00:20:10.980And that's that really is the core argument.
00:20:12.480And I'm sure you've seen it. Like, what is freedom, right? Is freedom the pursuit of higher goods? Or is it just not to be interfered with? And this second definition, which I do not think is right, and which I criticize in the book, is shared by some on the libertarian right. And if I want to be fair, I kind of have to critique it too.
00:20:34.300Of course, everybody's open to critique.
00:20:37.080And I mean, something we're hearing from most, I think, political commentators or people looking at the philosophy, we've seen a dramatic change in the family unit, particularly in the Western world.
00:20:53.360unfortunately divorce is you know uh higher than ever and we don't see extended family groups
00:21:00.560uh staying in communication with each other like they used to that that's uh definitely it must be
00:21:06.480a part of this trend but i mean how could we change that yeah that's always it's always a
00:21:12.080question right because doing the diagnosis is i don't want to say the easy part but you have to
00:21:17.520get the problem right before you you go for solutions but i think that there's always a
00:21:22.640policy element to it but there's also just like an individual and also a collective cultural
00:21:28.560vision of what the individual is related to the family and i think this is one of the most
00:21:33.520interesting areas where it kind of manifests because especially when you're my age you grew
00:21:38.240up in the in an era where it's all about autonomy right it's always like oh how free are you as an
00:21:46.400individual and watch out if you rely too much on someone else whether it's your family or
00:21:52.320whether it's your romantic partner uh are are you going to lose uh out of this as an autonomous
00:22:00.080atom but to some extent we have to go beyond this and just recognize and it's always been
00:22:05.840the case in human history before that being a part of an institution whether it's a family
00:22:10.160or nation or community it helps us grow we change it and it changes us and it's never just a zero
00:22:16.000sum game between the individual and the institution whether it's the family or another institution
00:22:21.040but I feel that today our treatment, whether it's in the media, in the academia, or just the broader
00:22:26.800vision that we have in a family today, is just a vessel that has to be in pursuit of our individual
00:22:32.480aspirations. But from the moment it contradicts it, then it becomes harder to defend. But that
00:22:37.200is fundamentally a misunderstanding of what a family is or should be, right?
00:22:42.400Yeah, well, and the North American or perhaps even a bit of European culture
00:22:47.520has become different like i use an anecdotal thing i i walk to the office uh downtown to save
00:22:52.640money on parking i go through a pretty rough part of town there's a lot of people in terrible
00:22:56.560condition they're addicted uh they're homeless uh i mean there's a solid pattern that just about
00:23:03.200everybody i see on the street tends to be either unfortunately indigenous black or white we have a
00:23:08.240high indian population a higher population of east asian individuals and you never see them1.00
00:23:16.640in that condition now they're not immune to addiction and mental health issues and challenges1.00
00:23:21.840but somehow their networks keep their their their families from ending up on the streets like is
00:23:27.280there stuff we can learn from other cultures while we're uh adopting things because it seems to me
00:23:31.680that that some seem to be avoiding some of the fallout absolutely absolutely i really believe
00:23:37.120there is there is an indian uh asian difference if you can if you can see and you know many books
00:23:42.720on a family for example i'm thinking of brad wilcox from institute for family studies yeah
00:23:49.440he says that there is like a very uh important statistical difference in like the rate of being
00:23:54.080and staying married if you are from an asian background or if you just look at the treatment
00:23:58.640of parents and grandparents like the fact that it's more culturally accepted than normal to kind
00:24:05.360of stay with your parents at home have them when they're older versus just parking them in a care
00:24:10.480home and i think yes there is maybe a more holistic approach to the family that we could
00:24:15.280learn from today because you know this the whole question of care homes is so interesting because
00:24:19.920it is like the quintessential example of what happens when individualism drives state spending
00:24:27.280up because especially when you have a population that is growing older all these questions we have
00:24:33.440to ask today and maybe yes there is there is a more place that the family could take in this
