Western Standard - The Cory Morgan Show. April 16, 2021

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00:01:00.000 Let's get started.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 good morning welcome to the april 16th show of the cory morgan show on the western standard

00:02:14.680 ah always lots of rant about lots to talk about busy news weeks these days so uh keeps us occupied

00:02:22.020 in the alternative media world anyways or as um our health minister was saying in the legislature

00:02:28.220 apparently the Western Standard is an alt-right conspiracy type site. Well, if we're getting

00:02:33.980 under the skin of the people in power and perhaps we're saying the right things. So today's show

00:02:41.500 is going to be a good one. I've got Darcy Giroux coming on in about 15 minutes. He's been a 1.00

00:02:47.300 columnist for the Western Standard. He's a liberty-minded sort of guy. I've done podcasts

00:02:51.740 with him before. We want to drill down and talk and dig into a bit of the issues coming up with

00:02:57.760 this whole COVID thing that changes its done societally, policy-wise, mindset-wise, because

00:03:05.400 I'm really concerned about the long-term effects and how easily people succumb to just letting

00:03:10.620 the state take over, managing their lives, their businesses, everything. For people who

00:03:16.660 are concerned with individual liberties, this is a very distressing time to be alive and

00:03:22.760 watching this occurring and happening. So that'll be a great talk. After that, I've

00:03:26.900 got Fergus Hodgson coming on. He's from Econ Americas. And we're going to talk, you know,

00:03:31.280 something we haven't been hearing enough about too is the consequences of the pandemic policies

00:03:36.460 on our economy, on our currency, things like inflation and that, you know, we're hearing

00:03:42.600 rumblings of it. We haven't really seen it that much yet. Houses are going strangely wild,

00:03:47.120 but we haven't seen the mass inflation despite the massive amount of borrowing going on.

00:03:51.660 I imagine it's still going to be coming, but it's not here yet. So, you know, we can drill down a bit

00:03:57.720 and talk and try and figure out why that's the case. Why has this not taken off, which is a good

00:04:03.860 thing, I guess. You know, we don't need to be in a hurry for that disaster. So I'll get some of the

00:04:08.300 other stuff going here. Our sponsor, again, is Penny at Kyrensway.com. She offers locally based

00:04:16.260 out of Calgary services. If you've got stress, anxiety, and who doesn't these days, she can give

00:04:23.780 some natural remedies, counseling, dietary changes that might help you out with what you need.

00:04:29.240 She's supporting us. Consider supporting her, you know, check it out. Consultations are free.

00:04:34.660 She might have just what you need to help get you through some things. Something else that's kind

00:04:39.820 been a co-sponsoring going on in a sense i guess you could say is uh there's a rodeo coming up i

00:04:46.700 did a video on this with uh ty northcon a little while ago he's got a rodeo coming at the end of

00:04:52.380 this month rodeo rally they do have tickets on sale now at eventbrite you can go there and

00:04:58.220 pre-purchase it's going to run for two days on the saturday and sunday at the end of the month

00:05:02.460 15 bucks to get in uh get out have a good time this is a way you can push back against the

00:05:09.720 restrictions you know this is the way we can say we've had enough not everybody necessarily wants

00:05:14.860 to go march on city hall in downtown calgary or go to the legislature but this is a way you can

00:05:19.380 actually have fun have a good day out with the family support a business that is hurting another

00:05:25.360 of so many businesses right now and that is the rodeo industry you know these things that we don't

00:05:29.880 talk about we don't think about but they're hurting i mean uh they he's got livestock you

00:05:37.320 can't just keep feeding these things forever you've either got to sell them slaughter them or

00:05:41.960 or go bankrupt and he's facing all those so ty northcott and you can find it northcott rodeos

00:05:46.840 on facebook for more details as well his holy rodeo by bowden at the end of the month close

00:05:51.720 drive to calgary camping's free uh so there's there's uh what's that no beer gardens on site

00:05:57.480 They're avoiding the AGLC hassles, and I can understand that.

00:06:01.540 I don't blame them a bit for that.

00:06:03.780 And they've got some guest speakers, Rick Kohut, Glenn Carrot, and Nadine Willwood so far.

00:06:08.560 It'll be a really fun weekend, and it's a good way to tell the government, we're done.

00:06:14.560 We're done.

00:06:15.140 We're getting on with our lives, and there's not much you can do about it.

00:06:19.500 Let's see them try and stop it.

00:06:20.880 This isn't a little church you can fence in.

00:06:22.540 this isn't a small gathering where the state can come in and round everybody up and push them

00:06:28.580 aside this is a large property up by Bowdoin and Ty is taking a stand and we really appreciate that

00:06:35.620 the Western Standard is sponsoring this event and we want to promote this as much as possible

00:06:40.700 make time at the end of the month share this get it out there let's make sure we get thousands of

00:06:45.620 Albertans showing up there and then we can say Jason Kenney what are you going to do about it

00:06:51.460 It'll be interesting to see what he will do about it, if he can do anything about it. 0.99

00:06:54.940 All right, now let's get on to other conservative assholes. 0.98

00:07:01.060 I got to use the term. 0.97

00:07:02.060 I was just, I know I tend to be negative thinking and don't hold much optimism with a lot of things and very critical.

00:07:09.300 But still, I hoped for a little better out of O'Toole.

00:07:12.140 I mean, we've been rough on him, but maybe he would show a glimmer of some principle.

00:07:15.820 But no, no, yesterday he threw it all out the window.

00:07:19.460 He really did.

00:07:20.820 He came out with a carbon tax. You know, he just won the leadership less than a year ago.

00:07:28.200 Somebody asking the rodeo dates. Sorry, I just do want to cover that quickly in case you didn't

00:07:32.520 see that with the pull up. That is on Saturday, May 1st at 1 p.m. and Sunday, May 2nd. And it's

00:07:38.780 sanctioned by the World of Rodeo Canada. Now, back to our conservative, not so conservative

00:07:44.220 leader and his carbon tax. You know, I've taken, for those who can't see it, I will describe it,

00:07:51.760 a screen snap of a tweet from Franco Teresano of the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He's going to

00:07:56.460 be on with me at the end of next week, by the way, to talk about the federal budget.

00:08:00.340 And he's quoting, and here's a picture of Aaron O'Toole standing in front of the no carbon tax

00:08:05.080 pledge, smiling, you know, with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Here's the quote,

00:08:10.080 I, Aaron O'Toole, promise that if elected Prime Minister of Canada, I will immediately repeal the Trudeau carbon tax and reject any future national carbon tax or cap and trade scheme.

00:08:21.820 This was from June 2020.

00:08:25.080 Yesterday, he gave us a carbon tax.

00:08:27.460 He lied.

00:08:28.220 There's no other way to put it.

00:08:29.440 The man lied to us.

00:08:31.020 He lied to win the leadership, you know, and then he just completely flip-flopped and gave us a carbon tax.

00:08:37.460 and all of them. There's some guys talking about, no, it's not a carbon tax. It's a different thing

00:08:42.620 as fees that, oh, the term for that is trying to polish a turd. All right. There's no other ways

00:08:48.360 about it. You're taking money off of us for anything we've purchased that's petrochemical

00:08:53.280 related or may have carbon emissions. And then you're, you are going to rebate it supposedly to

00:08:58.800 us in a, in a way that's going to make the world a greener, happier place with fluffy bunnies 0.80

00:09:02.580 hopping around and other such garbage. You know, he even went to the convention as well. And

00:09:10.460 that would be the time. Like, if you really felt that a carbon tax is the way to go,

00:09:16.280 because there's some fart catchers for the Conservative Party of Canada getting on my

00:09:19.320 case on Twitter. Well, that's the only way he's going to win. Really? Well, then why didn't he

00:09:22.940 run on the bloody leadership with that? Why didn't he go to the Conservative Convention with that?

00:09:27.660 Those are the times then to say, look, the only way to win is to bring in a carbon tax. We will

00:09:33.620 never win any other way. So vote for me and I'll bring in the carbon tax. See, that's the way you

00:09:39.000 do it. Instead, he lied to our faces. He lied to win the leadership. He said there was absolutely

00:09:43.740 no way he was going to do a carbon tax. And then he lied to the membership of the convention,

00:09:47.480 because that would be your next step, your next chance. You were in front of the members,

00:09:50.760 you were in front of the donors, you're in front of the supporters. You could, I don't know. I

00:09:54.760 I mean, you guys are politicians. You can spin things. You can say the circumstances have changed.

00:09:58.600 We've done heavy intensive polling. We just feel that carbon tax is the one and only way

00:10:02.680 that we can do this. Please, membership of the Conservative Party, endorse me as I go ahead

00:10:07.600 with this. But no, he didn't. I mean, he put forward this fluffy notion about accepting

00:10:13.260 climate change, which the members told him to roll up and stuff up his butt. And now he's come 0.98

00:10:18.520 forth with a bloody carbon tax. And he's lost what little credibility he had. You know, you guys

00:10:25.280 tell me he's going to win with this? Really? How do you win by showing yourself to be a liar?

00:10:32.020 How can voters believe anything out of him? I mean, I'm sure that Gerald Butts and Justin Trudeau

00:10:37.660 are just giggling right now because all they'll have to say is, how do you believe if he's even

00:10:43.780 going to do the carbon tax? I mean, he said he wasn't going to do it before. He could always

00:10:47.140 changed his mind. He could be lying now. I mean, he's lying at one point, he can lie again. You

00:10:51.260 know, lost principle is far more damaging than a bad policy. And his principles have shown to be

00:10:58.420 virtually none. It's no good. He's not going to win the election through this. So get ready for

00:11:06.160 another term of Trudeau. Hey, I don't have the magic answer on how to unseat Trudeau. I'll tell

00:11:10.260 you one thing I've done, I've been mistaken about, I've underestimated that guy. He is not that easy

00:11:15.400 to knock off as a leader. Oh, no, people don't freak out. I'm not talking about assassination.

00:11:19.300 Electorally remove as a leader that that party is entrenched. They've got smart advisors. They're

00:11:26.180 strategically bright and they need somebody bright to come against them. And the Gerber baby there 1.00

00:11:31.500 flip-flopping around, lying to his base about a carbon tax, taking on the usual thing that we 0.63

00:11:36.640 hear enough of out here too, which is screw the West. We'll take the rest because of course the

00:11:40.380 carbon tax, any carbon tax disproportionately beats the snot out of the West, which is why 1.00

00:11:46.980 it's a popular policy in the East. Welcome to Canada. Canada is broken. Our system is broken. 1.00

00:11:52.880 It forces parties to cater to the center. This is nothing new. But again, it doesn't stop me

00:11:59.880 from being pissed off when we get taken, you know, for a ride like this with somebody. I mean,

00:12:05.520 when did he know he was lying? Was it right at the time when he signed that pledge saying there

00:12:09.020 wasn't going to be another carbon tax? Or did he really actually change his mind a little bit

00:12:14.440 later? I don't know. But it's unacceptable. And now what? Yes, and as others are pointing out,

00:12:22.480 Wexit. You know, something I said recently too, when liberals screw around with the West,

00:12:28.500 we get ticked off. That's nothing new. This has been happening since, again, the beginning of

00:12:31.660 Confederation. But we expect it to them. We anticipate the liberals are going to hoop us 1.00

00:12:36.480 in favor of policies that will favor Quebec and Ontario. That's nothing new at all. It's when

00:12:41.540 conservatives screw us that we get really mad. That's when separatists are created. That's when

00:12:46.420 you get people throw up their hands and say, that's it. I'm out. And you know what? They're

00:12:50.800 right because it's the system that's broken. It's not the party. The best you can do is get a party

00:12:56.060 in for a little while that might be a little less bad to the West for a bit, but that party will be

00:13:02.260 kicked out pretty quickly. And the liberals will come in where they can just be overtly bad to the

00:13:05.620 West. There's no winning. It's a cycle. So again, I'd rather than O'Toole won on principle if he

00:13:13.520 was going to try and get into office rather than lying to us on saying he wasn't going to bring in

00:13:21.060 a carbon tax and then turning around and doing it. So I don't know. Focus your efforts on the

00:13:26.860 West, guys. There's nothing to win out there. I know Wexit and what was it, Maverick Party and

00:13:33.960 PPC are just shells of party. But you know what? Hey, if they're not lying to me, I'm more inclined

00:13:39.140 to vote for them. That's a big thing for me. I'm big on just don't lie to my face. I know

00:13:43.500 politicians do it all the time, but at least try to be a little better with it. This was just

00:13:46.980 flagrant. So I'm done. I'm done. I mean, I don't have a political membership. I haven't had one

00:13:52.820 for quite some time. I feel it hinders my ability to speak openly on these issues. But I was still,

00:13:59.140 as I said, I can still let myself manage to get floored now and then with some of the stuff that

00:14:06.360 comes out of our political leadership. As the Western Standard reported to, and Derek Filderant

00:14:12.240 called some members of parliament in the West that we knew, and apparently they weren't warned

00:14:17.560 about this carbon tax flip-flop either. So these guys, I can't imagine what the phone lines are.

