Western Standard - Triggered： Truckers for Freedom convoy needs an end game

00:00:00.000 Transcription by CastingWords

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's a chilly February 1st, 2022, and welcome to Triggered. I'm Cory Morgan. This is

00:00:43.540 the Western Standards live show that's going to be coming to you every day at 1130 a.m. Mountain

00:00:48.160 Standard Time, Monday to Friday, except on holidays. Or if there's big news events, we'll

00:00:52.680 probably do it on those days as well. And boy, news has just been pumping, of course, with the

00:00:56.820 convoys, the responses. Now we got a federal scene going on with Aaron O'Toole looking in a very

00:01:03.540 shaky position for his leadership. We got a lot to talk about. We always do. Being live, comments

00:01:09.480 are always welcome. I see Pound Tacos has already commented as we got going, saying if we don't know

00:01:14.460 what the end game is, we're as deluded as any liberals. I'm prone to delusion, but I don't

00:01:19.280 think I've hit the liberal level yet. But all the same, I welcome the comments, critiques,

00:01:23.240 Thumbs up, thumbs down.

00:01:24.320 Talk with each other.

00:01:25.420 Try and get a question out to the guest.

00:01:27.000 I can't guarantee I'll get it, but we might be able to.

00:01:29.100 It's one of the great things with being live and interactive.

00:01:33.880 So we do have a good lineup today.

00:01:35.540 I'm going to have Dave Bradley come in.

00:01:36.940 He's going to talk about digital currencies, and that's something huge these days.

00:01:40.320 Lots of discussion on that, yet it's still kind of a confusing area.

00:01:43.480 So having a good talk just to go back and forth.

00:01:45.380 Get your questions in when that's going, because it's kind of a confusing world, but it's big, and it's going to be a good talk.

00:01:51.340 And then I'm going to have Crystal Whittever-Engle from the Montreal Economic Institute.

00:01:55.520 And they're not just in Montreal.

00:01:56.720 They talk about national issues and provincial issues.

00:01:59.560 And she wrote a column on home equity taxes being used to, or, you know, they want to

00:02:05.080 use them to chill the real estate market and also some moves to outsource some provincial

00:02:09.200 lab work in Alberta.

00:02:10.780 Of course, then there's the breaking stuff and it's going on.

00:02:13.580 And we're going to have a live check-in a little later with James Finkbeiner.

00:02:17.000 He's with the Western Standard.

00:02:18.120 He's one of ours.

00:02:18.640 He's been back and forth down on that border there.

00:02:20.840 in Cootes area with trucker blockade and basically stand off with the RCMP. We're calling it a siege

00:02:27.220 because they're even blocking apparently the getting food and supplies into these truckers.

00:02:32.100 And it sounds like there might be a convoy of more tractors heading there or to another border

00:02:35.900 crossing. It's just unfolding and going as we go. I'm going to do a quick hit though on our sponsor

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00:03:00.860 directly to your own wallet. You have control of your Bitcoin all the time. It's the danger area

00:03:05.700 with some of these companies that people get worried about is that they have control of your

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00:03:14.060 that. They never handle your money. They're a publicly traded company. They even have

00:03:17.680 ATMs throughout the West to help you deposit for it. So I'll talk a little more about them

00:03:21.040 later. Bitcoinwell.com. Check them out. They're a great sponsor. Okay. I do want to talk as

00:03:29.380 always. So my rant today, what am I triggered by? Well, not fully triggered, but a little

00:03:34.860 bit. I'm watching some of the rhetoric rounding up. Now the Truckers for Freedom Convoy, they've

00:03:38.600 made headlines around the world and they've inspired similar actions from as far away

00:03:42.180 is Australia and Bolivia. The movement's already been a success. It's demonstrated

00:03:46.740 the number of Canadians becoming fed up with COVID-19 restrictions is growing, and it represents

00:03:52.320 a sizable number of citizens. Decision makers might deny it, but the protests are going to be

00:03:57.000 influencing their policy choices in days to come. The convoy also exposed the rotten underbelly of

00:04:02.000 Canada's legacy media establishment. His slanted coverage has repulsed Canadians and even Americans.

00:04:07.020 I mean, there was a great Fox bit with Tucker Carlson on Canada's, I would almost say quote-unquote, mainstream media out here.

00:04:15.360 I mean, it's just been repugnant.

00:04:17.200 Here at the Western Standard, we're breaking records for new subscribers as appalled citizens are fleeing mainstream outlets and seek out independent media such as ours.

00:04:25.260 That's certainly a positive outcome of this whole thing.

00:04:27.420 I mean, not just for us, but for independent media in general and for Canadians seeking new voices and ways to communicate.

00:04:33.280 So they have made good strides with this.

00:04:36.120 Polls indicate a majority of Canadians support ending pandemic restrictions,

00:04:39.420 and provinces such as Saskatchewan are doing just that.

00:04:41.860 Even Quebec backed off on its plan to try and tax unvaccinated people.

00:04:45.980 They were ostensibly going to do it to offset health care costs.

00:04:48.540 They seem to have dug their heels in, but suddenly they backed off.

00:04:51.420 Support for freedom and ending the pandemic mandates is growing,

00:04:54.760 and we can't not credit the Truckers for Freedom Convoy for being a part of that.

00:04:58.860 They've got great forward momentum right now,

00:05:00.940 but they've reached a critical point in their protest.

00:05:03.240 They need to start planning an endgame involving reasonable goals or they're going to quickly lose public support and the ground they've gained.

00:05:10.900 As the protesters are entrenching themselves in Ottawa, I'm reminded of the old Occupy protests that had people squatting in city parks throughout North America in 2011.

00:05:19.980 I mean, that movement began with a bang and there were large demonstrations in cities all over and it kind of had moderate public support.

00:05:25.440 But the support they gained quickly waned as demonstrators began a prolonged campout in city parks.

00:05:30.300 As the numbers dwindled, the more extreme element remained in these parks.

00:05:33.900 And then the demands from the protesters started getting bizarre and totally out of bounds.

00:05:37.920 Eventually, every city had to remove these protesters by force.

00:05:41.380 And nothing significant was gained.

00:05:42.880 Occupy made a whole lot of noise and really didn't accomplish a thing.

00:05:47.900 The only formal demands I've seen so far, formally anyways, from the Truckers for Freedom Convoy,

00:05:52.600 are an absurd memorandum of understanding.

00:05:55.800 It's calling for the Governor-General and or the Canadian Senate to intervene and remove Prime Minister Justin Trudeau from power.

00:06:01.960 Okay, kids, not only is that based on an incorrect interpretation of how our parliamentary democracy works,

00:06:07.380 it would never happen, even if it was politically possible.

00:06:10.280 So let's set the bar somewhere within reason, shall we?

00:06:13.260 If there's other demands out there, the convoy organizers need to compile them and do a formal press release.

00:06:18.880 I'm as aware as anybody how rotten the mainstream press is.

00:06:21.640 But if the demonstrators don't get their point of view out there, the narrative is going to be taken over on their behalf, and it won't be positive.

00:06:28.100 The convoy can demand an end to all federal restrictions. That's a starting point. It's within the power of the government, and many don't see it as being an unreasonable request.

00:06:35.920 Again, though, it has to be done realistically, and they have to look reasonable when demanding it. There has to be some wiggle room.

00:06:41.620 The government can't and won't let itself appear to completely cave into a protest. It just won't happen.

00:06:46.600 They might start discussions on timelines or incremental policies to rescind, though. It's got to be give and take.

00:06:51.640 If the government refuses to even discuss these considerations, the protesters will look reasonable.

00:06:56.140 They'll look like the good party in this, and they'll maintain public support.

00:06:59.140 The Trudeau Liberals are looking unreasonable here.

00:07:01.640 Their insults and vilification of the protests are only making them look worse.

00:07:05.140 If they continue to look intractable on this entire issue, they can be painted as the group prolonging the protests.

00:07:10.640 Protests are a battle to win public support.

00:07:13.140 People will favor a group that appears to be rational and controlled.

00:07:16.640 They'll quickly turn on a group, though, that appears unreasonable.

00:07:20.200 Now, time will become the enemy of the truckers for freedom protest as well. 1.00

00:07:24.020 I mean, the longer they remain entrenched, the more likely it'll be that somebody's going to do something stupid. 0.95

00:07:28.540 And eager mainstream media is waiting to pounce on any violent or hateful actions in order to try and paint the entire protest as being that way. 0.99

00:07:35.080 We've seen it. We know it.

00:07:36.580 And we know the vast majority of the protests are good people.

00:07:39.920 But there's always going to be some nuts in the mix.

00:07:41.620 And they won't stay contained forever.

00:07:43.400 As the pressure cooker keeps going, these are going to pop out, and it's going to undercut the whole protest.

00:07:47.880 What we have now is a standoff. The government's not eager for scenes of police arresting

00:07:52.220 demonstrators or trucks being towed. They can't, though, let Ottawa remain choked by these trucks

00:07:57.280 interminably, either. The convoy is holding some cards here, and they can make some gains.

00:08:02.300 If the convoy loses public support, though, and if they lose enough, rest assured the Liberal

00:08:06.120 government will finally feel emboldened to move in with force, and it'll be ugly. Nobody will win

00:08:10.680 in that scenario. I want the convoy to win. I truly do. They've made history and can continue

00:08:15.820 to do so in a positive way. We've never seen citizens in Canada standing up like this, and it

00:08:19.640 can set a fantastic precedent of people holding government to account. The government's being

00:08:24.080 reminded who's really in charge, and that lesson can stick. But they can also blow it. The convoy

00:08:29.920 can remain unreasonable and stubborn. They can lose public support as time passes, and they can

00:08:33.820 end with an ignoble eviction from Parliament Hill eventually. This will have the effect of actually

00:08:37.980 setting back future grassroots citizens' actions. The protest is at a turning point right now.

00:08:42.860 The demonstrators need a plan and an endgame, or the power will be stripped from them eventually.

00:08:48.380 Learn from the failed occupied protests in 2011.

00:08:51.380 Embrace reason, and yes, I know people hate the word, but a little bit of compromise, so you can avoid their fate.

00:08:58.020 I want to see it go well.

00:09:00.120 Okay, well that's what's got me going today, guys.

00:09:03.260 Let's talk, let's get things going reasonably and good.

00:09:06.020 I'm going to check in with our newsroom because news has just been breaking and blowing up and hot at the Western Standard for days now.

00:09:12.760 and it's hard to keep up with it, but Dave's doing. There's me. And let's bring in Dave Naylor.

00:09:29.980 Okay. We'll see Dave very shortly here. And we're going to talk about what's breaking in news at

00:09:35.080 the Western. Ah, there he is. Hey, Dave, how's it going? Good. I was getting worried about you

00:09:39.180 there for a second yes well i was getting afraid the the media conspiracy had gotten a hold of you

00:09:44.780 and dragged you out of the offices but so far you're still safely reporting from the western

00:09:48.380 standard offices that i see yeah it's nice to be able to catch my breath for a minute and uh

00:09:54.140 and have a quick chat with you because uh the news is coming uh left right and center this morning

00:09:59.820 uh where do where do we want to start let's start with erin o'toole uh it was reported last night

00:10:06.540 that 35 Tory caucus members have signed a letter demanding that he go.

00:10:13.300 So that was a required number to reach to have a full vote of the caucus.

00:10:18.580 And that's expected to happen Wednesday.

00:10:21.160 So if 50% of the MPs say that he should go, he's got to step down immediately.

00:10:27.200 And obviously the people behind this revolt obviously think they've got enough numbers to make it happen.

00:10:35.380 So tomorrow could be a very interesting day in Canadian political history.

00:10:40.500 The Western Standard Editorial Board had a meeting this morning,

00:10:43.980 and we've put out a not-so-subtle statement on what we would like to see Aaron O'Toole do.

00:10:52.820 And as an editorial board, we say it's time to go,

00:10:56.280 that he is not the leader that the Conservatives need at the moment.

00:11:01.340 also coming out of the east this morning cory quebec has backtracked on their vax tax if you

00:11:08.680 remember last month premier legault said he was fed up with the unvaccinated taking up a huge

00:11:15.320 chunk of hospital beds so he was going to impose a special vaccine tax on them to help recover the

00:11:22.060 the health costs well the premier is expected to be holding a press conference probably as we speak

00:11:29.620 to fully announce that that's not going ahead.

00:11:34.400 And truckers, obviously, holy cow.

