The Canadian establishment has chosen their candidate for Prime Minister, and it's none other than former Prime Minister Jean Charest. We discuss his political career, and the role he played in bringing the country to the point it's at now.
00:19:06.340We're moving to a different floor of the same building.
00:19:08.380we're gonna have a lot more space in studio and for our newly hired reporters and such
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00:19:41.020and better content. Like I said, we get in there on the ground and we do get exclusive content and
00:19:45.940get that news out to you from some great professionals out there. Plus, we have some
00:19:49.980fantastic columnists who contribute and I'm going to bring one in right away and that's Barbara Kay
00:19:54.400I mentioned earlier. Anybody who's been familiar in reading news in this list last, I won't say
00:19:59.900exactly how long, but over a period of time has been familiar with Barbara Kay's name out there
00:20:03.620writing and then it's been always great when we can get pieces from her and she wrote one recently
00:20:08.320I'd like to talk about so let's bring Barbara in and have a discussion about that. Hi Barbara how0.95
00:20:13.580you doing? I'm fine Corey how are you? Pretty good a little hungry but uh I had a Labrador who used
00:20:20.640to steal things off the counter so I know I know what's that what that's like so sorry. Yeah they
00:20:26.280could be pretty smart when they when they want to be oh I've got some spare calories that I can
00:20:31.260burn through the day anyways, that won't put me at too much risk in the long run, but it comes with
00:20:37.000it. So, I'm glad you checked in. You wrote an article on something that always annoys the heck
00:20:42.140out of me, and it's just been happening too much. It's a bigger and bigger trend, and that is with
00:20:47.160people just, your column was entitled, you know, everyone needs to stop calling everyone else a
00:20:51.680Nazi, and that's not even a left thing, a right thing. That word is being abused and overused by
00:20:57.760people all over the place and it's it's getting tiresome and offensive to some it certainly is
00:21:05.040all over the place uh i mean i think i i do hear it more from the left but uh you do occasionally
00:21:11.920hear it from the from the right as well and it's it this reductio ad hitlerum i think it's called
00:21:19.680in latin uh when you when you really dislike someone you hate their politics you hate their
00:21:25.760tactics, you call them a Nazi. Because in our society, the worst thing in the world you can
00:21:33.140be is a Nazi. Everybody knows that the Nazis were the worst, and Hitler was the worst in all of0.86
00:21:38.100recorded history. Nobody's been worse than that. But because of that fact, it's so important to,
00:21:46.320you know, be careful about who you call Hitler, because it shuts up the other person real fast,
00:21:52.740Right. I mean, once you've if I'm if I'm a fan of Donald Trump, which I'm not, by the way, but if if you are and somebody says, oh, but he's as bad as Hitler, instead of defending Trump's policies or anything else, you're going to be saying, no, no, no, he's nothing like Hitler.
00:22:12.040oh yeah well and then they start saying but he's this and he's that so you end up discussing whether
00:22:17.900he's hitler or not instead of tell me why you like donald trump you know and and then get into
00:22:24.280maybe a little bit of substance uh about why anybody could uh be in favor of trump yeah it
00:22:31.080just immediately derails any kind of nuanced conversation because now and and if a person is
00:22:35.680truly being vitriolic they'll start accusing you of defending nazis which is ridiculous you're just
00:22:40.020trying to explain that this was not an appropriate comparison and whatever your conversation was
00:22:44.820it sure and it sure does look bad when it's your own prime minister uh comparing uh civil
00:22:52.180disobedience uh people that are exercising their right to protest uh they that they're aligned
00:22:58.820with nazis and not once but twice three four times there was a real concerted effort there
00:23:06.260to embed the idea that these uh you know freedom convoy people uh were aligned with
00:23:14.260uh white supremacy and uh the worst kind of racism and bigotry terrible yeah well and as you said i
00:23:22.660mean you can understand for an unprincipled person why it's a go-to i mean you know 99.9 percent of
00:23:27.860the world if they've read history and understand it they know that that it's just the most odious
00:23:31.700thing you could possibly accuse somebody of being so so they go there but it's it's certainly not a
00:23:37.060good way to go is cheryl's asking did justin trudeau ever apologize to lanceman i i don't
00:23:41.220believe he ever did he just let that go he didn't and and uh you could tell i don't know you could
00:23:49.480sort of tell that he knew what he was doing he really didn't care um and he was very determined
00:23:54.780about it too that was extremely disconcerting um that he he just he seems to have just lost
00:24:03.660a kind of the uh the sense of boundaries uh in terms of discourse of where you go and he he
00:24:09.900doesn't seem to care much anymore i i see it more and more that he's he's really pushing boundaries
00:24:15.020that in the past he would have he would have apologized simply as well one parliamentarian to
00:24:20.940another you just don't do that kind of thing but um i i don't see much restraint in him anymore
00:24:28.780and as we uh age out you know the newer generations get more distant from the the atrocities that
00:24:34.620happened you know almost a century ago now we're getting towards and we don't want to desensitize
00:24:39.580people to what really happened i mean that was still a modern day horrific period of time that
00:24:44.780we never want to forget because as we're seeing in europe we're still capable of getting on each
