00:04:48.800The ongoing subsidies, though, are going to be massive
00:04:51.040if this project even becomes complete.
00:04:53.500If the cost of the line and its maintenance are going to be recovered,
00:04:55.540the tickets will have to cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars each,
00:04:58.340and it'll take over a century to pay it off
00:05:00.200if people are willing to pay that much.
00:05:01.780I mean, somebody calculated out you could pay for the airline flights
00:05:04.900between Montreal and Toronto for 180 years for the cost this line's going to be.
00:05:08.400The economic benefits of such a line are negligible, it won't be transporting freight, and with modern communication methods, people don't need to commute like they used to.
00:05:16.000The tourism demand between those cities' service is small, and the novelty of the line itself certainly isn't going to bring people out.
00:05:22.540The Liberal government likes spending announcements and likes mega-projects, which are going to provide contracts and jobs for their friends for decades to come, whether the projects are ever completed or not.
00:05:30.680For caps, Canada should just institute a direct fund with a budget of a few billion a year that Liberals can legally transfer to their cronies with.
00:05:36.980it'd be abhorrent, but it's still cheaper than going through the motions of building a high-speed
00:05:40.260rail line. It may be more effective for economic stimulation. You don't need to be honest to
00:05:44.660foresee the disaster this high-speed rail line is going to become. It's just going to be a matter
00:05:50.220of how much is going to be blown on it and how long before a fiscal reality forces the project
00:05:54.200to be formally ended. And one more word of warning, as much as I like her, our Premier Daniel Smith
00:05:58.940has got a fixation on trains and high-speed rail as well. We could see such a boondoggle out here
00:06:04.320if we aren't on guard they sure love building those things all right let's see what else is
00:06:07.840going on in this big wide world of uh brilliance with our news editor dave nailer hey dave as we
00:06:13.600can see uh oh we can't afford razors so so depressed oh so depressed had a lovely long
00:06:21.760weekend in uh the lower mainland and the trees were blooming the cherry trees were blooming and
00:06:29.040And the grass was all green and I was in shorts and was more than, I think it was 21, 22 Celsius.
00:06:36.060Get off the plane yesterday and it's snowing.
00:06:56.040Hey, speaking of that high-speed train, our finance minister, Francois-Philippe Champagne, his wife is a senior director of the train people.
00:08:27.860Give people a chance if they're in Sarnia saying, you know what, screw you, we want to hold it by election and take the choice out of her hands.0.97
00:08:36.240She's a rather tall woman and she looked like she was about a foot taller than Carney.
00:11:32.140Israel is continuing to bomb the hell out of Lebanon.
00:11:35.300The Straits of Hormuz are closed by Iran, apparently.1.00
00:11:39.000so yeah it's a bit of a bit of a schmozzle yeah but at least their civilization lives on after0.99
00:11:45.880yes some threatened to make the iranians extinct so yeah it was bizarre bizarre is the word yeah
00:11:56.080we'll keep watching and reporting as we see it i imagine we will all right well thank you for the
00:12:00.500update i'll let you go back to morosely looking out the window at the uh unblooming trees snow's
00:12:06.160coming this afternoon that's coming again and god i hate you at least you've got the comfort of your
00:12:10.740memories right all right well thanks for the update dave i'll talk to you after the show yeah
00:12:16.660sure you will ah yes that little ray of sunshine is our news editor dave naylor and uh yeah you
00:12:23.380know again aside from being a little upset with the weather he's really working on getting those
00:12:28.360news stories cranked out there in a timely manner and covering these things as they break and they
00:12:32.040just keep breaking so fast so it's where i like to remind everybody the reason we can do that the
00:12:37.280reason dave can do it even without being able to buy razors is subscribers so guys check it out
00:12:44.380westernstandard.news subscription ten dollars a month hundred dollars for a year full access get
00:12:49.720past that paywall and um you know help support independent media so we can cover these things
00:12:56.840yeah I don't know where to go with this you know so Marilyn Gladue I mean she's not even as Dave
00:13:05.180said one of her last things was railing you know the hypocrisy is just going they don't even think
00:13:09.040twice about just completely flip-flopping on their own word and she wasn't of the red Tory
00:13:14.900bunch she wasn't somebody who was a little bit liberal and leaning that way you know like Jen0.70
00:13:19.800Rue up in Edmonton really was just more of an opportunistic liberal in the first place rather1.00
00:13:23.660than a conservative. Gladue was ripping into the liberal government for years. Very conservative
00:13:30.300and re-elected as a conservative. And she was on about the gun grab, which I guess she's okay
00:13:36.660about that now. She has been very critical about the liberal censorship on bills and things like
00:13:42.500that. I guess she's okay with the liberal censorship now. Like it's just sickening.
