The United Conservative Party Annual General Meeting is this weekend in Alberta, and a lot of attention is being paid to the fact that the party is hosting the largest political convention in Canadian history, and that it s being attended by over 6,000 delegates. But is this a good or bad thing?
00:01:30.000You know, Justin, while he's our problem today, doesn't have much between his ears.
00:01:54.520His father, unfortunately, was smart and caused a lot of problems we're still dealing with right now.
00:01:59.740Okay, according to a lot of folks, my sound wasn't on for the first part, but it must be going by now.
00:02:04.460So welcome to the show and good to see you all there.
00:02:08.400Be sure to use that comment, scroll to send me questions, suggestions, and even let me know if the sound happens to pop off so we don't miss anything on there.
00:02:16.500So again, welcome, use it, thanks for coming on, and let's get on with things.
00:02:22.100So I'm going to talk about we've got a big weekend coming up in Alberta, and it's the United Conservative Party annual general meeting.
00:02:30.600The registrations for that UCP AGM, all these acronyms, is just shy of 6,000 delegates.
00:02:37.440It's going to be the largest political convention in Canadian history.
00:02:41.160And for fans like me, we're fans of grassroots political participation.
00:02:44.420I mean, this is a fantastic development.
00:02:46.280Having that many engaged members taking the time and spending the money to take part in a convention.
00:02:50.700and this is between elections, indicates these members feel they can make an impact on the
00:02:54.720direction of the party. Now, the question remains whether the impact is going to be a positive one
00:02:59.120or not. Internal squabbles and division, those are hallmarks of conservative movements. I mean,
00:03:04.780when partisans aren't going to battle with opponents in other parties, they have this
00:03:07.600habit of turning their guns and firing at each other. Ralph Klein, Ed Stelmack, Alison Redford,
00:03:13.100and Jason Kenney, they all left the premiership due to a collapse of support not around the
00:03:17.380province, but within their own parties. Only Rachel Notley and Jim Prentice left the roles
00:03:21.560due to electoral losses. The threat to conservative leaders from within their parties is quite real.
00:03:27.800But is Daniel Smith facing an ouster this weekend as she stands up in front of the members for
00:03:33.740a leadership review? I really doubt it. We've got factions making noise, trying to fan the flames
00:03:39.240of internal division within the party, and they're trying to create the impression that Smith faces
00:03:43.700is a real threat of losing or at least getting a low level of support at the leadership review.
00:03:48.600None of these factions have the interests of the UCP or probably the province at heart.
00:03:52.740They don't think they're aiding the party by pushing Smith from the leadership. In fact,
00:03:56.240they're hoping the leadership is destabilized and the party will become weaker. Disgruntled and
00:04:01.300unemployed political leftists like Thomas Lukasik have been, yeah, you remember Fabio? Yeah,
00:04:06.880they've been trying to create issues through buying memberships in the party and then he was
00:04:10.100playing victim when he found himself declined for his membership. Look, guys like him have no
00:04:14.120interest in supporting the party and they never did. There's no benefit allowing these trolls to
00:04:18.100enter and work to disrupt things from within the organization. Parties are private entities and
00:04:23.100they can limit membership to whoever they please. Yes, being grassroots focused, they should
00:04:27.180embrace as many members as reasonably possible, but to bring in somebody like Lukasik is just
00:04:33.000foolish. I mean, he's telegraphed quite clearly his only intention is to cause damage. If someone
00:04:36.880told you they plan to come into your house and purposely plug your toilet, would you still open
00:04:41.240the door and let me use your bathroom? The lukastics out there are vocal, but are few and far between.0.99
00:04:46.540While folks are spreading rumors of organized groups of leftists flooding the convention floor
00:04:50.400to unseat Smith, there's little evidence of any real organization happening, and they won't have,
00:04:54.980if there are a few, they won't have a measurable impact on the review. Again, thousands of people.
00:04:59.360If anything, it's inspiring supporters of Smith to get out there, attend the meeting, and cast
00:05:03.420their ballot. Legacy media, of course, is working their hardest to give the impression that are
00:05:06.640rebellions forming within the UCP. Some of that's inspired by the hard left tilt that most legacy
00:05:11.840outlets have embraced since becoming beholden to Trudeau's subsidies to pay their bills.
