The Cory Morgan Show - July 27, 2021
Episode Stats
Words per Minute
201.30505
Summary
On this episode of the Cory Morgan Show, we talk about the latest in the spread of the Ebola pandemic, and how to deal with it. We also talk about a new product from Resistance Coffee, and why you should support them!
Transcript
00:00:00.000
All right, welcome to the Cory Morgan Show. Another episode going in the bank during this
00:00:11.640
smoky July in Alberta. The reopening's carried on. We're all still alive. The infections are up,
00:00:17.100
but the hospitalizations and deaths are down. I think the world might be coming a little closer
00:00:20.980
to normal, which means we still got all the other problems to deal with that we've been putting off
00:00:24.960
since this pandemic began. But we've got a good platform for it, and it is coming along.
00:00:32.600
I've got to thank to start with our subscribers, our members, the people coming out. We are a media
00:00:38.240
source that doesn't get government funding. They're not offering us any money. We're not taking any
00:00:42.180
money. We rely on advertisers, and we rely on members and sponsors such as yourself. So if
00:00:48.140
you haven't subscribed on YouTube and Facebook, by the way, give it a like. Subscribe on there. If
00:00:52.660
you're listening on the podcast, throw a comment on there. It helps keep things rolling along and
00:00:57.020
get that traffic out and spread it out there so we can replace that rotten mainstream media that's
00:01:01.360
feeding you all that terrible news. And the Western Standard site itself, we've got some fantastic
00:01:06.440
stories, columns, things that break on there, exclusive content. Make sure to go to the
00:01:10.960
westernstandardonline.com slash membership and take out a membership. Subscribe. You get that content
00:01:17.640
unhindered, unrestricted. It's cheaper than the old newspaper subscriptions you used to get delivered to
00:01:21.580
your doorware all the time. You get some great news in there. It allows us to just keep producing that
00:01:25.960
good content and cutting through the BS that the mainstream media is feeding you all the time.
00:01:31.200
And if you haven't subscribed already, please by all means do so. And we're getting better equipment
00:01:35.660
so you're not dealing with those sound issues and headaches that I used to give you. And it makes
00:01:39.480
my sweet voice come through with all this political stuff a little better for your ears.
00:01:43.620
So also we rely on sponsors and we've got, you know, as you guys watch, we get more people
00:01:47.820
advertising. We've got some great ones. That's a fun thing with this because we've got some good
00:01:51.140
sponsors that fit Albertan needs and Western needs. Resistance Coffee. These are ones,
00:01:56.760
these guys are fun. ResistanceCoffee.com. These guys are providing a product that is outside of
00:02:03.840
the woke realm. You know, I mean, there's some of those companies you buy something and you find
00:02:07.260
out later that they took part of your purchases and gave it to some loony environmental group or
00:02:11.020
some other activists who are trying to shut you down or restrict your freedoms. Resistance Coffee
00:02:15.080
is the opposite and they make no bones about it. They'll take 10% of any of your purchases
00:02:19.160
and it goes towards causes and groups that fight for your individual rights, like the Justice
00:02:23.460
Center for Constitutional Freedoms who've been fighting and defending people such as Ty Northcott
00:02:28.960
who held that rodeo in Alberta and things such as that. So you can buy great coffee, get it delivered
00:02:33.740
to your door. A portion of that purchase goes towards those causes. Plus, if you go there and use the
00:02:40.360
promo code on your first purchase, there's a code box. If you put Western Standard all in one word
00:02:45.000
at ResistanceCoffee.com, you get 10% off on your first order. And I've ordered it. I've had the
00:02:50.680
coffee. I don't have to make it up and pretend that, you know, it's some sponsor that I like. It's
00:02:54.020
good coffee. You're not having to gag down some bad coffee just to make a political point. It's win-win
00:02:58.640
and they've got some great creative names. You know, you'll be drinking Liberal Tears. Black Gold is
00:03:02.900
their dark roast. Empty Promises is their decaf, you know. So make sure to go to ResistanceCoffee.com,
00:03:09.560
support those sponsors, check them out, get some coffee delivered to your house, support good
00:03:13.800
causes that are supporting your rights, and these guys help support us. The other ones that are
00:03:18.640
sponsoring us on this show is the CCFR, which is the Canadian Coalition for Firearm Rights.
00:03:24.500
And their site is firearmrights.ca. And these guys are out there doing the battle on the ground to make
00:03:30.580
sure you can retain your property, you can enjoy your firearms, you can use them however you please,
00:03:35.780
within reason, of course, which is what most of us do. We're law-abiding people. But the state's
00:03:40.680
trying to take those things away from you, and that battle is real. They've been trying for a long
00:03:44.400
time. Incrementally, orders in council, they're doing things to take away your right and ability
00:03:49.500
to have firearms. The CCFR is fighting back. In fact, they're suing the federal government on your
00:03:55.080
behalf. So if you go to firearmrights.ca, and if you click why join us, and they'll lay out all the
00:04:01.180
reasons, and what they're working on in order to stand up for you. So a little later now, getting
00:04:06.720
on to the show, I'm going to have Franco Tarizano on from the Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He's moved
00:04:11.280
out to Ottawa. He's the federal director now. It's a gain for him, a loss for Alberta, but there's lots
00:04:16.740
to talk about. Of course, he's into a much bigger spending cesspool to have to deal with out there.
