Western Standard - April 20, 2020


The Mullet Economy - The Pipeline, Episode 14


Episode Stats

Length

1 hour

Words per Minute

166.80792

Word Count

10,038

Sentence Count

214

Misogynist Sentences

10

Hate Speech Sentences

12


Summary

The latest on Keystone XL, the latest on the situation with Trans Mountain and the Supreme Court of Canada, and hairstyles for the apocalypse. The Pipeline, The Western Standard's National Affairs Program, recording this Sunday, April 19, 2020. Each week, we break down the issues, discuss them in depth, and examine some of the broader implications for Western Canada and beyond. Featuring from Calgary, the Western Standard s Publisher, Derek Fildebrandt, Senior Reporter Deirdre Mitchell-McClain, and Senior Editor Dave Naylor.


Transcript

00:00:00.000 You're listening to The Pipeline, the Western Standards National Affairs Program, recording
00:00:15.180 this Sunday, April 19th, 2020.
00:00:18.840 Each week we break down the issues, discuss them in depth, and examine some of the broader
00:00:22.680 implications for Western Canada and beyond.
00:00:26.680 Featuring from Calgary, the Western Standards Publisher, Derek Fildebrandt.
00:00:31.640 Good day, Derek.
00:00:32.920 How are you?
00:00:33.920 Fine.
00:00:34.920 Fine.
00:00:35.920 Okay.
00:00:36.920 Fine.
00:00:37.920 It's not freezing, so that's nice.
00:00:41.920 Excellent.
00:00:42.920 Featuring also Dave Naylor, also from Calgary, the news editor of the Western Standard.
00:00:48.520 How are you doing today, Dave?
00:00:50.520 I'm doing great, Paul.
00:00:51.920 Thank you.
00:00:52.920 Would you say better than Derek?
00:00:55.920 No.
00:00:56.920 Not better than Derek.
00:00:58.920 Okay.
00:00:59.920 And also featuring from Strathmore, Deirdre Mitchell-McClain, our senior reporter at the Western Standard.
00:01:08.240 How are you, Deirdre?
00:01:09.240 Fabulous.
00:01:10.240 Better than Dave and Derek, by the sounds of it.
00:01:14.160 Mm-hmm.
00:01:15.160 Outstanding.
00:01:16.160 Sunshine.
00:01:17.160 Now you're just showing off.
00:01:19.480 And I'm your host, Paul Holmes, digital editor here.
00:01:22.760 And without further ado, we'll get underway.
00:01:23.760 Some of the topics we'll be talking about on the pipeline today are Keystone XL, the very
00:01:30.360 latest news on that.
00:01:33.040 The tendency of people to rally around the leader in times of crisis.
00:01:39.720 When is the economy going to open again?
00:01:42.560 And are leaders bound by the same rules that the rest of us are bound by in a crisis?
00:01:48.860 And finally, hairstyles for the apocalypse.
00:01:53.360 But we'll begin with Keystone XL.
00:01:56.640 Who broke the story?
00:01:57.600 Was that Dave or Deirdre that broke that one?
00:02:00.640 I didn't catch the title.
00:02:02.860 Which part of it?
00:02:04.360 Depends.
00:02:05.360 The part you're talking about, Paul.
00:02:07.360 All right.
00:02:08.360 Well, why don't we go around the horn then?
00:02:09.980 Who wants to go first?
00:02:10.980 I'll go first.
00:02:11.980 I'll jump in first.
00:02:12.980 Okay.
00:02:13.980 There was much public ballyhoo a couple of weeks ago when Jason Kennedy announced a multi-billion
00:02:21.960 dollar infusion into the Keystone XL.
00:02:26.880 And things were going along merrily for a couple of days until it got into the courtroom
00:02:31.080 in Montana where a judge put up his hand and put the whole thing on hold.
00:02:35.980 He's told the Army Corps of Engineers that they've got to stop digging the big ditch and go back
00:02:42.240 and redo a study on wildlife in jeopardy or something like that.
00:02:47.160 So all the money in the world doesn't get you a completed pipeline at the moment.
00:02:53.740 Deirdre, what can you tell us?
00:02:57.240 So yeah, that was on Wednesday.
00:03:01.800 That was the 31st.
00:03:03.360 No, that was on April, goodness, the day before Kenny's one year.
00:03:10.840 So yes, April 15th and they actually, TC Energy actually had a hearing scheduled with the federal
00:03:19.620 court in Montana about a 2018 order actually from the same judge.
00:03:27.660 So this is a new order that I'm not sure if they can discuss that at the hearing or not.
00:03:35.140 Or if it was, I guess you could say, yet another stall tactic that's going to hold them up for
00:03:41.860 another couple of years while they wait to get in front of a federal judge on this new order.
00:03:47.140 Well, it seems like even in a pandemic, we can't seem to build a pipeline in North America.
00:03:54.620 There's certainly this side of the border connecting with the other side of the border.
00:03:58.620 Derek, what are your thoughts?
00:04:00.620 Well, a lot of the commentary around this has been the usual hypocrisy.
00:04:07.580 You know, conservatives are supposed to be against corporate welfare, except for when
00:04:12.160 it's industries that they like, like oil.
00:04:14.100 I think pretty broadly, it's fair to say the Western standard is about as pro oil as you
00:04:19.100 can get.
00:04:20.100 But, you know, we've, we've gotten to this strange point in Canada where certain industries
00:04:25.120 are left wing and certain other industries are right wing.
00:04:28.060 Oil is a right wing thing.
00:04:30.060 Solar panels and airplanes are a left wing thing.
00:04:36.200 So conservatives always throw their, ring their hands when Bombardier gets government money,
00:04:43.020 rightfully so, because we're throwing good money after bad government picking winners and
00:04:46.840 losers in the private sector.
00:04:48.520 But when we start throwing billions of taxpayers dollars into industries that are traditionally
00:04:53.740 associated with conservatives, there's no problem.
00:04:56.620 And then the left all of a sudden, which has no problem with subsidies for GM, Chrysler, Bombardier,
00:05:02.960 they scream bloody murder when subsidies go to an industry that they don't look like.
00:05:08.000 But the economics are no different in either case.
00:05:10.540 It's a case of government taking taxpayers money out of profitable businesses in the private
00:05:15.060 sector and investing it into businesses that they see fit.
00:05:18.280 Now, Keystone needs to get built.
00:05:21.500 It's actually, even though it gets far less attention in the press than Trans Mountain,
00:05:26.040 it's more important than Trans Mountain.
00:05:27.580 It's taking us not just to foreign markets, but to heavy oil refining capacity, which is
00:05:33.500 far below capacity right now on the U.S. Gulf Coast, especially since Venezuela, despite having
00:05:39.380 the second largest reserve in the world, can't seem to produce oil very well.
00:05:44.600 And that'll eventually get us to international markets once that oil is refined there.
00:05:48.520 So this is actually the most important pipeline to get built.
00:05:51.440 But it doesn't need taxpayers money.
00:05:54.660 Once Trump was elected and Obama's veto was gone and Clinton's promised veto was out of
00:06:01.320 the way, the political hurdles were really gone.
00:06:04.660 It's going to run into court battles as it is now.
00:06:07.660 But I think having from America's perspective, a foreign government taking a large ownership
00:06:14.800 portion of this changes the political dynamics.
00:06:18.440 This is no longer in the American debate, a debate around private businesses versus some
00:06:24.760 of the more radical environmental movement.
00:06:26.880 It's it's now we've made the Alberta government, from their perspective, a foreign government,
00:06:33.220 a direct player in this.
00:06:35.520 A lot of legal experts think that this actually hurts a lot of the cases in court because this
00:06:39.440 is not American citizens via corporations they're dealing with now.
00:06:44.340 They're now dealing effectively with a foreign government.
00:06:48.080 So this is this really blew back in our faces here.
