Western Standard - The Trudeau government s corruption is poised to become much worse

00:00:00.000 Good day.

00:00:29.100 Hey, welcome to The Cory Morgan Show.

00:00:31.360 Thank you for tuning in.

00:00:32.900 Spring has finally sprung.

00:00:34.540 It's beautiful outside there.

00:00:36.200 It's put me in a good mood.

00:00:38.000 And I mean, it's me in a good mood. 1.00

00:00:39.680 So I'll still be sour, cynical, crabby, and calling out politicians for the fools they are. 0.99

00:00:44.720 But that's my job and I enjoy doing it. 0.99

00:00:46.600 My happy place looks grouchy to other people.

00:00:49.960 But I assure you, I'm feeling warm inside today.

00:00:53.780 It's warm outside finally.

00:00:55.240 So good.

00:00:56.200 I can't stand winter.

00:00:57.120 Never learned to like it.

00:00:58.000 All right.

00:00:58.860 Lots to cover today.

00:00:59.940 As always, lots going on.

00:01:02.520 Later on, I'm going to have a guest on Calgary Lougheed MLA, Eric Bouchard.

00:01:07.520 And we're going to talk about how COVID policies really messed with small businesses.

00:01:12.340 And actually, they still are messing with them today.

00:01:14.900 We're still dealing with the fallout from government intervention and meddling around

00:01:20.060 and just making a mess of commerce and people trying to make a living during that period of time of the COVID nightmare we all lived through.

00:01:27.640 So that'll be an interesting conversation.

00:01:30.120 I see you coming in there.

00:01:31.120 Be sure to use the comment scroll, guys.

00:01:32.860 The show for you who are watching it live.

00:01:34.860 I like seeing that interaction, send questions my way, my guests' way.

00:01:38.440 I see them all.

00:01:39.480 I don't necessarily read them all out, but it's appreciated.

00:01:41.980 And discuss with each other on things.

00:01:43.780 Just keep things civil.

00:01:46.540 All right.

00:01:47.680 Let's get on to what's got me wound up a bit today.

00:01:51.320 And that's just in light of watching all these spending announcements.

00:01:54.500 The Trudeau government, the Trudeau's bouncing around, handing money out left, right, and center.

00:01:58.080 Of course, not his money, our money.

00:02:00.600 And a culture of corruption and entitlement is always going to develop within a government if it's been in power for too long.

00:02:06.880 This is a law that's as immutable as that of gravity, especially within a governance system like Canada's,

00:02:12.420 where it has little to no provisions for accountability or transparency between elections.

00:02:16.920 And this issue isn't even a left or right one.

00:02:19.300 This happens with governments of all ideological leanings.

00:02:21.740 I mean, conservative governments have dealt with corruption as well.

00:02:25.540 Opportunists and grifters don't have political ideologies. 0.89

00:02:28.220 Their only allegiance is to themselves and their wallets.

00:02:30.760 And they'll attach themselves to any government or bureaucracy if they see opportunities for personal gain. 0.99

00:02:36.820 The longer an administration remains in power, the more entrenched these corrupted parasites are going to become. 0.97

00:02:42.420 And the cozier they get with senior bureaucrats and ministers within the government. 0.98

00:02:46.080 Inside dealing and influence peddling becomes endemic.

00:02:49.640 And the participants don't think twice about siphoning off tax dollars for themselves and, of course, their friends.

00:02:54.780 The crooks robbing taxpayers, they rarely directly embezzle from the government.

00:02:58.860 Their methods usually involve sole sourcing government contracts with high payments and low expectations of productivity,

00:03:05.700 if indeed there's any expectations of productivity at all.

00:03:08.660 I mean, the Arrive Scam app scandal is a perfect example.

00:03:12.800 Tens of millions of tax dollars funneled to a number of companies to create an app that works terribly and could have been created for a few hundred thousand dollars.

00:03:20.200 Two grifters working from a garage with no qualification to create apps somehow managed to get these contracts.

00:03:25.580 And while it's now been exposed, it's doubtful that anybody's ever going to be held accountable.

00:03:28.980 The contract recipients are stonewalling.

00:03:32.160 The bureaucrats involved have already been covering things up. 0.97

00:03:35.020 And the government, of course, has no appetite to see this crime investigated any further.

00:03:39.680 The Arrive Scam app, that's just one of hundreds of contracts that the federal government gives out.

00:03:44.260 We've barely seen the tip of the iceberg of how badly Canadian tax dollars are being abused.

00:03:49.520 And things are going to become a whole lot worse.

00:03:52.680 You see, the Trello government's taken a sharp shift in strategy lately.

00:03:55.900 I mean, they had been trying to maintain their hold on power through increasing authoritarianism through the years.

00:04:00.940 They hoped if they could control the media and internet communications enough, they'd be able to save themselves from an eventual electoral loss.

00:04:08.800 I think reality has sort of sunk in.

00:04:11.580 Their strategies failed as liberal support is hitting record lows no matter what the government tries.

00:04:16.420 They know they're going to lose the next election.

00:04:18.820 So now the liberal government has embraced the tactic of massive spending increases.

00:04:22.440 And that's to serve two purposes.

00:04:23.640 Since they know they can't win the next election, they're going to salt the earth as heavily as they can to sabotage the next government.

00:04:31.420 Increasing spending is easy.

00:04:32.820 Cutting spending is difficult.

00:04:34.120 And they know that.

00:04:35.420 If and when the next federal government starts to cut into federal spending programs,

00:04:39.060 the people who've become dependent on those programs will become hysteric.

00:04:42.680 And the liberal party will use that to play up the heartlessness of the conservatives.

00:04:46.320 I'm sure legacy media will dutifully do their role as well.

00:04:49.480 Those nasty conservatives cutting all those programs.

00:04:51.640 So Trudeau's entrenching all those programs right now, and they're going to be a problem later.

00:04:56.420 So they're looking far ahead, and they're hoping they can create the circumstances where it's only going to be one election cycle in the political wilderness for the liberals.

00:05:03.900 The other reason they're releasing all these new spending programs is even more odious.

00:05:08.420 And it's more odious than trying to win the election down the road.

00:05:10.740 They're feathering the beds of themselves and their connected friends before they head out the door.

00:05:14.380 You see, the larger the spending program and the vaguer the mandate the program is, the easier it'll be to abuse it.

00:05:20.420 Now think about it.

00:05:20.980 Trudeau's announcement of spending $2.4 billion to help develop Canada's AI industry is a perfect example.

00:05:27.900 Hundreds of contracts are going to be going out worth millions of dollars, handed out with little oversight,

00:05:32.660 and no way to measure if they're achieving a tangible goal that benefits citizens.

00:05:36.800 Rest assured, there's countless government insiders right now creating companies with AI development

00:05:41.160 and the company description in anticipation of getting these juicy handouts.