00:11:37.600 Yeah, we are now calling it a siege.

00:11:39.960 We talked to trucker organizers this morning

00:11:42.780 who said the RCMP is not letting any supplies,

00:11:46.380 no food or water into the truckers.

00:11:51.080 Just to clarify, that's the Alberta border crossing, trucker.

00:11:58.320 We've got more than one going on, so we should always be clear.

00:12:00.900 We've got national listeners there.

00:12:02.280 There is a big standoff on the American-Canadian border at Coutts, Alberta, down south,

00:12:07.480 and that's what Dave's talking about right now because it's getting very tense down there.

00:12:11.820 Yep, getting tense.

00:12:15.440 As you mentioned, our own James Finkbeiner is down there, and he'll be checking in with you lately

00:12:20.940 and a huge interest in that story amongst our readers.

00:12:25.660 uh linda slabodian our senior political columnist has a has a really good column that's just been

00:12:32.380 posted uh she's saying the big winners out of this are the truckers and the losers are o'toole

00:12:38.060 and trudeau so that's a really good read she's got there i urge our readers to go and uh and check

00:12:44.380 it out uh we've got some other political news out of ottawa that's already up there cory uh elections

00:12:50.300 canada admitting that more than 205 000 votes in the september election were not counted

00:12:57.340 uh so you check out that story to find out why and uh just getting back to truckers for a second

00:13:04.060 the cra the canada revenue agency an internal report yesterday told its staff that the the

00:13:11.980 truckers had gone into the office their offices and started looting them and and trashing them

00:13:17.660 Of course, no such thing ever happened. And we've got a story on that, questioning what the heck CRA was even talking about. So yeah, another super busy day and we'll be on top of all the developments, Corey, as they happen through the day.

00:13:36.440 Great. Well, we'll look forward to check-ins with James, as we said, who's down there at the standoff at the Coutts border.

00:13:43.260 I mean, the siege, as we've been putting it.

00:13:44.840 I mean, when you've got the police having them entrenched and blocking supplies from coming, that's a siege, technically.

00:13:50.920 And at the same time, these guys aren't backing off on blocking traffic coming across the border itself.

00:13:57.060 I'm really, to be honest, starting to get worried about this.

00:13:59.680 Yeah, and James has sent us some pictures this morning of a large line of tractors that are making their way down in support.

00:14:10.160 So, yeah, it's, you know, I kind of feel for the RCMP in a way.

00:14:16.400 They're caught between a rock and a hard place.

00:14:18.680 The border is just a critical, critical thing for Alberta and Canada economic-wise.

00:14:25.400 And for it to be frozen for four days now has cost untold money.

00:14:31.540 But, you know, the truckers do not seem in any mood to give up and leave.

00:14:37.020 Now, again, that blessing and curse of living in interesting times.

00:14:40.940 But it certainly keeps you guys running your butts off in the newsroom.

00:14:44.460 So I'll let you get back at it, Dave.

00:14:45.780 Thanks for checking in with us.

00:14:46.960 And we'll keep reporting on things as they break.

00:14:50.440 Thanks, Corey.

00:14:52.620 So, yeah, it's getting pretty wild down there.

00:14:54.500 and just so much going on.

00:14:56.180 And then Cheryl, Don brought up as well in the comments,

00:14:59.340 will the UCP leadership review be secret ballot?

00:15:01.960 I think it will.

00:15:03.540 That's going to be an in-person meeting

00:15:05.100 that's happening in Red Deer in April.

00:15:07.880 I'm not sure the exact date, early April, I believe.

00:15:10.200 And you have to be a paid attendee to get there.

00:15:13.560 But typically, you know, they're not going to settle

00:15:15.600 for just the delegates raising hands or cards.

00:15:18.320 Though I don't know 100% for sure,

00:15:19.500 but that's more than likely.

00:15:20.880 Meanwhile, yeah, Aaron O'Toole is in grave trouble as well.

00:15:24.200 I mean, his leadership, the revolt going on, when you've got a third of your caucus, those are just the ones speaking up, he's in trouble.

00:15:31.240 And that's why I'm on the editorial board as well, and we discussed and talked and felt it's time for him to go.

00:15:36.620 It's just he can't move forward further.

00:15:38.460 He's lost the confidence of too many.

00:15:40.700 We might have another election any time, you know, as we're in a minority situation.

00:15:45.080 He had his kick at the can.

00:15:46.580 It didn't work.

00:15:47.680 He didn't win.

00:15:48.400 And we've got to make another approach if we want to try and chip away at that liberal government stranglehold that we have on this country.

00:15:55.940 And then for Citizens Actions, Claudette, a commenter, pointing out the GoFundMe account is now over $10 million.

00:16:01.620 Yeah, you know, people supporting this, it's not just people going out in person and attending these convoys, these rallies and things like that.

00:16:08.240 Some are just reaching into their wallets and, you know, funding how they can from home.

00:16:12.740 A lot of small donations, some very large ones as well.

00:16:15.660 we're just watching a an amazing event happening here and things are going on but as i said i'm

00:16:21.960 worried about them on a number of fronts too though i don't want to see violence i don't want

00:16:25.660 to see rcmp officers trying to have to move truckers down at the alberta border and you can't

00:16:30.260 block border traffic completely up like that for much longer they got to start letting some through

00:16:35.180 i mean you can protest reasonably you know you can hinder it go back and forth you can still be a 0.82

00:16:39.400 pain in the butt it's not giving up but it's being reasonable and you are forcing the government's

00:16:44.280 If you're letting absolutely no traffic cross that border, they can't put up with that much longer. And, you know, with the amount of entrenched people and large vehicles down there, it's not going to be easy to extract them. And it could end very poorly. I really, really, really do not want to see this. And I'm worried in Ottawa too. I want to see they've made such great grounds. Now let's let reason take over and see what we can accomplish. And if you dig your heels in, and you don't compromise at all, if you won't listen to other voices, and that's what the Trudeau is doing. 0.96

00:17:13.600 so let's learn keep the high road that's how you get public support you look like the reasonable

00:17:17.800 ones you look like the ones who are willing to accomplish positive change maintain that because

00:17:23.460 in the end it's going to fall apart you can only hold it for so long and we've seen in protracted

00:17:28.100 protests like this go on and unfortunately they can only go so long before things start to kind

00:17:32.040 of fall off the rails so i mean i look i'm looking forward to things with i guess you know apprehension

00:17:37.120 and tentative optimism i really want to see it go well i'm still thrilled with this convoy i think

00:17:41.500 it's set some great precedents. So I'm going to come up to our next guest, Dave Bradley, here

00:17:46.520 pretty quickly. I do want to speak of another of our sponsors before we get to them, though,

00:17:50.260 and speaking of freedoms, responsible Canadians, people having rights and standing up for them,

00:17:55.420 and that's the Canada Shooting Sports Association. Check these guys out. Their website is cssa-cila.org.

00:18:04.980 The name kind of says it all. They're a shooting sports association. They have all kinds of

00:18:08.180 resources, whether it's for target shooting, hunting, collecting, they have links to upcoming

00:18:14.980 events and forums and places where people can buy or trade firearms. I mean, it's your right to have

00:18:21.160 these things. If you're being responsible, you're a law-buying citizen, who the vast majority of

00:18:24.760 firearm owners are, you know, we should protect this. And unfortunately, they've been vilified

00:18:29.360 again by an ideological government, and they're looking to take away your rights. So not only

00:18:33.020 is the Canada Shooting Sports Association a resource for the utilization of your firearms,

00:18:37.920 they're standing up for you. They've got legal challenges out on behalf of firearm owners

00:18:41.500 to try and push back against some of these constant assaults on your ability and right to

00:18:46.560 own and safely and responsibly use firearms. So check them out, take out a membership with them,

00:18:51.460 help them help you. I mean, we're seeing people push back against the government,

00:18:54.500 the government will back off if we're reasonable about it. C-S-S-A-C-I-L-A.org. It's the Canada

00:19:01.360 Shooting Sports Association. So let's get on to our first guest for today. Well, aside from

00:19:07.760 Dave, but he's kind of a regular. We've got Dave Bradley. And he'll be in in just a moment here.

00:19:15.660 There we are. And Dave's with Bitcoin. Well, so I mean, I really appreciate you coming in

00:19:20.600 because I mean, digital currency is just getting so huge. But I got to admit, it's just a difficult

00:19:26.840 thing for a lot of people to understand. And the more we can discuss on it and explain what it's

00:19:30.760 about, you know, the better people feel comfortable with it. So thanks again for joining me today.

00:19:34.560 Thanks for having me.

00:19:36.940 So, I mean, I guess we'll just get straight to the bottom line.

00:19:41.700 Can you give, I guess, a nutshell explanation?

00:19:43.840 I know you're an expert in this.

00:19:45.240 You can go for hours, but we've got 15 minutes.

00:19:47.320 We'll start with, you know, what is Bitcoin cryptocurrency?

00:19:50.820 What sort of, like, just kind of define what these new currencies are.

00:19:55.520 Sure.

00:19:56.000 I'm going to separate the two a little bit here.

00:19:58.980 The term cryptocurrency gets used a lot to talk about this giant basket of all these different coins that are out there.

00:20:06.820 And the fact is that the majority of them are somewhere between a scam and a bad idea.

00:20:11.700 The one that I would focus on is Bitcoin.

00:20:13.660 That's what we sell at Bitcoin Well primarily.

00:20:16.360 And it's really the one that has driven all of this excitement and all of this positive change, I think.

00:20:24.020 So I'll give you a short sort of elevator pitch of what I think Bitcoin is and why I think it's

00:20:28.780 important. Bitcoin is just money. It's not an investment. It's not like a stock or a bond.

00:20:36.420 There's no yield. There's no obligations that come with it. It's just a different form of money.

00:20:41.420 And the whole point of money is to take the value that you create with your time

00:20:45.140 and store it to use it later. And dollars, which is what we primarily use as money,

00:20:51.120 do a terrible job of that because well while you're sitting on dollars in your bank account

00:20:55.140 or under your mattress uh the government is printing more so your dollars are becoming

00:20:59.880 less scarce in relation to the total and your spending power goes down and that's what we're

00:21:04.480 seeing right now with this massive money printing from the trudeau government is uh you know

00:21:09.080 unprecedented inflation and bitcoin is a way to hedge against that bitcoin's better because

00:21:14.480 the government can't print more is the the short answer yeah so i mean and that's the thing that's

00:21:21.100 going on right now. I mean, we've got a volatile world going on right now. Currencies are not

00:21:25.980 doing well. Inflation is really rocking right now. And the central bank, banks in every country

00:21:31.400 basically have control of the currency. So, I mean, this is a way that you, I guess,

00:21:36.200 could distance yourself or even, you know, escape or at least hedge a bit against that sort of,

00:21:40.560 you know, currency devaluation. Yeah, it's something that everyone I think is feeling

00:21:45.520 right now. You know, we see these official inflation numbers coming out and they're

00:21:49.720 they're worried that inflation is at like you know six percent or something like that but i think

00:21:54.680 basically anybody who's been to a grocery store knows that's not true right like we're in a

00:21:58.360 situation where almost everything you could buy at a grocery store is double what it was two years

00:22:02.840 ago that's not six percent inflation right so when we're in a situation like this where uh the

00:22:09.000 government seems to be completely unhinged from reality in terms of the number of dollars that

00:22:13.000 they think they can print um one thing that you know i i don't think most people know it's something

00:22:18.680 like 75 of the dollars at the base layer of money uh that exist in canada have been printed in the

00:22:24.440 last two years so the actual um increase in the supply of dollars has been massive and bitcoin

00:22:32.440 like i said has a very fixed supply there's no way to change the supply there's only ever going

00:22:36.840 to be 21 million and that's why we're seeing a lot more people um really from a lot of different

00:22:42.120 walks of life as well uh getting into bitcoin you know when i got when i got started in in

00:22:48.120 the business uh we opened a store selling bitcoin in 2013 um it was a lot of like you know nerdy

00:22:55.320 young guys coming in looking at it as uh like a like an internet currency exclusively and now

00:23:02.680 we're starting to see a pretty broad demographic of a lot more rural people a lot of older people

00:23:07.720 a lot more women getting in and really it's you know everyone uses money it's an issue that

00:23:13.320 affects everyone and so it's it's important that bitcoin exists for really for everyone at this

