Western Standard - LIVE SHOW - Triggered： Trudeau government looks to crush independent media.

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:31.000 Good morning and happy Thursday. It's April 7th, 2022. Welcome to Triggered. I'm Corey Morgan.

00:00:38.200 This is the Western Standards daily live show. We run 1130 a.m. Mountain Standard Time until about

00:00:45.540 1 o'clock p.m. typically. Depends on how many guests we have and how many issues are coming

00:00:50.240 and we've always got lots of both. We're going to be expanding our digital show presence soon.

00:00:55.520 I got, you know, some interesting things to announce in coming days.

00:00:58.600 We're not fully set up for that yet, so I won't be the lone one providing shows to you here soon.

00:01:04.060 And, again, that's good because it takes some pressure off because there is always so much to cover, so much to talk about.

00:01:09.780 So that reminder to everybody, this is a live show, which I love this format.

00:01:13.640 We just got to roll with it.

00:01:14.920 Leads to technical bugs now and then, but for the most part, it goes really well, and it makes it interactive.

00:01:20.500 I like seeing those comments in the comment scroll.

00:01:22.340 I like seeing you guys discussing things with each other, sending questions my way, sending questions towards the guests.

00:01:28.860 It's great and, you know, just reminds me that you're all there and actually listening.

00:01:32.500 I'm not talking into the wind, so I appreciate that.

00:01:35.380 Again, no, let's just keep everything civil to a degree.

00:01:38.480 We can differ with each other while still being respectful.

00:01:41.020 If you really want to get into it and get rough and tumble, save it for Twitter.

00:01:44.960 As you can see, Corey B. Morgan, that's my Twitter handle, and that's where I'm more receptive to having some of the more unsavory debate if we want to.

00:01:55.620 Good to see you all there.

00:01:56.680 Ashley, Cludet, Kim, and Scott, and Melissa.

00:02:00.060 Lots of folks coming in.

00:02:01.340 I like seeing Melissa coming in from Halifax.

00:02:03.220 It's great seeing the East Coast folks popping in here.

00:02:06.200 Somebody made a comment recently saying we should be the Canadian standard rather than the Western standard because we cover the national issues on things.

00:02:13.880 appreciate that we're going to keep covering it but you know we've got a long tradition as the

00:02:17.600 western standard just don't let the name fool you we will talk about things across the country and

00:02:22.180 i got a couple of great guests to talk about those it's gonna be a lot of federal issues today

00:02:25.280 i've got chauveloy majumder from the mcdonald laurier institute he wrote a column in the

00:02:30.740 national post a little while ago he's a specialist in foreign policy things such as that he was a

00:02:35.760 close advisor to stephen harper when harper was the prime minister and he's a very bright man to

00:02:41.660 discuss some of the things, well, where is Canada's role in the world? What can we do? What should we

00:02:46.100 do? It'll be a good nuanced discussion, you know, not just our usual armchair folks who sit on the

00:02:51.740 sidelines. This is somebody who's had to deal with foreign policy workers and advise them.

00:02:57.380 Then yet another Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidate, Grant Abraham. He's

00:03:02.320 thrown his hat into the ring there, and I think there's 10 or possibly 11 now. The race is getting

00:03:08.840 very busy, but we're continuing with our coverage and bringing in every candidate we can to speak

00:03:13.600 to you. I think Grant's going to be the sixth one of the bunch to come on the show, and we'll see

00:03:17.980 what he's got to offer in the conservative race. So before we get to that, let's see what's got me

00:03:23.560 going today, and it's again comes to media, free speech, and all those issues. We've had the Trudeau

00:03:30.040 liberals flirting with legislation to control independent media for years now. They've always

00:03:34.760 wanted to. I remember way back in the 90s, actually, towards the end of the 90s, CRTC

00:03:39.940 put out a release. I remember laughing at it. Maybe it was around 2000, but they were just

00:03:44.700 saying, we've examined the issue and we've decided for now that we're not going to regulate the

00:03:48.600 internet. Actually, what they were saying is they couldn't figure out how they could. There's a lot

00:03:52.360 of people in government just want to control information on how we do it. And the liberals

00:03:56.700 are no exception. In fact, they are exceptional when it comes to it. Now, despite spending

00:04:00.580 hundreds of millions in tax dollars to subsidize their preferred media outlets, independent media

00:04:05.420 outlets continue to flourish like this one. Canadians are abandoning legacy media outlets

00:04:10.980 outlets in favor of new independent news providers en masse, and it's got the establishment quite

00:04:15.900 frightened. Since the approach with the subsidy Carrot has failed, the government's now moving

00:04:20.520 on to using the stick. They started with Bill C-10 last year, and that was modeled to control

00:04:25.540 digital platforms. As radio and television ratings have been continually tanking, streaming platforms

00:04:31.300 of course have been experiencing record growth. Citizens preferred the raw content unfettered by

00:04:36.100 government regulation and they voted with their feet. A new world of broadcasting is opened up

00:04:41.300 for people. A person or a group of people can set up a decent broadcast with engaging content for

00:04:46.040 a mere fraction of what it cost only a decade ago. New streaming productions were purely guided by

00:04:51.760 supply and demand. You know, sub-rate productions languished with a handful of viewers and

00:04:56.220 faded away while new upstarts sprung up seemingly from nowhere and sometimes took the internet by

00:05:01.560 storm. But rather than examine why our traditional broadcasting dinosaurs could no longer draw

00:05:06.680 viewers, the government's seeking ways to drag the new media outlets down to the same crappy

00:05:11.140 level of engagement as the rest of the legacy media. C10 would have come with rules for Canadian

00:05:16.580 content minimums and of course French content. It would drive outside sources of information

00:05:21.380 from your screens and force you to consume the mediocre crap that the establishment wants you 0.98

00:05:26.860 to view. It would, of course, put those small upstart broadcasters at a large disadvantage 0.97

00:05:31.800 and drive digital streaming services towards large outlets. Now, C-10 died on the order paper due to

00:05:37.800 the 2021 federal election, but the government quickly regurgitated the bill as C-11 now in

00:05:43.240 the next session, and it's coming down the pipes now. They dearly want to grab and maintain control

00:05:48.200 here. Now, on top of C11, the Liberals have now introduced Bill C18. That bill's modeled to shake

00:05:54.120 down the larger internet providers and force them into paying media outlets for content that appears

00:05:58.780 in their platforms. Now, media outlets and those internet platforms, the heavyweights, have a

00:06:03.380 symbiotic relationship. You know, those big ones like Google, YouTube, Facebook, they can reach

00:06:07.800 millions of people, but they also rely on those independent content creators to draw the viewers

00:06:12.320 and readers. This relationship's far from perfect. I mean, Facebook in particular can be frustrating.

00:06:18.200 It's one of the main drivers for traffic for the Western Standard, for example.

00:06:21.780 When there's an issue or a conflict, there's nearly no such thing as responsive customer service.

00:06:26.160 But outlets like ours are dependent on those social media giants right now,

00:06:29.060 and we can't forget that those giants are dependent upon us too.

00:06:32.660 Digital media is a new thing.

00:06:34.260 We're witnessing the primordial soup of a whole new world of communication and broadcasting.

00:06:38.800 And if it's left alone, it will evolve naturally.

00:06:41.220 We'll all be enjoying an advanced new world of media.

00:06:44.060 If we let the government, though, start to get involved and start stirring around in there,

00:06:48.200 we're going to be left with a mess. The government's claiming they want to ensure

00:06:51.260 fair competition in the media market. That's completely untrue. They want to ensure the

00:06:56.100 establishment media remains dominant, especially since the government invested such a massive

00:07:00.600 amount of tax dollars into keeping those big old outlets working. And of course, beholden to the

00:07:05.580 government. The only thing the authoritarian state, any authoritarian state, despises more

00:07:11.120 than an armed populace is one that has free and open press and discourse. The Soviet Union knew

00:07:15.900 this is they created Pravda while banning independent news. And North Korea, of course,

00:07:20.980 goes to incredible pains to shut down any access to new information and news for its citizens.

00:07:27.240 Media and the internet must be left alone to develop based on the user demand and the free

00:07:32.920 market. The state always has its own interest in mind rather than that of the citizens. Any efforts

00:07:37.720 to control information is going to end poorly for Canadians. Yes, we're going to be exposed to some

00:07:43.180 fake news and things. Well, the CBC has proven themselves capable of that anyways, whereas they

00:07:47.100 repeatedly have to keep retracting their own stories when they're spreading garbage.

00:07:51.900 So let's not pretend that shutting down small outlets is going to improve the quality of things

00:07:55.600 out there. Yeah, we may get more access to foreign content, more than the cultural preservationists

00:08:01.700 would like to see. So what? Have you seen what's on regular TV these days? How many people tune

00:08:06.440 into Canadian productions? I mean, there's some good ones out there, but the majority of the

00:08:10.220 content provided on TV and in theaters has been American for decades. Has society fallen apart

00:08:15.360 due to this? Have we forgotten how to be Canadian? The government's motives in trying to control the

00:08:20.620 internet, media, and its platforms, it's insidious. We need to pay attention here, guys, and push back

00:08:26.180 against this ugly power grab. Unfortunately, the conservative opposition is mired in their own

00:08:31.080 leadership race, and they're in a terribly effective opposition in Parliament right now.

00:08:35.120 The NDP and the Liberals are in bed together. Both are eager to shunt and control information.

00:08:40.220 We have to do it ourselves, folks.

00:08:42.400 Abandon those mainstream media outlets.

00:08:44.360 They're hopelessly rotten within, and we need to speed up their demise.

00:08:48.400 The remaining principled journalists within those institutions, and there are some,

00:08:51.760 they'll rise in the new media world and they'll be fine. 0.72

00:08:54.480 The parasites within the mainstream, though, they'll fall by the wayside. 0.91

00:08:57.600 So get out there. 0.98

00:08:58.320 Subscribe to multiple platforms like Rumble and Getter,

00:09:00.900 and don't become dependent on only a couple of sources to get information.

00:09:05.100 There's a war going on right now for the access to your eyes and ears,

00:09:08.140 And unless you stand up and fight back, you're going to be the one who loses it.

00:09:12.360 That's what's got me going today, guys.

00:09:14.680 Okay, let's check in on somebody who's providing news on one of those alternative outlets, that being ours.

00:09:19.500 And that's our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:09:21.520 Hey, Dave, how's it going way there across the other end of the Western Standard Enterprises here?

00:09:27.960 Yeah, I think I can see you there in the background, Corey.

00:09:30.360 But yeah, I'm still riding a high because I got the word Tizwaz into the pipeline show last night.

00:09:36.180 Yes. No, exactly. So that's why, you know, you got to expand your vocabulary. So that's, that's what it's all about here. So this morning, our main story right at the moment is UCP has a new caucus member goes by the name of Brian Jean, won the by election up in Fort McMurray last month, with a stated goal of trying to remove Jason Kenney from office.

00:10:02.680 And immediately right after he was sworn in, he said that exact thing.

00:10:06.780 So he does not expect Jason Kenney to be the premier after May 18th when the UCP leadership votes are announced.

00:10:16.220 Ironically, he said Danielle Smith, who's also announced she's going to be running, should sort of maybe stay out of it until the announcement is official.

00:10:26.960 So coming from a guy who's spent the last two years sniping at Kenney, that's a bit rich.

00:10:33.560 We've got a story from the Canadian Armed Forces Ombudsman who says public knowledge of all the military cases, sexual misconduct cases, is driving morale into the toilet.

00:10:46.760 His office has hundreds and hundreds of cases going back several years that they haven't even got to yet.

