Western Standard - The CBC funded hit pieces against Canadians are unforgiveable

00:00:00.000 Welcome

00:00:29.980 day. Welcome to the Corey Morgan show post May long weekend. I hope you've shoveled all that

00:00:34.980 traditional May long weekend snow off of your sidewalks and driveways, or as I'm sure it'll

00:00:40.180 be corrected soon for not mentioning it's Victoria day long weekend. And unlike the prime minister,

00:00:46.160 I'm not going to bother going into addressing other, what, Sikh groups and so on that have

00:00:51.060 observances on that day either way. But maybe we'll start seeing spring and summer coming along

00:00:56.620 sometime soon we gotta hope for the best another so it's a short week thanks to the long weekend

00:01:01.460 but it's gonna be a crazy busy one uh the politics are insane as always which is good for us i don't

00:01:06.620 know if it's good for people in general but it's nice for us covering things i'm gonna start out

00:01:11.780 though with just uh talking about a stunt from the you know they got exposed recently with our

00:01:16.820 state broadcaster they hit a new low they're no longer content just to create subpar entertainment

00:01:22.400 content based on woke pretexts, and they're satisfied with a grossly biased news division

00:01:28.600 with a cratering viewership numbers. They're now funding productions with the aim of undercutting

00:01:33.820 any remnants of national pride. Frances Widowson exposed and blew up the production of a tax-funded 0.99

00:01:39.580 prank show, they called it, when she turned the camera back at them, and the extent of this vile

00:01:45.000 and insulting initiative is now coming to light. Former Mount Royal University professor Widowson

00:01:51.060 has been a longtime critic of the false narrative of 215 children having been killed and secretly

00:01:56.500 buried in an apple orchard at the Kamloops residential school site. And his evidence

00:02:00.840 has mounted that the child burial story is a hoax rather than investigating the issue to confirm

00:02:04.960 whether or not murdered children are indeed buried in Kamloops. Activists have been trying to shut

00:02:09.640 down voices questioning the story. So the CBC jumped into the mix and funded a production to

00:02:15.380 target widowson and thankfully it backfired widowson was lured to a vancouver studio by a

00:02:20.980 fake production company called forge media fake websites were created along with fake identities

00:02:25.460 and a fake initiative called heritage figures canada which was allegedly a docuseries in

00:02:30.200 canadian history a person coaxing a person who's coaxed into taking part in that production can't

00:02:36.140 really be faulted for not realizing it was an attack interview when such pains were made to

00:02:40.400 disguise the production as being legitimate so this interview began benignly enough with questions

00:02:44.980 and answers with an actor, I guess, portraying Sir John A. MacDonald, when suddenly a couple of

00:02:49.340 activists burst into the studio, dumped shoes on a table in front of Widowson, and silently started

00:02:54.840 glaring at her. To her credit, rather than continuing with the charade or simply walking

00:02:59.180 out, she pulled out her phone and began questioning the host. The actors quickly fled the scene and

00:03:04.000 the production was taken down around them while the host sheepishly endured an interrogation from

00:03:09.560 Widowson. Clearly, they weren't prepared to have the camera turned back upon themselves.

00:03:13.520 Whitteson posted her video on X and it quickly became viral.

00:03:16.080 Then we began learning of other ambushes this group either attempted to carry out or succeeded in carrying out.

00:03:22.220 Lindsay Shepard, she had published a children's book on Sir John A. MacDonald.

00:03:26.200 She was targeted and endured fake interviews she later discovered were created to demonize Canada's founder along with Shepard herself.

00:03:33.000 The production company even created a prototype collectible to make their hoax appear genuine.

00:03:38.240 Shepard has not only come out as a victim of this group now,

00:03:41.180 but she's exposed another.

00:03:43.040 RCMP veterans were lured to a Vancouver studio

00:03:46.320 for what they were told would be a ceremony to honour their service.

00:03:49.540 Their phones were confiscated before the show began,

00:03:51.920 presumably to avoid another episode like widowsons.

00:03:53.840 They were then subjected to humiliation on stage

00:03:57.120 in front of a staged audience berating them for their alleged role

00:04:00.520 of the RCMP in residential schools.

00:04:05.120 It's been found that this CBC-funded show approached author Jeremy Amernick,

00:04:09.980 BCMLA Dallas Brody, and Conservative commentator, Member of Parliament Aaron Gunn.

00:04:14.620 Other names are probably going to surface as this scandal spreads.

00:04:17.780 An investigation of this production has to be held.

00:04:19.820 How many tax dollars went into this hoax?

00:04:22.940 Dozens of people were involved, and that's just creating the back story.

00:04:26.940 It must have cost a fortune, not to mention setting up fake studios

00:04:29.740 and flying victims across the country to participate.

00:04:32.640 This entire affair is repugnant.

00:04:34.480 Public figures were subjected to ridicule and humiliation on the taxpayers' dime.

00:04:39.080 The agenda of the production wasn't entertainment or parody, though they may have claimed it was such.

00:04:43.600 Apologists have compared the production to Borat, where Sacha Baron Cohen ambushed guests, but it's nothing like that.

00:04:49.180 Cohen's agenda was entertainment rather than political, and his work was actually funny. 0.64

00:04:53.400 There's nothing funny about what this Forge media group did.

00:04:56.300 Most importantly, Cohen's work wasn't tax-funded.

00:04:59.460 The state broadcaster has an ostensible mandate to promote Canadian pride and unity.

00:05:05.300 It's managing neither, as it funds productions that attack prominent Canadians

00:05:08.740 and perpetuate the narrative that Canada is a genocidal nation that must be ashamed of itself.

00:05:13.400 Their targets are icons of Canadian pride, such as the RCMP and the country's founder, Sir John A. MacDonald.

00:05:19.500 Critical commentary is certainly fair, and it's been applied liberal to the RCMP and past political figures.

00:05:25.620 This ongoing campaign to villainize them, though, is abhorrent.

00:05:28.480 The CBC has announced it's tapped the brakes on the Forge media production now, but that's too little, too late.

