00:00:30.000I'm Corey Morgan. This is episode number two. So we've done well with the first one. We've
00:00:47.520already been allowed to make a second one. And actually this show is going to be coming
00:00:51.280every weekday at 1130 Mountain Standard Time. It runs for about an hour and a half. We got
00:00:57.240some great guests lined up, great discussion. And being live means we can have comments and
00:01:03.140interaction. So if you have guest questions, I won't necessarily get to them all, but hopefully
00:01:07.360we can get some of that out there and chat with them. You know, chat with me. Let me know what
00:01:11.400we're doing right. Let me know what we're doing wrong. I'm triggered all the time, but I trigger
00:01:14.600other people and I enjoy the fights. Though we do have to keep things reasonably civil as well.
00:01:20.200Now, today's guests, by the way, are going to be Melissa Embarkey. She's from the McDonnell
00:01:24.400Laurier Institute. People familiar with her on social media and talk radio and other spots have
00:01:29.320seen her. She speaks to indigenous issues a lot and energy issues because she is indigenous and
00:01:34.380she works in the energy sector and she's always fantastic to talk about and these are always
00:01:38.620pressing issues. And later on in the show I'm going to have David Clementes from the Consumer
00:01:42.740Choice Center and there's a lot of things he talks about government interference in markets
00:01:48.200allowing broader consumer choice and of course the prices of consumer goods which are going through
00:01:52.440the roof. We've just had a big development in supply management and NAFTA and dairy. And I'm
00:01:57.040certain that David is going to have a lot to talk about with that. Before I get into what's got me
00:02:01.880triggered today, I'm going to talk about our sponsor, Bitcoin Well. These are part of the
00:02:06.600reasons, you know, we aren't tax funded. We get sponsors and they help us keep these shows running.
00:02:11.840Bitcoin Well is a real cool site, a real cool service. These guys have ATMs all over the province.
00:02:17.260You know, this is making cyber currency. It brings it into that realm of us who use it for
00:02:21.820practical purposes. You know, you can set yourself up for paying your bills with Bitcoin. You can
00:02:26.840draw cash, as I said, at ATMs that are more and more coming in all the time. They give little
00:02:32.260seminars you can sign up for to learn about cyber currencies because it's kind of a weird
00:02:35.420nebulous world, but it's a growing one. I mean, it's a huge one and lots of people want to get
00:02:39.400into it. And I honestly go to bitcoinwell.com and it's a site that'll show you how you can get
00:02:44.920involved in these cyber currencies and take part in that new and growing market. It's really
00:02:50.180saying. So bitcoinwell.com. Check them out. Now, as for what's got me triggered today, and there's
00:02:55.480always something, we don't have to look long. While the legacy media continues to breathlessly report
00:03:00.100rising COVID-19 case counts, they remain pretty quiet on the fact that hospitalizations aren't
00:03:05.640rising to reflect those counts. Well, fear sells. And the statistics dribbling out of our healthcare
00:03:11.320system just aren't frightening enough for the media to focus on. So they like to keep it scary.
00:03:15.940The question we need to be asking, though, is how many people have been counted as hospitalized COVID-19 cases if they came in with COVID or if they're there because of COVID.
00:03:26.520And it's a huge distinction, you know, between these two different reasons for these cases and reasons they're adding to the counts.
00:03:33.640Now, last week, Ontario's Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Kieran Moore, admitted that as many as 50% of the people counted as COVID cases in Ontario hospitals actually entered the hospitals for reasons other than COVID-19.
00:03:46.940I mean, giving credit where due, Brampton Mayor Patrick Brown has been outspoken on this, and he's hardly what I'd consider a pandemic denier or a craze right-winger.
00:03:55.820Usually, I don't agree with much of what he does, but at least he's speaking on this. He wants to see the real numbers. He's seeing the damage these lockdowns are doing.
00:04:02.720And it's too bad there's so few other politicians that are saying, hey, where are these numbers?
00:04:07.160Dr. Moore said the hospitalization numbers are going to be updated soon to reflect this reality.
00:04:11.360But as far as I can tell, they haven't updated them yet.
00:04:13.860But we can divide things by two, by the sounds of things.
00:08:36.620I'm actually doing an investigative report still out in British Columbia about why their temperatures are much warmer than they are in Calgary.
00:08:45.040And I'm trying to figure out when it's going to go above minus 20 to figure out when I'm coming back there, Corey.
00:08:53.380Yeah, a couple of things making the news this morning.
00:08:55.500And they're actually both out of Quebec.
00:08:58.620As you know, Corey, Quebec's brought in the most, the harshest lockdowns of anywhere in the country over COVID.
00:09:06.160they've got a 10 p.m. to 5 a.m. curfew, all restaurants and bars are closed, and at the
00:09:13.180start of it, they'd even considered dog walking. You get home from work late at night at 9 o'clock
00:09:18.560and you wanted to walk the dog. No, you couldn't do that. That was illegal. They've since relented
00:09:23.680on that, but what they're doing now is they're looking at a ban on unvaccinated people in
00:09:29.140government liquor and pot stores. So if you haven't been, if you haven't got your jab,
00:09:35.020then no booze for you at Quebec government liquor stores. Now, the one saving grace for people in
00:09:41.440Quebec, the unvaccinated is they're a little bit more with the times and they're allowing0.98
00:09:46.160convenience stores to sell booze. So they should still be able to get their six pack0.88
00:09:51.480at a convenience store, but no longer in government outlets. And that's to be announced
00:09:58.140later this week. This morning, some shocking news out of Montreal. Really, really disturbing video
00:10:07.960of a privately chartered aircraft, a full aircraft, one-wing aircraft going from Montreal down to
00:10:14.820Cancun in Mexico, full of partiers ready to celebrate New Year's Eve. And I described it
00:10:22.420in my story uh cory as animal house in the air and if you've seen uh if you've seen the the great
00:10:29.300john belushi movie you know it's just a frat house out of control and that's what this airplane
00:10:34.120looked like believe it or not there was like crowd surfing going on down the middle of the aisle
00:10:38.440it was pandemonium people just standing and drinking and vaping openly and full bottles of
00:10:44.560gray goose and you know people ended up apparently the the the airline staff just gave up and they
00:10:51.100went and sort of hid and just let the partiers do what they did. They tried to tie one guy down
00:10:57.660to his seat and duct taped him pretty good, but he was still able to get his mouth free and
00:11:04.240continue to scream and yell at people. But again, these people aren't the brightest bulbs in the
00:11:11.600drawer because now all their faces are going all over social media and they're clearly identifiable
00:11:17.340And it's gone all the way to the prime minister's office, Corey, Justin Trudeau today saying extremely disturbed by what he saw and has vowed Transport Canada is going to investigate the whole flight and bring in $5,000 fines where warranted.
00:11:35.040And they could certainly make a lot of money from fining the people in there.
00:11:39.980And down in Mexico, they were all supposed to come home today.
