Western Standard - Jeromy Farkas chats with Cory about his hike from Mexico to Canada

00:00:00.000 Jeremy Farkas is in studio with me today. Hey, welcome back to Canada.

00:00:04.880 Well, thanks so much for having me. I know we did a couple of chats remotely from the trail

00:00:09.240 and just really appreciate the coverage and the love that the Western Standard's been giving big

00:00:14.280 brothers and big sisters. Well, it's a good cause. I mean, you know, if you're doing some run for

00:00:18.600 something stupid, you know, fair about it. But no, it's a good cause and it was a good creative 0.97

00:00:24.700 way to do it. I mean, some people, some of that discussion, they're saying, you know,

00:00:27.840 why can't people just donate when they was going to do a run? Well, because that's the way it works.

00:00:31.280 You bring attention to something, you make it an event and it draws people's eyes. So we'll start

00:00:36.500 with, I mean, so I'll get you to explain the whole thing in a sense, but I mean, it's been a great

00:00:40.280 success. What number is the fundraising at so far? And I know there's still room to help out with this.

00:00:44.280 Yeah. So by day one on the trail, we hit the $50,000 goal. And then by halfway, we hit a hundred

00:00:50.400 thousand. And then we've set this new goal of 125,000, which we're going to be fundraising until

00:00:55.740 September 20th, when we are hosting sort of like a welcome home party, kind of movies from the trail

00:01:00.640 kind of nights at Kenya Meadows theater. So there's tickets that people can buy for that, but

00:01:05.000 sort of rewinding a bit, last five and a half months has just been insane. I've ran something

00:01:10.440 like 5,000 kilometers all the way from Mexico to Canada. And of course, as you said, you have to

00:01:16.520 have a hook, right? There's a lot of good charities out there, but they're not all made the same. And

00:01:20.580 myself as a fiscal conservative, I spent a lot of time looking at their books and reviewing just

00:01:25.700 where that money is going. And I was just really, really proud to see how their volunteer organization

00:01:30.760 making a difference in the lives of kids. And that money that's being raised is actually going out the

00:01:35.340 door to help kids and not on a bloated administration and stuff like that.

00:01:39.320 Yeah. And big brothers and big sisters. I mean, it's more like a mentoring organization for kids who

00:01:42.780 might not have a household where they're getting enough time with, I guess you could say guiding figures

00:01:48.980 and so on. And they help with that sort of relationship for kids. I mean, it's very

00:01:53.480 beneficial for everybody in the long run. I mean, there's a lot of good causes, but it is a good

00:01:56.800 one. So I start describing your run there. I mean, you know, you documented it for people who aren't

00:02:03.380 following, you know, Jeremy is really documented excellently on Facebook. You know, you can have a

00:02:09.100 look at it and you've been posting your almost a diary and pictures and thoughts. And there's some of

00:02:13.520 the pictures coming up on the screen you took, you know, the Canadian flag and up on

00:02:17.100 mountaintops. I mean, you started on the Mexican American border as far south as we're going to

00:02:21.620 get. So I guess you're beginning in quite a desert environment. Yeah, it's pretty much all of the

00:02:25.000 above. My friends dropped me off at the Mexican border. And from there, it was sandstorms. Even

00:02:30.900 though it was the desert, it was very cold at nights when I started in March. So it was still

00:02:34.360 sometimes minus 20, minus 30 degrees Celsius. And the hottest day I had was 118 degrees Fahrenheit,

00:02:41.600 which I had to look it up. It translates to like 47 degrees Celsius, which I cannot believe.

00:02:46.160 Some of the conditions. And again, we had all the above. So we had blizzards, we had snowstorms,

00:02:51.840 raging rivers, creek crossings. And, you know, it was a great experience for me personally. And

00:02:57.440 I felt that, you know, maybe there's a potential there for sending off more former politicians into

00:03:02.320 the wilderness. Yeah. Well, no doubt it. Maybe some current ones too.

