Western Standard - High-speed train wreck coming for Canadian wallets

00:00:00.000 Good day

00:00:29.980 Hey, welcome to The Cory Morgan Show, getting into spring broadcasting from the permanently

00:00:36.620 ceded territory on what, under Treaty 7, says our Indigenous bands have no more claim to

00:00:43.780 any longer.

00:00:44.500 I just wanted to reiterate that today.

00:00:46.320 At a fundraiser last week, I gave kind of my own version of a land acknowledgement, and

00:00:50.560 it's something else.

00:00:51.720 The fellow who videoed it took a little 30-second clip of it and threw it out on Facebook.

00:00:56.560 The last I checked over the last 10 hours, it's had nearly 400,000 views.

00:00:59.980 I think people are getting tired of the old land acknowledgements.

00:01:03.000 Maybe we should just start replacing them all with the real ones.

00:01:06.240 I own my property.

00:01:07.660 I don't care who was there 500 years ago.

00:01:10.120 All right, I got an interesting show, though.

00:01:11.540 I'm just going to talk about some historical things.

00:01:13.640 I'm going to have author and journalist John Fraser on.

00:01:15.800 He wrote a book about the governor's general.

00:01:18.140 I know I'm not much of a monarchist, but all the same, I still,

00:01:21.260 the history is fascinating, and the rule is important,

00:01:23.560 and it's played a big part, and it's worth looking back on

00:01:26.980 and remembering and talking about, even if I hope one day perhaps the parliamentary system's in the

00:01:32.080 rearview mirror. It should be a really good discussion. Otherwise, lots of news and things

00:01:37.340 to cover. Let's get on to what I'm going to rant about today. You guys have probably seen it. Hang

00:01:40.380 on to your pocketbooks. This is the latest big liberal project. So while the Canadian economy

00:01:46.180 is on the rocks, you know, we get the ongoing tariff war racking the manufacturing sector,

00:01:51.200 while Canada's soft embargo on expanding the ability to export oil and gas products

00:01:56.060 prevents the energy sector from filling the economic void. We got subsidies for everything

00:02:01.240 from battery plants to edible cricket farms, and they produce nothing more than a list of business

00:02:05.020 failures and our national debt's exploding. Yeah, nice picture. So to address all of this,

00:02:09.100 the economic wizard of Prime Minister Mark Carney has decided what the nation must do is sink

00:02:13.640 around $100 billion into a publicly owned high-speed rail project to service the

00:02:19.300 Laurentian Corridor in eastern Canada. The insanity of this notion beggars belief,

00:02:24.040 Yet the Liberal Party, along with its stalwart supporters and legacy media, have circled the wagons and are now in full campaign mode, pushing the alleged merits of a high-speed rail line.

00:02:33.980 Proponents of the line can't pretend there isn't a model of a North American high-speed project to examine before diving into this one.

00:02:40.180 California began its high-speed rail odyssey in 2008.

00:02:43.680 It was supposed to run between Los Angeles and San Francisco and cost about $35 billion to build.

00:02:49.460 They anticipated it to be operational by 2020.

00:02:51.860 Yeah, six years ago.

00:02:52.800 And with over 20 million people along an 800-kilometer corridor, surely it could be a viable route for high-speed rail, right?

00:03:00.240 Well, after 20 years and billions spent, not a single mile of track is operational on the California line.

00:03:08.180 The budget's exploded over $126 billion for phase one, and they hope it might be operational by 2040.

00:03:16.320 In short, it's been a catastrophe, and due to the government clinging to the sunk cost fallacy,

00:03:20.860 we'll be able to watch this slow-motion train wreck for decades to come.

00:03:24.320 The Canadian plan now is even more ambitious than the California one.

00:03:27.020 They want to build 1,000 kilometers of high-speed rail through regions with far less population density than California.

00:03:33.500 They're going to have to try and get it built in adverse Canadian weather,

00:03:36.700 and they think it could be done for 23% lower than the current California line projections,

00:03:41.060 and they think it's going to be finished by the 2040s as well.

00:03:44.420 Now look at the modest, relatively modest light rail transit expansion of the Ontario line.

00:03:49.480 These are the same geniuses who are going to build this high-speed one, right?

00:03:52.520 A mere 15.5 kilometers a line was supposed to be built with a projected cost of $10.9 billion in 2019.

00:03:58.720 And it was going to be ready to go by 2027, next year.

00:04:01.360 Well, the cost over seven years is tripled, and the completion date's been pushed into the 2030s.

00:04:06.100 Just think of what they're going to be able to do with a high-speed rail megaproject.

00:04:09.720 Proponents of high-speed rail like to point to European and Asian models as examples to follow,

00:04:14.060 but it isn't an apples-to-apples comparison by any measure.

00:04:17.140 First of all, the population densities aren't even comparable.

00:04:19.920 I mean, Japan's in an area, what, smaller than Newfoundland, and it's got 120 million people.

00:04:25.740 European and Asian cities are massive and close together, which creates a demand and feasibility.

00:04:29.780 Even in the Laurentian Corridor, the precious Laurentian Corridor,

00:04:33.220 Canada comes nowhere close to the densities of Europe and Asia. 0.94

00:04:36.400 Then there's the vehicle culture.

00:04:37.440 In Canada, over 80% of citizens have a private vehicle.

00:04:40.360 In Europe, it's only 56%, and the number's even lower in most of Asia.

00:04:43.940 People in Canada aren't going to give up their vehicles in the millions

00:04:46.460 just because they have access to a high-speed rail option,

00:04:49.380 whenever that might come.

00:04:51.020 The ongoing subsidies, though, are going to be massive

00:04:53.260 if this project even becomes complete.

00:04:55.720 If the cost of the line and its maintenance are going to be recovered,

00:04:57.760 the tickets will have to cost hundreds and hundreds of dollars each,

00:05:00.540 and it'll take over a century to pay it off

00:05:02.440 if people are willing to pay that much.

00:05:04.000 I mean, somebody calculated out you could pay for the airline flights

00:05:07.120 between Montreal and Toronto for 180 years for the cost this line's going to be.

00:05:11.020 The economic benefits of such a line are negligible.

