Western Standard - Triggered： What government services should we cut or eliminate

00:00:00.000 Thank you.

00:00:30.000 Good morning. It's July 14th, 2022, Thursday. It's still stampede week. You can tell because

00:00:37.540 I'm wearing this hideous hat as a means to get out of wearing a necktie. I can get away

00:00:42.040 with this for one more working day and I'm going to take full advantage of it. Maybe

00:00:46.260 we'll get some more rodeo events or something where I can do a little more of that. So thank

00:00:51.400 you for tuning in today, guys. Those of you who aren't out on the midway, it's good to

00:00:55.100 see the comments coming. This is where I like to remind folks, yes, use that comment scroll.

00:00:59.120 good to see you there randy and uh you know send questions my way chat back and forth certain

00:01:04.460 questions towards my guests we won't necessarily get to them all but uh it's good to see that

00:01:08.780 interactivity and know that there's a live conversation going there that's what makes

00:01:12.040 live worthwhile you know recording stuff we can record it it's easier it's easier for scheduling

00:01:17.140 and all the rest but you don't have that fluid sort of show going on we don't have that interaction

00:01:21.100 so and i just like seeing it so i know i'm actually talking to people across the country we got kevin

00:01:25.440 out there in Ontario. And Linda, ironically named East, but is coming from the West in BC

00:01:30.780 as well as Pamela. So, and Samantha out in Grand Prairie. Let's see here. We got a few things to

00:01:36.680 observe today as folks check in, make sure to keep a track on. And that's, it's Bastille Day.

00:01:40.700 That's the big French Independence Day. That's their 4th of July. That's their Canada Day

00:01:46.160 equivalent. The funny thing was, and if you follow me on Twitter at all, again, that's where I get

00:01:51.520 going. And I saw that pop up this morning, Justin Trudeau wishing France a happy Bastille Day. And

00:01:56.960 I couldn't help but laugh. And people, if you're familiar with the French Revolution, the Bastille

00:02:00.500 was a prison where political prisoners were all jammed in there for speaking up against the

00:02:05.200 government and things such as that. Though the Marquis de Sade, I believe, was in there too, for

00:02:08.560 much grosser reasons than that. But either way, the French Revolution, they stormed the Bastille,

00:02:13.640 they freed the prisoners. And of course, you know, those French aristocrats were all

00:02:18.240 uh, taken down in, in terrible ways, mostly because they'd lost touch with the public.

00:02:22.440 They were again, eating cake whilst the rest were starving and, uh, they were locking up

00:02:27.660 political prisoners. So I had to tweet at Justin Trudeau, uh, that perhaps you should study what

00:02:32.600 that's about and see why it happened. And you may want to consider, uh, those sorts of things.

00:02:37.560 And then I had to follow up and said, no, I know Justin's not going to read. I said, I'm sorry,

00:02:40.100 there's no, uh, pop-up book on the French revolution, but get somebody to read it for you

00:02:44.880 and it might spare you some pain down the road. Okay, it's also International Nude Day. That's

00:02:51.120 on an upside. This is the day I guess you want to get out there and hang out what you got hanging or

00:02:56.340 as you get older like me, there's parts to just kind of dangle or whatnot. But this is the day

00:03:01.740 to celebrate it. Get out there, sunburn your spots, horrify your neighbors or titillate them. I guess

00:03:08.080 it depends on what they're into. Somebody is determined that this is the day for it. So this

00:03:12.260 is the day to get out there. And careful, I think there's still laws applying to streaking around

00:03:17.160 unless you're in some sort of specialty parade. But if you're really got to insist on doing that,

00:03:22.060 today's the day to do it. Finally, it is National Tape Measure Day. And I think that kind of can

00:03:26.360 cut in with that National Nude Day as well. If you've got something to be proud of that you're,

00:03:32.120 you know, I unfortunately wasn't gifted. Even if I ran around nude, it's a pretty modest thing

00:03:37.280 there. I like to think I had good fortune in many ways, but no, I'm not one of those who's

00:03:41.480 gonna pretend to have something uh exceptional but if you do get that tape measure out there and

00:03:46.440 hit the nude day and show off to the world what you were granted with all right let's see i got

00:03:51.560 a couple of good guests on talking about things other nudity and uh other uh such things uh phoebe 0.69

00:03:57.800 long with put your clothes back on ethel that's a quote from the old song the streak we want to go

00:04:02.760 way back and date me so any of us old enough to remember that song probably shouldn't be out in

00:04:08.480 public nude. All right. So I got David Clement of the Consumer Choice Center. He's going to be

00:04:12.860 talking to us about airline fares. I mean, in Canada, we are paying through the nose.

00:04:17.340 We are getting hit hard and it's due to a lack of competition, among other things. So we'll talk

00:04:22.500 about that. David's been on before. He's a good guy. And independent MLA for Cypress Medicine

00:04:27.160 hat, Drew Barnes is going to be on. He's still there and he's working hard and he's standing up

00:04:31.400 for his constituents. One of his constituents is Tamera Leach. We're going to talk about those

00:04:36.220 provincial issues. You know, we shouldn't forget while there's a leadership race going on,

00:04:39.200 there still are representatives speaking up on issues out there, and Drew is one of them.

00:04:43.760 All right, let's get on to what I'm ranting about today. I'm going to begin with one of

00:04:47.720 my favorite pastimes, and that's patting myself on the back. So back in mid-September of 2021,

00:04:53.920 I tweeted, as per Economics 101, inflation is setting in due to massive borrowing on the part

00:05:00.960 of the state. So lesson two out of that. Do you know what the central bank will eventually do in

00:05:05.860 response. And if you answered hike interest rates, you're correct. And you've won a path to a

00:05:11.180 prolonged recession. So I predicted an inflationary trend in the central bank's response to it. Am I

00:05:17.700 a gifted fortune teller, a modern day Nostradamus? No, I'm afraid not. I just have a basic economics

00:05:23.480 understanding, even if our prime minister doesn't. The third part of my prediction will be coming

00:05:27.840 soon as the blunt instrument of hiking interest rates sends the economy into a recession.

00:05:32.720 And it's not just economic principles guiding me in my predictions, it's remembering what happened the last time the government borrowed itself to the brink of insolvency and dealt with the issue with interest hikes.

00:05:42.540 Historic events, unfortunately, tend to be a circular thing. We forget and we repeat things, particularly with economic trends.

00:05:48.680 Inflation was high and high energy prices were rampant in the 1980s when Trudeau Sr. was Canada's Prime Minister.

00:05:55.100 And rather than cut spending, Trudeau hammered the economy with high interest rates and attacked the energy sector.

00:06:00.160 The result was an economic collapse in Alberta as Albertans literally walked away from their homes

00:06:04.320 because they couldn't make mortgage payments with such high interest rates while the economy was in the toilet.

00:06:08.900 It was devastating.

00:06:10.460 Today we are in the exact same economic conditions and we have another bloody Trudeau in power. 0.98

00:06:15.240 This one's dumber than his father, though, by a number of magnitudes, and it doesn't look good. 0.86

00:06:19.200 In the 1990s, we had to correct the course of high-spending governments on all levels. 0.98

00:06:22.820 Alberta's government was a little better than the federal one, actually.

00:06:25.700 Premier Lougheed, Premier Getty, they used deficit financing and put the province deeply in the hole.

00:06:31.100 In Ottawa, Kretchen had to cut spending and get the budget back in balance.

00:06:34.640 Him and Martin were actually some of the most conservative governments we ever had.

00:06:38.260 In Alberta, Ralph Klein, of course, was the one to do it.

00:06:40.880 The public sector unions held massive public temper tantrums and threatened strikes.

00:06:44.960 They're predictable.

00:06:46.100 In the end, though, the cuts had to happen.

00:06:48.640 The cupboard was bare.

00:06:50.220 Now we're going to be cutting government spending on all levels again.

00:06:53.440 It's not a matter of if, it's a matter of when.

00:06:56.200 The laws of economics, they're as immutable as those of gravity.

00:06:59.260 The government can deny it all they like, but they're going to have to face the reality

00:07:02.240 of ending borrowing and starting to cut eventually.

00:07:05.600 We can't pretend we didn't see it coming.

00:07:07.780 It feels like I'm shouting into the wind, but we should try and warn people

00:07:10.400 and at least counsel some others to prepare.

00:07:12.240 We need to start asking ourselves, what government services can we do without?

00:07:15.340 And there's a lot of them.

00:07:16.920 What's really essential and what can we cut or eliminate?

00:07:20.040 The Department of Heritage, you know, they could use some massive cuts.

00:07:22.740 Or here's an easy one.

00:07:23.700 We don't need the CBC.

00:07:25.100 That's 1.4 billion a year.

00:07:26.500 Liquidate all those buildings on top of that

00:07:28.140 and the vans and the equipment

00:07:30.460 and we can throw that towards the debt.

00:07:32.420 We can cut foreign aid.

00:07:33.340 Most of it's virtue signaling anyways

00:07:35.080 and it just goes to dictators to buy arms.

00:07:37.560 Public art?

00:07:38.620 No.

00:07:39.360 No, it's not the government's role to buy us art.

00:07:42.320 There's a lot of things.

00:07:43.040 The governor general's office, how about that?

00:07:44.760 There's room there.

00:07:45.600 They're all going to howl, but too damn bad.

00:07:47.860 I mean, what's more important to you?

00:07:48.780 Maintaining then the universal health care

00:07:50.420 or paying the governor general to keep globetrotting

00:07:53.020 while pissing away $87,000 for in-flight meals for her friends.

00:07:57.280 This all adds up.

00:07:58.660 The cuts will come easier if we prepare for them now,

00:08:02.020 because if we wait until there's no choice,

00:08:03.520 it's going to come a lot harder.

00:08:04.860 And if you're a civil servant, and I know a lot of them

00:08:06.680 probably don't listen to this show,

00:08:08.520 but you should think to yourself, is your job vital

00:08:10.520 or could you be easily cut?

00:08:12.020 And if it's the latter, and I know that's the case with many,

00:08:14.480 you may want to prepare for a career change.

00:08:16.620 The cuts won't be as bad as some think anyways.

00:08:19.680 In the 1990s, you know, when Klein was cutting

00:08:21.260 in civil service deeply. Most citizens, including myself, I remember we didn't see a decline in

00:08:25.340 government services. There was a lot of dead wood that needed to be flushed out of the halls of the

00:08:28.700 government bureaucracy, and we were fine without them. It's likely a fetal warning, but I have to

00:08:33.560 try. Austerity is coming. Don't give me the opportunity to say I told you so again when

00:08:38.760 things hit the fan. As much as I do, I admit I like saying it. I'll be perfectly happy if I don't.

00:08:44.160 All right. Well, there's my economics rant for the day. Let's get on to some news.

00:08:50.380 We got somebody different in today. It's usually Dave Naylor coming in to chat with me. But today

00:08:54.420 we have our intrepid reporter, Amanda Brown, bringing us up to date on what stories are

00:08:59.680 topping the news right now and what's coming up. Hey, Amanda, how's it going?

00:09:03.620 It's going very well, Corey. Thanks very much. I remember you saying earlier that you didn't

00:09:08.880 think that hat suited you very well, but I beg to differ. I think it looks fabulous on you.

00:09:13.960 Well, I appreciate that.

00:09:16.660 Yeah, I've gotten mixed reviews from some people all around.

00:09:19.540 To Jane, I know it's kind of weirded her out because, again, I rarely wear hats of any kind,

00:09:24.060 so it just looks unusual sitting on my head.

00:09:26.680 But maybe as my hair keeps receding and graying, I might want to reconsider my fashion choices.