00:06:50.760 It's a it's a massive amount of money.
00:06:53.380 And we're really now getting very comfortable with government owning the means of production.
00:06:57.860 This is something that should scare anyone who is supposed to theoretically support free
00:07:02.820 enterprise.
00:07:03.980 But we're now perfectly OK with Ottawa owning in its entirety the Trans Mountain pipeline and
00:07:11.540 the Alberta government owning in large measure the Keystone pipeline.
00:07:15.120 And this is it's nothing less than government owning the means of production.
00:07:18.400 And if anyone else besides conservatives does it, you call that socialism.
00:07:21.700 Yeah, there's definitely a principle to be stated, you know, either you believe in corporate
00:07:29.800 welfare or state owned enterprises or you don't it's it's it's striking to me.
00:07:35.440 And certainly maybe, you know, even in a time like this, there's there's going to be exceptions,
00:07:40.800 but they should be exceptions, not the rule if you believe in the principle.
00:07:44.520 And so, you know, I've I've always found that, you know, amongst amongst the tribalist world
00:07:50.680 that we live in today, you know, that, you know, it's OK if if my side does it, but not
00:07:56.000 OK if your side does it really loses any any weight in the argument, in my opinion.
00:08:04.460 Any further thoughts on Keystone XL, Dave or Deirdre, I think there's also it's also important
00:08:11.440 to mention what's going on in the states with their with their oil production right now.
00:08:17.620 And recently, the Trump administration lost a they lost a Senate vote to be able to get
00:08:25.260 three billion dollars to purchase more of American produced oil for their reserves.
00:08:32.240 And so now they're looking at a package, so to speak, to be able to pay their shale oil
00:08:39.740 producers in the U.S. to actually leave it in the ground to effectively stop it from accruing
00:08:48.560 additional supply because that's going to keep, of course, the price down.
00:08:53.400 So with this also going on and yes, Canadian crude is not the same as U.S. shale oil.
00:08:59.420 It's completely different weight, yada, yada.
00:09:02.980 But line three also will be completed this year.
00:09:05.940 The American leg of it, the last court hurdle that they had was they managed through that
00:09:12.280 in February.
00:09:13.280 So that will also come online this year.
00:09:16.800 You know, the Keystone, the Keystone leg that they're looking at right now.
00:09:22.920 It's effectively a shortcut to the existing Keystone pipeline.
00:09:28.320 So the existing one goes from Alberta over to Montana and then comes down south.
00:09:34.640 This one just kind of cuts across diagonally.
00:09:37.400 So, you know, is this beneficial?
00:09:40.020 Yes.
00:09:40.460 Is it like are they in desperate need for it in the current environment?
00:09:48.980 I'm not sure that they are.
00:09:50.480 Well, that's I guess that really underlines.
00:09:53.680 I was reading.
00:09:54.680 I don't know.
00:09:55.680 This was a couple weeks ago now, but I was reading that oil reserves were increasing rapidly
00:10:01.860 all around the world as consumption has gone down and they're going to run out of places
00:10:05.760 to store it all if the consumption doesn't resume.
00:10:10.120 So I don't know.
00:10:11.080 I don't know how much that changes week to week or how accurate that is.
00:10:15.080 Jerry cans.
00:10:16.080 The answer is more Jerry.
00:10:17.080 Jerry cans.
00:10:18.080 Hey, quick trivia question.
00:10:21.980 How many how many gallons in a barrel of oil?
00:10:28.960 You guys, come on.
00:10:30.260 You're from Alberta.
00:10:31.260 You don't know this.
00:10:32.260 Actually, I don't buy it by the gallon.
00:10:35.580 All right.
00:10:36.580 I'm sorry, by the barrel.
00:10:37.580 How many leaders then?
00:10:38.580 Nobody?
00:10:39.580 All right.
00:10:40.580 You can put your comments about us not knowing that in the in the comments below.
00:10:45.580 Shame on you, Paul, for asking a question that sounds like we should know the answer
00:10:50.080 to.
00:10:51.080 We're supposed to discuss this in advance so we can prep it and look smart and Google
00:10:54.580 it.
00:10:55.580 Oh, no way.
00:10:56.580 What is the answer?
00:10:57.580 Oh, I can't remember.
00:10:58.580 It's like 44 or something.
00:11:00.580 Oh, BC folks.
00:11:01.580 All right.
00:11:02.580 Good times.
00:11:03.580 So, um, how many leaders then?
00:11:04.580 All right.
00:11:05.580 Good times.
00:11:06.580 So, um, one of the phenomenons and, you know, it's funny.
00:11:10.580 I get, you know, I kind of have my, you know, I have my political bent as we all do.
00:11:15.580 And, um, and so, you know, there's certain certain politicians I like better than other
00:11:21.260 certain politicians.
00:11:22.260 So I can go on to Twitter and talk about how the popularity of the politicians that I like
00:11:27.340 is way up.
00:11:28.340 And, uh, and then I hear about the popularity of politicians I don't like also being way
00:11:33.640 up and I realized actually they're all up pretty much with a couple of notable exceptions.
00:11:39.640 Um, one of which is Jason Kenney in Alberta, um, which we talked about before the show may
00:11:46.540 well have just been on the way down anyway, but, um, you know, as the honeymoon, I guess
00:11:52.640 expired and reality set in, but, uh, why don't we talk about Jason first?
00:11:57.140 Why is he, uh, the outlier in terms of popularity?
00:12:00.740 And then let's talk about this general trend in the world of, uh, people rallying around
00:12:07.000 leaders in a time of crisis.
00:12:08.520 So, um, who wants to talk about Jason Kenney first?
00:12:11.140 I want to hear what Derek has to say.
00:12:13.140 All right, Derek, we're going to start off with you.
00:12:16.140 Well, I think it's just human nature that in times of crisis, you look to, to leaders,
00:12:22.140 whoever's in place, um, to provide comfort and reassurance, people don't know what to
00:12:27.140 do.
00:12:28.140 Uh, maybe even more so today in an age where there's so much information out there and so
00:12:32.140 little of it, uh, and so, so much of it can't be, be trusted or verified.
00:12:37.140 Um, but this will happen in wartime and pandemics and natural disaster in almost every big disaster.
00:12:44.140 The local leader, if they're following the script will go up in popularity.
00:12:48.140 Uh, Nahid Nenshi's popularity went from decent to through the roof during the 2013 floods
00:12:54.140 in Calgary, came back down significantly afterwards, but, uh, but it gave him a huge bump.
00:12:59.140 Even Alison Redford.
00:13:00.140 I remember progressive conservatives going around at the time saying Alison Redford was
00:13:04.140 going to govern as queen forever.
00:13:06.140 And, uh, one year later she's gone.
00:13:09.140 But, um, so it's, it's a natural phenomenon across Canada.
00:13:13.140 Uh, the, the leader making, uh, I think, I think getting the biggest pat on the back is,
00:13:19.140 uh, Doug Ford, who's really emerged.
00:13:22.140 Uh, you know, I'm watching, uh, old liberal friends of mine in Ontario who, you know,
00:13:28.140 considered him just, uh, literally Hitler, uh, months ago.
00:13:33.140 Uh, even they are, many of them are grudgingly saying he's doing a good job.
00:13:36.140 I've seen that.
00:13:37.140 Yeah.
00:13:38.140 Um, yeah, it's, it's been something so virtually almost all the premiers are up across the polls
00:13:42.140 and, uh, in their own approval.
00:13:44.140 Uh, the exception is here in Alberta, but as, as was alluded to, uh, and I think Dave said
00:13:49.140 before we got on the air here, I think this is just actually his honeymoon coming down.
00:13:53.140 I think he's actually handled this crisis reasonably well.