00:05:16.720Another reason for fostering division, of course, is simple. It's just they want to build excitement
00:05:20.040and draw readers and viewers. I mean, blowouts are boring in both sports and politics, and it's
00:05:25.000only the close races that make for excitement. The next group trying to stir things up are the
00:05:30.540conservative faction I've recently referred to as the chronic malcontents. They just exist to
00:05:35.740oppose, and nothing any leader can do will keep them happy for long. They join parties and purport
00:05:40.840to support them, and maybe they initially do. But then they draw lines in the sand and create
00:05:44.780policy hills for themselves to die upon. As soon as the party leader crosses one of these lines,
00:05:49.140and there's many of them, the mercurial malcontents shift into opposition mode and put all their0.99
00:05:53.720efforts into deposing the leader. If you've been in conservative politics long enough, you'll notice
00:05:57.400it's actually usually the same names that keep showing up and trying to tear things down.
00:06:02.080But grumpy conservative members can be organized and galvanized to take down leaders. We've seen
00:06:06.140it many times. The work by Take Back Alberta to remove Kenny from the party leadership was
00:06:10.260effective and striking. Take Back Alberta now, though, is a little more than a shell of what
00:06:14.460it used to be. And the atmosphere of discontent just isn't in the air as it was a couple of years
00:06:18.640ago. New groups have been emerging with new policy demands and threats to unseat the leader if they
00:06:23.740don't get their way. These groups have every right to do so and working to influence policies
00:06:28.100while at AGMs. Oh, that's how the democratic game works. The threat to Smith's leadership
00:06:33.140is hollow though. With nearly 6,000 members dedicating hundreds of dollars crossing the
00:06:37.980province to take part in an AGM, it would take a very visible and well-organized machine to swing
00:06:42.740even a significant number of these people to vote against the leader in her second year in the role.
00:06:47.580The AGM is going to be an interesting event, but the battles to watch are going to be over the
00:06:50.960proposed policy amendments, not the leadership review. So I'm making my prediction now. Smith's
00:06:55.100going to garner over 85% from the members in support. I could eat crow on that, I guess.
00:07:00.240Politics are a crazy business, but I'm feeling pretty confident on this one. Either way, guys,
00:07:04.500I will see you at the AGM. It's going to be a fun one. And the Western Standard will
00:07:09.000have a hospitality booth. I got our news editor, Dave Naylor in here. I'm sure you'll be partaking
00:07:13.860at the hospitality room. No, sadly, I've got to stay here and mind the store.
00:07:17.900Oh, really? Yeah. I thought you were coming out.
00:07:56.460I'm enjoying my role as a kept man and driver.
00:07:58.600So as I sat in the hotel room, I just wrote my columns for the week and then waited for my wife to earn the money so I could have a good dinner.0.99
00:08:05.700So Fort Mac last weekend, Red Deer this weekend, man, you're living the life.
00:08:08.980I'm covering the province, I tell you.
00:12:28.240the reason it's happening is because you've subscribed.
00:12:30.420we don't take any subsidies no tax dollars here at the western standard and we aren't asking for
00:12:36.360them but we rely on you guys 9.99 a month 100 for a year you've been coming through that's why we've
00:12:41.940got reporters all over the place that's why we're putting out these documentaries and that's why we
00:12:45.920can do the show like we do today so get on there guys westernstandard.news slash subscription take
00:12:50.860out a subscription and you know if you have already again thank you very much we really do
00:12:55.700appreciate it. If you haven't, come on, get on there, spread the word, buy a subscription for
00:13:00.620a liberal friend for Christmas, get them worked up. It's, it's, it's, uh, the gift that just keeps
00:13:05.180on giving. So yeah, lots going on. Like I said, with the AGM coming up this weekend, it's going
00:13:10.340to be busy and interesting, uh, you know, statement from Jordan, uh, uh, the commenter
00:13:14.940is Smith's greatest threat, internal party division or her own impulsive tendencies. Yeah.0.93
00:13:19.020So, I mean, I, I, again, I've known Premier Smith for, for quite some time. I mean, we're,
00:13:24.020We're not close compatriots, but I certainly dealt with her a lot over the years.
00:13:27.320And I mean, it's her impulsiveness I kind of find endearing.
00:13:31.280She's not the careful, you know, methodical politician that you would expect out of a lot of people.
00:13:38.540But of course, it leads to a lot of danger, too, because she speaks her mind and she jumps right in on things, perhaps not necessarily being too well prepared.
00:13:46.460but I get tired of the politicians being hyper careful, spinning their wheels, afraid to make
00:13:53.000any big decisions and shake things up. As far as it being, as I said though in my opening monologue,
00:13:58.080I don't think there's much threat of internal party division at this time. It's only year two.
00:14:02.900It's the usual suspects making all the noise. I don't think there's a realistic threat against
00:14:08.040her role. Now give it a year or two, that can certainly change. And as I said, the big threat
00:14:13.640for conservative leaders usually comes from within. Conservatives are a grumpy bunch. They
00:14:17.980really like tearing down their own quite often in a self-destructive manner. So we'll watch.
