Vicinity Motor Corporation, a small company in Aldergrove, B.C., quietly put out a release with some pretty dire news for their investors last Friday afternoon. They ve been in financial trouble for a long time, and now they re in trouble.
00:01:21.900I know you're the informed type of bunch. And, you know, I like to get on there, have these
00:01:27.160discussions, get folks stirred up and share some information with each other. So use that comment
00:01:32.900scroll. Those of you who are watching live, guys, I appreciate it. You know, send out those comments,
00:01:37.460discuss things with each other, questions for me, for my guests, and keep things interactive. I like
00:01:41.760that. Sometimes things come up I never even thought I was going to do during the show. And hey,
00:01:44.920somebody brought it up in the discussion scroll. So I'll go ranting off in that direction. I really
00:01:49.340don't script these things that tightly, though I do with my opening monologue because I do like
00:01:53.460to cover particular subjects. Good to see Mr. Stanley checking in and the other ones getting
00:01:57.840on there. So I'm going to start with something I've been on about a couple of times, but I'm
00:02:03.400not letting go of this one. I'm going to ragdoll on it. I'm going to stay on their case about it1.00
00:02:08.520because the silence has been deafening. And, you know, taxpayers are getting hit yet again,
00:02:16.200As always, in a scandal, and the arrogant devils in authority refuse to answer any questions.
00:02:24.800So, I've been watching things on this issue.
00:02:27.960If you know much about press releases and how they work, the juiciest press release has always come out on Friday afternoons before long weekends.
00:02:34.820I mean, if a company or a government is forced to release some information they aren't proud of,
00:02:38.840They do it when the public's inclined to be distracted, and then they kind of hope that the furor will wind down by the following Tuesday.
00:02:46.560So last Friday afternoon, so, you know, we learned to watch in media, though.
00:02:50.440You watch those Friday long weekend press releases because quite often something big might be kind of trying to slide under the radar.
00:02:57.300So last Friday afternoon, there was a year before Thanksgiving, a small company in Aldergrove, B.C. called Vicinity Motor Corporation.
00:03:03.440I've mentioned them before. They quietly put out a release with some pretty dire news for their
00:03:08.840investors. So I'm going to give the highlights from this release. One of the quotes, the creditors
00:03:12.880exercised their discretion not to renew the credit facilities and provided the company with notice
00:03:18.340of intention to enforce security pursuant to subsection 244-1 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency
00:03:23.980Act Canada. Further, the company believes that the creditors will proceed towards receivership
00:03:30.160enforcement impeding the company's ability to continue to operate. If that happens, the company
00:03:34.480will likely be forced to lay off its remaining staff and cease operations. If the company is not
00:03:39.340able to file its interim filings for the six months ended June 30th, 2024, by October 18th,
00:03:44.6802024, now we've got a couple days, the British Columbia Securities Commission will issue a broad
00:03:49.520failure to file cease trade order and no shares of the company will be permitted to be traded in
00:03:54.880Canada. So, translating all of that, the company is heavily indebted, can't get out of the hole,
00:04:01.420and unless a miracle occurs, they're going to be going into receivership. Now, small companies go
00:04:05.780broke all the time. What makes the case of vicinity an issue, though, is that that's the
00:04:11.020company of the City of Calgary ordered millions of dollars worth of electric buses for a pilot
00:04:15.980program over three years ago. The buses still aren't here, and now it's not hard to see why.
00:04:21.860It looks like the company was never actually making them, and perhaps they were always incapable of producing them.
00:04:27.140Their financial woes have actually been public for quite some time.
00:04:38.200Somehow, though, the luminaries in Calgary City Hall, like I said, felt this company was worth hitching their wagon to for that electric bus pilot program.
00:04:45.900The pilot program was supposed to cost $14 million.
00:04:49.300Now, has the money already gone to the vicinity?
00:04:51.860Was there a deposit given to Vicinity? Is there any chance of recovering any of those dollars?
