Western Standard - Mountain Standard Time - May 4th 2021

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Thank you.

00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Hello, and welcome to Mountain Standard Time. I, of course, am your host, Nathan Gita. And today we're going to be speaking with Ellis Ross a little bit later in the program, who's going to be talking to us again about his run for the leadership of the BC Liberal Party, our right of center party here in British Columbia. And well, a little bit before that, we're going to talk about just kind of the nature of the travel restrictions and that sort of thing as well.

00:01:57.720 Hopefully, Ellis can give us his read on that situation.

00:02:01.300 But first, my opening statement.

00:02:03.320 So in case you didn't know, I was away this last little weekend.

00:02:08.760 I blogged about that or wrote for it for the Western Standard as in my column.

00:02:13.380 I talked about traveling in British Columbia during the travel restrictions.

00:02:17.480 And as far as I can tell, in the north and in the interior, the southern interior, to be clear, that's where I was.

00:02:23.320 There really wasn't anybody anywhere trying to check anybody for things.

00:02:27.720 the coquihalla appeared clear everything outside or beyond hope as people in the lower mainland

00:02:33.400 like to say appeared to be just fine uh do comment uh and just put forward your concerns

00:02:39.880 or anything uh throughout the program maybe you did uh pardon me maybe you did uh experience a

00:02:46.600 road stoppage or a check a random check especially if you're from the island i could imagine that

00:02:53.320 from the island you might have experienced that so if you were going to or from the island over

00:02:57.400 the weekend or you were anywhere in the uh lower lower mainland good morning to you daniel

00:03:03.560 uh we're we're interested in hearing your story but but back to the case at hand so

00:03:07.960 while i was traveling it just kind of occurred to me that again it we live in two parallel realities

00:03:13.720 so for some of us we've just kind of gotten so tired of what's happened with covid that we're

00:03:20.040 just we're just moving on with life you know they've had 15 months to fix this problem they

00:03:24.920 still can't figure out how to deliver the vaccine and everything else and again as i've stated

00:03:29.080 before i am not inclined to take the vaccine and uh basically we're still here we're still here

00:03:38.280 uh it's been taking forever and we're still here and nothing nothing has really changed

00:03:43.000 so a few people are still kind of huddled at home and they're very worried and they're very afraid

00:03:47.400 and i'm again this isn't to dismiss the nature of the virus itself but the but the problem remains

00:03:53.400 that the rest of us are all sitting here wondering well when is life going to start again and how do

00:03:58.200 we move forward again and as i've written a couple of times now the idea that my very right to travel

00:04:03.560 had been suspended within my own country to another country that's what you have a passport for

00:04:09.240 um and and you could even argue maybe into the remotest communities where they really believe

00:04:14.200 if if something goes wrong they have no access to health care they'd have to medevac everybody out

00:04:19.000 of there with a twin otter you know bouncing along on its bush tires along the shore which is

00:04:24.840 literally how some supplies make it into the far north where i was last year actually exactly a

00:04:29.480 year ago i arrived in churchwell on may 5th after a long journey after getting laid off due to covid

00:04:35.880 that was a whole thing but the point that i'm trying to draw here is that if if you could you

00:04:42.600 could reasonably surmise that maybe borders might be closed between countries and you could reasonably

00:04:47.400 surmise that in the most remote areas of of your country maybe people might take it of themselves

00:04:53.000 of their own volition or at least as a kind of courtesy well maybe i won't uh go into that part

00:04:58.440 of the country because i you know i i don't think i have the virus but i'm going to treat people with

00:05:03.400 respect but down the main corridors where regardless of whether you stop foot traffic or

00:05:09.560 consumer traffic or residential traffic and only allow corporate traffic through and and logistical

00:05:14.680 traffic through. The truth of the matter is the amount of people that are shifting around to the

00:05:18.360 main corridors makes them a lost cause for attempting to shut them down. The virus is

00:05:23.780 going to get through there somehow, even if it's hiding inside of a container that is being used

00:05:29.940 to transport goods, services, or food. So the point that I'm trying to draw here is that you'd

00:05:36.360 think that of all things, maybe there'd be these cautionary measures, you know, please don't hug

00:05:41.260 grandma please wash your hands more and please don't if you think you might be ill do not go

00:05:47.440 into the most remote parts of uh you know don't go into the most uh remote parts of uh of of this

00:05:56.400 country and and that's that's fair there's some fair arguments to be had there as a precautionary

00:06:01.580 measure pure prudential cautionary measure but then out of nowhere out of nowhere the the horgan

00:06:07.920 government along with bonnie henry everybody's favorite school marm dr bonnie henry tells us

00:06:13.180 that they're going to shut down the highways or they were going to attempt to anyways they're

00:06:17.820 going to start monitoring them they're going to see who's going where and who's doing what

00:06:21.040 and that's what's going to change so i think that we need to be very clear about how that went i was

00:06:27.520 on the highway i traveled around i saw a few cops here there and everywhere and none of those mounties

00:06:33.000 stopped me or stopped anybody else i didn't really see i didn't see any evidence of it outside of

00:06:39.720 people doing you know speeding or whatever and they were obviously pulled over on the side of

00:06:43.280 the road for speeding because there was no check stop there was no nothing to demarcate that they

00:06:49.300 were doing this to ensure that well you know that you weren't traveling on essentially and that's

00:06:55.720 and that's something else that kind of hit me so i wrote about that this weekend as well

00:06:59.260 The fact of the matter is that apparently, apparently, there was there was a way to get out of these situations if the cops pulled you over. And the way that you got out of the situation was that you simply said, I'm traveling for an essential reason. And so you just kind of reasoned your way through that, whatever that might be. I need to visit this person. I'm traveling for, you know, for work. I have to transport these goods or services because of these reasons.

00:07:27.840 and that's and that was it that was all you had to do so apparently even the cops were essentially

00:07:32.600 giving away the answer of the get out of jail free card uh and not having to be detained due

00:07:38.420 to covid or fine due to covid it was all very bizarre um it really felt like i was just traveling

00:07:43.580 at any other time in history uh my history i mean of my time uh as a young person well now a young

00:07:49.900 adult an adult i'm 31 somebody traveling through uh uh it it was somebody traveling through just

00:07:57.680 because, you know, they're just going somewhere, like it was still 2019 or early 2020. And I

00:08:04.040 suppose what kind of strikes me about it all is, again, that question of parallel realities.

00:08:10.680 We're, we're living in a time where people are literally living two forms of life, and either

00:08:17.300 everybody is doing it, but in the extremes, people actually believe it, right? So everybody is

00:08:23.420 basically uh faking it right they're all faking it like because nobody if anybody really believed

00:08:30.600 that we we were this susceptible to the virus if it was the deadliest thing in the world

00:08:37.480 then then no one would go outside right it's like the old problem with uh women being assaulted on

00:08:43.480 university campuses i know that's a touchy topic to be bringing up here but we all know

00:08:47.260 any of us who hasn't been drinking the politically correct kool-aid that it was impossible for the

00:08:53.080 number to be one in five. It couldn't be that. That wasn't possible. It made no sense. They've

00:08:57.760 been tossing around the number one in five since the 80s, which was motivated politically, or

00:09:02.700 somebody who was motivated politically to say this. And that number has been bouncing around

00:09:07.920 feminist circles and non-feminist circles for a really long time. But it couldn't possibly be that 0.86

00:09:12.640 because you would not allow your daughter to go to university if that was the case. Or you would go

00:09:18.200 to university yourself and hide in the bushes yourself and find all those other people hiding

00:09:22.300 in the bush, and you would take them out by hand. That would be what you would do. So in order to

00:09:26.840 protect your daughter, you'd either keep her at home, or you would, of course, or encourage her

00:09:30.500 to not go to university, or you would go to university yourself and take out this plethora

00:09:36.060 of assaulters that are clearly hiding behind every nook and cranny at the university.

00:09:41.860 This isn't possible. This couldn't exist. None of us really believed it. We just repeated it over

00:09:46.860 and over and over again, because people still went to university, and indeed, the female population

00:09:51.860 at university has increased exponentially since well since the war right and since the 60s and

00:09:58.180 since the 80s so that couldn't be true but we all repeated it anyway so the same thing here

00:10:04.300 i do not deny the existence of the virus the issue though is that how how deadly can it be

00:10:11.160 if people are just going about their daily lives all the time and sneaking in quick trips here and

00:10:15.960 there and whatever they're doing and indeed there's a very weird feedback loop for those of

00:10:20.280 are just more skeptical in general we're all just we're all just doing what we're doing we're all

00:10:25.320 just enjoying ourselves for the most part and and trying to be cautious and not you know not be

00:10:30.120 overly ridiculous but we just we just do do our lives or whatever but the great irony is that

00:10:34.120 those who promote the virus most strongly particularly our leaders right and i'm thinking

00:10:38.120 of course of hadju and all of her uh trips right minister hadju uh i'm thinking of theresa tam and

00:10:44.040 how ridiculous she is and and the points that she was making i think she was making uh recommendations 0.97

00:10:49.480 about married couples have, you know, consummating their relationship and unmarried couples for that 0.99

00:10:53.800 matter, consummating their relationship and how, how to have safe sex during COVID. Like it's a,

00:10:58.400 it's a theater of the absurd, right? For those of us on the more conservative side of the spectrum

00:11:02.240 and the traditional side of the spectrum, where we kind of think, you know, one man, one woman

00:11:05.440 and monogamy and all the rest of it, all this was kind of nonsense. It just didn't make any sense.

00:11:10.720 We never participated in the swinging seventies and we never will. It doesn't mean we're not

00:11:14.760 sinners. It just, it just doesn't add up to anything. So other people trying to preach

00:11:18.500 morality at us around the question of the virus was just it fell on deaf ears because like well

00:11:23.520 we already take precautionary measures when it comes to all sorts of things because of the way

00:11:27.620 we live our lives regardless of how how you might live your life we don't party we don't party the

00:11:32.160 way you party we party differently uh and so we're all living two lives we're all living two lives

00:11:38.100 because if we really believed that every possible surface everywhere in the world could contain

00:11:43.880 COVID and that would immediately cause our death or within a matter of moments or days

00:11:48.180 or the death of one of our loved ones, again, immediately within a matter of moments or

00:11:52.300 days.

00:11:52.700 If we really believed that, then we would completely change our behavior.

00:11:55.580 We don't.

00:11:56.700 And it's evidenced by the fact that our behavior has not changed or we're sneaking.

00:12:00.220 We're essentially having to hide our true behavior and our true intentions and give

00:12:05.020 false pieties to the theocracy that is COVID and to the government that is COVID-ism.

00:12:11.220 You know, if you thought communism was bad, at least they were trying to get to space.

00:12:15.260 Covidism is trying to keep you in as small a space as possible.

00:12:18.620 So I think the issue with what's going on here is that we're all living a lie.

00:12:22.900 We're all living a lie.

00:12:23.880 We're all we're all faking it for the sake of trying to be nice, polite, obey.

00:12:30.200 And because we're all faking it, this is actually starting to cause a huge amount of cognitive dissonance in all of our minds.

00:12:36.540 So I'd be really interested to look at the mental health of our populace as we work through this, because if our mental health would be checked, if we could find a marker from late 2019 or early 2020 and then look at mental health today, and I'm not just talking about mental illness or anything, I'm talking about like the mental health of the populace or self-check, like even people saying like, what do they really believe?

00:12:59.040 What do they really believe at the end of 2019 and 2020?

00:13:01.740 What do they really think of their marriage?

00:13:03.380 What do they really think of their job?

00:13:05.020 What do they really think of society or the government?

00:13:07.440 And what do they think about it today?

00:13:09.000 I think we'd see some dramatic changes.

00:13:11.460 And I think we might even see a qualitative difference between what they were saying in, say, a multi-choice sort of survey written versus what they would say to you verbally, right?

00:13:22.960 So so quantitative versus qualitative kind of difference, because, again, they might even fake it in writing because they might be scared that someone would take them to task on it.

00:13:32.740 But again, you give somebody, you know, you hand somebody a beer and tell them what they really think about something and suddenly they give you their real opinion.

00:13:39.000 And this is exactly it. I think that we all know that we're all sort of faking this.

00:13:45.620 I think we all know that our leaders have no idea what they're doing.

00:13:47.960 I think we all know there's a lot of spaghetti being thrown at the wall, and we also just keep hearing rumors of things going wrong.

00:13:55.180 Case in point being, and I'm getting kind of personal here, just a moment.

00:14:01.260 Pardon me.

00:14:02.920 Case in point being, somebody very, very close to me, I'm not going to name them, but somebody very close to me received the AstraZeneca vaccine.

00:14:16.180 and they're in a very high percentile of health for their age they're they're into their 50s

00:14:23.540 well into their 50s uh they are not they're not they're not a young person um but they but they

00:14:29.260 are incredibly healthy person somebody who does not smoke someone who does not drink uh somebody

00:14:34.040 who probably hasn't gotten up late in 30 years you know has kept a very strict regimen uh literally

00:14:42.020 looks like the older men of Hollywood when they've gone

00:14:46.360 to the trainer and been trimmed up for the new role that they're taking in some

00:14:50.360 movie. That's what that gentleman looks like. He's well-built,

00:14:54.360 strong, handsome, and very healthy. He received the vaccine

00:14:58.540 not that long ago, and for the first time in his life

00:15:02.500 he's experiencing blood clotting. We know this is a side effect

00:15:06.420 of some of the vaccines. Apparently the AstraZeneca vaccine is one of them.

00:15:10.160 And the issue in my mind is that, again, I could understand how comorbidities, it's just like, well, it's just like how when we talk about the deaths from COVID and everything else, we always need to look at what those comorbidities were.

