Western Standard - The secrecy must end on Calgary’s electric bus scandal

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Good day, welcome to the Corey Morgan Show.

00:00:55.040 And another crazy week of politics to go into and events and news and items and things going on.

00:01:03.020 It's that mixed blessing, you know, that there's always so much to cover, but so rarely is much of it very good news.

00:01:11.580 But we've got to stay on their case.

00:01:12.700 We've got to discuss these things.

00:01:13.840 Burying our heads in the sand is a sure way to ensure things will only become worse, and they can always become worse.

00:01:20.800 So thanks for tuning in.

00:01:21.900 I know you're the informed type of bunch. And, you know, I like to get on there, have these

00:01:27.160 discussions, get folks stirred up and share some information with each other. So use that comment

00:01:32.900 scroll. Those of you who are watching live, guys, I appreciate it. You know, send out those comments,

00:01:37.460 discuss things with each other, questions for me, for my guests, and keep things interactive. I like

00:01:41.760 that. Sometimes things come up I never even thought I was going to do during the show. And hey,

00:01:44.920 somebody brought it up in the discussion scroll. So I'll go ranting off in that direction. I really

00:01:49.340 don't script these things that tightly, though I do with my opening monologue because I do like

00:01:53.460 to cover particular subjects. Good to see Mr. Stanley checking in and the other ones getting

00:01:57.840 on there. So I'm going to start with something I've been on about a couple of times, but I'm

00:02:03.400 not letting go of this one. I'm going to ragdoll on it. I'm going to stay on their case about it 1.00

00:02:08.520 because the silence has been deafening. And, you know, taxpayers are getting hit yet again,

00:02:16.200 As always, in a scandal, and the arrogant devils in authority refuse to answer any questions. 0.50

00:02:24.800 So, I've been watching things on this issue.

00:02:27.960 If you know much about press releases and how they work, the juiciest press release has always come out on Friday afternoons before long weekends.

00:02:34.820 I mean, if a company or a government is forced to release some information they aren't proud of,

00:02:38.840 They 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.

00:02:46.560 So last Friday afternoon, so, you know, we learned to watch in media, though.

00:02:50.440 You watch those Friday long weekend press releases because quite often something big might be kind of trying to slide under the radar.

00:02:57.300 So last Friday afternoon, there was a year before Thanksgiving, a small company in Aldergrove, B.C. called Vicinity Motor Corporation.

00:03:03.440 I've mentioned them before. They quietly put out a release with some pretty dire news for their

00:03:08.840 investors. So I'm going to give the highlights from this release. One of the quotes, the creditors

00:03:12.880 exercised their discretion not to renew the credit facilities and provided the company with notice

00:03:18.340 of intention to enforce security pursuant to subsection 244-1 of the Bankruptcy and Insolvency

00:03:23.980 Act Canada. Further, the company believes that the creditors will proceed towards receivership

00:03:30.160 enforcement impeding the company's ability to continue to operate. If that happens, the company

00:03:34.480 will likely be forced to lay off its remaining staff and cease operations. If the company is not

00:03:39.340 able to file its interim filings for the six months ended June 30th, 2024, by October 18th,

00:03:44.680 2024, now we've got a couple days, the British Columbia Securities Commission will issue a broad

00:03:49.520 failure to file cease trade order and no shares of the company will be permitted to be traded in

00:03:54.880 Canada. So, translating all of that, the company is heavily indebted, can't get out of the hole,

00:04:01.420 and unless a miracle occurs, they're going to be going into receivership. Now, small companies go

00:04:05.780 broke all the time. What makes the case of vicinity an issue, though, is that that's the

00:04:11.020 company of the City of Calgary ordered millions of dollars worth of electric buses for a pilot

00:04:15.980 program over three years ago. The buses still aren't here, and now it's not hard to see why.

00:04:21.860 It looks like the company was never actually making them, and perhaps they were always incapable of producing them.

00:04:27.140 Their financial woes have actually been public for quite some time.

00:04:29.940 I've been watching their stock today.

00:04:31.340 They're down under 10 cents a share. 0.99

00:04:33.360 They're trash stock.

00:04:36.660 We're not getting those buses, guys. 0.94

00:04:38.200 Somehow, 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.

00:04:45.900 The pilot program was supposed to cost $14 million.

00:04:49.300 Now, has the money already gone to the vicinity?

00:04:51.860 Was there a deposit given to Vicinity? Is there any chance of recovering any of those dollars?

00:04:56.740 Some of the money was also spent upgrading city facilities with charging stations, which are

00:05:01.860 custom for the buses which were supposed to come from Vicinity, which will never arrive,

00:05:05.620 so other buses won't work with them too. How much did those cost? I've been asking these questions

00:05:10.260 from city councillors for months because it's becoming evident that Vicinity has been heading

00:05:14.500 off a fiscal cliff. I was greeted by silence on the issue. Well, councillors likely have a good

00:05:20.420 idea what's happening with these buses it was probably discussed during one of the many in-camera

00:05:25.060 meetings city call holds and you see once a meeting goes into what former city councillor

00:05:29.620 jeremy farkas labeled as the chamber of secrets the attendees are no longer allowed to speak

00:05:34.500 about what was discussed and she promised increased transparency when he became mayor

00:05:39.460 but instead he increased the number of secret meetings and his protege jody gondek has continued

00:05:43.940 that practice now on top of that there's an atmosphere of deference in council chambers

00:05:48.740 towards city administration. Instead of demanding answers of the city management, the mayor and

00:05:52.960 council act almost subservient to it. Councilors might not even know the details of the project

00:05:57.540 because city administration hasn't told them what they were. The only one who's been speaking up

00:06:01.540 has been Councillor Dan McLean. He's one of the only ones who voted against expanding the bus

00:06:06.120 program, and I'll get to that, because this budding boondoggle gets worse. The pilot project was

00:06:11.280 supposed to cost $14 million, and once those buses started becoming delayed, Gondek and her

00:06:16.000 supportive clan of councillors and clowns got impatient and they committed the city to an

00:06:21.300 electric bus plan worth half a billion dollars. Yeah, Dan McClain was the only one who voted 0.93

00:06:26.760 against that who was in attendance that meeting. It didn't matter. They rammed it through. So