00:10:53.160 But he says his biggest concern is the public knowing about him.

00:10:56.740 Our Mike Thomas has done a column on Elon Musk, the world's richest man, and his takeover of Twitter.

00:11:06.120 And Mike's got some predictions on what Elon Musk will be doing in the coming days.

00:11:13.340 A disturbing story north of Calgary, Corey, where RCMP have discovered two cows dead near a cemetery.

00:11:21.520 they were slaughtered and skinned and their meat removed from their carcasses so as we know the

00:11:29.400 price of meat has skyrocketed in the last few months so I'm sure they're going to be selling

00:11:35.180 that on the black market. Also one that comes as no surprise to Western Standard viewers and

00:11:43.160 readers the second arrest has been made in the arson at the Ontario Ottawa sorry the Ottawa

00:11:50.760 apartment building you remember that there was a small fire set and the doors were locked and

00:11:55.960 everybody fell over themselves media and politicians to blame the truckers for it

00:12:01.160 ottawa police have arrested a second suspect now and of course nothing to do with the truckers

00:12:07.240 whatsoever uh we've got a uh column from red deer mp sorry mla jason stefan uh talking about uh

00:12:17.000 the Liberal NDP axis and how Alberta is threatened by them. Jody Gondek and her Edmonton counterpart

00:12:25.180 Mayor Sohi held a climate summit last night talking about how their cities are going to

00:12:31.940 battle climate change. And she says Calgary is already starting to see the benefits of her first

00:12:37.560 her first thing she did in office was to to declare a climate emergency. So that's on the

00:12:46.520 site now, too. Our Matthew Horwood in Ottawa is going to be a busy boy today with the federal

00:12:51.680 budget coming down this morning. He's already got a story up talking with Conservative leader Aaron

00:12:58.380 or sorry, Candace Bergen about what she expects to see in the in the budget and

00:13:05.140 what she fears she's going to see.

00:13:08.240 And

00:13:08.440 interesting story from Matthew

00:13:11.460 and Blacklock's reporter.

00:13:13.280 Canadians who had their bank accounts frozen

00:13:15.360 because they donated $20

00:13:17.260 to the aforementioned

00:13:19.100 truckers' convoy could see

00:13:21.260 some financial compensation.

00:13:23.000 So that'll be interesting as the days

00:13:25.520 go ahead. So that's what's

00:13:27.380 up there now, Corey.

00:13:28.980 Well, I mean, my account wasn't seized because

00:13:31.280 I didn't have any in it in the first place, so that

00:13:33.340 was easy enough. But

00:13:34.620 that's an interesting development. I mean, if they start giving money back, I mean, that kind

00:13:40.920 of opens the floodgates, I think, to a lot of liability on those actions from the Emergencies

00:13:44.920 Act back then, too. So I think that could really snowball into something quite interesting in the

00:13:49.300 future here. It does. And hey, look at this, Corey. Look what I got. Oh, the new swag is in.

00:13:57.880 Isn't that cool? Western standard hats. So if you ask nicely, maybe I'll grab you one out of the box.

00:14:05.940 Well, we'll see what we can do. I mean, you had that nice new haircut this week, though, and you're covering it up with that big old hat there now.

00:14:11.740 Yeah, that's true. This will be my weekend non-showering attire.

00:14:16.280 Ah, right on. Well, always good to keep promoting the outlet how we can, whether it's covering our thinning hair or with gifts to others.

00:14:25.440 you bet anything to cover up the growing forehead right on all right thanks dave i'll talk to you

00:14:32.020 later thanks gory yes that was our news editor dave naylor and this is the time course when as

00:14:37.880 you can see all of those stories from all across the country all sorts of unique and original

00:14:42.880 content and stuff we're constantly putting it up there it's constantly breaking and we do so

00:14:48.240 because you guys subscribe to us so thank you all who have already subscribed to the western standard

00:14:54.480 This is how we can keep rolling.

00:14:55.920 This is how we aren't like those outlets

00:14:57.780 that take the money from the government.

00:14:59.180 We don't have to answer to them

00:15:00.360 because we're not taking their money.

00:15:02.180 We're not dependent on them.

00:15:03.140 We are dependent on you though.

00:15:04.800 And that's why we have to answer to you.

00:15:06.400 Hey, if we put out a bunch of stuff

00:15:07.480 you don't like reading,

00:15:08.540 we're going to go away.

00:15:10.060 We put out stuff you enjoy,

00:15:11.300 we'll continue to grow.

00:15:12.260 And we've been growing excellently lately.

00:15:13.980 So we must be on the right track.

00:15:15.960 And if you haven't subscribed already,

00:15:17.720 please do get on there.

00:15:19.380 $99 for a year or $10 a month.

00:15:23.020 And hey, if you use that coupon code, you can see on the screen there, Triggered.

00:15:26.220 You just put in Triggered as a coupon code when you subscribe, you'll get another $10

00:15:30.020 off.

00:15:30.820 It's well worth your investment into us to allow us to keep providing this sort of news

00:15:36.600 and shows for you.

00:15:38.360 So get on there.

00:15:39.340 It's less than old newspaper subscriptions used to cost 20 years ago, and you don't have

00:15:43.500 to deal with getting rid of all those used up newspapers afterwards.

00:15:46.520 So take out a subscription.

00:15:48.580 It's really, really appreciated.

00:15:50.460 You know, and I saw a discussion.

00:15:51.840 I won't call out the individual, but some private messaging that went to the standard of a man that was quite upset that we were behind a paywall and called us just, said it was all just about the money and we should be giving out our content for free.

00:16:05.160 Well, we are, you know, editorially a conservative-minded publication.

00:16:10.640 We're capitalists, guys.

00:16:12.160 We don't expect anything for free from anybody else.

00:16:14.820 That's why we don't take any subsidies.

00:16:16.200 But we aren't giving things away for free either.

00:16:17.980 We have a large and growing news team, and we have to pay them somehow, guys.

00:16:21.840 If you want to keep going and getting your, you know, quote unquote free content, sir, go to the CBC and it's not free. They're taxing the crap out of us to fund that garbage. But that's what you get. If you want good coverage, responsible coverage, an outlet, again, that responds to the viewers, readers and listeners. 0.96

00:16:40.380 subscribe to us we'll keep covering you don't have to agree with everything we say

00:16:44.640 but as you can see there's a whole lot of breaking news stories out there uh jackie asking how to get

00:16:50.960 one of those hats yeah i i'm uh we just got those in we've got jackets we've got pins actually can't

00:16:56.360 quite see it's next to my microphone a little ws pin derek loves getting those uh promotional

00:17:02.020 merchandise things going and i believe we have plans to uh start sharing and distributing those

00:17:08.020 sorts of things down the road pretty quickly. We're going to be doing a great big upgrade pretty

00:17:12.620 soon, actually, for the entire website and system. And that's going to include opportunities to get

00:17:18.340 those things out there. So you can, again, find another way to perhaps support us and get a piece

00:17:22.700 of value and, of course, help promote us while you're out there on the streets. So the other way

00:17:29.420 we do pay our bills, of course, is sponsors. And I should speak to one, the regular listeners used

00:17:34.260 hearing me talk about them but i do i you know it's nice to have a sponsor both the sponsors for

00:17:38.740 this show the main ones are ones that i believe in and agree with i don't have to make up some

00:17:43.540 puffy uh statement to try and pump them up and that's bitcoin well these guys

00:17:49.860 are the your gateway into getting invested into digital currencies particularly of course bitcoin

00:17:56.340 as you can see that on that map that's all of their atm locations all across canada they're

00:18:01.460 They're a publicly traded company, and they make digital currency accessible and practical.

00:18:07.940 You know, that's the thing.

00:18:08.660 People wonder, how does this work?

00:18:10.200 How can I do things with it?

00:18:11.580 Is it useful to me?

00:18:12.900 These are the guys that help lay it out safely.

00:18:14.900 I mean, they're a locally, like I said, company.

00:18:16.300 You can deal one-on-one with real people to see if it's for you and consultations.

00:18:21.420 And it's safe.

00:18:22.320 It's non-custodial.

00:18:23.420 They say that over and over in their site.

00:18:24.760 What that means is they never have your money in their hands.

00:18:28.260 It's always yours.

00:18:29.060 It's in your wallet.

00:18:29.960 It's safe.

00:18:30.880 You got to watch for some of those other companies out there

00:18:32.500 where they're saying, give us the money

00:18:33.500 and then we'll fix it up for you.

00:18:35.220 That's not the case with Bitcoin.

00:18:36.640 Well, they help educate you with Bitcoin Academy,

00:18:39.580 things like that.

00:18:40.440 So you know what you're getting into,

00:18:42.340 you know what your investment is

00:18:43.560 and you can set up a hedge.

00:18:45.460 Some people, I saw somebody in the comment scroll

00:18:47.420 saying the other day that there's no assurances

00:18:49.900 that the government can't get it.

00:18:51.200 Yes, there is.

00:18:51.840 They can't.

00:18:52.540 They can't, guys.

00:18:53.580 It's physically out of their hands.

00:18:56.280 You have a ledger.

00:18:57.280 It's a cold wallet, it's called.

00:18:59.080 It's stored on that.

00:19:00.460 It's outside of their reach. They cannot touch it. And they want it. And who knows what's going

00:19:05.640 to happen down the road. But no, you're getting it. If you want your currency out of reach of

00:19:09.940 the government, this is a way to do it. So what's that Claudette saying? The Edmonton Sun's 275 a

00:19:15.380 day. I haven't bought a paper in so long. Three pages of local news and the rest of articles from

00:19:19.540 Hollywood. Yeah, the establishment media outlets are having a very hard time. I mean, part of what's

00:19:25.500 cool and interesting with the way new things are developing, though, is we don't need the massive

00:19:31.360 amount of infrastructure that the old outlets had to have in the past. We don't need a giant

00:19:36.160 building with printing presses in it. We don't need, as a studio, I mean, yes, and Derek assures

00:19:43.060 us it was a big investment, and it has been, and it's still costly, but to be able to put on a

00:19:49.180 production like this compared to 20 years ago, if you wanted to have a TV show, a fraction of the

00:19:54.380 cost and we can reach out to so many people and they have so many options out there to get into

00:19:59.460 uh who goes out and buys a newspaper anymore why would you want to i mean you got to get rid of

00:20:04.940 the thing it's uh uh you know it's it says clavette saying 384 papers have folded in the

00:20:10.600 last two years and it is unfortunate i don't celebrate the loss of jobs but what i do look

00:20:16.960 forward to is an evolution to something better i've used the analogy before i mean when i started

00:20:20.980 in the oil field a long time ago. I mean, we're getting up on 30 years ago now. I started as a

00:20:27.240 rodman, which is like a helper or an assistant to a surveyor. And I had to put in a couple of years.

00:20:32.560 Some surveyors were really nasty, grouchy devils. You know, they're a pain to work for here in some 0.91

00:20:38.200 rough conditions. It took me a couple of years as a rodman to learn and build up my skills to the

00:20:44.960 point where I learned the formulas that were involved with conventional optical survey and

00:20:49.260 things like that, or they would even let me out as a junior surveyor to start surveying myself

00:20:53.280 out there and doing all that. It was a lot of training, a long ways up. And then shortly after

00:20:57.240 I made it up to being a conventional surveyor, GPS came along and basically wiped my trade out.

00:21:04.720 Very little need for conventional survey anymore. I mean, it took a few years for it to happen,

00:21:09.080 but that trade was fading fast. There were two ways to go about it, and we saw both happen.