00:15:33.220 that's key that's key if we if we don't have the comorbidity thing figured out we're going to be

00:15:39.400 missing something and so the comorbidity thing uh when it comes to deaths from covid and it's an old

00:15:45.120 problem right so you were you were drink you were distracted driving right you were distracted

00:15:49.620 driving it's an old problem right you were distracted driving uh and you get into a car

00:15:53.460 accidents where you're deceased but what killed you the car accident or the distracted driving

00:15:57.180 well the distracted driving led to the car accident okay that's fine here's a question

00:16:01.220 what happens if you have a heart attack while you're driving which one and then you have an

00:16:07.500 accident which is a fatal accident which one which one killed you right the heart attack that caused

00:16:12.260 you to have the fatal accident or the fatal accident that was caused by the heart attack

00:16:16.820 uh and and this is the old chicken and the egg problem so i want to be clear that i'm very aware

00:16:22.160 that comorbidities and all the rest of it are just all over the top right it we don't know like even

00:16:29.300 even a mild flu is infinitely worse for someone with comorbidities like diabetes or things that

00:16:36.060 are wrong with their heart and everything else so we want to be very clear about that okay

00:16:39.260 however when you have the exact opposite effect so now you have the curative property right the

00:16:45.420 vaccine which is supposed to be a well preventative it's not curative it's preventative

00:16:49.220 so you have this vaccine and you're giving it to people and you're giving it to people in

00:16:53.960 humongous doses right huge populations very very quickly and you don't know what all the

00:16:58.940 male effects might be, but you're, you're trying to stay in the bell curve and you figure that,

00:17:02.280 okay, there might be some problems over here. There might be some problems over there. And

00:17:04.780 in the middle of it, it's going to be fine. Well, that's that, I mean, that's how we do all

00:17:08.860 medicine. Okay. All medicines mass produced, all medicine has, has a bell curve. That's life. Okay.

00:17:15.040 I can, I can even get behind that, but just like, you know, just like how, you know, I guess when I

00:17:21.180 was smoking, you know, it's always used the same excuse, right? You go to light, went up, so it

00:17:25.820 you know it's not good for you i'm like yeah well and you know there's triathletes who die

00:17:29.260 die from heart attacks or whatever puff puff and we all make these we all make these cynical remarks

00:17:34.260 but again if we were to invert that and try and make it the most charitable light possible from

00:17:38.480 the other direction but let's be honest with ourselves you know um this person is as healthy

00:17:44.520 as it gets okay this person is as healthy as it gets in their 50s very well built extremely healthy

00:17:50.080 competitive squash everything else literally suffering from blood clots for the first time

00:17:54.000 their life to the point where they're having to go to emerge and they're living in pain right now

00:17:57.040 i don't know what's going to result from it i should i i need to be praying for this person

00:18:01.120 they're very close to me and uh that that is a bit like what do you say to that what do you do with

00:18:09.200 that it's literally the opposite of whatever it should be oh this person was already extremely

00:18:16.320 overweight oh this person already had very severe diabetes oh this person was already suffering

00:18:19.920 from cancer. This person was already had a weak heart. I don't want to excuse those deaths. I'm

00:18:24.480 not trying to dismiss them. Every death is a tragedy. But ultimately, we would make those

00:18:30.900 arguments about them. We would say that about everything. We would say that we rationalize

00:18:36.060 everything. Somebody has a miscarriage. Well, we talk about weight. We talk about health. We'll

00:18:40.700 talk about there being a history of it in the family, for that matter. There are all sorts

00:18:46.280 rationalization so even for the worst tragedy ever we rationalize things so what about the opposite

00:18:52.020 what about when it's when it's literally the opposite it's not it's it's it's it's an inversion

00:18:58.600 it's not it's not that people might even have you know maybe they shouldn't have smoked maybe they

00:19:04.760 should have gone for a run it's like well no this person doesn't smoke and they go for runs all the

00:19:08.840 time they're extremely well built they're extremely healthy they're suffering from blood clots how

00:19:14.380 much more so people who are not nearly as healthy as he is i don't know what to say i don't know

00:19:20.240 what to say i i never thought you know if i can get real with you for a second like it's it's

00:19:26.800 funny because i think i think i'm always giving you my honest take i want to be clear about that

00:19:30.380 i'm not trying to fake it here i guess i can get kind of jazzy and do whatever i got to do but i

00:19:36.140 in all honesty it just there should be 50 000 followers instead of on yeah i thank you chris

00:19:42.980 I appreciate that of course if I get

00:19:45.080 up to those numbers then you know I'm gonna have to

00:19:47.060 push Tucker out of the way and me and Tucker

00:19:49.060 are gonna have to duke it out alive and

00:19:50.820 I'll you know I'll win because

00:19:52.660 well I'm younger you know

00:19:54.800 but whatever

00:19:56.840 my producer's laughing at me

00:19:58.760 and he's gonna cut the feed here because he loves

00:20:01.000 Tucker so much and things

00:20:03.020 faded to black but I appreciate that

00:20:04.920 no it should be 50,000 should be 800,000 0.98

00:20:06.880 no I don't care I

00:20:07.820 you know I just got back

00:20:11.020 from this trip with my beloved i i explained this in in that thing i wrote and we'll get back to the

00:20:15.620 whole question of vaccines in a moment here but like i want to i was on this trip and this was

00:20:21.160 me being introduced to the family you know uh because again with with certain expectations of

00:20:25.960 where things are headed between us and uh and how much i i really really do care about her um but

00:20:31.400 this was one of the only ways to uh to see people and i was really insulted when bonnie henry and

00:20:35.960 the gang uh tried to ban me from traveling around and travel any of us traveling around because like

00:20:40.680 this was the only way for me to meet these people like they're already not be able to come to to

00:20:44.840 our ceremony and that sort of thing right so i so i had to meet them this way um but what am i gonna

00:20:52.480 do okay so i went anyways right i wasn't not gonna go this is a pretty essential reason somebody said

00:20:58.900 that in the comments the other week there's a pretty essential reason and and so coming back

00:21:04.360 to the point of there being 50 000 subscribers like i only need i only need one fan you know

00:21:08.380 and it's her uh she cares about me very much and she does a really good job of keeping me humble

00:21:13.280 and if it wasn't for her i probably would have been you know totally drunk on power by now

00:21:17.440 already and done all sorts of stupid crazy things and be up on charges for something i don't know 0.88

00:21:22.420 the point is that without her like i'd be a mess i'd be a wreck so that's what it is for me if 0.96

00:21:26.940 there's 50 000 if there's one it doesn't matter there's only one person in the audience who

00:21:30.980 matters to me not that i don't care about the rest of you but i mean there's only one person

00:21:34.220 whose assessment is really true for me.

00:21:38.880 And she's it, you know.

00:21:40.600 Okay, so coming back, let's talk a little bit

00:21:44.260 about the vaccine thing.

00:21:45.620 So here's the problem.

00:21:49.020 If you had asked me even a couple of months ago,

00:21:53.920 would I be the guy yelling about vaccines on the internet?

00:21:57.720 It's like, no, okay, no.

00:22:00.040 And I've talked about this a little bit before

00:22:01.800 that uh i i was raised in a medical family like like accepting medicine for what it is you know

00:22:08.760 medicine medicine is always a help it's never a hindrance and and to date i mean i'd be more on

00:22:15.820 that side than not though again like i've said before on this program my own father is you know

00:22:22.500 he has you know he's prescribed things to people and he has looked at how the bulk drugs are good

00:22:28.480 as the name brand drugs the name the name brand drugs are dangerous they're sorry yeah i'm gonna

00:22:35.860 get caught for that one the name brand drugs are always built better it's just it is no different

00:22:40.500 than it is no different than when you go to the store and get no name brand versus name brand

00:22:44.140 um you know everybody knows what itchaban's supposed to taste like everybody knows that

00:22:48.340 knockoff itchaban doesn't taste as good as itchaban that's a reality we all know that

00:22:52.020 and it's the same thing when it comes to brand name drugs versus non-branding uh there the

00:22:58.000 problem is when you start bulk when you start the bulk mixture the bulk mixture is just never as good

00:23:02.880 of a never as fine of a mixture in a dose as the name brand was because they they put the money

00:23:08.260 and now you're just taking from their ideas and mass producing it i want medicine to be affordable

00:23:12.480 but but my dad has dealt with this with people when he's prescribing things and and the the

00:23:17.760 the bulk version doesn't have the proper dose it actually creates a problem uh for some people

00:23:23.820 because it because they have to double up triple up the the intake in order to in order to get the

00:23:28.880 same dosage you can imagine how long that takes and how much cheaper is it if you're making the

00:23:32.900 pills if the original pill was 15 cents a pill not i'm just using a random note of course it

00:23:36.980 wasn't or you know it was five cents a pill um and the next and your bulk pill is two cents a pill

00:23:43.360 but then you need two of them to do what that other pill is doing you're only saving a cent

00:23:47.340 and to what end and you're having to ingest more and you're having to work through it more and we

00:23:51.560 all know that pills can work on the gut a bit right like there's a lot of people out there that

00:23:55.740 can't take Tylenol straight and that sort of thing like that people mix things with other things

00:24:01.040 because because it hurts their stomach right so you can imagine how much wear and tear that is

00:24:06.540 on your system so I even my father has his problems you know who and he is a physician

00:24:12.440 he has problems with the medical industry and the pharmaceutical industry so so that's not a problem

00:24:17.560 like I've always had questions about that stuff and I've always known that there are definitely

00:24:20.720 drug companies out there that are trying to make a buck and they're of course paying the doctors to

00:24:24.700 use their stuff for sure trying to wine and dine them and sweeten them up but again if you if you

00:24:29.480 took me only a couple months back in time and said uh and said look you're gonna be the guy

00:24:37.420 who's ranting on the internet about vaccines uh i wouldn't believe you you know i wouldn't believe

00:24:45.260 you uh but but then you know i got involved here and everything else and and now i'm seeing in real

00:24:51.680 life you know again to get real here for a second candace is reminding me that i'm kind of rambling

00:24:56.280 here thank you candace uh i didn't i i didn't ever think i would meet someone who would have a

00:25:06.500 mal effect from a vaccine i didn't know i didn't think anybody in my life would have this problem

00:25:11.840 and maybe that's you know thinking like oh that always happens to other people and whatever else

00:25:15.940 like that and that's a bad thought to have because guess what like you know your brothers your

00:25:19.900 sisters your neighbors right they're working they're struggling to pay their bills too right

00:25:23.840 they could end up on the street too you could be just like them it doesn't matter right like any

00:25:27.660 anything bad can happen to any of us and we all need to carry that with us at all times

00:25:31.240 but just coming back to to what's happening there

00:25:35.100 i i'm just blown away that that somebody that healthy could have that kind of effect with a

00:25:43.380 vaccine you know and that that kind of problem and i don't really know what else to say about that

00:25:48.800 it's it's shocking to me and again like i just said to you if if you had told me a couple months

00:25:54.240 ago yeah you're going to be the guy raving about this on the internet i'm like no i'm not that's

00:25:59.960 not me i i just write about it you know in the paper that i used to write for and just be like

00:26:03.700 you know, I have questions about the vaccine,

00:26:05.280 say it kind of really subtly and that sort of thing.

00:26:06.960 And I'm not making an accusation here.

00:26:09.460 I'm not.

00:26:09.820 I'm just connecting two dots.

00:26:11.560 The fact is, he was dosed on a certain day.

00:26:14.460 He is of optimum health.

00:26:16.380 He is a hardworking guy on these counts.

00:26:19.100 And on the other hand,

00:26:21.140 he's having really bad reactions to it.

00:26:25.340 So, is there anything else to say?

00:26:31.040 is there anything else to say that's that's a pretty damning data point you know it's it's a

00:26:40.100 pretty i know it's a single data point but now i have a data point that's a real thing that people

00:26:44.680 don't understand when it comes to data and stats and everything else nobody can read stats and

00:26:50.180 statistics and stuff except for numbers people right so numbers people and then they try to

00:26:54.040 translate it for the rest of us but the way that you get someone involved with that stat is you

00:26:58.540 have to have them connect to that dot on the graph right to that that data set on the graph

00:27:04.880 and it's so it's like i knew that there were problems with the vaccines i knew that people

00:27:09.740 said that there's going to be these issues and that issues and we haven't tested enough

00:27:13.180 i had never intended to get the vaccine anyways so i wasn't really worried about it and i kind

00:27:18.220 of assumed that nobody else was going to bother getting it either i was always kind of surprised

00:27:21.480 that people were going to bother getting it unless they were super vulnerable like well north of 70

00:27:26.340 or into their 80s and and and have other health complicating faction factors so that was the only

00:27:34.120 way i uh that was the only way that i kind of thought of it but then then like now i have a

00:27:41.340 family member who's who's been been hurt by the by the vaccine and i'm just sitting there going

00:27:47.280 wow like i never thought that that would happen i never thought that this would occur so so i'm

00:27:52.340 just throwing it out there for people um we can get into some of the comments here uh just kind

00:27:58.440 of look at what we're up to now julie's giving me some thumbs up i miss julie i would like to see

00:28:04.120 her again be nice to see her soon uh what else have we got in here um a few people are talking

00:28:09.620 about just the vaccine itself uh and the government uh you know what's going on i i point

00:28:17.180 of, Kenny made a point of

00:28:18.600 love it, most are faking, I think

00:28:21.040 he said. Again, I want to be

00:28:23.100 very clear that this is basically my thesis

00:28:25.140 now when it comes to the question of the vaccine.

00:28:28.300 I think Cody made

00:28:29.080 a point also as well

00:28:31.360 of, shouldn't all of us

00:28:32.780 anti-maskers or non-mask wearers 0.55

00:28:34.820 be dead by now?

00:28:37.080 That's actually, let's cue up on

00:28:39.060 that a little bit. Cody's been commenting on

00:28:40.980 the show for a while. I really appreciate his comments.

00:28:44.300 You know, let's cue

00:28:45.000 up on this a bit. Here's the deal.

00:28:47.180 But the one thing that really does throw me for a loop, and because I was helping out at the food bank or the, you know, I don't even want to call it a homeless shelter because it's not a homeless shelter.

00:28:58.440 I mean, the soup kitchen.

00:28:59.320 That's what I'm trying to say.

00:29:00.240 I was helping out St. Vinny's here in the northern capital for basically Lent.

00:29:03.860 I was just trying to take Lent seriously, pray, fasting, the almsgiving, try and do that.

00:29:07.960 And it was really fruitful.