00:14:22.600 I really do feel for those people who work in the offices for members of parliament in the West

00:14:27.460 right now, because I imagine the phones are just burning right now. And O'Toole has just gone off

00:14:34.100 on his own, hasn't consulted his Western caucus, hasn't talked to anybody, gone completely against

00:14:38.880 the pledge he made not to have a carbon tax. And these MPs out West are holding the bag.

00:14:44.340 What I want to see, I want to see him out. I really do. Let's go reform again. That was the

00:14:49.760 best bloody government we ever had. Jean Chrétien with reform breathing down their neck. There's no 0.92

00:14:53.660 since trying to play by Central Canada's rules. We're only going to lose, guys. We're losing over

00:14:58.240 and over again. To hell with O'Toole. You used us. You turned your back immediately. I wouldn't vote 0.69

00:15:05.140 for you if you're the only candidate on the ballot. You don't deserve my support, nor anybody else in

00:15:10.280 the West support. So it's, and you know, there's an election coming soon. There's almost no doubt

00:15:13.980 about that. And you've put yourself in a real poor way to try and stand up for it. So I'm just going

00:15:21.620 look through a few more things in the news here before I get to Darcy. You know, Quebec, I mean,

00:15:26.040 yeah, we're seeing the pushback. This is one thing I will give Quebec. They do stand up for

00:15:30.160 themselves. You know, that's something we've got to do more of anyways, is quit being apologetic.

00:15:34.040 Let's just stand up for the West. Don't even bother trying to talk about the East anymore.

00:15:38.940 Quebec doesn't talk about us. It's not that they dislike us. They don't care. They don't need to.

00:15:44.840 And you know what? They've been right. We got to stop caring about them. Either way, they got,

00:15:49.900 I don't think riots were a good way to push back against the restrictions and lockdowns,

00:15:53.680 but they're literally under a curfew. What do you expect to happen when you bottle people up like

00:15:58.580 that? You don't even allow them out at night. So yeah, they're coming out in the streets and

00:16:02.700 they're rioting. You know, out in Alberta, we're going to have a rodeo instead, but we're pushing

00:16:07.420 back. And it's a good sign to see people pushing back for their liberties. I want to see marches.

00:16:12.360 I want to see rational demonstrations. I want to see businesses standing up, keeping their doors

00:16:17.680 open like Chris Scott up in Mirror, Alberta, being in defiance of these restrictions. Churches

00:16:23.900 keep going at it, but do keep it peaceful. We don't need to smash innocent businesses' windows

00:16:31.340 out. We don't need to assault people. We don't need to spray paint things. We don't need to

00:16:36.020 leave a mess behind ourselves. We can still express our rage without being destructive about it. I

00:16:43.560 I mean, you know, the old saying is just because those guys are doing it, you know, when you point to the left doesn't mean we should.

00:16:49.000 Two wrongs don't make a right.

00:16:51.740 Let's get out of the lockdown.

00:16:55.960 Let's push back.

00:16:56.840 Let's hold our leadership accountable.

00:16:59.000 But let's do it rationally.

00:17:00.520 So speaking of reason and rationality, I've got Darcy Giroux on.

00:17:05.640 And Darcy has, as I said, he's been a columnist with the Western Standard.

00:17:11.620 i've had him on in a past podcast uh i'll try and find the best frame so we can see his pretty face

00:17:17.140 there there we go how are you doing today darcy doing well cory good to see you yeah thanks i

00:17:24.420 just had to get my uh you know head of steam going there and uh uh o'toole was kind enough

00:17:31.860 to provide me a great deal of inspiration to get good and wound up you know the vein on my side of

00:17:35.780 my head's pulsing again. So getting more to the bigger picture beyond the tool there in Ottawa,

00:17:48.980 liberty, you know, libertarianism, that whole concept, I'm sorry, I just gotta,

00:17:56.980 There we go. It's something that's really been a threat. I mean, it's been a difficult

00:18:07.060 thing to push. It's been a tough area to make inroads with in the general public. I mean,

00:18:12.820 we look for smaller victories and areas where we can stand up for liberties and get policies that

00:18:18.060 will help entrench our rights. But right now, I mean, we are in full retreat as far as I can see.

00:18:22.980 mean the state has moved in under the justification of the pandemic and they have set aside our

00:18:28.580 individual rights and what scares me is that it doesn't seem to really bother a lot of people

00:18:34.260 what are your feelings on that with the general public and how they're accepting this new

00:18:37.780 incursion upon individual rights yeah well that's that's exactly the problem i mean it

00:18:44.340 you can't all be blamed on the state all the time either because yeah because obviously people are

00:18:51.380 asking for this stuff i mean people want people want uh the state to act as their mother and

00:18:57.300 father and guardian and to take care of them and and you know they it's it's prevalent in every

00:19:04.580 aspect of our political culture i mean when you like um you know in every election when when

00:19:12.100 you're talking about otul just now even and his carbon tax i mean he's doing he's trying to be

00:19:17.540 do something that is publicly popular he's trying to gain support for that and and you know at the

00:19:25.960 end of the day everything that they can do is is an infringement of of some kind on people you know

00:19:32.220 so unless they're talking about repealing taxes which isn't a conversation that's happened in a

00:19:38.000 long time um but yeah definitely with covid i mean there hasn't even i mean as far as i know

00:19:44.620 you know, they've barely debated this, you know, these actions in any of the legislatures or in

00:19:51.480 Parliament. I mean, these are all just autocratic edicts that are coming down from above. And I

00:19:59.420 mean, that's a you know, that itself is a step removed from the regular, you know, democratic

00:20:05.120 process that we have. So yeah, it is it is dangerous. And I, it is disappointing that

00:20:10.800 more people aren't worried about it. Well, that's it. And everything is precedence. It's a matter

00:20:18.620 of precedence. And the one we're sitting right now, you know, I talked a bit to you about that

00:20:22.580 the other day. I mean, we've got the Charter of Rights, the creation of Pierre Trudeau. I mean,

00:20:27.020 it has some good, important, strong rights in it, you know, speech, association, mobility,

00:20:33.320 expression. I mean, these are critical individual rights. But they did throw that little clause in

00:20:38.080 in section one to say, if we have something where for the sake of the public good,

00:20:43.580 that we can suspend these charter rights, you know, when it comes to an issue of general safety

00:20:49.840 or things like that. I mean, that was written in, and I don't think it's a totally unreasonable

00:20:54.000 clause, but it's there for something really extreme, really out of the pale. Again, a foreign 1.00

00:21:00.820 nation has invaded us or, you know, aliens have landed and they're starting to, you know, take us 0.98

00:21:07.780 over the ant people or whatever it might be. 1.00

00:21:10.220 It should be an absolute fundamental last resort 0.90

00:21:13.320 before you invoke that and step on any right.

00:21:17.300 But it seems that the proof has gone the other way.

00:21:19.880 It's more like, you know, we can take it on a whim

00:21:21.380 and you guys have to fight to get that right back

00:21:23.760 if you want to.

00:21:25.080 I think it's a misuse of our charter.

00:21:28.200 Well, it is.

00:21:29.060 And actually, you know, I have it here.

00:21:31.320 And what it actually says is that

00:21:33.380 the rights and freedoms set out in the Charter are subject only to such reasonable limits

00:21:42.100 prescribed by law as can be demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society.

00:21:49.340 And even that clause, I mean, the idea there with the, you know, it's supposed to work in

00:21:56.620 tandem with Section 33, I believe it is, the Notwithstanding Clause, which still requires

00:22:03.260 an act in Parliament, as far as I understand it.

00:22:06.520 I'm no constitutional expert, but, you know, not only has there not been an act in Parliament

00:22:13.460 or in any of the legislators to invoke the Notwithstanding Clause, I don't, you know,

00:22:19.220 regarding COVID, I think there's only been four times in its history it's been done successfully.

00:22:25.400 So, yeah, I mean, it's, you know, I think it's important for people to understand, you know, why a constitution is important.

00:22:36.640 You know, these are the, you know, our charter rights are part of the constitution.

00:22:41.800 The constitution is there.

00:22:43.500 It ensures, you know, that the people who make decisions are representing public opinion.

00:22:52.620 You know, it limits their power.

00:22:54.460 And even in even then, the Charter of Rights goes to limit it further where, you know, despite public opinion, Canadians are still guaranteed a, you know, protections of certain rights, which, yeah, I mean, they are they're stomping on this thing.

00:23:11.700 They're tearing it to shreds right now.

00:23:13.420 I mean, with, you know, religious freedoms, freedom of assembly, you know, all kinds of things that are, you know, really the foundational documents of, you know, of our country.

00:23:30.700 You know, as much as I'm not a big, you know, I think there's a lot of flaws in our Constitution.

00:23:35.360 But I think as a bare minimum, these things should be followed.

00:23:38.400 but yeah i don't even know i sometimes i wonder if uh these legislators have even read read this

00:23:47.180 thing well yeah and again i think it's the legislators and it's the citizens that are

00:23:53.900 really kind of backwards on this i mean when you look at things like free expression uh free

00:23:58.920 mobility uh you know the the ability to gather uh and organize like these were all rights modeled

00:24:06.260 to protect you from government, not from your neighbor down the road, not from a virus.

00:24:13.160 There's a reason that the Freedom Association is so important. I mean, when organized labor

00:24:18.560 was getting going or when the revolutions come, the first thing the state does is make say you

00:24:23.640 can't have more than three people on a street corner and things such as that. So they enshrined

00:24:28.460 those rights. That's one of the ones we shoved out the window. Sorry, you can't have strangers

00:24:32.360 to your house you can't meet in person you can't go out um you know among many others like again

00:24:39.400 people forget what the purpose of that document really was i think and they're just so docile in

00:24:48.440 accepting these infringements upon it yeah absolutely i mean the the document itself

00:24:54.360 really um like you say it enshrines rights that that already exist for us you know we have uh

00:25:01.240 you know, freedom of expression. I mean, those are, in my mind, inalienable rights,

00:25:06.640 things that, you know, can't be taken away from us. Same with assembly, you know, peaceful assembly.

00:25:14.980 And yeah, I mean, that is, that's the first, you know, that is the first step on the road to

00:25:20.740 tyranny. Well, not the first one. I think it's, you know, I mean, now at this point,

00:25:24.660 And I think we're many steps down, but it's, it is,

00:25:29.700 it's scary that the precedent that it sets that and the lack or the amount of

00:25:35.060 apathy people have towards these things happening right now. I mean,

00:25:39.040 there's not, there's not, you know,

00:25:45.080 they don't have, they don't have the, it's, it's hard to explain the,

00:25:50.920 the uh you know the government yeah should be you know they have to be held accountable

00:26:01.560 some way i mean and and yeah it's just it's disappointing

00:26:06.720 yeah well we've gotten to be honest and blunt in my view spoiled i mean that's the bottom line

00:26:13.660 and there's a lot of selfish attitude i think that that frustrates me and we see that and it's

00:26:19.120 always been around you know when it comes to firearm ownership property rights people say well

00:26:23.740 I don't have a gun so I don't care if you take that guy's gun away well no no that's not the way

00:26:27.780 you've got to look at this as I've said before I am not a religious man at all I don't go to

00:26:34.740 services it doesn't matter to me if churches are going or not going personally but I understand

00:26:40.840 the vital importance of free religion I understand that that again has been another area that states

00:26:47.460 If they're authoritarians, they want to crush. That's an area where people gather, where they organize, where they socialize, whether for spiritual intent or for anything else. And that's, again, why those rights were entrenched like that. And those optics showing Alberta of all places with, you know, Art Pawlowski having to shout and chase AHS officials. And that's something that really gets me.