00:24:49.020other's throats and i saw it from another side with i was at a protest and a number of people
00:24:53.500this was quite a while back well a year or so ago and they had put they were against vaccination
00:24:59.100mandates and such and they put yellow stars on their jacket because they said we're being
00:25:02.700uh you know singled out and and uh this is symbolizing no guys no this is you look you're
00:25:08.460appropriating something of a completely different horrific tragedy i understand why you're upset but
00:25:13.340do not it's just not a valid comparison i i find elevation of either uh what you know
00:25:20.860people have lost i think people have lost the ability to speak uh to say what they think
00:25:29.340using reasonable discourse because the the maybe it's social media where you have to get
00:25:35.260get your opinion out in you know very few characters or or uh because we don't have
00:25:42.840rational debates anymore it's there's so much anger and divisiveness uh that you just want to
00:25:48.060say you want to it's it's instead of punching the other person you know you really want to
00:25:54.100punch them out instead uh you just automatically go for the all misogynist transphobic uh you know
00:26:01.840some kind of bigotry. Um, it's interesting. It does, it's a tactic that is, I see mostly from
00:26:08.120the left. Uh, but because the force of the word Nazi or Hitler is far greater than if you say
00:26:17.800what you're saying is just like the Marxists or, you know, you're, you're, you're a real Lenin or,
00:26:25.360or that guy's like a real Lenin. I don't even think most people would even react to that. As
00:26:30.840you say everybody you know there's so much uh ignorance about the past because it's two
00:26:36.400generations back uh so people don't really understand when they put on a yellow star they
00:26:41.440young people don't really have any concept anymore of what it means but they've also lost the idea
00:26:47.000of how terrible it is to be what the word communist used to stand for um that's that to me is a bad
00:26:56.600word to me it's pretty well as bad as calling somebody you know a fascist or a nazi uh but it
00:27:03.720isn't it isn't to people on the left no i mean we rightly most people are disgusted whenever they
00:27:10.320see a swastika appear anywhere uh but they kind of shrug their shoulders and accept it when you0.55
00:27:15.180see a hammer and sickle i mean uh that that hammer and sickle murdered millions of people as well
00:27:20.360and again it's and you shouldn't throw the term communist at somebody casually either you said
00:27:25.100in your article you weren't a fan of uh of obama either but you never called him a stalinist
00:27:30.300no i i i don't i try not to do that you know you mentioned the hammer and sickle
00:27:34.780i remember i was in toronto some years ago and uh there was going to be a meeting of some kind
00:27:41.660and it was at a bar downtown and it was called the i think it was a pub that was called the
00:27:47.660hammer and sickle or it was called something else but it was all the whole uh theme was uh
00:27:54.460all the motifs of communism it had soviet art on the walls um and it was done in a spirit of irony
00:28:01.980and kind of as a a fun theme um so it's interesting that that that the whole soviet experience
00:28:12.300is something that i think most people on the left today uh don't even recognize they recognize it as
00:28:20.620yes communism was an excessive an excessive kind of thing um whereas nazism was pure evil
00:28:31.260they they don't i don't think they believe that communism was an evil system yeah well there's
00:28:39.180a very solid death count to quite make it clear the communism was was quite evil and i mean whether
00:28:44.140people want to i'm sure if we could turn back time and pull some people up from the grave who
00:28:48.860were proponents of both of those systems a lot of them actually did think somehow in their weird
00:28:52.540way they were doing the right thing or making the world a better place but clearly they were not at
00:28:57.100all and we can't put on any kind of rose-colored glasses to look at those those periods of history
00:29:02.540and well every every totalitarian thinks that what they're doing is in the end going to be
00:29:07.900better for at least for their own nation i remember um historians used to think uh
00:29:13.660Mussolini, when fascism, when he invented fascism, it actually was seen in a very positive light at
00:29:21.960first. It sounded good what he was doing in the beginning. It was only later, you know,
00:29:28.240in retrospect, and when he aligned with Hitler, that fascism sort of definitely got a bad name.
00:29:35.060But in the beginning, it looked like it was going to be very good for Italy and pull it out of its1.00
00:29:40.160economic doldrums and all that sort of thing. So sometimes you really you really have to know
00:29:45.180your history. It's a good lesson. And I wish they taught history with far more rigor than
00:29:50.980than they do. Let's say we don't we don't want to purge the history of the actions of communists,
00:29:57.620Nazis, fascists by any means. We need to educate people on it. And but at the same time, just quit
00:30:01.860bloody throwing it around in contemporary situations because they don't apply. And
00:30:05.440and it's, it's reducing what the real impact of what those actions were back then.
00:30:33.140Perhaps we could talk a little about that one.
00:30:34.540sure uh yeah i i knew i knew when i wrote it that it was woo you know i hope i don't know i hope i
00:30:42.380don't see pitchforks outside my my door knowing that i was writing for people largely who who
00:30:49.020for whom charret is real anathema but uh look let's face it i am from the east um and i i do
00:30:58.620have memories of Charest that are very positive. You know, as a Quebecer who lived on a knife edge
00:31:06.560through two referendums here in Quebec, the second one was far more scary than the first one.
