Western Standard - The Sixties Scoop saved lives

00:00:00.000 good day and welcome to the cory morgan show first one of october

00:00:26.860 I just can't stand winter, so I just see this as winter moving its way in.

00:00:30.740 But whatever, I guess I should set aside the dread.

00:00:32.600 On the bright side, it's the political season ramping up to lots of stuff going on,

00:00:37.540 lots of stories for weenies and wonks and nerds like me,

00:00:40.820 and I'm sure many of you in the audience.

00:00:42.260 This is the prime time for it.

00:00:43.560 The legislature should be sitting soon.

00:00:45.100 The federal government's already sitting.

00:00:46.920 We've got a municipal election happening in Alberta.

00:00:48.960 I'm going to have one of the candidates for mayor on shortly, Sonia Sharp.

00:00:53.600 We're going to talk about her campaign a little bit.

00:00:56.160 and uh we'll cover a lot more of the other news going on out there so for those who took part in

00:01:01.680 it or noticed it or whatever you might have noticed every radio station was unlistenable

00:01:05.520 all day yesterday it was orange shirt day or truth and reconciliation day the uh fabricated

00:01:12.400 holiday by justin trudeau to uh try and pacify people over uh the hoax of bodies having allegedly

00:01:18.800 been found in kamloops either way i got to listen to a lot of that mythology going on out there and

00:01:24.320 and revisionism and it just inspired me to write about the 60s scoop let's talk about the 60s scoop

00:01:30.800 refers to a period when the government through social services agencies took thousands of

00:01:35.120 indigenous children from households over the period of a couple of decades and put them into 0.95

00:01:39.440 foster care many of those children ended up permanently adopted now as has been the trend

00:01:44.000 lately every government action has been retroactively declared to be genocidal and

00:01:48.480 compensation of course has been demanded kids taken in the 60s scoop are now referred to as

00:01:52.960 survivors and those kids are survivors indeed but not of the government action they're survivors

00:01:58.320 thanks to the government action the government just didn't randomly snatch children from a

00:02:02.400 household they're only taken from situations where they were in danger the problem is there are and

00:02:07.520 were thousands of households in dire conditions and the government had to intervene indian reserves

00:02:13.520 are and were socio-economic disasters across canada thousands of children live in squalor

00:02:19.760 neglect, and abuse in these racial enclaves we call reserves. In the 60s, as with now, addiction

00:02:25.320 and dysfunction overwhelms thousands of families living on these reserves. Children are dying from

00:02:30.040 neglect, abuse, and even house fires as parents are lost and busy with their addictions. The most

00:02:34.880 inhumane action that could have been taken in the 60s would have been to leave the children in the

00:02:38.560 circumstances they were in. The government, of course, then would have been blamed for the harm

00:02:41.960 coming to the kids if it hadn't stepped in. In the spirit of revisionism, the government's been

00:02:46.900 portrayed as some evil institution determined to snatch kids at every opportunity and put them

00:02:51.520 into state care whether they needed it or not. And look, I'm far from a fan of the government

00:02:55.640 and I often question its motivations, but let's not pretend the government was eager to intervene

00:03:00.020 into the catastrophe occurring on Indian reserves across the nation. There were many other priorities

00:03:04.740 they would have preferred to work on rather than mire themselves in the contentious issue of

00:03:09.220 intervention. They had no choice. Rather than stand up for its options though, of course the

00:03:14.520 government's bent over and apologized. Settlements have followed and demands for more funds are going

00:03:19.640 to continue for generations. Even worse than the apology has been the changes to child welfare

00:03:24.740 policies made in response to the issue. Child welfare services have bent over backwards to keep

00:03:30.520 children in Indigenous houses even when it harms the child. Some of the cases due to this have been

00:03:34.520 horrific. Senator Paula Simons wrote on the tragic case of baby Serenity who was a toddler taken from

00:03:39.800 her parents and given to other caregivers in the family. Serenity was abused and died a terrible

00:03:45.140 death under the care of these relations. Would she have been worse off in a foster home outside

00:03:49.780 the reserve? That family, by the way, tried to sue Simons for writing about it. Getting more money

00:03:54.200 and covering up the problem tends to be the path activists take rather than seeking solutions,

00:03:57.760 just as the Siksika band has tried charging me for trespassing after I exposed the squalor on

00:04:02.520 their reserve, despite their recently receiving $1.2 billion. More recently, Sonia Pasqua and

00:04:08.680 Michael Sinclair had their child taken from them due to their abuse of it. They lobbied, had the

00:04:14.140 child returned to them. According to court documents, the couple referred to their child as a paycheck

00:04:18.240 before they scalded the toddler to death. They're only sentenced to a few years, by the way. This

00:04:23.280 was just recently in Alberta, and likely thanks to Gladue principals, they'll be free to breed and

00:04:29.720 murder again. Children have died terrible deaths due to an obsession keeping kids with Indigenous 1.00

00:04:35.040 families no matter how unfit the families may be. There's a huge blind spot in Canadian policy with

00:04:40.940 Indigenous people. It's an utter refusal to admit the reserve system is a complete catastrophe no 1.00

00:04:45.920 matter how much money is thrown at it. I mean look at Newfoundland. People were horrified when

00:04:49.160 images of children huffing gasoline and living in terrible conditions were released from Davis

00:04:53.320 Inlet in the 1990s. The town was so run down the government actually built an entirely new town a

00:04:59.280 few miles away down the coast and moved everybody there. They couldn't even fix the mess that was

00:05:02.820 there. Follow up a decade or two later, the new town's in shambles and kids were found left alone

00:05:09.000 in a house huffing gasoline surrounded by loaded shotguns and they were there for days. Would it

00:05:13.700 be a scoop to remove the children from this situation? Do we have to wait for more to die?

00:05:18.940 With Davis and let the government dodge the underlying issue and of course they got the

00:05:22.640 same outcome. Governments do things wrong all the time. The treatment of Indigenous people in Canada

00:05:27.140 is rife with abuse and race-based laws were terrible. The government has one primary role

00:05:31.680 though, and that's to care for those who are being harmed by others, like stop the harm.