00:23:18.280 point yeah so getting into practical use of it like that's part of what's you know harder i guess

00:23:23.800 for some people to wrap their heads around let's say you've got a wallet you've filled it up you've

00:23:28.040 stocked up some funds there but now you want to actually utilize it you want to use it like a

00:23:31.560 currency uh where can you do it how can you do it you know it's not quite as easy as going to 7-eleven

00:23:37.080 and tapping with your card at least not yet yeah exactly it's not really like a competitor to like

00:23:42.680 our payment systems because our payment systems are pretty good it's not competing with visa it's

00:23:46.680 more competing with like the central bank of canada and so what you can do with it right now

00:23:51.560 is is limited compared to dollars you know we do offer services through bitcoin well where you can

00:23:57.000 pay a bill with bitcoin anything you can pay on your online banking uh you can buy a gift card

00:24:01.800 so like you can go and buy an amazon gift card or whatever else you want um all of that's on our

00:24:06.440 website and there's a lot of companies working in the space to uh to make it easier to to use bitcoin

00:24:13.320 but i think primarily the biggest way that you can use bitcoin is just as a savings technology

00:24:18.440 so if you have some money that you don't need to uh spend soon and you're planning on keeping it

00:24:24.760 in dollars then you're going to lose a lot of purchasing power so bitcoin is a great way to

00:24:29.640 store value over the longer term and the short term of course it's very volatile so if you need

00:24:34.600 to buy your groceries next week there's no telling exactly what bitcoin will uh will be worth next

00:24:39.720 week as compared to the dollar and everything's priced in dollars so what i usually recommend is

00:24:44.680 that you keep your long-term savings in bitcoin and your short-term savings in dollars and uh

00:24:50.360 you know that's probably the best way to avoid all this some say hyperinflation that we're

00:24:55.800 incurring right now yeah well and a big question is safety i mean that's the biggest affair people

00:25:01.880 have we've all worked our butts off i mean we're worried about the fate of our savings in our

00:25:05.960 currency with uh you know conventional currencies but uh how can people feel safe with bitcoin i

00:25:11.560 mean that's a there's a lot of worries that this is something that might blow up or vanish and

00:25:15.480 they could lose their their investment yeah absolutely so the bitcoin network itself is

00:25:20.520 very safe it's been uh you know i think it's going on uh going on 13 years now that it's been running

00:25:28.200 without uh any downtime without any hacks and it's been sort of the the pressure cooker of of

00:25:35.960 the internet money so if somebody could hack it they would have by now uh where the issue comes

00:25:40.680 in and this is a strength and a weakness of bitcoin i would say is that uh people will

00:25:47.160 people have the option to hold their own bitcoin but they also have the option to allow someone

00:25:51.000 else to hold it and so early on uh one of the big catchphrases in bitcoin was be your own bank

00:25:57.320 and that can be really powerful you know you can control your own bitcoin in a way that's very

00:26:02.120 much like that like cash under the mattress idea but it comes with some responsibilities so

00:26:07.880 you need to know how to control your wallet you need to know how to back it up and if you lose

00:26:12.840 it then it's gone and there's no central authority that you can call there's no bitcoin help desk

00:26:17.880 that can reverse that transaction or get your money back so that's something that we do in our

00:26:22.440 offices we have offices right now in calgary edmonton winnipeg and montreal and we have some

00:26:29.400 specialists that will sit down with someone free of charge and help them set up a wallet figure

00:26:34.040 out how to store your bitcoin and uh and store that safely and that's what we recommend to do

00:26:40.280 i had mentioned the other option of you can let someone else store it but that's an area where

00:26:44.360 we've seen uh especially in canada just like catastrophically bad results of you know we had a

00:26:50.040 large Bitcoin exchange about four years ago where the founder died and all the Bitcoins were lost

00:26:55.480 and everyone had their Bitcoins held there were out of luck. And so the slogan that is often

00:27:02.120 repeated in the Bitcoin ecosystem is not your keys, not your coins. So if you don't hold them,

00:27:07.520 they might not be yours. Yeah. And as you said, you've got offices. I mean, that's just something

00:27:12.480 I found that honestly is impressive. I mean, so much stuff that's digital right now. I mean,

00:27:16.580 you try to find support, you try to talk and you get a distance person that could be in a call

00:27:20.800 center anywhere. And it just doesn't instill a sense of confidence necessarily. So you guys

00:27:25.240 offer actual in-person service, at least in the available cities, right? Yeah, absolutely. And

00:27:30.040 we're working to expand that to the rest of the cities in Canada. That's an area that's been

00:27:34.620 really big for us. It's been really growing. Like I mentioned, we're getting a lot different

00:27:39.800 demographic. So we're getting a lot more retired people, a lot more rural people. I think there's

00:27:45.840 there's been a huge surge in the last year, especially of farmers coming into our offices

00:27:51.140 in Calgary and Edmonton. You know, that's a group that probably has a little bit less trust for

00:27:56.860 the government in general, and they're looking for a way to get their wealth out of the hands

00:28:00.860 of the government. Great. A question a number of people have said on the comments is what happens

00:28:06.380 if the internet goes down? What if the power goes down? I mean, you won't lose the coin,

00:28:09.700 but you might be stuck in a position where you can't purchase things. I guess you still

00:28:13.100 should probably be keeping some means of uh purchases and things like that aside from bitcoin

00:28:18.800 to when your day-to-day living yeah i i mean most of our money is digital already i don't know very

00:28:25.100 many people i'm probably an exception of people who actually carry cash at this point or even have

00:28:30.120 any cash um so if the internet goes down all our debit systems are going down if the you know the

00:28:36.660 power goes out uh you're not going to be able to buy anything with your dollars generally speaking

00:28:40.240 and i think that if that if we were in a situation where we had a protracted power or internet outage

00:28:46.040 and you had physical cash i don't think anyone would be really interested in it anyway i think

00:28:49.540 that you know cans of beans would probably be the form of money or something like that

00:28:54.260 yeah we'll always find a way um so before i let you go then where where can uh you know and i

00:28:59.760 covered in the ads as well but uh maybe i'll let you read it out where can we find more information

00:29:03.200 and consider taking part in bitcoin uh through bitcoin well yeah it's really simple at bitcoin

00:29:08.800 well.com we've got a bunch of online services you can use there or you can book a meeting to come

00:29:14.060 into any of our offices and chat with someone get stuff figured out great no i appreciate that

00:29:21.340 dave and again it's it's i think important to get faces behind this and and real you know people

00:29:25.500 enjoying real companies local things it's stuff on the ground it's not totally in the ether there's

00:29:30.540 a lot of safety to this but you know it's going to take repeated discussions and messaging and

00:29:35.500 And, you know, as this whole, this is new.

00:29:37.640 I mean, this is new to a lot of people and it's growing.

00:29:40.820 I mean, it's just pretty exciting to watch.

00:29:45.020 Yeah, I like it.

00:29:47.140 All right.

00:29:47.760 Well, thanks for coming in, Dave.

00:29:48.900 And yeah, I'm sure we'll be talking again soon.

00:29:52.380 Sounds good.

00:29:52.860 Thanks for having me.

00:29:53.780 Great.

00:29:54.140 Thanks, Dave.

00:29:55.740 So, yes.

00:29:56.360 And again, you know, for people, it's funny, the debaters and discussers, it's empowering

00:30:01.080 individuals.

00:30:01.620 That's the bottom line and getting out of the centralized system.

00:30:03.900 It's funny how many people in the comment scroll are anti-government, anti-state, yet they're worried about digital currencies.

00:30:09.820 Well, look into them.

00:30:11.020 I mean, you've got to have other alternatives.

00:30:13.740 Everything needs competition, in my view.

00:30:15.580 So get out of the central bank.

00:30:16.760 Get out of the government control.

00:30:18.100 Now, I see a lot of commenters have been upset, and there's a lot of stories about what's going on in the border.

00:30:23.960 We do have a reporter down there.

00:30:25.820 I'll say it again and again and again.

00:30:27.420 I know some people are listening with their mouths rather than their ears.

00:30:30.100 but the Western Standard does have James Finkbeiner down there at Coutts in person.

00:30:34.980 We're not left wing. We're not making up the narrative.

00:30:38.140 We're just reporting on things that's happened.

00:30:39.320 Oh, it looks like he's been unexpectedly pulled in by Nico.

00:30:42.260 Okay. That's all right. Maybe if he's ready to speak, actually.

00:30:46.640 How are you doing there, James?

00:30:48.460 I'm good. How are you, Corey?

00:30:49.940 Good, good. Yeah, sorry for the unprompted yank there.

00:30:53.220 But I mean, all the same, you're looking good and well-prompted for this.

00:30:57.260 Can I get an update from you while we're at it, actually?

00:30:59.740 Lee, there's a couple of questions people have about what's going on down there.

00:31:02.960 Yeah, sure. So, I mean, not a lot's changed since last night. Obviously, we reported earlier that

00:31:09.600 the committee, I guess, that's formed around the truckers have now retained lawyers. So,

00:31:17.580 there's lawyers representing everybody that's here and they began negotiations with the RCMP.

00:31:23.280 Obviously, the RCMP have blockaded supporters from joining the protest as well as bringing in food, medication, supplies.

00:31:34.220 Some of them are concerned. Some of their gen sets are getting a little bit low on fuel.

00:31:38.520 Some of the trucks are getting a little bit low on fuel.

00:31:41.240 It's about minus 28 here right now with the windchill.

00:31:44.180 So there's some concerns that it's going to become a humanitarian thing.

00:31:48.880 uh some of the locals are actually working with some local businesses to try to get um fuel and

00:31:55.300 food and uh supplies and stuff into the area they don't want to see anything uh really go wrong or

00:32:01.200 or anybody uh get hurt or or anything like that here but uh yeah we're still basically at an

00:32:07.820 impasse the uh the highway is still completely blocked by the truckers um obviously there is

00:32:14.100 emergency lanes that are open. Vehicles can get through the blockade area. Local residents are

00:32:22.200 able to get in and out. The school bus has been able to run the last couple of days, I've been

00:32:27.540 told by local residents. And yeah, right now it's just they're negotiating back and forth with the

00:32:35.360 RCMP and the lawyers at this point. Yeah, well, and just to clarify, nobody is getting across the

00:32:42.800 border though right they've got that blocked like they've opened service roads and things but the

00:32:46.900 border itself is blocked yeah the border the border itself is blocked now you can get through the line

00:32:52.980 but the RCMP is not letting anybody through here to actually get up here to cross the border there

00:32:58.740 is a side road that's open that can be accessed and you can get around the blockade and cross the

00:33:04.500 border but the RCMP is not letting anybody in here to do that the reason why that road's been left

00:33:09.680 open is because the uh community does service the sweetgrass side the volunteer fire department

00:33:15.680 they were asked to leave that open for the volunteer fire department they made sure that

00:33:19.600 that was left open i drove that route uh route personally it's there it's accessible there's

00:33:25.440 access for emergency services they've got ambulances in here um but but yeah no there

00:33:30.800 there's no there's no commercial traffic there's no um the snowbirds aren't headed south uh and uh

00:33:37.680 the commercial traffic's not getting through here at all.

00:33:41.800 Great. No, thank you for clarifying those things. Like I said, there was some confusion with the

00:33:45.340 commentary and I appreciate you being down there in person to at least safely inside and warm for

00:33:50.240 it. We wanted to do those outdoor hits, but that's just not going to happen right now.

00:33:54.040 Not today. It's minus 28 here. The wind goes right through you. I don't know how many people

00:34:01.560 have actually been around this area, but there's not a lot of trees. There's not a lot of buildings

00:34:05.640 to slow that wind down and it goes through a good coat no problem great well i'll let you go for a

00:34:12.280 bit and we'll check in with you in about 40 minutes uh things are developing as we go maybe

00:34:15.880 there'll be some new updates if not we can certainly review again what's happening down

00:34:19.080 there because we've got quite a circumstance situation building sounds good thanks corey

00:34:23.560 great thanks james so yes uh just uh to get back to you guys we do have people there in person and

00:34:30.520 And James is one of them, and he's watching it closely.

00:34:32.340 He's been there all weekend.

00:34:34.240 And the main point I was making now, it sounds like the RCMP are part of what's blocking things too,

00:34:39.040 but people aren't getting across the border.

00:34:41.840 And that's not sustainable.

00:34:44.780 It's a big problem.

00:34:46.340 They've crossed a different line, in my view.