00:04:20.920
And we're going to talk a little while on the federal debt, and just how insanely large it's getting,
00:04:26.180
and how long it's going to take to pay off. Getting closer to home, though. We've had
00:04:31.320
municipal issues going on. So Alberta, you know, one of the fixed election dates we have is municipal
00:04:35.520
elections. We got one coming up this fall. I believe it's October 18th that it's going to happen,
00:04:40.000
and it's been heating up. You know, and in Calgary in particular, we're going to have a new mayor no
00:04:45.440
matter what. Nenshi has said he's not running again. So we're all relieved with that. We know we're not
00:04:49.220
rid of the guy altogether. He's going to go somewhere else, but either way, at least he won't be our mayor
00:04:53.380
anymore. But now we got 20 people so far registered to run for mayor. Now, a handful of them are
00:05:00.400
complete lunatics. We don't really have to worry about them. They'll be lucky to bring in a half a
00:05:04.200
percent. A few others just aren't terribly serious, and they're not going to be up there. But there's
00:05:07.980
about half a dozen serious contenders, and that's a lot to dig through, and as a voter, to figure out
00:05:13.080
who you want to put in there. Plus, due to the number of councillors who are going for mayoral seats,
00:05:18.900
or other ones who are just stepping aside, we're going to get nine new councillors coming in out of 15
00:05:23.340
at least nine. I mean, if some of the incumbents get knocked off, it could be more. This is going
00:05:27.460
to be a turnover in the municipal government like we haven't seen in a generation. So it's really
00:05:31.980
important that we get the right people in. I mean, this can either go really, really well for us,
00:05:36.100
and we'll finally get a good municipal government in Calgary. God knows we needed one. Or we could
00:05:41.100
really get a bad gang of jokers in there. So I'm going to help you along. Out of all those 20,
00:05:45.940
I'm not going to list them and go through. I've interviewed a number of them, though, in the past. If you look on
00:05:49.740
the YouTube archives, you can see I've talked to Jeremy Farkas and Brad Field and Zane Novak.
00:05:54.820
I'm going to talk about a couple, though, that I'll tell you not to vote for. And I'll give you
00:05:58.820
the reasons for it. And they're pretty clear. Now, one that's standing out is Jeff Davison. Now,
00:06:04.900
Jeff was a municipal councillor. I can't remember which ward he was in. It's funny, he jumped back
00:06:10.540
and forth for months. You know, I'm going to run from air. I'm not going to run from air. I'm going to run
00:06:13.480
from air. I'm not going to run from air. The main thing was, it was because Nenshi was playing coy
00:06:16.740
as to whether or not he was going to run again. And finally, Nenshi said he wasn't going to,
00:06:21.380
Jeff jumped in. You know, the other part of the rumor was that Jeff's beady-eyed little buddy there,
00:06:26.840
Ward Sutherland, was going to step off and not run in for council again as well, because he would
00:06:33.200
hope to be Jeff's chief of staff in the city of Calgary, assuming Jeff becomes the mayor. So it was
00:06:39.680
an opportunity for Ward, and lo and behold, that rumor turned out to be true. I didn't really believe
00:06:43.080
that one so much. I didn't think they could be so foolish, but why should I keep overestimating
00:06:48.960
these politicians, particularly the municipal ones? So Ward and Jeff are on their way.
00:06:53.440
Now, what Jeff is, what he represents, you know, we've got problems that are coming into City Hall.
00:06:58.520
Jeff's of the old PC establishment, okay? The old gang, the old boys club. It truly is.
00:07:04.520
These are the ones that are always the insiders. They get the big contracts. They do the backroom
00:07:08.800
dealings. I mean, in his one term, Jeff Davison, his claim to fame was he was a part, an integral part,
00:07:16.480
of the arena deal, which was rushed through behind closed doors, very secretively, very hurriedly,
00:07:22.100
and now we're getting word a year later that they haven't even broken ground on it, and they're at
00:07:26.960
least $60 million over budget on this thing. That's his claim to fame, but you see, that's the kind of
00:07:31.980
backroom dealings the old boys like doing. There's a lot of contracts. There's a lot of lucre, and there's a lot
00:07:36.100
of great stuff that can be done out there if you can get the right people in power. Local government
00:07:40.340
is one of the ones that gets overlooked by us as voters way too much. These guys have a lot of
00:07:46.020
authority over our dollars and where they're going to go and how they're going to be spent and what
00:07:50.320
happens with them, and you look at the names that start coming up around Jeff Davison, and you start
00:07:55.480
to see what I'm talking about with the old guard. The very first person who endorsed Davison when he
00:08:00.220
came out was Steve Allen. That name you might have heard because he was given the Steve Allen
00:08:06.560
committee or whatever to make the Steve Allen report on foreign interference and such in the
00:08:12.020
energy sector in Alberta that he keeps putting off and putting off and putting off. I think he's
00:08:15.860
supposed to put it out again yet at the end of this month, but I'm not holding my breath anymore.
00:08:20.300
I don't know how much he's been paid to do this. Allen's name also popped up with the
00:08:25.080
Calgary Economic Development, which has that $100 million slush fund to try and draw businesses to
00:08:32.440
come in and compete with the struggling Calgary businesses that are already here. Because when
00:08:35.700
Mary Moran took leave to push for an Olympic bid that we couldn't afford, Steve Allen filled the
00:08:42.260
void. You see these names just keep circling and popping up. These are these connected people that
00:08:45.960
get these $200,000, $300,000 a year salaries for these wonderful government committees and jobs and
00:08:50.680
things to head up like that. Well, Allen endorsed Davison because again, it's that same
00:08:54.760
old collective group of old boys going on there. Now, Davison got in some trouble recently, or it
00:09:01.440
looks like it anyway. So something that's happened is unions and corporations can't donate to
00:09:06.920
municipal candidates anymore. Now, personally, I think they should be allowed to donate. Just, I
00:09:10.900
believe there should be transparency laws, but the bottom line is they are not allowed to do so.
