Western Standard - May 23, 2026


CORY MORGAN SHOW: The CBC funded hit pieces against Canadians are unforgiveable


Episode Stats


Length

46 minutes

Words per minute

181.24576

Word count

8,357

Sentence count

356

Harmful content

Misogyny

7

sentences flagged

Toxicity

15

sentences flagged

Hate speech

14

sentences flagged


Summary

Summaries generated with gmurro/bart-large-finetuned-filtered-spotify-podcast-summ .

Transcript

Transcript generated with Whisper (turbo).
Misogyny classifications generated with MilaNLProc/bert-base-uncased-ear-misogyny .
Toxicity classifications generated with s-nlp/roberta_toxicity_classifier .
Hate speech classifications generated with facebook/roberta-hate-speech-dynabench-r4-target .
00:00:00.000 Good day, welcome to the Corey Morgan Show.
00:00:29.520 So post-May long weekend, I hope you've shoveled all that traditional May long weekend snow off of your sidewalks and driveways.
00:00:37.060 Or as I'm sure it'll be corrected soon for not mentioning, it's Victoria Day long weekend.
00:00:42.700 And unlike the Prime Minister, I'm not going to bother going into addressing other, what, Sikh groups and so on that have observances on that day either way.
00:00:51.480 But maybe we'll start seeing spring and summer coming along sometime soon.
00:00:54.840 We've got to hope for the best.
00:00:57.040 So it's a short week thanks to the long weekend, but it's going to be a crazy busy one.
00:01:01.080 The politics are insane as always, which is good for us.
00:01:04.020 I don't know if it's good for people in general, but it's nice for us covering things.
00:01:08.580 I'm going to start out, though, with just talking about a stunt that got exposed recently with our state broadcaster.
00:01:15.920 They hit a new low.
00:01:17.120 They're no longer content just to create subpar entertainment content based on woke pretexts.
00:01:22.240 They aren't satisfied with a grossly biased news division with cratering viewership numbers.
00:01:28.880 They're now funding productions with the aim of undercutting any remnants of national pride.
00:01:33.620 Frances Widdowson exposed and blew up the production of a tax-funded prank show, they called it.
00:01:39.200 When she turned the camera back at them, the extent of this vile and insulting initiative is now coming to light.
00:01:45.560 Former Mount Royal University professor Widowson has been a longtime critic of the false narrative
00:01:50.800 of 215 children having been killed and secretly buried in an apple orchard at the Kamloops
00:01:56.080 residential school site. And his evidence is mounted that the child burial story is a hoax
00:02:00.640 rather than investigating the issue to confirm whether or not murdered children are indeed
00:02:04.560 buried in Kamloops. Activists have been trying to shut down voices questioning the story.
00:02:09.920 So the CBC jumped into the mix and funded a production to target Widowson and thankfully
00:02:14.500 it backfired. Whitteson was lured to a Vancouver studio by a fake production company called Forge
00:02:20.060 Media. Fake websites were created along with fake identities and a fake initiative called
00:02:24.220 Heritage Figures Canada, which was allegedly a docuseries in Canadian history. A person
00:02:29.840 coaxing, a person who was coaxed into taking part in that production can't really be faulted for not
00:02:34.680 realizing it was an attack interview when such pains were made to disguise the production as
00:02:39.100 being legitimate. So this interview began benignly enough with questions and answers with an actor,
00:02:43.580 I guess portraying Sir John A. MacDonald, when suddenly a couple of activists burst into the
00:02:48.020 studio, dumped shoes on a table in front of Whittowson, and silently started glaring at her.
00:02:53.680 To her credit, rather than continuing with the charade or simply walking out, she pulled out 0.68
00:02:57.740 her phone and began questioning the host. The actors quickly fled the scene and the production
00:03:01.920 was taken down around them while the host sheepishly endured an interrogation from Whittowson.
00:03:07.960 Clearly they weren't prepared to have the camera turned back upon themselves. Whittowson posted her
00:03:11.780 video on X and it quickly became viral. Then we began learning of other ambushes this group
00:03:15.560 either attempted to carry out or succeeded in carrying out. Lindsay Shepard, she had published
00:03:21.580 a children's book on Sir John A. MacDonald. She was targeted and endured fake interviews she
00:03:26.120 later discovered were created to demonize Canada's founder along with Shepard herself.
00:03:30.560 The production company even created a prototype collectible to make their hoax appear genuine.
00:03:35.860 Shepard has not only come out as a victim of this group now, but she's exposed another RCMP
00:03:41.040 veterans were lured to a Vancouver studio for what they were told would be a ceremony to honor
00:03:46.340 their service. Their phones were confiscated before the show began, presumably to avoid another
00:03:50.440 episode like widowsons. They were then subjected to humiliation on stage in front of a staged
00:03:55.600 audience berating them for their alleged role of the RCMP in residential schools. It's been found
00:04:03.240 that this CBC-funded show approached author Jeremy Amarnick, BCMLA Dallas Brody and conservative
00:04:09.600 commentator, Member of Parliament, Aaron Gunn. Other names are probably going to surface as this
00:04:13.780 scandal spreads. An investigation of this production has to be held. How many tax dollars
00:04:18.360 went into this hoax? Dozens of people were involved, and that's just creating the back,
00:04:23.400 and just creating the backstory must have cost a fortune, not to mention setting up fake studios
00:04:27.300 and flying victims across the country to participate. This entire affair is repugnant.
00:04:32.160 Public figures were subjected to ridicule and humiliation on the taxpayer's dime.
00:04:36.640 The agenda of the production wasn't entertainment or parody,
00:04:39.000 though they may have claimed it was such.
00:04:41.180 Apologists have compared the production to Borat,
00:04:43.240 where Sacha Baron Cohen ambushed guests, but it's nothing like that.
00:04:46.740 Cohen's agenda was entertainment rather than political,
00:04:49.400 and his work was actually funny.
00:04:50.940 There's nothing funny about what this forged media group did.
00:04:53.860 Most importantly, Cohen's work wasn't tax-funded.
00:04:56.660 The state broadcaster has an ostensible mandate
00:05:00.420 to promote Canadian pride and unity.
00:05:02.860 It's managing neither, as it funds productions