00:34:49.400 And eventually somebody's hand is going to be forced.

00:34:53.000 I just want this to end well.

00:34:54.720 I like seeing the protests coming up.

00:34:57.120 I like seeing them pushing back.

00:34:58.540 but if this turns into a big

00:35:00.920 disaster and people get unreasonable

00:35:02.660 we aren't going to get

00:35:04.820 anywhere with it and that's what it's talking

00:35:06.880 about, people get upset, you can't compromise, the government's

00:35:08.840 not compromising on the federal one or any of the others

00:35:10.800 I understand that but if you're the one

00:35:12.760 going to the public saying we

00:35:14.200 are offering to

00:35:16.280 talk about things, there's

00:35:18.820 discourse, we're looking for

00:35:20.680 achievable change

00:35:22.280 then you have the high horse, I tell

00:35:24.860 you, this is all a race about public

00:35:26.780 opinion guys that's what it is that's all it is you know what the government does not care about

00:35:31.880 you they don't care about your protest they care about their numbers and if they think their

00:35:36.860 numbers are going to get better by sending the goons in and ripping down these protests they

00:35:41.820 will do it without hesitation right now this convoys have a lot of support they won't move

00:35:48.560 on them because they they don't want the scenes of seeing citizens arrested and taken into custody

00:35:54.680 and things like that. But if public opinion swings too much the wrong way, that's going to

00:36:01.860 change. And these guys, you've got to be a little more proactive here, okay? How else is a war won,

00:36:08.000 Deanna? Well, it's not a frigging war. See, this is the irresponsible commentary that's going on,

00:36:13.280 guys. It's a big deal. It's a big issue. We're not going to overthrow the bloody government,

00:36:17.480 though. It's not going to happen. Some of the demands saying Trudeau's got to step down,

00:36:21.340 cabinet has to step down. Guys, it's not going to happen. So let's get realistic here. We can get

00:36:29.360 rid of some restrictions, hopefully all of the restrictions. We can stop the government in

00:36:34.800 their tracks from their ridiculous and stupid and inflammatory plan to put restrictions up for 1.00

00:36:39.660 truckers between the provinces. We can end all sorts of mandates, the ones that are stopping 0.99

00:36:45.000 people from getting on domestic planes without a vaccine passport. There's lots of things we can

00:36:48.960 achieve. But if we go on with some of this ridiculous rhetoric, you're going to lose. 0.87

00:36:54.120 You're going to achieve nothing. You'll be like the Occupy guys who came out and squatted in parks 0.78

00:36:58.420 for months and left and didn't achieve a thing. So as any look at the social media discourse,

00:37:06.200 go outside of your bubbles. And I know I go into them all the time on Twitter and so on,

00:37:10.280 but have a look. A lot of very solid conservative people, very pro-individual rights people are

00:37:16.060 saying guys let the border open up let it go through you're harming innocent business people

00:37:21.420 travelers others with this you can still hinder it you can slow it you can protest you can

00:37:27.900 demonstrate but you've got to be reasonable or you're going to lose this thing and then we're

00:37:33.100 all farther back than we ever were and that's all i'm asking i am supportive of this i want to see

00:37:40.380 it win. I want to see it go well. Beef Supreme. Here's one. We just take the poison and comply.

00:37:47.180 Look, buddy, you don't even have the balls. Put your own name in the comments. 1.00

00:37:50.140 So if you want to actually make change, you got to stand up yourself. I mean, I'm just tired of the

00:37:55.580 online rhetoric and that's what it is and stuff like that. It's not making good change.

00:38:01.420 Okay. It's not saying don't do anything. It's just saying do it differently. Do it

00:38:06.780 but effectively make a positive change.

00:38:10.760 You know, let's get something out of this.

00:38:12.000 Let's say afterwards, two months from now,

00:38:14.340 when this is all wrapped up,

00:38:15.960 be able to look back and say,

00:38:17.500 these are the changes that citizens got up

00:38:20.180 and accomplished with these protests.

00:38:22.400 This is what happened.

00:38:23.260 This is what wouldn't have happened if we hadn't done it.

00:38:27.320 And then we have something to say.

00:38:29.940 Otherwise, what we might see is a piece of history

00:38:31.900 that's remembered for a long time

00:38:33.200 with a lot of people being dragged out,

00:38:35.300 screaming, arrested,

00:38:36.160 making a mess, and who wins? Who wins anything there?

00:38:41.140 So, I mean, we've got a real chance. We've got an opportunity.

00:38:44.600 But we've got to start making a plan.

00:38:48.820 You can't just sit there. And like I said, you can't demand that Trudeau gets

00:38:52.220 thrown out. Not going to happen. Not going to happen. Don't hold your breath. Or go ahead and hold your breath.

00:38:56.280 You'll be just as effective.

00:38:59.640 Somebody's saying, Melissa is a great interviewer at Western Standard. I'm thinking of meeting Melanie, and yes, she is.

00:39:04.500 Melanie has done some great interviews. There's one up on there. You can see her talking to the

00:39:08.640 truckers themselves. Yesterday down, she was interviewing a couple of them who were down

00:39:13.400 on the blockade in Cootes there. So by all means, get in there and have a look at it. Melanie does

00:39:19.600 a great job out there for us. She's had a lot of very popular ones. So, you know, fighting back for

00:39:25.680 your freedom is a war. Yes. And here's another warrior who won't put his name on the comments.

00:39:31.300 So, yes, keyboard warriors don't accomplish a lot.

00:39:35.100 There's something I'll give some truth to.

00:39:36.980 Getting out on the ground and doing these protests, too.

00:39:41.560 I'll give a little bit of backstory, though.

00:39:43.700 You know, I'm going to tell you about how protest and counter-protest with a plan can work.

00:39:48.540 And I think I've related this story a little bit before, and it goes back to Occupy.

00:39:51.640 Some people might remember me from the past.

00:39:53.500 There's whole pictures of me being arrested, having my truck towed and ticketed,

00:39:57.460 and pulled out of Calgary Olympic Plaza.

00:40:00.040 That was 11 years ago.

00:40:01.220 A lot of the people who don't understand what I did there

00:40:03.500 actually thought that I was upset with that.

00:40:08.440 No, no, that was exactly what I wanted to see.

00:40:10.500 So I'll give a bunch of background to this.

00:40:12.200 Because again, I see a lot of parallels

00:40:13.500 between the Occupy protests and these ones.

00:40:17.120 And some people are saying,

00:40:17.840 Corey, you oppose the Occupy ones.

00:40:19.240 Why are you supportive of the trucker convoy?

00:40:21.140 Believe it or not, guys, I am supportive of it.

00:40:22.700 I just want it to do well.

00:40:24.720 The Occupy guys came out.

00:40:26.280 They were hard left-wingers.

00:40:27.260 They had big protests. 0.94

00:40:28.180 They filled the streets, and then they all settled in in parks across North America, all over the place, in tents, mostly hippies, sitting around with a bunch of ridiculous demands. 0.94

00:40:38.140 Fine. 0.72

00:40:38.720 Over time, months passed.

00:40:41.480 These guys weren't leaving, and city councils were terrified of them.

00:40:45.140 They wouldn't move.

00:40:45.920 Calgary was no exception.

00:40:46.960 Mayor Ninchy wouldn't touch these guys.

00:40:49.340 So I was working out in the States, and I started a petition because I was ticked off.

00:40:52.620 It had been for months these guys were down there.

00:40:54.280 They'd been doing property damage in our park and Olympic Plaza in Calgary. 0.98

00:40:56.920 people were cancelling events down there because of these clowns

00:41:00.920 and I started a petition saying hey you'll ticket me if I don't shovel my 0.90

00:41:04.880 walkway and

00:41:07.040 you won't go in here and enforce the law on these squatters sitting in a city park 0.99

00:41:12.940 right now because their demands were just absurd they were ridiculous they were even asking for like left wing terrorists 0.99

00:41:17.080 to be released and stupid stuff like that that's what I mean you got to get a realistic set of 0.99

00:41:20.940 demands or you lose public support so then she comes out with a press conference before I'm going to 0.97

00:41:25.100 bring this petition because it's gotten thousands of signatures and we're going to bring it to city

00:41:28.060 hall and uh and then she said well corey's uh delusional here because we can't remove people

00:41:36.460 you know uh the charter protects their right to stay in that park and they're expressing themselves

00:41:40.220 in the tent so he's wasting his time there plus we can't physically arrest somebody based on a

00:41:44.300 bylaw violation case closed leave alone okay so what am i going to do what can i do is is it really

00:41:50.140 case closed that's what he said on the friday so i got back to calgary and i checked things out and

00:41:54.620 And on this Sunday, I went down there in my own pickup truck, drove into it.

00:41:58.800 And some people say, he drove through protesters.

00:42:00.300 By the way, no.

00:42:01.140 I drove up a service road and parked where their tents are.

00:42:03.980 And I put nobody at risk.

00:42:05.580 Of course, I would have been arrested immediately if I did. 0.89

00:42:07.460 I screwed signs to the side of my truck with a bunch of ridiculous demands.

00:42:10.340 It said, end marmot tickling and more sunny days in July and two-ply toilet paper and public bathrooms. 0.90

00:42:15.540 Because it was no less ridiculous than what these Occupy guys were asking.

00:42:18.740 And I waited.

00:42:19.980 And sure enough, bylaw officers came along and started saying, hey, you can't park here.

00:42:23.120 You've got to leave.

00:42:23.540 I said, why not?

00:42:24.620 I said, well, there's a sign right there.

00:42:25.900 It says no parking.

00:42:26.420 I said, it says no tents as well.

00:42:27.940 I rolled up my window.

00:42:29.280 So they come back again a little later, you know, and different officers, and there's

00:42:32.080 more and more stripes, and this standoff continues.

00:42:33.900 You know, there's a lot of press coming around.

00:42:35.640 The occupiers are waking up and crawling out of their tents and wondering what's going

00:42:38.760 on.

00:42:38.940 They're getting upset.

00:42:40.220 And the negotiations go back and forth.

00:42:42.860 You can't park here. 1.00

00:42:43.940 I say, kiss my ass. 1.00

00:42:44.940 I'm expressing myself. 1.00

00:42:46.160 I have the charter right, just like these guys.

00:42:48.620 You know, and they said, why don't you go?

00:42:49.920 And eventually, it was police officers coming, of course, rather than by law officers.

00:42:52.380 I said, why can't you park over there on the street to express yourself?

00:42:55.480 And I said, well, why can't these guys express themselves in a campground?

00:42:58.320 I'm not moving.

00:42:59.040 Go away.

00:43:00.580 Eventually, the officers came and they said, look, we've got a tow truck on the way.

00:43:04.720 We're going to tow your vehicle and we're going to charge you under a number of bylaw violations here.

00:43:09.280 I said, well, what will happen if I refuse?

00:43:12.180 And I said, we will physically remove you from your truck and charge you with criminal obstruction.

00:43:16.680 I said, okay, I'm not going to push you that far, but I'm going to wait in the truck until the thing gets here and then we'll move on.

00:43:21.280 So sure enough, the tow truck showed up. I got out of the truck. They smashed, you know, snapped all my signs off. The optics were beautiful. You know, put it up on the deck and drove it away while the officer wrote just this big stack of tickets for me. And then I left.

00:43:36.160 On the Monday, Calgary City Council pursued an injunction to remove those bums from the park. 1.00

00:43:45.840 On Friday, Nenshi had said it was impossible. 0.98

00:43:49.460 You see, what I had done had a goal, an end line, and a purpose, and I accomplished it.

00:43:56.980 What the occupiers had was an ongoing protest that lost public support

00:44:01.460 and eventually got flushed out of the park by the police.

00:44:08.340 Who won there?

00:44:10.760 You got to have a plan.

00:44:12.840 You have to.

00:44:14.140 And right now, we don't.

00:44:15.680 We've got a bunch of people protesting, and I think it's fantastic,

00:44:19.200 but they've got to start getting realistic.

00:44:21.500 You've got to set goals.

00:44:23.220 You've got to accomplish something.

00:44:25.480 And that means sidelining the nuts, and there's a number of them,

00:44:29.140 but most of them aren't.

00:44:30.340 No, most of these protests are really good.

00:44:32.620 But right now, blocking the border, it's not reasonable.

00:44:38.340 Claudette saying I should be at the border and helping these guys?

00:44:41.020 I can't broadcast from there, Claudette.

00:44:42.720 I have a job.

00:44:43.680 Plus, I won't support a protest that's blocking the border.

00:44:46.200 It's not reasonable.

00:44:48.180 Hindering the border?

00:44:49.020 Sure.

00:44:51.280 Blocking it?

00:44:51.880 No.

00:44:52.180 They're asking for trouble, and they're going to get it.

00:44:54.300 And it's going to be hard on the police officers.

00:44:56.260 It's going to be hard on the farmers.

00:44:57.920 It's going to be hard on the locals.

00:44:59.200 people are divided down there right now. Just start getting reasonable and compromising a little

00:45:06.300 bit. They did set goals according to Seneca. They stated as much. Well, where are they?

00:45:16.500 As I said, my opening rant, you know, I know the mainstream media is annoying and selective and 0.97

00:45:21.520 they suck, but they're what you got. You guys have got to put a press release out. You've got 0.86

00:45:25.600 get it on paper and here's some of the problems that occupy had that problem too that's part of

00:45:29.680 what i'm saying i'm getting all these you know triggered back into those days and it's beautiful

00:45:34.320 it's decentralized organization i think it's great but unfortunately eventually you need

00:45:41.920 a spokesperson or people but they've got to be definitive and they've got to be speaking for

00:45:45.920 the group and they've got to have a consistent message we don't have that yet so again where's

00:45:51.840 is the end. And the public eventually will get tired of it. In fact, you know, again, as we're

00:45:57.340 seeing some of the discussion with the border blockade right now, that one they're tired of

00:46:00.540 quickly. So watch it. Watch public opinion, because if you're not going to be starting to win public

00:46:05.640 opinion, you are not going to win this battle. And I want you to win. I do. So I mean, let's get

00:46:13.180 reasonable here. We got something we're seeing history in the making, but it can be blown just

00:46:18.160 as easily as it could be accomplished.

00:46:21.920 And there it is.

00:46:22.640 Okay, the goal is to remove all mandates

00:46:23.880 or the politicians step down.

00:46:25.440 Okay, that's not reasonable.

00:46:26.280 So set it aside.

00:46:27.640 It's not going to happen.

00:46:29.080 Not going to happen.

00:46:30.820 You can see, I mean,

00:46:31.680 the politician stepping down

00:46:32.740 isn't going to happen.

00:46:33.580 That one's done.

00:46:34.460 It's not even,

00:46:35.740 it's just not going to happen.

00:46:38.040 I mean, let's get real.

00:46:38.700 You might as well ask them,

00:46:39.540 as I did, for more sunny days in July.

00:46:41.660 They're not going to do it.

00:46:43.420 Removing all the mandates,

00:46:44.400 that one I could see.

00:46:45.200 You could say that.

00:46:46.560 And then hopefully,

00:46:47.560 if there's Discord,

00:46:48.060 that's when you start talking about when and which ones and how and how you're going to do it

00:46:51.260 the politicians stepping down you see you don't sound reasonable when you say that you sound like

00:46:54.540 a nut because no government in canada is going to step down just because you were protesting in

00:46:59.220 parliament sorry it's not going to happen so let's get some realistic talk here it can happen we can

00:47:04.000 do things and yes i agree bridget real is removing all mandates is reasonable and i think it is but

00:47:09.320 that's where you start but you see what that that other second sentence that always has to go or the

00:47:12.940 government and cabinet have to step down well that's now you've gone into loony land so let's

00:47:17.320 try and keep this on a realistic level here, and let's go back and forth. And again, if the

00:47:21.200 government's still being stupid and stubborn, they can look like the stupid and stubborn ones, 1.00

00:47:24.540 but the people at these demonstrations are at least showing that they want to make positive 1.00

00:47:32.320 change, and the government's bad. And that's when, again, you maintain that power, you maintain that

00:47:36.800 public opinion, you're the ones who look decent in this, standing up for Canadians, and that's what

00:47:40.300 they want to do, and that's what they are doing. But you can lose that narrative really quickly.

00:47:44.200 It's a really dicey spot right now, so they've got to be careful.

00:47:46.980 I honestly, guys, there's part of it, except constructive critique, okay?

00:47:50.720 I'm not trying to say this to undercut things.

00:47:52.680 If you want to see undercutting things, read the Red Star and the garbage that they're

00:47:55.920 writing in that or the CBC or the CTV. 0.83

00:47:58.060 That's undercutting it.

00:47:59.440 I'm trying to put out there from experience of protests, experience in politics, how you

00:48:04.320 might be able to actually achieve some positive change from this magnificent movement that's

00:48:08.780 been going on.

00:48:09.440 It's been fantastic, and I want it to continue, and I want it to do well.

00:48:12.520 Okay, I'm going to have my guest, Crystal Wittrongel, coming up pretty quickly here from the Montreal Economic Institute.

00:48:20.100 And I'm looking forward to talking to her.

00:48:21.840 And I believe I had her on a panel a while back on a different paper that was done.

00:48:26.160 So I've just got her one-on-one this time.

00:48:27.880 I'm going to speak quickly to our sponsor, though.

00:48:30.080 Again, don't forget, guys, as I was railing about the mainstream media, most of them are tax-funded. 1.00

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00:48:37.220 We rely on subscribers.

00:48:39.160 We rely on sponsors.

00:48:40.660 And it keeps us independent.

00:48:41.940 I know not all of you agree with me and I have some other people saying I'd rather listen to

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00:49:48.040 now let's bring crystal into the mix and change the tone a bit i think i'm all ranted out my

00:49:52.800 throat's getting sore and i know everybody else is getting worked up too but that's why the show's

00:49:56.600 called triggered how are you doing crystal i'm doing great how are you oh very good actually

00:50:01.620 you know people mistake sometimes when i get all red in the face and the vein pulses you know that

00:50:05.100 I'm having a bad day, but that's just a typical day. It's why Jane enjoys that I work full time

00:50:10.120 away from the house. She doesn't have to listen to me ranting and raving all the time. I'm actually 0.99

00:50:13.300 learning to make a living out of it. So maybe I'll start with, you know, the Montreal Economic

00:50:19.220 Institute, just an explainer actually what that is, because it's not just in Montreal. And that's

00:50:24.220 a bit of almost a misnomer and it confuses people because you write on Western issues as well and

00:50:27.560 many other things. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I'm actually based in Calgary. So I come to you from

00:50:33.320 our snowy day today. But the Montreal Economic Institute, it's a public policy think tank

00:50:39.640 that covers a wide range of topics that are important not only to Westerners, Easterners,

00:50:46.760 but to all of Canada. And so we write on issues and influence public policy through a number of

00:50:53.720 different avenues. And we don't solicit or accept any government funding. So we are completely

00:50:59.400 nonprofit in that sense as well. And yeah, Corey, I was on with you a while ago talking about

00:51:06.440 healthcare. So thank you for having me back again. Yeah. Like I said, if I recall that was at a full

00:51:11.040 panel that you were one of three others, I believe, or something at the time. So this time I'll speak

00:51:15.580 more directly. You'd written a column that came out recently about, you know, that this notion

00:51:20.760 that just keeps getting floated and they keep, it's like they're touching a hot griddle and they pull

00:51:24.100 back, but you could tell they'd be, there's some people in the government that really, really want

00:51:28.800 to take a bite out of home equities in Canada primary residences in order to shore up their

00:51:34.740 finances. And they're using the justification saying it would cool the overheated real estate

00:51:39.500 market. And you wrote quite contrary to that. Yeah, absolutely. Well, first of all, like in

00:51:45.340 any conversation about housing and the housing market and supply and demand, I think it's

00:51:50.040 important to contextualize and kind of talk about what, like, how did we get here in the first place

00:51:55.100 to where we are today which is you know a very very hot market so we see you know over the last

00:52:01.000 50 years Canada's population has increased pretty substantially uh largely owing to immigration but

00:52:07.880 if we look at like the 1970s we were growing by about 280,000 people annually and then we look

00:52:14.120 at into the 2000s we're at over 360,000 people annually and in 2019 alone our population

00:52:20.320 increased by about 528,000. So we have pretty substantial population growth. During the same

00:52:26.400 time, new housing starts have not kept pace. So we've seen in the 1970s, they were averaging about

00:52:32.900 230,000 annually. And by 2000, this was just over 201,000. In 2019, we saw just 209,000 new housing

00:52:44.060 starts. So while our population is growing across the country, new home starts have either stagnated

00:52:49.860 are falling this is also at a time where the household size is decreasing so canada-wide

00:52:55.780 since 1971 we we've dropped in the number of people per household we see more population

00:53:02.180 growth we see less people living in each household and less new construction then we've got our

00:53:07.460 long-term decline in mortgage interest rates and we've got everybody's favorite topic which is

00:53:12.180 covid so we see the government fiscal support um as well as some of the other things that have gone

00:53:18.340 into increasing housing demand like you know wanting a bigger backyard or or so on and so

00:53:23.220 forth that has kind of cropped up over the course of the last two years um what this has all led us

00:53:28.980 to is a situation which sees canada with the lowest number of housing units per capita of any

00:53:34.820 g7 country so this is huge um this isn't new for us this is just kind of getting to a boiling plane

00:53:42.020 and so what i mentioned in the column and what you alluded to is that there have been government

00:53:47.380 attempts to limit the demand on housing but as i just talked about we're seeing supply kind of

00:53:54.420 being the issue here um we've seen governments do with you know foreign buyer taxes or tightening

00:54:01.780 some of the mortgage qualifications but studies do show that in housing markets that are super

00:54:07.620 hot like exactly what ours is in this moment policies made to restrict demand are limited

00:54:14.020 and they don't actually make housing more affordable so what we need to do is really

00:54:19.140 look at what are some of these supply enhancing measures not demand enhancing or sorry not demand

00:54:27.140 kind of constraining measures like the federal government tends to navigate towards but some of

00:54:33.940 these other things that we should look at that will bring the supply side in line rather than

00:54:38.980 trying to deal with just demand and only government could think that increasing a tax on something

00:54:45.780 would actually reduce the price of it i mean that that takes some special kind of

00:54:50.260 bureau bureaucratic mental gymnastics to pull that off uh i mean i guess it could discourage people

00:54:57.460 from getting into the housing market and potentially reduce prices but if people uh sit on it further

00:55:03.140 and not sell well that's going to increase demand again as well isn't it well exactly so some of

00:55:08.340 these you know home equity tax or this um the progressive annual tax that was kind of positioned

00:55:14.660 uh by another think tank what that really is going to do is kind of act somewhat like a capital

00:55:19.540 gains tax and people aren't going to want to sell their homes if they're facing a big tax burden at

00:55:24.820 the end of it um so why don't we look at for starters reducing some of the red tape on getting

00:55:30.580 new housing developments going like removing some of the barriers to developing vacant plots for

00:55:35.620 example. We can also look at some of the various zoning rules and urban planning standards that

00:55:41.780 are actually standing in the way of new construction and densification. This isn't a demand issue

00:55:47.940 necessarily, this is a supply issue. And the government really, really should not be getting

00:55:53.780 involved other than to remove the red tape, the red tape that's holding developers back from

00:55:58.980 building more. Because the real market or the real problem here is that the market is tight

00:56:04.660 and the solution shouldn't be about changing those dynamics in the market but focusing on

00:56:08.580 tackling the supply challenges that are in this market. Yeah and it gets a little complicated

00:56:14.660 though because it's it's the federal government that's you know sniffing around looking at taxing

00:56:18.740 home equity on people but most of those issues in red tape and regulation tend to be municipal

00:56:23.460 governments that are strangling things. I've had Shane Wenzel on before or our real estate writer

00:56:28.820 Mike Thomas and they both talk about similar things like the end of Claudette brought that

00:56:33.140 up as as well one of our commenters that you know the the what you've got to go through in order to

00:56:37.620 get something developed or built in this country is is excessive uh is there room though between

00:56:42.580 the federal government and municipal governments to try and talk about how they can mitigate this

00:56:46.580 rather than working on their separate ideologies there i mean ideally that would that would happen

00:56:51.700 you know make it a more streamlined process for everybody but um it's so tough to know

00:56:58.260 where people stand when it comes to their jurisdictions and you know how they want

00:57:02.580 to do things and especially like you said with the federal government being the one to kind of

00:57:06.420 try to constrain that the municipalities being in charge of sort of permitting some of this

00:57:12.180 development to move forward in a perfect world they would work together in a way that would you

00:57:16.580 know not hold back development um and really that would be it but um you know we can help yeah well

00:57:25.540 Well, I mean, it's just a scary thing. I mean, I was talking earlier actually on different types

00:57:30.480 of currencies and digital currencies or things like that. People are worried and something they

00:57:34.060 see as a mainstay as an investment is their primary residence. I mean, a lot of people,

00:57:38.460 this is their retirement. They don't have a lot somewhere else. You know, some of this discussion

00:57:43.080 has been framed almost, you know, that this is a, and that gets insulting, you know, that it's a

00:57:46.780 windfall or people won the lottery. Or I think one of those papers said what people built their

00:57:50.740 home equity while they were laying on the couch watching TV. And that's pretty insulting. Some

00:57:54.680 people who worked really hard to get a down payment and pay their mortgage down and maintain

00:57:58.960 their home and get there. And maybe, you know, we'd need to remind these bureaucrats that you're

00:58:03.940 not targeting the rich. These are just working Canadians who want something to hand to their

00:58:08.520 kids or to retire with. Well, exactly. And it's, you know, the millennials that are starting to, 1.00

00:58:14.700 you know, reach out and try to get into this market. They're the ones that are also having

00:58:18.880 young children and so on. And so by keeping these people out of the market, this is just

00:58:23.860 problematic all around. It's, you know, the missing middle of the housing market really.

00:58:28.740 Yeah. Well, we'll keep watching that, you know, and the more people, I mean, unfortunately it's

00:58:32.260 a little bit dry for some people sometimes, you know, or speculative, like, well, we hear about

00:58:35.820 these things, but then the government denies it. But I mean, if we, if we don't keep raising the

00:58:39.240 alarm bells every time they float this balloon, they won't back off. And eventually these guys

00:58:43.020 are going to slap tax on us. I mean, there's no getting around that. So, you know, you guys did

00:58:46.240 well in exposing it as well as some other columnists. We just got to keep this in the four.

00:58:49.780 yeah yeah exactly so so as you said earlier too though you you guys work on uh healthcare issues

00:58:56.240 and things like that i i sent an email i don't know if you caught that but i noticed you did

00:58:59.500 that short note that came up on your website there uh about uh some lab services uh a positive

00:59:04.860 thing you're writing on you know a government move on alberta's part that's uh going to hopefully

00:59:09.000 take off some of the burden on lab services uh lab services in the province yeah so last week

00:59:14.860 the Alberta government announced that a private provider, which we'd already been using and

00:59:20.360 they'd been performing tests for, I believe it's close to 20 years or even over 20 years,

00:59:26.180 they're going to be taking over more of the provincial lab work. So they're going to be

00:59:29.880 moving up to taking 65% of the provincial lab work in Alberta. And this stemmed from back in 2019,

00:59:36.620 there was a performance review of Alberta Health Services commissioned, and Ernst and Young were

00:59:41.640 ones that actually did this performance review and they found you know a number of areas that

00:59:47.160 can be increased efficiency and cost savings and so on and one of these areas was um in in the lab

00:59:54.360 services and so it was estimated that there are a hundred million dollars that could be saved

00:59:59.320 annually from outsourcing more of the um the lab work to this provider and this provider they did

01:00:06.360 some kind of um cost analysis and their tests cost about 13 less than alberta precision laboratories

01:00:13.480 which was the uh still is the one currently entirely public um so i mean this isn't new we

01:00:21.160 had already been doing this they're just doing more of it which is going to put more money back

01:00:26.280 into the healthcare system um overall cutting cost is not you know something we want to run

01:00:31.480 away from especially right now and doing it more efficiently is the key thing.

01:00:38.440 Yeah well and something that was worth noting is that you know we do applaud the government

01:00:42.520 when they do things right we don't get enough opportunities to do that I think and God knows

01:00:46.520 I'm on their case all the time when they're doing stuff wrong and they give me plenty to work with

01:00:50.760 but you know when they do something right we should say hey I like what you're doing

01:00:55.000 let's see some more keep doing it you know and so it's good to see it noted out there.

01:00:58.440 yeah exactly um this and then alberta has also been good with our red tape reduction strategies

01:01:03.320 so um you know i i'm always a big champion for what we do in that regard as well but

01:01:08.440 it's nice to see you know thinking about different ways of delivering healthcare services but keeping

01:01:13.880 it you know entirely public and entirely approachable and accessible to the everyday

01:01:19.560 person which is what i think people get scared of when they hear you know this outsourcing or

01:01:25.160 um you know using private providers or entrepreneurs or that sort of thing it doesn't

01:01:29.800 change that you know you're not being charged for this uh it's still under the public system

01:01:35.400 yeah marilyn was asking in the comments what was the name of the company that that went to

01:01:39.640 dyna life dyna life okay yeah and i mean that's the important thing with the discussion i mean

01:01:44.120 i think most people's concern is that healthcare remains universal they they don't want to end up

01:01:48.120 at a point where they show up at the hospital can't get coverage or end up with a tremendous

01:01:52.440 bill or something like that, or even a specialized clinic. But that's where unfortunately the

01:01:56.600 discourse coffin goes off the rails. I mean, virtually nobody is saying they want to see

01:02:00.600 universal coverage ended. We're just looking at different provision alternatives and that

01:02:05.160 hopefully that discussion broadens because I think we could do a heck of a lot better with our system.

01:02:09.640 Yeah, I agree. I agree completely.

01:02:12.920 Okay. Well, maybe if you could tell us a little more on what you guys are working on, what goes

01:02:16.440 on at the Montreal Economic Institute, because you constantly got papers and columns coming out and

01:02:21.320 there's lots of stuff to for people to chew on in there yeah so we uh we look at a wide range of

01:02:28.360 things that matter to canadians so whether it's healthcare related uh related to energy and

01:02:35.080 natural resource development um public finance kind of we run the gamut on you know trying to

01:02:41.560 look at what is happening and what that means for everyday canadians and kind of trying to provide

01:02:47.720 a balanced outlook on you know other ways of doing things such as you know we do talk a lot

01:02:53.320 about healthcare reform uh both for alberta but also for quebec um those are the two systems we

01:02:59.240 normally focus on but i mean other provinces can obviously take note as well um and a lot going on

01:03:06.600 with energy especially you know myself being based in calgary uh there's always great discussions

01:03:12.280 happening um at what's going on across the country to do with that um and yeah we we do publications

01:03:20.360 we also come out with op-eds like the one that was in the financial post uh for housing that

01:03:25.160 we talked about here and a wide range of other things and so we really just try to stimulate

01:03:30.280 public policy discussions um through advocacy through advisory services uh publications and so

01:03:38.520 go on. And our website's www.iedm.org. If anybody would like to have a visit and poke around,

01:03:45.900 there's a lot of good stuff in there. Excellent. IEDM.org. And that's a crystal

01:03:51.360 Witwrongel. I didn't mess it up too much. You're really close. Very, very close.

01:03:56.760 Okay. Excellent. Well, thank you very much for joining me today. I'm looking forward

01:04:00.280 to seeing more of your work and papers as they come out there. They're great in-depth

01:04:04.000 discussions on important issues to us. Great. Thank you so much for having me.

01:04:07.560 Great. Hope we got to talk again soon. All right. So yeah, that was great. And yeah,

01:04:11.240 when Crystal came on with the panel, it was a good health care discussion in the past.

01:04:15.000 And we really need those discussions. You know, when you look at any poll, if we're talking about

01:04:18.280 what the public's concerned about, worried about federal, provincial, it doesn't matter. It's

01:04:21.560 always healthcare and education. Those are the top two, almost without variation. And people worry

01:04:27.240 about it. But unfortunately, you know, some some vested interests often unions, hard leftists,

01:04:32.520 so on, have ruined the discourse and don't allow us to have bigger discussions on it,

01:04:36.840 But as Bridget Frost, the commenter said, I want to be able to pay if it means better care.

01:04:41.580 I see no problem with a health care system closer to Germany or Sweden.

01:04:44.800 And you see, that's very, very important.

01:04:47.020 I despise how the people invested in the status quo have managed to frame this discussion

01:04:52.340 because they make it out as if there's only two health care systems on the planet,

01:04:56.020 the American one and the Canadian one.

01:04:58.540 And guess what?

01:04:59.280 There are over 100 different systems. 0.99

01:05:02.240 And, you know, Canada stinks. 0.94

01:05:03.600 We got that down. 0.87

01:05:04.740 It's costing us a fortune and our outcomes are terrible.

01:05:06.840 I mean two years into a pandemic and apparently our our system still gets overwhelmed with 100

01:05:12.040 people going into ICU out of 4.2 million we got a problem and you know the American system there

01:05:18.600 are people who fall between the cracks and end up broke because they needed a procedure and perhaps

01:05:22.920 they weren't low enough income to get it full enough covered full coverage and they were high

01:05:26.680 enough income to get a good health plan that covered them that's not exactly the best either

01:05:30.840 but they never have a shortage of specialists and things their waiting lists aren't killing 0.99

01:05:33.960 them like they are here so look to europe europe has all sorts of hybrids that a lot more private

01:05:40.840 provision a lot more options and some of what we got to set aside is the politics of envy you see

01:05:46.680 that's the thing one of the things that bridget also brought up is being able to pay as a choice 0.83

01:05:49.960 you see forget the universal coverage make sure there's a baseline nobody goes broke for emergency 0.95

01:05:55.960 coverage nobody goes broke because they got something that was necessary for them to live

01:06:00.680 healthfully. Nobody wants to see that. That makes perfect sense to keep the universal model.

01:06:05.960 But it doesn't mean you can't have some people reach into their pockets and pay for extra

01:06:09.560 services. Let the envy go. You know, if we're all standing in a lineup and some guy back there

01:06:16.180 says, hey, I want to jump the line. I'm going to pay cash for my procedure though.

01:06:22.280 He gets ahead of me, gets done faster, but he paid out of pocket. I still get paid in the public

01:06:25.640 system and I have to wait in line. But my lineup just got shorter because he paid out of pocket.

01:06:29.420 my bill just got smaller because he paid out of pocket you know if you set aside the envy

01:06:35.340 we'll all do better you know all the ships will rise with this let these people who have the

01:06:40.060 extra funds pay for the extra services i wouldn't mind seeing hospitals with luxury guest rooms in

01:06:45.580 them if a person wants to pay out of pocket to do it why not get over it it's the envy it's the

01:06:51.020 things you know you know what the world isn't always fair it isn't always equal there's going

01:06:55.420 to be some people who have a whole lot of money and they're going to get a whole lot better things

01:06:58.460 than you do. That's the way it goes. They drive nicer cars. They eat better food. They're probably

01:07:02.220 stupid, better looking women. That's the way it goes. Get over it though. If you don't like it, 1.00

01:07:07.320 just make sure the opportunity is always there for you to climb the totem pole of life. CBC said

01:07:13.640 I'm not allowed to say totem pole anymore, but I don't listen to them. And have that opportunity

01:07:17.420 for yourself or choose where your dollars are going to go. But if they want to pay to help

01:07:21.820 get you in there faster, why not? And here's something a lot of people don't want to think

01:07:27.540 of. They already are. The people with a lot of money are paying to go elsewhere for care.

01:07:33.000 Recently, Jane and I went down actually to, I'm going to have to do a story on it because it's

01:07:38.040 such a neat, unique place. Algodones, Mexico. So just across from Yuma, Arizona. And this is a town

01:07:44.720 of only, I think a couple thousand people, but they got suddenly 400 dentists there. I've never

01:07:48.380 seen anything like it. You walk up and down the streets and it's just dental offices, offices,

01:07:52.340 optometrists and pharmacies and it's people going down there and these aren't rich people in fact

01:07:57.660 it's the opposite effect I mean in Canada where we got for 3,000 I think it was Canadian we got

01:08:02.880 12,000 worth of work done down there by a perfectly qualified dentist that's the way it goes supply

01:08:09.340 and demand it's not just rich people so we got to look at our plan how can we afford dental plans

01:08:13.400 how can we afford things like that we got people going to the states people going to Europe for

01:08:17.780 healthcare other than dentistry. And again, it doesn't mean they're necessarily rich. I mean,

01:08:24.580 if you're told, hey, you've got to get this procedure pretty soon or chances are 50-50 in

01:08:28.820 the next six months, you might die from your condition. We'll schedule you from eight months

01:08:33.560 from now. What are you going to do? And that's kind of the choice that a lot of Canadians in our

01:08:37.620 universal system are stuck with right now. Well, you'll mortgage the house. You'll borrow from

01:08:42.380 friends and family. You'll sell a kidney. You'll do whatever the hell you can. The other alternative

01:08:46.480 of his possible death. And you'll go to the States, or you'll go to Vietnam, or you'll go to 0.50

01:08:50.080 France, or you'll go to one of those places where you can get that care rather than die waiting for

01:08:56.020 it. So it's already happening. The dollars are leaving. Here's some of the irony. Some people

01:09:00.220 are probably going into the States for medical procedures, and they're getting the procedure

01:09:02.980 done by a Canadian doctor who wanted to make better money down south of the border anyway.

01:09:07.540 So let's re-evaluate our system. Look at the outcome and set aside the envy. I mean, if we

01:09:13.380 had a hospital, see, that was, I mean, I'm just spitballing, partially private, you know, so it

01:09:18.620 was regulated. Let's say 60% of your hospital has to be in the public system. Absolutely equality.

01:09:26.460 Everybody comes in, but you know what? The other 40% people can pay. They can get better rooms. 0.94

01:09:31.080 In fact, the operating theater for 40% of the time, because those run out of time all the time,

01:09:34.940 is for private procedures, but people have to pay out of pocket for it. And guess what?

01:09:38.920 these people will come we could get people coming from other countries here to get treatment and it

01:09:43.720 will subsidize you getting better treatment faster how long do you want to wait to get that back

01:09:48.520 procedure when you're crippled and can't walk or your knee procedure it's not just people dying

01:09:52.000 on waiting lists then we're seeing some of the other complications waiting lists are what's

01:09:55.780 destroying us in our health system right now and that's leading and contributing to the opioid

01:10:01.620 epidemic that's another consequence because what does a doctor do okay yes you need that new hip

01:10:06.880 you need that new knee, you need that back surgery, you're in agony, you're going to have

01:10:11.100 to wait another year before we can get you in. But hey, here's some pills to make life bearable

01:10:14.920 till you get there. And that's great. And then they get all the way through, they get their surgery

01:10:17.720 done. And guess what? Now we got a person though, who has got a fixed back, fixed knee, fixed hip,

01:10:21.740 but they've got a hopeless addiction to the painkillers. And we got another problem. Or what

01:10:26.560 if that person's kids got into the Oxy they were prescribed, or you know, the other opioids that

01:10:32.420 are effective painkillers, and the kid got addicted to something that's happening all the

01:10:36.680 time. This whole health system is harming us. It's breaking us down. And a lot of it is due

01:10:41.380 to our being too cowardly to have an open discussion about having more private provision.

01:10:46.340 We've got this crazed ideological thing about Canada having the best system in the world.

01:10:50.720 And we don't. I'm sorry. I wish we did, but we're not even close. So let's open that door. Let's

01:10:55.760 talk about it. Again, get rid of the envy. I mean, CBC, our great state broadcaster, did that

01:11:00.900 greatest Canadian thing some years ago. And guess who it was? Tommy Douglas. Let's not forget that

01:11:05.120 Mr. Douglas was also a eugenicist. So speaking of icons that should be canceled, perhaps out of the

01:11:10.760 past, you know, the left wing seems to forget that with him. But why? Because he gave us the

01:11:16.580 health system. Well, hang on a second. That system isn't all that damn good. And it doesn't mean we

01:11:23.160 have to tear it down to the bones, but we can certainly improve it. I'm going to go to James

01:11:29.200 again, pretty quickly down there. Let's see what else we got for comments. So what senior can

01:11:33.420 for attention. I'm going James quicker than I anticipated to. Here's with our crew here. I've

01:11:39.740 got Nico, by the way. He's very responsive. He's always watching the show, the producer, and he's

01:11:43.160 fantastic, and it's bringing up our production quality, but I think I'm going to have to get

01:11:46.680 like a flag to show when I'm meaning to pull someone in or not, but that's okay. You look

01:11:49.960 ready to go, James. Are you muted, though? Let's see. There we go. It should be good now. Surprise.

01:11:58.320 Welcome to the show. Welcome back. I'm here. Great. I appreciate that. So is anything you're

01:12:05.460 down there just for people who just tuned in more recently as James Finkbeiner, he's with the Western

01:12:10.300 Standard. He's been, well, the last two days, you've been down there on the Coutts border more

01:12:13.900 than you've been up here in Calgary near home and covering these things live, getting some great

01:12:18.060 video and talking to a lot of people. Has anything new developed since we chatted about half an hour

01:12:23.480 No, I haven't heard much for new developments. There's a few rumors floating around here.

01:12:31.300 I'm actually just about probably 500 meters away from the actual blockade on the highway

01:12:37.100 here now. I'm just commandeering a local business office here. They've been nice enough to set

01:12:43.820 me up and help me out and keep me communicating back to the newsroom there in Calgary. There

01:12:52.200 are some negotiations going on now i know that uh the lawyers that have been retained by uh the

01:12:57.880 committee that's uh kind of put themselves together here for the protesters uh the lawyers have gone

01:13:03.480 to speak to the rcmp i know that there is some back and forth communication going on there now

01:13:09.080 um and uh i know that there's some negotiations going on to get some fuel in some diesel they're

01:13:15.160 looking for some gasoline, they're looking for DEF to get in here. The food is coming in. It's

01:13:22.280 mostly coming in through locals. That's what's, they're keeping everybody fed and full of coffee

01:13:28.360 for sure. It's minus 28 with the wind chill here right now. So it's pretty brisk. Yeah, it is awful

01:13:35.480 out there. And I guess those ones idling, if they don't have diesel or DEF to keep there, which is

01:13:39.720 diesel exhaust fluid, by the way, that's an environmental thing that I could spend a lot

01:13:42.760 of time whining about as a former diesel truck owner, but that's a fodder for another show.

01:13:48.840 I mean, if your truck shuts down in this weather, you're going to be in danger.

01:13:52.920 Oh, that's one of the concerns that some of the guys have is not only just running out of fuel,

01:13:57.880 but if these trucks completely run out of fuel, then they're not going to be able to start them.

01:14:03.160 And if they can't get the tow trucks in here and help them, and many of the tow truck companies in

01:14:09.160 the area are just, they are just between a rock and a hard place. They don't want to be seen to

01:14:14.440 be participating. They don't want to be seen against anything. But you know, they also,

01:14:21.880 you know, they still need to run their businesses. So yeah, there is some concern that some of the

01:14:27.640 trucks are going to run out of fuel and become immobilized on the highway and the situation

01:14:32.120 might get a little more, a little worse, a little more tense. Yeah. And just to clarify with the

01:14:38.280 The Albertan is a commenter saying to boycott citywide towing in Calgary.

01:14:41.820 Our own Melanie Wriston did phone citywide themselves.

01:14:45.060 And at least the word she got from them is they have nothing to do and they're not doing anything with this protest.

01:14:49.120 They're not heading down there.

01:14:50.260 There was something of an Internet rumor that they were.

01:14:52.980 As far as they're concerned, as far as they told us, that that's not the case.

01:14:56.040 So I just wanted to clarify that.

01:14:57.600 Like I said, we're reporting.

01:14:58.620 We've got reporters.

01:14:59.300 We're checking on stuff because that's one of the issues.

01:15:01.300 Social media is fantastic.

01:15:02.380 We can communicate so fast and so much.

01:15:04.360 But sometimes rumors can really take off really quickly on these sorts of things, too, and cause some confusion.

01:15:10.440 So it's good to hear. And again, directly from James.

01:15:12.420 So there's negotiation, which, again, makes me more comfortable, you know, thinking about this and knowing, like, it's not a standoff if you're negotiating.

01:15:21.760 You know, we can get a good outcome of this.

01:15:24.140 But I mean, what sort of negotiation we're talking about?

01:15:25.980 You're talking about negotiation for bringing in supplies and such.

01:15:28.420 But is there demands on the parts of the blockaders then of seeing some sort of changes before they start backing off, letting some traffic through or things like that?

01:15:37.240 Where they're at right now is they want all the mandates to end.

01:15:41.300 Specifically, they want the mandatory vaccinations and and the vaccine passports.

01:15:46.580 Those are their two biggest concerns.

01:15:48.720 Now, they also realize that blocking an international port of entry, the only 24 hour port of entry into Alberta from the United States.

01:15:57.160 that's not a long-term position that they can hold uh now they also don't want to back down

01:16:02.620 from their bargaining chip so i i wouldn't say that this is going to be an impasse that's going

01:16:07.320 to continue uh forever for for weeks for months anything like that um i think they more they they

01:16:15.860 want the government to recognize that the government isn't listening and that there is

01:16:20.440 a large group of people who are against this and they're saying well why should we move off our

01:16:26.220 position if the government won't move up any of their positions so i think that's what the dialogue

01:16:32.380 where the dialogue is going to start and i think they're they're going to come um not not with a

01:16:38.700 list of demands they don't have a list of demands for the rcmp they don't have a list of demands

01:16:43.500 for the government i think they want recognition that maybe the government has overstepped gone

01:16:49.340 too far uh they don't want to be told what they have to put in their body and they don't want to

01:16:53.820 have to share their personal medical information with every person they come into contact with.

01:16:59.900 Yeah, no, and it's just there's no denying on what people are upset about. And, you know,

01:17:05.420 that's been the messaging from the start with this. And it's good. Like I said, I just my concern,

01:17:11.580 as you said, that it's good to see the reality. They understand that this isn't going to be a

01:17:14.940 long, long term thing and that it's not a minor thing. I mean, putting out to some people to

01:17:19.180 saying they can just go around. Well, if people know that the southern borders of Alberta, that

01:17:25.220 is the crossing. That's the main one that goes to the I-15. It's a critical one. I mean, yeah,

01:17:30.280 you got caraway, you got a gravel one out over from Milk River a ways, but it's not really

01:17:34.140 reasonable for moving large numbers of traffic. So having that one closed is a big concern for

01:17:40.200 the time being. Yeah, exactly. The Aiden border crossing isn't even that far from here. I mean,

01:17:46.200 And it does add substantial time for the commercial carriers to cross over there.

01:17:51.320 And I mean, obviously, the margins on trucking, long haul trucking, they're not huge.

01:17:57.040 These guys do not make absolute tons of money.

01:18:00.840 And when you've got to go that far out of your way, you're adding fuel costs, you're

01:18:03.800 adding time for your drivers, you're running up the expenses.

01:18:07.680 And these guys are in the industry.

01:18:09.240 They know that.

01:18:10.800 And I don't think the long term goal here is to have this crossing shut down.

01:18:15.700 I don't believe that they intend to completely close this highway down going well into the future.

01:18:24.980 I believe that by retaining lawyers, that was their show that they want to have a dialogue, that they want to have a discussion.

01:18:34.840 And they also know that they can't overstay their welcome.

01:18:37.480 Right now, they have excellent support from the community.

01:18:40.900 They have excellent support from Albertans.

01:18:43.060 But we all know that extended protests where things are absolutely shut down, there's no dialogue, it's a complete impasse, that starts to lose public opinion. And if you start to lose public opinion, then that's when your argument's gone and nothing's won.

01:18:58.560 And I think what they want more than anything here is to show, look, we've done this, we've got the government to pay attention to us, the government is going to respond, and things are going to move forward.

01:19:11.340 And I think they're just seeing that for the last two years that they just haven't been listened to, and I think the vaccine mandates are just a bridge too far.

01:19:21.860 And I think people want their body autonomy back and they want to keep their personal medical information private.

01:19:30.260 Yeah, well, and it's rare that I welcome the presence of lawyers, but it's good to see.

01:19:34.900 I guess you need somebody in the middle.

01:19:36.680 You've got two parties that are trying to find a somewhere common ground or discourse.

01:19:42.080 I mean, a lawyer kept me and my ex-wife from strangling each other through the negotiations as we parted ways.

01:19:49.180 you know, when you've got heated emotions, you've got things like that. That's why you have somebody

01:19:52.960 sit in the middle and hopefully add a voice of reason within there and lead to potentially a

01:19:58.520 better outcome. So, I mean, it's good to see that they're coming at things fairly realistically.