00:06:29.800 think of it. What's the point of a pilot program when the mayor and council are just going to

00:06:34.980 ignore it when it fails? How stupid does one have to be to commit taxpayers to a massive project 0.99

00:06:40.720 when you can't even get a small one off the ground? The mayor and council actually pointed 1.00

00:06:45.040 to the Edmonton electric bus program at that time and claimed it was such a success Calgary didn't

00:06:49.020 need to bother waiting for its own pilot project to start, much less finish. Since then, Edmonton's

00:06:54.080 bus program has been a catastrophe. Half of their new buses are out of service. The supplier that

00:06:58.640 was providing them to them has gone bankrupt, much like vicinity appears to be heading, and they can't

00:07:02.940 repair their buses because there's no parts being made for them. Edmonton taxpayers lost about 60

00:07:07.960 million on that so far. Citizens must demand answers now. Were the buses for the half billion

00:07:14.220 programs supposed to come from vicinity too? Because I can't find information where the city's

00:07:17.900 getting those. Has there been funds spent on the procurement for this? If it didn't go to vicinity,

00:07:22.700 which company got it? There's no excuse not to answer these questions. This money isn't the

00:07:27.440 mayor and councils. These funds belong to the taxpayers and people are getting sick and tired

00:07:31.260 of boondoggles. There might still be a chance to escape a half billion dollar ripoff right now, 0.95

00:07:36.000 but we need to find out what the hell is going on. Gondek and gang have proved themselves

00:07:40.460 completely incompetent with the green line. Does the province need to step in? Does Auntie Danielle 1.00

00:07:45.000 need to step in and say, Jyoti, you blew it again. We're taking this over on the electric bus mess. 1.00

00:07:51.380 Maybe this province is going to have to take over everything in the city with this group of idiots 1.00

00:07:54.660 running it. Meanwhile, hey, another water mainline burst in Bonass. People out there are probably 1.00

00:07:59.760 familiar with it. Yes. And the streets are lined with potholes, probably filling with water. You

00:08:03.700 can go fishing down there. Property taxes are rising and the city's saying we're going to have

00:08:09.060 to double the road maintenance budget and we're not sure we're going to get the money without

00:08:11.900 raising taxes. Really? Wow. Maybe it's getting time for a coup at the palace. Maybe there's

00:08:17.980 one councillor willing to breach the rules of the Chamber of Secrets for the sake of taxpayers.

00:08:22.460 Either way, guys, this scandal is still going. Let's see if that company stops trading Friday.

00:08:27.380 I'm not going to let Gondek and her bunch get away with silence on this and sliding it under

00:08:32.820 the rug. This is a lot of money, people. This is why we're going broke. This is why people

00:08:37.280 having trouble paying the bills. By the way, that's what's got me wound up today. I mean,

00:08:41.220 sadly, there's just always so many stories of waste and things going on. It's a busy day at

00:08:45.940 the Standard. I haven't been able to rock anybody in for a news update. So rather than being blessed

00:08:50.220 with Dave's presence or somebody else, you're going to have to listen to me run through a few

00:08:53.700 of the things that are going on though. I mean, one of the top issues really hitting the news

00:08:57.480 right now, getting into that is India, of course. I mean, that's just crazy. It's funny, you know, 1.00

00:09:03.940 it was a year ago and all this broke with India as well, where it sounds like the government of

00:09:09.620 India was taking part or contributing towards an assassination of a Calistani activist in Canada

00:09:16.800 who was a Canadian citizen. This is a big deal if indeed it's happening. And I believe it's

00:09:21.600 believable. I mean, sure, India isn't necessarily the nicest player on the world stage. And now 1.00

00:09:28.100 Trudeau has jumped up and it sounds just the same. He's saying credible evidence, but he won't say

00:09:32.680 what it is. Again, he throws a turd into the international punch bowl and then won't back it

00:09:38.860 up with some facts. It is believable that India has been messing around with Canadian soil 1.00

00:09:42.380 dangerously. And now India's pulled its top diplomats out of Canada. And Canada's saying,

00:09:47.380 no, we expelled them, blah, blah, blah, back and forth. But Trudeau bumbles along and won't tell

00:09:52.080 us exactly what it's about. You got to give the bloody details. This kind of ties almost into what

00:09:58.200 I'm talking about with the e-buses. These governments are feeling that we peons, we people

00:10:02.580 paying the bills, we people impacted by their policies don't have the right to know what

00:10:07.180 they're doing or what's going on. So Trudeau keeps doing these things, but he won't tell us what it's

00:10:12.280 about. And now, India is a trading partner with Canada for $10 billion a year. Now, I'm not saying

00:10:21.340 we should be putting up with India government actions on our soil of things going on over here

00:10:27.300 just because they're a big trading partner. But I am saying you got to be bloody careful when you

00:10:31.840 start throwing accusations out. But you know, guess who the big trading partners like which

00:10:36.740 industry gets hit? If India starts, you know, putting, you know, sanctions against some of our

00:10:43.920 products? Well, the main products are legumes, lentils, basically Western Canadian farmers,

00:10:50.300 that's their customer, that's where a whole lot of it goes. So if India puts a bunch of sanctions

00:10:54.940 on Canadian products, it'll be the Western Canadian farmers who will get to pay the price,

00:10:59.440 as usual. This is the sort of thing, that's part of why Trudeau's not afraid of ticking off India. 1.00

00:11:04.780 And India gives him a very convenient distraction to jump into right now, while it looks like 0.99

00:11:11.080 Trudeau's got his own members over the weekend. We're trying to start a little bit of a coup to

00:11:16.240 say, please, please, Prime Minister, can you step aside? We're swirling the toilet in support. We

00:11:21.640 want to get out. And instead, suddenly, Justin turned the page. Last fall, when he was on the

00:11:26.960 rocks, same thing, he brought up the India thing. There's the five eyes they talk about, you know, 0.97

00:11:31.080 a number of countries that are allied. They love all their cute terms when they get together on

00:11:35.300 things and share intelligence information and everything. But, you know, a lot of them, Britain,

00:11:39.300 New Zealand, Australia, aren't exactly too keen with Justin's tactics in picking such a fight

00:11:45.820 with India right now. And they're saying, hey, you know, we'd like to see a little evidence. I mean,

00:11:50.740 they're not denying that this stuff has been happening, but I mean, we need a little diplomacy.

