a little different, but it affects

00:26:50.180 a lot of grocery staples. And I've heard you mention it occasionally, is supply management,

00:26:54.740 which covers our poultry, our dairy products. I just thought I'd throw that in towards the end.

00:27:02.420 Because I mean, it's not a panacea to reduce grocery prices or anything. But it's funny,

00:27:06.740 when Canadians say they're upset about monopolies, they seem to constantly overlook one of the worst

00:27:10.740 monopolies of them all. And that's the producers of those products right now. But there's no

00:27:14.900 indication anybody's going to change that anytime soon, I imagine. Canadians have a very bizarre 1.00

00:27:20.820 relationship with concepts like monopolies and oligopolies. So on the one side, Canadians want

00:27:30.100 government to intervene. They want to be protected. They want monopolies.

00:27:35.300 And so in the case of supply management, you're so first of all, you're looking at farm gate issues,

00:27:48.180 farmers and farmers are incredibly trusted by the game public. But at the same time, a lot of Canadians

00:27:54.980 actually don't realize how supply management is inflating prices at retail. It is no matter what you

00:28:02.660 you say or no matter what the dairy farmers are saying or poultry farmers or chicken farmers,

00:28:08.100 it is pushing food prices higher. Okay. Now, is that something we can get rid of? I've been studying

00:28:16.340 marketing boards for 25 years. And my conclusion is that as much as we hate supply management,

00:28:23.860 we can't get rid of it. It's just unlike the Europe, where I was in 2015, when they ended supply

00:28:32.020 management, a lot of farmers wanted out because they were levies and the system actually did cost

00:28:37.460 a lot of money to farmers. In Canada, good luck finding one farmer who's against the system. All of

00:28:43.860 them really support the system. So I've always argued instead of abolishing quotas, let's make sure that

00:28:50.500 we actually make supply management more efficient and more competitive because right now it is not

00:28:56.500 competitive. In fact, marketing boards are doing everything they can to suppress competition without

00:29:05.540 consumers knowing. Yeah. And I don't expect it to change soon. That's part of why I asked. I cornered

00:29:11.460 Mr. Pierre Polyev on the show one time and asked him with that one as well. I don't think he loves going

00:29:16.020 there, but he at least was honest and said, no, it's not an area that they're looking to change or get rid of it.

00:29:21.460 They can't afford it. Politicians just can't afford it because they're so powerful. I've always argued

00:29:29.220 instead of sending out checks in compensation for trade deals we're signing all over the world,

00:29:35.140 we should take that money and buy some farmers out as soon as possible because some farmers actually

00:29:41.220 do want to compete, but some of them don't. They just don't want to compete. And so I would keep the

00:29:47.460 great, the very competitive, efficient farmers and grow their business with exports as well and create

00:29:54.340 a new set of quotas and new categories, which is actually in our supply management 2.0 plan,

00:30:00.180 which we released, I believe it was two years ago. And now with the University of Guelph,

00:30:04.580 it's all in the plan. And all you need to do is basically eliminate farmers who don't want to compete

00:30:11.460 and build a system which allows the sector to grow even more. Because right now we're on the path of

00:30:19.540 seeing more farms disappear. We're going to get down to 5,000 dairy farms by 2030. And the Cain Dairy

00:30:26.980 Commission will continue to rubber stamp decisions that are supported by dairy farmers instead of looking

00:30:34.340 at competitiveness overall. Okay. Well, we'll see what happens. I appreciate you've done a lot of

00:30:40.420 work on it. Before I let you go then, perhaps if you could just give a bit of a prediction on what

00:30:45.300 consumers can look forward to in 2024 with grocery prices and where can we find information on where

00:30:50.420 your work is? Yeah, absolutely. So yes, they should be looking forward to 2024 compared to 2023. I mean,

00:31:00.340 2023 was tough. We were asked to spend more money on shelter, the other necessity of life. And so when

00:31:08.180 we showed up at the grocery store, we were spending less despite inflation. It's not going to happen in

00:31:12.580 2024. In fact, we actually are expecting some price wars at the center of the store, probably midway

00:31:19.940 through 2024. Things are tightening up in the economy and that's going to benefit consumers overall. So

00:31:27.300 that's my reading, my very quick reading of what is about to happen in 2024. So all good news,

00:31:33.780 well, better news, I guess, for consumers overall. As far as our work goes, you can just look up all of

00:31:40.740 our reports. They're available on our website. You can just go on the Dalhousie University website,

00:31:46.740 the Agri-Food Analytics Lab, and you'll find all of our reports and they're available for free in both

00:31:52.580 English and French. Excellent. Well, I appreciate, again, the work you do and you're being able to

00:31:59.300 come on to talk to us today. And again, it sounds, you know, at least a bit optimistic and things have

00:32:04.340 stabilized a little into the next year. We've had some crazy years and there's no getting around it.