00:05:04.880 that attack prominent Canadians and perpetuate the narrative that Canada is a genocidal nation
00:05:09.540 that must be ashamed of itself. Their targets are icons of Canadian pride, such as the RCMP
00:05:14.340 and the country's founder, Sir John A. MacDonald. Critical commentary is certainly fair and has
00:05:19.020 been applied liberal to the RCMP and past political figures. This ongoing campaign to
00:05:24.400 villainize them, though, is abhorrent. The CBC has announced it's tapped the brakes on the Forge
00:05:28.620 Media production now, but that's too little too late. Independence movements are blossoming across
00:05:33.500 this country and anybody would really be shocked when the cbc gets 1.5 billion a year to attack the
00:05:37.960 history pride and foundation of the nation the best time to defund the cbc was decades ago
00:05:43.700 the next best time is right now it's just enough out of these guys by the way i just saw just
00:05:48.840 before the show started the rcmp is engaging their legal services team so they may be suing the cbc
00:05:55.060 for this stunt of course the problem is we get to pay for it either way so no matter what happens
00:06:00.320 we lose all right well that's what's kind of got me ranching to start with let's see what else is
00:06:05.140 happening in the news dave it's victoria day victoria day i figured that was coming it's
00:06:09.740 always taxpayers that lose isn't it it's funny how that is yes uh i don't have much left to lose
00:06:15.120 no no kidding they see you finally have some action on the trail cam oh the fox there yeah
00:06:20.540 yeah that was quite something um this coyote came running up if people saw the video in the
00:06:27.380 middle of the night and stopped right in front of the camera. Then you can see a pair of eyes off
00:06:31.040 in the distance. And then the eyes turned out to be a fox that came running towards the coyote with
00:06:36.700 something in its mouth, probably a rabbit. And the coyote turned tail and ran. And then the fox
00:06:41.140 turned around, went the other way. A little bit of wildlife drama. There you go. I wouldn't have
00:06:48.120 thought that a coyote would run away from a fox. Yeah, maybe it didn't know what it was. No, maybe
00:06:52.360 you hear something crashing through the woods up there in the night. You know my trail cam, it could
00:06:55.280 be anything so it could be anything i'd be you could be could be you running naked up through
00:06:59.480 the woods yeah or stock drinking so that doesn't happen nearly as much as it used to not as much
00:07:03.140 as it used to well that's the news today corey where to begin let's let's stay away from politics
00:07:08.200 for a few minutes uh our winnipeg police service has announced the biggest uh drug bust in manitoba
00:07:16.680 history 570 plus kilos of fentanyl and meth and cocaine 33 people arrested all involving mexican
00:07:27.960 cartels the hell's angels and the wolfpack alliance uh so sounds like some good police work 0.81
00:07:36.200 was done there and there's gonna be some mad mexican cartel leaders that all their dope got
00:07:41.480 uh got serious a lot that's a lot of dope isn't it you know um all right we'll go back to politics 0.66
00:07:49.320 uh government has announced new uh uh order crossing signs i guess for lack of a better
00:07:56.440 thing when you drive into alberta from the united states uh you know the north bc or saskatchewan
00:08:03.560 you're going to be greeted with a new welcome to alberta land of strong and free so that's
00:08:10.600 going to be the same as on your license plate coming uh coming up this year it's funny some
00:08:14.840 people of course have gotten worked up about that and i i remember when they first discussed they're
00:08:18.920 putting a separatist slogan on there that slogan's been around for alberta for a long long time
00:08:23.400 they're just putting it out yeah uh though i think it's no mistake on the government's part either i
00:08:27.720 mean it is a you know it implies something when you see sure can i like it yep absolutely uh
00:08:35.320 parliamentary budget office put out a big report today on the world cup of canada hosting it as
00:08:40.520 you know starts next month we get 13 games between uh vancouver and toronto uh total cost uh one
00:08:49.080 billion dollars and rising well spares money again yes well you know we discussed this when this was
00:08:55.880 first announced i mean there's difference you're a big football fan i am i am not so i find it a
00:09:02.040 little more painful when you know i'd love to see an nfl game come up here but i don't think the tax
00:09:06.360 dollars should go with it no no no exactly well they used to be held in toronto all the time
00:09:11.400 didn't they once a year buffalo uh buffalo game was played there well we'll see what comes of it
00:09:18.200 yeah i met you know it wouldn't surprise me if that billion dollars doubled right once the
00:09:24.280 rcmp handed in their bill uh bill for security uh what else we got cory uh
00:09:30.200 The Calgary Councillor Landon Johnson sort of landed himself in a bit of hot water.
00:09:37.860 The City of Calgary gives out a series of passes, subsidized passes for things like transit, taxis, sporting facilities and stuff for low-income newcomers to the city.
00:09:54.240 So Alderman Johnson, you're familiar with, launched the Gondek petition campaign and did very well until the city nixed it.
00:10:03.700 He is saying that maybe we should take a look at that pass just being held for Canadian citizens.
00:10:08.840 So that's drawn some strong, strong criticism on both sides of the border or the issue.
00:10:17.180 Well, I mean, it's an interesting one.
00:10:18.780 I mean, it follows along with some of the provincial stuff that Premier Smith have been talking about,
00:10:22.480 Reducing some services for people who aren't citizens, but I understand some on the other end.
00:10:26.780 I mean, if they're newcomers and they're low income, is it going to make them any better if they can't afford to get to a job to try to get to work?
00:10:32.140 Or if their kids can't get to a rec center to productively blow off steam, I guess you could say.
00:10:38.700 It depends where the line's drawn, I guess.
00:10:41.600 Yep, exactly.
00:10:42.600 And Prime Minister Mark Carney out in Vancouver at this moment meeting with Premier David Eby.
00:10:48.600 So I'm sure Mr. Eby will have a bit of a temper tantrum behind closed doors.
00:10:53.400 And our BC reporter, Alex Zoltan, is all over it.
00:10:56.800 Oh, he's been covering it.
00:10:57.660 I mean, Eby does lots of tantrums outside of closed doors.