00:05:34.120 Independence movements are blossoming across this country, and can anybody really be shocked when the CBC gets $1.5 billion a year to attack the history, pride, and foundation of the nation?

00:05:43.040 The best time to defund the CBC was decades ago.

00:05:46.720 The next best time is right now.

00:05:48.580 It's just enough out of these guys.

00:05:50.220 By the way, I just saw, just before the show started, the RCMP is engaging their legal services team,

00:05:55.840 So they may be suing the CBC for this stunt.

00:05:59.200 Of course, the problem is we get to pay for it either way.

00:06:01.560 So no matter what happens, we lose.

00:06:04.300 All right.

00:06:04.700 Well, that's what's kind of got me ranting to start with.

00:06:07.000 Let's see what else is happening in the news.

00:06:08.260 Dave?

00:06:08.680 It's Victoria Day.

00:06:09.820 Victoria Day.

00:06:10.440 I figured that was coming.

00:06:11.820 It's always taxpayers that lose, isn't it?

00:06:13.760 It's funny how that happens.

00:06:14.700 It is, yes.

00:06:16.040 I don't have much left to lose.

00:06:17.720 No, no kidding.

00:06:18.860 AC finally had some action on the trail cam.

00:06:21.720 Oh, the fox there.

00:06:22.640 Yeah, what was that all about?

00:06:24.120 yeah that was quite something um this coyote came running up if people saw the video in the middle

00:06:29.880 of the night and stopped right in front of the camera then you could see a pair of eyes off in

00:06:33.480 the distance and then uh the eyes it turned out to be a fox that came running towards the coyote

00:06:38.920 with something in its mouth probably a rabbit and the coyote turned tail and ran and then the fox

00:06:43.480 turned around went the other way a little bit of a wildlife drama there you go behind the house up

00:06:48.040 there i would i i wouldn't have thought that a coyote would run away from a fox but yeah maybe

00:06:53.400 it didn't know what it was now maybe you hear something crashing through the woods up there

00:06:56.200 in the night you know my trail cam it could be anything so it could be anything could be you

00:06:59.880 could be could be you running naked up through the woods yeah i stopped drinking so that doesn't

00:07:03.560 happen nearly as much as it used to not as much as it used to lots of news today cory where to begin

00:07:08.680 let's let's stay away from politics for a few minutes uh our winnipeg police service has

00:07:15.000 announced the biggest drug bust in manitoba history 570 plus kilos of fentanyl and meth and

00:07:25.080 cocaine 33 people arrested all involving mexican cartels the hell's angels and the wolfpack alliance

00:07:35.880 so sounds like some good police work was done there and there's gonna be some

00:07:40.280 mad uh mexican cartel leaders that uh all their dope got uh got seized that's a lot 0.55

00:07:45.960 that's a lot of dope isn't it you know um all right we'll go back to politics now uh government

00:07:53.240 has announced new uh uh border crossing signs i guess for lack of a better thing when you

00:07:59.560 drive into alberta from the united states uh you know the north bc or saskatchewan you're

00:08:06.200 going to be greeted with a new welcome to alberta land of strong and free so that's going to be the

00:08:13.800 same as on your license plate coming uh coming up this year it's funny some people of course

00:08:17.880 have gotten worked up about that and i i remember when they first discussed they're putting a

00:08:21.640 separatist slogan on there that slogan's been around for alberta for a long long time they're

00:08:26.040 just putting it out yeah uh though i think it's no mistake on the government's part either i mean

00:08:30.600 it is a you know it implies something when you see that and i like it yep absolutely uh

00:08:37.720 parliamentary budget office put out a big report today on the world cup of canada hosting it as

00:08:42.920 you know starts next month we get 13 games between vancouver and toronto a total cost

00:08:51.160 one billion dollars and rising well spares money again yes well we discussed this when this was

00:08:58.280 first announced and i mean there's difference you're a big football fan i am i am not so i

00:09:03.480 find it a little more painful when you know i'd love to see an nfl game come up here but i don't

00:09:08.200 think the tax dollars should go with it no no no exactly well they used to be held in toronto all

00:09:13.400 the time didn't they once a year buffalo uh buffalo game was played there well we'll see what comes of

00:09:20.040 it yeah i imagine you know it wouldn't surprise me if that billion dollars doubled right once the

00:09:26.680 rcmp handed in their bill bill for security uh what else we got corey uh

00:09:34.600 calgary councillor landon johnson's sort of landed himself in a bit of hot water

00:09:39.480 uh city of calgary gives out uh uh a pass a series of passes subsidized passes for things like

00:09:48.760 transit taxis sporting facilities and stuff for low-income newcomers to the city so alderman

00:09:57.560 johnson you familiar with launched the gondek petition yes campaign did very well until

00:10:04.840 city nixed it uh he's saying that maybe we should take a look at that past just being

00:10:09.000 held for canadian citizens uh so that's drawn some strong strong criticism on both sides of

00:10:17.000 of the border or the issue well i mean it's it's an interesting one i mean it's good follows along

00:10:22.240 with some of the provincial stuff that premier smith have been talking about reducing some

00:10:25.540 services for people who aren't citizens but i understand some on the other end i mean if they're

00:10:29.580 newcomers and they're low income is it going to make them any better if they can't afford to get

00:10:33.240 to a job to try to get to work or uh if their kids can't get to a rec center to uh productively blow

00:10:39.640 off steam i guess you could say it's depends where the line is drawn exactly and uh prime minister

00:10:46.660 Mark Carney out in Vancouver at this moment meeting with Premier David Eby. So I'm sure

00:10:51.940 Mr. Eby will have a bit of a temper tantrum behind closed doors and our BC reporter Alex Zoltan is

00:10:58.300 all over it. Oh, he's been covering it. I mean, Eby does lots of tantrums outside of closed doors.

00:11:03.220 He does. He does. It should be something good to watch. He's just a glum looking man these days.