00:03:04.780 I mean, you get a lot of time to think though. I mean, being serious almost, you know, I mean,

00:03:08.860 an opportunity for some introspection. I mean, the views look incredible. I'm sure you're

00:03:13.980 distracted with a lot of that, or just trying to keep your legs moving or trying not to freeze

00:03:17.780 your knackers off in the night, but still you get a lot of time to dwell on things and, you know,

00:03:22.780 meditate and think of what you might do with stuff. I mean, that was, what was it? Four months,

00:03:26.740 five months? Yeah, five months. And I had a lot of close calls, a lot of challenges. I ran into

00:03:32.360 frostbite and other issues. And I, there was a lot of times I really wanted to quit, but I had so many

00:03:37.460 people from back home supporting me, supporting big brothers and big sisters, contributing,

00:03:42.600 following along online. And that, that really helped me. And, you know, I'll even admit to

00:03:47.500 Korn, on just a personal level, you know, after you're done on the election night and it's a failure

00:03:54.740 in a very public way, it's hard to bounce back from that. And I knew on election night, I knew I could

00:04:00.660 either focus on being bitter or getting better. So I knew I wanted to continue to make a difference.

00:04:06.620 And I wasn't happy to take no for an answer and just really, really thrilled to see how Calgarians

00:04:11.540 has stepped up in such a big way for such an incredible organization.

00:04:15.260 Yeah. And it is a good positive bounce. Like for people who haven't run before,

00:04:18.060 don't understand necessarily. I mean, I've run before, but I never ran under the illusions that

00:04:21.940 I was going to win. I always did to make a statement, but I actually managed some campaigns

00:04:24.560 where we had a very realistic chance of winning. And when you're that immersed in it, it's personal,

00:04:28.960 it's serious. And when you narrowly lose or, you know, you, or even with a low-eyed margin,

00:04:35.040 but you thought you were going to win, it, it, it's quite a blow. It takes some recovery. I mean,

00:04:39.580 you know, so that's a good, healthy way, you know, you didn't curl up in bed and, and you know,

00:04:45.460 watch the world go by, you, you jumped on something else and you got rolling. It's great.

00:04:49.160 Yeah. And I, uh, wasn't ever sure how much of that support for me politically would translate

00:04:55.760 into something completely different. Like, I don't think anybody on their 2022, uh, bingo cards had

00:05:01.260 Jeremy Farkas running from Mexico to Canada, but, uh, I had a lot of people step up in a big way.

00:05:07.320 And even to his credit, uh, former mayor Nenshi, he did a great video for me and a lot of funny jokes

00:05:12.700 in there. You should watch it, but he's, he's talking about, well, Farkas, I told you to go take a 0.99

00:05:17.160 like, how many times, but I never thought you'd take it literally. So it's been very, very, uh,

00:05:22.680 fun to see how Calgarians have stepped up in such a big way. And now I just got to figure out what

00:05:27.100 else to do with my life. Well, I wanted to get onto that a bit. I mean, you're here, uh, you know,

00:05:31.440 we got a whole lot of political activity happening. I mean, we know it's in your blood, whether you like

00:05:35.520 it or not. I mean, it's a terrible affliction. I, I, I, I suffered from it myself. I'm never running

00:05:40.700 for office again. Now I just sit on the sideline and picket you guys, but have you got any plans?

00:05:45.760 What's going on here? Well, on September 20th, we're going to be hosting that welcome home party.

00:05:50.200 So really my focus right now is selling tickets to that. I think we still have maybe two dozen

00:05:55.020 tickets. So that's selling out fast. And it's a BBBS Calgary.ca where people can find that,

00:06:00.260 but beyond that, you know, I'm looking for opportunities to still make a difference.

00:06:03.920 And the last five months I've been really good. I've been off of Twitter, but now that I'm back,

00:06:08.640 it's sort of like, it's a drug that you're addicted to and I'm kind of relapsed. But, uh, I think

00:06:14.580 right now, just kind of taking it easy, eating all of the ice cream and enjoying my air conditioning.