00:27:11.820 This isn't, well, there's a lot of areas I don't recognize a lot of authority, but these weren't even police. The head of that person was a bureaucrat, an AHS bureaucrat, a pointy headed, paper shuffling, chip on the shoulder, hall monitor bureaucrat. You don't tell me what to frigging do. And I do not, I'm not big on the way Art Pawlowski does things in general, but as Derek said before too, he did it just right with them. He didn't negotiate. He didn't talk. He just said, get out.

00:27:41.720 get out of my place get out right now come back with a warrant but he didn't get a lot of sympathy

00:27:47.960 from non-religious people because they say well it's just a church and that's where the problem

00:27:51.880 we have is i mean that didn't impact me but i understand how important that is but how do we

00:27:56.920 get that through to people you've got to stand up for your neighbors because in the long run

00:28:00.440 it's better for yourself oh absolutely you know yeah and it's been like dealing again with uh

00:28:09.000 you know charter rights or something i mean it's written again right in there the

00:28:13.400 you know the freedom of religion and the freedom of assembly are right in section two of the

00:28:18.840 fundamental freedoms and they do they do go hand in hand i mean a place of worship um i mean i

00:28:26.280 you know i'm a i consider myself a christian you know i'm not i'm not as active as a lot of people

00:28:31.880 but um uh yeah i mean it's it's an important part and even as a as being a part of a political

00:28:38.280 document i mean it you know when you define a separation between uh church and state you know

00:28:45.480 the the state has to uh you know and this is this is all in historical context of course but you have

00:28:51.160 to uh you know you do you protect that that freedom of of worship right and again yeah i think it is a

00:28:59.400 very fundamental freedom for people i mean that's their that's their faith i mean those are their

00:29:04.680 those are their beliefs i mean their whole belief structure is based around around this stuff um and

00:29:11.000 and not only that i mean what churches do for communities what they do for charity and uh you

00:29:17.160 know helping homeless people and uh you know most you know they haven't been able to have aa meetings

00:29:24.200 in a lot of these places because uh they can't gather in the churches right i mean and where

00:29:31.400 you know a lot of AA meetings take place so I think things like that they there's huge contributions

00:29:37.480 to the community that are being trampled on um and yeah I think the churches a lot of them are

00:29:43.960 taking the brunt of it uh it's incredibly unfair incredibly unethical um immoral so yeah I and I

00:29:54.840 don't know what the answers are I mean I don't know what it takes for people to um

00:30:01.400 stand up and and turn this thing around and and for popular opinion to swing to a point where

00:30:09.400 uh you know they realize that we're losing something you know very important very special

00:30:15.400 right that a lot of well you know we take it for granted and maybe that's part of the problem a lot

00:30:19.640 of countries don't have uh rights like these enshrined into their into their constitution

00:30:26.520 right no and then we enshrined those or did uh because we saw the importance on why that needs

00:30:33.640 to be taken care of and we really seem to have forgotten it you know as i said we're a lucky

00:30:38.440 generation we didn't have to live through a world war uh you know i mean this is the biggest

00:30:42.920 challenge of our generation going on with this pandemic and it's not as as visible and clear

00:30:47.560 cut as a as a something like a war i guess is when to make people understand the importance of these

00:30:53.240 freedoms and these abilities you know and other things for churches they are their social hubs

00:30:57.720 their community centers and and uh yeah the vast majority of church time i've spent in my life

00:31:04.120 aside from uh for other people's weddings or funerals has been aa meetings and uh they you

00:31:10.200 know when i worked in the states and i traveled i needed a place to go because that's you know where

00:31:15.000 i'm gonna want to get out and get a drink so almost always it's the church providing it it's

00:31:20.200 a local service it's a safe space it's non-judgmental again i'm not going in there to worship they're

00:31:25.720 just providing that space because they know there's a healthy activity for the community

00:31:28.920 that's going on in here and uh you know they're going to provide it these things are being

00:31:34.840 suspended right now or or speaking again in my place in prittis i live my neighbors are a church

00:31:39.960 it's a little church here it's an awesome one actually a cute looking little thing it's over

00:31:43.080 100 years old uh i don't attend it but they're great neighbors and another thing that i see is

00:31:49.320 is you know the people who show up there every week i mean you know they're dressed up they're

00:31:53.800 seeing their neighbors they're seeing their friends that is more than just the religious

00:31:57.800 aspect that's a social and they're often seniors highlighted their week this is a big part of their

00:32:03.400 their lives and it's gone right now you can't do that in a zoom meeting it's not the same it doesn't

00:32:09.080 work oh yeah absolutely well i mean that's you know at least now i guess there's some

00:32:15.080 Some, you know, I mean, these are things, me and you talked about this this time last

00:32:20.480 year even, some of the, you know, damning effects of the lockdowns, problems with depression

00:32:26.620 and whatnot, alcoholism, suicide, you know, at least now some of the, you know, legacy

00:32:34.580 media stuff is, you know, they're talking about it now, but it's taken a year, you know,

00:32:39.320 I mean, where it was pretty obvious that a lot of this, those things would happen, right?

00:32:44.760 of the, you know, the deaths of despair and the, you know, unintended consequences of

00:32:53.040 these lockdowns.

00:32:54.040 I mean, now, I mean, you know, the numbers are out there now, it's easy to see.

00:32:58.320 But yeah, I mean, it's, it's, it's really terrible.

00:33:03.380 I mean, and, and, you know, there isn't a lot of evidence that these lockdowns have

00:33:08.320 been effective in, in combatting the virus.

00:33:10.760 I mean, you can look at, you can look at these charts, you can look at the chart of what's

00:33:14.600 gone on here in Alberta, or even across Canada, when lockdowns were initiated, when mask mandates

00:33:21.000 were put in place. And, and you cannot you you wouldn't be able to tell from looking at that

00:33:26.440 chart where any of those any of that stuff was implemented, you can turn the chart upside down,

00:33:30.920 and you might have a better chance of figuring it out. Yeah, well, and again, that that passive

00:33:37.880 and trusting nature of our society, you know, something I've loved showing shoving into the

00:33:43.240 faces of our uh you know government masters is their projections they keep making those expert

00:33:49.160 projections i see it seems they finally stopped putting those graphical ones up because they've

00:33:52.920 embarrassed themselves so badly so many times on these things they're terrible they're not even

00:33:59.000 close a two-year-old with a crayon is a better chance of predicting where the infections are

00:34:05.080 going to go how the deaths are going to go things like that uh than the government has the only

00:34:09.640 thing that's consistent is they overstate the risk dramatically and we're talking sometimes 10 0.98

00:34:14.440 or 100 fold and they're modeling policy based on this how do we hold these fools accountable 0.98

00:34:21.320 for creating policy based on garbage and not just once but repeatedly and continually 0.96

00:34:29.400 i you know i have no idea how to hold them responsible i mean i you know at this point

00:34:36.440 I think the best case, you know, once, if ever they do let up on this, I mean, there's days when

00:34:41.960 I wonder if ever they will. But, you know, once we get through this, you know, it seems to me

00:34:49.720 like they're not going to have any way to enforce any of these fines that they're issuing or, you

00:34:56.200 know, they threaten people with jail time and stuff. I imagine, again, there will be major

00:35:01.960 constitutional challenges after the fact, you know, once you can actually, once a person can

00:35:08.200 actually get a court date to talk about some of this stuff. And I don't know, as far as holding

00:35:16.280 these politicians, I mean, and again, it's not, you know, the politicians, I mean, you know,

00:35:21.160 they're weak by nature because they will always cave to, you know, the loudest voices.

00:35:28.520 And, you know, these bureaucrats, you know, you have Hinshaw, you know, and Bonnie Henry.

00:35:40.360 I mean, Bonnie Henry's basically running British Columbia at this point, you know, basing it

00:35:44.820 completely on, yeah, these models that aren't accurate.

00:35:49.200 So how do you hold them accountable?

00:35:52.360 I have no idea.

00:35:53.480 I mean, there is I'm not aware of a mechanism to other than, you know, legislators to to stand up to these bureaucrats and and, you know, voting them out is a tricky thing.

00:36:07.020 I mean, people had high hopes for, you know, Jason Kenney to to, you know, be a staunch defender of Alberta and, you know, Canadian rights and freedoms.

00:36:18.700 And, you know, he is a huge disappointment.

00:36:21.180 You know, I think it's been – it's two years now since he won.

00:36:26.480 And, yeah, I don't know.

00:36:29.240 I mean, I will be surprised if he keeps his job after this is through.

00:36:34.740 Yeah, it's not looking pretty for him.

00:36:36.520 And, I mean, one area is, again, we just don't seem to incline towards it.

00:36:40.680 Jake Eskisson keeps putting links to it.

00:36:44.560 And it's true that – so they've been trying to get marches going.

00:36:46.800 They've been doing things for a while in downtown Calgary.

00:36:49.280 It looks like there's another one Sunday at 1 at Central Memorial Park.

00:36:52.980 So, you know, Chris Skye is going to be speaking at that.

00:36:56.440 You know, come on out.

00:36:57.380 Unfortunately, Sunday, I think the weather is supposed to be a little rougher, but whatever.

00:37:00.520 We're Albertans.

00:37:01.040 You can put on a heavier coat and go check that out.

00:37:03.880 I've been to other ones, though, and not necessarily those.

00:37:07.740 I guess there's two of them now.

00:37:08.940 There's a March for Freedom and March for – or Walk for Freedom.

00:37:12.940 I'm not sure.

00:37:14.320 And I think they've kind of split.

00:37:15.360 But, I mean, a lot of these gatherings have gone to have been dominated by people who are, just to put it the most polite way, they're not going to draw the mainstream person to join them.

00:37:26.560 You know, they're off on tangents.

00:37:28.460 They perhaps have some different theories and views that I don't want to get into debating whether they're accurate or not, but they often aren't even related to the pandemic.

00:37:37.660 But, I mean, I think a state does fear it.

00:37:39.900 If they see their citizens really coming out en masse, they do note that.

00:37:44.100 I mean, you know, large-scale peaceful protests can change the course of the state, but we just don't bloody well do that here.

00:37:53.880 Yeah, well, it is difficult when, I mean, I've been to some of the protests, and I, yeah, same thing.

00:38:02.280 I can't relate closely to some of the messaging in it, so I'd rather not be seen there sometimes.

00:38:09.060 But, yeah, I mean, you do need people to stand up.

00:38:18.360 You need them to peacefully protest.

00:38:20.920 Go for a walk, you know, let them know you're serious.

00:38:25.880 But I don't know how many people are serious.

00:38:27.940 I really don't, you know, I don't know how many.

00:38:31.300 Everybody just seems to be totally apathetic to what's going on.

00:38:37.640 They don't really seem to mind the precedent that it's setting,

00:38:40.760 the loss of freedoms or the deterioration of the charter.

00:38:48.060 Yeah, I really don't know what it'll take for Albertans,

00:38:54.760 for Canadians to make that leap.

00:38:59.340 Yeah, well, I think to a degree, you know,

00:39:01.300 a lot of people just don't know how.

00:39:03.760 It's not like you get raised into these protests or moved.

