Pandemics, Kings and Queens - The Pipeline, Episode 13
Episode Stats
Summary
Join us as we discuss Her Majesty the Queen s message to the world, the dangers of pandemic pop culture, Trump and masks, and whether or not government overreach is taking too much advantage of the current situation and what that could mean for the future.
Transcript
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You're listening to the pipeline the Western standards national affairs program recording this Sunday April 5th
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Can you break down the issues discuss them in depth and examine some of the broader implications for Western Canada and beyond?
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Featuring from Calgary the Western standards publisher Derek Bilderbrandt Derek. How are you today?
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Excellent and featuring also Deirdre Mitchell McClain from Strathmore a senior reporter with the Western Standard. How are you Deirdre?
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Well, you can have all of ours because I'm not going outside anyway
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And finally featuring Dave Naylor from Calgary the Western standards news editor Dave
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Paul I'm feeling inspired at the moment. Just finished watching Her Majesty the Queen's message to the world and
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And and you really what a what a message what a woman what a leader she has been for so many years now
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The other topics we're going to talk about today are pandemic pop culture
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And and a little bit about government overreach and whether or not this
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Governments are taking too much advantage of the current situation and what that could mean for the future
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We'll leave that for last because that's going to be a lengthy and contentious discussion. I'm sure but
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Dave, why don't you tell us your story about the Queen?
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Well, first of all, I'm I was born in Britain. So the Queen is a huge part of my life
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Back in 19 must have been around 1995 the Queen did a royal tour through Canada and stopped in Calgary and
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I was in charge of the Calgary Sun's royal tour coverage at the time and
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Invitation her majesty commands you didn't invite me she commanded me to come down to a cocktail reception at the
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So we go down there and stand in line and you get up to the door and a doorman says screams out
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Your majesty Dave Naylor and she's there standing
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By herself in the middle of the room and you walk over and you shake her hand and she's really tiny like really really tiny
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Mingles around and talks to small people one-on-one
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And just as she approached our group they came by with hors d'oeuvres which the Calgary Herald reporter took and was still chewing as the Queen arrived
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So as we made our introductions again, the Herald reporter actually spit a piece of food
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gracefully through the air all the three of us just watching in horror as it landed on the Queen's shoulder so
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amongst the group and we were all worried we're gonna end up in the Tower of Calgary or whatever the closest
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Certainly one of my top memories of my life being able to have a gin and tonic with the Queen and and some really good
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You know one-on-one time for five or six minutes. How gracious was she about the food landing on her?
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You know what in her career, I'm assuming that's not the worst thing that's ever happened
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She did not bat an eye and continued as though nothing could happen. Wow
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We'll go around the circle here, but Dave maybe start with you. What did you think about her address to I guess to the world today?
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Well, it's it's the only the fifth time she's done it and she
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She brought up earlier addresses that she made with the Princess Margaret during the war and whatnot
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I thought she hit on all the high points, you know, she
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Commended the National Health Service workers in England the emergency workers people staying at home
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She does what she always does. She's a pillar pillar of strength in a time of need. So
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You know England's being very hard hit now hundreds and hundreds of deaths a day
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So hopefully everybody over there can take some take some strength out of it. Mm-hmm
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Deirdre, did you watch the Queen's address today? I did I was able to catch it. It was quick
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Reminder to people to please follow public health orders
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um, you know, she went in a different direction and
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How did she put it? I hope that I hope that everyone can look back on
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Basically how they behaved during this pandemic and be proud of their actions, right?
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So, you know a little more encouraging than than what I was I was hoping for a
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I I know I I know I wasn't going to get that but I was kind of hoping for a
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A slight version, right? Yeah. Yeah, fair enough. Uh, Derek
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Did you get a chance to listen to the Queen's address?
