Western Standard - July 12, 2023


Cory Morgan Show. It’s time for Canada to end racial apartheid policies


Episode Stats

Length

49 minutes

Words per Minute

186.94171

Word Count

9,271

Sentence Count

730

Misogynist Sentences

12

Hate Speech Sentences

10


Summary

Corey rants about Bill C-18 and the state of Canadian media and the mess the federal government is making with it. Plus, a look at the alarming decline in Indigenous life expectancy across the country and why we should all be worried.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 Thank you.
00:00:30.000 Good day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan Show. This is my weekly platform to rant, rave, read out some new stories and check in with thought leaders and opinion creators from across the country. As you probably might notice, I'm dressed a little differently than usual. It's Stampede Week in Calgary. Viewers outside of Calgary might not know this, but most probably do. This is when we take advantage of this event to be able to cosplay for a week and pretend to be cowboy.
00:01:00.000 It gets me out of having to wear the old outfits and everything. Nico's made a great Stampede background there and it's been going really well in Calgary this year. Really good Stampede. A lot of people out having a good time.
00:01:11.940 And yeah, I know. We were on the Cowboy Network, RFD TV, other spots, and you guys, come on. It's the nerve of this guy trying to dress up like that as this caricature of a cowboy. Oh, come on. Let us have our fun. Hey, I am an Alberta boy and I've been near cows before.
00:01:26.660 So, it's as close as it gets. Okay, I got a good show today, as always, I think. But we've got a former CRTC chair and newspaper executive Peter Menzies on.
00:01:35.820 We're going to talk some more about Bill C-18 and just the state of Canadian media and the mess that the federal government's making with it.
00:01:43.560 And of course, there'll be the check-in with Mr. Naylor and lots of other things coming along.
00:01:48.160 But I'm going to start out with what's got me wound up today. And I saw, you know, some numbers that came out recently from Alberta Health Services.
00:01:55.860 And the numbers are shocking. So, the life expectancy for an Indigenous man in Alberta is now plummeted down to 60 years of age.
00:02:04.100 And for Indigenous women, it's down to 66. So, if you want to see the comparison of what that means,
00:02:08.700 the national life expectancy for a non-Indigenous man in Canada is 80 and women, 84.
00:02:13.640 And the story across the country isn't any different with Indigenous populations. It's just a matter of give and take a couple of years.
00:02:20.920 And this issue hasn't garnered the headlines it should have, because it forces people to face a reality they'd rather avoid.
00:02:27.380 Canada's system and policies with Indigenous people, it's a complete catastrophe.
00:02:33.200 And how bad does it have to get before people admit this?
00:02:37.560 Think about that. Indigenous Canadians can expect to die 20 years before everybody else.
00:02:42.440 And that number is getting worse.
00:02:44.580 The population should be screaming for systematic reform from the rooftops in light of this kind of number.
00:02:49.980 But the silence is deafening.
00:02:52.300 Now, the opioid addiction epidemic is responsible for how fast it suddenly increased.
00:02:57.320 It increased by a seven-year drop in life expectancy in the last few years.
00:03:02.180 But again, those expectancies were already low and they were already dropping.
00:03:05.940 And again, it's indicative of some big, serious problems.
00:03:09.540 Indigenous people have always had lower life expectancy than the rest of Canadians.
00:03:13.940 We shouldn't accept this.
00:03:15.300 They're dying younger than other citizens, though, because of an assortment of causes,
00:03:19.040 ranging from diabetes to prostate cancer to murder.
00:03:21.880 In fact, with every single aspect, when you measure the standard of living, Canada's Indigenous people fall short.
00:03:28.960 Whether it's income, health, addictions, crime, education levels, mental health issues, housing, domestic stability.
00:03:36.080 They're lagging by every measure.
00:03:38.340 And it isn't getting better.
00:03:40.400 But what do people expect?
00:03:42.300 How can somebody look at Canada's system of racial apartheid, and that's exactly what it is,
00:03:46.680 and not see a socioeconomic disaster in the making?
00:03:49.960 How could a person think that keeping a race of people separated from the rest of society
00:03:54.600 on what are usually isolated reserves with little to no local means of generating income
00:03:59.600 and think that these people are going to fare well under these conditions?
00:04:03.100 Does anybody really believe there's a sustainable future for people living on these enclaves of dependency and misery?
00:04:10.580 I mean, what do they envision?
00:04:12.100 Do they think citizens and residents on reserves will suddenly find and develop local resources
00:04:15.880 and begin to live functional lives independent from government management and dependency?
00:04:21.200 Yeah, some people really believe those things might happen.
00:04:23.520 But all that tells me is they've never actually spent time on a reserve in Canada.
00:04:28.380 I'm not talking about somebody who's gone and attended the odd powwow
00:04:31.380 or done a corporate retreat that had a sweat lodge attached to a resort in a Native Reserve somewhere.
00:04:36.200 I'm talking about getting off the main road
00:04:37.940 and seeing how our First Nations populations are really living on those reserves.
00:04:43.340 Have a look at those dilapidated houses,
00:04:45.060 the wild dogs,
00:04:46.260 the crime,
00:04:46.840 the trash strewn about.
00:04:48.520 And it's common, guys.
00:04:49.600 That's the reality on most of Canada's reserves.
00:04:52.120 And it's not improving.
00:04:54.060 For most Indigenous people on reserves to make a living,
00:04:57.000 they have to leave the reserve.
00:04:58.920 Unfortunately, many of those residents from the reserves are ill-equipped to adapt to town or city living.
00:05:03.800 And then they fall off the rails when they've gotten off the reserve.
00:05:06.060 It's terrible.
00:05:07.260 A lifetime of economic dependency in a tight and often dysfunctional social environment
00:05:11.460 handicaps Indigenous people when they try to break free.
00:05:14.420 And we've got to face that reality.
00:05:16.480 The reserve system is an inhumane policy failure and it has to come to an end.
00:05:21.580 And I know that won't happen overnight.
00:05:23.360 It can't.
00:05:24.280 It's going to take decades of policies modeled to transition people away from the reserve system
00:05:28.760 and into society in general.
00:05:30.880 People will need compensation, training, and adjustment for it.
00:05:34.420 Individual property rights need to be applied for people on reserves
00:05:37.180 to break them out of the collectivism that's destroying them today.
00:05:39.960 And of course, there'll be legal challenges too.
00:05:43.160 Many people have misconceptions about what treaty obligations the country actually has to Indigenous people.
00:05:48.020 And most of those obligations, if you read a treaty,
00:05:50.340 they just have to do with things like providing education,
00:05:52.980 determining some land boundaries, and some minor payments.
00:05:55.920 We can apply private property rights and come up with some final settlements
00:05:59.020 and still abide by treaties.
00:06:01.840 Most of the policies applied to Indigenous people right now come from the outdated and terribly racist Indian Act.
