Western Standard - LIVE SHOW - Triggered： Legacy media outlets feel entitled to your money.

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 good morning all it's april 6 2022 and welcome to triggered i'm cory morgan this is the western

00:00:39.920 standards daily live show comes to you at as with now 11 30 a.m mountain standard time monday to

00:00:47.000 friday we cover news events get a lot of ranting and raving out of me some audience interaction

00:00:52.660 which is great good to see you there claudia and uh our cladette i should say and uh of course i

00:00:59.020 always have a number of good guests. So today I do have a good lineup to look forward to,

00:01:04.000 actually. I've got a senior Ottawa political columnist, David Creighton. He's been writing

00:01:08.000 some columns for us. He's always very scathing on Prime Minister Trudeau, as are many of us,

00:01:13.160 of course. So I'm sure he's been on before. His views and opinion are always appreciated on here.

00:01:19.820 Colin Craig of Second Street Org is going to be coming on a little after that. Colin's been doing

00:01:25.020 advocacy again from a libertarian conservative point of view they've written a lot on health

00:01:29.260 care reform and you know we really need to start having that discussion so talking with colin is

00:01:33.900 going to be timely and good on that and we have rescheduled political scientist barry cooper

00:01:38.220 to come back on there were some technical issues yesterday unfortunately we were to have them then

00:01:42.780 we do have them for sure today and we're going to talk about you know the the preferential

00:01:46.540 treatment of quebec in parliament with their seats uh and just basically in general within

00:01:52.060 Canada. That'll be a very good, well, Canadian sort of discussion, won't it? So who else we got

00:01:59.300 coming in? We got people all the way from Beverly and Newfoundland, Aki J in Nova Scotia. It's great

00:02:04.120 to see so many people coming from the East Coast onto this show, actually. You know, we've started

00:02:08.140 out as a Western-based outlet and Melissa and Halifax, wow, we got a lot of representation

00:02:11.920 out in the East today. Great to see you guys coming in from the other side of the country

00:02:15.860 there, guys. And plus, of course, all the people around here. Standard's been doing really well

00:02:20.740 and expanding. We're doing well as an alternative media outlet and we are allowed to speak our

00:02:26.160 minds around here. I'm going to talk though and I'm going to start out with what's got me wound

00:02:31.260 up, what's got me triggered, what's got me ranting today and that is legacy media, the establishment

00:02:37.900 media, the mainstream media, all the things we want to call them. Well, there was a piece that

00:02:42.980 came out the other day from the editorial board of the Globe and Mail and they truly embarrassed

00:02:47.800 themselves. They really did with their recently published rant against tax cuts for struggling

00:02:52.240 Canadians. So with a complete lack of self-awareness, they referred to the tax cuts

00:02:56.760 being made by premiers Doug Ford, Jason Kenney, Scott Moe, and John Horgan. See, not even all

00:03:01.440 conservatives. Horgan's no conservative. In response, though, they've been doing these tax

00:03:05.560 cuts in response to skyrocketing energy prices, and the Globe and Mail editorial board called it

00:03:10.080 an opportunity to shower voters with money. Let's be clear, cutting taxes isn't showering anybody

00:03:17.380 in money is letting them keep their own bloody hard-earned money in their pockets if anybody's

00:03:22.180 indeed being showered with money it's canada's mainstream media outlets including the globe and

00:03:26.020 mail and they've been slurping at the subsidy trough to the tune of hundreds of millions of

00:03:29.940 dollars in taxpayer bailouts over the last couple years so it's pretty galling watching a media

00:03:35.940 outlet that's shamelessly taking a bite out of taxpayers in order to bail out their own unsustainable

00:03:41.300 business model only to listen to them complain that the government's letting those same taxpayers 0.73

00:03:45.620 keep a little more of their own earnings. It honestly gave me a vision of a fat pig raising 1.00

00:03:50.740 its head from a trough and squealing in rage because it saw a nearby starving laborer nibbling

00:03:55.940 on a couple of crumbs that had been left to him by the farmer. You know, how dare you let that

00:04:00.180 peasant eat those leavings when it could have been given to us. These are subsidy

00:04:05.220 prostitutes of the media, and they've just developed such a sense of entitlement to the 0.92

00:04:08.980 earnings of Canadians, they express fury at the very thought of giving taxpayers a break.

00:04:14.660 Any money kept by Canadians, I guess, is a little less money that Canada's rotting legacy media 0.76

00:04:20.660 outlets may not be able to take, I guess. I mean, these high costs of energy are harming the entire

00:04:25.340 nation right now. We're struggling to climb out from an economic hole created through years of

00:04:30.220 pandemic measures, and the high energy prices are only making the struggle that much tougher.

00:04:34.660 If a person doesn't drive a car, high fuel prices are still contributing to the rise of costs

00:04:38.400 for every consumer, whether it's food goods or any consumer goods that are being delivered to

00:04:44.220 your house. Many people are sitting right on the financial edge, and these breaks and fuel taxes

00:04:47.780 are giving them some much-needed breathing space. The editorial board at The Globe and Mail doesn't

00:04:52.320 understand the fiscal struggle, however. Perhaps if the government cut off the constant taxpayer-funded

00:04:57.400 bailouts to newspapers such as The Globe and made them make the same kind of cutbacks that other

00:05:02.940 Canadians had to, they'd begin to get a glimmer of understanding why tax breaks are welcome and

00:05:07.120 needed by Canadians right now. I won't hold my breath on the government cutting subsidies to

00:05:11.780 media outlets anytime soon, however. I mean, editorials such as the one at the Globe demonstrate

00:05:15.880 that the media ballots are working exactly as the government hoped they would. The Globe editorial

00:05:20.280 parrots the liberal talking points in defending carbon taxes so completely, it reads as if it

00:05:25.520 was written by a communications flack with Trudeau's own party or even Environment Minister

00:05:29.980 Stephen Gilboa. Who knows, maybe it was. As mainstream media outlets become increasingly

00:05:34.620 dependent on the government to transfer taxpayers' money to them, these outlets are naturally going

00:05:39.140 to find themselves beholden to their government masters. They'll feel less inclination to cover

00:05:43.180 the government with a critical eye and will be increasingly tempted to write tough pieces made

00:05:47.500 to make the government officials smile. It's gross crony capitalism at its worst and ugliest.

00:05:53.540 Currently, there's a group of five government-appointed members who form a committee that

00:05:58.000 determines who is or isn't an official journalist and what outlet is or isn't a legitimate news

00:06:03.480 source. Their meetings are held in secret, and the requirements for what they consider to be

00:06:07.420 qualified outlets are kind of nebulous. In a recent interview on the Canada L.I.N. podcast,

00:06:12.740 the committee chair was repeatedly said of outlets, when asked what is or isn't considered

00:06:18.100 journalism, that's journalism, but not the kind of journalism that qualifies for the program. So

00:06:22.940 the standards are arbitrary and fuzzy, and these guys just kind of make it up on the go. More than

00:06:28.580 likely, they'll consider journalism whatever the Liberal masters tell them to consider journalism.

00:06:33.200 The Western Standard applied and qualified, actually, as a Trudeau government-approved outlet, by the way.

00:06:37.540 But we refused to apply for or take any of those media subsidies.

00:06:40.540 We just wanted to see if we could do it.

00:06:42.220 If we took subsidies, we'd lose our sense of editorial independence

00:06:45.420 and be on the road to becoming just another trumpet beholden to the government.

00:06:49.560 Principles remain more important to us than government handouts, as they do with many alternative outlets.

00:06:55.200 First, that's why the government doesn't like alternative media.

00:06:58.520 That's why it's so important that we don't allow the federal government to continue with its quest

00:07:02.220 to centralize and control media. They would shut down every alternative media outlet in the country

00:07:06.920 if they could, and rest assured, they're trying to find ways to do it. The Trudeau government's

00:07:10.660 dividing media into a preferred class and a subclass. The preferred class is subsidized,

00:07:15.980 celebrated, and gets good government access. The subclass is often decried as being a provider of

00:07:21.020 fake news and is denied access to government press events, and it's under constant attack

00:07:25.480 from legislation such as Bills C-11 and C-18. The state-manufactured media hierarchy is fostered

00:07:32.060 sense of elitism and entitlement among the members within the legacy media outlets. The insulting

00:07:37.800 piece in the Globe and Mail wasn't written by some lone columnist. That was the official opinion

00:07:42.760 from their editorial board. Their paper, while shamelessly taking subsidies from the pockets

00:07:46.940 of taxpayers, is officially opposed to giving citizens a tax break. So please keep that in

00:07:53.080 mind as you consider subscribing to or reading material from legacy outlets such as the Globe

00:07:57.240 and Mail. I mean, you can't yet stop the government from showering your tax dollars on the mainstream

00:08:02.040 media, but you can at least stop giving them any more of your own money directly. They won't

00:08:06.040 respect your wallet or your right to keep the money you've earned. So why should you do them

00:08:10.120 any favors in return? Let them slide into full straight broadcast, you know, state broadcaster

00:08:14.700 status like the CBC. And while they still cost a fortune, at least people have stopped reading and

00:08:19.040 viewing them as their ratings prove out. That's what's got me going today. All right, let's get

00:08:24.560 on to a real journalist with Dave Naylor, who has been hard at work in the Western Standard

00:08:31.460 newsroom and see what's going on today hey dave how's it going good cory you have to wonder what

00:08:36.500 some of those globe guys are smoking hey i mean i i know uh i know what they were paying reporters

00:08:43.140 so i'm sure those uh ivory tower executives are getting paid a pretty penny and probably you know

00:08:48.740 two dollar a liter gas isn't gonna hurt their pocketbooks a lot no but i mean you'd think they

00:08:53.860 would still know better than to at least expose themselves uh as they did in that in that editorial

00:08:59.700 i was actually quite flabbergasted when i read that makes you want to shake your head uh anyways

00:09:05.700 we've got a very uh important exclusive that we've just put up on the site uh we've got a former

00:09:12.580 edmonton merrily candidate who's alleging that kenny membership drive up in up in edmonton did

00:09:18.820 not require payments uh this is an allegation from a gentleman called malik chukwunda and he said uh

00:09:27.060 local uh muslims got together back on march 12th and had a big membership drive and he'd already

00:09:32.660 paid for his membership uh online 99 bucks uh earlier but he went in and he decided to see if

00:09:39.540 he could just get one for free so he went up and and signed the form and uh you know no they didn't

00:09:45.540 have to pay 10 bucks and apparently the premier was there at the meeting and uh and urging people

00:09:51.380 just to go and sign on the dotted line.

00:09:53.500 So yet another example of the sort of fiasco

00:09:58.800 and unethical things that appear to be going on

00:10:03.040 behind the scenes at the UCP.

00:10:06.760 A good story from our Chris Coldcorn in Saskatchewan.

00:10:14.100 Tense cities have actually popped up in Regina.

00:10:16.600 The cost of living, you know, up more than 4%, but social insurance benefits only went up 1%, and advocates are saying that's just not enough to help the poor, and they're developing tense cities in Regina, so that's a sad story there.

00:10:39.920 The war of words between Calgary Police Commission and Council and Calgary City Police continued today.

00:10:47.320 Last night, Chief Mark Neufeld put a two-week hold on the Police Commission's ordering of the removal of thin blue line patches.

00:10:56.520 And, Corey, I know you've ranted on this before.

00:10:58.900 Councillor Penner came forward this morning and says the police leadership in Neufeld have failed by not recognizing that some people think the thin blue line badge is racist and for allowing officers to continue to wear them while the talks go on.

