Western Standard - The Cory Morgan Show： Death, Taxes and a Maverick

00:00:00.000 Welcome to the Cory Morgan Show. It's election time. Always lots to go on about rant and rave

00:00:12.720 about. I've got a couple of great guests on today. Tarek Elnega, he's running for the Maverick Party

00:00:18.200 up in Airdrie, as is every right of center party alternative. It's quite a hot race developing up 1.00

00:00:25.400 there. He sits down with me in studio for a good chat about how things are going up there. And I'll

00:00:30.520 also have Franco Teresano from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. The Liberals finally released

00:00:35.200 their full platform today. Unsurprisingly, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation is not terribly

00:00:40.920 impressed with it, nor should most voters be. To start with, though, you know, this show's really

00:00:45.840 coming along. We're getting some great equipment, great production out of James. You know, you can

00:00:50.540 look at my pretty face and more clear pictures and such. Thanks to these things. And that's thanks

00:00:55.800 to subscribers and members who've been coming on to Western Standard Online, taking out a membership

00:01:01.600 and supporting us so we can keep producing this content for you. The subscriptions have been going

00:01:05.920 fantastic. Give it a try. There's a free trial. There's all sorts of columns, all sorts of original

00:01:11.160 news content, stuff that's breaking. Get in there, take out a subscription. I assure you, after the trial

00:01:17.080 period ends, you're going to carry on with it. It's a great value for your dollars. So I'm going

00:01:21.960 to start something non-election, but something that's still just on the top of everybody's minds

00:01:25.700 lately. Yes, the pandemic's going wild again. We're back in the fourth wave. NDP activist Joe

00:01:32.900 Vipond is all over the news again, calling for massive lockdowns, shutdowns, locking people up,

00:01:37.880 masking people up, shutting businesses down, the usual load of crap. At the same time, something that

00:01:42.600 hasn't made nearly as much news has been Australia has given up on their COVID zero policy. The one

00:01:49.380 that everybody kept talking to, this is the way we should do it. This is how we should do it.

00:01:53.080 Australia for 18 months, more than 18 months now, has basically imprisoned their citizenship. They've

00:01:58.780 had whole states go into lockdown over single cases of COVID. Now the cases of COVID are still

00:02:05.560 erupting. They're in the thousands and they're realizing we just can't contain this thing.

00:02:11.720 And it turns out that due to all this containment effort, Australia has one of the lowest vaccination

00:02:16.380 rates on the planet. So they've castrated their economy. They've locked their people up and they're

00:02:21.560 in no better condition than anybody else in the rest of the world as far as this pandemic goes.

00:02:26.000 Lockdowns are not the way to go. And as much as people are calling for them, we've got people in

00:02:29.860 City Hall in Calgary ranting and raving leftist mayoral candidates and such. Again, saying the

00:02:35.380 city should intervene because Jason Kenney hasn't jumped out and locked everybody up yet in the light

00:02:40.160 of rising cases. Look at places with strong restrictions versus non-strong restrictions.

00:02:49.040 You know, mask mandates, lockdown, social distancing, all that garbage versus places that don't have all

00:02:54.160 that in place. You know what? The curves look just the same. It's an indication of that

00:02:59.460 vanity we have, I think, as humans, particularly in government, to think that we can just legislate

00:03:04.660 our way out of a problem. If we can just crack down hard enough, we'll make that virus go away.

00:03:09.900 We can't. It failed. Australia showed that. We've got to live with this thing. We've got to figure

00:03:16.480 out how to deal with it. Kids are going back to school today and they're hearing the fear

00:03:19.400 mongers going on. I listened to one ass clown on the radio going on saying every single death 1.00

00:03:24.460 is going to have to be laid at Jason Kenney's feet. Well, okay. You know, I don't think Jason

00:03:30.600 Kenney's going to lose sleep over that. So keep in mind if you're sending your kids back to school

00:03:35.520 today or this week or this month, the odds of somebody under 19 dying of COVID, we have 18 months

00:03:41.240 of evidence now. Odds of a kid under 19 dying of COVID are lower than the odds of dying of a shark

00:03:47.960 attack swimming in the Bow River because it's zero. This plague, this thing that has put the world on

00:03:53.660 hold for this long in a province of 4.6 million people has only killed, which is terrible. You know,

00:04:02.460 I don't want to understate that, but we're talking just a bit over 2,000 people. This is, guys,

00:04:07.680 this is not as big a deal as we're making it out to be. It is a big deal, but we're exaggerating it

00:04:13.560 and a response is so grossly overblown at such a cost. And of those thousands who died, it's well

00:04:20.720 established. The vast majority of them were over 80 and they had preexisting conditions. This is a

00:04:25.840 disease that we should be thankful for that leaves our kids alone. Remember, zero children died. They've

00:04:31.340 got a better chance of being abducted by aliens and probed to death than dying of COVID. And it tends

00:04:38.140 to basically kill the already dying. The Delta variant apparently spreads more, but it doesn't

00:04:44.080 necessarily have outcomes that are much worse. And I'm not one of those people saying that the

00:04:47.340 pandemic doesn't exist or that we should do nothing, but the overreactions aren't doing anything

00:04:51.720 either. So let's try a reasoned approach. I know that's a crazy thing to ask for. Well, let's drop the

00:04:57.480 hysteria, drop the partisanship, take a close look at the stats. The stats are in now. It's not like March of

00:05:03.240 2020 when we really didn't know what we were facing. We've got a pretty good idea of what this thing is now.