00:32:10.980 The one thing that really concerns us right now is what's happening in Israel. If the conflict

00:32:18.020 broadens and it may happen, that could actually affect food prices worldwide, not just in Canada,

00:32:27.540 but worldwide due to the regions linked to oil specifically. And so that's something that we're

00:32:34.500 watching very closely because in 2008, that's exactly what happened. Oil went up and everything

00:32:40.260 else went up as well. And so we don't want that in 2024. No, yeah, there's a lot that's beyond our

00:32:46.180 control and all we can do is watch for it and just hope for some sort of easing of the conflict

00:32:50.740 over there. Yeah, absolutely. All right. Well, I thank you very much again. And also on X,

00:32:56.500 you're very prolific on there. So I just encourage folks to look you up and well,

00:33:02.340 I hope we get to talk again soon. Thank you for inviting me, Corey. All right.

00:33:07.860 Dr. Sylvain Charlebois of Dalhouser University. And yeah, look, he's got all sorts of good stuff,

00:33:12.980 all things food. And it's the Agri-Foods Analytics Lab at Dalhouser University.

00:33:18.820 And he covers those things because there's been a lot of discussion on it. And a lot has been

00:33:22.180 heated. A lot has been misguided. What I like about him, I'm all about bias. I'm all about

00:33:26.820 ranting. I'm all about raving. Mr. Charlebois, Dr. Charlebois is about the facts. He just sticks to it.

00:33:33.060 As I said, he doesn't give a pass to the big grocery producers, but at the same time,

00:33:36.580 he doesn't give a pass to the government. People like Jagmeet Singh, when they're trying to demonize

00:33:41.460 grocery retailers and say they're gouging or gougeflation and all of those terms they use,

00:33:47.300 he just sticks to the facts. Something he mentioned, others have mentioned,

00:33:52.020 even the Competition Bureau in Ottawa mentioned though, and they looked into it. We don't have

00:33:55.860 enough competitors here, but how do you get them in? Mr. Charlebois was good at pointing out,

00:34:02.020 like, how do you want to bring in a new player to Canada when we're prone to taking our retailers

00:34:06.740 and dragging them before parliamentary committees and grilling them for them daring to make money?

00:34:13.460 It's not an atmosphere that a business can say, hey, I'm going to pick up sticks and set up over

00:34:17.860 in that country because I want to take that abuse. Supply management, another interesting one. I mean,

00:34:22.900 I've done shows on it. We could do whole shows on it. I see Terry O'Malley picking it,

00:34:26.580 you know, talking about that. Bernier lost the CPC leadership based on the supply management. I mean,

00:34:32.580 it was a one point difference back then in the winning of that leadership. And there's no doubt

00:34:39.060 that a deal was struck with the dairy cartel, and it is a cartel, to support the other candidate over

00:34:46.340 supply management. They were a very effective and powerful lobby group. And so it was weird with

00:34:53.140 Canada. We have a love affair with these, these, these cartels, these monopolies at times,

00:34:58.580 even though we're, we're kind of getting hooped by them, but getting rid of it.

00:35:02.660 As I said, as well, I did ask Pauliev, Trudeau is certainly not going to get rid of it. And Pauliev

00:35:07.380 at least was honest and said, no, he's not going to either. But I'm going to look more into that

00:35:11.220 because I haven't read that whole thing without that 2.0 plan. It sounds like that Dalhousie

00:35:15.620 University with Professor Charlebois have been talking about ways we can maybe ease out of it.