00:11:11.300 He's a dead man. People compared him to Eeyore, I think, you know, he's just always head down. I

00:11:16.120 I mean, man, you hit the top job, and you're certainly hating it.

00:11:19.560 No kidding.

00:11:20.500 I don't think he's going to be there much longer.

00:11:22.340 We'll see.

00:11:22.840 I mean, it kind of reminds me of Gondek as well.

00:11:24.360 That was towards the end.

00:11:25.080 I mean, that was part of her problem, really, was you could tell she didn't like it.

00:11:28.380 She didn't like people.

00:11:29.320 She didn't like the press conferences.

00:11:30.660 She didn't like council. 1.00

00:11:32.320 And now she, I don't know what she's doing. 0.51

00:11:34.720 Yeah.

00:11:35.500 I don't know either.

00:11:36.580 It's fine by me.

00:11:37.780 Exactly.

00:11:38.520 Out of sight, out of mind.

00:11:39.960 All right.

00:11:40.420 Well, thanks for the updates.

00:11:41.780 I know there's plenty more potentially breaking in the next 24 hours.

00:11:45.200 It's going to be a busy 24 hours.

00:11:48.460 Yes, absolutely.

00:11:50.040 We'll be on top of it.

00:11:51.480 Yes.

00:11:52.120 We'll see you later on.

00:11:53.680 You bet.

00:11:54.040 All right, Dave.

00:11:54.380 Bye-bye.

00:11:55.780 So that is our news editor, Dave Naylor.

00:11:58.580 And yeah, lots on the go, political, non-political.

00:12:01.360 It's good to see a bunch of drugs gone.

00:12:03.240 I know interdiction seems to be a lost cause, but still, I mean, getting rid of some of it can't hurt.

00:12:08.580 I mean, when you think of the volumes of that, we're talking, you know, hundreds and hundreds of kilograms.

00:12:12.980 I mean, they talk about the potency of things like meth and fentanyl, where it's just the tiniest of pinch can kill a person or addict them.

00:12:21.880 Interesting to see those gang names involved, too, though, right?

00:12:24.940 Either way, all that news copy, all that stuff.

00:12:26.840 And as we cover things, when the break is due to you guys who have subscribed, this is where I got to renege and remind you, please, guys, check it out.

00:12:34.440 Westernstandard.news slash subscription.

00:12:36.140 $10 a month, $100 for a year.

00:12:38.460 and it keeps our reporters out there on the ground

00:12:41.280 watching these things, covering them

00:12:43.120 so we can break them to you as fast as we can

00:12:44.700 and you don't have to rely on garbage institutions

00:12:48.040 like the CBC as I mentioned them earlier.

00:12:52.200 One of our reporters is up in Edmonton.

00:12:54.020 The big news thing

00:12:55.260 and I've seen some commenters kind of asking about it,

00:12:58.280 you know, is a referendum going to be called

00:13:00.060 today or tomorrow or ever

00:13:03.700 on independence in Alberta?

00:13:06.480 Nobody quite knows for sure.

00:13:07.880 all sorts of hints and rumors and stuff bouncing around. We have Will up in Edmonton because there

00:13:13.120 is a committee meeting today, and that's where they're going to be discussing Thomas Lukasik's

00:13:17.900 application. And he's going to get five minutes before the committee. So, you know, the political

00:13:25.040 games going on, it's mixed. I laugh at them, but at the same time, I see them, you know, just playing

00:13:29.920 like kids sometimes with things. So Lukasik's been stomping and jumping up and down. Look,

00:13:34.060 I don't like to apologize for the guy. I can't stand him. He's lying through his teeth right now

00:13:37.940 when he's saying he didn't actually want a referendum and that he wanted just to have it

00:13:44.220 before the legislature. It's there right on paper. He signed it. He said on there that he wants to

00:13:53.540 trigger a referendum. And to try and change his mind on that is utterly disingenuous. But at the

00:14:01.540 same time all that work the hundreds of thousands of signatures that were submitted however indeed

00:14:07.040 he got them and everything was supposed to go before committee at least to be discussed and

00:14:11.140 so on I mean if the legislation is to be in good faith and he wasn't called before the committee

00:14:17.880 to even talk about it for forever finally after a whole bunch of noise he's been given five minutes

00:14:21.980 today to address the committee I don't know how much he can get in in such a short time but we'll

00:14:28.580 find out. But that could be at that point where that committee, and I think it's four UCP members

00:14:35.560 and two NDP ones, I'm not sure. Well, the majority government though, it's going to be dominated by

00:14:38.760 government members. That's where they determine what's going to go on a referendum or not.

00:14:46.260 And whether or not they determine that today or announce it today, we're going to find out. But

00:14:52.400 we have Will on the ground out there who's going to be watching it this afternoon to see what

00:14:56.320 happens. The other thing is tomorrow night, there is a big press event going on. Premier Smith

00:15:03.580 will be announcing something. Sounds like there's going to be a cabinet shuffle, probably. So

00:15:11.160 they're going to move some of them around. And maybe she's going to be talking something about

00:15:15.120 that. But I mean, social media is just swirling. Conventional media is just swirling. It's in the

00:15:20.040 air. I mean, let's just quit beating around the bush. One way or another, there's going to be a

00:15:23.880 referendum. The question now is, is the, what's the question going to be? And how's it going to

00:15:29.780 look? I mean, if they take the Lukasik approach, it's kind of a, then it's just a poll, but he's

00:15:36.360 now even saying he doesn't even want that. I don't know. What an interesting, weird time we're in

00:15:44.280 right now with, with all this stuff in the air and juggling around. Let's see. I'm waiting on

00:15:50.140 I guess. I'm supposed to, Franco Teresano, he's usually very punctual. We're going to talk carbon

00:15:54.460 tax and things such as that. And well, that ties into the MOU and so many things tie together.