00:09:31.400 But it costs you a pretty penny, I heard, as well.

00:09:34.120 Yeah, yeah, because as I said, I foolishly went out to Lambly's shopping in the middle of Stampede Week, 0.95

00:09:39.180 just about as dumb a time as possible to buy a cowboy hat.

00:09:42.100 yeah with good investment and maybe maybe if you're lucky you can get it paid on 0.97

00:09:46.500 expenses oh yeah I'll submit that my breath Melanie offered me her hat and

00:09:54.280 but it's too small I've got a big head and unfortunately yeah I'd be sitting

00:09:58.060 here with you hatted but not today yeah I'm gonna kick off with the health

00:10:04.660 Canada has approved the Moderna mRNA vaccine for children aged six months to

00:10:09.880 five years old. That means that infants and preschoolers can now get the shot. The dose

00:10:16.420 will be a quarter of that of an adult. The Pfizer vaccine is still under review with

00:10:23.460 Health Canada at the moment. We're expecting news on that pretty soon. I'll be very interested

00:10:30.440 to see what the uptake looks like for the vaccine, given the fact that the COVID-19 hasn't impacted

00:10:38.860 children of this age group in any substantial way. So I wonder what parents are going to feel about

00:10:44.300 that. I know it will be popular with some parents, but interest does seem to be waning.

00:10:50.620 Healthcare workers have been found to be some of the most reluctant to get the COVID vaccination,

00:10:57.180 which may come as a surprise to some people and not really a surprise to other people.

00:11:02.540 I guess they see what's going on in the hospitals. The information comes from a

00:11:08.300 canadian medical association journal article that's titled week a covid booster campaign

00:11:15.420 the results were originally from the british medical journal the bmj and that was a questionnaire

00:11:21.580 that was sent out to more than 15 000 canadian healthcare professionals and they responded and

00:11:28.940 and and yes they uh they're reluctant apparently only 55 percent of them uh more than than some

00:11:36.460 people might expect but uh less than others but uh but that's similar to the us uh when they were

00:11:42.620 were surveyed on the same questions and uh the british medical sorry the bmj said that most

00:11:49.740 respondents cited their reason for hesitancy as being uh the new technology that the the these

00:11:56.620 mrna vaccines are using and uh cited also safety concerns so that's uh that's very interesting and

00:12:04.220 to see if that if you know government the federal government and the provincial government can change

00:12:09.560 that so I'm sure they're going to try and give those workers lots of incentives to change their

00:12:14.700 mind the governor of the Bank of England Tiff Macklin said yesterday that Canadians should

00:12:20.920 expect a slowdown in the economy by winter which won't be a surprise to a lot of people since we're

00:12:27.120 all having to pull our belts tighter where everyone's a bit more skint than they used to be

00:12:31.500 for sure uh they should expect that slow down by winter and uh that was bank of canada not

00:12:37.260 bank of england did i say england i'm sorry sorry bank of canada yeah and uh they should expect to

00:12:44.940 slow down by winter and uh a continued high cost of living so that's not much to look forward to

00:12:50.380 uh including a winter of course um tim macklin's uh raised the bank of canada base rate by a full

00:12:57.580 one percent yesterday and that pushed the interbank loan rate to 2.5 percent um and by labor day they

00:13:04.940 say inflation will be at eight percent which is uh hot in the heels of uh the u.s inflation rate

00:13:10.780 which is at nine percent i think uh approximately and uh unfortunately the economic growth rate is

00:13:17.900 predicted to fall from three point five percent to one point seven five percent by next year

00:13:24.540 Another news story unfolding is confidential documentation has been released

00:13:32.060 that reveal decisions in the process used to ease the pandemic restrictions in the province.

00:13:37.980 So the Alberta government fought to keep the documentation from going public and they were

00:13:44.460 citing that information in the documents, the 300 pages of documents, was actually confidential

00:13:50.460 but they were overruled by justice grant dunlop in in the lawsuit um as it unfolded

00:13:58.140 the documentation included a powerpoint presentation presentation that was prepared by

00:14:02.460 the chief medical officer of health dina hinshaw for health minister j david copping and and and

00:14:09.340 and that offered guidance to the albert health service on phasing out uh sorry the phasing in

00:14:14.540 of the reopening and phasing out of restrictions. The last lawsuit, sorry, the lawsuit was initiated

00:14:21.660 by the Alberta Federation of Labour and a number of parents of five immune compromised

00:14:30.680 children against the government of Alberta. And lastly, for my breaking news today, Canadian

00:14:38.720 government has decided in their wisdom to reinstate random COVID-19 testing. This time

00:14:45.360 it will be off-site and the testing is for fully vaccinated air travellers and that begins

00:14:51.080 next Tuesday. So Health Minister Jean-Yves Duclos said that they need to keep a tab on

00:14:57.460 incoming COVID positive travellers and to be able to identify variants of concern as

00:15:03.360 they come in to Canada the random testing was only suspended a little over one month ago the

00:15:11.820 government said that moving testing off-site means it can better support Canadian travelers

00:15:15.960 although I'm not quite sure what they mean by that sounds like a pain in the proverbial to me

00:15:21.540 but travelers will receive an email within 15 minutes of submitting their customs declaration

00:15:27.540 forms and the email will give details about how to book an appointment and find your you know the

00:15:33.300 local test center where you'll need to go and have that test taken. You know what I think, Corey?

00:15:39.580 I think that the federal government has a secret ministry of frustration and I think it looks to

00:15:46.900 me like they're doing overtime. Yeah, there's no doubt about it. I also would just suspect and

00:15:53.040 speculate there's probably some people who have some really lucrative contracts for COVID testing

00:15:57.780 that really wouldn't want to give up all those tests they invested in. Well, absolutely.

00:16:03.300 Well, it's frustrating. Yeah, we thought that testing was over. I mean, the airports are still a catastrophe. Our tourism industry is still in the toilet. And here they are diving right back in to delay and harass our visitors all the more. Just seems to be no end to it.

00:16:16.520 Yep, absolutely. Ongoing.

00:16:18.660 All right. Well, thanks for all the updates today. I know there's plenty for you to cover when Dave's out of the house there. You've got big shoes to fill and there's lots of news breaking and going on. So I appreciate that. And we'll check in again after the show.

00:16:32.020 look forward to it thank you very much cory hey thank you amanda so yes as the western standards

00:16:38.020 amanda brown a lot of those stories you see on there when you're reading them are from amanda

00:16:42.260 and then on other days she's pouring through and fixing up the copy from when we uh you know

00:16:47.480 torment mike or uh amanda and the other people with our chronic spelling errors and grammatical

00:16:53.620 atrocities at times so i have to appreciate amanda's work and as a reader you guys should

00:16:59.880 appreciate it too, the good stories. And as I said, that copy editing, so we don't offend your

00:17:04.760 eyes too much when we mess with things out there. So lots breaking, lots being reported on, as we

00:17:09.880 said. And again, this is where I like to remind everybody, the reason we've got Amanda, the reason

00:17:15.320 we got Dave, the reason we've got people all across the country is from subscribers. We don't

00:17:20.380 take any tax dollars, guys. We rely completely on you. And that makes us accountable to you. Hey,

00:17:26.100 if we're putting out crap, you guys aren't going to subscribe. And so far, obviously we're doing 0.98

00:17:31.540 something right because we've had thousands of subscriptions and we really appreciate it. This

00:17:35.760 is how we can take down the establishment media that's feeding you that terrible, terrible content

00:17:41.360 out there, guys. But again, if you haven't subscribed already, get on there. It's 10 bucks

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00:17:51.580 the price you used to pay for a newspaper subscription, this is even less than that.

00:17:54.820 there's people who play video games online, pay subscriptions. It costs more than this. And we're

00:18:00.640 getting much more out of that. So again, get on there, take out a subscription. And those who

00:18:06.040 have already a thank you. And if you're looking to advertise, send me a note. You got a product

00:18:10.340 or service. We can get that out there. We can promote things, guys. I'm going to talk about

00:18:14.140 one of those in a sense before we get to our guest as well. Just a reminder, if you go to

00:18:18.940 Give, Send, Go, it's one of those fundraising sites. And I mean, there was problems and

00:18:23.260 everything, but they didn't roll over like GoFundMe did. There's one set up and it's approved by her

00:18:27.280 lawyer. There's a fundraiser for Tamara Leach. And bear in mind, you know, she's been locked up.

00:18:32.140 She's had her bail revoked on a petty offense and she can't pay her bills. She's not working 1.00

00:18:37.240 right now. Of course, who could, right? So those who want to help her out, make sure she can pay

00:18:41.060 her bills. So, I mean, whatever other crap the government's putting her through and the abuses 0.99

00:18:45.320 that are being heaped upon her, at least she doesn't have to stay awake at night and wonder 0.75

00:18:50.140 how the bills are going to be paid. So if you want to help her out, get out there, search Give,

00:18:54.220 Send, Go, and search the name Tamara Leach or look at my Twitter account. I've got links to it out

00:18:58.140 there. And give her a hand, guys. We can't let the government push down citizens like that and

00:19:03.240 punish them for exercising democratic rights. And perhaps my next guest, Tamara is one of his

00:19:09.600 constituents. He might lend a little more on that in a moment when he's ready to come in there.

00:19:14.520 And that's Drew Barnes. He's the independent MLA for Cyprus Medicine Hat. And he's been good and

00:19:20.120 outspoken sometimes there's advantages of being independent uh he can it's like we're as an

00:19:24.840 independent media outlet i rely on you subscribers well drew he answers to his constituents so let's

00:19:30.440 bring him in and have a chat and see what's going on out there in eastern alberta hey drew

00:19:34.520 hey cory morgan how are you nice to talk to you happy stampede yeah thanks yeah i see your western

00:19:40.120 depth so what you guys can embrace it all the way up in medicine hat there yeah we sure do i've

00:19:44.040 actually been in calgary for a couple days and uh of course our uh stampede's not till july 27th but

00:19:50.280 it's usually a good three or four days here and it's uh it's a special time see a lot of old

00:19:54.680 friends right on yeah well and we we're really due for you know some good socializing just enjoying

00:19:59.560 life again we've had such a challenging couple of years and we you know everybody in cities and

00:20:03.560 towns across the province looks forward to their annual uh events and things such as that so yeah

00:20:09.480 and corey like the rodeo was sold out in calgary when i was there a couple of the

00:20:13.960 cocktail parties were jam-packed it things were really going well i thought for everyone

00:20:19.800 great so uh yeah lots of political events lots of uh hobnobbing going on uh it's been something

00:20:27.320 um i you know i mean that's part of what i'm looking at maybe for some of your observations

00:20:31.560 i mean you're independent right now but it gives you kind of a different lens to look at things

00:20:35.480 We've got two different races going on between conservative parties, in a sense.

00:20:40.200 How do things look for Albertans as we watch this sort of stuff going on?

00:20:44.180 Well, you know, there is some silver lining in what have been some great clouds.

00:20:49.260 And let's start with Ottawa, first of all.

00:20:51.840 You know, the fact that $25 billion a year goes out of Alberta,

00:20:55.940 the fact that in exchange for that, they deny us resource movement and deny us fairness.

00:21:01.700 But having said that, when I look at all five of the Conservative Party of Canada leadership candidates, and Pierre Polyev in the last little while, and even John Charest with his Alberta Accord, Rick Bell's article yesterday, Pierre has some strong pro-Alberta statements in there, which I thought he'd been neglecting to say.

00:21:27.520 But talking about fairness and ending equalization and making things happen.

00:21:33.100 So, yeah, so, I mean, Alberta is more on the radar in the Conservative Party of Canada than ever before.