00:35:19.780 Because as you said, there, there are dairy producers who want to get creative, they want

00:35:23.700 to open their markets, they want to do more, but they're constrained. So maybe ways that we can break

00:35:29.620 out some of the producers and yes, incrementally work ourselves out of the system, because just

00:35:36.020 trying to flick a switch and end it would cause more disruption in the, in the longer term. And we

00:35:41.540 would all have a lot of trouble. Another thing, yeah, you know that, so it sounds kind of good.

00:35:46.100 But yeah, Wildrose is bringing up another good one at one of our commenters, ground beef 10 bucks

00:35:51.220 for a 550 ground package in province full of cows. This is in Alberta. And yeah, we are really taking

00:35:57.220 it as consumers when it comes to beef, that's been an ongoing thing too. And they're all fighting with

00:36:02.340 each other, because ranchers are saying they're not making any more money than they used to. And,

00:36:07.140 and grocers margins, as we've seen, it's been studied and studied and checked and looked at.

00:36:11.700 They're narrow, they're five, 6%. I mean, they might be able to come down a little more in the

00:36:16.900 States, you know, they're more like 4%, 3%, but you can't come much lower, they've got to make money.

00:36:22.900 So where is that all that extra cost coming in with beef? Why is it costing so much bloody money?

00:36:28.340 And, you know, processing is one of them. I know in Alberta, we've got what, like, I think in Canada,

00:36:34.820 we've really only got two really large meat processors. So again, getting back to monopolies

00:36:40.660 and oligopolies and the lack of competition, I got a feeling we're getting, we're taking it a bit

00:36:45.300 there, without doubt. But we should be questioning it. Marie Perrin said we should, we need to buy direct

00:36:51.220 from the farmer. You know, I've had that discussion before. I had a lot of it on eggs. I live in

00:36:56.100 Pretis. It's an acreage just south of Calgary. And most of my neighbors are ranchers actually in

00:37:01.380 that area. It's ranch country and we know people. And Jane and I have bought quarters and halves of

00:37:06.500 beef and filled the freezer with it. For one, you know what, it may be when you add it all together

00:37:12.100 with some of the prime cuts versus the ground and everything, you save a little bit of money. But to be

00:37:15.700 honest, after getting the beef cut and packaged and all of that, the price was pretty similar to what I

00:37:22.180 would get in buying it, say at Costco or somewhere like that, the producer got a little bit better

00:37:28.100 money because we were dealing directly with her rather than, you know, going through the rest of

00:37:33.380 the process. So it's good that way. But the other thing is not everybody has that ability. The only

00:37:37.860 way to make that cost worthwhile, you have to have the connection with the producer. You have to have a

00:37:42.820 deep freeze to keep all of that meat. You've got to have the capital on hand. I mean, let's say your

00:37:46.580 parents with a tight budget and a bunch of kids, you can't afford to tie up $1,200 worth of meat in

00:37:51.940 your freezer. You just don't have that laying around. But if you don't buy it in a volume that

00:37:55.620 big, you're not going to save any money. So, I mean, it's an option for some people. Absolutely.

00:37:59.940 It's good for the producers and it's good for individuals. But for most people, people in the

00:38:04.340 city and that too, it's not quite as viable a way to get out of the challenges others. But, you know,

00:38:13.060 food is, I mean, everything gets called right. Everything gets called this and that. But food

00:38:18.660 is a need. I mean, there's no getting around that one. Nobody can debate that. We don't have food,

00:38:22.420 we die. Simple as that. So we're, of course, very concerned about the price of food, the

00:38:26.740 affordability of food. We can't avoid it. It's not one of those things saying, well, it's overpriced.

00:38:31.300 I'll just not buy it this year. So we've got to try and keep those costs in line. And it's ongoing.

00:38:40.100 So, I mean, having those discussions though, watching this, seeing what's really going on

00:38:43.540 out there. To some degree, you know, our demographics are the size of our country.