00:05:08.140 We're not sure how to defeat it. We don't know if we'll ever defeat it, but we know a lot of things

00:05:12.200 that don't work. And these lockdowns and all that, they don't. You know, and listen to these fools. I

00:05:16.680 mean, I got some people really misinterpreted. Twitter's a tough place to put that out. But you know, they

00:05:20.960 talk about, you see, we have this rolling lockdowns up and down. It's bad for business. It's not. But what

00:05:25.980 they're saying is we should have just been locked down all the way through and it wouldn't have been

00:05:28.700 bad. What do you mean? You know, at least for having our businesses open for periods during the

00:05:34.140 summer and hopefully open as long as possible was better than nothing. It got them some revenue.

00:05:39.220 It got people out of their homes. And I'm sorry, but it wouldn't have mattered if we stayed shut down

00:05:43.880 because this fourth wave was coming anyway. The stats are showing that. The places that keep

00:05:47.840 restricted aren't doing any better. So we just have to face that. Now, I do have to speak now again,

00:05:56.720 you know, not just our subscribers who help us out and keep us rolling here, but our sponsors as

00:06:04.280 well. You know, we're not getting money from the government. We get money from advertisers and

00:06:07.560 subscribers. So the CCFR, the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights, they've been a sponsor for us

00:06:13.700 for quite some time. And we've got to remember this election, you know, you heard all those ads

00:06:17.020 before it started. The Liberals were patting themselves on the back for legalizing all sorts of

00:06:21.820 perfectly legal firearms, even including paint guns and things such as that. Well, the CCFR is taking

00:06:28.020 the government to court on your behalf and pushing back because we got to stand up for our rights or

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00:06:39.240 them out, firearmright.ca and check out why join. And you'll see why you should be supporting these

00:06:46.600 great sponsors, what they're doing for you and how it helps you out. Now I'll get on to my next guest,

00:06:51.180 Franco Teresano. He came on, he's in Ottawa now. He's the national director for the Canadian

00:06:55.600 Taxpayers Federation. He's going to talk to me for a little while about the, well, where every party's

00:07:01.300 standing on potentially paying down the debt and the Liberal release of their full platform today.

00:07:08.860 All right. Welcome back to the show, Franco, all the way from Ottawa. You're still surviving your

00:07:14.000 movement into the center of the cesspool there. Busy political day. The Liberals finally released

00:07:20.800 their platform and I saw the Taxpayers Federation's release on it. It sounds like you're not terribly

00:07:25.840 happy with where they're going. No, we're not happy. I mean, all we're hearing from the Liberals

00:07:29.780 is borrowing more money, spending more money, but we're not hearing a peep from the Liberals on when

00:07:34.020 they're going to balance the budget. And Corey, remember in 2015, when Trudeau was first running

00:07:38.380 for prime minister, he told us he would balance the budget in 2019. Well, he missed that by a country

00:07:43.460 mile. Instead, he ran up big deficits. And in this platform, we don't see even one reference to when

00:07:51.480 the Liberal Party would balance the budget. I think right now, taxpayers have every right to be

00:07:56.360 concerned that the Liberal Party may never balance the budget. Well, and I mean, eventually, I would

00:08:03.980 think you'd have to set a goal or a plan or even play lip service to it, but they aren't even trying,

00:08:07.980 are they? No, they're not. They're not paying even lip service to balancing the budget. I mean,

00:08:11.820 really what we're hearing from the Liberal Party only is that they want to keep the debt to GDP

00:08:17.560 ratio constrained and moving downward, right? But even at the Liberal Party's own platform,

00:08:24.100 the debt to GDP ratio is moving down slightly, but it's still well above the ratio that it was

00:08:30.320 pre-pandemic, right? So we are still very concerned about that. And here's essentially what the Liberal

00:08:35.700 Party is doing. They're essentially betting the farm that the economy will constrain the debt problem,

00:08:41.540 but Corey, but what happens if reality isn't that rosy, right? What happens if Canada stumbles

00:08:46.240 into another downturn, even after COVID-19? What happens if interest rates spike? Right now,

00:08:51.640 what the Liberal Party is doing is extremely reckless with even more borrowed spending,

00:08:58.280 and they don't want to get off the runaway spending train.

00:09:01.020 Yeah, well, we just saw a report, I believe it was yesterday that came out that the second quarter

00:09:04.840 in Canada actually showed economic contraction, contrary to what all the economists have been predicting.

00:09:10.020 So I mean, betting the farm, as you said, on economic growth is kind of a pretty risky play

00:09:13.940 right now.