00:05:44.760 It's going to be impossible to sift through them all to find out which, if any, of the contractors are legitimate,

00:05:50.040 which is, of course, the intent.

00:05:52.060 I mean, just barrage the money in there, and don't worry.

00:05:55.040 People won't see the millions going out the door.

00:05:57.380 I mean, this is a government that spent $45 million on a gun buyback program.

00:06:01.000 It didn't manage to buy a single gun.

00:06:02.800 Does anybody really believe this administration can effectively control the evolution and development of artificial intelligence?

00:06:08.880 They don't even have intelligence in the prime minister's office as it is.

00:06:12.080 They sure as hell aren't going to make an artificial one.

00:06:14.480 The announcements have been coming hot and heavy, and they're facing little scrutiny, of course,

00:06:17.700 from the legacy media outlets who themselves have become dependent on these handouts. 0.89

00:06:21.360 The Trudeau government's swirling the drain, but the unprincipled parasites attached to it 0.62

00:06:25.940 will be filling their pockets as fast as they can in the next 18 months or so. 0.96

00:06:29.720 Strap in, folks. It's going to get worse, and Canada is broken.

00:06:34.040 All right. That's what's got me wound up today, but I'm sure there's going to be a lot more to get me wound up.

00:06:37.960 Since Dave's still languishing somewhere down south, hiding by a pool or at some market

00:06:43.080 or doing whatever Dave thinks Dave does, we've got Sean Polzer standing in to give us an update

00:06:48.260 on what's topping the news today.

00:06:49.840 Hey, Sean, thanks for coming in today and letting us know what's up out there.

00:06:54.740 So what's heading the news up in the standard today?

00:06:57.740 Well, we got a lot of kind of interesting things today.

00:07:01.220 It's not a horribly busy news day, but the things that are happening are quite substantial in their own way.

00:07:08.380 So we've got the election inquiry is happening in Ottawa, election interference by China, Pakistan and India

00:07:15.300 and others, a whole cast and crew.

00:07:17.540 And CSIS is saying that Trudeau knew of an existential threat to Canadian democracy,

00:07:22.680 despite his protestations otherwise.

00:07:27.220 So that's kind of one of our lead stories right now.

00:07:30.320 Bank of Canada held the line on interest rates at 5%, as we expected that they would.

00:07:36.220 But the question is, when can we expect to see some rate cuts?

00:07:41.040 And even though the bank said that the conditions are becoming more and more favorable,

00:07:47.200 some of these inflation numbers out of the U.S. kind of suggest that otherwise it might be a while in coming

00:07:52.760 because Canadian interest rate cuts are usually predicated on what happens with the U.S.

00:07:59.340 because if we start cutting too soon, then our dollar will go down and that will in turn fuel more inflation.

00:08:06.520 So it's kind of a catch-22.

00:08:08.180 We've got another exclusive about the NENCHI NDP leadership campaign.

00:08:15.600 Liberals, Kent Fair has been doing some fundraising for him.

00:08:19.300 There's some rumors that Calgary MP George Call is involved in trying to get NENCHI into the top chair with the NDP.

00:08:28.680 Randy Bossonet is denying any involvement.

00:08:31.680 But it all points to a Liberal Party takeover of the provincial NDP in all but name.

00:08:38.960 So it's kind of a backdoor campaign.

00:08:42.180 Calgary police are investigating a shooting in Highwood in the northwest that happened actually not that long ago,

00:08:48.020 about 11 this morning.

00:08:50.200 So that's kind of ongoing.

00:08:52.140 The fellow who led the Recall Gondack campaign, I know that you and Landon are on some pretty good terms.

00:08:59.840 Well, we have no terms.

00:09:01.600 I mean, I don't know.

00:09:02.560 I tried to talk to him twice.

00:09:03.720 He kept standing me up.

00:09:04.960 Anyway, now he's going after Peter DeMong, who's his counselor in Ward 14.

00:09:10.140 There was a meeting about the blanket rezoning proposed bylaw that the city of Calgary is doing.

00:09:16.640 And Landon showed up with about 200 of his best friends to tear DeMong down and give him a piece of their mind. 0.91

00:09:23.900 And I guess there was some tensions, although it seemed to be relatively peaceful.

00:09:30.280 And finally, we've got a column from Paul Forseth about addicts using opioids in B.C. hospitals.

00:09:38.740 You're not allowed to smoke cigarettes.

00:09:40.740 You're not allowed to have weapons.

00:09:43.540 You're not allowed to do a lot of things in the hospitals, but apparently you can use illegal opioid drugs.

00:09:49.580 Well, that's in keeping with a lot of drug policy these days.

00:09:53.040 I mean, I've said that before.

00:09:53.800 You know, when people are riding the train or whatever, I mean, if you see somebody smoking meth or shooting heroin in the seat across from you in the train,

00:10:01.700 don't call police or anything and say that because they don't care.

00:10:03.980 They won't do anything.

00:10:04.600 You tell them they're smoking a cigarette and they will have six people in there tackling that guy, throwing them off of that platform faster than you can say booze.

00:10:14.160 And fining them $3,000 or $4,000.

00:10:15.880 Yeah, and I wish it was a joke.

00:10:17.560 It's brutal.

00:10:18.240 Even in hospitals now, this bizarre enablement cult in B.C. is just, I mean, you can't self-administer any of the other drugs in the hospital while you're there.

00:10:31.520 You're probably there because you took too many of the other ones in the first place.

00:10:35.680 Maybe it's a new form of MAID. 1.00

00:10:37.440 Yeah, it could be.

00:10:38.340 It could be.

00:10:38.840 Yeah.

00:10:39.120 All right.

00:10:39.620 Well, lots to cover.

00:10:42.300 Always lots.

00:10:42.820 And we'll say hello to Dave if he's out there.

00:10:45.100 Yeah, Dave.

00:10:46.100 See, he's doing a good job.

00:10:47.780 We might not need you when you get back.

00:10:50.280 All right.

00:10:50.980 Well, thanks for the update, Sean.

00:10:52.320 I guess we're going to see you on the pipeline later on tonight as well.

00:10:54.940 And we'll hash out a lot more of these news issues in detail.

00:10:58.680 Excellent.

00:10:59.100 Thank you very much.

00:10:59.880 Right on.

00:11:00.220 Thanks.

00:11:00.700 Bye.

00:11:00.780 All right.

00:11:01.700 So that is our, yeah, business, energy, and general reporter and journalist, Sean Polzer.

00:11:07.480 He prolifically writes and covers a lot of those things you'll see on there.

00:11:11.680 It's the time I like to remind everybody the reason Sean gets his bills paid and the rest of us do and we can have this show is because you guys have subscribed.

00:11:19.420 So we really appreciate that.

00:11:20.700 But this is where I've got to nag and remind you, if you're watching this and you haven't subscribed yet, guys, come on, get on board. 0.85

00:11:25.600 Western Standard dot news slash subscription, $9.99 a month, $100 for a year.