00:29:08.880 And so, again, anybody, regardless of your belief, if you're ever, you know, if you're ever trying to get re-centered, like, take those three things to heart and do them because it works. It really, really helped me get back on top of it. And the point is that I'm helping out. And as I'm helping out and kind of looking around, the fact of the matter is, is like the faces aren't changing except for when there's overdoses, right? Like, so that's, that's the only thing that's changing who's coming up and who's not coming up for food.

00:29:36.460 uh that and of course when when certain checks certain days of payment roll in and that's a

00:29:43.260 sad reality uh that that you know we have we have certain welfare items in our society i'm not saying

00:29:49.020 i'm against welfare but the fact of the matter is that there's there are certain things where

00:29:53.380 there are certain days of the week certain days of the month where people get paid something from

00:29:57.380 somewhere by some agency and suddenly they're off doing whatever they're doing unfortunately some of

00:30:03.140 is binging and we don't see them for a couple of days. And sometimes I would say it's probably the

00:30:07.700 time we never see them again because they've been handed a bunch of cash and then they go and spend

00:30:12.000 it on something they shouldn't and they don't come back. But the point I'm trying to draw here

00:30:16.740 is that, again, coming back to the virus and then how deadly it must be, shouldn't it have decimated

00:30:23.160 the most vulnerable population in our society? The population that lives outside that has all

00:30:28.780 sorts of other comorbidities and issues and especially damaged 0.62

00:30:32.400 hearts, damaged lungs from some of the choices that

00:30:36.820 they're making and the addictions that they have and the vices that

00:30:40.760 are controlling their lives, shouldn't that group of people be the

00:30:44.740 most, shouldn't they have been the most affected

00:30:48.900 and we should have them as the highest mortality rate? Well

00:30:52.700 where's the evidence for that? I don't see it and that's the other problem

00:30:56.900 What does that mean? If that demographic of people was to be the most vulnerable, that's what we say about everything else. It didn't seem to affect them, as far as I can tell. I don't have any evidence anywhere, whether it's a reactionary news story or some data-driven news column somewhere, news report, that says, look, these are the 2,000 people in Canada who are from vulnerable demographics,

00:31:24.900 demographics, particularly around homelessness and addiction. And they clearly are a direct

00:31:32.140 result of COVID. This is how they died. I've not seen that data. And that's kind of something to

00:31:39.600 note. And I think we got to note that and start figuring that out. Because again, this is the

00:31:43.600 most vulnerable part of society. And yet, even they weren't as mal affected by the virus. So

00:31:50.040 that's i i need to know what's going on there um we're gonna go through some more comments here

00:31:55.520 uh let's see apparently there's been some new comments um scroll down uh did it it is highly

00:32:03.800 unethical the government doing yeah let's uh we'll click on we got of course the uh the albertan

00:32:08.060 coming back in here you know even if the vaccine is 100 safe and effective we have the albertan's

00:32:14.200 been a constant commenter for us since since we started i think uh and if we assume it is perfect

00:32:19.040 is highly unethical what the government is doing with dosage schedules and promotion i i agree that

00:32:25.280 the government cannot impose this on people um and this is the old this is an old argument this is

00:32:30.640 actually really really hard this is really hard okay so again raise the medical family was given

00:32:39.520 all of my vaccines as a child like that's not a question that and but it was i remember this being

00:32:44.800 an ethical question right in like law 12 and that sort of thing what are you supposed to do

00:32:48.880 somebody has a religious objection

00:32:51.540 to a vaccine

00:32:52.360 but I mean it will leave their child

00:32:55.420 vulnerable, like what do you do about that

00:32:57.320 I don't know, I don't know

00:32:59.240 that is a difficult question

00:33:01.260 I do believe that a religious

00:33:03.220 exemption to things trumps 0.78

00:33:05.260 just about everything else except

00:33:07.240 for maybe taxes

00:33:08.140 and even there the church doesn't get

00:33:11.200 taxed, not its land and stuff

00:33:13.260 in the same way the rest of us get taxed

00:33:15.380 and that's all churches, all houses of worship

00:33:17.380 in canada and throughout the western world for the most part um but outside of that it religious

00:33:22.820 objections to things are pretty much i think sacrosanct uh and that comes somewhat from not

00:33:27.960 just my catholic background that i converted but from my mennonite background because conscientious

00:33:33.320 objection is a pretty big deal in the mennonite world as as many of us prairie friends who are

00:33:38.140 listening to this program uh would know uh conscientious objection is a big deal so if i

00:33:43.640 have a conscientious objection to the vaccine which i do to this vaccine i'll tell you i i don't

00:33:48.540 think that i need it um i don't want it and i i'd like to move on and um you know to the point where

00:33:55.960 you know i i really hope they don't want covid passports because i think that's really really

00:34:00.500 wrong i think it's wrong to have this kind of influence in our society people need to make

00:34:05.380 their own choices about the vaccine and they can't be coerced into it next they're going to

00:34:10.820 be withholding your tax return because you didn't take your vaccine i i have a problem with that i

00:34:15.440 think that's wrong but this is just it even if it was 100 save and 100 effective we can't we can't

00:34:21.120 let that be the thing that uh that keeps us going we're going to roll down here a little bit more

00:34:27.400 um let's see here uh that's cody making another good point there that's why

00:34:40.500 they're challenging churches yeah that's a good point like in a sense that's that's exactly it

00:34:46.940 that's exactly it like the fact of the matter is there is only one there's only one group of people

00:34:52.840 that are really concerted in their efforts to resist uh the lockdown tyranny and and it is

00:34:58.740 mostly the religious groups but let's let's kind of pivot here a little bit and let's talk a little

00:35:06.360 bit about the censorship that was happening i think it's bill c10 is happening uh over in

00:35:11.900 ottawa i'm not sure where they're at with it are they at second reading third reading 10th reading

00:35:16.580 i don't know um there are so it changed uh changed yesterday my producer is telling me

00:35:24.740 just a second i need a glass of water here hold on okay

00:35:29.200 so the feds plan let's see i'm gonna share our screen here and get some chrome tab

00:35:38.020 um okay here we go feds plan change to bill c10 to make it crystal clear social media

00:35:46.520 uploads won't be regulated yeah right i can't even get through that with a straight face

00:35:53.060 sorry

00:35:55.940 yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah right oh yeah yeah just just tell us where your guns are don't

00:36:04.300 worry we won't use this for later um the government is bringing forward an amendment

00:36:09.280 to make it crystal clear that content individual users upload to social media sites like youtube

00:36:15.160 and instagram won't be regulated by bill c10 according to heritage minister stephen guble

00:36:21.880 gibbled gibbled whatever here's the point uh that's not true that's that's a lie uh if you

00:36:32.360 know it's you know just as somebody might tell you it's uh it's totally fine for you to do this

00:36:36.480 this and the other thing don't worry i won't make any notes of it and submit it to the police

00:36:39.940 it's like no that's just nonsense one of the things i'd like to uh clarify here too for me

00:36:44.580 is that how how come how come that's okay how come they're gonna regulate that but

00:36:50.900 I mean are they going to regulate all the TikTok

00:36:53.140 videos that are like almost pornographic

00:36:55.380 and are being uploaded by people who

00:36:57.220 are underage like are they going to enforce

00:36:59.180 those rules and let alone everything

00:37:01.220 else and whatever happened with the bust that happened

00:37:03.360 with the Canadian company everybody

00:37:05.180 forgets this Canadian company

00:37:06.800 owns Pornhub

00:37:08.840 or is a major share in it so

00:37:11.120 the pornography industry the single largest

00:37:13.360 pornography industry in fact I think the most visited

00:37:15.160 site in the world even beyond the

00:37:17.080 social medias because I think you know it's just

00:37:19.180 like you can sell you can sell everything or you can sell just the just the hard drugs well the

00:37:24.400 hard drugs guy he probably gets more business than the guy who sells everything and so the point is

00:37:30.000 that that that website and that industry which is a terrible terrible trespass against the dignity

00:37:35.480 of human beings and people and everything else freedom of expression you can go argue that all

00:37:40.160 day if you want to but the fact is that people are living in slavery and people are being are

00:37:44.840 being exploited and uh they're literally committing suicide over knowing that where they're at with

00:37:49.320 this and how terrible it is and finally people are consuming it and paying it and so this is

00:37:54.220 new slavery and it's and it's evil the point is that you know i never found out what happened

00:38:00.080 with the rest of the investigation into pornhub but given the amount of money that pornhub has

00:38:03.620 they probably paid the right people to make sure that that stopped uh and then and then into this

00:38:08.780 right so now you know somebody who has a question about a vaccine like i do or somebody else they're

00:38:13.860 going to get regulated by bill c10 but somebody else who decides to make you know an amateur hour

00:38:19.040 or some kind of burlesque show that's going to be uploaded and again questions of age or age

00:38:24.380 appropriateness is nothing right and the same thing with somebody getting access to it who is

00:38:29.200 underage because you can lie on the internet all you want about how old you are i was born in you

00:38:34.700 know 1999 officer well there you go right that makes you 22 this year you're good to go you know

00:38:41.120 this isn't a liquor store we have to present id and convince a living person across from you that

00:38:45.400 yeah i have a right to this liquor and i would like to i would like to purchase it so that throws

00:38:51.060 me for a loop because the censorship thing does only seem to be one way and and it isn't just

00:38:56.720 us conspiracy theorists or whatever on the side who feel uh pardon me uh who feel like we're left

00:39:03.840 out it's it or that and that we're left in the cold and that we're censored it's also that for

00:39:10.120 those of us who are social conservatives it's like the only thing that gets promoted are things that

00:39:13.480 are socially liberal or obscene and there is no counter-argument you know and that's that's

00:39:19.500 problematic i mean there is a counter-argument we need to be given the chance to uh

00:39:24.160 we need to do that i think diana has a good point here uh you know rats laugh

00:39:29.400 i remember a rats laugh it was a caleb rats laugh i went to school with i don't know if

00:39:33.960 there's any relation there but uh no because they like everything immoral but heck can't tell the

00:39:39.740 truth that gets censored. Good for her. That's a good 1.00

00:39:43.660 point. That's a good point. Yeah, right. Fact check censorship on the truth.

00:39:47.920 Yeah, we're going to fact check. We're going to fact check the

00:39:51.600 fact checkers. That's what we're going to do. We're going to fight the fact checkers.

00:39:55.560 And I think that that's kind of maybe another place to put this. There's what's

00:39:59.680 being displayed and there's what's happening. I went off

00:40:02.140 on a trip this weekend in full denial of everything that was

00:40:07.700 happening uh completely against what was happening uh they were trying to regulate our travel

00:40:14.100 regulate our speed regulate everything and not allow us to go and see our you know our friends

00:40:18.800 and our family and try and try and share life as an experience and be human beings with one another

00:40:23.180 and i i left and you know what like there was no enforcement out there there was none and i think

00:40:29.900 there was an acknowledgement by most of the enforcers that this wasn't possible just like

00:40:34.000 they're being acknowledged by most of the enforcers of every single church and every

00:40:37.200 single business just opened up tomorrow and said no what you know what come in here with a mask on 0.99

00:40:42.000 or not i don't care like sanitize your hands or not i don't care like just just don't be dumb uh

00:40:48.720 try to observe try to observe you know some precautionary measures i want to sell my goods 0.95

00:40:53.400 i want to worship my god end of discussion do you think there's enough police there's not like

00:40:57.840 we make jokes about how undersupplied our our military forces are not that they would turn

00:41:02.700 the military on us hopefully but i mean we make these we make these jokes all the time or we make

00:41:07.120 comments about it all the time and it's a sad thing

00:41:09.200 and I have respect for our men and women in uniform

00:41:10.920 but this is the joke

00:41:12.360 like

00:41:12.700 they can't

00:41:16.860 stop us all

00:41:18.900 they just can't, they don't have the numbers

00:41:20.940 they don't have the people, it's just not

00:41:23.200 not possible, you're right

00:41:25.140 you're right Cody, non-compliance is the key

00:41:27.060 I completely agree

00:41:27.960 Washington Post ripped for

00:41:31.080 ending Biden fact checking database for

00:41:33.100 rest of his term

00:41:34.700 100 days into Biden, Bresley, WAPO, Moth

00:41:37.040 well as fact-checking that database. I mean, we live in 1984, but it's worse to a point. It's

00:41:45.640 worse because we've blended Brave New World with 1984. So at least in 1984, and I'm back. Yep. No

00:42:02.380 worries about that. Sorry about that.

00:42:04.260 We hit the wrong button.

00:42:06.400 Pull the lever, Kronk! Wrong lever!

00:42:10.000 I think

00:42:10.640 Disney's going to pull us for that. Anyways,

00:42:12.440 that's what happened there. We made a Disney

00:42:14.240 reference and they pulled us.

00:42:17.960 Just kidding.

00:42:19.220 But no, this is the point.

00:42:20.620 We live in 1984

00:42:21.560 and it's worse than 1984 because 1.00

00:42:24.240 it's 1984 blended with

00:42:26.460 Brave New World. At least in Brave

00:42:28.460 New World and in 1984, respectively,

00:42:30.560 you know there were things were so dour in 1984 and things were so optimistic but but banal and

00:42:36.000 brave new world the things that you know like maybe there might be some epiphany that would

00:42:40.200 occur but we're being pulled from both ends now so if you resist you get the 1984 treatment you

00:42:46.300 will be picked up you will be detained you will be interrogated you will be intimidated you will

00:42:50.000 have your name wiped from the records you will be cancelled by twitter everything else and if

00:42:55.480 and if you want to go and lose yourself in in the bliss and in the nihilism i mean you know except

00:43:02.800 for there not being any soma you know you we're we're here you know we're here you can you know

00:43:11.120 you want to watch it you can find it you want to purchase it you can get it on the dark web like

00:43:15.500 it's if you're if your materialist appetites are where you're at you got it so so any kind of

00:43:21.260 question of what is really human or dignity or should this be the authority or purview of the

00:43:24.760 government that isn't allowed to be discussed and you will be destroyed but you want to go and

00:43:30.140 participate in things that are deeply nihilistic and awful and bad for your soul let alone your

00:43:34.220 body no that's totally okay i i i don't i don't really know what else to say about that it's just

00:43:39.100 it's just nonsense it's nonsense and uh you know and uh actually henry porter's got a good point

00:43:47.820 there with uh with blending it with brazil yeah it's true it's true and especially the make work

00:43:52.460 effort the make work effort of the aspect of what we're what we're a part of of of that you know we

00:43:58.300 just people are shoving paper around that means nothing it's the same thing i was telling you

00:44:01.900 before about us all kind of living in the lie we're all you know these are unprecedented times

00:44:06.920 this is this is unprecedented time that i'm just so concerned about i'm anxious about i'm worried

00:44:11.460 about meanwhile it's like no you know what i just want to get out of town and go to the cabin

00:44:14.740 i think we're all saying in the right things and faking it because what other choice do we have

00:44:23.520 we otherwise the police come down on us whatever and then if you dare to speak the truth

00:44:28.000 again you get hit pretty hard you know uh diane don't be too quick to say then i'm gonna try to

00:44:38.060 put the military on us you know diane you've got a point there for a couple of reasons one of the

00:44:42.380 biggest reasons you get a point there is that the truth

00:44:44.400 is that, again, wherever you stand on the

00:44:46.280 protests that have ever happened when it comes to Idle

00:44:48.280 No More or what happened out west with the Wet'suwet'en, 1.00

00:44:51.420 that 1.00

00:44:52.960 is true. The army gets sent into

00:44:56.300 all sorts of instances. I mean,

00:44:58.220 obviously that happened with the Mohawk and the

00:45:00.220 standoff that happened in southern Ontario.