00:38:48.980 Professor Charlebaugh brought that up. You know, Canada's huge. You got to move those products

00:38:53.140 across large distances to get them to people in small towns. You're just not going to have the

00:38:58.020 volume. You're going to pay a little bit more. I worked years up in Inuvik, you know. I mean,

00:39:03.540 up there, the prices are through the roof for food because everything either gets,

00:39:07.940 the dry goods all get brought up by barge in summertime. And some stuff comes in winter by

00:39:14.660 truck on the Dempster Highway. And sometimes when the ice bridge isn't in yet and the ferry's been

00:39:19.620 shut down, there's nothing coming by truck for a long period of time. You just can't avoid high

00:39:24.740 costs. Everything else has to be flown in. But I mean, that's not gouging. That's just market

00:39:29.300 realities with where you are. And it just kind of gets smaller and smaller as you get to larger

00:39:33.540 population centers. As somebody was pointing out, a lot of the processing and everything's happening

00:39:37.700 in Mississauga and Toronto area. But that's, of course, again, because you've got a dense population

00:39:42.740 of people you can serve in a nearby area for trucking, for processing, for sourcing, for warehousing.

00:39:47.700 It's an advantage. So we're always going to pay a little more than our American neighbors,

00:39:52.100 I think, to a degree, because we just don't have that that large population density. But we want to

00:39:56.740 keep it as reasonable as we can. That's the thing. Something else he mentioned at the end,

00:40:04.500 which was kind of scary, if people want to look at a lot of history, the price shocks that really hit

00:40:08.740 the 70s, and it was during the Yom Kippur War in Israel, which we're in a very similar situation now, 0.89

00:40:15.940 except back then it was Egypt and Syria being a pain in the butt rather than 0.96

00:40:20.500 Gaza. But the war went on, it shot the price though, because other countries were involved, 0.97

00:40:27.220 it shot the price of oil through the roof. That was the catalyst that actually led to the

00:40:30.660 National Energy Program, gave Trudeau Sr. the excuse to try and screw Alberta with that.

00:40:36.100 So we get circumstances beyond our control that affect our prices here, whether we like it or not.

00:40:44.260 And we always want to prepare for those, I guess you still want to keep your base

00:40:48.100 costs as low as you can. So that if something like that happens, it's still not going to hit

00:40:52.900 you any harder than it has to. And food, I guess the two words that you know, there's a few words,

00:40:58.420 we want affordability, you want stability, you want to make sure it's available. I mean, food shortages,

00:41:02.660 don't forget the supply chain breaks and things that happened before empty shelves, that's kind of

00:41:06.180 freaky to see that happening. You know, you want that stability and you want reliability, right? You know,

00:41:12.100 you want it to be there. And it's just an ongoing thing. But we politicize it when we're demonizing

00:41:19.460 the heads of the grocers out there, or when we're also going after, you know, even going after Trudeau,

00:41:26.260 hey, I'm no friend or fan is by any stretch of the imagination, but he's not necessarily directly

00:41:32.100 responsible for the price of groceries that are getting on my table day by day, though there are

00:41:36.100 better things he could certainly be doing for the Canadian economy to help with it.

00:41:39.620 So let's get on with Trudeau. I haven't talked enough about him yet today. Everybody wants to

00:41:44.020 hear about Justin, right? He's down in Jamaica tanning his pimply butt. So whilst he's doing 0.99

00:41:49.300 that, let's talk about what he's supposed to be doing up here. The carbon tax, you know, this is

00:41:53.780 still there. Peter LaFontaine bringing up the carbon tax hit everything that moves in Canada. And it's

00:41:58.260 true. And that's we're talking about energy costs. And then when you put a carbon tax on top of that

00:42:01.860 energy, everything goes up. It's a tax on everything. It's like a GST. Even if it's kind of hidden and

00:42:07.940 indirect, it costs us. And Trudeau had to admit it. He wouldn't say it outright. He's a mealy-mouthed,

00:42:15.700 disingenuous man with no understanding of economics. But his policies admitted it. When 0.99

00:42:22.180 we see now from Blacklock's reporter, they came out with some records from the Privy Council

00:42:26.980 showing that the federal researchers were, you know, researching and polling using our tax dollars,

00:42:31.060 and they realized in Atlantic Canada, which had been sort of exempt from carbon tax pressures and

00:42:35.700 expense for the most of the time it was there. Once they started having to pay the bill, oh by

00:42:41.860 I'm not into that, suddenly they switched their allegiance from the liberals to the conservatives.

00:42:46.980 Up to 24 liberal seats were going to be lost. So what does Trudeau do? He carves them an exemption.