00:06:19.920 Yeah. I mean, there's just those comforts in life. You'll certainly learn to, uh, appreciate a lot

00:06:24.800 more. I mean, uh, I remember, uh, the first time I had you on, cause you're still kind of in the

00:06:28.440 desert area and that too, and you were dealing with, I mean, well, again, the extremes, you're

00:06:31.500 getting near frost at night, but you got rattlesnakes to watch out during the day and things like

00:06:35.800 that. And then you hit the high country. I mean, you've got bears to look at, or, or even concerns,

00:06:41.080 I guess about, uh, other hikers. Actually, there's something I wanted to ask about it. I worked on

00:06:45.020 the Texas and Mexico border a lot in the past oil exploration, but it could be very dangerous down

00:06:51.260 there in the sense of some of the people, unfortunately. I mean, uh, most of them were

00:06:54.840 people just trying to cross and make a better life and they're running for it, but there's a lot of,

00:06:58.060 uh, you know, cartel activity and drug runners and so on. Was that a concern while you were doing

00:07:01.740 that first self zone down there? Oh, it, it was, uh, pretty much everything. Like you'd run into,

00:07:06.780 um, uh, crazy encounters with animals like mountain lions, bears, rattlesnakes, all the above. And then,

00:07:15.120 uh, I'd say the people were the best part of the experience for me. Like I'd run into all sorts of

00:07:19.640 incredible people that, uh, I never in my ordinary life would, uh, ever have the chance to. And it's

00:07:25.660 about, uh, one in 10 or one in five who started in Mexico actually make it to Canada. So by the time

00:07:31.780 you're nearing the end, these are people who are battle worn buddies, like they're comrades who you

00:07:37.200 would give everything and anything to see them finish more so than you want to see yourself finish.

00:07:41.800 So you make some incredible friends for life, but, uh, I'll, I'll be sharing more stories. Uh,

00:07:47.980 you have to hitchhike a lot, which is just, that is an incredible tour of small town America having,

00:07:53.320 uh, got him maybe 50 or 60 hitchhike rides. And there's some interesting, uh, people that I got

00:07:58.780 to meet and maybe I'll leave it there. Yeah. Well, and, uh, you know, the social opportunities,

00:08:03.220 I mean, you know, for crabby introverts like myself, for example, I drive Uber, I like driving

00:08:09.220 it. I always have, I never, you know, I actually enjoy it. And part of the reason for it is I get a

00:08:13.360 completely unfiltered mix of people in the box. I mean, some of them, oh, they suck. Some of them stink, 1.00

00:08:17.280 literally. I mean, in summer weather, there's some, you know, I should be able to charge extra for

00:08:20.240 people for personal hygiene. Well, that would be the hikers. That would be

00:08:23.300 me for sure. Well, you got an excuse for when you're in the mountains for a week,

00:08:26.980 at least you're in an open area. So the wind can blow it away. But I mean, what I mean though,

00:08:30.940 is it's, it's nice to get, you know, when we're in politics, when we're at home, when we're in

00:08:34.820 Alberta, we can get into our own bubbles. We only talk to our own social circles. We only talk to

00:08:39.740 our own. And when you get something that's completely random as you would be, you know,

00:08:44.420 in hiking a trail, I mean, you get every sort of person who's joining you, whether for a day,

00:08:47.680 or maybe they're doing a couple of weeks or whether you're hitchhiking. I just think,

00:08:51.180 likewise, an Uber, I never know who I'm going to. And there's some very interesting and they help

00:08:54.120 me think sometimes people, geez, I never thought, you know, I would never get that idea from somebody

00:08:57.860 here in the newsroom. Not that there's lots of ideas here. But it's interesting how much they say

00:09:02.660 that all politics is local. Like I did the side trip to San Francisco where their big Democrat defund

00:09:09.100 the police district attorney was actually being recalled. And there's that election going on. And

00:09:14.600 there's a part of Oregon and California that's actually trying to separate and go on their own as

00:09:19.400 their own state. And they're, and they're frustrated and they're frustrated with the big cities making

00:09:24.500 the decisions for them. And, you know, it's interesting history doesn't repeat itself,

00:09:28.400 but it seems like it rhymes. For me, it was just incredible to be able to unplug. And especially

00:09:34.100 after the election, we're just so busy or nonstop, maybe 40, 50 events a day to actually hear nothing,

00:09:41.180 hear silence. That was an incredible experience.

