Western Standard - The Cory Morgan Show June 18

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00:01:30.000 Thank you.

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00:02:30.000 Morning and welcome to the Cory Morgan Show.

00:02:59.200 Monday, June 18th. Nice looking day. Got some good news going into the summer. Got some bad

00:03:08.160 news going into the summer. Always lots to cover. Should be a good show today. I've got Franco

00:03:12.980 Terrazzano coming on in about 15 minutes. We're going to talk about the one year anniversary of

00:03:18.280 the release of the Fair Deal panel report. A lot of us might have forgotten what that was all about

00:03:23.400 because while it was a big campaign blank and we heard a whole lot about it going in and we had

00:03:28.280 hearings across the province and we took time out of our days to go and attend these meetings

00:03:31.720 not a heck of a lot's been done about it though the equalization referendum is being held this

00:03:36.720 fall that was one of the recommendations so give credit where it's due so I will get on with things

00:03:43.640 to begin with though we should thank those who were subscribing and those who sponsor us we are

00:03:49.860 an independent news outlet we don't get any government funding and boy the way we've been

00:03:54.100 ticking them off I don't imagine we're going to be getting any anytime soon not that we were asking

00:03:58.440 And so we get sponsors and Resistance Coffee Company is one of them.

00:04:02.840 These guys are really cool.

00:04:04.980 They are a Western Canadian based company.

00:04:07.760 They are, you know, for folks who are tired of having woke political correctness rammed

00:04:11.440 down your throat everywhere you turn. 0.87

00:04:14.060 Well, if you're frustrated with that, you know, you buy a product somewhere, you buy

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00:05:16.100 As well, we have, speaking of rights, the CCFR.

00:05:21.420 This is the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights.

00:05:25.860 And yes, these are some rights that have certainly been under a lot of attack.

00:05:29.280 You know, the Liberals are always trying to come after your property, your firearms, your ability to enjoy them, go out and use them.

00:05:35.440 Well, these guys are fighting for your right to keep carrying on, enjoying your firearms.

00:05:40.140 the Canadian Coalition for Firearms Rights. Nobody works as hard as they do for your ability to own

00:05:45.160 and use them. You know, not just something stuck up on a wall to admire. Go out and do some target

00:05:49.700 shooting or do some hunting. Just do whatever you want safely and not interfering with the rights

00:05:53.740 of others. It seems simple, but it's not. There's people who want to take those rights away and

00:05:57.820 these guys are fighting for you. Go to firearmsrights.ca, firearmsrights.ca, and you can

00:06:04.060 click on why join us and they will explain why you should join them and how they're supporting

00:06:09.260 your rights and how it's important for you. So I'm going to start before there was that big

00:06:18.520 elephant in the room, the article and the retraction from last week. There's not a lot I can

00:06:22.580 add on it. Honestly, it's not dodging. I wasn't a part of it, so I don't know much more about what

00:06:29.380 happened there aside from what everybody else has read and the retraction and apology that's come

00:06:35.920 since the bottom line that is a reality we screwed up and we have to do better

00:06:42.520 you know we've got a really good outlet going on here we've broken all sorts of

00:06:46.840 great stories we've had all sorts of great sources we've covered things that

00:06:50.680 other outlets don't cover or won't cover and I we overstepped and and and

00:06:57.520 messed up the apology and the retraction is there all I can offer is we better

00:07:03.220 learn from it and carry on and maintain that you know the good that we have done because you know

00:07:08.480 there's been a whole lot of good coming out of the western standard and there's going to be a

00:07:12.080 whole lot more good coming uh we just can't let that happen again it was a a misplaced incident

00:07:19.460 you know again i can't speak too much directly to it i don't know fully what would happen there but

00:07:24.740 it certainly wasn't good and all i can say is uh i want to make sure we don't do it again

00:07:29.860 so getting on to other things there's been a lot of stories to speak on though as I said

00:07:36.840 we're going to be getting an announcement from the provincial government this afternoon from

00:07:40.800 Premier Kenny and it sounds like that that 70% vaccine threshold has been hit and again there's

00:07:47.440 debates on whether it's worthwhile or this or that the lottery is fair enough there's all it's a

00:07:52.180 hugely controversial issue in general but it sounds like that threshold for the full reopening has

00:07:57.300 been hit and the clock would start ticking down for two weeks from now to basically remove all

00:08:02.760 restrictions or the majority of them. I think that's good news. I mean, we can again fight over

00:08:07.360 all sorts of other things about whether the lockdowns should have been as severe as they

00:08:12.060 were, which they shouldn't have been, whether there's going to be more lockdowns this fall.

00:08:16.680 Some people are very cynical saying, you know what, we're just going to go right back into it

00:08:19.360 this fall. I sure hope not. I mean, maybe, maybe by this fall, enough people will have seen the

00:08:25.700 evidence because we've seen it that government restrictions really don't have a hell of an

00:08:31.400 impact on the spread of COVID-19. Areas that had heavy duty restrictions sometimes had the highest

00:08:37.420 spreads on earth. Areas that had very light restrictions had very light spread. Sometimes

00:08:43.520 they had light restrictions and they had heavy spread. The bottom line is though government

00:08:47.680 can't seem to do a damn thing about it. They try. The things they are effective are in crushing the 0.70

00:08:53.060 economy, crushing individual rights, putting people in jail. They can control people.

00:08:58.360 They just can't control this virus. And we've got to face that. But you know, that's that

00:09:03.040 gross vanity of government, the state. They always feel that they can control everything.

00:09:10.780 I mean, that's the reality. I mean, we've got a virus, thus the state must be able to fix this.

00:09:16.080 Well, they can't and they haven't. I mean, again, I think it's going down. I do believe in

00:09:19.800 vaccinations. I do believe they're working. I believe they're responsible for why it's going

00:09:23.100 down. I know a lot of people don't agree with me on that. Fair enough. I don't agree with mandatory

00:09:28.000 vaccinations. I never would. You know, an interesting thing, it sounds like the fluoridation

00:09:33.120 debate's coming on to a plebiscite this fall. This is a sidetrack. I don't think fluoride's such a bad

00:09:38.560 thing. Good for your teeth, lots of things in the long run. I know there's a lot of people say it's

00:09:42.040 a poison, it's a toxin, and Bill Gates wants to control your mouth or something. Fine. But my

00:09:46.320 issue with it, you know, and if I were to vote in that plebiscite in Calgary, I would vote against

00:09:50.660 it. Because it's not the role of the state to medicate everybody. When you've got a public

00:09:54.960 water supply that people can't avoid, then it's not the role of the city to put that in your water,

00:10:02.380 even if it is good. It's not their job. If you want fluoride for your children's teeth,

00:10:07.760 if you want it for your own teeth, you can get fluoridated products at any grocery store,

00:10:12.540 pharmacy, and so on, and apply them yourself. It's not the role of the government to do it.

00:10:16.320 And that applies to vaccines as well. I agree with them. But again, I would fight tooth and nail before it was actually made mandatory. Absolutely not. You cannot do that. Now, people talk about coercion and vaccine passports. Those are areas of debate, and they're worth going into and examining as well.

00:10:35.580 But for the time being, I got vaccinated. I haven't grown a third testicle or anything unusual since. I haven't turned into one of the lizard people and 5G waves are not controlling my mind or speech yet. But I'm certain everybody will keep an eye on me in case that should occur. Either way, things are looking good on that front.

00:10:53.740 You know, we're going to reopen, hopefully get some normalcy going this summer.

00:10:58.440 On the other end, the federal government just announced the borders are going to remain restricted and closed for another month.

00:11:05.820 You know, so it's up and down.

00:11:10.280 It's hard to maintain optimism about things.

00:11:13.200 Infections are way down on the Canadian side.

00:11:15.580 They're down on the American side.

00:11:16.660 They're not out of control yet.

00:11:18.460 They are terrified of opening the borders.

00:11:19.840 You know, Canada has been a leaky sieve when it comes to uncontrolled flights coming from China, coming from India, from all these infection hotspots in the past.

00:11:28.480 They wouldn't touch that with a 10-foot pole.

00:11:30.820 I mean, they came up with quarantine regulations and testing and all sorts of things, but they didn't stop it.

00:11:37.000 But when it comes to somebody who just wants to drive south of the American border for, you know, whatever the hell they want for a weekend, no, we can't do that.

00:11:45.140 We can't do that.

00:11:45.920 Infections are done, but we're still going to stop that.

00:11:47.500 it's destroying businesses on the border. It's making our lives that much more miserable as we

00:11:53.740 move on into things. And who knows if and when they're ever going to open that damn border again. 0.99

00:12:02.020 You know, and the fear campaign continues. We're certainly still seeing it. The big thing, 0.99

00:12:08.420 of course, now is the variants. And that's the item of conversation out there. So two people

00:12:14.620 the foothills hospital and there's been an outbreak of this this latest delta variant apparently uh

00:12:19.260 two people died and then it's headline headline headline because they want to focus on fear

00:12:22.940 focus on fear don't focus on infections going down don't focus on the economy opening up don't focus

00:12:27.020 on anything positive let's keep everybody scared let's go into the details the people who died in

00:12:33.500 the foothills hospital from that variant were already in the hospital dying they're in their

00:12:37.980 80s with a number of comorbidities. At best, the variant sped their demise by a couple of days

00:12:47.020 and something else was going to get them, whether it was a door slamming or, you know,

00:12:52.540 we all die eventually. We got to get a little realistic about the risk of what this virus

00:12:56.660 presents. And when you have it in headlines to make it sound, oh my God, this variant's killing

00:13:00.480 everybody and it gets the immune. No, it took away two people who unfortunately were already

00:13:05.380 at the end of their days. Nothing was going to save them. No more lockdowns were going to save

00:13:09.900 them. No American border crossings were going to save them. No cancellation of restaurants or

00:13:14.820 stampede events or rodeos or chuck wagon races. We're going to save those two unfortunate 80 0.98

00:13:19.840 something year old souls who passed and happened to have that variant while they're at it. But that

00:13:24.260 doesn't stop the mainstream media from headlining everything. Two people died in the variant. Two

00:13:28.880 people died in the variant. Everybody be scared. Remain curled up in your house in fear. And let's

00:13:34.660 carry on. We've got to change the narrative. We've got to get a little more positive. There are

00:13:39.240 positive things coming out. We've got to talk about it. I'm not talking about burying our heads

00:13:42.900 in the sand about real risks and real problems and real threats. But man, I just get sick of

00:13:48.580 watching the mainstream media always report the most negative aspect of the thing that they can.

