On this episode of the Cory Morgan Show, we have a special guest, Mike Thomas, join me to talk about the Green Line, the "green line" transit project in Calgary, and what it means for the price of oil. We also talk about Canada's bloated, inefficient civil service and the need for government services to be cut.
00:03:17.620And unsurprisingly, government services have become slower and more inefficient, despite constantly adding staff and pumping up the budgets.
00:03:24.880Simply renewing a passport has turned into an odyssey for people who find themselves mired in an inefficient, time-consuming mess.
00:03:31.160The Immigration Department has more than doubled its staff, yet it takes over 24 months for those baboons to process a refugee application.
00:03:38.400Those trying to diligently pay their taxes, the ones trying to play by the rules, they struggle to get a straight or timely answer from the Canadian Revenue Agency, despite the agency employing 59,000 people.
00:03:47.220But for comparison, the American Revenue Service employs 93,000 people to deal with a population eight times Canada's size.
00:03:55.960No nation can enjoy general prosperity when sustaining such a large government.
00:04:00.100The pool of productive people working in value-added industries is shrinking relative to the people working in government sectors.
00:04:06.160Bureaucrats, they don't just cost dollars, they add roadblocks to every aspect of private enterprise and often individual freedoms,
00:04:11.440as they instinctively add regulations on top of licenses, on top of inspections.
00:04:15.440The bureaucracy has become a self-serving monster, and it's only going to be tamed through a strong-willed government with a mandate to cut it down.
00:04:22.600If the path to freedom and prosperity was through big government, Venezuelans would be living the good life, and the Soviet Union would have turned into an economic powerhouse.
00:04:30.240And this productivity and GDP per capita have been in decline for years.
00:04:34.860Both will climb. We've seen it in Argentina fast enough.
00:04:37.500If the burden of government can be lifted from the shoulders of citizens, tax cuts can ease the cost of living and encourage investment.
00:04:43.500Regulation cuts will speed everything from the construction of homes and spurring enterprise in other industries.
00:04:49.960Canada's blessed with an abundance of natural resources, a skilled workforce, and a peaceful environment.
00:04:53.800And we're right next door to the biggest consumer market on the planet.
00:04:56.740The yoke of big government, though, on citizens is driving the nation down.
00:05:00.880Now, in the United States, Elon Musk is tasked with heading up the new Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE for short.
00:05:06.500Musk proved how useless bureaucracies can be and how bad a managerial bloke can get when he laid off 85% of the staff at Twitter, and it didn't even adversely impact services.
00:05:16.280Obviously, they weren't doing a hell of a lot.
00:05:18.060He'll be proving it further when he begins cutting the size of the government in the USA, and the impact is going to be quick.
00:05:22.480Canada's already struggling to be competitive on the world market.
00:05:24.960And with the USA streamlining its government burden, Canada's competitiveness is going to become even worse, and our productivity is going to suffer.
00:05:31.600Investment and skilled personnel are going to be drawn south, while a smaller pool up here tries to feed the ever-hungry Canadian bureaucracy.
00:05:38.840It's a recipe for economic disaster, no less acute than that being threatened with Trump's tariffs.
00:05:44.440Just servicing Canada's national debt now costs the government as much as it takes in from GST.
00:05:48.400The issue in Canada is not a revenue problem, it's a spending problem, and there's few worse ways to spend money than on the interest payments for a debt.
00:05:56.740The reasons to cut the size of the government are clear.
00:05:58.780Are they enough, though, to inspire the next prime minister to do what must be done?
00:06:03.400The unions are going to go wild, legacy media is going to flood the airwaves of scenes of single mothers being evicted from homes,
00:06:08.640and pouring onto the streets with broods of hungry children due to having been laid off from a government position.
00:06:14.100The prime minister's going to have to remain strong.
00:06:16.020So, Canada's bloated government costs far more jobs in the private sector and lowers the standard of living more than any round of public sector layoffs are going to do.