00:31:19.100And he was really the star of that show. There weren't many people, you know, Lucien Bouchard
00:31:26.860was one of the most um magnetic and charismatic uh orators uh i've ever encountered in politics
00:31:35.340he was a real force and the only guy that really could stand up to him and measure him in terms of
00:31:42.220uh winning over an audience was jean charay so that was kind of his moment in the sun i guess
00:31:47.980uh so i know a lot of westerners say well i'm sorry that he i'm sorry that he swayed
00:31:52.860the reference i would have liked to see quebec leave you know well there's there's a number with
00:31:57.500that sentiment i'm almost there myself but yeah we're getting that perspective and there's some
00:32:02.460truth to that i mean i i ripped into him in my opening monologue a bit but i mean a part of his
00:32:06.700history i did say he became the premier of quebec but i should say he displaced what had been a
00:32:11.100strongly entrenched party quebecois government uh for quite some time in quebec when he brought
00:32:15.260in the liberals which uh i you know would be a a definitely a victory for people who want a unified
00:32:21.100country i guess at that point well look it's not just about unity it's about it's about who who
00:32:27.740can win uh who can unseat the liberals uh we you know we you people talk about charay i i i heard
00:32:35.500the last five minutes of your previous uh talking to to dave and uh they said oh look at his baggage
00:32:41.980look at his baggage he's got the huawei uh connection and uh the carbon tax he's got this
00:32:49.420and he's got that he can't surmount that baggage and i'm thinking to myself look at the baggage
00:32:55.980that trudeau has accumulated uh you know the lavaland thing and the we scandal and the black
00:33:02.860face i mean you know you can go on and on with the baggage that jean trudeau has i mean pierre
00:33:08.300trudeau has i mean sorry justin just one of those trudeaus here also had baggage but justin has a
00:33:16.140tremendous amount of baggage and yet um there something like 33 of of the population intends
00:33:24.780to vote for him so it it shows you that baggage is not as important as people think it is if they
00:33:32.300see you as an overall um strong leader uh of the country whose economic policies uh basically or
00:33:43.180well, the fact that Justin gives away a lot of money helps. But I mean, it's not so much about
00:33:51.260an individual policy. It's more about, do you feel confidence in a leader? And Justin Trudeau
00:34:00.340should not inspire confidence, but he's had enormous good luck in that the people he's up
00:34:06.660against, uh, inspire less confidence. So, you know, um, basically his, his main competition
00:34:14.840at the moment is, is, is Pierre Polyev, who, by the way, I, I have a lot of time for Pierre. I,
00:34:20.380I like him very much. I admire him. I think he's smart as a whip and, uh, I, I enjoy his performances
00:34:28.120in the House. But I feel he's very intense and very provocative at times. And I understand why
00:34:39.720the base, why the conservative base likes him very much. But I think I do not see him yet. I think
00:34:47.540he's young. I don't see him yet as being that person in whom a solid majority or even a third
00:34:58.000of the country would say yes he he's he's a leader that i think represents could represent me and and
00:35:05.840and um that i feel confident that he would be for all the people and for i i think charay has that
00:35:12.720quality of sincerely representing he wants to represent all canadians he's a conservative who
00:35:20.480want you know maybe not in the sense that albertans want a conservative look if he's energy friendly
00:35:26.480All he has to be is energy friendly and do his, you know, passionate, I represent all of Canada thing.
00:35:37.680Honestly, I think he would take away a lot of liberals who don't like Trudeau, but they don't see a conservative leader that they would give their complete trust to.
00:35:51.180I'm not sure Polyev is the guy who's going to take moderate liberals away from Trudeau, but I can see Charest taking a lot of moderate liberals away.
00:36:06.320Yeah, well, the question starts coming down to, and that's what we'll see unfolding over the course of these months in the race, is do we want to turn, I mean, that's the truth.
00:36:15.740he's a Tory of the red sort not with scandals tied to him or things or whatnot but should we
00:36:20.700liberalize the party more or go for the small c conservative in in the fiery way of Polyev0.99
00:36:25.340uh do we believe that winning is more important than than hanging on to those principles
00:36:30.280it's a an internal discussion that conservatives always have but sorry you talk about hanging on
00:36:36.020to principles what kind of principles apart from the gun registry or or look we the conservatives
00:36:42.400have had several opportunities to hang on to their principles in terms of some bills that have
00:36:48.560passed that should never have passed with conservative votes that had to do with education
00:36:55.320and with children and conversion therapy and all that stuff. They voted without a second thought
00:37:02.700for it. And that is about the reddest. It's about the most liberal bills that have ever been passed
00:37:09.820uh in parliament and they they they didn't care because they don't put they don't put that
00:37:15.860principle which they should because it's the basis of our culture um parental rights and and
00:37:22.320the kind of education that we would like to see our our children have they didn't put those
00:37:26.340principles first so you know this idea that that oh uh we're we're so pure out here you know we
00:37:33.840have we conservatives we we're we're pure in our motives i don't i'm i i'm not buying it i'm not
00:37:40.020buying it at all okay well and and again you know yes western conservatives for example some of them
00:37:45.420voted in favor of uh you know retaining quebec's seat there and that uh recent vote going on and
00:37:51.120uh you know protecting that down there so we can't assume just because of a regional origin that a
00:37:54.820person's going to necessarily stand up for the region but i mean westerners we're just uh
00:37:58.800particularly with us out here we we're uh gun shy you know we we've uh yeah i get it i know we're
00:38:06.000very divided but the thing is that that canada has uh it the the people who are truly conservative
00:38:13.040of the kind that albertans like are uh are an absolute minority in the country so even if you
00:38:18.960got every single vote in the country from every single vote and you know that that there's a lot
00:38:23.760of wasted votes uh for hard line and i shouldn't say hard line but for purer conservatives there's
00:38:30.880a lot of wasted votes because a lot of them come from the west so you know there's only that many
00:38:35.280seats uh i don't know i'd like to vote for i'd like to vote i'd like to get trudeau out myself
00:38:42.240i i think jean chariot has a very good shot at it and uh and i and i would like to see energy
00:38:49.360friendly policies and i'd like to see uh i would like to see responsible economic policies uh and
00:38:54.880i think he could deliver on that and i don't even know if he can take quebec at this point because
00:38:59.920he's not got a lot of love there at the moment but um he's very canny he's very smart he has
00:39:05.760he's a professional he's had a long history in politics he's a real grown-up is what i mean to
00:39:12.080say uh there have been a lot of in my opinion uh the conservative party has been looking to amateurs
00:39:19.360and to untried people uh because there's a kind of desperation to find that magic bullet
00:39:25.520um you know another harper which there is nobody uh in sight at the moment and even he
00:39:31.920he didn't satisfy everybody he wasn't didn't satisfy the social conservatives he didn't
00:39:36.320you know uh it's always a difficult to satisfy all the conservatives there just isn't it's too
00:39:43.280it's too uh mixed a bag well conservatives have always been a hornet's nest to try and hold
00:39:49.280together as provincial or federal we're watching that happening all over the place i mean our
00:39:52.880battles in alberta right now are going to be legendary in just the next few weeks
00:39:56.800uh well i mean if nothing else one thing mr shere certainly offers though he would be a more
00:40:01.600cerebral prime minister than the one we've got right now because well it's pretty low i know
00:40:06.400that's a low bar but uh whatever shere maybe he's he's certainly no fool and he's experienced so
00:40:12.240that's for sure it's the closest compliment you'll get from a regionalist like
00:40:17.680so but i mean i'm glad to see a race i always like that i'm glad to see different ideas coming up
00:40:22.080acclamations coronations they don't do anybody any favors you know you you've got to get it up
00:40:26.720there and get it on the line and let the members get together and discuss that so it's good to see
00:40:31.680a number of people coming from different directions and uh we can hopefully trust in
00:40:35.520the wisdom of the membership to pick the best person out of the job that's we have to hope for
00:40:41.280all right well thank you very much for coming in to join me today and for keeping providing
00:40:44.640those great columns though it's a really do enjoy them on the standard and i hope we get the chance
00:40:48.960to talk again soon perhaps a little further up in the race there okay i hope so too thanks for
00:40:54.160having me corey great thanks have a good weekend cheers so that was barbara k and and uh yeah you
00:41:01.360know i see some of the comments scroll was predictable we know that we're the western
00:41:04.640standard we're gonna get that but we we do have to discuss those things and uh you know
00:41:08.720know, acclimations and coronations, I don't like seeing those in races. I do want to see some of1.00
00:41:14.980those issues pushed and prodded. I mean, I don't hold a political membership. I'm certainly going
00:41:20.040to lean one way or another and talk about who I like and don't like in these races and things
00:41:23.960like that. If I were a Conservative member, I couldn't see myself voting for Sherey. But I don't0.99
00:41:30.660think it's a bad thing to have that perspective come into the race, so it has to be discussed.