00:04:56.740Some of the money was also spent upgrading city facilities with charging stations, which are
00:05:01.860custom for the buses which were supposed to come from Vicinity, which will never arrive,
00:05:05.620so other buses won't work with them too. How much did those cost? I've been asking these questions
00:05:10.260from city councillors for months because it's becoming evident that Vicinity has been heading
00:05:14.500off a fiscal cliff. I was greeted by silence on the issue. Well, councillors likely have a good
00:05:20.420idea what's happening with these buses it was probably discussed during one of the many in-camera
00:05:25.060meetings city call holds and you see once a meeting goes into what former city councillor
00:05:29.620jeremy farkas labeled as the chamber of secrets the attendees are no longer allowed to speak
00:05:34.500about what was discussed and she promised increased transparency when he became mayor
00:05:39.460but instead he increased the number of secret meetings and his protege jody gondek has continued
00:05:43.940that practice now on top of that there's an atmosphere of deference in council chambers
00:05:48.740towards city administration. Instead of demanding answers of the city management, the mayor and
00:05:52.960council act almost subservient to it. Councilors might not even know the details of the project
00:05:57.540because city administration hasn't told them what they were. The only one who's been speaking up
00:06:01.540has been Councillor Dan McLean. He's one of the only ones who voted against expanding the bus
00:06:06.120program, and I'll get to that, because this budding boondoggle gets worse. The pilot project was
00:06:11.280supposed to cost $14 million, and once those buses started becoming delayed, Gondek and her
00:06:16.000supportive clan of councillors and clowns got impatient and they committed the city to an
00:06:21.300electric bus plan worth half a billion dollars. Yeah, Dan McClain was the only one who voted
00:06:26.760against that who was in attendance that meeting. It didn't matter. They rammed it through. So
00:06:29.800think of it. What's the point of a pilot program when the mayor and council are just going to
00:06:34.980ignore it when it fails? How stupid does one have to be to commit taxpayers to a massive project
00:06:40.720when you can't even get a small one off the ground? The mayor and council actually pointed
00:06:45.040to the Edmonton electric bus program at that time and claimed it was such a success Calgary didn't
00:06:49.020need to bother waiting for its own pilot project to start, much less finish. Since then, Edmonton's
00:06:54.080bus program has been a catastrophe. Half of their new buses are out of service. The supplier that
00:06:58.640was providing them to them has gone bankrupt, much like vicinity appears to be heading, and they can't
00:07:02.940repair their buses because there's no parts being made for them. Edmonton taxpayers lost about 60
00:07:07.960million on that so far. Citizens must demand answers now. Were the buses for the half billion
00:07:14.220programs supposed to come from vicinity too? Because I can't find information where the city's
00:07:17.900getting those. Has there been funds spent on the procurement for this? If it didn't go to vicinity,
00:07:22.700which company got it? There's no excuse not to answer these questions. This money isn't the
00:07:27.440mayor and councils. These funds belong to the taxpayers and people are getting sick and tired
00:07:31.260of boondoggles. There might still be a chance to escape a half billion dollar ripoff right now,0.95
00:07:36.000but we need to find out what the hell is going on. Gondek and gang have proved themselves
00:07:40.460completely incompetent with the green line. Does the province need to step in? Does Auntie Danielle1.00
00:07:45.000need to step in and say, Jyoti, you blew it again. We're taking this over on the electric bus mess.1.00
00:07:51.380Maybe this province is going to have to take over everything in the city with this group of idiots
00:07:54.660running it. Meanwhile, hey, another water mainline burst in Bonass. People out there are probably
00:07:59.760familiar with it. Yes. And the streets are lined with potholes, probably filling with water. You
00:08:03.700can go fishing down there. Property taxes are rising and the city's saying we're going to have
00:08:09.060to double the road maintenance budget and we're not sure we're going to get the money without
00:08:11.900raising taxes. Really? Wow. Maybe it's getting time for a coup at the palace. Maybe there's
00:08:17.980one councillor willing to breach the rules of the Chamber of Secrets for the sake of taxpayers.
00:08:22.460Either way, guys, this scandal is still going. Let's see if that company stops trading Friday.