00:11:19.840 We've got a story out of Ottawa on our ambassador Reid Surz, last ambassador to Afghanistan.

00:11:27.980 He fled Kabul as the city was falling ahead of the Taliban, but he left behind more than

00:11:34.600 a thousand Canadians and an untold number of Afghans who had actually helped the Canadian

00:11:39.540 Forces, FMT, Canadian Forces Transport Plan.

00:11:43.760 So MPs are demanding to see the flight logs just to see how full that flight was

00:11:49.900 and how much effort was put into trying to get more people on the flight.

00:11:55.940 Arlinda Slobodian's got a good column up on the Brian Jean-Jason Kenney feud. 0.90

00:12:02.700 Jean, you'll remember, was elected with more than 63% as a UCP candidate in Fort McMurray-Lackalabish.

00:12:09.880 Well, he's going to be sworn in as an MLA tomorrow.

00:12:12.340 So there's all sorts of questions being asked as to whether Premier Kenney will actually allow him into the caucus.

00:12:19.680 And, you know, certainly he doesn't want to be seeing Brian Jean across the table from him.

00:12:26.240 So those are the big stories we've got up at the moment, Corey, and lots more to come this afternoon.

00:12:34.260 Great, thanks. Yeah, just the ongoing bizarro world of UCP these days.

00:12:38.680 I mean, we're going to be tracking and following it in the, what, months and some to come before we finally find out how this review comes along.

00:12:45.160 It's just the politics being played are outstanding, even, you know, for viewers who've watched it for a long time.

00:12:53.260 Yeah, well, voting opens on Saturday.

00:12:55.680 Premier Kenney will give a big address to UCP delegates virtually.

00:12:59.840 And then the balloting can begin and the results will be announced on May 18th.

00:13:09.560 Okay, well, thanks for the updates, Dave, and we'll keep an eye out for more stuff as it breaks.

00:13:14.820 Yeah, we'll talk to you later on the pipeline.

00:13:16.780 Great, yes, we'll have a good one today.

00:13:19.520 Thanks, Dave.

00:13:20.780 So yeah, that was our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:13:22.880 As I started out in my rant, we are independent and we do have, we qualified.

00:13:28.220 We qualified as one of those Trudeau-approved media outlets, even though we aren't taking the money.

00:13:32.580 One of the things they said is you have to produce original content, you have to have a number of reporters,

00:13:37.180 and that part of why we qualified is we have a large and growing number of reporters as dave was

00:13:42.540 showing you know we've got chris old corn writing from regina we've got uh creighton who i'm going

00:13:49.120 to be talking later to uh from ottawa we got people at edmonton all over bc reed is out there

00:13:53.720 we do that because you guys have been subscribing and that's how things keep rolling for us guys

00:13:58.620 and we really appreciate it it keeps us independent keeps us so we don't have to write

00:14:02.960 puff pieces for the government, like the Globe and Mail does. And you got to make sure to keep

00:14:07.500 those memberships going, though. It's an ongoing thing. That's why I got to keep nagging you to

00:14:10.680 pay the bills, guys. If you haven't taken out a membership already, hey, get on there and do it,

00:14:15.300 you know, for it's 10 bucks a month straight out. You'll save money if you actually use the coupon

00:14:19.500 code triggered. So you'll save another $10 on that right there. If you take out an annual one,

00:14:23.840 it's 99 bucks a year. It's not that much. And people are getting used to that and understanding

00:14:28.420 that's why alternative media outlets have been growing as well as we have, you know,

00:14:31.760 this is the price that used to cost you to get a home newspaper delivery or even less

00:14:36.760 and uh it's well worth it i mean these stories are constantly coming out we're breaking them

00:14:40.940 original sources as we said get out on there guys take out a membership buy one for someone else if

00:14:46.300 you like you know you can buy it as a gift we also have corporate memberships you want to get

00:14:49.500 a bulk buy you can talk to us send a communication we have a number of corporate clients who give

00:14:56.600 access to their employees so they know their employees have got good access to some direct

00:15:00.460 news. So thank you all who have already subscribed. And hey, if you haven't already, what are you

00:15:04.380 waiting for, guys? Get on board and subscribe. The other thing is our sponsors, of course,

00:15:08.720 and that's important. And one of our main ones is Bitcoin Well. These guys have been a good

00:15:13.040 sponsor for us for quite some time now. If you're looking to get into digital currencies, you want

00:15:18.360 to find out what it's all about, how to get involved. Bitcoin Well, these guys are a Western

00:15:22.480 Canadian company. One of the biggest fears people have when it comes to digital currencies, we don't

00:15:26.640 know about it. That's fine. You know, guys like me are going a little gray. It's a new thing. It

00:15:31.380 seems foreign. And hey, we worked hard for our money. We're fearful of scammers and things like

00:15:35.380 that. So we want to be sure that we're putting our money into something safe. Well, Bitcoin Well

00:15:39.240 is a publicly traded company based in Western Canada, gives you personal one-on-one service.

00:15:44.580 They call it white glove service. You're talking to a real person face-to-face to help you get set

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00:15:55.300 help you safely get involved in digital currencies through Bitcoin. They've got ATMs all over through

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00:16:05.320 automatic deposits into your account. So check them out, bitcoinwell.com, a great sponsor and

00:16:11.120 a great way to get yourself into the world of digital currency. So yeah, a couple of those

00:16:15.820 news stories that was interesting out of Chris Oldcorn, our Saskatchewan reporter there with

00:16:21.880 tent cities are springing up in Regina. I mean, things like that. And as somebody else was saying,

00:16:27.200 Halifax is full of tent cities now too. And I mean, it's a big and complicated problem. 0.63

00:16:33.340 Some of it's due to just financial hard times. Some of it's also due again, and I'm always on

00:16:37.900 about it. It's been a big issue with me is the opioid epidemic. And it's an epidemic. We've got

00:16:43.480 addicts in a way that we've never seen before. I mean, they've always existed. It's always been

00:16:48.580 a problem, but nowadays it's like none seen before. I tweet it quite regularly. It's my normal walk

00:16:54.300 here. I walk past a spot commonly associated, unfortunately, with drug use, and some poor soul

00:17:00.600 with the city has to keep cleaning it up, and still it just keeps getting filled up with old

00:17:05.160 discarded syringes and things such as that, and today the picture, yeah, there was three more

00:17:09.280 syringes laying there. The other thing that was odd, almost striking with that too, though, was

00:17:14.780 they always have a bunch of little uh alcohol swabs for when they take their injection and

00:17:18.680 everything i it's a weird mindset you're injecting yourself with poison that who knows uh you know

00:17:23.640 who has sold it to you and who got it to you and you you're throwing your syringes out you know

00:17:27.260 with the points out laying all over the ground so you're not concerned about the safety of others

00:17:30.740 or anything but they'll take the time to swab so they don't get an infection on their injection

00:17:35.320 site i i just odd thinking i don't know just something i noted as i saw those but we've got

00:17:40.800 very large problems as Jade is saying yeah mental illness and drugs you know this is a big and

00:17:48.180 growing issue within Canada how we're going to deal with it over time I don't know but a lot

00:17:51.540 of politicians don't want to deal with it at all if they can help it and we're seeing that as we've

00:17:55.900 been reporting on regularly with Calgary City Hall they're spending their time going on about

00:18:00.480 finding an official bird for Calgary and the patches that police officers wear and banning

00:18:08.740 vaping in parks yeah they want to ban people from vaping you know you can shoot up on a train that's

00:18:12.740 not a problem but heaven help you if you are vaping on a park bench somewhere outdoors they

00:18:18.360 really got to get their priorities straight either way i'm going to move on to somebody who's probably

00:18:22.360 going to talk about federal politicians who don't have their priorities straight they always give us

00:18:26.260 lots of stuff to rant and go on about and that's our senior parliamentary columnist david creighton

00:18:31.480 who's been putting out a lot of pieces lately and certainly calling out the trudeau government on a

00:18:35.960 regular basis so let's bring him in the studio and have a chat hey david how's it going good nice to

00:18:39.840 be here cory well i appreciate you coming on and yes you've had those stories coming out

00:18:44.500 uh as i was saying you know the the government never fails to give you lots of uh fodder to

00:18:49.920 write on always this is a i hope the last days of the trudeau government i always always jokingly

00:18:57.720 say that but if it never fails to amaze me how trudeau is so self-absorbed in his politics

00:19:03.500 And he has one great commonality with President Joe Biden south of the border, is incapable of apologizing for things he does himself.

00:19:13.540 He loves to apologize on behalf of Canada for things that Canada has allegedly done in the past or things Canada allegedly does today.

00:19:22.460 but he cannot take personal responsibility for things he does especially you know if you noted

00:19:27.800 when he uh talked about his his blackface routines which he admits he can't even remember how many

00:19:33.380 there were he blamed his white privilege and he blamed the racism in montreal and i suppose his

00:19:39.680 own family for that would you know thank thank you very much justin i'm sure his father rolled

00:19:43.580 over in his grave but that's exactly the way he is he blames everybody else for his problems and

00:19:47.880 blames everybody else for the way things are and it's just amazing to me how the effrontery of just

00:19:54.680 questioning trudeau he just seems to think he's beyond personal criticism and although he invites

00:20:00.360 it constantly and that's that's that's what's remarkable about his government so it's always a

00:20:05.720 it's it's a joy to have this government in one respect because it's a columnist's dream

00:20:10.360 he has so much to write about oh yeah well it does get annoying and insulting especially when he's

00:20:15.880 when he does do his regular apologies and always frames it though is let this be a learning lesson

00:20:21.160 for all of us hey no no no you don't don't speak on my behalf i didn't need to learn not to wear

00:20:26.200 blackface i already had that sorted out as a kid growing up in the 70s you're the one who needed 1.00

00:20:31.320 to learn from this mr trudeau not us but he always likes to spread that around it's everybody's

00:20:36.040 problem not his yeah that's that that is it and i it's like i was saying it's it's remarkable to

00:20:43.000 me there's a 35 years plus age difference between the two of them but uh i cover u.s politics as

00:20:51.080 well and it's amazing to me how similar these two personalities are biden and trudeau they are

00:20:56.920 remarkably similar personalities in terms of their personal mannerisms and the fact they both like to

00:21:03.000 point the finger at other people for their own personal foibles and their own personal problems

00:21:07.880 and neither of them can take responsibility for their own acts and they love to point the finger

00:21:13.320 at other people and they both have political enemies lists and they and they demonize their

00:21:18.440 opponents i don't know if biden is learning from trudeau or trudeau is learning from biden or

00:21:23.160 they're both edifying each other in their own way but it's fascinating to see the two of them

00:21:27.720 on the political stage together despite them coming from radically different backgrounds

00:21:32.760 and being completely different in so many ways.

00:21:35.620 There seems to be a political sharing going on right now between the two of them.

00:21:40.860 It's quite fascinating, just from a surely political science point of view,

00:21:45.340 if you can be that detached from it, although it's difficult because it's maddening at the same time.

00:21:54.480 Yeah, well, they were both raised in worlds that we can't imagine.

00:21:57.300 I mean, Biden was a senator since I think before I was born almost.

00:22:00.540 And Trudeau, of course, was part of that family and living in a special world.

00:22:05.320 They haven't gotten to see what the real world's like, and we're seeing that leak out.

00:22:09.420 But also, I mean, the enemy's lists and the way that they've weaponized legislation almost.

