Protesters are out in droves across Canada, and there's a good reason why they're out of options: Canada's political system is broken, and once a politician's elected to office, there's no mechanism for citizens to hold them accountable.
00:00:00.000Why are the protests happening so much?
00:00:02.160Not just this one, but it's constantly left, right, center, doesn't matter.
00:00:05.080Well, I mean, most people would rather do darn near anything than stand on a street corner or a highway waving a protest sign.
00:00:11.540I mean, time's a precious commodity, and using it to stand jumbled within a crowd while police and many folks passing by are often less than supportive of your efforts.
00:00:22.080On Monday of this Easter weekend, thousands of Canadians in dozens of locations went out to protest the latest increase of Trudeau's carbon tax.
00:00:30.500So why are more and more people subjecting themselves, though, to the elements and possibly the long arm of the law with protests across Canada?
00:00:36.980Well, it's pretty simple. It's because they feel helpless.
00:00:39.140They're frustrated, and they're out of options.
00:00:41.700You see, in Canada's system, once a person's elected to office, there's no mechanisms for citizens to hold them accountable.
00:00:47.480No matter how poorly a politician might govern, the people are stuck with them until the next election.
00:00:52.720Now, some people will say, well, that's just how democracy works, and they kind of have a point.
00:00:56.060People got the chance to select their elected officials, and they should have to live with their decisions, or at least within reason.
00:01:02.600There were cases, though, where the politicians grossly misrepresented themselves when applying for the job during an election.
00:01:08.720And yes, we have a local example in Calgary.
00:01:11.040Jodi Gondek has become, and she's managed to become, Calgary's most unpopular mayor in Calgary history,
00:01:17.200and she's barely served more than half of her first term.
00:01:20.940Gondek campaigned as a moderate, won the election based on that.
00:01:25.180As soon as she became mayor, she pivoted into a crazed, woke agenda.
00:01:29.920She ushered in an insane $87 billion climate change plan.
00:01:34.080She torpedoed an agreement for construction of a new arena.
00:01:37.240She committed hundreds of millions of dollars to an electric bus program,
00:01:41.340and brought in a single-use plastic ban, which enraged the city when it was implemented.
00:01:45.100Not to mention how far she went out of her way to piss off our local Jews.
00:01:49.060Taxes to fund those plans have spiraled as well, of course.
00:01:52.240Now, had Gondek campaigned on doing all those things in the first place,
00:01:55.780sure, some citizens would still be upset, I mean, when those initiatives came about,
00:01:59.440but I think they'd be more inclined to accept it until the next election,
00:02:02.620because, well, that's what she said she was going to do.
00:02:04.860But since Gondek deceptively campaigned as something else,
00:02:07.800people feel they've been misled, and that she should be held accountable for that.
00:02:11.080I mean, a recall petition in Calgary was initiated, and it's garnered a lot of interest.
00:02:15.660Alas, the legislation for recall in Alberta is terribly flawed,
00:02:19.000and the bar for successful petitioning is set impossibly high.
00:02:22.480After months of hard effort, it appears the recall Gondek campaign
00:02:25.420will have only reached a little more than 10% of the signatures required to force a recall.
00:02:30.120That's not to say the petition's been a total failure.
00:02:32.280It's put an embarrassing spotlight on just how terrible Gondek has been as a mayor,
00:02:36.060and it's shown how ridiculous the current recall legislation is in Alberta.
00:02:39.080All the same, though, if recall was the goal, it was an exercise in futility,
00:02:43.920and many people now are going to feel even more frustrated with the process.
00:02:48.640Last weekend at the Calgary Flames game, thousands of attendees,
00:02:51.760and it made national news, booed Jodi Gondek as she walked onto the ice for a ceremony.
00:02:56.180And there's been many pearl clutchers,
00:02:58.100and they've been aghast with the disrespect shown to the mayor.
00:03:01.020Well, they'd be better served to try and understand why people are so upset in the first place
00:03:04.880rather than complaining about the people being upset.
00:03:06.760Citizens are exasperated, and they want to show their discontent however they can,