00:09:43.760 Yeah. I mean, it's a big challenge, but your goal is kind of a lot more simple too. It's just

00:09:47.420 keep that one foot in front of the other, keep going. I mean, it's not nuanced in that sense.

00:09:52.940 It's still challenging. I mean, the psychological aspects, I mean, your writings, sometimes you can

00:09:56.720 see you were seriously questioning yourself at times. One, I got to admit, you did that on purpose

00:10:01.060 a bit. You started out as if, oh, I'm pulling the pin. I'm out of here. You know, I'm going to be at

00:10:05.460 the airport. I think you were in your Sacramento at that time or so. Ah, shit, he gave up. And no,

00:10:09.600 no, you, you stuck at it.

00:10:11.100 Well, for me, I just wanted to do something I really never could as a, as a politician. I just

00:10:16.460 wanted to be very raw. I wanted to be unfiltered. I guess as a politician, I was relatively unfiltered,

00:10:21.900 but I wanted to actually show people the highs and the lows. And for me, it was an incredible

00:10:27.180 experience because it made me really realize that, you know, life is just not a, it's not just a

00:10:32.020 straight line between successes and successes. There's failures there. And for me, I think I've

00:10:38.660 come back to Calgary now and probably the toughest I've ever been physically and mentally.

00:10:42.760 Well, it helps humanize you when you're writing your thoughts and things like that too. I mean,

00:10:46.180 people forget politicians are just, they're people with thoughts and ideas and doubts and things such

00:10:51.380 as that. I see Linda Gibson saying, you should write a book. Are you considering such? I mean,

00:10:55.180 that could be the basis. You know, one of the most interesting books I ever read was a young guy who

00:10:59.000 sailed solo around the world in a little sailboat. And that was just, you know, his diary and thoughts

00:11:03.260 all the way through. You know, I'd want it to be interesting. I would like to write a little bit

00:11:09.760 more about how my experience during the election shaped some of what I was seeing and what I was

00:11:14.160 feeling on the ground, but I'd like it to be more like a how-to manual. I don't want it to be a boring

00:11:19.440 memoir of somebody who's been off on some adventure. I see the best potential in terms of how I can

00:11:25.080 challenge people to get up and try to do the same. Like, you don't just wake up one day and decide

00:11:29.720 you're going to run 5,000 kilometers across the continent. Like, I would want to challenge especially

00:11:34.440 young folks to think bigger and to want to take on a challenge like that or even bigger. So it would

00:11:40.760 be more of an invitation. It would be more of a challenge to people to, you know, for me, I never

00:11:45.720 thought that when I started that I would be able to finish, but I was able to learn along the way. And I think that

00:11:51.480 speaks to a lot about life as well as the work that big brothers and big sisters do.

00:11:55.320 So it sounds like you have thought about writing a book already, but you got a little bit of mind

00:11:58.520 on it. If you were to write one, that that's kind of where you would go with it.

00:12:01.560 Well, I got probably thousands of pages already up on Facebook where I go on a daily basis,

00:12:06.360 the people that I met, the adventures that I've had, and really excited to share some more of the

00:12:10.360 video and the pictures on our movie night on September 20th, where I'll actually be able to go into the

00:12:15.640 details and see, well, this is the mountain that I've climbed. And it's just,

00:12:20.120 it's astonishing to think about how far I've come. And I can't help but think though,

00:12:24.360 a lot of the people that I met along the way who are not as fortunate enough to me had injuries and

00:12:29.800 for one reason or another, were unable to finish. So I think a lot about the people that I met.

00:12:34.760 Yeah. So how are you settling in? Like, I remember my oil field time. So I go for 60,

00:12:39.720 80 days away, actually, for my first couple of weeks back to Calgary, Jane would note it. I'm a

00:12:43.160 little squirrely for the first little while. It takes a bit to get used to the city again,

00:12:46.440 to other people, traffic, routines. Has it been a bit of a culture shock coming back right now?