00:06:08.000 That gross piece of legislation needs to be repealed.
00:06:11.160 And as a society, we need to move away from all race-based policies.
00:06:14.800 It fails the people every time.
00:06:17.600 There's a giant parasite class living on the backs of Canada's Indigenous population.
00:06:22.280 There's bureaucrats, civil servants, and many lawyers.
00:06:24.920 They find the status quo very lucrative, and they'll defend it vigorously.
00:06:28.940 People calling for changes to the system will always be called racist, among other things,
00:06:33.000 by those other parasites invested in the current bloated and corrupted system.
00:06:37.280 Nobody's calling out a race.
00:06:38.980 What needs to be called out, though, is a system failing an entire race.
00:06:42.820 Nobody's calling for assimilation either.
00:06:44.900 Cultures can be preserved without being locked in an isolated reserve away from the rest of society.
00:06:50.440 And spending more money alone, it won't solve the issue.
00:06:53.120 Federal spending, just federal, on Indigenous programs in 2021 was $24.5 billion.
00:07:00.040 That's above and beyond every other dollar it's spent, as it's spent on Canadian citizens in general.
00:07:04.660 And that doesn't include the spending from provincial and municipal governments on top of that.
00:07:09.200 And what are the results?
00:07:10.520 It's not the spending I'm begrudging.
00:07:12.740 If it was actually making the lives of Indigenous Canadians better, I would accept it.
00:07:16.100 It's the lack of results.
00:07:17.420 It's failing.
00:07:18.700 I mean, again, they're dying 20 years younger than the rest of us.
00:07:21.280 Come on.
00:07:21.840 We could triple spending on Indigenous programs tomorrow and things wouldn't noticeably improve.
00:07:27.560 Unless the system's replaced, we're just tossing money into a black hole.
00:07:31.200 Canada's system...
00:07:31.380 I'm right on this.
00:07:32.800 Racial policies and segregation needs to be phased out.
00:07:36.060 And the best thing that could happen for Indigenous Canadians suffering under the mess we have right now, this is the best thing we could do.
00:07:41.600 If one really did actually hate Indigenous people, I can think of a few things more terrible that can be done than to maintain the current system.
00:07:48.860 We can't repair damage caused through race-based policy through applying even more race-based policies.
00:07:55.460 Anyway, guys, it's time to start talking about it, frankly.
00:07:58.020 Okay?
00:07:58.200 It's really failing.
00:07:59.580 I mean, how can we look at those numbers and say, we can fix this.
00:08:02.960 We can't, guys.
00:08:03.920 It's already failed.
00:08:05.200 If you really do care for Canada's Indigenous people, it's time for some courageous, frank discussion on changing the entire system, and significantly.
00:08:13.060 And it's awful to watch it keep carrying on as it has been.
00:08:15.280 All right, that's what's got me wound up today.
00:08:18.100 But let's see what else there is to get wound up with and check in with our news editor, Dave Naylor.
00:08:22.320 Lots is going on out there.
00:08:23.920 And there's some good news, bad news, things happening.
00:08:25.760 How's it going, Dave?
00:08:27.540 It's going okay.
00:08:28.500 How's it going with you, Tex?
00:08:29.460 Oh, pretty good.
00:08:30.380 Yeah, I know.
00:08:30.960 My Western outfit.
00:08:31.720 I know it's not terribly convincing, but it gets me out of wearing a tie for when we tape the pipeline.
00:08:36.460 No, that's a great-looking shirt, I must admit.
00:08:38.660 You've been able to get down to the grounds yet?
00:08:40.860 No, I haven't, actually.
00:08:42.060 I'm not sure if I'm going to make it this year.
00:08:43.100 I'm going to try.
00:08:43.940 We'll see.
00:08:44.120 All right.
00:08:44.280 How's Jane and her stuff going?
00:08:48.200 Well, it's going great.
00:08:49.060 I mean, we've seen pictures popping up of Jane's artwork throughout the stampede.
00:08:52.720 Of course, it's been placed in a lot of great visible spots throughout in there.
00:08:56.760 And, yeah, she's quite happy with that.
00:08:59.000 Oh, good for her.
00:09:00.520 As you know, Corey, because you were there, we had our staff stampede party last night.
00:09:05.880 We went to Auto Screw Bills for the annual Testicle Festival.
00:09:10.560 Now, the background to this is we hired last year a young, wet-behind-the-ears reporter called Jonathan from Ontario.
00:09:18.720 So he arrived with his one suitcase and quickly made Calgary home.
00:09:23.360 But he really couldn't be in an official Albertan quarry until he'd tried the prairie oysters, you know, the testicles.
00:09:32.500 So, of course, we took him down there and we had some interoffice betting on how much, how many he could swallow.
00:09:40.500 And, holy cow, he started popping them and if the little bugger didn't eat 12 balls.
00:09:47.840 Well, I hear it's happier than when he's got a mouthful of balls.
00:09:50.580 I know.
00:09:51.600 The staff checked and they had no record of anybody eating that amount of balls before.
00:09:57.980 So, Jonathan Bradley is the official king of the balls.
00:10:03.500 And you can read all about it on the website now and excellent video put together of the ordeal by Nico.
00:10:12.340 So, that's a lot of fun, that story.
00:10:15.640 Other stuff that's not so fun, Edmonton's had a horrible plague of violent crimes the last 48 hours,
00:10:22.860 including some poor 87-year-old guy who's apparently an avid photographer, was taking pictures downtown.
00:10:30.500 And he was just suddenly attacked and beaten and severely injured.
00:10:36.200 Fortunately, there were a couple of peace officers nearby and they were able to drag the attacker off him.
00:10:43.300 They've had murders and other stuff, really being a bad start to July for the provincial capital.
00:10:51.320 The Bank of Canada added again this morning, Corey, raising the interest rate another quarter percent.
00:10:58.560 It's now sitting at five percent, which is the highest rate in 22 years.
00:11:04.240 So, those with variable mortgages aren't happy campers at all today.
00:11:09.920 Federal government has told Canadian airlines they need to give better service, better information to travelers.
00:11:16.340 And basically, they've run out of excuses, no more excuses for what happens.
00:11:22.140 And I say good luck with that, because we know that's not going to happen.
00:11:26.300 And the ongoing B.C. port strike costing the Canadian economy half a billion dollars a day.
00:11:34.080 It's now going into its second week.
00:11:36.880 And labor organizers are telling the prime minister he better not get involved.
00:11:42.700 So, while all the other premiers have got together, basically, and said, you know, get parliament back and order them back to work, the labor types don't want anything to do with that.
00:11:53.060 So, those are the highlights up at the moment, Corey.
00:11:56.840 There's a lot more to come this afternoon.
00:11:59.220 And I guess we'll see you on the pipeline tonight.
00:12:02.440 Yeah, you bet.
00:12:03.160 Well, lots of balls in the air.
00:12:04.900 We'll report on what's been changing and happening as it goes.
00:12:08.840 Thanks, Dave.
00:12:09.660 You bet, Corey.
00:12:11.020 That is our news editor, Dave Naylor.
00:12:12.640 This is what I'd like to remind everybody the reason we've got all those stories.
00:12:15.520 We've got those reporters, whether it's Jonathan and his skill with the bull testicles, or Arthur Green reporting on, yeah, the crazy crime rate in Edmonton.
00:12:26.300 It's because you guys have been subscribing.