00:21:40.820 Will it make any difference?

00:21:42.880 You know, all those I'll say to the Ottawa, Corey, is it had better.

00:21:48.080 Separation, independence, desire for change has risen dramatically in Alberta.

00:21:53.460 And at some point in time, Ottawa is going to have to do something to give us equality and fairness, give us resource movement, or it's going to get much worse.

00:22:02.780 When I look at the Alberta race, I'm disappointed that it's underachieved so far.

00:22:09.420 And, Corey, though, I am so not surprised.

00:22:12.060 Jason Kenney, when he didn't go away, when he didn't allow an intern leader to be appointed, he's still got his thumbs on the scales of this leadership race.

00:22:20.420 And of course, there's, you know, there's some discussion about whether Danielle Smith is going to be allowed to fully enter it. The $175,000 was, you know, I got into politics with you and the Wild Rose in 2011 to keep big money out of politics. $175,000 that, you know, I believe you can self-fund it and then raise it later is putting big money into politics.

00:22:43.120 it's not the and of course our candidates now uh the vast majority of them have been spending time

00:22:49.180 focused on that rather than out uh shaking hands kissing babies and talking ideas with albertans

00:22:54.640 um so again i i just see the ucp you know shoot themselves in the foot all the time and and so 0.50

00:23:00.780 far this race is the same way yeah i mean it just smacks of a bit of elitism i mean i understand the

00:23:05.620 purpose of a bar absolutely i understand the purpose of an elections committee to say to some

00:23:10.060 people, perhaps, you know, you're not appropriate to run. When I ran for an NDP nomination to sort

00:23:15.200 of poke fun at them, I wasn't shocked that they told me to get stuffed when I put in my paperwork,

00:23:20.220 but they have the right to do that. But then when it gets arbitrary, when it gets, and when you're

00:23:24.800 using a fiscal bar, I mean, there's no doubt about it. I mean, if it was even say 50,000,

00:23:30.320 you're going to be pretty serious before you lay out that kind of money to run for a leadership.

00:23:34.520 But when you're getting all the way up to 175,000, that's their way of saying, we don't want the 0.99

00:23:38.580 commoners in this race. Yeah, yeah, exactly. And hey, let's talk to Bill Rock, the one gentleman 1.00

00:23:43.700 that had to, you know, drop out. Amisk, Alberta is not anywhere near my constituency, but nobody

00:23:51.180 has called me more over the last five years with ideas and concerns about rural crime more than

00:23:56.820 Mayor Bill. And his voice would have been good in there. He has some great ideas. He knows firsthand

00:24:02.240 a lot of the real pressure points. And as you were talking about Tamara Leach, who is from

00:24:07.220 medicine hat you know you know what is she now 40 days in jail for mischief when the rest of

00:24:13.440 our legal system is all about catch and release i mean it's it's so sad to see the internet and

00:24:19.400 twitter flooded with stories of people that have committed serious crimes and are right back out

00:24:23.660 and and and and tamara's for mischief is in her 40th day and and who knows when that next bail

00:24:30.860 trial bail hearing will happen but anyway so so bill bill had a good voice bill's ideas would have

00:24:36.860 would have made Alberta stronger. And yeah, you know, you, you have to have a bar somewhere,

00:24:41.500 but 175,000 is ridiculous. And, and potentially we'll see more drop out. But again, I think what

00:24:46.900 it's meant so far is the first three weeks has been all about raising money, you know, rather

00:24:51.700 than discussing ideas. So to me, the, the UCP leadership race has been a very underachieving

00:24:58.340 so far. That is too bad. I had a couple of commenters and I don't, you know, expect you

00:25:03.540 to dive in on on the individual candidates so much but it's an interesting concept that got

00:25:06.940 thrown out and and you started that like alienation the western issues are finally in the focus even

00:25:11.360 on the federal front and definitely on the provincial front and a couple of commenters

00:25:15.120 are wondering though what you think of the proposed alberta sovereignty act or just i guess

00:25:19.020 we could expand more than somebody else's specific policy but uh just the proposed policies on how to

00:25:24.880 deal with alberta standing up for itself against uh eastern incursions you know which route might

00:25:29.540 worked best within a provincial scope. Well, thank you, Corey. Yeah, I quite like

00:25:34.780 the initiative itself. Here's one of the leadership candidates with a good chance of

00:25:42.580 success, bringing this idea forward, bringing this idea forward to cause a constitutional crisis,

00:25:50.020 to open up the constitution and force our Canadian partners to either give us fairness or maybe let

00:25:57.360 us out someday. And really, what it's all about is whatever Quebec has, Alberta should have as

00:26:02.400 well. So that is hard to disagree with. Why shouldn't all 10 be treated equal? But whether

00:26:08.860 it comes to the Sovereignty Act or shutting off the taps, all these things are going to cause

00:26:14.480 some unintended hardship. And they're doing some things that are out of our control. So when I

00:26:19.960 came out with my dissenting opinion when I was on the Fair Deal panel, and again, I'm so grateful

00:26:24.040 that thousands of Albertans reached out to us and me with their ideas. I think I came up with some

00:26:29.160 things that are all within Alberta's control. We need to have our own pension. It's $3 billion

00:26:34.740 that would make it so seniors could afford their utilities here. We need to collect our own taxes. 0.96

00:26:41.460 You know, what we pay to Ottawa in interest and penalties alone would cover the cost of

00:26:45.600 collecting the taxes and we'd have more say. We need control over immigration. We need our own

00:26:51.660 policing. We need to put in the infrastructure closer to the grassroots, closer to local

00:26:58.100 decision making and where Alberta has control. But Corey, the main thing I said then was three

00:27:04.580 years from now, we should have an independence referendum. We should tell Ottawa today. Yes,

00:27:10.520 we want to be part of Canada, but only if we get a fair deal and only if we get resource movement

00:27:16.360 and free trade. You guys have three years to figure it out, three years to open up the

00:27:20.600 constitution three years to put in the corridors and get the pipeline access and do what you need

00:27:25.600 to do and three years from now we're going to have give albertans the chance to hold you

00:27:29.960 accountable we're going to have an independence referendum and albertans can decide if it's if

00:27:34.380 it's time to to you know turn up the heat if it's time to go or if we're happy enough with with the

00:27:40.060 deal that was proposed uh like unlike turning off the taps which certainly has elements of

00:27:45.320 unconstitutionality uh unlike uh you know danielle and and the freedom alberta's group on the on the

00:27:52.120 sovereignty act i mean that has a lot of a lot of issues that dance around around legalities

00:27:58.000 to me i thought this was cleaner and more direct we you know we're going to give you three years

00:28:03.140 to give us a fair deal um so anyway i'm just hope that once we get past this this uh leadership

00:28:10.040 race that these things can be discussed fully and and i'm grateful in my 10 years that uh you

00:28:15.100 know, we can put Alberta first. Yeah. Well, there's no doubt that the status quo isn't

00:28:18.820 cutting it and, and maybe, uh, uh, perhaps a referendum, I, you know, I, I think maybe we

00:28:23.440 have to wait a little longer. We'll see. I mean, that's certainly a tool as you're saying, like,

00:28:26.780 we need to, we need to poke the hornet's nest of this province isn't working. You know, this,

00:28:31.260 this confederation isn't working out well, like, like an interesting poll recently found that 21

00:28:35.800 of Ontarians responded saying that they felt their province would be better off outside of

00:28:41.240 Canada. Well, if even Ontario has one in five people saying it, we should be re-evaluating

00:28:47.020 the entire package. And it will take nothing less than a constitutional crisis, I think,

00:28:52.040 for the powers to be to realize that they have to do this. Yeah, yeah. More of a European Union

00:28:57.020 style where the provinces have a lot more control and independence. And yeah, we can still have our

00:29:02.960 trade agreements if they'll cooperate. You know, Corey, what hurts me is the hardship. You know,

00:29:09.040 Alberta, Canada, we have the third biggest oil reserve in the world.

00:29:12.720 I understand we're only the number five producer in the world.

00:29:15.380 So in spite of all the things we've talked about, ad nauseum, our great environmental record, our great social record, we're not meeting our potential.

00:29:23.740 We have the third biggest and we're producing at number five.

00:29:26.900 I'm at a Stampede breakfast a couple of days ago and I'm talking to some oil and gas workers who take risk and work as hard as anybody who are having a little trouble still getting, you know, getting their equipment out, getting their jobs out, getting their skills out.

00:29:40.580 And it's because we're not in full capacity.

00:29:43.660 And we all know the pipeline situation, you know, Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion is virtually stalled.

00:29:50.740 Energy East is non-existent.

00:29:52.000 It goes on and on.

00:29:53.180 And let's get our people back to work.

00:29:54.860 And, you know, and then when you look at the Canadian situation, how anti-competitive we are, of course, we saw the Rogers, you know, burnout the other day and all the problems that that caused.

00:30:08.160 You look at all the money that the Canadian government is borrowing and what that has done to our interest rates now, plus the money they printed.

00:30:15.260 Let's get a government that cares about balancing their budgets so banks will be more in tune with giving small business more competitive advantages.

00:30:26.820 You know, there are just so many things in Canada that could be better and don't match our values.

00:30:32.800 Again, Alberta values of hard work, risk-taking, and sharing the benefits.

00:30:38.200 You know, we're living in this high-tax world, and most of it to Ottawa, where we don't get value.

00:30:44.020 It just seems like we're almost bent on economic self-destruction. It's so frustrating and maddening to see. You're in a rural constituency. It's a bit dry out in Medicine Hat, but there's a lot of ranching and some agriculture in that. An issue that's been coming up. We're seeing around the world, of course, in the Netherlands or Sri Lanka, the latest environmental push. I mean, they haven't stopped now with oil and gas. They're going after fertilizers, and that's really causing, well, pressure on consumers and the agricultural community.

00:31:12.380 are there any concerns about those because there's a proposed fertilizer reduction in

00:31:16.360 Canada coming down the lines too have you been hearing about that on your ground level

00:31:20.140 oh yeah people people here are very concerned we're fortunate to have irrigation west of town

00:31:27.680 and you know those those crops are those acreages are very productive yeah there's huge concern but

00:31:34.900 but you know but look what look what happens here Corey you know the the environmentalists go after

00:31:39.560 the oil and gas business. Jason Kenney's war room has been a disaster in trying to protect us for

00:31:45.320 that. That should be eliminated. And then soon as, you know, now we're producing number five in the

00:31:51.240 world, even though we're the third biggest. And what do they do? They turn to GMO, nitrogen,

00:31:56.220 and now cattle. They're hard after what we produce. Seems like the environmentalists and

00:32:04.740 those that benefit from a different status quo or globalization and what the World Economic Forum

00:32:11.360 offers, which is not in sync with what Medicine Hat and Cypress Medicine Hat needs. Yeah, we have

00:32:18.380 to continue to push back. We have to get as effective as possible. And more than anything,

00:32:24.680 we have to speak the truth. But, you know, Corey, we need some democratic reform. You know, Jason

00:32:30.540 Kenny disappointed in so many ways, but maybe one of the biggest ways was in not putting in

00:32:36.040 meaningful recall and meaningful citizen initiated legislation laws. Yeah, he put things in that are

00:32:42.660 maybe just being proclaimed now, but the signatures that are required to put things on the ballot,

00:32:48.280 unlike Switzerland, where the Swiss people can actually overturn a federal law or put in a law

00:32:54.840 with a referendum and a petition.

00:32:58.160 He didn't do that.

00:32:59.120 He made the bar way, way too high.

00:33:01.200 So we need to fix that democratic reform, Corey.

00:33:04.500 We need to put in a system

00:33:05.720 where if our politicians won't do it for us,

00:33:08.580 the people need to be able to get rid of them

00:33:10.640 or through citizen-initiated referendums

00:33:13.860 do it themselves.

00:33:15.320 I'm with you.

00:33:16.100 I mean, I was very disappointed in that.

00:33:17.680 I mean, we worked, as you said,

00:33:18.660 when we were in the Wild Roast together

00:33:19.920 on things such as Citizens Initiative and Recall,

00:33:23.560 And there was a lot of policy discussions and we knew same sort of thing.

00:33:26.180 You have to set a bar.

00:33:27.140 You don't want to recall held every time somebody is elected and you don't want

00:33:31.080 a referendum every time somebody is fighting over a property line with a

00:33:34.120 neighbor, but you have to make it achievable.

00:33:36.200 And they purposely put it way out of reach.

00:33:38.700 Yeah.

00:33:38.920 Yeah.

00:33:39.340 Yeah.

00:33:39.660 Way out of reach in the number of signatures.

00:33:41.480 And if I remember right in the citizen initiative,

00:33:43.960 he even put in a kind of a poison pill.

00:33:46.000 If somebody starts a ballot, a citizen initiative,

00:33:49.640 referendum question and it doesn't achieve the bar it isn't successful nobody else can do it for

00:33:56.360 five years uh and i mean so so can somebody start one just with the aim to sabotage and and the bar

00:34:03.720 so high anyway it's uh it's it's next to impossible um but but let's you know i understand switzerland

00:34:10.180 8.4 million people 50 000 people can sign a petition forcing a referendum to overturn any

00:34:17.800 new federal government law. The main benefit I hear, Corey, is it forces the politicians to

00:34:23.940 really, really consult before they put in any laws. Of course, they don't want laws overturned

00:34:29.700 either. Why don't we put in these important gatekeepers and these important things to stop

00:34:38.440 at these benchmarks? And instead, again, when I think of how much change our system needs,

00:34:47.800 The fact that 2011, 2012, you and me were running around saying all these things, and here we are 2022, and we're still talking about it.

00:34:57.620 Hopefully, the next two or three years will be more successful.

00:35:00.500 Yeah, well, on the bright side, we haven't given up yet.

00:35:02.620 We're stubborn, if nothing else.

00:35:04.460 So before I let you go, and like I said, I appreciate that, and I like being able to talk to you because at least there's disadvantages, of course, being stuck in an independent role, but there's advantages in being unrestrained, of course,

00:35:15.640 and you can just speak to what you want to feel or, you know, you're not worried about a party

00:35:19.260 at this point. So just where can people find information on what you're up to and where

00:35:23.700 you're communicating and, you know, just your constituency in general? Yeah, thank you, Corey.

00:35:28.280 Yeah, please, Cypress Medicine Hat, Drew Barnes on Facebook and Twitter and the website under

00:35:35.140 Drew Barnes at Cypress Medicine Hat. And Corey, what we're really fighting for hard the next

00:35:39.540 little while is Alberta first, economic freedom and individual opportunity. The fact that taxes

00:35:47.540 are so high in Canada, taxes are so high in Alberta, it's time to get back to where people

00:35:54.940 have the opportunity to work hard, take risks, and then share their results. This is a little

00:36:02.160 bit of a detour, but Johnny Goudreau signed with Columbus yesterday. Taxes, state tax in Columbus

00:36:11.320 is 3.9% in Ohio. There's a small, I think 2% tax in Columbus. Alberta and Canadian taxes are as

00:36:19.620 high as 48%. So was it a factor in his decision? You know, I don't know. How many businesses don't

00:36:26.800 we get because there's nine American states with no, no income tax, uh, taxes are lower in many,

00:36:33.900 many places around the world. Nevermind our gatekeepers and our regulation. So Corey,

00:36:38.940 please join me in a fight for economic freedom, individual opportunity, and Alberta families.

00:36:45.220 Thanks, Drew. I'll keep fighting the good fight and I hope your medicine hat rodeo goes

00:36:49.700 excellently. And, uh, I hope we can talk again soon. We will. Corey, thank you. Have a good one.

00:36:54.160 Great. Thank you. So that was Drew Barnes, and he is the independent member for Cypress Hills

00:36:59.600 Medicine Hat. Like I said, those conversations are great, you know, to get somebody when they're

00:37:03.160 independent. Not that Drew was ever restrained when he was in a party either, actually. He was

00:37:07.260 always quite outspoken. That's part of why he ended up in an independent role. But all the same,

00:37:13.260 you know, there's constraints. You're going to feel a little restrained when you're in a party

00:37:16.140 role and you might hold back on some things. And Drew is just speaking to what he feels is best

00:37:20.340 for Alberta and constituents, and I appreciate that.

00:37:22.900 All right, looks like we should be ready to cut

00:37:24.340 to Melanie Rizdin. 1.00

00:37:26.340 She's out on the Stampede grounds again,

00:37:28.200 and we'll just do a live hit out there.

00:37:29.780 I believe she's talking to a real cowboy,

00:37:32.420 unlike a fake one like myself.

00:37:35.400 Yes, Corey, we are talking to a real cowboy.

00:37:40.000 Ross Knight is joining us right now.

00:37:42.400 He's one of the chuck wagon racers for this year.

00:37:45.240 How long have you been doing this, actually, Ross?

00:37:47.840 Oh, like 40 years.

00:37:50.340 40 years okay well so he's very experienced cowboy now you are an

00:37:56.740 Albertan well actually Saskatchewan so so where are you from St. Walvo just

00:38:01.620 outside of Lloydminster so okay and we're standing in front of Ross's wagon

00:38:08.300 and and so tell me a little bit about the design of the wagons first of all

00:38:15.460 and and um anything special about them uh so all the wagons got away 13 25 pounds and stuff with

00:38:22.340 the driver in them and yeah most of them are still traditional wheels and hubs and stuff right so

00:38:28.980 yeah okay yeah and so tell me how many how many horses like how how is uh everything kind of

00:38:38.040 constructed when you're out on the on the race track sorry yes six at a time right four on the

00:38:45.440 wagon and two out riding horses we have 16 horses here so we alternate them every other night and

00:38:51.760 run them that way and yeah so no it's been going really good and i saw yesterday uh i think you

00:38:58.680 came eighth and then sixth the day before you're racing again tonight do you pretty much race

00:39:03.140 every day uh yeah we race all 10 days through stampede so that's why we switch the horses back

00:39:08.220 and forth they got certain rules that they can only go so many times and so many days in a row

00:39:12.740 and stuff so and you've done the stampede for many years have you come out as the big winner

00:39:19.220 i know we've never won it but one of these years we will yeah and then where do you head after

00:39:24.100 stampede uh we're going to high river and then strathmore and up to dawson creek

00:39:28.180 and then back to rocky and century downs it must be really nice to have everything sort of back

00:39:35.380 up and running now i mean you must have been kind of putting things on hold for a while

00:39:38.900 um well actually raced wagons every year even through colvin uh we raced around home and stuff

00:39:45.840 um it was just um yeah so we've actually been going all the way through so it's been good

00:39:52.380 but it's nice to be back with everything going on here yeah for sure we're gonna go into uh the

00:39:59.600 stables uh the barns here and we're gonna check out some of the horses that you're traveling with

00:40:04.980 and we also have a nice big dog what's your dog's name yeah yeah so he comes

00:40:14.600 and hangs out for the ten days we're here nice big bull mastiff yeah all

00:40:20.620 right so Phil's one of the left leaders he's just turning 14 and I've had him

00:40:27.480 since he was 7. He's going to go tonight. He likes chasing rye to see if he can bite him.

00:40:36.640 It looks like he's looking for a snack. He is. He likes peppermints and carrots.

00:40:42.400 Nice. Okay. This guy over here is Louie.

00:40:48.720 This is who? Lou. He's going to go tonight too.

00:40:52.280 Yeah. So is there anything special you do with the horses on the days that they're going to run?

00:41:05.160 Looks like perhaps our service might be getting a little bit limited in there either.

00:41:08.520 Those horse burn a couple hours before we race and things like that. And

00:41:13.640 everybody else gets. We'll come out of the barn, Corey. Our signal is getting a little

00:41:18.360 bit cut off i think in here um so ross tell me a little bit about some of the changes that they've

00:41:24.040 done this year for the races um actually so they put up these pylons it seems to be working really

00:41:31.960 well like nobody's had any complaints about it and went down to 27 wagons and three to a heat

00:41:39.080 which is good i guess for safety safety reasons right so yeah and are you happy with the changes

00:41:45.880 I mean, obviously everyone is wanting to make sure that people are, and the animals are, in their safest environment.

00:41:53.960 Yeah, I think they're doing what's the best for the sport, so it's been good so far.

00:41:59.600 Okay, what is your, what's your favourite thing about coming to the Stampede?

00:42:06.180 Actually, the race in the way. It's just fun. I just enjoy it. I've done it all my life, and I just really like it.

00:42:12.160 And do you have family members that are, uh, that are kind of following in your

00:42:17.040 footsteps? Um, no, um, my son and daughter both went and got careers, but they do

00:42:22.780 come back and help. My son outrides on the side and yeah, so the whole family's

00:42:29.620 here for the week. So very cool. So a real cowboy for sure. Uh, and we're wishing

00:42:36.320 you luck for tonight's race and, uh, and we'll keep an eye on your numbers as you

00:42:40.420 get through the weekend and we'll see how you do. And Corey, we are going to see if we can find

00:42:45.100 something interesting to fill you in on as we're down on the ground. So we'll see you in a bit.

00:42:51.960 Great. Make Robbie to cricket. I know he can do it.

00:42:55.820 No. All right. Well, thank you very much. And yes, we send our wishes for a good ride tonight

00:43:02.900 as well ride that dog almost all right oh no kidding though oh there we go thanks now i'll

00:43:14.900 talk to you a little later he doesn't want to go home when it's time to go home all right so that

00:43:19.940 was our melanie resident down on the grounds and it is that special week that's why i'm wearing

00:43:23.240 this hat and as i said i've got enough humility to admit i'm not a real cowboy i hey i'm an

00:43:28.300 outdoors guy. I live rurally. I mean, I worked surveying for over 20 years. I encountered a lot

00:43:33.060 of people on ranch land or farmland. So I'm familiar with it more than your average city

00:43:37.680 person. But I, aside from cosplaying for the Stampede, won't pretend that I am some sort of

00:43:42.800 cowboy. The chuck wagons though, just for those, I mean, I see there's people watching from across

00:43:47.360 the country. It is a huge event. It's been held at the Stampede, of course, for decades. It's big

00:43:53.400 and they do a circuit throughout the West. It's kind of a play on tradition. And you know,

00:43:57.800 that the chuck wagon was the wagon that would feed the guys during a cattle drive and the way

00:44:03.680 that would work as a horn goes you got to go around some barrels that as a crew has to load a stove I

00:44:08.320 think now it's more of a symbolic stove but even the old days yeah a heavy stove would have to go

00:44:12.520 in to get it loaded these wagons would race they would run with their teams of horses and outriders

00:44:16.760 there'd be a couple of horses riding outside too and you all have to finish well it's a very excited

00:44:21.420 sport a lot of uh there's been some controversy you know some horses have gotten injured over

00:44:26.740 the years uh some horses have been put down uh every you know the last few stampedes i think a

00:44:31.860 a handful have you know been injured or died uh people it's it's tough you know i mean if it's

00:44:38.180 totally benign it kind of makes for a boring sport but nobody wants to see the animals hurt either so

00:44:41.700 as melanie was saying this year they made some pretty big changes they they've changed uh the

00:44:46.580 number that are in there they've changed how they ride they've changed uh um they put different

00:44:52.260 bumpering i think on some of the the infield and things like that trying to keep the horses safe

00:44:56.740 And, uh, yeah, Lynn's saying, uh, you know, uh, yeah, the chucks are great on TV, but much better in person where you can pet the horses and smell the smells.

00:45:04.180 And yeah, if you go to, uh, you know, the stampede grounds, there's the agricultural center too.

00:45:09.380 I don't know if you get so much to the chuck horses, they kind of keep those guys in a different barn, but there's the whole agricultural center and you can interact if you're not familiar with, uh, rural living and wildlife, wildlife, domestic animals.

00:45:20.200 It's all down there and you can check it out.

00:45:22.020 there was even a, I found a beekeeping thing for the Beekeepers Association, you know, and I'm a

00:45:25.760 first year beekeeper trying to figure things out. So I was pretty fascinated with the display in

00:45:30.460 that. So, you know, take it in. There's a bit of an attitude you get from, you know, hipsters and

00:45:35.060 some of the usual suspects in Calgary. Oh, we're ashamed of the stampede. And oh, we don't like

00:45:39.360 dressing like hillbillies every year. Oh, it's an embarrassment of the city. Ah, go away then.

00:45:43.860 Oh, go move to Vancouver, live in Toronto. This is a thing we've been having for a long time.

00:45:48.560 It's a fun thing. It's kind of being a bit small town while you are in the middle of a big city.

00:45:53.900 And that's why we're checking in and we're dressing up this week. Cause you know what,

00:45:56.780 we got to relax and live a little and enjoy ourselves a little. Uh, you know what? I'm

00:46:01.380 going to mention something that I just wrote down for one of my notes too. It got me wound up on

00:46:04.740 Twitter. I just, I just want to talk about people's attitudes and part of our problems

00:46:08.140 and a human nature problem. So there was a vice magazine or whatever advice is a, you know,

00:46:13.740 online publication sort of thing. They're very left-leaning. They are independent, kind of,

00:46:19.040 so I'll give it that. You know, hey, I support all independent media, left or right. But they

00:46:22.840 had this snotty column from a guy, and it's right on their tweet, too, saying, you know,

00:46:27.480 if you drink milk, there's something wrong with you. And he goes on about, if I look at somebody

00:46:31.980 and I see a grown person drinking milk, I'm just disgusted. I mean, what are you, a child? And it

00:46:37.100 just went on and on and on about the horrors of why somebody would drink milk. Whatever. I don't

00:46:43.060 drink milk straight up. It's not for me, not a big thing with me. I don't mind it in all sorts

00:46:46.280 of ingredients and foods or cereal even, but I don't. But I've got no problem with other people

00:46:51.040 who do. And this is what I'm talking about, the human nature problem. You can disagree with

00:46:56.520 somebody, but not have to go off about it. Just don't drink milk then. How hard is this? But no,

00:47:01.200 this is the difference between a lefty and a right winger. This is the difference between a

00:47:04.260 conservative and a libertarian, you know, people in general and lefties. You don't like it, don't

00:47:09.740 do it. But no, they have to peek over the fence and tell somebody else, I don't like it, thus you

00:47:14.160 must not do it either. That is a real problem. That's when humans get on each other's cases.

00:47:19.900 That's when you get conflict. That's when you get dispute. We've got to learn. And hey, it's not

00:47:24.240 just the left who do it. There's lots of people who are guilty of it. In the old days, it was

00:47:28.260 religious busybodies who were telling people what to do. And again, if you want to be a person of 0.92

00:47:33.380 faith and stick heavily and strictly to the tenets of your faith, by all means. But if somebody else

00:47:39.240 isn't interested in it, leave them alone. And that's where we've gotten to the point where we

00:47:42.740 no longer, you know, illegalize, you know, people, same sex couples and things like that. It's a good

00:47:47.940 development. Just quit worrying about what the other person's doing. But that vice thing, it was

00:47:52.200 just so snotty and high horse and like, oh, you know, you are a bad person because you're doing

00:47:57.820 something I don't like. So what? So what? Get over it. So yeah, same thing with the local hipsters.

00:48:05.260 don't like dressing up like a Western don't like the rodeo don't like the stampede fine don't go

00:48:11.160 it's not that hard nobody's forcing you I mean I I talked a little while ago with the difference

00:48:16.780 between Klondike days and Edmonton and the difference of stampede Klondike days is a good

00:48:20.300 time it's a big gathering and everything else but it doesn't have that feel like the stampede the

00:48:24.520 stampede is unique the whole city gets going you know clowns like me dress up in western wear

00:48:30.520 People all over get involved in a lot of things.

00:48:33.820 The city, the bars, the musical act.

00:48:36.040 It's a whole cultural thing.

00:48:39.100 And I don't want to lose it.

00:48:41.580 If all of that stuff is gone, then the Stampede does become just another fair.

00:48:45.440 And hey, we've got thousands of those.

00:48:46.760 Every city or town has a fair.

00:48:49.220 This one's unique.

00:48:50.280 It's different.

00:48:51.640 And Ashley asking, do you got cowboy boots to go with the hat?

00:48:55.100 No, I don't.

00:48:55.800 As I said, I'm a poor Albertan when it comes to that.

00:48:58.320 I bought the Western wear. I grew up in Banff and, uh, you know, it's not exactly a cowboy town,

00:49:03.600 though it is an Alberta town. And, uh, yeah, I've been in Calgary for 20 years now down Prittis. I

00:49:07.800 should own Western wear, but again, it's just this year. I finally got some of it going, but the

00:49:11.520 boots, no, I haven't gotten that far. They're very expensive. And if I'm only going to wear them one

00:49:14.800 week or a year, it's not quite worth it, but Hey, I got a hat. We'll see next year. All right. I'm

00:49:18.640 going to talk to, uh, about one of our sponsors before I get onto our next guest. And that is the

00:49:23.120 Canadian shooting sports association. Uh, just that reminder, speaking of, you know, as I was

00:49:27.800 talking about. I was talking about leaving people alone. If you're not into something, good for you.

00:49:32.600 Just let the other person do it. Well, that applies a lot when it comes to firearms too. A lot of

00:49:36.380 people don't like firearms, don't want to own firearms. Well, good for you. Leave the law-abiding

00:49:41.840 firearm owners alone, but that's not the way it's working. They're coming after your firearms.

00:49:45.520 They're coming after your property. They want to take it away. And you don't have to, you shouldn't

00:49:50.540 have to justify why you own them anyways. If you're a law-abiding person, it's nobody else's

00:49:54.140 business, but your own, whether you're target shooting, collecting, hunting, your business.

00:49:59.480 But right now it's under threat. The federal government wants to take away your firearms.

00:50:03.480 The only way you're going to defend yourself is organizing, getting together and pushing back.

00:50:07.300 And that's what the Canadian Shooting Sports Association is all about. They also provide

00:50:11.360 resources, by the way, for a firearm owner, like any other association or club, links to events,

00:50:17.800 links to news stories. But most of all, what's really important right now is pushing back,

00:50:22.080 standing up for firearm owners and lobbying. You've got safety in numbers. You've got to get

00:50:26.500 together for this. If you own firearms or you're planning on it, or you just support firearm

00:50:31.740 owners, you got to join these guys. Membership's very reasonable. Get on there. Canadian Shooting

00:50:36.560 Sports Association. Take out a membership. It's cssa-cila.org, and it's worth it. It's an

00:50:43.740 investment in yourself and your rights. Okay, let's bring in David Clement from the Consumer

00:50:48.500 Choice Center. I'm looking forward to it. I haven't had David on for a while. He's been on

00:50:52.000 the show a number of times, though, and consistently free enterprise and free consumer

00:50:56.400 choice, as the name of the organization indicates. Hey, David, how's it going?

00:50:59.980 What's going? Well, how are you?

00:51:01.480 Good, good. Thanks. So, yeah, what brought me in this time, and I think it was Melanie,

00:51:06.560 actually, who did that story, was talking with you about domestic airline rates. I mean,

00:51:12.500 we're getting hit hard. We're getting hit with inflation. We're getting all sorts of problems,

00:51:16.100 but airline fares in particular are somewhere in Canada where we're not

00:51:21.140 getting a very good deal no no we aren't getting a good deal I mean pre-COVID

00:51:32.420 the numbers were particularly poor if you look we were sick globally in terms

00:51:40.640 of the arcs per 100 kilometers traveled was 2.1 times higher than the u.s 2.8 times higher than

00:51:48.380 new zealand and 3.6 times higher than so not very good yeah sorry you're breaking up a bit

00:51:58.500 uh there's some challenging internet there what david was getting what i kind of got pieces of

00:52:03.200 there is uh uh basically we're paying as much as double or triple for some of our domestic airfares

00:52:09.600 that compared to comparable other countries right now and uh i think well as per the article uh

00:52:15.520 we'll bring it back in and see if it's kind of tuned up a little uh it was part of the problem

00:52:19.600 just due to a lack of competition we don't have a good variety and we're not allowing foreign

00:52:24.480 air operators to do domestic flights in canada yes i'm sorry about the the connection there i

00:52:32.480 think it should be better now um yeah so one of the solutions or one of the one of the problems

00:52:38.080 is that we don't have very much competition in space because it's not actually legal for an

00:52:44.240 international carrier to fly between two canadian cities with passengers so british airways is not

00:52:52.800 allowed to fly vancouver to toronto on route to london and i think when you when you say that to

00:52:59.040 people most people scratch their heads and they go okay well why why is that prohibited and so

00:53:06.320 want the first step i would take is allowing for international carriers to fly domestic routes

00:53:14.000 um in many senses they have to fly over these places anyway if they're traveling across the

00:53:18.480 country so let american airlines fly vancouver to seattle on or vancouver to calgary on route to

00:53:26.320 boston or uh air france from montreal to halifax on route to paris the the amount of routes that

00:53:36.640 you could throw in that scenario are endless and that would add a some additional competition and

00:53:41.280 hopefully some down the pressure on prices well yeah and i mean it just makes sense if the flight

00:53:47.760 particularly happens to be going that anyway that route anyways i mean perhaps it's just a domestic

00:53:53.120 hot, but you might as well fill those seats. I mean, you'd think even the green crowd should 0.63

00:53:56.960 report this. We want to be as efficient as possible when we move people.

00:54:01.020 Exactly. Absolutely. So the other thing that I think needs to change is the foreign ownership

00:54:07.940 restrictions on Canadian companies. And so what that means is that our domestic airlines have to

00:54:15.660 have a certain percentage owned by Canadian investors. And the reason why that's a problem

00:54:20.880 It limits the pool in which they can seek out investment to, let's say, expand their fleet, buy new planes, hire more people, provide better service, all of the things that consumers are irritated about right now.

00:54:36.320 So I think it would be reasonable to allow for them to increase that share and if they want to attract money from around the world, they should be free to do so while at the same time ensuring that they have to compete against international carriers if international carriers want to operate here.

00:54:57.220 So is some of the difficulty, though, like country to country, like a Canadian airline

00:55:01.760 could say a WestJet flight stop in Dallas and then perhaps do a flight to Oklahoma and

00:55:07.820 drop some people off before coming back to Canada?

00:55:09.900 Or is it just here?

00:55:10.860 So most countries have these laws in some instances.

00:55:17.760 So in Europe, several of several countries have these laws, but most travel within Europe

00:55:23.920 by plane is from country to country but that doesn't mean that all countries do this in fact

00:55:30.400 chile doesn't have any of these restrictions whatsoever so any carrier who wants to fly

00:55:38.320 in chile between two cities can and i think that that's a useful model for us and yes other

00:55:45.360 countries like the united states will have restrictions but i think that that's okay

00:55:51.120 not that they have the restrictions but that we go the other way we shouldn't shoot ourselves in the

00:55:56.480 foot because american policymakers are shooting themselves in the foot oh i'm with you there i

00:56:02.400 mean that's often the excuse used for protecting you know policies like supply management and such

00:56:06.880 you know point to subsidies and things somewhere else and say well we've got to do it too and

00:56:10.800 in the end we all just lose i mean if we put good policy in here it'll put pressure on people in the

00:56:16.800 other countries to improve their policy elsewhere so i mean it's not a reason to stop no no absolutely

00:56:23.040 not absolutely not and and the people who benefit from this the most are canadian consumers who are 0.86

00:56:29.040 either trying to travel domestically or travel abroad i mean it's pretty ridiculous that you

00:56:34.560 can fly from toronto to madrid toronto to paris for significantly less than you can fly from

00:56:45.120 Toronto to Winnipeg or Toronto to Calgary, even though the distances, the distance to Europe is

00:56:51.920 shorter. And so that really leaves you scratching your head as to why is this the way it is and how

00:56:59.400 can we make this better? And obviously everything we've seen with airports and delays and cancellations

00:57:05.860 and all of the chaos that we've seen at airports, I think further highlights the need to make these

00:57:11.820 changes as soon as possible yeah so i'm just going to pivot to something else too that kind of occurred

00:57:17.900 uh kind of up your alley anyways with uh and i'll segue because you know there's a little bit of

00:57:22.700 connection problem but it's gotten a bit better is uh we don't have a heck of a lot of options

00:57:26.540 with internet service and boy did we ever learn that quickly when rogers went down for uh 15 hours

00:57:32.940 one provider basically brought the company the country to its knees in a sense uh over 15 hour

00:57:38.380 period i mean my view on it is it's due to a lack of competition and alternatives

00:57:43.820 yeah absolutely it is because of the lack of competition um i remember back in the stephen

00:57:49.500 harper days there was so much um hoopla and fear-mongering over the prospect of verizon

00:57:58.060 entering the canada mark the canadian market um and they never ended up coming

00:58:04.280 which is a huge disservice to us.

00:58:06.660 I mean, how many times, I mean, this is a bit of a joke,

00:58:11.080 but I'm sure that anybody watching this will resonate with them.

00:58:14.440 How many times have you needed service for your Internet?

00:58:17.060 You call one of the big three companies.

00:58:19.620 They give you a service window that's between 9 and 5 p.m.

00:58:23.380 They knock twice while you're in the shower,

00:58:25.860 and they leave and tell you they've got to come back next week.

00:58:28.980 That is not good service.

00:58:31.540 And the only reason why that's tolerable is because there's nowhere else to go.

00:58:37.880 There are so few options that there's just not enough competition for these companies to compete on service.

00:58:46.160 And that's not including competing on price.

00:58:48.420 I mean, we pay more per gig on cell phone plans than almost any other comparable country, whether it be the United States, Europe, Australia, etc.

00:58:59.180 and so we're really putting the bill for this bad policy yeah and i mean you know cell phone

00:59:06.180 coverage internet coverage these aren't luxuries any longer i mean they're really a large part of

00:59:10.880 our life now they're like a utility you know in the past that like a phone line or or even your

00:59:16.640 your heat and so i mean you won't die without those things but they're pretty integral to your

00:59:20.600 working life now and and you're just your connection to the world so i mean we should

00:59:24.880 be wanting is as much diversity and services as possible but i'm not too much indication we're

00:59:29.680 working that way i hear a lot of voices after the rogers breakdown of people saying this is why we

00:59:33.520 need the government to intervene even further and it worries me because they're going to get they're

00:59:37.200 going to make things worse no yeah i i i think the calls for like a public provider are really silly

00:59:45.600 i mean the pandemic showed uh that the government is good really at one thing it's very good at one

00:59:53.280 thing and that is distributing cash outside of that the government does not compete well with

01:00:02.320 the private sector i mean whether you're renewing your license or you're going to a passport office

01:00:10.480 it would be best if we avoided having an internet provider run by the same entity

01:00:17.200 that has people camping out overnight to get a piece of government identification

01:00:23.280 so no i don't think that the government further involving itself or some sort of public carrier

01:00:30.000 is the right way to go if the government's going to get involved what they should be

01:00:34.320 doing is reducing or removing the barriers that prevent that competition and prevent

01:00:41.520 prevent other companies predominantly from the u.s but it could be from anywhere from entering

01:00:47.120 the market this will be especially true as starlink elon musk's satellite internet company

01:00:56.560 and layman terms continues to grow and if it really takes off that could be a good disruption

01:01:03.920 for the canadian market especially for rural canadians a lot of the conversation about

01:01:10.000 internet service is for rural and indigenous folks because the one the options are terrible

01:01:17.680 and in many instances there are no options or service is just so terrible you're using satellite 1.00

01:01:22.960 phones and so i'm hopeful that that type of disruption so long as we don't prevent it

01:01:31.200 can chip away at this a little bit but whatever the barriers are in place that prevent

01:01:36.640 And that type of disruption and competition, those need to be evaluated and those need to be scaled back.

01:01:43.180 Absolutely. And just on that note, like I live in Prentice, just outside of Calgary, and our internet service since we moved out there has been horrible.

01:01:50.720 I'm a 10 minute drive from a city of a million people and we couldn't get it.

01:01:54.300 We got Starlink two months ago and it's been a life changer.

01:01:58.440 Like high speed internet, just like city people, we're not going back.

01:02:04.000 There's no, well, not by choice anyways.

01:02:06.640 And, yeah, as you said, I mean, these guys, there's a void being left by this lack of competition, this poor service.

01:02:12.900 Hopefully some of these new players will come in and shake that up and make it better for us all.

01:02:17.160 That's probably why my connection has been so choppy.

01:02:22.380 Well, like I said, it was a good segue to bring it in anyways, because, yeah, it is difficult.

01:02:26.420 We should catch up with the world on that, and it's just getting so important.

01:02:29.620 So, you know, before I let you go, then, thanks for joining me.

01:02:32.400 You know, you cover these issues consistently, of course, in general.

01:02:35.900 I know your answer to most things, as is mine, is just allow consumer choice more competition.

01:02:41.420 It's kind of a proven formula when it comes to just about every industry.

01:02:44.860 So where can people find more information on what you guys are up to? Because you're

01:02:48.220 always putting out new reports and things such as that. And I appreciate it.

01:02:52.380 Yeah, consumerchoicecenter.org. You can follow me on Twitter at at Clement Liberty.

01:02:58.140 You'll see everything I'm doing, everything I'm writing. And yeah, check that out and follow.

01:03:05.260 and support us if uh if you care about consumer choice excellent well thank you for coming on

01:03:13.020 to talk to us today david and uh and also you know reference people over to that story that

01:03:16.380 melanie risden wrote where she spoke with david on the airline issue and and again i encourage

01:03:20.700 folks to have a look because you guys put some great stuff out just to remind folks that you're

01:03:23.820 not necessarily getting a good deal on a whole lot of consumer items and uh you might want to

01:03:27.340 pay attention so i uh hope to talk to you again down the road david thank you appreciate it hey

01:03:33.260 Thanks. Yeah, that's David Clement of the Consumer Choice Center. You know, their name says it, right? And yeah, follow them on Clement Liberty or consumerchoice.org. Unfortunately, yeah, that internet was frustrating, but it's worth talking about. Here we are in this developed country, this country that's supposed to be wealthy and still we can't seem to get decent internet service to a whole lot of areas. And I know years ago when I was working in the States, they were always ahead of us. I mean, because of the roaming charges where they would just ruin us, maybe long

01:04:03.240 Sorry, I get distracted by comments. Phoebe Long saying, bring back Alberta government telephone.

01:04:07.660 Oh, God, no. I hope that's a sarcasm statement or something going back. No, no, no. We don't want

01:04:14.080 government taking over again. As David was saying, they can't even renew our passports. We don't need

01:04:19.200 that back. We need more options. And the Americans were way ahead of us. So what I would do when I'd

01:04:25.060 work in the States at first, because I couldn't get a decent roaming plan. I mean, you could end

01:04:29.000 up spending thousands. Ask Fabio. What's his name? Luke Hazek. And he used to be an Alberta minister.

01:04:36.340 He traveled to Poland. I think he nailed the taxpayers with it was a $15,000 roaming bill

01:04:40.920 or something or even more. Isn't it ridiculous? And I would go down and I would actually, the 0.90

01:04:44.800 first thing I do when I get on a contract is go into a Walmart and buy a flip phone with a data

01:04:49.200 card and just apply it to it because it was way cheaper just to buy a new burner essentially every

01:04:54.100 time I went to work in the States than to try and convert my TELUS one to Rome and get down there.

01:04:58.820 Now it's improved. I can go to the States without getting hit so hard like that, but, uh, we were

01:05:04.040 years behind and we're years behind with these airfares. It is ridiculous that I can fly to

01:05:08.900 Amsterdam cheaper than I can fly to Toronto. Now, admittedly, I'd rather go to Amsterdam and go to

01:05:13.820 Toronto. So it's a better deal as far as that goes, but, uh, uh, you know, we, we, we're getting

01:05:19.580 it badly as, as consumers, it's not serving us well. And, uh, we, we've got to work on that.

01:05:25.420 so uh looks like melanie's getting prepared for another hit there out in the field and i see a

01:05:30.420 thumbs up from rob who's out there with her so let's pop on and do one more check in from the

01:05:34.900 stampede ground and see what's happening out there hey mel what are you doing now okay well we are at

01:05:40.540 polini's concession this is where they are serving hot dogs they're special hot dogs

01:05:47.160 cory they have mealworms oh so we've got martin here martin is from where are you from from the

01:05:54.180 Netherlands. So he's from the Netherlands and he is our brave volunteer because I am unfortunately

01:06:00.400 not brave enough to give this a try. So we've got Martin one of these hot dogs and Martin is

01:06:09.360 going to give it a try. He also said he is willing to try the actual mealworms that they sprinkle on

01:06:15.480 top of the hot dogs. So you are going to let us know how this goes. What's that Corey? Well I was

01:06:22.980 saying you know my wife is from Frieslander family in the Netherlands and she's one of the fussiest

01:06:27.180 eaters I know so I'm glad there's an example of somebody with more courage here. Yes I agree so 1.00

01:06:34.160 that I don't have to try it. So the mealworms are sort of embedded inside the hot dogs. Do you even

01:06:41.840 taste it? I don't really notice them though. Okay you don't notice it so it tastes okay so far

01:06:48.120 and you are willing to try those crispy critters on their own hey have you ever eaten a mealworm

01:06:55.560 no i don't no never all right go ahead yep

01:06:59.840 it's nice it's nice it's salty it's like a normal potato chip it's like a potato chip

01:07:11.860 so are they crunchy yeah very crunchy huh are they salty yes they're salty

01:07:17.640 yeah I would imagine you'd want to throw salt on those crispy critters that's

01:07:23.080 nice so so are you like gonna be a mealworm convert all right Martin is

01:07:32.920 a mealworm convert today now it's how long have you been in Canada this is

01:07:40.120 the second day we came yesterday we're visiting family here in Calgary

01:07:46.320 second day here okay and so that's awesome and you and obviously plan to

01:07:52.080 come to the stampede stampede because it's the greatest outdoor show on earth

01:07:55.920 have you gone on any rides or anything yet no right but you went to the dog and

01:08:00.600 pony race it was fun awesome great and what else are you gonna get up to today

01:08:05.760 we're trying the monster motor thing I don't know exactly what it is I think

01:08:10.560 it's race bikes or something we're gonna check that out well welcome and I hope

01:08:16.500 you have a great time here at the Stampede I really hope you continue to

01:08:19.860 enjoy your mealworm hot dog and my suspicion is that you're going to be

01:08:25.620 seeing more of these around the world probably coming to Europe very soon

01:08:31.800 enjoy now we were gonna just check in with these guys here and just see how

01:08:36.740 busy their booth has been. So what's your name? Ava. And Ava, how busy has your booth been here

01:08:45.440 with people ordering these mealworm hot dogs? Pretty busy actually because a lot of people

01:08:51.400 like when we sample them they try them and they actually really like them. And what are your

01:08:56.280 thoughts? I personally haven't tried the hot dog but I've tried the mealworms and they actually

01:09:00.600 taste pretty good. What do they taste like to you? What do you compare them to? Kind of roast

01:09:05.320 of peanuts or like the spit sunflower seeds you are a brave girl that's awesome okay well

01:09:12.560 apparently it's been busy here so uh yeah i guess if you're gonna head down to the stampede you're

01:09:18.780 gonna have to come by the booth it's over by the uh by the um nashville north tent right across the

01:09:25.180 way and uh you can grab yourself some mealworms and a mealworm hot dog i won't be partaking well

01:09:32.020 thanks for checking that out. And again, thanks to Martin to being that test subject to prove,

01:09:37.380 at least from his perspective, they aren't so bad.

01:09:41.540 Yeah, I'll leave it to him.

01:09:44.020 All right. Well, thanks, Melanie. We'll talk after you get back to the studio.

01:09:48.980 Sounds great.

01:09:50.740 All right. That's our Melanie Rizdin down the Stampede grounds. As we were saying, we knew 0.86

01:09:54.500 we were going to look into those worm dogs or whatnot. And yes, Rob and Melanie were not willing

01:10:01.380 to uh volunteer and try them out and uh she found martin from the netherlands and he gave it a crack

01:10:07.460 and he says they're okay uh i'll take his word for it you know i mean that's one of those things

01:10:12.800 too that he's down there he's having fun i was just ranting you know a little bit earlier about

01:10:16.260 the stampede and the value of it and how fun it is and things like that and it's good to see

01:10:20.940 international visitors coming out and enjoying himself he was saying you know he's looking at

01:10:24.260 the dogs and things like that uh jet gorgon saying did that sign say 20 bucks for a hot dog i didn't

01:10:28.640 catch that but you know what midway prices uh sometimes it wouldn't shock me and you know that

01:10:33.940 there's two i talked about that the other day too because i know some people we do have this weird

01:10:37.860 push uh and again yeah it probably is tied to tied to the you know world economic forum type

01:10:42.780 nutcases and those kind of people to make us eat bugs i mean we're subsidizing a cricket farm in

01:10:47.960 ontario and another one's opening in alberta which again if people want to eat them go to town hell

01:10:52.880 go out to the side of the road and dig your nose into an anthill and snort them for all I care.

01:10:59.140 Again, it gets back to, hey, if that's what you're into, you do it. Just don't ask my tax

01:11:04.460 dollars to go towards it. And don't try to say I can't eat other foods because I don't want that

01:11:09.100 stuff. The difference of the Stampede thing though, isn't people pushing bug consumption or the green

01:11:14.840 lunatics saying we got to move on to alternative proteins or anything. It's just fun. They've been

01:11:19.080 doing that sort of thing at the stampede midway for decades you know like i said i seem to remember

01:11:23.540 a scorpion pizza they put out one year and you could see those gross little things baked into

01:11:28.040 the pizza and people would just have fun you know again kids i'll dare you to eat it or whatnot or

01:11:32.960 eat it once one of the things i did when i came back from the arctic one year well no that wasn't

01:11:37.440 when i came back from the arctic i took jane to darson okay you just get my memories mixed up i

01:11:40.840 got on time off from a new vic and they i went to dawson um for a few days which back in those days 0.95

01:11:47.200 was really stupid. You know, okay, he's going a little crazy. He's been in camp too long. Go to 0.98

01:11:51.540 Dawson and take a few days off. What are you going to do in Dawson in March? I tell you what, you

01:11:56.440 drink your face off for three solid days. I came back to camp way more tired and worn out than when

01:12:02.020 I'd left it and then down a lot of dollars because the booze in Dawson wasn't that cheap. But one of

01:12:07.160 the things I did in one of those bars, I had to do it was the Sour Toe drink. And if you look it up,

01:12:11.580 They have a gross, and they had a number of them, desiccated human toes.

01:12:16.580 They were found, I guess, originally in a jar in like an old miner's cabin.

01:12:21.140 It's presumed that what had happened, I think it was found in the 70s or something,

01:12:24.580 but that some miner had got major frostbite.

01:12:27.360 Of course, you could lose your digits.

01:12:28.440 He cut his toes off for whatever reason, decided to preserve them in alcohol.

01:12:32.180 And they put it up as a, you know, just kind of a novelty in the bar up there in the Dawson.

01:12:36.340 I tell you, if you get to the deep north, people are different.

01:12:38.740 They're very different.

01:12:39.480 and uh somebody started with a dare you know oh well I dare you to drink a drink with that toe

01:12:45.000 in it and then they moved it on to uh you get that toe they keep it in salt and uh they put it

01:12:49.960 in and and uh the saying before you bring it down and there's a guy who makes you do a vow and you

01:12:54.260 pay him 15 bucks he's an old trapper looking fella is you can drink it fast you can drink it slow

01:12:57.860 but your lips have to touch the toe and you gotta drink that back and the toe has to touch your

01:13:01.880 mouth and the toe looks horrible it's all black and dried up and everything big toenail on it

01:13:06.680 I did it. I had to. And they give you a certificate saying you've done it. And I think

01:13:11.760 the certificate was numbered too. And I was like the 70,000th person who'd done that.

01:13:17.220 Am I saying everybody should go out and put dead old people's toes in your drinks? No, 0.96

01:13:22.140 but there's novelties where you can have fun. And that's similar to these novelty things in

01:13:27.620 the stampede that people do, you know, trying out, just having a good time. And if you don't

01:13:33.080 want to of course by all means don't oh it looks like nico's been googling i can see that there we

01:13:38.460 go there is a sour toe shot right there that's the toe that's that thing dried up in a glass there

01:13:44.900 and uh if you're going to spend time in dawson city in the old land of the real klondike well

01:13:50.800 that's uh one of the things you can do while you're there i got some pictures of me out there

01:13:56.020 that'd be harder to find but where i actually did it but uh yeah phoebe's saying yeah get enough

01:14:00.920 booze into you and just might do anything. Yeah. And again, you know, I see, I've been there,

01:14:04.780 done that, got their certificate. I wouldn't do it twice. I got one certificate. That's plenty

01:14:07.860 enough. Uh, but you know, just have fun, lighten up folks. You know, they were talking about with

01:14:13.040 those mealworm hot dogs and such. Uh, yeah, but you know, as some others were saying, Hey,

01:14:19.760 what else is in those hot dogs? Anyways, you don't really want to dwell on that. You know,

01:14:23.120 it's like the old saying, you don't want to see how a sausage is made. It's just sometimes

01:14:27.500 ignorance is bliss, but, uh, you know, lighten up now and then. And, uh, yeah, you know, Phoebe as

01:14:33.000 well saying, yeah, you do anything with some booze in you and my boozing days are over. So I'm glad I

01:14:36.420 got the sour toe in back while I could, because I don't think I would do that sober. Not sure if and

01:14:42.220 when I'm going to find myself up in Dawson again anyways, but it was an experience and, uh, you

01:14:47.040 know, it's fun and you'd be able to talk about it for a lifetime and have that anecdote story to

01:14:50.540 tell about you with the sour tome. Uh, Cheryl saying, yeah, Pat King and, and as well Tamera

01:14:55.800 Leach is, they both got hearings going on, more court appearances. These are, you know, again,

01:15:00.360 the convoy organizers who have been locked up, political prisoners. I mean, these are people

01:15:04.600 charged with mischief, minor, minor things. We've got some very serious issues going on,

01:15:10.640 serious criminals out there, dangerous people, and we're busy cracking down on these guys.

01:15:15.580 And Tamara Leach in particular, as I said, if people are interested, go to Give, Send, Go and 1.00

01:15:21.280 look up Tamara Leach. It's right in her name, and that's spelled L-I-C-H. And she's raised about 1.00

01:15:27.440 $50,000, I believe the last time I checked. And, you know, it's important to at least make sure

01:15:33.220 she's not financially suffering. She's probably going to come out of this with a criminal record. 0.99

01:15:36.680 She's been locked up, like Drew was saying, you know, already over 40 days. Even if she was 0.96

01:15:42.060 convicted of everything she's been charged with, the sentence will probably be less than what she's

01:15:45.660 already served it's uh absurd it's wrong it's abuse and uh it's gotta stop but uh yeah bear

01:15:55.500 in mind maybe help her out so she can uh pay her bill so at least she doesn't have to like i said

01:15:59.480 stay awake at night and wondering how the mortgage is gonna go uh somebody mentioned earlier in her 0.84

01:16:03.720 talk about the leadership race that that uh danielle smith uh was saying she's officially

01:16:10.900 and i think she's put the deposit in she's put the signatures in there still has to be i believe a

01:16:15.440 a signature or a sign off from the leaders election committee before it's fully official.

01:16:20.360 That might've already happened. I'm not sure. And, uh, uh, I don't think they'd be crazy enough

01:16:27.800 to block her run. I mean, boy, if you want a revolution within that party, block Smith. 1.00

01:16:32.500 But I mean, nothing seems to surprise anymore, especially people who want to cling to the status

01:16:36.480 quo and the old guard and the progressive conservatives that we thought we'd flushed

01:16:39.840 out of the government are still clinging into the progressive conservative party under the name UCP

01:16:44.040 right now. There's a battle going on and it's being played out in this leadership race.

01:16:49.480 Sineko asked about the guys in Coots who are still in prison and pushing for court next year.

01:16:53.340 I don't know much about that one. That case is different. And that's the main thing. I don't

01:16:56.960 even like tying it to the case of the protesters in Ottawa that was kind of, I guess, inspired or

01:17:03.700 related. But at the same time, it wasn't the same. I mean, Leash had nothing to do with that. That's

01:17:07.260 a different group of individuals and whatever they're doing. Yeah, Jet Gorg and the Coots

01:17:12.000 boys are in jail. Yes. But this was a group of five, I believe five. And they apparently, 1.00

01:17:17.260 I don't know the details, so I don't want to go too far in it, but they were found with a bunch

01:17:20.400 of firearms, uh, Kevlar vests, all sorts of other equipment materials. I think they had somebody

01:17:25.740 inside. It sounds like with the charges, uh, somebody either was, uh, uh, undercover or

01:17:32.020 somebody was, was an informant and ratted, but they're charged with conspiring to murder police

01:17:37.440 officers. I don't know if there's truth to it. I have no idea and all of that stuff, but

01:17:41.900 if those charges are real and if they're serious, that's unfortunately, or whatever way you want to

01:17:46.540 look at it, that's the sort of charges that, yeah, a person stays in without bail. That's very

01:17:49.820 potentially dangerous. And I'm not going to speak to who's innocent or not or whatever within that

01:17:54.840 group, but that's totally unrelated to what's going on with Tamerilisha or even Pat King and

01:18:02.340 some of the others. That's a different scene altogether. So I can't really, you know, won't

01:18:06.760 comment as much on that. Somebody else mentioned John Horsman. He's another person who put himself

01:18:12.480 in to the UCP race. It looks like he's going to be entering. I've got him coming in to talk to me

01:18:19.680 next week. He's going to come in studio, I believe, and we'll have an interview with him

01:18:22.840 because, yeah, the fellow from Amherst, he's out. He's not running. It was just too high a bar to

01:18:28.620 set it for somebody outside. And it's unfortunate. You know, the more voices, the better when it

01:18:33.780 comes to a democratic exercise and he just couldn't make it in. But at least he got out,

01:18:38.580 he got some profile and he spoke to some things, but it's hard to get past those gatekeepers.