00:12:53.560 Well, I've been eating all of the food. When I got back, I went to Costco and I think I'm going

00:12:58.840 to have to go to Costco again in terms of all the cookies and the chips and the stuff that you really,

00:13:02.520 really crave when you're out there. Pizza too. And you kind of get tired eating all the same stuff

00:13:07.640 because when you're out there, of course, you have to carry everything on your own back. You have to wear

00:13:12.360 basically your tent, your shelter, your food, your cooking supplies and stuff like that. So I try to

00:13:19.000 keep everything really ultra light, but yeah, I've been eating a lot and hopefully, well, there's the

00:13:25.480 benefit though, that I think I'm the only one who's been away as long as I have and actually came back

00:13:29.800 with my jeans fitting better than when I left. Well, there you go. Yeah. Most people come back from 1.00

00:13:34.600 vacation. You know, like me, I go up a bra size, but I go to sit around. So with all of that though,

00:13:43.640 I mean basically, are you considering other types of runs then down the road? I mean, there's a East

00:13:48.840 Coast trail that goes through the Appalachians and things such as that that looks pretty fascinating.

00:13:53.320 Not quite that long connected stretch like the West one, but yeah, I have a lot of ideas kicking

00:13:58.520 around. I know I want to be involved in youth mentorship. Politics is very much my passion. I was able to

00:14:04.360 kick my Twitter habit while I was gone, but now I just really, really care about what's happening

00:14:09.640 in our community. And I know that for better, for worse, I built a certain kind of platform and

00:14:15.080 people, I was just so fortunate that people were willing to actually take a look at Big Brothers and

00:14:20.600 Big Sisters. So I'm thinking about ways that I can make a positive difference that way. But, you know,

00:14:26.040 I haven't really thought too much and there's not a lot of mental bandwidth when you're out there,

00:14:30.360 but just so grateful for the fact that people have stepped up in such a big way. And

00:14:34.680 I'd say for all the kind of adversity I experienced, there's a lot of kids here in Calgary who are

00:14:40.440 experiencing absolutely worse every single day of their life. So when I think about ways that I can

00:14:45.400 contribute to them to be able to help them make a, write a new chapter or rather a new ending to their

00:14:50.680 story, that makes all the difference to me. Well, that's it. I mean, it's a very important

00:14:54.120 developmental time. I mean, if we get into larger conversations, these things I write my columns on,

00:14:58.040 things like that though. I mean, when you're talking about

00:15:00.680 chronic criminals or people who are in trouble or, you know, rehabilitating. I mean, 0.98

00:15:03.800 the best time to get somebody back on track is in that first 20 years of their life, not

00:15:08.280 once they're 30 and already in grave trouble. And things like Big Brothers, Big Sisters, that helps

00:15:13.080 catch kids before they get on the wrong track quite often.

00:15:15.400 I would just challenge the typical Conservatives to donate, to contribute. If you're not wanting

00:15:21.480 government to do things like this, I think it's our responsibility to step up and support those

00:15:25.640 organizations. Because organizations like Big Brothers and Big Sisters, they have a strong

00:15:30.840 stated goal to be less reliant on government programs and government grants. And that's going

00:15:35.400 to rely or require that grassroots support to be able to step up and allow them to roll out these programs.

00:15:41.400 Yeah. And likewise, there's a lot of volunteer opportunities too, of course. I mean,

00:15:44.040 there's that mentorship that's involved. So, I mean, if somebody has the time and is good with

00:15:47.880 that sort of thing, you know, they can sign up and get involved directly with Big Brothers and

00:15:52.280 Sisters as well. I mean, they need those people, right?

00:15:54.360 Yeah. And there's many, many different ways that you can give. And I think that the fact that we've been

00:16:00.120 able to use that platform and showcase a lot of the work that BBBS is doing, I think that's incredible

00:16:06.760 success. And we're going to be pushing as hard as we can over the next, I think two weeks or so to

00:16:11.320 be able to smash through that final $125,000 goal.