00:21:15.120 Some of the old-time surveyors just said, we're not going to flex, we're not going to change,

00:21:19.020 and well, what happened was they ended up essentially eased out to pasture. They were

00:21:22.660 out of work. Flexible ones like myself, and it helps being younger back then anyways, you know,

00:21:29.240 but say, well, I'm going to have to learn how to do other things. I had to learn how to

00:21:32.580 create maps in a digital format, and I had to use GPS to build those maps, things like that.

00:21:38.960 Embrace the new technologies because they're better or get left behind. And that's what's

00:21:44.020 happening in the media world a lot now too, is some of the old timers, and I understand,

00:21:48.820 They're frustrated. They put in decades. They had to go to journalism school. They did a whole bunch

00:21:53.240 of stuff. And then they end up losing viewership to a degree to upstarts and new outlets and social

00:22:00.220 media personalities. But the pouting about it isn't going to help. It's not going to change anything.

00:22:05.760 It's not going to save anything. They've got to flex and get into the new product. So what we're

00:22:11.120 seeing now is a government protecting dinosaurs. They're protecting, you know, for the analogy,

00:22:15.180 the old conventional survey, essentially, to compare it to that. And it's futile. I mean,

00:22:22.500 you can spend a whole lot of money, but in the end, it's going to go away. And we've got a lot

00:22:26.520 of good columnists, good reporters, and good people in mainstream media, but they're riding

00:22:32.680 a dying machine, and it's time for them to move on into a new format. Okay, Shubh seems to be

00:22:40.920 running a little behind today, but hopefully he comes in. I've had these challenges of live

00:22:46.680 shows, of course, as we get these technical hiccups now and then. So let's go into some

00:22:51.600 more of the news there. What was that one that Dave was talking about? The way skinned cows

00:22:56.580 being found on the side of a road. What on earth is going on with that? This is the sort of thing

00:23:04.420 gets people paranoid. And I mean, it was behind a cemetery, no less. You know, people, I imagine

00:23:10.060 there's going to be some speculation as to whether or not we've got cultists or things like that

00:23:15.420 going on uh i see as uh eva put in that story uh the prices of beef and everything i mean

00:23:21.660 cattle are are an expensive commodity these days uh it says skinned it says slaughtered

00:23:27.260 farther up in the story so i wonder if that was just what was left to the carcass after somebody

00:23:30.700 actually fully harvested as if they were hunting you know we used to string up cattle rustlers

00:23:36.220 I don't know if we necessarily want to go back to that, but it's a very serious crime and it

00:23:41.260 puts some business operators in a terrible situation. It's crazy to see stuff like that

00:23:46.120 going on. But yeah, you look at the price of beef in a supermarket and you can see why somebody's

00:23:50.560 tempted to just go out in a rural area and take down a cow. Ridiculous and bizarre stuff going on 0.87

00:23:57.260 out there. But I mean, it's indications of a very messed up society we have these days. 0.93

00:24:02.060 All right. I see Shu sitting in the lobby there. We're going to pull him into the show and have a talk here on some more international stuff. I mean, Canadian, but how we're dealing with the rest of the world. So let's bring him in here and have a discussion. Hey, how's it going?

00:24:17.960 Good to see you, Corey. How are you?

00:24:19.580 Very good. Yeah, it's been a while, man. You know, I missed you when you came out West last time. We'll have to corner you next time.

00:24:25.420 We're going to fix that problem with great haste.

00:24:27.900 Great. So I appreciate you coming in. You know, we've got a really haywire world, as I said, in a lot of ways going on. And we all have opinions and we're watching things develop, but we get mixed news and things. But I mean, the international scene is more volatile, I think, than we've seen in a generation. And you've got a great deal of experience in foreign affairs.

00:24:48.700 I mean, it's easy to say the country should do this or do that, but there's always a lot more complication involved in those sorts of actions.

00:24:55.780 And I just wanted to bring you in to talk more broadly about those issues, particularly the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

00:25:00.200 And you've written a good piece that was in the National Post a few weeks ago on that.

00:25:05.480 And perhaps if you could kind of run down what you'd written in that piece and where Canada's role might or could or should be in this mess right now.

00:25:13.160 I tried to take a step back, and thank you for noticing.

00:25:15.440 I think it's you and my mother that makes two people who've had a chance to read it.

00:25:19.340 So thank you for that.

00:25:21.340 I tried to take a step back beyond the immediate pressures of the day to supply the Ukrainians 0.95

00:25:26.900 the equipment they require to defend their sovereign territory and paint a bigger picture

00:25:32.900 in terms of what is this age of competition we're in?

00:25:35.780 What exactly is happening in this proxy war in Ukraine?

00:25:39.100 And in doing so, I first tried to establish that what we all need to come to terms with is that while Russia is featuring in our headlines, in our news, in this devastating conflict in Ukraine that Vladimir Putin has started,

00:25:55.960 is the backdrop of the fact that China has replaced Russia as our principal rival,

00:26:03.680 that the cooperation between China and Russia in Ukraine and in theaters around the world

00:26:10.400 from the Euro-Atlantic to the Indo-Pacific is visceral and real,

00:26:14.680 that our own Western weaknesses, where we become preoccupied with performative issues

00:26:22.040 ranging from human dignity to energy security have come at the cost of us being prepared to

00:26:28.360 unlock the military and economic potential of the world's democracies to confront this

00:26:33.800 rising age of authoritarians. And that finally, what my sense is of this conflict is that

00:26:41.640 there's really no way that this can end without the end of Vladimir Putin's tyranny.

00:26:47.880 And so I tried to, in a few hundred words, cover those big topics around what we're dealing with and what Canada, our democratic allies, our established alliances in NATO and our new and emerging alliances, like the ones we're seeing in the quadrilateral security dialogue with India, Japan, the United States, Australia, need to do to come to a common sense of an understanding of the threats we face.

00:27:17.240 and a common plan for how we defeat them.

00:27:21.300 Well, that's it.

00:27:22.080 I mean, it's such a difficult, complicated, and delicate area.

00:27:26.820 I mean, we're seeing some of the horrifying images coming out of there

00:27:29.780 of some of the, you know, execution of citizens and bodies are being found.

00:27:33.400 Nobody wants to see an escalation.

00:27:34.960 That's the biggest fear.

00:27:36.660 But, I mean, there's also the fear, well, do you just let him come in

00:27:39.440 and take the place, and that's the least amount of casualties?

00:27:42.460 But I don't find it believable that Vladimir Putin would stop with just Ukraine.

00:27:49.500 No, I mean, we've seen that what's happening both out of Beijing and the Kremlin are the designs of empires, right?

00:27:58.860 Like in China, we've seen Xi Jinping convert the state into a Communist Party one-man rule for lifetime rule.

00:28:08.840 We've seen Vladimir Putin do the same thing in the Kremlin.

00:28:11.940 Both of these men are in the business of empire building.

00:28:17.420 What China is trying to do is restore the Middle Kingdom in which, you know, in Chinese lore, where China was at the heart of internationalization and had their own system of rules for how the world could serve China's rise.

00:28:30.260 For Vladimir Putin, he has an obsession with restoring the so-called Russian Imperium in the idea that any Russian-speaking population in the world belongs under the Russian state and that Ukraine as a country does not have to exist despite the agreements of his own country and despite the fact that Ukraine has been a thriving civilization of its own that goes back a thousand years.

00:28:55.380 So these are empire builders who are trying to refashion the world in their own image and redraw borders to that effect.

00:29:04.060 And in doing so, they're in the process of ending the post-war order that was fashioned after the Second World War and challenging the West and new democracies to resist them. 0.61

00:29:18.660 And so that's the wider context, Corey, I think we're finding ourselves in.

00:29:23.720 So bringing it back towards Canada and around here, though, I mean, we're not a large military

00:29:28.720 power, and we're unfortunately not as much of an economic power as we used to be either.

00:29:33.820 What role, you know, can we have or do we have or should we have?

00:29:39.540 You know, we are still a member of the G7.

00:29:42.280 We are still a founder of NATO.

00:29:43.780 We are still a member of the Five Eyes.

00:29:45.380 These are old arrangements, clubs that we belong to in shaping the post-war order of

00:29:50.780 the last 75 years.

00:29:51.960 What I think we need to do is dispense with the idea of wishing the world as it were, and to see it for what it really is. And what that means is clearly articulating what our national interests are, militarily and economically, in the security of our people, the prosperity of our people, and in the normalization of the values we all hold dear.

00:30:13.380 what that principally means today is to sit back and say listen you know there are some tangible

00:30:18.260 problems that canada can solve um european reliance on russian energy is unsustainable

00:30:25.140 unattractive they're basically funding the war machine that is butchering these innocent ukrainians 0.99

00:30:31.300 um and if you know baltic countries can reduce their reliance eliminate their reliance lithuania

00:30:37.940 Latvia on Russian energy, then why cannot continental Europe do the same thing? Well,

00:30:42.740 one of the great answers to that is Canadian energy and long-term clean Canadian energy

00:30:47.700 stability for the world. We have not only just exemplary environmental standards, we have strong

00:30:54.820 ethical practices. We don't manipulate prices for the sake of leverage over other countries.

00:31:01.300 When we agree to a deal, we stand by our deals. So providing that long term energy security to

00:31:09.700 European and Indo-Pacific growth needs is a wonderful alternative that Canada could get

00:31:14.660 serious about supplying. The second is we've seen in early February, on the 4th of February,

00:31:21.220 Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping stood side by side in the Olympics and declared boundless

00:31:26.260 cooperation in that document they explicitly stated their ambition in polar and arctic interests

00:31:35.780 um russia has been refurbishing old war bases and naval bases across their north china has a stated

00:31:42.340 objective to try and establish shipping and data supply routes and critical mineral interests in

00:31:47.300 the canadian north and in the polar and arctic region you know one of the most important things

00:31:52.020 that Canada can do today is harden our arctic flank with our nato partners by investing not

00:31:58.260 just in the military and defensive requirements that we need to protect our own sovereign domain

00:32:02.740 but also in the development the infrastructure the prosperity of the indigenous peoples of the north

00:32:08.180 it is a vast swath of territory that is Canadian and we have a national responsibility to grow it

00:32:13.380 to be good stewards of it and to ensure that people in it thrive and thrive so safely the

00:32:18.340 The third thing that Canada can do is consider how, you know, our democracy can work with other democracies.

00:32:27.180 You know, in 75 years, we've seen the emergence of different economies.

00:32:32.840 We've seen the decline of others relative to those.

00:32:35.600 We know that the center of gravity for global growth is going to be on the Pacific.

00:32:40.120 So much of what happens in Ottawa and Toronto focuses on the transatlantic relationship, which is not a bad focus. 0.98

00:32:45.400 But we also have the opportunity as a Pacific power to establish our interests and to work with other democracies, whether it's Japan, Australia, India, South Korea, as partners in establishing the rules basis, the basis of rules for how prosperity that region would grow.

00:33:03.680 But more importantly, how Canadian economic life can participate, inform it and benefit from it.

00:33:09.160 So, I mean, those are three simple, big ideas that we can do today. And it requires a government that isn't focused on just being performative on issues in the international stage, but actually back it up with the kind of hard work necessary to achieve them.

00:33:26.220 Well, that's it.

00:33:27.720 Most often when we see our leaders going over to summits and things such as that,

00:33:32.460 they seem to be more focused on virtue signaling rather than proposing

00:33:35.600 or pitching any solid plans on things moving forward.

00:33:39.020 I would hope that, you know, if we wanted to be taken seriously,

00:33:42.020 we start coming up with some more serious policy proposals among them

00:33:45.160 when we're at these meetings.