00:09:14.580
So what happens is unions and corporations find other ways to do it. Unions are advertising all
00:09:20.660
over the place. Turn on the radio for five minutes. You're going to hear one ad or another from
00:09:23.440
unions. You're going to see those signs all over the lawn talking about saving public services and
00:09:27.280
all sorts of other things because they're just taking those dollars that they would have given
00:09:29.980
to candidates before and they're just advertising on their behalf in an outside way. Well, the other
00:09:34.700
thing that can be done is forming PACs, which are political action committees, which campaign kind of
00:09:40.500
on behalf of candidates, but they're supposed to be arm's length. Now, something that happened with
00:09:45.960
Davidson, it was a golf tournament was scheduled at the Heritage Point Golf Club. And this, this had
00:09:51.220
some pretty, you know, big entry fees. Well, it's a fundraiser. Fair enough. You know, 500, I think,
00:09:57.800
to enter in a thousand for a couple or some bloody thing. The main thing was though, this was supposed
00:10:03.200
to be for a third party advertising group, which was registered as a PAC, but didn't say who is behind
00:10:08.180
them. The email that went out promoting it or one of them came from Davidson's interim campaign manager,
00:10:14.800
Catherine Brownlee. And it spoke about things like if you put in a $10,000 title sponsorship
00:10:21.420
for the, and a $5,000 breakfast sponsorship, and according to the invitation, you get the
00:10:26.800
opportunity to emcee the event and ask Davidson questions. And at the format, or you could even
00:10:32.500
join them for breakfast. Like these are things where you can buy access to the candidate. And the email
00:10:37.400
said clearly that this money is to go towards advertising for Jeff Davidson's campaign,
00:10:41.400
but he can't do that. You're not supposed to have something that boldly involved with your campaign,
00:10:48.500
or it is just part of the campaign. Like that degree of separation has really blurred, if not
00:10:53.140
vanished there. And there's been a number of complaints go through now on this, but what really
00:10:57.700
gets me is Davidson denies that he knows anything about it. He said he hasn't been in touch with this
00:11:03.060
group. He hasn't talked with them and he didn't know about it. Wow. They're pretty bold. They even
00:11:06.680
scheduled you to be there and join people for paid breakfasts and have one-on-one time with them.
00:11:11.640
But apparently you didn't even know about this. Come on. I mean, this is a guy running for mayor and
00:11:16.240
he's already feeding us BS. He got caught playing. If not, you know, this isn't necessarily against
00:11:22.860
the law, but they're really, really pressing the spirit of it. It's a backdoor way to raise funds
00:11:27.780
for a guy. And you got to wonder why did Jeff Davidson think he had a shot at mayor? I mean,
00:11:31.860
this was a low profile, single term Calgary councillor. Well, it's because he's in that
00:11:36.040
in crowd. He's with the old boys and he thinks he can do it. The other telling thing that came up,
00:11:40.420
so they threw their interim campaign manager under the bus when this golf tournament small scandal
00:11:46.660
came about, was they exposed their main campaign manager and his name is Kelly Charlebois.
00:11:52.520
Now, if that name rings a bell for you, he's been around in progressive conservative politics in
00:11:56.680
Alberta for decades. And again, not usually in a good way. So he was Gary Marr's executive assistants
00:12:03.060
in the nineties. And when he left that, Marr was the health minister. And somehow Kelly Charlebois
00:12:11.380
got $390,000 in untendered contracts afterwards from Alberta health and wellness, which was headed by
00:12:19.300
his former boss. And that was a big scandal. Plus, even when the auditor general went through it,
00:12:25.380
he found that there wasn't even documentation of what the tasks were. So he got $390,000 for doing,
00:12:31.600
I don't know, playing cards or something. There was no documentation about it. This is again,
00:12:36.460
you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours, old boy internal network. And he is the campaign manager
00:12:42.800
for Jeff Davison. And Kelly Charlebois moved on later on. Where was he? He was the executive director
00:12:48.920
of the progressive conservative party during the Redford period. These guys just won't go away.
00:12:54.820
You know, we fire them at the polls, but those backroom boys just slither back into positions of
00:12:59.980
power, and they tend to abuse it. So that's who Jeff Davison has surrounded himself with. And this
00:13:07.880
is a person not to vote for. If you want to change things in Calgary, even if they're talking to be
00:13:12.300
pro-business and somewhat ostensibly conservative, what you got going on there isn't really conservatism.
00:13:18.300
It's not free market, it's crony capitalism, which in my view is even more odious than socialism.
00:13:24.080
At least socialism's honest about coming out to rip you off. Crony capitalism pretends to be free
00:13:29.820
market, pretends to be supportive of you. But in reality, it's a bunch of backroom boys slushing
00:13:34.420
their money around into different contracts for themselves. And you as the taxpayer always end up
00:13:39.320
footing the bill. So I just wanted to speak on that. Jeff Davison, this man is throwing a wrench
00:13:45.200
into the mayoral race. If you want the old boys network to still be running Calgary, you don't
00:13:49.400
want to see substantive change. You don't want to be spending improvement. By the way, Davison also
00:13:53.920
voted to defund the police. So if you want to see the crime keep rising, you know, as our police get
00:13:57.560
defunded while city council and mayor virtue signal, Davison is your man. So there's a number of other
00:14:05.160
candidates to consider when running for mayor. Just remember, Davison is not one to consider at all.
00:14:10.840
This is not an improvement. Getting on to the other end of it, the left side of it, we got Jody
00:14:16.540
Gondek. This is Ninchy's heir apparent. The bottom line is, if you want to swing left, you want to be
00:14:22.860
Ninchy even more exaggerated. I mean, if you thought Ninchy liked playing the race card and identity politics,
00:14:28.360
don't worry, Jody's already put him to shame. And if she became mayor, boy, would she ever do so. But it's
00:14:34.080
another city councilor who wants to climb that ladder and get in there. Speaking of the old school,
00:14:39.080
Stephen Carter is her campaign manager. Things are not going to get better with Jody Gondek as our
00:14:44.320
mayor. But not so much because of the old boys network like Davison, but just because she's a
00:14:49.720
virtue signaling shallow vapid lefty. So do not vote for Gondek. Pick among the other 18 candidates in
00:14:56.740
the mix. One of the things Gondek did that I want to go into and gets to the problem with municipal
00:15:03.560
governments too. They are close to us. They are a large part of our lives, but they also have very
00:15:08.860
limited scope. So they should have very limited scopes on what they stand for, what their authority
00:15:13.100
is, what their jurisdiction is. During these campaigns, a lot of these candidates reach outside
00:15:18.100
of what they should, outside of their jurisdiction, and they promise things. And either they're going
00:15:24.720
to spend a horrific amount of money duplicating a service that another level of government is supposed
00:15:28.680
to do, or they're just giving us false promises. Both are unacceptable. You know, neither is what
00:15:35.140
you want to see out of somebody saying they're going to run their place. So Jody Gondek went on a big
00:15:38.320
thing about how the city of Calgary is going to take on responsibility for child care for parents.
