Western Standard - The Cory Morgan Show. June 4 2021

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00:01:00.000 Thank you.

00:01:30.000 Thank you.

00:02:00.000 morning welcome to the cory morrigan show friday june 4th i know it's asking a lot of people to

00:02:25.320 tune in when the weather's so nice outside and it seems like there might be better things to do

00:02:30.160 than listen to me go on for a day but I'll try and make it worth your while tuning in. I got a couple

00:02:35.220 of great guests coming on. Shane Wenzel from Shane Holmes is going to be coming on in about 15

00:02:40.920 minutes. We're going to talk a bit about the housing market that's just kind of gone insane

00:02:45.660 lately. You know some of the reasons for what we might have to look forward to maybe some of the

00:02:50.980 pitfalls of jumping in on it right now or not jumping in on it right now. It's a complex area,

00:02:56.900 but it's really been making the news. It's been interesting to watch in these depressed times,

00:03:00.660 yet houses are going crazy right now. After that, I'm going to talk to Jacob McGregor.

00:03:05.880 He's a young fellow who's running for Ward 1 in the municipal election in Calgary up there. I know

00:03:12.140 it seems like a long ways away, but the election's coming. There's going to be so many candidates.

00:03:17.760 There's so many openings. I mean, the mayoral's office is open. I believe over five sitting

00:03:22.920 councillors are now not running for their council seats again. So there is going to be a turnover

00:03:27.300 one way or another. And there's so many candidates that, to be honest, they may as well get in early

00:03:31.860 rather than late and find out what they're all about and what they're putting forward so that

00:03:35.280 in this rare chance for a big council turnover, we take advantage of it and get the best people

00:03:42.320 we can because, you know, turnouts in municipal elections are typically terribly low, embarrassingly

00:03:47.160 low and uh we really need to pay attention to them because that's the closest level of government we

00:03:50.760 got to ourselves and we ignore these candidates at our peril so it'll be interesting to talk to

00:03:56.020 jacob he's running as i said in ward one that's where ward sutherland is right now he's going

00:04:00.140 against an incumbent candidate and uh we'll see what he has to say on it so things are going well

00:04:05.440 we've got our our sponsors here they've been sponsoring these shows and good morning sandy by

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00:07:08.740 So going further on with the day here.

00:07:12.480 Let's see here.

00:07:14.400 We've got lots.

00:07:16.140 Where do you begin with the news lately, right?

00:07:20.300 Jody Wilson-Raybould has been in the news.

00:07:23.060 She came up last night on a show, and I guess she outright called for the repealing of the Indian Act.

00:07:29.320 I just want to mention that because I wrote a column recently.

00:07:32.420 It's in the westernstandardonline.com saying the same thing.

00:07:38.140 People can give it more weight from, you know, Mrs. Wilson-Raybould since she's a First Nations person who did come up, you know, through the system and became a lawyer and a successful yet controversial politician.

00:07:50.080 Love her or hate her.

00:07:50.980 She's been a successful person who's worked very hard.

00:07:52.780 And you've got to take what she talks about with First Nations issues seriously.

00:07:56.420 And, of course, those issues are top of mind right now with that horrific discovery in Kamloops of the bodies from that residential school.

00:08:06.460 So, you know, again, it's worth listening to what Jody's got to say.

00:08:10.960 And that's part of what, you know, I get frustrated with.

00:08:14.380 Like there's more to this than just lowering flags, virtue signaling, doing things, expressing our grief or shame, whatever you want to with that whole issue.

00:08:24.520 They're all important.

00:08:25.460 but we really need to change some stuff and nobody's got the courage to actually change it

00:08:31.180 uh wilson raybold pointed out quite clearly the indian act is the act that facilitated

00:08:35.740 residential schools that's where it was packed into i mean they've pulled that

00:08:38.520 clause out of it but that big 140 year old ugly racist document is still what governs first

00:08:48.580 nations today. It's still what guides our governance, our actions, the reserve system,

00:08:55.440 the whole ugly mess. You know, there's no repairing a bill that ugly. We've got to work

00:09:00.960 on throwing it in the garbage. Now, it can be very debatable on what you replace the bill with.

00:09:05.000 Personally, I think nothing. I don't think race-based policy has any place in a modern

00:09:10.060 society or a democratic system. But at least, you know, if people need to be replaced by something,

00:09:15.580 it's time to start the discussion. But the first step is pointing out that the Indian Act is garbage 0.99

00:09:20.300 and put it in the garbage where it belongs. So I was happy to see Jody Wilson-Raybould come out 0.98

00:09:25.000 and say that. Of course, she is sitting as an independent member of parliament. You don't see

00:09:28.420 them coming out that boldly, unfortunately, with policy statements or ideas when they're members

00:09:34.520 of a party. It takes until they lose those partisan constraints before they can speak

00:09:39.580 their mind and go after these issues. Because we know that the Liberal government, more than

00:09:43.800 likely they'll strike more commissions. They'll throw more money at some things. They'll certainly

00:09:46.980 apologize over and over again. And I'm certain many of the apologies are genuine, but it doesn't

00:09:52.100 change anything. We've got to change things. We've got this system of apartheid. We've got this

00:09:57.420 reserve system. It's failing. It's in trouble. People are suffering on every level on those

00:10:03.100 reserves. And the Indian Act is the core document that keeps that separation going. So I was just

00:10:08.880 very happy to see Jody Wilson-Raybould speak up about it. Hopefully she takes that up as a cause

00:10:13.340 because people do watch her they listen to her she's got a platform she's got a voice 1.00

00:10:17.500 and maybe we can finally start chipping at you know this this uh intractable old antiquated racist

00:10:25.900 system was which really is what we have right now uh we talked a bit about it on the pipeline you

00:10:30.380 know and derek and i it was it was a fun debate because derek kind of agrees but he thinks it's 0.97

00:10:33.820 completely impossible to get rid of the indian act that it'll never happen you know i i'm not one to

00:10:38.460 say never say never and it won't be easy it won't be easy by any means but a good step towards it's 0.99

00:10:42.860 It's when you get people like Jody Wilson-Raybould coming out saying, we have to scrap that odious piece of legislation.

00:10:48.440 So that's kind of good news on a front of a terrible, tragic, bad news story.

00:10:55.900 So getting on to independent MLAs, actually, that can speak their minds now.

00:11:00.320 I noticed Drew Barnes and Todd Lowen have done their first action in the independent corner of the legislature.

00:11:06.780 They're taking the UCP to task on their democratic reform policies, which, again, is great.

00:11:12.580 You know, again, when these guys get unrestrained by the partisan gag, they can speak up because, you know, Jason Kenney and the UCP did a terrible bait and switch with us when it came to democratic reform.

00:11:23.460 They sold us as party members when I was a member of parties in the past as voters, still a voter, on democratic reform.

00:11:31.300 They said, we're going to get citizens initiated referenda and we're going to get recall legislation.

00:11:36.420 We thought, great, we'll go ahead with that. It's going to be fantastic. Somehow it took them

00:11:39.800 two years and before their poll numbers were swirling the toilet, before they finally got

00:11:44.480 around to actually tabling such legislation, at least they got to it. But then what they did is

00:11:49.380 they created it and set the thresholds so high on both that they're never going to be met. It was a

00:11:55.440 joke. It's an insult, really. So you've drafted and say, there, you see, I gave you what you're

00:11:59.920 asking for, but you can't use it. It's like promising somebody a meal, but it's locked

00:12:05.520 under a glass dish. All you can do is look at it. You can't actually eat it. So in other words,

00:12:10.420 it's not good for anything. It was a waste of time and it was a deception. So to see Todd and

00:12:17.720 Drew speaking up against that in an unrestrained and constructive manner. I'll lay out a little

00:12:24.320 of what I'm talking about. With the recall legislation, for example, you've got to set

00:12:27.820 the threshold rather high because you don't want people frivolously doing it. We don't want people

00:12:33.040 starting a recall petition the day after somebody gets elected. I mean, it should be used

00:12:37.240 only in extreme circumstances when somebody in elected office has done something so odious that

00:12:42.760 we just don't feel we can wait to have them finish up their term before getting rid of them.

00:12:48.200 And while I say it's rare, we've seen that a number of times with a number of elected officials

00:12:52.300 over the years. We need some sort of mechanism in those extreme examples, but you need to set a bar

00:12:56.500 relatively high so it's not done frivolously. Now, typically with these sorts of things,

00:13:00.820 you would set it based on petitioning and getting signatures from the number of people who voted in

00:13:08.460 the last election like if you want to get a party registered in Alberta for example I can't remember

00:13:12.220 what it is I believe it's five percent or something like that but it's five percent of those who voted

00:13:16.380 in the last election that's where they set that threshold in that bar and that's the number you

00:13:21.700 got to get and if nobody's ever actually petitioned door-to-door before you got to understand it's

00:13:25.660 very very difficult it's hard work like real petitioning not online petitions not all that

00:13:30.000 stuff. I can throw a petition up on Twitter and probably get 5,000 signatures in half an hour over

00:13:35.160 something ridiculous and stupid just because that's what we do on Twitter. But a real one where 0.92

00:13:39.320 you've got to get somebody to commit to putting their phone number, their address and their

00:13:43.380 signature on it. A good petitioner working their butt off would be lucky to get 100 signatures a

00:13:48.960 day. Like that's really hard work to go to somebody's door and do that. And they've set

00:13:52.680 the bar at I believe it's 40% of registered voters in the last election. Registered, not just those

00:14:00.260 who came out to vote. So you understand if you had a low turnout constituency where you're trying

00:14:04.680 for a recall, you might actually need to get signatures from more people than actually voted.

00:14:09.800 That's never going to happen. And they knew that when they brought this legislation forward. They

00:14:14.320 knew that very well. So I'm happy to see Drew Barnes and Todd Lowen bringing it up. And again,

00:14:20.640 that, you know, we've got kind of a dysfunctional, very polarized legislature right now. You know,

00:14:26.780 Rachel Notley, I mean, as people have said, if Kenny said the sky was blue, she would be screaming

00:14:31.660 from the hilltops that absolutely not, it's purple. That it's just blind opposition rather

00:14:36.060 than constructive opposition. And we need constructive stuff. So Drew and Todd, and boy,

00:14:42.220 you know, we know they're cranky with the UCP and Kenny right now, but still, they're taking

00:14:45.640 legislation and they're saying these are ways we can improve upon it let's get it forward and fix

00:14:51.680 it up now whether or not it'll pass probably not but we're seeing at least some constructive voices

00:14:56.400 in opposition because opposition is important it's very important but we need it to be nuanced we

00:15:02.080 need it to have a goal not just a case of rage or constantly just opposing everything that the

00:15:08.420 government says or does I mean the role is to pick at the government and see where they've gone wrong

00:15:13.200 and to expose things absolutely and it can make you a little grumpy when it's the the team you

00:15:18.580 like that's getting exposed doing something but it's a very important role and if that role though

00:15:23.360 is taken to the extreme as unfortunately i think it is right now it's not being utilized correctly

00:15:27.980 and we're not seeing the benefits of it that we could so um i i am a supporter of pizza parliament

00:15:33.540 sort of things the more voices you can get in there that are unrestrained to speak up

00:15:36.580 the better we all are for it so judy wilson rabel is up there now speaking about the indian act and

00:15:42.240 she's very well qualified to do so. She never would have been allowed to do so or able to do

00:15:46.760 so when she was under the Liberal Party banner. Todd and Drew are now up there speaking on the

00:15:52.300 Democratic reform bills. Again, they wouldn't have been able to do so when they were still

00:15:56.600 technically UCP members. So in some ways, we've got some good news happening in the legislature.