00:11:43.740Sunwing canceled their chartered flight.
00:11:46.780They didn't want a repeat, even though I'm sure most of them would be, you know, hung over quieter state by now.
00:11:52.420So they're all going to have to find their own way home at their own expense and make sure they've got their COVID rapid test to go at the border.
00:12:00.540But they're in a world of trouble, Corey.
00:12:02.620Well, it's kind of ironic that Justin's upset with it.
00:12:05.080I mean, he's kind of known for losing a bit of control at those kinds of parties and perhaps groping the occasional person.
00:12:10.740But hopefully he's grown out of that, I guess.
00:12:13.460I mean, it is a symptom, too, though, of how I think pent up people are.
00:12:18.080I mean, there's always been those party planes and that.
00:12:19.940But, you know, then there'd be a couple of little things, but they wouldn't go completely bananas like that on there.
00:12:24.300But we've locked our youth down for two years.
00:12:26.600I mean, when they're ready to cut loose, they're ready to explode.
00:18:41.780It's cold everywhere, which I guess maybe we'll get a little background though.
00:18:46.500For those, those who haven't followed you on Twitter or some of your stuff
00:18:49.220in the columns you've put out, what is it that you do, Melissa?
00:18:52.160And what do you want to talk about today?
00:18:55.060Well, I work with the McDonnell Laurier Institute and what we do is we cover a
00:18:59.860wide range of indigenous issues so it's everything from residential schools to the recent announcement
00:19:06.820of the 40 million or 40 billion dollar funding to the child and family as services for indigenous
00:19:14.180people so we just cover everything even to energy uh covet was an issue early last year so we just
00:19:21.460cover a wide variety of topics and whatever is current in the news today is what we tend to pick
00:19:26.660Yeah. So, and of course, naturally, you're very concerned about indigenous issues. And there's a lot of overlap with energy issues. You've been very outspoken, at least, you know, we always hear about the negatives and we hear about how First Nations communities can be negatively impacted by local development, or of course they like to demonize camps and things such as that. And some people like to characterize it as if the entire indigenous community is opposed to energy infrastructure development.
00:19:57.220you've been outspoken on those issues. I mean, you were talking today about, you know,
00:20:01.140we need to talk about how some of these can bring benefits to the communities and are actually
00:20:04.020keeping them impoverished by hindering these projects. That's so true. There was a recent
00:20:09.940study that went, or a recent survey that went out from Indigenous Resources, and 80% of Indigenous
00:20:16.420people supported the natural resource sector. So whether that was oil and gas, whether that was
00:20:20.820pipelines whether that was mining they supported development in and around their areas but what
00:20:27.380we're seeing in the media which is really unfair to our communities are protesters that are saying
00:20:34.100we don't support this industry and that couldn't be farther from the truth because a lot of these
00:20:38.900communities want to bring themselves out of poverty and they want to be able to take care
00:20:43.540of their people and they want to be able to you know implement services for their people and the
00:20:50.020more that you know the protesters protesters are out there speaking for us the more voices like
00:20:56.820mine are being overshadowed and you know we're not hearing enough people who do support this industry
00:21:03.780and why yeah well and it seems that some people almost like to treat our first nation citizens
00:21:10.180as if they're they're aliens and they're they have a completely different mindset and don't
00:21:13.940have the same needs and concerns as everybody else i mean as you said it's cold i mean first
00:21:19.620stations people understand we need to heat our homes we need to drive around we need these things
00:21:25.060that modern energy brings us uh as well you know productive work when i used to work in the north
00:21:30.900there were a number of great uh contractors from uh everywhere from the lubicon reserve to uh
00:21:38.980the sturgeon area that we would utilize when we were working up that we kept people rolling brought
00:21:43.300brought home paychecks and let people continue with their lives. And people don't seem to
00:21:49.720understand that there's not a heck of a lot of other employment opportunities necessarily up
00:21:54.180in these areas as well. So if you're shutting those down, you're leaving these people dependent
00:21:58.200on sometimes government aid, which is not good for anybody. Well, it's never enough. Whenever
00:22:03.820you rely on the government, it's never enough to fully sustain a community. So we have to find
00:22:08.600find other sources that will bring revenue and economic development, jobs and training to our
00:22:14.180people. And the oil and gas industry was one of the hugest ones in Canada that actually brought
00:22:20.380investment into our communities. And now what we're seeing is a lot of people are pulling
00:22:27.060back from that, a lot of companies, because they think we're opposed to it. And it's in everything
00:22:34.060that we do it like you said it heats our homes it fills up our gas tanks it you know it creates um
00:22:40.620jobs if you end up in the hospital what do you think is used to make that equipment you know if
00:22:45.820you end up on a ventilator you know we don't think bigger picture and how this really impacts people
00:22:52.140and just our day-to-day living we can have this industry and we can also take care of the
00:22:58.460environment as well these two things go hand in hand they're not separate and that's what the
00:23:04.140public you know tends to do they tend to say if you support oil and gas then you don't support
00:23:08.620the environment well you have to support both if you're in the oil and gas industry so i think
00:23:13.660there's definitely a lot more education a lot more energy literacy financial literacy that needs to
00:23:20.540go out to these communities so that they understand how this industry truly impacts us
00:23:26.060Yeah, and that gets forgotten that a person is not either or you can responsibly develop oil and gas resources. Yes, there will always be a little bit of an impact. I mean, the goal is to mitigate it as much as realistically possible. I didn't spend 20 years surveying, you know, all over in the bush and everything because I hated it out there. I loved it out there. If I didn't have to cut a tree, I didn't cut it. If we didn't have to disrupt a creek, we didn't do so. We didn't go out there with destruction in mind. It makes it sound as if it's this or that you either support the environment or you support
00:23:55.940energy, we can do both. And nobody's a better place to do it than the people who live in the
00:24:00.240areas where we're working. Exactly. I worked in abandonment and reclamation for a few years of
00:24:06.420my career. And we actually left the land better off than what we first acquired it. You know,
00:24:12.540we went through everything. We went through the vegetation, the trees, anything that was natural
00:24:17.000to that area. And we put it back to the way it was prior to us coming in. You know, and that's
00:24:22.880something. If you truly care about the environment, you know, that's something that you would stand
00:24:27.320behind and support. You know, I think the oil and gas industry in Alberta actually planted more trees
00:24:33.380in the last 10 years than the federal government promised. You know, they promised to plant 2
00:24:39.400billion trees, I think was a number at one point. And if you look at the number that the oil and gas
00:24:44.580industry has done, you know, it's nearing that number. So we don't hear stories like this,
00:24:50.580You know, and oftentimes it's overshadowed with other, you know, other disputes.
00:24:55.220And I think, you know, we really have to have a strong voice out there who's willing to educate people on energy and, you know, the process from start to finish and what that looks like.