00:41:35.920And I don't know if I mentioned earlier, I should be talking,
00:41:37.940it looks like on Tuesday with Pierre Polyev, he's going to come on the show.
00:41:42.160And I suspect a lot of our viewers will appreciate his point of view.
00:41:45.540He's been very popular with the small C conservatives and such.
00:50:53.180But, I mean, it doesn't mean that they've embraced the view of that forum.
00:50:58.700Politicians will attend and go to all sorts of different organizations and groups as guests, as listeners, and sometimes participants.
00:51:06.200So, I honestly, yeah, Pamela Jones-Kenney said that Pierre was on True North this morning.
00:51:11.240He said he has absolutely nothing to do with them.
00:51:12.720So, you know, the World Economic Forum is real, their goals are real, but let's not give everybody an immediate guilt by association if they've ever come in contact with them. If you go into some of those large international things, it's almost unavoidable that you'll bump into them. But if they do embrace the World Economic Forum goals, then yeah, we do have a real problem because it does have some very sick and destructive goals.
00:51:35.240So I'm going to turn the page a little bit here and get on to a nonpartisan candidate, though.
00:51:41.440And just keep this in mind, you know, I know not everybody's from Calgary watching this, but this was a break.
00:51:46.700You know, Calgary had an election that turned over a whole council.
00:51:49.300And again, we had a very strong union influence and so on.
00:51:52.860And they endorsed a number of candidates.
00:51:56.740And most of the union-endorsed candidates won.
00:51:59.980But it was something that was nice that happened.
00:52:01.820you know one among those union endorsed ones made it very clear that she's not a part of that and
00:52:07.080she's been taking common sense stances and council and we're having that problem in municipal councils0.97
00:52:11.800all the way across the country every city has got this challenge going on with some very terribly
00:52:18.140left-leaning crazy city councils out there so it was nice to talk to a common sense one who's
00:52:22.840gotten through she had a tumultuous six months she was fighting without Stephen Carter we didn't dig
00:52:26.760much into that. He's a local weasel we have. He's gone now from the mayor's office and she's
00:52:33.720settling in after her first six months in, but it's good to see decent folks getting into those
00:52:38.460roles and taking some common sense things. And maybe we can see more of that in the municipal
00:52:42.420level of government. So we'll run that and then we'll have some more talk about some news items
00:52:45.760here. Well, thank you very much for coming on the show, Councillor Sharp. I've been looking forward
00:52:50.300to talking to you for quite some time. It's such a huge turnover in the Calgary City Council and
00:52:56.240mayor, we don't see that very often. This is more of a once in a decade sort of thing. And
00:53:00.920admittedly, there were some concerns about perhaps, you know, it seemed almost as if there
00:53:05.200was a slate or an unofficial party of councillors. But among them, I mean, you've proven yourself to
00:53:11.340be quite an independent thinker and standing up for yourself. You're not, you're not obviously
00:53:15.780not acting as a part of any group. So that's to be respected. And I really been looking forward
00:53:19.640to the chance to chat with you about that. Great. Well, thanks for having me. I really
00:53:23.600appreciate being here today so i mean it's it's quite a learning curve i mean and a huge thing i
00:53:29.840guess at least a bit of a disadvantage in coming into such a a new council with so many new faces
00:53:35.360though there were a couple of veterans who came back i i guess just in in your experience in this
00:53:40.000last you know you're almost halfway through your first year uh in a nutshell how's it been going
00:53:45.280for you you know uh things been really obviously like things have been going great um you know i
00:53:51.360came into this this this job this role with um i would say a wealth of experience of dealing with
00:53:57.440municipalities in general so having that 20 years under my belt already as a previous city employee
00:54:03.760you i was able to navigate the system day one um so i kind of you know it was a it was nice to have
00:54:09.120the refreshers those first couple weeks on orientation but um you know i know the system
00:54:14.000i know how municipalities work i know the city of calvary very well i had pre-existing relationships
00:54:19.280where, you know, I needed to get some work done right out of the gate. That was, you know, kind
00:54:23.080of easy to cross the line. But you are still learning everybody else, right? You've got, you
00:54:27.880know, 14 new colleagues, some with, you know, different agendas, some with similar issues that
00:54:33.460you're dealing with. And, and you still have to kind of brand yourself and make sure that you're,
00:54:39.100you're defining who you are, part of that 15, part of those 15 people. So, you know, my biggest
00:54:46.620thing was you know to represent my community make sure that i'm following through with the things i
00:54:50.940talked about on the door and and being me um that was one thing that i promised my constituents what
00:54:56.780you see is what you get and and that's something that i will continue to do for the next like three
00:55:01.420and a half years so far we've been in this for six months um and there were some moments right
00:55:06.300where things are up and down um there were some issues you know personality issues and you have
00:55:11.820to deal with that but you need to deal with it the way that you would deal with the situation
00:55:15.580how do you deescalate things um and amongst ourselves and how do you work together how do
00:55:20.540you collaborate to get things across the finish line uh for the greater good so you know those
00:55:25.420first i would say you know three months um they're they they're their hardest ones um just to learn
00:55:31.340different personalities and how people operate and now we're in the like the the next three that we
00:55:36.060we're almost hitting six months now um some of us have really gotten to know each other quite well