00:12:27.760 So, please, please, if you haven't already, get on there, westernstandard.news slash membership.
00:12:33.760 I'm not begging.
00:12:34.360 I'm asking you to pay for a service we provide.
00:12:37.020 This is how we can stay independent.
00:12:38.340 This is how we can keep things going as a media outlet.
00:12:42.020 And we've been doing well, and you guys have been doing great.
00:12:43.900 We really appreciate it.
00:12:44.960 If you've subscribed already, thank you very much.
00:12:47.640 And if you haven't subscribed yet, come on, $9.99 a month, $100 a year, you get past that paywall, get in there, and just keeps things rolling like this show and our reporters going all over.
00:12:59.080 Yeah, that has been, I'll just, you know, sidetrack a little bit before we get to our guests.
00:13:03.180 We're going to talk some media stuff here in a few minutes here.
00:13:06.060 Arthur Green, yeah, he's the friend of our copy editors in a big way here at the Western Standard.
00:13:11.060 Very prolific writer, but one of the things he's been covering a lot of in Edmonton has been the crime that's up there.
00:13:16.900 I mean, we're seeing it in every city, and there just seems to be a wave hitting up there right now.
00:13:22.420 And at the same time, rather than dealing with these things, though, rather than admitting what's going on, these progressive city councils, we have it in Calgary as well, just, they're in this world of denial.
00:13:35.360 So Edmonton set this goal.
00:13:36.620 There's nothing progressives love more than setting goals that they, I'm sure they must know they won't achieve.
00:13:41.320 And they're saying, oh, Edmonton's going to be one of the lowest crime cities in Canada by 2030.
00:13:44.920 Well, since they put that announcement out, I think there's been a couple of fatal stabbings.
00:13:50.280 There's that horrible crime against that elderly gentleman we saw the other day.
00:13:53.640 The streets are going wild.
00:13:54.640 I mean, it's a complicated issue.
00:13:55.880 It's tied in with a lot of addiction challenges and all sorts of other things.
00:14:01.280 But to sit and deny it as it is in Calgary, for example, I mean, it's been focused, and we see that in a lot of cities.
00:14:08.080 It ties to the addiction.
00:14:09.540 It ties to the dealers fighting with each other as they work to serve the addicts.
00:14:14.340 But it comes around the transit systems and on the trains, and it was getting increasingly violent.
00:14:18.600 But one of the things that happened in Calgary is, well, Premier Smith, people could call it a campaign stunt or whatever,
00:14:24.860 but she dedicated 12 sheriffs to each city to run on the transit areas and the high crime areas and have a presence that's there.
00:14:33.480 Well, Calgary got rid of them.
00:14:35.360 They got rid of them since they said, no, we're doing okay.
00:14:37.020 We don't need them.
00:14:38.040 I mean, the point is it's political pride.
00:14:39.860 And it also clashes with their ideology.
00:14:41.780 You hear it from all the time.
00:14:42.860 Police don't prevent crimes.
00:14:44.460 Yet at the same time, whenever Mayor Gondek goes out to do a photo op at a transit area, she's surrounded by 12 police officers.
00:14:52.040 So they seem to prevent the crimes from happening to her.
00:14:54.240 I mean, that's the point.
00:14:55.700 They do make people safe at least when they're present.
00:14:58.740 So we need their presence at these stations.
00:15:00.400 It doesn't solve the problems.
00:15:01.780 I understand that.
00:15:02.520 It pushes them to a different area, but at least people can safely commute.
00:15:05.360 But they don't want to face those realities.
00:15:07.420 They don't want to deal with that.
00:15:08.420 So they just set fluffy goals, continue with enablement policies, and the crime rates still go through the roof.
00:15:14.060 I mean, we're, as you can see in the stampede in Calgary, it's going to be KDs in Edmonton next week.
00:15:17.880 And let's hope they get some mayhem cleaned up so people can have fun, at least for that week.
00:15:23.080 All right.
00:15:23.740 Let's move along.
00:15:24.900 I've been looking forward to this.
00:15:26.320 It's been a while.
00:15:26.980 We've had him on the show before, but it's been quite a while.
00:15:29.560 It's Peter Menzies.
00:15:30.520 He's a former chair of the CRTC, a newspaper executive, very, very experienced, skilled man with media.
00:15:36.540 And he's been very outspoken and critical, as a lot of us have, on Bill C-18.
00:15:42.980 So thank you very much for joining the show today, Peter.
00:15:45.820 Hey, it's my pleasure.
00:15:46.660 Thanks for inviting me.
00:15:48.060 So, I mean, most of my listeners are pretty aware due to many repeated rants out of me and what C-18 is.
00:15:53.160 But perhaps if you could run down in a nutshell what that bill is about and where it's been.
00:15:58.320 Yeah, it's an effort to redistribute advertising income earned by social media and platforms and search engines to newspapers and other news organizations, qualified ones that have been making the case.
00:16:14.160 Here's the journalistic approach.
00:16:15.420 I've been making the case, shouting very loudly that Facebook and all have been stealing their content.
00:16:21.700 And this has been going on for years.
00:16:23.940 They keep saying that.
00:16:24.900 I'm not quite sure why they get away with it because they never support it with anything other than just a statement.
00:16:30.500 So the non-journalistic or the less journalistic point of view is that it's kind of a shakedown.
00:16:35.640 Actually, it is a shakedown.
00:16:37.520 It most certainly is.
00:16:39.060 But, I mean, I guess maybe we'll talk a little more, though, I mean, into the I would consider it as a libertarian, more of a devil's advocate point of view.
00:16:47.320 But, I mean, you've seen the decline of revenue and ability in the media industry.
00:16:51.620 You know, I mean, it's been dramatic this last 10 years.
00:16:53.540 And it's a people will call it a problem that needs to be solved, whether or not the government should intervene to do so or not.
00:16:59.300 But we our news is at risk.
00:17:02.100 So, I mean, C-18 isn't the solution.
00:17:03.680 But what should we be doing?
00:17:05.520 Yeah, I mean, I guess there's a couple of arguments there.
00:17:08.540 News is certainly at risk because it's a time of disruption, right?
00:17:11.920 But times of disruption tend to sort the men from the boys in these kinds of things.
00:17:16.420 So the companies that are well-equipped intellectually and willing to invest in their product tend to find their ways through these things.
00:17:25.200 Companies that aren't tend to struggle more.
00:17:29.360 I mean, it's going to be a struggle for everybody, but some make it and some don't.
00:17:33.120 That's what happens.
00:17:34.040 That's when things evolve, right?
00:17:35.900 When the business models evolve in terms of that.
00:17:38.840 There have been a number of newspapers.
00:17:40.840 The Wall Street Journal.
00:17:41.920 The New York Times is actually starting to do quite well.
00:17:45.080 Daily Telegraph in London.
00:17:46.820 The Times.
00:17:48.080 The Guardian made money last year in London.
00:17:49.980 And, you know, after years of not making it and going with, you know, voluntary subscriptions and voluntary donations.
00:17:56.320 Others have gone behind a paywall.
00:17:58.460 You guys are using a paywall.
00:18:02.120 You know, the guys who are going back to that and are providing content that is pleasing to their readers are getting through it.
00:18:09.580 Others are not.