00:33:46.560 Yeah, well, you know, Corey, you know, I'm not going to diminish the idea

00:33:50.540 that, you know, there's a domestic audience.

00:33:52.240 Canadian leaders serve the Canadian public.

00:33:53.720 It's good that they send things back to Canada that affirm the values of Canada.

00:33:58.480 But what I will say is, without backing it up with real concrete steps on getting our energy to markets, on speaking clearly and lucidly about European and Arctic security, on engaging an Indo-Pacific region with the kind of hard work that's necessary, if you don't back it up with real and meaningful action, then you're not going to be considered by others around the world as a genuine partner.

00:34:19.760 And that's one of the reasons why Canada is being left out of critical relationships that are forming, whether it's the quadrilateral strategic dialogue that has now commercial dimensions, the deal between Australia, UK and the United States, not just on submarines, but also on cybersecurity and on missile defense, which is important to our Canadian North, on a range of trading relationships.

00:34:44.420 You know, we're just not doing the work. I think that's the most frustrating thing to consider when we're looking at what our government is doing is that the amount of work that's necessary to back up the virtue signaling is just not being done.

00:34:58.560 And it's coming at the expense of Canadian interests and it can't be tolerated much longer.

00:35:04.180 So getting to the other part of your column, you had mentioned China and they've been getting increasingly aggressive as well with regards to Taiwan and other neighboring areas.

00:35:13.560 And they've never been really a very nice international player, at least these last few decades.

00:35:19.220 And they're kind of sliding under the radar with what they're doing these last six months or so, as everybody's focused on Eastern Europe.

00:35:27.280 How should we manage a relationship with them?

00:35:29.160 I mean, we've got so much integrated trade going on with them, too.

00:35:33.980 We're very dependent on Chinese trade.

00:35:36.120 So, you know, it's a concern.

00:35:39.840 Listen, China is the second largest economy in the world.

00:35:42.220 I would say, though, that of our trading relationship with China, while we do have a more meaningful trading relationships on agriculture and some commodities, it isn't as deeply engaged as Australia's trade was with China.

00:35:55.300 And Australia being in the neighborhood had realized the threat and the risk of engaging with Chinese commercial interests and has proceeded with not just decoupling from China's weaponized commercial leverages over Australia, but redoubling on relationships like in India.

00:36:11.780 They just the Australians and the Indians announced an important and an amazing trade deal.

00:36:16.640 And they've been pursuing, you know, the long term kind of trading infrastructure that will supply the Australian economic interest for the long term as they decouple from the risk of what China poses.

00:36:27.360 For Canada, you know, when we think of China, while you say that they've kind of slipped under the radar, it's a fact.

00:36:33.140 But, you know, the Chinese government issued a massive cyber assault across Ukrainian infrastructure just prior to Russia's invasion.

00:36:42.120 The Chinese state propaganda has been echoing the outrageous lies coming from the Kremlin trying to justify what they're doing in Ukraine.

00:36:52.000 The Chinese are working hand in glove with the Russians in international institutions, whether it's United Nations or other multilateral forum.

00:37:00.740 The Chinese have softened the impact of Western sanctions on Russia by buying Russian wheat, securing long-term Russian oil, providing Huawei to back up Russia's state surveillance system.

00:37:15.940 And the Chinese are working with Russia to manipulate negotiations with Iran, which is a whole different issue, against America, against the West, against our interests. 0.92

00:37:26.320 on one level they are strong cooperative partners with russia in their invasion of ukraine

00:37:33.200 on the other i think they're watching how effectively the russians or ineffectively

00:37:38.520 the russians have been in ukraine because they have the same ambitions to redraw the borders

00:37:43.380 of the indo-pacific by the eventual conquest of taiwan and so i think what they are on one side

00:37:50.840 they're active participants on the other side they're taking a long-range view my thesis though

00:37:55.660 is that however this turns out for russia and ukraine um russia has is vastly diminished if

00:38:02.220 russia succeeds in ukraine and vladimir putin is able to retain some sort of veto over ukrainian

00:38:08.300 euro-atlantic decisions or some sort of territory whether it's the ukrainian east or crimea

00:38:14.860 if vladimir putin gains any victory out of this china wins because they know that they that you

00:38:20.540 you know, intervention can actually result in expansion of borders. And if Russia fails,

00:38:26.580 if Vladimir Putin ultimately ends up behind bars or worse, if Russian forces are routed and we

00:38:33.440 begin prosecuting these war crimes for what they are, then, you know, Beijing gets to see a country

00:38:40.800 that is one-eighth the size of their economy in Russia, completely broken, divested from the 0.86

00:38:48.140 international system and an opportunity for Beijing to move in to carve out their economic

00:38:52.440 interests in Russia, which include energy, agriculture, metals, and other specific things

00:38:59.480 that a diminished Russian state would provide for the rise of China. So, you know, China's a very

00:39:07.620 important question in this. They are the biggest trading partner for Russia and across Eurasia

00:39:15.940 and into Europe, including in Ukraine, China has some very strong economic interests that they're

00:39:20.700 going to be focused on yesterday, today, and well into the future. Yeah, well, we're seeing just,

00:39:27.760 you know, military moves and things happening that we haven't seen in generations. As you said,

00:39:32.820 I mean, whatever way the outcome comes in this, it's going to have long-lasting repercussions. I

00:39:37.760 mean, the term you used as well, though, that is troubling, but it's real, is it's turning into a

00:39:41.720 proxy war. And, you know, those of us who grew up in the Cold War, proxy wars can turn very

00:39:46.980 horrible and extended and prolonged just because, you know, some nations aren't putting their own

00:39:51.780 boots on the ground. They can put a lot of resources in that leads to a lot of misery 1.00

00:39:54.980 wherever the theater of the battle is. And I guess we can just hope that this gets resolved in

00:40:01.220 somehow shorter time rather than longer, because this could be awful.

00:40:05.280 Listen, I lament about this because I think that if, you know, people have listened to

00:40:09.380 Prime Minister Stephen Harper back in 2000, as early as 2008, and others, including George W. Bush

00:40:15.180 at the tail end of the Bush administration, on admitting Ukraine and Georgia into NATO,

00:40:20.400 I have to believe that Russia would never have invaded. They would never want to trigger Article

00:40:23.820 5. They know they would never win in that context. So one is a lament of 2008, not having had a

00:40:29.520 chance to prevent this scenario, which Russia had stated it was going to pursue. Then in 2014,

00:40:35.680 when all this truly began in earnest with the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

00:40:39.940 You know, I think the West did a lot to kind of begin waking up

00:40:42.800 and taking the cobweb out of the institutions that it had to confront these threats,

00:40:47.660 like NATO and others, but still didn't go far enough to really deter Vladimir Putin

00:40:54.140 from making the decision to invade Ukraine.

00:40:57.660 Instead, you know, the West pursued energy deals with Russian energy supply, oil and gas supply.

00:41:02.540 They wished that Vladimir Putin and China would want to preserve long term economic interests over pursuing, you know, insane imperial dreams in the short term.

00:41:13.740 And then even today, you know, we're now seven weeks into this invasion of Ukraine.

00:41:18.040 I struggle with the fact that we're incrementally increasing our sanctions regime on Russia.

00:41:23.200 They're vast and they're significant and consequential, but we still hear that more sanctions can be imposed.

00:41:28.540 And that we're incrementally supplying the Ukrainians the critical weapons that they require to defend themselves. I'm not calling for NATO troop deployments, our young men and women from Canada to deploy into Ukraine. I'm not calling for that.

00:41:40.680 What I'm saying is that we're seeing that the Ukrainian army is competent. They are effective. They require material support, which we can provide, even as Canada today. And we continue to pursue this idea of incrementally increasing our support to Ukraine, because we don't want to escalate a scenario that Vladimir Putin has already escalated.

00:42:02.680 escalated. So I think the kind of strength and resolve that we should be showing should be much

00:42:07.960 more. It should include massive economic blockades against what supplies the Russian war machine.

00:42:14.260 It should include secondary sanctions on all these Chinese entities I've described that are 0.72

00:42:18.640 supporting and propping up Moscow and Russia in their campaign in Ukraine. And it should include 0.61

00:42:24.120 a plan for how democratic nations around the world from the Quad to NATO and their alliances

00:42:30.600 are capable of confronting this threat.

00:42:32.860 That's what a real plan, I think, looks like

00:42:35.480 that would force these authoritarians back into their borders

00:42:39.940 and to realize that, you know, through peace, through strength,

00:42:44.060 the Western order will prevail,

00:42:47.700 and it's one that they cannot contest.

00:42:51.240 Well, we'll see as it develops.

00:42:53.260 We've got a whole lot of crazy diplomatic play going on, unfortunately,

00:42:56.740 and, you know, a lot of confusion

00:42:59.760 and different views on it.

00:43:01.060 I mean, I think what most rational people

00:43:02.660 do want to see is some resolution

00:43:04.080 and at least an end to the battles

00:43:07.220 because it's just getting terrible over there.

00:43:09.760 But I really appreciate you coming in today

00:43:11.520 to talk on that and explain a little more of it

00:43:13.960 and expand on your column from the other week.

00:43:16.780 Where can we find more information

00:43:18.020 about what you're up to, Shuv,

00:43:20.020 and, you know, where your publications go?

00:43:22.860 That's really kind of you to say that.

00:43:24.320 And despite the horrendous nature of the situation, it's always good to see you, Corey.

00:43:29.100 I'd love your viewers to visit www.mcdonaldlaurier.ca.

00:43:35.020 It's a big independent think tank in Ottawa, which I lead the foreign policy practice.

00:43:39.980 I have an incredible roster of colleagues who see the world for what it is and are effective at communicating what the Canadian interest is in it.

00:43:49.360 There's no shortage of ideas on what Canada can and should be doing.

00:43:52.860 And we're in the business of promoting those ideas energetically to our political leaders so that for the sake of Canadians, we can get it right.

00:44:01.420 Thank you for the opportunity.

00:44:03.340 All right. Thanks, Shubh.

00:44:04.020 And again, as you said to you, it was good to see you.

00:44:06.220 And we'll have to corner you the next time you're out here or if somehow I get dragged out east.

00:44:11.560 So thanks for coming in and we'll talk again.

00:44:15.880 We'll see each other soon.

00:44:16.840 Thanks, Corey.

00:44:17.660 Thanks.

00:44:17.960 Yes, that's Shuveloy Majumdar of the Donald Laurier Institute.

00:44:24.500 I keep getting it mixed up with the Montreal Economic Institute.

00:44:26.760 We've got so many institutes going on out there of conservative leaning with some great papers and articles being written.

00:44:32.960 And the stuff that Shuvel puts out there, though, is really well worth reading.

00:44:37.940 It's nuanced, good discussion, which we need more of in this whole thing.

00:44:41.320 I know there's a whole lot of conspiracies swirling around and a whole lot of perceptions and views people have.

00:44:47.620 And I know not all of our viewers agree with those things.

00:44:51.480 That's fine, though.

00:44:53.360 There's different points of view, and we're going to cover those.

00:44:56.760 Again, if you're waiting for me to say Putin's a good guy, don't hold your breath.

00:45:00.180 Not a chance. 1.00

00:45:01.420 He's a monster. 0.95

00:45:02.820 So getting further, let's talk about one of our sponsors before we move further on things. 0.95

00:45:07.260 And that's the, speaking of citizens being able to remain with their rights, be independent, and so on.

00:45:12.980 And that's the Canada Shooting Sports Association.