00:05:13.620 It won't be transporting freight, and with modern communication methods,

00:05:16.560 people don't need to commute like they used to.

00:05:18.220 The tourism demand between those cities' service is small,

00:05:20.960 and the novelty of the line itself certainly isn't going to bring people out.

00:05:24.760 The Liberal government likes spending announcements and likes megaprojects,

00:05:27.280 which are going to provide contracts and jobs for their friends for decades to come,

00:05:30.760 whether the projects are ever completed or not.

00:05:32.920 For caps, Canada should just institute a direct fund with a budget of a few billion a year

00:05:36.680 that liberals can legally transfer to their cronies with.

00:05:39.400 It'd be abhorrent, but it's still cheaper

00:05:40.880 than going through the motions of building a high-speed rail line

00:05:43.040 and maybe more effective for economic stimulation.

00:05:45.820 You don't need to be nostalgamist to foresee the disaster

00:05:48.580 this high-speed rail line is going to become.

00:05:51.740 It's just going to be a matter of how much is going to be blown on it

00:05:53.640 and how long before fiscal reality forces the project to be formally ended.

00:05:57.680 And one more word of warning.

00:05:59.380 As much as I like her, our Premier Daniel Smith

00:06:01.180 has got a fixation on trains and high-speed rail as well.

00:06:04.980 We could see such a boondoggle out here

00:06:06.560 if we aren't on guard they sure love building those things all right let's see what else is

00:06:10.080 going on in this big wide world of uh brilliance with our news editor dave nailer hey dave as we

00:06:15.840 can see uh oh we can't afford razors so so so depressed oh so depressed had a lovely long

00:06:24.000 weekend in uh the lower mainland and the trees were blooming the cherry trees were blooming and

00:06:31.280 that the grass was all green and i was in shorts and was more than i was 21 22 celsius get off the

00:06:38.720 plane yesterday and it's snowing yeah we still got at least five or six more snowfalls this winter

00:06:44.560 yeah you're to blame i keep saying you're to blame hey i've still got my winter tires on i

00:06:48.640 mean that's the real asking for it's when you take your winter tires three weeks ago you said uh

00:06:52.960 spring is from well i just some false optimism to get people through the day my apologies hey

00:06:58.720 speaking of that high-speed train or for finance minister francois philippe champagne his wife is

00:07:04.960 a senior director of the uh the train people wow what a coincidence what a coincidence

00:07:12.000 it's unbelievable speaking of unbelievable stuff out of ottawa we've got another floor crossing

00:07:18.160 traitorous floor crossing marilyn gladu from uh sarnia her last comment before the uh the house

00:07:25.600 of commons rose for their latest long break was a tirade against floor crossers and said there

00:07:31.360 should be an automatic by-election for anybody who crosses the floor of course when she was uh

00:07:38.000 smiling with carney this morning there was no word of a by-election no she sort of forgot that

00:07:42.960 quickly i how many more have we got you think these well somebody was uh saying last week that

00:07:50.000 that they were talking to 10 members of the Conservative Party.

00:07:54.220 So that means nine left, I guess.

00:07:57.040 I mean, these people have the ethics.

00:07:59.560 They're just, they have no ethics, right?

00:08:01.840 It's just personal opportunity.

00:08:03.760 And, you know, the thing that drives me nuts the most about it is it sours everybody on the whole process.

00:08:08.680 It causes more apathy, more indifference, which unfortunately just serves the weasels even more.

00:08:14.780 It's so perpetual.

00:08:16.380 I think Gladue was right.

00:08:17.560 There should be by-elections if you want to cross the floor.

00:08:20.000 You were elected under a Tory banner.

00:08:22.120 What gives you the right to decide you're going to become a Liberal?

00:08:24.620 Or at the very least, a realistic recall mechanism federally.

00:08:29.160 Yeah, exactly.

00:08:30.100 Give people a chance if they're in Sarnia saying, you know what? 1.00

00:08:32.760 Screw you, Ms. Gladdo. 1.00

00:08:35.000 Gladdo, we want to hold a by-election and take the choice out of her hands. 1.00

00:08:38.640 She's a rather tall woman, and she looked like she was about a foot taller than Carney. 0.69

00:08:43.880 Yeah, I saw that picture.

00:08:45.680 I don't go on about their appearances that often.

00:08:48.460 But, I mean, it was a striking picture, I guess.

00:08:51.680 How tall is Carnegie?

00:08:53.020 He's not a very big man.

00:08:54.540 5'8", maybe?

00:08:54.920 5'8", perhaps, yeah. 0.97

00:08:56.220 Something in the high heels.

00:08:59.200 Anyways, that's depressed, everybody.

00:09:01.140 And another depressing story today on the Alberta Human Rights Commission.

00:09:05.980 Your favorite body has apparently going to hear the case of a Leduc woman who was in charge of a local newsletter in Leduc.

00:09:16.180 Duke, and she made a comment that she didn't really care for drag shows, you know, drag 1.00

00:09:22.660 queen story hour, whatever they call it. 1.00

00:09:24.660 That monster. 0.94

00:09:25.460 Yeah, she said didn't like him, and somebody went apoplectic and reported her to the Human

00:09:33.400 Rights Commission.

00:09:34.780 There was something with that one, too, though.

00:09:36.600 I mean, at first, the Human Rights Commission said, no, it's too late, and we're not going

00:09:39.100 to do anything about it, and now it's been renewed.

00:09:40.840 They missed the filing deadline, and now they've said, okay, well, I know you've missed

00:09:44.800 it, but we'll hear your case

00:09:46.760 anyways. So she's being,

00:09:49.100 she's got your lawyers on the case,

00:09:51.020 Corey, with the JCCF.

00:09:52.580 Ah, yes. It's the Justice Center for Constitutional

00:09:55.160 Freedoms, by the way, guys.

00:09:57.640 We've got

00:09:58.440 another latest from Joe Rogan,

00:10:00.980 our friendly American podcaster.

00:10:03.060 He's talking about the liberal gun

00:10:04.840 grab, and he's got

00:10:06.800 a comedian on there to talk about it

00:10:08.780 with him, so it's very entertaining.