00:18:11.160 And so, you know, and yet at the same time, through the Internet, we have access probably to more news than we've ever had before.
00:18:21.000 Yeah, and I guess there's what the one of the bigger risks with the government getting in this way, particularly with C-18, is it'll stunt the evolution of outlets.
00:18:30.940 I mean, it doesn't give them that incentive then to change or be innovative or try new models.
00:18:35.000 And it also strangles the little ones like us or the ones that may not qualify as the government's going to pick and choose who is a qualified outlet and who isn't.
00:18:44.320 Well, it's actually got worse than that.
00:18:46.260 I hate to break it to you, but this week it appeared like the government was sort of backing down.
00:18:52.420 And it is because I think I think Meta, Facebook and Instagram, unless something dramatic changes, they're gone for good.
00:19:00.980 They're out of the business in Canada, everywhere.
00:19:02.940 They are not news providers.
00:19:06.480 They are content providers.
00:19:08.300 And news is a small percentage.
00:19:09.900 And as they've been saying recently, it's just not worth the grief.
00:19:14.300 There's just not it's three percent of their content and that and those users are replicable.
00:19:19.200 They'll still be there for other reasons.
00:19:20.620 In other words.
00:19:22.400 Yeah.
00:19:22.740 But what they've done is they've changed from a per links, which was really problem sort of way of charging people, charging the social media, the web giants,
00:19:31.800 to sort of putting a cap on it, making a calculation.
00:19:35.700 And then the big thing problem for guys like you is that they're really restricting the number of people to whom they may have to distribute money.
00:19:45.280 So I still think it's a long shot that any money gets distributed through this.
00:19:49.220 But if it does, here's who it's going to Videotron Bell, the CBC, probably the biggest, probably the biggest bunch.
00:19:57.860 Rogers, you know, maybe Black Press might be the biggest one that gets out of there.
00:20:03.900 But innovators, startups, entrepreneurs like Western Standard, Black Locks, Halifax Examiner, you know, Narwhal, they're on the left, they're on the right.
00:20:15.660 They're screwed.
00:20:16.900 They'll be left.
00:20:17.640 They'll be left out.
00:20:18.400 They will not be subsidized.
00:20:20.180 The status quo, right, which includes most of the people who are struggling and a lot of people who have tons of money anyway,
00:20:29.400 like Bell and Rogers, will get the loot and you guys will not.
00:20:37.620 We'll have to find other ways.
00:20:39.120 We're pretty stubborn.
00:20:40.060 I don't know if they'll get rid of us that easily.
00:20:41.500 Well, that's where you need, you know, like you gave a little pitch there.
00:20:43.880 That's where you need your readers, your readers support, you know, like if, if, if, and that's really the thing that people are going to have to get their heads around.
00:20:51.180 If they want the sort of content they're looking for, if they want local product, if they want, right now you have the only online newsroom in, in, in, in Alberta, I think, other than the CBC, in terms, in terms of doing that.
00:21:07.200 There's no Calvary Herald, no Calvary Sun, no Edmonton Journal, no Edmonton Sun newsroom that I'm aware of.
00:21:12.740 If people want that, it's 10 bucks a month.
00:21:16.920 It's like, it's a beer, right?
00:21:20.360 If they're not willing to put that forward, they'll lose.
00:21:23.560 I try to, you know, remind people, at least those of us in a vintage, remember, we never thought twice of spending that much or more to have the paper boy bring that to us, to our household every day.
00:21:32.700 And that was decades ago.
00:21:34.660 You know, for that sort of price, you can get the same thing.
00:21:37.120 And I'm hoping Canadian consumers learn to adapt that way.
00:21:39.760 They realize it's a product to pay for.
00:21:41.420 And a lot of our subscribers have so far, it just, just takes some time.
00:21:44.860 Yeah, and you know, you don't need to get everybody, you just need to get enough, right?
00:21:48.720 I mean, that's, that's basically the, the, the way that needs to go.
00:21:52.400 And I mean, the Globe and Mail has, you know, really shuttered down with the, with the paywall and that sort of stuff.
00:21:59.120 And all the other papers I mentioned have done that.
00:22:01.640 But you got to have the quality, you got to have the value proposition, right?
00:22:04.900 So, you know, you guys are doing a good job on that and others are too.
00:22:08.540 But, you know, some, I mean, it's, it's very difficult, you know, I don't like calling names out, but it's very difficult for a post media product these days to make a value proposition.
00:22:20.040 Half of it is not, you know, half of your local paper is the National Post.
00:22:26.260 So why would you buy your local paper when really, I mean, school board doesn't get covered, city council get covered, courts, now and then, right?
00:22:34.960 So what's, what's the point?
00:22:37.940 No, it's difficult.
00:22:39.000 So, I mean, do you think maybe though, I mean, the government backed down a little bit.
00:22:42.780 And as you sort of point out, the government really doesn't have the leverage they pretend to have or think they have with the social media giants.
00:22:49.680 I mean, it was 3% of the content they provided.
00:22:52.380 I can't see Facebook and Google back and down.
00:22:54.840 People keep saying, well, that happened in Australia.
00:22:56.380 But I think that just says all the more, they're not letting that precedent get set because every country with a greedy government is going to come in and try and snatch some from them in the future.
00:23:04.480 So, I mean, do you think the government will swallow some pride maybe and just get this bill or are they just going to keep on this standoff and no news gets provided on those giants at all?
00:23:14.920 Sure.
00:23:15.120 Well, first of all, the narrative that Google and Facebook backed down is one spun by Rupert Murdoch's media in Australia.
00:23:21.160 It was actually the government that backed down and made some amendments and said, basically, you're free to make your own deals.
00:23:28.480 And then we, you know, nobody's actually ever used the Australian legislation.
00:23:32.180 So, to that extent, you know, the Australian model is the government threatening to do something unless everybody else does something.
00:23:39.300 I think the government's in this situation right now where I think it's too late for Meta, for Facebook.
00:23:45.180 I think they insulted them too much.
00:23:48.620 I mean, people don't make emotional decisions.
00:23:50.640 They make business decisions.
00:23:51.720 But they also found that they were probably going to be insulted whether they made a philanthropic decision and said, okay, we'll help anyway.
00:23:58.700 Because let's face it, none of them set out to kill newspapers or to kill news products, right, in terms of that.
00:24:04.520 So, what they're trying to do now is salvage some sort of deal with Google, which will put a cap on it.
00:24:12.060 And right now, my understanding is there's a huge difference between what News Media Canada and some of the other lobby groups lobbying for the loot are expecting and what Google's willing to pay.
00:24:27.940 So, you know, the best case scenario, this ends up with them making some kind of deal with Google, who then get exempted from the act.
00:24:35.540 And then they maybe never even bother bringing the act into force, which allows Facebook Meta to still carry news, which they might decide to get it.