00:08:27.380I'm not going to let Gondek and her bunch get away with silence on this and sliding it under
00:08:32.820the rug. This is a lot of money, people. This is why we're going broke. This is why people
00:08:37.280having trouble paying the bills. By the way, that's what's got me wound up today. I mean,
00:08:41.220sadly, there's just always so many stories of waste and things going on. It's a busy day at
00:08:45.940the Standard. I haven't been able to rock anybody in for a news update. So rather than being blessed
00:08:50.220with Dave's presence or somebody else, you're going to have to listen to me run through a few
00:08:53.700of the things that are going on though. I mean, one of the top issues really hitting the news
00:08:57.480right now, getting into that is India, of course. I mean, that's just crazy. It's funny, you know,1.00
00:09:03.940it was a year ago and all this broke with India as well, where it sounds like the government of
00:09:09.620India was taking part or contributing towards an assassination of a Calistani activist in Canada
00:09:16.800who was a Canadian citizen. This is a big deal if indeed it's happening. And I believe it's
00:09:21.600believable. I mean, sure, India isn't necessarily the nicest player on the world stage. And now1.00
00:09:28.100Trudeau has jumped up and it sounds just the same. He's saying credible evidence, but he won't say
00:09:32.680what it is. Again, he throws a turd into the international punch bowl and then won't back it
00:09:38.860up with some facts. It is believable that India has been messing around with Canadian soil1.00
00:09:42.380dangerously. And now India's pulled its top diplomats out of Canada. And Canada's saying,
00:09:47.380no, we expelled them, blah, blah, blah, back and forth. But Trudeau bumbles along and won't tell
00:09:52.080us exactly what it's about. You got to give the bloody details. This kind of ties almost into what
00:09:58.200I'm talking about with the e-buses. These governments are feeling that we peons, we people
00:10:02.580paying the bills, we people impacted by their policies don't have the right to know what
00:10:07.180they're doing or what's going on. So Trudeau keeps doing these things, but he won't tell us what it's
00:10:12.280about. And now, India is a trading partner with Canada for $10 billion a year. Now, I'm not saying
00:10:21.340we should be putting up with India government actions on our soil of things going on over here
00:10:27.300just because they're a big trading partner. But I am saying you got to be bloody careful when you
00:10:31.840start throwing accusations out. But you know, guess who the big trading partners like which
00:10:36.740industry gets hit? If India starts, you know, putting, you know, sanctions against some of our
00:10:43.920products? Well, the main products are legumes, lentils, basically Western Canadian farmers,
00:10:50.300that's their customer, that's where a whole lot of it goes. So if India puts a bunch of sanctions
00:10:54.940on Canadian products, it'll be the Western Canadian farmers who will get to pay the price,
00:10:59.440as usual. This is the sort of thing, that's part of why Trudeau's not afraid of ticking off India.1.00
00:11:04.780And India gives him a very convenient distraction to jump into right now, while it looks like0.99
00:11:11.080Trudeau's got his own members over the weekend. We're trying to start a little bit of a coup to
00:11:16.240say, please, please, Prime Minister, can you step aside? We're swirling the toilet in support. We
00:11:21.640want to get out. And instead, suddenly, Justin turned the page. Last fall, when he was on the
00:11:26.960rocks, same thing, he brought up the India thing. There's the five eyes they talk about, you know,0.97
00:11:31.080a number of countries that are allied. They love all their cute terms when they get together on
00:11:35.300things and share intelligence information and everything. But, you know, a lot of them, Britain,
00:11:39.300New Zealand, Australia, aren't exactly too keen with Justin's tactics in picking such a fight
00:11:45.820with India right now. And they're saying, hey, you know, we'd like to see a little evidence. I mean,
00:11:50.740they're not denying that this stuff has been happening, but I mean, we need a little diplomacy.
00:11:55.080We got to work on this. And again, share, don't just keep saying credible evidence, show us.
00:12:00.420And that ties into what Prime Minister Dingbat's been doing today. He was on the stand. He was
00:12:04.280talking about the foreign interference issue, not the India foreign interference issue, which is a
00:12:08.320big one, obviously, but the Chinese one that's been going on for years. The one that the liberals0.95
00:12:13.980are working their butts off to cover up again, as we Canadians don't deserve to know, even though
00:12:18.880Our intelligence facilities, our intelligence operators have told us 11, 11 parliamentarians, 11 people, whether in the Senate or House of Commons, have been compromised by foreign interests.
00:12:32.840We know that. We've known that for a long time.