00:10:11.400 And job

00:10:12.820 opening, Corey, you can apply for.

00:10:14.800 the university of british columbia is looking for a new forestry professor

00:10:19.120 forestry professor you know they burn in forest fires but in order to apply for the job or in 1.00

00:10:28.480 order to be considered for the job you have to be an indignant indigenous disabled woman oh 1.00

00:10:37.440 preferably of color i guess if you're indigenous you already are right indigenous disabled 1.00

00:10:43.920 Geez, I mean, what if I cut off a finger, identify as Indigenous and count my tattoos as colour? 1.00

00:10:48.720 The job is yours.

00:10:49.680 Well, you know, it's got to pay a little better than I could afford razors.

00:10:52.320 There you go. Me too.

00:10:55.120 That's insane.

00:10:57.680 This, you know, it's the last bastion of wokeism.

00:11:01.360 Well, they're getting really specific now though, right? Like, you know,

00:11:03.920 they got such a checklist they have to hit. Like it must be somewhere they've got a chart

00:11:07.840 with a shortage. Lord, look at that. We're missing an Indigenous disabled woman somewhere.

00:11:12.720 exactly well they've got to be out there oh yeah just go downtown exactly what they know about 0.99

00:11:19.520 forestry going on so we're going to be in front of the human traits commission yeah we better

00:11:24.160 we better move on so so that's it that's all that's going on all right i heard there's a

00:11:28.080 little bit of stuff in iran going on too maybe yeah yeah yeah ceasefire israel is continuing

00:11:35.440 to bomb the hell out of lebanon the straits of hormuz are closed by iran apparently uh so yeah 0.97

00:11:42.240 it's a bit of a bit of a schmozzle yeah but at least their civilization lives on after uh yes

00:11:48.720 some threatened to make the iranians extinct uh so yeah it was bizarre bizarre is the word

00:11:58.000 yeah we'll keep watching and reporting as we see it i imagine we will all right well thank you for

00:12:02.560 the update i'll let you go back to morosely looking out the window at the uh unblooming trees snow's

00:12:08.320 coming this afternoon that's coming again and god i hate you at least you've got the comfort of your

00:12:12.960 memories right all right well thanks for the update dave i'll talk to you after the show yeah

00:12:18.880 sure you will ah yes that little ray of sunshine is our news editor dave naylor and uh yeah you

00:12:25.520 know again aside from being a little upset with the weather he's really working on getting those

00:12:30.560 news stories cranked out there in a timely manner and covering these things as they break and they

00:12:34.160 they just keep breaking so fast. So it's where I like to remind everybody, the reason we can do

00:12:39.280 that, the reason Dave can do it even without being able to buy razors is subscribers. So guys,

00:12:46.120 check it out. Westernstandard.news slash subscription, $10 a month, $100 for a year,

00:12:51.260 full access, get past that paywall and, um, you know, help support independent media so we can

00:12:58.380 cover these things. Yeah, I don't know where to go with this, you know. So Marilyn Gladue, I mean,

00:13:04.920 she's not even, as Dave said, one of her last things was railing, you know, the hypocrisy is

00:13:10.080 just going. They don't even think twice about just completely flip-flopping on their own word.

00:13:14.620 And she wasn't of the red Tory bunch. She wasn't somebody who was a little bit liberal and leaning

00:13:20.460 that way, you know, like Jenneru up in Edmonton really was just more of an opportunistic liberal

00:13:24.820 in the first place rather than a conservative.

00:13:27.380 No, Gladue was ripping into the Liberal government for years.

00:13:31.620 Very conservative and re-elected as a conservative.

00:13:35.120 She was on about the gun grab, which I guess she's okay about that now.

00:13:39.740 She has been very critical about the Liberal censorship on bills

00:13:44.040 and things like that.

00:13:45.800 I guess she's okay with the Liberal censorship now. 0.91

00:13:49.160 Like, it's just sickening.

00:13:52.240 And that's why people don't bother going out to vote anymore.

00:13:56.560 It really is.

00:13:57.360 The turnouts go down.

00:13:58.380 And as I said to Dave, then the weasels just really entrench themselves because nobody's

00:14:03.340 holding them accountable anymore.

00:14:04.640 And we all lose.

00:14:07.560 We all lose.

00:14:09.740 I mean, I've got no shortage of cynicism within me.

00:14:13.280 I always had a degree of that.

00:14:15.920 But I always like to feel, though, that at least if we got up, we engaged.

00:14:19.980 We participated in the electoral process.

00:14:22.980 Our representatives will, to some degree, fill that role with some principles and stay within there.

00:14:28.640 But as we see, there's been differences with those floor crossings, some who are perhaps a little close in ideology to the federal government than others.

00:14:37.480 But Gladue, come on, guys.

00:14:38.980 I mean, I got to wonder how some of the Liberal members feel suddenly embracing this new member of their caucus who so recently was ripping them on pretty much every principle she could.

00:14:49.420 All right, well, let's get on to the unelected aspect of our government.

00:14:53.960 And it's still, it's fascinating.

00:14:55.580 And as myself, you know, I'm not much the monarchist type, but I still am.

00:15:00.180 I love our history.

00:15:01.600 And it's something that I love reading about and going into, and even if I want to see it change.

00:15:08.200 So John Fraser, who's a journalist and author, has been around a long time, wrote The Governor's General.

00:15:13.520 And it's a lot of short stories covering them from the 60s all the way up into the current.

00:15:18.140 And it's a little more than just your typical history book or something like that.

00:15:22.180 A lot of personal information from whether, well, he managed to use praying to get out of getting the cane for smoking

00:15:28.720 or offering the latest Governor General's husband just some advice on how to be the second person in office there.

00:15:36.860 It was a really, really good read, and I've been looking forward to talking to him.

00:15:39.900 So let's bring in Mr. Fraser and discuss that book.

00:15:44.340 Hello, sir. Thank you very much for joining us today.

00:15:47.060 I'm thrilled. I was enjoying listening to you talk about the very transportable members of parliament that we have these days.

00:15:55.480 Yeah, well, and I guess, I mean, it's an elected role. People will come and go. People come and go in the role of governor general as well.