00:24:43.640 But it might be too late for that.
00:24:44.840 They might decide to get out of the business anyway.
00:24:46.680 Or, as it stands, they don't get any deal with Google.
00:24:53.680 And as it stands, they're not going to get one, near as I can tell.
00:24:57.720 And we play this drama out through the fall.
00:25:01.420 And then we'll see what probably the best case scenario for everybody is that the government amends Bill C-18 so that the coming into force date just gets extended into eternity.
00:25:15.120 And you just kind of – nobody, they don't withdraw the act.
00:25:20.200 It sits there, but no harm is done.
00:25:23.560 Yeah, you just kind of let it die quietly of old age.
00:25:27.480 I mean, it's got to be frustrating.
00:25:29.360 And it's been – I wrote on it recently – a difficult environment for established journalists.
00:25:35.340 They put in their time and everything.
00:25:37.060 And then, you know, there just isn't the demand for their product as there used to be.
00:25:42.000 But, I mean, I see it as almost – some of the outlets are really jumping on the government bandwagon.
00:25:48.100 I think Post Media has said they're going to stop advertising on Facebook and the shots go back and forth.
00:25:53.480 But it feels – it's just sad to see such large institutions getting down to that rather than seeking changes in their ways to try and get out of the soup they're in.
00:26:04.440 So, yeah, it is.
00:26:06.120 It is.
00:26:06.560 It's really – it's kind of embarrassing, isn't it, right?
00:26:10.400 Like, I mean, it's kind of nationally embarrassing to see that we're going through this with our media.
00:26:15.540 I mean, we used to be pretty proud of our media and that sort of stuff.
00:26:19.580 And a lot of it just isn't very good anymore.
00:26:22.680 And nobody – I can't believe I just said that out loud, but people need to say that out loud a little bit from time to time, right?
00:26:30.400 Like, you actually have to have, like I was saying, a product that people want to buy.
00:26:36.320 And here's one of the tough things for the journalists.
00:26:38.580 Like, hey, look, they've got kids.
00:26:40.200 They've got mortgages.
00:26:41.680 They've got, you know, livelihoods.
00:26:43.940 They've got elderly parents to care for.
00:26:45.720 They've got all those things that everybody else does.
00:26:47.680 So, it's not like, you know, we shouldn't empathize with their predicament.
00:26:52.340 And I can understand their despair and their desperation in terms of that.
00:26:57.420 But news, there hasn't ever been a great deal of money in news.
00:27:02.000 The fact of the matter is those big old newspapers like the one I used to run, it wasn't just the news that people bought it for, right?
00:27:09.900 It's like those were the days when if you wanted to rent an apartment, you had to buy the paper.
00:27:13.660 If you wanted to, you know, sell your car, you had to put an ad in the paper.
00:27:19.500 And if you wanted to buy a car, you had to buy the paper.
00:27:21.700 If you wanted to do virtually anything, if you want to find out who had a kid, who had the births, deaths, whose daughter got engaged, who got married, whose grandma died, you had to buy the newspaper.
00:27:32.060 If you wanted to see the comics, the horoscope, that sort of stuff.
00:27:35.500 I mean, I got back in the day when Catherine Ford and Peter Stockland were both writing on the Calgary Herald editorial pages, and everybody thought this was great controversy.
00:27:44.200 And it was, and it was fun.
00:27:45.420 And, you know, it would be like, what are they going to say next?
00:27:47.820 And that sort of stuff.
00:27:49.040 The fact of the matter is, though, I got more phone calls when the Canadian Tire Flyer wasn't delivered to somebody's door on a Thursday morning than over anything Peter Stockland or Catherine Ford ever said.
00:28:00.620 Well, yeah, I mean, it's the world has changed so dramatically.
00:28:03.100 I mean, it's good to remind everybody it was just such an it was a need.
00:28:06.840 It was an integral pipeline to information that you couldn't go without it.
00:28:11.940 But those days, the Internet products that really killed newspapers, it's not so much Facebook.
00:28:17.240 I mean, Facebook didn't start making money until 2012.
00:28:20.160 Right.
00:28:21.480 And it was over for newspapers by then because it was Kijiji and Craigslist that did it.
00:28:26.500 Right.
00:28:26.660 Classified advertising was worth 30, in some cases 40 percent of most North American newspapers' revenue.
00:28:33.960 And these guys gave that stuff away for free.
00:28:38.080 Right.
00:28:38.460 And how do you compete with that?
00:28:39.940 All of a sudden, something you're, you know, like a product like the Globe and Mail, if you wanted to rent an apartment, it cost you 80 bucks to put a classified ad in.
00:28:48.140 Right.
00:28:48.880 All of us.
00:28:49.420 And I mean, these were very high rates, 25 cents a word, I think the Herald was and that sort of stuff.
00:28:53.920 All of a sudden, somebody's given that away for free.
00:28:56.540 So if they're chasing anybody for loot, it should be Kijiji and Craigslist.
00:29:01.180 Yeah.
00:29:01.620 Which, well, I don't want to give them ideas.
00:29:05.500 But I mean, it is tragic.
00:29:07.220 But I mean, obviously, it's just not going to change anymore.
00:29:09.780 I mean, now that I can pick up my phone and search out a used car or an apartment or a job, it's just not coming back.
00:29:17.620 This is a change in history.
00:29:20.680 What do you think the approach is?
00:29:23.240 I mean, you think the government can quietly let this go to the wayside?
00:29:25.880 Would it almost be better for the rest of us to quiet down and let them sort of pad this thing away?
00:29:31.460 Well, I actually think, you know, this is where they should have been years ago.
00:29:36.960 But I mean, we are where we are, so there's no point in Monday morning quarterbacking it.
00:29:40.800 But my former CRTC chair, Conrad von Finkenstein, and I just recently did a paper for the McDonnell-Borri Institute,
00:29:47.260 the purpose of which was just trying to say what we need is a national news industry policy of some kind, right?
00:29:53.740 It involved, like our suggestion was that when people subscribe, that subscription becomes 100% tax deductible.
00:30:01.560 Now, the Globe and Mail, you know, picked up on that idea in an editorial the other day,
00:30:05.260 and they suggested 70%.
00:30:07.100 Well, fine, but I mean, what we're trying to do is get a conversation started going.
00:30:11.320 But obviously, the current 15%, that's not going to, there's no incentive in that,
00:30:15.580 getting a 15% tax break on your $120 a year to the, you know, I mean,
00:30:20.880 who's going to even bother claiming that in their tax form?
00:30:24.440 But make it 70%, make it 100%.
00:30:26.300 It's different.
00:30:27.380 You know, a different type of funding mechanism from the web giants, all kinds of different things.
00:30:33.340 So, reforming the role of the CVC, getting them out of the advertising business, that sort of stuff.
00:30:38.480 That's the sort of, that's what we need to do.
00:30:41.440 That's a long-winded way of saying what we need to be doing is not subsidizing zombie products from the past
00:30:49.920 that are basically staggering around dead, right, and trying to find out ways to keep them staggering around dead.
00:30:56.560 That's like a subsidy for products that are in palliative care.
00:30:59.900 What you need to be doing is understanding what's going on, you know,
00:31:04.460 the nature of the tech revolution that's happening, which is huge, right,