00:05:36.100 The government must step in to take care of those who can't take care of themselves. 1.00

00:05:40.700 Because of the revisionist PAP coming from the 60s scoop, children are dying. We must look at

00:05:45.760 the root of the issue, and that's the utter and complete failure of the reserve system. In the

00:05:49.620 meantime, children are at risk, and they must be removed from dangerous households, no matter which

00:05:54.480 race they happen to be. All right, well, let's see what else is going on in the news out there

00:05:59.560 post-Truth and Reconciliation Day.

00:06:02.160 What's happening, Dave?

00:06:02.900 Good.

00:06:03.200 How was your day?

00:06:04.160 Did you do a land acknowledgement?

00:06:05.980 I didn't do another one today.

00:06:07.200 I know.

00:06:07.400 I've got to get into the habit of that chant,

00:06:08.860 you know, reminding everybody that I own my land

00:06:10.560 and it was permanently ceded in Treaty 7.

00:06:12.920 Exactly.

00:06:13.740 Exactly.

00:06:14.340 So there you go.

00:06:15.320 Very busy morning.

00:06:16.620 Some great Alberta news today.

00:06:18.440 Looks like we're going to be proposing a new pipeline.

00:06:22.280 Premier Smith will be having a press conference at 1.30.

00:06:26.320 But the Globe and Mail has got a leak on it.

00:06:28.960 And they're saying it's going to be a Alberta to BC pipeline, and it's all going to be planned out with the help of Enbridge, South Pole Corporation, and Trans Mountain.

00:06:40.960 Trans Mountain has a bit of experience in building pipelines, Corey.

00:06:45.740 So more details coming up, but obviously this is going to be a huge announcement for Alberta and the oil patch.

00:06:54.080 It's over to you, Mr. Carney, and over to you, Mr. Eby, to see what they have to say about it.

00:07:02.200 In B.C., the Conservative leader, Rustad, our Jared Yager, got an exclusive interview with him,

00:07:08.780 and he is thrilled and excited and promises that he will do all he can do to get the pipeline going.

00:07:16.960 uh several provinces raised their minimum wage today now leaving alberta as the lowest minimum

00:07:23.600 wage in in the country and our chris old corn has got a column on arguing not to raise it because of

00:07:31.040 the economic problems that it will bring including layoffs of younger people and in those minimum

00:07:38.000 wage jobs uh the alberta prosperity project is back from another visit to washington

00:07:45.820 Their spokesman, Jeff Rath, while not revealing who he met, said it was pretty senior guys,

00:07:51.500 one degree away from the White House, apparently.

00:07:54.100 And they were very interested in listening to Alberta.

00:08:01.200 And a member of the Lawrence Bishnois, I don't know how to pronounce it, Lawrence Bishnois gang.

00:08:07.000 Anyways, they're a Southeast Asian gang.

00:08:09.920 He's been jailed in Vancouver Island for many years for shooting into a house and setting a car on fire.

00:08:16.920 So one of them was caught.

00:08:18.020 He's been sentenced.

00:08:19.240 And one of them is on the run.

00:08:21.600 And we've got a picture of him on the website.

00:08:24.860 And now the biggest problem of the day, Corey, my parents are arriving tomorrow for a visit.

00:08:31.520 I haven't even done my spring cleaning yet.

00:08:33.800 So do you mind coming over after work and giving me a hand?

00:08:36.880 You haven't seen my place, have you?

00:08:38.420 No, I haven't, because you've never invited me.

00:08:40.780 No, there's a reason for that.

00:08:42.400 You know, it's a clean freak.

00:08:45.220 Well, it's not unhealthy, but it's not spick and span over there.

00:08:49.780 We hire people for the suite.

00:08:51.560 Oh, yeah.

00:08:52.020 I was going to say, you don't have an Airbnb to keep clean?

00:08:55.060 Oh, yes.

00:08:55.380 Jane keeps that area immaculate.

00:08:56.840 Okay.

00:08:57.640 So your answer is no.

00:08:59.140 I'm afraid I wouldn't be of much help.

00:09:00.940 But, I mean, it's great to see the parents coming out for a visit.

00:09:03.280 Oh, yeah, they do.

00:09:04.060 And in her younger days, my mom literally used to bring three vacuums and she would get started like 10 minutes after arriving. 1.00

00:09:11.760 And how can you live like this type stuff?

00:09:15.020 So, yeah, I guess I'm going to have a late night cleaning that up.

00:09:18.200 Ah, well, you need that motivation to get around to it.

00:09:21.300 Exactly.

00:09:21.960 Spring cleaning in autumn.

00:09:23.220 Yeah, we should have a big party at our place and then I'll be motivated to do an end-to-end on it.

00:09:27.980 There you go.

00:09:29.040 There you go.

00:09:29.660 I look forward to it.

00:09:30.480 All right.

00:09:30.900 Well, thanks, Dave.

00:09:31.760 And I guess we'll see you on the pipeline a little later.

00:09:33.740 yes i'm filling in for derek who's gallivanting again somewhere so yeah yeah we'll we'll talk

00:09:39.020 then right on all right thank you thank you that is our news editor dave nailer lots of stories

00:09:43.900 going on lots breaking i know there's some press conferences going on today and things too so keep

00:09:47.900 an eye on the western standard site there's going to be stuff coming up as that news breaks and as

00:09:52.300 it goes and this is the time again i like to remind everybody this is the way we pay the bills this is

00:09:57.820 how we can have dave out there doing that news editing and curating things having those reporters

00:10:02.620 on the ground is you guys have subscribed. So check it out. Westernstandard.news slash

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00:10:21.120 if you haven't subscribed yet, come on guys, get on with it. It's well worth it. It's an investment

00:10:26.560 in your personal growth. All right, before I get to the guest, I'll talk a little bit about

00:10:32.660 something else. You've probably seen that going on in the news last night. And that was more the

00:10:36.720 night before last, the final Alberta Next meeting. And boy, it looked like it turned into quite a

00:10:42.180 scene there, didn't it? And Bruce McAllister, who was moderating that event, he messed up.

00:10:50.000 He messed up. But looking at the framing of it, what I strongly suggest people do is check online,

00:10:54.740 mind, look around, look at X. I posted that video on my X account, just a couple of minutes of it

00:11:00.400 to see exactly what happened. Cause I was listening to radio coverage. And this is why I want to

00:11:04.240 remind you folks why independent media is important. And the radio coverage went and clipped

00:11:08.480 the audio from what happened there from the point of where a young fella asked a question

00:11:14.040 to straight to where Bruce unwisely said that the kid should be put over his parents knee.