00:42:53.540 And it just completely undercut what that tax is. Because if you really believe the tax is saving

00:42:58.500 the world, then you shouldn't be able to say, well, yeah, it's saving the world, but we can make an

00:43:02.260 exception over here or over here. And if it's supposedly revenue neutral, then it shouldn't

00:43:08.740 be hurting you having it hitting people in the maritimes. They knew it was going to hit them.

00:43:13.540 It was going to hit the wallet. It's a tax. It's an expense. It costs you on every front.

00:43:17.620 And Trudeau just made himself look, yeah, and he's still got room to go down, obviously, 0.99

00:43:21.140 made himself look dumber. And he already looked pretty darn dumb by backtracking. He's trying his 0.99

00:43:25.860 carve out. And then, of course, infuriating the rest of the nation when he, you know,

00:43:30.660 of course gives exemptions to one part, but not to the other. Because we know it just means we have

00:43:34.900 to pay all the more. Here's another beauty that's certain to resonate with Canadians and be popular. 1.00

00:43:41.060 I see that cabinet yesterday, yeah, they said they're going to waive immigration rules

00:43:46.180 for up to, and I don't believe them with much of anything, up to a thousand gazans to come into

00:43:52.180 Canada and immigrate. Because the 1.4 million that we can't sustain right now isn't enough. Let's bring in 1.00

00:43:58.260 a thousand people from one of the most volatile places on the planet. And let's not pretend that

00:44:02.980 a lot of those gazans weren't supporting Hamas, okay? Hamas didn't come out of a vacuum. People

00:44:08.980 housed them. People fed them. People turned their heads when the missiles were being launched. People

00:44:13.060 turned their heads when the hostages were being taken into the tunnels. These people are the people

00:44:17.700 that Justin wants to bring here, as if we don't have enough of those lunatics blocking our roads, 1.00

00:44:22.340 intimidating people in malls, and calling out for the death of all Jews. And that's what they call, 1.00

00:44:27.220 they aren't pro-Palestine protests, they aren't, they're pro-Hamas and they're anti-Jew. Let's quit 0.78

00:44:33.060 talking around circles. But hey, let's have a thousand more in Canada, because that can only make it

00:44:37.220 better, right? You know, no other country wants them. You know, there's more than one border with Gaza. 0.95

00:44:45.940 Egypt is on the south end. They don't open it either. Why does Israel get all the blame?

00:44:51.220 One of the neighbors also will not deal with them. Why? Let's talk about that. It's not our issue in

00:44:58.180 Canada. We've got a lot of issues in Canada already to deal with. But oh, thank you, Justin. Let's bring

00:45:02.740 a thousand people from Gaza in and just see how that fits in our culturally diverse soup. And yeah,

00:45:10.660 I can see nothing but good times coming out of this. Really, you guys, really. All right. Well,

00:45:17.860 there's lots to cover and there's going to be lots more, guys. You know, we're going to be on the

00:45:21.140 pipeline a little later. We're going to cover a few more things and dissect them with our

00:45:24.420 opinion editor, Nigel Hannaford, and other special guests going on as well. And we got lots of other

00:45:31.060 special things happening at the Western Standard. I'm going to bring somebody in to cap off the show

00:45:35.860 with an announcement and covering some things on a special that's coming up here in Calgary. And that's

00:45:41.380 Mr. Finkbeiner with the draw. Hey, James. Hey, how are you, Corey? Good, good, actually. Yeah. I

00:45:50.260 missed a week. You know, I was, I was missing getting out here and inventing. Poor Jane had to 0.98

00:45:53.540 put up with a lot. Just walking around your house, doing your show all by yourself. That's right.

00:45:58.820 Yelling at the walls and the domes. Well, I shut off Twitter notifications before I went on holidays

00:46:06.260 and I didn't turn them back on until I got into the office. So my blood pressure is actually fairly

00:46:11.220 low and, uh, we're kicking off the new year with a giveaway. So it's been, uh, it's been a nice

00:46:16.900 couple of days to be back at work around here. Right on. Well, at least being taken while you

00:46:22.020 got them. Perfect. I, uh, I've got this ready to go. Um, so we can have two screens going with, uh,

00:46:29.540 with the draw. So I've got a random number generator going here on another monitor, but, uh, we're going

00:46:34.820 to draw some numbers. And, uh, these first tickets that we're going to give away are for, uh, regular

00:46:40.580 tickets for the Calgary event. The Calgary event is with, uh, Tucker Carlson, premier Danielle Smith.