00:45:02.800 So, clearly, there

00:45:04.420 is a propensity of

00:45:06.380 our government to send in the troops

00:45:08.480 at least to a point, though

00:45:10.120 so far I think that that's never resulted

00:45:12.240 in outright violence at least not on behalf of the troops but no i mean non-compliance is the key

00:45:18.300 non-compliance is a key and i don't think you have to be you know i think you can take bonnie

00:45:22.100 henry's uh recommendations and kind of well you know uh be kind be calm and uh be be resistant

00:45:31.120 like it's like no thank you it's like do you mind telling me where you're headed nope nope no thank

00:45:37.120 you but i wouldn't mind taking your badge number and making a complaint that you're offending my

00:45:41.100 civil liberties if you want to leave your badge number to yourself and leave me alone i'll see

00:45:45.380 you later i like and people might say that's rude or whatever but it's like no i mean like

00:45:50.160 if you're not threatening violence to somebody you should be able to basically say whatever you want

00:45:55.460 uh and if what you have to say is no thank you and if you ask me again i'll be asking you for

00:46:01.680 your badge number to make an official complaint that'll be put into your record that will show

00:46:05.780 up later when you try to be promoted and i will very happily testify against you the next time

00:46:10.860 anybody tries to bring you up for recommendation or promotion, that gets to people. It gets to

00:46:17.220 them. Saying no and saying it with a bit of a toothy smile and a bit of a glint in your eye

00:46:22.780 that says, I am saying no nicely now. If you want me to say it nastily later, a nasty letter will

00:46:27.860 follow. That gets you places. It really does. You know, the Albertans have given us another one to

00:46:35.720 kind of think about it. There is nothing new under the sun. The tech is

00:46:39.680 different. Human nature is the same. Not wrong.

00:46:44.280 Again, not wrong. I do believe that human nature is

00:46:47.760 inalterable in the sense that it is always perennial. It's always headed the same way.

00:46:52.240 In my faith, we call that concupiscence.

00:46:55.520 It's not quite the same as depravity. It's something I do differ from

00:46:59.140 a lot of people on. I'm not a Calvinist. Sorry, Calvinists.

00:47:02.300 fundamentally reject Calvinism and a lot of its tenets, though I do enjoy Jansenism and

00:47:08.700 Manichaeism at times. So that's me being ironic. You can go look all those things up if you want.

00:47:13.740 The point being that I don't believe in total depravity, because that would be nonsense. Because

00:47:17.900 if I believed in total depravity, then I wouldn't be able to trust the thoughts in my own head.

00:47:21.360 So that can't be true. Pretty obvious, really. I don't know how Calvin missed that.

00:47:25.820 but the the one thing that that is clear is that no people are concupiscent you know they always

00:47:32.660 give themselves another helping a pie they always maybe you know oh she's cute she wants to talk to

00:47:38.700 me and they had that direction and and not saying that the natural inclinations or natural appetites

00:47:43.740 people are always wrong but they can easily be misused abused or turned wicked or twisted so

00:47:50.400 that's

00:47:52.420 that's where I stand on that

00:47:54.780 people can always be trusted to kind of make

00:47:57.320 a self-interested choice I think it would be

00:47:59.340 probably the easiest place of agreement

00:48:01.220 we're supposed to have

00:48:03.320 Ellis Ross on here in another few minutes

00:48:05.120 but as I kind of end my rambling

00:48:07.400 for the day or my ranting

00:48:08.940 my opening statement that's now turning into an

00:48:11.280 hour long jangled

00:48:13.180 sort of call to action

00:48:15.160 by calling us to resist

00:48:16.800 I think that

00:48:18.820 the pivot that I would make here is having,

00:48:23.540 having just experienced going on a trip through BC and seeing that for all of

00:48:28.220 their bluster,

00:48:28.940 it apparently nothing is changing and nothing,

00:48:30.920 nothing matters.

00:48:34.360 Apparently,

00:48:35.040 you know,

00:48:35.340 nobody cares.

00:48:37.260 Nobody's going to read the report.

00:48:38.860 They wrote it and nobody cares.

00:48:41.140 There isn't,

00:48:42.100 there isn't a cop on every corner.

00:48:43.680 There isn't even a cop at every major intersection,

00:48:46.020 except for catching us for the old reason of speeding.

00:48:48.460 nothing else. There is no cop

00:48:51.920 out there who's trying to enforce every single COVID rule, at least as far

00:48:56.540 as I can tell, throughout the northern and central and southeastern

00:49:00.700 interior. Where I was, I saw zero enforcement

00:49:04.540 on this count. I saw people wearing masks in and out of stores

00:49:08.360 and that sort of thing. That's all pretty universal. But outside of that, I have seen

00:49:12.560 no one force this to be the way it is, as

00:49:16.260 as was delivered by Bonnie Henry and Premier Horgan.

00:49:18.660 So clearly it's not working there.

00:49:21.120 It's not working there.

00:49:22.640 I'm guessing that down in the Lower Mainland,

00:49:26.500 it's a lot stricter.

00:49:28.120 They have more cops anyways.

00:49:29.600 They have city police as well.

00:49:31.140 And of course the ferries, which are a choke point.

00:49:33.860 So how do you get on a ferry without being checked

00:49:36.620 or being asked, hey, where are you going?

00:49:38.200 What's going on?

00:49:41.100 Well, there you go.

00:49:43.180 And Diane's bringing up the point

00:49:44.540 the BCRCMP have quietly

00:49:46.480 indicated that they're not interested in

00:49:48.580 enforcement. So that's

00:49:50.520 you know, we'll bring up that comment. Yep.

00:49:52.460 So that's

00:49:53.200 exactly it. That's exactly it. And that's great.

00:49:57.040 That's great. Like I don't, I've

00:49:58.620 encouraged officers. Again, I have great respect

00:50:00.560 for the uniform, great respect for the institution. I've

00:50:02.600 encouraged them many, many times. Do not enforce

00:50:04.580 this order. This is unconstitutional to begin

00:50:06.500 with. It's immoral. It's

00:50:08.480 beyond unethical. And it's also just a waste

00:50:10.540 of your time. And what are they going to do? That's the thing too.

00:50:12.460 If all the cops, if all the cops don't enforce

00:50:14.460 that particular rule they can't fire all the cops because they can't hire new ones tomorrow

00:50:18.340 because they have to be trained so this is something else that's really important and maybe that's a

00:50:22.400 place to kind of kind of cue all

00:50:26.460 this up and kind of bring it all back to the center here and

00:50:29.860 if we all act if we all act in solidarity

00:50:33.640 like really it's that simple if everybody stopped

00:50:38.080 buying sex if everybody stopped 0.56

00:50:42.020 giving people

00:50:45.120 access to the things that were destroying their lives,

00:50:48.060 if everybody put down

00:50:49.480 their tools and stopped destroying unborn

00:50:51.420 children, if all the cops stopped

00:50:53.480 enforcing laws that made no sense and 1.00

00:50:55.460 were dumb and a waste. If all the 0.99

00:50:57.460 building inspectors

00:50:58.460 just came out and did a final look around

00:51:01.300 and didn't bother trying to do stop work orders

00:51:03.400 on our secondary residences and not

00:51:05.400 bother with the tennis court down the road.

00:51:07.360 If the entire enforcement 0.64

00:51:09.660 structure that we build society

00:51:11.440 on, only allowed

00:51:13.480 itself, you know, only

00:51:15.560 allowing themselves to

00:51:17.400 enforce those things that they could actually agree with

00:51:19.560 in conscience,

00:51:21.600 well,

00:51:22.220 then

00:51:23.880 the world would be a better place.

00:51:28.260 And that's what it boils down to.

00:51:29.680 When civilization, I don't know

00:51:31.440 if I want to say it finally collapses, but when things

00:51:33.420 finally come to a head on this count, what we're going

00:51:35.540 to understand in no uncertain terms

00:51:37.400 is that we needed to have solidarity

00:51:39.580 with one another, and if we had supported each other, had solidarity, and treated each other

00:51:43.500 well, then we would have been able

00:51:47.680 to keep our civilization rolling. We would have been able to keep the hoop going, right? The kid with the hoop

00:51:51.720 and the stick, and he knocks it around, keeps it going, right? Keeps the momentum going.

00:51:55.620 That's what's keeping it going. We're on the fumes. We're on the fumes of strength and honor.

00:52:00.280 We're on the fumes of living an honor-based society

00:52:03.860 and a society that honors one another and a society that observes

00:52:07.500 of strict mores around certain issues

00:52:09.780 and questions of conscience.

00:52:11.920 And at

00:52:12.140 we're falling apart.

00:52:16.120 We're falling apart and we have

00:52:17.680 to be very careful with that.

00:52:19.380 I think that

00:52:20.900 the way to

00:52:23.560 kind of bring it all

00:52:25.240 back together

00:52:26.580 is that

00:52:28.380 I didn't just go for a ride

00:52:31.620 this weekend in order to just be 0.99

00:52:33.560 a jerk 1.00

00:52:34.780 and just be like, ha ha, 1.00

00:52:37.500 you know bleep bleep bleep you horgan bleep bleep bleep you dr bonnie henry like of course i did

00:52:41.680 that was part of it but i i also did it because i thought to myself too that if anybody else was

00:52:48.220 out there doing it like i needed to be in solidarity with them if we all do this together

00:52:53.300 they can't stop all of us right and and it's that over and over and over again if we all protect the

00:52:59.900 vulnerable together if we choose not to abuse the vulnerable and we tell the next person hey

00:53:04.380 let's not do this and the next person says yeah i agree with you and you do that one more person

00:53:08.720 one more person all of a sudden you have a movement and the movement is the vulnerable

00:53:12.660 don't get abused anymore and those who do abuse them are going to be punished as the same thing

00:53:17.160 here right if we all just do whatever we want to do and live our lives and do that you know don't

00:53:24.200 be un don't be imprudent don't be don't harm people don't purposely try and put people in

00:53:28.980 harm's way right or spread the virus around or whatever like observe proper hygiene and

00:53:34.360 that sort of thing. But outside of that, I think that if we all just have that courtesy

00:53:39.240 and that human element of helping one another, I think that there's something we said about that.

00:53:44.380 I think, you know, I think that that's the way forward. I don't think that there's a lot of

00:53:52.560 ways forward where we're going to find an institutional change. Our institutions are

00:53:56.220 captured. Bonnie Henry's brain is captured, right? In Dr. Henry's mind, like she really is saving the

00:54:03.040 world there's no room in there for doubt about about maybe some of the decisions she's made or

00:54:08.160 for premier john horgan and at the same time these people don't uh they don't they don't

00:54:14.420 question it right they don't question it they don't they don't have critical thought around

00:54:17.600 these issues so that's i think that's a key element of it is that we really need to think

00:54:22.140 to ourselves how how are we going to change this well it is it's solidarity solidarity to our

00:54:27.040 conscience i like that ilia hart just put that up there i like that solidarity to our conscience

00:54:32.520 yeah i mean that's that about sums it up that about sums it up you know uh the only way the

00:54:41.840 only way for us to to get from where we are to where we need to be is to is to stand in solidarity

00:54:49.860 with one another and that and that i mean i guess kind of to get super real for a moment that's been

00:54:54.400 kind of uh that's been kind of the biggest thing for me when it comes to even what my relationship

00:54:59.300 is revealed to me and that sort of thing with when it comes to again the vulnerability of

00:55:03.660 of particularly women and how men us men could sometimes be well sometimes us men can really

00:55:09.560 make mistakes in that count and not protect uh and not honor and not respect and without getting

00:55:15.980 too far down that line again it's like if every man had had not made those choices you know women

00:55:22.000 would be protected like that's what it is and it's the same thing going the other way around if

00:55:26.040 If women felt that protection, maybe simultaneously the neurosis and anger that gets visited upon children or fellow women would be changed, right? 0.88

00:55:35.800 And so there's that leadership role.

00:55:37.420 Now, again, a lot of that's based in my faith and kind of archetypes and that sort of thing.

00:55:40.960 But again, it also loops back to the same thing is that we're living in a time of a fundamental lack of disrespect.