00:16:02.680 It feels futile. It feels like you're just screaming in the wind because the majority

00:16:05.860 is still going to crush you when the vote comes. But it was brought up and voters remember it.

00:16:09.820 And I think, you know, I mean, Kenny is by no means a fool.

00:16:13.660 That's why we're so disappointed in him at a lot of levels, because he is a smart man and he is principled in many ways.

00:16:20.400 They understand that they're in a lot of trouble in the polls and they're having some difficulty.

00:16:23.740 So when they get these pressures put against them, you know, reasonably, it's possible the government can shift a little bit.

00:16:29.780 They might start moving.

00:16:30.780 They don't want to lose their seats.

00:16:31.880 They like their jobs.

00:16:33.740 So let's keep our opposition going as it is.

00:16:38.460 You know, thank you, Jody.

00:16:39.440 Thank you, Drew. Thank you, Todd. Good politics to all. So I'm going to bring in on to something

00:16:46.320 a little different now is Shane Wenzel. He's from Shane Holmes, the namesake of it from his father,

00:16:52.500 Cal. The housing market has been big in the news lately, and a lot of it is kind of, it's a huge

00:16:57.620 issue. It's confusing. There's a lot of odd trends happening. I'd just like to speak to somebody who

00:17:03.500 knows more on those issues than myself. And there's many people that know more than myself,

00:17:07.260 uh but particularly in this Shane's got some some good stuff to say I'm sure so thank you very much

00:17:12.140 for joining me Shane oh I'm not hearing you there um is that better oh there we go you're coming in

00:17:23.200 excellent yeah yeah the two-tiered system of mic making okay it's better than what happens if you

00:17:31.560 get an embarrassing hot mic when you're saying you're doing something absolutely better to have

00:17:37.040 some checks and balances so thanks for coming on good to see you by the way it's been a while of

00:17:41.760 these these things nobody gets out anymore um actually i wanted to start i was hoping i i threw

00:17:48.400 that out in the tweet as well you know you've been really active lately uh you've always been

00:17:51.920 politically outspoken and things and you put out a great youtube video on cancel culture and uh

00:17:56.960 and an article in uh business calgary i believe it was yes yes so maybe we could expand in a bit

00:18:03.760 of that in a little bit here if you like too um if you've got some time to chat on those things but

00:18:08.640 i i do want to start on housing like this is something it's it's been kind of strange you

00:18:14.320 know i i've seen it in my neighborhood down in prittis like houses have gone up for sale and

00:18:18.480 they're literally gone in eight hours they're getting what they asked or they're getting into

00:18:21.520 bidding wars for these things like we're in an economic almost depression right now most people

00:18:26.960 are in a hard way why on earth are we seeing people going into bidding wars and paying much

00:18:31.920 much, much more for a house all of a sudden that they never would have imagined a year ago.

00:18:36.460 You know what? If I had all the answers, you know, I'd probably be on every talk show from

00:18:40.880 coast to coast. I would have predicted that it would have slowed down. And that's where we were

00:18:44.740 a year ago, Corey. You know, we were locked down and people just weren't getting out. I mean,

00:18:51.440 they were scared. They didn't know what to expect from COVID. And we actually had a relatively

00:18:55.760 decent year last year. And this year, where you think things should logically slow down,

00:19:01.920 again. Here they are. They've ramped up once again. Yeah. So we're a bit baffled ourselves,

00:19:08.540 but I mean, we're happy to go along with what's happening out there. But when you look at what's

00:19:14.240 happening in the market, though, I mean, prices have gone out of whack. And honestly, for the

00:19:18.620 first time, at least in my career, all of North America has really exploded for housing. Now,

00:19:26.600 what can you tie that back to well there's a few things i think uh you know one i mean you're

00:19:31.900 seeing a product of the lockdown when it uh when it comes to uh to a lot of the pricing out there

00:19:37.040 and lumber seems to be the hot button right now uh and and you know just to give people a comparison

00:19:43.300 uh you know because they they i know that there's some people who said well really you builders you're

00:19:47.420 going for a margin grab well no it's not a margin grab trust me uh since september of 2020 on an

00:19:54.780 average 2,000 square foot single family front drive home, lumber has gone up $44,000. And that

00:20:02.660 is the largest increase I have seen in my entire career. But it's working its way throughout the

00:20:08.680 entire chain. And again, I go back to the lockdowns when you see your production should

00:20:13.840 run in a straight line like this, your buying should run in a straight line like this. And

00:20:19.000 And then all of a sudden, you know, buying drops off, production drops down hard.

00:20:24.180 And it's just created backups from everything right down to tubs, appliances, absolutely everything.

00:20:34.080 And I think that's creating a lot of what you're asking is, you know, why are people out there buying like crazy?

00:20:40.600 In your case, why is Prittis exploding?

00:20:42.500 Well, housing availability, the stock out there is short.

00:20:47.300 and you know people are uh you know whether you want to call it a trend i call it more of a fad

00:20:52.440 people are panic buying in a way they're panic buying because you know the the interest rates

00:20:59.620 are as low as they could possibly be right now although uh qualifying through cmhc is much more

00:21:04.940 of a challenge with uh with the increases in the stress test but at the same time you know you're

00:21:11.280 seeing products again like lumber go up you know 44 000 in a matter of seven eight months you know

00:21:17.180 your appliances are going up your tubs are going up uh believe it or not labor is very little of

00:21:22.940 all of that so they're trying to get in before you know the pricing goes too far out of whack that

00:21:27.180 they can't afford a home yeah well there's some dangers in this as you said it's almost a a fad

00:21:33.420 like some people again none of us has a crystal ball to know for sure but it's like everything

00:21:38.220 whether it's a cryptocurrency bubbles or others uh you better watch it if you buy at the top just

00:21:43.180 before the bottom falls out you can be in a in a pretty precarious position of negative equity

00:21:48.060 and if interest rates suddenly raise you you could be in a whole world of trouble

00:21:52.300 sure you could and i think we've seen that already uh where calgary had reached its peak

00:21:58.060 uh probably about seven eight years ago even uh even in condominiums downtown where you have

00:22:03.500 people paying 450 000 for 950 square foot apartment now they're able to sell it for 380 390.

00:22:10.620 you know so those people are backwards and uh you know it's no different in suburbia where

00:22:15.680 you get people who purchased homes for 450 000 and right now the the top value might be four

00:22:22.860 but you know with a bit of the craziness out there they uh you know they might get up to about

00:22:26.820 430 000 so it does come back a lot to the uh to the timing yeah and of course in your home builder

00:22:34.160 i don't want to be out here discouraging people from investing and buying a home at this point

00:22:37.600 But we're just seeing, I'm sure everybody prefers just to see some steady, predictable, to a degree, trending happening rather than panic buys or spikes because kind of everybody can lose in that sense.

00:22:50.000 So what we, we've experienced it once before where, you know, you saw a Calgary go right out of sight and people panic buying and then, oh, they decide, well, I'm not going to take the house.

00:23:01.460 Well, you know, there's a downside to that as well.

00:23:05.340 Yeah. Well, and then I'm guessing, I mean, you know, as I said, there's different people to

00:23:10.700 play all sorts of roles in the market. You know, there's realtors who would have other things to

00:23:14.360 add and things such as that and people involved in things. But I believe this is the theory of

00:23:19.540 my part that there's a bit of an exodus from downtown density. I mean, it's just due to this

00:23:24.460 bizarre year we've already had. People aren't as inclined to be in tight quarters with their

00:23:28.960 neighbors as they used to be. And a lot of people aren't working in the core as they used to be,

00:23:32.900 they may never go back so i mean it's driving a bit of a demand to move kind of outward i imagine

00:23:39.860 in some cases yeah i uh you know i know how tough i i could butt heads with some of my

00:23:45.300 counterparts on this i don't know if we've seen that as an actual trend yet or if it's more of

00:23:49.220 just a a fad but uh yeah you do have people moving out uh moving out of the core uh you know they're

00:23:55.540 looking for more space between them and their neighbor they're looking for more space in general

00:23:59.380 because now they've really had to live in their home and it's not sufficient for the way they

00:24:05.720 live or even the way they work, which is another reason that they might be making the move. They

00:24:11.100 want a separate home office, you know, because they're being allowed to work from home or they

00:24:16.640 may continue that work from home in the near future. You know, so it's an interesting one

00:24:23.760 to kind of track, but, you know, ask me the same question a year from now and I'll be able to

00:24:28.260 verify, you know, what's real and what's not.

00:24:31.260 Yeah, well, and it's, again, I mean, all we can do is speculate, but that's, you know,

00:24:35.680 why I have you on.

00:24:36.300 Do you feel it's going to correct at some point soon or, I mean, we're starting to reopen.

00:24:42.160 Some things are kind of coming a little closer to normal.

00:24:45.140 Maybe people will feel a little more reserved or, you know, less stressed right now.

00:24:51.560 Well, and I think that's the big event we're really waiting for is get past the lockdown,

00:24:55.880 reopen, get people back into offices and really just kind of see where things shake out in the

00:25:02.080 end. So that's why I'm hard pressed to call this a new trend rather than just kind of a fad for

00:25:08.660 the time being. Yeah, I guess it takes a little longer. We've got such exceptional circumstances

00:25:13.800 happening outside of things. You can only read so much into it when we consider that these

00:25:17.900 circumstances theoretically and hopefully are bloody well going to end soon. I'm doing one of

00:25:24.500 these like everyone else. I'm tired of not being able to go out. I just seem to get up, go to work,

00:25:30.460 come home. And that's about the end of it. And the grocery store only provides so much excitement.

00:25:36.200 Yeah, no, we've just got to get a living again. And I mean, it's been interesting to watch the

00:25:41.460 unfolding of things and people and their views as we reopen. I do hope whether people like or

00:25:47.960 dislike or whatever they may with the current provincial government, I want them to be

00:25:52.240 successful with this plan. I want this to go smoothly. I want

00:25:55.240 those infections to keep dropping. You don't like Kenny,

00:25:57.940 don't worry, we'll have lots of time to go after him later on.

00:26:00.640 But let's just get past this stuff. And go from there.

00:26:05.940 That's exactly the point.

00:26:07.940 Yeah. So going a little further, I guess, like, so you wrote

00:26:11.940 recently, in Business Calgary, I guess it sounds like it was

00:26:16.240 almost a product of a bit of frustration. And, you know, it

00:26:19.340 It was called Stonewalled by Empty Rhetoric.

00:26:22.860 It was an interesting and good piece.

00:26:24.860 Do you want to expand on what kind of inspired you and what you were getting at with that there?

00:26:29.880 Well, you know, I think the title says it all.

00:26:34.420 You know, I think that's all we've seen is a bunch of empty rhetoric over the last 14 months.

00:26:38.300 And, you know, again, tail end of 14 months, I mean, that's enough.

00:26:42.240 You know, you have a lot of the unions out there posturing for, you know, for positioning and for raises.

00:26:51.380 And yet, you know, you come to the private sector where people have been flapped, losing their jobs.

00:26:57.100 And that frustration has really taken over.

00:27:00.080 You have politicians who are posturing for position.

00:27:04.000 I mean, you had mentioned just earlier on about the opposition, you know, claiming, you know, if the UCP said the sky was blue, they would argue that it's red.

00:27:15.720 Oh, and they can do this job better.

00:27:17.340 Well, come on.

00:27:19.100 I mean, and then you go back to, you know, mainstream media where, you know, I mean, it's just constant barraging of opinions and COVID.

00:27:28.060 And, you know, people are exhausted.

00:27:29.880 They're tired.