00:09:14.980 Yeah, and here's the thing is that we're not seeing anywhere from the Liberal platform or the

00:09:19.340 Liberals in general, just where they're actually going to reduce some spending and save some money,

00:09:23.640 right? Instead, in this Liberal platform, we are seeing $78 billion worth of new spending. And

00:09:30.060 Corey, the thing that we have to remember is that even before COVID-19, the federal government was

00:09:34.900 spending all-time highs. Now, let me just rephrase that. In 2018, before the pandemic,

00:09:40.980 the federal government spent more in that year than it ever did in any single year during World

00:09:46.500 War II. And yes, that's even after accounting for inflation and population growth. So it's

00:09:51.340 absolutely mind-boggling just the level of spending that was going on before COVID-19. Now we're seeing

00:09:56.960 billions of dollars in new borrowed spending with absolutely no plans from the Liberal government

00:10:01.140 on how to pay for it, or if they're ever going to balance the budget.

00:10:05.040 Yeah, it's definitely worth noting, you know, we can't just blame everything on COVID. This trend

00:10:08.820 was happening before the pandemic slammed us and changed everything. And we can't keep spending with

00:10:14.200 these levels of COVID spending forever. I mean, at some point, we got to start backing off.

00:10:18.920 Yeah, and there's a few reasons why we have to. I mean, first, I think one of the key issues in this

00:10:22.940 election, as it should be, is the cost of living, right? It seems like the cost of living is always going

00:10:27.720 up. Well, taxes play a huge part of that. But we should also be worried about the type of

00:10:31.120 tax burden we're going to be facing in the future, right? And that comes right back down

00:10:34.960 to the government debt. The federal government is already more than a trillion dollars in debt,

00:10:38.880 which means that each Canadian owes about $29,000 in federal government debt, right? And that one way

00:10:45.680 or another will have to come from taxpayers if these politicians don't tighten their belts, whether

00:10:49.360 that's through taxes today, taxes tomorrow, or the inflation tax. But Corey, here's where it gets

00:10:54.320 really scary. The parliamentary budget officer, they project that under the Trudeau government status quo,

00:11:00.640 we wouldn't see a balanced budget until 2070. And that was even before all of this new additional

00:11:08.220 spending we're seeing from the Liberal Party. And if that status quo were to happen, where we don't

00:11:13.000 see a balanced budget until 2070, the debt per person would rise to $67,000. So just think of the

00:11:21.300 type of Canada and the type of government bills that we're going to be leaving to the next generation,

00:11:25.720 if this Liberal government or whoever is the next government doesn't actually rein in the spending.

00:11:30.880 Yeah, we talk about how it's impossible for young people to save enough for a down payment to buy a

00:11:34.640 home. But when they're already carrying, and will be carrying down the road over $60,000 in debt each

00:11:40.120 on their heads, it's a little hard to build some equity in much of anything else.

00:11:44.080 Yeah, no kidding. I mean, even during COVID-19, even during the pandemic, the average Canadian family

00:11:48.780 paid about 36% of its budget to taxes, right? Think of all the taxes that we're paying income tax,

00:11:54.260 sales tax, property tax, fuel tax, carbon tax, right? And the tax burden for the average family,

00:12:00.380 even during COVID-19 was more than what the family spent on the necessities like food, housing,

00:12:06.980 and clothing combined. Well, I mean, we know where the Liberals are, it took them a while to release

00:12:12.980 what they had for a budget and spending plan. What are the other parties laying out for in light of

00:12:19.100 our economy and our debt? Yeah, well, let's start with the the new Democrats. Let's start with the

00:12:22.900 NDP. So they released their platform commitments even before the election really got underway.

00:12:27.300 And what we see from the NDP is taxes here, taxes there, taxes everywhere, right? That's all it looks

00:12:32.120 like they're trying to do is raise taxes, they're going to be raising income taxes, raising business taxes, 0.71

00:12:36.980 they want to put in a wealth tax, they want to put in a so-called excess profits tax, and there's some

00:12:41.860 other taxes that they're talking about. But Corey, even with all of these tax increases, they would

00:12:46.740 still have no idea how they're going to balance the budget. Absolutely no idea how they're going to

00:12:51.380 balance the budget. And the NDP, they're trying to sell Canadians like, hey, don't worry about these

00:12:56.420 tax increases, just going to be businesses or the wealthy who end up paying for it. But the truth of

00:13:01.460 the matter is that it's going to be everyday Canadians who pay for the NDP's tax hikes,

00:13:06.980 as we go to the till and face higher prices, or we face less job opportunities because of all these

00:13:12.900 different types of business taxes. Yeah, well, those Robin Hood approaches of tax the rich and

00:13:18.100 playing the politics of envy. I mean, it's nothing new. It's kind of true to the way the NDP are

00:13:22.660 anyways. But wealth taxes have been tried in a whole number of nations over the years, and almost

00:13:26.820 always the country ends up reversing it because it doesn't bring them the revenue they found.

00:13:30.900 And it does more damage to the economy than it's worth.

00:13:33.540 Yeah, that's exactly correct. I mean, I think the prime example there of what not to do

00:13:38.020 happened in France, right? Fortunately, they eventually reversed course and repealed the

00:13:42.340 wealth tax. And the reason they ended up saying no to the wealth tax is because well, it chased away

00:13:47.620 many residents and it chased away billions and billions of dollars in assets. And Cory, I think all of

00:13:52.180 us have economic recovery top of mind, right? We all want to get the economy firing on all cylinders

00:13:57.540 again. Well, I think the worst possible thing that we can do in a situation, especially right now,

00:14:02.100 is to be taxing more assets out of our economy.