00:31:10.500 and build a path forward to the future, right?
00:31:13.180 We have this federal government that fancies itself as so progressive,
00:31:17.280 and when it comes to economic matters like this through Bill C-11 and C-18,
00:31:22.520 they are paleocons, right?
00:31:25.140 They're trying to preserve the world of 1985 and everything they do.
00:31:29.080 It's crazy.
00:31:30.880 It's not coming back, but I guess we can keep speaking up and keep pushing
00:31:34.360 and keep trying to prosper outside of that.
00:31:36.800 I really appreciate you coming on to lay out, you know, what the issue was.
00:31:39.700 I mean, you know, I don't want to date you too much, but you've had experience
00:31:42.700 through a great number of years of journalism, and it's worth applying that.
00:31:46.200 I mean, seeing the evolution and seeing where it's gone to.
00:31:49.380 So as you mentioned, you put content in, you know, you take part with the
00:31:52.860 McDonnell-Laurier Institute.
00:31:54.520 Where else can people find your work, Peter?
00:31:57.980 Well, I write for a number of different publications.
00:32:02.260 I write for Epic Times pretty regularly.
00:32:04.000 The Line, The Hub is the last piece I wrote for The Hub.
00:32:07.940 I've got a lot of carriage in terms of that.
00:32:10.800 Occasionally, we write for The Globe and Mail, and now and then Western Standard
00:32:14.620 too can pick up my stuff.
00:32:17.840 So watch for it.
00:32:19.620 If people were to follow the McDonnell-Laurier, the easiest thing is to follow
00:32:23.120 the McDonnell-Laurier Institute site or social media feeds because they pick up
00:32:28.960 just about everything we do and republish it under their brand.
00:32:32.480 And so that's probably the easiest way for folks to do it.
00:32:36.580 Great.
00:32:37.020 Well, thank you.
00:32:37.580 There's another interesting stuff there too, by the way.
00:32:39.520 Yeah, I was about to say, I've had a number of guests, you know, we've been a part of
00:32:42.460 the McDonnell-Laurier Institute.
00:32:43.660 They're a fantastic organization.
00:32:45.560 People should go there, as you said, just to look in general.
00:32:48.500 You could lose some hours digging into the content there.
00:32:51.380 It's fantastic.
00:32:52.900 Yeah.
00:32:53.800 Great.
00:32:54.240 Well, I thank you again for your time and sharing with us today, Peter.
00:32:57.820 And, well, hopefully the next time we talk, it'll be a little less bleak outlook.
00:33:02.240 Yeah.
00:33:02.460 Yeah.
00:33:02.660 Well, like, you know, like I said, like keep your chin up.
00:33:05.000 I mean, this is a disruptive time.
00:33:06.440 It's a tough time.
00:33:07.780 People will need new ideas.
00:33:09.140 Some will work and some won't.
00:33:10.740 But just keep going forward and the smart and the able will survive.
00:33:17.760 We will.
00:33:18.380 We're also this stubborn.
00:33:20.100 Thanks, Corey.
00:33:22.920 That was Peter Menzies.
00:33:24.180 And, yes, it's just a resume too long to list when it comes to the media world.
00:33:28.420 And it was good to get that plug for the McDonnell-Laurier Institute because there's a lot of things
00:33:33.160 there just worth having a look at.
00:33:35.620 So, yes, let's see.
00:33:37.960 Let's get back to talking about balls.
00:33:39.980 You know, I just can't get tired enough of that.
00:33:42.000 But we have some fun around here as well.
00:33:43.440 That was something, though, that Peter mentioned is we have a fully functional newsroom.
00:33:47.520 We have an office in Calgary here with our news editor, our copy editor, our reporters,
00:33:53.580 you know, people working in all sorts of roles here.
00:33:56.760 And no more outlets.
00:33:59.000 Very few have those anymore.
00:34:00.600 But, you know, part of it, too, is being sociable and having fun.
00:34:04.020 So we got out, as we said, Dave mentioned the other day, down to Bottle Screw Bills is the
00:34:09.980 name of the bar in Calgary.
00:34:10.940 And they're having their testicle festival.
00:34:12.740 And we gave young Jonathan Bradley a chance to establish himself.
00:34:17.640 So we'll run a video of that just so you can see what's going on there.
00:34:20.960 Jonathan Bradley, and I'm a reporter with the Western Standard.
00:34:23.860 I'm here at Bottle Screw Bills right now.
00:34:25.440 It's the Calgary Stampede.
00:34:26.620 It's the annual testicle festival.
00:34:29.180 I'll be having prairie oysters.
00:34:31.180 And in case you know what prairie oysters are, they're deep-fried bull testicles.
00:34:35.380 My boss, Derek, has told me that I have to eat these to keep my job or he'll send me back
00:34:39.720 to Ontario, so, which I don't want to do because Alberta is part of Ontario, so I'm going to
00:34:44.760 dig it in and have some.
00:34:46.380 Here he goes.
00:34:47.180 Here he goes.
00:34:48.300 Here he goes.
00:34:49.180 Ketchup.
00:34:50.020 Oh!
00:34:51.120 Oh.
00:34:55.100 Where's the breakfast?
00:34:58.020 Pretty good.
00:34:59.060 The deep pride takes away from the top guy.
00:35:01.300 Yeah!
00:35:02.860 Put it all in your mouth.
00:35:04.000 Come on.
00:35:04.360 All right.
00:35:06.060 Oh, like a rainbow.
00:35:09.720 I christened me, Jonathan.
00:35:18.040 Yes, that was our king of the balls there, Jonathan Bradley.
00:35:21.920 I went down there and had a ball myself, and it was all right, you know?
00:35:26.420 It's a fun thing.
00:35:27.340 Honestly, and hey, they aren't a sponsor or anything like that.
00:35:30.280 You know, check it out if you want a fun spot to hit during Stampede if you're in Calgary.
00:35:33.340 They're out on 10th Avenue.
00:35:34.400 Bottle Screw Bills, their service was excellent.
00:35:36.220 Their staff were great putting up with a bunch of us loud clowns down there.
00:35:39.700 And that's part of what the Stampede's about.
00:35:41.420 Get in there, have some fun, have a chuckle and things.
00:35:44.520 And you don't have to eat 12 balls like Jonathan did.
00:35:47.100 But, you know, it's like one of those things.
00:35:48.480 I did the sour toe when I was in Dawson City after taking a break on an Arctic job.
00:35:53.840 You know, you can check that thing off on your list sometimes.
00:35:57.220 Canadian Conservatives saying, yeah, Jonathan earning his paycheck.
00:36:00.140 Yes, I don't think he was really going to be fired if he didn't put balls in his mouth.
00:36:03.180 But all the same, he had pressure from the place to show he was a true Westerner, even though he's recently come out here.
00:36:10.360 Well, it's been just over a year from Ontario.
00:36:12.420 And he writes some great news stories, guys, and other things.
00:36:15.280 And there was the rest of the crowd there was good.
00:36:17.720 All right.
00:36:18.340 You know, speaking of that area.
00:36:19.660 So, and speaking of some of the fun, kind of tying in with everything else we've got going on with the crime I was talking about that Arthur Green writes about quite often and things like that.
00:36:31.780 We have that in Calgary.
00:36:33.280 These civic governments, guys, we've got to stop letting our municipal politicians get away with what they do.
00:36:40.520 We've got to stop putting these woke lunatics into the mayor's chairs and council chairs.
00:36:45.380 We're paying a price for it.
00:36:46.500 So, yeah, Calgary's downtown, as I said, we've got some serious, serious crime challenges right now.
00:36:52.640 I think the reason we're not hearing about a lot of them right now is that, you know, the Stampede is overwhelming everything with news coverage.
00:36:59.040 So, in Edmonton, you're hearing it.