00:24:38.080so that we don't just offload all of our care duties to the state so you talked about perhaps
00:24:44.320things though being ripe for return the term you used as a cultural normalcy uh what normalcy do
00:24:50.320you mean then yeah that's a good question because another of the big points of the book is about our
00:24:56.480vision of democracy when you look just at the beginning of the 20th century the vision that
00:25:01.760we used to have in the west of the common man just the average joe the average citizen was very
00:25:06.640different than it is today you look at the working class for example was very valued in part due to
00:25:13.600the marxist left we have to give it to them they they valued the majority in this sense and thought
00:25:18.320that they were wise and deserving and when you look especially on the progressive side the vision
00:25:23.200of the majority ever since we've just shifted to more identity-based or cultural conflicts has
00:25:29.360changed uh dramatically because now uh when you talk about the majority and and just democratic
00:25:34.640vote it's it's kind of supposed to be either evil or oppressive or something that we should rein in
00:25:41.840instead of reflecting but we're still in the democracy so the goal is still to have the
00:25:46.640majority voice heard right but in a country like canada obviously you have the supreme court and
00:25:52.080i think that the rule of judges that we see now is also an expression of the the lack of confidence
00:25:58.480that much of our elites now have uh with the majority and so if i'm talking about a return
00:26:04.080to normalcy it's also of again the way that we see the individual and link to the collective
00:26:09.920and how in the democracy you have to have a little bit of respect for the nation for the majority
00:26:17.360otherwise you just lose the democratic ethos that really allowed us to have a flourishing society
00:26:23.920where most citizens were respected and felt they were part of something so being part of something
00:26:29.760And I am quite curious, as you are of quite a different generation than my own, and things go cyclical and there can be a bounce, things can come back.
00:26:47.300People took part in just amateur sports or a chess club or a book club or just something that got them out of the house and around other people.
00:26:54.680Do you think perhaps there could be a resurgence of that?
00:26:56.840Like we're coming into this world of, again, just being in our houses far too much, but maybe it would turn around.
00:27:03.760We could see a trend where people realize they have to get out and socialize.
00:27:09.780And as you mentioned, these things are extremely cyclical.
00:27:13.960And, you know, in the conclusion of the book, I really talk about Generation Z's experience of the world.
00:27:19.400And like I mentioned previously, I think that when you grow up in a desocialized world, to say it this way, I don't think it's too much of a stretch to describe our world today as desocialized.
00:27:33.160And whenever I talk to people my age, people who are in their 20s, whether they're intellectuals or not, when you talk about this kind of disillusion with what Bauman calls liquid modernity,
00:27:44.260this idea that we've kind of lost our collective compass our sense of cohesion and that we kind of
00:27:50.580lack guiding principles like we used to have this is really pretty uh much of a consensus even when
00:27:57.320you're on the left and when you're obviously when you're on the right and you're in your 20s but it
00:28:02.040is something that people might try to tackle from different angles but i do think it is the central
00:28:07.880malaise of our era and that some things you got to give so it has obviously ideological and political
00:28:13.400answers, but it also has to come with a more vibrant civil society. That's for sure.
00:28:18.340Yeah. Well, and your book has a nihilistic flavor to it in a sense. And I mean, but as you said,
00:28:24.320I mean, you have to identify the problems before you can move towards a solution. And it's
00:28:27.780philosophically based. I really appreciated that because there's a big transition in the world
00:28:33.640happening, obviously, and a big change. And you and your generation are going to have to deal with
00:28:37.640it whilst I'm probably sitting in a retirement home because I'm going to be dependent on the0.91
00:28:41.660state or whatnot at the end of things as well. So, I mean, I appreciate you sharing that and
00:28:47.700putting those thoughts together. You're involved as well in some writing from a conservative
00:28:54.100perspective in Quebec. Before I let you go, where can people find more of your work and what you're
00:28:57.940up to? Oh, people can follow me on Twitter at EA Beauregard on Facebook and yeah, just in Quebec
00:29:06.540Media. I don't know if your listeners are fans of French Quebec Media, but you can find me there.