00:14:05.460 Yeah, well, and those big businesses and those corporations that the NDP don't like,

00:14:09.860 they are the drivers of the economy and the employers of our people on the ground in reality.

00:14:13.860 Yeah, that's right. And also, I mean, I know a lot of your viewers are in Alberta. Well,

00:14:18.660 remember what happened when the NDP in Alberta raised business taxes? There's a famous study

00:14:22.980 from the University of Calgary that said, well, it ended up costing the two-income household hundreds

00:14:28.740 of dollars in lower wages. And of course, look, there's only so much blood that you can draw from

00:14:33.300 a stone, right? And another thing that we have to consider as well is, well, hey, what if we lose

00:14:38.260 out on the investment that just never comes to Canada because higher taxes are chasing those

00:14:43.380 businesses, those entrepreneurs, and that talent away?

00:14:46.180 Yeah, and we are turning into a bit of an investment pariah as it is with some of our

00:14:49.540 anti-energy policies. With bringing up Alberta, it reminds me also of going farther back to the Ed

00:14:54.740 Stelmac government when they even mused about raising royalties and they went under the assumption

00:14:59.220 the oil companies will never leave. Those companies were starting to pull out as soon as they even

00:15:02.500 heard about it.

00:15:03.940 Yeah, well, I mean, look, these businesses, and rightfully so, they're going to go for greener

00:15:08.660 pastures, right? If they're looking about where they can maximize the returns, well, guess what?

00:15:13.380 Taxes and the regulatory environment plays a huge role into that.

00:15:18.420 So of the big three parties, the Conservatives are providing a bastion of fiscal reality and a clear

00:15:24.340 path to quick balanced budgets, right?

00:15:26.340 Well, I mean, I guess, like, let's give them a little bit of kudos. They're the only party who's

00:15:32.260 actually talking about balancing the budget. The only major party of those three parties. But

00:15:38.900 unfortunately, I mean, even though O'Toole says his Conservatives will balance the budget within a

00:15:43.220 decade, it's not a credible plan. It doesn't have targets where they're actually going to

00:15:48.180 meet the deficit reduction. It barely includes any ways that the Conservative government would find

00:15:55.140 savings, and it's not even costed. So essentially, Corey, what O'Toole is saying is,

00:15:59.220 hey, trust us, and in a decade, we'll have done something good.

00:16:03.220 Yeah, I read the Conservatives' press release on that the other day. It was just kind of like five

00:16:08.500 buzzword-laden statements in a row, but no specifics whatsoever on how they're going to

00:16:12.900 achieve any of those things. They're just saying, we're going to balance it, and we're going to

00:16:16.420 somehow stimulate the economy in order to do it.

00:16:18.340 Yeah, they released a balanced budget plan, but forgot their balanced budget plan.

00:16:24.500 That is unfortunate. I mean, I know detail is difficult, but maybe we could help along with

00:16:28.660 it. You've laid out things before for us. Because that's the thing that Conservatives are afraid of.

00:16:33.540 Nobody wants to admit that we need to cut somewhere, but that's just the reality. So where can we cut?

00:16:39.860 Yeah, well, we absolutely do need to. There absolutely are places that we need to find savings.

00:16:44.020 And you know what? I remember before April 1. On April 1 is when members of parliament all get

00:16:50.980 pay raises. I remember going back and forth with members of parliament from all different parties,

00:16:55.140 and one of the things I heard was that they agreed that members of parliament should not be pocketing

00:17:00.260 pay raises during COVID-19. But Corey, what happened? All of our members of parliament took not one,

00:17:05.860 but two pay raises while millions of Canadians struggled through the lockdowns and the pandemic.

00:17:10.980 Well, this platform would have been the perfect opportunity for the Conservatives to say, hey,

00:17:14.900 when we're in government, we're going to reverse these pandemic politician pay raises. But Corey,

00:17:20.180 do you see that in the Conservative platform? I sure don't. And let me just dive into just the lack

00:17:27.220 of savings that are in this Conservative Party platform. Really, there's only two ways that we're

00:17:31.860 seeing where they're going to find savings. They say they're going to end the $600 million media

00:17:35.380 bailout. Okay, good stuff there. And then they say that they're going to make the bureaucrats do more

00:17:41.380 working remotely. So essentially, that's it. That's the plan to balance the budget, right? One Zoom call

00:17:47.140 at a time. So I mean, look, you do have to give kudos for the Conservative Party for at least talking

00:17:53.380 about balancing the budget and saying, hey, we want to balance the budget by this day, which is 10 years,

00:17:57.540 a decade from now. But I mean, when you really look at it, the O'Toole plan is very similar to the

00:18:02.900 Trudeau plan in the sense that they want to rely on economic growth, right? But what happens if

00:18:08.580 reality isn't as rosy as we've already discussed? Will the O'Toole Conservatives eventually find some

00:18:13.940 places to save some money? Or are they just going to let the debt balloon?