00:15:43.820
Hang on, it's bad enough. In fact, I don't even think the federal government or the provincial
00:15:46.520
government should be in on the child care of our children anyways. But Gondek's jumped in on this.
00:15:52.000
Municipal politics. You want the city to run state-funded daycares for you? And again, she knows
00:15:58.460
this is not even close to in your ballpark of what you're supposed to be responsible for.
00:16:03.240
But she's jumped feet first into it, and she's virtue signaling on it. It's just shallow campaigning
00:16:08.160
and tactics to, well, try and get the woman's vote. I mean, for people who are single parents,
00:16:12.900
who are predominantly women, child care is a big expense. It's a challenge, and it's something we need
00:16:17.400
to address. But it's not something a mayor needs to address. It's not their turf. And this isn't
00:16:22.060
unique to Calgary. In Medicine Hat, for example, we've got a mayoral, hopeful guy named Tony Leahy,
00:16:28.160
who he wants to create a mental health division in Medicine Hat with 24-hour services. He's got this
00:16:34.720
great grand plan, practically a private mental hospital or facility or support services.
00:16:40.360
This is so deeply into provincial health care, you've got to ask him what the hell he's doing.
00:16:44.940
We wanted to ask him what the hell he was doing. We tried to schedule him on so I could talk to him,
00:16:48.940
but he's found scheduling conflicts and excuses and won't be able to come out. It sounds like a
00:16:52.500
serious campaign to me if you can't speak to alternative media to at least defend why you're
00:16:57.400
leaping into mental health services when it's not even within the realm of your municipal government.
00:17:03.200
So will he, as a mayor, I wish I could ask him, but he's too chicken to come on,
00:17:08.420
would you form this mental health unit? Where would you get the money? Would you just do a
00:17:13.540
parallel one with the provincial services? Why don't you guys run for MLA? Why don't you run
00:17:18.180
for MP where the jurisdiction is? Well, I think it's because you can irresponsibly promise these
00:17:22.220
things and maybe use your jurisdiction as an excuse when you don't actually follow through with it
00:17:26.040
later. Stick to where you're at. Stick to the property taxes. Stick to fixing the roads. That's
00:17:32.160
your turf. Don't go outside of that. Government's too big and bloated already. We don't need other
00:17:36.400
levels taking on more responsibilities that they can't pay for and do responsibly as it is.
00:17:42.940
So yeah, Tony, you know, just come on, explain it to us. Come on to the show. We can chat about
00:17:49.960
this because I want to know how you're going to turn it, what you're going to make a little
00:17:52.500
city state down there perhaps with the private hospitals and things like that. Hey, if we're
00:17:57.140
going to talk private hospitals, maybe we've got some common ground we can get onto. But
00:18:00.100
I'm just tired of this in municipal politics, you know? And I mean, you see some of that with the
00:18:04.360
virtue signaling from cities and so on saying we're a nuclear free zone, things like that,
00:18:09.900
which really don't mean anything. They're virtue signaling. They're just outside of what they can
00:18:13.580
do. But it feels good to these politicians. But we've got some very serious issues that need to
00:18:17.800
be addressed. We've got some very large spending issues, large infrastructure issues, things like
00:18:23.360
that, that municipal governments are responsible for. We need to make sure these candidates stick to
00:18:28.460
what they are responsible for and what they can do so that hopefully this fall, when we get this big
00:18:32.720
turnover of new politicians in there, we get a crop of good ones for a change. That's my rant for
00:18:39.000
today. I'm going to get on to, again, back to the bigger subject at hand. I'm going to talk with Franco
00:18:43.780
Terrizano, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, and we're going to talk about some federal debt issues. Nice,
00:18:52.840
All right, Franco, thanks for joining me. It's always great getting you on. Easy interview when I'm talking with
00:18:58.360
somebody who's like mine for the most part. How are things doing out in Ottawa now that you're in
00:19:02.580
the middle of the center of the universe there?
00:19:05.820
Well, hey, Corey, thanks so much for having me on. And thanks so much for continuing to have me on
00:19:09.960
now that I'm in Ottawa. I think this is my first full week in Ottawa in the office here. So,
00:19:16.640
I mean, lots of targets to go after for the Canadian Taxpayers Federation at the federal level,
00:19:22.160
that's for sure. Yeah, well, you had no shortage here in Calgary and Alberta, and now you're in
00:19:27.840
the big playpen out there. So this will be the first time we're really hit on federal issues since
00:19:32.060
I've had you on, though, and it is a massive amount of dollars and debt we're talking about. So the
00:19:38.280
Taxpayers Federation has really been speaking on that and looking at the, if you can even call it a plan
00:19:42.820
for balancing the budget coming from the Liberals and from the Conservative Party. Maybe you can lay out
00:19:48.540
with the landscapes like with what they're talking about for ever getting a balanced budget.
00:19:52.160
Well, it's absolutely mind-boggling, Corey. So we dove into some parliamentary budget officer
00:19:58.200
data. They had some spreadsheets out that kind of looks at the landscape of federal spending and
00:20:02.920
federal debt. And under the status quo, if things don't change, we're not going to see a balanced
00:20:09.880
budget federally until 2070, right? So about 50 more years of deficit spending. And if that is the
00:20:17.540
case, if the status quo continues, it's going to be trillions of dollars more in debt,
00:20:21.460
trillions of dollars more in interest payments, which really just means no value for taxpayers'
00:20:26.560
bucks when we're looking at all that debt servicing costs.