00:29:12.180I also write in France in the Journal du Dimanche and in without diminishment in English for a
00:29:17.300Canadian public. Great. And here's what your book looks like there, a copy of it. Where can people
00:29:22.300find themselves a copy to grab one for themselves? Oh, anywhere, really. It's on sale on Amazon,
00:29:27.540but also at Indigo and pretty much anywhere where good books are sold. All right. Well,
00:29:32.780excellent thank you very much for uh taking some time to join us older westerners out here and
00:29:37.020share your thoughts on it and uh i just appreciate the forward thinking thanks a lot for having me
00:29:42.940all right hope we can talk again soon sorry guys yeah one more time you can look that up uh that's
00:29:48.700great you know there's so many places books are online and available though again you see it keeps
00:29:52.620you in your house you don't have to go down to that bookstore and walk around other people and
00:29:56.300pull them off the uh shelves but they are there as well it's anti-civilization and yeah the collapse
00:30:01.740of society though and as he said and there's the the better part you know and the case for common
00:30:06.140good i i just noticed these things i i gotta admit you know as i'm getting i'm in my mid 50s now
00:30:12.780i don't look ahead to changing things but i see how they're changing for the negative i'm
00:30:16.540a bad example of that i i gotta admit my mother's probably watching i'm not a good kid for keeping
00:30:23.260up with family members and and maintaining that uh uh tight relationship or extended relationship
00:30:30.540uh as is kind of common now you know you don't see it as much i i remember as a kid growing up in
00:30:35.980banff and there was a family the gianandreas they were an italian family and they lived nearby
00:30:41.620and they had their grandparents living with them and the grandparents watched the kids while the
00:30:45.920parents were were out working and the whole family unit was all in one large household and that's
00:30:50.360just the way it was and they never thought twice of it yet it looks strange to a lot of us and the
00:30:54.220other students and people like that but we look at it what was bad about nothing was bad about that
00:30:59.720whatsoever. But, well, I mean, some Italian families on the East Coast and traditionally
00:31:05.080got into some difficulties, of course, but things have changed. And I think social media
00:31:12.560has really exacerbated that. It's made it so much easier to stay indoors. I think
00:31:20.240Etienne mentioned a bit of that in his book, too, if I recall. You know, everything from
00:31:25.800Uber Eats or DoorDash, you know, COVID kind of added to that. Lock yourself in your house. Learn
00:31:32.060how to do everything without leaving your home. Get your food delivered to you. Call Amazon. Get
00:31:37.220your clothing delivered to you. Find your social networks online. Do your things online. And we
00:31:44.740lose the actual human interaction, the actual getting together in person sort of thing. And I
00:31:52.460we're seeing consequences of it you know uh social consequences in general though the solution yeah
00:31:59.420that's a more difficult thing how do you change a culture how do you change a direction uh maybe the
00:32:04.380next uh generation will work more on that and uh yeah we can learn from some others i i've asked
00:32:13.100that before too and i believe it tends to come down to that as i said when i see the the people
00:32:17.740who have really fallen out with society the people you know with mental health issues addictions
00:32:22.460there's a lot of supports we aren't providing for them whether it's for for treatment or mental
00:32:27.500health facilities and so on but also if they're of the indigenous or or basically european descent
00:32:35.820kind of end up don't have that network that takes people in and takes care of them that1.00
00:32:40.380we're seeing with other cultures there's a lot of things that other cultures i don't want to embrace
00:32:45.180but uh i think there's some things we could learn from others so getting back to uh just anyways