00:18:18.740 Well, and as you pointed out, you'd think it'd almost be safe ground for O'Toole to say, look,

00:18:23.380 we'll take a haircut ourselves. We're members of Parliament. We're paid very well. We got a fantastic

00:18:27.860 pension. We can lead by example. We know it's only a drop in the debt bucket, but we'll take our cut.

00:18:32.740 And at least for one, it sells well with voters. But for another, it tells us they'll have the

00:18:37.380 higher ground when they start to ask for cuts down the road. And if they aren't willing to

00:18:41.220 even take that on themselves, though, then I don't think they might have appetite for making any

00:18:45.460 savings pursuit if and when they win office. Well, you hit the nail on the head right there,

00:18:51.620 Corey. And even more importantly about them having the will, it's, well, are they going to have the

00:18:55.940 moral authority to go to the bureaucracy and to the departments and ask them to find some savings,

00:19:01.140 right? It's going to be real difficult for a politician to ask their bureaucrats to take a 5%,

00:19:06.100 10% pay cut when the politicians themselves just pocketed two pay raises during the pandemic.

00:19:12.900 Yeah. So, well, you're going to be keeping on for the course of this campaign. What's the

00:19:18.740 Taxpayers Federation up to in the next couple of weeks? Well, we're going to continue to hold these

00:19:22.740 politicians feet to the fire. And look, I think right now is an election. It's the perfect time

00:19:28.420 for Canadians to actually ask some tough questions, right? Because a lot of times politicians want to

00:19:32.740 politic. They're at a press conference. They don't want to always answer the straight questions,

00:19:37.940 right? But now they actually have to come knocking on our doors and asking us for our vote. So now it's

00:19:42.180 time for us to put some very tough but crucial questions to the politicians, Corey. And I think

00:19:46.900 all Canadians who are concerned about the state of our finances have really three questions they need to

00:19:51.060 be asking politicians. The first one is, what are you going to do about the $1 trillion federal debt?

00:19:56.580 The second one is, where are you going to find some savings in this bloated budget?

00:20:00.980 And the third question I think has to be, are you going to raise my taxes to pay for all of this

00:20:06.180 overspending? Well, thank you guys for asking those questions. It seems nobody else is and forcing

00:20:12.740 these guys to at least address those issues, hopefully down the road. Where can we find more

00:20:17.380 information on what you're doing? Well, please check out taxpayer.com. We've got a newsroom

00:20:22.180 there with all of our articles and news releases. We also have petitions that you can sign. So please

00:20:26.260 do share that with your friends and family as well, but also check us out on social media and

00:20:30.020 Facebook. Easy to find there. Just search Canadian Taxpayers Federation. Right on. Well, thanks for

00:20:35.460 joining us again and bringing us up to date, Franco. I'm certain we'll be talking again soon. Keep up the

00:20:40.100 good fight out there. Hey, my pleasure. Thanks for having me on, Corey.

00:20:43.060 All right. Well, there we have it from Franco. If you're a fiscal hawk, if you're expecting balanced

00:20:51.620 budgets, if you're looking for responsible federal spending, I'm afraid you don't have a lot to look

00:20:56.420 forward to. We do have alternative parties though, and I'll be introducing one in a moment. But actually,

00:21:01.380 I want to also speak to and thank our other sponsor today, and that's the Resistance Coffee Company.

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00:22:00.180 resistancecoffee.com. They're our sponsor. Now, my next guest is Tariq Elnega. And he's a

00:22:07.140 very interesting young fella. He's out running for the Maverick Party in Banff Airdrie, you know,

00:22:12.580 and that's been a really hotly consistent little spot. It never really has been historically. I mean,

00:22:17.220 it's just a massive conservative stronghold, but now it's turning into the focal point for the Maverick

00:22:22.660 Party for Maxime Bernier's PPC. He's already been there. He's probably going to be making another

00:22:26.660 appearance there. And Derek Sloan has jumped out of the woodworks and parachuted in from Ontario,

00:22:31.300 and he's running out there. Not to mention a few other candidates. They've actually got nine

00:22:34.580 candidates running there. So they're putting everything they can into it, though, and it's

00:22:38.820 an interesting one to watch. I think some of these new parties might be able to make a mark and really

00:22:43.140 make an impression on some voters. So I had a fantastic conversation with Tariq, and he lays out

00:22:48.820 why he's campaigning and what he's looking to accomplish. All right. Well, thank you for joining us in the

00:22:53.540 studios here, Tariq. We're getting more and more people coming in as we expand, and I know it's

00:22:58.420 busy during campaign time. We appreciate you taking a break to come out and speak with us.