00:13:55.100 I mean, we saw that in the past. Whatever the stats are, you know, there's all sorts of measures

00:13:58.760 of the pandemic, whether it's our values or number of infections or number of deaths or number of

00:14:04.960 ICU beds, the media will lead with whatever one is scariest. You know, when the infections were

00:14:11.240 going wild, yet the deaths weren't that high, you never heard them talk about the deaths. All they

00:14:15.180 talked about was the infections. Now the infections are going through the toilet. They're talking

00:14:18.400 about every death as it's first death that ever happened. We're getting sick of it. You know,

00:14:23.280 sometimes just put one out and say, hey, damn it, things are actually looking pretty good. It would 0.98

00:14:27.040 be really refreshing. It really would. And on a lot of fronts, they are looking good. So I'm

00:14:31.720 going to celebrate that and look forward to it. And hopefully some of the folks in the rest of

00:14:37.480 the media will start taking on that attitude. Because if we're constantly reporting on the

00:14:41.160 most negative and scary things we can, well, of course, the population is going to remain

00:14:44.760 negative and scared. Okay, enough of my ranting. I'm going to bring Franco Teresano in from the

00:14:51.200 Canadian Taxpayers Federation. He's the national director of them. I think he's still in the West

00:14:56.020 for now but he's going to be uh exiled to ottawa and uh doing his role over there how you doing

00:15:02.620 hey i'm doing well cory can you hear me okay um i just got a new computer so just testing this

00:15:08.880 live stream for the first time today well you're coming in just fine there yep perfect and yeah

00:15:15.440 i'm doing well man i'm heading to ottawa in about a month here so still in calgary um and definitely

00:15:20.540 enjoying the the nice weather today hey yeah no as i said i'm trying to go into things with a

00:15:25.660 bit of optimism anyways look at the bright side of some things you know not delusional but hey it's

00:15:30.300 a nice day get out and enjoy it well after listening to us this is more important right now

00:15:36.060 so it is the uh well yesterday was the one year anniversary of the release of the fair

00:15:41.980 deal panel report um there's quite a bit in there and uh quite a bit to unpack

00:15:49.420 what i've kind of seen though is not a heck of a lot to happen since it was released

00:15:53.340 where are you sitting on this franco yeah i mean the report was uh was was jam-packed with a whole

00:16:00.380 bunch of things where where alberta can try to push the feds to get a fair deal and i think 1.00

00:16:04.300 most albertans that's probably one of the huge issues policy-wise right now he's trying to get

00:16:09.500 a fair deal within within canada i think it's pretty clear to to most of us alberta taxpayers

00:16:14.700 is that we've been treated like a cash cow uh not just during this downturn that alberta's been

00:16:19.900 going through for the last five plus years but for for decades right um i mean we've seen the

00:16:24.860 numbers since the 1960s alberta taxpayers have paid more than 600 billion dollars more to the

00:16:30.940 feds and and by extension the other provinces than we've received back in federal spending but

00:16:35.580 of course we still have politicians in other provinces bc quebec and of course federal

00:16:40.300 politicians that continue to roadblock our development and corey when we're talking about

00:16:43.980 the fair deal panel report and its recommendations um there hasn't been much movement on too many of

00:16:49.420 of the the different items but i would say that probably the most important one that equalization

00:16:54.620 referendum we're finally starting to see the kenny government get the ball rolling on that

00:16:58.760 we saw the um the question for the referendum announced within the legislature and it looks

00:17:04.300 like hey bring on that referendum come october 18th uh yeah i mean in that sense of giving one

00:17:09.940 um positive vote there out of all of this they did follow through on that we do have that

00:17:14.500 referendum coming. I see that the tall foreheads of the usual suspects are all poo-pooing it and

00:17:19.860 ignoring it. And then she's even been outright mocking it. They're trying their very hardest

00:17:24.340 to avoid going into this political exercise to actually speak to Albertans. But a lot of people

00:17:30.160 say it's futility. It's a waste of time. It's beating our heads on the wall. Why would this

00:17:35.120 referendum be a good thing, Franco? Well, I completely disagree with what they're saying,

00:17:40.440 Right. And look, we have been getting a raw deal in Canada, right, Albertans, I talked about that 600 billion dollar net transfer out of the province from us taxpayers.

00:17:51.260 But equalization is really a key part of that fiscal drain. Right.

00:17:54.660 It costs us about three billion dollars every single year.

00:17:58.320 That's Alberta taxpayers paying into the federal program, not getting a single dime back.

00:18:03.180 And that's a cost of about six hundred dollars per person every single year.

00:18:07.580 And it's more than just the direct costs, right? Because through equalization, there's just these really negative incentives that are created through this program, where you have politicians in provinces that receive equalization, like Quebec, who can rely more on tax dollars from coming outside of their province, rather than actually putting in good policies and trying to grow their economies, right?

00:18:27.920 So that naturally encourages or at least reduces the ability for Quebec to, it actually, it encourages these politicians to put in bad policies, to not grow their resources.

00:18:41.800 And of course, Albertans are dinged that way as well.

00:18:44.060 So it's kind of the double whammy when it comes to policies like equalization, right, where it hurts us as taxpayers, but it also hurts us when we try to grow our economy by giving politicians the incentive to put in bad policies.

00:18:55.620 yeah well in an area that gets difficult with it but i mean a lot of provinces are dependent

00:19:01.780 on that influx of equalization and and again i mean i know a lot of the discussions that come out

00:19:06.420 from uh others they say well even if you get rid of equalization that the government's going to

00:19:10.340 transfer to those provinces disproportionately that's just what they do it all goes into one

00:19:14.100 pot and it goes out but i i believe i mean it would give another they'd have to justify it a

00:19:18.660 little more than it's not just this thing of making everybody equal they're going to have to explain

00:19:22.180 to us why you're transferring more to this region as opposed to the other and i mean if it was

00:19:26.960 supposed to be a hand up to help a province get on its feet well it's been a catastrophic failure

00:19:31.500 quebec's been dependent since the beginning of this program and they're still as dependent as

00:19:34.960 they ever have so i mean at what point do you say maybe it didn't work yeah that's a really good

00:19:39.340 point right because equalization has been in here since what 1957 like how many decades worth of

00:19:44.540 equalization do we need to kind of keep having here to finally get these provinces um on their

00:19:49.920 own. And really the solution to all this is to force these provinces to actually put in good

00:19:54.860 policies that encourage their economic development. There's so much to unpack there, Corey. But I

00:19:59.500 think one thing we have to remember here is that Alberta did just stumble onto our wealth, right? 0.73

00:20:04.520 A large portion of the reason that Alberta's economies flourished is because we had good

00:20:09.080 policies, right? Remember the 90s with Ralph Klein, for example, where he reigned in spending,

00:20:14.820 pushed to lower taxes. We're seeing Premier Kenney lowering business taxes right now.

00:20:19.100 all of that adds on, right? So you can look across the world, also within Canada, where you have

00:20:25.820 countries, provinces, jurisdictions that have natural resources, but it doesn't mean their

00:20:30.500 economies are going to be flourishing if you have bad policies, if you have government's roadblocking

00:20:35.620 development. And, you know, Corey, this isn't just Albertans who are recognizing these negative

00:20:40.940 incentives through equalization. You also have politicians, Francois Legault, the premier in

00:20:46.140 Quebec. He himself has recognized the need to rely less on equalization and rely more on growing

00:20:51.960 Quebec's economy. You have Premier Higgs out in New Brunswick. He himself has recognized the

00:20:57.500 negative incentives of equalization when you directly subsidize these politicians with other

00:21:02.840 provinces' tax dollars, right? Tax dollars from other provincial taxpayers. And you know what?

00:21:08.740 Right now, when you look at the federal debt problem, where we're more than a trillion dollars

00:21:12.780 in debt federally the federal government is going to have to find savings sometime somewhere and a

00:21:18.220 good place to find those savings is in that 20 billion dollar equalization program yeah absolutely

00:21:25.180 uh you know what will they ever get the will to i guess you know but i mean it's uh it's funny and

00:21:30.940 it's one of the areas that the the people opposing this this um referendum constantly point out is

00:21:36.620 that albertans don't understand what equalization is they don't you know they can't grasp the big

00:21:41.660 concept. You know, even if I grant that we don't understand it, then we're a bunch of fools. It's 1.00

00:21:45.680 beyond our ability to comprehend and grasp and vote responsibly on this. Well, what better way

00:21:51.460 to get everybody to understand? I mean, come on, guys, what are you afraid of? There's a municipal

00:21:55.200 election happening anyway. It's not costing us a whole pile. I mean, I know if it costs a whole

00:21:59.760 pile of money, you'd be screaming at the top of the rooftops because that's what you guys are

00:22:03.160 opposed to is excess government spending. And there, here's your chance. You can tell us all

00:22:08.960 how foolish we are we can put this equalization chafing to bed albertans will vote you know 10 0.88

00:22:13.820 percent uh yes in this referendum to get rid of equalization and we'll never talk about it again 0.71

00:22:19.020 so i mean why would they be opposed to having such an open uh discussion on this well cory the

00:22:24.360 reason is because albertans do fundamentally understand the problems with equalization and

00:22:30.000 the problems with the current uh federal transfer system right like sure many albertans might not

00:22:35.100 understand the minute details of the equalization formula per se,

00:22:39.300 but we understand when we're getting a raw deal, right?

00:22:41.500 We understand when we through a federal program,

00:22:44.500 we pay taxes into that program.