00:32:51.740what i wanted to talk about before uh with carney i i just you we'll see we'll see i mean i'm wrong
00:32:59.180often but my my sense is he's gonna call a snap election pretty soon he's looking just he's ahead
00:33:05.50017 points in the polls polyev is just reeling he's got his own as i said the sharks are coming
00:33:11.020for him from underneath now and uh carney's majority is weak you know it's only a couple
00:33:17.660of seats it's it's it's still a majority but you know he'd be much more comfortable if he had a 20
00:33:22.460seat majority then he'd have no fear of putting whatever his agenda may be and we know it tends
00:33:27.900not to be a good agenda on the table and he's got this trade war going on i mean we know how
00:33:35.660how the politics works. We know how it goes. They'll just say, look, something is so important,
00:33:40.440it's going on and everything, but we need a mandate, a strong mandate to take this approach0.97
00:33:44.840to the trade war and deal with that external threat and that big orange boogeyman down south
00:33:49.760and everything. We need to take it to Canadians and he'll take it to them. And I think he's going0.89
00:33:54.860to do it perhaps even as early as in a month or two. Because you got to remember too, Trump
00:34:00.820politically, is Carney's best friend. He's been political gold for Carney. He is the reason that
00:34:09.420things turned around so dramatically for the Liberals a year and a half ago, more than, you
00:34:15.580know, almost two years ago, really, when it all started hitting, when Trump came back in and took
00:34:19.640on such a heavy tariff and aggressive approach with Canada. I mean, at first, that's kind of
00:34:26.200what brought Trudeau down because people realized, well, boy, we've got a big issue coming and we
00:34:31.240can't have that dingbat Trudeau managing things. He does not have the depth to deal with this. So
00:34:36.700he was plummeting. But then Carney stepped in. People thought, there's a guy we can rally around.
00:34:43.860There's one who'll save us from the big bad orange man. And it worked. It kept them in there. And you0.81
00:34:47.660know what? People, when they see an external threat, when they see something outside, whether
00:34:52.660it's a kinetic war a real war or a trade war like this they stick to the tried and true they stick
00:34:59.980to what they know at least in central canada they sure do and uh that's worked for carney if they
00:35:07.880get resolution now you got to think if it's four years between elections trump's going to be going
00:35:12.720out the door by the time carney faces the electorate again would he want to have a general
00:35:17.760election without having that excellent asset in his pocket while going into the polls much easier0.77
00:35:24.460just to call it right now get her done and then buy himself a majority for four to five years to
00:35:32.160do whatever the heck he pleases i suspect it's coming we'll see what happens but i got a feeling
00:35:37.140we're coming into a federal campaign and yeah pauliev i don't like the guy but he just can't
00:35:41.640seem to can't seem to get it and i don't know it's uh it says a lot too on one of the the there's so
00:35:49.400many things that you know i spent a lot of time in the states and i worked down there a lot and
00:35:52.500talking to americans and they're so astounded by how non-democratic our system is i mean it doesn't
00:35:59.040even conceive to them that what do you mean the person in power gets to choose when an election
00:36:04.600is going to be you know they have fixed dates because it only makes sense there should be
00:36:09.300nothing but a fixed date. I mean, to have elections called at the political convenience of whoever is
00:36:14.100in power is not a democratic principle. It's terrible. Yet here we are with it. I mean,
00:36:20.080it's embarrassingly so. The other big one, of course, is the Senate. So what do you mean
00:36:23.880your Senate's appointed? Yeah, they're all appointed by the prime minister. No, they
00:36:29.580aren't equal yet. They do have the same amount of theoretical power as the House of Commons.