00:11:55.080 We got to work on this. And again, share, don't just keep saying credible evidence, show us.

00:12:00.420 And that ties into what Prime Minister Dingbat's been doing today. He was on the stand. He was

00:12:04.280 talking about the foreign interference issue, not the India foreign interference issue, which is a

00:12:08.320 big one, obviously, but the Chinese one that's been going on for years. The one that the liberals 0.95

00:12:13.980 are working their butts off to cover up again, as we Canadians don't deserve to know, even though

00:12:18.880 Our 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.

00:12:32.840 We know that. We've known that for a long time.

00:12:35.020 And the government's doing everything it can to cover it up.

00:12:37.400 Well, Justin got up today and said it's the conservatives' fault for all this interference.

00:12:42.500 Really?

00:12:42.900 And Justin's little fart catchers on social media have been saying, you see, you see,

00:12:47.300 Polyev has actually got a bunch of conservative members who've been compromised.

00:12:50.840 Really? Maybe. I don't know.

00:12:53.660 Because they won't tell us what's in the report.

00:12:55.820 They won't tell us who the names are.

00:12:58.080 So then they can make all the accusations they like.

00:13:01.060 They never have to prove it.

00:13:02.620 We need evidence.

00:13:03.780 Open it up. Show us the name.

00:13:05.520 I don't care if it's conservative members in that list or NDP or liberal.

00:13:10.800 We 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.

00:13:25.440 This is rather important. These political games, these self-serving games on high-level politics,

00:13:31.900 things that are very, very important, and instead, you know, again, they're covering it up. They don't

00:13:38.240 feel we deserve to know. Yeah, Mr. Stanley's saying that WF is a foreign interest. It is,

00:13:44.120 but that's a number of other different individuals getting in on things. Like, Canada's a pushover.

00:13:48.660 We're wimps, and the world knows it. That's why we're seeing this trend. That's why they aren't

00:13:55.160 afraid of coming in and meddling around. Look, countries have spies and stuff going on across

00:14:00.100 borders with each other all around the world. They've been doing that since the first border

00:14:03.480 was formed. But Canada really gets it. Why? Because we're disorganized, we're self-interested,

00:14:09.860 we're foolish, we got terrible government, and then get away with these things with impunity. 0.95

00:14:15.260 So that's why they have these things on their soil. 1.00

00:14:17.120 They don't respect us.

00:14:19.060 They don't fear any repercussions from our prime minister.

00:14:22.520 And you listen to the prime minister.

00:14:23.640 This was a beautiful little release that came out from him on the intelligence briefings,

00:14:28.140 you know, because they love to plead ignorance.

00:14:30.560 I didn't know about it.

00:14:31.360 I didn't know about it.

00:14:32.240 I didn't know about it.

00:14:32.940 They keep showing all these briefings, all these things coming from security institutions

00:14:40.160 in Canada, CSIS, RCMP, things like that.

00:14:42.460 And they say, well, he didn't read it.

00:14:43.420 And it turns out Trudeau's workload, yes, the workload on these briefings, he gets three a day he has to read.

00:14:52.780 Three a day.

00:14:53.940 Apparently he can't keep up.

00:14:55.360 It's too much for him.

00:14:57.400 How?

00:14:58.000 How low do we have to get with these?

00:14:59.500 So that's his excuse.

00:15:00.540 I'm sorry, I was just overwhelmed.

00:15:02.000 I couldn't read those three security briefings a day, so it slipped under my radar.

00:15:06.600 I didn't catch it.

00:15:07.720 You know, we have to adjust ourselves to accommodate the ability of the prime minister.

00:15:11.960 The 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.

00:15:21.340 And then maybe he'll actually pay attention to it and have a look inside it and see what our security agencies have been finding.

00:15:27.600 Because if you give him something in regular straight English, he's incapable of digesting it and certainly incapable of acting upon it.

00:15:35.520 Bloody embarrassing.

00:15:36.800 All right.

00:15:37.440 So let's see.

00:15:39.280 Before I get on to my guests, I'm just going to remind everybody, though, one of the things

00:15:42.340 that we aren't beholden to is the government.

00:15:44.260 This is why we need you guys subscribing.

00:15:47.760 Guys, $9.99 a month, $100 for a year.

00:15:51.780 That's why we're not afraid of ripping into any level of government or any government

00:15:56.300 because we're going to report on what's important we answer to you guys.

00:15:59.460 We answer the subscribers.

00:16:00.700 If you subscribed already, thank you very much.

00:16:02.720 We really appreciate it.

00:16:03.720 If you haven't, come on, guys.

00:16:05.300 westernstandard.news slash subscription. Take one out. Get one for a friend. Get one for a family

00:16:11.420 member. Send one for that liberal uncle you don't like. It's important and it helps support us. So

00:16:15.580 I'm going to get on now what we're supported with. We've got a fantastic reporter. We're going to

00:16:18.740 talk about the BC election going on out there. But first, I do have to show because Jared Yeager

00:16:27.020 has made a change in this country as a young man, as a new reporter. Samadone, a lobby group,

00:16:34.300 I guess you could say, has now been, well, declared a terrorist group in Canada. And even

00:16:40.840 there's been pressure to do that for a long time already. But the thing that finally pushed it over

00:16:44.500 the edge and made it undeniable, gave them no choice, was Jared got on the ground, got some

00:16:48.520 video, it went viral, and nobody could deny any longer. So I'll show a quick clip of that video,

00:16:53.140 and we'll talk to Jared a little bit about that, but then we're really going to get into the BC

00:16:56.040 election, because that's coming up in just a few days. So if we could roll that clip, let's see.

00:17:00.220 We are the Zabatistas, we are the SLM, and yes, we are Hezbollah and we are Hamas.

00:17:12.620 Our resistance has existed for centuries. 0.97

00:17:17.480 Israel burn, burn. 0.99

00:17:22.060 Palestinians will return. 1.00

00:17:26.240 Israelis are a terrorist state. 1.00

00:17:30.520 Yuriyyah, Yuriyyah. 0.99

00:17:44.420 Yuriyyah, Yuriyyah.