00:22:46.100 We don't get a single cent back from that program,

00:22:49.100 but yet we still have other politicians and other provinces that want to roadblock

00:22:53.500 our development. We still have the federal government that has its boot on our neck. 0.95

00:22:57.500 So, yes, I think Albertans do fundamentally understand

00:23:00.900 the issues with equalization.

00:23:02.800 Most importantly, we understand the most important issues.

00:23:06.160 And now here's the thing when it when it comes to cost, you know, all of a sudden we have this equalization referendum and we see people talking about wasteful government spending.

00:23:14.040 And, you know, I love when people are talking about wasteful government spending.

00:23:17.560 I wish they talked about it more or they cared about it more.

00:23:20.480 But here's the truth of the matter.

00:23:22.040 We're having an equalization referendum with municipal elections.

00:23:27.000 Corey, how much money do you think it costs to add another question on a ballot?

00:23:32.800 Right? Come on here. And if you really think that that is a waste of money, wait till you find out how much money equalization has been costing Alberta taxpayers, about $3 billion per year. That was an estimate from former finance minister Ted Morton, $3 billion in 2018, $600 per person. Now that's a big waste of money if you ask me, especially when we're directly subsidizing politicians in other provinces that want to roadblock our development.

00:23:58.880 So really, you have to give Premier Kenny kudos here.

00:24:02.640 It was a very smart decision to add the equalization referendum with the municipal elections because it does reduce the cost to taxpayers.

00:24:11.060 And if it costs all this money to add one more question onto a municipal ballot, I think our problem is with these bureaucrats who just seem to waste money left, right and center. 1.00

00:24:22.040 Yeah, well, the bottom line is it's direct democracy. 0.72

00:24:24.300 I mean, there's a model I love and I talk about all the time is in Switzerland where they they do a great deal of governance on a local level based on on referendums.

00:24:32.080 And it's not like they hold one every week for every different issue as it pops up.

00:24:37.420 It you know, every once in a while, there'll be a whole bunch of ballot choices and everybody will come out and take part on which ones they're going to vote on.

00:24:44.840 And that's another frustration. And I get a bit annoyed.

00:24:47.640 You know, again, the mayor of Calgary talks about how there's going to be so many questions on this ballot.

00:24:51.680 It's going to confuse voters and everything. 0.99

00:24:52.940 again that assumption of how stupid voters are kind of chafes on me and i get a little tired of 0.99

00:24:58.380 that we can walk and chew gum you know we can pick our local counselor our local mayor and actually 1.00

00:25:03.540 make our minds up on a couple of issues while we're at it it's not that hard i don't think

00:25:08.000 yeah it's really an insult isn't it i mean speaking of the switzerland model uh how great

00:25:13.240 is this but i believe it was last week the swish just voted against a proposal for a national

00:25:18.640 carbon tax hey don't you wish we could have that referendum uh here in canada um of course i mean

00:25:24.800 who's surprised that uh mayor nancy's a little bit upset about this i mean probably still upset

00:25:29.440 about that calgary olympics referendum that we had a few years back where the people uh voted no to

00:25:35.820 that to that boondoggle thankfully we did now there's one more thing i'd like to add uh to this

00:25:40.700 whole referendum right will an equalization referendum is it alberta silver bullet no it's

00:25:46.720 not it's not but it is the fundamental fundamental step for our fight for fairness right and if not

00:25:53.300 an equalization referendum well then what either either you think that alberta is getting a fair

00:25:58.460 deal within canada which i think it's pretty clear that we're not right more than 600 billion dollars

00:26:03.620 uh pay to ottawa more than that we've gone back since the 1960s still have economic damaging

00:26:10.500 policies coming from ottawa so i think it's pretty clear that we're not getting a fair deal from

00:26:14.020 model. So if not the equalization referendum, then what? Now, I think Ted Morton has made the case

00:26:19.800 that a clear majority on a clear constitutional question will push the feds and the provinces to

00:26:26.720 the negotiating table. Or the Fair Deal panel also made that point, right, that it would morally

00:26:32.120 obligate the province and the feds to negotiate. But perhaps just as important as that is I often

00:26:38.180 hear many Albertans say, well, look, the people in the rest of Canada just don't understand the

00:26:42.380 hardships that we're going through well what better way to put a spotlight on our legitimate

00:26:47.180 grievances and get that spotlight coast to coast then then to have a province-wide referendum on

00:26:54.140 equalization well absolutely and i mean you know it's just as another side note that may be an

00:26:59.340 unintended consequence of having extra questions on the ballot but it'll pull people out you know

00:27:04.360 i mean one of the things people have always decried is low voter turnouts particularly in

00:27:07.840 municipal elections. Well, I mean, I know people should consider it their civic duty and they'll

00:27:12.460 come out no matter what if there's a vote that's important. But realistically, maybe somebody who's

00:27:16.500 been indifferent to civic elections all the time is actually going to get up because they are quite

00:27:21.060 worked up over the equalization. And, you know, they're not going to come in and just vote on

00:27:24.440 the one. Chances are they're going to take their time and vote on everything else, which is better

00:27:27.900 for democracy as a whole, in my view. The more interest you can give people to participate,

00:27:32.240 the better i mean we will get out and as you said though uh part of the problem i think with some of 0.74

00:27:38.180 the people in government is that well those darned unwashed might vote the way they don't like as we

00:27:41.860 saw at the olympics and to give credit to a politician we rarely give credit to it was rachel 0.61

00:27:46.260 notley who put the brakes on and said hey we're not committing to this thing unless uh people get

00:27:51.500 out and vote and accept it and they didn't and it you know what a great example to keep doing these

00:27:57.600 things. Well, Corey, um, within the whole fair deal initiative, right? When, when Kenny announced

00:28:03.200 the fair deal initiative, um, before the panel brought back its report, one of the things that

00:28:08.040 Kenny simultaneously announced was citizens initiative, right? Which is the power for us

00:28:12.400 to actually put forward referendum on important issues. Um, and now I think you do have to strike

00:28:16.600 the right balance, right? You don't need referendums every other day. Uh, so you do need

00:28:20.700 to strike the ref, uh, the right balance. But the thing is, is that we, we, I think Albertans and

00:28:25.840 And citizens across Canada, I mean, we are supposed to be the boss when it comes to the

00:28:30.020 democratic process, right?

00:28:31.440 Politicians, yes, we elect them to represent them, to represent us.

00:28:35.060 But at the end of the day, we do need more checks and balances, either to punish misbehaving

00:28:39.540 politicians or to repeal legislation that goes directly against our wishes, right?

00:28:44.120 So I think you do have to give credit to Premier Kenney for implementing Citizens Initiative.

00:28:49.880 Can we arm wrestle over the thresholds and things like that?

00:28:53.100 Absolutely.

00:28:53.540 But I think this is a huge win for government accountability here in Alberta.

00:28:59.840 Now, let me just give you a concrete example of where I think referendums would have made a huge issue in Alberta.

00:29:05.420 Well, we just gave credit to former Premier Notley.

00:29:08.820 She deserved credit on the Olympics. 0.88

00:29:10.620 But one place she doesn't deserve any credit for was when she imposed a provincial carbon tax without running on that in her election platform. 1.00

00:29:18.620 And that would have been a great example of where referendums could have been useful for the people of Alberta.

00:29:23.540 I have no doubt in my mind that if we did have citizens initiative,

00:29:27.660 we would have canceled the NDP carbon tax and saved up taxpayers a bunch of

00:29:32.820 money in the meantime.

00:29:35.700 Yeah, well,

00:29:36.260 I'm going to pivot a little bit here then into more of the Fair Deal panel report

00:29:40.860 because it talked about a formation of an Alberta pension plan.

00:29:44.060 And one of the things it said as in the report that was,

00:29:46.700 that's the sort of thing that will have to go to referendum where they feel it

00:29:49.140 should, but we should get rolling on getting that together and building it.

00:29:53.540 And we haven't seen any movement on that.

00:29:55.660 If you could, I've got a technical issue here.

00:29:58.880 I'm going to step out for one minute and it's an easy issue for the QEF on.

00:30:02.200 I'll be right back.

00:30:02.880 But if you could explain a bit the concept of the Alberta pension plan and where that's going from the Fair Deal panel report.

00:30:08.580 Yeah, absolutely.

00:30:09.260 So I guess we're let me just start with where we are right now when it comes to the questions over the Alberta pension plan.

00:30:15.940 So right now, it seems like the government is studying it, taking a study, looking at the pros and cons of it.

00:30:21.660 And they said that if they do move forward with it, the next step would go to a referendum.

00:30:25.580 We were expecting, I think, the results of the study this spring, but we're still kind of waiting to see what happens next.

00:30:32.300 Now, I think from the economic standpoint, the Alberta pension plan, at least from what I've read, seems to make sense.

00:30:38.660 We saw some analysis from the Fraser Institute that shows, like many other of these federal programs,

00:30:43.820 we have actually spent billions of dollars putting into the program that we've received back in the last decade or so.

00:30:50.540 So from an economic standpoint, it seems to make sense that pulling out of the Canada pension plan and starting an Alberta pension plan would be the right thing to do.

00:31:02.280 But one thing that I'll kind of add into this discussion is that if we are going to be pulling out of the Alberta pension plan, Corey, so I was just going over the economic benefits of an Alberta pension plan.

00:31:13.420 Now, one thing that I'd like to bring up, Corey, and maybe we can have a little back and forth on this one, is that, look, if we're going to pull out of the Alberta pension plan, or the Canada pension plan, which essentially is a Ponzi scheme where you pay for someone else's golden years, if we're going to pull out of the CPP, I don't think that we should just replicate the Ponzi plan here in Alberta.

00:31:33.560 I think we can definitely improve upon it, right? And there's two ways we can do that. First,

00:31:40.620 let's just get the government out of the game of people's retirement savings. Let people keep more

00:31:45.100 of their own income. Let people decide how they want to allocate their money for the retirement.