00:39:06.500 it's just not in you if you hear about it or you see it on tv um more creative means of pushing

00:39:12.220 you know that's part of why again i for those who joined a little later in here i mentioned it

00:39:16.360 earlier but uh ty northcott is holding rodeo at the end of the month on uh may 1st and 2nd i

00:39:22.080 believe it is it's it's if you look up northcott rodeos on facebook or an event right you can buy

00:39:26.360 tickets that's up by bowdoin that's only you know uh what an hour out of calgary close to red deer

00:39:32.140 nice central spot and we can there's there's nothing different there's something people can

00:39:37.980 come out to you're not marching on the streets you're not rallying you're not at the legislature

00:39:42.140 come on out go to a rodeo because ahs has already warned him they're already in his face so this is

00:39:47.820 your way to give a middle finger back without being perhaps at the other rallies that people

00:39:52.540 are less comfortable with let's make it an event let's have some fun with it spread that have a

00:39:57.420 a good time it's certainly distinctively western and alberton but to get further with things

00:40:02.240 there will probably be charges late i got a feeling this is my prediction hopefully a lot

00:40:06.980 of albertans come out have a great time for two days the police will kind of stand around the

00:40:11.060 outsides but they're not going to interfere because it would just turn into a gong show i

00:40:15.060 mean imagine that the optics is you think a church was bad try to break up a rodeo guys this is not

00:40:20.860 going to go well uh but they'll end up charging ty and some others after the fact but then will

00:40:28.800 they go to court they seem to be scared to go to court when it comes down to it in the end right

00:40:32.520 like i think the judges may have a nuanced view on the charter rights if we could just get in front

00:40:38.660 of them but they did that they dragged along uh the pastor coats there for a long time and then

00:40:43.280 finally if push came to shove you couldn't drag it out any longer okay we're gonna let you out

00:40:46.900 give you a $1,500 fine. The same thing with AHS and the restaurant in Mirror with Whistle Stop

00:40:54.540 Cafe. In the end, they tended to drop most of it because he was willing to march into that court.

00:40:59.480 And that's where they're going to have to say, this is how we're justifying crushing these

00:41:03.420 businesses. They are going to have to say to a judge, this is so dire. Where are we at now?

00:41:08.540 The dread third wave, this horrible third wave where we're having three or four people out of

00:41:14.160 4.4 million people dying a day, and usually, again, they are elderly or with preexisting

00:41:21.200 conditions. A judge might say, you know what? That's not enough. That's not enough to suspend

00:41:25.980 charter rights. Well, yeah, it seems to me like even a judge might... What it comes down to is

00:41:35.580 there's still a process to do it. I mean, if they wanted to suspend all these charter rights,

00:41:42.620 they can still invoke the the notwithstanding clause as far as i know that they they haven't

00:41:49.660 even debated that in any of these legislatures um you know the the bulk of the debate we see is you

00:41:56.700 know uh you'll see the odd conservative uh you know saying we need to we need a plan for reopening

00:42:04.700 and that's that's the strongest message we're getting from any of them right now is we need a

00:42:09.740 plan for reopening um it's and that and that's not enough i mean you know they could they could

00:42:17.420 have gone through the steps i don't think the evidence was ever there uh that they could have

00:42:22.940 they could have you know done this done this legally you know so um

00:42:32.940 yeah i i don't know it's it's it's scary i get you know it really is that uh you know that we

00:42:40.620 that we just let this happen so yeah well i think hindsight's gonna paint a really ugly picture on

00:42:47.660 what the government did and you know in a number of countries at a number of levels uh when we

00:42:52.860 finally have the chance to look back on on this mess um getting to another fundamental right that's

00:42:57.660 really been threatening it and again you see that they're using this emergency as a means to

00:43:02.540 infringe upon it and uh as jacob pointed out he said that he said that sunday rally had actually

00:43:07.500 had excellent coverage from CTV and presented their message fairly well, which is good.

00:43:12.540 And somebody else saying, it's the first time ever they did their jobs last Sunday at 1130.

00:43:17.020 But I mean, the mainstream media, I think most agree, especially those who are going to tune 0.99

00:43:19.980 into this, has gone to crap. I mean, it's fear-mongering garbage. You turn it on. 1.00

00:43:26.620 I've never seen a story showing the business owner in tears, locking their doors for the

00:43:32.700 last time as they walk away from something they put their whole heart and soul into.

00:43:36.780 I'm not seeing them interviewing the families of some of the people who overdosed

00:43:40.460 because they just sunk into too bad a rut and depression from this mess.

00:43:44.540 You know, we're not seeing them cover that.

00:43:46.860 They're seeing them just every possible stat.

00:43:49.340 I mean, one thing that got me a while back, of course,

00:43:51.580 Texas is embarrassing the hell out of the lockdown fiends.

00:43:54.620 And because they opened up, everybody predicted doom and gloom.

00:43:58.220 Oh my God, the Texans are going to be stacked up like cordwood.

00:44:00.460 They're going to be dead all over the place.

00:44:01.740 It's going to be like the stand because Stephen King even jumped in on that.

00:44:04.620 it's how irresponsible they are nothing happened their infections are going down down down down

00:44:10.300 quit using the vaccination excuse by the way people there were less texans vaccinated when

00:44:14.700 they opened up than albertans are vaccinated now so that wasn't the key factor but what i saw in

00:44:21.020 that was a media report saying uh you know kind of quietly uh yeah so uh infections are down in texas

00:44:27.100 and all around but oh here's a district in dallas where they're spiking like they said they just

00:44:31.340 refused to to report on something positive to say it's down all around they had to pick out and find

00:44:37.020 a little chunk at least and part of it i i don't know is part of it so i think is it bleeds it

00:44:43.100 leads but the other part we're going to problem with in canada is that the government's gotten

00:44:47.340 directly involved in funding media uh and now we have a heritage minister which is just a vile

00:44:54.460 ministry i mean it's not the place of the government to protect our heritage it's us

00:44:58.540 but telling us that they're going to be trying their very hardest to regulate the internet and

00:45:03.740 media this is another giant loss i mean free press is a huge rate around the world that not

00:45:09.260 enough people realize the importance of and we're letting it go right now oh yeah well absolutely

00:45:15.900 you know um yeah i mean i can only imagine how many of these uh you know so-called journalists

00:45:23.900 are uh you know what they're scared to write because they are going to they're going to lose

00:45:28.860 their funding if you know if if they go against the grain on some of this stuff right so it's good

00:45:35.100 you know that's why i'm happy to uh support the western standard you know i think uh i think you

00:45:41.260 guys have been doing a great job and and uh yeah we need more of that right we need more people just

00:45:47.980 out there telling those real stories you know telling the you know like because there are there's

00:45:53.100 There's places, there's restaurants that are boarded up near my house, you know, and places I used to like going to, you know, gyms, you know, again, a place that's, you know, for a lot of people, that's a big part of their life.

00:46:09.280 And these places are closed down yoga studios, you know, and yeah, those those are all businesses that, you know, it's hard to it's hard to be successful at even when times are good.

00:46:24.880 It takes something. And when they're put in these positions, you have people are, you know, they're losing their, you know, potentially everything.

00:46:35.000 And it's sad to see.

00:46:37.640 And it's not like it, you know, the other big distinction there, though, is it's, you know, the virus didn't do this.

00:46:43.200 I mean, for all the lockdown fanatics, it was it's the government that did this.

00:46:47.420 They shut down businesses.

00:46:48.500 People, you know, before lockdowns happened, you know, myself and my wife, we were very conscious of, you know, the potential for this virus to be really dangerous.

00:47:01.940 You know, there's people in our lives that we were worried about,

00:47:05.140 and we hunkered down, you know, laid low, you know,

00:47:10.760 before any of these lockdowns even happened.

00:47:12.960 And people have the right to do that, and they should do that, you know,

00:47:15.920 if they're so inclined.

00:47:18.240 But, you know, I think there's too much evidence now on the table for, you know,

00:47:23.560 for them to continue any of this in good faith.

00:47:27.800 And, you know, people have to, you know, have to realize that, that this is the most part of these lockdowns have been ineffective.

00:47:38.700 What the governments have done, you know, in my opinion, it seems it seems illegal, you know, and and yeah, I don't think the history books are going to be very kind to anybody that's pulling the strings of this stuff.

00:47:52.660 yeah well if you control the media you control a lot and we're not seeing as you said that the

00:48:00.740 cost benefit your average person staying in their house going to work or a lot of people can work

00:48:05.260 from home or you know have guaranteed incomes aren't seeing very directly what's happening to

00:48:11.720 others and it allows them to kind of dismiss it from their minds they aren't seeing that that

00:48:15.780 ugly truth or the real impact I had a panel on last week of three individuals because it was

00:48:21.780 different. It was something you don't see on the news. One was a fellow who had a heart attack

00:48:25.720 recently and he survived, but he had a lot of therapy he was going to have to go through and

00:48:31.100 recovery and things to do it. And it's been deferred because of all the lockdowns. He can't

00:48:35.540 get out there. He can't do those things. He can't go walking in cold weather. This is putting him

00:48:39.820 in very serious danger. You know, so that has to be weighed. And it's not saying the virus has no

00:48:46.300 threat. You know, I'm not getting into that. I'm just saying you have to weigh the different

00:48:49.440 dangerous i mean some people are getting killed by restrictions as well so let's look at both

00:48:54.400 uh i also spoke to a mother who's been laid off for her third time because she's in the

00:48:59.280 hospitality industry this is causing incredible tension at home uh you know tough time with the

00:49:05.280 family a tough time with the kids the stress but nobody again the mainstream aren't talking about

00:49:10.400 a woman who runs a doggy hotel you know again a small important local little business and they're

00:49:15.600 getting crushed but the media doesn't touch that and we need media to dig into that and i i'm scared

00:49:22.240 because right now they're sliding it under the radar we're coming in on election year and they're

00:49:25.920 talking very strongly about taking a much tighter control of our media of our information and then

00:49:32.880 i've used this analogy before just because it was a big impression on my life i went to the soviet

00:49:37.760 union at the end of the 80s i toured around a bit i hit a few spots and the big thing with them when

00:49:42.000 I crossed the border and I know some of you here have already heard this story but still it was a

00:49:45.040 big one was you know I traveled a fair amount I expected to search for drugs or odd uh you know

00:49:50.720 things they were searching for books and cassettes that's what they wanted that's what they wanted

00:49:55.600 to make sure I was not bringing into Russia they did not want information getting in that wasn't

00:50:00.880 Pravda that was their concern an authoritarian dictatorship wants to control information and

00:50:08.320 look where Trudeau's liberals are right now, sliding under the radar, under the guise of

00:50:13.240 fake news and, you know, pandemic or health risks. They are coming after our free information,

00:50:17.480 and we're going to pay a terrible price if they get full control of this.