00:14:24.160And boy, what a year for elections, right? So yeah, we'll be doing live coverage on Tuesday
00:14:27.980night of the American election as it comes in. Hopefully it doesn't run us until the wee wee
00:14:32.380hours as so many elections have these days. It's funny, you know, with elections and vote counting
00:14:37.420and so on. And again, I've been over this online and, you know, our great reporter out in BC
00:14:43.580Jared Yeager has put out a story on that, saying we got results denialism coming up. It's a trend
00:14:50.740that's been happening of people, they don't like the results of an election and they jump on every
00:14:56.580conspiracy they can think of as to why it was rigged. Look, I've worked on a lot of elections
00:15:01.000from the ground volunteer to managing campaigns to running in them. And I've been in there as a
00:15:09.080volunteer scrutineering. Look, the process is very difficult to rig. It really is. It's pretty
00:15:15.340good. I worry about changes being made to it. I think they're making it more inefficient. They
00:15:19.360bring in these ridiculous counting machines that somehow make the counts take even longer
00:15:24.160than they did prior when it was just simple paper ballots. And that's what fosters a lot of the
00:15:29.080mistrust. That's what fosters people to make theories as to why an election went one way or
00:15:33.120another. But no, even the campaign manager, you know, for Rustad and BC's came out and said,
00:15:37.240know that we lost. You know, it was tight. It was close, but they lost. Likewise, in Saskatchewan,
00:15:42.240Scott Moe won, but it was close. These elections are really, really close. We'll talk a little
00:15:46.200more about that later. I'm not a big fan of Trump, I got to admit. You know, if I was in the States,
00:15:50.400I'd probably vote Republican all the same, but I'm not big on him. And one of the reasons is
00:15:54.580that baloney over the last election being rigged. I'm sorry, he lost that one too. I know we'll get
00:15:59.600all the comments people thinking otherwise, but I just don't feel that's the way things have been
00:16:04.320going, okay, let's turn the page and get on to something more domestic. I've been looking forward
00:16:07.540to this. And his name is Andrew Spence. He's worked in the banking industry and he's put out a book
00:16:13.180called Fleeced Canadians versus their banks. And I did read it and it was, you know, it's a good1.00
00:16:18.160read. It covers a lot up, it covers a lot up, doesn't cover it up, it exposes it. And banking
00:16:24.240is one of those things where you have no choice. You have to use banks. It's part of life. Thus,
00:16:28.800you should hope to get a reasonable rate or reasonable competition within the industry.
00:16:33.020And we're kind of lacking that in Canada.
00:16:34.920So thank you very much for joining me today to discuss your book, Mr. Spence.
00:16:43.240So I guess I'll just kind of begin at the beginning, you know, because people, even when you travel, you don't think going to another country to look into their banking systems or see differences.
00:16:51.860So it never really occurs to us to compare for other comparable markets such as the UK or Australia or areas like that, you know, their banking systems, which might be similar to ours.
00:17:02.840but looking that they're certainly not paying nearly as much to bank as we are, are they?
00:17:06.860No, they're not. And there's a very good reason for that. And I don't want to get too wonkish
00:17:10.460from the very beginning here. But in those jurisdictions, here in Canada, we pride ourselves
00:17:17.060on good and close regulation of the banking system because safety matters, right? The matter is
00:17:22.400stability isn't everything, but without stability, everything is nothing. Well,
00:17:26.820in the UK, they have tight regulation too, but the regulator also has a competition mandate,
00:17:33.340which means that they not only keep their banking system safe, but they also make sure they're fair.
00:17:41.100And in Canada, we don't have until recently a well-empowered competition bureau to ensure
00:17:48.860that we're getting good value for our money. Yes. And so, I mean, a lot of it, and you kind
00:17:54.720of cover at the start and you cover more at the end of the book though that the I mean the high
00:17:59.080horse Canada got on was in 2008 when the bank runs happened in the states things were you know went
00:18:03.920badly and that's where a lot of people said well we've got our hyper regulated market we didn't
00:18:08.140suffer through those things thus it justifies having such strict controls on our banking system
00:18:13.060so I mean there's some degree of rationale behind protecting but if you over protect then your
00:18:18.700consumers are going to lose yeah there's no question but I mean I think there's a degree
00:18:22.520misunderstanding here right we can have and we should have tightly regulated banks banks are like
00:18:29.240unlike any other industry we have right we it's but it's not just the choice between hyper safety
00:18:35.240and a casino and a free-for-all with the advent of financial technology we can now make our banking
00:18:41.640market what we call contestable right we can contest it and that means that these um these
00:18:47.640fintechs or financial technology companies are able to come in if they were given access to the
00:18:51.960the payment system in Canada, which they're not, not across the board and not in the sense
00:18:57.420that really creates a degree of competition that would give the banks a run for their
00:19:01.400So if you go to Europe, for instance, everybody wanders around Europe with an app called Revolut.