00:31:49.020 But if you're going to have the government get into people's retirement, then at least let's

00:31:54.500 set up something like individual retirement accounts, which is happening similar to Australia,

00:31:59.680 where people are able to actually decide where their investments are going to and actually have

00:32:05.580 ownership over their own savings which is not the case when it comes to the Canada pension plan

00:32:11.680 yeah no I mean if we're going to pull out a one there's no sense giving another carbon copy of 0.89

00:32:16.900 the last one we just left only in a smaller version I like that very much as well unfortunately

00:32:23.520 and we've seen it governments if they get their hands on large funds and large chunks of money

00:32:28.980 can sometimes utilize that capital for political ends, such as investing in a pipeline or to the

00:32:36.020 United States or something like that. And then the money ends up being lost. Maybe leave that

00:32:41.340 to people to direct their own retirement funds and put it into something a little more blue chip.

00:32:46.140 Well, and Corey, too, when we're talking about these type of collective government pension

00:32:51.040 plans, I mean, essentially you have to rely. So what is essentially going on is as a younger

00:32:57.100 worker you're really not saving for your own retirement through these government plans you're

00:33:01.340 really for the most part saving for other people's retirements and then you have to hope that when you

00:33:06.220 reach retirement age you have to hope on the goodwill of politicians that they will actually

00:33:10.780 continue this plan and you also have to hope in in the health of the government's finances because

00:33:16.060 look i mean our government finances right now are a complete disaster right federally provincially

00:33:21.580 and um are politicians eventually going to have to start scaling back across the board i think they

00:33:26.700 are so not only do you have to rely on other people to fund your retirement at that age but

00:33:31.500 you also have to rely on the good faith of politicians but also on the fact that our

00:33:35.580 finances government wise are not going to be in the ditches so so better yet just let people keep

00:33:41.260 more of their own money tax people less let people direct how they want to actually use their money

00:33:46.220 today and money tomorrow and if we are going to have a government system let's follow something

00:33:50.140 similar to what is going on in australia where you actually have individual retirement savings

00:33:55.340 accounts that's your own money and that's your own money for your own golden years

00:33:58.700 yeah no absolutely i mean let's let's look at opportunities to create something new i mean the

00:34:04.420 old plan was adequate perhaps but it definitely needs a lot of reform and i mean if we're going

00:34:10.960 to create a new one but then again it has there been i haven't seen any sign of any serious

00:34:15.700 discussion since the panel closed up and made that recommendation though i i haven't heard of any

00:34:20.380 uh pension experts starting to model the new plan that they would put forth albertans in a referendum

00:34:25.140 referendum or anything of the sort is there any action on this at all or did they just recommend

00:34:28.920 it yeah well corey the last that i've heard so there hasn't been too much attention on this but

00:34:33.820 the last report that i heard is that the government is studying this um i remember seeing something

00:34:39.700 that we were expecting something in the spring summer right from the government and then the

00:34:43.620 government would then decide whether or not we're going to have a referendum vote on it but but so

00:34:48.140 far i haven't seen the government's full analysis on it and i think just like all the rest of us i

00:34:52.820 think we're all eagerly awaiting that yeah well death by committee or or you know withering on

00:34:57.540 the vine and it gets tiresome i know we've been in an unprecedented 16 months here uh but

00:35:03.720 realistically you know if all the people are working from home and locked in and cloistered

00:35:07.520 it would have been a great time actually to bury your nose in some books and uh uh work together

00:35:12.000 through zoom meetings i mean this business of government didn't have to stop uh because of the

00:35:16.580 pandemic so i don't see that as a valid excuse and i know a lot of the language in the fair deal

00:35:20.440 panel report when they released it a year ago yesterday uh was immediate that word was in it

00:35:26.460 immediately get on this uh so now that we're sitting 12 months later and we're not seeing

00:35:31.220 any progress on anything aside from the the referendum i think they missed that word and

00:35:35.700 they report well cory and you know why it's so why it was so eager to have it become so immediate

00:35:42.820 now i was at a few different uh fair deal panel events right so i definitely had the opportunity

00:35:48.320 to hear many Albertans speak on this issue. And why it was so important for immediate action

00:35:53.400 is because we are going through a downturn over the last 12 months. We are, but it didn't start

00:35:59.400 12 months ago during COVID-19. This downturn has been on since the end of 2014, where Alberta has

00:36:06.320 just been devastated. Yes, some of the factors are macroeconomic outside of Canada's control,

00:36:12.720 but let's be honest here and let's call it a spade a spade. A lot of the issues that made

00:36:16.480 Canada or Alberta's tough times tougher the last five plus years is directly related to politicians

00:36:21.800 in other provinces. Remember British Columbia? Remember the NDP and Greens agreeing to employ

00:36:27.460 every tool available to stop a pipeline coming from Alberta? Remember that? Remember Quebec's

00:36:32.240 Premier Francois Legault talking about our oil as dirty energy, saying there is no social

00:36:36.800 acceptability for another pipeline, oil pipeline from Alberta? What about the feds, right? The feds

00:36:42.300 rejected Northern Gateway pipeline. The feds moved the energy or the goalposts on the Energy East

00:36:47.760 pipeline. The feds put in a no more pipelines law. The feds put in a discriminatory tanker ban.

00:36:52.680 Now we're seeing that the feds, they have a carbon tax. They're talking about a second carbon tax

00:36:57.160 through fuel regulation. So it's been one blow after another for Alberta. And this isn't a recent

00:37:03.240 thing. This has been going on for years now. And I think that's why the sense of urgency was

00:37:08.040 discussed by the fair deal panel and and it was evidently clear when you were at those events

00:37:14.620 that albertans knew that the time for action was probably a few years ago but definitely now

00:37:19.840 yeah well better late than never i mean even if we should have started earlier it doesn't mean we

00:37:24.640 can't start today uh and those panels i mean that was in my view the talking period and now we're

00:37:30.220 still talking not even talking on some of them but i mean that's been a frustration so i appreciate

00:37:35.560 you guys bringing that up. You know, we got to remind them, hey guys, you know, speaking of

00:37:38.720 spending money on exercise, that panel costs a heck of a lot more than adding that extra question

00:37:42.660 on a referendum ballot. You know, that was costly to go around the province and let everybody speak

00:37:47.480 and kept people happy. I mean, so another recommendation that talked about pursuing

00:37:52.520 more free trade between provinces. I mean, that's a huge issue in Canada. It always has been. And

00:37:56.720 Shelley Carrington, one of the commenters said, well, we do understand, we don't understand why

00:38:02.060 energy resources are constantly blocked by some of our provinces like you know it's one thing to

00:38:07.680 have the feds block us as infuriating as it is but that's they do have it within their ability

00:38:13.140 but it's the cowering to the provincial governments that try to shut us down when it's quebec saying

00:38:17.920 they're going to shut us down when it's bc saying they're going to shut us down uh but i haven't

00:38:22.120 seen much evidence of the kenny government taking a stronger stance with our neighboring provinces

00:38:25.560 on these kinds of issues yet either well i do think that the kenny government has made some

00:38:31.600 significant movements on reducing our own internal trade barriers and i think that's important right

00:38:36.400 because when we're talking about trade barriers it doesn't just hurt us when other provinces

00:38:40.720 have barriers to trade we actually hurt ourselves when we put our own internal barriers to trade

00:38:45.280 because at the end of the day who pays for these types of trade barriers whether they're tariff

00:38:49.120 or non-tariff it's the consumers right it's it's the economy um also where those trade barriers

00:38:55.120 are so i think the kenny government has made some steps in terms of reducing internal trade barriers

00:39:01.200 I would say, however, though, is that when you talk about the equalization referendum,

00:39:05.020 you have to understand and think about it not within a vacuum or not by itself, but

00:39:09.560 in the context of how it encourages or discourages resource development.

00:39:13.740 I mean, Quebec has been the obvious example of the province that has roadblock our development

00:39:19.040 in terms of pipelines and oil and gas movement, things like that.

00:39:22.880 But remember, it's the incentives, the perverse incentives created through a program like

00:39:28.680 equalization that in part allows politicians in Quebec to get away with it, right? Without these

00:39:35.160 types of equalization programs, or at least if it was a smaller program, you would have to see

00:39:41.500 these Quebec politicians putting in policies to actually grow their own resources, right? Because

00:39:47.220 that would be how they would have to fund their government services. But instead, when you have

00:39:52.240 a program like equalization that seems to grow bigger and bigger and bigger, it's at about $20

00:39:56.400 billion dollars this year well that allows these politicians to rely less on growing and developing

00:40:02.340 their own resources and more on the tax dollars coming from taxpayers in other provinces so

00:40:07.160 i would say that the equalization referendum is in an indirect way a push for freer movement

00:40:14.080 within canada of our resources yeah well that's a good roundabout way of it i mean the thing is

00:40:19.400 if you want to get voter support you want to get people support on the ground i mean the common

00:40:22.240 question everybody asks if not right is what's in it for me and i think perhaps a lot of your

00:40:27.360 average quebec citizens don't understand that having a pipeline perhaps say go to the east

00:40:31.960 coast even if it doesn't feel like it there's a lot in it for them your social programs your

00:40:37.420 spending is coming from what goes into that pipe and gets sold to outside buyers and we need that

00:40:44.040 discussion over there as well as over here but it opens a bigger can of worms i understand diplomacy

00:40:49.900 is critical i mean you don't want a premier just going in fist swinging and fighting with our

00:40:53.740 provincial neighbors uh you know indiscriminately it's just going to make things worse but at the

00:40:58.700 same time people start asking themselves what's the point of confederation i mean the real role

00:41:04.220 is that we should have absolute free trade of our products and our free movement of our people and

00:41:09.420 our goods if not then we might as well be independent countries because uh you know

00:41:13.740 these provinces can shut us down well corey let's just move back to another important thing about

00:41:19.340 about the equalization referendum, right?

00:41:20.780 You just mentioned right there

00:41:21.780 that it's important to have this national discussion.