00:55:47.960 and the first people that we're disrespecting in a sense is ourselves because we're lying to

00:55:54.640 ourselves that this that this what we're doing is working and it's not and we're lying to ourselves

00:55:59.800 saying oh well we'll make this exemption for ourselves but we won't make that exemption for

00:56:04.000 other people and then we'll tell people that we didn't make that exemption for ourselves or it

00:56:07.380 was really really necessary this was essential travel what i did was not essential in any medical

00:56:12.380 or job related sense it was essential in a human sense i needed to visit these family members

00:56:17.960 it's essential that I tell you that a family member of mine is suffering from side effects

00:56:22.620 of the vaccine. Someone who literally would be the last person on my list is who would,

00:56:26.440 who would have suffered that. And it's fine. And it is essential that I, you know, as long as we

00:56:31.800 have this platform and I don't know how long that's going to last because I mean, I could get

00:56:35.920 canceled tomorrow. I've made it through one month. So again, if you're watching this right now,

00:56:39.540 month ago was Easter. Our first show was the Tuesday after Easter. I believe that was April

00:56:45.620 6th at that point and if you've stuck with us all that time

00:56:49.780 I'm really really really I'm really thankful

00:56:53.440 I'm really thankful and thank you for the views always remember to like and share this show

00:56:57.620 and to always kind of

00:57:01.480 just promote that idea of we're going to stand in solidarity

00:57:05.500 we're going to bring people onto this show that get cancelled everywhere else and we're going to talk

00:57:09.620 about the things that are really tough to talk about in this show as much as we can 0.97

00:57:13.520 brought on the transgenderism stuff 1.00

00:57:15.120 last week and

00:57:17.340 this week we're going to be talking with

00:57:19.280 I believe Ellis Ross is supposed to be with us in a couple

00:57:21.660 of minutes here and

00:57:23.360 we're going to be talking with

00:57:25.240 I want to say Jay Hill is coming

00:57:27.700 on tomorrow I think I'm

00:57:29.480 98% sure that I've got Jay Hill for

00:57:31.660 tomorrow so that'll be the second half as well so

00:57:33.580 I'll do another kind of opening sort of thing here

00:57:35.400 and then in the morning on Thursday

00:57:37.420 we'll do what we've been

00:57:39.600 doing which is doing a bit of a news roundup

00:57:41.580 So we have Stuart Parker kind of on the second half there.

00:57:44.200 I'll tell him that because he needs to know when to come on.

00:57:50.580 But we'll have him on the second half,

00:57:52.900 and we'll probably have Aaron Ackman on the first half

00:57:54.960 to just talk about the news and what's happening in the news.

00:57:59.700 Last kind of few shout-outs here before we kind of pivot

00:58:02.740 and get our guest online here.

00:58:05.740 I want to say thank you to my producer.

00:58:08.900 He's been here since day one.

00:58:10.880 he helps me produce another show as well

00:58:12.880 this is something he does on the side of his desk

00:58:14.940 it's a lot of work

00:58:16.540 it's an awful lot of work I want to thank

00:58:18.680 of course our friends

00:58:20.980 at The Standard that have given us

00:58:23.040 this platform allow us to talk about this stuff

00:58:25.060 it's pretty controversial stuff

00:58:26.980 like good luck finding some of these takes

00:58:28.700 anywhere else even in places

00:58:30.820 like not to throw them under the bus

00:58:32.760 but even the alternative media elsewhere

00:58:34.820 in Canada

00:58:36.000 I think that I'm pretty genuine

00:58:38.680 or I try to be pretty genuine with you

00:58:40.220 And, you know, things here are outside of that opening statement when I type it up every morning.

00:58:45.280 Today's the first morning we didn't have one because we're running around getting the green screen up again this weekend.

00:58:50.500 All the equipment that's in here, not that I can really show it to you.

00:58:53.080 Someday we'll actually do a whole what really happens behind the smoke and mirrors thing.

00:58:57.560 I think that's something we can do.

00:58:59.960 It would be really cool.

00:59:01.020 We also want to do a series where we're going to bring on, you know, various speakers,

00:59:06.000 especially people speaking about social the social credit movement and what that might mean or what

00:59:10.340 that looks like we're going to bring on a couple of people about different topics and i'm going to

00:59:14.340 do long form interviews with these people uh the uh that's appreciated hunter chris chris says i

00:59:22.680 don't view anything you say is controversial well this is the problem isn't it we're now we're now

00:59:27.440 literally living in two on two different planets um where one group of people believes this stuff

00:59:34.240 And the other group of people is wearing two masks and a face shield and a hazmat suit and telling you never to see your family ever again.

00:59:42.280 I don't I don't know what to tell you. It's a pretty crazy time.

00:59:45.320 But but at some point we're going to do, you know, we'll we'll look around here and we'll we'll take the camera.

00:59:49.960 I don't know if we'll do it live, but we'll we'll we'll do a recording of like, well, this is the studio.

00:59:54.760 This is where it is. Maybe we'll even do some bits about Prince George.

00:59:58.080 Just like this is where this is where the host went to school.

01:00:00.220 this is this is the northern capital uh this is kind of prince george's ethic it's kind of bizarre

01:00:05.320 right it's it's a it's this northern town um but it's but it's very industrialized but then it's

01:00:11.520 actually got a lot of progressive stuff going on and it's got a lot of non-profits and it's got

01:00:14.860 all sorts of crazy stuff going on so we'll do kind of like a prince george sort of thing and uh and

01:00:19.020 how how it's made sort of episode i'm also brainstorming all this stuff because at some

01:00:23.540 point, if it all goes really well, I mean, hopefully I'm going to be with my beloved in

01:00:32.240 a short time here. And when that time comes, I'm going to not be on the show every day. So we need

01:00:39.220 to provide content for those two or three weeks where I'm gone. So that's kind of the other thing

01:00:43.600 that's happening. In fact, last thing I'll say before we bring on Ellis is in the comments,

01:00:48.020 why don't you submit, not just, again, I've asked this last week too, but submit guests,

01:00:52.260 people I should bring on. Give me the contact information if possible. Again, use

01:00:56.300 my email. We can throw my email up in a moment here

01:00:59.540 at the end of the show as well. And the last thing I'll say about

01:01:04.280 it is tell us some concepts you want us to get into.

01:01:08.240 Look, I'm not Aaron Gunn. I can't run everywhere.

01:01:12.280 I appreciate what Aaron does, but I'm not him. But

01:01:16.100 we can do a little bit of running around here, a little bit of day trips or something and do

01:01:20.120 some filming and get some stuff together. And that's kind of what I think would be great for

01:01:24.500 that time where I just can't be here for about two or three weeks. So we'll talk about that when

01:01:31.280 the time comes. I'll let you know way ahead of time. Just comment, like, subscribe. And right

01:01:36.240 now we are bringing on Ellis Ross. We are very thankful to have him here, our contender for the

01:01:42.380 BC Liberals here in BC. And he's going to tell us about what's happening, what is happening

01:01:48.460 uh in his leadership campaign welcome to the program alice nice to be here again nathan how

01:01:53.620 you doing i'm doing all right i'm just really thankful to have you here um what uh what are

01:01:59.420 what's your take on kind of what's happening right now in bc i know there was some travel

01:02:03.460 restriction stuff that was brought down by premier horgan uh there was some debate about how that was

01:02:08.380 going to be enforced some people are saying it's being enforced really strictly in some places some

01:02:11.860 people aren't what what what do you think is happening when it comes to travel restrictions

01:02:16.400 else well i'm like everybody else i don't know what to think because the messaging is so unclear

01:02:23.040 it's so confusing i mean initially they said there was gonna be roadblocks and then maybe

01:02:28.240 there's not gonna be roadblocks and then they went to uh health authority boundaries and

01:02:36.080 i don't know i really don't know what to think about it i mean three quarters of the province

01:02:40.240 was allowed to travel basically if you look at the boundary selection right and then they tried

01:02:46.160 to keep the people on the island you know tried to keep them exclusive to the island then the

01:02:52.560 vancouver area i'm just not sure what to make of it and whether or not it would be uh effective for

01:02:59.200 that matter but i think the unclear messaging is really uh confusing and i think that's adding to

01:03:05.280 the stress and anxiety of people i think it is adding to the stress and anxiety of people something

01:03:10.880 that's interesting is that this government has it's actually a weird kind of moment for them

01:03:15.840 them like they'll they'll sign undrip or say that that's really important and do all sorts of

01:03:19.880 reconciliation things but when it came to covid and a lot of remote uh reserves were trying to

01:03:24.640 enforce their own travel bans they got rid of those but now they're going to bring in their

01:03:28.780 travel bans what what are they saying because they got rid of those for some municipalities

01:03:32.760 and for some of the reserves well you think about the what they're doing is a responsive pandemic

01:03:38.300 but it's all everything's been so nonsensical in terms of what this government's been doing

01:03:44.080 And you look back at a time when the BC citizens were actually being conscientious and were saying, yes, we'll stay home to flatten the curve.

01:03:56.920 And it was working.

01:03:58.880 There was no heavy-handed rules.

01:04:00.900 There was no travel restrictions.

01:04:02.980 It was just at the request of the government to people to say, could you at least just stay home and not congregate or travel?

01:04:11.540 And so we flattened the curve.

01:04:12.820 And then what happens? The B.C. government called a snap election.

01:04:17.820 And then they started traveling around the province, visiting First Nation communities.

01:04:23.820 And some of the communities that they visited, including mine, had signs, had barricades at the entrance of the village and said,

01:04:30.820 no outsiders allowed, please, to the pandemic.

01:04:33.820 So the messaging, I mean, when government sends a message like this to say it's okay to have an election,

01:04:40.820 well that gets into the psyche of people well if it's okay to have an election well maybe it's okay

01:04:46.440 to travel maybe it's okay to do this i mean the messaging the government has been sending out has

01:04:51.120 been so confusing and so contradicting i mean i can see why people are getting so upset

01:04:56.200 it is it is very confusing it's very contradicting it's hard to know whether you are actually going

01:05:03.500 to be pulled over for just going too fast or apparently because you're carrying the virus

01:05:08.280 very, very confusing. One of the other things is that it also creates uncertainty in the community

01:05:14.240 when it comes to even business and that sort of thing. If there's going to be travel restrictions,

01:05:18.120 that can change a lot of things when it comes to business and certainty. And when are things

01:05:22.940 going to be delivered and that as well? Something that's been a struggle too is even the postal

01:05:27.800 service. It's a federal issue, of course, but I mean, even post during with remote communities

01:05:32.320 and stuff, even that's been interrupted by the pandemic. What do you think is the policy

01:05:37.060 prescription or that how how could the government be facilitating this better especially if

01:05:40.640 businesses feel like the rules are changing every day one day they're allowed to be open one day

01:05:44.560 it's patios another day it's takeout only what are the how how do we have to deal with this

01:05:48.880 because we're headed into summer and people need to make some money up after what happened last year

01:05:52.600 well i said this before like especially at the beginning of the pandemic that started about a

01:05:58.480 year ago uh you gotta take the politicians out of the equation you do and this is why i really

01:06:06.040 didn't wade into the fray in terms of adding my own opinion and my own two bits worth because

01:06:11.340 I'm no expert. I mean, the experts in viruses should have been at the forefront and we should

01:06:18.680 have went with facts. I mean, we had China as an example. We had Italy as an example in terms of

01:06:25.400 what went wrong. And I don't think that the facts really followed in this equation. The politicians

01:06:33.800 we're trying to play both sides of the fence how can we put restrictions in without losing

01:06:38.440 popularity and i think we're paying for it now i no matter how strict they got in the beginning

01:06:45.240 if it was based on sound science and sound facts i think people could have could have uh accepted

01:06:50.840 that but now it just seems the rules change from month to month and i think based on what we know

01:06:58.120 now there's more information going about uh getting out there now about kobe and what it really is

01:07:05.080 including the variants and the effective strategies to combat this i think now is the perfect time to

01:07:12.920 actually get back to science and facts the science and facts would be nice because then people people

01:07:19.000 feel like it is very much opinion they also feel like somehow the rules apply to one group but they

01:07:23.320 don't apply to another and they feel they feel that it's very unfair very unjust it's interesting

01:07:29.800 you you've mentioned the snap election a couple of times and i i agree with you that that it was

01:07:35.400 clearly opportunistic do you think do you think that the ndp would have won if they had waited for

01:07:41.400 for when they're supposed to uh have had the election i think i think they would have right

01:07:48.360 I think they would have because I think people understood, you know, the situation we were in.

01:07:55.280 And everybody argued, you know, everybody argued against the rationale for a snap election.

01:08:01.480 Everybody except for the BCNDP.

01:08:04.100 I mean, even the Greens didn't want an election.

01:08:07.940 I mean, it just didn't make any sense.

01:08:10.600 I mean, here you are restricting business.

01:08:12.420 You're restricting everybody else.

01:08:13.720 You're talking about how bad this is, a crisis and everything.

01:08:17.700 And what do you do?

01:08:18.220 you call a snap election an optional snap election and it that's politics but my biggest concern was

01:08:27.760 what kind of a message did you send to British Columbians by just you know just calling a snap

01:08:33.800 election I'm thinking a lot of people thought well if the government thinks it's okay to get

01:08:38.740 out there and travel and and do things again in the public well maybe it's okay for me to do stuff

01:08:43.460 And so, I mean, this is one of the biggest things I talked about in the legislature and saying, you know, you got to be clear on your messages, not only the direct messages, but the kind of message that you're sending by doing things like calling a snap election.

01:08:59.460 with with the snap election obviously the bc ndp gained their majority uh they attempted to pass

01:09:07.980 a bunch of legislation right right right at the end of that legislative session uh or rather into

01:09:13.420 christmas uh there was some filibustering or forcing them to take every question period and

01:09:18.300 get through it uh which was good i think that was important to keep the government to account

01:09:21.740 and then they came out with this budget in the last couple of months where nothing was really

01:09:26.640 named or numbered it was all just kind of out there now apparently there's finally going to be

01:09:30.480 some numbers that was nice but are you seeing the things in this budget that you think are going to

01:09:35.360 solve this problem when it comes to covet or finally and bring us back to a semblance of

01:09:39.440 sanity what what's going to happen here when it comes to the budget no there's been no real

01:09:44.720 emphasis placed on the the private sector uh there's no there's been no real significant

01:09:51.920 help to the small guy the small business guy uh and we see it a lot of these businesses uh that

01:09:58.960 couldn't make their rent for example just had to close shop now the big box stores are still doing

01:10:05.520 well today uh the bigger chain restaurants the franchise they're still doing okay but but the

01:10:11.920 smaller businesses and that's what basically makes up our smaller communities they just couldn't get

01:10:16.960 through it. And you know, there's a lot that could have gone into a budget and a throne speech for

01:10:24.000 that matter. When you look at what other governments and jurisdictions are doing around the world,

01:10:28.560 they're actually going to start competing for those investment dollars to go into their economy.