00:16:14.760 Mm-hmm. So just maybe just a bit back to the hiking. So you're talking about carrying your food

00:16:18.920 and I know you got to work with stuff that's nutritional and light, but I mean, so you had

00:16:23.160 quite an organizational thing too. Like you had mail drops or you had food set ahead of you,

00:16:28.040 didn't you? A response like that?

00:16:29.240 Yeah. So I was on my own and there wasn't any kind of support crew or van or anything like that

00:16:35.720 following me. And whenever I was in a big enough place, like say Palm Springs, I'd go to the Trader

00:16:41.320 Joe's or the Costco or the Walmart and I'd take these boxes. I'd go to the post office and say,

00:16:46.440 well, all right, I'm going to send this package with granola bars out to this corner store in

00:16:51.960 Washington States. And then I'm going to hope that it's still there when I roll out.

00:16:57.800 Yeah. So there's, there's a lot of logistics and that was probably the most challenging.

00:17:04.520 Sometimes you could be, uh, walking or running say a hundred or 200 miles without any water in

00:17:10.840 between. So can you imagine carrying enough water to last you for a week or two weeks? Like that was

00:17:16.440 just, it's heavy. And every step of the way though, there's these, uh, trail angels who step up and

00:17:22.280 they're members of the local community that, uh, will arrange rides. They'll, uh, maintain water

00:17:27.240 caches and stuff like that. And it was really the, I thought the trail was going to be the dirt or the

00:17:32.520 mountains or the sand or the deserts, but it was so obviously the people and it's been incredible

00:17:38.120 experience and I've definitely come back and feeling a lot more mellow, especially after the election.

00:17:42.040 Yeah. So maybe, um, outside of that, you know, outside of the big brothers and the, if somebody's

00:17:46.920 of a hiking mind or is interested in that trail, like, where do you find what's it calling us?

00:17:50.920 The Pacific coast trail. Yeah. So it's a Pacific crest trail. I'm told that there's a, this movie

00:17:55.160 wild with Reese Witherspoon. So it showcases it, but I've not actually seen the movie.

00:17:59.320 Okay. But, uh, I would definitely encourage people to take a look and there's many people I met. Uh,

00:18:04.440 I think the youngest who was doing it was five years old and I think the oldest was 78 that I

00:18:09.560 personally met. Yeah. Uh, there's some people who do a different section every single year, but for

00:18:14.920 those who actually start in March or April and make it to the end, it's only about one in five who are

00:18:20.280 able to finish. And for me, I was really lucky. A lot of things had to go right for me to be able to

00:18:26.200 make it back home in decent shape. Well, and in one badly twisted ankle, or there's a number of

00:18:31.960 things that could happen that stop it. I mean, even if you have the best of intention and, uh,

00:18:36.760 so, I mean, you, you'd also, uh, got nailed with COVID while you were there. Yeah, I know.

00:18:40.680 I think I got that in San Francisco. It was like the most ridiculous thing to get COVID when you're,

00:18:44.920 you're completely alone for many, many days at a time. So you get monkeypox. So, uh, 0.85

00:18:51.560 but I mean, COVID, I mean, if that's one thing I've heard from everybody who's gotten it,

00:18:54.040 actually of all the things it does, those really drains the energy out of you. So I mean,

00:18:57.320 of all the things to get hit with when you've got to hike miles and miles every day,

00:19:01.880 uh, it was just an unfortunate thing to lay you up with. Yeah. My, my target was about a

00:19:07.880 marathon every day. So I'd be aiming for about 45 kilometers every day for the end. Uh, I was able

00:19:13.960 to dial that up to about, uh, 70, 80 kilometers. I was able to manage, but if you're, uh, running into

00:19:21.400 any sort of physical issues, injuries, stuff like that, uh, that really makes it tough,

00:19:26.120 but it also helped open my eyes to really what's possible for me personally. But I've been,

00:19:31.240 I've met so many others with other, uh, physical challenges, uh, disabilities who made a point to

00:19:36.760 complete the trail that, uh, I have incredible, mad respect for them being able to finish.