00:19:05.820And then Revolut, you can figure out, if you want to do a foreign exchange transaction,
00:19:09.600you just look at your phone and you see the best rate at the lowest possible cost.
00:19:14.800And the transaction is done instantaneously.
00:19:18.220We don't have that option in Canada, and we should have that option in Canada.
00:19:22.500And the banks know that this is coming, but they're dragging their feet.
00:19:26.980They're slowing the process down with the complicit shelter of the federal government, which means we don't see open banking in this country until 2026 at the earliest.
00:19:38.000And we don't even have an instantaneous real time transactions payment system.
00:19:44.900And over 50 countries have this in place.
00:19:47.820And we don't even have a beta testing instantaneous payment system ready until 2026.
00:25:18.520I mean, if I have a stock trading account at a discount brokerage at the arms of one
00:25:25.300of the banks, they will probably charge me about $10 to do a transaction, right?
00:25:30.660Buy a stock, sell a stock, buy a mutual fund, sell a mutual fund, buy an ETF, sell an ETF.
00:25:36.600I'd like to know what the cost of them is of facilitating that transaction.
00:25:40.800I'm willing to bet you, Corey, and your listeners and your viewers that it's a couple of cents.
00:25:45.400So why am I being charged $9.99 or $10 for it?
00:25:50.140It's the same with credit cards, right?
00:25:51.760I mean, the interest rate on credit cards has barely budged over the foremost 40 years,
00:25:55.980and yet inflation is significantly lower.
00:25:58.940The funding rates, the deposit rates that fund those things are very much lower.
00:26:03.600We're told that there's a lot of fraud in credit cards
00:26:06.520and that there is potentially high losses because borrowers are more marginal.
00:26:11.380And yet, when banks securitize those credit card receivables into trusts, S&P have to rate them.
00:26:22.100And they say, well, you know, a third of all the borrowers are super prime, so you don't lose money on them.
00:26:28.100The charge-off rates are 3%, and fraud may well be high.
00:26:32.220But again, we don't know because we can't see it, right?
00:26:35.620So I think there is a general sense amongst the population that it's expensive, they're dissatisfied, the lack of choice, the frictions that are put in the way to just do simple payments, five-day holds on checks.
00:26:49.240I mean, seriously, in a world where countries like Brazil have instantaneous payment systems available for people, why don't we have it here?
00:27:00.200let's see um uh and then we can see whether or not you're justified in charging what you do
00:27:05.960for access to the banking system my guess is we'd be pretty shocked well they yeah they haven't
00:27:11.600adjusted their rates for the realities of today i mean if it was the days of you know 40 years ago
00:27:16.860and if you were going to transfer funds from one account to another you'd have to have conversations
00:27:20.820between real people paper documents would have been brought up and amended and changed and it's
00:27:25.720going to be cost, you know, time takes up time and cost. But I mean, we're talking a digital
00:27:31.080transaction, as you said, pennies, if that, and still, though, the rates stay the same. Same with
00:27:35.560credit cards. You point out in the book, I mean, yeah, we suffered through double digit interest
00:27:40.160rates in the 80s and into the early 90s for even mortgages. Those have come down, but the credit
00:27:45.920card rates haven't changed a bit. And people carrying high credit card balances on unsecured
00:27:51.180debt, that's a lot of actually what's pushing a lot of people to some financial distress more
00:27:55.600than mortgages or other borrowing tools yeah there's no question and i want to come back to
00:28:01.520the point i made right at the beginning corey if you don't mind which is to to you know osfi
00:28:06.720um osfi does a good job of regulation right ensuring safety no question about that and i
00:28:13.580think they're an important agency and they need to be free to do their job but they don't pay any
00:28:18.200attention to the competition here issues right so in the united kingdom for instance the financial
00:28:24.340conduct authority actually has responsibility for competition as well and so there are many charges
00:28:31.860that the people who are financially marginal usually the poor who find themselves in difficulty
00:28:39.780will find themselves over drawing their accounts where they will be charged a simple fee every
00:28:44.980time they are overdrawn uh will be charged interest on the money that they've essentially
00:28:49.860borrowed from the bank that tolerates that they'll be charged 50 bucks for an nsf check
00:28:54.500non-sufficient funds to bounce a check um and uh this is allowed to go on so in the uk the financial
00:29:03.140conduct authority looked at these various charges and said sorry you no can do you're not allowed to
00:29:09.780do that moreover you have a duty to of care if you can program your system to assign a charge
00:29:17.140and a fee every time someone's overdrawn you can identify given the profile of the customer whether
00:29:22.980or not that person is marginal or not or maybe in some difficulty and now uk banks have a duty of
00:29:29.620care they have to find out what's going on in that person's life to ensure that the banks don't
00:29:35.380essentially levy a port act and meanwhile there's no agency here in canada that's charged with that
00:29:42.180responsibility so we have some gaps in our regulatory structure if we're not going to
00:29:47.060allow competition regardless of where you are on the political divide all of us need a degree of
00:29:52.260protection if we cannot look to competition to protect us and the reason we like competition
00:29:57.700is because um it prevents the most egregious of these of these charges emerging and it also
00:30:05.060forces incumbents to become more efficient um and so to my mind we've known this in economics
00:30:12.180well over 100 years, why aren't we doing something about it?