00:11:30.480 Hey, volume discounts.

00:11:31.760 It's a good way to go.

00:11:33.540 I mean, I know people are getting used to new media.

00:11:36.040 Things change.

00:11:36.980 And it just seems odd paying for content.

00:11:39.560 But we've got to remember, it wasn't that long ago.

00:11:41.740 For those of us who are gray enough to remember anyways, we never thought twice about paying to have newspaper subscriptions or things like that.

00:11:47.860 And it was in the price level of what we're talking about now.

00:11:50.100 $10 a month, you get past the paywall.

00:11:52.280 It keeps our reporters running.

00:11:53.480 It keeps this show running.

00:11:54.940 And it keeps us as an independent news outlet.

00:11:57.680 We aren't taking subsidies and tax dollars as the other ones are.

00:12:01.880 We proudly keep saying that.

00:12:03.580 And it shows.

00:12:04.360 I mean, come on.

00:12:04.820 I'm going to, after I get finished with my next guest, I'm going to talk a little bit about CTV and their latest bit of brilliance.

00:12:12.040 And seeing, you know, again, one of these bailout networks and what they do.

00:12:15.000 So if you've subscribed already, thank you very much.

00:12:18.240 We really do appreciate it.

00:12:19.460 And if you haven't subscribed yet, guys, get on there.

00:12:21.940 Take one out.

00:12:22.760 It's really appreciated.

00:12:24.120 And it really helps us along.

00:12:27.000 Okay.

00:12:27.280 Well, I see our guest is in the lobby already.

00:12:29.080 So if he's ready to roll, I'm going to pull him in.

00:12:31.720 And it is Eric Bouchard.

00:12:33.680 He's the MLA for Calgary Law Heed.

00:12:36.700 And, yeah, we're going to talk a bit about, well, business in Alberta and how it's, well, I guess we're suffering through COVID and is still suffering post-COVID.

00:12:47.040 But, hi, Mr. Bouchard, how are you doing?

00:12:49.780 Good.

00:12:50.200 How are you, Corey?

00:12:51.040 Thanks for having me.

00:12:52.220 Oh, I really appreciate it.

00:12:53.720 I know you've got some busy times in the legislature.

00:12:56.660 I'll lay off on bothering you with the million of other questions of what you guys are doing up there right now.

00:13:00.800 We'll stay focused on the business issue that's going on right now.

00:13:05.800 I guess for people unfamiliar with you, you know, before you came into the legislature a year ago, you were a small business person in Calgary.

00:13:13.100 Indeed, yes.

00:13:13.960 I was a small business owner.

00:13:15.420 I started a small business in 2004, expanded to, it was essentially a cafe to a full-service restaurant, expanded in 2010, expanded again 2015.

00:13:30.400 Our latest expansion was another, a little market on our plus 15 level.

00:13:36.000 We opened in January of 2020, and we had 10 weeks of phenomenal sales.

00:13:42.620 Things were, were going through the roof after four really difficult years from 2015 to 2019.

00:13:48.620 And then, unfortunately, forced to shut down, as many businesses were.

00:13:54.480 We, you know, suffered the pains that, that all small business that were forced to shut down went through.

00:14:02.600 We, we tried to reopen when we were allowed to reopen.

00:14:07.000 Being in the downtown core, there were, weren't any people, everyone was working from home.

00:14:11.400 So we didn't really have an option there.

00:14:14.140 So we, we stayed closed.

00:14:16.700 And then a couple of years later, yeah, I was, I was done.

00:14:20.980 We, we couldn't, couldn't make it anymore.

00:14:24.100 Gave the keys away.

00:14:25.660 And then, yeah, that's what pretty much got me into doing what I'm doing now is the MLA for Calgary Lougheed.

00:14:33.600 I just felt there was no representation for small business.

00:14:37.880 And I think it was in 2020, early, early 2022, I sent out an email to some small business owners trying to mobilize, trying to get together.

00:14:50.700 We, essentially, we didn't have a voice in my opinion.

00:14:53.340 So we started off with eight of us the first week.

00:14:57.760 And then I think there's a group of over, it's roughly over 100, 110 guys that still get together on a, on a weekly basis.

00:15:06.280 And they, they asked me in December of 2022, if I would consider, sorry, 2023, no, 2022, if I'd consider running.

00:15:16.280 At the point I was at, I had, that summer, I was working at a golf course.

00:15:23.760 I was 51 years old, did the first resume of my life.

00:15:27.240 And I thought I would continue, you know, working at a golf course until retirement.

00:15:32.920 But two days prior to being asked if I would run, I was served for, by the Bank of Montreal for the loan that was outstanding, that I had to pay back.

00:15:44.780 And didn't have any way of paying it back anymore because my business was closed.

00:15:50.200 So I decided, why not, why not run?

00:15:54.140 And here I am today.

00:15:55.740 Yeah.

00:15:56.180 Well, and it's a valid point.

00:15:57.460 Like a lot of people, and I can, I don't blame them for wanting to just not think about the pandemic anymore.

00:16:01.900 And I think it's behind us and it's over, but for a lot of people, it's not over yet.

00:16:06.960 Like there's a lot of businesses, of course, that suffered dearly during the pandemic, really personally leveraged themselves a lot.

00:16:13.900 And they're still either, you know, they've, they've potentially gone broke or they're still treading water today to try and catch up on the, you know, for the financial beating they took over those few years where they weren't allowed to do, to do business.

00:16:26.260 Correct. No, the, the last week I was home in the constituency and it's, it's always great to be home and meet with constituents and small business owners, but they're still feeling the effects.

00:16:38.840 And I mean, from our side, all levels of government, you know, we, we haven't done small business justice, in my opinion, and we're, we're making strides.

00:16:50.900 They're slow as, as everything seems to be in government, but I met with one small business owner a week ago and she switched her beer provider to save a penny, a pint, you know, like put that in perspective.

00:17:06.300 That's, that's how tight the margins are at, at even good times, you know, the, the hospitality industry, the margins are, are difficult when things are good, but she, she switched to save a penny, a pint.

00:17:19.180 And, you know, she can no longer take advantage, the food service companies that deliver, they're fantastic, but they, you know, every cost has to be passed on.

00:17:30.380 So she is relegated to Walmart, Costco, superstore now to pick up, you know, things that are maybe, you know, five cents a pound cheaper just to, to keep the doors open.

00:17:41.060 Oh, I, I know it all too well. I mean, I, I owned a pub for five years just prior to the pandemic hitting. I couldn't imagine since.

00:17:49.080 And, uh, I mean, there's the whiplash effect of all of these things coming down the line. I mean, our economy has been disrupted.

00:17:55.200 The federal government, well, every level of government started spending and borrowing like mad, which led, of course, to inflation.