00:55:40.940and um and we kind of even know like what triggers that person you know and um or what will make this
00:55:46.220person like totally collaborate and those are those are great things um and to think that we're
00:55:51.260already at our almost six month mark is quite insane actually i'll be honest because we've done
00:55:56.700a lot of work in six months i know my office has been extremely busy um with just constituent stuff
00:56:02.540and and everything that's going on in the city and so i'm looking forward to what the rest of
00:56:07.820this year is going to bring so great well mayor gondek came in i guess with a very ambitious start
00:56:13.740i guess you could say it was very quick hitting suddenly there was the declaration of a climate
00:56:17.420emergency and then the the unexpected issue that really kind of i think caught a lot of people
00:56:21.500flat-footed was the event center and it's kind of back in the news now so i mean it's on again
00:56:26.540off again it it seems the deal had fallen apart last fall and now it appears that uh there could
00:56:32.460be some new life being breathed into it with some different players i i think you're one of the ones
00:56:36.700that were on that committee? Are you not? I am one of the ones on the committee. So there are
00:56:41.600three councillors out of the five that are on the committee. Myself, Councillor Dan McLean,
00:56:46.800and Councillor Courtney Walcott. We also brought in Deborah Yeldon from the Calgary Chamber and
00:56:51.600Brad Perry from Calgary Economic Development. And so, you know, there was a deal last July,
00:56:57.680there was changes in council. I would say there was some, you know, background information that
00:57:03.340still needs to kind of be researched there was a break in communication a project of that scale
00:57:09.100you know thinking back now that i think back about about all of this is you know i think council
00:57:14.300should have been kind of briefed at something like the scale of a new council saying this is
00:57:18.140where the project's at this is where we're going um would there have been an opportunity to stop
00:57:22.940maybe you know things going off the rail could have been um but i would like to say that we've
00:57:28.140dealt with that and now we need to move forward so the new council committee was struck um the
00:57:35.580uh well this week sorry i'm like i'm wondering what week it is uh on the 8th and uh what's
00:57:40.380important here is that we make sure that now we work together to move forward the the event center
00:57:47.420is very critical for the city it's critical for downtown it's a you know it's it's the heart of
00:57:52.460of the Rivers District. And so now we need to use that momentum and keep going.
00:57:57.740I think almost everybody would agree that something has to be done with that zone down
00:58:01.920there. I mean, we now have a giant zone of parking lots on the edge of a downtown that's
00:58:06.260already ailing and has already had challenges being a destination for people to come down
00:58:11.120and do things. I guess a lot of the debate there's going to be how much obligation is
00:58:17.340there on the part of the city of Calgary or taxpayers to participate in filling that
00:58:21.080void and how much is in the private mix it's going to be quite a discussion but we can't wait
00:58:25.820too much longer I mean this has been going on for a long time now yeah and that's a great point um
00:58:31.540so I think the the what we need to know what we really need to do first is get the third party up
00:58:36.720and running and get that going they will have those conversations with the partners um and time
00:58:42.380and speed is important um you know we do know that everything everything's raising in price so
00:58:48.020cost escalations are a big deal. But what we want to make sure is transparency on what is going to
00:58:54.660be taxpayers, what's going to be private funding. That was very transparent towards the end of the
00:59:00.420second deal. And really, what does this mean for Calgary? So that is what's really important.
00:59:06.420And so right now, I don't have all those answers for you, but that is something that we hope to
00:59:10.760get to sooner than later. So Calgary downtown in general, and I work downtown, with the work
00:59:18.000from home orders lifted. It's been nice to actually see how crowded it's gotten. It was
00:59:21.440so moribund down here for so long, but still, there's a massive amount of downtown vacancies
00:59:26.940as well as issues of social disorder. I mean, that happens when an area ends up getting
00:59:31.860a lot of vacancy and issues. I mean, we're in a unique period of time. It's not in your ward,
00:59:39.740but of course, everybody's got to work together on that sort of thing. Have you got plans or
00:59:44.100notions on initiatives to try and sort of, I guess, make Calgary's downtown more appealing,
00:59:48.300I think both to citizens and to, of course, commercial customers to hopefully start filling
00:59:52.120those spaces. Yeah. And so we do have a downtown strategy team that was, you know, it's taken a
00:59:58.040couple of years to fill that team properly. And so they've just given that team a director.
01:00:02.680And so his name is Tom Muller. And I've worked with Tom for many years and he's in charge of
01:00:06.400the whole downtown strategy, which is a great, what's going to be great for this team to work
01:00:11.140together and there's a lot of office to residential conversions and that's great so we can start
01:00:15.540moving people downtown get that density of people living there but what we really need now is the
01:00:21.940amenities so how do we draw those people downtown and who's the audience so are we looking at
01:00:26.660drawing in students are we looking in drawing families um you know this single folks so you
01:00:31.360need to make sure you're crafting the downtown to the right audiences that want to live down there
01:00:35.520I know it's not really part of Ward 1, but a vibrant and sustainable downtown really does help the suburban communities.
01:00:44.480We got to get that tax base downtown so that we can look at opportunities outside of that area.