00:13:56.140 One thing most people don't understand is in a crisis.
00:13:59.140 If you're not Donald Trump, the bureaucrats are actually in charge.
00:14:03.140 Most of the politicians, they're just doing what the bureaucrats tell them to do.
00:14:07.140 And they follow a script.
00:14:08.140 And if they do that, things normally go mostly well.
00:14:10.140 Uh, Rachel Notley during the, the Fort McMurray fires, her popularity went up.
00:14:15.140 She was, you know, considered to do reasonably well, but in most cases they're just following
00:14:20.140 the orders of these pre-written plans as the bureaucrats are in charge.
00:14:24.140 Uh, I, I think Kenny's handled it at least, uh, no worse than the average Canadian premier.
00:14:29.140 But, uh, I think this, we're just kind of seeing that, uh, the, uh, the honeymoon is over.
00:14:35.140 I think he was running into some difficulty on other fronts and, uh, all this fair deal stuff,
00:14:40.140 uh, not getting, we haven't had any results whatsoever yet.
00:14:44.140 And so a lot of this, this stuff I think is just the shine coming off the government,
00:14:48.140 not necessarily related to the pandemic.
00:14:52.140 And leaving Deirdre to last because we're all interested in what, uh, what she's got to say.
00:14:57.140 It doesn't help Kenny.
00:14:58.140 And I agree with Derek that, uh, I think Kenny's done as well as, uh, any premier, uh, across the country.
00:15:04.140 It doesn't help Kenny, uh, when he's getting daily, uh, tweets, uh, from the opposition, from, uh, uh, Rachel Notley.
00:15:12.140 Uh, and it's just, it's just negative, repeated, you know, repeatedly over and over and over again,
00:15:19.140 day after day after day on what a crappy job, uh, Kenny's doing.
00:15:23.140 He also made the mistake of, uh, taking on doctors before he knew a pandemic was going to hit.
00:15:28.140 Uh, so the opposition is now, uh, using that on him.
00:15:32.140 I mean, what, what sort of premier would take on heroic doctors when they're, they're, they're saving us, uh, from the pandemic.
00:15:39.140 So it's, uh, I haven't seen opposition in other provinces act up as much as the NDP is here in Alberta.
00:15:49.140 Uh, but that's obviously one of the reasons Kenny's popularity is sinking.
00:15:53.140 Yeah.
00:15:54.140 But before Deirdre jumps in, uh, I think Dave was, uh, bang on there.
00:15:59.140 I, I, I didn't mention the doctors.
00:16:01.140 They had been already entering a labor dispute with doctors before this hit.
00:16:06.140 It was really crappy political timing and they can't, they can't be blamed.
00:16:11.140 I think they were actually making some reasonable and very modest changes with, uh, with some of the pay scale around doctors.
00:16:18.140 But, uh, it hit at a pretty poor time when doctors moved to the front of everyone's mind.
00:16:24.140 And that gave them massive leverage, uh, forcing them to back down.
00:16:27.140 And at the same time, while in most provinces and federally, the oppositions have been much more careful and measured in their criticisms of government.
00:16:36.140 The NDP are still acting like it's question period every day here.
00:16:40.140 And while that it might be a bit crass, um, they, they've continued hammering on.
00:16:46.140 And, uh, I guess among their supporters and some middle voters, uh, that's, that's chipping away.
00:16:51.140 Deirdre.
00:16:52.140 I'm just allowing the apologists to wash over me here.
00:16:55.140 Um, sorry, are you, I'm a Jason Kenney apologist?
00:16:58.140 Apparently.
00:16:59.140 Uh, I'm a rational critic as opposed to the crazy critics.
00:17:02.140 Uh, you know, despite the poor Jason Kenney's honeymoon is over and, and poor Jason Kenney getting hammered by the opposition.
00:17:06.140 And that's just tearing him down in conservative Alberta.
00:17:23.140 My, um, I, I would, I would honestly say that it's simpler than that.
00:17:30.140 Simplest explanation, which is, uh, Jason Kenney was elected.
00:17:35.140 Yeah.
00:17:36.140 So it's our%, uh, Mr.
00:17:41.420 Speaker Moen from the Force is excellent.
00:17:46.140 Ourications and our patients are still to bring in jobs, economy and pipelines.
00:17:49.760 Uh, none of that is happening right now.
00:17:51.860 And, and we've got a health pandemic and well,
00:17:56.700 while as Derek may say, you Know it.
00:17:58.780 It's perfectly reasonable to, uh, cut doctors, uh, billing amounts
00:18:03.220 and things like that.
00:18:04.260 private companies like tell us you know it this this isn't why he was elected he
00:18:11.660 wasn't elected to do this to handle this and you know whether you can say I think
00:18:17.520 he's done as reasonably well sure but that's not what anyone wanted from him
00:18:23.160 and I don't think he's a I don't think he's the trusted individual that that
00:18:29.040 people are looking to for information in this in this pandemic and I will say as
00:18:35.460 well Doug Ford absolutely has done you know some he has he's been the the
00:18:43.440 surprise leader throughout all of this and I think one of the reasons why is
00:18:50.400 because Doug Ford is no longer cutting services for vulnerable people so
00:18:58.740 you know he's actually changed his tune Jason Kenny is still providing economic
00:19:04.500 updates during our cobit updates so you know there's there's no change in the
00:19:10.020 tune there what you know I can't take credit for this thought but I read an
00:19:13.960 interesting piece about a week or two ago about different leadership styles and
00:19:18.840 there are there are your managerial peacetime leaders who are sort of a
00:19:24.960 steady-as-she-goes type leader and then there are your break glass in case of
00:19:29.100 emergency wartime style leaders there's a reason that no one really wanted
00:19:33.480 Winston Churchill to be the prime minister of Britain in peacetime but
00:19:37.460 everybody knew he was the right guy in wartime and what we're finding is maybe
00:19:40.980 this is the application of different leadership styles Doug Ford is a rock the
00:19:45.060 boat anti-establishment kind of guy and those people have a very difficult time in
00:19:50.160 normalcy and peacetime but when shit hits the fan they're the guy and so Doug
00:19:56.340 Ford's leadership style shines through at a time like this but when the crisis is
00:20:01.200 over there's a good chance that people will not like his leadership style anymore
00:20:05.160 because he is a rock the boat emergency style leader Kenny I think is very much the
00:20:11.540 opposite of Doug Ford in a style he is a methodical calculating long-term thinking
00:20:19.920 leader who really doesn't know what to do in a crisis he doesn't inspire people in
00:20:27.140 these kinds of times and so it's different kinds of leadership styles
00:20:30.660 coming forward at different times I'm not sure what kind of leader Justin Trudeau is
00:20:35.480 I think he's I I won't even speculate I haven't seen him shine in either time I
00:20:43.160 think Justin Trudeau just is the is the talking head for the smarter people in
00:20:49.400 the room but that's just one guy yes that's the third style there's the
00:20:52.600 puppet leader you know just to Deirdre's point Deirdre you mentioned you
00:20:58.180 know and I don't want to misquote your paraphrase too wrongly but you know he
00:21:04.040 wasn't essentially wasn't elected you know to be the guy to lead us in a
00:21:09.500 pandemic but neither was there was anybody else and yet still we see a very
00:21:15.500 different result you know people when they elected their leaders elsewhere had
00:21:18.760 high expectations about a very different agenda than leading through a pandemic
00:21:23.060 and yet you know everywhere else we're seeing most everywhere else we're seeing
00:21:27.200 this trend where people are rallying around leaders but it's really not
