In this episode of The Cory Morgan Show, I discuss the growing problem of corruption within the federal government, and how it affects small businesses across the country. I also discuss the Arrive Scam App scandal and how the Trudeau government is using government contracts to enrich themselves.
00:01:02.520Later on, I'm going to have a guest on Calgary Lougheed MLA, Eric Bouchard.
00:01:07.520And we're going to talk about how COVID policies really messed with small businesses.
00:01:12.340And actually, they still are messing with them today.
00:01:14.900We're still dealing with the fallout from government intervention and meddling around
00:01:20.060and 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.
00:01:27.640So that'll be an interesting conversation.
00:02:00.600And a culture of corruption and entitlement is always going to develop within a government if it's been in power for too long.
00:02:06.880This is a law that's as immutable as that of gravity, especially within a governance system like Canada's,
00:02:12.420where it has little to no provisions for accountability or transparency between elections.
00:02:16.920And this issue isn't even a left or right one.
00:02:19.300This happens with governments of all ideological leanings.
00:02:21.740I mean, conservative governments have dealt with corruption as well.
00:02:25.540Opportunists and grifters don't have political ideologies.
00:02:28.220Their only allegiance is to themselves and their wallets.
00:02:30.760And they'll attach themselves to any government or bureaucracy if they see opportunities for personal gain.
00:02:36.820The longer an administration remains in power, the more entrenched these corrupted parasites are going to become.
00:02:42.420And the cozier they get with senior bureaucrats and ministers within the government.
00:02:46.080Inside dealing and influence peddling becomes endemic.
00:02:49.640And the participants don't think twice about siphoning off tax dollars for themselves and, of course, their friends.
00:02:54.780The crooks robbing taxpayers, they rarely directly embezzle from the government.
00:02:58.860Their methods usually involve sole sourcing government contracts with high payments and low expectations of productivity,
00:03:05.700if indeed there's any expectations of productivity at all.
00:03:08.660I mean, the Arrive Scam app scandal is a perfect example.
00:03:12.800Tens 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.
00:03:20.200Two grifters working from a garage with no qualification to create apps somehow managed to get these contracts.
00:03:25.580And while it's now been exposed, it's doubtful that anybody's ever going to be held accountable.
00:03:28.980The contract recipients are stonewalling.
00:03:32.160The bureaucrats involved have already been covering things up.
00:03:35.020And the government, of course, has no appetite to see this crime investigated any further.
00:03:39.680The Arrive Scam app, that's just one of hundreds of contracts that the federal government gives out.
00:03:44.260We've barely seen the tip of the iceberg of how badly Canadian tax dollars are being abused.
00:03:49.520And things are going to become a whole lot worse.
00:03:52.680You see, the Trello government's taken a sharp shift in strategy lately.
00:03:55.900I mean, they had been trying to maintain their hold on power through increasing authoritarianism through the years.
00:04:00.940They hoped if they could control the media and internet communications enough, they'd be able to save themselves from an eventual electoral loss.
00:04:35.420If and when the next federal government starts to cut into federal spending programs,
00:04:39.060the people who've become dependent on those programs will become hysteric.
00:04:42.680And the liberal party will use that to play up the heartlessness of the conservatives.
00:04:46.320I'm sure legacy media will dutifully do their role as well.
00:04:49.480Those nasty conservatives cutting all those programs.
00:04:51.640So Trudeau's entrenching all those programs right now, and they're going to be a problem later.
00:04:56.420So 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.
00:05:03.900The other reason they're releasing all these new spending programs is even more odious.
00:05:08.420And it's more odious than trying to win the election down the road.
00:05:10.740They're feathering the beds of themselves and their connected friends before they head out the door.
00:05:14.380You see, the larger the spending program and the vaguer the mandate the program is, the easier it'll be to abuse it.
00:09:53.800You 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,
00:10:01.700don't call police or anything and say that because they don't care.
