Western Standard - THE JAGER REPORT： Leadership Battles and Global Uprising

00:00:00.000 Hi, I'm Jared Yeager, multimedia journalist for the Western Standard and managing editor

00:00:26.360 of the West Coast Standard. Now, in today's political climate, there's so much hate and division,

00:00:31.220 it's hard to find things that really bring people together. Well, one Vancouver city councillor

00:00:35.760 managed to do just that by introducing a motion that tackles one of everyone's biggest pet peeves.

00:00:41.200 But before we get into that, let's take a look at what's going on in the B.C. conservative

00:00:44.920 leadership race, shall we? Here's a snapshot. I'm a conservative. You're a liberal. No, I'm a

00:00:51.340 conservative. You're a liberal. All jokes aside, it has been a pretty busy week. On Tuesday,

00:00:59.100 another candidate entered the already packed field, former Save on Foods president Daryl Jones.

00:01:05.100 Now, if you've lived in B.C. at any point during the past 20 years or so, you've undoubtedly seen

00:01:09.660 him on TV serving up Daryl's deals. Well, he's traded groceries for politics. And at his campaign

00:01:17.560 launch event in Surrey, he tackled all the big issues from DRIPA to the economy to crime and

00:01:25.460 addiction. Afterwards, I caught up with him and asked what he thinks the government can do to lower

00:01:32.780 grocery prices. Here's what he had to say. This government has, they've been part of higher costs

00:01:42.400 for fertilizer, for feed. Fertilizer prices are up 100% in the last five years. The cost of fuel

00:01:50.500 to take products from one place to another is up massively. Crime. They have to solve the crime.

00:01:58.740 Crime in the stores today is three or four times what it was before. And with crime, when people

00:02:04.360 steal things, then prices end up going up. So all of the issues that we have in pricing in the food

00:02:12.000 business are the same reasons we have price increases everywhere. Because the government

00:02:16.300 is not doing the job that it needs to do to eliminate bureaucracy, eliminate red tape,

00:02:22.040 and figure out how to make companies process and do their work as effectively and as efficiently

00:02:30.380 as possible. And that's how you lower prices. Now, as I mentioned earlier, it's a pretty packed

00:02:36.960 field. Among those who have already announced their candidacy are businessmen Yuri Fulmer and

00:02:41.860 Ian Black. The latter actually served as an MLA for the BC Liberals back in the day. Political

00:02:47.760 commentator Caroline Elliott, contractor Warren Hamm, and a couple insiders, MLA Sheldon Clare

00:02:55.680 and Peter Milobar. Now, everyone's kind of taken a similar approach, trying to paint themselves as

00:03:04.720 the true conservative candidate while still billing themselves as someone who can bring the party

00:03:10.780 together and unite everyone under the Big Ten. And it's been successful to a degree. But this week,

00:03:23.460 we really started seeing the attacks come out. And most of those attacks centered around

00:03:29.100 candidate history, either with the BC Liberals or supporting policies that don't align with the

00:03:40.680 conservative party of today. Caroline Elliott, for example, she was targeted by Yuri Fulmer

00:03:48.580 for having donated to the BC Liberals and BC United. While Fulmer was attacked for his company's

00:03:58.100 stance on land acknowledgements and the coastal First Nations, which Fulmer and co invested in a few years ago.

00:04:07.240 Now, if 2024 is any indication, if the BC Conservatives want to have any chance of defeating the BC NDP,

00:04:19.860 I think there needs to be a focus on, yes, maintaining true conservative values, but doing so in a way that

00:04:29.100 doesn't alienate people. And Caroline Elliott, she told me the way she plans to do that is to convince 0.76

00:04:38.600 people that, what was her phrase, our values are normal people values. Now, it's going to be interesting

00:04:47.500 to see how that plays with BC Conservative voters, and whether it's enough to outweigh some of the attacks

00:04:57.740 against her. But bigger picture, you know, this time, it's a little bit different, because in 2024,

00:05:07.340 it was essentially the BC Conservatives versus the BC NDP. Since then, Dallas Brody has launched one BC,

00:05:17.580 which has taken some pretty hard-line stances on issues that the BC Conservatives have kind of danced

00:05:26.620 around, because they are, you know, trying to build up a bigger coalition. Well, whereas one BC,

00:05:33.740 they're more, this is us, this is what we believe, take it or leave it. And so whoever becomes the leader

00:05:43.580 needs to figure out whether or not they want to, I'm not going to say pander, but

00:05:50.380 move in a direction that appeals to that crowd as well, or whether they just, you know, move more

00:06:00.220 mainstream and let one BC kind of fill that niche. It's interesting, because we're kind of seeing the

00:06:06.900 same thing on the opposite side of the spectrum as well with the BC Greens. Under the new leader, Emily

00:06:12.580 Lowen, they have similarly taken very strong, hard-line stances on some of the issues that the BC NDP

00:06:21.860 has maybe gone back and forth on, or tried to appease both sides on.