00:37:00.720 When we were sitting there, it was at least six ambulances went by on 10th Avenue where we were down there, enjoying ourselves on the patio, having a fun time.
00:37:09.860 And we know the majority of that was for overdoses.
00:37:11.840 There's no easy solutions, but we've really got to address those things and quit kicking the ball down the road and can down the road and trying to procrastinate with it.
00:37:20.380 But in Calgary, they're coming up with even more stupid things.
00:37:23.200 Yeah, I know.
00:37:23.620 There's always room for municipal politicians to come up with stupid.
00:37:27.180 And, you know, everybody in just about every city can nod their head because they know they've seen idiotic, anti-automotive policies like this come up.
00:37:35.300 Because there's this cult-like thing.
00:37:38.320 I mean, some point out it's, you know, Agenda 2030, things like that.
00:37:41.100 I think those inspire a lot of these municipal politicians.
00:37:43.500 But they really are at war with vehicles.
00:37:46.440 So, what they want to do.
00:37:47.720 I'm going to describe it a bit because not everybody viewing, of course, is from Calgary.
00:37:50.940 But Calgary, south of the downtown, has sort of a main artery full of businesses, neat spots, restaurants, bars, stores.
00:37:59.460 It's 17th Avenue Southwest.
00:38:02.900 And it goes through an area that's called the Beltline.
00:38:05.700 So, it's kind of outside of the main skyscrapers.
00:38:07.900 But it has a lot of apartments, a lot of high-density living and a lot of population.
00:38:12.520 Well, the clowns in City Hall are saying, you know, we should shut 17th Avenue down and make it a big, long pedestrian zone.
00:38:19.980 Oh, and they're talking seriously about this.
00:38:21.980 Now, 17th Avenue moves 15,000 vehicles a day.
00:38:26.940 If you go south of 17th and describe it to others, that's Mount Royal.
00:38:31.540 It's not a good neighborhood to get through for getting one place to another.
00:38:34.400 It's on a hill and it's a rich neighborhood full of mansions.
00:38:37.040 You go north, you're going farther into downtown.
00:38:40.080 Now, what the hipsters who are supporting this idea and the others saying, oh, we would love that.
00:38:44.080 We don't want cars in our Beltline.
00:38:47.020 Those 15,000 vehicles are all going to pour onto the other streets, guys, to get around that.
00:38:51.700 They were going from one place to another place.
00:38:54.220 And they can't stop just because you morons shut down access down this main road.
00:38:59.820 They will just go down another one and you're transferring the problem somewhere else.
00:39:03.320 But it won't be 15,000 worth.
00:39:05.020 No, 5,000 of them are going to say, you know what?
00:39:07.320 Whatever I used to have to do down there, I'm just not going to do it anymore.
00:39:11.960 I'm going to do my stuff in the suburbs.
00:39:13.700 I'm going to go somewhere else and take my business, my time, my wallet to another spot.
00:39:21.700 Some of the citizens in these high-density traffic-laden areas will also get the hell out of there.
00:39:27.560 I've said it on Twitter.
00:39:28.380 It works people up because I live rural, actually.
00:39:30.000 I'm just outside of Calgary on an acreage, but I'm not in the city.
00:39:33.340 And every time these twits pull off stuff like this, my property values go up because more and more people say, I've had it.
00:39:39.520 I'm out.
00:39:41.100 But, I mean, Calgary's downtown is a disaster zone, as are many of them.
00:39:44.540 With the addiction, with the ground-level businesses, get down there.
00:39:48.140 For lease signs are everywhere.
00:39:50.620 And they talk to business owners.
00:39:51.980 They bully business owners.
00:39:53.600 Oh, this will be a good idea for the businesses.
00:39:55.280 No, it won't.
00:39:56.480 No, it won't.
00:39:57.460 Neither was it when they stuck stupid frigging bike lanes in front of all of those businesses.
00:40:02.280 Oh, that's going to bring more business to you.
00:40:03.840 It didn't.
00:40:04.800 Cyclists don't spend money.
00:40:07.200 God, guys.
00:40:07.960 So you close that down.
00:40:10.220 It'll be great for 17th, perhaps, during Stampede and on some nice summer days.
00:40:15.180 Other than that, you're going to crush those businesses.
00:40:17.400 And you're going to make the whole neighborhood.
00:40:19.120 There's a map of the city.
00:40:20.180 You know, it's limited by a river and a number of areas.
00:40:22.480 You cut that main east-west access, and you're going to cause a real problem.
00:40:27.840 The only other decent access, there's 11th and 12th avenues.
00:40:31.220 And what they did, of course, is they stuck bike lanes on them.
00:40:33.660 So they squashed all the parking off of that, and they've made it narrower and narrower.
00:40:39.320 And they just, they live in this delusional world.
00:40:41.620 I mean, what they want to do, what they really do want to do, these ideologues, these nut bars.
00:40:45.980 And, you know, we can usually dismiss nut bars.
00:40:47.840 But, unfortunately, these nut bars are winning elections in cities across the country.
00:40:52.200 I can't wait to see what Madam Chow does in Toronto.
00:40:56.440 But they think, if we could just hound and harass and annoy auto drivers enough,
00:41:03.700 they'll just say, you know what, I'm going to go green and ride a bike to work in January, in Calgary.
00:41:09.400 I'm going to ride the bus.
00:41:10.460 I'll just put on my stab-proof vest and hope that I don't get killed on the way to work.
00:41:15.200 It's not going to happen, guys.
00:41:17.220 They leave.
00:41:18.300 They leave.
00:41:18.980 There's no more cycle commuters in Calgary now than there were 10 years ago,
00:41:22.860 despite all the bike lanes built for them.
00:41:25.000 There's a lot of recreational cyclists who use those a bit in summer.
00:41:28.260 But the hardcore people who actually are going to throw on spandex, freeze their testes off,
00:41:34.500 and get their way across the city to go to work has always been around 2% to 3% of the people, like, in wintertime.
00:41:40.560 These are just fringe, good on them, but fringe lunatics.
00:41:43.960 They didn't need dedicated lanes.
00:41:45.220 It doesn't matter.
00:41:45.760 They got their lanes, and we're seeing more of it.
00:41:49.540 They haven't stopped with the core now.
00:41:51.140 They're going on to 17th.
00:41:52.540 Go to 8th Avenue in Calgary.
00:41:54.440 That's been a pedestrian zone for a long time.
00:41:56.460 It has some neat businesses.
00:41:57.540 It has things along there.
00:41:59.120 But guess what?
00:41:59.760 It's also got loads of for lease signs because the city won't stop the social disorder and nightmare that's going on there.
00:42:04.720 And they've throttled all the parking so badly that people don't come down there to visit those businesses because it costs too bloody much.
00:42:11.780 Either way, the whole bottom line of what I'm getting to is we see this everywhere.
00:42:16.460 But the part of having these progressives winning these civic elections, the problem isn't that they're winning.
00:42:24.500 It's that they're winning because only 20, 30, at tops, 40% of people are bothering to get off their butts and vote in municipal elections.
00:42:32.580 It's on us, guys.
00:42:34.340 You got to get out there and fire these clowns or they're going to continue to run rampant like this.
00:42:39.400 You know, with all this stuff going on around here, too, this is something we see in Calgary.
00:42:42.780 Gondek spoke to that and the Calgary Economic Development, which is a slush fund organization for City Hall.