00:13:50.020And, and that's why people don't bother going out to vote anymore. It really is. The turnouts go down. And as I said to Dave, then the weasels just really entrenched themselves because nobody's holding them accountable anymore. And, uh, we, we all lose. We all lose. Uh, I mean, I've got no shortage of, of, of cynicism within me. I always had a degree of that, but I always like to feel though, that at least if we got up, we engaged, we participated in the electoral process.
00:14:20.680Our representatives will, to some degree, fill that role with some principles and stay within there.
00:14:26.420But as we see, there's been differences with those floor crossings, some who are perhaps a little close in ideology to the federal government than others.
00:14:36.760I mean, I got to wonder how some of the Liberal members feel suddenly embracing this new member of their caucus who so recently was ripping them on pretty much every principle she could.
00:14:47.180All right, well, let's get on to the unelected aspect of our government. And it's still, it's fascinating. And as myself, you know, I'm not much the monarchist type, but I still am. I love our history. And it's something that I love reading about and going into. And even if I want to see it change.
00:15:05.660So John Fraser, who's a journalist and author who's been around a long time, wrote The Governor's General.
00:15:11.320And it's a lot of short stories covering them from the 60s all the way up into the current.
00:15:15.980It's a little more than just your typical history book or something like that.
00:15:20.020A lot of personal information from whether, well, he managed to use praying to get out of getting the cane for smoking
00:15:26.480or offering the latest Governor General's husband just some advice on how to be the second person in office there.
00:15:34.580It was a really, really good read, and I've been looking forward to talking to him.
00:15:37.680So let's bring in Mr. Fraser and discuss that book.
00:15:42.120Hello, sir. Thank you very much for joining us today.
00:15:44.880I'm thrilled. I was enjoying listening to you talk about the very transportable members of parliament that we have these days.
00:15:53.540Yeah, well, and I guess, I mean, it's an elected role. People will come and go.
00:15:59.560People come and go in the role of governor general as well.
00:16:03.480But I guess with our vice regals, I could see in some sense, there's a little more of an honesty to it.
00:16:07.620You know that it's a role that's an appointed one and often for optics or political reasons rather than functionality.
00:16:14.540But but it's maybe I could have faith in feeling a little better about some of the people there rather than our elected officials right now.
00:26:17.080But she also, whenever there was something, a big deal, she would write her own speeches, no question.
00:26:22.840And to me, that was one of her assets, was that she was a good communicator.
00:26:26.440She knew how to present herself and she understood, perhaps because she was slightly at a remove from a traditional government general because of her race and her gender.0.95
00:26:41.940Yeah, well, and then she wasn't lacking for resources in the household.
00:26:46.200I mean, her husband, John Ralston Saul, is, you know, a persona in his own right, of course.
00:26:51.640And he seemed as, I guess, being in that role, comfortably embraced being kind of the second person for a little while.
00:27:01.240I guess confident enough in his own place that it worked out very well, actually.
00:27:08.280In his case, under the new sort of governor general, and under the old system, the more traditional governor generals,0.66
00:27:14.980the only one that was really happy was Madame Bagné because she was used to that position.
00:27:19.120But, you know, I put in the book a story that I once had an interview with Prime Minister Harper, and he said the single biggest headache he had with most of his vice regal appointments was spousal alienation, the Prince Philip job, walking three steps behind, and just not defined.
00:27:36.860And the only thing I've suggested that I thought any new prime minister or appointment to this office should consider is to make an understanding that the spouse, whether it's male or female, has a more elevated role in this and could do things.
00:27:53.060And to me, there was a great example by accident when Governor General Leger, who had a stroke in office, and his wife basically had to become the governor general.
00:28:04.520She read the speeches from the throne and did a terrific job.
00:28:10.680And most of our relationships, our marriages, if they're working, is marriage of equals.
00:28:17.600And I think that that office should be a reflection of what is everyday reality in our lives.
00:28:23.040Yeah, well, and just to kind of cap it off, it went quickly, but I mean, I would suggest people read the whole book so they could get it all.