00:10:04.600You 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.
00:10:18.240Even 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.
00:10:31.520You're probably there because you took too many of the other ones in the first place.
00:11:01.700So that is our, yeah, business, energy, and general reporter and journalist, Sean Polzer.
00:11:07.480He prolifically writes and covers a lot of those things you'll see on there.
00:11:11.680It'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.
00:11:36.980And it just seems odd paying for content.
00:11:39.560But we've got to remember, it wasn't that long ago.
00:11:41.740For those of us who are gray enough to remember anyways, we never thought twice about paying to have newspaper subscriptions or things like that.
00:11:47.860And 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.
00:12:36.700And, 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.
00:12:47.040But, hi, Mr. Bouchard, how are you doing?
00:12:53.720I know you've got some busy times in the legislature.
00:12:56.660I'll lay off on bothering you with the million of other questions of what you guys are doing up there right now.
00:13:00.800We'll stay focused on the business issue that's going on right now.
00:13:05.800I 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.
00:13:15.420I started a small business in 2004, expanded to, it was essentially a cafe to a full-service restaurant, expanded in 2010, expanded again 2015.
00:13:30.400Our latest expansion was another, a little market on our plus 15 level.
00:13:36.000We opened in January of 2020, and we had 10 weeks of phenomenal sales.
00:13:42.620Things were, were going through the roof after four really difficult years from 2015 to 2019.
00:13:48.620And then, unfortunately, forced to shut down, as many businesses were.
00:13:54.480We, you know, suffered the pains that, that all small business that were forced to shut down went through.
00:14:02.600We, we tried to reopen when we were allowed to reopen.
00:14:07.000Being in the downtown core, there were, weren't any people, everyone was working from home.
00:14:11.400So we didn't really have an option there.
00:14:25.660And then, yeah, that's what pretty much got me into doing what I'm doing now is the MLA for Calgary Lougheed.
00:14:33.600I just felt there was no representation for small business.
00:14:37.880And 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.
00:14:50.700We, essentially, we didn't have a voice in my opinion.
00:14:53.340So we started off with eight of us the first week.
00:14:57.760And 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.
00:15:06.280And they, they asked me in December of 2022, if I would consider, sorry, 2023, no, 2022, if I'd consider running.
00:15:16.280At the point I was at, I had, that summer, I was working at a golf course.
00:15:23.760I was 51 years old, did the first resume of my life.
00:15:27.240And I thought I would continue, you know, working at a golf course until retirement.
00:15:32.920But 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.
00:15:44.780And didn't have any way of paying it back anymore because my business was closed.
00:15:57.460Like a lot of people, and I can, I don't blame them for wanting to just not think about the pandemic anymore.
00:16:01.900And I think it's behind us and it's over, but for a lot of people, it's not over yet.
00:16:06.960Like there's a lot of businesses, of course, that suffered dearly during the pandemic, really personally leveraged themselves a lot.
00:16:13.900And 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.
00:16:26.260Correct. 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.
00:16:38.840And 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.
00:16:50.900They'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.
00:17:06.300That'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.
00:17:19.180And, 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.
00:17:30.380So 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.
00:17:41.060Oh, 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.
00:17:49.080And, uh, I mean, there's the whiplash effect of all of these things coming down the line. I mean, our economy has been disrupted.
00:17:55.200The federal government, well, every level of government started spending and borrowing like mad, which led, of course, to inflation.
00:18:01.280And 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.
00:18:09.760Maybe 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.
00:18:16.420I mean, the only business I see booming is dollar stores. Boy, they're springing up everywhere. Good on them.
00:18:21.080But it's because people can't afford to shop anywhere else.
00:18:24.220No, 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.
00:18:42.340You 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.
00:18:57.080And 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.
00:19:06.940And 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.
00:19:25.620You know, like put that in perspective.
00:19:27.620Well, their, their role was to represent businesses, you know, clearly veering out of, out of their lane.
00:19:38.740And 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.
00:19:55.140They were slowing people down from coming into them.
00:19:57.380It 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.
00:20:10.080And, uh, contrary to what any person in business would have told otherwise, yet she's still heading that chamber of commerce today.
00:20:16.000And, 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.
00:20:22.400Cause we just don't want to waste our, our time and money on the Calgary one.
00:20:31.480Uh, 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.
00:20:44.080I 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.
00:21:04.780And 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.
00:21:16.340I don't think of, you know, bankruptcies insolvencies.
00:21:20.000Uh, 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.
00:21:30.380But 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.
00:21:39.500You know, and they're, that guy can speak personally to that.
00:21:42.440There's, there's a mental, mental toll to that.
00:21:47.780I 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.
00:21:56.040Uh, it's horrifying to have to lay people off if they're dependent on that, that, that income.
00:22:00.460Um, 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.
00:22:08.060A 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.
00:22:24.640And they, you know, the, the SIBA loan, what people fail to really understand, you know,
00:22:30.460my, my own personal experience, our rent was 17 and a half thousand dollars a month.
00:22:36.040You know, we borrowed $60,000, but put that in perspective, how there's other costs as well.
00:22:41.800Like 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.
00:22:53.560And 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.
00:23:04.040So those are like just one small story of, of the, how many, like how many small business people have suffered and continue to suffer.
00:23:12.440And those who have made it out, you know, fantastic.
00:23:15.400And 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.
00:23:26.360If, if you really can, you know, it's not a soundbite.
00:23:32.320It'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.
00:23:41.940And, 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?
00:23:58.440I mean, it's, it's a little bit of a things for us to step up and do our part if we can now.
00:24:02.880So you've stepped up, you're in the legislature.
00:24:04.740You 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?
00:24:13.940I, 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.
00:24:19.860And the red tape just never seems to quite actually reduce it.
00:24:22.760Are there initiatives finally underway?
00:24:34.220I'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.
00:24:45.980And there are some initiatives also, we do have, uh, parliamentary secretary of small business, Tanya.
00:24:51.420And 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.
00:25:10.860Excellent. 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.
00:25:27.300Again, 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.
00:25:34.740Uh, the, the cure may be worse than the disease if, if something else comes up in the future.
00:25:39.260Correct. 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.
00:25:52.180And 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.
00:26:19.780Great. 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.
00:26:34.780So 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.
00:26:48.240I 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.
00:27:15.240You 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.
00:27:27.240You 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.
00:27:39.240But, 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.
00:27:46.240And when we leaned on the people who we expected to advocate for us, that, uh, that voice was, was no longer there.
00:27:54.240Well, 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.
00:28:06.240It's not over for small businesses, not even by a long shot.
00:28:09.240I mean, it's better than it was a few years ago, but a lot, if they haven't gone broke are still really struggling.
00:28:14.240So, 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.
00:28:23.240Yeah, no, I encourage, uh, every, every small business owner, please share your stories.
00:28:28.240Uh, I'll be working with some initiatives, uh, on some initiatives with, uh, with all of our, uh, UCP MLAs too.
00:28:35.240It'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.
00:28:43.240As, 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.
00:28:53.240You 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.
00:29:05.240So, uh, I'm sounding the alarm, please go out and support your local small businesses.
00:29:11.240Oh, it's absolutely important before I let you go.
00:29:13.240I mean, one of our commenters, Shirley Gervais said, you know, many of us send emails to our elected officials and receive no responses.
00:29:18.240And, 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.
00:29:28.240So 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.
00:29:35.240So I'm on all social media, uh, Twitter, Instagram, uh, Facebook, a little bit.
00:29:40.240Uh, my direct email, you know, is calgary.lawheed at assembly.ab.ca.
00:29:46.240And 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.
00:30:02.240And maybe, maybe try to try to get a response.
00:30:07.240I really appreciate you coming in today and then what you're, you're doing in the legislature.
00:30:11.240Uh, 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.
00:30:19.240No, thanks for, uh, the opportunity to give small business a voice.
00:30:23.240Um, 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.
00:30:31.240And I was talking to my wife on the way home.
00:30:34.240I said, you know, just how things changed and I'm happy to be where I am.
00:30:38.240I'd be just as happy running my business, but I feel that, uh, you know, I'm, I'm here for a purpose.
00:30:44.240And, uh, I thank you for, uh, giving me the opportunity to, uh, to, to be heard.
00:31:20.240They might have a different ideology than you, but they really do want to hear from you.
00:31:25.240And, uh, they are concerned about the businesses.
00:31:27.240Sometimes you might even actually help them, uh, understand things a little better.
00:31:31.240But 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.
00:31:39.240I mean, the worst that'll happen is they ignore you, but a lot of them pay more attention than people realize.
00:31:43.240And it's worth reaching out and communicating with them.
00:31:46.240So I appreciate him coming on because he has small business gets forgotten.
00:31:52.240I 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.
00:31:57.240But for your local community, plus I believe most Canadians are employed by small business, businesses of under like a hundred employees.
00:32:04.240That's where the majority of us are working.
00:32:06.240So, uh, but those are also the ones most vulnerable.
00:32:09.240They don't have a big capital pool to fall back on.
00:32:12.240If times get tough, if something happens, it's very difficult.
00:32:15.240As, as Mr. Bouchard said, he was in the hospitality industry.
00:32:17.240And as I said, I owned a pub for five years.
00:32:19.240I 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.
00:32:26.240As 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.
00:32:32.240When 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.
00:32:41.240They despise lending money to hospitality industry businesses.
00:33:04.240They might cash their RSPs, but again, it puts them in dire, dire trouble.
00:33:11.240If 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.
00:33:20.240So just reminding everybody, it's not over yet for a lot of the small businesses out there.
00:33:25.240The, the, the, the damage done by the bad policies, the restrictions during the pandemic is still being felt by a lot of people.
00:33:34.240Okay. I mentioned earlier, I wanted to talk a bit about legacy media.
00:33:37.240Yeah. One of my favorite areas to bash, it's a bit self-serving, but it's important.
00:33:41.240Something I saw last night on, on Twitter, it comes out, you know, or X, I should say CTV.
00:33:46.240What sort of headline? This is beautiful.
00:33:49.240Now the headline says terminally ill Palestinian prisoner dies after 38 years in Israeli custody.
00:33:56.240I'm going to tell you about a media term. It's called burying the lead.
00:34:00.240That'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.
00:34:09.240If 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.
00:34:15.240But 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.
00:34:21.240So, yes, it is true. A terminally ill Palestinian prisoner did die after 38 years in Israeli custody.
00:34:27.240If you see nothing but that headline, and unfortunately, a lot of people only read the headlines, you think that's terrible.
00:34:32.240Those darned Israelis keeping some poor man in jail for almost 40 years. They died of old age. This is awful. This is awful.
00:34:40.240You know, the part they forgot to mention is why was this man in custody for 38 years?
00:34:46.240But instead, CTV was going on about Walid Dhaka was the longest imprisoned Palestinian currently in jail in Israel.
00:34:53.240Oh, those nasty Israelis. Well, let's talk about it.
00:34:56.240In 1984, this Walid Dhaka kidnapped 19 year old Moshe Tamim when he got off a bus.
00:35:03.240And after he kidnapped him, he cut out Moshe's eyes. He castrated him. He slowly mutilated him.
00:35:09.240He tortured him almost to death before shooting him. That's why that walking piece of feces was in jail for 40 years.
00:35:18.240CTV neglected to mention that in their headline, okay?
00:35:22.240You can be critical of Israel. There's lots of room for it.
00:35:25.240You can be critical of Netanyahu. There's plenty to be critical.
00:35:28.240I really wish somebody less corrupt than him was leading Israel right now.
00:35:31.240But this kind of crap coming from our legacy media, this leading headline, making it sound like...
00:35:37.240And 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.
00:35:45.240And that's what they won't release in order, you know, with Hamas to swap as a prisoner swap.
00:35:51.240They'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.
00:36:04.240That'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.
00:36:11.240You 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.
00:36:22.240Don'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.
00:36:34.240It's just sickening. It's sickening. Make a real case, you guys. Don't try to undercut what happened.
00:36:39.240See, that's not the first time for CTV.
00:36:41.240If you might remember a while back, there was an activist, and she had Canadian ties. Her name was Vivian Silver.
00:36:46.240She was actually very pro-Hamas. She was very pro-Palestine, trying to help them out.
00:36:52.240Well, she got murdered. She was kidnapped and murdered on October 7th.
00:36:57.240And CTV came out there with this headline, Vivian Silver has died after being missing.
00:37:24.240And we've got to be realistic about it. You can't draw these moral equivalences between these things.
00:37:29.240But the media, the legacy media, guys, that's why, again, self-serving, I know, keep supporting the independent ones.
00:37:35.240We aren't always necessarily right, but you need balance. You need more going on.
00:37:40.240And that example, like I said, with burying the lead with CTV, that's the way they can take news items.
00:37:46.240And they're not exactly giving you misinformation.
00:37:50.240They're just packaging it in a way so that you don't see the full information.
00:37:55.240Another one that came up as well, when there was the hostage swap, I can't remember her name offhand.
00:38:00.240But they showed these terrible pictures of this person released from an Israeli prison.
00:38:05.240And 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.
00:38:11.240And there's this woman and her face is all burned.
00:38:13.240And she looked like a hot dog that had been on the barbecue way too long.
00:38:16.240Her fingers were all shriveled up and cooked.
00:38:18.240And, of course, people were freaking, say, look what happened to her in that Israeli prison.
00:38:22.240Again, 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.
00:39:25.240Oh, here goes Daniel Smith just fighting for the sake of fighting.
00:39:28.240And 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.
00:39:38.240Well, for one, this is one of my favorite things to keep pointing out to people.
00:39:44.240Quebec has just such a policy already.
00:39:46.240Why is it always quite all right when Quebec asserts its provincial authority, but Albertans are always arseholes when they do?
00:40:12.240He bypasses the local government that is in charge of that jurisdiction in areas like housing and things like that.
00:40:17.240He dangles the money for political points in front of municipalities, but he leaves the rest of it to the province.
00:40:23.240The province has to deal with the administration.
00:40:24.240The province has to deal with the fallout.
00:40:26.240And 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.
00:40:36.240No, 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.
00:40:45.240So, I mean, think about who is upset by this legislation.
00:40:49.240Jody Gondek, yes, the worst mayor in Calgary in history.
00:42:47.240They're going to places where you can prosper.
00:42:49.240They're going to places with smaller government.
00:42:51.240They're going to places that aren't woke, that aren't ridiculous, that aren't stupid, like California, which is just going completely insane.
00:42:59.240California's raised the minimum wage for their fast food workers to $20 an hour.
00:43:06.240In California, 20 American dollars an hour.
00:44:12.240You want a better economy, you need the government to get out of the bloody way.
00:44:15.240That's the way to do it, not get in there further.
00:44:18.240So 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?
00:44:31.240They'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.
00:44:37.240And they can buy a home a lot cheaper.
00:44:58.240Both provinces are dealing with record overdoses.
00:45:01.240I 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.
00:45:10.240They're overdosing and they're dying in both provinces.
00:45:13.240But Alberta is really pushing on a treatment-focused agenda.
00:45:18.240So there's the announcement of that Canadian Centre for Recovery Excellence to work on best practices, mental health, and addiction services.