00:22:15.600 Your most recent column, I mean, on how some civil servants, I mean, there's rules that where they can protest and how politicized they can be.

00:22:22.720 If you were a civil servant and you went out and took part in the truckers' convoy, you would be fired and into a great deal of trouble.

00:22:27.880 But apparently, if you're a civil servant who likes Trudeau, you can take part in protests, and there's not a problem with that.

00:22:34.600 Yes, if you like Trudeau, you like Trudeau's policies.

00:22:37.100 There's not really any political fallout for you or any judicial fallout.

00:22:42.860 Because if you happen to be protesting pipelines or you're a member of Black Lives Matter, which is a very violent group and has been violent towards the police and has incited violence towards the police, that's okay. 0.99

00:22:56.540 I mean, Trudeau will show up at your protest and bow down and embrace your politics.

00:23:01.460 And by doing so, he's saying, go ahead, participate, and you won't be affected by this. 0.95

00:23:07.900 And once again, in those who participated in the counter protest to the Freedom Convoy, Trudeau gave their blessing to that by saying that the Freedom Convoy was made up of a bunch of white supremacists and Nazis. 0.96

00:23:20.220 So therefore, if you're protesting against them, you obviously were anti-white supremacists and Nazis. 0.91

00:23:27.080 And that's okay in Canada to be that way.

00:23:29.080 But it's not okay to be part of the Freedom Convoy because that's a fringe element.

00:23:33.520 And they were dangerous.

00:23:34.800 And the OPP said they were a source of danger to our national security.

00:23:39.920 So this double standard is incredible.

00:23:43.060 And, of course, as somebody who was with the Freedom Convoy day in and day out reporting on them, I didn't see any violence.

00:23:49.580 I didn't see any national security threats.

00:23:51.700 I didn't see anybody intimidated by these trekkers.

00:23:54.040 I didn't see any of the things that Trudeau imagined, and he did.

00:23:57.240 He went away, and I think as I quipped on a major U.S. network,

00:24:04.240 I think he went away for six days, watched all six volumes of The Matrix,

00:24:10.080 and came back and imagined that's what was going on on Wellington Street.

00:24:14.420 And it was all in his imagination.

00:24:16.700 None of these things actually happened.

00:24:18.220 And much like Joe Biden imagines a lot of things, maybe Trudeau's entering into that state of mental acuity or lack of mental acuity a little early.

00:24:27.980 I don't know.

00:24:28.620 But he certainly was not speaking about reality half the time when it came to that convoy.

00:24:35.640 Well, there's a scary thought because Trudeau's the same age as I am, 51.

00:24:39.520 So theoretically, and at the rate he's going, he could stay in there until he's as old as Biden.

00:24:43.980 I don't see any evidence that this guy's going to be unseated anytime soon.

00:24:47.200 And so if this is his mental disconnect today, just imagine Trudeau 20 years from now, man, he's going to be incomprehensible.

00:24:54.640 But hopefully, perhaps we remedy that sooner rather than later.

00:24:58.060 But with this double standard, again, to get so flagrant, they don't even put a veneer of balance towards things.

00:25:04.320 Like with the civil servant issue, you can make the law saying, look, we're going to allow them all to protest because it's a right, or we do stick to the rule and allow none of them.

00:25:12.760 But they won't do that.

00:25:13.720 They'll flagrantly break their own rules when it favors them.

00:25:17.200 Yes, and completely silent about it, too, because there's been absolutely no comment from the civil service.

00:25:24.260 There's been no comment from the government about this incident and this issue.

00:25:27.960 And God knows how many other civil servants were involved.

00:25:30.880 We only know about this incident because he flagrantly revealed it in a Glebe community newspaper, which is certainly not that well read.

00:25:41.540 But it became public knowledge because of this.

00:25:45.200 And goodness knows there might be other public servants coming forth now and proudly announcing that they too were out there on the front lines opposing these white supremacist Nazis before it was too late.

00:25:57.360 So we might be seeing more of this. But God knows we won't be seeing the top bureaucrats in Ottawa or the government of Justin Trudeau saying that this is unacceptable because certainly they were clandestinely anyway following the marching orders of this government,

00:26:14.680 which was to oppose this Freedom Convoy at any cost.

00:26:19.300 That certainly was the order given by Justin Trudeau.

00:26:23.800 Every time he stood up in the House of Commons

00:26:26.080 and declared these people to be unacceptable, 0.97

00:26:29.600 to be Nazis, to be white supremacists, 0.97

00:26:31.420 he made that quite clear. 0.66

00:26:33.240 Yeah, and then another column,

00:26:35.400 just to pivot a bit more then,

00:26:36.600 speaking of Trudeau governments, though,

00:26:39.140 one of his former luminaries from Cabinet,

00:26:41.420 Catherine McKenna, now has resurfaced again,

00:26:43.620 and she's back, as you put it, on the environmental gravy train,

00:26:48.460 only she's got an international profile now. 1.00

00:26:51.960 Yeah, that was probably the most popular column of the week.

00:26:55.720 Everybody, certainly our readers, conservative libertarian,

00:27:01.480 all love to hate, and I say that in a gentle way,

00:27:05.660 they love to dislike Catherine McKenna.

00:27:07.780 She was a terrible minister of the environment and climate change as Frito tacked on that other descriptor when she became minister. 0.99

00:27:19.720 I mean, she was no sinner in the job and she was at the Paris Climate Change Conference and having, you know, a French photographer racking up a huge $6,600 bill of herself at work and play in Paris.

00:27:33.940 and she from day one she had no conception of the taxpayer paying the bill for her for her job 0.89

00:27:41.880 and she never never did and she was always coming out with ridiculous ridiculous expressions of of 0.85

00:27:49.620 how we were you know days away or weeks or months or years away from this catastrophic 0.87

00:27:56.080 climate change disaster which was which was going to happen and she thought on her watch at times

00:28:03.080 and always aggravating, always aggravating.

00:28:06.880 I never actually had the opportunity to meet Catherine McKenna,

00:28:10.980 but I reported on her quite a bit when I was doing U.S. news

00:28:16.560 during the previous five years, and she became quite a bit of a joke

00:28:21.440 amongst conservative broadcasters south of the border

00:28:25.200 because she was so fanatical about her environmentalism

00:28:28.700 and about the climate change agenda.

00:28:30.340 And it just seems to me, I mean, I was thinking, of course, of Douglas MacArthur's famous expression.

00:28:37.660 He said, old soldiers never die. They just fade away.

00:28:40.340 But I thought, you know, climate change activists today, they just never seem to fade away, even though they become terrible hypocrites. 0.94

00:28:51.260 And I'm thinking of like Al Gore.

00:28:53.280 You know, he came up with this film that's already out of date.

00:28:56.580 But he was predicting that the ice caps were going to melt by now and that New York City would be underwater and all of these terrible things were going to happen.

00:29:07.720 But we're not even close to that. He flies around on a private jet.

00:29:13.500 All of these climate change hypocrites do this.

00:29:16.560 They live in huge estates that burn up a huge carbon footprint, and yet they keep on getting these climate change and environmental gigs that pay back enormous salaries, and they keep preaching the same message. 0.64

00:29:35.600 And David Suzuki in Canada is the same.

00:29:37.700 I mean, guilty of abusing the same law, the same principles he tells us not to breach.

00:29:44.960 and he gets keeps getting away with a huge speaker fees and he continues to preach this

00:29:51.100 this discredited message and yet people keep on asking for him to do it and here she is at the 0.85

00:29:59.160 where else would she end up at the un the most hypocritical organization on earth where you have

00:30:04.700 a un human rights council that has some of the most abusive governments on the earth on it 0.63

00:30:10.580 guilty of the worst human rights offenses. So Catherine McKenna is in fine company. She's at

00:30:15.960 the UN now. And I don't know how much damage she can do there because the UN, as I said in my

00:30:20.880 column, is a useless organization that largely produces recommendations that have no effect in

00:30:28.560 law. So she can't go around banning things, but she can certainly make a lot of money, which is 1.00

00:30:35.400 part and parcel of having a UN job and she can create a lot of publicity for herself which she

00:30:41.320 loves she just loves the camera and she loves those media spots and those interviews so

00:30:48.180 Catherine you're back in the spotlight and an expensive annoyance perhaps as you said she

00:30:53.640 probably can't have accomplished too much there I mean that is her element where she would belong

00:30:57.480 as of the picture that it was accompanying your column that everybody again laughed at is she

00:31:02.120 loves virtue signaling you know standing there on her bicycle showing look everybody you can

00:31:06.040 ride your bike to work like i do uh in her photo opportunity with her high high heels on and i i

00:31:11.960 don't uh ride bicycles a lot myself i do occasionally well i never wear heels maybe

00:31:17.640 if i did i suspect i'd have a really hard time riding a bike with that but i just

00:31:23.640 the virtue signaling was more important than the reality there

00:31:26.360 so uh what i see you've uh i just saw that since i've been here i see you posted another story i

00:31:33.720 haven't had a chance to have a look at it what's uh gonna be i'll have that up after the show this

00:31:37.800 afternoon what are you working on right now uh well i just i just noted that story that the

00:31:42.860 western standard put up based on i think it's bill c18 which is uh the government essentially

00:31:50.060 overriding the antitrust laws so that uh media can collect uh ad revenue from google and facebook

00:31:59.360 and of course the big the big winner in this you guessed it cbc yeah and so that leads me into

00:32:07.920 another tirade against cbc i've been i've been i've been railing against cbc for most of my adult

00:32:12.500 life uh largely to no effect because uh it amazes me how politicians are afraid to admit cbc should

00:32:20.260 not be getting a one in 1.3 billion dollars a year from the taxpayer and here they are getting more

00:32:29.060 ad revenue and the the irony of the cbc is is twofold first of all they get public funding

00:32:36.580 more than any other media organization could ever dream of i mean 1.3 billion think of what

00:32:42.100 most media organizations could do with that kind of money but not only do they get public funding

00:32:46.500 they get ad revenue from public and private sources and now they're going to get social

00:32:51.540 media revenue so we should immediately take them off taxpayer funding if they're going to get this

00:32:57.620 as well but does that occur to pablo rodriguez the minister of censorship and heritage no it does not

00:33:03.460 occur to him at all to say okay time to cut the cvc off they're going he wants to fatten up this 0.99

00:33:08.580 corpulent government corporations some more because they do such a great job of promoting

00:33:15.220 the trudeau government's narrative they do a great job of that and they do a great job of

00:33:20.500 modeling how to do that for other media in this country because if you watch the news now and it

00:33:26.740 just it just amazes me it's all identical all of the broadcast news in canada is almost identical

00:33:34.580 They're all looking like CBC now because the CBC is the model.

00:33:39.160 It's the government model for all other media in this country.

00:33:43.440 And of course, Pablo Rodriguez wants the CBC to get richer and bigger and fatter because it does the job so well for the liberal government.

00:33:51.600 And now it's getting more money.

00:33:53.360 And I always say if the CBC is such a such a wonderful news gathering organization, if it's such a world class media outlet, if it's doing the best journalism possible, why can't it survive on its own like all of those organizations do in Canada and the U.S. and around the world?

00:34:14.880 How come it can't survive on its own if it's so darn good?

00:34:18.240 But of course, nobody ever asked that question.

00:34:20.880 I asked that question 10 years ago in an academic paper I did about the CBC, and I took it around to various members of parliament and nobody wanted to answer that question because they're all afraid of privatizing the CBC.

00:34:34.580 And I don't know why it should be, as far as I'm concerned, a mandatory motherhood issue in this country is get the CBC off public funding, force it to compete as a private broadcaster.