00:16:05.780 But I guess with our vice regals, I could see in some sense there's a little more of an honesty to it.

00:16:09.780 You know that it's a role that's an appointed one and often for optics or political reasons rather than functionality.

00:16:16.780 But it's maybe I could have faith in feeling a little better about some of the people there rather than our elected officials right now.

00:16:22.640 Well, it's sorry.

00:16:24.780 You see, you're elected officials that more or less decide who's going to be your governor general.

00:16:28.580 I think it's something most Canadians don't quite factor in because we're not that good on civics in this country or civic education.

00:16:36.600 But at the moment, Canadians don't want to have a British monarch as their head of state and don't want governors general.

00:16:44.080 All they have to do is get 10 legislatures to agree.

00:16:47.180 Well, 12 legislatures, actually, with some territorial.

00:16:49.820 And that's the end of it.

00:16:51.440 But you and I both know there's not a hope in heaven of that ever happening.

00:16:55.680 And my view on one level is practical.

00:16:58.380 If this is what we've got, let's make the best of it.

00:17:01.380 because there's many good things that the system that we have evolved over the years does well.

00:17:07.460 And one of them is that it is not a huge issue, our head of state in terms of

00:17:16.580 screwing up our minds when things go badly.

00:17:20.740 You know, and the American system, which is a really interesting Republican system, which

00:17:25.780 there's lots to admire produced Lincoln and Roosevelt and so on but it is basically a 18th

00:17:35.860 century system of government my theory is they keep re-electing George III every four years down

00:17:41.140 there because they talked to the head of state that's modeled on a Hanoverian monarch George III

00:17:48.820 and it's very hard to change that constitution oh yeah neither constitution is easy to change at

00:17:54.340 this point and and uh for the most part our governors general i mean they are are harmless

00:17:59.220 they've got a a large amount of of theoretical power but it's it's very rarely exercised uh

00:18:06.900 they don't they have influence and you do cover that in your book i mean they are an important

00:18:10.820 part of the culture it's true um but their their job is ceremonial and it is to do the the dignified

00:18:18.340 end of of our constitution and it's it's evolved i there's a grand old dam at the college i used

00:18:25.700 to administer in toronto named ursula franklin holocaust survivor and um uh physicist and she

00:18:33.460 said she liked the crown because she liked the whole spectacle of absolute power completely

00:18:38.500 defanged which is an interesting way of looking at it that is absolutely i i've only had one uh

00:18:46.020 experience with a vice regal and that was at the alberta lieutenant governor uh it was lewis

00:18:50.980 mitchell actually we'd had a time capsule opening in the small town that i'm in and my wife was on

00:18:55.460 the committee and they said well let's reach out and see if she would come out and she did

00:18:59.060 and what astounded me though was actually the amount of rules and advanced work and everything

00:19:03.620 we were told about all that that pump and many many head of state but you know it's alberta

00:19:09.620 we have to thank for producing the first indigenous person to be a vice regal and that

00:19:14.580 goes back a bit the the provincial vice regals have often been the pace setters for innovation

00:19:20.580 in this position the first woman the first indigenous person the first black person

00:19:24.820 first chinese person that's all come not from ottawa but from but from the provinces and um

00:19:30.980 it's a way it's if you want to look for positive things about our system it's a way of signaling

00:19:37.780 the changes in our society without having to go through um subject some poor people to all some

00:19:44.260 of the horrible things that happen in elections. Yeah, well, and it made the event that we had

00:19:52.580 actually more special rather than if there was just an elected official as much as at first I

00:19:56.740 was like, well, look at all these old trappings of an old system that I find insulting almost

00:20:01.860 as a non-monarchist. But then when you take part in it, well, you realize, well, this made this

00:20:05.220 event something much more and something more special because this was a person of a different

00:20:10.180 sort of stature. And it made, you know, people remembered that. So it showed a different service

00:20:15.140 they're providing that people don't think of necessarily. Yeah. And also not wanting the

00:20:21.260 monarchy is a perfectly legitimate stance. I mean, Canadians should be examining their system

00:20:27.140 of government. That's a proper thing a good citizen does. One thing Canadians, most Canadians

00:20:32.940 don't realize, but is actually caught up in our system and has to do with this whole business of

00:20:40.020 reconciliation that we've all been gasping our way through one way or another, is that the crown

00:20:48.460 has its own unique history with the indigenous nations of this country. And it's all based on

00:20:56.160 treaties, on legal relations. And it's sometimes a shock for non-indigenous Canadians to realize

00:21:02.720 that for many, many indigenous people, particularly older ones, the reverence for the crown

00:21:08.040 seems almost inexplicable, except that it is rooted in what they consider to have been a fair

00:21:15.780 relationship before Confederation. It goes right back to the original treaty relationships between

00:21:24.440 the British Crown and the Canadian Indigenous communities. And that's something that has

00:21:31.500 resurfaced in the wake of all the turmoil we've been putting ourselves through in reconciliation.

00:21:39.480 And it has the opportunity of the Crown being a bridged community. It's really interesting,

00:21:47.480 Corey, if you look at some of the history, whenever Queen Elizabeth ever came over here,

00:21:52.200 there was always a meeting with Indigenous leaders. And it was almost as if the two sides,

00:21:57.120 the Crown and the Indigenous leaders both knew that they were somewhat disdained by the broader

00:22:03.020 Canadian masses, but that they had each other and they could support each other. That was an insight

00:22:08.680 I took from all those meetings. That's a very interesting way to look at it. I really enjoyed

00:22:14.500 reading your book and how you presented it because it wasn't a dry old history book on this. It was

00:22:19.700 just giving some good accounts and personal things. And what I liked is you brought up actually some

00:22:23.620 of the other people, including the spouses of the governor's general, because people forget them

00:22:27.980 and they're important. But also this gentleman, Esmond Butler, came up a number of times. It

00:22:32.260 seems almost like a whole book could be done on this man, speaking of the power behind the throne.