00:23:03.140 Thanks for having me in the studio. Thanks, Corey. No problem. So before we get deeper into your race,

00:23:08.180 we'll find out a little bit more about you, though. So what has drawn you? I mean, it takes a certain

00:23:12.260 kind of masochism to want to go into the political arena and run for office, but there's usually a good

00:23:17.940 reason the person feels driven and feels that they're going to contribute something towards that. So why have you

00:23:22.340 decided to run in Banff, Tariq? You bet. So I live in the writing, and I've lived there for well over

00:23:28.340 nine years, and the Western way of life has really attracted me. And I found over the last year or two,

00:23:36.260 I found myself being pretty frustrated, obviously with Justin Trudeau, but also a complete lack of

00:23:41.940 representation on the conservative side. And I told myself, you know what, I could keep complaining,

00:23:47.060 I could keep posting on Facebook how upset I was, but that wasn't going to change the situation. And

00:23:52.500 one morning, I told myself, you know, I need to engage within the system or just shut up. And I told

00:23:58.340 myself, no, I've got to have to be, I have to be engaged. Yeah, well, and regionalism is certainly

00:24:03.060 familiar territory for me, and the frustrations with our system and Ottawa and such. And that's a lot of

00:24:08.180 what Maverick was formed to address. But there has been recently some ambiguity from your leader,

00:24:13.220 Jay Hill. I mean, is the party considering secession as an alternative down the road? Or is this

00:24:18.340 an albatross? Is this a problem? No, it's not a problem in any way. I think our foundation as a

00:24:24.340 party is laid out very well is our two tracks. So first track is to bring back provincial autonomy to

00:24:30.500 the West. And that lays the proper foundation for independence. And then based on what not just our

00:24:37.940 members say, but based on Western Canadians say, it's not what Tarek says, if Western Canadians want

00:24:42.660 independence, then we will push for independence. It's not something I'm afraid of.

00:24:46.660 Yeah, no, I understand that. It's something I've talked about in the past, too, is like,

00:24:50.420 if you with the separation party of Alberta, that was kind of an attempt actually almost 20 years ago,

00:24:54.660 right? Well, we're gonna be fully in your face. There's no bones, no doubt about it. This is all

00:24:58.740 we're about. This is what we're gonna pursue. And they got annihilated. It's people are looking at

00:25:04.980 independence, they're considering these things is certainly growing, but it's not at that point of

00:25:08.900 being in your face. But I mean, to rule it out would also be well, we're just another

00:25:12.020 South party. Exactly. So no, we're not ruling it out in any way. And we are very much in favor of

00:25:21.060 it. But the right way to do it and to bring really both folds is you have Western Canadians who want

00:25:27.300 their voice represented in Ottawa and want provincial autonomy because, well, I mean, today's pretty

00:25:32.180 appropriate. Today's Alberta's birthday, right? And 116 years, we've been almost a colony of Eastern

00:25:38.020 Canada with our resources being taken. But now our money gets taken, but not our resources.

00:25:44.100 So I look at it and I say, the first step is to now bring back provincial autonomy, manage your own

00:25:49.380 money, be a voice that is exclusively Western. And if that is not enough, then a push for independence

00:25:56.260 would be the next logical step. And you're right, I've met people at my town halls where

00:26:00.820 they are for, like, they tell me, let's go separate tomorrow. And that's all right. And then

00:26:07.300 there are members who say, you know what, we're still attached to the Maple Leaf, but we have no

00:26:12.660 attachment to Ottawa. So get us out of Ottawa. So you see both sides of the party.

00:26:18.740 Yeah, well, and people still feel a strong connection with the nation, with its history,

00:26:22.660 and they have family across. I mean, it's not as cut and dry. And I know from decades of working in it,

00:26:26.660 but I personally, I mean, I just feel the system is broken too, and we're going to eventually end up

00:26:30.500 there perhaps. But so I mean, to go beyond that, then you've got a quite a diversity of candidates

00:26:35.940 going on in your writing, which is unusual. The Conservatives won with over 71% support in the

00:26:40.980 last election in 2019. It's definitely solid Conservative territory. But now there's nine

00:26:46.660 candidates vying for it. I mean, we don't see this very often in a general election, particularly when

00:26:51.620 there's such a strong incumbent. Absolutely. So I'll say this first,

00:26:55.940 to start, that's the beauty of a democracy. And I'll always want to celebrate that,

00:27:00.100 because I'd rather you had nine options than one. Right? So it's something to celebrate.

00:27:05.780 And the strategy is to tell you who is and what is the best option. Now, I know on the ballot,

00:27:10.820 the Maverick Party and myself, we're the only exclusively Western voice. And there are Conservative

00:27:16.820 options there, but they're all federal. And they all are running candidates in Quebec and Ontario.

00:27:23.620 We're not. Which means that our only master, if you will, that we answer to,

00:27:28.420 is the Western Canadian voter, and not someone in Quebec or Ontario that we have to pander to.

00:27:34.020 So Derek Sloan is one of those, he's running as an independent, he didn't get a party registered in

00:27:38.820 time. He did basically ask or demand almost that yourself and the PPC candidate and the others step

00:27:44.900 aside saying he's the only one capable of winning. I imagine you might have a response to that.