00:11:20.620 but what was missed was the minute in between. If you watch the whole video, you kind of see what's

00:11:25.380 going on. Part of the problem was, and maybe part of why I've got more sympathy for this is because

00:11:31.140 I have moderated meetings and I have had to chair things and deal with this. They'd said repeatedly

00:11:36.960 at this meeting, everybody has to stay on topic. It's an Alberta next meeting. It's not open mic.

00:11:41.620 It's not bring up every pet issue. The kid got up there with a phone in front of his face, reading

00:11:46.000 clearly from a script, the union talking points of the teacher's union. He got a good 30 seconds

00:11:52.580 into it. You're only supposed to get 45 seconds before the mic was cut off. And then you can see

00:11:57.260 with the visual of it, the kid went bananas when the mic was cut off and started screaming and

00:12:01.620 shouting. This is what led, and again, still unwisely to have Bruce lose his composure and

00:12:08.400 talk about how the kid should be put over his knee. But you got to remember these meetings,

00:12:12.020 there's been 10 of them. This is the way the game's played. Guys, the union groups get in

00:12:15.860 there. They try to stack it. They stack the mics. They disrupt the meetings. Listen to the crowd in

00:12:19.420 the background and all the people screaming and shouting back there too. Guess who they were?

00:12:23.920 Teachers Union. You go to enough meetings, you see how these games are played, unfortunately.

00:12:28.760 I think, again, McAllister made a terribly unfortunate decision. He, you know, apologized

00:12:34.320 for that shortly afterwards, but people are framing it as if it was some affront to free speech or he

00:12:39.000 never should have cut off the mic. What are you supposed to do at these meetings then? Let everybody

00:12:43.000 just bring up every subject they please. And then the hundreds of people who came out to hear about

00:12:46.840 the five subjects of the year was six or whatever it is, the Alberta next panel, don't hear anything

00:12:50.940 on those subjects because people just took it wherever they pleased. The kid came to abuse the

00:12:55.420 process and he got his mic cut off as he should have. Unfortunately, they won. There was a person

00:13:02.620 online described it best in that they drew a penalty because in finally getting under the skin

00:13:07.620 of the moderator long enough, everything else that was discussed at the meeting was lost and

00:13:11.660 forgotten in the public realm while everybody went on about how Big Bad Bruce cut off the

00:13:15.520 microphone on a kid and talked about having him being spanked. Either way, just be more careful 1.00

00:13:20.540 out there, Mr. McAllister. And other folks, look at the whole video before freaking too much out

00:13:25.180 about this. This was just political posturing on both sides and both playing, I think, a bit of an

00:13:29.240 ugly game. All right, let's get to my guest. Got somebody in person in studio, Sonia Sharp, 1.00

00:13:33.600 candidate for mayor in Calgary. How's the campaign going? Great. I have 18 days. Yes,

00:13:39.700 it's going fast all of a sudden yeah it's great it's been really good great well i appreciate you

00:13:43.780 you coming in today thanks for having me lots to cover it's been an interesting one coming up this

00:13:48.580 time normally to be honest a campaign with an incumbent mayor tends to be dull because they

00:13:53.940 get re-elected with you know a massive showing of support but it's not looking very likely in

00:13:58.500 this particular circumstance i guess we'll start with just to get you to start with a clip of why

00:14:04.660 then you should be the person who would replace mayor gondek and why she needs to be replaced i

00:14:08.740 know you want to speak more on the positives yeah but why then is it time now to change out a mayor

00:14:13.620 when she's only been for one term i think what's important is certain people are suited for the

00:14:19.940 right positions to lead and you can see a bit of a lack of leadership the last four years calgarians

00:14:25.140 are not happy i mean i'm on a council that is the most disliked council ever and so if there were

00:14:32.740 better options out there i wouldn't be running for mayor but there isn't in my mind and i don't think

00:14:37.140 in calgarians mind so i'm running to you know make this a safe and affordable city that works for

00:14:41.860 everyone and the biggest thing that we've lost over the four years is trust and so i want to

00:14:47.300 regain that trust back from you and the calgarians and trusting city hall and myself great so another

00:14:54.180 dynamic that's new in this election is the party element this is the first time it's around

00:14:58.260 i mean to be honest i've always wanted to see this sort of thing evolve i'm watching it evolve

00:15:02.340 now it looks a little shaky i think perhaps in the long run it's going to be a better development

00:15:07.140 I want to ask about one of the risks like let's say presumably and it's a fair question for people

00:15:10.900 with parties that you became the next mayor and a number of fellow party members were in council

00:15:16.660 with you how do you maintain the independence of yourself or the council members if you have

00:15:22.020 disparities of views on certain policies and issues when you have as well a party that you're

00:15:26.260 supposed to stay somewhat close to? Yeah and I think what's interesting about this whole system

00:15:32.500 is the province put forward this bill just to legitimize what was already there for four years

00:15:37.220 ago and so when we're elected we're elected as individuals we're elected with the title either

00:15:42.820 independent or communities first under us and we're a i call us a team like this is we didn't

00:15:48.100 come with any party benefits we didn't come with money there's no party whip we created the name

00:15:52.740 and so we're like-minded individuals that are pushing you know for the same sort of policies

00:15:57.060 repealing blanket rezoning you know adding more police officers and we'll talk more about that

00:16:01.540 but really what happens is the day after the election i think is a conversation with you know

00:16:07.460 myself and all the the the members of communities first i get elected and say you know how does this

00:16:12.580 go moving forward because there there's so much gray to this policy and so we're we have committed

00:16:19.620 to seven principles but there are things that pop up in individual communities that i would say if

00:16:25.300 you're a counselor to that community and you feel a certain way about something your colleagues

00:16:30.740 should support you and that doesn't take a party to do that that's a that's a counselor-based

00:16:36.420 leadership role and we should be listening to our constituents in our communities

00:16:41.380 not you know voting on aspirational things that obviously are never going to come to fruition

00:16:47.300 so you mentioned uh policing let me get to that i mean one of the top issues this time around is

00:16:51.940 most certainly crime disorder things on the street it gets frustrating as a person who comes walking

00:16:57.380 downtown when you listen to some people in the administration say it's a perception problem no i

00:17:01.700 walk down the streets i didn't perceive this going on seven years ago something has gone drastically

00:17:06.580 much worse than it used to be so how can city council deal with that though i mean more police

00:17:11.540 is one thing but it's a big issue it is a big issue and people perception is reality though

00:17:17.540 right like when you're walking down the street and you feel unsafe you feel unsafe when you're

00:17:21.620 getting on the train and you know you're a mom or a woman even a man like i hear from some of the

00:17:26.820 the dads that I know in hockey that they don't feel safe on the train. They would put their

00:17:30.880 daughters on the train. When we hear our own operators being attacked, how is this safe? How

00:17:35.680 am I going to convince you to take a train or a bus if our own operators are being attacked?