00:06:25.540What's the role of a government job, anyway?
00:06:28.540If the only service in providing employment for a government employee is a work for welfare program, like if that's the only point of the service,
00:06:33.880it would be cheaper just to pay them to stay at home.
00:06:35.860In fact, that's what many of them are doing right now.
00:06:37.860With the shackles of taxes and regulations removed, Canada would experience an employment boom as investment enters the country.
00:08:53.420I don't think even if I was willing to put her in the car, if she would fit through that door, I'd have to get people like, you know, Japanese train style to push her through.
00:09:02.040And then how the hell would I get her out?
00:13:45.320So this person identified as a woman and they said, let's put this guy into a shelter full of women who are trying to hide from men who assaulted them.
00:13:54.780And then they got put in with this guy and he assaulted them.
00:14:05.060Well, it happens because DEI woke morons who come out with a degree in gender ideology, which ironically teaches them that there's more than two genders and there aren't.
00:14:46.740And you know it was some self-styled feminist moonbat idiot who said, well, we have to let him in because he said he identifies as a woman.
00:17:51.640The Green Line was part of former mayor, had Nenshi's plans.
00:18:00.040And in those days, a huge, huge thing.
00:18:03.020Like I say, we'll wipe the northwest down to the southeast.
00:18:05.840But it's now been narrowed down to what I just mentioned at the cost of $6.23 billion that is shared between the city at 47 percent, the province 26 percent, and the feds 27 percent.
00:18:21.680So that's basically where we stand right now.
00:18:24.800And we were talking earlier, and I was at council last night watching all of this happen.
00:19:21.660But some people would say you have to break some eggs to make an omelet, blah, blah, blah.
00:19:26.260But they don't take into account the impacts, really, it seems.
00:19:29.400But, I mean, this is kind of a pissing match that's been going on for quite a while.
00:19:33.240I mean, some of the language that was interesting out of it from the province, and I got to admit, sounded pretty heavy-handed from above when we're supposed to be a decentralized model,
00:19:40.020saying that the city's going to get the liability and they're going to deal with the construction, they're going to deal with the debt and everything else, but you're going to do our plan.
00:19:47.960Yeah, and that's good that you mentioned that because when the province came back with their revision to the plan, they said, well, this, that, and that, and that's going to add.
00:19:58.540The city looked at it and went, well, that's going to add $1.3 billion to the cost.
00:20:02.560And there are all kinds of liabilities involved in this thing, obviously, and the province says, no, that's on you.
00:20:42.340It was scheduled to be demolished because there was going to be a Green Line station at that point.
00:20:49.680So, like I say, it was being demolished.
00:20:52.320And then last night after the vote said, yeah, okay, I guess we've got to go with the province, it burned down.
00:20:57.600So, I don't know, I'm not going to suggest that.
00:21:01.280It's just that region's full of irony anyways.
00:21:03.460I mean, for those of us old enough to remember, I mean, it used to be a horrible area with the old bus barns and Greyhound station a long time back.
00:21:10.920The city planners changed it to Eau Claire.
00:21:13.520It was going to be the Granville Island of Calgary.
00:21:15.700This was going to be a brilliant area, and it sort of failed catastrophically over the years.
00:21:48.520So, I mean, getting into the bigger issue, as I said, other cities, everybody deals with this.
00:21:51.960What I see part of the problem of getting anything done is you've got three levels of government.
00:21:57.160In this ideal world, okay, everybody's pitching in, but they all come with strings attached.
00:22:01.640They all want to make their mark, and it's bad enough getting one government managing to get something done.
00:22:06.780When you've got three, two of which put strings attached typically to the funding, you end up with this.
00:22:11.900Yeah, well, you'll never get anything done with three levels of government that involve monetary.
00:22:19.080Now, the feds, they said, yeah, we'll give you the money, and they pretty much have stayed out of it.
00:22:24.360It's the Alberta government that's come in and scared the chickens in the henhouse.