00:21:29.660 happening do you think there's some merit to what Derek saying around maybe just the
00:21:33.680 leadership style or is there something unique about Alberta it could also be
00:21:38.540 that that Jason Kenny is he's sticking to his pre pandemic message right he's
00:21:46.580 still talking about jobs economy pipelines and that's fantastic it's it's
00:21:52.940 still important but more and more people like I'm starting to see on my Facebook my
00:21:58.740 Facebook is very conservative because I grew up in rural Alberta that's that's
00:22:03.740 the groups that I really have on Facebook so probably why I don't spend much time on
00:22:08.760 there but I'm starting to see a lot more in my feeds of people getting really
00:22:14.040 annoyed they don't want to hear Jason Kenny's economic update when they tune in
00:22:18.780 for dr. Hinshaw's COVID update so and I mean I like I get right I rate because I'm ready for the
00:22:24.420 COVID update right I'm not prepped to oh Jason Kenny's talking about the economy too that's a
00:22:30.780 totally different story and doesn't belong in the same it's it I don't know and so
00:22:37.320 maybe it's his maybe it's his refusal to change message maybe this is a good
00:22:41.880 transition because we're talking about reopening in the economy now well if you
00:22:46.660 don't mind it was a good transition it is a good transition but I did I did want to just
00:22:50.820 bring up one other quick thing talking about leaders and that is this cult sort
00:22:57.360 of leadership around because Derek you had mentioned bureaucrats really being in
00:23:01.580 charge and we're seeing this kind of almost cult like reaction to the public
00:23:06.360 health officials and their role we're seeing you know murals of dr. Tam and dr.
00:23:14.480 Henry here in British Columbia and people just you know heaping praise upon these
00:23:18.600 people in a much bigger way than we're seeing for the politicians and I'm
00:23:23.760 wondering if that's part of the same phenomenon or is there something something
00:23:28.380 more to that if anybody else has any other thoughts it's just an observation of
00:23:31.780 mine I think it's a good it's a good point here he's become a bit of a folk an
00:23:46.980 emergent folk hero no one had heard of her outside of maybe one square block around the
00:23:53.400 headquarters of AHS and Alberta no one had heard of her before she's become a bit of a
00:23:57.840 folk here and yeah now her and she's got stylized billboards of people putting up her
00:24:04.080 image around she's really done well there wasn't quite a bit of blowback against Jason Kenny when he
00:24:09.360 gave uh when we did our he disclosed the provinces modeling uh he was clearly out of his he's a guy who
00:24:16.780 reads his briefs he's not a dummy uh but clearly modeling around a pandemic as far outside of his
00:24:23.260 depth it's even outside of the depth of an experienced health minister it's clearly the
00:24:26.920 dot uh the job of public health officials like dr. Hinshaw to go through and he did it himself
00:24:32.500 some would say maybe just to get more airtime and look like that leader uh when people were like
00:24:37.820 well put the doctor on who actually understands this stuff isn't just reading the script so there
00:24:42.240 was some blowback there I think that is probably his biggest misstep through this so far uh Doug
00:24:48.100 Ford to the best of my knowledge hasn't bothered with doing that kind of thing uh where he he's been
00:24:53.540 different is out there physically doing things for the camera showing that kind of you know hands-on
00:25:01.300 every man kind of leadership that you'd expect from him uh but yeah these these public health officials
00:25:07.160 uh across the country been uh really become the uh the folk here's of this except for dr. Tam I think
00:25:13.780 there's a big difference there uh maybe Dave can expand on it but I think she's been viewed very
00:25:20.240 differently than say um uh public health officials provincially in Alberta BC I was I was just going to
00:25:27.180 bring that up Derek uh uh dr. Tam started well uh you know she seemed to get that sort of cult following
00:25:34.160 and then it's just been one blunder after another blunder after another blunder you know from okay
00:25:39.860 don't wear face masks okay go ahead wear face masks uh she doesn't seem to have the trust anymore that
00:25:46.160 uh dr. Dina would have or a BC doctor would have and I think it's mainly because it's almost like she's
00:25:53.240 being linked with the Trudeau government she's almost an official spokesperson for the for the Trudeau
00:25:58.280 government and uh uh doesn't have our own best interests uh at heart well and I I wonder and
00:26:04.820 and I've wondered this from the very beginning and and maybe I just don't understand it but
00:26:09.400 you know my thought what my sort of what I thought a public health official is supposed to do
00:26:15.600 is that they're supposed to be as tuned in to public health threats as possible you know they should
00:26:21.180 be doctors and scientists and epidemiologists and all the all the like and that their job is to take
00:26:29.280 the best information they can and then make recommendations to the politicians not worrying
00:26:36.720 about all of the other political concerns that could exist and then it was the job of the politicians
00:26:43.560 then to take that advice from the public health officials and then come up with the official public policy
00:26:49.680 and and I thought that's how that was supposed to work and my big complaint right from several
00:26:56.600 weeks ago frankly and I think it's gotten better but um you know I remember uh dr. Henry here in the
00:27:03.040 province of british columbia I'm locked I'm locked at home already because I've just I've seen I saw what
00:27:08.820 was coming and I'm like no way I'm not going anywhere and she's on television telling people to go out to
00:27:16.680 restaurants and go to whistler for the weekend and I'm thinking to myself why is a public health
00:27:22.380 official in on the on the the eve of a potentially devastating pandemic suggesting to people to go
00:27:30.680 to whistler or to go out to restaurants and the best I can come up with is that she was evaluating it
00:27:37.920 politically thinking oh well they they're gonna damage to the economy she shouldn't be concerned
00:27:43.260 about the economy she should be concerned about public health let the politicians be concerned
00:27:48.120 about the balancing act between the economy and public health that's what I think and that's why
00:27:54.180 Tam has suffered a reputation relative to the other provincial public health officials she's been an
00:28:00.540 apologist for the Chinese government which is very much parroting the political line of the Trudeau
00:28:05.640 liberal government which is very very close with China and you know so today now you've got France
00:28:12.400 Germany UK are now launching potential class action lawsuits against China for its absolute bungling this
00:28:19.700 from start to finish and Tam is sitting there as an apologist for it which sounds very political so
00:28:24.700 so she has now become a polarizing figure right down there with the politicians whereas the
00:28:29.740 provincial health officials at least the ones that I've seen have seen to be above this and up in the
00:28:34.800 state goods telling giving people what at least appears to be relatively honest information hmm Deirdre you've
00:28:41.560 been cautiously silent unusually yeah I would you know I I think it depends on what end of the country that
00:28:55.560 you live on because she seems to still have maintained support in other areas of the country
00:29:04.320 it you know it's been very difficult to watch a lot of this unfold to listen to the public health officials