01:10:35.120 They're not just going to rely on taxpayers' dollars like what the BCNDP are doing. I mean,

01:10:40.800 the NDP in the last four years, with or without a pandemic, the BC NDP actually created 23 new taxes

01:10:47.280 in BC, new and raised taxes, but they did nothing to stimulate the economy. Sooner or later, that

01:10:55.680 taxpayer base is going to dry up. You can't keep taxing the taxpayer without looking at the economy

01:11:03.040 to actually boost it up. I mean, it's just the wall that's going to run dry pretty quick.

01:11:07.200 there's been there's been an increase in spending there's been an increase in taxes

01:11:13.040 there's been talks of new programs and not any efficiencies like even again wherever anybody

01:11:19.400 stands let's say even universal basic income the idea that maybe a bunch of departments would be

01:11:23.580 turned into one department right create some efficiencies and deliver money quicker or

01:11:26.940 something whatever the point is that all that's gone out the window so none of the efficiencies

01:11:31.420 all of the spending is that sustainable is that can we continue down this road as British

01:11:36.980 Colombians? No. I mean, deficits. I mean, nobody seems to be talking about the amount of deficits

01:11:45.740 that the governments are incurring. And everybody understood, you know, one of the best ways to get

01:11:52.540 out of a sometime economic crisis is to do spending in terms of infrastructure. That's

01:11:58.260 understood. But at the same time, you know, if your economy is actually going the opposite way,

01:12:04.440 going down, that deficit is going to become unmanageable, and that deficit actually turns

01:12:10.320 into debt.

01:12:11.320 I mean, the government's going to have to go out and they're going to have to borrow

01:12:15.780 $8.1 billion for this year's deficit, and they're going to have to pay interest on that

01:12:21.120 debt.

01:12:22.120 Now, right now, they've been living on a AAA credit rating that was actually developed,

01:12:26.400 that was put in place and earned by the BC Liberals.

01:12:31.320 Well, if that triple A credit rating goes down, then the government that is actually

01:12:36.540 using B.C. taxpayers' money is going to spend more money just paying off the interest.

01:12:43.180 If we lose that triple A credit rating and that interest payments, if they balloon, well,

01:12:49.820 that's less money to pay on infrastructure.

01:12:51.740 That's less money to pay on programs.

01:12:54.480 And by the way, less money to pay for this biggest government in B.C. history.

01:13:01.320 While this government has ignored the private sector,

01:13:04.860 they've actually built up the biggest government in BC history at the same time.

01:13:11.420 Well, what is the answer on that count?

01:13:14.880 Because if we're talking about it and that sort of thing,

01:13:17.140 I think there's also been a cultural shift.

01:13:18.840 I think, especially when interest rates got really low,

01:13:22.460 a lot of people thought to themselves, well, what's the point of saving?

01:13:25.420 If I put something in the bank, it actually is worth less because of inflation in a year.

01:13:29.240 why don't i just finance that truck today or finance that house today i think that's also

01:13:33.720 been driving some of the housing prices in bc the lower interest rates i don't wish negative equity

01:13:39.520 on anyone but if our whole culture has decided you know what debt's fine let's just do it let's

01:13:44.520 just spend money and see what happens tomorrow how do we change that in our culture to the point

01:13:49.480 where we're like no we're only going to make prudent uh spending decisions not just blow money

01:13:53.560 out the door i can see in terms of uh housing or in types of those types of long-term purchase

01:14:00.600 but in terms of government that that is a totally different question uh because the government's

01:14:06.520 got more to think about than just low interest rates the low interest rates here that might get

01:14:12.040 actually uh negated by the fact that bc might lose its triple triple a credit rating and the

01:14:18.520 The amount of debt, I don't think the media, except for maybe a couple,

01:14:24.880 have actually tried to do stories of what kind of debt means to this generation

01:14:30.460 and the next generation.

01:14:32.820 There's no plan to pay off this debt.

01:14:35.420 There's no plan to get out of these deficits.

01:14:38.280 And that's quite scary, considering that this government has no real interest

01:14:44.280 in actually building up the private sector.

01:14:48.520 And at a time when, you know, we really need the private sector.

01:14:52.960 You know, I don't want to see anybody's rates go up in terms of electricity.

01:14:57.640 I don't want to see taxes go up.

01:14:59.480 I don't want to see fees go up.

01:15:01.480 And the thing about this tax base, what I was told a long time ago was that every time taxes go up, you know, we all sit back and we laugh.

01:15:09.120 It's about time those corporations got taxed.

01:15:12.620 Well, the first thing about business is that every time costs go up, you pass that cost on to your consumer or your customer or the rate payer.

01:15:22.420 So what are we laughing about?

01:15:24.620 At the end of the day, our cost of living is going to go up because the businesses are just going to pass that cost on to us.

01:15:33.560 Yeah, it's a very simple point that doesn't really seem to carry through.

01:15:38.040 Despite, you know, everybody in the business school side of a university has taught this very simple principle.

01:15:42.820 Everybody else in the rest of the university has not taught this.

01:15:45.160 I don't know why.

01:15:46.440 But it is true that as soon as costs go up for anybody who's providing a good or a service, they're going to pass it along to the consumer.

01:15:54.120 And the idea that somehow, you know, they need to pay their fair share.

01:15:57.620 Well, they may need to pay their fair share, but there's got to be another way to achieve that.

01:16:01.220 because if you just up the income tax rate

01:16:04.180 on any corporation, that does result,

01:16:06.640 they don't just take less money next year.

01:16:08.460 They need the same amount of money,

01:16:09.620 so they have to up their rates to the next guy.

01:16:12.040 It seems like a very simple concept,

01:16:13.480 but nobody talks about it.

01:16:15.200 With the future of BC Hydro

01:16:16.720 and some of the things that came out in the budget

01:16:18.340 around BC Hydro, what's your take on that?

01:16:21.200 Do you think BC Hydro is headed in a healthier direction

01:16:24.020 or is BC Hydro being kind of hamstrung

01:16:26.860 by what the NDP is doing?

01:16:28.680 Well, the biggest project was Site C. There was anticipation back in the day that the electricity

01:16:36.840 demand would go up, and there's still that anticipation. With all the excitement around

01:16:43.720 electric cars and electrifying our economy, with what the public wanted, you're going to have to

01:16:51.400 come up with a with some type of sustainable reliable affordable solution but right now i

01:16:59.880 mean at the end of the day what i what i really appreciate is uh you know for the last 15 17 years

01:17:08.200 i've been doing public service work the the best thing i've thought about in terms of policy was

01:17:13.480 just be open and transparent that's all you got to be if it's good news is bad news and it's uh

01:17:19.320 the idea that this government actually knew about some of the deficiencies in the site

01:17:24.280 sea project two years ago but kept that quiet until after the election and that's not that's

01:17:31.000 not open and transparent that's not actually good governance so where we're heading i think we got a

01:17:36.600 long way to go in terms of uh what we need to electrify our future and i think there's a lot of

01:17:42.600 of uh issues that we haven't quite looked at yet in earnest no it's it's it's been it's been quite

01:17:50.380 the journey when it comes to sightsee and the costs the costs at sightsee and everything else

01:17:54.700 i think again i i mostly agree with with another friend of the show aaron ekman who who makes the

01:18:00.960 point that at least those dollars are being spent in british columbia and they're being spent on

01:18:04.640 wages in british columbia so then at least that turns into cars and houses and and a domestic

01:18:09.540 growth but nonetheless still the cost has been quite exorbitant hopefully we're going to capture

01:18:14.100 that again another place where costs are are going up and are we're still trying to figure out what

01:18:19.100 the new policies are is icbc a lot of rural people feel like they don't get their fair share when it

01:18:24.560 comes to icbc or they're denied their claims or the new rules around icbc are getting getting kind

01:18:30.300 of tough and you have to hire a lawyer for the simplest thing what what do you think is happening

01:18:35.260 with ICBC when it comes to the NDP government? 0.94

01:18:38.880 Well, they're trying to paint a rosy picture of her, of course.

01:18:42.060 They actually gave rebates, you know, just to soften the blow.

01:18:47.160 Many people are predicting it's going to be quite high.

01:18:49.920 I got a $2 rebate a couple weeks ago.

01:18:54.140 My wife, I think she got over $100 for hers.

01:18:57.740 But there doesn't seem to be any answer in terms of the disparity,

01:19:01.360 in terms of the amounts that are coming back to people.

01:19:03.180 But, you know, I learned a long time ago, especially in my council work, that government should not get involved in business.

01:19:18.380 Yeah, they can get involved with utilities, but once you start treating it as a business, money coming in, money going out, you know, government's not good at that.

01:19:26.540 The governments are a blend of politicians, right, and policymakers.

01:19:30.300 That's what they are.

01:19:30.980 And so I really like the idea of bringing in competition for ICBC.

01:19:35.980 Give the rate payer a choice and we can look at all the different jurisdictions around the world and say, okay, how did it work out for you?

01:19:43.980 Did it become affordable?

01:19:45.980 I think the politics of ICBC has actually just clouded the picture.

01:19:51.980 It's just made people very angry instead of just sitting down and saying, okay, what's the solution for the long term in terms of affordability?

01:19:59.980 affordability uh the deficit that the icbc will be undergoing that's a government that's a

01:20:06.880 government issue right what i'm concerned about is affordability

01:20:10.160 and that affordability is a is a clear problem throughout british columbia with all sorts of

01:20:17.700 different issues again especially housing uh comes to mind uh with with what's happening down down

01:20:24.440 south there was an interesting there was an interesting thing that happened i believe in

01:20:27.580 the latest budget and or as a policy change they're going to do what's called the sky tax i

01:20:32.100 i guess they're taxing the area over top of the future development so or buying having bought a

01:20:39.340 condo uh when it's not even uh real yet uh then then you make money on it later i don't know how

01:20:46.520 i feel about that anyways but the point is that they're going to try and tax the sky could you

01:20:50.680 could you give us a little bit more of an understanding of that else yeah this was uh

01:20:56.160 They claimed there was a, in response to the housing crisis that Vancouver is facing, this shortage of housing.

01:21:03.780 And so what they were talking about is saying, okay, if you've got a building that has a tremendous amount of space above it in terms of unused space, then we're going to tax that.

01:21:15.560 I have never heard this before.

01:21:17.920 And it was, you know, it's one of those ideologies, like what the NDP talked about a couple years ago in terms of a wealth tax.

01:21:26.160 You know, it sounds good, but the devil's in the detail.

01:21:32.220 And so, you know, going into a person's home, for instance, and auditing their possessions and finding out whether or not they're wealthy or not and maxing up their tax returns.

01:21:41.800 I mean, that's the same kind of mentality they were thinking about in terms of taxing the space above your building.

01:21:51.280 It was, I mean, how does that speak to affordability?

01:21:55.060 and what do you base it on i mean ultimately you know the best the best reason why i heard

01:22:02.420 there's a housing shortage and why there's a housing crunch in the urban areas of bc and

01:22:07.220 canada the best reason i ever heard is because people want to come here people want to come to

01:22:14.660 vancouver people want to come to bc you see these reports on on what are the best places to live in

01:22:20.260 in the world and vancouver and bc is always ranks up there so you've got all this demand coming in

01:22:26.980 and prices are going up and then i think this is going to actually flow out to the suburban areas

01:22:33.860 as well given covet people realize you know we can get just as much productivity working from home

01:22:41.380 that we couldn't that big business building down vancouver so you get a lot of these you know

01:22:46.900 professionals that are starting to move out of the city, starting to move into suburban areas,

01:22:51.700 and in turn are driving up the demand for the cost of housing suburban.

01:22:55.860 I mean, that's probably the best reason that I've ever heard. It's because it's an attractive place

01:23:01.940 to live. But you won't hear that from the politicians. You'll hear about all kinds

01:23:08.500 of different excuses, and that's why we haven't really resolved it just yet.

01:23:11.380 it's it is a difficult thing and people do want to come to british columbia i completely agree

01:23:18.800 with you there that coming to british columbia is obviously you know i remember being away from my

01:23:23.400 home not even for very small stints of time and i was like no i need to get back to british

01:23:27.380 columbia obviously this is my home this is where i want to be and it's i don't want to live anywhere

01:23:31.520 else with with the question of of that demand then is that is this is that the policy prescription

01:23:39.020 that if we do more development, then there'll be more supply.

01:23:42.180 With more supply, the housing prices can cool down a little bit

01:23:45.160 and people can get into places a little more affordably.

01:23:48.180 Is that the answer?

01:23:50.400 Well, that's one of the answers.

01:23:51.920 I've heard that we need more supply.

01:23:54.500 But I've also heard that, you know, with all the beroxy and red tape,

01:23:59.280 you know, it's really difficult to get that supply in a short term.

01:24:04.060 And so I agree those people are saying that this has got to be

01:24:07.360 cooperation between the provincial government and the municipalities.

01:24:11.720 I mean, municipalities have to deal with the issues on the ground.

01:24:15.440 They have to deal with the water, the electricity, the roads, right?

01:24:19.660 They have building standards they have to actually adhere to.

01:24:25.060 So I think this is an issue that I actually just left out there.

01:24:30.440 You know, it's not just one single entity's problem.

01:24:34.980 I think this is a provincial municipality problem.

01:24:37.360 And if we can actually reduce some of that red tape while keeping up our standards, I mean, I don't see the demand for people wanting to live in BC going away.

01:24:47.480 I don't see it going away.

01:24:49.560 I mean, I think our population is growing year by year.

01:24:53.520 And our birth rates aren't skyrocketing.

01:24:56.820 You know, it's not like, you know, the baby boomer generation.

01:25:00.020 So I just think this demand from people all over the world coming and all over Canada coming to BC because we're a great place to live.