00:34:47.020 Yeah, well, and C-18 puts the screws to the big social media giants there.

00:34:51.140 But I think that, I mean, that's not necessarily a given.

00:34:53.860 They're taking it for granted that Facebook and the others are going to accept this.

00:34:56.640 I think Australia went through a big and similar battle,

00:34:59.300 and I don't think they got away with it down there, or it's still ongoing right now.

00:35:03.220 Well, that does ring a bell.

00:35:04.860 But, you know, Rodriguez seems to think he talked it over with him, and everything's fine.

00:35:08.660 Once again, that's typical of this minister's very rosy look on all policies that he tries to implement.

00:35:23.220 So you might be right, but it doesn't detract from the fact that whether they get the added funding or not, it's time to strip the CBC of its public funding because it is a complete waste of money.

00:35:34.360 It does not need $1.3 billion to function.

00:35:37.540 And if it does, it's time for it to stop functioning.

00:35:40.820 It needs to participate in the media world like every other corporate organization.

00:35:46.240 I'm with you there.

00:35:47.120 I don't think they've made anything good since the Beachcombers, and that's going back a ways.

00:35:52.080 All right.

00:35:53.580 Well, I really appreciate you coming in to check in with us today, David, and looking forward to more of your columns from Ottawa as they keep coming out.

00:36:00.980 As we can see from the commenters, they're quite appreciative of your addition to the Western Standard as well.

00:36:05.940 So keep on writing and I'll talk to you again soon.

00:36:09.100 Great. Thank you, Corey.

00:36:10.080 Thanks, David.

00:36:11.300 So yes, that was David Creighton, our senior parliamentary columnist in Ottawa there.

00:36:15.560 And as he said, our federal leaders never fail to give lots and lots to write on.

00:36:24.000 As Cheryl Dawn was saying, she only likes Heartland. 1.00

00:36:26.300 Yeah, you know, there's some productions perhaps that my wife Jane's a big fan of Heartland as well.

00:36:31.120 They shoot a whole lot of that actually down by where I live near Pritis there. 1.00

00:36:34.340 but you know the main thing is there's no reason that a private company couldn't produce that

00:36:39.840 either and probably more efficiently and that's that's what people got to remember i mean if the

00:36:44.600 cbc gets ever gets defunded it's gone or whatever the people don't disappear the writers the talent

00:36:51.580 i mean there is some talent there you know there are some principled reporters hiding among them

00:36:55.900 somewhere in there i mean they're getting fewer and farther in between but it wouldn't be a total

00:37:00.140 wash if that organization was gone. A lot of these productions can most certainly be done by

00:37:06.660 talented Canadians in the private market and put out there. We don't need that massive institution

00:37:14.540 of a state broadcaster. I love saying that over and over again. I doubt Ms. Dunn watches this show,

00:37:20.300 but I know it drives her banana on Twitter when I say state broadcaster. But guys, when your

00:37:24.320 organization parrots the liberal line so so much like the cbc does that's a label that that works

00:37:31.040 for you guys whether you like it or not uh i'm going to speak again to one of our sponsors and

00:37:35.860 that is the canadian shooting sports association these guys have been a good sponsor for us for

00:37:42.300 quite some time and of course their name does say what they are about they're an association for

00:37:47.060 people who enjoy using firearms collecting firearms whether it's target shooting or hunting

00:37:53.600 whatever you want to do with them, as long as you're being safe and legal, as most legal firearm

00:37:57.420 owners are, you should just leave them alone. But our Liberal government can't leave them alone.

00:38:01.100 They won't leave them alone. They're constantly recategorizing your property and then coming to

00:38:06.140 take it away. And they're still on the move with that, you know, assault style weapon. I mean,

00:38:10.920 didn't they, I think they banned a couple pellet guns even in their last grab there. And sure,

00:38:14.940 they're going to come and compensate you for it. But when somebody says, you have to sell me your

00:38:19.060 property, I'm sorry, even if you're going to compensate for them, that's theft. You can't do

00:38:22.960 that and the government's looking to steal your firearms well the canadian shooting sports

00:38:27.120 association has a number of legal challenges out on your behalf against these government gun grabs

00:38:32.100 they're standing up for you we've got to stand up for ourselves if we want to maintain our rights

00:38:38.300 maintain our property nobody else is going to do it for us that's where groups like this are very

00:38:43.580 important get on there check it out there's a lot of other resources besides you know political stuff

00:38:47.520 and everything too videos on safe firearm use links to uh trade shows and gun shows and things

00:38:52.040 like that. But if you own firearms or you're looking to own firearms and you want to make

00:38:56.020 sure you maintain that right, you got to get on there, guys. Canadian Shooting Sports Association,

00:39:00.420 take out a membership because that's how they can keep defending your right and not letting

00:39:03.700 the government incrementally take away your ability to have and enjoy safely firearms.

00:39:08.980 Their website is cssa-cila.org or just, of course, Google Canadian Shooting Sports Association

00:39:16.180 and take out a membership of these guys. It's important. If you don't protect those rights,

00:39:20.900 you will lose them, not might lose them, you will lose them. Okay, let's look through some news

00:39:26.340 before I get to my next guest here in a little bit. This was something that popped up. I think

00:39:30.340 I got this from ABC when I was like on Twitter this morning. A school in Pennsylvania on Monday

00:39:34.400 though actually decided to take control and they're limiting the amount of snacks that students can

00:39:40.400 bring into class. You know, they've decided students are bringing excessive amounts of

00:39:45.180 unhealthy food into the school, and they were going to set some limits. Anything more than a

00:39:51.160 four-ounce bag of chips or a beverage up to 20 ounces, anything more than that is going to be

00:39:55.560 thrown out by security. And they're actually saying they're going to search students' bags.

00:40:02.880 Now, this has apparently sparked outrage in the States, as it should, but it's indicative of a

00:40:08.060 much bigger issue. This is showing where busybodies, bureaucrats, control freaks, and politicians, 0.99

00:40:14.560 how empowered they start to feel, how they've gotten. This is one of the side effects of the

00:40:18.980 pandemic. I'm not talking about law and COVID, which I think is probably a lot of hypochondriacs

00:40:23.760 for the most part, but either way, I'm talking about the political fallout. People feel now

00:40:29.840 that they're justified in intruding on anybody's privacy or rights, as long as it's for the sake

00:40:35.500 of public health. As soon as they feel that they're saving everybody's public health,

00:40:39.220 They don't think twice about infringing on rights.

00:40:42.460 And even kids, students do have rights.

00:40:46.000 I know that it's not healthy for a kid to drink a gallon of Coca-Cola a day

00:40:50.280 or eat giant bags of potato chips,

00:40:52.600 but it's not the role of the school to actually search their bags,

00:40:57.360 their person, and steal.

00:40:59.140 Back to that word, but it's true because they will steal

00:41:01.380 the stuff those students brought in and throw it out.

00:41:04.700 Who do they think they are?

00:41:07.380 But we've given them that power.

00:41:08.960 We've allowed them.

00:41:09.780 We've said, take care of me, take care of me.

00:41:12.120 I'm afraid of unhealthy things.

00:41:13.680 If it's a health issue, you guys can have control of that.

00:41:16.080 This is where we're talking about incremental rights getting taken away.

00:41:19.100 This is what we're talking about when we talk about authorities feeling more and more empowered

00:41:23.780 to get more and more under your skin and into your life.

00:41:27.500 That's just one small example in one school, but it speaks volumes.

00:41:33.140 It shows, again, that these school administrators, that these people thought they should be able to get away with this.

00:41:40.400 Another irony is the only thing that exposed it was Facebook postings and parents, of course, getting outraged with it.

00:41:46.320 It sounds like the school might back off on that.

00:41:48.620 But, again, as we get the government controlling any means of information and they're talking about regulating Facebook and social media, where is this world getting to?

00:41:55.940 Where is it going where they're going to control everything, even what your kids are allowed to eat?

00:42:00.700 Your kids, not theirs, yours. 0.97

00:42:03.140 and they might take away your means of communicating your dislike of that. Again,

00:42:09.220 if we ever want to see more evidence and arguments for the reasons for school choice,

00:42:14.400 which is a separate issue, I should bring another guest in on that pretty soon. There's one there.

00:42:18.400 If you want coddling government to actually raise your kids on your behalf and tell you what you can

00:42:25.040 feed them and what to do, you can stick your kids into the government-run schools. But let's have

00:42:30.220 that voucher. So parents who don't want that, who want to actually have their own freedom to choose

00:42:35.060 what their children are going to be exposed to or not, they can take their voucher and go to

00:42:39.320 another school and put it there. Let the free market decide, you know, yes, those dirty words,

00:42:44.780 free market. But I mean, hey, maybe the majority of Canadians will want public schools with all

00:42:48.860 that. I suspect not though. And that's why they fight school choice as much as possible. I see,

00:42:53.940 you know just to get into a quick ramble about uh school choice anyways is is the the double

00:43:01.600 standard when it comes to a lot of educators particularly unions the ones who are fighting

00:43:04.920 school choice is one of the things they hate all the time is standardized testing drives and

00:43:08.860 bananas that's a thing that unions fight all the time so you can't standardize test kids because 0.73

00:43:14.180 every kid learns differently every they don't move at the same rate they need different teaching

00:43:18.600 methods you can't have a standardized curriculum as well and things like that of course most of

00:43:22.460 the unions hate about is standardized testing especially when measured over a number of years 0.97

00:43:26.380 could find out the efficacy of certain teachers they don't want to see that holy crap this teacher 0.98

00:43:31.740 has paid on a scale the same as all the others actually kind of sucks versus that one there's

00:43:36.460 some teachers are probably worth double what they make it's a tough job and it's an incredible you 0.98

00:43:40.300 know takes incredible talent to be able to do it but there's a lot of teachers who absolutely suck

00:43:45.500 and we have no way to measure and move them along so one of the things as i said though is they use

00:43:51.580 is their argument is that all these kids need different learning environments, and that's why

00:43:54.540 standardized testing doesn't work. Fine. I kind of agree with that. But then why don't you support

00:43:59.660 having more charter schools, more alternative schools, more options for all those kids who

00:44:03.680 learn in different ways? Because you suddenly want standardized public schools with all the

00:44:07.320 same unionized teachers for all those students that you just said are all little unique snowflakes

00:44:12.040 who need to be treated and taught differently, but you don't want to give parents the choice

00:44:15.840 to put those kids into different schools where they might flourish better than they did in others.

00:44:20.840 There's a big double standard going on there, guys.

00:44:22.920 Which side of the road are you walking on?

00:44:25.500 But they expose themselves when it goes on to that,

00:44:28.300 when they speak so strongly against standardized testing.

00:44:33.980 So, yeah, we've got more of that subsidized CBC thing.

00:44:39.140 Mr. Rodriguez.

00:44:42.200 I think we'll move on.

00:44:44.860 If Colin's ready, I see him in the lobby.

00:44:47.140 If you want to give me a nod, we can pull you in and start talking.

00:44:50.040 Great.

00:44:50.380 So I'm going to bring in Colin Craig from secondstreet.org.

00:44:53.660 Colin's been on the show before and they are always doing a lot of good work on things.

00:44:59.040 And I want to talk a bit about healthcare reform.

00:45:00.780 How's it going, Colin?

00:45:02.120 Good.

00:45:02.420 Yourself, Corey?

00:45:03.420 Very good.

00:45:03.980 Very good.