00:50:22.340 Oh, yeah. You know, it's, yeah, it's hard to believe, actually, that, you know, we're going

00:50:32.760 down that road. The problem is, you know, in a liberal society, you know, we believe

00:50:56.500 even free speech because or free expression or freedom of the media because you understand

00:51:03.960 that people are able to gauge things for themselves and that the, you know, good, real information

00:51:11.220 will rise to the top. Good quality journalism. And it works the same in everything. It works

00:51:17.520 same in art it works the same in music or movies the actual you know reliable good stuff you know

00:51:28.320 is the is where people turn to so um you know i again i don't think that we've elected

00:51:38.480 smart enough people that are you know maybe educated in those types of classical liberal

00:51:43.680 values, and they rely on, yeah, these socialist, protectionist type methods, they, I believe

00:51:53.280 a lot of them, you know, actually believe that they are doing the right thing, fighting

00:51:57.740 some sort of imaginary threat to media, but there's always been bad tabloid journalism,

00:52:07.440 there's always, I mean, there was, you know, the whatever it used to be called, you know,

00:52:11.780 there was aliens and bigfoot cover all the time and um there's always been that stuff right weekly

00:52:18.100 world news or whatever yeah yeah exactly yeah the weekly world news yeah and you know and you know

00:52:24.740 and i like that stuff because i think it's entertaining but uh um yeah there's the the

00:52:31.380 right way to approach these things is to let everybody have their say and have you know have

00:52:37.300 these have these conversations out in the open and and people are able to dismiss things for

00:52:44.980 themselves i mean you don't need one you don't need you know this heritage minister like you're

00:52:50.500 talking about you don't need uh you know you don't need government controlling and the other thing

00:52:58.260 not only they you know you know they're subsidizing these these businesses that are

00:53:03.380 that are failing you know like that there's no reason why taxpayers should be on the hook for

00:53:10.340 media that people don't want right i mean you know the cbc is the classic one but now

00:53:16.180 now all of them are getting money and and with that there's uh you know there's strings attached

00:53:21.700 you know they need to cover things a certain way or they're going to lose their funding

00:53:25.780 that's all there is to it so yeah it's it's terrible i i again i'm i'm so often at a loss

00:53:34.020 for words that uh that people are able to sit back and and watch this happen um yeah well

00:53:42.180 we're in a period where we have more information at our fingertips than any time in human history

00:53:48.580 you know to like the access to information the stuff that's out there that we can find out

00:53:53.140 i mean i remember fights over drinking in the early 90s where they'd have to wait for two days

00:53:57.220 because one of us would have to go to the library and look it up to sell it that was reality but it

00:54:03.300 puts the onus on you but the other thing is we have more access yeah to than we ever had in

00:54:07.300 our lives too i mean you go around the internet oh there's no shortage of it but as you said when

00:54:11.780 you stood in the supermarket you saw the weekly world news too and you knew that sasquatch and

00:54:16.420 alien probably were not actually mating in bill clinton's backyard but it was entertaining stuff

00:54:22.660 on the site the thing is i think it comes down to is a an attitude of personal responsibility though

00:54:27.540 you see what it comes down to us then you've got to dig through it you've got to determine for

00:54:31.940 yourself which is the bs which is the good stuff and a lot of people are just uh seem quite happy

00:54:38.100 to say i'll just let the government take care of it for me you know the buzzword of fake news and

00:54:42.100 they'll tell me what's right and wrong and protecting your precious years from uh misinformation but

00:54:47.540 it's wrong we need more just throw it out there throw it on mass and as you said the proper stuff

00:54:53.460 will rise to the top if we can allow it to oh absolutely yeah for sure um yeah i don't know i

00:55:02.980 mean it's that you know it's it is a double-edged sword too like because there is you know anybody

00:55:11.380 anybody has the ability now to start a uh news outlet media outlet of any kind it's easier to

00:55:19.700 get you know your journalism out there than ever you know it's easier to get your artwork out your

00:55:26.340 your music you know anybody you know the type of you know the type of if you want to make a short

00:55:33.060 film it's it's easier to do that and everybody you know has the has the ability to do that um

00:55:40.020 And so, yeah, you know, it's a battle I think the state will lose because there's no, you know, it's just too, the technology's way too far ahead for them to shut down all the alternative media, all the alternative news.

00:55:59.420 I know it doesn't look it doesn't look good sometimes because of, again, you elect these people to to make decisions and they're they're making decisions that are, you know, you know, in their own interest for the most part.

00:56:19.640 Right. They're looking to protect their their jobs or their reputation by controlling the media.

00:56:27.060 And and but I in the long run, I just don't I don't think they'll it's a battle they'll be able to win.

00:56:34.420 I mean, in the short term, we're going to lose some money and, you know, mainstream legacy media stuff isn't going to it's not going to get any better.

00:56:45.560 In fact, fewer and fewer people are going to turn to it, especially as the more the state gets involved,

00:56:52.880 because the government gets involved in any of that stuff, and it just loses quality, right?

00:56:57.400 So in the long run, I'm fairly optimistic that things like the Western Standard will be around for a long time.

00:57:08.300 And I encourage other people, everybody, to take up that mantle, start a blog, be active with that sort of thing.

00:57:21.100 Or even if it's not media, like art, movies, music, all that stuff, it's easier now than ever to get that stuff out there.

00:57:29.440 Absolutely.

00:57:30.080 I mean, a person can put their paintings, the songs they've written, their poetry, anything they want, they can share it in ways we didn't have 30 years ago.

00:57:37.300 I mean, what were you going to do?

00:57:38.300 you know go and rent a photocopier and then pin it up on on street corners and actually some

00:57:42.460 people kind of literally did those things back then we've got some magnificent tools at our

00:57:46.780 fingertips i'm happy to see some optimism yes because i i think what they're trying to do is

00:57:50.460 almost like trying to plug a strainer you know they can keep plugging those holes but it's going

00:57:54.060 to keep leaking and eventually they'll lose but it's still going to be a battle and and i worry

00:57:58.460 about our our lack of will to push back on it you know and to speak a bit about with the western

00:58:04.460 standard i know some people got a little you know irksome upset when we moved on to a paywall model

00:58:11.660 for a lot of the stories and articles and and i mean it'd be great if we advertising alone would

00:58:16.380 pay for it but i mean the media world has changed and this isn't even the government it's just that

00:58:20.140 there is so much competing media out there that's part of where the mainstream is running into

00:58:24.220 trouble too there are not advertising dollars out there like there used to be it just there's not

00:58:30.540 enough to sustain things and we can get those blogs out there we can get you know our own art

00:58:35.340 pieces out and so on but for an actual news organization to get professionals like dave

00:58:39.900 nailer and alexander dollywell and uh mike more like these are news guys and they're getting

00:58:45.180 news content out there you know principled good well-written stuff but it comes at a cost and

00:58:52.700 uh the advertising just won't quite cover it you know and then that stuff sort of is our core but

00:58:57.180 and then you can get our editorials outside of it. So I just like to explain to some people,

00:59:00.220 you know, we never thought twice about spending, you know, 15, 20 bucks a month for a newspaper

00:59:04.540 subscription in the past and to get one delivered to your house every day. This is in that price

00:59:08.780 range, you know? Yep. Well, I mean, and that's part of the problem with, again, with the,

00:59:14.460 you know, the government, you know, subsidizing these, these failing media companies,

00:59:20.620 you know, they're reallocating resources, they're, they're taking money from people

00:59:24.700 and reallocating it to something they don't want, where if, you know, people still have

00:59:30.860 that money in their pockets, you know, companies might be able to be advertising with the places

00:59:38.140 they believe in, or people would be buying those subscriptions that they believe in.

00:59:45.020 I mean, these are, you know, it's the typical socialist model.

00:59:48.760 And again, I think that's, you know, that's why it will fail, because they are, you know, they're taking resources from one place, putting it into something that people ultimately don't want, you know, and it's, you know, these things just don't work.

01:00:08.860 I mean, you were in the Soviet Union in the 80s, like you said, and, you know, before that, people, you know, people were scared that communism was going to take over.

01:00:23.020 The problem is communism doesn't work.

01:00:24.700 So it failed, right?

01:00:27.420 And, you know, I think a lot of these programs, I mean, I'm a believer in free markets and capitalism.

01:00:35.040 And that's, you know, so I'm confident that these, ultimately, these things will just kill themselves, these, you know, these government handouts and these subsidies and this corporate welfare, because it doesn't work.

01:00:50.680 I mean, at the end of the day, it's all just going to fall apart, and there will be, you know, places like the Western Standard and other people that'll just be there to keep going after everything else is in ashes.

01:01:07.880 Yeah, a lot of it tends to come in cycles, I think, you know, we'll do well, and then we'll get complacent, and we'll let it go bad, and eventually it crumbles, but I mean, historically in the world, the end of the cycle is usually actually a violent revolution.

01:01:20.680 And I really hope that we don't end up at that point.

01:01:24.880 And again, we are so soft and comfortable.

01:01:27.680 I can't quite see it happening, so I don't know how bad it would have to get.

01:01:33.080 But I just the statists, you know, this term libertarians like throwing out to make

01:01:38.480 other people chief, but it is true.

01:01:39.800 People, authoritarians, I think is another good term for it, like control.

01:01:44.840 They like power.

01:01:45.440 They like they feel the state really should

01:01:47.920 manage our lives in so many aspects and that rights are for the most part

01:01:51.640 an inconvenience.

01:01:54.680 It gave me chills when Joe Biden started using the language when he was talking

01:01:58.240 about gun control. The second amendment, you know, we don't have that,

01:02:01.960 but it's a very precious one and it's a misunderstood one, I think,

01:02:04.800 but that's a whole separate show.

01:02:07.240 But he started calling firearms deaths a public health emergency.

01:02:12.360 That's no mistake. That is no mistake whatsoever.

01:02:16.240 when you use those loaded words now you are saying similar to what we're doing up here because it's

01:02:21.760 a public health emergency we're going to suspend those rights that it really is troublesome and

01:02:27.360 we're going to see that applied to a number of rights as the government wants to move in on

01:02:33.600 yeah unfortunately we probably you know that or there's definitely that potential right um

01:02:40.560 Um, you know, I, again, I like to, you know, I like to think that even at the end of, at

01:02:49.840 the end of this, these pandemics and lockdowns, there will be enough people that look back

01:02:56.400 and realize, you know, the mistakes that were made and there is a push back, you know, Alberta

01:03:01.860 Again, I think is, you know, Alberta right now is prime for some sort of populist political

01:03:12.300 movement.

01:03:13.300 I mean, you know, the NDP underperformed to the extent that, you know, people don't want

01:03:22.540 them back.

01:03:23.540 The UCP is, you know, divided on so many fronts.

01:03:28.520 And I think, yeah, I think there is an opportunity for something different, you know.

01:03:36.780 And, yeah, the statists or the authoritarians, they always, I mean, unfortunately, it's inherent in the political system.

01:03:46.380 They, you know, we elect them to have that power to work on our behalf, to put our, you know,

01:03:56.820 You vote for the people who you think are going to protect your interests the most, right?

01:04:00.880 And, yeah, it's, you know, again, that's why, you know, maybe again, getting back to the charter, I mean, maybe the answer is in, you know, reestablishing something to do around the charter rights where it's not easy for them to, you know, do these things that they've done.

01:04:22.620 I really don't know. I mean, I'm not. But yeah, you know, other than that, I mean, massive, a massive swing in culture, you know, in the way in the way we view authority and the way we view responsibility. Those are the types of things that will make a difference.

01:04:42.940 yeah well you know we keep pecking at it i mean it it's uh funny liberty-minded people or

01:04:51.840 libertarians when it comes to the party and we tend to kill ourselves i still can't forget down

01:04:55.960 in the states with that uh gentleman i think it was at a convention showed up on the stage stark

01:05:00.040 naked uh to give his speech and you know it fell into that just because you can doesn't mean you

01:05:05.340 should sort of category of things i understand the point you're kind of trying to make i think

01:05:10.100 similar to what i'm talking about with the protests too if you're going to let the fringe

01:05:13.060 dominate the front speaking zones you're not going to get the broader public on board with you no

01:05:18.260 matter what you you try to do we get moving into a bit more of a partisan front as we move you know

01:05:23.220 towards the end here today um jason kenny does have a revolution going on in his hands i mean

01:05:29.140 things that is there things could work within the system we're seeing something uh well we've seen

01:05:33.940 it you know in parties often before he's got a caucus revolution going on it started with 15

01:05:39.940 It ended up with 17 elected members signing a letter in complete, clear, broad defiance of his movements, policies and health orders.

01:05:48.580 Where do you think things are going to go with this?

01:05:53.720 Where are they going to go?

01:05:55.020 It's it's hard to say.

01:05:57.020 I mean, I you know, it seems to me and I'm not I'm not involved in any of the provincial or federal parties at this point.

01:06:04.080 But it seems to me like you will, it seems to me we're heading to a major split in the UCP, something back towards, you know, where the lines were drawn between the PCs and the Wild Rose before.

01:06:19.680 Now, I don't I don't really know how that's going to play out in the next election, you know, because I think the NDP is still a, you know, pretty dominant force that could have a big surge in the next election also.