00:11:00.780 He does.
00:11:01.380 He does.
00:11:01.980 It should be something good to watch.
00:11:06.060 He's just a glum-looking man these days, isn't he? 0.96
00:11:09.020 He's a dead man.
00:11:10.020 People compared him to Eeyore, I think.
00:11:12.020 You know, he's just always head down.
00:11:13.680 I mean, man, you hit the top job and you're certainly hating it.
00:11:16.940 No kidding.
00:11:18.100 I don't think he's going to be there much longer.
00:11:19.900 We'll see.
00:11:20.400 I mean, it kind of reminds me of Gondek as well.
00:11:21.920 That was towards the end.
00:11:22.640 I mean, that was part of her problem really was you could tell she didn't like it.
00:11:25.960 She didn't like people.
00:11:26.880 She didn't like the press conferences.
00:11:28.340 She didn't like council. 1.00
00:11:29.720 And now she, I don't know what she's doing. 0.51
00:11:32.300 Yeah.
00:11:33.040 I don't know either.
00:11:34.160 It's fine by me.
00:11:35.340 Exactly.
00:11:36.080 Out of sight, out of mind.
00:11:37.540 All right.
00:11:38.020 Well, thanks for the updates.
00:11:39.180 I know there's plenty more potentially breaking in the next 24 hours.
00:11:44.380 It's going to be a busy 24 hours.
00:11:46.020 Yes, absolutely.
00:11:47.580 We'll be on top of it.
00:11:49.040 Yes.
00:11:49.700 We'll see you later on.
00:11:51.200 You bet.
00:11:51.580 All right, Dave.
00:11:51.860 Bye, mate.
00:11:53.340 So that is our news editor, Dave Naylor.
00:11:56.040 And yeah, lots on the go, political, non-political.
00:11:58.920 It's good to see a bunch of drugs gone.
00:12:00.900 I know, you know, interdiction seems to be a lost cause,
00:12:03.660 but still, I mean, getting rid of some of it can't hurt.
00:12:06.080 I mean, when you think of the volumes of that,
00:12:07.340 we're talking, you know, hundreds and hundreds of kilograms.
00:12:10.760 I mean, they talk about the potency of things like meth and fentanyl,
00:12:13.540 where it's just the tiniest of pinch
00:12:15.200 can kill a person or addict them.
00:12:19.440 Interesting to see those gang names involved too, though, right?
00:12:22.500 Either way, all that news copy, all that stuff.
00:12:24.400 And as we cover things,
00:12:25.520 when the break is due to you guys
00:12:28.080 who have subscribed,
00:12:28.980 this is where I got to renege and remind you,
00:12:30.400 please guys, check it out.
00:12:32.060 Westernstandard.news slash subscription.
00:12:33.700 $10 a month, $100 for a year.
00:12:36.280 And it keeps our reporters out there on the ground
00:12:38.840 watching these things,
00:12:40.240 covering them so we can break them to you as fast as you can.
00:12:42.260 And you don't have to rely on garbage institutions like the CBC, as I mentioned them earlier.
00:12:50.020 One of our reporters is up in Edmonton.
00:12:51.560 The big news thing, and I've seen some commenters kind of asking about it, you know, is a referendum going to be called today or tomorrow or ever on independence in Alberta?
00:13:04.040 Nobody quite knows for sure.
00:13:05.500 All sorts of hints and rumors and stuff bouncing around.
00:13:08.160 we have Will up in Edmonton because there is a committee meeting today and that's where they're
00:13:12.580 going to be discussing Thomas Lukasik's application and he's going to get five minutes before the
00:13:20.320 committee so you know the the political games going on it's mixed I laugh at them but at the
00:13:25.360 same time I see them you know just just playing like kids sometimes with things so Lukasik's been
00:13:29.620 uh stomping and jumping up and down look I don't like to apologize for the guy can't stand him he's
00:13:33.680 lying through his teeth right now when he's saying he didn't actually want a referendum
00:13:39.120 and that he wanted just to have it before the legislature. It's there right on paper. He signed
00:13:47.860 it. He said on there that he wants to trigger a referendum. And to try and change his mind on that
00:13:55.780 is, you know, utterly disingenuous. But at the same time, all that work, the hundreds of thousands
00:14:02.440 of signatures that were submitted however indeed he got them and everything was supposed to go
00:14:06.820 before committee at least to be discussed and so on I mean if the legislation is to be in good faith
00:14:12.220 and he wasn't called before the committee to even talk about it for forever finally after a whole
00:14:17.560 bunch of noise he's been given five minutes today to address the committee I don't know how much he
00:14:22.740 can get in in such a short time but we'll find out but that could be at that point where that committee
00:14:29.840 and I think it's four UCP members and two NDP ones.
00:14:34.240 I'm not sure.
00:14:34.680 With a majority government though,
00:14:35.500 it's going to be dominated by government members.
00:14:40.440 That's where they determine 0.99
00:14:41.440 what's going to go on a referendum or not.
00:14:43.920 And whether or not they determine that today
00:14:46.060 or announce it today, we're going to find out.
00:14:49.860 But we have Will on the ground out there
00:14:51.900 who's going to be watching it this afternoon
00:14:53.380 to see what happens.
00:14:54.360 The other thing is tomorrow night,
00:14:55.580 There is a big press event going on.
00:15:00.520 Premier Smith will be announcing something.
00:15:06.160 Sounds like there's going to be a cabinet shuffle, probably.
00:15:08.620 So they're going to move some of them around.
00:15:10.620 And maybe she's going to be talking something about that.
00:15:12.980 But I mean, social media is just swirling.
00:15:15.240 Conventional media is just swirling.
00:15:17.040 It's in the air.
00:15:18.380 I mean, let's just quit beating around the bush.
00:15:20.180 One way or another, there's going to be a referendum.
00:15:21.740 The question now is, what's the question going to be?
00:15:26.320 And how's it going to look?
00:15:27.720 I mean, if they take the Lukasik approach, it's kind of a, then it's just a poll.
00:15:33.320 But he's now even saying he doesn't even want that.
00:15:36.340 I don't know.
00:15:37.660 What an interesting, weird time we're in right now with all this stuff in the air and juggling around.
00:15:46.500 Let's see.
00:15:47.200 I'm just waiting on my guest.
00:15:48.080 I'm supposed to, Franco Teresano, he's usually very punctual.
00:15:51.000 We're going to talk carbon tax and things such as that.
00:15:53.360 and uh well that ties into the mou and so many things tie together it's um
00:16:00.180 jacqueline littler saying uh not a constitutional question would be meaningless if the referendum