00:19:42.680 So safety issues though, uh, I mean, some of those areas, you don't have anything for cell coverage.

00:19:47.080 I mean, what sort of plans did you have in case there was something untoward happened? You have to have at least a

00:19:51.240 plan in mind. Yeah. I had a health insurance for Canadian travelers. Uh, I had a, uh, uh, in reach

00:19:57.240 device, which is a satellite communicator. So at least I could, uh, send messages back home. And then

00:20:03.240 otherwise, uh, I, uh, had a lot of these, uh, actually like paper maps, which a lot of people

00:20:10.520 made fun of me at the start because with your watches, smartwatches, your cell phone, your GPS,

00:20:15.720 like nobody uses paper maps anymore, but we were, uh, in a pretty remote place in the Sierra Nevada

00:20:21.480 where the snow was just coming down and it was so cold that all the electronic devices just failed.

00:20:26.920 So a lot of people were just looking around, but I actually knew how to get us back to a shelter and,

00:20:31.880 uh, back on the trail using my paper maps. And then from there, uh, people didn't call me Jeremy,

00:20:36.520 they just called me Pathfinder. Well, there's something to be said for the tried and true. I mean,

00:20:42.040 GPS is fantastic. I mean, the things we've got, uh, it frustrates me. I mean, as a starting Rodman

00:20:48.280 way back in the day, and I moved up to being a junior surveyor and I had to learn the formulas.

00:20:51.800 They wouldn't even let me touch a transit until I'd spent two and a half years.

00:20:54.440 You know all of that stuff in the simulations.

00:20:56.360 And then GPS came along and now somebody with a phone can get a position as accurate, uh, in

00:21:02.120 elevation as what it would taken me, uh, you know, hours or a day or two to determine in an isolated

00:21:06.760 area. I mean, it's great developments, but it's nice to have the fallback and know how to read a map

00:21:10.360 anyways. Yeah. Even by satellite, my communicator, I could send messages with only about a 30 second

00:21:14.920 delay. So anywhere in the world, which is just astonishing, but you know, with all the, uh,

00:21:21.320 tips and the tricks and the fancy equipment, it doesn't, uh, it doesn't replace you actually

00:21:26.280 having to walk those miles or run those miles. So there's some really, uh, really terrible conditions

00:21:31.480 we went through. And still though, like it was very good for me to be just out of that political

00:21:36.760 situation and to be able to have the time to reflect. And as a politician for the last, uh,

00:21:41.400 four or five years, I never really heard silence in the way that I did out on some of these

00:21:45.400 mountain tops. So, I mean, I'll twist you back to that a little bit though. You've been back

00:21:49.640 for a little while, as you said, you've dived back into Twitter, not, not getting, you know,

00:21:53.080 in my way of calling people, getting right onto things, but you're catching up on the issues.

00:21:57.720 You're watching things. You're still politically involved. And what are your thoughts on our picture

00:22:00.840 today? We've got a lot going on. We've got a provincial race happening. We've got a federal race

00:22:04.600 happening. Uh, well, you know, our municipal where you used to be, that's going to be stuck

00:22:09.080 for three more years. So we'll see what happens there. Well, you know, my, my message is actually

00:22:13.720 the same as I left with on election night. You know, I, I said I was going to support our mayor

00:22:17.720 and our council and at least give them some time to be able to come into their own. And I know that,

00:22:22.760 uh, tour credit, uh, mayor Gondek has actually sent me a very supportive messages and stuff,

00:22:27.320 which how cool is that? Like you're out in the middle of nowhere and, uh, your mayor back home

00:22:31.800 is following what you're doing. I'm really grateful for that. And I think as far as just

00:22:36.520 the politics, I've promised, uh, big brothers and big sisters when I'm in this kind of role and, uh,

00:22:41.880 not exactly a spokesman, but kind of a brand ambassador, I'm not going to be