00:27:30.560 And I mean, we see now that there's a lot of mental health issues happening out there,

00:27:35.940 and it doesn't matter which age group you fall into, but, you know, enough is enough.

00:27:40.580 I mean, how do we get back to, you know, to normal?

00:27:43.440 How do we get back to, you know, enjoying life again when all you get is all this negativity,

00:27:49.160 arguing and fighting?

00:27:50.780 And I mean, I guess I relate that to, you know, a family losing their home over a fire

00:27:54.360 and me sitting there saying, well, geez, yeah, that's too bad.

00:27:57.640 But, you know, if you had bought new, you wouldn't have had the same issue.

00:28:00.560 I'd be canceled in a minute. Yeah, no, absolutely. And it just, it's, as you said,

00:28:07.220 it's a trend that you're speaking of trends anyways. I mean, it's always been to a degree.

00:28:11.060 If it bleeds, it leads. Media is always going to kind of take off, but it's just been so dismal.

00:28:17.360 I would get so frustrated. I'd still tune into the regular pandemic updates with Jason Kenney

00:28:22.480 and Dr. Hinshaw. But then you'd go to the calls from the media and no matter what they announced,

00:28:28.740 they would the first question will always be whatever the worst case scenario is well what

00:28:33.440 if and what if and what if and oh come on can we just let something positive come up you guys but

00:28:39.580 they bring it down that road every time well and that's my point i mean look at the recent headlines

00:28:44.200 you know 500 and 513 affected today and you know six more deaths it's like okay but we're moving

00:28:50.840 in the right direction how about if we start with a headline like that you know give people a little

00:28:54.860 bit of hope and let's uh let's start moving in the right direction which is what everybody wants

00:28:59.480 i think is let's recover just stop the posturing stop the rhetoric and that's uh that's really but

00:29:06.240 you know the column was all about yeah well the headline could say deaths and infections drop

00:29:12.400 dramatically they're down by 80 they you know vaccines are proving to be effective i mean all

00:29:18.680 sorts of things you could write it's not dismissing those who have died not dismissing those who are

00:29:23.660 still vulnerable and that there's still a risk out there, but at least you can just take a break

00:29:29.360 from the, you know, they're always going to write up the most frightening and depressing of statistics

00:29:33.640 is the headline and it gets tiresome. It gets tiresome, but I think honestly is that people

00:29:39.160 are starting to leave that because, you know, they do want some hope. Well, and I mean, I've

00:29:44.800 got my bias when it comes to the mainstream media. It has been, you know, reflected and I mean,

00:29:51.100 we're trying to read in what's happening, but the Western standard, you know, has really taken off.

00:29:55.200 I mean, Derek took a chance. He's gotten this going and subscriptions are flying. The readership

00:30:00.060 has blown expectations out of the water, but it's telling us there's a void. People were looking

00:30:04.980 for something else and we found that hole in it. I mean, we're still, you know, crabby reporters

00:30:10.540 and I wrote my columns eviscerating people and I rant, but we're still, you know, it takes a

00:30:17.180 break, I think, from just what's almost turned into a monotonous mainstream sometimes.

00:30:21.100 And I tend to agree, you know, when every second headline is COVID, COVID, COVID, you

00:30:26.700 know, it's nice, it's refreshing rather to, you know, to have a different perspective

00:30:31.000 on, you know, like what good things are happening in the province, what else is going on?

00:30:34.600 Like, we need to hear more than just that.

00:30:37.460 Yeah.

00:30:38.460 The world has still been happening outside of the COVID nightmare and then we should

00:30:43.160 remember it and talk about it.

00:30:44.820 I mean, there've been a lot of lost stories while everybody scrambles on the COVID.

00:30:49.020 I believe that's a niche that the standard kind of filled as well.

00:30:52.060 You know, I'm going to do my self-serving talk here, but we talked about the costs of

00:30:56.540 lockdowns because the media just doesn't seem to talk about that.

00:30:59.180 They don't talk about the bankrupted businesses.

00:31:01.300 They don't interview the people who lost a family member to suicide, you know, related

00:31:06.800 to the lockdowns.

00:31:07.820 I mean, this is negative stuff as well, but it's a counterpoint.

00:31:11.000 You know, we want to look at all of it.

00:31:12.520 It's not saying that you're going to get out and strip all the restrictions and let the

00:31:15.680 world go, but we've got to talk about the whole thing.

00:31:18.220 and the media seems to be all on one side right now and that's been the challenge and you know

00:31:22.700 again that's where i think the rhetoric comes in there the unqualified uh opinions is you know

00:31:27.820 really i mean let's talk about mental health uh you know and i don't have the stat for canada but

00:31:32.060 i do know in the united states it's gone up you know mental health issues have gone up five to

00:31:35.860 six hundred percent so if we could relate that even to canada i mean that's significant that's

00:31:41.300 a hell of a lot of damage uh you know you talk about businesses you talk about suicides you know

00:31:47.340 I'm starting to find that, you know, I know more people who have gone broke or bankrupt out of their business and even suicides more so than I know of anybody who's had COVID.

00:32:02.460 So that's a real concern.

00:32:05.700 And there's been some positive work done, but we don't get that view.

00:32:10.000 I'm just with recent events, for example, and I'll give some credit to somebody I really give credit to in a moment.

00:32:15.320 But Jason Kenney announced or UCP announced they're going to close the safe consumption site down at the center, down in the Beltline there.

00:32:27.120 But that caused, of course, everybody to go off their handle.

00:32:30.180 And it turned out that there were some overdoses in Edmonton Park.

00:32:32.620 And the media is rushing right out to talk to Mayor Iveson and activists and others. 0.70

00:32:37.940 And the rhetoric was Jason Kenney is going to kill people.

00:32:40.400 He's heartlessly closing the center.

00:32:42.140 He's out.

00:32:43.260 And when you read further through the release, they have plans to open actually two more centers.

00:32:48.220 They just want to position them in better spots. And even Mayor Neheden and Enchi backed off because

00:32:53.100 at first he was critical. And he said, No, now that I've looked at it, actually, I think they

00:32:56.220 might be going somewhere in the right direction here. But that's always kind of the small print

00:33:00.860 at the end of the article, not the headline, you know, where it's just to kill people. Well,

00:33:06.140 Jason Kenney has come up with 4000 beds as a plan for treatment for, you know,

00:33:11.740 that's not a heartless act. That's terribly expensive, though I think it'll pay for us all

00:33:15.980 if we can get some people treated and fixed up. I mean, mental health and addiction has been

00:33:20.300 ignored for so long, but our headlines don't seem to allow us to change the status quo on that

00:33:25.740 sometimes. And that's the challenge, isn't it? Yeah. So something else you've recently put up,

00:33:33.020 it's been fun watching you on social media. I think it's therapeutic for some of us to get

00:33:37.820 out there and get things off our chest uh if only uh and it's productive to talk about things you

00:33:42.620 called it a rant that you put on youtube now your your rant for on of a far different level than my

00:33:47.740 levels of rants but that's quite all right uh you're very measured and reasoned i like to think

00:33:53.660 of reason i just like to get worked up and crabby get my vein pulsing when i rant but uh

00:33:59.660 it it was a a good four minute video there on on cancel culture because that's something again

00:34:05.020 that that's a trend that's an ugly one and an odious one uh what kind of inspired you to get

00:34:11.260 it off your chest and get out there and talk about that well a lot of what kind of the same things

00:34:17.320 that inspired me to you know to do the column for business in calgary uh you know it's another

00:34:21.380 frustration out there because it seemed you know and i'm not kidding myself i mean i know cancel

00:34:26.080 culture has been around since long before i was alive but it just seems to be amplified lately

00:34:31.740 And I think that's, you know, it's almost a new thing for people since they're locked down that, you know, they need to find something to do with their time and, you know, jump on the cancel culture train or the mob bus, as I like to call it.

00:34:44.520 You know, and it's getting to the point where I think it's absolutely ridiculous because we're canceling out books, we're canceling out sports teams' names, we're canceling out, you know, statues, and we're trying to erase history because somebody's offended, somebody's upset.

00:35:01.740 You know, and I just, I get to the point where I think this is absolutely ridiculous.

00:35:06.360 I mean, there's much worse issues in the world to have to deal with. 0.99

00:35:10.220 But I mean, you know, if a statue infuriates some people so much, then, you know, maybe just don't look at the damn statue anymore. 0.93

00:35:18.600 You know, but I mean, you can't erase history. 0.97

00:35:20.340 You have to learn something from it.

00:35:22.260 And you have to, you know, at least, you know, acknowledge the existence and, you know, and the fact that those were the times.

00:35:30.960 And you may not agree with it now, but I mean, it's something to learn from and it's something to to ensure never happens again.

00:35:36.980 You know, so I think that's that's where the the mild rant of my video came from was just that that pure frustration of, oh, God, every day, another thing.

00:35:49.620 And we can learn like we can take the negative and the positive.

00:35:53.360 You know, you can take a historic statue and you can have a couple of plaques you can have.

00:35:57.620 okay, here's all the things that the Famous Five did that were great.

00:36:01.360 I mean, you know, bringing women the right to vote

00:36:03.200 and, you know, pushing for rights and becoming people, for crying out loud.

00:36:08.220 And there's, you know, this was only a couple of years before my grandmother was born.

00:36:12.120 We're not talking a long time ago.

00:36:13.160 They did some really tough and important work.

00:36:15.400 But also, if you read their writings, they were horrific bigots.

00:36:18.860 They were some that had a degree of racism and other issues with them.

00:36:25.480 But you can recognize both.

00:36:27.620 Put two plaques up.

00:36:28.720 Here's the good and the bad, but they were still significant.

00:36:31.400 But our sensitive feelings say, no, we got to rip everything down.

00:36:34.500 And that's not good.

00:36:36.240 No, and I think a lot of people will agree.

00:36:39.740 I mean, these are small groups of individuals who are really causing these problems.

00:36:45.380 And I'd suggest that even the vast majority don't see it the same way.

00:36:50.800 But even to your point, Corey, I mean, yes.

00:36:53.100 I mean, these are the triumphs.

00:36:56.620 These are the successes that these people had, you know, and granted, you know,

00:37:00.700 they, they might've been bigoted, but you know, at the same time, I mean,

00:37:03.660 this is history. This is, this is the way it was back then. Uh, you know,

00:37:07.960 we can at least acknowledge that part of it, but you know, you can,

00:37:11.860 you can shake your head at the remainder, but you know, don't erase it. I mean,

00:37:16.640 that's part of your history right off the bat.

00:37:19.960 Yeah. Well, and then some people throw the extremes open. That's usual straw man.

00:37:23.740 They say, well, would you support a Hitler statue going up somewhere?

00:37:26.620 you know and somebody with my heritage yeah i would find that to be a pretty odious person to

00:37:31.780 see out there but you know what it depends on the context if that was placed outside of a

00:37:36.720 museum that's talking about some of the horrific dictatorial leaders we had you know you wouldn't

00:37:41.660 even have the two plaques that are talking about the good and the bad all we could see from this

00:37:45.880 man is nothing but bad bad bad it helps educate we're not celebrating the man we're recognizing

00:37:51.560 the horrible things this person did and it'll help us watch for those sorts of things and hope

00:37:58.020 that it never ever happens again and that's exactly the point you know so how come we can't

00:38:02.680 do that yeah why do we have to come to the uh to the cancel culture mob and that was where the

00:38:08.480 frustration comes from it's again you know it's it's me just being me and uh and talking about

00:38:14.540 what frustrates me and uh and and doing it in the most you know kind of professional manner i know

00:38:20.020 Well, and I'm glad to see people speak up, though. I mean, that's part of it. We can't just keep giving up on it. And we do have to speak up because the easier route is just to say, throw up your hands. Ah, fine. It's just another school. It's just another statue. But this runs further and deeper and troublesome.