00:45:15.400 These guys have been a fantastic sponsor for us for quite some time, and their name speaks for itself.

00:45:21.500 They're an association for people who enjoy firearms for whatever reason you may want to.

00:45:25.880 You know, that's the thing.

00:45:26.360 We should never have to even explain ourselves as to why we want to have, possess, trade, or use a firearm.

00:45:34.160 It's a right.

00:45:34.820 It's property.

00:45:35.940 It's our business to have that, but the federal government feels otherwise.

00:45:40.460 They think they should be able to take those away from you.

00:45:43.400 They want to keep recategorizing firearms, taking them out of your hands.

00:45:48.640 You should be disturbed when a government wants to, you know, I talked earlier, they want to control our speech.

00:45:52.520 They want to control our information and what we can do.

00:45:56.180 Well, they also want to take away your property, particularly firearms.

00:45:59.260 The Canada Shooting Sports Association has a number of legal challenges out on your behalf against those actions by the government.

00:46:07.380 So, hey, check those guys out because the only way they can do it, it's kind of like I was talking earlier with the Western Standard.

00:46:13.020 you know, real grassroots things. We have to stand up for ourselves. We have to support

00:46:16.760 ourselves. You guys are supporting independent media. I really appreciate it. Same sort of thing

00:46:20.740 with being as a firearm owner. You've got to support yourself. This group is there to support

00:46:25.160 you. Get on there. Check them out. Canadian Shooting Sports Association. Take out a membership

00:46:30.860 because that's how they can help. They can keep those court challenges. They have all sorts of

00:46:33.860 other resources, by the way, you know, more than just the political stuff. They're an association.

00:46:38.000 So they have videos on safe firearm use and links to where there's trade shows going on or events that are of interest to people into shooting sports.

00:46:47.860 So get on there.

00:46:48.740 Take a membership out.

00:46:50.040 They've been sponsoring us.

00:46:50.880 We appreciate it.

00:46:51.600 And, of course, I appreciate their work they're doing on behalf of myself as a legal firearm owner.

00:46:57.780 And their website is cssa-cila.org.

00:47:02.640 So, yeah, we've got a lot going on.

00:47:05.680 I'll have my next guest on in a few minutes, but let's have a little more look at some of the

00:47:09.500 news. Mike Thomas, one of the columns online, he writes a lot of stuff on real estate, but he goes

00:47:16.000 out into other areas as well and things. And he's talking about how Musk is going to shake up the

00:47:21.220 woke. And it's a neat column. And I'm just loving watching where Elon Musk is going these days. I

00:47:29.900 mean, I don't agree with everything Musk does. And he's far from a perfect individual among those

00:47:35.060 those very heavyweight, rich figures out there, but boy, he's shaking the establishment. That's

00:47:42.640 what I like to see. You know, they're getting stirred up with him. They're getting really wound

00:47:46.280 up. He's a guy who, which far beyond where I'm at, you know, he's at a level of money that he

00:47:52.040 really does not care what the world thinks. He's going to do what he's going to do. And getting

00:47:57.340 out there and buying that share of Twitter like that, you know, who else can spend a couple

00:48:02.300 billion dollars to take a piece of a social media giant and then gets himself on the director's

00:48:09.100 board with them. And in doing so, and he's saying outright, he wants to expand free speech because

00:48:14.580 that's an issue that a lot of people have with Twitter. Twitter arbitrarily blocks a lot of

00:48:18.880 individuals, blocks a lot of discourses. The shadow ban, which they had to admit later,

00:48:24.140 they will throttle what you put out on Twitter. There was a period a year and some ago,

00:48:31.920 You know, I use Twitter a lot.

00:48:33.280 I quite enjoy it.

00:48:33.880 That's my handle, Corey B. Morgan.

00:48:35.300 But at the same time, there's, you know, a lot of good and bad on Twitter.

00:48:41.360 And it was, you know, a year and some ago during the whole January 6th mess in the States and everything.

00:48:47.180 But holy cow, suddenly my followers list, I mean, I don't know, I got 20-some thousand on Twitter nowadays or something or whatever.

00:48:53.700 But it fell by thousands.

00:48:55.080 And no matter how much content you put out and how much you tweeted, they just didn't take off. 0.99

00:49:00.220 You didn't see, you know, three months before, if I put out what I like to think is some brilliant brain nugget, don't worry, I tweet a lot of stuff that's just stupid too. 0.92

00:49:07.380 That's one of the things where you can measure it quickly enough.

00:49:09.440 You know, if Corey said something brilliant, there's going to be a whole pile of retweets and likes and it'll go around. 0.93

00:49:14.040 If Corey said something stupid, it's just going to float by the wayside and a few people reminding me and explaining that I'm not so bright. 0.83

00:49:22.260 But for a period of a couple of months, myself and we saw it with other blue check conservative minded Twitter accounts, they were getting strangled. You were not seeing traffic. I just couldn't get traction out there. The follower rates just kept dropping. And I wasn't alone. So Twitter had basically taken an editorial stance. 0.99

00:49:43.520 Because you didn't see left-leaning Twitter accounts dealing this.

00:49:47.160 You didn't see this happening to anybody else.

00:49:49.760 It was just conservative ones.

00:49:51.740 And it eased off a bit once Biden was fully in and things calmed down.

00:49:56.220 But it shows that Twitter will get in there and mess with things without hesitation.

00:50:01.700 And it throttles open discourse.

00:50:04.040 And when it's something that has millions and millions of followers, when it's something that's that influential,

00:50:08.460 again, I don't believe in having government come in and regulate and tell them what to do.

00:50:12.220 They're still a private company.

00:50:13.300 You don't have to go on there. You don't have to take part. But it is a big and influential company. And seeing somebody like Musk coming on saying, you know what, I'm just going to use my dollars, get in there and shake this up myself and improve this platform and allow more discourse. I can only see this as being a good thing. And I'm looking forward to seeing what Elon Musk does further. As I said, I mean, I don't like how his company with Tesla takes so many subsidies and things like that.

00:50:39.360 I don't agree with him on everything, but I do agree with his just being willing to get out there

00:50:44.120 and tell the establishment to stuff it somewhere deep and dark. And he's putting his money

00:50:49.420 literally, you know, where his mouth is and getting in there and being, to use that buzzword,

00:50:53.700 a disruptor. Okay, let's get on to my next guest. And this is Grant Abraham. He's one of the latest

00:50:59.860 entrants into the Conservative Party of Canada leadership race that we've got going on right now.

00:51:04.360 It's going to be a long campaign, this one.

00:51:06.960 And boy, we've got a lot of candidates putting their names for us.

00:51:10.100 So I'm trying to talk to every one of them and get them on as I can.

00:51:13.640 And Mr. Abraham, I believe, is the sixth one so far.

00:51:16.620 So let's bring Grant into the room here and see what's going on.

00:51:21.020 Hello, Mr. Abraham.

00:51:21.820 How are you doing?

00:51:22.600 Hi, Corey.

00:51:23.220 I'm well.

00:51:23.660 Thank you very much.

00:51:24.960 Great.

00:51:25.280 Well, I appreciate you coming on to join us today.

00:51:29.220 You're somebody who's among, I mean, a lot of the candidates are people with established

00:51:33.140 political history whether in their provincial legislatures or as members of parliament uh

00:51:38.180 yourself you don't you you aren't coming from a political background here no i'm not coming from

00:51:43.460 a political background and my view on that is that we've had two elections that the conservatives

00:51:48.260 have forfeited and uh perhaps the best minds in the conservative party need some fresh uh

00:51:55.380 contributions from people who aren't political and i certainly think some of the doublespeak

00:52:00.820 and the double-mindedness I see within the party could benefit from people who aren't perhaps

00:52:06.880 colored or have been orientated within the political establishment that we've seen in

00:52:13.240 those last five years. So that's exactly why I'm doing it. And I think that Canada is in peril

00:52:19.920 ideologically and economically. And unless we engage clearly and strongly with some stronger

00:52:25.800 messages, we're going to have some real problems in this country in five years out.

00:52:29.320 we don't have time to wait another 10 years to unravel or to uproot what's been going on in the

00:52:38.580 nation. Great. And just to clarify for other people then, what's your background then outside

00:52:45.080 of political, your trade and such, and where are you based? Well, first of all, I'm a lawyer by

00:52:52.420 profession, and most of my work has been outside of Canada this last 20 years. I've been involved

00:52:57.120 international development work, social impact funding to fund helping people, individuals,

00:53:04.840 families, communities in the developing world.

00:53:07.460 And I've been shocked, stunned, actually staggered by what I'm seeing in our own nation in terms

00:53:14.320 of lack of opportunity and a movement towards less money in people's pockets.

00:53:20.360 but recognizing that what the truckers did was actually take us to Ottawa for issues that weren't about money.

00:53:28.520 It was about what the hearts of the people were feeling.

00:53:31.600 And when I saw that, I recognized that the narrative about taxes and dollars and pockets and all that is not what Canadians need.

00:53:40.320 We're seeing the fabric of the nation torn.

00:53:42.440 I'm based essentially in the Fraser Valley in Abbotsford, although I'm a Calgarian historically and I'm born in Alberta.

00:53:50.360 raised my early part of my family in calgary before i headed out and lived in hong kong and

00:53:55.800 the uk etc so uh i'm a western canadian great yeah well we we've hadn't had uh a lot of western

00:54:04.440 representation in this race uh at least initially uh there's a couple of you guys now popping up

00:54:08.920 from the west which is great to see and of course many of our readers and viewers are western i see

00:54:12.760 from a couple of commenters and that you know it's a nice thing with being live uh the first

00:54:16.360 two questions we're asking though where you stand on on climate change legislation uh emissions

00:54:21.480 controls whether or not carbon dioxide is a pollutant uh because we're quite concerned with

00:54:26.680 those targets that the the federal government has set that sound pretty unrealistic and we know

00:54:30.840 when they set those targets it usually comes down on the west absolutely i'm totally opposed to the

00:54:35.800 carbon tax uh i deeply care about the environment i'm concerned about the the climate issue i think

00:54:42.280 we need to monitor and care for that but i think we need to be realistic as canadians and recognize

00:54:47.560 that only 1.6 of the global contribution to carbon is from canada and we have slightly less than 40

00:54:54.600 million canadians paying for a global contribution a global tax to offset carbon and that's what the

00:55:01.880 carbon tax is and yet the paris accord is not having any kind of stringent obligation placed

00:55:09.880 on the biggest polluters in the world, which is India and China. And so the weight, the

00:55:16.740 disproportionate weight that Canadians are being asked to carry is ridiculous. It's making Canada 0.99

00:55:22.460 poor. And we absolutely need to get a responsible, environmentally friendly energy sector reopened

00:55:30.380 in the country and start moving our resources. Great. So some questions I've been asking every

00:55:37.400 candidate as i get them on and i want to go through some of them our supply management system

00:55:42.280 in canada you know it's been a contentious issue it certainly was two leadership races ago it hasn't

00:55:47.000 really surfaced as a big issue in this race in particular but when we keep talking about inflation

00:55:52.360 and pressures on consumers supply management has often been found to raise the price on a lot of

00:55:57.160 grocery staples for people is that an area you'd be willing to start looking into making some changes

00:56:02.440 Absolutely. I think one of the biggest challenges in Canada is that we're not necessarily thinking about Canadians first and what the nation needs.

00:56:12.500 And the supply management agreement, as I see it, and I've had a fair bit of experience in the agricultural sector, that's one area where our supply management system actually works.