00:36:34.200what sort of democracy gives that much power to people that the citizens have absolutely no say
00:36:40.840in putting in or removing from that office the american system isn't perfect we can certainly
00:36:46.580see that but boy at least it recognizes democracy a heck of a lot more than what our current one
00:36:54.180does and uh justin gp saying and our judges are appointed too yeah i mean they're it's it's it's
00:36:59.600bad on on on every every level and uh well we're all paying the price for it well let's look at
00:37:06.480some of this brilliant ideology coming up i'm just going to go through some news stories this
00:37:12.340one came out with uh rooftop solar panels because it it comes to the green thing it comes to part of
00:37:16.680why we're economically castrated in canada it comes to why we're not competitive we're not
00:37:21.080productive we uh haven't developed our resource export that's due to 10 years and some of trudeau
00:37:28.280but Carney's not doing any better. He just talks a different game. But all the solar panels,
00:37:32.160right, all the subsidies, all the pushing, we're going to have heat pumps, we're going to have
00:37:35.380solar, we're going to have wind, all of that. Well, now the government's own study, a natural
00:37:39.800resources report went to the minister and said, and this is where they're being polite, solar
00:37:46.000panels on rooftops in Canadian homes make limited economic sense. It says homeowners would take up
00:37:52.080to at least 30 years to recover the costs of putting them up there uh even with subsidies
00:37:59.480and the thing is i don't even like that even with subsidies because if it's subsidies well it just
00:38:03.280means you're taking it over the homeowner's pocket just in a different way so they're still paying
00:38:06.740for it in other words solar isn't worth it but we dive into it we put all of these building
00:38:13.900requirements onto things we spend all of this money on these subsidies and where is it getting
00:38:17.480us nowhere even the government's admitting it yeah good to see bird a proud dad popping in there
00:38:22.600saw you there last week just a side note in the comments scroll uh some good discussions on
00:38:27.320keeping teachers accountable by the way yeah school's back in that's something else that's
00:38:32.360part of the season either way with these solar panels it's just madness but uh glad to see at
00:38:37.640least some government uh uh you know agencies looking into it and giving an unvarnished report
00:38:44.200it's just whether or not uh they'll listen to it as another story all together so uh let's see uh
00:38:50.360that edmonton resident right he got two million dollars in contracts that's what dave was talking
00:38:54.920about uh and those contracts were from the rcmp and department of national defense
00:39:00.440and uh yeah he's the the son of iran's former vice president you know of the uh irgc
00:39:07.160the republican what the hell is this country got any screening it was not even just a matter of
00:39:15.000this person being here but getting contracts our tax dollars are going to this guy0.93
00:39:20.460canada's a hub for funding bloody terrorists there's no getting around it and the more of
00:39:26.840these things come out you know as i said trump is gonna have a better case on complaining about0.98
00:39:31.000what we're doing up here and we're gonna have a harder time defending it but what did we get
00:39:35.940recently amnesty international sent me a you know said it all everywhere i mean i got my email a
00:39:40.720press release howling pissing moaning whining because the canadian border services agency went
00:39:47.780and checked the immigration status of a bunch of student protesters who were all protesting because
00:39:53.120their student visas had expired and they didn't want to go back where they came from in other
00:39:57.580words they were here illegally what do you expect i mean that's the point of a visa it expires
00:40:06.060when it's done you leave i used to work in the united states on an l1 visa i don't do it anymore
00:40:12.060why well because i work up here but also my visa's expired i can't do it and they would certainly
00:40:17.100kick me out fast enough but not in canada and here we find out we get these protesters
00:40:24.300actually complaining and putting out challenges because we dared to have our border service
00:40:29.100agency do its actual job. Nuts. Just absolutely nuts. And yeah, is it a shock when we can't get
00:40:36.420rid of the terrorists? BC. Man, speaking of insane politics, right? So be sure to follow
00:40:46.080Alex Zoltan. Follow him on X and follow him on the Western Standard. Read his stories. If you
00:40:50.460want somebody breaking down the BC politics gone show that it is and the insanity of it. It's
00:40:57.080difficult to keep up with what's happening so fast i've never seen a party collapse like this
00:41:01.900and uh yet another mla has now bailed out from his party and what's this one that i think it's
00:41:09.760the yeah it's the eighth one to leave the conservative party's caucus since august 14th