00:16:03.580 Jacqueline Littler saying, not a constitutional question would be meaningless if the referendum

00:16:08.220 came to that. Yeah, possibly. You see, but the issue we're stuck in now and is the courts have

00:16:16.860 said, and I despise having to play by their games, they've said a question can't be held

00:16:22.820 constitutionally unless consultation's been done first. And I loathe that because it really,

00:16:28.300 it's an impossible bar. And by the way, consultation, of course, I mean with our

00:16:33.680 Indigenous people. Well, how much? When's it adequate? When's it enough? Where is the bar

00:16:40.360 to be set? Can we start consulting tomorrow? Do we have to start consulting next week?

00:16:46.420 Is the consultation to be held by the people petitioning? Well, that's been shut down.

00:16:51.200 Or does the government do it? And what is the consultation? Just saying, hey, these are our

00:16:56.400 plans. Let's have a few public meetings. We did it. We're gone. We know that won't be considered

00:17:00.380 enough. So there's appeals have been put forward to the court on this on two fronts, both by the

00:17:09.160 government and by

00:17:11.220 Stay Free Alberta,

00:17:13.380 but that's going to take months,

00:17:15.080 maybe a year. The courts

00:17:16.800 don't move that fast.

00:17:19.060 Meanwhile, the potential for a

00:17:21.120 referendum this year to be held

00:17:22.800 lands, you know, around

00:17:25.000 and at

00:17:25.520 mid-October, and that time will run out.

00:17:29.220 The campaign ability and time will run

00:17:31.040 out on that, and

00:17:33.040 I don't know.

00:17:35.560 There's something I don't say that

00:17:37.020 often when I talk on this show and I go on forever.

00:17:38.880 I don't know what's going to happen. We are in such strange, uncharted waters right now.

00:17:45.520 But the premier is in a very tough position because State Free Alberta and their leaders have been making it very clear that they're going to push to try and have a leadership election and push her out of office if she doesn't give them the referendum they want.

00:18:01.500 that could lead to a crazy sort of summer and year in Alberta. So that's where I'm suspecting

00:18:07.680 some sort of referendum is going to be called by her, though maybe it's not the one they want.

00:18:12.980 And then where do things go from there? The other thing is

00:18:16.960 the opponents to Smith, she can't win on either direction. I mean, they're going wild on social 0.97

00:18:25.680 media. They're calling her a separatist. A Toronto Star article said Smith has a separatist.

00:18:31.500 effortist agenda. And it just keeps going and going and going. Then she's just jumping up and

00:18:35.720 down. He's even got a new comb over going on and everything. He's ready for the season.

00:18:40.600 And again, just that S word over and over and over again, they're trying to make it stick to

00:18:45.920 Smith. And no matter what she does, she's going to get called that. So that again, tells me more of,

00:18:50.560 well, you might as well schedule the referendum. You're going to get labeled either way,

00:18:54.660 no matter how many times she says she's not necessarily supporting a yes vote in it.

00:18:59.940 she's been quite clear that she wouldn't support such. What an interesting time to be alive.

00:19:04.960 Meanwhile, things are ramping up in Saskatchewan too, you know, the support there is sitting at

00:19:08.760 about a third or more, just about as strong, or maybe even a little stronger than in Alberta for

00:19:12.360 the independence concept. They just don't have a petitioning mechanism on the go. Now, could they

00:19:19.640 get one started? Probably not until, you know, well, for one, they need the legislation and they

00:19:25.980 would need it to, you know, be able to pass those bars of consultation, which if Alberta couldn't,

00:19:34.860 presumably Saskatchewan couldn't either. So either way, we'll get into it. I see the guest in the

00:19:38.920 lobby there. There was an MOU, I don't know, second signing or performative action last week

00:19:46.340 going on on the possible maybe outlying possibility that a pipeline could possibly be

00:19:52.300 constructed in a year and a half. But in the meantime, Alberta is going to accept an ever

00:19:56.820 growing carbon tax on its federal or not its federal, but on its industrial capacity, which

00:20:03.480 doesn't sound like a good concession to me. Franco Tarazano from the Canadian Taxpayers

00:20:07.000 Federation, I'm certain would have some more to add on that. So let's bring him in. Hey, Franco,

00:20:10.960 how's it going? Corey, it's going great, man. Thanks for having me on the show.

00:20:14.980 Oh, always a pleasure. Especially, you know, when it comes to tax issues, maybe if you could just

00:20:21.720 give a little background because it's kind of coming up you know some people didn't realize

00:20:25.800 or under the impression okay the carbon tax is gone carney got rid of the carbon tax

00:20:30.440 but that he only got rid of one carbon tax we've still got another one don't we yeah that's right

00:20:35.400 so when trudeau brought in that carbon tax there's really two parts of it right there was that

00:20:40.520 consumer facing carbon tax the one you paid uh essentially directly on your natural gas bill

00:20:45.960 or at the pumps right the visible carbon tax that you could see so carney cancelled that one but

00:20:52.040 the other part of the trudeau era carbon taxes was this hidden carbon tax on canadian business

00:20:57.800 right you often hear the media politicians pundits call it the industrial carbon tax

00:21:03.000 uh but really it's just a hidden carbon tax on canadian businesses like steel like fertilizer

00:21:08.520 plants like electricity generation um but also on oil and gas projects as well right and what

00:21:15.320 What I always like to say is a carbon tax is a carbon tax is a carbon tax. 0.96

00:21:18.760 It doesn't matter what type of lipstick politicians put on their carbon tax pig.

00:21:23.740 All carbon taxes make life more expensive.

00:21:26.460 All carbon taxes hurt Canadian businesses and their workers.

00:21:29.460 And carbon taxes, too, quite frankly, don't work towards these politicians' stated intentions.

00:21:35.740 No, emissions don't get reduced by them.

00:21:38.280 It just tends to be a grab.

00:21:39.580 So with the big press conference last week, though, we saw Premier Smith and Prime Minister Carney celebrating that they're only going to increase it to 130 by a certain date.

00:21:52.560 Would you call that a victory?

00:21:54.480 No. Are you kidding? It's a carbon tax hike. What are we talking about, right?

00:21:58.820 Like, Corey, you're making me miss home. You're making me miss Alberta, right?