01:20:03.960 And that's the thing, right? You don't have one specific group that planned this. There was

01:20:11.000 a small group, a small Facebook group in one place, a small Facebook group in another place,

01:20:16.220 and a bunch of locals in another place that all decided to meet in one spot they didn't plan out

01:20:21.560 how the protest was going to go they didn't plan to completely shut down the border crossing they

01:20:26.500 didn't plan to be here for days and weeks and months on end they planned to have a protest and

01:20:32.260 that protest evolved as the groups got together they thought okay this convoy just isn't doing

01:20:37.200 enough and that's how the blockade came about and and they've negotiated they've gone back and forth

01:20:42.500 they've made concessions for the residents of coots they've made concessions for the rcmp

01:20:47.220 they they're not holding a hard line here they they are negotiating and and i think by bringing

01:20:53.540 um the lawyers in especially uh chad williamson and williamson law uh they've they've done a lot

01:20:59.620 of covid um uh legal work throughout the pandemic and and and they've told these guys you guys need

01:21:06.500 to set real expectations and we need to come out with a real win here and and we need to also just

01:21:13.300 not have a hard line like the government's taking a hard line with with you guys let's not take a

01:21:18.900 hard line back let's show everybody how democracy actually works where we listen to one another

01:21:24.660 and we move forward oh that's great to hear and you know we were hoping there's there's going to

01:21:28.900 be a good outcome out of this uh you'd reported earlier it sounded like another small group was

01:21:32.420 making its way over there as well with some combines and such uh what's developed with that

01:21:37.460 yeah so we've actually uh we've got some photos of uh another uh another convoy that's headed

01:21:43.140 down into the area now the we haven't been able to confirm yet whether it's headed to the caraway

01:21:48.900 border crossing or if it is planning to head here uh yesterday when i came back uh obviously sunday

01:21:55.140 evening i went back to calgary i was in the office monday morning i came back down here monday

01:22:00.100 afternoon. Yesterday there was about 25 trucks and three or four tractors that were making a

01:22:07.620 loop from Milk River to the RCMP blockade and back. Now it appears that there are a couple

01:22:13.180 other groups. There was two more on Highway 501. There was a small group that was blockaded by the

01:22:20.120 RCMP and there was actually a secondary group that was blockaded by the RCMP. The RCMP did let

01:22:26.560 one of those groups in. The other two groups were held back. Now, it does appear that there are

01:22:32.160 other groups from across the province that are coming to join these groups. We don't think the

01:22:37.840 RCMP is going to let them in, but there could be more rolling protests throughout the area.

01:22:45.780 Yeah, this is clearly far from over, whether in Ottawa or here in Alberta. So, I mean,

01:22:50.580 it's just, again, it develops so fast and we get so many reports. So it's great that they've got

01:22:55.200 you down there and they're keeping you warm and we can uh keep getting updates as things are

01:22:59.740 happening down there so uh well we'll look forward to your next update uh just keep in mind you know

01:23:05.040 uh james uh will be sending us live updates as we go or at least talking to melanie and the other

01:23:11.500 people in newsroom and we'll see how this develops yeah for sure we will uh we're going to stay down

01:23:18.540 here we're going to keep our ear to the ground we're going to keep talking to people uh we're

01:23:22.260 going to bring all the stories we're going to we're going to tell the stories of the coots

01:23:24.880 residents we're going to tell the stories of the rcmp we're going to tell the stories of the

01:23:28.160 protesters we're uh we're not going to pick one narrative and stay single track on this there's

01:23:33.060 a lot of different groups around here there's a lot of different movement going around here

01:23:36.500 and we want to make sure that everybody's voice is heard that that all westerners voices are heard

01:23:41.040 great well thanks james stay warm down there actually hey hey cory cory i uh i just got

01:23:48.460 handed an update here. The RCMP are actually refusing fuel to emergency vehicles and snowplows

01:23:55.880 in Coutts now. So I know that some of the Coutts residents and the county operators were running

01:24:03.380 low for the snowplow for the area. And I know some of the residents were actually working with some

01:24:08.840 of the local fuel suppliers to get fuel in here, to fuel up the snowplow, some of the emergency

01:24:16.400 vehicles and uh to help out the guys that are running low on uh on fuel and uh we're i'm hearing

01:24:23.620 now i just got handed uh confirmation here that the the rcmp are refusing to let that fuel into

01:24:28.960 the area so uh you know this is just one of the things that's complicating things is is yes the

01:24:35.040 truckers have blockaded at a certain point but there is access all the way through you can get

01:24:40.180 through there it's not a complete standstill but further down it's actually about 15 kilometers

01:24:45.620 south of coots is where the rcmp have set up their blockade and it sounds like that's that's

01:24:51.320 where they they aren't letting fuel or supplies or anything come through here now yeah just to

01:24:55.720 clarify you meant north i imagine because the south would be in the oh yeah yeah story sorry

01:24:59.520 north the coots is actually the the border crossing is really weird the highway comes in north and

01:25:04.460 south but then it turns east and west and then it turns back north and south so you're you're

01:25:11.020 thinking north but it's actually east kind of yeah well and you're out in the flatlands with

01:25:15.320 the wind blowing. So it's hard to keep track. No, it's great. And as you're pointing out,

01:25:18.500 it's developing all the time. And the RCMP is putting pressure on, obviously, in ways that,

01:25:23.020 you know, people don't think about if they're cutting off supplies. That's why we're using

01:25:26.360 the term siege. They're thinking that the convoy members are going to get cold enough and hungry

01:25:32.180 enough to give up. But from the farmers and truckers I've known, that's just going to piss

01:25:36.200 them off. Yeah. And that's the thing. I don't believe that digging in here on either side is

01:25:42.580 going to work because the truck drivers that I have talked to, some of them are completely

01:25:47.720 willing to get hauled out of their trucks and arrested. And, you know, one of the earlier

01:25:51.840 meetings today, they said, if you're going to charge one of us, charge all of us. We are all

01:25:55.880 willing to take our day in court. We all want to stand. And we don't, we're not just going to give

01:26:02.640 up here. So, you know, I think there's a lot of room for compromise between both groups here.

01:26:07.860 And I hope to see that coming in the next few hours.

01:26:11.260 Well, we're certainly watching with interest.

01:26:13.760 Thanks again, James.

01:26:14.780 And keep an eye on things that I'll talk to later.

01:26:17.960 Thanks a lot, Corey.

01:26:18.760 Take care.

01:26:19.600 Great.

01:26:20.400 Yeah.

01:26:20.620 And as you saw with James, yeah, you know, he gets notes handed to him right while he's

01:26:23.600 talking with me, like this is unfolding as we go.

01:26:26.540 And we do have feet on the ground.

01:26:28.280 Some of the people were commenters were talking that there's been the video of the trucks

01:26:32.080 leaving from city towing.

01:26:35.140 Yeah, I don't know.

01:26:36.360 I mean, we see all sorts of stuff, but all we can do is we do follow up.

01:26:39.460 As I said, Melanie called City Towing.

01:26:41.540 Maybe they told us the truth, maybe they didn't, but we do check.

01:26:44.060 We have people on the ground.

01:26:45.120 We have people here who phone and check up on rumors and things, whether they're true or not.

01:26:49.620 And we have James down there in person watching things as they develop down there and hearing from both sides.

01:26:56.300 You know, so for people who haven't subscribed yet, keep an eye on this.

01:27:00.920 You know, yesterday, Melanie did a live interview recently with some of the blockaders down

01:27:06.480 there.

01:27:06.740 It was widely viewed.

01:27:07.620 It's still up there.

01:27:08.540 We're on Rumble, by the way.

01:27:10.020 We're on YouTube.

01:27:11.700 We are on Facebook video, of course, is where a lot of people follow us.

01:27:15.960 And as things break, if we get them, we will suddenly cut in live.

01:27:18.800 And if you're a subscriber to any of those, you know, channels, you'll get the alert saying,

01:27:23.380 hey, Western Standard's doing a live thing.

01:27:26.220 Get on there because we are a news group.

01:27:27.680 You know, we report news.

01:27:29.340 It's not just me and my opinion and my bloviating and my ranting.

01:27:33.660 I mean, we do have a great news team that are on these things and reporting them as

01:27:37.360 they break.

01:27:37.720 And as we see, this situation in Coutts is just unwinding right in front of us.

01:27:42.000 And we'll keep you up to date on it as much as possible as well.

01:27:45.180 You know, for the extended stories, for the rest, if you haven't subscribed already, go

01:27:48.820 to westernstandardonline.com, take out a membership.

01:27:51.900 You know, it's been great.

01:27:52.860 Lots of people have been signing up and it's that membership base, you know, that keeps

01:27:57.620 us, it keeps us funding, keeps us rolling and keeps us independent and allows us to pay for

01:28:02.240 reporters around the country, around the province, people in our office, people down there on the

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01:28:10.680 we really appreciate the support we've had from existing members. If you haven't already,

01:28:14.860 it's a free trial, 10 bucks a month. Again, you used to pay for a newspaper subscription for that

01:28:19.660 much and you wouldn't get as good a product as this. I mean, you had 20 pages of obituaries and

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01:28:27.180 opinion, original content, and all of those updates. So take out a subscription to the

01:28:31.780 westernstandardonline.com. Tune in tomorrow. Of all things, I'm going to have another lawyer on,

01:28:37.140 Keith Wilson. He's leading the charter challenge with Brian Peckford on basically our charter

01:28:44.400 rights being suspended over the course of this pandemic. And for people of the younger vintage

01:28:49.040 might not remember, Brian Peckford was the former premier of Newfoundland and he was, well, he's the

01:28:55.120 last surviving signatory of the original Charter of Rights and Freedoms in Canada. And he has had

01:29:01.120 it. He has had it with that document that him and all of those premiers and people back then,

01:29:04.740 and even old Pierre Trudeau signed with a document that's supposed to protect us from the government

01:29:10.780 and has essentially been suspended for this pandemic and ongoing. So check it out. You know,

01:29:18.240 Keith Wilson is going to be on tomorrow with me. I'm going to be on live at 1130 AM Mountain

01:29:22.960 Standard time again. Lots of ranting. We'll see about other guests. We'll probably have check-ins

01:29:26.940 from James if the poor devil's still stuck down there on that cold border. Lots of news updates

01:29:31.580 as we go. Everything keeps developing. Cheryl Dawn saying maybe the Western Standard can start a

01:29:37.540 provincial party with subscribers. Yeah, you know, a lot of us here, whether it's Derek or myself,

01:29:43.520 really put a lot of time into the political realm already. I think, I can't speak for Daryl,

01:29:48.500 but I'm really enjoying not being in the party front.

01:29:52.480 You know, we can report on, we can dig into,

01:29:54.280 we can make our change from our direction.

01:29:56.440 People who want to organize on the ground

01:29:58.020 and do political parties, by all means, bless them.

01:30:01.080 It's important.

01:30:01.960 That's another part of things.

01:30:02.840 But no, I don't think the Western standard

01:30:03.920 is going to morph into that.

01:30:05.360 Of course, once you're a party,

01:30:06.180 you lose all your independence

01:30:07.120 and you're all focused on your party.

01:30:09.560 Us being independent means we can report critically

01:30:12.220 or complimentary on everybody.

01:30:15.660 I saw another commenter earlier.

01:30:17.100 I believe it was Ms. Wall there, asking about getting Jason Kenney on.

01:30:21.840 Yeah, I had Kenney for half an hour last year.

01:30:25.040 I haven't heard from him since.

01:30:26.380 I think we've been a little too mean to him.

01:30:27.560 He doesn't talk to us.

01:30:28.260 I put the word out, asked for him to come on.

01:30:30.860 I would gladly have him if he'll come on.

01:30:33.280 I'm not holding my breath on that one anymore, though.

01:30:36.100 We hold every government to account when we're crabby with them.

01:30:39.840 And once in a while, we give them thumbs up when they do things right.

01:30:42.460 So thanks for the thumbs up there, Wendy.

01:30:44.140 and Stephen, yes, talking about suspending the charter

01:30:48.360 without section 34, this is the sort of thing

01:30:50.700 that I imagine, you know, Mr. Wilson's going to come on

01:30:53.620 talk about when we get the show going tomorrow

01:30:55.840 so be sure to tune in, we'll keep you updated

01:30:58.760 we'll have lots of guests and of course more ranting out of me

01:31:01.260 thank you for tuning in today and I'll see you all tomorrow

01:31:14.140 We'll be right back.

Western Standard - February 02, 2022

Triggered： Truckers for Freedom convoy needs an end game

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