00:27:48.340 Right. So I'll say one, it's not how a democracy works. Right? So we all, I'd say, you know what,

00:27:55.860 if he wants to get into the competition and into the fight now on the ballot, great. The law allows

00:28:00.580 that. And prove to voters why he's the best option. But for any of us to step aside is not how a

00:28:06.900 democracy works. My job is to go out and give the Western voter the best reason why an exclusively Western

00:28:14.500 voice is the best for them. And, and I look at, you know, Derek Sloan and a number of other competing

00:28:21.380 parties as well, all of them right of center, still are running candidates on Ontario and Quebec. And

00:28:27.620 we're back to Eastern politicians telling us Westerners what to do. Yeah, well, and the PPC,

00:28:34.980 for example, they are running close to a full slate at this point. I look farther back though to Jay Hill,

00:28:40.580 and he was with the reform party. And eventually they morphed into the conservatives and we kind

00:28:44.500 of lost everything we'd built in the first place. But at the same time, Maxime Bernier said that Jay

00:28:50.340 Hill is a muppet for the conservative party. We're getting quite a little micro battle going on out

00:28:56.420 there in Airdrie. So I'll say this, I'm not one to call out names on any of my competitors. That's,

00:29:03.060 that's, that's, you know, childish. So I'm not one to call out names. And I truly look at,

00:29:08.020 um, and you talk to Jay and, and talk to a number of reform party members or former members rather,

00:29:14.580 and they'll tell you if there's one thing they would have done differently is never merge. Um,

00:29:18.900 and that's why we were saying this right out of the gate is the Maverick party will never merge with

00:29:24.500 an Eastern party, will never run candidates east of Manitoba because then we dilute a Western voice.

00:29:30.900 And, and that's where, that's where we're absolutely are. Now you're absolutely right.

00:29:34.900 The PPC are running candidates in, in Quebec and Ontario. And now the question I ask,

00:29:39.060 not just for the PPC, but for any party that runs, um, candidates east of, uh, of Ontario,

00:29:45.220 and we see this with the CPC right now, like I still see the strongest competition. And you mentioned

00:29:49.620 this, Corey is the CPC, uh, in the writing. It's not, uh, the PPC. It is not, uh, Derek Sloan,

00:29:56.900 but we've been voting for the, for the conservatives for well over 40 years in that writing. You're

00:30:01.380 absolutely right. Stronghold well over 70% of the vote. Now I look at, and I say in the last 14 days,

00:30:07.300 what concessions have Aaron O'Toole made to Quebec? Um, whether it is, um, pushing for single tax,

00:30:14.260 the single, single report tax return, a $75 million support for their heritage fund, a nine point

00:30:20.260 contract that gives them independence and autonomy on things like immigration, language rights,

00:30:25.540 et cetera. I'm like, well, where's Alberta's deal? Because what he did do was during Calgary

00:30:30.340 Stampede, he came by and said, I'll give you a $4 billion refund on your equalization. Well,

00:30:35.300 that's like me asking you, give me $20 and I'll give you four back. Um, and, um, on top of that,

00:30:41.300 and this was pretty shocking on Monday, he said, here's my climate plan, which includes a carbon tax.

00:30:47.620 Um, and anyone that doesn't agree with it is out of my caucus. Now, all of these concessions are done

00:30:53.220 because the system, it's 231 seats east of Manitoba and Manitoba West is 107 seats.

00:31:00.100 So you're going to have to pander there and any party on either side of the aisle that runs

00:31:04.580 candidates east of Manitoba is always going to have to pander to a Quebec voter and an Ontario voter,

00:31:10.900 whether they're conservative or whether they're liberal. Yeah. Well, and something for people,

00:31:15.700 I mean, I should point out that, you know, they'll say, well, what's the point of running for a party

00:31:18.980 that can't form government, but I will look back. The most fiscally conservative government we had

00:31:23.380 federally was the Jean Chrétien Liberals with a reform party breathing down their neck on the

00:31:27.540 right. Like, and there's no doubt that the Liberals were not that eager to balance the budget or cut

00:31:32.580 spending, but they had to answer to that voice of opposition that was pressuring and pushing. So

00:31:37.060 I just wanted to bring that up. Like it's, it's not a wasted vote to get somebody in,

00:31:40.420 in even if it's a party that doesn't form government. You're bang on. So I'll give you the easiest

00:31:44.340 real life today example is the Bloc Québécois. So there's 31 seats in the house today, 10% of the

00:31:50.340 house almost, is managed by a party that only cares about one province. And I remember Yves Blanchet in

00:31:57.220 the federal debate said, I'm never going to form government. I'm never going to become prime minister,

00:32:02.900 but I have one target. If it's good for Quebec, it's good for me. And I'll work with any of the four

00:32:06.900 of you. And he pointed at all the federal leaders and said that vote for the interests of Quebec. Well,

00:32:12.580 that's what the Maverick Party is looking at. We have one lens and the job and the premise is

00:32:16.260 incredibly uncomplicated and beautiful is if it's good for the West, it's good for us. And right now

00:32:22.500 we're not getting that representation from the CPC. We're a CPC stronghold in the West. We're their base

00:32:28.820 and they've said, well, you're going to vote for us anyway. And we're going to get your vote out of fear

00:32:34.260 rather than earning it. I look at now all the Western CPC MPs. They've been silent on the carbon tax.