00:17:52.940 Yuriyyah, Yuriyyah, Yuriyyah.

00:17:57.760 Yuriyyah, Yuriyyah.

00:17:59.360 Palestinians 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

00:18:29.360 What an ugly, ugly scene on our Canadian streets. 0.95

00:18:47.280 We never would have thought we'd see that.

00:18:48.560 And I have to thank you, Jared, for getting out and covering it.

00:18:52.140 Because as I said, we know about it, we hear about it.

00:18:54.760 But it seems our government doesn't want to act until the evidence is right there in front of their faces.

00:18:59.360 like that and you provided it so i just want to say thank you for getting out and getting that

00:19:03.420 you made changes there no it feels pretty good and you know like you say it's it's been uh they've

00:19:09.440 been pushing for it for a while but it's kind of hard to deny that it is a terrorist organization

00:19:13.740 when you have someone get up on stage and just declare openly we are hezbollah we are hamas

00:19:19.980 like there's no there's no parsing that there's no reading between the lines

00:19:23.580 that's no and the cheers of the audience sort of indicated that was a fairly popular stance

00:19:28.160 among most of them anyways. Yeah. All right. Well, thank you again. And yes, as I've said

00:19:34.180 to others, though, what I really want to get into, you know, I'm certain we'll be discussing

00:19:37.480 the terrorism and things, sadly, for a long time to come. But on the more immediate front,

00:19:41.740 you've got an election in BC. It's been a tight one and it's been an unexpected one. It looks

00:19:47.340 like you may be heading for an upset this Saturday. Yeah, you know, it's pretty tight. And

00:19:53.380 And like they always say, the only poll that matters is the one taken on Election Day.

00:19:59.860 And I mean, the polls have been going back and forth and back and forth.

00:20:03.100 And the most recent one from Angus Reid now has the NDP at 45 percent and the Conservatives at 40 percent.

00:20:09.460 Now, this was taken after the most recent leaders debate.

00:20:13.700 And yeah, the debate was on the 8th.

00:20:17.280 And then this poll was taken between the 9th and 13th.

00:20:20.260 And 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.

00:20:34.940 But I'm wondering if maybe that played a role in the Conservatives' decrease in support.

00:20:41.160 It could, you know, I mean, I'll kind of take you back to it.

00:20:43.760 I was in an Alberta election when the Wildrose party and I was managing a campaign and we thought

00:20:48.460 we had at least a lot of seats, things were going great. And we had a candidate up in Edmonton who

00:20:52.680 said a bunch of homophobic things. And it was amazing. And this was in the last week of the

00:20:56.820 campaign and our support collapsed. I mean, it didn't just shrink, you know, we saw it starting

00:21:01.180 to come in the polls, but when push came to shove, people kind of get cold feet fast. If they start

00:21:06.060 to think that there might be extremism in that party, I wonder and hope that may not be the case

00:21:10.320 with B.C. right now, but I guess there may be some people are reconsidering his Saturday approaches.

00:21:15.480 Yeah, and I mean, John Restad, the Conservative leader, he's been questioned on it numerous times

00:21:20.340 and he's been clear those values are not the values of the party, but Brent has apologized.

00:21:26.180 And yesterday at a press conference when he was introducing the party platform,

00:21:30.540 he suggested that people should weigh the actions that EB has taken over the words that Chapman has

00:21:40.940 has posted and kind of think like okay in the greater scheme of things yes this is bad

00:21:45.540 but is it worth maybe sacrificing you know the province under another four years of the NDP

00:21:53.640 Well, and I mean, would ejecting that candidate at this point make a difference? You know,

00:22:00.380 has the damage already been done? It's a tough spot leaders get into. That's what Danielle Smith 0.99

00:22:04.600 faced way back then when she was leading the opposition party too, was do you eject that

00:22:08.660 Edmonton candidate and infuriate your base or do you keep them in and then take that abuse as people

00:22:14.160 paint your entire party that way? It's unfortunate that these things happen because you start to

00:22:18.340 lose sight of other policies. Exactly and that's kind of what we've seen like you know half the

00:22:24.040 questions he's asked is like oh what do you think about this guy's comments not you know what are

00:22:27.820 you going to do to you know help ordinary British Columbians for whom this really is a I'm not going

00:22:33.060 to say a non-issue but it doesn't impact them on a day-to-day basis. So what are the meat and

00:22:38.340 potatoes issues or what are the things that have really been coming up in this election like what

00:22:43.300 British Columbians wanting to see done? Well, I'd say for the ordinary British Columbian,

00:22:50.580 the main four issues would probably be obviously housing affordability, crime, drugs and health

00:22:59.300 care. Because over the past seven years, all four of those have pretty much deteriorated to a point

00:23:06.420 where it's not really not really the place where we used to live in and so yeah each party has put

00:23:15.300 forward different uh solutions to that problem it just you know they each have their their unique

00:23:22.020 differences and it depends on what the what the voters want yeah well and i mean you know virtue

00:23:27.860 signaling things like that i mean it's great to talk about climate change and and trans issues and

00:23:33.620 you know, safe consumption sites. But when people can't pay the bills, or they don't feel safe

00:23:39.340 taking their kid to school, you know, if they feel crime is high, they're not going to feel

00:23:44.240 satisfied. The role of EB is to try and convince people that he can turn around the disorder that's

00:23:49.240 happened while he's, you know, when the NDP has been in power. And that can be tough. I mean,

00:23:55.240 you're going to have to wear the existing state of affairs. Yeah, and he's, he's tried to push

00:24:01.280 back on that saying, you know, oh, that's going to be a thing of the past. Like we've learned

00:24:06.020 from our mistakes and, you know, we'll do it better next time. But, you know, it's kind of

00:24:11.340 like what you see in the U.S. right now with Kamala Harris trying to suggest that, you know,

00:24:16.400 if she's elected, things will be different. It's like, no, you are the thing that people are

00:24:21.020 wanting change from. So it's been tough for him, but. Yeah. And it's difficult for an up and comer

00:24:27.920 then, you know, also, I mean, he's going to find you can point out all the problems, but are people