00:30:15.840Yeah, well, and in Canada, the government pressured, actually, and, you know, they didn't
00:30:19.880impose, but they really twist the arms hard and brought about a grocer's code of conduct that they
00:30:24.700have to abide by now for, depending on how they deal with suppliers and pricing and things like
00:30:28.820that. I guess before I let you go, the main thing is getting the political will, because there
00:30:33.280doesn't seem to be interest or will on the parts of our government. But right now, we're going into
00:30:37.180election year now is a good time to get the pressure on the folks running for election saying
00:30:42.360hey can you speak up on this and of course the best way to do that is to get the public informed
00:30:46.280because they don't realize how they are being fleeced as your book puts it so I mean before
00:30:50.640I let you go you know where can people find a copy of this to find out for themselves and see
00:30:55.140how well you've broken down you know how badly we're kind of getting it in the Canadian system
00:30:58.460and and how we can work towards solving this you can get it on Amazon you can get it directly from
00:31:03.020publisher sutherland house books my wife encouraged me to record it so you can lull yourself to sleep
00:31:09.260with my voice if uh if you so desire i think at the end of the day corey with this book we've
00:31:15.100deliberately written it for a general readership and we want people to have the ideas have the
00:31:21.980knowledge um and have the language to understand their predicament and to ask for more and to demand
00:31:29.100better. Democracy is not about showing up every four years to cast a vote. It's about engaging
00:31:34.600with your MPs, engaging with your representatives every day. Because if we don't, then we get what
00:31:42.180we deserve. Well, absolutely. And if we can arm ourselves with information, it makes it harder for
00:31:46.600them to baffle us with BS when we try to ask them why things are the way they are. So I really
00:31:51.880appreciate you writing this and coming on today to talk about it. And I hope we can talk again
00:31:56.640down the road after the banking system's been fixed up for us. Well, we will see. Thank you
00:32:01.140very much, Corey. It's been a pleasure to be here with you. Thank you. So that is author and he's
00:32:05.660worked in the banking industry as well. Our Andrew Spence, he wrote fleeced Canadians versus their
00:32:11.460banks. And yes, as you say, if you Google it, you can find it. It's a good read. As he said,
00:32:15.760he wrote it for people. It's, it's not, you know, it's a bit wonky, but not too terribly. I mean,
00:32:19.200we can understand all of these things. Anybody who does a household budget, you see all of these
00:32:23.300things, whether it's your mortgage, your credit card bills, your investment tools, if you're,
00:32:28.820you know, saving for retirement and things like that. It's not terribly complicated. And what I
00:32:33.620really appreciate though, especially because it's early in the book too, is the comparisons. We
00:32:37.860don't just compare it to the American system where there are dozens and dozens and dozens of
00:32:41.660competitors. Let's look then at others like the UK, like Australia. And as he said, we don't have to
00:32:46.060embrace that system or throw things open as he used the casino comparison, but we could
00:32:52.280better regulate and add transparency. Transparency in so many levels with so many things
00:32:57.360makes things better for us. If we don't know what's going on, how can we solve them? And
00:33:01.940again, that's just where I was stumped. As I said, I keep, because I've just been watching while
00:33:06.760the country's been beating on grocers for quite some time and fine, you know, and they say it's
00:33:12.600because it's a need. You can't afford, avoid buying groceries. Well, that's true, but you can't avoid
00:33:16.860banking either. So you're kind of stuck in that same sort of thing. So check it out, guys. I like
00:33:21.320these things. You know, even if they seem a little dry, they're important and we're all into them.