01:00:51.600And it's been struggling for a long time.
01:00:55.160I'm trying to think like pre-pandemic, we're looking 2016, 2017, when things started to kind of go sideways.
01:01:02.260And then, you know, we had the pandemic and it just kind of got worse.
01:01:05.480And I think that's what we now need to look forward and say, OK, how can we draw the right balance of people and amenities downtown to increase that tax base so that the rest of the city can really benefit from it?
01:01:19.020So, I mean, it's kind of tied into it and related, you know, back to that area, though, of social disorder and challenges.
01:01:25.360And I mean, that's a I think a multi-government level sort of thing.
01:01:28.260got mental health issues to deal with we've got addiction issues to deal with and poverty issues
01:01:32.500but it still it does tie into the municipal and transit uh some lrt stations are still
01:01:38.420remaining closed i know there's been more initiative to bring uh security and police on
01:01:42.180but people are kind of wondering well how long are these facilities going to remain shut down
01:01:45.380because it feels like a band-aid solution to a bigger problem i mean it's understandable it was
01:01:49.460out of control down there something had to happen quickly but uh what's on the go to try and get
01:01:54.500things i guess kind of closer to normal because that's what will draw people downtown as well more
01:01:57.940if they feel safe when they can ride downtown and enjoy it so we we had um a couple weeks
01:02:04.820so we had an emergency meeting with transit and so they offered some solutions right away uh to
01:02:10.180what was happening in some of the more northwest stations that we've seen an increase of you know
01:02:15.700homelessness and crime and mental health issues um so you know we and and not just that it's got to
01:02:21.620make sure that it's safe for everybody and so we've added more officers there was 18 graduating
01:02:26.900class that was able to jump on right away i believe there's another class of new transit officers
01:02:31.540um going through the system right now and and this is a bigger this is a bigger problem right like the
01:02:37.220the the the transit stuff we're seeing is just you know it's a it's a piece of it all but what
01:02:44.020we really need to focus on is how are we working towards our mental health strategy how are we
01:02:49.300working with our provincial partners in order to make sure that there's funding to get the right
01:02:55.140resources in place to support what's happening um you know we had a meeting today with cps as well
01:03:00.820it's one of the areas that's you know got some issues happening in the community because of
01:03:05.460what's happening in the transit so we have to make sure we're working together but we we as a city
01:03:10.580need to work with all levels of government to get the proper funding and resources to support our
01:03:14.980communities this is really important um what i would also say is that there some of these these
01:03:19.940these train stations, they might need a little bit extra, you know, equipment. Do we need turnstiles?
01:03:25.940Maybe. Do we need more cameras? Maybe. You know, we need to start looking at municipalities that
01:03:30.260are much larger than Calgary and learn from them. I don't think I've been to a train station in
01:03:36.180Vancouver or Toronto that you can get in without a ticket on the platform. So these are things we
01:03:41.840need to start reconsidering. And transit's been really great. They've been really open to like
01:03:46.980hearing our suggestions and, you know, will it cost more money? Possibly. But these are the
01:03:51.580conversations council has to have in order to keep our transit and our roads safe. So we've got to
01:03:56.440really fundamentally focus on our priorities, particularly this year, moving forward for the
01:04:01.840next three and understanding from the last couple of years that we're in a different place now.
01:04:07.160Well, increased ridership, you know, I would, you know, a lot of people think increased ridership
01:04:12.820is going to change everything and, you know, everything's going to go back to normal. And
01:04:15.960we don't know that. And so I think you'd be naive to say, yeah, well, but I think we've got to be
01:04:21.420very cognizant. We're at a totally different time in our lives now. And the city is a different
01:04:24.940place. Yeah. So in talking with multiple levels, that's always been a challenge in municipalities,
01:04:31.840the relationship of the last administration and the provincial government was pretty toxic.
01:04:37.540And the current one, unfortunately, at least to a degree, has been a little bit
01:04:40.840challenged, to say the least, when it came to things like health authority, who has the authority
01:04:47.340to look out, I guess, on health regulations, whether it's municipal or provincial, and if
01:04:52.660there's a difference of opinion, it seems to have been resolved for the moment. But has there been
01:04:57.040any discussion, an item that comes up periodically quite often is the pursuit of a city charter
01:05:01.100or adjustments to the Municipal Governance Act. Are you taking part in or looking at any of those
01:05:07.460kinds of initiatives in the future? I mean, I keep myself with, like, we keep ourselves apprised
01:05:14.100of all the information. I believe this morning I heard that, you know, Minister McIver has
01:05:18.100made some, you know, surgical changes to the MGA regarding just putting some positions in place
01:05:25.100for the cities not to put specific health regulations on their own cities. But, you know,
01:05:32.260that's where we're sitting with that. And I'm not putting any initiatives forward to change the MGA
01:05:36.320at this point, or allowing the cities to have more power or less power. The province has gone
01:05:42.840in to do a surgical change. That's good. Because if we're going to open up the MGA to do bigger
01:05:47.480changes, that's a whole different story. There's things in the MGA that, you know, that's not just
01:05:52.280health and safety. There's planning things that can be looked at as well. So this is something
01:05:58.620that I heard this morning that it was very minor, very surgical. And then we just kind of learn from
01:06:03.680that and say, does it ever have to change again? And I always think like you can, you can always
01:06:08.740go back if you need to. It's really important to have those conversations and that relationship's
01:06:12.900really important as well. What about in the regional area things? I'm actually living in
01:06:18.660Prittis. I'm right on the edge of the city, even though I work in the city and I lived in the city
01:06:22.060for 30 years. So I'm still concerned with city issues, of course, but there's been a lot of
01:06:27.700clashes. Again, when it comes to the metropolitan plan and some possible overriding of authority of
01:06:35.640municipalities, foothills, Rocky View, and such, you're on at least one of the more suburban
01:06:42.240wards. Are you going to be looking into some of those issues as things go forward? It's been quiet,
01:06:47.620I guess, on the front of the new administration so far, but I can imagine as the city considers
01:06:51.820outward growth as is normal, we're going to see some sparks probably flying pretty soon.