00:22:29.700Well, getting further back, though, I mean, so it was the recent release.
00:22:33.620This kind of made it all hit the fan last July, I think it was.
00:22:37.120That's when the latest city plan or whatever had come down to.
00:22:39.660They'd scaled this thing down now to, what, like four stations and 10 kilometers long and wanted to tack on another $1.5 billion in the price.
00:22:50.220Should they just have been left alone to say, yeah, we'll go with that?
00:22:54.500Well, I think I'm not a big fan of government involvement in anything, but I think probably, I mean, it's easy to look back at something like that and come up with a solution, obviously.
00:23:07.100But all levels of the government should have gone.
00:23:11.220There are construction associations and companies in the city who do these things.
00:23:16.780It's their job, and they should have said, we want a train to go from here down to there, bring us a plan.
00:23:46.440Now that the, because it's always been about the money, and, I mean, they've done some things.
00:23:52.240But now that the money is pretty much guaranteed, they can start putting shovels in the ground, and I don't know if they're going to start downtown or if they're going to start in Shepard, if they're going to build it from Shepard North or build it from downtown South.
00:24:09.300But, yeah, I think it will get done now, finally.
00:24:13.400And the time and the cost of the other questions.
00:24:15.420I mean, it sounds like, and I saw it as interesting, it seemed a bit strategic.
00:24:18.940I think it was Evan Spencer, one of the counselors, talking about just saying, well, we've got to push, get them to start digging in the South right away.
00:24:25.540Perhaps I get the feeling, let's get it irreversible.
00:24:28.420Now the tracks are on the ground, even if only a couple of blocks.
00:24:58.820When people in, for example, Corey Park, where it's going through in Southeast Calgary, or even in Ramsey Inglewood, where it turns to go west after running north,
00:25:10.300Ramsey Inglewood, for the people who don't know, are probably the oldest neighborhoods in Calgary.
00:25:16.600And I'm guaranteeing you that most people living there right now have no clue that this thing is coming to their neighborhood,
00:25:24.060and it's going to disrupt things like crazy.
00:28:24.560And, you know, before I let you go, I mean, just to remind people, because that's what we need more of, too.
00:28:27.440The other part, not just taking part in elections, but there's one of the differences with the press evolution.
00:28:31.420We don't have the coverage of City Halls like we used to.
00:28:33.900I mean, you used to have a whole lineup of reporters in the gallery for every boring meeting just in case something of importance came out.
00:30:06.600Alberta's actually pretty bad for that.
00:30:07.920We've got a pretty bloated one ourselves.
00:30:09.540So, I mean, I'm not just going to beak at the federal government for not finding the courage to do it.
00:30:13.200The provincial government needs to as well, and the city.
00:30:15.160I see some of the discussion from others in the comments, girl, Wildrose, angry Canadian, talking about independence and whether, you know, we're looking at 51st state stuff or Alberta moving along, which is, of course, very familiar turf with me.
00:30:27.180One of the things I've always said, and I said it, you know, make it my own plug in my own book when I wrote the Sovereign's Handbook.
00:30:32.520If Alberta seriously wants to go independent, though, they've got to clean up their own backyard first.
00:30:37.500If you want to convince voters in Alberta to take a referendum vote and leave or change the situation in the federation or anything, you have to prove that wouldn't be any better.
00:30:46.260If it's still big government, if it's still not democratic, if it's still not serving the people right, why would you think that you'd be doing any better in a smaller version of it?
00:30:55.620And so we've got to pay attention to the municipal politics.
00:30:58.740We've got to get on the case of our provincial leaders.
00:31:01.720And as I said, something that got me increasingly just uncomfortable with the Smith government.
00:31:07.660And again, for the most part, I think, you know, Premier Smith's doing great, but they really are top down.
00:31:14.400It's ironic when they complain as much about the federal government pushing into the jurisdiction of the provincial government, and rightly so.
00:31:20.260But they have been very heavy handed when it comes into the jurisdiction of the municipal governments.