00:24:32.160 confident that Rustad and a whole collection of new MLAs, could they properly address these issues

00:24:39.240 either? Or are they just, you know, attacking the soft spots of the NDP? I guess voters really have

00:24:43.360 to consider these things. Yeah, I mean, that was one of the criticisms of Rustad during the last

00:24:48.480 debate, is that he spent too much time talking about the problems and not what a conservative

00:24:54.800 government would do to fix them like he mentioned some of the solutions but didn't really go in

00:25:00.400 depth and i think since then he's really uh doubled down and shown what uh what his government would

00:25:07.120 do piece by piece showing how uh how that would all work so uh most provinces i mean it's really

00:25:14.320 been a trend the last 10 years provincially federally municipally advanced polling has been

00:25:18.880 a big thing and it really helps for campaign teams because you can really get out your voters get

00:25:22.480 them out of the way weeks before you or a week before the election depending on what's been set

00:25:26.400 up and uh you know thousands and thousands of people end up voting even before election day

00:25:31.120 comes has there been a large advanced voting turnout in bc that's known yet oh it's been

00:25:35.440 record-breaking on the first day yeah i think it was um yeah ten tens of thousands of people but

00:25:42.000 that was a record-breaking day and you know kind of slowed down the second day but it's it's ramped

00:25:47.680 back up today is the last day of advanced voting so from what i'm hearing on the ground a lot of

00:25:52.320 of people are opting to do that either because they don't want to wait in line on on election

00:25:57.080 day or they're just so enthusiastic to you know support their chosen candidate which you know

00:26:02.720 it's good to see well it is i mean you know high turnouts are good i don't care what anybody says

00:26:08.560 even if you don't like the outcome it's a sign that people are taking part in it uh so that's

00:26:14.880 something that's interesting too it's a saturday election day is just a better triple check that

00:26:18.720 right this this saturday yeah yeah so i mean traditionally it's usually been mondays across

00:26:23.080 the country uh having a weekend voting day do you think that'll help with turnout you know

00:26:27.900 people are off work it'll be a little easier to go midday and take care of those sorts of things

00:26:31.560 i think so yeah yeah you know on the weekday because it's not a you know a provincial holiday

00:26:38.160 to you know to go vote um yeah maybe some people just can't get time off work or by the time they

00:26:46.440 do they get to the polling station it's like oh well line's too long i just won't bother but it's

00:26:51.560 a saturday you shouldn't have anything better to do than vote so no excuses got to get out there

00:26:58.120 so bc has always been an interesting animal i mean with a number of distinct regions from the north

00:27:02.840 getting into the peace country down into lower mainland and then interior bc you know kamloops

00:27:08.680 colonna uh the the broad support numbers you're talking about 44 40 going on but i mean seat

00:27:15.160 distribution is everything. You know, if you're looking to win the race, how do things look

00:27:19.700 balancing out between the urban-rural split? Because, I mean, the popular vote isn't necessarily

00:27:24.940 what a party needs to garner in order to win the election. Yeah, well, yeah, the recent polling

00:27:30.980 shows that the Conservatives have a pretty strong base pretty much everywhere outside the lower

00:27:37.240 mainland and Vancouver Island. You know, the Fraser Valley, it's always been a pretty conservative

00:27:42.420 area and same with the northern regions and the interior but one thing I've noticed in this

00:27:48.440 election is more success in those urban areas like there's a conservative candidate here in

00:27:54.740 Vancouver and he's up in the polls and I mean he said a few things like Brent Chapman that have

00:28:01.120 caused some controversy but the fact that he's still ahead of the NDP candidate shows to me at

00:28:07.960 least that uh people down here are ready for change and you know there's only so long you can

00:28:14.040 ignore walking down the street and having to step over someone who's you know dying from an overdose

00:28:20.300 or a needle on the on the street or you know i was taking the bus the other day and i someone was

00:28:26.260 openly smoking crack on the other side of the bus and it's like well yeah it's impossible to ignore

00:28:34.040 So I think the tide is shifting, even in the urban areas.

00:28:37.540 Vancouver Island's always going to be a little bit more further left, just because that's just how it is.

00:28:42.680 But I think there's room to grow in Greater Vancouver, for sure.

00:28:46.960 Yeah, Vancouver's always been a swing city.

00:28:49.040 I mean, we were going to talk about that the other night, you know, my younger days when reform was down there.

00:28:53.020 It was always a fascinating cauldron of politics.

00:28:56.320 You could have a reform party member, as conservative as they get, with an NDP member right next door,

00:29:00.540 and then a Liberal member right next to that

00:29:02.200 and a Progressive Conservative next to that.

00:29:04.620 And they would switch.

00:29:05.640 They would change election by election.

00:29:07.560 It still remains a little that way right now, it looks like.

00:29:11.560 Oh, in some places, for sure, for sure.

00:29:14.400 And I guess, yeah, for change.

00:29:16.360 I mean, when you're looking urban,

00:29:17.560 I mean, real estate is just insane down there

00:29:20.120 in Lower Mainland, B.C.

00:29:21.360 It doesn't matter how, again, progressive you are.

00:29:24.120 If you feel the government is keeping you

00:29:25.520 from being able to afford a home,

00:29:26.960 you're going to reevaluate who you're supporting, I imagine.

00:29:30.540 Oh, definitely. And that's why housing has skyrocketed to the, you know, top three issues in the province.

00:29:39.800 And 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.

00:29:58.200 But that's the Canadian system.

00:29:59.880 It doesn't really matter which province you're in.

00:30:02.400 Every premier says they're going to fix it.

00:30:03.900 No premier ever does because they can't.

00:30:06.860 What health care, I guess, though,

00:30:08.700 distinguishment is there between EB and Rustad right now?

00:30:13.180 So right now, I mean, they both acknowledge

00:30:15.340 that the current system isn't working.

00:30:17.820 But Rustad's approach is more of a departure

00:30:20.420 from the norm than EB's.

00:30:22.280 EB is kind of doubling down on existing policies

00:30:24.320 and just working to kind of get rid of some of the red tape

00:30:29.600 and kind of streamline it a little bit more.

