00:02:01.880I mean, you know, I can't observe it, but I'm certain I could have a Shirley Temple or something like that
00:02:06.480and vicariously enjoy it through others, and for you, get out there and have a drink.
00:02:11.000Okay, we've got a good show coming up today due to some other circumstances, but it's a nice break on things.
00:02:17.060Anyways, I had to run out. We had Conservative Party leadership candidate Roman Babber in our studios here at the Western Standard yesterday.
00:02:24.940We had to record an interview with him, and Melanie Risden recorded that, and it's a really good talk, so we're going to run that in a little bit.
00:02:31.420We try to do things live when we can, but when it comes to these leadership candidates and people with tight schedules, it's sometimes hard to get them right in on that slot like that.
00:02:39.240Then we're going to talk to the Western Standard columnist, Trevor Tucker.
00:02:43.400We're going to talk about the March for Life.
00:02:44.960We're going to talk about how the abortion issue has hit.
00:02:47.400Yes, that issue that none of us wants to talk about.
00:02:49.840I don't really want to talk about it, but it's here.
00:03:54.920And let's get on with what I'm going to rant about.
00:03:57.820So I want to talk about the long gun registry, and it's returned through a backdoor method,
00:04:02.900And the Liberal government has assigned their top liar, Public Safety Minister Marco Mendocino, to promote it.
00:04:10.840So, just to give some background on this minister, when he was questioned in committee meetings on the invocation of the Emergencies Act last February,
00:04:17.960Mendocino simply just kept fabricating lies.
00:37:33.300and um i've had a number of these conversations with my friends in alberta over the last couple
00:37:39.560of days and i understand that there's this desire to potentially for more independence
00:37:47.220but i'm i'm going to do a couple of things first of all i'm going to fully um unleash
00:37:54.300your economic potential by by working with you at allowing further ways to develop your natural
00:38:00.060resources i will repeal the anti-pipeline bill on day one makes sense it's so much safer to transpond
00:38:09.500oil by pipe than than train i would think that anyone that cares about the environment would
00:38:16.700prefer a pipeline over a train i'm going to repeal equalization and most importantly
00:38:24.220i'm a politician from ontario and i know how many of them think and how folks in quebec think
00:38:30.060I think that the political class needs to appreciate that there is life outside of Ontario and Quebec, and I need to bring you into the national conversation.
00:38:41.860And I start doing that by bringing Conservative members from Western Canada and the Maritimes and Atlantic Canada into the conversation.
00:38:51.640I hope to do everything possible to maintain unity within our party and our country.
00:38:56.660And pollsters do say that for you to win, it would feel like a long shot.
00:39:04.660What are your thoughts on that? If you aren't successful, what are your plans there?
00:39:10.660What do you have to say to the people who say it's a long shot for you?
00:39:42.200and by all accounts, I've done really well in the debates,
00:39:45.120and more and more voters are seeing that there's another credible option here.
00:39:49.900And finally, I anticipate that we're going to, in addition to exceeding expectations, I'm looking to unite democracy-loving Canadians, and that includes the freedom movement, that is not entirely settled as to where it's going to go, but we have made a lot of headway with freedom.
00:40:10.560And I'm confident this is going to propel us to a good result on first ballot, which
00:40:16.720may translate into the climbing up as we continue along the ballots. So we love exceeding expectations
00:40:24.240and we love to be considered the underdog as well. So rising to the occasion. And if you are not
00:40:31.680successful, will you consider running for the Conservative Party on the federal level?
00:40:37.440you know what would be your plans moving forward I'm not sure yeah you know a lot of thought that
00:40:44.160I haven't thought that through okay I like to joke and it's true Melanie I I don't really love
00:40:48.740I don't really like politics and I've enjoyed I was very very blessed in private practice practicing
00:40:55.620law before I was elected I practiced for 12 years it's it's better for you know for the paycheck
00:41:02.100It's better for your privacy and certainly my loved ones.
00:41:06.440Politics is very, very taxing, especially the last couple of years and everything that I've been blessed to experience.
00:55:49.840not all this other stuff that you have questions about um you know like is it is it abortion at
00:55:55.520one month is it abortion at like one week prior to birth right like if you're on one side or the
00:56:00.960other you almost can't even go there um and and i think we probably could find a lot of commonality
00:56:07.360if we could actually go there right if we could actually ask ask the questions that
00:56:14.000that get sort of pushed aside in the effort of of streamlining the um the narrative yeah well and
00:56:21.920i mean there's a mental attitude and i think it's gotten worse you know with social media
00:56:27.440and divided discourse and very polarized this and this and it's i'm right you're wrong you're
00:56:32.480right i'm wrong and we've forgotten that that basic idea of i can very strenuously disagree
00:56:41.200with you but fully support your right to be wrong and we've lost that we're you're wrong thus you
00:56:48.160shouldn't even be able to say that and that's a big problem and that's happening a lot and it's
00:56:52.480not a left right thing it happens with people when they get too heated up on either side of an issue
00:56:57.120they try to shut up the other side rather than uh debate them and it's it's getting worse
00:57:03.360yeah yeah absolutely and and if you know i teach communications and i and i can't help but thinking
00:57:09.920that that that those who you know want to control the airwaves um are are are the leaders of this
00:57:17.360kind of this kind of assault upon you know nuance and complexity and and um you know the more common
00:57:24.320sense questions that that bug all of us yeah so did uh the the march for life event was uh you
00:57:32.000know it's an annual one it's a big one uh did you attend that in ottawa this year yeah i did i did um
00:57:39.680and you know that that was that that was a really interesting um i mean how do you
00:57:46.320encapsulate it it was a really interesting case in point where you know it it it seemed like um
00:57:53.680there was one side that uh this is the planned parenthood side that was very um
00:58:02.640it was very clear uh you know the points they were making they were trying to shout down
00:58:06.800the speakers my body my choice and and it was it was it was definitely much more angry than than
00:58:16.400some of the leading media outlets would have you believe you know and then on the other hand you
00:58:23.180have people that are you know quite eclectic I was actually like every age every size largely Catholic
00:58:33.020I would guess, and I'm not, but that was fine.
00:58:43.320Yeah, you know, that side, it just didn't seem as angry, I guess.
00:58:51.900Yeah, well, and again, it takes two sides.
00:58:54.520I mean, avoiding the anger, and the extremes can come from either side.
00:58:58.100You know, there's a lot of attacks personally or even physically
00:59:01.580at some of the protests from counter protesters at the same time that there's been some crazed
00:59:06.080extreme anti-abortion activists who've you know shot doctors in past years and things like that
00:59:10.860but those are the outliers you know if we could stick to the the middle with most people uh i mean
00:59:17.600the issue is clearly never going to be settled but that also means then we're going to have to
00:59:22.040keep an ongoing discourse moving on it yeah i think so um and and you know that there were
00:59:30.620there were signs of that yesterday. You know, there were people who would try to walk up to
00:59:38.960the sort of counter protest and, you know, engage and that sort of thing. There was a lot of talk
00:59:46.340of people recognizing the motives. This one woman, it was very interesting, you know,
00:59:55.520She had had abortion 25 years ago and she had felt guilty about it and so on.
01:00:01.520But, you know, in her in her statement, she was she's like pointed over and she said, you know, pro-choice people do this out of love, too.
01:00:12.760And love for freedom, love for their own bodies and and actually love for children.
01:00:18.880And I actually was kind of looking around wondering, you know, how that would fly.
01:00:23.200but you know it seemed fine here was a woman who had who had lived lived the
01:00:29.980issue in a way and and I you know that kind of you know olive branch reaching
01:00:37.580even if you know I mean even if it's tough and even if you're gonna make your
01:00:43.100own peers raise an eyebrow I think it's still it's still great for the
01:00:50.000conversation. We all do these things because we think we're doing good and right and could
01:00:57.820recognize that kind of stuff. Well, and as I was saying earlier, the right to protest, the right
01:01:03.560to express, whether it's this or anything else, it's always under threat. There's people saying
01:01:06.860we've got to crack down on it. We've got to understand, particularly progressives. I mean,
01:01:11.540a lot of advancements from progressive causes came, they started from unpopular protests.
01:01:16.160they were the ones on the streets they were the ones protesting against the vietnam war they were
01:01:20.320the ones protesting for civil rights for minorities in the united states and getting cracked down on
01:01:24.480by the state don't you know we've got to remember that you've still got to allow views that you feel
01:01:30.160are unpopular to get out and express themselves as well and i think that's getting forgotten by a lot
01:01:34.080of people maybe i'll ask you i mean apart from media all the time but where do you think that's
01:01:40.160coming from that that push to shut down legal protests uh i think it's coming from people
01:01:49.760this is just pure theory on my part and it goes through the media it goes but it's really stemming
01:01:54.000at the government's level of uh such an ideological confidence that you are right that you're
01:01:59.760absolutely right and that the ends justify the means they even know that they're doing something
01:02:04.880wrong, but they feel it's so important to get their cause through, get their goals accomplished,
01:02:12.820that it's a secondary thing to step on the right of free expression because in the longer run,
01:02:18.780it will be better for everybody. I think it's a delusional point of view, but I do think,
01:02:22.600and maybe it's an unconscious point of view with some of them, but that's my theory as to why we're
01:02:27.240seeing such a push. This particular liberal government is more ideologically driven, I think,
01:02:32.000that we've seen probably in our lifetimes.
01:02:35.420And when you're driven by ideology rather than fact,
01:02:39.080then you start to do things such as set aside rights
01:05:32.900particularly with people in the LGBTQ community.1.00
01:05:36.080And I had a girlfriend at the time who actually took me out
01:05:38.540to a couple of pride events in Calgary.
01:05:40.540And they were pretty small back in those days.0.98
01:05:42.420But actually, it really, it was good for me.
01:05:46.360I mean, this was an event of free expression with me getting around people outside of my regular comfort zone, getting to know people.
01:05:53.220And it forced me to reevaluate my thought.
01:05:56.360And if they'd not, you know, and again, speaking of that, you know, 30 years before that, they would have been arrested for holding a pride parade.
01:06:02.900Were it not for events like that, people like me wouldn't have been able to interact and broaden my thought.0.55
01:06:08.460So when we shut down things like March for Life and that, again, we're not having anything productive.
01:06:12.220this is not going to help. Yeah, I agree. I agree. And I love that you mentioned that the personal
01:06:18.840side of it, you know, the same thing with the LGBT stuff, you know, it wasn't until I had friends
01:06:25.620that were wrestling profoundly with this. These are my best friends. And you don't have a choice
01:06:35.040to sort of slough it off as a political issue or, you know, and when you have that personal,
01:06:40.820to me, that's where it's at. And we can't let anyone get into that space between us. I often
01:06:47.580say to my students that conversation is all we have. And so we need to fight to keep that ground.
01:06:55.260Yeah, absolutely. Well, again, I appreciate you coming in. I'm looking forward to your column on
01:06:59.700what you observed at the event the other day and other columns to come in the future.
01:07:04.760All we can do is keep working on it. And again, well, we're not backing down over here. So
01:07:09.900thanks again for coming on to talk to me today, Trevor. And I hope we get to talk like this again
01:07:13.680soon. Absolutely. Yeah. Good seeing you, Corey. Great. Thanks. So yeah, guys, just the summary,
01:07:22.560you know, get to Western Standard online or well, it's not online anymore. Westernstandard.news
01:07:28.400and Trevor Tucker, you can look that up, that column. And as he, as he mentioned,
01:07:31.660there's going to be another one coming soon. And yeah, you know, we've got to keep the discussions
01:07:38.320going. It's just really, really important. And trying to shut down debate just isn't the way to
01:07:43.660go. You know, there's a movie, I'm going to, you know, go to an anecdote, if anybody's ever seen
01:07:49.500it before. It was back in the 90s. It was Laura Dern and I'm forgetting the other names. It wasn't
01:07:57.680a lot of top name action. Well, Burt Reynolds was in it as well. It was called Citizen Ruth.