00:42:47.720 We're talking about we should move away from the cowboy image of Calgary.
00:42:51.680 Yeah.
00:42:52.460 Yeah, we've got branding that's known internationally.
00:42:54.540 The Calgary Stampede, this cowboy thing, and yes, it's cosplay.
00:42:57.840 It's cheesy to some, but it brings a massive amount of people to the city.
00:43:02.480 It puts the city on the map and these elected morons in City Hall think we should move away from that.
00:43:07.540 We want to be more like Paris.
00:43:08.820 Guys, you'll never be like Paris.
00:43:10.200 You want to know why?
00:43:11.000 Paris is over in France and it's a city that was based on a medieval model to begin with.
00:43:16.040 We're trying to aspire to be what you're not and develop with what you already have.
00:43:20.560 Oh, we got to be world class.
00:43:22.060 Guess what?
00:43:22.440 We already are.
00:43:23.400 So could be Edmonton, Saskatoon, Winnipeg.
00:43:27.720 But we've got to apply common sense to these cities, not try to be something else.
00:43:31.400 Take what you are, take your strengths, expand on them.
00:43:34.220 One of your strengths should be common sense on the part of the voters, meaning they're not going to vote for these twits any longer.
00:43:39.620 You're going to bring in people who are going to actually represent you.
00:43:43.300 You're going to bring in people who want to make your place better, not rip it down and build it into some crazed globalist hipster model that they have in their mind.
00:43:52.040 Because it's failing.
00:43:53.400 It's not working.
00:43:54.940 And it's as similar as it is with the electric vehicles.
00:43:58.720 I see that with the cyclists and the rest, too.
00:44:01.100 Oh, everybody's going to switch to EVs.
00:44:02.620 Everybody's going to switch to EVs.
00:44:03.680 You know, we've been hearing that for 15 years.
00:44:06.280 They've subsidized the crap out of it.
00:44:08.200 They've poured loads of money into EVs.
00:44:10.680 And guess what?
00:44:11.380 It's still only 5% of the vehicles on the ground.
00:44:14.520 Speaking of electric vehicles.
00:44:16.740 Maybe the day will come.
00:44:18.420 But it's failed so far.
00:44:19.760 And unless they change, well, that's a separate discussion.
00:44:23.760 Unless we change our climate dramatically enough, we're not going to see a large demand for year-round bicycle infrastructure in these major cities.
00:44:33.100 But now I've seen, you know, maybe there's some benefits to global warming if it's coming along.
00:44:37.780 If you guys really want to generate support for your bike lanes to expand and have people riding their bicycles around in February, January, then we should be warming up the earth faster.
00:44:50.940 That's the only way it's going to happen.
00:44:52.440 Then, I'll ride a bike downtown in February if it's 20 above.
00:44:57.700 But I'm going to have to burn a heck of a lot more coal and wood to get there, I guess.
00:45:01.100 Assuming those things change it.
00:45:03.680 Ah, madness going on out there.
00:45:05.880 But I mean, yes, that case, you know, where's the common sense?
00:45:10.820 Especially when it comes to the crime, the enablement.
00:45:13.320 And we're seeing our cities getting worse and worse in our centers.
00:45:15.940 Look to the entire West Coast because that's where the imbeciles and city councils seem to look for inspiration.
00:45:20.700 Look to what San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver have done with enablement of crime of every kind, whether it's drug-based or even shoplifting and theft.
00:45:29.360 It's turned every one of those cities into uninhabitable crap holes downtown.
00:45:35.340 And we're following suit.
00:45:37.480 They keep saying, we want to follow the science and go with what works with the addiction episode.
00:45:40.720 Well, okay, well, we know what doesn't work.
00:45:42.940 So let's rule that one out and then start working on new things, but they won't give up.
00:45:47.100 No, if we can just facilitate, enable, give enough free supply to people long enough, they'll get off those drugs.
00:45:53.820 It's not going to happen, guys.
00:45:55.800 You got to understand with addiction.
00:45:57.080 And I know, been through it.
00:45:59.180 I didn't get off alcohol overnight.
00:46:01.820 It was a long battle with a few false starts.
00:46:04.800 When you're addicted, you keep escalating and escalating and escalating.
00:46:08.240 You never have enough.
00:46:09.680 And you'll need more the next time.
00:46:11.100 You'll need more the next time.
00:46:11.840 This myth, this BS that it's just tainted drug supplies that's killing them.
00:46:16.700 No, it's not.
00:46:17.360 It's the frigging drugs.
00:46:19.140 It's the volume of the drugs they take.
00:46:20.740 And eventually it breaks down their body and kills them.
00:46:23.580 I'll make your excuses that if we could just clean up the drug supply enough, these guys will survive it.
00:46:28.880 They won't.
00:46:29.600 They're addicted.
00:46:30.180 They're living on the streets.
00:46:30.960 They're going to die.
00:46:32.200 They need treatment.
00:46:33.280 They need to get off that stuff.
00:46:34.820 It doesn't matter how pure you make your fentanyl or your crack or your methamphetamine for them.
00:46:39.340 There's no safe supply of it.
00:46:42.220 So let's just get off that and get on to reality with it.
00:46:45.180 As Arthur Green, there we go, our goofy noofy.
00:46:47.200 I'll let him off with the final comment.
00:46:48.700 Before I get going, I'm done with my ranting and raving.
00:46:50.660 I'm going to enjoy Stampede.
00:46:51.620 I'm going to smile.
00:46:52.140 I'm going to laugh.
00:46:52.600 I'm going to talk about balls.
00:46:53.900 But he did say we don't give out shots at AA meetings.
00:46:57.860 And that's the truth, guys.
00:46:58.900 If they were giving me shots of whiskey when I'd go to all my AA meetings, I'd probably still be a drunkard today and probably wouldn't even have a job.
00:47:05.060 All right.
00:47:05.320 Thanks for tuning in this week, guys.
00:47:06.700 I'll be back to my normal outfit and ranting and raving about all sorts of other things next week at this time.
00:47:12.080 So thanks for tuning in, and we will see you then.
00:47:13.980 The current Lethbridge feed grain prices read as follows.
00:47:19.900 Cash barley is at $4.28, feed wheat is at $4.18, and corn is down $3 at $3.90 per metric ton.
00:47:26.880 In the milling wheat markets, September Minneapolis futures lost $0.15 at $8.49, with local hard red spring bids for July movement at $9.75 per bushel.
00:47:36.820 In the oilseeds, nearby canola futures increased $11.20 at $7.98.30 per ton, with delivered values for August movement at $18.33 per bushel.
00:47:48.860 In the pulse markets, nearby red lentils are trading at $0.34 a pound, and yellow peas remain at $11.50 per bushel.
00:47:56.120 In the cattle markets, August slide cattle are down $0.22 at $1.78.60 per 100 weight.
00:48:02.020 For more information on grain marketing, call me at 403-394-1711.
00:48:08.320 I'm Sean Smith at Marketplace Commodities, accurate real-time marketing information and pricing options.
00:48:14.020 Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
00:48:16.300 Without the CSSA, our gun rights would have been taken long, long ago.
00:48:20.820 These guys are on the front lines, helping to draft smart and intelligent firearms regulations and legislation in Canada.
00:48:28.060 And more importantly, educating the public about how we keep guns out of the hands of the wrong people.
00:48:33.800 To become a member, it's absolutely worth every penny.
00:48:36.600 ...
00:48:50.340 ...
00:48:52.200 ...
00:49:01.500 ...
00:49:05.600 Thank you.