00:17:39.700 So we've talked about, you know, increasing the number of police officers just to get us up to

00:17:43.700 the national standard. And the issue is, though, is it hasn't been a priority for the last council

00:17:49.800 or the council before. Two of my opponents voted to defund the police. And it's interesting because

00:17:55.080 they'll rebuttal that and say well we gave money back at budget time and and my I guess rebuttal

00:18:00.200 to that is it doesn't matter you sent a clear signal when you defunded the police during your

00:18:05.360 term that you didn't care about the police and you didn't care about the front line and those that

00:18:10.260 keep your city safe so we talked about the police officers we want to do a 24 hour station downtown

00:18:16.980 I've talked a lot about the belt line injection site and how we get that clean and work with the

00:18:21.200 province on what this looks like we talked a little bit about decentralizing the some of the

00:18:26.680 programs the drop-in center these are things happening outside those buildings that city

00:18:31.060 council doesn't have control over but we have control over what happens in our streets yeah and

00:18:36.920 you're segwaying excellently for me because i wanted to ask about that one of the roles as mayor

00:18:40.680 i mean people speak often it's true you're just one vote on council but a mayor also stands out

00:18:45.300 as a representative as almost an ambassador of the city or the the negotiator when it comes to the

00:18:50.360 other levels of government at least. And the relationship between the city and the provincial

00:18:55.020 government has been pretty acrimonious for quite some time now. For example, when the sheriffs

00:19:00.720 were deployed to help downtown and it seemed that the city wanted to do nothing more than get them

00:19:05.300 out of here as fast as possible. So you'd be looking at a more cooperative attitude with the

00:19:10.360 provincial government, I would hope? Yeah, I mean, it's really important. The Calgarians always come

00:19:14.040 first, right? For us that sit in these roles, but specifically myself with being in running for mayor.

00:19:18.980 but your job is to advocate for your constituents the provincial government and relationships are

00:19:24.640 key and we may not always agree on things and that's okay because that's democracy but the

00:19:29.080 respect you have to have for those in you know at the provincial government is really critical

00:19:33.320 and then together you know if the provincial government and the cities are working well

00:19:37.360 you can be quite um i would say successful in getting what you need from the federal government

00:19:42.180 you know we have infrastructure dollars we need to unlock obviously from the federal government

00:19:45.960 and so my my role as mayor is to work with the provincial government regardless who's in power

00:19:52.620 and focus on delivering what we need for Calgarians and getting money right like money makes things

00:19:59.040 happen in your cities and so fighting for that is really important but there's a respect level there

00:20:03.960 you can't be having these conversations on social media you can't be calling each other out because

00:20:09.580 you don't agree on something that has to come to a stop because also is the public looks at that

00:20:14.120 and thinks you're dysfunctional. So you mentioned getting infrastructure dollars unlocked. That's

00:20:18.540 been a problem as well with multiple levels of government in that the federal and the province

00:20:23.180 is guilty of it too. They'll say, hey, we're going to fund this, but we got strings attached to it.

00:20:27.780 And of course, the city looks terrible if you say no, and the province gets that from the federal

00:20:31.760 government. You know, we don't want to go down that line. They say, oh, well, you're just throwing

00:20:34.800 those dollars away. How would you be able to advocate to make sure then to continue to get

00:20:39.460 those transfers, but perhaps standing up for the city's autonomy and being able to control

00:20:44.060 its own affairs i think what's important is a clear business case when you go to a bank and you

00:20:47.740 need to borrow money they want to see a business case from you if you're a business owner that's

00:20:50.940 how this works and understanding with those federal dollars when you're going to the province

00:20:55.020 saying we need this sort of funding for xyz they want to understand what does xyz look like and do

00:21:00.940 they have a role to play in the success of that that's really another thing is making sure that

00:21:05.260 everybody understands where is you know what's it for me type thing and that's fine because we all

00:21:10.700 serve the same people but it's relationships it's understanding what you're asking for and

00:21:14.940 the return on investment back to your own constituents if you can't show a proper business

00:21:19.580 case if i was someone that was lending money i wouldn't give you any money either so it's also

00:21:24.460 being able to deliver and so i'll give you an example when we talked about you know getting

00:21:28.540 the green line back and you know having those conversations counselor mclean and i brought the

00:21:32.620 province back to the table we had a clear direction on how we wanted to do that and it was relationship

00:21:38.140 building and here's our business case. And now can we unlock the dollars to move forward? And so

00:21:42.740 we know we're moving forward on projects like that. The event center, same thing. This is what

00:21:47.260 we need support with $330 million, better than the last deal. And they unlocked the money for

00:21:52.200 us to deliver on a project that we know we needed. So it's relationship building and it's really

00:21:56.700 being able to justify why you need that money. So another issue that not many, I guess that people

00:22:03.520 don't pay too close attention to, but those of us who are weenies enough to watch council meetings,

00:22:07.200 is the dynamic between the mayor and council and city administration, which I'll give my own view

00:22:12.920 on it. I think it got really badly skewed, particularly more prior to your time with

00:22:16.480 the head and inchie. But whereas it seems almost like the mayor and council answer to the

00:22:21.140 administration rather than the council providing oversight to the administration, would you be

00:22:28.020 able to change some of that dynamic? I know you don't want to be fighting with administration.