00:22:03.560 I think of Alberta, and I think Alberta should be carbon tax free.

00:22:07.540 I don't care what they call their type of carbon tax.

00:22:10.360 Albertans shouldn't be paying any carbon tax.

00:22:12.400 By the way, for a while now, Saskatchewan has been carbon tax free, right?

00:22:16.920 We're starting to see Scott Moe wobble a little bit right now.

00:22:20.560 But previously, Scott Moe just said he's not playing that game.

00:22:24.240 And he said the industrial carbon tax to zero.

00:22:26.880 That's what should be happening in Alberta.

00:22:29.980 Now, Corey, let me just give you the facts.

00:22:32.280 And then we can kind of talk about the politics of it, okay?

00:22:34.740 So you just got to listen to what Carney said on the technicalities. Before negotiating with Alberta, right, before that original MOU was signed, the effective industrial carbon tax rate, so the actual carbon tax, was about $20 a ton. Now it's about $40 a ton. By 2040, under this agreement, it's going to be $130 a ton.

00:22:58.360 okay to quote carney directly it's a six and a half times increase to the industrial carbon tax

00:23:05.820 okay does that sound like a victory to you cory come on no and i was just floored by it i mean

00:23:13.120 how over a barrel is our provincial government to try and get a project done that's the concession

00:23:19.360 you have to give to the federal government a massively increasing carbon tax i i would

00:23:24.440 And I know it's politics and Premier Smith has to project some positivity, but how can, you know, definitely somebody who we know as a fiscal conservative, as a person, how can you smile and say this was a victory to see this thing rising just because it's not rising as quickly or as high as some people might have projected earlier?

00:23:44.180 Well, and look, look, you almost got to disregard the headline price, right?

00:23:49.340 Because that's what Premier Smith and their office, a couple, you know, I've had even one person in Premier Smith's office come after me on Twitter, but they're just incorrect when they're looking at the headline price.

00:24:00.000 What you have to look at is the effective tax, right?

00:24:02.960 What are companies actually paying?

00:24:05.980 And, you know, Carney on the technicality is very clear.

00:24:08.680 It was $20 a ton.

00:24:10.420 It's now $40.

00:24:11.380 It's going up to $130 a ton by 2040, sorry.

00:24:15.560 So, look, that is a huge carbon tax increase.

00:24:18.320 But Corey, I think the key takeaway for all of your listeners and for all Albertans and really all Canadians, the key takeaway from this agreement is this.

00:24:27.900 Carbon tax hikes are a certainty. A pipeline is a maybe, right?

00:24:33.280 So when I see this agreement, like I understand why the premier of Alberta and quite frankly, why any premier of Alberta should be pushing for pipelines.

00:24:42.760 But what we should be seeing these provincial politicians be doing is to tell Ottawa to stop roadblocking development, scrap all carbon taxes, and let businesses build pipelines with their own money, not with taxpayers' dollars.

00:24:56.140 And that's something that we don't have the details on, but it's something, of course, that we're very worried about.

00:25:01.940 And, you know, Corey, when I see this agreement, you know what I think about?

00:25:05.120 Charlie Brown, Lucy, and the football, right?

00:25:07.520 You know, how many times have we been told, oh, just pay your carbon taxes and don't worry, a pipeline will come about this?

00:25:13.560 Well, I remember when that was the argument that Rachel Notley made, right, way back in the day when her government was in power.

00:25:20.520 And, you know, despite bringing in a provincial consumer carbon tax, you had Canada's political system chase away the private company that wanted to spend billions of its own dollars to twin its own pipeline.

00:25:32.240 right but the political system chased that away even though Albertans were paying a consumer

00:25:37.580 carbon tax from the Notley government well now with this industrial carbon tax just so people

00:25:42.380 understand the kind of damage this sort of thing causes it reduces it basically takes a shave out

00:25:48.420 of whatever they produce and they have it ensures they must have a very high resource price to be

00:25:53.780 able to make a profit because they're not going to be able to make as much as they typically could

00:25:57.880 without that tax which means they invest in other jurisdictions or they tap the brakes on capital

00:26:02.820 investments or as we've seen and heard so many times even rbc saying canada is not a good place

00:26:08.820 to invest we've lost up to uh possibly a trillion dollars in investment so i mean yeah we don't see

00:26:13.640 it directly on our consumer prices but we see it as an economic hit that hits everybody in the long

00:26:18.180 run well look i i say the and and cory i was actually just in the environment committee

00:26:22.720 in parliament right testifying against the industrial carbon tax and the two thing that

00:26:27.180 the point I was trying to make is like the industrial carbon tax, this hidden carbon tax

00:26:31.140 on Canadian business is the worst of all worlds, higher prices and fewer Canadian jobs, right?

00:26:37.000 Let's talk about the higher prices. I mean, you don't need a PhD in economics to understand that

00:26:41.740 when the government imposes carbon taxes on refineries, that makes driving more expensive.

00:26:46.240 When the government imposes carbon taxes on fertilizer plants, that makes food more expensive.

00:26:51.460 And when the government imposes carbon taxes on electricity, that makes it more expensive to live.

00:26:56.960 Okay, but now let's look at the other side of the coin, right?

00:26:59.860 Because this is an industrial carbon tax on Canadian business.

00:27:03.080 Hey, guess what jurisdiction is not imposing national carbon taxes, regardless of who is

00:27:08.520 in power?

00:27:08.960 The United States, our biggest economic competitor.

00:27:13.740 Okay, so what an industrial carbon tax does is it pushes our entrepreneurs to cut production

00:27:18.700 here and set up shop just south of the border.

00:27:22.180 Let me give you two examples, okay?

00:27:23.800 So when the government imposes an industrial carbon tax, right, that doesn't reduce emissions, right? It just pushes that oil and gas project out of Alberta to Texas, okay? When the government imposes an industrial carbon tax on fertilizer plants, again, that does not cut emissions. It just pushes that fertilizer plant out of Manitoba across the border into North Dakota.