00:56:23.780 And I think what we need to do is rethink that and start to see our food as a geopolitical security item and start to make sure that our farmers are cared for, that our supply chains are strong and resilient and recognize that like many of the other assets that Canada has, our food security is an asset that will position our nation as a trading nation and provide us some of the soft power.

00:56:53.180 that we need in the world because we're maybe not as influential militarily.

00:56:59.320 But if we can be a breadbasket growing food for the world,

00:57:03.280 it provides us a position to, first of all, exert our influence on the global stage,

00:57:09.300 but also, first of all, care for Canadians and Canadian needs first.

00:57:14.720 So I'm not at all convinced that our supply management agreements

00:57:19.120 actually means increased prices for Canadians.

00:57:21.920 In fact, if I look at a recent example that I've had with someone within the egg sector, we've created a scenario where we have a reliance on American eggs coming in.

00:57:32.940 But given some of their biosecurity issues, we're actually at a shortfall and our own food supply is now more vulnerable in relation to egg supply.

00:57:44.540 So we need to take care of our infrastructure first in terms of Canada and Canadians' needs. 0.86

00:57:49.740 all right so getting a little more to the regional front equalization of course is a big area that

00:57:56.880 we've been upset with particularly in Alberta we held the recent referendum on that just to

00:58:02.620 we know it was non-binding but you know well over 60 some percent of Albertans say we we don't feel

00:58:07.640 we're getting a fair deal out of it to get rid of the equalization altogether would take opening up

00:58:12.300 the constitution but one of the things that we can do without opening the constitution of course

00:58:16.800 the formula is just a matter of policy. Would you be looking to change that formula? Because right

00:58:22.900 now it does not serve us very well at all. Well, we have an ecosystem that went back to 1867 in

00:58:28.560 Upper Canada and Lower Canada. And that framework was developed when there was a lot less people

00:58:34.600 in Western Canada. And I think that as Canada has developed and matured, and the demographics have

00:58:40.920 spread more widely across the country. We need to look at those equalization payments and create

00:58:47.320 a mechanism that there is a system in place that rewards innovation and entrepreneurship,

00:58:55.060 and it doesn't encourage other provinces to not create buoyant economies. And I think

00:59:01.680 that's the mechanism. We are a country that cares about the unity of the nation,

00:59:07.520 And that includes the principle behind equalization. But we don't want it to become a crutch that enables local or provincial economies to not develop.

00:59:18.900 So I think there needs to be discussions where the disunifying sentiment that is felt in the West is engaged and there is a feathering or a harmonization that perhaps creates a much more equitable perception in terms of how people feel about the equalization and how the country operates as well in reality in terms of dollars and cents.

00:59:46.880 okay um in matters of quebec itself uh i asked a couple of the other candidates they they didn't

00:59:54.480 want to go into it much but as members of parliament when there was that vote recently on

00:59:58.260 preserving quebec seats in the house of commons even if their population wasn't keeping up in

01:00:02.880 growth with the rest of the country uh some conservative members voted in favor of that move

01:00:07.660 some voted against and a number of them abstained i i guess i'm getting speculative but if you were

01:00:13.680 member of parliament when that bill was passed how would you have voted well let me just say

01:00:17.840 first of all i don't like this abstention thing that is happening within the conservative party

01:00:22.660 because people are elected to take positions from their local constituencies and their electorates

01:00:28.580 and they know very well the mps what their their local electorates feel and i think the conversion

01:00:33.580 therapy bill is an example like that there are a number of abstentions where people simply didn't

01:00:38.820 have the backbone to stand up and vote. I think in relation to the Quebec question that you're

01:00:44.260 asking me specifically, there is a sense that if there's a firewall being put up around a province

01:00:53.800 where there's a declining population, there seems to be a little bit of unfairness about that.

01:00:59.820 But at the same time, I think that Canada is moving in a good direction in relation to

01:01:05.000 understanding itself better and by that i mean when i observe the discussions uh with fellow

01:01:11.740 canadians around auto and the and the the truckers convoy i saw a whole new level of relationship

01:01:18.900 understanding and trust being established with people from different parts of the country and i

01:01:25.520 saw quebecers uh in a in a psychological way a psychological way embracing the value and the 0.99

01:01:33.600 significance of unity in the country. So I really want to see our country held together. I think

01:01:39.860 we're better together. I think we're better on the world stage together. And that would be something

01:01:46.380 that I don't like as a person. But I think if we're moving in the right direction in relationship,

01:01:51.840 in terms of understanding ourselves from within this nation, it'd be something that I'd be

01:01:57.200 prepared to overlook if we're building stronger national unity. But there are real issues. And

01:02:03.580 And one of the main pieces of my platform is truth, transparency, and real conversations.

01:02:10.540 And I think we need to have these real conversations.

01:02:13.540 And we need to look towards building national unity by having them.

01:02:19.920 And so that's a great question.

01:02:21.960 And I don't like us.

01:02:24.520 We're in too vulnerable a position as a nation to be avoiding those kinds of questions.

01:02:30.520 And I think the conservative voters out there that are assessing leaders for the leadership of the conservative party should be looking really carefully at people who aren't prepared at this stage in the campaign to engage with those difficult questions.

01:02:44.520 Okay, getting broader.

01:02:46.400 So we've got the federal budget coming down in a couple of hours from now, actually.

01:02:51.040 A lot of people are anticipating it's probably going to be another big spending budget in a number of areas.

01:02:57.040 Where do you think we should be going?

01:02:58.620 I mean, inflation, of course, is really pressuring a lot of Canadians right now.

01:03:03.160 Some of that can definitely be attributed to the high rate of borrowing on the federal level.

01:03:08.980 Where would you be looking in the future for budgets, though?

01:03:12.680 More spending, less spending, and how would you, I guess, increase or cut in order to do that?

01:03:19.340 Well, I mean, my perception of the Liberal government is that they're borrowing money

01:03:24.600 almost with an implicit view that they will never have to pay it back.

01:03:28.620 That's a concern and it makes me wonder what's really going on with the discussion about their proclamation of a reset and Canada moving to a post-national state.

01:03:39.540 But if we're moving back to responsible government in Canada in relation to our fiscal and our monetary policy, we have to look and say that we can't sustain this debt and we need to look at ways to steward it, to care for it, and to grow our economy without moving to an austerity position that's going to harm Canadians further in the wake of what the Liberals have been doing.

01:04:04.680 So my view is that we need to actually develop and return to what has been our heritage of entrepreneurship and small business and family business and encouraging innovation and new technology and protecting our intellectual property.

01:04:23.200 That's where we need to be going.

01:04:24.540 We need to be developing the infrastructure that future Canadians are going to need to thrive.

01:04:29.940 And so at this stage, I'm not convinced that moving to any kind of austerity position is going to help Canadians.

01:04:36.580 We need to look at how we grow our economy and how we restabilize the millions and millions of Canadians that are hurting.

01:04:45.080 Because who can afford $2 plus liter of gas or a jug of milk at $8 or $9?

01:04:52.880 okay uh yeah it's it's it's pressuring everybody i mean filling the car and filling the fridge are

01:04:59.200 just uh a lot of people are having a hard time making the most basic of bill payments right now

01:05:03.440 and it's got to be it's got to be addressed we're going to have some very serious problems

01:05:07.760 um so somebody uh daryl latimer asking actually what your policy on protecting canada's north

01:05:12.480 arctic sovereignty that's been coming up jean chariot was speaking of that recently actually

01:05:16.880 he brought that up when he was on the show earlier uh it's a it's a big complicated area

01:05:21.120 but people are concerned do you have a policy addressing the arctic i absolutely do i think

01:05:26.080 one of the biggest challenges for canada is that we've been getting security intelligence

01:05:31.040 on what is going on in the world for the last 20 years starting with the sidewinder report

01:05:36.400 back in 20 and 2000 that has been to my mind essentially ignored in terms of the protection

01:05:45.360 of our nation and its sovereignty, which is a significant issue, that falls right into

01:05:50.960 a discussion about what the UN obligations are that we've brought ourselves under in

01:05:55.920 terms of international treaty. But to answer that question specifically, our sovereignty

01:06:00.160 is a huge issue. If you read any of the reports that are being generated from this government

01:06:06.880 from 2019 on in terms of foreign interference, it's abundantly clear that we have made ourselves

01:06:14.240 vulnerable and continue to put ourselves in a position where we are vulnerable. And I think

01:06:19.440 we need to be responsibly assertive in terms of defining our position in the north, our resources,

01:06:29.200 and have a mechanism that is congruent across the country so that all forms of our borders are

01:06:35.920 protected, not just the landmass borders, but also our idea borders, our intellectual property.

01:06:44.240 And and ensuring that we're not having elements within the nation that are actually undermining our nation in terms of foreign interference.

01:06:53.420 So we absolutely need to engage there.

01:06:56.660 And it's nice to see the Liberal government finally took on the position of the Conservative Party to to reinforce our Royal Canadian Air Force with the F-35s.

01:07:06.260 okay so uh getting on to uh just another question from a viewer before i we kind of get towards

01:07:13.940 wrapping up cheryl don was asking actually about what about mandates and travel bans speaking of

01:07:18.480 international i mean federally we still have vaccination mandates we still have people cannot

01:07:22.160 get on airplanes there's people who can't uh you know travel internationally at least not easily

01:07:26.900 uh where where are you standing on those items right now well many of our parents and grandparents

01:07:32.080 went and fought in World War II to ensure that we would have medical privacy, that issues like

01:07:39.360 vaccine would be something that would be between an individual citizen and their doctor.

01:07:45.060 We've never had a policy in the nation where people have been limited in their charter rights

01:07:50.900 and freedoms by the government. In fact, if one reviews the Nuremberg Code, which came directly

01:07:59.660 out of World War II. Consent is a significant issue. And yet the government policy to date has

01:08:06.420 been to essentially ignore consent by removing rights of Canadians. So now we have a system in

01:08:12.200 Canada where people who have chosen to remain private about their vaccination status

01:08:17.700 can't travel on flights. They can't travel on our railways that have all been paid for by

01:08:24.860 generations of Canadians in their tax dollars. And one may say that Air Canada now is not a public

01:08:31.840 utility, but it's been bailed out for 40 years by taxpayers to keep the company going. And

01:08:38.160 there's very little difference in it. So I think it's atrocious what's happening in terms of the

01:08:43.960 vaccine mandates. It's the only country in the world that's left that their own citizens can't

01:08:49.000 fly. And I think we need to take a really close review of that and have it removed immediately.

01:08:56.860 Okay. Well, I think that kind of covers the time I had set up for you. There's always,

01:09:01.300 you know, many, many more things we could cover, but we got through a good bunch of them. Where

01:09:05.360 can people find more information about yourself and your campaign if they want to learn more

01:09:09.480 or potentially get involved? Sure. My main webpage is called Canada's Promise, www.canadaspromise.

01:09:17.220 and my links for Facebook, for Instagram and Twitter are on that web page.

01:09:25.440 Great. Well, thanks for coming in to join us today. It's, as I said, quite a wide range of

01:09:30.200 candidates, a lot of ideas and issues out there, and it's going all the way till September 10th.

01:09:34.760 So perhaps we'll check in with you again a little later in the campaign and see how things are

01:09:39.020 developing. Great, Corey. Thank you very much. All right. Thank you, Mr. Abram.

01:09:42.900 so yes that was grant abraham a candidate for the conservative party of canada leadership race and

01:09:49.760 there are so many of them i i can see some of the frustration from some of the the listeners when it

01:09:55.260 came to it and uh i've seen that when i've had the the other leadership candidates on as well

01:09:59.980 where they're these are devoted people towards you know western or alberta independence

01:10:03.240 and hey i'm with you guys um i've never made a secret of my feeling that canada

01:10:09.320 is fundamentally broken. And I don't think there's going to be any way to solve the bigger

01:10:14.520 and larger problems without tearing down the system and at best rebuilding it again.