00:12:35.020And the government's doing everything it can to cover it up.
00:12:37.400Well, Justin got up today and said it's the conservatives' fault for all this interference.
00:13:05.520I don't care if it's conservative members in that list or NDP or liberal.
00:13:10.800We need to know. We're going to get a federal election eventually. Presumably, some of the people on the ballot are going to be the ones that were compromised by foreign powers, and we as voters won't know it. We won't be able to judge that at the time.
00:13:25.440This is rather important. These political games, these self-serving games on high-level politics,
00:13:31.900things that are very, very important, and instead, you know, again, they're covering it up. They don't
00:13:38.240feel we deserve to know. Yeah, Mr. Stanley's saying that WF is a foreign interest. It is,
00:13:44.120but that's a number of other different individuals getting in on things. Like, Canada's a pushover.
00:13:48.660We're wimps, and the world knows it. That's why we're seeing this trend. That's why they aren't
00:13:55.160afraid of coming in and meddling around. Look, countries have spies and stuff going on across
00:14:00.100borders with each other all around the world. They've been doing that since the first border
00:14:03.480was formed. But Canada really gets it. Why? Because we're disorganized, we're self-interested,
00:14:09.860we're foolish, we got terrible government, and then get away with these things with impunity.
00:14:15.260So that's why they have these things on their soil.
00:15:07.720You know, we have to adjust ourselves to accommodate the ability of the prime minister.
00:15:11.960The RCMP and CSIS need to make their security briefings in a pop-up book and give it to Justin when he's having his Saturday morning cereal while watching cartoons.
00:15:21.340And then maybe he'll actually pay attention to it and have a look inside it and see what our security agencies have been finding.
00:15:27.600Because if you give him something in regular straight English, he's incapable of digesting it and certainly incapable of acting upon it.
00:17:59.360Palestinians don't only want your eyes on Rafa, eyes on Gaza, Palestinians want your foot on Israel's neck, Israel burn burn, Palestinians will return, Israel burn burn, Palestinians will return,0.97
00:18:29.360What an ugly, ugly scene on our Canadian streets.
00:18:47.280We never would have thought we'd see that.
00:18:48.560And I have to thank you, Jared, for getting out and covering it.
00:18:52.140Because as I said, we know about it, we hear about it.
00:18:54.760But it seems our government doesn't want to act until the evidence is right there in front of their faces.
00:18:59.360like that and you provided it so i just want to say thank you for getting out and getting that
00:19:03.420you made changes there no it feels pretty good and you know like you say it's it's been uh they've
00:19:09.440been pushing for it for a while but it's kind of hard to deny that it is a terrorist organization
00:19:13.740when you have someone get up on stage and just declare openly we are hezbollah we are hamas
00:19:19.980like there's no there's no parsing that there's no reading between the lines
00:19:23.580that's no and the cheers of the audience sort of indicated that was a fairly popular stance
00:19:28.160among most of them anyways. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you again. And yes, as I've said
00:19:34.180to others, though, what I really want to get into, you know, I'm certain we'll be discussing
00:19:37.480the terrorism and things, sadly, for a long time to come. But on the more immediate front,
00:19:41.740you've got an election in BC. It's been a tight one and it's been an unexpected one. It looks
00:19:47.340like you may be heading for an upset this Saturday. Yeah, you know, it's pretty tight. And
00:19:53.380And like they always say, the only poll that matters is the one taken on Election Day.
00:19:59.860And I mean, the polls have been going back and forth and back and forth.
00:20:03.100And the most recent one from Angus Reid now has the NDP at 45 percent and the Conservatives at 40 percent.
00:20:09.460Now, this was taken after the most recent leaders debate.
00:20:17.280And then this poll was taken between the 9th and 13th.
00:20:20.260And during that time, that's when, I don't know if you've heard, Brent Chapman, one of the candidates in Surrey, some old social media posts came to light and that kind of distracted from some of the bigger issues.
00:20:34.940But I'm wondering if maybe that played a role in the Conservatives' decrease in support.
00:20:41.160It could, you know, I mean, I'll kind of take you back to it.