00:22:31.160 That's the worst thing that could be happening, but it just seems that the relationship's skewed

00:22:35.820 right now the relationships the other way around um when i worked in administration i reported to

00:22:41.780 council and that really did change during this last four years and one of the pillars of my you

00:22:48.200 know let's say to-do list uh is getting city back on the right track when it comes to who's in

00:22:53.000 charge so you know administration reports to council or senior administration reports to

00:22:57.660 council and we report to the people and so we have got to take control of what's happening at city

00:23:03.960 hall. We need to set direction. And when you see all these taxes going up and the budget being

00:23:08.580 inflated, a lot of that comes from things that administration would like to see, not always

00:23:12.720 council direction. And so that needs to change. You know, I'm ready to take things in a different

00:23:18.340 direction and make sure that, you know, everyone understands kind of the governance structure of

00:23:23.720 what council does and how senior administration reports and how administration like we have great

00:23:29.280 people doing great work on the front line they are outstanding employees they're also feeling

00:23:34.440 a little bit I would say not valued by their own leaders and I know that I see it and we hear it

00:23:40.400 and so things do need to change and in order for anything to happen at the city right now any

00:23:45.120 promise you're hearing from my opponents or myself if you don't get control of that senior

00:23:51.660 administration to know that council's in charge nothing is going to change well yes and that

00:23:57.800 applies with other levels of government too. I talk about that provincially. People can never

00:24:01.180 name who the deputy minister of any ministry is. And if you really want to know who tends to hold

00:24:04.900 the power, that's where it is. And if they foot drag, no elected politicians are getting anything

00:24:09.700 done. Nope. And it doesn't matter if you've got a team, a slate, anything. And so we've got to,

00:24:14.020 you know, it's, it's not, it's, it's an uncomfortable thing to talk about. Right.

00:24:17.600 And, and, and I, and I don't think it gets put off. That's why. And I talk about it because I'm

00:24:21.180 running for that reason. I want to set the governance straight. And I pledged a little

00:24:26.000 bit about more senior leadership reporting directly to council. Things did change eight

00:24:30.160 years ago and not for the better. And then the last four years, we had really seen a shift in

00:24:35.060 administration bringing forward things in the budget. And we're looking at tax increases.

00:24:39.400 That all needs to change. It needs to be run lean. It needs to be focused. And we need to

00:24:43.960 deliver on the core services Calgaryens are asking for. But a governance kind of overview

00:24:49.180 needs to happen. What about with revenue? You know, spending is always an issue. I mean, every

00:24:55.140 politician, every government just likes to have more to spend. It's just easier to get things

00:24:59.120 done. Municipalities are very limited in Alberta. It's a fair case where they're kind of locked in

00:25:03.280 with property taxes as a primary area of revenue source. Are you looking at perhaps diversifying

00:25:09.720 some of the abilities or that's something that's going on it's never really been anyways been

00:25:13.260 successful with but they've been trying to find other means of taxation I guess. I don't want to

00:25:17.360 see more taxes but I could support different ways of collecting perhaps. Yeah I think what's

00:25:21.520 important is you have to focus on what you have right now. So the tax rate and how we reduce that,

00:25:25.540 how we reduce the 22% that was increased over four years, looking for efficiencies on things

00:25:30.660 that wouldn't affect your frontline or your everyday services. And then looking at opportunities

00:25:35.180 to work with the provincial government and changing some of the rules around the Municipal

00:25:38.320 Government Act. Do we look at different subclasses and things like that? But right now, when you walk

00:25:44.220 in and look at the budget, your first, one of your most important decisions as a new elected

00:25:48.560 Council is to, is to, you know, approve the budget for 2026. And right now we're sitting at 5.4%.

00:25:55.880 That is, that's too high. And we've increased taxes for, you know, the last four years. And

00:26:00.620 we have to look at that 5.4% and say, what are we getting out of this? And what are we delivering?

00:26:05.840 And so that has to happen first. And I've also pledged with my colleagues on Communities First

00:26:10.140 to bring back a finance, a finance oversight committee where, you know, senior leadership

00:26:15.460 is coming to this committee quarterly and opening up their books publicly. And when you do that

00:26:21.180 publicly, it's, you start to be accountable. And so there needs to be accountable and we need to

00:26:26.200 be transparent about where our dollars are going line item by line item in every business unit.

00:26:31.520 Well, and getting some of that and following through, like something I'd like to see

00:26:35.240 investigated. And I think a lot of Calgarians were, you cannot find three blocks stretch in

00:26:39.620 the city where there isn't construction going on. They've ripped up half the city, but it seems like

00:26:43.300 they can't finish anything. The Poor Souls and Marta Loop are going bankrupt with an absurdly

00:26:48.660 long construction project going on there. What's going on? Are the city workers dropping the ball

00:26:53.940 or contractors dropping the ball? I mean, it's ridiculous how long it takes to get something

00:26:57.540 done now. Yeah. And I think what's happening is, I would say, Cumberland infrastructure that has

00:27:05.280 just caught up with us. We were 10 years behind. The unfortunate thing, though, the businesses and

00:27:09.900 their residents are now paying the price. And so I've, a week ago, I pledged for the infrastructure

00:27:15.460 planning office out of the mayor's office, which not just has a segment of the, you know, city

00:27:21.500 builders and developers at the table, but also the business community at the table and understanding

00:27:25.840 the impacts to infrastructure in our city. So before a project, during a project and after a

00:27:29.640 project. And if a business or a group of businesses end up suing the city, you have failed as a city.

00:27:37.580 you should never be the reason they cannot operate and you know if you look at 17th avenue

00:27:42.480 construction that happened years ago i was the manager of business local economy at the time

00:27:46.060 i worked with administration they did a fantastic job the the the team that were kind of part of

00:27:51.000 that 17th avenue revitalization it really worked they did it by phase by phase but this has the

00:27:56.000 not just the martyr loop but even stephen avenue and other the areas you go down at west hillhurst

00:27:59.740 the ball has been dropped and we can't continue like this because time is money not only for

00:28:06.060 the industry to deliver there's a sense of uncertainty but also the businesses are impacted

00:28:10.780 there are many businesses in model loop that have closed their doors and residents are feeling like

00:28:17.340 it's just now bleeding into their community and if you go down even in hillhurst now you can see

00:28:22.140 it's one way in certain directions we're about to hit winter so what does that look like steven

00:28:27.580 avenue is under construction uh you know they've talked a little bit about mission being next so

00:28:31.980 there's got to be better oversight and transparency and allowing certainty to our project and our

00:28:36.540 builders on how to deliver this quickly. We're getting to the end. I should have asked a little

00:28:41.020 earlier. It's a big one, but is the blanket rezoning? Oh, right. Where are we going?