00:41:24.960 Well, that's what this equalization referendum

00:41:26.860 in part's going to do

00:41:27.840 is put the discussion of resource movement

00:41:30.560 and resource development on the national table,

00:41:33.660 so to speak, right?

00:41:34.440 Because at the end of the day,

00:41:35.920 I mean, oil and gas, demand for oil and gas

00:41:38.160 really isn't going anywhere substantially anytime soon, right?

00:41:41.280 So if Quebec is not going to get their oil,

00:41:44.140 let's say through pipeline or more oil

00:41:46.360 through pipelines from Alberta,

00:41:48.080 well, then how are they going to get it?

00:41:49.340 Are they going to get those resources from other countries?

00:41:51.560 Are they going to get those resources from other means of transportation? 0.67

00:41:54.180 I mean, we've all seen the meme or the graphic of the oil or the tanker, right, filling up

00:42:01.080 in Vancouver and going all the way to Quebec or, sorry, to our East Coast.

00:42:06.280 We've all seen that meme, right?

00:42:07.940 And it highlights the point is that, well, pipelines tend to be a very efficient way

00:42:12.440 to move our resources.

00:42:14.180 And if you're not moving your resources through pipelines, well, then how are you going to

00:42:18.400 do it?

00:42:18.720 Are you going to move it more through tankers?

00:42:20.880 That doesn't sound too environmentally friendly, especially if you can just go pipeline from

00:42:25.520 Alberta to the East Coast, or are you going to move it through rail, which obviously has

00:42:30.900 issues there that many Canadians are aware of.

00:42:34.000 And of course, it's the separate piece too, is if you're not going to get resources from

00:42:37.020 Alberta, well, then what countries are you going to get those resources from?

00:42:40.940 Because you can't just snap your fingers and not rely on the resources that Alberta

00:42:44.820 is producing.

00:42:45.460 And of course, I know this is a bit of a long-winded answer, Corey, but as a Taxpayers Federation, we have shown that not only does pipelines help grow our economy and get people back to work, but because of the pipeline deficit in Canada, we're losing out on billions and billions of dollars in government revenue that we desperately need to pay for different types of services.

00:43:07.020 Yeah, and again, we understand that. We just need some more folks in those other nine provinces perhaps to get on.

00:43:12.760 And the equalization, hopefully the coverage is a bit balanced as we go into it, as the vote goes with that, because it will make national news.

00:43:21.380 But if it's constantly panels and experts talking about how it's just a few whining redneck Albertans, it probably won't make much impact on the thinking of people in other provinces. 0.80

00:43:30.760 I mean, you're going to see a lot of that when you head to Ottawa there.

00:43:34.840 That could be a task for a person like me, I guess, hey, when I make my way to Ottawa.

00:43:40.160 And Corey, do you mind if we chat about one very important issue that I think has been under discussed when we're talking about the Fair Deal panel?

00:43:47.920 I want to talk about tax points.

00:43:50.040 Tax points was actually a policy that the UCP ran on within their platform.

00:43:54.760 And essentially what tax points does, it's a great accountability tool, a great autonomy tool, is that it would push to reduce our reliance on transfers from the federal government for programs like health care.

00:44:06.640 It would reduce our federal tax burden and instead allow the Alberta government to raise that revenue if it's if it wants to and allow Alberta to kind of implement a made in Alberta health care delivery, so to speak.

00:44:20.900 Right. So a tax point is it should be a huge part of this autonomy discussion.

00:44:25.720 But it's one thing that we haven't heard too much about.

00:44:29.620 and it's important to to raise that the ucp actually ran on this within their platform but

00:44:34.980 we haven't heard too much from the the kenny government on tax points maybe it's because

00:44:39.380 they're dealing obviously with a bunch of other different issues right now but it's something that

00:44:43.220 i think if we're pushing for autonomy pushing for government accountability that's something that we

00:44:48.020 need here in alberta well yeah no that's it's another aspect of course and it's again it's it's

00:44:55.300 bringing to mind people where those dollars are going, where they're coming from.

00:44:59.520 As I said, you know, something with Toronto and Ontario, the frustration of Britons get mad at

00:45:03.760 them and sometimes feel that, you know, these guys don't like us. Actually, what's even worse? No,

00:45:07.780 actually, they don't think about us at all. Typically, they're pretty much indifferent to

00:45:11.940 us. And that's kind of in some ways even more infuriating. But the bottom line is we've got

00:45:17.380 to reach out and get on to mind with them, not just with screaming and shouting, but, you know,

00:45:22.200 perhaps just a discourse.

00:45:24.100 And I think this equalization

00:45:26.520 discussion might lead a bit to

00:45:27.540 that. But I'll move a little

00:45:30.060 further on now into another area.

00:45:31.560 It's not so much taxpayer related,

00:45:33.380 but it can be to a degree in

00:45:34.560 inefficiencies because it's part of

00:45:36.000 the fair deal panel report was

00:45:38.580 moving away from the RCMP

00:45:39.820 contracts. And I know this is a

00:45:41.400 sticky one with a lot of people.

00:45:42.900 I mean, but

00:45:44.880 on the same vein of when we're

00:45:46.060 talking about changing the pension

00:45:47.340 plan, you know, we've got things

00:45:49.320 that have a lot of challenges.

00:45:50.200 The RCMP, I mean, there's a

00:45:51.780 fantastic officers they're a very uh you know long-standing traditional force uh but of course

00:45:57.620 there's some very serious questions about some of their actions uh and now that you know with blm

00:46:01.940 things happening in the last year and residential school talk and histories with with uh first

00:46:07.460 nations uh you know we could have an opportunity to create a police force that's more modernized

00:46:13.860 and and be able to be more uh receptive to to local needs and things if we moved away from the

00:46:18.340 the RCMP contract. But I haven't seen much talk on that part of the fair deal of the panel report

00:46:22.540 yet either. Yeah, Corey, I think with this one, it's really going to be devils in the details,

00:46:27.740 especially when it comes from the taxpayer perspective, right? So I think it's going to

00:46:32.260 be very important for the government just to be completely open and honest with Albertans in terms

00:46:36.580 of how much this is actually going to cost. I think that is just going to be so key, right?

00:46:40.560 And I think if it's going to cost less than what we're already paying, then I think it's a no

00:46:44.880 brainer. I think it's also a no brainer if we can do it for the same amount of money.

00:46:49.460 But I think when it comes to all these fair deal panel recommendations, we do have to understand

00:46:54.080 that none of it gives the Kennedy government a blank check to drive us further and further into

00:46:58.460 debt. I mean, provincial government debt is already about is already $100 billion. It's

00:47:03.000 moving towards $116 billion by the end of the fiscal year, which was almost unimaginable,

00:47:09.080 you know, just a few years back us to be in this amount of of red ink. So I think what is going to

00:47:14.460 be so key is for the government just to be open and honest with Albertans on what that would mean

00:47:19.400 and what it's going to cost. Yeah, because it wouldn't be a minor change, and there's long-term

00:47:24.440 contracts. But again, if it was a recommendation of the panel, we should work on with it.

00:47:28.440 Another area, you know, the last I heard about it was in April, and that's one of the areas that

00:47:32.120 they keep saying they're going to do, saying they're going to do, but I haven't seen it yet,

00:47:34.780 is the appointment of a provincial firearms officer. That gets into property rights, perhaps,

00:47:39.140 and things like that. I mean, could that be helpful, or is that another layer of bureaucracy?

00:47:42.940 see? And again, do you think they're ever going to actually move on it?

00:47:46.860 No, I think that would be a good move. I think so, at least in terms of accountability and stuff

00:47:51.780 like that. I think it's one of the more minor issues that we've been talking about within this

00:47:56.460 fair deal panel discussion. I'm not exactly sure where the ball is exactly on this point, but I

00:48:01.420 think it fits into this whole thing. You know, from the taxpayer perspective and Alberta taxpayer

00:48:06.860 perspective, when we talk about the fair deal, it means a lot of different things, right? But

00:48:10.780 I think fundamentally it talks about a relationship with Ottawa and the rest of provinces when it

00:48:15.460 comes to our ability to grow our economy and how much of the bill that we're actually footing here

00:48:19.880 and so I think the the bigger issues really are the equalization and the equalization referendum

00:48:25.020 there is no fair deal for Albertans without tackling and addressing this unfair federal

00:48:29.580 scheme so it's good to see the government getting the ball rolling there um of course we talked

00:48:34.060 about the pension plan um that is another one of these big issues but I'll bring it back to just

00:48:39.460 the tax points i think that is probably the top three of the big issues here when it comes to a

00:48:44.920 fair deal for alberta taxpayers um and that is something that i think we need to discuss more

00:48:49.720 and need to push this kenny government to take concrete steps on again they ran on it in their

00:48:53.900 platform so i think we expect some movement here uh that's great yeah and i mean things just again

00:49:00.580 just getting it rolling and it ties into that theme of okay we've got one and we're celebrating

00:49:04.340 it the equalization referendum we've got a summer to work on this a fall to get into the voting i

00:49:09.260 I suspect we might be into a federal election this fall as people are going to people who like politics are going to get a heavy dose of it.

00:49:16.220 And the people who hate politics are going to be nauseated this fall.

00:49:19.240 We've got a lot to pay attention to and a lot of balls to juggle.

00:49:22.180 But it's all very, very important.

00:49:25.300 Are there other aspects of the Fair Deal panel we haven't covered that you'd like to speak on here?

00:49:29.920 You know, Corey, I think we I think we really hit it on all.

00:49:32.380 And I'll just kind of go back to the I think the few major issues, as I see it, is, of course, the cost.

00:49:37.560 Right. More than six hundred billion.