00:25:07.660So going further from that, I noticed you tweeted the other day, you dipped into a taboo subject that not nearly enough people I think are willing to talk about.
00:25:15.000You mentioned the Indian Act and how it should be at the very least modified to perhaps give reserves municipal sort of powers rather than these unusual, I don't know how you would describe them.
00:25:28.240You know, they're places that were created under the Indian Act, which really limits the flexibility, taxation ability, things that a municipal government would be able to do.
00:25:37.080What would you like to see change with the Indian Act or do you even think it's salvageable?
00:25:40.400i think it's salvageable like i don't want to do away with it because you know it did bring
00:25:47.240you know a community as one you know and we don't want to divide that we want to keep it the way it
00:25:54.440is but we also want more autonomy when it comes to decision making you know we we want more autonomy
00:25:59.900when it comes to economic development um and getting outside investments we definitely need
00:26:06.520to have that discussion on how we can have a little bit more independence, because as leaders
00:26:11.580coming into these communities, they never realize the amount of control and constraints that they're
00:26:19.420allowed as a leader. If we were given the opportunity to be able to go out and decide how
00:26:27.100we wanted to, you know, run our community, we would be a lot better off than we are today.
00:26:32.940You know, we have to amend it so that it fits today's standards.
00:26:38.120If you're dealing with something that was written in the 1800s, it no longer applies
00:27:00.700Yeah, well, and I think there's things we can examine. There's a lot of isolated non-Indigenous communities out there and an ongoing issue that you've spoken to as well and lots of people talk to is the inability to get clean water to citizens living in these isolated communities. Now, that doesn't appear to be a problem in non-reserve areas because the municipality, that's one of the things that falls under their jurisdiction and they work together and they sort it out.
00:27:24.360But because the Indian Act cause is such a convoluted mess, I believe, in administration, it's hard to get a good responsible development of that kind of local infrastructure that you have in other areas.
00:27:37.360We should be examining how to make it work rather than keep trying to work within this broken model.
00:27:41.740I mean, multiple governments have failed on the water issue.
00:28:11.920They continue to mislead the public on numbers and what they mean without actually fixing the problem.
00:28:18.780You know, what is it going to take for the government to actually take this issue seriously?
00:28:24.100It was something that impacted me as a child, you know, dealing with contaminated water.
00:28:28.780We had high levels of iron in the water.
00:28:31.780I had sores on my body that, you know, only antibiotics could fix.
00:28:37.800And, you know, what's it going to take?
00:28:40.400A community getting really, really sick for them to actually look at the issue?
00:28:44.860No, we got to fix this today before it becomes a bigger problem.
00:28:48.780And that just goes back to the Indian Act. You know, we have to be able to find solutions outside of what the federal government is giving us. And if that means that we're acting as a municipality and we can maybe tie our infrastructure into other areas, so be it.
00:29:06.360you know as long as we have clean drinking water that's the number one priority and it just doesn't
00:29:11.880seem like it's taken very seriously at this point and when you look at infrastructure like housing
00:29:18.360and water these were some of the reasons why kids were taken out of their home which shouldn't have
00:29:23.960happened so you know it just it just snowballs into bigger issues that you know don't need to
00:29:29.800be there if we address them today and now and it is a good point you'd mentioned it before with
00:29:34.760with that child and family services settlement,
00:29:56.100It wasn't necessarily bad or uncaring parents.
00:29:58.680They just didn't have the local facilities
00:30:01.080and an ability to keep a safe household,
00:30:03.400which led to a chain of events that traumatized and disrupted entire generations.
00:30:09.160Exactly. And we wouldn't have known this. And this all kind of came out from residential schools.
00:30:15.080You know, we wouldn't have known, you know, this was happening in Indigenous communities if,
00:30:19.880you know, we didn't encounter unmarked graves last year. You know, and that kind of snowballed
00:30:25.200into, well, there's, you know, child and family services that needs to be addressed. There's
00:30:29.400poverty that needs to be addressed. There's so many issues that need to be addressed today that
00:30:34.480are a result of a residential school. If you look at what these schools has caused,
00:30:40.520children from these schools end up being part of the 60s school. The children of those children
00:30:46.020end up being the children that we see in care today. So it's a snowball effect of bad government
00:30:51.720policy. And instead of fixing it, you know, we're putting band-aids every which way we go without
00:30:58.320addressing the issues and that is really frustrating coming from you know coming from me because we have
00:31:05.760the solutions nobody's listening you know poverty is one of the biggest things that we need to
00:31:11.520address now and nobody's listening you know if anything they're creating more barriers for us
00:31:17.760and you just have to ask yourself when is this going to stop like when are they going to stop
00:31:23.440and actually listen to an indigenous perspective and you know maybe we might have a better outcome
00:31:28.72010 years from now five years from now yeah well and we can't uh go back and undo what was done i
00:31:35.760mean there's a point to reparations and things such as that but i mean what we should be doing
00:31:39.120then is recognizing are we still doing some of these things wrong right now and let's fix them
00:31:43.840and we're still operating as you said under that indian act that's a hundred and some years old
00:31:48.000well that's the very same act that was governing the residential schools i mean we always knew
00:31:51.920about it just nobody wanted to talk about it that that was the thing you know we didn't want to
00:31:55.920imagine that really there were people who showed up and took children from people's households
00:32:00.800and moved them out of their communities and raised them in boarding schools i mean if we'd done that
00:32:05.280today to any other community people would be up in arms and and uh so with those cemeteries i mean
00:32:11.120you know it doesn't mean that there was necessarily massive uh slaughter of the children there but
00:32:15.760just the volume of children who died there away from their homes is horrific and i think it touched
00:32:21.600everybody. So maybe if we can get some attention to this and change how we're doing things. So
00:32:25.820that's the more important than trying to fix what we already did. Exactly. And that's what, you know,
00:32:32.440my goal is, is bringing awareness to these issues, letting people know that we have solutions
00:32:38.120to these issues. But we don't have the funding, we don't have the services. You know, we have
00:32:45.780barriers that we're dealing with, you know, we need to come together with the government and start
00:32:51.460implementing implementing plans today not tomorrow not five years from now today and you know move
00:32:58.260forward with change if we take a small piece of something and we try to fix it you know it's going
00:33:04.740to create other things so why not try to address it as a whole and just try to you know move forward
00:33:11.300with it and i'm hoping with you know with this new funding of social and mental health services
00:33:17.620to these communities that that that's a start and um it'll be a start to a better tomorrow for our
00:33:23.940kids and hopefully for their kids so it's a snowball effect either way good or bad but we
00:33:29.860just want to make sure going forward that it's more good and it's a good movement policy yeah so
00:33:35.540i want to pivot a little and it kind of ties into a bit of what you're talking about with perhaps
00:33:39.380moving on to a municipal model as opposed to uh indian act modeled governing uh reserves because
00:33:45.940A lot of confusion and problems going on, for example, on the coastal gas link line is the mix between the local elected governance of the Wet'suwesson and some hereditary chiefs that still hold a traditional and cultural role, but people trying to say, well, which one holds authority?
00:34:02.400Who actually speaks for the community? And I know it's perhaps a departure from more traditional forms of governance.
00:34:08.920But if we moved on to a municipal model, you could have a more documented and regulated way of just saying, well, look, this is who's in charge.
00:34:14.940This is who signs the final agreement or not.
00:34:17.720And it doesn't mean you get rid of the other form of governance, but perhaps it moves into a more traditional role rather than a governing one.
00:34:25.320That's definitely a way we can move because then it would incorporate the traditional way of leading and the current more democratic way of voting in your leader.
00:34:35.220so it would combine the two you know it would get them talking um you know more cohesively
00:34:40.900it's not going to be a separate you know i want this or this person wants that it would be more
00:34:46.180of a decision making that would come from all parties and when we work on more of a municipal
00:34:53.060i guess platform um you know direct issues are solved and there's accountability you know so if
00:35:00.340if you said you're going to clean or have clean drinking water by 2022 and it's going to cost
00:35:05.060x amount of dollars that can be accounted for if whether it happened or not or whether you
00:35:11.780needed more funding for it so there's a level of accountability there as well and it would make all
00:35:17.960parties you know responsible for their decision making and it would incorporate our community
00:35:23.500our communities more cohesively you know it's it's kind of a a new way of thinking who you know
00:35:29.660we've had questions like, well, who would you report to? Would it be the federal? Would it be
00:35:33.580the provincial governments? Well, that can be worked out in the process, but the current system
00:35:38.300that's working, that's in place right now is not working and we need to figure out a way to make
00:35:43.560it work. Absolutely. And as I said, one of the hardest parts is just, you know, if somebody wants
00:35:47.860to go there, whether you're media or whether you're another level of government, it's just
00:35:50.580saying, well, who's in charge? And two disparate groups are each claiming that somebody else is
00:35:55.700and nobody's winning out of that standoff unfortunately exactly and when you look at
00:36:01.500how the municipality runs you know people are voted in and you do have you know landowners
00:36:08.240shareholders you do have people that you know that hold the vested interest in who's governing
00:36:13.700you so the same would apply to an indigenous community you know if our elect if our current
00:36:19.360electoral system is not working how do we tweak it to make it work and how do we tweak it to get
00:36:24.360everybody involved, as opposed to causing more division and more chaos, I guess, at the end of
00:36:30.860the day. Yeah, well, and I have big issues with our entire Canadian system, but that's fodder
00:36:36.000for an entirely different interview at another time. But I mean, both cases are a matter of
00:36:41.100we're working with governing documents that were created in a completely different time. We're
00:36:44.920talking five generations ago. Why would we assume that these would be good and functional and
00:36:50.100applicable today. Yet again, as I said, I was just happy to see you even willing to talk about the
00:36:54.840Indian Act because nobody seems to really want to touch that. It's definitely one of those things
00:36:59.400where, where do you even start? You know, like, where do you even start looking at amendments?
00:37:05.040And, you know, I've spoken to chiefs where they've actually sent in, you know, stuff they'd like to
00:37:09.820change. They sent in amendments that they'd like to see fixed in this document and there's no
00:37:14.800response so at the end of the day who's responsible for this and who's responsible for making these
00:37:20.800changes we need to start there and then work our way back to what we actually want to see changed
00:37:26.560in it well i guess you know we'll just keep working on things we definitely want to
00:37:32.400you know hope for the best like i said this is frustrating with every level government we just
00:37:35.920seem to be able to incapable of learning from our past mistakes when we move forward so i appreciate
00:37:42.000your voice speaking out on that behalf though you've got more direct experience and and you're
00:37:46.240looking at things from a pragmatic way which is uh refreshing and apparent and appreciated i i hope
00:37:50.880you keep doing so for for quite some time uh where can we find more information on what you're up to
00:37:55.680and where to find you and what you're doing um the mcdonald laureate website would be a good start
00:38:01.360also twitter um you know i'm pretty active in politics and you know i comment on a variety of
00:38:07.120issues and i also tie it into an indigenous perspective like how would this issue impact
00:38:13.040us if it came to be so um definitely there and yeah i mean i'm on a couple of other platforms
00:38:20.560like radio shows every now and again so you can catch me catch me there as well well thank you
00:38:26.480very much for coming in to join me today melissa i i appreciate the the insight and i hope we can
00:38:31.040talk again soon yeah for sure definitely i'd love to come back on your show right on keep fighting
00:38:35.760in a good fight. Okay, so yeah, that was Melissa Embarkey, and I had her on before. I believe the1.00
00:38:43.460first time I had her on, I slaughtered the pronunciation of her name, so this time I got1.00
00:38:46.760that right. Thanks for being patient with me on those things, but you know, I just want to hear0.67
00:38:52.760more perspectives, and as I said, if you follow her on Twitter, things such as that, you'll see
00:38:59.120that she has a very good common sense approach to things. She, you know, is speaking out in areas
00:39:05.560that others aren't willing to. Who wants to talk about the Indian Act? And you know what, you get
00:39:10.180called a racist and every other darn thing if you even talk about opening it up. Well, Melissa
00:39:13.760obviously is a person, you know, of First Nations background. She's not self-loathing. She's not a
00:39:22.240white supremacist by any measure. And she wants to change the deal. She wants to look into things.0.78
00:39:27.020So give her a follower and check things out.
00:39:30.300I know not everybody agrees necessarily with where she wants to go with things.
00:40:08.020This is a right that is constantly being infringed upon.
00:40:11.300The Liberals want to take your property away.
00:40:13.700They want to take away your ability to safely use firearms, which are a fantastic tool and they're a fantastic sporting item.
00:40:21.040You know, it's idiocy that they're always cracking down on law abiding firearm owners while they're overlooking the illegal gang firearm users in urban areas, which are actually the ones contributing to crime. So CSSA, these guys have a couple of legal challenges out against the government to try and protect your right to have your firearms. They also, you know, they offer membership, firearms education, all sorts of things. Check out their website, Canadian Sports Shooting Association. These guys are looking out for you.
00:40:48.320they're looking out for your rights and they are a great sponsor, particularly for a show such as
00:40:54.620ours. So yeah, I'm looking at some of the chat here. You know, people talk about the Chiefs
00:40:59.400needing to be held accountable. Yeah, Onion Lake, I worked up there. Yeah, there's things I saw up
00:41:04.680in the Blueberry Reserve in Northern BC that were disturbing or the Horseman family who were
00:41:11.720governing Horse Lakes Reserve west of Grand Prairie. I'll spare you guys the stories on it
00:41:17.120from when I worked and mapped that entire reserve back then,
00:41:20.020but there were some terrible corruption problems.
00:41:22.720Some people were living very, very high on the hog,
00:41:24.800and some people were living in the most abject of policy.
00:41:35.720and they don't just need to be accountable to people outside the reserve,
00:41:38.780they need to be accountable to the ones within there.
00:41:40.980I don't know if people are familiar with the Stony Reserve much.
00:41:43.620It's between Calgary and Banff, and it's got Morley in there.
00:41:47.040Eden Lake is one of their branches down south.
00:41:49.360That was governed by Chief Snow for a long time.
00:41:52.440And I tell you, the stories you would hear, I grew up in Banff and we were very familiar with that reserve.
00:41:58.800He was governing it like a gangster and people were afraid.
00:42:01.760I mean, they say, well, we have elections on reserve and such, and they do.
00:42:05.280But I mean, these were pretty slanted elections.
00:42:07.840You think things are bad in, you know, our municipal and federal politics.
00:42:12.160Some of the stuff that was going on on that reserve, people were afraid to speak up.
00:42:14.920Some chiefs act like thugs. And there's also some very good chiefs out there. We've got to remember that. You know, Clarence Louis out in BC, I mean, he's done fantastic things out in our Soyuz or Chief Ellis, is it? He's running for the Liberals out in BC. But again, I mean, don't assume that every chief is unaccountable. But if we get better governance models and systems, we can certainly do so.
00:42:36.360As we know from our own governance model, though, we've got enough leaders non-reserve who aren't very accountable, who tend to be very corrupt, or in the case of our prime minister, complete abject imbeciles. So, you know, we can't get on too high a horse and say our system is that much better than the one going on over there. All of those systems really need some work, as we're seeing with some of the commenters mentioning that.
00:42:59.960You know, I'm going to talk about personal accountability since I'm on the subject.
00:43:04.260You know, I triggered some folks this morning because I threw a tweet out there about Doug Ford because he's been cracking down.
00:43:12.200Doug Ford's always been one of the prime panicking leaders in Canada when it comes to the COVID-19 pandemic.
00:47:08.180Why are we still terrified that a handful of cases is going to overwhelm our health systems?
00:47:12.440Well, what the hell is wrong with our systems?
00:47:14.920This is one of the richest countries on Earth.
00:47:17.060It's got supposedly one of the most modern and best health care systems on the planet.
00:47:21.380Yet after two years, we haven't figured out how to deal with an increased capacity.
00:47:26.300Why? I'm worried. What happens if we do get a real plague?
00:47:29.700What if smallpox makes a resurgence or some other bug we've never heard of that really is a hell of a lot more deadly than COVID-19?
00:47:36.160Will we have learned from it? Will we have learned to be able to expand our hospital capacity to deal
00:47:41.100with it? I mean, we've got to get to that point we've talked about of turning this into something
00:47:45.940that's endemic. It means we know and accept that it's not going away. We're stuck with it. And we
00:47:52.760have to learn to live with it. It'll have its ups and downs. Well, that means we want to do things
00:47:57.560then to keep ourselves safer while it's still always wandering around out there making the
00:48:01.460rounds, one of which is staying healthier. And one of those ways to stay healthy is to try and
00:48:07.320keep our weight in a manageable level, because it's one of the most direct things we can point
00:48:12.340at. And I find it less worrisome for somebody to not be afraid of embarrassing somebody who may be
00:48:18.920overweight by pointing out that problem. And again, I'm not talking about shaming in public
00:48:23.000or things like that so much, but that's less intrusive in somebody's life than going out and
00:48:28.060trying to lock down the world for fear of a virus going around. I mean, let's look at the solutions
00:48:35.260we can do that are the easiest without disrupting people. In fact, they come with a great deal other
00:48:40.040benefits from things. Yeah, you know, June there saying she's a nurse of 35 years and all this
00:48:47.260money and we have fired the unvaccinated and not built one new bed. You know, and here's Ashley0.99
00:48:53.800seeing my wife got her booster. So far, so good. Yeah, I'm not worried about the vaccinations.0.98
00:48:58.460But the one thing we have learned with the vaccinations, though, is they obviously don't
00:49:01.600stop the spread. That's another discussion altogether, too. You know, they may reduce,
00:49:07.140I don't know, a lot of people just debate it, and that's fine. But the negative outcomes from
00:49:11.600an infection with COVID-19 are reduced if you have been vaccinated, but they don't do a thing
00:49:19.300for the spread. Otherwise, we've got the majority of the population vaccinated. Omicron wouldn't
00:49:23.920be sweeping across the country the way it is right now. So the next question is, what's the
00:49:29.680point of the vaccine passports? What does it matter? There, Ann just came up with that comment
00:49:34.200herself there. If it's not going to stop the spread, why are we chasing people around? Why
00:49:40.760are we spending the money? Why are we making them suffer? This isn't helping. Let's do some
00:49:46.620evidence-based solutions with things now rather than these knee-jerk things. Knee-jerk reactions
00:49:50.760to a pandemic perhaps are acceptable in the first four months of it. We're getting into two years on
00:49:55.820it and we don't seem to know any better than we ever did in the first place. Okay, so getting on
00:50:01.380from that, I'm going to move on to consumer and trade issues with David Clement. David is with
00:50:07.800the consumer, oh boy, I'm going to bring David in so I can remember that now. It's the consumer
00:50:13.400center david how are you doing i'm doing well thank you for having me good i've been ranting
00:50:17.960at everybody's years you know for uh an hour and ten solid here and i forgot it's the canadian
00:50:23.240consumer it's called the consumer choice center okay we actually operate all over the world but
00:50:29.800i'm based in the greater toronto area yes and excellent thank you and i knew that i just couldn't
00:50:35.480get it out of my head i gotta get better with my notes hey this is day two for our reboot of the
00:50:38.600show another mental note get on to those things so thanks for joining me i've had you on before
00:50:43.080you're certainly a fellow libertarian. We want minimal government. We want as much free commerce
00:50:49.980and movement of goods as possible. And we're living in times where all of that's extremely
00:50:54.860challenged. Something that's broken recently, though, we might as well go right into it,
00:51:00.180is one of our favorite subjects, supply management. It seems that it may have led to a real problem
00:51:05.280with the new NAFTA negotiations. Yeah. So essentially what the Biden administration
00:51:10.660had done is brought forward an official complaint under the USMCA, which is the new name for
00:51:17.180NAFTA, mostly in regards to dairy access in Canada for American farmers.
00:51:25.820And I mean, it's a weird, weird scenario because for most other agricultural products, this
00:51:32.200isn't a problem, but obviously for anybody who knows what supply management is, it's
00:51:36.420system of production controls quotas and very very high tariffs on foreign products which
00:51:43.780basically keeps them off canadian shelves and so they issued this this complaint uh and the
00:51:50.820the review board who reviewed the complaint has uh essentially ruled in the united states favor
00:51:58.020and given canada notice in regards to allowing access to the canadian market and so
00:52:05.220So, I mean, supply management is something that I've long argued we should be getting
00:52:10.820rid of for our own sake, because it's something that inflates prices on core food items, and
00:52:17.460that obviously has a really disproportionate impact on lower-income Canadians.
00:52:23.220And so this is good news if you care about the cost of food and you care about food inflation.
00:52:29.540It's good news if you care about free trade, and it's good news if you care about pushing
00:52:34.020back against cronies because we've seen for far too long the dairy lobby have have quite a serious
00:52:42.240grip on power in ottawa in regards to their lobbying efforts so this is good news we're still
00:52:48.860waiting to see what happens next but i'm hopeful that this can be the beginning of the end of
00:52:54.520supply management yeah well and this is showing a different cost i mean one we've been kind of
00:52:59.080screaming from the rooftops for years to saying hey this is costing you this much out of your
00:53:02.480wallet every year when you buy your groceries, but it just doesn't cut quite enough attention.
00:53:07.620Well, now it's really interfering with our trade deals and things such as that. And I don't like
00:53:13.060giving Biden a lot of credit for a lot of things, but they're right there. I mean, this is an unfair
00:53:16.520system. It's not trading in good faith. And I'll just kind of lay a little more. You and I are
00:53:22.460very familiar with supply management, but for some of the viewers, it might not be as much. I mean,
00:53:25.900this is a system we've had in Canada. It covers dairy, poultry, and eggs. And basically, it
00:53:32.160completely controls the amount you're allowed to produce, where you can sell it. I mean, it's
00:53:35.900Soviet style. My wife, Jane, grew up in a dairy farm out by Rockyford, a small one. Her father
00:53:41.460did other things, but they had some dairy cows. They had a quota for cream. And I love using this0.97
00:53:45.180analogy from her because it just shows how ridiculous the system is and how long it's
00:53:50.540been going. I won't say exactly how long since Jane was young, but he was only allowed to skim
00:53:56.060the cream, literally, and sell it. He was not allowed to sell the milk. So the remaining milk,
00:54:00.060you feed as much as you can to the family if you got pigs you pour it to the pigs or literally you
00:54:04.360would pour it in the irrigation ditch because you just couldn't do anything with it and it wouldn't
00:54:06.980keep you would waste it as you say and you want to hear something that will make that point even
00:54:11.960more irritating um it was just discovered at least for me and i think for most people who follow this
00:54:19.020that in the cost of production formula which is just a fancy way of like the guaranteed income
00:54:25.160that farmers will get because of this system it actually includes the cost of dumping um
00:54:31.560so so when the system fails which it has at several points in its history in regards to
00:54:38.520meeting demand or oversupply and all of those issues um we've heard of uh of milk being poured
00:54:45.560out we've heard of chickens being called and things like that they actually get paid for that
00:54:50.280they get paid for ironically the mismanagement of supply so it it is really a backward system
00:54:58.680that importantly we don't do for anything else beef farmers don't get this pork farmers don't
00:55:04.520get this and so there's no need for it on an equity basis if we look at how we treat farmers
00:55:11.560across canada but at the same time there are two other looming trade issues that are kind of front
00:55:18.520of mind right now, and that is Canadian lumber. So the Trump administration made a huge error,
00:55:25.940in my opinion, in increasing tariffs, and the Biden administration doubled down on those and
00:55:30.660increased them more. And then the other one is whether or not our auto manufacturers in the
00:55:36.240electrical vehicle space will be allowed to contribute under Biden's Buy American plan.
00:55:43.040And so, I mean, for me, if I'm at the bargaining table, I say, OK, look, enough of the rigmarole of going back and forth under the USMCA.
00:55:53.600Let's make a deal. Let's trade. We'll trade you dairy access, which is something that would be great for Canadian consumers and dealing with food inflation.
00:56:01.740But we'll trade you that for concessions on lumber and electric vehicles.
00:56:06.500And you get to boost two other important sectors in the economy, lumber and the automotive space.
00:56:14.080And at the same time, you get to give Canadians some more choice, some more competition and some better prices.
00:57:04.040Yeah, yeah. And that's been a common argument from the dairy farmers of Canada is that they don't get subsidies, which is just a bold-faced lie. They do get additional subsidies outside of the government protection that they currently receive in regards to competition, which is a form of subsidy.
00:57:24.020um and so i mean this has come up in debate where i've debated lobbyists on behalf of the dfc
00:57:31.300well they'll say well uh if if another country has has subsidies well that's not fair and my
00:57:39.820response is quite easy is quite simple okay well then we should have free trade with new zealand
00:57:44.860on all agricultural products including dairy because they have no farm subsidies in any way
00:57:50.480shape or form. And that is obviously not accepted by them. But I mean, the big thing here is that
00:57:57.060most people, most protectionists forget that trade is not a zero-sum game. So the benefits of this
00:58:07.100are going to be enjoyed on both sides of the border. There's a U.S. Trade Commission report
00:58:11.620that estimates that U.S. imports of Canadian dairy products would increase by $161.7 million
00:58:19.720dollars if we lived up to the terms of the USMCA. And so reduced trade barriers would allow these
00:58:28.420Canadian farmers to sell their products to a new American consumer base. And yes, they're going to
00:58:33.780face some more competition domestically, but with that opening of trade comes more opportunity
00:58:39.340abroad. And so the question is, do we want a sector that's insular, protected from competition,
00:58:45.580protected from innovation slow stagnant or do we want something that is on the world scale
00:58:52.080competing competing on price competing on quality um i i certainly think the latter is far more
00:58:58.940preferable well absolutely and if we compete we will step up uh you know we've got all of this
00:59:05.820land we've got a fantastic agricultural base we can produce dairy products on par with with
00:59:10.480anywhere in the world we've got that down so we shouldn't be so insecure to think that the only
00:59:14.340way we can do it uh efficiently is to protect it like that to put tariffs on outside goods
00:59:20.020or choke the amount that a person's allowed to produce it's ridiculous and and one of the things
00:59:25.220that's often forgotten is that beyond the united states by getting rid of supply management it
00:59:32.420would open up export opportunities to the the emerging middle class that has has developed
00:59:40.820in the developing world where people have been lifted out of poverty.
00:59:45.860And one of the key trends that we see when those folks are lifted out of poverty
00:59:49.480is that their consumption and demand for dairy, chicken, and eggs goes up quite a bit.
00:59:54.760And that's why all of the forecasts for global consumption for those free goods
00:59:58.680are forecasted to continue to grow up as global wealth goes up,
01:00:02.360as globalization continues to lift people out of poverty.
01:00:05.980And so it really is a scenario where beyond our relationship with the U.S., there is a lot to be gained on the world stage here for Canada and Canadian farmers to be out there and shipping our products internationally.
01:00:22.560We don't do that now, but we certainly could if we got rid of this silly system.
01:03:06.240Yeah, supply management's a good low-hanging fruit.
01:03:08.340As you said, even though it's easy to make the case, they are such an entrenched lobby that it's very difficult to actually make change on it.
01:03:15.260Outside of that, though, inflation is a huge issue right now, and it's going to be more so, whether it's energy products or lumber and other such things.
01:03:25.320What are you proposing to help consumers?
01:03:27.660Because we're all taking a wallop here as our currencies devalue and the price of everything goes up.
01:03:31.160Yeah. I mean, inflation is one of those things where it's a hidden tax. So it's something
01:03:42.660that is felt very, very intensely by lower income Canadians. This is where free trade
01:03:50.140and open markets come into play. Most people, I mean, I know that Pierre Polyev has talked
01:03:55.920to go in monetary policy. That's certainly a valid debate, and I hope that he continues to
01:04:01.860carry that banner. But in terms of things that can be done in the short term to calm inflation
01:04:09.860and inflationary concerns, it's opening up the Canadian marketplace so that there is downward
01:04:15.800pressure on prices and competition. It's one of the leading factors, in my opinion,
01:04:22.180why we for a long time were able to keep prices so stable, so much so that one of the former
01:04:29.620senior advisors to President Obama was on Twitter essentially saying the same thing,
01:04:36.640that the Biden administration, if they care about inflation, they don't need to
01:04:40.960beat the drums of antitrust and worried about potential price gouging, which probably doesn't
01:04:48.740exists. What they need to do is roll back the regulatory state, peel back the regulations that
01:04:55.840are limiting production, and continue to open the U.S. market. So I think that that's probably a
01:05:00.860recipe for success here. We've seen it work in the past, and it is one of those things that can be
01:05:06.340done if you have the political courage to do it in the near to short term. Yeah, well, you've
01:05:14.640certainly got your work cut out for you. But I mean, people will act finally when things kind
01:05:18.860of hit them and they kick them in the butt or hit them in the wallet. So hopefully you can keep
01:05:22.520pointing out solutions when people start finally realizing that they've got a problem. Where can
01:05:27.180we find more information on what you're doing and what you're up to, David?
01:05:31.260Yeah, consumerchoicecenter.org is the organization. And then you can follow me on Twitter at
01:05:36.520at Clement Liberty, where I am quite active on all issues of consumer choice, whether that be
01:05:43.560energy policy or the ordinary goods that people buy today excellent well i appreciate you coming
01:05:49.560on to talk to me today it's an issue that's going to be big in 2022 and we're looking forward to
01:05:54.280seeing you keep proposing solutions and exposing problems so uh thanks again keep up the good work
01:06:00.280and i hope to talk to you again soon appreciate it thank you and that was david clement as i said
01:06:08.040follow him on those social media channels he's always got good stuff to say you know on twitter
01:06:12.280People complain about Twitter a lot, but I tell you, it's a good spot to stay on top of things.
01:06:15.780You don't have to get on the fights and into the cesspool with everybody else, but you will see things as they break.
01:06:20.480And when David puts out new articles, things like that, that's where he's going to share them.
01:06:24.180Same with Melissa and others I've spoken to on here.
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01:07:30.080sponsor. So yeah, who was it? Somebody earlier was mentioning, getting back to that supply
01:07:36.100management talk about Deb, I think, remembering feeding the milk to the pigs when she was younger.
01:07:43.020And yeah, these are things that happen. If you had pigs, you could do that. Not every farm had
01:07:45.960that. It's just such a ridiculous, ridiculous policy. When it comes to chickens, I've got a
01:07:51.040flock of nine that we keep at home for home fresh eggs. No, I'm not going to get in problem with big
01:07:57.260egg markets or anything. But you know, it's actually, I believe the number is 300, which I'm
01:08:01.940never going to have. But if you have over 300 chickens and you don't have a government quota,
01:08:06.820you have broken the law. They will come down and they will fine you or they can jail you. That's
01:08:11.480how absurd these supply management policies are. That's how controlled that market is.
01:08:17.740And if you go traveling to the States, much or most other countries, you go to the grocery store
01:08:20.680and you see the price of dairy products, meats, chicken, eggs, all of those things, all the
01:08:24.880basics, the essentials, they're way lower than here. That's supply management, guys. And yeah,
01:08:30.940the Conservatives chicken out every time when it comes to addressing supply management. They talk
01:08:34.900big and they cower away because the dairy lobby is strong. And the other thing people don't like
01:08:39.360to talk about with it, well, politicians don't like to talk about it, is most of Canada's dairy
01:08:44.500now is in Quebec. The bulk of it is there. They're terrified of upsetting Quebec producers. Welcome
01:08:50.560to the politics of Canada, of course, just on every level all the time. It's what's in Quebec's
01:08:56.700interest, not what's in the rest of Canada's interest, what's in Quebec's interest. I got
01:09:00.840a feeling if Alberta had 80% of Canada's dairy products, we would suddenly see supply management
01:09:06.960vanishing very, very quickly. But it's Quebec, so we keep the kid gloves, we protect their markets
01:09:13.140at the expense of everybody else. And something I mentioned to Clement, yeah, their maple syrup
01:09:17.060market is actually supply managed to very heavily controlled. And you pay a very high premium for
01:09:23.080maple syrup. I mean, the good stuff's expensive anyways. But I mean, let's get free market. We
01:09:27.640don't need government managing food. Look how badly they manage everything else. Man, I don't1.00
01:09:31.700want them managing what I eat. They do a terrible job of it. So get government out of it. We need to
01:09:37.320push back against supply management. Unfortunately, not even enough Canadians have even heard of it.
01:09:41.140You know, the dairy market doesn't really want to talk about it. Politicians don't want to,
01:09:44.220especially conservative ones, because they got to stare at their shoes. Because you can't pretend
01:09:48.080to be a fiscal conservative and say you support supply management. You can't. It's a lie. That's
01:09:54.260a pure lie. It is completely the opposite of free market. It is government illegalizing somebody
01:10:00.160selling a product and favoring somebody else selling that product. So you can't pretend to
01:10:05.740be a conservative and say that policy is acceptable. Yet our conservative party does it
01:10:09.600all the time. As David mentioned, Pierre Polyev spoke against it, but he sits back and speaks
01:10:15.660against it. The leaders never do. Go ahead, go after Shearer. Shearer got his leadership from
01:10:21.220the dairy lobby and O'Toole certainly isn't out there beating the drum against supply management
01:10:25.460either. So it's an unacceptable policy and why we just keep accepting it is a frustration. But I
01:10:33.200mean, let's talk about our major media outlets, at least we're talking about. I'm going to bounce
01:10:36.220around a bit here. The CBC fallout keeps going on. This is brilliant. From that the CBC journalist
01:10:45.280who basically said, I'm going to Substack, I'm leaving. And she's done with it. Slobodian wrote
01:10:51.260a great thing about it. But it just, the amount that the progressive journalist set, I guess you
01:11:00.040could say online has gone bananas over this. And yes, you know what? There was one in Vancouver.