00:45:04.400 You know, I rant and everything.

00:45:05.480 People think, oh, wow, you're so upset and angry.

00:45:06.960 No, it's my normal state.

00:45:08.060 I'm quite happy this week.

00:45:09.520 I've picked up on that.

00:45:10.720 And I got to apologize.

00:45:11.840 It seems like your other guests have much better backgrounds than I have.

00:45:14.460 I've got this fake plant here to bring a little bit of color, but it's going to be

00:45:19.660 moving soon hopefully my next uh interview i'll have something more interesting behind me for

00:45:23.740 people to look at right all right you didn't need to even express it was fake it looks very realistic

00:45:28.220 from here and jane and i are very accomplished uh plant killers uh there's few live ones surviving

00:45:34.220 in our household i'm afraid despite our best efforts so it's all looking good it's the content

00:45:38.700 of the conversation is more important than the background anyway so um so what i wanted to get

00:45:44.700 get into and I I it kind of couples on to what I was going on about earlier this week a bit I mean

00:45:50.160 Alberta has uh fired the head of AHS I don't expect you to speak directly into things like that but

00:45:55.360 uh what I'm seeing is that people lining up again in fear that we might be reforming the health

00:46:00.300 system in fear that it's a signal that we're looking to change things and uh I've gone on

00:46:04.460 the opposite thing well I'm hoping it is a sign that we're going to change some things and that

00:46:07.880 we should reform some health care and you guys have done a lot of work on pointing out some of

00:46:11.960 the the problems with healthcare right now particularly uh waiting times yeah i mean i

00:46:17.480 think the better question is who doesn't want to reform healthcare right now does anyone think it's

00:46:22.520 acceptable that patients are literally dying in the healthcare system while they're waiting

00:46:26.840 for surgeries does anyone think it's ethical that thousands of patients across the country

00:46:33.720 are on waiting lists living with chronic pain they're having some are having suicidal thoughts

00:46:40.360 they're getting depression their lives are being put on hold i mean it's it's appalling some of the

00:46:45.480 conditions that some patients are are having to put up with right now who on earth doesn't think

00:46:50.600 that we need health reform we've been talking about these problems uh for decades we meaning

00:46:56.520 those in the public policy world canadians commentators and so forth and we haven't

00:47:01.480 really seen substantial change so at some point i think we we have to reflect on einstein's uh

00:47:07.560 famous quote about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results we need

00:47:12.120 to be looking at alternatives and sadly and you know the the same old tired debate comes up all

00:47:19.320 again and again and i saw it this morning on twitter there's a doctor basically talking about

00:47:24.520 uh you know what it was like when she worked in the u.s and oh my goodness canada can't adopt the 1.00

00:47:28.600 u.s system there's nearly 200 countries on this planet can we not look at some alternative aside

00:47:35.880 from the U.S., one that Canadians would consider? And the answer, of course, is yes, we can be

00:47:40.840 looking at European models, Australia, New Zealand. There are lots of countries that have

00:47:45.720 universal health care systems, and obviously we should be looking at those to see how we could

00:47:50.880 improve our system here in Canada. Well, that's it. And if we're looking at, you see, the fear

00:47:56.640 mongers and the protectors of the status quo always like to say that it's the universality 0.54

00:48:00.900 that's going to be put at risk. And I don't think anybody, anybody is proposing getting rid of

00:48:05.620 the universal nature of the system. I think if you polled Canadians, you'd probably find 90%

00:48:10.520 say, no, we want to make sure we have universal coverage for everybody. It's not even on the

00:48:15.320 table, but it's private provision and options we want to look at. But they, again, they turn that

00:48:20.760 discussion towards the states, or they say that we're going to suddenly make people have to deal

00:48:24.580 with credit card healthcare. And that's not the case whatsoever. Yeah, you're 100% right. There

00:48:28.920 are lots of countries that have universal healthcare systems. And this is a big

00:48:32.840 erroneous comment that you hear all the time in Canada. It's this idea that we're the only

00:48:38.960 country on the planet that has universal health care where everyone's covered. That's just simply

00:48:43.980 not true. There are lots of countries, like I said, in Europe, Australia, New Zealand,

00:48:47.640 where everyone's covered. They're not paying a fortune for health care. It's affordable. People

00:48:52.560 can get the care they need. They get better results than what we see here in Canada. So why

00:48:58.760 on earth are we not talking about those systems more? And when I say we, I'm referring to our

00:49:05.060 elected officials and actually moving forward in that direction. And it's doable. I mean,

00:49:10.660 we're not going out reinventing the wheel. We can look at, say, the Swedish model where they have a

00:49:15.500 system like Canada's and they have private options. If you don't want to wait a long period of time in

00:49:21.540 the public system for getting your hip or knee done, you can go to a private clinic. You know,

00:49:26.780 that's that's pretty common across the world canada's the only if not perhaps you know who

00:49:33.220 knows what's going on in north korea but we seem to be the only country on the planet that does 0.98

00:49:38.300 not allow people to use their own money to pay for health care and as a result you often see

00:49:44.560 patients getting onto airplanes going to other jurisdictions other countries uh you know getting

00:49:49.860 in their cars and so forth and uh it just it doesn't make sense if you put the patient at

00:49:54.920 the center of the healthcare system and say, this is who we want to help.

00:49:58.340 This is what the system is all about.

00:50:00.220 You do not do it the way that Canada does it.

00:50:03.020 Oh.

00:50:03.220 And as you said, they're not stopping people from paying for extra care.

00:50:06.020 They're just pushing them to outer jurisdictions to do it. 0.98

00:50:08.800 So, I mean, if it's going to happen anyways, we're off to keep the money

00:50:11.980 here in our own system.

00:50:13.740 And the other myth I think, you know, that comes to that is it's not

00:50:16.920 necessarily rich people who are going for alternative care.

00:50:19.520 It's desperate people.

00:50:20.640 I mean, if you were told that, you know, you needed a hip replacement,

00:50:24.620 you can't work for the, you know, without it, you're in agony, but it's going to take three

00:50:28.800 more years. But if you cash your RRSPs and go south of the border, you can get it done in a

00:50:33.780 month. Well, guess what? You're going to cash your RRSPs and go down there and get it done or fly

00:50:38.060 somewhere else. It's so wasteful. And, you know, based on the politics of envy, unfortunately,

00:50:44.140 and it's not working. I mean, if they did have the bottle corked, you can claim, well, there,

00:50:48.740 we've all got equal levels of misery, but we don't. So it's still leaking. So yeah, let's keep

00:50:53.060 out those funds here yeah that that's exactly right and we've talked to a lot of mid-linked

00:50:57.860 canadians who have gotten onto airplanes they've gone to other countries china mexico the united

00:51:05.300 states europe all over the world people are traveling to get the health care that they need

00:51:10.020 because they don't want to live in pain you know in some cases you've got people who are in their

00:51:15.140 their prime working years and they can't afford to sit on the sidelines for a year or two while the

00:51:20.980 government gets its act together to get them the care they need so they've done the math and they've

00:51:25.140 said look it's going to cost me a bunch of money to do this but i'll end up being able to make more

00:51:30.580 and i'll have my my life uh during that period so so that's happening um it's just it doesn't

00:51:37.620 make any sense right now you know the other angle we look at is the environmental impact

00:51:41.700 how on earth does it make any sense to force canadians to get onto airplanes and travel to

00:51:46.260 other jurisdictions so that they can get the care they need in a timely manner just it doesn't make

00:51:51.940 any sense from an environmental perspective economic and so forth and so there's a there's

00:51:57.940 a lot of ways you can do this that uh you know you protect that universal nature that canadians like

00:52:03.140 and you know one example i always like to talk about corey is the public school system across

00:52:08.100 canada there are public schools that you can send your child to and you don't you generally you

00:52:12.900 don't have to pay there might be some small school fees in that but it's not like you're getting a

00:52:17.220 10 or 20 000 bill or anything like that you pay for it through your taxes you have that public

00:52:23.060 option across the country but across the country there are also some private schools that patients

00:52:28.660 or parents can choose and some do the majority decide to use the public system some choose

00:52:34.740 private and what that does is the private options they take some of the pressure off of the public

00:52:39.300 system and you know the the two systems function side by side and the sky hasn't fallen and i

00:52:45.300 think we could see that same approach in health care and it would ultimately give patients more

00:52:51.300 choice would help patients and it would uh take pressure off the public system well that's it i

00:52:57.380 think a lot of canadians just kind of have to change their mindset we've been very programmed

00:53:01.140 as i said in a column the other day you know to believe that this system is equitable and the only

00:53:05.940 way to go and i mean if we could just rearrange how we think about things you know don't think

00:53:10.420 of the person who's uh paying some money perhaps to get that diagnostic ahead of you they're not

00:53:15.620 doing it to jump the line they're putting money into the system to speed your place up in line

00:53:19.940 as well i mean certainly yeah that person's gonna get in there a week ahead of you but it might save

00:53:24.020 you two weeks in line because you had a system that allowed that why not you know just why not

00:53:28.660 get over the little bit of envy and let them do it because they're going to do it anyways they'll

00:53:32.340 They'll go to Montana and Great Falls to get that MRI if they have to.

00:53:35.460 So let's just keep it here.

00:53:37.700 Yeah, I mean, that's exactly it.

00:53:40.240 It's not rocket science.

00:53:41.220 It's like you're waiting in line at a grocery store and there's 10 people ahead of you.

00:53:45.120 And then someone opens up another till and some go into that other line.

00:53:48.660 And that other till is private instead of the public system.

00:53:52.580 I mean, that's what it's like.

00:53:53.820 You end up taking some of the pressure off of the line that you're waiting.

00:53:57.980 And one point I would note is that just making that one change, it's going to help.

00:54:02.340 I don't think it's going to cure all the problems with our system.

00:54:05.540 One other option that the Montreal Economic Institute and the Fraser Institute in particular for years they've raised is the idea of activity-based funding.

00:54:15.160 And what that means in plain English is that you fund hospitals differently than they're funded right now.

00:54:20.400 Instead of just giving them a big check each year and saying, good luck, we hope you can help a lot of patients.

00:54:25.460 What activity-based funding does is it funds hospitals based on the output that they do.

00:54:31.340 So every time they provide a patient with, say, a hip operation, well, they get some extra money.

00:54:38.000 So this completely changes the incentive system in hospitals so that they move to a model where they're incentivized to really focus on output, helping patients, getting lots of hips and knee surgeries done, getting lots of procedures done to help patients.

00:54:53.920 and you know that's just one other thing that could be done that I think could ultimately help

00:54:58.660 the system and patients across the country. Yeah well and we got a lot of work and myth

00:55:04.340 busting do you like I see one of the commenters Wildrow saying we're going to end up with people 0.59

00:55:07.220 dying on hospital steps because they don't have a credit card but you know it's ridiculous it's

00:55:12.220 absurd it's wrong but that's a common point of view you know we hear that from a lot of Canadians

00:55:17.360 it's been programmed into them and that's nobody is talking about taking universality away I mean

00:55:21.920 I don't know if we've got to stamp it on people's heads or what,

00:55:24.600 but we're not going to do that.

00:55:26.180 But immediately, as soon as you start talking about reform,

00:55:28.140 you'll hear commenters saying these things.

00:55:30.840 Yeah, and that's the key.

00:55:31.940 Go to a country like Sweden. 0.77

00:55:34.480 No one's dying because they don't have a credit card to pay for their health care.

00:55:38.880 There's lots of other countries in Europe, Australia, New Zealand.