00:20:43.760I was in an Alberta election when the Wildrose party and I was managing a campaign and we thought
00:20:48.460we had at least a lot of seats, things were going great. And we had a candidate up in Edmonton who
00:20:52.680said a bunch of homophobic things. And it was amazing. And this was in the last week of the
00:20:56.820campaign and our support collapsed. I mean, it didn't just shrink, you know, we saw it starting
00:21:01.180to come in the polls, but when push came to shove, people kind of get cold feet fast. If they start
00:21:06.060to think that there might be extremism in that party, I wonder and hope that may not be the case
00:21:10.320with B.C. right now, but I guess there may be some people are reconsidering his Saturday approaches.
00:21:15.480Yeah, and I mean, John Restad, the Conservative leader, he's been questioned on it numerous times
00:21:20.340and he's been clear those values are not the values of the party, but Brent has apologized.
00:21:26.180And yesterday at a press conference when he was introducing the party platform,
00:21:30.540he suggested that people should weigh the actions that EB has taken over the words that Chapman has
00:21:40.940has posted and kind of think like okay in the greater scheme of things yes this is bad
00:21:45.540but is it worth maybe sacrificing you know the province under another four years of the NDP
00:21:53.640Well, and I mean, would ejecting that candidate at this point make a difference? You know,
00:22:00.380has the damage already been done? It's a tough spot leaders get into. That's what Danielle Smith0.99
00:22:04.600faced way back then when she was leading the opposition party too, was do you eject that
00:22:08.660Edmonton candidate and infuriate your base or do you keep them in and then take that abuse as people
00:22:14.160paint your entire party that way? It's unfortunate that these things happen because you start to
00:22:18.340lose sight of other policies. Exactly and that's kind of what we've seen like you know half the
00:22:24.040questions he's asked is like oh what do you think about this guy's comments not you know what are
00:22:27.820you going to do to you know help ordinary British Columbians for whom this really is a I'm not going
00:22:33.060to say a non-issue but it doesn't impact them on a day-to-day basis. So what are the meat and
00:22:38.340potatoes issues or what are the things that have really been coming up in this election like what
00:22:43.300British Columbians wanting to see done? Well, I'd say for the ordinary British Columbian,
00:22:50.580the main four issues would probably be obviously housing affordability, crime, drugs and health
00:22:59.300care. Because over the past seven years, all four of those have pretty much deteriorated to a point
00:23:06.420where it's not really not really the place where we used to live in and so yeah each party has put
00:23:15.300forward different uh solutions to that problem it just you know they each have their their unique
00:23:22.020differences and it depends on what the what the voters want yeah well and i mean you know virtue
00:23:27.860signaling things like that i mean it's great to talk about climate change and and trans issues and
00:23:33.620you know, safe consumption sites. But when people can't pay the bills, or they don't feel safe
00:23:39.340taking their kid to school, you know, if they feel crime is high, they're not going to feel
00:23:44.240satisfied. The role of EB is to try and convince people that he can turn around the disorder that's
00:23:49.240happened while he's, you know, when the NDP has been in power. And that can be tough. I mean,
00:23:55.240you're going to have to wear the existing state of affairs. Yeah, and he's, he's tried to push
00:24:01.280back on that saying, you know, oh, that's going to be a thing of the past. Like we've learned
00:24:06.020from our mistakes and, you know, we'll do it better next time. But, you know, it's kind of
00:24:11.340like what you see in the U.S. right now with Kamala Harris trying to suggest that, you know,
00:24:16.400if she's elected, things will be different. It's like, no, you are the thing that people are
00:24:21.020wanting change from. So it's been tough for him, but. Yeah. And it's difficult for an up and comer
00:24:27.920then, you know, also, I mean, he's going to find you can point out all the problems, but are people
00:24:32.160confident that Rustad and a whole collection of new MLAs, could they properly address these issues
00:24:39.240either? Or are they just, you know, attacking the soft spots of the NDP? I guess voters really have
00:24:43.360to consider these things. Yeah, I mean, that was one of the criticisms of Rustad during the last
00:24:48.480debate, is that he spent too much time talking about the problems and not what a conservative
00:24:54.800government would do to fix them like he mentioned some of the solutions but didn't really go in