01:11:06.760I don't know who she is. Some low grade with the CBC, but she basically called everybody in
01:11:12.840Substack white supremacists. Yeah. It always goes back to that. Where and how on earth do you get
01:11:19.200that? But that's where they gone. The left and the progressives have gone bananas because this
01:11:23.360woman has exposed the CBC for the woke garbage dump that it is. And you know what? In a free
01:11:28.960market, we could have all the woke garbage dumps in the world that you want. I don't care about1.00
01:11:32.480the CBC's content so much as the fact that I got to pay for it. That's what pisses me off with the
01:11:38.160CBC. People say, if you don't like it, change the channel. Well, I can do that, but I can't
01:11:42.120stop paying for it. More than a billion a year. And the other part with the CBC and what they do
01:11:47.120and where they screw communication and media in Canada is that their TV channel sells advertising
01:11:53.500as well. At least the radio, you know, it's tax funded, doesn't sell advertising. The TV sells
01:11:57.560advertising. But it's subsidized, of course. You know, this is a company that's getting a billion
01:12:01.060in some from the taxpayers a year. So they can undercut other advertisers. They can undercut
01:12:05.180other media producers and sell better advertising package deals to them because they're getting all
01:12:12.380those tax dollars. Well, in my view, that's advertising dollars stolen from other outlets.
01:12:16.580And we've got some great advertisers. I just spoke to a couple of ours here already. But it doesn't
01:12:20.720make our job any easier when we've got to compete in the market or we've got a behemoth like the
01:12:24.360CBC selling ad space for far less than we can. We can't afford to go at their rates for that sort
01:12:31.460of thing. The only upside is less people are buying or fewer people, their ad revenues are
01:12:35.620going down into the toilet anyways, because nobody's watching the CBC. We're still paying
01:12:39.220for it, but nobody's watching that crap. But it's still going on. And it's been fun watching the
01:12:43.920fallout though, because those dependent on the CBC, those woke people, those people who make
01:12:48.200their living out of the trash that that state broadcaster produces, feel vulnerable. They know
01:12:53.180it's garbage. And they know when it gets exposed, more and more taxpayers are not only tuning out
01:12:57.400of their rotten content, but they're actually saying, let's get rid of it. Why am I paying for
01:13:01.840this? So let's keep saying that. And the other way to do it is also support the alternative
01:13:06.660medias. Let's keep pulling those advertisers away from the CBC. Let's starve that company.
01:13:11.900So outlets like the Western Standard, yes, I'm going to be self-promoting here, but hey,
01:13:16.060that's what we do. Come on. We put stuff out. The government doesn't tell us what to say,
01:13:20.300and it certainly doesn't give us any money help us along if you haven't subscribed to the western
01:13:25.140standard already get in there go to the western standard online.com take out a membership you
01:13:30.220can take a trial membership you can get full access to all our columns our content our news
01:13:34.240stories as they break it's a free trial for the first little while and then you can carry it on
01:13:37.860and most people when they go in they check it out they keep the membership after the trial expires
01:13:42.420for 10 bucks a month it's a fantastic value you know as i said cheaper than the old
01:13:48.340newspaper subscriptions to get it brought to your door. And you don't have that pile of old
01:13:52.260newspapers that you got to try and get rid of after every couple of weeks when you put it off.
01:13:55.160So go to WesternStandardOnline.com, take out a membership, help us out. I mean,
01:14:00.380these subscribers are what keep us going as well as our sponsors and share this, you know,
01:14:04.200follow us on YouTube, Rumble, Twitter, all of those social media things, keep sharing it with
01:14:08.860others, get more people on and it helps us. And we produce more content and we can just keep
01:14:13.100spreading. Yes, we're spreading the alternative media, the real media. Now the ones that speak
01:14:18.180to the issues you want to hear about, not what the government wants you to hear about.
01:14:22.680So it goes both ways. We really appreciate those who have already subscribed. We appreciate the
01:14:27.600people who have donated and sponsored. And again, just keep encouraging and share it on Facebook,
01:14:32.560like it on Facebook. I know people get tired of every social media person saying, you know,
01:14:36.020slam that like button and all that stuff, but it's really important to us. And this is the way
01:14:39.480we can bypass the mainstream media. You know, we don't have to keep eating their stuff. We have
01:14:43.780another route. We have another means of news. We have another means of opinion, another means of
01:14:48.320discussion. As June's saying, yeah, she hasn't watched the CBC in a decade or so. Yeah. So I
01:14:56.060mean, if we aren't watching, why are we still paying for that crap? But we are, and it's going
01:14:59.900to take some pushing. Speaking of O'Toole and his rubber backbone, he talked about defunding the CBC
01:15:05.120when he was campaigning, but much like his carbon tax flip-flop, now he's talking about fixing it.
01:15:09.200You can't fix it. It's a state broadcaster. You couldn't fix Pravda in Russia. You're not going
01:15:14.420to fix CBC in Canada. Just get rid of it. We'll do fine without it. Most people have already
01:15:20.020abandoned it. They're done with it. So here's another beauty going on is speaking of consumer
01:15:26.280things. I should have talked to David about this as well, because it's the big push for electric.
01:15:30.900You know, this is a story. I think it's going to be coming out on the standard if we haven't
01:15:33.940done it already, but there's a group that it's an association that pushes electric cars, you know,
01:15:38.380electric vehicles and so on and they're lobbying the government and they're pushing and they want
01:15:43.180the government to put an extra charge of $4,000 on every SUV in Canada. They want to make you pay
01:15:49.920another $4,000. My little Hyundai Tucson, it's a four-cylinder vehicle, fantastic on gas,
01:15:55.580but that's categories as an SUV. So they would tack another $4,000 on that because what they
01:16:01.400want to do is force you to buy their crappy electric vehicles. Look, if your car is good,
01:16:06.240I'll buy it. Don't force me there. All that tells me is your machine is crap. It means it's not worth
01:16:12.860it. It's not a good investment. If you have to force people to buy your product, your product
01:16:17.940stinks. I mean, make a good electric car. Make the good infrastructure. That's your job. Be a
01:16:24.940capitalist. If it's good, it'll get there. We didn't have to put a high price on horses to make
01:16:30.980people move on to combustion engines and cars later on. They made better cars. The Model T
01:16:35.900came along. People realized we're better off buying these vehicles and they did it on their
01:16:40.960own. And auto manufacturers competed and made better products. And the advent of the personal
01:16:46.020automobile made for one of the biggest benefits of industrialized society that we don't get enough
01:16:52.280credit for. You know, I'm going to carry on an aside rant with my tirade here because we have
01:16:57.380the crazed left, the bike lane cultists, the city hall lunatics, who, by the way, they're now
01:17:03.200lobbying them to try and get rid of all the one-way roads in downtown Calgary because they want to slow
01:17:06.780everyone down. They despise the individual car. They say it's terrible. It's evil. It's ruining