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No, I wasn't aware of it until we were about to say
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It's uh, I you know, it's it's interesting. I'm not a monarchist. Um, I imagine
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Um, I don't feel any particular connection to the Queen, but um, I've never been a huge republican either
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I don't think we need to necessarily ditch the system
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We have because there's pros and cons of every system, but uh, but it's it's uh, there's no question
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Really done some incredible things. Um, and not you can't say that about every monarch in history
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Uh, and so it's hard not to respect, um, an incredible woman who has just seen so much and
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As the british are so well known for throughout so many uh crises
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Now we're gonna go to a bit of a lighter note. Um, but not not too light still kind of kind of weird
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Um, reflecting upon the pop culture of the day, uh, it's amazing how when suddenly we go from
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We're in right now where more than half the world is, you know, staying at home and probably increasing in those numbers every day
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Happening on netflix, which you know might have in an ordinary time just been a passing thing
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And everybody's staying at home with nothing better to do than watch netflix. It's become this massive pop culture
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Hit and derek. I understand you are a big fan of the tiger king
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No spoilers though, but you can you can tell us how maybe this has changed your life
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Uh, I don't watch anything like the tiger king normally. It's not it's not my cup of tea
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uh, that kind of thing normally, but it it hit this exact moment where we're all
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But in this bizarre short decade we've had so far we've narrowly avoided a massive
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War across the middle east. Um, we've had the daily circus of the white house
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Um, and then we've had the tiger king and the tiger king joe exotic is
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I think so far in the short decade we've had so far. He is the symbol of the decade. He he's this
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He's this huge phenomenon that everybody's looking to uh, almost as a source of comfort and lightheartedness. I think in
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You know in the otherwise very dark and dreary time everyone's locked down the economy is in the absolute toilet across the world
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Uh, particularly in alberta because we're we're hit with the double whammy of uh oil prices. Uh, western canadian selects slipping below five bucks
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So now it's cheaper to buy a pint of beer in alberta than a uh, than a barrel of oil
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I don't know. It's it's it's just this wild thing that you must watch. Uh, almost no one's watched it. I think
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I suppose some of the few people who haven't are are on the show
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But it blows my mind. It is it is the craziest thing
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It has changed things the way the simpsons has in a very short period of time
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Like you can't have a con an extensive conversation in the english language in north america without understanding
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The simpsons references that you would use without even meaning to they're almost like shakespeare. They're just kind of embedded into the language
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I mean, it's uh, there's all these tiger king references now that have already started to creep into our language
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uh, as just pop culture references and it's happened in such a short period of time
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uh, I don't know how enduring it's going to be or not
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but uh, you know, when you joke about feeding your husband to the tigers, there's a very specific meaning
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About it now. And so so deirdre has a confused look on her face
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Uh, where culture has changed in the last few weeks. She needs to watch the tiger king
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The idea of sitting and watching the tiger king just makes me kind of ill. Um
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There's other things that can make you ill right now
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Um, yes, and and the whole the whole idea of the captive audience. Um, I
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Would literally have to be tied up I think to be that captive
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Like like a tiger in a cage almost. Yes. Yes, I'd have to be a tiger in a cage
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And you know, this is this is probably size wise my office is probably close
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You know, I I think what's interesting about it and I grew up in the 80s mostly
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In my formative years, I was born in the 70s, but um, you know, I remember a time
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Derek, you wouldn't remember this certainly and probably not deirdre
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Um, but I remember a time when there was 13 channels on the television
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And we only really watched five of them and one of them was not cbc
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Um, actually two of them were cbc, but nobody actually watched them except maybe for the news
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Um, but there was there were there was a pop culture when there was a popular show
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Everybody watched that popular show. You talked about the simpsons before
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Um as as an example of that and in the media landscape where like I have a kid who doesn't even watch netflix
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Certainly has never watched cable in his life. Um, you know, he watches youtube and we see occasionally
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We see youtube pop culture arise to the top and be oh, you know, so and so who's like the big youtuber and it's like who
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Right, and so there's there's a massive disconnect in our society when it comes to anything close to pop culture
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And so when something like this comes along on netflix and everybody watches it because it's the featured program
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it's almost a little bit nostalgic in the sense that
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um, even though it's silly and it's a distraction and and everything else which is maybe a good thing right now, um, I do
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Uh, sort of think that it's a it's an interesting cultural phenomenon to have anything close to the same level of popular culture is what I grew up with
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um, so it's a bit different dave you're uh, you're muted there, but
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If you grew up with 12 channels consider yourself lucky
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Remember we got hockey night in canada and the beachcombers
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Intelligent friend of mine who had watched the tiger king and I hadn't at the time to explain it to me
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And he says dave I can't I really can't you just have to watch it
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So I started watching it and my jaw got lower and lower
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And then by the end of the first episode it was on the ground
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Literally every character that is introduced in this documentary. It's it's true story. It's not
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Every single person on a tiger king can have their own show
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Binge watched it. I must admit. I think I watched it over two nights
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And now I've got my own joe exotic shirt going on
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Really it really is it's an eye-opener because there's a subculture going on in the states
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Really nobody knew about and it's in this trade of exotic animals
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And this is shedding a light on it. So there may be some good coming out of it
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You know, uh speaking of dropping you dropped a hint of a cbc show that some of us might
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Admit to having watched the beachcombers. Did you watch the littlest hobo as well? Oh, yeah
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I didn't do I didn't do that one. No. Oh, really?
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I I thought the littlest hobo was like the greatest hero on television. I got to admit
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It always made me cry at the end though. I know well because he left because he left he left I mean come on, you know
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Like you found this great family and they love you and you saved their billy from the well and then
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My german shepherds are going to be dressed up as tigers for halloween
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Why don't you dress dress your you could you can borrow dave's shirt for your toddler
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Well, we haven't decided to find the tiger king the meth boyfriend or carol's dead husband
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So there you know, so there's a lot of tiger king memes. We've seen a lot of memes
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Uh of 2020. I saw one that was it was actually on a shirt and it showed a
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Dumpster with fire coming out of the top and emblazoned on the dumpster was 2020
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And I really thought that that was an appropriate
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Um meme for the moment anything else, uh stand out to you fine folks, um, you know, it's nice to see
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A little bit of humor in the middle of what's obviously a bit of it, you know
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Obviously for a lot of people a very personal tragedy, uh, and for all of us a very trying time, but
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One of the best ones that i've seen is I would like to return my subscription for 2020
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I've tried it for three months and i'm done. Yep
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Lots of time machine references. I saw one the other day where, uh, kirk and spock went into the time portal
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And they said we got to go to 2020 and on the way out. We're like, let's never do that again
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Also, yep, I think that's fair enough. We're not that far into 2020 either
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Yeah, we got another well, and you know, it's what's interesting is we had all this happen and then on the west coast
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There was a earthquake. I think it was in russia and then there was a tsunami warning
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So we got to see that we got a tsunami. This was a few weeks ago now, but we got a tsunami warning
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Apparently, there's also locusts in um, in various places
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Biblical very biblical. So so I tweeted out saying that when the rivers run with blood
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And it and it actually turned the the I don't know if it's a river or a creek or what it was
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It was in the dam. Is it in the dam? Yeah, and it literally turned the water red. Yeah, and I thought okay
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Just flipping through revelation at this point and waiting waiting for the seventh seal to open
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Um, yeah, very, uh, very very different times certainly than the last time we even met as a group. So
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Um, yeah, any anything else on pop culture before we move along to the 3m
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Well, you know actually I won't I don't know if i'd say that it's pop culture, but
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A historically significant event. Yeah, and uh, I also did see
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Again, somebody else I think they're I think it was just uh, just a tweet
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But they were saying that living, you know, living in times that are making history is exhausting and
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You know, we're we're getting for the first time for a lot of us. We're getting an idea of exactly how exhausting that is. Yeah
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You know families and people being stuck together
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Obviously, if you like the people you're stuck with it's a little bit better
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but you know you you can imagine people who are stuck with people they do not get along with and
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terrible potential outcomes there my wife and I
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Yeah, sorry. I was gonna say I think we're gonna have a simultaneous
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Baby boom in nine months and divorce boom and divorce boom. Yeah, yeah, possibly hopefully from different
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Victoria, uh, where i'm from had a giant snow blast which was probably like any ordinary winter in calgary
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Shut down the entire city for a week. We couldn't actually even leave our apartment for about a week
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uh, we always look back at how crazy that time was, you know, being stuck together for a week
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Couldn't leave couldn't come couldn't go. It's terrible. And now we're on week four
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Back in 1996, Victoria got a snowstorm and the world stood still
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Oh, no, no, we it's it's legend in victoria. It's called the blizzard of 96 and uh, yeah,
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you know, it was probably an average calgary winter, but uh,
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But you know, we don't have machines to blow that snow out of the way and scrape it and whatever winter tires
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Weren't even useful at that point because cars were entirely covered anyway
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With no roads to drive them on even if you did dig them out. So
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It it literally shut down the town, but um, obviously move on to they've seen it now
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It shut down the world. Um, yeah, let's talk. Why don't you go first, eric? Tell me about
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Kind of random supplies and whatnot and it's uh, it's a large american corporation. It's integrated throughout north america. It's got some plants in ontario
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Um, you know, it gets many of its uh, resources, uh, for its manufacturing from places in canada
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uh, donald trump, uh, because they're they're one of the largest, uh
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Protective face mask manufacturers right now and donald trump
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Um, i'm not sure if we could say ordered. I'm not sure he has the authority to order a private corporation to do that because it's not government
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But, uh, essentially told them to stop shipping, uh, to other countries until america america's needs were met
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It's probably not the nicest thing to do with allies, but I don't think anyone should be surprised that the american
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president should be looking out for americans first
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But it wasn't entirely well thought out, uh, because I know as deirdre will surely point out if I don't get the jump on it first
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3m requires much of its raw materials from canada. So if
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Unduly harmed by this canada could then stop shipping. Um
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Much of the raw materials that it needs for the manufacturer of these things
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So this is sort of one of the problems when politicians get involved in trying to direct private corporations private entities that are not government
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Hyperventilated a fair bit about this of course
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Most canadian politicians wanted when they want they want an opportunity to take a shot at trump. Um
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Can you use some particularly strange language you compared this to?
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America not fighting the nazis for the first three years of the second world war
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Trying to invoke canada being there at the beginning with britain alone. It was a very strange comparison to make
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I think there's a very good argument that it's it's being a bad ally pandemics don't really recognize borders
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Possible probably the most difficult border to lock down on the planet would be the canada u.s border
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And so the united states has very much an interest in making sure that we have a handle on covet 19
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As much as they do, um, they need us to have it under control. Otherwise, uh
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Anything they do is going to be useless. So it was a very it was it was probably a poor move. Although I
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I think people should spare the outrage about the american president being america first
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But it was not the most well thought out move and it's certainly opened them up to uh shots from politicians
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Well, his shoot from the hip style certainly uh serves him in some cases and um doesn't serve him so well in other cases
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Trump policy that wasn't well thought out derrick. That's incredible, isn't it?
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He never just thinks that policy is on the top of his mind. Sure
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The other premier that uh took him to task was rather was ford in ontario, right?
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I just wanted to mention his handling of the crisis as a whole has been exemplary
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the left-wing critics of ford slowly coming around and and
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Admitting yeah, okay, he's doing all right. And I did. I never thought i'd say that but
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uh, ford is doing okay. That's not happening in alberta yet. Uh, none of jason kenny's
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uh, opposition are giving him credit at all. I personally think kenny's done all right
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I think he's done okay, uh, but he's certainly not getting any uh, any credit from the left wing. Well, let's circle back to that
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Because I think I want to hear what deirdre has to say on the 3m mass
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But let's talk about the the various politicians after deirdre. Sorry. Go ahead
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Yes, obviously that was a big part of a big part of what
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Trump's statement about 3m was absolutely hey everybody, you know, keep these for us
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It's the pulp from canada that actually makes those masks possible. So
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Look too much to when they're not actually first. So
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Invoke the defense protection act, which he has dubbed the p act
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Jason kenney, there's a shout out ish, uh, but also
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What can you do? How can you contribute to this? They're not
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Forcing anyone to do anything at this time, but they're saying how can you be retooled? How can how can you help?
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So yet again, you know, just a little different way of doing things
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Sometimes if you ask because a lot of companies want to keep working, they want to keep producing they want to keep selling
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So making ventilators instead of cars apparently is is another thing and interestingly
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Vancouver island pulp mill that produces most of that most of that
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Yeah, most of that paper for just north of where I am. So
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um, hooray for us making uh making the raw materials of the masks that uh that our health care workers need
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I'm using the we're using the zoom app and we have actually for before it became trendy
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um, and uh, it does these virtual backgrounds for anybody listening
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um, so I one of the things I wanted to point out on the political side before we kind of just scooch back into
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Various political things. I've noticed in alberta. Um, the ndp's still playing politics a fair bit with this
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You guys would know more than me. What I found really fascinating here in british columbia
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Even though we have a ndp minority government that's only just sort of barely propped up by the greens
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Um, but they are the primary opposition here as a result of the coalition
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Um, they came right out at the very beginning and said, you know what? This is really serious
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We're going to if if we see an opportunity to make suggestions to help the government to make better decisions, uh, we're going to do so
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Uh, but we're not, you know, we're not going to be political right now
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And it's been it was shocking to see honestly, um, and how you know people can lay down their weapons
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um, you know the their opponents during a time of crisis
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And uh, it gives me a little bit of hope for humanity that we can see that from our politicians. Maybe, uh, maybe we can see that for you
00:27:35.740
Yeah, well, and I as I understand that's not exactly how things are going down in alberta
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Why don't we go around the go around the horn here and just jump in if you're uh, if you want to sort of talk
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I don't know if you guys want to talk about the situation in alberta. Yeah. Well, I I think it's very important to touch on
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Um, across I haven't studied every single province in depth, but i've been watching bc
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Saskatchewan and ontario in particular the those three outside of alberta and of course federally and for the most part
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Uh, it's been as you described from the bc situation. You can apply that across most of the country
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Um, I can tell you from my experience being in opposition during a crisis when we had the the fort mcmurray fires
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Oppositions don't really know what to do with themselves. They
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You know the only way they ever get printed in the media
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Is when they take a hard shot at the government if they're not taking hard shots
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They get ignored people ask. Well, why don't the oppositions get along with the government?
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It's because if they don't if they get along with government
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They get ignored and so they have to attack and they don't really know what to do with themselves during a crisis
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but during the fort mcmurray fires the wild rose we um
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You know, we had actually we're right in the middle when that happened
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We were in the middle of the budget debates in a budget where the ndp had actually significantly cut the forest firefighting
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But we holstered our guns we made sure that it was about helpful
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There's enough going on for the government and it's frustrating for oppositions because governments
00:29:07.260
It's really the bureaucrats in charge the politicians are just more or less they're making a few decisions
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But they're more or less just doing what the bureaucrats tell them to do there. They're just as
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Spokes people of the government while the bureaucrats enact the plans that have been in place before that
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And uh, so it's actually pretty easy for politicians to look good
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Government politicians not opposition politicians but for government politicians to look good during a crisis
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But the default is that they're going to look good because there's actually smart people running these things in the background of bureaucracy
00:29:44.620
Opposition politicians have understood people don't want to see politics for this but alberta has really been a huge exception the ndp have
00:29:53.340
Not taken their foot off the gas and going after the government
00:29:57.980
And and that's fine like they are the opposition, but they have really
00:30:08.460
At the government's expense on this and I understand the temptation that's what oppositions want to do
00:30:13.900
But the ndp and alberta have never reconciled themselves to the fact that they lost
00:30:21.500
They are not the natural governing party of alberta. They are a socialist party in a very non-socialist province
00:30:27.420
And they never really brought themselves around to understand
00:30:35.100
It's just been very difficult for them to accept this and
00:30:38.860
Uh, you know, not lee was in charge during the fort mcmurray fires by most
00:30:43.820
Most observers would say she did a good job and she's now sitting on the sidelines people don't really care what they have to say
00:30:52.540
I I think not comporting themselves very well as an official opposition during a crisis year
00:31:03.100
Um, okay, so that's definitely one perspective derrick, uh
00:31:18.620
That you can't I mean looking at the situation that we have now
00:31:23.420
Without taking into account some of the context
00:31:27.580
Remember that a lot of things have been done since the ndp lost and whether they are the
00:31:39.820
They you know, the ucp has spent a lot of time taking apart a lot of the things that the ndp did
00:31:47.340
Uh, they're you know as far as education goes doctors
00:31:56.380
So the I mean the doctor pay thing just went through
00:32:00.860
uh, doctors are still saying that they are not being paid for certain
00:32:06.460
Uh, things the thing that I was reading about today was the good faith clause
00:32:13.100
There's a lot of room to criticize government. Oh, there is
00:32:16.300
And and and and oppositions should not be giving blank checks to governments here
00:32:20.700
They shouldn't be ranking them unreasonable powers and they shouldn't be uncritical of government
00:32:25.740
But they shouldn't be trying to take whatever issues are there at that moment
00:32:30.060
To try and undermine the government in the middle of a crisis. That's just not a responsible opposition
00:32:37.500
They were cutting the forest fire budget was literally before the legislature
00:32:44.140
Do you remember it did but we uh, we very much we were criticizing it before the fires
00:32:49.580
But then we waited till the immediate crisis had passed now. It's a much that was a shorter term crisis because the fire
00:32:57.500
Once that crisis passed then we left them then we went back for the jugular
00:33:02.140
But during the actual middle of that crisis while fires were burning
00:33:06.860
We holstered our guns on those things because we thought it was the responsible thing to do as an opposition, right?
00:33:13.660
Uh sundry doctors have said that they will not be going into hospitals to deliver babies because they are no longer getting paid for it
00:33:25.740
There are very fair issues to deal with here and the ndp is under no obligation to not be critical of the government
00:33:31.340
They shouldn't be that's their job. It's their job to make life difficult
00:33:34.780
But if you're keeping up with the daily, uh barrage of news releases from these guys, uh, which i'm not
00:33:40.940
Yeah, they are trying very much to try and score points at every available opportunity
00:33:45.500
Some of which are fair some of which are not right and there is there is too much going on right now for them
00:33:51.260
Um, like question period is a complete waste of time
00:33:55.100
The the gotcha moments that that they're going for is
00:34:06.380
That as if we're not in the middle of a pandemic
00:34:12.940
But they also don't we like we don't really seem to have a government
00:34:17.420
That is interested in working with their opposition
00:34:21.820
So, I don't remember the last government that was willing to work with opposition with the brief exception of jim prentis trying to eat it
00:34:30.060
Governments don't work with official oppositions in any province or federally. They hate each other because they are
00:34:35.820
Because no, it's it's a zero-sum game in other provinces
00:34:39.180
Oh, you know sure well, they're getting along they're choosing to get along I think
00:34:42.940
That's right. It's a choice in other provinces. There's been a level of detente
00:34:47.260
um, yeah, you know, i i'm no uh, apologist for jason kenney here, but I think he's tried to be
00:34:53.740
Non-partisan in dealing with the opposition during this crisis at least and that's very rare
00:34:58.300
He tends to not like working with other parties. That's the nature of our system
00:35:02.300
But the ndp here have made themselves intractable on this
00:35:05.660
They've they've uh, and I think it's just because they've never accepted that they lost the election
00:35:11.020
I lost the election. I accepted it. I moved on to the ndp
00:35:16.300
But they've also got this weird view that jason kenney is practically a fascist. So for them, uh
00:35:22.300
It's it's a life or death situation when things have not actually changed that much
00:35:26.380
By the way, alberta is this huge exception here where around the rest of the country the daily
00:35:33.340
Petty back and forth of politics that is par for the course has been mostly shelved
00:35:42.300
Virtually like nothing's changed and and we won't talk about how petty politics continues down south. Dave your thoughts on
00:35:49.260
Alberta uh, to be brief i'm on team derrick team derrick uh, the only he was the premier right now, right?
00:36:00.860
Relevant in alberta at the moment what they think is irrelevant
00:36:05.260
What they want to do is irrelevant and they just can't handle that and
00:36:13.020
For lack of a better word, but uh, yeah team derrick all the way. It's an it's an interesting I accept
00:36:19.340
It's an interesting thing to watch and you know, I before we kind of move on to the next topic which ties in nicely
00:36:27.020
I remember when there were the fires in fort mcmurray
00:36:30.140
Vividly we actually had a big conference in victoria. I was I was at and uh, was running and um
00:36:44.140
Victims and everybody in the room, you know from all over canada
00:36:48.460
Was an agreement that this was a national uh, crisis and we all needed to step up
00:36:53.340
Fort mcmurray was an interesting experience in that sense because everybody knew somebody there because so many people who worked there
00:37:01.580
Came from other places across canada and uh, and so
00:37:06.220
You know if and for anybody who's listening who is an alberta or western separatist
00:37:11.180
um, I gotta say the fort mcmurray experience was
00:37:14.940
For me anyway a moment of national pride when I was able to see canadians from all over including quebec and including
00:37:22.460
Maritimes and all over come together for a common cause and uh, i'd like to see that again during this circumstance
00:37:29.980
I'd have I make no mistake in thinking that this is going to be normal anymore
00:37:34.220
That people are just all gonna agree and we're all gonna hold hands and sing kumbaya and that shouldn't be the case
00:37:39.900
but um, but it's nice to see when people can come together during a crisis and let's hope, uh, alberta
00:37:47.980
Um, that being said we're gonna flip the script a little bit. We're gonna talk about
00:37:53.580
never letting a good crisis go to waste and obviously there's a lot of concern
00:37:57.660
Right now for the impact on the economy. A lot of people are saying is the is the um, uh, is the treatment?
00:38:07.180
Uh, than the than the disease right in terms of economic impact. I think it's a legitimate question to ask
00:38:14.140
I have my personal opinions about that, but um, I think it's a it's a legitimate question to ask
00:38:18.780
And then of course the other question is, um, the erosion of liberties
00:38:22.300
If people are being forced to stay home or being forced, you know, uh, to do things that you know, that they wouldn't or government wouldn't ordinarily demand of us
00:38:31.020
Um, is that going to be a new normal or is that a temporary thing?
00:38:34.940
And we can expect to go back to normal and return our liberties once once this happens
00:38:40.060
And um, I think there's a lot to open up there. I don't know if who wants to jump in first, but um, Dave, uh, maybe you have some some thoughts in general
00:38:51.100
My first thought is is that this is not going to be over quickly. I think we're going to be in this sort of situation
00:38:58.540
I i'm thinking until at least the end of summer. Uh, I may be wrong. I hope i'm wrong
00:39:05.420
Right now all of canada was a big debt to the handful of conservative politicians who stopped prime minister trudeau's
00:39:13.660
Huge spending grab that he was trying to put through last week
00:39:16.300
That would have freed up the government to spend and tax whatever the hell they wanted
00:39:20.780
As much as they wanted all the way until the end of 2021
00:39:25.020
Uh, so that's the type of thing while we're in quarantine and not being able to do much
00:39:32.620
And uh, as journalists, uh, you know, those are the stories that we should be chasing just to keep the uh, the liberals in check
00:39:40.940
From what they want to do what to keep their power
00:39:57.500
Uh before the summer, uh, there's uh, there's a larger concern that
00:40:04.140
That once we start to really, uh, get rid of some of the restrictions that we have on
00:40:13.420
Our daily lives that, uh, the virus will come back because we won't be able to completely eradicate it until we have a vaccine
00:40:23.500
So, uh, I mean, I think that we're looking at a much different
00:40:28.220
normal between now and the time that we get that vaccine
00:40:36.540
Um, I want to touch on what dave was uh was into, um
00:40:42.620
You know federally, uh, the different parties seem to have holstered their guns as they have in most of the provinces across the country
00:40:49.340
Uh, but the liberals took it uniquely and I haven't seen this in any other province
00:40:53.420
The liberals took it as a unique opportunity for a wild power grab to essentially suspend parliament and hand all
00:41:00.380
Lawmaking powers over budgets the ability to raise taxes and spend money the whole reason we created parliaments in the 1200s
00:41:10.300
So that the executive had to have legislative approval for
00:41:14.380
Taxes and spending was just to be handed over unilaterally to the liberals until the end of 2021
00:41:20.220
That would have made the minority liberal government more powerful than the majority liberal majority liberal government that came before
00:41:28.860
That would have kept them in office without any parliamentary oversight
00:41:32.060
It wouldn't have had to call parliament until the end of 2021 and they could govern as if they uh more than if they had a majority government
00:41:38.780
And uh, the bloc have a qual rolled over on it. Uh, the federal ndp didn't like it
00:41:43.260
They opposed it, but not very hard and the conservatives grew a bit of a spine on this one
00:41:47.500
But the conservatives rolled over on a lot of stuff
00:41:51.820
They rolled over on a lot of the uh, the spending that was actually in the end passed by the liberal government
00:41:57.820
The conservatives agreed to a vast majority of it. They made they made some
00:42:02.700
Suggestions for changes some of which were actually implemented
00:42:06.300
But the conservatives rolled over on quite a bit
00:42:09.260
I think understanding that the public sentiment is that they don't want parties playing hardball
00:42:13.660
But they did dig in over the emergency powers grab that that the liberals intended
00:42:19.340
Uh, but it's not just in canada. You see this, um,
00:42:25.260
Doing away with parliament for an extended period of time here or temporarily where victor orban is now going to govern by decree
00:42:34.060
Right, I posted the problem is so many people are willing to trust governments with extraordinary extreme powers
00:42:40.940
If they like the politicians in charge not not suspicious of the nature of government itself
00:42:45.340
I mean, I I shared that victor orban in hungary had succeeded in doing this and he's a right-wing anti-european union kind of guy
00:42:52.940
You know, I think a lot of our readers would be sympathetic with with some at least some of what he stands for
00:42:58.780
And um, but a lot of our readers are saying well, it doesn't matter that he did it
00:43:02.300
But trudeau tried to do it because he's good. Yeah, well sure
00:43:05.260
But trudeau's fans trust him and the point is that we should never trust government with these extraordinary powers
00:43:11.100
We never had we didn't hand over all legislative powers to the cabinet during two world wars
00:43:16.540
Now those governments did invoke the war measures act now renamed the emergencies act
00:43:20.700
And they did extreme assume an extraordinary amount of power
00:43:23.740
And most of that power is never handed back when governments go into crises
00:43:27.500
They assume new powers in wars in these kinds of disasters
00:43:31.100
And when the when the crisis passes they hand back some of those powers, but never all of them
00:43:35.820
And that's why in the united states donald trump has the authority to order companies to start producing things and that is a hangover from the first world war
00:43:44.540
income taxes are our hangover from world wars for god's sakes these things never go away
00:43:49.660
And uh, you've got a lot of politicians out there right now including uh, catherine mckenna senior liberal cabinet minister
00:43:57.820
uh, the growth in the size of government during this crisis should be put to use after it has passed
00:44:02.860
To fight global warming and what that does by politicizing it like this by by adding a very clear
00:44:07.660
ideological dimension to this is it can break down the consensus that's been tried
00:44:12.140
People are trying to achieve across the political spectrum
00:44:15.180
To have a consensus on how to deal with this, uh
00:44:18.220
With the crisis at hand, but why should we trust governments with these greater powers?
00:44:22.540
If so many of their leading members are stating that once this crisis is passed they want to use these new powers for other
00:44:33.420
Yeah, it's it's interesting. I've and I've seen we've seen this in the states a lot
00:44:37.020
But also in canada is this concentration of powers at the executive level
00:44:41.740
um, you know a number of uh, when obama was popular and everybody loved obama and he
00:44:47.900
Uh, he was handed several powers. Nobody questioned his the executive privilege
00:44:52.540
Uh, that he that he that he he took to put in to basically pass edicts if you will
00:44:59.180
um, you know in in america and uh, um, and then as soon as, um, a president comes in this
00:45:08.220
You know that those the same people that might have handed those powers to obama, uh, didn't like
00:45:16.540
And so this is the nature, uh, the pro-constitution party is always the party out of power
00:45:20.860
Exactly. President obama was in power republicans lost their mind about executive overreach and the and the need of congress to constrain
00:45:29.500
As soon as trump wins they they forget all of that and they think the president should have total power
00:45:34.780
And then the democrats who had no concern about it when obama's in power all of a sudden they start banging away about the constitution
00:45:42.860
The opposition parties are always talking about the rights of parliament to hold the government to account
00:45:47.100
And then as soon as they get elected, they don't care anymore. It's it's the same thing and unfortunately this
00:45:52.220
That's just I think the nature of politics is that you only care about restricting power of government
00:45:59.580
Yeah, and and the power of precedent can be incredible in in um, in practice
00:46:05.100
You know you when you when you bestow power upon an office
00:46:09.260
Don't be surprised when somebody who you don't like
00:46:12.940
Takes that office and turns that power into something horrible. It's essentially what happened with the rise of of of the nazis in in germany
00:46:20.460
Well, I well that's a bit further than I was gonna go a little different, but no
00:46:27.420
The tories invoke closure to shut down debate on bills. Well, I was there
00:46:31.260
They did it every damn day that they felt like it as soon as they got any pushback that was taking too long
00:46:35.980
They would invoke closure then they lose power the tories come in and the tories can say hey, we're just doing what you did
00:46:44.460
parties fighting against governments abusing powers
00:46:47.260
Sometimes it's principled for the but for the most part
00:46:49.260
They're just complaining that they're not able to abuse the power themselves
00:46:52.060
Exactly. Yeah, and and and that's that's exactly my point and obviously you're not gonna take it to the extreme
00:47:00.140
Of concentrating power rarely leads to uh great outcomes or certainly consensus building outcomes
00:47:09.180
Um, you're uh, you're any any final thoughts, uh, deirdre or dave on uh, the state of the world today
00:47:16.700
Yeah, I I just think we should have a office pool amongst all western standard readers or listeners to try and pick the date
00:47:24.620
Justin trudeau is going to come out of his cottage
00:47:27.500
And actually become a leader a world leader because I don't know if if he realizes the the you know
00:47:34.380
The internet joke that he's become by hiding in his cottage every day and not going to work
00:47:39.260
Uh, you know, maybe he thinks if he sees his shadow, we're gonna get two more months of winter or something, but uh
00:47:47.100
Uh, I think that I think something that we all appreciate
00:48:04.060
When we are being told to stay at home and work from home is that our leaders do it as well
00:48:10.460
Uh, jason kenney tyler shandro shandro doing his uh, his
00:48:20.140
Hospital employees during this did not go over well and it shouldn't have gone over well
00:48:25.180
This is this is precisely the sort of behavior. We're asking everyone else to not do
00:48:38.540
You know, watch watch what you are, uh, uh, watch what you're complaining about
00:48:43.980
Right. What are what are what are you like? What are what are you asking other people to do?
00:48:52.060
Prime minister deirdre he's the prime minister. He's the leader of the country
00:48:55.660
Yes, and we also don't want him to get sick and die. Well, yeah, most of us
00:49:01.340
But yeah, i'm even i'm even willing to protect the op opposition
00:49:09.500
Just stop doing stop the photo ops, especially in hospitals. Like come on. That's just gross
00:49:15.180
I have no time for people who wish this disease upon their opponents. That's that's just crass
00:49:21.020
And if you're listening and you do that stop it, that's uh, you know, not only is it not only is it crass and you know
00:49:34.460
You wish it upon the people that you don't like and that's just going to spread it around to more people that you do
00:49:39.580
So just just keep it to yourself, you know, dave
00:49:42.220
I do think we have a fantastic global leader in canada. Her name is christia freeland
00:50:08.300
It's just it's hard to find a voice. It's hard for anyone to find their voices right now who aren't just supporting authority
00:50:20.700
Cooks like me who just are paranoid of whatever the government's doing. It's it's a difficult time
00:50:25.340
Uh, when there's this very much a rally around the flag rally around the leader mentality
00:50:31.980
Anywhere in the world right now when you're facing anything where anyone anytime anyone feels society feels besieged
00:50:38.380
We become more deferential to authority to the state to government to leaders
00:50:45.660
And and I it's a natural human reaction because we were looking for something that's comforting
00:50:50.460
We're looking for this paternal figure and people are doing it around the world and
00:50:55.500
Oppositions are frustrated because they have a hard time finding their voice in this
00:51:00.540
Um, but they shouldn't disappear. They should be not critical. Um,
00:51:05.660
Um, you know, there there's a place for the ndp in alberta was with a voice
00:51:10.860
Uh, it's probably just not doing what they're doing. But at the same time, uh, i'm i'm afraid of, uh,
00:51:16.780
Oppositions becoming too uncritical of uh media becoming too uncritical
00:51:23.580
Us because we're in this kind of siege mentality everyone is so eager to grant
00:51:28.460
Extraordinary powers to governments and not just about telling people to stay in their houses temporarily
00:51:32.860
But that the the overall massive expansion of the state into other areas of the economy and our social lives that we might not get back and
00:51:42.300
It's good. It's important right now that we have a critical media and we have critical uh
00:51:47.260
Critical opposition politicians who are not going to be granting blank checks, uh, because I think not just in canada but around the world
00:51:54.540
Uh governments are growing much more powerful and they're not going to be handing much of this back in the near future
00:52:07.580
Um, on that note, we will wrap it up. Uh, just wanted to say before we go, uh, if you're still gainfully employed
00:52:16.140
Um, and you would like to support independent media, please, uh, go to the westernstandardonline.com and become a member today
00:52:24.780
We, uh, are very grateful for all of our members and, um, I know it's difficult time for everybody, but, uh,
00:52:31.660
Uh, if you think this is important, then we will continue to off to bring this to you
00:52:37.580
On behalf of everybody at the western standard, but especially, uh, derek deirdre and dave
00:52:47.260
And um, we will come to you each weekend, uh, for the foreseeable future
00:52:56.460
Everybody including our leaders in this country, um, get through this crisis