01:08:02.100And it was almost a parody on the American abortion debate back in those times, kind of an
01:08:07.640obscure movie that came out. And it's focused around, you know, a character named Ruth who
01:08:12.960had found herself pregnant. She'd been pregnant a number of times. She was an irresponsible young
01:08:16.680lady addicted to sniffing glue and a number of things. But she got into kind of the middle of a
01:08:22.200battle between pro-choice and pro-life activists and turned into the symbol of it. And of course,
01:08:29.640some of it probably wasn't terribly exaggerated, but it kind of exaggerated the extents of both
01:08:34.640sides and their hysteria to try and make her choose one way or the other. And I thought it
01:08:39.520was a very good movie in the sense that it showed the extremes on both sides are just way out to
01:08:44.620launch on this whole thing and don't do any favors. And I love seeing serious issues brought
01:08:50.060out in a sense of parody or entertainment or kind of dark comedy, I guess you could say. If you get
01:08:54.880a chance, I don't know where you would find it now, streaming in some corner somewhere
01:08:58.720in a distant spot or something like that,
01:13:04.040These are people who, you know, they got some very healthy six-figure salaries, some massive
01:13:10.040pensions. I mean, they're not the richest people on earth, and I don't think they should be paid
01:13:12.880minimum wage. But throwing a $500 fine at them for an ethics violation probably isn't that much
01:13:19.580of a disincentive for them. I don't think they're going to cry themselves to sleep if $500 has been
01:13:27.660imposed upon them for breaking the rules. And you see, ethics, particularly with public office
01:13:32.280holders. These are people that control our lives. These are people that have access. They take,
01:13:38.100they're entrusted with our money, with our funds, with our taxes, and they theoretically are going
01:13:43.640to utilize them for the public benefit. If they're not doing that correctly, if they're breaking,
01:13:47.840again, ethical rules and things, there should be some very serious penalties for it.
01:13:51.840But right now it's 500 bucks. I mean, we got some serious problems here, guys. This shouldn't even
01:13:57.760me a discussion. The Conservative Party last August recommended a maximum of $50,000.
01:14:03.420Even then, I don't know, but I mean, that's certainly better than $500. It makes some people
01:14:07.100think twice, right? Like that's, I can't afford a $50,000 hit out of the blue, that's for sure.
01:14:11.500And it says, you know, of course, proportionate to the severity of the offense and the offender's
01:14:14.400history. But the other part was, and their personal net worth. Well, I don't know about that.
01:14:18.480I don't want to get into that socialism. Hey, this is the penalty, this is the penalty,
01:14:21.300whether you've got a thousand in the bank or a hundred thousand, just don't do it.
01:14:23.840But maybe if you don't have the money in the bank to cover your fines, and again, that's where we get to the disincentive aspect, it might prevent some of them from doing it.
01:14:33.440Unethical people, you know, often they're kind of sociopaths in a way and they don't really care about consequences, so it doesn't really matter.
01:14:40.560But, I mean, $500 for an ethics, and that's the maximum for a member of parliament for an ethics breach as a fine, that is a sad joke.
01:14:48.060I mean, come on, a bad speeding ticket can run up near that level these days.
01:14:51.260um and yeah dave talked about this before so the debates chief admitted failure
01:14:56.820uh this david johnson i didn't even know we had a debates chief uh so in the 2021 election this
01:15:02.480was the guy i guess who manages the whole thing and so there was a widespread agreement that the
01:15:06.420debates didn't deliver as well as they thought and there were two uh major weaknesses identified
01:15:11.800and that was format and moderation um and he's asking the questions were they were they organized