00:25:00.400depth and i think since then he's really uh doubled down and shown what uh what his government would
00:25:07.120do piece by piece showing how uh how that would all work so uh most provinces i mean it's really
00:25:14.320been a trend the last 10 years provincially federally municipally advanced polling has been
00:25:18.880a big thing and it really helps for campaign teams because you can really get out your voters get
00:25:22.480them out of the way weeks before you or a week before the election depending on what's been set
00:25:26.400up and uh you know thousands and thousands of people end up voting even before election day
00:25:31.120comes has there been a large advanced voting turnout in bc that's known yet oh it's been
00:25:35.440record-breaking on the first day yeah i think it was um yeah ten tens of thousands of people but
00:25:42.000that was a record-breaking day and you know kind of slowed down the second day but it's it's ramped
00:25:47.680back up today is the last day of advanced voting so from what i'm hearing on the ground a lot of
00:25:52.320of people are opting to do that either because they don't want to wait in line on on election
00:25:57.080day or they're just so enthusiastic to you know support their chosen candidate which you know
00:26:02.720it's good to see well it is i mean you know high turnouts are good i don't care what anybody says
00:26:08.560even if you don't like the outcome it's a sign that people are taking part in it uh so that's
00:26:14.880something that's interesting too it's a saturday election day is just a better triple check that
00:26:18.720right this this saturday yeah yeah so i mean traditionally it's usually been mondays across
00:26:23.080the country uh having a weekend voting day do you think that'll help with turnout you know
00:26:27.900people are off work it'll be a little easier to go midday and take care of those sorts of things
00:26:31.560i think so yeah yeah you know on the weekday because it's not a you know a provincial holiday
00:26:38.160to you know to go vote um yeah maybe some people just can't get time off work or by the time they
00:26:46.440do they get to the polling station it's like oh well line's too long i just won't bother but it's
00:26:51.560a saturday you shouldn't have anything better to do than vote so no excuses got to get out there
00:26:58.120so bc has always been an interesting animal i mean with a number of distinct regions from the north
00:27:02.840getting into the peace country down into lower mainland and then interior bc you know kamloops
00:27:08.680colonna uh the the broad support numbers you're talking about 44 40 going on but i mean seat
00:27:15.160distribution is everything. You know, if you're looking to win the race, how do things look
00:27:19.700balancing out between the urban-rural split? Because, I mean, the popular vote isn't necessarily
00:27:24.940what a party needs to garner in order to win the election. Yeah, well, yeah, the recent polling
00:27:30.980shows that the Conservatives have a pretty strong base pretty much everywhere outside the lower
00:27:37.240mainland and Vancouver Island. You know, the Fraser Valley, it's always been a pretty conservative
00:27:42.420area and same with the northern regions and the interior but one thing I've noticed in this
00:27:48.440election is more success in those urban areas like there's a conservative candidate here in
00:27:54.740Vancouver and he's up in the polls and I mean he said a few things like Brent Chapman that have
00:28:01.120caused some controversy but the fact that he's still ahead of the NDP candidate shows to me at
00:28:07.960least that uh people down here are ready for change and you know there's only so long you can
00:28:14.040ignore walking down the street and having to step over someone who's you know dying from an overdose
00:28:20.300or a needle on the on the street or you know i was taking the bus the other day and i someone was
00:28:26.260openly smoking crack on the other side of the bus and it's like well yeah it's impossible to ignore
00:28:34.040So I think the tide is shifting, even in the urban areas.
00:28:37.540Vancouver Island's always going to be a little bit more further left, just because that's just how it is.
00:28:42.680But I think there's room to grow in Greater Vancouver, for sure.
00:28:46.960Yeah, Vancouver's always been a swing city.
00:28:49.040I mean, we were going to talk about that the other night, you know, my younger days when reform was down there.
00:28:53.020It was always a fascinating cauldron of politics.
00:28:56.320You could have a reform party member, as conservative as they get, with an NDP member right next door,
00:29:00.540and then a Liberal member right next to that
00:29:02.200and a Progressive Conservative next to that.
00:29:26.960you're going to reevaluate who you're supporting, I imagine.
00:29:30.540Oh, definitely. And that's why housing has skyrocketed to the, you know, top three issues in the province.