01:06:36.240 um but yeah i mean i i it seems to me like under jason kenney i i can't see i can't see the ucp

01:06:46.280 uh remaining unfractured right so yeah well i mean some of my disappointment i mean i was

01:06:55.360 supportive of kenny i i was supportive of when he ran for the leadership of the pcs i thought it was

01:06:59.860 time to get things together and get one party because this was back when the ndp were still

01:07:03.920 in government and i i had really high hopes i mean you know he was a political figure since

01:07:08.960 my younger days as well when he's at the taxpayers federation and he was a

01:07:12.960 fantastic cabinet minister in a number of roles in government and of course he was a

01:07:17.040 pitbull and a reform opposition member so you know this is the guy who was voted over and over again

01:07:21.760 by the media it's the hardest working mp i mean this is you know he's no fool he's not lazy but

01:07:28.960 it seems to me maybe it you know the skill set of leadership is just somebody that person really

01:07:34.320 either has or they don't you know to be able to hold it together i mean ralph klein didn't have

01:07:38.560 a big history of partisan involvement and everything but he just seemed to have whatever

01:07:41.840 that that magic combination of traits was to hold it together and really bring things behind him

01:07:47.840 uh whereas jason kenny just can't seem to find that within the party or outside of it i mean people

01:07:53.040 are not gathering around to follow him i think maybe it's a whole different animal you know

01:07:57.360 running a ministry is a big difference from running a political party or convincing an

01:08:03.760 entire province that what you're doing is correct um i don't i don't think he can recover from this

01:08:08.880 i don't know though yeah well i don't i don't i don't i mean i think he could i think he could

01:08:14.480 recover he's he's smart and savvy but i don't as far as recovery i mean he could he there's a lot

01:08:20.720 lot of things he could do.

01:08:23.760 But I don't think it's any secret that he had his eyes on the prime minister's office,

01:08:29.980 and his plan was always to go back to Ottawa.

01:08:33.100 And becoming the premier of Alberta was part of that process while Trudeau was in that

01:08:44.600 position for a while.

01:08:46.780 And at the time, it did look promising because the economy was on an upswing already on an

01:08:53.740 upward trajectory when he got elected, and nobody saw the COVID-19 stuff coming.

01:09:02.960 But yeah, I think those hopes are definitely dashed for him.

01:09:06.840 But he'll still have a long and successful career in almost anywhere he goes, whatever he chooses to do.

01:09:18.000 But I really think his plan to return to Ottawa and potentially – and even his re-election as premier is probably flat.

01:09:30.860 Yeah, well, that's it.

01:09:32.820 It's Danielle Smith in her newsletter.

01:09:35.360 For those who don't get that, you know, you can sign up.

01:09:37.580 I think it's a danielsmith.ca, but she's been very candid in her, which she releases and

01:09:44.260 writes out with that, and it comes out in email.

01:09:46.240 So, you know, that's something else for folks.

01:09:47.700 I'd suggest because she's been somebody who's, I think, found herself.

01:09:52.980 You know, she didn't, as we know, it didn't end very well when she was leading a political

01:09:57.220 party.

01:09:57.600 As I said, it just doesn't seem for everybody who can manage to keep that herd of cats moving

01:10:01.400 in one direction or not.

01:10:02.680 um we talk about the libertarian party of the tim moan i i can't imagine that man's patience 0.98

01:10:08.360 i don't know how he does it there's there's nothing worse than a bunch of bloody libertarians

01:10:11.600 to try and try and keep going but you know as danielle pointed out and it's so refreshing to

01:10:18.340 hear somebody because she's as aware that she made some mistakes as anybody uh but talking about the

01:10:23.600 thing that brings these leaders down it's not when the public gets upset it's not when the press 0.97

01:10:27.760 gets upset but when your caucus turns on you you're screwed uh they are gonna pull you down

01:10:33.840 i mean they're worried for their own jobs they're not worried about what your future is gonna be 0.76

01:10:38.420 if you can't get it together that they will yank you out of there and there's uh two years left

01:10:44.500 you know for for an ambitious person i think to pull the leader and try and get him replaced and

01:10:48.900 make a go of things in the party uh with two years to go isn't beyond uh believability i think

01:10:54.440 oh yeah not at all not at all i mean i i i don't i have a hard you know i i think the the party is

01:11:05.000 is split along pretty specific lines i i don't see what we call the ucp uh replacing kenny if

01:11:14.240 he doesn't if he doesn't want to go um so again like i say i don't know how that turns out in

01:11:20.020 And in an election cycle, you know, if there's another party that forms or, you know, one of the other smaller parties scoops up some of these, you know, renegade MLAs who are speaking out against Kenny at this point.

01:11:41.020 But who knows? It'll make for good television, that's for sure.

01:11:47.520 It is that. I mean, it really surprised me when I saw the Speaker Cooper come out and some people have gotten on him. And to be honest, I like Nathan Cooper a lot. And he's been actually a very good speaker and good at explaining things. I thought he's been quite balanced. But him of all guys should have known you were the one and only MLA who shouldn't have signed that letter.

01:12:09.320 You know, as a speaker, I mean, you could resign speaker first and then do it,

01:12:12.980 but you cannot take a distinctive political stance as a speaker.

01:12:17.080 It was a surprising error on the part of Cooper, I think, you know.

01:12:22.920 Well, it's a political error, but, you know, morally, yeah, he should stand up and say that, right?

01:12:32.660 I mean, if he, you know, and at some of the points in some of these guys' careers,

01:12:37.740 I, you know, I don't know him personally or where he's at with things, but, but there does come a time when, yeah, you do have to, these, that's what we need more of is these people, these legislators standing up and saying, no, we're not going along with this, you know, autocratic rule.

01:12:54.700 I'm letting you know, letting everybody know what I think of it, you know, there's definitely not a lot, enough of that, you know, and same, you know, there's, oh, what was it?

01:13:05.500 like uh the two barnes and uh i forget her name who you know left the you know they formed that

01:13:14.220 lit the so-called liberty caucus and uh some others randy hillier in ontario and yeah exactly

01:13:23.180 so and uh you know when our alberta mlas walked away from that because uh you know randy is you

01:13:31.660 You know, an insensitive tweet using Nazi imagery, right?

01:13:37.040 And you know, that is in poor taste, in my opinion.

01:13:42.560 But at the same time, you know, there's what's in worse taste is, you know, these authoritarian

01:13:51.100 edicts.

01:13:52.100 I mean, you know, to walk away from that sort of coalition, you know, to me, again, that

01:13:59.160 I think that's a mistake also because it, you know, the right approach to me is to,

01:14:06.620 you know, say, yeah, Randy, that was a tasteless, irresponsible imagery to you.

01:14:15.980 But at the same time, you know, walking away from it from that point detracts from the

01:14:23.980 message which is that you know we are you know look we're looking down the barrel of an authoritarian

01:14:29.980 gun right now and uh and there are there are things worse than uh you know uh an inconsiderate

01:14:41.500 and and those things are the policies that we're talking about right now

01:14:45.900 yeah well having elected officials speak up on points of principle is so critical and i mean

01:14:49.820 as norman we pointed out you know he needs to be neutral between party interests yeah and

01:14:55.740 and he shouldn't be barred from representing constituent interests you know that gets into a

01:15:00.140 much bigger discussion he's right uh personally i don't think the speaker should be one of the

01:15:04.700 mlas that's part of the system we've got right now you know maybe have an all-party selection

01:15:08.860 of another individual uh but that way you don't take an mla or a member of parliament and have

01:15:15.580 them stuck in that role of being kind of gagged uh and nathan got to the point what i was getting

01:15:21.260 at mostly i guess was just that they are feeling so frustrated and and so um you know upset over

01:15:26.700 this that they did you know something like him who's very usually measured and controlled stepped

01:15:30.780 out and and broke tradition and ranks and a number of things and spoke up and uh yeah it's

01:15:35.820 unfortunate with the the breakup of the the coalition i guess you could say with with the

01:15:41.180 Yeah, but even that, as far as neutral, sorry, if he's performing his duties as speaker and

01:16:00.840 remaining neutral between the parties in the legislature, he, you know, his, I mean, there's

01:16:08.600 nothing he there's nothing in that letter they wrote that is actual uh that's that's actual

01:16:15.340 legislation right i mean it's just it's their voice and their concern i mean that i you know

01:16:21.120 we absolutely need more uh more people to more elected officials whether it's the speaker or not

01:16:28.700 i mean because he has a his job as speaker um shouldn't actually impact his uh his ability to

01:16:35.560 have opinions on things no it shouldn't it's a shortcoming of the system there and i mean we

01:16:41.060 need to see more of that with mlas having the ability and the will and mps you know i mean the

01:16:46.640 system theoretically should mean that they can speak up and vote differently than the party but

01:16:50.640 we know in the reality uh free votes are a very rare occurrence i mean government's promised them

01:16:56.720 all the time but they they rarely happen at best they'll say uh you know you can leave the house

01:17:02.040 and not have it on record during this one if you feel real,

01:17:04.920 but you can't get up and vote against the government.

01:17:06.660 Exactly.

01:17:07.180 But that's a discussion for another time.

01:17:09.480 So I've kept you hanging here for an hour, Darcy.

01:17:11.540 I thank you very much for coming on.

01:17:13.680 It's much appreciated.

01:17:16.620 Always good to talk to you.

01:17:17.940 So where can we see more on what you write about and speak about

01:17:22.080 and go on about?

01:17:23.820 Well, you can always, you know, I plan on, might be a little while yet,

01:17:28.520 but I'll get back to work doing some columns for the Western Standard

01:17:32.600 after a couple more weeks here.

01:17:36.060 You can follow me on Twitter at Darcy Giroux.

01:17:39.000 Again, not always active, but, you know, yeah,

01:17:45.000 the Western Standard is the best place to find anything I've written.

01:17:49.660 Right on.

01:17:50.520 Well, I'll let you go, and we can look forward to seeing more columns from you.

01:17:54.100 I'm sure we'll have a conversation sometime again.

01:17:56.260 as you said earlier too if we could find a patio open somewhere or whatever we could sit down

01:18:00.160 have a good uh beer and a chat some other time well you can have a beer and all vicariously

01:18:05.480 enjoy it for you let's uh let's find uh let's find some place that's uh oh that's illegally

01:18:11.820 open i'd prefer that i'm all for it we'll talk later darcy okay thanks thanks bye

01:18:20.000 okay so yeah you know as i said thanks again to darcy and uh some of the commenters have thanked

01:18:27.600 him as well so uh we've had a lot of talk about yeah the challenges to liberties from the the

01:18:32.480 pandemic and the lockdowns and the actions of the state in response to it something we're not

01:18:38.720 hearing nearly enough about i think is it is the long-term economic consequences i mean i'm getting

01:18:43.840 really really nervous about what we're looking forward to here when we got so many levels of

01:18:48.320 debt so much expenditure so much dependence on government for subsidies now whether it's

01:18:54.240 individuals whether it's businesses or whatnot so i've got fergus hodgson coming on here he's from

01:19:00.000 econ americas he likes talking those money issues precious metals all that uh funky uh trade sort

01:19:06.720 of stuff but i mean it's all tied together the bigger picture you know the the let's look at

01:19:10.800 these macroeconomics and and uh i just want to find out get an idea what the heck is is happening

01:19:16.160 out there so uh i cannot hear you mate i assume you can't hear me i can't hear you uh yeah uh

01:19:27.920 let me try different headphones because

01:19:35.120 okay um there's a so fergus is having some technical issues here

01:19:40.640 I don't know if he can see it, but I have a private chat area, and I'm going to try and send him some instructions on what he's got to do, because I suspect I know what it is.

01:20:05.440 Okay, now you're muted.

01:20:10.640 Okay, Corey. Great. I can hear you. And I hope this mic, is it coming through clear?

01:20:15.900 You're coming through clearly. Okay.

01:20:18.520 Corey, it's an honor to be live with the Western Standard. You know, I really enjoy this publication.

01:20:25.560 And it's just so necessary for Western Canada. So I'm glad to be with you, man.

01:20:31.840 That's much appreciated. It looks like you're somewhere warmer than Calgary right now. Where are you at these days?

01:20:36.240 And I am on a road trip between Houston, and I might even have ketchup on my face, but

01:20:42.200 I'm on a road trip between Houston and Lehigh, Utah, where I'm moving for a new job.

01:20:48.760 And I spent the last day and a half cleaning up my apartment, getting ready for the move.

01:20:55.160 But I was eager to chat with you.

01:20:59.540 And you had mentioned you were interested in talking about inflation today.

01:21:04.160 Yes.