01:18:42.780 It's like Drew was saying, it's outrageous, 175,000 to run. That's nuts. And I listened

01:18:48.280 to some fart catchers for the UCP and I'll start calling them that. The ones who just,

01:18:52.500 hey, I'm a partisan, I support them and blah, blah, blah to the dead end. And some of the

01:18:56.340 people know which ones I'm talking about on social media. They're apologists for the BS.

01:18:59.720 and guys, cut it out. You know, that bar is unreasonable and it's ridiculous and it's an 0.97

01:19:07.680 embarrassment to the party. It's an embarrassment to people who really value grassroots democracy. 0.97

01:19:12.920 You don't need it set that high unless you're really trying to shut people out. It's like I

01:19:17.860 said, I think 50 is a good number. That's the sort of thing we had in the past. Most people are not 1.00

01:19:22.100 frivolously going to say, yeah, what the hell? I'm going to throw 50,000 on a whim and just

01:19:25.940 run. You know, that's the point. It's just to keep the frivolous runs out of there. Plus,

01:19:30.680 keep the signature bar at 1,000 members. That's fine. That's a lot of work to get 1,000 signatures

01:19:36.100 around the province from people who are actually members of a party. A person is going to have to

01:19:39.680 be serious to get in with that sort of bar. But $175,000, as Drew said, the amount of time wasted

01:19:47.140 and fundraising wasted for all of these candidates when they're out there getting

01:19:50.600 their signatures or getting the money raised when they should have been already reaching members,

01:19:55.660 when they should have been out there campaigning, when they should have been listening.

01:19:59.420 And it's that much less going into the actual campaign funding.

01:20:04.280 So, I mean, it's when the party does this bait and switch. 0.96

01:20:07.700 This is the sort of crap that got Kenny kicked out by his own members, and he still doesn't get it. 0.87

01:20:11.460 And obviously the party executive still doesn't get it, and some other individuals out there. 0.99

01:20:15.300 The members have had it with this crap. 0.99

01:20:17.820 The members have had it. 0.99

01:20:19.020 The party elites, the party insiders, the top ones, I mean, they couldn't save Kenny.

01:20:24.720 They tried. They got out there. They thought they could get, you know, they changed the process, everything with the review and still barely could get 50%. And he had to step aside. They don't understand their own members. And they're doing it again. And this is a problem. I mean, part of why Kenny got rejected by his members is because he talked big and delivered a law and he took in some of it when it comes to the referendum legislation and the citizens initiative.

01:20:49.240 It was insulting in a sense. And again, I liked Kenny. I still do. I'm glad he's out because I think he burned his bridge with the party. I still appreciate what he did in the federal front. And I appreciate that he tried to bring the parties together in some other ways. But the insult to the intelligence of that legislation that they put out for citizens initiative and referendums and for recall, to put that in there and say, look, I kept my promise and they give you an impossible legislation to use.

01:21:18.380 that's crap. That's spitting in my face. You might as well not even have done the legislation 0.99

01:21:23.120 and put out the crap you guys did. And you knew it. You knew that you put this legislation in a 1.00

01:21:28.420 way that it would be impossible to reach the bar. I can't remember what the numbers are. I think you

01:21:32.740 need 40% or 50% of those who were eligible to vote in the election in order to get, and this is over

01:21:40.500 a limited timeline, in order to get a recall going. Think about that. If you had a low turnout

01:21:45.620 in a constituency you might need more signatures than the amount of people who even came out to

01:21:49.860 vote in total in order to initiate a recall that's ridiculous that's not going to happen

01:21:56.580 and anybody who's really petitioned before they know that is not going to happen and people say

01:22:02.740 oh i could go on the internet and get a petition and get a thousand signatures overnight yeah i

01:22:06.020 could do that my twitter account in a heartbeat but to get a real one this is a real petition this

01:22:11.620 This is paper, clipboard, signature, and they've got to give you their address.

01:22:15.220 They've got to give you their phone number.

01:22:17.640 And to do that, not everybody is willing to do that.

01:22:20.280 They've got to be very dedicated.

01:22:21.780 If you're petitioning hard, you might get 100 signatures a day.

01:22:26.280 When you need 10,000 over the course of a couple months,

01:22:29.260 think of the resources you need to try and initiate,

01:22:31.280 and that's assuming everybody wants that to go.

01:22:34.340 So Kenny pulled stuff like that.

01:22:36.000 He promised this legislation and gave us fake legislation.

01:22:39.540 He promised the fair deal panel and sent everybody traveling around

01:22:43.120 at a dog and pony show and barely implemented any of the conclusions

01:22:47.120 that were brought about, which again ticked off the members.

01:22:49.560 They said, look, we took you seriously.

01:22:51.060 We trusted you.

01:22:52.040 We went to these meetings.

01:22:53.040 We told you what we want to see.

01:22:55.240 And you kept kicking the can down the road. 0.97

01:22:57.140 You kept pissing around. 1.00

01:22:58.400 You kept kissing Ottawa's ass. 1.00

01:23:00.740 So we're done with you. 1.00

01:23:02.420 I'm speaking on their behalf.

01:23:03.500 I don't have a membership.

01:23:04.280 But when the time came when you said, oh, please support me in my review

01:23:07.120 and almost just over half said, no, we're done with you. 0.69

01:23:11.720 A lot of that was because you'd already blown too much smoke up their butts

01:23:15.320 and didn't follow through.

01:23:16.940 Where's the Canada pension plan change?

01:23:18.760 You know, where's the Alberta pension plan?

01:23:20.000 We said we wanted it.

01:23:21.100 We didn't want more studies.

01:23:22.520 We didn't want more bloody reviews.

01:23:25.040 The Fair Deal panel was the review, the last review.

01:23:28.080 And that's where Albertan said, we want it.

01:23:29.940 And you didn't do it.

01:23:31.400 Where's the Alberta Provincial Police Force?

01:23:33.400 Didn't do it.

01:23:35.200 You know, where's some courage against Ottawa?

01:23:36.960 You didn't show it. And they threw you to the side. And the executive members of the UCP right

01:23:42.860 now still don't understand that. They have that top-down mentality and they don't seem to

01:23:47.180 understand that the members are going to turn on them again. When you put out a bar like that to

01:23:53.680 run for that party, you obviously don't really want people to vote in it. You don't want them

01:23:57.240 to participate. And it's going to rip the party apart. So if they did anything is insane, though

01:24:04.160 again, nothing surprises anymore, such as disqualify Smith at this point. Oh man. I mean,

01:24:10.280 the small parties are already having a big battle. I know some people are upset with the,

01:24:14.080 cause I had Paul Heyman on the other day. Look, you can go to the Waldo's independence party

01:24:17.300 sites. A fellow sent me some information on now, I guess it's posted on the site of what they feel

01:24:21.180 the offenses were there as to why their, their, their executive removed him as a leader or tried

01:24:26.480 to, I mean, it still seems to be in a battle. They have their AGM a week from now, but if you

01:24:30.980 want to take that party and turn it from small to huge kick danielle out of the race that'll do it

01:24:35.620 uh i don't think they will though it would just be too far but uh it's an interesting race it's

01:24:42.760 gonna be interesting see where it goes and the language coming out of like uh howard anglin

01:24:46.100 with this this column talking about i mean just ripping into danielle on every level 1.00

01:24:49.880 and again this snottiness of it oh she's selling crap she's selling snake oil and she's selling to 1.00

01:24:56.120 the stupid that's what they're doing is they're telling you you're stupid they're telling you as 1.00

01:25:00.020 a member, you shouldn't be taken seriously when you want to push back at Ottawa. Nothing else has 1.00

01:25:05.160 worked yet, Anglin. Nothing. Somebody's trying a different approach and the members like it.

01:25:12.420 They want it. Don't tell people they're stupid for supporting something you don't agree with 0.99

01:25:16.340 because you're not going to draw those supporters in, but you're so desperately clinging to that 1.00

01:25:19.820 old guard, to that status quo, and we're sick of it. Albertans are sick of it. UCP members are sick

01:25:24.620 of it. They want something different. And I know you've got your establishment candidates running

01:25:30.720 and they're not necessarily bad. I think Taves is a standup person, a good conservative and so on,

01:25:36.280 but he's also not going to change anything very radically. Maybe people want some radical change.

01:25:41.560 Let the members choose that. That's fine. But don't get so insulting and belittling

01:25:45.180 for the members who don't like that alternative in this race. It's going to be very divisive

01:25:50.520 and there might not be much left to this party when it's done with if you carry on that way.

01:25:54.540 And, well, there's still a few months left in this race.

01:25:57.920 Unfortunately, I guess that's the way to expose who's a liberal or not.

01:26:01.120 When they're losing and they start down the hysteric accusations and character assassinations

01:26:05.400 rather than making out their own policies, that's the one you don't want to support.

01:26:10.380 All right.

01:26:11.260 That's enough for today.

01:26:12.140 I'm really tired.

01:26:12.940 I had a really long night and early morning, I guess you could say.

01:26:15.260 I won't go into the details of that.

01:26:17.560 But it left me nice and crabby for good ranting and everything.

01:26:19.640 I appreciate everybody joining me today.

01:26:21.080 I've got a good show tomorrow.

01:26:22.000 I'm bringing Brian Giesbrecht on again. He's the lawyer, or he's a former judge, and he's from

01:26:29.080 Manitoba. And again, he's with the Frontier Center. He's done stuff for the Fraser Institute. He's

01:26:33.060 been very outspoken again on the Indian residential school issue, because there's just so much going

01:26:37.540 on. And there was an issue with them getting on his case, because he questioned the orthodoxy

01:26:44.140 on what's happened with these residential schools. And they've attacked him, you know,

01:26:49.380 of the other members of the media and columnists and people in the Indian industry are very upset

01:26:53.680 with them. So we're going to talk further. I'm going to carry on with this series. I've got a

01:26:56.740 column coming up this weekend from Jaime. I forget his name. Was it Rosenstein? No, I've had him on

01:27:04.140 before. He's coming. There's going to be a good column coming on. He's really breaking down some

01:27:07.620 things on what may be happening with the grave sites or alleged grave sites in the Kamloof

01:27:12.240 Presidential School. And Maxine Bernier coming. He's going to be in studio tomorrow. So we will

01:27:19.720 have a chat with him, see what's happening on the People's Party of Canada going on. Again,

01:27:24.420 it's hard to get oxygen when you have an alternative party when there's a leadership

01:27:27.400 race going on elsewhere. So that's what I've got for today, guys. Thank you for tuning in,

01:27:34.300 and I'll see you tomorrow morning at 11.30 a.m. sharp.

01:27:42.240 Thank you.

01:28:12.240 Thank you.

01:28:42.240 Thank you.

01:29:12.240 Thank you.

Western Standard - July 15, 2022

Triggered： What government services should we cut or eliminate

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