00:46:46.900 And, uh, that's going to be moderated by Brett Wilson. Uh, so let me just throw this first ticket

00:46:52.100 number in here now. And, uh, that's number 53 and our first winner is, uh, Ed Whitman.

00:47:01.780 And, uh, oh, let me see here. Uh, I just got to switch this there. There we go. I had the wrong

00:47:11.860 tab up. I swear I'm paying attention. All right. Uh, the next number here is ticket number 76.

00:47:19.140 Terry Chisminsky. I butchered that. I'm sorry. And next ticket winner is 74. Bernadette McCaff.

00:47:38.660 And our last one, our VIP winners. So the VIP winners will get a VIP meet and greet and a photo

00:47:47.380 with, uh, Tucker Carlson at the event. And this one is for Calgary. And the winner is ticket number 146,

00:47:56.340 David Edmonds. So all of those winners for the Calgary event will be contacted by phone and, uh,

00:48:03.300 email at some point today. Um, we are just going to go through this list when we're done here and, uh,

00:48:10.180 and, and get ahold of everybody. Uh, up next, we have the Edmonton draw. We, uh, we actually got pretty

00:48:17.220 lucky. We ended up getting, um, extra packages of tickets for Edmonton. Uh, I just looked at,

00:48:22.980 it looks like the tickets are still selling for $92 a piece. So it's awesome that we were able, uh,

00:48:29.940 to, to, to be able to give this many tickets away to our members. Our first winner here is,

00:48:37.860 uh, Taryn ways Laco. All the Ukrainians are winning today. Well, you're at Edmonton, man. 0.96

00:48:45.060 Uh, it's true. Uh, our next winner is 16. Uh, Gordon Tabachnik.

00:48:54.980 Uh, you know, three of my best friends are Ukrainian. You think I'd be able to pronounce

00:49:03.220 a Ukrainian last name by now, but apparently not up next. We have Conan Akert. There we go.

00:49:12.180 That's an easy one. And next, Neil Sutruck. And the next one, Kevin Hampton.

00:49:25.300 And let me just see here. We are 44, Joan Frederick. And number 28,

00:49:41.300 Joyce Gannon. And our last VIP winner, uh, Edmonton of course is a, uh, beat and greet with Tucker Carlson.

00:49:50.420 This event will be with Tucker Carlson, Conrad Black and Rex Murphy. Uh, I'm super excited for this

00:49:56.180 one. I'm a huge fan of Rex. I'm trying to convince Derek to let me go, but, uh, you know, road trips

00:50:03.460 and letting, letting, letting me out of the office that just never happens. But, uh, our, our VIP

00:50:09.620 package winner for Edmonton, it is ticket 138. Uh, Dale Baker. So congratulations to all those winners.

00:50:19.860 Thank you guys very much for your support. We appreciate you being members with the Western

00:50:23.460 Standard. Uh, we're excited that this year we're going to be able to do lots of different giveaways.

00:50:28.660 And, uh, we're excited that this is the first one, such a big event, uh, two big events for the

00:50:33.220 province. Right on. Well, thanks James. Yeah. And that's just to remind everybody. Yeah. There's

00:50:37.700 more than just getting access to all those columns and articles, uh, on there being a Western Standard

00:50:42.020 member. We do these promotions and these special sorts of access because we know these things are

00:50:45.860 going to be sold out. So right on. Congratulations folks. And, uh, thanks James.

00:50:52.020 Awesome. Thanks a lot, Corey. Have a good afternoon.

00:50:54.420 All right. Thanks. And for the rest of you still hanging in there, go on, get on, subscribe,

00:50:58.660 get onto those next deals. Come on and see if you can win the next draw. Maybe,

00:51:02.340 who knows what we'll put away next. There's going to be lots of events and things happening this year.

00:51:06.340 So thanks for tuning in with us today, guys. And, uh, yeah, come in next week at this time,

00:51:11.140 and we'll do it all again with a new guest and a whole new bunch of stuff for me to complain about.

Western Standard - January 04, 2024

CORY： ’Danielle Smith could change healthcare across the country’

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