00:38:38.440 I was talking to Kaylin Ford the other week, and she'd been talking about charter schools.

00:38:42.200 It was a great discussion.

00:38:44.140 And even Homer is now considered too controversial to be taught in schools.

00:38:50.700 Well, I mean, it was written, you know, his stuff was thousands of years ago.

00:38:55.820 But context, yeah, I'm sure he didn't have a good diverse cast.

00:39:00.520 I'm certain there were a number of things that wouldn't fit by today's standards.

00:39:04.900 but it's ridiculous that you would take things like that and pull them out of the curriculum.

00:39:09.920 But that's what's happening. And that's more troublesome even than the statute,

00:39:12.960 but it's all tied together. That's part of it. You can't cancel a little bit and not

00:39:16.740 start canceling other stuff. Well, you would cancel absolutely everything.

00:39:21.960 What would there be to learn? Yeah. Well, even to your point, I mean,

00:39:31.580 And, you know, why cancel it out?

00:39:33.040 I mean, that's exactly what you want your kids learning is, you know, here's this and, you know, here's here's the the ugly underbelly of it all.

00:39:41.520 Now, learn something from it.

00:39:43.000 I don't think kids are taking it to heart and saying, well, God, we've got to follow that doctrine.

00:39:48.920 You know, they're saying, yeah, that's something to avoid.

00:39:52.160 And, you know, thanks for letting me learn it.

00:39:53.920 uh you know it's you know again you know it's that cancel culture of you know gosh we just can't

00:39:59.600 can't have people do learning this in school at all i don't want my kids to well then you have a

00:40:05.440 choice home school yeah well we're charter schools i mean that was getting back to school choice and

00:40:11.360 everything i was talking with kaylin about i mean aside from that even in the public system though

00:40:16.000 one of the things i brought up then too and i want to i've really got to find that tweet because it

00:40:19.280 was one of the you know twitter gets grabbed on it that's my playground you know i like to go in

00:40:22.640 in there and rough it up. And I stir people up all the time. And being offended is a little

00:40:28.520 different than being the wrong. I mean, being thin-skinned guys, lighten up, you know, is part

00:40:32.880 of a lot of things. And to kill a mockingbird has been pulled all over the place too. And a lot of

00:40:39.300 the justification was not that there was anything wrong in the book, but it made people uncomfortable.

00:40:44.240 And somebody had this Twitter account that was called Atticus Finch. And he retweeted the story

00:40:49.560 about it's being canceled because it made people uncomfortable they said well that was the effing

00:40:53.420 point because it is of course the book's uncomfortable it's making you face some 0.99

00:40:58.860 things it's making you face that that not that long ago racial minorities could be railroaded

00:41:03.760 through the court system into a horrific circumstance uh it was but we've got to face

00:41:09.500 that where we need to and instead we're hiding from it that's interesting i didn't know the book

00:41:15.580 was pulled but uh you know i mean i've read it once before and i probably never read it again but

00:41:20.480 you know i'm i'm i'm absolutely gobsmacked when i hear something like that you know learn about it

00:41:26.220 uh you know again you know i mean that's that that's part of what we're supposed to do we're

00:41:30.280 supposed to allow ourselves the opportunity to have uh have perspective and and uh you know and

00:41:36.780 do with it what we please yeah well and i i like looking at a lot of those things to see

00:41:42.200 it helps me see how far we've come along you know and when certainly you know tom sawyer and

00:41:49.100 huckleberry finn i mean they're peppered with the n word throughout it it's and it's an awful word

00:41:54.840 i don't like that word i don't use it but it lets me know that see there's where we were

00:41:59.680 where we would be thrown out flippantly without thought in a derogatory way and ironically the

00:42:05.900 books were somewhat progressive for their time i mean it it humanized jim and showed some of the

00:42:11.300 the, again, the unfair hardships that the slaves were taking and that, you know,

00:42:15.780 multi-race people could befriend each other actually, and then look at each

00:42:19.060 other as comrades. But yeah, it was loaded with a lot of very out of date and 1.00

00:42:23.780 inoffensive language, but does that mean you ripped the whole book out? Do you get

00:42:26.620 rid of it? I mean, that's what's happened in a lot of circumstances and we're all

00:42:29.540 losing because of it.

00:42:31.060 Sure we are. Sure we are. And I mean, it's not even something you can reference

00:42:34.420 back to anymore because you can't find an edition of it unless you own one.

00:42:37.700 No. And, and again, it's not a, you know, why can't we have rationed discussions? I mean,

00:42:44.240 I, and I think any younger person today is not going to read that book and suddenly just start

00:42:49.340 coming out and peppering their language with that word and referring to people as such. If they do

00:42:54.360 that, then there's some more serious problems going on. Oh, absolutely. With that, with that

00:43:00.880 individual, but we're losing it. One of the terms you've used, I think in your rant was that we have

00:43:05.760 a frail society right now you know you think we'd be getting tougher with age with all this exposure

00:43:10.080 to information other people it seems to have gone the other way whoever sold you that bill of goods

00:43:14.880 that more information was actually good at times yeah but yeah but yeah i mean that's the sense

00:43:20.960 that i get you know it's uh that we are a frail society because you know we we can't look at

00:43:26.640 anything uh constructively uh in that particular way we have to uh well like i said you know it

00:43:34.160 It just comes back to, you know, where's the compromise?

00:43:36.340 Where's the conversation on all of this now?

00:43:40.400 It's like we won't even approach it that way.

00:43:42.880 It's just automatically, Corey, if you're wrong, you're wrong.

00:43:45.660 And I'm going to berate you.

00:43:47.200 I'm going to swear at you just to prove my point.

00:43:49.340 Well, you know, how is that even constructive?

00:43:53.680 How do we move forward?

00:43:54.940 You know, again, back to that line.

00:43:56.400 How do you move forward if you can't have a constructive conversation about it?

00:44:00.480 Yeah, and I do hope we do at some point. Like I said, the first step at least is just to get some people, people with a bit of profile to speak up. You know, I mean, people are afraid. They don't want to be the next one on the cancellation chopping block. You know, some of the most innocuous things that a person said or perhaps out of date. There's one that's recently hitting in the, I believe in the UK, some prominent cricket player had tweeted some stuff in 2012, I guess, and he was 18 at the time and they're ripping.

00:44:29.920 he's done he's finished you're ruined you know wow hold on yeah this was social media this was

00:44:37.120 when somebody was in their teens boy some of the stuff i did when i was 18 i was lucky enough to 0.86

00:44:40.960 survive it uh any conversations and crap i put out i'm sure was terrible sometimes at that time

00:44:47.680 do i have to live by today is that saying it's impossible for a person to grow and learn with

00:44:52.400 their thought and get better well absolutely i mean you and i have had lots of discussions on

00:44:57.920 that and i mean you know what what we what we miss what we uh what our views were rather

00:45:04.240 back uh back around our teens back around that era far far different than what we subscribe to

00:45:08.880 now why because we've taken the time to uh to learn we've uh we've grown uh emotionally physically and

00:45:15.680 intelligently and i think that's the thing that uh you know well it goes back to the cancel culture

00:45:21.680 comment again is you know if you're going to use something on me or about me that i said maybe

00:45:26.640 20 30 years ago then you have no perspective as to who i am as a person today

00:45:33.920 but automatically you're cancelled no and it's just so wrong and we can lose so much i mean we're

00:45:40.480 losing speakers upcoming political figures i mean some of these young people being cancelled we

00:45:46.160 don't know what their potential might have been uh maybe they did something wrong maybe what they did

00:45:52.240 really was yeah pretty unforgivable for the moment but i mean this is scorched earth this

00:45:58.960 is the swarm this is we are going to drive you from the public sphere for life it brings to

00:46:04.960 my human nature thing you know of the old witch burnings and tarings and featherings like we just

00:46:10.000 seem to have a degree of that in our nature that we've got to single somebody out

00:46:14.320 and run them out of town on a rail and we haven't grown that instinct yet

00:46:18.880 feed the outrage just keep feeding the outrage yeah it's a frustrating thing i'll let you go

00:46:28.360 soon i know you're quite busy i appreciate you coming on i'll throw something out a comment

00:46:32.420 you threw out i doubt uh any of that is uh uh in the cards here but rose is asking says i like

00:46:38.120 him is shane running for any political seat uh yeah i thought that might be either response but

00:46:45.060 But I encourage you.

00:46:48.660 Well, you know, I can't lie.

00:46:51.880 I mean, I've been approached to do that.

00:46:53.520 And, you know, I mean, certainly at some point in time in my life, maybe I'll consider it.

00:46:58.020 At this point in time, I'm having too much fun doing what I'm doing right now.

00:47:02.320 And, you know, that includes, you know, making, you know, running a business, but making videos and, you know, and sharing my opinion.

00:47:10.080 So thanks, Rose, but not right now.

00:47:12.920 Yeah, never say never. As I said, we change as we go. Maybe it'll seem like a good idea in 10

00:47:18.980 years or maybe it never will. We'll see. You never know. 10, 15 years from now, it might be

00:47:24.300 something I'd rather do because home building is a wonderful thing and the business is ever

00:47:31.000 growing and I have a chance to put my mark on it now. But down the line, I might grow bored of it

00:47:37.340 And, you know, I'd rather step back as the chair and let somebody else do that.

00:47:42.300 Yeah, then you can get elected somewhere and I'll still have my show and I'll start ripping into you for all your bad decisions as an elected official.

00:47:49.200 Great. Thanks, Corey.

00:47:51.940 We don't give anybody a break.

00:47:54.380 Well, that's great. And I just like to, you know, when listeners have questions and that I like to respond and that.

00:47:59.580 So, again, I appreciate you sitting down.

00:48:02.020 they, you know, I know that the housing market, as I said, it's complex and there's people in

00:48:05.060 different portions, you know, or aspects of it too. I mean, it's hard to give specific answers

00:48:11.780 on, on a fluid situation and people have their different, you know, areas of expertise, but

00:48:16.980 it's just been in the news a lot and everybody's scratching their heads on it. So, you know,

00:48:19.860 the more information we can get in that, the better to try and kind of see what's going on.

00:48:24.740 Well, like I said, it's a, it's a challenge. I mean, don't get me wrong. I mean,

00:48:28.020 And it's fun to have sales, you know, it keeps people employed and it keeps the economy going.

00:48:32.600 It's just the supply chain issues are what's really eating up our time now and just trying to figure out, you know, how do you build these things?

00:48:42.100 Like we're actually moving some people in with temporary appliances now and that has never happened in my career.

00:48:48.320 You know, the odd time you might get a fridge that doesn't show up for a couple of weeks, but when it's two, three months out, yeah, I can see where people get frustrated.

00:48:58.020 Yeah, it's pretty crazy. Well, I know somebody spent, you know, a couple of decades in the oil field. I mean, one of the hardest aspects of the oil field, there were a number of them, but was just that roller coaster nature of the industry. And I mean, in 2006 and seven, oh, I was getting paid an amount to work in the Arctic that I would call obscene. I was gouging. But I mean, that was the demand for a nice thickness, you know, a ground pedestrian radar data processor at that time.

00:49:24.440 But I mean, you know, once 2008 passed, suddenly I was willing to work for a quarter of that

00:49:31.920 because I couldn't find work anywhere.

00:49:33.920 We were all fighting for the same jobs.