00:18:01.280 And then you're, you're forced to raise prices and people are tight for funds. And one of the first things you cut if you're on a tight household budget is, well, you, we used to go out for supper once a week.

00:18:09.760 Maybe it's going to be once every second week now, because we just can't afford to anymore. And we're, again, businesses are really feeling that today.

00:18:16.420 I mean, the only business I see booming is dollar stores. Boy, they're springing up everywhere. Good on them.

00:18:21.080 But it's because people can't afford to shop anywhere else.

00:18:24.220 No, it's so true. And I've, uh, you know, I, I feel all levels of government, the people who, who were in charge, I guess, you know, from the advocacy for small business, which should have been there in 2020 and 2021, uh, wasn't there.

00:18:42.340 You know, they, in, in my opinion, you know, I believe it was the, I'll get a direct quote from the, uh, president of the chamber, Calgary chamber of commerce, you know, they're there, they say they exist to help businesses reach their potential.

00:18:57.080 And as an independent nonprofit, nonpartisan, nonpartisan organization, they build their history to serve and advocate for business of all sizes and all sectors across the country.

00:19:06.940 And I'm going back to, uh, would have been 2021, uh, the president of the Calgary chamber of commerce, you know, uh, her comments were today's announcement on the immediate removal of all pandemic measures and restrictions ignores the importance of consumer confidence in our economy recovery.

00:19:25.620 You know, like put that in perspective.

00:19:27.620 Well, their, their role was to represent businesses, you know, clearly veering out of, out of their lane.

00:19:38.480 Yeah.

00:19:38.740 And just for, for context, that's Deborah Yedlin and I've written a couple of con columns ripping into her for that in particular, I was furious because I mean, no matter where you stand on things, if you know anything about business, that those restrictions were harming businesses.

00:19:55.140 They were slowing people down from coming into them.

00:19:57.380 It was limiting the amount of people who could dine there, who could work there, that the vaccine passports were reducing your customer base, uh, again, to come out and say that it would be bad for business to lift those restrictions was completely absurd.

00:20:10.080 And, uh, contrary to what any person in business would have told otherwise, yet she's still heading that chamber of commerce today.

00:20:16.000 And, and, uh, the Western standard, just as a side note, before I let you go, we're a member of the Strathmore chamber of commerce.

00:20:22.400 Cause we just don't want to waste our, our time and money on the Calgary one.

00:20:25.460 Cause it's just the chamber of woke.

00:20:27.240 Yeah, no.

00:20:28.140 So, so fair.

00:20:29.580 Uh, I appreciate that too.

00:20:31.480 Uh, I, yeah, just for another, I used, um, media corporate media, I believe it was 2017 or 2018 when times were tough, you know, the NDP government, uh, there's oil recession.

00:20:44.080 I used one of the corporate media to get my message out, how small businesses were affected, uh, 2020 late 2020, I had reached out to all corporate media and I won't name them all here, but, uh, each one responded saying that they weren't interested in telling my story at the time.

00:21:04.780 And I was, you know, wasn't waving the white flag just yet, but there was a tsunami coming of small businesses and we haven't, we haven't even scratched the surface.

00:21:16.340 I don't think of, you know, bankruptcies insolvencies.

00:21:20.000 Uh, we could go on talking about mental health issues and how, you know, small business owners are proud people as you know, they should be.

00:21:30.380 But you know, when you, you have to put up this facade for your staff, for your family, and just to keep the sense that everything is okay.

00:21:39.500 You know, and they're, that guy can speak personally to that.

00:21:42.440 There's, there's a mental, mental toll to that.

00:21:45.860 Oh, absolutely.

00:21:46.920 It's exhausting.

00:21:47.780 I mean, you've got a sense of responsibility, as you said to yourself, to your staff, uh, you don't want them to know necessarily how close to the line you might actually be.

00:21:56.040 Uh, it's horrifying to have to lay people off if they're dependent on that, that, that income.

00:22:00.460 Um, and, uh, it breaks people down and solvencies in Canada, I believe in, in January of this year, went up over 40% in one month.

00:22:08.060 A part of that was all the SIBA loans suddenly were due to be paid in, which was, I guess, I mean, it's just chicken and egg.

00:22:14.440 It was a good program.

00:22:15.560 If, if you could make it through, it's an interest free loan with a forgivable piece within it.

00:22:20.260 But if the government hadn't shut everybody down in the first place, you wouldn't have needed it.

00:22:23.860 Agreed.

00:22:24.380 Yeah.

00:22:24.640 And they, you know, the, the SIBA loan, what people fail to really understand, you know,

00:22:30.460 my, my own personal experience, our rent was 17 and a half thousand dollars a month.

00:22:36.040 You know, we borrowed $60,000, but put that in perspective, how there's other costs as well.

00:22:41.800 Like I was under the, I was planning to reopen, uh, summer of 2021, my hot water tank, uh, started leaking in the restaurant and we weren't open.

00:22:53.560 And I ended up spending almost $3,500 to repair it, even though I didn't have any, there was no, no revenue coming in to look after that.

00:23:04.040 So those are like just one small story of, of the, how many, like how many small business people have suffered and continue to suffer.

00:23:12.440 And those who have made it out, you know, fantastic.

00:23:15.400 And I would encourage anyone, you know, my background on hospitality, obviously, but, uh, you know, when you consider where you're spending your dollars, think, think locally first.

00:23:26.360 If, if you really can, you know, it's not a soundbite.

00:23:29.620 It's not, um, advertising.

00:23:32.320 It's, it's something like those dollars that are spent in a community, they stay in the community, you know, two thirds of, of every dollar that's spent goes back into the community.

00:23:41.940 And, you know, if you have to go somewhere else, just, just think of where, where those dollars are going, where the corporate offices are, but yeah, how many, how many local families are being, being served by the money spent in the community?

00:23:57.520 Yeah, absolutely.

00:23:58.440 I mean, it's, it's a little bit of a things for us to step up and do our part if we can now.

00:24:02.880 So you've stepped up, you're in the legislature.

00:24:04.740 You can add that, that perspective now of, of somebody who's been in the field of a small business, uh, what is being done or what can be done on the legislative level?

00:24:13.940 I, I know this, there's always talk about reducing red tape, but we've been hearing about that talk for, for many, many years now.

00:24:19.860 And the red tape just never seems to quite actually reduce it.

00:24:22.760 Are there initiatives finally underway?

00:24:24.440 There are some initiatives underway.

00:24:26.180 Uh, I've talked with, uh, many at length with, uh, minister red tape production, Dale Nally.

00:24:31.620 Uh, he's, he's, he's very active.

00:24:34.220 I've also talked with, uh, minister Rajon Sahani, uh, advanced education and, uh, minister of jobs, uh, economy and trade, uh, minister, uh, Matt Jones.

00:24:45.980 And there are some initiatives also, we do have, uh, parliamentary secretary of small business, Tanya.