01:10:20.960 I saw somebody talking about how we can trade with each other as regions and provinces.

01:10:25.260 I mean, on my own view, it's, I love the Swiss system, for example, where you have, you know,

01:10:29.800 26 different states, they call them cantons in one little country, four official languages,

01:10:34.960 and you don't have independence movements there because the federal government there is very,

01:10:39.140 very limited, and there's a tremendous amount of regional autonomy for policy. And it's something

01:10:44.800 authoritarians will never understand. They seem to feel that they can unify people by having a

01:10:50.340 distant central leader, such as Ottawa in our case, and mashing everybody into the same setup

01:10:56.620 and the same policy under each other. And that's what's just leading to this slow decline and

01:11:01.180 constant infighting within Canada and an inability to get good general national policies going.

01:11:07.600 but and here's where my big but comes in all of this in the meantime because we aren't anywhere

01:11:12.340 close unfortunately yet to having any province on the brink of leaving we still have to be led by

01:11:18.040 these federal politicians so it's still important to listen to them talk to them and hey keep moving

01:11:22.880 towards independence absolutely keep those efforts going I talked you know to Dr. Modri on the Alberta

01:11:29.400 Prosperity Project I certainly like seeing things a lot of those independence-minded movements

01:11:35.320 But it doesn't mean we're immune from the policies of the federal government in the meantime.

01:11:40.600 So, I mean, the best we could do is try to get as many favorable politicians as we can.

01:11:44.800 And I know it doesn't fix things, but it makes them less bad, if you could say that, you know, to put it any other way.

01:11:51.980 But we've got a lot of them running in this race.

01:11:54.160 And something with Mr. Abraham, and I've seen with all of them, yeah, it's really been hard to find a straight shooter so far, you know.

01:12:02.620 a lot of them just like to talk in circles and give political answers and not give definitive

01:12:08.480 answers. At the very end, he did say, get rid of those mandates immediately. That was good to see

01:12:13.000 something definitive. And supply management, he went talking in circles again. None of them will

01:12:17.420 touch supply management. None of them. That's a Soviet-style policy, people. And none of these

01:12:22.100 conservative candidates have the courage to go after it. It's really unfortunate. And again,

01:12:26.540 it indicates how broken the system is. Because the reason they won't touch supply management,

01:12:31.420 but there's two reasons. One is the dairy cartels are very influential. As soon as these guys put

01:12:36.220 their hat in on the race, they get a phone call and a meeting with somebody from the dairy cartel

01:12:40.160 and often a very generous donation. They're very effective lobbyists and it shows. The other part

01:12:46.560 is most of Canada's dairy is in Quebec and nobody on these federal candidates wants to stir up

01:12:54.160 Quebec. They won't, none of them want to tick off Quebec because they can't win if they don't have

01:12:58.160 Quebec, even in the leadership race. So I keep getting these, these mushy answers when it comes

01:13:03.300 to those things, unfortunately. Um, that's that reminder again, you know, we, we need these

01:13:07.680 federal politicians, but it's clear we're not going to get relief on the federal political

01:13:12.780 front from these guys because they're always going to cater to central Canada. It's not even

01:13:16.960 personal, it's math. It's, it's just, they're, they're having to cater to that central area if

01:13:24.400 they want to win. Can't do it without them. And like the old saying from one of, you know, Trudeau's

01:13:30.520 advisors when he said, and I'm talking the old Trudeau, senior Trudeau, screw the West, we'll

01:13:35.480 take the rest. And it worked. They won and won and won. They're winning again and they're in there

01:13:40.160 now. That system is broken and we've got to work towards getting our way out of it. And that's

01:13:46.920 only going to happen through local initiative, not on the federal ones. Still want to get a

01:13:51.160 conservative government in there, as I said, they'll be less bad. They won't bloat the spending

01:13:55.340 by quite as much as the Liberals, though probably pretty close. They more than likely, depending on

01:14:02.140 which one wins, will back off on the carbon tax. So, I mean, we've seen them flip-flop on that as

01:14:07.880 well. It's still in our interest to have to deal with the system we're stuck in right now,

01:14:13.540 but we got to start looking at our ways to get the heck out of that system because it's not

01:14:17.640 serving as well. I was talking to Professor Barry Cooper yesterday about that. I mean,

01:14:22.480 towards the end of the conversation, that's where the bottom line came is that we've got to get

01:14:26.820 towards independence. And there's some of that frustration. I mean, that's the main thing. A lot

01:14:32.300 of people have been upset with Jason Kenney for his COVID policies or a number of other issues.

01:14:40.140 I've been annoyed by a number of them, but the biggest one for me has been his dragging his 0.73

01:14:45.280 feet on the fair deal panel. There's a lot of things we can do provincially to make ourselves

01:14:51.320 more independent, to shield ourselves from Ottawa and that central control. And Albertans made it

01:14:56.920 very clear during all those fair deal panel hearings that we want those things. We want

01:15:02.140 a provincial police force. We want a provincial pension plan. We want to look into collecting our

01:15:07.360 own taxes. We want to look into all of these things that Quebec and other provinces are already

01:15:11.600 enjoying, and there's no reason we shouldn't be able to. And he held all those hearings, but he

01:15:18.140 hasn't done anything about it. The only thing he did do was the equalization referendum, which I

01:15:23.100 still appreciate. It's expressing ourselves, but quit dragging your feet on these other things.

01:15:27.020 And for people who want to get independent, there's one of the things I have to keep reminding

01:15:29.860 people of, because I've heard a lot of people saying, we got to hold a referendum tomorrow.

01:15:33.260 We got to do it as soon as possible. No, we can't. We're not ready. It means we have to get ready.

01:15:39.880 If we held a referendum tomorrow on independence, I bet you at best you would get 20%.

01:15:46.860 I mean, we're talking not even, there's a lot of people, we see some polls that look

01:15:50.720 very favorable towards independence, but they tend to be, would you support the concept?

01:15:56.320 But that's voting in a poll.

01:15:58.240 It's voting looking down the road.

01:16:00.040 When it comes, push comes to shove, actually voting in a referendum, when it would lead

01:16:03.080 to actual independence, we don't have our ducks in a row enough yet.

01:16:07.420 we have to fix our own systems. We have to fix our own goals. We have to put those things in place

01:16:13.840 because that reduces a lot of those questions. People say, well, what do you do for a police

01:16:16.860 force? Well, if we've already got one, we don't have to answer that question anymore. It's done.

01:16:19.760 What do we do for a pension plan? We've already got one. What about taxation collection? We're

01:16:23.380 already collecting it. Incremental. Let's get these things done. Clean up our own backyard.

01:16:28.300 The other thing is we've got to look better. We've got to be able to assure people that

01:16:32.500 an independent West, whether it's Alberta or Saskatchewan or both or whatever all those

01:16:36.800 combinations are, is going to be better than what we're in right now. And when I see a risk of

01:16:41.720 Notley getting elected again, that means we haven't figured it out yet. You know, how are

01:16:47.340 we going to say we're going to be better than the federal government when we're still capable of

01:16:50.240 putting socialists into our office in Edmonton? The time's going to come. I mean, their system's

01:16:55.900 broken. It's just going to get more and more frustration and people are going to push for

01:16:58.700 those, but we're not ready to go there yet. Not yet. It doesn't mean stop working towards it.

01:17:04.740 Not at all. But, you know, calling, we got to, the hardest thing, and it's something I'm not

01:17:09.900 good with either, is patience. We've got to exercise it. I led the Alberta Independence

01:17:14.360 Party back in 2000, so, you know, 22 years ago. I was just 29 years old, and I led that

01:17:21.440 provincial party into a provincial election, and I was ready to go tomorrow. I wanted out. I didn't

01:17:27.800 have any patience whatsoever. We've got to do this. Well, it's been 22 years, and we're not

01:17:31.200 much closer to being out. I mean, some of that shows that I didn't do a really good job leading

01:17:34.320 that party at that time. But the other thing was, despite my fervor and feeling that we're ready to

01:17:38.780 go and that we're able to go, I was wrong. We weren't ready. We weren't able. I wasn't the

01:17:44.600 person to lead us there. Something, when I talked to Dr. Cooper, Professor Cooper yesterday,

01:17:51.360 we haven't, there's a couple other things we're still missing. We haven't had a René Levesque

01:17:56.040 yet. You know, you want to know a really interesting book to read, honestly. Read René

01:18:00.440 Levesque's autobiography. Even if you don't like what he did perhaps in Quebec during some of his

01:18:05.280 period there or things like that, it's fascinating. And if you're a person pursuing independence and

01:18:09.560 talking about getting movements together, this guy gives some very good, candid, you know, this was,

01:18:15.760 he never even expected to become premier. He was more shocked than anybody else on his way up.

01:18:20.900 But it's a lesson. I mean, we can get pissed off with Quebec and I do all the time and I still do 1.00

01:18:24.960 and I still will. We should also be learning from those guys. They've learned a lot of lessons that

01:18:29.140 we still need to learn. And if we can avoid some of those lessons, one of the ways too is reading

01:18:33.260 Renny Levesque's book. The right leader can change a lot of things. And we haven't seen that leader

01:18:38.480 putting us towards independence yet. I'm going to speak a little more on some more news items and

01:18:43.300 other issues, but I got to talk about one of our sponsors yet again. And these guys will help us

01:18:48.240 get independent from central banking structures. And that's Bitcoin. Well, again, an interesting

01:18:54.740 story. How did Dave talking about how some people are going to be now getting compensated for having

01:18:58.040 their bank account seized and that's a good development. But the problem was their bank

01:19:01.080 accounts were seized in the first place. What is your hedge? What are you going to do? What if you

01:19:06.340 get on the wrong side of government again in the future and they lock down and take your bank

01:19:11.520 account? How do you make your car payment? How do you pay your utility bills? How do you pull out

01:19:15.820 some cash just to get by whilst this authoritarian state is on your case? Well, digital currencies

01:19:21.660 are one of the ways to avoid that. And I know some people are worried about it, but so far,

01:19:26.080 realistically absolutely the government cannot get at funds in digital currencies they'd love to

01:19:31.900 oh they'd love to but they can't bitcoin well is a western canadian based company they will help

01:19:36.900 show you how you can get into the digital currency market i mean it's so new and so foreign as i say

01:19:42.260 i'm into my 50s now i don't fully understand how these things work and all that it helps to get

01:19:47.980 these guys lay it out for you and they've set me up i'm with the company plan here with the western

01:19:51.800 Standard that a portion of my salary every month gets put into a Bitcoin wallet for me. And then

01:19:56.940 the Western Standard matches it. And you can set these sorts of things through Bitcoin Well up

01:19:59.940 in your own company as well. It's a nice way for employees to get a little side savings and shield

01:20:05.280 themselves from other control and things like that. It's voluntary, of course. And they walked

01:20:10.060 me through it. You know, guys confused as me. I'm like, you know, my parents, I used to have to show

01:20:13.740 them how to program a VCR. Now I need smart people at places like Bitcoin Well to help show me how

01:20:18.160 digital currencies work, but they're very good for it. And that's what they do. Check these guys

01:20:22.500 out. Bitcoinwell.com, a great sponsor and a great service. All right, let's get on to a little more

01:20:29.760 of these issues we got going on. Yeah, there was a story on a poll on rent-to-own plans. Canadians

01:20:35.140 favor a federal rent-to-own program and more investment in co-op housing to help young

01:20:40.060 families. This is a poll. And taxpayers opposed any blanket attempt to lower home prices as a

01:20:46.180 threat to the middle class. Something that sounds like we're going to get a lot of speculation

01:20:50.820 coming on today's budget is that they're going to make homes more affordable. And that really,

01:20:55.200 really scares me. When the government gets in on it, they look to spend money, throw money at

01:21:01.140 things, subsidize things to make them affordable. And of course, in the end, it just costs us and

01:21:05.500 it goes terribly. And one of the life-forming moments, the times I had was back in the end

01:21:12.520 the 80s i traveled through eastern europe when it was still uh the soviet union back then i went

01:21:16.280 through ukraine and russia and some areas and the they still remain the ones that they aren't

01:21:21.080 blowing up these days but the socialized housing the row housing these ugly especially in moscow 0.99

01:21:26.760 apartment blocks that would just go and go and go as far as the eye can see nobody was homeless

01:21:32.840 no such thing as homeless in the soviet union back then nobody was living well either i mean it was

01:21:37.960 the awful looking i mean it was almost like prison cells those things going all the way along

01:21:43.400 everybody could get a lot of if you waited long enough and if you paid enough or if you bribed

01:21:48.920 the right person and of course that thing was lucky to be running for weeks at a time

01:21:52.200 this is what happens when government manages things if we want to make things more affordable

01:21:58.280 for canadians uh there's a couple of things yeah cheryl's pointing out we've got some foreign buyers

01:22:03.160 that are really messing with our real estate markets, particularly in Vancouver.