00:32:39.620 They haven't been out campaigning. They haven't been out working hard. They have a couple of

00:32:43.780 pictures putting in signs on lawns and that's about it. But truly, have they spoken on exclusively

00:32:49.780 Western issues? They haven't because it comes at the detriment of their roles and it comes against

00:32:55.540 what their boss is saying and what Erin O'Toole is saying. So to your point, now the ideal scenario,

00:33:01.620 and I'll talk about this and we have gone on the record. I've said it online. Jay has said it and many of our

00:33:07.060 candidates have said it. It's the ideal scenario, statistically and realistically right now, as

00:33:11.540 much as I've been harping on Erin O'Toole, is there's only one of two prime ministers that we

00:33:16.660 could see in 21 days or in 20 days rather. Is it either Justin Trudeau, which we hope we don't,

00:33:23.380 or Erin O'Toole. But how powerful would it be for Erin O'Toole to become prime minister but have a 0.99

00:33:31.060 strong block of Western Maverick MPs that exclusively demand Western issues to be brought to the front

00:33:38.980 and Western autonomy, Western provincial autonomy to be brought to the front. If we hold that power

00:33:44.020 and say well you've got to go through us, like look at the power the Greens have with three seats,

00:33:48.260 right, or two now, right, and how much ink they get and so on. Can you imagine how powerful it would be

00:33:53.620 for a block of Mavericks to be the ones that say these are Western issues you want or support,

00:33:58.740 you have to address them. Things like scrapping a carbon tax, things like building an energy

00:34:03.940 corridor, would be immediate demands, day one demands that would exclusively benefit Western

00:34:09.060 Canada. Yeah well and you guys wouldn't be afraid of being whipped out of caucuses as the current

00:34:12.580 caucus is. Alberta is in an unfortunate situation where we've been taken for granted by the Conservatives

00:34:17.460 because we vote so strongly that way and ignored by the Liberals because they see it as a lost cause.

00:34:22.260 I worked on a couple of campaigns in years gone by for Conservative parties where I'd actually sit

00:34:26.900 working with demon dialers and it was actually dialing into Montreal ridings and Toronto ones

00:34:31.460 from Calgary because we want to use the volunteers here to try and win the the winnable seats out in

00:34:36.020 the east and I was just humiliating actually. You know what, I don't want to campaign out there,

00:34:40.580 I want to speak for here. I agree Corey and I mean speaking of being whipped out of caucus, well

00:34:45.860 the incumbent in our riding, Blake Richards, is the chief whip of the opposition. So I question,

00:34:52.580 where is his strongest loyalty? Is it to Aaron O'Toole's policies or is it to a Western constituent?

00:35:00.100 And the easiest example being on the carbon tax. He's been absolutely silent on the carbon tax and

00:35:06.100 and Aaron O'Toole's climate plan and we have four industries in our riding. Aviation, tourism, oil and

00:35:13.060 gas and agriculture. And if you look at all four of them, all four of them get a negative hit with a carbon

00:35:18.980 tax and puts them at a significant competitive disadvantage, not just oil and gas, but all the

00:35:24.820 other ones too. Where has he spoken up? Where have the rest of the Western CPC MPs spoken up

00:35:31.620 exclusively on Western issues? They've been silent, absolutely silent. Well, it'll be interesting to

00:35:37.860 see. I'm glad you're bringing, you know, those perspectives into a campaign that normally wouldn't

00:35:41.220 even have talked about it whatsoever. Not that Mr. Richards is such a bad person by any means, but he

00:35:47.460 would have happily, I'm sure, stayed at home and just let this run its course or help campaign in

00:35:50.740 the East. And you guys are making them work for it. And that that's the way a democracy is supposed

00:35:55.300 to work. Absolutely, Corey. So I will never ever on any of my competitors go after a character attack

00:36:00.500 or their personalities or family. That is always off limits. But I will always point out policy and

00:36:06.660 platform differences between what the Maverick Party is trying to do and what our competing parties are

00:36:12.180 trying to do. And the difference between us and them is we will exclusively, and I said it before,

00:36:16.260 we are exclusively a regional voice. Well, I'm sure you've got a lot of busy campaign to do. It's

00:36:21.300 a very localized race. You know, a lot of people are going to be watching it closely just because

00:36:24.580 it's become the focus of these alternative conservative parties. So what sort of events

00:36:29.940 have you got coming or where can people find more information about your campaign? Absolutely. So I'm on

00:36:34.020 all social media platforms. So I'm on Facebook, I'm on Twitter, I'm on Instagram. So just my name,

00:36:38.820 Tarek Elnega, and you'll find me there. The other thing as well is my campaign website,

00:36:44.100 VoteMaverick2021.ca is a great way to get that information. And speaking of events like this

00:36:50.020 evening, for example, September 1, it's pretty appropriate, we've got a large town hall that

00:36:54.100 we're doing in Cochrane. And we have a number of both in-person events, whether that's town hall,

00:37:02.100 we've got a rally in Cochrane on Main Street on September 4, which would be this Saturday. So we've

00:37:08.340 got quite a few events coming up here in the next little while. Great. Well, look forward and watch

00:37:13.220 with interest. I'm sure we'll be talking again soon. Likewise. Thanks for coming in. Thank you, Corey.

00:37:16.340 Thank you. Thank you very much. Thanks.

Western Standard - September 03, 2021

The Cory Morgan Show： Death, Taxes and a Maverick

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