00:55:42.100 Again, they're universal in nature.

00:55:44.640 They end up with better results.

00:55:46.880 That's the key.

00:55:47.540 There are lots of countries that are delivering better health care results.

00:55:51.200 they're universal and ultimately it's helping patients and we shouldn't be afraid to go down

00:55:58.040 that road because the road's already been paved we're not reinventing the wheel we can look at

00:56:03.220 these countries how did you guys do it great what did you learn along the way okay we're gonna you

00:56:08.980 know do it the way you did it learn from your mistakes so that is one kind of strange benefit

00:56:14.600 of Canada being so far behind with health reforms that we can learn from all the mistakes made in

00:56:20.060 other developed nations and copy what they've done best and ultimately get better services

00:56:25.140 provided to patients. And, you know, to touch on that point I made at the beginning about patients

00:56:30.020 dying, we can't ignore this. We have to talk about this. Patients are dying because they're not

00:56:35.680 getting the care they need in a timely manner. Last year, data that we obtained from Nova Scotia

00:56:41.520 shows that there were 51 patients that died while waiting for procedures which could have

00:56:47.460 potentially save their lives. So these are things like heart operations, cancer treatment, and so

00:56:52.200 forth. The next important question to ask is, okay, well, how many of those waited for longer

00:56:57.860 than what they should have? Because that's the key. And the data shows that over three quarters

00:57:03.220 of those patients had waited longer than the recommended maximum wait time. So that's a big,

00:57:09.060 big problem. And, you know, we don't see enough media attention on numbers like that. But behind

00:57:15.340 those stats are everyday people, the moms and dads and grandmas and grandpas that are passing

00:57:20.980 away and not having time to spend with their kids and pursue opportunities and activities that they

00:57:26.480 like. It's tragic. And that's just one example of why we need to be moving forward with health

00:57:34.080 reform, because it's going to save lives, it's going to help patients, it's going to help

00:57:37.840 those that are maybe their lives aren't going to be saved, but they're going to have a better

00:57:42.200 quality of life because they're not going to be stuck in their apartment for a year or two while

00:57:45.460 they're dealing with chronic pain yeah well that's something i've liked what you guys do at second

00:57:50.040 street just to remind people you know check out secondstreet.org to see more on these things is

00:57:54.000 you guys do a lot of videos i mean personal videos and you're showing you know other individuals

00:57:58.720 letting them speak for themselves it's a little more than just more columnists and articles and

00:58:03.160 stats you've got some great videos talking to people and exposing you know this have real

00:58:08.140 impacts on people on those waiting lists even if you aren't fortunately on one you know you're

00:58:12.360 fortunately not on one. I do have a good question though from Kim Holmes it's a valid concern

00:58:16.440 saying is it possible uh Kim Holmes I think said that yeah is it possible that

00:58:20.240 uh what one reason the individuals are reversed to private care is it's felt that some doctors

00:58:25.760 would leave clinics and other professionals and move to the private ones leaving a substandard

00:58:29.920 you know uh sort of provision in the in the public system and it's that is a kind of a fair concern

00:58:35.980 I mean, people don't want some sort of two-tier thing where, you know, the public system is some grimy old beat-up hospital with sub-rate doctors and the private one is far superior.

00:58:44.700 How do you avoid that outcome?

00:58:46.300 Yeah, and that's a very good point.

00:58:47.940 I'm glad she raised that because I think it is a valid one.

00:58:51.060 And I think there's a few things to consider.

00:58:52.800 One is that other countries do this, so it can be done.

00:58:56.000 You can have the public system fully staffed with quality staff operating alongside a private system or private options that also have quality staff.

00:59:06.520 So we know it can be done. How do we get from where we are to that point?

00:59:11.080 And I think in the short term, there might be the incentive for some doctors to maybe want to leave or whatever.

00:59:15.380 In the short term, I think there is maybe an opportunity for governments to place some restrictions around, you know, how many hours a doctor could work in, you know, the private system or something like that.

00:59:27.840 Or maybe the private clinics cannot poach from the public system, something like that in the short term.

00:59:33.620 But over the long term, we need to remember whose responsibility it is for training staff, making sure that there's doctors and nurses that are trained and available for the health care system to meet the needs of society.

00:59:46.800 And that, of course, is the government. So if we're not churning out enough doctors and enough nurses, well, then maybe we need to start churning out more of those and dedicate some of the funds in the post-secondary system away from some degrees in that that people end up getting, which the marketplace, the society really doesn't need.

01:00:07.440 take those dollars and put them in so that there's more funding for uh training doctors and nurses

01:00:12.860 so i think that's another thing that we we could be looking at uh doing uh to make sure that there

01:00:18.660 are enough staff but i you know i think she's raising a good point and you know we've the way

01:00:23.720 i look at it is we we put a man on the moon we can find a way to make sure that we address a

01:00:28.100 concern like that uh and ultimately uh get better care provider moving forward and yeah we shouldn't

01:00:34.840 assume a completely deregulated system as we said there are a lot of models we can look at

01:00:38.960 I could be wrong I believe it's French the French system where they have private hospitals and the

01:00:44.000 way they're regulated is there's a certain percentage they absolutely have to do in the

01:00:47.160 public system first and then they have a percentage of use that they could put towards private out of

01:00:52.720 pocket and it kind of works well because the public still accesses those high-end specialists

01:00:57.080 and doctors and facilities but and plus the hospital can draw these that that's part of

01:01:03.420 drawing these specialists when you're in a a rigid public system you might not have the dollars to

01:01:08.060 compete with other countries to get some of these doctors or nurses and a lot of specialists in

01:01:12.860 this way again they can be subsidized to keep them in that hospital and still do

01:01:16.540 um public procedures i could be wrong in which country that was i'm thinking that's the one

01:01:20.780 but i'd say there's a lot of ways we could look at it to to address some of these valid concerns by

01:01:24.620 people i know for sure and i think uh the uk does something similar where they you you have to work

01:01:31.500 a certain number in the public system before you can do private something like that i mean

01:01:35.100 like i say in the short term i think there you could look at options like that i actually think

01:01:39.820 that having private options alongside the public system would help retain staff because we know

01:01:45.980 what happens in canada after doctors and nurses graduate a good number of them decide to pack

01:01:51.580 their bags and they go to other countries and the united states being one of those those countries

01:01:55.980 because they can earn more so if we had these options for them to supplement their income here

01:02:00.860 in canada some would choose it and there was a story in the calgary herald a few years ago about

01:02:05.340 a surgeon from uh here in calgary where he would regularly get onto an airplane with his patients

01:02:12.300 they'd fly down to the caribbean and that's where he would do the surgery and he'd get paid for it

01:02:17.260 so i imagine he'd do a few surgeries down there then get back on an airplane and fly back to

01:02:21.260 canada it just really doesn't make any sense at all uh for that to happen but if you had that those

01:02:27.660 options in the private system for him to do that as well as other surgeons uh some i think would

01:02:33.260 take advantage of it maybe they work most of their time in this public system and then on the weekends

01:02:38.300 maybe they do the odd surgery here and there to earn a few more dollars and combine that might be 0.96

01:02:43.340 enough to keep them in canada rather than going to other countries where they could earn more

01:02:47.980 yeah i mean we just need to start thinking outside that box um maybe i'll i'll pivot a little more

01:02:52.620 while i've still got you on something more recent you guys put out i i didn't not give you a warning

01:02:56.860 on this one but that's i'm pretty sure you're familiar with it you you guys published a poll

01:03:00.700 on canada's preference for oil exports um when it came to uh uh you know domestic supply versus

01:03:08.140 what we'd be uh setting out uh you know to offset russian supplies and things such as that what did

01:03:11.980 you guys find there yeah so after ukraine was invaded by russia we decided to pull canadians

01:03:19.420 on the idea of canada increasing production of oil and gas and exporting it so that the world

01:03:25.420 could reduce how much it's buying from Putin's Russia and buy more from Canada. And 78% of

01:03:32.360 Canadians agreed with that idea. I think people are more and more every day, they're understanding

01:03:37.980 how Putin is paying for his invasion. He sells oil and gas to the West, and then he takes those

01:03:44.200 dollars and he buys tanks and rockets, and he's invaded Ukraine with it. So I think people are

01:03:50.100 understanding that connection, that if we're going to sort of pull out the power cord that is

01:03:54.340 keeping Putin's war machine going. One way to do it is to stop buying oil and gas from them. And

01:03:59.740 like I say, 78% of Canadians support the idea of us producing and exporting more. And it's important

01:04:05.740 to note that there's a huge, large majority like that right across the country, all age groups,

01:04:12.340 men and women. It's something that Canadians, I think, really support. And another option that

01:04:19.640 we polled Canadians on was, okay, well, what if we produce more oil and gas, but we took the

01:04:25.620 government's corporate tax revenue and royalty revenue from these new projects and used it to

01:04:33.060 reduce emissions. And, you know, we thought, well, maybe this is one way that some elected officials

01:04:39.300 might be more warm to this idea, because they're trying to figure out this green component,

01:04:44.200 whether people like it or not. A guy like Justin Trudeau is very much focused on climate

01:04:49.580 change so we thought well maybe this is an alternative that might might help out is to

01:04:55.180 you know make this a concession that okay well you take the money from these new projects and

01:04:58.900 use it to fund emissions reduction activities and that that actually pulled a little bit lower than

01:05:04.680 the first one was about 68 percent of Canadians agreed with that that idea but nonetheless I

01:05:10.000 think those are two policy options that that make sense you know if we're trying to figure out how

01:05:15.460 we can pull the plug on Putin's war machine a big answer or big part of that answer is Canada's

01:05:21.480 natural resources and then at the same time it I think is recognizes the fact that if we keep

01:05:29.300 our resources in the ground some other country is just going to produce more so we're not really

01:05:34.820 helping the environment all we're doing is the country is missing out on economic activity so

01:05:40.740 So those are a couple of the questions that we put to Canadians to see where they stand.

01:05:46.580 Great. Well, hopefully, you know, as Canadians start to come on side with a little more common sense in the energy file,

01:05:51.460 maybe our federal leadership will start to follow suit down the road.

01:05:54.880 They haven't shown much indication yet, but the first step, I guess, in convincing them is that the citizens themselves want to go this route.

01:06:02.000 So I appreciate that poll and I appreciate you coming on today.

01:06:05.800 where can people find more information on second street,

01:06:08.100 what you're up to and more on health reform and the rest of the things you

01:06:12.320 guys have been working on?

01:06:13.860 Yeah. So if people go to our website, which is secondstreet.org,

01:06:17.120 all spelled out,

01:06:18.180 they can find out all kinds of information on what we're doing on Facebook,

01:06:22.500 Twitter, YouTube.

01:06:24.280 You can find contact details there too, and see what we're doing.

01:06:29.060 And if people have an interesting story,

01:06:30.400 they can always shoot us an email and we'll consider it.

01:06:33.360 Because like you said, we don't just do the macro research.

01:06:36.240 We try and find the personal stories that help put a face to the numbers so that people

01:06:41.120 can understand the impacts of government policies.

01:06:44.200 Well, that's it.

01:06:44.640 I mean, we want to make things relatable.

01:06:45.980 You know, there's political weenies like us who love reading and digging down into those

01:06:49.500 sorts of things.

01:06:50.280 But your average person likes to hear from impacted people directly rather than just

01:06:55.320 the numbers and stats.

01:06:56.200 So I appreciate that with what you guys do.

01:06:58.620 Well, thanks a lot for having me on, Corey.