01:06:57.460And so perhaps we could preemptively avoid some of those.
01:07:01.560So I don't sit on any of the committees with that for like the MD of Rocky View or the other municipality committees at this point.
01:07:09.360But there's different important issues, obviously, bordering each of the municipalities.
01:07:14.440We do share a very fine border with the MD of Rocky View.
01:07:18.600So, I mean, I have like Lynx Ridge, for example, and it's kind of split between Bear Spa, but Bear Spa is not in Ward 1.
01:07:23.840so there's always little issues that we may have to work together as a city
01:07:27.020municipality together which is important and that's again relationship building
01:07:30.560and making sure you have that you know those conversations at the table but
01:07:35.240right now what I'm really focusing on is listening to the constituents and those
01:07:39.140that really do border that those lines and making sure that they're taking
01:07:43.280they're being taken care of and if there's issues happening on the MD side
01:07:46.460that's affecting them then it's my then it's my responsibility to have that
01:07:50.780conversation with the MD of Rocky View. Okay. Well, I appreciate that. I think I've covered
01:07:55.780a lot of what I wanted to cover. Are there a few issues you'd like to address before I let you go
01:07:59.200here? No, I mean, I think this has been a great opportunity to have a conversation and I would
01:08:05.440say there's a lot more to come for sure in the next three and a half years. So happy to come on
01:08:10.260the show again one day, Corey. Thank you so much. Excellent. Thank you. That's part of why I wanted
01:08:14.340to stay a little broad. I'm hoping to talk to you again in the future as we get specific issues and
01:08:17.840things like that, but just to get a feel with a new counselor on where you're going and what
01:08:21.560you're looking to do. But as I said, so far, I'm not out for plain flattery, but it's just good
01:08:26.440to see that you've been looking at issues broadly, it seems, and you're your own person, which is
01:08:29.900really appreciated and not always the case in City Hall. So thanks and thanks for coming on
01:08:34.960and I hope we talk again soon. Thank you so much.
01:08:37.600hey guys yeah i see some of the comments and i'll address them like in that case
01:08:47.840uh it's hard with city councillors especially when they're in session to to get them on during
01:08:52.200this show because they're in so that was actually a recorded one it was a little earlier so she
01:08:55.660wasn't able to see those comments uh but there were good ones and some things you know asking
01:09:00.420about wf again i have no idea in that case uh she's uh you know we didn't i didn't get too
01:09:06.640rough on anything it was her first interview on here as a new councillor and as i said this shows
01:09:11.680how sick calgary city council is though with one of the things she talked about which is considered
01:09:17.120controversial it shouldn't be was even talking about perhaps having turnstiles or some sort of
01:09:20.940means to check tickets on transit like everywhere else in the world i actually listened to a couple
01:09:27.140of radio djs uh on a music station uh last week or so because the city of calgary actually had
01:09:34.940some officers down there checking tickets and they were screaming about it's a cash grab and
01:09:38.320and it's cracking down on the poor homeless and everything guys these are trains not homeless
01:09:42.260shelters it's not unreasonable it's not a cash grab to ask people to pay their bloody fare
01:09:47.900I haven't ridden the train in a while now but for a while I was using it to get down here downtown
01:09:51.640I never got checked for a ticket once and I'm sure there's a lot of people who just didn't bother
01:09:55.980buying them it's an honor system I did keep buying them because I pay for a service I take that's the
01:10:01.180way it goes. I don't need enforcement to keep me doing that, but a lot of people think otherwise.
01:10:05.560So, I mean, how many millions was the city losing in that? I don't know. And the other aspect was
01:10:09.740a lot of, and we put videos up of it. We covered it. The open drug consumption, the drug deals
01:10:16.820that were happening on trains. I mean, this was just a pipeline for addicts, not to mention,
01:10:21.640I've shown maps of the crime. Everywhere where the train line goes, there's a huge crime wave
01:10:26.340everywhere within walking distance of a train station, because it's just a pipeline for the
01:10:30.320addicts and the criminals to get out to other neighborhoods. You know, none of them are paying
01:10:34.020for their tickets to get on the bloody train. So just one solution. There's that map. Man,
01:10:39.380Nico's quick. I didn't warn him. I was going to pull that one up, but he found it. So as you can
01:10:43.220see those dark colors, I mean, it's bold. You can see the crime follows the train line.