01:25:07.360 and so i think the demand is just going to keep going up i think the demand is going to continue

01:25:12.560 to rise i agree with you there uh one of the questions when it comes to that demand and that

01:25:17.440 rising then is well if that's the case then how how are we going to get these people to and from

01:25:25.600 that so so leaving aside the affordability question for a moment let's talk about infrastructure that

01:25:31.440 was mentioned somewhere in the budget i don't know by how much but we need we need vital

01:25:36.640 infrastructure and some of our roads are starting to age and of course we've had some infrastructure

01:25:41.440 questions around pipelines and everything else this used to be the way that governments put

01:25:45.740 people back to work so you you needed a big project done site c is doing this a little bit

01:25:50.880 so is the coastal gasoline but but we've got lots of people out of work due to covid or lots of

01:25:56.580 problems due to covid where is the where is the big highway solution plan that would take us from

01:26:02.000 point a to point b and help people uh do the infrastructure thing so that things do get more

01:26:06.900 affordable and more accessible well there will be a few of them a number of opportunities um but

01:26:13.060 it's already in the budget for this year uh terrace is getting a new hospital uh you know

01:26:17.240 it's been uh something like 10 years in the making but terrace to get in the hospital

01:26:21.260 but i but i think you know relying on government alone with taxpayers money right that that's that

01:26:30.680 can't be the whole solution. You look at some of the infrastructure projects that are on the books

01:26:35.320 right now for the private sector. The private sector, in partnership with the government,

01:26:43.000 side-by-side infrastructure and cooperation, that can create so much value and sustainability.

01:26:50.200 You look at the LNG project in Kitimat, $40 billion investment. The Chevron project right

01:26:57.000 next door 30 billion dollar investment and then we got pockets of proposed projects all over bc

01:27:03.640 ranging anywhere from a billion to 10 billion dollars but because of the red tape because of

01:27:09.160 the process we can't get these off the ground you know if bc really truly wants to get back

01:27:16.040 on track then you've got to look at all these infrastructure projects and don't just limit it

01:27:21.640 to taxpayer based projects especially when you're talking about unmanageable debt deficits

01:27:29.320 at least the private sector has a way to pay off their debt right they have a way to do it

01:27:35.560 government is just going to have to keep going back to the taxpayer to pay it off

01:27:39.480 if they actually have an interest in paying off that debt in the first place

01:27:44.680 one of the controversies over uh the term of the last government was of course the toll bridge when

01:27:51.160 it came to the port man and the updates that were made there now it was a very nice new bridge things

01:27:56.200 were updated things were made better a lot of the infrastructure in that area has been updated now

01:28:01.080 we got that uh kind of bypass road that'll take you straight to the ferries on a nice highway and

01:28:05.800 not cutting through the bypass and langley and everything else and hitting 600 stoplights there

01:28:10.520 there's been some intelligent investments there but that's that's exactly the question it does

01:28:15.320 infrastructure need to be financed through tolls or the gas tax how how do you finance it so people

01:28:21.000 feel like they're getting something out of it but they don't feel like they're paying too much

01:28:25.400 well you know when you think about that is that uh that actually went on to the government's

01:28:31.080 debt and so when that went on the government debt that actually tied up a lot of money for

01:28:36.600 other infrastructure projects mainly the massey tunnel the massey tunnel you know i before i

01:28:43.880 became an mla i didn't think too much about the massey tunnel you know that's an urban problem

01:28:49.240 i'm a rural i'm just looking out for my own infrastructure issues that i want and then as

01:28:54.440 an mla i went through the massey tunnel and i couldn't believe i sat in that traffic jam for

01:29:01.080 45 minutes just inching along and even when i was sitting inside the massey tunnel and then i started

01:29:07.880 to realize what people were complaining about and saying well you know what if this thing breaks

01:29:12.920 down whatever is a leak and i'm under the river that's when i really started to think about this

01:29:17.480 and said you know the greatest population that we have in bc is actually urban area vancouver

01:29:24.200 and getting around you know is a big issue not just in terms of you know tolls and bridges and

01:29:31.400 massive tunnel and whatnot but the the politics have actually set the goal post you know so far

01:29:38.120 apart in terms of infrastructure we've been championing the idea for example you know more

01:29:43.800 more skytrains, more charging stations, more infrastructure for electric cars.

01:29:50.820 Well, all of this has a price tag.

01:29:53.280 And if the politics get too far ahead of you and you don't have the dollars

01:29:57.520 to actually pay off all these infrastructure projects,

01:30:00.840 well, now you're setting unrealistic goals.

01:30:04.800 And that's not really fair.

01:30:07.080 And I can really see why urbanites are really upset about the Massey Tunnel

01:30:12.300 because i think that population is going to keep growing and getting around is going to become a

01:30:17.180 bigger issue if it's not really looked at without a political lens but there's lots of politics when

01:30:23.100 it comes to the lower mainland on on a few of these counts one of those politics is the sky

01:30:27.600 train versus the light rail argument right so sky train obviously it's a kind of all-inclusive

01:30:32.060 system hey i love taking the sky train from the airport going from yvr down to waterfront is

01:30:38.380 wonderful it's awesome i love doing that but at the same time i i'm very aware because i went to

01:30:43.780 school at trinity western in langley so we were very aware of the lack of of other transportation

01:30:48.320 but it turned out that there was light rail available just the political desire to get it

01:30:54.340 all done just didn't manifest what what's the answer there there is other options but there

01:30:59.780 seems to be infighting amongst the amongst the various provincial uh members of of our legislative

01:31:05.760 assembly but also in fighting amongst our institutions as well as our cities about how

01:31:10.080 to get this done is there a place for leadership there when it comes to the provincial government

01:31:15.040 you know the people that are missing on this equation are the commuters you know the people

01:31:20.480 have to deal with this have to deal with uh congestion or the the affordability you know

01:31:26.400 or the accessibility you know i i had an interesting meeting a couple months ago

01:31:30.800 and it was this business person i said you know there's got to be some foresight when you're

01:31:35.200 thinking about uh the the transportation network within vancouver and what he told me was you know

01:31:42.480 that most of the vancouver uh building offices downtown vancouver are vacated they're empty

01:31:51.280 i mean some of them more than three quarters are empty and so he pointed out his own building he

01:31:58.640 said you know i used to have a whole floor myself and we'd have like 40 people there now we have

01:32:04.240 like two people there all the rest of us work from all over the world wherever we are and this trend

01:32:10.880 is most likely to keep up and so he couldn't understand why there was so much commitment

01:32:17.360 in terms of building up this billion dollar infrastructure into the downtown Vancouver core

01:32:22.080 when really a lot of those business people are moving out so you're gonna have a number of

01:32:27.760 different issues here you know how do you fill up that empty office space when those business

01:32:32.400 people aren't there anymore i mean it's a great opportunity i think in terms of uh you know

01:32:38.000 affordability in terms of uh living space but this is something i never heard before and i think

01:32:45.920 government you know part of their job should be looking at the future a realistic future in terms

01:32:51.360 of what's really happening on the ground and so there's a lot that goes into these these these

01:32:56.880 discussions when you're talking about you know multi-billion dollar projects especially when

01:33:01.600 we're talking about transportation and and speaking of transportation there's one we don't

01:33:08.580 we don't always go to comments while we have people on uh for interviews but there was one

01:33:12.660 right here from somebody who calls himself the albertan uh a rail bridge transit link between

01:33:18.280 vancouver and victoria i said that we're gonna build a bridge to from vancouver to victoria i

01:33:23.800 don't know how we do that through the gulf islands i suppose but i i think i think the islanders

01:33:28.540 might be slightly upset, Ellis,

01:33:30.300 if you take the leadership,

01:33:32.260 become premier and say on day one,

01:33:34.280 we're going to finally bring

01:33:36.100 Vancouver Island to the mainland.

01:33:38.140 Do you think they might be

01:33:39.180 a little bit upset about that

01:33:40.760 if you say that?

01:33:43.060 You know, Vancouver Island

01:33:44.340 is a different place.

01:33:47.580 I've actually never spent

01:33:48.580 that amount of time

01:33:49.220 on Vancouver Island.

01:33:50.220 They've got palm trees

01:33:51.300 outside their hotels.

01:33:53.140 As a northerner,

01:33:55.340 you know, that still shocks me today.

01:33:56.940 They have palm trees

01:33:57.980 outside their hotels.

01:34:01.560 But, you know, what I think Vancouver Islanders,

01:34:04.340 what I think they like about Vancouver Island is that, you know,

01:34:07.900 it's a semi-isolated place.

01:34:11.660 They've got all the services, and it's actually a little bit more relaxed

01:34:15.920 than, say, downtown Vancouver.

01:34:17.940 Yeah, a little bit.

01:34:18.520 Look at this.

01:34:19.720 You look all across BC, and you look maybe all across Canada,

01:34:23.440 for that matter.

01:34:24.600 We all take pride in something that's unique to our area.

01:34:27.980 right whether it be the the environment the infrastructure or the mentality vancouver is

01:34:34.280 no different uh but i've never really heard anybody come to me say well we got to link up

01:34:38.600 vancouver island to the mainland nobody's really said that to me from vancouver vancouver island

01:34:43.140 themselves yeah it's okay the way they are right now yeah i bet i bet not and it's funny because

01:34:50.660 people have all sorts of things to say about the ferries and whatever else but they but then as

01:34:55.360 as you talk about building a bridge you're like oh no no no no we're getting we can't be doing that

01:34:59.120 can't be doing that so we're talking we've talked a little bit about the budget we talked about like

01:35:02.880 these opportunities with policy and that sort of thing actually something we haven't touched on as

01:35:07.280 much as healthcare so you're telling me that terrace is finally getting its hospital that's

01:35:11.760 good i'm glad to hear that uh healthcare in british columbia obviously with what happened with with

01:35:17.280 covet has been really revealing and maybe we need to train more people when it comes to pandemic

01:35:22.080 response but the other thing that comes to mind is that of course msp premiums are gone

01:35:26.800 is that causing some of the debt too or were msp premiums something that needed to go

01:35:33.120 well no msp premiums actually just got passed on to the employer that's where they went they never

01:35:39.680 went away uh and i don't think anybody realized it but uh most businesses have to actually pay

01:35:46.480 this i mean it's a cost now they either absorb it or pass it on um msp premiums still here today in

01:35:54.640 bc basically but it all feeds into this big big big expenditure that uh bc actually has to deal

01:36:03.120 with there's only two big expenditures that take up a lot of the budget that's education health

01:36:07.760 And, yeah, COVID did kind of expose some of our weaknesses, but, you know, health is an ever-changing, in today's day and age anyway, health is an ever-changing issue.

01:36:21.040 And I think there's a lot more that we can talk about in terms of the lessons learned in terms of COVID, but there's a lot more also on the satellite images.

01:36:29.300 like we became so totally reliant on international agencies supplying us a vaccine and one of the

01:36:38.340 questions i asked was when did pharma care get chased out of canada how come we don't have

01:36:44.940 any type of pharma care in canada that actually could produce vaccines just like everywhere else

01:36:53.020 How come there's no research in Canada?

01:36:55.940 We're a first world country, but we're so dependent in so many different countries on their goodwill to supply the vaccines.

01:37:05.340 I mean, I don't understand that.

01:37:08.140 If anything, we should take this as a lesson and think about health care as this big, broad, general network of organizations and issues that we have to address in terms of what COVID taught us.

01:37:18.560 i think you're completely right there especially when it comes to that question of infrastructure

01:37:24.200 as as it has to do with the vaccine uh we in canada are at the mercy of everybody else

01:37:30.320 and it and it's a hard question right and that's the the thing too if there are any complications

01:37:35.280 from from any of these uh developed uh medicines the problem is that or inoculations the problem

01:37:42.860 is that that who do we have to blame i mean we're just the customer at the end of the line we didn't

01:37:47.160 we didn't get to participate with with other parts of health care one of the big questions of course

01:37:52.680 is seniors care in british columbia that was highlighted somewhat in covid but i don't think

01:37:58.920 we had the same issues as ontario did i think within ontario that went really sideways and

01:38:04.680 they're going to have to literally have a public inquiry about that for us in bc again it comes

01:38:09.240 back to affordability and what does that look like when it comes to seniors living and and also being

01:38:14.440 local to your community if do you have to move to prince george from terrace for seniors living or

01:38:19.320 do you have to move from hundred mile to kamloops or even from one of the outskirts of vancouver

01:38:24.760 into downtown or into a suburban area instead of being in the country how do we make sure that

01:38:29.800 seniors are being cared for where they're from and near their families well you know i brought

01:38:36.520 brought the senior's advocate up to Kitimat Terrace

01:38:40.020 a couple years ago.

01:38:41.560 And it was in response to a number of issues

01:38:45.400 that seniors were complaining about in my writing.

01:38:48.020 Number one was transportation to health facilities

01:38:50.760 in Vancouver and Victoria,

01:38:52.240 how hard it was and how unaffordable it was.

01:38:54.940 So we brought it around to consult

01:38:56.840 with all the different groups around Terrace, Kitimat, Niska.

01:39:01.300 And at the end of it, she actually made a comment to me

01:39:05.500 about the difference between the communities

01:39:10.620 and how seniors were actually looked after.

01:39:15.960 And she said, you know, the First Nations in question,

01:39:19.260 you know, have an advantage.

01:39:22.780 They basically have a whole community, you know,

01:39:25.940 that just looks after their seniors. 0.99

01:39:28.740 That there's no real program in First Nation communities 0.81

01:39:32.420 because you have a community surrounding you already.

01:39:35.500 And so that's why, you know, yeah, there's some complaints about specific issues about affordability or access to services, but that goes for every row of writing.

01:39:46.520 But she said when you look at non-First Nation communities in the towns and the cities, they don't have that network of support because they're so separated.

01:39:57.620 You know, the senior who lived in Vancouver maybe has some children living in Ontario or the United States.

01:40:03.040 they don't have that family unit around them to actually complement you know some of the services

01:40:08.240 there and it's actually quite interesting it's an actually quite interesting comment to make

01:40:14.160 and so i think community has a lot to do with it and how you build those communities and how

01:40:19.120 you build those networks and it should be a combination of uh i saw it through covid

01:40:25.120 where a number of non-First Nation families

01:40:29.300 actually started doing what they could

01:40:33.560 to help their seniors and their families.

01:40:36.920 But First Nations never really talked about it that much.

01:40:40.260 I think this is a society issue.

01:40:42.760 I don't think it's actually necessarily

01:40:43.960 totally a government issue.

01:40:46.240 I think there's something that we're missing here.