00:30:32.920 Whereas Rustad, he's pretty much reimagined the system entirely,

00:30:38.300 introducing options for private clinics to partner with the government

00:30:41.820 to provide care for those who need it when the public clinics are full

00:30:47.560 and allowing people who need care but can't get it in BC

00:30:52.780 to go to other jurisdictions throughout Canada

00:30:56.140 and then get reimbursed for that.

00:30:58.160 And these aren't just hypothetical models.

00:31:01.160 These have been tried in countries all over the world,

00:31:04.140 in Ireland, in Sweden, in Switzerland.

00:31:07.880 And so, yeah, I don't know.

00:31:10.940 I think it's obvious that what's happened,

00:31:15.560 like the system right now is not working.

00:31:17.460 So I think those drastic changes might resonate with some voters.

00:31:24.980 Yeah, well, your ideology changes when you watch a loved one die on a waiting list for a specialist.

00:31:30.040 So, you know, reality, you have to face it eventually.

00:31:33.880 It's interesting. I'm happy to see a competitive election.

00:31:37.800 I mean, it's good for democracy. It's good to see B.C., whatever way it might go.

00:31:41.720 I mean, I've certainly got my preferences I'd like to see from out here.

00:31:44.040 But just to see a good, hard-fought race has got to be good for the province.

00:31:47.460 oh for sure for sure and if nothing else this uh election campaign has gotten people more

00:31:53.220 more involved you know like i was saying earlier if you're um like for a long time you could kind

00:32:00.500 of not think about politics too much just because you know it wouldn't impact you on a day-to-day

00:32:05.780 basis but over the past seven years you know it's become impossible to not engage with politics

00:32:15.780 Because when you're walking past someone who's dying of an overdose, that's political now.

00:32:21.420 Because one party is saying we should do this and the other party is saying we should do that.

00:32:25.160 So even subconsciously, you're kind of taking a side when you see that and think to yourself, huh, maybe things should be different.

00:32:33.800 Yeah, well, we're certainly going to be watching it closely.

00:32:36.260 So, I mean, I know you're going to be busier than I'll get out these next few days.

00:32:39.780 aside from westernstandard.news, where can people find you on your social media and such to see as

00:32:46.280 you're covering things leading up to election day on Saturday? Well, I'll be most active on Twitter

00:32:51.220 and you can follow me there at Jared Yeager and on Instagram as well at Jared underscore Yeager.

00:32:58.280 All right. Well, thank you very much for joining me today and for the coverage, Jared. It's

00:33:02.540 appreciate it. And, uh, well, I, I, I hope, uh, hope things go smoothly on election day.

00:33:08.900 Yeah, as do I. All right. Thanks. We'll talk soon. All right. So yes, remember Jerry DeAger,

00:33:14.920 he's, he's been doing again, great work. He's been relatively new with the standard and, uh,

00:33:19.380 you know, getting out there. What I like, he's getting out on the ground, get there in person.

00:33:24.100 We can only get so much from texts or from press releases and things such as that. And that's,

00:33:28.880 that's one of the things that's just unfortunately been lacking in media lately. I mean, outlets and

00:33:32.420 I beat on legacy media a lot and I'll continue to, but they just don't have the resources they used

00:33:38.060 to. We don't necessarily need the resources we used to either. I remember older days, if you

00:33:42.880 would go to a protest and see media coverage, you'd see a CBC crew. It'd be like six people.

00:33:48.100 You got your sound guy, your camera people. They would bring the whole works, a producer

00:33:52.260 out there to these spots. Now, one person with a good camera and some courage, like Sherrod,

00:33:59.940 can get out and get incredible coverage of these things. But I mean, he, it appears he was

00:34:04.520 practically the only media member covering this. It's ridiculous and it's insane, but that's, 0.81

00:34:10.500 media is in flux. It's, it's, you know, we're in a period of change. So, I mean, when we get 0.79

00:34:15.100 guys like Jared getting out there in person, seeing with his own eyes and sharing it with us,

00:34:20.880 it's, it's really important and it's good journalism and it's good to see. Again, I'm not

00:34:24.960 a reporter. I'm an opinion guy. I'm a, you know, the blowhard on the shows and I write my columns.

00:34:29.940 but it's, I can't accurately share my opinions of these things if I'm not getting accurate news

00:34:36.300 copy back from people to see what's going on out there. Cause I'm not the one, I mean, I go out to

00:34:41.060 events, but I'm not on the ground like them. So, you know, keep an eye on him, keep an eye on

00:34:44.840 Saskatchewan. We've got Chris Oldcourt working there. That's only two weeks away. They've got

00:34:50.480 an election on the go too. It's not quite as exciting I think as the BC one, but it's, it's

00:34:54.980 still pretty essential. You know, it's interesting. I see, you know, Paradoxie saying we need to stop

00:35:03.520 gatekeeping the number of new students that can enter our medical profession streams and trying

00:35:08.160 to do different things. It's been interesting. Premier Smith is moving along with some things

00:35:14.340 in Alberta. She broke up the Alberta Health Services bureaucracy, this big, giant, parasitic,

00:35:20.580 huge organization that ran all aspects of health care in Alberta. She's broken it into distinctive

00:35:26.900 areas, you know, with primary care, acute care, you know, long-term addictions and mental health,

00:35:32.580 because they are different specialties. They're all tied to health care, but they really should

00:35:36.140 be run by different groups. A bit of a divide and conquer, because I think she's got some really

00:35:39.980 entrenched old bureaucratic institutions she's trying to take on. But she's been bringing things 1.00

00:35:46.800 to the front line and, and new methods and announcing things. And again, it's funny to

00:35:50.660 watch the, these guys are something else. Friends of Medicare. Ah, you gotta love it when they come

00:35:55.260 up. Look, just call yourselves the unions. That's all you are. They're a union group and they oppose

00:36:00.880 everything Premier Smith does. And the legacy media gives them so much bloody ink. So Premier

00:36:07.080 Smith and the health minister, you know, came up with a bunch of things that are going to happen

00:36:10.820 with AHS. We're going to have nurse practitioners perhaps offering more alternatives for people on

00:36:15.060 the front lines to get primary health care, things like that. Friends of Medicare, it's all bad.