00:29:12.280 the politicians and to see to see the blowback especially that are that our public health officials are
00:29:19.560 getting for things like no a mask isn't going to help you to find wear a mask understand though it really
00:29:27.360 doesn't help you if you are healthy you know that was it wasn't really a it wasn't really a 180 on sure
00:29:35.880 wear a mask it was it came with the caveat of if you're sick that can help you know protect other people
00:29:43.020 but if you're healthy the type of masks that you can buy in your local store isn't it isn't going to
00:29:49.860 be the proper mask that you need to you know to keep particles out so I think there's I think there's
00:29:57.780 been a lot of I think there's been a lot of blowback during the learning portion and and the thing is we're
00:30:06.720 we're we're not going to know everything about this virus for a while yet and the thing is that you
00:30:13.500 know even Deborah Birx out of the States she was saying that looking at China's numbers before it got
00:30:21.780 out she said that that it wasn't a worry for them either they weren't worried about it why because it
00:30:27.420 it looked kind of like SARS did I mean SARS got into Canada was in Toronto and they contained it right it
00:30:35.220 was they were able to work with that so I think it's evolving information it's just evolving
00:30:43.780 information it is changing it's changing because they're learning more about it you know the fact
00:30:49.680 that we're getting different information the one thing we knew from the very beginning is it came from
00:30:54.720 China and and on her recommendation that they have they barely even restricted travel from China for
00:31:03.160 people who are at risk like I mean it's absolutely mind-boggling that we were too chicken shit to put in
00:31:09.480 and it's because Trump put the travel restrictions in place Trump put his travel restrictions in place
00:31:15.240 the blowback was oh you're just being a racist as usual where did Americans did Americans get dropped
00:31:23.040 off in Canada instead and then cross the border by car I'm just curious because I have a feeling those
00:31:29.100 Americans still got back home that was the big reason why people is one thing but bringing in
00:31:35.420 uh national visitors other countries is a is a big difference and yeah that was the right there from the
00:31:41.580 beginning saying China did you know didn't do anything wrong here it was their response was reasonable
00:31:47.100 and and I think just a lot of this is this government's very close relationship with the con with the Chinese I mean we're kind of reliant on them right now
00:31:57.100 and China is no doubt the bullier the the bad guy in this whole thing don't forget Justin Trudeau just
00:32:05.500 three weeks ago gave that same lab in Wuhan more than eight hundred thousand dollars no no no
00:32:11.340 they're part of a party party part of a group but yes part of a group of the exact same lab that let this
00:32:19.180 fire us out okay that hasn't been proven oh Deirdre come on come on
00:32:27.580 Dave I thought you were a hard news guy all the intelligence allegedly okay I'll use the word
00:32:35.660 allegedly thank you good journalist it was being dealt with in this lab and a lab worker took it out
00:32:43.580 they gave it to her boyfriend and then they went for dinner at the bat house down in where they ate
00:32:49.180 anteaters where where that that's where it started she's patient zero and uh I just hope Trump follows
00:32:57.740 up on his vow that uh if China doesn't clean up their act that uh he's gonna come down hard on them
00:33:03.980 well I'm glad we can all agree that China's at fault for Deirdre we we do we do to the commies
00:33:11.500 oh dear god uh anyways um the thing is China China will very likely we've been on this topic for a
00:33:21.100 while so maybe Deirdre you wrap up but we have to I think move on move along here so once you wrap up
00:33:27.660 Deirdre holy crap um okay so the Chinese stop talking if everyone else stops talking I can wrap
00:33:35.500 it up so China will very likely receive sanctions I think that's been a really interesting conversation
00:33:40.940 to see uh I don't think anyone's going to go to war with China but if you look at some of the
00:33:45.740 information that's coming out financially Japan is paying uh their multinationals or multinational
00:33:51.660 corporations to uh find other places to set up their factories and get them out of China
00:33:57.900 u.s companies are starting to get out of China so they're going to receive sanctions um but I think
00:34:04.460 economic sanctions are the safest thing I can uh I have the power in this program to mute everybody
00:34:11.580 the power excellent uh all right let's go like this I'll go like this and then you know
00:34:26.620 all right so moving along um of course we've talked about politicians we've talked about bureaucrats
00:34:33.420 now let's talk about the economy when on earth is the Canadian economy going to open up and maybe we
00:34:38.700 should start um by looking at some of the examples around the world we've talked before the show
00:34:44.460 about the very different approach that's being taken right now in Sweden um might be successful we're
00:34:53.420 not I I guess we don't really know yet but I don't know thoughts news real news I think the uh the jury's
00:35:02.380 still out on Sweden uh you know they're still getting a lot of infections a lot of deaths
00:35:07.100 uh uh beginning or late last week uh on friday thursday or so most of the western european uh
00:35:13.740 countries said lockdown continues for another three weeks uh so that'll put them into
00:35:20.940 end of may early june and uh i think canada and the united states are about two weeks behind
00:35:26.860 where the uh the europe is so i think we're looking into uh we're looking into late june before
00:35:33.020 and then it gets opening up over here uh deirdre your thoughts um yes sweden is interesting they've
00:35:40.780 had more deaths than canada um the number of cases is you know it's it's close i think they're a little
00:35:48.140 bit less than us case wise yeah they've only had 14 000 cases so actually their death toll is higher than
00:35:54.700 canada's um and they have a smaller population they do um so right now it's you know the
00:36:05.580 i guess you can look at that and say whether or not it was it was a success or not um singapore is
00:36:11.100 another place that that had had uh not imposed restrictions but in the last week here they actually
00:36:18.940 had to shut everything down closed schools uh because it because they were losing control of it
00:36:23.660 so um well that's a city-state too right it was always exceptional because they had you know everybody's
00:36:30.060 well connected they've got technology this one city not you know not a country like canada that's spread
00:36:36.940 out like crazy so it's just always a different animal than the rest of the world too right uh but yeah so
00:36:43.980 it's like it's it's really it's really interesting to watch because bc is starting to talk about uh
00:36:51.580 they've they've passed their peak now the thing too is that the first case in bc was january the 29th
00:36:58.140 and alberta's first case wasn't identified till march 6th so they are a full month ahead of of where
00:37:04.380 we're going to be but this came up actually at dr dina's press conference um or sorry the economic
00:37:12.060 update oil and gas what is ottawa giving us how are we spending our money and then covet update uh during
00:37:17.900 that portion uh someone had asked uh dr hinshaw whether or not um you know how it would it might
00:37:24.620 affect alberta if bc starts to lessen their restrictions and have you heard anything paul being in bc