00:31:26.180And pressuring them and putting strings onto the transfers, or, you know, talking about regulations and things that would manage municipal politics.
00:31:34.260That's where I get a little more uncomfortable.
00:31:35.820Isn't the principle supposed to be the same all the way along?
00:31:38.680Shouldn't you leave the local government more in the hands of the people?
00:31:41.600And I've seen people saying, we need Smith to intervene.
00:31:43.760Look how terrible the mayor is, or look how terrible our councillor is, or our reeve, or whatever it might be.
00:31:48.900True, they might be terrible, but whose fault is that?
00:31:52.060Do you want the Premier or a minister of hers to step in and deal with that, or should we be doing it as electors?
00:31:59.580And, I mean, I won't go down the rabbit hole or recall, but that's one way between elections to do it.
00:32:03.620But we do get the chance every election, and we don't take advantage of it.
00:32:09.020We've got to start putting better ones in.
00:32:11.380We shouldn't be counting on a higher level of government to intervene.
00:32:14.320I mean, going further along in that sense, that's like saying we should have Trudeau intervene and overrun our Premier, Daniel Smith, when she's doing something here.
00:33:48.240But you see, the way Rogan broke it down, he's right.
00:33:50.180If you ever watch old, old movies, acting evolved.
00:33:52.900You know, if you look back all the way, you know, to when it was just stage and theater, a person on a stage really had to exaggerate, be performative, really reach the audience with an exaggeration of emotion and statements.
00:34:06.820And then it moved on to movies and it was silent movies.
00:34:09.280So you still, you expressed yourself bodily greatly with that.
00:34:12.120And then the first actors, those old ones, they didn't, they didn't talk anything like we talk today.
00:34:17.280The first radio hosts didn't talk like anybody does today.
00:35:56.700But they want to actually be making a good change.
00:35:58.720And if they don't feel they can make that change, they don't feel that it's actually doable.
00:36:02.760They don't feel that putting their life on the line, going out there, becoming an elected official, spending four years doesn't actually accomplish something.
00:37:18.880All you had to do is fill out a form online.
00:37:21.440It's a nice way to actually just kind of get out of mind, you know, bring in more people in there.
00:37:25.640Because those are the people you'll hit up later for donations and participation in elections, things like that.
00:37:30.480In political parties, when we used to do mail out everything, $10 a year for a membership fee would be just about enough to cover the amount of mailing and dealing with the members.
00:37:39.140And then you want to reach further to hopefully bring them and get them engaged or get further contributions from them.
00:37:50.500In the last leadership race, it didn't really improve the amount of people coming out to take part in it.
00:37:55.340But people have learned a whole heck of a lot about digital campaigning and getting people involved.
00:38:01.020So now, even though the membership window for the liberal leadership was open and closed quickly, many, many, many people were signing up for free to vote in that race.
00:38:48.980And yes, sure, this gentleman was probably playing the ethnic vote and doing other things, but he did it fast enough that it looked like, oh, wow, this could really disrupt our coronation of Carney.
00:39:00.280We've got to kick him out of the race.
00:42:21.160Yesterday, Singh was already hinting, well, you know what?
00:42:23.460Because even though Singh said over and over, this government is coming down, first possible opportunity, I'm going to take this government down, no matter who's leading it.
00:42:49.880Trudeau talked about recently already saying, well, we could bring in an aid package on the level of the COVID-19 package to deal with the tariffs.
00:43:18.280Singh's saying, bring this in, this giant spending program, this giant throwing, living on the credit cards of taxpayers, and I'll support you.
00:43:27.380And maybe I'll buy you that six months in power that you can, you know, hopefully have a chance.
00:43:32.200Some people think, and there's the other thing to remind you, you know, just to keep you from getting a good sleep tonight.
00:43:37.100Constitutionally, the liberals don't have to go to an election until October 2026.
00:43:42.440I think it's very unlikely they'll push it that far.