00:28:44.540 Okay. So I am committing to repealing it. It's got to go back to the way it was prior to that

00:28:50.620 public hearing that we all sat through and didn't listen to anybody. I mean, my colleagues and I did,

00:28:55.420 but majority of council did not. They went forward with it. So it needs to be repealed.

00:28:59.660 we need to go back to the way it was and we can look for efficiency in the planning process to

00:29:04.700 make sure that you know builders and developers um have some certainty and we're getting shovels

00:29:09.660 in the ground faster but blanket rezoning itself is not working so it needs to be repealed excellent

00:29:15.180 well thank you very much for coming in today uh before you go where can people find information

00:29:19.500 on your campaign whether to send you an email and complain or send an email of support or whatever

00:29:24.220 Yeah, sharpformayor.ca. And the most important thing for everyone to know at this point is

00:29:30.460 advanced polls start on Monday and it runs the 11th and then election day is October 20th. But

00:29:34.460 please get out to vote. It is so important. This is one of the biggest elections Calgary is going

00:29:37.820 to see. And it's all about you. So if you want to see change, get out to vote. And I look forward to

00:29:45.420 hearing from you. Great. Thank you. Thank you. Looking forward to the end of the campaign.

00:29:48.380 See what's happening. Thanks so much. Great. So there you go, guys, Sonia Sharp. And yes,

00:29:53.180 we do have a competitive municipal election going on for uh the first time in a while i mean they're

00:29:58.220 all kind of competitive in their little races but this is a big one this is different than the

00:30:02.060 others we're looking at a very possible large turnover of our municipal government in calgary

00:30:08.460 and that applies to other cities you know we overlook our municipal governments we're terrible

00:30:14.460 for that our turnouts are low for this and these guys spend a heck of a lot of our money these

00:30:19.740 guys have policies that come very directly into our lives and impact us those are the ones that

00:30:24.780 are right outside your front door literally and we need to watch these things um cbcb fixes all 0.99

00:30:31.580 says quit finding idiotic sculptures and paintings and stupid things yeah i know i mean i could have 1.00

00:30:35.180 talked to miss sharp on a lot more things um and uh you know covered those i mean yes just stupid 0.99

00:30:42.220 spending in general we need them to speak up and stop some of those things dan mclean's been pretty

00:30:47.340 good and in talking about some of those things too and others but it's always been talk it's always

00:30:51.980 been talk i mean the public art is a good example even though the people keep poo-pooing and

00:30:55.900 dismissing you know it's only a few million here a few million there but it's it's a symbol and i 0.98

00:31:01.020 guess that's what art's supposed to be for when you go into a city and you see something as stupid 0.87

00:31:05.980 as a blue ring on an old overpass and find out that german artists not even local ones got half 0.99

00:31:10.700 a million dollars to make that stupid blue ring on an overpass or other artists put rocks on 0.97

00:31:17.100 sticks out in West Calgary. I can't remember what that one cost, another half million or more 0.99

00:31:21.580 on a side of a road. Most people thought it was construction waste. They really did. That's still

00:31:25.500 what it looks like. But this just keeps going on and on and on and on. I mean, it's one thing

00:31:31.660 to have one or two stupid art pieces, but everybody gets mad about it, but they never stop. 1.00

00:31:36.160 They keep giving out this abstract, ugly junk. I mean, public art can look great. Get downtown 1.00

00:31:42.020 in chicago and have a look you know check out some other areas and and and uh uh it's uh

00:31:50.180 you know worth taking the time to tour these things we see here i've got a commenter says

00:31:54.260 that things oh you're talking about public art which is the point of the art is it is it really

00:31:58.740 i mean it should catch the eye and be worth discussing but is it really the point of it to 0.97

00:32:02.660 have everybody discussing it and talk about how freaking stupid it was how ripped off we got to 0.97

00:32:07.780 who haven't built it? 1.00

00:32:09.340 No, we should be talking about,

00:32:10.460 wow, that was an amazing installation.

00:32:13.440 Wow, that's something I wanna tell other people about.

00:32:15.860 And I wanna encourage them to go have a look at it

00:32:17.900 if they come to visit my city.

00:32:19.920 You know, this is the sort of thing I wanna foster.

00:32:22.340 I really wanna celebrate the person who created this piece

00:32:25.640 that gets people thinking and talking about things. 0.99

00:32:28.180 But if the thing is only a talking point because it's stupid, 0.99

00:32:33.220 well, then it's wasting our money. 1.00

00:32:35.120 Spend your own bloody money on it then. 0.97

00:32:37.160 Either way, no, they should leave that to public tender. 0.97

00:32:41.080 We're the ones who pay the bill.

00:32:42.440 We're the ones who have to look at it.

00:32:44.380 We should be the ones who actually get the say

00:32:46.080 on what's going to be built out there,

00:32:47.780 not a bunch of inbred hipsters 0.64

00:32:49.960 who are tied in with city administration 0.99

00:32:52.220 who managed to get those grants to build that junk 0.97

00:32:55.240 and rip you off, because that's what it is. 0.98

00:33:00.040 Guys, it is a racket.

00:33:01.920 I mean, the poet laureate, there's another beauty, right?

00:33:05.060 Is it really the city's role to keep a full-time poet on staff?

00:33:08.560 Apparently.

00:33:09.740 Have you ever heard of the Poet Laureate, who it is?

00:33:12.120 Read any of their work?

00:33:14.180 No, but you're paying for it.

00:33:17.360 All right, what else we got going?

00:33:18.780 Speaking of entitled people ripping you off,

00:33:21.160 it's the month of the strike, isn't it? 0.98

00:33:23.440 Canada Post workers with the dumbest strike on earth, 0.98

00:33:26.140 they're still at it. 0.99

00:33:27.620 You know, it's funny, this time they've gone on strike

00:33:29.820 and it just seems like nobody's really noticed

00:33:31.460 because they did it so recently.

00:33:34.060 Most people have already moved on, but after the last strike by Christmas, people finally,

00:33:38.860 the stubborn holdouts moved on to getting electronic payments on things, not being

00:33:45.420 dependent on Canada Post. It's still inconveniencing a few people, but they don't hold people hostage

00:33:50.860 anymore. And why are they striking? They're striking to fight reality. They're losing $10

00:33:56.460 million dollars a day. Letter mail is not coming back ever, ever. And that's, it's down by what,

00:34:06.400 two thirds or 80% over the last 10 years. Like that was the bread and butter. That was the point.