00:29:39.800And healthcare is another one. You know, that's a kind of a, as you said, it's a top one in every provincial election. It always is, but nothing really changes. That's one of the things I've been battling online a lot. You know, every province is always reporting our emergency rooms are overwhelmed. We're short of doctors, we're short of nurses, we're short of hospitals, we're short of band-aids, you name it.
00:39:59.040you're talking 6 000 people i don't know what it costs now i think like 300 bucks to attend this
00:40:03.620thing if you missed the early bird registration plus you got to find accommodations if you're
00:40:06.900not from around there you got to drive you got to dedicate the time that's a i believe it'll be
00:40:10.940one of the biggest political agms if not the biggest ever held in canada so yeah it's just
00:40:17.760going to be fascinating for a political watcher now the the thing to worry about when is this
00:40:22.160many people at it will it be productive will they get good things done i don't know it remains to
00:40:28.140be seen. I mean, I'm going to be there. I'm not a member. I'm not a member of any party. I'm not
00:40:32.220a member of any groups. But the Western Standard, of course, is going to be set up there. I mean,
00:40:36.480that's right in our backyard. This is right up our alley. So I'll be there and watching. I'll
00:40:40.100certainly be commenting and reporting on it. But personally, I think one of the opportunities that
00:40:47.140can come is even if people, it's the time to critique the leadership. Absolutely. Tell them
00:40:53.460when they're going in the wrong direction. I've written columns on that. I still think it was a
00:40:57.920terrible move by the Smith government to put off the promised cut in tax, in income tax. You promised
00:41:03.620it, just bloody deliver it. If you don't think you have the money, cut something. That's what
00:41:07.500conservatives do. That's what we're supposed to be about. We're supposed to be tough, take those
00:41:10.960tough choices, make them. She didn't do it. But the difference between me, I'm not a member, but
00:41:15.820you know, and some of the others as well, that's it. She broke that promise to hell with her. Let's
00:41:18.520throw her under the bus to find another leader. No, express that you're upset. Express what you
00:41:24.920think is a better path. The AGM is an opportunity for that. Send it to the board to send it to
00:41:30.680Smith, send it to the MLAs. You got to give it a little time though, guys. And don't just quit,
00:41:35.680keep firing them over and over because things aren't happening fast enough. Because then we
00:41:40.720will certainly get nowhere. They're watching most of what I think the movement of people saying
00:41:46.400there's going to be a big coup pushing against Smith. It's not coming from conservative. Oh,
00:41:49.840there's some very loud, upset people in the conservative front, as I've called them,
00:41:53.020the chronic malcontents, and they'll never be happy. So don't worry about them. But there are
00:41:57.720a lot of left-leaning elements who really want to play up that element of discontent in the party.
00:42:03.200They want infighting. They want to see the conservatives get into a big grudge match at
00:42:07.460this AGM and shoot themselves in the feet. So blind loyalty. I mean, we can see a big parallel
00:42:16.820going on. We have this frustration with Justin Trudeau, who's doing anything and everything in
00:42:21.280his power to stop people from pushing him out, even though he's madly incompetent, massively
00:42:26.780low in support polls and down on the 20% level, he's going to pull that whole party down the
00:42:31.140toilet and he's fighting it. But the not enough liberals will get up and kick him out. And then
00:42:36.820meanwhile, we've got Premier Smith, who's only been in a couple of years, and is still holding
00:42:45.000steady or, you know, above the NDP in the polls. And there's some people saying we've got to rip
00:42:49.000out of there. Welcome to conservatives and liberals. I mean, it's a strength of the liberals
00:42:55.680that they have such tight loyalty, but it's also a bad quality, right? Like you've got to be able
00:43:01.160to critique your leaders. I mean, blind loyalty is bad and it's dangerous, but the conservative
00:43:05.700trait of always eating our own, that's dangerous and it's bad as well. The party, the premier,
00:43:12.880the ministers, the caucus should be focusing on policies rather than worrying about what's
00:43:16.720happening within their own party and making sure the legs aren't getting cut out from the leader
00:43:20.140or shouldn't be working on cutting the legs out of their own leader. Well, the AGM is going to be
00:43:25.220the opportunity to kind of see, get a feel and a smell on the ground, not even just the vote
00:43:28.960for the leadership review, which again, I think is going to be, I think she's going to pass it
00:43:33.940quite clearly, but just, you know, what are the other discussions? What are the attitudes coming
00:43:38.940from the floor? Paradoxy also pointing out, keep looking for someone that meets your views 100%.