00:27:47.640 Yeah, so it's just the opposite of what Carney said he is going to be doing. 0.95

00:27:53.200 It's certainly making the orange man south of the border succeed in what he was saying, 0.95

00:27:56.520 which is pulling everything down into them.

00:27:59.080 For an economic wizard, Mark Carney's tactics seem questionable at best.

00:28:04.400 But I'll let you off on the carbon tax.

00:28:06.260 I just wanted that laid out because it's just, I've been having a hard time.

00:28:09.740 I'm typically supportive of the Smith government.

00:28:12.040 But when you trumpet that as a victory, I'm sorry, but I've got to call some BS guys.

00:28:16.020 this was not a victory this was a a gross concession that's going to harm all of us

00:28:20.580 uh but you've got plenty of other to work uh things to work on in there in ottawa since i've

00:28:25.040 got you what else is the taxpayers federation up to i mean they tax us many many ways over there

00:28:29.780 well we've been breaking some big uh some big big waste stories right so we got a i mean you

00:28:35.660 know our investigative journalist quite well jen hodgson she's been doing great work for us and i

00:28:39.240 know the western standard has been reporting on this so so thanks to you but um let me just give

00:28:44.040 you a couple crazy stories right so you might remember folks when uh the former cbc uh head

00:28:50.280 was in committee you know bragging about its gem streaming service right well this uh founder of

00:28:56.360 open by default the transparency group sent in this access to information request saying okay

00:29:01.060 well how many subscribers do you have to gem now the cbc refused to disclose the records the

00:29:07.200 information commissioner then said cbc disclosed the records but instead of being transparent with

00:29:12.720 with canadians instead of listening to the information commissioner uh we got records

00:29:16.960 showing that the cbc is now spending 59 000 bucks going to court to keep those numbers hidden

00:29:24.160 right corey now you know what i'm thinking right when i've got good numbers to share i might brag

00:29:28.640 i'm definitely not going to court to try to keep something hidden so i wonder what type of bad uh

00:29:33.600 bad news bad news numbers uh the cbc might be trying to hide but you know what really grinds

00:29:38.960 my gears is that they take more than a billion dollars from taxpayers a year right at the very

00:29:44.540 least they owe us transparency but now they're spending tens of thousands of dollars going to

00:29:49.820 court to keep taxpayers in the dark gross we just know anecdotally i mean come on who on earth is

00:29:56.580 gonna pay for streaming services from uh cbc we we all pay already those who like watching streaming

00:30:03.460 services you got your netflix you got prime you got crave all these different ones you can only

00:30:07.060 afford to pick so many a month i just can't see too many saying you know what i'm just going to

00:30:11.460 reach in my pocket for this company i already pay one and a half billion a year to and toss in a

00:30:16.740 little more to see that content those numbers have got to be dismal hey hey let me uh speaking of

00:30:21.960 dismal numbers let's talk about the budget right the federal budget because hey we've got another

00:30:26.960 great story that that we broke in western standard thanks guys for you know covering this taxpayer

00:30:31.600 news uh so the finance minister right what's a key responsibility of a finance minister i don't know

00:30:37.020 write and deliver their own budget speech? Well, it turns out federal finance minister

00:30:42.020 Champagne spent 12,000 bucks on outside contractors to get a speech writer for his

00:30:48.680 own budget speech, right? So not to mention, right, that taxpayers are already paying like

00:30:54.820 a couple million dollars a year for the army of communications bureaucrats in the finance 0.98

00:30:59.020 department. But now we're also spending 12 grand to get some outside contractor to do their

00:31:04.320 homework. And, you know, Corey, what I like to say is, you know, if Winston Churchill can find

00:31:09.920 some time to write his own speeches while fighting the Nazis, I'm pretty sure Champagne can find some

00:31:15.500 time to write his own budget speech. One last point here, folks, in the actual budget that

00:31:21.580 Champagne delivered, the government said it would cut spending on consultants. Yet Champagne spent

00:31:27.200 12 grand on an outside contract to get help writing his own budget speech. It's embarrassing,

00:31:32.960 quite frankly well i mean yeah our own nigel haniford used to be a speech writer for for 1.00

00:31:38.220 prime minister harper but he was on staff for that and i bet you because i mean nigel is a

00:31:42.900 gifted writer you know for the right price for probably a paltry 6 000 he could have written a

00:31:47.940 very good one for uh mr champagne i mean they didn't shop around very much i'd suspect hey i

00:31:53.260 like nigel but let's not give any anyone more ideas to take taxpayers money you know what i'm

00:31:57.640 saying oh i i doubt he would go in for that he has principles that man all right well i appreciate 0.86

00:32:04.020 the update laying out what's going on with carbon taxes and a couple of other beauties going on out

00:32:08.800 in ottawa since we lost you from alberta here uh before i let you go back into that that fine

00:32:14.140 mire that you work within out there uh how can people see your work and uh support you guys if

00:32:19.480 they choose to well cory man it's always a pleasure i love coming on your show folks the

00:32:24.340 best place to follow our stuff is just at our website taxpayer.com that's taxpayer.com follow

00:32:30.840 us on social media type in canadian taxpayers federation follow me on x at franco underscore

00:32:35.560 nomics but cory you're awesome man thanks for having me on the show great thanks franco it's

00:32:40.120 always good and i really appreciate the work you guys do you give us great stuff to put copy on

00:32:44.200 though it's usually unfortunately embarrassing expensive stories so thanks again i'm sure we'll

00:32:49.220 talk again soon all right see everyone so check it out guys yes taxpayer.com all these they break

00:32:55.500 great stuff as you can see digging into those things and it's the small stuff that i think

00:32:59.320 people realize i mean we go everybody likes to talk about the 16 orange juice the reason that

00:33:04.260 was such a huge scandal is because that's something we can think about going to a restaurant

00:33:08.860 spending that much money things like that the billions are harder to register in our minds

00:33:13.660 those of us in the regular world. But when you look at then 17,000 for a speech, like, whoa,

00:33:21.200 hang on. I mean, how many hours does it take even, you know, trying to write the best speech