00:34:11.720 That was, you had to in the past send documents, checks, communications, grandma's birthday gift

00:34:17.860 to you. That would be sent in a letter and you kind of needed to get those communications every

00:34:22.580 day and send your payments out every day. And five day a week mail was important and it merited

00:34:26.900 having people walk up and down your block. Those days are gone. Just as gone as the milkman

00:34:32.420 at best. And the federal government finally did the right thing. They really did. They finally

00:34:38.060 just said it like it is. They said, look, we've got to cut it down to a fraction of the delivery.

00:34:42.500 We do not need daily delivery anymore. And, uh, you know, we don't need delivery right to your

00:34:49.020 door anymore. Three quarters of the country already hasn't had delivery to the door. It's

00:34:53.660 just Trudeau managed to actually promise the union something. So they kept mail monkeys walking up

00:34:58.140 and down the streets, delivering flyers to everybody's houses directly for a third of the

00:35:01.400 places. So it's got to stop. So what happened? They went on strike. That's fine. Fine. No pity.

00:35:10.120 No pity. If you're really that dumb, you know, you really should be negotiating on reality, 1.00

00:35:13.880 saying, look, how can we ease this transition? How can we soften the blow for the inevitable 1.00

00:35:18.560 layoffs that are going to come. Instead, they're infuriating the public. They're giving the

00:35:23.300 government all the ammunition that it needs. So people will not be sympathetic when that ax comes

00:35:28.120 down and it's going to, you guys. It's going to. You guys should have started planning for this

00:35:33.060 when the fax machine came around. You certainly should have started planning for it when email

00:35:38.300 came around. And you're just going to have to adapt. Walking around with picket lines,

00:35:44.500 you look like idiots. Start thinking harder. Speaking of picketing morons, well, I mean, 1.00

00:35:49.780 these ones aren't quite as dim, but they're just as entitled. The teachers are going on strike 1.00

00:35:53.220 next week. It looks like it's almost inevitable. They turned down a deal that would make them the

00:35:57.900 second highest paid in Western Canada, capping out after five years, I believe it is, at getting up

00:36:03.340 to $114,000. Don't forget you get July off, August off, a break in November off, Christmas break off,

00:36:09.140 spring break off, sick days, benefits, an incredible match pension plan, and they're whining.

00:36:16.460 I know it's not an easy job. That's why I wouldn't want to do it. But I also know that they're bloody

00:36:23.640 well paid well enough. Plus, the government promised to give 3,000 more teachers. You can't

00:36:27.580 just pull them out of the air. It's an addition, but it wasn't enough. Why? I don't know. They're

00:36:31.920 just greedy, to be blunt. That's what it is. Let's talk about who a lot of the teachers are.

00:36:36.600 teaching is a calling we know that all of us who went through school know we had teachers who were

00:36:42.860 incredible some who wholeheartedly embraced what they were doing they loved what they were doing

00:36:48.560 they saw it as a role to take on to make children better functional as they grow to become adults

00:36:56.660 and and live a good life in society and there were some who were just mailing it in and more and more

00:37:03.180 or more of them are mailing it in. I tracked this all the way back down to our post-secondary

00:37:07.760 institutions, shoving kids into all over the place, the liberal arts programs, which fine if

00:37:13.000 you want to take them, but eventually people with liberal arts degrees get tired of making lattes.

00:37:19.440 You know, that philosophy degree just didn't pay off. So then they upgrade to a teaching

00:37:25.000 certificate because they know that they can get all those summer holidays, a good pension and all

00:37:28.580 the rest because it's a short leap to go there and make decent money. The problem again though is

00:37:35.120 they aren't in it because they love it. They're in it because they feel they have to. So then the

00:37:39.700 motivation starts turning into, I just want to get as much out of this as I possibly can while I'm

00:37:43.540 here. That's why they're getting run ragged. Yeah, when you do a job you can't stand, it gets a lot

00:37:51.160 more tiresome. This system needs to change. The teachers union is holding parents hostage.

00:37:57.060 and uh it's interesting i i was listening i i pained myself by listening to uh you know talk

00:38:05.180 radio i still like to keep up on things before i come in to hear the studio in the office

00:38:08.060 i listen to the talk scandulously saying the government had a plan before the strike they

00:38:13.300 already had a plan in place to give money to parents to help pay for child care to carry

00:38:18.320 them over during the strike well yes you should have a plan we've seen this coming down the pipe

00:38:23.180 for months. You know, you guys would have crapped all over the government if they didn't have a

00:38:27.500 plan. But what it is indicating is the government's willing to wait this one out. They're not ready

00:38:32.460 to quickly capitulate. They're making it clear that this sucks, but parents, your kids are going 0.86

00:38:36.940 to be home for a while. Their education is going to be stunted because the teacher's got greedy. 0.62

00:38:42.280 And they're going to help you a little bit while you wait this out. But I think hopefully,

00:38:47.960 hopefully it's starting the framework for changing the whole system. One of the things we need to

00:38:52.980 the system is the blood of unions. Now the right for organized labor is an important one. We can't

00:38:56.580 get rid of it. I don't believe in illegalizing unions. I do believe in right to work legislation

00:39:00.340 though. Let people choose. I believe in merit pay. And I very much believe in school choice.

00:39:07.300 We should have a true voucher system. And if you're not familiar with that, what that means is

00:39:12.180 let's say there's this amount per child, whatever it might be, call it, I mean,

00:39:15.940 this is just ballpark, call it 10,000 a year per child. That's what it's worth.