00:24:51.420 And we're, we're just at the, at the beginning stages and, you know, prior to me getting into government, I don't know how things, uh, were, but I'm, I'm hopefully bringing more, more discussions around small business and how we can support small business initiatives and looking forward to, to any put any input from, from your viewers.

00:25:10.860 Excellent. And then, uh, I, I guess further since you're in there, I mean, we're, we're always, it seems just one breakout or one emergency or something away from, uh, you know, a government being tempted to crack down and, and, and restrict or get in the way of business.

00:25:27.300 Again, I can only imagine at least hopefully we have more voices in government this time that would speak up and say, whoa, hold your horses.

00:25:34.740 Uh, the, the cure may be worse than the disease if, if something else comes up in the future.

00:25:39.260 Correct. Yes. And I know not just myself. I mean, that's one of the, uh, the main motivators that got me into the position I am is to stand up for small business and say, no, we won't allow this as a small business people.

00:25:52.180 And I know that the, that our government shares that sentiment. There's also, and I'm stuck. I can't find the correct paperwork right now, but there is a, um, there's a petition that, uh, that we'll be going around, um, a private petition to make sure that, uh, you know, small business can, small business people can sign that and, uh, put it forward to government and it'll be tabled in the, uh, in the fall legislature.

00:26:19.780 Great. And I mean, that that's, uh, an important part. I mean, you gotta, you know, as a business owner, I know you're busy, business owners are busy. They got a million things on the go and everything, but they should communicate outwards, uh, with their local representative, make sure they've got some, some rapport going on.

00:26:34.780 So if there are problems, I mean, government gets disconnected from people on the ground and that's when things go bad and it can happen. Uh, you know, get dome disease and whatnot. So making sure to reach out and, and, uh, remain engaged is, is really important.

00:26:48.240 I think that's, that's great advice, you know, to, to the small business out there, small business owner out there, who's listening or watching, uh, really do get engaged, you know, contact your, at the municipal level, level at the provincial level, uh, be involved, you know, attend a constituency association meeting, have your voices heard, you know, send, send an email, send a voicemail, get in contact with your local chamber of commerce.

00:27:15.240 You know, we, what I think happened and this is, you know, small business owners have their head down there. They're in their lane doing what they do. There's, and I can speak to that myself.

00:27:27.240 You know, I was never really involved in any government issues other than showing up and voting every four years, but we collectively, we have a loud voice as small business owners.

00:27:39.240 But, uh, but on our own, you know, as we, we saw, we witnessed for a couple of years, we, we really didn't have a voice.

00:27:46.240 And when we leaned on the people who we expected to advocate for us, that, uh, that voice was, was no longer there.

00:27:54.240 Well, then it's good to know we, we have some government members who are, uh, you know, again, with that experience and willing to speak up, uh, if, and when the challenge comes and just that reminder to people, that's really what I wanted to bring you on is don't let people know.

00:28:06.240 It's not over for small businesses, not even by a long shot.

00:28:09.240 I mean, it's better than it was a few years ago, but a lot, if they haven't gone broke are still really struggling.

00:28:14.240 So, you know, try to help out your local business and, uh, and again, I guess, uh, so, you know, support your, your local, uh, representatives to, to keep them solvent.

00:28:23.240 Yeah, no, I encourage, uh, every, every small business owner, please share your stories.

00:28:28.240 Uh, I'll be working with some initiatives, uh, on some initiatives with, uh, with all of our, uh, UCP MLAs too.

00:28:35.240 It's not going to be a small business month, but to encourage, we'll be highlighting, you know, small businesses in each constituency to support.

00:28:43.240 As, uh, you know, because if we, if we don't continue to support small business, we're going to lose small business and we're going to turn around one day and what's left.

00:28:53.240 You know, I, I don't, I don't even want to imagine what that would look like, but, but we, we need to, this is a, a wave that's coming and if it's not already here.

00:29:05.240 So, uh, I'm sounding the alarm, please go out and support your local small businesses.

00:29:11.240 Oh, it's absolutely important before I let you go.

00:29:13.240 I mean, one of our commenters, Shirley Gervais said, you know, many of us send emails to our elected officials and receive no responses.

00:29:18.240 And, and that varies, you know, depends on who your officials are and so on, but there is a cynicism and, and, and often a lot of, uh, uh, representatives aren't necessarily responsive, but, but you have been a fantastically.

00:29:28.240 So where, where can people, I guess, reach you and, and, uh, you know, and, and just follow you to see what you've been doing out there.

00:29:34.240 Sure. Yeah.

00:29:35.240 So I'm on all social media, uh, Twitter, Instagram, uh, Facebook, a little bit.

00:29:40.240 Uh, my direct email, you know, is calgary.lawheed at assembly.ab.ca.

00:29:46.240 And if you have an MLA, um, regardless of where they are, what, uh, what allegiance they hold and they're not being responsive, I don't want to take the burden and speak on their behalf, but please forward, uh, emails to me and I could, uh, forward it to them.

00:30:02.240 And maybe, maybe try to try to get a response.

00:30:06.240 Great. Well, much appreciated.

00:30:07.240 I really appreciate you coming in today and then what you're, you're doing in the legislature.

00:30:11.240 Uh, perhaps, uh, you know, we can talk again down the road and, uh, see some of the progress, hopefully in, in, uh, improving things for our small businesses in Alberta.

00:30:18.240 I would love that.

00:30:19.240 No, thanks for, uh, the opportunity to give small business a voice.

00:30:23.240 Um, it's a, it's a weird, it's strange for me that I sit up in Edmonton, you know, after being, I still, you know, I had dinner with the premier last night.

00:30:31.240 And I was talking to my wife on the way home.

00:30:34.240 I said, you know, just how things changed and I'm happy to be where I am.

00:30:38.240 I'd be just as happy running my business, but I feel that, uh, you know, I'm, I'm here for a purpose.

00:30:44.240 And, uh, I thank you for, uh, giving me the opportunity to, uh, to, to be heard.

00:30:50.240 I appreciate it.

00:30:51.240 Okay.

00:30:52.240 Well, we'll talk again soon.

00:30:53.240 You bet.

00:30:54.240 Thanks, Corey.

00:30:55.240 Great.

00:30:56.240 Thank you.

00:30:57.240 So that was again, Calgary Lougheed MLA, Eric Bouchard.

00:30:59.240 It's his first year in office and yeah, he's hard at it.

00:31:02.240 And, uh, again, I like that messaging.

00:31:05.240 I know.

00:31:06.240 And I understand what Shirley's saying.

00:31:07.240 It can feel frustrating.

00:31:08.240 You could feel like they aren't listening.

00:31:09.240 It can feel like they're indifferent, you know, and it doesn't matter which, even if you have an NDP MLA or whatnot.

00:31:16.240 Uh, often we can't speak for everyone.