00:33:25.500All right, let's look at some of the comments here and things such as that. You know, we're
00:33:32.680talking again about election fixing and so on. You know, a couple of people saying no one would
00:33:37.080ever cheat on an election or, you know, can't trust human nature not to cheat an election. No,
00:33:41.860people have tried to cheat on elections. They have. And that's why there are so many checks
00:33:46.720and balances right now for the elections. And we still have to always be on guard. Absolutely,
00:33:51.760we have to be vigilant. And we got to make sure that these things aren't being rigged. We got to
00:33:55.740make sure that there's not funny business because there are people willing to, but just because
00:33:59.220people are willing to do it doesn't mean they've been getting away with it. I mean, it's not that
00:34:05.660easy. It really isn't. If you've worked as a scrutineer, I'm just going to put you through
00:34:09.500the process of what you can do. I threw that out on the X as well, as boring as it might be.
00:34:13.180anybody can go in. You can swear in at a polling station. You can be there from before the polling
00:34:19.120station opens. It's like a magician with their tricks. They will open the boxes, show you that
00:34:23.440they're empty. They're not pre-stacked with ballots. Those boxes then get taped up. They get
00:34:27.720sealed. You can watch them being sealed. You can stay all day and watch every ballot going into
00:34:33.600those boxes. Then you can stay in the evening and watch the envelopes being ripped open as far as
00:34:39.800Scrutineering, you can be at every part of it and plus into the boxes and watching the count.
00:34:45.140It's very, very hard. Now, the tabulating machines, those aren't networked. I know people
00:34:51.060start going on with Dominion and the rest of that. Okay, that's fine, but we weren't using that here.
00:34:54.600And they're just for counting the votes. They aren't networked. And again, the scrutiners are
00:34:58.800there watching it all the time. I don't like them. I don't think we need them. There's chances for
00:35:02.980them breaking down. And they also add to the mistrust. But just because they're there doesn't
00:35:07.440mean somebody's rigging it. The reason I get worried is that the bureaucrats keep changing it.
00:35:15.520You know, I fall back to the old statement about it. If it ain't broke, don't fix it. The system
00:35:20.860works. We can count the votes. We can get the results into the evening sometimes because people
00:35:25.760are saying, oh, wow, it took so long in BC to get those. And it did. It took too long. Absolutely.
00:35:29.920But by the same token, it's always been the case. If there were any elections where the results were
00:35:34.980under 100 and there had to be recounts, it's going to take a few days before they recount that.
00:35:38.800But again, scrutineers are allowed to be there for the recounts. As for mail-in ballots and special
00:35:44.120ballots, yeah, there's room for some funny business, but the margin and volume of it in
00:35:49.320difficulty is very small. I worked in the oil field. I used to, you know, if I knew I was going
00:35:54.560because I've always been a political weenie, I knew if I was going to be out of town on voting
00:35:58.060day, I would go into the returning office and get a ballot and do a special ballot. I could also
00:36:02.360apply for and get a mail-in ballot when I was out in the field. But there's checks and controls on
00:36:07.060all of that too. And for you to be able to get through that whole process to bring in enough
00:36:11.080to actually swing an election again, very, very difficult. Very difficult. You're going to have
00:36:18.100a better chance, for example, in BC, where again, nobody who worked within the election,
00:36:23.360even on the conservative side, is saying it was rigged. It's people outside of it who are making
00:36:26.700those claims. They're going to be better served working on how can we win the next one rather
00:36:31.520than chasing unfounded allegations. Hey, if there's proof or evidence, then bring it forward.
00:36:36.760But as it is, it's just a lot of speculation. We got to watch our elections carefully. Absolutely.
00:36:42.080They are integral. And trust in the election is essential. If people don't trust the process,
00:36:49.040that's where things fall apart and they get into trouble. And that's where people feel helpless.
00:36:55.620That's one of the bigger areas. Again, you see, as I said, where I am sour on Trump.
00:36:59.340and again, I suspect he's probably going to nearly win it. I think he'd be better than Harris. If I
00:37:05.900was an American, I would probably vote for Trump. I was in the standard newsroom that we were here,
00:37:10.520a bunch of us watching, you know, fascinated when it all broke on January 6th, when that whole mess
00:37:14.320happened. And the reason these guys felt that they should storm the Capitol was because they
00:37:21.620were convinced the election had been fixed. And then when Trump finally spoke, he got up and said,
00:37:28.320you know, people should calm down. They should stop this. Okay, fine. Good. Thank you. It's
00:37:31.980about time you spoke to them and just told them that. But then he goes back into, I know the
00:37:35.940election was stolen. So then he just went and poured gasoline on the bloody fire. Irresponsible,
00:37:41.840ridiculous, and stupid. So I worry about that when a person who's going to be leading the most
00:37:47.400powerful country on the planet has those tendencies. Again, I see him as a lesser evil
00:37:52.460of the two, but I really thought the Republicans could pick somebody better. But we'll see what
00:37:57.220happens as things move ahead. The bottom line is electoral systems need to be trusted. Absolutely.