00:36:20.280 It's all bad. It's all bad. All they'll ever support is spending more money. We've already

00:36:25.500 spent more money. We spend more money every single year. It's kind of what I was saying to Jared as

00:36:31.060 well. Across the country, every province, it's the same thing. Every one of them is reporting short

00:36:38.020 availability of supply. Socialized medicine is rationed medicine, folks. Yes, it'll

00:36:44.960 always be free, but you might die before you can get it. That's the problem we've got. So we got

00:36:52.200 to look at the system. We keep putting band-aids on this thing and it's not enough. So if EB is

00:36:58.560 talking about different delivery models, I think it's really good. Premier Smith is going into that.

00:37:03.080 Hopefully, I'm hoping the SAS party in Saskatchewan wins just so we can see a block of more provinces

00:37:07.640 at least willing to take on these dinosaurs in healthcare with this system that's failing us all

00:37:13.420 right now, because it is a big issue to Canadians all the time. And one of the things we're talking

00:37:18.140 about students entering, you know, if we're looking longer term, because we need to get

00:37:21.240 students who are going through and graduating and, you know, presumably practicing in the

00:37:27.080 healthcare field in whatever province they're in. One of the things coming through as a controversial

00:37:32.880 measure with the UCPAGM that's coming up, I'll talk a little bit about that in a minute,

00:37:38.700 is, you know, a thing to calling for basically ending DEI practices, diversity, equity, inclusion.

00:37:46.020 There's only certain areas where the government can do it. I think some of the DEI

00:37:49.200 crap, though, in the private market is already falling by the wayside. I mean,

00:37:52.980 the biggest debacle of all was, of course, the idiocy of Budweiser and Bud Light. That cost 1.00

00:37:57.860 billions. But we're seeing other companies, John Deere and Lowe's and others that are all,

00:38:02.180 Toyota, they're saying, okay, we're losing sales. This is dumb. Let's get back to doing what we do 0.99

00:38:07.060 right. But the areas that still maintain this stupidity are government and educational 1.00

00:38:12.040 institutions. And there's even been talk about, you know, I think it was in California, you know, 0.99

00:38:17.400 lowering the standards for medical degrees so that they can get more DEI type people through 0.95

00:38:23.740 into the courses. Look, we want the best person for the job. That's it. That's it. No more. No

00:38:30.480 more of this DEI crap. So if we want good medical practitioners, get rid of the DEI crap. So the 0.99

00:38:36.760 UCP AGM is coming up and this thing's going to be a whopper. It's November 2nd, I believe it's in

00:38:42.400 Red Deer. It's going to be over 6,000 people showing up there. I was in an event in kind of

00:38:48.660 North Central Alberta. I don't know if you call that Northern. Anyway, just saw the Ebony

00:38:51.720 Low Ways last night and talking to some people. And the amount of enthusiasm for a political

00:38:58.060 annual general meeting is striking. We just haven't seen this before. Now we've got a lot

00:39:03.900 of people are discontent. We always do. Welcome to politics, particularly conservatives. There's

00:39:08.720 going to be a review. That's one of the things built into the party constitution. Members at

00:39:12.720 this AGM will get a chance to vote for Smith. We talked about this in the pipeline and other things

00:39:16.720 too. Personally, again, I don't think she's at risk. I don't think she's at risk at all. I think

00:39:21.840 it's going to be well over 80% support for her. There are some very vocal people who just oppose

00:39:27.000 everything all the time. They're often the same people who opposed every last conservative leader

00:39:30.760 and they just keep opposing, opposing, opposing.

00:39:32.500 They'll support one for a little while

00:39:33.940 until, oh, one thing comes along. 0.99

00:39:35.540 I hate you. 0.98

00:39:36.100 You got to go now. 1.00

00:39:37.400 That's part of where conservatives are self-destructive.

00:39:39.840 It might come to that with Smith eventually,

00:39:41.820 but I don't think members are ready to do that

00:39:45.000 in this first couple of years that she's going in.

00:39:47.220 But we'll see.

00:39:48.680 I could be wrong.

00:39:49.620 I mean, it's hard to make a prediction

00:39:50.680 when we've never seen annual general meetings

00:39:53.540 this well attended.

00:39:55.220 This is amazing.

00:39:56.220 I mean, there's a provincial meeting.

00:39:57.460 It's well between elections.

00:39:59.040 you're talking 6 000 people i don't know what it costs now i think like 300 bucks to attend this

00:40:03.620 thing if you missed the early bird registration plus you got to find accommodations if you're

00:40:06.900 not from around there you got to drive you got to dedicate the time that's a i believe it'll be

00:40:10.940 one of the biggest political agms if not the biggest ever held in canada so yeah it's just

00:40:17.760 going to be fascinating for a political watcher now the the thing to worry about when is this

00:40:22.160 many people at it will it be productive will they get good things done i don't know it remains to

00:40:28.140 be 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

00:40:32.220 a member of any groups. But the Western Standard, of course, is going to be set up there. I mean,

00:40:36.480 that's right in our backyard. This is right up our alley. So I'll be there and watching. I'll

00:40:40.100 certainly be commenting and reporting on it. But personally, I think one of the opportunities that

00:40:47.140 can come is even if people, it's the time to critique the leadership. Absolutely. Tell them

00:40:53.460 when they're going in the wrong direction. I've written columns on that. I still think it was a

00:40:57.920 terrible move by the Smith government to put off the promised cut in tax, in income tax. You promised

00:41:03.620 it, just bloody deliver it. If you don't think you have the money, cut something. That's what 0.96

00:41:07.500 conservatives do. That's what we're supposed to be about. We're supposed to be tough, take those

00:41:10.960 tough choices, make them. She didn't do it. But the difference between me, I'm not a member, but

00:41:15.820 you know, and some of the others as well, that's it. She broke that promise to hell with her. Let's

00:41:18.520 throw her under the bus to find another leader. No, express that you're upset. Express what you 0.95

00:41:24.920 think is a better path. The AGM is an opportunity for that. Send it to the board to send it to

00:41:30.680 Smith, send it to the MLAs. You got to give it a little time though, guys. And don't just quit,

00:41:35.680 keep firing them over and over because things aren't happening fast enough. Because then we

00:41:40.720 will certainly get nowhere. They're watching most of what I think the movement of people saying

00:41:46.400 there's going to be a big coup pushing against Smith. It's not coming from conservative. Oh,

00:41:49.840 there's some very loud, upset people in the conservative front, as I've called them,

00:41:53.020 the chronic malcontents, and they'll never be happy. So don't worry about them. But there are

00:41:57.720 a lot of left-leaning elements who really want to play up that element of discontent in the party.