00:22:37.400 He seemed quite fascinating. It's being done. There's a guy down in Nova Scotia that's doing

00:22:41.220 a piece down. He was a really interesting guy. One of the problems some of the successors of the

00:22:46.160 early sort of more imperial governor generals had was they didn't have a solid bureaucrat there

00:22:54.420 helping to guide them. You know, every cabinet minister has a senior unelected advisor in the

00:23:01.820 deputy minister, and governor generals are no different. They come and they go, but they need

00:23:06.240 someone that actually knows how things are done. In the palace in London, they're known as the

00:23:12.500 gray people. This is in Prince Harry's book. He talks about the horrible gray people. Well, 0.96

00:23:15.980 they're the people that actually make a system work. They're the people like we sit on, we're

00:23:21.560 looking out from a camera, but you know how many people need to make you look good on that camera

00:23:25.760 and all that sort of thing. So those people are important. And Esmond Butler was important. And

00:23:32.140 he lived through about three, four or five vice regal appointments. And then Governor General

00:23:37.560 started to want to have their own person to be their deputy minister and i i think they lost

00:23:43.680 some of the sense of continuity but um they didn't they didn't ask my advice although they're getting

00:23:48.500 it yeah well and i mean you you did note you know you you were critical when when need be uh one of

00:23:55.700 the issues with governors general particularly when you're going to be in such a spot with such

00:23:59.120 prestige is the vanity can really come forth it seems to be their own biggest enemy for the most

00:24:04.060 part for the ones. If they manage to get into trouble, they've sort of forgotten about how some

00:24:09.180 of their actions might be perceived by the public. I think what happens in the cases that don't work

00:24:14.420 is they've forgotten that they're not there because of them. They may think that it's because

00:24:18.200 of them, and that may be what propelled them to the attention of the prime minister. But in the

00:24:22.500 end, the job is not about them, it's about the country. And my advice to anybody who's considering

00:24:29.240 that they think they would be a good governor general

00:24:31.340 is take a look at the country that you love

00:24:34.460 and has propelled you in this position.

00:24:36.080 And what do they need?

00:24:36.920 What does it need at the moment?

00:24:38.160 What are people out West thinking?

00:24:40.240 What do they want?

00:24:42.120 Why is Quebec so alienated?

00:24:44.280 All sorts of things.

00:24:45.080 And then how do you then do things

00:24:47.800 that don't conflict with elected officials

00:24:49.700 but can somehow make people feel good?

00:24:51.980 And I did try and give an example,

00:24:55.120 a practical example,

00:24:56.840 when Adrian Clarkson brought the unknown warrior back to a soldier.

00:25:02.600 And I did her whole speech because I thought there was someone struggling

00:25:05.400 to try and pull people together through the symbolism of this sacrifice.

00:25:11.920 And to me, that's what a governor general should be doing.

00:25:14.820 Yeah, and that speech was excellent.

00:25:16.520 I mean, from the point of just reminding people,

00:25:18.540 somebody might have gotten a telegram about their loved one,

00:25:21.680 and that's all you knew, and you never heard of such.

00:25:24.920 And we shouldn't forget that sort of thing.

00:25:26.840 But I'm wondering then, did, I mean, she presented the speech fantastically, and she's a very skilled media person, still is.

00:25:35.900 But was that written by her or for her in that case?

00:25:38.860 Oh, no, believe me, it was written by her.

00:25:40.880 She's, don't even suggest anything else.

00:25:44.060 Well, she's quite capable.

00:25:44.900 That's why I'm asking.

00:25:45.820 I mean, had it been by it, I'd know it was written by somebody else.

00:25:48.380 Any importance.

00:25:49.480 She has speechwriters. 0.97

00:25:50.520 She had speechwriters. 1.00

00:25:51.280 All government generals do. 0.90

00:25:52.320 All premiers do. 0.98

00:25:53.240 but she she knows she she had the reason she was a good governor general um and you know she she has 1.00

00:26:01.800 a prickly personality too uh which she's known for you there's this comedy routine that you say

00:26:07.500 oh i'm adrian clarkson you're not was it was meant to to sort of symbolize that she was perhaps a bit

00:26:12.160 of a snob or whatever but she was a great governor general because she had a sense of the country

00:26:17.400 And that speech was an example.

00:26:19.340 But she also, whenever there was something, a big deal, she would write her own speeches, no question.

00:26:25.140 And to me, that was one of her assets, was that she was a good communicator.

00:26:28.680 She knew how to present herself, and she understood, perhaps because she was slightly at a remove from a traditional government general because of her race and her gender. 0.89

00:26:43.380 Yeah, well, and then she wasn't lacking for resources in the household. I mean, her husband, John Ralston Saul, is, you know, a persona in his own right, of course, and he seemed as, I guess, being in that role, comfortably embraced being kind of the second person for a little while, I guess, confident enough in his own, you know, place that it worked out very well, actually.

00:27:08.920 That's it. That's exactly it. In his case, under the new sort of governor general, and under the old system, the more traditional governor generals, the only one that was really happy was Madame Bagné because she was used to that position.

00:27:21.360 But, you know, I put in the book a story that I once had an interview with Prime Minister Harper, and he said the single biggest headache he had with most of his vice legal appointments was spousal alienation, the Prince Philip job, walking three steps behind, and just not defined.

00:27:39.100 The only thing I've suggested that I thought any new prime minister or appointment to this office should consider is to make an understanding that the spouse, whether it's male or female, has a more elevated role in this and can do things.

00:27:55.300 And to me, there was a great example by accident when when Governor General Leger, who who had a stroke in office and his wife basically had to become the governor general.

00:28:06.860 She read the speeches from the throne and and and did a terrific job.

00:28:12.520 And and most of our relationships, our marriages, if they're working, is as marriage of equals.

00:28:19.460 And I think that that office should be a reflection of what is everyday reality in our lives.

00:28:25.260 Yeah, well, and just to kind of cap it off, it went quickly, but I mean, I would suggest people read the whole book so they could get it all.

00:28:31.500 And towards the end, you shared what you'd offered as advice for Mary Simon's husband, in a sense, I guess, just to help with that role and things like that.

00:28:43.800 Is perhaps, you know, it important, I guess, for these people getting into these roles.