00:37:32.220 because i'm actually not watching the bc press conferences uh but are you hearing anything about
00:37:38.620 potential closing of the border not allowing people to go back and forth because that's that's
00:37:44.140 apparently a worry like we are we're not expected to peak until the end of may so our cases are still
00:37:49.820 spreading pretty easily in alberta bc doesn't want us running back and forth across the border i'm sure
00:37:58.860 so have you heard anything about that dr dina kind of said like we'll keep in contact with other
00:38:04.060 health professionals and we'll make decisions as this as other provinces make decisions you know
00:38:09.740 but but i i foresee most traffic in canada is north south right i you know there's communities
00:38:16.940 obviously along the border of um alberta and british columbia you know like we're not going to stop
00:38:23.180 somebody from going from golden to uh bamf or something right i hope no not not from bc to alberta
00:38:30.940 constitutional i mean like one of the less recognized part of the charter is the guarantee uh guaranteed
00:38:38.060 right between provinces to take away that right you require the enactment of the emergencies act right
00:38:44.460 especially the renamed war measures act so unless the war measures act in place they can't stop you from
00:38:49.500 crossing provincial boundaries and and it would just make no sense especially i guess the most densely
00:38:55.980 populated provincial border is the the greater capital area ottawa hall ulmer uh that that's a huge
00:39:02.060 area and although it'd be kind of nice if you stopped it because then the federal government would
00:39:05.660 effectively shut down the um japan also went back to uh more of a lockdown situation and they had they had
00:39:16.620 appeared to have mostly dodged it and they had another sort of spike up as well over the last
00:39:21.180 week what's funny british columbia closes or british columbia opens up and alberta doesn't you're going to
00:39:28.140 have thousands of infected albertans driving to bc just so they can play golf sure right and that's
00:39:34.380 going to be happening everywhere well and i think we need to be realistic about what opening up means
00:39:40.220 right i i don't think any jurisdiction including for that matter if donald trump has his way the united
00:39:45.260 states i don't think any jurisdiction is just going to well maybe florida is going to just
00:39:51.420 beaches are open turn everything back on tomorrow i think i think there and even donald trump's plan
00:39:57.820 included a staged reintroduction reintroduction of things within the economy with all the double checks
00:40:04.460 and every everything happening at every stage just in case that stage was a step too far they can take a
00:40:10.700 step back and um and so i think uh i don't think i don't think we're going to get back to normal
00:40:16.780 anytime in the next six months but we may get back to a more normal you know uh economy where you know
00:40:25.260 there's more activity and that's i think that's i think the bigger question is you know how does that
00:40:30.460 happen you know is it going to be golf course i mean there are golf courses open in british columbia
00:40:35.500 um yeah they didn't shut them all down no they didn't and and but what they did do was they made
00:40:40.380 it so that the tea offs were every 45 minutes or something so basically instead of every 10 minutes
00:40:45.500 yeah and so you know like are are they spreading disease probably not right not in that scenario but
00:40:53.180 i mean who knows anyway the um um i i think what's the to me the most interesting and derek will turn it
00:41:01.020 over to you is people are you know we're we've we've now been on lockdown for three four weeks
00:41:08.620 you know north america and people are starting to go back to their left right tribes and
00:41:15.580 they're broken the tribes aren't aren't working anyway i mean sweden was the darling of the left
00:41:23.740 and yet most people on the quote left are all in favor of locking things down i they must be their
00:41:29.980 heads must be exploding thinking that sweden is you know keeping things wide open so you know um i i
00:41:36.700 feel like this pandemic more than anything is really distorted um you know any notion of tribalism in this
00:41:44.700 sort of left-right paradigm we used to have um but derek you haven't commented on the reopening so i'll
00:41:50.700 turn it over to you on that note well if you look at if if you if you look at a good apples apples to
00:41:58.380 apples comparisons across countries uh the big thing that we see that's flattened the curve has not been
00:42:05.100 total lockdowns of societies but effect effective lockdowns of borders early on so uh in terms of
00:42:13.260 high numbers of cases germany spain united states iran france they've actually all gone to roughly the
00:42:19.100 same amount the question is uh the point is uh the us spain germany they all flattened the curb much
00:42:26.380 quicker than italy or iran did uh you know the us has not flattened their curve no no oh sorry yeah
00:42:33.980 i should leave america out of that they have not yet they're still growing actually quite quite quickly
00:42:39.180 exponentially but but those who have flattened the curve and done so at a very low level are japan
00:42:44.620 singapore hong kong and this is obviously not done yet uh and uh to a lesser extent south korea and they've
00:42:50.780 done it by effectively locking down their borders to at-risk countries coming in very quickly now
00:42:56.940 uh as paul said singapore is essentially a city-state so it's got small borders but it is a
00:43:03.340 wildly highly densely populated city-state so is hong kong and they just had to shut down yeah they just
00:43:10.300 did but even though they did their numbers are half of what our numbers are they are very very low and
00:43:16.380 their and their curve has been pretty flat um but they hong kong and singapore are extremely
00:43:22.700 concentrated populations i think hong kong if i'm not mistaken is the most densely populated country on
00:43:27.500 the planet perhaps taiwan but it's um so if it gets into those places uh it's game over everybody's got
00:43:35.900 it uh but they like south korea they lock their borders fast hong kong lock their border fast even
00:43:41.980 though they've they're obviously very close to china not i guess we won't mention north korea
00:43:46.380 since they're always locked down but have no cases yeah yeah so yeah dave had a great story on that
00:43:53.340 dave's story that was that was epic north korea the uh lockdown world champions but uh it's primarily
00:44:01.420 been locking down your international borders to at-risk countries that's that that's kept the numbers down
00:44:06.540 uh so far there hasn't been and we'll probably get a better idea in a few weeks here
00:44:11.740 maybe sooner but uh locking down the entire economy does not seem to be the big difference
00:44:16.860 between this it's been controlling uh incoming people from at-risk areas that that's been the
00:44:23.100 big difference so far and when this all settles down i mean what i do love about this is karen
00:44:31.020 the the meme of karen you know this well somebody think of the children woman uh who's this busy body
00:44:37.180 always up in everybody's business she's now become a mainstream figure that people have started to hear
00:44:41.020 about she's no longer this kind of uh mean character of the fringe libertarian movement
00:44:46.620 everyone's has everyone now heard of karen karen from the internet that's where i get she's actually
00:44:52.300 my favorite scientist until a few weeks ago she was essentially a a character of the hard libertarian
00:45:00.460 internet movement and that and that was it and now everybody's heard of karen um so as you know the