00:22:45.480 diving too deep into the political stuff. But you know, for me, like, uh, when I was out there,

00:22:50.280 sometimes I really felt like I was definitely itching to get involved because, uh, if you don't

00:22:55.640 get yourself involved and all these decisions are made without you and, uh, no sense in complaining

00:23:01.160 if you didn't try to fix it. No. And fair enough. I mean, you know, the, when you're raising funds

00:23:05.480 for something like that too, it's good to have that cross party participation. As I kind of said

00:23:09.960 earlier, I mean, you used to also drive Nancy right out of his mind. I used to quite enjoy it,

00:23:14.760 but Hey, you came together when it came, there's no doubt he's got a social media reach. And when he

00:23:18.680 put that video that got, you know, reached out to a lot of people that wouldn't normally have paid

00:23:23.080 attention to you. And it helps bring those funds into the, uh, the cause, which was the whole goal of

00:23:27.240 the run and the end of everything. I mean, you got plenty of time to fight with Nancy and Gondek.

00:23:31.880 I was hoping to get you to do some of it today, but I understand why you can't at this point.

00:23:35.000 You're, and you've still got, you know, before we close out then I just remind everybody that

00:23:38.200 event that's coming up at the Canyon Meadows theater. Yeah. It's a September 20th,

00:23:41.400 that Canyon Meadows theater there, the more details are online at, uh, BBBScalgary.ca,

00:23:47.400 as well as ways to be able to contribute to them. And there's such a fantastic organization,

00:23:51.800 an incredible caliber volunteer who is willing to step up and be such a, uh, uh, shaping and

00:23:58.600 formative influence, uh, for a long period of time in the lives of some of these kids and myself

00:24:04.040 growing up in East Calgary and, uh, seeing the impact of programming like that, uh, really means

00:24:09.720 a lot to me that, uh, Calgarians would step up and support them, but also to give me a second chance

00:24:14.600 because you know, on an election night, when you have a very public failure, sometimes it just feels like

00:24:19.560 the, the world, uh, it's the worst thing that could have ever happened to you.

00:24:22.840 It isn't the wrong term for failure. You didn't win. It's okay. Lots of people don't, you know,

00:24:29.480 I mean, it takes a few goals. You win some, you lose some. Not the first try.

00:24:33.480 Yeah. So failure is, it's just a step if that's all.

00:24:37.240 Well, I, I came to, I came around to really love this idea of failure because it's, it's only truly a

00:24:43.560 failure if you don't get back up on your feet and if you don't learn from it. So I had a lot of mistakes

00:24:48.440 and a lot of opportunities for learning out on the trail. And I think it's really, uh, sharpened

00:24:52.840 to my focus and trust me, I've been thinking a lot about, uh, that past election, my own time in

00:24:57.800 politics and how, if I did it again, I'd want to be, uh, better. So I can get that out at least.

00:25:02.520 You ain't done. Okay. Well, right on. I appreciate you coming in to talk to us today. I really appreciate

00:25:09.560 what you did on the run. It's great stuff. I mean, that's the conservative way of doing things.

00:25:13.000 They aren't begging government to take care of the problem. We're encouraging each other to take care of it

00:25:17.400 as a community and it was a really unique and neat way to do it just to encourage everybody else.

00:25:21.720 You know what? Jeremy Farkas, look it up on Facebook. You can really see all of the,

00:25:26.040 the, the great, uh, postings and pictures you took and things like that. So yeah.

00:25:30.280 Thank you again. And yeah, I'm sure we'll see you again soon. And then I'll grant you

00:25:33.720 on some politics stuff when you're done with your brand ambassador.

00:25:35.800 And keep turning those screws. 0.96

00:25:36.840 Oh yeah. Thanks. My job is more angry than yours, but I enjoy it.

00:25:40.680 I'm very mellow now. I couldn't, I couldn't sit in your chair.

00:25:43.240 Right. All right. Thanks again. Yeah. Thank you, sir. Cheers. All right.

Western Standard - September 09, 2022

Jeromy Farkas chats with Cory about his hike from Mexico to Canada

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