01:21:06.240 Right. So I mean, I'm not an economist. I'm somebody who dabbles on the side and talks

01:21:11.760 politics in general and everything. But the main hardcore lessons we've always been taught,

01:21:16.480 typically say of the Calgary School of Economists and so on is that if government is going to

01:21:21.200 continue to keep borrowing and borrowing and releasing more currency and going on,

01:21:26.240 we can expect hyperinflation to follow shortly afterwards. And we've been kind of waiting for

01:21:30.960 a year. We keep hearing rumblings and warnings of it. I think in some ways, perhaps it's thankful,

01:21:35.840 but right now it doesn't seem to be happening what am i missing here yeah excellent point and

01:21:42.000 this is a debate that's raging on cory so it's called the quantity theory of money

01:21:48.720 the fact that inflation is a monetary phenomenon rests on us on a formula which is axiomatic or

01:21:56.720 but it depends on uh four things output the so the the basic formula has output prices being

01:22:07.920 equal to the quantity of quantity of money and the velocity of money and so this has been an

01:22:17.200 ongoing dilemma that since the great recession or the global financial crisis of 2008

01:22:22.960 we did not we saw an expansion of the monetary supply of money supply but we did not see

01:22:30.640 sticker prices going up in a substantial way and why why did that happen so the formula would

01:22:38.400 suggest that either there was a huge bounce back in productivity or there was a slowdown in the

01:22:44.860 velocity of money or the rate at which monetary money was circulating and my view is it's both

01:22:50.420 basically that people became more conservative during during the recession and and that's that's

01:22:56.180 happened this last year as well they've engaged in fewer discretionary spending items and or

01:23:02.900 especially tourism of course that's off the table and so they're there at the same time

01:23:09.620 our productivity at least after the great great recession continued to rise so that offsets

01:23:15.060 inflationary pressure so the real output increased now uh so why have we not seen it those those are

01:23:24.100 the reasons in my view that people have basically tightened their belts and there's there's data

01:23:28.820 backing this that even though the base money supply has increased the broader money supply

01:23:37.140 has not increased proportionately which suggests people are being more conservative i guess the

01:23:42.580 the stereotype would be people putting cash

01:23:45.400 under their mattresses, but in other ways.

01:23:49.700 Okay, so it's a little complex,

01:23:52.020 but I mean, at the same time, it just feels,

01:23:53.700 I can see what you're saying.

01:23:54.740 I mean, we're contracting, yeah, we're not vacationing.

01:23:57.620 I mean, that could sometimes be 10, 15%

01:24:00.260 of somebody's annual income

01:24:01.340 they might spend on vacations every year,

01:24:02.900 particularly in Canada,

01:24:03.820 where we're gonna try and escape somewhere warmer

01:24:06.160 in wintertime if we can.

01:24:09.360 But at the same time, it just feels hard to believe

01:24:10.980 that we're getting much more productive

01:24:12.400 in many ways i mean we've seen uh supply chain interruptions we've seen uh larger actually you

01:24:18.240 know production sort of uh uh industries being shut down or slowed down dramatically uh energy

01:24:24.720 sector manufacturing so uh it still managed to be enough to balance things let let me yeah let me

01:24:31.120 back up a bit i do not believe we're getting more productive in the last year so actually i agree

01:24:35.440 with you on that the point was about i mean you remember corey during the global financial crisis

01:24:42.240 when there were all these insane bailouts going on many people including prominent economists

01:24:46.800 were projecting inflationary pressure which just did not arrive many people were actually at that

01:24:51.680 time because the bailouts seemed so unprecedented in magnitude i i still remember being in those

01:24:58.240 days it was one of my first jobs out of college being an economic researcher in massachusetts

01:25:03.440 and many people were even thinking some kind of hyperinflation could come from the united states

01:25:07.840 at that time because i think the ballot was 600 billion dollars number everyone just thought this

01:25:11.520 is insane what is going on of course everything has been dwarfed by that lately but no so i agree

01:25:17.840 with you that of late the main dampening of inflationary pressure has just been people not

01:25:24.320 engaging in such excess spending this there's been less demand for credit people have been

01:25:30.320 less inclined to borrow even with such low interest rates however there are also problems

01:25:37.600 with the way we measure inflation and i wrote an article for the epoch times which you're also

01:25:43.840 writing for which is great about maybe six months ago saying that four reasons why inflation already

01:25:50.160 has arrived right depending on how you look at it so one already precious metals prices have

01:25:56.480 increased substantially right so they got over two thousand dollars last year they're around

01:26:02.880 1800 now but basically precious metals prices increased year over year by something like 40

01:26:09.120 and so that is basically saying that the currencies are you know that the price their value is 40

01:26:16.880 weaker relative to the gold now so also the federal reserve at the time admitted that it was going to

01:26:25.120 be softening its own inflation targets so around two percent is what they target they were going to

01:26:30.640 be moving away from that in terms of the way they said they were going to move to i think a

01:26:35.360 some kind of moving average which was which would allow it to go higher on occasion

01:26:41.040 the other was others were that there are now private measures of inflation that do not follow

01:26:47.360 uh i guess the the the strict uh consumer basket of goods and they were finding much higher levels

01:26:55.120 at least in american cities and i'm almost certain it'd be the same in canadian cities

01:26:58.960 one of the problems is that the consumer we we often look at the consumer price index which is

01:27:03.840 just day-to-day household items and we forget that you know the actual price of real estate

01:27:09.840 for example has gone up enormously and at the same time the stock market has risen during this time

01:27:17.440 of lockdowns now there are other there's another piece of the puzzle which i think many people

01:27:24.720 overlook and which has been brought to my attention in recent times the way that if we consider just

01:27:31.360 sticker prices that's just one side it's just one dimension of of inflation or diminishing value of

01:27:39.200 the dollar or looney or the dollar one interesting aspect of inflation is that in this low interest

01:27:49.280 world our that the productive value of the returns we get on our savings is so much lower

01:27:56.320 so let's say in the past you could buy government bonds and literally get 15 or 10 return

01:28:03.920 almost risk-free now you'll be getting half a percent or one percent so in some ways you're

01:28:11.280 being cheated out of the returns on your assets and i see that as a consequence of inflation of

01:28:18.480 easy monetary policy now i'm trying to think of a way to bring that back back around so

01:28:25.680 yes we're not seeing consumer price index increases just yet the canadian level inflation

01:28:31.200 i think is still between one and two percent reported however there are other ways we are

01:28:35.920 seeing inflation arising or uh you know coming coming to be and my own my personal view is that

01:28:42.640 in the coming couple of years we're going to see much heavier inflation because i just don't think

01:28:47.920 governments are going to be willing to put interest rates up to stifle um demand for credit

01:28:54.400 yeah well we've seen you know a lot of historical cycles like in the late 80s early 90s when i

01:28:59.760 entered the working world uh inflation was a demon that the the state was just in

01:29:05.440 obsessed with with stomping out so interest rates back then were horrific i mean

01:29:10.480 uh as you said i mean if you had bonds or even savings accounts you could get eight percent on

01:29:15.440 your savings in the bank but at the same time if you were a homeowner or trying to get into the

01:29:20.400 housing market you were you were out of luck and at any sign of inflation the central bank would

01:29:25.200 raise interest rates we've been riding on these low interest rates and it's terrifying to think

01:29:30.160 and that's part of what i fear with inflation though the bank is you know the bank of canada

01:29:34.720 tends to deal with it they'll raise the prime rate if they feel inflation is getting a little

01:29:37.840 out of control we've got a lot of people who are sitting in a really marginal position right now

01:29:42.320 and they're taking out the one area of inflation we do have as you said is real estate houses are

01:29:46.480 going like bananas but if they suddenly see a two percent rate in the interest hike there could be

01:29:52.560 a lot of people in a great deal of trouble yeah so look there's so much to say about this and

01:29:57.280 one topic which we should address i'm not sure how long we have to chat uh corey but is the

01:30:02.320 fact that philosophically we're also entering a period or ideologically where this uh modern

01:30:08.560 monetary theory or mmt has taken on a new lease of life or a new level of popularity but so in terms

01:30:16.720 of interest rates the fact is that theoretically speaking in terms of the basic basic economic

01:30:23.280 conventions when there is inflationary pressure when a central bank sees too much demand for

01:30:31.360 credit too much optimism you might say they're supposed to raise interest rates to stifle that

01:30:37.920 right to follow that follow uh the demand of supply for credit now the problem is that as

01:30:46.320 governments both federal uh provincial state in the u.s municipal as they become

01:30:54.800 so indebted they just purely cannot afford higher rates they cannot pay it and

01:31:02.800 And even Alberta right now, which was once the darling of, I guess, zero debt until the global financial crisis, is facing, I think, maybe, is it one-sixth or 20%?

01:31:15.800 A substantial portion of the budget is now going to debt servicing.

01:31:19.900 So if you were to take, let's say, wholesale rates from 1% to 3%, I mean, that would just take apart the provincial budget.

01:31:29.920 and i just think the political pressure is too great it would it will resist higher interest

01:31:37.360 rates so that mean that's why i am my my assessment is that you will actually see sticker prices going

01:31:43.640 up and there's the think tanks in canada have been actually on top of this i'm really impressed

01:31:50.540 with the work i've been looking over mcdonald laurier institute cd how institute and phrase

01:31:55.960 institute they've all been covering this problem of monetary economics in canada

01:32:01.640 and they they are fearful these are very uh careful writers i mean i'm much more inclined

01:32:08.120 to just speak forthrightly they will be much more measured or keep their cards close to their chest

01:32:13.480 and even these very conservative think tanks are saying that there is a grave risk of basically

01:32:21.640 an unstable monetary regime in Canada's future.

01:32:27.000 Yeah, well, I do worry about that.

01:32:28.760 As I said, I don't mind being wrong

01:32:30.220 and noticing that it's taken this long

01:32:31.840 seems to catch up with us so far

01:32:33.680 with what's essentially Keynesian economics

01:32:35.780 of pumping money in to try and maintain things

01:32:38.680 when productivity isn't happening.

01:32:40.640 Something a commenter brought up,

01:32:41.820 which is a factor that's brand new to us.

01:32:44.520 I mean, people typically worried about inflation,

01:32:46.960 things like that would hedge towards

01:32:48.200 precious metals and silver, gold, so on.

01:32:50.520 But now we've got cryptocurrencies out there, which has given a new area for some people to ask whether it's a good idea or not to get into that sort of thing.

01:32:59.840 I'm still a little bit confused on the entire concept of how those bloody things work.

01:33:03.820 But how much of a factor in our entire economics are there?

01:33:06.800 Are they just still a novelty on the side or are they really actually having an impact on things?

01:33:10.820 I do think they're having an impact, Corey.

01:33:13.200 And not only do I think that, but central bankers think that.

01:33:16.720 right so the bank of canada maybe three years ago now entered put out a paper on the prospect of

01:33:24.400 their you know a central bank digital currency the fed coin is becoming a you know a topic of

01:33:30.800 discussion among central bankers so first central banks realize they're under competitive pressure

01:33:37.120 always central banks under competitive pressure anyway from just other central banks right so

01:33:42.000 So if the Canadian dollar were to go into some sort of very, very severe inflationary process, people would immediately just start using U.S. dollars, right?

01:33:51.240 They'd very quickly do so, right?

01:33:53.240 You could just get yourself an American credit card or whatever and exchange in U.S. dollars.

01:33:57.400 But the, and I assume many, many Canadian banks will actually allow you to hold U.S. dollars in deposits anyway.