00:39:19.220 and the parent chooses a school and they can dedicate that voucher and those dollars will

00:39:25.840 go to that school whether it's homeschooling whether it's a private school whether it's a

00:39:31.140 public school whether it's a charter school whether it's a religious school it doesn't matter

00:39:34.280 and people say oh private tax dollars will go to private institutions so what they always do

00:39:39.760 do you think they buy their stationery from a socialist government-owned corporation we spend

00:39:46.480 tax dollars on private provision of services at times. Yes, that happens in the healthcare system

00:39:50.900 too, and it needs to happen more. Add a competitive element to these schools. People say,

00:39:56.240 it's unfair. The rich kids go to the private schools. Oh, get over it. Get over it. The

00:40:00.660 politics of envy, you can't raise everybody up with the politics of envy. All you can do is drag

00:40:04.860 everybody down to the same level of misery. It's the crabs in the bucket. You don't like that your

00:40:09.860 neighbor can afford to take their kid to a better school? Then work a second job. Climb the corporate 1.00

00:40:14.060 scrotum pull, make more money so that you can do that and put your kids in a better spot. If you

00:40:18.600 can't, well, that's the way it goes. But your kid gets the exact same amount of dollars as that kid

00:40:24.940 does. That's true equality. In fact, you, if you were the low-income person complaining, probably

00:40:33.000 paid a heck of a lot less into the system that led to that amount of dollars going into the voucher

00:40:38.040 for your kid than the other person. And then we can get the diversity of schools. I love it when

00:40:44.580 listening to these educators, they don't like being called teachers anymore. They're teachers,

00:40:47.880 get over it. Talk about, well, we have all the diverse kids, all the diverse needs. They're all

00:40:52.040 different. We have to have different setups. And I agree with that. That's absolutely true.

00:40:55.360 All sorts of kids respond to different teaching environments. But then as soon as you actually

00:40:59.400 propose changing it by having a variety of schools and school choices, suddenly the teachers,

00:41:03.620 oh, no, no, no, no, no. We all have to have them in the same standardized schools.

00:41:06.340 we just want more money. That's the reality of what it always comes down to. We want more money.

00:41:13.080 No, I want more schools. And part of it is the schools aren't responding and balancing

00:41:18.260 to where the students need to be because it's too bloody hard to operate or move or shift or

00:41:24.760 adapt to things in a union controlled environment. Inner city schools in the bigger cities are

00:41:30.580 actually underpopulated. Whereas the ones in the suburbs where everybody's moving are overloaded.

00:41:37.520 Well, let's work on rebalancing that. Let's work on changing it. Let's have new schools springing 0.94

00:41:42.300 up in areas where there are need through private investment. If the voucher follows the kid,

00:41:46.100 take some of that pressure off, specialized schools. That's the way to go, but that terrifies

00:41:51.100 the unions. Remember the unions, they don't care about the kids, guys. I'm not saying teachers are

00:41:55.120 heartless and hate kids. But when you talk of the union group, guys, they're there for the teachers.

00:42:02.260 They don't, there's no other two ways about it. You know, some of those numbers going on,

00:42:09.180 I believe it's about 50 some thousand teachers in Alberta. If you divide it up, there's like a

00:42:15.300 teacher for every 20 students. So they scream about alleged classes with 40 kids in them. But

00:42:20.520 you know what? They've screamed about that since the 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and up to now.

00:42:24.540 They've always screamed about that. Some schools, if you look around because of that imbalance

00:42:29.240 between inner and suburban areas, you will be able to find overcrowded classes. If you look hard

00:42:34.460 enough, you'll find some classes where there's one teacher with 10 kids. So why don't we try

00:42:38.480 to maintain the balance more instead of just tossing more money at them? Well, because that's

00:42:41.820 all they're asking for is more money. They're just pretending it's about the kids and they're

00:42:47.760 playing the nasty games. This gets back to what I was talking about when they're doing things like

00:42:51.560 stacking the microphones at an Alberta Next panel. Remember, the kid came up talking teachers union

00:42:56.140 talking points. These are the tricks they pay. Take a 16-year-old kid, stick him at a microphone

00:43:00.980 with a scripted thing to read. Do you think your average 16-year-old kid happened to know,

00:43:06.380 oh look, half an hour ago, here's the exact number that voted in the strike vote. Amazing. Man,

00:43:10.600 that kid's tuned in, isn't he? Turns out he's a kid who's also organizing a student walkout

00:43:14.740 in support of the teachers union. And it turns out that kid right afterwards went and did a video

00:43:20.460 interview, sit down with Nahed Ninchy, the head of the NDP. This was just a run-of-the-mill

00:43:24.660 student who was concerned with a question or got shut down at an event. No, he wasn't. He was a

00:43:29.040 kid who was trained and put there as a plant by the teachers union to try and sidetrack an event

00:43:32.940 into something completely unrelated to it. So yeah, we've got a big battle coming up, guys.

00:43:38.460 The posties will be the easier one to take on. The teachers are going to be a tougher one.

00:43:41.840 But I think it's time to starve them out a bit. Make them a little hungry. Give them a month or 0.79

00:43:46.460 two off. I know the parents are going to have to suffer, but you know what? When the teachers get

00:43:50.380 a couple of months off, which can add up to $20,000 and more, that's going to cut into their

00:43:55.400 summer vacation, isn't it? Maybe they'll start to see a little more reason, won't they? Start

00:44:01.020 pretending to care about the students and get back to work. Next week, we'll see, I've got

00:44:05.840 tentatively booked Frances Widowson. You're probably familiar with her. A professor fired 1.00

00:44:12.180 so much for tenure for speaking the truth at Mount Royal University in Calgary. She's been doing

00:44:17.440 speaking things in other venues. And she tried one in Winnipeg. You might have seen the videos

00:44:24.320 online. She was assaulted by a bunch of organized thugs. And, you know, it sounds like the university

00:44:31.640 was probably promoting that and pulled them together because the left responds with violence

00:44:35.900 rather than thought. And this is what it's down to. Violence. Maybe it's time for some more jail

00:44:42.200 time, eh? Longer sentences for violence. She's looking like she's pursuing charges. She should. 0.98

00:44:48.220 It's time that we get to discourse. No more violent thuggery. No more crap from the left

00:44:53.120 with their Marxist crap and attacking, shooting, assaulting voices they don't like. The world has 1.00

00:44:59.540 moved ahead of that. All right. That's the ranting I got today, guys. Thank you very much for tuning

00:45:06.480 in. Tune into the pipeline. It's going to be on tonight at seven. Keep watching our channels.

00:45:10.260 we're expanding our stuff. There's going to be more shows coming, regional shows. And of course,

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00:45:21.080 So like, subscribe, share all that good stuff. It helps us broaden our base. Thank you very much

00:45:27.440 for tuning in. We'll do this all again next week.

00:45:40.260 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - October 02, 2025

The Sixties Scoop saved lives

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