01:07:00.100 I appreciate it.

01:07:00.840 All right.

01:07:01.020 Thanks, Ron.

01:07:01.360 Hope we can talk again soon.

01:07:02.860 Sounds good.

01:07:03.360 So that was Colin Craig with secondstreet.org. And yeah, they do a lot of work on a number of

01:07:09.160 issues. The most recent one was on the energy and the poll that they had done on where Canadians

01:07:13.380 are on that. And as I talked with Colin predominantly on this time was on healthcare

01:07:20.460 reform, you know, and these waiting lists that are really making a lot of people suffer and the

01:07:24.260 status quo that we've just got to start chipping away at. We've got to understand that we need some

01:07:28.400 reform. This problem is getting worse and worse. It's not like we're spending less money. We're

01:07:32.680 constantly increasing spending on health care from every jurisdiction, yet the outcomes are

01:07:37.700 getting, they're not getting any better. I mean, we know there's some fantastic doctors and

01:07:41.540 professionals and technologists in the system, but the system itself is just not serving us

01:07:47.700 as well as it should. So I'm good, you know, happy to see organizations opening up those discussions.

01:07:54.580 So I'll be getting on to my next guest pretty quickly here, and that is political scientist

01:08:01.320 Barry Cooper. People might know that name. He's been very prolific in Alberta politics for a long

01:08:06.300 time. He's from the Calgary School, where those of us, again, a little more gray on the sides can

01:08:12.420 remember in the 90s when we used to have quite a few good conservative political scientists out

01:08:17.640 there, and they're still around. They're still working on things. We just don't see quite that

01:08:22.180 dominance of them. We're working together. And he wrote a great piece in C2C Journal about, well,

01:08:29.000 as we saw recently with the house of commons the seat distribution and basically how rep by pop

01:08:34.680 isn't quite what is uh going on in canada with parliament uh particularly when it comes to quebec

01:08:39.560 but also some of the background and why it got there and and why the the our regional balance

01:08:43.800 is really actually quite imbalanced so uh let's let's bring uh professor cooper in and and see

01:08:49.240 what we can talk about there hello mr cooper good to see you today good to see you too corey

01:08:55.080 Thanks. Well, I appreciate you coming on. As I said with that piece you wrote,

01:09:00.200 a lot of people, I think, you know, if they weren't heavy political watchers,

01:09:02.920 we're still even confused about that. Like, how can our House of Commons override

01:09:08.200 something as basic as representation by population with parliamentary seats?

01:09:14.760 And it turns out it's quite a complicated issue and formula. And I mean, everywhere from the

01:09:18.520 Maritimes into Quebec, we never really have had any real pure rep by pop in there, have we?

01:09:23.960 No, interestingly enough, Rep by Pop has been, which is basically one person, one vote, has been contentious from before Confederation when Laurentian Canada was a colony by itself, distinct from the Maritimes, certainly distinct from Rupert's Land in the Northwest, which then became Western Canada.

01:09:49.380 And historically, when one of those colonies had the larger population, they were very

01:09:58.920 much in favor of representation by population.

01:10:04.000 But then when things flipped, specifically it flipped with lower Canada or Canada East

01:10:11.080 having a lower population than Canada West or Ontario now, then suddenly they were very

01:10:18.500 interested in basically sectional representation on a basis of equality so that the two constituent

01:10:28.840 colonies had the same number of representatives in the common legislature.

01:10:34.920 So right from the beginning, it's been basically, how do you advance your local interests?

01:10:41.740 If you've got the big population, that's really important.

01:10:45.540 If you don't, it's just your sectional representation that matters, and it's still simply a matter

01:10:52.180 of interest to Laurentian Canada.

01:10:54.960 It has never applied to Western Canada.

01:10:58.800 The last time that anyone even talked about it was during the discussions over an effective

01:11:07.120 equal and elected Senate, but we know how well that turned out.

01:11:12.340 Yeah, I mean, Triple E was a big rallying cry for all of us in the late 80s and into

01:11:16.700 the 90s, but it seems to have kind of fallen by the wayside.

01:11:19.200 I think people have kind of given up any idea on, you know, being able to reform it.

01:11:23.620 It's a brick wall to try and change, well, that Laurentian interest, I guess, within

01:11:28.200 central Canada.

01:11:30.880 But, I mean, is there any chance of any kind of reform?

01:11:34.080 I mean, I see you referenced another political scientist, Emmett McFarland.

01:11:37.400 He makes some interesting comments a lot, quite often, actually.

01:11:40.020 But he was talking about, you know, Quebec with a different way where we could expand seats and then make sure Quebec doesn't have to face the indignity of having a seat taken away.

01:11:53.120 This province that we coddle with in Canada, it gets a little frustrating eventually.

01:11:57.360 Like it's an indignity to have your population represented. 0.99

01:12:02.320 Yeah, well, we all know how special Quebec is because they keep telling us this all the time.

01:12:06.800 So it's completely, so far as I can see anyway, it's just completely Quebec politicians, both in the House of Commons and in Quebec City, trying to advance their own agenda, their own importance, their own power.

01:12:24.960 And since we have a rather supine liberal government that is happy to agree with just about any kind of crazy ideas that come out of Quebec, they're in favor of it.

01:12:36.800 And so far as I can see, it's just another move by not just Quebec, but Laurentian Canada generally to assert their primacy over the rest of the country.

01:12:50.400 Yeah, well, is there any way we'll ever be able to address that or, you know, push back against it?

01:12:56.580 With our federal, and you mentioned some of those conservative party of Canada, leadership candidates, they either abstained from the vote for the most part or voted in favor of preserving that seat for Quebec when that came up in there.

01:13:08.860 I actually had Jean Charest on the show a couple of weeks ago.

01:13:12.520 I asked about that, and he said, well, the solution perhaps is to just, you know, add more seats so everybody gets more and then Quebec never has to lose any.

01:13:19.520 But, I mean, I just see you kicking the can down the road and compounding the problem.

01:13:22.740 We don't need more politicians. 0.59

01:13:23.980 We just need better ones.

01:13:24.900 Yeah, I've heard a number of people say that that would make Quebec happy if the whole

01:13:33.980 House of Commons was just bigger.

01:13:36.500 The problem is that they also talk about proportionate, the proportionate power.

01:13:42.100 So they don't just want more.

01:13:45.160 They want to keep more than they deserve by normal rep by pop divisions.

01:13:52.300 I mean, if Canada were divided up just by the number of seats that each of the province

01:14:01.300 deserved by province, or at least by population, Quebec would lose, I think, about four or

01:14:08.920 five seats, not one.

01:14:12.840 I mean, in many respects, I think it's simply an assertion of power because they can do

01:14:20.240 it, and so they will.

01:14:22.300 until people say, well, no, we don't think that that's right, and do something serious.

01:14:32.280 You might say the foreign policy of Alberta with respect to Laurentian Canada would be involved,

01:14:38.540 but the day that we have a premier in this province who's willing to treat Laurentian Canada

01:14:43.880 as an antagonistic part of the country to us, you know, I don't see that in the near future,

01:14:52.860 put it that way. No, again, there's that fear, as I was pointing out with the federal leadership,

01:14:58.620 you know, members of parliament, but likewise with premiers, they just don't want to take on

01:15:02.220 that battle. But I mean, the numbers are stark. And I think with people with any general sense

01:15:06.700 of fairness would understand that you had that in your article. I mean, Alberta is going to have 1.00

01:15:09.860 one MP for every 120,000 Albertans versus Quebec having one for every 110,000 Quebecers. And then

01:15:16.640 that doesn't even address all the other imbalances we have politically when it comes to

01:15:20.320 La Belle Provence. Yeah, it would take a certain amount of courage for the Premier of this province

01:15:27.140 to stand up, I would say for Albertans, but to stand up against Quebecers in particular. I mean, 1.00

01:15:33.980 they have not done us any favors in sort of living memory. Just yesterday, the leader of the

01:15:42.300 block in the House basically wanted to shut down the province. You know, I mean, they're not our

01:15:48.980 friends. This is what is hard for, I think, Alberta politicians to understand. Most Albertans

01:15:56.780 can figure it out without too much trouble, but you get this, what Preston Manning used to call

01:16:04.220 being auto-washed, and they don't want to do anything. It's, you know, and so I think that's

01:16:11.380 one of the reasons, it may not be the only one, but that's certainly one of the reasons why none

01:16:15.360 of the aspirants, including the current incumbent for the premiership of this province are not held

01:16:22.460 in the highest regard. No, I mean, if there's been any area, as you said, your average Albertans

01:16:27.680 certainly know that there's an imbalance and mistreatment. I mean, how long, again, it used

01:16:33.960 to be perhaps Quebec was always just looking out for themselves. Well, that's fair enough as a 1.00

01:16:37.040 province, but now they're shooting outward. As you said, they're almost, you know, telling Alberta

01:16:40.400 to shut down their resources. Why, what's your problem with us? But the disappointment with

01:16:47.280 Premier Kenney, unfortunately, a lot of it was, well, the fair deal panel. A lot of us got on

01:16:51.360 board said, well, this is a move towards something similar to the Alberta agenda and maybe moving

01:16:57.140 forward and pushing back and standing up for ourselves a bit. But all of those elements of

01:17:01.380 that fair deal panel seem to have fallen by the wayside. It never was, they haven't pushed for

01:17:06.600 a provincial pension plan or provincial police force or a lot of the things that Alberta said

01:17:10.760 they wanted. So if we're not going to stand up for ourselves, when are we going to?

01:17:15.060 yeah uh as i said i think that's one of the reasons why uh premier kenny is uh uh is not

01:17:23.220 as popular as he thinks he should be it's because he hasn't done what he said he was going to do

01:17:27.140 uh on behalf of albertans and in defending alberta's interests against these i would say

01:17:33.160 predatory politicians in laurentian canada they're not our friends no and another part of the issue

01:17:40.320 though i mean we've got such a complicated formula that's what we do i guess when it

01:17:44.000 to legislation but the maritime provinces don't have a lot of interest or some of them in changing

01:17:48.800 this as well like one of the reasons uh pei has the seats they do is that they couldn't there's a

01:17:53.360 legislation to part of the legislation saying they could never have fewer in parliament than they do

01:17:57.520 in senate and they have already a number of people in the senate so i mean the west kind of stands

01:18:02.320 alone in wanting to change anything right now yeah this is uh uh it's it's interesting the

01:18:09.280 relationship between the West and the rest of the country has been a kind of, I would say nowadays,

01:18:20.240 I'd call it a kind of legacy of the British imperial ways of ruling what was now or what

01:18:28.400 is now Western Canada from basically from London, an attitude that was then taken over by the

01:18:36.720 politicians in Ottawa and they've used it quite well to their advantage. They initially actually

01:18:48.640 used this attitude with respect to the Maritimes and basically managed to buy them off

01:18:55.280 one way or another to bring them into the country. But I mean, this has been known for

01:19:01.040 over a generation. I remember reading about this stuff when I was an undergraduate.

01:19:06.720 People have not made the same kind of analysis about how Laurentian Canada has adopted these imperial attitudes towards the West.

01:19:18.260 But, you know, eventually we'll figure it out and maybe it'll even be taught in high schools.

01:19:22.140 Who knows?

01:19:24.160 But eventually, you know, these let's call them structural imbalances result in policy changes.