00:20:30.000
Yeah, well, it's just unimaginable. I mean, so by that projection, more than likely, I'm not going
00:20:35.380
to live to see a balanced budget. That's frightening. And as you put it, I mean, some people, I heard some
00:20:42.540
polling today, I believe it was from Angus Reid, and the deficit spending, that's actually low on a
00:20:49.100
lot of voters' priorities. Like, people don't understand that interest payments are money flushed
00:20:55.600
Well, there's a lot to unpack there. First, I think, Corey, you bring up a really good point about
00:20:59.180
interest costs, right? So under the status quo, the federal government isn't going to balance the budget
00:21:04.160
until 2070. So if that continues, we're going to rack up about $3.8 trillion worth of interest
00:21:12.020
charges by 2070. $3.8 trillion, that's money that can't go to healthcare, that's money that can't go
00:21:18.400
to building roads, that's money that can't go back into our pockets through lower taxes, because that
00:21:23.460
money would have to go to the bond fund managers on Bay Street. So that's trillions and trillions of
00:21:28.680
dollars in interest charges under the current status quo, that sees about 50 more years of
00:21:34.400
deficit spending. But Corey, you mentioned a poll in terms of where Canadians are right now in public
00:21:40.220
opinion. One thing that I saw in a recent poll, maybe it's the same poll, but I did see it today is
00:21:45.700
that an issue that Canadians are rightly worried about is cost of living. And where I think all of
00:21:51.440
this debt and deficit spending really matters for Canadians in terms of day to day is cost of living.
00:21:56.780
Let me tell you, as I moved out here to Ottawa, just the rent is extraordinary. It is extremely
00:22:03.800
expensive here. And life is only going to get more expensive with more deficit spending, because,
00:22:09.500
you know, at the end of the day, how are we going to pay for all this, right? And if politicians don't
00:22:13.760
rein in their spending, they're going to be hammering us with higher taxes. So I do think that is the cost
00:22:20.000
of living on why all this debt and deficit spending really matters for Canadian taxpayers.
00:22:25.520
Yeah, well, and if they don't do tax increases to make up for it, it means they'll have to borrow
00:22:30.380
more to make up with it. And that leads to inflationary problems. And it still raises
00:22:34.960
your cost of living. But how do we translate that to your average voter then for them to
00:22:38.880
realize that these are one in the same? Ottawa borrowing like this is going to kick you in the
00:22:44.120
butt, because I think people seem to not realize that it's their money.
00:22:49.240
Well, Corey, you're right. I mean, there is no way to avoid paying the piper,
00:22:52.900
right? At the end of the day, all of this money has to come from taxpayers one way or another,
00:22:58.000
whether that's through taxes today, taxes tomorrow with interest, or through a reduction
00:23:03.040
in our purchasing power because of inflation, right? So one way or another, unless these
00:23:08.120
politicians don't actually reduce their spending, we're going to get hammered. And Corey, I think
00:23:13.360
the most important thing for us average Canadians to remember is that it's really going to be average
00:23:18.080
Canadians who are left paying the piper. We've heard politicians in Ottawa muse about these so-called
00:23:25.200
wealth taxes, even this one-time wealth tax or tax on extreme wealth. Well, you know, we crunched the
00:23:31.520
numbers. The latest proposal for a wealth tax, Trudeau's deficit spending is so big that he would
00:23:37.700
burn through that wealth tax, his deficit spending, in about a month. So who's going to be left picking up
00:23:43.980
the tab for the other 11 months of Trudeau's deficit spending? Well, it's going to be you,
00:23:48.520
it's going to be me, it's going to be average Canadians. And Corey, I really want to underscore
00:23:53.200
the point. The Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we put out a Canada Day debt report to show Canadians
00:23:59.860
what each of our share is in terms of federal and provincial government debt. On average, by the end
00:24:06.540
of this year, each Canadian will owe $57,000 in government debt. And Corey, I don't know too many
00:24:13.800
people who have tens of thousands of dollars just lying around to be paying these huge government
00:24:19.580
credit card bills. No, and what little equity we have and things is typically in our households or
00:24:25.820
other savings that we want to pass on. I'm hearing rumblings of home equity taxes and inheritance taxes,
00:24:31.920
like there's some scary balloons being floated. If they want to come after what little money we've got
00:24:35.600
left for ourselves right now. Oh, a home equity tax would just be so devastating for so many Canadians
00:24:42.120
who work so hard their whole lives, put some money away to buy the house, their home, and who are
00:24:48.580
hoping and planning to use their home if they sell it as a part of their nest egg, right, for their
00:24:54.540
golden year. So a home equity tax would just be absolutely devastating for so many Canadians. And I
00:25:00.540
think really, this is the whole point of why this deficits and debt matter. Yes, we talked about the
00:25:06.060
interest payments, which is just tax dollars essentially lost. But another issue is the cost
00:25:13.920
and how all of this will impact taxpayers if these politicians don't actually take some air out of their
00:25:19.720
bloated budgets. And Corey, I think this is the big thing that we have to remember here as Canadians,
00:25:24.520
especially at the federal level, is that this is a bloated budget. We had a bloated federal budget
00:25:30.040
long before COVID-19. Remember, when he was running for prime minister, Justin Trudeau told us that he
00:25:37.080
would balance the budget in 2019. Well, he missed that target by a country mile, right? Big deficit 2019,
00:25:44.020
a huge deficit with COVID-19 in 2020, looks like another big deficit this year. And we're going to be
00:25:50.560
seeing deficits for about 50 more years under the status quo. Well, and the one thing that seems
00:25:56.120
that people don't want to face and politicians don't have the courage to say it, but somebody's
00:26:01.000
got to cut spending somewhere. Is anybody even talking about cuts, any restraint, any reduction
00:26:05.700
from any party or any leadership right now? Well, federally, we heard the Conservative Party. The last
00:26:12.560
I heard is that they're going to, I don't know, erase the deficit in a decade, within a decade. But a plan
00:26:18.020
to do something in 10 years isn't really a plan to do anything, right? That's, what, two terms? Two political
00:26:24.040
terms, at least, is a decade from now? I mean, okay, we do have to give kudos where kudos is due. At least
00:26:30.840
the Conservative Party is talking about deficits and why deficits are important to be taking serious. So at least
00:26:37.540
the Conservative Party is talking about it. So we should give them some credit there. But 10 years is far too long.
00:26:42.700
If we look provincially, Corey, where you live and where I'm from, we do see the Kenney government
00:26:51.040
making some good strides to reduce spending where spending is most needed to be reduced.