00:45:06.460 karens of the world say uh you want people to die if you don't believe in totally locking down the
00:45:13.100 economy if we go on much longer the lockdown will result in deaths it's going to exacerbate a lot of
00:45:19.660 mental health issues addictions issues uh in the longer term it's going to hurt the economy and people
00:45:25.580 will lose homes when people start losing jobs and losing homes suicide rates go up uh health health
00:45:32.780 problems develop and so there's going to be a lot of issues in the longer term here that we will not
00:45:37.740 be able to directly tie to this but uh we've got to be very um we've got to be open to accepting that
00:45:46.220 uh some deaths are going to be inevitable in reopening the economy and we can't simply stay shut down
00:45:53.020 for six months or a year because many more people will die indirectly from that it's uh it's definitely
00:46:01.660 a balancing act and um yeah nobody wants anybody to die from from this horrible virus but you're right
00:46:10.620 you're right there is uh there's other considerations and uh and that's i think the tough thing for
00:46:17.580 politicians is you know trying to strike that balance so we'll see how that don't forget there's a
00:46:22.940 a second wave coming oh a second maybe a third we don't know what the how the antibodies work we
00:46:28.300 don't know you know if a vaccine's even possible you know like there's just more unknowns than there's
00:46:33.900 it they don't even know check the cdc website the other day because i thought maybe i did a karen
00:46:38.460 move by suggesting that maybe the maybe warm weather might be a factor and somebody called me a very bad
00:46:45.980 name on twitter as a result of insinuating that and so i went and checked the cdc website and sure enough
00:46:51.660 they said they don't know whether or not warm weather they still don't know they had no idea
00:46:57.980 yeah they so you know because somebody was on twitter was comparing uh los angeles to new york and of
00:47:03.980 course los angeles has had a much lower infection rate i'd suggested that maybe they also locked down
00:47:08.860 well they locked down which was which was obviously a key factor um and uh but could it all my point was
00:47:15.900 could it also be in part whether could it also be in part um the uh population density could it also be
00:47:22.700 in part the um car culture there versus uh public transit and taxi cabs in new york right you know
00:47:30.700 there's there's all these factors but yet the karens of the internet want to just focus you know like
00:47:36.780 you know this is the dogma you know and it's if it's if if the numbers go down it's exclusively because
00:47:42.860 of lockdown there's no other purposes whatsoever and i think there's any kind of karen
00:47:51.100 anyway um speaking of rules and lockdowns should our leaders be bound to abide by
00:47:59.500 all the same rules as the rest of us folk us little guys uh derek what do you think
00:48:06.860 no they're better we must trust them and defer to their authority all right then that's the show
00:48:12.940 for today thanks sorry that's all folks that's all yeah no i mean it's um
00:48:22.780 i mean it's it's a tough spot for any leader they're they're trying to say what people should do but and
00:48:27.820 then they're expected to be the perfect reflection of that but i think we we have some expectation that
00:48:33.580 they'll they'll live up to it somewhat um i think there was a lot of controversy around uh after
00:48:40.620 trudeau's uh don't speak moistly speech um in breaking a lot of uh the recommendations and rulings
00:48:49.660 he was making um about not traveling and and whatnot uh if you saw pictures even of their press conferences
00:48:57.100 all that even remotely related to speaking moistly i said after his speaking moistly press conference
00:49:04.060 yeah speaking moistly by the way best song ever i think of 20 yeah um so but you know you even had
00:49:13.900 the press all gathered together in these tiny little uh little tents there whereas most world leaders
00:49:18.140 have had the press all spread out across uh you know doing their own social distancing um but my
00:49:23.580 favorite case was a governor in the united states i don't want to miss say but michigan rings a bell
00:49:28.140 where there was a governor saying uh that you can't even go out for haircuts and whatnot and then uh
00:49:34.060 she looked she had a particularly uh nice uh haircut that day and the press asked her if she had gotten
00:49:40.300 a haircut and she meekly admitted that she did but she did so responsibly uh essentially saying that
00:49:46.780 government's able to do things responsibly but nobody else um but the on a bit of a tangential
00:49:55.020 topic i'm predicting when this all ends there's going to be a big comeback of the mullet because
00:49:59.740 the mullet is essentially the natural state of your hair if you just try to trim the sides and nothing
00:50:04.300 else so there's gonna be a big there's gonna be a big mullet comeback when this is done uh so i think
00:50:11.340 that's the big trend for 2020 to watch if we want to make 2020 any worse it's going to be the comeback
00:50:16.620 of the mullet that'll do it i agree with the mullet i'm just looking at future options uh for
00:50:25.420 derek and the way he's dressed now if you just put a white collar on him wouldn't he be the perfect
00:50:30.140 miami vice tv priest guy i'm failing that his beard is getting so long now it could be an extra in vikings
00:50:38.300 you know if i wear more black i'd be zz top yes yes there we go there was a uh i can't remember
00:50:46.700 i think it was andrew coin but it might have been somebody else wrote a opinion piece in the national
00:50:52.300 post this week about essentially how the um the government shouldn't treat people like children
00:51:00.220 and i think i think when we talk about the masks you know part of the issue i think in the beginning was
00:51:06.300 you know they were afraid people would go out and think that they're safe because they put a mask
00:51:10.780 on or that they'd go out and buy up all the masks that the medical community needed to buy you know
00:51:17.500 and and other you know people who use them properly and people can't use them properly and you know
00:51:23.580 there's a lot of that from government where it's like the infantilization of of the populace and i think
00:51:30.540 people are not um are you know don't like to be treated that way we like to be treated you know
00:51:36.780 whether we're we are or not we like to be treated as somewhat intelligent and capable of making you
00:51:42.860 know rational decisions and learning things um and i wonder sort of how much this whole a lot of these a
00:51:50.140 lot of these things that we're kind of faced with is just because the government can't trust us to be
00:51:55.020 smart about doing things in this situation have you seen the people of florida yeah well like there's
00:52:02.140 there's there's a really good reason yeah yeah there's there's a really good reason why uh people
00:52:09.180 are like and and the thing is you're only as strong as your weakest link right um you know my my whole
00:52:15.820 thing with that collectivist society versus individual society or um uh individualist society
00:52:21.820 is that you know what what happened do you remember uh i don't remember what basketball player that was
00:52:28.060 but the guy who was apparently tested uh positive for covet he was giving a press conference and what
00:52:34.620 did he do before he left he rubbed all of the the equipment oh like it was just it was but that like
00:52:44.300 that's your weakest link that guy apparently didn't understand that his uh purposeful you know uh