00:28:48.260 They don't necessarily know what they're getting into or their spouses might.

00:28:51.240 Haven't a clue.

00:28:52.800 I don't think anyone has a clue when they go into it.

00:28:57.060 I'm hoping my book scares off the right people and encourages the right ones.

00:29:03.920 Well, that's it.

00:29:04.800 It sounds like a lot of it's the right place and the right time.

00:29:07.740 As you mentioned, you might have been in consideration at one point,

00:29:10.020 but they felt we've had enough journalists for now.

00:29:13.120 That's true.

00:29:13.800 But there was the other issue I had, which was my wife,

00:29:16.420 when she heard there was sniffing around me, she said, 0.99

00:29:18.540 if you want to play queen, you can do it on your own.

00:29:20.620 and we've been married 50 years and I know who the boss is and I also have owed her so much

00:29:28.060 because I was 20 years in a kind of similar position at Massey College as the master of the

00:29:33.720 college and she gave up she gave up her career in CBC and and lots of things so that so that we

00:29:40.460 could do it together and she was great at that so she she she'd earned the right to say okay enough

00:29:45.820 well that's good and you'd written on the importance on how it is a partnership for

00:29:50.200 their governors general and their spouses going in. So you knew as well in such a role, if you

00:29:54.500 don't have the other half on board, you're just a recipe for disaster. Misery. All right. Well, 0.54

00:30:00.480 thank you very much for writing that and for taking the time with us. Before I let you go,

00:30:03.900 how can people find a copy of this book? Should be in leading bookstores everywhere. Are there

00:30:08.000 any bookstores left out in the West? Come on. There's a few here and there. They're not like

00:30:11.300 they used to be. That's for sure. I got to admit, I get most of mine online now. You want to hear

00:30:15.320 something shocking? They told me yesterday, I think because it got launched officially and

00:30:19.240 there there was a launch but they told me it was it was this is a book on governor's general and

00:30:25.380 you know what i'm talking about it was number one of the day non-fiction on amazon

00:30:29.960 and it's the timing i do think we we thank president trump for making us take a look at

00:30:37.600 our own system of government that's one of one of the pluses of that presidency and also um

00:30:42.340 i think also the transition is coming there's going to be a new one appointed almost any day

00:30:46.600 or announced so yeah no we've seen that yeah it's on the way and uh we certainly to see a

00:30:53.340 parallel of our system with the crazy orange man down south uh helps us maybe examine that uh as

00:30:58.960 imperfect as ours might be uh there's also some issues uh to be dealt with on the other end of

00:31:03.020 the spectrum there are there are all right well thank you for for uh talking talking about the

00:31:10.700 subject which is very dear to my heart and important oh i could tell in in reading the

00:31:15.280 writing of it and i look forward to being able to speak with you about it so uh i thank you again

00:31:19.360 and uh look forward to perhaps seeing more of your work out there thanks cory take care yeah

00:31:24.880 so you guys one more time that uh it was john fraser and and if you look it up yes on on amazon

00:31:29.520 or in your local bookstores then uh the governor's general and and it's a good read and and it's just

00:31:35.040 the the ones from the 60s uh getting up into contemporary and uh as i said you know i mean

00:31:41.520 yeah there's guys like me I like reading some nice thick history tomes and so on but this is

00:31:46.560 broken more into bite-sized pieces governor general by governor general and it's not

00:31:51.120 going into the real nuts and bolts but just more of the personalities and characters of them and

00:31:57.040 they have been uh from ones I guess and he was you know a critical answer and flattering uh on on

00:32:03.920 each of them in different aspects Ed Schreier sort of one it was just sort of adequate he was there

00:32:08.560 He did okay, didn't do bad, didn't stand out, and filled the role.

00:32:14.060 And you get farther, as I mentioned, Julie Payette, who really I think most people would agree just was a terrible, terrible selection for the job.

00:32:22.420 Just was not the person who should have been there. 0.99

00:32:24.880 And it's not that she was a foolish person. 0.97

00:32:27.160 She was very accomplished. 0.98

00:32:28.360 I mean, this is an astronaut, literally.

00:32:30.360 This is a strong force, a determined person, but just did absolutely horrifically in that role.

00:32:37.800 And some of that, I guess, is you got to point to the person who selected her for that.

00:32:42.580 And that is Justin Trudeau, whose vision for the consequences of his actions was never really one of his stronger points, to say the least.

00:32:50.620 I've been, you know, you know how I feel about former Prime Minister Trudeau.

00:32:54.680 Either way, yes, I suggest you guys get out, grab that book if you like history and contemporary history and the realities of some of the things with the system right now.

00:33:04.000 I mean, I'm as critical of the system as it gets.

00:33:07.800 I feel that we should work towards something of a more Republican system or, of course,

00:33:14.120 right, independence.

00:33:15.100 I mean, and if we look at Michelle Jeanne, she was independence leading from the Quebec 0.97

00:33:23.140 side of things and still managed to sit as a governor general.

00:33:26.160 You know, again, an interesting cast of characters.

00:33:27.940 I don't think I'll ever be sitting in that role.

00:33:30.300 But we've got to learn from what's gone on before us and what's happened in there and

00:33:34.700 realize that these people do hold important roles, even if at times it feels they aren't

00:33:41.720 necessarily doing a good job at it. All right. I'm just trying to keep up with the news with

00:33:48.440 things. I was, you know, speaking of polarity in politics, I mean, I'm pretty conservative,

00:33:52.760 but yeah, Trump, boy, you know, when I saw that statement, when he was talking about

00:33:57.980 annihilating a civilization. And then if people, you know, look, the word genocide has been abused.

00:34:06.300 It's been misused. It's been applied to everything from Kentucky fried chicken outlets to, uh, you

00:34:13.200 know, to what's happening, uh, or happened in Gaza to all over the place. And it is questionable,

00:34:18.920 but when you actually will stand up and say that you're going to eliminate an entire civilization,

00:34:25.320 him. And he didn't. And he probably never was planning to. But that is what genocide is, guys.

00:34:34.220 It is. And I'm sorry, but that is grossly irresponsible. I'm tired of the apologists

00:34:39.960 for Trump and the mess he's making on some of this, guys. And they get all upset with me.