00:38:03.220Will people try to fix them if they can get away with it? Yes, they will. But they aren't that easy
00:38:07.180to fix. They really aren't. Especially if you've participated in you see the reason these checks
00:38:11.500and balances are in because all these things have been tried before. That's why they show the box at
00:38:15.940the start because somewhere 80 years ago in some country, some person duct taped or whatever a
00:38:20.560bunch of ballots inside a box so that when they opened it, they would all fall in with the rest
00:38:23.740the votes or things like that. So there are a lot of processes and checks. And there's no better
00:38:27.700check than having every candidate have the ability to have people in there watching the process from
00:38:32.420start to end. And that is what we have. So again, it's not perfect, but there are ways. There really
00:38:40.640are. Let's see what else we got going on. See, here's another one. Old Wolf, if you don't believe
00:38:46.620there may be cheating in the US elections, then you don't understand human nature. No, my point is
00:38:50.160people will try. I didn't say they won't, but there hasn't been any good evidence that they
00:38:54.980got in the way with it. It really isn't. So, I mean, you need better. You need better.
00:39:00.760So let's see. Oh, here we go. Another commenter saying, hi, Corey, a new article by Reuters just
00:39:06.380came out. Leader of the NDP says he won't help bring down Justin Trudeau. Please express your
00:39:11.360shock. I'm going to guess that Ward, the commenter, follows me on X because I've been poking at for a
00:39:16.880long time in pointing out to people, even though the bloc is rattling their sabers and they're
00:39:22.700saying we're going to bring it down. Look, as long as Jagmeet the weak is leading the NDP,
00:39:27.800Trudeau is not going anywhere. The NDP is broke. They're going to get slaughtered in the next
00:39:33.900election. They have something like 300,000 in the bank. And he's not going to go to the polls.
00:39:41.560There's just no way. So he'll talk big, but he'll cave every time. The term I keep using when I'm
00:39:47.320teasing him online, which I do often, is I call him Justin's little parliamentary chihuahua. You
00:39:51.820know, he's like a little chihuahua. He's yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, yap, but he's got no teeth. He's
00:39:55.140got no power. He's a coward. He's quivering with rage and quivering with fear. He's a wimp. He's
00:40:00.480got no principles. If he had principles, he'd be pushing for what he is. You see, I have more
00:40:05.960respect. It doesn't mean I like, but I have more respect for honest socialists rather than
00:40:10.660opportunists. You know, that's where I see, for example, I have more respect for in Alberta,
00:40:15.960Rachel Notley, who led the NDP, because she's always been true to her ideology as broken and
00:40:22.000flawed as her ideology is. Her replacement, Nahed Nenshi, he's a political chameleon who will do
00:40:27.780whatever he has to do and say whatever he thinks he has to say to try and win power. I mean, he
00:40:34.240campaigned as a conservative when he took the mayoral race in Calgary. He pretended to be
00:40:40.960conservative. He had groups of people pretending he was conservative. He was anything but. He was
00:40:44.360spenshy. He bloated the government. He brought everything inside. He ended transparency. Look
00:40:49.620at him now. This is a man who pretended to be conservative, who is now leading a literal
00:40:54.860socialist party. I don't trust him. He's deceptive. He will go whatever way the wind blows.
00:41:51.200They're hoping if Trudeau is out, with another year to work on it,
00:41:54.200they might be able to salvage their seats.
00:41:56.220They know if they went to an election tomorrow, they're going to lose their seats.
00:41:59.440So they're not, again, we're getting into self-serving rather than serving the country, but that's the reality of it.
00:42:06.360They're not going to vote to pull Trudeau out either.
00:42:09.200The only hope is that Trudeau gets tired of being attacked on all sides from within his party, outside his party.
00:42:15.720One of the bigger turning points we saw recently was, you know, with Christy Clark and Mark Carney,
00:42:21.920both coming out in the open, sniffing around, saying, yeah, you know what, I'm gunning for Justin's job.
00:42:27.820I mean, one of the things people always said to try and defend, well, who's going to replace him
00:42:30.520if he leaves? Well, here's two people raising their hands saying they will. God, I don't want
00:42:35.740to see either of them as prime minister, but it takes that question away. Like, you know, and the
00:42:40.300MPs are, like I said, the sharks are starting to circle under his feet. He's in serious, serious
00:42:44.440trouble. It was funny seeing some of the things put out. You know, somebody put out a picture of
00:42:50.060his bawling. Remember when Justin used to, every week he was crying about something? He was crying
00:42:54.640this apology, crying at that apology, crying at this, crying because the toilet was plugged,
00:42:58.260whatever it might be. He was always crying. Apparently he'd put the tears on during his
00:43:02.480caucus meeting last week too. Shows a couple of things. I think he's a drama teacher and
00:43:07.900his tears are as fake as Anna Nicole Simpson's chest was, but it shows he does feel the pressure.