00:49:35.420 I mean, if we'd had a little more stability, we'd all have been better for it, you know,

00:49:39.680 whether the clients or us as workers.

00:49:42.360 So when you guys are trying to build, I guess, and keep up with demand on a roller coaster

00:49:46.840 market as well, it comes with those challenges on top of that, too.

00:49:49.940 sure but challenges are you know they're challenging obviously but they're even fun at

00:49:54.840 the same time because now i've had to learn a little bit more about the supply chain and that's

00:49:59.240 been interesting been very interesting uh you know because we you know just one last thing i guess

00:50:04.700 you know you talk about the resin uh for for uh for tubs uh you know for vinyl siding for a lot

00:50:11.540 of different products that actually go into the home i had no idea that the resin manufacturing

00:50:17.960 manufacturing facility is in Texas. And when that snowstorm rolled through in Texas, that screwed

00:50:23.900 that up, that shut that down 100% for two, three, four weeks until they were back up and running.

00:50:30.940 And that ultimately delayed all the production for all those different products because there

00:50:37.220 was no resin available. Now, it seems odd in today's world that, you know, that is the only

00:50:41.100 place in North America where they make resin. And, you know, I mean, that's just one of those

00:50:46.680 interesting little facts that I nerd out on when, when I'm trying to understand more about these

00:50:50.960 supply chain issues. I also look at that and say, Hey, there's a great opportunity for someone in

00:50:55.640 Alberta to open up a manufacturing plant. Well, yeah, throw that out there. We've got our

00:50:59.840 petrochemical industry. If Texas can do it, I'm sure we can. That's the point. Yeah. And it's

00:51:05.940 funny things. Yeah. You just never really think of until the time hits. I mean, resin, it just,

00:51:11.960 it's way at back of mind. In this bizarre year, we're learning lots of good lessons. I mean,

00:51:15.780 who would have thought that the biggest disaster of a generation,

00:51:18.020 the first shortage we would have is toilet paper.

00:51:26.220 There we were no economist or survivalist or plan or anybody writing a book five

00:51:31.380 years ago saying what's going to happen when a pandemic hit would say,

00:51:34.660 we're going to run out of toilet paper.

00:51:40.960 Well, we had a little bit of a run on bidets for a while there, but yeah.

00:51:43.980 Yeah. Leaves were getting torn off trees and who knows what else was happening out there, but

00:51:49.740 it's an interesting world, if nothing else. I appreciate your outlook at looking at their

00:51:53.980 challenges to be overcome. It keeps it interesting. And if this ever happened again, we'll know to

00:51:59.100 watch out for the toilet paper and you guys would know, you know what, we might want to stack up on

00:52:03.100 our resin based products that we need because we might have a problem coming up again.

00:52:08.700 Exactly. Or we're just going to be turning over houses without vinyl siding and cabinets and

00:52:13.340 in windows yeah well and another trend i i just wonder how much that's a bit of a contributor 0.73

00:52:19.820 as a side note at the end i've got a uh my wife you know my poor long-suffering jane who deals 1.00

00:52:25.420 with the the crap i put her through and but but she's a maniac with home reno projects loves 1.00

00:52:31.340 tearing stuff down you know pulls the the thread on the sweater and suddenly we've got it a whole 0.94

00:52:35.340 basement we're rebuilding and i i still feel that those all those home renovation shows that i do

00:52:40.620 like watching or dangerous because they make it look so easy on there until you try it at home

00:52:44.300 but i mean when we go to home depot places like that you know uh materials i mean and and they're 0.63

00:52:50.540 they're not being taken up by home builders so much they're being taken up by lunatics like us

00:52:53.800 doing home projects yeah that has to impact the entire thing in a sense as well though i mean it

00:52:59.380 doesn't matter where all the materials are getting taken from you know if all the joist hangers are

00:53:03.620 gone uh whether it's a professional home building company or hobbyists uh we're still short of the 0.98

00:53:08.780 darn things. Well, sure. Obvious renovators, you know, I mean, they're having a hell of a run as 0.98

00:53:13.740 well. You know, but basement developments, you know, based on, you know, again, people living

00:53:18.660 in their home and, you know, wanting different space, you know, for either working out of the

00:53:23.640 home or for themselves. But, you know, decks still get built, you know, renovations still

00:53:30.040 happen in houses. And, you know, that's putting an additional strain on things because it's all

00:53:35.640 happening at once yeah well they've got to come in and fix the stuff we messed up to begin with

00:53:41.200 but uh pure credit jane does great stuff our own was turned around jane is the one who operates

00:53:48.080 the saws and power equipment i just carry heavy things and do what i'm told uh until we get to

00:53:53.040 fight and she chases me out and i'll go drive uber or something but but all the same it's you

00:53:57.860 know and we still pull the electricians and all that maybe some of that will change this year

00:54:01.160 that people can actually get out rather than taking on home projects and do some hiking or

00:54:04.880 travel or or social activities and you know what i think is uh as we move to uh to opening i think

00:54:11.440 uh you know one of the favorite terms that i have now and i read it somewhere was that uh you know

00:54:15.700 revenge vacations meaning simply that you know people if they would take one vacation during

00:54:21.120 the summer with the family are now considering taking two vacations two big vacations with the

00:54:25.840 family because they lost last year they've been locked up long enough they're uh they're going

00:54:30.580 uh, going crazy and, you know, home renovation projects or, you know, new hobbies can only,

00:54:35.520 uh, can only fill the void for so long. So let's get on that. Let's, uh, let's go out and enjoy

00:54:41.060 the world again. Yeah. Well, and if they got the budget good on them, I know I wanted to get

00:54:45.240 somewhere warm last winter and it turned out to be impossible. So the best I could do is, you know,

00:54:48.760 turn on the heat light in the bathroom. There's nothing keeping me from getting across that

00:54:54.240 border, uh, this winter, darn it. If I have to sneak down and cut a fence by Milk River, 0.97

00:54:59.160 i'm going to do it but oh i have every intention of doing it i'm uh i'm going away i miss you know

00:55:05.080 we got a little cabin down in montana that we've had for years and uh you know what it's been

00:55:10.360 a year and a half since we've been there i'm not sure if the thing is still standing but hopefully

00:55:14.520 it is well yeah my mother lives in just sandpoint idaho i mean again one of the west's i think

00:55:20.600 best hidden gems you know only five and a half hours away we've got an incredible lake and resort

00:55:25.720 area hiding down there and i've got that good opportunity of cheap accommodations

00:55:29.160 and i haven't been able to take advantage of well not to mention mom if you're watching yes i want

00:55:32.440 to see you too but we're all suffering under that and maybe this year we'll have a big turn around

00:55:41.240 you know i mean if they suddenly open the borders you know for all of us who've been vaccinated or

00:55:45.560 not or whatnot uh i could see it being some pretty long lineups and uh quite a bit of a

00:55:51.800 boom in the uh travel areas as well pretty soon so some things to look forward to and also have

00:55:55.880 challenges i guess we'll suffer through them but we'll make them happen i'm sure yes you bet all

00:56:02.920 right well thank you very much again shane i'm looking forward to more of your uh your your

00:56:07.000 polite rants and i'll keep up my crabby power counterpoint rants and uh well if we keep speaking

00:56:13.000 up we can make things better in little ways as we push along through things so that's all we can

00:56:17.720 hope to do right on well all right again soon i'm sure shane you bet cory take care

00:56:29.080 uh so that was a great chat and i i always like chatting with shane like i said he stays so uh

00:56:33.880 well and measured and controlled uh though i know i mean he can get upset and takes politics

00:56:39.000 seriously like everybody else but uh people have different approaches to it and and covering some

00:56:44.440 some subjects that are a little different i've always got our elected types on and our career

00:56:49.160 politician sorts and as shane made clear who knows he may consider going down that road in the future

00:56:55.640 he's not there right now and uh he'll uh go where he's gonna go so we'll keep watching that and and

00:57:03.720 shane holmes has been uh you know i'll throw some politics into it you know there's been some uh

00:57:09.960 sparks between uh cal wenzel and mayor ninche in the past and things like that but as far as a

00:57:15.240 a community business uh entrenched within the city they've been a good player uh involved

00:57:21.720 in a lot of causes and charities i mean they've been a fantastic uh business community member

00:57:27.000 and as you can see shane's gonna continue that tradition as a great calgarian and

00:57:31.960 person speaking on political issues so i'm gonna move on now a little more political for sure well

00:57:36.680 as political as it gets i'm going to speak to somebody who's running for office in calgary

00:57:42.280 as i said earlier at the start of the opening some people might think it feels a little premature

00:57:46.360 uh the election is still you know some months away we're getting on to this october for those

00:57:50.760 who missed the opening monologue though i think this is going to be an election like we haven't

00:57:54.120 seen in over 10 years like in the in city hall things don't turn over that much quite often you

00:58:01.400 know that the mayor will stay in typically as long as they want to stay in uh incumbents tend to have

00:58:06.520 quite an advantage in council as well. We've got a lot of incumbents who aren't running again.

00:58:10.900 One way or another, we're going to have a very different looking city council after the next

00:58:14.920 election than we do today. Hopefully it's for the better because there's going to be such a big

00:58:21.020 change. There's a whole lot of people running for those council seats as well. And that's why I want

00:58:25.880 to start talking to them now because we've only got so much time and there's so many people to

00:58:30.740 go through with good ideas and campaign platforms. The sooner the better. And imagine once we get

00:58:36.140 closer to election time, we'll have more shows and more coverage and cover that a bit more.

00:58:40.060 So I talked to Jacob McGregor. He's running in Ward 1. That one's, I believe it's being held

00:58:46.320 currently by Ward Sutherland. He's an incumbent candidate up there as well. So it takes some

00:58:52.840 courage to take a run against an incumbent candidate. They're tough to take down, but it

00:58:57.960 also means that he's got to be motivated. Then you want to make some change. So I see Jacob's

00:59:02.340 joining me here hey thanks for joining me today so i'll um kind of start right off the bat then

00:59:09.460 you know you're you're taking on a tough challenge here you're going against the guy who's already

00:59:13.540 settled into his seat up there what what made you decide that you've got to get up and and

00:59:19.140 make some changes well i felt very sort of taken for granted as a constituent up here in ward one

00:59:28.660 uh i didn't feel communicated to or even really that listened to and i i actually didn't vote for

00:59:37.940 war last time around either myself and that that's because the only campaign that um

00:59:47.220 came and actually talked to me and engaged with me was a was one of his opponents so

00:59:55.460 And you mentioned right before I came on that he sort of feels settled into his position, and that's sort of the problem, isn't it? When these incumbents feel like that's their seat, we end up with a disconnected council that's not doing what's best for their constituents.

01:00:21.260 Yeah, I couldn't agree with you more. And that's, as I was saying, why I feel it's such an important election. This is one of these times that hopefully we can, you know, make these guys work for it, if not replace them. So I do appreciate your, you're getting up and then making a push. So we'll start with, if you could list a few of the top issues, what you would like to see addressed as a candidate, what would you do as a, as a counselor?

01:00:45.460 well one of the main things i've stressed since i got into the race is that council needs to

01:00:54.020 start leading by example and so many calvarians are struggling at the moment and we hear platitudes

01:01:04.340 about making the city more affordable to live in.

01:01:09.600 And we get these plans from administration and council

01:01:17.500 that are amorphous and oftentimes won't help people

01:01:25.460 in their everyday life.

01:01:26.680 So here's a couple things that I want to see done.

01:01:31.340 For starters, I have pledged to advocate for a 10% salary rollback for council and administration,

01:01:46.060 including myself and supplementary pensions.