00:28:29.260And towards the end, you shared what you'd offered as advice for Mary Simon's husband, in a sense, I guess, just to help with that role and things like that.
00:28:41.380Is perhaps, you know, it important, I guess, for these people getting into these roles.
00:28:46.000They don't necessarily know what they're getting into or their spouses might.
00:30:36.420That's one of the pluses of that presidency.
00:30:38.940And also, I think also the transition is coming.
00:30:42.200There's going to be a new one appointed almost any day or announced.
00:30:45.500Yeah, no, we've seen that announced. Yeah, it's on the way. And we certainly, to see a parallel of our system with the crazy orange man down south helps us maybe examine that as imperfect as ours might be, there's also some issues to be dealt with on the other end of the spectrum.
00:31:40.740some nice thick history tomes and so on but this is broken more into bite-sized pieces governor
00:31:46.860general by governor general and it's not going into the real nuts and bolts but just more of the
00:31:51.420personalities and uh characters of them and they have been uh from ones i i guess and he was you
00:31:57.920know a critical answer and flattering uh on on each of them in different aspects ed schreier
00:32:03.800sort of one who was just sort of adequate he was there he did okay didn't do bad didn't stand out
00:32:08.900and uh filled the role and and you get farther as i mentioned julie payette who uh really i think
00:32:16.680most people would agree just was a terrible terrible selection for the job just was it was0.90
00:32:20.800not the person who should have been there and it's not that she was a foolish person that she
00:32:25.100was very accomplished i mean this is an astronaut literally this is a strong force a determined
00:32:30.620person but just did absolutely horrifically in that role and some of that i guess is you got
00:32:38.020a point to the person who selected her for that and that is Justin Trudeau whose vision for the
00:32:43.840consequences of his actions was never really one of his stronger points to to say the least I've
00:32:48.540been you know you know how I feel about former Prime Minister Trudeau either way yes I suggest
00:32:54.680you guys get out grab that book if you like history if you and contemporary history and
00:32:59.000and the realities of some of the things with the system right now I mean I'm as critical of the
00:33:03.040system as it gets. I feel that we should work towards something of a more Republican system
00:33:10.980or of course, right, independence. I mean, and if we look at Michelle Jean, she was independence
00:33:19.620leading from the Quebec side of things and still managed to sit as a governor general. You know,
00:33:24.200again, an interesting cast of characters. I don't think I'll ever be sitting in that role,
00:33:27.880but we've got to learn from what's gone on before us and what's happened in there and
00:33:32.480and realize that these, these people do hold important roles, even if, if at times it feels
00:33:38.640they, they, they aren't necessarily doing a good job at it. All right. I'm just trying to keep up
00:33:45.460with the news with things. I was, you know, speaking of polarity in politics, I mean,
00:33:49.600I'm pretty conservative, but yeah, Trump boy, you know, when, when I saw that statement,
00:33:54.320when he was talking about annihilating a civilization and then if people you know
00:34:01.680look the word genocide has been abused it's been misused it's been applied to everything
00:34:06.480from kentucky fried chicken outlets to uh you know to what's happening uh or happened in gaza
00:34:14.080to all over the place and it is questionable but when you actually will stand up and say
00:34:19.120that you're going to eliminate an entire civilization. And he didn't. And he probably
00:34:27.300never was planning to. But that is what genocide is, guys. It is. And I'm sorry, but that is
00:34:34.140grossly irresponsible. I'm tired of the apologists for Trump and the mess he's making on some of
00:34:39.880this, guys. And they get all upset with me. You know, when I put a tweet, I was just saying,
00:34:44.400look, no president should speak that way ever. You just don't. You just don't. I don't care
00:34:48.760about your art of the deal crap. I don't care for some people trying to say, well, he didn't really0.98
00:34:53.420mean it. He's just a BS-er and that's the way he negotiates. You don't negotiate by threatening to
00:35:00.800annihilate an entire civilization. People say, well, he only just meant actually the Iranian
00:35:05.580government or the IRGC. No, he didn't. He said his whole civilization. You don't take him literally.
00:35:11.460I have to take him literally because he literally is the man with the access to the nuclear codes.0.99
00:35:17.900So when he says stuff like that, even though you know, and I knew when I saw it that, yeah, he's probably just being full of crap again.0.98
00:35:25.680But this is serious, serious business.0.99