00:26:57.860
And that's labour costs. That's the bureaucracy. When you look at Alberta government or many governments
00:27:03.000
across Canada, it's really the bureaucracy that is the big cost driver. So I think Premier Jason Kenney
00:27:08.680
in Alberta is absolutely right to be asking the government bureaucracy, government employees to
00:27:14.400
help share in the burden of this downturn. Because it's been the private sector, families, workers,
00:27:19.760
small businesses, who've been taking it on the chin all throughout COVID over the last five plus years
00:27:24.820
in Alberta. And it is time for our government employees to also share the burden.
00:27:30.060
Yeah, well, in a larger part of just about every level of governance expenditure,
00:27:33.520
if not the largest, is always on labour and bureaucracy and government employees in general.
00:27:39.440
So where in Ottawa could they cut, though? I mean, of course, people always say,
00:27:43.020
well, that's going to impact your services. And I know that's kind of questionable. But
00:27:46.320
where can we do some cuts without causing more damage throughout the rest of the country then?
00:27:50.700
Well, let's talk about government labour, right? And if we're going to talk about government labour,
00:27:54.980
we have to start at the top. Members of Parliament, at the very least, they need to take a pay cut,
00:28:00.220
right? What we've seen is year after year, members of Parliament pay has gone up and up,
00:28:07.180
including during COVID-19. So while millions of Canadians struggled through COVID-19, we've seen
00:28:13.800
our members of Parliament pocket not one, Corey, but two pay raises. Two pay raises our members of
00:28:20.220
Parliament have pocketed. And, you know, when we're talking about at the top, we should also talk about
00:28:24.780
the Governor General. And the Governor General's pay should have been reined in long ago. We just saw
00:28:30.200
the appointment of our new Governor General, Mary Simon. Well, let's talk about these perks.
00:28:36.040
These are some of the most outrageous perks that we have ever covered. And Corey, you know, that's
00:28:40.560
saying a lot since that we've been talking about double and triple pensions at the Alberta municipal
00:28:46.460
level for quite some time. But let's just go through these Governor General perks. You have these
00:28:52.400
pensions that are about $150,000 per year, regardless of how long a Governor General serves.
00:28:58.880
You had Julie Payette, our former Governor General who resigned in disgrace after serving for a little
00:29:05.160
more than three years, who will now pocket more than $4 million through her pension if she continues
00:29:12.360
to collect it to age 90. Isn't that just absolutely absurd from the taxpayer point of view?
00:29:18.080
Well, it's a slap in the face for those of us who are working a lifetime for what's going to be the
00:29:23.200
paltry CPP perhaps waiting for us at the end of it. And again, as I said, we've got some governments
00:29:29.420
seem to be salivating over what little savings we've got in our home equity and other savings.
00:29:35.120
I mean, leading by example is definitely a way to go. If not only for the amount of savings,
00:29:39.720
even if it feels like a drop in the bucket, it will give the government the moral authority to start
00:29:43.180
cutting on the bigger civil service below them when the time comes and they have to do it, I would
00:29:47.080
think. They have to do it. And Corey, we haven't seen that from the federal government. You know,
00:29:52.440
the think tank, secondstreet.org. I know, you know, Colin Craig quite well. He's doing some
00:29:56.260
great work with that organization. They asked, I think every level of government, when was the last
00:30:02.640
time that their employees have taken a pay cut? And the federal government has no records of its
00:30:08.420
employees ever receiving a pay cut. No records. So you look at the private sector. I mean, often,
00:30:16.820
unfortunately, small businesses have to make tough decisions. They have to let people go. They have to
00:30:21.340
hand out pay reductions when the tough times, when there are tough times. We haven't seen the same
00:30:26.860
restraint from our governments and we haven't seen that type of restraint at the federal government.
00:30:31.160
So we do need to see federal government bureaucrats being willing to share in the tough times and take a
00:30:36.580
pay cut here. Well, now we've got a lot of contracts and so on. Does that mean reopening contracts or
00:30:43.480
drafting new ones? I mean, some of it is difficult to back out of some of the spending commitments that
00:30:47.920
past governments made. Sure, sure. Yeah. But why have we never seen a federal government ever give its
00:30:55.940
employees a pay reduction, right? Why haven't we? So, yeah, I mean, maybe there are some very tough
00:31:02.280
conversations that need to happen between government employees and politicians who are supposed to be
00:31:07.340
watching over our tax dollars. And we certainly shouldn't be seeing new contracts being negotiated
00:31:14.040
with pay raises. We should be seeing the reverse, right? Let me just go back to the Alberta government,
00:31:20.240
Corey, because I know that's very relevant for you and your listeners. Now we're seeing the
00:31:25.760
penny government ask its government employees to take what, a three or 4% wage reduction. And Corey,
00:31:31.700
let's be honest, if you are an Albertan and you only received a 3% cut over the last five, six years,
00:31:40.560
you're one of the fortunate ones. And, you know, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, we went through
00:31:45.980
union agreements between the government and government union bosses over the last five years.
00:31:52.500
And we couldn't find a single example of a government union boss in Alberta being willing
00:31:58.680
to take a pay reduction over the last five plus years. Didn't see it. But we did see private sector
00:32:04.800
unions agree to pay cuts. Yeah, well, and the private sector is bound by reality. That makes it a whole
00:32:12.540
different world from the public sector. And even the union bosses realize that. Like, they know if they
00:32:19.080
pluck that golden goose too hard in the private sector, they will kill it. And the jobs will be
00:32:23.980
lost altogether. In the public sector, they don't feel that risk. But maybe it's time for our leaders
00:32:28.300
to phrase it that way. You know, say, look, you've got your two choices. We're going to lay off 10% of
00:32:32.640
the workforce. And you guys are going to figure out how to do it with a minus those people. Or we'll cut
00:32:37.540
your salaries by 4% and everybody keeps a job. But does any politician have the courage to get to take
00:32:42.280
them on like that? Yeah, I mean, I'll say two things to that. So first, that is actually the
00:32:47.680
strategy that we saw in Alberta, what was in 1994, the last broad based Alberta government pay cut,
00:32:53.440
where you had premier client at the time say, Hey, look, either you take 5% pay cuts, or we're going
00:32:59.740
to lay off that amount in employees, right? It's your, it's your decision. So put the onus on the union
00:33:05.920
bosses, do you prefer pay reductions? Or do you prefer job losses? And really, at the end of the day,
00:33:10.660
when you're looking at all this debt, when you're looking at all of the tough situation that our
00:33:15.400
governments are in, that is going to be the question. Do you want a relatively small pay cut?