00:33:27.620 on earth and something as long and as big as a budget presentation? I mean, none should have

00:33:31.900 spent, as Franco pointed out, we already pay an army of communications people. What the heck is

00:33:36.900 their job if you're outsourcing it to somebody else out there to do it. But it's just absurdity

00:33:44.460 and it's good to see those sorts of things exposed and put into a language we can all understand so

00:33:50.720 people realize that and at least try to hold these politicians accountable and watch them for the

00:33:56.700 awards they give and the bad spending because every province is bad for it. We had a recent

00:34:00.200 column in the Western Standard talk about Alberta has a spending problem too. Provincially, we've

00:34:05.100 been bad. I mean, look, the easiest way for a politician to go ever is always to throw money

00:34:09.800 at problems. It's the path of least resistance. Conservatives, Liberals, NDP, they're all prone

00:34:16.160 to doing it. And we've got to stop asking them to do it. We got to get on their cases more when they

00:34:22.620 do do it. And, you know, that's where we drop the ball a little bit ourselves. All right, let's look

00:34:27.660 at some other stuff getting done. This was, you know, and I'll tie this into CBC when people,

00:34:32.460 you know, pointing out CBC and some of the awful stuff they publish and things they're doing.

00:34:39.040 The BBC in England, you know, which is the inspiration for the CBC. And it's their tax

00:34:46.300 funded, of course, institution. And they put out a piece, this weepy piece today about a man in

00:34:54.880 Afghanistan who's so poor, this poor man, he can't pay his bills, can't pay his rent, can't get his

00:35:01.300 food. It's just awful. The conditions are terrible. It showed it literally with a little tear in his 1.00

00:35:05.740 eye. Because you know what he has to do? He's selling his daughter. He literally is selling

00:35:12.240 a little girl. And the BBC is pointing it out as if this is some sob story about a man

00:35:18.900 so badly cornered that he's going to sell his little girls. And it says, in fact,

00:35:23.860 it's happening all over Afghanistan that these men are selling their daughters.

00:35:31.300 But you start with this. No other culture on earth sells their daughters. We've seen famine.

00:35:40.200 We've seen issues going on all around the world, countries that have had very, very hard times and

00:35:46.780 people who have had to do some terrible things to try and pay the bills. But the Irish potato

00:35:54.160 famine, did they sell their daughters into slavery, sex slavery? There's one of the questions

00:35:59.440 that was put out to by somebody online or let's follow up cbc bbc what would he be selling his 0.56

00:36:05.280 daughter towards do i be divorced some pervert who wants a little girl because afghanistan is 0.97

00:36:11.840 an islamic culture that has absolutely no concept of value to women they see them as chattel they 0.99

00:36:17.760 see them as property so this man rather than going out i mean most parents would die before letting 0.96

00:36:27.120 harm come to their children. They would never consider selling them. You notice he's not

00:36:32.320 saying he's selling his sons by the way. There's parents who have become desperate and did things

00:36:38.480 in times of famine. They're the ones perhaps in an awful situation that would prostitute themselves

00:36:46.160 or do all sorts of things just so they could scrape together money to pay for their children.

00:36:49.840 I don't doubt things are tough in Afghanistan. You know why things are tough in Afghanistan?

00:36:54.880 Because it's run by a medieval group of Islamic lunatics who keep them in the dark ages. 1.00

00:37:02.560 That's why. That's why they're poor. 1.00

00:37:06.980 But it's not that shocking, unfortunately, to see these Islamists selling their daughters. 0.99

00:37:13.720 These are the people that cover their women head to toe with a little eye slit. 0.99

00:37:17.680 They pour acid in their faces for daring to get an education.

00:37:20.460 so is it shocking to see that group sell a daughter no i'm afraid not but what's really

00:37:29.420 grotesque is seeing an organization like the bbc trying to put a sympathetic light upon it

00:37:37.900 trying to say this wasn't his fault that he's in a corner that's none of his doing that this is

00:37:44.960 almost justifiable. If only the Western world would just be nicer to Islam. Maybe they could 0.91

00:37:50.720 afford to keep their daughters at home so they can marry them off to a cousin when they're 12, 0.96

00:37:55.040 like they normally do. The world's got to stand up and start calling out this Stone Age crap. 0.99

00:38:04.540 And instead, tax-funded large media outlets like the BBC actually put out puff pieces on it. 0.98

00:38:11.340 So we're supposed to feel for this man. If you look it up online, you really will see it.

00:38:14.700 You'll see the man holding the little girl, and he's got a little tear in his eye.

00:38:17.680 I'm going to have to sell my little girl.

00:38:21.640 You can't make a man like that a sympathetic character.

00:38:26.340 Yet that's what the British Broadcasting Corporation is doing. 0.96

00:38:29.680 Just sick.

00:38:30.640 You wonder why the UK is lost, why it's a mess, and look at it,

00:38:33.740 the stuff that's going on over there.

00:38:34.920 I mean, they're going to get a civil war over there pretty soon. 0.99

00:38:37.860 Well, when your state broadcaster is an apologist for crap like that. 0.97

00:38:43.060 Again, no other culture does this, guys, except, you know, I mean, how ideologically broken and sick do you have to be to overcome the amount of parental instinct that most people have? 0.99

00:39:01.460 You know, even a mouse will attack you if it's trying to protect its babies.