00:16:05.620 came to that yeah possibly you see but the issue we're stuck in now and and is the courts have said
00:16:14.800 and i despise having to play by their games they've said a question can't be held constitutionally
00:16:21.280 unless consultation's been done first. And I loathe that because it really, it's an impossible
00:16:26.640 bar. And by the way, consultation, of course, I mean with our Indigenous people.
00:16:33.760 Well, how much? When's it adequate? When's it enough? Where is the bar to be set? Can we start
00:16:40.180 consulting tomorrow? Do we have to start consulting next week? Is the consultation to be held by the
00:16:45.900 people petitioning. Well, that's been shut down. Or does the government do it? And what is the
00:16:51.760 consultation? Just saying, hey, these are our plans. Let's have a few public meetings. We did
00:16:55.520 it. We're gone. We know that won't be considered enough. So there's appeals have been put forward
00:17:04.000 to the court on this, on two fronts, both by the government and by State Free Alberta. But that's
00:17:11.660 going to take months, maybe a year. The courts don't move that fast. Meanwhile, the potential
00:17:17.760 for a referendum this year to be held lands, you know, around and at mid-October. And that time
00:17:26.220 will run out. The campaign ability and time will run out on that. And I don't know. There's
00:17:33.380 something I don't say that often when I talk on this show and I go on forever. I don't know
00:17:37.320 what's going to happen. We are in such strange, uncharted waters right now. But the premier is in
00:17:45.080 a very tough position because State Free Alberta and their leaders have been making it very clear
00:17:51.740 that they're going to push to try and have a leadership election and push her out of office 0.88
00:17:56.720 if she doesn't give them the referendum they want. That could lead to a crazy sort of summer 0.93
00:18:02.580 and year in Alberta. So that's where I'm suspecting some sort of referendum is going to be
00:18:06.860 called by her, though maybe it's not the one they want. And then where do things go from there?
00:18:13.420 The other thing is, uh, uh, the opponents to Smith, she can't win on either direction. 0.54
00:18:21.080 I mean, they're going wild on social media. They're calling her a separatist, a Toronto Star
00:18:26.060 article, uh, you know, said Smith has a separatist agenda and it just keeps going and going and
00:18:31.680 going. Then she's just jumping up and down. It's easy. He's even got a new comb over going on and
00:18:36.080 everything. He's ready for the season. And again, just that S word over and over and over again,
00:18:42.200 they're trying to make it stick to Smith. And no matter what she does, she's going to get called
00:18:45.900 that. So that again, tells me more of, well, you might as well schedule the referendum. You're
00:18:49.860 going to get labeled either way, no matter how many times she says she's not necessarily
00:18:54.600 supporting a yes vote in it. She's been quite clear that she wouldn't support such.
00:19:00.220 what a interesting time to be alive meanwhile things are ramping up in saskatchewan too you
00:19:04.440 know the support there is sitting at about a third or more just about as strong or maybe even a little
00:19:08.720 stronger than in alberta for the independence concept they just don't have a petitioning
00:19:15.540 mechanism on the go now could they get one started probably not until you know well for one they need
00:19:21.080 the legislation and they would need it to um you know be able to uh pass those bars of consultation
00:19:29.740 which if Alberta couldn't, presumably Saskatchewan couldn't either.
00:19:34.700 So either way, we'll get into it.
00:19:35.640 I see the guest in the lobby there.
00:19:37.340 There was an MOU, I don't know, second signing or performative action last week going on
00:19:44.500 on the possible maybe outlying possibility that a pipeline could possibly be constructed
00:19:50.640 in a year and a half.
00:19:52.000 But in the meantime, Alberta is going to accept an ever-growing carbon tax on its federal,
00:19:56.780 uh or not it's federal but on its industrial uh capacity which doesn't sound like a good
00:20:01.840 concession to me franco tarzano from the canadian taxpayers federation i'm certain would have some
00:20:06.040 more to add on that so let's bring him in hey franco how's it going cory it's going great man
00:20:10.780 thanks for having me on the show oh always a pleasure uh especially you know when it comes
00:20:16.000 to tax issues maybe if you could just to give a little background because it's kind of coming up
00:20:21.280 you know some people didn't realize or under the impression okay the carbon tax is gone carney got
00:20:26.480 rid of the carbon tax but that he only got rid of one carbon tax we still got another one don't we
00:20:31.640 yeah that's right so when Trudeau brought in that carbon tax there's really two parts of it
00:20:37.220 right there was that consumer facing carbon tax the one you paid essentially directly on your
00:20:42.300 natural gas bill or at the pumps right the visible carbon tax that you could see so Carney canceled
00:20:48.760 that one but the other part of the Trudeau era carbon taxes was this hidden carbon tax on Canadian
00:20:54.760 business, right? You often hear the media, politicians, pundits call it the industrial
00:20:59.500 carbon tax, but really it's just a hidden carbon tax on Canadian businesses like steel,
00:21:05.340 like fertilizer plants, like electricity generation, but also on oil and gas projects
00:21:10.760 as well, right? And what I always like to say is a carbon tax is a carbon tax is a carbon tax.
00:21:16.200 It doesn't matter what type of lipstick politicians put on their carbon tax pig.
00:21:20.880 all carbon taxes make life more expensive, all carbon taxes hurt Canadian businesses and their
00:21:26.700 workers, and carbon taxes too, quite frankly, don't work towards these politicians' stated
00:21:32.160 intentions. No, emissions don't get reduced by them. It just has to be a grab. So with the big
00:21:39.160 press conference last week, though, we saw Premier Smith and Prime Minister Carney celebrating that
00:21:46.000 they're only going to increase it to 130 by a certain date uh would you call that a victory
00:21:51.140 no are you kidding it's a carbon tax hike what are we talking about right like cory uh you're
00:21:58.160 making me miss home you're making me miss alberta right i think of alberta and i think alberta should
00:22:03.580 be carbon tax free i don't care what they call their type of carbon tax albertans shouldn't be