00:34:45.020 You know, when I put a tweet, I was just saying, look, no president should speak that way ever.

00:34:48.620 You just don't. You just don't. I don't care about your art of the deal crap. I don't care

00:34:54.100 from some people trying to say, well, he didn't really mean it. He's just a BS-er, and that's the

00:34:57.400 way he negotiates. You don't negotiate by threatening to annihilate an entire civilization.

00:35:04.820 People say, well, he only just meant actually the Iranian government or the IRGC. No, he didn't. He

00:35:10.020 said his whole civilization. You don't take him literally. I have to take him literally, because

00:35:15.440 he literally is the man with the access to the nuclear codes. So when he says stuff like that,

00:35:21.740 even though you know, and I knew when I saw it that, yeah, he's probably just being full of crap 0.99

00:35:27.120 again, but this is serious, serious business. This is a war. This is missiles flying, people dying, 0.99

00:35:35.100 buildings being leveled. And when a man as unserious as that is propagating this, and then

00:35:42.260 people saying, look, you got the ceasefire today. I didn't, that lasted only about 20 minutes. It

00:35:47.220 Sounds like the latest reports now that Iran has closed the strait again and they've launched

00:35:53.460 missiles into Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, UAE, and Israel. So I don't know. The hornet's nest

00:36:01.880 has been poked over there. The goal should be to find a ceasefire and some resolution.

00:36:07.840 Some people are, you know, some of the stuff they were saying to me, oh, 0.99

00:36:10.920 Corey, put the tampon back in your butt and stuff like that because I was critical of Trump. Guys, 0.99

00:36:17.220 If your leader can't be criticized, you're in a cult, okay?

00:36:23.000 I'm not saying Trump hasn't done a single thing that's been good.

00:36:25.960 No, he's done some good things.

00:36:27.740 But seriously, he's doing some really unhinged things lately. 0.98

00:36:31.980 I mean, I am not a supporter of Iran.

00:36:35.020 I've always been a strong supporter of Israel. 0.96

00:36:37.400 I still am supportive of the efforts in southern Lebanon because you've got Hezbollah. 0.91

00:36:42.460 it's been launching missiles from there into Israel for years and years and years and how long 1.00

00:36:48.820 are you going to put up with that the the analogy I use is if you're near Buffalo New New York and

00:36:53.600 on the Canadian side for years they were just launching missiles into Buffalo all the time

00:36:57.360 how long do you think it'd be before uh there's gonna be retaliation I see a commenter Cyril

00:37:03.460 Arnold said Israel broke the ceasefire by attacking Lebanon and Iran retaliate well you see the

00:37:08.620 ceasefire didn't involve Lebanon. It was about Iran. So we got to understand the complexities

00:37:13.500 of this deal. And that was already put up by the White House. Their peace deal had nothing to do

00:37:17.580 with Israel dealing with Hezbollah and southern Lebanon. That wasn't part of the deal. That's

00:37:23.540 the excuse that Iran's using now to start shooting again. Though, again, I'm not saying Israel doesn't 1.00

00:37:29.440 do anything wrong either. No, they do. But how long are you going to put up with it? 1.00

00:37:33.120 I, we, the Middle East has been an issue since, you know, since the Messiah was walking around 0.83

00:37:41.560 if he did, uh, and it will continue to be. And, uh, you know, how do you resolve it? I don't know, 0.89

00:37:51.360 but you need somebody more nuanced than Trump to deal with it. That's one thing I'll definitely

00:37:56.880 they say. And we can't sit and claim he's doing a good job when he pulls off things like that.

00:38:04.380 And even if the ceasefire had held and maybe it'll come back in, look at the terms of it.

00:38:08.480 He's calling it a victory, but that's Trump. I mean, Trump would crap himself and claim it was 0.93

00:38:11.720 a victory because he saved a bathroom somewhere. I mean, they were talking about this ceasefire 0.96

00:38:16.960 deal, meaning that Iran gets to charge a toll for every ship going by there and that they still get 0.55

00:38:23.100 maintain their weapons development programs and basically saying we're turning back the clock and 0.73

00:38:27.900 and maybe we'll actually help you rebuild some of that what on earth did you just accomplish

00:38:34.060 i don't know but what i i mean there's stuff i literally don't know there's stuff i don't know

00:38:39.980 what happened with this behind closed doors or whatever else fine but that response from some

00:38:46.540 of the people and i know social media is not exactly where i'm going to get good nuanced

00:38:49.500 responses to thoughts and questions but when you some of them climb all over me because i criticize

00:38:54.940 the orange man guys hey again think a little harder no no leader is above critique particularly

00:39:07.820 trump and i'd say he's getting worse he's getting more unstable and he's in a very strong position

00:39:15.100 of power. And I don't, I can't say that his moves have been rational when they haven't been.

00:39:23.560 Well, let's see what else we got going on in our mess. Speaking of identity and history and things

00:39:28.180 like that, Nigel Hannaford, you know, writes that fantastic opinion stuff in here as always,

00:39:33.240 talking about Canada's ministry and propaganda, rewriting the citizen's guide into woke utopia.

00:39:37.800 Give that one a read. It's good. This is where we're going. This is the citizenship guide. This

00:39:42.020 is the new canadians that were supposed to be coming here and this guide towards citizenship 0.91

00:39:45.700 because they put in a whole bunch of revisionist woke crap into it and that's what they're getting 0.69

00:39:52.340 taught when they come here and we wonder why we have problems with assimilation integration 0.86

00:40:00.040 communities getting along over here this is more of that undercutting of canada's identity this is

00:40:07.140 more of that post-national state that trudeau talked about that actually has led to the unity

00:40:11.600 crisis we're having today. And it's, you know, things are falling apart, speaking on the unity

00:40:18.680 front. So we've had the court hearings going on with the, just for people not familiar with

00:40:23.820 Alberta, the Sturgeon Lake Band feels that it should not be allowed for Albertans to have a

00:40:30.520 referendum without their permission. That's the bottom line. They feel that people who represent