00:41:16.200eight and just a little over you know about three weeks two weeks and more to come by the sounds of
00:41:21.260it and of course internal people are leaving and it's just brutal this is a party that's still
00:41:27.860leading in the polls I believe in BC or at least it's neck and neck with the NDP I mean David EB
00:41:31.700is terrible but this this party people in BC are begging for a new party to vote for they're
00:41:39.080desperate for a new party to vote for but whatever is going on with this new leader uh Carrie Lynn
00:41:45.080Findlay, Alex was explaining some things. I guess her husband is in a high-ranking role within the
00:41:52.380party. We saw that Chung fella who she had hired, who was an alumni from the disgraced Alberta
00:41:58.080Republican Party. It's like they're just taking their own opportunity and sinking it. I don't know
00:42:05.820what on earth it's going to take, but I don't know if they're going to recover from this in time for
00:42:11.520next bc election there's a scary thing eb is one of the worst premiers in all of canada
00:42:17.360yet the conservatives are determined to make sure that they remain unelectable and incapable
00:42:23.760of replacing him i mean what what on earth do they do over there i i don't get it
00:42:31.360what do we do as dave said in alberta at least uh daniel smith is still
00:42:37.040still leading in the polls. I mean, that's a lot narrower between the NDP and the UCP, but
00:42:43.380same sort of thing. In the head and end, she isn't exactly setting the world on fire. He's
00:42:46.920not making people happy in Alberta. Smith's getting it from all sides, but it doesn't look
00:42:52.340like she's unwinnable. I heard things. So there was a big rally in Edmonton on Saturday for the
00:42:58.000Alberta Prosperity Project, and there were speakers, Jeff Rath and Mitch Sylvester and a bunch of
00:43:03.940others and i couldn't make it but i i'd heard from some others i mean for the most part it was pretty
00:43:09.740good there was a uh some video of a crazy couple of people uh being ejected from there by alberta
00:43:15.620sheriffs and they're totally out of their minds the the independence opponents are really uh pieces
00:43:20.640of work but something uh somebody told me at an event i was at in uh mirror last night i went to
00:43:27.440an Alberta Day event in Mirror at Scott's Whistle Stop Cafe.
00:43:34.000And he said, I can't support the APP any longer because all I heard
00:43:41.380from their leadership at this was just constant bashing of Daniel Smith.
00:43:44.640He said, you know, I wanted to hear about independence.
00:43:46.420I wanted to hear about how we could move towards an independent Alberta.
00:43:50.260And they heard some of that, but most of it from some of the presenters
00:43:52.740was almost again obsessive and vitriolic and and just focused on getting the premier out of power
00:43:58.180now there's lots of things to criticize smith about and maybe there is a good reason to replace
00:44:02.980her and get her out uh there's a lot of things to be discussed but is now the time to do it
00:44:10.420is it really the best course of action if it's an independence
00:44:13.940rally. Why so hung up on that side issue? I'm kind of concerned about that. The Alberta Prosperity
00:44:24.220Project was the largest independence group in all of Alberta had been around for a long time.
00:44:28.980They've gotten thousands and thousands of volunteers together. They've done some good
00:44:32.200work. They did a lot of groundwork. I spoke at a lot of their events years ago. But once this
00:44:36.680referendum hit, they just kind of dropped the ball. They just kind of vanished. And then when
00:44:40.160they do resurface, it's more of just on a Smith bashing fest when we really all should be talking
00:44:45.200about a referendum that's coming in a month and a half. So speaking of conservative movements that
00:44:51.120are too busy shooting at each other rather than moving ahead towards the same thing, I know that
00:44:56.560Smith isn't moving towards independence. I understand that. That's been, you know,
00:45:01.460always been a federalist goal on her part, but is it the best place to put the energy and trying to0.98
00:45:07.160ripper out right now when you got a referendum coming in a month and a half. I don't know. But
00:45:12.300we'll see where things go. Conservatives, as I said, the only thing they like fighting with more
00:45:16.620than liberals are each other. Okay, that's the time I got for today, guys. Thank you very much
00:45:21.960for tuning in. We'll have the pipeline on. We're going to break down some more issues tonight.
00:45:27.020And with our panel, Derek is back from Ukraine. We'll see what's coming up there.
00:45:31.040and of course the other shows uh marty is going to have his on tomorrow and uh nigel has his show
00:45:37.500coming up regularly so make sure to like share subscribe do all those things so you don't miss
00:45:40.920any of these productions and uh subscribe to the western standard to keep supporting us so thanks
00:45:45.440for tuning in today guys we'll see you all again next week at this time