00:31:19.240 Often though they really do care.

00:31:20.240 They might have a different ideology than you, but they really do want to hear from you.

00:31:25.240 And, uh, they are concerned about the businesses.

00:31:27.240 Sometimes you might even actually help them, uh, understand things a little better.

00:31:31.240 But if you try to communicate with your, your representatives as, uh, Mr. Bouchard said on all three levels, municipal, federal, and provincial, it can only help.

00:31:39.240 I mean, the worst that'll happen is they ignore you, but a lot of them pay more attention than people realize.

00:31:43.240 And it's worth reaching out and communicating with them.

00:31:46.240 So I appreciate him coming on because he has small business gets forgotten.

00:31:49.240 Look, big business is important too.

00:31:51.240 Of course, those big corporations.

00:31:52.240 I know people don't like them, but that's how you get economies of scale and you can buy products at Walmart for a good price and so on.

00:31:57.240 But for your local community, plus I believe most Canadians are employed by small business, businesses of under like a hundred employees.

00:32:04.240 That's where the majority of us are working.

00:32:06.240 So, uh, but those are also the ones most vulnerable.

00:32:09.240 They don't have a big capital pool to fall back on.

00:32:12.240 If times get tough, if something happens, it's very difficult.

00:32:15.240 As, as Mr. Bouchard said, he was in the hospitality industry.

00:32:17.240 And as I said, I owned a pub for five years.

00:32:19.240 I tell you what, when hard times hit and you're in that industry, it doesn't matter how much you think your banker loves you.

00:32:26.240 As nice as they are when you got your mortgage and your car loan and all your, you know, your credit cards and everything with the bank.

00:32:32.240 When you mentioned borrowing money for a restaurant or a pub, if you want to see a banker's butt snap shut harder than, you know, to crack walnuts, that's the way to go.

00:32:41.240 They despise lending money to hospitality industry businesses.

00:32:45.240 And it's a high risk and fair enough.

00:32:47.240 That's business, but you got, that's also why they are so vulnerable.

00:32:50.240 If you hit a low spot, it's not so easy.

00:32:52.240 It's just going out and taking out a demand loan.

00:32:54.240 So you can ride out the, the, the tough times quite often.

00:32:58.240 You just don't have it.

00:32:59.240 And what happens then is a lot of business owners leverage themselves personally.

00:33:03.240 They might refinance their home.

00:33:04.240 They might cash their RSPs, but again, it puts them in dire, dire trouble.

00:33:11.240 If the business doesn't recover fast enough and it still could be a viable business, but you know, you get into that hole and you're trying to pay the interest and you're trying to keep up and suddenly it comes down.

00:33:20.240 So just reminding everybody, it's not over yet for a lot of the small businesses out there.

00:33:25.240 The, the, the, the damage done by the bad policies, the restrictions during the pandemic is still being felt by a lot of people.

00:33:34.240 Okay. I mentioned earlier, I wanted to talk a bit about legacy media.

00:33:37.240 Yeah. One of my favorite areas to bash, it's a bit self-serving, but it's important.

00:33:41.240 Something I saw last night on, on Twitter, it comes out, you know, or X, I should say CTV.

00:33:46.240 What sort of headline? This is beautiful.

00:33:49.240 Now the headline says terminally ill Palestinian prisoner dies after 38 years in Israeli custody.

00:33:56.240 I'm going to tell you about a media term. It's called burying the lead.

00:34:00.240 That's when you take a story and you actually put the most important parts of the story way deep, deep down in the body of the story rather than having them up front and center.

00:34:09.240 If you're writing news copy, you should actually kind of go in a descending order of the most important parts of the story and kind of get down to the details later.

00:34:15.240 But when you bury the lead, you actually take the important part and bury it and then just go on to the fluff and distractions to begin with.

00:34:21.240 So, yes, it is true. A terminally ill Palestinian prisoner did die after 38 years in Israeli custody.

00:34:27.240 If you see nothing but that headline, and unfortunately, a lot of people only read the headlines, you think that's terrible. 0.99

00:34:32.240 Those darned Israelis keeping some poor man in jail for almost 40 years. They died of old age. This is awful. This is awful. 0.99

00:34:40.240 You know, the part they forgot to mention is why was this man in custody for 38 years?

00:34:46.240 But instead, CTV was going on about Walid Dhaka was the longest imprisoned Palestinian currently in jail in Israel. 0.98

00:34:53.240 Oh, those nasty Israelis. Well, let's talk about it. 1.00

00:34:56.240 In 1984, this Walid Dhaka kidnapped 19 year old Moshe Tamim when he got off a bus.

00:35:03.240 And after he kidnapped him, he cut out Moshe's eyes. He castrated him. He slowly mutilated him. 0.67

00:35:09.240 He tortured him almost to death before shooting him. That's why that walking piece of feces was in jail for 40 years. 0.99

00:35:18.240 CTV neglected to mention that in their headline, okay? 0.97

00:35:22.240 You can be critical of Israel. There's lots of room for it. 0.98

00:35:25.240 You can be critical of Netanyahu. There's plenty to be critical.

00:35:28.240 I really wish somebody less corrupt than him was leading Israel right now. 0.98

00:35:31.240 But this kind of crap coming from our legacy media, this leading headline, making it sound like... 0.99

00:35:37.240 And then I listen to... I torture myself. I listen to talk radio this morning and they were talking to some guest who's going on about how Israel's holding thousands and thousands of detainees. 0.99

00:35:45.240 And that's what they won't release in order, you know, with Hamas to swap as a prisoner swap.

00:35:51.240 They're trying to draw a moral equivalence to criminals who are in prison to the young women who were snatched up from a music festival by terrorists and have been raped mercilessly for the last seven months.

00:36:04.240 That's... they're trying to say that's the same thing as the criminals, the murderers, the torturers that Israel has in prison right now.

00:36:11.240 You know what? Israel probably has a few in there that shouldn't be there. Most countries, it seems, do manage to convict a few innocent people. 0.82

00:36:18.240 But it's not 9,000 detainees. They're prisoners. They're crooks. They're murderers. They're rapists.

00:36:22.240 Don't try to say that's the same as the hostages that the terrorists, and I'll say terrorists, even as CBC won't, the terrorists that Hamas took from that music festival. 1.00

00:36:34.240 It's just sickening. It's sickening. Make a real case, you guys. Don't try to undercut what happened. 0.93

00:36:39.240 See, that's not the first time for CTV.

00:36:41.240 If you might remember a while back, there was an activist, and she had Canadian ties. Her name was Vivian Silver.

00:36:46.240 She was actually very pro-Hamas. She was very pro-Palestine, trying to help them out. 0.50

00:36:52.240 Well, she got murdered. She was kidnapped and murdered on October 7th.

00:36:57.240 And CTV came out there with this headline, Vivian Silver has died after being missing.