00:22:08.560 paying any carbon tax uh by the way for a while now saskatchewan has been carbon tax free right
00:22:14.420 We're starting to see Scott Moe wobble a little bit right now, but previously Scott Moe just said
00:22:20.420 he's not playing that game and he said the industrial carbon tax to zero. That's what
00:22:25.100 should be happening in Alberta. Now, Corey, let me just give you the facts and then we can kind of
00:22:30.720 talk about the politics of it, okay? So you just got to listen to what Carney said on the
00:22:35.060 technicalities. Before negotiating with Alberta, right, before that original MOU was signed,
00:22:41.120 the effective industrial carbon tax rate so the actual carbon tax was about $20 a ton now it's
00:22:48.880 about $40 a ton by 2040 under this agreement it's going to be $130 a ton okay to quote Kearney
00:22:58.000 directly it's a six and a half times increase to the industrial carbon tax okay does that sound
00:23:04.820 like a victory to you, Corey? Come on. No, and I was just floored by it. I mean, how over a barrel
00:23:12.160 is our provincial government to try and get a project done? That's the concession you have to
00:23:17.540 give to the federal government, a massively increasing carbon tax. I know it's politics
00:23:24.580 and Premier Smith has to project some positivity, but how can, you know, definitely somebody who we
00:23:30.840 know as a fiscal conservative as a person how can you smile and say this was a victory to see this
00:23:36.040 thing rising just because it's not rising as quickly or as high as some people might have
00:23:40.720 projected earlier well and look look we we you almost got to disregard the headline price right
00:23:46.900 because that's what uh premier smith in their office a couple you know i've had even one person
00:23:52.200 in premier smith's office come after me on twitter but they're just incorrect when they're looking at
00:23:56.700 headline price, what you have to look at is the effective tax, right? What are companies actually
00:24:02.440 paying? And Carney on the technicality is very clear. It was $20 a ton. It's now 40. It's going
00:24:09.560 up to $130 a ton by 2040. So look, that is a huge carbon tax increase. But Corey, I think the key
00:24:17.840 takeaway for all of your listeners and for all Albertans and really all Canadians, the key
00:24:23.160 takeaway from this agreement is this carbon tax hikes are a certainty a pipeline is a maybe
00:24:29.900 right so when i when i see this agreement like i understand why why the premier of alberta and
00:24:35.760 quite frankly why any premier of alberta uh should be pushing for pipelines but what we should be
00:24:41.360 seeing these provincial politicians be doing is to tell ottawa to stop roadblocking development
00:24:46.660 scrap all carbon taxes and let businesses build pipelines with their own money not with taxpayers
00:24:52.840 And that's something that we don't have the details on, but it's something, of course, that we're very worried about. And, you know, Corey, when I see this agreement, you know what I think about? Charlie Brown, Lucy and the football, right? You know, how many times have we been told, oh, just pay your carbon taxes and don't worry, a pipeline will come about this.
00:25:10.820 Well, I remember when that was the argument that Rachel Notley made, right, way back in the day when her government was in power.
00:25:18.060 And, you know, despite bringing in a provincial consumer carbon tax, you had Canada's political system chase away the private company that wanted to spend billions of its own dollars to twin its own pipeline.
00:25:30.140 Right. But the political system chased that away, even though Albertans were paying a consumer carbon tax from the Notley government.
00:25:37.460 Well, now with this industrial carbon tax, just so people understand the kind of damage this sort of thing causes, it reduces, it basically takes a shave out of whatever they produce.
00:25:47.500 And it ensures they must have a very high resource price to be able to make a profit because they're not going to be able to make as much as they typically could without that tax, which means they invest in other jurisdictions or they tap the brakes on capital investments.
00:26:00.880 Or as we've seen and heard so many times, even RBC saying Canada is not a good place to invest.
00:26:06.760 We've lost up to possibly a trillion dollars in investment.
00:26:10.220 So, I mean, yeah, we don't see it directly on our consumer prices,
00:26:12.700 but we see it as an economic hit that hits everybody in the long run.
00:26:16.180 Well, look, I say the, and Corey, I was actually just in the Environment Committee
00:26:20.260 in Parliament, right, testifying against the Industrial Carbon Tax.
00:26:23.820 And the two things, the point I was trying to make is like,
00:26:26.440 the Industrial Carbon Tax, this hidden carbon tax on Canadian business,
00:26:29.960 is the worst of all worlds.
00:26:31.560 Higher prices and fewer Canadian jobs, right?
00:26:34.540 Let's talk about the higher prices.
00:26:35.640 I mean, you don't need a Ph.D. in economics to understand that when the government imposes carbon taxes on refineries, that makes driving more expensive.
00:26:44.140 When the government imposes carbon taxes on fertilizer plants, that makes food more expensive.
00:26:48.900 And when the government imposes carbon taxes on electricity, that makes it more expensive to live.
00:26:54.500 OK, but now let's look at the other side of the coin, right, because this is an industrial carbon tax on Canadian business.
00:27:00.080 Hey, guess what jurisdiction is not imposing national carbon taxes?
00:27:04.880 regardless of who is in power the united states our biggest uh economic competitor okay so what
00:27:11.840 an industrial carbon tax does is it pushes our entrepreneurs to cut production here and set up
00:27:17.600 shop just south of the border let me give you two examples okay so when the government imposes an
00:27:23.680 industrial carbon tax right that doesn't reduce emissions right it just pushes that oil and gas
00:27:29.520 project out of Alberta to Texas. When the government imposes an industrial carbon tax
00:27:35.600 on fertilizer plants, again, that does not cut emissions. It just pushes that fertilizer plant
00:27:41.240 out of Manitoba across the border into North Dakota. Yes, which is the opposite of what
00:27:49.100 Carney said he was going to be doing. It's certainly making the orange man south of the 0.97
00:27:52.500 border succeed in what he was saying, which is pulling everything down into them. For an economic 0.98
00:27:57.220 wizard mark carney's uh tactics seem questionable at best uh well i'll let you off on the carbon tax