00:06:27.540 And that seems to be working. You know, at the BC NDP AGM earlier, or last year, I should say,

00:06:39.060 there was a lot of talk about the BC Greens and, you know, the risk that they pose to,

00:06:44.500 especially the youth wing of the BC NDP, taking some of those votes away. I guess the main takeaway

00:06:51.300 is this is going to be a really interesting next few months in BC politics, as we watch the BC

00:06:56.260 Conservatives try to grapple with staying true to their Conservative values and appeasing the base,

00:07:02.580 while still bringing in enough people to have a chance of winning the next election.

00:07:08.900 As far as the timeline goes, candidates have until February 15th to meet the requirements for entry,

00:07:16.740 which include 250 nomination signatures from members across at least five regions,

00:07:22.420 and a $5,000 application fee. On top of that, once you're approved, they have to pay a total of

00:07:29.380 $110,000 plus a $20,000 deposit, which will be used to cover fines in case anyone breaks any rules.

00:07:39.860 Voting is set to begin on May 9th and run until May 30th, at which point the party will announce the

00:07:45.460 new leader at a convention. Each rating is worth 100 points and the lowest candidate will be eliminated

00:07:51.780 after each round of voting, and the first one to clear 50% plus one will be the new leader.

00:07:58.900 If there's one thing we can all agree on, it's that headlights have become too damn bright. Now,

00:08:04.500 you would think in a country like Canada, where pretty much everything is regulated,

00:08:08.500 that there would be limits to how bright your headlights can be.

00:08:11.780 Nope. There is a legal minimum, but no legal maximum.

00:08:16.260 Well, last week, Vancouver City Councillor Sean Orr decided to take action

00:08:20.660 by introducing a motion that would call on the federal government to address one of the biggest

00:08:26.900 issues of, well, maybe not the biggest issue of our time, but definitely the most annoying.

00:08:31.700 Now, to give you a sense of just how universally hated these things are,

00:08:36.100 Sean has introduced around 15 motions to Council, all of which have been defeated.

00:08:40.340 This one passed unanimously. And it wasn't just his usual opponents on Council that applauded the move.

00:08:47.060 On social media, those who vehemently disagree with everything Sean has ever said about anything,

00:08:54.580 were in the comments section saying,

00:08:56.180 I hate to admit it, but I agree with you. See, this can bring us together.

00:09:04.980 And, you know, it makes sense. This is something that all of us have to deal with on a daily basis,

00:09:09.700 whether you're a driver, a cyclist, a pedestrian, or just looking out your window. They're always there.

00:09:15.780 You know, who was it that decided our cars needed to be able to see into the future

00:09:20.980 at the expense of everyone around us? Well, it all started back in the early 2000s,

00:09:26.420 when car manufacturers decided to move from halogen bulbs to LEDs. Now, halogen bulbs,

00:09:34.020 they gave off a pleasant warm glow that illuminated the road without blinding those in front of or behind

00:09:40.580 you. And LEDs on the other end of the spectrum are bright white, almost blue. And the beam is more

00:09:52.420 concentrated. Now, as humans, we're more susceptible to the to the white, brighter lights,

00:09:59.460 meaning when we're driving, even if we try to ignore them, even if they're in our periphery,

00:10:05.460 we still see them. And, you know, they're very, very distracting. Now, obviously,

00:10:13.700 regulating headlight brightness falls outside the city's jurisdiction. And so what Sean's motion does

00:10:21.300 is it submits it to the Federation of Canadian Municipalities for consideration at the next

00:10:25.860 annual conference. And it calls on the federal government to do three things. Establish clear

00:10:32.420 and enforceable limits on headlight brightness, beam pattern and mounting height, strength and

00:10:37.300 oversight of adaptive and high intensity lighting technologies, and improve regulation and enforcement

00:10:42.980 related to non-compliant aftermarket vehicle lighting. Now, the second two points are very

00:10:47.860 important because, you know, we talked about new vehicles with the LEDs that come standard, but

00:10:55.780 a lot of those super bright lights you see out there are people who've bought aftermarket parts and

00:11:01.140 maybe installed them incorrectly. Or, you know, guys in their big trucks thinking they own the road

00:11:05.780 with their lights way up here. And I don't need to, I don't need to fix the beam. I can see fine.

00:11:12.820 Meanwhile, you know, you know, the light of God is shining into your into your car.

00:11:19.460 And, you know, this isn't just a Canadian problem. All over the world, people have complained about

00:11:24.900 super bright headlights. Over in the Netherlands, for example, the Royal Dutch Touring Club did a

00:11:30.980 study that found 78% of road users said they were regularly or always blinded by the bright lights

00:11:38.100 of other road users. Now, just over 20% described it as unbearable, while 71% said it was simply annoying.