00:37:02.240 That was their headline.

00:37:04.240 The real headline is Vivian Silver was kidnapped by Hamas and murdered.

00:37:09.240 But instead, no, she died.

00:37:12.240 They made it sound like she went for a walk and got missing, maybe had a heart attack or something.

00:37:16.240 Let's get some real coverage going on out there, guys. 0.98

00:37:21.240 This is ridiculous. It's absurd. 0.78

00:37:24.240 And we've got to be realistic about it. You can't draw these moral equivalences between these things.

00:37:29.240 But the media, the legacy media, guys, that's why, again, self-serving, I know, keep supporting the independent ones.

00:37:35.240 We aren't always necessarily right, but you need balance. You need more going on.

00:37:40.240 And that example, like I said, with burying the lead with CTV, that's the way they can take news items.

00:37:46.240 And they're not exactly giving you misinformation.

00:37:50.240 They're just packaging it in a way so that you don't see the full information.

00:37:55.240 Another one that came up as well, when there was the hostage swap, I can't remember her name offhand.

00:38:00.240 But they showed these terrible pictures of this person released from an Israeli prison.

00:38:05.240 And they're giving back to, you know, to swap for some hostages with Hamas to try and free some of the people that Hamas kidnapped.

00:38:11.240 And there's this woman and her face is all burned. 1.00

00:38:13.240 And she looked like a hot dog that had been on the barbecue way too long. 0.99

00:38:16.240 Her fingers were all shriveled up and cooked. 0.99

00:38:18.240 And, of course, people were freaking, say, look what happened to her in that Israeli prison.

00:38:22.240 Again, context, look a little farther down the story because people were assuming that she'd been burned and mutilated and tortured in an Israeli prison.

00:38:28.240 No.

00:38:29.240 It turns out she was a suicide bomber.

00:38:31.240 Not a very good one because she failed on a couple of levels.

00:38:34.240 For one, she survived.

00:38:35.240 So that's not a very good suicide bomber, though she did barbecue herself rather terribly. 1.00

00:38:40.240 She was planning to go into the middle of a bunch of people and blow herself up as suicide bombers are inclined to do. 1.00

00:38:47.240 But she prematurely detonated, cooked herself pretty badly, and ended up in an Israeli prison.

00:38:54.240 Quite rightly so.

00:38:56.240 But, again, that's way down in the text.

00:38:58.240 That's farther down in the story.

00:39:00.240 Instead, they make it look like Israel was keeping this poor woman and had terribly abused her while she was in prison.

00:39:07.240 Not the case in that case.

00:39:10.240 Either way, CTV is just beyond the pale.

00:39:12.240 It is terrible.

00:39:13.240 All right.

00:39:14.240 Let's see.

00:39:15.240 This is some bigger news in Alberta.

00:39:17.240 And it's going to be interesting to watch this.

00:39:18.240 This has been hitting the news a lot, too.

00:39:20.240 And here shows some of the double standard.

00:39:22.240 Again, I'm listening to talk radio.

00:39:23.240 I'm listening to these guys going on.

00:39:25.240 Oh, here goes Daniel Smith just fighting for the sake of fighting.

00:39:28.240 And she's going to be now stepping on municipal rights by perhaps bringing up a bill that might stop the federal government from bypassing the provincial government and going to municipalities.

00:39:38.240 Well, for one, this is one of my favorite things to keep pointing out to people.

00:39:44.240 Quebec has just such a policy already. 0.99

00:39:46.240 Why is it always quite all right when Quebec asserts its provincial authority, but Albertans are always arseholes when they do? 0.97

00:39:54.240 Why that double standard? 0.93

00:39:56.240 Why is it wrong for Albertans to stand up for themselves against Ottawa, but it's all right for Quebec?

00:40:02.240 There is a double standard in Canada, a huge one and a problematic one.

00:40:06.240 And then we've got a cynical prime minister who comes into Alberta.

00:40:10.240 He does it to Saskatchewan.

00:40:11.240 He does it in every province.

00:40:12.240 He bypasses the local government that is in charge of that jurisdiction in areas like housing and things like that.

00:40:17.240 He dangles the money for political points in front of municipalities, but he leaves the rest of it to the province.

00:40:23.240 The province has to deal with the administration.

00:40:24.240 The province has to deal with the fallout. 0.99

00:40:26.240 And if they complain about it, he calls them all selfish, uncooperative jerks who want to cut off the money from their well-deserving citizens because they're trying to score political points. 0.98

00:40:36.240 No, they're trying to stop a prime minister from using our own money to campaign for himself by trying to bribe citizens through the municipalities. 0.97

00:40:45.240 So, I mean, think about who is upset by this legislation.

00:40:49.240 Jody Gondek, yes, the worst mayor in Calgary in history.

00:40:53.240 She's upset with it.

00:40:54.240 So if Jody's upset with it, Smith's probably on the right track.

00:40:58.240 They're not trying to say no to getting our tax dollars back from the federal government.

00:41:03.240 They're trying to say, well, we need to have our control of how we deal with that money when it gets here.

00:41:08.240 It's not your job, Prime Minister Trudeau, to go directly to these municipalities like this because their money always comes with strings.

00:41:17.240 And we need government out of our face, not getting in.

00:41:22.240 Speaking of which, though, you know, I mean, again, you listen to local media, you listen to activists, you listen to the rest. 0.99

00:41:27.240 The rest of the world, Alberta's terrible, it's awful, you know, they're abusing trans people or you name it, whatever other garbage. 0.98

00:41:34.240 Well, the numbers are really coming in interesting. 0.99

00:41:36.240 You know, BC, here we go, Lotus Land, land of the woke, beautiful climate, great salmon fishing.

00:41:41.240 You know, it's a good destination.

00:41:42.240 Everybody should be moving to BC, right?

00:41:44.240 Province to province, they'd be going to BC in hordes right now.

00:41:46.240 I mean, Alberta's so intolerant and we get cold weather and mosquitoes and all that. 0.67

00:41:50.240 Well, the numbers are in.

00:41:51.240 BC, interprovincial migration-wise, lost 8,600 people.

00:41:55.240 8,600 people moved out of BC.

00:41:58.240 Said, nah, we're gone.

00:42:00.240 They had net loss.

00:42:01.240 BC's growing, but it's through immigration from outside of the country.

00:42:04.240 Alberta gained 55,000 interprovincial migrants.

00:42:08.240 People moving from other provinces to Alberta.

00:42:11.240 If we're so terrible, why is everybody coming here?

00:42:14.240 You know, we see the same thing down in the United States.

00:42:18.240 It's been very interesting.

00:42:19.240 You look at the hard left states, the blue states down there, the Democrat states.

00:42:23.240 The worst of them, of course, are California and New York.

00:42:26.240 Big centers.

00:42:28.240 You know, they've got a lot of resources.

00:42:30.240 They've got a lot of money in there.