00:28:03.700 i just wanted that laid out because it's just uh i i've been having a hard time i'm typically
00:28:07.780 supportive of the smith government but when you trumpet that as a victory i'm sorry but i've got
00:28:12.100 to call some bs guys this was not a victory this was a a gross concession that's going to harm all
00:28:17.700 of us uh but you've got plenty of other to work uh things to work on in there in ottawa since i've
00:28:22.500 got you what else is the taxpayers federation up to i mean they tax us many many ways over there
00:28:27.860 well we've been breaking some big uh some big big waste stories right so we got a i mean you know
00:28:33.220 our investigative journalist quite well jen hodgson she's been doing great work for us and i know the
00:28:36.900 western standard has been reporting on this so so thanks to you but um let me just give you a couple
00:28:42.180 crazy stories right so you might remember folks when uh the former cbc uh head was in committee
00:28:48.900 you know bragging about its gem streaming service right well this uh founder of open by default the
00:28:55.060 transparency group sent in this access to information request saying okay well how many
00:28:59.460 subscribers do you have to gem now the cbc refused to disclose the records the information commissioner
00:29:06.100 then said cbc disclosed the records but instead of being transparent with with canadians instead
00:29:11.380 of listening to the information commissioner uh we got records showing that the cbc is now spending
00:29:16.340 $59,000 going to court to keep those numbers hidden. Right, Corey? Now, you know what I'm
00:29:23.400 thinking, right? When I've got good numbers to share, I might brag. I'm definitely not going
00:29:27.400 to court to try to keep something hidden. So I wonder what type of bad news numbers the CBC
00:29:33.880 might be trying to hide. But what really grinds my gears is that they take more than a billion
00:29:39.120 dollars from taxpayers a year, right? At the very least, they owe us transparency. But now they're
00:29:45.020 spending tens of thousands of dollars going to court to keep taxpayers in the dark. Gross.
00:29:51.220 We just know anecdotally, I mean, come on, who on earth is going to pay for streaming services
00:29:56.000 from CBC? We all pay already. Those who like watching streaming services, you got your Netflix,
00:30:02.260 you got Prime, you got Crave, all these different ones. You can only afford to pick so many a month.
00:30:06.340 I just can't see too many saying, you know what, I'm just going to reach in my pocket
00:30:09.780 for this company. I already pay one and a half billion a year to and toss in a little more to
00:30:14.820 see that content those numbers have got to be dismal hey hey let me uh speaking of dismal numbers
00:30:20.240 let's talk about the budget right the federal budget because hey we've got another great story
00:30:25.220 that that we broke in western standard thanks guys for you know covering this taxpayer news
00:30:29.520 uh so the finance minister right what's a key responsibility of a finance minister
00:30:33.780 i don't know write and deliver their own budget speech well it turns out federal finance minister
00:30:39.560 champagne uh spent 12 000 bucks on outside contractors uh to get a speech writer for his
00:30:46.220 own budget speech right uh so not to mention right that taxpayers are already paying like a couple
00:30:52.700 million dollars a year for the army of communications bureaucrats in the finance department but now
00:30:57.700 we're also spending 12 grand to get some outside contractor to do their homework and you know cory
00:31:03.620 what i like to say is um you know if winston churchill can find some time to write his own
00:31:09.060 speeches while fighting the nazis i'm pretty sure champagne can find some time to write his own
00:31:13.980 budget speech one last point here folks in the actual budget that champagne delivered the
00:31:20.760 government said it would cut spending on consultants yet champagne spent 12 grand
00:31:25.460 on an outside contract to get help writing his own budget speech it's embarrassing quite frankly
00:31:31.340 well i mean yeah our own nigel hannaford used to be a speech writer for for prime minister harper
00:31:36.740 but he was on staff for that and i bet you because i mean nigel is a gifted writer you know for the
00:31:42.260 right price for probably a paltry six thousand he could have written a very good one for mr
00:31:47.180 champagne i mean they didn't shop around very much i'd suspect hey i like nigel but let's not
00:31:51.940 give any anyone more ideas to take taxpayers money you know what i'm saying oh i doubt he
00:31:57.140 would go in for that he has principles that man all right well i appreciate the update laying out
00:32:02.540 what's going on with carbon taxes and a couple of other beauties going on out in Ottawa since we
00:32:07.220 lost you from Alberta here uh before I let you go back into that that fine mire that you work
00:32:12.760 within out there uh how can people see your work and uh support you guys if they choose to well
00:32:18.660 Corey man it's always a pleasure I love coming on your show folks the best place place to follow
00:32:23.280 our stuff is just at our website taxpayer.com that's taxpayer.com follow us on social media
00:32:29.220 type in canadian taxpayers federation follow me on x at franco underscore nomics but cory you're
00:32:34.500 awesome man thanks for having me on the show great thanks franco it's always good and i really
00:32:38.680 appreciate the work you guys do you give us great stuff to put copy on though it's usually
00:32:42.540 unfortunately embarrassing expensive stories so thanks again i'm sure we'll talk again soon
00:32:47.380 all right see everyone so check it out guys yes taxpayer.com all you think they break great stuff
00:32:53.680 as you can see digging into those things and it's the small stuff that i think people realize i mean
00:32:58.160 we go, everybody likes to talk about the $16 orange juice. The reason that was such a huge
00:33:02.320 scandal is because that's something we can think about going to a restaurant, spending that much
00:33:07.180 money, things like that. The billions are harder to register in our minds, those of us in the
00:33:12.140 regular world. But when you look at then 17,000 for a speech, like, whoa, hang on. I mean,
00:33:19.900 how many hours does it take even, you know, trying to write the best speech on earth and
00:33:25.640 something as long and as big as a budget presentation. I mean, none should have spent,