00:33:20.860
Or do you want to wait till things get even worse? And you're forced to either take a huge pay cut,
00:33:25.880
or you're forced to lay off even more people. And that brings me to my next point, right? We have to
00:33:32.160
remember that these days where we can just escape making tough choices can't last forever.
00:33:38.240
Remember, in the late 80s, and into the early 90s, we had many provinces and the federal government keep
00:33:44.060
kicking the can down the road. And Cory, what happened? Well, eventually, they were forced to
00:33:50.120
make tough decisions, right? We talked about what happened in the 90s, with the Alberta government,
00:33:54.320
we remember what happened federally, in the 90s, with the finance minister, Paul Martin,
00:33:59.120
Prime Minister Jean Chrétien, right, they were forced to make tough decisions. What about Saskatchewan in the
00:34:05.240
90s, when they were forced to close down more than 50 hospitals across their prairie province? So
00:34:11.780
either we make tough decisions now, or we're going to have even tougher decisions forced upon us
00:34:16.380
down the road. Well, absolutely. And the governments you're talking about, I mean, Romano was NDP.
00:34:22.080
It was a liberal government under Chrétien. I mean, there was just no choice. You had to make cuts,
00:34:27.360
you had to balance that budget. Part of what drove that, though, was the interest rates. Right now,
00:34:32.280
they're record low levels. And people, I think, have been fortunate, and it allows them to kick
00:34:36.720
that can down the road. But if we start seeing inflation, and we're seeing it already keep
00:34:41.280
cranking up like it does, the central bank's going to respond by raising interest rates. But that's,
00:34:47.420
you know, weenies like us who watch economics know that, but our general populace and voters don't
00:34:52.460
necessarily pay attention to that. I guess we got to let them know what's looming down the road.
00:34:56.700
Hey, Cory, let's get back to that discussion about the balanced budget, and how under the status quo,
00:35:01.960
we might not see a balanced budget federally until 2070. That's just to balance the budget.
00:35:07.940
That would be about 50 more years just to balance the budget. Well, remember, during that time,
00:35:13.320
we would be accumulating about $2.7 trillion in extra debt on top of the already $1 trillion
00:35:20.380
in federal debt that we already have. Right? So we're going to be accumulating trillions of dollars
00:35:25.760
in debt if we don't balance that federal budget by 2070. Which means not only do we have to balance
00:35:31.140
the budget, we also have to pay down the debt after that. And the parliamentary budget officer
00:35:36.660
says that it would take at least two decades after the budget is balanced to finally pay off the debt.
00:35:42.980
Right? So all of that is alarming. All of it is alarming. But here is the scary part.
00:35:49.540
The PBO assumes that the effective interest rate for federal government debt will eventually settle
00:35:55.460
in around 2.84%. Now that is a lower interest rate than the 90s up until 2014. Right? The PBO also assumes
00:36:07.380
that GDP, our economy, will continue to steadily grow. Well, Corey, what happens if Canada stumbles
00:36:14.500
into another downturn? What happens if interest rates spike higher than that? Right? I mean,
00:36:20.820
that would blow even bigger holes into federal government budgets.
00:36:26.500
Yeah, no, there's a lot of presumptions on even that 2070 number. And that's where it gets so
00:36:32.100
terrifying. But we have an opportunity this fall, hopefully. I mean, we just got to see that coming
00:36:36.900
out in the discussions. You know, nobody's talking about spending restraint. You're spending restraint,
00:36:41.940
I should say. The Conservatives are paying a bit of lip service to it. But as you said, it's a 10-year plan.
00:36:47.940
I hope you guys keep holding their feet to the fire on this as we get into campaign time this year.
00:36:53.060
Well, of course. I mean, we're going to keep raising awareness about, you know, just where we are in
00:36:58.500
terms of our government budgets and the mess that we're in. And I think, Corey, the most important
00:37:03.540
thing is for all Canadians, when we hear these huge spending announcements, which we have been hearing,
00:37:08.660
it seems like, what, spending announcement after spending announcement from the Trudeau government.
00:37:12.500
Well, we need Canadians, we need all taxpayers to ask a very simple but very serious question.
00:37:18.420
How are you going to pay for all that? Because the truth of the matter is, if these politicians
00:37:22.740
don't actually find ways to reduce spending, it's going to be us average Canadians who end up getting
00:37:30.180
Yeah, well, and with the older people, they really should take some responsibility.
00:37:33.620
If you think you can keep borrowing and not paying for it, well, you really are literally putting
00:37:36.900
it on the shoulders of your children, your grandchildren, or at the rate we're talking,
00:37:39.780
great-grandchildren, which I think is pretty irresponsible and selfish, to be honest.
00:37:44.660
Well, it is, yeah. It is completely unfair for future generations, because, I mean,
00:37:50.500
it's really going to be many, many political interest groups of today that are going to be
00:37:54.660
benefiting from all of this spending, right? But who's going to have to pay the tab? Well,
00:37:59.060
it's going to be taxpayers eventually, whether that's taxpayers today, taxpayers tomorrow,
00:38:03.620
or as I said, in which we've discussed, whether that's inflation that erodes the purchasing power
00:38:08.900
of all of our money. But the thing that we have to remember is that none of this government spending
00:38:13.860
is free. There is no such thing as a free lunch. The money to pay off this debt isn't going to be
00:38:18.420
falling from the sky. It's not going to be plucked from the trees. If they don't cut spending one way or
00:38:23.620
another, it's going to be coming from our pockets. And Corey, one last thing, you know, to end this rant,
00:38:29.700
I do have to say, yes, this is very gloomy, but those are just projections, right? There is nothing
00:38:36.740
that is actually stopping or preventing politicians from balancing the budget long before 2070,
00:38:43.940
other than just political spine and political will.