01:40:52.360 I completely agree that there needs to be

01:40:54.880 a more communitarian or community-based aspect to seniors care that's always the way it was

01:41:01.240 basically up until really the 70s and the 80s people always had to live kind of in the neighborhood

01:41:08.140 they grew up in and there was generational homes that wasn't just an immigrant thing that happened

01:41:12.940 from the 80s forward in BC now it was always a thing the idea of there being a generational home

01:41:18.620 one of the places where that would actually be important to talk about is policy is rural British

01:41:24.260 columbia with what happened with bill c52 which i believe is still ongoing the disputes around it

01:41:29.780 and the idea of there being access in rural communities to to having secondary housing

01:41:35.020 having secondary residences to allow for generational farming or even to take care

01:41:39.800 of one's in-laws take care of one's grandparents and how to how to help with that uh there's

01:41:44.700 obviously a lot of allowances made in the lower mainland when it comes to development

01:41:48.360 and you can build a tennis court if you like or get a carriage house on your garage or something

01:41:53.120 start getting a rent income from there but but when it came to rural british colombians they

01:41:57.840 felt really shut out by uh the current government because of bill c52 is there a way forward there

01:42:03.520 ellis yeah you know what that policy actually you know didn't really take into consideration

01:42:10.640 the different regions around bc i mean i can understand uh the issues around uh farmland down

01:42:18.400 and say uh vancouver i can see that uh very limited but that doesn't really apply to the

01:42:26.480 rest of bc and it doesn't apply to areas in bc where you know there may be a chunk of land

01:42:32.800 within the agricultural land reserve that is actually isn't even farmable so so why why do

01:42:39.920 you impose these restrictions on on a piece of land that can't be used for farming but we can

01:42:45.200 use for other purposes i mean a lot of that policy was created they really didn't take into

01:42:51.760 consideration how different bc is around you know in terms of our geography you know in terms of

01:42:58.800 the landscape i mean you look at the late late any the first nation outside prince george they

01:43:03.760 wanted to build a treatment center for their people and i've seen this before but because of

01:43:12.000 the policy put down by the bc government you know was disallowed for a chunk of land that already had

01:43:19.680 a building on it that was unsuitable for farming they wanted to turn into the treatment center

01:43:25.600 well the government said no well wait a minute this this land's not even good for farming and

01:43:32.640 it's already got infrastructure in it and all we need is actually convert it to a different zoning

01:43:38.400 uh designation so we can actually start the treatment center what i saw before

01:43:43.040 it was when first nations and we did this as well first nations when they start up this kind of

01:43:48.640 initiative you know just because of the policies they start out as okay we want to open up this

01:43:53.760 facility for first nations and then once it gets established they say okay now you know to make 0.98

01:44:00.880 to make this more sustainable, we want to open this up to more non-First Nations. 0.98

01:44:07.600 I mean, I've seen those private post-Sec institutions in our region. 1.00

01:44:12.040 First, you get the building established under the First Nations criteria.

01:44:17.980 And then after you've got that established, then you open it up to the greater population,

01:44:22.240 certainly because it's not sustainable just to keep a facility just for a small group of people.

01:44:27.580 you know you just don't have the customer base so i didn't understand you know the government

01:44:33.780 policy around restricting this type of initiative especially when you see the addictions actually

01:44:39.800 affects first nations and non-first nations alike you know in an equal manner

01:44:45.200 i think i think that that's part of it exactly is that not understanding that that you know your

01:44:53.820 policy policy prescriptions have consequences especially if you impose them across an entire

01:44:59.200 province maybe maybe as we kind of come to the end of our time here you could talk a little bit about

01:45:04.060 you know when the trudeau liberals got elected they talked about government by cabinet i don't

01:45:09.340 know if that's the same thing to talk about when it comes to bc but but if if you're successful in

01:45:14.000 your leadership bid and and becoming premier british columbia perhaps it needs to be at least

01:45:18.520 government by region or at least in consultation with the regions in a way that respects the

01:45:24.200 diversity of their needs what does that look like as a policy prescription it can't all just be what

01:45:29.560 fits in vancouver will fit everywhere else no and you know government actually talks about this but

01:45:36.600 they don't follow it you know look at the caribou save the caribou for instance up in northeastern

01:45:42.760 BC they went in there and they talked to all the the leadership they talked the community

01:45:49.960 and then the BC and federal government actually imposed a rule without actually considering all

01:45:55.560 the comments made by the region by the people that live there you know the people that like to work

01:46:00.520 and play in the backwoods and so they they came up with this and then consultation you know with

01:46:08.520 different parts of uh the population base it's got to be meaningful and i would know in no way

01:46:15.960 say you know i'd go into a place like uh surrey and tell them what i think should happen there

01:46:21.800 or order them you know to follow my lead you know the people of surrey know what's good for surrey

01:46:28.120 just the same way as rural people know what's good for the rural areas i mean it's just it

01:46:33.640 just makes sense to me i mean the policy that actually you know made sense for northern vancouver

01:46:39.480 island probably is not going to work well for my area and i think this has just got to be region by

01:46:46.920 region and you just take you know what's best based on what the people think of course you

01:46:54.280 got to consider some of the things government has to consider as well but i think that consultation

01:47:01.000 if you're going to say you're going to consult

01:47:03.540 you've got to consult meaningfully

01:47:05.840 and you've got to prove it that you've

01:47:07.820 taken into consideration

01:47:08.780 the people's wishes in terms of

01:47:11.560 what you're trying to address

01:47:12.900 and the people's issues

01:47:16.520 I mean that is what government is for

01:47:18.520 of the people, by the people

01:47:19.820 and for the people

01:47:20.780 the emphasis that you make

01:47:24.020 on the need

01:47:26.180 for the private sector to get more involved

01:47:28.080 with these things and to look at it in ways

01:47:29.980 of revenue, not just tax spending. Again, there's some people who have caution about that when it

01:47:35.560 comes to maybe utilities or even when it comes to insurance, the ICBC. But where is a practical

01:47:44.060 example of the NDP have clearly made this into a government thing when it shouldn't be a government

01:47:49.740 thing and the private sector would do it better. What's the clearest example for you from this

01:47:54.640 government that that they needed to go to private uh hands and not to public ones

01:48:01.360 well i just look at uh some of the the the direction that the world's taking

01:48:09.840 in terms of uh where we come out of this in terms of covid and there's a lot of things that

01:48:15.040 the government can't do in response. But the private sector can. And I'm really looking at

01:48:25.600 what really affects the average citizen. That's what I'm thinking about.

01:48:30.720 And once this infrastructure project is done for say the government, you know, that's it.

01:48:38.000 That's really done. It's because the government is actually not building a business enterprise.

01:48:44.720 you know, that can last for the next 20, 30, 40 years. Whereas the private sector, say for

01:48:49.680 LNG, or say mining for example. The mining industry has actually been quite healthy in BC

01:48:56.720 for quite a while, but it's going to boom. You know, government's not going to get into mining.

01:49:02.640 And with the trend we're seeing now with the world wanting more and more electric cars,

01:49:06.480 you're going to need more mining. I mean, if we see the electric car trend keep going for the next

01:49:12.640 20, 30, 40 years, the private sector, you know, who does, you know, a lot more efficient spending,

01:49:20.560 you know, a lot more outward looking in terms of the future, you know, they're going to have

01:49:24.640 to expand our mining capabilities here in BC and Canada, especially when you think United States

01:49:29.000 wants to limit their mining in response to electric cars, and they're looking to Canada

01:49:34.460 for the mineral resources. I mean, this is something that the private sector can do without

01:49:40.680 doubt they could do they could start tomorrow and they could do it in a most cost effective manner

01:49:46.280 that can supply jobs and revenues you know for the next 20 30 40 years depending on this electric

01:49:52.120 car trend and you know by the way when when we hear about this demonization of the private sector

01:50:00.600 you know there's a lot of things that aren't taken into consideration i mean we hear about

01:50:04.680 the products of course that we use but if you're in an area like mine nobody really considers the

01:50:10.280 private sector in terms of the contributions they make to our communities you know they donate to

01:50:16.200 the organizations you know they're actually part of our community you know the responsible corporate

01:50:21.080 citizens they're part of it but that is never put down onto a spreadsheet or a tax return you know

01:50:27.960 we forget all the things that the private sector has done for us in times of need or times of

01:50:33.000 celebration i mean there's a lot to the private sector that i think we take for granted and if

01:50:38.760 we keep it up you know they see what we saw in the last four years the private sector is just

01:50:44.680 going to get up and leave they're going to leave they're going to take their investment dollars

01:50:48.840 and go to the united states they're going to go across canada to where they're welcomed

01:50:53.000 and appreciated and i i don't think this budget the last pc budget actually appreciates the

01:50:58.280 private sector the way they should be they need to feel welcome here uh everybody does uh and

01:51:06.200 And importantly, those who create the jobs that actually fund the taxes, that actually fund the government, absolutely, they need to feel welcome here.

01:51:13.140 As a kind of final thought, Alice, as you've been journeying down this leadership role and getting involved and making connections, what's been the biggest learning curve, but also the happiest surprise of your journey towards the leadership of the BC Liberals?

01:51:31.540 well really i'm just taking the same approach that i did as chief in council from 2003 to 2017

01:51:40.360 um i'm a i'm a i'm a roughneck i did every kind of job you could think of just to put

01:51:48.940 food on the table and back in the 80s and 90s there wasn't many jobs around

01:51:52.640 and so i on the job learning from 2003 to 2017 in terms of economic development

01:51:59.740 you know I heard a lot of different theories a lot of different proposals but it dawned on me

01:52:06.620 quite early in that learning experience that really there's two things that stand out to me

01:52:11.880 number one is we have to do these projects with the highest environmental standards as possible

01:52:16.580 good check that box we're doing it and number two more importantly I had to see

01:52:23.180 that there was the promise that was going to be delivered

01:52:28.360 had to be how it's going to affect an individual's life,

01:52:32.420 how it's going to actually make somebody's life better

01:52:35.320 by maybe getting a better job.

01:52:37.040 Maybe it gets a person that's not in a very good place,

01:52:39.700 gets them to a better place, meaning maybe they're addicted,

01:52:43.040 maybe they're in prison, maybe they've been on welfare their whole life.

01:52:46.620 How do we get that person out of that situation

01:52:49.900 and get them to a better place?

01:52:51.360 I'm taking the same approach.

01:52:53.180 and uh you know it it's on the job learning after 17 years and i can't really change that

01:52:59.900 that perspective it it's got to affect the citizen it's got to affect the average person

01:53:06.540 i think the most uh surprising thing that that's come out of this is i didn't really make a formal

01:53:13.900 announcement i actually let it slip out by accident to the local paper because i thought well it's a

01:53:20.460 local paper nobody's going to care it's not going to get anywhere and it went out all across canada

01:53:25.820 and so people were asking me questions about my campaign my team i didn't have any campaign i

01:53:31.020 didn't have a team so the most surprising thing is you know the the ground cell of support that's

01:53:36.860 coming in from just regular people on social media on emails on texting you know finding out how to

01:53:43.980 get involved that's probably the most surprising thing since i hadn't really uh set up anything

01:53:49.740 formal because uh i knew i was going to do it i just didn't i just didn't think first before i said

01:53:55.820 that sometimes the best things are unscripted and of course we're very excited we're very excited

01:54:02.460 at your candidacy and we wish you all the best uh ellis thank you so much for being on the program

01:54:07.660 again we'll talk to you again soon thank you very much nathan absolutely well we've been uh just

01:54:15.340 chatting with ls ross there briefly and we're very thankful for uh for his presence on the show and

01:54:20.160 of course earlier in the show we were talking about just the nature of the restrictions and

01:54:23.700 everything else and what's happening there what isn't happening it's all all little confusing to

01:54:28.260 put it politely we don't really know what's happening uh but but i mean i think that if

01:54:34.280 nothing else it's a good place to kind of conclude is that british columbia is you know the most

01:54:39.260 beautiful place on earth at least for us i know we got a lot of albertans on the show and that

01:54:43.120 sort of thing, and maybe that's hard to hear, but

01:54:45.120 for us British Columbians, this really is

01:54:47.180 home, and it's hard to be away from it in any

01:54:49.100 way. Alberta Bound, the song

01:54:51.160 was rewritten to be BC Bound, there'd be

01:54:53.000 a 15 version, but they'd definitely be appreciated.

01:54:56.280 And as a

01:54:57.180 final point, again, there's that question of

01:54:58.940 solidarity. If we

01:55:00.960 stand in solidarity with one another, whether we're talking

01:55:03.180 about defeating COVID, whether we're talking

01:55:05.140 about the economic recovery that needs to happen afterwards,

01:55:07.300 we're talking about regaining our freedom,

01:55:09.280 finally about, you know, either

01:55:10.920 propelling somebody into office who's

01:55:13.120 you know, who we think represents our values or even just making sure that the guy down the street

01:55:18.000 knows that he is, you know, your brother or sister and that things are going to be things are going

01:55:23.560 to be OK. I think that that's that's the other half of it. And that's what we try to do on the

01:55:28.380 show. We bring people on. We talk about real ideas, real issues, real things that are affecting real

01:55:32.740 people. We try to be real ourselves. And I'm just thankful that you guys are always real with me in

01:55:37.840 the comments and that sort of thing finally uh i'm just thankful that i have the platform i have

01:55:43.840 it's been a month it's been a very adventurous month we've gotten meeting some really cool

01:55:48.120 people along the way and i'm just deeply thankful for what's uh what's come down the pipe and uh

01:55:56.480 hopefully hopefully with a little bit more determination and a little bit of hard work and

01:56:00.920 with with some investment on our parts of of again in solidarity and standing together

01:56:06.220 we will get back to a freer country a better country a more prosperous country and a place

01:56:12.520 that we can call the truth and worth strong and free regardless of whether that looks exactly as

01:56:16.900 it does now or very different depending on where you sit on the sovereignty question that's all

01:56:21.340 for me today thank you so much for tuning into mountain standard time tomorrow we're supposed to

01:56:25.880 have jay hill on in the second half and i'll open up again with uh with a bit of an opening statement

01:56:31.080 know about the state of things and where things are at at 10 a.m mountain standard time 9 a.m pacific

01:57:01.080 You

Western Standard - May 05, 2021

Mountain Standard Time - May 4th 2021

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