01:34:04.360 so already the loonie is in competition with the u.s dollar and that is a check on its uh you know

01:34:10.920 on their responsibility and so in fact the loonie was stronger than the u.s dollar for a short period

01:34:19.480 prior to the global financial crisis and now it's about i think 80 cents on the dollar so that itself

01:34:28.760 is a very clear warning to people that the the bank of canada is under pressure it's falling

01:34:34.680 behind the federal reserve and i'm not a fan of the federal reserve either so the question about

01:34:38.360 cryptocurrencies there is competition they are bringing it it's still early days but i am excited

01:34:47.160 about rising competitive pressure to actually use cryptocurrencies for uh exchange thus far

01:34:55.480 bitcoin the first move it has first mover advantage that's why it is the best name recognition

01:35:00.120 it is the most popularity people know about it the it has baked in problems it has price

01:35:09.560 instability and it has slow or costly transactions so it's not good for small payments but it also

01:35:17.160 has problems of anonymity there are new currencies coming in all the time stable coins uh privacy

01:35:25.400 coins that are going to offer better alternatives so in the long run five to ten years i'm excited

01:35:31.960 that yes cryptocurrencies will be a check on central banks and i wrote an article about this

01:35:37.080 called central bankers need to learn to code because they realize they're an obsolescence

01:35:41.400 we've all grown up with central bank currencies and we just assume that's almost like gravity

01:35:46.280 that that's just the way things are we just have to have government money but we don't actually

01:35:50.280 and cryptocurrencies are coming around to show that we can trade in these items outside of uh

01:35:58.440 banknote outside of um government tokens you might say now there's one other element too which has

01:36:05.080 come to my attention in recent times that uh cryptocurrencies offer a certain level of

01:36:10.200 censorship resistance and everyone people i guess every day someone else is getting banned from a

01:36:17.560 social media platform or being debanked and i see cryptocurrencies is allowing us to build a more

01:36:23.720 resilient economy away from censorship that's my that's my hope that's quite an interesting

01:36:31.720 road to travel down and so i mean here's a thought then if you had a full out currency collapse like

01:36:38.600 we saw with say venezuela or zimbabwe or something like that is there is there a chance that a

01:36:43.640 country could actually just kind of shift and embrace a cryptocurrency to fill the void with the

01:36:48.760 complete collapse of their domestic currency well okay that's a good question already many

01:36:55.880 countries exist without their own central bank right so el salvador panama ecuador

01:37:02.600 these countries all use us dollars and panama basically doesn't have a central bank right

01:37:09.960 i mean i think they do have some monetary engagement but in general there are countries

01:37:17.160 already that exist without central banks however because the most convenient game of town has been

01:37:24.840 the us dollar they've just gravitated towards that the question then is at what point will

01:37:31.960 people with in the absence of a central banker and the absence of a national currency gravitate

01:37:37.240 towards a cryptocurrency how far away is that and you know my my perspective is it just it's

01:37:43.160 just a matter of time whether it's five years or 10 years or 20 i don't know but i'm optimistic

01:37:47.960 that it's going to happen faster than most people realize uh much in the same way that social media

01:37:53.800 basically didn't exist 20 years ago it's now basically taken over our lives it's it's incredible

01:37:59.880 the change that has taken place and i'm optimistic this will happen one reason why i'm optimistic is

01:38:05.160 that central bank currencies and the traditional financial sector are basically just inefficient

01:38:12.520 and what i mean is that there's all it's costly it's slow there are you know there's obviously

01:38:18.760 you're losing value to inflation and it there's a great joke i mean that you see these these

01:38:24.360 tropes all the time but if you were to take the us dollar and put it out there float it out as a

01:38:30.120 coin offering to compete with other cryptocurrencies people would laugh at you right no one would want

01:38:34.200 buy it it's so inferior to the options that are becoming available that it it has the advantage

01:38:40.360 because at one time it was pegged to the dollar and it it entered into use so it is it has the

01:38:46.920 natural monopoly you might say but in the long run it is an inferior product okay yeah no just

01:38:54.520 kind of wondering perhaps something that's been holding countries together in a sense i mean there

01:38:58.520 there is competition among central uh bank currencies around the world but at the same

01:39:04.840 time since pretty much every country on the planet's miring itself into uh national debt

01:39:10.040 and so on i mean there's really not much point in jumping from one to another uh the debt to

01:39:14.040 gdp ratio in the states isn't exactly pretty right now uh but i mean so now that you're saying this

01:39:20.280 this new option might be quite the game changer down the road here and perhaps quickly no cory

01:39:24.760 i'm i agree with you entirely in that regard i'm just still processing the way that what you know

01:39:31.000 what you and i probably view is just fiscal insanity has gone on the world over that no one

01:39:37.080 is immune to this craziness and there was there was a an article i think it was the wall street

01:39:43.640 journal just uh in the last day or two saying that the cut that the states in the united states that

01:39:48.920 have been uh under less or fewer lockdowns have obviously recovered quickly economically

01:39:56.760 you know captain obvious right and so i don't know why so few countries have had the courage to

01:40:05.640 really have some fiscal austerity and economic you know restraint uh but that is the case so

01:40:15.720 so there aren't really any currencies that have been performing well of late that's why uh precious

01:40:23.880 metals have done so well over the last uh couple of years right they've just since this covert

01:40:29.160 thing they've gone really well that's softened in the last few months but there aren't really

01:40:34.360 better ones to go to i agree with you the euro the us dollar canadian dollar australian all these

01:40:40.200 countries are facing all these regions or cryptocurrency all these central banks are

01:40:46.680 facing basically monetization of debt and in canada i don't know whether you guys want playing

01:40:51.880 numbers or what what you want to think about but in canada just at the federal level not including

01:40:58.600 cities or provinces about about ten thousand dollars per person last year was added to the

01:41:05.880 the national debt, right? And so per taxpayer, there'd be about $20,000. So each of us just

01:41:11.780 acquired $20,000 extra debt just in the last year. And in the US, it is a similar problem.

01:41:19.460 There was a great tweet from Thomas Massey, one of the few classical liberals in the US Congress

01:41:24.920 saying that 25% of the US debt arose just in 2020 alone. And that is unsustainable. And I'm guessing

01:41:33.740 it's even worse in canada actually oh it is and it's frightening and we see it on every level of

01:41:39.200 course provincial governments borrowing and then municipally in alberta we've got this thing where

01:41:42.880 they say it's illegal for them to borrow so what they do is they spawn off companies like epcor in

01:41:47.680 calgary i believe it is president and then they just have that company borrow on their behalf so

01:41:53.120 it's an indebted entity and then on top of that the small businesses in canada are massively in

01:42:00.120 yet. Most of these aid programs for businesses during this period have actually been loans from

01:42:07.220 the government. But again, it hasn't happened yet. It seems like we're balancing everything on a

01:42:13.920 pinhead right now, but nothing's collapsing yet. But what do you mean by collapsing? Do you want

01:42:19.360 to be more precise about that? Yeah, I just guess I would, you know, quite often when we see a true

01:42:25.160 economic catastrophe come it'll start slowly but then just suddenly snowball uh and and i haven't

01:42:30.800 seen that happen anywhere and that's fine i don't mind not seeing this happen yeah but as we say

01:42:36.920 we're pretty confident that the current course is unsustainable but that's nobody's changing course

01:42:41.540 yet so what have we got to look forward to yeah cory it's an important point you make because

01:42:47.040 many people seem to think that in these crisis-ridden countries such as venezuela or

01:42:53.560 argentina or zimbabwe yeah that just hyperinflation arrived very quickly that's a that's a

01:43:00.860 misunderstanding all those countries prior to having hyperinflation or argentina did not have

01:43:06.920 hyperinflation but they just have they've had very high inflation they had basically double

01:43:11.620 digit inflation for years prior so if if canada or the u.s were to go to serious inflation let's

01:43:20.060 say more than 100 per year or more than 50 per year that would be unprecedented right because

01:43:25.780 they've had such stable price they've had such stable prices in recent times

01:43:29.020 you're muted uh my uh it's starting to rain here i'm in i'm in taxes outside and it's

01:43:42.300 rates rating so yeah i see that oh you know so you can get somewhere right well well no but

01:43:50.380 but basically the point is that uh we're getting okay i got your sound i got it i got to run i

01:44:01.980 got it well i will run it is raining here but no glory what i put put it just making that that we

01:44:07.740 We can expect a higher inflation, but not some kind of explosive catastrophe.

01:44:12.580 It'll happen more gradually.

01:44:14.400 All right.

01:44:14.740 Thank you, Fergus.

01:44:15.920 You can find more of your stuff on the Epoch Times.

01:44:20.220 And where else was that?

01:44:21.280 Econ Americas?

01:44:22.920 Econamericas.com.

01:44:24.160 Econamericas.com.

01:44:25.040 I'm sorry about the rain.

01:44:27.600 Corey, I'm going to come back on in future with a clearer connection.

01:44:31.360 Absolutely.

01:44:32.540 All right.

01:44:32.840 Thank you very much.

01:44:33.700 I'll talk to you later.

01:44:34.260 Bye-bye.

01:44:37.740 so there's some of the fun of having a live broadcast going on and the user-friendly nature

01:44:45.260 of our platform where you know somebody can log in and come on as a guest from anywhere and outdoors

01:44:50.620 i'm sure nine out of ten times down there will uh work perfectly but the the rainstorm decided to

01:44:56.460 to interrupt fergus this time around but i mean it was an interesting conversation and i mean

01:45:01.020 there's just a lot it's a complicated field i don't understand enough about it uh so i mean

01:45:06.620 it's mysterious and and we worry about where where things are going and where they might end up

01:45:11.260 uh so far kind of so good so i mean that much is good but we still have to be careful and as i was

01:45:19.900 kind of saying towards the end we're still moving on that path of just borrowing and spending and

01:45:24.620 it just seems it has to come to an end at some point but as fergus was saying i mean this

01:45:28.700 inflation takes a period of time to build up and we haven't had that double digit inflation leading

01:45:33.820 up to this. So maybe it's going to pass on. I mean, among this crazy times of us learning all

01:45:39.160 sorts of hard lessons, we're learning that economics in a crisis don't, you know, what we'd

01:45:43.780 accepted as monetary policy wasn't necessarily as accurate as we thought. I still don't feel

01:45:51.440 comfortable having governments borrowing and spending as much as they are to deal with the

01:45:54.560 crisis we're under. It just defies common sense that it can last much longer. But so far it's

01:46:00.840 held out. So that's enough for today. You know, on Monday, I'm going to be having Spencer Fernando

01:46:07.460 coming on and Clinton DeVoe, and we're going to talk federal issues for the day, party stuff. If

01:46:14.340 you're into partisan sorts of things, that's going to be the day for it, particularly. Yeah,

01:46:19.100 I'm afraid it's going to be rough on O'Toole again, but as for my rant, when I opened this

01:46:23.220 show up, he's deserving it right now. It's going to be an interesting weekend. Maybe we'll see some

01:46:26.900 some other politicos and elected people in that party speaking up. As I said, it was quite striking

01:46:33.060 that apparently O'Toole dumped his carbon tax idea into the media and members of parliament found out

01:46:39.800 about it from CBC rather than actually hearing it from their own party or leadership. This is

01:46:43.740 this is not bode well, again, especially when we've probably got an election coming

01:46:47.860 very soon. So be sure to come in on Monday. We've also got through the week, you know,

01:46:52.560 Nathan Aguida. He's out of Prince George. He's been doing that show on Tuesdays, Wednesdays,

01:46:57.160 and Thursdays from 10 till noon. You know, we're building this platform. I got to get my tech

01:47:02.240 issues a little better at the sound and try and find a spot with better internet speed. We're

01:47:06.820 getting to it, but I appreciate everybody tuning in. You know, we get some great conversations on

01:47:11.120 here, some great comments from some people. Be sure to subscribe to the YouTube, the Facebook.

01:47:15.420 We do specials at times. Things just pop up and we put them out there. And of course, subscribe

01:47:20.140 the western standard online if you can it's uh you know keeps us rolling gives us a steady base of

01:47:26.060 of support so that we can keep producing things getting the word out there putting the pressure

01:47:30.460 on in the right ways you got guest ideas uh send them on to me you know you can find me on twitter

01:47:35.420 cory b morgan uh facebook lots of people follow me on there and uh yeah we'll just keep going on

01:47:41.900 with these shows discussing these issues going places that the conventional media is not going

01:47:45.580 to god knows talk radio is unlistenable these days so i mean this is a different area plus you

01:47:50.220 can download this the audio alone to listen to at your leisure at another time so thanks again

01:47:56.940 and i thank my guests and i will rant at you all on monday

Western Standard - April 17, 2021

The Cory Morgan Show. April 16, 2021

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