00:43:15.160He knows he's desperate. He knows he's trying to do something to save his skin. He's stubborn.
00:43:19.560and he's foolish. You know, people say, and I was wrong. He proved me wrong. A year ago, I figured
00:43:25.100he'd be gone. Obviously, he proved me wrong. I don't know what it's going to take. Some people
00:43:29.520are saying he's too vain to leave her. Now, I see what you're saying, but with that vanity, I mean,
00:43:35.520you've got an out, right? You can do the old political. I've, you know, I've done the walk
00:43:40.920in the snow like my dad, and I've decided that I need to spend more time with my family. It's
00:43:47.380important to me right now. Our family is at challenges. We're going through a divorce. The
00:43:51.360pressures of politics have been hard on my kids. I need to leave office so that I can focus on that
00:43:56.460because what I've been doing right now has been unfair to Canadians and unfair to my children
00:44:00.480because I've been splitting my time between the two. So thank you for giving me these 10 wonderful
00:44:05.100years in power and I'll step aside for someone else. See, it can be done. I could be true to a
00:44:09.060speechwriter, though I would put a bunch of ums and ahs in so he feels comfortable about it.
00:44:12.680No, he can get out right now and maintain at least a little bit of pride, but to hang and cling all the way to the bitter end so that when you do leave, it's with a boot on your butt, whether it's from the electorate or from your caucus seven months from now or whatever, just getting so desperate that they practically, you know, do a Roman Senate thing on you.
00:44:33.500as somebody you know old wolf says you know he has mental stability issues yeah i don't know
00:44:38.940i think he is delusional i mean the only thing i can try and guess is he thinks he can turn it
00:44:44.860around he really thinks that given another 10 months 11 months to work on this that he could
00:44:51.560potentially you know win back public support and here's something on x i had some conversations
00:44:57.300with people on there earlier too they're saying oh well he's going uh you know in in october 2025
00:45:03.000no matter what, if we could just make it to that. Well, if you read the Constitution, actually,
00:45:06.560he can go till 2026. So if people say, yeah, but look at the Elections Act, it says it's October
00:45:12.3802025. Yeah, that's an act. That's legislation. They can change that in a heartbeat. Alberta used
00:45:18.900to be illegal to run a deficit. That was a day I was sitting in the legislature and I watched we
00:45:22.220had the Balanced Budget Act. And I'm pretty sure it was the Stelmack government. I was sitting in
00:45:26.940the gallery there at the legislature. They came in, they tabled a bill to, or a motion to repeal
00:45:34.000their balanced budget act. Bang, everybody voted. It was repealed. It was gone. And then they tabled
00:45:38.700a deficit budget. That's how easy it is. And if you've got a majority government sitting there,
00:45:43.400or if you've got Jagmeet Singh and Justin Trudeau, you can say, we're going to change
00:45:48.100the elections act and make the date 2026. There's nothing stopping them from doing that. The
00:45:53.320Constitution is the only hard line, and that gives him five potential years. Do I think that's going
00:45:58.520to happen? No, probably not. I really don't. I mean, as others are saying, he's on the brink of
00:46:03.380going down as it is right now. I can't see him surviving two more years in there. I can't see us
00:46:08.720surviving two more years of him in there. But who knows? Politics are bloody crazy. We're in for a
00:46:14.540crazy time, a crazy month, a crazy year. By the next time I'm on this show, the American election
00:46:20.220will have finished. So we'll be able to break that down and see what we're looking forward to.
00:46:25.580The AGM will have been done from the Wildrose UCP and Red Deer. I'll be able to report on that.
00:46:32.340We're going to have the pipeline on this evening. Tune in for that, guys. We're going to break down
00:46:35.920a bit more of these things. We're going to be broadcasting from the AGM floor, by the way. So
00:46:40.540keep an eye on all those Western Standard channels. You know, we're going to be interviewing some
00:46:44.200interesting people, covering stuff as it happens down there. This is your source. This is right on
00:46:49.000the ground this is unfiltered global's going broke no sense watching their stuff anyways but
00:46:53.500if you really want to watch the dark story watch their stock levels right now guys it's pretty
00:46:58.360scary out there so either way i've bent your ear long enough thank you very much for tuning in
00:47:04.440today guys i do appreciate it even if we don't always all agree that's all part of the fun be
00:47:10.700sure to tune in again to our other shows and to this one next week at this time we'll have a whole
00:47:15.340bunch of new issues, a new guest, and we'll solve the world's problems. Thanks again. See you then.