00:38:46.740
Yeah, well, I guess there's two ways we can deal with this. It's just a projection. It doesn't mean
00:38:52.500
we can't stop this before it gets here, but it's going to stop one way or another, whether we learn the
00:38:57.620
way the Greeks did, or we learn by getting ourselves under control before it comes to that
00:39:02.580
point. So I hope you guys keep up fighting the good fight out there in Ottawa. I still,
00:39:07.860
you know, my condolences on your having moved out there, though I imagine it's a promotion in the
00:39:11.460
sense of your career-wise. I still don't envy the spot you're in, but thanks. And I'm sure we'll be
00:39:17.540
talking more in the future as the campaign unfolds and you guys, you know, keep releasing the
00:39:23.380
numbers to let us know what's really going on out there. Well, hey, Corey, thanks so much for having
00:39:27.540
me on. I always really look forward to our conversations. Great. And actually, where can
00:39:31.460
we find more information on what you're working on and where things are going out there?
00:39:35.460
Well, the best place to find is at taxpayer.com. To keep up with everything that we're publishing,
00:39:41.940
op-eds, news releases, check out our newsroom at taxpayer.com. To look at some of the petitions and get
00:39:46.900
involved, please just check out the petition tab. And Corey, I know a lot of your listeners are in
00:39:52.100
Alberta. Well, we have launched the equalization referendum campaign for this October's
00:39:58.660
referendum. And you can find out all the information at fightequalization.ca.
00:40:04.660
Right on. Thanks, Franco. It's always good getting you on and I'm sure we'll be talking again soon.
00:40:11.220
All right. So that's a bleak federal picture, but it was good to hear from Franco. I mean,
00:40:14.500
one thing he did point out, which is important, things are projections. They can change. You know,
00:40:19.460
if we wake up as an electorate, if our politicians wake up, if we get to work on things, if we face
00:40:24.500
some reality, it doesn't have to go till 2070 to get a balanced budget. We can do it sooner. In fact,
00:40:30.660
we probably will have to, but it might be due to a big crash. But we got to start talking about
00:40:34.900
making those tough decisions now. We can't keep kicking that can down the road. So I'm certain we'll be
00:40:39.620
checking in with him again soon. We got a new Alberta director of the Taxpayers Federation. I like those
00:40:43.780
guys because so many groups are always talking about more ways to spend on their causes, more
00:40:48.180
ways to make government bigger. The Taxpayers Federation is always looking at ways to make
00:40:51.620
it smaller. We don't have nearly enough groups who were working from that approach on government.
00:40:57.540
So to close things off again, if you haven't subscribed to the Western Standard already,
00:41:01.940
it's really essential and it really helps us along. And it's good for you because you get some
00:41:05.380
fantastic comments. There's a newsletter you can subscribe to as well. But go to westernstandardonline.com
00:41:12.580
slash membership. You can take out a membership, you can get that content as a subscriber, you know,
00:41:17.780
unrestricted. I mean, there's a number of free, there's a free period where you can get some free
00:41:21.380
content as well. So you can check things out and see if it's worth your dollars. For the dollars per
00:41:25.380
month, it's well worth it. As well, be sure to visit our sponsors, check it out, resistancecoffee.com.
00:41:32.100
These guys, they make coffee, they're out of the West, excellently named. They're virtue signaling in a
00:41:38.020
sense. But they're putting well, your money where their mouth is, they're going to take 10% of your
00:41:42.180
purchases from them. And they're going to give them the good causes, good groups that are standing up
00:41:45.620
for your individual rights. Plus, if it's the first time you're buying from them, get a whole bunch
00:41:50.020
because there's a whole bunch of flavors anyways, and then you can take advantage of that 10% off on
00:41:53.540
that first order. If you order enough, you get free shipping comes right to your door, it doesn't
00:41:57.220
get any easier. And you'll get that first 10% off the first time if you put into the promo code
00:42:02.820
box there, Western Standard, all one word, and you'll get 10% off. So 20% of what you paid on
00:42:08.740
coffee, and you're buying your coffee somewhere already, might as well go to these guys. It's just
00:42:12.660
good all around. 10% is going to go towards good causes and 10% will be off, and you'll get some
00:42:17.540
good coffee. Our other sponsor, again, is firearmrights.ca. It's the Canadian Coalition for
00:42:24.420
Firearm Rights. So these guys are up. I was in politics in the 90s with the reform and everything.
00:42:29.460
We keep doing these battles over and over again. We had the groups back then, it was the law
00:42:32.660
abiding, unregistered firearms owners association and things like that. When Alan Rock was coming
00:42:38.420
after us with the firearm registry, the Liberals haven't given up. They're still coming after us.
00:42:42.740
They're constantly making different, completely legal, safe to operate firearms illegal, and they're
00:42:49.460
turning us into criminals, or at least they're trying. And the CCFR is pushing back. They're fighting
00:42:53.940
back on your behalf. They're taking the federal government to court. They're suing them on your
00:42:57.460
behalf, but they need your help too. I mean, this is part of, as you know, citizens' activity.
00:43:02.580
We've got to help these groups along. So if you go to firearmrights.ca and you click on why join,
00:43:09.700
and they'll lay out what they're doing, what they're up to, why you should join them, and why
00:43:13.940
it's important to support them. Because again, as we saw with Franco, you know, I kept asking,
00:43:18.820
and I know he can't answer on behalf of politicians, but they're cowardly. They want to stay away from the
00:43:22.740
sticky issues. So we need lobby groups to force them to address these issues. You've got to push for
00:43:26.740
these rights, or they will get taken away. So be sure to visit those sponsors as well. Subscribe
00:43:33.140
on YouTube if you haven't already. You know, this way when these shows pop up, we also get other
00:43:37.460
specials, things like that. You'll see them when they come into the scroll. You'll like us on Facebook,
00:43:41.860
all those social media things. They help us spread our reach out there. If you're listening on the
00:43:45.540
podcast, give it a like, give it a review, share it with some friends, you know. We've got good alternative
00:43:50.420
media covering good local content, and we can't do it without you guys. So thanks for tuning in,