00:40:33.960 less than 5% of Canada's Alberta's population should be able to tell the whole 100% what we're

00:40:39.420 allowed to we're not allowed to have a vote on it's before a judge and it sounds like that the

00:40:44.420 it's a gong gong show their legal team uh they picked them from timu or something uh they're

00:40:50.560 just bizarre but it's funny on social media i was getting these tweets from people who were saying

00:40:55.040 uh yeah cory you came up in the courtroom yesterday what yeah i i i guess because i

00:41:01.380 shot that video on the sixica reserve that's the reserve that got over a billion dollars from

00:41:05.100 Trudeau, and yet the people, it looks like backwater Mexico, because the chiefs and council

00:41:10.300 did something with $1.2 billion, who knows, but it certainly didn't build houses. And I shot video

00:41:14.920 of it and got them very upset. And they charged me with trespassing. That's going to go to my own

00:41:19.060 trial, which would make sense that my name is going to come up in later in June. But I guess

00:41:23.580 they were claiming that the whole independence movement is full of racists because of that.

00:41:27.140 They called me racist in the courtroom. You know, as I said, I don't quote Trudeaus often, but

00:41:31.320 Pierre Trudeau said it best at one time saying, I've been called worse by better. 0.98

00:41:35.460 I really don't care if a bunch of entitled losers like the Sturgeon Lake Band and their 0.93

00:41:40.160 half-rate lawyers, were these DEI hires or something? The judge, I guess, has mostly 0.95

00:41:45.140 been dismissing all of their stuff. They were talking about foreign interference and the

00:41:48.240 Russians are behind the independence, but all this crazy stuff in front of the judge and the

00:41:51.100 judge is like, geez, what's going on? Either way, I just like to bring attention to things.

00:41:56.740 So if you want, check out my YouTube channel, look up Corey Morgan, and you can see for

00:42:01.180 yourself some of the reserves I shot video on. Let's keep using that stray sound effect. If you

00:42:05.660 guys want to keep coming back at me on this, that's fine. I'll keep exposing what you're

00:42:09.500 doing over there. And it's not good, guys. I can't believe somebody who's managing their

00:42:14.940 own people's lives so horribly and corruptedly. Is corruptedly a word? I don't know. As the

00:42:21.040 chiefs, though, have the nerve to tell anybody else that they can or can't have

00:42:27.240 referendum on something. I just got to hit a commenter again. You know, Cyril Arnold saying

00:42:34.340 Lebanon did not attack Israel. Bull. Spare me. Come on. Hezbollah has been camped and I was just 0.57

00:42:41.780 there last fall, southern Lebanon, and using it as a launch pad to attack Israel for years. 0.81

00:42:49.380 They're entrenched in there. Why are houses getting hit? Because they put the rocket launchers 0.97

00:42:54.400 in people's houses and the government of Lebanon has had a long time to clean that up and like I 0.93

00:43:02.300 said the other analogy talking about somebody launching stuff into Buffalo like the Canadian

00:43:06.140 government saying oh well we're not doing it but it's those guys down there down in Niagara Falls

00:43:10.200 doing it's not our fault you think the states would say oh okay well we'll just let them keep

00:43:14.780 launching rockets at us then no Lebanon did attack Israel at least Hezbollah did attack Israel from

00:43:21.820 southern Lebanon. And Lebanon keeps housing Hezbollah. So yeah, this is going to happen. 0.77

00:43:29.180 You know what? Something I mentioned a little while ago. Look on a map. Jordan. It's kind of

00:43:32.740 got the biggest border with Israel of all. Look at that. Jordan, full of Palestinians, Muslims,

00:43:37.640 Islamic people. And guess what? Israel has never done a thing to them lately. Why? Because Jordan

00:43:43.580 hasn't been attacking them. Look at that. You don't launch rockets into Israel. You don't send

00:43:47.480 terrorists into Israel. You don't rape Israelis and slaughter people at music festivals and holy 0.66

00:43:51.740 crap, they leave you alone. What a formula. Astounding how that works, isn't it? It's a 1.00

00:43:57.920 mess over there, but I'm not going to make excuses for Lebanon's government. They've been housing 1.00

00:44:01.060 that crap. All right, back to the other thing. Just one other thing, land acknowledgements and 1.00

00:44:04.680 fun stuff. Freedom Calendar put that up. It was about half a million views. I spoke at a fundraiser

00:44:10.560 last week and I did my own version of a land acknowledgement, like I said, and it's just gone

00:44:14.700 crazy with that people are sick of those things and uh they're sharing that like heck so they

00:44:19.340 want to hear something else maybe it's time we all at every possible opportunity give a realistic 0.97

00:44:23.240 land acknowledgement let's push back stop that indoctrination and crap from being fed in our

00:44:28.420 schools our sporting events our radio stations you name it i'll be doing other things i'll be

00:44:33.600 at peace river friday night speaking with chris scott and some others on independence uh this

00:44:37.740 week driving up north maybe at lacrete saturday night way up there come on out if you get the

00:44:43.180 chance, though. It'll be a good chat talk and some

00:44:45.080 independence. We're spreading that stuff all

00:44:47.120 over the place and putting a lot of miles on the

00:44:49.000 car these days. We'll see how the court actions

00:44:50.960 go. Tomorrow, I believe, Jeff Rath

00:44:53.240 and Eva Chipiak are going to be

00:44:55.100 speaking on the pro-referendum

00:44:57.180 side. It's sad that we have to fight for the right

00:44:59.020 of democracy like that, but we do.

00:45:01.220 And that's the way it goes. Be sure to tune in

00:45:03.140 to the pipeline. Tonight, we'll break

00:45:05.060 down some more issues and things going on

00:45:07.260 and subscribe to all those Western

00:45:08.840 Standard channels and things and everything else.

00:45:10.840 Thank you guys for the comments, even the ones disagreeing with me.

00:45:13.660 That's part of it. I do support free speech, even if I'm going to call you weenies for

00:45:17.340 disagreeing with me at times. So thank you for tuning in today, guys. We will see you again

00:45:21.580 next week at this time.

00:45:43.180 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - April 09, 2026

High-speed train wreck coming for Canadian wallets

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