00:52:54.620 contamination of things could actually kill somebody that's your weakest link so you know why do they
00:53:02.460 have to explain uh you know a mask is not going to keep you safe because the majority of masks you can get
00:53:09.100 won't well i think there's there's a difference between smart inform you know proper information
00:53:15.260 and guidelines for people and i think what where paul is going with this is overkill uh restrictions
00:53:22.300 meant to deal with the lowest common denominator idiot uh it's the same reason we have syntaxes on
00:53:27.740 things uh it's the same reason we have warning labels that say do not operate while sleeping
00:53:31.980 yeah yeah somebody i'm a bit more of a darwinian i i think if you know you operate heavy machinery
00:53:38.300 while you're sleeping i i think the human race might be better for it but you know i i but the problem
00:53:44.380 is when you when you take the you know essentially if we're talking about the hyper nanny state where
00:53:49.820 the government is going to ban people from doing otherwise safe things because a few idiots might do
00:53:55.500 something uh it's going to breed some disrespect for these rules in the long term if this goes on
00:54:01.740 for six months or god forbid longer uh people are going to start questioning if they're being told
00:54:08.300 the truth by the government and people who would otherwise be responsible are going to stop believing
00:54:13.260 in them so i think the importance of having reasonable restrictions and honest straightforward
00:54:19.340 information is important because when everything is catered toward preventing the lowest common denominator
00:54:25.420 idiot from doing something people who are smarter than that will eventually catch on
00:54:30.140 and stop listening to what the government's saying and which is smart how pardon how does that make
00:54:36.860 them because you don't because you don't trust this problem deirdre is you don't trust what they're
00:54:41.980 telling you you don't if if all they're telling you is is you know you have to do follow these 600 rules
00:54:48.700 and you figure out that a few of them actually they're only telling you that because they think you're too much
00:54:53.740 of an idiot to do that thing properly you're gonna you're gonna know which rules to trust
00:54:59.180 so like it's all of them so right now even the camping seasons are not planned to be open and there's
00:55:05.900 not much that's safer to do outside of your house right now than to go camping unless you go to your
00:55:11.900 neighbor and you start rubbing them yeah so you know so what they're doing if with this kind of overkill is a
00:55:18.300 lot of uh otherwise responsible and rational people are going to say that the government's full
00:55:23.660 of and so i think that should be more straightforward with people about what is uh reasonable
00:55:28.780 it needs to be done here rather than draconian measures that people are going to start uh i think
00:55:33.820 very quickly if not already uh not taking seriously because they don't trust what's coming from the
00:55:38.620 governments yeah and and i i should say i should be really clear about this i've been locked in my house
00:55:43.420 for five weeks i'm not going anywhere but i totally understand when the government loses people's
00:55:51.260 trust because they're not treating them respectfully and they're not giving them you know the right
00:55:56.620 information because they're afraid that they're not going to be able to make good decisions i think
00:56:00.460 that's going to i think that's going to create a problem for for people um and and there's going to
00:56:06.060 be blowback and i think that that's in the in the middle of a pandemic that's exactly the opposite outcome
00:56:12.060 that you really want to have happen right that's all i'm saying i think i think i think they need
00:56:17.340 to be open they need to be honest they need to be transparent and at the end of the day the the idiot
00:56:22.700 that goes to the beach for spring break in florida he's not watching the hour-long you know broadcasts
00:56:28.700 from the public health officers every day anyway right so if we had a little more honesty in media
00:56:33.980 and a little more honesty from our from our public officials uh i think i think that would just i
00:56:38.780 think that would build a lot more trust and we could all get over this thing a whole lot faster
00:56:45.660 the best break that canada's got is the weather mainly across the country has been pretty lousy
00:56:51.020 uh for the last month or so but now it's starting to get warm sun's actually out in calgary so
00:56:56.220 it's going to be harder for people to uh to stay inside and and i think too like if you
00:57:02.780 if you look at where we moved from a public health recommendation to this is now a law i mean look
00:57:11.180 at uh i remember when shandro was very specific in his tweet saying this is not a recommendation this
00:57:18.940 is law and that's where we moved from right they put out recommendations they still found that people
00:57:24.700 weren't following them so what did they have to do they had to make greater restrictions and
00:57:29.500 it's like i i i get how it's i get how it's difficult and a lot of people look at it and say
00:57:34.380 well this isn't fair i act responsibly we're only as we're only as strong as our weakest link and
00:57:40.860 unfortunately our weakest links uh they're weak yeah and and i think some of that is some of that is
00:57:47.420 ignorance and some of that is a misunderstanding of individualism right and and you know the collectivists
00:57:55.020 amongst us will say you know clearly we need just stronger government to give us rules because you
00:58:00.940 know in the nanny state and stuff and i think people like derek and to maybe to a lesser degree myself
00:58:06.060 who are more of a libertarian bent um you know we we recognize the importance of individual liberty and
00:58:11.660 and stuff but always always always that has been paired with personal responsibility and you can't
00:58:19.980 have liberty without responsibility and when you're talking about a global pandemic you know should the
00:58:27.500 government take away your liberty no but you as an individual have a responsibility not to spread the
00:58:34.780 pandemic and i think that message has been lost on a lot of selfish people who just haven't stopped
00:58:41.420 to think about what's going on the answer is to punch everyone who coughs on you with gloves and then
00:58:48.380 don't forget to wash your hands yes yes punch them with boxing gloves and grow a mullet and uh next week's
00:58:56.060 show we're gonna have um best mullet contested am i right maybe we could put a filter on here uh you can put
00:59:01.980 a filter on the on the screen here and we can all have mullets perfect yeah this is a fresh haircut
00:59:07.980 it it's not gonna go mullet did you do it yourself of course i did it myself oh no no it looks very
00:59:14.700 good my wife cut her hair herself and she did a very good job i'm not gonna touch mine because it'll
00:59:19.500 it'll be a mullet i just know it i'm pretty sure my wife is hoarding hair dye but i you know i don't
00:59:24.700 want to call her out mine just seems to fall out naturally so yeah good job on that paul good job
00:59:31.980 well thanks i don't want to call her out by putting it on the internet
00:59:38.860 all right on that on that note the note of hairstyles thank you for joining us this week
00:59:43.820 uh if you're not a member of the western standard please go to the westernstandardonline.com and become
00:59:48.940 a member today like subscribe and do all those great things with this video as well share it with
00:59:53.740 your friends and we'll see everybody next week thanks guys bye-bye thank you everybody
01:00:08.620 you