01:19:32.200 If the Laurentians are not interested in policy changes, well, we can make our changes all by

01:19:37.820 ourselves. Well, and there's some we can do, but that's what I was wondering. What can be done to

01:19:43.320 address some of these without, say, reopening the Constitution? What sort of policy remedies do we

01:19:48.540 have aside from changing the actual structure? When the governor of Michigan shut down that

01:19:58.640 the pipeline that goes between Michigan and, or wanted to shut it down, and Ontario, the

01:20:04.920 governor of Alberta could have had an amicus brief on her side saying, that's a great idea. 0.99

01:20:12.720 And that would send a signal to the Laurentians that we've had enough. We're even willing

01:20:21.660 to cut off our exports to you to get your attention.

01:20:26.780 Of course, how un-Canadian would that be?

01:20:30.940 But eventually, we'll figure it out.

01:20:33.360 Something like that will take place.

01:20:35.680 But back to that letting the Easterners freezing in the dark

01:20:39.120 sort of concept we'd proposed some years ago.

01:20:42.720 And I guess, I mean, most of what you're getting

01:20:44.880 is we've got to find our backbone, though,

01:20:47.100 and start pushing back, I mean, whatever means we have.

01:20:50.440 and we haven't started doing that yet even.

01:20:53.160 You wonder how much more it'll take before somebody says enough.

01:20:59.180 Yeah, well, and of course we are seeing, I mean, it's a slow growth,

01:21:02.820 but I mean, secessionism, I believe to a degree, is definitely on the rise in the West.

01:21:06.880 I mean, people frustrated, throwing up their hands,

01:21:08.600 but it rarely comes to such a number that it's going to start garnering seats yet.

01:21:13.140 Do you think that could eventually come, though?

01:21:15.120 Well, that's a very interesting observation and a really interesting problem because independence requires a political leader in this province and next door in Saskatchewan as well, who is willing to be sufficiently, as we would say, unpatriotic to raise the issue.

01:21:37.480 We've got lots of reasons for it, and you're mentioning what happened to Jason Kenney's panel with respect to the police and this sort of thing, you know, proves that in spades.

01:21:53.880 All it needs is political will, but that's what's missing, and, you know, heaven knows when it will show up.

01:22:01.280 So I guess when the Laurentians, you know, proceed to shut down the oil sands, maybe that's what it'll take.

01:22:13.280 It'll take something like that to motivate some political leader to say, no, you're not going to do that.

01:22:22.080 We have our interests and we're going to defend them.

01:22:24.940 Yeah, we haven't had a Rennie Levesque surface yet, but it's not to say there isn't one waiting in the woodworks for the next big episode.

01:22:33.540 We know there's going to be another one.

01:22:34.640 It just seems to be one assault after another to come forth and maybe rally people around, well, just using that final option left to us.

01:22:43.980 Yeah, no, I agree.

01:22:45.260 And it's the other thing that I think a lot of people have, in this province anyway, have seen through is that it's not really about environmentalism.

01:22:54.940 That is simply the excuse that Laurentians use to beat up on Alberta and Saskatchewan.

01:23:03.940 Some of the people in the Trudeau cabinet, I'm sure, are fanatical environmentalists, particularly the Minister of the Environment.

01:23:12.880 But that's not really the issue.

01:23:14.620 It's the incredible distaste that Laurentians have, particularly from Quebec, with respect to this province.

01:23:24.480 they do not like us. And there's, you know, there's no reason why we should want to be friends with

01:23:30.620 them. Oh, I mean, you can only be snubbed so many times before you have to start changing your

01:23:36.220 approach. Well, I really appreciate you, you know, coming to speak to us today and that article on

01:23:42.260 it and just showing it really breaks down. As I said, it's on the CTC Journal. It's called

01:23:46.360 Cal Surprise. Quebec wants more seats in the House of Commons, that is. And, you know, just showing

01:23:51.940 the breaking down the entire system is quite stacked against us and and as you said quite

01:23:56.500 hostile and and it's perhaps we're coming to an impasse where can we find more information on your

01:24:02.500 work uh where else do you publish these days well uh marco navarro and i have got a a book second

01:24:11.060 edition of a book on covid uh that that should be out within another couple of months it's called

01:24:16.980 the covet 19 uh a story of a pandemic moral panic uh and it's uh the first the first edition came

01:24:27.860 up in about what 14 months ago and a lot of ha lots happened in the uh since november of 2020

01:24:37.620 so it's it's bringing stuff up to date um and you know a lot of people find it suitably offensive

01:24:42.980 so that's fine well great and we've had marco on the show before actually he writes the odd column

01:24:48.260 for us over here perhaps once that second edition comes out we can get you guys on and discuss more

01:24:53.300 of that in the future that'd be terrific thank you great well thank you very much for coming on

01:24:57.940 to talk to us today mr cooper and uh keep well i hope we can talk again soon thanks cory thanks

01:25:05.540 yes that was barry cooper from the university of calgary and and still writing great stuff and and

01:25:11.060 And saying it like it is, as we're saying, that reticence on the part of legislators, we see it in the media and so on, you know, of angering or upsetting Quebec.

01:25:22.460 I mean, as he's pointing out, Quebec isn't just indifferent to us anymore.

01:25:26.720 They're getting outright hostile with us.

01:25:28.300 They're actually trying to shut us down.

01:25:30.280 And not just Quebec.

01:25:32.400 You know, Mr. Cooper mentioned the Laurentians quite often, and that's a term that's used more and more we're hearing now, and it's a good one.

01:25:38.780 It's the Laurentian elites. It's the old families, the old money, the old media. It's the old guard in central Canada. And of course, it references basically anybody within a few miles of the St. Lawrence River Valley. These are the people who control this nation. They're the people who've always controlled this nation. And they have a sense of entitlement.

01:26:00.240 They feel, as I believe the word was used, imperialistic.

01:26:03.660 You know, we are the outlying colonies rather than a province to be respected and to have a degree of, you know, independence of its own.

01:26:14.980 And as I also brought up, you know, with the Maritimes, because they're out there, too.

01:26:18.560 And they haven't necessarily gotten a good deal from the Federation as well.

01:26:23.220 And, you know, you've got to start looking.

01:26:25.460 Again, this status quo, we swirl the drain.

01:26:28.940 It's that question when it comes to healthcare schools,

01:26:30.660 any of these things, we keep coming to the same wall.

01:26:32.480 How bad does it have to get before Canadians are ready to change things?

01:26:37.700 And I don't know yet.

01:26:38.880 We don't seem to have gotten there yet.

01:26:42.080 But at some point, we have to, I would think.

01:26:45.560 I'm going to speak one more time to one of our sponsors, by the way,

01:26:48.400 and that's Bitcoin Well.

01:26:49.500 I talked to him about him again.

01:26:52.840 Just that reminder.

01:26:53.940 speaking of the Laurentian, speaking of elite, speaking of Central Canada. Well, our bankers

01:26:58.560 are a lot of those as well, our Canadian small number of federally regulated banks. And we saw

01:27:04.000 recently that with the government's permission or government's orders, they can come in and snatch

01:27:08.620 your money from you on a whim. There's a lot of incentive these days to get away from conventional

01:27:13.900 currency, store some money, save some money somewhere else, somewhere out of that reach,

01:27:18.200 somewhere that might not be as stuck with the ups and downs of the Canadian currency.

01:27:24.240 Well, Bitcoin is one of those options for you.

01:27:26.700 And Bitcoin Well are one of the guys to show you if it's for you, you know, or not.

01:27:30.440 I mean, their goal is to educate you on it.

01:27:32.920 And they have some great stuff.

01:27:34.220 They call it Bitcoin Academy, I believe it is.

01:27:38.320 And it's online.

01:27:39.460 They've got seminars, webinars, videos to show you what it's about.

01:27:43.040 Take the confusion out of it.

01:27:44.260 make sure that you know that you're safe and comfortable investing in it if you choose to.

01:27:49.020 And again, maybe it's not for you and you don't, but this is the way you can find out if that's

01:27:52.500 the currency for you. And they have corporate plans. I like mentioning it because I think it's

01:27:56.040 kind of cool and neat. We do that here at The Standard. Every month, a portion of my salary

01:28:00.540 goes into my Bitcoin account and the Western Standard matches that and puts it in. So I get

01:28:05.440 a little savings in Bitcoin off to the side there. It's voluntary, of course, you know, I mean,

01:28:09.400 none of the employees here at The Standard have to take part in that. And other companies can do

01:28:13.820 the same sort of thing. Check them out. You know, it's a good incentive for your employees for some

01:28:17.260 side savings for themselves. And, uh, uh, you know, if your employer, maybe if you're an employee,

01:28:22.620 ask your employer, if they want to go into something like that, check them out. Bitcoin

01:28:26.240 well, they will teach you all things safe about Bitcoin. Uh, from, uh, Oh, this is interesting

01:28:33.080 from James Dickey. I've been watching this or Jamie Dickey, I should say it says from the CBC,

01:28:37.360 CBC, the Bay to Nord project will be approved. Uh, this was something I talked to, uh, uh,

01:28:43.180 Crystal Witvrangle from the Montreal Economic Institute about the other week. And it's a big

01:28:49.120 offshore oil project off the coast of Newfoundland that has been in the air for some time. The

01:28:55.020 government's been dragging their feet, kicking it around, the usual crap. I believe their deadline 0.99

01:28:58.820 was the 15th of this month. Perhaps they're announcing early that they're actually going

01:29:04.440 to do it. I don't know. I mean, it's one of those things when it comes to our federal government,

01:29:07.120 too. I'll believe it when I see it, but apparently it sounds, according to Mr. Dickey, that it's

01:29:11.380 going to be approved. That's a good development. It is. And it's going to bring a lot of funding

01:29:16.680 into Newfoundland and the Maritimes that they desperately need as well. We're all having hard

01:29:23.060 times. Of course, they'll have to fight and keep the federal government from snatching it all out

01:29:27.320 from under their feet as well. As Nico's putting in the comments to remind everybody, you know,

01:29:31.920 if you're following us on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, we're streaming now, Rumble, of course,

01:29:36.940 I like rumble because they don't cancel make sure to like follow share all of those things hit the

01:29:41.820 alert button when the specials come up so you can see them and know that we're doing these shows

01:29:47.260 because we do things out of the blue this is scheduled every day and it's regular but we do

01:29:50.940 other specials we're going to be recording the pipeline this afternoon that's where Dave Naylor

01:29:55.280 and Derek Fildebrand and I all kind of round up the week's issues and discuss those we got a good

01:30:00.300 one coming up today and that'll come out tonight and of course tomorrow I'm going to be back and

01:30:05.200 And it's going to be with guests, Shuvloy Majumder from the Montreal, or from the McDonnell-Laurier Institute.

01:30:11.320 So many institutes out there.

01:30:13.140 But Shuv is a really bright guy.

01:30:15.480 I've known him for quite some time.

01:30:16.840 We're going to talk on some international issues and things he's written on where Canada should land with the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

01:30:24.180 And then another candidate for the leadership of the Conservative Party of Canada.

01:30:27.340 His name is Grant Abraham.

01:30:29.500 That list is just getting bigger and longer.

01:30:31.700 But the more we talk to, we'll see how that race develops.

01:30:34.900 so we'll be talking to those two tomorrow and of course i'll have some sort of rant on the go too

01:30:38.900 we'll see what has me worked up at about six o'clock tomorrow morning when i start thinking

01:30:42.580 on what i'm going to write thank you all for tuning in today guys i'll see you tomorrow at 11 30.

01:31:04.900 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - April 07, 2022

LIVE SHOW - Triggered： Legacy media outlets feel entitled to your money.

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