00:11:47.540 Perhaps more striking, though, is nearly 75% of respondents said they look away when faced with those

00:11:54.580 lights. Now, when you're driving, that's kind of the time you want to be the most focused of what's in

00:12:00.260 front of you. And if you're having to, you know, shield your eyes or turn your mirrors so the light

00:12:05.780 doesn't bounce off, that's not that's not good. That's not that's not safe. And so there's definitely

00:12:14.100 definitely something that needs to be done. Now elsewhere in the world, governments have taken

00:12:21.300 action by adapting technology such as adaptive driving beam technology, which dims the headlights

00:12:28.740 automatically when the vehicle senses that others are nearby. So that was adapted pretty early on

00:12:35.060 over in Europe, while in Canada and the US regulations were only updated to allow that in 2018 and 2022

00:12:43.220 respectively. But just because it was allowed doesn't mean that car manufacturers are including them in

00:12:51.860 their product. And so uptake of this new technology in North America has lagged behind. But along with

00:13:00.500 regulation from the federal government on headline brightness, headlight brightness itself, this

00:13:07.700 technology, it's definitely something worth looking into. But hopefully with Sean's motion, this gets the

00:13:15.460 wheels going. And yeah, the future looks bright. All over the world, those of us lucky enough to live

00:13:22.420 with freedom have stood in solidarity with the people of Iran as they continue to fight for theirs.

00:13:27.700 From Vancouver to London and everywhere in between, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets

00:13:33.380 to be a voice for the voiceless. Now, unless you've been living under a rock, you've undoubtedly seen

00:13:38.900 something about what's going on in Iran. To put it bluntly, protests that started off as economic have

00:13:45.300 quickly turned into an all-out revolution with the goal of overthrowing the Islamic Republic regime.

00:13:51.300 Now, the regime has responded to these unarmed protesters with military-grade weapons. And what has

00:13:59.220 resulted is, it's a massacre. Thousands, if not tens of thousands of people have been killed by the

00:14:07.540 regime and its forces. Now, the coverage of all this has been lacking, to put it lightly, from both

00:14:14.180 the international and the local media. Now, nobody expects local media to stay on top of what's

00:14:19.460 happening on the ground in Iran. But a lot of people are arguing that they owe it to the people

00:14:27.060 fighting for their freedom to shine a spotlight on the protests happening here in town. Because what a lot

00:14:36.500 of people don't realize is that the chants that we hear at the protests here in Vancouver, in Toronto,

00:14:44.660 in Montreal, in London, those are merely echoes of what people are chanting in Tehran, in Mashhad.

00:14:54.340 But the difference is, because of the internet blackout and all that, it's been hard for them to

00:15:01.060 to get their voice heard by the international community. And so, these events that are held

00:15:10.820 almost daily here in Vancouver, they're quite important to cover. And that's not to say there

00:15:18.980 hasn't been any coverage. There has. But according to people I've talked to, and from chants that you

00:15:27.460 hear out on the streets, it's just not enough. A couple of weeks ago, for example, as the protesters

00:15:34.980 made their way down West Georgia Street, they passed the CBC building and chanted.

00:15:50.180 So, from what I've been told by those protesting, media, do better.

00:15:58.980 This is shaping up to be one of, if not the biggest massacre of civilians this century.

00:16:11.140 And, you know, a lot of people, they're getting the feeling, if this was happening anywhere else in

00:16:18.100 the world, there would be wall-to-wall coverage. But because it's in Iran, you know, people have just 0.96

00:16:25.860 been sadly accustomed to hearing, oh, another regime crackdown. Okay. Well, that's just how things are.

00:16:37.220 And that's not okay. And, you know, I've been told repeatedly that this time is different.

00:16:45.380 Because you've got to understand, like, people in Iran, they've been trying to overthrow the regime

00:16:50.980 for 47 years now. And time and time again, you know, there's support from the international

00:16:58.100 community and then it fizzles out. And, you know, it's the people who suffer in the end.

00:17:04.900 This time, more people have spoken out. You know, the EU, they just recently

00:17:09.540 labeled the IRGC a terrorist organization. And, you know, from both sides of the Atlantic,

00:17:19.700 in North America and in Europe, there have been renewed calls for an end to the regime.

00:17:27.860 But these people, they're out in full force here in Vancouver almost every day.

00:17:36.740 And, you know, as members of the media, whose job is to highlight the stories that matter and

00:17:45.780 give a voice to the voiceless, I think we could be doing a lot better.

00:17:49.700 Well, that pretty much does it for this week. What do you think? Are the BC conservatives at risk of

00:17:56.020 becoming too liberal? Should the government regulate headlight brightness? And what role do we play as

00:18:01.860 citizens of free countries in uplifting the voices of people all around the world as they fight against

00:18:07.060 tyrannical regimes? Let me know. Also, be sure to follow us on Twitter at WSONLINE NEWS and at

00:18:13.940 Jared Yeager. See you next time.

Western Standard - January 31, 2026

THE JAGER REPORT： Leadership Battles and Global Uprising

Episode Stats

People

Summary

Transcript