00:39:07.040 you know there's nothing more dangerous than a bear if it's cubs or a threat and somehow these

00:39:14.240 guys have overridden that whole instinct and will sell their little girls into sexual slavitude 0.98

00:39:20.460 to pay the bills and the BBC makes a sympathetic case for them the world is a sick place on so

00:39:33.540 many levels when it comes to these things. Let's see some other stuff to have a look at a little

00:39:38.060 less negative, but, uh, we got, uh, BC, you know, keep watching Alex Zoltan, man. He's been doing

00:39:44.720 such a great job, uh, out in BC. I mean, Jared was great out there too, but Alex is really hitting

00:39:49.600 on what's going on in that legislature with their conservative leadership race that I believe is

00:39:54.920 ending pretty soon. And it's just getting so wild out there. Their politics are almost nuttier than

00:40:01.520 hours. Um, and he said, uh, tensions boiled over in the first sitting day after week long break

00:40:07.000 as a clarity repeatedly accused premier David Eby of missing the house before being ordered to leave

00:40:11.860 by the speaker. So she was kicked out of the house. The video is up and, uh, uh, you can see

00:40:19.860 that affair going on in there. And again, that's that mixed thing. We, we kind of in a dark comedy

00:40:23.900 way, sort of see, um, you know, the fun of watching these guys going at each other like this,

00:40:30.300 but at the same time these are your elected officials these are the people leading

00:40:33.600 your uh your government you wonder why the policies are bad um somebody talking an odd

00:40:41.720 question out of the blue asking i don't know if you're asking me there with cb fixes all or not

00:40:45.860 saying did you work for veritas geo or equal geo i did work surveying advanced work for

00:40:52.620 geophysical work and seismic for 20 years back in the past i talked about that and some other

00:40:57.060 things and everything. I did contract to both of those companies before. I worked for survey

00:41:00.500 companies that did, but I wasn't with those companies themselves. If that's what you're

00:41:04.620 asking me about anyways, just some of my oil field background. Let's see some of the other

00:41:09.280 stuff going on. A possible referendum. This is funny. He didn't have to get consultation

00:41:14.080 apparently, but we've been watching Cora Blund, you know, a country music singer in Alberta

00:41:18.700 has been campaigning hard against allowing coal mining in Southern Alberta. And he's been

00:41:25.240 trying to get a referendum petition done, and he's nearing the deadline for that petition

00:41:30.780 to ban coal mining in southern Alberta. And why didn't he have to get consultation? Why doesn't

00:41:39.720 that apply to him? Wouldn't that have an impact potentially? Where does this stop with these

00:41:43.660 things? Either way, I got a feeling he's not going to get his 178,000 signatures.

00:41:50.900 Real petitioning is difficult.

00:41:52.780 That's what's been shown, what we've seen, what's being reported upon.

00:41:57.000 But we've got a double standard with this whole thing too, right?

00:41:59.620 The judges intervene on referendum they don't like, referenda they don't like.

00:42:04.480 But when the ones they do like, well, we don't hear anything about it.

00:42:10.060 Let's see.

00:42:11.240 We've got a column in the Western Standard.

00:42:14.480 Let's talk a little bit of politics.

00:42:15.840 Proportional representation.

00:42:17.900 This is a fantasy built on bad math.

00:42:19.800 And it was a good one.

00:42:22.280 There's one of the things we hear talking about.

00:42:23.920 You know, proportional representation is what losers push.

00:42:28.860 It's when your cause is too small to win under the first-past-the-post system,

00:42:32.900 you want to change the system.

00:42:36.580 Look to countries that already have proportional representation.

00:42:40.040 Something I find funny is it's usually the far left who wants proportional representation.

00:42:44.640 For those not familiar with it, it means, you know, you'll have an election,

00:42:47.000 you'll lose all local representation.

00:42:48.560 it's just kind of one big pool and you'll all vote for parties and the party will get a certain

00:42:55.260 amount of seats based on the percentage of the vote in general they got and then the party selects

00:42:59.320 who the person will be who sits in whatever sort of legislature or whatever it might be

00:43:03.660 that comes in what happens is that almost never leads to a majority win by a party which is a

00:43:10.040 mixed blessing but you get a piece of parliament you can get a dozen parties in there and then one

00:43:15.460 will stand out and have to form coalitions to try and get things done. And those coalitions

00:43:22.620 usually mean embracing some pretty wacky people because you can get a party that is way out on

00:43:26.960 the fringe that only gets 5% of the support or 6% of the support, but they got a couple of seats

00:43:31.400 and that party in power really needs everybody they can. So not only do they work cooperatively

00:43:36.280 with them, but they will give them cabinet positions. And the left who likes proportional

00:43:41.180 representation overlooks one of the worst examples of it you can see, and that's Knesset in Israel.

00:43:46.940 Have a look at the makeup of that place. Have a look at some of the cabinet ministers in Israel,

00:43:52.220 and you wonder why some are pretty rough hawks or warlike or crazy, a couple of the ministers,

00:43:59.500 even if it's not necessarily the whole government, because that's the only way they can do things is

00:44:02.460 building coalitions with these far, far fringes to be able to get it done. So if you really want

00:44:09.020 proportional representation, think it'll make for better government, maybe look around a little

00:44:13.240 more first. Careful what you wish for. You just might get it. And it doesn't end well,

00:44:21.900 unfortunately. One other headline that came out, yeah, Alberta energy leaders say Alberta,

00:44:27.640 Ottawa pipeline deal offers hope, not certainty. And you know what? They're not going to invest

00:44:34.420 without certainty. As Franco said, we got certainty on a tax increase with the carbon tax

00:44:40.340 and we got a maybe on the pipeline. Not a good deal. A line from Bad Santa, I can't quote directly

00:44:48.200 fully, but when the kid talked about wishing for things, which is similar to hope, said wish in

00:44:52.840 one hand, crap in the other, and let me know which one's going to fill up first. So I don't see where

00:45:00.640 we're going to see progress with this MOU, but it looks like we're going to see some progress with

00:45:05.380 a referendum on independence, however that might come. We're in for a really wild week. Make sure

00:45:11.340 to share and subscribe and all those good things to the Western Standard channels. We're going to

00:45:16.720 cover things as they break at the pipeline. We're going to talk about a few more of those issues

00:45:20.180 and also helps get people off that nasty CBC. So keep an eye on things, guys. We've got a lot to

00:45:27.820 talk about next week we'll have a lot to talk about tonight and thank you for tuning in today

00:45:31.540 we'll see you next week at this time and see what happened

00:45:57.820 You

Western Standard - May 20, 2026

The CBC funded hit pieces against Canadians are unforgiveable

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript