Western Standard - Premier Smith must respond to the teachers strike by expanding school choice

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00:00:30.900 Good day and welcome to the Cory Morgan Show as we're halfway through October in this really crazy year.

00:00:38.320 Well, maybe every year is kind of crazy, but it just feels like it gets nuttier and nuttier all the time.

00:00:42.540 Stuff going on all around the world, stuff going on domestically, and stuff going on here in Alberta.

00:00:47.500 So I'll be covering a whole bunch of that stuff today as well as talking to a very interesting guest in about 15 minutes,

00:00:53.160 Magat Wade of Prosperity Not Poverty.

00:00:56.040 She took part in a documentary that John Robson put together.

00:00:59.660 If you're familiar with him, you should look him up.

00:01:01.340 He has a lot of great work in Canada on political stuff.

00:01:04.560 And the documentary is called In the Dark, Senegal as a Case Study in Energy Poverty. 0.96

00:01:10.100 It talks about, you know, how the Western world and its idiotic environmentalism is really, really hurting developing countries a lot. 0.86

00:01:16.700 And getting a first-hand account from that should be quite interesting. 0.96

00:01:20.200 So that'll be on in a little bit.

00:01:22.420 Normally, I would have Dave give me a news check-in, but he's tied up with a meeting.

00:01:26.480 I suspect he'd rather be in here than sitting at that meeting.

00:01:28.700 But all the same, it means you just get more of me going through those news things and seeing what's happening this week.

00:01:34.620 Use that comment scroll. I see a couple of you there. Free speech, media, Rhonda.

00:01:40.200 It is an interactive show to a degree. I see every comment there.

00:01:43.680 I don't necessarily call them all out, but we can have those chats and just keep things civil with each other.

00:01:50.300 So let's see, and yes, we will talk about, I see people are talking already about education,

00:01:54.800 and that's what I want to start with here with this teacher strike in Alberta.

00:01:58.540 I mean, eventually that strike's going to be settled and there's going to be concessions made,

00:02:01.980 but one concession that must not be on the table is the reduction or elimination of school choice.

00:02:08.820 In fact, the UCP government should be working on expanding education options

00:02:12.980 to reduce the Alberta Teacher Union's ability to hold students hostages as they are right now.

00:02:18.780 Alberta's teachers turned down an offer which would have made them among the highest compensated teachers in Canada,

00:02:24.080 along with a commitment to hire 3,000 more teachers and 1,500 educational assistants.

00:02:29.620 Since then, though, we see the true target of the teachers' union has emerged, school choice.

00:02:34.420 While union representatives have been uttering the stock lines about class sizes and complexity,

00:02:40.060 their prime target's been complaining about private and charter schools.

00:02:43.620 And this is where the true nature of the strike emerges.

00:02:46.080 It's a power grab by a union that wants a monopoly on education provision.

00:02:50.700 The union couldn't care less about the needs of the children, and it shows.

00:02:54.520 They pretend to care about class sizes, yet forget to acknowledge that alternative education options

00:02:59.780 currently take about 75,000 Alberta students out of public school classrooms

00:03:05.460 when you take homeschooling into consideration.

00:03:07.500 So if those options are taken away, as the union would like,

00:03:10.800 how do we accommodate with that sudden influx of students?

00:03:13.780 Aren't the classes already overcrowded?

00:03:15.620 Not only that, how are we going to pay for it?

00:03:17.960 Despite the claims of the teachers union, kids in private schools and who are homeschooled save the taxpayers a load of money.

00:03:25.220 Children in private schools only receive 70% of the funding per student that a public school student gets.

00:03:31.420 And homeschool children get about 10% of that funding.

00:03:34.440 Students in charter schools cost about the same.

00:03:36.780 So if these options are taken away from parents and students, the public system will have to make

00:03:41.940 up that shortfall, which is going to be a lower per student ratio of funding overall. The union

00:03:47.440 constantly brings up the challenges of what they like calling classroom complexity. There's truth

00:03:53.300 to this claim, but the proposed solution is wrong. So we've had a decade of mass immigration policies.

00:03:58.860 The number of students speaking English as a second language has increased dramatically.

00:04:02.360 That's really causing a lot of difficulty in the classrooms for teachers. Fair enough.

00:04:07.500 As well, educational trends have increasingly put children with special needs or different

00:04:10.860 needs into regular classrooms. It does make for more challenging learning environment for everybody,

00:04:16.140 from fellow students to the teachers. But charter and separate schools provide specialized

00:04:21.020 environments where students can receive the instruction then tailored to those needs.

00:04:25.820 It actually takes the complexity out of the classroom and addresses those. We got charter

00:04:30.540 schools for English as a second language. We got charter schools for gifted children

00:04:34.460 or children who need extra help in other areas. Yet the union wants to keep the children crammed

00:04:41.260 into standardized classrooms. They're talking out of both sides of their mouths. Teachers recognize

00:04:45.900 the unique needs of children in learning environments and how not all of them respond

00:04:49.740 well to conventional learning methods. That's why the teachers unions always claim they oppose

00:04:54.620 standardized testing because the kids learn differently. The reality is they just don't

00:04:58.060 want to see which teachers are good and which are bad. They got to keep that merit pay idea

00:05:02.620 out of the formula again they don't care about the students it's a union remember that they don't

00:05:07.420 even like calling themselves a union they call themselves an association but they're a union

00:05:10.700 don't let them talk around it when efforts are made to provide specialized charter or private

00:05:15.900 schools the unions fight the efforts tooth and nail the hypocrisy is galling increased school

00:05:21.660 choice offers more educational spaces that can accommodate the diverse educational needs and it

00:05:27.260 saves the entire system money those spaces don't create union positions however and that's where

00:05:32.540 the unions have a problem with it. Not only should the Smith government stand firm against

00:05:37.380 the teachers strike on these demands, but it should make it clear it's time to develop even

00:05:41.840 more choice in education. We've got underutilized inner city schools that should be identified and

00:05:46.920 converted into charter schools. The creation of more private schools should be encouraged

00:05:50.820 and parents should be reminded their children won't lose educational time due to strikes in

00:05:55.320 those institutions. The government has to hold its ground against organized labor because they're 1.00

00:06:00.300 trying to take full control of the educational system and it's time to start fighting back.

00:06:04.280 The choice for both teachers and students being on the table, everybody wins. Oh, except for the

00:06:09.480 self-serving unions. Let's see, you know, some of the comments go in here, guys. Yeah, good afternoon

00:06:16.940 to Debbie and here's one. Paul saying public funds should not go into private schools. Ah,

00:06:22.660 the politics of envy. Listen, we all pay taxes. Those taxes go per student and it gets spent

00:06:31.040 somewhere. Only 70% of it goes to the student who goes to a private school. So what? Get over it.

00:06:38.540 Suck up your envy. You're actually saving money by the students going there. Where do we stop it? 0.99

00:06:44.420 It sounds like the fools who say that we shouldn't allow any private provision of health care too, 0.98

00:06:48.240 right? Everybody should just have a miserable, low level of care under a socialized system. 0.99

00:06:52.760 We're great in Cuba, doesn't it? Idiotic union lines. Idiotic union lines. That's all it is. 1.00

00:06:59.220 Guys, we pay taxes. We have children. We should have the right to choose where our children go 0.70

00:07:03.060 to school. And yes, some of it's going to go private. And you know what? Because it makes

00:07:06.600 it better. Get over it. But yes, let's see the union tips its hand. Let's see. I stand with

00:07:15.680 workers who never allow union reps to choose strike action from glenn erickson okay but you

00:07:20.620 know the bottom line is in the end the workers are responsible for the actions of their union

00:07:26.020 they kind of bat that back and forth well the workers are all right but it's the union it's

00:07:29.060 bad well they vote for their union reps they vote for those deals and the teachers have to be held

00:07:34.360 accountable i mean some of what shows what's going on here and as we're seeing uh and legacy media

00:07:40.700 of course, is giving it a lot of ink. An application has been put forward for a petition now

00:07:46.080 to hold a referendum to basically ban all funding of alternative education. And lo and behold,

00:07:53.920 the person behind this petition and such is Alicia Taylor, who is a union representative,

00:08:03.860 also a teacher. Why? Why does that bother them so much? It's all about monopolies. It's all about

00:08:09.920 stuffing everybody together into a room. They're feeling the pressure. They're feeling the threat

00:08:14.020 because charter schools are expanding. We're not talking about the private schools, even charter

00:08:17.440 schools, non-profit schools, but it's giving options, non-union options. I want to stand up

00:08:23.760 for the students. So we've got to have that discussion. And as we're seeing that pressure

00:08:27.640 on, because parents are getting pretty upset. They're having difficulties. The students, of

00:08:32.160 course, are sweating, particularly ones when you're looking at a grade 12 year, because they want to

00:08:35.760 make sure they can graduate, apply for post-secondary, things such as that.

00:08:41.440 And here's one from Scott Anderson, a good one to put out.

00:08:43.760 Pardon my voice.

00:08:44.600 I am shaking off a bit of a flu here, guys.

00:08:46.960 If federal issues like immigration, inflation, are hammering Alberta's classrooms,

00:08:49.880 why isn't the ATA demanding federal solutions through its counterpart,

00:08:53.020 the Canadian Teachers Federation?

00:08:54.180 Excellent question.

00:08:55.940 You know, this is what it comes down to, too, 0.98

00:08:57.480 when we see the strike actions and the threats and the usual crap. 0.98

00:09:01.880 Mass immigration is causing us problems everywhere. 1.00

00:09:04.880 not immigration in itself. And that's where a line has to be distinguished. I mean,

00:09:11.040 immigration is an integral part of our country and it's, it's good for us when done correctly,

00:09:17.060 when controlled, but we're paying the price, the consequences of over a decade of mass immigration 1.00

00:09:22.180 under Trudeau and it's hitting everywhere. That's where healthcare is running into shortages. That's

00:09:26.940 where housing was running into shortages. And of course, when you bring in uncontrolled amounts

00:09:34.480 of people into the classroom, it causes pressures and shortages. So let's address that. Let's talk

00:09:40.920 about it. We can't just keep spending our way out of it. We don't have the money anymore.

00:09:45.400 Alberta is going into a deficit again. I think Smith should be cutting some spending in a lot

00:09:49.300 of areas, but that also means not increasing in others. It means not giving the teachers

00:09:52.900 the last I'd heard on their return offer after they turned down a massive raise offer. They want

00:09:59.360 $2 billion on top of that. They almost want double what was offered in the last offer.

00:10:02.520 in other words the teachers union is completely beyond reason so something's got to give somewhere

00:10:08.160 and i say competition you know let's get it out there let's let parents choose let's let the

00:10:15.100 funding follow the student this much per student goes wherever the children get put nice true 0.54

00:10:21.900 equality let's look at some of this other idiocy yeah cocaine trafficking sentence cut in half for 0.99

00:10:27.940 Jamaican facing deportation from Canada. Yeah, this is another one. Much like the other gentleman 0.99

00:10:34.360 you might have heard of a little while ago, who had his sentence reviews, he wanted to molest a 0.98

00:10:40.900 14 year old girl. And again, the judge in both cases said, well, if we give you the full sentence,

00:10:45.860 then we'd have to deport you. We want to keep your citizenship status. So, or your application 1.00

00:10:51.180 towards it. So we'll reduce the sentence. This is insane. How many times are we going to hear

00:10:54.600 this story, right? Again, we're dealing with mass immigration. We're dealing with having too many 1.00

00:10:59.280 people here. Can we at least not just start with the criminals and get rid of them? Is it really

00:11:03.720 that hard? We don't need the drug dealers and the child molesters. Yet here we are. And yeah,

00:11:09.960 he says he experienced a systemic and personal discrimination, of course, and that played a role

00:11:13.720 in his criminalities with the judge. So I don't care. I could not care less. That's still his

00:11:18.960 problem. A lot of people endure those sorts of things. It doesn't mean that they turn to crime

00:11:26.600 and we can't keep making excuses for that. Let's study those things. We want to prevent. We want

00:11:31.800 to make things better, but once it's done, it's done. Here's a strange case coming out of Alberta

00:11:39.800 and these are stories, as I said, normally Dave will come in for the news check-in. I'm available

00:11:44.000 today, but this one's an odd one and these are all in the Western Standard online, just so you know.

00:11:48.960 Westernstandard.news. So there's a fella up in northern Alberta actually won a lottery and a

00:11:54.720 million dollars and a scratch and win ticket. And I haven't seen follow up on this. So about

00:11:58.440 four or five days ago, he's 25 years old, Joshua Francis Salto. Maybe check out the

00:12:04.240 Westernstandard.news and look at the picture of this guy because he's gone missing. He won a

00:12:09.360 million bucks. He bought an RV, parked outside of a relative's home and disappeared. They found

00:12:17.300 blood apparently in the RV and no sign of him, just an empty vehicle. It's really, really unusual

00:12:24.440 and quite concerning. Of course, I hope he's all right, but you know, somebody suddenly got a

00:12:29.360 million dollars in their pocket and they disappear. It might not necessarily be a good thing.

00:12:35.680 Another odd story, the Kelowna airport system got hacked to play Hamas messages over the screens

00:12:42.940 and chants in Arabic over its audio system, this is an odd one.

00:12:47.600 You know, again, I don't even know where to start with the pro-Hamas movement 0.80

00:12:53.580 and some of their things and what they consider victories or not victories.

00:12:56.740 I guess it would be pretty terrifying to be in an airport

00:12:58.480 and see that somebody could actually get into that system.

00:13:00.900 I imagine it's not a critical system for other more important parts of your flight and travel,

00:13:06.500 but yeah, I guess I could certainly unnerve a whole heck of a lot of people.

00:13:10.780 Hi there, guys. All of that stuff is in much more detail at westernstandard.news.

00:13:15.580 Be sure to check it out if you haven't subscribed yet. It's $9.99 a month, $100 a year, and

00:13:22.400 you get full access past that paywall to all of those stories. If you've subscribed already,

00:13:26.980 thank you very much. We really appreciate it. And if you haven't, come on, get on there.

00:13:30.720 That's what keeps us independent. That's how we keep those reporters out there putting

00:13:34.480 those stories up on there. All right, let's get on to my guest. I've been looking forward

00:13:37.900 to this. He says, Magat Wade of prosperity, not poverty. And it's a discussion that really needs

00:13:44.160 to be had. And it was part of a documentary by John Robson, as I said earlier at the start of

00:13:47.980 the show, In the Dark, Senegal as a Case Study in Energy Poverty. We really, there's a real 0.96

00:13:55.860 Western hypocrisy when it comes to environmental controls and looking actually at the damages it's

00:14:00.600 causing in other areas. So I'm looking forward to having the discussion on some of this and what's

00:14:05.760 up in that documentary so thank you very much for for joining us today and uh welcome to the

00:14:10.720 western standard studio thank you so much corey thanks for having me pleasure being here yeah so

00:14:14.960 um maybe you kind of start with that prosperity not poverty uh what's your organization about

00:14:19.840 yeah so prosperity not prosperity not poverty is its biggest mission is tackle the energy poverty

00:14:27.040 issue and the relationship between energy and prosperity is i don't know if most people have

00:14:32.240 seen the graph but there is a very compelling graph that basically shows you that there is no

00:14:37.680 such thing as a poor energy as an energy poor nation that happens to be rich there is not so

00:14:48.640 energy access to affordable reliable abundant energy is a prerequisite for prosperity building

00:14:55.600 absolutely and i mean in areas with climate extremes in a sense i mean in canada we have

00:15:00.240 to stay warm. We can't get anything done. I noticed you talking on the documentary about

00:15:05.040 in a hot country if you don't have air conditioning and those sorts of things,

00:15:08.000 how do you get a good learning environment? How do you get a business environment? How do you do

00:15:11.520 all of those things? But cheap affordable energy isn't always necessarily the greenest energy.

00:15:17.840 That's where the issue comes. That is exactly where the issue comes. So a few years ago we had some

00:15:23.360 people, I call them the anti-fossil fuel zealots, the climate alarmists. So a subgroup of people

00:15:29.600 have come up with this concept and idea that Earth was in danger of basically imploding within the

00:15:39.100 next few decades. That was back in the times of Al Gore. You know, up till recently, some people

00:15:45.540 think we only have 12 years left. I think AOC of the US thinks we have 10 years left. So even without

00:15:53.220 going into into is earth gonna implode or not which i don't believe it will but without even

00:15:59.940 going into that argument at the end of the day uh those uh individuals have come up with the idea

00:16:06.180 to that threat to that perceived threat is to come to a net zero and the best way to do net zero is

00:16:12.900 obviously it would mean we would have to cut fossil fuels dry right now um across the board and so

00:16:19.460 So it is interesting that these ideas come from the West.

00:16:23.900 They came with these ideas, but first of all, they're not applying it to themselves.

00:16:28.100 And thank God, because, you know, people are fighting with these ideas here, but they're still using fossil fuels.

00:16:34.860 But the only people who have to respect these mandates are not the Chinese, not the Indians, 0.96

00:16:42.120 because China and India have enough economic independence to say, no, we're not going to go

00:16:49.720 for this. You do it if you want, but we're going to continue using fossil fuels to continue fueling

00:16:55.160 our growth. The Indians pretty much are saying the same thing. But who is out there and does 1.00

00:16:59.800 have no choice but to supposedly listen to this? It's the Africans. This is the continent that has 1.00

00:17:06.840 the youngest population in the world, average age is 19. By 2050, one quarter of the world's

00:17:11.560 population will be african by 2100 it's going to be half of the world's population will be african

00:17:17.480 and you are asking people right now in africa to basically give up on the use of fossil fuels which

00:17:22.760 is the only way for them to build prosperity and so that's the hypocrisy you were talking about

00:17:28.760 and because we are poor we depend on the west primarily to finance many um almost pretty much

00:17:38.120 anything we need to get built like infrastructure especially and then the west has come to the point

00:17:42.680 of saying no we're not going to finance any infrastructure that basically is based on fossil

00:17:47.800 fuels and what i find funny there corey is i'll give you an example my country senegal we have

00:17:52.280 recently found oil and gas so while germany says you know it's the green party of of germany that

00:17:59.960 has made sure that german today you know is suffering energy wise but when the reality hits

00:18:06.280 and you have these cold winters and you really need gas and energy then they have no choice but to

00:18:15.000 put back to fire back the coal plants you know and the green parties even agreed with that

00:18:20.840 and the chancellor of germany back in the day with schultz came down to my country a few years ago

00:18:26.920 to basically buy gas the gas that they're telling us not to use but they're commanding us not to

00:18:31.800 use so the hypocrisy knows no end and then there's more to the environment of course than just

00:18:36.680 emissions so i mean some people if they haven't traveled to developing countries might not realize

00:18:41.240 but having a a spotless clean country you know and keeping the rivers clean things like that

00:18:46.120 it's a luxury that is great to have but i mean you have to address your more immediate concerns such

00:18:51.640 as energy and so on to bring yourself to that prosperous level to take care of the environment

00:18:55.720 They're sort of trying to leapfrog and say, oh, well, you can jump ahead to solar panels and wind energy and then not worry about the other development that needs to come along with it.

00:19:04.880 So an extension could cause more environmental damage than what it's safe.

00:19:09.960 And that's the other point that we're making.

00:19:11.380 That's the other point that we're making.

00:19:12.300 And also, if you want to stay at the environmental level, we say that your stubbornness in terms of not wanting to do fossil fuels, it's just being out of touch with reality.

00:19:26.580 I'll give you an example.

00:19:27.840 In many African nations, most of them energy poor, what it means directly is women having to cook with various forms of biomass. 0.98

00:19:35.360 So we're talking charcoal, we're talking wood, we're talking cow dung, things like that.

00:19:40.220 Terrible, terrible pollutants, right? But that's what they cook with because they don't have access 0.58

00:19:46.060 to gas, which is much cleaner, you know, and safer for everybody, for themselves, their health, and

00:19:52.940 also for the environment, because it's less polluting than those other biomass we talked about.

00:19:58.380 But because the West and the anti-fossil fuel zealots are insisting on if it is not, if it

00:20:05.020 cannot be fossil fuels, well, it's not because you say cannot be fossil fuels, but these women are 1.00

00:20:09.340 just gonna wait there and wait for your solar uh stoves that don't work they're still gonna go for

00:20:14.780 something so if you keep telling them your choice is between your choice is only solar um stoves

00:20:21.500 then your solar stove is gonna end up in their like in the courtyard maybe growing basil or

00:20:28.380 green mint while they go to what really works for them which is coal shark coal and things

00:20:34.060 charcoal and biomass of sorts. So this is a reality of what's happening. So what you're forcing them,

00:20:41.420 what you're forcing onto them is only causing more pollute, you know, pollution to happen

00:20:47.580 and nobody wins in this thing. Humans are not winning and the environment is not winning. So

00:20:53.100 yeah. So is there, I guess it's difficult for governments. I mean, when they're kind of

00:20:57.980 dependent and hoping for aid from other countries, you don't want to sound ungrateful and say, well,

00:21:03.260 we don't want this coming in we really need the help but at the same time you know can the leaders

00:21:08.060 put in some pragmatic requests are their voices being heard at all um voices are being heard i

00:21:14.780 mean right now what is good is we're hearing some african leaders pushing back on this rhetoric and

00:21:21.100 saying we're going to use our fossil fuels no matter what up till now it's been an uphill battle

00:21:26.140 because they can say whatever they want but at the end of the day if you don't have a means to

00:21:30.220 to to finance your own infrastructure needs you're at the mercy of those who provide those resources

00:21:35.820 and financing and traditionally it's been the west and the west has decided especially for esg

00:21:40.300 that they do not want to finance fossil fuel related infrastructure so what is going on today

00:21:46.380 though is some of our luck right now is when you have on the other side of this on the other side

00:21:52.620 from the african nations and i speak of africa right now is right now in the us we have somebody

00:21:57.820 like Chris Wright, who is our Secretary of Energy in the US, and he's 100% on board with, we should

00:22:03.500 not dictate to developing nations, to any nation, what their energy mix should be. And nothing wrong

00:22:09.180 with fossil fuels, people should make their decisions, and we need to support them in what

00:22:12.860 they decide to do. Otherwise, we're talking about a new form of colonialism, which is climate

00:22:18.300 colonialism. That's really what we're going through right now. So things are starting to

00:22:23.420 happen and to turn around but then i'm worried about what happens if if and when because at some

00:22:28.460 point you know chris is going to have to move on you know nobody is there forever and then if it's

00:22:34.060 somebody who doesn't who's not in line with this then we go back to square one in terms of so in

00:22:39.020 the meantime that's why these conversations are so important these conversations that's why i do what

00:22:42.620 i do here i'm fighting this on both sides of the aisles you know in the western world reminding

00:22:48.700 them of what poverty energy is all about and that it is a great moral imperative to work on it and

00:22:54.220 make sure that at least in this case Africans have access to fossil fuels at all costs and also when 0.98

00:23:00.740 going back home making the case to our people there about the need for these things and there

00:23:06.940 the issue what we have to fight is all of these NGOs all of this aid money also financing all of

00:23:13.280 these climate action organizations. So basically putting a lot of money into the hands of young

00:23:20.580 Africans who start a little nonprofit and this little, you know, awareness building, campaign

00:23:27.120 building, awareness building, awareness building campaigns. And that's the biggest pushback we

00:23:34.700 have on that side. So the climate action money financing organizations along those lines who

00:23:43.140 are then in africa saying fossil fuels is bad for us it's bad for our country it's bad for our

00:23:49.140 communities we need to um we need to embrace renewables we need to embrace uh wind but not

00:23:55.140 really understanding how how detrimental that type of rhetoric is so here we're trying to um

00:24:03.220 so we're trying to bring awareness on both sides but um on the ground the biggest problem we have

00:24:08.580 is not only you don't have enough voices speaking of the need for fossil fuels, but you also have

00:24:15.300 a barrage of various types of organizations, non-profits, well-funded by climate action

00:24:22.500 supporters of the West. So you're like squeezed. Unfortunately, climate action is a

00:24:27.940 sub-industry unto itself that people are getting very well off. Exactly. You see some who maybe

00:24:33.060 they even believe what they're saying, you know, they like to fly out and hold their banner, look

00:24:36.900 at the solar panels we made but that's right they don't show the camera on the village over

00:24:40.260 there where they have no electricity exactly exactly or people at night uh like the movie

00:24:45.300 shows you know like we were in this one little village where literally as soon as the sun goes

00:24:49.540 down everybody knows that now they have to be inside the inside the rooms and locked there with

00:24:56.020 their doors locked and they even have what we call pot um pot chambers um you know english

00:25:02.980 in my fourth language but can you imagine 2025 you have pacham and why because once it gets dark

00:25:07.940 no one dares to go out because there are scorpions um snakes all types of things roaming in the dark

00:25:14.460 because those things love the dark so just imagine that so and i i would argue that i i really believe

00:25:20.740 that um this is why we did this movie because this other side this other side of of of this issue

00:25:27.480 needs to be shown to people. I think very few people think about it. And even if they were

00:25:32.940 left to their own devices to imagine, they could not even begin to imagine what we're talking about.

00:25:37.340 And we can't blame them because when you're living in Canada, surrounded by what we're

00:25:41.400 surrounded here or the US, even the concept of power outage that lasts more than a few hours,

00:25:48.900 it's foreign to most people, let alone that happening every single day. You know, water

00:25:54.000 that has no pressure that is for those of us who have running water um you know you mean you're in

00:25:59.440 a village where you live with the sun you know at night you have to bunker yourself inside inside

00:26:04.880 a room we can't we cannot possibly begin to imagine all these things let alone think about it

00:26:10.800 so that's why this type of movie is very important because i think it just wakes many more people up

00:26:17.440 to what else is going on out there and as we put this type of information out it also helps with

00:26:23.680 these climate action funded NGOs on the ground who are speaking against what we're speaking about.

00:26:33.600 So at some point, the best disinfectant is sunlight. A movie like that is designed to

00:26:40.480 just put it out there for people to see. It's a great documentary. I mean, if people would

00:26:44.240 realize too, it's progression. It may start with combustion vehicles and a coal generating plant.

00:26:49.840 I mean that's where we started out here too and then as the economy develops you can move along

00:26:55.040 and you can expand into more reduced emissions items but right now I mean the goal is just to

00:27:00.320 make sure you have efficient farming, have heat in the houses, light on the streets.

00:27:04.000 That's right, that's right.

00:27:05.520 So how has the reception been to the documentary so far?

00:27:08.000 I mean so far I think it's been really great. We've also heard news of young people who

00:27:15.280 in the audience who looked at it and were just like this i think is going to resonate with my

00:27:19.840 generation so that's very um it's very encouraging to hear and at the end of the day the reason why

00:27:24.960 i have hope in this documentary is because we did what i think is best is is the best thing to do

00:27:31.040 when there is a big argument that people are confused at some point let us remove the intellectual

00:27:35.680 arguments and let us go back to human stories and see what we're talking about really means for

00:27:42.000 everyday people um halfway across the world from you uh let us see if we can take you on a journey

00:27:48.240 with us so you can walk a mile in our shoes and in the shoes of people there and show don't tell

00:27:54.000 and then people will walk away making up their own this their own mind so we had people saying

00:27:59.760 they they yeah they did not they did not know and it was very helpful for them to see oh that's just

00:28:06.320 good i mean we we have it easy out here and it's a it's a competitive uh streaming world too to get

00:28:12.160 the eyes and ears of people you know when you've got a million other things coming up do you want

00:28:16.320 to see but i mean as you said this is a a huge part of the earth that really we don't talk about

00:28:21.200 nearly enough a large part of our population no but you know it's um corey that's what i was

00:28:27.520 saying i was doing a podcast this morning with another another another party and i told him i

00:28:33.440 i said the problem with energy is that it is not visible to most of us in this room if i say where's

00:28:41.160 energy here you'll most people will think about you know this heater that we're hearing right now

00:28:46.220 you know um heating us and making sure we're not as cold because it's freezing cold outside right

00:28:50.240 now but when you talk if you ask people here where's energy they will point to you oh that

00:28:56.080 heater that's working that's it nobody's gonna think about this microphone but how how energy

00:29:02.040 was involved in bringing this about. No one is going to think about this tablecloth. No one is

00:29:06.520 going to think about our clothes. No one is going to think about the food that we're eating because

00:29:11.240 fertilizer and all of that stuff. No one is thinking about these cameras, how they came

00:29:17.000 about, the screen of the camera. All of that for any of the things that surround us, including the

00:29:21.720 things we ate and the glasses you have on your nose, energy had to be part of it. Otherwise,

00:29:27.480 none of it we're back in caves that's and i think this is the crux of a problem people just

00:29:32.840 don't see it but it's everywhere and that's the problem and the affordability of it i mean yes

00:29:39.400 create yes certainly you could reduce the energy generation still create something but then the

00:29:44.840 price of everything goes out of reach if it was too expensive we would not have any of this stuff

00:29:49.160 here maybe maybe you you you know that you can have a pair of glasses but maybe not the shoes

00:29:54.440 you have if it's when things are super expensive and not abundant then you know the production

00:29:59.740 follows um not it's not gonna be it's not gonna be abundant and you know not uh affordable for

00:30:05.060 everybody so and that's i think the issue we have with energy and i wish and one day i will do it

00:30:11.880 somebody who is so anti-fossil fuels i'll have standing in front of me and say give me your

00:30:17.660 glasses. Give me your jacket. Give me your shirt. Give me your pants. Give me your underwear. Give

00:30:24.380 me your shoes. Give me your socks. You'll be naked. And then I'll say, oh, and by the way,

00:30:28.600 go stand over there outside. Let's see how long you last. Well, they take a lot for granted.

00:30:34.140 Absolutely. Yeah. So you're, before I let you go, you're touring and promoting this. Have you got

00:30:39.020 more events coming up? Yes. Tonight we're speaking at the University of Calgary and, you know,

00:30:44.940 multiple talks, a few talks I think we're going to do there. And then we're going to be going to

00:30:49.620 some other universities in the U.S. as well as back in Canada at some point, British Columbia,

00:30:56.300 I think we're doing one there. Yeah, so for me, it's about seeing if we can share a different

00:31:02.640 side of the story with people who I know truly care. I know I do know that young people do care.

00:31:08.700 Many people like to be upset with young people because, oh, they're so misguided. At the end of

00:31:14.000 day they care and um that's the energy that we need and then from there let us just share a

00:31:18.640 story with them it shouldn't be about trying to convince them of anything but it should just be

00:31:22.080 about putting a different side of the story in front of them they can compare it with other

00:31:26.720 stories we may have heard and also see how it lands with them and then let them do the work

00:31:31.040 themselves they're grown-ups they don't know what to do so that's that's what we're going to do

00:31:35.520 excellent well i really appreciate it uh before i let you go and where can people find that the

00:31:40.240 documentary and information about your work in general yeah um prosperity not uh not poverty

00:31:45.760 that is it that org or yeah prosperity not poverty.org there people can see basically the

00:31:54.000 the principles behind the work that we're doing i'd like to personally lead with um just sharing

00:32:00.000 with people the human toll of all of us a real life example my own example is an example of what

00:32:06.320 poverty uh poverty energy means and so but behind that we definitely do have all types of data all

00:32:13.600 types of reports all types of uh you know articles writings for the for people who are like wow this

00:32:19.280 is this is this is this is different i want to dig into this uh where is the evidence and all

00:32:23.440 that so we we have that as well in there um so yeah so people can watch it there and just have

00:32:29.200 a download on the information about us uh poverty not prosperity.org great well excellent well thank

00:32:34.880 Thank you for coming in to talk to us today about it

00:32:36.760 and for the work you're doing.

00:32:37.720 I really hope it has every success

00:32:39.140 and you can help people just kind of wake up.

00:32:42.900 I don't think they mean bad.

00:32:43.800 They just sometimes take things for granted.

00:32:45.560 Yes, yes.

00:32:46.080 Thank you for having me.

00:32:46.880 And exactly that.

00:32:48.060 I think we have to remember that all of us are busy.

00:32:50.820 Each one of us, there's something we focus on.

00:32:53.140 And energy, again, is not an easy one to grasp

00:32:55.700 because it is so hidden in there.

00:32:57.440 It's so part of everything, but it's hidden.

00:33:00.160 So I think we have to be, we have to be,

00:33:02.280 have to have compassion and patience for people. Absolutely. Yes. Great. Thank you. You're welcome.

00:33:08.840 All right, everybody. So yes, again, check that out. Prosperity, not poverty. If you Google that

00:33:14.680 up, I'm certain you'll find it. And just such an important discussion on something we all forget

00:33:20.360 about. I mean, you know, you want to know when you remember energy is when you don't have it.

00:33:24.200 That's when you realize how important it is. As Maget pointed out, you know, if the power fails

00:33:29.800 for just an hour or two you suddenly get a heck of a wake-up call going on and it's it's so it

00:33:36.360 does become a bit enraging you know when you look at developing countries where they have a much 1.00

00:33:40.760 tougher time they're just trying to get things rolling up to the level of development we got 0.95

00:33:45.720 to enjoy decades ago and you get these ngos and and these these green hypocrites coming out saying 0.96

00:33:51.080 well you can't damn that river or you can't have that coal-fired plant but here here have some

00:33:56.440 solar panels have a have a windmill you know they've got more immediate needs and we have to

00:34:02.840 understand with more energy you can have so much more other things that help with the environment

00:34:10.920 um one of the issues in developing countries you know people talk about she's talking about

00:34:15.720 how fast the population is growing in africa and in developing nations in general

00:34:20.520 one of the luxuries that wealthy countries can only afford is having small families if they

00:34:25.320 choose to that's a separate discussion but that's the truth of it when you're in a developing

00:34:30.360 country when there's unfortunately a high child mortality when there's no such thing as a pension

00:34:34.760 plan or things to assure yourself of some sort of retirement typically what happens is you have

00:34:38.760 large large families so that you have children to be able to take care of you when you're older and

00:34:42.840 children who survive into adulthood when the countries become developed become wealthy and so

00:34:46.920 on then people can think of things such as family planning and i'm not getting into the discussion

00:34:52.040 about, you know, the morality of birth control and such, but that's the way things work because

00:34:56.900 overpopulation is something in areas that causes environmental pressures. If you can afford

00:35:04.340 through energy, affordable energy to slow the population growth, you do the environment more

00:35:10.000 good as well and people in general. So, I mean, check that out. It was good to get that voice on

00:35:14.740 there to talk about these things and getting, you know, realistically about it. Let's just see some

00:35:21.060 of these uh comments uh those four big banks are funding the century initiative of pro-immigration

00:35:28.380 advocacy group from james okay um immigration will strengthen your country but not their own

00:35:37.500 countries yeah this is a difficult thing to discuss uh peter fontaine saying we got maybe

00:35:43.260 talk about health care access to clean water education irrigation systems all available

00:35:46.400 affordably with fossil fuels, plus economic revenue generation. And yeah, I believe that's

00:35:51.560 sort of what she was getting at, right? All of those things, which are so important. And if you

00:35:55.880 don't have affordable energy, you can't really have any of those things. How can you have good

00:36:01.060 hospitals, healthcare access to them without it? You know, they're still plowing their fields 0.99

00:36:07.240 with oxen in those areas. Yet, basically being told you can't have a tractor to do that,

00:36:15.640 because that would spit out emissions, which would be bad. It's a hypocrisy that's just

00:36:24.680 no good. We forget about Africa. We really do. It's a big chunk of the nation. All right,

00:36:29.480 let's see what else is going on in the news out there. Well, economically, Canada is really

00:36:35.800 doing poorly to say the least. Let's see Stellantis. That's an interesting automotive

00:36:43.080 company we're hearing a lot about lately because a lot of our tax dollars keep getting put towards

00:36:46.200 it because they're speaking of hypocrisy, environmentalism, net zero, all those dollars

00:36:50.680 going towards Stellantis and all these different levels and all these plants that never opened

00:36:55.000 and they closed one plant I guess in 2024, early 2024 out east to retool it to make electric

00:37:00.680 vehicles but now that the things have changed they said you know what we're just moving our operation

00:37:05.560 to Illinois. So 3,000 workers in Brampton are going to be put out of work there, and

00:37:12.840 it's going south of the border. You know, we really got to start seeing Mark Carney's

00:37:18.900 economic brilliance come into play at some point, aren't we? Wasn't he supposed to be

00:37:22.540 the genius who was going to get us the trade deals? He's failing. He's failing brutally.

00:37:27.440 He's failing on every front. Trump is pushing Canada around like the 98-pound weakling in 0.96

00:37:34.020 the back of the comic books and Carney's just sitting there taking the slaps. We saw that in

00:37:37.880 Egypt when he was kind of sitting in the back row, when they had to scramble over there, they had to 0.91

00:37:41.700 charter a jet because Canada is so incompetent. We don't have the ability to fly a prime minister

00:37:46.740 on short notice. So they had to get a private airline to do it for them. So he could go to

00:37:51.820 Egypt and pretend he had even a glimmer of a part to do with the peace talks that are happening in

00:37:57.600 the Middle East right now, and the agreement's being put in. He's, you know, speaking of just

00:38:04.780 failures in so many levels, yet at the same time, see, what's being driven home is Trump doesn't

00:38:09.260 care what he thinks. And some people say, well, Paul Yevon wouldn't do any better. I don't know.

00:38:13.060 We don't know. He didn't get in. Maybe he wouldn't. But if he didn't do better with Trump,

00:38:21.080 because Trump's just going to do whatever he pleases, I can live with that theory on it,

00:38:26.360 then you've got to diversify the economy. You've got to find other customers. I mean,

00:38:31.600 we're getting a beating on softwood lumber now too, right? So what's Carney doing? He's holding

00:38:37.280 up the pipelines. He's still got the carbon cap going on, the emissions cap. He's still got the

00:38:44.120 tanker ban. So we're up the creek. And it seems everybody seems to know it except liberal voters.

00:38:50.800 Here's another news story. A crown corporation's forecast in the Canadian economy is going to

00:38:54.900 officially fall into recession this year. And they're blaming part of it on Trump's tariff

00:39:00.240 policies. Export Development Canada is saying the growth rate for Canada this year is below that of

00:39:05.920 the US by 1.67%. And it's below the average for developed economies in general. Oh, but we're

00:39:15.220 ahead of Germany and France right now. It's not looking good, guys. And we're sitting on all of

00:39:20.000 these resources and we won't develop them. It's, it's absurd. We are shooting ourselves in the

00:39:25.660 feet and it ties back into that environmentalist extremism, that lunacy, that, that, that let's

00:39:33.260 make everybody poor for the sake of this emissions dream. You know, that's what, uh, we got was

00:39:38.260 talking about as a guest. I mean, it's causing much more damage in the Africa and other areas 0.99

00:39:45.460 like that. But it's hurting us here too, because these guys are insane. And we're shutting down 0.97

00:39:52.040 our own economy on this dream of trying to make the temperatures change. Let's see. A little

00:39:57.820 thing, Alberta, why is a license plate with an attitude? Yes. Alberta's license plate. It's funny 1.00

00:40:04.520 where slogans get pushed around for political reasons and things like that. Pardon me. I'm

00:40:11.720 going to survive to the end of the show, I promise. So Alberta's license plates for some of you might

00:40:19.040 remember used to be called Wild Rose Country, used to say that on them because it is our official

00:40:22.900 flower. We're the Wild Rose province. But then the Wild Rose Party under Daniel Smith years ago

00:40:28.380 was really making inroads, really coming up. And the progressive conservatives are getting pretty

00:40:32.860 upset about it. They actually took Wild Rose Country off of our license plates because they

00:40:39.500 didn't want it to look as if anybody was thinking positively about the Wildrose Party. That's how

00:40:44.080 petty politics can get, and how insecure the old progressive conservatives under Alison Redford

00:40:51.080 and the others were back in those days. Either way, it sounds like Premier Smith's bringing it

00:40:55.080 about to the license plates now. They're going to have the words strong and free on them. Yeah,

00:41:02.420 that's Alberta's motto, for us y libre. It only makes sense to have that on there,

00:41:07.780 But it also is, it's a great logo.

00:41:10.920 I mean, you know, Quebec, their license plate slogan and their provincial slogan is, you know, I remember strong and free Alberta works well for me.

00:41:21.900 But we've got to, I think, break a little farther from the Federation to become fully free.

00:41:26.660 But that's a nice move.

00:41:27.880 It's funny, it's the little symbolic things sometimes that make a difference.

00:41:31.020 And it'll be funny watching the lunatic left coming out in opposition to that.

00:41:37.780 but they will. They'll say it's a separatist slogan. Oh, well, get over it. 0.95

00:41:42.520 Speaking of progressive conservatives, let's see in Newfoundland, Labrador, they won a majority

00:41:46.400 government last night for some national news. That's 10 years the Liberals were in there.

00:41:52.660 So we've got a new premier. It's Tony Wakeham. I won't pretend to know a heck of a lot about him,

00:41:57.740 but it is change for Newfoundland. I guess it was a real back and forth race, though, very tight.

00:42:03.160 and uh well let's see if Newfoundland's in for some positive changes out of that I guess time

00:42:08.420 will tell as well let's see Campbell River if you know Vancouver Island nice little town up there

00:42:15.740 fantastic salmon fishing things like that also Nanaimo Campbell River well pretty much everywhere

00:42:20.440 in North America the epidemic is is overwhelming just about everything and uh we're seeing it there

00:42:28.200 now with, uh, yeah, we'll have 30 year old woman got stabbed to death by another woman out on the 1.00

00:42:33.740 streets. You know, they normally wouldn't report those sorts of news things, but just the small

00:42:37.700 towns aren't even safe anymore, guys. It's addicts on addicts, but the addicts don't just attack

00:42:43.740 other addicts. They attack other people. I mean, uh, hopefully that, that woman who was, uh, you 1.00

00:42:48.200 know, again, I think they, I saw something that they caught her in Vancouver. She was randomly

00:42:51.920 stabbing people, stabbed over seven people. Again, another addict. So let's quit pretending 0.97

00:42:56.980 they're harmless they're very dangerous uh let's see peter lafontaine saying let's not forget we

00:43:02.980 needed uh we knew we needed to diversify grew uh grow our fossil fuel agricultural minerals and

00:43:07.720 products for years don't forget canadian center senators approve those bad laws yeah we we really

00:43:14.320 have a lot of resources to work with and we just gotta battle against the ideologues and again

00:43:20.240 the senators others you know who sit in a comfy area and uh don't realize what's really happening

00:43:26.820 out there. Let's see. Next week, I am not going to be in, guys. I'm popping out to Israel for

00:43:33.640 a little while. I'll be back the week after. Watch my channel. So I'm going to be posting

00:43:38.660 stuff up. I'll be writing stories. They'll be coming up on the Western Standard. And as well

00:43:43.660 on my ex, I'll post those live at Corey B. Morgan. And I'm really looking forward to getting a look

00:43:50.740 on the ground. You know, talk about an area where we're getting a lot of mixed news reports,

00:43:57.120 a lot of torqued stuff. It's difficult to tell what's true, what's not true. Well, I'm going to

00:44:01.920 have an opportunity to spend a week out there and look around and tour some very interesting spots

00:44:10.700 and hopefully be able to, well, broaden my own perspective on what's going on out there

00:44:16.480 and be able to share that with you guys.

00:44:18.860 So please keep track of that

00:44:21.360 and go easy on whoever the guest host

00:44:23.120 is going to be here on the Corey Morgan Show next week.

00:44:26.760 I'm sure we'll have somebody fill it in for that.

00:44:29.760 So let's see what else we've got.

00:44:33.620 That's pretty much it.

00:44:34.820 Just one more thing, I guess.

00:44:35.900 The RCMP, when we're talking about exporting meth to New Zealand.

00:44:41.780 Yeah, Canada's becoming a cottage industry

00:44:43.960 for drug exports and so on.

00:44:45.820 nobody got charged from Canada. And there was a bizarre inter exchange between the chief

00:44:50.860 superintendent and basically saying, well, we don't know who's responsible for that. So we're

00:44:56.160 just not going to lay any charges in it. Yeah, there was meth being smuggled in Canadian beer

00:45:01.540 cans. And some poor young man accidentally drank it and got killed in New Zealand. And apparently

00:45:07.100 Canada is incapable of sorting that problem out. And it turns out there was problems with that

00:45:13.100 meth being exported from Canada earlier in the past as well. All right, guys, I'm going to give

00:45:17.880 my voice a break and let you guys go. Thank you for tuning in today. Watch for the pipeline tonight.

00:45:22.540 We'll break down some more stuff there and keep on the westernstandard.news to keep the,

00:45:28.580 seeing those news updates coming as they break. We will see you all again when I get back up to

00:45:34.800 the North, Great White North here in Alberta. Thanks.

00:45:43.100 Transcription by CastingWords

Western Standard - October 16, 2025

Premier Smith must respond to the teachers strike by expanding school choice

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