00:33:29.980 as Franco pointed out, we already pay an army of communications people. What the heck is their job
00:33:35.100 if you're outsourcing it to somebody else out there to do it? But it's just absurdity. And it's
00:33:42.700 good to see those sorts of things exposed and put into a language we can all understand so people
00:33:48.520 realize that and at least try to hold these politicians accountable. And, you know, watch
00:33:53.860 them for the awards they give and the bad spending because every province is bad for. We had a recent
00:33:57.740 column in the Western Standard talk about Alberta has a spending problem too. Provincially, we've
00:34:02.640 been bad. I mean, look, the easiest way for a politician to go ever is always to throw money
00:34:07.360 at problems. That's the path of least resistance. Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, they're all prone
00:34:13.700 to doing it. And we've got to stop asking them to do it. We got to get on their cases more when they
00:34:20.160 do do it. And, uh, you know, that's where we dropped the ball a little bit ourselves. All
00:34:24.380 right, let's look at some other stuff getting done. This was, you know, and I'll tie this
00:34:28.920 into CBC when people, you know, pointing out, uh, CBC and some of the awful stuff they,
00:34:34.300 they publish and things they're doing. The BBC in England, you know, which is the inspiration
00:34:39.500 for the CBC and, uh, it's their, their tax funded, of course, uh, institution. And they
00:34:47.140 put out a piece this weepy piece today about a man in afghanistan who's so poor this poor man
00:34:55.120 he can't pay his bills can't pay his rent can't get his food it's just awful the conditions are
00:35:01.100 terrible it showed it literally with a little tear in his eye because you know what he has to do
00:35:04.720 he's selling his daughter he literally is selling a little girl and the bbc is pointing it out as
00:35:14.420 if this is some sob story about a man so badly cornered that he's going to sell his little girls
00:35:20.520 and it says in fact it's happening all over afghanistan that these men are selling their
00:35:24.800 daughters um where do you start with this no other culture on earth sells their daughters
00:35:35.000 we've seen famine we've seen uh issues going on all around the world countries that have had very
00:35:43.200 very hard times and people who have had to do some terrible things to try and pay the bills.
00:35:50.220 You know, but the Irish potato famine, do they sell their daughters into slavery, sex slavery?
00:35:56.100 There's one of the questions that was put out to by somebody online. Of course, let's follow up
00:35:59.980 BBC. What would he be selling his daughter towards? Do I be towards some pervert who wants a little
00:36:07.060 girl because afghanistan is an islamic culture that has absolutely no concept of value to women 1.00
00:36:13.540 they see them as chattel they see them as property so this man rather than going out i mean most 0.97
00:36:21.140 parents would die before letting harm come to their children they would never
00:36:27.140 consider selling them you notice he's not saying he's selling his sons by the way
00:36:31.700 there's parents who have become desperate and did things in times of famine they're the ones
00:36:39.300 perhaps in an awful situation that would prostitute themselves or do all sorts of
00:36:44.700 things just so they could scrape together money to pay for their children i don't doubt things
00:36:48.580 are tough in afghanistan you know why things are tough in afghanistan because it's run by 0.99
00:36:53.840 a medieval group of Islamic lunatics who keep them in the dark ages. 1.00
00:37:00.280 That's why. 1.00
00:37:01.900 That's why they're poor. 1.00
00:37:04.580 But it's not that shocking, unfortunately, to see these Islamists selling their daughters. 0.99
00:37:11.260 These are the people that cover their women head to toe with a little eye slit. 0.99
00:37:15.240 They pour acid in their faces for daring to get an education.
00:37:18.020 so is it shocking to see that group sell a daughter no i'm afraid not but what's really
00:37:26.980 grotesque is seeing an organization like the bbc trying to put a sympathetic light upon it
00:37:35.460 trying to say this wasn't his fault that he's in a corner that's none of his doing that this is
00:37:42.500 almost justifiable. If only the Western world would just be nicer to Islam. Maybe they could 0.91
00:37:48.280 afford to keep their daughters at home so they can marry them off to a cousin when they're 12, 0.96
00:37:52.580 like they normally do. The world's got to stand up and start calling out this Stone Age crap. 0.99
00:38:02.080 And instead, tax-funded large media outlets like the BBC actually put out puff pieces on it. 0.98
00:38:08.900 So we're supposed to feel for this man. If you look it up online, you really will see it.
00:38:12.240 You'll see the man holding the little girl, and he's got a little tear in his eye.
00:38:15.240 I'm going to have to sell my little girl.
00:38:19.200 You can't make a man like that a sympathetic character.
00:38:23.880 Yep, that's what the British Broadcasting Corporation is doing. 0.98
00:38:27.240 Just sick.
00:38:28.200 You wonder why the UK is lost, why it's a mess, and look at it.
00:38:31.280 The stuff that's going on over there.
00:38:32.460 I mean, they're going to get a civil war over there pretty soon. 0.99
00:38:35.400 Well, when your state broadcaster is an apologist for crap like that. 0.97
00:38:39.660 again no other culture does this guys except you know i mean how 0.99
00:38:47.120 ideologically broken and sick do you have to be to overcome the amount of parental instinct
00:38:55.300 that most people have you know even a mouse will attack you if it's trying to protect its babies
00:39:04.580 you know there's nothing more dangerous than a bear if it's cubs or a threat and somehow these
00:39:11.800 guys have overridden that whole instinct and will sell their little girls into sexual slavitude 0.98
00:39:18.000 to pay the bills and the bbc makes a sympathetic case for them the world is a sick place on so
00:39:31.080 many levels when it comes to these things. Let's see some other stuff to have a look at a little
00:39:35.600 less negative, but, uh, we got, uh, BC, you know, keep watching Alex Zoltan, man, he's been doing
00:39:42.280 such a great job, uh, out in BC. I mean, Jared was great out there too, but Alex is really hitting
00:39:47.140 on what's going on in that legislature with their conservative leadership race that I believe is
00:39:52.460 ending pretty soon. And it's just getting so wild out there. Their politics are almost nuttier than