01:10:49.140Maybe if these guys had to pay $3.80, whatever it is, to ride the train, it would reduce the
01:10:54.880amount of them using the train for those purposes. Simple solutions for things. Save some money,
01:10:59.260get people to pay for the service and uh you know layout there's a the inside of a bus station you
01:11:05.900know where they're homeless people basically set up camp and live for a night like it's turning
01:11:09.260into a mess so some of these things we've got to take care of and and uh sonia's actually willing0.98
01:11:15.400to even dip into that which a lot of councillors aren't it's it's frightening that even those sort
01:11:19.480of common sense things are not up for discussion and she hasn't fallen down their rabbit hole and
01:11:24.720i hope she doesn't so we'll keep an eye on that because again every city's dealing with a lot of
01:11:28.120these problems right now but Calgary's downtown is something else let's pivot a little more
01:11:32.220provincial lots going on I'm gonna have uh Jody Gateman on the show next week actually she's
01:11:37.700gonna come on she was punted as a potential nomination candidate for the UCP uh on some0.87
01:11:43.240very shaky grounds and old social media posts Tim Hoven was another one kicked out and he was
01:11:48.480running against Jason Nixon and uh uh or just to answer a question I know it distracts some people
01:11:55.440when I get going Ashley's asking how do you get what you steal on a train well they just walk
01:11:59.200onto it they push their shopping carts right onto the train you can go out and cut off your catalytic
01:12:04.460converters out in the residential area and then ride the train down and push your shopping cart
01:12:08.560over to the uh place that's buying them and you know none of them admit that they're buying them
01:12:13.880but obviously somebody is uh so no it's not hard at all for those guys there's no control on those
01:12:18.580trains they have increased some enforcement but sitting up maybe turnstiles is the way to go you
01:12:22.920know just make people pay and uh not that uh complicated i wouldn't think but it isn't in
01:12:27.880calgary anyway tim hoven yes so he's vowed to fight uh drive-by attempts at character assassination
01:12:33.180that disqualified him uh running against jason nixon in rimby rocky mountain or sundry uh he
01:12:39.260says the united conservative party resorted to insinuations allegations and petty attempts to
01:12:43.160oust him from a competitive campaign against nixon uh that was a statement he put out like
01:12:48.620the woes of the UCP and particularly Jason Kenney are far from over. And he's in some
01:12:55.960serious trouble. You know, all of those ticked off members that Hovind sold memberships to,
01:13:01.340they're going to be going and voting against Kenney on April 9th. And I was talking to David
01:13:04.620Parker yesterday. I was quite surprised. I mean, we're hearing numbers all over the place,
01:13:09.460but it's definitely going to be thousands and thousands of people converging on this Red Deer
01:13:13.580Hotel to make this vote. We'll never have seen anything like that. The Western Standard will
01:13:17.600be set up. We're going to be there, a whole bunch of us. We're spending the whole weekend there
01:13:20.900covering it. We're going to be live streaming and interviewing a lot of people. It's going to be
01:13:24.700quite a wild weekend, but it's just getting worse and worse by the day, it seems. And the by-election
01:13:29.720is coming up right away in Fort McMurray, Lacklebish, and that's where I'll be talking to
01:13:34.840Paul Heyman on Monday. He's been running in it. And as well, we've got Brian Jean, of course,
01:13:41.240probably the favorite, but we'll see what the vote split. Paul was saying in an interview
01:13:44.400recently with the standard that if the vote's split the right way, he could win that perhaps
01:13:47.880with 35% support. And that would certainly shake things up too. But you know, neither outcome,
01:13:52.100there's no outcome looks good for Premier Kenney. Brian Jean is running basically on an anti-Kenney
01:13:56.380platform. Paul Heman, of course, is running from a completely different party. And if the NDP wins,
01:14:00.540well, that's saying, well, gee, the NDP could win all of Alberta if Jason Kenney is still Premier.
01:14:06.180So there's no avoiding it. That's going to be Tuesday night. We're going to be covering that
01:14:09.240as well when those results come in. So keep an eye on this site. We'll have those reported as
01:14:14.420soon as they come in. We're probably gonna have some panels and people talking about it. And yeah,
01:14:19.020so I'm going to talk actually before getting a little more news here as we wrap up the week
01:14:22.940about another one of our sponsors. And it's a valid one considering Jean Charest and his stance
01:14:27.600on firearms. And that's the Canadian Shooting Sports Association, cssa-cila.org. I've talked
01:14:35.040about them a lot. Their name says it all. Look them up. Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
01:14:39.340If you own firearms, you're looking to own firearms. This is an association where you can
01:14:44.340get together with people and share resources. Everything from where are there going to be
01:14:49.940trade shows or some videos on the safe operation of firearms, you know, target shooting, collecting,
01:14:55.900storage, all of that stuff. They got all those resources there as any association of people,
01:15:00.620you know, with a common interest will have. And then most important of all, they've got multiple
01:15:04.740legal challenges. As you can see, yeah, they're mentioning Jean Charest is no friend to Canada's
01:15:09.620firearm owners. They've got legal challenges against the government standing up for your
01:15:13.940right to keep your firearms. Because what keeps happening, you know, the registry came and went,
01:15:17.500it fell apart. But what they're doing now is every year they do an order in council and they
01:15:21.620illegalize a whole bunch more firearms on some arbitrary basis. And suddenly you have to turn
01:15:25.820them in or you're turned into an instant criminal. It's wrong. And they're using the courts to fight
01:15:29.980back for you. And the only way to do that though, you got to join them, take out a membership with
01:15:35.620these guys. It's worth it. You know, just beyond the court challenges, but also just as a good
01:15:39.500resource for you as a firearm owner. So check them out. Canadian Shooting Sports Association.
01:15:44.480They are a good group, a good cause, and they'll help you out. And they've been sponsoring us,
01:15:49.800which helps. Getting back to the tax funded world, the CBC, Dave talked about that earlier.
01:15:55.340they retracted another false Freedom Convoy story that suggested foreigners played a large
01:16:00.660part in the protest. They claimed, what, it's funny, the world this hour is self-described
01:16:07.900as Canada's most trusted audio newscast. Really? Yeah. You know, all 100 viewers or whatever it
01:16:13.840is of that. But either way, in a report, they said that the fundraising was from foreigners
01:16:21.420and so on. No explanation was given. It turns out it was a pile of BS. And they've yanked that
01:16:29.800and apologized and backed off. But you see, the damage gets done already. This was all the buildup
01:16:33.960that the bought and paid for media, and you don't get any more bought and paid for than the CBC,
01:16:39.020was doing to try and make support or make the case for why Justin Trudeau was going to suspend our
01:16:44.060rights in using the Emergencies Act and take things over. So the CBC was in trouble. They did
01:16:53.100their thing, but they backed off. And you know what? It won't hurt them a bit, unfortunately.
01:16:56.360That's just the way it goes. Mask mandates, those are dropping across the country. We're seeing that
01:17:01.480all over the place. I'm liking seeing that, of course. And the whining, the way it's getting
01:17:06.020going though, isn't it? I'm watching people, well, I'm going to keep wearing my mask. Well, good for
01:17:09.340you. I don't care. And then there's others saying, I'm not going to go out to businesses now because
01:17:13.780So this demasking is going to hurt business.