00:42:03.200 They want infighting. They want to see the conservatives get into a big grudge match at

00:42:07.460 this AGM and shoot themselves in the feet. So blind loyalty. I mean, we can see a big parallel

00:42:16.820 going on. We have this frustration with Justin Trudeau, who's doing anything and everything in

00:42:21.280 his power to stop people from pushing him out, even though he's madly incompetent, massively

00:42:26.780 low in support polls and down on the 20% level, he's going to pull that whole party down the

00:42:31.140 toilet and he's fighting it. But the not enough liberals will get up and kick him out. And then

00:42:36.820 meanwhile, we've got Premier Smith, who's only been in a couple of years, and is still holding

00:42:45.000 steady or, you know, above the NDP in the polls. And there's some people saying we've got to rip

00:42:49.000 out of there. Welcome to conservatives and liberals. I mean, it's a strength of the liberals

00:42:55.680 that they have such tight loyalty, but it's also a bad quality, right? Like you've got to be able

00:43:01.160 to critique your leaders. I mean, blind loyalty is bad and it's dangerous, but the conservative

00:43:05.700 trait of always eating our own, that's dangerous and it's bad as well. The party, the premier,

00:43:12.880 the ministers, the caucus should be focusing on policies rather than worrying about what's

00:43:16.720 happening within their own party and making sure the legs aren't getting cut out from the leader

00:43:20.140 or shouldn't be working on cutting the legs out of their own leader. Well, the AGM is going to be

00:43:25.220 the opportunity to kind of see, get a feel and a smell on the ground, not even just the vote

00:43:28.960 for the leadership review, which again, I think is going to be, I think she's going to pass it

00:43:33.940 quite clearly, but just, you know, what are the other discussions? What are the attitudes coming

00:43:38.940 from the floor? Paradoxy also pointing out, keep looking for someone that meets your views 100%.

00:43:42.860 you're going to be looking forever. And it's true. I mean, again, though, you'd have to draw a line

00:43:47.340 somewhere. You know, if the leader only gets down to 80% of what I agree with, well, maybe it's time

00:43:50.860 to move on to something else. But I just got a feeling, my feelings have been wrong before,

00:43:56.020 but I just don't think the discontent is as big as some people are hoping to make it out to be.

00:43:59.720 But it is going to be a historic annual general meeting. And again, Canada, the West, it's

00:44:05.080 interesting. The Bloc Quebecois, the secessionists are gaining strength in Quebec. You know, Trudeau

00:44:10.700 is looking to be out the door. We might have a conservative government in, in Saskatchewan,

00:44:15.820 BC, and Alberta, all three at the same time for the first time in a long time. What an opportunity

00:44:20.100 to really rattle the Canadian cage, the time to make some bigger changes that people are afraid

00:44:25.080 to make. And that's when, again, the politicians have to feel confident. Like getting on beyond

00:44:31.640 the other things with some of everybody screaming, oh, I want this, I want this, I want this, I want

00:44:34.940 this. Okay, fine. But Layoff Smith, she's also got to know when she's doing some things right. 0.99

00:44:39.800 And 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.

00:44:48.660 And if enough pressure comes on Smith, we'll back off on health care reform, too.

00:44:53.040 She needs to know she's being supported.

00:44:54.820 She needs to know she can still win, even if she takes on the health care monster on our behalf. 1.00

00:44:59.980 So, again, the EGM is an opportunity to express that kind of support.

00:45:03.100 Not, again, not getting in there and groveling and kissing, but just saying, hey, again, we got concerns.

00:45:08.340 but for the most part, we need you to keep doing what you're doing. Because if the West can start

00:45:13.140 proving that the system can be changed in a better way, the whole country can be led by example that

00:45:18.220 way and get better. Speaking of which, getting back to EVs, things like that, you know, this

00:45:22.340 insanity. I'm just going to sidetrack, right? BC, speaking of policies, BC's Site C dam, right?

00:45:29.000 You know, they want to electrify everything. That's one of the things EVs talking about,

00:45:31.880 banning combustion vehicles. Trudeau's talking about banning combustion vehicles. We have these

00:45:37.260 stupid electric buses that are falling apart all over the place. They're not working if we can even 1.00

00:45:41.680 get them delivered. A report that just came out from Ontario's regulator, they're expecting their

00:45:46.340 electricity demand to soar by 75% by 2050 because of EVs and AI stuff. Well, where is the power

00:45:54.360 going to come from, you guys? We're not building more nuke plants. Site C dam in BC has taken

00:45:58.900 decades and they're certainly not going to get anything else new approved over there. Windmills

00:46:02.560 can only do so much, where is all the electricity going to come from for all of these things when

00:46:07.740 this comes on stream? We don't have the ability. It's not there. The infrastructure isn't there.

00:46:12.580 The generating power isn't there. The distribution power isn't in there. All we're looking to do is

00:46:17.040 economically castrate ourselves and screw up a perfectly good combustion engine market that's

00:46:22.180 been serving us well as a cold climate for a long time. We're in a period of change. I think it's

00:46:28.040 going to be changed for the better, but it's up to us to make sure it is. And that means, you know,

00:46:31.840 paying attention, staying on things, voting, participating, and of course, watching my show

00:46:35.980 because I got most of the answers. So thanks for tuning in today, guys. I really do appreciate it.

00:46:40.840 Be sure to watch the pipeline. We'll be breaking down some more issues. Hannaford,

00:46:44.340 lots of things that are constantly coming up on the Western Standard site, westernstandard.news,

00:46:50.160 the news breaking, we get it up there. Tune in again this week or this week, next week on Wednesday

00:46:56.440 at this time, and I'll have a whole new things to turn your ear on. So thanks again. See you then.

00:47:01.840 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - October 17, 2024

The secrecy must end on Calgary’s electric bus scandal

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