00:42:32.240 They've got things going on.

00:42:33.240 Yet, guess what?

00:42:34.240 They're losing people.

00:42:36.240 People.

00:42:37.240 People are moving out of those states like nobody's business.

00:42:40.240 Where are they going?

00:42:41.240 They're going to Texas.

00:42:43.240 They're going to Florida.

00:42:44.240 They're going to Tennessee.

00:42:45.240 They're going to Republican states.

00:42:47.240 They're going to places where you can prosper.

00:42:49.240 They're going to places with smaller government. 1.00

00:42:51.240 They're going to places that aren't woke, that aren't ridiculous, that aren't stupid, like California, which is just going completely insane. 0.98

00:42:59.240 California's raised the minimum wage for their fast food workers to $20 an hour. 0.99

00:43:06.240 In California, 20 American dollars an hour.

00:43:08.240 Real dollars, not the Canadian peso.

00:43:10.240 Guess what's already been happening?

00:43:12.240 Thousands of fast food workers are getting laid off.

00:43:15.240 Prices are shooting through the roof.

00:43:16.240 Look, if you could end poverty by raising minimum wage, somebody would have done it by now.

00:43:20.240 But people without an understanding of economics think it's a solution.

00:43:23.240 It's a bandaid, and it's not a good one.

00:43:25.240 It will help them for a very short time.

00:43:28.240 The people who are at entry level positions, because they'll get a raise from $15 an hour to $20 an hour.

00:43:34.240 But guess what?

00:43:35.240 Only four out of five got that because one out of five got laid off to cover it.

00:43:38.240 And then they find out that as the prices of everything else go up, that $20 an hour doesn't buy what it used to.

00:43:45.240 In fact, it's buying as much or less than the $15 an hour they had before.

00:43:49.240 What you need is a strong economy.

00:43:51.240 You need the natural raising of wages to draw people in to work for you, not an artificial bar that's set through a minimum wage.

00:44:01.240 It doesn't work.

00:44:02.240 And then everybody all the way along the line gets raises.

00:44:04.240 Great.

00:44:05.240 But it just leads to inflation.

00:44:06.240 They just don't seem to understand.

00:44:08.240 It doesn't get rid of the underlying problem with the poverty.

00:44:10.240 The poverty was due to a bad economy.

00:44:12.240 You want a better economy, you need the government to get out of the bloody way.

00:44:15.240 That's the way to do it, not get in there further.

00:44:18.240 So yes, even though California has that $20 minimum wage, do you think people are all rushing to move out to California to cross-country ski and the poop on the San Francisco streets?

00:44:27.240 Yeah, that's how bad it is there now.

00:44:29.240 No, they're leaving California.

00:44:31.240 They're running as hard as they can to states with much lower minimum wages because anybody with ambition and a work ethic can do a heck of a lot better.

00:44:37.240 And they can buy a home a lot cheaper.

00:44:39.240 They can make good money.

00:44:40.240 And the government is out of their face. 0.99

00:44:42.240 And it's not as woke and ridiculous and insane. 0.96

00:44:45.240 Another thing with BC, the BC-Alberta thing going on. 0.91

00:44:48.240 We're watching that.

00:44:49.240 And I'm watching with interest is, of course, the addiction epidemic.

00:44:52.240 And it's hitting both provinces.

00:44:53.240 And neither province is having a good time trying to get it under control.

00:44:56.240 It's a catastrophe in all ends.

00:44:58.240 Both provinces are dealing with record overdoses.

00:45:01.240 I won't talk about drug toxicity and all that enabless crap trying to make it sound like we don't have an addiction problem and it's just that they aren't getting good enough drugs.

00:45:09.240 They're overdosing. 0.97

00:45:10.240 They're overdosing and they're dying in both provinces.

00:45:13.240 But Alberta is really pushing on a treatment-focused agenda. 1.00

00:45:18.240 So there's the announcement of that Canadian Centre for Recovery Excellence to work on best practices, mental health, and addiction services.

00:45:27.240 That's great.

00:45:28.240 We really need treatment spaces.

00:45:30.240 We need better treatment.

00:45:31.240 We need to get addicts into treatment as soon as they're ready.

00:45:35.240 That's the best course we have.

00:45:37.240 I'm not wholly against a degree of safe consumption or harm mitigation.

00:45:41.240 Yes, we need to keep the addicts alive as long as possible to get them into recovery.

00:45:45.240 But it's not an end.

00:45:46.240 And the enablist won't stop at safe consumption.

00:45:49.240 They're a cult. 0.97

00:45:50.240 They're loonies. 0.99

00:45:51.240 They also say, well, we've also got to give them drugs.

00:45:52.240 We've got to let them take the drugs in the hospitals. 1.00

00:45:54.240 We've got to let them take the drugs in the playgrounds. 1.00

00:45:55.240 I wish I was kidding.

00:45:56.240 In BC, it's a constitutional right, a charter right to take drugs in a playground.

00:46:00.240 Again, you can't smoke cigarette there.

00:46:02.240 But you could shoot some heroin.

00:46:05.240 This is wrong. 0.84

00:46:06.240 We're going to watch.

00:46:08.240 And I don't, I don't, I'm not going to dance for glee if and when I believe the Alberta model succeeds much better

00:46:14.240 than BC and eventually it's going to be a long game.

00:46:17.240 We'll see the addiction and the overdoses going down while BCs continue to rise because BCs will continue to rise.

00:46:23.240 And it's still horrible to behold.

00:46:24.240 I just hope that Alberta can turn into an example to show a better path. 0.99

00:46:28.240 I mean, it's always, there's no magic bullet.

00:46:30.240 There's, there's no simple way to deal with this, but I think Alberta is going on the right course.

00:46:34.240 And I'm speaking as a recovering alcoholic.

00:46:36.240 I'm familiar with addiction, guys.

00:46:38.240 Not in every asset of it, aspect of it, but I'm familiar.

00:46:41.240 All right.

00:46:42.240 Well, that's filled us up for today, guys.

00:46:44.240 Thank you all for tuning in.

00:46:46.240 Lots to cover.

00:46:47.240 Lots we did cover.

00:46:49.240 Be sure to come back again tonight.

00:46:51.240 The pipeline is going to be on.

00:46:52.240 As I said, we're going to break down a few more issues.

00:46:55.240 Share these links.

00:46:57.240 Take out a subscription.

00:46:58.240 We appreciate it.

00:46:59.240 Let's keep independent media independent.

00:47:02.240 So we can keep getting the real truth out there, or at least my version of it.

00:47:07.240 So thanks for tuning in.

00:47:08.240 We will see you all again next week at this time.

00:47:29.240 Bye.

00:47:30.240 Bye.

00:47:31.240 Bye.

Western Standard - April 10, 2024

The Trudeau government s corruption is poised to become much worse

Episode Stats

Summary

Transcript