00:49:39.260 dollars is is what alberta taxpayers have paid to to ottawa and of course the rest of the province is

00:49:44.940 then what we have gotten back in spending since the 1960s and i think where that really

00:49:48.940 frustrates people is the fact that even though we have these huge contributions to the rest of

00:49:53.420 canada we still have politicians all across the country who are roadblocking our development and

00:49:57.580 i think that is what really needs to change and that's why the equalization referendum i think is

00:50:02.540 our our best bet our best bet to really enter the game right the way i see it is is right now it

00:50:09.020 seems like we're screaming we're on the field but we're screaming from the sidelines and it's the

00:50:13.420 equalization referendum that puts us in the fight and along those lines corey i just want to to put

00:50:18.700 in a shameless plug here is that the ctf we did launch um an equalization referendum campaign

00:50:24.620 uh please please please let's get all hands on deck here because we really do need to show a

00:50:28.700 clear majority. We need to send Trudeau a message on what we think about the status flow.

00:50:33.120 And you can find the CTFs, the Canadian Taxpayers Federation's campaign website at

00:50:38.480 fightequalization.ca. All right. And that's the main message we got to get out. Even if it feels

00:50:44.480 futile to people, if it feels like it's an endeavor, it isn't. It's worthwhile getting

00:50:48.000 out there. Even if you're beating your head on that wall, it's bringing the discussion forward.

00:50:52.240 And if it does fail well, then it's time to open up other discussions. But right now there's a

00:50:56.680 mechanism it's here let's use it let's make you know get our voices out there so uh i appreciate

00:51:02.780 the taxpayers federation taking that on to help you know remind people throughout the summer and

00:51:06.900 into fall and as this campaign unfolds that it is important and it can move towards some things so

00:51:12.320 where can we find uh more information where you're up to what you're up to and where what you're going

00:51:16.640 to be up to now that you're moving off to the evil east there well look i'm actually uh pretty

00:51:22.240 excited to go to Ottawa. I mean, hopefully I'll

00:51:24.260 be able to catch a Blue Jays game in person

00:51:26.040 sooner rather than later. That would be fantastic.

00:51:28.560 It's only a short little drive to

00:51:30.240 Toronto. So fingers crossed there.

00:51:32.920 But please check us out at

00:51:34.240 taxpayer.com. Check out the

00:51:36.220 newsroom. But more importantly for this

00:51:38.240 discussion, please, especially if you're in

00:51:40.240 Alberta, head over to fightequalization.ca

00:51:42.840 and let's

00:51:44.180 give us a hand and let's make sure that we send

00:51:46.460 a clear message to Trudeau

00:51:48.240 about the status quo.

00:51:49.520 right on yeah you'll have plenty to fight for on our behalf for over in ottawa as well you don't

00:51:54.840 have to be here to do it in fact that's where the the bigger ogre is so i look forward to seeing

00:51:58.740 what you're up to over there and i'm certain we'll be talking again sometime soon awesome

00:52:03.940 hey cory thank you so much for having me on today all right i'll talk later

00:52:07.060 so yeah you know and we just haven't been hearing about that fair deal panel uh some folks i think

00:52:15.280 you know see it as a bit of a bait and switch exercise let's keep the regionalists happy let's

00:52:20.900 let them talk let's let them vent and then we we won't do much with it and i think there's some

00:52:25.740 truth to that strategy uh but as as frank was pointing out we do have a referendum coming that

00:52:31.060 was one of the recommendations it was also a campaign promise and uh it is i feel as well

00:52:36.420 i've said it a couple of times important it's all steps guys i know there's people say we want out

00:52:40.760 Confederation right now. Well, fine, but there's not enough Albertans who want out. So go through

00:52:46.920 these steps, go through them, show the futility, if it turns out to be such, of trying through these

00:52:52.160 means first. And I assure you, every time one of these things tries and fails, you're going to get

00:52:55.880 more of those people who said, okay, that's enough. It's time to change the entire national

00:53:00.340 agreement. And constitutional reform is virtually impossible without tearing out first. So maybe

00:53:06.080 it's time to start working towards that. I think it was time to start working towards that, well,

00:53:09.680 a long time ago. That's part of why I started the Alberta Independence Party when I was 29.

00:53:15.440 None of the issues have changed. That's some of the frustration. You know, I think I mentioned

00:53:19.500 that in the show the other day too. And I was reading an older book and saw polling on Albertan's

00:53:24.520 thoughts from back in the 70s. And the issues were just the same then as they are today. And

00:53:29.680 nothing seems to improve. And but we've got to try different things. So we haven't had an

00:53:34.440 equalization referendum yet. Putting that power into voters hands. That's something I want people

00:53:39.020 to get used to. You know, get out there, get on voting with these things. Let's push that envelope.

00:53:46.540 It's the Albertans saying the RCMP isn't accountable to local populations. You know,

00:53:51.660 there's one of the aspects in the RCMP reform that I would like to see. Again, with these officers,

00:53:57.340 they get transferred, you know, they train and then they get shipped off to a different region

00:54:00.940 of the country where they aren't locally entrenched. They don't know the local issues.

00:54:05.100 they don't know the local players or individuals and they've got to figure it out when they get

00:54:09.660 there i mean community policing means being a part of the community and you know what just

00:54:13.660 to point out though there is a thing a reason that they do that to a degree uh police corruption of

00:54:18.620 course around the world historically it has happened and it does happen if you've come from

00:54:25.100 outside into a new region your chances of having local criminal connections or things like that

00:54:30.220 or opportunities for corruption to reduce that is a part of the rationale for shifting officers

00:54:34.460 around the way they do. But at the same time, it leaves somebody a little more blind to the local

00:54:39.480 challenges and needs of the area that they've gone into that may not have applied where they

00:54:44.260 were trained and where it began. So again, personally, I'll just go to what I'd like to

00:54:50.740 say as far as, as long as we're in confederation, I think we should get rid of the RCMP as a contract

00:54:55.800 provincially, get a provincial police force, but we do need to make sure we aren't, like I was

00:54:59.960 talking about with the pension plan, not just making a carbon copy of the last four. So we're

00:55:03.480 not improving anything aside from who's directing it. You know, let's, yeah, I hate to say it, you

00:55:09.040 know, study. I don't want to drag it on much farther, but we got to look at it. How can we

00:55:12.500 make it a bit better? How can we make it more responsive to people? And how can we make it

00:55:16.860 better for the police? They've been getting crapped on all over the place too. They're

00:55:19.780 having a hard time. And there are some good officers among the RCMP, among city police

00:55:24.600 forces. I mean, that's not a fun or easy job and it's stressing them out. And that leads to some

00:55:30.460 the incidents and episodes as well. Forming a new force can really be an opportunity if we do it

00:55:36.000 right. And the federal force, again, looking, say, like the American model, they'd still be there,

00:55:40.480 but they would be there for issues that are federal in nature, you know, ones that are

00:55:43.940 crossing the provinces, ones that are going national. So, I mean, it's not like they'd be

00:55:47.000 gone altogether. And I think a lot of the officers, if the contract was gone, would sign up to be on

00:55:53.480 the provincial force. They wouldn't necessarily lose those individuals as it is. Pointing out

00:55:59.640 that Kenny helped write the equalization formula. Yeah. He's in a different role now. I mean,

00:56:05.080 it's frustrating. It doesn't seem like it's going anywhere. Fair enough. But again,

00:56:09.080 Kenny has nothing to do with how we will vote on that referendum. Vote on it. I mean,

00:56:14.360 it's a separate issue. Don't tie this referendum, by the way, to your like or dislike of Premier

00:56:19.520 Kenny or the UCP. Just look at the referendum as an exercise in itself, you know, and vote based on

00:56:27.180 that. Then we can start moving towards those changes. That's one of my fears. Okay, yeah,

00:56:33.300 the UCP has been wildly unpopular, and I don't know if they're ever going to find their feet

00:56:37.060 again. They're in a lot of trouble in the polls. They're sinking. But don't let that apply to this

00:56:42.660 referendum. In refusing to participate in the referendum or voting for equalization,

00:56:48.360 it's not the most effective way to give the finger to the provincial government if you don't

00:56:53.700 like them. I mean, think of your own interests, think of the province's interests when you choose

00:56:58.420 to participate in that referendum this fall. Set aside what your thoughts might be on the

00:57:03.960 provincial government with it. Just some nice words from Teresa Shorty-Bretz there. Lafranco

00:57:10.620 is amazing common sense, which is an unheard of trait nowadays. Yeah, there's not nearly enough of

00:57:14.480 it. And yeah, he's not gone. He is heading though to Ottawa. He's the national director rather than

00:57:21.700 the provincial one for Alberta now. And we're looking forward to see what he does there because

00:57:26.160 yeah, I mean, boy, he's going to have a lot more to dig into. You know, waste is bad enough

00:57:30.500 provincially, but boy, that bloated monster in Ottawa is going to give him a lot of work to

00:57:35.900 carry on with over there. Yeah, and Teresa also pointing out, yeah, the RCMP transfer every so

00:57:43.440 many years, they rarely stay in one spot. And again, I think that it's mixed. You know, you 1.00

00:57:49.480 reduce some some local issues of having a long-term entrenched officer in an area for too

00:57:54.440 long but at the same time they lose that connection with uh the local people uh spence what do we got

00:58:04.200 uh that's what's going to happen it's all going to be about kenny's leadership perhaps you know i i

00:58:09.080 just rather we we didn't let it become so i mean that's up to us uh opponents to it are going to

00:58:14.840 to make it that way. Um, and then, uh, back to the CPP, uh, Bonnie has been speaking. So what

00:58:20.800 Canadians don't understand is it's not guaranteed, even though it's mandatory to pay into it. Uh,

00:58:25.060 her husband paid every year for 41 years, passed away and you get zero. Yeah. Yeah. You know,

00:58:29.620 it's not like your personal plan. It's not like if you didn't collect that you could leave it to

00:58:33.280 your family. Um, he and his employer put 181,000 into it in a real lifetime. And now she'll get

00:58:40.480 zero because there's a maximum and she started receiving the maximum because she paid through 1.00

00:58:45.020 her own work. Yeah, it's not a proper pension plan. It's not a separate one. It's not independent

00:58:51.240 and there are a lot of problems with it. So as Franco was saying, and that's another discussion

00:58:55.860 that's worthwhile in having in this is that we don't want to bring out another bad plan. If we

00:59:03.100 got the opportunity to bring in a new one, let's make a better one and let's tie it to the person. 0.88

00:59:08.280 if you're going to take that money out of my pocket every two weeks or whatever your pace

00:59:13.680 period might be, it's my money. I should be seeing it. And, you know, keep that independent. So

00:59:20.980 we've got these opportunities. We've got these things to make change. When people want to see

00:59:24.660 more independence within the province, you know, within Canada, fine, absolutely. Let's take on

00:59:33.200 more and more. Let's just make sure we're not bringing on another version of what we just got

00:59:37.560 out of because you know just a smaller version of the same thing is not an improvement. So I'm

00:59:43.560 going to move on to the tail end of the show here. We've got a new edition at the Western Standard

00:59:48.180 and it's a young lady named Jackie Conroy and she's bringing some much-needed energy and youthful

00:59:55.240 vigor into a newsroom dominated by grouchy old men. Though a lot of people do appreciate our 1.00

01:00:02.240 crabby perspectives, it's good to get some balance and Jackie has a story coming out and she's been

01:00:07.140 doing some work. So I'll bring her in there and let's see how it's going. Hey,

01:00:10.260 Jackie, how are you doing?