01:01:55.020 Even if I can't get that rollback passed, I will be donating 10% of my salary to charity.

01:02:06.680 But outside of these compensatory things, I'd really like to see dedication to suburban

01:02:20.080 infrastructure pathways, snow removal, things like this, things we deal with every day.

01:02:29.760 Yeah, the important ground level accessibility. I appreciate the approach in leading by example,

01:02:35.520 and that's something I've long been a proponent of. I mean, going back, you're a young fella,

01:02:40.400 but before your time when Ralph Klein was going and we needed to kind of rein in spending. One

01:02:45.760 One of the first things Klein did, though, was cut the salaries for every MLA, and he cut away.

01:02:50.700 He got rid of the pension plans.

01:02:53.260 And then you can't ask others to take cuts because we might have to rein in some spending in City Hall,

01:02:59.340 but you can't do it unless you're willing to do it yourself first.

01:03:01.880 So I do appreciate that approach.

01:03:04.420 I appreciate that.

01:03:06.320 And another thing I'd like to touch on is this year's shown us the absolutely devastating effect that things can have on our mental health.

01:03:21.760 And I'm dedicated to doing things to make sure there are fewer people reaching that crisis point.

01:03:33.000 And what I'd like to see is an online portal curated by the city where you can search service

01:03:43.300 providers by condition, program availability, and cost, and in addition perhaps a partnership

01:03:55.520 with the province to come up with a way to make cost less of a barrier for low-income

01:04:03.760 calgarians this will make sure more people get help and get our police and our firefighters

01:04:14.640 having to deal with fewer of these mental health and wellness checks yeah we've seen some of these

01:04:23.120 wellness checks unfortunately end in tragedy in the past a law enforcement officer i mean they're

01:04:29.360 they're very you know heavily trained for for certain circumstances and situations but it may

01:04:33.920 not be uh the best person for the job to for somebody who's having a mental health health

01:04:38.720 crisis in a household so i i again i appreciate your approach with that i mean in addictions

01:04:45.040 treatment and mental health these are areas that uh we've had a lot of shortcomings i think it's

01:04:49.520 costing all of us on on many levels if we can treat people treat mental health like we treat

01:04:54.000 any other ailment uh we could bring people back into you know functional roles in society and

01:04:59.920 we're all going to benefit from it so you're not talking then about a sweeping program though

01:05:05.360 you're just talking about at least facilitating and easy aiding in the direction of where people

01:05:09.840 can go for help i i'm very much about practical solutions these big sweeping programs there

01:05:18.720 they can have great outcomes but you also need to take these smaller visible steps

01:05:26.160 give people a place to start

01:05:30.160 absolutely so i'm going to get on a a few more uh direct issues something that's been big and

01:05:35.840 every counselor has to deal with it even if it's whether it's in their constituency or not

01:05:40.080 is the green line it seems that it keeps to getting smaller and smaller in scope while

01:05:44.720 the budget stays high uh where do you stand on that project i mean it's kind of the largest

01:05:49.040 mega project approaching right now um i i have been a little ambivalent towards the green line

01:05:57.520 been for a while now. As you said, the costs keep going up and the actual scope and effectiveness

01:06:06.780 of the project either doesn't change or becomes less noticeable. I was interested to see that

01:06:19.340 south leg got the go-ahead the other day, whereas we changed procurement strategies

01:06:32.560 for the north leg. I personally, when it comes to the north leg, one, would like to see

01:06:43.660 an airport link included if we do go forward as well as at the start of the north leg process

01:06:53.820 um probably fewer stations and more bus rapid transit to have more direct outcomes in a less

01:07:03.260 costly manner okay so some some common sense transit uh approaches uh and and need based

01:07:12.060 um something i i should get into uh one of our challenges with city council has has been they're

01:07:18.780 always fighting with each other i mean there's going to be a degree of uh that's natural and

01:07:22.940 normal for a number of politicians in one room but we've had a very very dysfunctional council uh

01:07:28.540 you know more uh so than usual this last few years as a council member what could you do

01:07:34.220 to help contribute to perhaps a more conducive and cooperative sort of uh environment in the chambers

01:07:38.940 I had an interesting conversation about this with another candidate, Ted Knutson of Ward 8, and he was actually of the opinion that this sort of level of debate was sort of the normal functioning of democracy.

01:07:59.660 I'm more in line with yourself in thinking, yes, there's obviously going to be some contention.

01:08:09.340 I mean, we're 15 people in a room making decisions about issues that affect a million people.

01:08:15.700 However, there does seem to be this attitude of if we don't do it the way I want to do it,

01:08:26.700 then that person is actively trying to make life worse for calgarians whereas instead how we need

01:08:37.340 to be looking at things is okay we don't agree on this issue but here are some things we we can work

01:08:48.700 because even people you fundamentally ideologically disagree with, you're going to have some areas where you're able to work together.

01:09:04.160 Yeah, no, that's good. And it kind of ties into something that's been an issue.

01:09:09.080 I think that a lot of candidates or even people who won, I don't expect you to go after individuals,

01:09:14.860 but what there was a lot of campaigning on transparency we're going to have transparency

01:09:18.460 in city hall unfortunately we have now more closed door meetings uh in camera than pretty

01:09:25.420 much any other city in the country uh you know as you said 15 people are coming up with policy

01:09:31.340 for a million people you think more often than not we should be able to view and watch these uh

01:09:36.300 deliberations and conversations as much as possible i talk a lot about closed sessions

01:09:42.060 actually yes um anybody who has uh listened to my podcast or even my some of my other um

01:09:52.860 platform materials will know that i i am as i said i felt not communicated to

01:10:00.780 or listened to by the current council um and i do think a lot of that does stem from

01:10:10.540 from these closed-door sessions because you end up with a vacuum of information

01:10:18.540 that people fill in a lot of cases with the worst possible scenario they can come up with.

01:10:26.540 Now, I understand that these sessions are sometimes necessary when we're dealing with the FOIP Act

01:10:36.540 I'm negotiating interests of the city and other things like this but there are a lot of times

01:10:45.580 where the reasoning feels pretty tacked on yeah so something that since you've mentioned it there

01:10:53.020 as Shane's asking where can he find your podcast like things have been you know with the pandemic

01:10:59.500 you can't do door knocking and town hall meetings and things like that so using digital means to

01:11:04.380 reach out to people and communicate with them has been very important so where can people find what

01:11:09.100 you've gone through oh yeah i i should mention that i guess while i go on and on about the podcast

01:11:16.060 um my podcast is called your neck of the woods um we talk about the issues of the election

01:11:25.820 different community events in ward one and we're having a series where we have guests from

01:11:33.900 the races outside of ward one so take a listen to that you can find it anywhere you get um

01:11:43.900 your podcast be it apple podcast spotify things like these on my youtube channel jacob for ward

01:11:51.660 one things like that great yeah and we'll repeat that at the end i i'm quite excited about you

01:11:58.060 know the new options from way back when i was insane enough to run for office uh voters were

01:12:03.100 wise enough not to put me in there but we didn't have the means to really communicate like that

01:12:07.820 we've got so many other mechanisms now and to interact uh it's just uh important to to get

01:12:13.100 those there so even doing something like this um remotely isn't something that was an option until

01:12:21.580 a few years ago right yeah that's right and then it's uh particularly in times like now when we

01:12:27.500 haven't been able to get out we're fortunate at least to be able to have these alternatives to

01:12:31.180 rely on otherwise it would just be i guess flyer deliveries and hoping for the best

01:12:36.540 so getting back to some policy talk a very controversial issue that came up for a little

01:12:41.660 while was the guidebook on communities there's definitely some some different points of views

01:12:46.940 on how i mean calgary is still going to be a growing city and an evolving city communities

01:12:51.580 are changing new communities are coming in the guidebook sounds like it was a little more

01:12:56.540 prescriptive than it was uh prescriptive than it was initially modeled to be and there was a lot

01:13:01.740 of battling over uh visions for the city uh what were your views on where things went with that or

01:13:07.260 with development plans well we i've talked a lot about the guidebook both outdoors and online and

01:13:14.780 um the uh the original document the guidebook for great community started as the big battle

01:13:24.620 we've sort of had here about identification i i read it it was a dense um dense breed let me tell

01:13:34.780 you and um it struck me both as too prescriptive and also having a lot of wishy-washy may and

01:13:46.700 shit language with regards to actual engagement and when you have a planning document like this 0.81

01:13:55.900 for one it needs to have when you're calling something a guidebook 0.97

01:14:02.140 it that original document read a lot more like a policy book um and then when you're talking about

01:14:13.740 this engagement piece which is obviously um one of the primary problems people had with this process

01:14:24.300 it needs to be will and must not may and should yeah well that was a lot of the debates and i

01:14:33.660 think some people kind of played it a little both ways uh if something came up that seemed a little

01:14:37.820 controversial they could say well it was just a suggestion in the guidebook but then if somebody

01:14:41.020 says we need this done they say oh well we have it in the guidebook well you've got to take aside

01:14:45.740 funny you mention that and i'll i'll um again we won't go at it too hard but you heard a lot of

01:14:54.540 that in in committee where they would be like this is just just a guidebook it's just a reference

01:15:05.900 and then in the actual public hearing sessions and the votes um it was dealt with much more as

01:15:16.220 the by-line of policy yeah so almost a deceptive sort of practice in in my view but but uh that's

01:15:25.260 what happens when we don't have uh um transparency and again you see you know it's it's hard things

01:15:31.660 a mayoral candidates as well they've got to speak to broad issues but they are just one vote on

01:15:35.900 council so it's important to ask the council candidates and members to to speak to the

01:15:39.900 broader issues as well um i live actually just outside of the city in prittis and there's been

01:15:45.820 it's been very controversial with the the county of foothills where i live uh the the regional

01:15:50.780 municipal development plan and and uh the committee which is basically uh we feel as as as neighbors

01:15:58.220 of the city to be in rocky view has been feeling the same like we're getting kind of bullied and

01:16:01.900 pushed around by city planners um and and having development standards imposed upon us that that

01:16:07.660 are more fitting for an urban environment uh i'm not sure if this is much of an issue you've looked

01:16:11.900 into but where would you land on i guess dealing with your your rural neighbors uh if you were

01:16:16.540 council well even if you look at this adam it's the same sort of issue we're having at the council

01:16:26.060 level we're working against each other rather than together and it's the same with these uh rural mds

01:16:36.700 where they're saying planning at least is saying you got to do it calgary's way or the province

01:16:45.820 doesn't move forward whereas what works here in a city of a million people

01:16:52.380 obviously doesn't translate to Rocky View or places like Piretis and we're missing potential

01:17:05.540 solutions to things like I've heard from some of my Ward 12 guests like the orphaned

01:17:17.320 Wells over in Ward 12 where the smaller MDs have proposed some emergency preparedness

01:17:28.860 measures and we're ignoring them because we feel like we know best and even going back

01:17:38.900 to the guidebook it seems to be a syndrome that calgary has where it's this very top-down mother

01:17:48.740 knows best attitude yeah and it just i'm hoping to see some more cooperative approach i mean the

01:17:56.820 the counties we can't dig our heels in and stubbornly say okay that's it you guys you

01:18:00.820 know we don't want to hear anything you want to do i mean the reality is the city's growing

01:18:04.740 eventually there's going to be new land taken and expropriated and we're going to be neighbors

01:18:08.900 We have to face that and there's got to be a little bit of give and take.

01:18:13.100 I just haven't seen, I've just seen a lot more taken than giving these days.

01:18:16.520 And there isn't right now.

01:18:18.420 No.

01:18:20.360 Where else have I got?

01:18:21.700 So urban density in general, that's been an area, again, you know, of conflicting visions, I guess you could say.

01:18:29.320 I mean, a lot of people, if you allow market demand to happen, we see that people typically move to the suburbs.

01:18:35.020 I mean, we've got a hollowed out core downtown right now.

01:18:37.820 uh we you know but we can't force people to move into it what can we do to encourage people to

01:18:43.760 settle down there um gut well in order to make downtown more attractive you gotta make it a

01:18:51.080 little more convenient to do things like park down there it's not just about public transit

01:18:58.500 it even though that will help when you connect more of the transit route to downtown that

01:19:06.800 obviously is another way to do things but the the primary mode of transportation is

01:19:13.780 still the vehicle and right now it's very inconvenient to bring your vehicle downtown

01:19:22.700 and have to pay an arm and a leg to park if you can find the place to park and so when

01:19:30.420 you look at things like we're not allowing um or we're actively discouraging at least

01:19:38.900 condo developments from having on-site or underground parking while building 80 million

01:19:45.780 dollar platform calgary structures that's just backwards the the other the other thing i would

01:19:53.940 say is um you have to if there's nothing to do downtown other than work then why would you go

01:20:04.660 there outside working hours and that makes as fiscally contentious as it can be sometimes

01:20:16.260 things like the event center i feel very important okay so some draws other than uh uh yeah straight

01:20:24.820 out work it's fair enough you want to make it a destination especially for those ground level

01:20:28.180 businesses that are trying to to survive down there i i think a lot of people have talked

01:20:33.380 about the over taxation on businesses but we've got a a problem i mean the city is is spending

01:20:38.180 beyond its means uh one way or another something has to change either the spending has to reduce

01:20:43.620 or the taxes have to go up i mean that's the ever ongoing discussions on every level of government

01:20:48.180 as well uh where could some spending restraint perhaps be found if you feel it should be found

01:20:53.860 and and what should be done in the case of taxation well we're clearly gonna well what i

01:21:00.020 want to do and what i'm planning on doing should i be successful this fall is calling for a uh full

01:21:09.460 program service review

01:21:11.940 across the corporation

01:21:13.780 because there has to be

01:21:15.500 more savings

01:21:17.160 in a lot of places.

01:21:21.920 The save program

01:21:24.060 we have right now is

01:21:25.880 well-intentioned, but it needs to be

01:21:28.000 broader. We're in a budget

01:21:29.880 crisis, and

01:21:31.900 we need to act

01:21:34.160 like we're in a budget crisis.

01:21:36.980 But you

01:21:37.940 You also mentioned keeping taxes down

01:21:43.940 and another way to do that

01:21:45.940 is smart community-driven densification

01:21:51.940 not through the process

01:21:54.940 that was sort of hem-fistedly advocated with the guidebook.

01:22:02.940 Some will say that's still what we're going to end up with.

01:22:06.940 However, if we engage with our communities directly

01:22:13.280 at the community association level,

01:22:17.160 I think we'll end up with some smarter local area planning.

01:22:22.280 And because we do need to densify.

01:22:29.960 And I'm a fiscal conservative,

01:22:33.240 but the more we spread the city out,

01:22:36.860 The more your roads are going to cost, the more your services are going to cost, the

01:22:41.900 more we have to pay to properly staff police and fire.

01:22:46.420 So if we want to keep costs and taxes down, we have to not only do these service cuts

01:22:58.600 but find ways, or not necessarily service cuts, because I'd really like to see more

01:23:04.980 of it come from, say, administration, because I think our bureaucracy is very bloated.

01:23:19.340 But we also have to find ways to make services less expensive to deliver. And that does mean

01:23:28.220 some densification and for bus I want to reiterate at no point at no point

01:23:37.980 because they're stretched too thin already should this mean cutting the

01:23:44.820 budget of police or fire because we need to keep our communities safe yeah I

01:23:52.280 think most people feel those are most certainly core community services that

01:23:56.600 they pay their taxes towards and never want to do without. I mean, you never want your fire

01:24:00.580 department to be too far away or to have law enforcement. Should there be a crisis or something

01:24:05.640 of the sort? So is there any other issues that are kind of larger ones that I've kind of missed

01:24:12.960 that you want to touch upon today? Well, just again, reiterating the importance of even things

01:24:20.640 like snow removal fixing sidewalks and roads um renovating our amateur sports facilities where

01:24:31.280 like our kids play hockey these are these are community gathering places things that affect

01:24:38.800 you every day and a big part of what i want to do is practical solutions for our everyday

01:24:46.880 calgarians so yeah so in a little more background on you so you were uh born calgarian and you

01:24:53.760 graduated uh from ufc with poli sci i believe it was that's correct okay so you're familiar with

01:24:59.600 the city i also um have served on um various um volunteer boards with the city i was a member of

01:25:13.040 the advisory committee on accessibility obviously as somebody with a physical disability i'd like

01:25:24.000 to see more thought when we have these capital projects given to making them as accessible as

01:25:32.880 possible because we've we've had so many frustrations with things like the the central library um not

01:25:43.440 being the most accessible even with it being this big prestige project and it's just because it was

01:25:52.880 an afterthought and i've been to job interviews at smaller offices downtown where the building

01:26:00.880 didn't have an elevator and that's that's not acceptable in 2021 so that's obviously something

01:26:09.360 i'm passionate about um some of my other experience i volunteer with the calgary rocky ridge

01:26:18.560 conservative eda and my my local mp pat kelly so i'm engaged in that community um and just

01:26:28.880 Lots of volunteer work like that.

01:26:32.880 Great. So what are your campaign plans going forward

01:26:36.880 as we go through this summer? Are you've got events planned or

01:26:40.880 are you just going to be out there hitting the doors?

01:26:44.880 Well, there's going to be more hitting doors now, especially

01:26:48.880 the lockdown is coming to an

01:26:52.880 end. Because I did

01:26:56.880 when the latest

01:26:59.080 emergency measures were declared

01:27:01.180 I stopped canvassing

01:27:03.280 activities for a little while

01:27:05.000 and then we switched to

01:27:06.860 just doing door hangers

01:27:09.220 where you're obviously not

01:27:11.100 interacting with people

01:27:13.060 because obviously

01:27:14.880 it's my

01:27:16.520 priority to keep my friends and neighbors

01:27:19.000 safe but now that we

01:27:20.980 can get going again

01:27:23.200 I look forward to

01:27:24.540 being at the doors

01:27:25.960 I will also be in a couple of candidate forums online coming up.

01:27:33.960 Those are conversations among candidates on June 7th.

01:27:40.960 And let's talk about Calgary on June 14th.

01:27:44.960 And you can find registration for both of those on Eventbrite.

01:27:51.960 great well and i'll just wrap up here we'll go through again where can uh what's your campaign

01:27:57.720 website and uh for people want to volunteer or have questions or anything further from there

01:28:02.820 how can they get a hold of you if you want to donate or ask me questions or volunteer

01:28:08.260 i'd be part of our vision for ward one my website is jacobforward1.ca you can find me across social

01:28:19.760 media at jacob for award one as i said the podcast is called your neck of the woods you can find

01:28:30.080 all previous episodes of that on the website on youtube and on the podcast services so

01:28:39.760 well right on well thanks for taking the time to talk to me today i know campaign times are busy

01:28:44.400 and uh absolutely i enjoyed it great and i hope i can talk to you again before the election gets

01:28:51.100 here like i said i'm getting an early start on this because i i follow municipal elections

01:28:55.320 closely because it's just a level of government we don't pay enough attention to i think and i

01:28:59.540 really want to make sure people get as much exposure to you to candidates like yourself

01:29:03.580 as they can no i very much very much appreciate it because the more if you vote for the same

01:29:11.900 you're going to get the same and the more um non-incumbent candidates like myself can get

01:29:20.320 out there the the more people will know they have a choice so great well thank you jacob i'll

01:29:28.180 let you go and uh we should talk again soon thank you thanks

01:29:32.940 so again that that's jacob mcgregor he's running for council

01:29:39.380 in Ward 1, the incumbent in there is Ward Sutherland. I don't, I didn't expect

01:29:48.840 to speak directly to other candidates or people, but you know, I will, and I've spoken on Ward

01:29:54.420 before. He's one of the folks in City Council, speaking for myself personally, I think I'd like

01:30:00.200 to see him replaced. He's not one of the more cooperative, nuanced thinkers on the Council,

01:30:06.800 but there'll be some options coming along with Jacob and others this this fall

01:30:12.320 and hopefully some Calgarians choose to change I can't speak for Ward 1 but I

01:30:16.520 give all the information and we'll see what happens up there and it's one of

01:30:19.360 15 wards or 14 and then we want to see change we we've got a real opportunity

01:30:24.620 this time around and I hope that that opportunity comes so that was a really

01:30:28.500 good chat I love listening of course to people with a feeling of you know

01:30:33.380 fiscal responsibility good common sense approaches because common sense is something that is really

01:30:38.980 lacking in in city hall uh somebody kitty and grunt saying i'm breaking up i my internet may

01:30:45.860 be getting a little spotty here i hope not it should pick up uh technology can be limited now

01:30:51.700 i've had a couple of people i might as well address it i've asked a couple of times if i'm

01:30:55.460 going to interview kevin j johnston uh for those not familiar with kevin j johnston he's a very

01:31:02.500 controversial mayoral candidate. He certainly made a lot of news and caused some change.

01:31:10.740 No, I'm probably not going to have him on. I want to speak to people who are in what I view,

01:31:17.460 and I could be wrong, and I'm open to discussion on it, but in this case, serious contenders for

01:31:22.800 the mayoral seats and for the council seats. And I see Kevin J. Johnston using the mayoral race

01:31:28.820 as a platform for his own activist activities, which is fine. It's there. He registered,

01:31:36.460 he did his thing, and he's using that. I'm not seeing policy discussion from Johnston. I'm seeing

01:31:45.360 him bursting into stores and hounding private workers while they go in without masks. He came

01:31:53.180 recently from Ontario. He's not been a long time Calgarian. I'm not sure how much his interest in

01:31:57.760 this city actually is. Again, he has every right to go out and do his activism. And who knows if

01:32:05.780 he ever comes on, it'll be for something. But I don't anticipate it being anything to do with

01:32:11.760 this municipal election because I don't think he's a serious player in it. And I don't think

01:32:16.080 his rhetoric contributes to having a better outcome in this. We've got a number of people

01:32:21.920 running for mayor and I will talk to a few of them unless I see some indication of a bit more

01:32:28.100 serious campaign on them. I don't hear him talking about mental health issues or urban density or

01:32:33.220 regional development plans because he's on his activism bent rather than actual city issues.

01:32:40.440 So again, at this point, plus as somebody else noted, it sounds like he might still be in jail.

01:32:45.820 I just don't want to delve into that. He's got his platform. He can do what he will.

01:32:52.620 I'm not out to knock the guy, but I just don't really have much interest to have him on here,

01:32:56.280 to be blunt and to be honest with you. I just don't see what he'd contribute. But I am, you

01:33:03.120 know, looking forward to having other candidates and people coming on, as I said, as the municipal

01:33:06.600 election develops, and we'll see what happens here. So, you know, that was a good chat, as I

01:33:13.000 said, with Jacob. It's good to get different perspectives out there. It's going to be a

01:33:19.440 tough go on Ward 1, but I really hope that Ward Sutherland is no longer the representative there

01:33:26.320 when this is all said and done. That's my personal bias. This is a biased show. That's what we do.

01:33:32.880 So I will get back to our sponsors, though. You've seen that banner running down below there. We've

01:33:39.500 got the Resistance Coffee Company. Like I said, these guys have got some great witty approaches

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01:33:54.220 been donating to causes and things that are actually trying to undercut your industry or

01:33:59.440 your province even. Well, Resistance Coffee Company certainly isn't doing that. They don't

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01:34:38.540 uh as well we've got the uh ccfr that's the canadian coalition for firearms rights and

01:34:44.860 nobody's working as hard for you uh fight for your ability to own and use firearms uh these

01:34:52.440 guys are suing the federal government right now on your behalf on your behalf as a firearm owner

01:34:56.500 responsible one as most of us are you got to help them out though become a member or donate to their

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01:35:28.520 dollars. These sponsors are important to us. They're important to you. Let's support businesses

01:35:32.260 that are supporting their community and people out here like the CCFR is a lobby group or if I

01:35:37.280 get there we are the resistance coffee company with a couple of rifles up there crossed as they

01:35:42.940 said I'm going to be ordering and I'll give a review on it their liberal tears medium brew

01:35:48.860 coffee we'll see how it is hopefully it's good and Rose West asking if I'll interview

01:35:57.020 Edmonton candidates as well. That's a good question. I might hit a few more for mayoral

01:36:04.420 candidates. I did speak to Mike Nickel. I've had him on a couple of times over individual issues

01:36:08.920 as a councillor and then with his mayoral run. But to be honest, I got to say, I don't know quite

01:36:15.280 enough about the Edmonton specific issues to speak well to them. I wouldn't be able to ask

01:36:21.880 the best questions of their candidates. I mean, of course, I've been to Edmonton. I'm concerned

01:36:24.840 about edmonton maybe we'll have some sort of special down the road and some people can help

01:36:28.920 inform me on those edmonton issues because of course it's important edmonton citizens

01:36:33.720 and people in those areas in those races so i don't have any specific plans to interview

01:36:37.880 edmonton candidates but uh i'm certainly not ruling it out uh you know their race is important

01:36:43.960 as well as some of the rural ones we're going to be covering and watching you know the western

01:36:47.480 standards a western publication we're going to be looking i mean if a crazy issue it explodes uh

01:36:52.360 you know, in Lethbridge or in, you know, Tomahawk out by Great Valley, I'll talk to the players that

01:37:02.160 are involved in that, perhaps. You know, we want to cover it. We want to talk to those things.

01:37:05.940 That's the interesting thing with having municipal elections going on at, you know,

01:37:11.080 across the entire province at the same time. One other thing I wanted to hit on today,

01:37:14.760 I didn't quite get a chance to, but I've seen, you know, talk coming up. One of the things,

01:37:18.100 And I'll give credit to the Kennedy government, which I don't often enough lately.

01:37:21.880 I wish I could more often, guys.

01:37:23.340 I want to.

01:37:24.580 But they did put a motion forward, I believe, to utilize sort of the same constitutional tools that Quebec did,

01:37:31.100 where they pushed to have their nationhood clause stuffed in, you know, to our Canadian Constitution,

01:37:38.220 basically where they can unilaterally add things or change things within our Constitution.

01:37:42.440 I've been yelling for some time.

01:37:43.680 Well, come on, Premier Kennedy, get on that.

01:37:46.200 Let's do this.

01:37:47.060 we can utilize these tools. Let's stand up for ourselves. I've long said that instead of

01:37:52.140 complaining about Quebec so much, which we do, and they frustrate us, hey, give them credit where

01:37:56.340 it's due. Quebec stands up for themselves. They don't take it. They push back. They use the tools

01:38:00.540 that are at their disposal and they stand up for themselves. So to hear that with the equalization,

01:38:05.940 it sounds like they may be utilizing those tools to put the referendum results into the constitution

01:38:09.920 or at least push to do so. I think it's great. Absolutely. Let's use those rights. And it's

01:38:16.740 funny, Chris, that spurred some of the discussion from the usual people who start poo-pooing it.

01:38:20.340 Oh, you don't understand how equalization works. Oh, come on. I do. And I do understand that we

01:38:26.580 don't cut a check and send it to Ottawa. It's not as literal as that. I also understand that

01:38:32.480 if constitutionally we ripped the equalization program right out of there and it was gone,

01:38:38.000 we'd still get screwed because our system screws the West much more deeply than just equalization 0.87

01:38:43.300 alone but it's a massive symbol because i mean all ottawa would do is still take the same amount

01:38:48.500 of taxes from us and others transfer work through healthcare transfers or education transfers or

01:38:55.380 corporate welfare i mean we know that we know they're going to do that but the equalization

01:39:00.420 is so blatant i mean it's an outright inter-provincial welfare program and albertans

01:39:05.940 have been getting hooped by it since the 50s or 60s or whatever that bloody thing came about

01:39:10.420 And this referendum, I tell you what, it's going to pull out voters.

01:39:16.040 It's important.

01:39:17.560 You know, there's somebody already, all these guys, you get up and say, oh,

01:39:19.420 Burtons don't understand how equalization works.

01:39:21.180 Well, what better opportunity than spend a month campaigning on it then?

01:39:24.200 Let's spend a whole month talking about it.

01:39:25.780 You guys can explain to us how it's good for us or explain to us how we don't

01:39:29.720 understand it.

01:39:31.300 Explain to us how we're pissing in the wind by voting to try and change it.

01:39:34.300 By all means, come on, have the discussion.

01:39:36.280 It's not a big expense because someone says, oh, it's a waste of resources.

01:39:39.360 What resources?

01:39:40.420 It's a debate. We're having an election anyways. Albertans are going to the polling stations.

01:39:45.080 They're making a mark on a piece of paper. We're talking about adding another one. That's all.

01:39:49.700 It won't be that expensive. It won't be that hard. You know, if you really don't like it,

01:39:53.360 don't go vote on it. But I will. And I'll vote to shove that equalization rate back up Ottawa's

01:39:58.760 butts. We've had it with it. And Albertans should. And a lot of Albertans will campaign to do so, 0.98

01:40:03.400 and they're going to come out to vote. And you know, Mayor Nitsche, he got very upset with that

01:40:08.580 campaign. That's part of why, in my view, it's speculative, of course, that he's not running

01:40:12.720 again because he's got people breathing down his neck. He didn't feel confident that he could win.

01:40:17.040 He didn't want to go out on an electoral loss. And one of the big things he was furious about

01:40:21.820 was that this equalization referendum is going to be held at the same time because, see, he counts

01:40:25.540 on conservative voters staying home. He counts on us being apathetic and indifferent. And I tell

01:40:30.700 you, municipal turnouts are pretty kind of shameful and embarrassing for us. I hope that changes this

01:40:34.220 time around. As I said, we get a lot of change coming. But this referendum will pull people out,

01:40:38.640 people who might not normally care who their councillor was or who their mayor might be,

01:40:43.120 but do care about the equalization. It's not like they're going to come in and just make a mark

01:40:46.640 on the equalization ballot while they're in there. It's like, well, since I'm here, I'm going to vote

01:40:50.700 for my mayor and council candidate and maybe school trustee while I'm at it. So something

01:40:55.080 that draws out conservative voters is something that, yes, makes people like Nahed Neji upset.

01:41:01.060 and it should make some of those comfortable incumbent city councillors upset too because 0.92

01:41:06.900 people who don't typically get off their butts and vote are going to get off their butts and vote.

01:41:10.920 So this equalization referendum is a good idea. Even if it doesn't change a lot in the end, 0.54

01:41:16.380 it brings the discussion to the forefront and we'll put our view out there. We get 70% of

01:41:23.820 Albertans voting saying we've had it with that program. That's a strong statement. People say

01:41:28.380 talk is cheap it's true but you got to start with talk because the system is a mess and as i've

01:41:34.780 referred to it before let's look at this referendum as a dress rehearsal you know what kind of

01:41:39.660 referendum i'm talking about down the road equalization think about it a lot of people do

01:41:45.020 you know how to campaign i mean lots of my followers listeners you know we do we're political

01:41:49.020 wieners we we get out and involved these things but a lot of people don't and a referendum campaign

01:41:53.260 is quite different than a an individual candidate campaign or a party campaign this is a campaign

01:41:57.500 on an issue. You could actually have a few different groups, you know, we're taking some

01:42:01.180 very distinctive sides and campaigning for the vote on those issues, which is great. It's discourse

01:42:06.140 is direct to the people and it takes experience and skill sets. So when we come out of that

01:42:12.020 equalization campaign, even if nothing else has changed, you know what we do have? We've now got

01:42:16.340 thousands more experienced campaigners and experienced in campaigning on referendums.

01:42:21.700 and we can certainly utilize that experience in future referendums and yeah I'm talking about

01:42:28.100 independence that could be a decade down the road that could be a couple years down the road

01:42:33.180 but I think we're moving in that direction I might be wrong but we're not losing anything

01:42:37.440 by moving towards it and getting involved in these democratic exercises the equalization

01:42:43.680 referendum is going to be just that sort of exercise because it's pure regionalism it's

01:42:48.140 pure regionalist issues. It's something that applies directly to Alberta and makes forces

01:42:53.120 people to address this issue because we're sick of it. We've been hurting for years and we're

01:42:58.500 still on the losing end of the sticker equalization. We're still getting money taken out of what few

01:43:02.520 bloody businesses we have here and pumped into Quebec companies. We've had enough. So no,

01:43:09.880 those guys dismissing the equalization referendum, the pointy headed academics saying we're wasting

01:43:14.180 time, ignore them. Those are the ones that brought us to the mess we're in in the first place.

01:43:19.340 Just don't pay attention to them. Get excited about that referendum. Get involved in that

01:43:23.940 referendum. And yeah, for my bias view, vote to get rid of equalization. And vote for your local

01:43:29.620 councillor, Reeve or whatever it might be where you're at, and mayoral candidate while you're at

01:43:34.500 it. This could be a really good year for Alberta this fall. We can stand up for ourselves. We can

01:43:39.000 change our municipal governments. We've had a real crappy year and some so far. Let's turn

01:43:44.000 around and do something good now. So I'll leave on that note. I'm looking at things with a bit

01:43:48.860 of optimism. We've got good candidates. We've got democratic exercises approaching. Let's take

01:43:54.040 advantage of them. Let's utilize them. Again, the Western Standard. Be sure to subscribe if you 0.93

01:43:58.040 haven't already. Subscribe to the newsletter. That'll come in your email, keep you up to date

01:44:01.680 on things. Help subscribe on YouTube, Facebook, so you can see these shows when they come up. We do

01:44:07.040 specials. We do individual interviews that come up and get broadcast. Support our sponsors. Get

01:44:12.340 to that resistance coffee company grab some of those liberal tiers or one of those other

01:44:17.060 types of coffee they got up there uh again i can't remember what it was i have to look false promises

01:44:22.020 but get out to that website and put in you know that western standard is your code and you get

01:44:27.300 that 10 off and get some good coffee and support some good causes same with the ccfr you know stand

01:44:33.780 up for our firearms rights our property rights these guys are doing it on our behalf we've got

01:44:38.980 got to make sure that they are supported in order to do it for us so i'm coming on next wednesday

01:44:43.520 i'll have a few for wednesday i'm coming on on monday i'll have some new guests we'll have some

01:44:48.440 new chat by all means email me with any thoughts questions issues c morgan at westernstandardonline.com

01:44:55.880 suggested guests i'm happy to cover a lot of them but yeah no i'm not in a rush to get kevin

01:45:00.680 j johnston on at this point y'all have a good weekend i will see you on the other side of it

Western Standard - June 05, 2021

The Cory Morgan Show. June 4 2021

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