00:39:59.080 hours. Um, and he said, uh, tensions boiled over on the first sitting day after week long break
00:40:04.540 as a clarity repeatedly accused premier David Eby of missing the house before being ordered to leave
00:40:09.400 by the speaker. So she was kicked out of the house. The video is up and, uh, uh, you can see
00:40:17.420 that affair going on in there. And again, that's that mixed thing. We, we kind of in a dark comedy
00:40:21.440 way, sort of see, um, you know, the fun of watching these guys going at each other like this,
00:40:27.860 but at the same time these are your elected officials these are the people leading
00:40:31.140 your uh your government you wonder why the policies are bad um somebody talking an odd
00:40:39.260 question out of the blue asking i don't know if you're asking me there cb fixes all or not
00:40:43.420 saying did you work for veritas geo or equal geo i did work surveying advanced work for
00:40:50.180 geophysical work and seismic for 20 years back in the past i talked about that and some other
00:40:54.620 things and everything. I did contract to both of those companies before I worked for survey
00:40:58.040 companies that did, but I, uh, wasn't with those companies themselves. If that's what you're asking
00:41:02.400 me about anyways, uh, just some of my oil field background, let's see some of the other stuff
00:41:06.980 going on a possible referendum. This is funny. He didn't have to get consultation apparently,
00:41:12.040 but, uh, we've been watching Cor Blund, uh, you know, a country music singer in Alberta
00:41:16.260 has been campaigning hard against allowing coal mining in Southern Alberta. And he's been
00:41:22.800 trying to get a referendum petition done, and he's nearing the deadline for that petition
00:41:28.340 to ban coal mining in southern Alberta. And why didn't he have to get consultation? Why doesn't
00:41:37.280 that apply to him? Wouldn't that have an impact potentially? Where does this stop with these
00:41:41.200 things? Either way, I got a feeling he's not going to get his 178,000 signatures.
00:41:48.460 Real petitioning is difficult.
00:41:50.320 That's what's been shown, what we've seen, what's being reported upon.
00:41:54.600 But we've got a double standard with this whole thing too, right?
00:41:57.180 The judges intervene on referendum they don't like, referenda they don't like.
00:42:02.040 But when the ones they do like, well, we don't hear anything about it.
00:42:07.640 Let's see.
00:42:08.780 We've got a column in the Western Standard.
00:42:12.040 Let's talk a little bit of politics.
00:42:13.400 Proportional representation.
00:42:15.440 This is a fantasy built on bad math.
00:42:17.340 And it was a good one. 0.61
00:42:19.820 There's one of the things we were talking about, you know, proportional representation is what losers push.
00:42:26.400 It's when your cause is too small to win under the first pass the post system, you want to change the system.
00:42:34.120 Look, just countries that already have proportional representation.
00:42:37.600 Something I find funny is it's usually the far left who wants proportional representation.
00:42:42.020 For those not familiar with it, it means, you know, you'll have an election, you'll lose all local representation.
00:42:46.100 it's just kind of one big pool and you'll all vote for parties and the party will get a certain
00:42:52.800 amount of seats based on the percentage of the vote in general they got and then the party selects
00:42:56.860 who the person will be who sits in whatever sort of legislature or whatever it might be that comes
00:43:01.800 in what happens is that almost never leads to a majority win by a party which is a mixed blessing
00:43:08.240 but you get a piece of parliament you can get a dozen parties in there and then one will stand
00:43:13.500 out and have to form coalitions to try and get things done. And those coalitions usually mean
00:43:20.820 embracing some pretty wacky people because you can get a party that is way out on the fringe
00:43:24.900 that only gets 5% of the support or 6% of the support, but they got a couple of seats in that
00:43:29.220 party and power really needs everybody they can. So not only do they work cooperatively with them,
00:43:34.200 but they will give them cabinet positions. And the left who likes proportional representation
00:43:39.360 overlooks one of the worst examples of it you can see,
00:43:41.780 and that's Knesset in Israel.
00:43:44.440 Have a look at the makeup of that place.
00:43:46.060 Have a look at some of the cabinet ministers in Israel.
00:43:49.620 And you wonder why some are pretty rough hawks
00:43:54.600 or warlike or crazy, a couple of the ministers,
00:43:57.220 even if it's not necessarily the whole government,
00:43:58.540 because that's the only way they can do things
00:43:59.960 is building coalitions with these far, far fringes
00:44:02.960 to be able to get it done.
00:44:05.160 So if you really want proportional representation,
00:44:08.000 think it'll make for better government,
00:44:09.120 maybe look around a little more first. Careful what you wish for. You just might get it. And
00:44:16.440 it doesn't end well, unfortunately. One other headline that came out, yeah, Alberta energy
00:44:23.720 leaders say Alberta Ottawa pipeline deal offers hope, not certainty. And you know what? They're
00:44:31.200 not going to invest without certainty. As Franco said, we got certainty on a tax increase with a
00:44:37.160 carbon tax, and we got a maybe on the pipeline. Not a good deal. A line from Bad Santa, I can't
00:44:45.060 quote directly fully, but when the kid talked about wishing for things, which is similar to hope,
00:44:49.720 said wish in one end, crap in the other, and let me know which one's going to fill up first.
00:44:56.220 So I don't see where we're going to see progress with this MOU, but it looks like we're going to
00:45:01.700 see some progress with a referendum on independence, however that might come. We're in for
00:45:06.540 a really wild week. Make sure
00:45:08.880 to share and
00:45:10.720 subscribe and all those good things to the
00:45:13.120 Western Standard channels. We're going to cover things as they break
00:45:15.220 at the pipeline. We're going to talk about a few more of those
00:45:17.260 issues and
00:45:18.720 also helps get people off
00:45:21.200 that nasty CBC. So
00:45:22.900 keep an eye on things guys. We've got a lot
00:45:25.260 to talk about next week. We'll have a lot to talk about tonight
00:45:27.360 and thank you for tuning in today.
00:45:29.180 We'll see you next week at this time and see what happens.
00:45:36.540 We'll be right back.