01:00:11.520 I'm great. Thanks, Corey. How are you?

01:00:13.620 Oh, very good. Thanks. I see you're down in the office today with,

01:00:17.460 with all the grumps I'm hiding out somewhere else.

01:00:19.860 Out at Calgary headquarters. Just, just me and the grumps. 0.91

01:00:23.400 Oh yes. Very good. So, uh, you, uh, well, a couple of things, I mean,

01:00:28.020 you're developing a, you know, bringing that youthful aspect, uh, into our,

01:00:31.380 our Krabby, uh, publication. You've set up a TikTok account. I gotta admit,

01:00:36.840 I'm not a big TikTok follower and user, but it's certainly a large growing social media platform

01:00:41.920 for a lot of messaging. So what's up with that? I have to say I was honestly in the same boat for

01:00:47.540 a long time. I've always been kind of hesitant to hop on new technology, but I saw a lot of my

01:00:52.340 friends kind of getting on it. And then when I was able to realize the actual business side of it,

01:00:56.900 I found that TikTok can be really, really helpful for us. I think it's going to really help us

01:01:01.240 be able to authentically engage with our audience, if that makes sense. Because as you previously

01:01:05.580 you said every everyone knows us as like the grouchy old men and like we're very you know

01:01:10.860 relevant and everything like that like it's it doesn't not to take away from anything like that

01:01:14.780 but i think having that other side of things to kind of show our fun side and our energy and just

01:01:19.660 kind of like what goes on behind the scenes to to show that they're not all just grumpy grumpy old

01:01:24.380 men well i am but uh yes you can expose some of that and it's good so tick tock explaining a

01:01:30.860 a little bit how it is it's kind of a short form video platform so you can kind of take a bite of

01:01:36.060 something and get a piece of it and I guess that could potentially bring in new audiences I mean

01:01:40.640 it's quite a commitment say to come into my show or Nathan's show because these are long two hour

01:01:44.780 running shows and it might be a little dry you might pick the wrong show the wrong day but be

01:01:50.160 missing out on what could be a good production tick tock I guess can kind of give you a little

01:01:53.280 bit of a taste of something and maybe you want to see more later oh exactly and I think we talked

01:01:57.860 about this before but i'm really hoping to kind of supplement our personal tiktok account with

01:02:02.500 like clip it's from your show clip it's from nathan's show kind of like those really snappy

01:02:06.640 little headline little pieces and instead because like you said as as amazing as the show is some

01:02:12.240 people don't have the two hours to kind of tune in for the entire thing so i feel like tiktok can

01:02:16.780 really help us engage with our audience in that way so that they can get those snappy headlines

01:02:20.800 even if they don't necessarily have time to sit through the whole conversation um and you're

01:02:24.820 hitting the nail on the head. TikTok is basically a short video format. Usually it ranges from kind

01:02:29.880 of five seconds, 15 seconds and like absolute maximum 60 seconds. So really short, snappy,

01:02:35.180 getting your message out there really quick. And like I said, I think that'll really, really help

01:02:39.240 us because I think for the longest time, Western Standard has really been focused on what we should

01:02:44.140 be as a newspaper, which is our news stories and everything like that. But I think as we're

01:02:48.180 beginning to grow, having that TikTok account to, like I said, engage authentically with our

01:02:52.920 audience, show them that we're not just, you know,

01:02:55.300 some hoity toity thing in a big fancy office sort of thing that we're,

01:02:58.720 we're real people. We like to have fun, all of that.

01:03:02.220 Yeah.

01:03:02.460 I try and humanize it a little bit from, you know,

01:03:04.200 that unsmiling guy who's just sitting there with the green screen behind them

01:03:07.620 all the time. And it's part of what's been going on too.

01:03:11.280 We are upping our technical game in the digital realm there.

01:03:17.160 You know, we've been at it a few months and we're getting there.

01:03:19.380 But as you can see from the shine on my forehead and the other things that we are actually getting some new gear and we're going to be changing our digital content a little bit, a little more recorded stuff, a little shorter form interviews because we've got some great guests and we get some great content.

01:03:33.920 And TikTok, I guess I'll give a good means and way to pull those new listeners and viewers in.

01:03:38.820 That that's kind of been my entire thing with TikTok is reaching out to that Gen Z audience that kind of doesn't doesn't have quite the same grasp on on news as kind of someone that your guys's age would be and kind of needs that extra push to even kind of like get into it because I'm the first one to admit people my age are very, very apathetic about about politics about kind of what's going on.

01:04:01.080 Like so many people my age turn on CNN and see what's going on in America and then say, oh, no, like I'm informed, like I know what's going on.

01:04:07.440 And it's like, OK, well, do you do you know anything about our our current prime minister?

01:04:11.080 Do you know what he's doing? Like, oh, no, no idea.

01:04:13.260 Like, what is SNC-Lavalin? So I think it could really provide a nice little pipeline to get a younger generation into our stories, into connecting with us as a paper and kind of, like I said, bridging, bridging that gap between Gen Z and what we have to offer as a news outlet.

01:04:29.620 it. Well, great. So getting back to what our basis is and the stories and that you've got a new

01:04:34.560 article coming out quite quickly with the Western standard, I believe on a women's self-defense and 0.90

01:04:39.760 such. I do. I, it's actually, I, Dave makes fun of me all the time. I tend to be a little bit

01:04:45.840 long-winded in my responses. So it's actually being turned into two separate articles slash

01:04:51.440 segments kind of thing. The first of which I'm really, really hoping will be up by the end of

01:04:55.580 the day today um basically just goes through because i'm not sure if you heard but it was kind

01:05:00.700 of a very large social media campaign that began around november of 2020 so like late last year

01:05:07.340 that drew attention to the fact that within calgary within edmonton and other places within alberta

01:05:12.940 there have been a rise in attacks specifically targeted against women and they that they've kind

01:05:18.540 of come in all different forms like some women are saying they're being followed without consent 0.98

01:05:22.220 some women are saying that people are coming and taking photos without their consent and like 0.99

01:05:26.460 there's definitely more extreme cases of like actual physical or sexual assault but

01:05:30.940 i was just really surprised when i first started researching this how little media coverage it's

01:05:36.860 gotten and to be totally fair i understand i understand where they're coming from i understand

01:05:41.740 where a lot of people are coming from in terms of not wanting to cover it because there hasn't

01:05:46.620 there hasn't been a lot of official news around it if that makes sense there hasn't been a lot

01:05:51.020 of official police statements a lot of like official things coming out it's been a lot of

01:05:56.060 statements because to be totally frank i think an issue that's been long in our history is coming up

01:06:01.580 again now people are afraid to go to the police people are afraid i had one person that i

01:06:06.300 interviewed say something to the extent of i was afraid to go to the police because i thought that

01:06:10.620 they would try to minimize my issue and like because i didn't actually get hit like i was

01:06:16.380 afraid to go to the police because i thought that they would kind of dismiss me so i think

01:06:21.500 definitely raising the awareness around that is something that i've really been focused on for

01:06:25.740 this article and it's it's been it's been fun in a way but it's definitely been a rabbit hole to go

01:06:30.540 down and kind of see the the dark underbelly of what really has been going on within our city

01:06:36.060 and our province and and not to say kind of like as an overarching thing that alberta is a dangerous

01:06:40.940 place or calgary or anything but i think not enough attention is being drawn to this specific

01:06:46.780 issue and i think because of that it's been getting worse like i just saw recently the police released

01:06:52.060 a statement just this week about something that happened on monday june 14th um a man riding on

01:06:57.820 a bike going around sexually harassing women grabbing them sexually inappropriately um so

01:07:03.660 it's obvious that this issue hasn't died down it's not it's not going anywhere until someone tries

01:07:10.300 is to do something about it.

01:07:11.680 And so I'm I'm only one human being.

01:07:14.020 I'm only an intern, but I'm really, really

01:07:16.080 hoping that with my story, I can help

01:07:18.540 bring some awareness to this.

01:07:20.060 I can help kind of spread some people's

01:07:22.300 stories because some of the people that

01:07:24.020 I've interviewed have had really, really

01:07:25.960 interesting, really scary experiences

01:07:28.800 that I believe are worth sharing.

01:07:30.340 And once again, I just I believe

01:07:32.780 that the more light that we can shed on

01:07:34.760 this, the easier reaching a solution

01:07:36.760 will be.

01:07:37.760 Yeah, well, and you've looked into some

01:07:39.860 the more self-defense aspects of it you know and that's something gets overlooked it used to be

01:07:44.420 much bigger and that's in a much bigger story the police do not like people taking care of

01:07:50.760 themselves that that culture that has come about I mean this going back to guests I interviewed

01:07:55.080 recently and and things with the incident with why am I forgetting his name I know him so well

01:08:02.300 Eddie Maurice when he dared to defend his household and his child and the police ran him through the

01:08:07.300 ringer it's it's a real attitude you know I remember it was big as when I was a child you

01:08:12.400 know even in the 70s and into the 80s with women's self-defense courses because unfortunately perverts 1.00

01:08:17.520 and molesters have always been a reality in life thankfully they're a minority but they're a very 0.96

01:08:21.880 dangerous one and it was common for for women to go to these things to learn at least the bare

01:08:27.780 basics so that hopefully if they're calling the police it's uh to report yeah I gouged a pervert's

01:08:32.600 eye out and this is who to look for rather than saying, I have been assaulted and we now need to

01:08:38.340 chase this person down. We've moved away from that proactive, take care of yourself first

01:08:42.280 and then call the police thing. So, so you took a course or took part in something like that?

01:08:47.120 I did. And first of all, Corey, I couldn't agree with you more. I think that there has been

01:08:51.420 not necessarily a campaign, but definitely a culture from the police being promoted to say

01:08:57.660 exactly what you said that like people, people don't really have the right to defend themselves.

01:09:01.880 like it's illegal to carry most self-defense weapons in canada it's illegal to carry pepper

01:09:05.800 spray it's illegal to carry a knife a gun anything like that and i think self-defense courses is one

01:09:11.560 of the only things that women or or anyone really have at their disposal to protect themselves 0.95

01:09:17.960 because as you said like it's not it's not right like it's not like kind of having these self-defense

01:09:23.160 courses excuses all of these horrible actions because it completely doesn't but i believe that

01:09:29.080 you know in situations where police may not be able to help may not be able to get to you in

01:09:34.440 time all of that stuff it's better to have something in your arsenal than waiting to call

01:09:39.320 the cops and say this already happened i believe that self-defense courses can really really help

01:09:45.160 in terms of being a proactive thing to do um to really help people feel safer and because that's

01:09:51.160 the other thing even if you don't actually have to use it having those skills and having those

01:09:55.080 muscle memories kind of like in your

01:09:56.800 roster is really going to help you feel

01:09:58.860 more confident feel more safe when you

01:10:00.540 do go out so I had an amazing opportunity

01:10:04.200 to take a self-defense course with a

01:10:05.940 woman named Diana who runs Satori

01:10:07.860 Wellness Studio and I will go into my

01:10:10.260 article next week but she actually

01:10:12.300 started offering these free self-defense

01:10:14.340 courses for any woman that wanted them

01:10:16.400 ever since the attack started and

01:10:17.940 they've been extremely popular she was

01:10:19.620 saying that usually she would do one

01:10:21.600 every few months but ever since she's

01:10:23.280 been doing like once multiple times a month so I think people people in the community have definitely

01:10:28.740 really responded to it and once again I think if we can shed some light on some of these resources

01:10:32.880 that people can access like I said not even necessarily in order to actually physically

01:10:37.280 protect themselves but just to give them peace of mind just to give them something to say you know

01:10:41.200 if this horrible thing ever were to happen to me I would know what to do I wouldn't be helpless I

01:10:46.600 wouldn't that there's a lesser chance of me coming into harm from it yeah well and one of the things

01:10:52.560 I mean, unfortunately, the downtown is really in a decline right now.

01:10:56.920 There's a big problem down there, and there's a lot of very unsavory people all over the place.

01:11:02.200 One thing, I mean, I get uncomfortable down there as a full-grown, moderately healthy man, you know, as a person who would be smaller and less able to necessarily defend themselves.

01:11:13.620 Unfortunately, predators can smell weakness.

01:11:16.000 They really can, and one of the best ways to dissuade them is just to confidently hold your head high.

01:11:22.300 I mean, these guys are usually cowards if they are, you know, if they're facing somebody who looks a little more confident.

01:11:29.460 I mean, preventative is always the best outcome if we can with things and if we can avoid these.

01:11:33.280 So I'm glad to see that discussion starting to come forth more, though, on a proactive level rather than always reactive when it's after the fact.

01:11:40.760 You know, we don't want to see people harmed.

01:11:44.460 Well, and that's the thing other than Diana's classes, I haven't seen a lot of

01:11:48.300 media coverage or coverage in general of proactive responses.

01:11:52.580 It's always consistently been, you know, this happened and it's awful,

01:11:56.140 but there's nothing that can be done about it because it's already happened.

01:11:58.900 I think if we can grow that awareness campaign, we can stop things from

01:12:03.500 happening and kind of contribute to that proactive action again.

01:12:08.980 Well, that's great.

01:12:09.820 I'm looking forward to seeing both your stories dropped.

01:12:11.940 that you got some video while you were doing that course and such as well,

01:12:14.940 didn't you? Or I did actually, I did an entire video segment.

01:12:18.600 I myself actually went to Diana's studio to take a self-defense class of

01:12:23.520 my own because I, as is probably evidently obvious,

01:12:27.120 this story was kind of very close to my heart.

01:12:29.080 I have been fortunate enough not to have experienced one of these attacks myself,

01:12:32.680 but as a 22 year old female who lives in Calgary, who works downtown, 1.00

01:12:36.200 like I really resonate with what you said. Like I, I feel,

01:12:39.300 I said to Dave the other day, I felt very naive because this is the first time I've actually worked in downtown Calgary.

01:12:44.880 And I I definitely didn't expect things to be as bad as they are, if that makes sense.

01:12:51.200 Like there's there's a lot of unsavory characters that are kind of frequenting that area that once again, I didn't realize.

01:12:57.440 So I once again, like as as much as it hits close to home, I'm very, very excited to share this story, share my segment.

01:13:04.660 and hopefully people can see how amazing the self-defense class is and go and take one for

01:13:09.240 themselves. Well that's great and then yeah another thing to point out I mean downtown is where we're

01:13:14.160 seeing it most evidently but this you know can happen and does happen everywhere. To date myself

01:13:19.680 for some people who might remember a long time ago I believe it was the early 90s but there's

01:13:24.140 an area called Hemlock Crescent up in the southwest and there was a serial rapist on the move up there

01:13:29.920 for some period of time who did, unfortunately, assault a number of women.

01:13:36.440 And, you know, it was at that time a whole lot of self-defense courses

01:13:38.820 suddenly came about, but that's getting back to where it's reactive.

01:13:41.560 You know, if you can just get a little more of that ability,

01:13:45.720 hopefully, you know, early, we can avoid it being something after the fact.

01:13:48.860 So I'm really looking forward to seeing the articles coming out in the video

01:13:52.000 and other endeavors as you carry on your summer downtown

01:13:57.000 with the Western Standard Grouches.

01:13:59.000 That sounds wonderful. I'm really, really excited to be here. And like you said,

01:14:02.560 I'm excited to pump a little bit of youth and energy into this place.

01:14:07.120 Okay. All right. Well, thanks for joining me today.

01:14:09.040 And I'm certain we will talk again later.

01:14:11.420 Awesome. Thank you so much, Corey. Bye.

01:14:16.600 So yeah, something a little different there, you know, but I mean,

01:14:19.060 it's interesting and the addition of Jackie,

01:14:23.040 the addition of another point of view on, on issues,

01:14:25.400 I think it's going to be better for the standard and stories and things that

01:14:27.940 come out in general. You know, Dave Naylor or Derek or myself weren't really ever probably

01:14:34.800 going to get a story idea popping into our head on how young women are dealing with the 0.99

01:14:39.580 increase of crime and odious characters in downtown Calgary. Now somebody else is bringing

01:14:45.780 that point of view in there and we'll have some great content to look forward to and discuss as

01:14:50.900 we go forward. I mean, the crime levels in Alberta and in Calgary in general are a huge problem. I

01:14:57.920 one preventative proactive area we can work in on a larger issue. There's a story if you go to

01:15:04.840 the standard online and have a look at it from Rocky Mountain House. There was a fella who had

01:15:10.540 been arrested for stealing cars. They of course made him sign off and promise you know for the

01:15:17.020 short term before I go to court again I won't steal cars and I won't do other things. They said

01:15:21.300 okay fine here you go go home. Well 10 minutes later he stole another truck and smashed it

01:15:25.960 through a dealership and allegedly did $200,000 damage. We've got some very serious criminal

01:15:31.320 justice issues we got to work on with these repeat offenders, these short sentences for

01:15:37.760 the dangerous ones and things like that. And then getting back to with the discussion of

01:15:42.240 police culture, RCMP, provincial police, things like that, we got a whole lot of reform to work

01:15:47.800 on. And we're going to keep reporting on it and working on these things. But in the short term,

01:15:53.360 I can't think of, as Pamela's pointing out, teach your daughters to be independent and walk with confidence.

01:15:57.960 And that's truth.

01:15:58.460 Like I said, when your head is held high, the cowards tend to leave you alone. 1.00

01:16:02.200 These guys are chickens. 0.98

01:16:04.180 They don't want to actually put themselves at risk. 0.99

01:16:06.720 They're predators.

01:16:08.840 And, you know, you can't just put on that air of self-confidence if you don't have something to back it up.

01:16:13.380 So if a woman or pretty much anybody, actually, you know, men can learn self-defense as well, of course, too.

01:16:20.200 If you've got at least that little bit of confidence to hold your head up, chances are you might greatly reduce your chances that you'll ever actually have to use it.

01:16:28.300 So, yeah, that's something to look forward to.

01:16:31.280 So that's about it for the show today.

01:16:33.360 I do want to go through, again, our sponsors.

01:16:35.460 And, again, thank our subscribers.

01:16:37.120 You know, it keeps us going, keeps us independent, getting those voices out there, getting those stories out there, local content, good content, stuff that the mainstream's just not covering.

01:16:46.380 you know, things like, again, self-defense, the police and the court systems don't want us to

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01:18:56.700 be back on Monday and discussing more. I'm certain there'll be more news, more to discuss and

01:19:02.780 well, have a good weekend guys. Thanks.

01:19:07.720 Thank you.

Western Standard - June 19, 2021

The Cory Morgan Show June 18

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