01:22:07.800 It's tough, you know, because you don't want to over-regulate.

01:22:10.700 But at the same time, if it's distorting the market and putting citizens out of their homes,

01:22:14.380 you've got a bigger problem as well.

01:22:17.460 But if the government just starts pumping money in,

01:22:19.940 when you pump that in, you're just going to raise prices further, you guys.

01:22:23.140 It's not going to help.

01:22:24.580 You've got to get out of the way.

01:22:25.400 A lot of this comes down to local governments as well, though.

01:22:28.440 I mean, we've got municipalities.

01:22:29.620 Calgary is one of them.

01:22:30.360 Edmonton is one of them.

01:22:31.940 We saw it in Vancouver with Mayor Moonbeam out there. 0.94

01:22:34.800 Left-wing lunatics running city councils and mayors, 0.86

01:22:38.040 and they keep cracking down on development. 0.95

01:22:41.120 They're cracking down on outward growth.

01:22:42.360 They've got this ideological outlook that if we could just force people into dense living,

01:22:47.100 we'll save the world for all the butterflies and fuzzy bunnies and everything,

01:22:50.300 and we're all going to live in nice, high-density downtown neighborhoods.

01:22:53.240 But what it's doing, unfortunately, in reality is stunting the growth of supply.

01:22:59.080 And again, socialists never understand supply and demand.

01:23:02.060 Thus, the prices go through the roof and people can't afford housing.

01:23:06.240 You know, the biggest lie that we see are these density zealots.

01:23:10.420 And they are, they're zealots.

01:23:11.540 They push for urban density.

01:23:12.880 And they just feel that it's some sort of panacea to make the world live better.

01:23:15.720 As I said, the urban density in Moscow I saw in 89, 88, that was urban density.

01:23:21.580 And it was wretched.

01:23:22.580 And if you want to look at cost of living, look to the highest density markets in North America.

01:23:30.300 That is New York City.

01:23:32.520 You know, go to Manhattan, see how much a house costs, an apartment, if you can find one.

01:23:37.460 You know, these dense environments.

01:23:39.880 I mean, get into Boston, get into some of those urban areas where they have high urban density.

01:23:45.560 San Francisco, good luck.

01:23:47.580 Those costs are through the roof.

01:23:48.860 the places where homing houses are affordable are areas where they allow outward development.

01:23:54.480 Phoenix, Houston, Las Vegas, they got the room, they allow people to build and grow and move out,

01:24:01.060 you know, Dallas, all over the place. So this myth has to end. But having governments get in there

01:24:06.500 and start screwing at the market and throwing money at it, that's not going to help, unfortunately.

01:24:12.100 So I'm not looking forward too much to what the budget's going to offer in that front.

01:24:21.040 See here.

01:24:22.080 Yeah, so it's a blacklist compensations, what they're calling it for people who unfairly suffered a loss as a result of bank account freezes on the convoy sympathizers.

01:24:30.480 Well, you shouldn't even have to say anybody who unfairly suffered financial loss.

01:24:34.760 Everybody who has had their account frozen had it done unfairly.

01:24:38.460 It was never fairly done.

01:24:39.860 It was one of the most odious, disgusting acts of a federal government in Canadian history upon their own citizens.

01:24:45.700 And we're starting, in hindsight, to unpeel this thing and to get in there and realize just how bad the actions of the government were.

01:24:53.400 As the committees are coming out, we're hearing and seeing that the government, none of their justification was correct.

01:25:01.180 None of these things are cracking down on the convoy and the protests were justified,

01:25:05.180 particularly going into people's accounts, ruining their lives,

01:25:08.160 forcing tow truck drivers to, you know, forced labor. 0.92

01:25:10.940 That's slavery, guys.

01:25:12.120 That is slavery.

01:25:13.960 And it's got to stop.

01:25:19.060 I don't know where it's going to stop.

01:25:20.320 They don't show any contrition at this point.

01:25:23.540 Another little news item.

01:25:24.600 Yeah, somebody else pointed out, I guess, you know,

01:25:27.220 Stephen Gilbo, our environment minister, I'm sure he's grudging about it,

01:25:29.780 but they did approve, even though they delayed forever on it,

01:25:31.900 the Bay to Nord venture. That's that $12 billion oil project off the Newfoundland coast. So that's

01:25:37.020 good. But I guess there was a Suncor expansion. They also canceled at the same time. So you

01:25:40.820 remember, Eastern oil good, Western oil bad. None of that ever changes. It doesn't matter how much

01:25:46.080 the world might need our domestic oil. We got a federal government who will not allow us to

01:25:51.300 increase the production of it. They want to shut it down. That's not going to change. We've got

01:25:56.280 some serious problems on that front as well. Back to the Ottawa claims, by the way, some people

01:26:00.960 talked about, I talked about that on Twitter, and I've talked about that on this show, that stupid, 0.99

01:26:05.140 ridiculous, bizarre, baloney story of convoy participants taping up the doors of an apartment 0.99

01:26:12.880 building, supposedly, and trying to burn it down with people inside it. That story stunk to high 0.99

01:26:18.360 heaven right from the very first day. There was this idiot on Twitter who was saying, I'm an 1.00

01:26:23.000 apartment resident, and here's all the pictures from the security camera of what happened. I mean, 1.00

01:26:26.840 And one of those things was, you know, as you read this idiot's account of it, and he's an idiot, he showed, here's a resident coming in, he walked by, and this is how they claimed that this was the convoyers, you know, this was while the convoy was going on, walked by this person sitting there setting a fire apparently in the middle of the apartment lobby. 0.99

01:26:44.080 Yeah, right in the middle of the floor, not even very good arsonists apparently. 0.99

01:26:48.140 And the guy said, yes, I'm with the convoy.

01:26:50.320 Self-identified right on the spot.

01:26:51.660 and then this apartment dweller said, oh, oh dear, you're with the convoy and you're looking

01:26:55.700 to burn my building down with me inside it. That's most unfortunate. Got into the apartment,

01:26:59.620 went upstairs, went to bed. What? Yeah, apparently nobody called the cops. Nobody called the fire

01:27:05.000 department. Passerby, I guess, went and put out the little fire in the middle of the floor and

01:27:09.520 that was the end of it. But media members, members of parliament, government, all jumped over and

01:27:14.200 look at this. These guys are terrorists. These guys are evil. These convoyers are trying to 0.99

01:27:17.920 Tape up buildings and kill hundreds of people.

01:27:19.780 And that is terrifying. 0.82

01:27:20.860 If that was a real attempt and if there really was. 1.00

01:27:23.160 Well, now it's showing they've arrested two idiots on this. 0.99

01:27:26.200 And whatever it was about, it had absolutely nothing to do with the convoy. 1.00

01:27:29.700 Nothing.

01:27:30.540 With both of these suspects.

01:27:31.760 They've both been charged with arson and a bunch of serious charges because it's dangerous.

01:27:34.820 It's crazy stuff.

01:27:36.400 But it had, and all it did was charred the carpet, by the way.

01:27:38.620 Like I said, they weren't very good arsonists.

01:27:40.740 But our media and government used things like this as their excuse, including the mayor of Ottawa,

01:27:45.980 to infringe on the rights of individuals and Canadians.

01:27:50.200 And now it's hindsight.

01:27:50.960 Oh, sorry about that.

01:27:52.120 I guess it wasn't real.

01:27:54.140 Oh, wow.

01:27:55.060 You know, and again, you see, they're doubling down more.

01:27:57.400 I mean, this is where the government's another story

01:27:58.900 where they're eyeing quarantine cops.

01:28:00.780 So they want to give inspectors the police powers,

01:28:04.640 basically public health inspectors to give police powers

01:28:06.860 so they can start charging you

01:28:08.540 if you don't stick to a quarantine.

01:28:12.580 Yeah, I mean, last January,

01:28:13.980 when I came back from the States,

01:28:15.380 I was down there for a little while and the testing for COVID didn't come through in time

01:28:20.100 and we had to be quarantined for a couple of weeks after I got back to Canada.

01:28:25.680 So theoretically, I spent two solid weeks in my house.

01:28:29.520 I never stepped out of it after coming back.

01:28:31.960 Had I stepped out of my house over those two weeks, I could have been charged.

01:28:36.620 And now they want actual quarantine cops to make sure to follow up and peek in your windows,

01:28:40.300 I guess, and check your garbage or whatever they're going to do to see if you've been

01:28:44.520 breaching their orders to lock you and give you house arrest because they feel you might spread

01:28:50.100 a disease. So no, the government isn't learning about respecting our rights any more than they

01:28:55.540 did, but we've got to learn how to get that damn government out of there so that we can start to 0.98

01:29:00.320 protect some of our rights. We'll see if it happens. Okay. So tomorrow I've got a couple 0.98

01:29:04.220 of great guests coming on. One I'm really looking, well, I'm looking forward to both. Don't insult

01:29:07.340 one of them, but he was a former head of the CRTC and he was a publisher in, you know, the media for

01:29:14.660 many, many years. His name is Peter Menzies and he's been very critical of these moves, things

01:29:20.540 like C-18 and things empowering the CRTC. This was not what Mr. Menzies envisioned on a regulatory

01:29:27.000 body for media and things such as that. It's going to be a very good conversation with Peter

01:29:32.220 Menzies about that tomorrow. And then Franco Teresano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.

01:29:36.160 Yes, we have him on a lot, but he always has a lot of good things to say because, of course,

01:29:40.020 that'll be 24 hours after the budget has come down and we can start to drill down and dissect

01:29:44.780 what the federal government has in mind for us with their federal budget this time around.

01:29:49.660 We know there's going to be a lot of big spending, but we'll be able to get the specifics on it.

01:29:53.560 So tune in tomorrow, guys.

01:29:54.900 It's going to be a good show.

01:29:56.000 And thank you all for tuning in today.

01:29:57.660 I will see you at 1130 tomorrow.

01:30:06.160 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - April 08, 2022

LIVE SHOW - Triggered： Trudeau government looks to crush independent media.

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript