Western Standard - Triggered： As mask mandates drop, fear-mongers ramp up

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 good morning it's april 19th 2022 and welcome to triggered i'm cory morgan and you wouldn't think

00:00:39.820 it's april 19th looking outside it's snowing like crazy sounds like saskatchewan's gonna get blasted

00:00:44.660 yet again typical canadian spring global warming just can't come fast enough i think it's gonna

00:00:50.920 be a while before we're planting bananas and oranges in our yards yet despite the biggest

00:00:56.160 warnings coming from our climate hysterics. Either way, this is our live daily show. Comes

00:01:02.760 to you 1130 a.m. Monday to Friday. And again, as seeing with David saying good morning and others,

00:01:09.780 I like to encourage commentary questions and discourse back and forth. I saw some great

00:01:14.100 conversations going on between you guys in the comment scroll yesterday. It keeps things active.

00:01:19.600 I mean, live is a lot of work. It's difficult. It's hard for scheduling. We get technical bugs,

00:01:23.460 But I really think it's well worth it when we can have that interaction back and forth and just kind of take things where they go.

00:01:29.420 So thanks for tuning in and keep commenting, guys.

00:01:32.000 And, of course, keep it kind of civil, though, you know, we don't always have to agree, but we don't have to be rude with each other.

00:01:39.740 I've got an interesting show on today.

00:01:41.920 And, you know, I promoted that a little at the end of the show yesterday.

00:01:45.620 I've got A.J. Galante.

00:01:46.980 He was from a Netflix documentary about the Danbury trashers out in Connecticut. 0.86

00:01:54.580 It was a UHL team that his father bought for him, and they turned it into quite the goon squad.

00:02:02.360 It's actually a documentary. It was called Untold. It's really worth watching. 0.51

00:02:06.060 It's quite funny and quite interesting, though they do seem to be drawn to a bit of violence.

00:02:11.380 Their family is connected, or was, with the Gambino family out east.

00:02:14.960 And you can imagine that, you know, they look at things a little different in their business front than others.

00:02:19.260 And they're bringing an event to Alberta.

00:02:21.100 We're going to talk about that.

00:02:22.120 So it should be interesting.

00:02:23.020 You don't have to support what they're going with.

00:02:24.460 But, hey, it doesn't always have to be politics.

00:02:26.720 And it's going to be unusual talk, I think.

00:02:29.900 I got Shane Wenzel coming on, too, from Shane Holmes.

00:02:32.160 Shane's been on, you know, a couple of times before.

00:02:34.280 He's active on social media.

00:02:35.860 He speaks out.

00:02:36.560 He's, you know, him and his father are philanthropists and prominent business owners in Calgary.

00:02:41.060 and he wrote a column talking about what Jason Kenney inherited as a premier and the challenges

00:02:46.520 he's dealt with. And we'll just talk about business issues in general and the challenges

00:02:49.940 in Alberta. It's always a good talk with Shane. Brings us back to the political stuff that I

00:02:56.120 always talk about. So we'll get that balanced today. We'll start things off now with my usual

00:03:00.580 ranting. In some senses, it's celebratory because I've been watching all of the news as the mask

00:03:06.780 mandates were dropped in the United States on airplanes. It took a court order to do it,

00:03:11.360 but they did do so. And see, masks have become the symbol for fighting against COVID-19. It's

00:03:16.580 the visible thing we have. No matter how low the pandemic numbers might get, there's always going

00:03:20.800 to be some people hysterically demanding we all cover our faces for fear of spreading the bug

00:03:25.440 further. And masks, like I said, are at the top of the news today because they were struck down,

00:03:30.180 the mandates in the United States for air travel. Those videos are great. Most of those people on

00:03:35.520 those planes, as soon as they heard it, they immediately tore off those chin diapers and

00:03:39.160 gasped in grateful relief, as would I if I was one of those planes. Of course, CNN viewers

00:03:44.460 recoiled in horror and triple masks to make sure to stay safer. The media is already awash, of

00:03:50.260 course, with stories and experts predicting doom and gloom due to this latest mask development.

00:03:55.440 It's not hard to write their panic porn scripts. They're actually pretty predictable.

00:03:59.160 There's no solid evidence after over two years into the pandemic that masks have had anything

00:04:03.820 more than a negligible impact upon spread. They're still pushed hard by the media, though,

00:04:08.640 politicians and authoritarians in general. In Alberta, it's been about seven weeks since the

00:04:13.660 mask mandates were lifted. News at that time reported in hushed tones as they scoured the

00:04:18.200 internet to find internets to warn us this move was premature and surely would lead to mass

00:04:22.400 uncontrolled infections and deaths. People were sought out in the street for interviews, and

00:04:26.740 amazingly, every one of those people felt the masks should remain mandated and insisted they

00:04:31.280 would continue wearing theirs no matter what the laws were. Well, now we're nearly two months in

00:04:35.260 and the panic porn aficionados have been terribly disappointed. The world hasn't ended. We're doing

00:04:40.480 no better or no worse than any other area for pandemic numbers. The bodies aren't piling up

00:04:44.880 and our hospitals, yeah, they remain on the brink of being overwhelmed just as they've always been.

00:04:49.260 They were like that before COVID too. That's a bigger and separate problem. Nearly nobody's

00:04:54.160 bothering to wear masks indoors any longer if they don't have to. It's almost as if the media

00:04:57.880 had cherry-picked the people they interviewed when the masks came off, but they wouldn't do

00:05:01.360 that, would they? The story is the same everywhere around the world. It's almost as if mandates and

00:05:05.760 lockdowns don't actually work. I mean, no country has kept COVID at bay. Even China, where they've

00:05:10.940 literally imprisoned tens of millions of people in their homes while literally slaughtering their 0.91

00:05:15.520 house pets, haven't managed to keep a lid on COVID. Don't think for a second, though, we don't have

00:05:19.700 the same kind of crazed authoritarians in Canada who would like to try the same thing. I mean,

00:05:24.420 Justin Trudeau himself said he admired China's basic dictatorship

00:05:27.640 because it allows them to get things done.

00:05:30.220 A recent poll has found that at least a quarter of Canadians

00:05:33.060 have been infected with COVID at least once so far.

00:05:35.940 The numbers are surely much higher,

00:05:37.180 as many people catch and recover COVID without even knowing it.

00:05:40.140 Yeah, that's how bad it is.

00:05:42.580 Vaccinations have been proven to reduce negative outcomes,

00:05:46.180 but do little to stop the spread of COVID.

00:05:48.380 Oh, I know. Spare me the emails. I'm not bending on that one.

00:05:50.500 I still support free choice in vaccination, though.

00:05:52.540 and that's all that matters is the free choice.

00:05:55.220 Either way, it's clear this bug

00:05:56.780 is simply gonna have to run its course

00:05:58.260 and most of us are gonna eventually catch and recover from it.

00:06:01.120 This could take years

00:06:02.080 and the waves will measure in the double digits.

00:06:04.520 The masks are pointless.

00:06:05.940 At best, they might delay the inevitable a little bit

00:06:08.360 and then even then that remains pretty questionable.

00:06:10.620 So why do we have this ongoing hysteric push for masks?

00:06:13.560 Well, it's all about control.

00:06:15.240 That's the word, control, nothing more.

00:06:17.640 Masks are a symbol of supplication,

00:06:19.820 especially when they're forced on somebody.

00:06:21.240 I mean, think of the Man in the Iron Mask by Dumas, or look at a BDS and M site.

00:06:26.620 Masks are used to cow and humiliate people.

00:06:29.600 But the federal government, led by a fool who initiated a version of the War Measures Act to shut down peaceful protests,

00:06:34.820 it really isn't beyond belief that they want to keep citizens' masks to keep a virtual heel upon their necks.

00:06:40.540 Trudeau has said he wants to see a great reset.

00:06:42.780 That won't happen until the population is effectively subdued, and masks are a great psychological step towards that.

00:06:48.960 The reset agenda needs people to remain in fear.

00:06:52.320 Since COVID isn't really harming a relatively large number of people,

00:06:55.620 authoritarians need other ways to keep people scared.

00:06:58.200 Having a large number of people wandering around in this weird dystopian world

00:07:01.520 marked by social distancing while wearing masks

00:07:03.560 is a pretty fantastic way to keep the fear going.

00:07:06.180 On a more local level, the impetus for mask mandates may be as benign

00:07:09.500 as just being the act of lazy governments who want to appear there

00:07:12.860 to be actually doing something to battle COVID without actually having to do so much.

00:07:17.460 Still, it's a useless and damaging gesture and act.

00:07:20.000 Masks aren't harmless, and they're more than a short-term inconvenience.

00:07:24.040 The trend is moving in the right direction, but it remains a battle.

00:07:27.120 We have unions and local governments across Canada still fighting to keep or return mask mandates.

00:07:32.020 We can't stop COVID, but we can return to a semblance of normalcy.

00:07:35.760 We just have to keep pressing until every pandemic mandate and restriction is gone.

00:07:40.620 The masks are just the most visible of these restrictions.

00:07:42.980 That's why authoritarians are fighting so hard to keep them, though.

00:07:45.420 and we must continue to fight hard to get rid of the bloody things. It's the only way we're

00:07:50.640 getting back to normal. Okay, there's my rant and where I'm getting going. And like I said,

00:07:54.700 it was somewhat positive. We're moving the right way. Now let's check in on other news. We got a

00:07:59.040 lot of reporting and a lot of stuff lined up. We've got Eva Siddick coming in from the Calgary

00:08:03.740 office to give us a rundown on the news in Calgary and Alberta and Canada in general. It's the

00:08:10.500 Western Standard. How's it going, Eva? I'm okay. How are you, Corey? Not too bad. I'm not masked.

00:08:16.420 Yeah, I'm not masked, but I'm staring at the snow outside the window. It's not making me happy.

00:08:21.040 Yeah, well, at least we work indoors. Yeah, that's true. Our Saskatchewan reporter,

00:08:26.360 Chris Oldcorn, tells me there's another blizzard going to ramp up and hit Saskatchewan soon. So

00:08:32.100 to cheer people up, he wrote another story, though, on how you can start booking campsites

00:08:37.500 tomorrow to camp in Saskatchewan and plan your summer vacations. We have another story up about

00:08:44.920 a BC senator explaining how he's been threatened for his pro-China remarks. He's an advocate of

00:08:51.960 the China-Canada Friendship Society, and he said Chinese Canadians must be free to agree with the

00:08:59.680 Communist Party without being stigmatized. It turns out during the Freedom Convoy protests,

00:09:06.120 the Ottawa mayor was in regular contact with Justin Trudeau following a confirmed phone call

00:09:12.680 between the two on January 31st the mayor and other city officials started digging into the

00:09:18.600 GoFundMe donations. Read the details and the allegations and other phone calls on that article

00:09:24.620 there. Canadian packaged packaging meat company Maple Leaf is continuing to implement vaccine

00:09:32.720 requirements for employees even though mask mandates and vaccine requirements haven't been

00:09:37.520 implemented in a while a labor arbitrator upheld the mandatory vaccination policy but is giving

00:09:45.360 employees six more weeks to comply moving the disciplinary deadline from march 31st to may 31st

00:09:52.720 in alberta the college of physicians and surgeons quarterly data shows doctor registration and

00:09:58.720 retainment is in the gutter. 2022 has been the second worst first quarter performance

00:10:05.840 of the last six years. We are down 188 doctors in the province since December of 2021.

00:10:14.240 That's a big drop, something to be worried about and look into.

00:10:18.720 The FDA in the US has given emergency authorization for a breathalyzer style COVID test.

00:10:26.160 The breath sampler is the size of a carry-on luggage and gives you results within three

00:10:32.400 minutes. Look at the size of that thing. I think it's pretty cool, pretty interesting to see that.

00:10:39.360 Canada hasn't said anything if they're going to approve this device yet, but that would be an

00:10:44.960 interesting drive-up experience to do a huge breathalyzer test. That picture looks a little

00:10:50.880 disturbing to me actually but uh whatever yeah interesting is my description

00:10:58.560 but i thought that was cool and everyone should see that um the canadian feds are paying 5.94

00:11:05.680 billion dollars to corporations housing developers and lobbyists to plant 2 billion trees

00:11:12.080 um this program was announced three years ago but is uh the federal budget showed that

00:11:16.800 the numbers coming out now in 2021. Our real estate man Mike Thomas also has a

00:11:27.240 piece up on the soaring housing prices as they continue. In upcoming news the

00:11:34.040 Canadian Transport Minister has made a decision on if Canada will follow the US

00:11:39.240 lifting masks on airplanes and other transportations. Melanie will have a

00:11:43.620 story up shortly on if that's a yes or no, if Canadians will see any relief there.

00:11:49.980 And also coming up, we have a man in Regina who won the Lotto Max, and he won $70 million

00:11:56.220 tax-free. I'm also looking into that with Chris to find out if he is single or not.

00:12:03.880 I imagine he'll get more than a few invitations to couple up, even if he's not at some points. I

00:12:09.100 mean, it's easier than working for 11, I guess. Well, I mean, 70 million, it can only go a little

00:12:15.720 ways, but it doesn't hurt to be friendly, right? Yeah. Well, there's nothing to be lost in it.

00:12:21.720 Right on. Okay. Well, then that's what's topping things right now in the newsroom.

00:12:27.280 Yes. That's what we got going. Okay. Well, I appreciate the check-in and I'll let you get

00:12:33.220 back to writing up those stories as they come out then. Thanks. Have a great show. Great. Thanks,

00:12:37.480 Eva. So yes, that was our Alberta Calgary reporter there, Eva Siddick. We send her out into all sorts 0.83

00:12:43.840 of field situations and awkward spots. Dave wanted me to put her on the spot today, but you know I

00:12:48.460 haven't had her for a check-in for a while yet, so we thought we'd be nice. But Eva, we're going to

00:12:53.800 do something to you next time. But that's all part of the training and being in a new media outlet

00:12:58.680 too. You've got to be able to think on your feet and go with things as they get thrown at you

00:13:02.340 unexpectedly. And, uh, well, we'll help train things as much as we possibly can. You know,

00:13:07.580 it's funny. So yeah, you know, as Cheryl said, the mouthpiece for that breath, uh,

00:13:10.500 sure looks like a plastic straws. Like how intrusive are we going to get? How far is it

00:13:15.700 going to get? What is with this obsessive and insane fixation with testing? I mean,

00:13:21.100 we know we're getting it. We know what's going around. Uh, I, I, these authoritarian lunatics,

00:13:27.200 I don't want it at a point and I can see that coming and that's what they're working towards

00:13:31.400 where you're not going to be able to go to a restaurant until you kneel down like that picture

00:13:35.520 shows and blow on a COVID testing unit. I mean, it's humiliating and it's pointless. But this is

00:13:43.460 where we're going. And then look at the expenses. I can see that now. Every restaurant, you thought

00:13:47.680 COVID passports were bad? Well, now these businesses are going to have to spend the money

00:13:51.400 to put these testing units at the front door of every one of their places. Yeah, I'm going to be

00:13:56.200 eager to go out for supper and bring somebody, you know, out to meet a group. And then you're

00:14:02.360 all going to have to bow down and fillet a straw in front of the place in order to enter it.

00:14:07.400 But there's no end to this. They just won't let it go. It's the COVID zero cult and they're insane.

00:14:12.980 But it keeps coming and coming. We got to keep pushing back. That's all we can do.

00:14:16.720 So I'm going to, you know, remind everybody before we move towards our next guest,

00:14:20.380 all of those stories and more of course are on the western standard online.com check it out for

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00:16:45.700 Okay. I see Mr. Galante in the waiting area. If he's ready to roll, maybe we'll pull him into

00:16:50.200 the broadcast and have a talk. I've been looking forward to this. This is very interesting. You

00:16:54.620 know, I need a break from all this political rambling and hey, we're in hockey country,

00:16:58.340 we're in sports country. And well, it's a mixed reviews on whether people like the fights,

00:17:02.920 but for those of us who do, they got some interesting stuff going on. So let's bring

00:17:05.900 AJ into the stream here and have a conversation. Hello, Mr. Galandi. How you doing?

00:17:10.980 Hello. How are you? Thanks for having me.

00:17:13.160 Well, I really appreciate it. It was an interesting thing when it came across the

00:17:17.060 desk. I've talked to some people before about that. You know, I'd seen already. I was familiar

00:17:22.640 with you. I'd watched that documentary last fall. It was outstanding. It was certainly unique and

00:17:29.360 different. As a Canadian guy who grew up again, you know, watching Slapshot and seeing something

00:17:34.720 of a real live version of it created out in the Eastern States was quite striking. So to see that

00:17:40.360 you're on to something new, I was just, this is great. We've got to get these guys on there.

00:17:45.020 Thank you. I really appreciate it. It's definitely been a whirlwind since, you know, that Netflix

00:17:51.200 documentary and it's just been crazy. And, you know, it's kind of been the story of my life,

00:17:57.020 just kind of getting myself involved with businesses or ventures, events out of nowhere.

00:18:04.520 So Ice Wars is just another chapter kind of in that randomness of my life,

00:18:10.440 but it's something, it's a project we've been working on for a while now

00:18:13.520 and couldn't be more excited, honestly.

00:18:16.980 Yeah, well, and since the Trashers, you've done some event promoting

00:18:20.180 and some boxing events and things such as that already,

00:18:23.040 so this was kind of an evolution from that, right?

00:18:25.580 Yeah, absolutely.

00:18:26.300 I mean, you know, growing up, you know, when I got involved with the Trashers and professional hockey, it was I kind of used my love of professional wrestling, you know, to help me promote the team.

00:18:37.440 And then after we lost the team, unfortunately, I got into professional boxing as a manager, a promoter.

00:18:43.380 And I've been in boxing now, geez, 11 years now.

00:18:47.200 And Ice Wars is kind of wrestling, Trashers, boxing all into one.

00:18:52.280 So everything I seem to get into every few years is just a melting pot, a culmination of all previous activities or things I used to do.

00:19:02.140 Well, yeah, I mean, fusion dining is really trendy right now.

00:19:05.040 We can mix Korean and Italian and things like that.

00:19:07.720 So let's take a mishmash and take the, well, debatable, the best of hockey, the best of boxing and maybe some wrestling and put it into one event.

00:19:17.080 So maybe if you could lay out what this event is then exactly.

00:19:19.400 I mean, just kind of break down what this is going to be about coming up next May in Edmonton.

00:19:23.900 Yeah, I mean, it's going to be it's it's, you know, to be honest with you, we're creating a new sport.

00:19:28.540 You know, this definitely won't be our last, our one and done type of event.

00:19:33.040 Basically, it's prize fighting on ice.

00:19:35.540 You know, we're kind of taking the the the lost art, I guess you could say, of hockey fights.

00:19:41.660 I guess that that, you know, like you said, debatable whether people like it or don't like it.

00:19:46.140 I personally grew up in the early 90s, loved it.

00:19:48.500 that's what drew me into hockey um you know we're it's basically some of the toughest professional

00:19:55.360 hockey players that that are still out there it's uh an event we're putting together it's

00:20:00.280 we're gonna have a king of the rink tournament it's an eight man one night only um you know

00:20:05.880 a tournament eight man tournament each bout is two one minute rounds and um we'll have some

00:20:11.640 special attraction bouts uh i was shocked how many guys were getting ready to get in line to do this

00:20:17.880 I thought, you know, I've been out of hockey now. I've been removed from it for going on 18 years.

00:20:24.580 And I know the game has changed drastically since I was involved.

00:20:28.840 And, you know, I know fighting is, you know, the physicality of hockey is kind of being turned away a little bit.

00:20:34.480 So I wasn't sure how many of those guys were still out there.

00:20:37.740 So one of the biggest things I was worried about when we put this team together to start this sport event, whatever you want to call it.

00:20:45.500 one of the things I worried about was the actual fighters I mean who's still out there and uh to

00:20:51.500 my surprise I mean between them a mix of younger guys that you know have an edge to them that

00:20:57.500 really can't you know uh demonstrate that in hockey right now because of the way the sport is

00:21:02.780 and some of the older guys guys my age in their mid-30s that you know have been retired a few

00:21:07.900 years are looking to you know give another go of it and uh I'm shocked I mean we're turning guys

00:21:13.620 away for this event there's been that you know a bit of a waiting list so we're super excited it's

00:21:18.660 going to be a unique event something different something extremely entertaining and i think i

00:21:24.020 think we're at 2022 i think we're in the i think we're in the need especially in the sports world

00:21:28.660 for something different and i think we're going to provide it well yeah we can certainly hear

00:21:32.500 some distraction and i know some people again they they dismiss it but i mean i i remember back

00:21:36.740 to watching hockey out here in alberta in the 80s and the 90s i mean that was part of the games with

00:21:41.300 with the Battle of Alberta, when Calgary and Edmonton would play,

00:21:44.140 the game wasn't complete until Semenko and Hunter went at it.

00:21:46.700 That's just the way it went.

00:21:47.840 I mean, unless one of them was injured or something,

00:21:50.420 and then that would mean that the second enforcer would get out there.

00:21:53.300 I mean, it's changed.

00:21:54.300 It's not so much that, but when you would be in the stands,

00:21:57.000 hey, everybody cheers when there's a goal and a fantastic move by a player,

00:22:00.800 but the place really goes nuts when the fight breaks out.

00:22:03.320 You've got to admit it.

00:22:05.380 Anyone who's a real hockey fan that says that they don't stand up for a fight

00:22:10.480 if if it's going on again like i said you know we're not going to be everyone's cup of tea

00:22:15.280 you know the thing is you know we we're we're not worried about bring you know we're not trying to

00:22:20.240 convert fans that aren't combat sport fans you know we just know there's a niche market out there for

00:22:25.760 us i think we're going to bring in um i think people are going to be surprised the demographics

00:22:31.520 we bring in the the the variety of you know different you know young old uh i just i just

00:22:38.160 know it i've been in boxing now 11 years i mean i got a lot of people i deal with that you wouldn't

00:22:43.280 call traditional hockey fans that once they heard about this were like oh this is awesome i've never

00:22:47.680 even seen this before so it's something different and again you know what uh it's not really hockey

00:22:54.240 it's hockey players they're in hockey gear but let's be honest there's no sticks there's no pucks

00:22:59.040 there's no goals it's it's price fighting on ice so um it's definitely going to be different going

00:23:04.080 I think it's going to be a lot of fun.

00:23:06.100 And honestly, it's going to be a way to honor a lot of guys that, you know, yourself, me, we grew up, you know, a lot of hockey fans I knew grew up idolizing the enforcers, the tough guys, the goons, whatever you want to call them.

00:23:18.540 You know, when they leave the game, they don't get that ceremonial goodbye, you know.

00:23:24.060 So now, you know, this is a way we could kind of honor kind of the dinosaurs of the game, the guys that, you know, you don't see anymore.

00:23:30.760 So, you know, we've gotten so much feedback from old enforcers, goons, whatever you want to call them.

00:23:36.800 And they're whether they can publicly talk about it or not.

00:23:40.320 They're really supportive of what we're trying to do.

00:23:43.160 Good. I mean, Wayne Gretzky never could have been the great one if he didn't have that looming shadow behind him to make sure that, you know, if you mess with Gretzky, you're going to pay a terrible price for it.

00:23:51.380 I mean, it was the nature of the game then.

00:23:53.060 And I mean, some people saying, well, you know, you're celebrating the violence.

00:23:56.080 But I mean, it's always there. It's inherent.

00:23:58.080 I see it is. This is a way to vent it away.

00:24:00.360 I mean, for people who really want to watch that aspect, you guys are going to provide the means to see that directly.

00:24:05.560 And it takes less pressure, perhaps, off the professional teams to have that as a part of their elements.

00:24:10.080 I mean, it's not all that bad.

00:24:12.020 Absolutely.

00:24:12.700 Again, what I try to tell people is, and I guess it's hard to envision, but it's, again, one of the criticisms when I grew up, when I used to hear people who were anti-fighting in hockey, one of the things I used to hear was, well, what's the point of fighting?

00:24:26.720 You know, unless you're in the game or unless you're a true fan, you know, you understand what fighting does.

00:24:32.840 Like you just said, protecting Wayne Gretzky, that security blanket.

00:24:36.980 But, you know, a lot of people, well, what's the point?

00:24:40.380 Well, listen, this isn't hockey.

00:24:42.060 Ice Wars, these guys are fighting for a prize.

00:24:44.540 They're fighting for money, purse.

00:24:47.100 It's no different than boxing, what I'm involved in, you know, day and night.

00:24:51.040 It's no different than MMA.

00:24:53.680 It's a combat sport.

00:24:55.000 and again it's it's not going to appeal to everybody but i think we're going to do a lot

00:24:59.240 of fun things different things interactive things that um can bring in a lot of casual viewers

00:25:06.200 you're going to do a pay preventive use event so people can tune into this from anywhere

00:25:11.960 with that but for the physical event itself and that's what really caught my interest you chose

00:25:15.960 uh the river creek casino which is a fantastic venue in edmonton uh up here in central alberta

00:25:21.080 But I kind of wonder, like, why, you know, you're out in Connecticut out there, you know, and not to pry too much, but I mean, I believe your father's not even allowed into Canada for a few reasons right now.

00:25:33.100 Why did you choose Edmonton to kick this off?

00:25:36.600 Well, I'll be I'll be very honest with you.

00:25:38.500 I mean, we the original promotional group that that did an event like this 16 years ago, we've teamed with them.

00:25:45.700 They did the first one in I believe it was Prince George, British Columbia.

00:25:49.500 um and I gotta tell you growing up in the hockey world I always used to ask the trashers hey you

00:25:56.400 know they were mostly Canadian players I used to say hey where's the toughest guys from

00:26:00.040 some would say oh British Columbia some would say Saskatchewan but I always would hear about

00:26:05.480 Alberta now a fun fact I've never been to Canada when I go up to Edmonton it'll be my first time

00:26:10.460 so it's gonna have a special place in my heart personally but I gotta tell you I would always

00:26:15.460 hear about Alberta Alberta's got the toughest guys and uh it's just one of those things that

00:26:19.640 stuck with me for a decade and a half and I'm like you know what we're better to go to where

00:26:26.140 you know people think the toughest hockey players come from and uh you know the River Creek Casino

00:26:31.080 everyone's been so supportive and uh you know we're very loyal people you know they were one

00:26:35.540 of the first to kind of seek us you know they wanted us involved when they found out about

00:26:40.440 this event and uh you know what we're loyal and we're like you know what they showed faith in us

00:26:44.460 we want to show faith in them but uh really what what piqued my interest was i always remember

00:26:49.040 hearing all the toughest guys come from alberta so you know it's just one of those things that

00:26:53.100 just seemed to fit that's it and we're uh well we're an oil province so a lot of oil workers

00:26:58.040 agricultural and uh and the river casino that's on a first nations reserve and i tell you you want

00:27:03.280 some good tough hockey players in the junior leagues and levels you get those guys from the

00:27:07.040 reserve towns boy they can play hard and uh i'm sure there'll be a lot of local turnout for that

00:27:12.160 while they're at it i mean so you're not just drawing i guess from enforcers from the nhl but

00:27:16.800 people got to realize if they've been to junior games that's where you really see these guys go

00:27:20.080 at it the up-and-comers and it's strategic i mean they're not going straight at it and fighting in

00:27:24.200 hockey as as we said you know you're protecting your star players but at the same time it is

00:27:28.120 entertainment you've got to pull people in you got to pull the tickets and let's face it if they

00:27:31.420 pulled all the fighting out all together they're gonna lose viewers listen i you know when we when

00:27:37.080 we had the trasher, you know, the trashes for those two seasons. I mean, look, our job was to

00:27:41.760 win. Nothing came above winning. But listen, like you just said, Alberta, Danbury's a blue collar

00:27:47.480 town. You know what? How are we going to get people to keep coming back to our games? If games

00:27:52.380 are $20 a ticket, you know, if you come to eight games a month, that's $160. That's a bill for

00:27:59.440 people. So how are we going to get people to keep coming back? Don't get me wrong. It's all about

00:28:03.580 winning and we want to put a successful product but it's all also about the entertainment people

00:28:07.980 want to be entertained there's people that do enjoy this aspect of the sport and there's people

00:28:12.860 that enjoy combat sports in general and um like i said i mean i've been in boxing 11 years now

00:28:18.460 i have so many boxing people that are so excited for this event because they tell me all the time

00:28:23.580 when they saw the trashes documentary man we we we'd love to just see the fighting you know what

00:28:28.140 i mean and uh you know they may you know some of my boxing friends aren't too interested in

00:28:33.020 the stick handling and this and that and getting a hat trick maybe but uh listen when they see the

00:28:38.380 when they see the gloves drop they they their ears go up and they're ready to watch so i think we're

00:28:43.900 going to bring a different demographic and you know what people may learn more about hockey

00:28:49.260 through ice wars whether whether the nhl would ever consider that a possibility there may be

00:28:54.380 people that get interested in the sport of hockey through ice wars and i think you're going to see

00:28:58.540 that well i mean it is it is definitely tied together in some ways so this being the first

00:29:03.740 event it sounds like you've got a lot more planned presuming it's successful and everything what else

00:29:07.340 have you guys got planned going down the road like some american venues and uh just kind of moving

00:29:11.420 around like a regular event i imagine like any box yeah i mean again again equally as shocked

00:29:18.060 as i was with how many guys were willing to compete right away i was equally shocked how many

00:29:22.540 um territories were interested in and hosting us i mean obviously river creek casino out there

00:29:29.020 your guys's way was one of the first um you know obviously pretty much all of canada has been

00:29:34.800 interested in having us um a lot of places in in in the states um you know right here in danbury

00:29:40.520 you know home of the trashers i'd love to have something here eventually it would only make

00:29:44.440 sense um but we're listen you know our corporation is ice wars international and we intend on

00:29:50.460 honoring that name so we we plan on going all over and uh you know see we see where it takes

00:29:56.160 us but um no we're really you know all our eggs right now are in uh this uh may 21st basket and

00:30:02.460 we're super excited for it right yeah well i mean you know i've seen the word in the comment scroll

00:30:07.780 a few times coming up of gladiators but you know it's a human nature thing that's what you said

00:30:10.980 we've been doing this for a couple thousand years we're not killing each other out in the field

00:30:14.900 anymore they're just going to beat the hell out of each other for a while well listen you know

00:30:19.220 like i tell people it's the same thing when i got involved with boxing it's not it's not for

00:30:23.300 everybody um do i expect 10 million viewers of course not but i just know there is a need for

00:30:30.100 something like this right now um even the players they players tell me like i need to hit something

00:30:35.860 you know and uh you know what whether people want to you know whether people want to acknowledge it

00:30:40.580 or not we're all fighters in our own way whether you're in a suit and tie whether you're in the

00:30:45.220 oil fields, we're all fighting something. And I think we all have that burning fighting spirit.

00:30:50.080 And that's why I think combat sports do have that niche market of regulars that for whatever the

00:30:56.400 reason, it's their release. Some people like going to the ballet. I don't, but there's people that

00:31:01.120 love going there. So you know what? It's not going to be for everyone. And we're not trying

00:31:05.880 to convert those people. If they jump on the train, that would be great. But if not,

00:31:10.260 it's not going to stop us. That's it. I mean, a lot of people really

00:31:13.820 wagged their fingers when Don Cherry released his Rock'em Sock'em hockey series, you know,

00:31:17.500 which showed all the hard hits and some of the scraps. As you said, though, I mean, the guys

00:31:21.180 that were the goons, they didn't necessarily get the credit in the following years. So at least

00:31:24.640 they were immortalized in that series. And not everybody admitted that it was a good idea. But

00:31:28.720 it's funny, it was a bestseller. There's a market, people want to see it, whether they want to admit

00:31:32.340 it or not. Oh, yeah. And I agree with you. I mean, and, you know, going back to the Trasher days,

00:31:38.260 I could tell you the best locker room guys, the best guys off the ice were the quote unquote goons.

00:31:45.000 They would do anything for the kids.

00:31:47.860 You know, we always had we were very lucky, you know, in the two seasons with the Danbury Trashers.

00:31:52.340 We were very lucky with the type of players we had.

00:31:54.480 Everyone was good guys.

00:31:55.620 But I got to tell you, the guys that always went over and above for charities or appearances or talking with the kids or staying after the game to sign a thousand sticks.

00:32:05.100 They were always the goons.

00:32:06.440 And you know what?

00:32:07.600 there's a reason why people love them and uh it's they just are the most humble guys and i've grown

00:32:13.600 to find you know those those guys are what people really pay for whether like you said um there may

00:32:19.960 not be a wayne gretzky mario lemieux or right you know there may not be those guys without their

00:32:25.280 security blankets well that's it and the enforcers i mean the reason they're nice off the ice is

00:32:29.640 because they got it out of their systems while they're on the ice exactly guys that you gotta

00:32:33.620 watch out for they're looking to get something out of their system yeah that's great well we'll just

00:32:38.180 kind of review before i let you go i appreciate you coming on so it's going to be may 21st at

00:32:42.580 the river cree casino i imagine uh ticket master or somebody has a means for buying uh seats in

00:32:48.500 person yeah absolutely we're on ticket master live right now on tickets start at 65 bucks on great

00:32:54.980 value they're also available i believe at the river you know the river creek casino the box office

00:33:00.260 um so yeah two ways to get them uh obviously we'll be you know live on pay-per-view 20 bucks

00:33:06.500 great value on fight it's called the the the stream is called fight f-i-t-e and um listen

00:33:13.460 it's gonna it's gonna be a lot of fun and uh you know you never forget your first so this is

00:33:17.860 definitely the one to tune into yeah well sometimes the first could be a little awkward to look back

00:33:22.580 on too that's true too that's very true too yes hopefully it all goes well and is memorable for

00:33:29.620 all the right reasons so i'm really looking forward to it i'll see if i can't get up to

00:33:33.300 edmonton to take that in and like you said there's the pay-per-view for those who can't

00:33:36.820 hopefully a lot of bars in that run that i mean it's getting into playoff season you want to look

00:33:40.260 at some other uh distractions along with uh uh absolutely hey you know what you know what it's

00:33:47.060 always always good to have uh it's always good to have options that's right all right well thank you

00:33:52.580 very much again for joining me i was looking forward to it i'm looking forward to the event

00:33:55.860 So, uh, well, let's hope she all goes well for you.

00:33:59.000 Thanks, buddy.

00:33:59.760 Thank you so much.

00:34:00.620 Anytime.

00:34:01.380 All right.

00:34:03.040 So that was AJ Galante.

00:34:04.840 And yeah, as I said, some of those who have seen the, uh, the documentary on it, it's

00:34:10.300 striking.

00:34:10.940 It really is.

00:34:11.500 As Cheryl said, she watched it and you know, the documentary isn't all that violent.

00:34:14.740 It's not the same as watching the, whatever this ice wars events going to be like.

00:34:18.120 Uh, it's quite just a unique sort of thing on, on, um, on Netflix.

00:34:23.900 And I mean, the main thing that was being said,

00:34:25.640 a lot of people say, you know, it's vicious, it's shallow.

00:34:28.160 They're right, but that's what it's about.

00:34:30.280 And if it's not for you,

00:34:31.460 like I know there's no way I'd be able to drag Jane

00:34:33.180 to something like this in a million years,

00:34:35.880 she would have none of it.

00:34:37.200 But for those who like watching this kind of thing,

00:34:39.220 hey, get on it.

00:34:39.880 And I honestly think, as I was saying with AJ,

00:34:42.680 this can draw a little of that away

00:34:44.920 from the ice on other leagues.

00:34:46.900 If that's all a guy really has in him,

00:34:48.560 if that's all he really wants to do,

00:34:50.220 well, there's where that person can get involved.

00:34:52.540 or if that's all somebody really wants to watch,

00:34:55.020 takes that pressure off of the NHL

00:34:57.060 or some of those smaller teams to get out there

00:34:59.480 and make a violent thing on the ice.

00:35:02.360 It's going to be different.

00:35:03.720 It's going to be interesting.

00:35:05.400 And as I said, I still find it a little interesting

00:35:07.320 with these guys picking Edmonton. 0.89

00:35:09.940 Of course, you see, when you're on a First Nations casino,

00:35:13.000 you can avoid a heck of a lot of regulations

00:35:15.580 and problems and issues like that.

00:35:17.500 I suspect there might be a bit going on to do with it there.

00:35:20.520 I didn't want to ask, since again,

00:35:21.860 And their family's had some challenges with some things

00:35:23.980 and the occasional run-in with the law.

00:35:25.980 But whether there's going to be any forms of betting allowed

00:35:28.220 on this sort of thing or what's going on,

00:35:29.860 it is at a casino.

00:35:31.020 I imagine there'll be some informal bets made on things.

00:35:33.880 So check them out, though, icewars.com.

00:35:36.340 It's something a little different.

00:35:37.620 Like I said, it gives you a break from politics,

00:35:40.000 gives me a break from politics going into

00:35:41.560 some of those sorts of things as well.

00:35:44.620 I mean, you don't always have to rant.

00:35:46.040 And of course, I'm going to be into politics and stuff

00:35:47.460 for the rest of the show.

00:35:48.340 Anyways, maybe I should speak about one of our sponsors,

00:35:51.020 things that help pay our bills like ice wars isn't sponsoring us but hey aj if you're still

00:35:55.000 watching you know give me a call we can uh get formal with that but uh the cssa and that's the

00:36:01.300 canadian shooting sports association these guys have been a great sponsor for us an ongoing

00:36:06.500 sponsor i got to go and meet them actually i interviewed tony bernardo from them uh last

00:36:11.160 weekend at the gun show in calgary it was a big one you can find that on the western standard on

00:36:15.900 our youtube site if you want to see what tony bernardo is about and the canadian shooting

00:36:18.980 Sports Association, and they are what it sounds like. It's an association. If you're interested

00:36:23.640 in firearms, you take part in firearms. This is where you have a resource, and you can network

00:36:32.200 with other firearm owners. You can keep up with firearm news. As you can see, there's target

00:36:36.580 shooting. There's black powder rifles. There's videos on safe firearm use, and they'll link you

00:36:41.080 to where there are other trade shows, gun shows, things like that. I was actually surprised by the

00:36:44.800 amount of people who came up. We had a booth at the gun show last weekend with the Western

00:36:48.960 Standard. I tweeted it out a few times and I had a few people come up and say, geez, I didn't even

00:36:52.620 know what was going on this weekend until you tweeted it. So unfortunately, not all these shows

00:36:56.600 are great at promoting. The Canadian Firearms or Shooting Sports Association, they make sure they've

00:37:01.420 always got a listing of all those. So you know they're coming. You don't want to miss them. I

00:37:04.380 mean, a lot were shut down due to this bloody COVID crap for the last couple of years. So

00:37:07.980 Canadian Shooting Sports Association, their URL is cssa-cila.org. If you own a firearm,

00:37:17.700 Get on there and take out a membership.

00:37:19.780 They're standing up for you as well with court challenges.

00:37:22.860 All right, let's talk about leaf blowers.

00:37:25.360 There, that'll change the subject a little bit, eh?

00:37:27.420 I don't know if people saw it.

00:37:28.420 I've been tweeting about it.

00:37:29.180 I put a poll on it, at Corey B. Morgan on Twitter.

00:37:31.920 We'll see what happens with that.

00:37:32.880 I think it was about 98% opposed to banning gas leaf blowers.

00:37:38.200 Whatever.

00:37:39.120 You know, I listen, like I said,

00:37:40.660 these are things that give me inspiration

00:37:41.800 while I'm driving in in the Calgary traffic

00:37:43.620 and I torture myself with talk radio.

00:37:45.740 just that reminder by the way danielle smith she's doing her show it was a great kickoff 0.93

00:37:49.920 yesterday she's going to be on again tomorrow morning kind of the last good voice and talk

00:37:54.080 radio in my view there's some good people within talk radio still but they're so restrained and

00:37:58.080 and uh controlled that the shows are just boring now so either way i still have to listen to them

00:38:03.000 on the way in or i make myself so i can see what's up and yes a petition at that time i think it's

00:38:07.480 gone over a thousand now but it's an internet petition and at that time it's 700 signatures

00:38:12.300 on it going to our city hall by a bunch of hipsters trying to ban gas-powered leaf blowers. Oh yes,

00:38:17.260 this is the event of the century. I think California did so a little while ago too,

00:38:20.740 you know, but that's a state so stupid that they're having brownouts constantly all summer

00:38:24.860 yet are shutting down their own power generation source as well. The Calgary, we've got a bunch

00:38:30.500 of hipsters pushing to ban gas-powered leaf blowers. Now, you know, some people have pointed

00:38:37.820 out since I've talked about that, that the electric ones are really good. They're quiet,

00:38:41.720 they're very affordable now and they're not too bad. And that's great. There's nothing wrong with

00:38:46.920 that. The bottom line is we've got to stop banning stuff all the time. If the electric blowers are

00:38:50.600 getting that good, people will go out and buy them. But that's not the mentality of the crazed

00:38:56.240 controlling left. That's not the way they want to go. But what gets me most of all is the baloney

00:39:01.320 that they put out on how bad these things supposedly are for the environment. These

00:39:05.680 numbers are pure BS. There's no getting around it. I mean, so here we go with one of the numbers I

00:39:10.380 got from, I think it was Peter Oliver. He's sort of like the head hipster in the Calgary Beltline

00:39:15.000 era. And Stephen Carter, who was the weasel-in-chief for Gondek and a number of other

00:39:19.340 unprincipled politicians, was actually getting into a fight with Councillor Dan McLean over

00:39:24.080 that. Either way, side notes. They're putting this, so saying, for the best-selling commercial

00:39:28.640 leaf blower, one hour of operation emits smog-forming pollution comparable to driving a 2017 Toyota

00:39:34.480 Camry. A specific car. About 1,100 miles, they say. Really? Really? You know, to run a leaf blower

00:39:42.120 for an hour takes maybe a liter of mixed fuel. But apparently, that causes as much pollution

00:39:48.660 as, I mean, I don't know all the rest of the cars, but I do know apparently with a 2017 Toyota Camry,

00:39:53.660 if you drove at 1,100 miles, it would be the same amount. Somehow, that liter of gas is more

00:39:59.420 polluting than the what hundred and some liters it would take to drive that far. Wow. Their math

00:40:05.860 is something special, isn't it? But that wasn't enough. That wasn't enough. Cause I saw another

00:40:10.720 one put out there is this is on the petition link. This is one from Peter Oliver. Uh, and this one

00:40:16.540 says the pollution from gas powered leaf blowers is breathtakingly high. According to a study by

00:40:21.020 Edmonds, um, a half hour of yard work. Oh yeah. They've upped the game half an hour, not an hour

00:40:26.240 anymore uh with a two-stroke leaf blower you know it's the one where you're gonna mix the gas

00:40:31.360 is now equivalent to a 6200 kilometer drive from texas to alaska in a 6200 pound ford f-150 raptor

00:40:40.880 holy how are these leaf blowers making so much damage the equivalent that liter of gas apparently

00:40:49.040 is as polluting as not just any F-150 Raptor, but a 6,200-pound F-150 Raptor going all the way

00:40:56.620 from Texas to Alaska. What a load of crap. What are they going to say next? It's the equivalent

00:41:01.360 of taking an aircraft carrier from Newfoundland all the way around the Suez Canal and getting

00:41:08.100 over there to the Middle East. Come on, you guys. What a bunch of crap. But, okay, crap and insanity

00:41:13.780 and extremism. That's nothing new. But these guys make the news. These guys get considered. You can

00:41:20.060 bet this petition is going to be taken seriously. It's going to be brought before city council.

00:41:25.140 They're going to debate this. And looking at some of those clowns on city council, I can see them

00:41:29.580 actually bringing it in, banning these things. Now, again, people say, oh, it's just a minor

00:41:36.020 inconvenience. Isn't everything that gets banned always a minor inconvenience? Somebody else will

00:41:40.020 always tell you it's just a minor inconvenience. No, it's not. It's an investment. I mean, those

00:41:44.840 leaf blowers, a good gas leaf blower. I got one at home. I think it cost me about 300 bucks.

00:41:48.320 Not the end of the world, but it's a few hundred bucks and I want to keep using it.

00:41:51.460 And what about landscape companies? Those are the guys who use them the most. And these aren't

00:41:54.820 rich companies. These are often small companies that are out there. What they do at the end of

00:41:58.880 their job, they usually take a leaf blower, blow off the sidewalk, blow out the flower beds a

00:42:02.380 little bit. They use gas powered ones. And yes, they can switch to electric. We're always back

00:42:06.480 to that getting too electric thing. But let them do it over time. These small companies that might

00:42:11.100 have infested thousands on leaf blowers now suddenly would have to invest on a bunch of

00:42:15.740 electric ones. This comes with a cost. But of course, the jerks, and they are jerks in city

00:42:20.320 council, these guys have no clue what it's like to be a small business person. That's why they tax

00:42:24.020 and regulate the crap out of them all the time. It's this nickel and dime stuff that puts them

00:42:28.340 under. It pressures them. It's always one thing after another after another. But that's the issue

00:42:34.580 of the day in calgary city council i mean where are these lunatics get these numbers and how can

00:42:39.080 they even report this with a straight face it's it's just staggering but of course the media didn't

00:42:45.060 question those numbers i didn't hear that in the radio this morning they weren't saying these

00:42:48.200 they sound a little bit exaggerated ah they just report it you know these apparently this

00:42:54.300 groundswell of calgarians opposing leaf blowers i haven't checked my twitter poll yet but like i

00:42:58.380 said it was good 95 or so percent of uh respondents you know there had been a few hundred or something

00:43:02.540 on my pool said, no, we don't need to ban them. But I mean, I got to admit, the people who follow

00:43:06.900 me on Twitter are a very biased pool. So how accurate that might be, I don't know. But I don't

00:43:13.700 think we really have a lot of Calgarians with that being top of mind for what they'd like to see.

00:43:19.060 One person on Twitter who goes by Malta, though, that was great. He pointed out that banning 0.91

00:43:22.680 Trudeau's flights to Whistler to go skiing and his flights to the Vancouver Island to go surfing

00:43:27.840 would probably reduce emissions far more than banning any leaf blowers. So maybe if we just

00:43:32.540 made old clown shoes there pay for his own flights for a while,

00:43:35.860 we'd save the world from a great deal of emissions.

00:43:37.780 But, you know, that would be a better priority in my view.

00:43:42.320 Ah, where else have we got here?

00:43:43.580 And looking at some of the things, you know,

00:43:45.660 here's something when it gets to bureaucracy and somewhere where it hurts us.

00:43:48.560 This is a, I think Eva mentioned this story.

00:43:51.860 So there's a waiting to swear allegiance.

00:43:54.580 The Department of Immigration said foreigners who pass all requirements

00:43:57.240 to take their oath of citizenship should take their oath within 120 days.

00:44:02.280 Well, fine, but they got a backlog of 60,000 people who paid all their fees and passed all

00:44:08.100 their tests. These are eager new Canadians. These are people who want to get out here and fully

00:44:13.180 participate and be Canadian and take part in the economy. And they're held up by this ridiculous

00:44:19.380 thing where they can't seem to find enough bureaucrats to take their swearing of the oath

00:44:24.300 of allegiance. And it's a legal requirement. It's not just a token thing. They have to have it done

00:44:28.760 to finish their immigration process.

00:44:30.660 You know, we talk about ways

00:44:31.860 to have bureaucracy streamline the country,

00:44:34.100 make things more efficient,

00:44:35.880 yet the government can't even get this one straight.

00:44:37.680 You can't even manage to get people together

00:44:39.320 to take an oath of allegiance.

00:44:41.560 They said, oh, we're rushing.

00:44:42.560 We're going to hire 500 processing staff.

00:44:44.760 We're continuing to hire more.

00:44:46.360 How much does it take?

00:44:47.840 I don't get it.

00:44:49.600 Jane is a, oh, I got it wrong.

00:44:52.160 I can't remember the, you know,

00:44:53.080 I believe it's a commissioner of all.

00:44:54.460 She had to go through some steps.

00:44:55.440 It's one of the things she does as a bookkeeper.

00:44:57.940 And that's really all you need to go as far as that goes.

00:45:01.100 It's just you assure that a person is the real individual in front of them.

00:45:04.280 And you give a stamp to say, this person said this in front of me and move on.

00:45:07.820 But apparently the government needs to hire 500 more people to try and keep up with this.

00:45:12.300 Meanwhile, it's something that, you know, it sounds comical, but it's serious.

00:45:16.120 We have 60,000 excited, happy new Canadians who want to get in and take part in things.

00:45:21.960 They want to do this ceremony.

00:45:23.220 They want to look forward to it.

00:45:24.300 and they're looking at four months or more of getting this oath done. Welcome to Canada.

00:45:31.740 You know, I mean, I'm glad we're taking people in. I'm glad we're taking in the refugees from 1.00

00:45:36.000 Ukraine. I'm glad we're taking in refugees from around the world. But I mean, man, they got to

00:45:39.720 shake their heads and wonder, you know, okay, they're not war-torn over here in Canada, but boy,

00:45:43.580 a lot of them are sure pretty stupid. But well, maybe they'll help increase our pool of smart

00:45:48.860 people and our economy will be better for it. There's no reason given for the delays, by the

00:45:55.240 way. The federal court ruled the oath is no mere formality, though. It's a legal requirement.

00:45:59.960 So they're moving on with this. Hopefully they figure it out. You know, not to mention these

00:46:04.700 people have to pay a $630 fee to pass that citizenship test and do that swearing and then

00:46:11.100 pay $75 more for a certificate. You know, it does show the hypocrisy of our government bureaucrats

00:46:16.360 too. We welcome you all. We're bringing you in. And the second you get here, they make you run

00:46:20.280 the gauntlet and nickel and dime you for bureaucratic actions. I guess it does help

00:46:24.160 prepare them for an ongoing life within Canada, because unfortunately, they are going to get hit

00:46:27.840 with a lot more regulations and licenses and fees and headaches as they go forward. I'll probably

00:46:33.000 talk to Shane a little bit about that as we talk about the business environment and

00:46:35.900 challenges we have in general in doing things effectively. Let's see, before we do get there,

00:46:44.060 Actually, I see Shane in the lobby.

00:46:45.500 If he's ready to roll, we can bring him in.

00:46:48.400 Hey, Shane, you ready to go there?

00:46:51.000 Looks like he might be.

00:46:53.540 Okay, let's bring Shane Wenzel in.

00:46:55.640 It's breaking away from having people of questionable background from Connecticut area running boxing matches to a business leader from Alberta, Shane Wenzel.

00:47:07.000 Always great to get you on the show, Shane.

00:47:08.660 How are you doing?

00:47:09.580 I'm doing great, Corey.

00:47:10.840 Thanks for having me here.

00:47:12.160 No problem.

00:47:12.900 I'm good and wound up today.

00:47:14.100 I think the cold weather brings it out in me.

00:47:16.000 Yeah, I look out my window.

00:47:17.160 I can't figure out where the snow is coming from.

00:47:21.100 It must be climate change again.

00:47:23.240 It must be.

00:47:24.080 It'll change again in a few hours and we'll carry on with it.

00:47:28.660 So I guess I'll start just with you.

00:47:30.420 You've been providing columns for us, which I really appreciate.

00:47:33.260 And your most recent one was one, and I do appreciate that because we've been really

00:47:39.360 beating on Premier Kenny a lot, and a lot of people have.

00:47:42.200 and I like to get people. There are people who support him and feel that he needs to be given a

00:47:47.460 fair shake. And you wrote one pointing out on how he was kind of handed a failing business. Can you

00:47:51.680 expand a bit on what you wrote? Well, I mean, when you come out of four years of, you know,

00:47:56.420 of an NDP term, you know, we didn't necessarily come out of it unscathed. I mean, I call it the

00:48:02.440 Great Recession now because it lasted about five years. You know, so when I say he's handed a

00:48:08.660 failing business, that's exactly what it is. And, you know, anybody who's ever had to come in and

00:48:14.500 clean up a failing business knows that, you know, it takes some time to turn the ship around. And

00:48:19.980 I think that was the, you know, the main purpose behind the column was, you know, just to show

00:48:24.940 people is that you can't move on a dime. I mean, you're talking about government, you're talking

00:48:29.980 about, you know, 80, 90, 100,000, you know, workers who, you know, have to buy into the

00:48:36.580 program and, you know, consequently months into the term, you get hit by the dreaded C word COVID

00:48:43.720 and, you know, having to deal with locking down the world. And I guess I was, you know, I could

00:48:51.040 be critical along the way, but I was less critical because I don't know who the hell else could get

00:48:55.400 you through without, you know, coming out unscathed. You know, so I guess I was in support

00:49:02.700 of Jason Kenney and his efforts in that regard. Do I agree with everything? Absolutely not. I

00:49:08.620 don't think anybody could, but there is no playbook on that side of things as to how to manage a

00:49:13.660 pandemic. I know. I mean, it's an unprecedented time. I mean, no premier, mayor, prime minister,

00:49:20.920 president has had a good time this last couple of years. I mean, they reached the apex of their

00:49:24.820 political career. They want to make their mark, have their legacy, and now they're all mired

00:49:28.440 dealing with a pandemic though some did better than others and I mean again to be fair it kind

00:49:34.140 of ties into my rant earlier as you know a big ship a lot of bureaucrats it was Rachel Notley 0.92

00:49:39.080 greatly expanded to civil service and as I was talking about earlier we've got government civil

00:49:45.120 service groups that can't even get citizenship oaths with hundreds of people finished so if

00:49:50.480 you're looking to streamline government it's no small task. It's a challenge at every turn trust

00:49:55.420 I mean, even from our small little side here in home building development, I mean, it's moving a big ship and, you know, trying to help give them guidance as to where to go next.

00:50:06.680 You know, all the meanwhile, recognizing the challenges that they may have as well.

00:50:11.480 Well, and it's a critical time.

00:50:13.240 I mean, the voting has been going on, I believe, for a week now or over a week for the review.

00:50:18.300 And we'll see what happens and how members decide whether or not to keep Premier Kenney on as the leader or not.

00:50:25.420 I guess the main question people have been asking is kind of what you said in a sense as well, who would have done any better?

00:50:30.500 And it's a difficult question. It's a valid one.

00:50:35.780 That's why you got the call.

00:50:41.340 Yeah. So going further than, you know, beyond that, then, I mean, we're going to have bigger challenges,

00:50:46.420 whether it's Premier Kenney leading things or whether it's a new leader and going into a leadership.

00:50:52.140 I'd just like to talk about our business climate in general in Alberta.

00:50:54.760 I mean, there's a lot of people been in celebratory, we're seeing good energy prices, the businesses

00:50:59.960 are spending again, they're doing some expansion, some capital investment, we haven't seen that in

00:51:03.640 years. But we still got some some pretty tough waters ahead of us in general.

00:51:08.040 Well, guaranteed you do. You know, I mean, you know, thankfully,

00:51:13.800 thankfully, Alberta has, you know, this bright future, you know, although I'm not too sure

00:51:18.280 about the energy sector, because every time you turn around, there seems to be another roadblock

00:51:23.160 there but i mean you've seen a lot happen with uh with film and with uh with the tech sectors and

00:51:28.440 that's uh that's been encouraging because it you know it adds to the diversity in the uh the

00:51:33.160 economy so you're not so reliant on on your natural resources uh to get them to uh to market

00:51:40.840 you know so i'm quite encouraged by that uh you know and from the housing side i mean we've been

00:51:45.480 quite encouraged there although a little bit challenged at times with uh with a lot of things

00:51:51.560 like supply chain and even labor issues. Well, and we've talked about that a number

00:51:57.880 of times. Well, naturally, I'll gravitate towards housing. It's your area of expertise. And some of

00:52:02.680 the big challenges, I mean, not just supply chains, but I mean, the big issue, the big federal budget,

00:52:07.640 that's what they talked about. That was their main theme. I did a word search was housing.

00:52:12.040 And they seem to admit and they realize in there, we'd need more supply. But then just about every

00:52:17.640 policy they did is going to actually hinder having more supply hit the market. It's like they know the

00:52:22.860 solution, but they refuse to pursue it. This is like going to a movie premiere and being

00:52:27.620 disappointed five minutes in, Corey. I think about the only highlight that I could bring up

00:52:35.720 about the federal budget was the fact that they added in a tax-free savings fund for people

00:52:44.180 on their first time for their first time home purchase uh other than that i mean it was a lot

00:52:49.700 to do about nothing in my opinion uh you know i mean this uh yeah i guess all this build up to

00:52:57.060 you know we're going to do something about housing was just again so disappointing uh you know when

00:53:02.900 freeland comes back and uh and hussein comes back and and they talk about you know doubling the uh

00:53:08.100 the amount of builds out there over the next 10 years. Well, I mean, that would be next to

00:53:14.580 impossible in my mind because, you know, between single family rows, towns, semi-detached and

00:53:22.100 apartment blocks, you know, we do about 200,000 homes in Canada every year. So how they're going

00:53:29.780 to double that is completely beyond me because, you know, we are lacking in supply, we are lacking

00:53:34.340 in labor and uh you're also challenged with uh you know with uh you know provincial politics and

00:53:41.140 more importantly municipal politics uh in planning with uh their willingness to or willingness uh

00:53:48.420 and even their ability to uh to pay for all this so i'm i'm really just kind of disappointed that

00:53:54.740 it doesn't tackle it and it doesn't tackle it in the proper way well and again with being that

00:54:00.580 almost right and wrong i mean they do understand that you know i read that into it that this the

00:54:05.860 municipality's jurisdiction are at best provincial but they talk about all their incentives on how

00:54:11.300 they could try and change that and when they say that they mean in other words handing more tax

00:54:15.700 dollars to them but that rarely leads to a more affordable house unfortunately in the end no matter

00:54:20.020 what their intent might be well again imagine 200 000 homes a year and you throw eight billion

00:54:25.300 dollars at it is is really kind of a drop in the bucket it it looks like a great number to a lot

00:54:31.060 of people but it really is kind of paltry and uh you know and i'm kind of torn on that one because

00:54:35.620 do i want the federal government using my tax dollars to to subsidize housing i mean we've

00:54:41.300 been short well over a million houses for uh for a number of years i think we're the only g7 country

00:54:46.660 that's that far behind even the united states isn't that far behind so eight billion dollars

00:54:51.860 doesn't really resolve a lot you know it's going to come down to well at least in my opinion i i

00:54:57.060 guess if i were to offer up solutions rather than sit here and continually about it

00:55:02.580 uh you know 30-year mortgages are still a great thing in my mind

00:55:07.060 uh you know a targeted immigration plan would really help out because you know we talk about

00:55:13.060 labor being one of the big issues out there uh you know see i mean you want to be able to bring

00:55:18.340 new immigrants in who are skilled in the trades. But even to extend that, why not get the kids 1.00

00:55:26.100 interested in trades? I mean, if you're going to do something that you want to apply my tax dollars

00:55:30.580 to, you know, encourage kids to get back into the trades because it is actually a wonderful career.

00:55:34.820 I mean, you know, tech and banking is wonderful as well, but not every school kid has that

00:55:41.780 aptitude. So, you know, if they're great with their hands and they have a good business sense,

00:55:47.300 there's a tremendous opportunity coming up for them because you also have an aging workforce,

00:55:52.420 one that wants to retire. But I've always come back to the significant tax credits for home

00:56:01.540 renovations. That bolsters the energy efficiencies on old homes. But let's extend that to adding in

00:56:11.140 legal suites as part of it. I mean, renovations are a $50 billion industry in Canada yearly.

00:56:18.180 That would double if you had a significant tax credit there.

00:56:22.420 And it would also, you know, as much as I almost hate to say it, you know,

00:56:26.100 meet the Paris Accord targets and do it in a heck of a lot faster way than what we're planning

00:56:32.740 already. Well, that was part of the challenge, I guess, is that they understand they want to

00:56:37.700 increase supply, but they made sure to always add the caveat though, that it has to be green

00:56:41.700 and it has to have density targets and things such as that. So then they start regulating,

00:56:45.620 regulating, and then we're not going to make anything more affordable if we're going to

00:56:48.420 come right off from that that way. No, I mean, you know, one of the targets

00:56:51.860 that they had in there was that, you know, that part of this $8 billion is here, Mark, for,

00:56:57.060 you know, for urban. Well, the challenge you run into there is not only the planning guidelines,

00:57:02.100 but you're going to run into nimbyism too. And, you know, if you're trying to resolve a problem 0.65

00:57:08.340 like that relatively quick, then you do have to look to suburbia as well. And you have to accept

00:57:15.220 the fact that, you know, this old plan of, you know, this bright, shiny, you know, vibrant

00:57:23.380 downtown, yes, it's admirable, but you also have to acknowledge the fact that new suburbia

00:57:28.980 also comes with, you know, a small, you know, call it a small town center, so to speak. And

00:57:36.440 that's where people, you know, can really live, work, play, and retire in their lives.

00:57:42.440 So why throw all these restrictions in place on top of the money you're trying to give away?

00:57:48.920 Well, I think we're only going to see more people moving to rural areas. I mean,

00:57:53.400 the biggest headache I've had in Pritis so far had been the terrible internet, for example.

00:57:57.640 we've got Starlink now and you know what I've now got city quality internet outside of the city and

00:58:04.260 that's held off people from moving out like the tide's going to change people don't have to come

00:58:09.140 into the city and we need to be addressing that rather than continually trying to mash them into

00:58:13.240 the urban centers and they haven't clued into that yet. No and I think that's a lot of the

00:58:19.180 influx that we've seen I mean besides the fact 50% of 50% of our sales over the last six months

00:58:25.200 have actually come from outside of the province.

00:58:27.960 We have people moving in from Eastern Canada

00:58:29.760 because of affordability,

00:58:31.140 but you also have people moving out of the urban centers

00:58:34.240 into suburbia here in Calgary

00:58:35.960 because they can now work remotely

00:58:38.120 because the internet service is that much more reliable,

00:58:40.880 kind of like you out in the country, out in Prittis,

00:58:43.920 because, you know, there's no barriers to it now.

00:58:47.800 Yeah, I mean, I still have to come in here

00:58:49.360 to use the studio, Derek, as that quality thing of his, 0.94

00:58:52.120 but at least Jane can comfortably work from home

00:58:54.140 And we're all getting towards that.

00:58:55.480 I mean, that was unimaginable 15 years ago.

00:58:57.600 It was impossible even five years ago, it seemed.

00:59:00.960 So I like that holistic approach.

00:59:02.940 I mean, there's something you brought up that, yeah, I don't think we heard anything about in the budget.

00:59:06.080 We hear the odd person talk about that.

00:59:07.680 But I remember finishing high school, you know, back at the end of the 80s.

00:59:11.780 I didn't know what a trade was.

00:59:13.400 I'd never learned it once in school.

00:59:15.440 I didn't know what an apprenticeship was.

00:59:17.260 I think I'd read about it in fantasy novels, like Apprentice Magicians and things.

00:59:21.460 Why wasn't that a part of my basic education?

00:59:24.140 in case that was something I was inclined to do.

00:59:26.820 Boy, I've never seen a plumber driving a beat up old car

00:59:29.720 and you never hear of an electrician being out of work.

00:59:31.800 There's nothing wrong with getting into those trades

00:59:34.100 and we really need them.

00:59:35.640 Well, and you look at how successful they can be.

00:59:37.980 You know, like I've talked to a few kids so far

00:59:40.800 coming out of high school about the framing trade.

00:59:43.780 You know, I mean, that is always a challenging trade

00:59:47.120 for people to get into, but it pays so well.

00:59:50.320 I know a few guys who own their own companies

00:59:52.720 and they're making about a quarter million dollars a year even uh even their trade or their uh

00:59:57.520 framing leads rather are making in excess of a hundred thousand dollars a year so the trades do

01:00:03.280 pay and uh you know and i strongly encourage people to to move in that direction now if we

01:00:08.720 can just get uh every education system lined up i mean life would be terrific because there are

01:00:14.000 programs like the rap program out there and uh and they uh they are starting to get a little

01:00:19.120 bit smarter about it and trying to align with post-secondary too. I think it's improved absolutely

01:00:25.920 but I mean you know we we target our funding if we're going to pour more into the educational 0.97

01:00:29.600 system still seems to be ideologically driven I'm sure there's a lot of grants for woke trans

01:00:34.880 interpretive dance but not so much necessarily if you want to go into automotive mechanics or

01:00:40.000 something not not to knock the other ones every level of education is good but we don't seem to

01:00:44.960 to prioritize based on need as much as, you know, ideological want sometimes.

01:00:49.200 And that's an important point, Corey. You're right. You know, I don't know how you move the

01:00:54.020 needle on that relatively quick, but it is something that has to happen relatively quick

01:00:58.900 because you do have an aging workforce. And before you know it, you could be falling behind. And

01:01:05.480 those lovely services or those lovely products that you like having built may be harder to get

01:01:12.320 in the future if you don't have kids getting into it so you're you're on the crunch a bit right now

01:01:18.280 with uh again i mean high demand we need those homes you're a home builder i mean there's just

01:01:23.380 outright limitations that you've listed i mean you'd be more than overjoyed to build a million

01:01:27.060 homes if you somehow that means uh but a lot of it comes down to municipal government we're

01:01:31.820 into that new one now for six or seven months in calgary uh they seem to kind of start a little

01:01:37.420 rocky but maybe they're settling into a routine there seem to be a good relationship building

01:01:42.180 yet between the new council and mayor and local businesses, I guess?

01:01:47.500 I think you're starting to see some surprisingly good working relationships.

01:01:52.500 And I say surprisingly in a nice kind of way.

01:01:56.340 You know, you have some preconceived notions of a few of the councillors

01:02:00.120 that maybe they're ideologically driven,

01:02:03.180 and they're actually turning out to be relatively smart and business driven.

01:02:08.680 And so, I mean, and that's really what you need on city council is, you know, people who understand that you're playing around with $4 billion a year.

01:02:16.640 And it's part of their job to, you know, to help generate a billion dollars in business a year, not piss around with gas-powered leaf blowers.

01:02:27.840 Well, that's it.

01:02:28.920 And, I mean, there's always going to be those things.

01:02:31.580 Every council seems to be sidetracked with their goofy stuff.

01:02:34.060 And that's my job to call them out.

01:02:35.180 And I wasn't trying to get you to poke at any particular councillors at all.

01:02:38.120 I'm just hoping to see. They're going to be in council for three and a half years now anyways,

01:02:42.600 so let's be pragmatic and hopefully get those relationships and some more reality-based

01:02:47.600 planning. I mean, we talked about that before. The path from a new development to completion

01:02:52.300 is nearly eight years in Calgary, I believe. It's not reasonable, and hopefully you can start to get

01:02:57.600 some discussions to reducing that regulation load. Well, and I mean, that's done every day.

01:03:03.620 You know, fortunately, you know, the people working over at Build Calgary are working hard on that, and they're trying to bridge the gap, you know, and I think, you know, I do give shots to some of the planners there, largely because of ideology, you know, but I think, you know, one shot I could give towards the federal government when it comes to, you know, planning housing and municipalities is, you know, they need to return more of the money back to the municipalities, because that's one of the great barriers to growth.

01:03:33.620 is the fact that the taxes taken are in excess of probably what they should be.

01:03:39.900 The municipal level needs to help the city grow, and they do need the proper funding.

01:03:44.720 They don't need a paltry amount and a bunch of restrictions placed on it.

01:03:49.560 So I pick on them, but I pick on them for good reason.

01:03:52.280 But, you know, I also do share some of their frustrations.

01:03:55.660 Yeah, well, in some of it, I read a really good kind of a rant,

01:03:58.600 But that's what she's great for, for Mel Gerson, or Jen Gerson on her Substack page.

01:04:05.180 And, you know, as a person at her age and seeing the pressures and trying to get into the home market, I mean, extremely difficult.

01:04:10.380 It's a generational thing going on.

01:04:12.320 And she points out that something's very real.

01:04:13.700 And I don't think government can change it.

01:04:15.140 Only we can as a society.

01:04:17.020 But there is a lot of an I got mine mentality.

01:04:18.980 There's a lot of even unconscious incentive to keep the market choked up because, of course, it only puts upward pressure on what you've invested in.

01:04:27.860 And I mean, I've got to admit, the more dumb Calgary City Council gets, the more my property

01:04:32.780 rises in British because they drive people out there and make them want the property.

01:04:37.100 But that's not good for everybody as a whole.

01:04:39.860 We've got to learn to kind of, you know, let go and open up, I think, and understand it

01:04:44.160 might put downward pressure on your own investment or at least stabilize it.

01:04:48.300 Well, I mean, I think the best example is a report I read from Scotiabank recently where

01:04:54.220 43% of people now are putting off their home purchase. Now to contrast that, two years ago

01:05:01.520 it was only 20% and this is Canada wide. So it can't be taken as total for the Calgary or Alberta

01:05:09.200 market. But I mean, this is Canada wide. So that number doubled and that's largely due to

01:05:14.320 affordability. People just can't afford it now. So I guess I go back to the original comment about

01:05:21.780 the paltry amount that the federal government threw out there and then I'm going to take

01:05:28.120 a shot at them for wanting to implement the energy code which includes net zero in it

01:05:33.880 which raises the cost of homes by $40,000.

01:05:37.120 So we're giving you a bit of an opportunity over here but we're going to jack up the

01:05:40.680 pricing by $40,000 which will also add to your home out in Pridus as well.

01:05:45.540 It's going to go up by another $40,000 when this is implemented because that's what happens.

01:05:50.040 you know the problem is when you're not in the house when you're not in a new home you're just

01:05:54.980 renting and you're forever renting at that point and that's it and those things won't hit me as

01:06:00.100 hard as it would be somebody trying to get into the market because i already got there the worst

01:06:03.840 i'm going to get hit with is having to upgrade some things perhaps and that's uh don't worry

01:06:08.520 there'll be a tax incentive for that cory oh i know you know i just uh hopefully we move in that

01:06:15.200 right direction as you point out it's a larger number so i mean that'll tip the scales in public

01:06:18.620 opinion a bit. People realizing, hey, we still want, hey, we're living longer. I can't hand off

01:06:24.540 a bunch of house equity to my kids so they can have a down payment to get into their place because

01:06:27.940 I need this for retirement. So we've got to work on this market so they can afford to get in on

01:06:31.900 their own. As you said, that savings account and 30-year mortgages, those might at least help make

01:06:35.760 it a little more reasonable and keep looking at solutions like that. It will, but I mean,

01:06:40.700 it's like anything, you know, I mean, simple economics, supply versus demand. I mean,

01:06:44.800 when the demand is this high and the supply is this low,

01:06:47.500 well, I mean, what's going to happen?

01:06:48.780 You're going to pay more.

01:06:49.980 So, I mean, if you can at least balance the scales

01:06:52.160 or shift them, that's when it changes

01:06:54.880 and that's when the opportunities arise.

01:06:57.860 Oh, we can only hope we get there

01:06:59.380 and we just keep up the discourse

01:07:00.740 and keep up trying to make things productive.

01:07:03.620 Before I let you go, you've been doing a lot

01:07:04.880 of little YouTube video shorts

01:07:06.600 on all sorts of subjects that I've noticed,

01:07:08.480 some personal ones, some business ones, things like that.

01:07:12.840 There was one on market research for do's and don'ts.

01:07:17.920 You know, maybe you'll just get a plug in.

01:07:19.180 I mean, it's been great watching those.

01:07:20.380 I like those shorts and people see you on social media.

01:07:22.340 Where have you been doing those, Shane?

01:07:23.840 Well, you know, the market research on new homes, it was an interesting one because we

01:07:28.020 just went on a tour of the United States, you know, and it's been a while.

01:07:31.620 It's been three years.

01:07:32.480 We usually go every two.

01:07:34.460 And, you know, we had some different experiences down there and some good and some not so good.

01:07:40.800 And, you know, what we found out is that, you know, the markets have changed down there and, you know, access has, customer experience has.

01:07:47.520 But, you know, I mean, all in all, I mean, the United States are experiencing the same kind of booms that we are and the same kind of issues as well.

01:07:56.580 But, you know, someone asked me at one point, you know, so the trip was a failure.

01:08:01.020 I said, no, I said, we just we learned a lot about what not to do.

01:08:03.940 But, you know, it's fun to do videos like that because, you know, I like to share my experiences with people and they respond in kind, you know.

01:08:14.300 So I'm glad you're watching them.

01:08:16.520 Oh, yeah.

01:08:17.200 And I hope people are enjoying them because, you know, I'm not going to stop.

01:08:20.500 You know, I get bored the odd time and, you know, I think I got something to say, so I'll say it.

01:08:25.260 Oh, I appreciate it.

01:08:25.980 This is why I direct people, you know, look up Shane Wenzel on YouTube or on Twitter and you can find it because you promote those when they come out.

01:08:31.380 And it's a good counterpoint to my scowling face.

01:08:33.940 I specialize in anger and picking and so on.

01:08:36.400 You take a positive approach when you come into it.

01:08:39.140 You're mashing them both together.

01:08:40.400 I can get people mad and drive them your way

01:08:42.020 and then they can see the positive solutions.

01:08:44.300 So I appreciate that.

01:08:45.120 I don't know.

01:08:45.520 The odd person, I got one video out there.

01:08:47.240 They apparently think I'm full of hate.

01:08:49.260 So I'm full of hate.

01:08:50.600 What the hell are you?

01:08:51.940 Well, yeah.

01:08:53.080 If there's the fun of being on social media,

01:08:55.240 you're always going to get some fun out of that.

01:08:56.840 Yes, there is.

01:08:58.240 All right.

01:08:58.820 Well, thank you very much for joining me today, Shane.

01:09:00.880 it's always great talking to you. And I'd like to remind everybody, yeah, you've been giving us

01:09:05.480 regular columns now and you do your online things, whether through Twitter or YouTube,

01:09:10.420 and you're just a good active community member. So I appreciate that. And I hope we can talk

01:09:14.400 again soon. You bet. Thanks for having me, Corey. Great. Thanks.

01:09:17.660 Take care. So a reminder, that was Shane Wenzel of Shane Holmes. And as I said,

01:09:22.500 also a budding social media personality who speaks on these business issues. And as I said,

01:09:27.760 is YouTube videos can be pretty light

01:09:29.520 or they can get into personal things and that.

01:09:31.460 It's something a little different

01:09:32.140 and it's good and worth watching.

01:09:33.700 And I like getting them on for chat

01:09:35.060 as you see a lot of good business common sense,

01:09:37.960 you know, get some solutions.

01:09:39.020 What are we doing?

01:09:40.140 I mean, we didn't just talk about

01:09:41.360 what the liberals messed up with the housing plan,

01:09:43.340 but well, what should they have done then?

01:09:45.100 What could they do?

01:09:45.680 Because we have a big growing problem.

01:09:48.940 I didn't get into the housing market until I was 40.

01:09:53.120 That was only because I have a wife

01:09:55.220 who's very responsible with finances

01:09:57.020 who got everything together and we still had to stretch out to the maximum to manage to get down

01:10:01.900 payment and get in. And that was, you know, some years ago. And I was coming off the tail end

01:10:07.080 of an oil industry that was paying very, very well at that time, which just doesn't exist anymore.

01:10:12.920 So younger people trying to get in to a new home right now, I don't know how they can do it. Well,

01:10:17.660 a lot of them can't. And as Shane was saying, it doesn't matter what incentives, what you do,

01:10:21.800 if there are just are not enough new houses being built, the price is going to go up. It's

01:10:26.380 inevitable. It's math. It's supply and demand. It's just a problem. And then where are we going

01:10:32.300 to go with that? I fear for where governments go with that because usually their line of thinking,

01:10:36.700 well, if the private market isn't filling it, we'll fill it. And again, if people haven't

01:10:41.320 traveled a lot, get out. If you've been traveling, the one that always strikes me is when I used to

01:10:46.000 work in Northern Pennsylvania a lot because we'd often fly to Hamilton and I'd drive down across

01:10:50.100 the border there and you go through Buffalo. And on that interstate, you see these row houses,

01:10:54.760 As far as the eye can see, these big red brick row houses going back there, those are the projects.

01:11:00.760 That's what you get when government gets into housing.

01:11:02.800 Sure, nobody was homeless. 0.98

01:11:04.960 Nobody starved to death in those Buffalo row houses. 0.99

01:11:07.720 And a lot of American large cities have these projects. 0.95

01:11:11.000 You hear of them, and they're brutal.

01:11:13.080 I mean, crime was high.

01:11:14.220 They're run down now.

01:11:16.040 They're difficult areas to live. 0.94

01:11:17.580 And that's what happens when government takes over housing versus letting private markets move on that.

01:11:25.720 And we don't want to go that direction.

01:11:27.340 So hopefully we can push things the right way.

01:11:30.220 We'll see.

01:11:31.580 Cheryl's saying the new home savings account is only $40,000.

01:11:35.320 How does it help?

01:11:36.080 It helps a little.

01:11:37.880 I mean, not enough necessarily.

01:11:39.160 No, I put those numbers out on a different column a little while back.

01:11:41.780 the average house in Canada, and I know it varies very widely from Toronto and Vancouver where it's

01:11:47.540 over a million and in Calgary, I think it's maybe what, five or 600,000. You can get out onto the

01:11:52.680 prairies in a small town and find them for a couple hundred thousand. I think the maritimes,

01:11:55.680 they get lower, but the average across the whole country is over $800,000. I mean, if you qualify

01:12:02.360 for a bare minimum down payment to get into that and have the first time plan and all the other

01:12:06.820 stuff. You've still got to have liquid capital of $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 with all the fees and

01:12:12.340 everything else just to get in. How many young people in the working world have that sitting

01:12:16.180 around? How can you put that together? How can you save it? It's a problem and homeownership's 0.69

01:12:22.140 important. It really is. We don't want the government to take it over. We got to leave

01:12:26.360 it in the hands of the individuals because some people talk about the Great Reset. We talk about

01:12:29.620 socialists. We talk about some of the others and that's the truth of it. They do feel that we would

01:12:33.260 be better if the government managed all of these things. Well, no, that's what happens. I've talked

01:12:38.680 about it before, too. I went to the Soviet Union way back at the end of the 80s, Moscow, Leningrad,

01:12:44.580 as it was called then, you know, St. Petersburg, apartments, apartments, apartments, as far as the

01:12:49.060 eye could see. Again, yes, technically, you had your needs filled. But it wasn't a hell of a good

01:12:54.360 life, you know, looking at what people were sitting in. And that's what happens when the

01:12:57.880 government runs those things. As we said, the government can't even get citizenship

01:13:01.480 ceremonies correct. Yeah, you know, there's Cheryl saying big bucks going out right now in the oil 1.00

01:13:10.500 field. It's booming. It's that roller coaster. And those who want to work and get out there,

01:13:13.960 they can make some good dollars right now. They'll get out in the field fast. But the problem is you

01:13:19.380 can't rely on it. I mean, that's part of why I left it. I mean, part of why I'm enjoying this

01:13:23.480 media and things like that. But I was in the oil field for 20 years. But I went through three

01:13:27.660 dips during that time. I mean, the end of the 90s and then the 08 crash and then the more recent

01:13:32.460 one. And I just had it. I'm tired out with it. It served me well. I loved the industry. That's

01:13:36.420 why I did 20 years in it. And it paid me a lot of money in its time, which like every good Albertan,

01:13:40.420 I pissed away most of it. But it's still not, you know, we can't employ everybody within it.

01:13:45.860 It's not for everybody. We got to look more broadly. But for the time being, yeah, people

01:13:50.560 looking for jobs, you know, guys, gals, get out there if you're young and up for it for some field

01:13:56.460 time and things like that. Cause you can really do well for yourself right now, where it'll be in

01:14:00.920 five, 10 years, who knows? But that's the thing with the oil field too, is making hay while the

01:14:05.280 sun shines. Uh, I'll talk one more time about our sponsor. I'll talk quickly about Bitcoin. Well,

01:14:11.560 uh, get that through. And these guys, again, speaking of Western Canadian companies,

01:14:15.640 speaking of taking your dollars, another way to save your money is Bitcoin. Well,

01:14:20.060 these guys also set up corporate plans, you know? So if you own a small company or a large company,

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01:14:25.400 you want them to set up a savings plan like that,

01:14:27.420 again, set up a consultation.

01:14:28.820 They will sit down with you face-to-face.

01:14:30.360 A real person, not a call center,

01:14:32.200 not a little pop-up window

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01:14:35.360 And they'll see if it's for you.

01:14:36.780 You know, we have every month at the Western Standard,

01:14:39.400 those of us who have opted into it, it's optional.

01:14:41.700 A portion of our salary goes into a Bitcoin account

01:14:44.900 and it's matched by the Western Standard.

01:14:46.220 It just gives a little side savings off to the side there.

01:14:48.880 And other companies can do that too.

01:14:51.960 You know, it's a nice, easy kind of passive way

01:14:53.500 to throw a little money off to the side.

01:14:55.920 Maybe it'll do better with inflation.

01:14:57.120 Maybe it won't.

01:14:57.720 We'll see.

01:15:00.320 Check them out.

01:15:01.260 I mean, that's the thing.

01:15:02.340 These guys, what they're about is educating.

01:15:03.860 You're showing you how digital currencies work,

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01:15:32.620 Okay, let's wrap through a few more news items before we go here.

01:15:37.360 Another story coming up. 0.87

01:15:38.880 The feds were told cabinet should read the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

01:15:42.560 It's pretty sad.

01:15:44.260 But yeah, there's a constitutional scholar at a conference in Ottawa calling out the cabinet,

01:15:49.500 basically saying, you know, you guys should actually read that thing. We got a government

01:15:53.800 that doesn't understand the charter. They don't understand the importance of it. They don't

01:15:58.080 understand how it's supposed to work. I mean, they've been called out by Peckford, of course,

01:16:03.540 who was one of the signatories on it. There was something insulting when Justin Trudeau was

01:16:08.100 tweeting a picture of the signatures going onto that charter. It's just sickening to see a guy

01:16:13.300 who has no understanding of the charter, who abused it more than anybody has since its inception.

01:16:19.500 celebrating his father signing it along with others.

01:16:22.760 Guys, that wasn't what it was put forward.

01:16:25.100 The charter is there to protect you from government.

01:16:27.240 That's the whole thing.

01:16:28.260 It's about your rights, your rights, all of it,

01:16:31.680 from speech, to mobility,

01:16:33.820 to what should be properly protected property, to press.

01:16:38.220 These rights are all integral, essential.

01:16:40.820 And the only one who threatens those rights,

01:16:42.460 the only one who can take away those rights,

01:16:44.880 is the government.

01:16:45.720 The only one who always wants to take away your rights

01:16:47.400 is the government.

01:16:48.240 modern democratic societies build these charters.

01:16:50.800 That's why they write them up.

01:16:51.980 It's under the assumption eventually there's going to be a government

01:16:54.500 infringing on one of those rights,

01:16:55.840 and you need that document to go to court with and stand up for yourself.

01:16:59.540 But our government doesn't even know what it's about.

01:17:02.540 They don't understand it, and that's scary.

01:17:04.780 These are the guys on top.

01:17:06.220 And I go beyond the point of cabinet.

01:17:09.180 I'm worried about the judges,

01:17:10.300 the years of authoritarian judges we've been appointing,

01:17:13.700 because no judges have really shut down the crap that they did

01:17:16.740 as they abused our charter to crack down on legal, peaceful protests.

01:17:23.900 Or even some of it was a little bit illegal,

01:17:25.440 but we're talking parking violations, noise violations.

01:17:28.340 Not anything big, guys.

01:17:29.800 Not anything that would call for implementing a form of the War Measures Act,

01:17:33.660 which is what they did.

01:17:35.440 And, well, again, that's a government that doesn't understand

01:17:38.460 what is so important about freedom of association

01:17:41.620 and freedom of assembly and expression and movement.

01:17:44.640 These freedoms, guys, they're not to be taken lightly.

01:17:48.140 And this government does take it lightly.

01:17:51.080 They see those freedoms as inconveniences.

01:17:52.880 They see them as things in the way of them doing what they want to do.

01:17:56.940 They seized people's bank accounts.

01:17:59.180 They stole people's property.

01:18:01.160 I call it that, stole it.

01:18:02.500 And not enough people are talking.

01:18:04.160 I still keep asking because I don't think they ever actually did it, perhaps,

01:18:07.160 because I haven't been able to find a story.

01:18:09.020 But they took on the right to use press gangs.

01:18:11.540 And that means to grab somebody and say, you are working for us now or we will throw you in jail.

01:18:18.560 That doesn't, it sounds exaggerated, but that's exactly what they did.

01:18:22.060 If you owned a tow truck and you were sitting around Ottawa and said, screw it, I don't want any part of this.

01:18:25.820 This is my personal tow truck.

01:18:26.920 I own it.

01:18:27.820 I don't want to do this.

01:18:29.140 I'm going to stay home.

01:18:29.800 I'm going to take the week off.

01:18:30.500 I said, no, you're going to go to work now or we'll throw you in jail.

01:18:35.300 That's a gun to your head, guys.

01:18:37.260 And that's what they did.

01:18:38.320 Now, again, I don't know if they enforced it, but they even brought in that law.

01:18:40.960 that's insane. That's slavery. And then we had a column that said as much. And that's not 0.84

01:18:45.180 exaggeration. It's not, no, I'm not going to say it was as bad as the, you know, century of slavery

01:18:50.620 that was going on in the developed world or the stuff in the States. But technically, when you

01:18:55.240 take somebody and you force their labor without their permission, even if you're going to pay

01:18:58.860 them afterwards, that is forced labor and is unacceptable. We brought in legislation allowing

01:19:05.340 that. We really, not enough people seem to understand just how dangerous that was, just how

01:19:09.880 bad that was. Uh, what do we got? You know, uh, some of the people, yeah, he was also called out

01:19:18.320 for, uh, one of the cabinet members calling people within the protests, human scum, uh, or this was

01:19:24.960 a panelist in support, you know, he dismissed his criticism of, uh, Freedom Convoy truckers as human

01:19:30.520 slime and scum. Fareed Khan, okay, this wasn't a cabinet member. This was spokesperson for this

01:19:35.160 Facebook group, Canadians United Against Hate. You know, there's another thing with this anti-hate

01:19:40.300 network in Canada. I'm doing some more digging into that. Those guys are insane. The irony of

01:19:45.740 this anti-hate group, and I guess they get some government dollars. And they are a Twitter mob.

01:19:51.740 They are nuts. And they turned even on a lefty. And I tried to hear some of the problems. So this

01:19:56.400 lefty online, I won't even name her, but she got in a fight with him and they stalked her and they 0.99

01:20:00.420 threatened her in the works. This is the anti-hate group. And this is a lefty who supports them.

01:20:04.880 It's just because she was going to interview, I guess, Chris Skye or debate him.

01:20:08.540 And they went nuts on her.

01:20:09.900 And she's been calling it out.

01:20:11.020 Again, she was the left, though.

01:20:12.140 She says, well, we should have open debate and have different voices and everything.

01:20:15.600 But when I asked her for interview requests, we got turned down because she doesn't want to talk to a conservative outlet.

01:20:20.900 So there's still some hypocrisy.

01:20:22.940 But these anti-hate groups are nuts.

01:20:24.620 And they aren't reducing hate.

01:20:26.280 They're actually often more divisive and nasty than the people they're claiming to be fighting against.

01:20:32.900 And these are the ones that impact the government.

01:20:35.000 These are the ones that the government actually uses

01:20:36.740 for sources of information and crap like that.

01:20:40.440 What else do we got?

01:20:41.740 Let's see.

01:20:42.680 Feds pay lobbyists today, or David,

01:20:44.500 Eva talked about that for trees.

01:20:46.080 Department of Natural Resources paying lobbyists

01:20:47.640 and corporations, including developers.

01:20:49.480 I should ask Shane about that.

01:20:50.500 He's not a developer, though.

01:20:51.220 They're a home builder.

01:20:52.120 They're going to plant 2 billion trees

01:20:53.400 under a human well-being program

01:20:55.040 announced three years ago.

01:20:57.220 Forest companies that already plant

01:20:58.800 half a billion trees a year are exempt, of course.

01:21:01.460 they don't get the money for that. They never get credit for that either, you know. Go out to a

01:21:05.860 cut block, check it out. I mean, you can tell it's been done, you can tell all those uniform little

01:21:09.260 trees, those bright green ones, it's a replant, fire areas too, things like that. But, you know,

01:21:14.560 logging isn't as destructive as a lot of people like to make it out to be. In fact, it's often

01:21:18.120 good for the ecosystem. But either way, these ridiculous government programs, billions again,

01:21:22.800 pissed away. You know, look, I put trees in my yard, I got a lot of trees in my acreage,

01:21:27.160 because I like them. I don't need government subsidies for it, just leave me alone.

01:21:30.520 We will grow them.

01:21:31.440 I got the room.

01:21:32.740 That's the thing with you.

01:21:33.120 You want your high urban density and all that crap.

01:21:35.280 You're shoving everybody into downtown areas and infills with no yards.

01:21:38.240 They're not going to plant trees.

01:21:40.300 Give somebody a nice suburban freestanding house, you know, single family dwelling.

01:21:44.640 Guess what?

01:21:45.000 They like trees.

01:21:45.660 They're nice.

01:21:46.060 They're good for the yard.

01:21:46.780 They're good for the front.

01:21:47.440 They'll do it.

01:21:47.760 You don't need a big program. 0.94

01:21:49.920 But welcome to the big bloated government bureaucracy.

01:21:53.180 And guess what? 0.91

01:21:53.620 They're going to be terrible at it.

01:21:54.580 They always are.

01:21:55.760 They won't get them inefficiently.

01:21:57.080 and you can count on it.

01:22:00.860 Government just is not good at doing anything

01:22:02.720 except getting in your way, not getting out of it.

01:22:05.900 So where are we going?

01:22:06.960 I'm going to wrap things up.

01:22:08.040 I think we've covered a lot today.

01:22:08.980 I've got another good show going on tomorrow.

01:22:11.240 I've got Danny Hozak.

01:22:12.320 Some people might be familiar with him

01:22:13.620 and he runs the Alberta Freedom Conference.

01:22:16.000 It's a regular event.

01:22:17.200 He holds it around the province.

01:22:18.520 They've been able to finally do fully in person.

01:22:20.700 I think they did some semi-in-person ones

01:22:22.160 over the last couple of years.

01:22:23.440 They always have a large slate of good guest speakers.

01:22:25.860 I think, well, you know what?

01:22:28.540 I'm going to have to ask Danny who he's got this year.

01:22:30.180 I don't want to miss, you know, promote who he's got.

01:22:34.400 He's got a huge list of speakers coming out.

01:22:35.860 Alberta Freedom Conference.

01:22:36.880 Check it out online.

01:22:37.720 You can look it up and you can see it.

01:22:39.360 And we're going to talk about that tomorrow

01:22:40.340 because it's happening this weekend in Calgary.

01:22:43.020 And then I'm going to have Adam Scourgey and Shane Fennessy.

01:22:45.960 And they've got an Alberta-based release of an NFT.

01:22:50.520 And that's that non-fungible token.

01:22:53.420 And I gotta admit, I don't understand

01:22:55.100 what the hell those things are.

01:22:56.260 They're another one of those things like digital currency.

01:22:57.900 It's huge.

01:22:58.740 It's really taking, you know,

01:23:00.920 some of the markets by storm in some ways

01:23:02.740 and some of them taken off and gotten really huge,

01:23:05.400 but I don't fully understand exactly what they are.

01:23:07.520 And they're gonna be using it as a means though

01:23:08.980 to raise money for their business.

01:23:10.140 They actually, one of them is a documentarian

01:23:11.940 who's produced a whole number of films

01:23:14.680 and things in Alberta and such,

01:23:17.780 but it's gonna be good talking to them

01:23:18.940 so they can break down just what these NFTs are.

01:23:20.860 Cause even just cause I don't understand them

01:23:22.220 doesn't mean they're not going to continue to grow, or they might not be important. So they're

01:23:25.360 going to come on as some Alberta business people, Danny Hozak and him. And tomorrow morning, don't

01:23:30.520 forget, we got Danielle Smith for her second show with us. That's going to be at nine o'clock

01:23:34.380 tomorrow morning. Make sure to tune into it and see what Danielle's got to say on her second show

01:23:39.460 here. And after that, join me at 1130 and we'll have another good show. So thanks for tuning in 0.51

01:23:43.720 today, guys, and we'll see you tomorrow.

01:23:52.220 Transcription by CastingWords

Western Standard - April 20, 2022

Triggered： As mask mandates drop, fear-mongers ramp up

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