00:43:42.860you're going to be looking forever. And it's true. I mean, again, though, you'd have to draw a line
00:43:47.340somewhere. You know, if the leader only gets down to 80% of what I agree with, well, maybe it's time
00:43:50.860to move on to something else. But I just got a feeling, my feelings have been wrong before,
00:43:56.020but I just don't think the discontent is as big as some people are hoping to make it out to be.
00:43:59.720But it is going to be a historic annual general meeting. And again, Canada, the West, it's
00:44:05.080interesting. The Bloc Quebecois, the secessionists are gaining strength in Quebec. You know, Trudeau
00:44:10.700is looking to be out the door. We might have a conservative government in, in Saskatchewan,
00:44:15.820BC, and Alberta, all three at the same time for the first time in a long time. What an opportunity
00:44:20.100to really rattle the Canadian cage, the time to make some bigger changes that people are afraid
00:44:25.080to make. And that's when, again, the politicians have to feel confident. Like getting on beyond
00:44:31.640the other things with some of everybody screaming, oh, I want this, I want this, I want this, I want
00:44:34.940this. Okay, fine. But Layoff Smith, she's also got to know when she's doing some things right.0.99
00:44:39.800And this health care thing, one of the things that Kline, Ralph Kline said is a regret, was that he didn't follow through enough on health care reform.
00:44:48.660And if enough pressure comes on Smith, we'll back off on health care reform, too.
00:44:53.040She needs to know she's being supported.
00:44:54.820She needs to know she can still win, even if she takes on the health care monster on our behalf.1.00
00:44:59.980So, again, the EGM is an opportunity to express that kind of support.
00:45:03.100Not, again, not getting in there and groveling and kissing, but just saying, hey, again, we got concerns.
00:45:08.340but for the most part, we need you to keep doing what you're doing. Because if the West can start
00:45:13.140proving that the system can be changed in a better way, the whole country can be led by example that
00:45:18.220way and get better. Speaking of which, getting back to EVs, things like that, you know, this
00:45:22.340insanity. I'm just going to sidetrack, right? BC, speaking of policies, BC's Site C dam, right?
00:45:29.000You know, they want to electrify everything. That's one of the things EVs talking about,
00:45:31.880banning combustion vehicles. Trudeau's talking about banning combustion vehicles. We have these
00:45:37.260stupid electric buses that are falling apart all over the place. They're not working if we can even
00:45:41.680get them delivered. A report that just came out from Ontario's regulator, they're expecting their
00:45:46.340electricity demand to soar by 75% by 2050 because of EVs and AI stuff. Well, where is the power
00:45:54.360going to come from, you guys? We're not building more nuke plants. Site C dam in BC has taken
00:45:58.900decades and they're certainly not going to get anything else new approved over there. Windmills
00:46:02.560can only do so much, where is all the electricity going to come from for all of these things when
00:46:07.740this comes on stream? We don't have the ability. It's not there. The infrastructure isn't there.
00:46:12.580The generating power isn't there. The distribution power isn't in there. All we're looking to do is
00:46:17.040economically castrate ourselves and screw up a perfectly good combustion engine market that's
00:46:22.180been serving us well as a cold climate for a long time. We're in a period of change. I think it's
00:46:28.040going to be changed for the better, but it's up to us to make sure it is. And that means, you know,
00:46:31.840paying attention, staying on things, voting, participating, and of course, watching my show
00:46:35.980because I got most of the answers. So thanks for tuning in today, guys. I really do appreciate it.
00:46:40.840Be sure to watch the pipeline. We'll be breaking down some more issues. Hannaford,
00:46:44.340lots of things that are constantly coming up on the Western Standard site, westernstandard.news,
00:46:50.160the news breaking, we get it up there. Tune in again this week or this week, next week on Wednesday
00:46:56.440at this time, and I'll have a whole new things to turn your ear on. So thanks again. See you then.